The Styx- a river that washed away your humanity.

Nico watched as Percy lowered himself into the river. Immediately, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he crumpled into the water. The black waters pummeled at his body, and although he knew it would protect Percy, watching the boy in pain caused Nico's heart to convulse. For once, in the river Percy wasn't at home, a powerful demigod able to complete heroic tasks. In the Styx, he was more a corpse.

After betraying Percy, Nico already felt like shit; somehow, Percy forgiving him so easily, trusting him with those wide eyes- that burned. He almost wanted Percy to be angry at him, to tell him how undeserving he was of their friendship, so he could finally move on, and hate Percy. Hate the boy for what he had put Nico through, years of longing and self-loathing, of disgust and self-pity.

As if Nico could hate him.

He watched Percy shudder in the water, and his lips moved. Something was wrong, Nico was sure of it. In the pale darkness of the Underworld's caves, Percy's ghost shimmered right next to him, with deadened eyes.

There was nothing he could do, though. Percy had chosen to go into the Styx and talk to Achilles, and he would need a chain to hold on. Nico watched sadly as Percy muttered Annabeth, over, and over again, his lips tracing the name as if it were a goddess.

Nico turned to leave. There was no need for him to be here anymore; he had made his contribution to the world, by giving Percy the opportunity to become an invincible hero. It wasn't as if Percy cared about him anyways.

"Annabeth!"

His voice sounded so fragile in the air, as if he was barely clinging onto life with the thinnest of threads. Nico gritted his teeth. What did Percy do to deserve any sympathy from him? He had all but murdered Bianca, and caused Nico so much more pain than he had ever experienced. There was no logical reason- he wouldn't be loved anyways, it was his curse.

But Percy, his heart pled. As if there were somehow a tiny chance that Percy would recognize him, and even fall in love with him. Ridiculous.

And yet, like always, his heart somehow won, and Nico found himself staring at the river.

Percy was almost in the center, and it was as if his entire essence was coming apart. If he were drawn with graphite, the river was smudging him into a cascade of blurred lines, barely outlining the shape of a teenage boy.

Percy's eyes opened, staring into space. His lips were still muttering Annabeth's name, as if she were some goddess that could save him. His eyes were tinted with a dull green, and Nico could see the irises begin to fade into that dull black, so characteristic of the dead in the Underworld.

He jumped without thinking, and recoiled instantly when he touched the Styx. A wave of images jumped out at him- his mother's laughter before lightning shook the building, the last time he'd seen Bianca, and they pummeled him mercilessly.

The pain was indescribable. It wasn't like a normal pain, which would eventually dull into a throb, then an ache, then eventually disappear. No, it felt as if his blood itself was the poison, and that it was eating him from the inside out. His thoughts were becoming blurred- why was he even in the river? Wasn't it too early for a swim? Mom wouldn't even be home yet; did Bianca take him to the pool?

He felt his hand grab onto something, and his vision cleared.

It was Percy, unconsciously drifting out. His mind immediately focused again, on the present, and he gripped Percy's hand even tighter, pulling the hero back towards the shore.

Every step felt like his bones were shattered, and jammed into each other at obtuse angles. In his arms, Percy cuddled closer to Nico's chest, and he wished that they could just stay like that. That he could just the Styx wash them away, and that Percy would love him.

"Annabeth," he mewed, and Nico shook his head, snapping out of the delusion.

There was a war upstairs, and he had a duty to help Percy, not to take advantage of him. He dragged the demigod onto the shore, not stopping until he was panting and the sharp stones beneath his feet were a welcome change.

Percy's eyes slowly changed color, growing in hue, until they returned to their original state. He looked up at Nico, almost dazed.

"Annabeth?"

Nico smiled, and stroked his cheek softly. The pain of the Styx had long left his body; instead, it was replaced with a dulled pain, one that thumped in his chest. He guessed it might be his heart.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain." That was Annabeth's nickname for Percy, and Nico smiled softly when Percy blushed at his words.

Percy smiled, and closed his eyes. The hallucinations would wear off soon, wouldn't they? And then what would happen to Nico? No one would ever hear of how he saved Percy, of how he, not Annabeth, was the one who brought the hero of Olympus out of Hell.

No one would ever know, including Percy.


"You did what?"

Percy grinned sheepishly. He, Annabeth, and a few other campers stood guard outside the Empire State Building, looking out. Nico gazed, unnoticed, from the shadows above.

"I went into the Styx, so I'm basically Superman now."

Annabeth smiled at him while jokingly swatting at his cheek. "How did you survive, oh mighty Superman?"

Percy scrunched his eyes, and a blush crept onto his cheeks. Nico stared with dull, black eyes, devoid of color.

"The thought of you, Wise Girl."

A/N: Short and salty. I'll try to update this thing more- the next few chapters are especially depressing, and I'm so excited! (Does that make me a sadist though?)