The Decision

GPOV…

Nico on the other hand couldn't sleep. He was thinking about Ruby and their chat. She didn't talk about his dad once and he liked that but he couldn't like her if she loved his dad. So he decided that he shouldn't get close to her again. If his father found out that he liked her he wouldn't be happy and he would probably make another artwork in his sitting/dining room, of him.

Nico didn't want that happen. He happened to like being alive. He just wanted to move on. He needed to find something to take his thoughts off Ruby and his father but when he grabbed his headphones he started thinking her again. He couldn't get her off his mind and he realised that he was going to have a hard time to get her out of his head and his life like he planned. He held the headphones in one hand and his iPod in the other and yet Ruby was the only thing he could think of.

As the months passed, nothing really happened. Everything went quiet after the second titan war which was an odd thing but a good thing. Maybe no one was strong enough to over throw the gods yet.

Nico was sitting against a tree in the shadows at the bonfire avoiding everyone and mainly Ruby. He had managed to avoid her over the months because she had been busy with all her friends and their party arrangements for the end of the summer break. But even though he had avoided her his head was still full of thoughts about her. He just wanted to stop thinking about her but he couldn't. He wanted someone to take her out of his head.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" someone asked.

Nico opened his eyes to see Ruby standing in front of him.

"What about," Nico asked calmly.

"About the fact that you've been avoiding me," Ruby said as she crossed her arms.

He had been hoping that she hadn't noticed. He had been hoping that all her party plans had taken her attention off him.

"Okay," Nico replied.

Ruby sat down in front of him and asked.

"Do you want to come to my birthday party?"

"I thought we were talking about me avoiding you."

"Well, when you think about it if you continue to avoid me you can't come to my party and I would really like you there," Ruby said.

"I guess that is true," Nico replied.

"So will you come?"

"Yeah, okay," Nico replied giving in.

Nico couldn't say no to her no matter how much he wanted too. Nico slowly got to his feet and Ruby followed. Nico stood there thinking about her. Every little detail about her was so amazing, from her light brown hair to her blue eyes, everything was so amazing. He quickly decided to leave. He said good night and left before this became any worse. He returned to his cabin.

Nico lied on his bed and stared at the ceiling. One of the many things he had in common with his father. Nico lied there awake until some appeared in a blinding light. When the light faded Nico saw Aphrodite. Nico knew it was her even though he had never met her before. There were things that Ruby shared with her mother no matter how much Ruby denied it.

"What are you doing here?" Nico asked.

"You need to give this to Ruby at her party," Aphrodite said as she threw a small bottle at him.

He caught the bottle and noticed there was no label on the vial.

"What is this?"

"It's a potion that will make her fall out of love with your father," Aphrodite said.

"Why can't you do it?"

"Because she doesn't trust me," Aphrodite said.

"So you want me to do it? Why would I do that?"

"Because you love her, and you know that if she continues to love Hades that it won't be good for her."

"What do you mean?"

"If she dies she will be with him forever and she's too young to spend her whole life with him," Aphrodite said.

"You really don't like him do you?" Nico said.

"I have my reasons for hating your father like everyone else," Aphrodite said before she disappeared.

Ruby was standing among her friends at her party the following night when Nico came up to her. Her friends smiled before walking away.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked wondering why he came up to her even though she was surrounded by her friends.

"I thought that I should bring you a drink for avoiding you all the time," Nico said as he held out a cup.

"Thanks," she said as she took the cup.

Ruby brought the cup up to her mouth and stopped. She looked at Nico and said.

"I want to talk about something with you," Ruby said. "But I think we should talk somewhere else, in private," Ruby said knowing her friends were listening.

"Okay," Nico said.

Ruby and Nico headed into the woods close to where they could be alone.

"Look, I know this is weird, me and your dad, but I love him, I really do," Ruby said.

Ruby had been holding back talking about all this because she didn't want to lose Nico as a friend. Ruby watched as Nico just stood there. He didn't respond in any way.

"Nico, are you listening?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, it's just, he's my dad and I didn't think this would happen," Nico said.

"So you would have preferred if I never met him?" Ruby asked.

"I would have liked to know that you felt something for him before I walked in on him kissing you," Nico said as he looked to the looked.

Ruby fell silent. She wasn't really sure what to say. She had no idea that Nico would find them like that. She didn't even know he was going to Hades' Palace after he came back from camp.

"I didn't know he felt the same way about me, I just thought he was being nice to me because he hated being alone all the time," Ruby said.

"Well he does hate being alone," Nico agreed which made Ruby smile.

"So about everything how do you feel about it now?" Ruby asked.

"Well I don't really know, it came as a surprise to me when I saw him kiss you, I just thought he was being himself, tricking you into liking him like he tricked Persephone into staying in the underworld," Nico said.

"So you don't hate me?" Ruby asked.

"I can't hate you, you're still my friend even if you like him," Nico said avoiding the word 'love' on purpose. "It's just I never thought anyone could get under his skin like you do, for as long as I've known him he's always been an emotionless cold-hearted man," Nico said. "You've changed him just the tiniest bit and I've noticed even if I haven't talked to him since, I can feel change," Nico continued.

"Well I guess that's a good thing," Ruby said as she looked to her drink.

Ruby lifted her drink up for a toast.

"To change," she said.

Ruby noticed that Nico stared at the cup in her hand for a little too long before turning to face the ground. Ruby knew something was odd but she didn't think it had anything to do with her drink so she brought it towards her lips. But before it touched her lips Nico grabbed it and threw it to the ground.

"I can't do it," Nico said.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"Please forgive me," Nico said as he pulled out a dagger and stabbed it through her heart.

Ruby watched as everything faded away into darkness.

Percy had noticed Nico and Ruby walk off and he decided to follow them. He wanted to know what was going on and he needed to know if Nico was finally going to tell her the truth. Percy needed to know if they were still going to be friends because Percy didn't want to pick sides. Percy had known Nico longer but he knew more about Ruby.

Percy watched as they talked about their problem. Percy noticed how Nico was acting. He was actually fidgeting which was something he didn't do. Nico could stand still in the corner of the room for hours and not fidget but her he was fidgeting like crazy.

Percy continued to watch until he noticed Nico take her drink and stab her through the heart. Percy quickly jumped out of the shadows and grabbed Nico and threw him against a nearby tree. Percy wasn't sure what to think. Was Nico under someone's control? Was he going to kill everyone else? What was going on?

"What did you do?" Percy asked even though he knew what happened.

"I saved her life," Nico said.

"I'm pretty sure killing someone doesn't save their life," Percy said.

"It does in her case, Aphrodite wanted me to make her drink a potion that would make her fall out of love with Hades," Nico said.

"So you killed her?"

"She can be with him forever, now," Nico said.

Percy slowly understood what Nico was saying. But going against a god like that would turn out bad for Nico and Percy had the feeling that Hades wouldn't understand either, unless Nico told him himself.

Suddenly one of Ruby's friends found them and Ruby's body.

"What happened?" she asked as she started to sob.

"Something made Nico do it against his will," Percy lied.

"I'm so sorry," Nico said with a shaken voice.

"Is she dead?" her friend asked as she kneeled next to her body.

Nico nodded trying to act as if he felt really bad about his decision. He also wore a fake face that made him look shaken up and shocked and what happened.