I made my way to the Athena cabin. As soon as I walked through the door, I was greeted by thousands of books, a few SMART boards, a bunch of tables that were filled with 3-D models of different buildings and a lot of mechanical robot things, that probably did an assortment of miscellaneous tasks, and finally, pushed to one side of the wall, were the beds.

"Wow," I said. This place was like a laboratory. In a camp to train for killing monsters. Where did they find time to do all this stuff when they were training all day? Maybe they had a time machine hidden in here, too.

"What are you-" Annabeth turned around. Her eyes got a little big. "Nico?" I smiled a mischievous smile. It's fun to be me. No one expects me to be around-

"What's going on? Did something bad happen?" She continued.

-unless there's a crisis.

"No, I was just looking for advice." I informed her. "Percy didn't freak out when I came up. Well, actually, he jumped up, but that was because I scared him, not because I was there."

"That's different," She protested, "Percy doesn't look for the danger, he waits for it to punch him in the face. He's annoying that way. So he'd wait for you to tell him what was going on, instead of assuming your presence meant something important. i mean, he probably had the idea in his head, but he wasn't going to jump to conclusions. No offense, but you only appear when you're needed."

"I thought that's what you loved about me." I smirked at her.

"Ha, the Nico I know would've wanted to snap my neck for saying that." She remarked.

"The Nico you know was going through the depressing times of war, now you're with care-free peaceful Nico, and he's a little more laid-back." I tell her.

"Thanks for the update, but if you were going through peaceful times, why would you need advice?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

I smiled. She really doesn't miss a thing. "I think I'm in love, but I'm not sure how to tell. I asked Percy, but he just teased me. Oh, and by the way, he had five cokes, so have fun with that."

She rolled her eyes. "Will he ever learn? Especially after what happened last time..." She trailed off. "Anyway, I'll get him back for teasing you."

"I thought Nemesis was the goddess of revenge." I said.

"Nemesis was also a daughter of Zeus." She informed me. "She and Athena have a bit in common, actually. More than you would think, anyway. But, you said you thought you were in love.. can I ask with who?"

Ha. I caught her. "With whom." I smiled at her. "You remember the girl who died a few years ago, right after you were rescued from Mount Tam?"

"Faintly. You're in love with that girl? Her name was..." She thinks.

"You got this, wise girl. Her name was Zoe. Zoe Nightshade."

"Yeah. I remember now."

I rolled my eyes. "More like I gave you the memory. But yes. I'm in love with her. I think."

"Could you live without her?" She questioned me.

"I don't have to."

"That's not the point. Could you?"

"Maybe, but it'd be hard. Really hard." I furrowed my eyebrows just thinking about it.

"Would it kill you if you couldn't see her again? I need a yes or no answer."

I thought about a life without Zoe. A world without seeing her everyday. A place where I didn't get to see her light up when she saw me. Where her smile didn't brighten my day. Where no one truly understood me. I was depressed at the thought of it. I looked at Annabeth with an expression of absolute truth and said, "Yes."