A/N-Thank you very much Arielle and Aurora for the reviews! I hope everyone is having a good weekend! Enjoy this nice long chapter...You've got to love writing with a few glasses of wine!
Thank you for reading!

Miette

**Disclaimer** Nothing that comes from the imagination of Rick Riordan aka is from the Percy Jackson and the Olympian's Novels or The Lost Hero belongs to me.

"Mamma, I feel so anxious about this." Bia sat by the central fire while her mother, looking like a 9 year old girl, tended the flames.

"Sweetling, what is making you feel anxious?"

"I feel out of place being away from the Schola, I feel like I'm missing something, I'm waiting for something to go wrong, I think. I feel as though I haven't completed my task yet."

"Well," Hestia stood back from the fire and looked at her daughter, "the Schola is your home, it's where your hearth fire burns. Of course you feel wrong being away from it. Though, truth to tell, I sort of like Camp Half-Blood better then the Schola."

"I can see that." Bia said glancing around, "It is much more home like…"

"But it's not your home, not right now. For your other concerns, you haven't completed your task, I believe you'll find that you're wrapped up in what's going on and will be going on till the bitter end. However, you've successfully completed your first step. You're here; you've made it to Camp Half-Blood. You've found Jason and you've reassured Annabeth of the safety and commitment of the person the Fates have intertwined her with. You're doing your part for all of Western Civilization, Demi-Gods and Gods. You are bringing together the two halves of the family of the Gods children. Who better then you, child?" Hestia cupped Bia's cheek, smiling warmly at her, "there is much you are still missing, much we are all still missing, but all you can do is follow your path. Right now, that means falling into place here and making your ember burn bright, you will help strengthen the fire of Camp Half-Blood."

Bia took her mother's hand from her face and kissed the palm, "Yes, Mamma, thank you."

Hestia returned to tending the fire, "Have you made any friends here yet?"

"I like Annabeth, and Rachel the Oracle seems quite nice. Everyone seems kind, I think I will, they just don't know what to make of me yet, and well, I don't really know what to make of them for that matter. It's so different here, everyone is so different then everyone at Schola."

"Lady Hes- Oh, I'm sry, I didn't mean to interrupt." Bia looked away from her mother to the boy who had just come around the other side of the fire, she recognized him from the council meeting. He, like her, seemed to be a bit younger than the other leaders of the camp.

"Not at all, Nico." Hestia turned to the boy with a smile, "You've met my daughter Bia? Biatryz, this is Nico, son of Hades."

Bia smiled, "Yes, he was at the council meeting."

"Oh, speaking of, I need to go to Olympus for something; please would you both excuse me." With that, Hestia was gone, leaving the two teens alone by the fire.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you and your mom, I thought Jason was showing you around."

"He started to, but I sent him off to go talk to Piper for a little bit, I think my arrival has made her a bit uncomfortable, so I wanted him to sort that out. Meanwhile, with no one to really talk to I decided I should come pay respects to my mother anyway and this was a good time."

"Well," Nico made a split second decision that shocked him, "why don't I show you around?"

"Sure," Bia stood and put her arm through Nico's, "where to?"

"Umm," Nico didn't know what to make of her arm, decided to go with it, "let's start down by the cabins."

"K." After they'd walked a few minutes in silence, Bia spoke up, "Why were you going talk to Mamma? If you don't mind my asking." She hurriedly added.

"I like your mom. Not a lot of people come talk to her, and, I don't know, talking to her makes me feel good. She's warm and, accepting, I guess is a good word."

Bia nodded, trying to let Nico speak as long as he would. She got the feeling that he, even more so then Annabeth, was not someone who opened up. Bia had the thought that Nico had a lot to open up about.

"Ok, so these are the original cabins for the Olympians," Nico gestured to the right of where they now stood at the u of cabins farthest from the Big House, "there is the cabin for my dad," he pointed to a dark, creepy looking cabin that definitely seemed to suite Nico. "There are the newer cabins, we're eventually going to have a cabin for every god and goddess, or at least everyone with a child here."

"Wow, really? No more tons of people bunking in with the Mercury, I mean the Hermes, kids?"

"Nope, it was part of Percy's deal after the Titan War. The Olympians offered to make him a god. He refused, but he 'asked' them to claim all of their children by the time they're 12 and 'asked' that all of the children are given a place here. He felt, and pretty much everyone agreed, that there would not have been so much Half-Blood support of the Titans if the Gods showed more interest in and care of their kids."

Bia nodded, "That makes sense. A lot of the demi-gods supporting the Titans, at least from our end, were the children of minor gods and goddess. If they hadn't felt pushed aside…" her voice trailed off. She was all for everyone feeling at home and part of the family.

"Exactly. Kronos's host body was a son of Hermes's who had turned traitor. Though, in the end he did die a hero. He took his own life to stop Kronos."

"Wow, that's crazy, I hadn't known that."

"Yea, well, ever since then everyone has been working hard to create a place for everyone. Though, come to think of it, I'm not sure we have a cabin for Hestia. I don't think we've had any children of Hestia."

"There aren't very many of us, it's the whole 30 years of Chastity thing. Some people think that Vesta is a virgin goddess because of the whole Vestal Virgins thing. The Vestal's weren't necessarily completely virgins, though. They had to remain chaste for 30 years, but they weren't necessarily chaste before that, and they didn't have to be once their 30 years were over. Mamma spends 90 years chaste and then 90 years not. She figured if her mortal followers can spend 30 of their years chaste, she could do three times that. Though, what would be the point of a goddess of the hearth and home with no family?"

"That makes sense," Nico said after considering it, "We'll have to figure out where it will make sense for you to stay. Anyway," they continued walking Nico pointing out various buildings, the forges, the amphitheater, the stables, the dinning pavilion. .Bia enjoyed guessing at which cabin was for which god or goddess. Walking with Bia, Nico felt good, nearly as good as talking to her mother made him feel, better than he had for a whole afternoon since he'd lost Bianca. Without Bia's presence, he'd gotten a lot better over the last few years then he when he'd first found out that his sister was dead, but he still wasn't the carefree child he once was.

"This is Percy's cabin?" Bia paused in front of the rough hewn stone cabin number three, "It feels like him."

"Yea, it's just him and sometimes his brother Tyson. Actually, Tyson will probably be visiting soon. Usually he's with their fathers armies, but he and his men have been searching for Percy."

"Oh?"

"Yea, we had a bunch of search parties. Me, Thalia and the Hunters, Grover and his Nature Spirits and Satyrs, Annabeth and the campers from here, and Tyson and Poseidon's men."

"Wow, you guys were really looking hard for him."

"Of course, he's our friend. Besides, Annabeth wouldn't rest and trust me, Annabeth in any sort of crazy emotional state is not something you want to deal with."

"I would imagine any child of Athena letting their emotions get the best of them would be something." Bia smiled thinking of her friends back home born of Minerva.

"Annabeth is something without her emotions getting the best of her." Nico laughed. They continued walking, everyone giving them surprised glances caused by Nico's uncharacteristic smile an occasional laugh.

"Well now, that's not something I prophesied!" Rachel and Annabeth .were on their way to the arena where they'd both been expending nervous energy recently and Rachel had been getting pretty good, for a mortal, with a knife and a short sword.

"What?" Annabeth followed her friends gaze, "Oh for the love of Zeus…" A few feet in front of the two girls stood Nico and Bia, laughing about something, "It's good to see him smile," Annabeth said trying to wrap her head around what she was seeing.

Rachel looked at the two younger teens, her eyes becoming glazed, "Well, I have a feeling things go well for them, if they choose."

"Good, he deserves some happiness and she seems nice. Uh-oh, maybe you spoke too soon." As Annabeth and Rachel watched, another two people noticed Bia and her tour guide.

"Come on," Rachel grabbed Annabeth and dragged her to where Jason was approaching Bia, Piper following quickly behind him.

"Jason!" Piper futilely tried to stop the boy who had just asked her to be his girlfriend, "Jason! Let them be!"

"She's like my sister, Pipes."

"Yes, but she's not your sister."

"She's like my sister, the son of Pluto-"

"Hades."

"Hades, is not allowed to like my sister."

"They just met! Who says there is any liking?"

Finally, Jason stopped, allowing Piper to catch her breath and loosen her gripe on his arm.

"You're the daughter of Aphrodite," he gestured toward Bia and Nico who were still oblivious to their audience, several feet away, "do you think there is any liking? Look at them!"

Instead of answering Piper looked around and saw one of her brothers, "Mitchell! Come help me!"

"That's what I thought." Jason turned and continued his walk toward Bia and Nico.

"Hey Jason," Annabeth and Rachel each took one of Jason's arms while Rachel winked at Piper, "where are you off to so quickly?"

"To have a have a discussion with Nico and Bia."

"Oh, well, why don't you come and train with me and Rachel instead?"

"Yea, Piper, do you want to come, too?"

"Sure, Mitchell? Great, let's all go." The girls and Mitchell tried to get Jason to change direction toward the arena, but Bia and Nico had already noticed something was going on.

"Hi guys," Bia smiled, confused to be suddenly surrounded by a handful of people.

"Ok, well, I'm going to go…" Mitchell turned and quickly made himself scarce, preferring to watching the show from a distance.

"Chicken!" Rachel called after the son of Aphrodite, receiving only a backward wave in response.

"What's up?" Nico asked, looking at the varying facial expressions of the people around him.

"Nothing, we were just going to do some training—" Piper began, again trying to urge Jason away.

"Nico, could I have a word with you?" Jason asked, shaking off the girls,

"Sure?"

"Oh, someone grant me serenity," Bia muttered realizing what was going on, "Really Jason?"

"Nico?" Jason gestured for the younger guy to follow him.

"No, this is ludicrous. Nico, ignore him. You were going to show me the stables?"

"Umm, yea, sure…" Poor Nico was positively confused as Bia began to pull him away.

The three girls left with Jason were bent over laughing.

"I like having her around," Rachel said between gasps of laughter, "I haven't felt this relaxed in ages."

"Yea," Annabeth agreed, "Jason, I think you were just outmaneuvered."

"Yea, well," Jason ran a hand absentmindedly through his hair.

"What's the big deal, anyway?" Piper asked when her giggles had finally subsided.

"I'm supposed to look out for Bia, besides the fact that she's one of my officers, she's my friend. She acts like the Mother Hen, but she's the baby, sometimes we all forget. We were supposed to take care of her, we're all older, more experienced, especially me, I'm the Legatus legionis, and we messed up, I messed up bad last time."

"What happened?" at this point, Jason and the three girls had reached the arena, Piper sat down on one of the tiered benches as she spoke.

"During the titan war, we had our own traitors among the demi-gods. Namely, Anderson Quinn, son of Mars." Jason stared forward as he spoke, as if seeing the past all over again, "I'm afraid I can't say that like some of your people, he saw the error of his ways and died a hero in the end. Maybe he did, Bia hasn't talked about it. They'd been together for awhile, it was weird at first, I mean, even now Bia's so young, not that anyone notices most of the time, I guess we demi-gods grow up quickly in general anyway, and she's such a mom type on top of it, but also, they were such different people. Gwen and Reya said Bia liked how Andy made her feel girly and protected, not something demi-god girls get a lot, I'm told." Jason shrugged as Annabeth nodded in agreement with his absent friends, "I guess they were right, they'd know better than me. Anyway, Andy started to change. He got temperamental, more so then usual, brooding, secretive, keeping Bia out, pushing her away. Looking back, I think maybe he was trying to protect her in an odd way. Bia was broken hearted, and, everyone was pretty sure he was knocking her around, but no one could prove it and she gave as good as she got. When he finally left, she tried to go after him, but had no luck; we all knew where'd he'd gone though. Bia was convinced she could save him. She was insistent that the person he'd become the last few weeks wasn't really him. It sure didn't seem like the Andy we knew, but we had our hands tied. Lupa wouldn't let us do anything and we were trying to get ready for the war. Bia is always sure she can save people, help them." Jason smiled, "I think her goal in life is to see everyone happy and settled with a family and babies. Before Bia could do anything, though, Andy kidnapped her. I don't know if that was the old Andy trying to get her out of the way of the war, or if he missed her, or what. Maybe he thought she could help him? Whatever it was, the day of the battle on Mount Tam, we found Bia, unconscious on the mountain. She was a mess, one hand was gripping Impetus and the other Flamma, her Spatha and Pugio. She was covered in bruises, blood, ichor, and had a few broken bones. When she came around, she fought, against everyone's better judgment, but well, you don't argue with Bia when she gets like that. Truth is, she was a huge help in the battle. We don't know exactly what happened on Mt Tam, though."

Annabeth shuddered remember her own time on Mt Tam, holding up the sky, "You don't think they put her under the sky, do you? That was not an experience I would want to repeat or wish on anyone else."

"I don't know," Jason's voice was sad, "Bia was a lot quieter when we came back. She killed Andy herself, though. That I saw for myself. Walked right up to him, looked him right in the eye. She threw a barrier around them so no one could interfere and fought him sword to sword."

Rachel laughed uneasily, trying to break the sad spell woven by Jason's story, "Well, note to self, most fierce demi-gods, not Ares kids, definitely Hestia's."

"Yea, Bia's fierce if you mess with anything that's important to her. She's not aggressive and doesn't have a bad temper. She doesn't like to fight, but she enjoys practice fighting, and if you piss her off or hurt someone she cares about? Watch out, that girl will kick your ass to Tartarus and back."

"Well, I don't think you have anything to worry about with Nico, he's a good guy. Quiet, a little odd, but good."

Jason shrugged, "I suppose, she's just…"

"You're little sister!" all three girls said in unison.

"Don't worry." Piper put a hand on Jason's arm. "We won't let anything happen to her."

"I wonder what was up with Jason," Niko said as Bia slowly walked down the stable aisle, patting the pegusi and murmuring compliments and endearments to them.

Bia sighed, "An overdeveloped and misplaced sense of responsibility." She didn't look at the boy as she replied.

"What does that mean?" Nico was even more confused.

"I'm afraid that it means you may have made a mistake by talking to me. Jason is very protective of me and has got it in his head that you're being friendly to me and showing me around and my being friendly in return means that we're madly and passionately in love and it will end badly for me, and thus for you. He thinks you'll hurt me and then he'll hurt you." Bia shrugged, "I'm sorry Nico. Jason has always been protective of me, but, it's gotten worse in the last few months."

Nico felt a little guilty because while he felt Jason was being a bit dramatic, he had been thinking about how pretty Bia was and how much he was enjoying showing her around. He wouldn't mind getting to know her better and spend more time with her, he could use more friends. Of course that would mean sticking around camp more, but…he realized Bia was looking at him as though waiting for some sort of response.

"Right well, no big deal, it's ok." By the odd look in Bia's eyes, it seemed that Nico's response didn't quite make sense with whatever Bia had last said. "I mean, Jason doesn't have anything to worry about."

"Right." Bia turned away quickly and continued to admire the winged horses housed around her.

A/N Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!