Previously:
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."

"Fire Lord! Fire Lord!" A voice called. I turned to look and saw a vague shape. I've been able to see blurry, humanoid shapes of the ninjas ever since my time down memory lane. Every time I close my eyes though, I still see those flashes of color that distract me. It is kind of hard to fall asleep when it is going on too, it keeps me up when I am trying to sleep.

"What is it, Shadow?" I asked, momentarily looking away from the target I was suppose to be aiming at with my throwing knives, which resulted in me missing the bullseye. I'll have to work on that.

"Dominick needs you in the library," Shadow panted. I could see enough of him to see that he had raised a hand to wipe at some sweat off his brow. Shadow was a student of sorts. One of the many teens that train to be a Golden Ninja. He's at the stage where he just has to finish one last thing in his training then he'd be a full fledged ninja. Kind of like a padawan from Star Wars. He and I had hit it off really well when we started training together. He has yet to master the crossbow but he was a prodigy with the camouflage thing the Gold Ninjas do.

"Alright," I told him, "I will be there in a second, I just need to clean up."

"I will do that Fire Lord, Dominick seemed urgent," Shadow said, taking the training knives from me.

I nodded gratefully at him and made my way to the library. Dominick had joined Blain and Nia in the library to find a cure for my curse. As did several others. I had not realized how many people cared for me here. The thing is, they all decided to help on their own. Dominick had nothing to do with all the help in there. I'm surprised at their patience though. I had helped in there for the first few weeks before they finally had enough of my ADHD antics and kicked me out to train. They've been at it for months since then.

Once I got to the library, I saw a lot of vague, golden shapes surrounding a golden table and a book that looked really old.

"What's going on, guys?" I asked, walking up to the table since that was where most of the whispers were coming from.

"Fire Lord!" Blaine's voices exclaimed. All of the gold humanoid shapes turned to look at me, he sounded excited. His voice wen up and it sounded a lot happier than the last times it has sounded when ever I come be to visit. "I think we have found it! I may have found a way for you to heal from your curse!"

Immediately, I was by the table, looking at eh large book everyone seemed to be crowding around. "What is it?" I asked, "How do I do it?"

"It says here," Nia's voice started, "you would need to travel to the same spot you received it at-" I stiffened, I did not want to do that. Not only do I not know here that is, but I was not ready to return to Earth. "-and recite this chant that is written here."

"The thing is," Dominick said, "That way is for if you decide to do it on your own." I stared at Dominick's shape in confusion, waiting for him to continue. There was another way? "The other way," he continued, "is for you to accept help. You need to become a part of another group, another family. We will need to accept you as one of our own."

I slumped. "But the only way you could do that is if I completed your training and I still have much to learn," I said.

"Fire Lord, my boy," Dominick said, chuckling. "You have completed all but one. Our teachers cannot teach you anymore about the weapons you wield. "At this I knew exactly what he was getting at. "You have yet to see us in complete detail, no?"

I nodded, feeling excitement flow through me. I could tell I let some of that flow through my charm because I got a questioning feeling pushed back at me from my mother and the others. I sent more excitement over, at the same time, sending the memory of the pain I went through and imagined it ending. They must have figured it out because a few seconds later, they sent their own excitement over.

"What are we waiting for?" I asked, my voice cracking from all the excitement running through my veins. "Let's do this."

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I spent the next several weeks, working at seeing through the camouflage they seemed to have perfected. I was getting better, I was seeing more defined shapes and I could see more than just the contour lines of everyone now. But I still needed to see them all completely before I would have finished.

"Concentrate, Fire Lord," Aurum said in frustration. "You will not master this if you do now concentrate."

I had started paying attention to the golden shadow and my necklace and anything else that happened to not be what I was suppose to be focusing on. "Sorry," I said, throwing my hands up in an equal amount of frustration. "What do you want me to do? Close my eyes?"

"That would kind of defeat the purpose, now would it not?" Aurum shot back.

But something about what we said struck a chord. It would defeat the purpose. SO had so many other things in my life but it always helped my in the end.

Like on Yona, going to the trap in order to not get caught in the trap seemed pointless, yet it helped. And I had to get betrayed by who I had thought of as family in order to find my real one. My birth mother died so I could find another and I had to face my father in order to leave.

It was a paradox.

So I stood up, slowly from my seated position and took a deep breathe.

"Fire Lord?" Aurum asked in confusion.

"Just go with it," I muttered as I closed my eyes. Almost immediately, the splashes of color reappeared but instead of trying to ignore it, I focused on it.

"No way," I said, a smile growing on my face, "Aurum, hold up your hand and a random amount of fingers." The fingers had always been hard. They would be blurry for me and I could never see them clearly. I laughed as Aurum did as I asked.

"What is it, Fire Lord?" A different voice asked. Aurum' partner, Oreo, was the other ninja that helped Aurum teach me to see them.

I glanced over at her then back at Aurum. "Are you by any chance holding your pinky and thumb up?" I asked. He never does anything normally.

"I am, Fire Lord, how are you doing this?" Aurum said, smiling widely. And yes, I could see that too.

Well, it was not exactly 'seeing' per-say. More like, everything was glowing where light would be. So imagine a picture done in black and white but it is in different colors.  Aurum was glowing blue and Oro was glowing a beautiful green. I almost forgot what blue looked like, how sad is that?

I explained as much to Aurum and Oro and they declared my training completed.

"After all," Oro had put it, "you can still see us, can you not?"

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Preparations for the ceremony to accept me into the Golden Ninjas was in full swing. Multi-colored ninjas were running around the caves, setting up the biggest cave for the ceremony and the second biggest for the party afterwards.

I, however, was having fun with my new found power I had received from this planet. Dominick was a brilliant gold, Nia was a teal or a mint color and Blaine happened to be a silvery grey color. The more I used it, the more I realized what it did. This new 'sight' could tell me what sort of aura they have. The brighter they glow, the bigger destiny they had in store for them. How did I know this? I have no idea. It could also tell me if they were on the light side or the dark side. No, not of the Force, though that would be amazing.

"Fire Lord," Shadow shouted from the other side of the cave. He was a really bright chocolate brown, in case you were wondering. "Dominick said that you needed to get ready. The ceremony is about to start!"

Three seconds later, I was in the ceremonial garb they had told me about, using my handy powers that Aphrodite gave me.

I could see Shadow roll his eyes at my laziness. "Hey, do not judge," I said, making my way over to him. "Be glad you don't have to do anymore running back and forth from me and the tailors so that they could make it fit." Dominick told me that we keep the ceremonial garb for safe keeping. Like a memory to keep forever. Since that is how it was, I figured it would be easier to make it with my powers from Aphrodite then change into something else afterwards.

"That is one thing I love about today," Shadow sighed happily.

I laughed as I put my arm around the young ninja. "Let us go then, young one," I said, "it is time for us to become family."

Shadow shook his head. "Fire Lord," he said quietly, "you were always part of my family."

I stopped walking and turned to stare at Shadow. Which must have looked weird since to him I had my eyes closed.

Shadow was sincere about his comment, I could see that. He had tears threatening to fall down his cheeks but he was smiling. His heart rate had increased and I could tell he was excited. When I 'saw' him for the first time, I could easily tell his age. It was around my age when I stopped aging, around eighteen, almost nineteen. He was a little shorter than me but only by a little. Shadow looked confident, even with a guy that had his eyes closed staring at him. So young but so mature. He understood the meaning of family with out having to be told. I only hoped he would not end up like me.

"Thank you, Shadow," I whispered, "you have no idea what that means to me." I gave him a hug and pulled away, knowing how teenage boys were about his sort of stuff. "Now lets go be officially family," I laughed as I ran from the cave and down the hall.

Shadow laughed and chased after me to the room they had set up for the ceremony.

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Weeks after the ceremony, I stood in my room, staring at my cot with the ceremonial clothes laying on it sadly. Somehow, I always knew that this day would come but it did not make it any easier. I had to figure out how to get the ceremonial clothes into my back pack with out worrying about wrinkling them.

Oh and I am leaving the Planet of the Golden Shadows today.

Yeah. Cannot forget that. Shadow has stopped talking to me because of it. Ever since I told everyone, everything has been dull and downcast and Dominick was really the only one to act normally around me. Shadow seemed to think that if he ignored me he could get me to stay. But, I knew that my time on this planet was over. Toll was coming to this planet in a few hours and he might not come by again for a long while. I have learned all I could from this planet and from these people so I must go.

After I had figured out how to put the clothes into my bag (and by that I mean I stuffed them in and hoped my powers from Aphrodite included keeping clothes wrinkle free), I made my way to the entry way of the caves. On the way I saw that some of the ninjas started following me. I guess they all wanted to say good bye. We left the caves and walked all the way to the bus station.

I sighed. This was going to be hard.  I was never good at good byes.

"Fire Lord, do you have everything you need?" Dominick asked.

I nodded and hefted my backpack and smiled sadly. "I'm ready," I said. I turned to look at the other ninjas gathered around us. I saw Nia, Blaine, Aurum, Oro and even Shadow even though he was not talking to me. "Good bye, family," I said, looking at each person carefully. They all had tears in their eyes.

"Thank you, Nia and Blaine, for forcing me here against my will," I started, "I would never have found my family with out you and I would never have healed from the curse set by the one I thought I loved." I stopped. I had said more than I had planned to say.

"Thank you, Aurum and Oro for training me in your ways," I said, turning to them while ignoring the whispers of the other ninjas in the vicinity.

"Shadow," I started, "May I speak with you in private?" I led Shadow off to the side. "I realize that you think you are losing a friend but I want you to know that I will see you again," I told him.

"What?" He said. "How do you know that? Can you see the future?"

"No, but I have a feeling and my feelings are almost always right," I said, smiling. "Shadow, we will see each other again, I know it. But keep this to yourself alright? I don't want Dominick getting too excited, I don't think it will be in his life time."

Shadow had a ghost of a smile on his face. "Alright," he said. "Just stay safe, Fire Lord, we don't want you dying before that time comes."

"It's Percy," I said. I thought it was time to tell him my real name. "My real name is Percy Jackson. Fire Lord is a code name."

All of a sudden a honk was heard and I looked up to see Toll's silver bus flying down from the sky.

"Good bye everyone!" I shouted after giving Shadow one of those 'bro-hugs' that I taught him from Earth. "Stay safe and try to keep the kidnapping to a minimum!"

"Fare thee well, Fire Lord," the Golden Ninjas said in unison right before the silver bus landed.