Will's POV
Everything was going as planned. Of course, if the plan was to be hunted down by the knock-off version of Octavian and meet three notorious killer hags.
At least Nico seemed aloof, pacing a few steps further than Will in a direction that seemed like second nature to him, treating the underworld like his backyard, though that might have been the case considering it was his father's.
On the other hand, Will was ready to throw up, bile rising in his throat as he trailed behind, his head so light that he began to wonder if the air was thinning by the second.
Nico hadn't spoken to him after the entire ordeal with Dylan, and Will couldn't pretend that he hadn't seen the disappointed expression when he hadn't defended Nico against the murder accusation. But, once again, how was he supposed to, in any seriousness, defend someone who already held a kill count and had, in front of an entire city, turned into the Greek version of the antichrist, throwing Apollo around like a oversized dog toy?
Will really didn't have much to work with.
It was times like these where he was oddly thankful that Nico's memory only lasted so long before escaping him once again. From his observations, Nico's revelations of memories were like debris left by the tide, soon to be dragged away into the infinite depths never to be recovered when the next wave arrived.
He was released from his trail of thought by the creaking of a gate hinge as Nico pushed it inwards, slipping into Persephone's garden as if in a trance, completely leaving Will behind. Will ran through the gap before it could close behind Nico, checking behind him for Persephone, who would, no doubt, be in a much fouler mood if she found them both raiding her garden once again.
"Nico?" Will whisper-yelled, searching to and fro for a tuft of black hair in the frenzy of brush and trees.
No response.
Will sprinted through the garden, feeling as though the flora was slowly suffocating him, the sickly tart smell of the flowers choking his lungs.
"Hey, Will?" Nico mumbled, his voice barely noticeable. Will jumped from shock, spinning around towards the origin of the voice.
"Nico? Where are you?" Will called out, hearing nothing for a while but the eerie creek of the branches as they bent under the weight of their ripened fruits.
"Would you eat one?" Nico asked when Will finally caught sight of him, walking over to his side. Nico had a faraway look as he stared at a fallen pomegranate near his foot, and a faint red glow flickering across his face coming from a dim light inside the well he stood by.
"...Haven't you heard the story of Persephone and those pomegranates?" Will replied cautiously, rather taken aback by the previous question.
Is this some sort of trick question?
"Would you stay down here with me forever if I asked you to?" Nico whispered, his eyes following the pomegranate that he rolled over softly with his foot. They both remained silent for a pause that lasted so long that Will began to wish that Persephone might walk in and break the stalemate.
Would I?
The very thought of remaining here somehow made him feel even more sickened than he already felt.
Nico told me he wanted his memories back–the good and the bad. If he'd really wanted to stay down here for the rest of his life, he would have never come back.
He came back because he knew that this was what we both needed.
He wouldn't keep me prisoner here, even if I was willing.
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The Sun Without Stars 2 Solangelo
Fanfiction"Nyx... I'm dead. There's nothing more that can be done," Nico mumbled to prove to the goddess that he had done all he could for her; however, she scoffed in response. "You are correct in that aspect. While you still carry the su...
