[A/N]: I am now officially a very bad person. I have not updated in…uh…a really long time. You are all allowed to kill me now. Heh.

So, for those of you who have not read this in forever, and are too lazy to go back and reread (don't worry, I forgot what was happening in the story myself): Calli was knocked out by something, and Will and Nico are looking for her. The ever so lovely place they are in is Florida, and they are searching for Mnemosyne.

Flashbacks in this chapter, if you don't mind. :D

-Cassandra's Curse-

By: zynaofthenight

Six

Green.

It's a very nice color, really. Green inspires nature within oneself. It conveys the soft whispering of tree leaves in the summer, the freshly mowed grass on someone's lawn (though, unfortunately, if one has allergies, that may not necessarily be a good thing), and the everlasting, beautiful world.

Green also conveys that fact that if I was currently mumbling about it, and coming up with random thoughts, I was probably insane. No. Not probably. I was insane.

My head was pounding like crazy, and I couldn't see. That could have been due to the fact that my eyes were closed, but still—I couldn't see. I also seemed to be lying on a really cold and hard ground, which was most definitely not comfortable at all.

I opened my eyes and sat up.

As I looked upon the glorious and majestic palace I seemed to be sitting in, the only thing I could think of to say was: "Um, this place looks like that Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz."

My entire surroundings were green, hence the happy green thoughts I had been thinking of. But what kept my attention the most was a richly dressed woman sitting in front of me. However, as I focused on her, she seemed to be only partly solid, forever shifting.

I blinked. "Uh, hi."

Smooth words, Calli. Smooth words. How much more stupid can you get?

The woman smiled back. "Hello, my child."

We sat there in awkward silence—at least, it was awkward for me. The woman just hummed softly, a happy smile on her ever shifting face, which I wasn't exactly sure how it was possible. After a while, I cleared my throat. "Where am I?"

The woman laughed, but it sounded hazy to my ears. "Where are you? My dear, you are at the palace of Mnemosyne."

Mnemosyne. Of course. I had found her. Or, actually, she had found me.

My next question came out, somehow making me sound more stupid than I did already (which was pretty hard): "Why is this place green?" Hey, at least it was a somewhat reasonable question.

Mnemosyne laughed again. "I find green a soothing color."

I looked around at the bright greenness of the place and winced. "Overkill, much?" I muttered under my breath. If Mnemosyne had heard, she chose to ignore it. "So," I said louder, smiling tentatively, "uh, Mnemosyne, I was looking for you, actually. Uh, I was wondering, um, could you give me my memory back?"

I grimaced at how stupid I sounded. Seriously, Calli, by the end of this, it's going to be very hard to find someone as stupid as you in this world.

The lady stood up, and I swore, the smile on her face seemed to increase. "Everything requires a price, Calli," she soothed, her voice becoming melodious all of the sudden.

I found myself nodding. "Sure."

What are you doing? Wake up, Calli! Stop nodding!

"You would like to regain your memories, don't you?" the woman continued, her voice ever so calm and soothing. I nodded again, and she smiled even more brightly, if possible. "Would you be willing to discuss this with your friends?"

Something was wrong. I frowned—there was something I was forgetting. "What friends?"

She waved her hands, and two very nice looking boys appeared. "These friends, Calli dear. Of course, you don't know them, but that's alright. If I give you your memory back, will you let me take the memories of your friends?"

I blinked. "Uh…"

One of the very nice looking boys—he had brown hair and blue eyes—sprang forward. "Calli, don't!" he cried.

I stared at him blankly. "Do I know you?"

He cursed under his breath and turned to the other boy. "Gods, I hate quests. What are we going to do?"

Mnemosyne cleared her throat and looked at the boys pointedly. "If you don't want your memories taken, I can always give you another choice. Wouldn't you like that?"

The two boys looked at her, confused. Mnemosyne walked over to me, and turned to the boys. "If Calli wants her memory back, I ask that you two share it with her. Gaining back what the River Lethe has taken is not an easy task. If Hades had not meddled with the memory system, there would be no way to gain back Calli's memory."

One of the boys—unfortunately, not the nice looking one with brown hair—gave Mnemosyne a confused glance. "But…that's not really a harsh price, is it?"

Mnemosyne's face grew serious, and shadows seemed to curl about her. "Memories are dangerous things, Nico di Angelo. You should always remember that. Perhaps watching Calli's memories may not harm you, but when one watches another's memories, it will affect you greatly."

Di Angelo. Where had I heard that before? But it didn't matter. Mnemosyne passed her hand in front of my face, and I blacked out.

"He loves me, he loves me not…" A woman stands before me, though her back is facing me. The petals on the flower in her hands are half torn off, as the woman continues plucking individual petals off. "He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…"

She stops. The petals on the flowers are all gone now. She turns around in relief, and apparently not noticing me, walks away. I follow her, watching her meet with a tall, handsome man.

"Maria," the man says, embracing her tenderly. The woman smiles, and the two of them walk away. I turn to go, when I hear a rustling in the grass. Three young children pop out, two girls and one boy. The younger girl looks after the couple with confusion.

"Hades doesn't seem like a bad person," she tells the two others. "Why does Mama say he'll hate me?"

The boy takes her hand and stares after the woman and the man. "Everything will be okay, Calli," he says, not directly answering her question.

The scene dissolves, to be placed by another.

"Cassandra di Angelo!"

The same woman is back, but she is scolding now, directing her anger at the same little girl in the earlier scene. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

The girl looks confused. "Mama, I didn't do anything."

"Don't call me Mama!" the woman blazes. "I hate you! I wish you were never born. Do you know what you've done?"

The girl backs away, tears running down her face. "I—" she starts, but then turns away, and runs off.

The scene dissolves again. The girl makes her way through a snowy blizzard, and a connection runs through my mind. I've been through this before. I should remember.

A scene of the Underworld flashes through my mind. Then, my new life. Memories fills my mind. A messy room filled with papers fluttering everywhere passes through. The boy with dark hair I had seen in Mnemosyne's palace looks at me. "I'm your brother," he whispers. The very nice looking boy with brown hair stares back at me. His name is Will Solace, son of Apollo.

I am Cassandra di Angelo. Reincarnation of Cassandra of Troy. I am the daughter of Hades, and this is my quest to break Apollo's curse with the Golden Rose.

I rise above the memories.

Yet again, I was stuck in the warmth of the blazing sun.

I blinked, and all at once, an overload of sense rushed through me, and I gasped, feeling nauseated and dizzy. Beside me, Nico and Will were standing up, surveying their surroundings.

Nico. Will. Mnemosyne. My memories.

I blinked again. "Where are we?"

For we were outside, and there was no sign of Mnemosyne's palace, or anything vaguely green, for the matter, except the trees that swayed in the soft breeze.

"Figures," Nico said, and I sensed a trace of bitter sarcasm in his voice. "Trust the gods to vanish like memories." He turned to look at me, and I saw a new light in his eyes. It wasn't brotherly love, friendliness, or anything, but it was…respect.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Calli, for being the jerk I was. I guess you're really my sister. I…I apologize. Maybe you'll think better of me now?" He half-smiled.

I nodded. "Apology accepted, although I guess I have to apologize too. Sorry for being…uh, annoying, I guess."

We stood there, smiling at each other in forgiveness—until Will coughed loudly. "I'm sorry to break up this lovely family make up," he said clearly, "but we have a quest. Though I do agree with Calli when she says that she was being annoying."

I gave him the full force of my death glare. "Y-you!" I stuttered. "You Apollo boy." I said the words 'Apollo boy' as if they were the worst insults I could think of. "I can't believe I ever thought you were nice looking!"

Immediately, I wished I had shut my mouth and kept my thoughts to myself. Will stared at me, amused, while Nico snickered. My face burned red, and I turned away from them. "Forget that," I said, wishing I wasn't so easily embarrassed. "Let's go looking for the Fates."

Will pointed up, and I was glad for the distraction. "Looks like Mnemosyne decided to help us."

I followed his gaze. In front of us was a swirling, transparent vortex, having seemingly appeared from thin air.

"So," I told Will. "Ladies first."

We stared at each other, until he realized what I meant. "I am not a lady."

"I'm sorry," I told him sweetly, "But I seem to be more manly than you. So go." I gave him a little push towards the vortex. He glared at me, then disappeared, leaving Nico and I alone.

Nico stared at the gateway. "So…"

"At the count of three?"

He nodded. "One, two, three—"

We jumped into the vortex…and into open air.

"I hate quests," Will yelled as we plummeted to our deaths. "Somehow, we always end up dying in some way or the other."

I was going to counter with a sharp retort, except, well, the dying thing. I contented myself with a glare, then continued screaming as my death became quite inevitable. Closing my eyes, I waited for the worst. The ground came rushing up to meet me.

And there was silence.

I opened my eyes tentatively. Either I was dead, or some miracle happened and I hadn't died. Around me, Nico and Will rose, apparently unscathed.

So I was alive.

However, in the next moment, a looming figure rose in my vision. My vision started fading away. I vaguely felt myself falling, and Will catching me. Normally, I would have sprung up, yelling something about cooties, but I couldn't move. Embarrassingly enough, I had decided to totally not make a fool of myself and appear weak—

No, I just had to faint.

[A/N]: And finally, the next chapter in this lovely story is finally updated after months and months of a lazy author ignoring her strive for fanfiction. Review please? Maybe I'll be not lazy enough to write another chapter sometime…in the next, uh, few billion years. Yeah.

Anywho, it's summer here, so I hope you're all having a lovely summer vacation. And since I've decided to travel the path of nostalgia, I've just looked at the date and realized that it's more than a year since I joined fanfiction. Wow. ._.

Oh, yeah! By the way, my story Epsilon was nominated for the Verita Award for best AU. Go to www dot fanmortals dot webs dot com for more info. Vote for me :D