CHAPTER SUMMARY

Cho boards Charon's ferry. Nico runs into Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

BEGINNING NOTES

Chapter Rating: General Audiences
Content Warning: Violene (mild)
Word Count: 3967

REMINDER: In the Coming of Nico di Angelo, Will's mom is Jewish. I'm saying Jew as in Jewish descent. Not like Will practices Judaism. Maybe he does. I don't really know.

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

Credits at the end.

_CHO_

Cho sat on a leather couch in a crowded room. The walls were the color of steel. The only sound came from soft piano music playing from speakers attached to the walls. No one spoke or moved. She sat in silence, waiting. For what? She didn't know.

There was something heavy in her pocket. She took it out. It was a coin of some kind, made of bronze. She didn't know how it got there, but she somehow knew it was important. She put it back in her pocket before anyone else could see it.

A man entered and sat behind the security desk, which was on a raised platform so high that she had to crane her neck to see his face. He was a black man with his blond hair in a buzzcut. He wore a tan, silk Italian suit and tortoise-shell sunglasses so dark that Cho could see her reflection in them. There was a black lapel in his suit pocket and a silver name tag. Cho squinted at it. "Charon."

She stood. Hundreds of eyes followed her as she walked to the security desk. Charon's back was to her. He was thumbing through thousands of pieces of paper, sorting them into different piles, mumbling to himself as he placed each one.

"Visa, Visa, Amex, Time Warner Cable, Visa, T-Mobile-who uses T-Mobile anymore?-Amex, Amex..."

Cho looked a little higher, just to get a closer look at him, when he stopped what he was doing. She ducked under the platform just in time. It was dark and earthy down there, damp, cold. Charon's shoes turned away from her, and she heard, "Time Warner Cable, Verizon, MasterCard, Visa..."

Cho tried to crawl out, but it was too dark for her to see anything but Charon's shoes. She started shaking with fear, but there was no other way. She crawled towards the shoes. Silent as a shadow, she wiggled her way out from under the platform. Charon's back was inches from her nose. She backed away slowly. Then, she froze. She couldn't move another step.

That's when a man melted out of the shadows. He was nothing more than a long, black cloak. Afraid he would see her, she ducked under the security desk.

"Will you take off that damn thing, Thanatos?" Charon grumbled. "How many millennia will it take for you to get over your grim reaper act?"

Thanatos lowered his hood but refused to take off the rest of the cloak. It took all of Cho's might not to faint at the sight of him. He was... there was no other word for it but angelic. Her whole body shook worse than before. He looked a little Middle Eastern, with dark, tanned skin and jet black hair that fell to his shoulders. His eyes were honey gold. His nose, face, and chin were chiseled like a Greek statue. He even had wings. She couldn't tear her eyes from him.

"Humans fear the Reaper," Thanatos said.

Charon huffed. "How many do you have for me?"

"300,000."

Charon cursed. "That's a fifty percent increase! It was up forty percent yesterday. Hades doesn't pay me enough for this!" He glared at the papers on the desk. "If I have to add 'deathday tax' to one more bill I'll march into the palace myself and-"

"Careful, brother," Thanatos warned, his voice dangerously low, "the Lord of the Dead is not in a good mood today."

"Really? I thought an extra 150,000 souls meant he decided to call off the war!"

Thanatos put a finger to his lips. Charon caught himself. Apparently, this war wasn't something they wanted people knowing about. Thanatos practically breathed his next words to Charon. "Our Queen refuses to tell Hades where she disposed of my Artifacts. He is livid. Macaria warned me not to come near the palace today, despite my daily briefing with Hades. She said, at last count, they have set fifty-two curses upon each other."

"When did our Lord ask for your Artifacts?"

"About an hour ago."

Charon sighed. "They always do this. Queen Persephone will get her senses back soon, and they'll have make up sex on the council table."

Thanatos sighed. "I'm amazed Lord Hades hasn't thrown you in Tartarus, the way you test him, Charon. The Queen is right. We have enough to throttle Hecate without such weapons."

Charon raised an eyebrow. "Is that regret I hear in your voice, brother?"

Darkness filled the room, the shadows were bottomless pits, and it dropped ten degrees. No one noticed but Charon, Thanatos, and herself.

"The only thing I regret is that Nico di Angelo ever reunited them. The Artifacts were useful in their time, but they should've been disposed of forever. No one should have them, not even Lord Hades."

Despite the intimidating atmosphere, Charon kept his cool. "You didn't always think that way, Thanatos."

"Yes," Thanatos breathed through clenched teeth, "and the Fates taught me a lesson I will never forget." He threw a clipboard into Charon's hands, but his anger was subtle enough that no one from the outside would've seen it as a hostile act. "Here are your passengers. I suggest you invest in a bigger boat. If things continue in this way, by December 25th you'll have four billion souls clamoring for the ferry."

Charon thumbed through the list, grumbling, "Fifty percent increase, will Lord Hades ever think of me? No, I'm just the boatman..."

Thanatos threw his hood up again. The moment the it covered his face, he disappeared.

"What are you doing under my desk, girl?" came Charon's booming voice. A violent hand ripped her from under the table. Cho... she was remembering something... what did that remind her of...?

Without an answer to give Charon, Cho thrust the coin into his hand.

"A Greek drachma?" Charon mused. "All right, who's child are you? Apollo? You've got prophecy in you, I can tell."

"I'm..." Cho struggled to remember the word. "I'm a witch."

"A witch?" It dawned on Charon what that meant. "A follower of Hecate. You'll have to take a seat there, girl. Believe me, you'll thank me for this later." Cho reached to take the coin from him, but he caught her hand. "No, I'll take this with me as a nice thank you."

"It's mine!" Cho jumped up and ripped the coin from his hand and held it to her chest like she was Sora's age.

Charon's hungry eyes stayed on the coin, but the rest of him looked mildly impressed. "How did you die, girl?" he asked.

"I went to a protest. There was a mob. I tried to save my friend, there were these three wizards, I knocked out two, but the last one got me." All the memories came flooding back. Cho couldn't stop herself from speaking. "I knew I shouldn't've gone to that protest, but I had to! I had to know how Harry died!"

Charon's eyes fell from the coin back to her face. "Harry Potter?" His voice was deadly calm. "You knew him, didn't you? Did you know the Americans?"

"I was friends with Annabeth Chase," she remembered. "You mentioned Nico di Angelo. What do you want with him? If Thanatos kills him, I'll- I'll-"

Charon laughed. "No one's touching the bossman's son, even if they are estranged. Hades always had a soft spot for him, more than usual with his kids. What's your name?"

"Cho Chang."

"Well, Cho Chang, you can keep your drachma. You've earned yourself a ticket to the right side of the Styx-I deliver you to Lord Hades, and I'll have the pay raise of a lifetime."

Before Cho knew what was happening, her arms and legs were chained together, a blindfold and gag were tied around her face, and she was thrown to the bottom of a very smelly boat.

_NICO_

"Bianca, lift me!" Six-year-old Nico pointed to a tree branch just out of his reach. He loved climbing. Every afternoon, he would run to the trees in their backyard in la Valle d'Aosta and scramble to the highest branch.

"I'm making flower crowns!"

"Biancaaaaaaa!" Nico pulled on her arm.

Bianca snatched her arm away. So, Nico resorted to desperate measures. He started chanting:

"There once was a king, / Sitting on the sofa, / He said to his maid / Tell me a story, / And the maid began:"

"Nico, quiet!"

"There once was a king, / Sitting on the sofa, / He said to his maid / Tell me a story, / And the maid began:"

"NICO!" Red in the face, Bianca pushed him to the ground. Nico fell hard on his shoulder. Searing pain shot through his arm. He screamed.

Mamma and Nonno ran outside at Nico's yell. "What happened?!" Mamma cried. "Bianca! Did you push your brother?!"

"He sung that song again, the one that goes on forever! I wanted him to stop and he wouldn't stop!"

"Go to your room. No books, no dinner. Do you understand?"

"Nico isn't hurt, is he?"

"Do. You. Understand. Bianca?"

"Yes, Mamma. I apologize, Nico, I never meant to hurt you..." Bianca ran inside, crying tears of guilt.

"Will you look, Padre? You know medicine better than I."

Nonno kneeled next to Nico. "Nico, your arm, please." Nico tried to move his arm, but screamed in pain. Nonno took his hand for him and moved it all different ways; each time, Nico screamed. "It's dislocated."

Mamma made a pitiful sound. "The doctor is an hour away."

"I'll relocate it before we take the automobile to the doctor. Now, Nico, listen to Nonno. Soldiers get hurt, too. They take it with courage and strength. Will you be a soldier for me today?" Through his tears, Nico nodded. "Good, Take a big, deep breath, and stop this crying. Crying helps no one. On the count of three. One-"

Nonno, a dirty cheater, did it on one. There was a sharp pain in Nico's shoulder, and he wanted to cry, but managed not to. When Nonno was done, Nico fell into his grandpa's arms, tired from the whole ordeal. "Fetch Bianca," Nonno said. "She sees what happened to her brother, she'll never push him again."

Mamma ran into the house. Nonno winked at Nico. "You're a strong, courageous man, Nico. You'll make a fine hero someday."

Nico heard a triumphant scream coming from the cabins. He blinked a few times; it was always hard to get his bearings after a memory slapped him in the face. He ran a finger down a small indent in the bark of his tree.

Guess this isn't my first tree after all.

Country boy to spooky Underworld boy to city boy. What a journey his life was, with more twists and turns in seventeen years than most people got in a lifetime. Usually, a thought like that would depress him, but here, safe in his tree, he felt strangely optimistic. He'd been through so much, everything life threw at him, and he was still here. Maybe his mind was still in 1935 la Valle d'Aosta, but, for once, he was calm. Which was good, because he had a lot to process.

What did he know? His half-brother started the war that killed his mother and, in part, led to the Pact that ruined his life. He killed sixteen million people; Jews like Will and Will's mother, black people like Blaise, homosexuals like himself. Hades did nothing to stop his reign of terror. He courted Maria di Angelo, a spy fighting against allies of that monster, and could easily keep her letters from ever reaching the Americans.

That's what he knew. That's all he knew. He didn't know why-even if-Hades protected Hitler, if he sabotaged Mamma's work, if he was using Mamma, loved her like he claimed in Nico's dreams, or both.

But none of it mattered now. Hitler was dead, Mamma was dead, and Nico renounced Hades a year ago. The only person this could affect was Hazel, if she wanted to renounce Pluto too, but there was no way he'd tell his sister any of this unless she asked him directly. She didn't need to know if she didn't want to know.

Nico saw a figure standing by the fire pit. Maybe Hestia (the goddess) could help him sort out his feelings. He made his way down. "Hey, Hestia! Can I talk to you?"

The girl looked up from the flames. It wasn't Hestia. It was Rachel Elizabeth Dare, looking worse than Nico had ever seen her. She walked lopsided, there were large bags under bloodshot eyes and tufts of knotted red hair.

She didn't notice Nico. In fact, she took a step forward and fell into him. "Whoa, Rachel!" He did his best to steady her. "Are you drunk?"

Rachel's head snapped up. He looked at her with crazed eyes, unfocused, like she was staring through a kaleidoscope. Nico had to hold himself back from throwing up for the second time that day.

Rachel shouldn't look like that. She shouldn't look like May Castellan.

"The river consumes you!"

"Rachel, snap out of it!" Nico shouted. He tried to pull her away from him, but she wouldn't budge.

"Beware the river! Beware!"

Nico yanked her off his shirt. The moment they broke contact, she collapsed, shaking like mad. Nico looked around. There was no one in sight. Nico cursed. Everyone was in their cabins, preparing for Capture the Flag. He couldn't risk carrying Rachel in case she freaked out again, and he couldn't leave her alone like this, but she needed help, and fast.

He laid Rachel down by the firepit, and threw his aviator's jacket over her in an attempt to warm her up. Light snow already peppered Rachel's face and hands. She coughed violently; her whole body spasmed so much that Nico had to hold her down, or she'd hit one of the benches and crack her head open. A minute later, she calmed and opened her eyes. Nico breathed a sigh of relief.

"This isn't the Big House," she pushed out. Her voice was so weak.

"No, it's the campfire," Nico told her. "What's wrong with you? You, uh..." Rachel waited expectantly, but he didn't want to say it. "Um, you were like May Castellan for a second."

To her credit, Rachel didn't throw up at the bad news. She had one up on Nico. "What did I say?" she asked.

He repeated it for her. "Do you have any idea what that means?"

"No," Rachel said. "The Spirit of Delphi's been restless lately. I'm okay, though, help me up."

"You're shivering like crazy, Rachel. I should get Will."

"No!" Nico jumped. How had her voice gotten that sharp so quickly? Rachel slung her arm around his shoulders. "Take me to the dining pavilion. Capture the Flag is about to start. I want to watch."

Nico shook his head and picked her up instead. "You're getting into bed. If I kill the Oracle, I'll never be allowed into camp again." Rachel protested, but he cut her off. "I won't put you in the infirmary, I promise. Where in Tartarus do you sleep, anyway?"

"I have a cave."

"A cave."

"Yep."

"Why do you sleep in a cave?"

"Tradition. And Apollo wouldn't stop talking about it, so we just rolled with it. We built it at the same time as the Hades cabin. You didn't see it yet?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Between Gaea and Riddle, I didn't have much time to explore the new sites. Direct me."

It was on the outskirts of the camp. A purple curtain covered the mouth of the cave, and two torches, one on each side, kept everything bright under the thick cover of trees and setting sun.

"I forgot we're playing Capture the Flag in the dark," Nico said.

"I'd like to see that."

"Too bad. If you step out of this cave, I'll tell my boyfriend, and you'll be stuck in the infirmary."

"You can't blackmail the Oracle."

"I just did. Help me with that curtain, I've got an Oracle in my arms."

The inside of the cave resembled a lounge more than anything else. There was a massive sofa with throw pillows, a beanbag chair, a mini fridge, and a lava lamp on a geometric coffee table. Nico laid her down on the bed. The mattress laid inches from the floor, Japanese-style.

Rachel pointed to the walls, filled with vibrant, vivid paintings. "I draw my dreams. It helps me to sort through my prophecies."

"It's beautiful, Rachel." He stared at the images with childlike wonder. "This is what I want to do one day."

"You want to paint?"

"I want to make the world more beautiful. Leave a stranger something that can save them from a rainy day." Nico let out an embarrassed laugh. "Doesn't sound like me, I know."

"No, it makes perfect sense." Rachel said, a softness in her voice. She gave Nico a little more time to stare at the paintings. They were mesmerizing. "Nico... do you want to talk about last night?"

Nico plopped onto the sofa. "No, but I got a feeling we're going to. And, can we keep it in this century? Paul filled me in on what-who-I, uh, missed, and I really don't want to talk about it."

It took a second for Rachel to figure out what he meant. "Oh... oh, oh my gods-I didn't even think of that. I'm sorry that... sucks?"

Nico burst out laughing. "Yeah, yeah it does. So, talk. You have until the conch shell."

Rachel traced a painting above the head of her bed. It was, Nico realized, the Artifacts of Thanatos reunited: the Cloak spiraled over and around the Staff like a ring of smoke, beginning and ending in the center of the glowing Orb. "Nico, it's you."

"What do you mean?"

"The Spirit of Delphi's been restless since you left for Montana without your prophecy. I thought it would be over when you got back, but obviously not."

Nico felt a pit in his stomach. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it would make you sick."

"No one did. Look at the painting. I had this dream after last year's Solstice meeting, the night we found out you ran away, and learned the true nature of the prophecy. Look at the circles. The Cloak never ends, the Orb and Staff are both made of curved lines. I didn't see it then, but I see it now: your quest never ended. This is part two. It's a continuation, a circle. There was always more to come, and you will be the key."

"I don't want to be anyone's damn key. I did Persephone's dirty work for her. This isn't my problem anymore. I gave up my demigod status for a reason. I don't want anything to do with this."

"You can't stop the Fates."

"The Fates can fuck off."

Rachel dropped her hand from the painting. "Have you had any dreams?"

He shifted in his chair. "Yeah. I've seen my Mamma and Hades from before I was born, and, this morning, the Wizarding World. Something's wrong there, but I don't know exactly what."

The conch shell sounded. Rachel met his eye. "I know you have to go, but, you need your prophecy. They happen whether you know them or not. They aren't self-fulfilling like Hecate's. Prophecies are tools, not weapons."

Nico stood. "I know, Rachel. I'm sorry you're suffering, but I can't, not yet." Nico had to blink back a sudden onslaught of tears. Nonno's words came back to him. "I should be a hero, but I'm not. I gave up my demigod status for a reason. I've always been my own agent. Prophecies aren't for people like me. I'm not... strong or courageous enough. You, this world... it terrifies me."

Rachel reached out a feverish hand. Nico took it. "I know."

_CHO_

Cho may have been lying in that boat, bound and gagged, for minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Time itself stopped on that boat. The trance of death that controlled her actions in Charon's waiting room was gone, she was fully human again, and beyond terrified. She was being taken to that Lord Hades they were going on about, and probably Queen Persephone too. They didn't have any nice words for Hecate, and Charon called her a "follower of Hecate." Cho didn't know what that meant, except for the fact that she wouldn't find any mercy with this so-called Lord of the Dead.

Why do Lords of the Dead like ruining my life?

The boat lurched to a stop. Despite her muffled protests, Charon dragged her all the way to wherever they were going. As hard as she squirmed, kicked, and punched, nothing could save her. Less than a day after she swore not to be a damsel in distress, she was tied up, gagged, blindfolded, kidnapped, and, oh yeah, dead.

Charon threw her to the ground, hard. She fell onto what felt like marble. When Charon removed her blindfold, it turned out it wasn't marble, but bronze. Her cage was made of thick, clear, smooth crystal, its walls two stories high.

In front of her sat two ten-foot tall figures in matching thrones. If Thanatos had been overwhelming, one look at the woman made Cho's legs turn to jelly. She was perfect, beautiful, a teenager who could've been the model for every great work of art Cho had ever seen.

But, that was nothing compared to the man beside her. He was so... so divine that Cho couldn't focus on him long enough to figure out what he looked like. She shouldn't have looked at the man, but now that she did, she couldn't tear her eyes away. The longer she stared at him, the worse things got. She started hyperventilating, her heart raced, no part of her body could support itself; she felt like she was melting in this crystal cage under the eye of someone too miraculous to comprehend.

Thick, green vines erupted from the floor, obscuring her view of the man and woman sitting in the thrones. "You said she was a demigod!" the man, presumably Hades, erupted. "That girl is mortal! She would not have reacted like that if she had a drop of divine blood in her!"

"The girl is weak, my lord, but has magic in her, I assure you."

"You have tried my patience for the last time, Charon," Hades warned.

Cho stood, straining for a view. She needed to know what was going on.

"My lord!" Persephone shouted. "He's right! The girl has not faded!"

"Well then," Hades said, his anger more controlled now, "resend the vines, my dove. Let's see what litter Charon fished from the Styx this time."

The vines snaked back into the ground. Now prepared for what she was about to see, the sight didn't incapacitate her like before. She still had to sit in the corner of the cage and couldn't take her eyes off the man, but she wasn't dying anymore. Or fading, as they called it.

"My lord," Charon announced, "may I present-"

"Cho Chang." Hades finished, rising from his throne in absolute shock. A smile spread across his face. "You're still in trouble for lying to me, Charon, but you won't be Cerberus's lunch today. Now get out of my sight."

Hades shrank to an average human height as he stepped towards Cho. She cowered on instinct, shaking all over. Hades looked at her like she was an interesting museum exhibit. "We should pick up where we left off later, Persephone."

"That's a good idea, my lord. Truce." She shrank too, and joined her husband by Cho's cage. "Welcome to the Underworld, Cho Chang. Be honored. You will be a big help in winning this war."

END NOTES

You didn't think I'd waste a perfectly good character, did you? Kill off and stay dead?! Pfft. Not today, readers, not today.

This week's beta commentary:
STORY: Rachel shouldn't look like that. She shouldn't look like May Castellan
OLI: Has Nico ever seen May? Or does he just know about her from Percy?
LISSY: He was the one who brought Percy to meet her remember? In the Last Olympian?
OLI: apparently i remember nothing
LISSY: It's okay. 99% of my first draft was basically "this is a cool Greek thing that Riordan never mentioned... oh wait... right... that was a... major plot point..."

Credits:
Melody Rose - Author (Tumblr melody0rose)
Oli - Beta Reader (Tumblr paradoxicalpsychic)
Suhalia - Beta Reader (Archive Of Our Own users/milkandtahoney/)

Please comment so I know what you think! See you tomorrow!