AN: Hey y'all! Welcome to my third story, Searching for the Light!

I recently finished rereading and editing my first two stories, Healing the Dark and Battling Demons. No major changes have been made! Just a few plot inconsistencies that I didn't like and a few scenes that I believed to be unnecessary. I also combined some of the shorter chapters to make the chapter breaks make more sense. I have spent a lot of time on this in order to get more ideas for this current story. I am also rereading and editing this story too. The chapters may be wonky for a little while, but the storyline and plot will be exactly the same. I will indicate on the specific chapters that I made a lot of changes too. The changes do NOT change the plot at all, so going back to reread them isn't necessary. I made the edits mostly for myself and other plot inconsistencies. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: All rights to Rick Riordan. I own nothing, but the plot.

Themes of self-harm, anxiety, and depression are expressed within this story. TRIGGER WARNING! Please do NOT read if these themes upset you. TRIGGER WARNING!

Criticism is appreciated, but please no hate. Please review and leave me suggestions! Enjoy!

Nico's POV:

"Thank the gods!"

The search party woke Nico. His eyes flew open as he sat up, looking around quickly, forgetting where he was. He was on the beach; Will was next to him, blinking sleep from his eyes. They had fallen asleep together on the blanket. Both boys stood, searching around the immediate area. A group of demigods was smirking at them, but Nico could sense their fear under the amusement.

"Oh, you guys are going to be in so much trouble." Lou Ellen said.

"What's going on? Why are you all here?" Will asked.

Lou Ellen, Kayla, Connor, and Nyssa were all standing over them. A little way away, Chiron had started galloping over.

"Mr. Solace, Mr. di Angelo, thank the gods." Relief flowed through Chiron's words. What had happened? "What were you two doing? Why weren't you in your cabins?"

"What's going on?" Nico asked, ignoring the barrage of questions.

The demigods all looked at each other. Worry lined the face of their teacher. "Why don't you explain Connor?"

Connor started explaining solemnly. He seemed so lifeless without his brother, who had gone off to college. "I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and I noticed that Cecil wasn't in his bed. I didn't really think about; just thought he was walking around or something like that."

"Are you aware of the fact that we have a curfew, Mr. Stoll?" Chiron interrupted. Connor smiled meekly at him.

"Sure, but it's more of a suggestion, right?" Chiron didn't say anything. Connor continued. "I went back to bed. I woke up again this morning, and he was still missing. No note, no anything. All of his stuff was in the cabin. I started searching around the camp, but I couldn't find him."

Nyssa took up where he left off. "Then, he ran into me. I was looking for Leo because he had also disappeared. We went to the Big House and realized Calypso was missing too. In the Big House, we ran into Kayla."

Kayla started her portion of the story. "I was in there looking for you Will. You weren't in your bed, so I checked the infirmary too. I couldn't find you, so I got worried. Nyssa, Connor, and I then headed to the Hades cabin to look for you and Nico. When we realized it was empty, we knew that we needed help. We went to Chiron to organize a search party. And then we stumbled upon you guys."

"What were you guys doing?" Connor wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as he asked the question. So, his humor hadn't completely gone away with his brother.

"We had dinner on the beach last night, and we fell asleep," Will explained.

"Nothing else?" Connor teased. "No kissing or-?"

"I believe that the missing demigods are what we should be worrying about right now." Nico snapped. Connor stopped his joking. "I was talking to Leo and Calypso yesterday and they were talking about leaving. Has anyone tried contacting them?"

"Not yet," Nyssa said.

"Was their stuff in their cabins?" Nico asked.

"No, it was like they left without a trace."

"Check your cabin again, see if they left anything behind," Nico ordered.

Nyssa blinked but followed his command without question. She brought Lou Ellen with her to see if the girl could find any hidden magic or traps that Leo may have set.

"Cecil is still missing," Will spoke up.

Nico looked at his boyfriend. Once again, Nico had failed to notice Will's true feelings; he was worried. Cecil was Will's best friend; they were the type of friends who rarely talked and still remained quite close.

"We will keep looking for him okay?" Nico reassured, putting his hand on Will's shoulder. Will nodded. Nico had a sinking suspicion that he wasn't going to leave camp for a while.

"Okay," Will affirmed. He calmed himself and took over control. He looked to Kayla. "Where else have you looked?"

"All the usual places. Hermes cabin, the arena, the wall, and now the beach," Kayla listed.

"Would anyone else know where he is?" Will asked.

Kayla shook her head. "You're his best friend."

"What about his mother?" Will asked. "A lot of people have returned home for school or to see family. Could he have gone home?"

"We hadn't considered that yet," Kayla admitted.

"Maybe it was a family emergency. We can start there." Will instructed. "I'm sure he has his mother's number written down somewhere in his cabin."

"Okay, let's head over there, then." Connor led the way to the cabins.

They arrived at the Hermes cabin. Will walked inside, Nico close behind him. Nico hadn't been inside the cabin since he had been placed there his first couple of months at Camp Half-Blood; it felt like a lifetime ago. It was crowded with rows of bunk beds, but most of them were empty as campers had returned home. Will sat down on Cecil's bunk and started going through his things. His face grew more worried as he continued looking through the stuff. He removed clothes and books from a backpack. He shook his head.

"This doesn't make any sense." He gained eye contact with Nico. "All of his stuff is here. If it was a family emergency, he didn't bring anything with him."

"What about a phone?" Nico asked, remaining calm and logical while Will processed what was happening. "Does he have one, like Annabeth does, for emergencies?"

Will kept searching through Cecil's stuff before holding up a slim phone. "He left it here."

Nico sat next to Will as he tried to unlock the screen. He didn't have the password. After a minute of thinking, Will came up with a number. He punched it in. The phone opened. Will began scrolling through Cecil's text messages. Nothing jumped out to Nico. Will clicked out of that and went to the call log.

"The last call was to his mother, three weeks ago," Will informed.

"Probably a Christmas call," Connor said absently.

Will pressed the contact labeled Mom. He put the call on speaker-phone so that everyone could hear. Technology and demigods usually didn't mix too well as they alerted monsters to their presence, but Connor and Travis were working on a way around it. The brothers were testing "software" on a few phones to see if they could make the technology safer for demigods. Cecil's phone had the software. His phone rang three times before it disconnected. Will looked at the phone in confusion. The phone started to smoke.

"Holy Hades!" Will shouted as he dropped the phone. It sparked a couple of times before shorting out. Nico cautiously picked it up from the floor.

"Dead," He declared.

"What in Hades' name was that?" Connor asked. He took the phone from Nico and started examining it.

"I have no idea. We can bring it to Nyssa and see if she can figure it out." Nico said.

"Yeah, I want to see what all this is about too," Connor said. He waved the phone in front of Chiron. "Do you have any ideas?"

Chiron was looking intently at the phone. "I didn't want to alarm anyone, but the camp has been having problems with communications recently. I thought it was just an inconvenience, but it may be worse than that. We can't make or receive phone calls; Iris messages are no good."

"I had trouble getting in touch with my mom…" Will's voice crack as he brought up his mother. He smoothed his voice as he spoke further. "And maybe that's why my calls weren't going through to Nico and Kayla over winter break."

Nico thought back to November when he hadn't received any calls from his friends the entire month. He thought his friends were just ignoring him. But maybe this was why.

"We've been receiving no new campers or satyrs. When Grover disappeared into Central Park when you were in the city, Nico, he thought he had found the trail of a new camper. I haven't heard from him since." Chiron explained. "Right now, we are completely on our own. Communications between us and Camp Jupiter have been cut off."

"What about Olympus?" Kayla asked, putting her hand on Will's shoulder.

"We cannot reach the gods as well. I've had no contact with Mr. D since the trial. He disappeared afterward and has yet to return." Chiron cast a wary eye on Nico.

The trial was still a touchy subject for the son of Hades. He had been forced to recount his experiences; his weaknesses revealed in front of the entire camp. If Dionysus had disappeared right after the trial with Aaron, what had he done to Aaron? Did it have something to do with the fact that Dionysus was nowhere to be found?

"Don't think about him," Will whispered softly into his ear, lacing their hands.

"How did you-"

"You always get this far-away, terrified look when you think about him," Will explained. "He's gone; you don't need to worry."

"But what if he isn't gone?" Will looked puzzled at Nico's question.

"Why wouldn't he be? Dionysus exiled him from camp. Why would he still be here?"

Nico was about to open his mouth to answer when someone cleared their throat. He turned slightly and remembered that they had an audience.

"Right," Nico said instead.

"What about you, Nico?" Kayla asked. "Have you had any contact with your father recently?"

"Yeah, but my father doesn't typically comply with the rules of Olympus," Nico said, matter-of-factly. "If the gods weren't supposed to contact their children, my father would most likely ignore it. What about anyone else? Any contact with your parents?"

"No, but he doesn't usually make house calls," Connor answered.

"And Apollo has been missing since the Battle with Gaea." Will pointed out.

"Yes, we have known that," Chiron was stroking his beard, thoughtfully.

"Rachel said that the prophecies had stopped coming to her as well. She has had no dreams to give any indication of what is happening." Nico mentioned.

"Something bad is coming; I've had bad omens for weeks," Chiron echoed both Nico's and Will's words from the night before.

"I've sensed it as well," Nico admitted.

Silence fell over the cabin. Maybe because his father was the god of the Underworld, Nico had more of a propensity to sense destruction coming. He didn't know what it was though. He was interrupted from his thoughts by the arrival of Nyssa and Lou Ellen, breathless.

"What did you find?" Chiron demanded.

Nyssa held up a thick parchment scroll and handed it to Chiron. He unraveled it. A flickering hologram appeared above the surface. It was Leo, complete with his oil-stained shirt and tool belt.

"Hey, guys!" Mini-Leo spread his arms out. "Sorry to leave you like that. Calypso and I are both fine. We're taking Festus to-" the image sparked exactly like the phone, but Chiron didn't drop it. "Back as soon as-" another spark. "Cook tacos when-" static. "¡Vaya con queso! Love ya!" The scroll sparked and the image went out.

"That little-" Nico trailed off. "At least we know that he and Calypso are okay."

"But, what about Cecil?" Will asked. "And we still don't know why we don't have any contact with the gods!"

"I can go down to the Underworld and see what my father knows," Nico suggested.

He felt Will look at him in alarm, but he didn't look back. Will thought he was leaving. But Nico wasn't going anywhere; he would not abandon Will to handle this alone.

Chiron considered it. He also took note of Will's reaction to it. "Only if you are willing."

"It's my home," He realized too late the harsh impact of his words, but he couldn't take it back.

"Trying to establish some sort of communication with Olympus is wise. You have my permission to travel to the Underworld," Nico nodded at Chiron's words. He then turned to the assembled demigods. "In the meantime, we will organize a search party to scour the forest. Use the buddy system. We don't need anyone to play hero, especially if there is an outside force involved."

"Yes sir. I will organize the party," Connor accepted the task. He turned to give the demigods their assignments. He gave the phone to Nyssa, who started turning it over in her hands, nodding at Connor's words. She already had the back off the phone by the time everyone had left the cabin to complete their tasks.

Will, Nico, and Chiron were left in the cabin. "When do you plan to depart, Mr. di Angelo?"

"Immediately," Nico answered, standing.

"I would advise that you use the buddy system as well, Mr. di Angelo." Chiron's eyes flickered to Will before he looked back at Nico. "But I will not tell you how to deal with your father."

With that statement, he walked out of the cabin. The two boys were left in silence. They turned towards each other.

"Nico-" in that one word, Will said so much. 'Don't go', 'Take me with you', 'I can't lose you'.

"We are leaving in five minutes." Nico interrupted. "Meet me by my cabin and we will head down to the Underworld. Unless you want to lead the search for Cecil here."

Nico could see that Will was torn; choosing between looking for his best friend or going with his boyfriend.

"I'd understand if you wanted to stay here." I'd prefer that Nico thought. It would be easier to go to see his father by himself. But he knew that Will would be more reassured if he went with him.

Will was thinking. "I'll come with you. Cecil has enough people looking for him. No one is looking out for you."

"Okay, five minutes, then," Nico affirmed.

"Meet you over there," Will replied.

Nico left the Hermes' cabin, heading to his own in order to get some supplies. When he arrived, he attached his sword to his hip. He grabbed his travel backpack which contained a change of clothes, some energy bars, a water bottle, ambrosia, and bandages. He swung this over his shoulder and walked out of his cabin. He sat on the steps, waiting for his boyfriend.

Will arrived shortly after. He had donned a hoodie over his orange shirt and also had a backpack on his shoulders. Nico noticed a knife sheathed on Will's hips. Nico was more of the fighter in their relationship, but Will could still defend himself. He smiled lightly as he approached. Under the smile, his face was tight with worry.

"Are you ready?" Nico asked, realizing that Will had never shadow-jumped.

"Yes," he said, but Nico could tell he was worried. "Are you ready?"

"I am," Nico asserted.

"Nico, I don't want you fading into the shadows," Will lectured.

"Stop trying to overprotect me; I'll be fine," Nico reassured Will as much as he was reassuring himself. "And I have you there in case something goes wrong. Now, c'mon. We've got things to do."

The two boys grabbed hands. Nico closed his eyes and reached for the shadow cast by his cabin. He pictured his father's palace as they disappeared into the darkness.