Leo

It's been four days since Piper mysteriously disappeared, making it a Friday. There have been rumors that she was sent to a drop zone, but that doesn't make any sense. They stopped sending people ages ago. 

I remember when Fridays used to be a godsend. After long days of school, Friday would come and set me free. I used to love Fridays. Now I hate all days, because all days suck. Anyway, on this fine Friday, Percy was double shifted, Frank and Will had a shift right away in the morning, and Hazel is out on the field.

Nico and I, however, have a lab day. And lab days suck a lot. Usually I'm being used as a human furnace and Nico is being tested on his shadow travel. But I guess today is not a usual day, because they decided to do something different. 

And Everette himself was there.

I guess it was his idea or something and he wanted to see it. Another odd thing, they kept Nico and I together. Usually we are tested separately. I was really not liking today. 

"So I was studying our data from the two of you and I thought up a peculiar test that might produce energy if exploited correctly and I'd like to give it a try. I ran a few tests on some dead rodents and the results were promising," he explained with a smile. I was truly repulsed. 

"You know," I said. Nico shot me a look that obviously said shut up but I ignored him. "I pray for the day when you realize your mistakes. And I hope you pay for them."

His smile transformed into an ugly sneer in record timing. "Do not speak to me, boy. You are beneath me."

My mouth was already opening for a retort but Nico elbowed me. I decided I should probably shut up. 

Everette waited no longer in explaining to us what we were going to do. "di Angelo, you will raise the dead. But you see, this part is sensitive, because I just want bodies. Corpses. They will not be reanimated. Valdez, you will burn them."

I'll admit, I almost threw up on the spot. Repulsion doesn't even begin to cover it. I would not. Nico looked pretty green as well, but he pushed aside his morals and got ready to do it. "Nico, no," I said. Then to Everette, "I'm not doing that. I will not burn dead bodies for energy."

"You will, because I said so," Everette said. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes. I wasn't going to back down though. I wanted to say I'd faced worse, but now I wasn't so sure. 

"Leo, just do it. We don't have a choice," Nico pleaded, his eyes wide. "You always have a choice. I won't do it. And Nico, you're not strong enough to do this right now. It could kill you!"

Tears sprang to his eyes. "Do you think that matters to him?" His voice cracked in emotion. "Leo, just do it. They'll hurt you if you don't. Please."

I shook my head. "NO!" I said. Everette seemed to snap. "Escort di Angelo back to his cell. He was willing. Valdez is with me."

"No," Nico whispered, panic forming in his eyes. "No! Leo!" Guards arrived in seconds, dragging him away. 

As soon as he was gone, Everette's calm composure was gone. "Damn it!" He screamed, grabbing a chair and chucking it at the wall as hard as he could, leaving a dent. He started punching a computer monitor until the glass was in his knuckles and the cracked screen was covered in blood. 

He seemed to find himself as he stood stiff as Thalia's pine tree. He took deep breaths and turned back around with a smile on his face. "You kids are so...infuriating. I guess the only way to teach you a lesson is to...punish you."

I got a chill at his words. That definitely did not sound good. He stepped towards me and I stepped back. My fight or flight instincts were going crazy and all I wanted was to get the hell out of there. 

But he had my arm in an iron grip and led me off down the hall. I struggled to get loose, to pry his fingers away, but his grip was like a vice. There was no escape.

"After McLean disobeyed me, I had Chase design punishment chambers for you and your pals in Cell One, because you seem to be the only ones getting into trouble. She had a precious insight on weaknesses and such. I'm just so delighted we could test one out."

And he sounded positively delighted. And I was positively terrified. 

We entered a gray room, dark, just a soft glow coming from the box in the center. The box was pretty big and glass, about the size of a box a refrigerator might be in. There was a holographic temperature dial on the glass. 

For some reason, this room felt lighter than the hallways and the cell. Only the lab felt like this and I realized with a start that it was because the damper on our powers was lifted in these places. I'd gotten so used to the heavy feeling that being in a normal place felt weird. 

I lit my hand on fire to test my theory and sure enough it went up in flames. That couldn't be a mistake. My hand tingled like it had fallen asleep. It had been awhile since I held a flame in my hand. It felt unnatural, but comforting all the same. 

Everette led me over to the spacious glass box in the middle of the room. I would almost compare it to a Harvester. Almost. By this point, I was gripped with terror. Any punishment Everette had would not be good. 

He gave me one last push into the box, closing and locking it behind me. I was left standing there. He turned the dial on the outside to what I would guess to be the halfway point. 

For awhile, I didn't sense anything different. I just stood there, confused. Was my punishment solitary confinement? Everette stood just outside the box, staring at me. And then I started to feel it. I started to feel the cold.

I guess my fire and body heat kept it at bay for so long, but there's only so much I can take before the cold is overpowering. The last time I remember being really cold was when Khione sneaked onto the ship and froze everyone. 

It was awhile after I'd discovered the cold, maybe an hour, before I started shivering. And all the while Everette stood watching. My breath started to fog in front of me and I was actually cold. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt with suspenders, so I rubbed my arms with my flaming hands. I was trying to keep a sustainable fire going, but it was getting harder to concentrate on the heat.

After what seemed like another hour of shivering in the cold, Everette grunted and opened the box. I was so relieved. Maybe he'd let me go now. Anyone else would have died in these extreme temperatures already, so maybe he thought I'd had enough.

I was startled to say the least, when he dumped a bucket of ice cold water on my head. I was covered in it. "Gah!" I yelled in surprise, instantly shivering harder, shaking. Everette smirked in satisfaction and cranked the temperature dial to the lowest setting. 

It was unbelievably cold. I'm not even sure how long I stood there, freezing. My joints seemed to lock up and my hair started to frost. I could see my reflection in the glass. My lips were blue. I was shaking so badly it was getting hard to breathe. I knew I most likely had hypothermia. I was going to die if this didn't stop. 

To say I was miserable was an understatement. I wanted it all to end. I longed to be warm again, but the longer I stayed there, the more foreign the term sounded. I had always been cold. There was never a time where I wasn't freezing. 

I couldn't stay standing any longer. I crashed back against the glass and found myself sliding down. I brought my knees to my chest in an attempt to keep warm, but it definitely wasn't helping the breathing problem. Soon I was gasping for air, but it was so crisp and cold it hurt my lungs. 

I considered getting out of my position, but I couldn't move. My clothes were stiff and frosty. My fingers were purple. I could see the frost on my eyelashes. The moisture was sucked out of my eyes and they hurt. It was so, so cold. 

My whole body ached from shivering so much. I couldn't take it any more. I could feel a fog settling over my brain, my consciousness slipping away. Let it go, I thought, maybe it'll be warm there.

^*^*^*^

Will

When Frank, Percy, and I got back to the cell after the first shift, we found Nico already there. I was delighted of course, but it was quite unusual. Usually the Harvester shift is the first to get back, then the lab, and finally the field. The fact that Nico was here first struck me as strange. 

"Where's Leo?" Frank asked. This set Nico off. "Oh gods, he's with Everette. He wouldn't do what Everette told him to so I was sent back here and he took Leo. He's hurting him!"

We all exchanged a look. This definitely wasn't good news. I went to sit next to Nico. "What was he supposed to do?" I asked gently. I knew that if Leo had the guts to stand up to Everette about not doing something, then it must be pretty bad.

"He uh...he wanted me to raise some bodies for Leo to burn. For energy or something. Leo wouldn't do it."

I heard Frank gag behind me. "Gods, that's horrible." Just then Hazel was pushed through the door. Jason went to intercept her seeing as Frank was busy throwing up in the bathroom. I guess he was still a bit queasy from the Harvester. 

Once everyone settled down we waited. And we waited. It wasn't until the sun started to set at about five thirty that the door opened and the guards deposited Leo. He radiated cold. Jason and I sprang forward to bring him over to the group. He was unconscious and his eyelids seemed to be frozen shut. At least the eyelashes were. His hair was dusted in a thin layer of frost and his lips were blue. He was shivering violently and his fingertips had turned an alarming shade of purple. He wasn't responding. 

"Hypothermia," I called. "He's freezing." I heard Nico groan. This is what he had been fearing for hours. "Well what do we do?" Hazel asked, ready to help. It was extremely weird and unnatural for us to see Leo, of all people, like this. 

His pulse was weak and his breathing shallow. I cursed under my breath. His clothes were wet, partly frozen. He'd probably been doused in water. 

"We need to remove his clothes first. Body heat is the fastest way we're going to warm him up. Volunteers?" I asked as Jason helped me strip him to his boxers. "I'll do it," Jason said, taking off his own shirt. "Blankets," I ordered and Hazel and Percy were off. 

I helped Jason get situated leaning against the wall with Leo on his chest. We wrapped blankets around them both and Jason gritted his teeth against the cold. Leo was still shivering a ton. I brushed the frost out of his hair and held his hands in mine, using some Apollo magic to try and warm them up. It seemed that ever since Reyna used her powers in here that the damper had lifted a fraction, allowing some breathing room for powers. Not a lot, but it would have to suffice. 

Slowly but surely, Leo's hands went back to a normal color. They were still cold, but no longer in danger of frost bite. Color was starting to return to his lips and his breathing only got stronger. Jason held him against himself for hours, long past the time when Percy went to his second shift of the day. Soon enough, Jason was shivering more than Leo was. 

We could all relax and wait for Leo to wake up. He had warmed up considerably and with a few more days, would be able to maintain a reasonable body temperature. 

When I was too tired to stay up any longer, I went over to where Nico had been supposedly sleeping for awhile. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head in the crook of his neck. He was shaking. "Hey, you okay?" I asked. "Just scared," he whispered back.