By Amanda Pizzolatto (alias Aurora Mandeville)

Word Count: 31845

Rating: PG for scary situations

Summary: Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, is used to being alone, until one day a girl with auburn hair waltzes into his life…

The woman introduced herself to them as River Song as she hurried them off to a place where they could change. Curious as to how she knew they were going to be there, they asked her, but she said it wasn’t the place as ears were still listening. They put it off and finished changing, itching to find out more. River told them to follow her, they were going to get out of Venice. But they hadn’t gotten far when a pair of children nearly ran into them, and Nico’s heart just about stopped. He knew them.

“We’re sorry,” blurted the girl. “My little brother gets really excited. And won’t listen to me,” she finished with a glare at her younger brother.

He merely giggled. “But it’s so much fun here! I’m glad Mama let us come!”

Nico really began to tense. Should he take the chance?

The little boy glanced at Nico and Lucy questioningly. “Are you two on a date?”

“No! Why does everybody think that?” Nico just about roared.

He paused, taken back by the way he had exploded, and the tears springing to the boy’s eyes.

“I’m, I’m sorry . . . you, you looked like you were . . . you, you looked h-happy,” whimpered the boy as a tear rolled down his face.

“Why did you get angry at my little brother? There was no need to!” blurted the girl as she balled up her fists.

Nico gritted his teeth, that was just like her too. He knew her name, he wanted to say it so badly. He had dreamed of seeing her again, of doing exactly this, going back in time. He wanted to warn her of what was to come, but what was the point?

But all he could say was, “Then maybe you should tell your younger brother to stop jumping to conclusions.”

He turned and stormed off, fighting the tears that threatened to form in his own eyes. As he walked away, he heard the little boy say her name, and he balled up his own fists. Why this? Why him? Why now? Why torment him more? Didn’t Misery tell him that there wasn’t anything she could think of to make his life sadder? Well apparently Time got one on her. Lucy and River didn’t speak to him, he really didn’t give them much of a chance to. Lucy attempted a few words, but Nico wouldn’t let her get one out. Once he had finally calmed down enough, several questions popped into his head, and his senses were on high alert. He didn’t get to start asking any of them until they were on a train.

“So, Doctor River Song, is it?” asked Nico, eyeing the Doctor’s wife. She sat across from him and Lucy in a train compartment, the train speeding towards a destination she had picked out.

“Yes, you can call me that in public and River in private, if you’d like.” She met his gaze with a sly smile.

“Doctor, I mean, River, I know how things work in the 1940s,” replied Lucy, glancing back and forth between them, the staring contest apparently not resolving anytime soon.

“I know you do, Lucy; apparently he does, too,” River said, her eyes never leaving Nico’s.

He gave a soft growl. “What of it? Why is it so important?”

“Because I think you’re hiding something from us, Mr. di Angelo. I think you’ve been in this time before, if you weren’t born in this time.”

Nico shifted ever so slightly. “What makes you think that? Couldn’t I have just a fascination with everything during this time?”

“Oh, come now, I’ve traveled enough that I can tell when someone wants to get out of somewhere quickly. Were you afraid of meeting your family back in Venice?”

“W-what? What makes you think my family might have been in Venice, and at this time?” He clamped his mouth shut; he didn’t want to reveal any more, especially since she was clearly smart enough to figure it out on her own. Give her any more clues, and she’d know for sure. He wasn’t quite ready to share that information with her, at any rate. Perhaps he might let Lucy know, but he still didn’t trust River. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but her aura suggested that she was highly dangerous and, on top of that, she was incredibly smart.

“You might not trust me, but you trust your girlfriend, right?” asked River. “You’ll tell her eventually, I’m sure.”

“Why does everybody keep calling her my girlfriend?”

“We’re just friends!” Lucy added.

“It has only been me and those two nice children who stated that you looked like a couple,” stated River nonchalantly. “You really should have apologized to them, especially the boy. Looked like you scared him with your blow-up.” Nico gave no answer but a glare; he didn’t care, they were going to forget everything, anyway. “Besides, the two of you can’t go around marauding as siblings, it wouldn’t work.”

“Why not? I have a brother with hair almost as dark as Nico’s.”

“Because it’s clear that you’re English and he’s Italian; your accents are a dead giveaway.”

Lucy and Nico glanced at each other; they had forgotten about that. In just a few days they had gotten so used to each other that the matter of their accents wasn’t the first thing that crossed their minds when it came to their differences.

River leaned forward. “So, with that in mind, how do we explain why you cannot be separated?”

The two glanced down, trying to come up with a workable idea.

Nico looked over at River. “What about being cousins? Her mother moved to England after an argument with our grandmother, meeting her husband there.”

“Hmm . . . that might work. Any other ideas?”

“Or we could be half-siblings . . .”

“Nope, that would never work. So, you’re cousins; why should you not be separated?”

“Um…she’s the only surviving member of her family, and my mom has legal guardianship? And because my mom asked us to look after each other?” Nico shrugged.

River nodded. “That might work. What about why you are going to Germany?”

The two nearly choked. “Germany?”

“I’d be fine,” Nico managed to say, “but Lucy wouldn’t!”

“England and Germany are at war with each other!”

“But if you’re cousins, then Lucy would have to be half Italian. So again, why Germany?”

“Why, indeed?” Nico crossed his arms.

“Because Italy and Germany are members of the Axis powers,” Lucy suggested, “and my aunt and uncle think it’s the safest place right now?”

River pointed at her. “Exactly. They think it’s the safest place right now.”

Nico and Lucy glanced at each other.

“You mean it won’t be safe later?” Lucy asked.

“Oh, come now,” said River. “Parts of Germany were bombed close to the end of the war, remember?”

“Wait, what?”

“Are we going to a city that will be bombed?”

River nodded.

“Why?”

“Because after the rubble was cleared,” River revealed, “the bodies of two children were missing.”

Lucy gasped. “The Doctor!”

“That’s our way out,” Nico added incredulously. “But why couldn’t he come and get us now? And who are the others?”

“Ah, I don’t think your “cousin” has explained everything. There are rules when it comes to time travel, and it gets complicated between me and the Doctor.”

“How so?”

“He really didn’t tell you about me, did he? Of course not, he didn’t want to fool with it.”

“So what’s so important about this complicated rule between you and the Doctor?”

“Oh, my past, his future.”

“W-what?”

River nodded. “I saw him in my past, his future; he told me where he found you and what time. And now that he’s told me, we have to go through with it.”

“Wait, why can’t we change it?”

“One of the rules, sweetie. Changing the future once you know it can be disastrous, it can create a paradox. We have already created a few too many and this world will fall apart, time will go crazy. I bet even Khronos would be affected by it.”

Nico’s eyes widened. “What was that about Khronos?”

River smiled. “Oh, just a tidbit about you demigods; apparently Leo was so fascinated with the technology of Gallifrey that he gave the Doctor information about the demigods in exchange for some technology.”

Nico gaped until he finally found his voice. “W-what? That flaming idiot! Only thinking about tech and Calypso!”

Lucy let out a laugh, stopping the instant Nico gave her a cold glare. “S-sorry,” she mumbled.

“The location of the camps are supposed to be secret for a reason,” Nico said.

“And don’t you think the Doctor will keep that secret? You’ve had a taste of his world now; I don’t think your world is quite nearly as scary or as deadly as his, and I know a lot about your world. I am an archaeologist, after all. Not only that, but the Doctor has uncovered a lot more secrets than your precious camps and has managed to keep them all secret. Even his real name is a secret, known only to those closest to him.” Her grey eyes locked with his black. “So, sweetie, I know your secret is safe with the Doctor because, you see, he’s far more trustworthy than I am.”

“And yet here we are, having to trust you.”

“Only to get you to Germany, sweetie, don’t count on me past that.”

“Fine, as long as you stop calling me sweetie.”

“You’re right, I should, I really only call the Doctor that, but you kind of remind me of him, so I couldn’t help it.”

Nico glanced at her. “Why do I remind you of the Doctor?”

River rose. “Oh, cheating death has its price. Now there’s a spoiler for you. Look closely at the Doctor the next time you see him, you might catch what I’m talking about.” Nico half-rose from his seat; the Doctor cheated death? “Now, I think we should go get some dinner and head off to bed. Our train ride is going to be long, and I need to go over German with you.”

She walked out, Nico and Lucy following in a shocked daze. There was more, a whole lot more; the Doctor might be trying to protect them. But from what, and why? Nico was the son of Hades and now was the conqueror of the Weeping Angels, aliens that no one else could defeat, which felt really good, actually. Couldn’t he travel with the Doctor and destroy every other threat to Earth? Or did he know of creatures that Nico couldn’t defeat?

Nico shuddered at the thought. The Angels were just barely defeated; if Lucy hadn’t been there, it would have been all for naught. Soon his mind became preoccupied with learning German as quickly as Lucy, making the weeks fly. They would stop in city after city, spending maybe up to a week in each while River taught them German. Lucy was learning faster but, as Nico found out, she had traveled with the Doctor longer than he had, and something about being in the Tardis for a while helping translate different languages. The explanation made Nico’s head spin; as if there wasn’t enough to make it spin already, like the weird cards that showed the officers whatever they wanted at each stop, letting them on through without problem. But with Lucy learning quickly, and she and River starting speak primarily in German, Nico began to catch on. Before they knew it, they were rather proficient in German, the three speaking only in German after a while. It was almost August by the time River took them to their destination – the mayor’s house in Molching, where they were to spend the next couple of months until the bombing, when the Doctor would arrive to pick them up.

While River talked with the mayor and his wife, Nico and Lucy were allowed to explore the mayor’s house. They found the library and, once the door was closed, the two began to speak in whispers.

“Ugh, that woman is so annoying!” blurted Nico as he folded his arms.

“Nico, she can’t tell us everything! The Doctor didn’t even tell us everything!’ replied Lucy.

“Obviously,” muttered Nico with a hint of a snarl. “But it would be nice if she could tell us when this bomb is coming and where it’s going to hit. Even where the Doctor is going to show up!”

Lucy let out a sigh. “Nico, did you think that maybe the Doctor didn’t even tell her himself?”

“Why wouldn’t he tell her? She’s his wife, isn’t she?” asked Nico.

“Maybe so that she wouldn’t have to lie to us,” muttered Lucy.

Nico let out a huff. “You have a point there. But again, why not say a word about it? It would make it easier for us to be where we would need to be when the bomb falls.”

“I know, but, I don’t have the answers to everything,” replied Lucy with a shrug.

“I know, I know, it’s just . . . I’m used to getting answers when I ask. I’m the Ghost King, everyone, dead or alive, is scared of me.”

“Not everyone . . . alive, that is. I can’t say anything for everyone who’s dead,” replied Lucy softly. “I don’t talk to ghosts.”

Nico scoffed, “I think they would rather talk to you; you’re nicer than me.”

Lucy giggled. “That’s debatable. I can be pretty mean.”

“What? Lucy Pevensie, the Valiant Queen, the Sunshine of the Narnian court, mean? Since when?”

“Since Sunshine of the Narnian court never became one of my nicknames,” replied Lucy with an arched eyebrow.

“Oh, oh, right, s-sorry,” stuttered Nico as he twiddled with his skull ring. “It just, it just seems to fit you, you know, you’re always trying to make everyone’s day a little brighter.”

“Oh, um, thank you,” replied Lucy as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I would expect the same from a ghost.”

“Wait, what?”

“I mean, wouldn’t it bring hope to people to know that the souls of those we love are never really gone?” asked Lucy. “Sure, we might not get to see them all the time, but, it’s something, to ease the pain of their passing.”

Nico glanced down. “I… I hadn’t thought it of it that way.”

Lucy let out a sigh. “And many others probably haven’t either, like the ancient Greeks. I mean, in Narnia, we did fight to live, but we only fought to have long lives, not to achieve immortality. Then again, if a world is going to end, who wants immortality?”

Nico glanced at her, her eyes becoming sad as she seemed to think back to days of old in Narnia. Having lived there for many years, she gave off the vibe that she seemed older than she was. Her siblings were probably no different. Nico let out a soft sigh. Maybe that was why he felt like he was one of them – he felt as old, and that was just from staying in the Lotus Hotel for seventy years. He hadn’t actually gone to another world and grow up like the Pevensies did, only to come back home the same age that they had left. It must be hard on them especially, having to live through three different eras, practically.

Lucy smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, I thought back to Narnia again.”

“No, it’s fine. That was home for you for years,” replied Nico softly, hiding the ache he was beginning to feel at not really having such a place to call home, mixed with perhaps a twinge of jealousy.

“I hope everyone’s alright. They must be worried sick about us,” remarked Lucy.

“I’m sure they’re fine, well, yeah, except for the worrying part. But we’re the ones who got sent back in time.”

“It wasn’t that long ago, in fact, three years ago, that . . . that we . . . we went to Narnia for the first time,” she stated wistfully.

“That’s right, the war is going to be over in a little over a year,” remarked Nico incredulously.

Lucy nodded. “And in six years, the Doctor will save us from a train wreck.”

Nico became a little dizzy thinking about it. “Man, time travel is enough to make your head spin. How can anyone handle it?”

“One day at a time,” remarked a voice. The two glanced at the door to the library. There stood River Song.

“How long were you standing there?” asked Nico as his eyes narrowed.

“Long enough to catch quite a few juicy tidbits,” she remarked with a smile.

“Most of which you could have found in books,” replied Lucy.

“Not the part about the Doctor saving you, that isn’t a part of the books. I do hope he didn’t create an alternate timeline, or a paradox,” muttered River.

“Say what?” asked both Nico and Lucy.

“But enough of that, I just came to say goodbye. The mayor and his wife will take care of you until the bombing, only a couple of months away. Well, good luck, it was nice to meet you, and I hope to see you again soon!” exclaimed River as she shook hands with Nico and gave Lucy a hug.

“Can’t you at least give us the date of the bombing?” Nico quickly asked.

“Oh sweetie, I can’t do that, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to . . . oh, but that’s all spoilers,” quipped River as she walked towards the door.

“Wouldn’t be able to do what?” asked Lucy.

River let out a sigh, though she was smirking rather mischievously, and Nico didn’t like it. “Oh you know, save two families from the bomb.”

Nico and Lucy glanced at each other before glancing at River.

“Save two families from the bomb?” they asked.

“But if we knew the date, we could save them!” blurted Nico indignantly.

“Well . . .” began River.

“The Doctor didn’t tell you, did he?” asked Lucy.

“Oh no, he did, it’s just, you two would probably try to save the whole street rather than just the two families. See, I spoiled it for you,” quipped River with a wink. “But I’m afraid that’s all the spoilers I can give you today, I have to go now. Ciao!” And with that, she was out the door, leaving Nico and Lucy more bewildered than before. They glanced at each other again before dashing after River, but by then, she was already out of the house. The mayor and his wife were also preparing to go out, heading to a dinner that had been planned weeks in advance. They instructed the servants to feed the teens and help them get situated, expecting the two to be in bed by nine o’clock.

By nine o’clock sharp, the two were in their beds, but Nico stayed up a little while longer, a hundred thoughts flying through his head. They were going to save two families? Which two? How would they know which two to save? Why didn’t River give them a date? Or people to look for? Though he had to admit, she was right, they would have tried to save the whole street. As a matter of fact, why couldn’t she just answer questions? But even if he would have known the future, it wouldn’t have mattered, as at least one answer presented itself in the morning.

<-Previous  Next->