[Edited July 27, 2022]

[Bruce's POV]

Bruce Wayne didn't sleep well on the night of the 23rd. It took him a long time to fall asleep and nightmares haunted him every time he managed to close his eyes. He hadn't been plagued like this since Jason had died and it wasn't something he had missed. Especially not these dreams.

He was dreaming about Jason's death again, over and over. Every time he closed his eyes he'd see it again. The only constant in the dreams was Jason's death, but he'd die in a different way each time and at the hands of a different villain. In one dream Jason was drowned in a puzzle built by the Riddler that Bruce just wasn't fast enough to solve. In another, a building fell on top of him, brought down by Clayface. Each time Bruce was too slow, too weak, or otherwise unable to save his son. Every few hours he was waking up in cold sweats.

Most people who have never had PTSD believe that the dreams unfolded exactly how they had in the real world. That the nightmares were a play-by-play of the trauma. And they were-- to an extent.

Something else about dreams is that laws of matter, motion, and mass don't apply. Sometimes he found that he'd forgotten how to use his grappling hook, that his punches lacked any real power to hurt his attackers, or that he couldn't move at all. People's faces would become distorted and voices wouldn't sound quite right. In the dream, he didn't question these changes, usually, but when he woke up he was able to realize just how little sense the dream itself made. Piecing them back together after he woke up was nearly impossible but that didn't stop his heart from pounding.

This last dream was different, though. It was almost like he was watching himself have the dream as if he were a POV camera following everyone else around. He couldn't remember having ever had a dream like that before.

He was in the Bat Cave, heading towards the computer. He saw Nico sitting in the chair behind the computer where Tim usually sat. He seemed to be doing some complicated encoding which didn't strike Bruce as strange at the time. When Bruce got within about 6 feet Nico turned to him and Bruce's heart rate skyrocketed. Who he had thought was Nico was actually Jason, whose eyes were cold and lifeless just as he had been when Bruce held him in his arms that night. The night of the explosion that took his life.

The billionaire rocketed awake, sitting up suddenly and gasping for breath. When he realized what had happened, he collapsed back on his bed and took deep breaths to try and get his breathing under control again. He felt bile rise in the back of his throat so Bruce scrambled to the bathroom to throw up. It had been a long time since he had actually thrown up. Usually, he had a very strong stomach.

After he had lost his dinner, he sat back against his vanity and put his head in his hands. This was too much. It was all too much. First Jason died at the Joker's hands and now Nico was lost to literal Hell. He was lucky and he got Jason back, even if he wasn't the same. Nico wasn't even sure that souls could find their way to the afterlife from Tartarus and he had definitely made it clear that he wasn't planning on surviving. The likelihood of him seeing his son again was slim to none and Bruce had to find a way to come to terms with that. It just wasn't fair.

Maybe it would have been easier if he could have known what was happening in the pit. Maybe then he'd have some closure or maybe he'd never know peace again. There was no way of knowing what Nico's fate was. Not knowing what happened was going to drive the vigilante crazy. There was no way to know if the demigod was even alive at this point. If he isn't, Bruce would never know what had killed him in the end.

Bruce left for the cave, knowing that he probably wasn't going to be getting any more sleep that night. Instead, he'd do some training to try and distract himself. He knew it wasn't healthy, but it was all he could do for now. He had to be at the top of his game if this monster war came to pass. He wasn't going to let Nico's sacrifice go to waste if he had anything to say about it so he had to be ready to put up a good fight.

++++

Later that morning Batman in his civilian attire headed down to the police station to file a missing person's report with Commissioner Gordon. Legally he had to, in order to keep up appearances and avoid the suspicion that he had anything to do with the boy's disappearance. As soon as the report was made public, all hell would break loose for Wayne Enterprises. There were going to be so many questions that he wouldn't be able to answer, so many reporters twisting his words to make him sound like a monster. He didn't even want to think about how this was going to affect the other boys.

Bruce hoped that the questions wouldn't be too invasive. It wasn't uncommon for people to try to kidnap him or his children for ransom or leverage, but he had never had a child run away or get lost before. Bruce didn't even want to think about how the media would portray this. Especially with Nico's track record of disappearing. Maybe this was just the opening the piranhas needed to seal his fate.

Alfred drove Bruce to the station because he couldn't find the energy to drive himself. It had been a long night and looked like it was going to be an even longer week.

He sat down privately with Mr. Gordon and they talked about Nico. Bruce told him about the clothing and food items that went missing but that he hadn't taken any money or form of ID with him. He told him about how he would often go on walks around the city when he was frustrated, despite being warned of the dangers. He also told the commissioner that he and Nico hadn't been in any arguments recently, nor did he know of any other conflicts that would have prompted Nico to run away as he had.

"Does he have any friends or family he might have gone to stay with?" Mr. Gordon asked his standard questions. Bruce pretended to take the time to consider this question carefully before he responded. He didn't want to have the answer too quickly and seem insincere.

"No family and he never really talked about any friends." Bruce lied. he couldn't very well tell the GPD about the camps for Demigods. He didn't think Chiron would approve of his camp being searched.

"None? Surely he mentioned somebody?" Mr. Gordon pressed. Bruce knew it would seem suspicious if he maintained that Nico hadn't mentioned a single person so he decided to tell the officer just enough for him to have a lead to follow.

"A few nights before he left, Nightwing found him in Toxic acres. He said that he was on his way to visit Ivy-- yeah that was the face I made as well-- but I guess they are friends or something like that? He didn't really want to talk to me about it." Bruce mentioned, trying to sound dubious.

"Poison Ivy? Do you think he could have gone to her?" The older man jotted down notes.

"I really don't know, Commissioner. Before a few nights ago, I wasn't even aware that he had ever met Ivy, much less had befriended her. I told him that I wasn't comfortable with him hanging out with a villain and he seemed to take it fairly well."

"Maybe not as well as you think he did." Commissioner Gordon noted.

"Maybe," Bruce agreed uncomfortably.

"We'll follow it up anyhow. Mr. Wayne, is there anyone else you can think of that Nico may have mentioned?" He figured what the commissioner meant by 'follow it up' was to have Batman investigate but of course, he didn't mention it.

"He may have mentioned another boy, Percy Jackson?" He admitted after a few moments of consideration. He hoped that he wasn't opening a can of worms, telling him that. If it was known that they both attended a summer camp, then that could lead police right to the demigod's front door. However, Nico had mentioned Percy before and Percy had been out to his house if only the one time. If that information had come to light, it could definitely place Bruce as a prime suspect.

"Yes, he's been seen with Percy Jackson every once in a while. He's also missing. It's been eight months now and the officers in New York still haven't heard from him. Bad news that they're both gone." He muttered, mainly to himself.

"Eight months? You think Nico will be gone for eight months?" Bruce didn't have to do much to sound distressed. Call it method acting.

"That's not what I was trying to suggest," the older man soothed, "I just meant that it is quite the coincidence."

"What do you think Nico's connection with Percy is? How do they know each other?" Bruce took a sip of the water he'd been given. He was grateful for something to drink as his mouth was dry with the stress of it all. The sooner this interview was over, the sooner he could do some real investigative work. This was really more of a formality than anything else.

"I'm not sure. Percy was there on the night that Nico disappeared from an old military academy that has since shut down. He was later caught on a security tape at a small shop in New Mexico. We lost track of Nico for a while too until he popped up on a traffic camera near Percy's mother's apartment in Manhattan. These boys have a history of falling off the grid." He had gotten sidetracked but the younger man didn't bother mentioning it.

"But he'll pop back up again too, right?" He asked hopefully. Bruce knew that there was no way he could determine that, but it was the sort of unreasonable question that police often got in these types of investigations. Families dealing in piecrust promises.

"I really can't say, Mr. Wayne. Is there anything else you can tell me about Nico or about anything that might help us narrow down the search?" He shook his head in frustration. The Commissioner looked at the other man sympathetically.

"Alright, I'll get this APB out immediately. I'm notifying the surrounding states and any state he's been spotted in over the last five years. He's gotta be somewhere."

"Thank you, Commissioner. I really appreciate everything you're doing for us. I'll let you know if I think of anything else that might help," Bruce shook his hand and left his office.

"What now?" Alfred asked flatly as he opened the car door for him. This was taking a lot out of him. Bruce decided that he'd give his friend a few weeks off while they figured this all out.

"Now we wait for the bloodbath."

++++

Bruce sat in the back seat, refreshing his Twitter page every few minutes. He had decided that the best course of action would be to post about the incident himself before the news broke to the media so that he didn't look like he had been hiding anything. It had been a short and factual tweet that had just said that Nico had gone missing and that he was working with the GPD to find him. He also asked anyone who had information about Nico's whereabouts to get in contact with him. Now he was waiting for the storm.

After the hundredth time he refreshed the page, his mindless swiping was interrupted by a phone call. One thing he hadn't been expecting was a call from Dick on the way home. Bruce cautiously picked up hoping that he at least didn't have bad news.

"Hello?"

"Uh... Bruce?" His voice sounded off and the vigilante frowned to himself. If there was a hostage situation at the manor again, he was going to lose it. He just simply wasn't in the mood.

"What is it?"

"You know how Nico left those letters for the people he cared about?"

"Yes?" he replied impatiently.

"Yeah, well the Hunters of Artemis are in the backyard." Bruce sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. The last thing he needed was a lot of man-hating women ransacking his house looking for Nico.

"I'm on my way. Keep them from destroying anything expensive."

++++

When he finally got home, he found Dick and some black-haired girl with a tiara arguing with each other on the front stoop. He might have been mistaken, but he was pretty sure that the girl had a knife. Dick was unarmed, but he was far from helpless. The rest of the Hunters were nowhere to be seen so hopefully, that meant they were smart enough to stay out of sight. Alfred pulled the car up to the door and both teens stopped as Bruce got out. Alfred pulled away to put the car up and he was left with two seething and powerful teens.

"You must be Bruce." The young girl eyed him defiantly. It was definitely a knife-- a silver hunting knife. There was no fear or respect in her eyes-- only suspicion and anger. His gut told him to proceed with caution.

"I am. And you are?" the vigilante asked gently pushing Dick towards the door. He would much rather take this indoors. He didn't want tomorrow's headline to read 'Billionaire Died After Being Stabbed 27 Times in His Front Lawn'. Dick got the hint and opened the front door.

"Nico didn't mention me?" She sounded confused and offended.

"Nico didn't mention a lot of people to us. And he may have mentioned you and I just don't recognize you," He assured her. She seemed skeptical.

"Please," The older man stepped into the manor after Dick and opened the door wide enough that she could easily come in behind him, "can we have this conversation indoors? Or at least not on the front lawn?" Punk tiara girl considered this for a few moments before reluctantly coming inside.

"You have a nice house." She commented dryly.

"Thank you. It was my parent's," he said shortly. Bruce lead the way back into a sitting room that had French doors that lead back into the gardens and orchards. From here he could see the other Hunters making themselves at home on the patio. They were armed to the teeth.

"Bruce, should we try to get the other Hunters inside?" Dick eyed the group warily through the window. The bats were wildly outnumbered and hopelessly out of their element. According to Nico, these girls were effectively immortal.

"No, I don't think anyone will see them. The trees and gates will keep them hidden so it shouldn't matter," he reasoned. Dick nodded and seemed relieved. He didn't want to be any closer to these girls than Bruce did.

"Where is Nico?" The Huntress had grown impatient.

"We believe Tartarus." Batman didn't sugarcoat it and he didn't lie. Instead, he fell back onto a couch and Dick followed his lead, though a bit more gracefully. The intruder chose to stay standing. Nico sent her a letter. That's the only reason that she could have been here. This girl's eyes flashed in anger and grief. She was in denial.

"I don't believe I ever got your name?" He pressed. Who was she to Nico?

"I'm Thalia-- Nico's cousin." Suddenly things started to click into place.

"He did mention you. He mentioned you once when Percy visited him. He was worried that Percy had sent you out after him when he left camp," He recalled. He left out the time when Nico had given him a list of powerful demigods because he wasn't sure how she would feel about that.

"Also the last time that she was here because she had a dream about Nico and Deathstroke." Dick reminded the older man. That had been a crazy week.

"Right. Though I don't remember the fact that you're cousins ever coming up?" He frowned. Bruce would have thought that that would have been pertinent information. He did remember that Nico and Percy were technically cousins, but they never said anything about Thalia.

"You do know that Nico and Percy are cousins too, right?" She asked like he was a slow child. Bruce bit his lip to keep from saying something he would most definitely regret. He was Bruce Wayne right now. He couldn't start a fight.

"Yes, I was made aware of that," He replied shortly. Nico hadn't mentioned that she was this condescending, though that may have been because she hadn't really come up.

"Well, then since I am a daughter of Zeus, then that makes me his cousin as well. Well, technically." She explained.

"I see." There was so much about Nico that we still didn't know.

"Did you get a letter from Nico?" She crossed her arms and kicked the ground softly with her foot.

"We got a video message," he admitted. Thalia nodded but didn't ask questions.

"So he's been living here then. With... mortals." She said it like an insult but the insult lacked any real weight, her voice was too deadpan. There was no heat in her words.

"Yes-- for about nine and a half months now. He's really become part of the family."

"Why?" Thalia finally settled on a couch. She perched on the edge-- ready to take off at a moment's notice.

"It's a funny story actually--" Bruce explained everything to Thalia (with the exception of the family's secret identities of course). He told her all about how he had met and adopted Nico and some of the things that had happened while he was here. He told her about how Nico had left hints for them to follow so that they could discover his secret. Bruce told her everything he could. When he had finished, Thalia seemed a lot more relaxed. She had leaned back into the couch and accepted some tea when Alfred offered. She seemed to like the butler more than she liked the rest of them, and Bruce couldn't exactly blame her.

"You seem to care about him a lot. He must have been happy here." She took a sip of tea. She didn't seem to like it, though. Tea was an acquired taste, after all.

"We do care about him, and I'd like to think he was happy. Though now I guess I'm not sure. Dick's eyes shot to him but he didn't say anything. Maybe he wasn't sure either.

"I think he was," Thalia said after a moment.

"You do?" Dick asked. It was the first time he had spoken for almost the whole conversation.

"Yeah. Nico has never been one to stay in one place for very long. He could never find a place to settle. He struggled with being accepted because of his powers-- attracting a lot of monsters and people who wanted to use him. He's bounced around all over the country just looking for a place to fit in. If he stayed with you for nine months, then I'd wager that he was the happiest he's ever been." The huntress reasoned.

"Then why would he leave?" Bruce asked though he didn't expect an answer. He rubbed a hand down his face and sighed. The answer was obvious, of course. His letter made it very clear why he left. He left to protect us-- to save the world. Thalia took a sip of tea.

"We'll ask him when he comes back." Thalia stood to go setting her cup aside. The billionaire just watched her passively.

"What do you mean? He said in his note that this was a suicide mission. That not even immortals dare to cross Tartarus." Dick pointed out.

"I don't know. But I refuse to believe that he's out of the fight yet." She adjusted her quiver on her back.

"Is there any way to know for sure?" Bruce asked. There probably wasn't, but if there was, Thalia was the one to ask. The daughter of Zeus considered this for a moment.

"There might be, but it's something that I can't do. You'd have to pray to Hades. He is the only one who might know."

"Wait, why can't you?" Dick frowned.

"I'm a daughter of Zeus. I doubt he'd even listen to me," She shifted uncomfortably.

"Isn't Hades his brother? You'd technically be--"

"Hades' neice? Yeah... it doesn't really work like that. Gods don't have DNA. I'm no more related to Nico than you are. Though we'd both agree that he's still family. Gods don't see it the same way. To them, we're threats. Direct representatives of our parents."

"So that's why Nico hates flying?" Thalia nodded. Nico had told them before that Zeus would shoot him out of the sky, but they had never really thought that he had meant it. After all, family is family.

"That's messed up." Dick breathed. The huntress shrugged and adjusted her quiver again.

"So you won't assist us," Bruce spoke up. She shook her head, but she did look almost ashamed about it.

"I wish you luck, though. All the gods have developed split personalities recently. They're pretty unpredictable. " She left without another word so he guessed the conversation was over. Thalia rounded up the hunters and in a matter of minutes, they were gone and Mr. Wayne was left in an awkward position.

He stayed in the drawing room a little while longer to just ponder his next move. Dick sat with his father figure for a bit-- looking like he wanted to ask a question. Bruce didn't know if he had the capacity for any more queries tonight but he decided to hear the oldest protege out.

"Yes, Dick?" Batman prompted after a few moments of watching Dick glance at him out of the corner of his eye and then look away.

"I-- I was just wondering if Wally could come over. I just want to think about something else for a while." He admitted. His oldest was past the point of having to ask permission for most things, but he appreciated that Dick would still check with him when he wasn't sure. Bruce considered it for a few minutes before he finally nodded. Dick thanked him and left. Bruce hoped Wally would help Richard get his mind off of things. Dick was the glue to this family. When he was struggling, the whole family could feel it. Things were already tense, so Bruce needed him to be strong right now-- though it was unfair to ask that of him. He deserved time to grieve.

While everyone was off doing their own things to cope with everything, Bruce decided to do the only thing he could think of to try and get some answers about how Nico was doing. He was going to Pray to Hades.

None of the parenting books he had ever gotten had prepared him for this. How do you pray to a Greek god? Was there a specific way that he was supposed to do this? Would the god speak into his mind like he did Nico? That had seemed painful. Furthermore, how was he supposed to keep his composure? He wasn't exactly a fan of Hades-- not after some of the stories Nico had told. How was he supposed to talk to this immortal? He seriously doubted that he could look it up on Wikihow.

He also hated not having a contingency plan. What was he supposed to do if this conversation went sideways? How could he protect himself against a god? He was starting to realize that these were very different gods from Diana or the ones that she faced. Would he even have the means to trap a god? No. Probably not without a demigod's help and he was fresh out of those. Since he was fresh out of options, he decided that he would have to just go for it. Rip the bandaid off of the wound. What are the chances that he'd actually be able to hear him? Or that he'd actually respond? Bruce was probably just going to be talking to himself for a few minutes anyway. So what was there to get worried over? At least, that is what lies he used to convince himself to just get it done.

Bruce retreated to his office and locked the door. He didn't want to be distracted or to be overheard making a complete fool of himself. He didn't know how any of this was going to work, but he was sure that he needed to be focused. Bruce sat at his desk and wrote out a few questions that he needed to make sure he asked about. Then he closed his eyes and prayed.

"Hades? I don't know if you can hear me or if I'm just wasting my time, but I need your help. Nico has left for Tartarus as of yesterday morning and I want to know if he's still alive. Can you tell?" There was no response.

"Please, Hades. I know that I am a mortal and you probably couldn't care less about me, but please just tell me what you know. He's part of our family now too and I think we deserve to know what has happened to him." Bruce pressed. Just as he was about to give up, there came an answer. A booming voice echoed in his skull, making it hard to think. How did Nico deal with this?

I do not know what has happened to my son. He is in Tartarus. I cannot sense his soul at my gates so I do not think he is dead yet. Though the pit is a death sentence. I suggest you get comfortable with that reality. The experience made Bruce's entire body feel like it had been sent through a centrifuge. His molecules were vibrating and his skin was crawling.

"I didn't think you could hear me," he admitted, "And I will not 'get comfortable'. Until Nico's soul shows up in your realm, he is not out of the fight yet. You shouldn't count him out so easily."

I was able to pull my consciousness together when you reached out to me. It will not last long. I am not counting him out. I am merely being realistic. He is one demigod-- alone against a realm of monsters. And there is something about the doors of death that he did not know.

The mortal man's stomach dropped, "What do you mean?"

There is a what do you mortals call it? A safety feature? If anybody except Thanatos tries to use the doors, someone has to stay on one side of the doors to hold the button for the entire time that the person is in between worlds. The only way for Nico to get out is to have someone stay in the pit to hold the button. As we both know, he went in alone. Even if he survives the pit and frees the doors, he will never make it back to the surface. So there it was. The full truth of the matter. Nico may not be dead yet, but he was going to be. They had actually lost him.

"Why didn't you tell him this?" Bruce asked softly. He should have been angry, shouting, and raging, but he was in shock. He couldn't feel anything yet.

I never dreamed that he would be stupid enough to go to the pit-- especially alone. Hades' presence in his mind was almost softer. Bruce could tell that he cared. It wasn't what he had been expecting from the god.

"It wasn't stupidity. It was selflessness."

Call it what you will. All I know is that I lost another child. I know Nico and I didn't see eye to eye and I have not been a good father, but I do care about him.

"I wish you had told him that yourself." Bruce rubbed his face. He didn't have the energy to watch his mouth.

As do I.