Everything that followed felt like a blur in Will's mind.

As soon as Nico pulled away from the guards, he charged towards Nyx. Will wasn't exactly sure what Nico's plan was - Nyx could easily overpower him physically and magically - but Will didn't have a ton of time to think about that, because other members of the Mansion were already closing in on him fast.

Will jerked away from both his guards and quickly bound their hands with webs. He had little reaction time before somehow slammed into him from the side, knocking him to the ground. Air rushed from his lungs, and his ribs throbbed (how long had he been wearing his binder?), but he tried to keep his mind steady. He shot a web towards their feet and knocked them to the ground as well, then stumbled back up to a standing position, gasping in air as best he could against the compression around his chest.

More people came at him from the sides, and his body went into an instinctual flurry of punches, kicks, and anything he could do to keep people away from him. And then...he froze.

His body was literally locked in a position as his mind panicked, wondering why on EARTH he couldn't move. Security ran towards him, tackling him, suffocating him, and them-

He saw them. Standing across the room, laughing at him. Hypnos and Eris.

And Will suddenly realized just how much he hated them. They had been a constant thorn in his side ever since he had met him, obsessively trying to hurt him or recruit him.

And now he was stuck here. Possibly about to die. Because of THEM.

Just as Will thought this was really it, he heard a huge commotion in the room, and suddenly he could move again.

He tossed off the guards that were piled on top of him, filled with some surge of strength, and surveyed the absolutely insane scene before him.

Hypnos and Eris were nowhere to be seen. They were buried under a huge wave of PEOPLE. Normal people, in street clothes, filled the room, fighting everything and everyone in sight. Will swiveled to see if there was some explanation to the sudden crowd, and standing by the door, looking incredibly pleased with themselves, were Cecil (who was somehow uncuffed) and Lou Ellen.

Will sprinted over to them, stumbling slightly as he tried to reorient himself. "What are you guys- what is going on?" Will stuttered out.

Cecil shrugged. "We did what you said. Let everyone go."

"You already let EVERYONE go? But there were so many people- how?"

"Just did."

Lou Ellen rolled her eyes. "Cecil's being modest. Or stupid. We got into the power grid, at the end of the hall, and unlocked all the cells. We got everyone out who wanted to go, but..." she glanced around the room. "A lot of people were real eager for revenge. Leave it to New York, I guess."

Will laughed, something he was surprised he could still do. "How did you guys even find...here?"

"We followed the shadows? Duh."

"The shadows...?" It was then that Will realized the room was slowly becoming filled with swirling clouds of darkness. He wasn't sure when that had started. Or where they were coming from.

Fortunately, he had Cecil. "Looks like they're coming from over there." He gestured across the room, where a cloud of darkness swirled and engulfed everything near it. And it was right where Nico had charged towards Nyx.

"Oh, no." Will breathed, anxiety welling in his throat. "Nico."

Despite not fully knowing what was happening, Lou Ellen was nothing but supportive. "Help him," she said gently, placing her hand on Will's shoulder. "We can handle everything out here. Help your boyfriend. Take down the Mansion, like you said."

For once, Will didn't argue against her use of 'boyfriend'. "Are you sure, Lou-"

"We can handle it." Cecil repeated Lou, placing his hand on Will's other shoulder.

Even though Will couldn't deny how horribly anxious he felt about leaving his friends and dozens of New Yorkers to fight the rest of the Mansion, his instincts screamed for him to help Nico. So he nodded at his friends and ran into the swirling cloud of shadows.

It felt similar to when he had shadow traveled with Nico. The same choking, airless atmosphere, the darkness that captured all of his senses and made him unsure which way was up- and where was he going, he was lost and he couldn't see and-

Okay, focus. Dont freak out. Just- Will tried to take a deep breath, which didn't work too well. Focus. You need to see. So- Will exhaled, and as his air left him, a warm glow began to radiate from him. Easy. Done it a million times before. Breathe.

With his newfound light, he forged forwards through the suffocating shadows, just focusing on one thing: Nico. And just the thought of saving him made Will glow a little brighter.

Finally, he broke through to the source of the swirling darkness. There, in one strange area of calm - the eye of the hurricane - were Nyx and Nico. And things did not exactly look great for Nico.

Nyx was standing over him. Her hood was pulled back, so her whole face was visible - namely her eyes. If you could really call them eyes. They were more like swirling pools of cold light. No pupil, no iris, none of that. Just cold, bright light. And they were trained directly on Nico, trapping him in their spotlight-esque beams.

Nico himself was kneeling on the floor, pupils fully dilated. His body was frozen, his gaze locked on Nyx's. As Will watched, he swore he could see a tear trail down his cheek.

"Don't you see?" Nyx purred to Nico, unaware of Will's presence. She leaned down and caressed his cheek, wiping away the tear that fell. "Your mother. Your father. Your sister. Your little friend. They all left. But I stayed for you."

Bleh. The voice she was using was so sickeningly sweet that Will felt like he was going to get cavities. He wondered why Nico seemed so frozen, why he was just listening to all the lies Nyx was feeding him. Maybe it was something to do with her creepy glowing eyes. Some type of magic.

"Everyone is gone." Nyx continued. "But you can make a new life here, with us. I can look past all of your past mistakes and outbursts. You have such a wonderful potential, and you could make a real difference. I know you could."

More tears poured from Nico's eyes, but he shakily nodded at Nyx's words. Will's anger spiked, and before he could even think, he rushed out in front of Nico, blocking him from Nyx's piercing eyes. He was now glowing brighter than before, his emotions fueling his powers.

He looked down at Nico, who seemed to be snapped out of his trance. Will helped him to his feet and gripped his hand tight. Nico looked like he was about to pass out.

Will turned back to Nyx, careful to avoid her gaze. "What is your PROBLEM?" He snapped. Maybe not the most intimidating thing he could've said, but it caught her off guard.

Nyx stumbled slightly. "My problem?"

"With Nico. You're obsessed with him." Will took another glance at Nico, who looked like he was too disoriented to even know what Will was saying presently.

Nyx sneered. "He has great potential."

"For what? For your stupid organization with unclear motives that I'm going to take down by the end of today?" Will didn't know where all of his confidence was coming from, but he was fully sure in his words. He glowed a little brighter again.

Nyx laughed. "Such bold words. I've been building this organization for years. I am far more powerful than you, in all ways."

"In all ways? You're only human."

"And that's where you're wrong." Nyx said softly. "Because I am so much more than that. I am pure darkness, personified."

Okay, so Nyx wasn't human. She was...pure darkness. Weird. But- Will could work with that. He could- he could totally work with that, holy shit-

Will suddenly had either the best or worst idea of his life.

So he shrugged. "Maybe. But I have something that you don't."

Nyx cackled. "What? The power of friendship?"

"Light." Will replied simply.

And with that, the glow radiating from his skin slowly intensified, until he was practically a supernova. And then...he exploded.

Okay, well, that was a very dramatic way of putting it. All of the light sort of...exploded off of him. Will wasn't really sure HOW it worked, he just knew that it happened, and everything was VERY bright for a moment. Before his vision whited out, he saw Nyx's skin burning, and heard her piercing scream.

Then his vision was gone, and he could hear screaming still, and he really hoped it was just Nyx's, and what if he had gone too far and killed everyone in the room and-

Then, his vision cleared of white spots, and he was standing there, gripping Nico's hand. And Nyx was gone. All that remained of her was her black robe, which fluttered to the floor.

Will surveyed the rest of the room as he came to his senses. The guards and other members of the Mansion were nowhere to be seen. Just a hundred-odd New Yorkers who looked pretty pleased with themselves.

Will was also very pleased with himself, though he wasn't going to admit that right now. Was he a total superhero GENIUS? Yeah, probably.

Nico's trembling hand in his own brought Will back to what had just happened. Nico looked at Will, wide eyed. "Did you...did you kill her?"

Ooh. Okay, yeah. DID he just kill her? That was gonna haunt him later. "I don't- I don't know. She wasn't human. Could I have technically killed her?"

Nico frowned. "I mean- I dunno. She's gone now."

"Yeah."

"And I think your whole supernova thing was KINDA what took her out."

"...Yeah."

"So you kinda killed her."

Will hesitated. "...Is that a turn off?"

Nico contemplated that for a moment, then shook his head. "Definitely not. That was totally hot."

With that stupid statement, Will's strung out emotions finally broke down, and his body shook before he burst into a fit of laughter. "...Cool."

Nico dissolved into giggles at that too, and the two of them stood there, shaking with exhausted laughter. Cecil and Lou Ellen ran over to them, looking completely confused.

"Why are you guys laughing?" Lou Ellen asked, like that was the weirdest thing that was happening right now.

Will wiped a tear from his eye. He wasn't sure whether it was from laughter, exhaustion, fear, or just...everything. "Nothing." He managed to respond. Man, all that laughing had really hurt his ribs. He would need to take a binder break for like a week, gross.

"What just happened?" Cecil questioned.

"We defeated Nyx." Will grinned.

"Like we said we would." Nico added.

Cecil whistled. "Man. Gotta hand it to you guys. Did NOT think you'd be able to do that."

"We wouldn't have, if it weren't for you two and all your...friends." Will said, gesturing around the room at all the escaped prisoners.

"I prefer to think of them as our soldiers." Cecil declared, grinning lopsidedly.

Nico looked very confused as to why a hundred New Yorkers were standing in here with them, but he didn't pose any questions about that. "Where is everyone? All the guards? Eris, Hypnos?"

Lou Ellen shrugged. "Well, our...soldiers were taking care of them pretty well. Then the room got all bright- I think that was a Will thing-"

"Yup."

"-and they were just...gone. Sorta dissolved into shadow."

"All of their life sources were tied to Nyx." Nico mused. "That's what happens when you join the Mansion, you become...not human. A shadow. So when Will took Nyx out...they all went out too." He turned to Will. "So- you killed like, a lot of people."

"Stop- don't say that! They were just like- shadows. In human form. Not real people." Will protested.

"Thaaat you killed."

Will frowned. "More like dissolved." He paused. "Do you still think it's hot?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Shut up. Yes."

"Okay, ew." Cecil stuck his tongue out. "Can we get out of here now?"

"Seems like a good plan." Will grinned. "You guys know how to get out of here?"

"Oh, yeah. We're pros now. Got the whole route down." Lou Ellen laughed.

"Lead the way."

"Alright!" Cecil hollered. "Soldiers! March out!"

Very weirdly, that worked, and the escaped prisoners in the room obediently filed out the door behind Cecil and Lou Ellen, leaving Will and Nico to bring up the back together.

The walk to the exit was pretty silent between Will and Nico. Will could tell that Nico was very on edge. And he couldn't blame him. In one day, he had been brought back to the organization that had ruined his entire childhood, confronted and destroyed the woman who had killed his whole family, and exerted a ton of energy. It made sense that he wasn't up for small talk right now.

Finally, after a little bit of walking and listening to Cecil and Lou bark nonsense military commands, they reached the exit doors in the atrium. Everyone filed out, back into wherever in New York the doors led, but Will and Nico paused at the exit.

They didn't move for a minute, just looking around the room. Tears were welling in Nico's eyes, and Will didn't try to stop them. They had been through a lot today. He needed this.

Finally, after a little bit, Nico tugged on Will's hand. "We should- we should go now. Catch up with the others."

"Are you sure you're ready?" Will asked softly. "I know this was- a lot. You can take your time."

Nico exhaled softly, then shook his head. "I...I'm ready." He smiled hopefully. "I want to go home."

Will smiled back at Nico and squeezed his hand. "Then let's go."

And together they walked back into the world, free from the Mansion.