Ex-Nemesis

CHAPTER 20: UP THEIR GAME.

A/N: Sorry for the late update.

Anyways, SHOUT OUT TO Ash-TheHadesDemigirl, IamacrazyFanatic, Pinkiepizza46, hanyucai, xoxo_daphne, and night_day_7-13 for guessing the right cousin! IT'S Persassy!

"Mother."

Will sucked in a quiet breath as he heard Hazel speak the word.

Hazel and Nico were siblings, so Hazel's mother was also...

...Nico's mother.

He risked a glance at the said teen. Ghostie was watching, body as still as a statue, the only movement being the slight swish of his bangs, visible under the hood, as the night wind blew against them.

He was tense, Will could tell, and was holding his breath, but Will had no idea what expression lay beneath his silver mask.

"Hazel," a voice addressed the girl from the darkness of the room, "don't tell me you've failed again."

Will felt Nico stiffen.

Hazel hung her head, ashamed, "I'm sorry, mother."

'Mother' finally came into view, illuminated by the faint light of the street lamp nearby.

Will heard Nico draw in a breath and thought, "finally, some kind of reaction!" subconsciously.

The woman was middle aged, probably, but her face was pale and ageless, dark hair cascading down her shoulders, and green eyes sharp and calculating.

She was beautiful.

But she looked nothing like Nico.

Will leaned in and risked whispering in his ear, "is that-"

Nico did not answer, instead brought a finger to his lips, signaling Will to remain quiet.

The woman at the window furrowed her eyebrows, her red lips pressed in a thin line, every feature on her face suggested disappointment and rage. She glared at Hazel's bowed head, as if she would gladly burn her caramel curls with the intensity of her gaze.

Will had thought Hazel had an intense glare, now he can see where she got it from.

Does Nico have such a hard glare too? Will had never seen Nico REALLY lose his temper when he was in his civilian form and even if he got mad while he was Ghost king, Will had never seen him without his mask while on the job.

Ugh, Will, why are you wondering about this now?

The chiding voice in the back of his head (which sounded suspiciously similar to Nico) reminded that he had to focus on the task at hand.

Get a grip on yourself. 

Yep, definitely Nico's voice.

Will extracted himself from his mindscape and trained his eyes back on the scene unfolding before them, only then realizing that his gaze had shifted to focus on Nico. When? He had no clue.

Nico seemed unaware of this, or he just chose to ignore it (Will suspected it was the latter, considering the fact that nothing seemed to go unnoticed by Nico), and stared straight ahead.

The woman glared not only at Hazel, but at the wounded henchmen behind her, "there were two of them... TWO!"

Aaaand Will can DEFINETELY see the family resemblance.

The woman took a deep, calming breath, taking a moment to compose herself, before plastering a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. She curled her long fingers beneath hazel's chin and lifted her head gently, so that she would look her in the eye.

"It's okay, but I won't tolerate another failure again, Hazel darling, you hear me?" her voice dripped of sweetness and venom. (A/N: PINK TOAD- sorry- DUMB-B*TCH- sorry- UMBRIDGE ALERT!!)

"Y-yes... mother," her voice sounded so meek and broken, compared to when she faced them off with her gem encrusted fists. Where had her bravado gone?

Will felt Nico tense, as if about to pounce and drag Hazel away from this woman. Before he could do anything reckless, Will placed a gentle hand on his cloaked shoulder. And that's all it took for him to deflate.

"You want to avenge your brother, isn't that right?" the woman whispered to Hazel, "then you mustn't hold back, you mustn't think, you should only strike."

Hazel nodded slowly.

The woman smiled sweetly at her, and Will half expected to see that she had fangs and was relieved and albeit a little disappointed that she didn't.

What? It would've been a little exiting, fighting a monster!

Until it tears you to shreds. 

Ah, there was that reasonable voice in his mind... definitely Nico's. Will had no idea when Will's 'reasonable' voice that resonated every now and then when he was thinking bull***t, converted in order to sound like Nico. But he was glad it did, it made him want to listen to the voice, when earlier he just remained blissfully ignorant of it.

The woman continued her talk, "it seems that we'll have to up our game, Hazel... Ghost king won't know what hit him."

"Yes mother," Hazel agreed like a slave.

Will's heart dropped, what were they planning on doing?

Will didn't know if he WANTED to know. All he knew, was that, he needed- he wanted- to protect Nico.

The woman moved aside from the window, and beckoned Hazel in. The henchmen followed her inside, disappearing into the darkness of the apartment.

The woman suddenly poked her head out, just when Will was about to move, and gave the area a once over. Her eyes settled on the chimney behind which they were taking cover behind. It was almost as if she could feel her privacy was being invaded. She stared at the chimney long and hard, before eventually taking her gaze off of it, shrugging and sliding the window pane shut.

He suddenly felt Nico's hand on his shoulder, dragging him into the shadows. They appeared on top of a roof that Will recognized as his own.

Nico stumbled, but caught himself, and flopped down on the roof, tired.

Will knelt by his side, "you okay?"

Nico grunted back, "just tired."

Will sat himself down next to him, debating whether he should or should he not voice his question.

Nico sighed, sensing his hesitation, "quit chewing your lip just ask the damn question."

"Was she your-?"

Nico shook his head.

"Huh?" Will didn't even try to mask his surprise, "but Hazel... she-"

"I have no idea what going on, Solace, but I know that woman, and she sure as hell isn't my mother."

Nico was quiet for a moment before continuing, "she's quite a popular figure in the underworld business."

Will frowned, "how do you-"

Nico raised a gloved hand and looked at it, clenching his fist, "I had to get this suit made somehow, right?"

"Oh..." Will's own suit wasn't made by the cleanest, so he couldn't say anything about it, "well... who is she?"

He could basically feel Nico's bated breath, "she's called...

... Hecate."

Word count: 1071

A/N: BOOM!

What do you think??? Story good so far??

And I have to dish out another shout out!

Give it up for Fan for guessing who this 'mother' was!!