"Will!" He hears a familiar voice cut through the early morning air, and he turns, rubbing a bit of sleep out of his eyes. It's still early… though not for him and his siblings, he supposes. Rising with the sun and all of that.

"Lou Ellen? Connor?" He says, squinting at his friends. "What's the matter, you look like you seen a ghost or somethin'." He yawns, and Lou Ellen grabs onto his hand. Will frowns. He's never seen her look like this before.

"Cecil's gone." She says, and Will startles.

"Hang on, what?" He says, his voice going up just a bit. What the hell? "Did he say anything or leave a note?" He looks at Connor, whose dark brown hair is sticking up every which way. Connor shakes his head.

"Nothing that I could see, and you said that he didn't say anything before curfew last night, right Lou Ellen?" Connor says, his voice calm. Will hadn't realized just how much Travis leaving for college had affected Connor. He's so much more of a big brother figure to his siblings now, Will muses.

"Well, I ain't hear anything from him either… Did you go tell Chiron?" Connor nods his head.

"We just came back from there. Lou Ellen wanted to come talk to you though. I'll go back to the cabin and look around, okay?" Connor squeezes her shoulder and Lou Ellen nods, picking nervously at a thread on her hoodie.

"Let's go into the Big House and have some hot chocolate, okay? It always helps calm my anxieties." Will says gently, and Lou Ellen nods again. Will takes her hand and walks with her to the Big House.

Sitting across from her breaks Will's heart. He's never seen Lou Ellen so stressed, so worried before. Even during the battle last year… she'd always been the one of their friend group to shake off anxieties and stresses and just be so carefree. But now…

"We'll find him, Lou Ellen. I'm sure of it. He can't have gone too far." Will says softly, squeezing her thigh. Lou Ellen sighs, setting down her half drank cup of hot chocolate.

"I know people tend to just… assume the Hermes cabin kids will disappear, just fuck off to do something, but Cecil isn't like that. You know that." She says, and Will nods. It is really unlike him to do something like that.

"I know that, don' worry." Will says softly, and Lou Ellen looks at him with intense green eyes. She sighs deeply, running a hand through her dark hair.

"You said you've not heard anything from your dad, right?" She asks, and he nods. "Do you think Cecil going missing has anything to do with all of that?" Her voice breaks just a little bit, and Will grabs onto her hand, squeezing it gently.

"I don't know, but you know that Chiron will do anything he can to help out with this, right? And everyone on patrols… maybe ask the Hephaestus kids since they're always out in the forest and stuff designing the races and what not." He says, and Lou Ellen leans her head back against the couch cushions, looking up at the ceiling.

"I just… what if something's happened, Will?" She says quietly, and Will shakes his head.

"You can't think like that. Cecil's feisty, he's got a good head on his shoulders. I'm real sure that he can take on any monster or anyone that tries to fuck him up. He held his own in the battle same as you or me." Will says, and Lou Ellen breathes out a sigh.

"For someone who definitely needs therapy of his own, you sure are good at talking people off a ledge." She says, and Will shoves her shoulder.

"I think we ALL need therapy, just us that been through a war or two a lil' bit extra. I'm just real good at handling alla the spiraling. Comes with the territory, I suppose." Will says, and Lou Ellen just rolls her eyes, laughing at his silliness.

"Thank you, Will. I'll keep you updated on anything that we find out, yeah?" She says, and Will nods, squeezing her hand.

Oh Cecil, what have you gotten yourself into?

"You doing the race tonight?" Kayla asks, strapping her golden armor onto her body. Will shakes his head, leaning against the entryway to the sleeping area of the cabin.

"Nah, I reckon it'll be a shitshow since it's the first one ever, and I don' wan' anyone to get too badly hurt. So I'll just observe this time. I already told Neeks he should pair up with Lou Ellen anyway. Been trying to keep an eye on her, and she and Neeks get on real well, so I figured it would be a good pairing." He says, fiddling with the bracelet he'd made of Daniel's necklace around his wrist.

Kayla makes an affirmative noise, grabbing her bow off the weapon wall. Hers, not Michael's for once. Will doesn't ask. He's not sure he wants to know the answer, and Kayla isn't likely to give him the real one anyway. "That sounds like a plan. I know Austin is sitting out this one too."

"Who are you going to pair up with?" Will asks offhandedly, and he lasers in on her as a dark pink blush spreads across his sister's cheeks. "Oh? Makayla Addison Knowles, have you been WITHHOLDING INFORMATION from me?" He stalks over to her, a gleam in his eye, grabbing onto her shoulders. "Who is it? Don't make me ask Anteros."

"Don't!" She squeaks out, her blue eyes wide. "It's nothing, it's just a crush—"

"Out with the details, Kayla!" Will says, laughing a bit. Kayla crosses her arms with a huff, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

"Fine! Fine. Jeez, calm your tits. Her name is Alondra, she's one of the Hermes campers." Kayla mutters under her breath. Will grins at her, a warm feeling spreading through his chest. He likes seeing his siblings happy, and Kayla and Austin most of all. Before he can tease Kayla more, however, a loud horn sounds, reverberating through the cabin. "I have to go, Bye!" Kayla yells, running out of the cabin before Will can so much as blink. Damn.

He sighs, throwing a jacket over his clean scrub shirt and braving the cold to trudge his way to the infirmary.

Today can't be too bad, right?

Wrong.

Gods above, he is so very wrong.

"What the FUCK happened?" He exclaims, pulling gloves on as he steps into the private room in the back of the infirmary. He's not seen this much blood in months. Is that… "Someone here better tell me why the fuck there are TWO amputations?!" He stares in horror at Paolo, one of the Hebe campers, lying on one of his infirmary beds, both of his arms laying by his side, definitely not in the place they should be.

"I'm sorry! It's my fault!" Harley cries, tears streaking down his cheeks. He tries to scramble closer, but Will takes a deep breath.

"Dylan, get him out of here." Dylan looks at Will with wide brown eyes, dirt and blood streaked across his cheeks. He had apparently been Paolo's partner during the race, or at least it seems.

"No! I'm not going!" Harley protests, stamping his feet. Will runs a hand through his hair, breathing out a big breath.

"Nyssa." He says simply, seeing Harley's older sister in the hallway, and she nods. She stomps over to where Harley is screaming about how he won't go, he refuses to go, and simply picks up her brother. Will breathes out through his nose as Harley is carried away kicking and screaming, trying to center himself.

Conceal. Don't feel. You can't show weakness right now, Will.

"Anteros, Kayla, Sohee, Austin. We need supplies. Go grab as much as you can." Will commands, and his siblings jump into action. "Dylan, I need you out of here." The younger boy doesn't move, frozen in place as he stares at his older brother. "Dylan?" Will steps closer, and Dylan flinches away, a whimper leaving his lips. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I just need you to be somewhere safe and not here. I'll take good care of him, I promise." Will says, leaning down so he's the same height as Dylan. The younger boy is clearly terrified, and Will understands. He can't imagine seeing this as someone with so little experience in battle.

"I'll take care of him." A familiar soft voice echoes through the space, and Will looks up to see Nico, his dark eyes flickering between Will and Dylan, and the motionless body of Paolo. "Come on Dylan, we can go hang out in Cabin Seven and watch a movie, yeah? I'll have someone go get Sydney as well. Would you like that?" Dylan nods, and lets Nico lead him away, out of the infirmary.

Will heaves a sigh, and he squares his shoulders before turning around. Kayla and Anteros have already gotten to work setting out the gathered supplies. Sohee ties her hair up into a ponytail, but Will can see the tears brimming at the corners of her eyes. He reaches out to touch her shoulder, and she startles, but turns to him with a grim look.

"I'm okay, big brother." She says, sniffling a little bit. "I can handle this, you need my help." Will tugs on the end of her ponytail, giving her a sad smile.

"I know, sunbaby. But you can step out at any time, yeah? I reckon Neeks won't mind having one more in the cabin. He already took Dylan over there." He says gently, and Sohee nods.

"I can do it, though. I want to help." She says firmly. Will looks at her for a long moment. She's barely ten. It feels like just yesterday she came into camp, and now she's halfway to eleven, already taking on so much responsibility. Gods, it hurts him that she's seen so much. It reminds him of himself when he was her age, and look at where that got him.

"Okay, Sohee. Just tap out whenever you need to, okay? No judgment, nothin', I promise." Sohee smiles, leaning up to wrap her arms around Will's neck in a quick hug, before she settles down, her eyes hardening into what Will recognizes as healer mode.

He shakes his head, clearing his thoughts. Okay, focus, Will. It's go time.

"Anteros, Kayla. I need you two to line up his arms the way they should be. Austin, you have the steadiest hands 'sides me, so you're gonna stitch up one side, and I'll do the other. Sohee, I need you to be focused on sendin' healing energy by keepin' your hands on him at all times, got it?" Will says, slipping into head healer mode. His siblings nod, and they move quickly into action.

Their healing is like a dance, the way they duck under arms and move like parts of the same unit. Will wonders if this is the same way with other non-Apollo kids, but he's never really focused on it when Clarisse was helping him out, much less letting any others near those in need. Even Nico was only delegated to small things like changing bandages or getting ambrosia.

Speaking of—

"Sohee, go grab a tupperware of ambrosia, and a canteen of nectar. I'll need you to feed him some ambrosia while we work, and the nectar will be used for healin' up once we have his arms situated right." He says, and Sohee nods, running back to the storeroom.

"You think this is going to work?" Anteros says, a frown set on his lips as he tries to line up Paolo's arm to its rightful place.

"It has to work. We don't have another choice." Will says, and Anteros looks over at him, his platinum blonde hair falling into his face a little bit. They hold eye contact for a bit, and Anteros nods, chewing on the inside of his lip.

"I know that, I just worry." Anteros says, his voice a little quiet. Will nudges him with his shoulder, giving his brother a smile.

"Look, Dad gave us these gifts, and we are all real damn good at healing. Right?" He says, and Anteros nods, blue and gold eyes trained on the arm in front of him.

"Yeah… Okay, I think I'm ready to help here. Should be lined up. Kayls, you got it too?" Anteros says, and Will looks over at Kayla who nods. Sohee comes back with the tupperware of ambrosia and the canteen of nectar.

"There's a few more injuries, but nothing too serious. I passed around some ambrosia, so that should tide it over." She says, and Will smiles.

"Thanks, sunbaby. Come over here and give Paolo a piece, and then sit by his side so you can keep your hands on him healin'." She nods, and Will turns his attention to Paolo's arm. He takes a deep breath before starting to work, nimble fingers using the needle to sew his arm back to its rightful place.

He hums under his breath as he works, and he can hear the same song echoed in Austin's voice, and a few moments later in Sohee's. Anteros keeps a firm grip on Paolo, and Will can practically feel him vibrating in anxiety.

"Tero, relax." He says gently, and his brother heaves out a sigh.

"Sorry, Will. I'm trying." Will smiles, eyes still focused on his handiwork, the way the stitches glide through the skin.

"He heals fast, don't worry. I've patched up Dylan 'nough times to know that for sure. If we can just get this done before his abilities kick in, and use our own, I have faith in both Dad's and Hebe's powers that he will make a recovery." Will says softly, and Anteros stays silent.

Will knows that Anteros still holds some resentment towards their dad. Of course he does. Apollo had been a direct reason behind the abuse that he had suffered at the hands of his mother for years. But Will has come to reconcile his former image of his father with just… Apollo being absent. Clearly, their father cared for them with the powers they possess. At least he has to believe that to stay sane sometimes.

"You have such faith in him." Anteros says, and Will can hear it in his voice. He hums gently, still working on the stitches.

"I have faith in the abilities I have honed thus far. Dad has rarely failed me when it comes to savin' those I can actually save. The ones I'm in time for. I couldn't save Aria, Daniel, Aaron, Rosie… But I have healed so many besides them. I've helped Nico from a situation that most could only imagine in a fantasy novel or somethin'. I know it's hard for you, but at least have faith in yourself." Will says, and Anteros huffs out a breath, but he doesn't answer.

There's a gentle knock on the door, and Sohee gets up, crossing over to open it. Chiron enters in his wheelchair, and Will looks up at the sound of the wheels on the tile.

"How are you faring here?" Chiron asks, sharp eyes looking over their work.

"I think it's going well. The stitches are takin' nicely on my end. What about you, Austin?" Will asks, and Austin hums in agreement, not looking up from his station.

"I'm not running into any issues. He's out cold, but I can feel his vitals and it's nothing more concerning than, you know… missing his arms." Austin says, his voice level. Austin has always been the most calm of their siblings, Will muses. Very rarely ruffled. Makes him easy to look after. "That, plus his healing powers from his mom… should be good in my medical opinion." He looks up, dark brown eyes meeting Will's. "Right?"

"Your medical opinion shouldn't be tainted by mine, Austin." Will chides gently. "You're big enough and trained enough to know. Are you confident?" Austin smiles, the golden center of his eyes gleaming just a bit.

"I am." Austin says, and Will smiles back at his youngest brother.

"Good. Please do not hesitate to ask if you need further assistance, but I do believe that young Paolo is in good hands with all of you." Chiron says, and Will watches out of the corner of his eye as Chiron leaves. He breathes out a big sigh.

"Okay, sunbabies. Arms are back on. Let's focus all our healing on making sure they stay that way. Ready?"

"Will." It feels like deja vu, looking up to see Lou Ellen standing in the doorway of the infirmary, her green eyes unreadable. "Oh, Sydney. I didn't realize you were here too." The Hebe head counselor smiles sadly, brushing her fingers down Paolo's arm.

"Just checking on my brother. What's the matter?" She says gently, and Lou Ellen sighs, running a hand through her dark hair.

"Senior Council meeting. There's been another disappearance." Will shares a look with Sydney, the older girl blinking in confusion.

"Another?" She says, and Will sighs, pressing the last of the bandage he was changing to Paolo's skin.

"Cecil went missing last week. Lou Ellen's been right messed up 'bout it. No one knows anything. Guess there's another one now, so the whole camp needs to be on edge, I 'pose. C'mon, let's walk over together." Sydney stands up, following Will out of the infirmary and all the way to the Big House.

Will takes his usual seat next to Nico, the younger boy looking half asleep in his chair. He stirs when Will plops into the chair, blinking his dark eyes open.

"Mornin' Neeks." Will says softly, and Nico makes a noise, stretching in his chair.

"Morning, sunshine. How's Paolo doing?" He asks, and Will hums, tilting his head from side to side.

"Healin' up. He should be fine in a few days, just gotta keep an eye on his wounds to make sure they scar up nicely." Nico nods, and Will reaches over to squeeze his hand, going to pull away after a second, but Nico grabs onto Will's hand and intertwines their fingers under the table.

Before long, Chiron enters the room, a dark look on his face. "Counselors, there has been another disappearance, so it is time I inform you of what has been going on." He folds his hands in his lap, resting them on the blanket covering his fake legs. "Last week, Connor informed us that one of his siblings, Cecil Markowitz, had gone missing." There's small whispers throughout the room, and Nico looks at Will, who just shakes his head. He hadn't told Nico about it, since it hadn't seemed super important at the time. "Now, Ellis Wakefield of Ares Cabin was not in his bed this morning as he should have been, according to Sherman, correct?" Will turns his head to look at the Cabin Five counselor, who looks unusually nervous and wide-eyed. He nods, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"Yeah. He shoulda been there in the morning, he was definitely in bed by curfew last night. But no one heard anything, everything of his was still there. Lot similar to what Connor said to me a week ago about Cecil… Whatever happened to Cecil happened to my brother." He says with finality, and Will feels his hands start to shake. Nico squeezes his fingers, shooting him a concerned look. Breathe, Will. He can hear Nico's voice in his head, practically. You're going to start glowing, you oversized glow stick. Relax.

The thought of NIco calling him a glow stick lessens the nerves a bit, and he feels his hands still finally. Nico presses his knee against Will's in reassurance, and Will gives him a grateful look, trying to keep his expression neutral.

"Is there anything we can do, Chiron?" Miranda asks, twisting a leaf ring around her pointer finger. Chiron shakes his head, a sorrowful look in his eye.

"All we can do for now is keep an eye on the campers in your care, and hope that with time, they will return. We can send some parties of older campers out into the forest to search, but I fear that we may lose more of you if it comes to that." He says, and Lou Ellen tenses on Will's other side.

"So we do nothing?" Vivian says, raising her voice. "Nothing at all to help them or to soothe our own siblings' fears?"

"Unfortunately, there is no way that we can ask for help, or even assure our pleas would be answered. As we have discussed before, we are cut off." Chiron says, and Vivian huffs, pushing her hair out of her face. "I am sorry that I cannot give you more information or quell your fears, as I do not have the answers at this current time. Just do your due diligence and keep a watchful eye on the other campers around at this time. Thank you all, you are dismissed in order to take your siblings to breakfast."

Something bad is happening. Will just knows it.

"I told you I didn't want to make a big deal out of it." Nico huffs, standing in front of the door to Will's cabin. Will just laughs, shaking his head.

"We kinda have a thing about birthdays here, Neeks. If you haven't noticed that by now. Plus, the sunbabies got you a gift. They wanted to give it to you directly." Nico quirks his lips up just a little bit, but he relents, pushing the door open to the cabin and slipping inside.

Anteros is lounging at the head counselor's desk, working on his schoolwork, Sohee and Austin are in deep discussion about something on their music sheets, and Kayla is fletching an arrow on the beanbags. She looks up when Nico and Will enter the room, and her eyes light up in a smile.

"Nico! Happy birthday!" She exclaims, and Nico huffs out a laugh.

"Thanks, Kayla." Nico says, taking a seat on one of the beanbags as well, stretching his legs out. Sohee sits up when she sees him, her eyes bright.

"Wait right here! I'm gonna get your present!" She says loudly, and runs off to the sleeping area, leaving a blinking Nico behind.

"Wait, you were being serious?" Nico asks, turning to face Will, and he just shrugs.

"Why would I lie to you about them getting a present for you? Ain't no reason to." Will says, and Nico's lips quirk up into a smile. Sohee runs back after a minute, two boxes in her hands. Will hadn't asked what they had gotten for Nico.

He watches in curiosity as Nico carefully, methodically, opens the box, and Nico's eyes widen. He lifts something out of the box, and Will blinks in surprise.

It's almost exactly the same jacket that Nico had before the quest of the Seven. They'd talked about it before, and Nico had lamented losing the jacket to the quest, but he hadn't realized that the sunbabies would have been listening in, and that they would have gotten a new one for him.

"How did you–" Nico starts to say, and Kayla just laughs softly.

"You and Will talk really loud sometimes. Gracie heard you two talking about how you lost your jacket before, and she told Melody, and Melody worked out getting a new one with some connections I guess she has with Hermes Cabin and stuff. So we got you a new jacket." She says, and Nico's fingers dig into the fabric a little bit. Will can tell he's trying hard to shove down the emotions.

"Open this one too, Nico!" Sohee says, pushing the smaller of the two closer to him. Nico sets the jacket aside, tearing open the other box with a little bit less finesse than he had the jacket.

He stares at the contents for a second, head tilted to the side. Anteros gets up, plopping down to sit cross legged in front of Nico. "They're pins. For your jacket. Buncha different ones. Everyone picked out some, besides Will since he wasn't allowed to know about this present. These ones are some bands I know Yan has told you about. Some funny pop culture ones." Nico points to one, an unspoken question on his lips as he looks at Anteros. Anteros just grins at him, lifting the pin out of the box. "This one is the flag for gay men. You don't have to wear it if you don't want to." Anteros gestures to his healer bag, which is sitting on the desk. The same pin sits on the strap of the bag, as well as a few other pins.. "I like it, so I keep it with me all the time. Figured it would be nice to have if you want to use it. Of course, that's why we didn't stick any of the pins on. It's your jacket, you should get to customize it the way that you want." Nico takes the pin from him, clearing his throat.

"Thank you… seriously." He hugs the jacket to his chest, a beautiful smile turning up his lips. "You have no idea how much this means to me." Anteros smiles back, the dimple in his left cheek appearing.

"Please, Death Boy, you're one of us now. TAKE THAT, DAD!" He suddenly gets louder. "WE ADOPTED THE SON OF HADES TO THE CABIN!" Will flinches, expecting something to happen either from Nico's dad or… He shakes his head. What's Apollo going to do? He's been missing for months.

"I got you something too." Will admits, and Nico looks up at him. Will smiles, walking briskly back to his bunk, climbing up to grab the box he'd deposited on the top bunk after the visit home. He takes it back, setting it gently on Nico's lap, waiting for his boyfriend to open it.

Nico takes the lid off of the box, and he looks at it, then back at Will, then back at the item. "What is this?" He asks. Will laughs softly.

"When we went to Texas to spend time with my mama for my birthday, she gave me this. I'd asked her before we started dating if she could help me out. It's an iPod, it has all the music I grew up listening to, and everything I've really liked since. I thought you would like it, I dunno." Will shrugs his shoulders, an embarrassed flush taking over his cheeks. "Do you…? Like it, I mean."

"I—" Nico hesitates, looking at his lap and touching the silver iPod with his pointer finger. "This is too much. I don't deserve all of this kindness from you."

"Oh stop with all of that, Nico. You deserve all the kindness in the world." Will says, and Nico blinks a few times. His lips quirk up, and he tilts his head up to look at Will, an unreadable emotion in his eyes.

"Thanks, tesoro." He says, barely more than a whisper, and Will can't help but smile, leaning down to press a kiss to his boyfriend's cheek.

"Happy birthday, angel."

"How are you so good at making these?" Will grumbles, frowning at his sad excuse for a smore, the chocolate dripping off his fingers.

Nico shrugs, squishing his marshmallow down a bit more. "It's intuitive, I guess? Maybe cooking just isn't one of your skills, sunshine." He laughs, taking a bite of his s'more.

"If you start braggin' about you being Italian so cooking is in your blood or somethin', I'm gonna stab you." Will grumbles, which sends Nico into laughter again, this time joined by Anteros beside them. Will whirls around to give his brother a nasty look, but something catches the corner of his eye.

"What is that?" He hears Kayla ask, and she's reaching for her bow behind her back before Will can think. He stands up, brandishing his dagger, and he hears Nico unsheathe his sword as well.

A pair of scraggly teens stagger out of the woods towards the small group of them sitting at the campfire, and Chiara mutters something insulting under her breath in Italian. Will shoots her a look, but before he can say anything, he notices the steam rising off of the taller of the two, the teenaged boy. His brow furrows in confusion, and he takes a step forward.

Before he can speak, the older teen grins broadly, a hysterical laugh leaving his lips.

"Oh hi! I'm Apollo!" He says, and immediately drops to the ground, eyes rolling back. Will feels Nico's hand on his wrist, but he can't think straight.

What. The. Fuck.

… Dad?