Thalia

We were standing at the cliff waiting for Apollo to arrive. He was supposed to take us and the hunters back to Camp Half Blood since Artemis was going on a solo mission to hunt some ancient monster.

I still didn't understand why the Hunters had to stay at camp. Couldn't they like hunt alone for a while? Or are they actually as immature as they look? And now they've convinced Bianca to join their stupid little group. I bet that was Zoe's fault. Let me tell you one thing about Zoe Nightshade, she may look like an overgrown girl scout but she ain't bringing anyone cookies.

At least now I'd have a brother at camp. I'm usually not the most social person, but he seems pretty cool. He had my electric blue eyes and that awesome ninja/samurai outfit. He wore a steel plated armor on his legs and arms, like you'd expect to see on a knight and a bright silver chestplate with some inscription engraved on it. On his back he wore one of those Katana holders you always saw in movies with a light blue cape attached to it. His face was covered by a silver ninja mask with the shape of an eagle on his forehead. All in all it looked pretty badass, aside from the fact that it was silver and not black. I'd have to ask him where he got it later.

I saw the Sun appearing on the horizon announcing Apollo's arrival. As he got closer, Artemis advised us to cover our eyes. For a second, I felt myself enveloped in the light and filled with warmth and comfort. Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone again.

I opened my eyes to see the Sun God standing in front of a yellow Chevrolet Camaro. He had sandy hair and glowing yellow eyes. His smile was bright and playful. His outfit included jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt saying "Girls just wanna have Sun", which took on a whole new meaning when he wore it. All in all he looked pretty hot. Too bad he was my brother.

"Need a ride Ladies" he said flirtatiously. Artemis rolled her eyes at her twin.

"You know the rules Apollo, You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to or flirt with my Hunters. And how exactly are they supposed to fit into that thing?"

Apollo raised his hand and opened his mouth to say something but Artemis quickly interrupted him:

"They're not sitting on your Lap!"

I could see in his eyes that that was exactly what he was going to say.

"fine" he mumbled and transformed the Camaro into a yellow school bus.

I heard Nico mumble something about Transformers being real too.

"Now where is my favorite Demigod?" Apollo asked. "Probably hiding in the trees again."

Just as he said that, Jay stepped out from behind us. No clue how he'd gotten there without me noticing.

"There you are! I never believed ol' grandpa could've taken you out. But seriously, next time you pull something like this you better call me! Anyway, It's great to see you again!"

"It's good to see you too" Jay said in his usual deep and cold voice.

"Of course it is! Still in your ninja phase, I see. I'll give you some fashion advice on the way. And you can tell me all about your great adventures."

"Come on, everyone get in, Jay's driving" he said with a bright grin. The Hunters all rolled their eyes but got in anyway, squeezing into the back of the bus. Bianca was with them leaving her brother alone with us. After that Percy, Nico Grover and I got into the front part of the bus. Jay and Apollo, who had been talking to Artemis, got in last.

Outside I could see Artemis kneel and touch the ground as if looking for tracks. When she rose, she looked troubled. She sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows. I started to wonder what they'd been taking about, but my thoughts were interrupted by Nico who shouted:

"This is so cool!", jumping up and down in his seat. "Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?" He asked Apollo.

"Downsizing," he said. "The Romans started it. They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. My sis got the moon. I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."

Suprisingly Jay was actually a good driver. He looked to be around 16, so he shouldn't even have a driver's license. Then again I didn't really know anything about him. I could only imagine what it would have been like if I had been driving. Not that I couldn't drive, I bet I could drive a normal car, but I'm like seriously afraid of heights.

I tried to listen to what Jay and Apollo were talking about, trying to find out more about my mysterious brother. Sadly, he didn't seem too keen on telling the God of Poetry any of his secrets, or talking at all for that matter. We reached Camp Half Blood after about half an hour.

"Everyone get out, come on, chop chop!" Apollo said after we'd landed. "I can't stay in one place for long or the old Air Head will get mad at me for messing with his precious time zones again."

I heard thunder in the distance.

"Alright, jeez, I'm sorry, calm down!" He shouted at the sky.

"You see, I gotta go" he said hopping into the sun chariot which had somehow transformed back into the camaro.

"Watch out for those prophecies, Jay. I'll see you soon."

"What's new?" Jay replied coldly.

Apollo grinned at him and started his engines

"Later, Thalia," he called. "And, uh, be good!" Then he took off into the sky in a flash of light.

"Show-off" Zoe mumbled. "Nice job scaring him off though." She said looking at Jay out of the corner of her eye.

He smiled ever so slightly, but it was gone before anyone (except for me) could notice it.

"Tell Chiron we'll be in cabin eight." Zoe called out before leading the hunters away.

Shortly after we made our way over to the Big House. It was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn't seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.

He smiled when he saw us. "Grover! Percy! Thalia! Jay, Hermes has informed me of your return. And this must be—"

"Nico di Angelo," Percy said. "He and his sister are half-bloods."

Chiron breathed a sigh of relief. "You succeeded, then."

"Well…"

His smile melted. "What's wrong? And where is Annabeth?"

That's when it hit me again. Annabeth, my best friend was gone. I'd been trying to forget about it the entire day. Keep my mind occupied with other things. My usual way of dealing with grief. But now I had to stop myself from breaking down and crying. Something I'd sworn to msyelf to never do.

"Oh, dear," Mr. D said in a bored voice, "Not another one lost."

I was about to jump up and strangle him, well verbally, but still. Luckily Jay beat me to it.

"Who the hell is this greenhorn."

"Careful, kid" Mr. D said, slowly removing his sunglasses. He seemed to try to look menacing, but his neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and his purple running shoes kind of undermined his credibility.

Jay seemed completely unfazed. They stared intently at eachother, looking to have a battle with their minds for few seconds before Chiron stepped in.

"Mr. D this is Jay, he's an ancient Hero, I'll tell you about him later. Jay this is Mr. D, as we refer to him here in camp. He's the god of grape-harvest, wine, madness, parties, ecstasy and theater."

He took a short break, like he expected them to say "Hi, nice to meet you." They obviously didn't, so Chiron just kept going.

"Grover, would you mind taking the young boy to the den and showing him our orientation film."

After they'd left, Ciron told us to sit down and tell him exactly what happened.

When we were done he was in thought for a few seconds.

"You are sure Annabeth is still alive?"

"As of yesterday, yes. If they haven't killed her by now it is safe to assume that they need her fo something." Jay answered.

Chiron thought for another short while.

"Alright, I will set up a council meeting for tomorrow. There we will decide what to do. Percy you are dismissed. Thalia, I need to speak to Jay in private for a moment, would you please wait here. I nodded. They went inside to talk.

Although I didn't want to, curiosity got the better of me and I snuck after them. Luckily Mr. D had fallen asleep.

"I'm glad to hear you have returned." I heard my teacher say. "You know how history repeats itself and I feared if the Tians started to rise again we might not be prepared. But now that you're back we might stand a fighting chance. There's something I can't get my head around though. When we thought you died, back on Mount Othrys, Hades said that your soul was shattered into millions of pieces. How can you be alive?

I heard Jay replying, but what he said didn't make any sense.

"I've recently bought an aquarium. Do you have any fish food around here?"

Chirons reply confused me even more.

"Do you prefer your steak cooked or grilled?"

There was a short moment of silence, before I heard footsteps coming towards me. I quickly ran outside and sat down, trying to look like I'd been there the whole time. Chiron came trotting out of the the house, now in Centaur form.

"Thalia will you please show your brother around?" he asked me. "sure!" I said. "come on, bro"

Jay visibly rolled his eyes, but I didn't really care. I was just trying to annoy him anyway. I showed him everything, starting with the volleyball courts, over to the amphitheater, then to the climbing wall and through the dining pavilion into the forest. We made a short stop at Zeus Fist. Most demigods wouldn't dare to sit on top of it, but I thought as two children of Zeus we'd be fine. Jay hadn't said anything during the tour, so I decided to just ask him.

"So, what did you think?"

"It's good." was his short reply.

"Can you be a little less passive, I mean this is some pretty cool stuff."

"What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to tell you how awesome all this is, how cool it is that the gods are real, and how excited I am about everything?"

"That seems to be a pretty standard reaction, yeah."

"I grew up on Olympus, Thalia, 200000 years ago."

"You always have such a monotone voice, I can never tell when you're making a joke."

"I haven't made a single joke since I got here, maybe aside from the little thing with Apollo."

"See, there I thought Zoe was just kidding."

"Zoe doesn't seem like the type who kids about anything"

I looked at him for a second. He wasn't wearing his mask for once. I would've taken the time to examine his face, but I didn't want to stare.

"You're really serious about all this? That you're the heir of Olympus and all that stuff?"

"That's what I've been saying."

"Ok...wow... but how?"

"It's an honorary title, really. Zeus is immortal, so the leadership will never naturally pass to me and if someone overthrows him, I'm pretty sure that person will take the throne for himslef and not give it to me. Adittionally, since I'm just a demigod and was going to die anyway, it wasn't really going to have an effect in the long run."

"Yeah, about that, if you really are just a demigod and were born 200000 years ago, how are you still alive?

"If I got to live an extra year everytime I was asked that question, that would explain it"

I guess he did make jokes, maybe he just didn't notice.

"I honestly don't know." he said.

"Then what about Olympus? Why'd you get to grow up there?"

"That's a long story"

"Well, I've got time."

"Maybe one d..." he started but then cut himself off mid-sentence. He was quiet for a second. If i didn't know any better, I'd say he was mentally slapping himself.

"We should go" he said standing up, not leaving any room for argument.

"Alright..." I said.

The rest of the tour was again filled with awkward silence, excpet for some remarks by me like "there's the stables", "here's the arena" and stuff like that.

I decided to end the tour in the cabin area, more specifically, at the Zeus cabin.

"Well, here it is. Make yourself at home. It's just the two of us and we've got the biggest cabin in camp." I said as I opened the door. He just nodded and went to the bed in the back right corner of the room.

"Oh come on now, I thought we were friends." I shouted after him.

"I'm dangerous Thalia, I can't afford having friends." he replied coldly. He mumbled something else like "...just end...kill...anyway" but I didn't really care.

"Fine, be that way." I said angrily. This whole brother-sister thing was gonna be a lot harder than I thought. And we hadn't even gotten to my problems yet...

A/N: This was the longest chapter so far, I think I deserve some reviews for that. I mean you must have thought something while reading this, I'd really like to know what that was. :D