**Clean re-cap: all right, so mania-Percy tortured Nico, he came to for a minute and apologised heaps, Nico said he'll die before Percy does, the mania raped Nico while Nico believed it was Percy (for a moment).

Lucky chapter thirteen, you all know what that means…. *evil smile*

Warnings: strong language, major character death.

Once again, there'll be a clean re-cap of this chapter in the next chapter's A/N in case you don't want to read the gore.

Also, if I get a review within one hour of posting this, I'll post the next chapter straight after :* **

Man, this being crazy thing sucks.

Percy couldn't help but think that as he tried to gather his consciousness in what was currently not his own head.

First he has a pretty nasty fall that quietly definitely scared the living daylights out of Nico, then his brain is taken over by what he figured out must've been Nico's mania. Great.

It was difficult to see anything that was going on, even more infinitely difficult to take control for a moment, but Percy and been fighting the whole way. Time was difficult enough to tell— if he could see out of his eyes for a moment and then later, he couldn't tell if a whole day or even multiple days had passed— but he knew that about a day after waking up he'd taken control. Everything had been fuzzy until then, and Percy's inner frustration was growing until hearing snippet's of Nico's troubled voice made him force his way out of the dream-like state he was trapped in. They'd appeared to be walking, and Percy had just been lucid enough to see he was chained up in Imperial gold, which was not a good sign, before succumbing to the mania's darkness again. Soon after that there'd been a shift in the feeling of his void-like psyche, and it took a while for Percy to grapple his way into control again, but when he did it was apparent the sense of more dread than usual was brought on because the mania had taken his body to Tartarus. Also, Nico was near-dead.

Seeing that and realising he was responsible for it was actually worse than not being in control of his own body, because Nico had lost control of his body, too, and that was something Percy would never wish on anyone.

How Percy now wished he could've grabbed his boyfriend, said boyfriend's sword and busted them the Hades out of that godsforsaken cave, but he'd just frozen, and then apologising seemed the only thing to do.

Percy felt the jostling that meant they were moving stop, and it felt like the mania had jumped back into the cave after a Tartarus stroll. Percy was convinced the only point of those walks was to simply freak Nico out, if not collect Phlegethon fire. Much to Percy's delight and dread, vision began to bleed through to him, but what he saw was… Indescribable.

Nico was on the ground, lying on his front, totally still. Too still.

His legs were spread and those dirty, ripped pants he'd been forced to wear for weeks had been pulled down to his knees, and Percy was really glad he didn't have his own throat at that second because at the sight of dried blood smeared over the back of Nico's thighs, he would've blown chunks. Nico's right arm was twisted up painfully behind his back, and looking closer it seemed his shoulder was broken, along with his right knee, probably both wrists and nearly all of his fingers.

This… Wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.

Percy could tell the sheer amount of panic that was building in his chest was making his body begin to hyperventilate, so when vision came back, he'd fallen to his knees and was panting like an injured beast.

Nico wasn't… That just didn't happen. Nico was always the one that pulled through. Stuck in his horrified thoughts of denial, Percy lost missed the catchy voice that came from behind him.

'Hm, shame. Though I'm not really surprised.' Just as Percy was calming down and preparing to go wake Nico up, that son of a bitch mania has to go and give him control of his body back, then insult his boyfriend.

Percy spun on his heels to look up at the ghostly figure that was looming over him. The creature that had taken over his mind was… Well, ghastly. All dripping venom and sharp bones and fangs, gross.

Percy was incredibly tempted to give the spirit a piece of his mind, but upon seeing Nico's sword out of the corner of his eye, decided killing it would be more satisfying.

Percy glanced at the sword before diving for it, but stumbled a bit when a truckload of unexpected pain hit him all over. The mania quickly used some Jedi-crap to fling the sword to the back of the cave, and Percy cursed himself for making such a rookie mistake as looking at the hidden target. He shifted back to his original position, but moved closer to Nico in case he'd have to protect while Nico was out.

The mania looked at Percy for a moment with a smug smirk on its face, before its expression suddenly changed to one of compassionate pity.

'Poor beast, its heart probably just gave out.' Percy refused to hear what it was saying, but that was probably just because it was trying to convince him Nico was dead. Percy shifted closer to where Nico was lying as if to seek comfort.

'You shut your mouth right now, get the fuck out of my sight, and away from my boyfriend, or I will tear you apart.' Percy threatened in a voice he didn't know he had. The mania laughed a little. Percy didn't know if it was a trick of the light, or if the spirit was coming closer to him, but it seemed to get a little bigger.

'To be honest I thought it'd last longer. Quite pathetic—'

'You shut up!' Percy yelled, not caring about attracting more monsters. That looked of badly-hidden entertainment returned as the mania turned its cold gaze on Percy.

'You don't see it. Take a close look, demigod, at the one you love.'

The thought flashed across Percy's mind of why the mania had unpossessed him now, but instead of thinking on it too long he took the mania's offer and turned around to look at Nico. He crawled around to Nico's head to look at his face, but his heart nearly stopped and all the hope he'd had disappeared into thin air when he saw Nico's blue lips. Clouded eyes. Bloodied and broken nose. Yet worst, no pulse. No slight jolting or even the puff of difficult breaths to show Percy that Nico's heart was still beating.

Percy gasped and his arms and legs gave out from under him, and he only just stopped himself from falling on his face.

'You did this, Perseus Jackson.' Percy could hear the satisfaction in the mania's voice as it spoke, and he shook his head dumbly in response, still caught staring at Nico's lifeless face.

'You both thought I was here of it. But you were wrong. I am of you, Perseus, and I have shown my purpose. I am you, you who wants to make suffer those who you love.'

Well, that was wrong enough to drag Percy's gaze back to the mania with a stern, 'No. That's not right, I never wanted to hurt Nico, and I never will. I was scared I would, but that's all.'

The small smile that scratched over the mania's face was a mix of begrudged pride and disgust. It floated toward the cave wall, slowly disappearing from sight.

'And now you suffer.'

Then just like that, Percy was alone. It only took a moment to steel himself.

He tried to take deep breaths as he leaned over and reached out a shaky hand to feel Nico's face, but quickly withdrew from the feeling of hot tears dripping down his face. He rubbed at his face to wipe them away, and some part deep inside of him must've truly believed this was just a vision and if he rubbed his eyes it would go away, but when Percy looked again at Nico's almost blue face, the metaphorical dam broke.

He skittered away from the… From the body, ugly sobs wracking his body as he pressed himself to the cold stone wall. Trying to gather himself failed as something akin to a scream made its way out of his throat when he felt his hands rub on dried flecks of— he looked down to see brown spots; dried blood.

Percy screwed up his hands in the fabric of his pants and squeezed his legs to his chest, breathing heavily and sobbing like a child. This was such a fucking nightmare, there was no way this could be happening.

Yet it was.

'Mi—… Missus O'Leary… Missus… Please, please…' Percy sobbed to into his knees as he heard far off growls and other telltale signs of monsters drawing closer.

That was all right, Percy found himself secretly wishing the hellhound wouldn't come. He wouldn't fight it.