His Dark Side (Edited Version)

Chapter Three: Angel, Devil

Annabeth and Nico spent The entirety of the next few hours researching it. Calypso had been right- It was a coping mechanism.

Demigods and those who suffered from a lot of stress often had a 'wound up' side, one that make them uneasy and unnecessarily violent because of past trauma and stress. This resulted in them being overly happy and carefree on one personality and overly violent and stressed on the other. Bottling it up often made it volatile and more likely for the second personally to burst out in fits of rage or complete mental breakdowns. This is why most criminals end up killing themselves- They let the second part hide away when they're not hurting people, and end up so driven by guilt they end up ending their own lives.

"I can't believe we never knew..." Annabeth stared down at the book she was holding. "That I never noticed- I've known him for six years. When do you think it developed?"

Nico frowned. He was sitting across from Annabeth on her bed, flipping through a book about Janus' Curse, clearly looking for remedies that might help in Percy's case. He sighed, shaking his head.

"I really don't know. Probably around the battle with Kronos? Maybe even sooner. I wasn't there for a lot of it, but I know that it hurt him to fight Luke. That's when he had the start of trauma- He looked up to him, and he was depressed for a few months before suddenly getting happy and bubbly. So I'm guessing in that time he developed the coping mechanism. It would also explain why he mumbled to himself on the Argo II so much."

Annabeth blinked. "You remember that a bit too well."

Nico cringed. "I was in love with him, remember? Even though I wasn't around, I hovered. Before Gaea, while I was at Camp Jupiter, I still watched over him. Made sure he was okay." He let out a shuddering breath. "Clearly, I didn't do a very good job."

"Nico, you can't blame yourself." Annabeth shifted forward, taking the book from his hands and carefully putting it to the side. His ebony hair hung in front of his eyes as he stared down at the covers. "None of us knew, and I've been dating him for years. There was no way to tell- Not until Tartarus anyways."

Nico remained silent, so Annabeth sighed and moved to tilt Nico's head up so that he would look at her. Charcoal eyes, flickering with embers of what reminded her of steel wool when touched with a battery, their color deepened with sadness. "I could have known, if I weren't too busy being jealous and hating you. I never did apologize for that."

"Love makes us do crazy things, Nico. I don't expect an apology, nor do I need one. I know you didn't mean it. C'mere, give me a hug."

Nico sniffled slightly but obliged, wrapping his arms around her neck while she squeezed him gently around the waist- One that was a few sizes too small for his height. For being so small and the son of the god of the dead, he gave off a surprising amount of warmth.

"Before you ask, I am eating," Nico mumbled into her shoulder. "I'm just naturally skeletal."

Annabeth pulled away, smiling slightly despite the events on hand. "Will would never let you not eat, he's like a mother to-" She paused, blinking. "Mother..." she pulled away further, her thoughts running at a million miles an hour. "It was before the war."

Nico frowned, tilting his head. "What was?"

"Percy developed it before the war- When his mother disappeared, before he even knew gods were real, he switched. He killed the Minotaur with his bare hands and- His eyes- They got darker." Images of the Son of Poseidon jumping onto the Minotaur's back, pulling at his horn with unbelievable strength until it broke off, leaving the monster bleeding ichor as he stabbed the creature to death with it's own horn- That happened before that. Was there something traumatic in his childhood that caused him to develop it? "I- I'm going to go see Percy," she stuttered, pushing herself to her feet, pulling the bud out of her pocket and carefully positioning it in her ear. No noise.