▬▬▬ CHAPTER ELEVEN ▬▬▬

THERE'S ANOTHER ESSIE FIC!

It's called "happy ending" by actuallyjackie (in Quotev). Since Wattpad is a meanie when it comes to links, I'll comment the URL off to the side -->

Anyways, here! A cute lil Nico centered chapter for all the people who kept requesting for more Nico content 😊

I hope you like it!

NICO COULD TELL THAT HIS mother was going to pass out any minute now. Her breathing came out in wheezes, she was shivering erratically from her fall in the River Cocytus, and her whole body was stiff as if her joints were all locked. 

He slowed down to a stop and glanced back. They had been running for miles nonstop now, and he couldn't see any of the giants or the Nemean Lion in sight.

And he couldn't see Ethan either. 

He tried to tell himself that the older boy was probably trying to catch up with them, but he couldn't help but wince at the pang of guilt that struck him. What if Ethan... didn't survive the fight? He was going against two giants and a vicious monster after all, not to mention all the other monster attacks they went through before that. 

A sickened feeling crawled throughout his stomach as he imagined the son of Nemesis laying lifelessly on the ground. 

It was his fault that they were all down here. 

Stop it, he mentally punched himself in the face. He was being an idiot. Ethan was an amazing fighter. The best in camp, just second to Percy. There was no way he would get killed by two giants and a monster. He was too good for that. 

But he was already so injured before they came, the annoying voice in the back of his head reminded him. He was tired, exhausted, and hurt. More easier to kill.  

Ethan's smart, he told himself. If he couldn't fight, then he would find a way to escape them instead. He can't be dead. There's no way he's dead. 

Because if he was dead, then he would be the first person to realize it. He had a close bond with him after all, almost as strong as his bond with his mother (not that he would ever admit it). If Ethan had been killed, he would have felt the same pain he felt when Esmerelda and Bianca died. 

Esmerelda suddenly collapsed to her knees, catching his attention. 

"Mom!" He exclaimed in alarm and knelt down beside her. 

"I-I'm sorry, but—" Her voice was raspy and her breath came out in heavy pants. "But I need to stop. I can't go any longer." 

Nico looked around. All around them were streams of water. To their left was a dark river full of pollution—the River Styx. Seeing it made him shiver, memories of what Percy went through flashing through his head before he pushed it all away. Beyond it was the River Lethe, a pitch black river with smooth currents that reminded him of flowing ink. 

On his other side was the River Cocytus, and he was tempted to spit in the water because of how much trouble it gave them. Right next to it was the River Phlegethon, the temperature of it's searing heat just barely reaching them from where they stood. 

All four rivers were connected by one huge lake that was just a few meters away from where they were standing. It looked weird, like someone had taken a bunch of chemicals and just randomly mixed them together and it somehow didn't cause a nuclear disaster. Parts of it were black, polluted, full of despairing whispers, or lit up by flames. 

"The Delta of Despair," he murmured under his breath, remembering the name from somewhere. 

He eyed the flames and got an idea. 

"Just a few more steps, mom," he said urgently, helping her back to her feet. "Fire from the River Phlegethon is just right there. We need to drink from it first, and then we can rest." 

Esmerelda allowed him to drag her forward. They found a little section full of flames and quickly knelt at the very edge. They cupped their hands together and gulped down as much of the putrid fire as they could. 

Nico gagged as the horrible taste invaded his mouth. He didn't think he could ever get used to the taste of the River Phlegethon. After about a minute full of regrets, the taste finally went away and his body began to heal. Most of his stab wounds and cuts sealed up, any sprained bones were fixed, the bruises disappeared, and any other minimal sources of pain were all gone. 

"We'll rest up here," he suggested. They would be close to the River Phlegethon for healing, which was a bonus. "You should go to sleep, you look like you need it. I'll stay on watch." 

"Alright," Esmerelda agreed quietly, but there was a stern gleam in her eyes when she said her next words. "Don't stray off too far, okay? If anything happens, wake me up. We need to stick together. And then after this we can... we can g-go look for Ethan..." 

Her voice cracked at the last part and he could see her eyes begin to water. Another stab of guilt hit him. He wouldn't be the only one crushed if Ethan were to die. Esmerelda would be absolutely devastated. She loved him so much, he doubted she would ever recover if Ethan were to actually perish. 

"He's alive," he assured her quickly. "He's not dead, I would've sensed it."

She looked like she could almost cry with relief. 

"Oh th-thank gods," she choked a small sob, reaching out to wipe the stray tears that fell from her eyes. "That's good. Maybe... maybe he can reach us soon." 

Nico tried to give her a smile. "Yeah. Now seriously, you should go to sleep. Here, you can use this as a pillow..." He trailed off, slipping off the straps of his backpack. There wasn't much in it, just some snacks, other supplies (which were pretty much useless in this situation), and a thin blanket that could provide some cushioning. 

He laid it down. Esmerelda slowly sat on the ground and went to lay on it, but just before she could lay her head on her makeshift pillow, she stopped herself and sat up. 

"You'll wake me up if anything happens, right?" She asked him again just to make sure. It was the typical mom thing to do. 

"Yeeeesss," he dragged the word along, much like a tired teenager would towards a nagging parent. 

Esmerelda shot him an amused look before finally resting her head against the backpack. She was so exhausted that it didn't take her very long to finally go to sleep. Nico removed the big brown aviator's jacket he was wearing and carefully placed it over her to keep her warm. 

And with that, he brandished his Stygian Iron sword and started his watch duty. It was pretty uneventful for the first few minutes. He did nothing but pace around, keeping a watchful eye on things. 

He didn't know how long they've been stuck here in Tartarus, but almost every minute was spent getting attacked by Gaea's horde of monsters. A quiet moment like this was rare—and suspicious. 

He'd eye the rivers as if he was expecting a hydra to pop up and drag them towards the deadly waters, keep his ears sharp for any monsters trying to creep up on them, and glance around for any shadows belonging to winged beasts. 

But so far, nothing happened. There were no monsters, no giants, nothing. That would've been great and all, but he had been hoping for any signs of Ethan at least. But there was none. 

He wasn't dead, Nico knew that much, but... but what if he had been captured? It wasn't Gaea's intentions to have them killed after all, she wanted them captured. That could be why Ethan wasn't here right now, trying to summon Essie to his side or show her a message that he was okay. 

No, no, no, he despaired. What have I done? I need to find him!

Before he could make a move, he heard something. It sounded like a pair of wings flapping somewhere in the distance, and not even a second later came a chuckle. Hearing it made the little hairs on the back of his neck rise. It sounded like a woman's voice, but it was heavily distorted and unnatural sounding. 

Someone was watching them, he realized. He brought his sword up, ready for a fight. 

The noise came from somewhere to his left, past the River Styx and the River Lethe. 

He glanced hesitantly towards Esmerelda. She had told him to wake her up if he heard anything... but seeing the paleness of her skin and the dark bags under her eyes made him decide against it. She needed her rest. He had to be the one to handle this. 

So he quietly walked away. She was probably going to kill him once this was all done and over with, but as long as the threat was dead and she was well-rested, he was fine with it. 

As he crossed the River Styx using a rocky pathway he found, he noticed a small shadow zipping towards him, growing bigger and bigger and as it drew closer. He was too late to react to it. 

He was immediately grabbed from above. A startled yelp escaped his lips, but by that point he was already too far up in the air to be heard. 

He looked up to see who was carrying him. His eyes were first drawn to the pitch black claws digging into his shoulders, to the purple skin tone, the pitch black leathery wings, and then before he could reach the face, he was suddenly thrown forward.

His instincts reacted at last. Rather than landing splat on the ground, he flipped himself around and landed on his hands and feet, dragging his sword down on the ground to keep himself from skidding back too much. 

When he looked up, he finally saw who he was dealing with. 

He had never seen this sort of monster before. At first he thought she could've been a gorgon or a harpy because of the wings and ugly appearance, but this particular monster looked nothing like either of them. 

She had a flat nose, black lips, and flowing tendrils for hair that lashed around like a whip. Below the waist, she had a series of bones jutting out from her legs and sharp black talons for toenails just like her claws. Swishing around behind her was a long spiked tail that ended in a point as sharp as his sword. 

All in all, despite her frightening appearance, she... actually kind of reminded him of that creature from the horror movie Splice.

"Wretched boy!" She screeched, her distorted voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard to his poor sensitive ears. As she spewed at him, he could see that the inside of her mouth was just rows and rows of endless pointed teeth. "How DARE you disobey your mother!" 

...Seriously? She kidnapped him just to scold him? 

He yanked his sword from the ground and held it up before him when she flew close enough. 

"Who are you?" He demanded. 

Instead of answering, she let out another ear-piercing shriek and flew at him. Nico held the upper part of his sword to use as a solid block just in time for her to crash against it. The force of her collision was so strong that he was pushed back until his back struck a hard bannister. 

He kicked her away, ducked to avoid her head swipe, and dove for the side. When he got back up, he managed to analyze his surroundings in a manner of seconds before she could make her next move. 

This monster, whoever she was, had managed to take him to the very edge of Tartarus. He was standing on a bronze fortress, with ruins of what looked to be a shrine laid scattered on the ground below him. The rivers were nothing but thin lines on a grim canvas and the Delta of Despair was just a multicolored dot from the distance. Behind him, was nothing but a vast black wall, the edge of the pit. 

"A son of Hades," the monster crooned in it's sickly voice. "I've never eaten one of you before. Prince of the Underworld, yet an ungrateful brat. Typical of you royals. How many times have you hurt your poor dear mother?"

Nico glared at her. "Excuse me?"

She plastered on a saddened look. "Poor poor Esmerelda Black, stuck with such a disobedient child. How many times have you ran away from her? How many times have you broken your mother's heart? Soon, she shall wake up and see you gone. Imagine the pain she will feel when she realizes she has been abandoned by her own blood." 

He faltered. The image of his mother waking up only for him to be completely gone made his heart crack in two. He knew very well that she had abandonment issues (it was one of the many things they had in common), but she wouldn't automatically assume that he just up and left her, right?

Even though... even though that was exactly what he had done. 

His face fell, but he swallowed down his nerves to reply, "That... that's not—" 

"—After everything she has done for you!" the monster spat, oddly sympathetic towards Esmerelda. "You remind me of my own children, demigod scum. They were terrible as well. They never listened to me. They whined and cried, they even had the audacity to disrespect me, their own mother! They infuriated me so much that I ate them, and now they can never insult me." 

"You ate your own—wait a minute," realization dawned on him. "You're Mormo." 

He didn't know much about her, but Mormo was a woman from Corinth who had a bunch of kids. Apparently, they misbehaved too much so she ate them in retaliation, suddenly grew wings and flew away from her house (it was a short story so the details were pretty vague). 

He had no idea how she managed to grow wings (a god probably cursed her), but after she ate her own kids she went around eating other disobedient children around the world too. She was so famous back then that mothers would tell her story to their children in order to frighten them into obedience. 

Mormo hated ungrateful bratty children (though her definition of what an 'ungrateful bratty child' was... was questionable at best), and while he knew better than to believe her, her words struck a chord in him. 

An ungrateful child. Was that really what he was? He thought back to the time he had ran away to the Underworld last winter even when she told him not to. He remembered the phone call they had after he left and she sounded so heartbroken. 

He... he never meant to hurt his mother. He just wanted to bring Bianca back. He thought he would only be gone for a few hours. He didn't think he'd be roped into all this Roman madness and be gone for months. 

It was unintentional. He wasn't anything like what Mormo was implying. 

(But a part of him felt like she was right, that he was a bad kid.)

"I am Mormo," she confirmed, baring her many teeth at him. "And you will make one fine meal for me, son of Hades." 

She swooped down at him again. Nico stepped to the side to avoid her claws and jabbed his sword at her, slicing the side of her neck but at that moment, her tail sneaked up behind him and stabbed him in the back. 

"Ngh!" He held back his cry of pain by gritting his teeth. Before Mormo could pull her tail away, he sliced right through it in the very next second.

Mormo let out another shriek that pretty much shattered his eardrums. 

"MY TAIL!" She wailed. 

"My ears," he complained. 

He wrenched the tail out of his back, wincing as he did so, and when Mormo came after him again, he slapped her right across the face with it. 

"INSOLENT CHILD!" Mormo roared, whipping her head back towards him. "DO YOUR MOTHER A FAVOR AND JUST DIE ALREADY!" 

Mormo was faster this time, her wrath probably increasing her speed, but also making her less likely to think her attacks through. 

Nico was having a hard time trying to protect himself. Mormo was as fast as a bullet now, her claws constantly shredding away at him as she evaded his swipes and stabs. The worst part was that he didn't think Mormo was sent to him by Gaea. If that was the case, then she was definitely going to uphold her promise in killing him rather than capturing him alive. 

"DIE!" Mormo yelled out, backhanding him to the side. 

It was like swatting a fly. He flew to the side of the stronghold, hitting the banister and actually breaking through it so he was now falling down the side of the fortress. He let out a startled shout before squeezing his eyes shut and shadow traveling himself to the ground. 

He landed safely, but not gracefully. 

His feet hit the ground first, and then his face smacked onto it next.

He peeled himself off from the ground. "Ow," he groaned. 

When he got back up, he was swaying on his feet. 

How many times has he used his powers since he, Ethan, and Esmerelda woke up so long ago and got attacked by all those monsters? Too many times to count and now he was bearing the brunt of it. 

Mormo let out a high-pitched cackle that echoed around the bronze fortresses. He gripped tightly on to his sword and he looked up to search for her. She was soaring in the air, laughing at his miserable state. 

"Too scared to come down?" He taunted, trying to keep his footing steady. 

Now that he was thinking about it, this was more preferable. She clearly didn't have a way to attack him long-distance so if she just stayed up in the air long enough then he could—

"Take this!" Mormo cackled, kicking down a piece of the fortress. The large pieces of bronze rubble rained over him, and he had to run around wildly to avoid getting flattened. 

In retaliation, he let loose bolts of dark energy up to strike her down, something he had seen his dad do whenever he was tired of dealing with pesky ghosts that kept trying to pull a Sisyphus (or cheat death, basically).

"Argh!" She cried out in pain when one of the bolts struck her in the center of her right wing. It ripped through the leathery flap and made a hole. She dropped from the skies, occasionally smacking herself against the fortress as her left wing flapping uselessly. Then finally, she hit the ground in a crumpled heap. 

Nico stretched his arm out to ready another attack only for his vision to double. He staggered forward, refraining the urge to collapse. This wasn't good. If he pushed himself any further, he would run the risk of passing out. 

Since discovering his identity as the son of Hades, he had always focused on honing his powers more than his physical skills. The only problem was that his powers drained him quicker. It was something that Ethan always scolded him about. 

"You're all imbalanced," he would say in that annoying nagging voice of his. "You're great at using your powers, but you're shit at the sword and your powers tire you out. You need to work on that more or else people will exploit it." 

(Ethan was right, of course, but it wasn't like he was ever going to admit it.) 

Golden dust was pouring from the hole in Mormo's wing as she forced herself back on her feet.

"You're terrible!" She screeched in pain. "You're worse than that Hecate boy!" 

Nico snapped his head up. "What did you just say?"

"DIE!" She shrieked out instead, lunging at him with her claws at the ready. 

He was seeing two of her, so he didn't exactly know which one to stab. So he prayed for some good luck and stuck his sword out. He felt the weight of her body on it as the blade ripped through her, and knew that he finally had her. 

Nico glared down at her.

"The only reason your kids were 'brats' as you called it was because you raised them wrong," he muttered venomously as he twisted the blade to give her as much pain as he could. "I'm glad my mother isn't anything like you." 

And then he pulled his sword out, allowing her to die at last. 

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Getting back to the Delta of Despair where he left Esmerelda to rest was a lot harder than he thought. 

For one, his back hurt. For a second, he jokingly thought that hey, maybe his real chronological age was finally catching up to him, but then he remembered that Mormo quite literally stabbed him in the back with her ugly tail. 

He would have to bear with the pain and hoped it would heal eventually because reaching the lake was going to be tough. He was swaying on the spot, his vision was still spinning, and his muscles ached in protest. Even worse, he was starving. But he left his backpack with his mother, who was too far away for him to reach. 

He couldn't even shadow travel back to her. He doubted he'd reach her location. With how beaten up he was, he'd probably stutter to a stop and fall right into one of the deadly rivers instead. That, or pass out. None of them were fun options. 

Since his journey back would be a long one, he hoped by the time he came back that at least Ethan would finally find Esmerelda. Knowing him, the guy was probably going crazy without her. 

His stomach churned at the thought of them. The guilt came back tenfold. Gaea had lured him into Tartarus, and in return Esmerelda and Ethan fell down with him. Regardless of that, it was still all his fault. He was the one who had the bright idea of coming down here for the Doors of Death and he was the one who asked Esmerelda and Ethan to come with him. 

He had been too confident. He thought that as the son of Hades that he could just shadow travel them back to the mortal world, but the second he reached Tartarus, he knew he was dead wrong. They couldn't get out of here that easily. The only way to survive was to escape using the Doors of Death and he wasn't even a hundred percent sure that idea would work anymore. 

He had been wrong in thinking he could shadow travel them back out. What if he was wrong in thinking he could use the doors?

Mormo's words echoed in his head. A terrible son. He was a terrible son. He didn't just doom himself, he doomed his parents too. 

I should've just went here on my own, he thought, his lips trembling at the onslaught of emotions. At least then, I would be the only one suffering through this. Mom and Ethan would be spared. They don't deserve any of this. How could I have been so stupid? 

Tears started welling in his eyes and he stubbornly reached up to wipe them away before they could fall. 

"Oh don't be like that," a miserable voice sobbed. "Let it all out, boy, the misery will do you good." 

He whirled around, raising his sword. 

When he saw who the voice belonged to, he almost lowered it back down. Standing before him was the most pitiful person he had ever seen. She looked like the victim of famine—her limbs were like sticks, her knees were swollen, her elbows were all knobby looking, she had rags for clothes, and broken fingernails and toenails. Dust was caked on her skin and piled on her shoulders as if she'd taken a shower at the bottom of an hourglass. 

Her face was even scarier to look at. Her eyes were sunken in and pouring out an endless stream of tears. Even the snot dripping down her nose was like a waterfall. Her stringy grey hair was matted to her skull in greasy tufts, and her cheeks were raked and bleeding as if she'd been clawing at herself.

Overall, she looked like Melinoe's more creepier looking sister. 

Everything about her made Nico want to look away, but he kept his gaze glued on to her and brought his sword back up. 

"Who are you?" He demanded, trying to sound firm as if he hadn't been seconds away from bawling like a baby. 

"Take a guess," she sniffled, and he cringed at the awful sound that followed. 

"Um... you wouldn't happen to be a half-sister of mine, are you?" He wouldn't really be surprised. Most of Hades' kids always looked depressed one way or another. This person just took it to a whoooole other level. 

She let out a short, snarky laugh that she somehow managed to make pitiful. "That baby god? Oh please! I was greying way before your father was even wearing diapers!"

"You're... a Titan, then?" He guessed.

"NO!" She wailed. "I am the Protogenos of Misery! Don't you know me?" 

Nico's eyes widened. This lady was one of the Protogenoi? Seriously? 

He had never met any of them, but he had heard some things about Nemesis from Ethan. According to him, Nemesis always radiated with an aura of immense power that made people want to curl up in fear. This lady though... well, Nico wasn't feeling much from her. 

"I'm AKHLYS?" The weeping old hag exclaimed, crying even harder. 

"Akhlys?" He heard of her. "Wait, aren't you a minor goddess though?"

"A minor goddess?!" She let loose another painful wail that could put banshees to shame. "I am the daughter of Chaos and Nyx, you rude boy! That's TWO primordial gods! Oh, nobody even knows who I am!"

"I'm sorry," he apologized kindly. 

"Sorry!" She scoffed loudly. "Sorry never helps, you know. You should've learned that by now after everything you've been through. Has a simple 'sorry' ever soothed your pain? When Percy Jackson apologized for killing your sister, did it make you feel better? No! Of course it didn't!" 

Nico tensed up at the mention of Bianca's death. He may have let go of his grudges, but it was still a touchy subject for him for obvious reasons. 

"How do you—"

"—I know everything about pain," she interrupted him. "I created it, after all. Misery is eternal, as am I. I can feel your agony, son of Hades. Your grieve for your lost childhood, your sister's death, your mother's deaths..."

"That's enough!" A dark expression crossed over his face. "I don't want to hear any more of it. I'm done here." 

He started to walk away, but what Akhlys said next made him freeze.  

"Off to find your mother, I suppose?" She asked in a sickening voice. She almost sounded... excited, which he didn't think would be possible for the goddess of misery. 

He stiffly turned back to her. At this very moment, something about Akhyls changed. She started to radiate with pain. He no longer felt like pitying her. Instead, every atom in his body screamed at him to break down into tears before her feet. He wanted to fall to his knees and wail, to succumb to all of his miseries. 

"What... what are you doing?" He asked, trying to keep himself from collapsing. 

"Before I let you go," she began, straightening up and spreading her arms out. "Let me leave you with a little present." 

Plants started to bloom all around her. But they weren't the safe and nice looking ones Persephone liked to summon all around the Underworld. They were the deadlier plants like hemlock, angel's trumpets, and white snakeroot. He could even see some oleander, rosary peas, and nightshade—three of the most poisonous plants in the world. 

"I forgot to mention," Akhlys called out as her body shifted. Her fingernails grew into talons. Her jaw unhinged, and her yellow teeth elongated into fangs. "But I am also the Protogenos of Poison. Let's see if you can make it to your dearest mother alive after this." 

For someone who looked like the lovechild of Baba Yaga and a zombie, Akhlys was wickedly fast. 

One second she was just standing a few feet away from him and in the next, she was right in front of him, her ruined mouth, watery eyes, and dripping nose all up in his face. Her claws raked through his chest, leaving the sensation of boiling water. 

He tried to stab her, but something wrapped around his wrist and pulled him to ground. When he looked down, he realized it was a vine full of nightshade. Even worse, it was the kind that had thorns all over it. They were no doubt laced with poison too. 

He yanked his arm free, hissing when the thorns sliced at the skin around his wrist. Akhlys lunged at him again, but he ducked to the side and hurried away to create distance. All around her, poisonous plants grew and burst like overfilled balloons. Green and white sap trickled out, collecting into pools, and began flowing across the ground towards him. The sweet smelling fumes made his head feel wobbly.

"You're working for Gaea," he accused, trying to keep her distracted while he struggled to think of an escape plan. 

"Gaea?" She said incredulously. "My sister? Or well... technically she is my aunt as well... Bah, who cares. But no, son of Hades, I do not work for her. I felt your pain. It called out to me. You were almost perfect, but not quite. I'm here to help you." 

He would've let out a snort if his nose didn't feel like it was filled to the brim with toxic fumes. 

"Don't fight it," she crooned. "Let my ichor take over you." 

"I-ichor?" He let out a haggard cough. The poisonous liquid seeping towards him was her ichor? 

Regardless of her answer, he stumbled away the liquid. He tried to erect a blockade with his powers, a wall to separate himself from her. The ground rumbled slightly, and a flicker of hope sparked in his chest when he saw the pure onyx wall rising from the ground. Then it all sank when it started to dissolve into a puddle of black goo when the poisonous ichor reached it. 

He brought his arm up to cover his nose. The ichor was closer to him now. It made the ground steam and the air burn. He tried to fan it all away with his sword, but he was completely engulfed by the fumes. 

"Just let it happen!" He could hear Akhlys' wretched voice somewhere behind all the toxic steam. "It'll be quick, and then after that you can see your mother again!" 

What was she even talking about? How would he ever see Esmerelda again if he was dead?

He could feel more of her plants grow under his feet. It wrapped themselves around each of his limbs, making him drop his sword. It pulled him down until he was laying on the ground, allowing the poison to pool all around him at last. 

The pain that followed afterwards was agonizing. His body steamed and hissed, like it was physically letting out it's own screams of pain alongside his own. His throat ached as he screamed. His vision turned white, as if the pain had grown so much that it left him blinded. 

And then he saw the flashes of Tartarus. His surroundings seemed to flicker. 

Now that he was dying, he could finally see the truth of the hellhole he was trapped in. The air acted as the breath of Tartarus, and every time it boiled, it meant it was breathing. The monsters were just the circulating blood cells. 

This whole twisted landscape was the body of a god. No. Not a god. A Primordial being. Tartarus. 

The sight of it all, the realization, made his mind split into pieces. 

And then after that, he was gone. 

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Nico's dreams were as fractured as his mind. 

He saw glimpses of Ethan screaming nonsensities to the skies, his single eye looking like shattered glass as he cried and slammed himself against a wall over and over again, his whole body jerking around crazily. 

Then he saw his mother, surrounded by the roaring rivers of Tartarus. She was on her knees, the jacket he had thrown over her now clutched tightly in her shaking hands. There were tears flooding her face just like Akhlys', and she was screaming his name until her throat went dry. 

After that, everything else was even more fractured. He saw a pair of elevator doors, an almost exact replica of the elevators in the Empire State Building, except these ones had inverted colors. 

Then he saw a the twin giants walking along the River Styx. They were heading downstream, getting closer and closer to where Esmerelda was. 

Lastly, he saw... Étienne. He was back in the barracks of Camp Jupiter, resting on his side as he slept in bed. He had no idea why he was dreaming of his uncle, but something about the older boy's pinched expression made him think he was dreaming of something bad. Like a disaster to come. 

Étienne woke up, and in that very moment, so did Nico. 

He woke up gasping for air.

He expected to feel the same burning pain as before but oddly enough... there was nothing. He felt nothing, and somehow that was a lot scarier than the pain. 

"Wha... what...?" He rasped, sitting up and looking down at himself. What he saw made his breath hitch. 

His hands were fuzzy and indistinct, as if Akhlys' poisonous ichor had actually caused him to dissolve. Then they started to clear out, but what he saw next wasn't any better. Rather than seeing his familiar pale hands, he saw the hands of a corpse. His skin was grey, his nails had turned into a purplish black, and his skin was stretched out thin over his skeletal hands. 

"Like it?" Came Akhlys' familiar voice. 

She was sitting in front of him now, sobbing over what looked to be a bronze shield. 

"It's the Death Mist," she continued on. "I figured it would suit you, being the son of Hades and all. Here, take a better look." 

She slid the shield over to him and he held it up with trembling hands. 

In the reflection, he saw his face. His skin was sallow, his eyes sunken and dark, and his hair had dried out into dark straw. When he parted his blue lips, all he saw was rotten teeth and a purple tongue. He dropped the shield in horror. 

"What have you—w-what have you done to me?!" He shouted. 

Rather than answering him, she got up on his wrinkled feet. 

"Come now, let's go give Esmerelda a visit," she said venomously, forcefully bringing him up.

"Let go of me!" He ripped his sword out of it's sheath and tried to stab at her, but his whole body felt like paper. He barely had the strength to make a swing. 

"You missed your mummy didn't you?" She asked in a mocking voice. "So let's go pay her a visit. Let's see if she misses her dear little boy." 

They sunk into the shadows not a second later. Shadow traveling felt a lot more horrible than usual. He felt like he was ripping apart at the seams thanks to this new lightweight body of his. When they were hurled out, he stumbled on to his hands and knees, his sword dropping uselessly at his side. 

He looked up. 

Instead of being at the Delta of Despair like he expected, they were somewhere else entirely. The rivers were gone, the mountain ranges couldn't even be seen in the distance either. All he saw were massive dark trees looming over him threateningly. 

They were in a forest. He didn't even know Tartarus had any forests. 

"Where are we...?" He asked. 

"The Forest of Nightmares," Akhlys replied, looking around. "Ah, there she is." 

He followed her line of sight and stiffened. Just a few meters away was his mother. She was stumbling through the forest, looking lost and deranged. Her hair was a mess with twigs sticking out of it, her face was full of scratches, and he could see her wide green eyes darting around the area in terror. 

"Now," a satisfied tone took over Akhlys' voice. "Let's see how much misery you feel after this." 

She pushed him forward, right in Esmerelda's line of sight. 

He heard her gasp. 

"Nico?" She whispered, her voice full of so much hope. "Is that you?"

"Mom—!" He choked up, lifting his head and that was when everything went downhill. 

The second she took in his corpse-like appearance, her face contorted into horror and she let out a glass-shattering scream. 

His face fell. "N-no, mom wait—" 

"—NO! YOU'RE NOT HIM! YOU'RE NOT HIM!" She shrieked, tears spilling down her face. She clenched her eyes shut, shaking her head in denial. 

"It's me!" He shouted over her screams. He could feel his own hollow eyes sting with tears. "Mamma, please, it's me!"

"Stop it, stop it, stop tricking me!" She wailed, placing her hands over her ears to drown him out. 

"Sono io! (It's me!)" His voice cracked. "Mamma, ti prego, non ce la faccio più! (Mamma, please, I can't do this anymore!)"

She let out another sob. She turned around and started to run away from him. 

He tried to chase after her, but his body felt like it was made of helium. 

"PER FAVORE! (PLEASE!)" He begged her. "Mamma, non lasciarmi! (Mamma, don't leave me!)"

But Esmerelda was getting farther and farther away from him and soon enough, she was gone. 

He collapsed to his knees, his breathing heavy as his chest raked with agonizing sobs. He bent over and broke down into tears, Akhlys' victorious cackle echoing in his ears. 

He had never felt more broken than ever. 

— author's note —

YES YES, I KNOOOOOW. In the canon books, Akhlys does leave Nico alone. She was like "muahahaha I am here to destroy you!!!!" but then realized it was Nico and went "actually nvm, your life sucks enough lmao. Byeee"

I know all that. But I had her attack him instead because this Nico obviously is not as miserable as his canon self. In the canon books, Nico truly felt like he had no one. His mother is dead, his sister died next, his father is a god who can't be active in his life as much as he'd like, his crush is in love with someone else, he feels unwanted by BOTH camps, and yeah he had Hazel, but they only knew each other for a few months so their bond isn't super close yet. There's a shit ton of more pain he's been through so yeah, I can see why Akhlys decided to leave him alone.

In this series though, he's a lot different. He has a mother who loves him unconditionally, a stepdad/rat demon who cares about him in his own tsundere fashion, his own fun-loving honorary uncles (the Stolls), etc etc. He has more of a support group who he can rely on. So obviously, this Nico feels a lot more accepted and loved compared to canon Nico, and therefore less miserable. So because of that, Akhlys would naturally go after him.

Essie when she saw Nico's new corpse makeover:

Nico when Essie ran away from him: