Previously:
Fire Lord, you would not be getting out of here anytime soon because the training of one of use starts at a young age. At your age, you would not be leaving until you reached the age of fifty."

I shrugged. "I don't care about that, do not worry, I'll be fine," I told them. "Just put me at whatever level people my age would be at."

I could tell this made Dominick more nervous. "But Fire Lord-"

"Scratch that, have me fight some people so you can see where I would be in this training program of yours," I said, hoping for a compromise. I did not want to make anyone uncomfortable.

There was a sigh. "Very well, Fire Lord."

I fell hard on my back, grunting as I landed. The training the Golden Ninjas have me going through is intense. I was learning new weapons and how to hide in plain sight and other useful 'secret agent' skills.

The fight to decide whether I could join them in training was hard and I tired easily since I was using my water powers to detect them. They never took off whatever made them seem invisible and they blended in with the golden mountain and basically everything. They said it was suppose to help me see them if I just go with it. I had had to end the fight quickly because of that. So the first chance I got, I took it.

At the moment I was doing the warm up with my trainer, Aurum. Each day I would warm up with a spar, something I almost always lost in the beginning because I did not want to tire myself before the actual workout began. Something my trainer quickly rectified. Now it is an equal amounts of wins and losses.

After the warm up, we'd do a quick lesson on camouflage and then they would have me train with different weapons for the rest of the day. I would first do the sword for practice-I did not want to get rusty- then onto the knives, crossbow and ninja stars. In the last hours of the day, they would try to teach me how to see them with out my water powers. Needless to say, my training here was the hardest I have ever gone through even with Chiron as my teacher.

I struggled seeing the Golden ninjas with out my powers. I would see flashes of movement at times but other than that nothing. Not even a shadow. I just could not focus enough.

I stood up shakily, rubbing my back from my fall. The moves the ninjas use are similar to the judo flips and martial arts Annabeth used. It threw me off sometimes as things that reminded me of her always did at a certain time each year.

"Come, godling, you are better than this," my trainer said, standing over me. "I know, I have seen it." He grabbed my hand since I could not see it if he just held it out and pulled me up.

"I am sorry, Aurum, I can not focus," I told him, growing in my frustration.

"Fire Lord, that is your excuse during the training at the end of the day, what is wrong?" He asked respectfully but firmly.

"I do not know," I groaned, grabbing at my hair. Then a thought occurred to me. I looked up to where I assumed he was, my eyes wide with panic. "What is the date?"

I assumed Aurum looked confused. "Why? What does that have to do with anything?" He asked.

"Just tell me," I said, my voice rising. I wiped at the cold sweat that broke out on my forehead.

"I believe it is August 17th," he told me, touching my forehead. "What is wrong, godling?"

August? Already? I thought. "No, no, no, it can't be, I-I'm not ready," I said aloud.

"Fire Lord?" Aurum asked hesitantly. I looked at him, my breathing escalated, I had to feel something stable. "Fire Lord?" he asked again. Immediately, I reached up towards his voice and held his arm, gripping it tightly.

"Aurum, are you familiar with memory curses?" I asked him, blinking furiously to get the images out of my mind.

"No, what does it mean?" He asked, his concerns for me mounting.

A wave of pain attacked my head and I screamed, probably gaining the attention of everyone within hearing distance. Once I stopped, I was on my hands and knees, panting heavily. "Aurum, I'm gonna pass out soon," I said quickly. This was always the procedure. "Do not try to wake me up. Now matter what happens to me, understand?"

"Fire Lord-"

"Understand?" I demanded. He could make it worse if he woke me up.

"Yes, Fire Lord," Aurum said, crouching low. "But what is happening?"

Just now I noticed that we had an audience. Other ninjas had run over, presumably when I screamed. "A memory curse" I repeated, still panting, I could feel another wave of pain coming on. "I am forced to relive all my worst memories each year on this date. Believe me when I say there is a lot. I'll probably-" a wave of pain crashed into my head, worse than the last time. It wont be long now. "I'll probably be out for the rest of the day. Do not wake me..." and the world faded into darkness.

I went from memory to memory, each worse than the last. It all started with Smelly Gabe, then onto losing my mother to the Minotaur. Then it moved onto my quests. Every failure, every mistake, every single little thing I did wrong that led to larger mistakes that eventually led to so many people dying in the Labyrinth and the final battle in Manhattan.

I thought about all those years, knowing my mother was being beat up by her husband and not being able to do anything about it. I thought about all those demigods that died with out knowing their godly parent. With out feeling loved, with out the feeling of family love. I thought about all those deaths in the Titan and Giant War that I was unable to do anything about. Leo, Octavian, Selina, Beckendorf, Luke, Ethan and so much more. I thought about the torture that Annabeth and I endured in Tartarus.

Gaea rose because of me and my stupid nosebleed. Luke left and joined Kronos because of my inability to see what one of my friends was going through. I was not fast enough to save Michael on the bridge, strong enough to save Bianca from the machine, smart enough to save Annabeth from falling into Tartarus. Wise enough to see that Zoe was not fit enough to fight her father, I could not save Annabeth from falling over the cliff with Thorn and carrying the sky and most of all, everyone at home hates me. All my fault.

I deserved every bit of the pain that I am going through right now.

Then, just as I thought that it was starting to settle down, the memory of how I got this forsaken curse came up.

"You honestly did not think that you would be able to get away with out some sort of punishment now did you?" a sickly innocent voice taunted from the dark. I could feel the tears already coming down my face. "Weak," the voice continued, "so weak."

I felt a blade slid itself down my jaw line, leaving a train of blood. It was not deep enough that it would leave a scar but it hurt. "What do you want?" I asked, my voice wavering even though I willed it not to.

"Oh, Percy, Percy," now a face could be seen. It was the face of my ex-girlfriend. "I want you to pay." The way she said it sent shivers down my back, my tears making the cut on my face sting.

They had tied me up, having just caught up to me after I had been on the run from them for a few months. I still do not know how they found me yet here they were. She tortured me for a few more hours before she finally read a curse from a book and I felt immense pain in my head.

The next thing I knew, my mother had appeared and saved me from the nearby fire then I passed out.

When I finally woke up, it was night. I knew this because the golden shadows were deeper and I could see silver stars in the black sky through a hole in the wall. I sat there in my cot, staring at the sky, not moving from my spot until I reached for my necklace that hung loosely around my neck. I needed the comfort of my mother at the moment.

I breathed in deep, feeling the warmth and hope she and a few of the gods sent over. In a few minutes, I was fine and ready to leave my designated room.

I started to make my way to the mess cave for dinner, I could have passed by a dozed people and I would not have noticed, which annoyed me to pieces. I decided I was going to practice until I could see them. I already was pretty good with all the weapons they were teaching me, all I needed to master was the skill of seeing those who do not wish to be seen. I figured that instead of trying to find them while I sat and looked, maybe it would be better if I learned how to move as they did, noiselessly and smoothly. My outfit was much like what I changed it to when I fought Nia and Blaine, the only difference was that it was a deeper gold and had some silver lining.

Once I got to the mess cave, I went immediately to the food line and piled my tray up as much as I could.  I felt as if I had not eaten in weeks. I sat down at the first empty table I came to and started eating. I was half way through my food when I realized I had people staring at me. I could feel my neck prickle from the many eyes on my as I ate.

I looked up, momentarily forgetting I couldn't see them. "What?" I asked. "Is there something on my face?"

Silence.

"Hello?" I asked, "I know you guys are there, I feel you staring at me." Immediately, some people looked away and the prickling on my neck decreased a little.

"Fire Lord, are you alright?" a voice I did not recognize asked.

I looked in his direction, confused. "Why would I not be?" I asked, frowning.

"Fire Lord," Aurum started, "You passed out for an entire month. You were screaming for most of it and whip marks appeared on your back and many other wounds along with that. You nearly bled to death."

So that is why my throat is sore, I thought to myself before the meaning of it sunk in. "What?" I demanded, "An entire month? This is bad." I ran my fingers through my hair, standing up from my seat.

"Well, yeah," I recognized Nia's voice, "you were out for four weeks and you almost bled to death."

I shook my head and started pacing. "No, no, no, this is really bad," I said, still shaking my head. I kept pacing, muttering things and playing with my necklace, all the while, making my family of the Golden Ninjas worry. Some one left to get the rest of the family and they waited until I finally stopped, I could feel the blood rush from my face. "It has gotten worse."

"What has, godling?" Dominick asked, coming up to me when he saw me stop pacing.

I reached out to grab his shoulders, searching blindly in the golden cave. I breathed a sigh of relief wen he grabbed my hand. "My memory curse," I told him, "You know what that is?"

He pat my hand assuredly. "You are forced to relived all your worst memories, every year on the same date," he recited sadly.

I nodded. "Every year," I repeated, "And they grow as my life progresses and I gain new ones." I could feel the suspense in the room. I could tell some of the younger ones were impatient for me to reveal my point. I took a deep breath. "Normally, it only lasts a day."

There were a few murmurings at that and the tension in the room rose exponentially.

"Oh, my boy," Dominick said, pulling me in closer for a hug.

I pushed away. "I do not need pity," I said bitterly, "I need a way to break this curse."

"And you will find it," he said, bringing me back in. "And those who did it to you will pay for it."

That calmed me some and I allowed the ninja holding me to continue doing so. I savored the feeling. I have not felt this sort of security in a long time and I missed it.

Eventually, we both pulled away. "Let us go," Dominick said. "You have much yet to learn. Blaine, I want you and Nia researching as much as you can about this curse on Fire Lord. Tell me as soon as you find something. Have some of your friends help you."