A/N: Sup guys! I know, early chapter, how awesome am I? Just kidding, I'm actually procrastinating on studying by writing instead, but whatever, as long as I'm being productive!
(That was sarcasm if you didn't notice. I'm not actually that cheerful)
This one isn't as long as the last one, but after this we should get into their journey a little bit more. More fight scenes coming up for sure! If you have any suggestions for any monsters that you'd like to see them run into, please PM me. I'm open to all suggestions.
Hope you like it! And as always, please review!
When the water hit, Nico felt like he had been hit by a truck. It was freezing, and the cold seeped into his body right down to his bones. But he didn't really have time to focus on that as as soon as the water hit, the whispering tones of the river invaded his mind, and he was thrown back into his own memories.
Nico had been walking for what felt like forever. It didn't help that there wasn't exactly much 'scenery' in the Underworld. Everywhere he looked was the same, but at least now he was out of the Fields of Asphodel. He was at the very edge of his father's domain, somewhere that he had never really explored before, but he was determined to continue on. He could feel them. The Doors of Death seemed to radiate their own sort of power, and even though he had never seen them before, he knew what it was that he was feeling.
He was getting close, the tugging in the pit of his stomach seemed to grow stronger, and Nico began to walk through the gravelly terrain faster.
Suddenly, a fog descended on the area around him. It wasn't normal fog, he could tell that much at least. But he didn't know what it was or if it was dangerous. It was a dark slate grey and seemed to suck the already minimal light out of everything around him. It clung to his body and clothes far more than normal fog would, and even though he didn't know what it was, he did know one thing: he had to get out of here.
So he stumbled forward faster, far faster than he normally would have walked when exploring a new area, especially in the Underworld, but he was desperate to escape the fog. He could feel it doing something to his body, his skin looked even paler than usual, yellow even, even dark circles formed under his eyes, his lips turned blue and his cheeks sunk in. He looked just like a walking corpse, and he didn't like it one bit.
Finally, he came across a cave. The incessant pull in his gut that he had been following on his search for the Doors seemed to grow the strongest here, and he saw that there was no fog within the cave, so he stumbled forward.
A tingling on the back of his neck kept insisting that something was wrong here, that the doors should have been more heavily guarded, they should have been more obvious, but, like an idiot, he ignored it.
He was quite far into the cave when he began to hear the dark chantings of the pit and feel the dark energy and smell the blood that emanated from there. It was then that he realised what was going on, but it was then that it was too late.
The entire pit inhaled, he clawed and screamed and fought but he was no match for it, it was too strong and he was pulled over the edge.
He fell into the never ending darkness of the pit, his heart filled with fear, all by himself.
Nico was jolted out of his memories and remembered his own words to the others before they fell into the water. He floundered around in his own brain for something that made him truly happy, but the voices of the river spoke in his ear louder, drowning out his own thoughts with their whisperings of misery.
All alone. All alone. Nobody ever wanted you. Nobody ever needed you. Waste of space.
Tears streamed from his eyes and he was thrust back into another memory.
All he remembered was seeing two hulking figures above him before he was knocked out and put into his prison. He could tell that he was out of Tartarus, but he wasn't so sure that wherever he was now was much better. In fact, he knew that it wasn't much better.
He was stuck in what appeared to be a giant jar. It was barely large enough to hold him, and it was certainly not large enough to contain enough oxygen to allow him to survive for the 5 days that he overheard the giants saying he would be stuck in there for.
He had given up trying to break the jar a while ago in favour of conserving oxygen, but he knew that no matter what he did, there wasn't enough.
His pockets seemed to weigh heavier as more options for survival were cast aside.
"The seeds…", his mind whispered. But he didn't want to use those. They were his last option, one that he could only use if he had no choice. "What do you think is happening now?", his mind scolded.
He could feel his breath coming shorter now, there wasn't much oxygen left.
With shaky hands, he reached into his pocket and laid out his pomegranate seeds. He only had five. His hands shook violently as he picked the first one up and brought it closer to his mouth.
As soon as he ate this, as soon as he was in this state, he would be completely vulnerable. He wouldn't be able to do anything to fight or protect himself.
"I'm sorry guys. I love you Hazel".
Those were his last words before he popped the seed into his mouth and his world went dark.
He thrashed around even more wildly this time. He needed to breathe, he needed to focus. He could feel his soul dissolving into the river, he was letting go. Memory after memory flashed through his mind and he could only scream and cry out at each one because they hurt. Having to go through such things and know that you don't and never will belong hurt.
But then he felt something next to him jolt his leg. One of the others, he could feel their presences leaving as they were able to escape from the river. One by one they found something in their lives that made them happy enough to escape the whisperings of the Cocytus. And one by one they left him, just like everybody else in his life has.
Another memory flashed behind his eyes.
He groaned as he came to. His left eye cracked open, and then his right before they both shut again to shut out the bright sunlight that filtered through the window. He tried again to open his eyes, and this time he found that he was just barely able to.
He pushed his hands against the bed beneath him and pushed back so that he back was resting against the headboard of the bed so he could look around.
His head pounded, and his throat felt like the Sahara Desert. Spotting a glass of water on the bedside table, he snatched it up and gulped it down greedily. He immediately felt better, and that's when he was able to finally realise just where he was.
The infirmary.
"Well at least that explains the overabundance of sunlight", his brain thought. He never kept the shades in his cabin open.
Someone had taken his shirt off and had connected him to some sort of machine that was set up next to him and made steady beeping sounds.
"That's a heart rate monitor".
He jumped half way out of his skin.
He turned around and came face to face with… Will Solace.
Oh Hades no. (sorry dad).
He blushed red at there proximity, and then blushed a brighter red when he realised his shirt was still off and Will could see all of the scars that decorated his upper body.
"Um… Why am I here?".
Smooth… Real smooth.
Will just ignored his question and answered with one of his own.
"Nico, how many times do I have to tell you not to do any more of that Underworldy stuff? It drains you too much, you almost started to fade again!", Will said, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.
Nico was confused. Was that… concern on Will's face. Why would Will care about him?
"Um… sorry…?", it came out as more of a question than a response, and Will just shook his head at him.
"Well sorry isn't going to cut it. It looks like you're just going to have to stay here in the infirmary with the on-call doctor for the next three days for observation".
Nico groaned. "Who's the on-call doctor".
"Me of course!", he replied, smiling brightly.
Nico felt his cheeks heat up again under the brilliance of that smile. Skeletal butterflies fluttered around in his stomach, and the beeping on the machine next to him got faster.
"I think… I'd be okay with that", he answered in a small voice.
Will smiled another one of his radiant smiles, and handed him a flask of nectar.
"Great! Now then, drink up!".
A warm feeling filled his body from head to toe, and the whisperings in his ear from the river grew softer and less insistent.
"Don't worry… I've got you… It's all going to be okay now… Shhh".
Will's comforting voice drifted through his mind, and Nico could feel his essence stop draining away from him. The world around him came into focus, and with it, he heard the sounds of his friends from the bank.
"Where's Nico?".
"Oh gods…".
"NICO!".
'That was his sister, Hazel, somebody who loves him, somebody who's worth fighting for because they believe that he is worth fighting for. Somebody who would fall apart if he died', he reminded himself.
He began to struggle again, trying to break through the surface, trying the fight against the strength of the current that was trying to hold him down.
His sister's cries and the warm feeling from his memories of, his now boyfriend, Will combined to give him strength, and he felt himself break the surface.
He crawled out of the water and gulped in huge breaths of air that burned like acid as they went down, but provided him with much needed air nonetheless. His head pounded, his vision and hearing were beginning to tunnel, and the glass rocks that made up the shore were digging into his skin, drawing blood in some places.
He heard voices from farther down the shore behind where he was now laying on his side.
"Where is he?", he heard Hazel ask, a bit of hysteria making its way into her voice. "He should be out by now. The rest of us crawled out ten minutes ago".
He could hear the sound of scuffling feet and could only assume that the rest of the quest members were walking along the shore looking for him. He wanted to cry out and let them know that he was there, that he had beat the river and the he was fine. But he was too weak to move, too weak to cry out, too weak to do anything more than lay there. Fighting the river had taken everything he had, and now he wanted nothing more than to just go to sleep.
He heard wings beating through the air, and a flash of gold glinted in his field of vision while a wave of cold passed over him. Percy and Xavier were both in the air, using their wings to get a higher vantage point to look for him.
"Hazel, we might have to begin to consider the possibility that—", Annabeth started, but Hazel cut her off.
"NO! He's strong enough. I know he is, I know he can push them away! He's going to come out, I believe in him we just have to wait for a little bit longer".
"Hey guys! Over here!", Xavier called.
A wave of warm air washed over him, and he smiled slightly, it reminded him of the warm sunlight in the infirmary. It was the only time he would ever admit that he might actually like the sun.
The sound of running footsteps made their way towards him, and he could feel warm hands roll him over so that he was on his back and looking up. Xavier was hovering over him, and the faces of all of his friends soon joined him as they ran over to him.
"Oh gods, what's wrong with him?", Hazel asked. His eyes locked onto hers and a tear formed in his eye.
"He started to dissolve but the process was stopped by something, probably a happy memory that he remembered in time to save himself", Percy's voice spoke from where he was standing above him. "Does anybody have any ambrosia or nectar, he needs energy, the river literally stole everything he had".
Annabeth nodded and fumbled with something in her bag before an entire square was thrust into his mouth. Normally that would be too much, but right now he felt like he needed it, and the others must have thought so too, because he ate the entire thing.
Immediately warm and energy washed over him, and he gasped for air much more deeply than the shallow, barely-noticeable breaths he had been taking earlier. He jolted upright, and then cried out in pain as the sharp glass of the banks cut into his skin.
"Nico!", he was immediately enveloped in a hug by Hazel's small form, and he hugged her back tightly. Tears were running down her face, and Nico even had a few of his own that escaped and dripped off his chin.
"I'm sorry, Hazel. It was almost too hard. You brought me back, though. You and Will brought me back".
She laughed and cried even harder, and one by one the other quest members stepped forward and gave him hugs or pats on the shoulder. He wasn't normally a fan of hugs, but he figured that maybe just this once he could make an exception. After all, it isn't everyday you almost dissolve into one of the five rivers of the Underworld.
More gently this time, he pushed himself up off the ground and managed to stand up without getting too cut up. And then, the most shocking thing to happen to him about this entire trip happened (and that's saying a lot).
He heard the sound of wing beats and then was suddenly surrounded in cold and darkness. He began to struggle against whatever had him before he heard the voice and stopped out of pure shock and confusion.
"I'm so sorry, Nico! I should have remembered! You've had a lot of stuff happen to you, too. Just, don't listen to anything that river said, okay? It's not true, any of it". He was much too stunned to reply.
Percy, the boy who was now- how Charon so eloquently put it- the shadowy ice guy, was giving him a hug.
Nico shook himself out of his shock and found his voice.
"It's okay, Percy, really. Why do you care so much?".
Percy retracted his wings from where they had been wrapped around the smaller boy, which Nico realised were the things that made everything seem to go dark, and looked him straight in the eyes. Scar or no Nico still thought that the scariest thing about Percy was his eyes. They seemed to look right through him, and it made Nico slightly uncomfortable.
"Your my cousin Nico. We're family. Of course I care", he said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and despite himself, Nico felt tears begin to well up in his eyes.
Nobody wants you.
Oh shut up, you stupid river.
Nico spared his cousin a small smile and murmured, "Thanks" so quietly he began to wonder if Percy had even heard him.
Percy squeezed his shoulder one more time before turning back to face the rest of the group who were all trying to give them their space.
Xavier was watching the entire interaction with an unbearably sad look in his eyes. Their relationship reminded him so much of the one he had had with his older brother, Oliver. But now he was gone.
He shoved those thoughts aside. Now wasn't the time for self-pity, he had a quest to co-lead.
Percy walked back over with Nico in tow, and the group came together again.
"So… what's our next move? Where do we go from here?", Piper asked, looking around and examining their hellish surroundings warily.
Annabeth and Percy made eye contact across the group.
"Now? Now we go drink some liquid fire".