A/N: OMG I AM SO SORRY IT'S BEEN LIKE SIX MONTHS AND I DID NOT MEAN TO BE GONE THAT LONG. School got CRAZY and then I was the lead in a musical and also I had ZERO inspiration for this fic because I was trying to give it actual plot and FAILING, but anyway, I'm really sorry, I'm back now, I have plot (sort of) and HERE'S A NEW CHAPTER. Also get excited cause there's a plot twist.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Review replies (starting with Chapter 12 cause it's been a while)
Chapter 12:
Smart Girl: It is simultaneously really easy and really hard to keep Leo in character. I do my best. Thanks for reviewing!
creamtherabbit77: Jeannine is my actual favorite. I'm glad you like her. Thanks for reviewing!
burningmoonlight: Leo Valdez is life, you are correct. Thanks for reviewing!
kittyhawk09: Glad you liked it. More sibling scenes to come, don't worry. And I do know Regulus. What about him? (Also do you know whether he's older or younger than Sirius? Cause I'm getting mixed answers). Thanks for reviewing!
ObsessedwReading: Glad you like it :D Thanks for reviewing!
Nico and Hazel Storys: I'm so glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!
thefangirlthatwon'tshutup: I'm so glad you like it all, especially the Hazel scene (which I did not make sad on purpose so thanks). Thanks for reviewing!
Guest: I'm pretty sure this was my sister…
Marshmallow221B: I'm so glad you like it! And I totally feel reading fics when I should be studying lol. Thanks for reviewing!
Guest: Working on it! Thanks for reviewing!
ThaliaNicoPercy: Yeah, sorry it takes me so long to update. I do try, I swear. Thanks for reviewing!
Chapter 13:
creamtherabbit77: So glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!
ObsessedwReading: Yay! So glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!
burningmoonlight: ily ;) Thanks for reviewing!
Princess of Flames: So glad you like it all! I might have to use that McDonalds idea lol… And I totally feel trying not to look crazy in front of my parents while reading great fics haha. Thanks for reviewing!
thefangirlthatwon'tshutup: Yayy, I'm so glad you like it! I'm so happy people like Adrianne, cause I adore her :D Thanks for reviewing!
kittyhawk09: lol glad you liked the inscriptions. I just feel like authors get bored, you know? Thanks for reviewing!
Thirteen: Will do! I'm so glad you like it :D :D Thanks for reviewing!
Awesome as Annabeth: Lol short and sweet, love it. And idk if you saw it yet, but I actually did make a Stoll fic! Go read it! Thanks for reviewing!
MisunderstoodSociopath: Plot's gonna happen soon… sort of… Thanks for reviewing!
Padfoot- the LEAD Marauder: Love your penname omg Sirius my bby. So glad you like my Nico :D Thanks for reviewing!
Guest: You can love it all you want lol. Thanks for reviewing!
Neon: AHHHHHHHHH I LOVE YOU TOO. Thanks for reviewing!
me: It was not two years… Just a couple months… But anyway, I'm back now! Thanks for reviewing!
Reyna di Angelo: No, please, continue to fangirl, I love it. Lol so glad you like it :D Thanks for reviewing!
Chapter 14:
burningmoonlight: You're a skilled human being, you know that?
greekgeek9896: Yeah, well, we're gonna pretend BoO didn't happen, or at least happened differently. Which means I can mess up ages if I want. Let's Nico is almost fourteenish, so in between what I said he was and what he actually is, deal? Thanks for reviewing!
ObsessedwReading: So glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!
rainbowchameleon: So glad you like it! And there's Nicolas Angel in this chapter, so get excited. Thanks for reviewing!
kittyhawk09: I forget if I ever PM'd you, but I did read Blood of Olympus, and I loved it. I know a lot of people who thought it didn't have enough closure, but I thought it was perfect. It had a lot of fanservice that I actually loved (not as much as HoH though omg) and I ADORED Nico's relationship with Hades, as well as (as blasphemous as this may be) Percy being a minor character, cause he was kind of adorable in his three lines. As for Nicolas Angel casting, idk, cause it wouldn't be much different than PJO casting and I have mixed feelings about that. If you have any thoughts on it, let me know. Thanks for reviewing!
prince of death and prince of fortune: YOU TWO ARE MY LITERAL FAVORITES PLEASE CONTINUE TO BE WONDERFUL BECAUSE I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR REVIEWS ALWAYS. Sorry you were grounded, fortune, glad you're not now. Thanks for reviewing!
Nico and Hazel Storys: lol ily. Beautiful reaction there. Thanks for reviewing!
Tamadur: Thanks for explaining your penname, I don't Lord of the Rings as much as I should… So glad you liked it, and of course I'm writing more! Just… slowly… Thanks for reviewing!
Angelica: So glad you like it! Reyna and Thalia are gonna show up shortly, don't worry, I have a plan for them. Thanks for reviewing!
: Coming right up! Thanks for reviewing!
Logged out: Loved your reviews lol, so much enthusiasm. Don't worry, you'll get your resolution soon enough. Until then you'll just have to enjoy my plot twists. Thanks for reviewing!
OKAY CHAPTER TIME. I HOPE EVERYONE LIKES IT PLEASE REVIEW!
NOTE: btw there's a bit of a time-skip here from the last chapter. Hope that doesn't confuse anyone.
Chapter Fifteen
As much as Nico didn't want to admit it, things were going too well.
"I'm not saying it's a bad thing," Frank assured him as they ate Chinese food next to Hazel's bed- well, Frank ate; Nico picked at. "I'm just saying… I mean, you've been here for, what? Three weeks now? You've been Harold Hill for half that. No one's figured out you don't actually go to Fordham Prep. No one's figured out Percy's not actually your uncle. No one's questioned the fact that Nicolas Angel seems to be based on you, despite the fact that you shouldn't have even been born when the first book came out."
Nico frowned. "Yeah, I guess so, but-"
"And how many times have you gotten attacked by a monster since you got here?" Frank interrupted.
Nico hesitated, looking nervously down at his take-out box. "...None."
"Exactly," Frank said with a nod. "Now, your dad may be the guard of Tartarus or whatever, but you and I both know that doesn't mean he can get monsters to leave you alone."
Nico nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess you're right…" He looked up at the son of Mars. "So what are you saying?"
"I don't know," he said, thoughtfully stirring his food with his chopsticks. "I just think you should be careful."
"You gotta admit, he had a point," Nico tried to convince his father, once he was back in the Underworld. "If monsters aren't attacking me, it's gotta be because someone's controlling them. And I highly doubt it's someone we like."
"Don't jump to conclusions," Hades warned, though he fidgeted nervously on his throne. "You've been spending so much time with mortals, maybe the monsters just can't find your scent."
"Maybe…" Nico muttered thoughtfully. "Still… I think we should be prepared."
"But for what?" Hades pointed out. "We don't know who we're up against, or if we're even up against anyone. What's the point of scaring everybody over what might be nothing, especially since we don't want the other gods to know about you just yet?"
Nico frowned. "Yeah, I guess, but-"
"No!" Hades snapped, making Nico look up at him in horrified surprise. "Listen to me, I am not letting you get yourself killed over some Great-"
The god cut himself off, looking away from his son in some godly form of embarrassment. Nico choked on air, stumbling backwards, staring wide-eyed at his father.
"What?" he whispered. "What were you going to say?"
Hades was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Don't worry about it, please. Apollo promised us it wouldn't be soon, not in Percy Jackson's lifetime."
"But you think it's happening now," Nico guessed. "Is it about me? About Adrianne?"
The god shook his head. "I can't be sure."
Nico started to back up out of the throne room. "Father… If there was another Great Prophecy, why didn't you tell me?"
Hades turned to look at him, his dark eyes smoldering with anger. "Because I refused to watch my son get abused by Fate for a third time."
Nico froze, staring at his father for a moment. Then he broke eye contact and slipped into the shadows. "I'll see you later," he told the god as he focused on a destination. "There's someone I need to see."
"I wouldn't say it's impossible," Percy said thoughtfully as he flipped through TV channels on mute. "It's just… We haven't seen them in a while. I wouldn't even know how to contact them."
"Are you telling me you haven't talked to Thalia in fifteen years?" Nico asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.
Percy rolled his eyes. "No. Just, like, six years."
Nico sighed. "Come on, Percy. I need a way to contact the Hunters without straight-up praying to Artemis."
"Why do you wanna talk to them anyway?" Percy asked. "They're not gonna know anything about your sister."
Nico hesitated to answer. He thought back to what his father had said. Apollo promised us it wouldn't be soon; not in Percy Jackson's lifetime. His cousin deserved a break. It was someone else's turn to be the hero.
"I know," he said softly. "I wanna make sure they leave her alone."
"Adrianne, can I ask you something?" Nico questioned, cutting her off mid-monologue. They were running lines for The Music Man, but Nico had been distracted all afternoon.
She glared annoyedly at him, but nevertheless closed her script and plopped onto the couch next to him. "What up?"
"If you had the chance…" Nico began slowly, trying to figure out how to phrase this. "If you could have the opportunity to live forever, to fight monsters with a bunch of girls who see you as sisters, but never be able to date or even really be friends with boys again, would you?"
Adrianne frowned thoughtfully. "What do you mean?"
Nico sighed, biting his lip as he tried to think of another way to say it. "If… if you knew that you could be the one to save the world, but to do it, you'd have to leave your only family behind, would you?"
"Of course not," she answered immediately. "Nothing's more important than family. I'd let someone else save the world."
Nico nodded, smiling softly. "Okay. Good. Thanks."
Adrianne rolled her eyes. "Now come on, back to work. I'm pretty sure I can't hit the high note in White Knight, so you gotta help me fix it. And then we're working on Trouble, so you don't end up tripping over your tongue and looking like an idiot, okay?"
Nico nodded. "Yeah, okay."
At fifteen and a half, Nicolas Angel had been betrayed more times than he could count. He'd grown to expect it. He never trusted people he didn't know, he never believed what someone said unless he could prove it was true, and he never let his guard down.
But even he had to admit, his cousin sure knew how to surprise him.
Lucas was nine years older and 18 inches taller than Nicolas, and yet they seemed to understand each other. When Bi went off to college, Lucas had offered to care for Nicolas, but he chose being Ghost King instead.
Now that the castle was destroyed, Nicolas had decided to cash in the offer.
"Listen, Nicky," Lucas began as he set up the pull-out couch. "I'm glad you decided to stay here. I know a lot of crazy stuff has been going on, but I hope it'll be easier for you here."
Nicolas nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."
"It'll definitely be easier for me," Lucas continued. "To keep an eye on you."
Nicolas frowned at him. "Wait, what?"
He saw the knife a split-second before it plunged into his side. Anger masking his pain, Nicolas grabbed the hilt and yanked it out, travelling through the shadows so that he was behind his cousin, and held the blade to the older boy's throat.
"I don't like betrayal, Lucas," he growled.
His cousin laughed. "Come on, Nicky. Calling this betrayal would imply that I was ever loyal to you in the first place."
"Who are you working for?" Nicolas demanded.
Lucas chuckled evilly. "Family."
"I'm not saying we shouldn't tell him. I'm just saying we can't let him find out on his own. Which is why it makes me extremely nervous to be in your throne room when he could literally pop in whenever he wants."
Hades rolled his eyes, giving his messenger an exasperated look. "He's rehearsing with Adrianne until six, don't worry. He won't 'pop in'."
The messenger raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
Hades sighed. "I also closed off the shadows to the castle, so he physically can't. Gods, you worry too much."
"Well, I have a right to!" she pointed out. "Look, I'm not an idiot. I know how powerful Nico is, and I don't want him to murder me because you've been hiding something this huge from him for fifteen years!"
"In my defense, it's only been a month and a half for him," Hades pointed out.
The messenger rolled her eyes. "You think that'll matter to him? He doesn't like secrets, you know that, he doesn't like being betrayed."
"It's not betrayal!" Hades snapped, suddenly rising to his feet. The messenger stood her ground, standing up straighter and staring the god down. His gaze softened, and he slowly sat back down. "For once in his life, he is happy," he explained. "I'm not going to take that away from him. I'll tell him when the time is right."
The messenger shook her head. "No. You'll tell him today. Or I will."
With that, she spun on her heel and started towards the door of the throne room. When she was about halfway there, Hades called out, "Goodbye, Jeannine."
She halted, heaved a sigh, and turned back to reply, "Bye, Dad."
A/N: EYYYYY, PLOT TWIST? See? Told ya. And you don't get details till the next chapter ha ha ha. Which will hopefully come soon. Anyway, I hope you liked it and please review!