There was a knock on my cabin door. I did not recognise the knocking pattern, like I would if it was Will or one of my friends. 'Yes?'

'Good afternoon, Nico di Angelo. Have you ever been to highline park?' Dionysus. Figures.

'Highline park, Sir?'

'It is a park in New York city, built on what once was a railway.'

'And you think that that is the best place for a therapy session?'

'Perhaps not the best, but it is a place. Are you coming?' I mean, sure, why not, but also, do I really have a choice?

Ten minutes later, we were walking in highline park, after we had made a pitstop at Starbucks for a hot chocolate. It seemed to be Dionysus' ideology that you cannot have a therapy session without a drink and I whole-heartedly agreed.

'Alright. I noticed that you really made progress with training your new power. Yet, can you explain why you eventually chose to turn the rats to bones when you were previously against that?'

I looked at my chocolate milk. So he had seen the rats despite my best efforts to hide them. 'One of the rats became really ill. I thought that… maybe I could releave it from its pain. Yet, when I... bonified... it, it acted as if it was any healthy rat, with the added bonus that I can control them if I want to. The soul stayed with it. That made me comfortable enough to try it out on the other rats, because I would not be banishing them to the Underworld.'

'Are you going to keep the rats in camp Half-blood?'

'I am planning on releasing them in the woods outside of camp.'

'Well done, Nico. Very well done.'

I smiled and took a sip of cocoa. Dionysus took a moment to look around the park, so I did the same thing. It was slim, but filled with a lot of greenery and art. It made me feel at ease, which was probably what Dionysus had been going for when he brought me here.

'What would you say if I told you we have something difficult to talk about today?'

I don't like that. 'Get it over with.'

'Than I am going to do exactly that. Without further ado: I want to talk about your experience with king Minos.'

That? Oh, dude, I thought you wanted to talk more about Cupid, or about my trip down to Tartarus or something. Minos? That's small potatoes. I took a big gulp before I answered. 'That's alright.'

'Alright, than we will talk about your time with one of the idiot kings of Ancient Greece.' I turned to him. Clearly there was more going on between Minos and Dionysus. 'Please tell me what happened between you and Minos,' he continued. 'No, lets start off easier: how did you meet him?'

I stuck my hand out, so that I could touch the fresh april leaves on the bushes. A little dew stuck to my hands. 'How I met him? Well, eh... It's…' Perhaps slightly more difficult to talk about than I initially thought.

'Remember: I just want to know how you met him, not why, or when, or anything else.'

'His ghost appeared to me...' Yes, that is a start, '...while I… was trying to summon a different ghost. In the traditional way, not in a son-of-Hades way.'

'... The traditional way?'

'Yes. Oh! Eh, I did not use blood, though.' I shrugged. 'I summoned ghosts with Happy-meals. It worked, okay?'

'If it works, it works. Happy-meals are cheaper than livestock anyway.'

'Yes, well, so, Minos' ghost appeared to me, even though he was not the ghost I was looking for. That was…' I bit my lip and looked at my cup. I stopped walking.

'Take a deep breath…' I did as I was told, until I felt calm enough to say it.

'I was trying to summon my sisters' ghost. I wanted to talk to her again…' I wanted to add a because after that, but that sentence felt redundant. Even a God would understand why I wanted to see Bianca.

'Alright. That's how you met. So, why did you keep him around?'

'Because he told me he could help me with resurrecting Bianca. And with... getting back at Percy. We already talked about that for a bit.'

'We did. Please go on.'

'So, because I thought he could help me achieve my goals, I kept him around. That. But I do want to say that I did not really have a choice. He… kept appearing. Even when I tried to summon other ghosts, he'd rear his head. Even when I... finally summoned Bianca.'

Dionysus was quiet for a bit. Maybe he thought it would be helpful to let it settle for a moment. 'Did your sister tell you anything, once you finally got to see her?'

'Yes.'

'Can you tell me what?'

'She said…' I could still hear her words in my head, 'She explained to me that I was not angry with Percy, but with her. For…' Oh man. When do I learn that talking about issues is never as easy as I think? I swallowed the lump that had appeared in my throat, before taking a shaky breath.

'I think it might be better if we talk about that at a later moment.' You think? 'We were talking about king Minos. Can you tell me about how you stopped talking with him?' He raised one of his eyebrows, as if he suddenly got the suspicion that our contact did not end.

'He… do you know anything about what happened in the labyrinth?'

'Parts of it. I was scouting out the minor gods at the time, remember?'

Oh, right. 'Well… Alright. So, after contacting Bianca and hearing what she said... I was not immediately back on Percy's side, but I grew to be. After Minos caught wind of that, he first tried to sway me. When that did not work… he lied to me, told me Percy and Annabeth were in danger, in order to trick me into being captured by agents of Luke and… you-know-who.' I took a sip of chocolate milk before I continued. 'I was captured, so instead of me going after Annabeth and Percy to save them, they had to come and save me. They did so and when they found me, it turned into a battle. During that battle, which was in Daedalus' workshop…' I stopped for a second. 'Oh right, he was in the picture too.'

'Minos hated him. Always has.'

'Yes, he really did. But that's beside the point. During the battle, I opened a fissure in the ground, back to the underworld, and Minos fell through. That ended our contact, except that he went right back to being a judge.' I felt a little sick at the thought of that man still being in charge of who deserved Elysium and who did not, all because Zeus was adamant about the judges of the underworld being his sons. Maybe we could put Jason in Minos' place. Hm. Maybe I would bring that up with my dad the next time I saw him.

'I find it ridiculous too. Minos, a judge of the underworld. The guy is only out for his own good, always has been. Anyway!' I took a big swig of chocolate milk, while looking at Dionysus. I sensed that I was not the only one in the current company that had bad memories about king Minos. 'Now, we have the whole story. Minos preyed on you because of the grief you had for your sister, which made you vulnerable, and perhaps even liable to join the titan army.' I winced at that statement, but I did not go against it. 'For months, he managed to manipulate you. But then you managed to summon your sister and her words made it difficult for him to keep a grip on you. So, he tricked you into being captured by Kronos' army. But all's well that ends well and you banished our good old king Minos to the Underworld.' Yes, keep it at that. I banished him. To the Underworld. Where he is now. I bopped my head in what was meant to be a nod. 'Good. Now, we have to see if this is still affecting you. But first, look at that.' He pointed towards an old factory, towering up beisde the Highline.

'An old factory?'

'An old factory where they invented the Oreo cookie.' He shrugged. 'Someone told me once. I think.'

'Cool.' I looked at my cup, before taking a tiny sip. There was almost nothing left.

'Yes. That concludes our little break. So. Do you ever get in touch with Minos, or with things alluding to Minos, in your everyday life? You can start with easy examples.'

Well, my therapist is his son-in-law, for one. 'Sometimes Chiron talks about him during mythology class.' So, that was easy and I began with that. 'So, obviously, sometimes the campers talk about him. And every now and then, when they find out that I met him, they will try to ask me questions about him. That…' I looked at the skyline and took another deep breath, which calmed me down enough to continue. 'That is usually when I get nightmares. Only for a few nights at the time, but it is almost as if king Minos notices it when I am thinking about him. Maybe he…' I shrugged. 'I don't understand why he would still be preying on me. The titan war is over and I am not going to do anything for him ever, so…' I took the last sip of my chocolate milk and immediately felt like I should not have done that. 'I think he just wants to haunt me out of malice.'

Dionysus sighed and nodded. 'But I get that it is not something that bothers you all the time?'

'No, as I said, only when someone mentioned him, so, when he is already on my mind. Otherwise he cannot get through my defenses.'

'That sounds like we almost have one subject less to talk about. Do you experience mental or physical pain when you think of Minos, or when he appears in your dreams?'

I shrugged, again, wishing I still had some chocolate milk left. I never really dwelled on Minos. He was a giant loser. He had been… a symptom of a disease. 'It… I don't think it ever really was about Minos. It was… he… he promised…' I looked at Dionysus. I could really use someone to think for me right now.

'You are thinking that Minos marks a nasty fase in your life, but mostly because you associate him with the grief about your sister and how you allowed that to best you for half a year. There is not a lot of trauma or pain tied to Minos, but there is a lot of trauma in what he represents: the desperate want to get your sister back.'

Now there were tears rolling down my face and falling into my empty cup. '...Yes,' I whispered, 'Because... even though usually I can let it go... there are still days when I miss her more than anything.' Dionysus tapped my cup, so that it filled up with more chocolate milk. I took a shaky sip.

'I think it might be time to stop now,' Dionysus said in a soothing voice.

'Are we not going to talk about Bianca today?'

'No. That would be too much. We already worked through something else today. Now it is time to let it be for a moment.'

I took a few big sips. 'Hm.'

'I think I am going to tell you about some of the worst things Minos did as king, now.'

'Yes, please. Sounds like a blast.'

AN: Every Dutchman knows that the best chocolate milk is from Chocomel.

Mannn I had to read a lot of parts from battle of the labyrinth again. I was fourteen (I think?) when I first did that and some things definitely slipped my mind (like Nico sees Theseus when he tries to summon Biancas' ghost? I forgot?). I hope I got it right now.

I think this is how Nico feels about Minos. He was just an evil king, one of many, who he banished, so… yeah.

'Highline park, sir?' has as many syllables as 'Aaron Burr, sir,' so guess what I had in my head while editing this.