Another Chapter. Now, Jason, Malcolm, and Percy may be OOC, but Percy is distraught about New Rome, and what happened to Malcolm and Jason will be explained later, for all those who keep saying that I don't do him justice. Trust me, it's all part of the story.

Well, Enjoy! Oh, and I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Rick Riordan does.

Sadie

Sadie was woken abruptly by someone's insistent shaking.

"What!" She half-demanded, half-groaned, as she reluctantly pulled off the covers.

To her surprise, she was surrounded by people she knew and people she definitely hadn't seen before. There was Nico, who was giving a very worried look, Chiron, still as impassive as ever, Annabeth, her gray eyes boring straight to Sadie's soul, and Thalia, being well, Thalia. There was another girl wearing a purple toga, and another guy with jet black hair, sea-green eyes, and a huge scowl on his face, like he detests Sadie's very presence. And to his right was…

Oh no. Sadie thought. Not him. Anything but him.

Jason was glowering down at her, his arms crossed. His gaze was permanently fixed on her, like he was expecting her to bolt at any moment. His foot tapped against the wooden floor of Nico's cabin impatiently.

Jason turned to the guy beside him, the one with jet-black hair. "She's all yours, Percy."

Percy took a step forward, but Nico hastily stepped in his way. "Don't do anything stupid." He said menacingly.

"I won't do anything to hurt her." Percy promised. But Sadie looked into his eyes and she saw what his eyes clearly conveyed. Not.

"We're going to…ask you a couple of questions. Answer them as truthfully as you can, and this will all be over before you even know it." Annabeth explained. Sadie can sense that Annabeth had planned something other to say than ask you a couple of questions. She probably wanted to say, torture you until we get what we want. She glanced at Percy's eyes, cold and unforgiving, and she knew that she was in for a bad day.

"Okay." Sadie uttered.

Nico

Whatever they were planning, Nico was sure it wouldn't be pretty. At least, for Sadie, that is.

Jason grabbed her arm roughly, and pulled her out of bed. He steered her to the Athena Cabin, where Malcolm and the other senior Athena campers were waiting.

Nico paled. The Athena kids could pick apart her brain without breaking a sweat. These kids could give Nico chills down his spine whenever they would glare at him with their intense grey eyes, especially since that time with the "spider incident". Being a son of Hades, Nico's mind had grown strong, mostly because he would've gone mad staying with his godly family if his mind didn't. But Sadie? They could get the answer out of her within minutes.

Nico stayed beside Sadie as she was dragged (Jason preferred the term "guided") to cabin 6. Nico noticed that she didn't put up much of a fight, whereas she would've at least made a desperate bid for freedom if it had been him who was "guiding" her.

That was when Nico started to notice the fine little details that he didn't earlier. The way her eyes were looking at the ground. The way her hands were trembling slightly, not enough to be obvious, but enough to be noticed by Nico.

It painfully reminded him a few days ago when he comforted her in the basement. Strangely, she was acting exactly the same way.

Nico thought for a moment. What were the similarities in both situations? Sadie was being hurt, for one. Then, there was the fact that he was there both times, but he dismissed the thought. There was no way in his mind that he would ever hurt Sadie in any way, shape, or form. Then, there was Jason…

Nico mentally slapped himself in the face. That was it!

Quickly grabbing Sadie's other arm, he yanked her away gently from Jason's grip.

"Are you okay?" She whispered softly in her ear, loud enough for only her to hear. She nodded her head slowly, still looking at the ground. Nico blew out a sigh of relief.

Jason, on the other hand, looked like he didn't know whether to be surprised or pissed. He glared at Nico, who glared back at him with the same ferocity.

"What was that for di Angelo?" He asked.

"You were hurting her." Nico said plainly.

"It's what she deserved." Jason said.

That statement made Nico's blood boil. "She doesn't deserve it and you know it!" he said. "Sadie is an innocent girl! How can you be so blind to see that? She hasn't done anything, Jason, and all you do is treat her like some sort of criminal!"

Nico was aware that everybody, Sadie included, was looking at him like he just came from the moon.

"How can you say that she is innocent?" Jason growled. "She was the reason that the Egyptians attacked. She is the reason that Camp Half-Blood is now in turmoil, and she is the reason why so many more innocent lives are dead!"

"It wasn't her fault I brought her here!" Nico tried to defend her poorly. "But I wasn't just going to let her stay in the middle of the road at midnight and let her die!"

Jason thought about this for a moment. "You're right." He looked at Nico straight in the eyes. "It's not her fault. At least, not entirely."

Before Nico could even ask what he meant, something in his mind already told him the answer.

They reached cabin six without any more interruptions. Inside, Malcolm was waiting, alone.

"I've been dying to try my psych degree on someone." Malcolm grinned evilly. "And it looks like I just got a volunteer." He turned to the rest of them. "Guys, don't take this badly, but I need to do this alone. Trust me, it's not gonna be pretty."

Nico was wondering what he meant, up until he saw what Malcolm had meant. But before he could complain, Percy pushed him outside.

"I'm gonna go for a walk." Jason said, and marched out into the forest.

When he was out of earshot, Nico leaned over to Percy, who was beside him. "I hate him."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Why? He seems fine to me."

"Yeah." Nico kept glaring at his retreating form. "That's what I thought too, until she hurt Sadie."

"You seem to like her. A lot." Percy stated.

That made Nico jump backward in surprise. "Wha-what? Who told you that?" Nico wasn't sure what his feelings towards her were yet, but he was sure that there was something.

"No one you know of." Percy said, smirking.

Nico waited in front of the Athena cabin until after dinner. All the time, he kept hearing faint whispers, probably coming from Malcolm, and…nothing.

That got Nico worried. At least, he should have been hearing Sadie's voice within the cabin. But there was nothing.

When he couldn't take it anymore, he did the one thing he knew perfectly how to do: he kicked the door open, Nico-style.

Malcolm was taken aback by his sudden intrusion. "Nico? What are you doing? We've almost had her!"

Nico took a good look at Sadie, and found out the reason why she had been quiet. Tears were flowing from her eyes, her hair was a rat's nest, and multiple cut marks adorned her body.

Nico gave Malcolm a disgusted look. Before Malcolm could even say a word, Nico's hand was already flying, straight for his face.

Malcolm ducked at the last second, and Nico completely missed. But the son of Hades was not without surprises. He willed the shadows to grab the son of Athena, and threw him to the wall. He followed with a fist to the gut, and Malcolm went down, sprawling on the floor.

Nico rushed over to Sadie. She was worse than he had originally thought. For the most part, she was only half-conscious, and there were more cuts then she had let on.

Nico couldn't believe that Malcolm, of all people, would do this. It just wasn't…him.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out." He reassured her. With one expert swing of his sword, the ropes binding Sadie's wrists were cut in half.

She tittered a little, before slowly leaning to one side and falling over. Nico, ever the gentleman, caught her before she could fall, and carried her bridal-style out of the room.

Just as he exited the door, someone cleared their throat beside him. He jerked his head sideways, and came face-to-face with Jason.

"I'm taking her to the infirmary." Nico said.

"You will do no such thing." Jason ordered. "She's not going anywhere until we get the location of the First Nome out of her. Now take her back inside, and wake up Malcolm. He'll finish the job."

Nico refused. "She's beaten black and blue, and she's bleeding Jason. She will die if you keep this up. It's a miracle Percy even agreed to this."

Jason smirked. "He did say that he will get the information out of her by any means necessary, did he not?"

The worst part of all was, he was right.

"Put her back in, di Angelo." Jason said, more forcefully this time.

"She's going to the infirmary." Nico insisted.

"Not until after we're done."

"No. She needs medical attention, Jason."

"Just do what you're told, Nico." Jason said, irritated.

"But Jason-"

Sadie shuffled in Nico's arms. She nuzzled her head in his chest, which made giving her back to Malcolm that much harder.

Finally, Nico made his decision. "No. She is going back to the infirmary, and when she gets better, I will take her back to the First Nome, myself."

Jason merely shrugged at his words. "Suit yourself." He snapped his fingers, and campers, fully armed to the teeth, were surrounding them in seconds. Nico recognized most of them from the Apollo cabin, and a few from the Ares cabin.

The corners of Jason's lips tugged into a smile. "Campers, it seems like Mr. di Angelo here is planning on escaping with our ah, guest."

Nico's eyes widened at his words. "Whoa, guys! Wait up, do you really think that I would do that?"

Will Solace seemed to be uncertain. "But from the looks of things-"

Nico shook his head. "Look, this is just one big misunderstanding-"

Get him!" Jason shouted. The Apollo campers started to pull back the bowstrings, arrows nocked.

Without thinking, Nico pulled the shadows around him, ordering it to swallow them both, and together they plunged into the darkness.

"Sadie," he whispered to her ear. "Don't worry, I'll protect you, no matter what the cost."

Well, I won't be able to update for a few days, or probably a week. But thanks to everyone who read this story, took the time to read it, and took the time to review!