𝕴𝖙 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖍𝖎𝖒 ||Nico di Angelo

Chapter eight || Why must I be this way, I don't want to push you away.

Chapter eight. Why must I be this way, I don't want to push you away.

𝕹ICO FELT SHIVERS GO DOWN HIS SPINE AS HE STARED AT PLUTO'S EYES, they were golden but dark at the same time, they were royalty and revelry combined, he was the king but the fool.  Nico fiddled with his ring, trying to ease his nerves, ease his fears. His father could frighten many and now that he was eye to eye with his Roman side, Nico's confidence dropped. 

Pluto moved like he was a model on a runway, he had a very soft yet elegant way of walking. His posture was like a ballerina's, but his stare was what frightened Nico the most, his golden eyes, ones that Midas could only dream of, he saw Hazel in them, but he couldn't find himself in them. His suit was composed of deceased souls who motioned into ghosts wailing and then spiriting away, his gold jewelry proved that he was indeed the god of riches. 

Nico felt smaller in comparison to him, but he didn't for a second, lose his posture.

"Lord Pluto." He bowed to him, he still needed to be reserved. 

"Nico, no need for formalities, I know who you are, and you know who I am." His face shifted into one that he knew best, Hades's. And Nico could understand what he was hinting at.

"Of course."

"You must be wondering why we are both the same." Pluto took Nico's silence as a "yes". "Well, dear boy, we are both one but we are different entities, different counterparts. I, Pluto am your father's Roman side, like Mars is Ares, Artemis is Diana, etc." Pluto walked around admiring his palace and touching paintings of Persephone with his fingertips. "We have the same mind, but we think differently, I am the god of the Underworld and riches and he is the god of the Underworld and the dead. We are viewed as separate beings, I am seen as a more positive concept of the god who preserves over the afterlife. But don't tell Hades I said that." Pluto smirked, something Nico couldn't believe. 

"So..."Pluto set down a vase he was holding and turned startling Nico. "Do you understand?"

"Yes.'" he said. "So you say that you are Hades?"

Pluto started to blabber nonsense and his face glitched, his father was now in front of him.

"Nico, you should know that a name is a very powerful thing, do not play like that, you are no longer a child." Hades kept his demeanor. "As of your question from before, yes, he is me as I am him, it may seem confusing at first, but I do hope you come around to the idea of it. Because you have no choice."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "In what?"

Hades's dark hair flickered beneath the chandelier that was dangerously close to the ground. He touched his wedding ring, turning it like a merry-go-round. 

"You must help your sister. Hazel was-is a very powerful demigod, and her story has not quite ended. Her ending will not end a bitter one." Hades's appearance shifted to Pluto once more. "My daughter, please, take her to Camp Jupiter, please, Nico di Angelo." Pluto's eyes shimmered with tears forming. 

Nico turned back feeling like he was being watched, yet he missed how Pluto's followers, all of them shed their tears for him, their voices filled with despair, pain, and plea. Nico raised his head, facing the god. And he nodded. 

Pluto hugged him, and sobbed into his shoulder, his son never saw this side of him, but it was only the beginning of him beginning to understand his two-faced father. He patted his father's shoulder. It was hard to know who was the one that took care of the other.

Their embrace came to an end as Pluto instructed Nico to leave as soon as they could, Nico brought up shadow-traveling but Pluto dismissed it, saying that it would take so much energy out of him and he needed to be the one to be negotiating with the Romans back in Camp Jupiter. 

Pluto ordered the best dinner for his daughter in a form of happiness due to her coming back to her, and for Nico, who was the one that found her. 

They felt like royalty, but they forgot that they were, they were prince and princess of the Underworld, the only one that was missing was Persephone or Proserpina. Nico swore that he saw their father stare longly at his stepmother's seat, though he hid his sadness with a bottle of the reddest wine. Their crowns never weighed anything because their father had never given them one that could be worn by their heads. 

𝖂HEN HAZEL AWOKE HER BROTHER WAS ALREADY WAITING FOR HER OUTSIDE, her bags were packed, even though she just got there, maybe she felt guilty knowing that Pluto might have let her death slide. But she was ready to live once more. And this time, she was going to take the reins of her life, and never again let the monster that killed her and her mother. 

Nico led her to a vehicle, Nico called it a car, but she saw many differences in how the cars were when she lived in; actually, she hadn't seen anything that was familiar to her, not even when they were outside their father's realm. She saw tall buildings, and apartments, modern statues, that to Hazel's memories weren't there. 

She turned to Nico. "How come the terrain has changed so much in only weeks?"

Nico bit his lower lip. "Hazel... What year is it?"

"Well, that's a silly question," Nico hardened his stare. "1950."

"Hazel... It's 2005."

Her face paled. She looked like she was going through another panic attack but that wasn't the case. It was how she now understood, she'd stayed in that field for 52 years. Her vision began to blur and she felt dizzy all of a sudden. Her body went limp and she had passed out on Nico's lap. 

I'm so sorry for the short chapter, I am currently writing the next chapter to be longer. Anyways I hope you've enjoyed the chapter and till next time I guess.

Have a nice day/night. And take care of your beautiful self.