Nico Di Angelo: Death, Fear, and New Siblings

Chapter 3: Mr. Thorn and Worrying

Nico’s P.O.V.

Its winter at Camp Half-blood and problem has arisen. See I have a couple of siblings who are about to start coming to camp. One of them Darrius is being stalked by the Manticore, Mr. Thorn. The last time we face off against Thorn Annabeth got captured. Of course we were all much weaker then. Either way Darrius is in trouble, and I am freaking out.

“I have a little brother, how can I not be freaking out!!!” I scream at my friends in my recently remodeled cabin “I’m not good with people, and he’ll expect me to help him with his problems. I don’t have friend or girl problems. I solve every rivalry with death threats, Gods he will be terrified of me!!!”

“Girl problems?” my roman sister Hazel comments. “This is a child of Hades we are talking about here he will have a lot bigger things to worry about than girls. Depression, anger, he will have family troubles; he will have been misunderstood and feared his whole life. And that is if he’s lucky if not he will be like you or I with some dark past he can never escape. Darrius will want someone who can understand him, teach him how to deal with his problems, listen and stand up for him when everyone else just judges him. If anyone can do that it’s you Nico.”

Percy chimes in “Think of the stereotypical Hades child, an aggressive Goth who can’t walk down the street without being judged ten times. You would be an idol to him, people like that put makeup on their eyes to achieve the look you get by waking up in the morning. You’ve been rocking the boots and leather jacket since when 1942? You don’t care what others think of you or at least not anymore; instead you focus on what you think of you. That’s the exact kind of role model you little brother will need. ”

“And if for some reason he does have girl troubles you can send him to me” Piper jumped in. she was here because Jason was busy.

“You’ll do fine Nico. So what’s this plan of yours?” Annabeth said.

“I kill Thorn; we place you in his stead. Of course he has a short regeneration time so whenever he comes back I will have to kill him again, but hopefully with you and his protector on the job we can keep monsters off of him until May” I stated.

“Well I could use the teaching credits, and Chiron is busy watching after some of Percy’s siblings. I can do it but we will have to make the move before spring semester starts” she said assessing the situation.”

“Exactly, you will have to use a bit of the Mist in order to get it done but you will manage, I’m going to Chicago now to take care of the Manticore, then I’m off to new Rome. You will have to take his place by the end of the week.” After that they all filed out. As I left I checked the heavily locked door on the far side of my room. It was sealed. As I climbed the ladder leading from the main floor to my room I confirmed that my skeleton guard was in place. I pushed the desk, which was set to a pair of rails, back over the ladder hole. Walking past the brand new Iris room, its lights off making it seem like an eerie blood fountain, the room is really just a lounge. Down the hall towards the entrance are the boy’s rooms and girl’s rooms. The entire cabin was better suited to be lived in by more than one person.

Instead of leaving via the front door I began calling shadows to me, the room was dark so it was easy. I opened the gateway into Nyx initiating shadow travel. Fifteen minutes of walking through the darkness, using umbra kinesis to pinch space maximizing the speed of my traveling, and I was in Chicago. I was able to use Silenus, my skeleton to track Thorn down. The smug fuck didn’t even notice me. He was so confident that he didn’t see the darkness forming behind him. He didn’t hear my boots as I walked right up to him. He didn’t know I was there until the cold black point of my blade sprouted from his chest and began sucking his life force. I twisted the blade and he exploded into sulfurous dust. Thirty minutes later I was at Caldecott tunnel leaving the next phase of my plan to Annabeth.

I willed my backpack to change shape and it shifted into a long leather duster with shoulder pauldrons that hung from by shoulders; the romans had tried to give me a giant orange cape, so we compromised. I reached into the pocket and took out a small black medallion on a silver chain. A flaming skull was sculpted onto one side, along with the words “Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades” and “Greek Ambassador to Rome”. The latter was written in Latin. On the other side it said “The Ghost King”. It was my ID tag as a Greek Demigod. I put on the chain and made my way down the hill. Two probati were standing guard at Caldecott tunnel, one of them I hadn’t met before. He must have just joined the legion.

“Who goes there?” the newbie said half demanding, half questioning, it didn’t exactly inspire confidence. The other guard however was one of my favorites, he was a sharp eyed boy, a bit young for a recruit. He asked the right questions and had just enough confidence that he always gave off a presence, while being just reserved enough to never be overconfident. He was a survivor, and that would do him well.

“It’s just Nico Alex.” He said to his partner.

“How goes the western front?” I asked, flashing my tag.

“Fair enough.” Mark responded.  “How is Long Island?”

“Same as ever.”

“I take it you don’t need an escort?” Mark asked. A formality he had to give to all of his superiors even when he knew they didn’t need one.

“Not today, keep up the good work and I’ll put in a few good words for you next time I see Preator Frank. You too Alex.” I said turning to the Newbie. “Welcome to the legion.” I walked past him and shadow traveled to the Greek Quarter, were the Ambassador’s office is. In the back of my office there is a door leading to a short fake corridor, I use it to easily shadow travel to work, seeing as it isn’t lighted. I opened the door and checked my desk for any paper work the Romans needed me to fill out, these damned Romans and their paperwork. It took me an hour to go through all of it. Once I was done I took it to my assistant Liz. Liz is a roman I met during the festivities that came after the Feast of Fortuna. She was trying to get out of the legion but couldn’t retire yet, she had an uncannily Greek way of looking at things so I had her transferred to me and now her job was to keep the romans at bay when I was gone and deal with minor disputes she was still knee deep in roman bureaucracy but other than that she liked this job much better. Also she is a life saver I find myself moving constantly from Camp Half-blood to New Rome and everywhere in between, and so it is a godsend that I have someone to take care of things when I’m busy elsewhere. She worked at the desk outside my office.