NICO didn't want to die today.
To tell the truth, he didn't really want to die any other day, either. Hades may be his father, but that didn't cause him to deny the bitter truth: Nico was not a hero. He'd be lucky to go to Asphodel after death, if not the Fields of Punishment. Hazel always told him to stop talking like that. She insisted Nico was a good person. But after last week's incident with the guards, Nico wasn't going to lie to himself anymore: causing skeletons to burst from the ground and claw Zeus's soldiers to the Underworld in terrible agony was not the kind of thing a hero would do.
All this flashed through Nico's head as he and Hazel crouched behind some toppled stone blocks in the Athena Quarter of Zeuopolis. They'd managed to get cornered by a guard who'd glimpsed them stealing food from a windowsill; luckily, he'd thought they were just some poor rascals from Hephaestus or something. That hadn't stopped him from chasing them down, though, and now they hid.
The man seemed wary of climbing into the area where Hazel and Nico hid. He probably didn't think they were there.
"Why isn't he coming?" Hazel whispered as quietly as she could, so low even Nico almost didn't hear her. She clutched her right elbow with her right hand as she spoke; it had gotten a serious scrape on it when she'd fallen from the tree they'd hid in only minutes ago. Blood dribbled through her fingers and onto the earth, but Hazel didn't seem to notice.
"I don't know. Just be thankful he isn't," Nico replied. Even so, he couldn't help wondering the same thing.
Eventually the guard decided to check their area anyway. He climbed over the low metal fence surrounding the chunks of stone and started walking in their direction, carefully and slowly.
It hit Nico like a sledgehammer.
"HAZEL!" He whispered. "These are ARCHIEOLOGICAL RUINS."
Hazel got what he was thinking immediately.
"Nico, we can't destroy history!" she replied, seeming angry.
"Would you rather be caught?!"
Nico could practically SEE what Hazel was thinking: the two of them being captured, tortured for information about their half siblings, and then executed painfully.
"Fine." She finally said.
Nico nodded at her, then sprinted out of their hiding place and leapt up onto the stones.
"Hey!" the guard spun towards him, pointing a gun.
"I wouldn't do that." Nico told him, perched on the ruins. "If that thing gets in my direction, this goes down."
He pressed his hands on the cool, grooved rock.
The man gasped in a sharp inhale of breath. Nico could tell he was weighing the importance of both rules: catch Hades kids or protect ruins?
Apparently, Zeus hated Hades children more than he respected the ruins. Nico saw the man prepare to jump at him.
"RUN!" He yelled, and rolled off the rock. Nico hit the ground running, a sharp pain on his ankle from a previous bad fall.
He dashed away from the ruins, perhaps a five meter distance. Then there was a tiny, rocky, manmade hill of regular stones. Over that- a gate leading out of the Archeological Park.
"Hazel, come on!" Nico shouted, his feet pounding the dust.
No reply.
Nico spun quickly, ready to dodge the guard and drag along his half-sister. But when he turned the guard made no movement towards him. Instead, he held the gun to Hazel's head.
Nico was ten years old. Bianca, twelve, held him back as they stood in a shadowed alley.
"Stay in the boxes, Nico." She instructed. "Remember, you are-"
"-A worthless Hephaestus legacy. No powers. Homeless. I know, Bianca." He finished her sentence crankily.
"Nico, this is serious! I have to do this!"
"I don't SEE why you gotta go."
She sighed. "Percy's a runaway too. He can get us to Artemis and her Huntresses. When we do, they'll get you quick as a wink. But you're too young for this journey. I trust you, Nico. Please be careful."
Nico glared at her, but then his gaze softened. "Fine, Bi. I'll be veeeeery careful."
"Good bro!" She hugged him. Then he lay down to sleep on his tattered coat as she stayed awake keeping watch, the moonlight illuminating her face.
When he woke up, she'd gone. All that was left was a note that reminded Nico she loved him and to, of course, be careful.
So he was. And he waited for a while.
One day a guy came to him. He was about fourteen, with sea-green eyes and black hair.
"Are you Nico Di Angelo?" he said urgently. "I-I'm Percy Jackson."
Nico nodded, dumbfounded.
"Listen, Nico. Your sister… is dead. I'm so, so sorry. I couldn't do anything."
Nico's world was peeling away. Crashing down around him. His heart seemed to grow as large as the earth itself, pounding so hard Nico was exploding-
"NICO!" Percy was still there.
Nico gazed at him with hatred. "Leave me alone. Go away. I HATE YOU."
Percy looked anxious. "Nico, I'm really sorry. But they're coming for us. You have to-"
Footsteps echoed in the streets. Two men appeared almost instantly, grabbing Percy by his arms. Nico shrunk into the shadows, hiding.
"RUN, NICO!" Percy bellowed, looking in the other direction in order to lead his captors away from Nico.
Nico turned and ran.
All this came pounding down on him as he stopped short. He couldn't lose another sister. Never again.
Hazel stared at him, terrified. Her elbow was bleeding again, the cut reopened. She had a few fresh scratches on her face and a bruise on her shoulder where the fabric of her shirt had ripped away, but worst of all was the long cut along her neck. It was oozing blood profusely, and Hazel seemed slightly weak on her feet.
"HALT!" the guard shouted, despite the fact that Nico wasn't moving any closer. "Try to get near and I'll shoot her."
The barrel of the gun dug against Hazel's left temple. She didn't struggle, which Nico thought was wise; there were more chances for her to escape if she didn't get herself shot in the head.
"Come with me." The guard said, smirking. "I think you'll get a nice penalty for stealing."
Nico's heart skipped a beat. The guard still didn't recognize that Nico and Hazel were Hades children. He wasn't going to kill them.
"We didn't steal anything!" Nico wailed, trying to act like someone who wasn't actually supposed to be murdered at young age.
The guard twisted Hazel's scraped arm behind her back so that she cried out in pain. Nico, thinking she'd been shot, screamed: "HAZEL!"
It wasn't supposed to go like this- guards weren't allowed to hurt non-Hades children (which Hazel and Nico were, but he didn't know that).
"Go, Nico!" Hazel winced.
The guard stiffened.
"Nico? Hazel?" he muttered.
Nico froze. They'd made a horrible mistake. They'd mentioned their own names.
"Hades children." The guard sneered.
He lowered the gun and shot Hazel's foot.
Nico howled in fury; skeletons erupted from the ground; Hazel wailed in agony; the grass exploded; the guard dropped his weapon; screams echoed in the empty park-
And Nico was skidding down a cobblestone street. The stones were slick with age, but shiny and clean. He was alone and weak, bleeding from his head and his arms and legs. His feet slapped the stones awkwardly, his head spinning.
Hands connected with Nico's back and his head smacked the ground. The world spun. He was staring up and Hazel was nowhere in sight and blonde hair and-
Darkness.