The Devil in Chains

Nico woke up earlier than he should have. It must be his demigod resistance. He knew he shouldn't be conscious because he could feel his sleepy body being handled downwards, presumably from a truck or some form of transportation. The person carrying him wasn't very gentle.

"This thing weighs nothing," they spat, jerking Nico forwards. Nico cracked open his eyelids a little and saw a small, concrete building surrounded by scraggly shrubs with tall trees in the distance. Gravel crunched under his captor's feet as the man carried the young demigod.

"Speak for yourself." Another man grunted. "This sucker's got a tonne on 'im."

Nico saw a green jacket struggling under the body of an unconscious Wolf, who was pissing off his enemies even when he wasn't awake to do so. The son of Hades held back a small, fond smile. That would give him away.

"Wha… Hallery, why do they have two boys with 'em?"

The man holding Nico turned around. The half-blood saw another green jacket folding Alex's form into his arms.

"SAS are nutters," Hallery replied. "But at least it'll make our job easier."

"Oi, sir, you make sure that one's tied tightly!" Another man yelled at Hallery. He gestured to Nico. "The kid's a slippering one. Archer's team reported that in the truck."

For the first time, Nico realised there was something around his wrists, shoulders and ankles. As Hallery turned towards the building, he smoothly tugged his hand the tiniest bit. Rough rope dragging across his skin answered the movement. Nico sighed inwardly. Mortals. So primitive.

Nico instincts told him to lash out now and escape. He could do it easily. But he had a duty to his unit, and wherever they were taken he would follow. Or lead, in this case, seeing as Hallery was the first inside the building. Plenty of time for kicking butt later, when he figured out where he was, what these men were doing and why he was here.

Nico kept a strained eye on the green jacketed man carrying Alex. Brecon was referred to as 'Hell on Earth' by the soldiers, and as sceptical and ironic Nico found that, he and Alex had officially been through 'hell' together, and the boy was the closest the demigod had to a friend. He wasn't going to let him get hurt.

Metal doors clanged open in front of the faking half-blood and Nico moved his limited attention to where he was going. He realised Hallery had stopped in the middle of a stone room around the same size as K-Unit's cabin. The man walked to the corner of the room and just dropped Nico on the floor. The dark haired boy growled. Hallery smirked.

"Ah, how long have you been awake, little bat?"

Nico gagged at the nickname and rolled on his now bruised shoulder to stare fully at the grinning man. He scowled and said nothing. Hallery rolled his eyes and suddenly shot a sharp kick to Nico's stomach. Nico flinched slightly and the man chuckled.

"You got yourself in deep here, little bat," Hallery said. "RTI isn't anywhere for sweet boys like you."

Nico snapped some extremely rude words at Hallery in a mixture of Greek and Italian. The man looked confused, but it didn't take a genius to figure out the kid was cussing. He curled his fist and punched Nico's chest hard, pushing the air out of the bound boy's lungs.

"I'm not sweet," Nico ground out breathlessly, baring his teeth and facing Hallery. The man shrugged.

"It's more fun when they're not," he said casually, before grinning again. "Especially when they can curse in weird languages. What was it you were speaking there, little bat?"

Nico clamped his mouth shut and just glared. Hallery sighed in mock disappointment. He was about to say something when the door swung open to reveal a group of men in green jackets carrying the rest of the unconscious K-Unit. They dumped their unwilling passengers, then joined Hallery at Nico's side. Their eyes widened slightly.

"The hell kid," one of them said, and Nico recognised him from the cabin. "Do you got a thing against knock-out drugs or somethin'?"

Nico smiled his vampire smile and the guy stepped back a bit.

"Let's go with 'or something'," he said slyly. The group of men shuddered slightly and Nico swallowed a laugh. Hallery glared at Nico for a moment longer before waving his crew out.

"Come on guys. Let the sweet thing ponder in his darling thoughts while his unit members wake up. It won't be long until we're back to get some answers out of them."

Then they all turned and left. Nico heard several locks click from the metal door, which was flush against the stone walls.

"I'm not sweet!" He yelled angrily. Finally, the son of Hades looked over at K-Unit.

Wolf was sprawled on his stomach, chin propped against the ground. Nico scanned the men and other boy quickly. No one else was restrained. Alex was furthest from Nico, lying sideways on an outstretched arm and teetering on his hip bone, facing the wall. Eagle was spread out on his back, and Nico refused to think of the pun associated with the position. Snake was flopped against the wall and Jaguar was on his front, his head turned to the side and arms raised above his head. Their breathing was speeding up, meaning they were waking. Nico didn't bother hiding his relief. He was the only one to witness it for now, but when Snake finally stirred, he wiped the expression off his face and stayed quiet.

The medic's eyes opened groggily, fuzzy images filtering through his retinas and producing one weird picture in his mind. Since when did their cabin have stone walls…?

Then he bolted upright, awake in an instant. Snake's head whipped around and observed his sleeping unit one member at a time as he remembered they had been ambushed.

He noticed a pair of black eyes staring at him from the corner of the room and Snake scrabbled over to Nico, who was lying in a curious position in the shadows.

"Oh my God, Devil," he breathed. "Are you okay?"

Nico shrugged in response, careful to hide the ropes around him. He would deal with them later and didn't need Snake fussing over it.

"Do you know where we are?"

This time Nico replied.

"RTI."

Snake's face lost its colour and he sat down on his haunches. He stared at the wall for a second before looking back at Nico.

"Resistance to Interrogation," he supplied. Nico nodded.

"I thought as much."

"Green Jackets," Snake growled, his eyes flashing. Nico raised an eyebrow.

"They're called Green Jackets?" He questioned, amused. Snake nodded. He was about to continue, but a groan that could only be Wolf interrupted. Snake looked over his shoulder at the unit leader and crawled over to him as the man sat up angrily.

"When I get my hands on who did this…" he threatened, before seeing Snake and moving towards him.

"What's the situation?" he asked. Snake shook his head.

"RTI," he replied, and Wolf snarled.

"Shit."

"Shit indeed."

"Aww, man!"

"Eagle, no one cares they took your muffins!"

"But we never get muffins!"

"Shut up!"

Wolf and Snake looked to the side to see Jaguar and Eagle had regained consciousness and were arguing. Snake sighed and Wolf rolled his eyes before looking around. His gaze rested on Cub, and he scooted over to check the kid for injuries.

"Devil's over there," Snake said, and Wolf looked to where the medic indicated to see the pale glowing skin of the unit's second resident prodigy. A small smile flickered on his face at the sight of Nico and he moved over to him. He frowned when he noticed Nico was lying down.

"You okay, Devil?" He asked, authority mixing with concern. Nico smirked.

"Just peachy, Wolf," he replied. "This is pretty much standard."

Wolf nodded, not really following.

"Well, come over here. We need to sort this out before the Green Jackets come back."

Nico narrowed his eyebrows and said, "Just a moment." Wolf noticed a slight motion in the thick shadows around his unit member and reached out. His fingers found Nico's wrist, and the harsh rope wound around it.

"Jesus, Devil!" he growled, and pulled Nico out of the comforting shades so he could see the knots.

"That would be an oxymoron," Nico quipped, but Wolf wasn't listening. His eyes roamed over the thick ties around the boy's upper arms, wrists and feet, and he slapped his face with a palm.

"Snake," he called. "Get over here."

Snake came quickly, and frowned at Nico when he saw the problem. He glared at the dark haired boy.

"You could have told me," he said grumpily. Nico huffed and wriggled away.

"I can take care of myself," he said. "Go check on Cub."

Wolf and Snake looked over their shoulders to see Jaguar and Eagle hovering over a yawning Alex, who was just waking up. They turned back to Nico.

"No need," Wolf said slyly. "Eagle's all over it."

A yelp sounded behind them and the three SAS members craned their necks to see Eagle flattening Alex to the floor.

"Oh yeah," Snake muttered dryly. "He's all over it."

Wolf scowled and yanked Devil onto his lap before he started attacking the knots. Nico protested, but Snake shoved the boy's face into Wolf's side and all they heard was muffled cursing.

By the time they'd gotten the rope off Nico's biceps, Alex, Eagle and Jaguar had joined them and began to help. Alex was talking to Nico, keeping him calm so he didn't lash out at K-Unit as soon as he could – and even if he couldn't – while Eagle spat out twines from chewing the knots, Wolf growled as the hard rope dug into his fingers, Jaguar cursed as he pulled back nails on the thick cord and Snake checked over Nico's skin for inflammation and rawness. By the time they were done, Nico was mighty pissed, Eagle had bits stuck between his teeth, and Wolf was angry. Snake had deemed Nico fine, and Jaguar had retreated a safe distance while Alex sat with his friend and convinced him it was alright to get help sometimes.

Nico rubbed his fingers, checking them for his ring. Relief tingled his spine as he found it. They hadn't taken his weapons. You could conceal a lot more than a sword in an enchanted ring.

Wolf gathered K-Unit into a circle and started off the planning session. It was part of the RTI program – plan your strategy for keeping your mouth shut.

"When they come for us, they'll only take one person at a time. We need to know if there might be anyone they'd go for first, otherwise we'll have to assume they'll pick up me, as I'm the leader."

"They might peg for Cub or Devil," Snake added. "They'd think they might get under a kids skin quicker. No offence." He added as Alex and Nico glared at him.

"Snake is right," Nico said, after glaring. "One of the guys has a thing against me. I think the team does, because of the whole cabin thing."

They looked confused, so Nico explained in the barest detail what happened. Afterwards, even Wolf looked impressed.

"Nice job, Devil," he praised gruffly. Then he was all business again.

"So they'll probably come for Devil first." He looked at Nico. "Got any ideas how you're gonna beat them?"

"With a stick," Nico said, smirking at the joke. Eagle giggled and Alex grinned. Snake and Jaguar snorted and Wolf rubbed his eyes, inwardly smiling.

"I have my ways," Nico said eventually, and Wolf looked up. Nico leaned in conspiratorially, and K-Unit followed suit.

"You can just leave it to me."