Oh, my, gods, I am sooo sorry. I've been wanting to post this for weeks, but I've been procrastinating. School started today, and I already had a ton of

homework. So, I'm publishing chapter 9 because I don't know when I'll be able to a) finish chapter 10, and b) publish chapter 10. I've also hit a huge

writer's block, and my friend who usually helps me out with this kinda thing is reading another story and refuses to read another until she's finished it. So I

honestly no idea when I'll talk to you all next. Hope this'll sate you until then. Remember, reviews help me overcome writer's block! :D

~Emma

Chapter 9:

Nico di Angelo

"STOP; stop this, this instant!" Nico's concentration on the ghost was interrupted, and the ghost stopped screaming. As his head snapped around, he spied the Bush-Beaver.

Pursing his lips, Nico turning fully to face her; all of his concentration on torturing the poltergeist gone. Well, not quite. He knew what the ghost would attempt, and it

wouldn't work. Not against him, at least.

"Don't even think about it." Nico's voice oozed power, and he knew that the ghost had frozen in its tracks, not daring to move an inch until told otherwise. Then Nico focused

on a fuming Beaver.

"Can I help you?" he asked coldly, thoroughly annoyed.

"What are you doing?" she cried out, looking panicked. Nico gazed down at her impassively.

"I'm teaching this impertinent ghoul a lesson." He replied smoothly, looking at her with obsidian eyes.

"B-But you'll hurt him," she said, somewhat calmer, though it sounded forced and fake. For some godsforsaken reason, the Beaver was trying to save the stupid ghost. Nico

raised an eyebrow in a condescending manner.

"And it matters to you what happens to this soul?" he questioned, sensing a trick.

"Y-yes," she stuttered unconvincingly. Nico gave a short, humourless laugh.

"Do not lie to me, Granger. I don't take kindly to liars." His eyes glinted dangerously. He could tell she was nervous, and he internally smirked.

"If that's all, Granger, could you leave? I have some unfinished business to attend to," Nico said, making a sort of shooing motion with his hands, before turning back to the

poltergeist, glaring fiercely. The spirit of the clown was frozen in a running position, looking as if he was about to chase something, or to flee for his afterlife. Terror marred

his impish features, but Nico was unsatisfied. The poltergeist deserved nothing less than the depths of Tartarus for the rest of its afterlife for defiling Nico's last connection to

her. To Bianca; to his big sister, who'd protected him from bullies and who had tucked him in at night and – Nico's jaw tightened, twitching. Enough with the memories, he

growled to himself mentally, they make you weak, ηλίθιος (Idiot), and you cannot afford to be weak, especially on this Quest. And, no, Nico hadn't recovered his memories

from before WWII, thanks to his dip in the Lethe. Nico snapped back to reality and saw the poltergeist on the ground, cowering. He sighed and squeezed his eyes shut,

running a thin, callused hand over his weary features.

"Peeves," he started in a cold voice he'd learned from the private lessons from his Father. Immediately, the ghost started begging for mercy.

"P-Please M-Master, p-please f-f-forgive me, I-I mea-ant y-you no h-harm, i-it was a-a s-simp-ple mis-stake," the ghost wept. Nico fought the urge to roll his eyes and

backhand the spirit across its ugly face. All of a sudden, Nico felt drained, physically and mentally.

"Just," Nico said tiredly, "just go. I don't want to see you around here again, or I will send you to the Fields and I will personally oversee your punishment," he threatened

before the ghost whizzed off, fearful of the Son of Hades changing his mind and being called back.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" Bush-Beaver's voice emitted from behind him.

Fuck.

Nico turned to her and snapped his fingers. A cold ripple blew through the room for the second time within the last 8 hours. Nico stared at the Beaver and said clearly

"You don't remember seeing me here this morning," before he Shadow Travelled out of the room and into the main hall. The portraits all stared at him, muttering to one

another, and he was sorely tempted to flip them the bird, but held back. Opting to walk instead of Shadow Travel, he started wandering down random halls, thinking of his

task. His sources had informed him of one of the seven being destroyed already. He passed students staring and whispering about him, and he glared at the lot of them.

Eventually the crowds dispersed and Nico heard a sort of bell; apparently class was in session. Nico couldn't care less. At least it meant nobody interrupting him in his work.

He didn't even remember climbing the stairs. He came to a stop on a landing with a very odd door. The door had no knob or keyhole, only a bronze, eagle-shaped knocker.

Nico studied the knocker cautiously, expecting it to warp into a monster or to attack him in any way. It didn't. He approached it carefully, reaching up and caressing the

eagle. It reminded him of the 12th Legion's eagle. What was this place? Nico wondered silently. He grasped the eagle firmly, before knocking it once, twice, three times.

Letting go quickly, Nico regarded calmly as the eagle opened its beak and asked

"I am a nightmare for some, yet for others as a saviour I come. What am I?"

Nico frowned, thinking intently. The riddle wasn't hard, really, and he thought of the answer almost immediately.

"You are Death," he replied, and the door opened.

"Well phrased, sir," the eagle chirped as he passed through the doorway. Nico nodded absently and looked around the room he had entered. It was, for a lack of better

terms, impressive. The walls were covered floor to ceiling in bronze and blue – which under further inspection was revealed to be silk. Bookcases, tables, and chairs dotted

the floor plan, and the arched windows were placed at regular intervals around the circular room. The ceiling was high and domed, and appeared to be covered in stars, and

Nico instantly spotted multiple familiar constellations. He saw Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Orion and The Huntress (which was created in tribute to Zoë Nightshade, a former

Hunter of Artemis). Nico walked around the room, taking note of each and every thing, such as the fact that the bookshelves were stuffed full of old tombs that looked like

they were gathering dust and had been sitting there for over a thousand years, and that the midnight blue carpet matched the design of the ceiling. There was a marble

statue of a woman Nico didn't recognize, next to a staircase leading upwards. As he neared the staircase, he allowed his senses to open up, searching for any life – mortal or

monster – within the vicinity. He felt a presence upstairs, but the presence felt a bit...odd. Of course, this could always be a monster's trick to lure him in. It wasn't

impossible; actually, it was almost certain, what with him having such a powerful aura, being a child of one of the Big Three. He also vaguely remembered his sources telling

him that this world had their own monsters, majority of which would seek him as their next meal. So, with one foot on the steps he pulled out his sword and held the blade in

front of him as he started to ascend the stairs. He went up one, two, three, four flights of stairs, stopping where the pulse of life was emanating the strongest. The door read:

SILRG UTFHOR AREY MDYRIOOTR in bold letters. Well, that probably wasn't what it said – regardless, Nico couldn't read it. The door was open a crack. He nudged it the rest

of the way open with his foot, his stance poised for an attack. What was inside the room, though, was something that shocked him (not that he showed it). He was expecting

a Cyclops with a club or some other Greek beast intent on ripping him to shreds, but a fourteen-year-old girl with radish earrings and an odd cork-bottle chain around her

neck was the least likely thing he'd imagined.

"Oh. Hullo. Just so you know; you're surrounded by Wrackspurts. Is that a sword?"