A single flickering bulb hung over the table, leaving the edges of the room encased in shadows. Nico stared it as he struggled back into consciousness, watching the light blur into focus.
"Gods," he sighed, once he was finally coherent enough to make sense of his surroundings. He was in a chair, handcuffed to an old wooden table. The only way out of the concrete cell he was chained in was a metal door. A metal door with no handle, to be specific.
He pulled at the cuffs experimentally and then winced. Pain shot up his arm, reminding Nico of his injury. He glanced down to see if the scratches were infected, and was surprised to find that someone had cleaned and bandaged the wound. That was good news, at least. His captors, whoever they were, seemed to care at least a little bit about his health. That was more than could be said for pretty much any monster Nico had ever had the pleasure of being imprisoned by.
"I wouldn't try to get out of those cuffs if I were you." Nico had a brief flash of panic before he located the speaker. In his initial scan of the room he hadn't noticed anyone, and he knew for a fact the door had not opened at any point. His gaze finally settled on a red headed woman, and his blood ran cold.
At first glance she seemed like a normal person, easy to take out in a fight and not a threat. But Nico's senses screamed at him that she was dangerous, and the intelligent glint in her eye made him believe that instinct.
"Who are you?" he blurted out, slightly nervous. He didn't feel his sword or knives, as they probably had been confiscated by whoever was holding him. He was highly aware that that left him at a distinct disadvantage if a fight broke out.
"That's the question we all seem to be wondering today." Her voice wasn't hostile, but she somehow still made Nico's adrenalin spike. "Actually, I would appreciate it if you answered that particular question for me." That time her tone wasn't so pleasant.
"My dad told me not to share personal information with strangers." Nico knew that he shouldn't provoke her, but he couldn't resist. He had no idea who the person standing in the shadows was, yet she was threatening him. He might be less prideful than his father, but he was not going to take that lying down.
Perhaps for the better his unsatisfactory response didn't faze the mysterious woman. "Then I guess it's fortunate we're not here to talk about you," she replied coolly.
Nico blinked. Based on the situation he had expected her to push harder, even if she didn't really want that information. "Then why don't you let me go?" he tried.
In response, the woman Nico decided to call Red stepped forward to the table and opened a thin file. She pulled out a photograph and pushed it over toward Nico. "Because you are going to tell me," she tapped a finger on the picture, "about her."
A grainy picture of Hecate stared up at him, and Nico felt his stomach sink. He should have known that was coming, he should have been prepared. That was one topic he would never give his captors information on. He looked up and plastered a confused expression across his face. "What?"
The red headed woman's expression remained blank, and Nico hoped he had fooled her. "Tell me about her," she repeated, nodding to the picture.
"Um… she looks about twenty eight?" Nico tried, purposely misunderstanding the request. Red stared at him, impassive. After a minute of silence he broke. "Look, I don't know her. Can I go?"
Red leaned forward across the table and locked eyes with Nico. "I think you do know her. I also think it's in your best interest to cooperate with my request." He let out a short bark of laughter. He had heard that one before.
"I see you don't believe me," she said. "Perhaps I should explain something to you. Currently, you are not my enemy. She is my enemy. However, if you were to aid her in any way, such as keep her secrets, then you might also find yourself my enemy. I imagine that would be quite uncomfortable for you, as you are locked up where it is very easy for me to… talk… with you.
"I'm only going to ask you one more time before I consider us on opposite sides of this conflict. Tell me what you know about this woman."
Nico weighed his options. He knew that if he didn't divulge anything he would be in a very bad position. He didn't doubt that the person in front of him could make him regret not cooperating, even if he had really known nothing. But at the same time, he didn't know what she would do with the information he was handing over. She could try to join Hecate, which wouldn't be good. Or she might try to kill Hecate, which would end badly for everyone involved.
He decided to take the smaller risk and give away some information, even though he would no longer be able to pretend he didn't know anything. "Her name… her name is Hecate."
Red leaned back. Nico could tell that even though she appeared to be relaxed, she was still on guard. She looked at him steadily, not speaking, and once again Nico broke the uncomfortable silence.
"I don't know anything else. I've just heard people talk-"
"Nico Di Angelo," she interrupted. He gaped at her, completely blindsided. How did she know his last name? No one but Hecate and himself knew that in this universe. It wasn't possible.
"I know many things, and I am not easily tricked. I know that you know more than most about Hecate. I know that there are no records of you until roughly a month ago, which is about the same time she showed up. I know that Hecate hates you, and I know that your goal is to take her down. I also know that you are fairly smart. So don't act stupid. Tell me what you know."
"Why should I?" Nico hissed, suddenly furious. Red knew too much about him, and he knew nothing about her. He was weaponless, held captive, and being threatened. He was being repetitively asked to spill secrets about the person who had taken care of him for years, and he knew so little about the situation he didn't even know the morally right thing to do. He was frustrated, slightly scared, and highly annoyed.
Red stared at him, silent as he fumed. She was looking at him intently, and Nico got the uncomfortable feeling he was being judged. Abruptly she strode over to him, and Nico tensed for the blow that was sure to come.
He looked at her in confusion when she started unlocking his handcuffs, carefully avoiding his injury. She pulled him up by his good arm and strode over to the door. She put her hand on the metal, and the door swung open, revealing a dim, small, and dirty passageway. "What are you doing?" Nico asked, but she didn't answer. She gestured for him to follow her, and Nico slowly walked behind her.
The place was obviously underground and underfunded. Nico glanced at the wet stone walls in disgust and wondered what he had stumbled upon. Perhaps some secret society of vigilantes? As if hearing his thoughts the woman glanced back at him and smirked. "It doesn't look like much, does it?"
Nico didn't reply, sure that anything he could have said would have been either a blatant lie or offensive. The place was frankly gross. Coming from a demigod, that was saying something. So when they eventually came to an elevator, he felt perfectly justified when he hesitated before getting in. If the elevator was like everything else he had seen here, it would break while they were in it, sending them tumbling to their deaths. If it worked at all, that is.
"Coming?" That one word was designed to taunt him. He gritted his teeth and stepped forward into the deathtrap, ignoring the new smirk she sent his way. As the elevator began its perilous journey down, the woman finally introduced herself.
"My name is Natasha Romanoff. And this," she said when the doors opened, gesturing grandly, "is SHIELD."
Nico's eyes widened. If he hadn't seen Olympus, his jaw would have dropped. He barely noticed when Natasha grabbed his shoulder and propelled him forward out of the elevator.
People in expensive suits hurried past, carrying holographic screens and tablets. A giant eagle spread its stone wings in the middle of the airy room, and high tech computers buzzed every direction Nico looked. It was like stepping into the future. What really got him, though, was the window.
They were at least 30 stories up, probably higher. But the elevator had traveled down. "I thought we were underground," he managed to get out.
"That's to confuse prisoners. We make them think they're underground, so if they manage to escape they go up. Which, of course, gets them caught again."
Nico had so many questions he couldn't sort through them all, but he managed to pick one to verbalize. "Why are you showing me this?"
Natasha started walking again as she spoke. Nico hurried to catch up to her.
"You asked why you should tell me about Hecate, and I know you asked for the right reason. So, I decided to show you. SHIELD is an American agency that deals with… unusual threats to the public. Hecate falls among that category of threats. When you fought with her, you showed a desire to stop what she is doing. That desire coincides with our objective. Unfortunately, we weren't sure we could trust you, hence the interrogation. But now that you know who we are and what we do, perhaps you would be willing to tell me more about Hecate."
Nico nodded, overwhelmed. If these people were trained to fight beings like Hecate, it wouldn't be a bad decision to team up with them. He ignored the twinge of guilt in his chest at the thought of betraying the goddess, and reminded himself that she did need to be stopped. He focused on the dozens of questions of swirling in his head to distract himself.
Natasha stopped in front of a door and knocked. "Come in," a gruff voice answered, and she opened the door.
"Agent Romanoff and Di Angelo. Good," the same voice said.
Nico almost cracked up when he saw who was speaking. The dark man was wearing an eye patch coupled with a leather trench coat. He looked like a classic villain from some old movie. Nico's amusement faded when the man turned to scan him. He suddenly got the same vibe Natasha had been giving off earlier, and the demigod realized that whoever this person was, he was not to be crossed.
"Director, Nico has information on Hecate," Natasha said, giving Nico a look. Nico computed the word "Director" and all of a sudden understood the feeling he was getting. The person in front of him was in charge of SHIELD, which made him very dangerous. It was just his luck to get pulled into another universe after two consecutive wars and meet one of the most dangerous people in said universe. Actually, he corrected himself, it was just his cousin's luck. This seemed like something Percy would get into.
An awkward silence descended on the room, pulling Nico out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw that both the Director and Natasha were waiting for him to say something, so he coughed and began.
"Well, Hecate has some… special abilities."
"I gathered that." Nico started at the dry humor, incredulous that either of the people before him would say such a thing. Neither had any expression of amusement on their face indicating that they were the one to interrupt, so Nico shook his head and continued.
"You could categorize them into two things, really. Witchcraft and necromancy."
This time it was obviously Natasha that interrupted. "Necromancy? Like, summoning the dead and controlling them?" Nico winced. That had always been a sore spot with his father.
"Pretty much," he replied.
"Why hasn't she used that yet? From what you've said, she's only utilized the "witchcraft" category of her powers," the Director asked.
This part Nico wasn't entirely sure about, but he gave them his best guest. "Hecate hasn't recovered enough from the univ-" he cut himself off. There were some things he was not going to tell these people, and the fact that Hecate had transported them from a different universe was one of those things. "She isn't at full strength. Necromancy is difficult at the best of times, but right now she's weak. That's why she's trying to gather so many followers. The more she has, the stronger she gets. Right now she can only do the more harmless spells, but when she achieves full strength you can expect her to summon skeleton warriors and ghosts."
He paused to let the two mortals absorb that for a minute. "Do you know why Hecate is doing this at all?" Natasha asked. "Why is she attacking us?"
"You will suffer as your world crumbles," Python hissed. Nico pulled himself out of the memory and lied. "I don't know," he said, although he knew that the real reason was revenge. She wanted to make him watch as innocents died, and only after many were dead would she finally kill him. In a sick way, it was payback for making Python watch as Gaia was killed.
"Wait, wait, wait," a new voice interrupted. Nico whipped around, hand going to where his sword would have been. "Did you say that right now she can only do the more harmless spells? Are you saying the attacks will get worse?"
Nico had to give himself a moment before responding. The man behind him had somehow slipped into the room without Nico knowing, which was disturbing. As a demigod he was supposed to have advanced reflexes.
"Yeah. What she's been doing is nothing compared to what she is capable of," he responded.
The new man nodded, swore serenely at the new information, and stuck out a hand to introduce himself. "Cole Bayard, pleased to meet you."
Natasha raised an eyebrow at Cole. Nico barely had time to wonder about that before Cole changed his mind. "Just kidding," he said, "my name's Clint Barton." They shook hands, and Clint walked over to Natasha's side.
"What else can you tell us about Hecate?" Clint inquired.
"She's not going to trust people easily." Nico continued. "When she gets more followers she'll choose a few to keep close and help her run everything, but the master plans she'll keep close to her chest.
"There are two people she will trust, however. Hound and Polecat."
"Skunk?" Clint asked incredulously. Nico was starting to get the feeling he was the least professional of all the SHIELD operatives in the room.
"Don't call Polecat that unless you're trying to provoke her. She'll get angry if anyone calls her skunk." Nico knew that from personal experience. That had been a serious mistake. He had smelled for days.
"Do you want to discuss animal names all day?" The Director asked, annoyed.
Nico cleared his throat and started again. "Anyways, Hound and Polecat are her familiars. They can shape shift between their human form and animal form, and Hecate trusts them greatly. The three are emotionally connected, so if you could get one to change sides, which is doubtful, then you would weaken the other two."
The Director nodded and began to speak, changing the subject abruptly. "On another subject, Nico, you need a place to stay. We have bunks in the west wing that Agent Barton will show you to. One of those will be your room where you will stay until Hecate is dealt with. You are free to explore that section of the building, but please don't leave it. You are our only source of information on Hecate, and it would be bad for everyone if you were to go missing." There was a subtle threat in there, but Nico didn't pay attention. He was already trying to find a way to escape. There was no way he was going to stay in this government building.
Leaving would have to wait until later, however. Clint was pulling him toward the door, and he would need to know more about the building before breaking out.
Nico was able to learn a lot about the layout of the building in the next few minutes. The Director's office was in the east wing, so Barton had to take him all the way across SHIELD's headquarters. He made note of the general layout of the corridors, but got distracted and didn't pay as much attention as he had originally planned.
Several times they passed advanced glass labs that struck Nico's interest. He was by no means a son of Athena, but he glimpsed several things that would intrigue anyone. Regrettably, each time he paused to look Clint would tell him to hurry up.
"Are you enjoying this?" Nico asked after the fifth time he was pulled away. A smirk tugged at the corners of Clint's mouth, and he shrugged innocently.
"Most of that stuff is classified," he replied, dodging the question. The amusement in his tone gave away the real answer though. Nico scowled.
"Hey! Legolas!" Nico turned around to find who had said that, and was surprised to recognize Tony Stark. He had been in this universe for a very short time, but even he knew about the billionaire. Nico briefly wondered what the man would be doing at SHIELD, but upon reflection he realized that between Iron Man and his technological genius it would probably be more weird if he wasn't involved with the organization.
"Stark." Barton's greeting was anything but warm.
Tony smirked. "You wound me with your lack of affection. I think I'm going to go and cry," he stated sarcastically. Clint rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless.
Tony noticed Nico hovering in the background and strutted over to the teen, still talking. "Who's this, Katniss? If Fury's started kidnapping kids, I'll have to report him to the government."
"I'm Nico," the demigod muttered at the ground. He wasn't social on the best of days, and today he had met more people than he wanted to in a month. Unfortunately, the genius didn't seem annoyed by the curt answer, and draped an arm across Nico's shoulders. Nico had to fight the urge to punch the man.
"And what's a kid like you doing here?" Tony asked. "I hope they're not recruiting you." His expression was light and joking, but his voice held more seriousness. Nico suddenly understood that despite the joking front the man put on, he did have a strong set of morals that he wouldn't hesitate to defend.
Clint seemed to catch on to the billionaire's thought process. "Relax, Tony. The kid's just going to stay here for a little bit until a threat passes. We're not going to send him on a mission or anything."
Tony relaxed a minuscule amount, but his expression became affronted. "Stay here? Stay here? Are there even proper showers in this building? Or beds? He's going to look like a cave man by the end of the week!"
"We have rooms specifically for this purpose, Tony. Many people have stayed here before," Clint said, suddenly sounding wary. Tony snorted.
"Yeah, except this time the person staying over night isn't a prisoner. You stay here. I'm going to have a word with old Nicky. Wait, no. I don't trust you won't run off."
Tony grabbed a handful of Nico's shirt and moved to do the same to Clint. At Clint's glare, he shrugged and started to pull the son of Hades into one of the glass labs. Clint grudgingly followed along behind.
"Hey! You in the blue shirt. No, you, not you," Tony said, pointing to a woman who was studying a large crystal diligently. When she looked up, he continued. "Keep an eye on these two, alright? Don't let them leave. I should be back soon to deal with them. If not, I want my gravestone to be expensive. Got it?" She nodded once and immediately looked back down at her work. Clint and Nico could have left right then and she wouldn't have noticed.
Tony sighed. "You two. Stay put, okay? Or I'll die your bow pink." The last part was directed toward Clint, who just arched an eyebrow.
Tony disappeared, and after a while Nico wandered closer to the woman who was supposed to be watching him. The crystal she was studying enticed him, called to him. He ignored the warning glare sent his way and extended his good arm to brush the hard, clear surface.
As his fingers touched the crystal something like electricity jolted up his fingers, arcing through his body. He stumbled back, numbness creeping through his limbs, and he didn't even realize he was on the floor until Clint's face appeared above him, speaking rapidly. His words sounded jumbled and foreign, but after a few seconds Nico managed to make them out.
"Are you okay? Nico, answer me. What's wrong?" Clint's voice was calm, but an undercurrent of concern leaked through.
A few more seconds passed before Nico could reply. "I'm fine," he said, and it wasn't even a lie. The numbness had faded, and he felt like nothing had happened. He pushed himself up and leaned against a wall. Clint looked at him disbelievingly, so Nico repeated himself. "I'm fine, seriously."
Clint frowned but let the matter drop, and the woman who had been studying the gem rushed to apologize. "I'm so sorry. It's never done that before. If I had known I wouldn't have let you touch it-"
"It's okay," Nico interrupted, and she smiled sheepishly. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Tony walked back in the door.
"Pack a bag, Robin Hood. And get your girlfriend to do the same," he said triumphantly.
"Nat is not my girlfriend, Tony," Clint said, annoyed.
"And De Nile is not just a river in Egypt, my friend. By the way, who said anything about our resident spider? I could have been talking about anyone," Tony observed.
Nico ignored that to pick out the more important part of Tony's first sentence. "Pack a bag?" he inquired.
"Yep," the genius said, popping the p. "I've convinced Fury to not hold you prisoner here, as I can provide a suitably secure housing arrangement. Unfortunately, spy number one and two have to tag along, as Fury gets paranoid when he doesn't have eyes everywhere. While, I say paranoid, but I really mean more paranoid," Tony paused, annoyed. "I'm forgetting something. What am I forgetting?" He spun around, looking for help. "Oh! I remember. Here are you freaky archaic weapons." Nico was tossed a bundle of cloth, and when he opened it he saw his sword and knives.
Nico didn't know how the man had convinced the Director to let him go, or why he had even bothered to help Nico in the first place, but he wasn't complaining. After all, calling an entire floor of Stark Tower his was satisfying.
When he got back to camp, he would so make the Stoll brothers jealous.
A/N: Okay, first things first. Thank you SO MUCH for the amazing reviews. They really helped encourage me, and I can't thank you people enough for taking the time to do that.
Secondly: I'm not sure I should keep this chapter. I have re-written it multiple times, and I'm still not satisfied with this one. If people actually make it through the muddle of words and review saying they want me to re-do it, I will. I fully recognize that I shouldn't post things if I feel this way about them, but to be honest I kind of got tired writing this over and over and over. An honest review saying that I need to do it again, however, would motivate me to attempt it once more.
Also, I'm so sorry! First I was on vacation, and then I was at camp, so I had barely any time to write. Hence the two week wait.
And finally. PATIENCE. I know it's painful seeing Nico powerless. It's like spider-man 2. But if you just have a little patience… you won't even need much… I promise.