The first time he is thrown away, the sun is shining as he loses its glare. He will never find it again. He wonders if he'll ever find Will again, either. His light is lost.

But then there is someone tossed into the cell with him, and he groans in pain as a sharp knee impales him in the stomach. "Watch it," he croaks through a mouth which needs hydration.

All he can see is monochrome black, all different and all the same.

"Nico?"

He smiles for the first and last time.

"Yeah, Will."

"Son of Hades," the ghosts whisper. "Come to us… come. Your birthright."

He clutches his head.

"Come, prince of the dark… our dark…"

"No, no, no," he chants, and it is a mantra now. "no, no, no…"

And then somebody is behind him, wiping the tears he hadn't realized were on his face away and whispering soothing nothings which shouldn't help but do because… because, well, right now even nothing is worth something simply for being there for him.

"Nightmares?" he nods. "Nico… again? Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped…"

"No," he says. No no no no. "Will, I've got to face my own demons."

"What if they destroy you?" a tiny, miniscule whisper cutting through the nothing… the nothing, the no…

"They won't. They can't. I won't let that happen."

The only time they are ever let out, will ever be let out, is the day where Kronos brings them out of their little hell-hidey-hole and into the bright sun and watches their camp go up in flames.

It is a worse punishment than all the others to have to watch the light against light after all they have been seeing, all the black.

"Will," he murmurs, "are you watching?"

The child of the devil has his head in his hands, refusing to see his second home burn down. But the child of the angel is watching with interest.

"Yeah," he says. "If I don't, they win. Heroes don't go down without a fight."

Nico peeks his head up. "They don't, do they?"

Will nods and they stare at the ashes of camp long after the sun has set.

Titans won AU, but everything that happened in HoO is still there. Follow me or keep checking back at my profile to get the rest of the series (Jiper, Caleo, Frazel, etc.). Percabeth is already written.

-WGG