DAKOTA: I'm out of the hospital!
LUCIANA: *SMACK*
DAKOTA: You slap like a mortal.

You've changed.

-Jason Grace to Thalia Grace

"Thalia, I hate to say this, but you've changed." Jason said, touching her shoulder.

Thalia's blue eyes widened. "I- no, I- I couldn't have… could I…?" she shook her head. "No, I couldn't have…"

"Sister," he murmured. "Accept the truth."

A tear slid down her face. "I'm sorry, Jason."
Then her eyes lit up. "I can buy time, though. I'll stay in here, in this island, and you guys can go on mission to help the world. As long as I'm not sixteen years old, the prophecy won't and we'll be fine."

Jason's eyes widened. "My, my, sister. You have just figured out the solution to our problems."

Fifteen minutes later

"First mission: Drew, Austin, Clarisse, Malcolm, Katie, Pollux, Nico, Lou Ellen, Christopher, Chris, Clovis, Butch and Jason…" Thalia rattled off the list of demigod names. "You all are going to destroy the base camp that Luke owns. Connor and Travis here have um, borrowed us some bombs we could use." Thalia announced. "Okay, Rachel, do you anything to say?"

Her eyes darted to everyone who was going on the mission. "Yes, Lieutenant. Only twelve will come back, so say your goodbyes, demigods."

Everybody started mumbling and Thalia swore she saw Connor and Travis trading bets on who would survive. Thalia, Jason and Nico pulled Rachel over.

"Do you know who's going to die?" Jason asked, his voice urgent.

Rachel nodded. "It's weird, looking at a person who's perfectly healthy and telling their going to die."

Ice fisted around Thalia's heart. "Tell me that Jason and Nico aren't going to die."

"They're not." Rachel shook her head. "But three other kids are."

"What do we do? Walk up to them and say "Hey, you're going to die, person."?" Thalia asked, her voice full of dark humor.

"Yeah."

"I don't know what to do," Thalia admitted. "Jace…"

"No, not even the Romans are that cruel." Jason looked away. "Nobody tells you that you're going to die when you're on a mission. Ever."

"So we don't do anything."

"No," Nico agreed. "We don't."

Rachel's eyes turned a little red. "And see the world in endless sleep; the hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap," she whispered. "It starts now."

One day later

"I hate sitting around and doing nothing while others go out and do life saving yet dangerous missions," Thalia muttered gloomily to Rachel, who was helping Calypso plant moonlace.

"Lieutenant, you are doing something. You're breathing." Rachel attempted at a lame joke.

"Thanks, I feel so much better," Thalia said sarcastically.

"You're welcome."

Thalia sighed and sat down. Then somebody dropped a glass bottle on her head.

"Ouch! Rachel, what was that for?" Thalia demanded, grabbing the bottle.

"I didn't do anything! It fell from the sky!" Rachel defended herself. "There's a note attached to that thing."

Thalia looked at it for fifteen seconds then handed it in Rachel. "What kind of English is this?"

"I'll read it to you. Um, it says "This bottle contains immortal liquid. You will not turn sixteen unless you wish it to be."." Rachel squinted.

"Do you think I should drink this?" Thalia asked, holding up the golden water to the sunlight.

Rachel shrugged. "Yeah. I don't feel anything bad coming from it, so…"

"If I get poisoned, it's your fault." Then Thalia drained the bottle.

If the daughter of Zeus was expecting pain, she wasn't going to get it any time soon. Instead, a very faint golden glow surrounded her, and Thalia grinned.

"Now, I can help with the prophecy."

"You better sacrifice some food to the gods tonight," Rachel said.

Five hours later

"Jason, you're back," Thalia hugged him. "Guess what?"

"Yeah?" Jason's electric blue eyes sparkled.

"I'm immortal… again, so I can come with you on missions. Did you succeed on it, by the way?"
Jason closed his eyes. "Um, you can't say that we didn't accomplish it… but you can't say we did succeed either," he admitted. "About a hundred of the enemy half-bloods and monsters got away, including Luke and Ethan. They grabbed fifty of their best weapons and captured a few of our demigods. Then we bombed the place, incinerating about two hundred enemy demigods, monsters and a hundred normal weapons. But…" Jason shook his head sadly- "Austin found out that there were fifty more good demigods in that place, and…"

Thalia clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, my gods. You're saying that we just killed fifty good half-bloods… oh, gods…"

Jason nodded slowly, picking at his lip. "Yeah…"

Thalia bit her lip. "But we took out more enemies than allies, so that's a good thing."

"Luke still has Pandora's pithos... by the way."

Thalia closed her eyes for a moment. "Okay. So… what should we do next?"

Jason thought for a second. "Um, I would suggest getting Pandora's Box back, but since we have no idea where the Hades Luke is, tracking the enemy demigods down in the next best option."

Seeing Thalia nod, Jason continued. "Okay. Let's decide on who's going first and then we'll plan it out. What about Lacy, Mitchell, Austin, Kayla, Mark, Sherman, Malcolm, Pollux, Christopher, Harley, Nyssa, Shane, Nico, you and me?" he suggested.

Thalia looked at him with a hard gaze. "You are putting the weakest and the strongest together in a group to battle Ethan Nakamura and Luke Castellan. Lacy is ten years old. Do you think she deserves death before her life even truly started?"

Jason looked away. "No. But everyone dies."

The daughter of Zeus sighed. "You're right. So after we find Luke and Ethan, we call in reinforcements and kill them, right?"

"Yeah. Let's go consult Rachel."

Five minutes later

"Really? Are you sure? Well, I can tell you something." Rachel closed her eyes for a few seconds. "If you send them to battle, only three of you will come back. And you're not one of them, Lieutenant," the mortal said softly.

Her eyes widened. "I'm immortal. I can't die."

"Yes, you can," Rachel said. "It's like being a huntress; you can fall in battle, but if you don't, you're immortal. But that's not the point. You're not going to die. You're going to be captured... by a certain somebody."

"Who- oh." Thalia covered her mouth. "That's worse."

"Yeah, him. The mission will fail, and some of the demigods will escape and kill fifty enemy demigods and ten monsters. Jason will destroy like, half the amount of weapons. Meanwhile, you will be captured by Luke and… um, you don't want know." Rachel rubbed her eyes wearily.

"I don't think I do," Thalia muttered, her heart sinking. "I bet whatever you saw was way over PG 13."

"Ugh, gross, sister," Jason crossed his arms in disgust.

Thalia's eyes widened. "Not that kind, Jason."

Somebody snickered, Thalia, Jason and Rachel spun around to face Nico.

"So, change of plans, right?" he strolled towards them. "Why don't we send the fifteen people we don't know from the Aphrodite cabin, the four girls in the Ares cabin, the seven people in the Hephaestus cabin, and the three other people in the Hermes cabin, the two unclaimed half-bloods Jason, Laurel and ourselves?"

"You're suggesting that we send the people we don't know very well into battle and throw ourselves in with them," Thalia stated.

"Yeah," Nico shrugged.

"Uh oh, that's not going to end up well," Rachel muttered. "But it was better than what I saw before. If Thalia doesn't count."

"Do I die?" the girl asked a little nervously.

"No, you don't, Lieutenant. Much, much, much worse." Rachel squashed her eyeballs with her palm and flinched. "Oh, gods. Okay, um, you guys will kill seventy five enemy demigods and capture twenty five of the most dangerous monsters in Pandora's pithos. Unfortunately, Ethan grabs the Box at the last second and it stays there. Six out of the thirty will make it out; Jason, Nico, one each from the Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus and Hermes cabin-" Rachel's eyes flew open and she ran outside. A second later, the demigods heard the sound of somebody being sick.

"Oh, gods," Rachel returned a little while later, sipping some water. "Oh, gods, Thalia, just stay on the island, okay?"

"Why? What-" Thalia began, but Rachel shook her head.

"It's so horrible… just thinking about it makes me want to be sick again…" Rachel shuddered.

"I'll take care of her," Nico muttered to Jason and Thalia. "Daughter of Zeus, decide whenever or not to go."

"Wait," Rachel said suddenly. "Thalia, hold on."

"Yes?" the girl paused, looking at the red haired mortal.

"Don't believe anything Luke tells you," Rachel said, her gaze steady. "Even if Luke says that we're dead, even when he shows you that we're dead, don't believe him."

Thalia gave the girl a smile. "Battle advice, isn't it?"

Thirty minutes later

"If a person like Rachel threw up because she saw something, then naturally I would assume that it was seriously bad," Jason murmured. "Thalia…"

"I have to go, Jace," she said softly. "Besides, Rachel might be wrong."

Jason nodded. "I love you, sister."

Without thinking, she hugged him. "Thanks."

KATHERINE: That random bottle of liquid was from DABOSS. :)