Will's POV
I found Nico at the climbing wall, scaling the death trap with incredible agility and skill. He maneuvered past the hot lava, hit the bell at the top, and slid down. He spotted me watching him from afar, looking uncomfortable, and came over to greet me.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked. I'm sure he could see the awkward expression on my face, and I felt bad about asking him to do what I wad about to ask him.

"Nico, I need your help," I murmured uncomfortably, not looking into his eyes.

"Yeah, anything," he said, giving me a grin. I loved my boyfriend. I took a shaky breath.

"I need you to help me talk to my sister. Well, half sister." Nico furrowed his eyebrows.

"Do you need to borrow a phone? I don't have one but I know Annabeth does." I shook my head.

"That's not what I meant. I need your help in raising her from the underworld." Nico's face morphed into something that resembled a mix of shock and confusion.

"Your sister... Is she dead?" I nodded, tears springing to my eyes.

"She died when I was seven, when I was almost killed by a hellhound. She wasn't a demigod, and she had no idea what was going on, but she jumped in front of it to save me." I shook my head. "After all this time I haven't even thought about her, but I think I'm ready. I want to tell her I'm sorry."

Nico didn't speak for a few minutes, and I was scared he would say no. I knew this was a lot to ask of a person, and I knew that Nico's underworld magic drained his energy. But then, to my surprise, Nico started to laugh.

"Sorry," he gasped. "I just think it's funny that your asking me to do my magic. You're usually so overprotective." He straightened up. "I'll do it, obviously." My heart leapt.

"Really?" I cried.

"Of course," Nico replied. "You're my boyfriend. I'd do anything for you." He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "But first, there's somewhere we need to go."

I had no idea how it had happened, but somehow Nico had managed to get twenty dollars from the Stoll brothers (it had been stolen, but Nico said that didn't matter) and had convinced Chiron to let us out of camp. There were times when I wondered if Nico was secretly a child of Hermes. To my great distaste, Nico had shadow traveled us into a small town a few miles away, and now we were at a McDonald's close to a nearby cemetery. I watched as Nico sank his teeth into a Big Mac, watching grease run down his face.

"You know that stuffs not food, right?" I grimaced. Nico shrugged and swallowed a colossal bite.

"I was starving, and I need my strength for tonight. Besides, it was the best I could get with the amount of money we had. Don't forget, I still had to buy those." He nodded to the three happy meals and six pack of coke that sat next to us.

"Fine, I guess I can't stop you from eating that poison," I sighed. "But I'm still not happy about it." I looked out the window to see purple and pink in the sky, signifying dusk. "It's getting late now. Should we go?" Nico nodded, finishing up his hamburger and wiping his face with a rough napkin on the table. He grabbed the six pack of coke, and I grabbed the three happy meals.

"Come on," he told me, holding open the door. "We still have a two mile walk."

The fall wind was ferocious, blowing my hair into a frenzy and making me wish that I had more than my orange camp half- blood tee shirt on. Nico was fine, toasty warm in the aviator jacket I had gotten him for his birthday.

"Are we almost there?" I shuddered, shivering as a freezing gust of wind rolled over me. Nico turned around, smirking.

"Are you cold? If you would just let me shadow travel us there, we'd be at the cemetery in a matter of seconds. I shook my head.

"No way, Death Boy. I already feel bad enough as it is, asking you to do this."

"Fine," Nico sighed, and turned back around.

A few minutes later, Nico turned back to me.

"Will, your sister. What was she like?" I smiled as fond memories came into focus. One year for my birthday she had gotten me a play doctor's kit, one that had a stethoscope with a button that made a heartbeat sound. In the summer, she would take me to the carnival. We would ride the Ferris wheel, and she would point to all the buildings, telling me which ones they were. She always held my hand when we went on the scariest roller coasters together, and at the end she bought me cotton candy.

"She was great," I croaked, amazed at how raspy my voice had gotten with just a few memories. "She was selfless, and she died to save me. For a while she was my best friend, and I knew she'd do anything to save me. Since the accident, I've had this hole in my chest filled with loneliness and grief and guilt. I just want to tell her I'm sorry." I felt a hand on my back and I looked down, seeing Nico wrap an arm around me.

"Well, tonight you'll get that chance," he told me. "You can finally tell her you're sorry, even though it wasn't your fault. I nodded.

"Thanks, Neeks." Nico pointed up ahead, where I could see a small, lonely looking graveyard.

"Anyway, it looks like we're almost there." I sighed in relief.

"Finally." I ran the rest of the way up the hill.

Nico waved away the zombie workers, sending them back to the underworld.

"Will, pour the food into the hole." We each grabbed a few gallons of coke and a happy meal each and dumped everything into the six foot hole.

"Sort of a waste," Nico frowned. "I'm hungry." I laughed.

"You're always hungry."

"It's part of the job," Nico said. He handed me his Stygian iron sword, the opaque metal glinting in the moonlight. "There'll be a lot of ghosts who aren't your sister. If any of them get too close to the pit, run them through with this." I nodded, and Nico started chanting. The language was strange to me, and it didn't sound like Ancient Greek. Maybe it was magic, but I couldn't be sure. Partway through, white lights started flickering around the graveyard. As the chanting continued, the white lights came into higher definition, and I could see the ghosts. There was a young girl with long black hair of about five, and an old, wrinkled man hunched over with a cane and a middle aged woman with a gunshot in her forehead, to name a few. They moaned in hunger, eyeing the pit with longing, but made no move toward Nico. The Stygian iron sword seemed to scare the spirits away. I looked around, searching for my sister, but I couldn't see her long blond hair or bright blue eyes anywhere in the throng of ghosts surrounding us.

"Has she showed up yet?" Nico called. His voice wavered a bit, and I spotted a thin sheet of sweat in his forehead. I could tell that summoning the ghosts was taking a lot out of him. I shook my head morosely.

"Maybe we should just go. I don't want to ask this much of you."

"No," Nico gasped. "We've come this far, I'm not giving up now." He raised his voice louder, and a shimmering image came into focus. I saw my sister as she had been eight years ago. Her long blond hair reached the nape of her back and her blue eyes glittered mischievously as they had in life. Her plain purple tee shirt was stained with dark red blood where the hellhound had ripped into her. I heard Nico's chanting waver, then stop, as all the ghosts except for Hannah disappeared into thin air. Hannah stepped closer to me, reaching out and gently caressing my cheek. I could feel Nico's gaze, and I could tell that my exchange with Hannah reminded him of himself with his older sister Bianca.

"Look at you Will, you've grown up," she murmured, gazing at me with affection.

"You've been gone for so long," I gasped.

"Exactly, Will," she sighed. "I don't blame you for my death, not one bit." I blinked up at her.

"You- you don't?" She laughed, an airy sound that I remembered from my childhood.

"Of course not. I died to save you, and never have I ever regretted my choice. I'm a thing of the past, Will. It's time to let go. Tell me you forgive me for dying, and I can finally rest in peace."

"I- I forgive you. And Hannah, I love you. You will never leave my heart." Hannah gave me one more smile.

"Goodbye, Will. One day, I hope you will live peacefully in Elysium alongside me. I'll wait for you." She turned away from me, and melted away into the shadows. I heard Nico's footsteps in the leaves, and felt his cool hand on my back.

"I know it can be hard, letting go of an older sister like that. Are you okay?" I nodded.

"She'd been gone for eight years, and  finally got closure. Anyway, she is what she is. A thing of the past."

Hope you guys liked that! Sorry for not updating last night, my mom took my computer away.

Nina