CHAPTER SUMMARY

The questers search for Nico. Nico has a dream.

BEGINNING NOTES

Chapter Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Content Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Self-Harm (mentioned only)
Word Count: 3613

And all the characters are owned by JK Rowling, or Rick Riordan.

Credits at the end.

_NICO_

Nico knew it was stupid to run. But he couldn't take those Hunters a second longer. What had he ever done to them for them to make his life a living hell? What had he ever done to Persephone for her to risk his life in this way? What had he ever done to Hecate for her to incite war a second time, just to spite him? What had he ever done to Hades for him to play with his emotions this way? What had he ever done to Olympus to become their pawn?

Born, that's what it was. Born. Born to a god and a mortal, born as a boy, born as an outcast. One year of sweet freedom, one year without anyone chaining him to his genes, and suddenly he was back where he always was. Alone, used, on the run, with his friends far behind him. There was his answer, there was the point of last year's quest. The Ghost King may choose his own destiny... within the confines of a prophecy. Never forget: you will always be subject to the gods.

It was cruel. The Fates were cruel.

Do it.

A voice, a familiar longing, broke through the turmoil in Nico's brain.

You know you want to. No one will know. Do it.

"No," Nico said aloud. "I won't cut. I won't go back to that. Shut up."

You're all alone. Do it.

"Geez, I'm already bleeding. Focus on that."

The further he went, the further he ran, the more the voice overwhelmed him. He'd relapsed a few times over the past year, but not again. At least, not right now. The world was on its way out unless he could stop it and he didn't have the time to start hurting himself. It was hard since no one was around, but he resisted. And he was proud of himself for it.

Nico caught his foot on a branch and fell into the Illinois River. He suppressed a scream when his leg and shoulder hit the freezing water. It looked like both he and the voice got their way. Despite himself, Nico sighed a bit at the pain, even though it was accidental. It helped a little, enough that he was tempted to do it again, but he pushed himself up and kept going. Like he always did.

It was 11:30 PM. Sixteen hours until the deadline, and he didn't know how far west he was yet. Snowflakes peppered the ground and stung his skin. The freezing water droplets from his swim in the river turned to ice.

Ceres and Khione are fucking with me. Shit.

"I have to get out of the snow, or I'll freeze to death," he said to no one. "Okay, follow the river to find civilization. Maybe rob a coat store or something."

He did just that. It was fifteen minutes of grueling work, all with a leg burning with pain and little voice in his head asking him to fall, but, at last, Nico stumbled into what a sign declared Peoria, Illinois. It was definitely a city, but nothing close to New York. The streets were deserted in the snow and darkness of the near-Solstice night. Nico walked under the streetlights, limping on his injured leg, forcing himself to keep going. A minute later he was on the other side, off into the Illinois farmland and suburbia.

On the outskirts of the city, he found a small convenience store. He knew he had to keep walking, but he was so cold, so tired, and in so much pain that he couldn't take another step.

Let Ceres win. I don't care anymore.

Nico grabbed the biggest rock he could find. He in his hand a few times to make sure he got the angle right, then threw it at the storefront door. Success. The lock broke, and the door creaked open. He discarded of the rock and went inside, gluing the door shut with his shadow-shield.

"Your mortality makes it easier to be pulled to the Underworld should you go too far."

"Oh, go back to Hades, Persephone. The god or the place, I don't care anymore."

I don't care anymore. After the number of times he'd said those words in the last few hours, he should make it his ringtone. The words rang in his ear as he changed his gauze, wrapped a blanket around himself, and ate a granola bar under his blanket tent. He set his iPod alarm to go off in a half-hour, then curled up to take a nap. The Hunters wouldn't find him here, and even if they could, they couldn't get through the door.

In his dream, Nico stood in a strange, yet vaguely familiar city. Women in dresses and men in collared shirts bustled past with briefcases in their hands or children on their arms. Grand buildings speckled the horizon, but those that lined the street weren't anything special.

Nico saw a woman get into an antique car that was waiting for her. "Thank you, Peter. Back to 3000 Whitehaven, please."

Nico swallowed hard.

Mamma?

It was her. Far younger than Nico remembered her to be, and in different, older clothes than he remembered her wearing, but it was her. Black hair and olive skin like Nico's, button nose and tight lips like Bianca. She wrapped a driving scarf on top of that black hat she always wore, the one with the netting in the front, and motioned for Peter to drive.

They arrived at a rectangular building made of white marble, decorated with intricate carvings and an Italian flag out front, waving in the wind. With a gracious smile to Peter, she got out of the car and went inside. The embassy was vast and luxurious inside, worthy of its grand entrance. Nico remembered these apartments; when they moved to Washington D.C. he, Mamma, and Bianca stayed there with one of Nonno's friends. At least, for a few weeks, until Papà collected them and shipped them off to the next location in their "avoid Zeus and Poseidon" road trip.

Hades. Not Papà. D.C., you're messing with my brain.

Mamma sat down at a desk and started to write a letter. But, she only got through the date (2 May 1926) when a knock at the door interrupted her. "Enter," she said.

It was Nonno. He wore his military uniform, the one with all the pins and patches that fascinated Bianca so much. Come to think of it, Nico didn't know which division Nonno served in. He must've mentioned it to him at some point during their ten years together, but Nico forgot. That unsettled him. He didn't like forgetting.

"Maria! La cena con il Segretario Hull è stata riprogrammata per stasera." [Maria! The dinner with Secretary Hull was rescheduled for tonight.]

Mamma sighed and put away her papers.

"Mi fai impazzire, Padre. Sarò pronto." [You make me crazy, Father. I'll be ready.]

Nonno laughed at the look of disgust his daughter gave him. His laugh never came easy, but when it did, it lit the room.

"Solo poche settimane, Maria. Il Duce vuole che riprenda la mia posizione a Venezia." [Only a few more weeks, Maria. Il Duce wants me to resume my position in Venice.]

Mamma got tense at 'Il Duce.'

"Non parlare di quell'uomo!" [Don't speak of that man!]

Nico knew what caused that reaction: that's what everyone in Italy called Mussolini. Mamma never liked him, in fact, she was a spy for the Americans who tried to get him out of power. Nico didn't know when that started, but the intensity in the apartment wing of the U.S. Italian Embassy answered that question. This was the real reason Nonno was in Washington.

"Ho paura per te, Padre, così vicino a lui. Le Persone continuano a uccidere e stanno diventando più ambiziosi. Uno ha anche provato per quel diavolo incarnato il mese scorso." [I fear for you, Father, so close to him. People keep killing, and they're getting more ambitious. They even tried for that devil incarnate last month.]

Her tone made it clear she wished whoever it was had gotten him. She stood from her desk and took his hand.

"Non voglio che tu ti faccia male." [I don't want you getting hurt.]

Nonno's face gave nothing away. It was back to its resting state: grave and stoic. He whispered to his daughter.

"Devo stare vicino se vogliamo sopravvivere. Fai il tuo lavoro e tutto finirà presto." [I have to stay close if we want to survive. Do your work, and it will all be over soon.]

For a split second, faster than the blink of an eye, Hades appeared in front of the closed apartment door. No one noticed him but Nico.

His dream changed. He was back home, in his apartment in New York. Blaise and Hestia worked on an essay together at the kitchen table with their quills and parchment, a potions book open between them.

"Are we at five inches yet?" Blaise asked.

"No idea," Hestia said, "But mine still doesn't look long enough." She glanced up to see Blaise reading over her shoulder. She shielded it away from him. "Don't copy me! Snape will fail both of us!" When she lifted her arms, they were all full of ink. "Now look what you made me do!"

"Sorry." He leaned back in his chair, letting his quill drip into the inkwell. "This is boring. When's Nico getting back?"

"Tomorrow night. He has to finish up that trip for you-know-who first."

"Riddle?" Hestia only shook her head at him, disappointed in such a lousy joke.

Thunder boomed outside. One of the windows flew open. Blaise and Hestia exchanged a look. "I thought we closed that," she said, inching towards the window.

The moment her hand got to the knob, a powerful gust of wind shook the entire building. Manhattan was a vacuum; Hestia fell out the window, save her hands clutching the window frame. "Hestia!" Blaise cried. He ran over to her, but another gust of wind knocked her down right before he could pull her up. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Blaise shouted.

Slowly, Hestia rose. Beads of sweat dotted Blaise's forehead, but he held on. Paul ran into the kitchen just in time to see her hovering. "Oh my gods!" he cried. "Blaise, get her back to the window!"

"I'm trying!" he said through grit teeth. For a second, his strength failed him, and Hestia plummeted towards the ground. But, he recovered quickly enough to catch her again. Slowly but surely, Blaise fought against the storm and brought her close enough for Paul to reach out and grab her.

"In you go," he said. Hestia was crying hysterically, beyond terrified.

Sally ran into the kitchen. "Is everyone all right?!" she asked.

Before she could get a response, another gust of wind blew the curtain rod off of the window. Paul and Sally ducked in time, but both of the followers of Hecate were out cold. "We have to get out of here!" Paul shouted over the wind.

Paul threw Blaise over his shoulder. Sally pulled Hestia into her arms. They ran out of the door and slammed it. Just in time, too, because, thanks to another gust of wind, the kitchen table flew off its legs and hit the door with what would surely be a fatal blow.

His dream shifted to Camp Half-Blood now. The same tornado was wreaking havoc over the camp, blowing everything around and knocking the wind out of people. Campers were screaming and running to shelter, but half the cabins were damaged beyond repair, and many more close behind. Grover and the other satyrs furiously played their pipes, using nature magic to create enough of a buffer that everyone could escape, but it wasn't doing much.

"Everyone to the Big House basement!" Chiron was shouting. "The Hephaestus, Ares, and Demeter cabins also have an underground layer!"

Leo arrived on the scene. He had some contraption, a massive shield that Nico remembered helping him with. It was so big that he had to attach it to a golf cart. They meant to use it in battle, against winged monsters during an aerial assault (During a shouting match, Calypso told Leo to fight a drakon, and he decided to take her words to the "logical" extreme). He pressed what should be the golf cart's horn, then used the wheel to maneuver the shield at an angle that would block most of the wind. It did its work well, better than Nico suspected it would function during a drakon attack. Jason and Piper used the shield cover to help usher some of the younger campers into the Big House, but they couldn't do everything.

"Leo!" Calypso shouted. A massive bolt of lightning hit the shield. Leo jumped just in time, thanks to Calypso's warning. The cart was now on fire. Yeah. Metal. On fire.

"Go, Calypso!" he shouted back to her.

Nico woke with a start. 11:58 PM. Sufficiently warm, rested, and freaked out, Nico stuffed his blanket into his bag, grabbed some mortal money, threw it onto the counter by the register, and ran into the night.

_THALIA_

Once the blizzard started, Artemis blessed them with some massive wolves to help traverse the piling snow. It felt silly to ride their hunting wolves like horses, but they made tracking Nico easier and kept them all from getting hypothermia.

Snow fell so fast that Thalia couldn't see her hand from her face. She pulled on the fur lining of her hood for the millionth time, trying to get it to shield a bit more of her eyes from the flurries. Dirt switched to pavement, and soon five wolves with four humans on top were navigating a small city in the middle of a blizzard. If any mortals were outside their apartment, Thalia couldn't guess what the Mist would dig up.

On the other side of the city lay the woods, farmland, and square houses of suburbia. The wolves raced along the Illinois River, heading straight for the trees. Thalia pulled down her mouth scarf. "They've picked up the scent!" she called to the others. Almost in response to Thalia's comment, the wolves stopped and started howling into the night.

"Nico?!" Alabaster yelled over the wolves. "Nico, come out! Come on, you'll die out here!"

A figure came towards them, blocked by the snow. "Nico?" Thalia asked. The creature got closer. The wolves switched from howling to growling. "Oh, no..." Yellow eyes were only a few feet from Thalia now. "Get off your wolves," Thalia said, lips moving at a snail's pace, hoping Roszí or Ianthe would hear her. She didn't move a muscle. She knew those eyes, and they weren't friendly.

It was a wampus cat. A beast of Hecate's. It looked like a cross between a cougar and mountain lion but had a ferocity hundreds of times worse than either of those. They were native to the Appalachian Mountains; Thalia had never seen one so far west. But with a war brewing, Hecate could break a few geographical rules. Especially if it meant stopping an enemy quest.

Nico's wolf was nothing more than a flash of gray fur in the corner of Thalia's eye. It started wrestling the wampus cat long enough that Thalia could scramble off her wolf. "Go get it!" Thalia commanded, and her wolf joined the fray. The others followed suit, and soon five wolves were tearing the wampus cat apart. Thalia breathed a sigh of relief. For once, an easy hunt.

As always, she spoke too soon. Wampus cats didn't usually travel in packs, but, again, Hecate was playing fast and loose with the rules of nature here. Five wolves could take two, maybe three wampus cats. But a dozen of them and counting? Within seconds, the wolves were torn limb from limb. "No!" Ianthe cried. She always took it hard when an animal met its end. She notched an arrow and avenged their companion with a shot right between the eyes. The offending wampus cat yowled and fell, but another one immediately took its place.

Thalia and her Hunters fired arrow after arrow, but every wampus cat they took down seemed to be only one in an endless stream. Alabaster, using the Hunters as a distraction, scaled a tree, speed assisted by some magic of his own. From his perch, he pulled some blue orbs from his bag and threw them into the heart of the pack. It exploded in a flash of neon blue light; six wampus cats were nothing more than ash and snow. But another saw Alabaster and started to climb, trying to avenge its fallen comrades. He climbed higher and higher in the tree, trying to reach a branch too weak to support the wampus cat's weight, but it was too nimble for that.

"No!" Thalia shouted. She notched an arrow and aimed it at the monster, but it was moving too fast. Every arrow lodged itself in the tree. Thalia tried firing at the branches instead, but every branch that fell to Earth was just a step behind where the wampus cat was.

"Thalia!" Thalia turned at Ianthe's warning, long enough to see the wampus cat headed straight for her. She fell to the ground with it on top of her, wrestling with its enormous claws to keep them from her neck. She could smell the blood on the wampus cat's breath as it lunged again and again towards her face. She willed the wind to pick up and blast snow at her attacker. A massive piece of ice knocked it out long enough for Thalia to roll over and stab it with her hunting knife.

For half a second, she took in the scene: Roszí had been mauled, Ianthe was pinned underneath another wampus cat, and Alabaster couldn't climb any higher. The beast swiped, and he took a wrong step and plummeted ten feet to the ground.

"Formation seven!" Thalia shouted at Roszí. They stood back to back and spun, firing arrows off in every direction, starting with Ianthe's attacker. Ianthe made her way to Alabaster but was soon blocked by the encircling wampus cats. There were ten left, far too many to defend against at the speed they were advancing.

If I go down, I'll go down fighting.

A pale, raven-haired boy stepped out from behind a tree. With a flick of his hand, a massive pegasus made of bones materialized from his own shadow. One flap of its wings and they both shot into the air. It whipped its tail towards the wampus cats, and seven of them were on the ground, then three crushed by its massive feet. It took another two in its mouth and threw them miles into the horizon.

"Mark!" Thalia shouted. Three Hunters notched three arrows, a Stygian iron sword swiped at two, and the last of the beasts were nothing more than dust.

Ianthe found Alabaster face-first in the snow, out cold and hypothermic. They set up a quick camp in seconds flat to tend to him. Nico didn't climb from his beast's back, even to check on his friend. Thalia ignored that. She was too angry to deal with his mood swings right now.

"How is Alabaster?" Thalia asked Ianthe by the temporary campfire.

"He broke his ribs and both his legs, but it's all fixed now. I gave him a new set of clothes and some hot chocolate to warm himself up. He's resting inside. We'll be good to go in a few minutes."

Thalia sighed. "Good. Ianthe. Thank you for taking care of him. Roszí, help me collect the fur. The cats too, not just the wolves. We'll need extra layers if the blizzard keeps on going, and I don't think it'll stop any time soon. I had a dream when the bus knocked me out; this is definitely divine weather, but don't ask me which god's causing it."

Experience plus Lady Artemis's magic let them complete the task in ten minutes flat. Alabaster left the tent pretty soon after, and Ianthe and Roszí started to break camp. He and Thalia walked to Nico and his hellish pegasus.

"I'm glad you remembered what I taught you!" Alabaster called up to him. No response. "Nico...?" They climbed the creature's back to find him woozy, half-asleep, and with skin a little darker than usual. "He used a little too much underworld magic for a mortal soul to take," Alabaster explained. "His soul is fighting to stay in his body. Not nearly as bad as some other cases. He'll recover; I can help him. Get the others. We can use this thestral as transport, at least until daybreak. They have a lot of stamina, and this one's bigger than any I've ever seen. It should be able to carry all of us, easily."

Thalia's heart beat a million miles an hour. She didn't want to fly. She hated flying. But staying in the blizzard was suicide. The world came before her stupid, irrational fears. She watched Alabaster work his magic on Nico, and soon his skin turned from pale to its usual olive. Ianthe and Roszí climbed aboard the thestral as Nico opened his eyes with a cough.

"You saved us," Thalia said. "Thank you." Then, she slapped him hard across the face. He coughed violently, but no one, not even Alabaster, cared in the least. "Don't you ever put us in jeopardy again."

His whole body spasmed with a coughing fit. "Dream," he managed. "Zeus took Hecate's side. Camp's in trouble."

END NOTES

Sorry that there's nothing from the Wizarding World this chapter but I couldn't fit it in. Don't worry, it shall return next week!

Sources:
Harry Potter Wiki /wampuscat

This week's beta commentary:
STORY: What had he ever done to Hecate for her to incite war a second time, just to spite him?
LISSY: Little arrogant, dude. I think you're simplifying things a little bit.
SARA: But listen, simplicity is just the truth, right?
Right?!

Credits:
Melody Rose - Author (Tumblr melody0rose)
Sara - Beta Reader (Tumblr icomparemyselftoyou)

Please comment so I know what you think! See you next time!

COMMENTS

FestusGirl

Wow, that's some deep ***Great chapter as usual.

Oh and at some point it says my two of my friends and I.' I'm not sure if that's a correct sentence, but I don't really care.

Yeah, I try to go a bit deeper in this sequel, you know, make it a bit different than the first one. I really didn't want it to just be on repeat; I wanted to expand on some things that I didn't before, like Cho Chang's character, Nico's past, Nico's feelings on his father, Alabaster's character beyond his friendship with Nico, etc. All of these things have seeds in the first one but aren't focused on. And, of course, I have to address the affect Hecate and Hades' rivalry has on the immortal world, and what happens in the Wizarding World now that a) Voldemort's gone and was revealed to be alive in the first place, and b) how our wizard friends deal with the loss of Harry and being introduced into the world of the gods.

Wow I went on for a while. Sorry.

I'll check out that sentence in the last chapter and fix it if it is a typo. Thanks for letting me know!

ShadeFireDragon

I do hope that the Hunters now respect Nico more, seeing as they now know that it's their profession that got his sister killed. Keep up the good work! Hope that the next chapter comes by quickly!

I wouldn't say respect, but I do think that, after what Thalia said, they'll be less antagonistic. I'll do my best not to disappoint!

The Goode Racenclaw

I love the chapter! (well I love every chapter, but that's beside the point) I just have to say that Nico's driving skills are awesome.I was a little confused on what relevance Hermione had in this chapter. did the Hunters and Nico and Alabaster just happen to go to the exact lodge that the Grangers were at or am I missing something? I can't wait for the next update!

Aw, thank you so much! I'm glad you like Nico's driving lol. And Thalia was knocked out when the bus crashed; Hermione was her dream. If you mean why was that dream in there at all, well, you'll find out soon.