Nico's POV:

I'm an idiot.

That was the one thought running through his head as his supposed 'friend' has him tied up and thrown well, somewhere. He couldn't see out of the blindfold.

He hadn't even had a chance- he'd turned the corner, and immediately gotten jumped by two incredibly burly men. He'd thrown punches, desperately trying to escape, but in the end, they'd won.

Coming here had to be the stupidest thing Nico had ever done. Now he was kidnapped, and no one knew where'd he'd gone. Wait, that wasn't quite right. Will had known where he'd gone. Maybe it hadn't been such a stupid idea to tell him after all.

One of the captors pressed a handkerchief (Seriously, who even used those anymore?) soaked threw with some sweet smelling substance to his nose, and then everything went black.

Ow. Ow. Ow, ow, and ow.

Nico winced as he woke up. His head felt like it was being pounded with a hammer, and his mouth felt like he'd been chewing wool. His body ached all over.

Groaning, Nico turned over to find that he was stuck in a small holding cell, with the only light being from the tiny window above. There was no furniture whatsoever. He didn't even have a straw mat to sleep on. Just cement, cement, and cement.

Joy.

A quick check showed that his hands were not tied, or his feet. No security camera was in sight. Whoever was holding him sure had a lot of confidence he wouldn't escape. Nico found that good and annoying at the same time. On one hand, he wasn't some defenceless kid, heshould be worth tying up, right? On the other hand, it would definitely make escaping a whole lot easier.

Speaking of escape, this was his chance to prove his kidnapper wrong.

You won't know what hit you, Nico thought smugly. Now, as for an exit...?

Nico tried to stand up and was immediately hit by an onslaught of pain. Okay, maybe he needed to take it slow. But not too slow, obviously- it wasn't like he wanted to be trapped here forever. Maneuvering his arms beneath him, he slowly tried to push himself up. The first time he epically failed, but the second time he managed to get himself into a sitting position (Even if it did cause a stabbing headache...).

Rubbing his temple, Nico waited for a few minutes before attempting to stand up. Pushing his back against the wall, his leg muscles burned as they tried to support him.

Nico stood.

And fell two seconds later.

Nico let loose a torrent of choice words that his mother would definitely never have approved of. Though it made him feel better, it didn't change the fact that his situation was pretty much the same, except now his butt hurt. Great.

The second time, Nico actually managed to get up (and stay up). Slowly, using the wall for support, he made his way around the room once.

Something landed in his cell.

Nico snapped around only to find a towel. One sniff confirmed it was soaked in the same liquid that his kidnappers had used to knock him out. He cupped his hands in front of his nose and tried to breathe threw his mouth. It worked for a few seconds, but eventually the world started to fade away around him as he felt himself losing consciousness...

For the second time in a day (Or had a day passed already?), Nico woke up to a pounding headache. "Ow!"

A certain blond's head appeared above him, a worried frown on his face. "You okay?"

Nico blinked, wondering if he was seeing things. "Will?"

"Hi." Will raised a hand in greeting, like nothing was wrong with this scene. That was the last straw for Nico.

"The Hades?" He yelled, wincing when that made him feel like he'd just ran 20 kilometres without stopping. He lowered his voice. "Why are you here? When did you get here? How did you get here? Who brought you here? What are you doing here?"

"You might as well throw in 'where are you doing here'," Will said. "Except that wouldn't make sense. More like where are we- which I don't think I know. I'm here because I followed you, obviously."

Nico half-wanted to strangle the boy, but then his last sentence registered and Nico's thoughts came to a halt. "You what?"

"Followed you," Will shrugged as if it was no big deal. "The note said come to the local supermarket, right? So I did, and for some reason, your captors knew I was following. They caught me, too."

"I wonder why," For the first time since he'd woken up, Nico observed Will's appearance thoroughly. "You're wearing all black. Which would be great for nighttime, but's completely useless in the daytime. And no offence, but I doubt you went about following me in the right way. Did you just run all the way there screaming my name?"

"Uh...I wore mask."

Nico face-palmed. "I'll take that as a yes and give you a bonus point for stupidity. You're hopeless. If someone is in trouble, you don't follow screaming. You, I don't know, call the authorities, call your friends, but you don't do that!"

Will gave Nico a dirty look. "Says the person who doesn't trust police. And didn't you go after your sister?"

"At least I wasn't that obvious about it!" Nico hissed, glaring. "And at least some policemen are competent enough to find their rear ends with a mirror. I'm not sure you can find your face with one."

Will flushed red. "I was worried okay?" He said, his tone softer. "With you gone, I felt useless. I don't like feeling useless. I was supposed to help you heal. But if you ran off, I couldn't."

Nico tried to intervene, but Will pushed on.

"Besides, I don't like not being able to heal," Will confessed. "Healing's the only thing I'm good at- if I can't do it, it makes me wonder what I can do."

"A lot," Nico said, strangely confident that he was right. "You're amazing, Will. Not many people would miss me if I vanished, much less go after me."

"I'm sure some people would," Will argued. "Your cousins, for one. And their friends. And me. I'd miss you!"

"But that's only-" Nico paused. "Wait, what...?"

"I care," Will said hotly, blushing madly. "I mean, I would. Come after you. Obviously. Since I'm here and all that, so..."

"Um..." Nico wished Will hadn't said what he did. After all, the only reason he'd come for Nico was because it was his job to keep tabs on him, right? Nico tried to fight the sudden warm feeling in his chest. He wasNico di Angelo, not some girl that practically fainted whenever the guy she liked looked at her. Not that Nico liked Will or anything. That would be stupid. Incredibly stupid, dumb, and impossible, because Will would definitely never like him back. Or would he? Uh, why was he thinking about this sort of thing?

In desperation, he searched his mind for any other topic they could talk about, reaching a particular sentence Will had said that had been weirdly worded. Wait a moment... "You think you don't know."

Will blinked. "Huh?"

"You said, 'I don't think I know' when I asked you where we were." Nico said, mind swirling. "So that means you have a guess."

"Well, sort of." Will shrugged. "Okay, how did they get you here?"

"What do you mean? They drugged me and hauled me off, obviously!"

"That's what I meant," said Will. "They drugged you because it was part of a plan. They meant to do that, since they knew you were coming. But me, on the other hand..."

"They didn't know," Nico said. "They weren't expecting someone to follow- so they didn't drug you?"

"Kinda. Not properly. I think they only brought enough for you. When they held the handkerchief to my nose, it only affected me for a while. But after that, I just closed my eyes and pretended to be unconscious."

"So you know where we are?" Nico leaned forward eagerly.

Will shook his head. "No, but I have an idea. When I came to, two men- our kidnappers, I think- were talking to this woman whom they called Arachne."

"Like the one from Greek Mythology?"

"Yeah, I guess," Will continued the story. "So she went up to them and said, 'Do you have the boy?'. You, I think, because then one of the guys said, 'Yes, we got him, but we also got another. Blond dude, was yelling the kid's name. We had no choice but to subdue him.'. Arachne wasn't pleased, said something about killing me off- I admit, that got me pretty scared for a second- but then one of the guys said, 'I think we should wait for Gaea's opinion on the matter. Better to check than to upset the Earth Mother'. Do you know what that meant?"

"Maybe," The wheels in Nico's head were turning. "Are you sure they said Gaea?"

"Yes. Do you know her?"

"No," Nico replied, though for some reason, the name triggered a reaction in him. "Unless you mean the one from Greek Mythology. She was the goddess of the earth and wife of Ouranos."

There was something else, he was sure. For some reason, the name was familiar to him in another way. He just couldn't place it...

"Wasn't Kronos also her kid?" Will asked. "I mean the Titan, not the real one. Well, then the girl named Arachne said something about-"

Will continued with what he'd heard, but Nico wasn't listening, not even when Will said the location he thought they were in. He could repeat it for Nico later. Right now, Nico's brain was in overdrive, taking memories he had and placing them together...

A women wearing black from head to toe, and single tear on her cheek as she placed flowers on a grave-

Percy, retelling the story of the Kronos incident. "Kronos said that he liked my name, apparently his family also had a thing for Greek myths- like I'd care, who in Olympus cares if he's dead?"

Will, here with him now, saying, "Wasn't Kronos also her kid?"

And just like that, the pieces clicked. The women at the gravesite. The Greek names. Kronos. Kronos, the son of the woman- no, Gaea- grieving over his death. A grudge that needed to be payed. His kidnapping.

"Will," Nico gasped. "I've got it. We have to leave now."

"What do you mean?" Will looked incredulous. "I know that! We have to get out of here before this 'Gaea' person hurts us!"

"She won't," Nico said. "Well, if I'm right, she'll kill us eventually- but she'll make it painless. The only one she'll hurt is Percy. Because he killed her son. Don't you get it? I'm bait, but I'm not the one she wants. Which is why we need to escape. Soon. Before she sends my cousin a ransom note and he shows up for his own funeral!"

And Percy would show up if Gaea claimed Nico's life was on the line. Nico didn't doubt that one bit. He knew his cousin. Percy would be selfless- the moron, and come to save Nico's life.

But if that happened, he'd pay with his.

Hi everyone!

*Gets hit in the face with a pie*

Ow...sorry for not updating in a while. I absolutely loathe this chapter,-it sucked. I am horrible at these sort of scenes. The only thing I can write is humour or romance, I swear. Hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner.

Readers: Hopefully?

Me: Hehehe, I'll try...

*Gets hit in the face with a rotten banana*

*Throws hands up and runs away*

DON'T KILL MEEEEEEEEEEEE!