HI! I'm soooo sorry for taking a bajillion years; I've been sick for a week -.- any who, ENJOY!
Nico:
Nico and Ever sat quietly underneath a tree, both of them breathing heavily. Earlier, he had been going over certain sword techniques. Afterwards they walked towards the treeline and collapsed beneath a tree. Ever seemed quieter than usual, but Nico didn't want to point it out. He wasn't sure if their friendship was big enough to include problems.
They sat silently before Ever turned to Nico and gave him a giant frown.
"How did you get to Camp Half-Blood?" She asked suddenly, her eyes focused completely on him. Ever looked thoughtful as she studied his shocked reaction. Nico thought she looked like she wanted him to answer some unasked question. Kind of like a trick question where you answer truthfully but you end up giving the other person the wrong answer.
I've been watching too much Soap operas. He thought to himself ridiculingly. Why would she have an ulterior motive? It's not like my answer could impact her entire life.
He hesitated for a moment. Although actually getting to Camp Half-Blood wasn't the source of his grief, it was sort of a chain reaction. Camp Half-Blood, Bianca and the Hunters, Percy telling him she was killed, seeing her ghost…they were all connected.
"Well…Percy, Annabeth, and Grover went to get me and my sister at a dance—"
"You have a sister?" She asked, her eyes brightening slightly. Nico winced and glanced down.
"Had a sister."
Ever looked down and sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."
"S'okay."
"Continue."
Nico rolled his eyes slightly. Although he could tell she felt bad for mentioning his sister, she never got off track. "They got me and my sister at a school dance, and they were going to bring the two of us back when a manticore attacked us. Bianca became a Hunter of Artemis, and I went back to Camp."
Ever scrunched her nose and looked like she was deep in thought. "That sounds less dangerous than it should be."
Of course she would say that. Nico snorted and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She was staring into space, and Nico wondered what she was thinking. Ever was frowning slightly, and a calculating look dominated her face. He had never seen her concentrate so much.
With every ounce of courage he could muster, Nico asked the question that had been on his mind all day. "What's wrong?"
Ever sighed and turned towards him, as if she had been waiting for him to ask that exact question. "What did your parents think? Well, parent. Or adopted family. Foster family? I don't know, whoever was in charge of you. What did they think?"
Nico frowned and collected his thoughts and memories. "I was in the Lotus Casino for a while, and we were gone before my mom could say anything. I'm not sure how she would have reacted." He looked down. What would she have thought? When he first went to the Lotus Casino he was, what, eleven? Twelve? Add 4-5 years, not including the time spent in the casino, and you'd get forgotten memories. Throughout everything that happened, there were bound to be some things he forgot. His mom was one of them.
"What's the Lotus Casino?" Ever asked curiously.
"A casino that satisfies your desires so you never leave and never age."
Once he saw Ever's face he immediately added, "Never go there."
She rolled her eyes and bumped shoulders with him. "Wow, you have so much trust in me."
"I try."
Ever smiled slightly before frowning again. Her gaze was unfocused, and she looked thoughtful again. "I've been worrying about my parents lately."
Oh, that's right. She was adopted.
"I mean my adopted parents." She quickly added, although that wasn't necessary. "They've always been good to me, and I feel bad for leaving them. Especially since I had a big job."
"What do you mean?" She had never told him about her family. They seemed to be a touchy subject.
"Well, I already told you that my mom was—is—a lawyer. She was always busy, and it didn't help that we moved all the time. She had a hard time finding work whenever we moved. Then she'd get in what she called her 'Business Grooves', and we'd move not long after."
Ever paused before she continued. "My dad's an important figure in government. I have no idea what he does, though. They never gave me details. The only thing I figured out was that his job included moving a lot."
"Why wouldn't they tell you?"
"The owner of the adoption center might or might not have told them about my tendency to spill the beans."
If the owner knew her long enough to tell the parents that, how long had she been under adoption?
I voiced my thoughts, but Ever just swatted my shoulder. "Getting there! Anyway, I was at the adoption center for about…ten years? Maybe eleven, before they adopted me. According to the nurses I was a loud baby and no one wanted me 'cause I made such a racket."
Doesn't sound too far fetched.
Ever apparently heard what he was thinking because she shot him a glare before continuing. "When they adopted me, they already had two kids and one on the way. Edward, who's a year older than me, Percy, which I find hysterical now that I'm here, and the baby, who would soon be Cassie. The two of them adopted me because they knew they would be too busy to take care of the baby, and well, they were kind of tired of hiring sitter after sitter."
Slowly, Nico put two and two together. "They adopted you to be their nurse maid?"
"Ding ding!" Ever said loudly in confirmation. "It's kind of stupid because one would assume Edward could do that. Except—"
Nico waited patiently for her to finish.
"Except he was busy trying to become a professional football player."
"Seriously? What about Percy?"
"He was only five years old."
Nico nodded in understanding.
"I mean, they adopted me for a sole purpose, and I just shadow traveled away…" Ever sniffed, and Nico could see her eyes start to water. Frankly, he was startled and a little scared. He had no clue what he was supposed to do. The only thing he had to help him were cheesy movies Hazel made him watch. Nico was pretty sure Ever would not appreciate him gathering her in his arms and showering her in kisses like the guys in movies.
Suddenly, Nico felt the ground shifting underneath him. The tree groaned and cracked alarmingly. Nico and Ever backed away warily, watching as its branches swung around randomly. Vines sprouted out of the ground and quickly wrapped itself around the tree. It squeezed the trunk until the tree literally—literally—shattered into a million pieces. They both threw up their arms to shield themselves from the bark shards.
"What's happening?" Ever cried out as the grass around them shot upwards and grew at an alarming rate. Nico grabbed her arm and stood up, picking her up with him. He didn't miss the tear that slowly went down her cheek.
The grass curled around their ankles like claws and inched their way up their legs. Nico kicked at them and ran, pulling Ever with him. The trees around them swayed and leaned towards them as if to trap them in the forest. The grass grew like talons and tried to wrap around them. Luckily they hadn't gone too far into the forest; before long they burst into Camp and ran for their lives.
"Why is the vegetation trying to kill us?!" Ever howled as the grass kept coming. That was when Nico noticed the glowing, floating thing above Ever's head.
"Ever, stop!" He yelled at her forcefully. She stopped abruptly and stared at him questioningly, the grass slowly curling up their legs. "Look up."
She did and gasped in amazement. Above her head floated the sign of Demeter, claiming Ever as her daughter. Everything clicked in that moment.
Son of death and daughter of life,
Face the dilemma of eternal strife,
Staying loyal till the coming death,
For one will face their very last breath.
Son of Death. Nico. Daughter of Life.
Ever.
"What's this floaty glow thing mean?" Ever asked in wonder, lifting her hand as if to touch it. She was completely transfixed by it, and little flowers started blooming around her feet. "It looks really cool!"
"You've been claimed." Nico said sadly, the prophecy ringing in his ears. Below him, the grass slowly died and withered.
"By who, the god of glow sticks?"
Nico rolled his eyes and smiled wryly. "No. Demeter, goddess of the harvest."
Slowly, Ever seemed to piece everything together like he had. "Is that why all the plants were trying to kill us? They were reacting to my emotions?"
That hadn't occurred to him until she mentioned it. It seemed plausible; Ever had not been too happy when the plants started attacking, and she wouldn't know about the prophecy; he hadn't told her about that.
"Sounds about right." He muttered. "You should go tell Chiron."
"Don't you mean we should go tell Chiron?" She asked with a grin. Nico smiled and shook his head.
"I have some…business to take care of."
Ever shrugged and gave him a winner's grin, clearly happy that she'd been claimed. "Well, I'm one step closer to finding out who my jerk of a parent is! If you ever need any firepower for your business, you know who to call." She winked and started running towards the Big House, flowers sprouting wherever her feet walked. Nico shook his head in amusement and starting walking back into the forest; he had a satyr to find.
~~~{[()]}~~~~~{[()]}~~~~~{[()]}~~~~~~{[()]}~~~~~{[()]}~~~~~{[()]}~~~
Nico found Andrew playing the harp underneath a strange wisteria tree. The satyr's blond hair was still in dreadlocks, but instead of orange ribbon he had green hair ties in random spots. His eyes were outlined in guy liner like last time, but he added sparkly green eyeshadow. His Camp Half-Blood shirt was beaded on the sleeves, and he wore sparkly green christmas tree tights—even though it was July. Overall, Andrew looked absolutely ridiculous.
"I think you've gone a little over the top with the whole 'Christmas in July' thing." Nico commented as he stood over the satyr. Andrew snorted and stopped playing the harp long enough to glare.
"Well look who it is. Nico, everyone's favorite Gloom Guy. What kind of dark magic has brought you here?"
Nico grimaced and plopped next to Andrew, ignoring the satyr's startled look. "It's Ever."
"What about her?" He asked warily.
"She's been claimed."
Andrew grinned. "Good for her! Lemme guess…Hermes? No! Apollo! Or possibly Hecate."
Nico snorted. The strange thing was, he could totally see Ever as a daughter of each of those gods.
Yup, I was right. Something is wrong in the world. I'm actually agreeing with Andrew.
"No, Demeter."
Andrew was silent. Probably remembering the prophecy.
"You remember the prophecy, don't you?"
"Yup." Andrew muttered with nod. "It's probably talking about you and Ever. Personally, I hope you're the one who takes their last breath."
"Thanks." He answered dryly. Although he didn't want to die, he didn't want Ever to die. It was a hopeless situation. The only solution was that Hades would resurrect him afterwords, but Nico found that highly unlikely.
"I guess you'd better get ready then." Andrew added as he fiddled with his harp. Nico gave him a confused look.
"Ready for what? Death?"
"No." The satyr gave him a withering look, and Nico felt like he was missing something. "Son of death and daughter of life,
Face the dilemma of eternal strife,
Staying loyal till the coming death,
For one will face their very last breath. Don't you see? Eternal strife? That means you're gonna have some intense problems before death and even after death. Dude, you've been forever and eternally condemned."
?:
He sat on his throne regally, Enyo stroking his face. She cooed flirtatiously and sat in his lap. "Oh Enyalius, you are simply a genius—"
"—Truly, you shall bring us victory." Melpomene said from behind his, her arms snaking around from behind. A devilish grin came upon him, and the three of them watched as the demigod's blood seeped into the dirt floor. She had been disobedient; refusing to do as he commanded.
"Bring in Voútyro and Gála." Enyalius shouted to his minions, fox-headed beasts he created for his own amusement. The αλεπού, or, Alepoú, scurried off and brought in the two troublemakers. They bickered as they walked in, apparently arguing over their new product, frozen buttermilk.
"Report." He told them in a booming voice. The twin gods gulped and bowed on one knee, keeping their heads to the ground.
"Our squadron has been doing well, Lord Enyalius." Voutyro said, his buttery yellow hair flopping everywhere as he continually bowed mockingly.
"We have successfully…persuaded them." Gala added, glaring at her brother's childish behavior.
"How many are in your flock?" Enyalius growled, wanting to get their talk over with. The smell of blood on the floor called him, and he was hungry.
"Seventy-two, my lord." Gala told him. "We lost our prototype."
"Prepare them for a test run."
Gala nodded, and the two twins ran out of the room.
"Why so soon, Enyalius?" Melpomene cooed as she caressed his face.
"I don't want our quarry dying on us." Enyo pouted with puckered lips.
"Don't worry my destructive beauties, the demigods are stronger than you think." Enyalius muttered with an evil smirk. He stood abruptly and walked out of the room, the two goddesses sulking behind him. He walked down the hallway and relished the groans that came from his quarry.
"They're almost ready. Only two things are missing."
"What is it, my lord?" Enyo asked with a malicious grin.
"We shall collect it for you!" Melpomene added with a cackle.
"Then, my insane lovelies, bring me the condemned."
MWAHAHAHHA! Hope you liked! xD
Hayden: How can I like this when you ended it with the bad guy?!
Me: How do you know he's the bad guy?
Sonic: It's quite obvious.
Me: What if Nico thought he was the good guy but as things went on everything got darker and eviler and at the end of the story you realized he was the bad guy all along.
Hayden: ...
Sonic: ...
Hayden: MIND BLOWN.
REVIEW AND FOLLOW! xD Thanks for reading!