Chapter Text
The water was cold, freezing even. It was cold enough to snap Tavor out of unconsciousness, but when he saw where he was, he wished he were still knocked out.
The water was a dark, almost black, navy blue that reflected the moon's bright light back onto Nico's unconscious body. Tavor's eyes widened in horror as he gazed upon Nico's limp body floating in the dark water just a few meters away.
He scanned the area around him desperately searching for land of some sort, but he saw nothing. The moon's bright light did nothing to help either, it simply loomed in the sky and mocked him. It mocked him for not being able to save Nico back on the ship, for not telling Fizz how he felt...
He slapped himself, the sharp pain stopping his train of thought before he spiraled. Tavor forced himself to swim to him despite the pain in his joints from the cold, praying to Apollo that Nico was alive and well.
His breath was soft and shallow, barely there. It was lucky Nico was breathing, but it would be a miracle for them to find land without one of them dying on the way there. It was a great risk, but one tavor was willing to take; for Nico.
- - -
Tavor didn't know how long he'd been swimming for, but it felt like it'd been hours, and having to drag Nico through the cold water didn't help either as it took so much of his stamina.
'When'd he get so damn heavy? Tavor thought to himself, groaning from the effort of having to drag Nico through the water. Curse the dense water and Nico's dead weight for making things harder for him.
'Why does Poseidon have to be so prideful? The storm was his fault anyways.' Tavor would never say those things out loud as he would be struck down the moment the god's name left his lips.
The freezing water was slowly numbing his limbs, but he couldn't stop swimming. He needed to find land, that was his top priority, then he could rest. But until then, he had to keep going.
Nico's condition was worsening by the moment, taking him closer and closer to Hades's door. If Hades wanted Nico's soul, then Thanatos would have to pry it from Tavor's cold dead hands.