CHAPTER SUMMARY
Nico reflects on the Wizard Genocide. Thalia arrives for the Winter Solstice meeting.
BEGINNING NOTES
Chapter Rating: General Audiences
Content Warning: Cursing
Word Count: 3875
I'm going to C2E2 (three-day pass!) and I've spent most of today getting my Bianca di Angelo cosplay together and it's going to look awesome. Then I helped my friend Brian who's going with me find a sword for his Jason cosplay, and that took like three hours but we found one!
Moral of the story: if you're going to C2E2 lemme know so we can meet up! Also, cosplay is hard.
And all the characters are owned by J.K. Rowling, or Rick Riordan.
Credits at the end.
____________________CHO____________________
One. Now two.
The nights were far too long, and each one stretched longer than the last. Each day the sun set faster and rose at a crawling pace. Each night, the darkness got thicker until it was tangible, pulling at the skin, slicing the lips, twisting the stomach until she begged for mercy. The darkness sapped the moisture from her skin, leaving a mummy in its wake. Hot, biting tears fought to be released with no such catharsis. Tears didn't help the first time, why should they help the second?
Did curses truly exist? Not the magical kind, the karmic. Did the universe choose at random who to elevate and who to damn? Could it push the hands of time? Could it pluck thoughts from the head or whisper them into the brain? Did it plant love and longing, anger and hatred, happiness and disgust? Did it choose at random who should live and who should die, and who should be left behind to brave the ever-growing night?
In Alice and Wonderland, the Mad Hatter insulted Time and was stuck at three o'clock in the afternoon every day until Time could forgive him. He was forced to sit at his tea table and go through the motions of tea time again and again, moving from place setting to place setting as the food ran out and tea got cold. His life was a merry-go-round; what he once enjoyed was now a prison.
Was Time offended, accidentally angered somehow? Did Time slow the clock each midnight, turning the bed into a merry-go-round, the sheets a prison? Did it whisper these thoughts and feelings out of spite? Did it stop up the eyes to keep the tears from flowing? Did it curse her?
She tried to step out of her bed like she did every night, but her feet wouldn't budge. Why should they? What was the point of the merry-go-round? Classes, Quidditch, more classes, more Quidditch. With Umbridge gone, the D.A. was dead. With the exchange program over Annabeth was gone, and the crushing loneliness had set in again. Marietta left her, saying she couldn't take the crying anymore, saying she'd come back when she grew up and that it was for her own good. As if she did it to spite her! Didn't she know how much she wished she could stop? How many Galleons she'd pay to let it all pass?
Her classes meant nothing, Quidditch meant nothing, everything meant nothing. The sun wasn't warm anymore, food tasted bland, the lake no longer sparkled, books no longer entertained her, homework wasn't painful, taunts didn't hurt her... all she ever felt anymore was gray. Just gray. A dark gray that turned to black each time she fell into that prison of a bed.
Would she give up Cedric to go back to the carefree girl whose thoughts were dominated by Quidditch stats and O.W.L.'s? Could she? He made her so happy, he colored the world, turned everything vibrant and glowing. The gray was even more noticeable now because of it. And Harry, so different from Cedric, and yet a shining glimmer of hope to pull her out of this darkness. He lowered a rope for her and reached out his hand, pushing her higher and higher until she could finally see the occasional pale blues and yellows. As she reached up to grab it, Time pulled him away and let her fall yet again.
If Time gave out curses, she was cursed to never love again. Death was commissioned to make sure of that. Why? What had she done to Time to force this merry-go-round? Why snatch Cedric only to take Harry too? If Time could just tell her what she'd done, she'd spend each endless night repenting until, at last, she could see the palest of colors.
She longed to see the pearly clouds and the beaming sun again. She wanted to taste the sweetness of blueberries and cream. She wanted to hear a laugh echo off the walls as she turned the smoke from the fireplace into different shapes with a few whispered spells. She wanted characters to leap off the pages of her book and back into her imagination.
Alice got to walk away from the Mad Hatter's tea party. He was stuck in that never-ending cycle. What would it take for Time to forgive, and allow him to chase after her into the glory of Wonderland?
"Goodnight, Cedric. Goodnight, Harry. If you loved me, ask Time to set me free? Remember me, please. I promise I won't forget you."
____________________ANNABETH____________________
The creak of the cabin door woke Annabeth from a troubled sleep. That was odd because since the holiday party at the Jackson's she'd been sleeping better than usual. Maybe it was because she was at camp again? She and the others returned from New York yesterday. She couldn't remember her dream, which was maybe a good thing... so why did that unsettle her even more? What was going on? Had Athena spoken to her? If so, that could only be bad news.
"I'm sorry if I woke you up."
Annabeth rolled over to see a disheveled Nico waiting patiently in the doorway. That wasn't exactly out of the ordinary; December 19th was always a hard time for him. Nico probably spent most of yesterday crying. He'd disappeared from the holiday party at the Jackson's apartment by the time everyone woke up. Beyond a shaky assurance from Hazel that Nico wasn't about to run off again, Annabeth hadn't given it much thought.
"Hard night?" she asked.
"Yeah," Nico said. "Can we go for a walk? I left something at Bunker Nine."
"The last time you said that you set off a war between Hades and Hecate."
"I promise not to do that this time."
"On the Styx?"
"The gods are too unpredictable for me to have that much faith in them. But one step below the Styx I'll do."
Annabeth sighed as she pulled herself up off his bed. "Wait for me outside. I'll throw some clothes on."
When Annabeth got out of the cabin, she saw Nico chatting with a young girl tending to the campfire. They seemed like good friends, old friends. Annabeth never paid her much mind--she always assumed she was one of the many nymphs that hung around the camp and not too important. She'd have to ask Nico about her later.
Nico bid the girl farewell, then jogged over to Annabeth. "Let's go."
They walked in silence for a while, letting the morning birds' chirp chirp chirp and the sound of waves crashing onto the shore fill their natural silence. Whatever Annabeth felt when she woke up washed away with the sounds of the woods. If it was important, she'd have another dream. Athena would never forget something major so easily.
"What did you leave at Bunker Nine?" Annabeth asked.
"My iPod. Leo's working on one of his projects and asked me to... what did he say, be his 'Penny Gadget?' Don't know what that means, but it's apparently handing him monkey wrenches and sledgehammers as he asks for them."
"What invention needs both a monkey wrench and a sledgehammer?"
"How should I know? I've never even used a printer before."
"How can you operate without a printer in high school?"
"Not doing homework. Or scaring people into printing my essays for me. Or convincing Sally and Paul to."
"What do you have against printers, Nico?"
He smiled to himself like he was sharing some secret inside joke. "I like typewriters better."
At that point, they'd reached Bunker Nine. Annabeth expected Nico to go inside, but he didn't; he stared off into the distance instead, searching for a shadow.
"Hades spoke to me here. This is where it all started. The Wizard Genocide. Right here." He knelt to the ground and scooped up a small, circular rock. Annabeth watched him study it, then toss it away like it was nothing. She didn't like it when Nico acted all mysterious. It usually meant something was really wrong.
"Are you coming to the Solstice meeting tomorrow?"
Nico ignored the question. "I change my mind. I'll come back for the iPod later. Let's go to Zeus's Fist."
"Okay..." Annabeth said to herself. She was definitely thrown off, but she also knew that he wouldn't come to her over nothing. There were times when she thought she could predict what Nico would do, or that she knew what he was thinking, then a moment like this would come to remind her that he wasn't so easily understood. Like it or not, she had to accept that she would never be able to truly decode Nico. But, as much as Annabeth hated the mystery, it was okay. As long as he had somebody, as long as he didn't go back to the boy terrified of Cupid, everything was all right.
They sat together on Zeus's Fist. It wasn't comfortable, but neither felt like getting their jeans all dirty by sitting on the ground.
"Who let you into camp?" Annabeth asked.
"I shadow-traveled in." Nico replied.
"How can you do that if you're a mortal?" Annabeth pressed.
Nico shrugged. Silence fell again.
I wish Percy was here. He'd know what to say.
That's why he came to you, Annabeth. He doesn't want you to say anything at all. Give him time to find the right words; he'll talk eventually.
The sounds of the birds and waves took over once again. Annabeth studied Nico carefully; he sat, still as a statue, eyes fixed on the distant horizon.
"I went to Italy last night." There was no emotion in his voice, no movement with his words. "When I was on the run last year, I found the gravesite of my family. I went back there to lay flowers on their graves. Hazel and I had a fight before I left. I don't know if I'd've gone back to la Valle d'Aosta otherwise." Nico let out a small, disgusted laugh. "I don't ever know what I'm doing, do I?"
"No one does, really," Annabeth assured him.
He finally turned to face her. "You always do," he said.
She chuckled. "No, I just act like I do. Ignore me--look at your brother, the seaweed brain. Or Jason, the Roman demigod in a Greek camp. He even uses the Roman names for everything; people look at him weird all the time."
"That's 'cause no one ever knows who he's talking about. Sorry, when you say 'Venus' my mind goes to a rock in the sky with mercury rain and all the volcanoes." Nico gave the tinest of smiles. "School's finally got to me."
That smile was her opening. His guard was falling down. So, Annabeth looked him straight in the eye and said, "All right, what's going on? You normally go to Hazel when you're like this."
"Like what?"
"All... broody."
"I don't brood," he protested. Annabeth raised her eyebrows. He crossed his arms, shook his head, and went, "Mmm-mmm."
"Here's what I think," Annabeth said as though she were in a Sherlock Holmes novel. "I think that if you came to me, it means something's seriously wrong and I'm the only one who can fix it. It's not just teenage angst."
Nico nudged her with his shoulder. "Hey!"
"You know I'm right."
"You usually are. Children of Athena are annoying." The two of them shared a small chuckle. Then, Nico's face fell. "Hazel told me I shouldn't give up on Hades," he admitted. "I said some stuff I shouldn't have and ran off. When I got to Italy... I swear I felt Hades' presence. And something just... came over me, Annabeth. I told him I loved him, if he was even there. After all that I've gone through, after all this shit, how could I say that?"
Annabeth thought for a moment. "You were emotional and overwhelmed. People say stuff they don't mean when they're grieving."
"But..." Nico searched for the right words. "I... I'm not... not sure if I didn't mean it. Like I said, I don't even know what I'm doing. The end of the war, the quest itself, it's all just a blur now. It doesn't even feel real . And so much of it doesn't make any sense at all. The first dream I had about the unicorn, what Dumbledore said to me, some of the things Hecate and Hades said to me... I don't know. I don't like not knowing."
"Believe me, I can relate," Annabeth said, "but life doesn't wrap up in a neat little bow. I get wanting that knowledge, but, sometimes you need to realize that there isn't always a meaning to everything. What I'm saying is, it's over, Nico. It doesn't matter anymore."
"It does to me," he insisted. "The Artifacts did more than drag me to the Underworld. When I wore them, I was Lord Voldemort. Not Tom Riddle, Voldemort. Harry... all the horrible things he did to me... the more I've thought about the prophecy... I've changed what I thought it meant so many times. Revealing myself to Harry, that's what saved me. What he said, it saved me. I resisted Riddle. I went toe-to-toe with a god. And," his voice went to a whisper now, "I out-manipulated a goddess."
"And you gave up your father," she finished for him. "You want to know how much of that was you, and how much wasn't."
There was another long silence. "I don't regret my choice. But, I didn't have a choice. But I did have a choice, too. I did what I was destined to do, but also what I wanted to do, and it's the best decision I've ever made, if it was a decision, since the prophecy said I had to, but it didn't feel like I had to. I'm so confused! It all makes my brain hurt."
Annabeth put a gentle hand on his shoulder. Nico didn't push it off. "Give me some time to think, okay? We should get back to camp before everyone arrives for the Solstice meeting."
Nico shook his head. "No, I'll join you later. I want to get some rest, I didn't get much sleep last night."
"I'll walk you back to the cabins, then." Annabeth stood up and pulled Nico with her. He resisted at first; a few moments passed until he finally let her overpower him. There was a silent understanding between them now. She promised to help him work through it all, later, when they had more time. She was right, she needed time to think. She was as unsure as he was, except in one regard: whatever that anxiety was, whatever she'd forgotten from her dream, that talk about Nico's quest was the only thing that seemed to soothe it.
____________________THALIA____________________
"Annabeth!" Thalia cried, beaming ear to ear. Her little sister was engaged. Being a hunter, she wasn't well-versed in what to do, but she could figure out the basics. "Congratulations!"
Yeah, that sounds right.
Thalia was glad that Lady Artemis granted her request to come to Camp Half-Blood ahead of the other Hunters. She could imagine what Roszí would say, and it would probably put a damper on Annabeth's happily ever after.
Thalia remembered what it was like to be young, in love with a boy who'd saved your life time after time. If Percy decided to give himself to Kronos, though, only Lady Artemis herself could top the damage Thalia would deliver at the end of her hunt.
Percy, with all his faults, didn't seem in danger of doing that. For now.
Annabeth blushed. She had a huge grin on her face, but there was something in her eyes, something troubling. Thalia made a mental note to ask her about it later.
Percy stumbled through the engagement story and Hazel gleefully filled in the blanks (all while Frank stood there awkwardly). Thalia did her best to listen. She didn't care about all the drama, enough of a reason for her mind to wander, but she'd left the other Hunters in a bad state back in Nunavut. Nothing they couldn't handle, of course, otherwise nothing and no one could've kept Thalia away from helping her sisters. She still worried; even Lady Artemis drew attention to it before she left.
***
So far north, the sun didn't shine in December, and the influence of the gods grew weaker. Even Lady Artemis didn't have as strong a scent so close to the solstice, because the full moon shone as rarely as the sun. Monsters roamed freely, restlessly, freshly formed from the pits of Tartarus and hungry for vengeance on those who'd sent them to the sludge. No half-blood dare hunt in the Arctic Circle during wintertime, which meant that the Hunters must always have a foothold there. Even if the hunt was dangerous, the Hunt could never--and should never--stop.
It was early in the morning on December 19th when Lady Artemis called Thalia into her tent for a private meeting. This wasn't uncommon, especially since she was her first lieutenant, but her Lady seemed a bit more reserved than usual.
"How is Kante, Thalia?"
"Fourth-degree burns, according to Ianthe, my Lady. Not hard to heal. We'll be ready to break camp in a few hours. What were they? I've never seen monsters like that before."
Artemis nodded gravely. "A hybrid between a firecrab and manticore. One of Hecate's creations. Many monsters of her lands have migrated west, as those of the Underworld come north. And yet, none have retreated."
"That's why we Hunt, my Lady," Thalia told her, "Monsters don't retreat on their own."
"The Great Stirring may have ended, but I can still feel its tremors. The monsters are restless and, without their Patron and Matron holding them back, there will be chaos. We avoided it last year, but only just. It feels like the gods in question forgot to pull back on loose reins. We must not let them overrun us."
***
"Hazel--" Frank said as he pulled his girlfriend away from Thalia. She followed his eyes to Piper, strolling towards them over the hill while a few (presumably) Aphrodite stragglers waited for her by the Big House. Jason walked alongside her, too.
Thalia forced herself to stay where she was, though the big sister in her was dying to give Jason a huge hug. Instead, she waited for them to join her.
She met Piper's eyes. "Jason looks happy. Your fault, I guess?"
"I try."
"Just make sure he stays that way, or..." with a quick prayer to Zeus, a massive bolt of lightning struck Half-Blood Hill, complete with an ominous clap of thunder. Everyone minus Piper and Thalia winced.
"Yes, ma'am," Piper said with a smile.
Thalia forgot how empty the camp was during the winter months. When she strolled into the Dining Pavilion with her friends, four half-bloods (none of whom she recognized) sat at a single table (she wasn't sure which god's) and ate. A young woman Thalia didn't recognize sat with a Latino boy at the Hephaestus table. To her annoyance, that was the table Annabeth chose to sit down at.
Reluctantly, Thalia squeezed between Annabeth and Jason. Immediately, the Latino boy looked up and gave her a revolting grin. "Hola," he said, trying to sound charming. Thalia rolled her eyes in disgust. She remembered who he was now. Leo never changed.
"What's your name?" Thalia asked the woman next to Leo.
The woman ignored Leo's indignant huff. "Calypso," she said. "You're Thalia? Annabeth mentioned you, many times. Don't worry about Leo, he's a little, um--"
"Bitter?" Piper offered. Everyone laughed, except Leo. "Calypso just got back from a year in Costa Rica."
"I study plants in the jungle," Calypso explained. "Leo gets grumpy when I stay away too long." She playfully punched Leo's shoulder. "Say hello."
"I did. 'Hola' means 'hello' in Spanish. See? This is why you need me in Costa Rica. I could be your translator."
"Leo!" a girl interrupted, "the Hephaestus cabin set itself on fire again!"
"I thought we fixed that bug!" Leo muttered to himself, gears whizzing in his brain. All his annoying confidence came back, and his foul mood seemed to pass. "Gotta go!" He ran off with the girl towards the cabins.
"Well, on that note!" Piper whispered to Thalia, who laughed. She wiped buttery crumbs off her fingers and stood. "The Hermes Cabin is having another auction, and I heard there are some Apollo-designed heat-seeking arrows in the mix if you want to come. And a laptop that's disguised as a bomb. I think they stole that from the Ares Cabin."
"It's the Hermes cabin," Jason pointed out. "I'm sure it's all stolen."
Thalia pushed her scrambled eggs away. It turned out that she wasn't that hungry. "I could use a distraction," she said. "Anna--"
Somehow, she'd had already disappeared.
It wasn't that hard to slip away from Piper and the others unnoticed. It took Thalia an embarrassing amount of time for a first lieutenant of Artemis to track down Annabeth and, as it turned out, Nico di Angelo. She found them talking next to the hearth in the U outside the cabins. She wanted to eavesdrop; they hadn't noticed her yet and she sure as Hades wasn't going to interrupt Nico when he had such a serious face on. He could still match Thalia in battle pretty well, even without demigod powers, and he didn't like people who caught him off-guard.
He hates eavesdroppers more.
Thalia cleared her throat. They turned. "Well?" she asked. "What's up?"
Nico rolled his eyes and marched off towards the Hades cabin. "Why did you do that?" Annabeth snapped.
"Hey!" she called. Annabeth was running after Nico, so she joined in the chase. "You can see Nico whenever you want. I'm back in New York for the first time in more than a year. Death Boy can be all broody later, can't he?"
They walked into the Hades cabin together and promptly crashed into Nico. "Wha...?"
Thalia didn't have much time to get her bearings. On the other side of Nico, in the interior of the cabin, was a teenage girl with tanned skin and brown hair that curled and floated in the wind. She wore a sundress made of ever-changing pastel colors, flower-shaped gemstone jewelry, and a tiara of gold and silver, pressed with every precious gem Thalia had ever seen with a black opal at the top.
The girl finished watering a potted plant in the center of the Hades cabin. When she knelt to put it on the ground, Thalia saw she had a ring of black gold and a pink diamond on her finger. She turned, revealing glowing golden eyes and pink, glossy lips. When she saw the demigods, she huffed, as though her mother had stepped in front of the T.V. set and told her to get her homework done.
"I thought you'd be alone," she complained to Nico. "You're always alone."
"I know you..." Thalia said. She couldn't place it... then, her eyes landed on a certain sword hanging at the woman's side. Thalia clenched her fists. "Oh."
"Hello, daughter of Zeus," she said. "I am Persephone."
END NOTES
Roszí is pronounced ROW-shee.
This week's beta commentary:
STORY: "Hard night?" he asked.
SARA: there's a joke about hard mornings here that i'm not gonna directly make
MELODY: But we shall all make it in our heads.
Credits:
Melody Rose - Author (melody0rose.tumblr.com)
Sara - Beta Reader (http://icomparemyselftoyou.tumblr.com)
Please comment so I know what you think! See you next time!