So I realize that I haven't posted anything in awhile and I felt bad leaving you guys with nothing, so even though I wanted to add more to this chapter before posting it I figured it's better to give you guys something. If you're a fan of the di Angelo's then you should be a fan of this chapter! Enjoy!
Soundtrack: "Gollum's Song" from Lord of the Rings

(Rebecca's POV)

Terror. Being the daughter of Kronos you would think I would know the meaning of the word. But after all I had been through nothing could compare to the terror I saw as soon as I looked into Nico di Angelo's eyes. The kid was only eleven years old and he had already lost so much. The rollercoaster of his past took me back to Washington DC decades ago, where he sat as a small child on his mother's lap. The woman rocked him back and forth soothingly as the young Nico wailed. His sister, Bianca, stared out the window at the streets where people ran in horror to find shelter. The sky was dark with ash and smoke.

"The war's getting closer," Bianca cried.

The image faded in a gust of smoke and I was in a hotel lobby. It must have been a few years later because Nico looked almost the same as he did that day, his crooked eyes glaring up at his older sister quizzically. The war raged outside; the sound of gunshots echoed throughout the hotel, dust clouds formed as soldiers ran past trying to avoid the enemy fire.

Next to the siblings stood a rather stout, but broad man with a scruffy black beard. He wore a long black and red cloak that I recognized merely from a dream of mine a few years back.

"Where's mom?" Bianca asked, staring up at the god of the Underworld.

Hades glanced at the stairs expectantly. "She's coming," he assured the children, though his tone wasn't very convincing.

For a time I merely stood there watching the three of them wait, but no one came.

"This is ridiculous!" Hades finally announced making his way over to the stairs. "Maria," he called, but there was no answer. Glancing back at the children the god saw what I saw; a bright ball of lighting came hurtling down from the sky towards the hotel. "NO!" The god called, racing over to shelter the children just before the hotel was completely obliterated.

The smoke of the wreckage gathered around me only to be swept away once more. It sent me through a whirl-wind or Nico's life; he stood in the pastures or Camp Half Blood, skeleton warriors rising at his command, he wielded his stygian iron sword outside the Empire State Building. Then the image took on a different light, a dark loom, there was no smoke this time, only a dark power weighting around me. This was the Underworld, of that I was certain, but it was nothing like the Underworld I had seen in my visions before. I could just make out the figure of Nico lying on his side, a look of pure fear in his eyes. I tried looking up, but saw nothing but darkness. Glancing around I saw thousands or beady yellow and green eyes peering out of the darkness, eyeing Nico like he was a piece of raw meat.

Don't worry daughter of Kronos, a voice came out of the darkness. It was not my father's, nor any monster or god I had come across in the past, but a woman's voice, an ancient power looming in the darkness. Your time will come. The future you seek will be within your grasp…in time.

With a jolt I was back in reality.

My vision was blurry for a second, were it not for the maple tree behind me I would have surely fallen flat on my back.

"So?" Nico looked at me mystified. "Do you believe me now? Do you understand what they're going to do to Bianca?"

For a minute I forgot the reason I had come here, forgot that I had agreed to help him find his sister. There were much more pressing issues than reuniting a couple of kids, but then again if one of those kids could help me gain power that I wanted, then perhaps it was worth it, even if Bianca was already dead.

"Yes," I answered, gaining my balance once again.

"And you'll help me rescue her?"

"If you help me, that is," I reminded him.

At this Nico rose to his feet, glaring at me with those dark brown eyes of his. "Remember who saved who from Chiron's prison, Rebecca. You owe me. Not the other way around." His hand moved to the hilt of his sword, beginning to unsheathe it. As intimidating as the sight might have seemed–an emo kid decked out in an aviator's jacket, skull ring on his finger, and sword at his hip–I wasn't scared in the slightest.

Barely raising my hand I made my heartbeat quicken and my blood heat up to morph the net of time that was woven around the son of Hades. "You're not thinking fourth dimensionally, boy. You can think whatever you will, but I can kill you at any moment." On that happy thought I released the boy from his frozen state and leaned serenely against the maple tree.

Stepping closer to me Nico angled his chin up and spoke through clenched teeth, "Threaten me as much as you want, but if you wanted to kill me you would have done it already."

"Right you are there, bud. Now what do you say we find a less conspicuous place to have this discussion?"

…

Okay, so perhaps trying to trick a son of Hades wasn't my best idea ever, but at least I had convinced him to travel with me. With him my powers doubled, maybe tripled. I wasn't sure the extent of them yet, perhaps it would increase my endurance; make me capable of using my powers for an extended period of time. Talk about a good battle tactic, I thought as Nico and I crept in the shadows of a Nashville alleyway.

As a preteen I always wanted to go to Tennessee, not Nashville obviously, country music is atrocious! But I had an odd obsession with Elvis and the other rock n` roll legends of Beale Street. I had finally managed to get down there only so I could hunt down the damn Hunters. Talk about ironic.

Finding the Hunters was the easy part; Artemis had scouts all over the country in wait of the coming war. The difficult part was to convince them to lead us to Bianca. Of course if I could simply see into their past my job would be made much easier, but Artemis of course had to warn her puppets.

Freezing time became much easier as I grew accustom to Nico's presence. So once I caught sight of the girl in silver it was only a matter of getting her into the alleyway, and then she was all mine.

Slowing down my heart rate I released the girl from her frozen state. She glanced around long enough to see the double-plated blade of Bluefire, pressed hard against her neck, as well as Nico and I watching carefully over her. Of course the second she caught sight of me her eyes flashed shut and she cried, "Please! Don't hurt me! Let me go! I'm worthless! Please–"

"Oh, shut it!" I ordered, pressing my blade closer to her neck. "I'm not going to kill you. I need something from you."

Her eyes remained screwed shut, body curling up into a tight ball against the red brick behind her.

"Where's Bianca?" Nico chimed in. He kept his distance from the girl, not because he was afraid of her, or so it seemed, but because he feared what I was capable of. Perhaps is he kept his distance my cruelty would not be as real to him.

"I don't know!" She squealed all-too-quickly.

"Don't lie to me," I sneered in her ear. "I know Artemis doesn't keep secrets from her hunters. Where is she? At the main camp I'm guessing, probably under close guard."

She began shaking her head violently. "No, you're wrong!"

"She's dead then?" I persisted. There was no way I was letting her go without an answer.

"No!"

"Where is my sister?" Nico ordered, leering over the frightened huntress. It was then that I realized how young this girl was. She must have only been twelve when she became a hunter, based on her pudgy face and small hands. She was twelve, Nico was not even eleven, and then there was me; an old hag at fifteen. That was the problem with this sort of life, you were lucky if you made it past your twentieth birthday. I was fast approaching that day, and in less than a month I would be sixteen. I had heard tales of other powerful demigods reaching sixteen, and every time it resulted in more dread. My sixteenth birthday was one of the many things keeping me up at night. What awaited me on that seventeenth day of June? What battles would I fight? What would I gain? What would I loose?

"She's alive," the hunter said,

"What?"

"Bianca is alive," her breathing slowed from its rapid pace, eyes twitching underneath her lids.

"Oh, for Zeus's sake open your eyes!" I sighed, lowering my blade from her neck.

No argument was given. Realizing the absence of Bluefire the huntress opened her eyes, but still avoided my gaze, "She's alive, and with Artemis."

"Where?" Nico's voice cracked with the word.

The huntress shook her head. "No! I won't say any more! I will not defy my lady!"

"Well you better learn to," my hand gripped Bluefire again tightly. "That is, if you want to live."

"Kill me then!" She whimpered. "Peirce your blade through my chest and end this nonsense, for I will never tell you anything!"

"You said it, not me," I shrugged unsheathing my blade once more and sliced the girl's throat. A splatter of blood stained my sleeve as the flesh tore apart and the tears in her eyes ran their path down her cheeks as they slowly began to loose colour. Her pupils went wide, then narrow until they were blank. There was nothing that remained of the huntress but a body and blood.