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The storm at the edge of Camp-Halfblood was divine in its rage and power. The King of the Seas was furious. How dare his brother, the one who had forced this oath upon him, upon Hades, be the one to break it first?
It was an insult.
The beasts that caged the edge of Camp-Halfblood were divine in their orders and monstrous in their cruelty. The King of the Underworld was vindictive in his vengeance. How dare he break this oath, the oath he was forced upon for sake of the next Great Prophecy?
The prophecy Zeus had killed his lover, and tried to kill his children for?
It was a mockery of the oath they had sworn.
Blind with rage, both Kings agreed, nothing would stop their vengeance tonight.
A debt was due, and it would be written in blood.
Two God Kings silently aligned their purpose into a single focus.
To kill Thalia Grace.
Thalia POV
As the talons of the Furies tore her to shreds, she begged to a god she swore to never plead to. When she fell to her knees, Thalia stared down at what should have been inside her greet the pouring rain. The pain was past blinding. Numbly, the daughter of Zeus raised her lips into a sneer.
No god, no father, would save her.
She would burn, bright and furious, like a comet shooting across the sky her father ruled. Yes. This would be her final stand. She gripped her spear, and raised her shield one last time—
Light and plasma blinded her vision white. The pain was gone. She was gone.
Zeus POV
She was the first daughter Zeus has had in centuries.
His initial emotion was an abundant joy so consuming the sky had become a shade of blue not seen in quite sometime.
A daughter.
Truly, Fate was fortunate. For this was surely the child of the coming Great Prophecy—there could be no other reason for Zeus to have sired a daughter at such an auspicious time.
It had been a long time since he had come down and graced any child of his presence at such a young age. But just this once, Zeus picked up the babe from the crib, and kissed her on the brow.
This child, his sweet little cloud, she would have his blessing and favor.
That day, the sky was clear, bright, and breathtaking. A sight rarely seen, and a sight worthy for the birth of the Sky King's daughter. The child of the Great Prophecy.
Such joy…it was not meant to last.
His child, now frozen, chained to the living as a boundary for a camp she never stepped foot in.
A monument. A tree. The last trace of his blessing violated into a last ditch attempt at survival.
How dare they?
Thalia Grace died alone—a sacrifice for her family, a hero.
How dare his brothers snuff out such a precious joy from him? His little cloud would never reach the sky as she was meant to, rooted into the earth she was.
It was a disgrace.
The God King raged, and for all his faults he loved his children, especially his daughters.
But he could not grieve alone, thus, he raised his Master Bolt—
A small child with vibrant sea green eyes played at the edge of the waves on Montauk. To his front was the sea, and to his back, his mother, a guardian angel concealing his joy for only her and the ocean before them.
To Perseus Jackson's young mind, this was heaven.
With his gaze riveted to the waters below, he did not notice the darkening skies.
By the time he noticed his mother desperately tugging at this arm, to move him away from the brewing storm—
The grief of the King of the Skies struck true.
Lightning, plasma and heat, blinding in its speed, impacted Percy and raced through him. He became ash, left to dissipate into the infinite ocean.
His mother, a mere mortal, was not spared. The hand that held Percy’s shoulder burned and divine fury spread through her as well—snapping her thread in two.
The rage of three kings was finally quelled and in its wake, grief was the debt that was paid in blood.
Poseidon POV
The sea held the ashes of their child gently. Poseidon refused to let him go.
He gazed into the cradle of his palms that held what was left of his little polyp. Pearlescent ash shimmered back at him.
Had it really been only seven years since he had last held his child? When Perseus was born, he fit in the cradle of a single hand; now, need both hands to hold even less of him.
A drop of divinity still remained within the ash, the last remaining dregs of the blessing bestowed upon his child—allowing a potential for something.
All was not lost, there was still a chance.
The King of the Seas breathed in, and blew the shimmering ash away, left to spread through his seas. It would take some time, but there would come a day when his polyp would be mature enough to have his own form once more.
But for now, he was the seed for a chorus of coral.
Hades POV
Hades’ Helm of Darkness was gone.
His symbol of power.
There was a thief, and the culprits were numerous. Many halfbloods had roamed the halls of Olympus during the summer solstice.
Unfortunately, the demigods of Camp Half-blood would never take a quest for its retrieval in his name.
And so, the God of the Underworld only had one option left.
He called for his Furies, and ordered them to go to the Lotus Casino, it was time for his children to once more feel the passage of time.
It was not long before the two children of Hades were saved from a monster attack by the Hunters of Artemis.
Bianca Di Angelo, enamoured by the taste of freedom Lady Artemis teased, gave in and became a part of Hunt. She swore an oath of maidenhood, leaving her younger brother alone and lost in Camp Half-Blood.
Nico POV
Under a clear sky, a pine tree stood tall. Across from it, soil transitioned into sand, eventually, meeting the sea. The air was crisp yet hazy, a soft mix of ocean salt and pine.
The wind blew harshly, causing him to blink away the sand. He paused. Near the pine tree was a teenage girl with electric blue eyes and short hair. Near the sea, Nico could also see seafoam solidifying into a boy his age with messy black hair and seagreen eyes.
The boy near the sea smiled upon meeting Nico’s eyes, “Oh you’re finally here, I’m ______!,” The sound of the ocean became deafening, drowning out the name of the boy, “Come on!”
With a gesture, the boy started running towards the center of the area—
Where a picnic blanket had been set by the older girl? And how did that girl move that fast anyway?!
Nico put away his questions into that tiny box in the corner of his mind, and began walking towards the other two. This was definitely a dream.
Right?
In the end, Nico Di Angleo returned both the Helm and the missing Master Bolt, an act that stayed Zeus’s hand in his death.
The King of the Gods worried that this could be the child that the Great Prophecy spoke of—and they were not loyal to him.
Location: Florida Coast
Time was short and the fight for the Golden Fleece was fraught at the coast of Miami.
Nico refused to allow anyone other than himself to return the Fleece. He had to be the one to do it, because he needed another insurance to make sure Zeus didn’t kill him.
In doing so, Clarisse La Rue could not leave with the Golden Fleece for Camp Half-blood. Especially since mid-argument, the traitor appeared.
Luke Castellan was someone they both despised, so disagreements were quickly brushed aside.
With a battle to fight, the fleece was, for a precious second, forgotten.
The King of the Seas took the opportunity for what it was.
A large wave crashed onto the ship everyone was fighting in on—
—washing the Golden Fleece into the sea.
Percy POV
Location: Camp Half-blood
Time: 3:00 am
For an endless time, Percy had only known to be pieces of many. In every direction, the ocean revealed its pathways and he had done the only thing he could—follow.
He had not gained true awareness until he had begun to settle and by then he had learned so much.
Percy had breathed the heart of the sea and had become the endless pressure of the deep. He knew every ocean current from the coldest depth to the warmest beach. The froth of rich seafoam meeting the shore greeted him each morning to guide him. From them, he learned where waves started and ended and the exact time a riptide would pull someone in. Percy had tasted the sweetness of salt on his tongue and floated at its densest centers.
He grew, grew, and grew and until he felt the brightness of the sun under crisp waves. He became more, building bit by bit until he created a foundation. He became an empire.
A coral reef, teaming with life he supported.
But the ocean didn’t teach him anything about how to walk on two feet again. He fell for the hundredth time in the dark forest and knew the only reason he didn't have a broken ankle was because of the golden coat that covered him.
Has walking always been this hard? Percy couldn’t bring himself to care as he stumbled, painfully making sure to fall soundlessly, he couldn't afford anyone finding him.
Percy had to walk to the pine tree that he had dreamed of since he had been scattered into the sea by his papa. It had been the only thing he dreamed and he knew he had to follow it exactly so no one would catch him. Well, there were those other dreams too but those dreams had always felt so real.
The steps were clumsy but familiar and by the end, hadn’t even remembered laying down and closing his eyes to sleep for the first time in three years.
Nico POV
Location: Camp Half-blood
Time: 5:30 am
Early in the morning, Nico woke up from a nightmare where the borders of the camp had finally fully broken, and the entire camp had been destroyed by monsters.
He carefully got up from his corner of the Hermes cabin and began to walk outside.
He had failed the quest for the Golden Fleece. Even ignoring Zeus potentially smiting him, he had let the camp down, his last remaining home. Not many people liked him here anyway, considering his parentage, and this would just make everything worse.
Especially since the borders of camp were set to fall any day now.
He shouldn’t have argued with Clarrise and let just her leave with the Fleece. She could have gotten away before that traitor ever showed up.
Lost in thought, he didn’t realize his feet had taken him to the edge of camp, towards Thalia’s tree.
The sight in front of him made Nico freeze in shock.
Ever since Nico had left the Lotus Casino, he has had dreams of a girl a few years older than him, and a boy around his age. At the time, Camp Half-blood hadn’t been his home, and they were the ones he had leaned on after his sister had abandoned him.
Nico hadn’t cared if they were hallucinations or demigod dreams, they were the ones that saved him from the whispers of the Crooked One. They were the ones that convinced him to stay at camp for just a little longer. To have faith.
And they were right, he eventually made friends with Grover Underwood, one of the few at camp that volunteered to join him in his quest for his father’s Helm. Sure the satyr had been a bit scared of him at first, but Grover had truly become his best friend by the end of the quest.
Even after Grover had left in his search for Pan, he was the one that had helped him get closer to the naiads and dryads at camp. Grover had once told him, ‘This camp isn’t just demigods Nico, if they won’t have your back, we will.’
Over time, he eventually realized the girl was Thalia Grace, a daughter of Zeus, from the whispers of her legend at camp, but he had never discovered who the boy in his dreams was.
Now, his hallucinations were real.
For at his feet were Thalia Grace wrapped around a younger boy, curled under a familiar lost Golden Fleece.
Thalia POV
Pine trees were not made to be deeply rooted in the earth. They tended to stay near the top and spread.
It was a minor blessing in the scheme of things. A violated blessing meant for someone of the sky—to be trapped and caged to the earth was a hell she had never expected to feel.
Thalia Grace could only reach for the sky she had always been too terrified to fly in.
And like a true caged bird, she could not escape the damn coat covering her. Finally blinking eyes that did not exist a few hours ago, she tried and failed to get her bearings. An achingly familiar crowd of familiar faces was what filled her view. She had once guarded a border, the last barrier, before the hearth—Thalia’s heart squeezed, she knew every single face.
Each one an anchor for the sanity she had clung while she had been caged.
Where her cousin had become one of many, Thalia had been cursed. She had become the comet that crashed. There was no burning glory in her wake, nor freedom. Just a fucking tree. Trapped and rooted, just paces away from where Annabeth and Luke were.
Until she realized she was more. As the seasons changed and her awareness grew, Thalia realized was no mere tree. She encompassed the entirety of Camp Half-blood.
She was a guardian. She was her own cage.
And so, the days passed with her watching over the campers, allowing and denying entry to anyone who wanted to cross the border. During the night however, she would—dream? Thalia had never been sure because how could a pine tree dream?
Regardless, none of these kids knew her, just her and the legend that came with it.
Except one.
“My name is Thalia Grace,” She said, smirking at Nico Di Angelo, the one who had found her in the first place, “ Daughter of Zeus.”
“And I’m Percy—uhh I mean Perseus Jackson,” A bright voice bubbled from beside her, “Son of Poseidon.”
She whipped her head to look beside, Thalia had been so distracted she hadn’t even noticed her other cousin right next to her.
Above their heads two sigils glowed, marking their words true.