The most plausible explanation was that Hali was dreaming.

How could she not be? It wasn't as though she was very well experienced with the concept of dreaming either, after not being able to for a good portion of her life. She probably wouldn't be able to recognize if she was in a dream even if Morpheus himself, the Greek god of dreams, showed up and told her plainly that was she was in fact, dreaming. So you can imagine how confused she was by the night's turn of events.

"Is this real?" she found herself asking the conjured image of her captain.

There was no way Uma was really standing in front of her, touching her, looking her in the eye. She was obviously dreaming. Obviously. Her stressed out brain, influenced by her loneliness, spun a strange dream together featuring the one person who could make everything she was going through somehow worthwhile.

Dream Uma actually laughed at her. The sound was just how she remembered, because this was, of course, happening all in her head. Regardless, Hali found herself smiling.

And then Dream Uma slid one hand down Hali's arm and pinched her.

Hali recoiled out of definitely-not-a-dream Uma's reach. "Ow!"

Uma lifted an amused brow. "That answer your question?"

A million questions sprang to mind as Hali rubbed her smarting arm, her face hot with embarrassment. She could barely sort through them all with Uma standing there in the flesh, very much real and very much a distraction. So this was how she met the captain. Wait until Harry and Gil found out. They would never let her live it down.

Hali huffed in irritation, struggling to regain her composure. "How did I get out here?"

A smug grin graced the captain's lips. "I call it the Siren Call. Like it? It's new." She shrugged in an attempt to appear humble about her new magical powers which Hali knew she wasn't supposed to buy.

"And all I got was super strength," Hali tossed back playfully.

Uma nodded thoughtfully. "I wondered. Just like your brother then."

For a heart shuddering moment, Hali mistakenly thought she meant her brother Hadie. Uma must have read the confusion on her face because she clarified, "Herkie."

Hali blinked twice and her brain sprinted to catch up. Or run away from the horrific nightmares she imagined Hadie was probably suffering right now. It was both really.
She cleared her throat. "Right. Him."

The first born (read: second born) of Hercules and Meg, popular tourney player, Herkie. Hali had seen him for the first time featured on the one channel the Isle got televising one of Auradon Prep's tourney games. She had to listen to Hades spout venomous things about this kid he had never even met before for weeks which inevitably lead to a disgusting tirade about Hercules and Meg.

Hali could list the amount of things she knew about her biological brother on one hand. She knew he was as strong as Hercules in his prime. She knew he played tourney. She knew that they were around the same age; he was about a year younger. She knew he got to grow up in Auradon and probably had an amazing childhood. And that was about it.

She wondered if he even knew she existed and that she was his sister. (If he knew his parents were liars and not heroes at all.)

"You'll probably meet him tomorrow."

Hali's eyes widened, Uma's words dragging her back into the conversation. "Tomorrow?" she asked dumbly. "What's tomorrow?"

Uma rolled her eyes at that and Hali half expected to send her away to sit in timeout. "All the princes and princesses are gonna move back into the dorms tomorrow. Hope you're ready to meet your new roommate while you're at it."

Hali lifted a shoulder noncommittally and nodded. "Right, yeah. I knew that." She cringed inwardly at how ridiculous she sounded. She dreaded what her captain must think of her. This was definitely not the first impression she wanted to portray.

She had completely forgotten about her roommate and the rest of the Auradonian's moving back onto campus. Some time during the last week Ben had mentioned it to her offhandedly at the banquet table in the dining hall but of course she had tuned him out just like every other time he bothered to speak to her. She wracked her brain for anything else she remembered about that one-sided conversation. Something about tourney? And a winter homecoming; whatever that was?

"You should know that your parents are going to be in town too."

Hali froze.

"H-how do you know that?" her voice cracked.

In a rare show of sympathy, Uma smiled softly. "I've been keeping an eye on them for a while."

The blue haired girl said it like that was supposed to make Hali feel better. It didn't. If anything her reply only prompted more questions. Questions Hali wasn't sure she had any right asking. Questions like:

"What were you doing?"

Uma stared at her in confusion. "I just told you."

Hali bit the inside of her cheek. The other girl clearly misunderstood her question. She looked at the ground, wondering if there was any way she could just take the out and leave the matter alone. The ground didn't provide any answers and Hali's thoughts floated to Harry and Gil as they were apt to do. She remembered the blank look in Harry's eyes, devoid of life, as he stared out into the ocean as he waited for his captain, not knowing if he would ever see her again. She thought of Gil asking her to have faith in Uma's plans even though he himself didn't have any reason to.

"What were you doing all this time in Auradon?" Hali found herself asking. Her eyes darted up to look Uma in the eye. "Why didn't you come home after everything happened?"

She appeared surprised by the questions but she met Hali's eye nonetheless. "I just couldn't. It's not important."

That...can't be all. Hali thought desperately. That's not an answer. Even if I might not deserve one, at the very least, Harry and Gil do deserve one.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she pressed.

She watched Uma's jaw clench in frustration, like she was physically restraining herself from forming the words.

Hali wished the conversation wasn't so painful, but it was long overdue.

"At first," Uma began, but stopped, casting her gaze into the trees.

Hali latched onto the words. "At first what?" she coaxed gently.

Her captain did not seem pleased with her careful handling. She glaring dangerously into the dark spaces beyond the tree and bared her teeth in reply. "I was afraid to go back okay?"

Whatever hard answer Hali had been expecting, this was definitely not it.

Uma's expression turned to anguish. "I couldn't go back and face my crew...after failing them all over again."

Hali frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but Uma cut her off. "Believe me, I spent those first few weeks beating myself up about it several times over. I should've never gotten their hopes up... I stayed close to the water's edge and listened to Gil beg me to come back every night. All I could think about was hating myself. Hating Mal. Hating Auradon. Hating everything."

"So what happened?" she pleaded earnestly. Hali took a step closer. "Don't stop there."

Uma finally looked to you again. "Harry's little sister happened."

Hali's brow furrowed. "CJ? She's in Auradon?"

Uma rolled her eyes. "Yeah. She told me one day she was lurking around Dr Facilier's shop when Ben, Audrey, Mal and Evie show up. Lucky for her, Mal wished everyone was back in Auradon with a genie lamp. CJ hitched a ride with them without them knowing. She tried out a few schemes to get back at them. It didn't work out." Uma shrugged, looking away again. "She's got her own boat now, and they leave her alone."

Hali was sure Harry would be relieved to hear his little sister was doing okay, not that he would say so. She wondered if she could word to him somehow about it. "And then what happened?" she pressed.

Uma looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "She gave me the world's worst pep talk."

Hali's mouth cracked into a grin. For a short moment, Uma grinned too. The moment didn't last long enough.

"I decided to spy on Mount Olympus to see if I could learn more about my magic. And I did. But I learned so much more."

Uma turned to her fully, her eyes full of something Hali couldn't put a name to, sizing the fellow demigoddess up.

Hali felt heat prickle behind her eyes. "That's how you found out about...my parents? About me?"

Her captain nodded.

Hali bit her lip. She still had so many questions, like Why did she decide to involve me at all in her crew? Did she feel sorry for me? Does she need something from me?

"Your parents might reach out to you." Uma interrupted her careening train of thought.

Hali visibly stiffened. "Do you really think they will?"

She was suddenly struck with the seizing fear of facing her biological parents. Sure it was true all she could think about since learning who they really were to her. She still wasn't quite sure what she would do or how she would react if she did end up meeting them. Maybe she would spit in their faces and tell them to go hell and stay there this time. Or maybe she would completely break down and cry as she deeply feared she would.

"If they do," Uma took another step closer to so all Hali's vision was focused entirely on her, "I need you play along. Pretend you didn't know. Get close to them. Think you can do that?"

Hali nodded her head slowly, letting her words wash over her and soak in.

"And then what? Hades is expecting Zeus' lightning bolt. I need to save my brother. My real brother."

Uma put her hands on Hali's shoulders, a comforting gesture. "And you'll get it. I promise. I'm not moving forward in my plans until the crew is safe."

Hali's eyes widened as the cold feeling of dread crept over her. "The Rotten Four are planning on sending Harry and Gil back to the Isle very soon if they don't find you," she remembered suddenly with a flair of panic.

Uma's lips pursed momentaily in distress. She bowed her head slightly to look intensely into Hali's eyes through her full lashes. "I'll deal with it. I know exactly what to do. They're not sending our boys back to that place," she told her firmly.