NICO'S POV

The moments in which the next few steps occurred were quite literally the most daunting of Nico's life. The world faded to a low roar around him; even Percy's grip became a numb weight in Nico's hand.

He couldn't get the image of Jessica's broken, limp body out of his mind. Nico hadn't known her for very long, only a few weeks, but he always saw how Caleb, his foster brother, looked up to her so much; how he adored her. They were a broken family, but they had each other and in the end that was what always seemed to keep Caleb on his feet.

Nico suddenly realized that he had yet to see Caleb, and his stomach heaved at the notion of finding his broken, twisted body in the way that he had found Jessica's. Nico truly didn't want that to happen, because he cared for Caleb much more than he had for Jessica. After all, Caleb was the one that had introduced him to Doctor Who, and that certainly created a special sort of bond.

Each creak on the hardwood floor felt like a death sentence, as if he were walking to his funeral. The air seemed to thicken with fear as Nico's heart plummeted into his chest.

All at once, he missed the old times, when he and Percy were both so naïve and oblivious to the sickening twists their relationship would take. He missed having a hopeless crush on Percy and going to the pool with Caleb and being terrified of water. All in all, he would do anything at all to have everything back that he had messed up.

Then there was Percy. Somehow the boy hadn't left him, even after all he'd done over the past few years. Percy had an innocent gaze in his eyes when he glanced at Nico, and all Nico could feel was guilt. Nico knew that beyond that innocently trusting ocean of green, there was a broken shore full of resentment and hate and pain, and it was all Nico's fault.

Yet Nico did not have time on his side to deal with such thoughts. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other at the slowest pace known to man. Colors seemed to sharpen the closer he got to that dreaded door, and he knew that it was the adrenaline starting to kick in.

Nico was so reluctant to hear the wail of the door as it opened, and yet he craved it. He craved the knowledge that waited on the other side of this doorframe, but he didn't want to face it. He didn't want to face the mess, he didn't want to face the people he'd put in such danger, and he didn't want to be here.

Nico suddenly wanted to be dead. He was alive at this moment, heart pumping and veins burning with a fire, but he didn't deserve to be alive. The world would be so much better off without him because the world had the stars, and Nico, the son of darkness, continuously sucked those stars into a void of eternal darkness in which the stars could never be seen again.

Fear was a good thing, though, it always would be. Fear gave him an advantage; he was more alive than ever, he could run for miles and jump higher and react with precision. Surely, Destiny was cocky at this moment, thinking she'd won after taking everything that Percy and Nico loved.

This thought filled Nico with more rage, causing him to do an act that he had only been hesitating to do for mere seconds, and yet that timeframe felt like centuries. With a final glance back at his three friends, Nico turned the handle.

The basement was dimly lit by a small window at the bottom of the stairway. One glance at the window told Nico that they couldn't possibly escape out of it, so their only chance of leaving was back up the stairs.

The oak wood of the steps groaned wearily under Nico's feet, as though it could barely stand to hold the demigods. Nico felt personally offended by the stairs' gesture; he wasn't even heavy enough to go on the zipline at camp yet!

Nico inwardly laughed off these thoughts as he made his way to the end of the stairs. Then, horror. Even the bubbles of amusement in his chest couldn't prepare Nico for what lay in front of him.

There was a boy tied to a chair with blood running through his hair, showing that he was severely injured. Will immediately saw this and pushed past the boys and kneeled beside him, Nico and the others jogging over to him.

Will began to pull supplies out of a knapsack he had brought and bandaged the boy up. Nico still couldn't get a clear view of the stranger's face, but he knew that he was knocked out.
Will was somewhat of an artist with bandages. He gently wrapped them around the wound on the boy's head, cursing when he made a mistake or two.

If his supplies were like paint and the boy was a canvas, this would certainly be a beautiful picture. Will was beautiful like that, and perhaps that's why Nico had fallen so hard for him when he did. He had no color left, and Will was able to paint entire galleries with his words. In a way, Nico was the pen and Will was the highlighter; Nico drew the world and Will made it brighter.

As Nico watched his ex apply various herbs and ointments to the boy, he was suddenly very glad everything worked out in the way that it had. Without the mistakes and the arguments and the breakup, Nico might have never been with Percy.

Nico might have died all that time ago.
At the reminder of his suicide attempt, Nico felt waves of guilt. If he had ended up dying, Percy would be left to deal with this mess on his own, because Zoe would have still been born, and surely Destiny would have forced the weight of the child onto poor, unsuspecting Percy. It would have been even worse too, because, at that point, Percy was so messed up on how he felt toward Nico that he was hardly able to think straight, let alone take care of a child.

So, Nico realized, he was important. It was one of those thoughts that his brain tried to shut off, tried to turn into something terrible, but as much as he tried, the evidence added up. Nico was important, no matter what he tried to tell himself.

There were more important problems at hand though, and Nico forced his mind off of the topic of his personal struggles and back onto those of this boy. Will was pouring nectar into the boy's mouth when Nico was snapped back into reality, and he heard a muffled whimper from the boy.

"Hi, I'm Will, I'm not here to hurt you, okay? I'm here to save you, I promise. Can you tell me what your name is?" Will said, his voice so soothing that Nico probably could have gone to sleep if the situation weren't so dire.

"I-I'm Caleb. Please, what's going on? I was upstairs making lunch with my mom and then this terrible lady hit me and then I woke up and my head hurt.. Are you the police?" Caleb asked, looking at Will with hope. Nico fought back the urge to hug his foster brother-he had missed him terribly-but common sense told him that it was best to stay back and let Will go through this process. Percy and Nico exchanged a glance, and Nico gave him the smallest shake of his head to tell him that he should keep his mouth shut.

"Uh, something like that," Will said with an awkward glance to the other demigods. "How old are you?"
"I-I'm twelve.. Please, where's my mom?" Caleb whimpered. Nico felt a wave of heartbreak and he buried his face in Percy's shoulder and Percy wrapped his arms around Nico. Nico choked back a sob. Caleb didn't deserve this, no, Caleb deserved the best things in the entire world, not losing his mother at such a young age. Nico knew what that felt like, and he certainly didn't want Caleb to experience it too.

"Shhh, I'm going to get you somewhere safe," Will said gently, untying the rope that wound around the boy. "Tell me something you really really enjoy doing." Caleb's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Well, I love swimming. It's so calming, you know? The water just really feels like home to me, I guess. I also love being with my girlfriend, Bailey. She's really sweet and I really love her, she's super important to me, as mushy as that sounds," Caleb said with a blush.
Will kept Caleb talking while he untied the rope, which, thankfully didn't take long. Will picked up Caleb and, just as he was about to head toward the stairs, a roar of malicious laughter filled the basement.

"It's her," Caleb whispered.

"Ah, hello there! Oh, Nico, what a pleasant surprise; I've missed you terribly, baby," Destiny cackled as she walked out of the shadows.

"Gods, what is this, a cliché chick-flick? Really, you couldn't have done better than coming out of the shadows? I mean, damn, even the Sea of Monsters movie was more interesting than that entrance," Leo grumbled from behind them. Percy and Nico couldn't hold back an "oooo" because Destiny had just been burned.

"Gods, and who are you?" Destiny said with a quizzical glance at Leo.

"I'm the fire that's gonna light you up, literally," Leo said, his hands setting on fire. Destiny giggled.

"Wow, this is going to be quite interesting; fire verses ice!" Destiny exclaimed, a little hint of joy in her voice.

"Go to Camp," Nico mouthed to Will, gesturing to the stairs. The son of Apollo cradled Caleb protectively in his arms and pelted up the stairs. Nico could only pray that the gods would keep them safe.

Nico pulled Nightmare out of his sword hilt, admiring it's shining black surface for a few moments. He couldn't wait until it was gleaming with a new material: Destiny's blood.

"Okay, Destiny, you have a choice: end this peacefully, or rot in Tartarus," Nico snarled, point his sword dangerously at Destiny.

"Oh, but I do believe you're forgetting about something," Destiny said, her teeth turning upward into a piranha-like smile.

Zoe.

"You go bring her to us, right now," Nico snarled. Destiny giggled.

"Sure thing sweetie, just one moment," Destiny turned around and walked to a corner of the room and Nico suddenly felt sick. In Destiny's hand was a recorder; this was a trap.

"Oh, I got you good honey. You really fell for it, didn't you?" Destiny smirked. The world suddenly spun like a merry-go-round, but once it settled again, his gaze focused in on one thing; Destiny.
Nico recalled every battle lesson he'd ever had with Chiron and Percy. Nico spun Nightmare dangerously, and narrowed his eyes at his enemy. Destiny chuckled and an icy blue staff appeared in her right hand.

"You really think you can defeat me? If you do, you're sorely mistaken; the only thing that this battle is going to end in is the blood of your friends' on your hands, Nico di Angelo. Prepare to watch everyone around you die!" Destiny let out another malicious laugh. Her staff began to glow with icy patterns in the shape of snowflakes the color of the ocean. Nightmare suddenly froze up in Nico's hands, and then shattered. Rage filled Nico's eyes and face, causing the world to burn red at the edges.

"Oh, we can't have you being too hot, now can we? Here darling, I'll just cool you off," Destiny said with a wicked grin. Before Nico could say anything, he was knocked onto the ground by a mound of snow that seemed to adhere to his skin. Nico shivered as the snow pricked his skin, begging to suck all of the warmth out of his body. Nico felt his skin go pale as the cold seeped through his veins.

Nico heard Percy scream and the clink of metal against armor, and footsteps appearing next to him.

"Don't worry buddy, I'm gonna get you out of this," Leo mumbled, holding fire close to him. Nico felt a little warmth fill him, yet the snow continued to stay. Leo cursed as he realized that the snow was enchanted. Leo tried to dig him out of it with no such luck.

"I-I don't know what to do," Leo whimpered as the rest of his attempts failed, one after another. There was exhausted wheezing coming from the direction that Nico thought Percy was in. He was starting to get tired, Leo would have to help.

"Leo, go help Percy, I'm okay."

"But-"

"Go," Nico commanded. Leo hesitated for a moment before nodding and running over to help Nico's boyfriend.
There were crackles of fire everywhere and the sounds of metal hitting flesh, and yet Destiny didn't seem to be taking any damage. Nico suddenly felt defeated, as though this battle were hopeless.

He needed to kill Destiny; she couldn't go on like this, hurting one person after the next. Her actions had hurt Nico and Percy more than anything had, and he knew that even if she left them alone, she'd continue to hurt many more demigods and innocent citizens. Hell, she'd been willing to put a poor twelve-year-old boy in danger just to get to Nico and Percy.

No, Nico had to win. He had to win for Caleb and Percy and Will and all the other demigods on the earth because something told him that if he didn't win this battle, something terrible would happen. Nico didn't like terrible.
Then, suddenly, the snow around him evaporated like magic. He looked up to see the face of a girl he didn't recognize.

"Go, you're free. Help Percy," the girl said. Her voice was smooth and had a pitch that Nico recognized, yet couldn't place. He nodded, not even stopping to question her because she'd helped him, so surely she couldn't be bad.

"Destiny, stop this. Haven't you wrecked enough for them?" Destiny stopped what she was doing and gasped.

"Y-you.. How did you.." Destiny stammered, her eyes wide with shock.

"The blessing of Hades, of course. He was not going to stand around and let Nico get destroyed. He saw how you hurt these two, and frankly, he isn't all that pleased with you," the girl said with a triumphant smirk. Nico couldn't help but admire her; she was about Nico's height and age, with black hair that fell just past her shoulders and blue eyes the color of the sky. If Nico weren't gay, he would certainly find her hella attractive.

"I always did what I thought was best.." Destiny said, for the first time, her voice faltering and her confidence diminishing. Nico found an odd sort of sadistic pleasure in seeing her tremble in fear.

"Is this really what you think is best? What sort of pleasure or joy are you going to gain from killing these two? They're important, how could you do this?" the girl hissed.

"He was hurting you, I couldn't allow him to live! And that one left me for the one that was hurting you, how do you think it feels to stand by and watch the love of your life abandon you after so many months of loving each other, after deciding he was gay," Destiny growled, spitting out the last word like venom. Rage filled Nico's chest like a balloon.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are.." Percy said, gazing at the girl with a puzzled look, as if he felt as though he knew her but then not really. Nico felt that odd sort of mixture filling his own chest.

"I thought you'd recognize your own daughter," the girl said with a weak smile. Then it hit Nico; the girl was Zoe. Gods, he was for sure going to Tartarus for thinking that she was hot.

"No, our Zoe was, like, ten years younger than you are," Percy said.

"Hades allowed me to grow up, I have to save you. It's my destiny- no pun intended," Zoe said with a small laugh.

"This is all very sweet, but can we get to the destroying Destiny part because gods she's worse than that one Narcissus dude, and I really didn't like him," Leo piped up. Destiny was stunned into silence for a moment, but then her eyes filled with that disgust and need to destroy again.

"Not on my watch!" Destiny screeched. Nico was suddenly pushed down onto the ground by the magical snow mound, and multiple thumps on the ground beside him told him that Percy and Leo had met a similar fate. However, footsteps told him that Zoe was somehow immune to the magic snow. Gods, his daughter was such a badasss.

"I just want you to know that I've always loved both of you, a lot. Nico, I know you blame yourself for a lot of things but just know that even then Destiny was beginning her control on you and you were always a great father, same to you, Percy. I would have had a much worse life with her, and I feel incredibly lucky that I can call you guys my fathers. Be brave for me, okay? Keep saving the world, Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo. I'll never forget you," Zoe said, her voice set with a sort of hard determination.

Then, before Nico could ask what she meant, Zoe snapped her fingers, and the world turned white.

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Wow I wonder what happened hahahahaha I guess you guys shall just have to wait to see. I love you guys, keep slaying. Next chapter is probably last chapter n maybe an epilogue idk. Thanks for sticking with me through all of this, you're all rad !

Until next time,

-Callie