Destiny Calls (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

40: The Sad Life of Nico di Angelo

For once I have actually updated on Friday, because THANKS FOR THE 1K READS!!!

After being wrenched out of the memory by Nyx, and then being promised some 'fun time' with Nyx herself, life was definitely not looking up for me. Nyx had trapped me in a maze, a portion of the Labyrinth, most likely, and was making me run through by sending packs of hellhounds after me. She also managed to disable my abilities, so I relied on my superb athletic skills that Percy's life had gained me to flip myself through the every changing hallways.

As I panted, the place around me changed and I found myself once again on the top of Mount Othrys, and I began to dodge the tendrils of shadows that Nyx sent at me, cartwheeling and flipping and rolling my way over and under the menacing darkness. I knew that to keep my charade up, I had to convince Nyx that there was no escape for me. This was the end of the road.

"Stop!" I yelled as I catapulted myself across the cavern, spinning on my heel and shooting an arrow at the incoming waves. Putting my hands in from of me in an X, I braced myself to be overwhelmed by the darkness before it stopped right in front of my eyes. My breathing steadied, heartrate slowed as I knew that Nyx was taunting me. The moment I moved, I would be subjected once again by the limitless darkness, and there was no way that I could resist and run from it anymore.

But the me Nyx knew would keep running. So I did.

Unleashing a wave of moonlight against the shadows that rushed towards me, I flipped myself onto the peak that overlooked California. From my vantage point, bow in hand, my arms moved as fast as lightning. Arrow after arrow, the darkness began to recede, and Nyx clapped underneath me.

"Wonderful performance, my dear Arthella. But you know there is no escape. Sleep." The shadows filled my lungs as I dropped to the ground unconscious, and I heard Nyx say one last thing before I began to slip back through time. "Hope you come out sane. I really would want to have some more... fun."

My eyes snapped open and I saw a kind face above me. Olive skin, obsidian eyes and a playful yet cruel smile. Freckles covered her cheeks and her long black hair framed her pale face. "Hello, Nico."

My mind whirred 100km per hour. Nico? That meant that the girl in front of me was Bianca, Nico's dead sister. Maybe I had become Nico...

No. I was Arthella Dianne Carter, daughter of Poseidon, child of the Moon, champion of Wisdom. I was not Nico.

I was not Nico.

The words rung in my head as Nico's life began to play out. The happy times in World War II as he lived happily in peace with Hades, Maria di Angelo and Bianca. I then watched in horror as the hotel they were in blew up, and Maria's broken form splattered against the floor tiles. Being dragged into the River Lethe, and I just managed to temporarily pulled myself out of Nico's body to avoid having my mind wiped.

I was not Nico. I was not Nico.

I travelled towards the Lotus Casino, and subconsciously felt the hours stretch into years around me. I went to Westover Hall, and as I watched Annabeth, Thalia and Percy fight off the Manticore, I couldn't help but let my heart feel warm as my brother and sisters protected the Nico and Bianca like they were little kittens. Then depression filled my heart as Bianca joined the hunt.

I was not Nico. I was not Nico.

Percy began to walk with Nico, chatting tightly about how wonderful Bianca had been on the quest. How she had killed one of the spartas. Then the fact that Bianca had died, and I felt all the pain that Nico must have been burdened with when he found out that his older sister had died. I feeling that I had when Tori died in my arms.

Nico had journeyed the Labyrinth with no one but the ghost of Minos to guide with him. I felt his mind slowly twist with rage, before the rage subsided to be something more of... love. As a feeling I had never genuinely felt, it sure felt strange to find Nico crushing on my only godly older brother, Percy. Nico struggled to belong. I struggled to not belong. Two opposite feelings, yet we both had a similar past.

I remembered when I threatened Percy at arrow-point when he tried to calm me down as I fumed about the death of Tori. How I had brutally murdered the entire hellhound pack that had followed us into the forests. How I had isolated myself for ages before Dom pulled me out of my depression. Nico had felt this too.

He had raged at Percy as well when Bianca's death reached him. He destroyed the spartas, which had indirectly been the cause of Bianca's death, except for the fact that the Fates had already lined up his future for him. And Annabeth helped pull him out of his depression, while Percy was his anchor to the mortal world.

I was not Nico.

I couldn't help but wonder if I had reminded Percy of Nico when I unleashed my cold fury on him. In the memory world, I had once again entered Tartarus, but trapped in the bronze jar, eating nothing but pomegranate seeds, that was the true torture as the memories of Tartarus washed over me like acid over a fresh wound.

And I screamed. I screamed like there was no tomorrow, because if I didn't complete the quest, there probably wouldn't. The images haunted me behind my eyes, and the only thing I could do was hope for it to be over.

Nyx had pulled off the confident self image that I had constructed myself. She had tore down the walls of self esteem that I had spent so long constructing around me, and it can tumbling down on me once and for all. This was what I was reduced to.

The trip from Epirus to Long Island was the worst. With Bryce Lawrence unleashing his power on Nico's fragile mind, I felt mine snap a little as well. Nyx had accomplished what she wanted.

I was broken.

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