Mostly Normal: Hearts and Spades

Chapter Eighteen: Met

As Nero approached the gates, he got more and more nervous. Where would he end up? He hoped he hadn't been bad enough in life to have to endure Eternal Punishment. Fields of Asphodel wouldn't be his first choice either, but it would be better than torture.

The sentries in their creepy gold masks turned to face him. Nero gulped and stopped in his tracks, waiting for his sentence to fall.

"He unleashed the power of Nemesis on the son of Hades," one of them mused, "H'm. Not very good."

"But it was an accident," the other one contradicted, "he didn't know Nico di Angelo was standing there. He was trying not to hit that Sara girl."

"Good point. Hmm...where to put him?"

A hand rested on his shoulder. "Don't put him anywhere," a familiar voice said firmly, "he doesn't belong here. Death claimed him wrongly."

"N-Nico?" Nero could hardly believe his luck. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to bring you back where you belong," Nico said, still staring at the sentries, "Thanatos shouldn't have claimed you. You have a whole life ahead of you."

"Thanatos?"

"Death. My father's lieutenant," Nico explained, "I don't know why he took you, but it wasn't your time. Let's get back to camp."

"But, how are you going to take me back?" Nero protested, "Won't I still be a spirit?"

Nico didn't answer. He just grabbed Nero by the arm and started dragging him away from the gates. Nero didn't need anymore forcing; he stumbled to his feet and walked alongside the son of Hades.

When they finally reached the gates of the underworld, they were stopped by a very upset looking Thanatos and Hades. "Nico? Where do you think you going with that spirit?"

Nico puffed out his chest slightly to make himself look bigger, though it did not work. "You and your lieutenant have wrongly claimed him, he did not deserve to die."

Thanatos took a deep breath and stepped forward, looking at Hades before continuing on. "I did not claim him, he forced himself into that state. The Fates decided that he should die, I had no part in this. So, son of Hades, I suggest that you either put that soul back where he came from or, face the wrath of the Fates."

Nico's shoulders slumped and he handed Nero a note before he continued to walk through the gates, leaving a very confused, and still dead Nero next to the gates of the Underworld.

When Nico returned to camp, he was still distraught. He felt a knot form in his throat when he saw the once happy and jumpy Sara laying on the ground, in the shade no less, looking as if she were about to cry. Will walked over to his friend and hugged him, hoping that he would be happier with the physical touch.

Nico leaned into Will and then wandered off down the hill. Instead of going over to his cabin as he normally would, he wandered down to the Nemesis cabin.

Inside the cabin, was a dreary dismal place, Maxine lay in a heap of blankets on her bed, Colin had tried to get her to come out, but she was simply too depressed. Victoria stayed near Gilbert at all times, as he seemed to be her coping method.

Nico took a deep breath to collect himself before he cleared his throat to let Maxine know that he was there. She flipped around, her hair looked very unkempt and there were marks of where she had hurriedly wiped off all of her makeup after the funeral.

"What do you want?" her voice was hoarse and scratchy as if she had been crying all night, which she probably had.

Nico looked at her, and his eyes softened, this was no longer the girl that used to beat people up when they pissed her off, this was the broken version of Maxine that no one got to see. "I tried to bring Nero back."

Maxine shot out of bed and looked at the son of Hades, shock written over her face as she stared at the small boy. "Thanatos and Hades stopped me at the door. I tried to reason with them but," Nico took a deep breath as he saw the sorrow take over her face, "he said that Nero did that to himself. I made sure he got put in Elysium. Dad gave your family special permission to do Iris messages to the Underworld, only once a month though."

Nico stopped as he heard a sobbing noise come from just outside the door. Both Ethan and Damien stood, in tears outside of the cabin door. "Did you really do that for Nero?" Damien asked, breathless as he tried to comfort his brother.

Nico nodded and then walked away from the two sobbing brothers.