The Rebirth

“Now what exactly have you been doing, lately?” Hades snapped his fingers in the direction of a burning field. Two Furies dragged the damned soul away, and Hades began to stroll back leisurely to his throne. He was in a particularly good mood today.
Nico scowled. Alecto, Hades’ prime Fury servant, kept close at his back, ready to snatch him in case he took one more step out of line. He could feel her wings send off wind across his back with every step she took. He attempted to shake her off. “The usual.” His words sounded clipped, tense. Hades didn’t seem to notice or care.
“Never mind. I already know,” Father continued on, a silk black robe blurring into the ground. Screams of eternal suffering rested in his throne and clothes. The god hummed as he walked. “I admit, I might have understood your attempts before. Everyone does it, at some point in their lives. And you were only eleven, I believe. Of course you wanted to bring Bianca back. Who wouldn’t? I wanted to bring her back myself, too…”
“Lies,” Nico said calmly. “You didn’t want her. You just wanted your more perfect child to fulfill the prophecy. But, please- let’s get down to whatever you wanted to say about me terrorizing your kingdom.”
Nico really did have a knack of screwing things up whenever he came back to… “Home”.
Hades stilled at his throne. He wasn’t so jolly anymore. (Jolly for him, at least.)
He turned around and sat down, looming to twenty feet, his hair the color, texture, and shine of black oil. His eyes came back to reality, glancing coldly at his miniature son in front of him.
“Well,” he started, finally getting to business. Nico gave a small smile. “You’ve been disturbing my kingdom. You’ve been listening in to several judgments now- very certain, specific judgments. You’ve been asking around for names that shouldn’t matter to you. You’ve been trying to observe the lifestyle of the Isles of Blest. And, yes, you are my son- don’t smirk at me! It’s a lucky title. You are fortunate to have it- and naturally I get notifications of your presence in my premises. Did you think I wouldn’t notice your little… project, you have going on?”
Nico waited for him to go on with a small puff of impatience.
“You better listen to me now- Whatever it is you’re trying to do, bringing Bianca back, it’s not going to work. Whatever plan you think you have, whatever new information you think that only you possess, you don’t. The Rebirth is beyond my realm of control. It’s beyond your realm of control. It’s beyond the gods themselves- only the Fates…”
He trailed off. He cleared his throat. “Bianca… yes, she was a good soul…”
“Don’t talk to me about Bianca,” Nico advised emotionlessly. Like father, like son. He straightened up. “The difference between you and me, father, is that I am living, and mortal, and you are not. Maybe I have powers you've never even dreamed of. Maybe there’s new possibilities out there that you haven’t even tried.”
“I’ve tried,” Hades said, surely, knowingly, grimly.
“Obviously not enough.”
“Nico,” Hades’ voice cut sharp through the air, warningly. “If, by some miracle of miracles, you do find Bianca, you’ll make things worse- for yourself, and for her. Barreling into her life? What if she doesn’t want you there? Are you going to ruin her chance of living normally, without all of this-“ he gestured around him, around the darkness of the walls, the skeletal ghosts, the soldiers, the red fire through the windows- “holding her down?”
“But what if she isn’t living a normal life?” Nico argued back, showing the first signs of distress. His fingers clenched. “What if she’s still connected to all of this… And needs help? She’d be, what, eight now? She’ll need all the help she can get!”
“What if she doesn’t need the help?”
“What if she does?”
“She won’t be the same, Nico- what are you expecting, boy?” His father’s eyes blazed black. “You’d wander across a twelve-year old Hunter with olive skin and brown eyes, looking just the way she did when she died? She could be different in the most infinite ways imaginable; she might be a person you don’t even like-“
“She’d still have Bianca's soul. Somewhere in there, she'd still be my sister.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know anything. What if finding her messes up her path? Creates more tension, more unwanted problems… What if you somehow prevent her from getting into Elysium?”
“Let me…” Nico drawled out the words, slowly, scarily. “Get to those problems later. Once I find her. Assess her situation. Then I can decide whether or not to get involved. At least then, I’ll be there for her if she needs it.”
“But finding her might be bad for you!” Black energy simmered in the air before fading down. Nico took a step back, out of confusion. He hadn’t even thought about that. “She could be doing terribly once you find her-“
“Even more the reason to want to help her!”
“-And you can’t do anything about it. You’ll try, and you’ll try, but eventually, the words of Destiny can’t help but catch up and tackle you from behind, and it’ll be a thousand times worse than if you simply stayed out of it, and it’ll be a million times worse for you if you simply let go and moved on…”
“Destiny?” Nico demanded. He took a step forward, brimming with intensity. The air was so thick you’d be able to feel it slip down your throat. “What about destiny?”
A soupy, slow, bulky moment chugged by. Hades suddenly seemed to realize that he said too much.
“What about destiny?”
“Trying to change prophecies will only make it worse! Interference- especially from outside, unwanted, past sources- only creates more problems, Nico, you have to understand that!”
“There’s a prophecy?” Nico hissed in a quiet fury. “And it says Bianca is in danger?”
“Not a prophecy,” Hades gritted his teeth. “And not Bianca. It’s about… whoever she is now.”
“So, yes, Bianca!”
“No. Not Bianca. It doesn’t involve her, not the old her, and it doesn’t involve you. I’m done with this conversation. I’m also done with your efforts to go searching for her… No more of that will be done in my kingdom. And if there are, I will know. I’m assuming you’re not staying for dinner, but if you are, I remind you again to never eat what Persephone serves, but of course you already know that.”
“We are not done, Father-“
“Yes, we are. You’re only hurting yourself, Nico. What was that she once told you? Holding grudges is the greatest flaw for the children of Hades? Some grudges aren’t so obvious as others. Nevertheless, they all require you to let go. Can you do that?”
With that, Hades waved at Alecto, and she snatched Nico up, taking him up and away from the palace room.
Alone, the Lord of the Dead slumped just barely in his chair and allowed himself a few seconds of precious time to remember the words of the Fates eight years ago-
Her life burns bright, and dies in flames. Or her life continues, restless, unkindled, and settles in a final dead defeat.
Flames or settlement. Brightness or defeat.
If only Nico knew.



***


6 months later…
Three ancient figures toddled over to a street bench and took a sit. They brought out their weaves and looms and strings, ignoring the odd looks from passerbyers. It was necessary for them to remain seen instead of invisible; they didn’t want anybody stealing their front-row show seats, now, would they?
After sixty seconds exactly, just as the middle lady began thumbing her way down the silver string, the performance began.
Right on time.
A flaming, roaring beast clawed its way down the sidewalk. It seemed to be blind. The Londoners on the sidewalk yelped in annoyance and pulled their friends to the side, watching the thing (“What sort of machine is that, flaming away unsupervised?! That could really injure somebody!” someone exclaimed in outrage.) stumble its way across the street. Cars swerved. A young blonde elementary school student tugged her friend, the one with newly cropped wild midnight curls, away to get a better look.
The Fates watched as the arrow pierced through the air and landed dead into the green dragon’s neck.
It roared in anger, and the arrow exploded.
Elena held the hand of Kelly tightly, stepping back in alarm from the object- did the fire just get wider?! Suddenly, the chugging, fuzzy, spasming machine died. People coughed and squinted in frustration- the smoke from the fire was making it hard to see. A group of “professionals” in silver uniform immediately swept into the scene and hosed the fire off, surveying the damage, demanding everyone to step back.
The Fates all leaned forward, and the middle lady pinched the silver string, which was tangled in all its knitting. Elena felt the air thicken, and her hand stilled within Kelly’s in shock.
There was something she had to do… Something here, that felt so wrong and so right… Was it the fire? The machine? Sickness teased the back of her mind and throat, whirling with memory loss… There was something she was missing that was here… Something she’d forgotten…?
One of the professionals snapped at a guy who got too close, snarling “Back off. This business isn’t for you.” Her blue eyes- icy as a chilly sky- blazed lightning. Her dark hair stuck up in midnight spikes to the world, daring it to challenge her. She did not seem very nice.
She also prickled at Elena’s skin. How can someone make her feel so fascinated and so uncomfortable at the same time?
Around this moment, Elena noticed that all these “professionals” were very, very young- 12. 13. 14. The oldest, as far as she could tell, was only 16- 17. They all had backpacks on their backs. They… god, Elena couldn’t see in this fire! She let go of Kelly’s hand and in intense concentration and began to inch her way through the crowd, not noticing her friend loudly exclaiming behind her.
I want to see, Elena gritted her teeth. I want to see everything- everything- that’s happening… And I want to see it now-
Somehow, her sight got even fuzzier. The teenager “professionals” were chugging the thing down the sidewalk. Elena rushed to catch up. Something really weird is going on, and I want to know, I want to know!
Elena stopped in absolute shock. She couldn’t process what she was seeing. Were those… wolves? White wolves, growling and biting at the machi-
That’s not a machine. I can’t see through the fire, but… That’s not a machine.
One of the girls had glanced back at her and widened her eyes, looking at the others and tilting her head towards Elena’s direction.
But Elena couldn’t find the words to talk.
She was too busy gaping at the teenagers, the teenagers bathed in shimmering glows. Bows slung casually around their backs. Silvery, light jackets. Not professionals.
One twelve-year-old glanced back, her hair in a ponytail, a metallic circlet resting perfectly on her head. Her eyes were so full of understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and experience that Elena felt as though she was looking through to a different universe. A universe of familiarity, possibility, infinity.
It hurt. She didn’t know why.
This was when Elena started to get scared.
But Elena didn't like being scared. She hadn't been truly fearful… in a very long time. She didn’t get fear. It was beneath her.
So she straightened, swallowed her fear, and looked on in a calm confidence. She raised her chin. She forced herself to look into those universal orbs.
“Halt,” the twelve-year-old spoke, her order being carried out just as her lips finished forming the word. The fire burned the air with smoke again, making it hard to see.
The twelve-year-old with the universe eyes stepped forward, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a look on her face that was both hard and soft. She bent down.
“My lady,” one of the silver girls from behind the smoke called out. “Are you seriously thinking-“
My lady?
“My lady,” the words tumbled out of Elena, somehow. She gave a small bow. The Fates, on the side, slipped their hands through the tangled knitting.
The twelve-year-old smiled widely, in surprise. Obviously Elena did something right. “You’re alone, I presume. What are you, exactly? I don’t sense anything… A mortal? On the run, perhaps? How old are you? What’s your name?”
“I’m…” Elena’s dry tongue stirred, ready to taste the sweet crack of conversation.
“Elena!” Kelly screeched, rushing up with her mother. “We thought we lost you!”
The twelve-year-old startled. She looked aside to the rest of her friends in the silvery jackets. “Hunters, move out.”
She didn’t even need to give the order. They were already moving.
She turned to Elena, who’d watched this all wildly, and nodded in respect. And disappointment. “Farewell. You… seemed to be a good young maiden.”
With that, she was gone. The Fates had fully untangled the glowing strings from the main silver one and put them to the side. There will be no meetings like that ever again.

Notes

:): tireeed