hi people! Uhh I really don't have anything important to say that we have exams coming up and ilinear equation will be writing even more infrequently (no offence bestie)so... yeah! but I have written about 1000 words for next chap

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As Nicole strode into the manor, trying to hide her initial panic, she was dimly aware of the large arches and intricate banisters.

Annabeth would have loved this.

She immediately smothered that thought. This was a fresh start. No camp, no half-bloods, no wars.

"This way Miss di Angelo." Said Alfred as he lead her through various halls and passages.

Hades, Nicole thought, this is more confusing than the labyrinth.

At least the Labyrinth made sense. Even if that sense was that it was trying to drive you insane and then kill you.

They finally stopped outside outside a door.

Alfred turned to her and said rather formally,"The young masters are all gathered in the living room. I shall leave the introductions to him as I must to go prepare dinner. Do you have any preferences, Miss di Angelo?"

Nicole was shocked at the kind way he spoke to her. No one had shown her such affection since before Bian- No, She would NOT go there.

"You can make anything, I'm okay as long as it's edible." she said in jokingly and Alfred left with a nod.

"Are you ready?" Asked Bruce gesturing towards the door.

"Not even a little."

Bruce chuckled, " No one ever Is." he murmured, almost to himself and pushed the door. It swung open with a foreboding creak.

------------------------------------------

Hi

<(°o°)>

name me

into the unknooooown

into the unknooooOOOOwn

into the unknoooOOOoooOOOwn

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The living room was absolute CHAOS.

A boy, maybe a year younger than Nicole, was typing on a laptop and practically drowning in paper coffee cups from that new coffee house. Nicole didn't remember the name. Something to do with stars and money, if memory serves.

Yet another pair, a guy her age and one about 10 years old were fighting. Or rather, throwing around death threats. And objects.

An older boy, maybe twenty one, was trying to stop them.

And failing terribly.

"What on earth is going on?" Bruce yelled and Nicole flinched.

She was not the only one. Coffee Boy quite literally jumped when he heard Bruce. The little kid who was holding a candelabra, possibly to club his brother, started and threw it in Bruce's general direction. Unfortunately Blue Eyes was in the way.

He reacted like a half-blood.

That is he jumped up to avoid the metal and balanced himself perfectly on a chandelier that should have been too high to reach.

Standard behavior for demigods, and vigilantes, it seems.

Nicole turned to Bruce, an opurtunity to make the Big Back Bat sweat was too good to pass up.

"How'd he get up there?" She gestured towards Dick, who was hanging upside down and pouting at the Kid.

"He...well, he was raised in a circus?"Nicole incredulously stared at Bruce for his awful explanation. Seriously, was that supposed to answer her questions or raise more? Wayne seemed to realize his less than stellar performance and turned around wincing.

"So, father, why did you stop me from kicking Todd's ass?" Asked the youngest boy.

"Well, I would like you to meet Nicole. Nicole, these are the boys. Boys, Nicole di Angelo. She will be living with us from now."

Nicole raised an eyebrow. "So I'm supposed to call them all boys?"

But Buce had already left. You should have noticed she thought weak.

"He do that often?" She asked the four boys who were staring at her as if she had dropped from the sky.

Blue Eyes stepped forward and reached his hand out. "The names Dick, any time you need rescuing from these hooligans, call me ." He ended his sentence with an easy smile and a wink"Don't worry if these guys are hostile at first they'll warm up to you, promise." Smiley little boy thinking the word was all sunshine and rainbows, he was almost as bad as Percy.

Percy

Wrenching her mind away from that painful train of thought, Nicole turned her gaze to the others. (What's a trainful pain of thought?)

"Hi, I'm Timothy but, obviously, I am called Tim. You can call me that, I guess." He said awkwardly before going back to his laptop.

"Hello Nicole, I am Damian and you are to call me by my birth name. Understood?" Nicole nearly chuckled at his formality. Instead, she nodded and turned to the last guy, the only one her age apparently.

He had somehow flopped down on the sofa without anyone noticing.

Sloppy, criticized a voice that sounded suspiciously like Hades.

He had a switchblade in one hand and was cleaning his nails.

Please, she thought, even nine year old half bloods are more intimidating.

But it was a good tactic and would have made the average mortal pretty nervous and none of the brats, sorry, bats suspected just how experienced she was.

"The name's Jason." He said in a gruffly.

Nicole nodded to him, like she would to an Ares kid.

Respect, but warning too.

We can't have him think she could be stepped on, can we?

Strangely enough, he had an aura of death. She could hear the slight buzzing in her ears like she did when someone died. Only, he was clearly alive.

-----Mujhe ka pov. mainly focusing on Jason (Todd) -----

In short, Jason did not like this... girl.

If she even was a girl.

Why? Her aura reminded him of the pit. She had this thick blanket of death that hung around her and full disclosure: that  scared him a little. (I think that's what she meant. She wrote disclosier. Is that even a word?)

While Goldie, Replacement and Demon Spawn introduced themselves, he managed to plonk on the couch without the *bleeping* batman's sidekicks realising

When it was his turn to introduce himself, he just tried the regular approach- Intimidation. He wanted to show her who was boss in this part of town. It generally worked.

Keyword being 'generally'.

Being gruff, rude and more importantly, keeping a switchblade out hadn't seemed to faze her a bit. Instead, it almost seemed that she was rather used to things like it. He could practically read her mind. She was definitely thinking something like 'OHHH, I was like, way scarier when I was like nine.'

She probably wasn't.

She had probably been this snotty, nerdy, weird, creepy, hot-

Wait, what?!

Jason did not think she was hot.

No way

No how ,

NO

She had dark, wavy hair that hung down to a little lower than her shoulder and eyes that seemed blacker than midnight. She was rather pale, as though she didn't get much sun but there was a hint of olive brown on her skin. Her features seemed vaguely Italian and although she wasn't very tall, roughly five and half feet, the way she stood just made her seem like she was way taller.

Okay. Maybe she was a little hot.

He looked her directly in the eye and got up, hoping that his being a good 4 inches taller would intimidate her. All it seemed to accomplish was annoy her. She looked amused.

Jason felt his blood boil. Who the hell was she to walk in and suddenly think she could replace him. 

Jason realized he was not being rational but Demon Spawn had dug up a sore spot by mentioning how Bruce forgave his killings but not Jason's. And Jason was murderous.

However much he pretended to not care, it still hurt when the one man who you looked up to, who you saw as a father, told you you were worthless. Not even worth mourning. Not worth avenging. Replaceable. And now here was someone else to compare Jason to. Someone else Bruce will play family with and ignore his son.

"I don't want you here. None of us four do." He growled, gesturing to the rest of his 'family'.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Jason realized he was being stupid.

But he was Jason Todd, damn it!

He was the guy who crawled out of his grave and trained with a cult in the Himalayas so he could get revenge on a multimillionaire who dressed like a bat because he did not kill the clown that killed Jason.

Rationality was not his strong suit.

"Add me to that list, Toad. I'm only here because an over sized bat wants to help every person under eighteen and beat up everyone over that. And now he apparently has Bruce Wayne doing his dirty work for him

"Why you little... Why don't you just go dig yourself a hole crawl into it and never come out, bitch?! Or better yet, jump of a building, everyone is better off with you dead!" He yelled, not-so-gently shoving her back.

When exactly had he started yelling?

He wasn't sure.

He had no idea where all this anger was coming from. But it was there and he couldn't help but take it out.

Out on her. 

(Dun dah dah dadadaaaaaaa)

------now I'm gonna focus on Nicole------

Nicole froze when she heard what he said.

"Better off with you dead"

The stupid mortal probably didn't realize but he was right. Everything was better with Nicole dead.

Bianca would be alive

Percy could have beat Kronos earlier.

Annabeth wouldn't have been injured in the battle.

The armies of Kronos wouldn't have been able to enter the Labyrinth.

Deadulus would be alive.

Her mother would be alive.

Hades would have the daughter he had always wanted.

She should have died.

Hades said so. He always told her that it should have been her, not Bianca. Nicole knew that, knew Bianca was the better sister, the one who should have lived. Nicole knew that, but she was not about to take shit from anyone.

Least of all a mortal.

She didn't get where she was by letting people use her a a doormat.

She glared when she wanted to cry.

Gave a scathing remark to the boy while she wanted to scream, "I know, they are better off with me gone."

She turned and asked the butler, who had come in sometime during her speech of Jason having the IQ of an electrocuted toothbrush (😏), to take her to her room when all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and sob.

As Nicole was in her room, she tried to sit still and think. Her failures. Her worthlessness. Selfishness. Stupidity.

She felt this overwhelmed need to hit something. She quickly rolled up the mattress and wrapped it in the bed sheet, creating a makeshift punching bag. She hoisted it up with some shadows and looped one end of the sheet on the hanging light. Then the beat down began. How long? More than enough. Way more.

*punch* Worthless

*kick* brat

*smack* demanding

*hit*selfish

*foomph* freak

*smash* YOUR SISTER SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE TO SURVIVE!

Nicole crumpled to her knees, wanting to cry but too proud to do it.

She didn't know how long she stayed like that but it was long enough for Dick to get worried and come.

Nicole sensed him at the door and immediately made the shadows cloak the bag. Guess there was some benefit from being the freak. She could use shadows to do what the mist could.

Dick knocked on the door before coming in. Seeing Nicole in the ground, he asked, "Hey. You okay?"

She just nodded her head slightly, still looking in the opposite direction, towards the window

Dick didn't think so. He walked over and gently wrapped his arms around her torso and pulled her gently so she was mostly leaning on him. She flinched a bit but Dick pretended not to notice, whispering softly, "It's okay. Don't worry. Ignore him. You're okay. It's fine."

Nicole didn't say anything. Soon, she found herself relaxing in his grip. It had been a long time since that last time she felt so safe in the arms of someone. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat. It was probably her favorite sound in the world. Heartbeats. It was a symbol of life. Of rhythm. Stability. 

That was definitely something that she didn't have. Most demigods didn't but for her, there was even more instability. They could have camp as a constant in their lives. But for Nicole, the only constant was rejection.

"Someone's tired." Dick teased. "Wanna sleep in another room for some time?"

Nicole nodded hesitantly and started to get up but Dick put an end to that, swiftly picking her up and taking her to the room just around the corner. "Hey, put me down! I can walk on my own!"

"And I can carry you on my own. So nope, not gonna put you down."

"Why?" It seemed like she was just asking why would he not let her walk. In reality, she was asking, why on Earth would he do this for a - a monster like her?

"Because big brother is always watching out for you. Always." He smiled.

A real, big smile that reached his bright blue eyes that was so bright that it looked like it could make flowers grow and Nicole felt a pang of nostalgia. (DUDE. DEVELOP THIS PLEASE.)Don't get attached , the voice whispered, he'll only have disgust in his heart for you when he finds out what a MONSTER you are. 

Nicole told the voice to go to Tartarus.(is this, like, souposed to be her dad?)

"Here we are!" He said, pushing the door open with his shoulder. "Let's get you tucked in for now. I'll get Alfred to fix your room up." He carried her to the bed and gently lowered her onto it. Nicole watched as Dick carefully draping the blanket over her seemingly delicate form, shifting slightly to get comfortable. "Thanks, Richard"

Dick hummed in response, "It's Dick. And there is nothing to thank me for. Do you want me to take you back to your room when it's ready?"

She debated internally; on one hand, her room was soundproofed, meaning no screams can be heard by anyone outside. On the other hand, she was causing them enough inconvenience. "No, it's fine. You've done more than enough already."

Dick nodded, "If you need anything, just yell. Do you want another blanket or something?" But Nicole was already half asleep. He smiled at her leather clad form contrasting sharply with the white sheets.

"Sleep well, little sister"