DD: I own nothing!

The red sky above Nico made him feel sick as he looked up for what seemed like the hundredth time that minute to avoid looking at the River Lethe's taunting water. Maybe just a sip... He immediately shook the thought out of his head, steadying his breathing so that he was taking in as little of the sulphuric air as possible.

One sip would be all it would take and then he'd completely forget everything. Bianca, Hazel... Percy...

He clenched his fists, feeling rage build up in his veins. "Damn it!" He shrieked, kicking a piece of debris away from him. "Why can't I just get a break?!"

After a moment, he forced his muscles to relax and he raked the landscape with his dark eyes. He knew that he wouldn't sleep; too many things had already happened for him to be able to even close his eyes without envisioning nightmares. But if he found a cave, maybe he could take a small break.

For once, the gods seemed to be with him for he found a small hollow in a wall a few metres ahead of him. Sure it wasn't the best, but it was better than being out in the open.

Nico sat down, leaning his back against the wall, his arms folded as he ran through his quest in his mind once more. "I have to close the Doors of Death..." He murmured. "Percy's counting on me... They're all counting on me..."

"That's right; they are," a voice crooned, causing Nico's head to shoot up. "How disappointed they'll be when they find out that you let them down."

Nico immediately leapt into a standing position, his Stygian iron sword already in hand. "Where are you? Show yourself!" He demanded roughly.

"I'm right here..." A voice whispered behind him.

Without looking to see what it was, Nico whipped around and sliced cleanly through the monster only for his eyes to widen in horror when he saw what it was. An arai. A fucking arai.

He screamed in pain as he felt a searing pain in his side. The sensation was burning, but at the same time it was freezing.

A second arai cackled as he fell to his knees, clutching his side in pain, blood seeping through his aviator jacket. "Oh, the fate of one of the katoblepones you killed in Venice. How very fitting." He felt someone grab him, but he could do nothing other than try not to yelp in pain. "It will be so much easier to take you this way."

Dark spots began to cloud his vision and he went limp.

When he awoke, Nico found that he was in a round, golden room with an extremely high roof. He frowned and tried to stand only to collapse again, wincing in pain as he clutched his still injured side. His shirt was dry, meaning that the bleeding had stopped a while ago - something Nico was grateful for.

However this presented him with another problem.

His shirt was stuck to the healing injury. Nico closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Okay, I've been through worse. I can do this..." He took one more deep breath before taking his shirt and yanking it away from the injury.

It was all he could do not to pass out again and he whimpered in pain as blood seeped out of the injury once more.

"Hey, be quiet in there!" He heard a loud voice yell and suddenly, the room that he was in shook violently. He flailed around for a moment until the shaking stopped and he edged over to the edge of the room.

What he had mistaken for a golden wall was actually glass. He was in a giant glass jar. A rush of claustrophobia hit him and he closed his eyes, sitting down again. Judging by how large the jar was and how many pomegranate seeds he had in his pocket, he could probably survive for a week if he put his body into a comatose state.

But even still...

"Percy..." He whispered. "I need you..."

Seven days. It had been seven days and by that stage there was hardly any oxygen left in the jar; Nico was fighting for every breath he took.

"Looks like your 'friends' didn't come," the giant that he had come to recognise as Otis taunted. "They obviously don't care about you."

I don't blame them... He glared up at the top of the jar, his eyes half closed as he began to fade out of consciousness once more.

"You're going to die, demi-god. You're going to die alone in there."

Nico shuddered slightly and closed his eyes. If he was going to die, he wasn't going to give the giant the satisfaction of knowing how scared he was. But he was petrified.

Clouds began to cover his vision as sweat poured down his face. He had run out of oxygen and he knew it. A moment later, he fell to his side, his eyes half-closed.

"P-Percy..." He whispered as his eyes slid closed, unaware that his black-haired, green eyed hero was replaced by a blonde-headed Superman just as he faded away.

Nico jolted awake with a scream only to realise that it had been a dream. Just a dream. And he had felt like he had been suffocating because he was; at some stage he had rolled onto his stomach and his face had been burried in his pillow.

He slowly sat up, tears silently falling down his cheeks as he pulled his legs to his chest. Why? Why can't I just have one night without reliving that?

Hearing the door open, Nico looked up to find none other than Jason fucking Grace standing there. He glared at him, but he could tell that it wasn't exactly fear insinuating from the way Jason met his gaze without flinching. "W-what do you want, G-Grace?"

"Nothing, I-" Jason blinked slowly, seeming slightly confused by his own actions. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I heard someone scream."

"Must h-have been your imagination..." Nico mumbled, looking down at his knees. "I-I'm fine..."

Liar, Nico mentally yelled at himself. If you were fine, that airhead wouldn't still be here.

Nico was about to look up at Jason again only to tense as he felt a pair of warm, strong arms wrap around him. He glanced up to see Jason's face above his. "What're you-"

"You don't need to hide the fact that you're scared," Jason murmured softly. "I can tell."

Nico's walls had once been like darkness surrounding him. All hiding. All forgiving. All protecting. And yet Jason had been able to see right through them as though they were made of light. Nico felt tears well up in his eyes and was about to roughly brush them away when Jason said, "Cry; you deserve to after all you've been through."

Darkness is a very fickle thing. It can hide sins and weaknesses from friends and enemies alike... but if it allows a light to shine through its borders, the walls can never fully be repaired.

And right then, Jason was that light.

Nico completely broke down, letting everything from his anger at his father to his feeling of betrayal due to Percy and his confusion because of Jason spill onto the Camp Half-Blood t-shirt.

He didn't even care that his walls were being torn down by hundreds of lightning bolts. He just needed to let everything out.

When he had no more tears left, he just stayed there in Jason's arms, his head resting on the latter's chest.

He opened his mouth to thank Jason, but no sound came out. Nico blamed the exhaustion weighing him down.

So he closed his eyes and, for the first time since he had returned from Tartarus, didn't feel afraid to do so. For the first time in months, he drifted into an undisturbed, dreamless sleep.

Because with Jason's arms around him, he felt safe.

Like nothing could ever hurt him again.