Hi, guys! Happy Independence Day! I'm back with a new fanfic on something I've had my mind on for a while now. Now my favorite character in all of Rick Riordan's works is Nico di Angelo and I love Fate, so why not combine my two passions? I do hope you all enjoy.

I also crossposted on Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. And I'm looking for a co-author who might be interested in working with me on this fic, if someone's interested

"Talking."

Thinking

It's his fault, it's all his fault!

Nico di Angelo raced through the dark cavern, running as fast as he can. The demigod felt his legs sore, his heart pounding, his lungs on fire. He'd been running and running for days; they were sure to be after him by now. The monsters, Camp Half-Blood, Percy. They were all the same.

They let her die!

Suddenly, Nico tripped, falling onto the rocky surface. Exhaustion suddenly hit him like a truck, the demigod dry heaving. His stomach ached as he hasn't eaten since he left Camp Half-Blood. Nico looked back, seeing he had tripped on a rock that hadn't been there a second ago. He glared at the rock angrily.

This stupid place!

Still, he couldn't hate this place completely. It was his quick escape from the Camp, he found it while hiding in Zeus's Fist. It was complete chance when he first found it, he tried telling someone, but no one would listen. No one even gave him the time of day.

He looked around, his eyes had gotten used to this vast darkness. He had long since forgotten where he originally came from, even if he did, it wouldn't have mattered. He was sure this place moved around, changing shape. Not that it mattered to him. As long as he could get away.

M-maybe I should try to call her again. Maybe it will work? But I have to get out of here at least.
Getting some strength back, Nico forced himself to run again, trying to find the signature triangle, no it was a delta. This was it. He presses the delta, an opening of light shining through. Nico winced; his eyes hadn't seen light like this in so long as he stepped forward. Wincing, he found himself on a rooftop, looking around. He recognized a familiar large building.

"Damnit," he muttered. "Still in New York."

Not far enough.

He turned back towards the entrance when he suddenly felt weak. This was different than before. He may be running on fumes, but he shouldn't feel this weak.

What the-

Darkness began to overtake his vision; he legs giving out and he fell to the ground. He heard footsteps and looked up, seeing an Asian man with strangely red hair.

"This is unexpected."

Nico gave one last reach to the delta before he completely blacked out.

As Nico slept, Nico saw it again. The scene that had been plaguing him for the past few days. It's become so bad that he honestly has been trying to avoid sleeping as much as he could.

There she was, Bianca. She was with the others: Grover, Thalia, Zoe, and him. Percy. They were walking through a junkyard, Bianca briefly admiring a magic bow but reluctantly put it back. However, Nico did see her look at something else amongst the rabble. He recognized it, a cold dagger piercing his heart as he watched them leave the yard.

A feeling of bitterness filled him as he saw them, as soon a giant made of metal rose from the scrap. The group spreads out, but their weapons were useless: Thalia's spear unable to penetrate metal, Zoe's arrows bouncing off the metal, Grover using nature magic to barely slow it down. He saw Percy and Bianca arguing as Grover was knocked away and Thalia was able to down it for a second with lightning, but it wasn't nearly enough. Suddenly, Bianca charged towards the monster, a look of determination on her face.

'No!' Nico tries to scream but nothing but silence comes out. 'Run away, please!'

Bianca dives into a hole in the automaton's foot, getting inside when she began doing as much damage as she could. The others moved once more to fight, only Percy's sword doing any visible damage. Then it came. Nico watched in horror as the giant jerked out of its control, suddenly striking itself over and over again. It stumbled back, not seeing some power lines which it tripped over, thousands of volts of electricity surging through it and consequently, Bianca. Nico felt tears fall from his eyes as he watched the falling apart giant run in the other direction, its pieces collapsing, crumbling in on itself as the others yelled for his sister. Nico tried to scream, but only silence came as his surroundings changed.

It was dark again, he was inside what seemed to be a vast cavern. Suddenly a white light appeared, and he gave a silent sigh. Bianca. Torches suddenly lit around them and three white specters appeared.

"She saved her allies," an old woman dressed like she was from the 1800s started. "And she died valiantly to stop Talos."

"Bah," what looked to be a general from the Civil War spat. "She's the one who woke it in the first place!"

"Punishment seems a bit harsh, Sherman."

"Then the Fields then! Quit being so sentimental, Harriet!"

The two turned to the center specter, who looked like an ancient king.

"I suppose you're the deciding vote, Minos."

The king gave a grin. "I think we can make an exception. After all, she's at least tried to do some good and it wouldn't do anyone some good if she wasn't honored. Our lord certainly wouldn't be happy."

The general scoffed. "Sell-out."

The king ignored the general and grinned. "Congratulations, Bianca di Angelo. You're welcomed to Elysium."

Bianca just stared blankly at them as a door of light appeared, and she turned towards it. Panic filled Nico's expression. No! No! Nico moved to try to grab her hand.

Don't go! Please don't leave!

But his hands went through her, as if she was nothing but air. Bianca walked towards the door and brilliant light filled the room.

"Bianca!"

Nico woke up, in a cold sweat. He looked around, finding himself on a bed indoors. It was well-furnished, stylized with a Western European theme. Nico looked out the window, seeing he was still in New York City.

"Okay… guess I'm still in New York at least."

Still tired, he managed to push himself off the bed and get to his feet, using a nearby chair as a crutch. He wobbled to the door when it suddenly opened. The redhead man from earlier was right outside, holding a tray of food.

"I thought I heard something," the man smiled. Now that Nico got a better look at him, he seemed to be in his early 20s and had amber, almost golden eyes. Strangely enough, there were some silver in his hair, like he dyed it. He had a rogue-ish look to him, battle-tested. But he seemed kind as well. But that's to be seen. "Glad to see you're awake, but please get back into bed. You need your rest."

"Where am I?" Nico demanded. He tried to pick up the chair as a make-shift weapon but his legs were still weak, losing balance.

"Hey!" Faster than Nico could see, the man suddenly put down the tray and grabbed Nico, steadying him. "I just said be careful."

"D-don't touch me!" Nico growled, jumping away, managing to support himself with the bed.

The man winced. "Sorry, sorry. Just wanted to make sure you were alright. We found you near the Labyrinth entrance but in your condition, I'm surprised you're awake so soon."

"What do you mean, 'we?'"

"Shirou?"

A blonde woman stepped into view, looking curiously at Nico. Nico blinked. This woman was beautiful, she had a regal air about her. Still, he was on his guard. She looked a few years older than him and even though she was unarmed, he sensed something… off about this girl. It wasn't natural.

"Ahh, so our guest has awoken then." She gave Nico a look of concern.

"Who are you people? Where am I?" Nico demanded, the woman frowning.

"I understand you're upset at waking in an unknown place but you should calm down," the blonde said before grabbing the tray on the ground. "Here, Shirou's food is excellent. You should have some, it will help give you some stamina."

"Just don't take some for yourself while he isn't looking," Shirou smirked, watching as the blonde's composed expression suddenly turn pink.

"I-I would never steal food from the injured!" the blonde protested.

"Oh really?" This time a brunette Asian woman, looking the same age as this Shirou. "I find that hard to believe."

"Rin, do not spread such rumors!" the blonde protested as the others had teasing looks. "Especially around our guest!"

"Oh that's right," "Rin" said. "I suppose you wanted information. Well please, just sit down and eat first."

Her last few words echoes in his head. He was feeling tired. And he was hungry. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea- NO!

"T-this is… Who are you!" Nico yelled, looking around. They were blocking the exit.

"Did he resist that?" Rin blinked. "Okay, just calm down and-"

"No, get out of my way!" Nico felt the shadows wrap around him, surprising his captors as he felt like he was moving at extreme speeds, suddenly appearing behind them. But when he did it, Nico gasped, a tidal wave of exhaustion hitting his body.

"H-hey! Saber! Catch him!" he heard the brunette's voice shout and felt a pair of hands grabbing him as he collapsed.

"It's okay, young one, I have you," the blonde said. Or rather Saber.

Huh, Saber…

What a stupid fake name…

Nico closed his eyes and was welcomed to the land of sleep once more. Only this time, no dreams came to him.

When Nico woke up, he found himself back on the bed in the same old room, the three from before standing over him.

"Finally. I got a bit scared there when he suddenly teleported. Honestly, who uses an ability like that when they're on their last legs? He's almost as bad as you, Shirou."

"Hey, Rin, I'm not that bad."

The two give him equally unbelieving looks, causing the man to turn away and refuse eye contact.

"Anymore."

The stares continued.

"Oh stop it."

*Clink*

The three turned back to see Nico had tried to get out of bed when they were distracted, only to find a chain around his ankle. The demigod had a frustrated look as he tried to pry it off, but whatever it was, it was bound tightly around him.

"And what exactly do you think you're doing?" Rin asked.

"Oh, you know, just admiring my new accessory," Nico spat.

Rin blinked and then grinned like a predator finding prey. "Oh, he's snarky. This will be fun."

"Who are you guys? What did you do to me?"

"Hey, like we said earlier, calm down," Rin ordered. "I just wasted a decent sized gemstone on you to help restore your Od, you should be grateful. You would have been knocked out for a week afterwards."

"I don't know what the hell that means!"

"It means we're not hostile," Shirou said. "So please calm down."

Nico gives them all suspicious looks, before looking back at the chain. Even if he had the strength to do… whatever that was again, Nico somehow knew it'd be in vain. This chain, it wasn't normal.

"Are you monsters?" he accused.

It made sense. They obviously weren't normal, the blonde girl felt so off, and he knew monsters could look human. Like Dr. Thorn.

The brunette suddenly gave a scary smile, her blue eyes gazing on him coldly. "Do I look like a monster, kid?"

Nico flinched but glared back. "You really want me to answer that?"

Rin was about to reply when Saber put a hand on her shoulder. "Rin, this is unnecessary. Please."

The brunette sighed. "Very well. For you."

Shirou smiled as Rin calmed down before turning to Nico. "To answer your question, we aren't monsters, just humans. Well, Saber's technically human. She's also a spirit and-"

"Okay, Shirou, I think we can leave those details for later," Rin interrupted. "We're magi, kid. At least me and Shirou are. I'm Rin Tohsaka, he's Shirou Emiya, and you can just call her Saber."

"Don't call me kid," Nico snapped. "And magi? Like magicians?"

"Why does everyone make that mistake…?" Rin muttered.

"It's kinda usual, Rin," Shirou said. "Anyways, if you don't like kid, what do you want us to call you?"

Oh, that's right. He never said his name yet.

"Nico," he said carefully. "Nico di Angelo."

"And you're a demigod," Shirou continued. "I'm guessing from that aura, Hades?"

Nico stared. "H-how did you know?"

"The shadows and death aura made things a bit obvious."

"Death aura?"

"Yeah, we detected it when you came out on our roof. Sorry about that by the way. When you stepped out, the bounded field detected your power and incapacitated you. It's just we usually only get monsters coming out of there and the auto-response activated. I don't think you had malicious intent, so that's probably why it only knocked you out."

He was saying a few terms Nico wasn't sure of. Bounded field? And what did malicious intent have to do with anything?

"Anyways, you're in no state to be moving for a bit and especially no state to use any special abilities. So you're going to be staying here for a bit, until you recover," Shirou nodded.

"What?" This was ridiculous! He couldn't just be stuck here until gods-knows when!

"Well a hospital wouldn't really have equipment to help your body recover its Od so we're the best you got."

"Do not worry," Saber reassured him. "We'll take good care of you."

"We'll even take the chain off," Rin promised. For a brief second, Nico thought he saw a devious look in her eye. "Though, you'll have to promise to us not to try running again. And let me tell you, breaking a promise with me is a very stupid decision."

Nico looked around, his body still feeling a bit weak and groggy. His stomach growled.

"Fine," he said. "I'll stay for a bit. Just get this off of me!"

Shirou snapped his fingers and the chain disappeared. He then got back out the tray of food, reheated and placed it near Nico's reach. "Now eat up."

Nico looked at the meal, a continental breakfast like the ones he used to have at the hotel. If they went through all that work to heal him, they probably haven't poisoned it at least. He takes a bit of the egg white omelet and his eyes widen. Delicious. He never had anything like this! Even back at Camp Half-Blood, nothing could really compare!

The trio smile at his reaction.

"Welcome to the Emiya household."

And done. I'm kinda happy with this concept and have been thinking of it a lot. So as you can see, this is Nico just after Titan's Curse but before he summoned Minos. He's currently untrained in both fighting skills and demigod powers. Now he has some teachers! Also, just to reference, Rin and Shirou are the same age as Luke at this time, about 21 if I recall correctly.

Originally, I was planning on just using Shirou and Rin for this, but part of me wanted to add Saber to the group as well so I decided to go with the UBW Good Ending route. This gives a lot of options and I think it works better for the group. Plus, I find it really synergizes the group. They have a fighter (Saber), thief (Shirou), and mage (Rin). Kinda geeky reasoning but I like this composition. And I love Rin, but I also really love Saber, so having them both just seems like fun.

Now for some audience participation. I'm thinking of having Shirou provide Nico a weapon. Either his canon Stygian iron sword or maybe some other weapon; either something fan-made by you guys or maybe a Nasuverse weapon. Add actually seems like a good weapon for him, though that just might be my opinion. Please send your suggestions as comments!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.