A promise, that's all I made. I promised the world, and I failed. Nothing is left. We face our oblivion, ever closer, if not already. If we haven't faced it, may we face oblivion in arms. Let this weight of regret flow through me and maybe you'll see, maybe, how all things came to nothing.

Bright, that's all I can describe of what I can see. Bright white and pale yellow. I can't feel or hear anything besides the ringing in my ears. I force myself to focus, and my vision starts to clear. I'm in an infirmary or hospital of some sort, I can't tell. As I try to move I realize that I can't. I'm paralyzed.

"He's awake" I hear a voice say. It sounds so familiar, yet I can't remember.

"Smokes, hey, buddy, are you alright?" I hear another voice say. This one I can pin down for sure. It's Miller, a son of Ares. I try to speak, but words won't come out. I'm about to panic when the other voice says "sorry about the paralysis, we had to find a way to keep you from attacking us when we were removing the bullet from your liver. It should wear off in about thirty seconds from now."

As soon as that time passes, I sit up. Big mistake, as I nearly vomit from dizziness. As that feeling wears off, I manage to ask what I've been trying to since I woke up.

"So what the Hades happened to me?"

The voice, which belonged to a medium built blonde teenager, replied

"You kind of got shot, hence the bullet in your liver."

I needed more info than that. Luckily he kept going.

"We don't know who shot you, nor do we know why, all we know is that we thought you were dead. That is, until we got near you."

"What happened when you got near me?"

"Well, I wasn't there, but what I've heard was that you attacked the people who were trying to help you. You were also screaming something."

There was a pause, and it wasn't very comforting.

"What did I say?"

He looked at me and then at Miller. That's when Miller spoke up.

"You were screaming, horribly, raving about some army of legacies, and then you just started to repeat the word 'oblivion' quietly."

"Is that it?"

"Yep. And you punched me in the stomach. I'll get you back for it later."

I didn't know what to make of all this. Something weird happened, and all I know is that it pertained to me. After a few moments of me contemplating, the blonde guy spoke up,

"There was some liquid coating on the bullet. It was water from the Lethe. That might explain why you can't remember much."

"Ok" I replied. "Who are you anyways?"

"Will Solace. I kind of heal people for fun."

"Oh... alright."

[Line Break]

Walking around the camp, I couldn't get my mind off two things. One, the pain in my liver, and two, what the hell os going on. I didn't have much time to get to the Dionysus cabin before I heard a faint rumble in the distance. Looking to the horizon, I momentarily saw what appeared to be a tear in the sky, opening into a void. And as soon as I saw it, it vanished. Shaking my head, I walked towards my cabin. As I walked past the Hypnos cabin, a feeling of dread and despair fell over me, and I had no clue why. It's strange, really.

Walking into my cabin, I was greeted by the few half-siblings I had. Most of them were 13-15. But the only other person who was close to my age was Cole, and he is 17. I'm 19, so there was some disconnect in their humor and mine. I plopped down onto my bed, and let out a sigh. Hopefully, this is all some god who got mad at Dionysus for no reason. Either way, none of this was fun for me.

"Smokes," Cole said, "we have capture the flag tonight."

Crap! That's right.

"Uh, alright. Everyone get ready I guess. Um, yeah. After that let's head over."

Yeah. Such leader-like speech. Ten points for Dionysus. As soon as we put our armor on, we headed out.

—-

Heading over, I saw Percy and Annabeth talking. That either ends up in two ways: Annabeth judo-flipping the guy, or she just gives up and kisses him. Honestly, I'm happy for them. Plus they're so cute together. My attention was broken when I heard Chiron call up the campers.

"Alright. So the two cabins leading today's Capture the Flag are the Apollo and Dionysus cabins."

Well shit. I am not prepared today. Hell, I just recovered from getting shot in the liver. But oh well.

After I gathered up my team, which was my cabin plus the Athena cabin (With a +1 Percy modifier), Demeter, Hecate, and Hephaestus cabins.

As soon as I have my last orders, which was to have Justin have a few of his cabin mates create a machine gun nest overlooking the flag, (don't worry, they used hard rubber bullets that could not penetrate skin but would knock you back and hurt like Hades.), the horn blew, and we charged.

Clutching my G36, which shot the same hard rubber bullets, I ran towards a group of logs and shrubs that would give me some cover. Ducking down and trusting that my footsteps weren't too loud, I made it there. I could see the enemy's flag perched on the edge of a small ravine, and three Hermes campers guarding it. It was really easy honestly, about one shot for each of them save the last, who started running as soon as he saw the other two get knocked to the ground.

As I rushed to grab the flag, I was tackled by a big burly Ares camper,Who said

"Nice try Smokes, next time don't forget your gun makes a lot of noise."

Well, needless to say, I sat my self in "jail" for the rest of the game. We lost, but oh well.

After talking to my friends, I left for my cabin. The air was oddly dry and a little colder than usual. As I walked past the Hypnos cabin, I looked towards the doorway, and I could faintly make out a silhouette of a humanoid figure, albeit a rather tall one. And in the air I could've sworn I heard a whispering voice. All I could make out was "Quod esuriat Lethen.", then all

of the whispering stopped.

Needless to say, I booked it to my cabin. As I layer in my bed trying to fall asleep, the sinking feeling of despair fell on me, if only for a second, before I passed out.