Nico woke up with a haze of memories and the sense that something was horribly wrong. Above him was the bottom of a bunk and below him was a hard slab of metal. He moved a hand to his heart and just as he had thought, he couldn't feel even the slightest heartbeat. Nothing. His chest was silent.

"I've gotta be dreaming..." Nico sat up and looked around the room. All metal, no windows, nothing else in the room but another bunk bed. Two boys slept on it, one on the bottom and one on top. Both only wore white shorts.

"Sounds of battle have to wake me up soon." Nico reasoned as he stared at his feet. "They always do when I get these weird dreams."

He stood up and stretched, his eyes moving to the three boys he shared the room with. He knew that if it was his dream, Will would be there with him. But none of the sleeping forms resembled the blond American he had just met, that he had somehow already fallen in love with. He had heard all the stories about when people met their soulmates, how fast they fell for each other, but he had never believed them. Why would he? It all seemed impossible and too unrealistic. He had been a soldier. He was focused on war, not romance.

But now, in a place or dream unknown, all he could think about was Will Solace.

"Wake up!" Nico smacked himself, frowning at the lack of pain. "Wake up! Wake up!"

"Shuuutttt uppppp." the boy on the other bottom bunk rolled over and moved his pillow over his head. "I'm trying to sleep."

Nico stopped his own assault and looked over at the boy, scowling at the American accent. "Who are you?"

"I could ask you the same." the boy muttered. "They said we wouldn't have a room with newbies so we could sleep."

Nico rolled his eyes and advanced towards the boy. "Tell me what's going on. Even in my worst dreams, I have a heartbeat. And I'm always woken up by now. I never sleep through a battle. I'd be killed."

The boy laughed softly before sitting up. His black hair fell into his face and his green eyes shined through the fallen locks. "You really are new. My name's Percy."

"Nico di Angelo." Nico crossed his arms. "No last name?"

"Too many to count." Percy sighed. "My original one? Jackson, I think."

"Right..." Nico took a step backward. "I should've woken up by now...I should've... Unless..."

"Now you're getting it." Percy's expression turned from amusement to sadness. "I remember my first time, the moment you realize. I'm sorry."

"I'm...I'm dead?" Nico stared at his hands. "I felt it, I felt myself...going...but I woke up getting operated on. That means I was saved, right?"

Percy shook his head. "Far from it. You died. Where did you die, if I can ask?"

Nico sat beside Percy on the bed with a sigh of defeat. "I got shot a couple times in battle. I was a general in the Italian army."

"What war?" Percy questioned. "Sorry, I know it probably seems stupid to you."

"The second great war," Nico replied. "We were with Germany. They had taken France. America just entered. Now I'll never know if we won."

He stared at his lap for some time before looking up at Percy, knowing that if he was alive he'd be crying by now. "An American tried to save me. A couple minutes before I died we realized we were soulmates. While he was kissing me I just...slipped away..."

"And woke up on the operating table." Percy finished. "Sorry, man, that's a harsh first death."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Nico questioned. "You act like you...like you've lived more than one life."

"I have." Percy shrugged. "It's kind of cool but gets tiring after awhile. You live, you die, you come back here. You always come back here."

"Here..." Nico looked around them at the metal room. "Where is here?"

"I have no idea," Percy admitted. "None of us do."

Nico stood up and paced the room, searching the walls for any exit besides the very much locked door. "I feel like I'm in a cell."

"That's because you are." Percy ran a hand through his hair. "Breakfast better be soon. Now that I'm up I'm not going back to sleep without food."

"Why eat if we're dead?" Nico questioned. "That's stupid."

"It's not the food you're thinking of," Percy promised. "Calm down. You look like you're going crazy."

"What is the point of all of this?" Nico questioned. "Why can't I just go to Heaven or whatever?"

Percy sat back against the wall. "That's a long conversation."

"We have until breakfast."

"Ugh, fine." Percy gestured for Nico to sit next to him. "Your pacing makes me nervous."

Nico sat next to Percy and looked down at the white shorts he wore, scowling at the rough material. "This place is so stupid."

"You'll get used to it." Percy started to twist his fingers as if were cracking them, but no noise came out. "Us long timers have figured out some behind why we're here but not everything. Annabeth knows a lot. I'll take you to talk to her after breakfast. But basically...I think they're finding the key to immortality."

"I'm already dead," Nico replied bluntly.

"You're such a downer," Percy mumbled. "It's hard for me to explain. Just wait for Annabeth, okay?"

Nico sighed. "Who's this Annabeth?"

"My soulmate." Percy smiled at the mere thought of her. "We died together last time, so we're here together. It's nice."

"How did you die?" Nico asked. "I told you mine."

Percy looked away from Nico's dark eyes. "Me and Annabeth...we... Nico, we-"

The metal door opening cut Percy off and seemed to wake up the other two boys. They each waved to Percy before exiting the room, leaving Percy and Nico alone on the metal bed.

"Breakfast." Percy stood up. "Come on. You can talk to Annabeth. We don't want to be late."

Nico got up, tried not to feel too vulnerable without a weapon. "You didn't finish your story."

"I'll tell you later." Percy moved a hand to Nico's shoulder and led him out. "But right now it's breakfast."

Nico followed Percy down the metal hallway, followed a herd of boys that came from other open doors. They walked the same way, talked amongst themselves, seemed to be comfortable in a place that Nico was now sure wasn't a dream. From what he saw there was around fifty boys, all wearing the same thing but looking different from one another. They all...were different. Nico couldn't quite place it, but they were different.

"You see it, don't you?" Percy asked, having been watching the other boy. "I can tell by your face."

Nico looked up at him. "If you know so much, what is it? What am I seeing?"

"We're dead," Percy replied. "We're dead. We don't have bodies. What you see are just souls. I doubt you've ever seen just a soul before. That's why they're different."

"But...they look like..." Nico scowled. "Why is this so confusing? They look like humans, like you and-... We're souls? I'm not, we're not, I'm not... I'm not a human anymore...just a soul..."

"That's what happens when you die." Percy's green eyes really were shinning. "Our souls all have certain colors that stand out the most, that tell about who were are. Despite the different lives, we're always the same person."

Nico felt small beneath his gaze, felt embarrassed to be someone new. It felt like his first day in training, when everyone looked down at him. Everyone saw him as only a newbie. He missed his days as general.