(A/N) I am SO sorry for not updating sooner! Please forgive me! I am so sorry if this is very short!

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO

Exodus POV

I sat at the black-haired boy's bedside, watching his chest rise and fall with the slow steadiness of unconsciousness. It was interesting how humans and demigods alike weren't that tolerant to pain, but it really wasn't a surprise. They were naked; they had been tossed into this growing world with nothing but their long legs, superior intellect, opposable thumbs, and, this only applied to demigods, their inherited powers, which only put them on monsters' radars.

They ceased to have protective scales like that of a crocodile, and they lacked the claws and night vision of a cat or the wings of a bird. They were not lithe like squirrels and could scale trees without assistance. They weren't able to defend themselves with poison or fangs; all they were equipped with was the weapons that they had made. They weren't fast like a cheetah or small like a rabbit, nor did they possess the ability to camouflage like an octopus. They could not burrow like a groundhog or leap like an antelope. They did not have the sheer size of an elephant or the gills of a fish. Their hearing was inferior to that of an owl's and their sense of smell was nothing compared to a bear's. They were just soft skin and bones.

It was a miracle that this species had fought their way to the top of the food chain and had become the dominant species on this planet. I found it utterly interesting. My people were known for mimicking other, more powerful animals in order to survive. We were also fast and small, therefore we could inch past undetected. I thought of myself, just a small worm that had lodged himself into a host body. It was a whole new experience within itself, even though I knew it was wrong.

Demigods were stronger, and faster than Dragonborn Crawlers. If Percy had been able to see me, he would have sliced me to buts, ripped me apart, or stomped on me like a bug. They were so full of potential power that they were blind to, and were unaware of their abilities due to the fact that they were born with them; people who have never even touched this sort of power would be more aware of it than a person who had lived with it all their life. Demigods and Dragonborn Crawlers certainly weren't alike at all, and I knew I would most likely miss this body when I convinced this black-haired boy, Percy's thoughts processed his name as Nico, to remove me…if he even let me live, which was rather unlikely. He would take me out and squash me in his palm, my blood and gush splattering all over the place like that of a slug.
The differences were unparalleled. I could see so much more from two legs, and I could do so many things with arms and hands and fingers. I don't even have arms or legs in my true form. Percy could run fast, while my stomach was tethered to the ground, forcing me to slither along silently. Percy just had so much…more. More intellect, more power, more height, more swiftness, more…body parts.

It was like comparing a simple machine, let's say a pulley, to a computer microchip; the microchip was so much more advanced and harder to use. Peeing alone was a hassle. You have to aim and stuff and not just go wherever and whenever you need to go. Human customs were so much more complicated; you needed to do your business in one specific area of one specific room in one specific house. If you mess that up, you were considered odd. Sleeping is another thing. You couldn't just curl up on the ground or under some leaves and sleep, you had to sleep on a specific object in a specific room in a specific house and then you were set.

I was snapped out of my reveries when Nico began to moan, his eyelids twitching as he stirred. I didn't know whether it was a good idea to handcuff one of his hands to the bed, but I had been doing it for my own safety; if the demigod saw me he'd probably rearrange my facial features with his fist. I felt all warm inside when I remembered rescuing him. I had been on my way to turn myself in willingly to the demigods at Camp Half-Blood, but then I had found Nico's limp and unconscious form laying in the path. He was starved of oxygen and was a sliver away from death, and I also saw signs that there had been others who had attempted to carry him back out of the tunnels, but they had laid him down gently and reluctantly left.

I heard the door slamming behind me and looked up to see Reyna and Frank, their faces pinched with worry. Let's just say that Reyna was part of the reason that I had handcuffed Nico to the bed. She had went all daughter-of-the-war-goddess on me when she'd realized that I'd taken her from Camp Jupiter. Frank had been more docile, but you could see the seething rage in his eyes when he looked at me. They both still hated my guts, but we had made a pact; they don't kill me right now and I return them to Camp Jupiter, along with giving myself up in order to restore Percy as the owner of this body. It kind of felt like a one-sided agreement, but I had wanted to give myself up anyway, so technically all I was doing was bringing them home.

They haven't left since I am the only one that can travel through the tunnels without passing out from oxygen deprivation, and in order for them to leave I need to give them oxygen masks, which have been hidden in a super-secret place that, despite their effortless searching, has not been discovered yet. "Is he up?" Frank asked, his voice filled with concern. Reyna looked just as shocked. Her face was a chalky white and her hands were shaking. She knew just as well as I how close Nico had been to death yesterday, and she was praying, along with Frank and I, that he would wake up.

"Yup." I replied. I turned around to see the angry face of a certain son of Hades and a clenched fist as he nailed me in the face with the hand that I had not handcuffed to the bed. I should've been expecting that.