Hey guys!

You all guessed it, no surprise really. Be excited people, Nico is about to redeem himself… maybe. Hehehehe ;D

Nico's POV

The pirate crews stared at me suspiciously, and I had no reason to be surprised.

The guilt of my betrayal was all-consuming, but I wasn't the only one who had betrayed them. Calypso had, but they weren't being so tough on her.

Watching Percy being dragged away made my heart sink. Luke had promised me that he wouldn't kill Percy. I was an idiot, I should've realised that he was lying.

Percy always told me as much, that Luke was a filthy, rotten backstabber. And I hadn't listened to him, and now he was going to die.

"Guys, I swear that Luke said he wouldn't hurt Percy if I did as he said." I defended myself, but they didn't seem convinced.

Reyna pursed her lips. "Whether you did it willingly or not is irrelevant, Nico. We just need to know your plan, then we can decide what to do with you."

I gulped as discreetly as I could. No one could deny that Reyna was intimidating.

"Of course…" I trailed off. "Um, well, Percy isn't the only one with powers."

Annabeth's POV

"Nico?" I asked. "How are you here?"

I know he betrayed us, but there was still no way he could've gotten off the Princess Andromeda without anyone noticing.

Nico rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I call it shadow-travel."

"Okay, but how do you 'shadow-travel'?"

"You know how Percy is descended from Poseidon?" Nico asked, and I nodded. "Well, I'm descended from Hades, Poseidon's brother. Thalia and Jason are descended from Zeus, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had powers too."

I raised an eyebrow. Nico had powers? Why hadn't he used them to get off the ship straight away? Why wait for the fight? Why wait for Percy and I to be captured?

"I know it's hard to believe, but you have to trust. It's the only way to save him and you know it." Nico reasoned.

Percy… His life was basically in our hands. Can Nico really save him?

"What's the plan?" I relented.

TIME LAPSE

The ship pulled up in the mainland the next day, and I was cramped from my extremely uncomfortable position. The same sailor came to get me, and I learnt that his name was Ethan.

Ethan led me through the streets of the town I grew up in towards a fancy carriage like my family's, all the while keeping an iron hand on my arm.

Thoughts of Percy and the others ran through my head at a million miles an hour, leaving no room for strategic thinking.

I sat through the carriage doing nothing but staring out the window, constantly thinking of the knife in my boot and longing to cut Ethan down and leap from the wagon.

Unsurprisingly, I was taken straight to Luke's country estate and locked in a luxurious bedroom. There was no balcony, so no means of escape that way. I fought back thoughts of Atalanta and her gruesome end.

I anxiously paced the bedroom, biting my nails and twirling my blonde curls between my fingers. Percy was in trouble and I couldn't do anything but wait.

Nico better not be tricking us again, I thought. If he is, I swear he will wish he never met me.

Percy's POV

I was dragged from the ship and taken immediately to a top security prison.

In my cell, Luke snickered for about five minutes, gloating at his situation. His expression made my blood boil with rage, but I held it back. Luke didn't deserve a reaction from me.

I tried to blame him, for everything, but I couldn't. I'd brought all on myself by kidnapping Annabeth in the first place.

When Luke left, I lay down on the bed-if you can even call it that- and thought of ways I could escape. I'd done it before, all I need was a pin of some kind to pick the locks on the manacles. The doors were simple enough. Rip the bed off the wall and I could use it as a crowbar of sort to lift the door off its hinges.

TIME LAPSE

It was a day before I was given food. The guard simply shoved it over to me and left, not even bothering to supervise him; he knew I had no escape. Yet.

Has I choked down the disgusting gruel, I examined the spoon. It was made of a soft metal, easily bendable.

Quickly coming up with a plan, I ripped some of the threads from the hem of my shirt and tied together to form a rope. Satisfied that it was strong enough, I rolled up my trousers and tied the spoon to the leg with the rope.

Loud footsteps alerted me to the approaching guard. Covering my leg, I feigned nonchalance and kicked the empty bowl back.

The man raised an eyebrow as he picked up the bowl. "Spoon?" He said simply.

I shrugged and gestured for the window. "Just because I can't escape doesn't mean I'm going to make things easy for you."

"Ugh," The guard grumbled, and I mentally sniggered, wondering if he could speak more than a few words per sentence.

A smirk grew on my face as the footsteps echoed softer. It was another minute before the guard came back again, his expression twisted into a stern scowl.

He gestured for me to stand and shoved past me, searching through my bed for the missing cutlery.

"Someone must've taken it," I said innocently. "Sorry."

Growling and cursing, he walked away.

Percy Jackson, I thought as I started grating the spoon's edge against the metal bed to sharpen the soft metal. You are a genius!

I couldn't help but think that Annabeth would be proud.

Jason's POV

As Nico told us his plan, I couldn't help but wonder if we could trust him.

He is the reason that Percy and Annabeth are gone in the first place. There were more than one parts of the plan that could end up in our capture if Nico betrayed us again.

I looked around at the council of sorts. Reyna, Grover, Beckendorf, Thalia, her right-hand Phoebe and I sat in Calypso's cave around the table, discussing the plan.

"I'm not sure about this," Thalia said from my left. "All of this is essentially Nico's fault."

Thalia wasn't usually the type to pit the blame, so I was surprised that she said that.

"I agree. To rescue Percy and Annabeth we need to be sure that everyone involved is completely trustworthy." Reyna agreed, her dark eyes as steely as ever.

Grover frowned, rubbing his goatee. "I don't know. Annabeth told me about what Nico said to her. He said that all he never wanted to hurt Percy. He genuinely believed that Luke wouldn't kill Percy."

"Regardless, he still betrayed us and we can't just hand over our forces in this situation." I said. I wanted to trust Nico, I really did, but my cautious side couldn't pass up the possibilities.

"I know," Grover said reluctantly. "But we don't have much choice if we want to save Percy and Annabeth. Any plan we can up with will fail without his 'shadow-travelling'."

Beckendorf and Phoebe nodded in agreement. Eventually, Thalia nodded.

Reyna and I exchanged a glance, an un-heard conversation passing between us.

"Very well," Reyna sighed.

"We will listen to Nico, but under no circumstances is he to learn of anything that does not concern him. We have to be cautious."

Sorry about the bad quality guys.

My writers block really kicked in with this chapter, and I'm not happy with it.

So please go easy on me, I didn't kill you with a cliff-hanger, and I hope you guys all had a happy Easter! :D