Nico knocks on the office door of the infirmary. "Will! Come on, you're lateagain."
Will being late isn't unusual. Nico and William have been dating for a couple of years now, and Will sometimes gets consumed in his work as head Healer. While it can be annoying sometimes, Nico mostly finds it enduring. Will cares for people so much.
So much that he's starting medical school next school year.
Will's been pushing himself more lately, preparing for when he leaves for college. More late nights, more of Nico bringing his boyfriend coffee after dinner.
Not that Nico minds. They still find time for each other.
"William, if you're rewriting instructions for the Apollo cabinagain, you owe me a McFlurry, I swear to Zeus-" Nico opens the office door to find the room empty. "William?"
No answer.
His stomach flips uneasily. "William, this isn't funny."
When there's no answer again, Nico grabs the small dagger in his belt, silently cursing Will and his compromise about not bringing his Stygian Iron sword on dates anymore. He walks to Will's messy desk, papers and colourful sticky notes scattered about.
On top of the other papers is one that doesn't belong.
Fix my sentence.
Nico swears to himself and grabs the paper with shaking hands. The handwriting isn't familiar, but Nico has some ideas about where it came from. After all, the message was placed specifically where only Nico would find it and realize its meaning.
Cursing again, Nico takes a deep breath and materializes into shadows.
Nico appears in the darkness of the Fields of Punishment. Not usually Nico's favorite place in the underworld, with the various torturous afterlives and the screams of pain that fill the air, but today it's perfect.
Darkness radiates from the young demigod as he steps through the fields, looking for William. He passed Sisyphus, pushing his boulder up the hill until it fell back down for him to start all over. He passed Prometheus, his liver being pecked by eagles.
Everything seems to be in order.
Then he reached Tantalus' punishment site.
Tantalus' punishment is to be forever thirsty and hungry. He stands in a pool of water below the branch of a fruit tree, but can never eat or drink. He escaped once and became activities director of Camp Half-Blood when Nico was still at Westover Hall.
Where Tantalus would usually be standing is empty. And beside the small pool of water is-
"William," Nico says firmly, not letting his relief show in his voice as it flows through his body. Will is bound and his mouth is gagged with a cloth, but he screams through it in response. "Will, nod if you are okay."
A single nod.
Liar.
"Tantalus! Come out!" Nico shouts, the darkness manifesting into shadows around him, curling around his arms and legs. Nico looked around, but the ancient man didn't appear. "Come out, or I will force you to appear, Tantalus! Don't test me!"
"My, oh my! We've started with threats, have we?" Tantalus steps out from behind the fruit tree. "Why don't we start with pleasantries? 'How are you?' I'm good, thank you for asking, boy. See? It's not so hard." Tantalus stands beside William and turns to Nico.
"Stop with the bullshit, Tantalus. You'll find I'm not in the mood, strangely enough." Nico gestures to Will, keeping his facial expression carefully clear. He doesn't want Tantalus to have more leverage than he already has, or to realize just how much leverage he already owns.
Tantalus splays his hands out as if in surrender. "I just want to talk. Bringing the son of Apollo down here was simply a way to grab your attention." Tantalus sets a wrinkled hand on Will's blond head and Nico tenses automatically. "I want to be released again. I want to taste food again. I want toliveagain." He practically spits the last words.
Nico sighs inwardly. This wasn't the first time he's heard these demands from Tantalus. He's submitted several appeals to Hades, who in turn complained very loudly about it to Nico. Hades was so annoyed by the endless complaining that he gave the job to Nico, who now answers those requests. It's nothing new. Souls are always appealing for a change to their sentence, and it's always pointless. Never has Nico changed a punishment.
"Tantalus, I can't take away your punishment. Zeus commanded it and I can't go against the Lord of the Sky." Nico rolls his eyes. "You know that, Hades knows that, everyone fucking knows that. So let the demigod go and stop all this bullshit."
Tantalus purses his shriveled lips. "Bullshit," he mutters under his breath. He huffs and shakes his head. "You call this bullshit?!"
Tantalus takes his foot and kicks it into William's stomach.
Again.
And again.
Nico's heart drops and his blood runs deathly cold.
Tantalus goes to kick Will again, but a shadow grabs his leg instead. Then his other leg. Then both his arms.
In a short few seconds, Tantalus is suspended in the air by Nico's shadows, gasping for air due to a shadow hand against his throat.
"Nico," Will gasps, his gag having slipped out during the beating. He's curled in the fetal position, his hands still restrained behind his back.
"Congrats, Tantalus, your punishment just got a hell of a lot worse," Nico said coldly. Tantalus shakes from straining to speak. "I'm thinking the same setup you have here, the pond and fruit tree, but taken to the far more appropriate location of Tartarus." Nico's eyes flashed, full of pure hate. "But first I will take joy in killing you over and over again. After all, you're already in the underworld. You'll just come back and we can do our fun all over again."
Tantalus squirms as Nico takes a step forward.You're scared now,Nico thinks bitterly.
Will struggles to sit up beside the evil soul.
"Nico, please," Will begs, blood dripping out from his lips. "Please this isn't you."
"This is me, Will," Nico corrects, not even giving a side glance to the trusting blond boy. "You always just overlooked this side of me. I am The Ghost King, Prince of the Underworld, son of Hades. My duty in the underworld is to adjust eternal punishments as I see fit."
Nico takes another step towards Tantalus. "You asked for your punishment to be reviewed. I declined. You have my attention now, so let's get started. In your mortal life, you fed your own son to the gods, making you a murderer of the highest order. In your afterlife, all you do is complain because you're too much of a narcissist to realize how fucked up you are." Nico's nostrils flares and a shadow fist slammed into Tantalus' stomach.
"Nico, stop-" Will pleads.
But Nico is just getting started.
"You manage to escape to be activities director at Camp Half-Blood, causing several injuries and a death to the demigods there." Another shadow pummels into Tantalus' face. "You then kidnap Will Solace, son of Apollo, in order to lure me down here and blackmail me into changing your sentence." A dark laugh escapes Nico's lips. "And you're narcissistic enough to actually believe that would work."
Will is on his knees now, staring desperately at Nico. "Please," he's muttering. William, the healer. The one who helps people.
Well, Nico is done with helping people.
"William, he kidnapped you from the infirmary. He brought you down here, against the laws of the Underworld may I add, and hurt you." Nico's voice finally broke on his last words. "He hurt you, William, and that is not something that I will let sly."
Will shakes his head. "This isn't you, Nico. You have lightness in you, I've seen it."
It's Nico's turn to shake his head. "You saw what you wanted to see, William. I am a Prince of Darkness, master of shadows, demigod of the Underworld. In the mortal world, I can let myself relax, but down here,thisis who I am. I'm the judge of the punished souls."
Will closed his eyes and chewed on his bottom lip. "Please, Nico, I'm begging you. Let Tantalus go. I've already healed myself, I am fine. End this. Please."
Will's voice sounds so sad, almost broken. It tore Nico from his murderous thoughts.
With a snap of Nico's fingers, Tantalus, the pond, and the fruit tree teleports to the depths of Tartarus. With him gone, Nico runs to Will, kneeling beside his boyfriend.
Will flinches when Nico tries to reach for him.
"Will?" Nico whispers, not understanding. "Can I undo your hands?"
Will gives an approving nod and Nico gently unknots the rope.
Rubbing his wrists, Will avoids his eyes as he says, "Take us back to camp, Nico."
"Of course."
Seconds later, the two boys stand in the middle of the empty camp infirmary.
Nico wraps his arms around the blond boy comfortingly. "Will, what-"
Will shoves against Nico's chest. "What thehellwas that Nico?! You torture souls now? 'I will take joy in killing you over and over again.' What the gods-damnfuckwas that display?!"
Nico's arms are still outstretched. Will rejected him? "That display was me controlling the situation of your kidnapping Will. I did what I had to do.Thatis who I have to become when I go down to the Underworld to work. If I show compassion like I do in camp or with you, then the souls will misbehave and fight against me."
Tears shine in Will's eyes. "So that's who you are? That's who youtrulyare inside? That was… horrible."
Nico calms his face into careful disinterest to cover the pain in his chest. "That is part of who I am William. You just ignored it before."
Will shakes his head vehemently, backing up until he grabs the infirmary door handle. "I… I don't even know who you are." He throws open the door and runs into the sleeping camp, leaving Nico alone in the dark.
Again.