Nico stared at her, his mouth moved without his consent, "I'm sorry, you're gonna do WH—" the last word fell short as he jumped back to evade her gem encrusted fists.

"I will end you, Ghost king, for what you did to my brother!" Hazel screamed.

"This makes—" Nico dodged again. "absolutely no sense!"

Hazel didn't seem discouraged by Nico's comments. "I will kill you slowly and painfully for what you did!"

"Wha—"

"Scum like you don't deserve to live!"

"Hazel—"

Hazel pounded her fists on the rooftop, the concrete floor rumbled and Nico was thrown back, he had just about enough time to cushion his fall with shadows.

His sister stood over him, her silhouette outlined by the crescent moon, imposing. She hissed with such venom that Nico nearly forgot how to breathe.

"Go to hell!" Hazel's lips pulled back into a snarl, her voice a low rumble of thunder in the horizon.

She brought down her boxing glove of gemstone and Nico rolled to the side in the nick of time. The concrete cracked when her wrist collided, sinking a few inches. Nico could only imagine what would've happened to his head, had it been where it was a moment ago. Scratch that—he didn't WANT to imagine that.

He pushed himself up. Hazel advanced like a tiger, ready to pounce on its prey.

Aka Nico.

He harnessed the shadows, they surged forwards, wrapping themselves around Hazel. Hazel struggled, her fists bound by tendrils of dark, swirling shadows. Nico walked up to her, now out of the danger of being squished like a bug.

"Hazel..." he reached out to tuck a pretty stubborn curl behind her ear, but she leaned her head out of the way, making his fingers pause. He retracted his hand, fingers clenched in a tight ball.

"Hazel, what's going on?" Nico sighed, his voice barely above a whisper, "I'm Nico, can't you remember me?"

Hazel snorted in disdain, "I saw his body! Mercilessly sliced by that wicked sword of yours!"

She struggled harder against the bonds. "You—you imposter! You shall pay for what you've done!"

Nico struggled to form words. His sister believed he had killed her brother, meaning himself.

"Where have you been?" he asked finally, then added, mostly to himself, "and what have they done to you?"

Hazel opted to strain against the shadows instead, leaving his questions hanging in the air, un-answered.

Nico watched silently, his heart a mess as his sister fought against the bindings.

HIS bindings.

HE was restraining her.

His own sister...

Nico knew he could take her on a fight, but that would involve hurting her. And he had no idea what he could do, keeping her tied up like this.

He didn't want to hurt her...

He didn't want to fail her... again...

"Look," he sighed sadly, "I'll let you go, if you swear not to fight me. Be civil. Let's talk about this?"

"There's nothing TO talk about!" Hazel laughed bitterly and his heart clenched. "There was a time I would've talked, but that was before I saw my brother's corpse, all hacked up and left for the vultures!"

Nico didn't know how she had seen his corpse, considering the fact that he was currently standing in front of her, alive and most certainly not rotting away.

But seeing her like this...

She was broken... he could see it in her dazzling eyes.

And seeing it... it broke him.

"Please," he pleaded.

She looked at him for a long moment, then exhaled, long and thorough. "Fine. I promise not to fight you."

Nico's shoulders nearly slumped in relief, but he resisted the urge. He willed the shadows clinging to her form to withdraw themselves and watched as Hazel rolled her shoulders.

"So—" that's all he got to say before something crashed into him.

He was sent flying to where Sunshot was keeled over, once again, by reflex, calling the shadows to absorb the impact of his fall.

Sunshot was out cold, perhaps he hit his head?

But Nico could not worry about him right now, considering his sister was out for his blood.

And she... she broke her promise.

The Hazel he knew never broke a promise.

This was not the Hazel he knew.

Right then, he knew that he would have to choose.

Either fight her, or... give himself up.

But he couldn't surrender, not when she had no idea what she was doing. He didn't want her to suffer from the guilt of being responsible for the death of a sibling.

Neither could he fight her. He knew he would win, but he couldn't raise his sword against the very sister he strove so hard to find. He wouldn't.

He would make her come to senses. He would make her see that her brother was still alive. He would bring her back.

But right now? What he had to do... was escape.

He was about to drown himself in the shadows when out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the unconscious lump of gold and white, better known as Sunshot.

Out of the other corner of his eyes, he could see Hazel barreling towards him.

Without time to spare for second thoughts, he grabbed Will's arm and shadow traveled them both away.

**********

Nico took them to an abandoned warehouse. It was run down, falling to pieces, but nobody came there anymore, making it an ideal hiding spot.

Nico couldn't shadow travel to his house, as he normally would've done, straight on top of his bed, preferably.

But there were complications.

A certain blond-haired superhero was being a huge inconvenience.

One, he was extra weight. It was already tiring enough to teleport himself through the shadows, but dragging Will along? Nico was spent, on the verge of passing out then and there.

Two, he was still out cold, meaning, he was not being useful in the smallest way.

Three, with Will here, he could not go straight home, and he couldn't risk passing out either. Who knows? What if Sunshot woke up when Nico was out? Who knows what he'd do? He couldn't risk being dragged to the police station.

So abandoned warehouse it was.

Nico crashed to the dusty floor, his limbs drained of all energy, utterly exhausted. He could hardly keep his eyes open.

What's more? Will-freaking-Solace landed heavily, right on top of him, still unconscious.

Man! He was heavier than he looked! What does this guy eat??

Nico didn't have the strength to push him off, fighting the dark spots in his vision.

All he could do was try his level best not to pass out.

Word count: 1090

A/N: Helloooo my beautiful people! What do you think of the story so far? Pls comment! Constructive criticism is always accepted!

I have to apologize for the slightly late updates, busy these days.

And cheers to Sunny for posting my story!!