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NICO GOES ON A MISSION

Nico sat on his father's lap, listening to him argue with Charon, for the 4th time that week.

"Charon! Are you even listening?"

Charon looked up "Oh yeah! You were just telling me about your plans to give me a pay raise!"

Hades groaned, "Again with the pay raise! I told you, you don't need to have one of those trendy Italian suits!"

"You have one!"

"I'm your boss!" Hades snapped.

Nico frowned, he didn't like it when papa was angry. Besides, these meetings were always so boring.

His thoughts drifted to the book Persephone had read him yesterday. It took them a while, but Persephone had started warming up to Nico, and even did nice things for him, like reading to him and playing with him when he was bored.

Unfortunately, spring was on its way, so Persephone had gone to the upper world. Which meant that he was all alone until papa finished his work. Yesterday's bedtime story had been about a brave hero who went on awesome adventures. Nico wished that he could go on an adventure too, it had been almost a year since he had come to the underworld. He hadn't really been outside the palace yet because Papa said that he was too young. But then again, he was four now, not a baby! Maybe he could go an adventure, just like the guy in his book!

He hesitated, he wasn't supposed to leave by himself, and papa would be worried. Should he tell papa before he left? He shook his head, it wouldn't be an adventure if he had permission!

Nico got off his father's lap and left the office, he was going on an adventure!

*******Line Break******

Nico was on a mission.

He was trying to sneak out of the palace without anyone seeing him. That bit wasn't too hard, he was short for his age and his black mop of hair and black clothes helped him blend in. The clothes hadn't really been his idea, but papa had only given him black clothes for some reason. Papa really liked the color black.

As it turns out, there wasn't much outside the palace. Just a lot of dead people. He saw a group of souls pass him and head to a huge field. Nico shrugged, there was no harm in following them.

The souls drifted on and on and on, for what seemed like hours. Nico trudged after them, starting to regret his decision. As they walked past yet another poplar tree, something caught Nico's eye. It was paradise. He could smell something delicious and hear gleeful laughs. He glanced at the souls, who were still drifting in the same direction. He really wanted to see what was over there, but he couldn't just abandon his mission! He sighed, the mysterious paradise would have to wait.

*********Line break********

Hades groaned. Dealing with Charon always left him exhausted. No matter what they talked about, he always ended up mentioning a pay raise. Just when he thought that his day couldn't get worse, an anxious looking guard entered his office.

"What is it?" he snapped.

The skeleton made strange chattering noises that made Hades panic.

"MY SON IS WHERE?"

********Line Break********

Nico was starting to have a bad feeling about this adventure. The souls were heading for a darker, scarier looking part of the underworld. He wrapped his arms around himself, he hadn't even noticed he was shivering. Right about now, Nico wanted to finish this adventure so that he could go home and maybe ask papa to make some of that hot chocolate he liked so much.

Nico froze in terror, the spirits had stopped in front of a huge hole in the ground that seemed to have no bottom. His heart was beating a lot faster than it normally did, and to put it simply, Nico was terrified.

"Come."

Nico stifled a scream. The voice sounded deep and old, like a really old man, but powerful and compelling at the same time. The voice also seemed to be coming from the bottomless pit.

"What's wrong child? Step a bit closer."

Nico didn't move.

"Who- who are you?" he asked.

Nico couldn't see the speaker, but he could imagine him smiling.

"Why, I'm your grandfather!"

What? Nico was usually a rather trusting boy, but something about this person claiming to be his granddad gave him goosebumps. How could this creepy dude in the pit be his granddad?

"Ummm, are you sure? Papa never mentioned you."

The voice chuckled, but somehow, he even managed to make that sound scary.

"He wouldn't. Hades was always the silent type."

Nico had to admit that he was right. Papa was always keeping secrets from him. He would stop taking as soon as Nico entered the room, refuse to talk about the people in family photo albums and all sorts of other mysterious stuff. But something didn't make sense.

"Why are you stuck down there?"

"This is my home! I can't leave."

"Why?"

"The same reason you can't leave your home."

"Oh" Nico said. It seemed a bit unfair that his granddad couldn't leave his home. No wonder he never visited.

"Never mind that. Come a bit closer, I'd like to see you up close."

Nico's legs seemed to have developed a will of their own. Some part of him argued that he shouldn't just walk closer to the creepy hole that was starting to pull the spirits that had led him there into it. But despite his better judgement, he started inching closer to the pit.

*******Line Break(I really wanted to end the chapter here, but I decided to continue!)*****

Hades ran as fast as he could. He could probably just teleport to Asphodel, but he had no idea how far Nico had gone. He noticed the spirit of an old woman watching him from under a poplar tree.

"Have you seen a living boy pass by?" he asked frantically.

The woman nodded, "He was heading over there." She said, pointing in the direction of the one place that Hades wished he never had to go.

Tartarus.

He felt dread pool in his stomach. What would Nico be doing near Tartarus? What could anyone possibly want with his son? The answer came to him in a flash, his father, of course! There was no other possible explanation. But how? How had Kronos managed to gather enough strength to lure a demigod? What could he possibly hope to gain from a four year old?

He shook his head, there would be plenty of time to figure that out later, right now, he had to save his son.

A.N:

Mwahahaaa! I'm so evil! I'll try and update soon!

Please Review!

-Keera(⓿_⓿)