Brothers Reunited

Chapter Four: Nico PoV

AN: 1422 words! Sorry for the late update. I started writing this chapter in five different locations, so I had one paragraph on one device, another version of the paragraph on paper. Then another part of my chapter in another place. You get the point. I'm not doing Trials of Apollo because it's too complicated and too many people haven't read it.

Last night had been rough. Along with the regular nightmares of Tartarus, I dreamed of Bianca, Francesco, and my mother. After the wars, my father managed to get me some gorgon's blood. My memories from the past were returning quickly, and the effects of the River Lethe had been wearing off. Usually, they'd appear in my sleep as dreams or nightmares. I saw the hotel collapse. When I'd tried to think of my mother's death before, I'd only been able to recall fleeting images of debris and my sister's screams. Last night, I'd vividly recalled the entire day.

My sister and I were waiting outside for my mother to come down. My brother was out with Steve, and we were about to join them for dinner. A storm suddenly rolled in, lightning flashing around it. It was unnaturally small.

Bianca gripped me by the shoulder and began walking us away from the building, "It's just a storm, Nico. It's not going to hurt you."

I remember thinking she was just trying to reassure herself more than anything. Dust began to whirl around. The rain turned into sleet, a storm of harsh pelting ice. We ran under a nearby tree, and Bianca gripped me tightly, protecting my head with her own. Then the lightning struck. A great big arc of electric blue light hit the hotel with my mother inside. A fire started to rage, and the ice cleared away to allow it to burn.

My sister and I stood there in silence. We were petrified, unable to fully comprehend the scene playing out before our eyes. A floor collapsed, and the entire tower tumbled in its wake. No one ran out. Only the people's dying screams reached our ears. When we heard our mother, we began running in her direction.

That's when Hades appeared, a tear in his eye, "She's gone," he pulled us to him tightly, protectively.

I felt this gut-wrenching pain inside me; I felt my mother's death. It was agony. The hellfire in my chest burned away my breath and blurred my vision. Bianca screamed, but her pain was nowhere near mine.

My father quickly turned to meet my gaze, "Your abilities are stronger. You must learn to remain calm in the center of the storm," his black eyes twisted with worry.

Then, he shadow-traveled us away, kicking, screaming, and crying. Bianca and I fell into the river Lethe without letting each other go once. We were dropped into the Lotus Hotel without the effects of the Lethe entirely in place but remembering with a strange clarity each other.

I woke up with the feeling of my mother's death and the memories of Tartarus following behind.

I've learned how to hold my screams, learned how to squash and suffocate them, clench my shouts deep down in my chest. After my constant night terrors, that infuriating significant annoyance of mine had forced me to sleep in his cabin. Something about the Apollo cabin having a special healing aura around it. After the entire cabin started wearing permanent bags under their eyes, the options were me sleeping on my own again. The Apollo campers could wear earplugs to tune out my screaming, or I learned how to stop making so much noise at night. Will didn't let me choose the first option.

Luckily, that meant my brother wouldn't have to add a whole other onslaught of questions to his list.

My brother. It'd really sunk in overnight. Even though it would likely make both of our lives easier if we never met again, I couldn't, wouldn't abandon my family. I'd lost my mother and my sister; I won't lose my brother. I feel slightly guilty-Last night, and this morning all my brother had wanted to do was open up. He pretty much explained all the weird, superhuman parts of his life. I haven't even told Chess how Bianca passed away.