Leo stared up at the ceiling of his room, convinced that he would never fall asleep. Wrong. In two short minutes, emotional and physical exhaustion drove him into a deep slumber.

Nico on the other hand, having already made all the preparations for later, had climbed up to the top of the ship's mast. The wind was so strong it threatened to throw him off balance, but the danger made him feel slightly more alive.

An hour passed quicker than the son of Hades had realized, and soon, he was at Leo's door again. Silently, he slipped into the room and shook him. "Leo. Wake up."

Leo, in his half-asleep state, was only able to mumble something incoherent and add, "five more minutes…" to the end of his sentence as he rolled over and pulled the blanket over his face.

"No." Nico had become increasingly anxious as the time to summon Esperanza Valdez drew near. What if he did something wrong? What if it didn't work with the Doors of Death still open? What if she didn't respond? Each 'what if' was cause to panic, but so far he managed to keep his worries in check. "Leo, get up now," he urged, shaking him harder this time.

"Alright, fine," he groaned, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He stretched and yawned, with a bright-and-early smile that showed he was still stuck in dreamland. It kind of hurt Nico to see him so obliviously happy, considering the reason he was here to wake him up. "Morning," he joked.

"Actually, it is morning. Just past midnight," Nico counters, but his expression is still dead serious. "Let's go. We still have things to do before…" His voice faltered, trying to select better words than just saying 'summoning the ghost of your dead mom.' Luckily, Leo got the point before he had to finish the thought.

"Oh." All traces of a smile disappeared from his face and he grew pale, but he nodded. In an uneasy quiet, he followed Nico out of the room, not even bothering to ask where they were headed. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he sure as Hades wasn't expecting to be taken to the dining room. What, was Nico hungry for breakfast or something? "What… are we doing here?"

"Get out the cups," Nico ordered. "You said they create any food or drink you want, right? Start making apple cider, and whatever else your mom liked." Nico took a glass into his hand, and it began to fill with the warm beverage.

"Sure?" Leo just let out a confused laugh—it was all he could think to do. Picking up a cup, he willed it to fill with her favorite drink, and after that one was full, a few of her favorite foods began spontaneously popping up on plates. "What, we're gonna throw her a party with all her favorite foods?"

Nico hesitated, as though Leo was being serious about that thought. "Kind of," is all he said, before gathering cups in his arms and walking off, expecting Leo to follow. Stacking plates on his arms like a waiter at a diner, he and the son of Hades left the mess hall.

Nico stopped in front of the Athena Parthenos. It was in an unlit part of the ship, but it radiated light and magic enough so that Leo could still see around him. Why had Nico taken him here? And as though the location wasn't odd enough, there was a large basin filled with dirt and a huge hole dug in the middle, right in front of him. "…What?" was all he could say, trying to make sense of it all.

For Nico, summoning spirits was practically second nature. The fact that Leo could be so clueless was somewhat irritating, somewhat expected. He sighed. "All spirits live in the Underworld, so to summon them, you dig a hole in the earth. That's a bit of a problem for us, since we're hundreds of feet in the air. I'm hoping this thing," he gestured to the large pot of dirt, "will do, especially since the Athena Parthenos is here to amplify my power."

"Ah… makes sense," Leo mumbled, even if it made little to no sense to him at all. "So we're just gonna… dump all this food in there?" he asked, though he was a little afraid of the answer.

"It depends if you're ready or not." Nico looked a bit uncomfortable, which naturally, wasn't very reassuring to Leo. "You've got a chance to back out now. But I don't really suggest you take it."

"I won't—all this food would go to waste, wouldn't it?" he joked, not even bothering to hide the quaver in his voice. "I mean… I'm not ready. I'm not ready at all, but heck, I'll never be ready, so now's as good a time as any, right?"

"If you say so," Nico offered, frowning at how frightened Leo sounded. Then he prayed a silent plea to his father and also to Athena, and began dumping food into the hole. Leo followed the example, pouring a tall glass of apple cider into the pit as well as other goodies, until it glowed with an eerie light.

Nico murmured something out loud in ancient Greek, and after a few moments, Leo decoded it. "Hades, all-powerful god of the Underworld, show me the spirit of Esperanza Valdez," he had said. Mist billowed out from the small opening in their makeshift ground, and a figure seemed to be formed out of the air.

She was a young woman in her early thirties, maybe. Her smile was kind and warm, like a mother's smile should be, but her eyes brave, making it clear that she'd seen hardship in life. Her translucent form shimmered in the darkness, and then came fully into view. Nico had to stifle a gasp at how much the woman reminded him of his older sister.

Leo's eyes widened and a breath hitched in his throat. He opened his mouth to say something, but words failed him. He felt tears building inside him, but he swallowed the emotions down and stared at his mother, trying to keep his balance on his feet.

"Hello, mijo," she said in a soft voice. "I missed you."

Leo reached his hand up and touched her—but she wasn't really there to touch, and his hand passed through her fingers. "Mama," he began, "I—I missed you, too." He looked into her eyes, and for a moment, he felt like the same little boy who sat in the back of the mechanics store, telling jokes and tapping messages in Morse Code.

"You're so big now, aren't you?" Her smile grew even wider and she laughed, a sound Leo hadn't heard for years, other than in his memories.

"S-Still shorter than everyone else," he mumbled, eyes not once leaving his mother's face. "Are you… Are you angry at me? Lo siento," he reflexively said in Spanish, like being around his mother reawakened that part of his brain. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Por qué?" she asked, shaking her head. "Never be sorry to me. You've done nothing wrong." She reached out and brushed her hand across his cheek, hand disappearing into nothing as it got nearer to his face.

"But I did!" He feels his voice rising against his own will. "I burned down the building… I hurt you. I killed you." It was a confession he'd been carrying around for his whole life, and although the burden lessened when he talked to Jason, and Piper, and Hazel, and Nico… he felt only then that the burden had truly left him.

"No." Her expression hardened, in a stern sort of motherly way. "You didn't do anything, mijo. You're my little boy. They may blame you and take away everything—but any machine can be fixed. You just need to find the right parts."

Leo's heard her say this more than once before, but this time, he made a silent promise to himself that he would take the advice and use it. "I… I saw Hephaestus—I saw my father," he told her, changing the topic.

"Ah, tu padre? Crazy old man," she chuckled. "I loved him, though—I suppose I am just a crazy old woman, then."

"No!" Leo blurted out, now laughing with his mother. "If you ask me, you're very beautiful. Muy bella, mama." He grinned as he spoke, and it was a smile Nico hadn't seen on his face for a while. Actually, Nico was fairly certain he'd never seen Leo this happy, and probably never would again.

"Ah, but not as handsome as you've grown up to be," she countered. "And now you're probably even a better mechanic than I was." She smiled, a proud glint in her eyes.

"Better than you? Impossible."Leo shook his head.

On the sidelines, Nico chanted quietly and watched as the image flickered. He was about to speak, to tell them to hurry, but it became clear enough to all of them that there wasn't very much time left.

"It's very possible, mijo," she told him, but her voice sounded farther away. "I have to go soon…"

"No," he whispered. "No, no—I can't lose you again! D-Don't leave… please, mama, don't leave?" He whimpered.

"Lo siento, mijo." She bent down and hugged him, but he didn't feel it. "Don't be sad. I'm proud of you. I love you very much." The image began to fade even more, and Leo could barely make out his mother's face in all the darkness.

"I love you," he managed, hoping his mom heard him, before mist stopped billowing out of the basin. Then, the image of his mother disappeared entirely, until he was left staring at empty darkness in front of a bucket of dirt.