Nico Di Angelo

I own nothing.

This will have some Italian that I got from google translate so it might not be grammatically correct but the translations will be at the end.

Let's see how this one goes...

Nico looked all around him, the bodies of the fallen far out numbered those of the survivors. For once he stood in the middle of a mortal war and not a demigod. But that didn't mean it hurt any less to see all of the dead.

He was about to shadow travel away so that no one would notice him.

Then he saw them.

It was a small group, the kids couldn't have been more than 13. They were just standing there looking for their families probably. But that wasn't stopping the man that was coming up behind them with a gun.

Without thinking Nico shadow traveled over just as the man shot the first bullet. Nico took the shot in the stomach.

The man was so surprised that he was easy for the demigod to overpower and restrain before the pain hit and he fell to the ground.

The children rushed over to their savior.

"Stai bene?" (1)

"Si. Tu sei?" (2)

Nico looked at the little ones staring at him like he was a hero. Then he sighed.

"Staro bene."(3)

The children didn't seem to believe him, they all worked together and somehow managed to pick him up. They carried him to a small house that was still standing. The children set him down and the oldest child sat next to him.

"Come possiamo aiutare?" (4)

"Non credo che tu possa."(5)

"Possiamo farti più comodo?"(6)

Nico thought about the child's question, then turned to the rest of the children.

"Lasciate che vi dica una storia."(7)

It was an odd request from a dying man, but the children both wanted to make him happy and hear the story. So they made a circle around him, but not behind his head.

With a little help, Nico was able to sit up.

Then he began the story his cousin had told him so very long ago.

The story went on for hours, and Nico left out nothing. All of the battles, the betrayals, everything. Until he came to the last battle Percy had ever fought. Then he choked on his own tears.

The youngest of the children, a girl named Bianca, no more than 7 years old, sat up straighter and asked, "Cosa è successo a Percy? Ha picchiato, i giganti non lo ha fatto?" (8) All of the children nodded their heads and turned to Nico in childish hope.

And no matter how dark his heart may have become since Bianca's death, he couldn't bring himself to tell those war torn children the truth. So he nodded his head slowly and said,"Non solo Percy li batté, ma è uscito dall'acqua e ha sconfitto il resto dell'esercito singolarmente e ha vissuto felicemente mai dopo con Annabeth." (9)

Nico clutched his stomach in pain, actually somewhat surprised that he had lived long enough to finish the story. The children hadn't noticed the small pool of blood that had begun to surround their story teller or the small dribble that had started in the corner of his mouth.

"Penso che abbastanza storie per una notte. Perché non ti riposi Adesso?" (10)

"Ci domandi più storie domani?" (11)

Nico couldn't look any of the children, and the oldest seemed to understand what was happening. "Solo se dormi ora." (12) All of the younger kids promptly fell onto their backs and pretended to snore to convince Nico that they were sleeping.

Nico nodded his head in thanks to the young man.

"C'è un Posto dove puoi andare in modo che non si svegliano per vedere il tuo ... cadavere?" (13)

He nodded his head and struggled to stand, the blood pouring out of his wound quicker now. He stumbled to a shadow, turned to look at the kids one last time, and saw that Bianca was staring at him with tears in her eyes. He raised a hand in farewell and she waved sadly back. Then he disappeared.

He just melted into shadow.

There was nowhere he had in mind because he would never make it there. His soul wandered to his father's domain and rested.

The translations.

1. Are you okay?

2. Yes. Are you?

3. I will be fine.

4. How can we help?

5. I don't think you can.

6. Can we make you more comfortable?

7. Let me tell you a story.

8. What happened to Percy? He beat the giants, didn't he?

9. Not only did Percy beat them, but he came out of the water and defeated the rest of the army single handedly, and lived happily ever after with Annabeth.

10. I think that's enough stories for one night. Why don't you rest now?

11. Will you tell us more stories tomorrow?

12. Only if you sleep now.

13. Is there a place you can go so that they don't wake up to your... corpse?

This is it.