Will blinked awake, his head pounding. It took him a moment to adjust to the darkness of his surroundings, but once his eyes started working, he almost wished they hadn't. He was sitting in the corner of a terribly lit, damp, cold, jail cell. A black Mansion of Night symbol adorned the wall. A weird, chilling breeze blew through the room, though Will wasn't sure where it was coming from. Why was he HERE?

Oh. The memories rushed back to him, making his head hurt worse. The attack. Eris and Hypnos. So he'd been knocked out and thrown here. Great.

Wait, where even was here? Will would assume it was part of the Mansion, considering the symbol on the wall, but that didn't explain where he was in the building, what the building was, where the building was, where they might be keeping Nico...

Nico. Oh, god, Nico. Will's stomach pitched with anxiety as he remembered exactly WHY he had been knocked out. Because he had just found out that Nico had been kidnapped, taken to the Mansion, and potentially been hurt. Anger swirled in Will's mind at just the thought, but he forced himself to keep it together. If he was going to get out of here and try to save Nico, he had to keep to together.

Will stood up from his seat on the floor, stretching. His suit was torn up slightly, but he was otherwise no worse for the wear, except...Will's gloved hands found their way to his face. Where was his mask? Will supposed it didn't really matter, it's not like anyone in the Mansion would know him, but what if people in the Square had seen? And where had his mask gone? A thought crossed Will's mind: maybe it was a sign. A sign that he could no longer hide. Hide from the Mansion, hide who he was...

Or maybe he was looking too deep into it and he'd just lost his mask.

Refocusing himself on the task at hand, Will crept towards the bars of his cell. He was able to decently see down the hallway that his cell was connected to, but it didn't help too much. On both sides, he was just met with the view of more cells, all seeming empty. Will sighed in frustration.

"Looking for something?"

Will jumped at the sudden voice. He glanced to the left of his cell, where the voice had come from, and saw a woman leaning against the wall next to the bars of his prison, though he SWORE no one had been standing there five seconds ago.

Will didn't respond, instead examining the woman. She was dressed in the customary black leather outfit associated with the Mansion, but it kind of worked on her. She looked like a biker, with thick brown hair pulled out of her eyes by sunglasses on her forehead, a hoop nostril piercing, and her jacket cut fashionably to look actually good.

Will finally managed to answer her question after judging that she seemed...well, not trustworthy, but...safer. "Just...figuring out where I am." He said.

She laughed. "Aren't we all?"

Will was starting to get really sick of how all the members of the Mansion talked like they were in a movie, but he pressed on. "Who are you?"

The woman laughed. "You think I'd just tell you that?"

Will bit his lip. "Okay, fine. Be like that. What are you doing here?"

"Watching you, of course."

"Why? I'm locked in a cage. Why would I need extra security?"

"I didn't say I was security."

Will blinked. If she meant what he thought she was implying...was she here to get him out? No, that was too easy.

"What are you, then?" Will asked carefully, not trying to get his hopes up.

The woman shrugged. "An observer. A mediator."

"A mediator?"

She gestured vaguely. "I enjoy balance. When things aren't fair- say, a hero is locked in a cage and powerless to stop an attack- I try to even the odds."

Maybe Will's theory had been right. But that didn't seem right. It seemed...fake. Like a trick.

"And why would you help me?" Will asked, leaning as far into the bars as he could to look at the woman.

She scoffed. "Did you really not listen to anything I said?"

"No, no. Balance, fairness, all that- but why? You're on the side of the Mansion, aren't you?"

The woman tugged at her leather jacket. "I'm on my own side. I just wear the dress of the Mansion. Mother would have a fit if I didn't."

Did that seem like a good response? What other choice did Will really have?

Will hummed. "Okay. So let me out, then."

The woman laughed. And it sounded genuine, not like when Eris or Hypnos had laughed AT him. When they had the power. "Bold," she said. "I like that."

She quickly typed on a code on a keypad next to Will's cell, and Will jumped back as the bars slid open. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was all a trap...but how much worse could things really get? So he tentatively stepped into the hall.

The woman looked him over, shifting her position so they were face to face. "You're free." She said, as if she hadn't opened the cage.

"Right." Will said.

"So why aren't you leaving? There's an exit over there." She gestured down the hall, at a door with a flashing red sign. "You can leave. You're in over your head here."

Will shook his head. "You wouldn't have let me out if you thought I would run." he said. "I have to finish things here. Stop Nyx, whatever her plan is..." he hesitated. "...and save Nico."

"Nico?" The woman asked.

"My...friend." Will said slowly. He wasn't really sure what terms him and Nico were on right now, he should probably ask...friend? Boyfriend? Fuck, focus. "He's here."

The woman snapped her fingers. "The dark haired kid? Nyx's little pet?"

Will felt sick at Nico being referenced to as "Nyx's little pet", but he swallowed down the lump in his throat and responded hoarsely. "That'd be him."

"Well, that's easy. Him and Nyx'll be together. She won't let him out of her sights after the damage he did when we got him here. So if you're going after those two, they're in the same spot." The woman said.

"Where?"

The woman shook her head. "Now, I'm about fairness. I can't just lead you to them. I've helped you enough."

Will bit back an argument, because the woman was right. She really hadn't had to do any of this for him. "Fine. Thank you. Really."

She smiled. "Of course. And I really do wish you the best of luck."

It was weird, because Will could tell she actually meant that. And he wasn't sure why she did. He repeated himself. "Thank you, ....?" He trailed off hopefully.

The woman noticed his hesitance and sighed. "You're really interested in this name thing. But okay, kid. It's Nemesis."

"Thank you, Nemesis." Will said. He briefly thought about how all the members of the Mansion had REALLY weird names, but he decided not to bring it up.

Nemesis smiled at him again, then faded into the shadows. Will wasn't entirely sure how she did it. She was there one moment, then the next...only the dark hallway.

Will took a deep breath, steadying himself. This was it. He was alone now. Just needed to find Nico and Nyx, save Nico, defeat Nyx, save the city...oh, and he wasn't really sure how to do ANY of that.

He decided to start with a direction. Nemesis had established one end of the hall as an exit, unless she had been lying...but Will doubted that. So logically, he should just go...the other direction of where Nemesis had been pointing.

Will slowly started forward down the hall, looking around him as he walked. There were probably thousands of cells here, all sitting empty. Why would they need so many empty cells? Unless...a chill ran down Will's back. He remembered a scene from before he had fallen asleep. Tons of shadowy figures among the citizens of New York, fighting them, taking them somewhere...maybe that was what this was for. To hold the citizens who didn't accept their darkness, or whatever.

He didn't really want to think about that.

He made it to the end of the hall, where there was a metal door. He tentatively pushed it, anxiously expecting an alarm to blare or some security to rush out of the shadows. But neither of those things happened, and he stepped through the door into a dark stairwell. Now what?

A chill went up his spine, and one thought echoed in his head. Up.

Well, he didn't have any other leads. But still...he was skeptical. And suddenly, it hit Will how absolutely terrified he was. Maybe he should leave, maybe he wasn't cut out for this, this was IMPOSSIBLE-

His thought returned to Nico. Nico was probably terrified too. What Nemesis had said about him...Nyx's little pet. Ew. But also, kind of good. In more than one way. To start off, at least they'd be together. That made Will's life two times easier. And another thing Nemesis said had stuck out to Will. That Nyx was watching Nico because of "damage he'd caused". And despite that that probably wasn't the only reason Nyx was keeping an eye on Nico, it excited Will. Because that was good. It meant Nico was fighting back. That he wasn't going back to the Mansion. That no matter how scared he was, he was fighting. That Will had a chance to save him.

And with this newfound energy over the prospect of Nico's freedom, Will took a breath and started up the stairs to his potential doom.