For any Sadico fans out there, this is the chapter you've been waiting for. Enjoy!

Nico

The next day, Jason, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Gleeson Hedge, and who knows who else boarded the Argo II. Nico was a little disappointed at not being able to go, because of two main reasons: one, her had to guard Miss Sadie Kane, who so happened to be related to an Egyptian Pharaoh, and two, he certainly did not want to see Percy yet. The guy might wring his neck for what he did when Percy had amnesia.

As he prepared to take over shifts with Jason, Nico kept wondering how his day will go. He double-checked his weapons, in case Sadie might try to make another daring escape plan, and also his pants, since he didn't want a repeat of what happened yesterday. Being humiliated once was enough.

"Careful around her." Jason threatened. "She has a sharp tongue."

"What did you do?" Nico asked.

Jason smirked. "I fixed it."

Nico opened the basement doors carefully, and the moment he opened a one-inch gap, something hard slammed on the other side of the door. He almost went flying over, if it wasn't for his training at camp. He knew exactly what, or who, it was: Sadie Kane.

He pushed beck the door with all his might? Who knew that a girl like her could pack that much energy? His feet struggled to find traction in the wooden floor, and he had to push with his shoulders just to close the door again.

"Let me out!" came a voice from the other side. Nico locked the door again, thankful that the Jason ahd the idea to reverse the locks before he untied her. Sadie pounded on the door, and a loud thumping sound echoed all across the room.

"This is technically kidnapping, you know! If I ever get out, I'll report you to the police!" she threatened, but the door muffled her voice, making her threats seem les…threatening. Nico slid his back against the door. Oh gods, he thought. What have I gotten myself into?

He waited for a few minutes, sitting on the couch and sipping his coffee. He figured that anytime then, maybe Sadie would get tired after ranting for so long. Plus, he didn't give her breakfast. Yet.

When he didn't hear a sound coming from the basement, he silently walked over and rapped his hand on the door. "Are you done yet? 'Cause if you aren't, I'd be happy to wait."

No answer came.

Nico smiled. She must've wasted all her energy by now. Nico calmly went back to the table, grabbed her breakfast, and walked back to the door. He unlocked and turned the knob, pushing his weight against the wood as to be prepared for any surprises, but none came. Smirking, Nico opened the door fully, only to be faced with a very, very angry Sadie Kane, holding a baseball bat.

Nico was too stunned to react. She tricked him?

"Yaah!" Sadie swiped the baseball bat at him with all her might. Had he been a second too late, she would've brained him in the head, which would not feel good. He ducked, and the bat swung inches above his head. Instead, it hit the door. Nico glanced upward for a second, and saw that the door had cracked. He couldn't imagine how he would look like if that had hit.

Sadie prepared to swing the bat again, but this time Nico was prepared. Using his free hand, he caught the bat, and he shoved the food he was holding with his other hand right into Sadie's face.

Sadie stumbled backwards, and tripped on the staircase. Just as she was about to fall down, Nico grabbed her wrist.

"Let me go!" she demanded. "Get your hands off me!"

"Unless you want to have a severe head concussion, and possibly have every bone in your body broken, you really wouldn't want me to do that." Nico quipped.

He pulled Sadie up with relative ease. Her body had been light, and his muscles have grown thanks to camp, so she felt lighter than a feather.

But instead of releasing her, he turned her around, and gave her a huge bear hug. "Hey, what do you-"

She gasped as Nico lifted her off her feet. Sadie gasped at his sudden actions, and Nico went down the stairs, Sadie in tow. He locked the door from the outside, thinking that he could just shadow-travel outside.

Nico mentally slapped himself in the face. Why didn't he think of that? He could've just shadow-traveled inside, and then he'd have avoided the problem with the door easily!

He put Sadie down once they were on the bottom step. She hastily pushed herself away from him as soon as he unlocked his arms, and went to the farthest corner of the room.

"Please don't hurt me." She pleaded to him. "Just leave me alone."

Nico was confused. Why would she think that he would hurt her? He then started to notice the little things that he didn't before: the bruises on her arms, the redness on her cheeks, and the look of fright that the girl had on her eyes. She curled into a ball, her knees to her chin and her arms hugging her legs, and squeezed herself even farther away from him, like she was trying to hide from him.

Nico made a pushing motion with his hands. "It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just here to look after you, okay?"

Nico wondered what had happened to her here. Then he remembered Jason's last words to him. I fixed it.

Nico's eyes widened in realization. "Did-did Jason hurt you?" he asked her. Nico crossed his fingers. Please say no…please say no…

The girl didn't answer; instead, she just nodded her head slowly. Nico saw a lone tear make its way down her chin. He didn't approach the girl; he was too afraid of him. So instead, he grabbed a chair that had probably been used by Jason, and sat in the center of the room, keeping his eyes trained on her. He faced the chair in her direction; so technically, his eyes were always trained on her.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Nico's head. He stood up abruptly from his chair, which caught Sadie's attention. "Be right back. Don't…go anywhere."

She glared at him. "Where am I supposed to go, genius?"

Nico chuckled. He saw what Jason had meant by a sharp tongue. But still, he could see that the girl was still frightened of him. He shadow-traveled out of the room, and straight into the kitchen. The harpies were not pleased at all to see him, but he ignored them.

He grabbed a plate, and swiped a few pieces of toast, a glass of orange juice, and some cereal. Demeter must be really proud of him right now.

He shadow-traveled back to Sadie, who he was surprise to see was still in the same position as before, only she had been staring at the spot where he disappeared.

"How-how did you do that?" she asked nervously. Nico just shrugged. He would not be revealing his secrets yet.

He handed her the plate. "Eat." He said.

Sadie looked at the food skeptically, then at him. Nico chuckled a little. "Seriously, eat. You look like you haven't eaten in days." He placed the plate in front of her, and walked back to the chair.

Sadie took the plate reluctantly. "That's because the last guy ate all my food." She murmured.

Nico looked at her in disbelief. "Really?" he leaned forward on his seat. "Tell me, what else did he do?"

Sadie only glared at him, but Nico thought it wasn't that scary with toast in her mouth. Sadie swallowed. "So what? You could repeat all of them?" she accused.

"No!" Nico exclaimed. He hadn't even thought of that! "I just, you know, wanted to know."

"Well I'm not telling." Sadie said stubbornly like a three-year old. She shifted position, sitting cross-legged, and crossed her arms while glaring at Nico murderously.

"You know, I could do a lot more than disappear." Nico said. "So you might want to reconsider. What did he do to you?"

Sadie's brave and stubborn demeanor disappeared at Nico's words. Nico noticed the girl flinch a little. Is she really that afraid of us?

Nico got up from his chair, and started walking towards her. Instantly, the traces of Sadie's stubbornness vanished in an instant.

"Get-get away!" she stuttered, grabbing the nearest object, which happened to be a broken flashlight, and threw it at Nico. Nico dodged it with ease.

Sadie grabbed blindly at another thing, only this time, Nico noticed it was a rat.

"Aahhhh!" Sadie screamed in surprise as the rat wriggled out of her grip. She threw it away, and the rat scampered to safety. Sadie suddenly flung herself to Nico, who was surprised at both the action, and the impact.

"Whoa!" his arms immediately wrapped against Sadie's thin frame. His entire face blushed at the gesture.

Sadie seemed to realize what she just did, since she put her hands on his chest, and promptly pushed him away. "Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"Uhm, yeah. Maybe just the spur of the moment?" Nico suggested. He wiped his hands on his pants on instinct.

"Probably. Let's just…never talk about that again, got it?" she asked sharply, stabbing a finger at Nico's chest.

Nico was amazed at how she can turn from damsel-in-distress to Xena-Warrior-princess in less than five seconds. "Uhuh." He nodded his head.

Sadie sighed. "So, uh, you're Nico, right?"

"Yes, why?" Nico asked curiously.

"The man in the wheelchair told me that you saved my life. Is that true?" she asked. Nico flinched visibly at the memory of Lamia.

"I was just passing by." He said nonchalantly, thinking that if he could be vague enough, he could avoid the more personal questions.

Instead of saying "Thank You!" or "You're my savior!", Sadie pointed at him accusingly. "You kidnapped me!"

"No I didn't!" Nico protested. "I practically saved your life! Well, technically Will healed you, but I brought you here in the first place!"

"Well, I didn't need any saving!" Sadie put her hands to her hips, and stared Nico down. "I was doing fine by myself, until you came along."

Nico scoffed. "Fine? You call being nearly eaten by Lamia fine?"

"Who's Lamia?" Sadie asked curiously. "The arrow-firing, bra-wearing snake-woman?"

"Duh."

Sadie rolled her eyes. "Did anybody ever teach you how to talk to girls?"

"No. But dad did teach me how not to treat one. Is that okay?" he asked sarcastically.

"Pessimistic much?"

"It comes with being Hades' son."

Sadie backed up against the wall, again. "Whoa, hold up. Hades is you dad? That's it! You people are nutters! I want to go back wherever street you plucked me off, now!"

"I'm telling the truth!" Nico argued. "How else could you explain the shadow-travel?"

"Shadow-travel?" Sadie raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. You know, appearing and disappearing anywhere through shadows? They're powers exclusive only to children of Hades."

Sadie's jaw dropped. "Hades? As in the Greek god Hades? But that's impossible! They're like, fake, right?"

Nico glanced upwards, sure that Zeus would smite them for calling the gods fake. When the ceiling remained intact, Nico blew out a sigh of relief. "Don't call them that." He hissed. "They might get offended."

"Hades is a bloody fake!" Sadie screamed instead.

Nico put his hand on her mouth to shut her up, but it was too late.

"YOU DARE INSULT ME!" his dad's voice rang through the room. Hades appeared in a cloud of darkness, his murderous gaze trained on Sadie.

"Dad!" Nico gasped, trying to shield Sadie with his own body. He knew that his father tended to be brutal at times, but no matter what, he wouldn't let Sadie get hurt the way Jason hurt her.

"Get out of the way, son." Hades growled. Nico shook his head firmly, and stood in front of Sadie bravely.

"I'm not going to let you hurt her, dad." He said.

Hades groaned, and with one flick of his hand, Nico was sent flying into an empty crate.

Nico moaned in pain. He didn't expect his dad to do that. Okay, well maybe a little.

"NO!" Nico heard Sadie's cries. His vision was still blurry, but he could make out his father's hands hitting Sadie's body.

On instinct, he launched himself between his father and Sadie, and Hades' punch hit him squarely in the cheek. Sadie looked at him incredulously.

"Get out of the way boy!" hades ordered. "I need to teach this Osiris spawn a lesson!"

Nico wrapped her arms around Sadie protectively. He glared at his dad. "Dad. Get out. Now." He didn't know what he was doing, but he really felt overprotective of this girl. "Before I kick your butt outta here."

"You would dare fight a god?" Hades yelled.

"Yes." Nico said bravely. "Now get, before I punch you back for hitting me." He glared up at his father, who was trying with all his might not to kill his only son.

"I will…leave." He spat. "But remember this, Kane. You will pay for you insolence, one way or another." With that, he cloaked himself in shadows, and melted into the wall.

Nico sighed in relief. He hugged Sadie even tighter. Oh gods, she was actually crying.

"Shush, he's gone now. I won't let him hurt you again." Nico said to the girl comfortingly. Sadie sobbed even harder, and actually leaned on his shoulder.

"It's just…the blonde guy…he did the same thing…" she cried even harder. Nico stroked her back, and continued to make shushing noises, trying to calm her down.

Nico couldn't believe it. Was Jason really that heartless? He made a mental note to punch him in the face next time he saw him.

"It's alright, I'm here. You're safe with me." Nico promised. "No one will hurt you again. I promise."

"Why are you so nice to me?" Sadie sniffled.

"I- it's because you're my friend." Nico answered. He mentally slapped himself. He almost said "I love you" to her!

"My friend." Sadie repeated.

Nico nodded. "Yes. Your friend."

He released her, and stood up. "I guess you must be tired. I'll just go over there," he pointed to the other side of the room, "and you can sleep."

As he started to walk away, he felt a hand grab his wrist, he look down, only to meet Sadie's dazzling blue eyes. Her eyes were pleading, and Nico almost wanted to kiss her at the sight.

She tugged him down. Nico obeyed, though he didn't know what was going on.

Sadie leaned against his chest. "Please, stay with me."

Aww! They're bonding! Well Sadico fans, REVIEW!