Here is chapter fifteen! I can't believe that this story has almost 50k words. I have to admit that I had actually thought that I would give up on it way faster.

Anyway, in this chapter there are two important changes concerning Nora as well as a fighting scene at the end. I'm not all that good in writing action scenes, so, umh, sorry? Also, there is still some angst in this chapter, but Nora is slowly starting to escape her self-pitying and fear.

There is just one thing I would like to say. Many of you said in their reviews that Nora should not mind what Nico had done and that it was justified. She knows that it needed to be done to save her sister, however, she also believes that Nico could have done something less 'drastic'. Her biggest problem, however, is the fact that Nico enjoyed killing another human being. Nora is gentle and lives by the morals of her old life and although that will change in the future, she still can't understand the pleasure Nico felt from killing someone.

Besides, this was also the first time she had seen someone die in such a gruesome manner, so some shock should be understandable.

On another note, I have published two new stories. A 'Vampire Knight' Self-Insert and a Bleach Drabble-fic. If you like those fandoms, then check them out.

Please leave a review.

Summary: Death gained a whole new appeal the moment I became a daughter of Hades. [SI, Self-Insert/OC-Insert]

Have fun.


Chapter 15

Heart of Courage


"Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin."
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

"All happiness depends on courage and work."
― Honoré de Balzac


Bianca woke up a few minutes after I had forced some ambrosia down her throat. Disoriented and confused, she turned to me for an explanation for why she looked as if she had just bathed in blood. ''What happened? And who are those people?''

Ignoring the presence of our newly acquired 'friends', I let the upper layer of my dress slide to the ground. ''What do you remember?''

''We were eating dinner.'' She tilted her head to the left. ''I finished faster than the both of you, so I decided to go back alone to take a shower.''

Pulling the dress I had prepared earlier and laid onto our bed over my body, I turned my back towards Bianca. ''Could you?'' I pointed at the zipper with both of my thumbs. Luckily, Nico had let me enter the bathroom before him, so I had already cleaned my bloody hands. They were a little pale now and there was still some blood under my nails, however, I did not look as if I had just committed a murder anymore.

''Nora, what happened?'' My sister inquired as she helped me put on my dress.

Exhaling loudly, I looked at her over my shoulder. There must have been something on my face because she grabbed both of my hands in her own and gave me a reassuring smile. ''It's alright, you can tell me.''

And I did. I told her about how she was ambushed and how we felt the pain she had experienced. I told her of our rather bad rescue plan and how everything went wrong.

Just like Nico, Bianca felt no guilt.

''I guess we're leaving.'' It was not a question but a statement. Our packed bags gave her an answer without any words and the dress I had prepared for her reminded my sister of what she needed to do before we went outside for the first time in decades.

Unlike me, Bianca waited until our brother left the bathroom to get dressed. She regarded the foreign group that stood next to our door with suspicion and disappeared in the adjoining room.

While I moved our two bags towards the entrance—We only took what was truly needed. The bags were not even half-full. Father would make sure that someone came to get our remaining possessions.—Nico sat down on our bed and started putting on his socks and shoes.

Once he was fully dressed and Bianca finally left the bathroom—She did not have enough time to bath. Just like me she had cleaned the spots that were not covered by our clothes.—we made our way out of the room. There was no need for us to close the door with a key, the Lotus Eaters would make sure that no one stole anything from us.

Nico was the first one to pass over the threshold, followed by Bianca and lastly me. Percy and his friends left the room after us and I could not stop myself from halting for a second next to Annabeth.

''I'm sorry.'' A soft whisper that would do nothing to lessen her grief.

Then I scurried away like the coward I was. I just could not have left without saying it. The girl had just lost her brother because of my siblings and though I did not regret Aiden's death in the way I probably should have—The boy had tried to kill my sister. When it came to choosing between the two of them, I would always choose Bianca.—I still felt sorry for her.

Walking down the long hallway, my thoughts wandered to another matter.

I was terrified of the act my brother had just committed. The murder itself was not the reason for my fear, no, to save my siblings I would have gladly burned the whole world to the ground. However, I could not understand the pleasure he had felt. I could not understand the satisfaction killing someone brought him and I could not even begin to fathom the darkness within him.

Nico was the definition of a Child of Hades. An aura of fear, death and madness always surrounded him and more than once had I noticed people flinching away from him. My twin had our father's aristocratic features and depthless eyes that could see straight into your soul.

He also had a slowly deteriorating sanity and morally questionable decision-making.

My brother, the darkness within him, sometimes terrified me.

And there was nothing I could do against it. This was who we were; The Children of Hades. As children of the Underworld we were small parts of death and if there was one thing that death wasn't, then it was pretty. When it came down to it, we represented a domain that was filled with pain and madness. By the natural order of things, we absorbed some of those attributes and changed a little more each day.

In comparison to me, Nico had a stronger connection to the powers we inherited from our godly parent. There was also the factor of us being raised by our father. We were raised to be spoiled, egoistical and selfish. That was the way gods were and that was the way we needed to be to survive.

Our father did not raise us to be good, he raised us to be survivors.

And the truth was that in this world only the monsters survived.

''Finally.'' Grover sighed loudly and practically ran the last few meters towards the exit. Leaving the hotel was easier than I expected, but I did not dwell more on the matter because for first time in what felt like only three months a fresh whiff of air entered my nostrils.

The world had changed a lot since we had last walked the streets outside of the Lotus Hotel. It was nighttime when we left the place which had been our home for the last few decades. Though the sky might have been a midnight blue, the city was fully alive. Colorful shields lightened the streets and advertised the newest products on the market. They also showed the way to the different casinos and other popular places.

Cars hurried down the streets and honked in displeasure. The loud bustle of the night filled my ears and steered my attention to the people walking down the paved roads. Many of them had smartphones—How long has it been since I had last seen one?—in their hands or headphones in their ears.

Women wore clothes that I had happily worn in another lifetime. Now, they made me feel slightly uncomfortable. While most of them were dressed acceptably, some seemed to have nothing on them.

Shorts that did not even cover their behind and shirts that revealed way too much.

The city was brighter and louder than I remembered and a sudden nostalgia clouded my senses.

As a gift for my birthday, my mother had once taken me to Moscow. Back then, when I had still been Nadia, the city had been the most magnificent thing I had ever seen. Everything seemed almost magical to me back then. Before that day I had never left the small town I had been born in and I had not truly known what to expect of the city life.

This experience was similar to that day. Seeing a modern city after almost fifteen years caused a longing to form in heart. I couldn't really tell for what exactly this longing was. My life as Nadia or my childhood in the 20th century?

Perhaps I missed both of them equally.

Regarding Percy Jackson as he walked over the parking lot towards his car, I knew that there was no going back now. Dwelling on the past once again would do me no good and so I forced my feet to move over the full parking lot. My siblings followed only two steps behind me and I made sure that it stayed that way.

I knew that I would have to do it soon, but I wasn't ready to face reality yet.

''There isn't enough place for all of us.'' Percy muttered as he scratched the back of his head.

After passing by a yellow Porsche, I stopped moving next to Percy and looked inside the car. There was one seat too little and we did not truly have enough time to get another vehicle or a cab. Besides, splitting up wasn't a good idea. Father obviously wanted us to go to the camp, otherwise he would have already told us to come home, so we had to follow them. In such a big city, getting separated would be quite easy and in such a case we would not have been able to find the right way to our destination by ourselves.

Staying together was the better option. ''Bianca can sit on Nico's lap.''

''I don't...'' He was interrupted by Annabeth who was already sitting down in the front. ''We don't have time for this, Percy.''

My gaze moved to her, to her pale face and red-rimmed eyes. Once again guilt coursed through my veins and I forced myself to look away. Using my right hand, I pointed inside the car. ''Get in first.''

For a second Nico's dark orbs clashed with my own. He seemed to be searching for something, but I did not know what. A gentle smirk crawled onto his lips and I felt a soft touch on the back of my hand. It was gone as soon as it appeared. He entered the car and Bianca went in after him. She sat down on his lap and I had no other choice but to follow them.

I had seen the way Grover regarded my brother, as if he were a wild beast, and he certainly would not want to sit next to both of my siblings. The satyr sat down next to me, trying to keep as much space between us as possible.

Nico, on the other hand, did not seem to know the meaning of personal space. His knee bumped against mine and he put his hand on my thigh. Completely ignoring the uncomfortable silence, my twin decided to ask the one question even I was interested in. ''What year do we have?''

Percy turned his head towards us and started the ignition. ''2009.''

The car moved backwards and we were soon driving along the busy streets. Through the front mirror I could see how a small frown marred Percy's face. He kept glancing back at us with a curious and wary light shining in his eyes.

Annoyed, I opened my mouth and said: ''If you want to know something, then just ask.''

''If you don't mind.'' He bit his lip. ''When exactly were you born?''

For a moment I wondered if he had already guessed our heritage. Perhaps he hoped that one of us would take his place in the prophecy. Fortunately, father would have never allowed us to leave the hotel as long as such a possibility existed. ''Nico and I, we were born in 1931.'' Amused, I observed how his mouth fell open. ''Bianca is not even two years older than us. She was born in 1929.''

Although it seemed as if he wanted to ask more, one look at Annabeth stopped him from doing so. We spend the rest of the ride in silence.


Our power, it came at a heavy price. A price payed for something no human should ever possess should never be taken lightly. There was a reason for why it took me the longest to learn shadow traveling. For why I preferred to rely on my weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

It was once said that if you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you. The Children of Hades were forever bound by a similar principle. Death and the afterlife were both things that the living should have no contact with, but we would always be connected to them in ways no one but us could understand. And the more of the powers we inherited from our father we used, the more of their attributes we absorbed.

Death wasn't pretty and neither was the Underworld. Our powers based on our origins and they were also the carriers of our madness. A rise in strength and usage of our powers caused a decrease in our own sanity.

That was why things were changing so drastically. Why my siblings were so different from how they were actually meant to be. While Bianca cautiously embraced the darkness we had been blessed with, Nico had allowed it to consume him a while ago.

And I...I just constantly kept running away from it.

The shadows' whisper frightened me beyond believe and I could not deal with the constant weeping of the damned souls. Their cries of anguish echoed in my ears if I used too much of my inherited powers and threatened to drive me insane.

Then there was also the adrenaline and thirst for battle. They made us forget all of our mortal limitations and forced us to abandon certain set rules. Surrounded by the darkness of our powers, there was no right or wrong, only the enemy that stood before us.

I had once asked Nico how it was to just let go.

The answer I received wasn't an unexpected one. Nico described the exhilaration and euphoria that coursed through his veins each time he allowed the darkness to escape its holding cell. He explained how everything was heightened, the moves our enemies made passing by in slow motion. The cries of the dead ringing in his ears and his whole body tingling from the terrifying power our father had gifted us with.

Through our bond I had experienced those moments alongside with him, but instead of making me feel any happiness or pleasure, those times left me scared. Nico, however, seemed almost addicted to it.

He relished the moments in which the boundary that separated us from the gods became almost nonexistent and loved the power that allowed him to do almost anything he wanted. There were not many that could stand in his way when he unleashed the darkness that was hidden within the three of us. Fighting made him feel invincible.

Living in this world made me sometimes wonder how much had been actually sugarcoated in the books. The PJO series was meant for kids, so there were many things that had been shown in a lighthearted manner, of course, but I still sometimes wondered how much of those things were actually true.

A few of my loose locks tickled my skin and I pushed them behind my ear. My dress pooled around my feet, exposing my bloodied legs. I had changed my clothes earlier, but there had been no time to take a bath. Luckily, we had finally arrived at our resting place for the night; a small motel just outside of Vegas.

Without sparring our room a glance—I shared a room with my siblings, while our three acquaintances slept in the room next door.—I had rushed inside the small bathroom. Considering the luxuries we were used to, the dingy room made my nose wrinkle, but it was better than having no place to clean myself.

Although I knew that I could not blame myself for what had happened, it did not stop me from feeling guilty. The dried blood clinging to my skin did not make me feel any better. It was sticky and made forgetting what had happened a few hours ago almost impossible.

Moving the green curtain aside, I entered the small shower and turned on the water. Icy coldness stung my skin and plastered dark strands to my face. The water warmed only slightly over time, but it was enough for my usually cold skin.

Transfixed, I watched how blood dripped down my body and mixed with the clear water. There was no soap and we had forgotten to take some with us, so I would have to clean myself without it. I rubbed my hands over my body until I felt at least partly clean and raised my face towards the cool water.

''Nora?'' Bianca knocked on the door. ''Are you alright?''

Was I? The urge to laugh hysterically almost overwhelmed me. A mixture between a laugh and sob escaped my lips and I knew that I was not alright.

I was a reincarnated soul that remembered her past life and failed at every task she had given myself. I failed my mother, my siblings and myself. Even after all this years, I still haven't accepted myself and continued living by the morals of my old life.

So no, I was not alright and I would be only worse if things did not change soon. I could not continue resenting my brother for something he had no control over. Sadly, that's what I secretly did. I was jealous of him and the way he did not care about anything. Jealous of how he accepted himself and the powers we inherited from our father.

I envied his courage.

His strength and control over our powers was something I could only dream of because it were those powers that I feared more than anything else.

''Nora?'' This time it was Nico, his calm and worried voice bringing shame to my heart. I knew that I had to change, but it wasn't easy. I did not want to let my powers control me, but I somehow had the feeling that whether I wanted it or not, the moment to make a choice had long since passed and that now I would just have to follow what the fates had in store for me.

The door handle rattled loudly as my brother tried to come inside. ''Nora, I'm coming in.''

Saying 'no' would have been for naught, Nico rarely listened to what others said. I just considered myself lucky because he did not break down the door. Currently, we did not have any money with us, so paying for any damage would have been impossible. Instead of causing more trouble than we could handle right now, Nico just shadow traveled inside the bathroom.

Deciding to ignore him for the time being, I leaned my head against the white tiles of the shower. Water dripped down my back as I waited for whatever was to come next. Surprisingly, Nico did not come here to have a long conversation with me.

Rustling of clothes filled the silent room and the next thing I knew was that his arms were around me, holding my body against his chest. His warm breath caressed my cold cheek and I could not stop myself from melting against him. Warm, that's how his body felt against mine and the safety I suddenly felt surprised me.

I didn't know how long we stood there, pelted by the cold water and warmed by each others bodies, but I did not protest when he led me out of the shower, nor did I stop him from helping me get dressed in my sleeping gown. While my tears dried, my mind was occupied with more important matters.

I needed to change.


They had been stupid and not cautious enough. A group of five demigods outside the camp's safety just screamed danger. Monsters started following them the moment they left the motel.

It started slowly. One or two cyclops at first, then a giant. Before they knew what was happening, a horde of different monsters was already following them. Their little group managed to lose some of them. A few were even defeated and sent away to reform.

At the beginning they seemed to have the situation under control, that is, until one of their charges was injured. A gorgon managed to scratch Nico. The wound stretched over his abdomen to his hipbone and leg. Bianca saved him in the last second by suddenly appearing at his side and pulling him away from the monster.

However, it was already too late. The wound was deep and they did not have any ambrosia or nectar with them anymore. Grover had lost one of their bags during a fight.

If their small group did not arrive at camp soon the boy would bleed out. Breaking all traffic rules, Percy drove as fast as he could. Cars honked and people cursed in their wake, but they did not stop. While Annabeth helped him find the fastest route, Grover sat in the back on the floor, helping the two sisters bandage their brother.

Percy could not understand the other boy's recklessness. Nico had taken one of the spare knifes the Son of Poseidon had decided to pack in his bag for this quest and rushed at the monsters with a bloodthirsty eagerness. If it weren't for his sisters, the boy would have probably tried fighting them from the beginning on. And although Percy thought that the other demigod's decision was stupid and careless, Nico still managed to surprise him with his skill.

The boy danced around the monsters and slashed at them with the unfamiliar weapon. His battle reflexes were superb and Percy was surprised at the strength and speed the other boy displayed.

Those attributes and his ruthlessness made him into a dangerous adversary and showed Percy that the other boy must have been training for years.

All this only heightened the suspicion and wariness he felt around Nico di Angelo. The other boy was a strong and unknown component that was certainly hiding a secret and would not hesitate to slit all of their throats while they slept.

Nico di Angelo was without a doubt the most dangerous one of his siblings.

Unfortunately, their car gave out a few miles away from their safe haven which meant that Percy had to carry the injured boy with Grover's help. The three girl's in their group did their best to defend them against the incoming monsters.

There were too many of them.

In a moment of carelessness, Bianca was thrown against a tree, injuring her head in the process. Luckily, she wasn't knocked out and continued running with the help of her sister. Annabeth could not fight the monsters on her own and soon they were all running for their lives.

''You need to take Nico to safety.'' The youngest one of the siblings said. Nora was looking at her older sister with a pleading look. ''I'll stop them long enough for you to reach camp. I can't shadow travel with the both of you and neither you nor Nico can do it with the injuries you have.''

Shadow travel?, Percy's brows scrunched up in confusion.

The sisters were holding each others hand, Nora using this hold to pull her sister along. ''Go.''

''You don't actually believe that we would leave you, do you?'' Bianca asked almost hysterically.

The younger girl pushed her in Percy's direction. ''This was not a question, sister. I'll survive on my own, I have done the least to protect us. Here, in the state you are in, the both of you are only a hindrance.'' There seemed to be a deeper meaning to her words. Her eyes held a pain Percy had never seen in someone as young as she was. ''Nico needs help. I'm sure you don't want to be the one at fault for his death.''

Their eyes clashed and a silent conversation followed. Then it was Bianca helping him carry her brother and not Grover.

It was when they were only a few meters away from the borders that he felt it. Immediately, his hand clenched painfully around the sword it was holding and his steps hastened.

The sweet smell of decaying flesh assaulted his nostrils and forced him to choke down rising bile. They entered the camp and Percy almost collapsed. His head turned towards the lone girl who was situated more than twenty meters away from him. Golden dust already tainted the earth and a dying harpy laid at her feet.

Shadows seemed to gather around the borders of the camp, even more of them at the place where Nora was standing.

Fear crept up his spine and prickled his skin. Percy could see leaves starting to fall from trees, decaying and changing into dust even before they touched the ground. Frost gather on the dying barks and puffs of air became visible once he let a deep breath escape his pale lips. An unbelievable cold tingled his skin and made the fine hair on his arms stand.

What sounded like the shrieks of souls that had damned to spend the rest of eternity in the Fields of Punishment threatened to burst his eardrums. Something weighted heavily on his shoulders and pushed them down. Though he did not dare to take his eyes off the girl he had previously judged to be the weakest of her siblings, Percy still noticed some of the other campers falling to their knees.

Nora, however, just stood a few meters outside the camp's borders, regarding the horde of monsters calmly. Her hands touched their opposite's wrist and it was then that there was no mistaking who she truly was.

One after another two giant spears sprung to life. They were darker than the night, sprinkled with just the fewest crimson stars. Percy could literally see the cloud of shadows slowly slithering in the weapons' direction and he did not even want to imagine how much touching those two spears would hurt.

Stygian Iron.

There were many legends he had heard about it and all of them taught him that he should never even dream of touching a weapon made of that material. Black as a nightmare and more lethal than any other metal, it was the only thing capable of stopping monsters from reforming.

Percy never thought that he would actually get to witness a weapon made of that iron in action, but seeing it in Nora's hands and feeling the power that was flowing off it in waves made him actually wish that he never had.

In preparation for the incoming fight, the girl twirled both spears in her hands. They moved with an incredible speed and left a black mist in their wake. Even before the first monster appeared, Nora stopped moving and readied her battle stance. Seeing it, Percy did not doubt that she had went through years of training.

'So this is what a Child of Hades looks like', he thought numbly as something cool touched the skin of his cheek. Noticing the gray flakes falling from the sky, Percy believed for a second that it was actually snowing. That is, until he used his left hand to wipe his face and it came back with a dark stain.

Ashes. Ashes were falling from the sky.

Just as he thought that it could not get any worse, Percy Jackson witnessed how a skeletal arm broke through the frozen earth. A dead soldier, dressed in a medieval uniform and holding a silver sword, rose from the earth and stopped moving right besides his mistress.

He was the first of many to come. One after another skeletal forms made their way onto the battlefield. Men and women from times long past, carrying different weapons of their choice. Some of them were nothing but bones, others still had some decaying flesh clinging to them.

The way they moved—the loud rattling of bones and the clang of metal against their bodies—caused goosebumps to appear on Percy's skin. It was almost as frightening as the cackling that left some of their 'mouths'.

Due to all the noise and the shrieks of the damned still ringing in his ears, Percy almost missed the soft command.

''Attack.'' A smooth female voice that seemed to freeze time. Every single skeleton stopped moving just for a second and then they were running. About forty dead bodies were racing down the hill towards the incoming monsters, only five of them stayed behind at their mistress's side.

'And then the dead shall rise and bring mayhem

A child of Hades being among them'

He was one of the only few campers left standing, most of them had already fallen onto the ground. The final part of the prophecy had been fulfilled and Percy Jackson finally knew why the Children of Hades were so feared.

Everything inside him screamed at the thought. He, a Child of Poseidon, should not be scared of a Daughter of the Dead. A familiar warmth filled his body, and the loud roaring of the ocean tried to blend out all of the other sounds. And although Percy managed to take his first breath in what felt like an eternity, the fear did not completely subside. Fact was that he might have been perhaps able to defeat Nora, but fighting her would without a doubt mean fighting her siblings and that was a war he could never win.

Sweat gathered on his temple and mixed with the ashes that marred his skin. His mouth felt very dry as he watched the girl finally move forward. Though it felt as if hours had passed, Percy knew that it could not have been more than a few seconds.

The surprising thing was that the monsters that had followed them for so long had slowed down once they felt the suffocating power. Some of them—the smarter ones—ran away the moment Nora released the darkness within her, others stayed to slowly face their death.

The spears sliced loudly through the air as Nora attacked her first foe. The large cyclops stood no chance against the fragile looking girl. She spun through the air and cut his head in half. Before the golden dust could bath her from head to toe, the girl vanished and appeared not even a second later next to another cyclops, cutting his legs with one spear and decapitating him with the other.

Three of her subjects stopped the Chimera's claw from cutting her in half, while another dozen swarmed it and started stabbing it with their swords. Nora distracted the large monster and one of the skeletons, a confederate soldier, stabbed his sword through the Chimera's head.

And then she was on the other side of the battlefield, stabbing an unsuspecting giant through the chest.

It was then that Percy noticed the expression on her face. She was only a few meters away from him. Her crazed eyes were widened to an almost impossible extent and so dark that one could not see where the pupil begun and ended.

A mad smile graced her pale lips.

He could hear his mother shrieking in pain as he looked into those eyes and see how the flames of hell encompassed her whole form.

Percy wanted to scream.

The need to blink saved him from screaming his throat raw and allowed him to asses his cousin. While her face spoke of excitement and eagerness to fight, her body seemed to be slowly tiring. Pale skin and bloody gashes greeted his eyes, and the slight trembling of her limbs alerted him to the exhaustion she must have been feeling.

And yet she did not stop fighting, not even when she had the chance to enter the camp's safety. Nora continued slaughtering her way through her enemies, ignoring the wounds inflicted upon her body.

She danced gracefully around her foes and got rid of as many as she could. However, her movement seemed to get a little more sluggish with each second and Percy knew that she would not be able to go on at such a pace for much longer.

Nora was mortal and as such she had her limits.

Her siblings seemed to notice that as well. Nico—the madman—tried to stand up, only to double over in pain. Raising his head, he looked towards his twin sister. ''Nora! Nora, you need to stop!''

The girl did not listen and Percy watched as something akin to horror danced across the boy's face. Nico's hand shot out to his right leg. The action mirrored by Bianca who sat next to him and seemed to have a hard time deciding what to do next.

His gaze moved to the last di Angelo sibling and his eyes filled with dread. In the time he had sacrificed to regard her siblings, one of the monsters had managed to severely wound the girl's right leg. She was leaning heavily against a tree, only one of her spears in her possession.

Only about ten skeletons were left and they tried to form a protective shield around their mistress. They were weaker than at the beginning of the fight and easily eliminated by one of the remaining cyclops.

And then Nora stood there alone, facing more monsters than she would be able to beat and her head held high and eyes filled with fear. The high she had been on seemed to be dissipating, leaving a sense of horror behind. She raised her hand, the one that was still in possession of a spear, to defend herself against the incoming fist. It trembled with exhaustion and Percy knew that no matter how quick he would move, he would not reach the girl fast enough.

Time seemed to slow down as the massive fist moved in the girl's direction. Her panting breaths were visible from afar and he witnessed the moment she gave up. Resignation appeared on her face in form of a grimace and her arm lowered itself just a little. The fist was not even a meter away from crushing her. Nora's dark eyes closed in preparation and her sister's loud cry echoed in his ears.

Just as the fist was about to make contact something unexpected happened. The shadows seemed to gather behind Nora and a pale arm found its way around her waist.

The cyclops decayed within less than a second and a few remaining particles of him were blown into the air.

Slowly, the shadows revealed an imposing figure. A young man, not even thirty years old in appearance, stepped out of the darkness and pulled Nora against his black clad chest. Dark flowing robes fluttered in the wind and for a second Percy thought that he could see something on the material moving—thousands of souls begging for mercy.

The demigod shivered slightly as his gaze wandered from the man's albino hand to his face. High cheek bones and dissatisfied sneer greeted him there and Percy watched how the man's mad gaze assessed the girl in his arms.

The monster's that did not manage to run fast enough disappeared within seconds and the god's lips parted slightly. His uncle might have chosen to wear another form that day, but there was no denying his true identity.

Those who had been left standing bowed at the sight of the God of the Underworld and Percy could do nothing but follow their example.