Nico opened his dark eyes when most of his energy had abandoned him. In a room where he had been previously alone, he found that the other cabin leaders were all there. Most talked while some stared at him, including a certain son of Poseidon who looked as worried as ever.

"Chiron, I can't feel them anywhere," Nico spoke up, cursing himself for still being in pajamas. "Not anywhere around here. They're definitely not in New York anymore, or any surrounding states."

Silence filled the room before Clarisse spoke up. "Who were you looking for? Why haven't we been told someone's missing?"

"This has been a situation that started last night and continued through this morning," Chiron explained. "Will, would you like to explain what happened? As the speaker for the Apollo cabin it is only fitting that you explain the last time you saw your siblings."

"So it is the Apollo cabin." Annabeth looked to Will. "More than one person?"

Will nodded, not even the sunny day able to boost his spirits. "Last night we heard a scream from the infirmary so me and Nico ran there-"

"You and Nico were together?" Percy broke in.

Will blushed but continued as if nobody had said anything. "We found Jesse and Lethia, and a daughter of Hecate. Amy, I think? Yeah, Amy. Jesse was sobbing and Lethia was trying to comfort him."

"Amy was there as a patient," Nico explained. "She was one on the beds. The other two were supposed to be there as doctors."

"What was wrong with her?" Lou Ellen popped in. "Is she still there? Is she okay?"

"Because of the seriousness of the situation, I'll refrain from the 'I told you so'." Will looked to her. "But it was H13MB, as I said I was worried about."

"You're serious?" Annabeth cut in, the only other one at the table to have heard of it except for Nico, Will, and Lou Ellen herself. "Could you do anything to help?"

"That's where this meeting comes in." Nico took his skull ring off and began to spin it on the table. "Jesse screamed because he got scared. He couldn't heal her. His powers over healing were just...gone."

Silence met his announcement before Will found it ready to continue. "I went to heal Amy first before dealing with it. Lethia, who had touched Jesse, came to help me. We found that she couldn't heal, either. Nothing."

"That's impossible." Annabeth finally spoke up. "You can't take away a demigod's abilities. Wait...did you say they're missing? It could be contagious, according to your story."

"Exactly." Chiron cut in. "Will left them there to inform his cabin of the danger. Nico came to inform me. This morning, Will went to check on them. All three demigods were gone."

"I've tried to feel their souls but they're nowhere near here." Nico summed up. "Tomorrow I can start shadow traveling around, peek around and talk to some ghosts."

"Mr. D is talking to the other gods as we speak." Chiron continued. "Apollo is...rather upset, as you could say. Even his powers are not able to find them."

"So...what do we do?" Lou Ellen spoke up. "We need to find Amy if Will didn't heal her all the way."

"And Jesse's always been...unstable." Will broke in. "We need to find him as soon as possible."

"Whoever took them was probably the one to change their powers." Annabeth looked to Chiron. "I'll need time to research."

Chiron nodded. "Camp Jupiter has been notified and has offered to help when needed. Search teams will begin to be sent to any suspicious areas."

Will wiped away a tear that had threatened to spill from his eyes. He felt so useless, so powerless. He could do nothing but watch as those he knew slipped away.


Will walked out of the containment room in the infirmary and took his gloves off, throwing them into the waste bin. Chiron himself was waiting for him, his arms crossed and his eyes unreadable. "Is she alive?"

"For now." Will eyes weren't as bright as usual.

"You know, son of Apollo, I know that look by now." Chiron looked towards the containment room sadly. "She isn't going to make it. You have the look of any other medic who can do nothing more but watch."

"This is the second time in a week that someone is getting deathly ill because of their powers." Will glanced around the empty infirmary. "Amy, and now Miranda..."

"What would you say the cause is for Miranda?" Chiron asked. "So I know what to tell the Demeter cabin."

"She channeled all of her energy into growing plants quickly and ending up killing all of her antibodies. Even just a cold will kill her in the state she's in." Will rubbed his eyes. "I hate not being able to save them."

"You can't hold off death forever." Chiron put his hand on Will's shoulder. "Don't feel too bad, son of Apollo. Even the touch of your father can't save a mortal when it is their time to die. Thanatos doesn't look the other way."

"Thanatos needs to learn some common mercy." Will shot back. "She's young. She's too young. She survived two wars to die from a cold? It's horrible, Chiron. I'm not going to let it happen."

"But what, son of Apollo, can you do?" Chiron gestured to the room Miranda was now quarantined in. "A life away from others isn't a life to live."

"I'll find a cure," Will promised. "I can find a cure."

"A cure, or an excuse to cheat death?" Chiron watched Will before walking out, leaving him alone in the infirmary. Mostly quite after the war, it only held a couple patients at most at a time. Some days, like after Capture the Flag, they would hold more. But it hadn't been since the war that Will felt so powerless over a patient.

"Will?" Nico stepped into the building, his black boots leaving dirt in his steps. "Come on, you need to eat. Chiron said you haven't yet today."

Will scowled. "He's a rat."

"Come on. I shouldn't be playing the doctor here." Nico grabbed his hand and began to drag him out. "And I can tell you how things went today during the search."

"Fine. Just let me lock up." Will pulled away from him once they were outside and used the key that hung around his neck to lock the infirmary. "I don't need anyone else wandering off."

Nico kept his hands in his pockets, still smelling like McDonald's. "How bad is she?"

"Bad." Will took Nico's hand and started for the Dining Pavilion, his skin pale for the first time in his life. "Really bad, Nico."

Nico looked up at the winter sky. "I know. I could feel her soul fading as soon as I stepped foot in camp."

"I'm going to heal her," Will promised. They sat at the Hades table, the old wood dark and finally worn. "I've got to."

"Will..." Nico sighed. "Okay, I communed with the dead today. Dead demigods, mostly. None have heard of this happening before except one. She died of that...that..." Nico waved his hand. "H something."

"H13MB?" Will perked his head up. "So you communed with a dead Hecate kid?"

"Say more, di Angelo." Lou Ellen was suddenly sitting by Will, and then soon enough Percy and Annabeth were at the table. "What'd she say?"

Nico sighed. "Were you all eavesdropping?"

"I had people waiting for you to come back." Annabeth picked at her nails. "I knew you'd have some information. You would have to by this point."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Okay. So she had that thing H13 or whatever."

"H13MB." Will corrected.

"Yeah, sure." Nico continued. "She said that everything was going fine until she was doing a thing of magic to help this dying woodland creature. She got back to camp feeling drained and then, well...you can guess the rest."

Will paled even more. Dark circles under his eyes, a sick look to that once happy face. "Oh, gods..."

"What?" Annabeth looked to him quickly. "What do you know?"

"It's the same story Jesse told us," Nico admitted. "He was healing a deer, came back to camp, couldn't heal Amy."

Silence met his announcement, a stunned silence that was only broken when the son of Hades jumped to his feet with a crazed look in those dark eyes.

"What?" Annabeth looked up at him. "What is it, Nico?"

"Miranda..." Nico's face filled with anger. "Damn it!"

"She died?" Percy asked.

Nico shook his head, his hair falling into his face. "Her soul's not here anymore. She's not dead, but her soul isn't in camp anymore. Damn it!"