Thalia POV:

I don't remember anything of my time as a… tree. Gods, that felt weird to say. It was like my mind had been blank in all that time, like I was stuck in a dreamless sleep. Floating in darkness, completely unaware of anything that went on beyond my prison of bark. Then… I was awake, sprawled out on lush green grass beneath a towering pine tree. I don't know how long I laid there, staring up at the night sky through branches and pine needles, my breathing heavy and my eyes fluttering, struggling to stay open.

Despite my five-year long nap, I felt utterly exhausted and completely out of sorts. I'm pretty sure I slipped in and out of consciousness multiple times, night quickly turned into day and I could hear voices nearby. The voices were muffled, and I couldn't bring myself to comprehend what they were saying, but I could hear their frantic pitch.

"Are you okay?"

I slowly, achingly, cracked open my eyes and my breath caught in my throat. Staring down at me, with a look of concern, were the most breathtakingly intense pair of green eyes I had ever seen. The sight of the person they belonged to nearly had my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest. He had a mess of raven hair that was buzzed short on the sides, long and mussed on top. His skin was tanned and smooth, stretched over toned muscle, and he had a roguish smile that turned my insides to jelly.

His brow furrowed in concern and worry as his hands cradled my head. "Miss? Can you hear me?"

I could only stare wide-eyed at this… this… god. My mind started to berate me. Wake up, you dork! Say something! Anything!

"Wow… you're hot." My mouth slammed shut, eyes even wider and my face burning in embarrassment. Okay… maybe not anything.

The boy looked stunned for a second, a light blush spreading across his tanned face. His mouth cracked into a lopsided grin that turned my already jelly-like insides to mush. He chuckled softly and gently brushed a few strands of my black hair out of my face. "What's your name?"

It took a great deal of concentration to work my mouth to make a coherent response. The first attempt all I managed was a squeak, which made my face turn tomato red, and the boy's grin to grow wider, and all that did was make me even more flustered. The second attempt was more successful, albeit a little shaky. "Th-Thalia. Thalia Grace."

The boy's eyes went wide, and his grin dropped just a bit. He turned, his gaze shifting between the pine tree, me, and something gold, shimmering in the tree's branches.

"Oh Chaos… well that's unexpected." The boy muttered, shaking his head. "But, par for the freakin' course." He looked back at me and shifted around to stand, gently hauling me to my feet. "C'mon, Miss Grace. Chiron will probably want to have a chat with you."

I stood on shaky legs, supported by a strong arm wrapped around my waist, with my arm slung over his shoulder. "Right… Chiron," I mumbled.

It was then I noticed a swarm of teens and children all around us, most of them wearing Camp Half-Blood t-shirts. They all had strange looks that I couldn't figure out, and they were staring at me.

"C'mon guys, make a hole," the boy said calmly. Almost immediately, several of the campers cleared out and we started heading towards a blue two-story farmhouse.

"Who are you?" I asked, stumbling slightly over a bit of crabgrass.

The boy turned his head and gave me that adorable grin. "Perseus Jackson. My friends call me Percy."

TCKTCKTCK

Percy POV:

Chaos… my life is so freaking weird.

Okay, so this summer, we arrived at camp to find Thalia's tree had been poisoned. This is really bad, considering the towering pine tree is the anchor for the border that surrounds the camp and keeps it safe from monsters.

On top of that, Grover was missing. I'd had dreams of him running into some bridal shop while a booming voice was shouting 'Mine!'. Really weird.

Even weirder than that though? I found out I have a half-brother cyclops by the name of Tyson. Another… son of Poseidon.

Chiron gathered the councilors and issued a quest to find a very rare artifact that would allow us to heal the tree; The Golden Fleece.

Yeah. The Golden Fleece. The very same fleece that Jason of the Argonauts brought back to King Pelias. Apparently this thing has healing powers on par with Apollo's healing magic.

Pretty impressive, right? Sounds like an easy thing to get?

Wrong.

There was a leviathan sized monster with a whirlpool for a mouth, a chicken headed beast with an extremely long neck that would snatch people off the boats. Tidal waves and sea creatures. Hell, there was even an ironclad battleship packed with undead confederates.

It took us days to get to the island where the fleece was supposedly hidden, deep in the cave of the island's resident cyclops. And guarding that cave? A herd of sheep. I know what you're thinking, 'but Percy, sheep are cute and fluffy and totally harmless!'

Not these sheep. These little bastards were carnivorous. We had watched a smallish cyclops toss a massive piece of meat into the middle of the herd and witnessed an absolute feeding frenzy. These sheep sheared and shredded the meat like piranha, picking it clean until nothing but a huge pile of bones remained.

The mere sight of that had me clenching uncomfortably.

So, after a little sneaking, and a lot of muttered cursing, we made it to the cave. From there it was the usual; fight a ten-foot-tall, half-blind cyclops, rescue a dress wearing Grover, snatch the Golden Fleece off said cyclops, and barely escape by the skin of our teeth. You know, everyday kind of things.

When we got back to camp, our small group, consisting of me, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, Clarisse and Chiron, all hiked up the hill and I set the fleece in the lowest boughs of Thalia's tree. The effect was almost immediate; a faint, golden glow had started at the first branch and slowly spread along the bark, the glow brightening around the puncture wound in the pine tree's bark. Less than a moment later, the gash in the tree had been healed, the poison removed, and the camp barriers were strengthened even more than they once were.

Part of the night was spent finding a creature to guard the tree, a first defense in case someone tried to harm the tree again. The next morning brought about another round of crazy to my already insane life.

During a nice stroll along the camp boundaries, I find a young girl, maybe a year younger than me, with spiky black hair, fashionably ripped jeans, black combat boots, and a leather jacket unzipped to reveal a 'Death to Barbie' t-shirt.

I crouched over her and began checking her over, looking for wounds or injuries. At most all I discovered were a mess of pine needles and some tree sap. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her eyelids fluttering.

"Are you okay?" I asked, cradling the girls head in my hand.

Her eyes opened and widened slightly when she caught sight of me.

She didn't reply right away, and that kind've worried me. "Miss, can you hear me?"

"Wow… you're hot," the girl muttered. Her eyes shot wide open and her mouth clacked shut, a bright blush spreading across her face.

I flushed a bit but smiled and chuckled, hoping to put her at ease. I gently moved a few black strands from her face and asked, "what's your name?"

"Th-Thalia. Thalia Grace," the girl replied, still looking a little flustered.

What the fu-.

I shifted my gaze from her to the tree, up to the branches holding the golden fleece and back to the girl. "Oh Chaos… well that's unexpected," I muttered, cursing the crazy shit that I seem to attract. I sighed, "but par for the freakin' course." The girl looked confused, so I smiled and stood, gently lifting her to her feet and wrapping an arm around her waist and draping her arm over my shoulders. "C'mon, Miss Grace. Chiron will probably want to have a chat with you."

"Chiron, right…" Thalia mumbled, stumbling just a bit. There was a brief pause as we walked when she spoke again. "Who are you?"

I looked at her, staring into a pair of beautiful electric-blue eyes and smiled warmly. "Perseus Jackson. My friends call me Percy."

TCKTCKTCK

Predictably, Chiron was shell-shocked. For a few, slightly uncomfortable, minutes all he could do was stare at Thalia with wide, watery eyes. My heart truly went out for the guy… horse… immortal.

Here was a young demigod girl who had sacrificed herself to save a seven-year-old Annabeth, and fourteen-year-old Luke, from a horde of monsters, practically on the old centaur's doorstep. I can only imagine he felt as though he had failed in his duty as a teacher and protector the day Thalia was turned into that pine tree.

The three of us were gathered around the ping-pong table in the rec-room of the Big House; Thalia seated next to me on one side, Chiron in his wheelchair on the other with a snoring Mr. D slumped in a chair next to him.

Thalia took the news pretty well, though the visible rivers of static than ran across her arms and hands when Chiron told her that Zeus had turned her into a tree were rather telling.

I just sat there with my hand in hers, a silent pillar of support, while she slowly absorbed and tried to accept the fact she had been foliage for the last five years. Chiron explained everything that had happened last year with the Bolt and Solstice… well, almost everything. A quick whisper in his ear had him holding off telling her about Luke. If what Annabeth told me about the three of them fighting hordes of monsters for weeks to make it to camp were anything to go by, Thalia had cared a lot about Luke, looking up to him like an older brother. That kind of info would be better left said by Annabeth and Grover.

Speaking of Goat-Boy and Wise Girl, they were our first stop. Grover bleated and damn near fainted on the spot. Annabeth looked like she'd seen a ghost before tackling Thalia in a bone-crushing hug. I'm pretty sure I heard her back pop a few times. She'd never admit it, but Annabeth had had tears in her eyes.

In the midst of Grover's bleating laughter and another hug that lifted Thalia off the ground, Annabeth made eye contact with me and I got the message. Tell her. I nodded firmly, my eyes doing the talking.

About an hour later, I was leading Thalia around camp, showing her the arena and the amphitheater, the dining pavilion and the strawberry fields. Everything was taken in with wide, blue eyes and looks of awe. I saved the best (in my opinion) for last though; the beach.

It wasn't really anything to look at; a couple miles of yellow sand, within the boundaries, looking out at the Block Island Sound. Hell, if you look close enough, maybe with a pair of binoculars, you can just barely see the coastline of Connecticut.

But to me? This was my haven. The one connection to the sea I have no problem with. This was my little escape, to get away from everything for a couple of hours of solitude.

"Wow!" Thalia breathed, truly captivated by the sight. "This is… beautiful."

"It really is," I replied absently, slightly caught up in in other sights to really pay attention. More specifically on the spiky-haired girl standing near me.

I shook my head, silently berating myself. Nope, nuh-uh. Focus, moron. We got bigger things to worry about right now. You just met the girl. The girl who was a tree less than a day ago. Focus. Compartmentalize.

Clearing my throat, I stepped up beside Thalia and put a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention. "Listen, Grace, there's some stuff I gotta talk to you about. Why don't we sit down?"

She nodded with a look of confusion and I lead her to a couple of boulders. Both of us took a seat and I took a minute to figure out a way to start. "A lot of this is going to be hard to hear. It's going to sound strange and ridiculous and downright batshit crazy… but I need you to listen and wait until I'm finished. Okay?"

"Okay," she replied warily, her brow furrowed in confusion.

So, I told her. I started at the beginning, of course, explaining the details of my… unusual parentage. Detailing who I am and what I'm doing. I went on to tell her about last summer, about our cross-country trip and finding out that Luke had turned traitor.

Tears had formed in Thalia's eyes at that point and I could see her wanting to defend him. She wanted to scream and rage and vehemently deny that Luke would ever do the things he'd done. But she kept her word and let me continue, my voice much gentler at this point.

I went on to tell her about this summer. Her tree being poisoned. The quest to the Sea of Monsters and our run in with Luke on the Princess Andromeda. The boat full of Confederate zombies. Me getting turned into a damned Guinea Pig - I still have a craving for carrot sticks. The run in with Scylla and Charybdis. Our recovering of the fleece and fight with Polyphemus. And finally our encounter with Luke, again, on the cruise ship full of monsters and his admittance to poisoning Thalia's tree.

Thalia was quiet for a long while, tears in those electric-blue eyes as she absorbed all I'd told her. I stayed silent, giving her time to process everything.

I was staring out at the sea, watching the occasional fish or dolphin breach, when the coppery smell of ozone and the sound of sparks filled the air. Turning back, I found Thalia, glaring at the sky, with rivers of static running across her small frame. Sparks ran across her fingers and the sand at her feet started to melt together from the discharge. I smirked a bit and asked dad for a stronger ward to hide the beach from the gods' prying eyes… and a barrier to keep her from accidently bringing lightning down on the camp.

The profanity that came out of her mouth was so impressive she would have made a sailor blush before he congratulated her on her extensive, vulgar vocabulary. The lightning unleashed and arced from her body at random intervals, blasting sand and stone, shattering a few boulders and frying a few fish.

A good, solid ten minutes later, Thalia had calmed down a bit, the electricity sparking around her had died down, and I took that opportunity to approach her. I put a hand on her shoulder, ignoring the slight buzzing in my arm from touching what is, essentially, a human conductor. Thalia turned to me, her eyes still glowing, and promptly broke down. She threw her arms around me and started sobbing into my chest.

"I'm sorry, Miss Grace," I whispered, holding her close and providing the shoulder she needed. I was pretty surprised by the waterworks. All the stories I'd heard from Annabeth painted Thalia to be this tough, punk, badass with nerves of steel. I guess today's revelations were just too much for even her to handle.

"W-why? Why would Lu… he, do this?" Thalia managed after several minutes.

"He was angry," I replied, rubbing her back with my hand in an attempt to calm her down. "He felt like the gods had abandoned him, that they didn't care what happens to their children. And in some ways, I can understand." Thalia stiffened, and I could sense her confusion. "Don't worry, I'm not going to go crazy and resurrect a Titan Lord from Tartarus. I mean it's time for a new era. One where the gods aren't so tightly bound by bullshit laws and an idiot who spends way too much time around electrical sockets and light bulbs."

She snorted at that and chuckled a bit. Good, she's starting to smile, that's a good sign.

"That's why I'm here, Miss Grace, to change the old ways. It's not about destroying the gods and Olympus, like Kronos wants to do. It's about changing them, changing the world. True, some of the gods will be banished or… removed. But not without a very good reason." I pulled away from Thalia and gave her a smile. "Annabeth and Grover have been on board practically from the start. We want you with us. What do you say?"

I watched her mull it over, gently worrying her lower lip between her teeth. It was kind of cute. No! Bad thoughts! Stop that!

"I'll join you," Thalia finally said. "On two conditions."

"And what might those be?"

"One: you have to call me Thalia. No more of that 'Miss Grace' crap."

I grinned and nodded. "And the second?"

There was a fire in her, now glowing, eyes and a snarl on her face. "I get first crack at Zeus."

Grinning, I slung an arm across her shoulders and started leading her back to camp. "There's a bit of a line… but I think I can get you in first."