Sorry that this chapter took a while. Most will because I have SO much homework. Seriously, I get home at 4 and am doing homework till 9. And now…Thalia, darling! Disclaimer, please!
Why should I?
Because I control your fate. *holds up laptop*
Fair enough. GiftedGal does not own anything except Nacrissa
THE DAM THIRD CHAPTER
When the shadows stilled, they were in a large room. Torches lit the gray stone walls. A canopy bed with black silk blankets was against one wall. A wooden wardrobe, large bookshelf, and a desk with a cauldron on it occupied the rest of the room. Everything was huge, like it was meant for someone ten feet tall. In the middle of the room, a woman with dark hair and light skin kneelt, clutching a bundle in her arms. She was sobbing, wails of misery bouncing off the walls and domed ceiling, echoing throughout the room.
"Hecate, goddess of magic." Nacrissa explained; her voice solemn. "Her baby girl died a few hours after it was born. She was devastated."
"What does this have to do with you?" Nico asked.
"You'll see."
The scene changed again. Now the demigods stood in the throne room of Hades. Hecate was there, begging Hades to bring back her little girl. He refused, saying he could not just bring her daughter back, and she knew it.
"You had better hope you never have a daughter, Hades." She said; her voice deadly. "For if you do, you will know my misery. You will share my tears!" with that, she vanished in a whirlwind of black smoke.
"Years later," Nacrissa narrated as different scenes flashed by, "Maria di Angelo gave birth to a baby girl they named Bianca. Hades never left her unguarded, waiting for Hecate to try to take her revenge, but Hecate was clever. She knew that Hades was expecting her to act then, so she waited. Sure enough, two years later, Maria had twins, a boy…and a girl. Hades thought Hecate had forgotten her revenge and moved on, but she had not." They watched as Hecate stood over the twelve Olympians. Moving to each sleeping god or goddess, she drew a tiny bit of light from each of their bodies. "She took a tiny fragment of the power of all twelve Olympians, so small they would not know it was gone. She also took some of Persephone's, as well as her own. She combined them all."
They now stood in a nursery in what looked like Venice, Italy. A large cradle stood against one wall. Inside, a baby boy and girl, who looked maybe 18 months, were fast asleep. They both had a thin layer of raven hair, but the girl's was longer. The boy sucked his thumb, and the girl had one hand on the other infant's arm. A woman stood watching the babies as they slept. Hecate. She held out a hand, palm up, and a glowing ball of power appeared. She flipped her hand and placed it on the infant girl's forehead, not bothering to be gentle, forcing the power in to her. The baby woke instantly, wailing, but Hecate did not remove her hand, and the little girl glowed as the power filled her. A streak of hair on the left side turned white and she stopped glowing just as another woman rushed in. It was Ms. Di Angelo.
"Allontanatevi dai miei figli, Diavalo Donna! (Get away from my children, Devil Woman)" She screamed in Italian.
Hecate laughed. "Foolish mortal. I am a goddess." And then she was gone.
The baby girl was still crying, and Ms. Di Angelo rushed over and held the child in her arms.
"Oh, mio dolce Nacrissa, ciò che è la dea medio fatto? (Oh, my sweet Nacrissa, what has the mean goddess done to you?)" She asked in a soothing voice. The baby boy, as if noticing his sister's absence, started to stir, and his big, dark eyes blinked open. He noticed his sister in his mother's arms, and, pushing himself into a sitting position, held up his arms, indicating that he, too, wanted to be held.
"Mama, up!" he commanded with his adorable baby voice. Ms. Di Angelo laughed and obliged. The little boy fingered the new white streak in his sister's hair.
"Whu's s'at?" His voice was filled with curiosity. Ms. Di Angelo frowned.
"I don't know, Nico. Let's go ask Daddy." She left the room with the two children.
Annabeth frowned. "I thought your family spoke Italian. Why are they speaking English, all of the sudden?"
Nacrissa shrugged. "I adjusted the way you hear things in the vision. Nico and I still hear Italian, because we can understand it. Plus, our mom spoke English around Dad, so we knew both."
The conversation was cut off when the scene changed again to show Hades and Ms. Di Angelo talking in hushed tones while three kids played nearby. A four year-old Bianca was drawing a picture while her little siblings watched and did easy puzzles.
"What did she do to her?" Ms. Di Angelo asked. Hades cursed under his breath.
"Hecate took her revenge." He said angrily. "She stole power from all the Olympians, Persephone, and herself and combined them. She put them in our daughter and bound them there. They cannot be removed without killing Nacrissa." He broke off into another string of curses.
"Not around the children, my love." She said, placing a hand over his.
"I'm sorry, dear, but this is very bad. When the other gods find out, they will want their power back, no matter how very little is gone." He scowled. "They will do anything to get that power back, even if it means killing my little girl."
"How long until they find out?" Ms. Di Angelo asked, gazing absentmindedly at her children. Toddler Nacrissa was building a castle out of blocks- a castle that had two floors and a drawbridge. Hades sighed.
"She's already showing signs of the power- Athena's at the moment- and as she gets older, the gods will be able to feel their power coming from her. Two or three might go unnoticed, but all twelve and Persephone and Hecate, yes, they will feel it. We have five, maybe six years until they find out."
The room faded. All the demigods turned to Nacrissa.
"So," Thalia began. "You have a little bit of power from all twelve Olympians, plus Persephone and Hecate?"
Nacrissa nodded. "I wish I didn't, because it has brought our family nothing but trouble."
"Did the gods ever find out?" Piper asked.
"Yes." She winced. "That's what you're going to see next. It was about two weeks from Nico and I's tenth birthday."
The world around them morphed into a lobby of a fancy hotel. Two nearly-ten year-olds played with a twelve year-old girl, chasing each other around pillars and sofas, laughing. On one sofa sat Hades and Maria di Angelo. Hades was begging Ms. Di Angelo to take the children and come with him to the Underworld. He went on to explain how then was a bad time for his children, and with the Great Prophecy, the children were in danger. He had been forced into an oath to have no children, and now his brothers wanted to destroy the ones he had. He offered to build her a golden palace on the River Styx, and said he didn't care what Persephone thought. Ms. Di Angelo smiled lovingly and put a hand to his cheek.
"You are a kind man, my love. A generous man. The other gods should see you as I do, and they would not fear you so. But Nico, Nacrissa, and Bianca need their mother. Besides, they are only children. The gods wouldn't really hurt them."
"You don't know my family," Hades said darkly. "Please, Maria, I can't lose you."
She touched her fingers to his lips. "You will not lose me. Wait for me while I get my purse. Watch the children."
She pressed her lips to his and stood, making her way towards the stairs. A moment later, the twins and their older sister stopped playing. Hades must have sensed it too, because he tensed.
"No!" he cried, but he was too late.
The demigods watched at a huge bolt of lightning hit the building, causing the ceiling to cave. Hades only had time to throw up a wall of black energy around his children, and when the shaking stopped, Maria di Angelo lay on the floor, dead.
Hades roared in rage. "Zeus!" he collapsed to his knees in the ruins of the hotel, next to Ms. Di Angelo's lifeless body, "I will crush you for this! I will bring her back!"
The demigods stood, watching the scene in horror. Thalia and Jason were staring at the sky in disgust and shame. Their father had murdered Nico and Nacrissa's mother?
Older Nico and Nacrissa looked upon the whole thing with sad eyes. They had seen it before, but Nico had never seen the real one, the one with both his sisters. Younger Nacrissa cried into her twin's shoulder, and younger Nico wrapped an arm around her. Bianca stood behind her siblings and hugged them close to her. The Fury Alecto appeared behind them, flapping her wings, hissing, but the di Angelo children didn't seem to notice.
"My lord, you cannot," Alecto warned. "You of all immortals must respect the laws of death."
The god of the dead glowed with rage, but regained control just in time.
"Take them," he told Alecto, choking back a sob. "Wash their memories clean in the Lethe and bring them to the Lotus Hotel. Zeus will not harm them there."
"What about the girl?" the Fury gestured to Nacrissa. "She is too powerful to leave at the Hotel. The gods want her dead more than anything. They hit this hotel to get to her."
"She is not to blame!" Hades snapped.
"I did not say she was, my lord."
Hades sighed. "Leave her with me. I will take her to the Underworld. She will live in the castle, where no gods can harm her. I will slow her timeline, so she can rejoin her siblings when the time comes. Until then, I will care for her."
"As you wish, my lord," Alecto said. "And the woman's body?"
"Take her as well," his voice was bitter. "Give her the ancient rites."
The Fury, Nico, Bianca, and Ms. Di Angelo's body dissolved in shadows, leaving Nacrissa and Hades alone. Nacrissa shrieked at her brother and sister's disappearance.
"Why did you tell that lady to take Casper and Bianca?" she demanded angrily. "What's the Lotus Hotel?"
Hades blinked in surprise. "You saw Alecto?"
"The lady with the big wings?" Hades nodded. "Yeah, of course I did."
"And you weren't afraid?"
The 9, soon to be 10, year-old met his eyes with a serious look on her face. "Not everyone's as scary as they seem. You should know that, Daddy." She shrugged. "Plus, you weren't scared. The lady called you 'my lord', which is how a servant addresses their master."
Hades managed a slight smile at his daughter. He sometimes forgot she had Athena's smarts and wisdom.
"I will explain everything to you when we get home. You're going to live with me. Is that OK?"
She wiped her eyes. "Of course it is."
"Good."
Nacrissa frowned deeply, and tears welled up in her dark eyes. "I'm sorry, daddy." Hades gave her a confused look. "It's all my fault. Like the lady said, the other gods smashed the hotel to get to me, but they got mama instead. It's m-my fa-fault." She was full-on crying now, and Hades wrapped her in a hug.
"Don't you ever think that." He whispered, stroking her glossy black hair. "It is not your fault."
She nodded, but didn't look quite convinced.
"I warned you." A new voice spoke. The demigods watched as Hades cursed the Oracle, and then different scenes flashed by.
They saw Persephone arguing with her husband, demanding he get rid of Nacrissa; kill her and return the power that belongs to the goddess. Hades sat on his throne with his head in his hands, not saying a word. When the goddess of springtime insisted again that he dispose of his daughter, his head shot up, his eyes glowing red with anger. He yelled at her, telling her he was ruler here, not her, and she would not lay a finger on Nacrissa, or else he would personally throw her into Tartarus. She shut up after that.
Nacrissa sat in a bedroom in Hades' palace, playing guitar and singing. She was very good. The bed had purple blankets, and was littered with stuffed animals. A large bookshelf and desk took up one wall of the room, a wardrobe rested against another. Various musical instruments and weapons lay scattered around the room, along with dolls and books. A large wolf with a beautiful black coat and luminescent gold eyes lay on the bed, listening to the daughter of Hades sing. A golden dog-tag hung from a red collar around its neck, and 'Pluto' was carved into the metal in Ancient Greek.
The ten year-old wanders through the Fields of Asphodel, and noticed the ghostly form of Hazel Lévesque. Different images of them talking over the years sped by, like a video on fast forward. Nacrissa was also seen visiting random spirits in Elysium. When she was seen laughing with the ghosts of Charles Beckendorf and Silena Beauregard, the demigods who had known them before they died smiled faintly, sadness in their eyes.
Random scenes of Nico and Bianca at the Lotus Casino flashed by, and Nacrissa watched intently through a Shadow Screen as they were rescued by Alecto. The youngest Di Angelo watched as Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth protected her siblings from Dr. Thorn. Her nails were digging into her palms, and it was obvious she was trying to stop from helping.
"You can't interfere." She reminded herself through gritted teeth. "Remember what the fates said would happen to them if you do."
The next thing they saw brought tears to everyone's eyes: Bianca's death. Hazel wrapped an arm around her half-sister, who stared at the ground. Younger Nacrissa screamed as her sister ran under the foot of the robot. When it started to fall, with Bianca still inside, Nacrissa gasped and her hand flew to her stomach as if she had been stabbed.
"No!" she cried, and reached into the nearest shadow. A girl in smoking clothes appeared on the bed, a shard of celestial bronze shrapnel imbedded deeply in her ribcage. The still-living Bianca took ragged breaths, and Nacrissa rushed over to her.
"Bianca!"
Despite the fact she was dying, the huntress smiled. "Hey, Baby Sister. Long time, no see, eh?"
"You mean, -you remember me?" Memory Nacrissa asked; eyes wide. Her older sibling nodded weakly.
"I do now. How could I have ever forgotten?" she sounded guilty.
"It's not your fault." Nacrissa held her hand. "I never blamed you."
"You blame yourself." Bianca said knowingly. She coughed violently, and then resumed speaking. "You shouldn't." her eyes wandered to the Shadow Screen. "Can you show me Nico?"
The younger nodded and the screen appeared at Bianca's feet. It showed the Dining Pavilion, where Nico sat at the Hermes table, eating lunch and talking with the Stolls. She sighed contently at the smile on her brother's face as he laughed along with the two sons of Hermes. His skin wasn't pale, and his eyes glittered with the same child-like look he had in the photos. He looked so different from the present Nico that everyone new.
"Think he'll ever forgive me?" she asked. "For leaving him." Bianca sounded so guilty. She broke off into another fit of coughs. She was getting weaker. "I shouldn't have. I'm leaving him all alone. It was selfish of me; I just wanted to know what it was like to not be responsible. It was a mistake. He's more important."
Tears slid down present Nico's cheeks. He had seen his sister's death, but apparently not the whole thing.
"I'll watch over him. I promise." Nacrissa said, her voice shaking. Silent tears ran from her eyes, and Bianca reached up with her free hand and put in against her cheek.
"Come visit me." she said.
"Bianca, please, let me get Dad. He could heal you."
The eldest di Angelo shook her head slightly. "It is my time." She coughed. "I'm glad I got to see you one last time as a living girl. I love you, Chrissy."
Nacrissa choked back a sob. "I love you, too."
"Nothing ever…really…felt right…you know. Like…there was…something…missing." She was struggling to speak. "Know…what it… was…now."
Bianca's hand dropped from her sister's cheek and fell limp at her side. Her eyes glowed momentarily, and then stared emptily into space, all life gone from them. She was gone.
Sobs wracked Younger Nacrissa's body as she closed her oldest siblings' unseeing eyes and gently freed the sliver of bronze that had killed the daughter of Hades. She stared at it, the hunk of metal glistening with dark blood, and screamed in anger. Hurling it across the room, it hit the wall with a crash. Three old women appeared where Nacrissa had thrown the piece of celestial bronze. The three Fates.
"We would punish you for interfering-" the first said.
"But the knowledge that you couldn't save your sister-" continued the second.
"Is punishment enough. And who knows? Maybe-" the third taunted.
"Had you kept out-" the second spoke.
"She might have been-" the first sneered.
"Saved." They hissed in unison. They cackled cruelly and disappeared in a swirl of smoke.
Nacrissa knelt at the bedside and, resting her head on the edge on the mattress, continued to mourn the death of her only sister.
The Fates are such meanies. Feedback on my sad scene, this chapter, the story in general? Remember, I need some good APPROPRIATE dares and truths for my truth-or-dare chapter or two. AND ANSWER MY QUESTION PLEASE! I wanna know what you people think about Nico having to reveal his feelings for Percy in the game. Of course, he doesn't feel that way anymore (sorry perico shippers), he likes…someone else *cough* Thalia *cough*.
If you ever cared about little, defenseless critters you would REVIEW!