The Winner Takes It All - gho5t_k1ng - Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

“Nico, come on” Bianca whispered in the boy's ear, shaking his shoulder and pulling him up to a sitting position. Nico grumbled, opening his eyes wearily to look at his sister, she had already washed and dressed in a dingy button up and long brown skirt, like she might as well have been up for hours. “You have to get dressed” she sighed, tossing a button up shirt and slacks at him. It took him a moment to remember what day it actually was, but the realization hit him like a train. Reaping day. “sh*t, right” he muttered and stumbled out of bed, grabbing his clothes and carrying them over to the wash basin. Bathing and getting dressed didn't take long, given the fact that sitting in cold water wasn't very enjoyable, but he still had to look nice, nicer than he looked any other day of the year. He had the day off today, though, he'd much rather be down in the mines than standing in the town square, crossing his fingers and toes and praying to any god that might be listening to spare him that year.

“Hurry up would you? We need to be there early to sign in” The matron of their group home hissed as she passed by him and Bianca, her hair set in its usual braided bun. Several of the other kids stood practically glued to the walls, mostly the 12 year olds who weren’t even sure if they were going into the reaping bowl for the first time, but Nico knew that most of them would be fine, half of them had never even taken out tesserae, meaning that there was only the chance of 1 slip of paper in the bowl with their name in it, they were as safe as a demigod could possibly be, given the circ*mstances. But, not everyone was that lucky. A boy, probably 18, stood in one corner talking quietly with 3 other kids, varying from ages 16 to 12, he looked like he was ready to crumple to the floor and die right there to get out of reaping. Nico recognized him from the mines, James was his name he was pretty sure, he had a strong build, good for the mines, good for fighting.

James’ name had to be in that reaping bowl at least 30 times, 6 times for every year since he was 12, and another 24 for every year that he'd taken out 4 tesserae for him and his siblings. It was people like that, selfless people like James, that made Nico really hate the gods up in Mount Olympus, whether his father was up there or not. They'd already taken his own mother 5 years ago, making him and Bianca property of the district, and then, because taking demigods mortal parents and forcing almost all of the districts to live in poverty wasn't enough, every year, to “keep their children in check”, they held the annual Hunger Games, an event where 2 demigods from each district, between the ages of 12 and 20, were to be picked randomly and tossed into an arena to kill each other until one victor remained.

Sure, there were people with more slips in the reaping than him or James, but it didn't matter, the entire concept itself was evil, and the worst thing was, they broadcasted it for all of Mount Olympus and the districts to watch, so they could watch their children, their neighbors, their friends, get mercilessly killed on live television,

After another 5 minutes or so, everyone in the group home- about 25 kids- had made their way outside the large, dreary house, with Matron at the head, holding onto a few of the smaller children's hands while she led them all to the town square.

In a way, it was humiliating, walking to the square with everyone else, though Nico tried not to feel that way, Bianca hardly ever showed any discontent with it, he had to try to channel that. Matron got them signed in quickly, visibly thankful that none of her charges had decided to skip the reaping this year, there were big punishments for that kind of thing. And then, they were there, separated by age, waiting patiently for Iris, the Olympus representative, to come and pull the names.

Nico looked around, searching for Bianca in the section with the other 17 year olds, but it was no use, she was smaller than most of the other teenagers in the district, he supposed that was probably from working in a shop behind a counter and not doing something that built muscle, but he didn't blame her for having a “easy job” either.

“Hello District 12!” a feminine voice echoed off of the buildings as Iris, the rainbow goddess, stepped onto stage. She certainly looked the part, but not necessarily in a good way. Her hair was a mousy brown color, but had streaks of almost every color woven into it, piled high on her head in some sort of braided beehive, and there were so many flowers sticking out of it Nico worried that a swarm of bees might try to rush her. Her outfit was no better, the colors were so offensive to his eyes, he had to stare at the bleak gray of the courthouse behind her so as not to damage his corneas. “Lets go ahead and get this reaping started shall we! Now, I'm sure you all know what I'm going to say, but, may the odds be ever in your favor!” she squealed into the mic that was set up for her and scurried over to the large glass bowl filled nearly to the brim with the names of all of the demigod children. Not all of the children standing beside Nico were demigods, the mortal children between 12 and 20 had to stand there with them as well, even though they were completely safe, though that was probably so that the demigods wouldn't feel singled out.

Iris shoved her hand into the bowl, swirling it around for what felt like an eternity, before finally pulling 2 small strips of white paper out and walking back to the front of the stage. Using one hand, she carefully unfolded the slip and leaned closer to the mic, holding the paper out in front of her.

“Nico di Angelo!”

Nico felt his heart drop down to his feet, and was for once, thankful that he hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, because he surely would have been sick. He vaguely registered a sob come from 2 or so sections over as the other 15 year olds around him parted so he could make his way to the stage. “Oh well aren't you a cutie!” Iris said with a big smile as he climbed the stairs to stand by her, Nico noticed now, that she was not only appallingly dressed, but heavily perfumed as well, the scent making him feel sicker than ever. “And for the second tribute,” the goddess said as she unfolded the paper, her giant smile wavering just a bit, “ Bianca di Angelo!”

From up on stage, Nico could see Bianca clearly, the horrified look on her face as people parted for her. She stood there for a moment, frozen in her place, before a person behind her gave her a small push towards the front. Nicos throat constricted, how insensitive could you be? Here was Bianca, having to go to the Hunger Games with her own brother, and someone had the nerve to push her? Bianca obliged though, staring down at her feet as she walked up to the stage. Nico sincerely hoped that they would be able to get into the courthouse quickly so he could be sick in private before they were loaded onto the train to Mount Olympus.

“Well this is certainly a turn of events! But here are your tributes for the 89th Hunger Games district 12! Nico and Bianca di Angelo!” Iris kept her cheery demeanor and spread her hands towards them. Unlike in the richer districts, nobody clapped for this year's tributes, nobody was happy about this year's reaping, they never were, how could they? The richer districts almost always won, they trained hard, sometimes even volunteered to go to the games, not here in 12, everyone knew that he and Bianca wouldn't be making it back alive, no matter how many sponsors they got or how much training they were able to do.

As soon as they were ushered into the courthouse by peacekeepers, Bianca broke, rushing over to Nico and nearly tackling him to the ground in a hug. “I'm so sorry” she sobbed into his shoulder, and Nico felt tears fall down his own face as he held onto her. “Don't apologize,” he said quietly, wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Well children, we really must be going, you have to meet your mentor and get ready for the parade as soon as possible” Iris said behind them, sounding a bit uncomfortable with their displays of emotion. Bianca pulled away and wiped her eyes with her sleeve, “don't we get to say goodbye to people?” she said, looking back at the goddess, who looked even more uneasy. “Im… uhm.. Noone stepped forward and asked to say goodbye, I'm very sorry” Iris replied, much softer than Nico had ever heard her voice in all of the years she'd been officiating the reaping. Nico and Bianca nodded, both surprised but not shocked, who would've come to see them? Matron? She didn't truly care about them, not enough to say goodbye, as far as Nico knew, neither of them really had any friends, they just had each other, and now they were going to the games together, funny.

“You’re free to go ahead and shower and get changed before meeting your mentor, or I suppose you could wait. You'll meet your stylists when we get to Olympus and they’ll just repeat the process.” Iris spoke over her shoulder as they were escorted from the courthouse to the train station and onto the train, a machine more high-tech than anything Nico had ever seen. “I would like to take a shower” he mumbled, trying to take everything in once they stepped into the car, the main thing being the absolute mountain of food on one of the tables, and not just any food, olympian food. “Very well, your room is right down the hall I believe” Iris said, gesturing to the other side of the car.

The showers, Nico discovered, were very dangerous. He was shocked with how quickly the water went from warm to absolutely boiling, then freezing cold if you turned the nozzle too far, it was downright treacherous. By the time he got out, he felt like he'd completely burned off a layer of skin and chilled his bones. He dug around in the drawers of the dresser in his temporary room and eventually settled on a pair of black pants and a black t-shirt before heading back out to the communal area where Iris and Bianca were waiting, already eating the food set out for them.

Bianca had showered and changed too, though she didn't look nearly as rattled as he had been. She changed into a dark green skirt and gray blouse over it, which looked nice on her. When they were younger, she had this dark green cap that she wore all the time, but he couldn't remember what had happened to it in the past couple of years.

“Now, I'm sure you're both aware of the fact that there is no current living victor from district 12 to mentor you,” Iris started, dabbing the side of her mouth with a napkin. “But not to worry! Because Olympus has very generously provided you with a substitute. He’s never technically been in the games, but he's been around long enough to know a thing or two about the games. Minos?” the rainbow goddess looked over her shoulder as the door to the adjacent train car slid open and a positively ghostly man came trudging out. He was very tall and dressed in pure white robes, and there was a circlet of gold waved into his long white hair. “Hello children…” he said, looking down at them like he did not like what he saw. Nico silently wondered if Minos had volunteered for this position or if he'd been forced, he doubted it was the former.

“You two don't look very promising..” Minos grumbled, taking a seat across the table from the two siblings, helping himself to some of the food. “But, looks can be deceiving I suppose… What are your strengths?” he bit into a large roll and glared at them. “I’m good at archery and Nicos good at sword fighting” Bianca offered, taking an apple from a bowl of fruit and peeling it with a knife. Minos nodded, “that's.. good i suppose… but how good? Because almost anyone can fight with a sword and bow” Nico and Bianca exchanged a look that said ‘this guys a total prick’ but they supposed it was necessary, he didn't want to be here probably, and it wasn't like their district was really known for producing victors, that was, of course, why Minos was there in the first place. “Actually, it doesn't matter, you don't have much of a chance anyway” Minos said with a wave of his hand, turning his attention to a tv mounted in the corner of the room. “What's really important is the other tributes,” he said, reaching for the remote to turn on the replay of the reapings around the country.

“From District 1, you've got Hazel Levesque and Jason Grace. I'm sure you recognize that name. A couple years back, his older sister Thalia Grace won the games, then disappeared not long after the victory tour, now here he is going into the games. Thalia was ruthless in the arena, I expect that Jason will be no different” the TV showed a small dark skinned girl standing beside a large blond boy, neither of them seeming that upset with being reaped. “District 2 you have Reyna Ramírez-Arellano and Octavian, last name not provided.” A girl with long brown hair stood beside a tall, lanky boy that had an expression that made him seem like he'd already won the games. “Reyna's sister Hylla also won the games about 6 years back and disappeared just like Thalia Grace, hopefully, Reyna takes after her sister in the arena” Nico didn't see how that was something to hope for, considering that for him and Bianca, that was one other person that was very likely to have them impaled on the end of their sword. Octavian didn't look like much though, so that did give Nico some hope for the opponents this year, but not much.

For the rest of the train ride, they went through all of the tributes, only a handful of them actually sticking out to Nico: Leo Valdez from district 3, Percy Jackson from 4, Clarisse La Rue from 5, Annabeth Chase from 6, and a boy from district 11 named Will Solace that looked like he belonged up on Mount Olympus much more than the agriculture district.

“Your stylists are Zoë Nightshade and Deimos, the god of terror, so it's probably best to stay on his good side” Minos warned as the train began to slow just a bit. “Why are we slowing down?” Nico asked, looking over at the older man. “We are slowing down,” Minos started, looking out the window, “Because we are now pulling up to Mount Olympus.”

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Bianca and Nico rushed over to the window, pressing their hands against the glass as they pulled into the train station. Crowding the streets were all sorts of immortals, gods- olympic or minor, and just about any mythical creature you could imagine. And they were all looking at them, waving and shouting inaudible things, dressed in the most ridiculous outfits imaginable. “Do you think we’ll be dressed up like that?” Bianca murmured, looking over at Nico out of the corner of her eye. “Gods I hope not..” he replied, detaching himself from the glass and walking back down the hallway to his room. He didn't see the appeal in looking at the gaudy outfits of the gods, and besides, he wanted to go back and get his clothes from home before people came to scoop them away to be thrown into an incinerator or something.

While he scooped up his shirt and pants from earlier in the day, he spotted something glinting on the bedside table. He walked over to the table and saw that it was his ring, something he'd almost completely forgotten that he'd had on that day in the heat of the moment. The ring was given to him by his mother before she went missing, it's in the shape of a skull, and was quite tarnished by now, but he still tried to wear it every day, even under his gloves in the mines. He was glad he hadn’t forgotten it in the room , considering now it would probably serve as his district token, it's not like he had anything else on his person that he could take.

Surprisingly, when they pulled into the train station, they didn't actually interact with the people of Olympus very much, mostly just quick waved before they were ushered into a car and driven to a tall building that Nico assumed was both the apartments for the tributes and the gym that they'd be training at for the next 3 days in preparation for the interview.

Once inside the building, they followed after Minos into a large glass elevator that gave an almost perfect view of Mount Olympus on the way up, and as much as ico wanted to admire it, he couldn't help but think about how these were still the ones that were sending him off to his and Bianca's death.

Two people greeted the three of them at the elevator once it stopped, shockingly, they were dressed quite plainly, they were both dressed in shades of charcoal or black, and their makeup consisted of heavy dark eyeshadow under their eyes, but that was about it.

“This is Zoë Nightshade and Deimos, your stylists. They'll take you from here to get you ready for the parade, I'll see you after that to watch the replay.” Minos grunted, stepping around the two stylists and venturing into their apartment, probably to get a drink of some sort.

From there, Deimos led Nico back to what would be his temporary bedroom along with 2 other attendants that he didn't bother to learn the names of. If he hadn't already burned off an extra layer of skin in his first olympus shower, the next one was most certainly scrubbed off by the prep team. By the time they finally wrapped him up in a fluffy towel and began blow drying his hair, Nicos entire body felt tingly and itchy, but also more clean than it probably had ever been.

“Your outfit for the parade is very simple, it's a black jumpsuit with beading, but me and Zoë worked hard on designing them, so you better appreciate it. However, what really makes the look special is your actual face.” Deimos leaned against the doorframe, overseeing the prep team as they fluffed Nicos hair and added a multitude of products to it. “You and your sister have very nice faces, Nico, your mother must be very beautiful. Your eyes are dark, we want to accentuate that along with your cheekbones, but other than that, your makeup will probably be minimal, less is more, ya know?” Nico nodded, though he hardly processed what the stylist was saying to him, it was hard to believe that it was actually the god of terror talking to him, let alone complimenting him and telling him he had a nice face.

After what felt like forever, the prep team stepped away and looked to Deimos for approval, the god nodded and shooed them out of the room before beckoning for Nico to follow him back into the room to get dressed. Thankfully, Deimos was nice enough to give him privacy while he put on his underwear, and Nico quietly wondered if the other stylists gave the tributes privacy with that matter, or if the other tributes even cared that much. When Nico gave Deimos the go ahead, he turned back around, holding out a hanger with the black, sleeveless jumpsuit mentioned before. The beading was impressive, Nico had to admit, but he wondered if the thing would even look good on him, it was a beautiful designer piece, and he was just some dirty kid from district 12. Still, Deimos complimented him again when he was done changing into that and a pair of black boots, gesturing to the mirror so he could get a good look at himself. It fit very nicely, though it was definitely more form fitting than anything that Nico had ever worn, but still, he surprisingly liked the piece.

After that, Deimos moved on to Nicos makeup, which consisted of a heavy black powder around his eyes, making them look sunken in and almost skeletal, along with a lot of powder on his cheek bones, making him look much more gaunt than he actually was, which almost shouldn't even be possible. “And you're done! Let's go see your sister” Deimos said and started to head out into the living room of their temporary home. Zoë and Bianca were already seated on one of the sectional couches around the room talking about something quietly, but turned to look when they heard their footsteps approaching. Nico almost jumped back when he saw Bianca, and she seemed to do the same. She looked so… ghostly, so sallow, it was almost scary, but it did accentuate her features, even in her death-like state, she looked very pretty, did he look like that? In all honesty, he had no idea what he looked like, no matter how much he looked in the mirror, but didn’t think about that now, instead turning his attention to Zoë once she started talking.

“I've already told Bianca, but when you get down there ot the chariots, you need to look mean, very mean, don't wave, don't smile, you can look at the people, but dont look like you're happy to be here” she said to Nico, her face was kind, but she didn't sound very happy about talking to him in the first place. She was younger than him too, at least physically, probably 13 or 14, but still clearly very talented. “Shouldn't be too hard..” Nico mumbled in response. If his refusal to interact with everyone as they pulled into the train station was any indication, he was, in fact, not happy to be there, no acting required. “Well then that's perfect” Zoë replied, rolling her eyes and walking over to the elevator. The three of them followed after her and watched as she pressed a button to go to below the ground floor, and Nico supposed that that was probably where they would get into the chariots for the parade.

Sure enough, as soon as they stepped off the elevator, they were met with the smell of horses and perfume, a very unsavory combination. The room they were in was very large and filled with 11 other chariots beyond their own along with the other tributes and their stylists. Neither Nico nor Bianca had much experience with horses, but the smell was something you didn't forget after your first experience. Still, they hopped up into the black chariot, taking the few minutes or so that they had before it started to look at the other tributes. Some of them were downright huge, Jason Grace from 1, Frank Zhang from 5, Charles Beckendorf from 3, it was shocking, and any hope that Nico had had at a chance of making it slightly far in the games was gone.

However, he did finally spot Will Solace from district 11 not too far away, talking to the other attribute from his district, Lou Ellen Blackstone, a girl with dark hair and some of the most piercing eyes that Nico had ever seen. Will didn't look too particularly interested in the conversation, looking up and smiling in Nicos direction occasionally, but Nico was sure that he was probably just looking behind him, Annabeth Chase from district 6 was in the next chariot over after all, and she was very pretty.

After another minute or so of waiting, a large gate near the head of the room opened up and the district 1 chariot rode through, being met with an ungodly amount of applause and screams. Nico wondered how Jason Grace and Hazel Levesque felt, if they loved the applause, or if they felt as sick as he was starting to feel. The rest of the chariots began to follow after them in order, and finally, it was 12’s turn. “Are you ready?” Bianca looked over at him, trying to speak over the crowds shouting. Nico nodded and reached for her hand, his expression hardening as they began to move, following after Will and Lou Ellen.

Surprisingly, as they came out, the screaming did not die down as Nico had expected it to, some people even shouted their names and threw things at them, mostly flowers, but someone even tossed a stuffed cat at their feet. Up ahead, Will Solace was completely acting for the citizens of Olympus, catching one of the roses that had been thrown at him and giving it a big sniff before beaming and waving in the general direction of whoever had thrown it. ‘He seems so… charismatic..he’ll be drowning in sponsors, surely’ Nico thought to himself, racing his brain on who his godly parents could possibly be. Will himself looked like a god, it was hard to pick just one that he resembled, his beauty was its own marvel. Despite all this pondering on Will's beauty, Nico kept his expression angry as they circled around towards Zeus’s palace, and he knew that once the king of the gods came out to greet them, he would no longer have to fake some of his hatred.

He felt nothing but detestation for the King, ever since he'd taken his mother away 5 years ago, and that feeling of loathing had only increased now that he and Bianca were in the situation they were now in. Nico found no problem in dissociating as the king stepped out and began his speech, taking the time to fantasize about killing him as opposed to any of his fellow tributes, but then quickly stopping out of fear that someone in the crowd might somehow be able to read his mind. A few minutes later they were heading back around towards the training building, still waving and smiling at the civilians, or in Nico and Biancas case, scowling.

Minos met them back in the room from before, standing there with a similar scowl, though he surprisingly didn't look that displeased with the two of them. “You kept up the act, that's good” he said as soon as they hopped off the chariot. “Wasn't exactly hard” Bianca grumbled, pinching at the fabric at her side like she couldn't wait to get into some looser clothes. Minos rolled his eyes and waved for them to follow him back to the elevator, stepping in and reaching over to press the button of their floor when a hand shot past the doors.

“Hang on! Excuse me” a woman with caramel colored hair stepped into the elevator alongside them, dragging none other than Will Solace and Lou Ellen Blackstone behind her. Nico recognized her vaguely as Calypso, a girl that had won the games for district 11 about 8 years ago, but he didn't remember much beyond that. She reached past Minos and pressed the button for the district 11 floor and straightened back up, giving Nico and Bianca a slightly critical look.

Now that he was right in front of him, Nico could actually get a good look at Will Solace, and he was not disappointed. Whoever his stylists were, they'd done a wonderful job. Both him and Lou Ellen were dressed in white greek style togas, Wills purposefully hanging a bit lower on one side of his chest to reveal, no, surely that wasn't a tattoo-

Nico opened his mouth to ask about it, but felt the words get stuck in his throat as he looked up at Will, seeing that the other boy was already giving him a sort of half smile. “It's fake, stenciled on by my stylists.” he explained, cutting through the silence in the elevator. Nico felt horrified, Will had noticed him staring, and instead of keeping quiet about it, decided to explain the area that he'd been staring at to everyone in the elevator, including his sister and some crotchety old man that he was almost positive already hated him. Nico nodded slowly, trying to hide his embarrassment as Bianca looked over at him.

Nico hadn't noticed it before, but there was a golden laurel wreath woven into Will's hair, almost blending in with his blond hair, except for when it hit the light and nearly blinded everyone around him, which it did now as Will looked Nicos outfit up and down, or rather, looked Nico up and down. “The beading on your outfit is very impressive” he said finally with a small nod lookin past him now to look out at Olympus through the glass wall of the elevator. “Thank you” Nico said quietly, silently pleading for the elevator to reach the district 11 floor quickly.

For once, his prayers were answered. A second later, the elevator dinged and the door opened. Calypso let out a sigh of relief and pushed past her tributes, waving for them to follow her. Without a word, Will Solace and Lou Ellen Blackstone disappeared after their mentor and the door shut, dinging again only about 30 seconds later as Nico, Bianca, and Minos arrived on their floor.

“You've established yourself as harsh, that's good” Minos said finally once they were both changed back into pajamas provided in the dressers in their new rooms, choosing to gloss over whatever that had been in the elevator. “Everyone else looks very happy to be there, they want sponsors, but you aren't happy, you are angry.” Minos gestured to the tv in the center of the living room, watching it pan between the other tributes carriages and their own. “But how will we get sponsors if they think we're mean?” Nico said softly, leaning forward on his elbows a bit, “to the people of Olympus, you seem unhappy, they want to see you happy, what does that mean? That means gifts” Minos explained, sprawling back and nearly taking up an entire side of the sectional the three of them were sitting on.

“When the interview comes, you need to seem angry as well, don't look like you've been swayed by all of the greatness of Olympus, don't let them think that they've got you, okay? Good news is, you can rest your acting skills for a few days. But, that doesn't mean let your guard down. For the next three days you'll be training, but you'll also be making alliances, understood?” Minos raised an eyebrow at Nico and Bianca, to which they nodded. “Who should we form alliances with?” Bianca asked, running her hands through her hair. “Hell if i know, this is your decision, i won’t baby you” Minos said with a shrug and rose to his feet, stretching as he did so. “Get some sleep, you'll need it. And enjoy the Olympian beds while you can, there's really nothing better” with that, Minos disappeared down the hall to his own room, leaving the two siblings behind on the couch.

Nico sighed, “I don't even know if I'll be able to sleep..” he rubbed his temples and leaned back, staring at the ceiling above them. “Me neither…” Bianca replied, resting her head in her hands, “what was that with you and that district 11 boy in the elevator?” she asked after a few seconds, significantly quieter now. Nico straightened up and looked over at her, giving a halfhearted shrug. “I dont know..” he confessed, because in all honesty, he had no idea what it was, and he really didn't want to dwell on it right now.

“That's fine, you don't have to know..” Bianca replied, standing up as she did so. “I'm going to try to get some shut eye, i'll see you in the morning, mkay?” She leaned over and gave Nico a quick kiss on the cheek, patting his head as she walked back behind the couch and off to her room.

Nico sat there for another few minutes or so before finally giving into his own exhaustion and standing, trudging back to his bedroom and flopping onto his new bed. He tried not to think about Will Solace as he fell asleep, he really tried, but it was not easy. Curse that damn sun tattoo.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Come morning, Deimos did not wake Nico up to get ready for training, but he'd definitely been there. Resting at the foot of the bed was what Nico assumed was his outfit for training. He showered before getting changed, finally getting the hang of all of the functions after his prep team had shown him the previous night. While he dried off his hair with a small towel, he got a good look at the clothes that he'd be wearing for the next 3 days. The top was a charcoal gray tank top with low cut sleeves, probably accommodating for bigger arms or for cooling, and matching pants that felt cool in his hand, like they'd do a good job of absorbing sweat. ‘ That's good’ Nico thought to himself, he figured that people wouldn't really want to make alliances with him if he was a sweaty slippery mess.

Then again, the whole idea of alliances was dumb in a way. In the end, they’d all have to kill each other, making friends was futile. Beyond that, who even knows if anyone would attempt to ally with them? Surely they'd seen their sour expressions throughout the entire parade. The citizens of Olympus might appreciate their unhappiness, but the other tributes probably wouldn't.

Bianca met Nico out in the hallway, and they were a bit confused to see that Minos hadn't bothered to join them to take them down to training, not like they really minded that much either though, time in the apartment without Minos was time spent in peace and quiet. Still, there was a small piece of paper on the coffee table by a bowl of fruit, instructing them to go to floor G2 to get to the training gym. The two of them snacked on fruit for a few minutes before finally rising and walking over to the elevator, pressing the proper button and gazing out at mount olympus.

“Any ideas on who to ally with..?” Bianca asked, sounding as if she didn’t have any ideas either. Nico shook his head, “I don't really think Mino's idea of making us seem mean is going to help us make friends… But do we really need them? I mean, we have each other” he looked over at her, watching her nod at his words. “I guess not, but we should probably try to be nice if anyone does try to talk to us, acquaintances are better than enemies' ' she sighed, lifting her hand up to feel the braid in her hair. “You could always ally with that district 11 boy, I'm sure he'd be willing.. Especially after spending that whole elevator ride last night checking you out.” Bianca looked over at Nico out of the corner of her eye, a smirk on her face. Nico shoved her shoulder, groaning, “that's not what he was doing…” he grumbled, pretending to seem much more interested in a group of air spirits walking around with shopping bags.

A minute or so later, the elevator made it to the training gym, and Nico was a bit embarrassed to see that the rest of the tributes were already down there waiting around. Maybe they shouldn't have taken so much time to eat breakfast…

“Wonderful, now what you're all here, we can begin talking about the rules.” a satyr standing near the center of the room began. “For the next 3 days you will be training all day and interacting with your fellow tributes, after training on the third day, you will all have a private session with the gamemakers to show off your skills, from there they will give you a score based on your capability in the arena, that will be aired that night. There will be no, and I mean NO fighting or sparring against other tributes, even ones from your own district. For the fighting stations, we have plenty of attendants to spar against. My suggestion is, try to learn more new skills rather than spending the entire time honing in on one. You're a good fighter? Great, but you won't get anywhere if you don't know how to start a fire, ya know?” With that, the satyr set them loose in the gym.

Immediately, Jason Grace and Reyna Ramírez-Arellano from districts 1 and 2 ran off to the sword and spear fighting sections, though it was very clear that this was not a new skill to them. Nico looked over at Bianca and shrugged, glancing around the room. “Lets spread out for now, try to learn everything we can, we can teach each other about it later on” he said with a definitive nod. Bianca nodded and headed off to a firemaking station, leaving Nico alone to pick out what he wanted to learn first.

He ended up picking out the forageables station, trying to remember anything his mom had taught him as he pressed the corresponding names to match the pictures presented.

“Hey stranger” a voice beside him said as someone walked up to the station with him. Nico glanced out of his eye and almost audibly groaned as he was met with the smiling face of Will Solace. What was this guy's problem?? “Hey..” Nico muttered, looking back to the board and properly identifying a nightlock plant. He couldn't very well tell Will to go away, for one, it would be very rude, and also, he really didn't want to see the boy sad.

For the rest of the day, Nico made his way around the stations, learning how to make a fire, how to properly sew up a wound, and even try his hand at archery. At almost all of the stations, Will Solace made his way over at the same time, even if he clearly didn't need the practice. Nico couldn’t help but try to mimic the way that Will sewed up the dummy they were given to practice on, he was a natural, so why the hell did he feel the need to practice, at the exact same time as him no less?

This pattern continued every day for the next 2 days in training, Nico and Bianca would branch out on their own, Will would end up coming over and try to make conversation with him, Nico would give very dry responses, he'd return to the apartment at 8 pm, go over the things that they learned, then go to sleep and repeat the process the next day.

“Do you want to consider an alliance?” Will said finally on the last day, looking up from the rope he’d been making a net out of it for the last 30 minutes. Nico looked up from his own rope, his mouth falling open slightly. ‘Took him long enough..’ he thought quietly to himself, setting down his net. “I don’t know if that's a good idea..” he said softly, looking back down at his hands. In his mind, Will Solace was the last person he wanted to have an alliance with, because truly, if it came down to it, he’d have to kill him, the idea of that alone was enough to make his minimal breakfast churn in his stomach.

Will looked confused, “Why?” he asked, ducking his head slightly to try and see Nicos face. “Alliances don't usually end well, i don't know how you feel about it, but i'd prefer to not be the one that has to kill you if it's just us two left” Nico rose to his feet, undoing the knots he'd tied quickly and tossing the rope back into the pile. Will just looked hurt now, and for the rest of training up until 4, he practically avoided Nico. If Nico made his way to a station that Will was at, he’d get up and leave as soon as the other sat down. Even as they lined up to go into the waiting room for the private training sessions, he hardly even looked in his and Bianca's direction, instead just talking quietly with Lou Ellen.

Nico spent the next couple of hours waiting thinking about what he'd do for the gamemakers, how he'd do it, and prying Bianca for information about what she'd do. “Just show off my archery, what the hell else would i do?” she snapped. She’d seemed more anxious about the private session by the minute, and Nico didn't blame her. The idea of meeting Poseidon, god of the sea and head gamemaker and having to perform for him made his head spin, but, when the time came, Bianca put on her bravest expression and marched into the private room, leaving Nico out there all alone.

He didnt know how much time actually passed, but Bianca didn't come back out of the room, none of the tributes had. Nico assumed that there was a door back out inside the private room, but he didn't have time to dwell on the thought as he was called into the room by the gamemakers.

Dread filled Nicos heart as soon as he stepped into the room, looking up at the balcony the gamemakers were seated on. They all looked terribly bored, and horrifically drunk, but Nico couldn't let that deter him. In the end, his training score didn’t actually matter, it was more about his actual performance in the games, who cares if the people observing him were all completely hammered, right?

Wrong.

Nico sliced at probably 10 dummies with a sword, completely cutting their limbs off and even beheading a few of them before Posiedon spoke up from his large chair. “You can begin now” he called, waving his hand and only just now showing a bit of interest. “I… I already did..” Nico said, feeling slightly out of breath from the nonstop fighting. He gestured to the dummies around him with his sword, looking up at the gamemakers. Had none of them been paying any attention at all? He'd been going at it for probably 20 straight minutes and they were just now realizing that he even existed.

Poseidon frowned, looking down at the dummy parts around the room. “Oh, yes, very well then, you can go” he said with a shrug.

Nico felt anger begin to fill his heart as he stood there, staring up at the Olympian in disbelief before finally dropping his sword and stomping towards a door on the far left side of the room. The entire elevator ride up to their apartment, Nico fumed, it was certainly not his fault if he got a bad score, he did a good job in his humble opinion, it wasn't his fault that all of the gamemakers were arrogant, alcoholic, assholes.

“How did it go?” Bianca said once he stepped into the living room, standing up from the couch. “Terrible!” he shouted back, running his fingers through his hair. “They didn't even look at me for the first 20 minutes, and when they did, they dismissed me! Who knows what kind of score I'm going to get!” Nico kicked off his shoes and flopped down on the couch, groaning into one of the decorative pillows adorning them. “Stop complaining, would you?” Minos grunted from his side of the sectional. “They tape the whole thing, im sure theyll rewatch it before they release the scores.'' The older man rolled his eyes and took a sip of his glass, it was filled with some dark brown liquid, but Nico wasn't sure exactly what it was, some kind of alcohol. “They better” he grumbled as he stood back up from the couch and trudged in the direction of his room. “I’m going to take a shower, '' he called over his shoulder. “Try not to take too long princess, the broadcast will start soon” Minos replied, and Nico heard Bianca sigh, seated back on the couch now.

He emerged from his room 20 minutes later, dressed in a large t-shirt and shorts, admittedly feeling much better now that he washed up under the warm water, and he knew that he'd miss it in 2 days once he was in the arena.

“They already started,” Bianca explained, not looking away from the tv, “Jason Grace got an 11, and that Reyna Ramírez-Arellano girl got a 12…” Nico inhaled sharply, hopping over the back of the couch next to her. A 12 was the highest you could get in the sessions, hardly anyone ever received one…

Nico found that a lot of the tributes this year had scored quite high, Percy Jackson from 4 also got an 11, Clarisse La Rue from 5 got a 10, even Will Solace got a 9. Bianca seemed very pleased with the 8 she received, mostly because she'd been saying that she didn't think she did a very good job all night.Nico crossed his fingers as his face popped up on screen, and Apollo, the sun god and official announcer of the games’ voice filled the air. “And for Nico di Angelo from district 12… a 10!” a bright golden 10 appeared below Nicos picture and Bianca beamed, “Nico that's great!” she exclaimed, nudging his shoulder with her own.

Nico sat there in shock for a moment, processing the sun god's words. He'd actually managed to score high, almost as high as Jason Grace and Percy Jackson, the 2 scariest looking guys going into the games this year…

“Not bad princess” Minos said, still sipping on his dark brown liquid, though Nico suspected that he'd had several more glasses in the time it took him to shower. He wondered vaguely if the nickname princess was supposed to be derogatory because of what happened in the elevator, he severely hoped that that was not the case. “Thanks…” he said finally, biting at a scab on his lip. “Good job to you too Bianca,” the old man pointed at her and nodded, and nico realized this was the first time that he'd ever told them that they did a good job, sure, hed said that what they did at the parade was good, but that was all Zo ë and Deimos anyway, he'd never actually told them directly that they'd done a good job…

“Tomorrow, you're back on live tv, but this time it's even more important, you still need to uphold your mean attitude in the interview. Apollo will try to make you seem co*cky about your scores, don't let him spin your words. Remember what I told you, don't let them think that they have you, okay?” Bianca and Nico nodded, watching their mentor stand up drunkenly and stumble over to turn off the tv. “Deimos and Zo ë will be here early tomorrow with your prep teams to get you ready, lots of primping and preening to do..” The older man began walking back to his room, looking not nearly as regal as he had that first day that they'd met him.

Bianca exhaled and stood up from the sofa, reaching her hand out to help Nico up, to which he accepted. “We should sleep, this is our second to last night here after all..” she took a look around the apartment, “i'm really proud of you, a 10!” She offered Nico a small smile and leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. Patting his shoulder before letting go and walking back towards her room. Nico waited a few minutes before heading down the hallway too, still trying to get over all of the emotions hed felt that day: fear, anger, annoyance, happiness, and now, a melancholy feeling as he crawled into his bed, wondering if he'd made the wrong decision in denying Will Solace's request for an alliance, but, there were more things to worry about now, specifically, what kind of potentially horrific outfit Deimos would put him in tomorrow.

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

“I trust you both know your job in this interview?” Minos glared down at Nico and Bianca while Deimos and Zoë fixed up their makeup, smudging black eyeliner under Nicos eyes or making Bianca's contour sharper. “Look mean, but I still don't see how this is going to help us get sponsors..” Bianca mumbled, wincing a bit as Zoë moved to adjust one of the pins in her braid. They both looked very nice, in Nicos opinion, but he was sure their outfits were definitely not as spectacular as the other tributes, though, district 12 wasnt that spectacular either.

Nicos suit was completely black, the only pop of color being a garnet lapel pin in the shape of a flower, and they thankfully decided not to do anything terrible to his hair, but they did trim it up in the back and around his ears. Bianca wore a black floor length gown, black ballroom gloves, and black stilettos that left her an inch or 2 taller than him. Her hair was set in some intricate braid that even their mother wouldn't have been able to recreate, and her makeup was so strong that she had been almost unrecognizable when she stepped out of her room with Zoë at her heels.

“We’ve gone over this already, if you look unhappy, they’ll want to make you happy with gifts” Minos shot Bianca a look that said not to question his authority, his usual mean demeanor having returned, and Nico suspected that his unusual kindness last night had been from intoxication. “right…” Nico grumbled, happy to see Deimos finally step away from him. He felt weird, he was fully clothed of course, but he felt naked, like he was about to truly be presented for the capitol and all of the districts, all of the tributes- the people that were probably already conspiring about how to kill him quickly to weed out the weak- more so than he already had been.

Zoë eventually finished perfecting Bianca's look and stepped away, ushering them to follow after Minos into the elevator, “you'll do great” she assured them, or, maybe that sentiment was just for Bianca, Zoë didn't seem very fond of Nico, or Deimos, or any man that he'd seen her come in contact with during the 4 days he'd known her. The ride down was silent and tense, as was the car ride over to the actual interview hall. Minos spent the time glaring at Nico and Bianca as though he could hardly wait for them to get into the arena and die already.

As soon as they got backstage, Nico saw that he'd been right when he'd said that the other tributes probably looked better than them. To their credit, Zoë and Deimos did their best with what they were given, but some of the tributes… they just stood out in the best way possible. Hazel Levesque from district 1 was in a white dress with so many pearls and crystals sewn onto it, she completely emulated the theme of her district, luxury . Percy Jackson from district 4 stood against one wall, talking quietly with Annabeth Chase from district 6, in an outfit that Nico had to look away from after a moment, fearing that someone would notice his staring. His shirt was unbuttoned down to his naval, purposefully showing off the muscles they trained so hard for back in the district, and he just looked so dashing. It truly made Nico afraid to see him in the arena, knowing that if it came down to him and Percy, there was no way he'd be able to kill a face like that, though he doubted that they'd be the final 2.

“You look nice” Will Solace said, sidling up beside Nico as Apollo walked out on stage to give his opening speech before calling out the tributes for their interviews. “Thank you, you do too, '' Nico said with a small nod, glancing over at him out of the corner of his eye. He wondered if some of the stylists used some of their godly power to bless the tribute's looks, or if they'd been this radiant all along, and it had just been accentuated by makeup and a good scrub. Will was wearing a black and white suit, which would've looked plain had it not been for the golden embellishments that his stylists had added, his white tie had a beautiful floral pattern embroidered on it and he had a beautiful golden lapel pin that then connected to a chain attached to his chest pocket, but what really made the outfit special was Will himself… He had such a leisurely look all the time, Nico couldn't picture him fighting at all, though, when he'd been training, he'd hardly strayed over to any of the fighting stations, so maybe he wasn't a fighter… ‘ that's not good…’ Nico thought to himself, frowning a bit. Though looks could be deceiving, perhaps there was a ruthless killer underneath that relaxed smile..

For a moment, Nico considered apologizing and asking Will about the potential alliance they discussed, but decided against it at the last moment, it was probably too late anyway, he’d blown the opportunity when he’d had it, and besides, he was sure that Will had plenty of allies already, he didn't need Nico, and it would be better if him and Bianca stayed reserved, the less people they were close with, the easier it would be to kill them if necessary. Several technicians came by to usher them into a line, him and Bianca at the very back, as Hazel went out on stage, the crowd absolutely screaming for her. They were all so infatuated with her, who wouldn't be? He hadn’t talked to her at all, but when he did look over at her, in his eyes, she definitely beat the usual ruthless career stereotype. Nico listened to her for a moment, talking about how thankful she was for the warm welcome from Mount Olympus, but quickly found his mind drifting to the days ahead of him.

By this time tomorrow, he would either be in the arena, hopefully making a fire with Bianca, or in a wooden box, back to a district with no one to mourn him. Bianca was here, their mother was… somewhere, he had no one back there. He highly doubted anyone back home was actually rooting for him, if anything they'd be rooting for Bianca, at least she was kind and a little more social… That took his thoughts to Bianca, he had faith that she would make it past the bloodbath, she had to. If she could get her hands on a bow… she'd definitely be a threat, but would she be a match against the others? He’d seen Jason Grace fight, there was definitely no question that he would be one of the finalists, along with Percy Jackson, but beyond the careers, there were a few tough tributes there as well. Clarisse La Rue and Sherman Yang from district 5 and 6 respectively had been eyeing everybody up like they just couldn't wait to cut their heads off once they got in the arena, the Stoll brothers from 10 both looked too sneaky for their own good, even Silena Beauregard and Piper Mclean from district 8 had seemed pretty ruthless…

Nico was brought back to earth as a hand nudged his shoulder, he blinked a few times and looked over as Bianca looked down at him, giving him a smile meant to say, “you okay?” Reyna Ramírez-Arellano passed by the two of them, looking over her shoulder at them as she walked over to the wall to talk with Jason Grace. Had he been thinking for that long? He couldn't get caught up in that kind of thing in the arena, 9 minutes in the arena could mean the difference between living and being dead in a hovercraft on the way back to 12. Nico tried his best to return the smile and gave a nod, turning back to watch the stage as Octavian walked up, shaking Apollos hand and laughing about something or other before sitting down.

“Now, you came here with Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, one of the best fighters in your districts, are you intimidated by her?” Apollo flashed Octavian a smile and leaned forward, like he could hardly wait to hear what the boy had to say. Octavian scoffed and leaned back like this was any old conversation, not one that would essentially guarantee him a chance at making it past the first 5 minutes of the games. “Hardly, my lord. I mean, honestly, I don't even think that she deserves the opportunity to earn the glory of winning, not after what she's done…” he sneered, purposefully egging the sun god to ask him more.

Nico looked back to where Reyna was standing against a wall, her fists were clenched at her sides, but there was fear in her eyes, she looked over at Jason Grace before quickly turning back to the stage as if silently pleading for the interview timer to go off.

Apollo looked back out at the crowd, a perplexed expression on his face, before looking back to Octavian. “What do you mean, ‘what she's done’?” he asked, not even having to fake his interest anymore. Octavian looked side to side, as though this was some schoolhouse secret for Apollo and Apollo only, not broadcasted for the entirety of Mount Olympus and all of the districts. “She… She killed her own father my lord” gasps rang out throughout the crowd, and even Apollo brought his hand up to the gaudy golden chain around his neck. Octavian nodded to the crowd then shook his head like it was truly a tragedy, “it's a miracle she wasn’t incarcerated, i suppose it was because of her sister, but even that is questionable, given her sisters betrayal and all..” Apollo started to say something else when the 3 minute timer behind them dinged, signaling the end of the interview. Octavian rose to his feet to shake Apollos hand, not even seeming bothered by the fact that he hardly even talked about himself the entire time.

As soon as the lanky boy stepped back behind the curtain, Reyna was on him. “You asshole !” she shouted, grabbing the collar of his shirt and slamming him against the nearest wall. “Who the f*ck do you think you are?!” Fear flashed in Octavian's eyes as he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, all bark and no bite. Nico watched as their mentor Dakota ran up on the two of them, pulling Reyna off of Octavian, he only yelled at Reyna for a moment before rearing on Octavian, damn near screaming about how the whole speech was completely uncalled for and not anywhere near what they discussed.

Several of the other tributes had turned to look as well, Nico and Will exchanged a look before slowly turning back to the front, figuring the scolding wasn't really all that worth paying attention to.

The interviews passed quickly after that, most of them sounded the same from what Nico processed, but he did make an effort to pay attention as Will took the stage. “Lets welcome, from district 11, Will Solace!” Apollo outstretched a hand in Will's direction, giving him a smile that seemed almost pained. Will waved at the crowd before sitting down, notably not shaking the announcer's hand. Seeing them beside each other was enough to make Nico do a double take, they looked so similar, it was shocking. The blonde hair, the freckles, hell, their smiles were almost exactly the same. No wonder will had always seemed so radiant to Nico, he was the son of the sun god, he had to be.

“Are they..?” Bianca leaned over to him, her eyes also fixated on the pair on stage, “they have to be” Nico mumbled back, glancing back at some of the other tributes to see if they realized it too. He silently wondered if he and Bianca resembled their father as much as Will resembled Apollo, in his time that he'd been on Olympus, he hadn't exactly seen any of the gods and thought “father?”

When he was younger, hed hoped so deeply that his father would claim him and Bianca, but he supposed now it didn't matter, they were all going to die, no godly father could stop that from happening.

“How are you liking Olympus so far?” Apollo asked Will, still looking a bit pained, though it made a little more sense to Nico now. He imagined that anyone would be a little uncomfortable to be sending their child off to a war they were sure to lose. “I'm loving it so far my lord, I hope I'll be able to come back to it.. Whether in life or death” Will replied with a half smile, looking out at the crowd wistfully, despite the morbid comment. “I'm glad to hear it, what's your favorite part? The fashion, the food..?”

For a moment, Nico almost felt bad for the sun god, he was surely hurting, but that sympathy quickly hardened into hatred. Apollo was one of the 12 olympians, if he objected to the games, he could say something and actually have influence, and yet, here they were anyway. And besides, who knows how many of his children he'd effortlessly interviewed and sent off to battle, hell, how many of his children he'd already interviewed tonight.

Will took a moment to ponder, “the food for sure, nothing quite like it in the districts” he said with a definitive nod. “Oh I'm sure, the food here could never be recreated anywhere else. I mean, can you imagine trying to make Nectar wine with, what? Elderberries?” Apollo laughed and looked into the crowd, giving the cameras a look like the thought itself was unfathomable. Will's jaw tensed, and the small smile he'd had before dropped. “Right, well, for some people, that's the best that they can get '' he said, his voice a bit lower this time, the sun god looked back over at him, the large smile still on his face, though it wavered, “right, yes yes of course… well, let's talk about something different, you got a 9 from your private training session, very impressive, any secrets you can reveal?”

Will didn't look happy with the change of subject, but he obliged anyway, “it's no secret, my lord, everyone already knows, I'm a healer” he spread his hands and raised his eyebrows at the sun god. This did not seem to please Apollo, in fact, it seemed to make him sadder, not only was this child in his likeness almost to a tee, but he took skills after him. “Well that's wonderful, but do you think it’ll be of much use in the arena? Fighting is usually held to a higher standard in the games” Apollo leaned forward, searching Will's eyes for something, Nico did not know what. “I'm not really sure that matters, i dont very well see myself making it out of the arena alive, but I would like to help people as much as possible while I am alive, my fellow tributes know that” Will shrugged, not minding the sad murmurs from the crowd. Nico himself felt his heart sink a bit at Will's words, he didn't even seem upset with the fact that he was in the games, and almost content with his own death. “What is he, suicidal?” Bianca murmured as Will and Apollo chatted for another second before the timer went off.

Will kept his same relaxed smile as he stepped off of the stage, slinking right past Nico and Bianca to walk over to Lou Ellen and Cecil Markowitz from district 9, now immersed in the conversation theyd been having before he'd finished. Bianca looked over at Nico and ran her fingers over her braid, for the first time this evening, she looked nervous. “It'll be okay, remember, look mean” Nico said quietly, leaning up to kiss her cheek before she headed up to meet Apollo.

Before long, Bianca returned from her interview and patted Nicos shoulder, giving him a kiss on the cheek before ushering him closer to the stage. “Good luck” she whispered before disappearing amongst the other tributes. Now that he got a good look at all of them together, she really stood out among the others, not just because of her more monochromatic outfit though, the entire way she carried herself was different. All of the others seemed sure about themself in one way or another, but Bianca didn't, she was… forgettable. It was a terrible thought to have, but it was true. Nico took a deep breath and turned back, waiting for his cue before stepping onto the stage.

He pretended not to notice the fact that there seemed to be much less clapping for him than there had been for Percy Jackson, or even Octavian, who had to be the most unlikeable person Nico had ever had the displeasure of meeting. Despite that, Apollo did try his best to make him seem interesting, flashing him a huge smile and shaking his hand before sitting down. “Everybody give it up for Nico di Angelo, district 12!” Apollos' voice boomed throughout the hall, and Nico quietly wondered if he even talked during the off season, or if he stayed quiet to preserve his voice for all this shouting and announcing during the games. Or, perhaps it was a godly thing.

“Now Nico,” the sun god said as he turned to him, crossing one leg over the other, “You came here with your sister, how tragic, how do you feel about the fact that it might have to come down to you two fighting to win?” Nico tensed, not expecting something like that to be the very first question. To be honest, he hadn’t bothered to think about it too much, he didn't really think that he and Bianca would make it that far, as pessimistic as it sounded. “Thinking about it hurts, of course, but if it gets too close to that, I'll have to go off on my own, i don't want her to have to be the one to kill me” he finally replied with a small shrug. Aw’s passed through the crowd and Apollo gave him a small comforting smile, “that's very honorable of you, Nico. Now, you've met your fellow tributes, I'm sure, do you feel like you're outmatched against them based on your training score?” Nico couldn't tell if Apollo was poking fun at him or not, sure, he didn't look like much, but hadn’t his training score shown that he was capable? “Well I'm not sure, it all depends on what skill earned them that score, whether they fought in the private session or showed off some other skill, it all comes down to the details.” Apollo nodded like he'd just said something quite profound, “yes that is true.. Well, we're all very excited to see how these games play out, we haven't had this many pairs of siblings in the games in several years. Are you excited?”

Nico felt that hatred he'd felt before coming back in full swing, he truly couldn't believe the ignorance of the gods. Not only did they get excited to see children, their children, go off to fight to the death, but they expected them to be excited about it too. “I'm sorry, my lord, but how am I supposed to feel excited about going into an event where I will most certainly be killed, an event where I may have to see my sister slaughtered in front of me or vice versa? There is no glory for the dead tributes in the games.” he said flatly, looking Apollo right in the eyes. The crowd dulled significantly, murmuring amongst themselves, ‘ there goes my sponsors..’ Nico thought quietly to himself, but it didn't matter anyway, not really. No amount of sponsors could guarantee him a win, not against Jason Grace and Percy Jackson…

The timer behind him felt like music to his ears and he rose to his feet, “right, uhm, Nico di Angelo from district 12 everybody!” Apollo boomed, trying to give a nice smile as he gestured to Nico before waving him off stage. Once he was back behind the curtain, Minos was practically dragging him and Bianca out to the car, “I told you to be mean, not speak out against the games outright!” he snarled as he pushed them into the back of the car. “It had to be said! Who the hell do they think they are asking me if i'm excited for the games! Don't they realize the positions we’re in?” Nico shouted back, looking to Bianca for some sort of backup, but she just gave a defeated shrug. There was no fighting against Minos, he'd sooner fall on his own sword than admit that Nico and Bianca were right about anything “Well, good luck getting sponsors, no amount of convincing from me will get a little asshole like you anything! At least your sister might get a thing or two, maybe she’ll share if you aren’t already dead by the first night.”

For a moment, Nico considered lunging at his mentor, but backed down at the last moment, knowing that that wouldn't do any good, if anything it would just get him in trouble, and where would that lead him? Off being tortured or dead like their mother? He couldn't do that to Bianca, even given the circ*mstances.

By the time they got back to the hotel, Minos seemed to have calmed down a bit, but still glared at Nico as much as possible. “I hope you two have a good plan, because I have nothing for you, you're on your own, i'll try with sponsors, but as far as the actual fighting goes, there's nothing i can tell you” Minos shrugged, as if the words didn't even matter, as if he was essentially abandoning them even more so than he already had. “We have a plan, don't worry” Bianca said confidently, nodding at the older man. Nico turned to look at her, he knew of no such plan, but Bianca seemed confident enough that he believed her. “Well then, this is the last time i'll see you, tomorrow Zoe and Deimos will come to fetch you, then you'll be out in the arena. Stay alive as best you can I suppose” with that, Minos turned on his heel and walked off to his own room, leaving Nico and Bianca behind.

“What plan are you talking about?” Nico said and turned to his sister, shoving his hands into the pockets of his suit pants. “It's not.. really a plan, and it's just for the initial bloodbath anyway.” Bianca shrugged, the confidence on her face dissipating. “When we get into the arena, no matter what the terrain is, I want you to run away from the cornucopia, don't try to get anything, not even if it's on the edge, you have to go. I'll get supplies, I'll find you.”

Nico felt his heart sink, the idea of Bianca fighting in the cornucopia making him feel sick. “Bianca you can't do that, i have to help you-” he started to object, but Bianca stopped him, “you need to promise me that you won't go into the cornucopia. Please, Nico, trust me.” staring up at her in her stilettos, Nico felt smaller, younger, like he was 10 again standing beside her in the courthouse, the judge handing them over to the group home back in 12 after their mother was taken. He realized now that she'd been just a kid then, but back then she'd been all he had, his only form of parental figure, she'd seemed older, wiser.

“I.. I promise.” he said finally, averting her eyes. Bianca nodded, looking down at her dress as well, “it'll be alright, we’re strong, both of us” she said, but her voice shook. Nico nodded, still keeping his eyes down as he hugged Bianca goodnight and disappeared into his room, as he took off the now stifling suit and showered, and as he changed into pajamas and crawled into bed. He didn't know how he was supposed to sleep given what was awaiting him come morning, but he tried anyway. He wondered if Jason Grace and Percy Jackson were sleeping soundly, knowing that they would be fine in the arena, no matter the terrain. He wondered about Will Solace and Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, the only people that had even interacted with him, even if it had just been a passing glance in Reynas case. Reyna was strong, she'd make it far, but Will? He had no idea… He quietly went over the other tributes in his head- trying to remember what they'd shown to be their strengths in training- for another hour before his eyes finally felt heavy and he fell into a surprisingly peaceful sleep.

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

Deimos shook Nico awake in the morning, already holding up a simple shirt and slacks to wear in the hovercraft over to the Arena, “hurry up now, your sister is almost ready” he whispered, shaking the clothing hangers at Nico. getting showered and dressed one last time didn't take long, and before he knew it, they were waiting in the hallway, 2 separate doors leading them to where they'd board the hovercraft on either side. They hadn't been allowed breakfast, so they'd have to find their own food pretty quickly once they got into the arena. Of all the ways to go, Nico did not want it to be starvation.

Bianca turned to Nico and wrapped him up in a hug, the fabric of his shirt now wet with her tears. “It'll be okay, just remember what I said, no matter what the arena is, I'll find you. Stay far from the cornucopia. Promise?” she pulled away, anchoring her hands on his shoulders and looking him straight in the eye. “I promise,” he said with a small nod. Bianca gave him a small smile and nodded before letting him go and turning back to Zoë to follow her down the hallway to where they'd board their own hovercraft to get to the arena. Nico turned to Deimos, avoiding looking directly in his eyes. “Lets go” the god said and turned, beckoning him to follow.

The ride to the arena felt like a millenia and hardly a second all at once, all Nico wanted was for the ride to last a little longer, but he knew there was no point, he'd have to go in either way, there was no one else to say goodbye to, this was it. Deimos led him down a staircase to the chamber he'd be getting ready in and opened up his bag to pull out a jumpsuit of some sort. “The fabric is like that of a swimsuit, but thin, so I wouldn't expect anything too cold, but expect water. Can you swim?” The minor god helped Nico get undressed and fitted into the jumpsuit, it wasn't uncomfortable, but definetly more form fitting than anything he'd ever worn back in the district, even more so than the jumpsuit they'd had him wear for the parade. “Yes… not very well though, not much water back in 12” Nico mumbled, running his hands over his arms and feeling the slick fabric. “Well, then I don't really know what to tell you. The sleeves are detachable, probably for ventilation, but I'd keep them on, even thin fabric like this can still muffle a blade, even if it's just a little bit” Deimos sighed and nibbled at a part of his nail, perfectly manicured of course. “Uhm, do you have my token?” Nico looked up at the god, finally feeling the actual weight of the situation come crashing down onto him. “Oh yes,” Deimos perked back up and went back to his bag, pulling the skull ring out of a smaller pocket and handing it over to him. While getting ready for the interview, Nico had begrudgingly handed the ring over to the god of terror so he could make sure it was up to code and whatnot. "I had it polished for you” he tried to offer the boy a small smile, one that was not returned. Nico took the ring and slipped onto his middle finger, happy to feel the familiar weight back on his hand. He sincerely hoped that the stylist would not try to hug him or anything before he got into the lift, the person that was dressing him up for slaughter was the last person he felt like hugging before being carted to his death. Thankfully , Deimos did no such thing, and instead just stood back as he stepped into the cylindrical elevator. “You'll do well, your sister too.” Nico gave a curt nod, he appreciated the sentiment, truly, but he was honestly tired of all of the gods now, and being comforted by the god of terror didn't exactly make him feel much better about the situation.

Nico looked up as the door to the platform slid closed and started to rise, watching the hatch above him open up to reveal sunny skies. He swallowed and looked straight ahead, taking a deep breath as the platform came to the top. He squinted and instinctively reached up to shield his eyes from the bright light as he looked around the arena. All around him was water in one giant circle around the cornucopia, ‘ So Deimos was right’ Nico thought to himself, thankfully, the water didn't look very deep, though the mud on the bottom looked like the type you could definitely get stuck in. between every 2 tributes podiums was a strip of rock, leading from the cornucopia all the way to the land surrounding the lake, a small beach leading to a thick jungle. Nico tried to catch his breath as his eyes searched for Bianca, finally spotting her 5 rows down, she looked over at him for a brief second before turning back to the cornucopia, focusing in on something, Nico turned, a bow.

8,7,6,5,4,

3,

2,

1

The gunshot rang throughout the arena and immediately everyone sprung into action, leaping off of the podiums and racing for either the strips of rock or the cornucopia. For a second, Nico was frozen, still staring at that bow, before finally coming to and jumping off of the platform and into the marsh, he tried to wade to the strip of rock nearest him as quickly as possible before hearing quick splashes behind him. He looked over his shoulder as he hoisted himself up onto the rock, Ethan Nakamura from district 4 hurried away from the cornucopia towards the same strip, a backpack over his shoulder and a sword in hand. Nicos eyes widened as he gained his balance atop the rock, stealing a quick glance back to the cornucopia before sprinting to it as fast as possible. He’d completely lost sight of Bianca in all of the chaos, but it didn't matter. Bianca had told him that she'd get supplies and find him, but what was he supposed to do until then? He had to get things of his own. As soon as he stepped onto the metal of the cornucopia, Sherman Yang came springing off the top of it, a dagger in each hand, he landed on the ground effortlessly and immediately started swinging at him. Nico ducked and groped around for a weapon, a sword, spear, hell, even a club would work, finally feeling the familiar leather wrap of a sword hilt.

He wrapped his hands around the sword and swung up at Sherman, slicing across his upper arm, Sherman yelped and stumbled back, dropping one of his daggers in the process. Nico scooped it up along with a small purple backpack laying flat against one wall. The bag felt light, but he couldn't be bothered with that now, he wasn't one of the careers that could easily pick through everything and take what they needed, he had to grab and go. He ducked past Sherman and ran around the side of the cornucopia, nearly running into Clarisse La Rue's blade as she swung at Katie Gardner. Nico heard the cannon sound through the air, but didn't dare look back to see if it was Katie that had died, but the splash behind him was enough to give him a good idea.

“Nico!” Bianca's voice rang out amongst the shouts. Nicos head swiveled around looking for the source, finally landing on a rock strip about 20 feet away from him. Bianca's eyes weren't on him, and instead were focused on the boy she was facing off against, Octavian. The bow was slung over her back, but it was no use in a melee fight, in her hand was a dagger that she was swinging wildly, fending off the blonds attacks. Nico started to run towards the strip, his mind concentrating on too many things at once, the cannons still sounding, the uneven terrain that he was running over, and the fact that Bianca was having a harder time fending off the district 2 boy by the second. Octavian ducked under Bianca's arm as she swung at him right as Nico made it to the edge of the rock, bringing his dagger up right between her ribs. Nico froze in terror, watching as Octavian pulled the blade out, watching as Bianca's mouth fell open, watching as she fell into the marsh with the sound of a cannon, her body still floating at the top of the shallow water.

Nico felt someone push past him quickly and stumbled back into the water, the murk flooding his nose and throat before he came back up, sputtering as he tried to keep a hold on his sword, dagger, and backpack. Reyna was running at Octavian at full speed, she had 2 backpacks on, a spear in hand, and a look that could only be described as murderous on her face. The taller boy turned around right in time- as if only just now hearing the footsteps behind him- for Reynas spear point to pierce him right through his jugular. His hands fumbled around for a moment, his eyes wide, but the cannon had already gone off, his and Bianca's blood staining the dark gray rock. Reyna yanked her spear out of her district mate's throat and looked back at Nico once before reaching down and taking the bow off of Bianca along with the dagger and running off.

Nico knelt in the marsh for a second more before coming back to, pulling himself back up onto land and trying to gather his bearings. An arrow sailed over his head as he ran towards the next strip of land, but he didn't bother looking back at who'd aimed it. By the time he stopped running, he was already down the strip and onto the surrounding beach. The cornucopia was empty now, completely picked clean, all of the tributes had already escaped into the jungle. It was now that Nico sincerely regretted not making a better alliance, whether that be with Will Solace or even Connor Stoll. He was alone. He'd been cold and reserved all throughout training, and looked where it got him. Nicos eyes scanned the beach, looking for a familiar face, before adjusting his backpack on his shoulder and turning to the jungle behind him.

Nico was very thankful for the fact that he'd grabbed a sword, because the jungle was even thicker than he'd expected it to be, and it made an excellent path-clearer. He guessed that he'd gone into shock by now, because somehow, the weight of Bianca's death still hasn't hit him, even as he cut down palm plant after palm plant, searching for some kind of clearing to finally sit down in and recoup. Though that probably wasn't a good idea, sitting in a clear area was like putting a target on his back. There had been at least 2 bows in the cornucopia, the one that Bianca had that Reyna had taken, and the one that had shot the arrow over him when he'd been running. He remembered seeing Frank Zhang from district 5 shooting quite often during training, and he was no joke.

Finally, as the sun went down, he found a small clearing that was big enough for him to set up a small camp, but small enough to where he wasn't very visible to anyone that might be around him. Inside the backpack he grabbed was… not much. A roll of gauze, an air tight pack of dried fruit the size of his hand, and a swiss army knife was all it had. Nico almost scoffed, a swiss army knife, really? Sure, the knife parts were useful, but they were tiny, and what the hell would he end up needed a screwdriver for? Then again, maybe there was some child of Hephaestus that would consider this a godsend- literally. He nibbled on half of a piece of dried fruit and packed everything back into the bag including the dagger he'd taken from Sherman Yang. This felt like a good place to stay for the time being, but he made a mental note to get back to moving in the morning, staying mobile was a good way to avoid other tributes.

In the sky, a hymn sung by Apollo and the muses began to play as the faces of the fallen tributes began to light up the night. Katie Gardner, Cecil Markowitz, Travis Stoll, Octavian, and Bianca. A surprisingly low number of deaths for the bloodbath, but Nico was by no means disappointed by the count. He wondered if people back up on Olympus were upset about the low number, probably, but he didn't really care what they thought. Alliances would crumble soon enough, then the numbers would start rising…

If they were showing the names now, that would mean it was about 8 o clock, which meant that he had plenty of time to sleep. He wanted to try and sleep early and wake up early in the morning to continue moving as opposed to staying up late on guard and being groggy the next day. So, Nico pulled his knees up to his chest and leaned his head back on the bark of the tree behind him, keeping his hand wrapped around his sword's hilt just in case as he closed his eyes.

Nico jolted awake four hours later to crashing all around him, immediately, he jumped to his feet, sword in hand.

“Go go go!!” a voice to his right shouted, though he wasn't sure they were actually shouting to him, or if there were several people. He grabbed his bag and sled it over his shoulder, pushing past several plants and almost being knocked to the ground as 4 people went sprinting past him, 2 boys, 2 girls. Nicos head swiveled around, looking back in the direction that they had come from. Steadily covering the jungle around them was a mist- no,

a fog.

Chapter 6

Chapter Text

‘A fog? That's it?’ Nico thought to himself, watching it get closer, he reached his hand out to the fog as it billowed towards him, but quickly pulling his hand back when it burned. All along his hand, boils had sprung up, and they hurt like hell. “sh*t!” he hissed, almost dropping his sword and stumbling backwards. As if the fog knew that he was there, it began moving faster, creeping over the plants and roots around him, as if it was reaching out for him.

Nico broke out into a run as it steadily moved closer, nipping at his heels and burning them as well. His whole back felt like it was on fire as he cut through the plants with his swords, trying to not trip on roots, he could faintly see the beach up ahead and wondered if he'd even be able to make it, or if he'd succumb to his wounds before he got there. Wouldn't that be something? Nico di Angelo talking all that talk, getting a 10 in training, and then dying within the first 12 hours of the games, and not even at the hands of another tribute. No, he had to keep going. He was practically screaming in pain when he finally broke through the trees, falling onto the sand and scrambling back towards the water to make sure the fog wasn't still following him out onto the beach.

“Grab him” A girls voice from further down the beach ordered. Before Nico could object or get away, he was lifted into the air, stripped of his backpack, and lowered into the marsh. As soon as his back hit the water, Nico let out another scream of agony, flailing around in the arms of whoever was holding him. The blisters on his back felt even worse now, for a moment, at least, then they began to feel better, but his mind was not eased. For a moment, he was convinced that he was being drowned, considering they were purposefully holding him under the water and not letting him come up, despite his screaming. As the water filled Nicos mouth and nose, he thought of Bianca, how her body had been in this water only a few hours prior, he wondered if she'd felt the cold water before she died, or if she'd already been gone by the time she hit the water. He wondered if there had been a split second where she hadn't felt pain right before she died, and if that was what he was feeling now.

With that thought, he was dropped and then pulled back up out of the water and onto the beach, sputtering and trying to suck in as much air as possible. “Hey, come on, breathe” a voice whispered, holding his head up so that Nico could cough up all the water that had filled his lungs. “Gods, Jason you almost killed him!” a girl exclaimed on the other side of him, though he was pretty sure she was standing up as opposed to sitting by him like whoever it was that was holding his head up.

As Nico finally started to take in actual breaths, he opened his eyes to look at who was around him. A boy was looking him right in the eyes, much closer than he would've liked, and it took Nico several moments for him to recognize that it was Percy Jackson from district 4. He pushed the boy away and scuttled back, searching frantically for his bag, and more importantly, his sword.

He spotted his purple backpack lying on the sand along with his sword behind the other boy in the group, who he quickly recognized as Jason Grace; it was, after all, hard to forget someone who practically towered around almost all of the other tributes. Annabeth Chase from district 6 walked over and offered him a hand up, her blonde hair pulled back out of her face now as opposed to the low style she had in the parade and the interviews. Nico hesitated before taking her hand, standing up on shaky feet and glowering at Jason, the one who nearly killed him 2 minutes prior. Percy had risen to his feet now, surprisingly empty handed. They all were, none of them were holding weapons at all, just looking at him and looking uncomfortable.

“Hand him his bag” The same voice that had ordered Jason to drop him in the water called. Nico looked around frantically, finalling spotting Reyna Ramírez-Arellano walking over to the 4 of them, her spear from before still in her hand, except now, she had a bow slung over her shoulder. Bianca's bow.

Jason nodded and reached for the backpack and sword at his feet, passing them over to Nico, “I'm sorry for holding you under” he muttered, but Nico, somehow, didn't doubt the career's sentiment.

“We didn't mean to scare you, but the water helps the blisters..” Annabeth gestured to Nico and then the water. He had to admit, he felt much better, tingly, but not in agonizing pain anymore. “Thank you, I guess…” Nico said quietly, scooping up his backpack and sword. He wondered if this was all some ploy to lead him into a false sense of security so that they could kill him, he was outnumbered, after all, then again, he wouldn't be able to win a fight against a single one of them one on one either. Or, maybe they'd hold him captive until day break, offering up a much better show for the citizens of Olympus.

Reyna finally joined the group, rifling around in one of her bags for something before finally pulling out another pack of dried fruit and handing it out for Nico. “I’m sorry about your sister. You can go if you want, or stay with us, it doesn't really matter” she looked out at the water and then back to the group. “We have a theory about the arena, but we haven't really tested it yet..” Nico took the pack of fruit tentatively and shoved it into a pocket of his bag before shouldering it again. The situation felt so surreal.. And very out of character for the careers to just… let someone go. Someone that they could have easily killed.

“Thank you, but.. I don't really know if us being allies is a good idea” Nico sighed, why oh why did he keep finding himself in situations where he needed to say that?? “It's alright man, dont worry about it” Percy Jackson finally spoke up, clapping him on the back as he walked over to a small pile of what Nico assumed was their loot. He instinctively tightened his grip on his sword, just in case he suddenly decided that he did, in fact, want to kill him, but the district 4 boy just laughed. “Relax, you can go, seriously” he said, scooping up a large black backpack and waving his hand away, gesturing for Nico to go ahead and go.

Without saying goodbye, Nico began moving backwards across the beach before finally turning around and jogging away from the career pack, thankful for the fact that he didn't hear them chasing after him across the sand. “Maybe we should try to get that Solace kid, I mean, did you see him at the suture station?” He vaguely heard Annabeth say behind him, and he couldn’t help but smile.

Chapter 7

Chapter Text

‘

That smile, however, did not last long. Eventually, Nico slowed down to a walk on the beach, figuring that the early morning would act as a cover for him. And while he didn't encounter any other tributes himself, two more cannons rang out. Quietly, Nico prayed that neither of them were for Will Solace, but he wouldn't truly find out until that night. He wondered what the district 11 boy was doing now, he hadn't seen him at the cornucopia, was he somewhere holed up in the jungle? Or maybe he was with a group of brutes killing people left and right. No, that couldn't be it..

Nico finally returned to the jungle after what felt like hours of walking and found that his arm was beginning to feel tired from cutting down so many plants. ‘I can't give into exhaustion’ he thought to himself, stopping for a moment to get a full piece of dried fruit out of his bag. He could afford to eat a little more now that he had the second bag from Reyna, but he still didn't want to go over two, maybe three pieces a day. After all, he had no idea what kind of things he'd be able to hunt in the jungle, he didn't have a bow or a spear, so his options were limited. ‘I bet Reyna has tons of food’ he mumbled, but he wasn't necessarily mad at the girl for it. She'd gotten a 12 in the private training sessions, clearly she was more than capable of surviving, and now she had a whole pack of strong people to roam with. How long had they had that alliance built? He hadn't been paying much attention to anyone else in training, mostly his own projects and- ugh, Will Solace. There he was again, cluttering up his mind…

Still nibbling on his fruit, Nico put his backpack back on and continued walking back, wondering how far he was from the edge of the arena. As he walked, he started to hear raindrops hit the plants above him, even though the sky above him was still sunny. A drop fell through the leaves and onto the bridge of his nose, and Nico recoiled when he felt that it was warm, alarmingly so. “Ugh” he muttered, reaching up to wipe it off, squinting at his hand when it came away dark red. Had he gotten a nosebleed or something? But as more drops fell around him, they began to stain the plants a dark red, and a sickly smell filled the air that Nico recognized from the mines, blood .

The rain started to hit Nicos head, and he almost gagged, trying to wipe his face off but only smearing it. Why couldn't the game makers just leave it to the tributes to kill each other? Why did they have to make the arena so disgusting as well. As he stumbled through the now red tinted jungle, the thought hit him, ‘where did they get this blood?’

Immediately, his mind went to the dead tributes, their bodies being carted away by hovercrafts back to Olympus, back to the gamemakers.

Bianca.

Nico retched, stopping to lean on one of the trees near him but quickly pushing away when he realized that it was just as covered in blood as he was. He felt sicker by the minute as he started to run back the way he came, though that was becoming increasingly difficult as more blood rained down on everything around him, turning it all the same shade of deep red. The more he ran, the harder he breathed, inhaling more and more blood with every breath, and soon, every exhale was accompanied by a gag. Everytime he stopped to rest, it became harder and harder to continue on, the blood weighing down his jumpsuit despite the thin absorbent fabric and making it stick to his skin. He wondered vaguely if it had soaked through his backpack and gotten all over his food and the roll of gauze, the thought of blood covered food making him retch yet again, even though by now it was only stomach acid, considering all he'd had in the last 16 hours was a piece and a half of some dried apple or apricot.

As the sun began to come up and Nico got a good look at his own body and the jungle around him, he knew, deep in his heart, that this could not be the place he died. Poison fog, maybe, whatever monsters lay within the rest of the jungle, okay, even dying at the hands of another tribute would be more honorable than this, dying simply because of exhaustion was pathetic. He gripped his sword as tight as he could and continued moving, his eyes searching for any small patch of greenery to use as a guide out. Something in the back of his mind knew that this wasn't happening in the rest of the arena, just this certain part, same as the fog. If the fog had been everywhere, they would have heard more cannons, there would've been more people running out onto the beach in an attempt to escape, but there wasn't, there had just been the 5 of them that had been in that small area. His mind was too busy now to think too hard on it, but he made a note to investigate later, if there was a later.

Finally, he spotted a leaf ahead, a green leaf, and for the first time since he'd gotten to the arena, he was happy to see a palm plant. A new sense of urgency filled him as he moved towards the plant, his sword slicing through blood soaked trees and low hanging vines. As he got closer, he noticed that the rain had begun to dwindle, he'd been right, it was only in this part of the arena. Nico nearly fell to his knees as he pushed past what felt like the final barrier between him and hell, his senses taking in the lush greenery around him that was actually green this time.

He let out a sigh of relief as he loosened his grip on his sword hilt, tilting his head up to look at the sky, now a mix of pinks and oranges as the sun rose higher. He didn't really care that what he was doing now was unsafe, to him, he deserved a moment to let his guard down and take a deep breath, first it was the fog, then the near drowning, then being surrounded by the career pack , then having blood rained down on him, seriously, how much worse could it get?

Much worse, evidently.

To his left, a branch snapped, bringing Nico out of his stupor and setting his senses on high alert once again. Honestly, he had no idea what to expect anymore, some monster, a tribute, or maybe some dangerous flesh eating sludge that the gamemakers had cooked up, either way, he was not going to let himself fall victim again. A dark shape moved behind a tree about eight meters in front of him, then another on his right, then there were multiple on either side, lurking just out of sight, like they were scouting him out. Quickly, Nico swung his bag around off his shoulder, unzipping it to grab his dagger. The shapes looked low to the ground, too low to be another tribute, and even if they were crouching, the shapes didn't match up. These looked like animals, which in a way, was much worse than a tribute. Sometimes, tributes could be reasoned with, but an animal… What could he do, offer it to his dried fruit? ‘Actually, that's not a bad idea’ Nico thought to himself right as something came leaping out at him from the brush, knocking into his legs.

With a grunt, Nico swung at the creature, seeing now that it was some kind of dog, but it looked.. wrong . The dog yelped and jumped back a foot or two, but otherwise, was not deterred as more dogs melted out of the early morning shadows, a pack of about seven. The true problem with them was their faces, more so, their eyes. They looked much too real, so much that Nico wondered for a second if they'd been given contacts by Olympus, but he quickly shook that thought away. Contacts, really? ‘Maybe they are mutts..’ he thought to himself, swinging as another one of the dogs, just trying to keep them away from him at this point.

A mutation, or mutt, is an animal genetically created in the labs up on Olympus, they were used a few times out on the battlefield, but proved to be much too unpredictable, so were instead used only in the arenas. They were bigger, meaner, and most certainly weirder, just like the dogs still imposing in on Nico.

A particularly mean looking dog stepped forward, its blond fur closely cropped. Behind its eyes, there seemed to be a sort of madness, but a much more humanlike kind, not the kind that Nicco had seen in dogs that had gone senile with age. In truth, the dog reminded him of Octavian, as much as he hated to think of the boy, the cruel, almost smarmy expression on its face and blond fur certainly gave it a certain resemblance.

As if a switch had gone off, all of the dogs began barking and charged forward, lunging at Nicos legs and hands. It was now that he realized he wandered into a pack of wild, genetically modified dogs, covered in warm, presumably fresh blood. A dog with dark fur and bright green eyes sprung up at Nico from his right, tackling him down at the ground and snapping at his face while the others barked and tried to bite at him from all sides. Nico held his sword up, trying to block the mutt's teeth from reaching his face as he fumbled for a good grip on his dagger, finally thrusting it up and pulling down. He felt the dog go limp above him as fresh blood joined the blood now caked on his hands and abdomen. As soon as he pulled his knife out and shoved the dog off of him, two more were on him, this time, the blond one, and one with dark brown fur and eyes, eyes that looked way too familiar for Nicos liking.

Right as he swung at the blond dog, the brown one raked its claws down Nicos upper arm, slicing through the skin like it was nothing. As he screamed, the blond dog fell back, going back to circling him with the rest of the pack as he was forced to fight against the one still on top of him, his arm throbbing. The mutts around him began to bark again, but still stayed a foot back, like they were much more interested in watching the brown dog finish him off than doing it themselves. Behind him, or maybe it was in front of him, he heard crashing, like more things heading through the jungle towards him. ‘Oh good, they just called their friends’ Nico thought weakly as he swung at the mutt, his head already fuzzy from blood loss.

Nico closed his eyes as the dogs crashed through the trees, quietly accepting his own fate now. If there was one bright side to all of this, it was that he wouldn't be hurting for much longer. He heard a string of curses above him and wondered if that was the gods trying to decide what to do with him, he hadn’t done anything particularly good to get to elysium, but he wasn't evil either, so the fields of punishment didn't feel right either… The dogs around him snarled at something, maybe it was him, and then, he felt the breath get knocked out of him as something heavy fell on him and then was quickly shoved off. Chaos broke out around him, making him open his eyes just a bit, this was certainly not death, so what the hell was going on? The dogs were practically screeching now, their barking and howling was so loud, and there were metallic sounds scraping through the air as well as strings of words, though they were mostly curses, along with something about getting someone.

He heard footsteps around his head and winced, the pounding amplified by a hundred, though that might have been his own heart. A hand slipped under his knees and back, pulling him up off the ground, and Nico was reminded of just a few hours earlier when he'd been nearly drowned by Jason Grace. “Be careful, I cant see where else he's hurt” a voice muttered beside his head as whoever was carrying him began to run, pushing past the plants like it was nothing. The movement made Nicos stomach hurt, a small groan escaping him. And then, it was over. No hands on his back, no stomach pain, no throbbbing in his arm, nothing.

Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Nico finally opened his eyes when he felt cool water rush over his neck, and for a moment, he worried that once again, he was about to be drowned or subjected to some kind of water torture, but that worry didnt last long. “Oh thank the gods” he heard a familiar voice whisper along with a sigh of relief. It was then, of course, when all the pain that his body had been storing up while he'd been out decided to completely overwhelm him. Perhaps he'd made a face, because almost immediately, more cold water was being poured on him, on his arm this time. Nico turned his head slightly and almost let out his own sigh of relief as he recognized the familiar head of blonde hair and leisurely face that greeted him.

“You happy to see me?” Will smiled, but it wasn't as large as the smiles that he'd seen back on Olympus, it had dimmed quite a bit since then. “Maybe just a bit” Nico croaked, “why are you pouring water on me?” Will sighed, but not at Nicos question, more so the situation. “I was trying to clean the blood off of you but I didn't want to be too abrasive and wake you up, but then I was worried that you were in like, a coma. But then you woke up, duh, and now I'm trying to rinse out your arm because gods only know what might be festering in there.” Will looked tired, very tired, like he'd hardly slept at all since they got into the arena. “How long was i out?” Nico asked, looking up at the now darkening sky and trying to push himself up into a sitting position with his intact arm, hissing as he did so. Will jolted and reached for him, pressing a hand on his back to support him for a moment before pulling back away.

They were on the beach, relatively close to the marsh surrounding the cornucopia. ‘Must be where the water came from’ he thought to himself, looking back at Will knelt beside him, looking at him like he might explode any minute now. “Like, the whole day, but your pulse was really slow, we were worried…” Will set down the metal canister he'd been holding which Nico now recognized as a sponsor tin, something he'd almost completely forgotten about up until now. “We?” he questioned. As soon as the words came out of his mouth he felt like an idiot. A. someone had carried him back to the beach while Will hurried beside them, warning them to be careful, and B. there had been a lot of talking before he'd been scooped up off the ground.

Will nodded, pointing to Nicos right. A little ways down the beach, Percy, Reyna, Annabeth, and Jason had set up a fire, something that would be very dangerous in the arena had it been anyone but them. They were talking surprisingly loud, even laughing, something he never would have expected to hear in the arena. For a moment, it made him angry, hearing them be able to joke around while plenty of other tributes were probably starving and scared. But, they had saved him… and Will clearly trusted them enough to hang around a bit, at least to be their medic. He wondered what would happen when the numbers dwindled down a bit more, would they finally kill him? That was a morbid thought, one that he shouldn't be having right now, especially when Will was right beside him.

“We heard the screams and the barking and went running in,” Will started to explain, picking his canister back up and pouring more water on Nicos arm, now sleeveless. He wondered vaguely what happened to the sleeve, but then decided that it didn't really matter. “Jason was raised to care about wolves and dogs though, so he didn't want to fight them, so he carried you back to the beach for me while the others fought the mutts. Jason tried to argue that we could have run away from them instead of fighting, but we wouldn't have been able to outrun them anyway” Will shook his head, setting down the canister and reaching behind himself for a bag. It was a crossbody bag as opposed to a backpack and definitely bigger than the backpack Nico had. “My backpack and sword, i think i dropped them” he spoke suddenly. Will pointed back towards the campfire, “they grabbed it. I… I went through it. I'm really sorry, I didn't take anything except the roll of gauze, it’s just.. supplies are sort of dwindling” Will pulled the roll of gauze from a pocket in his bag, and Nico was pleased to see that it hadn't gotten blood soaked like he'd been worried about. Surprisingly, he didn't mind that much, of course, he hardly knew the guy, but Will Solace didn't seem like the kind of guy to try anything shady with his backpack.

“It's okay, I don't really need it, I mean, I hardly know how to dress a wound anyway.” Nico shrugged, regretting it as soon as pain shot up his arm. Will nodded and began unrolling the gauze, wrapping it around the large gashes in Nicos, which were now sewn up, a bit haphazardly, yes, but he was sure it looked better than it had before, he'd seen Will at the suture station back in training. “We can go over and sit with them when i'm done if you want, i'm not like exiled out here or anything, it's just easier to work without them all up on me you know?” Wills brow furrowed as he wrapped more and more of the bandage over the wound. Nico nodded, even though he was still hesitant to get too comfy and cozy with the careers.

A minute or so later, Will pulled a small pair of scissors out of his bag and cut the end of the gauze, taping it down with a small roll of medical tape. “Where did you get this stuff?” Nico asked, watching Will work. He wondered how he could even see, considering he was basically using the setting sun and dim firelight as his only source of light. “Lou went into the cornucopia and grabbed it” he said, significantly softer now. He stuffed the tape back in the bag and grabbed his metal canister, rising to his feet. Nico followed suit, standing up and starting the short walk over to the fire. “Wait,” Will said quickly, reaching out for Nico's hand and pulling him back a bit. Nico turned back around, pulling his hand away as he did so. Will looked slightly hurt by this, but if he was he didn’t say anything about it. “I really think you should consider sticking around” he almost whispered it, staring out at the marsh, or maybe he was looking at the cornucopia. “I…” Nico trailed off, slightly wishing that he hadn't pulled his hand away from Will before. “I know you already said it was a bad idea but just think about it, okay? At least for another day, so I can keep an eye on your arm” Will ran his fingers through his hair before walking past him and kneeling down at the fire.

Nico stood there for another minute, thinking over Will's request, before walking over and sitting down beside him. None of the careers looked upset about him being there, and he was very thankful for that. For once, they actually seemed like good people, not completely ruthless killers whose only goal was winning. Annabeth Chase was on his other side, gnawing at something that Nico was pretty sure was a roasted fish of some kind, “We’re glad you made it man, i mean, you were looking gnarly when we got back from the dogs. Will looked like he was ready to sh*t himself” Percy Jackson spoke up from where he was sitting beside Annabeth, laughing as he reached over to tend to the fire. Will scoffed from beside him, “like you wouldn't! You said it yourself! He did not look good!” Will reached over around the fire and grabbed 2 roasted fish, handing one over to Nico. “not that you didn't look good , but like-” “pipe down lover boy” Annabeth commented, tossing her fish bones out to the marsh behind them.

Around him, the rest of them laughed, including Will as he bit into his fish. Nico felt lost, was he missing something? Did they know something he didn't? They probably knew a lot of things that he didn't, that shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did… For the next hour or so, Nico faded in and out of the conversations, eating his fish and a couple pieces of dried fruit, but mostly just thinking.

If he wanted, he could leave early in the morning and probably never see the career pack, now including Will Solace, ever again. But did he really want that? They didn't seem all that bad, they were funny, they didn't really poke fun at him, mostly they just poked fun at each other, but even then, they didn't make him feel left out, they offered him food and cracked jokes with him, primarily at Jason's expense for the whole drowning thing last night, and he actually felt safe for the first time since he'd gotten into the arena, maybe for the first time since before that, actually.

So, he decided as the nightly broadcast lit up the night sky, he would not leave, and he made sure to tell Will this as Apollo and the Muses began singing. “Oh, good, I'm glad,” he said, giving him a small smile before turning his attention back to the broadcast.

4 people had died that day, he guessed that 2 of them had been while he was out and the other 2 were before he wandered into the blood rain. Hazel Levesque from district 1, Austin Lake from 7, Connor Stoll from 10, and Lou Ellen Blackstone from 11… Nico looked over at Will as Lou Ellen's smiling face faded away into the darkness and saw that his smile from before had completely faded into something much sadder. Instantly, Nico thought of the dog with the dark fur and green eyes from before, some of the most piercing eyes he'd ever seen… guilt filled him as he made the connection, remembering how he practically disemboweled the animal. Surely it couldn't have actually been made out of lou ellen, that had to be damn near impossible, but that didn't mean that it wasn't made to be in her likeness, which meant that the others…

For a moment, Nico almost felt sick, but he knew that he couldn't show it in front of the others, he'd already cost them enough time and effort two different times today, the last thing they needed was for their new recruit to throw up all the time. And, if he did get sick, he'd have to explain why , and he did not want to do that one bit.

After about ten minutes of quiet, Reyna patted her knees and reached for another canister near the edge of their circle, pouring the water inside on the fire, “i think we should turn in, we all got a pretty early start this morning, it'd be best if we could get some of that time back” she said, tightening the lid back on the can and tossing it over near the pile of bags and loot that they'd accumulated.

“I can take first watch, since I actually got some rest” Nico offered, glancing around the beach. Now that it was dark, it looked quite gloomy, and startlingly empty, even if not that many people had died so far. Though, he supposed the jungle was pretty big, but who even knows what horrors were in there.

“I'll take a watch too, since you guys fought the mutts. And i got more sleep this morning” Will volunteered, finally taking off his bag and setting it beside him. Reyna nodded slowly, thinking about it for a moment, “that should work, wake me up when lightning hits that tree and I'll take over” he said, pointing across the marsh to a giant tree sticking up above the rest of the jungle. Nico wasn’t sure how Reyna knew that there would be a lightning storm or that it’d hit that tree exactly, but by this point, he didn't really want to question her either. “Wake me up too” Jason said and started to head over to their loot pile, pulling out four large rolls of fabric.

“No way you guys have four sleeping bags” Nico muttered in disbelief. Will snickered beside him, “I know right, me and You thought we'd hit the jackpot when we got a tarp , but here these guys were with practically a full camping set” to Nicos surprise, Will didn't sound unhappy about the fact that the careers had more, if anything he seemed to have it funny. He wondered how friendships could be formed so quickly, and how strong they’d prove to be in the long run, but he didn't want to worry about that now. The 6 of them exchanged goodnights quietly before snuggling up in their sleeping bags, or in Nico and Wills case, getting a bit more comfortable in the sand. “We probably have about three and a half hours until the lightning hits that tree” Will said, stretching his legs out and resting his head on his bag. “How do you know?” Nico questioned, looking over at the other boy. He looked nice like this, stretched out, that usual relaxed smile back on his face. “I don't actually know , Reyna has a theory about different things happening at different times, and that tree got struck by lightning at around noon today, so she's pretty sure it’ll strike again at midnight” Will shrugged, folding his arms behind him and staring up at the sky. Nico hummed in understanding and stretched out as well, clasping his hands over his chest and not really caring about getting sand in his hair.

“What the hell are we going to do for the next three and a half hours?” he asked, looking up at the sky and trying to remember some of the constellations. “Well it's either try to find constellations or talk, and i think i already found Orion and both dippers so…” Nico didn’t need to look over at Will to know that he was smiling, he could hear it in his voice. “I guess we could talk…” he answered, a small, very small, practically miniscule smile falling across his face as well.

Chapter 9

Chapter Text

For a while, they stayed quiet, still staring at the sky like they were afraid to speak. “I saw what happened to Bianca yesterday, at the cornucopia” Will whispered, “I'm so sorry..” Nicos chest hurt at the thought of Bianca, but he didn't want to cry, it would make him tired, and he couldn't leave Will to take watch alone. “It's okay… I’m sorry about Lou Ellen'' he replied, still thinking of the mutt from this morning. Will hummed in acknowledgement, sitting up again and pulling his knees up. Looking at him from the corner of his eye, Nico could tell that he was mulling over something before finally speaking. “We didn't really sleep at all that night after the cornucopia, just walking around and stuff, then we heard you guys running away from the fog. We heard you screaming, I wanted to help but i… I didn't.”

Nico sat up as well, turning his head to look at the other boy. He started to say something, but Will started talking again before he could. “And then… then there were spiders like all around us” Wills voice wavered a bit, “i dont even know where they came from, but they were f*cking huge… we tried to run, but it was like there was something keeping us trapped, an invisible wall or something, and by then we were so far back in the jungle that we wouldnt have been able to get to the beach without being attacked by them” Nico felt a chill run up his spine, Wills voice sounded so empty now. “But one of them bit Lou anyway, and she just started convulsing and breaking out in hives, screaming at things that weren't there and looking around for me like she couldn't see, begging me to kill her, to put her out of her misery, so I-”

Will's voice broke off into a sob, his hand quickly coming up to cover his mouth. For a moment, Nico didn't know what to do, sitting there in quiet shock as tears fell down Wills cheeks, “I had to do it, she kept screaming at me, I couldn't take seeing her hurt like that anymore” Will sniffled, wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand, resting his chin on his knees. “And then the careers found me, essentially recruiting me as their medic for the time being, and I didn't really have any reason to refuse.”

Nico twisted the ring on his finger, taking a deep breath before opening his mouth to speak, “i am so sorry Will'' It didn't feel like nearly enough, just saying sorry after someone told you that they'd had to kill their childhood friend while they screamed and cried and begged for them to do it. He remembered what Will had said in his interview, how he didnt care if he died or not, how he'd been so casual about it.

It was then that Nico decided that Will Solace was strong, much stronger than he was, based off of his healing abilities and his sheer will to stay alive. “You did a good thing though” he tried to sound reassuring, but he wasn't sure if it was really conveyed properly. Will nodded slowly, staring at the water in front of them, “I guess you’re right, she was really… she was really hurting” he mumbled, running his thumb over a golden ring on his right hand. It didn't look very detailed, just a simple band, but it definitely would have been expensive in district 12, which meant it had been expensive in district 11.

“Can you tell me about 12?” Will suddenly asked after what felt like an hour, even though it had only been probably two minutes. Nico looked over at him and almost jolted when Will was already looking over at him. “What do you want to know…?” he asked tentatively, he didn't exactly have many good stories from his most recent years in the district, and even the years before that, the years with his mother, weren't all that happy. Will shrugged, “anything, i don't know anything about the other districts, or you.” Wills voice was very quiet, hardly above a whisper, he was very tired, clearly. He had to be after the day he'd had, getting attacked by spiders, killing his best friend, then spending most of the actual day trying to make sure that Nico didn't die, it had to be exhausting. ‘I shouldn't have let him take watch with me, I should've told him to sleep..’ Nico thought to himself. “I would like to,” Will murmured, still looking at Nico and resting his cheek on his knee. “Like to what?” Nico asked, was Will delirious? Was he delirious? Had he said the thought about letting him sleep out loud? “Know about you, i would like to know about you” Will insisted, scooching a bit closer and nudging Nico with his shoulder.

Oh… Oh.

Nico hesitated, trying to think of something to tell Will that wouldn't seem depressing, but coming up short for the most part. “I work- I worked in the mines' ' He said finally, clasping his hands in his lap. “Ahh, so that's where all that muscle comes from” Will nodded knowingly and Nico looked at him incredulously, his cheeks feeling warm “I don't know about all that” he said with a small laugh. “But anyway, uhm, I wasn't actually supposed to be working, since you have to be 18, but Bianca had lost her job and the group home we were at didn't really go out of their way to make sure that everyone was taken care of, so…” Nico trailed off, shrugging. He wondered if his supervisor back at the district was watching him now, admitting to something that was essentially illegal on live television. He was pretty sure he already knew, considering Nico did not look 18 in any way, but had never questioned it, maybe he knew about their situation, or maybe he just needed more workers, either way, he appreciated it.

“You lived in a group home? Will asked, not looking as tired now. Nico nodded, looking out at the marsh “our dad was… not there, obviously, and then when i was 10 and Bianca was 12, our mother was taken to Olympus for something.. Probably my father. She didn't come back” he tried to keep his explanation brief, for one, he was almost positive that he was not supposed to be talking about this, and they’d already talked about enough sad stuff tonight. “I'm sorry” the blond said quietly, to which Nico shrugged, looking back at him. “It feels like forever ago, and to be honest, I don't think life would be that different if she hadn't been taken, we were really poor. I still would've gotten a job early, same with Bianca… i don't know” Will hummed, scooting closer yet again.

‘ He keeps doing that..’ Nico pondered, still looking at Will. For a moment, he thought he was almost glowing, his skin looked much brighter, despite sitting in what would've been pitch black darkness had it not been for the moon. “You're-” he started to say, but the glow faded quickly almost as soon as Will started to focus again on his words, no longer staring off into space. “Hm?” he hummed, raising his eyebrows a bit. Nico shook his head and looked out at the marsh again, trying to think of another story to get his mind off of the fact that the boy beside him had glowed . To get his mind off of the fact that said boy was one of the most beautiful people that he'd ever seen, and he'd seen gods . To get his mind off the fact that he liked the fact that Will was sitting close to him and how that was bad for a multitude of reasons.

Nico continued to tell stories, mostly about random things that had happened over the years, happy to hear Will engage and ask questions from time to time. Will never told stories of his own, but he figured that the subject was sore still after Lou Ellen.

“One time me and Bianca snuck under the fence to go out to the woods and look for berries and stuff and-” Nico started a new one, his sentence being interrupted as a deafening crack filled the air. Across the marsh, a huge lightning bolt struck the large tree that Reyna had pointed to earlier. Has it already been several hours? It hasn't felt like it… maybe those quiet pauses they'd had had been much longer than he'd thought, he didn't want to wake up Reyna and Jason, then the moment would be over. He felt comfortable now, gods only know when he'd feel like this again…

Will sighed, rising to his feet and stretching with a groan before pulling Nico up by his good arm. “Thank you for telling me about you” he said, giving him a sleepy smile before trudging over to Reyna and shaking her awake. She woke up surprisingly quickly, and Nico wondered vaguely if that was because they were in the games, or if she was just a naturally light sleeper. Reyna crawled out of her sleeping bag and waved Will over to it, going and shaking Jason awake as well. By the time both of the careers were up and out, Nico felt like he could fall asleep standing up, his energy completely gone now that he wasn't caught up in telling stories.

“Take my sleeping bag” Jason offered, though it felt more like a command as he patted Nicos shoulder, still, it was a command that he would not resist. Considering the only time he'd actually gotten a good sleep since they'd been there was when he passed out from blood loss on a beach, the sleeping bag felt like heaven, even though he could feel the sand moving underneath him as he wriggled around to get comfortable. Somewhere around him, he could hear light snoring, but he wasn't sure if it was coming from Percy, Annabeth, or Will, nevertheless, he fell asleep quite quickly, his old memories from the district weaving themselves into his dreams while he slept, along with a certain blond.

-

He woke up to bustling around him, the sound of metal clashing by his head, and as Nicos eyes shot open, he feared he'd find himself in the middle of a battle, having been peacefully sleeping while his friends- while his allies fought off enemies. Thankfully, when he looked around, he saw no such thing. What he did see, however, was Percy Jackson hunched over a new fire, this time with a small pan, poking at something inside it. Nico sat up slowly, looking around the beach, it looked to be about 7 in the morning, and the rest of the pack were already up and working. Reyna and Annabeth were sorting through the bags and loot that they already had, presumably trying to figure out what was really essential and the most efficient way to carry it when they eventually decided to move further down the beach. Jason was by the treeline, gathering firewood by cutting down branches off of dead trees and gradually making a large pile.

Nicos eyes searched for Will, finally landing on his familiar frame, though not in the position he thought he'd find him in. Will Solace was stripped down to his underwear, sitting on one of the rock strips, scrubbing at his arena uniform with a large rock. Nico looked down at his own uniform, cringing slightly, he was definitely cleaner than he had been when he'd first wandered into the mutts part of the jungle, but his jumpsuit was still mostly stained a brownish red, gross.

“You should probably wash up, we're gonna move today I think. Reyna wants to investigate the lightning tree more” Percy waved in the general direction of the marsh then to Nicos jumpsuit, “plus you stink just a little bit” he whispered, but not in a ridiculing way, in a more joking way, though Nico knew that his words were probably true nonetheless.

As he walked over to the marsh, Will started pulling his jumpsuit back on, not seeming to mind that it was still pretty wet, considering he'd probably be walking in the heat for a better part of the day. “Morning,” He said as he passed him, smiling before walking over to Percy, presumably to oversee the cooking. The warm breeze felt nice on Nicos skin as he peeled off the jumpsuit and sank into the marsh, remembering again that he was still missing his sleeves as he kneeled by the rock strip, but it didn't matter. Despite Deimos’s words, he didn't really think that the thin fabric would protect him very much, it clearly hadn't up to that point.

By the time he was done washing both himself and the jumpsuit, it looked significantly better, still slightly red tinted, but not nearly as bad as it had been when he first stepped into the water.

Percy handed him a grilled fish as he walked back up to their makeshift camp, clearly having upped his fish cooking game since last night. Nico thanked him with a nod, sitting down by the fire and staring out at the rest of the arena. The day wasn't sunny, but it wasn't dark and gloomy either, good weather for traveling.

“Nico!” Will called from the other side of the fire as Nico finished off his fish, holding up two silver canisters and a small hollow metal contraption that Nico recognized as a spile. “Will you help me get some water before we go?” he asked, pointing over to the trees. ‘ There's water in the trees?’ Nico thought to himself, he wanted to question it, but honestly, it seemed like just the thing that the careers and Will would know that he wouldn't, so he nodded, rising to his feet and following after Will.

“It's not all the trees, unfortunately, just a certain kind” Will explained as he led the two of them through the jungle, finally finding the tree he wanted. To Nico, it looked like any old tree, though he supposed if he looked at iit enough, the bark pattern was different from the other trees. Will crouched down beside the tree to set down his canisters and pulled out an awl- something Nico hadn't even been aware he’d had- and started to bore a hole into the tree, eventually sticking the spile into the hole once he deemed it satisfactory. He stared at the tree for a moment, finally smiling again as water began to trickle out of the tree trunk, “hand me a can” he murmured, looking over at Nico out of the corner of his eye. Nico obliged, unscrewing the lid off of the canister and handing it over to the other boy. He crouched beside him after a moment, feeling weird about just standing here while Will stared intently at the tree.

Filling up the cans didn’t take much time, and before long, they were screwing the lids back onto them and heading back to camp. “Can I ask you something?” Will asked suddenly on their way back. Nico stopped, looking over his shoulder and noticing that Will had stopped several feet back, holding onto his canister with a vice grip. He looked nervous about something, and Nico looked side to side as he turned around, feeling very weird all of a sudden, “sure..?” He replied, that weird feeling shifting into nervousness. Will stepped closer, still looking nervous as he set down his canister. Maybe that was why he felt so nervous, seeing someone that always seemed so relaxed look so nervous was jarring, and worrying. “Am I reading this wrong?” Will sad quietly, “that happens occasionally.”

Nico glanced around again, “what?” He asked, looking back to Will. “This” Will waved his hand between them, acting like it was very obvious, “because there was the elevator and then all of training and the interviews and then last night and it’s so stupid!” Will sounded exasperated, but not with Nico, with himself. “I dont…” Nico trailed off, his brow furrowing as he tried to process what Will was saying. Maybe this was one of the downsides of not having many friends besides your sister, not understanding half of the things people say.

“Can I…” Will paused, hesitating and chewing on a scab on his bottom lip. Nico must’ve given him a questioning look because he sighed, “can I kiss you?”

Nico froze, his water can feeling much heavier in his hands now. His brain slowed down as he processed the question, the entire arena stopped. Here was this boy, this beautiful boy, asking to kiss him… Why? Why would he want to do that? Did the others tell him to do this as some cruel hazing? For a moment, he didn’t care, “…Yes” he mumbled. Will let out a breath of relief, running his hands through his hair and trying to hide his smile, though the nervousness in his eyes was still evident.

Nico watched him do this, silently waiting for said kiss to come. Maybe he wouldn’t do it now, maybe he’d wait to redeem that kiss until later when it’d be really funny, like in the middle of a fight. That was not the case, however, as Will moved his hand to cup the side of his face, leaning down slightly to smile at him quickly before pressing a soft kiss onto his lips.

Chapter 10

Chapter Text

Nico pulled away after a moment, probably way too quickly, and immediately regretted it. The arena came back into focus around them, more specifically, the cameras that were most certainly embedded in every tree and leaf around them, definitely focused on them after what just happened. Had that been on purpose? For the cameras?

He must've looked upset about the idea, because Will looked worried as he looked down at him, his hand dropping back to his side from where it had been resting on his cheek. “Are you okay?” he asked tentatively, his eyes searching Nicos face for something.

“This can't…” he started, his throat feeling dry, “this can't happen.” Will looked more confused than worried now, “what?”

“You’re only saying this because it’s the games, if we’d met under any other circ*mstances, you wouldn’t want to do that” Nico said firmly, or at least he attempted it that way. Part of him desperately wished that they were two different people, meeting under different circ*mstances, but they weren’t. “That’s not true” Will shook his head, starting to look frustrated, “ yes it is” Nico insisted. “You’re only doing this because we might die within the hour and it might get you more sponsors.” Will looked hurt, and for a moment, Nicos frustration faltered.

Will sighed, looking down at the ground now, “why is it so hard for you to believe that someone might actually have a crush on you and not have some ulterior motive?” he mumbled, and Nico noticed that he was running his thumb over that same golden ring. ‘A crush?’ Nico thought to himself, he hadn't known that it had gone that far. Then again, people didn't usually just ask people they maybe sorta kinda liked if they could kiss them, and then follow through.

“Because you don't even know me!” he answered, and Will suddenly looked exasperated, “why do you think i asked you to tell me about yourself then? I want to know you Nico! I want you to know me!” Nico flinched, and Will visibly faltered, “but I don't know you..” he half whispered. ‘Then why did I want you to kiss me?’ he noted to himself, ‘why do i want to know you as much as you think you know me?’

“You could ask? I don’t know Nico, I just…” Will ran his hand through his hair, looking away from him again. “What if we’re the last two at the end? I can't kill you.” Nico leaned to the side, trying to get Will to look at him again, it worked. “Would it make you feel better if I promised to leave if it got down to the final three or something? Though honestly, i don't think it'll come down to that so why does it matter?” Will crouched down to pick up his water canister, and Nico found that had almost forgotten about his own in his hand. “But seriously, if you don't feel the same, say it, quit beating around the bush. Please. ”

Nico hesitated, trying to think of what to say, because honestly, he didn't know what he felt, or how he felt it. In a way, Will was right, he highly doubted that they'd even make it far enough to have to worry about killing each other, so why not go for it? Even if Will was only saying it because of the circ*mstances, did it matter that much? In the end, there was one victor, it was not like they would leave and someone would get heartbroken, why should it matter. Then, there was the matter of being vulnerable not just in front of one other person, but the entire country… He'd been vulnerable last night, telling stories about 12 and the group home, but that was different…

“I…” Nico opened his mouth to speak but words got caught in his throat, “I can't think about this right now..” he mumbled, turning back around and continuing the walk back to the beach. It was, regrettably, not the best thing to say at the moment, but there was some truth to it, except it was more so that he couldn't talk about it right now, he couldn't very easily just stop thinking about something, especially something like this.

“There you guys are, we’re ready to go” Reyna said as Will stepped onto the beach behind Nico, his face unreadable as he strided over to the fire, grabbing his crossbody bag and taking a backpack from Reyna. Reyna held one out to Nico too, which he gladly took. It wasn't his purple backpack, but a big black one, and it was actually a little heavy. “From here on out, we all need to carry our own lives on our backs, we cant have food in one bag, cooking supplies in another,”

Reyna gestured to the bags and then the pile of stuff that evidently hadn't made it past her and Annabeth's judgment. “You all have several bags of dried fruit, a knife, and then some kind of sleeping arrangement. We have our sleeping bags and Will and Nico you have the tarp that Will and Lou Ellen got and a tarp that we had, they're both insulated so they can make a good shelter at night.” Nico muttered a quiet thank you and slung the bag over his shoulder. In a way, he understood why they had to each be individually prepared for being in the arena on their own, but this felt very soon, there was still more than half of the tributes left, did they really need to prepare to separate?

Annabeth handed Nico the sword he’d gotten from the cornucopia and leaned a bit closer, “the knife in your bag is the one from your bag, and we put your swiss army knife in there as well” she said quietly, like it was some great advantage that they'd given him by letting him keep a tiny knife with a toothpick and bottle opener attached, but he appreciated the sentiment.

-

After a few more minutes of preparation, they began the trek to the huge tree on the complete opposite of the arena. After about two miles of walking, a canon rang out accompanied by a blood curdling scream, ahead of them, a burly girl that Nico recognized as Clarisse La Rue from district 5- mostly because she was the only girl in the arena that looked like she could match Jason Grace in a fight physically- came running out of the jungle with two other boys. Clarisse was carrying a girl along with her, though it looked more like she was practically restraining her.

“Do we do something?” Will asked, looking at the rest of them, but Percy shook his head quickly, “thats a group we don't want to fight, not yet at least '' he warned, and Nico thought that was rich coming from someone that had gotten a 11 in the private training. “But what if they're hurting her?” Will's grip on his own sword tightened as he looked between the pack and group up the beach.

“She's trying to get back to the jungle,” Annabeth noted, pointing to where Clarisse and the girl were still fighting, finally, she seemed to get tired, going almost limp in Clarisses arms as she set her back on her feet. “Who is it?” Nico looked back at Annabeth as the group started walking in the same direction that they were heading, still having not noticed them amidst the chaos. “Silena Beauregard from 8” Annabeth explained, shielding her eyes as she looked over at them across the beach. “I think Sherman and Frank Zhang are the other two, Clarisse and them have been together since training, but Silena is new…”

-

After another few hours of walking, lightning started to hit the tree and Reyna smiled, “perfect, we have twelve hours now, let's hurry” she encouraged, a spring in her step now. By the time they actually got to the jungle around the tree, the lightning was still going, so they opted to stop for a small lunch of dried fruit on the beach. “So what's the plan?” Jason asked as he bit into a piece of dried apricot, looking over to Reyna. “Someone needs to climb the tree, there might be something on the top, like a nest. The branches make a bowl shape in the crown'' Reyna said thoughtfully, looking back to the jungle behind them currently being electrocuted.

Without thinking, Nico raised his hand, “I can do it” he volunteered. Up until then, he'd been pretty useless to the pack, he’d been saved by them several times already, it was about time he started pulling his weight. Immediately, everyone looked at his left arm, or, the bloody bandages all around it. “I don’t think that's a good idea..” Will sounded uneasy, tossing a piece of apple back and forth in his hands. Nico sighed, “it doesn't feel that bad anymore” he tried to protest but was interrupted by a small tinkling sound in the air above them. For a second, Nico thought that maybe lightning was about to strike them right there on the beach, but then, a little silver canister floated down in front of him, its white parachute carrying it down slowly. ‘ A sponsor’ Nico thought as he reached for it, unscrewing the lid and peeking in. There was a small yellow square pastry on a napkin along with a note, “don't waste it. -M”

Percy glanced over Nicos shoulder and his eyes nearly popped out of his head, “Holy sh*t man-” he breathed. To Nico, it looked like a lemon bar, sure, that was a delicacy back in 12, but surely not in a richer district like 4? “What?” he asked, looking over at the dark haired boy, “that's ambrosia, godly food. It'll heal you” the rest of the pack gathered around him now, looking down at the small square in awe, “gods that must've cost a fortune..” Annabeth whispered, sitting back on her knees. Reyna looked thoughtful as she stared at the small piece of food, “you could heal your arm with a small piece of that, if you're serious about climbing the tree” she offered. Nico looked back down at the ambrosia, he hadn't even thought of that… “Not too much though, it'll burn your mortal blood.” Jason added as Nico picked up the piece, making the entire idea much more daunting. ‘How much is too much?’ he thought as he bit off what was probably about ⅙ of the bar.

Woah.

Immediately he felt warmth spread throughout his body, but not the kind that would signal to him that his blood was burning, a pleasant warmth, like a warm blanket. The ambrosia tasted like warm cinnamon bread, conjuring up memories of Bianca and their mother once when he was younger. It had been Bianca's birthday and their mother had gotten two cinnamon rolls from the bakery to celebrate, carefully toasting them in the fireplace before giving them to him and Bianca; they'd both offered her some, but she’d refused, encouraging them to enjoy their treat and not worry about her. The memory made him happy, but also sad, knowing that his mother and Bianca were both gone now. However, the healing powers of the food had worked, the throbbing in his left arm now gone.

The rest of the pack looked at him expectantly like they were waiting to hear his full review and critique, but he had nothing to say, instead rolling his shoulders back and smiling a little when there was no pain. Will shuffled over and peeled back the gauze on his arm, revealing a blood stained, but otherwise intact arm underneath. Reyna rose to her feet and brushed the sand off of her legs, looking to the jungle, the lightning had stopped by now. “Let's get going, time is of the essence.”

Getting to the tree didn't take long, even though the jungle around it was just as lush as the rest of the arena, it was easier to navigate now that they had what was essentially a beacon above the trees. Another canon rang out right as they stepped into a clearing, the tree in the center of it.

The tree was absolutely huge, so big that Nico was pretty sure that even if all six of them held hands and stood around it, they wouldn't be able to wrap around it completely, and at least thirty feet tall, though about six of those feet were a cluster of branches near the crown of the tree.

Annabeth pointed at the side of the tree as they walked up closer, “look at those indents, can your foot fit in there?'' She turned to Nico and he walked forward, fitting his foot into one and his hand into another about four feet above it. He stepped up to the next one, reaching up for a different indent, climbing up until he was about six feet off the ground before jumping back down. “I should be good, and then I can grab onto the branches for leverage when I get higher,” he assured, pointing up to the branches that stuck out about ten feet up the tree. “Do you want to take a rope to put at the top for when you come down?” Reyna offered, dropping her bag onto the ground, but Nico shook his head. “I don’t want the extra bulk, I’ll be alright” he assured Reyna as he dropped his own bag, pulling out his knife and holding it in his hand as he got his footing in the same indent as before. The rest of the pack wished him luck as he started to ascend the tree, standing guard just in case Clarisse La Rue and her little gang came crashing through for a sneak attack.

About halfway up the tree, Nico realized that they truly knew nothing about this tree beyond the fact that it got struck by lightning every twelve or so hours. Anything could be up at the top, it could be a fury nest for all he knew… He’d seen very few of those in person over the years, but there was one year where the gamemakers had unleashed a fleet of them upon the tributes after they'd gone a week without killing anybody, a victor was crowned not long after that. However, he was not deterred by this fact, and instead tried to distract himself by thinking about something else- that something ended up being Will. That morning was still terrorizing his mind as he climbed higher, going over what they'd both said and how Nico had left the conversation open-ended. He hadn't told Will that he didn't like him, but he hadn't told him that he liked him either… but was letting him kiss him not enough indication? Did he have to admit it to the world?

Nico sighed, pulling himself up onto a particularly large branch and glancing down at the pack. They looked fine, casually standing around and waiting, Percy and Annabeth were whispering about something by a tree while Will, Jason and Reyna were drawing a map of some sorts in the dirt. Looking back up, Nico saw that he didn't have that much climbing left until he got to the crown, which motivated him as he carefully reached for the next branch up. He'd be very embarrassed if he fell, even in death, he'd volunteered to do this and made himself seem capable, falling after all that talk would be humiliating. Maybe that was another reason why he'd been so insistent about being the one to climb the tree, he wanted to prove himself to the pack. Up until now, he'd sort of just… laid there while they did all the work, that didn't make a good impression, it was a miracle he got even one sponsor, and nearly unbelievable that said sponsor had sent something as expensive as ambrosia.

Finally, he pulled himself up into the crown, and was shocked to see that it was essentially like a nest, shielded from the sun by the surrounding leaves and branches, but not one that a bird or fury could have possibly made. There was a tarp across the base, nailed into the surrounding branches and acting as a sortoff hammock/safety net, as well as a few dried fruit bags scattered around. Everything was surprisingly intact, hardly even singed from the lightning, and it made Nico wonder what the point of the storm was in the first place. As he stepped onto the tarp, he noticed one side of the tarp was covered in a smattering of mud, but as Nico looked closer, he saw that it was more of a reddish brown color, like the color of dried blood. His stomach churned as he straightened back up, glad to have his knife with him, but if push came to shove, he could grab one of the weapons around him.

Nico started to head back over to where he'd come from, happy to leave the weird, dark human nest and get back down to the pack, but stopped when he heard a rustle in the leaves behind him. He gripped his knife tighter as he slowly looked over his shoulder to where the sound had come from, above the blood stained corner of the tarp. Nico turned back to face it, staying several feet away as his eyes tried to focus in on the leaves, making out shapes he hadn't seen before, specifically, the shape of a human face, staring back at him.

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

Nico almost screamed as the face came into view, camouflaged with something, though from where he stood, he couldn't tell if it was mud, or blood. Suddenly, the person lept from the branches towards Nico, a knife in his hand as he swung for him. Nico jumped out of the way and went rolling across the tarp, trying to keep his balance as the boy reared on him. It was Ethan Nakamura from district 4, and the realization made Nicos heart drop to his feet. This was essentially a career tribute, raised and trained to fight in the games, hiding out in a tree just waiting out until someone was stupid enough to enter his domain. Ethan ran at him again, keeping his balance surprisingly well on the plastic flooring, and Nico realized with horror that he only had one eye. Where his left eye should've been, there was nothing but a gaping socket, fresh blood still trickling from it down his face.

The boy swung at him again, slicing Nicos cheek and practically roaring as he lunged for him, finally tackling him onto the tarp and knocking his knife out of his hand. “Why are you here?” he hissed, trying to pin Nico down by his wrists, “what do you want? Who sent you??” Ethan was closer than Nico would have liked now, the metallic stench of blood heavy on his skin and breath, and the thought of what that might have meant made Nico want to vomit. He put all of his strength into rolling them over, pinning Ethan down onto the tarp and feeling around for his knife.

Seeing Ethan now reminded Nico of the bloodbath two days ago, how Ethan had been running for him in the marsh before he headed for the cornucopia, seeing him now, it was like seeing an empty shell of the boy before. “You don't know what you're doing, halfblood! You know NOTHING!” Ethan screamed, pulling his legs up and kicking Nico back off of him. He scrambled back to his feet and stared down at him like a madman, and Nico supposed that was what he was now, a madman, driven insane by the arena. Or maybe he'd been like this all along, and the arena had just given him an outlet, he couldn't be sure.

“You don't know the things I've seen, the things I've heard! I've spoken to the gods! My mother!” Ethan pointed to his eye socket with his knife, and Nico worried for a moment that he might stab himself again. “This is for her! This is all for her!” he cried, spreading his hands and gazing around his nest as Nico rose to his feet, trying to edge over to a sword propped against a branch without alerting the other tribute. He knew that there was no way he'd be able to get to the side he'd come up from without having to fight more, so if he could just catch him off guard…

Ethan whirled around again, his eyes- eye zeroing in on the sword within Nicos reach. “One more offering won't hurt, '' he jeered, looking back up at Nico's face before running at him again, his knife swinging wildly. Nico lunged for the sword and spun it around right as the other boy reached him, narrowly blocking his knife. Warm blood from Nicos cut ran down his cheek, but he wouldn't worry about that now, instead, trying his best to push Ethan away with his sword, swinging at him as he stumbled back and slicing through his right thigh, causing him to fall back onto his knees.

A surge of rage filled Nico as he looked down at the district 4 tribute with intent that could only be described as murderous, though deep down, he had no idea where the feeling came from. Ethan looked up at him, a wild look in his eye, like even though his leg was severely and he’d dropped his knife, he still would most certainly win this fight. Somehow, someway, as if using his last bit of strength, he leaped for Nico again, going for his stomach and knocking him to the ground.

“My mother will love you, son of…” Ethans expression faltered for a moment, like he was trying to think of what to say, “son of- son of-” Ethan stammered, his eye shot left to right over and over like he was reading something very fast before he fell forward, clutching his head.

In a flash, he was back, like he hadn't just had an entire episode in a matter of seconds. He looked around the nest and finally grabbed a knife laying on the edge of the tarp, pressing it against Nicos throat so hard he could feel the skin break. “My mother will love you, son of H-” Ethans words were cut off as Nico pitched his head up, hitting Ethan straight in the forehead and howling as the knife dug deeper into his neck with the movement.

Ethan's hand shot up to his forehead from where it had been holding down Nicos arm, giving him the perfect opportunity to shove him back off of him. The other boy lurched backwards, and Nico realized much too late that they were way too close to the edge of the nest as Ethan Nakamura fell through the leaves, desperately grabbing at the branches around him, but it was no use, momentum took over as he went careening out of the tree and towards the ground. The canon went off a moment later, and Nico could hear the others go running for him at the base of the tree.

Nico sat back on his knees and looked around the nest, trying to catch his breath and process what had just happened. He'd killed him. He'd actually pushed him out of the tree and killed him… ‘and now I'm going to take from him’ he thought to himself as he rose to his feet and walked over to what must've been Ethans food corner. Several of the fruit bags were open and scattered around the corner, but Nico opted to grab the ones that were still sealed, carrying them over to the side he'd come from and dumping them over. He really hoped that none of them would hit the others or explode on impact, but the material the bags were made of seemed sturdy enough.

Perhaps he was distracting himself with gathering food, distracting himself from the fact that he'd just fought and killed another human being, but that didn't stop him as he dumped another handful of bags off the side.

Finally, once Nico decided that there was nothing else he could possibly take from Ethan Nakamura that they didn't already have, he grabbed his knife and began the careful, and very slow descent down the tree. He really wished that he'd taken Reyna up on her rope offer, especially when the hovercraft came to take Ethans body and the wind from the engines nearly blew him off the tree, but of course, it was too late now.

About ⅔ of the way down, Nico realized that he'd have to face the others, face Will, and they'd know exactly what he did. He knew about Will and Lou Ellen, but he had no idea about the others. Had they killed people? Austin lake, Cecil Markowitz, the Stoll brothers, had they been killed by them? They had no place to judge him for it if they had, and they had no place to judge even if they haven't killed anybody, it was the gods-damned hunger games. He jumped down from the tree when he was about five feet off the ground, feeling a little woozy as he hit the ground. His neck throbbed, but it was by no means the worst wound had gotten in the arena so far, and it was nowhere near the vital parts of his throat, so as far as he was concerned, he was fine.

Will Solace did not agree.

The others rushed over to him almost as soon as he dropped to the ground, telling him about how they’d all thought that Ethan had been him at first when they’d seen him come falling out of the tree and then they saw that it wasn’t him and that they were so relieved. He thought the sentiment was nice, that they’d been worried for him, and was forever thankful that none of them seemed upset about the fact that he had killed another tribute. Will somehow managed to drag him over to the tree that he’d left his medical bag by, forcing him to sit still as he patched up the cuts on his neck and cheek, but that didn’t stop him from telling the others all about what had been at the tok of the tree.

“Little creep… of course he’d do something like that…” Percy muttered, carding his fingers through his hair. Reyna looked disappointed that there hadn’t been anything specifically placed by the gamemakers at the top, but still proud of Nico nonetheless. “So what’s the tree for then? If the lightning isn’t even damaging the tree?” Jason asked, leaning against a tree and picking at his nails. “Maybe it’s just for telling time?” Annabeth offered, looking back to Nico, “while you were up there, we figured it out, at least, we think we did.”

Nico must’ve looked confused, because Annabeth sat down beside him and grabbed a stick, drawing a large circle in the dirt and dividing it into twelve sections. “It’s like a clock, every hour, in a new section, something happens. The lightning here, poison fog here, spiders there, the dogs, the blood rain, all of it is confined to its own section. That’s why as soon as the blood rain stopped, the dogs attacked you, the hour of blood rain had ended and the dog mutt hour began”

Nico had to give them a lot of credit, there was no way he’d have been able to figure out something like this on his own. “How do they not get out though? Like the dog mutts, why aren’t they just running rampant around the arena right now?” He asked, and Annabeth shrugged, “we’re not sure, they’re genetically modified, so maybe they’re just ‘programmed’ like that? I don’t know…” she sighed and waved her hand around in the dirt, clearing the map, probably so no other tributes could use it.

Will have Nico a small pat on the shoulder and started to stand up, having finished attending to his cuts. Judging by Wills sharp inhale as he’d inspected them, they’d been deeper than he thought, but he still managed to patch them up with some bandages from his bag. “Where now? I mean, do we really want to try and map out the rest of the arena? So far the beach seems safe, why don’t we just go back there?” Nico stood up as well, taking his backpack and sword from Jason as he held them out to him, but Reyna shook her head. “The beach is too open, soon enough, the others are going to realize that the beach is the only safe part and start fleeing there, we’ll be too vulnerable.” She explained, looking back beyond the tree, “I’m curious about how far back the arena goes, I thought we were far back when the fog came that first night, but I think there’s still quite a bit of jungle beyond here.”

Nobody questioned Reyna as they cleaned up their stuff and started off, Jason and Will taking the lead this time and taking turns cutting down a path for the rest of the group. They were talking quietly about something, but Nico couldn’t hear what it was from where he was walking near the back of the pack. Reyna slowed her pace a bit to walk beside him, though she didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “I’m very sorry about your sister, and I want you to know that I didn’t take the bow from her as a way to disrespect her” she started, looking over at him from the corner of her eye. Nico swallowed, not sure if he was ready for another ‘sorry about your dead sister’ conversation. “Bows are very valuable in the arena, they can be used for hunting or fighting, and if you can’t shoot they can be traded I just… I couldn’t let the hovercraft take it back to Olympus” she sounded a bit tense, like maybe she hadn’t worded that the best way, but Nico understood what she was trying to convey.

“Thank you” he said quietly, focusing his eyes on the jungle ahead. As they continued walking, Nico noticed that the air several meters above them was almost shimmering, even though there was nothing around them that could possibly create a rainbow. He thought maybe it might’ve been the heat radiating up off the ground or some sort of trick his brain was playing from dehydration, but that was not the case.

Annabeth seemed to realize what the shimmering was a second too late as she yelled, “Will, no!” But Will was already swinging his sword to cut down the tree leaves in front of them. Upon impact, Will was thrown back by some invisible force, knocking into Percy and falling straight onto his back. The area ahead of them emitted a multitude of electrical sparks, and for a moment, showed a flat gray wall before quickly switching back to the jungle illusion.

“Will!” Nico cried, dropping his sword and running to the boys side. His eyes were closed, his chest still. Nico dipped his head and rested his ear against Wills chest, feeling for any sign of a heartbeat, even the faintest little tap tap, but he heard nothing. Will Solaces heart had stopped.

Chapter 12

Chapter Text

Nicos mind raced as he straightened back up, smacking Will's cheek lightly and dropping to hear his heartbeat- or lack thereof- again. Percy regained his balance quickly, rushing over to the two of them and pushing Nico off of Will. “What ar-“ Nico started to protest but stopped as Reyna put her hand on his shoulder, holding him back as Percy pinched Will's nose and pressed his mouth against his. For a moment, he thought that Percy was kissing him, but then noticed the subtle rise and fall of Will's chest and connected the dots.

‘He’s blowing air into his lungs…’ Nico realized, leaning forward on his knees as Percy quickly unzipped Will's jumpsuit about halfway down his chest and started to pump rhythmically above where his heart would’ve been, whispering something to himself to keep in time. “Come on, Will, come on..” he muttered, as if ordering the boy to come back to life. Nico felt tears prick in his eyes as the seconds turned into minutes, Will's body still. Percy continued alternating between pumping and blowing air into his lungs, but anyone would be able to tell that he was losing hope, they all were. Their only consolation was the lack of cannon, but Nico assumed that the gamemakers would wait until they gave up on cpr before firing it so that they wouldn’t be in the way when the hovercraft came to get him.

Nico closed his eyes as they passed the two minute mark, leaning back against the tree behind him and Reyna. For one of the first times in the arena so far, he felt hopeless. He couldn’t believe he was letting himself get so worked up about someone that he’d known for only about a week, but he felt terrible. Will's words played back in his mind, “I want to know you Nico! I want you to know me!” If he hadn’t been so dismissive in the woods this morning, maybe things would’ve been different. If he hadn’t been so afraid to admit that maybe he actually did like Will Solace, maybe things would be different.

A small cough cut through the air and Reyna let go of Nicos shoulder, covering her mouth in shock. Nicos eyes shot open as Percy sat back on his heels, trying to catch his breath. Will was still on his ground, but now, his eyes were half lidded and his chest was rising and falling on its own, slowly, of course, but still. Nico lurched forward, his eyes stinging as he knelt by Will once again, “there’s a forcefield up ahead, I think” Will whispered, wincing a bit as if talking hurt. Nico choked out a laugh, but it was quickly cut off by a sob as he rested his head in his hands. Will raised his hand and brushed his fingers through Nicos hair, a gesture that felt much too affectionate to be done in front of the rest of the pack, but he couldn't be bothered to worry about it now.

“Sorry if I worried you” Will whispered again, dropping his hand by the side of his head. “Worried us?? Your heart stopped!” Jason let out a breathy laugh and wiped his eyes, turning to look at the others. Percy rose to his feet finally and Annabeth immediately wrapped her arms around him, mumbling something in his ear. As Nico raised his head again, he quietly wondered what was going on with those two, they were always sitting together, when he’d looked down at them in the tree, they’d been off on their own talking quietly, and now they were hugging…

Nico looked back to Will, happy to see that his eyes were fully open now and his breathing was steady. “Do you need anything?” He asked quietly, slipping his backpack off his shoulders and setting it beside them. “…Water” Will said after a moment of thinking, “and I want to sit up.”

Nico scooted back as Will pushed himself up on his elbows, his face crumpling as he put more pressure on his ribs. Jason stepped forward at that, “Do you need help?” he asked tentatively, Will nodded, letting Jason help him up and half carry him over to lean against a tree. He cried out in pain as he was set down and Jason immediately unleashed a string of apologies but Will waved him off, moving his hand to feel over his ribs, probably looking for a fracture or break. Nico grabbed his backpack and set it down beside Will, unzipping the back pocket and pulling out his water canister. As he unscrewed it and handed it to the other boy, he caught sight of his other canister near the bottom of his bag, the one with the ambrosia in it. He stuffed it into his bag before they headed into the jungle for the tree, not necessarily hiding it, but not not hiding it either.

He took the can out of his bag and unscrewed it as well, breaking off a portion of the bar and handing it out to Will as he took small sips of the water. Will shook his head, “No, Nico, you need to save that'' he said quickly, setting down the water, “im fine, i just need to wrap my ribs and they'll be fine, seriously” Will insisted, but the tightness around his eyes told him that he was lying right through his teeth. “Take it” Nico grabbed Wills hand and pressed the piece into it, giving him a steely look, “there could be something more important that you might need it for later-” “well this is important now , worrying about the future won't do us any good right now” he shut down the other boys protests easily, pretending that he didn't notice the knowing look in Wills eyes. He spent his entire time in the arena worrying about the future and what he'd do if he was one of the last ones standing, but that was pointless, there would be no future if he didn't pay attention to the present, and right now, Will was the only thing worth paying attention to.

Will sighed and took the piece of ambrosia, popping it into his mouth and chewing. Almost immediately, the color came back to his face, the tightness around his eyes and mouth faded, and he took visibly deeper breaths, no longer in pain from too much strain on his ribs. He smiled and leaned his head back onto the tree, and the fact that he'd actually died hit Nico fully. He would've been gone forever, they would have taken him up in the hovercraft back to district 11, the last time he’d see his smile would've been the nightly broadcast showing his picture in the sky. The thought itself almost brought tears to his eyes again, but he blinked them away quickly before the others could see.

Around them, the pack had made themselves comfortable, Jason, Percy, and Annabeth were all sitting among the trees and Reyna was standing over by what they now knew was the edge of the arena. She didn’t touch it, but she paid close attention to the shimmer that it gave off, drawing a line in the first with her spear tip along it so they wouldn't run into it again.

“That ambrosia is no joke” Will said with a nod, Nico hesitated a bit before shuffling over to sit by him, nodding as well. “It reminded me of my mother, she got us cinnamon bread once for Bianca's birthday.” Will looked confused, “...cinnamon bread?” Nico glanced up at him and nodded slowly, “yeah, like bread topped with cinnamon sugar? That's what it tastes like” he felt confused himself, even if Will hadn’t had cinnamon bread, surely he was familiar with it? “Maybe it's different for everybody, I thought it tasted like bread rolls with jelly to me” the other boy pulled his knees up to his chest, smiling softly like he was remembering something. “What you said earlier,” he started, resting his head on his knee and looking over at Nico, similar to the previous night. “About not worrying about the future, was that supposed to be about something besides ambrosia?”

Nico inhaled sharply, looking down at the skull ring on his finger as he twisted it. Will wasn’t an idiot, of course he'd make the connection, the connection that Nico had not even fully meant to allude to, and yet here they were. “Maybe” he muttered, and he could see Will smile out of the corner of his eye, “so, if i asked you if you would want to kiss again at some point, how would you respond?” he said very quietly, and Nico was so so so thankful for the fact that Jason was far enough away that he hopefully couldn't hear them. “I would say yes, probably” he finally replied, stealing a glance over at Will, he was still looking at him and smiling, which made a small smile tug at Nicos own lips, but he did his best to fight it off. “Good to know” Will nodded, turning his head to look at the others, “good to know…”

-

For the next several hours, they stayed stagnant, there had been enough commotion for the day that they all felt that they deserved a bit of a break. Annabeth and Percy had gone fishing together as the sun had started to go down and returned with enough for everyone to have two, quite the feast given the circ*mstances.

The broadcast showed them the smiling faces of Charles Beckendorf, a burly boy from district 3, Ethan Nakamura, and Sherman Yang, one of the boys that had been with Clarisse when they'd seen her. Nico found it almost surreal to see Ethan pre-arena now after seeing the person he'd become up in his little lair, talking to the gods and doing gods only know what. He recalled again the stench of blood that hung heavy on just about every inch of him and almost gagged, trying to clear the thought from his mind.

Come bedtime, Nico offered to take the first watch again, finding it easier to process the deaths of the day and then go to sleep as opposed to immediately trying to sleep them away. “I can too” Will offered, though several glances were shot his way, “don't you think you should get some sleep after everything that’s happened?” Annabeth asked as she rolled out her sleeping bag. Will shook his head, “between the ambrosia and the fact that i was dead for several minutes, i think i've gotten enough sleep for the next few hours” he tried to laugh it off, but nobody seemed to find it too funny. “Alright… you know when to wake me and Jason up” Reyna sounded a bit nervous, but Will seemed serious, so she let it slide.

Nico discovered that the snoring he'd heard last night had in fact been Percy, even from where he was sitting with Will, at least 15 feet from his sleeping bag, he could hear it. Around what he assumed was 10 o'clock, he started to take the canvas tarp that Reyna and Annabeth had packed for him out of his bag and unroll it close to the tree they'd been sitting at, “I was going to set up my tarp there!” Will whisper shouted from where he was sitting, pretending to look offended. “Well you're just going to have to find a new place to put it, because I was here first, '' Nico replied matter-of-factly, crawling back over to the tree. Will sighed, “I guess so…” he sounded so sad that if Nico had not known he was absolutely faking it, he probably would've given in and let him take the spot, but he knew better.

“Is there anything I could do to make you feel better about losing your tarp spot?” he asked, rolling his eyes and smiling. Will seemed to ponder this for a moment, “there was that thing i asked you about earlier..” he said finally, trailing off and looking down at his ring. Nico froze and Will must've felt it because he quickly clarified, “you can say no, I won't be upset, seriously.” But Nico shook his head, “no, it's okay. Sorry, i didn't mean to tense up”

Will turned his body to face Nico better, resting his hand on the other boy's cheek but still looking a bit uneasy, “are you sure?” he asked, running his thumb over his cheekbone. “I'm sure” Nico assured, reaching up to cup Wills face with both hands and lean their foreheads together, and for once, he was sure.

Will gave a short nod and leaned forward, pressing their lips together for the second time that day, but this time was so much better. Probably because Nico didn't just stand there like an idiot, holding onto his water can and barely understanding anything Will was trying to tell him.

To be clear, he'd kissed people before, not many- considering not many people in 12 that he knew of felt the same way he did- but enough to actually know what to do, though he still got the feeling that Will was better than him. His hands felt so warm on his face, his hair so soft as he carded his fingers through it, and as Will pressed closer to him, he worried that he might lose himself in the kiss, however, the moment was lost rather quickly as someone cleared their throat not too far from them.

To say that Nico and Will pushed away from each other was an understatement as they looked back to where the group was supposed to be sleeping. Percy was sitting up in his sleeping bag, his hair thoroughly mussed, though it never looked that tidy either way, so it didn't matter much. “That doesn't look like guard duty” he whispered across the final embers of their fire before snuggling back into his sleeping bag, seemingly satisfied now that he’d ruined their moment.

“I think i have no choice but to die now” Nico finally said once they heard the familiar snoring from Percy's sleeping bag. He felt mortified, not because it had been Will that he was kissing, not because it had been Percy that had actually caught him, but just the fact that they got caught in the first place was ridiculously embarrassing to him. “Its fine, it's just Percy, he probably won't remember by morning anyway, you heard how fast he fell asleep” Will reassured him as he took his tarp out of his own bag and spread it out not too far from Nicos, folding over the site to create a little makeshift blanket. He supposed Will was right, Percy had looked pretty out of it, though he sounded coherent enough to still leave worry in his mind.

For the next hour and a half after that, they didn't talk much, with Nico going over the remaining tributes in his head and Will humming some song to himself. They didn't kiss again either, that is, until it was time for them to wake Jason and Reyna up and go to sleep. Once the lightning struck the tree for the first time, they shuffled over to the two tributes and lightly shook their shoulders, waiting for them to actually sit up and get out of their sleeping bags before turning back to their own sleeping accommodations. “Like i said earlier, i really think it'll be fine” Will whispered once they'd both crawled into their tarp beds and covered up, leaning over to kiss Nicos cheek while Reyna and Jason were turned away, “and if it isn't.. Well, i dont know, f*ck em” he shrugged and laid down, looking surprisingly comfortable despite laying on the ground.

Nico stared up at the sky still streaked with lightning as he tried to fall asleep, or more importantly, trying to forget the events of the day. Ethan Nakamura, the forcefield, Percy… It all left him terribly overwhelmed, but also thoroughly exhausted. So, despite the occasional lightning cracks, Nico actually managed to fall asleep, still thinking about the boy sleeping less than 4 feet away from him.

Chapter 13

Chapter Text

The next morning, Nico woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed, his tarp actually proving to be a pretty comfortable bed even on the ground. Will was still fast asleep next to him, and Nico couldn't help but admire how peaceful he looked, all the tension and stress on his face melted away.

“We’re in no rush today, as long as th gamemakers don't get too impatient, we might be able to relax for a little while today,” Reyna told him as he walked over to the small fire they'd built, even though they weren't roasting any fish this morning, “ but i would like to investigate the other parts of the arena, at least try to map them out or get an idea of what they could be.”

Nico had to agree with her, the idea of having unexplored sections of the arena made him nervous, gods only know what horrors were probably inside them. Of course, in order to figure out what was in them, they'd have to brave it by going in there while they were active, and that itself was a daunting thought. “Oh good you're up” Percy spoke up, looking over as Will walked over to the rest of them, taking a seat on the ground beside Nico. As far as he could tell, Percy didn't remember the previous night, or maybe he did and just didn't want to bring it up in front of everyone else, either way, Nico was thankful. “I'm getting a bit tired of fish. I was thinking about trying something new, specifically oysters. Me and Annabeth saw some in the marsh yesterday while getting dinner” Percy leaned back on his hands, smiling a bit as everybody nodded at his suggestion.

There were no protests from the group as they gathered up some of their stuff, definitely not opposed to trying something other than fish and dried fruit for the first time in at least 2 days. Will lingered near the back of the group with Nico as they headed for the beach, but Nico couldn't really tell if that was because he wanted to be near him, or because the last time he'd stayed at the front, it had gotten him killed. “Did Percy say anything before I woke up?” Will whispered as they walked, looking down at the other boy and brushing their hands together. Nico shook his head, holding on tightly to his sword, “I mean, who's to say they don't already know? We aren't exactly being very covert” he replied, hesitating for a moment before latching their pinkies together. Will shrugged and did not pull away, which he was thankful for, “maybe, I don't think it really matters much. It's not like..” he trailed off, but Nico was pretty sure he got the message. It's not like any of them were going to be alive together for much longer.

They both dropped their hands as the group stepped out on the beach, despite the conversation they'd just had. While they didn't think the pack would really care, that didn't mean that they had to be outright about it, they- or at least Nico- were hardly ready to admit it to themselves, let alone tell other people.

Percy waded out in the marsh and knelt down, digging around with his hands for a moment before finally holding up an oyster and tossing it up onto the bank. Annabeth waded out to join him in looking for the mollusks, and before long, they had several handfuls that they carried back up to the group. He showed them how to properly shuck them with their knives before handing them out while Jason and Reyna built a fire to cook them, and so, they got to work on their breakfast.

After several minutes, Will held out his hand to Nico, nudging his shoulder. In his hand was a small, shimmering ball. ‘A pearl’ He thought to himself, taking it from Will and smiling a little, “thank you” he mouthed, and Will smiled back before going back to his oysters. Nico rolled the pearl around in his hand for a moment before tucking it into his boot, not wanting to set it down on the beach out of fear of it rolling away.

After about half an hour, they had all of the oysters shucked and grilled, thanks to Percy, and it made Nico wonder what they would do without the district 4 boy, he was completely inn his element in this arena, what with all the water, and considering fishing was one of the only sources of food and that was his districts focus. Then again, he was pretty sure they'd be lost no matter who they lost, except for him. They'd been doing fine without him, if anything, he'd caused them more trouble than it might be worth. The thought spoiled his appetite a bit, but he ate another oyster anyway, knowing that he'd need the sustenance. “You okay?” Will whispered beside him, setting down an empty oyster shell. Nico nodded, giving him a weak smile and setting down his own shell.

For the next hour, they mostly lounged around, listening for any canon or screams off in the distance, but there were none. “There's…” Jason counted out the tributes on his hand, “probably 12 tributes left, i guess it makes sense for there to be a pause in deaths. We’re all spread out throughout the arena.” For a moment, Nico thought about speaking up and saying that the reason for the lack of recent deaths was that almost everyone had their own alliances and didn't want to kill their friends, but he kept the comment to himself, instead, leaning against one of the trees at the border and staring out across the marsh.

“Do you want to go get water?” Will asked and leaned down, holding up the spile, awl, and his own water canister. Nico looked up at the other boy and nodded, reaching over for his own bag to get his canister. Reyna looked over at them as they walked back into the jungle, but didnt say anything about it, just going back to cleaning her spear.

Once they got far enough back into the woods, Nico decided to finally ask the question he'd been pondering the whole walk, “did you ask to get water so that we could kiss again?” Will looked amused as he looked at him over his shoulder, stopping once they got to one of the unusual water trees and turning to look at him. “Nico di Angelo, are you suggesting that I would lie and ask to get water when actually I wanted to kiss you? Because that's a serious accusation” Nico's face burned as he stepped closer, but he didn't say anything more, “Is that why you said yes to coming out here? Because if you can say so” Will smiled at him and gave him a quick peck on the lips before turning back to the tree, crouching down beside it with the awl.

Nico took a moment to get over his embarrassment before kneeling down beside Will as well, watching him bore a hole in the tree and then stick the spile in. “I mean, I did think we were getting water, but I didn't think that that was the only reason,” he mumbled as water started to trickle out into Will's can. Will smiled, pulling his can away from the water spout once it was full and replacing it with Nicos. “I didn't really say that it was the only reason though, did i?” he pulled the spile out and screwed Nicos can shut after a moment, setting it beside his own before leaning back against the tree. Nico scooted closer to Will and didn’t protest as he pulled him into a kiss, smiling softly and running his fingers through his hair.

Nico swore under his breath as he pulled away for breath for a second, and he could feel Will smile against his lips. If their kiss last night had been good, then this one was great, and this time, they didn't have to worry about one of the others waking up and seeing. Then again, there was the possibility of someone else coming across them, but Nico was pretty sure that neither of them really cared about that now. Not as Will started to trail kisses down his neck, mumbling something inaudible and almost leaving a mark had Nico not dipped his head to catch his lips again. Something told him that if he did come back with a mark on his neck, the others, specifically Percy, would never let them hear the end of it.

They kissed for another minute or so before Nico started to trail his own mouth down Will's neck as he rested his hand on the back of his head, keeping him close, but pulled away abruptly as a woman's scream cut through the air. He sat up and looked back at Will, waiting to hear a cannon, and saw that Wills face was a mix of confusion and horror. “What-” he started to ask the other boy, but was pushed back as Will scrambled to his feet when there was another scream, this time one of a young girl. Will looked horrified as he looked down at the ground for something, anything, and finally found the awl and grabbed it before running off in the direction of the screams. Nico hurried to his feet and after Will, finally finding him in the middle of a clearing, looking around in a panic. “What's going on?” he called, standing at the edge of the clearing, but Will didn't seem to hear him. Above Will, high on a branch, a bird flew down and opened its mouth, letting out a guttural woman's scream. The bird had black feathers and a white crest, and it didn't take long for Nico to recognize the creature, a jabberjay.

During the first big battle with the demigods, the one that had caused the start of the hunger games in the first place, the gods had created a new kind of mutt for spying on demigod plans, a jabberjay. They were capable of listening in on conversations and repeating them to their masters, and were considered very helpful, that is, until the demigods found out about the birds. They began feeding the birds false information, which the gods did not appreciate much. They got rid of the birds and let them out into the wild, but it seemed that they'd created some new ones for this arena, or maybe they'd just had them around all this time, breeding them in captivity.

“Will!” Nico shouted, and the other boy seemed to finally notice him now, running back towards the edge of the clearing but stopping halfway. Nico ran towards Will and reached out for him, but hit something invisible in the way. Will hit his hands against the forcefield and Nico could see now that he had tears in his eyes as he slid down it, crumpling to the ground. Nico slid down with him, feeling tears well in his own eyes as more jabberjays crowded the trees and screamed a combination of mens, womens, and childrens screams. Will held his hands over his ears, pressing his head into the ground and shaking as he tried to block out the sound.

For a second, Nico thought about running down to the beach and seeing if he could get to Will inside the section from there, but the thought of Will looking up for a brief moment and seeing him gone crushed him, so he stayed put, keeping his hands up to the forcefield and whispering comforts over and over even though he knew that Will couldn't hear him.

Chapter 14

Chapter Text

By the time the hour was over and the forcefield dropped, Will had gone very quiet, no longer crying into the ground or screaming in an attempt to cover the sounds of the jabberjays. As Nico approached the other boy carefully, he wondered if he'd maybe passed out from exhaustion after crying, but as he laid a gentle hand on his back and he visibly tensed, he knew that he was still plenty conscious. “Its over” Nico said softly, rubbing Wills back as he stayed crouched. After a minute or so, Will sat up carefully, immediately resting his head on Nicos shoulder and letting the boy embrace him. His eyes were terribly swollen from crying, but still beautiful, “we don't have to go back just yet, or talk about it if you don't want to,” Nico whispered, running his hands through Will's hair.

“It was my mom,” the other croaked, keeping his head buried in Nicos shoulder, “and Lou Ellen's sister, Felicity. She's only seven I- I've known her all her life…” Nico could feel his shoulder start to dampen with tears, but he didn't mention it, “it wasn't real, it was just the jabberjays-” “and how do you think they got that sound??” Will sat up abruptly, his voice breaking. “They're hurting them and.. And there's nothing I can do to help because I'm stuck in here” Nico swallowed, looking down at his hands and twisting his ring as he thought of what to say. He’d never been very good at comforting people, and that was abundantly clear now. “It’s probably not real, I mean, you’ve done nothing to anger the gods so far. You’ve gotten sponsors, they like you” he said softly, trying to reach for Will's hand.

Will took Nicos hand and laced their fingers together, wiping his eyes with the heel of his other hand. “You’re right, but still…” he looked exhausted, but eased a bit.

They sat quietly together for the next 10 minutes or so, faintly hearing the lightning hit the tree in the section behind them. In a way, knowing that the jabberjays were here was very helpful, but still, he wouldn’t wish this kind of treatment on any of them, especially not Will.

By the time they got back to the beach from the jabberjays with their water cans, Percy looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel. “Awfully long water trip” he said with a grin, setting down the sword he’d been polishing, “what were you doing for the last hour and a-“ “jabberjays.” Nico interrupted, sitting down with Will beside Reyna. “From 11-12 it’s jabberjays, then the lightning, then the fog, then the spiders”

Reyna looked thoughtful, “then the blood rain is at 5, wolf mutts at 6…” Using her spear point, she started to draw the same diagram she’s been drawing over and over since yesterday, now marking jabberjays in the place before the tree. “We’re gonna have to map the others, if we get split up or lost or anything like that, we need to know what we’re going to be facing” she didn’t sound happy about the idea, but no one objected. Mapping the arena would also mean less time that they had to spend killing other tributes, and Nico was almost sure that they weren’t exactly keen on it getting down to just the six of them.

He was pretty sure that if it did come down to it, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill him and probably Will first, but that thought sickened him, and he really didn’t want to think about the people he considered friends killing him without a second thought. “I mean, what is even still unexplored? I feel like we have a lot of this side done, right?” Annabeth was fiddling with some kind of chord around her neck, her token probably. “The only hours we don’t have are 3-5, and then 7-11” Reyna explained, running her fingers over her braid. “But that’s still a while from now, so we can recuperate and make a plan. I think we need to stay together, it hasn’t gotten down to the point where we need to separate yet. And gods only know what’s in there, it’s best to approach as a group”

Reyna sounded so strategic, Nico wondered what she’d done back in her district, she’d be a perfect general or lieutenant, but gods know that there were no armies in the districts, too much military power could mean an uprising. Will stayed quiet as they all talked strategy, brushing Nicos hand in the sand, but not actually taking hold of it. He still seemed very shaken, and Nico didn’t blame him one bit. He wondered vaguely why he hadn’t heard anything from the jabberjays meant to torture him, but the realization hit him hard . He didn’t have anyone that he cared about that was alive. His mother was gone, Bianca was dead, he didn’t know his father… The only other person he actually found himself caring about nowadays was Will, and he knew that he wasn’t being tortured considering he was right there in front of him. Though in a way, he was being tortured, just not in the same way as the jabberjays made it sound.

Over the next 2 hours, they went and gathered anything they’d left behind at their camp back at the forcefield, which wasn’t much, and mostly just lazed around. From Olympus’s perspective, it had to be boring, no one had died in a while, and even Will had come back from the death, they probably weren’t happy with that. Finally, as they saw the fog hit the border between the jungle and beach, Reyna rose to her feet, reaching for her bag. “We should get going now, we still have a bit of land to cover before we get to 3” she explained, the others followed suit, extinguishing the fire and gathering their belongings. Nico would be lying if he said that he wasn’t scared as slung his black backpack over his shoulder and reached for his sword, feeling the hilt scrape against the calluses on his hand from the mines. The arena had been scary enough already, and they had only discovered about half of it, there could truly be anything in the remaining sections.

Hours 3-5 were not very successful. By the time they got to the third section, it had already started, and the only thing that they could gather was the smell of rotting flesh, something that none of them really wanted to stick around in. They tried to theorize about what on earth could possibly be giving off such a funk, and decided that it was either some kind of gas, or some kind of rotting zombie thing wandering around, either way, they didn’t explore it further and just decided to mark the map with lines to symbolize the stink.

4-5 was frankly quite boring, they spent nearly the entire hour searching for something, anything, before finally coming across a large cave entrance. They considered seeing what was inside it, but Percy and Annabeth reported after a quick trip inside that there was a large drop, one that they didn’t have nearly enough rope for, so they continued on.

As they settled in for the next few hours of waiting, the sun started to go down, making the areas ahead of them much creepier. Sure, they could just get up early and explore them in the morning, but Reyna seemed determined to get at least a few more sections explored, and none of them really wanted to deny her, not after everything she’d done as their leader so far.

Nico couldn’t help but flinch a bit as the clock struck 6 and the dog mutts started barking. Even though his arm had completely healed thanks to the ambrosia, he still felt a slight tingle as he thought about the animal's claws raking across his skin. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t actually thanked any of them for saving him, they could’ve let him die, it would’ve made it ten times easier for them, but they hadn’t. They’d fought off the mutts while he was carried to safety and nursed back to health. Nico opened his mouth to thank the others but figured it might not be the best time, considering they were all sitting quietly eating their dried fruit, coming out and thanking them for everything would make it sound like he was about to kill himself or something, he didn’t want that.

As soon as they stepped into the seventh section, they noticed that the ground beneath them was significantly wetter, making their feet sink deeper with every step. The group exchanged looks as they continued into the darkness, trying to stick closer together. Even if the section only had a swamp or something seemingly harmless, that didn’t mean that there weren’t still potential tributes lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. To their left, there was a light splashing, causing the group to stop and wait to see what it could be. The steps sounded heavier than a small animal, but slightly lighter than a human, and the thought that there could be some sort of in between made the hair raise on the back of Nicos neck.

Suddenly, out of the dark on their right, some creature leaped at Reyna, setting a switch off among all of them. More creatures began to run at them, and it wasn’t until one was nearly right in front of him that Nico was able to get a good look at it. What he saw horrified him, the creature had wet, milky white skin stretched over its surprisingly human-like skeleton, making it look almost like a corpse that hadn’t begun to bloat yet. But what made it even scarier was it’s face or lack thereof. It had a mouth, and two small slits for nostrils, but no eyes, the top half of its head completely smooth.

The creature leaped at Nico and he swung at it, hitting it in the forehead with the butt of his sword before swiveling around to see the others. They were all fighting off at least 1 other creature, but more were still coming. Annabeth cried out as one tackled her to the ground, trying it’s best to snap at her with its razor like teeth, but was quickly shoved away from her as Percy leaped at the creature, sinking his sword into its throat and waiting for it to go limp before hurrying back to Annabeth's side to fight. They fought back to back, swinging at the reptilian creatures if they got too close to the other, and if it had been any other situation, Nico probably would’ve paused to question the nature of their friendship, but it wasn’t any other situation.

In the time that it took for Nico to come back to reality and turn to the monsters now reaching for him, about 8 more of them had come running out of the woods, leaving them in a terrible match of six against eighteen. He was sure that this probably would’ve been easier had it been seven in the morning in broad daylight, but it was much too late to have regrets or turn back now. Much like the wolf mutts, there was no way any of them would be able to outrun these creatures, the only way to get away would be to give them an adequate distraction or kill them all, though Nico wasn’t sure if they were capable of doing either.

On his left, Nico heard a hiss of pain as Will stabbed one of the creatures between the ribs, not very different to how Octavian had killed Bianca, but he couldn’t dwell on that now. Will was clutching his side, and even in the darkness, he could see a considerably large dark spot staining his jumpsuit. One of the monsters launched itself at Nico, pushing him to the ground, and Nico was once again reminded of the wolves that he’d faced a little over 48 hours ago, but this time, he wasn’t as weary, he had eaten several good meals since then, his energy levels at an all time high. He groped around for the creature's face, holding it away from his throat as he felt for some kind of weak spot. Finally, he felt small indentations on the side of its head, ears or maybe even some sort of eyes, perfect. Nico put all his strength into pushing his fingers into the holes, gritting his teeth as the creature screeched out in pain and tried to buck away from him, but he held on tight, rolling the thing over until he had it under him. He felt around for his sword and slashed it across the monster's throat, feeling warm blood splash across his face, but he didn’t care.

He felt different, fueled by a feeling he couldn’t even identify as he stood back up, swinging his sword at three more creatures trying to surround him, cutting through their stomachs and watching them fall to the ground. He turned back around to join the others more closely in fighting off the hoard, and was shocked by what he saw.

When Will had first told him that Jason had carried Nico out of the jungle instead of fighting off the mutts, he’d wondered if the district 1 boy had a soft spot for animals, or just didn’t like fighting, but that was clearly not the case. Jason was cutting through monsters left and right, even beheading a few as he fended them off. In a way, it was a bit frightening, seeing someone he’d known to be so caring and apologetic cut through enemies like they were nothing, but that thought disappeared as one of the monsters lunged at Nico again, almost catching him off guard had Jason not stabbed through its chest at the last second.

“Thank you-“ Nico started to say, but his words were cut off by a cry of pain on his left. Two of the creatures had Will pinned down, digging their claws into his arms, ‘no.. not again..’ Nico thought to himself as he started to run towards the boy, but stopping in his tracks as a girl, probably his age if not a bit younger, leaped out of the greenery at the monsters, pushing them off of Will. Immediately, the creatures switched their attention to her, screeching as they tackled and clawed at her relentlessly. In the dark, Nico couldn’t recognize her, but Will seemed to, feeling around for his knife and stabbing at the creatures in an attempt to get them off of her despite his now severely wounded arms.

Nico turned back to the other four as the creatures fell away from the girl, though she was clearly done for, her only movement being a slight twitch here and there. If even possible, more creatures had come to join the fight, way more than they could handle. Percy had taken the majority of them, managing to draw their attention to him instead of the others but still keep them at bay with his sword. “Nico!” Will yelled from behind him, waving him over desperately to help him pick up the girl off of the wet ground. Nico looked between the two groups before hurrying over to Will, trying to remember what Jason had done the last two times he’d hoisted him up. “We need to go!” He screamed to the others as he slipped his hands underneath the girl's back and knees, clenching his jaw as he lifted her up off the ground.

The rest of the pack looked hesitant for a moment, but Reyna nodded, “we need to try to get to the beach, we’ll fight them off on the way! There’s no use fighting them here if they’re just going to keep coming!” She yelled at the others and started to run over to him and Will, Jason and Annabeth following after her. Percy started to move backwards towards them, still keeping five or so creatures back, but looking increasingly worn out.

“Go go go!” He shouted, finally dropping his sword to his side and breaking into a sprint, waving for the others to continue towards the beach. They caught the message quickly, turning away as they ran back the way they came, cutting down any and every plant in the way and trying to ignore the growling and screeching behind them. Nico found that running for his life while carrying someone who was dying was not exactly easy, and it made him wonder how the hell Jason had done it.

Nico heard a cry of pain and a screech behind him but didn’t dare look, Annabeth did not do the same. “PERCY!” She screamed as she looked over her shoulder, causing the others to stop and look.

One of the monsters had Percy tackled to the ground, having knocked his sword out of his hand in the process. He was fighting the thing off rather well with his fists, but it was a losing battle either way, Nico knew that already, and he was sure the others did too. Annabeth started to run back towards him, but Jason quickly intercepted that, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her back before beginning to run again, damn near dragging her behind him, similarly to how Clarisse La Rue had been holding onto Silena Beauregard yesterday. “Stop!! We have to help him! Percy!!!” Annabeth was screaming hysterically as more creatures ran after them, jumping on Percy as well. Nico watched in horror for a moment as they began to tear at the district 4 boy's limbs, eliciting an almost animal-like scream from him, before someone pushed at his shoulder, urging him to keep going.

Reluctantly, Nico complied, hurrying to keep up with Jason and Annabeth, but passing Reyna as she stood watching the scene. She had her bow drawn, an arrow nocked, but she was clearly hesitating, as if she couldn’t bring herself to shoot it. As Percy screamed again, this time as one of the monsters tore at his thigh, she let it fly. The arrow soared into the pile of monsters, and after another second or two, a cannon went off, signaling the end of the fight. Nico kept pressing on, trying to block out the scream that tore out of Annabeth after the cannon as he broke through the trees onto the beach and to the water with Will.

There was no time to mourn yet as they kneeled in the water with the girl, who Nico finally recognized in the moonlight at Kayla Knowles, a girl from district 7 that he’d honestly forgotten about. Will took Kayla from his arms and damn near cradled her, and he could see now that Will's cheeks, though very bloodstained, were streaked with tears. Behind them, Annabeth was still sobbing, and a quick look back showed Reyna kneeling beside her with Jason, both trying to comfort her and shield her from running back into the jungle after Percy.

“It’s okay” Will whispered, and it took Nico a second to realize that he wasn't talking to him, but to Kayla. Somehow, she was still alive, though not really, she was twitching uncontrollably, and the only sounds from her were a high pitched wheeze, but she was still looking up at Will with wide, alert eyes. The monsters had bitten into his chest and throat, Nico could see the piercings from where he was kneeling.

“It’s going to be okay, you’re going to see Austin, and meet your dad, or your mom” Will continued to whisper, looking away from Kayla briefly to bite his bottom lip like he was trying to not cry again. Kayla wheezed, and her face contorted into what Nico was pretty sure was supposed to be a smile. Will tried his best to smile back, but he looked like he was ready to crumble any moment now. “And Lou will be there, and Cecil, and all of your friends that you’ve lost, you’ll get to see them again-“ Will's words were cut off as Kayla stilled in his arms, a cannon firing in the distance.

Will let out a sob and stared down at the district 7 girl, his gaze traveling up to the marsh around them as he started to walk further out, closer to the cornucopia. Nico started to follow after him but stopped as the other boy carefully lowered Kayla down into the water before turning back and making the slow trip back to the edge of the water, nearly collapsing into the sand.

Nico waded over to Will, resting a hand on his back and swallowing before speaking, “it’s-“ he started, but the words got caught, “it’s gonna be okay” he murmured, mostly because he wasn’t sure what else he could tell him. Kayla had sacrificed herself to get the monsters off of Will, to save him. Percy had sacrificed himself to save all of them, the survivors' guilt was weighing heavy on them all.

Nico managed to get Will to trudge up the beach to the others once the hovercraft came to take Percy and Kayla away, sitting in a small huddle to quietly grieve and tend to wounds. Will ate a small piece of ambrosia for his arms and side, but otherwise stayed quiet and still, staring at a spot in the sand blankly. Annabeth had stopped sobbing by now, but was still crying between Reyna and Jason, they seemed relatively unharmed thankfully, but Nico didn’t dare bring up how good that was, given the circ*mstances.

The five of them stayed quiet as the nightly broadcast lit up the sky, showing the smiling faces of Percy Jackson and Kayla Knowles before going dark.

“I’ll uhm, I’ll take watch” Reyna croaked finally, her bow back over her shoulder again. Nico opened his mouth to protest but Jason gave him a look, then shot a glance over at Will. “I’ll watch too, you three get some sleep” he said quietly, slipping his backpack off his shoulder and setting it beside him. Nico and Will nodded, scooting back from the group to find empty spaces to put their tarps. Annabeth moved like a zombie as she pulled her sleeping bag out of her backpack and unrolled it, her eyes red and puffy from crying already.

“Can I just uhm..” Will mumbled beside Nico as he unfolded his tarp. Nico looked over to him, raising a brow, “can I just sleep on your tarp with you? I’ll put mine on top like a blanket, I just..” Will trailed off, running a hand through his hair. Nico nodded, flattening out the rest of his tarp and sitting down on it, “of course” he replied, patting the spot beside him. Will looked relieved as he unfolded his own tarp, setting it across Nico and the rest of the tarp before crawling under it himself.

As he snuggled down into it and rolled over to get comfortable, Nico considered talking to Will about what had happened, but then figured this was the sort of thing that he had to keep his thoughts about to himself. In all honesty, he had no idea how to process any of this, since he’d lost Bianca, he hadn’t lost anyone that he was actually relatively close with, except for almost losing Will, but he’d come back, thanks to Percy.

It was insane to think that the boy that had been joking around with them this morning for being gone too long, the boy that had accidentally caught him and Will kissing the night before, the boy that had helped them get so many of their meals, was gone now. Put out of his misery by one of Reynas arrows and hauled back to Olympus in a hovercraft with Kayla. The idea felt impossible, truly, and yet, there was already a certain hollowness to the group, like they’d had lost their soul back in that jungle, and they wouldn’t be getting it back.

Behind him, Will scooted a bit closer and wrapped his arm around Nicos middle, “is this okay..?” He whispered, much closer to his ear than Nico had thought. He nodded in reply, tucking his hand under his head and scooting back a bit until he was more pressed against Will. He found it shocking how sad he could be about someone that he’d known only a few days, and yet, as he thought about it more and more, thought about Annabeth's screams more and more, tears pricked at his eyes.

But, he was exhausted, they’d had a day of hiking and exploring, then an evening of fighting and fleeing. So, while still pressed against Will's chest, Nico fell into an uneasy sleep, still thinking about the boy from district 4.

Chapter 15

Chapter Text

Reyna shook them awake in the morning, looking bleary as ever, and Nico realized that she hadn’t woken them up to take watch all night. Had she stayed up the entire night for them? “I uhm, I think we’re going to go back to the tree. Exploring is too dangerous right now” she said, tripping over her words slightly. Will quickly took his arm back from where it had still been around Nico and sat up on his elbows, “Reyna, did you get any sleep last night?” He asked, and Reyna looked a bit uneasy. “A little, me and Jason alternated every two hours or so, but it’s fine” she shook his head and stood back to her feet, shuffling away to wake up Annabeth, who was still slumped in her sleeping bag.

“I should have insisted on taking watch..” Nico grumbled, pushing back their makeshift blanket and getting up to stretch. “It's okay, I think she needed the processing time, Jason too. And besides, i don't really know if either of us would've been able to stop Annabeth if she'd tried to run away” Will assured him as he stood as well, patting Nicos shoulder. He was right about that, that's for sure, but Nico still couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. Obviously if there had been danger he would have woken up, but in a way, letting Reyna and Jason just sit up doing nothing for nearly 11 hours was awful.

Jason looked just as tired as Reyna as they walked over to where he was sitting, packing a few things back into his bag. They’d lost a significant amount of their collective supplies in Percy’s bag, but none of them said anything about it, they had no right to complain about losing a few bags of fruit after Percy had sacrificed himself for them. “There’s uh, there’s ten of us left” he mumbled, slinging his bag over his shoulder and reaching for his sword. There had been no fire the previous night, meaning that they could just carry on without worrying about too much cleanup. Ten left… less than half. Nico tried to think of who he hadn’t seen in the broadcasts, but came up mostly blank. He knew that Clarisse and Frank were alive and probably Silena, then there were their five, who was left?

“How long do you think we’ll be able to stick together?” He asked, reaching for his bag. Now that the number had begun to dwindle, their chances of staying allied began to wane. “Let’s not worry about that right now” Reyna spoke up, holding onto Annabeth as they joined the group. She looked awful. Her eyes were terribly swollen from crying, her hair was very tangled, not to mention the fact that she looked like every bit of light in her skin, eyes, or hair had completely gone out. She looked empty, like a shell of the former Annabeth Chase that had packed him a second knife in his bag and smiled at him a few days before, the former Annabeth Chase that had helped them catch and shuck oysters for dinner and make a map for the arena. “I want to go on my own” she croaked, her voice hoarse from crying. “Annabeth we can’t let you-“ Jason started to protest, “why not? You left Percy to die, why not leave me too??” Annabeth snapped back, pulling away from Reyna and reaching for her bag.

“Annabeth don’t be like that” Will sighed, “there was nothing we could’ve done, you know that” Annabeth shook her head and slung her bag over her shoulder, “no we could’ve done something, we could’ve saved him, but you guys wouldn’t let me, YOU wouldn’t let me” she pointed at Jason, who looked like his heart was about to crumble and fall right out of his chest. “Annabeth enough” Reyna said sternly, “we’re all mourning him, you know that if we’d tried to save Percy, we all would’ve gotten killed. End of conversation.” This was the sternest that Nico had ever heard Reyna talk, one of the first times that she actually acted like a leader and not just the person that mostly made the plans for them. Annabeth looked like she was about to cry again, but she quickly blinked the tears away, “I would’ve rather been killed” she said with an air of finality before grabbing her sword and walking away from the group.

Surprisingly, no one made a move to stop her as she walked down the beach, not even Will. Nico was sure that the others felt it, but this was nearing the end. Their alliance was crumbling, they’d lost their heart and soul, how long would it be before they all went off on their own? Would they even do that? What if it got down to the four of them and they had to kill each other? Even with Will's help, Nico knew that he wouldn’t be able to take on Reyna or Jason in a fight, let alone them together, and even if he did manage to somehow miraculously kill them, it would be him and Will, which in and of itself was a nightmare. It was the one thing that he’d been afraid of ever since they kissed for the first time on the way back from getting water.

“We need to continue, there’s nothing we can do about her” Reyna grumbled as she gathered her things and gestured in the opposite direction that Annabeth was walking. “Are we still going back to the tree? What if she goes there too?” Will asked, looking down the beach, “So? We aren’t going to hurt her unless she tries to hurt us. The sections are big, I mean, we haven’t had a run in with Clarisse in forever. We’re safe.” Reyna shrugged, trying to sound calm about the whole situation, but Nico could see the tenseness in her face. In the last twelve hours, she’d lost two allies, two friends, two people that she’d failed to protect.

-

They packed up the rest of their things quickly and started making their way back to the twelve o’clock section, staying relatively quiet the entire walk. “The numbers are going down,” Will said softly, reaching for Nicos hand, “what should we do?” Nico looked up at the other boy, thinking back to his promise earlier to leave if the numbers got too low, he didn’t want Will to leave, he’d rather die together than have to be without him at this point… “I.. I don’t know… we still have time, let’s worry about it later” his words reminded him of Wills, assuring him to not worry about the future and think about the present instead.

“Let’s see if we can find oysters again, yeah? We need food somehow” Reyna said once they got to the beach on the edge of twelve, the lightning storm already raging behind them. They’d have to find some way to get food without Percy and Annabeth, their resident fish catchers.

They were unsuccessful. Nico figured that they’d probably cleared a good portion of the oysters on the surface yesterday, the only ones left being ones that had burrowed or ones that were too small to even have enough meat to eat. “I can go see if I can find some small animals to roast” Jason offered once he came up empty handed as well, but Reyna shook her head, “there’s nothing by the tree, we would’ve found them by now” she explained, but Jason gestured to the rest of the arena. “Then the other sections, the fog just started, I’ll go to two and be out before the spiders come out, there’s gotta be something in there, they have to eat something” Nico rose to his feet, “I’ll go too, safety in numbers.”

Will grabbed his hand, his eyes full of fear, “you guys can’t go into two it’s-“ he stopped himself, clearly thinking of Lou Ellen. “It’s going to be fine, we’ll be quick, if we can’t find anything in like ten minutes we’ll come back, okay?” Nico assured him, squeezing his hand.

“At least take my bow” Reyna insisted, her face full of uncertainty, taking the bow and her quiver off her shoulder, but Jason and Nico both shook their heads, “I’m no good with a bow” Jason said quickly, and Nico agreed, “we’ll be okay” he assured Reyna and Will again before dropping his hand and reaching for his sword.

He’d never been into the second section, but as he stepped in, he could see that spiders were definitely there, just in hiding. The trees were lush, like the rest of the arena, but covered in spiderwebs. “Gods…” Jason murmured as he cut through some leaves to get through, holding them back for Nico so he could pass as well. “Thanks for coming with me by the way, I didn’t really want to go alone but didn’t want to ask either '' he said with a bit of a nervous laugh. Nico nodded silently and looked around, scanning for something, a flash of fur running by, paw prints in the mud, anything. “No problem-“ he cut himself off once he finally spotted something of use. On one of the lower bushes, caught in a large web, was a small rabbit. It couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old, but still, there was enough meat on it for at least two of them to eat. “There” he whispered, pointing with the tip of his sword at the rabbit, Jason looked over and smiled, hurrying over to the web. “Do we kill it before untangling it or after?” He whispered, Nico shrugged, “before I guess, it might try to run away if we untangle it first.”

The rabbit looked at them with wild, fearful eyes, and for a minute, Nico felt bad about killing it, but to be fair, it was probably made by Olympus for these games, it wasn’t real, not really. Jason used his sword and quickly sliced the head off of the bunny without hesitation, making Nico almost jump back. “Gods, Jason!” He whispered as the district one boy began to unweave the now headless rabbit from the wrapping. “It’s quicker, there’s not much meat in the head anyway” Jason explained once he got the rabbit free and handed it to Nico with bloody hands. “Yeah but…” Nico trailed off, figuring it would be better to just drop the subject.

They got about 30 feet deeper into the jungle when they heard rustling behind them, like something was coming through the trees, but not very quickly. The boys tensed, their grips on their swords tightening. They’d been gone longer than they’d said they would be, but surely it wasn’t Will or Reyna coming to check on them. There was no way that Will would come back to the second section, and Reyna wouldn’t leave him on the beach. That left 6 more possible people, and Nico was pretty sure they didn’t really want to run into any of them now.

A familiar head of blonde hair came running through the leaves, sword in hand, backpack in tow. “Annabeth” Jason said with a sigh of relief. Annabeth looked up at them, her eyes a bit less puffy now, then to the headless rabbit in Nico's hand. She recoiled a little, but didn’t run away. “I was going back to the tree, '' she said softly, seeming to have regained her voice a bit now. “Us too, we just came to find some food” Nico explained, waving the rabbit a bit, then deciding that was a bad idea, considering it only made more blood spurt onto his hand.

“Right… what time is it?” Annabeth asked, looking around them at the spider webs and wincing. “We don’t know actually, we left around the time that the fog started, but we don’t know when that was..” Jason sounded a bit sheepish, “you know, you can come back, stay for a little while longer” he offered, gesturing to the way they came, back to the beach. Annabeth hesitated, looking down at her sword like she was going to ask it for advice on the matter. “Maybe…” she mumbled, “I don’t know…”

Jason shrugged, “it’s up to you, we should probably head back soon, try to fish again” he turned to Nico like it was a question on whether or not they should head back. Nico nodded, dropping his hands to his sides.

Annabeth stayed put as they started to walk back, still looking at the ground. Jason seemed disappointed with this, like he’d really been hoping that Annabeth would come to her senses and return to the group, but no such luck. In a way, Nico could see the pros and cons to the situation, a pro being that if the alliance got smaller, there would be less of their friends that they’d have to kill in the end, a con being the fact that Annabeth was wicked smart, she was great at organizing things, they were all smart of course, but they’d definitely lost a good strategist in losing her.

They were almost to the beach when they heard the first scream behind them, a long, prolonged scream of pure agony. Nico didn’t even need to look over at Jason to know what he was thinking, Annabeth. Without a word, they turned back around and ran back to where they’d left the district 6 girl. In hindsight, it was a foolish idea, but they’d gotten too far into the games with Annabeth to just leave her to die, whether she was still a part of the group or not.

What they were greeted with when they got back to her was not a pleasant sight. The spiders had begun to emerge from the trees, crawling all over the trees and webs, they were all colors, all sizes, but they were all poisonous.

Annabeth was on the ground, her eyes frantically searching for something. On her neck was a welt about the size of a fist with two small puncture wounds in the middle, she’d been bitten. Disregarding the spiders in the trees, Jason ran over to her side, holding her head up off the ground, “it’s okay, it’s okay” he said quickly, trying to pick her up. Annabeth thrashed, screaming again as he tried to lift her, her eyes were unfocused as she looked around, like she couldn’t truly see anything that was around her. “Percy? Percy!” She cried out, her head still swiveling around like she was looking for the district 4 boy. Nico ran up to the two of them, stepping on several of the spiders as they tried to crawl towards Jason. He didn’t know what Annabeth saw when she looked at him, but her eyes filled with so much terror he might’ve been Kronos himself staring down at her. “Get away!! Get away!” She screamed, rolling away from Jason and feeling for her sword. “Percy?!” She cried out again, a red rash beginning to cover her neck around the welt. She started twitching as she continued fumbling around, more spiders crawling onto her hands and biting them before fleeing, like the actual meat didn’t matter, the bite was enough.

Nico thought back to what Will had told Nico about Lou Ellen, about how she’d been screaming at things that weren’t there, convulsing and looking for him, how he’d had to put her out of her misery. “Jason we have to-'' he choked out, Jason nodded solemnly, crawling back over to Annabeth slowly so as not to alarm her. Annabeth's screaming had faded into a quiet whimper as Jason took her into his arms, still twitching. She looked bloated now from the sheer amount of bites and venom coursing through her veins. “It’s okay, Percy’s coming, okay? He’s gonna get here soon” Jason whispered to her, reaching for his sword. Nico looked away, distracting himself by stepping on more spiders until he heard the cannon. He turned back around as Jason lowered her back onto the ground, making some kind of gesture to the forest around them, tucking his thumb under his index finger. Nico recognized the gesture from his mother, usually used to ward off evil, but it was Italian, how did Jason know it? The gesture evidently worked on the spiders, seeing as they recoiled away from Jason and Annabeth back further into the trees, even though the hour wasn’t over.

Jason rose to his feet with his sword, the front of his jumpsuit covered in blood. “How do you know that hand thing?” Nico asked quietly after several minutes of walking back through the forest towards the beach. Jason looked around the trees, “it’s Roman, my mother taught me it” he explained as he stabbed at a particularly large spider, watching it fall to the ground with a small squeak. “Oh” Nico said softly, he hadn’t known that the gesture dated back to Rome, his mother had never really explained the origins of it, just what it meant. She didn’t use it frequently, only when someone really upset her in town, someone she thought was truly wicked.

They stayed quiet the rest of the walk back to the beach, finally pushing the last palm leaf out of the way onto the sand as another cannon went off. Nico looked frantically around the beach, his eyes finally landing on a big shape disappearing back into the jungle, he looked back to their makeshift camp, his heart dropping to his feet as Reyna fell face first into the sand, an arrow sticking out of her neck.

Chapter 16

Chapter Text

Nico was across the beach before he could even say anything to Jason, vaguely registering Will rushing out from where he’d been crouched in the water, still looking for oysters, and over to Reyna. He wasn’t going for Reyna though, he was going back into the jungle, after whoever had shot her. He already knew it had to be, there was only so many people left in the arena, and only one other bow besides the one that Reyna kept on her shoulder at all times. Frank, the burly boy from district 5.

He could hear him ahead, crashing through the leaves, surely he knew that Nico was after him, he wasn’t exactly being discreet. He wasn’t even sure what section they were currently running through until he heard the crashing stop and ran out into a clearing, the same one that Will had been locked inside the previous morning with the jabberjays. There were no birds to be found, however, as Frank stopped to catch his breath, looking over his shoulder and fumbling for the knife at his side- a bow would be of no use in close combat, Bianca had proven that early on. He had some kind of sheath around his waist, where he was able to keep a knife and possibly a sword on the other side, but that side was empty.

Nico didn’t speak as he ran at Frank, only letting out a cry as he jumped at the boy. He knew that there was no way he’d be able to knock him down, no matter how much he ate on Olympus and in the arena, he wasn’t built for wrestling, he’d gotten lucky with Ethan Nakamura. As far as he could tell, Frank was sound of mind, much more than Ethan had been, and while Nico was right in the fact that he wasn’t able to knock over the boy, he did stumble back a bit. Nico launched himself up and tried to wrap his arms around Franks throat, holding on tight and trying to pull himself up. “Get- off-!” Frank choked out, pulling Nico off of him and throwing him to the ground.

He let out an almost honk as he hit the ground, all of the air in his lungs leaving him, but he still scrambled around for his sword, running at Frank again. Frank had his knife now, slashing at the air beside Nico and grazing his left arm as the smaller boys sword arched through the air. His sword cut across Franks chest and he stumbled again, his off hand going to the wound. Nicos arm stung, bad, but he continued on, cutting through the air over and over while Frank moved back, still trying to block his attacks with his knife. Nico let out a yelp as Franks blade caught on his right forearm, almost knocking his sword out of his hand.

Nico felt a surge of emotion in his veins, he didn’t know if it was adrenaline or what, but he lunged with his sword. Frank clearly hadn’t been expecting him to be so light on his feet after getting injured. The smaller boy sunk his sword into Franks side and yanked it out quickly, paying no mind to the district 5 boys blood now coating it. Maybe it was the loss of Reyna that fueled him, he hadn’t even known that he’d held any affection for the girl from district 2, but he came to realize that over the several days that they’d been in the arena, she’d become an older sister to him, briefly filling the gap that Bianca had left behind. Maybe it was the loss of Annabeth just a few minutes ago, or the loss of Percy last night, or Kayla, or maybe Bianca’s death was finally catching up to him.

Frank groaned and sunk to the ground, both of his hands going to the now fresh wound by his right hip, but Nico wasn’t finished. He sprang at the boy, pushing him to the ground and attacking his chest now that he wasn’t as grounded as he’d been before. Frank made hardly any effort to push Nico off as he plunged his sword into his chest and pulled it out before sinking it into him again, this time in his shoulder, too preoccupied with dealing with the pain, now tripled. Nico felt like he was in some kind of trance, he could see some sort of aura hanging around Frank, dark and ominous and waiting. There was a brief moment where Frank looked at Nico with pure fear and horror in his eyes before the cannon went off and his eyes glazed over, still staring up at him. Nicos mind snapped back to reality at the sound, as if he was actually registering what he’d done. His and Franks jumpsuits were covered in red, his arms were aching, from both the wounds and fighting.

Above him, Nico could hear the whooshing of the hovercraft coming to get the boy, but he couldn’t bring himself to get up off of him. His face looked much softer now, much younger, more innocent.

He hadn’t gotten a good look at Ethan Nakamura in death, considering he’d been much more preoccupied with climbing out of the tree rather than inspecting him from above. It had been dark when Kayla had died, and he hadn’t even been close to her, but Frank… He didn’t look like a killer, he looked like a scared boy that had been chosen against his will and thrust into an arena to kill, just like he’d been.

The whooshing was louder now, right overhead, and Nico scrambled off of him, grabbing his sword as he crawled backwards. The hovercrafts metal claws descended upon the boy and scooped him up, carrying him back to Olympus where he’d be wrapped up and sent back to district 5 in a cheap wooden box, or maybe it’d be a nicer one, considering district 5 was wealthier than 12, then again, it wasn’t by much. Nico watched the hovercraft fly away once it got Frank inside, and he wondered vaguely if it was the same one that had retrieved Reyna and Annabeth. His mind wandered back to the moments before he’d run back into the jungle, Will rushing over or Reyna out of the water, even though it was hopeless- ‘ Will.’ Nico thought, he didn’t know who the cannon had been for, Jason wouldn’t know either, for all they knew, it could be him currently being taken away in the hovercraft. They could be grieving the loss of 4 of their friends in the last 24 hours.

What would happen if he’d been the one to die? Surely the alliance would split, but what would happen in the event of that? Would they turn on each other? Would Jason…

Nico rushed to his feet, still gripping his sword before hurrying towards the jungle again. In the back of his mind, he knew that Jason wouldn’t kill Will before they even knew who’d died, but in the moment, he wasn’t thinking with his brain, he was thinking with his heart.

He tried to retrace his steps back to the beach, following the beaten path that he and Frank had made, finally breaking through the trees and onto white sand. His head swiveled around frantically, looking for his two remaining allies, finally finding them on the edge of the water, looking mournful. Will looked up first, his eyes finding him quickly and filling with recognition and relief as he hurried to his feet and over to him.

He crashed into him, immediately wrapping his arms around him and.. crying? Nicos shoulder felt warm and damp, more so than it already had from Franks blood. “Oh my gods…” Will murmured, pulling away after a moment and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “We thought- we thought that was you that the hovercraft took” he wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand and glanced down, like he was finally taking in Nicos current state.

“I.. I didn’t mean to worry you” Nico mumbled, reaching for Wills hand, “are you kidding? I’ve been worried for damn near the last hour and a half! First the cannon for Annabeth and then Reyna and then-“ Will gestured to the woods behind Nico and stopped, like he wasn’t actually sure who it had been that Nico had killed. “Frank” Nico finished for him, “from 5.” Will looked equally relieved and worried as he nodded, turning back to walk over to Jason with Nico. Nico noticed a small splotch of blood on the white sand as they walked back, ‘that must’ve been where Reyna was..’ He thought to himself.

-

“Well, that means we’ve got one of the stronger tributes off of us, but that also means that Clarisse, and maybe Silena, are gonna be even more on our asses…” Jason nodded and drew shapes in the sand with the tip of his sword. He seemed divided about something, but Nico wasn’t sure what. “I think…” Jason started, setting his sword down and looking at Nico and Will. “I think we need to split up.”

For a moment, Nico felt anger surge through him. Seriously? They’d just lost Percy, Annabeth, and Reyna, if anything they needed each other now more than ever. “I mean, I don’t want to, but it’s getting too close.. there’s only 7 of us left, which means there’s only 4 people besides us in the arena, that’s not enough. The arena is so deadly I just… there’s no guarantee that the arena will pick us all off and leave a winner, there’ll be a second bloodbath, and I don’t think that we should be together when there is.” Jason looked like he could cry, but Nico wasn’t sure if that was because of what he was saying, or the grief he was experiencing.

He didn’t know how to feel now, Jason was right of course, but he didn’t want to believe him. He didn’t want to split up, would he and Will have to split up? No, surely not, they couldn’t… Will put his hand over Nicos on the sand, confirming his thoughts. They’d be fine, they’d figure something out…

-

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly, they agreed they’d split by nightfall, no longer trusting each other to keep watch over each other. They ate a silent dinner of dried fruit, the rabbit from earlier completely forgotten by now, and quietly gathered their bearings. It was while they were doing this that Nico realized almost all of Reynas things were gone, save for her knife and a few things from her bag that she’d taken out while he and Jason had been gone. “Where’s the bow” he spoke up. Jason looked over from where he was packing some dry sticks into his bag, probably for kindling. “Reynas bow, where is it” Nico asked again, looking at Will. “They took it with her, we couldn’t get it off of her fast enough..”

Nico thought back to what Reyna had said, just before Will had hit the forcefield, “ Bows are very valuable in the arena… I couldn’t let the hovercraft take it back to Olympus. ” And they’d done just that… He supposed in a way it was a good thing, none of them were good with a bow, and it was better that it was back on Olympus rather than in the hands of Clarisse La Rue or Silena Beauregard… but that meant there were no bows in the arena anymore, they’d been taken with Reyna and Frank. That left them with melee weapons only, unless one of them happened to have a spear or something.

“Ready to go?” Will asked quietly, snapping Nico out of his thoughts. He had his medical bag and backpack over his shoulder, and a sword at his side. ‘Jason must’ve given him that’ Nico thought to himself. “Yeah.” He replies, zipping up his own bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Jason looked ready to go, but his body was turned slightly, like he was ready to go in the opposite direction. Nico was reminded of Annabeth that morning, claiming that she needed to go off on her own to die, was Jason doing that? Leaving them so he could die in peace?

Nico ran his fingers over the strap of his bag, “well, bye, I guess” it was terribly informal, but what else was he supposed to say? They were too far to hug, and even if they were closer to each other, he wasn’t sure he was comfortable with that anyway. Jason nodded, “bye, good luck” he made a move to say something else, but then decided against it at the last moment, turning on his heel and shuffling down the beach, away from Nico and Will.

Will breathed out a sigh, and Nico couldn’t agree more. It was just the two of them, the only ones left in their once mighty alliance. “What do we do now?” Nico asked, glancing at the other boy out of the corner of his eye. “Try to win. Or wait around until we’re ready to die, I guess.” Will reached for Nicos hand again, rubbing it with his thumb. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that..” Nico responded, looking down at the sand in the orange glow of the setting sun. “Yeah, me neither.”

Chapter 17

Chapter Text

They walked for what felt like hours along the tree line, not wanting to just be out on the beach where just anyone could see them. Nico tried his best to gauge the time by when the broadcast went off, showing Annabeth, Reyna, and Frank’s face in the sky, but after that, he really wasn't sure. Will had been silent the whole walk, actually, he'd been silent all afternoon since Nico had crashed back onto the beach after his fight with Frank- after he murdered Frank. He’d helped him wash the blood off of his jumpsuit and his hair, carefully pouring water over his head and holding him in his arms, but hadn’t said a word during the whole exchange.

“Did Jason tell you about Annabeth?” Nico finally croaked, staring down at the sand. Theyd dropped each other's hands long ago, but he couldn't help but long for the warmth of Will's skin again. “A little” Will replied, his voice even softer than Nicos, “I should've listened to you, if i had just stayed then-” “no.” Will quickly interrupted him, more ferocity in his voice than he was pretty sure he'd ever heard. “No matter if you went in or not, Annabeth still would've gotten caught up and bitten and no one would be there to put her out of her misery, she'd die a slow, terrifying, and painful death. And any of us could've gotten shot, there was nothing we could have done to stop any of what happened” Will reached back for his hand and linked their fingers together, still keeping his eyes ahead.

Nico wasn't sure what to say, he didn't want to agree, he didn't want to accept that there was nothing that could have been done for Annabeth and Reyn or hell even for Frank. But he knew it was true, and even if they hadn't been killed then, it would've happened eventually. This was not a game of friendship, it was a game of cruelty and murder, all because the gods couldn't handle the idea that just maybe their children- that they'd had willingly could maybe be powerful enough to call them out on how corrupt and evil they were. “UGH!” Nico yelled, throwing down his sword onto the sand. “f*ck this! This is so f*cking- ugh!” he ripped his hand away from Will and pulled at his own hair a bit, sinking to the ground.

Why couldn't anything just go right for him? First, he had to be born a stupid demigod and entered into a raffle where the odd werent and never would be in his favor, then his mother had to be taken and killed, then both he and Bianca had to be reaped, then, once he got into this arena that might as well be hell, he lost both of the only sister figures he'd had and had no way to protect either of them. Why had he even bothered trying to make it this far? There was no way he would make it out of there alive, he'd absolutely be killed soon, there was no doubt in his mind. So why bother waiting for someone to do it for him? He felt tears well up in his eyes as he looked back up at the sand, his sight flitting over to where his sword was laying. He scrambled over to it and snatched it up, immediately turning the point of the blade around to press right against his stomach, already starting to pierce his jumpsuit. He choked out a sob as he pressed it harder, feeling the point cut into his naval before it was ripped out of his hands and he was thrown back onto the sand.

“What the HELL is wrong with you?!” Will practically screamed at him, tossing the sword away from them near where he'd left his own. Will looked angry , he looked hurt, he- he looked heartbroken. “What were you thinking? That you were just going to kill yourself right in front of me?! What the hell, Nico?” he shouted, gripping Nicos shoulders like he was going to run away. But Nico made no move under Wills grip, only coughing and choking on his own tears as he looked up at the boy above him. “Im sorry-” he sobbed, feeling a tear from Wills own eye fall onto his cheek. Will pulled him up into his arms and held him close to his chest, burying his face into his shoulder, “Don't do this to me, Nico. I've lost Percy, Kayla, Annabeth, and Reyna in 24 hours. For the gods sake I'm not losing you too” the other whispered into his ear, pressing a small kiss on the shell of his ear before pulling away and kissing him properly.

Nico could feel his tears cooling on his face as he kissed Will, raising his shaky hands to cup the others face tightly. There was nothing deeper behind the kiss, in fact, Nico was pretty sure that Will was just doing it to calm both of them down and get Nicos mind off of his sword. “Did it cut you? '' he asked quietly once he pulled away, looking down to the small hole in Nicos jumpsuit above his naval. “No I don't think so..” Nico mumbled, slowly climbing back to his feet. His previous urge had calmed down quite a bit, but that didn't mean that it wasn't still lurking, if anything, it fueled him more to make a plan. If Will died and he himself wasn't already dead, he'd do it, simple as that. He didn't need to think hard about how to do it, it wasn't exactly hard to do something like that in an arena this deadly, after all. “Good” Will said with a nod, getting to his feet as well and walking back over to where he'd discarded their weapons. He hesitated a moment before holding both of them in one of his hands and reaching for Nicos hand with his other.

“You don't trust me?” Nico mumbled, taking his hand, though he already knew the answer. “Honestly, no.” Will admitted, adjusting his grip a little before starting to walk again. He understood where Will was coming from, it wouldn't be fair of him to be upset that Will didn't trust him with a weapon after what just happened, but still, he was a little hurt. “Lets just find a place to sleep, not on the beach though, it's too open” Will said after a few more minutes of walking, turning to walk into the jungle. Nico didn't know if sleeping in the jungle was smart, since they were not entirely sure what every section held, but he didn't protest.

“Who's left?” he asked as they pushed some palm leaves out of the way, “you, me, Jason, Clarisse from 5, Silena from 8, Mclean from 8, and Valdez from 3, i think” Will replied, finally finding a nice open area that he trusted enough to set down their sword on. Nico couldn't believe the numbers had thinned down so much, only a few days ago there had been more than half of them left, now, there was less than a third… “I'm exhausted” he huffed, pulling his bag around to dig out his tarp. Evidently, Will and JAson had not been able to get Reynas backpack off of her before the hovercraft took her, actually, they hadn't been able to get anything off of her, they'd been too in shock, so they were still without a sleeping bag. “Me too…” Will rubbed his eyes and yawned, crouching down to set up his own tarp as a bed for them but pausing, like he was listening intently.

“What?” Nico asked, hesitating before pulling his tarp out. He could hear a faint rumbling that he hadn't noticed before, not like the humming of the forcefield, something deeper, louder, less mechanical. “What is that-” he whispered, keeping his voice low now in case something was near them. “I don't know” Will respondes, standing back up slowly and looking around them as the rumbling got even louder, accompanied now by what almost sounded like cracking. Nicos gaze shot down to the ground, his eyes widening as a large crack started to break apart the very ground they were standing on. “Go!” he shouted at Will, pushing him a little back towards the treeline as he tried to gather the things they'd set down already like idiots. As they started to run towards the beach, the crack got bigger and bigger, nipping at their feet until finally it stretched out to encompass what had to be the entire section. The pit swallowed the two of them up before they could realize what happened, knocking them against various rocks and ledges as they fell. Nico tried his bed to reach out for Will but it was no use, they were falling too fast, and the wind resistance made it nearly impossible for him to move at all, let alone move to hold onto the other.

They hit the ground after what felt like forever, though it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, and realized once they landed that the pit had closed up at the top, sealing them in almost complete darkness. “Gods, my head..” Will groaned, still a heap on the ground as he reached for his forehead. There was an orange glow filling the cavern that bounced off of the walls and cast intense shadows on every cliff edge and sharp rock, making the place seem even more ominous. Nico crawled over to Will and checked his forehead, glad to see that there was only a small gash, something that could easily be patched up. He looked back around them and gaped, the cavern went on for he didn't even know how long, the air filled with some kind of haze that made it look even more hellish- hellish… “Is this…” he whispered, still staying low to the ground. He didn't know much about the place, but he knew of it, and had heard a bit enough about it to make a good enough guess as to what they had fallen into, or at least, what the pit was trying to mock/represent.

Tartarus.

Chapter 18

Chapter Text

Tartarus.

Nico wasn't sure if the quadrant was just a replica of the hellish realm, or if it was actually a gateway to the real Tartarus, surely not, right? In a way, he was confused, were there cameras down here? There had to be, surely, the gods needed to be able to watch them and broadcast the feed all over the country still of course, they couldn't just turn the focus away from a whole fourth of the people remaining- and what Nico assumed to be the only remaining couple- for an entire hour at least. An hour, right, this would only last for an hour, but what would happen after that? When the time ran out? Would a geyser come and shoot them back up to land again for another 11 hours or so? Surely not, that was way too easy…

Nicos eyes flashed back over to Will when he heard a rustling of fabric and watched him begin to dig bandages out of his bag for his head, the small gash still bleeding. “Let me” Nico said softly, turning back to him and taking the bandage from his hands. He applied the bandage gently but made sure it was nice and secure before helping Will to his feet. “This is tartarus, isn't it?” Will whispered, looking around wearily. It had to be, there was no other explanation, the underworld was just dank and dark from what Nico had heard, not fiery and hazy like this. Nico nodded, picking his sword up from the ground and gripping it tightly, he figured Will wouldn't make any moves to try and take it from him down here, considering their situation. “It should just be for an hour though” he said with a firm nod, trying to stay calm and confident that they would be fine. “Yeah but…” Will trailed off for a moment, looking around the cavern, “gods only know whats down here…” ‘ Literally…’ Nico thought to himself, only the gods knew what was down here because they built the f*cking thing, gods, part of him wished he would win just so he could return to olympus and burn the place to the ground, wouldnt that be something? To watch the entire city go up in a swirl of green greek fire? The mental image was intoxicating, but Nico quickly squashed it in his mind. He wouldn't win, it was practically impossible, and if he won, that would mean that Will was dead, and he did not want to think about that right now.

“Should we just stay here or try to see if there's an easier way to climb out?” Will was staring up at the jagged rock walls around them and grimacing. He carefully reached for them and began to climb before dropping down after getting about 10 feet up, his hand bleeding from a slightly significant gash. “If we have to climb out of here, we’ll sooner die of blood loss from cuts on our hands and legs” the blond muttered, wiping the blood on his jumpsuit and digging out yet another bandage. “Do you want to have some ambrosia?” Nico asked, already turning his bag around to dig out the canister, but Will quickly shook his head, “no, a cut on my head and hand is not important enough, we’ll be thankful we have it later” he explained, wrapping a piece of gauze around his hand, thankfully it was his non dominant one.

Nico nodded and looked around the cavern again, the leather of his sword grip making his hand feel sweaty, or maybe it was the heat- gods the heat- he wiped his face and was surprised to see that he'd been dripping sweat, it was soaking through his jumpsuit, which was uncomfortable to say the least. Nico hated sweating, he hated sweating in the group home, he hated sweating in the mines when he’d been working all day, and he hated sweating in this godsdamned arena. “I think we need to keep going, the gods won't be happy if we just stay in the same place for the entire hour-” “ who cares if the gods are annoyed?!” Nico snapped, cutting Will off. Will gave him a pointed look, “what i'm saying is, they'll send something after us if we're not entertaining enough for them.” the other boy said flatly, and Nico deflated slightly. “Oh, you're right” he mumbled, adjusting his backpack.

Hesitantly, they began walking through the cavern, both holding onto their swords tightly and for once, not holding hands, it was too hot, and their hands were both sweaty enough as is. After a few minutes of walking, they heard another soft rumbling, and for a moment held the hope that it was the ceiling opening again and that the hour had already finished, but they were sorely mistaken, and they realized that as they gradually heard the rumbling get louder and gradually turn into thumping, like something big and heavy was running. Before Nico got the chance to even say anything to Will about the sound, a monstrous tackled him to the ground. He fell with a loud ‘oof’ and a few curses as his hands immediately thrust out in hopes of pushing the creature off of himself, his eyes screwed shut. It wasn't until he felt something lick him that he finally opened his eyes and saw his tackler. It was a giant dog- seriously what was it with him getting tackled by dogs??- but it didn't seem very interested in attacking him, in fact, it was looking at him with big bashful eyes of.. admiration? Nico turned his head to look for Will and saw the other boy standing with his sword at the ready, preparing to swing as soon as necessary, but if Nico was correct, that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. Nico let out a groan and tried to shove the great big thing off to no avail, “get off!” he commanded, and surprisingly, the creature did, moving off of him and sitting patiently beside Will as Nico got to his feet.

Now that Nico was up and not staring up the beast's nostril, he could actually recognize it for what it was, “it's a hellhound” he said, confused. What was a hellhound doing in tartarus? Didn't those stay in the underworld? And why was it listening to him? Why was it acting all sweet like it wasnt probably hardwired to rip apart every tribute that fell into the cavern? After a moment of staring at the creature, Will moved to stand by Nico, clearly nervous about standing next to the hellhound. “Should we.. keep going?” he whispered, and Nico nodded slowly, picking his sword up from where it had been knocked out of his hand and turning to walk away from the massive animal. It wasn't until they heard the same rumbling behind them that they realized they had a problem, the damn thing was following them. Nico turned back around and looked at the beast with a slightly annoyed look, “what are you doing??” he asked incredulously, but the hellhound only co*cked its head to the side and gave him a look of confusion but content. Nico groaned and turned back around, he supposed the creature wasn't hurting anything, but it made him antsy having a giant hound practically slobbering in his hair.

After another 20 minutes of walking through the cavern, they found that the landscape was basically the same for the most part, it was all rocky and hot and gross, just as they expected. “What the..” Will mumbled, spotting something ahead and pointing. They looked like… well, they looked like pimples if Nico had to be honest, giant, tartarus pimples with something floating around inside. “Oh- yuck!” Nico spat as they got closer and got a better look at the things. Yep, definitely pimples. They were huge and close together, so close that Nico and Will had to turn to the side to get between two of them, “should we stop here? The hour should be done soon..” Will asked, crouching to look at the pimples more closely, then shying away in disgust. “Maybe..” Nico trailed off, looking around the small field of pimples until his eyes landed on the hellhound still following after them, its happiness still clear as it began to try and follow them into the field of pimples. “No- do not! Do not do that!” Nico tried to tell the creature, but it seemed hellbent- ha -on getting to the two of them, clearly attached now. It put down its paw a little carelessly, its claw brushing against the fragile exterior of one of the pimples, and before they knew it, some kind of fluid was coming out as well as a small flock of birds squawking and flapping their wings rapidly as they took flight.

They looked like pigeons, and Nico had seen them a few times around 12, pecking at the few crumbs left behind here and there on the streets. “sh*t-” Nico hissed and lifted his sword as the birds began to dive bomb the two boys, pecking at them ferociously. He heard a yelp from Will but then heard the familiar sound of metal cutting through something and something hitting the ground, presumably a bird. Nico kept his back to Will as the two of them swung at the birds, but gradually, more pimples burst and more birds flew out, a large flock now circling them. Amid all of the flapping and grunts from the boys as they were pecked, Nico could hear a loud barking and growling, then watched as several of the birds were plucked out of the air by the hellhounds' jaws and eaten quickly. Having the beast on their side was certainly a powerful ally, but it still wasn't enough, the birds just kept coming, and they were now sporting numerous holes in their jumpsuits from the birds beaks.

Finally, they heard a rumbling again, but Nico knew that it couldn't be another hellhound, because slowly but surely, natural light streamed into the cavern from the world above.

The hour was over.

Quickly, Will and Nico hurried over to the jagged walls, swatting at birds and not caring as they stepped on ones that had fallen as they began to climb the rocks, wincing and crying out as their hands were cut. Suddenly, they felt soft fur press against their back, and Nico knew it had to be the hellhound. He glanced over his shoulder and was met with a face full of fur, but that gave him an idea. “Climb the hound!” he shouted to Will and turned to grip the animals fur and pull himself up as the beast continued to fend off the birds to the best of its ability. Will got the idea and followed after Nico, climbing up the creature's body until they were sitting on its back, a significant distance higher now. Quickly, Nico hurried back to the rocks, filled with adrenaline as he scaled the walls with Will at his heels. It wasn't until he got almost to the top that he stopped hearing the birds squawking and instead heard a loud, eager bark. He looked down the rock face and saw the hound staring up at him in delight, surrounded by the corpses of the birds, ‘ sh*t' Nico thought to himself, he'd have to leave the creature behind… “good! Good job!” he shouted down to the beast and watched as it seemed to smile as it panted with exertion.

Nico swallowed his faint sadness and turned away, continuing to climb until he finally felt the lip of the cavern on his hands and the lush grass of the jungle he never thought he'd want to return to. With his last ounce of strength, he pulled himself up over the edge and collapsed, hearing Will fall beside him right as the pit began to close up again. They took several minutes to catch their breath and recuperate, their backpacks and swords feeling like they were each 100 pounds. “Gods…” Will whispered beside Nico, and when he opened his eyes, he could see that the blond boy was sitting up now. His uniform was practically shredded, and Nico noticed that he had freckles on his back, because of course, that was the thing to be paying attention to now.

Nico sat up slowly and heard his back crack, his entire body aching from being poked and from climbing the walls of tartarus. Will pulled his [ack over from where he'd discarded it and turned to Nico, quickly wrapping both of his hands up with gauze until it felt like he had clubs for hands, but he knew the feeling would subside after a little while. He did the same for Will and noticed the sun tattoo over his pectoral again through his tattered uniform as his eyes drifted downward slightly. Will seemed to notice Nicos eyeline and smiled a little, something Nico hardly thought was possible this far into the games. It had only been an hour in tartarus or pseudo-tartarus, but it had felt like so much longer, he certainly didn't feel like smiling, but when Will leaned forward and kissed him gently, his own gauze clubbed hands coming up to cup his face, Nico couldn't help but crack a small, feeble smile, gratefully accepting the kiss.

There was a subtle crack of branches behind them, presumably in the direction of the beach, and they quickly pulled away from each other, scrambling from their swords and holding the grips strangely with their heavily padded hands. They were weak, they both knew that, they were bloody and aching, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't try their best to put up a fight, at least, Nico wouldn't. His previous suicidal ideations far from his mind now, he’d made it this far, he couldnt take himself out of the running, hed go down fighting. Will and Nico almost didn't recognize the person that came through the branches, they were covered in blood and part of their jumpsuit was singed in places, but Nico recognized that gladius, he recognized that buzzed blond hair under all that blood, the boy looking at them with pained eyes with his blade raised was Jason Grace.

Chapter 19

Chapter Text

Nicos grip on his sword loosened, but not completely, enough to show that he was choosing to let his guard down slightly, but not completely. Jason looked between the two of them quickly, his hands shaking, “Jason..” Will started to say softly, stiff as a board. “I can’t-'' Jason whispered to himself, turning his head away from them, and with that, he turned away and walked back out of the jungle without another word, leaving Will and Nico confused and tenser than ever. “I… what was that?” Nico asked after a minute or two, still staring at the slight break in the leaves where Jason had been standing, some smudged blood left behind his jumpsuit, even though it looked like he didn't have any visible wounds, did he…?

“He was going to kill us,” Will said, like it wasn't obvious as he slowly stood up and pulled his pack over his shoulder. “I guess he couldn’t do it,” he shrugged and swallowed, shaking his head. Nico stood up as well and nodded, sighing. He didn't understand, why couldn't Jason do it? Because they were allies for a few days? Or because he realized that they were scared little kids just like him, forced into this sick game, and decided that he wouldn't play along, just this once? But what was that blood on him? It didn't look like his own, Jason looked just as strong and healthy as he had when he almost drowned Nico the night after the bloodbath, clearly he still had plenty of food to eat, so whose blood was it? In the cavern, they had not heard any cannons, but to be fair, they were a little preoccupied with fighting those killer pigeons, Nico supposed they'd just have to see who was up in the nightly broadcast later.

Speaking of which, it would probably be soon, Nico wasn't sure exactly of the time, but it didn't look late enough for it to have passed. “Do we move to the beach or stay here?” he asked Will, looking around them and then up to see if he could see the sky through the trees, he couldn't. “Maybe just the edge of the woods, so we’re not too visible,” Will suggested, and Nico nodded before following him through the brush until their feet brushed against the sand and they sat back down, not yet setting up their camp. “We should move back into the jungle after the broadcast” Nico advised, that way they'd be relatively hidden, “i agree” Will said, then looked up to the sky as the anthem began to play. Nico pulled out his ambrosia for their hands and grimaced when he saw that there was only a tiny bit left, but he broke it in half anyway and handed half over to Will, helping him pull off his bandages after they'd eaten.

3 people had died, Silena Beauregard from district 8, Leo Valdez from district 3, and piper mclean from district 9, meaning all that was left was Will, Nico, Jason, and Clarisse La Rue. “gods..” Will whispered, clearly coming to the same realization as Nico.

They were f*cked.

Clarisse had gotten a 10 in training, and Jason had gotten an 11, sure, Nico had somehow managed a 10 as well, but he was almost positive that was a flub, he was nowhere near on the same level as Clarisse, just visually, and even though she was surely unclaimed, there was no doubt that she was the daughter of some violent god or goddess. Jason had refused to kill them earlier, but that was also in daylight. How would he feel about the matter if he found them sleeping peacefully, where he could kill them quick and easy? Surely he'd go for it. “It's fine” Nico said quickly, staring at the sand instead as the anthem played again, “we’re fine-” “we’re not, Nico” Will cut him off with a soft voice, and it was honestly the most pessimistic Nico had ever heard him. But he was right, they were not fine, they were not fine at all, honestly, it was a miracle they’d even made it this far. How had they made it this far? They'd outlived Percy, Annabeth, Reyna, Frank Zhang, all skilled fighters, career tributes. Nico was a gods damned coal miner and Will was a farmer, how in Hades did they make it this far into a killing game??

“Gods, what are we going to do-” Will breathed, burying his face in one of his hands. Nico didn't have an answer for him, thoughts of what they would do if they were the final two were far from his mind now, because the idea of it was impossible, maybe if Clarisse wasn't in the final 4, maybe if Jason wasn't, because gods know Nico couldn't kill Jason, not even now. Maybe if it had been someone puny left with them, or at least someone that Nico thought either of them could take in a fight, then it'd just be them, but that wasn't the case. They were going to be pulverized easily, it was only a matter of time and place now. “I don't know,” Nico said softly, barely above a whisper, staring out across the water in the middle of the arena. At least they would be put out of their misery, right? If it was Jason, he'd give them a fast death, though Nico wasn't so sure if Clarisse would do the same..

Another crunch of leaves behind them made both of them whirl around, immediately on their feet with their swords in hand, and Nico was glad that they weren't stuck with gauze covered clubs now that they knew the odds. From beyond the trees, Nico saw a small spark with a little buzz, like an electrical current, and Nico wondered briefly if maybe someone had hit the wall again or something, but then he heard it again, and realized it was much closer. Suddenly, there was a loud crash and a cry out of anger as someone hit the ground, making Nico and Will stumble back further on the beach, they were still in the tartarus quadrant, so whatever had tackled whoever that was, it was a person, meaning the 4 remaining players were all in the same quadrant now…

Clarisse la rue came barreling out of the foliage, charging right for Nico and Will before Jason leaped out as well and grabbed her in a choke hold with one arm, tackling her to the sand. Nico and Will stood in shock for a moment, not sure how to intervene, or if they even should intervene as Clarisse and Jason wrestled, both yelling curses at each other before scrambling to their feet, like they only just remembered they had actual weapons to fight with instead of just their fists. Nico and Will backed away with them as they fought, eventually ending up at the edge of the water as the two fighters moved past them further in until they were both about mid thigh deep, fighting relentlessly with Jason's gladius and Clarisse's spear.

‘They're going to kill each other’ Nico thought to himself, water sloshing around his ankles, watching in vague horror as Jason almost started to lose . Clarisse dug her spear into his hip with bared teeth and Jason stumbled in the water, dropping a little and letting out a groan “no- no no no…” Nico whispered, his eyes locked on the scene, he couldn't look away, there was nothing to run from like with Percy and Annabeth and Bianca, nothing to chase after for revenge like with Reyna, he could only stare. “Nico..” Wills voice broke thorough Nicos mind fog, grabbing his arm tightly, “get out of the water, get out of the water now” he warned, practically pulling Nico out of the water as Clarisse climbed up on one of the strips of rock set in the water, a triumphant look on her face as her spear began to crackle with electricity. “No… No!!” Nico screamed as Clarisse plunged her spear tip into Jason's chest, the electricity coursing through his wet body and practically frying him.

The cannon went off before Clarisse even pulled her spear out and Jason's lifeless body fell into the water completely, floating aimlessly. Clarisse turned to the two of them and began walking down the strip of rock, like she was in no hurry now that she was left with two easy kills. Will and Nico hurried over to two of the other strips and were moving quickly across it towards the cornucopia when they heard a low rumbling, gradually getting louder. The three of them paused for a moment, turning to look at the jungle around them, and for a moment the arena was almost silent, like it was holding its breath before exploding in a chorus of screeching, howling, hissing and squawking.

The first thing Nico saw was the birds. Hundreds- maybe thousands of them poured out of the jungle, no longer confined to the cavern as they eagerly flew around the open arena. Then it was the wolf mutts, then the lizard mutts, then the spiders, then the jabberjays, and Nico realized with growing horror that every quadrant was now open and no longer confined within its barriers, meaning they could roam freely around the arena as they pleased. But really, they were bloodthirsty animals engineered by Olympus and the gods themselves, they didn't want to roam, they wanted to kill.

Chapter 20

Chapter Text

It wasn't until Nico felt the first drop of blood rain on his face that he finally snapped back into action, spinning around and sprinting down the rocks as all of the mutts and dangers of the arena ran for them. He could see Will running out of the corner of his eye, and clarisse running beyond him, but Nico still made it to the cornucopia first. Frantically looking around for a moment, he grabbed hold of one of the metal spikes poking out of the exterior and used it to pull himself up on top of the thing, tossing his sword up on top so he could use both hands. He scrambled atop the cornucopia and reached for Will's arms as he got to the small island in the middle of the arena as well, pulling him up and jerking forward when Will was suddenly pulled almost all the way down.

Clarisse was yanking Will's jumpsuit, trying to pull him off the cornucopia, she wasn't even trying to get up there herself, she was just trying to make sure Will didnt get up there. Will kicked furiously as Nico continued to try and help him up onto the metal structure, grabbing his sword to try and swipe at Clarisse's hands and arms. More blood had begun to fall, and it quickly turned from a sprinkle to a full on downpour just like the one Nico had been caught in several days ago, making it even harder for Will to get a good grip on the metal. Nico must've nicked Clarisses hand or something- he couldn't tell through all the blood covering her skin- because she flinched back and let go of Will, allowing him enough time to climb up on top of the cornucopia.

Nico took a brief moment to look around the arena and assess the damage and spotted a pile of wolf mutts surrounding something. ‘Jason’ Nico realized, ‘ they're eating him’ he remembered what Will had told him after they saved him from the wolf mutts before, “Jason was raised to care about wolves and dogs though, so he didn't want to fight them” and now look at what they were doing to him… Nico swallowed the lump in his throat and looked down, just in time to see Clarisse hoisting herself up onto the cornucopia and grabbing ahold of Nicos foot, pulling him down onto his back and attempting to pull him off of the structure. He heard a large screeching and a curse then a searing pain ran up his leg, making him scream in agony and squeeze his eyes shut tight.

Thankfully, Clarisse had let go of his leg, allowing him to try and pull himself back up onto the cornucopia, but the pain was too much. Will scooped him up under his arms and practically dragged him back up, kicking at something and eliciting another screech as he propped him up against one of the large spikes. “Its okay, you're okay, you're okay Nico” Will whispered, Nico could barely hear him over the sounds of screeching- screeching that he now recognized as the cries of the lizard mutts- Will was assuring him, but it sounded more like he was assuring himself honestly as he did something with his pack, peaking Nicos curiosity and finally making him open his eyes. What he was met with was not a pretty sight, he expected a bite, maybe a little bit of blood and possibly an exposed bone, but he was not at all ready for the carnage before him.

His entire lower leg was gone.

Completely gone, bitten clean off. Nico wanted to throw up, he couldn't look away, that is, until Will quickly pulled his chin up and stared into his eyes, one of the sleeves from his jumpsuit in his hands, “Don't look at it” Will told him, staring at him intensely before ducking back down and wrapping the sleeve around his stump, tying it tightly around it to stop the blood flow and making Nico cry out in pain. Below the cornucopia, he could hear screeching and howling from the mutts, as well as Clarisse yelling and crying out in pain and anger as she fought the beasts off, but Nico knew it was useless, Clarisse was hopeless down there, and he was hopeless up here too. The cannon rang out through the air and the snarling and screaming stopped, leaving the air silent for a moment before Nico heard the mutts begin to dig in, he once again wanted to throw up.

“You're going to win” he whispered to Will, reaching up to cup his face and grimacing when he saw that there was blood on his hand from where it had been pooling around his leg. “I'm not” Will said and shook his head, “i'm not, you're making it out of here” he sounded so sure of himself, it made Nico sad. “Will, look at my f*cking leg” Nico let out a small, pained laugh, but didnt look down at the wound, still staring up into Wills eyes, “Im not leaving here without you” Will said softly, and Nico saw tears begin to fill his eyes. He leaned forward to kiss Will, his head throbbing and feeling heavier, he assumed that was from blood loss, “you know that cant happen” he mumbled, finally pulling away and leaning their foreheads together and closing his eyes for a moment, gods, he was so sleepy.. “We could..” Will trailed off and Nico opened his eyes, watching Will reach into his bag and pull out the knife Reyna and Annabeth had packed them each, that felt like forever ago now…

He looked up and over to his own bag, fumbling for his knife with heavy, clumsy hands, “we don't have to give them a victor” Will explained once Nico sat back, knife in hand. “We don't have to do it” he repeated, and Nico knew what he meant, they could both die now, make some kind of statement or something to the gods, or, they could just do it for themselves, not even for the gods, they could do it just so they wouldn't have to live without each other, end both of their suffering right there, in each others arms. “Okay” Nico said simply, then positioned his knife to point at his own stomach as Will did the same, taking a deep breath. He kissed Nico deeply once again, knowing it would be their last kiss before pulling away and resting his hand on Nicos shoulder. “One..” Nico whispered, already feeling the knife begin to pierce his skin, “two…”

“Waitttttt!!”

Apollo's voice boomed through the arena, making Will and Nico both pause, though their grips on the knives did not falter. “It seems there has been a uh- slight rule change regarding this year's games..” the sun god spoke, and Nico could practically see the god again, his perfect hair and tan skin and disgustingly charismatic eyes. “The new rule states that if situations such as this arise- situations wherein there would be no victor, then two victors can be claimed!” He could hear the smile in his voice, and it took Nico a moment to process what the sun god was even saying. “What-” Will started to say, his brows furrowed in confusion, “and so, i now present to you, the winners of the 89th annual hunger games, Nico Di Angelo and Will Solace!”

Chapter 21

Chapter Text

Nico and Will sat in silence and confusion for maybe a second before the arena was filled with the thundering of a hovercraft as it practically melted out of the sky and descended towards them. Nico watched as the mutts that had been surrounding the cornucopia began to retreat back into the jungle, though Nico knew that they would probably be taken out and killed once they were out and back in Olympus. “We-” Will started to say but was drowned out by the hovercraft, his hand was still on Nicos shoulder and he gave him a squeeze, his eyes landing on the ladder that fell down from the hovercraft and the people that came down with them to help them up into the machine, nymphs probably, or something similar to that.

They ushered Will up onto one of the ladders before leaning down to Nico, a syringe in hand, “what are you doing-” Will said frantically, but one of the nymphs held out a hand, “it's a painkiller, it'll make it easier for us to transport him” she assured him and plunged the needle into Nicos neck, he was too weak to try and wriggle away. The last thing he saw was Will watching with panicked eyes as the ladder began to lift him up into the hovercraft and the nymph slowly picked him up, grimacing slightly at the pool of blood around where he’d been sitting, then everything went black.

He was in and out of consciousness for a while,but they must have given him more painkillers because his leg pain was reduced to just a dull throbbing now. He couldn't talk, but if he could have, he would have asked for Will, though he doubted they even let him see him. He saw everything through a foggy lens, like the rooms were constantly smoky, he saw doctors and surgeons with covered faces, he was pretty sure he saw minos once or twice sitting in a chair looking displeased, and once, very briefly, he thought he saw a man with long dark hair looming over him, looking more saddened by the sight of him than his own damn mentor, but the sight was short lived, and he quickly fell back into a dreamless sleep.

When Nico finally woke up for real, he was still in the white and gold sterile room that he'd been seeing for.. How long had it been exactly? His eyes flickered over to where he'd seen Minos a few times and sure enough, the old man was sitting there, still in his white robes and gold circlet. “You stayed alive '' the old king said simply, " I knew you would '' he shrugged, and Nico fought the urge to roll his eyes. ‘ Yeah right’ he thought to himself, but then remembered that Minos had been the one to send him ambrosia and held back any snarky comment. “Had to work hard for you, kid. Harder than I would've liked” the old man said, standing up from his chair and walking over to the edge of Nicos bed, pressing a button on the side that slowly sat Nico up so they were eye to eye.

“How did you get the ambrosia..? That had to be.. Thousands of drachmas at least” Nico said softly, his voice hoarse from not speaking. Minos let out a small huff, “I had to talk you up quite a bit, and that little friend of yours certainly helped things a bit, along with them wanting you to climb the tree or feeling bad about your sister, many things go into getting sponsors.” Minos looked away from him, “you'll learn that next year, my job for district 12 is done” Nico had almost forgotten, forgotten that Minos was just a substitute for a mentor since district 12 didnt have any victors, living victors at least, but they did now… Nico swallowed the lump in his throat and looked down at the bedspread, his eyes trailing over to his leg, noticing that there was actually something under the blanket and not just an empty area where his calf and foot would be.

Minos glanced over his shoulder at his silence and followed his gaze. “Ah, yes. Your leg, good job getting it bitten off” he said with a bit of snark, waving his hand a little, “go ahead and take a look, right there's the reason they haven't been able to do the postgame interviews for 3 days” Nico gawked, he'd been out for 3 days?? Where was Will? Had they interviewed him? Why hasnt Will come to see him?? Fear flashed in Nicos mind as the thought that maybe the whole thing wasn't real, that Will had just been playing it all up for the sake of getting sponsors or having a better chance of winning, but he pushed the thought away and leaned forward to push the blanket off of his leg, his eyes widening at what laid where his lower leg had been just a few days ago.

It was a leg. Well, a prosthetic surely, but a high quality one, that's for sure, he reached to brush his fingers over it and felt warmth from it, not cold metal like he'd been expecting. “Very high tech, be thankful.” Minos said flatly, stepping away from the bed, “your prep team will be here soon to get you ready for your interviews, I'm not very interested in seeing them primp and preen you for hours, so i'll be leaving” and with that, the old man began to leave, only pausing briefly when Nico called for him, “is Will still here?” he asked softly, one hand still feeling the fake skin of his leg, Minos looked at him for a moment like he was an idiot, “Olympus has never made an exception like this for anyone before, do you really think they’re not going to jump at the opportunity to interview you together?” was all he said before walking out, leaving Nico to his relief.

Nico fell back on the bed and let out a sigh of part relief part exhaustion, Will was there, Will was waiting for him- hopefully. He got another 20 minutes to himself before Deimos and the rest of Nicos prep team hurried into the room and practically scooped him out of his bed, taking him up to an apartment similar to the one he and Bianca had stayed in before the games, though this one was just a one bedroom. “We’re very proud of you” Deimos told him as they ushered him into the bathroom and leaned against the wall as the prep team scrubbed Nico down in the large shower. Nico didn't even really have it in him to feel embarrassed that they were washing him, all of olympus had seen him bathe at some point in the arena, which was an uncomfortable thought, but the prep team just seemed silly to him, like little birds poking at things they found interesting or preening their own feathers.

“Have you seen yourself yet? Since you got out?” Deimos asked, and Nico shook his head quickly, now sitting on a stool as the team washed his hair furiously with a number of products, scrubbing and rinsing over and over. Deimos hummed and nodded, making the prep team hold off on handing him a towel once the showering was done and ushering him over to a mirror. Nico stared at himself for a minute at least, trailing over every part of his body. He had a large scar on his upper arm from the wolf mutts, there was his leg of course, he was slightly skinnier than he had been before he left olympus, but not as skinny as he had been back in district 12.

“They leave scars on the boys usually, makes them look more rugged,” Deimos explained, ushering the prep team to wrap Nico in a towel now and move onto doing his hair with products and various heated tools, just as they had before the parade and before the first interviews. “Should we cut it?” One of the team members asked the stylist, pinching Nicos hair, which had now grown past his chin, “trim the ends but keep the length” Deimos instructed, leaning against the wall and watching them get Nico ready for him. “Your 3 days in the hospital gave me time to construct your outfit, thank you for that” he joked, like Nico had gotten his leg bitten off on purpose. “It's a black suit with some beading and some silver accents, i'm sure Will Solace will be dressed in white and gold” the god mused, then pause, digging in his pocket, “i swiped this from the hospital, by the way, thought you ought to wear it again for the interviews” he said, holding up Nico's skull ring, his district token. He'd almost forgotten that he was wearing the thing in the arena, he'd gotten so accustomed to its weight on his finger, but he was glad to see it when Deimos held it up.

After the prep team was done getting Nico ready, they left Deimos and him to get ready, just the two of them like before. Deimos dressed him just like he'd promised, in black and silver , making sure to put him in short socks underneath his suit pants. “They're going to want to see,” he told Nico, “the leg.” This made Nico uncomfortable, he didn't want to parade around his wounds and scars for everyone to see, even if they had been the ones to heal him, but he didn't protest against the short socks either way. Deimos applied some eyeliner around Nicos eyes and smudged it so it looked sort of smoky along with some concealer under his eyes to cover the dark circles that had only deepened in the arena. “Are you excited?” Deimos asked, “to see Will?” Nico said softly, trying to not inhale the cologne Deimos sprayed on him, “to be claimed.” the god said with a raised eyebrow.

Oh.

Nico had forgotten about that, he and Will would be claimed, and so would all of the other tributes as they did a sort of highlight reel of their deaths, like it was some sort of contest for the gods, whose kid had the worst death? Gods, they were sickening. “I suppose” was all Nico said with a small shrug, he did want to know who his father was, just to know, but he was exactly jumping over the moon about it.

Finally, he was ready to go, and Deimos transported him to where the interviews were held. Nico had a sneaking suspicion that as soon as the prep team picked up Nico, he considered him out of his hands and skipped out on the rest of the events surrounding the games. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of backstage, he finally saw Will, dressed in white and gold of course and practically glowing while talking to what was most likely his own stylist. Nico let out a breath and began to walk over to the other boy, still getting used to the feeling of walking with the new leg, it felt like normal walking in a way, he just needed to put forth a bit more effort. “Nico..” Will breathed when he finally looked up and saw him, finishing his conversation with his stylist quickly before stepping over to him.

He took a minute to look him over before embracing him tightly, burying his face in his shoulder, “gods..” was all he managed to choke out as Nico wrapped his arms around him as well, not really worrying about the fact that they were surrounded by stage technicians and that Apollo was babbling on about some other topic up on stage. Nico turned his head to kiss Will's jaw lightly and pulled away, taking a deep breath to steady himself, Will did the same. “We’re ready for you two” a crew member whispered, ushering them over to the side of the stage and encouraging them to hold hands and wave when they walked out. Nico was glad to feel Will's warm hand in his, not just because it offered comfort, but also because it helped steady his walking. Will had looked confused to see him walking, but visibly shook it off, knowing it would be addressed during the interview.

“And let's now welcome our amazing Victors, not one, but two, Will Solace and Nico di Angelo!” Apollo boomed, signaling Nico and Will to start walking out onto the stage. The lights hurt Nicos eyes, making him squint slightly, but he still forced a smile as they walked out and sat down on a couch set up opposite Apollos armchair as opposed to another chair. Now that Nico got a better look at Will, he could see that the top of Will's suit was really just the suit jacket, unbuttoned a button or two lower than it needed to be and showing more of his chest and sun tattoo than surely necessary. What was up with that? “It is so wonderful to see the two of you again, truly” Apollo said and grinned, his teeth damn near blinding Nico just as much as the stage lights. The audience in front of them cheered and whooped and Will waved again politely before turning back to Apollo, still holding Nicos hand and resting it on his thigh. “You're both dressed stunningly, I must say, it's been a little while since we've seen you two cleaned up, eh?” the god joked and Will and Nico both forced a small laugh, “i'm just glad to be out of that jumpsuit” Will remarked, and Nico nodded. “I'm sure,” Apollo said simply, smiling again.

“Now, for anyone that is not familiar with how we approach these things, our lovely tributes will be claimed by their godly parents, we’ll ask a few questions, then move onto the most exciting part, the highlight reel” Apollo looked very excited for this part, it made Nicos stomach turn. The highlight reel was a compilation of the most painful or heartfelt moment for the victors, then a listing of usually never before seen footage of each of the tributes death as well as them being claimed, it made Nico sick every time. Suddenly the crowd gasped in amazement and Nico noticed an extra light reflecting on the stage, he looked up and saw a large golden sun shimmering above Will's head, shining what looked like rays of sunlight over his face as he stared up at the thing. Nico wouldn't say he was surprised, because he wasn't, he and bianca had guessed that apollo was wills godly parent during the first interview, it was just officially confirmed now. Apollo was grinning widely as Will looked back down to stare at him, not really looking happy or sad about it. “How about that?” Apollo said like he hadn't made the symbol appear above Will's head, “I'm very proud of you, son.”

Will stiffened slightly, his grip on Nicos hand tightening slightly, clearly he didn't enjoy the feeling of hearing those words come out of the gods mouth, but he nodded nonetheless, looking above Nicos head as a shadow passed over it. Above Nicos own head was a sort of upside down crescent moon atop what looked like a cross with a circle in the middle, surrounded by darkness. ‘ Hades…’ Nico thought to himself, his eyes widening slightly, now that was a surprise. He supposed he expected hephaestus or something, then again he didn't really have any forging talent or anything, but,, Hades? “A child of one of the big three” Apollo spoke up, nodding, “very interesting…” the god stroked his chin in thought for a moment then snapped back, “let's give it up for the son of Apollo and the son of Hades everybody!” he boomed and the crowd erupted into cheers, though Nico didn't doubt that they were mostly for Will, the god of death made people antsy, and Nico had not exactly shown before or during the games that he was much different.

When the crowd died down a little, Apollo turned back to Will and Nico, crossing one leg over his knee. “Now, we’ll see this later of course, but Nico, if i recall, you got your leg bitten off” he said with a slight grimace, “but a little birdy told me they were able to replace it, is that true?” Nico nodded, remembering what Deimos said, that they'd want to see the prosthetic, “they did, they gave me a prosthetic that's really just.. Wow. It looks exactly like my old leg” he said with a nod, watching Apollo lean forward slightly, “can we see it?” he asked, and Nico felt Will's grip on his hand tighten slightly, “I don't know if that's-” “sure” Will started to say, but Nico cut him off, letting go of his hand briefly to roll up his pant leg just a little bit. Showing his leg would make him seem more thankful, he thought, even if he didn't want to. The crowd let out a series of oohs and ahhs as the camera zoomed in slightly on the skin like texture of the prosthetic, which only made Nico increasingly uncomfortable, so he rolled his pant leg back down.

“Well, that is very impressive,” Apollo said with a nod, “and I should know, I'm the god of healing!” The crowd laughed and Nico and Will both forced a polite smile as Nico took a hold of Will's hand again, giving it a small squeeze. Apollo asked a few more questions about how they felt about the new exception made for the two of them, all to which they answered that they were very thankful and couldn't even begin to express their gratitude, which seemed to make Apollo and the audience happy. “We’re so glad to hear that, now, why don't we relive some of our favorite moments from these games, eh?” Apollo grinned and turned to the audience, practically glowing as he listened to them all cheer and encourage him to begin the highlight reel. Will moved their conjoined bands back on top of Nicos thigh, giving him a comforting squeeze, and Nico noticed that Will's jaw visibly clenched as he steeled himself for what would follow as the video began playing on the large screen wall behind them.

Will and Nicos highlight reel mostly consisted of moments when they were together, thought to be fair that was most of the games, though it mostly felt like a compilation of moments in their relationship rather than them actually doing interesting stuff in the games for the most part. They started at the beginning with some footage of Nico watching Will during the parade, even though he looked like a total moody asshole the entire time, brief clips from their interviews, though obviously not the ones where they outright seemed defiant or spoke out against olympus. When the video moved on to the actual games, things weren't as centered on them, but they were still a large focus, they did intentionally leave out deaths from this part though, mostly because they would be played later when they relived each and every tribute death.

The video showed Percy, Reyna, Annabeth, and Jason running past Nico through the fog and then helping him wash out his burns from it, even thorough Nico seemed like a total ungrateful little sh*t the whole time, they showed Nico in the blood rain and then fighting the wolves, Will washing Nico off a little and taking care of his arm while he was unconscious after the wolves, small moments between Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf, Will and Nico kissing for the first time, clarisse carrying Silena out of the jungle and onto the beach, and Nico climbing up ethan nakamura's tree as well as some quiet moments with percy and annabeth talking and actually kissing once or twice, Nico knew there had been something there, obviously. Besides the wolves, Nico had been relatively okay watching the video, it hadn't been too triggering, but then again most of the terrible stuff was being saved for last. The audience made a big fuss when Will hit the forcefield and died briefly and laughed their heads off when Percy caught the two of them kissing, which made Nico raise an eyebrow to himself, it wasn't that funny…

There wasn't much to the rest of the video, mostly because the games had much more death after that point, though they did focus on Will and Nico in the tartarus pit for a little while, though it was mostly just them fighting the killer birds with the hellhound, some brief moments of Clarisse and Silena together, though Silena just seemed empty for the most part, Jason finding Will and Nico and refusing to kill them, then the sprint to the cornucopia and Nico getting his leg cut off, perfect, just what he wanted to relive… Nico noticed that they purposefully cut out the part where he and Will made their plan to just kill themselves and skipped right to when they were announced as Victors, then it ended, the entire games for them were summarized in maybe 20 minutes.. “It's been a long time since we've had a couple form in the games, but this year we had almost 3!” Apollo smiled and Nicos brows furrowed slightly, 3? Will and him of course, Percy and Annabeth.. Who was the third? He ran the video over in his mind again, zeroing in on Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf, how they'd been flirting a little bit in the clips shown and then how Silena had to be practically dragged out of the jungle,, similarly to how Annabeth had to be after Percy died.

He wondered silently about why so many of them gravitated towards romance, it must've been for comfort, or maybe to just have something to distract them from the gravity of the situation, Nico wasn't sure, he wasn't even sure entirely why he and Will had chosen to get together in the midst of the games, though in their defense, they hadn't expected to make it as far as they did, let alone be the final two…

Nico was pretty sure he zoned out for most of the death reel, staring at a spot on the floor while it played instead of watching, but he remembered the commentary from Apollo and small pieces of every tribute, Katie Gardner, daughter of demeter, Cecil Markowitz, son of hermes, and Travis stoll, son of hermes were, all killed at the bloodbath, as well as Bianca, daughter of hades as well of course, and octavian, who wasn't even really a demigod, he was a legacy of Apollo, not even directly related, and he’d been the one to kill Bianca?? He felt sick. He wanted to get up and walk off stage, but he knew that would be seen as defiance and would make things so much worse, and he'd be leaving Will all alone out there, and if they both left, it would make things really terrible most likely, so he stayed put, squeezing Wills hand and running his thumb over the back of it and trying to ignore the reel as much as possible. Ethan Nakamura killed Austin Lake, a son of Apollo, he expected them to move on after that, but they didn't. It wasn't until he heard a wet, almost choking sound coming from the video that he finally glanced up, his eyes widening in terror.

Ethan was eating him.

Nico remembered the blood he’d smelled on Ethans breath and gagged, keeling over slightly and covering his mouth with his free hand, only feeling more sick when he heard the audience making sounds and murmurs of sympathy for him like they weren't forcing him to watch this, it was disgusting. Will rubbed his back for a few minutes and by the time he sat up, they were already showing Lou Ellens, a daughter of Hecate, death, Will was practically frozen in his seat, watching the reel like he had no other choice. She was thrashing in Wills arms, clawing at her own skin and screaming as the venom from the spiders around them filled her blood stream, bloating her up and clearly causing her excruciating pain, “Will- Will!” she screamed, her head swiveling around like she was looking for him even though he was right there holding her and trying to keep her hands away from her skin. “Please- please it hurts” she cried, finally finding him and holding onto the front of his jumpsuit tightly, staring at him with blank, tear filled eyes. Nico didn’t see why they needed to show the entire scene, it’s like they were just trying to torture them at this point. He squeezed Will's hand and turned his face to press into his shoulder a little, ignoring the way some of the audience awed at the display of affection. Eventually, he heard the sound of skin being pierced and the cannon and quickly moved on, Will visibly relaxed at least a little.

Nico didn’t pay attention to the deaths he already knew about or witnessed, he didn’t even care about who their godly parents were, he just wanted it to be over. Charles Beckendorf fell into the Tartarus and was killed by the birds, Sherman Yang and Silena Beauregard were killed by the fog, Leo Valdez was killed by a ginormous snake in one of the quadrants, and Piper McLean fell into a river of fire that ran through one of them too. To Nico, most of them were just names, he never knew them, he hardly even ran into them in the arena, he fought Sherman Yang once and saw Selena maybe twice, but most of them were just the names of kids that had been murdered by the gods essentially, no different from any of the tributes from any other year and it made him nauseous. He hated that Bianca could be as unnoticeable as her death was to most of the other tributes, to everyone, she was just a girl that died in the bloodbath, she wasn’t anything special, and he hated that, he despised Olympus and it’s citizens.

After the interview was over, he and Will walked off stage together, Will waved politely, Nico did not. Nico felt nausea and bile rise in his throat almost as soon as they stepped backstage and out of the lights, quickly hurrying through the crew members around them into the nearest bathroom to throw up. He hadn’t eaten anything before the interview or really since he woke up, so only stomach acid came up, but it still burned and made his back hurt more than anything as he gripped the toilet seat, his eyes squeezed shut and desperately trying to push away the images of Bianca with Octavian's knife buried in her abdomen, of Lou Ellen clawing at her own skin and begging Will to kill her, of Ethan Nakamura tearing into Austin’s body with his bare hands, of the wolf mutts ripping Jason to shreds even though he’d done nothing but respect them and refuse to fight them even when he needed to.

“Nico?” He heard a soft voice say outside the bathroom stall, and Nico didn’t need to look to know it was obviously Will. “Yeah?” He croaked, his voice hoarse, he wiped his face with some toilet paper and flushed the toilet, bracing himself against the stall walls as he stood up and opened the door, taking in the worry on Will's face as he looked down at him. Without a word, he wrapped Nico up in his arms tightly, his face buried in his hair. “That was disgusting” he said softly, “I can’t believe they made us watch that.” There was so much venom in Will's voice, it almost surprised Nico a little. After a moment of silence they finally pulled away from each other and Nico washed his mouth in the sink before walking back out with Will and climbing into a car to go back to their apartments and prepare to go back to the districts the next day.

Nico stared out of the window for a while, watching the white and gold buildings pass by before turning to Will, “I don’t want to go back to 12.” He said flatly, “there’s nothing for me there, Bianca’s gone, my mother is gone, I have nothing.” Will was staring out of his window too, clearly thinking about something, “you could come to 11” he offered softly, “with me.” Nico swallowed, that was all he wanted, what would he do in 12, live in an empty victors village and spend all day in bed, wallowing in his own misery and missing Will? And now Will was offering to let him come to his district, to stay with him instead, to try their best to heal from the trauma and wounds left behind from the games, to grieve the people they lost instead of braving it alone.. “Okay” Nico mumbled, taking Wills hand in his and turned back to look out the window again, feeling a light squeeze from the other.