Chapter Text
"I don't understand, why were they at the river in the first place?"
"Jason followed Nico there."
"But... but that's ridiculous! Nico knew what that river did, why would he go there on purpose?"
"You know perfectly well why, Percy Jackson, now stop being an idiot and use your head for once. He followed Nico there to stop him from jumping in."
"Well he did a great job of it."
"Leo!"
"What? Sorry I'm a little pissed off my best friend has lost his memory. Again!"
"Please, lord Hades sir, there must be a way to reverse this."
"Hmm, your pretty voice will do nothing to win me over, child... but there is a way."
"There is?!"
"Yes, but it is not something you will like. It is dangerous and uncontrollable. You have no idea what she will ask of you."
"She?"
"Yes. She. The goddess of memory."
* * *
The room smelled funny.
That was the first thing he thought when he opened his eyes. It was dark in the room. And cold. He didn't know where he was... he didn't know who he was. He felt panicked inside, filled with an intense sense of deja vu. Why was this familiar? This sinking feeling that nothing was as it should be.
Looking to his left he saw the face of another boy. He had pale olive skin and a forest of jet black hair surrounding his head like a halo. He reached out to touch the boy's hair but paused when he realized his hand was already clasped tightly in the other boy's grip. He looked at their connected hands and frowned. He knew this boy, of that he was sure. He didn't know who he was, but right now he was the only thing in the world that felt right.
Slowly shifting from his spot on the cold bed, making sure not to displace the hand from his, he moved so he was kneeling beside the boy. He gently shook him with his free hand.
"Hey," he whispered. "Hey, wake up... can you tell me who I am?"
The boy slowly opened his eyes and blinked into the dim lightly. They stared at each other for a long while, taking each other in before the boy spoke.
"Only if you tell me who I am."
It was then, that they both realized how very wrong this was.
* * *
"No!"
Piper was fuming, which wasn't surprising. This was ridiculous and completely typical. She glared at the straight faced goddess, grinding her teeth and trying to hold herself back from lunging at her.
"You can't do that!"
The goddess huffed and crossed her arms. "I am Mnemosyne. I can do whatever I want, child. The best part is, if I don't want you to, you won't even remember any of this!"
Piper wanted to cry she was so angry.
"I thought you were supposed to help."
Mnemosyne hummed and tapped her chin, walking back and forth in front of the crowd of children. "I will help. But nothing comes without a price, dear. I thought you would have learned this by now." She looked at Piper and grinned, her jet black eyes glinting in the fire light. "It's not much, just a small price. 5 memories each, that's all I ask. A girl's got to eat, you know."
Piper decided to ignore that last bit of information. She did not need to know that this goddess ate memories.
"But that's... 5 of their most precious memories... they can never ever get them back if you take them."
Mnemosyne huffed indignantly and rolled her eyes. "And your other option is to do nothing and wait until they get their memories back, which could take years if it happens at all. You willing to risk that, daughter of Aphrodite?"
Piper opened her mouth to argue but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked behind her to see Percy looking at her grimly. "Piper," he whispered, "we may not have any other choice. It's not as bad as it could be, she could want all of their happy memories. She's only asking for five. Jason has loads."
"Ah yes," the goddess purred, not caring that she was not supposed to have heard the conversation. "Jason Grace. So many memories. Two lives, that's a lot to sift through. The other one, though... not nearly as many. I'd say he had... what, 12 happy memories left? Most of them he can't even remember due to him being too young. Poor thing. No wonder he jumped."
Piper winced and looked at the goddess, trying to ignore the sound of Hazel's soft attempts to hide her tears. She couldn't allow herself to get emotional. She needed to be the strong negotiator right now. She looked sharply at Hades, who had been standing quietly in the corner since the goddess had appeared. "Why didn't you do anything?" she demanded, needing someone to vent her frustration at. "You were right here! You could have stopped them! I thought you knew everything that happened in your underworld."
Hades stared at her, his anger radiating off him with such force that it almost knocked her into Percy.
"I did not believe he would actually jump," Hades said, his voice booming around the room.
Mnemosyne whistled and smirked. "Someone's grumpy."
Hades left the room with a swish of his robes, headed towards Nico's room where the two unconscious boys had been laid.
"This is getting us no where," Frank said angrily. "Why don't we just ask them?"
Piper frowned and looked over at Frank. "Ask them?"
Frank nodded and looked towards the door Hades had disappeared through. "The memories belong to them. It's not up to us. We should ask them... if they want to remember... given the price they'll have to pay."
"What price?"
All heads turned towards the small sound, the soft voice and big wondering eyes. For a split second, Piper didn't recognize him. She had never seen Nico look so... young. But she was distracted from the boy in seconds when she caught sight of the person who was holding his hand. "Jason!" she cried, unable to stop herself. They both looked at her, confused, before looking at each other.
"Which one of us is Jason?" Jason asked Nico, who shrugged.
"I'm going to guess it's you," Nico said softly. Jason frowned and tilted his head to the side. "Why do you say that?"
Nico smiled and Piper almost sobbed as loud as Hazel. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
"Because you look like a Jason."
Piper wasn't sure why Nico's smile effected her so much. It was so lighthearted, so free of any kind of angst. She had never seen Nico this way before and it was like a punch in the fact. He was just a kid. An innocent little boy. He was so... free like this.
Jason laughed and shrugged. "Alright. What's your name then?"
"Nico," Percy said, his voice breaking slightly. "Your name is Nico."
Nico looked at Percy and his smile wavered for a second--it was as if he had remembered Percy for a split second. She saw Frank put an arm around a shaking Hazel out of the corner of her eye.
"That's a strange name," Nico said, the smile back. "Is it short for something?"
Percy swallowed loudly and shrugged. "Not sure... you've never told us. You're just... Nico."
"How very cute," Mnemosyne said, drawing everyone's attention back to her. "Now boys, you have a decision to make. Here is the choice. You can get your memories back. Except 5 of each of your most precious memories will be mine and you will never get them back. Or you can wait and see if you regain your memories on your own, which you might never accomplish. However those memories will still be yours to remember. Your choice."
Jason looked down at Nico and Piper could see the silent conversation going on between the two of them.
"I guess we'll do it. I mean... 5 memories isn't many compared to getting the rest of them back now."
Mnemosyne purred softly and walked towards the two boys, everyone else parting out of the way because her cloak was far too similar to the River Lethe to be safe.
"How very brave of you. That is the right choice. At least... it definitely is for you, Jason. However, Nico, you need to know that it was you that caused the two of you to lose your memories. You jumped into the river Lethe voluntarily, seeking to forget everything about yourself. Jason was merely trying to stop you and got sucked in as well. Knowing that... do you still believe you want to remember? You could start over, be a different person with a different life and none of the extra baggage."
Nico seemed to stew over that, the wheels turning visibly in his head.
Jason looked determined as ever. "Return my memories to me," he said, extremely sure of himself. "I jumped in to save Nico, right? That means I must care about him a lot. So if you give me back my memories I can convince Nico that he deserves to have his memories."
Mnemosyne looked incredibly pleased.
"Very well, Jason Grace," she said softly, lifting her hand and placing her fingers to Jason's forehead. His eyes went wide and a brilliant white light erupted from his eyes and mouth, blinding Piper for a couple seconds. When she blinked the stars from her vision, Jason was on his hands and knees, panting and gasping for air. He looked around wildly and scrambled to his feet when he saw Nico, grabbing him by the shoulders.
"Gods you're an idiot!" he shouted. "Forgetting isn't the answer! You have to fight past the bad stuff and find new things to make you smile. If your past hurts then don't think about it until the hurt is gone. Maybe the hurt will never got away but sometimes that's a good thing. Nico, you precious, idiotic child. You're 14 years old! I don't care that you're technically 80 or something, you're 14 and you should not be acting like the world is ending because of a stupid kiss! I will not allow yourself to throw everything away just because of some teenage angst! What about your sister? What about us? What about me? Gods, Nico, you do stupid things to my brain. Hazel loves you, your sister loved you, I love you, which is stupid. I am now responsible for you and I'm not letting you do this to yourself. Let the nice lady give you back your life and let's move on... let's create new memories, happier memories because I need to see you smiling."
Piper wiped a tear from her eye and bit her lip to stop herself from crying. She had never seen something like this before. Nico looked shocked and so incredibly confused.
"I want to remember," he whispered. "With... with someone like you beside me, why would I want to forget?"
Jason let out a soft laugh, looking thoroughly deflated. Mnemosyne smiled and lifted her fingers to Nico's forehead. Piper had the common sense to close her eyes this time.
* * *
"You know you could go dance, right?"
Nico huffed and shrugged, arms crossed over his chest as he sat leaning against Jason's side. Jason chuckled and took another sip of his Kool-Aid (curtasy of Dakota).
Nico had lost 5 memories of Bianca(Jason had finally learned her name). He had many more, but he'd lost the ones that evoked the least painful emotions. Nico didn't really talk about his sister any more. It made Jason sad, but he knew that he was going to have to work on getting the remaining memories of her to not be so painful for him. He had made it his life goal to make Nico di Angelo happy.
"I don't dance, Jason."
Jason rolled his eyes. "Yeah, neither do I but you saw me out there with Piper not 5 minutes ago. Come on, man, it will be fun."
Nico looked unbelievably skeptical.
Jason grinned and stood quickly, causing Nico to slide sideways. Jason grabbed Nico's hands and pulled him to his feet, yanking him onto the center of the amphatheatre that they were using as a dance floor.
"Jason," Nico said warningly. "No, n-no, Jason, No."
Jason promptly ignored him and grabbed him around the waist, swaying him back and forth, much to the amusement of everyone watching and the embarrassment of the boy in his arms.
"Gods, you are going to be the death of me," Nico muttered, hiding his face in Jason's chest, but Jason could feel him smiling a little.
Jason grinned. "That's the plan."