Hi!! I'm so sorry for not posting for ages, pls vote and comment -Emmi
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Nico panicked, all around him the floor was broken, cracked into huge gashes, but what was terrifying was the things that burst through the wooden panelling to encase and attack him with a vicious ferocity. Snakes, long thin metal snakes like ropes that coiled and twisted; thrashing on the ground like killing machines.
More and more poured out to strike at the son of Hades, tens and soon hundreds of rope-like metal monstrosities as long as a person.
One leapt at Nico, and the demigod ripped his sword from the shadows, slicing it clean in half, but more kept coming. Another and another fell to twitching cable-wires around Nico but it seemed every time he destroyed one another ten took its place.
Slashing and stabbing Nico spun to face his friend, stood frozen like a cold tortured statue.
"Help!"
Draco did not answer.
"Draco help me!"
Another snake wrapped itself around Nico's leg, almost toppling him to the ground before he struck it down.
"Draco!" Nico shouted desperately, "Draco help!" but the other boy didn't spring to his aid, he didn't even move. "Draco!" the son of Hades called again.
Yet still Malfoy wouldn't meet his eyes, looking away, anywhere but into those pools of darkness which held a desperation so pure it hurt. A desperation borne not only of the snakes ripping into him -dragging him down, slowly overpowering him with sheer numbers- but by the betrayal he felt, the rent it was tearing into his heart.
"Draco." he gasped as the machines dragged him to his knees, trying to engulf him in a writhing cage. "Do something! Don't just stand there! Do something!"
But then the blonde finally met his eyes, and he looked desolate, destroyed, devastated.
"I can't help you Nico." he whispered so low that the ghost king almost couldn't hear it.
"WHY NOT!" he screamed the words, anger fueling him as he slammed his hands apart -drawing the shadows- the snakes flew off him for a fraction of a second, before they attacked again, unrelenting, pitiless.
"I DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!" and now Draco was yelling too, tears seemed to be streaming down his face though Nico didn't have the time to look properly.
"I never have a choice!" Malfoy's voice broke, but now he had started he couldn't stop and it was like the words tumbled from his mouth before he could even think of speaking them:
"The war ruined us! It took my Father's freedom, my Mother's sanity, all our assets, status, everything the Malfoys ever had is gone! And I'm the only one left who can bring us back, everything, it all rests on my shoulders. I can't do it, Nico: I can't. She gave me a way out, she said she'd help me, I need this! I have to save my family, I HAVE NO CHOICE!"
The snakes were on top of him now, dragging him to the floor, wrapping around his arms and legs. The stygian iron blade he loved was ripped from his hand as he tried desperately to fight the steel creatures off, and in a second he was powerless, bound. The son of Hades looked up at the blonde boy who stood above him, and he could see now that the tears were not imagined.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered.
But Nico didn't want an apology, his lips curled into a snarl and he spat out a single word.
"Traitor."
Malfoy looked like he wanted to speak, but a voice made him change his mind.
Nico looked up as the tall pale woman approached, and he let out a long hateful hiss, "Athena."
*** Vision:
"You gave that idiot minor goddess a world! A culture of mortals! Do you know how dangerous this is? They will rebel! They will grow too powerful!"
Hades glowered at the goddess who opposed him, "I can do what I wish Athena, and you're not going to stop me!"
A matching glower met the lord of the dead as his niece walked forward until her finger was pressed against his chest in a threatening manner, "If you believe that, then you are more foolish than I thought. Mortals are not a toy to play with, and gods are not all powerful. This will go wrong -you mark my words- and when it does, I will be right there to mock you." with that the goddess vanished in a flash of light, and Hades was left muttering to himself.
"We'll see about that."
*** End of Vision:
In that same second when Nico realised who the golden lady was, he realised something else. He had known Draco's eyes were familiar, and now he knew from where.
Those eyes were Annabeth's eyes.
They were Athena's eyes.
"You're a demigod."