Last time:
"Any problems?"
Alex broke out in a grin and wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders and just as quickly let go after he felt Nico stiffen. "I like you Devil!"
"Welcome to hell as they say," Nico said, looking him straighten in the eye.
Nico was lying in bed listening to the other's breathing and snoring. He could feel the life forces of the Green Jackets approaching from the roof. Nico sat up and grabbed a couple of pills and stuck it in random spots, pockets, ring, shoe, and a little patch of latex on the inside of his mouth on the side of his cheek. He then proceeded to walk to the bathroom and started to wash his face when the first person came busting in. Nico spun around and kneed the person before yelling for the unit to wake up. He slammed his palm into the person's noses and flipped over to see the others struggling against the person holding them.
Nico, of course, ran over and punch the next person that fell down the hole in the roof.
"Seriously?!" Nico yelled. "Why the fuck did you break the roof!? Oh my fucking gods" Then after mumbling, he kicked the person sneaking up on him in the balls. "Touch me and you'll get hurt" He growled and the people behind him froze, everything went silent besides the guy whimpering on the ground. He turned around and brought his fist in his hand, a creepy smile on his face. "So who's next?"
"It's just a little boy!" Someone exclaimed and jumped at him only to have Fox's foot to his face. Nico shot a grateful look before shouting at Wolf to watch his back. He ducked under an arm and grab the wrist and twisted. He popped the joint out and flip the person over to see Fox go down with a rag over his mouth. Nico couldn't go rescue him because he was too busy trying to prevent the next person from darting him with sedatives.
Eagle was next. Alex soon went back to back with Wolf while Nico was trapped in the middle of the room with a lot of people. Three guys went under Alex's attacks and another one from Wolf while Nico was more distracted with avoiding the 7 slightly injured people trying to take him down and out for his blood.
"HE'S JUST A BOY! SHOOT HIM!" The person on the ground. Wolf fell down with a dart to the shoulder and Nico started to get nervous. He couldn't use his powers. He instead ducked and reached for his dagger in his boots but as his fingers brush the hilt, he had to roll away and kick out. Nico cursed slightly and tried again this time successful. He stood up and flipped the dagger, the people back off. Alex looked over.
"Got another?"
Nico slipped the other one out of his shoe and tossed his dagger at Alex and made the person trying to sneak up on him stop. Nico started pushing a bit of fear into the air and watched as the people paled. They got smarter and started to attack him together. Nico was overwhelmed trying to protect Alex's back and his own from darts. Alex was shot and Nico was left alone with a team that was half in pain and other half pissed. He felt something sharp in his neck and the next thing he knew, the room started spinning. He sank into oblivion.
Too late
Nico awoke to the sound of a car rumbling and the bump bump of the road. His hands were cuffed to the others and his feet zipped tied. The others were tied similarly. Nico moved his cuffed hand towards his feet and tighten the bands until it was painful. Placing the now strained band on the metal links, he brought it down hard and the cheap plastic snapped. He rubbed the blood back into his feet before shuffling over to free the ones he could reach, aka Alex and Wolf. The rest of K-Unit was still under the drug when the doors opened and the now bandaged Green Jackets looked in.
"Holy fuck!" The one who opened the door cried as Nico's foot collided into his face. He clutched his nose as blood poured from between his fingers. "I thought we tranq'ed him!?"
Nico observed the chaotic scene before him. He was quite proud of his high metabolism. Well until he got hit with another dart and woke up in a cell with the others awake.
"Well look who decided to join us" wolf sneered. Nico didn't pay attention as he broke free of the new zip ties once again. "Took a bit, couldn't even fight off the tranqs could you?"
"Shut up" was Nico's short reply.
"Excuse me? Who gave you the ri-"
"Shut up!" Nico scooted over to the wall where he could see the carefully hidden camera was and slammed his handcuffed hands into the glass to shatter the reflective harden plastic. He pulled out the useless piece of twisted metal, mindful of the broken glass, and broke off a piece. Maneuvering the sharp object, he unlocked the handcuffs (pfft, he didn't have the shadow's help) and stood up to walk over to where the others were cuffed together. He was of course thrown into the room in a totally different corner and cuffed alone. Not that that would help.
"Could you not treat me like a 10 year old?" He asked patronizing. Wolf didn't answer as he rubbed the sores on his wrist. Soon everyone but Alex was freed. He was locked, tied and gagged. Nico made quick work of the gag and cuffs but couldn't get the knots untied.
"This is going to hurt." he warned before biting the sturdy rope and pulled. Half of it was severed while the remaining half was still in place. Alex winced as he felt Nico's sharp teeth accidently nipping at his skin. "One more time"
The ropes fell off and Alex stood to stretch.
"Ooo, they better watch out. Last time we got them to fall off a cliff."
Nico snorted and proceeded to curl up into his jacket, ready to fall asleep. The talking of the others turned to murmuring as Nico slipped into a half awake stage. His mind filtered the usual and the new under dangerous or can ignore which prompted him to wake when the door flew open. He allowed the shadows to blend his shape a bit when the people looked in.
"You first"
They dragged Snake out of the room and the television behind the bullet proofed glass flicker on. Nico watched with a strange detachment as they placed a wet bag over his head and still refused to say anything but his code name. Nico didn't care about this, he had worst when Jason tried to get him to confess to Percy. A couple of minutes later, a bruised and cut up Snake was kicked back into the cell, Eagle was next. Nico sweared that Eagle's singing was worse than Solace. Same thing happen again to Fox then Wolf who got the brunt of the attacks. Alex was just hilarious.
"What is your name?"
"Don't people start with hello?"
~Slice~
"Name"
"My name is way-out-of-your-league"
Flip of his hair
~Punch~
"Let me ask again w-"
"No"
"What?"
"You said 'let me ask again' so I refused"
~Bagged~
"What is your name?"
"Don't you get tired of hearing your voice all the time? Cuz I do.
~Cut~
Alex entered back into the cell with a grin on his face. The people behind him were pissed. The door was about to be closed when someone from the back yelled "Wait, there is one more, where is he?"
Nico figured it was time to allow him to be focused upon once more. The shadows stopped blurring his outline and they grabbed him.
He was pushed into a chair and strapped in. He looked around to see the rest of the people grinning.
"Oh wookie, a whittle boy thinks he's James Bond or something"
Nico had to assume that James Bond was a soldier or something because frankly, he hadn't gotten time to catch up on the bazillion and one movies and books since he was place in the Lotus Hotel.
"We won't go easy on you. What is your name?"
"Your worst nightmare" Nico said casually. He was enjoying himself, they couldn't do worse than what he had already experience. He got a cut on his cheek for his trouble. The stinging pain wasn't that bad. Hell, Mrs. O'Leary's licks hurt more than this.
"What is your name?"
Nico glared at them. "Are you deaf? I told you it was your-worst-nightmare!"
The bag was placed over his head. He took the shadows over his mouth to drag air from outside into his lungs and took the carbon dioxide out. He stopped pretending to flail like he was passing out from oxygen deprivation but when the bag came off, he gave a creepy smile and say "Boo"
To say they jumped was an understatement. If he wasn't so close to the other guys, he would have fell flat on the floor. Nico laughed at their expense, the hollow, evil laugh that usually sent shivers down people's spines but the guy was consumed with rage, it of course only lasted a few seconds anyways but it did what is was supposed to do. The guy's hands wrapped around Nico's throat and suddenly, he couldn't breathe.
"Oh the little angel is running out of breath" Nico felt his lungs on fire, the air in the jar was too little. "No one's going to help you now"
Nico struggled to reach his seeds, a sense of hopelessness replacing his anger.
Too late
You're too late
He won't help you
Late
La-
Sleep
He struggled against the bonds and thrashed as his mind started fading when he managed to break the rope on his right foot and connect his heel with the guy's knee bone. Unfortunately, he didn't break the bone. Nico gasped for a breath, his eyes wild with fear from the flashback.
The guy dropped to the ground and clutched at his knee. He then looked at the knife in his pocket and chuckled before standing up.
"You will regret this, I'll ask one more time. Name?"
Nico couldn't speak as his windpipe decided that, yeah, it'll stay crushed for a bit longer. Nico did manage, however, to work up some saliva and spit at the guy. Of course that made him even madder and Nico knew what was going to happen next. Anger makes people make mistakes and Nico was going to take full advantage of it, even if the price was more pain.
The guy stabbed Nico in the thigh, blood pouring down the black fabric onto the cement floor where it puddled into a crimson lake as the knife almost nicked a major artery. Silence besides the manic chuckling of the interrogator and the steady dripping of blood. Then Nico's chuckled darkly, phase 2 commenced.
"You asked for my name right?" He looked up from under his fridge, his dark eyes shining with an insanity that was a feature of Hades. "Name's Devil and you're about to go to my palace."
The guy promptly fainted at Nico's maniac grin and Nico returned back to normal. He felt content and allowed a smile to spread across his face. He then turned his head to the others who looked about ready to pee their pants. "So what's next?"
They fled.
Nico slumped down and yelled after them. "At least unlock my hands so I can leave?" silence.
"Never mind" Nico said under his breath. He reached up with his fingers and picked at the clasp until the whole interlocking pieces of glistening metal broke.
"Ufff" Nico groaned as the air was knocked out of his chest when he landed. He limped over to the spot where the person fainted and relieved him of the keys and his shirt, pain shooting up his leg and burned a fiery trail up his spine. Nico wrinkled his nose at the thought of using it as a bandage but he tore it up anyways and tied it to the bleeding wound in his leg. He also took the empty rifle as a crutch. He could have probably taken a pill but that would have been too suspicious.
He found the cell, leaving a trail of bright red liquid in his wake, and unlocked the door to see the others looking at him like he was a ghost.
"You- you just-"
"Glad to see you too." Nico grumbled as his headache grew along with the lightheadedness. Too late. "Now where's the ex-" He fainted from blood loss. Too late little Angel. Snake was the one to catch him before he received a concussion to add to his wounds. They knew the way out and they took it, running past the people hiding in the corners, past the green grass that was now flecked with blood and to the infirmary.
"Wait up Bianca!" The little Nico yelled as his sister ran further away. She was giggling as she headed nearer to the cliff. "You're going to fall!"
"No I'm not you silly boy. What do you know?"
Nico frowned, slowing down as his sister stopped at the edge. Her voice grew deeper.
"What would you know? You killed remember? Or have you sunk so low in your petty crush with that horrid son of Poseidon you forgot?" She hissed.
Nico froze, he whimpered as a plane came crashing out of the sky and into Bianca. He could hear her manic laughter still.
"I didn't kill you" He whimpered before curling up in a ball, his hands over his ears. "I didn't, I didn't!"
"I know you didn't" A soft voice broke his mumbling. He looked up with tear stained eyes to see Percy offering a hand. Nico hesitantly reached out only for Percy to take his hand away, laughing cruelly. "You stupid boy. You really think someone like me would care about trash like you? You piece of filth."
Nico recoiled. He tighten in his ball. He knew it was true. Percy would never have noticed him. He knew it was a dream and tried to force himself to wake up even though he could feel the drug in his veins. Too late.
He woke up without a sound. He had to learn how to sleep and have nightmares without making noises because that was life or death in war. His heart rate, though, was a totally different matter. He winced as he shifted to sit up, his leg was finally acting up for the lack of adrenaline rushing through him. The morphine only took off the sharp edge.
Nico gently removed his IV from his arm, not wanting to get addicted to the potent drug before he licked at the patch of latex in his mouth. A corner peeled off and he was able to lick at the pill, slowly getting grains off and swallowing the Italian-ice pomegranate flavored food, he watched as the tiny cuts heal until it was barely noticeable. After he finished the pill most of them looked a couple of weeks old but he could still feel the gaping wound in his leg.
Now that the bleeding was taken care of, he could actually see the rest of his unit scattered in various stages of sleep around the room. Nico carefully pulled the white blanket back, wincing at the moment and the blood stain on the sheet, and inched his way out, careful to not disturb Eagle who was sitting next to the bed with his head on his folded arms. Nico made his way slowly to the door, leaning heavily on the door before deciding that, yeah, he needed crutches.
He limped his way to the nurse's station, no nurses or doctors present, and grabbed himself a pair before heading out the infirmary door to the outside. He sat on the steps as he watched the people train all the way on the other side of the clearing. He was suddenly hit with Deja vu.
"NICO! What the actual fuck are you doing outside!?" Will yelled when he finally spotted Nico sitting on the porch. Nico looked back before focusing on Percy's and Jason's fight with the ton of bystanders looking for free entertainment.
"Enjoying the sun"
Will became quiet and sat down next to him. "Thinking?"
"Yeah" Nico said quietly. They both sat there until the sun started setting.
"Come on, lets get you back in before you catch a cold. Hades knows we don't need a grumpy kitty on our hands."
"I'm not a cat!"
"Keep telling that to yourself, Neko."
"What does that even mean!?"
Nico was shaken out of his thoughts as yells of 'where is he?', 'How the fuck should I know?', 'How can we lose a kid' run from the building behind him. He smiled before getting up and prepared to shadow travel. Well until a hand appeared on his shoulder. He flipped out, he spun and almost landed a punch into Alex's stomach but pulled back when he recognized the other boy.
"He's right here!" Alex yelled then sat down next to Nico.
"What are you doing?"
"Thinking"
Pause
"About what?"
Nico sat there for a second and Alex began to think he wasn't answering.
"Home"
Alex looked over to see the sadness on his face.
"Hey, when training's over, you can go back. Actually maybe next week or something. Sergeant knows it'll be good for his trainers not to be beat down for once."
Nico rested his head on his arms.
"I can't" Simple and to the point.
"Why not?"
"I'm not welcomed back"
The rest of K Unit was with them now.
"Why?"
Nico sighed and stood up. He started limping away, the crutches hurting his shoulder but he needed to get away. The others watched him as he left, not taking after him, much to Nico's gratitude. He liked them and all but with their curious nature, he was not ready to deal with the questions. When he reached the edge of the training field, most of the people started staring at the red bandage around his leg and the fact that he couldn't walk properly. Over by the assault course was Green Jacket. A morbid sense of happiness bubbled in Nico's chest as he swung his way over, making sure not to hit the ground with his foot.
They didn't notice him until it was too late to run.
"Uh-oh" One of the members said before backing off a bit. The others looked at what he saw and they too back off.
"Lovely day isn't it?" Nico said casually, leaning to one side and cocking his head. The dark strands of hair covering the pale skin. His eyes were sharp and dangerous at the moment. Sensing something big about to happen, the rest of the trainees made a wider circle around them. A very wide circle.
"Oh shit" The person who stabbed Nico said, he had just recovered from the bout of insanity and fear yesterday and did not want to do it again. It took three whole days locked up in a brightly lit room.
Nico smiled, all sharp teeth and feral grins. 'Father would be so proud' Nico thought offhandedly. He came a bit closer, and a bit more, and a bit more until he could smell the salt stuck to their skin.
"Boo" He whispered and they all scattered, screaming for their lives as Nico laughed. The sergeant wasn't pleased whatsoever.
"Devil! What the hell are you doing to my soldiers? Actually, what the fuck are you doing out of the infirmary?" He yelled while coming closer. Nico shot him a long suffering look before answering.
"Just trying to talk to them, sir!" Nico rasped, his throat was still extremely sore. He rather not talk but seeing as the sergeant was asking he had too. A flicker of worry flashed across the other's face but it disappeared with the next question.
Nico could see the twitch in his eyes.
"Why aren't you in the infirmary?"
"It's boring there, sir. I have ADHD and ADD"
He looked so close to whacking himself in the head with a book. A sigh escaped his lips. "To the shooting range then. If that wound keeps bleeding, I'm sending you straight back."
"Sir!"
Nico happily set off to the range, glad he didn't have to go back to that hell hole.
'Eh, the infirmary is more like hell than the training. Ironic' He thought.
At the range, he was handed a standard sniper rifle and a chair so he could stop putting pressure on his leg. The trainer then threw small pieces of brown cardboard for Nico to hit with the gun which was harder than usually because this was a sniper rifle, not a rifle. He could probably take off the stand to do better but he was quite positive if he rested the gun on his hip for aim, the sergeant would send him back.
Nico took a deep breath, slowing his heart rate and focusing on the piece of metal in his hand. The slightly off balance, the hum of excitement, the click of the barrel. His world soon narrowed only the way holding a sniper rifle did. Him, the gun and the target. Time after time the piece of paper in his scope flutter rapidly after the twitch of his finger. The silence behind the mufflers. The sharp scent of burning gunpowder. He loved it. Not as much as his sword though but it came close. He wished he was back in the underworld where at least he could practice with his lovely blade but nope, he shouldn't even have it.
Pretty soon he ran out of clips for his rifle and switched to a pistol and magazine. Soon that was out too and the trainer tapped him on the shoulder. He removed the headset and tuned out as the trainer sang praises. He did however notice his unit going to the mess hall. Nico checked the sun and saw it well past the wall line. Well he didn't actually see the sun, just the lack of one.
Grabbing the torture devices mortals called crutches, Nico limped off to join them to eat. He was hungry and didn't know the last time he ate. When he got in line for the food, he turned up his I'm-a-precious-growing-child look, complete with the slight fluttering of his lashes and tiny bite to his bottom lip and he received the best of the slop. Well it wasn't slop this time. More like mashed potatoes and a watery gravy with imitation meat. Eh, he had obtained a second scoop of mashed potatoes that he certainly was not going to eat. Maybe bribe one of his team mates or something.
He slid down near the end of the table, a bit further away from the team then a normal person would. He hung his head low and moved slowly to avoid drawing attention to himself. He took a bite of the hot food, they heated it up for him after hearing how he just from the infirmary (not that he corrected them, it was good to have hot food again), and didn't feel the urge to throw up like usual. He swallowed the mouthful, the now-mild heat soothing the fiery burn in his throat, with great pains, his face screwing up as his bruised throat wanted to not constrict. He glared at his food once again, running his fork around to make the potatoes more watery and easier to swallow. There was no way he would be able to eat the meat.
He looked up to see Eagle trying to steal Fox and Snake's food so he scooted over and leaned over to tap Eagle's arm. He then pointed to the "meat" on his place then raised an eyebrow.
"You want me to have your food?" Eagle guessed. Nico nodded and scrapped the extra large slice onto Eagle's plate. Cries of no far erupt around the room. Mostly from the other unit.
"Devil, you need to eat. You can't afford to not."
Nico rolled his eyes and gestured to his throat and scrunched up his face. He then returned to trying to force down food.
"Well, well, well. Look who we have here?"
Nico froze. Oh crap. He turned around slowly to see J-Unit looking at him. They had just came in from a mission in Iraq.
"A little school boy who thinks he can be with the grownups. Why don't you go back to your daddy?"
Nico raised an eyebrow at them.
"What are you mute or something? Gonna go cry to your mommy that the big bad soldiers made you cry?"
Nico felt a flicker of anger that soon melted into indifference. He gave his food one last wistful look before placing his fork back down and looking the person in the eye. Blank. Completely and absolutely blank like a doll.
"Leave my family out of this" He growl, tasting blood at the back of his throat as the vibrations irritated his already inflamed throat.
The guy grinned. He knew he had gotten under the little teen's skin.
"What? Did they not want you? A big disgrace to your father?"
It hit a bit too close to home. Nico spun around and jumped in one motion, his fingers naturally going to his ring but he caught himself before it was too late. He knocked the person off their feet and raised a fist to punch him when there was a cough from behind them. Nico froze and twisted his head to see the sergeant standing there with his arms crossed.
"What are you doing Devil?"
Nico put on the most innocent face he knew, and it truly was the exemplification of an angel. "I was greeting J-Unit, sir"
He could see the sergeant trying not to grin. "No bodily injuries I hope?"
Nico almost snorted.
"Of course not sir." Then proceeded to give a rabbit punch right into the person below him's face. No marks, no redness, just instant blackout. "No bodily injuries were done"
He got off and pretended to dust off his black jeans and aviator jacket. The sergeant's face turned a bit red from trying not to ruin his tough person rep. "Devil, to my office now"
Ooo's were heard around the room Devil went off, snagging his plate of potatoes from Eagle before he could eat Nico's food. He grinned and took a bite as he followed the sergeant, his grin was a bit on the insane side, as he spotted J-Unit trying to revive their fallen member. K-Unit sat there with small smiled, even Wolf looked impressed. Alex gave him the thumbs up and then proceeded to smack Eagle for trying to take his food.
Nico arrived to the sergeant's office before the sergeant himself. He leaned casually against the door frame, in the flickering shadows as he watched the other's face. 'Surprise' he thought. He entered the door and was told to sit.
"Devil" the sergeant started.
"Yessir?" Nico replied, still the embodiment of perfect.
"Call me Dragon" the sergeant said. He looked at Nico for the longest time. "I don't know what to do with you"
Nico frowned but before he could object, Dragon continued to talk.
"You surpass all expectation, you follow orders… minimally but your social skills are… lacking" he blew a mouthful of air out and rested his elbows on the table. "Work on it okay Devil?"
Nico nodded and got up to leave but as he was almost out the door, Dragon called out. "Oh and go call your family, they should be proud to have you"
To whom it applied to: What I do with Nico will build later. Shush child, you'll see. Also this is centered around 3rd Person POV limited. So Alex won't be awesome until later when Nico starts bonding. No worries, it will all turn out okay
