Disclaimer: I don't the characters, they belong to Rick Riordan. I don't own the plot, it belongs to MBC. I just joined them for fun.

Episode 15: Part 3

While doing the promised dishes, Nico couldn't keep thinking about the recent conversation with Apollo.

~FLASHBACK~

Nico was keeping Apollo while Will was cooking and apparently, he had something to tell him.

"In any case, you and I... can't go together." Apollo had surprised him uttering those words.

"Pardon?" Nico asked him, confused.

"If you are a happy ending, I'm a sad ending." Apollo told him, not even looking at him. "If I'm a happy ending, you'll be a sad ending." Nico said nothing, letting him talk. "Look at this hand. It's normal, right?" It was indeed a normal hand but that was not the normal Apollo was talking and Nico knew it. "Why do you think it's so normal? It's because I killed a person." Nico showed his surprise but it was minimum. "This morning, I killed a nurse and escaped. That's why I'm in one piece. You understand?" Nico kept staring at him in silence. "Now, I- I can't go back. If I stop doing bad things, I'll become extinct." Apollo reasoned to him, showing his sorrow. "Even if I go back, I can't live. I'm too tarnished. I killed dozens of people with these hands. I possess all the memories. I killed a person with my own hands too. This morning." What Nico found more surprising of all was the easiness and conviction of his words.

He was mentally prepared for this.

"I will not get out of here." Apollo insisted. "I can't go out. How could I? While looking at Will's face will I be able to live?" His face finally showed some emotion. He was ashamed. "My life has already ended... a year ago." Nico didn't know what to say, especially when he asked for his hand. "Before the happy ending, please let me die here. I ask of you." What?! "Inside the manhwa, bury me."

"How could you say those-" He couldn't even finish his deny. "I can't do that."

"Do as I say." Apollo begged him.

"I can't." Nico recognized.

"Please do as I say." Apollo told him one more time.

"It's absolutely impossible. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

~FLASHBACK~

There had to be a way out.

But he needed it now.

While all this was happening, Zeus Olympia was returning to the warehouse.

He had a new guest his men had been taken care of. As soon as he walked in, his full attention to the man brutally beaten on the chair.

"Where is Nico di Angelo?" He asked the beaten and bleeding figure of Percy Jackson.

"It seems like he really doesn't know." One of his men that was in the room replied, honestly. "There has been no response even after the medication."

"What about Will Solace?" Zeus insisted on Percy. But Percy was in no condition to even realize he was being talked to. Not that Zeus cared. "Cellphone." He demanded to his men who handed it to him. "How do you contact Nico di Angelo?" He showed him the cellphone and, when got no reply, smacked him across the face, more blood coming out of his mouth.

He will get it eventually.

Nico was still trying to solve his dilemma when his phone received a message.

Who... Percy. Imagining his cousin wanted to warn him about something, he read the text, only to get the surprise of his life.

'Nico di Angelo, don't we have things left to talk about? Call Percy Jackson. Right now.'

Zeus... Nico connected the dots immediately and took advantage that Will was coming out of his father's room to tell him. Though he beat him to talk first.

"Are you going somewhere?" Will sounded confused as to why he'd go out.

"I will go make a call." Nico admitted to him. "It's dangerous to be tracked down so lock the doors and stay here." He warned him before leaving the house and Will, who had more questions than answers.

Once out of the house, Nico got into the car and drove a considerable distance between him and the safehouse before making the call.

"Hello." Percy's voice answered the phone and he sounded out of air.

"Cousin? Where are you?" Nico asked him, worried. However, another voice took over for Percy.

"Hello? It's been a long time." Nico closed his eyes as soon as he recognized Zeus' voice over the phone.

"What on earth are you doing now?" He tried to level his voice and sound calm though he was raging in anger. "Aren't you a presidential candidate? A trashy gangster who holds a civilian hostage plans on being president? Is the USA going mad?"

"It is true that the country is going mad." Zeus agreed with him. "A criminal condemned to capital punishment proudly escaped from the court and is roaming around the streets. "In order to live, I caught one hostage. I was afraid you'll stick a needle into my neck." He kept talking. "It's obvious that you'll attack me in revenge. I need to live but there's no way. Hey, Nico di Angelo. Don't do anything foolish. If you do anything to me then your friend would die first." He threatened him and Nico knew he was serious about it. "I shouldn't have turned you over to the police a year ago." Zeus regretted. "I let you live because I thought you really didn't have it. But you had it. Come here. You know the place where we met last time, right? We have things left to talk about. You didn't answer my questions back then. We should start talking about that. You... Will Solace, Orcus- No. Is it Apollo Solace? And that object, I am curious about so many things. Come until 11. There's only one hour left. Come with the tablet. If you're late for even one minute, you know what will happen, right?"

With that, the call was over.

Will had become impatient since Nico left.

Knowing that pacing around wouldn't help, he couldn't think of anything else to do until he saw the tablet. He decided to use both his time and the tablet wisely and began drawing.

"What are you doing?" Apollo mumbled after a while, evidently, waking up.

"You're awake?" Will checked when he heard him talking.

"What are you doing?" Apollo repeated, looking at him.

"I want to draw before that person comes." Will answered him before going back to the tablet.

"What drawing?" Apollo insisted but Will gave him a side answer.

"Because I want to get out of here fast. This place is hell, Dad." He recognized, still drawing. "We need to get out of here as soon as possible. "In the last episode, there was a scene of Zeus Olympia torturing Nico. I want to draw that scene into the CCTV, and I think if that clip is reported to the police then this would get resolved quickly." Will explained his reasoning. "First we need to put Zeus Olympia in prison so that we can have a happy ending."

He continued to draw, ignoring that his father wasn't there anymore.

Nico returned quickly to the safe house only to find a problem with himself.

His hand was disappearing... again.

Is because I'm not acting like a hero again...? He tried not to think about that and he never imagined that, inside the safehouse, would have the perfect excuse for it.

"Die! Die!" The shouts evidently came from Apollo but Nico doubted that he was himself at the moment. He rushed into the house and to the room not without hearing Will scream first.

"Dad!" The image of Will being choked by his own father on the floor only made him snap back into action, grabbing Apollo's hand and pulling them away from Will's neck. That action alone was enough to get Apollo on his back and Nico straddled him to contain him while his hands kept Apollo's at his chest.

"Apollo!" Nico shouted at him to make him react but Apollo- more accurate would be to say that Orcus -struggled against him before glancing at Will, who had slid away, coughing and holding his neck. "Are you alright?" It was obvious Will was in shock because he only stared at him, incredulous of what had happened. Nico kept pressing Apollo against the floor until he relented a bit and passed out. "Pass me the rope, Will." He asked, panting. He hated doing this but had to.

Nico tied Apollo's hands and dragged him to bed, where he tied the rest of the rope as tension. It didn't take long for Apollo to notice that he was tied up again.

"What did I do?" Nico noticed how his father's first words almost made him cry, so he placed a hand on his shoulder for support.

"You didn't do anything." Will lied to him. Well, technically is not a lie since it was Orcus and not Apollo...

"Why is your neck like that?" Apollo noticed the redness on Will's neck even when he tried to hide it. "I did something to you, right?" It was heartbreaking seeing the scene but Nico knew he was there for moral support only.

"No, you didn't." Will insisted.

"I told you." Apollo spoke and Nico knew he was talking to him. "I am a monster. Do as I say. Please." He begged him. Nico refused to answer, especially in front of Will but Will was more preoccupied with his father.

"Dad, your hand..."

Apollo was disappearing.

Nico knew he was running out of time.

His hand was flickering again but this time, he didn't have time to hide it from Will.

"What's wrong with you?" He walked to him and held his hand in his. "Why is your hand-? I thought you said it was alright while you were in prison?" He recalled and Nico nodded, serious.

"I didn't fulfill my punishment then escaped and left my friend who is about to die."

"Who... is dying?" Will wanted to know and Nico saw no other way.

"My cousin Percy has been kidnapped by Zeus Olympia." Nico told him, surprising him. "He threatened me to bring the tablet. There are 40 minutes to his deadline. And also..." Did he dare to say it...? "Your father... killed a person."

"What did you say?" Will repeated, properly shocked.

"The police are coming here right now." Nico explained to him. "They will find this house soon." Nico could see Will's mind moving to search for an answer, so Nico sat him down to discuss the situation.

"I was drawing a video of Zeus Olympia. Let's hand that over to the police first." He suggested. "We can distribute it through email. And let's report the place where Percy is held. He can get caught there. After that-"

"Not now." Nico interrupted him.

"Why?"

"If it becomes the happy ending like that, you father will cease to exist."

"What did you say?" Evidently, that was not the reason Will expected to hear.

"My happy ending is the sad ending for the culprit." Nico elaborated, clearly shocking Will. "So the problem right now is when it ends, whatever the ending is, your father and me... one of us will not be by your side." Properly scared, Nico gave the final blow. "One will either die or disappear."

"Alright, new plan." Despite the shock, Nico was surprised by Will's acting. Not surprising, he was a doctor. "If they're coming we either leave or block the entrance."

"Too late for leaving. But eliminating the entrance is an option." Without waiting for approval, Will headed back to the master room and Nico didn't need to be a genius to know what he was doing. Quickly, the windows and outside doors became blocked... as if they had never existed. "We haven't missed a spot?"

"No." Nico acknowledged before asking him something. "Can we talk?"

"Of course." Then, Nico grabbed his hand and took him back to the dining room and sat him there before taking the opposite seat. "What about it?"

"We can't hold out too long. They will somehow find a way to tear down and enter." Nico began, seriously. "And we only have thirty minutes left to save my cousin." He gently grabbed his hand again and kept it between his. "Now we must decide what kind of ending is it going to be."

"What kind of ending?" Will repeated and to his immense surprise, Nico pulled out his ring, placing it on the table, before doing the same to his. "Why are you doing this? What are you doing? Why did you take off the rings?" Will ranted, not sure he followed. "What are you trying to do?" Nico simply kept staring at him.

"For a son to die in order for a father to avoid being extinct, that's too cruel. That shouldn't happen. We divorce. You are free now. And you are safe regardless of the ending." Now, it was Will's turn to stare at him. "You make the decision, from now on, what kind of ending you want to create."

"And what about you?" Will managed to ask.

"I will follow your decision."