The Rebirth

“Nico. You have to decide whether you meant it when you said you wanted to try the legion. You should have decided when you said it, say, two years ago?”
“Yes, mom. Considering you’re not even a part of the legion yourself, I wouldn’t be talking.”
Piper pursed her lips. “Five years is enough.”
“Not to the Romans.”
“Excuse me for helping out on Camp Half-Blood training for the past year and a half with the former praetor of New Rome himself,”she paused to let that sink in, “Instead of, you know, roaming aimlessly through the Land of the Dead?”
“I haven’t done that for four months now. And there was a purpose to that aimless roaming.”
A thick pillow of silence fell between them. Nico squinted up at Piper’s face. His sight wasn’t completely into focus yet. When he blinked the sleep out of his eyes, he could see a face glowing a warm coffee color, and an iridescent spectrum of eyes. And he could see her expression. She was clearly debating what to say next.
Something clicked. She looked like she was holding back. Like she was going to cross the line over what she was supposed to say and not supposed to say.
“So Hazel told you.” About Nico’s project. The one Nico told Hazel in confidence.
Piper struggled, and then shrugged in defeat. “Not a lot. But, yeah, Nico, she did. It’s not like a huge secret, right?”
Nico wasn’t sure. It still felt a little violating, private. He felt some walls go up. “I…” He mirrored Piper, shrugging in defeat also. “I guess not.”
“And no leads?” Piper asked sincerely, letting herself fall onto his bed. Nico took this chance to glance outside and confirm what he already knew; everyone else had gone by now for morning training.
Well, last night… “I…” he wasn’t going to say anything, but he remembered what Hazel had drilled into his head- we care about and want to hear what you have to say more than you want to talk. Talk. Talk. Talk!- “Yeah, there’s… something new.”
He waited for Piper to push for more, but she just smiled and stood up. “Great! Now. After lunch. There’s combat. I’m going. You’re going. It’s going to be-“ she made a hesitant face. “Great.”

****
Nico thought back to last night-

“I took a chance and didn’t live up to it,” Gerald had said wistfully, after taking a drink from the summoning pool of Burger King and Coke. “That’s what those young interns told me. They flipped through some papers-“
“Papers?” Nico interrupted. Intern? The closest thing to an intern of the Underworld was Charon, but he certainly wasn’t young, and certainly didn’t oversee any records of past lives, and there certainly wasn’t more than one of him.
“-And I saw flashes of the past and they told me I took a risk for the worse.” Gerald looked at Nico painfully. “And it makes sense, boy! I didn’t see it before, when I was alive, but once they said it, I didn’t doubt it. I had lived before. But I don’t remember anything from my first days, young man- I still don’t know why you’re asking me these questions, by the way- and I barely remember anything from my second days. Back there, you can’t remember anything at all. I’m just standing… standing, with all these other people, in the same room… I mean, it’s not too bad. We all chat. We all talk. We have chairs to sit down in. But there’s no point. I don’t even remember my name. Only here…” Gerald glanced around and frowned. “Where am I?”
“You don’t remember anything?” Nico demanded. “Nothing?”
“I…” Gerald furrowed his brow. “Angelica. She’s my daughter. Is she doing okay?” His look became panicked. “Is she still dating that terrible real estate man? Ever since her second divorce, her pickings have started getting a little on the desperate side-“
Nico had leaned back, disappointed. Angelica was Gerald’s daughter from this life.
He listened to Gerald for a good five minutes about devil men selling houses until he felt like he had enough.
“You’re good, Gerald,” Nico said, touching his hand to the man’s head. “Rest in peace and happiness. Dance merrily with the other spirits. You won’t have to remember pain again.”
And he watched him dissolve.
His shoulders remained hunched. Gerald didn’t get into Elysium. He didn’t retrieve his memory.
But Nico snapped his head up. “But he was reborn.”
Gerald had been given a second life.
Nico was tracking the right scent.
Nico could sense the Reborn.
And they knew- once they died- that they were Reborn.
It wasn’t much, but it was proof, and it showed that Nico’s efforts weren’t all for nothing.
Onwards.

Notes

I didn't mean to upload this chapter last night, since it wasn't edited all the way through.

And then I decided to go back and reedit it on here, but it wouldn't let me, so I had to delete and reupload.

Sorry for the confusion.

Blood of Olympus is so soon I can taste it. News of Magnus Chase is out. Teen Titans is adorable. How To Train Your Dragon 2 is adorable. Kim Possible is fab. Shoutout to The Bright One for being SO AWESOME and my first friend here on this site, unless that's weird, in which case I guess I'm sorry-not-sorry. Updates tomorrow. I swear an oath to upload at least one longish chapter a day for the next four days, or maybe two chapters of good length, if necessary. We're moving slowly along, but let's get back into pace, shall we? :)