Punishment

'Ok, deep breath in, deep breath out." These were the thoughts running through Nico Di Angelo's head as he arrived in Elysium and entered the building that several demigods and heroes resided in. It continued as he walked up the steps to the third floor where the apartment he was looking for was located. He found the door quite easily, but just stared at it in both trepidation and anticipation. He had no idea how this would play out; the demigod could either break down like Nico wanted or get extremely angry.

He hated his uncle for this. Why, of all the gods did he send him? I mean, yeah he was the god of ghosts and yeah he had personal information that could be used in this mission, but still! Of all the people to send to ensure the dude was properly punished for the stunt he pulled, Zeus had to send him.

Taking another deep breath, he knocked on the door. Nothing happened. He knocked again. Was the demigod not here? Charles Beckendorf had told him he would be. Then he heard shuffling and the sound of the chain on the door being undone before it opened and he came face to face with Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, the former host of Kronos. He hadn't changed a bit, not that the Ghost King had expected him to. His tall lean body was dressed in nothing but a white wife beater and a pair of gray sweatpants. His blonde hair was in a messy style that nicely framed his face and his ice blue eyes were as piercing as ever.

"Nico Di Angelo?" he asked confusion evident in his voice.

The god nodded. "Can I come in?"

The trickster stood back, completely opening the door. Nico walked in and found him standing in a modest sized living room with two black leather couches, a small end table with a lamp, a dark blue rug, a black coffee table, and a black television stand holding a flat screen. Sitting on the coffee table was a bowl fool of seashells. He had to hold back a growl, knowing why the former traitor had them.

"May I get you a drink?" he turned to see Luke walking towards the left where the kitchen was located.

The son of Hades shook his head. "No, I can't stay long."

"Then why are you here?" the confusion was still evident in his voice.

Nico shrugged. "I thought you might want to know how everyone is doing." He decided to take a broad approach to the topic. Warm up before getting to the point of this visit; punishing the traitor.

"What do you mean?" Luke's blue eyes were calculating.

He chuckled. "No demigods have died recently. I believe that's the only way you get news of what's going on up there." He gestured to the ceiling with his pointer finger. Of course he wanted to say why the demigods weren't dying; his wife was a natural at her job.

The blonde froze contemplating. Nico had come to talk about people? Really? Shaking his head, he decided to play along. This was an opportunity to find out about Thalia and Annabeth and more importantly, Persephone. His mind wandered for a minute at the thought of the daughter of Poseidon. Her laughter seemed to echo in his ears. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her back in the Olympian throne room, tears flowing from her pretty sea green eyes as she begged him to hold on, to keep breathing, to stay with her. Here was her cousin, offering him a chance to learn about her. So many questions he had. Where was she? What was she doing? What did she look like? She had to be in her early to mid-twenties now, much different from the sixteen year old he remembered. Like hell was he going to waste it!

He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before returning to the living room, sitting on one couch while Nico took the other. Neither spoke for a while before the younger man started talking. "From the people that died during the Giant War I'm sure you've heard about Jason, Piper, Leo, Reyna, Frank, and Hazel. Jason and Reyna were married and now run Camp Jupiter. They have three boys Nick, Josh, and David. Frank and Hazel help them out with what they can but with Hazel eight months pregnant with their son Jonathon, there's only so much they can do. Leo is engaged to Calypso and runs a car shop in New Athens, the Greek city for demigods, with his brother Jake Mason.'

"Jake is together with Will Solace, son of Apollo. Will runs the hospital with his half-sister Reagan. She and Connor have been dating for about a year and a half; I believe he's starting to plan on proposing. Travis is engaged to Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter. Cecil Rodgers is married to her half-sister Miranda. Katie and Miranda run a gardening store while Cecil runs a post office. Connor and Travis back up Chris and Clarisse who are now in charge of running Camp Halfblood. At the demigods' request, Dionysus has gone back to Olympus so Chiron was all alone in running it till they took over. Not much has changed for him really. Chris and Clarisse do a good job, and I believe the only thing keeping Chris from proposing is the fear of what she'll do to him. Got it so far?"

Luke nodded, processing the overload of information. So his brothers were living happy lives and the people he had cared for were happy with their lives. He was still however, missing news on a few people. "What about Annabeth and Thalia?" What had happened to the girls he thought of as sisters?

Nico smiled. "Thalia is still lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. Their numbers have gone to about one hundred so she's happy. Annabeth…" he trailed off which caused Luke to worry.

"What happened?"

With a sigh the dark haired man continued. "Annie came out as a lesbian after the Giant War. She's been living with Piper since about two months after the rebuilding. She's the one who built New Athens. She was also responsible for the rebuilding of Camp Halfblood, New Rome, Camp Jupiter, and Olympus."

The trickster let a sigh in relief. She was ok. Annie was ok. The lesbian thing surprised him a little but didn't completely shock him. He smiled at the thought of her being an architect just as she always wanted.

There was one more person Luke cared about, more than cared about. Persephone Amphrite Jackson, the daughter of Poseidon. Finally after a few minutes he asked. "What happened to Percy?"

Nico gulped, this was it. "After the Giant War she went back and finished high school. She moved to New Rome afterwards and went to school for psychology and creative writing. She wanted to be able to accomplish her mother's dream that she never got to fulfill. Sally and Paul died in a car accident just after Percy graduated. When she finished college, the gods sent her on another quest; she never told me the details of it. She succeeded and they reoffered her the same thing they offered after both wars."

Luke froze. What could they have offered her? What could they have wanted her to do?

The god continued. "The first time she refused, and made sure they built cabins for the minor gods and claimed their kids. She also got Hades and Hestia's throne restored. The second time she made sure the minor gods would get respect on Olympus and that New Athens could be built. She had nothing else she wanted so she finally accepted it."

Anxiety filled Luke. What could it be? "What?"

The Ghost Prince sighed before bracing himself for the blonde's reaction. "Godhood. Percy is now the fifteenth Olympian. Her domains are time, loyalty, tides, heroes, demigods, change, and victory."

Nothing happened. Nico stared at Luke and waited but he didn't do anything. He just sat there staring at his hands in shock. Finally after what seemed like eternity he spoke. "She's immortal?" his voice was a whisper.

The son of Hades nodded. "Zeus had been trying to get her immortal, much less on the council for years. Some of us believe the whole quest was a ruse to get her to accept. She's never told me whether that's true or not."

Neither moved, which Luke was grateful for. He needed to process this, but he just couldn't think. Percy was immortal, a true goddess just as he'd known she'd be. The word 'immortal' raced around in his head. She was never going to die. She was going to live forever as a goddess on Olympus. She was never coming to Elysium. He was separated from her forever.

The truth hit him hard. She was gone. He would never see her again. She wouldn't die. She wouldn't join him here. For all these years he'd been planning her arrival, he'd been dreaming of the moment she showed up. He was going to sweep her off her feet and kiss those full pink lips of hers. He was going to get that kiss he was denied while he was dying. But now, he never would.

Nico stared at the son of Hermes in grim satisfaction. His job was done. He could practically feel the waves of pain and despair flowing from Luke and he hadn't even used his personal information to Percy to do it. This was the reason his father loved to torture people with emotional pain. Hades had once told Zeus that one could grow numb to physical pain. Emotional pain would be there forever. It was what had made the man so angry at the gods. His mother was insane because of Hades, his father had abandoned him, Thalia had been turned into a tree, Annabeth became the golden girl of Camp Halfblood till Percy arrived. Add that to his scar he'd gotten and the fact he had seen all the unclaimed and minor gods get treated as if they were inferior to the other campers, it was no wonder he had turned to Kronos for revenge.

He wanted to use that little piece of information he had, he desperately wanted to, but he could practically hear Percy in his ear telling him not to. He wanted to ignore her, but didn't. He knew better. Well, that and he really wanted to get home.

He took another look at Luke before he teleported back to Olympus. The man was truly broken and Nico didn't really feel at all guilty. Maybe he was too cruel?

He landed right outside Zeus' office in the main temple. He opened the door only to find his uncle at his desk, looking over some papers. Without even looking up, the lightening god questioned him. "Is it done?"

Nico nodded, before remembering he wasn't looking at him. "Yes, I only had to tell him Percy became immortal. He broke down after that."

A smile broke on the king of Olympus' face. "Good, now go home. It's late. Tell Kaelynn if she's still up that her great uncle says hi. And tell your wife that I need to talk to her about why Dionysus isn't allowed back at Camp Halfblood."

Nico smiled before leaving, heading immediately to his front door. Stepping inside he hung his leather jacked up and kicked off his shoes. Making sure to be quiet, he walked down the hall and up the stairs where his daughter's room sat.

Kaelynn Alice Di Angelo was named after two demigods that had died protecting two newcomers. His wife had been devastated that she hadn't been able to help them and had named their daughter after them to honor their memory and to make sure she never forgot them. She had promised that their next daughter would be named Bianca Maria after his mother.

His princess' room was set to an ocean theme, decorated by her mother, her mother's stepmother, his step mother, and Aphrodite with Demeter and Hestia helping out as well. The walls were a pretty blue while the carpet was white, almost looking like sand. The bed, nightstand, dresser, desk, and bookcases were made of dark oak white her toy chest was a simple white. Her closet door was also white. The bedding looked like it was coral reef with the colors blue, yellow, pink, and purple merged together with fish, starfish, coral, and bubble covering it. Right now it was wrapped tightly around his little girl.

Kaelynn looked exactly like her mother except with his smile and eyes. She had the same dark hair both her and his wife had, except hers was the glossy raven black of his sweetheart while his was more of a messy coal color. Maybe he was biased, but she was perfect. He doubted it though. She seemed to have all of Olympus wrapped around her little fingers, even Hera.

He walked over and kissed her forehead which was apparently enough to wake her, a trait she had from her mother since he apparently slept like the dead while both his wife and daughter could wake at just the barest noises. His wife he understood with the wars and all, but he had no clue how his baby girl got the trait. "Papa?" her sweet voice asked.

"Shh, go back to sleep mia principessa. I just wanted to see you before I went to bed." Without another word, she fell back to sleep.

Quickly he left and headed further down the hall to the master bedroom. With a snap of his fingers he was in sleep pants and a t-shirt and slipping into bed with his wife. He pulled her into his arms and as soon as she was settled against his side, she buried her face in his chest and clutched his shirts with her slender fingers. She let out a moan when his hands started running through her curls.

"Neeks?" her sea green eyes blinked opened and she yawned.

He kissed her forehead just as he did with their daughter. "Sleep my love. I'm here."

He hadn't been lying to Luke. After the quest Seph had become the fifteenth Olympian. What he hadn't told the traitor was that around the same time he was made into the god of ghosts, redemption and rebirth so he could take his place as his father's heir. After a year of being immortal Persephone, Aphrodite, Amphrite, and Demeter had locked the two of them in a room. When the older goddesses came back, let's just say they found their prisoners with less articles of clothing than what they had been wearing at the time of their capture. Six months later they were married. Seph had gotten pregnant with Kaelynn shortly after the honeymoon to Paradise Island in the Bahamas. She was born nine months later, utterly perfect. Currently they were preparing for the birth of their son Alexander Paul Di Angelo, in honor of Seph's second stepfather, who was due in seven months.

He had been relatively nice to Luke when he decided to not tell him about Percy and him. He had known the blonde was still in love with her and waiting for her to join him in Elysium. He also knew that Percy had hardly dated in the time between her relationship with the son of Hermes and him, that it had been hard for her to get over the love the two had shared in secret. One of the reasons Zeus sent him was so he could get closure, that he could be able to see his wife's ex and know that he was the one she wanted. He had wanted to shove that fact in Luke's face but had decided not to. Maybe all this time in love was turning him into a softy? If that was the case, he wouldn't have it any other way.

Hey Everybody! How was everyone's spring break?

Ok, this idea has been going around in my head for a few days for a few days now. I finally started the rough draft yesterday and finished it today before doing the whole reediting process and final draft tonight, so if there is are mistakes I'm sorry!

Nico/Percy is one of my favorite pairings for this series. It's up there with Luke/Percy, Percy/Octavian, Percy/Thalia, Percy/Luke/Octavian, and Frank/Hazel/Leo. Sadly for this to work I had to hurt Luke which sucks but, oh well.

If you read "Darling of Olympus" I am working on the new chapter, it's just coming slow with finals coming up and all. I promise I'm not abandoning y'all I just need to get some stuff out of the way before I come back.

Well that seems about it. If you have a story request, send it in and I might do it. It all depends on my being inspired or not.

If you love it then click the Favorite button at the bottom of the screen. This is a one shot so there will be no more chapters unless you want a prequel or sequel. I might do one on how Percy and Nico got together or maybe have Percy visit Luke in the Underworld or the birth of Alex or who knows. If you want something just review and I'll think about it.

See you guys later,

mitkit99,