LI

WILL

Will Solace stood on the helipad at Jupiter Half-blood Hospital, his white coat billowing in the wind. The sky was painted in a combination of red, orange, blue, and purple. The sun was setting in the far off horizon. Will could have admired the view, if not for the dread settling in his stomach.

"Nico is much stronger than he lets on, you know." Bob Iapetus stepped forward as he stood beside Will.

The blond had no idea how, but this death angel had seemed to get the whiff of Nico's plan. He had appeared out of nowhere in front of Will Solace. Bob had offered his help to mobilize the crowd of incoming souls, which Will was grateful for. The death angel was the one who was going to collect the souls that were bound to go to the Underworld, while Will was the one who was going to be in charge of putting the souls back into their respective bodies in JHH.

"Even if he is Superman, I couldn't help but worry. Even the strongest person falls. . ." Will shoved his hands deeper into the pockets of his white coat.

Bob playfully nudged Will. "Hey, where's the optimistic Will that I used to know-"

Will turned his head to Bob cutting him off. "Do you know me?"

"Boss is going to kill me," Bob muttered and sighed helplessly. "I've been watching you and Nico ever since he became a mortal. I just have to be extra careful since both of you could see death angels. By the way, I ship Solangelo hard, if you know what I mean. I've been hearing this colloquial term shipping among these young mortals, so. . " Bob cleared his throat.

Will stared at Bob. "Why are you watching us?"

"Nico is my friend too, you know. And, uh, let's just say that he made some enemies after he saved you so I have to look after him as well."

"Like a guardian angel?" Will smiled at him.

Bob frowned. "Guardian angel? Ah!" His face lit up. "Is that the people who have big white wings?"

Will nodded. "Yeah, they also look after people to keep them safe."

"Oh I see, I've also been reading a lot of books about humans so I'm starting to slowly get the hang of everything." Bob bounced happily on his heels.

Will opened his mouth to ask for more when both of them froze. Will's head whipped in the direction of the horizon, the air seemed to get colder despite the hot season.

"They're coming," Bob warned, seeing the glimmer on one specific place far ahead.

Will took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He started to glow-a glow that was brighter than what he had released before. Tendrils of golden light started to curl around him. Bob was in awe of the sight of Will for a moment. After all, Will was magnificent when he glowed.

Souls, who were wrongly imprisoned, come forth and do my bidding.

Twelve souls will come with me and the rest will go with the death angel.

Will opened his eyes and looked at Bob. "I'm going. Take care of them, okay?"

Bob nodded. "Go."

"Thank you." Will turned around and started to run to get back inside the hospital, tendrils of light trailing after him. He went down a series of stairs because he couldn't wait for the elevator, and then went down another series of hallways. Will was trying to catch his breath when he stopped in front of the door at the end of a particular hallway. The name of a patient was plastered on the wall next to the door. Kayla Knowles.

He looked down at his glowing hand holding the door handle.

Twelve souls to save.

Will never mentioned it to anyone, especially to Nico, but using his power for that huge amount of souls was dangerous. Because when Will used his power, it was like he was giving a piece of his energy and life to that someone, and using it non-stop would drain him and kill him right there on the spot. That's why he was limiting the use of it as much as possible. His power might have gotten stronger but it still had its limits.

Will sighed. "Let's be optimistic, Solace. You still have someone to marry." He pushed the door. The door slid open.

He went straight to Kayla's bed. Kayla was lying on the bed, several tubes attached to her body: a neck brace around her neck and a gauze bandage wrapped around her head. Several braces were also attached to her arms and legs. The continuous beeping of the heart monitor served as a reminder for Will that his best friend was not yet dead.

He hunched over to hold her hand gently and kissed her forehead. He whispered, "Your long sleep is over, Kayla. Time to wake up." He closed his eyes, and tendrils of light started to envelop Kayla's body.

Kayla, come back now.

Then he heard a snap and he opened his eyes as he looked upon his best friend's face.

Will was completely still for a moment. He could feel it. Her soul was back on her body. Kayla's eyes slowly fluttered open, and Will's own eyes started to well up.

Nonetheless, Will smiled through the tears. "Welcome back," he said, his voice cracking.

Kayla opened her mouth as if she was saying something. Will leaned closer to her as he spoke, "What was that?"

"You . . . glow . . ."

Will smiled as he pulled away to look at Kayla. "Yeah. Now you have to rest up to get back your strength, okay? Your patients have missed you."

Kayla nodded briefly.

"See you later. Kayla."

Will kissed her forehead again. He gently squeezed her hand before heading out of the room.

Unknown to Will, Kayla was looking at his retreating figure. A tear slid down her cheek. She couldn't say it out loud but she suddenly felt an ominous and horrible feeling like Will was saying goodbye to her for good.

Will craned his neck. He strode through the empty hallway as if he was a soldier marching through a battle. Maybe he really was. It was a battle for life, for the sake of his patients.

11 patients to go.

He looked down at his palm where he wrote all the patients' names whose souls were missing.

"Right. Robert Paxton. Room 4356," Will muttered looking at his palm as he turned a corner.

For a while, Will was going room to room, sometimes a blinding light would seep through the window of a certain patient's room. He was sweating buckets and he was starting to feel the side-effects of using his power. Despite that, Will dared to hope that everything would go well and he would reunite with Nico soon. Nico had promised that they would go on a nice dinner date after everything had passed. That made Will feel better and it gave him another boost of strength.

"Emily Smith is next." Will wiped his forehead with the back of his other hand as he looked down at his palm, walking down the hallway.

"Will!"

Will looked up and paused when he saw Lou and Cecil running towards him.

"Did you know that Martha Robinson is awake now?" Lou said as soon as they reached the blond. "She's one of the bizarre coma patients. Did you perhaps have something to do with this?" She said the last part in a lower voice.

"Uh, well. You know what, I'll just explain later, yeah?" Will asked wiping his temple.

"Are you alright?" Cecil asked. "You're sweating a lot."

"Well, I've been running from here and there."

"Running?" Lou frowned.

"I'll just explain everything to you later. I have to go. I have something urgent to do first."

Before they could ask, Will was running off again.

"Hey Will!"

The latter two just looked at each other.

Will stood straighter as he looked down at the patient, Emily Smith, lying on the bed unconscious. She's the eighth patient on the list and Will had already snapped her soul back to her body so he knew that she was going to wake up soon too.

He turned around to head out the room when he suddenly staggered sideways. He ended up leaning on the wall nearby.

Will shook his head as sudden vertigo hit him. His vision started to blur so he closed his eyes briefly. He felt dizzy too.

"Come on, three more patients," Will muttered. He opened his eyes and his sight was clear again.

He stood up straighter. He noticed as he looked down, that the sleeves of his white coat were smoking and blackening as if it had been burned. Will immediately removed his coat, and he saw that both his forearms were blistering and his hands were swelling. As if he had just acquired a second-degree burn.

"W-what?" Will was stunned at the sight of his arms. He took a deep breath when a realization dawned on him. "I-is this another side effect?"

He flexed his hands; they hurt a bit but it was tolerable. He decided to drop by the medical supplies room for a quick wrap up of his arms. So, he made a short detour to the medical supplies room. Will found himself sitting on a stretcher inside the medical supplies room as he wrapped his arm up to his hands with a bandage. He stared at his bandaged hands briefly. He had already discarded his coat and was just wearing his scrub uniform. He hopped down the stretcher.

"Let's go, Will Solace," He squared his shoulders. "Just three more patients. You can do this." He walked out of the room.

Kayle Mendez. The last patient on Will's list whose soul successfully had returned to her body. Will walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Will wanted to celebrate his success, but he couldn't ignore the fact that he felt like he had a fever of 104°F. He felt so exhausted; his ears were ringing and vision was blurring again.

He staggered through the hallway. He felt like someone was hammering down a mallet on his head. His vision was blurring again. Actually, Will felt like he was dying. He clutched his chest as he continued to stagger forward. He couldn't see anymore because everything seemed white.

Seriously, is this how am I going to die? Really? I still want to-

Then everything went black.

Nico.

That was the last thing on his mind as he fell to the hospital floor.

oo00oo

"Did you notice anything strange about Will? He looked . . . weird," Cecil commented as he and Lou walked side by side down the hallway of JHH.

"Yes. It makes me uneasy." Lou clicked her tongue. "He looked so pale."

"Maybe he's sick?"

Lou hummed. "That idiot. He doesn't ever know when to rest, does he?" Lou said, annoyed. "Let's go find him, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Oh!" Cecil stopped and pointed his finger to his left where there was another section of hallway. A figure was lying on the floor up ahead.

"I-is that Will?!" Cecil's eyes were wide as he looked at Lou.

Lou cursed as she ran towards Will, Cecil right behind her.

"Will!" Lou shouted as she crouched down next to Will's unconscious body.

"What happened to his arm?" Cecil frowned, staring at Will's arm.

"N-no pulse. . ."

Cecil whipped his head towards Lou. "What?"

"He's not breathing," Lou said as she checked again for Will's pulse on his neck.

"No, no, you idiot. What's happening to you?" Lou started to perform CPR on Will, her tears spilling from her eyes and down her cheeks.

Apollo Charleston was in his posh apartment, standing in front of a ceiling-to-floor window, overlooking the skyscrapers of Manhattan. He had been standing there for so long that the coffee on the center table of his living room had gone cold and forgotten. Music sheets were scattered haphazardly on the same table. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his trousers.

The apartment door opened and then closed, a clink of stilettos echoed on the marble tiled floor.

"Mr. Charleston." His secretary stopped a few feet away behind Apollo. "You should be ready for your appointment in the recording studio."

Apollo was quiet. He didn't budge for so long that she thought he hadn't heard her so she spoke again, "Mr. Charles-"

"What are you doing you old monk death breath!" Apollo suddenly shouted, startling the secretary so bad, she almost knocked the big ornament vase off the small table beside her.

"This is your mess and I am the one who should clean it for you? Wow. What am I, your servant?" Apollo said again, stomping his feet like a child. "And now you're dragging my son into it. You can't be serious!"

"M-mr. Charleston?"

Apollo turned around, looking surprised at seeing his secretary. "How long were you standing there?"

"F-for a while. . ."

"Really? Well, okay. I'm going to head out-"

"B-but what about the appointment?"

"Cancel all of them." Apollo walked past her while muttering. "Jeez. I should have taken care of that bastard a long time ago. I swear he gives me a headache every millennium."