L

NICO

AN: Next chapters onwards had been beta-ed by my friend bmattny (Girl, I missed you!) So it wasn't hard to revise them. :D

"Will, I am so sorry-" Nico started.

"Don't you dare say that it's your fault," Will cut him off and looked at Nico sharply.

They were in front of the door of the operating room at Jupiter Half-blood Hospital. Kayla Knowles was inside the operating room. She had sustained internal bleeding in the head and several fractures in her arms and legs. Will Solace was, of course, shocked when he had received the phone call from Nico, and when he had seen Kayla unconscious and bleeding in the stretcher. The guilt in Nico's chest had doubled because of it.

"But-"

"Nico, you might not remember this but we had this kind of conversation before. You blame yourself for something that's not entirely your fault. Remember the big fight we had that I unintentionally slipped before? It was all about blaming yourself for my mother's death."

Nico took a sharp intake of breath. "W-what?"

Will held Nico's hand and guided him to the nearby bench. They both sat. The blond gazed down lovingly at their interlaced fingers. "You were still a death angel at that time when my mother had lung cancer. Her chance of surviving was fifty-fifty. We thought that the best course of action at that time was to remove the tumor near her heart. You encouraged me to operate on her because of the high chance of survival if I used my glowing trick.

"The surgery was going well until my mom went into cardiac arrest twice and my power wasn't working on her anymore. Your sister Bianca was there and she was the one who was supposed to escort my mom's soul. If she failed to do so, it would result in a punishment for her because she didn't reach her quota for souls. You blame yourself for it because you thought that I wasn't able to save my mom because of your sister. But medically speaking, her heart just gave up on her due to the tumor and severe bleeding. Later on, I realized and learned that mom willingly embraced death, and that's why she couldn't be saved by my power anymore. My power works best for those who still want to live. So no matter what, there's nothing we could do about it."

Nico stared at Will who in that exact moment looked up at Nico too. Will, who always had tired but bright eyes, who always wore a crumpled light blue surgeon's scrub shirt, that almost matched the color of his eyes, and who was always going to be the ember that set Nico's heart alight and his entire being glowed with Will's love.

"What are you thinking?" Will whispered to him.

"Wondering how all this time you're still here with me. It's pretty mind-blowing, to be honest."

Will threw his head back and a loud laugh escaped his lips. It resonated through the quiet hallway. Nico fell in love with him even more.

"Okay." Will wiped the side of his eyes with his other free hand. When he sobered up, he spoke, "I'm not gonna waste the rare opportunity of dating a death angel." He laughed again and Nico joined him.

Then Will suddenly frowned, "I shouldn't be laughing so carefree like this when my friend is out there fighting for her life. . ."

Nico tightened his hold on Will's hand. "Kayla will live, we'll make sure of that."

Will raised an eyebrow at Nico.

"Actually, there's something I need to tell you," Nico started. He proceeded to launch into his story about his resurfaced memory on October 20th last year, and all about Nero Johansen and the missing souls. Will was quiet the whole time that Nico talked. He was still quiet for a moment after Nico finished his story. Will frowned and looked down, seeming to be deep in thought.

"What are you thinking?"

"That actually makes sense." Will looked back up at Nico.

"What?"

"Bianca told me before about the case of missing souls, and it makes sense that those missing souls were related to the ones missing here in the hospital. All this time, that Nero Johansen dude was the culprit behind all of this. She also told me that I could summon souls because of my power. If that's the case, maybe I could set those souls free from that basement. What do you think?"

Nico stared at Will. "I take it that you and my sister bonded a lot?"

"Uh, well. She doesn't talk to me a lot but she promised to help us with Python-shit. I'm not supposed to say that."

Nico smiled a little. "Just tell me… is she okay?"

"Yes. I guess you already remembered your sister, huh?" There was a wistful look on Will's face.

"I'm sorry." He was sorry that he couldn't still remember, probably would never remember, the past that he and Will had before.

Will shook his head. "Stop apologizing. As long as you are here with me, that's all I care about. Somehow, I'm a little bit glad that it's just your memory that was taken away and not you entirely. Anyway, what's the plan about these missing souls?"

"Will, there's something more you need to know."

"And that is?"

"Kayla's soul is one of those souls imprisoned in the basement."

Will froze. "S-so Kayla won't wake up either unless her soul comes back?" There was a crack in his voice and Nico hated it.

"Yeah. . ."

"I hate this Nero Johansen even more by the second. Tell me, what do we need to do?"

And Nico told him his plan.

"That sounds dangerous," Will said worriedly to Nico after he finished.

"But that's the only way. We've got to do it."

Will was silent for a moment. Then he spoke again, "Just promise you'll come back to me, okay?"

"Will. . ."

"Promise me or else I'll come with you and nothing will ever stop me from doing that, I swear."

"All right! Jeez. I'll come back, okay? I promise. Besides, you can't come with me. Your job is here and you need to be here so our plan will work."

"Okay. . ."

"Will . . ."

"I'm worried, okay? There are a lot of things that might go wrong with this."

"I love you."

"Really, di Angelo, you're gonna pull that on me? Don't act cute. It's not going to work."

"Damn, I thought it would."

"Nico! Let's be serious about this."

"I am! I am seriously in love with you and I am serious that I'm going to come back to you no matter what it takes and stop squeezing my hand so hard, you're going to break my fingers off-"

Will kissed him as he let go of Nico's hand to hold both sides of his face. Nico just kissed him back because, at that moment, there seemed like nothing else that could be done to ebb away the fear that was building inside them. Nico wouldn't admit this, but he was just as afraid as Will. He knew that Death was an old friend of his and even though there was nothing to be afraid of about it, it was different when there was someone who was anchoring him back to life.

Nico was the first one to pull away as Will's eyes fluttered open. "We're gonna make it to the end. Then I am going to marry you and we're going to build our own family. We're going to be happy."

Will's eyes widened. "N-Nico. . ."

Nico closed his eyes for a moment then he opened them. This time he was the one who cupped Will's face. "I know this is all of a sudden and there's no ring present but I want you to hold onto that promise because that promise is going to be our strength to get through this. Do you understand me, William?"

Will just swallowed and nodded eagerly.

"Good." He let go of Will. Then Nico's eyes became steely, his eyes gleaming. There was a challenging look on his face as he smirked. "Let's finish this, once and for all"

Nico walked down the lobby of JHH towards the exit of the hospital. He had left Will when Lou and Cecil came. Kayla was still in the operating room when he had left. Phone in hand, he was about to call Reyna when her friend beat him to it. He immediately answered it.

"Reyna, good thing you called, I was about-"

"Luke Castellan confessed to his crime," Reyna cut him off. "I mean I just came to the station just now after a field investigation then Luke Castellan was here confessing that he was the one who hit you that night on October 20th."

"Good," Nico answered as he pushed his way out the revolving door. "Actually, I now remember everything that happened on that day. Good thing that he already confessed."

"What? Did you remember now? Since when? What else do you remember?" Reyna bombarded.

Nico wanted to call it an achievement because it was rare that he was able to surprise the hell out of Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano. He paused at the sidewalk and sighed frustratingly. "I'm sorry, but that's all I remember about and it just happened earlier. Anyway, did Luke also confess about hitting another person on that road today?"

"Well, yeah, Kayla Knowles, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything from here."

"Thanks, Reyna." Nico bit his lip. "And Reyna, you're excellent at dissecting the truth from lies, right? Please do the interrogation on Luke alone. Some of his statements might be absurd to hear and hard to believe but please keep in mind that they are the truth and he's telling the truth, okay?"

"Nico, what are you talking about?"

"There's not much time to explain everything to you right now because there's something I have to do first. I'll just call you later, okay? Bye Reyna." Nico hung up

He pocketed his phone and started running because time was sparse and he couldn't afford to lose any of it. He turned to a corner and went into an alley. He ran faster as he reached the dead end. The shadows appeared around him. He ran straight to the wall and disappeared with the shadows.

Nico appeared exactly where he wanted to be, the CCTV room of the Triumvirate Laboratories. While working there, he had spent some of his time memorizing the map of Triumvirate Lab so he could conjure up a mental map and would know exactly where to shadow travel. The seven employees who were manning the screen and controls were flabbergasted to see Nico di Angelo come out of nowhere and standing in front of them. There was a moment of silence and Nico took advantage of it.

"Merry Christmas," Nico stoically greeted. Then he started to shadow travel to each one of them and started to knock them out cold. In less than a minute, all of them were lying unconscious on the floor

"Sorry about that," Nico observed his finished work. Then he went to the controls and turned off the CCTV camera on the section of the forbidden basement and deleted the footage on the CCTV room itself. Best not to leave any evidence of what he could do or else he would never have a normal life with Will in this world.

After that, Nico disappeared again and reappeared in the hallway of the forbidden basement. Not too far and at the end of the hallway was the big vaulted door waiting for him.

Nico raised his arms level to his chest and pushed his hands together as if he was praying. With hands still together, he shifted his left hand so his fingers were now pointing forward. Shadows started to curl around his hands. He then moved his hands away from each other. A pole-like shadow materialized from the space where his hands had separated. It solidified and Nico grabbed hold of the end of it. As Nico held it, it shifted into another form. From the part where Nico was holding it, it turned into a black hilt and the rest became a blade-black as night and sharper than any sword forged in the Underworld.

He was now holding his Stygian Iron sword.

Nico swung it in the air. The blade cut into space. His surrounding atmosphere hissed with energy.

He started running again towards the door, towards the battle that was about to begin. Because he could feel it, the scepter of Diocletian was inside, and so was Nero Johansen. The souls screamed for help.

Nico became shadows once more and he went straight through the door. He materialized inside, his sword in hand.

His confidence wavered as his heart sank.

The basement was big enough to host hundreds of souls glimmering in black smoke. They were all standing in the center and in front of him. The souls that had lost their essence as they had turned into monsters were ready to wreak havoc any second. They all looked at Nico as if they anticipated his coming. Nero Johansen had been very busy these past months to create armies of the dead.

Nico would have lost all hope to save any souls if it wasn't for what he saw on both sides of the basement: white, glistening souls whose essences were still intact. They were all imprisoned inside the enchanted long steel cages.

On the other end of the basement across Nico, a chair that looked too much like a throne was standing erect. A figure was standing next to it, proud and tall, holding the scepter.

"They're a work of art, aren't they?" Nero Johansen asked in a silky voice.

Nico's whole body trembled with rage, hands curling into fists and knuckles turning white. "How could you? This is beyond evil. You'll never pass the judgment in the Underworld and you'll head straight to the fields of punishment. Hades will make sure of that."

Nero laughed. "And I'll make sure that it's not going to happen and you'll die right here. You've been a nuisance to me and if you just hadn't lost your memories, you would have been dead long ago, di Angelo. I've been merciful to you so far and this time I am bringing you no mercy. My warriors are going to destroy you before you even blink. I should be thankful to Leo Valdez since he discovered the scepter, after all, but he was unfortunate not to discover the true power of it. Now, I have immortal force for my syndicate that's even better than those tiny human beings who could die so easily. My warriors are going to replace them and we are going to conquer the world!" Nero's laughter boomed.

No, Nico couldn't do this. He couldn't defeat them all at once. He was outnumbered.

Lord Hades, please, help me. I cannot do this alone. Nico shut his eyes.

"My warriors, kill Nico Di Angelo!"

You are the prince of the underworld. You have the power of the Underworld because it belongs to you. I am with you. . .

Nico's eyes snapped open at the exact moment the armies of the dead surged toward him. Nico screamed, a loud battle cry emitting from his throat.

Nico released an invisible force so strong it rattled the whole basement. Cracks formed around the ceiling and walls. It was like a tidal wave that extinguished half of the row of the dead.

Nico's eyes were obsidian black. He started moving, like a whirlwind, bashing and smashing the dead that hit his sword. He was atomic energy itself, unleashing the wrath of the underworld.

Nero Johansen started to scream in frustration. When he saw his armies diminishing fast, he continued to sprout useless command after command. By the time Nico was halfway towards the throne, the armies, who were still stupidly protecting Nero and the throne, were reduced to less than half.

"Stop hiding behind the dead and face me, you cowardice asshole!" Nico spat, black aura swirled around him that resonated his rage.

"Your wish is my command," Nero spat back, glowing purple, blessed by the power of the scepter.

He flew towards Nico. The scepter and the Stygian Iron sword collided in a cross. The collision released yet again another powerful force that created a sound of the explosion. It rattled the whole basement.

Nero pushed Nico back, their weapons still crossed. Nico side-stepped and parried the scepter. A combination of black and purple sparks that resembled lightning, flew out of their weapons and hit the wall behind Nico where the door was placed. The section of the wall was blasted off, resulting in a big, gaping hole. A wailing fire alarm could be heard, and the lights flickered on and off.

They continued to strike at each other, Stygian Iron sword versus the purple laser beam that came out of the scepter's orb. Nico got hit by it on his left forearm once. It burned like acid, his arm starting to inflame and swell. Yet, he ignored the pain.

Nero was quick to find an opening and knocked the sword out of Nico's hand. It skittered on the floor away from Nico. Nero shot another laser beam at him but Nico dived to the side and rolled on the floor, grabbing his sword in the process. He shadow-traveled and materialized beside Nero, slashing Nero's side with his sword. The latter bellowed in pain as he clutched his bleeding waist, and Nico disappeared again.

The dark-haired boy reappeared in front of Nero and Nico hit him in the face with the pommel of his sword. Nero staggered back as Nico knocked the scepter out of Nero's hand. This time it was Nero's scepter that skittered along the floor, but Nico didn't let him go near it. He twisted Nero's arm and hit him on the back of his neck, and Nero was out cold.

Nico let Nero go as the latter slumped to the floor. He looked at the scepter on the floor not too far away from him, then back at the remaining armies of the dead, who seemed to be waiting for a new command.

"I am so sorry," Nico said to them. "I am so sorry that I was too late and couldn't save all of you."

Nico raised his sword and thrust it to the floor, creating a gust of wind and hitting the dead like a tidal wave. They evaporated in thin air, producing a hiss that sounded close to a thank you.

Afterward, Nico looked at both sides. The imprisoned souls shimmering in white were looking at him with curiosity. He tried to feel the presence of a certain soul, hoping that she was present.

A small smile graced Nico's lips. Kayla Knowles was there.

Nico shadow-travel again and appeared in front of one of the cages. He raised his sword, and with a battle cry and all his might, he slashed vertically at the steel bars as he ran along. The bars snapped into two as black sparks flew out from his sword. He did the same thing with the other cage. Soon, all of the souls were free and gathered in the center. Nico stood in front of them.

"So, listen-"

He was interrupted when the soul of a child tugged on the hem of his shirt. He looked down at the child who shimmered as he pointed to the wall in the far left corner.

"What is it?" Nico crouched down so he was eye-level to the child.

The soul just continued to point at the corner. He seemed to urge Nico to go there.

Nico walked over and stood in front of the wall, surveying it. "What's wrong with this wall?" He asked the child.

Instead of answering, the soul pointed to a specific square tile that Nico was stepping on.

"This?" Nico stepped back and pointed to the square tile. If Nico looked closely, the tile was a shade darker from the rest of the tiles.

The child nodded, and Nico crouched and pried the square tile off the floor with the sharp end of his sword. Soon, the square tile was removed. There was a red button attached to the floor, waiting to be pushed. Nico looked inquiringly at the child, and the soul nodded, glimmering. Nico pushed the button and there was a rumbling sound behind the wall. The wall shifted back and it slid open, revealing an entrance.

Nico stood up and went inside. It was a big storage room that held lots of illegal drugs, high powered weapons, stashes of money, and a lot of files that documented years of illegal transactions.

Nico whistled as he continued to look around. "The cops would make a feast out of this."

After surveying the room, Nico walked out with the soul beside him. "Thank you," he said.

The soul child just grinned and skipped happily towards the rest of the waiting souls. Nico walked towards the front of the crowd and said, "I am so sorry that it took this long to rescue you. But now all of you are free and you can go back to your respective bodies if there's still a body to go back to.

"Now, as to how you get back to your body, you'll feel it and a blinding ray of light will shine nearby. Follow that light because it's a person who'll give you directions to where you need to go." Nico smiled.

Will, I'm counting the rest on you. . .

One by one, souls started to glimmer and vanish.

After a while, he was staring at the empty space surrounding him, no longer occupied by the souls. And at that moment, the adrenaline of the battle seemed to leave Nico's body. He staggered forward. He used his sword like a cane to support himself and to help him not fall to the floor.

"Holy Hera!"

Nico yelped, his sword immediately vanishing in a cloud of black smoke. He turned toward the direction of the voice. Two police officers were standing not too far away.

One had windswept jet-black hair and sea-green eyes. He walked towards the bleeding and unconscious Nero Johansen.

The other had clean-cut blond hair and blue eyes, his physical features reminding Nico of Will.

The blond jogged towards him, and Nico stood straighter as he mentally winced at the look of the whole place. It was a total wreck.

"Jason Grace, NYPD." The blond held his badge out for Nico to see. Once he had a good look, he pocketed it in his back pocket. He jerked his finger towards the direction of the other police officer who was checking Nero Johansen. "That's my bro, Percy Jackson. Did you kill that guy?"

"He's still alive."

"Oh, so you didn't kill him?"

"No."

"Good. We were around the area when we heard the explosion from this building. All employees have been safely evacuated."

"Okay."

"Do we even want to know what happened here?" Jason stared at the gaping hole in the wall.

"Ugh, probably not? Look, I just discovered that Nero Johansen is the boss of a syndicate and he has lots of illegal stuff in that storage room." Nico pointed to the open wall that led to the storage room in the corner.

The blond whipped his head at Nico, his eyes wide. Then his gaze followed the direction of where Nico was pointing.

"Are you serious?" Jason asked, flabbergasted.

"Deadly." Nico had a straight face on. "You might want to check that out."

"Oh, damn." Jason ran towards the storage room.

Nico jogged towards Percy Jackson who was covering Nero's gash with a handkerchief and torn cloth from Nero's shirt.

"How is he?" Nico asked Percy.

"I'm not a doctor but I think he'll live. The wound isn't too deep." Percy looked up at Nico. For a moment, Nico was startled at the shocking sea-green eyes of the police officer. "Did you do this to him?"

"Uh, yeah, to defend myself because he was going to kill me."

"So self-defense. We'll need your statement for this later. Okay?" Percy stood up. His attention shifted to the blistering arm of Nico. He frowned. "Your arm needs medical attention. It looks like it hurts a lot."

"Don't worry, I'll live-" Nico remembered something. He looked around. Something was missing. "H-hey, did you see some sort of long staff lying around here? It was like a scepter with a purple orb on the top of it?"

Percy frowned. "I didn't notice anything."

"Godsdamnit," Nico cursed. He couldn't lose the scepter of Diocletian. It was dangerous. If someone found it lying around, they could use its powers again for evilness. He looked around the room, desperately trying to find it.

Suddenly, a bark echoed in the basement. Nico whipped his head in the direction of the bark. Mrs. O'Leary was standing at the hole, barking insistently at Nico.

"Mrs. O'Leary!" Nico ran towards the dog. However, before he could come close to her, she ran away. Nico followed the black Rottweiler.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Percy shouted at him. Nico ignored him.

Nico reached another long and dimly lit hallway. The Rottweiler was waiting for him. At that moment, something dawned upon Nico as he looked down at the dog.

"You were protecting me all this time that's why you 're always by my side." Nico realized. He approached the dog."You were protecting me from Python. Since I couldn't remember anything before, I had no means of protecting myself from Python's revenge and him possessing me. You know where Python is, right?"

Mrs. O'Leary barked.

"Is he here? Does he have the scepter?"

The dog barked again, and Mrs. O'Leary paused when a red ball rolled out of nowhere, distracting her. She started to play with it.

"Hey, Mrs. O'Leary! Aren't we supposed-"

Nico froze.

He should have known that he just freaking walked into a trap.

"Good dog," a voice whispered right behind Nico.

Before Nico could do anything, he felt like he was being electrocuted. He felt his body spasm, and then everything went black.