I AM SO, SO, SORRY ABOUT THE LATE UPDATE.

For some reason, I had like, 0% inspiration for this chapter. I knew what would happen (I have a plan) but for some reason I just couldn't manage to type it out.

Not to mention, something happened with the Internet and it didn't save, so I had to type a lot of it all over again. Don't worry, though,-my goal is to finish this story by the end of December! Hopefully I will!

Also, here's a funny story of something that happened while writing this: Turns out, I wrote 'The only light behind from the rafters above' last chapter...without first finding out what a rafter was. Epic fail, I know. It just sounded good.

Turns out rafters are the beams that support a roof,-which meant I either had to a) go back and edit that 'cause it interfered with my escape plan, or b) think of a new escape plan.

I'm actually writing this 5 seconds after I found that out, so I haven't decided yet. On one hand, I'm too lazy to edit. On the other land, I'm too lazy to think of something else. On the third hand, I am too lazy to think about this right now.

I made up my mind,-I edited the rafters part. I would have had to change it anyways, it interferes with the plot. Having rafters in my setting is kind of impossible...


Will's POV:

This was, hands down, the most exciting week Will had ever had (Though he probably shouldn't use the word 'exciting'. That made it sound like it had been fun. The reality was more like: crazy, weird, and terrifying).

First, he'd gotten a job at Half-Blood Hospital.

Then, he discovered his patient was Nico di Angelo...who seemed bent on his life being living hell.

Next, Chiron had woken him up in the middle of a night to ask him to help search for Nico.

After that, his mom had discovered he'd been lying and he got into big trouble, though he'd learned more about Nico in the process.

And of course, who could forgot Nico getting the note, running off, and getting himself kidnapped?

All those events led up to Will being taken himself, which led to trying to escape.

If someone had told me a week ago that this would all happen, I'd have never believed them, Will thought, grimacing. Okay, not all of it had been bad- such as meeting Nico, er, he meant Nico and his friends- but the rest? Horrible. Why couldn't he and Nico have met in normal circumstances?

"Remember the plan?" Nico asked him. Will admired how Nico kept his calm so easily. If he was nervous, he wasn't showing it. Most people would have been bawling their eyes out by now. Will half felt like vomiting himself. But Nico kept his emotions in check and put the important things first. He took this whole, 'Gaea is using me as bait to attract my cousin' thing in a stride.

"Yup," Will said. Nico had been drilling it into him for the past three hours already, though Will didn't blame him. According to Nico, they only had one shot, since after one try it would be harder.

Will had told Nico his suspicion -that their captors were holding them underground. During the talk one of the burly dudes had mentioned the possibility of escape, but Arachne had shot the idea down, saying there was no way they could navigate the tunnels. And who had aboveground tunnels?

Nico had brushed off the news. Apparently, he was great at underground navigation, for some reason, so it wasn't a problem. But Will felt uneasy. He had a sneaking suspicion that there was something important that they were missing...

"Good," Nico's voice brought Will back from Theoryland and into reality. "Okay. Then lets start it."

Step One of the plan: Locate the exit.

That was already half-way done, thanks to Will, since he'd been conscious (well, sort of) when they'd brought him in, so he knew there was a hidden door disguised as part of the wall (What was this, some action movie?) though he'd forgotten which part.

Even if they had known, however, there were still more obstacles in their way. Mainly the fact that the door was locked, because what kind of kidnapper would leave the door open?

An amateur one, maybe. And this Gaea lady already proved she was no amateur.

Which brought them to Step Two.

Will was particularly proud of step two, mainly because he'd thought of it. Both of them agreed to the fact that they'd have to get the kidnappers to open the door somehow. And since Nico seemed to be the most valuable of the two, he was going to have to pretend to be sick.

Starting now.

To his credit, Nico was an amazing actor. He didn't pretend to be randomly hit with a sudden case of something and faint. He started slow- first coughing, than sneezing, than sitting down and not talking much like he didn't feel well. Will played his part, asking if he was okay in a concerned voice (Though Nico's acting was so good he almostreally was concerned).

Finally, Will pretended to have a breakdown and started screaming bloody murder. "He's going to die, he's going to die, he's going to die! Why is no one doing anything! Somebody! Anybody! Please help!"

At first, he felt kind of stupid, since it looked like he was talking to no one, but he continued ranting anyways, determined to make this work.

"He's sick, I tell you, sick! I should know, I'm a nurse! I can't believe you guys are doing nothing, your prisoner here that's about to die, and yet-"

Suddenly, a part of the wall slammed open and someone poked their head out of the door. "Gods! SHUT UP!"

Awkward silence.

The guard's eyes slowly widened, just realizing he made a stupid, absolutely dreadful mistake, but before he could do anything about it, Nico lunged at him and tackled him to the floor.

The whole thing was so quick Will barely registered it. Who would have suspected that Nico could be such a fighter? Especially against someone practically half his size. But somehow Nico was managing to hold his own, though only barely. The guard punched Nico in the stomach, causing Nico to retaliate by kicking the gun out of the man's hands.

The gun skidded across the floor and stopped...right in front of Will.

"Pick it up!" Nico yelled, trying desperately to hold the guard down, who was now struggling harder than ever before. "Hurry!"

Jolting to action, Will stooped and snatched the weapon up. Once the gun was in his hands, however, Will hesitated. What was he supposed to do, shoot the man? As much as Will disliked him, that seemed cruel. Besides, he was a healer, not a fighter. Will left that sort of thing to other people.

He brought the handle (A/N: Not sure what it's called, searched it up but didn't get a good answer. Basically, the part of the gun that you hold. That's hard, isn't it?) down to the man's head. Hard. The guard kneeled over and flopped onto the floor, unconscious.

Well, it was better than killing him, right?

"As impressive as that was, I think we really need to get going," Nico said tightly. He had gotten up from the floor where he and the guard had been wrestling a moment before. "Who knows how long we have before they discover we're gone?"

Will nodded, and followed Nico down the hallway.


Turns out, they barely had two minutes.

Nico had been leading the way, which Will was glad about. It wasn't like he was incompetent with directions or anything, but in an unknown territory, with no map? Useless, even if he had been semi-conscious when he'd been dragged here. Everything looked the same to him.

Nico, on the other hand, appeared as if he'd been in this situation a thousand times before, no even hesitating at intersections before plunging down one lane. He moved like a shadow, sleek and silent. It was thanks to this that they'd gotten quite far in such a short amount of time. Will just hoped they'd actually gotten closer to the exit instead of farther away from it.

"How much farther?" Will gasped.

"I don't know and shut up."

"What?"

"They might hear us," Nico explained, still running.

"I HEAR THEM! EVERYONE, THIS WAY!"

Nico said something very impolite. "Screw that, just run faster!"

Will picked up the pace, cursing his luck under his breath. His side throbbed -he'd never been much of the exercising type, and now he had a cramp. Nico, on the other hand, hadn't slowed one bit, which made Will determined to keep up. He wasn't going to drag Nico down, he wouldn't be the weak link.

Nico made another turn, and the sight of a door at the end of it made Will's hopes soar. Could that be...?

"The exit," Nico breathed, eyes wide with awe. Then they narrowed. "They're catching up!"

Footsteps echoed behind them, obviously guards in pursuit. Will seriously wished that they would trip and knock themselves out, even though that was highly unlikely. "Have to...run faster."

"I know," Nico said, trying to move his legs quicker. "Wait, what is that?"

"Huh?" Will tried to make out what Nico was looking at. In front of the door seemed to have a sign of some sort, though Will couldn't make out the writing. "What does it say?"

"I can't see from here." Neither could Will.

As they got closer, though, Will was able to make out the writing. The sign, which in addition to being covered with cartoon vegetables with smiling faces (Creepy, Will thought) had the words, 'Priapus's Fresh Vegetables and Other Garden Produce'. In other words, it was a sign advertising the local supermarket, the one that had been robbed earlier.

They're keeping us in the basement of the grocer's?

Will imagined the criminals being smuggled here in crates. Some of them were so big, it would be surprising if they hadn't forged the robbery just so they could have enough empty boxes for them.

Will froze for a second, and then kept moving, his mind scrambling to grasp something. An idea was forming in the back of his head, and if it was correct...

"Nico," Will said, "I need you to do me a favour."

"What?" Nico snapped, annoyed. "Why are you asking me this now of all times? Escape first, and then the favour!"

"No!" Will insisted. "We won't escape like this, they're catching up too fast. Nico, I need you to go hold them off."

"What?" Will winced inside, knowing what Nico was thinking -that he wanted Nico to sacrifice himself like Bianca sacrificed hers, that Will wanted Nico to die so that he could live. That Will was betraying him.

"Please," Will said, wishing with all his might that Nico would obey. "I can't explain now, we don't have the time! I'm not going to abandon you, so please, just please, trust me!"

One second passed. Two. Will prayed that Nico would listen, would believe him. Finally, when he'd just about given up hope, Nico suddenly reversed directions so that he began running to where the guards were. "You better make this up to me!"

"I will!" Will hollered back, not daring to slow. The door was so close now. Just a little bit farther...

He reached the door.

Will's hands shot out toward the handle. To his surprise, it turned easily. No lock. Huh, maybe Gaea wasn't such an expert after all. Could she have been over cocky?

He didn't linger on that long, though. Nico could only delay their kidnappers so long, he had to hurry.

Spinning around, Will desperately searched for a paper and pencil. In his hurry to stop Nico from coming here, he'd left the note from Gaea on the tabletop. If Nico's cousins had discovered his absence by now, surely they would have found it, right? And if they found the note, then they would hopefully come here. Hopefully.

And if they came, then they definitely needed to know what Will had discovered so that they could contact the police.

Unfortunately, there were no pencils in sight, and no paper, either. However, Will spotted a bucket of chalk that some kid had left on the pavement. That would work.

Kneeling down, Will used the chalk to quickly scribble a message in Morse Code. Once done, he dropped the chalk and dusted his hands off. He'd barely gotten the last bits off before the door slammed open and a bunch of burly dudes came out, eyes lighting up when they saw him. "There he is! Seize him!"

Two men grabbed Will's arms as he struggled to free himself. He didn't really have a chance, but if Will didn't do something, they would get suspicious. Another man stuffed a gag into Will's mouth to stop him from screaming, and then got a weird look in his eyes.

"Hey, what's that on the ground?"

Will's heart sped up. Please don't erase it, please don't erase it...

"Probably just some dumb doodles a kid made," The tallest one said dismissively. He seemed to be the leader. "No more stupid questions, Polybotes. Now come on, Gaea's waiting. She'll be happy to hear that the brats didn't escape. Now, move."

Will was dragged along with the people as they yanked him roughly down the hallway. He didn't dare look back, scared that the action would give the men a tip that the things on the ground weren't just 'dumb doodles'. His part was over. Now all that was left to do was to wait.

And hope that against all odds, Nico's friends would find it.


VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ: How would all of you feel if I decided to write a story from another series? Just asking. All my stories so far are either Percy Jackson or Kane Chronicles, and for a while now I wanted to write something from the anime Hetalia-Axis Powers (It's amazing, go check it out). But I know some people don't like it when an author writes things from multiple series, so I just wanted to ask your opinion.

LAST EDITED: 08/21/15