I, Nicolo di Angelo, order you to die.

Chapter Two

Nico, to his surprise, woke up. He didn't have that blissful moment of ignorance, trying to remember what had happened. No, he remembered everything. He pried his eyes open to see the bright lights of the infirmary, and looked around. There was an annoying beeping sound that seemed to come from a machine hooked up to him. Nico groaned, his head hurt like fury.

A bright mop of blond hair popped into view.

"Howdy! In case you're confused, you're in the infirmary!" said a bright, peppy voice.

"What? Huh? Sorry, I just... Wait." Nico took a long shuddering breath. "Percy's dead, right?"

The smile flickered off the blond kid's face. "Yeah. Yeah he is."

Nico shook his head. "He can't be dead... He's Percy Jackson."

The blond kid put his hand on Nico's shoulder. "It'll be ok."

Nico jerked away. "No, no," The last no ended in a shaky laugh. "No, it's not ok. And it never will be again." He laughed again. "But that's ok, because I'm usually not ok."

The kid looked at him with pity in his eyes. "Oh, Nico-"

Nico cut him off. "Don't 'oh Nico' me." he said angrily, "I hate pity."

The blond kid looked at his feet. After a couple moments of awkward silence, the kid looked up, his bright smile firmly fixed back on his face.

"My name is Will Solace, by the way," Will said.

"Good to know." Nico said, leaving no room for more conversation. Obviously this Will had other ideas though, because he stubbornly continued to talk.

"I'm an Apollo kid. I'm not good at archery, or singing, and I can't rhyme to save my life, but I can heal!"

"Good for you."

"My favorite color is yellow. What's your favorite color?"

"Black."

"Oh, cool. Black is a nice color. Anyway what abou-"

"Please leave me alone."

Will's smile faded a little, and Nico felt strangely disappointed. Why? He had just met this kid.

"Look, sorry for snapping, I just really want to be left alone right now."

Will smiled even wider, if that was possible, and said, "No worries, I'll go get you some nectar."

Will left the room that Nico was in and Nico layed back down. Percy wasn't dead. Funny, Nico would have thought that the son of Hades couldn't go through the denial stage of grief, because he had felt Percy's soul leave his body, but at the same time... Percy just couldn't be dead. It wasn't possible.

"I got the nectar!" The bright sunny voice of Will Solace cut through his thoughts.

Will handed him the glass he was carrying, and Nico took a sip, strength flooding through his bones.

"Are you ok?"

Nico considered the question. To his surprise, he didn't feel sad. He just felt... numb. Nothing. Not anger, sadness, happyness. Nothing.

"No."

Will looked at his feet, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. The gesture was so Percy Nico had to make an effort not to cry.

"No." This time, Nico's voice broke a little, and then the floodgates opened. Nico let out a strangled sob as he tried not to cry.

"It's ok, I'm here," Will said, rubbing Nico's back.

And Nico sobbed into Will's shoulder, the grief finally catching up with him. Percy was gone, Annabeth, Leo, Hazel, Jason. Frank and Piper. Reyna. All of them, gone. Gone. Dead. And Nico knew it was true. Would Percy choose rebirth? Would Jason? Would Hazel?

Nico eventually fell asleep, and Will lowered him back into the bed, tucking him in.