Chapter Text
Against what many would assume, Bianca had known she was about to die. Of course she hadn’t known it when she had taken the little Greek statue, but when the ground rumbled and a giant awoke from within the trenches of a nit-picky god, she had known. She had known something bad would happen when she took the statue, she had just been willing to risk it. She just wanted to make it up to her brother. Then she saw what she had done.
One shall be lost in the land without rain
Someone was going to die here, and it was going to be her.
She didn’t know what the last thing she said was, nor her last thought, not even the last feeling of her beating heart. She remembered none of it. Now she sat in the junkyard she had died in. She had been there for hours. The sun was setting, not that it even mattered because Bianca no longer felt the cold. A part of her couldn’t believe how well she was taking this. It was a little strange honestly.
At some point, when the moon was high in the sky, Bianca felt a grazing presence. Standing at her side was a man, who’s features were hidden with a cloak of cold air. The type that sent shivers down your spine.
“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Bianca Di Angelo.” Bianca cringed at her full name. Only her mother called her that, and it was only when she was being scolded.
“Are you the grim reaper?” She asked out of true curiosity, and not from a place of coldness or cruelty like some might. The man shook his head.
“I am Thanatos, God of Death. I have come to collect you.” Bianca gave him a strange look.
“I thought I was supposed to pay a man and he would take me across a river on a ferry?” The god just shrugged.
“In most cases, yes. You are not most cases, Bianca Di Angelo.” She cringed again but then the words settled in and she knew what he meant.
“Are you taking me to my father?” He nodded without hesitation. Bianca knew who her father was. Hades, King of the Underworld. 800 HP, 2300 attack points, can use the corpses of soldiers fallen in battle and have them continue to fight. That was all Bianca knew about her father and most of it was probably inaccurate. Except for the soldier corpses part, that was probably very true.
Bianca stood up. She looked at the fallen iron soldier, she wondered what Nico was doing. He could be playing capture the flag. She wondered what would happen when he found out. She just needed him to stay safe. Just for a little while longer.
She turned her back to her hidden grave and looked at Death. He held out his arm for her to take. What a gentleman. They walked out of the junkyard, the sandy ground and deep blue skies turned white, as if everything had been covered in a layer of crisp snow.
“Why did we go south?” Bianca asked after a few moments of silence.
“You can tell which direction is which?” He asked. It was much less of a question and more him expressing his shock. Could most people not tell the difference? Bianca nodded anyway, more acknowledging that she had heard him than answering his question. “We went south because that is how to get to the underworld.”
“What would happen if you went north?” The exact opposite direction of the underworld.
“I do not go north. I am not supposed to.” Bianca didn’t press for more, she doesn’t think he’s supposed to say. She didn’t want to get him in trouble, plus she has a feeling she already knows where it goes. It goes to home.
The walk didn’t seem long in all honesty, and it was rather calming too. Death was kind to her, asked her about her life, if she enjoyed it, stuff like that. She answered as best as she could. She only really remembered the Lotus Casino and the couple of months they spent outside of it. She didn’t remember anything before that. She had a feeling that was her fathers doing.
Colour started to come back to their surroundings, except they were a lot darker and a bit more dreary. Behind her there was a twisting river that gave her the shivers. She feared she may fall in but Thanatos had a firm hand on her to make sure that wouldn’t happen.
Past long fields of grey grass stood a large, crooked, castle made of black stone. Bianca gulped. It wasn’t all that scary really, she had imagined worse, but she was more scared to go inside. She knew what was waiting for her on the inside and she didn’t know if she was strong enough to face it yet. It wouldn’t matter whether she was or wasn’t though, she would be going in there no matter what. She needed to.
They walked through the fields, with soft winds dancing through the blades of grass and twisting around her ankles. She couldn’t see much else other than the fields and castle, but she could hear things. Tortured souls screaming from the pits of their stomachs and tearing up their throats. Bianca assumed being the god of the dead, also meant deciding their afterlives. Deciding how they are tortured. She shivered.
They got to the steps to the castle in no time but as she tried to take her first step, Thanatos stayed still. She looked back with a confused look and she could not mistake the sorrowful look in his eyes.
“What is wrong?” She asks.
“I am afraid we will have to depart here. You must see your father alone, daughter of Hades.” She wanted to protest, she didn’t want to go alone. Bianca wouldn’t know what to do or say. What if her father did not like her.
Thanatos seemed to read her mind and say, “Do not worry. Between you and me, Lord Hades is quite anxious to see you again.”
Again?
Before she could ask what he had meant, Thanatos was gone. Bianca took a deep breath and started up the stairs. With each step it became easier. She would talk to her father, she could do this, she could figure this all out.
When she got to the door Bianca took one of the brass door handles and knocked. The sound echoed through the underworld, almost drowning out the souls from the fields of punishment.
The door creaked open and a zombie stood there, seemingly smiling at her. She couldn’t quite tell. She smiled back and took a step inside. It was oddly comfortable. It wasn’t as dark and gloomy as the outside. There was a shiny carpet and flower displays, a song humming in the air making your footsteps less deafening.
She spent a little time trying to find her father. She didn’t quite know where to go. She tried to go through some doors but most of them wouldn’t open and the ones that did somehow always led to the kitchen. Bianca chose to not question it.
Eventually she got some help from mice. It was odd to be getting directions from a mouse but stranger things have happened in the past couple of days.
After going up a set of stairs, going through several hallways, going down the same set of stairs, doing a loop and going down about five more hallways, Bianca showed up at a pair of double doors similar to the castle's main ones.
She knocked on the door softly. The mice scurried away and just as she began to miss her rabid friends the doors opened with cold mist spewing out of it. Bianca felt the temperature drop and she shivered. With a slow hand she pushed open the door further and took a couple of steps in.
Her teeth were chattering and her hands felt numb. She stuffed them in her pocket and kept walking. She looked ahead to see a large glass window with two thrones in front of it. A man sat in one. Lord Hades.
Bianca stopped at the steps that led up to the thrones. She was shaking. Her father looked mad, but it didn’t seem like it was directed towards her, more directed to something far away, beyond Bianca’s comprehension. Bianca didn’t say anything, she didn’t know if she was allowed to or not.
After a long minute, Hades' attention switched to her. It felt like a spotlight had been put on her.
“I had hoped I would not be seeing you so soon.” He said. “Why would you sacrifice yourself like that Bianca. You had potential and you let it slip away.”
“I’m sorry.” She said softly, too nervous to raise her voice higher. Hades stood up from his throne. It seemed like his shadow consumed the room. Bianca kept her eyes at the ground.
“You died so that Jackson boy wouldn’t. Why did you value his life more than your own Bianca, you did not owe him anything.” His hollering echoed off the walls of the empty room. It hurt her ears and her eyes began to sting. She could not cry, it would not do her any good.
“Explain it to me Bianca, explain to me what had been going through your head when you allowed yourself to be crushed!” Bianca felt wobbly. Though this was along the lines of what she thought the interaction with her father would be like.
“I was meant to die there.” She said, “I didn’t ask to.” Hades grumbled and turned back to his throne to sit down.
“I thought the dead went to the river man and paid him?” He asked.
“His name is Charon and he’s the ferryman.” Hades explained. His shadow seemed to have retracted and the room had more colour again.
“Oh.” She said “Could you tell me more?” The question was quiet, scared it would be denied.
“What?” Hades asked. Bianca found that Hades sounded very human when he wasn’t boiling with rage.
“I would like to know about the Underworld. I think it would be nice to learn about this part of me.” Hades looked at her for a long moment and Bianca feared she had miss stepped. That he was not done being angry with her and it was not the right time to try and prompt father and daughter bonding.
He seems to ponder her request for a little while longer, before standing up and gesturing for her to come closer. She does so and he leads her to the large open window. She looks out and first notices how high up they are. If they were on earth they would be up in the clouds. On the ground there are rolling hills of grass. So far out that the greyish green grass turned black
Bianca thought it was beautiful. She wanted to take her brother here and have a picnic, just the two of them, like they had in- Bianca felt her breathing stop. She couldn’t remember what she had just been thinking about. She wasn’t able to hold onto the slippery daydreams that danced behind her eyes.
“Do you know what this field is Bianca?” Her father asked.
“No.” She answered quietly, still trying to grasp the ideas that were wallowing away in her muddy memories.
“That is the Fields of Elysium.” He says. “The Fields of Elysium hold all those who have led a good life and deserve a happy ending.”
Bianca could not see this world but she knew her father could. She tried to imagine what this world looked like. She tried to imagen old happy souls dancing in the open fields with a house on the lake or a hotel in the city. Bianca knew not every soul there was old. Some were young. Younger than Bianca, barely given the chance to live.
“Is mama there?” Bianca’s voice was small again, but not out of fear. It was more like the voice of a little kid. Hades avoided her gaze, his hands began to shake like they were holding the world.
“She is not.” He said solemnly. “She chose to be reborn, believing that she could find you and protect you again.” Bianca's breath hitched, she felt tears rolling down her face. She doesn’t know why that of all things had made her crack, but that had been the thing that hurt the most.
Not the crack of her skull from the giant crushing her, not her sore feet walking a hundred miles to her fathers doorstep, it was the idea her mother had given up pure happiness to get back to her and her brother. This was all her fault. She hadn’t been good enough to allow her mother to rest and now she has left Nico all alone.
“Can I stay here for a while?” Bianca muttered. “In the castle.” Hades gave her a look and she did her best to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“I just don’t want to be alone for a little while.” Hades' tense stature relaxed after a couple of moments. He slowly nodded and after another second the doors opened showing two skeletons, like the ones she had found on her quest.
“You can choose any room you like.” He said solemnly and turned back to the window. Bianca wanted to stay but knew it was better if she didn’t. She made her way over to the skeletons and they bowed to her, which she had not been expecting. They led her out of the room but she hesitated before she got too far away.
She looked back in, Hades still stood looking out of the window. Bianca felt something coil in her stomach. The world felt heavier around her, like it had been turned to led. She wanted him to look back at her. Not to say something or do anything particularly ‘fatherly’ just to acknowledge her existence one final time. He did not. Bianca closed the door.