Indomitable

Chapter Two

No one expects demigods to live past their teenage years. They all die. The monsters find their way to them and they don't stop until they watch light drain from a demigod's eyes. And if it is not a monster that gets to a demigod, it is themself. There are trials, infinite doubts, a Hell to be seen, a Heaven to never be found. For some, loneliness becomes a sort of acid that eats away at them; devouring them from the inside out. For others, something devastating but discreet very slowly takes over them. Demigods are always extinguished with equal tragedy and agony. A single death will topple over an entire fleet like dominoes.

"It hurts. It hurts so bad," Nico hiccups. He hasn't left his bed in nineteen hours, and he shows no sign of moving.

"Nico," Jason says quietly. "I know. But he wouldn't want you like this. You meant so much to him. Just because he's gone..."

"I was always so naive when it came to him. He was so powerful, I -- I didn't think anyone would ever be as powerful as him. I ... I didn't ever think that Percy would be the first of us to d-die..."

Jason opens the sheets so that he can slip under them. Nico curls closer to him, squeezing his eyes shut and raising his arms to wrap them around his boyfriend's neck. It is all Jason can do to kiss the top of Nico's head as he cries against his chest. His lips are firm over the crown of his head, staying planted there for several minutes. He wraps his arms around Nico's shaking and fragile body, gently squeezing him as he rubs his hands up and down his back, like he's trying to iron out Nico's sorrow. He was at a complete loss for words.

"I wish it had been me. The camp would have been better off if I had died instead of Percy --"

"That's not true," Jason murmurs, closing his eyes and trying to stop his own stinging tears from falling. "Nico, you can throw a stone into a deep pond and it ripples. It will reach every side of the pond eventually. This is no different," he whispers. "Death cannot be lessened in severity. You know that, better than anyone."

"At the end of the day," Nico confesses quietly, "I really don't."

The silence that follows is thick. It's as if the air around them is holding its breath.

"Jason, I can't be here without thinking of him. The smell of the sea and the breeze. It's too much," he says, his voice quiet and muffled. "I want to leave this place behind. I can't look in a single mirror without seeing his face in mine. I feel like I can hardly even breathe here."

"Give it some more time," Jason says quietly.

"I'm trying," Nico says earnestly. "But I don't think even time can heal this."

*****

Jason leaves the Hades cabin a while afterwards, per Nico's request for some time alone. Nico stares blankly at the door, waiting for it to open and waiting to see Percy's face.

Waiting to see the face of a ghost.

Another hour passes and the time inches forward. Nico hardly moves. He shifts once in his bed and gets up to use the bathroom at one point. He looks dead.

His skin is a sickly pale and the bags are deepening under his eyes, beginning to look like bruises. There's no light in his eyes, and there's no fight. There's no life in him and that was sickening to see, considering that after the war against Gaea, he had started to heal from all the pain in his past. But pain found him again, in a form more monstrous than ever before: death, and heartache.

He lay down and falls asleep for a while. He wakes up to a rumble of thunder and the pitter patter of rain on the roof of his cabin. He falls asleep again. He wastes away in bed.

The next time he wakes up, there's a knock at the door of his cabin. Frowning, Nico wipes his eyes and groggily gets out of bed, struggling to free his tangled self from the sheets. He slowly crosses the cabin to get to the door and weakly tugs it open.

"Good," Torrence says, "You're awake. We need to talk, di Angelo." Nico just stares blankly at Torrence. "Well, move over. It's downpouring out here."

"Yeah..." Nico blinks a couple times and moves to the side, allowing Torrence entrance inside.

"You're a fuckin' mess," he says rather rudely.

"If you're here to be an asshole --"

"'m not," Torrence promises. "Swear it." Nico gives him a long and dark look that told Torrence to spit it out of get going. Torrence can't see the gaze, but he can feel it. "I have a proposition."

Nico doesn't look amused, but he also doesn't show disapproval. So Torrence goes on to lay his offer out before the son of Hades. Slowly, Torrence secures his interest and snags his attention. For once, Nico isn't drowning in thoughts of Percy. Torrence talks for a solid ten minutes, explaining everything Chiron had told him.

"You told him you were going alone," Nico mutters at the end of it all. "Why the change of heart?"

"No smart person wanders willingly into Tartarus on their own," Torrence says. "And you know your way around. I know it's a long shot, but --"

"So you're scared."

"Shut the fuck up, Nico. Are you in, or not?"

"You're horrible at persuading people," Nico says, shaking his head. "No sane person would go for this --"

"You don't have to let me down easy," Torrence growls, frustrated with Nico boring on and on. "Just say no."

"-- and you're a complete asshole for asking me of all people to go --"

"Nico," Torrence growls.

"-- but I'm in."

Torrence raises a brow and a slow smirk stretches over his lips. He looks beyond pleased.

They are not friends. Friends care about each other. Torrence? Torrence is just using him as a guide and as a hand to hold but Nico doesn't give a damn. Going with Torrence gives him the chance to get to the Fields of Elysium.

Going to Tartarus gives him the chance to bring Percy Jackson back to life.

"We're leaving at midnight," Torrence says. "By the time people realize we're missing, we'll be long gone."