the worst things come free
Summary – They were forced to go through it alone ; Reyna, Nico, Leo.
Pairings – MY BRAND NEW FAVORITE (BR)OTP. REYNA. NICO. LEO. MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN. BAM.
Music – Paperman piano duet, The Battle from the Narnia Soundtrack
Notes – Rick, get your claws off my babies. No. You're treating them bad.
(The freaking Silence of Love video has fueled me with enough heartache to write this. Seriously you guys, go watch it. But with tissues)
I took some liberties with some things guys, like the path Argo II took. I had to make it fit,yo.

We have nothing if not belief.

-Reepicheep

reyna.

Her very first memory is of Hylla being hit by her dad. There was so much screaming that all she could do was curl up in a ball and wail, her screeches blending into the angry shouts. Her dad is drunk, swaying slightly and gripping Hylla by the elbow, his eyes bloodshot. She's never been more petrified in her life, being hidden away in the corner and sobbing her eyes out. Maybe its because there's no way for her to protect herself if the attention, the anger, turns on her. Or maybe because she's never seen such fury on a someone's face, the pure unadulterated rage. When the fight was finally over and Hylla was dragging her out of the house, swearing to never come back, Reyna thinks they can't get out of there fast enough.

For the next week, they're roaming around Puerto Rico, blending into the dozens of homeless people, begging for food. Once, they run into a beautiful woman, with aristocratic features and dressed in the clothes that the army donned, who had smiled at Reyna, gave her a lollipop, before making her face into a clean slate and turning towards the elder child. Hylla had immediately dropped down to Reyna's height, made her promise to stay right next to the jewelry store crowded with woman with too much makeup and not much generosity, and disappears for the next hour. When she finally comes back, Reyna is in the middle of conning an older woman out of her money and is dragged away before she can complete the deed. Next thing she knows, she's on a boat and Hylla has pure determination locked on her face.

Aeaea is place for a people like them, mortals and demigods alike that have been mistreated by society. Its not home but its somewhere safe and thats all Reyna can even care about it. Looking back, it scares her that she was five and already thinking more about her safety than the small things of playing with dolls or brushing her hair. But then again, there was never time in her life to worry about small things like that.

But even then, paradise doesn't last for longer than a few years. Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson (She tries to hate them but one of them will save her other home and the other is like looking in a mirror) come and destroy it. And thats not what shocks her the most. The fact they do it for each other. Maybe Hylla would go through hell and back for her but she doubts it. She remembers the scathing words they gave each other during the brief times they've met up, when the older girl only had minutes to spare before moving to her job. But still, its a nice enough thought. And thats what keeps her sane on the boat with the pirates.

She was twelve. Twelve when a man held her down and did unspeakable things, making her loathe her skin since all she can feel for a long time is his gruff fingers dancing along it. Even now, safe in her villa and with two automaton dogs to protect her, she cries from the feeling, from the self-hatred and the agony she was forced to endure. But that was what give her the power to kill Blackbeard and his crew in their sleep. They weren't expecting a small girl with eyes like broken glass to rise up and be the death of them. But that wasn't their first mistake. It was giving her the motive to actually do it.

Reyna and Hylla run, leaving in alleyways with homeless men leering at them or in the back of trucks of people who won't even notice their presence. Her older sister gives her distance, staying away but close enough to remind her that she was still there. But that wasn't what Reyna wanted, she had been forced to go through things that no human should ever experience. She didn't want to be alone. She wanted her sister. But she didn't know what to say. It was something of a forbidden rule amongst them that they wouldn't seek out help. If they could solve it on their own, they would. So, she tried. Oh, how hard she tried.

She finds a shelter in Camp Jupiter, not a home. A home would have Hylla and people who loved her unconditionally. Even her best friends (A flirty son of Mercury named Bobby and a rather quiet son of Jupiter named Jason) are closer to each other than they are to her and she often wonders if they think of her as a pet project. Something to prove that they're good people. Whats better than talking with the poor girl whose sister left her for the Amazons and actually sticking around?

It doesn't cross her mind that maybe she's the one pushing them away. That she's the one utterly frightened by their normality, their peace in New Rome, that she automatically knows that they won't understand her pain. She wants someone who knows intimately the scars she's been inflicted and who won't judge as she rocks back and forth at night and sobs, still imagining the hands rough fully grabbing her. Hylla was that for her for a while, for the brief amount of days after it had happened when all she could do was sit in the shower and scrub at her body until it turned the brightest red. But she had left, leaving her behind. Now she's all alone.

Reyna doesn't like her weakness but for a few weeks, she avoids all the razors and knives she can.

nico.

Nico doesn't even have Bianca anymore. She was always there for him, looking out for danger when he had his head in clouds and fists clutching Mythomagic cards. When an old man sitting on his porch, playing cards with what had to be his grandson, had suddenly shouted, pointing at them and screaming how his friends had died because of them and how they were damned children of Hades. He doesn't quite understand the words and normally, he wouldn't be frightened but its the man's eyes that get to him. They're pale, a sleeping color that has jumped into sudden focus and is staring at him with all the hate that they have. He's never seen so much rage directed straight at him and immediately, he burst into tears, the grandson apologizing profusely and Bianca shooting them a glare before rushing them away. The old man's eyes burn into their backs.

She had always been his source of strength. When his knees were knocking together because of something that horrified him, she would simply reach down and grab his hand, giving him a gentle squeeze to remind him that she was there. She was alive and breathing and she would never abandon him. Its painfully ironic now that he looks back on it.

"Bianca... She's... Uh... She's gone." Percy's voice is awkward, stuttering through the statement and Nico wants to do something. He wants to scream, he wants to cry, he wants to do something to show he's feeling something now. But he can't even move. The word 'gone' echoes through his head and everything fades away until the only thing that exists is the small statue in his hand.

"You promised." He manages out, his voice sounding dead and he wishes he didn't know. He wishes he didn't know that Bianca really was dead. He wants to go through the phases of depression, he wants to be in denial that she's really gone. But he can't. He faintly hears Percy replying to him and he keeps talking back, his body responding for him when his mind can't comprehend. He flings the statue at him and instantly regrets it. That was the last thing that Bianca gave him! He needs it! Nico wants to bend down and grab it, curl up into a ball and just die but he can't. He has to keep moving on. He can't stop now.

Its only when the skeleton warriors rise from the grounds does his mind remember where he is and he screams in fear, blaming it all on Percy. It's better than the ugly realization that the old man from years ago was right. The son of Poseidon is struggling to keep his cool, panic taking over his face and Nico faintly recalls from his nightmares that he can't kill these monsters. He can fight everything else but even he must bow down to the strength only death possesses.

"No!" He screams, clutching his head from the agonizing headache and not wanting to realize it. He doesn't want to know this. He doesn't want this! All he wants is Bianca back! "Go away!" The ground shudders and the pain in his head skyrockets and for a few brief seconds, he wishes for death to come. But life has never been fair to him and he quickly recovers, just in time to see the ground split open and swallow up the skeleton monsters.

Percy looks almost frightened. "How did you-"

"Go away!" He screams, willing the ground to open up and drag him into its depths but it just won't listen. "I hate you! I wish you were dead!" A sob rises up in his chest and he bolts, wanting to escape as fast as he could. Nico couldn't stay there. He couldn't. Behind him, there's a loud thud as if Percy had fallen down, and he feels a twisted sense of pleasure before its ripped away.

It wasn't enough to bring Bianca back.

He goes crazy for a while, going back to the junkyard that Percy had described to him before he had told him what had happened and digs around desperately, hoping to find something anything. He instead finds her green floppy hat and he stares at it for days, the shock cutting deeper than any knife. She really is gone. All his nightmares, the feelings, they weren't just hallucinations brought on by grief and stress. They had been the truth.

Nico finds Minos then and the ghost immediately sucks him in with the thought that he can summon Bianca, talk to her one last time and... He doesn't know. He'll probably never know. All he wants is Bianca and he won't stop until he gets her back.

Its months before he sees her again.

Bianca looks sad and Nico feels like he's going to lose her all over again. She's smiling at him, her eyes looking empty though as if what she's about to say will rip through him again. He lunges forward, wanting to reach out and try to hug her but only the subtle presence of Percy – her killer – reminds him of his surroundings. She tries to avoid his question until its inevitable.

"I wanted you to give up." Its almost like she had pulled her fist back and nailed him right in the stomach with the way he can't breath. His world is crashing all around him again and tears start to prickle his eyes.

"Give up? How can you say that?! I was trying to save you!"He tries to convince her, trying his best to make her see the truth.

"You can't. Percy is right."

"But he killed you!" Nico cries and Bianca reaches out, wanting to grab his hand but her hand evaporates the moment she gets close. His body shudders and he tries to grab a hold of himself or at the barely least, not completely lose it. She starts to talk again to him, her voice soft and soothing as if she's trying to weaken to the blow but she fails miserably.

He hates her, not Percy. What was tearing him apart wasn't that she was dead but that she abandoned him. She joined the Hunters of Artemis and was fully prepared to spend the rest of her immortal life away from him before fate got in her way.

He wants to scream! No, that wasn't it! A small part of him agrees, though. She had abandoned him. Either way the trip to the Junkyard had gone, she would have been practically dead to him, her visits to him would gradually become farther in between until she was nothing more than a fond memory. But it doesn't ease the pain anymore.

The moment she disappears, he runs again.

Maybe Nico is one of the good guys but he'll never be one of the good guys. That would always be reserved for the heroes who never faltered like Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. He could save the world just like they did but it wouldn't matter.

Bianca was still dead and the world saw him as death itself anyway.

leo.

Leo watches the fire flicker on his hand, right before drifting off to the world of the dream, and all he can imagine is his mother burning. The nightmare starts the same as always ; he's sitting alone with her in the living room, held in her warm embrace and he feels the happiest he's ever felt since the moment the door to her workshop clicked shut.

"Mijo."she murmurs, rubbing his back, her tool belt digging into his torso, and for the first time in a long time, he would feel safe.

He doesn't know how the fire starts but he feels it before he sees it. Its a searing hot pain, scarring his body despite the fact that in real life, he can't feel the agony from a burn. But his mother can and she begins to scream, her arms letting go of him and shoving him away.

"This is all your fault!"she screeches, frantically patting down her arms and he begins to sob, trying to stop it by rushing to get water from the kitchen but only a drop comes out and as he turns back, her eyes glare at him, more hot than any fire.

"Cabron!"she yells at him. "Pinche idiota! Te odio!" Her words sink into him and desperately, he runs over, trying to grab her and do something, anything, to put out the flames. "I wish I never had you!"she spits out and before he can say anything, he wakes up crying in his bunk.

Everyone else is fast asleep, soft snores reminding him that they're not dead and that he's has siblings. In a way. They bond and he knows that if push comes to shove, he would sacrifice himself for any of them. They're best friends. Or maybe even a distant cousin that he loves. But they don't know him. They don't how when he was on the run, he hide from fire and refused to sleep in a perfectly fine campground if there was a campfire set up. They had no idea how he had slashed his bicep once, high enough so no one would ever really see it and if they did, he could pass it off as a battle scar, because he wanted – no, needed – a distraction from the pain.

They didn't know and Leo knows that he'll never want them to know. Just let them think that he's always smiling. Its better than the truth, anyway.

meeting.

"Where am I?"Reyna asks the moment she jolts awake, wincing as the pain from her torso shoots up throughout her entire body. She's laying in a bed, a crackling fireplace warming up the room, and as she looks around, she reaches the startling realization that that she's not alone in this room.

"Long time no see,"Nico di Angelo curtly greets, wrapping bandages around his arm.

She struggles to keep consciousness, fighting back against her assailants despite being grossly outnumbered. Its a curtain of purple shirts around her and she starts to slow down, the blood pouring out of her side.

"15,"one of the men murmurs as he pulls his dagger out of her arm and she realizes the horrible realization that they're going to treat her like they treated Caesar. They planned this. They timed it perfectly on what many considered to be a cursed day.

"No...NO!"she roars, anger pulsing through her veins and all she can see is red as she grabs the wrist of one person and twists it, hearing a snap before snatching the weapon away, feeling stronger now that both hands are lethal. She stabs and slashes, refusing to die the same that Caesar had gone so many years ago until they knock her feet out from under her and she hits her head on the table as she goes down.

She manages to stay awake long enough to see the door fly open.

"We saw you go into the building with the group of soldiers and... Well, we decided to do some spying. We didn't expect to walk in on an assassination attempt,"he offers as an explanation and she expects him to say he's sorry like so many others would do before him but instead, he keeps working on his arm, refusing to look up. She lets out a sigh of relief, glad she wouldn't have to pretend that everything was OK. He got it. He didn't say it out loud but he understood the stinging pain of betrayal.

"Wher-"

"More bandages for the queen!"someone butts into her inquiry and Reyna looks up to see a Latino boy standing in the doorway, his arms loaded with cloth bandages and grinning mischievously as her. She barely recognizes him as Leo Valdez, the boy who had fired on Camp Jupiter under possession from an Edolas. Normally, she would act coldly to him but as she eyes him for a few more seconds, she sees that hidden below the smile, he's trying his best not to panic. He's scared of her, how she'll react to the person who destroyed her home.

"Thank you,"she nods sharply and his grins widens, looking a tad bit forced and he dumps them all on the bed next to her.

"Where is Jackson?"she asks in the lull of the silence and Nico finishes wrapping up his arm and looks up, revealing bags under his eyes that Reyna hadn't noticed before. Now, his eyes look frightened, like she's bringing up painful memories with just that simple question. Her stomach drops.

"He and Annabeth... They... They fell in Tartarus."Leo tells her quietly, worry taking over his features. "We stopped in New York so we could get some supplies and thats when we saw you." She can't even reply, too locked up in the fact that her dreams were right. Very rarely do demigods have dreams that are just random, all of them having purpose that could be glaring her right in the face or be hidden behind a silly exterior.

She had dreamt that she was falling and whenever she looked next to her, Percy and Annabeth were there, holding each other as tightly as they could, their eyes watching below them as if they would soon see the end of the chasm.

"It takes nine days to reach the bottom,"she murmurs mostly to herself and doesn't miss how Nico flinches at her words, looking out of a porthole to try and distract himself. He's not reacting to fear of the name, but more like fear of the place. He's been there. She glances over towards Leo, wondering if he already knows and finds the answer in how he's watching her carefully, as if evaluating how fast she can find out things hidden in the subtext.

"They're still falling,"Nico breaks the silence and Reyna nods, not sure what else to do now.

"Where are you headed?"she asks, wanting to know if it was possible to head back to her Roman camp. No doubt, the soldiers that had tried to kill her are making up a wild story how she ran away with the Greeks. Her heart breaks as she imagines Bobby standing alone in the crowd, being one of her longest friends, and being faced with the horrible reality that he was alone now.

"Greece. To the House of Hades,"Leo says and she gulps. Chances are they're across the ocean and there's no possibility that she can go back to where she was. Even if she managed to reach the camp, they wouldn't take her back now. They all believed the stories that they've been told more than likely.

"Can I be alone?"she mutters, feeling her world caving in on her as she loses her home yet again.

"Sure."

fear.

Nico isn't quite sure what's being forced down their throats but he knows its isn't good by the way Reyna, the first to have been forced to swallow it, suddenly freezes and begins to scream, wailing and sobbing, punching the air in front of her as she's suddenly pushed on her back. He starts to struggle harder, in an attempt to reach her when Leo shouts out in fear, calling out "Mom! Mom!" over and over again, reaching out in front of him as if he's trying to grab something.

"Shh, shh,"the woman standing in front of him whispers, caressing his cheek and he tries to bite her but the liquid forcing its way into his mouth doesn't allow him. "Its OK. We're just... teaching you how to confront your fears." Her grin is malicious and he manages to land a good punch in before his world goes black. He waits, already terrified on what he's about to see, when he's back in the junkyard, Percy standing next to him.

"I killed her,"the green-eyed boy says, twirling his sword around and looking blankly ahead. "I told her 'Trust me, I'll save you' and you should've of seen the look in her eyes! She looked so trusting, like she honestly believed she would come out of there alive." He suddenly turns towards him, keeping the eerily blank look on his face. "Its kinda the look you had when Hazel was promising to save you."

The world fades out again and he shivers in the darkness before the temperature soars and he's suddenly floating in a hot, sweaty metal room. He's alone for a few minutes, looking around as if some demon was going to pop out when a hatch on the floor quivers before being shoved open.

Bianca.

He realizes with horror what is about to happen and he tries to squeeze his eyes shut and cover up his ears but something is stopping him from doing so and he's forced to watch. His sister looks determined as she rushes around the room, looking for something to turn off what he knows to be a giant automation. Tears start pouring down his face as he shouts for her to get out of there, knowing it was all for naught but refusing to stand still as he watches his sister die.

Realizing she had no idea how to run the machine, she pulls out a twin daggers and starts slashing, tearing apart the machinery in hopes it would stop the robot. Wires start sparking, causing little flames, and he suddenly knows exactly how his sister died.

She burned alive.

"No! Please! Let me out!"he starts to scream, wanting to move, wanting to run, but whatever is holding his body in place refuses to allow him to move. Bianca, unknowing of her brother falling apart – keeps slashing, her long braid swishing behind until it flies over a spark, catching on fire. "No... No! Bianca!"he screeches, fighting against the force keeping him still but losing. She never even pauses, even as the fire is slowly devouring her hair, completely intent on destroying this machine even if it took her with it.

Just as the flames are about to reach her head, the world goes dark and he suddenly jolts awake, screaming out Bianca's name and shaking horribly. Leo is sitting in front of him, in a corner of the cell and he keeps rubbing his bicep as if reliving an old wound. Reyna is in the other corner, shrinking into it as if it will hide her from them and her eyes are red, as if she's just recently stopped crying.

"W-What happens?"he manages to ask and its Reyna, whose scrubbing at her skin with her sleeve covering up her hand, who has the strength to open her mouth and answer.

"Metus. Its a herb that when liquified was originally used to torture people the Romans wanted to get information out of. It was banned quickly afterward because it was deemed inhumane." Her lip is quivering as if she's about to burst crying any second. "Its used to relive the worst memory, thought, or fear a person has and when they wake up, if they had any godly powers, they're repressed to the point of nonexistence and are prone to lashing out." Is that why she's hiding from them? Nico shakes his head at the thought, trying his best to think about anyone but Bianca at the moment. She's scared of them, like they're the ones who are going to do something to her.

"And those guys... They were helping Gaea and want us to what? Tell them where the House of Hades is?"Leo asks to no one, probably just wanting to confirm what he already knew. Reyna nods her head slightly, her scrubbing calming down, mostly likely from the exhaustion than anything.

"They'll keep using it,"she says. "They'll use it over and over until we snap. They're going to try their best to break our spirit, drive us to insanity."

"Tartarus is sounding slightly better right now,"Nico is half-joking but the other two manage a weak smile, still staying away from each other.

"What do we do now?"Leo questions, his rubbing reduced to mere clutching, and Nico just shrugs, trying to calm down his breathing. Reyna, however, looks thoughtful.

"You can beat it. Metus, I mean. Its a horribly good potion but its not perfect. If you have a strong enough will, you can turn the illusions it causes to your advantage. Cause a happy thought or, if you're especially strong, give the illusion over to the ones who gave it to you. Metus has to be liquified by demigod hands, crushed up and then blended with water. Its in their system and just needs to be activated," she informs them, taking deep breathes between her sentences as if air can't be worth enough to her.

"Turn it against them,"Nico mutters to himself before he lays down, intent on getting rest. He has the awful feeling tomorrow will be just as bad.

Over the course of a week or so, they get closer together until the point that they're curled up with each other, seeking comfort during their sleep from the nightmares of consciousness.

"I watch my mother burn,"Leo says one night when they can't go to sleep. Reyna and Nico don't reply, simply turning their gaze on him, trying to be as supportive as they can without speaking."We're sitting on the couch and she's hugging me like she always done when a fire start. I don't know where it comes from but it just shows up and she suddenly screaming at me, saying she wishes I was never born." Silence reigns afterward and the son of Hephaestus curls into a tighter ball. "Thought it would help if I told others."

"My sister burns too."Nico suddenly says, a dark part of his mind saying it was like a twisted club where only people whose family is killed by fire can join. "She did it save Percy, Grover, Thalia, and this other girl. She's in a robot and she's trying to stop it but she doesn't know how." He tries his best to keep his voice still, like he's simply stating the facts. "So she starts destroying everything she can. Sparks start flying and her hair catches on fire. Every time I go through it, I see more and more until I'm watching her entire body in flames."

Reyna tugs her sleeves down her arms until her hands are covered and absolutely no skin but her neck and head are showing. "When I was kid and Percy and Annabeth escaped from Aeaea, the pirates took everyone." Her voice is low and soft, a whisper to just them. "They kept us locked up below deck and would... rape us in turn." His stomach churns as she says us. "I keep reliving that part. When he takes me from my room and I'm screaming, Hylla is pleading that they take her instead." She doesn't say anymore, just tucks her head into her neck. "Thought it would help if I told others." She echoes the words Leo has said earlier and Nico takes a deep breath.

Maybe it would help.

battle.

As Leo is pushed on the floor, a sword at his throat if he threatens to fight back, he watches something change in Reyna's eyes. Before, whenever they were forced to the guzzle Metus, she would always look frightened, like a cornered dog with poison slowly killing it. Instead, she's glaring up at them, her dark eyes proud and defiant and he reaches a realization.

She's the strongest out of all of them. While Leo can burn anything and Nico can summon the dead, she has so much sheer willpower that they pale in comparison to her magnificence, her sheer glow. The bottle is pushed to his lips and he simply lets the cool liquid flow down his throat. He's needs to trust Reyna now, all he can do now is have the utmost faith in her. Just as the world goes black, her eyes catch his and a wave of calm washes over him. Yes, all he needs to do is have faith.

When sight returns him, the familiar panicky feeling comes but he takes a deep breath, remembering the look of love in Reyna's eyes. It wasn't romantic love nor was it familial love. He couldn't even begin to describe how it was but he had seen her give the same look to Nico and the reassurance that she'll fight for him and Nico, and that they'll both fight for her, manages to bring his heart rate to normal.

Its a few seconds before he can feel the warmth of his mother's embrace and her low voice starting to talk to him and he does something he never dared to do before.

He talks back.

"Mom?"he asks and her rubbing of his back slows to a stop and she pulls him away, gripping him by the shoulders, to look into his eyes.

"What is it mijo?"she responds, smiling gently, and Leo wonders if he can do it. He understands his fear, he understands what the block is between him and his escape from this cruel play on reality. "Is something the matter?"she asks, her voice soft and worried, as his hands slowly slides to the hammer she always hung on her tool belt. He wants to respond to her, he wants to apologize for what he's about to do, but he knows if he even opens his mouth to say anything, he won't be able to do it. Without pausing, he drives the claw into her chest.

"How do we escape from it?"Nico asks on their third or so day, when they're out of their corners but on separate walls. Reyna sucks in a breath.

"You can do it by tearing apart the vision. I don't know how to explain it so I won't try. The more easier, but probably more painful, is to kill the subject of your fear. If your fear is a clown or something, kill it to get over it. It gets more trickier if say, its a person you care about blaming you for their death-" Leo holds his breath, wondering if she knows. He watches her carefully, waiting for her eyes to look over into his and let him know that she already knows. But it never happens and he manages to breath easy. If they're to know, he'll tell them on his own terms. "-Then you have to kill them. Show that you know that isn't the truth and the person telling you its all your fault is a projection of your fear, not the actual person."

His mother gasps in pain, her hands flying up to grab the handle of the hammer and paw weakly at his hands in an attempt to make him let go. Leo winces as he pushes the claw in even deeper, ignoring how her hurried breathes get even faster and more haggard.

"You aren't my mother,"he hisses, trying to pretend how her face is just like his and it looks, it feels, like he truly is killing his mom. His mother – no, she isn't his mother. She's just a woman – stops gripping his hands and moves towards his arm, beginning to tap. He stares at her, in complete confusion when he suddenly hits him what she's doing.

You're so brave. She manages to tell him before her eyes slowly slide close and the dream fades away.

Leo is still in shock when his eyes flutter open and he's left staring straight at Nico's face. The other boy is shivering slightly, his eyes fighting to force themselves open, and he knows its only a matter of time before he wakes up. He tries to move himself but his body refuses to respond and he realizes that while he might of pushed the dark vision away, his body was still under its spell. The reason Nico described them moving the first time was because his body was still fighting against it, putting up a war against the nerves being invaded by an exterior force. As time drug on, he eventually lost the war and he was paralyzed while Metus was still in his system. He swears up a storm in his mind, wishing he had been able to push it off when his body still had some control over itself, when Reyna's eyes pop upon, a wave of air flying off of her.

It hits him and he suddenly feels as if Christmas and his birthday had come all at once. But the woman, the same one who had forced them to drink it, suddenly screams, dropping to the ground and curling up in a ball as she does so. The guards that are watching over them suddenly rush to her, leaning down and shaking her to snap out of it and Reyna strikes. In the blink of an eye, she's up and on the back of one of the guards, grabbing his jaw and twisting it sharply. A sickening crack echoes throughout the room and without pausing, Reyna grabs his sword from its sheath and brings up in time to defend herself against the other three. They're staring at it like its the first time they've seen her and Leo realizes it is. Before then, all they've seen is her cowering before them and now her true colors have come out, blinding them with her brilliance.

She fights harder than anyone he's ever seen before, every one of her swings have a purpose and moving like a panther. She never stays in one place for long, dodging quickly all their lunges, in within minutes, all of them are lying on the ground, dead or dying, and she locked in combat with the last one. Her face is taut with determination and, even with exhaustion wearing her down, she's battling stronger than even Percy himself. The other soldier is terrified, his slashes slowing down until he drops his sword and races out, moving faster than even Reyna could. She stands there for a while, panting and trying to catch her breath, before glancing back at him.

"Are you OK?"she asks, sounding breathless, and Leo manages a short nod. She looks over at Nico and starts to limp towards them, her legs shaking from lying for so long before fighting such a dangerous fight. Instead of sitting downly primly like she normally would, she all but flings herself onto the ground next to Nico, looking relieved to sit down for a while. She looks down at the son of Hades, brushing her fingers over his forehead before sighing and pulling them back.

"He's fighting. His problem probably isn't with Bianca. Its with the fact of seeing her dying in the worst way he can think of,"her voice is calm and steady, like how it use to be, and Leo finally feels safer, gathering up all his energy and propping himself up, panting from the effort. "He has to rip apart the vision. He can do it. Just give him time,"she tells him and leans back on her arms, closing her eyes and he's frightened that she'll fall asleep and leave him with the task of protecting them when he can barely move, much least conjure up a flame or something.

"Did I miss all the action?"Nico quietly asks and Leo starts, staring at the son of Hades as he weakly groans and tries to get up before just giving up and laying on the ground. Reyna snaps out of her dream-like state and stares down at him before looking up at Leo. Slowly, she reaches out and grabs both of their hands, giving it a tight squeeze before standing up.

"Lets go get our weapons back and save the world,"she lightly says, trying to make a joke. Nico groans even loader.

"Nap now, save the world comes later."

Notes – GUYS! I MADE A REFERENCE TO MY FAVORITE NICO QUOTE EVER. Sorry, just really glad I got this monster of a oneshot done. Its been like six months since I started it. Seriously, I spent three days working on Reyna's part before forgetting all about this and found it again two days ago and worked my ass off on it. I'm rather proud of it to be honest. (Leo's part is so short ;a;)
Its funny how The Battle from the Narnia soundtrack influenced this. I was planning on have a tragic ending but the hope in the song just refused to allow me to do this and it gave birth to this. Which incidentally made Reyna into a sort of Aslan-figure to both Nico and Leo with her strength and willpower.
And yes, the use of magnificence was on purpose.
Anyway, off to (finally) watch Wreck It Ralph and rewatch Narnia because this one shot really put me in the mood for it. Until later!