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“Eros if this is you again, I’ll off you for good this time. No idea how, but if you haven’t heard I’m the son of the fucking god of death and the ghost king. I’ll find a way! Honestly where the fuck even am I?”
Nico di Angelo was done with this shit. He had fought in two wars, walked through tartarus, got humiliated by Eros, lost a sister, and he was not standing for whatever this was turning out to be. No fucking chance! His angry brooding was quickly broken by another voice.
“Fuck not again! How have I died this time? Honestly, this has to stop. I can’t stand this blasted station. Dumbledore can I get a seat this time for Godric's sake? Also, these clothes are a nice development; do they have to be bathrobes? And wasn’t I feeling calm last time? Why am I even here, shouldn't I die normally by now? No, of course not. I must be the exception to everything, -”
The black haired man stopped midway through his rant when he spotted two new people through the light fog surrounding them.
“Ron? Hermione? I’m so sorry. What are you doing here? Why are we all dead?”
“I don’t want to appear rude, but I don’t think you are dead.”
Nico had to interfere at this point. He had no idea who those others were or where they were, even though after the man had mentioned it being a station, he could suddenly see it as well, but he had no clue what station this was. He had never seen something similar.
“And you would know why exactly?” The newly appeared redhead - Ron - asked.
“Well as a son of Hades I’m quite adapted to the mechanics of dying and I spent some time at my father’s, so I know the Underworld quite well. This is definitely not part of it.”
“You are what?”
The bushy haired woman looked at him like he was an idiot.
“A son of Hades!? You know, tall guy, looks kind of scary most of the time, horrible fashion sense—even though I’ll admit Hermes is worse—always fighting with his two brothers, has a castle in the underworld, kidnapped my stepmom to marry her? God of Death? Nothing?”
“I know about the Greek gods, thank you very much, but they are a myth, they can’t have children!”
It was the bushy-haired woman talking again.
“If you only knew how often I wished you were right. Sadly, you’re not. But even if Iseemenly don’t exist, would you be so kind as to tell me who you are? And what is this place? Your friend sounded like he recognised it before you two appeared.”
After Hermione and Ron looked around, she seemed to pale significantly while he looked like he wanted to throw up. All-in-all not the best reactions.
“Harry is this -? I mean, this is - Well, kind of Kings Cross, isn’t it?”
The Percy lookalike - Harry - just nodded.
“It’s the same place Hermione, just with this circle of chairs instead of a crying part of Voldemort and bathrobes for everyone. I must say I appreciate the development.”
“Bollocks! Ok, we can figure this out. I mean we all must be dead then, but why? What’s the last thing you two remember?”
The redhead seemed to have totally forgotten about Nicos previous explanation about them not being dead - he had probably forgotten about Nico altogether. This was frustrating to no end. Right at the moment he decided to interrupt the three others again another voice spoke.
“Extinguished people, welcome to today's meeting.”
Nico and the three others turned on their heels and were met with the sight of an old man in a gray loose fitting tunic and a long white beard holding some kind of oversized walking stick in one hand. That was definitely strange as Nico was sure the old man hadn’t been there just seconds before. Looking back to his three unwilling companions he saw his irritation mirrored on their faces.
“NICO!!!” was the only warning he got as a bunch of limbs wrapped themselves around him. That shout was accompanied by a groaned “NO! Honestly, this costs me 50 bucks,” from a similarly familiar voice like the first one. After he untangled himself from the person around him, he was surprised to recognise Annabeth of all people.
“You know we were waiting for you to turn up. But you are just in time for me, Ghost King.”
This was another voice he recognised and Nico’s eyes wandered from Anabath over to Leo who had just spoken. Next to him sat Percy, trying and mostly failing to portray a believable pout.
“What are you doing here? And what even is this!?”
Nico was baffled. These people should probably have been the first ones he should think about when ending up in an unknown situation, but he hadn’t thought he would see anyone familiar at all. Also, if he could have chosen some companions for an unknown mission, these people might be a safe bet, but they wouldn't have been Nico’s first choice.
“Well until now no-one recognised this place, but as far as we figured out this is some kind of anonymous war hero support group,” Annabeth let him know.
Did this girl really know everything? Somehow Nico was pacified by the fact that even she didn’t know where they were. Probably that should have been more a point of concern, but for him it was a form of reassurance.
“Actually,” a very know-it-all sounding voice interrupted, “this is King’s Cross. One of the biggest train stations in London.” It was Hermione speaking again.
“Well, at least that explains why we won’t get any bore here.” A very two dimensional looking man in only blue and white striped trousers chipped in “Asterix, why do we have to come every time?”
“Obelix, I really don’t want to go over this again, but we don’t choose to come here if you haven't noticed, we just end up here.”
A smaller man, probably Asterix answered.
“Folks, we have been through this a million times before. And we have new people here, so let me start this meeting probably. As most of you already know I’m Gandalf the Gray, as some of my fellows like to remind me, even though they seem to be out of attendance today, and I’m a war hero survivor. For the new ones that might be a strange term, but surviving a war and surviving being the hero of a war can be two very different things. After all this time we figured, this is what connects all of us. We might come from different worlds but we are all connected by similar experiences even though they are radically different for each of us. We will start with an introduction round where everyone that wants can join in, and then we will open up for whoever feels like speaking to come forward. Who wants to start?”
Nico watched the whole procedure with growing amazement. Even though he never heard of anyone here beside Percy and Annabeth, all the people in attendance shared experiences that sounded even wilder than what he had encountered in his life. It was almost like he would be listening to stories out of one of Will’s fantasy books.
It took him until a red haired woman spoke up about being handed over to the KGB just after her birth, that Nico realised his life would probably sound like a fantasy novel as well.
These people seemed to get him in a way he never thought possible. Others whose lives had never really been theirs, who had never had a so-called normal life. Without speaking, he already felt like a heavy weight had lifted from his shoulders.
And then Harry - the Percy lookalike - started speaking, and Nico felt like his own life might have been a bit more normal than he ever thought. Half way through his story, Nico only wanted to wrap his arms around the green-eyed man and hold him close. Maybe this was a new chance, a new start full of possibilities.