Leo Valdez was getting really damn tired of dead people.

Really, he just couldn't get a night off. He had just been going to the stupid market with Jason because they were been running low on supplies on the Argo II. Yeah, maybe it wasn't the wisest choice to go at night, but Percy was practically begging for food.

So now, here he was, lost, in the middle of a forest with Jason 'oh-watch-me-fly-i-am-the-eagle-that-soars' Grace. It wasn't like Jason was bad company or anything, but Leo had to fix Buford before he exploded that night, and he's exhausted and cranky.

He huffed in frustration. Mighty capable demigod he was, somehow getting lost in a gods damned forest while looking for the market.

Great. Just wonderful.

"Leo, I think we're almost out! C'mon..." Jason's voice trails off at the end. "Something's wrong... Leo, get ready to fight!"

Leo pulled out breath mints from his tool belt in his exhausted state. Oops. He put the breath mints back in, pulling a hammer out and standing back to back with Jason.

He heard a rustling noise near some bushes and swiveled toward the sound, expecting to see some sort of ugly monster.

Leo did not expect to see his mother. Jason stared uncomprehendingly at the woman, but Leo knew it was definitely his mother. From her dark, curly hair to the overalls that she wore, it was definitely Esperanza Valdez. But, something still seems... off.

"Mamá?" he stared for a moment, taking in the appearance of his mother. "¿Eso es verdad?"

The ghost stepped forward slowly and gracefully, as if she were a regal queen. Leo took in the fact that she looked more solid than a ghost would before everything went wrong, and the shade slapped him in the face.

Leo stumbled back, disoriented and clutching his reddening cheek. "Mom...?"

"You are not my son. You are a devil, a diablo, just as my sister said. You killed me." the woman hissed through clenched teeth.

His shoulders slumped and he started to feel nauseous. "No, no no, Mom, th-that wasn't my fault. I-it was Gaea. She triggered it. It wasn't me. It wasn't."

"It was you, though. You started the fire. I burned to death in that workshop, and it collapsed on me. You are really going to blame Gaea for something you did? I thought I raised you better than that." she spat at him. "You make me sick."

Leo started shaking, his chest feeling tight. It was hard to breathe, because he had been trying to get over the blame for years, and now his mother was telling him this. It was all too real, and he found himself hoping it was only a nightmare because this was awful and why did it hurt so bad?

"Lo siento, mamá," he said weakly. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"You're sorry?!" she slapped him in the face again and he briefly wondered why Jason hadn't come to help.

In his muddled mind he also thought that if he could be slapped by her, she wasn't a ghost, but before he could figure anything out Jason yanked him away from his mother.

He never thought he'd be relieved about being separated from her again. "Leo, that's not your mother. I swear what she's telling you isn't true. That's Melinoe, she worked with the Titans in the last war, and she's working with Gaea now. She's tricking you!"

Suddenly, everything snapped into place. The ghost lady from the underworld. Percy, Thalia, and Nico had met her once.

He still couldn't breathe, though and his heart was pounding and why was his face wet? When the realization hit that this wasn't his mother, the woman morphed into a hideous creature with pitch black skin on one side and paper white skin on the other. Beginning to recover from his shock, he realized that there were other monsters around him.

He moved to pick up his hammer, but a force slammed into him from behind. He slammed into something hard and pain rocketed up his arm, completely excruciating. Leo screamed and blacked out.