Misery Loves Company

McShizzle, VIP of Olympus

A/N Welcome to Part 2 Everyone! I can't believe we've made it, over 65K words later! Part 2 is multi-POV swapping between predominantly Nico, Percy and Will as the plot thickens. There'll be some bonus POVs too, just to spice things up! Enjoy!!

I will never not platonically ship Leo & Nico. We, as readers, were robbed! Also a longgggg chapter (I'm not kidding it's over 6K) to celebrate 10,000 hits (OMG THAT'S INSANE).

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BEGINNING OF PART 2:THE SEA, THE FORGE, THE WISE, THE SUN

If someone had told Leo Valdez five years ago, that his friendship with Nico di Angelo would lead to him standing before the Council of the Gods, he might have laughed in their face. Not because meeting with the Gods seemed unlikely - no, quite frankly he'd met more Gods than he had ever wanted to - but because Nico was the last person he'd have expected to form a friendship with.

You see, the first time Leo saw Nico di Angelo, it was in passing. Just a flicker of movement that drew Leo's eyes to the obsidian mausoleum among the row of cabins. A brief view of a dark silhouette passing the doorway, too fast and too distant to ascertain any details of particular importance.

"That's the Lord Hades' Cabin." Will Solace had told him as they passed the building by, slowing his pace as Leo took it all in.

"The God of Death has kids?" Leo's alarmed gaze went back to the dark cabin.

"The Underworld, actually. The God of Death is Thanatos." Will said, eyes sticking to Cabin Thirteen as he spoke. "And yeah, Hades has a son - Nico. He's- Well, he's not around much."

Something akin to disappointment seeped into the son of Apollo's tone.

"Oh. Is there another camp he goes to or something? Isn't it like dangerous not to live here?" Leo was still trying to understand the whole thing - that Greek myths were real, that there were maybe others in like him.

"Umm no, he does lots of quests for his dad." Will tried to explain, "And I think Percy said he spends time in the Underworld."

Leo blinked at that, "What like in Hell?"

"More like the afterlife. The Underworld has different parts - Elysium is like Heaven for heroes, and the Fields of Punishment I guess would be Hell - or Tartarus, I guess, but that place is for monsters. And then of course there's Hades' Palace. I don't know too much about it all- Apollo's more about life, ya know?"

Leo hummed as if he did in fact know, but truthfully he had no clue exactly what Apollo was the god of, something about healing and music and the sun? One of the campers had mentioned the God crashing the sun into the lake and Leo wasn't quite sure it was a joke.

"He's met his dad then, like actually met Hades?"

"Yeah, I mean he convinced his dad, his stepmother Persephone, and Demeter to fight in the Titan war - so I'd say. Never actually had a long enough conversation with him to ask about it though..." And Leo thought he heard a muttered 'not for lack of trying'.

Then Will continued, "But most of us haven't met our Godly parents - Nico and Percy, they're the outliers."

Percy Jackson had been the talk of the camp since Leo's arrival. Another mystery in the great machine that was Leo's new world. 'Disappeared', 'taken', 'gone' the words haunted almost every conversation he'd passed by, whispered between bunks.

"So, you haven't met Apollo?"

Leo wasn't good with reading people, or he was, just always a moment too late. He could read Will well enough to know he had touched on a sensitive subject but had no idea how to fix it.