Nico did not feel like opening his eyes. He had a vague memory of falling asleep in the strawberry fields, but he knew he had a fifty per cent chance that he would be somewhere completely different. He did not feel like being in a different place or maybe even time and having to somehow find his way back to camp half-blood.
He opened his eyes after a few minutes of not falling back asleep. He immediately closed them again. He slowly rolled onto his stomach, before re-opening his eyes. 'Bright...' He moved onto his knees. While squinting to not hurt his eyes to much, he took a look around. The place was ridiculously bright. Nico looked up. The sun seemed to be sixteen times brighter than it usually was. Nico looked around again. Was he really in a place that wasn't camp half-blood? Was there maybe just something with Apollo? Did he drive into Ra's Sunbark or something?
No, he was definitely in a different place. He noticed a large, white wall. He was sitting only a few feet away from it. On the other side of him were gorgeously placed clouds, with small houses on them. He saw a few people walking around the place. Some were wearing long, white robes. Nico frowned when he saw two large rings with wings flopping around. It seemed like there were a million eyeballs on the rings.
Nico's eyes suddenly went big. Large, floating rings with eyeballs? That sounded a lot like a type of angel. He jumped up. His eyes still weren't completely used to the unusual brightness, but he decided he needed to go investigate the place right at this very moment.
As soon as Nico saw the pearly gates, he knew he was where he thought he was: heaven. He took a deep breath and sat back down on a nice patch of grass. He didn't really care about how he ended up here - he was more concerned with getting out of the place without being tossed into Hel.
'Young man! Get off of the grass!' he heard someone say behind him. Nico quickly jumped up, before turning to the person behind him. 'Sorry for that - How do I get back to earth?'
The person raised their eyebrows. 'I am sorry?'
'I need to get back to earth,' Nico enticipated.
'That's impossible. Once you are dead, you are dead, young man! Be glad you are in heaven rather than in hel!'
'I am not dead, though...' Nico muttered. The person raised their eyebrows. They took a little while to take a look at Nico. 'Now that you say it, you do not look very dead. However, you still have an aura of the afterlife around you.'
Nico shrugged. 'That sounds about right.' He rather wouldn't tell someone who seemed to be a worker of heaven that he was a son of Hades. Too big of a chance he would be tossed into Hel.
The person put their hands on their back. 'If you would please follow me, we can go to the administration and we'll see what to do with you.' Nico realised he didn't have much of a choice. He nodded and followed behing the person.
'Are you an angel?'
'Yes.'
'So this is really heaven, then? Wow. I mean...' he stopped talking. He probably shouldn't say he had seen a lot of other afterlives. '...I mean, it is gorgeous, you know?' The angel gave him another thoughtful look, as if they didn't know what to make of him. 'The lord has designed his realm to his liking.' Nico didn't answer to that. He knew most underworld deïtes weren't allowed or able to do that, but he probably shouldn't say that either.
The angel led him to a large, white and gold building. 'This is the administration of heaven,' the angel informed him. 'Please follow me inside.' Nico eyed the building suspiciously. There was no way this was going to be easy and quick.
The angel lead him to a desk, with another angel sitting behind it. They were staring at their screen and tapping on the keyboard in a way that made Nico suspect that they were playing Pacman instead of doing whatever their job was. The first angel knocked on the table.
'Hey, hello, Vic?' Vic jerked their head up.
'What?'
'I got someone for you.' Vic's hand hovered above the keyboard. Too bad, that way they lose the game, Nico thought. Vics' mouth fell open. 'There is... actually a problem with this ones placement?' they asked. The first angel nodded impatiently.
'Yes. Do your job, Vic.' They turned around and walked out of the administration building, leaving a very confused Vic and a Nico who was starting to get curious about where this was going.
Vic quickly clicked some tabs away. 'Eh... alright. So, you think you are placed in the wrong place... which happens, but...' Vic looked around the room. Nico understood it: why would he want to leave heaven? 'So, what's you're problem?' Vic asked, sounding unsure of themselves.
'Oh, I am not dead.' Vics' eyes basically rolled out of their sockets.
'Eh... that is not supposed to happen.' They frantically tapped on their keyboard. Nico sighed and stepped behind the desk. 'Whatever, you can finish the level first. I can help you.' Vic blushed.
'Eh... alright.' He opened one of his tabs, which, in fact, had Pacman up and running. Nico got a grin on his face. Now, he rememberd this game from the Lotus Hotel. He was good at it (He had beaten Dionysus that one time. The wine god had bribed him with priviliges to keep quiet about it) Vic started the game. 'Alright, go left,' Nico told them.
When they made it five levels further, Nico decided that maybe he should try getting out of here before Will would get to worried. 'Alright, we should continue with getting me out of here,' he announced. Vic seemed a little distraught. 'What? Oh, right, you, eh... want to get out of heaven.' They looked like they could still hardly believe it.
They went back to the other tab. 'Ehm... than I need to get to the website,' they muttered to themself, trying to ignore Nico as the son of Hades climbed over the desk in order to get to the right side again.
'You do not do this particulair thing a lot, do you?' Nico asked them. The angel shook their head. 'If I can be honest, I haven't had to do anything for this job since the year 985,' they said. Nico raised his eyebrows.
'What happened in 985?'
'The goddess Amaturasu wanted to go to her own heaven and ended up here.'
'Sounds like one hell of a week.'
Vic looked a little uncomfortable when Nico said 'hell,' but they nodded anyway.
'Eh... yeah, it was quite the nuisance.' They tapped a few keys.
'Alright. What did you say your name was?'
'Nico di Angelo.'
'Di angelo? Are you sure you...'
'No, I am not an angel and I really need to get back to earth,' Nico insisted. Vic shrugged.
'Alright. I guess you are a homo sapiens...'
'Yup.'
'Alive...'
'Correct.'
'What magical world do you belong to? Don't worry if you do not...'
'I am a Greek. Son of Hades.'
Vics' eyes went big.
'Oh, that might explain something...' they typed something again.
They stared very intensly at the screen for a few seconds. 'It says here... I need to bring you to my supervisor.' Nico sighed deeply. Great. He had the feeling he was going to see more supervisors in one day than that one time he was in the wrong place, at the wrong time during somebody elses attempt at shoplifting.
Vic got up from their desk. 'Eh... follow me,' they told Nico. Nico slowly started to move along.
'Here. Just knock on the door and you'll be helped eventually,' Vic told Nico while pointing at a door the size of a gate. 'Thanks,' Nico whispered. Vic smiled and walked back down the hall, to his computer, in order to see if he might be able to win at Spider on his own.
Nico knocked on the door, waited for thirty seconds, and after that just walked in. In his days as a traveller through the magical worlds he had learned that nothing that can happen in a room you weren't authorised to be in can be worse than having to wait an eternity for that door to maybe open.
Some dude was sitting behind a grand desk. There was a window in the background, which showed the gorgeous sky behind him, but also cast looming shadows around the room.
'Name and reason you are here?' The supervisor asked in a low voice, without looking up from his report.
'Nico di Angelo. I am alive, want to go back to earth and Vic the desk worker send me over here.'
'Vic did what?'
'You heard what I said.' The supervisor looked at Nico from behind the massive desk. Nico stared right back. He wanted to go back to earth now. He would even swear on the gods that he would never take a nap on camp grounds again if it meant his weird involuntary travels would be over.
'... you are alive and want to go back to earth. That should not be too difficult.' Nico narrowed his eyes. Oh man, this was going to be especially difficult.
'I hope so.'
The supervisor typed something on his computer, before standing up from his chair and reaching for his phone.
'Di angelo.'
'Yup.'
The Supervisor put the phone to his ear. 'Hello, Marie?... Yes, I am sending one over right now... Di Angelo... alright, he'll come now.' He put the phone down again.
'Walk out the door, go to the right. The door is open. Marie will find your name. Then you come back.' Nico slowly nodded, before strolling back out into the hallway.
The hallway was long. So long, even, that Nico decided to stop by a random other room. He knocked on the door, before just flinging it open. 'Hello, is there a Marie around her somewhere? She does names and stuff,' he asked. The angel behind the desk looked like someone had just told him the world was about to end. '...who... who are you!?'
'The supervisor send me. I need a Marie?'
'... thirty doors to the left!'
'Alright, thanks,' Nico said, before walking out.
He found the right door, which was, in fact, open. He knocked on the open door. 'Hello...'
'Di Angelo? You are slow!' The angel walked to a closet and got out an enourmous book. 'I need the second A volume.' Nico didn't argue with that. The woman begun to flip through the book, which seemed to take ages and ages...
Nico dozed off a little, but was violently shaken awake when the woman said: 'Over here is your name. You are, indeed, alive.' Nico nodded.
'Yes.'
'And so you must go back to earth right this instant.'
'Yes, please.'
'I will send it back to the Supervisor. Go.' Nico got up, turned around and walked all the way back to the supervisor.
'So you really need to leave the place?'
'Yes, sir, please.'
'Than you will leave this instant. I will have to ask you to wait for a second.' Nico opened his mouth to start an argument about the meaning of the word 'instant,' but he decided not to at the last second. The supervisor reached for his phone again. He dialed a new number with a big, white hand, slower than he had called Marie. He kept looking at Nico the whole time he was doing so.
'Hello, Diane?'
'Yes?'
'I have one who needs to go back to earth.' It was quiet on the other side of the line for what felt like way to long.
'There Actually is one who needs to go back to earth.'
'Yes, Diane.'
'Alright. Wait for just a second.'
Exactly a second later, a dark haired woman wearing glasses stepped into the room, through a door that appeared in the wall. 'Well, well, well...' she looked at Nico, who got ever so slightly uncomfortable.
'I'll get him back to earth, then.'
'Thanks, Diane,' the supervisor said, while putting the phone back down. Diane grabbed Nico by his left arm and tugged him along.
'I do not bring a lot of people back to earth. To hell? Sure. To earth? None in the last eons.' Nico shrugged.
'Well, I didn't want to end up here alive.' Diane looked at him from over her glasses.
'... Apparently not.' Nico blinked, but decided not to ask anything. He had had more than enough of it all.
Diane led him to a weird, blimb-sized flying machine. 'I need to drop you off in... camp half-blood. Well, alright then.' She gestured Nico to step into the flying machine. Nico would have rather not, yet slowly walked into the flying machine - What choice did he have?
When he was inside, Diane appeared in front of him. 'Please don't stay in the hallway for too long. Better yet, just follow me to the wheel and I can keep an eye on you. She turned around, clearly expecting Nico to agree to that. And Nico did, because he truly didn't feel like arguing against it.
The room with the steering wheel was gorgeous. Nico looked out the windows, which were lined with gold. Diane started the machine. Without a bump, it got of off the surface of heaven.
About eight minutes later, they were passing darker clouds than before. Nico felt a little better knowing that he would soon be back on earth. He felt slightly worse when Diane suddenly hit him in the back of the head, but that feeling soon dissappeared, as he fell unconsious.
The first thing he saw when waking up was Wills' face. 'Ow.'
'It's alright, Nico. Come, here is some water.' Will helped Nico to slowly sit up instead of lay down, and after that to take a few sips of water. Nico took a deep breath. 'I swear to the gods that I am never taking another nap somewhere random in camp half-blood if it means never waking up somewhere I don't want to be again.' Will chuckled and kissed Nico on his forehead. 'That sounds like a great idea to me.'