Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS.
Word Count: 6,880
AN: Hi guys. I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. Things have been hectic. Anyways, this is mostly a filler chapter. Things are going to start heating up really soon. Read. Enjoy. Review. Be happy. :)
CHAPTER 6: A LOST HUG
In which the only thing Jaz wants is the only thing she can't have
Prodding the fire with her stick, she sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve.
Jaz squatted on the cold, mossy floor, the eerie silence breaking only to the crackling of the fire. Nico sat across from her, on the other side of the fire, staring at the fire, his dark eyes reflecting the licking, orange flames.
Somehow, after that incident with him, the son of Poseidon, they stumbled on this place. Some sort of long hallway underneath Camp Half-Blood. Grateful of this solace, they sat down, miraculously built a fire, and did nothing else. At one point, they tried to communicate with each other, but with the first word out of their mouth, they dissolved into tears. The first word, the only word they were thinking about, was her name.
Bianca.
Jaz bit down on her lip, poking at the fire more viciously.
She closed her eyes. The only image she could see was her sister's beautiful face.
Bianca. Bianca. Bianca. Bianca.
The word was so normal, flowing off her tongue. So normal yet it brought a pang -no, a stab of hot anguish.
Bianca was only twelve years old.
It wasn't fair.
Tears scalded her eyelids.
Jaz reopened her eyes, a bead of water slipping down her face.
Bianca.
Jaz had no idea how long they had been sitting here. Minutes? Hours? She didn't know.
She shivered and pulled her jacket closer to her. It was so cold.
Jaz opened her mouth.
Nico, we have to go forward. Bianca's gone and we have to move on. I know this all seems dark and endless but it's not. We have a life, a future. Let's get out of the hole and embrace the world. Bianca's death wasn't anybody's fault especially our own. Please, Nico. Lets go.
She closed her mouth.
How could she give Nico that speech, those words of encouragement, if she didn't believe them herself?
Nico threw more sticks into the hungry flames.
It grew brighter.
Jaz leaned forward, trying to feel the warmth.
She felt nothing.
Jaz wondered by she didn't feel cold anymore.
She wondered what the painful emptiness in her stomach was.
She wondered why her skin felt so rough and dirty.
She wondered why her head was so light and empty yet her body wasn't.
She wondered how long she had been here.
She wondered what the gnawing feeling in her heart was.
Jaz lied on the dirty floor, letting the grime cover her.
Just rotting.
She imagined in a few weeks what she will look like. Dirty? Emaciated? Like a nightmare? Heck, she didn't even know what she looked like now.
She sat up, her hair scratching her face as she moved. Jaz brushed the strands out of her face.
"Nico?"
She didn't recognize voice. It was rough and hoarse, a sweet voice gone sour. With a start, she realized that sweet-to-sour voice was hers. Wasted away.
"What," he snapped.
Jaz didn't have the strength to feel hurt.
"Lets go," Jaz said.
Silence. It echoed to the room, its loud sound burning their ears. Wavering loudly and fragilely, like a pane a glass threatening to break with one touch. One word. Silence.
"Okay."
...
They stumbled down the shadowed corridor, the flames of the torch Nico carried illumiating the highlights of his haggard face.
Days ago, she wouldn't have recognized him. All traces of youth and joy was drained out of his face, leaving a pallid shell. Every knuckles and curve of his clenched fist shined out of his skinny hand. The bags of loss and hurt underneath his eyes never looked so dark before.
His mood was irritable and constantly changing. He was closed off and she haven't seen him smile in such a long time. Jaz always liked his smile. But it was gone.
The Nico she knew was gone.
...
And she was pretty sure she was, too.
...
They stumbled down the dark corridor.
"What's that?" Nico said, lowly. "There."
A glowing blue symbol pulsed on the wall. Jaz leaned forward tracing the outline of its shape with her grimy hand.
"It looks... Familiar." Jaz whispered, uncertainly. A faded memory tugged at the base of her skull. "So familar."
She could feel the slow recognition emitting from the dark outline of Nico. He shined the torch against it, as he leaned closer to inspect it. His eyebrow drew together as he stared at it.
"It looks like... It looks like.." Nico trailed off.
His hand rose, a single finger brushing the symbol. A bright, swirling light filled with all colors swallowed them up, taking them away. Far away.
Jaz clutched Nico's arm as they blindly walked the bright city, dazed.
The lights, the sounds, the feeling, everything, was absolutely breathtakingly terrifying after days of hollow silence in the blind dark. Masses of people crowded the packed streets. Almost every individual had some else with them. Someone to smile and laugh with.
It was Christmas Day after all.
Jaz glanced at Nico. He didn't look at her. But she did. She looked at him, really looked at him.
Lines drew his faces. A tightness pinched the corners of his mouth. His shoulder was hunched as is he carried the weight of the world. There was a excruciating agony in his eyes. Some one who had too much responsibility and loss.
Jaz's heart clenched painfully.
He looked like Bianca.
A sour bitterness entered her mouth. She wondered if it was her fault Bianca had to bear that burden. That look.
She decided she no longer liked Christmas.
But Jaz also wondered if she bore that look, too.
Jaz bit into the stale bread. The cheese had the texture of plastic.
It was the best they could afford. Jaz and Nico ate the sandwich silently, sitting on the dirty alley curb of... Los Angeles? Milwaukee? Nashville? No, San Fransisco. They had travelled to nearly all fifty states in the short period of a month.
They didn't really know what they were doing. They just have to stay in exsistence. No stay alive. They weren't living. Just surviving. They never discuss what their purpose was. Just travel from place to place from the maze. They didn't discuss anything really.
Jaz felt like a husk. A shell of a person walking. Not dead, not living. A dead girl living. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't even look at Nico in the eye. Every step towards any sort of recover hurt. Everything hurt. Because everything felt like her.
Jaz took a bite of the sandwhich. She tasted nothing.
In the dirty puddle, Jaz stared at her reflection.
The first thing she though was, 'Jeez. Wish those dieting girls saw me now.'
Her outer flesh seemed to have melted off, leaving behind someone even Jaz couldn't recognize. Pale skin with crazed fever in her cheeks. Light eyes with a dark ending. Long lips with little color. Long limbs, skinny body. Dangerous movements with a tired grace.
She was a bloody walking contridictary.
Jaz touched her hair. It used to be her pride and joy, How such a short amount of time and short touch could change somebody. It looked dead really. Dead as in someone made it into a rat's nest, buried a mummy in it, and let it rot. Let it rot along with her heart.
She was an angel that fell out of heaven's grace.
She looked at Nico, before iflinching and immediately looking away. He was the carbon copy, slightly skinny male version of her.
Facing the ground, Jaz steeled herself into wrangling Nico to get up and move along.
Let's start our lives. Let's get over this. Let's go.
Instead, saying it more to the rock besides her feet than Nico, she whispered -rasped- to go to Minnesota.
They were somewhere in New York. It was Valentine's Day.
Jaz felt sick. She wanted to crawl in a deep, dark hole and never see the light of day again. Never see anything.
Walking down the streets, she saw something strange.
A boy with dark hair and nerdy glasses, waving his hands animatedly, as he spoke to the red headed girl next to him.
He looked so much like Nico.
The old Nico, of course.
She didn't even know where the new Nico was. He had mumbled to her this morning, he was going to go look around the city, and told her to buy something.
Not anything specific. Just something.
She didn't question him and they parted without another word. Without even acknowledging the other.
Jaz crept closer to the pair, her body half out of the shadows The boy painfully reminded her of what Nico could have been. What their future could have been.
Whispering to the boy, the girl gestured in her direction. No, she gestured at her.
Jaz nearly bursted into the Labyrinth's entrance when she saw theem drawing towards her. But her legs stayed still. A piece of her mind what achingly curious. So curious.
"Are you all right?" the girl said.
Jaz imagined what it must looked like. A dirty, half starved looking girl staring at them from the shadows.
"Yes," Jaz lied. "I'm alright."
"What are doing?" the boy questioned.
Oh, Jaz thought. These type of people.
Smart, good folk with lots of concern about random kids on the street. Mortals.
"I'm playing hide and seek." she whispered in a hushed, fake-excited voice. A background story was already forming in her head. They were easily pouring her mind like true memories. Practice makes perfect. "Don't tell my brother I'm here!"
"Oh?" the girl said, her green eyes unreadable. Smart, nosy people.
"Yep! He's probably looking for me down two blocks." she giggled. "I hid here three times already and he never picks up."
The boy said, "Shouldn't be closer to your parents?"
The fun part. Telling a truth in a mist of lies.
She leaned forward, dropping her voice to a hush. "I don't have parents."
Before they could respond she piped, "Goodbye!"
...
She followed them.
They intrigued her.
The boy and girl entered there large brookstone house, Jaz ghosting behind them. They disappeared through the door. Jaz waited a few moments before ghosting after them, skillfully pickpocketing.
Jaz reappeared in one of the bottom story rooms. More like a loft, actually. It was filled with all they junky, mortal voodoo magic stuff. Crystal balls, odd smells, tarot cards, the whole shebang. It didn't seem like a place two teenagers would live in.
She wandered around, staring at the mortal things. They were so oblivious.
Jaz stayed closer to the bookshelf. For a moment she could have swore she read the words "Greek" on one of the books. She peered at the title. Her dyslexia and the fine amount of dust on it didn't aid her.
Jaz hauled the book off the shelve, its light weight surprising her.
She blew the dust off.
She tried to decipher the jumble of words. She peeled open the cover, the old pages crinkling along with it. The book was worn and nearly yellow if age. The print was tiny, and moving as if there were little ants crawling in her vision.
Jaz shut her eyes for a moment. The book was going to give her a migraine.
Heavy footsteps shook the floors. Jaz's eyes snapped open. She could have sworn nobody opened the front door.
The dark form of a large figure loomed in the edge of her eyes.
She slipped out the window, running through the streets with the book in her hands.
...
Jaz sat on the curb of their temporary alleyway, closing her eyes for a moment. After the hours of reading, the letters of the page seemed to swirl off the page, and circle around her head, waving as if it was doing a belly dance. But she couldn't put the book down. She was fortunate to happen to come across it. The book was so small and thick, the pages never seeming to end. It spoke of spells and myths and lineage. From stories of gods to recipes for potions. Things so utterly mind baffling. How to come across nectar and ambrosia. How to find unicorns. How to make it rain. How to do the most impossible, mythical, magical things. But really, Jaz was interested by all, by it was only one thing that really caught her eye. The thing that would solve her problems. Their problems.
It was so precious. And she was so close.
Jaz opened her eyes.
The sun was already setting, the edges of it dipping underneath the horizon. It seemed to set the sky on fire. In an hour, it would settle into a dark blue, and along with it, Nico would come. He was always back by dark.
She opened the book again, the coat of dust floating off the pages like pieces gold in the dying sunlight. Jaz sighed. She better started reading.
...
Nico set his bag down, by his makeshift bed. He rummaged through the torn up bag and tossed her a green apple, his back still turned. Jaz caught it with one hand. It was slightly bruised. The other hand was still gripping the book. She bit into the apple, the crunch noise resonating the quiet walls of the abandoned factory.
She chewed in the silence, staring at Nico's turned back.
He was only wearing a T-shirt, jeans with holes, and beat up sneakers. It was winter.
"Why aren't you wearing a jacket?" Jaz asked abruptly.
Nico stopped pawing through his things. He glanced at her from over his shoulder. They haven't outright acknowledged each other for a long time.
"I'm not cold," he said finally.
She stated, "It's about 60 degrees in here."
"So what?"
"You should be cold."
He glared at her. "Are you?"
"No," she answered, truthfully. "But I'm wondering why you aren't so I can figure why I'm not. Not cold."
Nico sat down hard. "I guess since Bianca- Bianca-" he choked slightly,"-left, I haven't been warm or cold."
Jaz sat down by him. They stared at the wall. There were five long cracks in the plaster. She bit into the apple, chewing hard. It was slightly sweet. She wordlessly passed it to Nico. Jaz bet he looked surprised, but she didn't look. There was a spider crawling up the wall. Nico took the apple and bit into it. He chewed.
"What if," she said. "You can feel warm and cold again?"
He stared at her. She looked at him. His brown eyes seemed darker somehow.
"What do you mean?" he said, cautiously.
"What if Bianca could come back to life."
He stared at her.
"I found this-" she showed him the small tome, "book. It talks about all the magical thing in the Greek world. It says how you can bring someone back to life."
Jaz leafed through the pages and showed him the section. He took the book from her and stared at it. He wasn't reading. His eyes are only focused on the title of the segment.
"So Minos wasn't lying," he murmured.
Her eyebrows creased slightly.
"Who's Minos?"
Nico looked up, startled as if he didn't mean to let that little piece of information loose. Which he probably hadn't.
"He's, um, someone I met in the labyrinth."
It was Jaz's turn to stare blankly. Nico went on at her silence.
"He's a ghost," Nico added, "And he used to be the King of Crete. And it turns out I'm a son of Hades. The God of Dead and the King of the Underworld. Minos told me."
Jaz somehow doesn't feel surprised. It seemed to click together in her mind. Bianca and Nico being able to banish those skeletons. Nico's strange habits, and interest in the dead. It made sense. But it wasn't surprising.
She continued to stare at him. Out of all the things she could have said, the one question Jaz asked was:
"How come I never met him?"
Nico answered, frustratingly, "He only talks to me."
"No," Jaz said. She could feel a spark of anger. She rephrased her question. "What I meant was why didn't you ever tell me?"
Nico seems confused. Jaz wanted to wring his neck.
"Tell you what?"
She exploded.
"Tell me that you were a son of Hades! Tell me you know a ghost that frequently talks to you! Tell me you already had plans to bring Bianca came to life! Why didn't you tell me!?" she yelled.
For a few moments, Jaz's enraged breathing is the only sound and living thing in the room. The spider on the wall scurries back to its web.
"I don't know," Nico answered at last.
It's quiet. His excuse would have seemed lame, but she understood. She takes one look at Nico's expression and her anger dissipates. She positioned herself so she was facing him now. She grabbed the apple out of his hand and took a large bite.
"When did you first speak to Minos?"
Nico took back the apple, now warm. "About a month ago," he responded and bit into it, the crunching sound resonating through the room.
"How long did you know we can bring Bianca back?"
"Maybe two weeks."
Jaz stared at him, and grabbed the apple. She took the last bite of it. There was nothing left, but the core.
"I want to to talk to him."
...
It turned out Minos didn't like her. She didn't like him either so that was fine. Minos was shady, tricky, deceiving, and the only lead they had to getting Bianca back. Nico seemed to tolerated him, so Jaz tried to do the same. He seemed very interested in her nonexistent powers and demands to know every detail for them. He asked if she had any powers. She flushed and told him no. He made a very pompous, ghostly snort, and surveyed her before deemed her one of the children of a minor shadow-y god. Forget Nico, she wanted to wring his neck.
"You have to focus, demigod!" Minos spat out demigod like a curse, "Focus with your own shadow, mind, body, and soul! Enter the shadow! Become the shadow!"
"Easier said than done," Jaz grumbled quietly, but thankfully Minos was deaf in the midst of his speech.
"Shadow-traveling is a powerful but risky ability. If you don't focus-" he directed this part towards her, "-you'll lose your essence and be lost to the shadow void."
"I'm starting to think shadow traveling is just a myth," Nico said.
Minos rolled his eyes. He seemed to do that act more times than Jaz took breaths, and even more so when they opened their mouths.
"Every child of the Underworld has this power. It comes naturally. In time, of course," he added as Jaz rammed into a brick wall.
She saw fell backwards, stars burning behind her eyelids. Nico -or Nicos- hovered over him, three versions was him wavering.
Jaz giggled, "I didn't know you were a triplet."
On her first day in the Underworld, Jaz had woke up to the sound of weapons. Nico was digging through the pile of swords and arrows Minos had manifested from the armory yesterday, his hair falling over his eyes. He needed a haircut. Her own hair scratched the back of her neck. They both needed a haircut. Jaz sat up. In the fire light, the celestial bronze tinge had casted a caramel sheen on Nico as he rifled through them. He looked like he regained his natural olive tone, and looked nearly healthy. He stepped away. It was just a ruse.
Nico tested his grip on one of the swords.
"Feels nice," he said, "But the balance feels wrong."
"A fine observation," Minos said, appearing out of nowhere. Jaz tensed. He glanced at and scowled, "You, though, need to practice rising earlier. You sleep more heavily than the dead."
Jaz gave her own scowl.
She would have had more rest if Minos hadn't been lingering around. He was more prone to ghost around in the Underowrld than the Labyrinth. He seemed to be haunting them, with the way he floated around camp and through their own bodies. Every time he passed through Jaz, it felt like she was going on one of those loop-de-loop roller coaster. Her body flipping, head whirling, and horrible sensation of her stomach rising as she nearly skipping in the River Styx.
Nico, however, was the son of Hades, Prince of ghosts, so he had little qualms about Minos parading around camp. They quickly learned Nico felt ghostse felt human: solid. Minos didn't step on him and settled on her. She woke up several times in the night, feeling vertigo twisting her inside out.
"The reason," Minos said, "-you feel the wrongness of the blade is because it is not a real blade. Of course, you would know that if you were a real demigod. So inexperienced."
Nico bite the corner of his lower lip.
"Yes," he said, "That's why we should start practicing."
"Indeed," Minos answered with a smile as cold as the Artic.
...
Hours later, Jaz felt ready to collapse, her limbs weighting her down like lead.
"Okay!" she shouted and dropped her sword, "I yield."
Nico, who ran out of energy to look triumph, nodded wordlessly, breathing heavily through his mouth. He dropped his sword along side hers.
Minos floated up to them, brow creased with disappointment. Jaz felt herself deflated. She thought she did pretty well.
"You two did horribly," he said.
Nico winced as Minos clucked, "We have a lot of work to do."
Nico leaped in front of her and caught the swipe meant for Jaz. He slammed into the brick wall with sickening thud. The hellhound advanced towards him. Jaz shoved herself off the ground. She pulled an arrow out of her quiver, notching it on the bow. The hellhound grew closer to Nico. She aimed. It leaped. She let go.
Jaz's arrow flew true and sunk itself into its neck. It roared. The hellhound diverted his attention from him and back at Jaz. It lunged for her.
She knew she couldn't move in time.
She felt her heart slow down. She felt her breathing stop. She felt its breath nearing her face. She felt herself lose substance. She felt herself bleed into the nearby shadow.
There was a whirl of darkness, speed, and eerie sounds, then a flood of light. She was right behind the hellhound. Stumbling with a bleary mind, Jaz sunk her small dagger into its flank. It exploded into a spray of dust all over her.
The next thing she knew, Jaz was feeling the cement pressing against her back and Nico's incredulous face floating above her as her vision darkened.
She wakes up sixteen hours later to find that Nico can do the same thing, and that he's fast asleep besides her.
"A soul for a soul?" Jaz whispered.
They had set camp in the Labyrinth, pitching a little tent and a small campfire. They're dinner -cans of corn and tuna- had been long forgotten in exchange for the prospect of Bianca's new life.
"We're giving someone else up? That sounds-" she hesitated, "Wrong."
"A soft heart will get you no where in a demigod life, di Piante," Minos said, rolling his ghostly eyes. Jaz burned red, embarrassed, "Although we are sacrificing a soul that has cheated Death. One that should be dead."
"So we find a criminal or serial killer, and harvest them?" Nico asked. He looked at her and smiled, "I can't wait to see Bianca, again."
Jaz didn't answered, but instead giving him one of her own smiles. She didn't trust her voice at this moment.
"Foolish boy," Minos hissed, "Do you think a mere mortal's soul can match your sister's soul, a powerful demigod, daughter and Princess of Death and the Underworld realm? Not even close. We need someone else. A soul that has evaded afterlife for a very long time. Someone much more valuable. Much more."
Jaz sat forward.
"Who do you have in mind?" she asked.
A smile stretched across Minos's nearly transplant features, a gleam in his eyes.
"His name is Dedalaus."
Jaz stired her lemonade impatiently, the ice cubes bumping into one another as they swirled. She sighed and she shifted her legs, one over the other. She glanced at the clock and sighed again. She tapped her foot. She stopped. She looked at the clock.
She sighed.
"Will you stop it?" Nico snapped, "It's getting annoying."
"Well, the fact that Geryon left us in his-" she nudged bear head of the rug with her foot," -creepy living room is annoying me."
Nico rolled his eyes, "Let's go find him, then."
Jaz slide off the bumpy loveseat, and brushed her pants off, not wanting any Geryon germs on her. He was a monster. Both figuratively and literally. As a monster from Greek mythology, Jaz should have been more prepared for the sight of him. She expected a normal looking guy, with a tail or claws or an extra pair of heads. She should have been expecting two extra bodies, instead. He was gigantic, a hulking figure that would have been intimidating if it wasn't for his silly apron and nearly funny adjustment to his additional torsos.
Other than that, he was just plain evil. Thousands of animals -sacred animals- being slaughter for army meat. They were living in their own poop and filth because Geryon was too cold to help. Even though Jaz wasn't a vegetarian she could stand this. Survival of the fittest, she would say, but this was cruel. It made her sick with the urge to stab Geryon through all his nearly nonexistent three hearts and dancing over his dust.
Nico, on the other hand, gave her 'the look.' The Get-Yourself-Together-Before-I-Stab-You look. After all, when they got the information they needed, Jaz would be more than happy to banish back to Tartarus.
For a monster with three hearts, he was horrible.
Nico got up and trailed out the doors, Jaz behind him.
He stopped and Jaz nearly toppling on him. She glared at his back.
He didn't notice.
And then, she noticced.
She stopped. She froze. Her stomach filled with acid. Her heart squeezed. Something hot took her over.
Jaz clutched her dagger, more for stabilization than anything else. She narrowed her eyes into slits. She bared her teeth.
"Percy," she snarled as her green-eyed enemy stumbled backwards.
...
Somehow, Jaz ended up tied up and gagged with the side of her face pressed into the dirt. She had a spectacular view of the ants hauling away a bread crumb.
Mere moments ago, Percy Jackson barreled into the house, Geryon close behind, roaring Percy's death warrant. She wanted both of them to die. Both of them were monsters.
She breathed in shallowly, her ribs expanded painfully into the ground. If she could just shadow travel out of her bonds. But her concentration and energy was frayed. Her bones weighted her down and her head spun and she was dizzy and she was humiliated and she was angry. She was so, so, so angry. Her stomach churned and her lungs burned. She had the insatiable urge to bawl her eyes out and tear Percy Jackson into bits.
Stupid sea spawn.
He didn't even think it was his fault. He was still clinging to the innocent card. Still pretending he wasn't the murder.
Bile rose up her throat just thinking Bianca hanging around the guy who killed her.
The door banged open.
Jaz look up.
Percy Jackson survived.
...
"You're saying that Bianca is helping you?" Jaz said, breaking in with incredulous and disbelief lacing her voice.
Nico yelled something indiscinct as Percy nodded solemnly. Something in her chest twisted and gasped.
He isn't lying, it whispered.
And it hurt. Why would Bianca do that? Help her murderer to prevent her siblings from talking to her.
It didn't make sense and she didn't want to know why. She made the mistake of glancing at Percy before whirling away, her stomach clenching. She closed her eyes.
Everytime she looked at him, she could see Bianca walking away from Jaz, her loose hair swaying as she told Nico she joined the Hunters. Everytime she met Percy Jackson's green eyes, she could only see Bianca leaving them to embrace her death.
Jaz exhaled quietly, her breath whistling as it left her mouth.
The prospect of seeing Bianca again made her shaky and indecisive. She felt like herself nearly a year ago.
She was a lot different then.
Weak and dependent, she thought, bitterly. So weak and dependent her own sister got sick of her. She'd never go back to that.
She opened her eyes, and met Percy Jackson's sea-like eyes, her chin up.
"Then let's prove it. Tonight, we shall summon Bianca."
...
Jaz kept her eyes glued to the oncoming hordes of ghost, their nearly transparent bodies shimmering as they neared. They repeated this process so many times, over and over, and every time, she left with her hands bleeding from trying to collect the shards of her heart. Not once, had they even caught a glimpse of Bianca.
What really scared her was that she was started to forget her. Bit and pieces of Bianca were slowly wearing away from her memories. One morning, Jaz had woken up and realized she did not remember the sounds of Bianca's voice. Not remember where each of Bianca's freckles were or what her hair smelled like or what it felt like to be hugged by her.
Even in her own mind, Bianca was slowly leaving her.
Jaz blinked, not really realizing her eyes were getting wet. She widened them slightly to let the tears dry before they fell.
She, once again, skimmed the crowds of spirits. Bianca's presence wasn't there.
But something else was so recognizable after months of him trodden on Jaz during her sleep. She stepped in front of him, glaring, hoping the message would come across. It didn't. He tried to move forward, but Jaz raised her dagger, before immediately dropping it. She couldn't command ghosts like Nico and couldn't ward her mentor off without skewering him.
Jaz could feel the smugness vibrating off him, as he floated past her towards the Septic tank filled with root beer.
He knelt and drank.
He rose, this time, almost solid as a human. To her surprise, he gave Percy Jackson a wicked grin, malice coating his features.
"My, my, my," he hissed, "Sons of Poseidon haven't improved over the centuries. Have they?"
Nico snarled at Minos, commanding him to stay back. Minos replied, biting a response from almost all of Percy Jackson's group. The conversation roared on, Jaz taking mental notes of their hostility to Minos. Demigods don't seem to welcome ghosts. Or anyone related to ghosts. She scowled heavily. Finally, Nico waved his hand impatiently, dismissing Minos. He obliged albeit grudgingly.
He disappeared in a swirl of ghostly matter. It was suddenly so very quiet.
Jaz waited.
After ten minutes, she could feel her hope diminishing. Bianca wasn't coming. Something prickled at the base of her neck. She turned her head.
A silver spirit, glowing stronger and brighter than the rest, floated forward thIt rough the mills of ghosts. It's distinguishable figure seemed... Familiar. Something about it was painstakingly familiar. It ghosted towards Jaz. She lowered her dagger and let it pass, Percy following in her example.
It floated towards the tank of root beer. It knelt to drink as a spirit, and rose as Bianca di Angelo.
Jaz didn't know she dropped her dagger until she hear it clattering on the ground, but even that was unimportant. Everything seemed unimportant compared the ghostly body of her sister.
She's beautiful, Jaz thought.
She never realized how utterly beautiful her sister was. Not only did her dark Italian appearance show her beauty, but how she simply acted. Jaz had forgot how her hair fell into her eyes or how her green cap covered a small sliver of her face or even how Nico looked almost exactly like her.
She's beautiful, Jaz thought before something bitter slipped into her mouth, She was beautiful.
With that thought, Jaz stumbled forward, desperate for her sister. For her sister's voice, her presence, her touch.
"Bianca!" she whispered, breathily, "Bianca!"
Bianca turned to her, her entire image flickering. Something cold wrapped around Jaz's heart. She realize Nico was right besides her until he spoke.
"Bianca!"
She regarded them with sadness, "Nico, Jaz. You've both gotten so tall."
Jaz nearly choked with tears.
Nico took up the position of words for her, expressing both their disbelief.
"Why didn't you answer me sooner?" he said, "We've been trying for months!"
"I was hoping you would give up."
Something inside Jaz shattered.
"Give up?" Jaz cried, "You're our sister! We'd never give up! Why would you want that!?"
"We're trying to save you," Nico said, his voice strained.
"You can't. Don't do this. Percy is right."
"No!" Jaz's voice came out as a strangled scream. "He's wrong! Don't listen to him!"
"He let you die! He's not your friend!"
Bianca's eyes were sad. She leaned forward to embrace them, but her form dissipated as it got close to the beat of a living heart. Bianca's misty figure washed over Jaz. It wasn't the warm hug she remembered. The warm hug she longed for. Her sister was so close yet so far away.
"You must listen to me," Bianca said. "Holding a grudge is dangerous for children of the Underworld. It is our fatal flaw. You have to forgive. You have to promise me this."
"I can't," Nico whispered. "Never."
"Percy has been worried about you both. He can help. I let him see what you were up to, hoping he would find you ."
"So it was you. You sent those Iris-messages," Percy said, the realization dawning to him.
"What!?" Jaz rasped, reeling back. "Why would you-"
"Why are you helping him and not me?" Nico broke in. "It's not fair!"
"You are closer to the truth now. It's not Percy you're mad at. It's me."
"No."
Jaz shook her head, frantically, her throat seemed to be caving in.
"Nico, you're mad because I left you to become a Hunter of Artemis. Jaz, you're mad I joined even though I knew you wouldn't. You're both mad because I died and left two alone. I'm sorry for that. I truly am. But you must overcome the anger. And stop blaming Percy for my choices. It will be your doom."
"She's right," Annabeth interuppted, giving Jaz time to blink the tears away. "Kronos is rising. He'll twist anyone and everyone he can to his cause."
"I don't care about Kronos. I just want my sister back."
A tear slipped down Jaz's face. It was cold.
"I need you, Bi," Jaz whispered. "I just need you to hold me again."
Biana's ghostly arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes were saddened. She shook her head.
"You can't have that."
"I'm the son of Hades! We can."
Jaz nodded, furiously.
"We have ways!" she yelled. "I- We- You can be brought back!"
"Don't try," Bianca refused. "Of you love me, don't..."
The ghosts around them stirred, their hushed murmurs rising with panic.
"Tartarus stirs," Bianca said. "Your power draws the attention of Kronos. The dead must return to the Underworld. It is not safe for us to remain."
"Wait. Please-"
"Goodbye, Jaz. Goodbye, Nico. I love you both. Remember what I said."
"Bianca!" Jaz cried as she lunged forward, but, like always, Bianca left before she could reach her.
Jaz stared at the empty place where Bianca was with horror, before shivering.
It was so cold.
...
When Jaz was nine, there was a thunderstorm over their boarding school. Lights flashed outside the window, long, white steaks blind in in the dark sky. Blinding, but radiant. It was so beautiful, it hurt. Of course, with something that bright, and that untainted had to be smothered by something. The thunder. It roared and striked and boomed, Jaz leaping out of her skin everytime she heard it. It was like an explosion trying to ruin the lighting's beauty.
She had confessed to Bianca about it, and, in turn, Bianca had covered Jaz's ears, so she could watch the lightning filter soundless and prettily across the inky background.
Jaz had once idly wondered if Bianca ever got tired of covering her ears for her.
She dismissed that thought before it even started to bloom.
Now, Jaz thought as she looked to the sky, she wondered if when Bianca got tired of shielding them from the thunder. Shielding from the world. Shielding them so they could only see the light side of it.
Was it when they entered Westover Hall? Was it when they crashed her friend's party and nagged her to come back, ruining her chances of making friends? Or was it earlier than that when they entered their first boarding school? Or when they started playing in the Lotus Casino? Or even before that?
But if she was tired, why didn't she ever say anything?
Selfish, Jaz thought, She wasn't selfish in the beginning, but to leave so abruptly was selfish. Bianca had uncovered her hands from their ears just as the loudest bolt of thunder hit. So loud and they were so unprepared. Selfish. They had turned around, their ears bleeding, and when they did, she wasn't there. Selfish. She left them so unprepared, so weak, so scared. Selfish. She just left them. Selfish. No, she left Jaz. Selfish.
She left when Jaz needed her most.
Selfish.
All Jaz wanted was one more warm hug from Bianca.
That's all she wanted before Bianca left. That's all she wanted after she left.
But, apparently, that was too much to ask.
Jaz didn't even know she was crying until the warmth of the rising sun started drying her tears.
...
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Grover asked.
"Yeah," she said before wincing at how raspy her voice was.
Grover and Jaz stood slightly apart from the group. He seemed to always be extra concerned towards her wellbeing, for some reason. Whether it was out of pity or sends of responsibly as the one who found her, it unnerved her. The first time she met Grover, he was this goofy kid tripping over his feet trying to get to the enchiladas, but now he was this adult figure. She couldn't seem to shake the image of a gangly, social awkward kid out of her mind, and it was extra confusing seeing Grover be so mature. People really do grow up.
"Really?" Grover said skeptically.
"I'm fine, Grover!" Jaz snapped a bit too loud. "Stop coddling me! I'm okay."
A few people glanced over at them. Jaz flushed.
"I mean," she said in a softer voice, "Thank you, but I'm good."
Grover didn't seem to believe her, but also didn't know what to say, so he settled with nodding his head before stepping back to follow Percy. Nico backed off from Percy as Grover approached them, his long robe trailing behind him as it twisted with dirt and grass. Annabeth took his place in the tightly knit circle with Tyson by her side.
They stood together so confidently, so trusting in each other, Jaz remembered the first time she saw demigods in action.
Jaz's eyes followed the four as they left for the labyrinth. She shuddered, thinking of the long, cold passageways she spent roaming in despair, but it was nothing compared to the empty hallows of her heart that were caving in on her.