Nico couldn't find the words to describe what he went through.

"It was- I don't- difficult. Hopeless. Alone. It's like there was no point in trying, I was doomed to stay in there forever. But… I made it out." He tried to avoid thinking back to his time in Tartarus, it brought back too many bad memories. He very nearly went insane while he was in there.

Will stared at him, mouth agape. He shouldn't have said anything, he was probably freaking Will out.

"It wasn't that bad, I'm probably just overreacting." He tried to downplay it to calm Will down, but Will wasn't buying it.

"Are you kidding me? You literally went through the worst part of hell. It's a miracle that you're here." Will looked at him with what seemed like a mix of adoration, concern, and… fear.

Of course, any chance he had with Will would be gone now. "Eh, it wasn't that bad. Percy and Annabeth did it too. So, about that monster slash undead king that escaped from Tartarus? Any idea how we defeat him?"

"Well, I have a few." Will hesitated, momentarily lost in thought. He continued after a bit, "Just so you know, we totally don't have to do this, and don't even think about doing anything that could harm you and definitely not anything that could cause any permanent damage but I think that maybe since he's so huge and we're so tiny if you raised enough of the undead it could drag the monster back into the Tartarus gap thing in the infirmary before it closes but please please please don't do anything to get yourself killed."

Will said it so fast, it was like he didn't want Nico to understand. But Nico had a lot of experience with fast talkers, credit to his overly enthusiastic ten-year-old self, and understood every word. Which made it pretty clear why Will didn't want him to hear. But Will had to stop protecting him, Nico was perfectly willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the camp. He never thought he would say it, but it was starting to feel like home. And it was definitely worth a lot more to him then, well… himself. "Let's do it."

Will gave him an unsure look, "Are you absolutely sure you can do this without hurting yourself. I don't want you to tire yourself out. If we do this, we have to wait until the very last second so that you have as much time to recover as possible."

"I feel completely energized, I'm fine." Nico lied through his teeth.

"I'm going to go ask Chiron how long he thinks we have before that gap completely closes." Will still didn't look completely convinced. He gave Nico one last worried glance before walking away.

After Nico was sure Will had left, he tried to get up, which he managed, barely. His legs were shaking as he walked laps around the room, but he didn't want to stop. He felt so useless, with all his fainting spells. After all this time he should be stronger, and he didn't think he had fully recovered from carrying that huge statue across the world.

Even when his legs started to burn, he didn't want to stop. He couldn't sit back down on that bed, he wouldn't. He just kept walking, in fact, it felt rather therapeutic. Well, it was numbing, at least. There wasn't any space in his head except to think about the pain he was feeling in his legs.

After he couldn't take it anymore, and he began to feel light-headed he collapsed, since the only thing worse than stopping would be fainting again. He didn't need to add on to Will's worries. Nico was a child of the Big Three, and of all of them, Hades. So, doing dangerous shit kind of came with the job description, but Will, he deserved to live his life in peace. He only just realized he had been getting odd stares from the people around him. How long had he been walking? He looked at the wall mounted nearby, and realized nearly half an hour had passed. He got so lost in thinking, or rather, not, that he lost track of the time. Well, that explained the weird looks, to them it probably just seemed like he had been pacing furiously without a word for the last 30 minutes. The other healer kid who worked there, Augustus, or something? That's what Mr. D called her, so it probably wasn't right. But, whoever he was, he walked up to Nico like he was about to question Nico's sanity.

"I'm fine."

"Bu-"

"I'm fine." NIco gave him a glare that would've silenced anybody, but it just made—Aiden? —more annoyed.

"No, you are not fine. I swear to the gods, if you don't shut up and get some rest I will call Will back in here. I think you already know how he gets."

Nico gaped at him, and, without saying a word, flopped back onto his bed. He wasn't sure he was going to get any sleep, but at least it would get him off Nico's back.

"Good. I will be checking on you."

"Are all Apollo kids this stubborn?" Nico shot.

He turned back at Nico, looking offended, "Excuse me, don't stereotype us. But yes. Believe or not, you're not the only one with a death wish in here. You're not special. Now, I have some things to do so get some fucking sleep." He continued, a little quieter, but loud enough that Nico could still hear him. "If I don't get you to rest Will is going to murder me. He seems very determined for you to not die, if only you shared some of that determination."

Nico didn't bother to respond, rolling onto his stomach and burying his face in his pillow. Unfortunately, his relaxation was short lived. Hazel barged in, looking alarmed. "There you are! Are you okay? Have you been getting enough sleep? Please tell me you're not overworking yourself to death." So maybe it wasn't just Will who was worried. He was starting to think they might have a point.

"Right here. Yes, yes, and yes. How are you still here? Don't you have training? Or, like, some kind of all-powerful Roman badass duties to attend to?"

"As a matter of fact I do," Hazel didn't even bring up the fact that he swore, usually she took every opportunity to reprimand him for his 'dirty mouth.' She must've been really worried if she managed to ignore that. "They're called making sure my brother isn't dead."

She looked ready to lecture him, but thankfully, before it got to that, Will came back.

"Chiron thinks that it might work, and said that we have a week and a half for the pit to close. But, because the king is so huge, for it to work, we'd have to get it done in a week."

Nico was going to respond, but Hazel was faster. "For what to work?"

"The plan to get Salmoneus, you know, the evil monster guy we met in the forest?" Will paused just long enough for Hazel to nod, "Yeah, the plan to get him back into the pit to Tartarus."

"Which is…?"

Nico knew what was going to happen, and he knew he couldn't prevent it.

"The wonderful Nico is going to raise an army of the undead to drag the king back to Tartarus. I checked with Chiron, even though he's been essentially dead, he shouldn't be able to take control of them or do anything like that." Will tried to sound confident for Hazel, but Nico detected a slight quiver in his voice.

It took about half a second before Hazel exploded. "NICO IS GOING TO DO WHAT?" She began to pace frantically muttering about how 'that's sure to get him killed', and 'what the hell is Will thinking?'. Will opened his mouth to speak, but Nico silenced him with a look. It was best to let Hazel get it all out of her system. She was normally a calm person, but the thought of Nico in danger sent her into ballistics. And she only got more protective after the war was over. However, it looked like her common sense was taking back and she slowed down.

She stalked up to Will, glaring at him, even though he was a whole head taller than her. "If he gets hurt I will kill you." She stormed out without waiting for Will to respond.

"Wow… that was… wow. And I thought I was worried about you. Are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this. I'm sure there are plenty of other demigods who could go out there and face him. Demigods with more experience in battle."

"I'm fine. Either way, we both know how this works. It has to be us, plus, I'm plenty experienced in battle. I fought in the army against Gaea and I raised a huge army of the dead to fight in the Second Titan War."

"There have to be some exceptions though. What happens if we just refuse to do it. The gods would have to enlist someone else to kill him, wouldn't they?"

Nico laughed bitterly, "Maybe they would, if only they cared about us."