Disclaimer: I own none of Rick's stuff.
It was Night 8 of the Campfire Tales and the cabins that hadn't had a hero's tale from their cabin yet were all impatient to get on with the stories.
The Hades cabin in particular (they had gotten their revenge at long last-and also a severe scolding from Chiron and the Apollo healers for overusing their powers) was excited because over the past several nights, there had been hints of a named daughter of Hades (further research had yeilded very little, as the Athena cabin was being instructedd to lock up all existing records and their father was being very uncooperative) and un unnamed son of Hades that seemed to be popping up a lot of the stories, almost as much as Percy say they were disappointed each time a different hero was called...well that was an understatement.
But tonight was different. They just knew it.
Chiron offered the bag to the Apollo cabin head, who pulled out the name Nico di Angelo.
Chiron tried not to smile at the name. "Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, the Ghost King, and the first bridge between the Greeks and the Romans."
"Also the one who built the Hades cabin halfway, then had to leave on buisness for Dad and came back to find someone went and put in coffins for beds. Because apparantly we're vampires. Didn't think to add windows for escape routes either." came a grumbling voice from the back of the crowd of campers.
Everyone turned to see a very unkempt man step out from the shadows.
The man raised a hand. "Hello, Chiron. Nice to see Leo was very wrong about saying that Percy was telling tales about the idiots I'm supposed to call friends."
Chiron sputtered. "W-why hello, Nico. We are discussing modern heroes, and no I believe Percy is in New Rome right now. Actually, I was about to tell you story, but if you'd like to tell it yourself..."
"Gladly. Good excuse to not take a trip down to the Underworld to hear all the complaining." Nico said, walking over to where Chiron was.
The children of Hades were stunned beyond belief.
"Where do I start?" Nico asked Chiron.
"At the beginning, of course." was the reply.
Nico rolled his eyes skywards but started talking anyways. "Alright, then. Um, I was born in the 1930s to Maria di Angelo and Hades, if that wasn't obvious. A few years later, there was that Great Prophecy and Zeus decided to kill me and my older sister, Bianca, since were the next people that would turn 16. Well, Zeus ended up killing my mother instead and Dad decided to have Bianca and I dipped into the Lethe, then stuffed into the Lotus Cassino, where a minute is an hour, an hour is a day, and a day is a year, for, oh, about 70 years, give or take a few."
"Uh, what's the Lotus Cassino?" a Hephaestus kid asked.
"A place in Las Vegas you shouldn't go unless you want to spend enternity playing video games, not aging, and forgetting who you are. Anyways, we got taken out, we went to Maine, Kelp Head, Pinecone Face, Little Miss Smart, and Enchilada Dude-"
"Names, Nico, no nicknames please." CHiron interrupted.
"Oh c'mon..." Chiron gave him a look. "Alright, fine. Perseus Jackson, Thalia Not-Grace, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood. Happy now?" Nico grumbled.
For a 30-some year old man, he didn't exactly act like one. Chiron sighed. "Yes. Go on, and please try not to trash the reputation of anyone."
"Why would I? I don't need to get zapped by Pinecone Face again. Anyhow," Nico quickly went back to telling his story before Chiron could scold him, "Long story short, my sister joined the Hunters of Artemis, she, Thalia, Percy, Grover, and some other Hunter who eventually got turned into a constellation went on a quest to free Artemis and Annabeth, Bianca died," his voice cracked a little, "and I, being 10 and stupid, took a trip into the Labyrinth. Got the title of Ghost King, figured out who my godly parent was, matured way too fast, and came up with the plan of having Percy risk his life once again by taking a swim in the Styx. Oh, and by the way, I was 11 at that point. I was 12 during the Battle of Manhattan. Had to do a lot of smooth talking to get Dad to join the battle. And that was with Demeter and her cereal talks and Persephone and her whining."
The Demeter kids snickered. "Wow Mom was still going on about cereal back then too?" one grined.
"Yeah and you should be glad you don't have to hear it whenever you want a break from the mortal and demigod worlds." Nico groaned. "After that, the Doors of Death opened up, I found out about the Romans via Dad, brought back Hazel Levesque just because I could (plus I was kinda mad at my dad and dead sister at the time), took a trip to Tarturus to avoid getting strangled by Percy once he got his memories back after Hera erased them, and then got myself kidnapped by giants." he rattled off.
Everyone was gaping at this point. The Hades kids were staring at their half-brother. Chiron cleared his throat. "Nico, maybe slow it down a little? I believe you're giving some of the campers heart attacks."
Nico sighed again. "Fine, sure, whatever. They probably know the rest already though. The Seven came to Rome, got me out, got the Athena Parthenos out, Percy and Annabeth fell into Tarturus, we all survived past the Doors of Death, which we closed, and-oh yeah, I still need to slap Cupid in the face for being more pesky then Will, Jason, Percy, and Leo combined." he remembered, his grudge building back.
"You met Cupid?" an Aphrodite girl squeeled.
Nico scowled. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Go on, I don't think that was the end," the head of the Athena cabin said after a moment of silence.
"Oh yeah, sure. I'll get revenge on that creep later. Ok, so since Coach Hedge, Reyna, and I weren't really needed after that, we spent the next, oh, I don't know, couple of weeks I guess, brining the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood, I almost turned into shadow because of overuse, faught for a while, then while Leo was busy dealing with Gaea Will and I may or may not have accidentally-on-purpose got Octavian to explode himself into Gaea. Which, by the way, was definitely one of the highlights of my life. His scream was so high pitched..." Nico laughed. "He totally deserved it. Unlike Bryce Lawrence, who I kind of turned into a ghost on accident."
"Just to be clear, children, Mr. di Angelo does not usually turn people into ghosts or insist they explode themselves on a regular basis. In fact, he was only indirectly responsible for the death of Camp Jupiter's formor augur." Chiron quickly attempted to reassure the majority of the now-slightly-uneasy campers.
The two Hades campers didn't seem to notice. "Cool, I wanna learn!" the younger of the two grinned, while the other asked if Nico could help them perfect their techniques.
Chiron quickly interveened before Nico could teach any of his infamous sheningans (sneaking in McDonald's into camp, scaring campers by appearing behind them, purposefully avoiding socializing, etc.) to his siblings. "Nico, you can teach them later. Please continue your story, if you'd be so kind to do so."
The Hades cabin groaned a little but settled in to hear the rest.
Nico smirked. "Not much to tell, except that Will and I figured out a way to keep me from dissolving into shadow whenever I used my powers, we had some issues with a rougue emporer, and the gods got stupid again" thunder rumbled, but Nico ignored it, "and Will and I are now married and he's more annoying then ever. Oh, and Percy has yet to strangle me, even though he keeps saying he's going to." he finished.
The campers clapped politely (the Hades cabin cheered, the Apollo cabin did so half heartedly), and the vast majority of campers quickly left the moment Chiron dismissed them.
The Poseidon cabin made a beeline to their cabin to send an IM to one Percy Jackson, asking about him strangling Nico di Angelo.
The Apollo cabin were overheard muttering that "our role model married a creepy dude"
The Aphrodite kids? Squeeling about "perfect matches" and "willico" (until Nico went over to correct them that it was Solangelo).
The Hades cabin all but dragged Nico to their cabin, where all three spent the night doing goodness knows what (the stench of McDonald's food was very much present the next day).
Yeet. Reviews please. I'm spoiling you guys with 3 in a day.