Who: Reyna Ramirez-Arellano & Nico di Angelo What: talking sparring after Dark Heart When: sometime in the last week Where: gym Warnings: avoiding feels
Reyna's eyes stung as she went through a series of practice moves with her spear. The weight of the weapon was familiar in her hand and she changed it from spear to sword to dagger as she moved. She'd been in the gym for hours, trying to work out the confusion from the past few days. She appreciated the offers to talk about it, but she wasn't the type to talk. It was a stark reminder of just what she was capable of - that Bellona's power had the potential to be used for evil as well as good. If Edmund and Jacen and Nico hadn't stuck to her like glue, who knows what she might have done. She shuddered to think what might have happened and rammed the Imperial Gold sword through the practice dummy.
Between world jumping, missions, and continually losing and gaining friends and family back, you’d think they’d been through everything. But nope. Of course not. Instead they got a good dose of ‘but have you tried evil’ switcheroos. Nico had been keeping a quiet eye on Reyna since she got back to normal. Giving some space to… process. He knew about needing to process and Reyna had the benefit of having plenty of people around for support as well.
Except this gym stay was getting a little ridiculous. Stepping out from where he’d been hovering in silence, he walked over and boosted himself up to sit on a pommel horse. “How many of their dummies have you wrecked?”
She should have known she wouldn't be left alone. Part of her wondered if there was a rotating schedule of checking up on her. Between being turned into her younger self and then the dark heart infestation, she was ready for a change of pace. She pulled the sword out of the dummy and wiped off the blade before looking at Nico.
“This is only the third one.” She had, however, duct taped and reused the first two as long as possible. “How long have you been here?”
“Long enough,” Nico said with a shrug. Now that he’d let his presence be known, he wasn’t sure how to go forward. Because this sucked. It just sucked knowing the worst about yourself. Or not even yourself. About what you could do. Which… ok… maybe that was step one. “You know we still all care about you, right? This doesn’t change anything.”
Reyna chuckled. “Yeah, well I can’t change how hard headed and stubborn you are. That’s just a hopeless cause.” She transformed her sword into a dagger and tucked it into her belt before going to the side and picking up two practice swords. She tossed one to Nico. "C'mon. Let's see what you got."
Nico caught the sword easily before he slipped down off the pommel horse. Turning it in his hand a few times to get the feel of it, he shrugged. “I learn from the best,” he pointed out as he raised an eyebrow. “Might not be exactly the same, but I do have some experience with this.”
Reyna tossed the sword from one hand to the other before she began circling Nico. She gave him a while to get ready before advancing on him. "Look, I'm fine. Evil gone. Nothing to talk about."
Nico rolled his eyes as he parried a strike, stepping back and around. “Uh huh. Heard that one before.” He smirked. “Pretty sure no one believed it considering people kept poking and prodding about whether it was true or not.”
Reyna countered and advanced on him, her mind not on the fight but on what might have been. "That's your plan, poke and prod me till I talk about my feelings?"
Nico shrugged as he dodged and parried, edging in for an attack of his own. “Maybe. Or I could just tire you out. It’s amazing how much easier it is to accept what people are telling you when you’re exhausted on the ground with no way of moving.”
Reyna raised an eyebrow at him. "You honestly think you can tire me out? Forget who you're dealing with?" She attacked half-heartedly. "Look, you know what it's like, I just…" she trailed off, running a hand over her braid. "Too much in my head."
“I’ve got a few less hours of work going for me,” Nico pointed out as he batted away the attack. His sword point resting against the ground, his expression softened. “I know. And you know I know.” He smiled softly. “Whether I wanted you to or not. I seem to recall there being a lot of advice about letting some of it out being good. Especially when you do have friends who want to help.”
Reyna gave him a weak smile and lowered her sword, shoulders slumping. "It sucks that you're too mature to listen to the 'Do as I say, not as I do.' " She huffed out a sigh, pacing the mat. "I am letting it out, I just prefer to let it out with a sword instead of words."
Nico shook his head. “You know I never would’ve listened to that anyways. At least in the time you’ve known me.” The sword came up to rest against his shoulder as he watched Reyna pace back and forth. “I know. And I know that doesn’t always work as well as anyone wants it to. So…” He held his hand out to the side. “Here I am. For, I don’t know, reassurance? Because I mean it, Reyna. We do all still care for you. This changes nothing.”
"And what if I'd lost it completely? What if I'd used my powers to control all of you? Or stolen your sword to do some damage? Or worse, some of the guns? I could have gotten myself an army, Nico.. I can't let myself risk doing that again.."
“But you didn’t,” Nico said soothingly. Closing the distance between them, he reached out to put his hand on her shoulder. “I know all the what ifs, Reyna. I know how easy it can be to get wrapped up in them and the lengths you can push yourself to in order to keep people safe.” He smiled warmly. “And I know that even if it’s terrifying, your friends’ll be there to make sure you never get that far again. We’ll be there for you, Reyna.”
"Not if I'm in your head telling you what to do," Reyna said, giving him a look. It said something, that the people she was closest too here all had a past - Nico, Edmund, Jacen, Rin, Grant - all of them had a dark side. They knew what it was like to have the dark thoughts within them. "I can't hurt anyone again.. You have to promise me you'll stop me."
“You’re assuming you’d get the chance,” Nico pointed out. Granted, depending on what course he went, he might be at best passed out afterwards, but he had no illusions about his powers. He also knew he probably still didn’t know what he was fully capable of. That was the problem with children of the Big Three. They got more powerful the older they got. Percy certainly wasn’t at the same power level as when Nico had first met him. And thanks to that pledge the gods had made, they really didn’t have peers to teach them the same way the kids in the other cabins did. “I promise, Reyna. You know that promise goes both ways, too. We have each others’ backs, right?”
"Of course." Without warning, she dropped and kicked his feet out from under him, dropping him to the ground. "Unless we're training. In which case, Praetor wins."