If Bianca didn't Die

The One Who Bears the Titan's curse

        Through the mounds of garbage Bianca saw a mythomagic figurine. While she's not a fan of the game, her brother is a big fanatic. She stopped for a minute to preserve the fuzzy memories she had of Nico.

Recognizing the figure as Hades, the last figurine her brother needed to complete his set, she picked it up. Then immediately scolded herself. No, don't take anything. That includes gifts for Nico.

"Bianca," Zoe called back, "remember to not take anything." Though hard, she managed to put the tiny black statue back down.

Once out of the junkyard, the group had a collective sigh. Bianca wondered what would have happened if she'd taken the mythomagic Hades. She was tempted to go back for it.

With Thalia fighting Luke and Zoe Atlas, Percy and Bianca headed to save Artemis.

"Let me take your burden," Bianca told Artemis.

"No," Percy just about screamed, "let me take it instead."

And so the decision was up to the goddess. There was some debate, some arguing, but in the end Artemis handed the sky off to Bianca, with Percy taking watch.

To Bianca, the sky felt as if it were crushing her soul, ripping every last breath in her lungs, and breaking apart every atom in her body. In all, it hurt. When Atlas was finally forced back under his burden, Bianca fell to her knees and kept shivering.

No twelve year old had ever held the sky before. Before Luke and Annabeth, no demigod had either. Gray now streaked her hair, but she would be okay.

Once the Orphiotaurus was safe in his temporary bubble of water, and the gods decided to keep Percy alive, it was up to Artemis to have the next words.

"It is true that my most faithful hunter has left me today," she began, "May she forever rest in the stars, as a new constellation."

After the murmuring went down, she continued. "I will need a new leader for my group. Bianca di Angelo, will you be the leader of my hunt?"

Bianca turned red but agreed. "It would be my honor, my lady."

"There is one more problem to discuss," Zeus grumbled. "My daughter is turning 16 tomorrow, making the prophecy come true. It may be too dangerous-"

"Yeah about that," Thalia intervened. "I would like to join Artemis and her crew"

"Where's my sister?" Nico asked, completely out of breath. Everyone in the big house turned to take a look at him. Snow was all in his hair and his olive skin red from the cold. Percy greeted him by ruffling his hair.

"She's safe," he answered. "Off on a new mission with the hunters. You should probably go back to the Hermes cabin now, we're in a meeting."

Nico was mad his sister hadn't bothered to say goodbye to him, but scurried off anyway, glad she was at least alive. That night at the campfire, Nico wondered if him and Bianca would ever be claimed, or if he'd stay with the other unclaimed kids in the Hermes cabin forever.

Tempest and Wasp sat, fighting over the eye. Anger had it, but neither of them knew that. She was busy seething at the demigods. They hadn't listened to the fates' prophecy. No one was lost in the land without rain. The world would pay for this.