Fate Withstands

Chapter 35

"Bianca..." Nico looked down at the old uniform he had put on, the old boots and clothes she had last seen him in. "I...I came to rescue you. I came back."

"Tell me who you are or I'm going to call security," she threatened. She didn't have an Italian accent.

"Nico," Nico breathed out. "Nico di Angelo. Your brother."

"I don't have a brother." she stepped back further. "I..." Her mind seemed fuzzy, hazy. "Nico...my brother?"

Nico nodded. "I'm your brother. What...what do you remember last?"

She shook her head as if trying to clear her thoughts. "Water... That lawyer brought me here... You're my brother, Nico?"

"A lawyer?" he frowned. Water, hazy memory, adaptive mind...Lethe. The River Lethe. "Bianca, I came to take you home."

"Home?" she was still guarded but her mind wanted memories, didn't want nothing. "I..."

Nico held a gloved hand out, gave her a smile. "I can take you home and I'll explain everything there. I'll explain why you can't remember very well."

Bianca hesitated, the shadows around her feet seeming to move with her feelings. "I do know you, right?"

Nico eyed the shadows warily. "I'm your brother. I...I'm trying to help you, Bi. I really am. I came to bring you home."

One shadow crawled up her leg, circling her thigh and then stomach as if making protective armor. Another seemed to sharpen itself into a weapon.

"You found out how to use the shadows?" Nico asked. "They respond to your emotions?"

Bianca's eyes narrowed. "You know about them?"

He nodded. "I can control them, too." He brought a shadow into his palm before letting it leak through his fingers like water. "We're siblings. We got the power from our father."

Bianca jumped forward after seeing his abilities. "You really can do it!" She ran passed him and closed the door before dragging him further into the room. "Everyone here thinks I'm crazy. They don't understand. But you, you can explain it to me."

"I will," Nico assured her. "I can take you home and explain it."

Bianca shook her head. "Tell me now."

"Bianca-"

"I'm not leaving with you until you do," she insisted. "If you don't want to tell me now, then you can just leave. I've figured enough out by myself so far. I don't need you."

I don't need you. Nico clenched his jaw. "Fine. I'll tell you. You just have to keep an open mind and hear the story through, alright? Because...you're not going to like a lot of it."

She sat on the bed and drew her legs closer to herself. "Tell me everything. I'm listening."

So he did.

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In another life, he didn't go to war. He stayed with his sister in the Lotus, and when he was ten, they were taken from a boarding school by Percy Jackson.

In another life, Bianca left him to join the Hunters of Artemis, left him to make her own life and twist her own fate.

In another life, Bianca died to save her fellow questers. She died and was reborn and he never saw her again.

In this life, her ending fate would be the same but not what brought her there.

Bianca sat next to him on the bed, her eyes hardened and her jaw stiff. He told her everything, knew she wouldn't want anything different. He told her what brought him there. The wars and scars and blood and screams. He told her of the love he had for a boy who took after the sun, told her of the friends and brother he had made along the way. He told her everything he had accomplished and everything he had ruined.

"And you came to bring me to...what?" she asked once he had finished. "A camp for demigods where all you do is train? You don't go out and help, hunt down monsters, nothing? You just wait for them to come to you or start a war?"

"There's other options. There's Camp Jupiter and-"

"I doubt the Romans are much better," she dismissed.

Nico sighed. "Just come with me. Please. Once you can defend yourself, you can chose what you do with your life. I just..." He sat beside her. "I've missed you, Bi. I want to help you get the best life you can. I didn't want you to be stuck here forever without even a say."

Bianca studied him for some time before nodding. "Fine. Take me to your camp. Then I'll decide what I want to do."

Nico grinned. "Really?"

She nodded. "As long as you swear I won't be forced to stay there."

"You won't, I promise." Nico stood up and held a hand out to her. "Remember what I said about the time here? We shouldn't stay much longer. I've probably already stayed longer than I planned to."

Bianca took his hand and stood. "You said you told your friend to come get you if you weren't out...do you think he came in and started looking?"

Nico shrugged. "Let's go find out. Hopefully we can find him okay. If not...well, I'm not sure."

"Do you always do things without a plan?" she asked.

"Most of the time," he admitted. "But plans almost always fail. But fate never does."

And it didn't. Because as he said, fate never failed. The Fates never failed. They had their strings measured and cut and formed and bundled. They decided everything, they were the reason he was there. And they were the reason that soon enough, he would lose his sister to the Hunters of Artemis again.

The Fates had chosen her path, they had highlighted the important outcomes. The Hunters, only one quest, death, rebirth. No matter what life, no matter what happened, it would always be that way.