The End is Near (Blood of Olympus)

Nico 24

Sooooo this update was better than the last one, I would say, tho not by much.... haha but i'll get even better. I had to go back and reread all my stuff because I totally forgot my plot lines for this story whoopsie. This chapter is just getting things were I want them to go, so I apologize if it isn't all that interesting. There are still some grey areas so just bear with me.... but thank you guys so much for still reading I seriously love you <3

Nico XXIV

There was a lullaby that Nico's mother used to sing to him as a baby and for some reason he never forgot it. The scene in his head was always fuzzy, only a few details ever stuck out in his memory. His mom's smile, her black hair falling around her face hanging over him like shiny ribbon. But the song was something that always rang clearly through his head, a light in his dark thoughts. It always brought peace to him, remembering her sing that song, although recently it had been harder to recall that memory. It was fading with time, leaving a vacancy in Nico's mind that he hated. It was as if he had traded in a piece of him that was apart of his identity.

Bianca had tried her best to fill that hole, but it was never entirely right. Honestly, when Nico had tried to remember his mother's face recently, Bianca's face was the only one that came to mind. After his meeting with the gods, Nico was knocked back into inky nothingness, his mother's song the only thing heard in the void. Slowly, light started creeping into the edges of his consciousness, revealing the one who was singing. It was Bianca in place of his mother, singing to him sweetly in Italian, soothing his mind and his soul. It felt as if he was being wrapped in a cloud, Nico let loose a sigh of content and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the song cut short and Nico opened his eyes in alarm. Instead of the sweet lullaby, the sound of engines whirring and boards creaking filled his ears. A ceiling fan spun lazily above him, the cords swaying back and forth as if caught in a dance. The bed underneath him was firm, a stark contrast to the cloud of comfort he had felt a moment before. Slowly, past events all came back to him, his meeting with the gods, the poison, Percy.

Schist, he thought. Before he could sit up, a face that wore one eyepatch appeared in his line of vision. Which would've been totally demigod normal if the person hadn't been millimeters away from brushing noses with him.

"What the Hades are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?!?" Nico stammered, pulling the blankets up over his chest in reflex.

One brown eye squinted at his as the owner scoffed, "As if, Ghost Boy. If I wanted you dead, I would've left you there in the forest with Gaea."  

   Nico's head was spinning, this demigod looked familiar but he just couldn't place it, and what did he mean forest? Nico didn't remember any of that. A memory tugged at his brain, but he just couldn't put a name to the face in front of him. As if the demigod knew what he was trying to do, he rolled his one eye in exasperation and said in an annoyed tone,

   "Honestly you guys are the worst. I'm Ethan Nakamura, Death Breath. You think you would remember the name of the guy who fell off Olympus."

   A light bulb went off in Nico's head, red colored his face. He has a point, weird that I forgot him. "Ah, sorry about that. Yeah I definitely remember you. You're the son of Nemesis, the one who was helping Luke."

   Ethan made a growling sound in the back of his throat, "Curse him that idiot, he didn't know what he was doing. I wish I would've seen it earlier."

   Wincing, Nico moved into a more comfortable position. He felt as if his bones were rubber and a headache pulsed in his brain. "What," He managed between breaths, "You think you could've done a better job hosting Kronos?"