This chapter is a spoiler for TBM and ToN. Feel free to skip it if you haven't read the books yet. I'll have another chapter up this weekend.

So Jason's death was one of the spoilers I knew before even reading PJO and I didn't cry while reading it but I've been sad about it after finishing ToA, especially since Nico felt Jason die and was in denial about it.

This chapter, as the title says, is the moment Nico felt Jason's death. I've looked around the internet and it didn't say much on what Nico goes through when he feels someone die so I'm working with the little information I got and a whole lot of artistic liberty. It's probably not as dramatic as this but he was close with Jason. Call this an AU if you want. Just go with it.

Story #8: The Moment Nico Felt It

Nico was leaning against a tree in the shade after having helped put out of flames from today's archery session with Chiron. While the other campers were playing their choice of activities, whether it was monster training or continued marksman skills practice, everyone was occupied. He digs the toe of his sneaker into the ground, twisting around a clump of grass for no apparent reason other than he had nothing better to do. Nico looks up and sees Will on first-aid patrol with some of his siblings. Their eyes meet and Nico's posture straightens and he steps out from his spot to approach to his boyfriend. He can't be that busy, can he?

The moment Nico's body hits the sun, he feels something impale him between his shoulder blades. It wasn't an insect's sting since it felt like something sharp pierced through his skin to stab him. Nico's body tenses and he stops. He looks over his shoulder and nothing's there that could've caused that sensation. Nico figures that it's nothing, probably his body adjusting to moving again after leaning against that tree for so long, but he knows something's off because pain exists to let people know something's wrong.

And something definitely is wrong because the pain between his shoulder blades feels like a weapon's lodged in his back. Nico bends his arm and continues to peer over his shoulder to try and scratch at it but nothing's there which causes him to panic.

Nico looks straight ahead, trying to find Will but his vision slows. He catches Will's expression looking at him confused as if asking what are you doing? Other campers are running amuck while training but they're in slow-motion, blurring at the edges right before his eyes. Nico holds his breath as the pain in his back burns.

He isn't sure about this sensation but the last time he felt anything remotely close to it was when he felt Bianca die. Everything around him paused and his body jolted as if he was being electrocuted. Then he couldn't breathe despite being in an open space. At the time, he didn't understand it, but then he learned that Bianca died and it destroyed him. He didn't understand it back then, but then he grew accustomed to his powers as the Prince of the Underworld and everything became stronger, more intense.

"No…" Nico mutters to himself, unsure if he said it in English or Italian. They sounded the same.

Nico starts to tremble, his lungs constricting as the pain in his back scalds his insides. Images of everyone he knows and cares about flash through his mind and his whirling through when he last saw them and what they could be up to now, and if they could be the one he's feeling pass through him. It can't be Will because he's right there, starting to run over to him with a worried look on his face. Will is moving as slow as everyone else but is by his side as if he was at normal speed.

Nico flinches when Will touches his shoulder, his touch cold against his burning body. Will tilts Nico's chin up, forcing him to look in his eyes and Nico stiffens, his eyes wide in shock as they well up with tears. He slumps forwards, wrapping his arms around himself. Will puts a hand on his shoulder again and his side, trying to console and help him.

"Nico, what is it?" Will whispers. "What's wrong?"

Nico's mouth is dry but even if it wasn't, he isn't sure how to describe it.

He can't breathe. His lungs, heart - everything feels like it's pouring out blood from the hypothetical puncture on his back.

Nico tries to breathe through his mouth but his throat feels like sandpaper and his attempt at a breath was choppy. He wasn't sure he got any air but when he tried to exhale, he heard a voice ringing in the back of his mind.

"GO! Remember!"

Whiplash hits Nico as reality returns to normal speed. His body straightens as he realizes who he's feeling. Jason. The first person he considered a friend. The one who supported him in his truest moment of weakness. Many prickling sensations hit him at once, all over his body from every direction. This time, they feel like sharp stings. The pain is overwhelming and Nico crumbles to his knees. A raw animalistic cry comes out as a scream, inflaming his dry throat. Nico feels Will on the ground beside him, trying to get a hold of him but Nico keeps pushing away.

Another big impalement from behind gets him again from behind and Nico screams as he falls on his side, crumpling into a fetal position. Nico trembles, feeling winded, as Will rolls him on his back, his body blocking the sun from his face. Nico's eyes settle, his body now feeling numb but nearly exploding. Will looks away for a moment, glancing upwards. Nico's eyes follow Will's gaze and they fall on skeletons Nico didn't know he summoned. They flood the campground but the other campers are handling them.

Will cranes his body over Nico protectively. He screams something that Nico couldn't catch but then he sees Chiron standing above them with Mr. D of all people. Chiron and Mr. D look at Will, asking what happened as if Will would know the answer. Chiron's firing flaming arrows at the skeleton as Mr. D keeps his gaze on Nico and Will has a hand on Nico's cheek. Will's hand is shaky and his eyes are glassy.

When something bad happens, people want their loved ones to be around and to act like themselves, to be familiar with the strange course of their lives. It doesn't make sense for Nico to pretend to be himself when his mind is overpowered with this overwhelming sensation he can't explain. It doesn't make sense and he needs Will to act like himself because he's someone who loves him and wants him to be more than okay. Will makes him happy and Nico isn't sure he could ever recover from this.

Was Jason with his loved ones?

"No, no, no…" Nico says before breaking into a sob. "Will, tell me it isn't true."

"What?" Will asks.

"Jason's dead."

Will's lips part and his face drops. He says nothing and looks up at Chiron as if he knew the answer but even the centaur looks distraught. Nico doesn't look up at Chiron or Mr. D because he squints his eyes shut as voices fill his mind. He sees flashes of Jason in battle, slumping to the ground. His body is bloodied and stabbed many times over. Dead. He hears a scream from someone he can't pick out and then the voices come back. He remembers hearing them in Tartarus when he trekked along, taunting, teasing, and haunting him as he passed.

Nico puts his hands against his ears, resisting the urge to crush his head like a can but the voices don't go away since they're in his head and he's trapping them there.

Then everything in his mind pauses and goes silent. The chaos is now blank.

Nico's eyes shoot open and he sees Mr. D holding his head on top of his glowing with his reddish-purple aura. Nico's trapped in Mr. D's trance as his body grows limp and he blacks out.

My poor Nico. Also, I miss my, as someone online called him, "white flour boy."