Chapter Text
Nico was worried about Percy Jackson, ever since the son of Poseidon and the Daughter of Athena came back from Tartarus he’d been worrying. Nico noticed the fear in Annabeth's eyes when she looked at Percy and noticed the pain and agony in Percy's eyes when he thought no one would. He didn’t know what happened down there and didn’t want to know until Connor Stoll told him and Will. Connor said that he heard it from an Aphrodite girl who heard it from Annabeth and Piper. Nico was curious at first but didn't say anything because it wasn’t any of his business.
Will and Nico checked up on Percy and Annabeth a lot, they both were really low energy and weren’t eating, so he and Will gave them food and tried to talk to them. Annabeth was a lot easier to help than Percy. She would give a half smile when we entered her cabin and would take part in conversations. She mainly had her nose in a book or just cried. She talked about her nightmares and how scared of Percy she was. She only opened up like that after they broke up.
Meanwhile Percy was difficult. He would lay in bed and not speak for hours, not eat, never mention Annabeth. If you were to ask Nico when the relationship really ended, he would say as soon as they got out of that pit. Nico expected Percy to be closed off at first but after a while it really became concerning. When Percy and Annabeth had just broken up, Nico was walking to the Apollo cabin when he heard sobbing coming from the beach. He expected to see an injured camper or a camper who was lost, he did not expect to see Annabeth on her knees clutching her chest gasping for breath in between sobs. Nico ran towards her and held her. He didn’t care about the tears that stained his graphic tee-shirt, he cared about Annabeth and Percy.
“Shhh, it's okay. Tell me what happened Annabeth” He said gently.
“Percy…” She sobbed. I froze. What happened to Percy? Nico wondered. “H…He Broke up with me” She cried as she gripped Nico’s shirt. Nico held her and walked her to her cabin that night. He was dreading opening Percy's door; he didn't know what he’d face in there.
As he walks to Percy’s he wondered if Percy would open up. He knocks on the son of Poseidon's door and opens it, only to find Percy in his bed and asleep, the usual. Nico sits on the bunk across from Percy's and sits there for a while before going back to the Apollo cabin.
The next weeks feel the same, other than the fact that Annabeth slowly got better. She started going to the dining pavilion everyday and is a lot more talkative. Percy somehow gets worse. He won't get out of bed and if he does he only goes to the dining pavilion and right back to his cabin. He won't talk to anyone. Not like before, now it is just grunting a response. The only time he talks is when arguing about something. Will checks up on Percy throughout the day and makes sure he's healthy enough to keep living. It was late when Thalia Grace stopped by on her very rare days off to see camp and Annabeth. It was after dinner and camp fire, so most campers were heading off to bed.
“Annabeth!” Thalia cheerfully yells when she sees Annabeth. They run to each other and hug.
“Where's Percy?” Thalia says. Annabeth's face instantly drops. Thalia noticed the sudden change in Annabeth's face.
“He’s rotting again isn’t he” Thalia demanded a response from me and will.
“Thalia, he’s not doing well. He’s not been eating, drinking water, and hasn’t gotten out of his cabin in two days.” Will says
“I know that’s normal for him now but I can feel like his life is slipping away. We need to help him.” Nico says quietly. Nico hates that he can never speak up anymore, he wishes he could’ve like Thalia and speak his mind even if it gets me into trouble.
“That's it! He can’t keep doing this. We can’t lose our golden boy. The gods need him, we need him, the camps need him.” Thalia says, focusing on cabin 3 and spacing out.
“We need to stop this” Thalia says quietly, almost a mumble. Nobody seems to notice except for Nico. With that mumble Thalia walks off to cabin 3 and opens the door without knocking. We all ran after her wondering what would happen.
Nico spaced out while Thalia and Percy argued. He looked to the floor to help the tears that were threatening to fall. He never liked yelling, especially when it came from Percy. Nico looks up when Percy starts laughing. Zoning into his sudden outburst of escaped laughter. He looks insane. He looks like he did in the titan war, scary and dangerous, but this man wasn’t dangerous though he was broken. Percy gets up from the floor and starts talking. He says for us to leave and Nico recoils.
“No!” Nico yes “We…We need you to eat and get some fresh air please Percy I beg you.” Nico says quietly, suddenly realizing the eyes on him. Will agrees with Nico but Percy just stands up and tells him not to be a play doctor even though he is one. Thalia says that Percy needs help, Nico is taken aback by the sudden truth. Nico sees Percy go still, other than his hands. They were shaking violently, like he just dunked them in ice water.
“Shut up!” Percy yells. We all step back and look at the son of Poseidon, who is holding back tears as he told us to go. Percy’s hands go to his ears as he repeats himself over and over again. Only Nico steps forward and desperately tries to grip Percy hands away from his ears, he’s gripping and scratching his head so hard it’s starting to bleed. A stream of blood already started to form at the back of Percy's ear, getting his black hair covered in blood. Nico needs to stop him, needs to help him. Percy has done so much for Nico and Nico can’t lose him. Nico successfully rips Percy’s hands away from himself and holds them gently but also firm so he won’t try to scratch himself again. Everyone is silent except for the mumbling of Percy telling us to leave. I don’t want to, he can’t be alone. He continues to hold his arms until he violently pulls them away, staring daggers at all three of us.
“Leave…please…” pleads Percy. “I’m okay…go away!” Nico gets pushed back from the pull from Percy to free his arms, Nico doesn’t want to leave Percy. It’s only until Will taps his shoulder and gestures to the door. Nico shakingly stood up and looked at the boy crying on the floor. Everything is telling Nico not to leave him alone but Will gently takes my hand and walks Nico out of the cabin.
“What the fuck Thalia!” Nico yells at Thalia as soon as the door shuts. He didn’t know he could yell at someone like that anymore, last time he did was at Percy when his sister died. “Do you really think that yelling at him was the best fucking option! Did you even look at him once?” Nico says.
“Hey death boy, it’s not my fucking fault that he is the reason he’s like this. He’s the reason he lost Annabeth-“
“Oh my gods Thalia!” Yells Annabeth “It was my fault! It’s my fault for being scared, it’s my fault that he acted that way he was protecting me! You weren’t there and I’m done with you pretending that every single thing that happens is Percy’s fault”
Everyone is silent at that and Thalia storms off to the Artemis cabin. Annabeth looks hurt but can only look at cabin 3.
“I can’t stay here. He’s never going to listen or open up. He’s never going to get better” Annabeth's voice breaks on the last word as she rips her eyes away from the door and walks back to her cabin and closes the door. Will and Nico both walk back to cabin 7.
“I don’t know how to help,” cries Nico when they get to the cabin.
“I know.” Says Will. Bringing Nico into a hug as they sit on Will's bed. That’s when Nico feels it. Percy’s life, Nico can feel Percy slipping away faster this time. Nico stands up, tears already falling, sobbing. He runs out of cabin 7 back down to cabin 3. He doesn’t knock, he knows what’s there. He knows Percy won’t answer. He swings the door open and sees him, Percy crumpled to the floor covered and surrounded by his own blood. Nico falls to the floor sobbing. How could he let this happen? Why did he leave? Why couldn’t he help Percy? He sees will at the corner of his vision running down to Nico. Nico crawls into the cabin to get to the son of Poseidon, what happened to the boy who was so loyal to everyone, what happened to the happy boy who would light up a room, what happened to the sarcastic funny boy, Nico knows what happened. The gods, the gods, broke every single muscle and bone in this boy's body. Nico knew he should’ve pulled Percy and Annabeth up from the pit, why was he so weak? Nico could have prevented this. They would’ve defeated Gaia so much faster. What if he’d told the truth about the two camps, maybe Percy wouldn’t be like this.
Nico reaches Percy and grabs him and pulls the boy into his arms.
“Percy…” Nico sobs “Wake up. Please. Please wake up, you need to open your eyes.” Percy doesn’t respond. He’s pale from blood loss, skinny and frail from lack of food and water, He’s bloodied, gods where did this blood come from. Nico looks down at Percy's arms. One long deep cut on each arm still bleeding, still pooling, how could he let this happen? The son of Poseidon is dead and Nico could’ve prevented it. Why didn't he stay? Why didn’t he speak up and help? Nico's vision is blurred from tears, he can’t control it. He looks to the door and Thalia, Annabeth, and Will are there. Annabeth is on the floor sobbing just like Nico. She’s on her knees and hyperventilating, loud gasps escape her mouth like this is her first breath of oxygen in ten years. Will is crying, breathing heavily as he stares at Nico and the lifeless body on the floor, the body that used to belong to Percy Jackson. Thalia doesn’t cry, she doesn’t say anything. She punches the door to the point it leaves a dent. Nico feels like he's going to throw up, he can't stand to look at Percy's dead body, but he forces himself to. He forces himself to look at what he could’ve prevented. He could have stopped this. Nico feels like he's getting suffocated. Thalia left to where he can only assume to tell Chiron.
“Why?” Nico sobs into Percy's head. The boy's head was on his shoulder and his body was laying on top of Nico’s legs.
Chiron, Dionysus, and Thalia come running to the dead boys cabin. When they get there they are stunned.
“Oh my gods” Chiron mutters breathlessly.
“Well, I didn’t expect that.” says Dionysus. Thalia has tears in her eyes now but it looks like she is holding them back. Annabeth went into the cabin and sat next to Nico putting a hand on his shoulder and another hand on Percy. They both are sobbing at the boy whose blood is everywhere. How was Sally going to react? This is bad.
Nico can feel Will next to him but Nico doesn’t dare to look, he doesn’t want to cry harder. Nico refuses to let go of Percy, he prays that any second now he’ll wake up and this is all a dream, a sick dream that the gods made. He knows it won't happen, he knows this is a reality.
“Nico baby, it's time to go. Lets get you cleaned up” Will says as he tries to get Nico up, but Nico won’t move. He's cried all of his tears out and now he's just staring at the body he's holding. Annabeth left for her cabin a while ago. Chiron and Dionysus are preparing to get Percy, but they can’t do that until Nico moves. Thalia left camp, no one knows where. She was crying when she left and punched another new hole in the Zeus cabin wall. Nico doesn’t move, just keeps staring at Percy. Nico wishes he got to say goodbye, he wishes he could apologize for being so terrible towards him especially when Bianca died, he wishes he can thank him for always being there. Percy Jackson wasn’t perfect in any way but he knew how to be loyal. Will grabs Nico’s hand and against everything telling Nico to not to look at Will, he does. Will has a tear streaked face and a pleading look on his face.
“Please Nico. lets go back to my cabin” Will pleads
“I…I can’t” Nico says, his voice hoarse. “I need to go.” Nico says. With that Nico gently puts Percy down and gets up.
“I’m sorry Percy” he says as he looks down at the body on the floor. He leaves the cabin quickly so no one can go after him. He needs to see his father and find Percy wherever he is in the underworld. On his way to find a tree he can see the current of the waves at the beach of camp half blood increase in speed and crash against the shore hard. Poseidon must’ve already found out. Nico finds a tree inside the woods and Shadow travels to the underworld.
He doesn’t knock at the castle door. He can hear yelling inside. He sees his father and Poseidon arguing.
“Where is he?” Nico demands when Hades looks at him coming in.
“Nico, you know you can’t see him” Hades tries to say.
“Where is he?!” Nico repeats loudly. “I don’t care, I'm your son, I can see him.” he says, voice sharp. He glances at Poseidon who's looking at this outburst from Nico. He looks like grief hit him in the face and won.
“He’s in the Elysium, Nico.” says Hades. Nico doesn't talk anymore, just walks out of the door and walks straight to Elysium. He doesn’t stop to admire the beautiful scenery around him while in Elysium. His main ghoul is to find Percy. He finds many souls there, souls he recognized. Charles Beckendorf, Zoë Nightshade, Selina Beauregard, Micheal Yew, and many others. He finds Percy Jackson sitting on a rock while looking at a stream of water. The water is crystal clear with beautiful greenery around it with flowers. Nico doesn’t ask before taking a seat next to him.
“Why’d you do it?” Asks Nico. it pains him to ask. Maybe he’ll talk now.
“I thought you wanted me to.” says Percy “I mean no one cares anyways. Thalia and I only get into screaming matches when she visits, you and Will only pity me so you force yourself to check up on me, and Annabeth…” his breath hitches when he says her name. “She’s too good for me, he deserved better than to be terrified every time I moved.” Nico is taken aback by his sudden Honesty, he's never opened up before like this. At least not with him.
“Percy, you know you're wrong right?” Nico says, Percy looks at Nico with confusion on his face. “I knew you were dead before you were. I felt you slip away. I couldn’t let go of you for an hour. I ran away from camp to talk to you. Will was so worried about you, he would constantly talk about how worried he was for your health. And Thalia, you know she means well, right? She means what she says, he just says them rudely. I will say the argument was too far, but you should’ve seen her after you…” I stop being unable to say and accept it. “She punched a dent in your door frame and a giant hole in the Zeus cabin. And Annabeth. She couldn’t stop crying, she left for her cabin unable to look at you. She's not dead, I would’ve felt it. I don’t even think your mom knows yet. And your dad. He’s at the palace right now arguing with my dad, he looks really bad Percy. You mean so much to people and I’m so sorry I let this happen” Nico finished because he can feel tears build up in His eyes. Percy just stares at him with his eyes wide. Nico can tell he's regretting this. “I can’t visit you again.” Nico says to Percy. Nico starts to get up and as he does, he grabs Percy by the arm and pulls him up. He stares at the boy he's looked up to basically his whole life and that boy is now dead and will forever be a soul in Elysium. He pulls Percy into a hug, a final hug. He can hear Percy crying but can’t feel the tears that would normally fall.
“Nico…” Percy says “Please tell my mom I love her. And tell Annabeth that too, but say I'm sorry, for…for everything.” says Percy.
“I will. I don’t know who's going to tell your mother but when she finds out I will.” I say as I start to walk away.
“Oh and Nico.” Percy says. “Your going to do great things, and just remember ill still be here to support you, and thank you”
Nico walks away with a head nod. He feels better knowing Percy now knows how much people cared, he still wishes he can visit but he knows he can’t. He knows that Percy is dead now and that he can’t do what he did with Bianca. He knows that Percy will want Nico to move on. So for once. Nico goes back to camp instead of running from it.