Silence of the Heart

Red Pools

Okay. You guys are so amazing. I feel like I've let you down with the slow crappy updates. SotH has 4K reads now. Don't have any idea what so ever how that happened. I really don't know what to say. So I'm going to try and give you a really awesome update to make up for it. No promises though. And forewarning. PLOT TWISSST!

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Nico's POV

Nico watched from inside his cage as Hades heaved a shirtless Percy over to a wooden post. Hades face was a mask of anger, Percy's taunts having finally reached the god's temper. Hades tied Percy's wrists to the top of the post forcing him to kneel with his hands above his head. His back was facing Hades and Nico. Which Nico found very distracting, no matter how scarred and beat up it was.

Hades stood behind him for a moment as if contemplating. Then the god smirked and flexed his hand, a black whip materializing in his grip. Nico's eyes widened and a shiver sprinted down his spine. He slammed his eyes closed as Hades raised the whip but that didn't prevent him from hearing the swish CRACK as the whip slapped across Percy's bare back. Nor did he miss the grunt of pain that escaped Percy's lips. Blow upon blow rained down on the sea god's son, causing him to cry out as droplets of blood started trailing down his back. His flesh was being shredded. The flogging seemed to last years to Nico, as he sat with his hands clapped over his ears. And yet he could hear every scream and shout that tore itself from Percy's throat. Tears of guilt squeezed out of Nico's eyes. After an eternity the cracks and yells stopped, the only sound Percy's shuddering breaths.

Nico slowly raised his gaze to the horrific scene. Percy's back was absolutely mutilated, streams of blood dripping onto the floor. The slices weren't extremely deep but they were wide. Nico started as Hades' deep, malicious cackle filled the room, echoing through Nico's battered and broken mind. Hades threw the whip, which Nico noticed distantly, had all sorts of shards of glass and metal embedded in it, in the direction of the cage. Hades roughly untied Percy, who was in fact unconscious, and dragged him over to the cage. He dumped him on his back in front of the cage, smirking.

"Hope you like your present Neeky-kins!" Hades laughed and strode out if the room, anger temporarily sated. A sob broke free of Nico's throat as he looked at Percy, face contorted. Percy's slack face was blood spattered, scraped and bruised. His lip was split and his hair was a matted mess. His ribs showed and Nico bet his did too. Nico jumped and glanced away guiltily as Percy groan, face scrunching. He rolled onto his his side with a whimper and dry heaved. When he'd finished he situated himself on his stomach, groaning again. He turned his head so he was facing Nico. He smiled softly.

"Don't look at me like that Nico. I've looked worse." He coughed, wincing. He'd been through hell the past month and it showed. He didn't have a patch of clean, uninjured skin on him. In fact, if he was being completely honest, he'd never looked worse. Most of Nico's injuries had healed, leaving mangled scars in their place. Percy was eternally surprised neither of them had fallen victim to infection. He would've thanked the gods but they seemed to be okay with this. None of them had answered his prayers or sent any sort of sign. He'd given up on giving out and he was fairly certain Nico had too.

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ANNABETH

Annabeth and Blackjack were flying high above the skyscrapers when they were ambushed. Annabeth was just about to tell Blackjack the story of Daedalus' laptop when out of the darkness a chain net weighed down with lead came flying at them. She saw it coming out of the corner of her eye and had just enough time to cry out a warning when it slammed into them. She heard a series of snaps and Blackjack screamed in pain. They started to plummet out of the sky, no way to slow their descent. Annabeth struggled to look around and glimpsed Blackjack's mangled wing. Her heart was thumping painfully in her chest as she watched the ground closing in. She could think of no way out, no miraculous solution. Her last thought before she hit the ground was of Percy.

'Seaweed Brain, I love you.'

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Know I love you all. *smirks evilly* So what'd ya think? So I started highschool awhile ago so I won't have very much time to update so I'll start wrapping up soon. I think I'm starting to get my mojo back so there's a plus. Again, terribly sorry for the slow updates.