Fanfic / The Death God Alliance

The Death God Alliance is the first in Asilda's Alliance AU.

While taking a walk through Central Park, Nico meets Sadie and Carter Kane while the latter two are on the run from a pair of House of Life magicians. The House of Life, thinking Nico is a normal human, tell him to leave.

"Sorry," said the son of Hades, "but if I surrendered to an organization called the House of Life, my dad would kill me."

Thus begins an adventure featuring godly possession, hippie gods, McDonald's, tigerfish, Romans, and of course, The End of the World as We Know It.

Sadly, the series is very dead.

Stories in the Alliance AU include:

• Percy Jackson IS Aquaman - Nico gets to pick Percy and Thalia's Halloween costumes. Status: Complete.

• Escape From Camp Half Blood - Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Sadie and Carter end up at Camp Half-Blood. Mysterious deaths quickly follow. Status: Complete.

• Nico's Quest - Takes place during Throne of Fire. While Sadie and Carter are off saving the world, Nico has to escape the Duat, help in the defense of Brooklyn House, and find Sadie a birthday present. Status: Complete.

• Crazy Feelings - Nico and Zia spend some quality time together. Some residents of Camp Jupiter also make cameo appearances. Status: Complete.

• Greeking Out - (pre-Last Olympian) Jason Grace is a total nerd and Octavian suffers. Status: Complete.

• Breaking The Gods - Nico infiltrates a boarding school and uncovers a truly twisted plot. Status: Complete.

• Children of The Underworld - Direct sequel to Breaking The Gods. With Nico's soul at stake, the time for secrets is over. Status: Dead.

---

The Alliance AU contains examples of following tropes:

A - F

• Action Fanfic, Quiet Drama Scene: Several in Nico's Quest as the people wait for another attack on Brooklyn House.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Since the series was written before The House of Hades came out, Nico is not gay in it. Though it may be Anubis' influence on his host.
• Agonizing Stomach Wound: Nico gets one while defending the Brooklyn House.
• Amnesiac Resonance: Even if Nico has no councious memories from before the River Lethe, he still seems to recall things such as the Italian language.
• And I Must Scream: When Nico's soul is stuck inside his stone scarab, he's forced to float inside an empty void while screaming for anyone to help him.
  • Any child of Hades/Pluto send to the Fields of Asphodel, since they won't forget everything like other ghosts.
• Asleep for Days: Nico was unconcious for four days after Aziza bound him in Ribbons of Hathor.
• Axe-Crazy: Aziza, nuff said.
  • Some other members of Jacobi's strike team also qualify.
  • Any demigod that had their connection to godly parent severed.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Nico. Hades muses that the boy could be considered an ideal son and hero by pretty much everyone, if only they could ignore the fact he sometimes raises the dead.
• Badass in Distress: Sadie and Nico are captured by the House of Life.
  • Bast gets into a bit of trouble at the beginning of Nico's Quest.
• Batman Gambit:
  • The plan to trick Hades into not realizing Nico is possessed worked because the god considers his son to be a reckless and naive person.
  • Since Annabeth knows Thalia wants to talk to Nico, she puts him far away from the main push for the flag to keep the Huntress out of the way.
  • Since the group is trying to find Hazel in the Fields of Asphodel as quickly as possible, Leo is sent amongst the ghosts while singing, hoping Hazel will be intrigued by the disturbance and his resemblance to her boyfriend Sammy.
• Beneath Suspicion: The murderer at Camp Half-Blood turned out to be a pre-teen demigoddes Maya. Nobody even looked at them twice.
• Berserk Button: Don't mention Disney's Hercules around Nico. He's not fond of it's portrayal of his dad.
  • Don't mention or diss Bianca in Nico's hearing. It won't end well.
  • Harming Nico is this to Zia, mostly due to Nepthys and Anubis' influence.
  • Don't insult Percy's mother where he can hear you. Just don't.
• Beyond the Impossible: Nico hosting Anubis is this. See Mutually Exclusive Magic for more details.
• Big Brother Instinct: Percy towards Nico. Their relationship may be slightly rocky, but if some god, monster or magician is threatening his cousin, Percy will kick the shit out of them.
  • Zia develops into a protective big sister figure after being possessed by Nephtys, as Nico is currently hosting Nephtys' son Anubis. He starts by being rather irritated about it, accusing Zia of trying to replace his mom.
  • Jason is not happy to let a thirteen-years-old kid infiltrate some spooky boarding school and intends to bring him back to Camp Jupiter to keep him safe, uncaring the kid is Pluto's offspring.
• Blatant Lies: Nico claiming he's not scared of Aziza. To Anubis, who can easily feel his terror through their bond.
• Blood Knight: Every demigod ever, at least according to Nico.
  And [battling demons] made [Nico] damn glad that they hadn't gotten some boring happily-ever-after when the Battle of Manhattan was finished. It made him glad there were still enemies to kill.
• Bloody Murder: Nico's blood is insanely corrosive. As in Xenomorph corrosive. It eats through iron, glass and magic with ease. And don't get any on you. The results are not pretty.
• Boarding School of Horrors: The plot of Breaking the Gods is focused on one, the Heart of Liberty Boarding School for Special Needs Children.
• Boomerang Bigot: The people responsible for driving demigods insane are demigods themselves. They even use their powers and divine metals in their work. Neither Nico nor Jason are impressed by hypocrisy.
• Broken Pedestal: As much as he loved his sister, Nico is eventually forced to acknowledge that she wasn't perfect.
• Brown Note:
  • Percy doesn't like traveling in a summoned boat, at all.
  • Nico doesn't react well to traversing between various areas in Duat (but has no problem traversing through those areas).
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Thoth, nuff said.
• Calling Me a Logarithm:
  • Inverted. Nico calls Thoth an "analogy". Thoth wonders if the boy even know what it means.
  • Apparently, neither Nico nor Jason have ever heard the word "pigment" before.
• Casting a Shadow: Nico can create blades of shadow while borrowing Anubis' power.
• Casual Danger Dialogue:
  • Anubis and Bast snark at each other while battling demons in Duat.
  • Percy and Bast snark at each other and their enemies while defending the Brooklyn House.
  • Nico and Felix swap some information while fighting enemy magicians.
• Chekhov's Boomerang:
  • Nico's blood destroying magic is established early on, then used several times over the series.
  • The fact that he keeps fireworks in his Duat locker.
• Chekhov's Gun: Heavily implied with Sadie's gift from Nico: two vials of water from River Lethe.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The magicians trying to break through the east wall of Brooklyn House during the siege are mentioned several times before they actually succeed in Chapter 13.
• Cliffhanger: So many...
  • The Death God Alliance:
    • Chapter 1: Percy wakes up from his dream-vision just as Nico was tied up in Ribbons of Hathor and is screaming in pain.
    • Chapter 9: Aziza, Hakim and other magicians capture Nico and Sadie.
    • Chapter 12: The group prepares to put their plan for averting a war into life.
  • Escape from Camp Half-Blood:
    • Chapter 4: Thalia corners Nico looking for answers to various questions.
    • Chapter 10: Nico just had an "Eureka!" Moment and possibly identified the murderer.
    • Chapter 11: Sadie and Piper have just walked away with the murderer.
  • Nico's Quest:
    • Chapter 3: Nico wakes up when Anubis is attacked by someone or something.
    • Chapter 7: The Siege of Brooklyn House begins.
    • Chapter 13: Nico is fatally injured by an enemy magician.
• Clingy MacGuffin: The black scarab, which literally replaced Nico heart and cannot be removed.
• Comically Small Bribe: Nico's offer to Anubis so the god let's him talk with Percy alone? A Happy Meal. Later upgraded to two Happy Meals. Fails hilariously because Anubis never heard about McDonald's.
• Compliment Fishing: Exagerated. At one point during the siege Bast outright orders Percy to pay her compliments.
• Composite Character: Kind of. The author has mixed up Kwai and Sarah Jacobi, with their crimes and specialties being given to each other.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Demigods bring up the events of Second Titan War at various points.
  • When Aziza torches the Great Room, Sadie complains they just got it fixed up.
  • In general, there are lot of mentions to the events of the Red Pyramid.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Percy yells at Aziza that if the House of Life informed the Kanes about Hades' ultimatum, they would not be in their current mess. Aziza, being Aziza, doesn't actually care.
• Crash-Into Hello: Nico is introduced to Sadie and Carter when the former lands on him.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Nico's idea to prevent Hades to wipe the House of Life out? He pretends he was so into playing Mythomagic with Anubis he outright forgot his dad was trying to check on him. Mind you, Nico went missing for one week. Hades believes him.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Some demigods appear with those, showing they are Brainwashed and Crazy.
• Cryptic Conversation: Setne has one with Percy and Leo, hinting at his knowledge about what happened with Nico and how to solve the problem.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Nico and Sadie against a dozen of shabti guarding their cell.
  • Percy vs. Kwai. The magician doesn't even make it to the mansion before being defeated.
  • The 21st Nome vs. the House of Life after Ra comes back. The fight is over in matters of minutes.
• Deader than Dead: Happened to Reret, a minor Egyptian goddess - she was never very important and Nico's sword drained her powers, causing her to fade conpletely.
• Death by Adaptation: Type 2 for Kwai during his fight with Brooklyn House.
• Deus ex Machina: Discussed. Ra's blessing is about the only thing that could possibly save Nico's life but the group has no idea if the Kanes were even able to resurrect the god or if the boy will last that long.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Nico is quite rude towards Anubis, calling his tenant an "intro pack reject" and accusing him of desecrating corpses. Being rather laid-back for a god, Anubis doesn't hold it against the demigod.
• Didn't See That Coming: The magicians who broke through the east wall certainly didn't expect to run into a group of fresh-as-daisy opponents and a demigod.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • At one point Nico decides to wash his clothes in a bath and wear them as they dry. Sadie and Percy both point out that he could easily end up with pneumonia instead. Justified, since he's still recovering from his injuries and really out of it.
  • Kwai decides to insult the person who just overpowered his magic and dumped him into river. He has enough time to realise his mistake before Percy retaliates.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Nico has some skills in earth magic as a child of Hades.
• Ditzy Genius: Leo is brilliant but very easily distracted.
• Drama Queen: Anubis accuses Bast of being one.
  Anubis: You've always been a drama queen, you know? We just didn't have a word for it back at the dawn of civilization. Otherwise you'd be the patron goddess of drama queens and divas, you annoying –
• Dramatic Irony: In Chapter 13 of Nico's Quest, Zia considers various reasons for her strange protectiveness toward Nico - and outright dismisses him hosting Anubis as one since everyone knows demigods cannot become hosts to Egyptian gods.
• Driven to Madness: Something happened to turn an increasing number of demigods completely insane. Explaining how it came to be is a central plot of Breaking the Gods.
• Dynamic Entry: Percy and Blackjack's entrance into Brooklyn House in Chapter 4 of The Death God Alliance.
• Ear Worm: Nico threatens Anubis with them, promising to get a song stuck in the god's head if he keeps on eavesdropping on him and Percy.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Jason and the Romans show up in the second chapter of Crazy Feelings, though they aren't properly introduced.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Shows up several times.
  • Nico's shadow magic won't work if there is too much light like, say, from fires burning down a room.
  • Zia has problems with Kwai because his water spells keep dousing her fires. But Alyssa and Nico can just throw enough dirt at him.
• Elemental Shapeshifter: Kwai can turn into a blob of water to make himself invulnerable.
• The End of the World as We Know It: A prophecy by The Mad Oracle makes a good case that Nico and Anubis will bring about "The End of Days". Percy, who is familiar with the word play and metaphors of prophecies, is taking this with a grain of salt.
• Enfant Terrible: Maya is a complete psychopath, once she stops pretending.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • When magicians meet Nico they think that he is a host to a death god.
  • Carter thinks that Nico comes from a rich family, which doesn't particularly care about the boy and is creeped out by his powers. This is based on Nico having lot of money on him and expensive clothes, but an anemic and unkept appearance.
  • When Hades finds a magical jackal that was banished to his domain by his son and cannot contact Nico in any way, he concludes that the House of Life kidnapped him.
  • The Greeks at the Camp think that the Kanes are demigods like them.
  • Considering all of Nico's weird behaviour recently, Annabeth concludes he developed a split personality but wants to keep it quiet. And Percy is helping him cover it up.
  • Zia thinks that her weird behaviour towards Nico might be due to the boy reminding her of Anubis.
  • A group of Romans think Nico and Zia are siblings due to their looks and attitude to each other.
  • Jason naturally thinks that Nico is a Roman like him. He later concludes that the boy's mother must have been an Egyptian to give him their magic.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Nico has one when he figures out the murderer's identity.
• Everyone Can See It: Platonic example. Everyone at Brooklyn House notices that something weird is going on with Nico and Zia.
• Exact Words: Nico uses those if he thinks lying won't work for some reason. At one point Percy marvels that everything the boy said to Thalia was completely true and completely misleading.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask: Bast has no problem with dissing Romans, briefing Nico and Anubis about Sadie's quest and fishing for dinner at the same time.
• Family Eye Resemblance: A plot point in Breaking the Gods. A demigod's eyes hints at their godly parent, so when they start to show Creepy Blue Eyes, something's truly fishy.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The House of Life hates demigods, calling them abominations, and the demigods happily repay the favor by considering the magicians as freaks.
  • Necromancers aren't liked in the Egyptian society.
  • Hades and his progeny aren't well liked, either.
  • Bast despises Romans.
• For Science!: Thoth has shades of this. He openly gushes over Anubis possessing Nico - which should be impossible - and maintains all knowledge is good to learn. He also gives LSD to a twelve-years-old boy to see if it would help his inhabitant problem.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When the Kanes meet Nico, his powers let Sadie think he's hosting Anubis. She's not wrong, she was only a little bit too soon about it.
  • When Nico is tangled in the Ribbons of Hathor, Percy thinks that his veins looked nearly black against his pale face. Few chapters later, they find out that Nico blood really turned black.
  • Nico complains that his lemonade tastes bitter. That's because Thoth spiked it with LSD.
  • How to deal with Hades declaring war on the House of Life without tipping him off that Nico is possessed by Anubis was discussed several times.
    Nico: If I lie to [Hades], I have to either come up with something really believable, or something too ridiculous for him to think I could be making it up.
  • The demigoddess was stabbed at an upward angle, and the garrote which killed the Huntress was pulled downwards. That's because the murderer is very short.
  • In Nico's Quest several people at Brooklyn House mention they only need to wait for the dawn. Once Nico is injured, lasting to the dawn becomes much more important.
  • Leo asks if Nico has any stone jewelry. Guess where his soul was stuck.
  • Setne hints that they will need someone with power over riches to help Nico. Now, who we know with powerset like that?
• From Bad to Worse: First, the Kanes are brought to the Camp Half-Blood by mistake. Then, the Hunters of Artemis show up. Then, people start being murdered.
• Funny Background Event: During Chapter 16 of Nico's Quest one of enemy magicians is having a penguin-induced Freak Out while Nico and the trainees fight the rest of invaders.

G - N

• Genki Tiger Fish: The tiger fish are very happy to make friends with Percy.
• Genre Savvy: Both Kanes note that the first plan to smuggle them out of the camp sounds too easy. Sure enough, they are interrupted by Thalia and a murder.
• Genre Shift: Escape from Camp Half-Blood turns into Horror/Murder Mystery five chapters in.
• Glass Cannon: Nico can dish out some major damage with his powers, but he's still physically twelve years old and has limited stamina. If he sticks to sword fighting, he's a Lightning Bruiser.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • When he cannot contact Nico for a few days, Hades tries to outright connect to the boy's mind - something that is likely to cause migraines and nose bleeds in mortals.
  • Percy tries (and fails) to contact Apollo Cabin for help when Nico is fatally wounded, despite wanting to keep the pantheons separate.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: In Nico's Quest, Bast calls for help any god that will listen.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Invoked. Since the Kanes try to keep Nico's stituation under the radar, they tend to ommit his involvement from their stories.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Nico is not happy that Sadie is spending time with Walt. Though he will deny it.
• Heroic RRoD: While Nico's powers allow him to shadow travel, doing so over great distanced wipes him out. Trying to do so repeatedly ends with him needing to be carried by Percy.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Nico has rather low self-esteem, though his friends work on it.
• Hidden Depths: Lampshaded by name by Anubis when he talks about Sadie with Nico. For all her Tsundere tendencies, she cares about other people. She's also suprisingly knowledgeable about history and good at finding unconventional solutions to problems.
• Holy Burns Evil: Anything connected to Life hurts ghosts, undead and death gods' children.
• Humanoid Abomination: While many stronger demigods have shades of this, children of death gods take the creepy cake as from magical point-of-view they aren't that different from a reanimated zombie.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Discussed. Thoth thinks that it might have been the reason Cassandra became an oracle and later decided to host a goddess. She became special, alright.
• Identical Stranger: Nico and Anubis have very similar appearance, both in looks and clothing preferences. Several people even note that they could be mistaken for brothers.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • The plot of The Kane Chronicles happens without any major changes.
  • Leo and Piper still end up at Camp Half-Blood with Couch Hedge, though much earlier than in canon.
    • Piper becomes a Councilor for Cabin 10, while Leo tames Festus and is Councilor for Cabin 9.
  • Gaea is moving in the background.
  • Setne escaped from the Duat and is trying to manipulate people for his own ends. Specifically, Leo.
• Internal Reveal: The Death God Alliance is basically the Greeks and Egyptians finding out about each other.
  • Chapter 6 of Nico's Quest: the trainees learn that Nico is a demigod son of Hades and meet Percy for the first time.
  • Chapter 17 of Nico's Quest: the trainees also learn about the Camp (off-screen), Percy finds out Zia was a host, Zia confirms that Nico is hosting Anubis, and Nico learns that Anubis kissed Sadie.
  • Chapter 1 of Children of the Underworld: Jason, Thalia and Annabeth learn everything that happened with Nico, plus all sides learn about the Kanes and Egyptian society.
  • Chapter 2 of Children of the Underworld: Leo learns about Nico getting hurt by the Power Limiter machine. Later, Percy learns from Setne that Leo accidentally killed his mother.
• Irony: Right after Nico explains he intends to avert war by tricking Hades into believing he played Mythomagic with Anubis for a whole week, Percy is completely appaled and calls the idea completely ludicrous.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Felix is a low-key example during Nico's Quest, being excited to fight alongside the sons of Hades and Poseidon.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Nearly said word-for-word by Bast when she sums up the events of The Death God Alliance up to Chapter 6.
• Life Energy: An off-hand comment by Nico reveals that any lover of Hades needs to have high levels of life energy to even conceive his demigod child.
• Like Brother and Sister: Percy and Nico act like this so much they are even assumed to be siblings by strangers.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Annabeth and Thalia are kept ignorant of what is going on with Nico. Downplayed, since they know something is going on and aren't happy about it.
  • Anubis tries to keep Nico and Percy unaware about Romans since they were separated for good reasons. Not that Bast is any help.
  • Various Egyptian gods are out of loop when it comes to Greek and Roman pantheons, since they were sealed several millenia ago.
• Luminescent Blush: Nico, which is given considering his pale complexion.
• Mama Bear: Nephtys for Anubis. Which makes it really awkward for Zia and Nico as their (former) hosts.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Averted for Nico. Hades notes during his talk with Poseidon that he didn't have even eleven children in total over the ages.
• Meaningful Name: The pre-teen demigoddess is named Maya and she's Hermes' daugther.
• Mood Whiplash: Chapter 9 of The Death God Alliance goes from Carter and Percy, and Sadie and Nico having a friendship moments to the House of Life ambushing and capturing the latter two.
• Mooks: Shabti. They're pretty much useless if sent up against sword-wielding demigods.
• Mundane Utility: Apparently Nico once raised a librarian as a zombie to help him with reading books and research.
• Mutual Masquerade: This series is basically one big subversion of this trope.
• Mutually Exclusive Magic: Egyptian magic and Greek magic don't play together. At all. Thoth describes this as two radio frequences unable of synchronization, with literally explosive results if you try to mix both. The best result was Cassandra taking the Spirit of Delphi into herself then becoming host to a minor goddess and she went Mad Oracle for this.
  • This is why Nico becoming the host to Anubis is such a big deal, as it shouldn't be possible at all. When Egyptian gods tried to take Greek demigods as hosts, they only managed to fry their brains.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Nico has no blood relation to Zia and doesn't want to use her as a replacement to Bianca, yet when a Roman demigod tries to flirt with her he almost assaults the dude. Onlookers say afterwards to Zia how lucky she is to have such a nice and protective baby brother.
• The Nicknamer: Sadie. She calls Nico "Death Boy" and Percy "Water Boy".
• No-Sell:
  • Anubis blocks any attempts to spy at Nico through the use of Greek magic.
  • It's impossible to summon a boat within Camp Half-Blood. The one time Carter tries, he nearly drowns.
  • Percy just flat out blocks any water spell that Kwai tries.
• Not Herself: Following her possesion, Zia has some episodes when Nephtys' personality and opinions are breaking through, especially around Nico and Percy.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The last two times Greek and Egyptian societies interacted, it involved "some overzealous philosophers and a museum curator who thought he was the reincarnation of Cleopatra".
  • What exactly Nico did that got him on the bad side of Athena's Cabin.

O - Z

• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome:
  • Most of the events of Throne of Fire and Serpent's Shadow happen in background.
  • Also averted during Nico's Quest when we finally see the Siege of Brooklyn House.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Nico has lowkey one when he feels one of the campers dying during Capture the flag. And a bigger one when another murder takes place.
  • Nico when he realizes he lost over a week in Duat.
  • Seen only in flashback, Anubis has a big one when the spell he's casting through Nico goes out of control.
  • Nico has one whenever Aziza is mentioned. He completely freezes once she actually shows up.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In Chapter 3 of The Death God Alliance Nico is very irritable and easily distracted due to still recovering from his soul injuries (and possibly having a concussion). It goes on for a while.
  • In later chapters of Nico's Quest, Zia wonders why she feels protective towards some kid she's never seen before. Eventually, she realises that's because Nico is Anubis' host and those are Nephtys' feelings.
  • Leo becomes quiet and withdrawn after running into Setne.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: When he learns Anubis managed to possess a demigod without frying his host's brain, Thoth shamelessly praises him and asks if Anubis would let him know the due process so to let Thoth fuse with a son of Athena. Needless to say, Percy is not impressed.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Any child of Hades/Pluto is very similar to a zombie from magical point-of-view.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Hades's reaction when confronted to the possibility of the House of Life kidnapping Nico is threatening war on the magicians if they refuse to give his son back in three days. He also recruited his two brothers to ensure the war would be a slaughter.
  • Poseidon is quite happy to help Hades to destroy the House of Life, since Egyptians water deities killed eleven of his children by trying to make them hosts.
• Piranha Problem: Played with. Carter compares tiger fish to piranhas. Percy is pretty sure piranhas have nothing on tiger fish. The tiger fish agree with him. Not that they have any idea what piranhas are.
• Playing with Fire:
  • In addition to canon characters, we have Aziza.
  • Apparently, Zia taught Nico how to throw "an acceptable fireball".
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Averted in Chapter 2 of The Death God Alliance. Anubis outright reveals to the Kanes Nico's identity, his status as demigod and how they were somehow fused together, specifically so there aren't any misunderstandings.
  • Setne warns the group that communication will be the key to solving their current problem.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Anubis at various moments. Justified, since he spent over 5000 years in Duat with hardly any contact with mortal world until Nico became his host.
• Power Incontinence: What happened to Cassandra of Troy - hosting a goddess turned her oracle powers up to eleven, attuned them to death and disaster, and made the visions impossible to ignore or stop.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Percy right before drowning Kwai:
  "What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of that whirlpool sucking you under!"
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Going all around, for both demigods and magicians. In fact, the series opens with Percy dreaming about Nico running into the Kanes.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Sadie sometimes has those, such as the time she dreamed about Nico being in danger during his infiltration mission. She probably inherited it from her mother.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Nico. And he's not afraid to turn them on Hades to get what he wants.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Anubis when Nico is fatally injured.
• Reassigned to Antarctica:
  • Literal example with Hakim and Aziza being stuck in 360th Nome for their failure to capture Nico and the Kanes.
  • Pressumably that one magician with a penguin trauma spent some time stationed there.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Nico's eyes flash red when he's really angry. When they turn red, start running.
• Relative Error: Percy mistakes the Kanes for girlfriend and boyfriend when he first meets them, much to Sadie's disgust.
• Replacement Goldfish: The reason why Nico feels uneasy about befriending Zia is because he doesn't want for her to become his mom or another Bianca.
• Reveal: Chapter 7 of The Death God Alliance: There is a prophecy concerning Nico and Anubis, which foretells them destroying the world as a Mercy Kill.
• Revive Kills Zombie: While not technically a zombie, Nico is vulnerable to Life magic. The effect is rather similar to Kryptonite's effect on Superman.
• Running Gag:
  • Shadow travelling and accidentally ending up in China.
  • Penguins.
  • Anubis calling Nico an optimist.
• Sadly Mythtaken: In-Universe. Thoth mentions that hardly anyone gets Cassandra's backstory right. ^note Apollo's never courted or cursed her. She was a princess of Troy by her father and the Blood of Pharaohs by her mother. After becoming Oracle of Delphi, she tried to host a minor Egyptian goddess and succeded. The resulting Power Incontinence driven her insane.
• Sarcastic Confession: When Thalia wonders where Sadie got a firework from, the girl's flippant reply is that she pulled it out of her magical locker in the netherworld.
• School for Scheming: The staff of the boarding school in Breaking the Gods is experimenting on demigods in effort to figure out and destroy gods' connection to mortal world.
• Screw Destiny: What Nico and Percy are hoping to do in regards to the prophecy.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Percy, Sadie, Carter, Bast and Thoth are this for Nico and Anubis.
  • Later joined by Zia, Annabeth, Thalia and Jason.
• Secret Secret-Keeper:
  • Chiron quickly figured out that Sadie and Carter were Egyptians. He just didn't see any reason to bring it up.
  • As did Leo, who also figured that Nico got hurt on his mission.
• Sequel Hook: Several in the epilogue of The Death God Alliance concerning Aziza, the prophecy and the upcoming Egyptian apocalypse.
• Ship Tease: Between Sadie and Nico.
• Shout-Out:
  • "If [Hades, Zeus, and Poseidon] weren't careful, they'd soon be wearing tights and carrying rapiers and translating "All for one, and one for all" into Greek to use as their motto."
  • In the Halloween one-shot Nico, Percy and Thalia dress up as Batman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman.
  • Sadie made the entire Brooklyn House watch the Mummy.
    Bast: Hey Beni! It looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!
• Shown Their Work: In the first chapter of Crazy Feelings, the heroes are in a middle of heist at an unnamed museum. One of the reviewers recognized it as Detroid Institute of Art and points out that the Greek /Roman collection really is displayed on the specified floor.
• Sitcom Archnemesis:
  • Anubis and Bast are this to each other. They mostly keep it to petty namecalling and one-upping each other.
  • Nico picked this dislike up from Anubis.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • When they are attacked by the House of Life, Percy is annoyed that people are ignoring him... and then mentally kicks himself for focusing on unimportant stuff during a fight.
  • In middle of a tense discussion Nico has an existential crisis... because he realized he's an Italian, not an American like he always thought.
  • Nico's reaction to learning he was stuck in Duat longer that he thought is to panic... that he didn't get Sadie anything for her birthday.
• Spit Take:
  • Percy when he sees the Kanes at the Camp Half-Blood.
  • Nico has one when he learns that Sadie may like him from Percy.
• The Stations of the Canon: The Kane Chronicles plot happens mostly the same, because Nico tries to stay in the background.
• Stealth Insult: Percy telling Bast that she's a better warrior than Ares.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Nico and Anubis both express a preference for Mythomagic and New Orleans' Madri Gras.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: The entire series subverts this trope.
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  • When they find themselves at Camp Half-Blood, Sadie and Carter let everyone think they are demigods from unknown parentage, as the Camp wouldn't take kindly to magicians.
  • Nico also decides to pass as a magician when he's at 21st Nome with Sadie and Carter's trainees.
• Symbiotic Possession: Nico and Anubis.
  • Willing Channeler: If it's necessary, Nico will let Anubis puppet his body to talk or cast spells.
• Take That!:
  • Nico has very low opinion on both Hercules and Clash of the Titans remake, mostly due to their portrayal of his father.
  • Poseidon calls Elvis "that abominable son of Apollo". Guess he wasn't impressed by the king.
• Tempting Fate: They really should know better by now.
  • In the very first chapter, we have Nico saying to Percy that the Central Park is rather quiet tonight.
    Nico: To be honest, I'm kinda bored – ah!
  • After their discussion with the leadership of House of Life, the two magicians that attacked Nico think that it could have gone worse. Cue the Furies delivering Hades' ultimatum.
  • The group wonders how hard smuggling the Kane siblings out of the camp could be.
  • Kwai boasts about his unparallel control over water... to Percy.
  • Nico shouldn't say things like that out loud:
    Nico: Next time [the Kanes] face the big snake and his minions, I'm going to be there.
• Terms of Endangerment: Aziza calls Nico "[my] pet".
• Thicker Than Water: The Olympians. They may not like each other but when Hades asks for help in retrieving his son, many of them agree instantly.
  • For that matter, Hades and Nico may not get along much, but you can't deny that the god cares about his son.
  • While Percy might not like hiding the truth of Nico's situation from Chiron or Annabeth, His Undying Loyalty towards his younger cousin is uncontested and he will protect him and side with him at all cost. And if that means hiding information or openly siding with Nico against others, he will do so in a heartbeat.
• This Means War!:
  • Hades reaction to disappearance of his son.
    Hades: There will be blood!
  • Zia's reaction to Aziza attacking Nico, too.
    Zia: Aziza! You are DEAD!
• Time Skip: Between various fanfics, ranging from couple of weeks to couple of months.
• Too Dumb to Live: Kwai decides to make comments about Percy's mom and barnyard animals. Guess how it ended.
• Trauma Button: Aziza is this to Nico, to the point he freezes at a mere mention of her name.
• A Truce While We Gawk: During Greeking Out the Romans defending and storming the fort during war games stop to stare at Jason and his friends cosplaying the King's death scene from King of Sparta movie.
• Underestimating Badassery: Nico is constantly underestimated due to his age and looks.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation/Adapted Out: In this fanfic Hades has no divine or monstrous children, only his demigods. In some mythological portrayals he has several children by Persephone.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The entire plan to stop Hades from starting a war is not explained until the group starts putting it into life.
• Unwanted Assistance: Yes, Nico is a kid. No, he doesn't need any help or, gods forbid, a babysitter. Though, it's mostly Zia and Jason who are the worst offenders.
• Victory by Endurance: What the entire siege of Brooklyn House boils down to, with a side order of My Defence Need Not Protect Me Forever:
  • The House of Life needs to tire out and overpower the defenders before they run out of combatants;
  • The trainees need to hold on until the dawn when the Kanes will return with Ra.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Hades is not sure what exactly he feels when Poseidon immediately agrees to help him retrieve Nico.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Bast was less than impressed with how the Kane siblings handled their initial interactions with Nico.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Nico hates monkeys and baboons.
  • That one magician with a penguin phobia.
    Random Magician: No more penguins! No more snow! Please! Please no!
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Hosting the spirit of Oracle of Delphi is trying at the best of times. Add a goddess to the mix and the results are catastrophic.
• Worf Effect: Not even Dionysus could cure Maya's madness after her connection to Hermes was severed.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Nico spends most of The Death God Alliance injured, exhausted, drugged up or sleep deprived and it shows. Once he gets some rest, he kicks ass.
  • Zia during Nico's Quest is barely freed from an enchanted sleep and still recovering while defending Brooklyn House. Similarly, Nico is rather sleep deprived and low on food after his trip through Duat.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Said repetedly by various people to Nico. It may be finally getting through.
• You Are Not Alone: Various people remind Nico about this many times. It seems to be slowly sticking in.
• You Are Not My Mother: Nico towards Zia. Justified, since her status as former host of Nephtys makes her overprotective towards the boy and often compromises her judgement when he is concerned.
  • Though, in her defence, she tries to suppress those impulses.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Nico says it when Percy tells him to join the team that is guarding the roof entrance during the siege.
  • Basically, Percy and Bast's reaction to Kwai's boasts.

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