"Loyalty, loyalty is my fatal flaw," Percy answered.

Cupid laughed in the distance, "You, loyal?" the laughter tore through Percy's ears in the same rushing way as water. Percy felt his bands blow as Cupid's wings rushed by. He felt his grip tighten on Riptide but he suppressed the urge to swing it. "How can you think that? How can you say that?" Another swoosh of air.

"Even in your Roman form you must know what I've done," Percy replied, his eyes dancing around looking for a glint of the god.

"My Romano form merely has a new name Mr. Jackson. Love is always the same. As or your deeds," Cupid's harsh laughter rang again, if Percy didn't know better he would have thought that he served Hermes. "I know of them better than you think."

"What do you want? Why are you doing this?"

"You sound like someone else I talked to recently."

"Stop avoiding my questions."

"Oh, I'm no avoiding Mr. Jackson, that's your job."

"How am I avoiding? I'm trying to find you! What do you want from me? Did my dad piss you off too?"

"No, your father has done me no wrong, nor have you."

"Then what do you want!"

"To help you, to be honest my mistress and I are both growing bored of the same show you always put on."

"What show? What help? You're not helping! You're distracting!"

"Ah yes, love can do that, love is always rather distracting don't you think? Your answer really doesn't matter, you aren't' being very honest about anything anyway, I wouldn't recommend asking Apollo for any help."

"Wasn't exactly on the list, I'll keep that in mind though."

Cupid sounded giddy, "Oh thinking of redeeming yourself now Mr. Jackson?"

"Sure, what am I not being honest about?"

Percy felt a heated wind behind him, at first he thought it was Leo setting something on fire or Jason preparing for a fight, but it wasn't. He wasn't on the Argo II anymore, nor was he surrounded by its crew. "You must be confused young man. Your flaw is not loyalty! You have an exception, several actually, for that. Your flaw is love," Cupid whispered as if at Percy's neck.

"Love?" Percy asked.

"Yes, love for your dearest Annabeth," Cupid mused, "the one you would do anything for." Cupid finally showed himself. He stood in front of Percy with the widest of smiles. "The only one."

"That's not true!"

Cupid stepped forward blurring in and out of focus, "I may not be the truth god like Apollo, or the one of wisdom like Athena, but I know love."

"Who are you talking about? Who have I let down?" Percy pleaded hoping it was all just a sick joke.

Cupid's feathered wings ruffled and he knocked over the fountain near his alter, the clay crashing and water pouring, "Perhaps a picture would help, son of Poseidon."

Percy raised his hands to stop the water from hitting him, but this water was not his to control. It bent, but not to his will. The water swirled into a picture. First came the huntresses of Artemis looking up to the stars, "Bianca and Zoe."

"Very good, Mr. Jackson."

The scene changed again to and Island,, one Percy knew wasn't supposed to exist. The picture zoomed into a girl sitting at a loom, crystals glowing around her, "Calypso," Percy let out a breath.

Cupid waved his hand, merely offering a knowledgeable smile. Camp Half-Blood appeared, just outside of its borders two dogs ran through a Roman army clearing a path for a massive shadow. One dog shone gold, the other silver both had glowing red eyes.

"Reyna."

Cupid's face suddenly fell, "Sadly though, those are not even the worst of your disloyalties due to love."

"I was already made aware of Bob."

"Yes, yes the Titan you now call Bob was tragic as well. However, that is not the one I speak of Mr. Jackson."

Percy gulped, "Who is then?"

The water rushed towards Percy and swirled around his hand. The colors changing as if sand had been blown into the glob of water. Percy stared at Cupid wondering how he could do such things. Percy suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hands, as if all the sand had suddenly turn to glass and was pointed into his palm. He looked down, not noticing the water had left behind a small Mythomagic Hades figure. It held no weight in Percy's hand; apparently Cupid had become a telepath at this point for he commented, "No weight in your heart, so none in your hand."

Percy looked down, down to the Underworld….. "Nico," he finally said.

The water lifted from the floor, it swirled in waves around him. A cyclone forming, lifting him off the ground into the air. The troughs and crests of the waves spin like film showing images of his letdowns.

Percy watched as Nico first arrived at Camp Half-Blood; how he still smiled, how his eyes still shone like light reflecting of the sea surface or fish scaled. Percy focused on the eyes. He watched as a reflection of Percy himself, moving the water around him lit behind the iris of his eyes. He watch them water as Percy's face changed, changing into words of Bianca's death. He watched the eyes turn as Nico left Camp Half-Blood. When he saw them again, Percy watched as they dimmed into an underworld glow of mere fire, rage swirling inside of him. Scenes flashing in the eyes of Persephone, of the ring Hades wore for their marriage, the sign on the Lotus Casino, of Cabin three. He saw the eyes darken into shadow, as he shadow traveled leaving a Hades figure at Percy's feet. He swirled in the darkness with Nico, though this time he did not have his hand to hold on to. Percy felt see sick.

He found himself looking at Hades, Nico back in his shadow. Nico fighting with Persephone for taking seeds from her personal garden. He saw Nico's eyes wonder as Nico himself would forever more. Nico roamed the fields for Bianca yet he would speak to people such as Cadmus, Odysseus, Achilles, Jason, Oedipus, Tiresias, even Helen of Troy. Percy watched him find Hazel, watched his eyes stay cold knowing he couldn't have Bianca back. He watched his eyes in horror as Percy relieved Tartarus, this time in seconds through Nico's eyes. Percy watched as his eyes broke like glass, as his heart shattered.

"You pretend you are a guardian angel for this boy," Cupid spoke with him now. The two of them now standing at the edge of the river Styx. Both on the same side, yet Percy could only see the reflection of Cupid in the water. The water that wasn't really water, the water even Percy couldn't control. This Styx was different from Percy's memory though; this Styx was a branch of the main river, this one was specific to the son of Hades. Percy stood and watched as Nico's old hopes, dreams, memories, and items went by. A model of the leaning tower of Pisa, lotus flower hors d'oeuvres with a single bite carved out of it, a pomegranate that was half eaten, a familiar looking skull ring, a golden drachma, a worn out aviators jacket. "But you are not even a hero."

Percy stared at Cupid, "I've been mistaken for a god," was all that came to mind. He regretted looking up at the god.

Cupid revealed a smile, "Yes you have. However, if you recall from the last Titan war, the gods are awful in treatment of others. They are gods, not heroes." Cupid paused but Percy had nothing left to say. Cupid shook his head, "Think of everything you've done, all of the people that have been with you; Annabeth in Tartarus, Jason and Piper when you when drowning in a well, Frank the delightful little fish and Coach in Phorcys' aquarium, Hazel when you needed to be saved after coming up from the doors of death, Rachel in the labyrinth, Clarisse in the battle of Olympus, Grover on your arrival to camp, Luke up on Olympus, Bob when facing the doors of death. Nico when you went into the River Styx, Nico when you fell into Tartarus, Nico who led you to Hestia, Nico who helped you out of the Underworld. Nico, who has he had Percy? Who helped him learn to shadow travel, who helped him in Tartarus, who helped him when he was looking for his sister, who took care of him once Bianca died?"

"No one."

"He only ever had the girl you killed, and even before that she left him."

"Thanks for that," Percy murmured.

"What did you do for him Mr. Jackson?"

"Other than kill his sister? I saved him from a jar!"

"With whose help?" Cupid barely hesitated, knowing Percy knew the answer and wouldn't dare say it. Cupid's point had been made before in his monologue. Regardless Cupid continued, "You teased him, you lead him on. You made him believe that maybe one day he could be accepted, that one day you would care about him." He waited again; Percy had nothing to offer the god; no answer, no plea, no hope, no great truth, and no excuse. He couldn't even offer his eyes. "What will you do about it, Mr. Jackson?" Cupid had seemed to reign back in loves hatful side and was calmer again. The wind now blew at a normal temperature instead of tornado mixtures of extreme hot and brittle cold.

"I have no idea."

"Perhaps you should dabble into why one of the most powerful demigods alive hasn't turned against you, let alone kill you," Cupid suggested.

"Like find his motive."

Cupid nodded.

"I can't! I don't understand Nico! I never have!"

"Perhaps you should go back to some advice my mistress once offered you."

"Aphrodite? I mean Venus."

"She appeared as Aphrodite to you at the time." Percy drew a blank; all he could remember of Aphrodite was making his life almost as painful as Athena and Hera. Cupid sighed, "Love is a powerful thing, Mr. Jackson. As is anger the difference is both can cause war-"

"Only one can prevent it," Percy finished in a low whisper.

Cupid gave his wicked smile again, as if to say, "Exactly right." Instead however he offered up, "I told you it was all about love." Then his feathers fluttered around his winds and he continued, "Best of luck, young Perseus." Then he disappeared on a rush of air.

"What no pink smoke?" Percy bailey joked before looking down. He still stood at the bed of the Styx, Nico's version of it anyway. He watched as a Camp Half-Blood necklace floated by, a single bead laced onto its cord. It snagged on something in the river. Percy was almost tempted to reach in; either to let it flow onward or to pick it up and never let go. The thing that stopped him was the power of the Styx, last time he had only managed to get by because of Nico.

Percy physically shook his head at the thought. He turned his attention back to the river, only then realizing what had caught the necklace. The bead swirled around the small stature of his father's triton. The base of the statue holding the trademark he recognized to be Mythomagic.

Percy scanned the river; Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena, Ares, Artemis, Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Dionysus. He went through his list of game figures, check check check. All the figures accounted for.

All except Hades.

The figure still lay in Percy's palm. The weight almost unbearable, he wanted to launch it into the river. He almost did too until he heard a voice he had only heard once before, "Seems you have missed Cupid's point."

Percy turned to find Apollo, "Isn't it a little odd of the sun god to be in hell?"

Apollo smiled his award winning smile, "Not at all Percy, hell is where the truth does send you."

"That would be a great poem."

"I actually have a few haikus about it if you're interested."