A/N: Hey everybody, I am so sorry this is late - it was unavoidable, and I will do my best to prevent it happening again. Someone (Daughter-Of-Poseidon-16) asked for more information about Astraea's appearance, which led my to create a deviantART profile for 02 in which my multi-talented sister will be coerced into drawing some pictures for me :) I also made a twitter account for 02, so follow that for updates about when pictures will be posted, or when new chapters will be.

Thanks to Minx The Shadow Thief for beta-ing this for me :)

Thanks to: percabethfanlover, lightning kid333, averagewriter, PJOseph, Eragon Northlake, LaughLoverCrystal, LegendOfZeldaFreak, IamDivergent, Veronique Ruthven, monica8807, Daughter-Of-Poseidon-16, lovetoread1998, rAnDoM-Lafing, does anyone really care, Monicamay and SeaweedbrainxWisegirl for reviewing.

Wow - 18 reviews we beat the PB (personal best) by TEN reviews, that is so amazing, I didn't stop smiling for a week!

Can we beat our new PB (18) this chapter?

Eldest28

P.S: Who has already read SoN? I read it in an hour :)

"You what?" I asked, staring into Thalia's blue eyes, all traces of laughter gone.

"I believe I know your father," she said calmly, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that I felt like I was about to faint.

"You believe…" I asked, thinking over her words. "How much do you believe that exactly?"

Her brow furrowed a little, and I could tell she was thinking over my words. I tried to keep my face expressionless, not liking the looks on some of the girls faces, but I was sure some of my desperation to find out who my father was leaked onto my face.

Thalia's forehead seemed to smooth out, and I guessed she had come to a conclusion.

"Quite sure," she assured me. "I mean, you have Annabeth's hair, Percy's eyes, name, and you are carrying his blade."

There was that name again. 'Annabeth'.

"From your confusing explanation," I started, "Am I to assume Annabeth is my mother?"

"Yes," said Thalia, her eyes saddening, before she shook her head and focused her eyes on a spot over my head.

"Though," she muttered quietly, talking to herself, "That'd make you not just a demi-god, but you have ¾ of god blood…" Her voice grew louder, and her bright blue eyes moved to meet my green ones.

"How in the name of Hades have you not died yet?"

I stared at her affronted. "I'm sorry, would you like me to die? 'Cause I'm fairly sure that could be arranged…" Especially with the attack this morning, I added on mentally, though I didn't voice it.

She stared at me blankly. "But of course not," she said in a tone that didn't match her hair and piercing at all. "What would give you that impression?"

I just shook my head and looked at the ground. A million thoughts were racing around my head and I couldn't seem to focus on just one. While I was thinking I heard Thalia start to bark out orders, and I noticed the large group of girls move away.

"Where are they going?" I asked her.

"Setting up camp," she replied. "And you're staying with us for a while."

I wasn't done with my questions quite yet.

"How did you know my mother?" I asked.

Thalia's looked at the ground, and moisture formed in the corner of her eyes.

"She was my best friend," she said, looking up at my face. "I guided her to camp… well, with someone else."

Her tone as she added that last bit told me that was not something to inquire about.

"I guess that's where I got my name from…" I muttered to myself. It wasn't just a name picked out because my mother liked it.

Thalia looked at me. "What did you say?" she asked quickly.

"Oh," I said. "I just said that I was named after you."

Thalia gave me a funny look, almost as if she was calculating my mental capacity.

"My name's Thalia Marie Grace," she said slowly, as if talking to a toddler. "How do you get Astraea from that?"

I rolled my eyes at her. Did she really think I was that stupid?

"I meant my middle name is Thalia. If you were my mother's best friend, I would say I was named after you."

"Oh," said Thalia taken aback. "I guess that makes sense…"

She trailed off, and I decided to use that time to ask her my next question.

"Hang on," I said quickly, just thinking of something. "You said you were my mother's best friend – but you're barely three years older than me!"

She smirked at my response.

"I'm immortal; all of Artemis' hunters are…"

"Cool," I said, staring at her in amazement. I guessed that explained the faint glow they all seemed to have. My thoughts grew off track though, and I was soon thinking about something she had said earlier.

"You said you knew my father?" I asked quickly.

Her eyes were immediately guarded, and I wondered why.

"I said I believe I did."

She said 'believe' with real attitude, almost condescending.

"Fine then; who do you believe he is?"

Thalia was quiet then, staring contemplatively at my face, as if she was deciding whether or not to tell me what she suspected, or maybe she just didn't like my attitude, either or.

"Well,' she said, making her decision." I think your father is Perseus Allen Jackson, Greek God of the Tides."

Now it was my turn to stare at her as if she were stupid. What Greek god of the Tides?

"Sorry, I'm sure you thought you could fool me, but there is no such god! Poseidon was the god of the sea, if that's what you mean."

My tone was sarcastic, almost rude, and I wished I could take it back; I shouldn't have been speaking to my mum's friend like that.

"No," said Thalia, getting impatient with me. "I meant Percy, who was Poseidon's demi-god son, until he saved Olympus and was offered immortality."

I was so focused on the fact that she was telling me that my father was a god that I almost missed the bitter tone she used when saying the word 'immortality'.

"Whoa…" I said. Maybe this was a dream… this can't be real. "You're saying I'm… half-god?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, but the official term is demigod… but in your case, it may be slightly different," Thalia's voice trailed off.

"This is just too weird," I said to myself. "This can't be happening."

"Oh it is," Thalia assured me. "You'll be staying with us for a little while; I think I should take you to camp before I introduce you to our Lady, all things considered. Also, I have a few questions for you, if that's okay?"

"You," I started. "Have questions… for me?"

"Yes," answered Thalia, sounding like she was very tired of repeating herself. "I have questions for you. Such as, has a glowing green symbol ever appeared above your head?"

It seemed like a weird question, but after the day I'd had, I didn't think twice about it. I thought back to all the strange things that had happened to me in the past.

"No," I said slowly "I don't think so…"

"Okay, then," said Thalia to herself. "I guess you are only 12…" Her voice got louder. "Do you have a friend with a weird muscle disease?"

"Pete?" I said, completely taken aback. "What has Pete got to do with this?"

"Oh everything," said Thalia with a small smile. "I'll let him explain when he gets here."

My throat went dry.

"You're not going to… hurt him, are you?" I asked nervously. "I mean, he's not like a monster, is he?"

"No," said Thalia. "Quite the opposite actually. Do you know what date your mother died and where she's buried? It's been killing me not to know…"

"My mother's dead?" I gasped. Even though there had been all the signs – Thalia talking about her using the past tense, the tears in her eyes when talking about her – I hadn't really focused on it much. Being told that your father's a god can do that to you.

Thalia looked at me puzzled.

"I was assuming you knew that… she died about 12 years ago – when you were born."

I stared at her. This didn't make sense at all. I was dropped at the orphanage when I was two, by my mother. That was only ten years ago. None of this was adding up. It couldn't add up. My mother couldn't be dead.

"But I was two when I was placed on the orphanage – by her. They just said that she had told them she was unable to look after me."

Thalia looked disturbed, but she wiped her face as blank as possible before she started speaking again.

"We need to talk to my Lady, however she is busy at the moment so that we'll have to wait for a little while. Also the real reason you should go to camp first, is that, since both your mother or father weren't exactly fans of the Hunters, and as much as I would love you to join, you should know what you're giving up first."

Thalia said it all really fast, as if she wasn't proud of what she was saying and just wanted to spit it out as fast as possible.

"Um, sure…" I said. "But can I speak to my father? I haven't met him yet."

"You haven't met him?" asked Thalia, looking shocked. "But how did you get that sword?"

"It appeared out of the water in the pool when I was- I mean, this morning."

Thalia gave me a piercing look, that was very unsettling, especially because of her blue eyes. She didn't push me to tell the truth, even though I was sure she knew I had lied.

"Well," she said. "You'll have to wait to talk to him, I'm afraid. God's make the decisions, not us lowly demi-gods."

She said the last part sarcastically, and I was beginning to see more of her character, not the charade she seemed to always have put on.

"Let's go back to the camp while we wait for Pete to arrive… speaking of which, I still need to send someone to go get him."

I followed Thalia back to where the group of girls had now set up a group of faintly glistening silver tents, like the essence of the moon itself was used in the making of these.

"You can stay in mine for now," Thalia told me, while making frantic hand gestures to a large girl. "Phoebe will share with someone else for a while."

I didn't really want to take someone's bed from them, but I didn't really want to argue with Thalia, as she had at least 20 years of experience on me, and, she seemed nice, if a little sarcastic, and who isn't sarcastic nowadays?

So I followed her a little more to a space that was in the middle of the camp's circle and pulled out a small box with she opened up into a full-sized, glowing, silvery tent like the others.

"Wow,' I said, gazing at the large tent which had sprung from the tiny box. "That is so cool."

Thalia gave me a smile. "You get used to it after a while, but yeah, I thought it was cool at first. C'mon, let's go talk to the other campers, but keep your sword on you."

I wasn't going to let go of the sword no matter what. I trusted Thalia somewhat, but I didn't trust anyone else, and I had just found out that blade was my father's, which made it all the more important.

I nodded my head in response to Thalia's question and followed her as she made her way to where the girls were all standing around, some chatting, other's organizing bows, arrows and the like.

"Phoebe?" asked Thalia, speaking to the girl she had motioned to before. "Can you, Lily and Marlene go and fetch the satyr from the school?"

Phoebe groaned, as did two girls who I figured were Lily and Marlene. One had red hair while the other had brown, and they both stood, frowning slightly as they did so.

"But satyrs are so annoying…" moaned the red-headed one.

"Deal with it, Lily," said Thalia, a sharp edge to her voice. "It must be done."

"Yeah, yeah," muttered Marlene and Lily as they left the camp, following Lily.

"They shouldn't take too long, Astraea, you can see your friend, Pete, did you call him?"

"Yeah," I said half-dazed. "Did you say he was a satyr?"

"Yes," said Thalia, frowning slightly. "I already told you the myths were real."

"You mean Pete's half-goat!" I asked, not listening to what Thalia said.

"Oh this is way too much to process," I said faintly, slumping to sit in a heap on the ground.