Author's Note (important, so please read):

I follow several RPers on Tumblr, and one of them, shieldhumanresourcesdept (who excellently portrays Maria Hill from the Avengers and John Facchino) did a meme, or drabble prompt, about other characters she RPed with mercy-killing her character.

Morbid, yes, I know. But then I thought of this fanfiction of mine that is in progress. I am sort of setting up my OC with Nico di Angelo (nothing new, yeah), and I'm currently exploring aspects of their relationships. So I thought, well, maybe I can do a drabble of a possibility where Nico's mind ends up breaking under the weight of his experience in Tartarus after the Mark of Athena, and Maria, my OC, decides to "put him out of his misery," as they say. I just let myself type, and I'm not ashamed to say that I started crying hard halfway through.

I reluctantly sent it to shieldhumanresourcesdept after I told her about it, and she was curious to read it. She liked it, though she admitted to having no knowledge about Percy Jackson. I promised her ages ago that I'd put it up here for her, so here it is. This is dedicated to her, and all the wonderful RPers on Tumblr to whom I give my anon love. They've encouraged me to keep improving my writing in every aspect.

Another reason for me deciding to stop procrastinating about this is because of the release of the House of Hades cover. If the Mark of Athena made me anxious, the House of Hades broke my heart. That's the first time a book cover's ever done that.

I'm a bit iffy about uploading the actual story right now because of many reasons. But I can guarantee that I'm doing my best to make sure Maria isn't a Mary Sue, and that the story will be a good one. I hope I can put that up soon as well :) But enough of my rambling - read on. Hope you enjoy.

The thought had first come to Maria during one of those sleepless nights on the Argo II, as the image of Nico's broken-glass eyes burned itself into her mind. She'd thrown it away in shock, of course, but that was back when she didn't understand what war was, and what one had to do to protect who they needed to protect.

The giants were defeated, Gaea was lulled back into her slumber, the Greeks and Romans finally made peace. But Nico's own struggle continued. Maria did what she could - everyone did everything they could - but in the end, his eyes shattered completely.

As that happened, the thought made a grand return, in the form of haunting whispers whenever Maria was alone. She kept pushing it away, saying no, it was wrong, Nico was going to get better, but one day, as she had to help several other campers drag him, screaming incoherently and snarling at his friends, whatever was left of her resistance crumbled.

She insisted on staying with him, in the attic of the Big House, and no one protested. That night, as she watched Nico stare at her with unrecognizing eyes, she numbed out her thoughts, her heart - her entire self - and slowly took out the knife she kept holstered in her boot.

Nico saw it, of course he did, and as Maria watched him react she started to wish he'd drawn his weapon and stabbed her first. He smiled. Relieved.

Maria's knuckles were white around the knife.

Why am I going to do this?

Why are you happy?

Why did it have to turn out like this?

Why?

Why?

WHY?

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall," Nico recited softly, the first coherent thing he'd said in weeks. "All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty back together again."

Why wasn't she crying?

Maria felt herself strangely, horribly detached from her body as she moved toward Nico. She knelt, in front of him and at eye level, and she looked into those ruined, but still somehow beautiful eyes that she wished she could've saved in another way.

"Maria?"

She flinched, realizing that it'd been literally months since he'd actually addressed her. "N-Nico."

"I love you."

She told herself to keep looking into his eyes as her hand moved, stabbing the knife hilt-deep into his chest, just underneath the heart.

"I love you too."

Maria pulled the knife out, watching as the life faded from his eyes. She moved his now-lifeless body so that it lay on the floor, took a drachma from her pocket and slipped it in his mouth, used a dusty cloth covering an old cabinet as his shroud. She knelt next to him, holding his hand as it became even colder, and as she felt a piece of her own soul die with him, the sobs came.