If you guys want to see what Adrian looks like, you should look at the cover image!
Within thirty minutes after being discovered, Nico had already managed to anger me beyond words. After I left Piper and Jason standing by the railing, I walked around the central part of the ship to look off the port-side bow. No sooner had I made it around the corner than Nico's hand connected with my shoulder, pushing me flat into the wall. I was quick to grab his wrist and shove him away, but he grabbed my arm again and pulled me down below decks.
Nico spun and leaned close, anger flashing across his face. "What are you doing here?!" he hissed. His eyes flared and I pushed him away from me.
"The Doors of Death have opened," I said, looking at him perfectly evenly. "I was one of the first ones out."
"You were in..." Nico trailed off, looking over his shoulder to his left and right. When he saw that no one was there to overhear us, he leaned closer and growled in my face, "Tartarus! There's no way out of there!"
"Nico, Nico, Nico," I tutted, then sighed. I smiled slightly at my usage of less formal English. "The Doors of Death are in Tartarus, remember?"
"You got out... of Tartarus... Through the Doors of Death?" he spluttered. His face was growing steadily paler, and the pressure of his hand on my shoulder lessened slightly. "But that means that anything can get out of there."
"Excuse me," I said, my pride nettled. "But I rather like to think that I'm more talented than the general population of Hell." He shot me a glare, but I suppose I earned it.
"That means that anything and everything in Tartarus can get out through those doors. Nyx... all the titans... everything can get out of Tartarus," Nico said, stepping back from me.
"Not really," I sighed, shaking my head. "I made my home down there right by those doors. That's why I could get out. Down there, the weight of millions of pounds rests on your shoulders. It's practically impossible to move more than a handful of yards without getting utterly exhausted. Do you have any idea how long it would take for someone to get out?"
"I have some idea," Nico said, a muscle in his jaw twitching irritably. "A bit over a month, don't you think? Maybe two?"
My stomach dropped slightly as I realized just how long the Doors of Death had been open.
"We have to get there first, before the occupants of Tartarus get through," I said, determination creeping its way into my voice.
"It doesn't matter when we get there," Nico said, tired. He sounded as though he was explaining something to a slow child. "It matters when PERCY gets there. And considering it'll take him just as long if not longer than the Titans to move through Tartarus, and the Titan have had a head start... we can't close the doors on them, Mavum."
"Adrian," I corrected. "I am Adrian now."
"You've been Mavum for the last 500 years and I'm damn well going to call you it!" His voice rose and anger made his pale skin flush red.
"Nico Di Angelo!" His anger was rubbing off on me. I tried to calm myself, but anger still bubbled within my chest. Lightning crackled in arcs across my skin, zapping his hand away from my shoulder. I stepped towards him, backing him up against the opposite wall of the hallway. I shoved my finger in his face and continued, "You will treat me with respect. I know perfectly well what I am doing. I have a plan. I know EXACTLY... EXACTLY how this is going to play out. I am not a demigod like you, Nico, and I am a few centuries older than you as well! Are we perfectly clear?"
"Really? You've thought of everything, have you?" he asked, his face crinkling in a snide smile.
"Yeah, I bloody well have. I've had a great deal more time thinking about this than you, even if you're nearly a century old. I have the powers of you, Jason and Percy, as well as hundreds of years in Tartarus to give me just the proper cocktail of experiences, and don't you forget that!"
"So you've thought of this one... little... snag," Nico said, dragging out his words. He stepped out of the reach of my electrified finger and waved his hand carelessly. "This one tiny thing. You see, someone is going to have to be on BOTH sides of the Doors to close them."
I very carefully smoothed my facial expression into a poker face, deadening my eyes so that he couldn't read me. "As a matter of fact, I have."
"And who..." His face went slack as he realized what I meant, despite my best efforts to conceal it from him. His face changed into something entirely different. "No, Mavum. You can't..."
"Adrian," I corrected him again. "Do not tell me what to do, boy. Do not even try. Just because you saw me while exploring the Doors of Death doesn't mean you are special. It doesn't mean you've got special knowledge about who I am or what I'm going to do. So you, Nico Di Angelo, can very well bugger off."
I spun on my heels an marched down the hallway, slamming open the first door I came across and disappearing inside.
Hazel
Hazel's door crashed open and she leapt to her feet, ready to fight whatever attacker may have breached the ship. But the only thing that greeted her was Adrian, with her face just as red as her hair. Hazel sat back down slowly and warily, watching the girl. Adrian shut the door and pressed her back to it, sliding down and sitting on the floor.
"Your brother can be a real... I don't even know a wide enough array of modern curse words to describe him. You know what I mean?" Adrian asked, looking up at her.
"He can," Hazel said testily. She wasn't sure about this new girl, and she certainly wasn't going to trash talk Nico to her. "But I love him anyways. He's my brother, so I'm sort of obligated to."
"Well, yeah," Adrian sighed. "If you say it like that." She put her head in her hands and covered her eyes.
"Yeah," Hazel said, glancing around the room. Adrian straightened and leaned her head back against the door.
"He thinks he can tell me what to do," Adrian grumbled. "Like he knows me or something. Well, news flash, I was in the underworld for a lot longer than him. He doesn't know what it's like to be trapped down there."
"I know, right?" Hazel said, relaxing somewhat. "I was down there for a while too, you know. It was so... empty, and cold, and... blank, I guess."
Adrian nodded, sighing. Then she grinned at Hazel and reached out her hand, her fist clinched. "Fist bump for dead people, dude!" she said, with a very bad American accent.
Hazel fist-bumped her tentatively, and Adrian frowned.
"Is that not how it works? Is that not modern?" Adrian asked, and Hazel started laughing.
"Not quite. That's very Leo-esque," Hazel said.
"Anyway, what part of Hades were you in?"
"The Fields of Asphodel," Hazel said, somewhat uncomfortable with that topic. She was getting more and more comfortable with Adrian, though; someone who had been in the Underworld, too? Someone she could talk to about what it was like? Someone who understood? That's... awesome.
"Ah, dude, why?" Adrian said, trying again to copy Hazel's accent and failing miserably. A smile cracked Hazel's face.
"Maybe you should just keep your English accent, mate," Hazel did, doing her best British accent. Adrian crinkled her nose in response, and they both laughed. "I was in the Fields of Asphodel because either my mom or I were going to Elysium, and the other would go to the Fields of Punishment. I convinced them to combine our sentences and give us both Asphodel..."
"Dude, that sucks," Adrian said. 'Dude' sounded pretty funny in her accent, but Hazel let it slide. "Were you that chick with the iceberg and Gaea, then? About 60 years ago?" She leaned forwards on her knees, looking at Hazel curiously. "I remember seeing that going on. Not to sound insensitive or whatnot, but I totally won 300 drachma from that. Some guy was betting you wouldn't have the guts to do it, but I backed you up." Her awkward modern English made Hazel smile, despite what Adrian was actually saying.
"You mean you were betting on whether or not I'd do what it took to save the world? Nice to know people had such conidence in me." Hazel rolled her eyes. "Where were you, anyway?"
"Oh, just this abstract sort of corner of the underworld," Adrian said, suddenly closing up. She crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to avoid the question. "In truth it matters not, for as yet I am here. Am I not?" Her attempts at speaking in even relatively modern English faded abruptly. Hazel watched Adrian but decided to let secrets be secrets, and sat back to talk with Adrian for a while about the underworld.
The conversation was peaceful and it was as though they were in a timeless lull, uninterrupted until the dinner bell chimed.