Wpov

(Please don't kill me!)

Why me? Out of all the time Hera could have attacked my kingdom, why did she have to attack while I was king?

My heart started beating faster. I looked at Nico, then out the window that overlooked my kingdom.

I could only choose one.

My kingdom or Nico...

My kingdom or Nico...

My kingdom or Nico...

I couldn't choose. As a king, I knew I should choose the kingdom. But I didn't want to, because Nico meant the entire world to me.

A good king should always choose his kingdom.

The option became clear to me.

"If you choose your precious loved one, you'll be together for the rest of your lives. If you choose your kingdom, he's dead."

Nico paled. He managed to get the guard's hand off of his mouth, and said, "Will, you've got to choose your kingdom! She said-"

The guard hastily put his hand over his mouth before he could say more.

"I choose...."

I glanced out at my kingdom.

I can't just leave it in her hands...

"Nico." I said, "I choose Nico."

Hera grinned and she took Nico and shoved him towards me.

"Here have him, just like I said. You will be with him for the rest of your lives. However, I never said how long those lives will be."

I paled.

"I tried to tell you, Will-"

"I know, I know." I whispered to him. I hugged him, but then the guards grabbed us and dragged us towards the dungeons.

They shoved us in a cell together, and I groaned. "This is all my fault..."

Nico walked over to me. "You didn't realize what she was saying. It's okay."

"But you tried to tell me-"

"Hey. Don't put this on yourself, because if you chose your kingdom she probably would've killed us, too. We just....had a larger chance at surviving."

"I failed the kingdom, Nico. I failed you!"

"You did your best. And-"

"Cecil." I realized.

"What?"

"Cecil! He was captured this morning!"

Nico gasped. "Is he okay?! Why was he captured?! How do you know he's captured?!"

"When they found me, I pretended to be Cecil. But they already captured Cecil. If he's down here somewhere..."

"CECIL!" Nico called as loud as he could.

"Who....Nico?" Cecil said.

"He's right across from us!" Nico said, excited. Unfortunately we couldn't see him because it was too dark.

"Is that you, Nico?"

"Yeah! And Will's here too!"

"But...how...?"

"This isn't my kingdom anymore. Hera took it." I said bitterly.

"Oh." He said, "So how are we going to get out of here?"

"I don't know." Nico said, "But there has to be a way. Maybe I can turn into a cat and find where they store the keys."

"I don't want them to find you and hurt you." I said quickly.

"Fine. But then how are we going to get out of here?"

"There isn't another way." Cecil said. "We're stuck here."

My heart dropped to the ground.

'We're stuck here.' Echoed around my brain.

(Thanks for not killing me)

"...Shhh, someone might hear you!" Someone whispered.

"No one's down here." Another said.

I saw someone move out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed Nico's hand. Whoever it was, I wasn't going to let them hurt him.

"The key says 125. Do you think that'a the cell number?"

"Nooo," Someone's said sarcastically, "Honestly, seaweed brain, what else would it be?"

...seaweed brain? I think I recognize that from somewhere...

I saw a lantern being lit.

Then I saw them.

Annabeth, Percy, Hazel, frank, Leo, Reyna, Jason, and piper. They were all there.

"121...122...123...124- Cecil?!" Leo said.

"Hi. You don't happen to have the key to cell number 124, too, do you?"

"We'll go back and get it." Jason assured. He grabbed Percy and Leo and the three of them jogged down to go get the other key.

Piper grinned at us.

"Hurry, unlock the door!" She said.

Annabeth quickly unlocked the door and it creaked open. We winced at the sound, knowing it could have given us away.

"Let's go." Annabeth said, "We already know where to meet Percy, Jason, and Leo. We decided the meeting place before we got here, in case, you know, things went wrong."

We ran down corridors and fifteen minutes later, we were out of the castle.

"Thank you." Nico said once we were out of the castle.

"You didn't think we were going to just leave you there, did you?"

"How did you even know we were there?" Nico asked.

"One of Will's soldiers-Thalia, I think- told us."

"I remember her! She's a good soldier." I said.

"A loyal one for sure. She's rebelling against Hera already."

I laughed. "Really?"

"Yeah. She's really good at it too. Almost as good as us." Someone said from behind me.

I glanced behind me and saw Leo grinning at me, Cecil, Jason, and Percy behind him.

"In fact, we're probably going to rebel against Hera if she takes away that law about nekos."

Nico looked at his feet. "What if she does take away that law?"

"We'll protect you, Nico." I said.

"Thank you." He hugged me.

I smiled at him.

-

Nico had suggested that we go to Hazel's house, but I knew going there would likely get her killed, so we didn't.

We entered the forest, feeling snowflakes land on our skin. It wasn't enough to end the drought, but it was a start.

Leo stuck out his tongue and started catching flakes on it. Percy did too.

You may be thinking, 'Why would you do that when you literally just lost a war?' But maybe that's the reason we did it.

Annabeth laughed, with snowflakes scattered in her hair. She and Piper started doing it too.

Might as well...

I joined in too. I tasted the cold flakes on my tongue. Nico laughed. It was a beautiful sound, so out of place in this world.

We laughed and joked, relieving the stress of the war.

It was fun, but I knew what I had to do tommorow.

Have fun for today, because at this point it might be my last.

Nico seemed to be thinking the same thing and laughed with us.

At he end of the day, we sat around a campfire (where is Cecil getting all these matches?!) singing and telling stories.

Now, most of them had went to sleep. It was just Nico and I sitting there now.

"Hey Will?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you choose me? You could've had the entire kingdom....but you chose me."

I smiled. "It's simple, really. Imagine having a choice between the entire world and one little kingdom. You'd choose the world, right?"

"...yes."

"Well that's how it was for me. You mean the world to me, Nico. I'd rather have the world than a tiny kingdom."

He smiled at me, "Thank you."

Word count: 1160