Don't Fear the Reaper

78) Nico Be Sharin With the Class

Nico sat at the desk in his temporary room, wrapping one of the cuts he had on his bicep. Artemis stood leaning against the wall, silently staring at the floor. He knew she was doing him a favor by allowing him to tend to the wounds he could on his own, but her silent presence wasn't exactly a comfort.

"You know my sister..." Artemis said suddenly, the words sounding half way between a question and a statement.

"Jade Nguyen, born name: Jade Crock. Daughter of Paula Nguyen, formerly known as Huntress, and Lawrence Crock, currently known as Sportsmaster. She joined the LoA at around 15, where she quickly rose up the ranks and made a name for herself. She chose the code name Cheshire," Nico said, tying off one of his bandages before starting on the next. "I trained alone side her for a time."

Artemis hummed, not saying anything else for a while. "Is she... never mind..."

"She left the LoA and did not return," Nico said, knowing what she wanted to ask but was too scared of the answer to actually verbalize. "Ra's still has a kill order out on her, but he is not actively deploying people to search for her—or, at least, not that I am aware of."

Artemis let out a deep breath at that, visibly relaxing at the news. She still looked tense, but less so. The blonde glanced at him before gesturing for him to turn in the chair as she approached him, putting out a hand for him to pass over the bandages.

Nico reluctantly did, knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to do it well on his own.

"I am sorry about what happened to you," Artemis said after a solid ten minutes of working in silence.

"Don't be," Nico said, his voice quiet. "You aren't the one at fault for it."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm not still sorry it happened... you seem like a good person."

Nico almost laughed at that. "Heroes like to think that everyone is a good person."

"Are you saying you're not?"

"I've seen first hand the cruelty of man," Nico said, his mind traveling to the time he'd spent in the fields of punishment as a child, studying the wicked and the punishments they received. "Maybe they are born good—I couldn't tell you if they are—but most people certainly do not maintain goodness. Cruelty is much easier than kindness, and most people in the world choose the easy way out."

"Most?"

Nico shrugged slightly before getting smacked lightly on the shoulder for moving while the blonde wrapped a deeper cut that ran across his shoulder blades. "I have fought my entire life, and for a while, I thought I was going good. I did what was right and I helped people... and there was no good that came out of it for me. I saved lives, and yet I could never quite save enough. I tried my hardest to give my life for a good cause..."

"And?"

"And I was never allowed to die for the noble causes..." Nico said, rolling his neck slightly. "Instead, I wound up dying, time and time again, for the cruelty that existed. I've been killed more times than I can count, but never nobly. It didn't matter if it was a knife to the heart, a bullet through the neck, or poison in my cup—no matter what, it was always a cruel end with an even crueler beginning."

"I doubt you're talking about reincarnation."

"No, I've never stayed dead long enough for that to come into play," Nico said, chuckling lightly. "My eyes, the green color isn't just from some crazy genetics."

Artemis hummed, finishing tying off the last bandage. "I suspected not..."

"You said you were sorry for me and that you think I am a good person..." Nico said after a moment of just watching the woman pack away the supplies. "Would you still be sorry if I wasn't one?"