A/N Hey, guys. Long time, no see. I'm sorry that I've been gone for ... geez, what, seven months? somethin' like that. Anyway, i was just online today, reading a great story - Life's Complications 1 & 2 by kuntakintae (I really recommend reading it) , and I just felt like writing. I still have no idea where my notebook is, but I'll try to do my best to remember what I'd written. And, actually, I'm making some changes to it to make it cooler~

Now, I have no idea when I'll have the time or the will to write again, so don't get your hopes up too badly. I hope that I'll write again soon, but you never know. Anyway, I've blathered on too long, enjoy~

The Loss of a Hero: Chapter Nine

Nico POV

I slashed my Stygian Iron blade through the last storm spirit, leeching the life-force from it until it dissipated into nothingness. My vision was tinted slightly red from anger, until a cool hand touched my back, sending a pleasant feeling through me as all my cuts and wounds healed. I turned, my rage held back for a few moments. "Thank you, Eve," I said to the blue-eyed nymph. She smiled. I held my hand out, and she took it. We ran towards a tree, jumping into the shadow and whisking off.

We'd been doing this for a few weeks now. My anger had become almost uncontrollable after my hopes of rescuing Percy had been dashed, and I'd gone off on a campaign of destruction against every monster I saw. I would shadow-travel somewhere, then destroy very last monster I could possibly find. As I traveled and destroyed, my rage only built, and the only thing that provided even momentary relief was Eve. She had some sort of soothing powers, and an ability to heal that I was grateful for. Only once every monster in my sight was eradicated did she approach me, and then she would calm me down, if only for a few seconds. But it always came back, and I would shadow-travel off with her somewhere else, and begin the process anew.

We materialized somewhere in an open, grassy area., and instantly I was alert. Something didn't feel right. My senses honed in on a presence that was watching me. Waiting for me. I looked around, and saw up ahead, a storm spirit. It was in storm-angel form, and it carried a wicked, evil blade. It was stronger than any storm spirit I'd ever seen before. It smirked.

"What's wrong, Son of Hades? Lose something?" it called out mockingly. "Or, should I say, lose someone?" It laughed, and I felt the rage start to boil.

"Choose your next words carefully, spirit," I spat.

It raised its eyebrows. "Ooh, scary! Wait, no.. I lied." It laughed again. "Can't you feel it, Child of Death? Can't you tell whose blood is on my hands?"

I focused, and I felt an echo of a spirit - the last traces of a life once lived - on his hands. I concentrated.

It came to me in a flash of hate. "You..." I momentarily lost the ability to speak out of rage.

The storm spirit cupped a hand around his ear mockingly. "Sorry, what? Didn't catch that, quite."

I unsheathed my blade, which started glowing purple in response to my anger. "You... you killed Percy." My words were a dead calm, but I was shaking in rage.

"Ding-ding-ding, give the boy a prize!" It grinned at me.

I glared at it. "Are you just stupid? Do you want to be destroyed?"

The spirit chuckled. "Ah, not quite. You see, I've been blessed by the Earth Mother," it said. "I've gained quite a bit of power... and a legion of my own."

As soon as he said that, the sky turned dark with clouds as innumerable storm spirits touched down in the form of tornadoes, then rose on smoky wings as Storm Angels. I couldn't count how many there were. Still, the anger coursing through me continued to build.

"You see? You are but one, and cannot defeat me," it said, but then it glanced behind me. "Oh-ho! not just one, are you?" It laughed. "A son of Hades and a nymph? Shame, shame," it said mockingly.

I looked it with absolute loathing.

"Ooh, are you fond of your little girlfriend? It would be a shame, you know, if something.. happened to her." It smirked.

"Don't you touch her!" I yelled. I called on my power and encased Eve in a bubble of black energy.

The storm spirit snickered. "Rudeness is an undesirable quality, Nico."

"Your life is an undesired quality," I said.

"Oh? Well, come and take it, if you can!" It raised its sword, and I mirrored the action. The spirit met my eyes with a cold smile. "Let's see if I can take your life as quickly as I did Percy's."

I snapped, and then rage consumed me.

The first thing I did was shadow-travel Eve to Camp Half-Blood to keep her safe. Then I lost all control.

The sky was dark with clouds from the storm spirits' arrival, but now it turned ink-black as I sealed us in a dome of energy several miles wide. A storm began to form, and it was filled with my personal touch of death. I screamed in rage, and the fight began.

My blade, glowing purple with death-energy, smashed and rang against the blade of the storm spirit, who parried and blocked with ease. Again and again, we were almost perfectly matched. But as the spirit gained a bit of ground, it smirked again, and I realized with a shock that it was playing with me. That's when I went insane. An explosion of dark energy shook the ground, and the dome shattered as a pillar of death-storm energy split the ground, shooting up into the sky. Ribbons of black power streamed into me, from the ground, the sky, everywhere, filling me. Consuming me. Shattering me.

"Nico!What happened? What are you doing?" I heard behind me. I didn't have to turn to see Hades. I saw everything. "Begone, Father!" I said, my voice layered with power. I raised my hand, and a sphere of black encased Hades, then vanished.

The storm spirit laughed. "Don't want your daddy sending you to your room, eh?" It swung its blade, and I met it with a lightning-quick strike. It grunted, then smiled. "Ah, now we're more on my level!"

Nothing it said reached my ears anymore. My blade swung on its own, slamming into the blade of my foe over and over, increasing in speed and power with every strike. The Storm Angels below almost rose to join the fight, but I called on the dead with less than a flicker of thought. Spirits and skeletons came from the split and broken ground, rising to meet the Storm Angels in battle, who were already weakened from the pillar of death-storm energy that still shot from the ground. They clashed, and every spirit that fell only added to my ever-increasing power.

We seemed to fight for eons. Slowly, I ate away at the storm spirit's life-force, sucking it away with my Stygian-Iron blade. Slowly, the strikes that met mine lessened in power. And all the time, my power grew. I was no longer Nico di Angelo. I was Death itself.

Annabeth POV

Kairi and I were eating in the pavilion when a tremor ran through the ground. An earthquake? I thought.

A rush of dark energy blasted in the center of the dining area , and out of it fell a girl. I ran to help her up. She lifted her face, which was contorted with fear, but that wasn't what caught my attention. She wasn't a girl, she was a nymph. She looked around wildly. "N-No! Nico!" she said, and my blood ran cold.

"What? What happened to Nico?" I asked frantically.

She curled up and started sobbing. "I-I think he's lost control.."

I stared at the pillar of darkness that had just shot up, miles and miles away, and I hoped against hope that somehow he could regain himself, for nobody could possibly approach that.

End of Chapter 9

Welp, I hope you enjoyed that, guys! Now you know - Never get on Nico's dark side!

I'll be deleting the previous Author's Note chapters, 'cuz I know how annoying it is to have those in the middle of a story.

Read and Review, alright? thank you all, and so sorry again for the long, long wait.

*Update* Right, there is a poll on my page concerning Nico. I need some answers, please, so I know how to shape the story! If you're reading this, please take the two minutes and go to my profile and answer the poll! Thanks!

-Ben