The Choosing (Percabeth AU)

Bonus chapter

Nico's POV ( 6 years ago )

Nico was waiting for Bianca to come play Mytho Magic with him. She'd gone to their local Toy Factory and he'd just heard about a machine malfunction.

He was very worried. And when the door opened, it wasn't her, it was Hazel.

"Hazel? What's wrong?", he asked.

His little sister looked at her feet, her eyes brimmed with tears.

"What is it Hazel?", Nico grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Hazel!!"

She broke down completely in his hands. But Nico couldn't calm her, much less, clam himself. He had absolutely no idea what was going on. And yes, he was scared out of his mind. What if something had happened to Bianca?

"Bianca....", Hazel squeaked.

He pulled away from Hazel and ran towards his father's office as fast as he could, and she was right behind him, still sobbing.

Nico burst into his father's office. "Dad...."

At some point during his run, tears had started streaming down his face too. Now, standing in front of his big sister's coffin, he was numb.

Bianca di Angelo was the one person who loved him for who he was. She was more than his sister, she was his mother too.

Nico slowly walked towards her. His heart was racing. He couldn't believe his sister was actually gone.

When he was close enough, one of the servants lifted the lid of the coffin. Nico crumpled up on himself.

All life was drained from Bianca's face. She resembled him now, all pale and ghostly. Her eyes were closed and Nico could think she was asleep, but he knew better. He looked at her, one last time, and noticed her fingers were clutching something. Nico gathered himself and slowly pried the object from her hand.

He realized what it was, his head started spinning. He couldn't stand straight anymore.

"Don't go...please", he begged, though he knew she couldn't hear him.

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This was probably the tenth servant Nico had turned away. He didn't want to eat, he didn't want to see anyone. He just wanted his sister back.

It was 12:30 am, two days after Bianca died when he finally decided he wanted to eat. He sneaked out of his room and sulked around the castle. His head was so messed up after two days of sitting in his room and weeping, he didn't even know the way to the kitchen in his own house.

Nico passed through the long corridor, only to notice the lights shining in one of the rooms. He heard a voice speaking as he walked past it.

"The princess is getting sicker, outside counsel may be of help, Your majesty, maybe from Lord Apollo's kingdom''

But......Bianca was dead unless it was

"Hazel" Nico half screamed as he burst through the door. And there she was, her cheeks sunken, sleeping on a bed.

"Son" he heard his father say as he turned to face him, a new set of tears in his eyes. "This is not how the crowned prince should behave" Hades reprimanded.

"I do not want your throne father! Just, please! Not Hazel too" why couldn't it have been him? his sisters did nothing to deserve this, if only it would have been him.

Hades turned to the doctor and nodded.

Nico knew his kingdom was being infected by the Plague, but never in a million years did he think his baby sister, would ever be infected.

His sisters were cursed.

And he was the cause of it.

Of that he was sure.

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"Open up the door" Nico heard a new voice yell, one he had never heard before.

"No, you may leave" he yelled back

"No chance, cause if you don't open this door. I'll sing until you do"

What?

"You can try" Nico replied as a fresh pool of tears formed in his eyes, remembering the bedtime song that Bianca had sung to him as a child, the same one he sang to Hazel when she was born.

"Now don't say I didn't warn you" the new voice yelled.

The voice behind the door belted out.

And for the first time in a long time, Nico smiled. That person sounded like a walrus with a cold!

Before he realized what he was doing, Nico opened the door, eyes still rimmed with tears.

"Hello! I'm Will!" said the blond-haired boy in front of him smiling. "Now let's feed you something, Doctors orders"

Please forgive us for this heartbreaking chapter, it's all on sungkyungrr .
And Thankyou to all the 998 people who read the story and didn't leave a comment, it really does mean a lot :)
--------S&D