"There better be a good reason you brought me all the way 'ere, North," Bunnymund- the last to arrive- said as he immerged in the workshop, shaking off snow from his massive hind paws as he went, "I have new egg designs-"
"Pitch is back," North cut the massive bunny short.
"Oh, come on!" Bunny stuck his paw as close to the fire as he could without getting burnt, "it's been three years! And don't tell me you can feel it in yer belly."
The six foot tall bunny took an egg from the pouch at his belt, along with a paintbrush already dipped in pale violet. With the upmost care he then began painting intricate designs on it; he cast a complete contrast to his appearance. You wouldn't expect a creature so big and surly looking to be painting eggs.
"He stole some memories," Tooth paused in her rapid instruction giving to her fairies.
"Can't he be a bit more original?" An exasperated sound echoed below the strong Australian accent, "He's already done that!"
"He only took two this time," Jack was perched up on his staff, balanced perfectly despite the thing purchase. Bunny glared at the teen for a moment, planning a witty response, but then he realised what it could mean.
"Only two?" he paused in the painting of his egg, moving towards the center of the group, kicking into Jack's staff just for the fun of it. The teenager wobbled before falling, but as always, the wind caught him, "Whose?"
"Nico and Bianca Di Angelo," North moved to the bannister and quickly shouted down an order to his yetis before continuing, "two demigod siblings with a peculiar act of not aging- we think it is because of their father- Hades."
"Why don' we just go an' ask 'em?" Bunny's accent thickened momentarily.
"They're dead," Jack deadpanned as he floated down onto a desk.
"Oh," Bunny paused yet again, "Then why would he taken 'em?"
"That is what we are here to figure out," North stroked his beard, and the other three watched him, waiting for the white haired man to respond. Behind them, the gold figure of the Sandman was trying to gather the fours attention.
"We know that they're demigods; that in itself is suspicious," Tooth mused as she fluttered just centimeters off the ground, "and the fact that they're children of Hades is worrisome."
"Why?" Jack questioned squatting away the short and stout man.
"Frost, your brain is cactus-"
"Did you just call me a cactus?" Jack asked the large Australian bunny.
"It means not functioning," Tooth translated the slang for him, "he's calling you dumb."
"Hey!" Jack said in an outrage, "bad enough you insult me, but does it have to be in a language I can't understand-"
Jack would've continued but eggnog was suddenly poured on his head from above. It froze solid within seconds of being in contact with his cold aura, causing his hair to stick up in an odd direction one way, while lay flat at the other. Frozen droplets decorated his pale cheeks and clung to his long eyelashes.
"Sandy!" Jack gazed up at the disgruntled dream bringer, "this is going to take forever to get out."
The teenager pulled off his trademark blue jumper to reveal a yellowing- previously white- blouse underneath. Tooth suppressed laughter while Bunny raised an eyebrow. They had all expected Jack not to wear anything under the jumper. It seemed they were wrong.
"You just come from a renaissance fair, Frost?" Bunny smirked.
"It's colonial. Learn your dates," Jack began shaking out his jumper, getting rid of the now melted eggnog, "What's up, Sandy?"
The man pointed at the skylight that allowed the moons light to shine through. It was focusing on a silver G inscribed into the ground. Four of the five members knew what that meant. The other was rather bemused.
"That'd be right; just what we need, another Guardian," Bunny hopped over to the plate in the ground.
"He's choosing another guardian?" Jack floated over and stayed in the air so he could peer down onto the G without getting a blocked view.
"If it's Groundhog I swear the sh-"
"Thank you, Bunny, no need for colourful language," North cut Bunny off quickly, "must be serious if Manny is choosing another Guardian soon."
"Ooh, I hope its Elizabeth-"
"You really want the spirit of summer? Do you want me to melt?" Jack questioned from next to her, making her blush.
North hushed them all as they watched a black marble podium rise out of the ground. For Jack, the podium had been made of ice, but now it seemed something darker was more appropriate. It stopped rising and smoke (or was it shadows) started to reach upwards in tendrils to make a form. It was a boy- a teenager by the looks of it- wearing a WWII style aviator's jacket, jeans, while a sword was strapped to his side.
"I know him," Jack said suddenly as he floated down closer. An odd feeling radiated off the stone, making him suppress a shudder, "his names Nico, I met him yesterday."
Everyone in the room paused for a moment, letting it sink in, Tooth was the first to speak.
"You don't think this could be Nico Di Angelo?" Tooth fluttered around the figure, while North peered in closer.
"He does look to be right age," the Russian mused before looking up at the moon, "Manny says he is very young but very wise."
"Reminds me a bit of Pitch, don't yeh think?" Bunny shook his head, "shadows, bad vibes….something doesn't feel right 'bout this kid."
"Don't judge him until you've met him, Bunny," Tooth chastised.
"Then let's go meet him!" North said happily, "I shall go get the sack."
Sandy shook his head furiously, and everyone paused to pay attention to him. Above his head appeared a figure with a sword, and then someone sneaking up on the first figure, the second person ended up being run through with a sword.
"Ah, good point Sandy," North rested a hand against his chin, "he must be fighter if he has a sword. We need new plan. Jack, what do you know about him?"
"I only met him once," Jack held up his hands in defense as he pulled his jumper back on, flinging frosty eggnog from his hair as he went.
"Man in Moon is gone for moment; you are our best source of information," Everyones eyes were suddenly on the white haired spirit.
"Well, I have a theory he's a child snatcher, if that helps anything," Jack sat down again, watching as the stone and shadows disappeared again. "I saw him in Burgess yesterday morning, sitting with a baby on a roof, so I went to go investigate figuring he was too old to see me.
"And well he saw me then jumped into the shadows with the baby. I later learned that the baby had died that morning on crib death," Jack smiled nervously.
Sandy made an image of someone holding a floating ball of light. It didn't make sense to Jack, but it seemed that Bunny understood. With an exaggerated wave of his paintbrush, he explained;
"So he's some sort of soul collector. Makes sense when you look at his father," the Pooka put away the egg and scratched his chin, "anything else?"
"He is not a people person," the winter spirit ran a hand through his hair, loosening the white strands, "and he's more of a shoot first ask questions later kind of guy."
"The real question is how do we find him?" the colourful half hummingbird mused.
"I suppose we hunt for 'im," Bunny frowned at that.
"I cannot, too close to Christmas," North shook his head.
"Well then, you stay here and we'll keep an eye out," Tooth said before Bunny could chew out the Christmas idol, "I'll have my mini fairies keep an eye out, while Jack and Sandy can keep an eye out on their rounds."
"You're just lucky it's not close to Easter," Bunny threatened before shaking his head, "Lets just hope I'm wrong about this bloke.""Look Bianca! A shooting star," the small raven haired boy climbed onto the window seal of their bedroom.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
His sister came out of the bathroom, brushing her silky dark hair with a comb. For a moment she seemed to sigh, but it went unnoticed by the six year old boy. Sitting down next to her brother, she draped an arm over his shoulder and pulled him close before leaning in and saying;
"Make a wish, Nico"
Nico shut his eyes tight and got a look of extreme concentration on his face. After a second he opened his eyes, a large smile on his face, brown eyes twinkling with a hint of madness.
"Well, what did you wish for?" Bianca questioned.
"Not telling," Nico escaped from his sister's hold and jumped up onto the bed were his mythomagic cards rested.
"You better tell me," Bianca moved off the window seal and headed towards the bed.
"It ruins the wish!" Nico giggled slightly.
"I'll just have to tickle it out of you," Bianca picked him up off the bed easily and began tickling his sides, easily avoiding the kicks her brother threw at her. The child-like laughter filled the room, and despite herself, Bianca couldn't help but smile.
"Stop!" Nico barely got the words out between laughter.
"Tell me then!" Bianca laughed a little as she lifted her hands from her brother.
"I wished-" he panted, "-that we could be a family again! With a mum and dad and-"
Bianca froze for a moment, face a mixture of shock and hurt, very gently, she looked into Nico's eyes and said; "we are a family. It might not be like normal families, but its good, right?"
"Yeah, I suppose,"
Bianca watched sadly as her brother left to go and play with games. Did her brother really think they weren't a family?
Nico rocketed up right in the bed, lost in a tangle of sheets and oversized pillows, feeling sticky and raw. His attempt to get out of bed didn't work out as planned. His legs were too tangled, and that lead him to be unable to right himself, so his face met the carpet with a loud groan.
"Crap," he muttered to nobody, dragging his body off the bed, along with a large selection of the sheets.
It took him a total of three minutes to untangle himself, and afterwards he was rather disgruntled. There was soft pounding behind his eyes; the beginning of a headache- no doubt-and his body felt rather stiff. Grumbling to himself, he grabbed his jacket and checked the pocket, and much to his delight, found no coin waiting for him.
After a shower he felt a little better. He packed up his things and looked at his watch. There was a good hour until sunrise in Vegas, and that meant New York was already up and running. On his way towards the big city, he picked up some Starbucks (luckily some guy seemed to be ordering a double espresso) and a box of pancakes. He chose to settle down besides Thalia's Pine, pulling out a book to read as he went.
"Where's Anubis when you need him?" Nico rubbed his forehead, headache mounting even higher because of his dyslexia, "This makes no sense."
"I told you Nico, you just can't give up!"
Nico's head shot up and he gazed around wildly trying to pinpoint the voice. His hand slipped down to his boot and gripped the dagger that was hidden there. He paused for a moment before relaxing as he shook his head. Just memories. Rubbing his forehead again, he turned his attention back to the book.
Well, he tried to pay attention to the book. Something zoomed up right in his face in a flash of blue, green and yellow. He scrambled backwards but the thing just drove in closer. Abandoning the book, he drew his dagger, and that certainly made it back away. Nico nearly went cross-eyed trying to see it. It buzzed right at the tip of the blade, a tooth held in its tiny hands, and if the son of Hades had to guess what it was, he'd have to say hummingbird, but the more he looked the more he realised it wasn't.
The wings weren't right, the patches of human skin was out of place, along with the very intelligent vibrant pink eyes. Nico gazed at it for a moment down the length of the blade, frowning slightly as it let out a series of high pitched noises and flew away.
It took Nico a moment to process that what just occurred actually did happen.
"Must be a new invention from Cabin Nine," Nico muttered as he picked up his book and put his blade away. He flicked through until he found his page and began reading again. Unfortunately, the weight of a coin in his pocket made him sigh and stand.
Gathering his things he sighed and thought of the address- Rome, he could do this. After the Titan War he had struggled through Italian lessons to master the language, and now it seemed it was finally becoming useful.
He left just as Bunnymund arrived.
"You've got to be kidding me," the Australian bunny grumbled.
The son of Hades landed on the busy streets of Rome outside an apartment. Police rushed into the building while the sound of gunshots echoed down the street. A shooting, just what he needed, shootings always meant teary eyed children. With this headache, he wasn't sure he could handle it.
He found the spirit- a boy of the age of four- crying on the sidewalk. Nico knelt down next to the dark haired boy and said in Italian;
"I need you to come with me,"
The boy glanced up; "my mama-"
"You'll see her soon," Nico promised. No doubt the mother was dead. She wasn't anywhere to be seen. A mother who just lost a child would no doubt be distraught in the streets.
"I want to see her now!" the child's Italian was broken by his cries.
"Then come with me," Nico felt the headache throb painfully again, "you'll see her in a second."
"You promise?" the little boy rubbed his eyes.
"Promise," Nico picked the boy up, "this will feel weird. Just try not to vomit."
"If you eat that much candy you'll vomit!"
There it was again, that voice on the wind, merely a whisper and yet it was deafening. Nico closed his eyes to collet himself before travelling through the shadows to DOA. The little boy clung tightly onto his jacket and looked extremely pale- if it was from death or the trip, Nico couldn't tell.
"Mama!" the boy suddenly tore himself from Nico and raced towards a rather petite women who sat in the chairs.
"Nicolas!" the women embraced the boy, "Oh Nicolas I thought I had lost you…."
Nico dropped two coins on the table next to them before leaving. He headed out onto the street and sighed. Rubbing his face he travelled back to Camp Half-Blood, suddenly feeling very weary. The headache had reached new heights and all he wanted to do was sleep.
Though it was still light out, he made himself comfortable against Thalia's Pine and began to drift off to sleep, zipping up his jacket to keep out winter's bitter chill.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"This Brumby better not disappear again," Bunny muttered as he pulled himself out of his hole, "I'm not going to keep chasing him all over the country side."
No one was there to reply.
Luckily, the teen was asleep. Bunny paused for a moment, cocking his head to the side, bemused at the kid's appearance. He was as pale as Jack, with a red flush in his cheeks and a light sheen of sweat on his forehead, the sweat making his hair stick to his forehead. He was curled in on himself slightly, the large aviator's jacket making him look very small, and Bunny gazed up at the moonless sky.
"You've got to be kidding me," Bunny rolled his eyes, "first Frost now this. You sure do know how to pick 'em."
Walking over to the kid, his keen eyes picked up a small movement, a hand moving towards a boot. Guessing from the slight change in breathing patterns, the kid actually wasn't asleep, but rather doing a hell good job at faking it. As he tapped his paw twice against the extremely fertile ground, making a hole appear directly under the boy, while he himself barely moved fast enough to avoid having a dagger sink into his shoulder.
He picked up the dagger, feeling a chill radiate from it as he did, before jumping down the hole, moving so quickly that in a matter of seconds he had emerged in North's workshop. Least to say he wasn't surprised to be met by sword point.
"Someone better start explaining," the voice was most certainly American, but with a hint of Italian. It seemed both young and old.
From the corner of his eye he could see Tooth fluttering nervously, North was gripping his own two swords, Sandy was standing rather placidly next to Jack who had tightened his grip on his staff. Jack was the one to make the first move. With a simple point of his staff, a great gust of frigid air blew towards the standing off pair. Unfortunately, Nico suddenly disappeared in a bunch of shadows.
"We should've seen that coming," Bunny rubbed his nose, trying to get rid of the cold feeling the sword had left.
"I told you that we should've just talked to him!" Tooth argued as she rested close to the ground.
"Talking would've been preferred," the voice came from the shadows near the fire. Everyone turned just in time to see a pair of brown eyes hit the light. The chocolate brown seemed shadowed by something else, and there was a glint that was either madness or genius. They seemed like the eyes of a soldier.
"Well, you are here now," North put his swords down as a sign of piece, "why don't you come out and we have nice civil conversation?"
"I can't promise civil," the shadows seemed to lighten as Nico stepped out, sword still out in the open, yet pointed down at the ground. His hand suddenly moved to his pocket and everyone watched as he sighed; "you have two minutes."
"Then best we get started!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N
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