Here is a bit of back story for ya'll. hope you enjoy it. Also, I noticed as I went back over my story that in chapter seven I accidentally called Rose Wendy. I fixed it up, so don't bother looking for it. Have a good holidays!

I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters.

Desert Flower

Mari P.O.V.

Now that we needed to move quickly, Grover used his nature powers to teleport us all back to the god-mobile (my name for the bus.) It was like flying through the trees at a million miles an hour. It sounds like fun at first, but then you take into consideration that the branches were slapping my face the whole way.

We clambered into the bus and roared out of the park at top speed. Thalia was driving, and she drove like a maniac. I had to hold onto my seat in order to prevent myself from flying into the side of the bus. I chanced a look around. Nico's face was paler than normal; Max was perched on Percy's lap loving every minute of it. Lucas was trying to talk with Rose, but between her sexism and the bus he was getting nowhere.

I scooted up to one of the front seats next to Thalia. She looked at the road with no indication of seeing me, but then said, "So, getting used to this half-blood thing yet?"

I was a bit stunned that she would talk to me, so it took me some time to answer. "I guess. Its hard to accept that I am the daughter of a god, and of Hades of all the gods." She must have detected the note of disgust/dismay that accompanied my fathers name, because she nodded like she agreed with me.

"I had a hard time coping with the fact that I was the daughter of Zeus. Being a child of Hades id not that bad. Just look at what Nico can do. Summon skeletons, shadow travel, obsidian. Plus thanks to Percy the children of Hades are not outcasts anymore." She replied.

"Wait, I'm an outcast?" I practically shrieked. Thalia swerved into oncoming traffic and cursed before swinging back into the right lane. "Jeeze dead head don't scream like that. Ill lose my concentration. And to answer your question, no, you are not an outcast any more. Last year, probably, but people have seen the worth of the children of Hades and accept them more than before." She briefly looked at me with a comforting smile. Then her expression turned a bit darker. "But don't think that you will be like any other person. Us children of the big three-"

"Wait." I interjected, "The big three are our fathers, right?"

She glared at me, and her punk attire gave her the look that she was really mad at me, which would not be good. But there was a hint of playfulness in her eyes. "Never interrupt me. Yes, the children of our fathers are often treated with either fear of distain. The other demigods view us as overly powerful and dangerous. We aren't as bad as we look, but the others often jump to conclusions. Plus you have us. Us cousins have to stick together. If you have any problems, just come and talk to me."

"Hey Thalia" Percy shouted from the back, "Mind easing up on the gas? This isn't the sun chariot."

"Shut up kelp head!" she retorted. "Grover said that we needed to move fast, so Im moving fast."

After sitting in silence for about five minutes, Thalia's ADHD prompted her to say, "What was your life like back at home?"

Relieved that I no longer had to sit in silence, I answered, "Well, I lived with my mom. She works as a Set designer in Vegas. I have always lived there with her and Lucas and his mom."

"You and Lucas have been friends for your whole life?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yep. As long as I can remember."

She gave me a sly grin. "So, any feelings for dashing young Lucas perhaps?" I could feel myself flushing so I gave a politician's answer, "No comment."

She just smirked. "That's a very informative answer you just gave me."

A bit alarmed, I looked intently at her. "How did that give you any more information on my feelings about him?" I asked hurriedly

Thalia chuckled. "Now I know that you have some kinds of feelings for him because you were to embarrassed to answer with a straight forward answer. So fess up, any feelings?"

I sighed, knowing that I would never get her off my back if I didn't tell her, so I leaned forward and lowered my voice. "Yes, I do have some feelings for him. But its not love or anything, so don't get the wrong ideas."

"Oh Mari" she sighed, like she was scolding a dog, "It's not that easy. The more you try and deny these feelings, the stronger they will become."

I stuck my nose defiantly in the air. "Well I won't let them. Those feelings better look out, because I'm going to crush them."

Thalia shrugged. "I can't say that I am the expert on love, having sworn it off forever, but that may not be the best thing to do. He may be the right one for you, you know? Just think about it a bit."

And I did. I thought about them the entire rest of the way.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Nico P.O.V.

"Hey, wake up. Were here."

I shook my new sister awake. Wow. A new sister. It was finally starting to settle in. I had a new sister, and a younger one at that. It felt weird to be the older sibling now, not the young vulnerable one. Well, Mari was NOT young or vulnerable. She was a B.A.M.F from what I had seen and heard from Lucas. I was looking forward to spending time at camp with her.

She muttered and rolled over on the chair. I noted that she liked to sleep, much like me. Maybe it runs in the family. I sighed and used a trick that Bianca had used on me. I pinched her nose between my thumb and forefinger, and sure enough, she started to sputter and woke up quickly.

"What the HELL was that for Nico!" she yelled at me.

I chuckled and said, "Well, were here and you were fast asleep, so I had to wake you up."

"Why didn't you just shake me like a normal person?" she said, miffed.

"I did, like seven times. You just shrugged me off and went on sleeping."

She pouted. "Your a lousy brother for waking me up like that."

I just continued to laugh. I loved having a sister again. But it had started a bit more gingerly than how it was now.

*Flashback*

I threw open the door of the hotel room and was meet with a surprising but not to unfamiliar scene. Two empousai held two teenagers who were bound and gagged, their eyes full of fear. I was about to advance into the room when the boy started to glow. He was literally glowing, and was increasing his light output quickly. I averted my gaze, but I could still see the blinding flash through my eyelids. I could hear the empousai screech and two thuds that sounded like the teens.

I opened my eyes quickly and saw the empousai writhing on the ground clutching at their eyes. I ran over to one and twisted her neck like an owls, only she disintegrated when her neck went farther than 180 degrees. She exploded into gold dust, which scattered all over my brand new tux. The other one was slowly was regaining herself, but the diamond necklace around her neck tightened like a noose, severing her head clean off of her shoulders.

I looked over at the girl. She was staring with pure fear at the now dusted empousai. Her friend was knocked out, his eyed rolling back into his head. I summoned a jagged piece of obsidian and cut the girl's bonds in no time. "Go find help!" I shouted at her. She stood for a moment, looking with horror at me, but then her expression hardened a bit and she ran out of the room. I knelt down to where the boy was and unbound him.

I was kneeling over him, making sure he had no physical injuries when Percy Thalia Max and the girl burst into the room. "What did you do corpse breath?" Thalia shrieked at me.

"I was just making sure he was o.k. pinecone face." I retorted. Percy strode over and looked him over quickly. After his quick examination he picked the boy up and slung him over his shoulder. "Take us to the room." he said to me.

We ran up to the room, taking the girl with us. She nodded mutely and followed us up when we told her to follow. We finally made it to the suite, and Percy laid the boy down on a sofa. He woke up almost instantly, looking around bewildered. The girl embraced him and I could hear his breath being crushed out of him.

*Fast forward a bit*

"Your father is…Hades."

I stood by and watched with new found interest as the girl, Mari, was told by her mother who her father was. Looks like dad did break the big three pact after all, and now I had a new sister.

Mari looked at her mother with a look of pure horror. Hey, its not that bad I told her in my mind. You get all kinds of cool powers and stuff. The two of them talked a bit more, before Mari's mom left, telling her daughter to be safe.

I walked on over to her. Mari was still standing in the same place, looking bewildered at the wall. "Hey" I said. She turned slowly towards the sound of my voice, and it took a few seconds for her to register that I was there. "Your Nico, right?" she asked hesitantly. I nodded. "Am I really a child of Hades?"

"I guess." I said.

"How?" She asked hoarsely.

"Well, from my knowledge of the human reproduction system-"

"Not like that!" she said, cutting me off irritated. "How could my mom, one of the nicest people I know, hook up with the lord if the dead?"

I shrugged. "Hey, my mom was pretty awesome to. She was a movie star and she was not even afraid of the wrath of Zeus, and yet she 'hooked up' with our father."

She barred her teeth in disgust. "And yet, I still can't believe this is happening."

I was offended. This girl was ashamed that she was the daughter of one of the most powerful gods in the universe. Our dad. He wasn't that bad now. But I could see where she was coming from. Hearing that you are the child of the Lord of the dead? Not a pleasurable experience. I sighed and tried to explain to her. "Hey, its not that bad being the child of a god. You get all sorts of cool powers."

"I would rather be a regular person than the daughter of Hades." she said with venom. I threw my hand up in exasperation. "Why don't you talk to your friend, I am sure he will take your mind off of this."

*Fast forward*

I sat down next to Mari on the bus as we rumbled to our next stop. It was the next day after we had first met Mari and Lucas and I had bought us an awesome bus. Mari looked weary, like learning who her father was draining her energy. "Hey" I said delicately. She just continued to stare out the window. "So, how are you doing?"

She glared at me like this was all my fault, even if it kind of was. "I feel terrible, O.K? The knowledge that my mysterious father who I thought was an upstanding ambassador is really the lord of the DEAD has nicely crushed my spirits."

We returned to the silence that had prevailed before. After about ten minutes of my ADHD screaming at me to move I spoke again. "It honestly is not that bad as you think. Hades might not have been respected before last year, but he is now. He is not as bad as he was before last year."

"But he was still bad when he met my mother, so your arguments don't help at all." she retorted bitterly.

I sighed. Then an idea popped into my head. "Did your mom tell you all about her courtship with our father?"

She nodded mutely, still staring out the window. I sat there a bit more before prodding her. She jumped and glared at me with her diamond eyes. "What was that for?"

"For being such a irritating sister." I joked. She rolled her eyes. I prompted again what her mom had said to her. Ten minutes and a failed tickle attempt (she was apparently not ticklish) she caved in.

"My mom said that she had met him at a craft fair in Vegas fourteen years ago." she started. I was a bit surprised that dad was at a craft fair, but he was weird, so I dismissed it. "He courted her for the summer, and then left when she became pregnant with me. He ran away. That's what disgusts me, not so much the lord of the dead part."

I was surprised. Dad ran away from this woman when he learned that she was going to bear his child. I could understand why she was upset. Dad had run away from his breaking of the Big Three pact.

"Listen, don't think about dad. You have a new, awesome, handsome, dashing, brave brother, not to mention a group of awesome cousins."

She nodded again silently, and I decided to let her digest this information, and moved to the front of the bus by Percy.

*End Flashback*

While we had been in the park, we had bonded a bit more, and now she wasn't as sullen as when we first met her. She was grand. Bianca had always been scolding me, acting like I was a blob of annoying mold. Mari was the cool sister I never had, but because I was older than her I now had to be the over protective older sibling. I hope I wasn't as bad as Bianca.

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked around. We were at a small high school in a small town nestled in the mountains. The sun shone overhead, telling me that it was about noon. Students milled around the general vicinity on their lunch break.

Rose led us to the front of the school where the visitor's window was. "I have to pick up my brother." she said sweetly to the secretary.

"Do you have a note from a parent?" the secretary asked.

Rose gave a forged note that said that her brother needed to leave school. The secretary studied the note, looking for a possible forgery. After almost a minute she found it satisfactory and told us to go retrieve him.

We wander through the school yard until Rose pointed out a boy with spikey blond hair and stormy blue eyes, head bent as he looked at a text on his phone. "Gabe!" she shouted. He didn't respond. She kept on shouting at him, and after thirty second she snorted in frustration. She made a finger gun and shot it at him. He frowned, and looked around in confusion. When saw his sister he broke out in a grin and jogged over to us. "Hey there sis." he said.

Rose rolled her eyes and said, "I told you, don't call me sis!"

I looked over at Percy and Thalia and saw that they to were trying not to grin. These two sounded like another pair of children of Zeus.

He held his hands up in mock surrender, still grinning. "You didn't have to use an EMP to get my attention, you could have just called my name."

She huffed. "I did call your name, but you were so busy texting some girl that you didn't hear me."

"Ah, excuse me." Mari said, "But what is an EMP?"

Gabe turned his attention to her and regarded her carefully. "Why, its an electro magnetic pulse sugar, disrupts electronics. Say, have we met?"

She shook her head and me offered a hand towards her, grinning so much I thought that he would shatter his teeth from the pressure. "Names Gabe, son of the all powerful Zeus. And what is your name gorgeous?"

"M-Mari. Nice to meet you." she stuttered, blushing a bit. I knew that this boy could be trouble, so I got ready to intervene. Fortunately, Rose got to him before I did.

She slapped him silly across the face, so much that he almost fell to the ground from the shock. He let go of Mari's hand in order to stop himself from falling. "Gabe Edward Benton, no flirting with family. Mari is a daughter of Hades, making her your cousin, making her OFF LIMITS!" she screamed. He nodded, dazed, but he managed to mutter some unintelligible words. "What did you say?" she asked.

"I said, 'another half-blood?'"

"Yes." Rose said, "This is Mari and Nico, children of Hades, Percy and Max, sons of Poseidon, Lucas son of Phosphorus, and our new sister Thalia. Now, there is a dog monster that will appear at night, so we need to get going. Now get on the bus before I drag you on by the ear."