i am so sorry for the long wait! yet trust me: this chapter will make up for it. the ending is soon.
notes:
- a lot of aspects of this chapter, and even the fic in general, was greatly influences/inspired by stranger things. you can easily find the similarities in the past chapters. however, this one is where a ton of factors from the show are used.
- it's my personal headcanon that nico met ethan down in the labyrinth after ttc and befriended him. because i love ethan.
- i had to fix the final battle because the one in hoh was... lame. nico and leo's final trial in tartarus should be as epic as possible. also, some of nico's dialogue is taken directly from both himself and percy in canon!
- as long as at least one of the doors is chained down, tartarus is able to manipulate them due to their ownership being granted to him completely by gaea.
- soft nicoleo hours.
beta-read by poisontown on tumblr!
the horses took them as far as they could.
the waters of the acheron rippled and shifted beneath the chariot as the goddess of night's steeds took them across the river of torment, the souls eerily quiet as they passed. tortured white faces manifested in the foam, and pale transparent hands attempted to grasp onto the pitch black chariot, begging for the release from their eternal punishment. once the chariot had reached the shore of the other side, the horses continued on, passing winding lava streams that branched from the phlegethon far from them, reforming monsters hiding within cases of amber that glared at them with frozen rage, and nigrine veins above beating louder and louder — tartarus' blood, coursing through the cavern's ceiling. the farther they traveled, the larger the veins became, and the heartbeat of the god of the pit strengthened.
nico forced himself to stare ahead, his vision suddenly amplified due to his eyes being subject to the horrors within the mansion of night. he could see every little detail around him. he noticed the ways white constellations swirled on the horses' ebony coats, noticed the gleaming of weapons of half-mortals and monsters scattered around the undefinable distance of the barren land they tread through. he could sketch out every individual aspect of a mountain or spiral within sight, trace the rocks that jutted out from canyon walls and cast shadows upon crevices and caves. the few monsters that saw them either paid them no attention or avoided their way. it was like they were afraid of them, as if mother night was holding the reins of the chariot towards the world above, draping night over the mortal plane and allowing the sweet solace of sleep.
most of all, nico could notice leo. the boy had finished sipping the milk-like contents of the leather pouch damasen had gifted him, each individual indent in its circular form visible to nico's eyes. leo's eyes were sunken as they stared down at one of the reins in his hand, gripping the rope weakly with grimy nails. the eye bags beneath his deep brown irises were darker, prominent than night's own domain. his umber skin was smothered in dirt and blood, tiny freckles dotting his cheeks and beauty marks appearing here and there — over his left eye, in the space between his ear and cheekbone, above the left of his top lip. his chapped mouth was pulled into a thin line, occasionally twitching into a frown. nico knew he was still processing what had happened back in that dreadful mansion. he gripped onto leo's waist tighter, hand already so roughed up from clutching leo's body in the halls and refusing to release him. he could see that leo was still scared.
nico was scared too. he absolutely despised the feeling of fear drenching his skin, the memories of what happened back at the palace of nyx still vivid in front of his eyes. every now and then he would see a shadow, anywhere across the barren plains that stretched far and wide around him. sometimes they would be bulky and built, other times so narrow they were scarecrows in the center of a famine. nico would blink furiously, desperately blocking the ghosts from his mind to no avail, as they would only appear more and more frequently. the world was spiraling, everything picking apart under them were fragments floating in space. the only thing preventing him from going insane was one of leo's hands that had slithered towards his own, quietly tapping against his knuckles as if he senses nico's distress.
