When Worlds Collide

116) Nico Be Emo-ing

Nico had given up on waiting for his family.

He knew they weren't looking. It had been 13 days and wherever he was, it had remained silent.

The room they kept him in was small, but at least it was dark. They had removed his shackles the day before, though he still had no opportunities to escape. They would gas him with some sort of knock out gas before anyone would come in the room and there were cameras watching him at all hours.

He had given up on escape.

He felt weak— he could barely even manage getting out of the small bed they had given him most of the time. His mind was in a constant state of fuzzy confusion and his body both ached and felt like nothing at all.

The only positive: they kept him medicated at all hours.

His will to fight was gone. Luthor spoke to him over the speaker, taunting him with the possibility that his teammates were dead or dying, but Nico stopped reacting. He would just stare at the ceiling and wait for the next time they knocked him out.

The lights turned on in his room, usually signaling that he was about to be gassed, but no gas came through the vents this time. Instead, the panel door slid open, revealing Lex Luthor.

"Hello Nico," the man said with a smirk.

Nico slowly sat up from the bed, looking at the man with a blank face. "Bold of you to come in while I'm still conscious."

Lex just chuckled. "We both know you're far too weak to do any real damage without your powers."

Nico glared at him but remained silent. He could probably get in a hit or two before any guards could get to him— though his inhibitor collar would probably paralyze him before he could even make contact.

There was no point any more.

Lex crossed to the opposite side of the room, clicking a button on a remote and watching as a metal block extended from the wall. He sat on the new seat and smiled at Nico with a sick look of pride.

"I enjoy your company quite a bit more when you're like this," the man said, his tone casual. "When I first realized what you were, I was a bit nervous to make an attempt against you and your team. Your parents are certainly beings to be feared, but then I realized; the gods don't really care what happens to toy soldiers."

Nico's jaw clinched, but he remained silent. He just continued staring at the bald man.

"You all served your purpose already— or at least, so I've been told. As a distant descendant of a minor goddess, they never even spared me a glance."

"Who?" Nico asked, his throat feeling like sandpaper from disuse, but he couldn't help the curiosity.

"Apate, goddess of deceit."

"Fitting," Nico muttered.

Lex just raised an eyebrow at him. "And being the child of the god of the dead is any better?"

Nico shrugged slightly. "At least I used my powers for good," he said quietly, though it felt like a lie when he said it.

What good had he actually done? It felt like with every step he took towards doing something good, he was just taking another step into an early grave.

"Good is a relative term," Lex said, with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "I own multiple companies that employ thousands of people. I ensure they are paid well enough to feed their families, pay their bills, and still have money left over each month. I donate millions to organizations around the world to find cures for diseases, stop starvation, and build hospitals in rural areas. I give scholarships to students in low income areas and offer reformative career paths to ex-cons. All of those things could be called good, and yet you still see me as a villain."

"Well, you kidnapped my team and I," Nico said with a weak eye roll. "I am literally in a cell where you have continually knock me out to take my blood and pump me full of meds."

Lex just shrugged. "And the research I am able to do with your blood could revolutionize the way medicine is practiced. I'm using it to learn how to better control people like you, I won't deny that fact, however I am just as interested in you physiology as your genealogy."

"What?"

"Demigods heal 4 times faster than the average human— even without your godly foods. Your muscles, even after nearly two weeks of malnourishment, have remained just as strong. The way your body metabolizes and breaks down medicines is faster than I have ever seen." Lex stood up, the metal block he was sitting on sliding back into the wall. "These are all things caused by your genealogy, but if I can figure out which specific code in your DNA causes then, I could replicate it and use it in targeted gene therapy. I could cure diseases before they even have time to fully form."

Nico stared at him. His brain was having a hard time trying to process what he had just learned about the man in front of him.

Lex Luthor was a terrible person, that wasn't really up for debate, but he was also capable of good. Granted, he was using terrible means as a way to accomplish a possibly good thing— but did that discredit the good thing entirely?

"Let my teammates go, and I'll willingly stay," Nico said, surprising even himself. "You can run your tests and try to find your cure, but don't come after my people. Let the others live their lives."

Lex stared down at him, letting out a quiet hum of contemplation before he clicked a button and the door slide open. "I'll consider it," he said before leaving the room, the door sealing behind him.

The lights in the room once again shut off, leaving Nico in the pitch black he had grown used to. He laid back down, eyes locking onto the empty void above him as he mind whirled.

Maybe it would be for the best if Lex agreed. His teammates would be free, both of the facilities they were being kept in, and of him. They could move on with their lives, and Nico would finally do something good. He would be able to help people without the risk of ruining it.

His life would be spent in limbo between torture and numbness, but maybe that was what he deserved. Maybe that was his fate.

After all, children of Hades were destined to be alone. 

A/N: beep beep boop boop

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