Bold: Thalia speaking when not recounting how it felt like or her adventures.
Italic: The Interviewer, asking dumb questions.
Disclaimer: Some parts of the third part, After, was taken from The Titan's Curse. I do not own
Before
Interviewer: So...on what day did you die?
Thalia: Well, this is a horribly depressing question to start us off.
You know how superstitious people believe how Friday the thirteenth is a bad day? I think that I was starting to believe them when the demon lady grandmothers attacked with a bunch of cute little black puppies following them. Take out the cute and replace it with disturbing. Take out the little and replace it with humongous. Take out the puppies and replace it with "AHHHH! THE SLOBBERING DOGGIES OF DOOM WANT TO EAT ME! HEEEEELP!"
You've got yourself a pretty gods-good description of hellhounds. And this isn't a stinking interview! Can we get on with the story?
Interview: ...It kind of is...
Thalia (ignoring the awkward statement and then, silence): I'd spent two years of my life on the run, and no monsters attacked in as large of a group as this. Of course, this whole scene wouldn't have happened if the Cyclops in Brooklyn didn't hang Luke, Grover, and I up like yams that were ready to be buttered and roasted. In fact, the Cyclops was unknowingly helping Hades' army of cute wittle monsters, since:
1.) The place that he hung us up for cooking had part of the roof torn off, which gave the Furies the lovely but panoramic view of our hapless situation.
2.) He gave the nasties time to catch up to us.
And that is why I hate Cyclops.
Interviewer: But what about the point when you met Tyson?
Thalia: I give up.
Okay, I admit, I started to have different feelings about them when I met Tyson the Cyclops, but...you've gotta remember: that was after I got turned into a tree. 'Sides, not all Cyclopes are as nice as Jackson's half-brother.
Anyways. I'm getting off track.
My point being...oh. I forgot what I was going to say. Ah, never mind that. *Throws thought away into trash bin where it shatters like a glass bottle.*
Interviewer: About the point when you were cornered on Half-Blood Hill...
Thalia: So...time skip to the point where those evil demon grandmothers and were pursuing me and my friends up the slick hill, towards the boundaries of the "Camp Half-Blood" Grover was babbling—er, more like bleating—about, the "only safe place for demigods in the world!" and "where all the good-looking dryads and nature spirits are!" I was having second thoughts about the definition of "satyr sanity". I was wondering whether going to this camp was worth traveling half-way across the U.S. if the only things they had there were flirting satyrs, demigods, "good-looking nature spirits", and flying ponies. That sounds like a fun place to be, no?
Interviewer: We're in the Big House...
Thalia (ignoring the awkward statement yet again):Luke was gripping Annabeth's hand as we struggled up the increasingly steep hill. Back up, Luke was carrying Annabeth up the hill. Of course, I couldn't complain—it's not as if this was a journey for a seven-year old demigod to undertake.
"Come on!" Grover shouted over the hollering wind. Oh, yeah, it looked like the gods were angry with me as well—the weather today was horrible for your average monster army fight. It was raining, the water droplets so cold that they seemed to freeze onto your clothes and stay there, like slush that turns into ice. Was it sleet? I didn't recall my science lessons back in California.
Interviewer: But California isn't the best place for demigods.
Thalia: I didn't agree to answer your questions just to be battered with remarks that I already knew! But blame my mom. I don't choose the place where we live. I was a ten-year old kid, for the gods' sake! Can we get on with the story again? At this rate, it's going to take over an hour, and I gotta be back to the Hunters by dinner!
Interviewer: Okay, okay, didn't mean to piss you off. You may continue.
Thalia: Finally!
"We're almost there!" Grover continued. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. That was what he was saying about a week before, right before we were ambushed by a hoard of dracanae.
Annabeth was curled up in Luke's arms, shivering from the cold rain. Luke looked worried as he glanced down at her, and I could totally understand why. Luke looked as if he was about to contract hypothermia, so if the freezing rain could do that to a fourteen-year old son of Hermes wearing a coat, imagine what it could do to a seven-year old who only had a thin rain jacket over her white T-shirt.
Interviewer: What kind of worried expression did Luke have on his face?
Thalia: Okay, you've confused me now...and why does that matter?
Oh, what the heck...
The fact was, Luke looked so worried about Annabeth that I caught up to him and asked if he was going to take off his rain jacket and drape it over Annabeth. Apparently, he took my comment a little too seriously because right then and there, he took off his jacket and spread it like a blanket over Annabeth, who pulled it close to her and stumbled onto the ground where she looked up at Luke with those big, gray eyes of hers. "Thank you."
Is that a good enough description?
Interviewer: Go on. I'm hooked.
Thalia: Oh, please. Why don't you try going to Half-Blood Hill in the middle of the night while a storm is raging and fight a bunch of monsters?
Luke gave her a shaky smile, his arms folded tightly over his chest to preserve body heat. "A-any ti-time."
"Luke," I snapped. He turned to me with a hint of annoyance in his baby blue eyes. "Yes?"
I grabbed him, pulling him close to me. His eyes widened with the realization of what I wanted. Despite the circumstances, Annabeth shrieked, "They're kissing!" with a jubilant tone in her voice.
Interviewer: You guys were really kissing?
Thalia (*sighs*): Just listen, will you?
Yes, we were smooching. Why not? We'd been through so much together during the two years I had known him, a time way too short for me to say everything what I wanted to say to him. And besides, I needed to tell him something else. That I would probably never see him again.
I broke away from him and glared at him in the eye. "Don't forget about Annabeth," I warned him. "Or I'm coming for you."
Luke looked confused and whispered, "What do you mean? Thalia, you're not...leaving, are you?"
"No, you cheeky idiot!" I rolled my eyes. "Hurry up and get Annabeth to Grover."
I didn't want to say what utterly preposterous plan my hyperactive mind had fashioned. Luke would go crazy if he heard my thoughts. Unfortunately, he was smart enough to understand what I was talking about. "Thalia! You wouldn't!"
Interviewer: No offense...but I think you need to work on your lying skills.
Thalia: Excuse me?
Interviewer: Never mind...
Thalia: This time, I'll let it go, but next time...you are going to tell me what you said or you've got one angry daughter of Zeus on your tail.
Grover cantered down from the summit of the hill. "Guys, come on!" he cried, tugging at me and Annabeth, who was grasping Luke's icy cold hand. "It's only about twenty yards away!"
Twenty yards. I knew that we would never make it, especially with my still-weak leg. Plus, I had a few gashes that had opened up again in the recent excitement.
"Grover," I said with an edge of steel in my voice. "Take Luke and Annabeth and go. Don't you dare wait for me."
Grover's mouth flapped open like a fish begging for water. "No! You're going to—"
"My soul can be burned in the River Styx for all that I care about myself!" I yelled at him.
Interviewer: Are you always this harsh on yourself?
Thalia: No. Why?
Interviewer: Because that was one serious insult to your soul.
Thalia: ...I suddenly lost my appetite...I'll continue, I guess.
"Just go with Luke and Annabeth! Protect them!"
Grover, along with Luke and Annabeth, kept on begging me to go with them to the camp, but I had already decreed my own fate. The monsters of Hades were coming dangerously close, and there wasn't a lot of time before they reached our little emotional party. Eventually, they took the message reluctantly and headed up the hill, slipping on the sleek grass. I could hear Annabeth sobbing and Grover sniffling. Oh, I'd meet them one day in the Underworld. That was a definite yes.
I stared after them for a little while until the sound of pounding paws and the flap of leathery wings jolted me back into the real world.
As I took out my spear and Aegis, I whispered to myself, "I'm coming for you, little brother."
During
Interviewer: What was it like to be a tree?
Thalia: Well, I do suppose that being a tree has its perks.
Number one on the list of "Pros of Being a Screwed-Up Demitree" was that you never get sick. Yep, you can avoid flu season and all of those annoying coughs. It's never fun to cough and sneeze your whole day away, not to mention those dripping buckets of nose drool that you produce every day when you're sick.
Number two was that you never had to do your homework. Before I got turned into a tree, I was still recuperating over the dreadful, final piece of homework I had to do. It was dogging me everywhere—does anyone know how to get a piece of tattered paper that has multiplication facts on it out of your dreams?
Number three? You don't dream when you're a plant. So, I didn't have any more prophetic dreams when I was a lovely pine tree. It takes the burden of sleeping off your shoulders.
Interviewer: You slept when you were a tree?
Thalia: Really, what kind of question was that? Of course I slept when I was a tree! Technically, I was a dryad. I was the spirit of the tree, so no duh, I slept. I'm not some sort of geek who doesn't sleep; whatever Kelp Face tells you, don't believe him! He wasn't even there when I got turned into a tree! This isn't an interview, this is a recount of my life as a tree! Wait, I already gave up on saying that...never mind.
Interview: Can you tell us about your experiences as a tree?
Thalia: Although painful, that is a rather meaningful question.
I lost all track of time when I was a tree. I couldn't tell day from night, and people seemed to age faster around me. When Annabeth visited my tree, I was confused. She seemed to be growing as twice as fast as she would normally.
To tell you the truth...being a tree was like being a human, except in a different form. You could still see, smell, hear, and feel, although not exactly taste anything. You don't eat when you're a tree, the actual tree itself, not you, provides you with energy by sucking up nutrients from the earth. You can't feel it or taste it, it just re-invigorates you after a whole day of beating up monsters.
Interviewer (stammers): You fought monsters when you were a tree?
Thalia: Of course! Do you think that I was called Camp Half-Blood's border for nothing? How else do you think the monsters weren't able to enter camp? Magic? No! I used plain old weapons! And as for mortals...gentle persuasion does the trick. They suddenly get a craving for nachos and pizza. Problem solved.
Interviewer: Interesting. Let's go on, shall we?
Thalia: There was this one time when I thought that I was going to die all over again.
Interviewer: Oh?
Thalia: It was a normal day as a tree, you know. Nothing had tried to get past the borders all day, and I thought that that was really strange. Less strange when I saw a car explode and overturn in a mud bank.
It was stormy outside, as the weather had been for quite a time, so I wasn't surprised when the lightning bolt struck the side of that yellow car. I think that it was a Camaro or something. They were probably just stragglers.
But when three people, two kids and one adult climbed out of the car, I caught sight of a Minotaur.
I have a huge grudge against the Minotaur. In fact, it wasn't the hellhounds or the Furies that dealt the final blow. I had pretty much vaporized all of them, except for four hellhounds that were slobbering, probably trying to figure out a way to claw me to death.
That was when the humongous Minotaur interfered, bellowing out of the woods. It surprised me and barreled towards me. Seeing me distracted, the hellhounds rushed towards me, but the Minotaur bellowed at them and they backed off, whining.
I had just enough time to gather my wits at that point and raise my spear, but it was too late. I was bleeding to death on the ground, where Luke, Annabeth, Grover, and Chiron found me, rattling off my last breaths. One of the bull's horns had punctured my right lung, and I had another gaping hole just below my heart.
Interviewer: I can see why you refused to tell your story to any of the Aphrodite campers.
Thalia: Yes, they would pretty much scream their heads off.
So that was a flashback when I realized that one of the boys was Grover and he was leaning another boy with black hair and green eyes who was dragging Grover towards me. The adult, which I assumed was the boy's mom was behind them. I was silently willing Grover and the boy to get past me, but the mortal...maybe I would make an exception.
I never got the chance. The Minotaur bellowed and charged towards the boy's mom. She jumped aside, but the Minotaur's hands were groping this way and that, and his right hand closed around her neck. I flinched as she vaporized into golden light. She was just...gone.
The boy, who you should have identified as Percy Jackson at this point, got really angry. He tore off his red rain jacket and waved it like it was a flag of war. The Minotaur grunted, pawed the ground, and charged towards the boy, who somehow leaped up and vaulted over the nasty monster.
That was when I fell unconscious, because the the Minotaur had rammed into my tree as it had into myself so many years ago.
Interviewer: May we skip to the part when Luke...
Thalia (*groans*): I was afraid you were going to ask that. But fine.
Things were normal at Camp Half-Blood, except for the part when there was apparently a quest going on when Annabeth was in a quest with Grover and the boy. But that's not important.
Much later, I was dozing in the tree when I heard a scuffling sound. I jerked awake, instantly alert, only to find a boy cloaked in black who was sobbing.
"No...please...I can't do this," he seemed to be saying. "Please, my lord..."
I heard an icy cold voice in my mind, and the boy cried out, apparently hearing it as well. It said, She is of no importance to us right now, my boy. Besides...when the time comes, she will come back. Be purged. All you have to do is inject the poison in and all will be fine. Or are your loyalties wavering? Would you disobey your master?
The boy dissolved into dry, raspy chokes. "V-very well, m-m-my lord. I-it shall be a-a-as y-you pl-plea-please."
Still quietly crying, he whispered, "I'm sorry, Thalia. Please, forgive me."
I was confused as the boy stood up, his head still bowed. He jammed a sharp object into the bark, twisting it roughly but quickly to make a gaping whole. I winced in pain as it connected to where my right leg should have been. What is wrong with this person? And why did he say he was sorry? How did he know my name?
The mystery boy quickly took out a syringe that was filled with a sinister-looking yellow-green liquid. He squeezed his eyes shut—at least, I think he did—and plunged the contents into the hole. I gasped silently as the liquid entered my system, immediately making me feel woozy. The boy, still sobbing quietly, took all of the materials he had used and ran away.
I was feeling worse and worse by the day, not even able to get to my feet. I tried to stop the monsters that were now running rampage through the camp, but to no avail. I had failed Luke, Annabeth, Grover, and the whole camp. They were going to die because of me.
But strangely, after I was sure that I was gasping my last breath for real this time, again, I suddenly felt warmer. I suddenly felt stronger, which was near impossible. How could have something purged the poison from my veins?
With each passing day, I could fend off more and more monsters, until I was back to normal. Until...
Interviewer: Go on, please.
Thalia: You really are a demanding one, are you?
I felt a huge force on my back, pushing me so that I had no where to go but out. I exploded out of the tree, surprising a blond girl who was in Greek armor out of her wits. She stared into my eyes, and I couldn't help but think that she looked vaguely familiar. The last thing I remember was a shriek of help before I passed out.
After
Interviewer: We're on the third and final section of our Q & A!
Thalia: Thank the gods. What do you want to know this time?
Interviewer: Only two things, I think. One, When you were on Mount Tam...
Thalia: You always choose the worst questions of the bunch.
There were conflicted thoughts bouncing around my head as I ran up the mountain path with an injured Zoë Nightshade and a kleptomaniac son of Poseidon.
I wanted to break down and cry at the sight of Annabeth bound and gagged with Luke's sword at her throat. It went against everything that I had known about the son of Hermes. I met his eyes, and there was no remorse in them, they might as well be hard, expressionless marbles that happened to look like eyeballs.
Anger started to bubble up inside of me. I held it in check, but I knew that there was no way of stopping it when the tidal wave came. It was like a volcano. One day, it's dormant, and the next, it explodes. End of story.
I looked at Annabeth, who looked worse then I felt, which was saying a lot. I glanced at Percy, and muttered to him, "From holding the sky. The weight should have killed her."
Percy flashed me a look that told me I was not helping one bit. He said, confused, "I don't understand. Why can't Artemis just let go of the sky?"
Atlas boomed with mocking laughter and answered, "How little you understand, young one. This is the point where the sky and the earth first met, where Ouranos and Gaea first brought forth their mighty children, the Titans. The sky still yearns to embrace the earth. Someone must hold it at bay, or else it would crush down upon this place, instantly flattening the mountain and everything within a hundred leagues. Once you have taken the burden, there is no escape."
Atlas paused, and then smirked. "Unless someone else takes it from you."
My full attention was fixed onto Luke, although I did hear snatches of the conversation.
Atlas approached me and Percy, snapping me out of my stupor. "So these are the best heroes of the age, eh? Not much of a challenge."
That stuck in Percy's craw, whose hands clenched. "Fight us, and let's see."
Atlas bellowed in laughter, rocking the whole mountain. "Have the gods taught you nothing? An immortal does not fight a mere mortal directly. It is beneath our dignity. I will have Luke crush you instead."
I almost doubled over in laughter. Luke? Beat Percy or me? I didn't think that that was possible. For one, I knew his fighting style pretty well. I had helped that traitor develop some of his skill with the blade.
Number two, Luke looked pretty sickly and ragged. He looked as if he was about to drop down dead any second.
Percy's voice came from far away. "So you're just another coward."
I had to give it to him, he certainly knew how to piss off immortals.
Atlas looked as if he was about to sweep Percy off the mountain with a hand. Apparently deciding that Percy wasn't worth his time, he reluctantly turned towards me. I had to mentally slap myself on the face to keep myself from blurting out all the curse words I knew.
"As for you," Atlas addressed me. "Daughter of Zeus, it seems that Luke was wrong about you."
I frowned. Wrong about me? What did that idiot say about me?
Luke managed to get out, "I wasn't wrong."
As I said before, Luke looked pretty beaten up. If I didn't hate him so much for what he had done to me and Annabeth and the rest of Camp Half-Blood, I would have felt some remorse for him.
Luke spread his arms. "Thalia, you can still join us. Call the Ophiotaurus. It will come to you," he promised. "Look!"
Waving a hand, a pool of black water ringed with obsidian stones appeared right in front of me. It was exactly the right size for the serpent bull to come through. In fact, the more my attention strayed to the beast, the more I heard the monster mooing. I tried to block the thoughts of it out, knowing that if it came through that water...I probably wouldn't be able to resist Luke.
"Thalia," Luke begged me, practically kneeling. "Call the Ophiotaurus, and you will be more powerful than the gods."
I had an inkling of what my fatal flaw would be at that point. I stared at him and whispered, "Luke...what happened to you?"
"Don't you remember all those times we talked?" he asked me. "All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world!"
I bit my cheek. The problem was, I did. I remembered those times when I yelled at the sky, cursing my father for not helping my alcoholic mother, and although I didn't voice it, for letting my brother die.
I tore myself from those thoughts and shook my head vigorously. "Free Annabeth," I snapped. "Let her go."
"If you join me," Luke promised, "it can be like old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don't agree…"
His voice cracked. "It's my last chance. He will use the other way if you don't agree. Please."
What other way? I thought.
Luke was still staring at me, his eyes begging me to join his cause, as if his life depended on it.
Zoë glanced at me, her eyes full of warning. "Do not, Thalia. We must fight them."
Luke waved his hand again, and this time, a huge bronze brazier appeared in front of the pool of black water. It looked exactly like the one we had at camp, which meant that it was a sacrificial flame. I was pretty sure we wouldn't be offering food to the gods with it.
"We will raise Mount Othrys right here," Luke promised, in a voice so strained it was hardly his. I winced at the tone of it. "Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak."
I looked down the mountainside. My heart plummeted into where my stomach was supposed to be. There was this humongous army of dracanae and Laestrygonians, monsters and half-bloods, hellhounds, harpies, and other things I couldn't even name. Luke must've emptied his whole ship, the Princess Andromeda, because there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of Kronos's army, just waiting to kick the guts out of the Olympian and their allies.
"This is only a taste of what is to come," Luke told me. "Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help."
Zoë, Annabeth, and Percy looked at me, pleading me not to listen to Luke. Part of me agreed with him. He was a traitor. He almost killed me. He almost killed the whole camp, and was ready to try again without a moment's thought.
Luke, on the other hand, was staring at me with his eyes full of pain, begging me with all his soul to join him and Kronos. The other part of me wanted nothing more then to listen to him, to submit to his wishes. We could be a family again.
Then, I thought about my choices. On one hand, I could stay with Camp Half-Blood and remain with my friends. On the other, more darker side, I could be re-joined with Luke, the only boy who I had ever loved. I could...gain power far greater than the gods would ever have.
But then, I thought about the whole world. It was at stake, and the horrible realization crashed down onto me. Kronos had twisted destiny into my uncertain hands, and he was using Luke to bait me into choosing the wrong choice.
I thought about my brother, who was dead. I couldn't betray him, no matter how many Lukes chased me, yelling for me to join his cause. Even if the whole world was on Kronos's side and Jason...was the only one left, I couldn't possibly betray him. If I chose Kronos, the Underworld would die, along with the last fragment of my little brother's shade.
I thought about this, and in a flash of realization, found out what my fatal flaw was. A weak resistance to power. I promised myself right then and there that I needed to learn how to control it. I couldn't let Olympus and the whole of Western Civilization fall just for the sake of stupid power.
And I knew what I needed to do. I drew my spear and pointed it at him. "You aren't Luke. I don't know you anymore."
The words seemed to punch in to him like a battering ram.
"Yes, you do, Thalia," he begged. "Please. Don't make me...don't make him destroy you."
I gazed at him, then at the monstrous army that was waiting at the base of Mount Tam. Out of the corner of my eye, Annabeth nodded to Percy, who unsheathed Riptide and said, "Now."
I charged Luke, scaring away his bodyguards with Aegis. But despite his sickly appearance, Luke was still quick with his sword, Backbiter. He snarled like a rabid animal and counterattacked. When his sword, Backbiter, met my shield, a ball of lightning erupted between them, frying the air with yellow tendrils of power.
I countered him with a strike of my own, which he easily parried.
"Is that all you have?" Luke taunted. I gritted my teeth as anger threatened to overwhelm my system.
I started pushing harder and that seemed to do the trick. Luke backed up, step by step, towards the edge of the mountain.
I was aware that tears were running a marathon down my cheek. I hated fighting my friends to the death, even if that friend was a good-for-nothing traitor to humans and demigods alike.
I broke through his defenses and slashed him across the chest. I was vaguely aware of lightning flickering around us.
"Yield!" I yelled. "You could never beat me, Luke."
Luke snarled, his face glistening with sweat. What, was he out of practice or something? "We'll see, my old friend."
I got annoyed by the "friend" part and kept on slashing. Luke kept on backing up until he was at the edge of the mountain, but still, he hammered away at me, even though I was sure he knew that he was just wasting his strength. Luke had already lost.
I shuddered as I got near the golden coffin which held some of the remains of the late Titan Lord, Kronos.
Luke made a lunge at me with his sword and I slammed him away with my shield. Backbiter skidded away on the rocks, a good twenty feet away. I shoved my spear point against his throat.
The lightning ceased around us, crackling out of existence. For a tense moment, there was thick silence. Luke gazed up at me and croaked, "Well?"
He tried to hide it, but I could hear the fear that was taking over his dry voice.
My vision turned red as my spear almost punctured his neck. I would have done so a second later if Annabeth didn't come screaming, finally free from her bonds.
"Stop!" she yelled. "Don't kill him."
Without tearing my eyes from Luke in case he tried to make a great escape, I snarled with venom in my voice, "He's a traitor. A traitor!"
Annabeth pleaded, "We'll bring Luke back to Olympus. He...He'll be useful."
I mentally scoffed at that statement. As if he would do anything to help the Olympians. Annabeth knew that.
"Is that what you want, Thalia?" Luke sneered. "To go back to Olympus in triumph? To please your dad?"
That statement caught me off guard. Just when I regained my senses, Luke made a grab for my spear.
I would never, ever forget the terror of what I did next. And it would and will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Without thinking, I shoved him, a purely automatic response. Luke went flying off the cliff, his face white with terror.
There. Happy?
Interviewer: Oh, my...but one more thing.
Thalia: Yes! Uh, I mean, yeah?
Interviewer: How did you feel when Hera's statue was dropped on your legs?
Thalia: It hurt.
Interviewer: ...I suppose that that is a plausible answer. If you want, you can check out Channel 7 tonight on Nightline. Your interview will—
Thalia: Oh, you are not going to show this on Eyewitness News!