Daughter of Zeus - Old

NICO - Answers

NICO DI ANGELO –

Twelve hours down, twelve to go.

I don't think I've stopped smiling since the dream. She appeared, almost like she was saving us from ourselves. Saving us from going further into the battle with the knowledge of her death our only thought.

But she isn't. She isn't dead.

Despite the happiness flowing through me, the joy in knowing Alyssa is alive and still fighting, there is one conception that continues to arise from the ecstasy of cheerfulness.

Tartarus has had fourteen days – nearly fifteen – to attack Alyssa. If she is dead, He wouldn't have anything to hold Him back; nothing to prevent Him from rising.

What if He needs her for His rising?

Maybe that's why she isn't dead, without her He can't rise. But does that mean – is Alyssa better off –

'Nico?' Bianca whispered, her shoulder brushing mine.

'Yeah?' I whispered back.

'Why aren't you dancing with the others?'

I chuckled, humourlessly. Ever since Alyssa came to us in the dream Leo, Bobby and Matthew have been dancing and cheering and been in such a buoyant mood.

I however, have been sitting in the hallway of the Argo II for the last twelve hours.

'What's the point in celebrating?'

'She's alive Nico,' Bianca reasoned.

'What if she isn't?' I voiced, my inner thoughts surfacing.

'Who else would it be?'

'You know exactly who else it could've been, you're just turning a blind eye and pretending that what we saw was real,' I snapped.

Bianca looked down at the floor, 'I want it to be real.'

'I know Bianca and trust me, I do too but you and everyone else seem to think that it was her, that she isn't dead and I'll be honest with you, even I believed it was her. Her voice, her laugh, her appearance, everything was real but it was too real.'

'You're being paranoid,' Bianca replied.

'Am I? Or am I being reasonable?'

'Nico, you don't know her like I do,' she started. 'I have been in her head for two months! Two months of her trying to fit in, of trying to convince her that she doesn't need to leave – that Camp Half-Blood was home. Her real home. She continued to think that everyone was acting, that it wasn't real. Alyssa didn't have the greatest childhood yet she came out as strong as she is!'