Chapter Text
I helped Thalia to her feet, getting her arm over my shoulders. Lee broke off from the group and took her other side which was a big help as Thalia was taller than me and not doing much to support her own weight.
"Infirmary," Lee said.
"Got it," I said, moving so we could pivot in the direction of the Big House.
"Let me through!" Annabeth shouted from somewhere in the crowd of people. People got shoved aside as she burst through the ring of onlookers. "Thalia!"
Thalia slowly looked over to her, still sort of out of it. "Who're you?"
Annabeth's face fell. "I'm Annabeth."
Thalia shook her head. "Annabeth's a little kid."
"Make way," Lee commanded, motioning for the people between us and the Big House to move it.
People backed away, opening up a corridor for us. We started walking down the hill.
"You've been out for a while," I told Thalia. "That is Annabeth."
"No, it's not," she said, stubbornly shaking her head. "Annabeth is seven."
"It's been—,"
"Wait until we get to the infirmary," Lee said, cutting me off.
"Okay," I agreed.
We made our way slowly across the grass as Thalia stumbled every so often. We kept her from falling over and kept moving. Annabeth stuck with us, wringing her hands as she watched on. Grover joined her, staying on Annabeth's far side from me.
"This is the Big House, the admin building for camp, but also where the infirmary is," Lee told Thalia as we climbed the steps of the porch. "You're going to be here for a few days before we get you moved into your cabin."
"Cabin?" Thalia asked.
"Where campers stay," Lee said. "You get assigned to them based on your godly parent so you'll be going into cabin one."
"Yay me," she said, completely unenthusiastic.
We helped her down the hall and into the infirmary. We got her set up on a bed, and Lee helped her get her boots off before letting climb under the covers. He left for the supply of nectar and ambrosia, and Annabeth and Grover stopped at the foot of the bed.
I tried not to, but I couldn't stop myself. I studied Thalia, and she did look like me. She had straight hair, but it was just as black as mine before I dyed it. Her eyes were blue, but their shape looked the same as mine. Her cheekbones, her nose, her jawline, all an echo of mine. There was no way she was physically close to the same age as Luke. Maybe if she'd been the right age and looked more like an adult rather than sixteen at most it would have been harder to see, but at only a couple years apart, she could pass for my sister.
My stomach twisted. Luke could definitely look at me and see her instead, this girl he thought was the prettiest and the best at everything. The girl Annabeth herself said he had made a little family with.
It was good I'd dyed my hair a different color.
"Grover, you're here," Thalia said, smiling even though she didn't sound too enthusiastic with all her confusion being back in human form.
"Yeah, I made it," he said. "How are you feeling?"
"Run over," she said then cast Annabeth a suspicious look. "Why are you still here?"
"I'm Annabeth, Annabeth Chase. I know I’m older, but I’m still me," Annabeth said. "I want to make sure you're okay."
"No, you're not Annabeth," Thalia said, shaking her head. "You're too old."
"She isn't too old. It’s the other way around. You’re too young," Lee said, offering her a square of ambrosia first. "Eat this, and we’ll explain."
Thalia cautiously took it from him, nibbling a corner. Her eyes went wide then she shoved the whole thing in her mouth.
"You were turned into a tree by your father to keep you from dying," Lee said while her mouth was full. "It's been around seven years since then. Annabeth's obviously grown up in that time. It seems like you weren't completely frozen while you were a tree so you've aged some too, but you’re still not as old as you should be."
"What're you," she said, but stopped as she dribbled out crumbs. She covered one hand with her mouth and brushed the crumbs off her chest with the other. She froze, hand on her sternum.
She swallowed slowly. "I want a mirror."
Lee nodded, heading to the supply stash and coming back with the mirror they used to show kids the injuries they had in harder to see areas. He handed it over to Thalia, and she held it up to her face.
"That's not—I don't—," she lowered the mirror, squinting. "Annabeth?"
"Yeah," Annabeth said, taking a step towards her bed. "It's me."
Thalia stared at her, searching her face. "But where's Luke? If you’re here, he should be here."
Annabeth's face hardened. Grover shifted on his feet.
"He deserted," I said to spare Annabeth from having to say it.
Annabeth looked on the verge of tears, and Grover flinched. Thalia turned and glared at me.
"I didn't ask you," she snapped. "What the hell does deserted even mean? He wouldn't leave us."
"He—,"
"Hold your horses," Lee said, loudly and firmly but without yelling. "Drink your nectar and then we can discuss the situation."
Thalia scowled as she took the glass he offered to her. She chugged it, letting out a heavy breath once she'd finished it and swiping the back of her hand over her mouth. "Tell me."
"You know your grandfather is the crooked one?" Lee asked.
"You mean Kronos?" she asked.
"Don't use his name," he said. "Names have power, and right now, the crooked one is gathering his to crawl out of Tartarus and destroy Olympus."
Thalia looked between us. "Are you serious? I'm supposed to believe that?"
"Yes," Lee said. "And he recruited Luke to do it. Last year, he stole your father's lightning bolt and the helm of the Lord of the Underworld. Percy had to return them, and Luke tried to kill him for it. This summer, he poisoned your tree to weaken the camp and send someone to get the Golden Fleece. He tried to get it back to raise himself, but Clarisse brought it here which is how you're even a person again."
Thalia glanced over to me then looked back to Lee. "No, that's not possible. Luke wouldn't do that. He couldn’t."
"He was brainwashed by the crooked one," Annabeth said. "That's the only reason he's done it."
I bit my tongue.
"He doesn't seem to think so," Thalia said, gesturing towards me.
"The crooked one didn't make him hate his father," I said, crossing my arms. "No one brainwashed him into that."
Thalia frowned.
Grover cleared his throat. "It's good to have you back, Thalia."
"Yeah, sure," she said then, "Thanks, Grover."
"How are you feeling now?" Lee asked. "Any pain?"
Thalia shook her head. "I'm better now, just tired."
"Alright, we'll keep you on bed rest for now and if you're feeling better tomorrow, you'll be free to go," he said.
The door to the infirmary opened, and we all turned towards Chiron. "I have sent everyone back to their cabins with the promise of an update at breakfast. I believe it is best if we speak and ensure we're on the same page, Thalia."
Thalia treated him to a skeptical look. "You're Chiron, right? The guy who trained all those heroes?"
"Yes, that's me," he said.
"She's had nectar and ambrosia, and we told her about the crooked one and Luke," Lee said as he picked up the dirty glass.
"I can take it from here," Chiron said, moving towards Thalia's bed.
"Can I stay?" Annabeth asked.
Chiron looked to Thalia.
"Yeah, sure," she said.
"Alright, the rest of us will skedaddle," Lee said, motioning me and Grover towards the door.
I ignored Grover as we left the infirmary. I followed Lee to the kitchen rather than heading outside like Grover.
"Is she really okay?" I asked.
"As far as I can tell. There's not really a protocol for coming back from a tree, but I can pray to Dad, see if he knows anything," Lee said as he quickly washed the glass. He set it on the drying rack then turned to me. "How are you?"
"Fine, why?" I asked.
Lee shrugged. "New cousin, another Big Three kid."
"She's your aunt," I pointed out.
He treated me to a stern look. "I'm not Annabeth's friend."
I shrugged, but it was awkward. "So?"
He sighed. "Well, like I said before, if you need to talk, I'm here even if I’m not Lysander."
I nodded. “Thanks, but I think I’m good for now. Thalia isn’t out to kill me so I think things are going pretty well.”
"Okay, that’s really optimistic. Maybe we should just focus on breakfast," he said, motioning for me to go first.
We walked together to the pavilion, but sat at our separate tables. The nymphs arrived with the food before Chiron arrived. We got all the way through making offerings and starting to eat before he appeared.
At the end of the meal, he stomped his foot. Everyone quieted.
"As you may be aware, the Golden Fleece returned Thalia Grace, daughter of the king, to us this morning. She is unaware of what has happened for the past seven years. I request that you be respectful and treat her like any other new camper."
I double checked table six. Annabeth hadn't ever shown up. I kept an eye out for her for the rest of the day between Greek lessons, practicing spears with cabin seven, and cleaning with cabins nine and twelve, but I didn't see her until after dinner as she headed back to cabin six.
I took off for the Big House. I walked casually into the infirmary as if I had every right to be there and wasn’t trying to do anything sneaky. Thalia sat up in her bed alone, her jacket now laying over the side table. No other kids had been sent to the infirmary, and no Apollo kids attended Thalia so we were on our own.
"Hey," I said.
She narrowed her eyes at me. "Do all Poseidon kids have blue hair?"
"What?" I asked, thrown for a loop. "This is dyed. How would I have naturally blue hair?"
She shrugged. "I was a tree."
"Okay, for the record, my dad has black hair and so do I," I said, "but that's not what I'm here for. Did Chiron or Annabeth tell you about the prophecy?"
"What prophecy?" she asked.
"There's a big prophecy that a child of the Big Three will decide the fate of Olympus when they turn sixteen," I said. "Chiron thinks the crooked one may have wanted us to get the Fleece to have another shot at controlling the prophecy through you if he couldn’t get it for himself."
"What?" she asked. "Why would it be me? You're older than me."
"Uh, well," I said, scratching awkwardly as my arm. "I'm not. I’m turning fourteen, and you're like supposed to be nineteen.”
She scowled. "Gee, thanks for letting me know my age is all fucked up."
"I'm just trying to help—,"
"You're not," she snapped. "Get out."
I huffed. There was more to say, especially about Luke, but it wasn’t going to go down well if she was already yelling at me. "Fine, whatever."
I walked back out of the infirmary. I returned to my cabin, practicing guitar until it was time to grab my shower things to get ready for bed.
The next morning, I spotted Chiron leading Thalia over to cabin one. Later, she sat alone at table one in the pavilion.
"Go on," Mr. D prompted her, gesturing towards the giant brazier in the middle of the space.
Thalia stared blankly at him.
I grabbed my plate and went over to her. "Come on. You need to make an offering."
"An offering?" she asked.
"Yes, just take your plate and come to the fire," I said.
She looked skeptical, but followed me with her plate in hand.
"Just push off the best part of your food and say your dad's name either out loud or in your head," I told her quietly, conscious of all the eyes watching us.
"Do what?" she asked.
"Like this," I said.
I stepped up to the brazier and shoved a bit of the fruit salad off the plate and into the flames. "Poseidon."
Then I stepped back. "There. Do that with your dad or whichever god you feel like."
She stepped up to the flames and knocked some fruit off her plate, but she didn't say a name. She turned back to her table, bumping into my shoulder without apologizing as she passed. I rolled my eyes and went back to my own seat so table four could go.
I spotted Thalia eating before everyone had made their offerings, but I wasn't going to go over there to correct her. I waited until all of cabin seven had gotten through their offerings to start eating.
After breakfast, I headed to Greek lessons with Cam and Jessa.
"So are you, like, friends with Thalia now?" Jessa asked.
"No, we’re definitely not friends,” I said.
"What's she like?" Cam asked.
"I don't know," I said even though most of what she’d done so far was snap at me. "She's still getting used to not being a tree."
"Is she like you?" Jessa asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Like does she have any cool powers?"
"All I've seen her do is sit in a bed and eat breakfast, same as you," I said, picking up my pace to get into class early. We took our seats and everyone else filled in around us.
Thalia entered the classroom last. Everyone turned to look at her as she halted in the threshold.
"Hey, grab a free seat wherever you want," Lee said, gesturing to the class.
The only seats left were on the edges of the classroom. No one said anything as Thalia made her way around the room to sit down at an empty desk.
"Here you go," Lee said, handing her one of the battered leftover copies of the Iliad.
Thalia didn't say thank you as she took it, leaving it closed on her desk rather than opening.
Lee retreated to the front of the classroom to resume the lesson. I glanced over to Thalia between questions on the worksheet. She scowled down at her unopened copy as Lee went around the room helping the newer students. I caught him more than once trying to talk to Thalia, but she didn't seem to be responding.
Thalia was first out of the door at the end of the lessons. I told Cam and Jessa to go on ahead and joined Lee as we walked out of the classroom.
"Hey, did anyone happen to tell Thalia that she’s the counselor for her cabin, and she needs to go to the meetings on Sunday?" I asked.
"Okay, I knew I was forgetting something because I’m pretty sure no one did," he said. "Guess I'll have to do that once we get to lunch."
We walked up to the pavilion together, but Lee broke off to talk to Thalia before going over to table seven while I sat down at table three. Thalia at least got up to give her offering without prompting this time. I went up to the fire after her and took my seat again.
Cabin seven unfortunately had archery that afternoon. Lee helped me out for the first part, but I was on my own after that. I did everything as slowly as I could to focus on my form, but even with a lower draw weight, that was hard to hold for any length of time. My shots kept going all over the place.
After archery, we had cleaning the pavilion for our chore. At least I couldn’t accidentally hit anyone doing that.
"So," Castor said, appearing on my right as I scrubbed at something smeared into the table’s surface.
"Is Thalia cool?" Pollux asked from my other side.
"Do we like her?" Castor asked.
"She was just a tree, guys," I said with a huff. "Give her a minute."
"Fine," Castor said.
"We'll hold judgement," Pollux said.
"For now," Castor said.
"You guys get the gum this time," I said.
They both sighed heavily.
"Do you think we could intimidate Travis into not buying the stuff?" Castor said.
I tried not to laugh. “No, I really don’t think you could.”
“Ye of little faith,” Castor said.
“I think I’m with Percy,” Pollux said.
Castor made a shocked sound and clapped his hand to his chest. “Betrayed! By my own brother!”
“Hey,” Eugene said. “You guys actually doing your jobs?”
“Sir, yes sir,” both twins said, giving him a mock salute before getting to scraping off gum.
I went back to table scrubbing.
As we were putting supplies back, Annabeth showed up, Grover and Thalia trailing behind her.
“Hey, we were just going to go and show Thalia around more of camp,” she said with a wide smile. “Do you want to come?”
I glanced over to Thalia, who clenched her jaw, and Grover who looked nervous. "Nah, I'm good."
Annabeth’s smile faded. "Oh. Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” I said. “You have fun though.”
I headed the opposite way they did, ignoring the disappointed look Annabeth shot me. I met Blackjack at the stables to practice riding some more. I also took a closer look at the smaller horses. I asked a few of them how they'd feel about little kids riding them, and they didn't have any concerns so long as someone helped the kids up into the saddle.
It probably wasn't nice, but I kinda spent the rest of the week avoiding Thalia. It's not like she was trying to talk to me either. The only time in the schedule we really shared was meals and Greek lessons and we sat at different tables and Lee helped her out extra during class time. It wasn’t really that hard.
By the end of the week, however, Annabeth wasn't having it as I continued to skip out on her trying to get Thalia integrated into camp.
"Why aren't you coming?" Annabeth asked, hands on her hips right after we had finished with our chores.
"I gotta test the skateboard for Beckendorf before we all head out," I said.
"It's not that big a deal," Beckendorf said. "I probably can't get another version done before the end of the summer anyways at this point."
I shot him a look for the betrayal. He shrugged.
"See? You can totally come," Annabeth said. "Let's go."
I sighed and resigned myself to my fate. I made sure to stand on the opposite side of Annabeth from Grover which conveniently also kept me away from Thalia who kept shooting me sharp looks.
Yeah, this was definitely going to be fun.