[Updated April 16, 2023]

[TW: Really brief mention of suicide]

The next morning started early for Nico. He was awoken by the sounds of his tumblers aligning and the creak of the old door hinge. It really needed to be oiled. He could hear his heartbeat in his skull and his breaths were getting caught on the edge of his throat. The nightmare and the late-night adventure from the night before had left him with a pounding migraine and it felt like he'd been run over by Mrs. O'Leary. He would ask for some aspirin when he saw Alfred, but right now he had bigger problems. Someone was coming into his room.

At first, Nico thought that it was an intruder, but when he soul-searched and discovered that it was just Jason. The use of his powers made his headache worse and he couldn't remember why Jason would be in his room, much less sneaking in. Nico figured he had his powers to blame for his current predicament. He had really used them too much the night before and his body was going to punish him for it.

Nico kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep. He wanted to see what the older boy would do when he thought he was still asleep. He could hear the floorboards creaking with each shift in the older boy's weight. They were old and they creaked very easily-- which was both a blessing and a curse. At the moment, Nico had no complaints.

Suddenly, there was a weird feeling and his hand and Nico could distinctly smell shaving cream. It didn't take a genius to realize that Jason had put shaving cream on his hand, hoping that he would smear it across his own face. That was when Nico remembered that the prank war was supposed to begin this morning. Apparently, Jason had decided to get the jump on him. Now that he knew what was going on, he decided to play along and bide his time.

 When Jason dragged what felt like a feather across his upper lip, Nico made sure to shift and grunt, trying to make it authentic. Jason tried it again, receiving the same results. The last time, Todd got careless and leaned close enough to Nico's face that he could feel Jason's warm breath on his face. He knew that this was the moment he had been waiting for.

This time, Nico brought his hand up and smeared the cream right down the middle of Jason's face, being sure to get it all off on the older boy. As Jason realized what had happened, Nico was already locking himself in his bathroom, getting ready to shower, having left his change clothes in the bathroom the night before. As Jason was muttering curses, Nico was humming happily as he stepped into the shower. When he left the bathroom, he was surprised to see that Jason had left. Though, Nico suspected that he hadn't left without leaving him a surprise. Nico suspiciously looked above the door to see if Todd had left anything there, surprisingly, he hadn't. These were no amateurs.

Nico walked carefully through his room, looking everywhere for potential traps. He was surprised and suspicious when his inspection came up negative. He slowly headed for the door, intending in going downstairs to breakfast which was probably going to start soon. As Nico reached out to touch his doorknob, he hesitated. He stared at the doorknob for a minute, trying to decide if such a mundane item could be rigged. After a minute, Nico felt silly. It was just a doorknob, the Stolls had never done anything with doorknobs except put superglue on them. Nico couldn't smell or see any superglue on the handle. Nico stood there for another minute, debating using the door or going out his window.

He decided that he was acting like a fool and reached out to grab the handle. He had almost grabbed it when he felt the hairs on his arm stand up as he got closer to the handle. Static electricity. Jason had electrified his doorknob. Ok, at least now Nico didn't feel like a fool for being overly cautious. To make sure he was right and it wasn't just static, Nico touched the back of his hand to the knob. The idea was that, if the door was electrified, his muscles would contract and his arm would bend away from the door and break the circuit. Just as he suspected, his hand jerked away as soon as it touched the handle, and he rubbed his stinging hand.

Nico looked around his room for things that he could use to wrap his hands with. He figured that it wasn't very high voltage, but touching the knob to try to open the door meant accepting defeat. Nico wouldn't let that happen. Nico crept over to the trunk at the end of his bed, searching for his non-conductive combat gloves They were made with cotton, nylon, and polyester which weren't very good conductors. Once he had found them, he went back to the door. The gloves didn't have fingers so he put his hands on either side of the knob-- being sure to keep his fingers straight-- and twisted. When it opened, Jason jumped at him and yelled 'HA!'. The rest of the batboys were there as well, watching on in amusement.

Nico laughed as he saw Jason's smirk drop when he saw the gloves on his hands, "No way! How did you not fall for that!?" Nico glanced at the other boys who also seemed very surprised as well. Oh great, he blew it again.

" I uh,  I have a lot of experience with being pranked," Nico said, embarrassed that all the attention was once again on him. He knew that it was a weak response that wouldn't hold up to serious questioning, but luckily the others didn't press the issue. 

" Well boys, we can up our game! Nico seems more than ready to handle it." Dick said wrapping one arm around Jason and the other around Damian. The boys called a temporary truce to eat.

"Ok guys, we have to add some rules: all pranks are to stay upstairs until after the gala, and no pranking during the gala either," Dick said after breakfast. Dick held up his hands to stop the protests from both Jason and Tim, "by request of Alfred."

" Fine." The two boys said dejectedly. No one dared defy the will of Alfred in this house. Not only would you get it from Bruce (or so he was told), but you would also get a lecture from Alfred about courtesy and manners. Once was enough, according to Jason.

"Ok, I'm going to the orchard," Nico said. Without waiting for a reply, he pivoted on his heel and made his way out to the back of the house. Nico had to do some planning. He had been shown around the grounds during his tour and decided that the orchard would be the most private place at the manor. It was also really nice to be a part of nature for a while and pretend that he was free of the supernatural world. If he daydreamed hard enough, he could almost pretend that he'd grown up here and that the monsters were the fantasy.

Once he had tucked himself behind a cluster of trees, the son of Son of Hades settled in to plot his next move. Nico remembered something that Beckendorf had been designing before he died. It was a mosquito-killing centaur. He wasn't good with machinery but had always been great at assembling things with instructions. He figured that, if he could recreate the automaton, it would be great to set it loose on his brothers. He just needed to call in a favor.

Nico used a hose by the greenhouse to make a rainbow that he used to contact Nyssa. She said something about a curse and said that it would take her a couple of hours to replace the celestial bronze with copper or plastic, and the arrows with Nerf darts. Nico thanked her and told her that he would be by that night to get it. Until then, he was going to have to keep the others occupied. Nico was about to head inside to go and start phase one, but he was stopped by the first monster he's come in contact with since he'd been there. This monster, though, wasn't quite as frightening as it probably should have been.

"Demigod!" Nico turned, grabbing his skull ring. When he looked, he was confronted by a dracaena (sp?).

" Sssssurrender now Demigod! Kronossss will return and overthrow the godssssss!" Nico stared at her in confusion, his fear turning to wariness. This poor thing was obviously very lost. It had been well over a month since the last titan battle. How she had gotten so far off course was a mystery.

" Um, sorry to ruin your party, but we already sent him back to Tartarus. Go root for some other evil being." The snake woman eyed him suspiciously.

" Are you ssssssure?" It asked, her snake-like trunks twining around anxiously. Nico nodded seriously, almost having a civil conversation with her. He didn't know why she should believe anything he told her, but she didn't seem to think twice about it.

" Oh, ok. I ssssssupport... " the woman trailed off in thought.

"Hades?" Nico suggested helpfully, "He is the most feared god!"

" Yessss! I ssssupport Hadesssss!" She hissed.

" Good! Me too!" Nico said, trying not to laugh.

" You do?"

"Oh, of course! He is the greatest!" Nico desperately hoped that the other gods would either realize that he was biased or that he was doing it as an act of self-preservation. Gods tended to get jealous very easily.

" Very well, fine demigod. I ssssshall go and create the posssstersssss now!" She said, raising her spear as though it was a protest sign.

"Posters?" He asked-- now thoroughly confused.

" Yesss! All enemiesss will cower in front of my terrifying possssstersssss!" The dracaena left the yard, talking to herself about how she was going to find posters at the bargain mart. Nico stood still for several long seconds, trying to understand what had just transpired. He shook his head finally, deciding that he would rather not know. As long as she wasn't hurting him or anyone else, 

"Nico!" Nico looked back towards Bruce and Dick, who was running his way, looking concerned. It was very interesting to watch Bruce run in a suit. He couldn't imagine that that could be comfortable. 

" Yeah? What is it?" Nico asked once they got within earshot.

"Who was that?" Dick asked, gesturing in the direction that the snake woman had just left. He didn't seem scared so Nico guessed that he didn't see her actual form. That was a blessing at least.

"Oh her? She was just a confused old lady who asked if I knew where a bargain mart was." 

"How did she get past the walls?"

"I'm not sure," Nico frowned, genuinely confused. She didn't have feet and her trunks weren't built for climbing the same way that a person was. How she had managed to get over the garden walls was beyond him. It was a question he wished he'd asked her. 

"Well... I don't want you to talk to any strangers who approach you on the grounds, alright? Next time just come inside and let either Alfred or myself know," Bruce instructed. 

"Alright," the son of Hades agreed. He didn't plan to keep the promise if it was another monster that showed up, but he sure as hell wasn't going to approach any mortal that just appeared out of nowhere. He wasn't stupid. With that, he headed back toward the manor, leaving Bruce and Richard to try and puzzle out the flaw in the perimeter.

 Nico made it safely through the house and to his room without falling prey to any traps. That's not to say that the other boys weren't trying. The pranks he had seen so far were pretty standard. Water balloons above doorways, blow horns attached to desk chairs, and plastic insects in cereal bowls. He figured this first week was just the warm-up stage and that there were going to be crazier stunts to come. Maybe he was the one who would start the transition. This next prank wasn't nearly as simple as the others had been.

Nico walked hurriedly into his room and shut the door behind him. He grabbed an elongated spring that he took from an old car and a whipped cream pie and set to work. When he had finished, the spring was attached to the floor. On top of it was the pie. The spring was bent so that when released it would shoot the pie at the door. There was a string attached to the doorknob, which ran through a hook in the wall. The string then ran across the room to his bedpost, where he has embedded a kitchen knife (he had promised himself he'd make it up to Alfred someday). When the door opened, the knife would cut the string and send the pie flying. He had just finished setting it up when someone knocked on the door.

" Yes?" Nico called out curiously. Then Bruce's voice came from outside his door, requesting entry. Nico frowned at the door, if it really was Bruce, he was going to have to disassemble his trap. Nico used his soul-searching ability to look through the door and saw Dick standing out there. It was a prank.

"Hold on, I've got to take down the water balloons. " Nico lied. Dick chuckled in Bruce's voice. Nico replicated the sounds of what he thought would make his lie plausible. After a couple of minutes, he called out, "Enter."

The tumblers clicked and the door was thrust open. Dick stood in the doorway, a Nerf bow in hand. Before Dick could fire, Nico's contraption did its work. Just as Dick released the arrow, he was caught in the chest with a pie. Nico had slightly underestimated how high the pie needed to go.

The arrow that Dick had shot caught Nico right between the eyes, making a very loud automated explosion sound. Both boys fell to the floor, looking at the other dumbfounded. Slowly, the pair busted up into laughter. Nico had never laughed so hard in his life, he almost enjoyed the feeling. 

Dick sat up and smiled at Nico, "This is so not asterous." Nico looked at the boy in confusion before deciding not to ask. Hearing the commotion, the other boys rushed onto the scene. It took them a couple of moments to take in what had happened but they were all surprised at how clever the pie contraption was. They never would have guessed that Nico was capable of coming up with something like that. What surprised them the most was that Nico was laughing.

His laugh was self-conscious but angelic, nothing like Dick's creepy yet endearing cackle, or Joker's sadistic evil laugh. The batboys all enjoyed his laugh and made it a goal to hear that laugh more often. Nico's laugh put everyone in a good mood (even the demon spawn).

" So, how did you get a pie stuck to your chest, Grayson?" Damian asked, trying to conceal his smirk. All the batboys knew very well how it had happened, they just thought it would be interesting to hear Nico's side of the story.

"Well..." Dick recounted his end of the story step by step. He made it sound a lot more dramatic than it actually was, but he put undue emphasis on the exaggerated parts so that no one mistook them for a fact.

"...Nico said that he was going to take down the water balloons. Once he said to come in..." Dick trailed off. Nico glanced up. The other boys were looking at Dick in confusion as well.

" How did you know it was me?" Dick asked.

" Hmm?" Nico asked, pretending to not understand while he desperately tried to figure out a plausible cover. He looked at Dick's shoes. The soles were bright blue. He could say that he saw them under the door. He had always been quick on his feet.

" You know, how did you know that it wasn't Bruce?"

"I could see the soles of your shoes from beneath the door." Nico lied smoothly. Dick nodded, accepting the answer. Dick went on to recount the rest of the story. The boys worked together to clean up the stray pieces of pie and disassemble Nico's trap while Dick went off to shower. After they had done that, they made a temporary truce to have a meeting in the library.

" Ok," Tim said eagerly, holding several different colors of markers. Along one of the walls was a whiteboard, where Tim had written each boy's name, "This is the scoreboard, so far Nico is up by two, with Dick in second with one prank." Nico looked at his opponents, they all were looking at the board with determination. He figured that he would become the main target, he would have to watch his back.

"Alfred has requested that we hold off on any more pranks until after the gala, so we don't ruin anything. So I propose a truce until tomorrow and 6 A.M, to be enacted now."

"Why six?" Jason complained, "Why not just until the party is over?"

"So no one gets a head start. It's only fair." Tim returned.

"Fair for who? For you? There's a reason you're not on the board yet, replacement." Nico felt that there was more behind that nickname than he understood because Tim's face twisted cruelly. 

"For all of us. And for your information, I don't have any pranks yet because this is only the first day. I'm in the planning stage," Tim countered.

"You want to know what your problem is?" Jason seemed to be trying to get a rise out of the younger boy, now.  He was baiting Tim into a fight.

"Do enlighten me," Tim spat back.

"All talk and no action," Nico frowned. As far as he had seen, Tim was the type to take action. Not just anyone would actually take the time to dive into those cold cases, much less actually find evidence that would help. The demigod didn't agree with Jason's assessment.

"That's rich coming from you, Todd." Nico didn't know as much about Jason, but this also seemed like an unfair argument. None of the Wayne boys had struck him as the type to not follow through. 

"Shut up Drake," Jason growled. Timothy glared at Jason angrily. Those two always seemed to just be angry at each other. Jason was always just angry in general. It wouldn't take much for things to escalate. There was some bad blood between the two of them for some reason and it seemed pretty serious.

"Don't dish out what you can't take." Tim snapped. Then Jason lunged, hands outstretched. The two boys rolled across the floor, ending with Jason on top. Not thinking, Jason put both of his knees on Tim's chest. Nico instinctually knew that he had to break them up. He knew that Jason's body weight could crush Tim's ribcage. In all likelihood, he would puncture his lung and could have serious internal bleeding, if the rib cage didn't completely crush his organs. Instantaneous death. 

Without hesitation, Nico lunged forward and shoved Jason off of Tim. Everyone except Nico froze as Tim sat up and coughed, clutching one palm against his chest. He was fine, nothing serious had happened, though it could have.

"Are you stupid?" The son of Hades had turned to Jason, his voice was cold.

"What--?" Jason's mouth opened to form a question but Nico cut him off.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing? You are almost twice his size. Do you have any idea what kind of damage a person your size could do?" Nico was snarling now, he turned away from the contrite Jason and offered Tim and hand up. Tim accepted it warily, being gently yet firmly, pulled to his feet.

" You're lucky that you only got a sore ribcage," Nico crossed his arms, "It could have been much worse." With that, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and exited the room. The rest of the boys were left speechless-- Nico's words were like a slap to the face. The middle child hadn't said so, but they had all gotten the message. Jason could have killed Tim.

++Batfam++

"You good?" Jason cleared his throat. It was hard to tell if his voice was thick from emotion or disuse, but either way, they could tell he was taking Nico's warning seriously. they all were.

" Yeah... I mean, yeah it was starting to hurt but nothing happened," Tim assured him. Tim was a little shaken by the event himself. He could have died? The group left to talk the event over with Bruce to see what he made of it all. The conversation didn't quite go how they had expected.

They had gone into Bruce's office as he was getting off of a virtual meeting with one of his department heads as they filed in. He saw their expressions and made a hasty exit from the meeting.

"What happened? You all look... cowed." Jason shifted on his feet uncomfortably, Dick settled down into one of the armchairs and Tim hovered by the window. They didn't reply. Damian, however, shot his father a look that showed he took offense to being lumped in with his brothers, but he didn't otherwise respond. 

"Where's Nico?" Bruce spoke up after a moment of tense silence. It seemed that none of them quite knew where to start. At the second question, the gates broke loose and the boys started to explain everything that had happened over the last half hour. When they were done, Bruce sided with Nico, which just added salt to the wound.

" I really could have..." Jason trailed off wide-eyed. He knew what it was like to die and he wouldn't wish that fate on Tim, even if he was bitter about being replaced. 

"What Nico said was right. You boys need to be more careful sometimes. You're strong, but even you are limited by how much you can withstand. Though as to how he knew all that, I'm not sure."

" Father, do you think he could have had training of some kind?" Damian asked. Bruce's face lit up as he opened his laptop.

"I don't know but I intend to find out. I was researching him on the bat computer, he was in a military school with his sister a few years ago. They ran away and a girl that bares a strong resemblance to his sister was later sighted at a museum with some other teens. They trashed the air and space exhibit, costing thousands of dollars in repairs. Nico wasn't with them."

"Really?" Dick glanced at the others who wore similar expressions of disbelief or suspicion. That wasn't normal teenage rebellion. Nico didn't seem capable of that sort of destruction. Bruce hummed in confirmation, obviously scrolling through something on his computer.

"Later, the same teens were spotted in New Mexico but his sister was nowhere to be seen. I have reason to believe that she died sometime on that journey. "

"I thought his sister died in an apartment fire in Italy? Isn't that what killed his mom?" Tim had come around now that he wasn't the subject of discussion.

"That's what's in his file," Bruce agreed. His voice betrayed his mistrust.

" But father, where was Nico during all of that? Or his father?" Damian asked again.

"I have a death certificate for his father with his file. It seems to be legitimate. Haden di Angelo committed suicide about five years after the supposed apartment fire that killed his wife and daughter. Nico was ten and living in America. He popped up at the military academy that same year." Bruce leaned back in his chair to stare at the screen, his eyes were troubled.

"And you said you think Bianca was in New Mexico? How? And where was Nico?" Tim pressed. 

"I have no idea. From the day he ran away from the academy he was missing and presumed dead. Somehow, he just dropped off the grid until he was spotted in New York's central park with two other teens a little while ago. Both of them had been seen with his sister before she disappeared. One has been the subject of multiple manhunts. I can't tell how they're all connected." Bruce replied. The boys took a couple of minutes to take that all in.

"What do you think it means?" Damian took the other armchair.

"If that really is Bianca-- and that really is a big if-- that means that she, and maybe even Maria di Angelo, didn't die in Italy." 

"Why would he lie? Who lied on those original reports? You said that they were both at that military academy? That would mean he had to have known she was still alive, right?" Jason spoke up.

"I don't know for sure that the girl is Bianca di Angelo. Conveniently, all records of this girl or the incident at the museum seem to have been expunged from all public records. I can't even find the roster of the military academy for that semester, though it's in Nico's file as the last school he attended. All I have is a grainy surveillance photograph and a nonsensical police report." The older man rubbed the bridge of his nose. Clearly frustrated and at a loss.

"Wow, that's a little suspicious," Dick said. He knew it was more than a little suspicious, but he wanted to give Nico the benefit of the doubt. There was a brief minute of silence while Bruce scrolled through some data on his computer and no one else knew what to say.

"Where are the two other teens now? The ones that were spotted in Central Park." Jason asked. He seemed to have recovered completely from earlier, now invested in this mystery.

"One has been spotted in just about every forest preserve in the country, while the other one is still in New York. Manhattan, I believe."

"Why don't we ask him about it? Say you saw that he had a sister in his file?" Tim asked. Bruce shook his head and opened his mouth to give a reason but was cut off by Dick.

"No," Dick said, "if he wants us to know, he'll tell us. Pressing him will only make him clam up." Bruce nodded in confirmation.

"Go on boys, go and bond with him. The faster he trusts you, the faster we get answers. Don't be mad Jason. He was probably more worried about Tim than he was angry at you." Bruce shooed them all along.

++Jason++

The boys found Nico sitting outside, beneath a weeping willow. Nico stood as he saw them approaching. For a moment Jason thought that he was going to turn and walk the other way,  but Nico stayed put.

"Hey, Nico," Dick called out as he led the rest of them toward the boy. 

"Hey, guys. I'm uh... sorry. I overreacted. I was just concerned." Nico muttered as he glanced at  Jason. Jason opened his mouth to speak but closed it again when he found that he didn't have any idea what to say. 

"It's ok, we get it.  Why don't we kill the next 2 hours with a movie before the gala?" Dick said calmingly. He glanced at everyone in turn and decided that they were all in agreement. 

" What is your favorite movie, Nico?" Tim asked as he walked back into the manor. Nico stiffened, he had never seen a movie.

"I don't have one." He replied, his voice somewhat strained. Jason glanced at him curiously. How did he not have one? It stands to reason that he might not have one, obviously, he hadn't had the best upbringing, and with his time off the grid and such. Nico was an Interesting case that he hoped he could someday find the answer to.