*Next Day*
Percy was talking to Chiron when they received the Iris message.
"Where is my son?" demanded Hades, Lord of the Dead.
They started to explain, when another Iris message appeared, this one from Poseidon, quite worried about his daughter.
Both gods said that they couldn't sense the missing demigods. If two of the Big Three, and their fathers, no less, didn't know where they were...
*I am a line break*
The torture was repeated, this time for longer. Nico could only watch as the girl he secretly loved was put through such agony, and slowly lure the monsters out of their camp to destroy them one by one, slowly thinning out their ranks, unable to Iris message for help.
*Third Day*
Chiron decided that Percy had fretted enough, and gently told him to go teach swordfighting, promising to call him immediately if anything came up.
*I am a line break*
Nico had thinned the monsters' numbers enough that he could rescue Ciella. He charged into the encampment, mowing down anything that got in his way.
He open the cage and cut Ciella free, lowering her to the ground. Feeding her some of the ambrosia he had, he picked her up and carried her to the edge of the camp, hushing her attempts to say something. Nico leaned her against a sand dune as he cast his gaze around for shadows dark enough to travel through as gently and easily as possible. Yes, in other words, high quality shadows. The quality totally affects the travel.
Hearing movement behind him, the son of Hades whipped around, only to see an arrow heading straight for his chest, already too close to evade. His eyes widened in shock, then horror, as Ciella jumped in front of him, taking the arrow in her side.
His rage grew until it could no longer be contained. He destroyed the final monster, the fiend that had shot the arrow, then rushed back to Ciella's side.
"Why did you take that arrow for me?" he asked softly, cradling her head.
"We couldn't have you going to your father permanently, now could we," the daughter of Poseidon rasped. She had also secretly loved Nico, and lightly brushed her lips against his as darkness claimed her, possibly for good.
Shaking with anger, fear, and worry, Nico shadow-traveled them to the Camp Half-Blood infirmary. Before reeling over from exhaustion, he saw the concerned faces of the healers from the Apollo cabin.