Author Note (which you probably won't read, honestly :P ): All right folks, this story includes my self-made OCs and Nico! Just so you know, just pretend the Roman camp thing never happened, because it has no part in the story!

This is rated T because it has some serious things such as mental issues and mild cursing. If you have depression, suicidal ideation, etc., please think twice before reading. I'd never want this to be triggering, and it will never encourage or beautify these actions. Stay strong!

I know this is being released the day before HOH. Not the best timing. I think the story will carry on without change though after it's out.

Oh, and I'm only going to say this once: I do not own the PJO series.

Okay, let the story begin! I know it's not amazing, but it'll get better! Enjoy!

Rilo Ward

"Wake up!" Mother screamed harshly. Phones rang everywhere.

I didn't move. I didn't want to 'wake up'. Sleep was peaceful. Sleep was fake. Sleep was an escape.

"You can't hide from reality forever, Rilo!" she screeched. Real life was muddled. Real life was phone calls of people wanting to die, and needing you to have the answer. I didn't have the answer. Mother operated a nonprofit hotline for suicidal people. They could call to change their ending. We didn't get a lot of money from her job, but she loved it. And though I didn't take well to the bleak-ness of it all, I tried to love it too.

I lied there, asleep, but the dreams were suddenly not in my control. I'd been able to manipulate my world within sleep. That would be no more. My beautiful land I'd created turned to night. But was the night ugly?

Someone interrupted the silence's speech. "Hello, my daughter."

It took me time to react. I thought too much to move at all, for a while. "I-I don't have a dad." I said, shrinking back.

The dark shady figure chuckled. He was hard to see, aside from his white teeth, and his pale skin. If I squinted, he looked like the waning moon. "Everyone has a dad. I'm afraid I am yours. And you have disappointed me, using your power to run, Rilo.

"My power?" I questioned meekly. Questions…I had so many questions.

"From now on, you cannot sleep. Not unless you steal someone else's dreams, and cause a nightmare."

He started to walk away, but then I called out, "Wait! Who are you? What are you?" He kept getting farther and farther away. It was like the moon was doing down, but the sun was refusing to rise. "What's your name!?"

"….Morpheus."

Mother didn't have to wake me up. He did.

I was awake, but not really. You know what it's like, perhaps, to feel groggy. Think of Monday morning, where you didn't plan ahead, stayed up late, and then woke up with only two hours of sleep. Multiply that by 12.48. That was me, me six years later, after my world died with my sleep. It was such a wretched loss.

I didn't know who I really I was, what I was, but I knew I was not human. Long ago, I'd searched 'Morpheus' of the Internet. The name was the same as a Greek God, but I thought that was a coincidence. That night though, I learned that nothing was an accident.

I rose from my lumpy bed, and clumsily put on a wool sweater over my night down. I needed to move. I needed to move away from where I was in my head. I'd take a walk. I couldn't sleep anyway. I heard the bustle of New York. It didn't sleep either.

I found the cemetery, bare feet in mud. Was this place was lonely like me? I read every grave, and left a tiny daisy at each. I'd remember them. Then there was a tombstone I recognized. Bianca di Angelo. I could here sound. Boom, boom, boom. It was my heart. Then it faltered. Then it went to a faster beat. Bianca. She used to be my best friend, my only friend. She'd one day vanished without a trace, but no one remembered her. I'd started to trust that she'd never existed at all. She was real? She was dead?

The world started spinning. It wasn't over though. It was never over. A man was flying with…tennis shoes that had wings. Was he crazy, or was I? "Hi!" he waved.

"H-hello."

"Ah ha! You can see me! So you are a demigod!"

"Erm…what?" I couldn't follow.

"Oh, never mind! Here!" He handed me a letter. "Sorry, this is a little late. Should of given it to you three years ago!"

Then he was gone. The stars were far away, but I could still see them. I couldn't see him. Had he really flew farther than the stars?

I wanted tear up the envelope, and never look inside. I didn't want to know. The truth was a brutal thing. But I opened the faded note anyway.

Rilo,

Protect my brother. You're in for a rude awakening. Then go to camp. Stay Strong.

Your friend, Biana

I looked at the gravestone, and thought endless thoughts. How? What? When? Where? Why?

I did not understand her words. Her brother? (I vaguely remembered a happy-go-lucky little boy. Was his name…Nicholas?) An awakening? Camp? I was interrupted when something fell to my side. Glasses. The glass was foggy, like my world was. Why was it so chilly out in the summer? I turned the paper over, smoothening the creases. It had many scars. I couldn't blame it. It was old.

P.S. Use the glasses. You'll see ghosts, even ones that were already reborn. Their spirit remains.

That's when I went back to my old ways. I wanted peace. I wanted fake. I wanted escape. While someone was going to have a nightmare, I was going to sleep. I wanted to forget. The last words I heard were my fathers.

You coward.

Nico di Angelo

I was in the hospital? Why was I in the hospital!?

If you are imagining crisp white sheets and cleanliness, you are wrong.

The air was so clouded with dust, that it was hard to breath. People were talking in foreign languages (not that it mattered. I don't understand normal English people anyway.). There were cries of agony of men and women with limbs gone. There was the unmistakable smell of death. This was a military base.

All right, this was a dream, definitely a dream.

Everyone was surrounding someone. Naturally, I wanted to go the other way, away from the people, but I went toward the chatter anyway. Before I got there, I could hear crying. This was nothing new, but it was baby crying. Then I heard, 'quick, pick it up!'.

I felt a wave of nausea. Look, I have nothing against small kids, even if most of them are scared of me. I just wasn't into watching childbirth. The little baby girl was wrapped in blanket though before I could turn, and our eyes met. They were dark, almost black, just like Bianca's.

I remembered how my sister said she was going to be reborn after death. I still resented her for that. Now I could never see her. Not that I wanted to. Was this her though, this kid in the middle of nowhere? I didn't know how to feel. I'd rather of not known. Now I'd always be wondering. I felt a mixture of complete anger and wanting to ignore her, as well as wanting to cheer like the little brother that I'd thought died inside me long ago.

I was wrong. This was no dream. This was a nightmare.

I reached out. "Bian-"

"Bianca!" I didn't see my sister though. I saw the dark wood of the ceiling in the Hades cabin. The light of the morning made me squint, and I groaned. This was supposed to be the place that I felt I belonged, but I didn't belong anywhere. The only place that had ever been home, as cliché as it sounded was with my sister, and she was dead.

I just wanted to stay in bed, I felt like I'd gotten no sleep. In fact, I felt more drained than before. But I got up. I remembered there was something I had to do today. There was a minor obstacle though: Nixon Chadwick.

I was able to get up the hill (it was tiring. Why can't all ground be flat?), and almost past the camp boundary, but there he was, arms crossed. "Where do you think you're going, death breath?" Nixon questioned.

"Away from here." I said vaguely, wary.

"Aw, is someone sad that nobody likes him?" he antagonized, as if talking to a child.

"Yeah," I nodded, my voice in monotone, face expressionless. "Just look at me. I'm devastated."

He was supposedly handsome, but I didn't buy it. He looked twisted to me. Everything about him shined too brightly. It wasn't in the intent to keep you warm though; it was to keep you blind. He pushed back some of his coppery hair, which mind you, was completely pointless. It was pretty short. His golden brown eyes gleamed like a crow's. He cackled like one too, Yeah, did I mention he was son of Aphrodite? Fitting, I know. "You'll never be what your sister was!" he told me "Not even your father loves you!"

Nixon kept saying low blows, reminding me what I already knew. I just kept walking. Once I was a fair distance away, I shadow traveled. I could of done it back there, but I didn't like doing it in front of everybody. That was liked announcing I was son of Hades. Maybe wearing all black gave them the clue, but I would not change for them.

I ended up in a park, and for the second time that day, I heard crying. The rain had just been sprinkling, but now came down on full blast. "Dammit, dad! I hate you! I hate you!"

I cursed. I thought I'd thrown away all the razors. I took out the nectar. I had a plan, but I could feel her life fading (aren't Hades powers great?). I was running out of time.

Regina Abelle

"Why don't you just go die!?" my mom yelled.

"Why don't you!?" I shrieked, and slammed the front door.

There was a storm, but I ran and didn't feel cold at all. I screamed at God for having me birthed by that devil of a woman. That day though, I figured out there was no God. There were only gods and goddesses.

I had a breakdown of sorts. Once I was done pulverizing a mailbox and knocking down a stop sign, I breathed hard. Crap. I had to get home before the rehab center came and took my mom away. I hated her, but she was all I had. I needed to hide her.

By the time I got home, police cars were already in the driveway. I thought this was it. She'd be gone for months. I'd be put in a foster home. I was scared. That's right. Me. Scared. I made my way to my door, but the police stopped me. "I wouldn't go in there, ma'am."

I was about to push past them, for I didn't listen to authority, but what I saw stopped me. There was only a single light on in our house, and I looked through that window. I wish every day that I hadn't. Why do I remember all the bad memories, and none of the good? Someone was floating. No, hanging. My mom. She'd went and died, committed suicide. Just like I'd asked. Realization hit, and I turned, and ran and ran and ran. I started talking in ear-piercing cries, and punched the earth. In a puddle on the ground, I saw my face, and something flash on my forehead, a lightning bolt. I was so out of sorts, I couldn't even make a reference to Harry Potter. Then I heard a voice in my head. "I am Zeus, king of the Gods, and your father. There is somewhere you can go, be safe, find friends." He did this whole pitch about camp half blood. Arrogant much?

It was too late though. Where had he been all these years!? I refused to go, just to anger him.

Mom was dead. I tried to blame it on him. But it was all my fault.

"You wanted this to happen. You got your wish! You killed her!" Thanks a lot, Grandma. She pointed a witch-like finger at me. It was the three year anniversary of mom's death. It was her lucky day though, for today would be the day I'd die too. Congratulations.

I made it to the park. I was numb, and done, and if you're laughing about how that rhymed, please do me a favor: shut up. I went behind the brush, searching for the weapon to carry out my…uh, self-assassination. The razors, the razors…where were the razors? Freaking gone, that's where. I didn't get why they were gone, how they were gone, but I didn't have time to question it. I had an extra.

Death is not as peaceful as you think. I was frantic. I cut my forearm, long, deep, painful. No one wanted to die. They just felt like they need to. I think I was screaming in agony, but I wasn't sure. It'd be over soon. That's what I'd believed. But then…it started raining. It was sunny, clear as day, and raining. And it was healing my wound.

'No.' I thought. "You have to be kidding me. Dammit dad! I hate you! I hate you!"

The spots that had been flashing before my eyes like I was going to pass out were slowing, but I still couldn't see much. I heard footsteps though. 'Here we go. They will call 9-1-1 and I'll live.' The thought was terrifying. Instead a boy's voice said, "Drink this. You'll die faster."

And I did. I know, I know, not smart. It could have been drugs or poison, I'd realized at the last minute. Nope. Nectar. Instead of dying, things got clearer and crisper. My cut was still bleeding, but instead of like a waterfall, it was like the dang lazy river.

I was livid. I was exhausted too though.

The boy's face was coming into view now. Clearly he was obsessed black or something, he looked concerned, and just like a generally annoying person. "Are you okay?" he asked.

He'd just made my live. Of course I wasn't okay. I didn't want to owe him an explanation though. "Fine." I said coldly.

"I'm going to take you somewhere." He said, seeming sort of uncomfortable. "I'm going to take you-"

"To camp half blood?" I finished for him.

He looked alarmed, but nodded. Looks like it wasn't the end yet.

Nixon Chadwick

Hey, no fair! I don't get some dramatic intro in italics?! Gee, thanks. Now I feel important. So allow me to be nice and actually introduce myself, unlike the others. I'm Nixon, not to be associated with reindeers. Though I'm sure I could make your Christmas wishes come true, ladies. As dead-head said, I'm son of Aphrodite, which instantly makes me hot. Some people think I'm a bastard, but they're just jealous.

I'm pretty interesting. I'm surprised this book doesn't just have my point of view. Your loss, I guess. So back to the story! Di Angelo was leading this chick up the hill. Look, I didn't bully him. I smartly pushed his buttons.

Like right then: "Whoa, I never thought I'd see the day! Nico with a girl that wasn't dead!" I noticed. It made more sense, however, that he was with a girl that looked like a punk drowned cat. Her dark makeup was running, her cherry red hair (clearly dyed) drenched. I couldn't help but notice appearances first thing. It was in my blood.

"Try accessing the surroundings. Maybe then you'd notice she's bleeding to death." Nico said darkly.

"You're right for once!" I didn't have to call for anyone because people automatically were surrounding her. Apollo kids started to heal her as Nico filled Chiron in that he found a demigod. The suspicious thing is all-black-everything guy kept answering questions for her.

"Do we know who her Godly Parent is?" the centaur asked.

Emo Boy: "…Ares."

"How did she get hurt?"

Mystery girl who seemed to be sarcastic but too tired to show it in her voice: "A cat."

Emo boy says at the same time: "A monster."

Commotion died and the three of us were left standing there. Mystery girl looked angry. Actually, it wasn't directed at me. It was at Nico. She got straight to the point. "Why did you lie? My dad is Zeus and-"

I'd been completely uninterested in the conversation until then. I chocked on my own saliva. I'm sure I somehow made it sexy though. "This chick is part of the big three? Seriously? Couldn't they get someone more heroic looking?"

Nico looked annoyed. Didn't gloom ever get boring for him? "…Why are you even still here?"

"Why are you even still alive?" I retorted.

Zap. I was scorched with lightning. "Sorry. That happens when I'm angry." Mystery girl said with a false sweet smile. Her voice, however, was dark and hollow.

"Look, we don't need everyone knowing that you're daughter of Zeus." Nico explained. "It sucks, everyone looks at you weird."

It was so annoying how he thought his life was bad for having important parents. He had it easier than me. He just didn't know it. "I think people just look at you weird because you're you." I pointed out.

"Shut up. And don't tell anyone."

"Not that I care, but what are your names?" the chick asked, examining her grey nail polish.

"Nixon, hot guy extraordinaire." I introduced myself, bowing jokingly.

"And he's the jack-ass supreme." Di Angelo added. "Oh, and I'm Nico, son of…never mind."

"Fine." She crossed her arms, which weren't fat, but certainly not toothpick skinny. "Regina Abelle,'' she said shortly.

She glowered and walked off, and I smiled charmingly. "Nice to meet you too!" Then I knuckle sandwiched Nico. We didn't know what was yet to come.

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