(A/N: Sorry the chapters are getting longer. I figured the plot line would be better with long chapters. Have fun reading!)

Jason walked over behind the couch and looked out the window. It looked out on a beautiful back yard. Jason vaguely remembered when Annabeth had wanted to grow a huge pine tree and hang a swing from one of its branches. Jason looked up at the sky, and saw clouds moving in.

He turned to the couch where Annabeth was sitting. He touched her shoulder, and asked "Are you cold?"

"I'm from New York." She answered "This is nothing. If you're cold there's some blankets in that closet."

Jason opened the closet Annabeth pointed to. It was so unorganized, it reminded Jason of the days he used to be on inspection duty, and had to scold Annabeth every time for having the messiest bunk. It used to have piles and piles of papers and books. Her bed sheets were never placed correctly. Her whole cabin always blamed her for never getting a perfect score.

This closet had piles and piles of random stuff. He pulled out a binder full of architecture notes. Then he pulled out old dirty socks. He found Christmas ornaments lying around, then finally was able to locate two blankets. They were next to what appeared like more binders, but when Jason focused, they were five albums stacked on top of each other. He pulled them out, and walked over to the couch.

"What are those?" He asked Annabeth

"Oh my god." She took one from his hand "I haven't looked at these in years."

"When did you take these?" He said as he leafed through on of the albums

"I didn't. Chiron loved keeping pictures. He always thought memories should be preserved. If you ever check out his room in the Big House, you'll notice that it's 60% pictures"

"Really? Huh, you learn something new about people everyday."

Jason wrapped a blanket around Annabeth's shoulder. He moved over to the fireplace and poked the fire, then he sat back down next to Annabeth. They both reached over for an album and opened the first page. The first picture was fifteen year-old Nico Di Angelo with Will Solace.

"Man, they look so young" Jason asked "Have you talked to them lately?"

"Last time I visited them was in August."

"How have they been?"

"They're doing fine. We talked about the good old days for hours and hours"

"Oh man, you had to talk about the Friday after Leo came back."

"The Capture the Flag game?" Annabeth chuckled. "Remember our sword fight?"

"I think you had a dagger" They both laughed, immediately sending Jason to another flashback.

"I'm sorry, Jason." Nico admitted "My anger got the best of me. This is why it's dangerous for children to hold grudges."

"Don't worry about it, man, it's not the first time a friend made me pass out. Try sharing the praetor ship with Reyna." Jason paused "For the record, I'm sorry too."

Nico sighed "What you told Will wasn't all that bad."

Jason studied Nico. His skin was extremely pale, maybe even white. His cheeks was so sunken, it made him look like a vampire who hasn't had blood in the past century. He looked as if all his energy was drained out, which might have bee true after what happened this morning. He felt tempted to force Will Solace to take Nico in the infirmary again. He did a really good job of nursing him back to health, but he decided not to meddle.

"I'll see you at seven for Capture the flag then?" Jason asked, hoping to break the awkward silence.

"Sure. Talk you you later."

"No hard feelings, right?"

"No hard feelings" Nico agreed

That night at Dinner, everyone was excited about the Capture the Flag game. Jason had been into several Capture the Flag games, but they were nothing like the Roman war games back at Camp Jupiter. It always got pretty intense with the Romans. It's not like the Greeks were any weaker, but Romans can be pretty serious. Jason heard from Percy about how Gwen had literally died from a war game, but fortunately was brought back. Nothing like that ever happened at Camp Half-Blood.

Despite the fact that Greeks never took their games seriously, he loved the excitement in the air every Friday evening. He absolutely loved the look on new campers' faces when they were told about how the game works. He always wondered how he looked when he played the Roman War Games for the first time.

Percy, Nico and Jason ate dinner. They had made small talk, laughed at a few jokes, but that was it. Nico still looked pale. Maybe a bit blue? Jason decided not to worry about. Nico was extremely strong.

After dinner, Percy and Jason left their tables to get the armors and flags ready. Now, before he and Percy had arrived at camp, the teams were led by Ares and Athena. It kind of made sense. Wisdom versus Strength, but that wasn't the case anymore.

Every camper agreed that they should be led by the two most powerful gods: Zeus and Poseidon, which meant that Percy and Jason were never on the same team. It was a good thing considering that they would argue a lot on strategic approaches.

Jason had heard the infamous story when the Hunters of Artemis had came in four years ago, and kicked some serious demigod behind in Capture the Flag game, all because Percy and Jason's sister, Thalia had quiet an argument about who should lead the team. Then after their loss, they got into a serious fight, where Thalia zapped Percy with lightening, and Percy drowned Thalia in the lake. After that, Chiron made sure that Zeus and Poseidon never ended up on the same team again.

Jason always took the right side of the Pavilion, carrying a ten-foot sky blue silk banner, with an eagle and a lightening bolt painted in the middle. Percy entered from the left carrying an identical banner, only it was sea green with a trident and a horse painting. We both rested out banners, then Chiron hammered his hoof on the wooden floor on the Dinning Pavilion.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Now for the teams!" He paused and opened a scroll and turned to the right to where Jason was standing "On Zeus's team, we will have: Ares, Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hades, Hypnos, Nike, and Hebe" He then turned to where Percy stood "Poseidon's allies for tonight are: Athena, Hephaestus, Demeter, Hermes, Iris, Nemesis, Tyche, and Hecate"

Chiron then waved his arms, and revealed the armors and weapons on the dinner tables. Percy and Jason moved to the middle, shook our hands and announced the official start of the game.

"Blue team," Percy yelled "To the north side of the forest!"

"Red team," Jason yelled to his team "Off to the south!"

Jason's team marched to the south, with Piper and Nico at his side.

"So what's the plan?" Piper asked

"I've got something in mind" Jason replied "You'll see. What time is it?"

"7:07" Piper answered "We got three minutes"

Jason turned and faced the campers. They were roughly about thirty kids on his team. "Alright," He yelled "The flag is gonna be placed at the right flank immediately next to the creek border. Visible enough for the team, but no one will expect it. Sherman and Mark from Ares are the direct defenders of the flag. Hypnos and Apollo are defense of the right flank. Dionysus and Hebe will divert the offense of Poseidon's team into the left flank. The rest of Ares and Aphrodite are border patrol. Nike, Piper, Nico, Solace and Clarisse will come with me as offense. Watch out for Annabeth's invisibility cap, keep an eye for the Stoll brothers, watch out for Hephaestus traps, and keep in mind that water is Percy's territory. Everybody got that?"

As if on cue, the conch horn sounded again, announcing the start of the game. Jason and the rest of his offense team ran for the border. "After we get through border patrol," Jason whispered as they ran "Holly, Clarisse, Laurel and Klaus, you guys get the right flank. Nico, Piper, Will and I will get the left. Go!"

They split and ran in different directions. The eastern side of the creek didn't have much defense. Jason immediately thought that the flag was on the left flank, but then again, he can never trust Annabeth. She might have been using reverse psychology to veer off Jason's team to the wrong direction.

They battled Miranda and Katie from Demeter, Felix from Tyche, Butch from Iris, and Chris from Hermes. All of whom weren't tough to beat. After that they didn't face any border action. They ran for the deep end of the forest. He expected the flag to be placed at Zeus's fist, but Annabeth wouldn't be dumb enough to put the flag there for a third time in a row. Jackpot. Jason thought. Reverse psychology is not going to work on me, Wise girl.

When Zeus's fist came in sight, he directed the others to slow down. "Crouch, and make as little sound as possible" Jason whispered "Don't attack until someone notices you"

Jason reached for his Gladius. They hid behind trees and watched the hill "Do you see it?" He asked the others. He didn't bring his glasses with him Filius Canis, Jason thought I seriously need to order some contact lenses.

"Yeah," Piper answered in a whisper. She was holding her dagger, Katoptris, in her right hand, her hair was gathered in a pony tail, with a feather sticking out the back of her head. She was sweating from all the running, but she still looked absolutely stunning "I see a green banner at they very top. There's one guard twelve feet from it, and at least a dozen campers at the base of the hill."

"Anything else?"

"There's some bumps in the ground. Probably dug up line mines from Hephaestus?"

He looked at Will and Nico. They both nodded at him, and he nodded back, then Jason cried "Charge!"

The four of them ran towards the base of Zeus' Fist, dodging the land mines. Will had his bow and arrow ready. He stopped ten feet from the enemy line, and started shooting at them. He took down about two guys. There weren't hurt, but they were disarmed.

Piper ran for Malcolm, a son of Athena. He would overcome her easily considering the fact that Piper only had a dagger and he had a sword, but she did a good job distracting him, long enough for Nico to summon five undead warriors.

Jason immediately ran for the top of the hill. It was defended by Candice, daughter of Nemesis. She swung her sword at Jason, which caught Jason by surprise. He felt his heavy breathing from running across the forest. He glanced at the green banner. So close. He thought. Only a few more feet. He dodged another swing from Candice's sword using his gladius, and knocked her over, sending her tumbling down the hill. He ran for the banner, but was stopped by Annabeth, who came out of nowhere.

She was holding a Yankees Cap in one hand, and a new dagger in the other. After losing her old dagger in Tartarus, the Hephaestus campers had forged her almost an identical one. "You really thought it would be so easy?" She asked "My mother is the goddess of battle strategy, you know what that means? I always win."

"We have a problem, because I always win too. Son of Jupiter and all"

Jason summoned all his will power and called to his father. He looked up, and saw a few clouds forming far above. He raised his gladius, and a bolt arced out of the clouds. It ricocheted off his gladius and blasted Annabeth off her feet. Jason charged at Annabeth who was now on her back, but she just avoided it. She got to her feet, and grabbed Jason by the wrist. She flipped him over, sending Jason to the ground. He got to his feet again, and gave the final blow using his gladius, sending Annabeth tumbling down the hill.

Jason reached over for the banner, and carried it at the top of the hill, announcing the end of the game, but before Jason could taste his victory, he heard Piper shriek "Nico!"

Jason turned around and saw all demigods crowded around the son of Hades. He ran as fast as he could down the hill, tripping a few times, but he didn't care. His friends was in trouble.

He pushed through the crowd of campers, and got to Nico Di Angelo. He was collapsed on the floor, paler than a sheet of paper. Jason instinctively crouched next to him and tried to check for a pulse. "Where in Hades is Will Solace?" Jason shouted.

Jason could feel his blood flow. He could feel the nerve on his temple about to pop. He was so infuriated, it was hard to put into words. He couldn't feel Nico breathing. He thought it might have been it.

"Jason" Piper reached over his shoulder and said in a soothing voice "It's going to be okay."

For a second it worked. He believed it was all going to be okay, but the Charmspeak wore off when he looked back at the body of Nico Di Angelo. Before Jason could answer, Will Solace pushed through the crowd, "Make way people. He needs a breathing space"

He crouched on the other side of Nico, and reached for his satchel. He took out two squares of Ambrosia, and fed them to Nico. Immediately after, he started chanting a hymn in Ancient Greek. Jason had a hard time understanding what it meant, but he figured it was a prayer to his father, Apollo.

"Is he going to be okay, Will?" Annabeth asked. She was standing to his side, carefully watching Nico.

"Annabeth, get me some nectar from the infirmary" Will shouted.

Annabeth started running back to camp, but a sound bellowed "There is no need" Chiron galloped to Will's side and handed him a flask.

Will held Nico's head up and put the flask of Nectar at his lips. "What happened?" Chiron asked

"He drained his energy." Will responded, as he helped passed-out Nico to his drink "He pushed himself to the edge, thinking he could handle it but clearly he couldn't. He thinks he's all-powerful and he can endure everything the world throws at him, but he just can't. He's just-"

"It's going to be okay, my boy" Chiron soothed him.

Will was about to reply to Chiron, but Nico started coughing and choking on his drink of Nectar. He put his head back on the grass. Nico slowly opened his eyes.

Jason heard the footsteps of campers coming in. "What's going on?" they asked. He overheard the voice of Percy and Leo, but he couldn't identify the rest of them. He estimated about half a dozen of new campers crowding Nico.

"Solace saves my life again" Nico said weakly

"And Di Angelo gives me another heart attack" Will replied

"Didn't know you cared so much about me" Nico teased, and managed to sit upright

"Are you kidding me?" Will said in frustration "I've been dropping all these hints that I like you and you never even noticed?"

"You- you like me?" Nico asked in confusion. Jason imagined Nico thinking all of this as a dream, but he pushed that idea aside

Will leaned forward to where Nico sat, and reached over with his hand for Nico's cheek and kissed him.

Everyone in the crowd cheered, but just as Will Solace pulled away, Nico passed out again.

"Get him to the infirmary" Jason shouted, wrapping up the happiest Capture the Flag game ending of all time.