Title Of Mohawk Braids and Thieves
Rating M
Warnings
Violence, language, mental health issues, psychological torture, underage drinking, and some questionable humor.
Disclaimer
See chapter one.
Notes
Huge thanks to Anastacia1, Yuki Suou, maanou, and Melbax for favoriting, reviewing, and following. You're awesome! :)

This chapter is lighter on emotions and drama. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Seven
the people who upset you are now my enemies too

Starting over was easier said than done. She had come back to camp just as cabin eleven had nearly torn itself in half. No one outside of cabin eleven would ever know the arguments that were being held behind closed doors, but there were many that were taking place.

The arguments? They were about joining Luke and the Titans, and why they should or shouldn't do it.

Solara was back to avoiding being in the cabin in general. She knew quite well that Connor and Travis could handle the dissenters on their own. Some might leave, but they were the ones who had always been looking for a chance to. The ones who left were the ones that everyone had always known not to trust anyway.

"They're leaving," Travis told her one day during breakfast. No one around them was really paying attention to them, and only Connor was nearby enough to overhear their conversation properly.

"Bitter, angry people do that," Solara said casually looking over at Travis like she was unsure of why he was telling her this.

"Everyone is," he hissed and stabbed his eggs with his fork, "That isn't enough of a reason to start a civil war!"

"It was enough when it was Zeus and Poseidon," Solara said, "What makes this any different?"

Travis paused. "They fight all of the time," he said, but he didn't even sound convinced of that himself.

Solara put her last bite of hash-browns in her mouth so that she'd have time to think of an answer. "Anarchy," she finally said, "I suppose the promise that things will be vastly different is what is driving them... Granted I could be talking about things I know nothing about, but they want change, and he's promising them that." She shrugged, "They were always going to leave," she said, "This just gave them a better option that going it alone in the mortal world."

"People are going to die because of this," Travis muttered.

"Yes," she agreed, "That's what people do though... Live, die, get judged in the afterlife." She shook her head sadly, "People make the wrong decisions all of the time, but I think that it is our motivations that really show us who we are to each other."

"You would forgive them?"

Solara smiled and stood up. "Forgiveness has never been about absolving others of their sins," she said, "It's about setting yourself free of your anger, pain, and hurt." She walked away, and he didn't call after her. She wondered if they would understand yet, or if it would take awhile. It wasn't an easy concept to accept, and it had taken her twenty years into her first jump to understand it herself.

This war was never going to be about right or wrong. It was about preserving humanity, and letting go of all the pain they all had and would cause each other before the end. Most would realize that, but Solara wondered if it would be enough.

*~S~*

She finally got a chance to talk to Triton about a week before the solstice. She had been sitting next to a small fire that she had made next to the water. Thankfully being a child of Apollo offered her a bit of natural heat, so she wasn't near as cold as she should have been. Then he had appeared out of thin air scaring her half to death.

"What the shit?" she said, and she had already pulled out her knife, but she hadn't thrown it. She was actually kind of proud of herself for not throwing it at him. "Are you trying to scare me into a not-so-early grave?"

"Not even," he said, and he didn't look amused by her joke.

"Then I'll tell you what I told your father, don't scare me like that! I can actually be sent into cardiac arrest because of it."

He frowned, but he nodded anyway. "I wanted to talk to you about something," he said.

"Those words are never good to hear," she muttered, "But okay, what about?"

"Our relationship," he said, "I wanted to ask why you've been holding back. Before you were stuck in the memory, you seemed fine to get to know me, but after, you seemed to pull away a bit. What happened?"

Solara sighed. "I wanted us to have a chance to get to know each other before the whole soul-mate thing had been brought into the mix. I'm not ashamed of you," she said when she caught sight of his unhappy frown, "I just wanted us to not have to deal with the whole, 'you are perfect to each other, automatically be happy together' without at least trying to get to know each other before everyone just pushed us into a relationship that we hadn't even had yet."

"So, you think that I was visiting you out of a sense of obligation?" he asked.

"I don't know, were you?" she asked.

Triton sighed. "I don't know," he admitted, "I wanted the same thing honestly. I knew from the moment I met you that you were important, but I wanted to know you before anything else added complications to it... So, I guess I get what you're saying. It's more complicated now because we know."

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" she asked.

"No idea, but I know that I'm not happy with the events as they unfolded," he said, "Anyway, we need to be around each other more often now. Being aware of the fact that we're soul-mates means that we need to be near each other until the bond grows and settles."

Solara wondered exactly how long that would take, because the war was going to be on them in a matter of years, and she knew that it would be impossible to see him when the war came to the sea kingdom first. "Sounds doable," she said, "I mean, it'll probably make you slack off on your duties a bit, but I'm sure we could figure it out."

Triton smiled and laughed a bit. "Are you naturally this optimistic, or are you just doing it for me?"

"Can't both be true?" she asked with a grin.

"I suppose," he said, and was smiling himself, "Anyway, the closeness might be the only effect of Aphrodite spilling the news, but I get that we both had wanted to let this grow on it's own without outside interference."

Solara laughed. "I wanted that, yes. I also knew that at some point, outside interference was going to happen. So I guess I was just annoyed that it had happened so soon." she shrugged at him. "We'll manage, and maybe things aren't going how we wanted them to, but at least we aren't stupid enough to try and ignore it."

"Too true."

*~S~*

The winter solstice was upon them. Solara wasn't entirely sure if she was happy to be back on Olympus already, or not. The last time she had been insane, her memory had been wiped, and she had been strapped to a bed because no trusted her not to hurt herself. The time before that had, arguably, been worse. It had been the end of the war again, and Luke was possessed, and he had sacrificed himself again.

Dear gods, she actually was starting to hate this place. This beautiful place, that held so much pain, and hid so many lies from the others.

She wished that she could have just stayed at camp.

That wasn't an option though. So once they had gotten there she had slipped away from the rest of the group and had gone to sit in a park that was usually abandoned on the solstice. She never knew why no one ever came to this park on the solstice, and it really was never important enough for her to find out. She leaned against the the railing and looked down on the city miles below her.

Humming softly to herself, Solara wondered how long it would take for someone to notice that she had wandered off. She hoped that no one did notice.

"Your father is a brat," someone said as they walked up and leaned against the railing next to her, "You know that?"

"He has his moments," she defended looking over to see Poseidon looking irritated.

"You defend everyone, don't you?" he scoffed.

"Not everyone," she said, "But a lot, yeah, I guess I do."

"He refuses to claim you," Poseidon said when she was trying to think of a way to ask.

She twitched violently at that. "Doesn't surprise me," she said, and even she knew that her attempt to hide the pain that that had just caused had failed. "He never has before," she muttered and looked back down on the city, "I never expected that to change."

"Hades is pissed at him too."

Solara shrugged, none of that really made a difference to her. "That's nice."

"How are you doing?" Poseidon asked, sensing that she really didn't care to talk about Apollo.

"What?" she asked, not sure why he was asking.

"Did the memories come back?" he asked, "Because if someone else knew about them, they'd be able to plant them back in your head."

"Fucking fuck," she muttered, "I'm fine, but thank you for now making never want to sleep again... and don't tell me that I wouldn't need to be asleep. I have enough paranoia already."

"Fine," Poseidon laughed.

Solara scowled. "There are flashes," she muttered, "Like the memories weren't completely wiped, but they don't last very long, and they're really fuzzy... almost like it was a dream."

"Just flashes?"

"Just flashes," she said nodding, "So," she said wanting to change the subject again, "How's um... shit."

"You don't have a good subject change, do you?" he asked with a grin.

"Ah, no," she said, "I really don't."

"You know, soul-mates are rare," he said making her immediately want to run away. She might have talked to Triton about it, and they might have come to agree about things, but she had no desire to talk about it with Poseidon. "But immortals that have found their soul-mates are even rarer."

"Is this a 'if you hurt my son I'll turn you to ash' speech?" she asked looking up at him warily.

"No," he said looking at her seriously, "It would be if you were only dating... Actually you'd be the one hurt in the end," he muttered, "But, that's not the point. If I were to hurt you, I'd only hurt him."

Solara bit her tongue. They both knew that Poseidon had already hurt Triton over the years, but she wasn't stupid enough to say that to his face. "I lost him once," she said, "I don't want to do that again."

"I don't think you'd survive that again."

She'd never say it, but she kind of thought that he was right.

"So, given that you're soul-mates with my son," Poseidon said, and the mischievous gleam he had in his eyes made Solara want to run away again. "It can be argued that you're also my daughter."

She froze. Barely remembering to breathe she looked up at him wondering if this was going where she thought it was. "I suppose," she said.

"Good," he said and pushed off of the railing and held out a hand to her, "Glad we agree on that."

Solara eyed him wondering what he wanted, but she just shrugged mentally. If he wanted her to know, she would. She took his hand, and he tucked her's into the crook of his arm, and the he escorted her back to the party. Once they had gotten there she was expecting him to let go, but he didn't. He led her over to Triton and smoothly handed her over and took his wife and disappeared into the crowd. Staring after him she wondered if any of the gods would ever fully make sense to her.

"What is it?" Triton asked.

"I'm not sure if I'm afraid of him," she nodded in the direction Poseidon had went, "Or if he confuses the hell out of me."

Triton snorted. "You will probably never get beyond that," he said grinning at her.

She shrugged, "I honestly never expect to."

Triton laughed and tugged her out on the dance-floor. The dance he pulled her into was a slow one, and she was more than happy to just stand there with her arms wrapped around him swaying softly. He seemed calmer during their dance as well, and she thought that he was thinking the same thing as she was.

They never wanted this to end.

*~S~*

There was a glowing green trident hovering over her head.

Solara reached up to poke at it. Connor snorted next to her. Travis choked on a laugh. The rest of the camp was sitting in shocked silence.

"You vague asshole," she said. The glowing trident turned into water that dropped onto her, soaking her fully as if she had been standing in the rain for an hour. "Psh, whatever man," she muttered and stood up grabbing her plate as she did so. "You know you still give a fuck." She meandered her way over to the table that was reserved for Poseidon. She sat down and went back to eating.

"Barnacle beard actually went through with it," Dionysus muttered, and even he was staring her in shock. Considering everyone was still in stunned silence the entire population of the dining pavilion heard him.

Solara looked over at him then sighed and stood up again. She turned so that she could see everyone clearly. "I am not biologically his daughter," she said, "But I fail to see why I should explain beyond that... Can we all move on with our lives now?"

The campers all shrugged at each other and went back to their meals and conversations.

"Thank you," she muttered and sat back down.

After dinner she packed her things up and moved into cabin three. She wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of being alone until Percy came back to camp, but she was happy to have a bed to sleep on again. There was just no winning in life. She bitched about the awkward staring that she had just had to endure to herself as she brushed her teeth and got ready for bed. She was also kind of pissed that she hadn't even been properly warned about this happening.

"What even is my life?" she asked with a sigh as she turned out the lights and crawled into bed.

*~S~*

Triton visited her once a week after the solstice. He even began to teleport her to her therapy sessions, and they'd spend an hour walking around the city afterwards. She really wasn't happy at camp anymore, she felt too different after her years of jumping, and he was still pissed about Poseidon fathering Percy.

"I don't understand why you hate him so much," Solara said one day in late April. They had stopped at a Starbucks, and she wasn't even surprised to find out that gods loved Starbucks just as much as the rest of the world. "I mean, Percy didn't ask to be born."

Triton paused and set down his salted-caramel whatever. It had caramel, and Solara couldn't stand the taste of caramel so she hadn't paid that much attention to his order this time. "I... I never thought of it that way," he said.

"He has," she said and took a sip of her drink, "When he found out that he and Thalia have to suffer the punishment for their parents breaking their oaths," she said when he looked shocked, "He was angry that they had to suffer for something they had no say in."

"Damn," he muttered, "I guess I can understand that."

"He didn't ask for your father to cheat on your mother," she said looking him in the eye.

Triton nodded. He picked up his drink again. "Let's go visit my brother then."

"Wait, what?" she asked.

Triton pulled her up from her seat, and it was claimed by someone else within seconds. A poor college student by the looks of it, who looked stressed and had a laptop with them.

She was pulled out of the building and down the street. Solara shook her head, as far as she knew, this had never happened before, and she wondered if this was going to backfire in a horrible way later down the line. Getting tired of him pulling on her hand she tugged against him lightly, in answer he slowed down so that they were walking side by side.

"You know that you showing up out of the blue is going to scare the pee out of him," she said, "His mother too probably."

Triton snorted. "The pee?" he asked a grin flashing in her direction.

"Yes," she said, "I've found that I really only cuss around impressionable people."

"Children," he corrected, and turned down a street that would get them to the Jacksons's apartment building faster.

"Whatever," she said, "I also only cuss when severely pissed off."

"Most people do."

She shrugged. They walked in silence for another ten minutes. "Why do you want to go see him?" she finally asked when they were only three blocks away.

"Because," Triton sighed, "Because I want to meet him where he has the slight advantage."

Solara wisely chose not to say anything about the 'slight' part. "You mean you want to meet him outside of the sea," she said instead.

"Yeah," he muttered.

"Okay."

Once there Solara tried to get him to let her wait outside, but Triton would hear of it. Sighing unhappily she climbed up the stairs behind him. She also practically hid behind him when he knocked on their door. At the last possible second he pulled out from behind him so that she'd be standing next to him when the door opened.

Solara was actually somewhat relieved to see that Percy had been the one to answer it. "Hi," she said with a wave, "I was in the neighborhood for therapy when he decided that he wanted to visit his new brother."

Triton scowled at her and Percy looked mildly scared and irritated, she just smiled blandly at them both. Percy then sighed and opened the door wider signaling for them to come in. Solara grinned when she heard Percy mutter that he was happy that his mother wasn't home. Triton relaxed next to her, so she knew that he had heard as well. She wandered over to the window and left the siblings standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room.

"Oh, for the love of all that's beautiful in the world!" Solara exclaimed in exasperation after a tense five minutes. She turned so that she could glare at Triton. "This was your idea," she reminded him, "So maybe using words would be a good idea. I do have to be back at camp by dinner you know."

Percy looked at her in shock. "So, you two know each other?" he asked when Triton still didn't say anything.

"Platonic soul-mates," she said, "We're pretty much a package deal now... also I was moved into cabin three."

"Oh, that's cool, being alone kind of sucked. Okay," Percy turned back to Triton, "Can I help you?"

Solara snickered into her drink. The poor kid sounded so confused by the turn of events, and the bombshells dropped on him. To think he had probably only planned on eating dinner and avoiding his homework for the night. He got Solara and a suddenly mute Triton instead.

"You're different," Triton finally said.

"I'm sorry?" Percy said.

Solara rolled her eyes.

"You're different," Triton repeated, "All of the others were arrogant snots."

"So are you," Solara said.

"Exactly!" Triton said looking at her in shock. "He's too nice to be my brother!"

"Oh my gods," Solara whispered, her eyes wide, "You've lost it... I'm no longer the only one in the room who needs therapy."

Percy was staring at them both in shock. "Yeah," he said reminding them about where they were, "I'm still really confused. Can one of you please explain?"

Triton was too busy staring at Percy like he was from another planet, so Solara had to explain. "He wanted to meet you," she said, "I had pointed out to him that it wasn't your fault that your father cheated on his mother, and that you really shouldn't be blamed for it... along with a few other things. Then he randomly decided that he wanted to meet you." She shrugged at him and walked back over to Triton. She looked at him slightly worried that he hadn't said anything in awhile, and hadn't moved either that she could tell. Frowning she poked him lightly. "Did you turn yourself into a statue?" she asked.

Triton didn't even twitch.

"Okay," she said taking a couple steps back so that she was next to Percy, "You're really beginning to scare me."

"He can't be real."

Solara sighed at the weak sounding words. She turned and poked Percy in the arm making him yelp in surprise. "He feels real," she turning back to Triton.

Percy snorted. "I think we broke him," he said, and if Solara hadn't known different 'Percy's over her lifetime she might have been shocked by the slightly evil grin he wore. As it was she was trying not to let her own grin take over her face, so she tried to avoid looking at him.

"Triton!" she said loudly, "Pull yourself together, or I'm going to ruin your 'I'm an asshole' reputation you have... and I'll tell Percy exactly how he can help me do it."

"Ruining reputations?" Percy asked, "I'm in."

Triton snapped out of his shocked state. "Don't you dare," he hissed glaring at Solara.

"Finally," she sniffed then proceeded to ignore him in favor of looking at Percy. "You wouldn't believe how much shit I can get away with these days," she said with a grin.

"I'd probably die of shock," he agreed, "Anyway... is there anything else you guys needed, because I've got three chapters of 'The Lord of the Flies' to read."

"Ugh, no," Solara said, "Don't torture yourself kid, SparkNotes the hell out of that book. I read it once, and I couldn't even bring myself to read the whole thing. I think I gave up about halfway through then skipped to the end to read the last forty pages."

"Did you miss much?" he asked.

"Nope," she said and decided that they would leave Percy to his homework. "Anyway," she said and grabbed onto Triton and dragged him towards the door, "He owes me more Starbucks for scaring the hell out of me." Solara paused when they reached the door, she remembered something that she had wanted to tell Percy the next time she saw him. "Wait for me downstairs?" she asked Triton.

"Is this about what you and Uncle Hades talked about?" he asked.

"Yep."

Triton nodded. "I'll wait for you in the stairwell."

Solara watched the door shut behind him. Triton might already know what she was going to tell Percy, but she knew that he hadn't wanted to be around for that. She sighed and turned back towards Percy. "I talked to Lord Hades on the solstice," she said, "I might not have met the guy, but I can spot trouble a mile away, and I thought that you'd like to know that Gabe was sentenced to the Fields of Punishment."

Percy blinked. "I can't say I'm surprised by that," he said, "I guess it would be useless to ask you how you knew about him."

Solara nodded. "You have a habit of wanting to ask the complicated questions," she said, "And while I would love to talk about it with someone... that someone can't be you."

"Do you know the future or something?"

"Something like that," she said, "But I can't give you more than that."

Percy nodded. "I don't think I want to know the future anyway."

Solara gave him a brilliant smile. "That, is an incredibly wise choice." She nodded at him once, then turned and left him alone in his apartment again. She met up with Triton in the stairwell, and he had already gotten her another drink from Starbucks. "Thanks," she said as she plucked it from his hand.

"How'd he take it?" he asked.

"Pretty calmly," she said, "But if you had met the man, you wouldn't be surprised by that."

"How bad was he?" Triton asked and they began to go down the stairs.

"Not as bad as he could have been," she said, "But worse than they ever deserved."

"That's fucked up."

Solara slung an arm around his waist, and he threw an arm around her shoulders. "Let's not think about anymore depressing topics," she said, "Let's just walk for a bit more before you have to take me back."

"Happily," Triton said, and pulled her out onto the street again.

They walked aimlessly until she finished her drink. After that they ducked into an empty alley and he transported them back to camp.

*~S~*

She really should have known that someone was going to notice how tense she was. May had come in a rush, and Solara wondered if she had just stopped paying attention to the passage of time for a bit. She had been hoping to forget about what was about to happen, but she couldn't. She wondered how pissed certain people were going to be, especially with her, and she knew that there was no getting out of it this time.

"Why do I get the feeling that something bad is about to happen?" Triton asked her one day after he had brought her back to camp after her therapy appointment.

Solara had already sprawled out on her bed in cabin three. "Because something bad is about to happen," she said and threw an arm over her face to cover her eyes. "A lot of bad things are going to happen actually, and I'm getting my own feeling that I don't have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines anymore."

"Is that what you've done every time before?" he asked and nudged her over so that he could lay down next to her.

"Sort of," she muttered. Her stomach twisted at the mental reminder that she had tried to change things once. She had made all of the wrong choices for only some of the right reasons, and she was too afraid to tell anyone about her once-betrayal. Triton would stand by her and forgive her, but she doubted that the others would do anything similar.

"You hate not knowing what to do, don't you?" he asked.

"I have all of this knowledge," she said, "But... I never know what to do with it, and I never know if I'm making the right choice or not... I tried doing more once before, but I almost got so many people killed because of it."

"Helping the wrong person?" Triton asked his tone painfully neutral.

"I learned my lesson the hard way," she said, and she was tensing up waiting for the anger to make itself know. "I just... I loved him, but giving an angry person gasoline will only enable them to start a fire."

"You're ashamed," he said quietly.

She moved her arm so that she could look him in the eye. "There isn't much that I truly feel regret and shame for," she said seriously wanting him to know that she meant every word she was speaking, "But this... I will always be ashamed of what I did."

Triton sighed and pulled her into a hug. She ended up half laying on top of him, and her head was pillowed on his chest. "I won't tell anyone," he promised.

"Thanks," she whispered.

She ended up missing dinner that night. She had fallen asleep like that, and Triton hadn't had the heart to wake her up. They had slept peacefully until the sun rose again. When it did and Solara woke up, she could already feel the difference in the air.

The tree had been poisoned.

Triton transported them both to the top of the hill. Solara reached out to lightly touch one of the branches, but when the needles just fell off at her touch she jerked her hand back. This time the tree being poisoned hurt more than it ever had. She had been with Thalia when she had been turned into a tree this time. They both had been trying to help each other.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm so sorry." She crashed down to her knees, or she would have if Dionysus hadn't grabbed her by her wrists.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked.

Solara shook her head. While she knew that Dionysus didn't really care about Thalia, she also knew that Zeus was going to be pissed about his daughter being on the brink of death again. "I didn't know when it was going to happen," she said. It was a lie, and everyone present knew it too.

A few different emotions seemed to pass through Dionysus before he settled on something that she couldn't quite decipher. "What is it?" he asked, "What poison is it?"

Solara shook her head, this question she could answer honestly. "I don't know. Something so old no one knows a cure, if there even is one."

"Why don't I believe you?" Dionysus asked his eyes glowing with purple fire.

Solara began to shake. She could feel any and all progress she had made in the last three months fade away as if she hadn't been trying at all. "I swear, I don't know what it is," she said desperately. She could feel the tears dripping down her cheeks as her vision clouded over, and she wondered why Triton wasn't trying to help her. "I don't know who did this," she said trying to pull out of Dionysus's grasp, "And I don't know what poison it is."

Dionysus let her go and she fell to the ground. The fogginess in her head receded enough for her to sense him and Chiron walking away. Triton picked her up and transported them to the beach, but once they were there she pushed him away.

Still shaking and still crying she glared at him. It probably wasn't that effective due to her drowned rat look, but it would get her feelings across. "I see that despite the fact that I'm your soul-mate, my mental health still isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things," she spat.

"That isn't why I didn't try to stop him," Triton said, and she really wanted to punch him for sounding so damn calm.

"Enlighten me then!"

"He's stronger than I am!"

Solara paused, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She tried to stop crying, but the most she could do was slow the tears and stop the shaking. "I'm sorry," she said opening her eyes again. She noticed that he looked more worried about her than usual, which really meant that he actually showed that worried in the first place. "I'm not... I'm not really okay right now," she swallowed and held back the flinch when he moved towards her, "I keep forgetting that you both are gods," she said, "I keep forgetting that he can, and obviously will, do something like that without any warning. As many times as I've done this, I don't think I've ever been this close to losing my fucking mind." Solara shook her head, "And I never thought that he'd go there after everything that's happened in the last year."

Triton pulled her into a loose hug. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I know how hard it is for you to trust anyone. I didn't think he'd go there either."

"It's Thalia," Solara muttered and buried her face into his neck, "You know how upset Zeus is going to be... I don't have to like it, but if he uses force now, then no one can say that I was lying, and no one can tell anyone to question me again."

"He's still an asshole."

Solara just giggled.

End Notes So, yeah, this went in a direction I never planned on, but I think we're all going to have fun with this. And yeah, that really wasn't as light as it could have been, but it's better than the last chapter.

The chapter title is taken from the song 'Fear The Future' by Emma Blackery. (Yes, her again, because I lover her music, and she's great.)

Please leave something friendly on your way out. :)