Thalia Grace
Thalia had never been so scared in her life. The entire time during the flight she just held onto Nico's shoulder. He seemed to be getting more flustered as they flew above the skies, passing by several countries. She knew that he was going to hate her for that, but she didn't care, she just needed an excuse to look away from the height. She claimed she felt like she was falling off so she held onto him.
The worst part was that the dragon was flying faster than any vehicles in existence. She had to look down several times to make sure her stomach was still attached, only to scare herself even more by accidentally looking down...thousands of feet above the ground.
Thalia wasn't able to focus on most of Leo and Nico's conversations. Sure, it was probably important, but it was also more important to not wet her pants. She focused on looking at the seat of the dragon.
"No! Not now! Flying chickens incoming!" Leo yelled, still not breaking her out of her fear-induced trance. All around them, were flying harpies. Dozens following them, and managing to keep the speed. They all looked hungry for demigod flesh. They launched eggs, talons, and other unknown (not wanted to be known) substances at their dragon.
"Can you make it go faster?" Nico asked loudly.
"Gee! Why didn't I think of that-No! he can't go faster or we'll burn out his wings before we make it." Leo shouted sarcastically. "Maybe we could-" His own hair flew over his face.
Meanwhile, Thalia was still focusing on not looking down. She could still feel herself dying on the inside.
"Thalia!" Nico's muffled voice ordered. "Thalia! Use your bow!"
Thalia woke up from her trance. "Don't-don't worry, I-I got this, just..." She pulled out her bow, and notched an arrow. She tried her hardest not to shake but she couldn't help it. She aimed an arrow down the sights of her bow towards one of the flying chickens.
A hail of arrows was released from her bow, some going to waste but at least three of them hit at other harpies. Festus was blowing fire from his mouth at the front. She repeatedly shot arrows at different harpies, most going to waste because she couldn't keep her hands straight. More just kept swarming around them like an ocean of flying chickens.
"This isn't working!" Nico yelled.
"Gee you think?" Leo replied.
Suddenly, Festus was shaded by a black shadow. They looked up, only to find several hundreds of harpies hovering above them.
Nico stood up from the seat of Festus.
"Man what are you doing?"
"I...think...if I could just..." Nico said, raising his hand towards the shadow of Festus. He drew his sword as he phased into the shower.
Thalia began to panic, now having nothing to hold on to. Above them, Nico teleported under the shadow of a flying harpy. He slashed the thing into dust in mid-air, then phased into the shadow of another harpy, doing the same thing. He repeated it several times, looking angrier after each strike.
Thalia freaked out and suddenly electricity surged around her body, shocking a harpy right on time as it flew into her face.
"Nice shot!" Leo cheered.
"Leo..f-fly us around in circles! I have an idea! We just need to get them all around the same area."
Leo obliged to her with silence. He turned Festus around in circles, making the world spin around them. It was successful as it made all the harpies chase them. Once they were all gathered around them, Thalia raised her hand into the sky to summon just one lightning bolt, just one will do.
Thalia used her years of training with the hunters to use. Her hawk-eye gave her good timing on the lightning: the electricity pierced through the the wave of harpies like dominos. The lightning bolt followed them as they flew in a circuit resembling an electric tornado.
"Yes-Gah!" Thalia screamed.
"That was...hot. I mean...me of course." Leo laughed, and for once even Thalia had to join in on the joy.
He turned around to look at the seat behind him. "Did you see that Ni...co...?"
"Nico! Oh shoot!" Leo shouted in sudden realization.
Festus swerved suddenly making a direct one-eighty turn, interrupting Thalia when she began to speak. She only managed a gasp.
Falling down right next to them barely missing his seat, in a split-second was Nico screaming "Ahhhhh! You jerks! You got rid of the shadows!"
"Found him!" Leo shouted in triumph. "Come on boy, fetch! Fetch the falling zombie dude!" He patted Festus' head.
The dragon was about to spiral downwards until a harpy clutched onto the figurehead, blocking its view. The dragon began to panic, and soon several more clutched onto him. Festus swerved around uncontrollably as more piled onto him, chewing pieces off of his metal plating.
"They're back ALREADY?" Leo asked in frustration.
Leo turned around to face her, looking serious for once. "Thalia! Get Nico! I'll get a hold of Festus!"
Thalia heard him, but wasn't able to respond while she was enshocked.
"We're above the House of Hades! I think this is where it was!" He yelled pointing downwards. "Just save Nico! He'll show you through. Hopefully he knows who we're trying to look for!"
"Yeah...okay. You're right, I'll do it! I just need a...a few seconds." Her stomach felt like electrical butterflies. Not good ones either. She breathed in deeply and with that, she dived downwards.
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Thalia closed her eyes still feeling numb. She screamed for a long time, but soon realized that it wasn't going to do anything: She was already there may as well just get it over with. She tucked her body inwards increasing her fall speed.
Soon she was closing in on Nico. He wasn't hard to notice, considering how he stupidly panicked, flailing his arms around. She collided with him, and pulled him in closer. He soon stopped fighting back when he realized he was being held. He was still breathing heavily however.
"Th...Thalia?" He muttered as they fell downwards.
"You can do it. Come on...You can do it!" Thalia repeated to herself, keeping her eyes closed.
"Come on winds...don't fail me now! I finally decided to fly...come on!"
She raised one hand between her and Nico, as they kept falling. Soon she felt something air-like under her. She was doing it!
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Then two large metal claws grabbed onto both of them. Festus... who was now covered in harpy dust.
"Gotcha!" Leo called out.
"That's great and all, but can we please just land?" Thalia begged. Nico looked sick.
"Well, what do you guys think?" Leo asked.
"It's...a pile of rocks." Thalia replied.
"What happened to it? This is Greece right?" Nico stared at it blankly.
"Yup, just like you said. It was hear right? Where we found Annabeth...and Percy." Leo joked. Nico seemed flustered at the mention of Percy.
They stood atop of the hill staring at a foot-ball field length of destroyed rocks and rubbles. The sun shined brightly but it was still dull: just ruins and debris. In fact, there was so much debris, that it almost seemed like a labyrinth; a maze of endless possible tunnels. Did the 'seven' REALLY have to destroy the whole darn thing?
"This isn't going to work." Nico said. "How are we going to get in?"
"Well...can't you just...geokinesis it out of the way or something?" Leo joked nervously.
Nico gave him a death-glare. "No...I don't have the strength to move that much...rock."
"Well...Let's look around then at least. Maybe we can figure something out. It can't be ALL rocks and debris." Thalia suggested.
"Wait...hang on...maybe this is why a hunter was sent on this quest." Leo said.
"Was that a...joke or...?"
"No...I'm actually dead serious." Leo laughed. "Get it Nico? DEAD? HAHA...I'm punny..."
Thalia and Nico just stared at him blankly.
"...so you were saying?" Thalia asked.
"You guys are no fun. All your black clothes and such...ugh..." He continued muttering.
"Leo. Explain." Nico said sternly.
"Okay, so as I've heard, Artemis hunters are good at tracking right?"
"Correct. We are."
"So if that were true, then maybe the whole reason you two were chosen was because you make the perfect team no? Or something else...if you know what I mean." Leo winked. "So that being said, let's do a headcount: A son of the creepy death lord sith guy, who's most likely familiar with the underworld. Then we got the hunter, who's good at tracking stuff, surviving and scavenging. Yeah...it makes sense actually."
A sudden loud sound pierced all three of their ears. It sounded like metal being blended. "Festus! Oh jeez I forgot! Are you alright buddy?!" Leo yelled out panicked. He immediately ran to his aid as the dragon stumbled about making clacking noises that probably meant: Ow ow ow!
Leo pulled out a numerous amount of tools from his magical belt, and went straight to work. "Um...I gotta make sure nothing's wrong with him. You go do your deathboyxskygirl thing."
"Don't call it that." Nico said, blushing.
'Ew!' Thalia thought. She wouldn't ever date him! Besides they had nothing in common. Then she took a look at her clothes, their backgrounds, and moody attitude, and decided to stray away from her thoughts.
"Hey...come on dude. Let's just get it over with yeah? The sooner the better."
They had been walking around for quite a while, just avoiding obstacles, and climbing over debris. Thalia had to hook a rope down for Nico to climb since he wasn't as nimble as her. Seriously, why can't this guy just learn to wall run?
"Why can't you just learn to wall run?" Thalia chided.
"Why can't you stop complaining about me being a boy?" He replied.
"Just climb."
Nico climbed up with all his effort. He grunted as he pulled himself up and onto the higher rock. Thalia held her hand out to help him up.
"I don't need your help." He rudely brushed her off.
"Dude. What's your problem?"
"What's my problem? You're seriously asking that right now? Let's just hurry up and get this over with, and find the dang thing we're looking for." He replied coldly.
"No! You're telling me right now. I know you well enough to know that you're just going to continue this on and on and on. So tell me right now. What exactly are you so mad at ME for?"
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Nico glared at Thalia, anguish clearly in his face. "Bianca...that's what."
Thalia's heart ached at the mention of her name. If she had gave a thought about how a boy might feel then maybe she would've realized how much she meant to him. She had been so focused on her own problems with Luke, that she forgot about her promise to Bianca herself. She was supposed to look after Nico. The night before she said: 'Please, look after Nico for me if something happens, he's going to need a friend in his life.' But no...she was busy feeling sorry for herself about a stupid boy(Luke), that she decided to join the hunters, which made her not even give a second thought to a boy.
"Nico...I had no control over that. I'm sorry, really...I AM."
"You were her friend! And you let her die!"
The worst stung her through the heart. She didn't need to be reminded that she broke her promise to her friend.
"She died!" Nico's voice raised. "She died thinking you were the one of the Prophecy! And yet you went on and joined the hunt. Just to avoid it, like a coward. Look at you, Recruiting more girls as if she was replaceable." Shadows formed an aura around him and the ground started to crack.
Thalia was burdened with a lot of guilt, all at once. Then it quickly turned to rage. She didn't have to take that from some boy. This is exactly why the hunters hated them, and she understood now.
"Hey! DO NOT insult my family like that! The hunters had NOTHING to do with this! Get over it! We ALL lost someone." Thalia snapped. Electricity sparked around her body. A small portion of the clouds on her side turned darker.
"What do YOU know about loss?" Nico asked coldly. "You haven't lost anything."
The words sounded like deep insults, like they were trying to make her feel powerless. After all she'd been through, he dare had the nerve to say she lost nothing. Her mother, her little brother, her boyfriend, and he dared to say she'd lost nothing?
She wanted to throw lightning around, but unlike him, she was able to control her anger. She calmed down and said one word.
"Luke..."
Nico's eyes widened with surprise. All his anger seemed to clear at once.
"Luke...I lost Luke. Don't you get it?" Thalia said, her voice cracking.
Nico gasped. "Thalia...no...I didn't mean to...I'm...I'm sorry I-I..."
"I lost him! And I was afraid! I had no time to mourn, and I couldn't think straight. So leave me alone! I don't OWE you anything!" she yelled out tearfully. "I'm alone, and you're alone. That's the end of it. Now go ahead, hate me if you want. Deep down inside, I don't care anymore to live if I'm going to be alone." She faced away from him.
Nico stared at her speechless.
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The floor under them cracked, and out came Thanatos, the gatekeeper of death. He stared at them, eyeing them up and down. He seemed to have pity in his eyes.
"Lord Thanatos?" Nico muttered.
"Yes. And I know who you both are. And I have to say, the gods deeply apologize for you. As do I"
"What do you mean?" Thalia asked. "Are you the one we're looking for? We don't know what the prophecy means yet just so you know."
"You'll soon figure out what you were chosen for, but for now all I can do is warn you about your fate, you-" Thanatos was interrupted by a huge earthquake knocking all three of them down.
"Gaea! She went to Tartarus! She learned to use the earth to open the doors from the outside! You have to go! NOW!" He yelled teleporting them out of the labyrinth-like debris.
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Nico and Thalia ran aimlessly as the ground around them shook violently. Thalia was able to keep up ahead and jump over the falling trees. Nico seemed to be falling behind. She'd forgotten that he was not as trained as a hunter with obstacles.
"Ah!" Nico screamed. To her horror, he was pinned under a tree with the ground opening into a huge fissure.
Thalia immediately ran to his aid. She wasn't going to abandon him: Not this time. Not ever again.
She lifted the tree up with all her might successfully freeing Nico. Just as she helped him to his feet, the ground under her cracked along the line of the fissure.
Immediately, Thalia pushed Nico out of the way of the falling range, and prepared for a hard fall into the never ending abyss. She closed her eyes being glad she at least died saving him.
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Thalia reopened her eyes and saw a hand with a skull ring gripping hers. Nico.
Nico hung from the earthly fissure, his sword impaled onto the edge about fifteen feet below the top.
"What...Nico! Why? Now we're both going to die!"
Leo suddenly appeared over the edge of the fissure trying to reach down uselessly. He threw down a ladder but it wasn't long enough to reach. "Nico! Thalia! Just hang on okay!"
"Leo! It's your turn to lead them there! Do it! Find the doors! They're somewhere under debris! Just find it! Can you do that? I trust you!"
"Yeah...yeah I can." Leo promised.
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Nico faced Thalia.
"I was listening you know? And I DO get it..." He replied with a smile under his hopeless eyes. "But just know...you're NOT alone."
The words gave Thalia a bittersweet smile. She felt touched that at least they were able to make up at last second. At least they weren't going to die alone. His abyssal-black eyes met her electric-blue eyes, and they both got the unspoken message: At least we've got each other.
With that, they let go and fell into the unknown.
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Credit Song: April Breeze-Brian Crain
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Author's note: HI RANDOMER! LOVE YOU!