Anger of the Devil

Hallery marched into the cell almost two hours later. By then, Nico was thoroughly bored, his ADHD getting so bad that he was honest to Zeus about to shadow-travel out of there, consequences be dammed. Alex was hardly better, getting more and more jittery the longer they were stuck there. His paranoia rivalled Nico's even. The rest of K-Unit were content with waiting until they were brought it. It was procedure.

Hallery clapped his hands.

"Answer time!" he said excitedly, and Nico actually breathed out in relief. He blinked with uncharacteristic emotion.

"My gods," he breathed to himself. "Wasn't sticking us in a cell for this long enough?"

His rhetorical question was answered mentally, where he reasoned that of course they were only just getting started.

Nico got to his feet, his face blank once again. He stared coldly at Hallery, but the man's eyes were elsewhere. Two guards followed through the open door – a rookie mistake is Nico ever saw one. Leaving the door open? And they called themselves professionals. Though, locking up a son of Hades was pretty stupid too.

"You," Hallery said, pointing at Jaguar. The SAS soldier blinked in reply. Hallery jerked his head at the guards behind him and they walked forward, grabbing Jaguar by his arms and bending them behind him before leading him out. Nico watched them go, confused. Weren't they going to take him?

Then he slapped himself. Of course. They were watching. He growled under his breath, vowing never to make that mistake again.

Hallery shot the dark-haired boy a triumphant look before waving his hand. Two more men came in, rolling a large flat-screen television on wheels into the cell. They placed it two meters in from the door and turned it on. The screen instantly showed another room, bigger than their current one. As they watched, the door was suddenly flung open and Jaguar was thrown through. He collided with a thick metal chair that was bolted to the floor of the room, his arms sprawled over the seat of it.

As the soldier started to recover, a huge man with bulging muscles, no less than six foot and clean shaven, waltzed in the door and sat the SAS man heavily down in the chair. Then he reached for the leather buckles on each arm, foot and one across the chest part of the chair. Jaguar was soon strapped down tighter than Nico's pockets around a Hermes kid.

Hallery left, though no one noticed. The door banged shut, and only Alex registered the noise before blanching and scowling.

"They're making us watch him get interrogated," he growled. "Sicko's."

Nico agreed. Whenever he visited the Field's of Punishment, Nico cast a cold eye over the tortures going on in there, aware that whoever was there deserved it. He wasn't remotely attached at anyone being hurt there. But the son of Hades had unwittingly made a family out of K-Unit – dysfunctional and strange, but a family – and Jaguar was the supporting Uncle or something like that. He always had time to listen to Nico and Alex and their complaints about trivial things. He listened quietly and dished out advice, and Nico felt he opened up a little before his fellow soldiers because of Jaguar. Now he got to see him electrified for some stupid training exercise.

Nico growled and narrowed his brows, not noticing how Alex patted his shoulder warily. Nico's dark eyes had filled with red, the colour swimming in and diluting the usual blackness. He was angry. He was mad. He had to sit through four more of these interrogations.

On screen, Hallery walked into the room with Jaguar. Sending a patronizing look at the camera and winking, he flipped the switch on their chair. Electricity started jolting through Jaguar.

"What is your name?"

Jaguar was dumped back in the cell, his hair singed and on end, the hairs on his arms burnt off and wicked jolts of stray voltage spazzing his body every now and then. He'd refused to even open his mouth, which had made Hallery so mad he'd pushed the lever higher than safe. The result was a thoroughly electrified Jaguar, who couldn't speak if he tried.

Snake was hustled out next. The Unit watched with increasing rage as the medic was subjected to the same treatment. Hallery turned up the voltage.

"What is your name?" he asked. That was the standard question for the beginning of an interrogation. Snake refused to answer. The voltage went up.

Snake came back just as bad as Jaguar. Nico stayed frozen in place, barely stopping himself from unleashing Hades on the Green Jackets. He felt like this when Percy was facing Kronos, after Bianca died, when Hazel fought Gaea. He knew now they must have felt the same when he went off and got hurt. But those feelings were usually only for a few select people, like Percy and Hazel and Annabeth.

K-Unit had somehow blossomed in his little black heart.

Nico looked at Alex, realising only then that spies did tend to work best in the dark.

Eagle's interrogation was the worst so far in the respect of the Green Jackets. The SAS man just didn't stop talking. And he never said anything important. Nico could see Hallory reach his limit when Eagle began belting, "I'm a little teacup, short and stout!"

And the man just didn't learn. The higher the voltage, the louder Eagle sang, until Nico and Alex swore the glass was about to break from the falsetto.

They watched, slightly amused, mostly worried, as Hallory finished with Eagle and shoved him out the door himself. Eagle came up singed, burnt and shocked, but with a wide grin that let them know he knew he got under their skin.

Wolf's interrogation was filled with the soldiers either grunting in pain or yelling profanities at the Green Jacket's who eventually decided they'd had enough, and thrust the Unit leader back with the others. Nico started feeling slightly better about the whole thing.

But then they took Alex.

Unlike anyone else in his life, Nico didn't disregard his feelings for Alex. He knew the spy was basically his brother now, best friend, or something like that, and that K-Unit was his family. And while the son of Hades knew there was nothing that the Green Jackets could do that was worse than what Alex's been through, Nico wasn't going to let them get away with hurting his friend.

I'm turning into Percy, the dark-haired boy thought ironically. They're probably worried about me…

Alex was taunted before they started questioning him. Hallery made it his mission to ridicule the teen as much as he could, and Nico ended up with moon-shaped dints in his palms from clenching them so hard his nails marked the skin.

"What do you think you're doing in the SAS, punk," Hallery sneered. "Rich Daddy want his brat to learn some discipline?"

Nico saw Alex tense slightly, but the teen spy kept his mouth shut. Hallery brought his hand up and slapped Alex's face.

"I'm talking to you!"

Alex looked him in the eye.

"I know," he said. "And it's very annoying."

Hallery growled and curled his fist. Nico clenched his jaw as the man punched Alex's stomach. Then he flicked the switch for the electric chair to start.

"Name?"

They had to carry Alex back into the cell. His mouth was bleeding from a heavy blow to the jaw when he sassed the man in charge, and he was determined to make these men underestimate him. His arms were aching with bruises and he could feel a discolouration blooming on his cheek. They threw him down mercilessly on the stone floor and he skidded for a bit before sitting up. He touched his lips tentatively.

"He can pack a punch," Alex commented drily as K-Unit stared at him. Snake scoffed.

"Cub, you're not human," he decided, and Nico flashed a little grin before it left.

"He's human," the demigod said, and the Unit turned to look at him. "He's the better kind of human."

Alex smiled sorely at his friend before someone suddenly grabbed Nico's upper arms and dragged him to his feet. Another hand rested around the pale boy's cold throat, constricting slightly. Two more men joined their comrades and each held one of Nico's hands behind him as they lead him out.

"Me." He looked back to the four men and one boy. "I have no such humanity."

Hallery was waiting with a big grin on his face as Nico was lead into the room. Nico returned the smile, but with a creepy edge that made the man falter. Then he sneered.

"You think you're all top shit, don't you kid," he said scathingly. Nico shrugged restrictedly and jerked his head at the men holding him.

"You seem to believe so," he replied. Rivalry banter. This was where the plan started. Hallery curled his lip.

"They're just here for the show," he growled, then gestured for them to do their duty. Nico dug his heels into the stone and the party of soldiers ground to a halt. Hallery looked at them oddly.

"Well?" he asked, patience wearing thin. One of the men tugged Nico, but he didn't budge.

"We can't move him, sir," he said, and Hallery scowled. He marched up and shoved his face right into Nico's until they were nose-to-nose.

"What're you playing, brat," he asked angrily. Nico replied with a serenely terrifying smile.

"I'm not playing anything," he said calmly. "It's you who's started a dangerous game."

The soldiers and their leader started for a moment, before Hallery formed a fist with his hand and upper-cut Nico's chin. The boy's head snapped upwards and his lip split, blood running slowly down from the corner of his mouth. His chin ached, but he'd had worse. His normally black eyes started burning red and Hallery took half a step back.

"Move again," Nico invited, continuing the game metaphor. "See if you can go enough spaces to get away."

The Green Jackets shifted a bit, but Hallery stopped them and held up his hand. This was where stage two began.

Nico wrenched himself out of the men's grip and dived forward. Their shocked faces watched as he leapt onto the electric chair and cocked his hip.

"Too slow. My turn now."

Nico bent his knees and summoned the shadows of the chair to help him. He jumped off the seat, bringing his legs up higher as if to smash it. His clenched his fist and the shadows obeyed.

His feet connected. The shadows smashed downwards. The chair lay in ruins, sparking helplessly, under the boots of the son of Hades.

Nico flashed a triumphant look at the frozen Hallery and his lackey's.

"Taken your Queen."

The guards stayed still, but Hallery drew his gun. His aimed it at Nico and snarled.

"No one," he spat, "gets away from me."

"Then get a better strategy," Nico replied testily. His pent up anger would rush out any second now, and if these men were there for it they'd most likely meet his father very soon. He rubbed his ring and twisted the skull on it. Concentrating, Nico summoned his throwing knives. A sword would look mighty suspicious.

Twin weapons appeared in each of Nico's hands and he raised them for all to see. Hallery looked shocked, and slightly fearful. His men stayed stock still. The Green Jacket leader raised his gun to clip Nico's shoulder. The son of Hades threw his daggers.

Hallery's gun clattered to the floor as two throwing knives pierced his thick uniform, tearing the fabric by his wrists and pinning him to the wall. Nico had barely moved. His knelt down and retrieved the gun. His burning red eyes rested on the remainder of the Green Jacket group who'd lead him there.

"Check Mate."

Back the Brecon, the Sargent demanded the tape be played again. The trainers complied and rewound it before watching the scene all over, like a movie.

"Check Mate," Nico's voice said again, and the Sargent gaped once more at the boy. His eyes shifted to the shamed Green Jacket standing in the corner.

"You searched him for weapons?" he asked again.

"Yes, sir," Hallery replied, rubbing his wrists where the knives had barely missed. The Sargent turned back to the audience of Brecon trainers who were gathered, watching the captured film again of K-Unit's RTI testing. Said Unit were back in their hut, having been given the rest of the day off.

"I think," Sanders muttered, "that Devil is far more than he looks."

"I think," Hallery supplied, "that that is an understatement."

Wolf lay on his bed that night, seriously thinking about that day's events. Maybe only he had seen it, but he knew it was true. Devil wasn't human. Human's didn't control the shadows.

Err… hi?

*ducks bullet* SORRY ! AH! Almost a month! The time just ran away from me, with soccer and school and exam block and I just haven't had time! I'm sorry!

I hope this pleases you, and I'll update sooner as school's finished in less than a week :D
Please review!

Jasmine Out!