Will really couldn't believe his life right now.

A few weeks had passed since he had told Nico the truth, and those weeks had been the best of his life. Now that he wasn't constantly on edge around Nico, he was able to just...enjoy life again. And he was definitely enjoying life a whole lot more now that every time Nico saw him, he would lace their fingers together and press a kiss to Will's cheek.

Will had never had anything like this before. It was...nice. Well, that was an understatement. But he wasn't exactly sure how else to convey the rush that Nico's presence gave him. The warmth that flooded his stomach, the buzzing of nerves, but in a good way, the pure happiness he felt.

It also really helped that crime had all but dissipated at this point. Naturally, Will knew that this was kind of bad. He once again went back to his thoughts about the Mansion of Night. About the message. That stupid card still sat in his drawer. He couldn't bring himself to get rid of it.

He knew that they were pulling back their forces, getting ready for some big attack. He just wasn't sure how, or when, or what he was going to do about it. And that was absolutely terrifying to him. Maybe this whole crime dissipating thing wasn't as good as he'd been thinking. Because right now, he felt dizzy even thinking about it.

Nico's voice and touch pulled him from his thoughts. "Will?" He asked softly, grazing his cheekbone with his thumb. "You okay?"

Will blinked out of his daze. "Um, yeah. Just thinking."

Nico gave him a nervous look. Will's heart ached. He couldn't do this. He couldn't worry Nico. It was okay. He didn't need to know. And besides, he didn't need to think about it now. He was sitting on his bed with Nico, watching stupid movies. He didn't need to bring up all of his worries about impending doom.

So Will mustered up a smile and leaned forward, pressing his lips to Nico's. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

"Just hard not to be worried about you." Nico mumbled against Will's lips as he pulled away.

"You sound like my mom."

"Your mom and I seem to have similar priorities."

Will laughed at that, squeezing Nico's hand. "Seriously, Nico. Let's just...it's easier for me to not think about it, okay?"

"Okay." Nico responded, squeezing his hand back.

They turned their attention back to the movie for a brief moment, before the buzzing of a police radio interrupted them.

"What IS that?" Nico asked, looking around the room for the offending noise.

"Radio," Will said, reaching under his pillow. His heart crawled into his throat. There was no way this was good. He pulled out the radio.

Attention, all units. Please report to Times Square. I repeat, all units report to Times Square. Be prepared.

Will's stomach twisted as the message repeated again and again. ALL units. Be prepared? He had never heard that before. His head pounded, and he got a disgusting crawling feeling over his skin. One message echoed in his brain. This is it.

Nico looked at the radio with wide eyes. "Whoa. Do you think it's serious?"

Will glanced up at Nico. He couldn't tell him. No way he could tell him what he thought was happening. He didn't even want to bring up the Mansion around Nico, let alone tell him that he was pretty sure they were going to be pulling off a full scale attack like...now. So he lied.

"Nah," Will said, trying to keep the shakiness out of his voice. "Probably something dumb."

"Sounded kinda serious." Nico said, fidgeting slightly. He gave Will another worried look.

"It'll be fine," Will assured him. "Do you want me to drop you off at home on my way over?"

"Nah. I don't really like swinging. Makes me dizzy." Nico shrugged.

"Yeah, okay." Will rolled his eyes as he rummaged through his drawers for his Spider-Suit. "Where the fuck is- oh."

He pulled the suit from his drawer and quickly got it on, ignoring Nico's giggling when he put it on backwards and had to redo it.

"You suck." Will mumbled, now lacing his shoes up (and struggling).

"I think you just get dumb around me." Nico teased, leaning forwards on Will's bed. His previous worry seemed to have disappeared in favor of laughing over Will's struggles.

"Shut up." Will said, finally getting his shoes tied and standing up. "Are you sure you don't want me to bring you home?"

Nico walked to where Will was standing and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I'm sure. Go fight crime, Spider-Man."

"You're a dork." Will rolled his eyes and pulled his mask down. He waved a goodbye to Nico before jumping out of his window.

Now that Will was alone and didn't have anything else to distract his brain as he swung over to Times Square, his mind once again went back to his worries about the Mansion.

Will knew that this, whatever it was, was Mansion-related. He had a weird sense about it, and he had noticed over this past year of having powers that his senses were annoyingly reliable.

Big things are coming. It had been a while since he'd gotten that message. So logically, it would make perfect sense for the Mansion's plans to be coming into action now.

Will hated it when things made perfect sense.

Will finally found himself at Times Square. He found himself a comfortable spot on top of a billboard where he could observe what was happening. But weirdly enough...nothing really seemed to be happening.

There were a ton of police cars parked around the square, with various officers milling about, but Will couldn't really identify any actual PROBLEM. Which honestly made him more worried than if there had been some gunman or robber or something. So, maybe against his better judgment, Will decided to swing down and check out the nonexistent situation.

Will landed on the ground, immediately looking around for something he might have missed from his aerial view. But everything seemed just as dull from the ground. Weird. He decided his best bet would be to talk to a police officer about what the fuck was going on (maybe worded a little more politely.)

Will casually made his way over to where an officer was standing, seemingly observing the area. Will cleared his throat, hoping to get her attention. She turned to him.

"Um, hi." Will said, trying to assume his confident Spider-Man personality. "What exactly seems to be the problem here?"

The police officer shook her head. "Sorry, kid. Confidential. Don't want the public getting freaked out if it's a false alarm."

Will scoffed. "Are you serious?" Ooh, no, that sounded mean. "I'm Spider-Man. I can help."

The police officer shrugged. "My hands are tied. I'm sorry." With that, she walked away.

Well, that was unhelpful, Will thought. He decided he would figure it out on his own. Fortunately, though, he didn't really have to, because as soon as he took a step forward to do some more observation, a piercing staticky noise cut through the air.

Will immediately clamped his hands over his ears, alongside the hundred odd police officers and few pedestrians in the area. He looked up to see the billboards glitching out, turning to static, then pure black.

The pure black boards quickly started...shifting? Like bugs. Oh. Oh, they were bugs. The screens were showing images of thousands of black bugs crawling over each other. Then, in the middle of the screen, a white logo appeared. A house, with the letters MON printed neatly below it.

Will felt his blood turn to ice. The Mansion. Fuck, fuck, fuck...

The bugs and logo faded from the screen, and were replaced by a shadowy figure in a dark room. The figure in the center spoke, in a low women's voice that sent chills down Will's spine.

"Hello, New York." She said softly, in a way that made it clear she was dangerous.

Everyone in Times Square stared silently up at the billboard. The figure was silent as well. Will half wondered if she expected them to say hi back.

Finally, she spoke again. "I am Nyx. Mother of Night."

Oh, shit. This was Mother? Not good, Will thought. This lady seemed a whole lot more menacing than Hypnos or Eris or stupid Epiales.

"For far too long, night has been second to day. Pushed in the shadows. Hidden. Everyone is scared of the darkness. But we all have darkness inside." Nyx continued. Will thought the stuff she was saying seemed awfully cliche, but it gave him chills, so he decided not to comment. For all he knew, she had mics trained on the square and could swallow him up in darkness if he had one wrong move.

"My children and I have been...discussing this." Nyx said, gesturing behind her. Will realized that Nyx was not alone here. In fact, there were tons of shadowy people standing behind her. And they were all her kids? Damn. Will really hoped that she was just using expressions.

Will realized that he was so deep in his head that he was missing Nyx's villain speech, so he quickly tuned back in. She was mid sentence.

"...decided we would make New York accept the darkness." Nyx was saying. Huh. That didn't sound good.

A quiet hiss erupted around them, and Will quickly searched for the source of the noise. It didn't take long to figure it out, because Will was swiftly thrown off his feet as the ground shifted beneath him.

The sidewalk cracks opened up more, allowing pure darkness to crawl out of them. Okay, that wasn't correct. Pure black BUGS crawled out of the cracks, and they soon swarmed the ground, hundreds upon thousands of them wandering the streets.

"What the FUCK-" Will hissed. Most people near him had been thrown to the ground as well when the sidewalk shifted, and they all tried to stumble to their feet, shaking off the crawling black insects. One in particular crawled up Will's hand, biting at it through his suit. Will slapped it away, shaking his stinging hand.

Will looked back to the billboard. Nyx was STILL talking (did she ever shut up?). Will knew he should've been paying closer attention to what she was saying, considering he was kind of the one who would have to take her down, but he REALLY hated those stupid speeches.

"Unfortunately, New York, you will not have a chance to meet me soon. My children will, ah, prepare you first. Help you along." Nyx said. With that, shadowy figures started appearing around the square. Will assumed they were probably everywhere in the city, like he assumed the bugs were.

Will was about ready to launch himself into active combat against these shadow people, when Nyx's final message echoed from the billboard, making Will freeze.

"And Spider-Man." Nyx said softly. "Do not fight. I expect I will see you soon." And the billboard flickered to black.

Will stood shaking, staring at the blank billboard. I expect I will see you soon? Yeah, that didn't seem so great. And Will had this nagging awful feeling-

Before Will could really get into his horrible thoughts, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Finally, regaining movement in his body, he whirled around and found him face to face with Eris. Hypnos stood at her side.

"You," Will attempted to say menacingly, but his voice squeaked. Great start.

"You!" Eris said, seeming annoyingly cheerful. "Was hoping to see you here today."

"Wasn't hoping to see you. But I suppose it only makes sense you'd be here with your whole shitty organization." Will said dryly.

Eris fake pouted. Will decided that he really, really hated her. "Aw," she said. "Better watch your mouth. Our 'shitty organization' might control your city soon."

Will rolled his eyes under his mask. "Yeah right." He said with fake confidence. "This is nothing. What, some bugs? How terrifying."

"Look around you." Eris said. "You're not winning."

Will glanced around him. The various shadowy figures seemed to be either locked in combat with police officers, holding people captive, or talking to each other, plotting. Will wanted to help, he really did, but something kept him locked in this conversation. Plus, with Hypnos here, Will doubted he would get far if he tried to run off.

Eris spoke again, drawing Will's attention. "You could always join us, you know. Did you lose the card I gave you?"

"Not happening. I'm not exactly interested in helping you awful people."

"You'd be so valuable, though..." Eris said charmingly.

"I don't think you get it. It's never going to happen."

Eris sighed. "It's a shame. Suppose we'll have to tell the other one it's not going to work out."

Will felt a chill go over him. A lump formed in his throat. "What?"

"Oh, you know. Your little friend."

"No."

"Oh, yes. We, or, rather, Mother caught up with him on his way home. Good timing as well, just after we sent that alert to the police force to gather them in one spot...oh, I'm getting off track."

"You have him?" Will asked shakily. He was too scared to even say Nico's name aloud. That made it real.

"Don't you worry. He's safe with us. For now. He seemed awfully agitated when I told him we were off to meet you...but I'm sure he was, ah, taken care of." Eris laughed cruelly.

Suddenly, at that moment, Will felt something crack in him, and he charged at Eris. He didn't know what his plan was, or how he planned on accomplishing anything by this, but he just needed to do SOMETHING.

Obviously, as soon as he even stepped towards Eris and Hypnos, he felt the disgusting feeling of his body being slowed, and he felt frozen in the air. And tired. So tired...

Hypnos, who hadn't spoken a single word this entire conversation thus far, laughed at him. "He's cute." He said, talking to Eris. "You think we should keep him?"

"Mother would love that. Oh, and so would the other one. We'd make everyone's day!" Eris grinned. "Oh, why didn't we do this earlier? Would have been easier than asking him."

"It was fun watching you toy with him. Making him think he had a choice." Hypnos responded.

Will wanted to scream that he was still fully conscious and could hear all of the stiff they were saying about him, but he also half knew that Eros and Hypnos were aware of that and were just trying to fuck with him. Plus, Will couldn't do much of anything right now.

Then, with a flick of Hypnos' hand, Will's eyelids drooped, and the world went dark.