I heard those words again. Ones I loved so much.

Ma Nico mio caro.

Tu sei il mio soldatino.

La ragione ho vissuto.

Non ti scordar di me.

Io veglierò su di te.

The lullaby Bianca sang to me every night as a kid.

And I heard a voice again. But this time it wasn't her.

" Ma Nico Mio Caro." It was the voice of the thing I loved. " If I said that right, I'm sorry. I pushed you. Pushed you too far. Something I do an awful lot I know."

This voice stopped for a minute.

"And before you wake up I wanted to say that I'm sorry. When you wake I doubt you'll remember anything. Will and them say you'll remember but I don't know. I have this feeling when you wake up you're not going to be the same Nico Di Angelo or even the happy one. You're... You're just going to be a stranger. And I'm scared to think of how it would be after that."

Once again he stops as he had to catch his breath. Or maybe he was crying. Or both.

"If you didn't remember...I know the others will be happy because you'd have a chance to be happy. But you'd never get to meet me. Nope. I haven't been through as much with anyone as I have been through with you, Nico. And I.. I.. I cant...can't lose that. You're the only one I brought here that wanted to stay. Sometimes you'd hate it. But in the end I always knew you ended up here. You might leave. But you always come back. Because maybe we didn't know exactly what you were going through. But we had a good guess and we tried to help you. Sometimes I think I taught you too much in too little time. Like I was Luke and you were me. Assuming that makes any sense to you."

He stopped one last time.

"Next time you know your own name you won't have a clue of anything in your way. So you do a few stupid things and you regret it too much and hold that against yourself and then the cutting starts and... the last thing I want for you is to turn into me, Nico. I am so much worse than they all think. Nothing close to it. You're just a kid. You don't deserve to go through what I had to."

After that it was silent as consider waking up and given a few minutes my other senses started coming back to me.

My eyes fluttered open as I saw where I was. My cabin. My room. And Percy was there. Right next to me. Actually crying.

I didn't know what to do because I knew he had so many doubts right now about me and at the top was my memory and I needed a way to let him know that I was still me. That I still remembered.

So I did my first instinct. He was crying.

Just hugged him.

Okay, maybe not a hug but more like if I let go I'd die kind of thing. And he returns it. Which just yeah... it was nice.

Nothing was said. Nothing had to be said. Just the fact that we were both there together.

So, yeah, it was worth it all. Just that one moment covered up all of it.

No we didn't kiss or anything like that. It just stayed that way for the next 7 minutes when the dinner bell went off.

" Come on." Percy told me with the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face. " Were all going out to celebrate the passing of the Titan War tonight for dinner."

" That was last month I thought." I said.

"Yeah..." The smiling demigod in front of me explains. " You've been out for about 10 months."

I just nod my head and trying to get past Jason because you know it was just going to be a few of us that actually fought against Kronos.

" Woah, woah woah." Jason saw me walking towards the top of the hill with Annabeth and Grover and Clarisse and Percy and Thalia.

" Where you guys going?" Leo asked, and points at Percy. " On his birthday with out us."

" None of your business, Valdez." Thalia said.

" No,seriously." Piper said. " Where are you guys going?"

" Just out for a bit." Annabeth said.

" Can we come with?" Hazel asked.

" No." I said. " Not really."

" Why not?" Frank asked.

" Dude, it was nothing you were involved with." Percy told them.

" We still want to come!" Reyna and Octovain joined them as they all say that and after about 20 minutes of that they came with. Frank and Hazel sat in the back of Percy's Prius as Percy drove and I took shotgun.

" Okay so if not for the Giant War." Frank said. " And not for Percy's Birthday. What is this all for?"

Just to irritate them we don't answer until we got to the mall and met with the others

And we all have fake IDs in case we decide to do stupid crap and at this bar there we had our fake ID's and we had our own tradition for this. Truth or dare. No limits.

" This is a bad idea." Reyna said.

" Yeah." Hazel agreed. " Are you sure it's okay?"

" You wanted to play." Clarisse said. " You put in the 50. We didn't catch a second look last year. If you don't want to play don't. But you can't take back the money."

"That's unfair!" Like all of them who didn't fight said.

" Well that's the game." I said.

" So if you don't want to do it." Percy told them. " Meet us back here in about 2 hours."

" Two hours in a bar?" Piper asked.

" Did anyone get drunk or high last time you guys did this?" Hazel asked.

" all of us did." Grover was honest.

" Seriously?" They all ask.

" This is the only day the camp doesn't care where we are." Annabeth told them. " Were gonna have fun."

" This is what you call fun?" Jason asked. " Not being in camp and like just hanging?"

" Obviously you've been at the camps too long without the freedom." Clarisse told them.

" Okay I understand leaving camp and hanging around the mall or going to a movie or something like that for the night." Hazel said. " But drinking? For a game?"

" Have to live on the edge with out the chance of death sometimes." I told them. " It's not like were going to drink ourselves to death."

They weren't going to play but they'd watch for a little they said and how we start out. We start out hardcore.

By my fifth turn I had downed 7 bottles of beer, 4 glasses of wine, and 9 shot glasses slammed.

We recorded the night and all so we'd know what happened an we'd watch it. Most of the night was a blur after that. I was past wasted after an hour and a half.

We played 3 hours and I know we took the same vehicles back. but I know Percy didn't drive. We got back in one piece.

Had crazy dreams that night and when I woke up I had a headache. Ugh. Stupid hangover effect.

" Do you even know how drunk you got last night?" Frank asked me.

" Kind of a blur after maybe 2 hours." I said. " Why?"

" You guys did the weirdest stuff." Frank said. " Hazel freaking out because you weren't exactly positive about who she was when you were drunk made her freak out. So that didn't help."

" Good times." I said. " Once a year you guys gotta get wasted."

" You're 15." Frank told me.

" Actually I'm 16." I told Frank. " And like I can see Jason or Hazel flipping out about the drinking. Hazel from the 40s and Jason not a rule breaker and plus both having siblings doing it. But why would like Octovain flip? He's actually legal to drink, I think."

Frank shrugged. Hazel was sleeping still so we were just talking in the cabin.

" Did you guys ever do that before?" Frank asked me. " Or was that like totally new? To you."

" I've done it before." I told Frank. " Twice before last night. When we got back from the war, and the year before that. We went out the year before that but I was like 12. So I waited until I was a teen to do the drinking. I did the other stuff. Just not the drinking. Sort of just a thing we like to do in August to celebrate. Have fun."

" Why did you guys start?" Here came the other five. And two minutes later Hazel wakes up.

" Long story." I told them. " And like they said yesterday, it's really something you weren't involved in. Maybe like Reyna or Jason or Octovain."

" For what?" Reyna asked.

" Krios." I remind them. " Atlas. Iaptus. Those couple years."

" The two summers before the war?" Octovain asked. " That prophecy wasn't even fulfilled."

" You don't know the shit that's coming out of your mouth." I said

" Then who represented it?" Reyna asked.

" Percy." I said. " Luke was the one who died, Percy was the one that was 16."

" I'm confused." Leo confessed.

" And it'll stay that way" Here comes the others minus Thalia being she was back with the hunters.