Misery Loves Company

Puppeteer

"You should have seen it. The shadows came alive and dragged the Arai down into cracks that just opened up in the ground. It's like they had a mind of their own." Percy said.

Fuck, Nico had been controlling the shadows and banishing the Arai from a distance.

He continued, "Just as well, we were getting our asses handed to us, without being able to kill the Arai outright we were playing for time till Annabeth figured out a plan."

Annabeth flushed, "I didn't think we'd ever have to see them again after Tartarus, how are they even here?"

That was news to Will, how had the Arai escaped Tartarus into the Overworld and why choose to attack New Rome whose borders were magically enforced by a God.

"The better question is what the Hades killed them?" Percy pointed out, throwing himself onto the couch with an exhausted sigh.

"Nico." Will didn't really mean to answer him, but the name just slipped along his tongue.

"I thought he couldn't leave the apartment?" Percy recalled, brow furrowed.

Will sighed, running a hand through his hair. "He didn't. He woke up after he blacked out from the poison in his bloodstream, I told him Hazel was off fighting monsters and he said you'd 'need help'. Then he sort of meditated...I don't know, he said shadows were his domain, knew exactly what you were fighting, and went into a trance. He looked like he was puppeteering invisible strings, then he fainted again and you all showed up claiming possessed shadows saved your lives." Will shrugged, "Sounds like Nico to me."

"That border is blocks from here, that kind of long distance control would require a ridiculous amount of power." Annabeth said, gaze landing on Lou Ellen's closed bedroom door. "If he can do that, I think it's safe to assume his powers have grown far more than we predicted."

"Can you control the lake from here?" Hazel turned to Percy.

Percy's eyes clouded over with familiar vacancy, hands twitching at his sides. "There's a fishing vessel out there now," Percy blinked, vibrant green returning to his irises. "I could sink it from here, but it would drain me and give me a killer migraine."

He followed Annabeth's gaze to the bedroom door, "And the lake is closer to here than the battle was, and I'm older. I honestly don't know how he did it."

The four demigods sat in silence, watching that closed door as if it was going to explode in on itself at any moment. Will broke the silence to order food for them all, laying it out on the table when it arrived and signalling them all to join him.

"Nico said you'd fill me in," Hazel addressed Annabeth and Will, breaking the silence.

"There's a lot we don't know," Annabeth admitted.

Hazel sighed, pushing her fried rice around on her plate, "How'd he get hurt?"

"He was in New York, facing eight Arai, though there were only three left when I arrived," Will recalled, "He was trying to rile them up, get them to land on the ground. When they landed he could send them straight back to Tartarus without being transferred their curses."

Annabeth hummed, "Of course, indirectly killing or at least banishing them would mean the curses had no target."

Will nodded, continuing, "I didn't know about the curses, and well I got myself involved thinking he was in danger. He knowingly put a dagger through the thing's heart to stop me from getting cursed."

Will was pretty sure he heard Percy mumble, "Self-sacrificing idiot" from down the table.

"The curse was one spoken by an old camper, way back in the days after the battle with Gaea. The boy's sister died the day I dragged Nico into the infirmary for those three days. He blamed the son of Hades and wished the same injury on him for twice as long without 'the mercy of death'. Hence the gaping wounds that reset everyday and the poison that past and present me can't find the antidote for."

He'd already relayed the curse's details to Annabeth and Percy in the hope that their combined knowledge of poisons might help them find an antidote. But Percy still looked downright murderous, glaring at his plate.

"He says it could have been a lot worse, people aren't kind to the children of Hades."

Hazel nodded grimly at that. "What about before that, where has he been?"

Will shrugged, but Annabeth replied. "Pretty much everywhere. Europe, Asia, North and South America - "

"Did he say Australia?" Percy tilted his head trying to recall.

"New Zealand actually."

Why the fuck was he in New Zealand?

"So everywhere but here?" Hazel guessed. Annabeth nodded sorrowfully. Hazel questioned, "Then why's he here now? Seems an awful lot like he's been avoiding all of us, and yet when I turned up today he didn't shadow travel away. And despite injury, the Nico I knew wouldn't have willingly fought today's battle from blocks away."

Will winced, "That would be my...decision."

"A fucking stupid one" Percy mumbled, igniting a flame of frustration in Will's chest.

"What did you want me to do? The 'self-sacrificing idiot' would have left the first chance he got, taking his cursed injury and answers for the past five years with him!" Will snapped.

Percy opened his mouth to retort, but his wife sent an elbow to his stomach. Will would have thanked her, but her expression wasn't one of reprimand, but one that said 'Shut up before you say something you shouldn't'.

They were hiding something. Whether it was something Nico had told them, or something Annabeth had figured out on her own, Will didn't know, but they were keeping it from him.

"Somebody needs to explain, please." Hazel cut in, watching the conversation as if it were a tennis match.

Annabeth elaborated, "Lou Ellen placed wards around the apartment before they...left. Nico can't physically leave the flat for a month."

Percy looked like he was going to skewer Will, or dice him up into tiny pieces very slowly.

"A month seems extreme." Hazel just said, watching Will now.

"I told Lou Ellen to make it two months." Will said, earning himself a growl from the son of Poseidon. "But they didn't want to be murdered in their sleep, so one month was the compromise."

"You wanted time with your soulmate." Hazel concluded, eyes skimming the soul marks on his neck and arms.

"I wanted him to heal," Will said, "and yeah, I wanted answers."

Annabeth jabbed Percy's gut again before he could open his mouth. Sending Will a faint smile that oozed fake sentiment.

Will pushed himself up from the table, "It's late, you guys can sleep on the couch, it folds out into a spare bed. Hazel, I assume you want to look after Nico for the night - Lou Ellen's bed is a queen size so you can sleep in there. I'll wash the dishes in the morning."

And then he was moving to his own bedroom, leaving behind Percy's angry looks, Annabeth's false mediation, and Hazel's despair. He had enough to deal with right now.

Thankfully, his sleep yielded no nightmares.

End Note: This one was pretty dialogue heavy sorry, but I'm insanely busy with assignments so couldn't spend the time fixing it like I would have liked to. That being said, I hope you enjoyed it <3

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