A/N For the last two days I've had this song by The Killers in my head. I've now decided that if I write something based on the song, it might stop pestering me... Can you guess the song?
Oh, and there is probably a happy ending.
Nico was dying, and Will couldn't do a thing.
The boy had appeared outside the infirmary - literally appeared, from the shadows - covered in wounds, and with a fang sticking out of his arm. He was only semi conscious.
Nico was dying.
Will had seen him appear and sprinted away from the patient he was supposed to be looking at - a minor burn from a joint Hephaestus-Ares project - to drag him inside, where he'd deposited the other boy on an empty bed.
Nico was dying.
Having cleaned and bandaged all his wounds but the fang, Will had been feeling optimistic enough to start scolding the Italian for not taking more care. It had been a mistake. When he pulled the tooth out, the inside of the cut was a nasty green. What was worse, he could track the poison through Nico's veins with the naked eye.
Will couldn't do a thing.
This was Will's worst nightmare. The boy he loved had been poisoned. Even as he dashed for the antidote store, he knew it was no good. The kind of venom coursing through Nico's body was chimera venom, and there was no cure.
Will couldn't do anything.
By the time he returned to the pale boy's side, the venom had spread past his shoulder and across his chest. He picked up the first of the antidotes - he was going to use every single one of them, he was going to make them work - but Nico stopped him.
"Will... Don't." A spasm of pain crossed his face.
"No! Nico- you're not dying- I won't let you die!"
A tear spilled onto his cheek and he brushed it away abruptly.
Nico smiled slightly. It was a regretful smile, full of sorrow.
"You'll still have- pictures. Memories." He gasped for breath. The green tendrils were working their way up his neck and towards his heart.
"I don't- I don't want pictures! Or memories!" Will's voice broke. "I want you, Nico. Here. With me. Not- Not alone in the world of the-" He couldn't say it.
Nico sighed. "I don't want to go either..." He winced. "But I have to. I-"
The poison reached his heart. He took a great shuddering breath, and lay still.
Immediately, creeping black roots emerged from the shadows. They converged on a point by Nico's prone form, and for a second, Will thought he could see a face, but then both the dark figure, and Nico, were gone.
"No! No! Nico- NICO!" Someone rushed in to the room and saw Will, curled into a ball on the now empty hospital bed, his shoulders shuddering, a wail of pain emanating from his distraught form.
"Will. Will, it's OK, come on, come here..."
Will had a vague feeling of hands lifting him up and carrying him away, of a flash of gold hair, and then he sank into a dreamless oblivion.
When he awoke the next morning - in his bunk in the cabin - he at first couldn't remember why he felt so empty. Then he remembered.
Nico was dead.
He curled into a ball and stared at the wall. And stared. And thought. And stared.
And then he remembered the figure that had taken Nico.
Hades.
Will sat up. He grabbed some food, a light dagger, Nico's sword, and a jumper, shoved them into his backpack, and marched of.
He was going to bring Nico back.
The gate to the underworld opened easily at one of his whistles. He hadn't brought and instrument, and didn't feel like singing, and so he took it as a good omen that even the most horrible of noises could be used as music at the gate of Orpheus.
Cerberus ignored him, as did the furies and the judges at the table. They could sense his misery, and understood that he'd rather stay down here for eternity that leave empty handed.
The doors to Hades' palace opened easily. When the skeleton guards looked at him, he told them what he wanted.
"Take me to Nico." His voice was dull, empty, and the light that shone from his eyes was dim.
They took him to a stone door and left him.
The door creaked as he opened it. He didn't know how long he had been in the underworld. Time didn't really have any meaning down here, and nothing had any meaning on the over world for him now.
"Will?" He could have cried with relief. His hunch had been right: Hades had taken Nico and saved him, given him a place in his castle.
"Nico! I found you!" Will grinned. "Quick, come with me. I can take you home!"
Nico's expression didn't change, and Will felt his smile droop.
"Nico?"
"This is my home now, Will. I can't- I can't come with you."
Will felt suddenly angry. "Who says?! I'm taking you back with me!"
Nico shook his head, and Will saw that his eyes were gleaming with unshed tears.
"That's the law of this place, I'm afraid. Sorry, Will." He sniffed.
"There has to be some way, Nico! I'm not leaving without you!" Will's voice was rising.
Nico stayed quiet for a moment, clearly thinking. Then he shook his head. "No. There is only one way I can think of, and I won't let you do it."
"You won't have a choice! Tell me, Nico!"
Nico looked away. "No. It's too dangerous, and it would mean giving up your life, and I couldn't let you do that."
"NO! Listen here, Death Boy," both Will and Nico winced, it was a poor choice of words, "I travelled down here to bring you back, and nothing is going to stop me from doing just that! Now tell me what to do!" He was shouting now.
Nico sighed. "Fine. You have to sign your life over to me. You have to become one of my possessions. See? I won't let you do that!"
Will glared. "Does it involve my death? Would I become one of those skeletons?"
The shorter boy looked shocked. "NO! You'd just... be yourself. Only, I would have control over you. I'd be able to make you take me away from here, like it's a trip."
"Doesn't sound too bad to me."
"You don't understand! If I was in danger, you would jump in front of me- you wouldn't have a choice! I won't let you die for me!"
"I'll do that anyway. Nico, let me do this for you. I've already failed you once, and if I do die, we'll both be down here, together. Please, Nico!"
Nico looked unconvinced. "Will, it would be best if you just... You have memories and-"
"I don't want your memories! I don't want your pictures, Nico! I want to be with you! Now let me give you my soul!"
Nico burst into tears. Momentarily confused, Will looked at him, and then gave him the biggest hug he could manage.
"Nico. Take my soul. It's yours anyway."
When Will emerged from the underworld, Nico in tow, he was startled to find half of the camp about to charge into Orpheus' doorway.
Nico glanced at him, and he explained in an undertone and the two boys were dragged back to camp, fussed over, and yelled at by what seemed to be half the world.
"When I left to get you, I left a not saying where I'd gone, and that I probably wouldn't come back."
Nico half laughed, half glared. "You shouldn't have done it..."
"I did it, I meant it, and I'd do it again for you, Nico."
"And I'm glad you did, Will."
So? What do you think? I'm sorry that it's so weird, and that the part after Nico's death is so weak. Did you guess the song?
It was 'Here with me' by The Killers. I think I've exorcised it from my head now... Thanks for reading!
~Fi
(BookFiend)