Fate Withstands

Chapter 24

Nico's body begged him to sleep again, but Tartarus beat his own thoughts down and refused to let him lay in a bed. Besides, the only two open were Percy and Annabeth's, and that felt wrong.

So Nico climbed the large mast and sat on top, his black hair blowing in the breeze of the dark night. He had never flown before, but he found it surprisingly comforting. It was as far from the Underworld and Tartarus as he could get.

When the stars clouded over and he was afraid sleep would take him, he climbed back down and to the mess hall. There, he communed with the dead in hopes to find out anything about the quest. The main piece of information he received was that only one of the children of the Underworld would make it to the doors.

Nico must have fallen asleep at one of the chairs, because before he knew it he was in a dream, vision on the Underworld.

Persephone and Hades were seated on Nico's bed in the palace, neither seeming to realize they had a type of visitor. Persephone was rubbing Hades' shoulder, the god's face full of anger but also concern.

"He will come back to us, one way," Persephone said. "He's a good fighter, you saw that in the Battle of Manhattan."

"He fell into Tartarus, Persephone!" Hades stood up with clenched fists. "There's no worse fate for a demigod!"

"That doesn't mean you will go after the Fates themselves!" Persephone grabbed his hand and pulled him back down. "He may be your only demigod son, and my only stepson, but we need to let him continue on. You're a god, Hades. You cannot interfere. You cannot curse the Fates just as you once did the Oracle. You need to be the god your son thinks you are. That means you can't go around punishing others."

Hades turned to retort, but the vision cut out and Nico's dream was thrown elsewhere.

The darkness of Tartarus leaked in. It never left, you could never escape. No demigod made it out of Tartarus alive. Nico knew it to still be true.

His nightmares for the rest of the night consisted of memories. The pain he had felt down there, the Phlegethon's fiery waters, just the fall down. When Nico woke up, he stared at his bloodstained fingers and wished he could wash them somewhere. Maybe then he'd stop smelling their iron scent.

Slowly, the others started to filter into the room for breakfast. Nico didn't look anyone in the face, but he noticed that Leo and Hazel both sat by him without question.

"So." Jason broke the silence. "Now that we're here..."

Nico looked up to see Jason had taken the seat at the head of the table. No one was protesting, but Nico didn't like it much. Not after he learned that Annabeth had been the previous leader of the group.

It was silent around them. The morale was just as low as it had been in a far off war, somewhere in the 40's, a place Nico could hardly remember yet still not forget...

"I communed with the dead last night," Nico said. "I was able to learn more about what we'll face. In ancient times, the House of Hades was a major site for Greek pilgrims. They would come to speak with the dead and honor their ancestors."

Leo frowned. "Sounds like Día de los Muertos. My Aunt Rosa took that stuff seriously."

Frank grunted. "Chinese have that, too. Ancestor worship, sweeping the graves in the springtime. Your Aunt Rosa would have gotten along with my grandmother."

"Yeah," Leo said. "I'm sure they would have been best buds."

Nico cleared his throat. "A lot of cultures have seasonal traditions to honor the dead, but the House of Hades was open year round. Pilgrims could actually speak to the ghosts. In Greek, the place was called the Necromanteion, the Oracle of Death. You'd work your way through different levels of tunnels, leaving offerings and drinking special potions-"

"Special potions," Leo muttered. "Yum."

Jason gave Leo a look, but Nico didn't mind the son of Hephaestus much anymore. He could picture him as a young kid, scared of fire and himself after witnessing it kill his mother.

"The pilgrims believed that each level of the temple brought you closer to the Underworld, until the dead would appear before you." Nico pulled one of the tinkering objects out of his pocket and began working with it. His feet tapped erratically. "If they were pleased with your offerings, they would answer your questions, maybe even tell you the future."

"And if the spirits weren't pleased?" Frank asked.

You've been sitting too long! Move! Run! "Some pilgrims found nothing," Nico said. "Some went insane, or died after leaving the temple. Others lost their way in the tunnels and were never seen again." The insane. Was he one of them?

Nico stood up and paced. "The ghost I spoke to last night, he was a former priest of Hecate. He confirmed what the goddess told Hazel yesterday at the crossroads. In the first war with the giants, Hecate fought for the gods. She slew one of the giants, one who'd been designed as the anti-Hecate. A guy named Clytius."

"Dark dude," Leo guessed. "Wrapped in shadows."

Hazel turned to him. "Leo, how did you know that?"

"Kind of had a dream."

As Leo explained his dream, Nico paid attention but didn't look over at the other demigods. He didn't need to see anymore despair on their faces.

"So, the giant is Clytius," Jason said. "I suppose he'll be waiting for us, guarding the Doors of Death."

"And the woman in Leo's dream?" Frank asked.

"She's my problem." Hazel's determination made Nico proud of his little sister, but still worried. Leo had claimed she was a good fighter, and Nico had seen her at the Wolf House, but he never truly went through a real battle next to her.

"Hecate mentioned a formidable enemy in the House of Hades," Hazel said. "A witch who couldn't be defeated except by me, using magic."

"Do you know magic?" Leo asked.

"Not yet."

Nico put a hand on Hazel's shoulder. "You'll be able to learn, I promise."

"Do we know who the woman is you have to use the magic against?" Leo asked.

Hazel shook her head. "Only that..." She looked up at Nico, who shook his head. No, she shouldn't tell people her secrets, shouldn't speak of something she was hoping would never happen. "Only that she won't be easy to defeat."

The others obviously noticed the silent conversation between them, but Nico didn't give them a chance to speak up.

"There's some good news," he said. "The ghost I talked to explained how Hecate defeated Clytius in the first war. She used her torches to set his hair on fire. He burned to death. In other words, fire is his weakness."

Nico looked to Leo and gave him an encouraging nod. "That's a good thing. We have something against him."

"It's a good lead," Jason agreed. "At least we know how to kill the giant. And this sorceress... Well, if Hecate believes that Hazel can defeat her, so do I."

Nico turned to glare at Jason and ask who the hell he was to say anything about Hazel, but before he could she started to speak again. "Now we just have to reach the House of Hades, battle our way through Gaea's forces-"

"Plus a bunch of ghosts," Nico added. "Lots of angry, unfriendly ghosts."

"-and find the Doors of Death," Hazel continued. "Assuming we can somehow arrive at the same time as Percy and Annabeth and rescue them."

"We can do it," Frank said. "We have to."

Nico pictured a similar war council long ago, with the same determined but weary faces, and the sounds of bombs in the distance. He wasn't aware of the present until he heard old Morse code being tapped. He blinked and saw that Leo was tapping I love you into the table, which made him frown in confusion.

Before he could ask exactly who Leo was thinking about, he was launching into the wall and his vision turned black.