Nico woke up, clutching to Will's pillow, alone, for the first time in years, since Will and he had started dating. For a moment, he wondered if he was out getting breakfast with Austin and Kayla. and just didn't want to wake him.

Then he remembered.

Austin and Kayla... were gone.

Nico pulled on one of Will's bright yellow oversized hoodies, and rolled up the sleeves until he could see his hands. 1 time, he counted. 2... 3, gosh how big IS this hoodie? he wondered, but stopped counting at 5. Finally!

Nico, stumbling about in Will's sweatshirt, raced to the infirmary as fast as he could. Which, to his dismay, was about a couple of sprints and 9 face plants.

When we got there, he couldn't see Will, so he asked one of his brothers, Michael, where he was. But when he did, fear flashed across Michael's face. "What?" he asked, worried.

"We..." he started, but cut himself off after the first word.

"You what?" Nico asked, getting impatient.

"We thought he was with you!"

"How could he be with me, when I was in the Apollo cabin waiting for him all night!?"

"Uh... I just-- I thought..." Michael stuttered, and Nico saw this was going quickly nowhere.

Just as he was heading back to the Hades cabin, planning on looking for Will there, he heard a scream coming from the armory a half-mile away.

He started running towards the sound, along with 3 there demigods. Michael, the one he was talking to earlier. Then there was Lester, a new arrival, around 8 or 9 years old, from Apollo's cabin. And finally, a girl named Grace, one of the youngest Athena kids at camp.

In three minutes, he's only halfway there, and can already see that the girl, a child of Aphrodite, needs immediate help. Her sleek black hair is a tangled mess under the blood that drips from the neck, her dark brown eyes glazed over.

He has no choice but to shadow travel. The other's won't get there in time.

As soon as he does, though, he starts falling, farther and farther, down, but he pulls himself, magically, as if some blest being, as if a child of Zeus-- no, Jupiter, was flying him up, next to the Aphrodite child. Next to Drew Tanika.

As soon as he saw her face, he knew it was Percy who had done it. Only... it wasn't. The cut along her neck was strategically placed for a quick, but painful death. Percy would never kill someone so evilly.

Then he realized.

It was Will.

Nico stumbled, knees buckling below him, not only from the sight of Drew, but also from the sight of Will's face, blood smeared on his left cheek, looking evilly at him from inside the infirmary.

Nico tried to call out, to point, anything to warn someone of what was going on, but he went completely unnoticed. He clattered to the ground helplessly, but everyone was too worried rushing over to Drew to notice him. All but Will, who stood there in the door of the infirmary, picking up an acid filled needle, almost threatening him with it.

No, not almost, he was threatening him with it.