Chapter Seventeen
Jason was very confused. Actually, confused was an understatement. He was fully absolutely, definitely, more-than-he-had-ever-been-in-his-life perplexed. First there was all the weird shit Nico had been doing at home, then there was the full-on summoning a dead man and then the wings ripping out of his shoulders and Jason was just...well, he was really confused.
What was Nico? Some sort of necromancer, maybe? That explained the dead guy, but did necromancers typically have wings? Was Nico also some sort of shapeshifter? Was Jason just overthinking things? There had to be a perfectly sensible explanation for this.
Nico woke up six hours later. The sun had risen and Jason was eating breakfast in the little kitchen when he heard a 'thud', followed by more profanities than a sixteen-year-old should know. (He was pretty sure he heard some in foreign languages, even.)
Jason poked his head into the room to see that Nico was sprawled on the floor, the blankets wrapped around his legs. He looked very angry at them, and at his inability to free himself. Jason sighed and gripped Nico's arm, hauling the boy up and depositing him on the bed again, blankets and all.
Nico huffed. "I'm fine. And I have to use the bathroom."
Jason rubbed his forehead, an action he realised was very reminiscent of Bruce. "Fine, but then you're going to sit here and you're going to explain to me what the fuck is happening."
-
They ended up sitting at Jason's table, with Nico cradling a cup of whatever had been in that thermos Will had left for him. It smelled like Alfred's cookies. Nico had more colour in his face now, and he appeared to be in less pain. Jason was glad that he seemed to be healing.
"What do you know about Greek mythology?" Nico asked. Jason didn't really see what that had to do with anything, but he decided to play along. "Well, I've watched Hercules?" He answered. Nico gave a long-suffering sigh.
"Okay, so, how do I explain this...basically, it revolves around this pantheon of Gods, the twelve Olympians. Zeus is the king, and he and his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, are considered the 'Big Three'. Some of the other gods and goddesses you might know are Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis and Athena. There are dozens of minor deities too, but I doubt you'd know them."
"Yeah, I remember learning a little about this stuff. What does this have to do with you?"
"I'm getting there. Do you know what demigods are?"
Jason furrowed his brow, starting to connect the dots. "They're children of gods and humans, aren't they?" Nico nodded, smiling a little guiltily. "Bingo," he muttered. Jason blinked.
"Holy shit. Holy fuck. You- you're a demigod?! Holy shit."
"Stop freaking out Jason!" Nico snapped. "You've seen crazier shit!"
"Okay, yeah, you're right, I have, I just didn't expect you to be...anyways, which godspawn are you?"
Nico glared at the term 'godspawn' but sighed. "Hades is my father. He's the god of the Underworld and one of the most powerful Gods in Greek mythology. That's how I was able to call on the skeleton earlier to come help us. He's from the Underworld."
"Okay...holy shit. So you can raise the dead?"
"Yes and no. I can call upon the dead to come to the world of the living and use them as an army essentially, but they're still only bodies. I can call spirits, but that takes more effort and time, so I don't usually do it."
"Okay, and what about the wings?"
Nico smiled, somewhat nostalgically. "A gift from my father. They come in handy."
"Is that how you're able to get everywhere so fast? How come we've never seen them before?" Nico shook his head. "That's a different skill of mine, but Will would kill me if I showed you. It's called shadow-travel, and it lets me transport myself through darkness, from shadow-to-shadow. It can also apply to anything I'm touching. It's sort of hard to explain, and I don't even know the full depth of my own abilities."
Jason nodded. This wasn't the craziest thing he had ever witnessed, but for Nico to have such power so young...
"Is this how you knew I had died?" Nico nodded again. "Your soul has been to the Underworld before. Only briefly, but it has. That's also how I know you and the guy on the roof before were the same." Jason decided to skate over the fact that apparently his newest brother could see people's souls and instead brought up the issue that his powers had created.
We need to tell Bruce. You can't keep this quiet! This could put your life in danger!"
"It's already in danger!" Nico snapped, angry. "It's always been in danger, Jason! I'm not even supposed to be alive! You don't know the shit I've been through! I came here to get away from all that, not to be tossed right into the middle of it again!"
Jason was brought up short. He knew that Nico's sister had died, but what else did Nico have to go through as a result of the power he wielded? "Nico, what do you mean?" Jason asked softly, wanting to protect the younger who had come under his care and had trusted Jason with his most guarded secret.
Nico looked down at the table, fiddling with his mug. "It's...a long story. I'll try to condense it as much as I can, but it's not happy.
"I was born sometime in the forties, in Italy. Hades had fallen in love with my mom, and they had two kids, my older sister Bianca and I. Around the time I was born, the gods were made aware of a prophecy that stated a child of the Big Three might be their downfall, so Zeus made his two brothers promise not to have any demigod children.
"Zeus wanted Hades to kill Bianca and I as a safety measure. But Hades refused because he loved my mother too much, so Zeus had my mother killed instead. I was ten. Rather than kill my sister and I, Hades hid us in LA, in a place called the Lotus hotel and casino, a place where time stops so long as you're having fun.
"Bianca and I lived there for years. I don't know the exact amount of time, but it was suddenly a whole new century. We stayed in a boarding school for a while before we were rescued by some new faces and taken to a place called camp Half-blood, a camp that houses demigods and keeps them safe.
"Bianca had joined the Hunters of Artemis, and was made immortal in doing so. She died while helping our friends on a quest. When I was told, I got angry. That was the first time I had ever used my powers. I was scared and didn't know what to do. I was approached by a 'bad guy' I guess you could say, who promised to help me control my powers if I helped him. I ended up betraying my friends and almost dying by their hands.
"Not so long after, war broke out between Kronos, the Titan father of the Gods, and us demigods. I wanted to help, so when the fighting started in New York, I went to my father. After a very long fight, he finally agreed and we were able to turn the tide of the war. We won, and we thought we might finally get some peace, but the life of a demigod is never peaceful.
"Gaea, also known as mother earth, was awakening. Hera tricked us into allying with a Camp of Roman demigods and we went to war with Gaea. She wasn't easily defeated, and we barely survived. I nearly died trying to transport the Athena Parthenon halfway across the world.
"The door of the dead was open, and in order to close it, you had to travel to the doors themselves, which had appeared in Tartarus. Tartarus is...every kind of hell you can imagine. I thought I would be okay because I was Hades' son, and I went alone to try and close them. I nearly died." Nico shuddered, his eyes haunted. "I ended up being captured and held in a jar for about a week as bait for my friends, barely alive.
"In the end, we won against Gaea and finally had the peace we coveted. I spent the last couple years travelling around the world for my father, collecting the spirits that escaped through the doors and sending them back to the Underworld. When I finally returned to camp, there was an attack, of which I was the target. Then the oracle gave a new prophecy.
"Another war is coming. The prophecy states that I will betray all demigod kind and eventually die at the hands of my older cousin. In order to keep everyone safe, I came here. My father is missing, and none of this makes any sense. I don't want to be dragged into another fruitless fight." Nico looked up at Jason with tears in his eyes.
"I don't want to die, Jason. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
Damnnnnn poor jason lmao