Fate Withstands

Chapter 36

They found Will looking for them on the bottom floor of the hotel, searching through the rows of games and lost living. His blue eyes, lit and worried, found Nico's as soon as the son of Hades stepped into the room.

"I was worried sick!" Will yelled as he ran to meet him. He hugged him as soon as he was close enough, his body finally losing the tension it held. "What took so long? Did you find her? Did something go wrong?"

"I'll explain when we get out of here." Nico hugged him back but soon broke it. "I don't want to spend any more time in here. Who knows how long we've been gone."

"Right." Will's eyes trailed over to Bianca. "You're...Bianca?"

The shadows still crawled up her legs and acted as a shield as she stared at the son of Apollo. "Yes, I am. You're Will?"

He nodded. "It's nice to finally meet you... Let's get out of here, then we can all talk. Come on, the exit is this way."

They walked toward the front doors as close together as they could get, Nico holding Will's hand while Bianca laid a hand on Nico's shoulder. They were stopped by a few employees, offered Lotus flowers, asked if they wanted a room or guest passes. When they eventually made it out of the building and onto the brightly lit Las Vegas street, it felt as if it had been a lifetime.

"We can get food," Will offered. "Eat and talk, then focus on how we're getting back to camp."

Nico looked to Bianca. "Are you hungry?"

Bianca's eyes were on the buildings, the lights, the cars and the people. Her brain was working overtime, trying to convince itself that all of this was right, that she wasn't missing decades of change and memories. "Um...sure..."

"Big change from what you're used to, huh?" Will asked.

She nodded. "I've just...never seen anything like this before. I remember...I remember my room, and the rows of games, and now that I've talked to Nico, I remember Italy...somewhat. But this-this I have no memory of."

"The world's come a long way." Nico eyed a McDonald's close by. "How about burgers?"

Will rolled his eyes. "Fast food? Really, Nico? Your body needs actual food. You're still recovering."

"Yeah, well, Bianca wants McDonald's. Right, Bianca?"

Bianca finally took her eyes off of the city to look at her brother. "Whatever you think. I...I want to get to camp, want to learn to fight so I can find my own way."

"McDonald's it is."

Nico led the way, not sure how many days they had been in that casino but knowing it hadn't been too long. The world was still the world he had grown to know, the city was still the same city. All the souls he knew still felt like the same souls.

Once they had ordered their food and sat in a booth, Nico explained to Will what had happened in that casino. Meeting Bianca, her fuzzy memory and ability to move the shadows, his explanation in hopes she would come. Soon enough he had finished and started eating his food, his fingers twitching whenever that old war uniform rubbed against those scars on his chest.

"You said you wanted to make your own way," Will repeated. "You want to stay away from camp?"

Bianca shrugged. "I...I want to help, I want to not be rooted to one place. In the hotel...in my room...all I could do was focus on the shadows. There were no windows, no one to talk to. I don't want to be cooped up like that again. But if I go to camp, learn how to fight, maybe I can go from there and fight monsters or find demigods or something."

"What about the Hunters of Artemis?" Will asked.

Nico frowned. "She'd have to swear off men."

Bianca looked between them. "What's the Hunters of Artemis?"

"They're a band of girls that follow Artemis all over the world," Will explained. "They swear off men and promise themselves to Artemis. They become her immortal followers."

"Kind of immortal," Nico corrected. "They can fall in battle. But they won't age or die of natural causes."

"And they...they go all over?" Bianca asked.

Will nodded. "Hunt monsters, recruit other demigods. It might suit you better than camp."

"It might keep you safer," Nico admitted. "Camp keeps getting into battles and wars, and the gods barely ever help. But you'll always be with a goddess. And if you join, you'll automatically have the ability to use a bow and arrow, plus the powers you already have."

Bianca picked at a fry. "How do I join?"

Nico shrugged. "We might run into them. Artemis might just know you want to join. Or we'll have to figure out a way to contact them. I'm not sure. But Iris Messages haven't been working well lately."

"So we'll just continue on to camp and see what happens," Will concluded. "But are you sure you want to join them, Bianca? There's other options."

"Like what?" she asked. "Rotting in camp and not helping anyone outside it? Sitting around waiting for battle or war? No, thanks. Besides...something in me is telling me to join the hunters. I don't know what, but it is. It's like...it just...it feels like fate."

Nico couldn't argue with fate. Not after everything that had happened. "Then you'll join. But always know you can come to me if you need me. We're siblings, Bianca. And you have a sister. Her name's Hazel. You'll love her. She's at Camp Jupiter, now. And Percy Jackson, he's basically my brother. You'll love him, too."

"A sister?" she smiled. "That sounds...nice, having a family."

"It is," he insisted. "It really is."

Bianca stood up from the booth, her hands clenched at her sides. "Um...Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"Is that...is that...what I think it is?"

Nico and Will both looked up in time to see the harpy break through the window, crash landing onto one of the tables with an arrow in its gut. As it dissolved into dust and the mortals started to scream, Thalia Grace stepped through the wreckage of the window and smiled at them. "My lady heard her name nearby just as a monster went to attack a group of demigods. So, what do we have here?"