Sup guys! Back back back HAHA

Originally i wanted to update yesterday, but the thing is i got my 'O' level certificate yesterday and got six points and well shit man all Glory to God HAHA (I'm Christian so yea)

Anyway, hope you liked this chapter! This is kind of a backstory about Thalia and Luke. The relationship between Thalia and Luke isn't exactly the main focus of this final arc so i didn't want to leave too many cliffhangers here HAHA (i think there weren't any at all actually)

So hey, enjoy! I update weekly and occasionally if i have the time twice a week. If no time then yea, you know what happens

Thanks for the reviews!

~Kuntakintae

Thalia's POV

Honestly, when I heard that Luke was coming to this school, I didn't really know what to think. I haven't seen him for a long time and was kind of wondering whether he was still the same person as last time.

We had been pretty close friends when we were children. It was when we were around eight years old.

I had been crying- alone, of course- at a playground in another city late at night. It had been because of my God forsaken mother.

That night, she had been in an extremely bad mood- so bad that she even injured herself in the process of letting out her drunken rage.

I had been so afraid, so terrified and horrified by the sight of those glinting and evil broken shards flying and dark-red blood dripping onto the floor from innumerable small, shallow cuts on my mother's arms and legs.

I did the only thing I knew how to do then. Run.

I had run without thinking about where I was going. My vision had been really blurred due to the tears that gathered around my eyes and slid down my cheeks.

Now that I think about it, I was really lucky no one kidnapped me. An eight-year-old little girl sobbing and scampering around without any adult supervision late at night was quite an easy target.

Anyway, somehow, I had reached the playground, sat down under the slide- the most inconspicuous place, of course- and sobbed, trying to get the memory out of my mind, out of my soul.

That was when Luke had come.

"H-hello? Are you alright?" A soft, gentle voice floated through the still air. I froze, holding my breath, my sobbing immediately stopped and my body stilled by the shock that I felt.

I didn't dare look up. I was so traumatized by the images of what had happened just minutes ago that anything- even a small ant crawling up my leg- could scare me to death.

"Are you crying? Hey, are you okay?" The voice asked once again in a soothing and caring tone.

After a few minutes of silence, I felt a hand take hold of mine.

I would have immediately freaked out and shrieked if the hand that took hold of mine hadn't felt so small and tiny. Miraculously, my brain had been functioning well enough- despite the panic and horror churning in me- to know that there was no way in heaven or earth that that hand could belong to anyone else but a child that was around my age.

Somehow, that thought calmed me down a lot. My body relaxed and I managed to continue breathing again. That moment had also caused me to stop sobbing apparently.

Slowly, I lifted my head and shifted my eyes towards the person who was holding my hand. It was a boy with beautiful blue, twinkling eyes and silky blond hair. He was looking at me and even with such a babyish face, I could tell he was really worried.

"What happened? Why are you out here alone?" He asked, once again, in that gentle, soothing tone that hypnotized me.

Images of what had happened filtered into my mind once again and suddenly, I was sputtering out all of the details of what I saw, what had happened in the past with my mom and dad, how my mom was a drunk, a failure as a mother, an abusive parent and much, much more.

By the time I had finished, I was sniffing, trying to rub away the wet streaks on my face. The boy was still holding my hand.

"Hey, let's stay here for the night, okay?" He asked silently. I stared at him in shock and stupor.

"...What?" I asked, looking at him incredulously.

"Let's stay out for the night. I don't know how you feel, but your mom sounds so mean and bad. I don't want you to go back to her and get hurt," He said.

No one had ever cared much about my problem before. For someone to say those words to me…I was touched beyond words.

So we stayed at the playground for the night. We talked and shared about our lives. I didn't learn much about him, but I knew he was the son of a rich guy, but always felt neglected. His mom had mental issues, but wasn't abusive like mine. It was enough for him to feel lonely as well.

So that was how our ridiculously strong bond formed. We had been two lost, lonely children, neglected and alone. We had found each other, and for a time being, we held onto each other like we were each other's lifelines.

The next day, we went back to our respective homes, agreeing to meet each other the same time the next day.

From that day onwards, we met every single night. My bitch of a mother always fell asleep early due to her addiction to alcohol and slept like a log, hence never noticing when I sneakily left the house to go and meet Luke.

When I reached nine, my mother made me switch school. For some reason, she had found out that rumors had been spreading like wildfire in my school about me being abused by her.

I was really surprised- pleasantly surprised, in fact- when I was enrolled to the same school as Luke.

"Luke?" I asked in astonishment, my eyes wide as I stared at him. His face was comically mirroring mine.

"Thalia? What are you doing here?" He asked, surprise mixed with his usual gentle and caring tone.

"My mom made me come here to study. I'm so glad to see you!" I exclaimed excitedly as I rushed forward and gave him a small hug. After getting over his initial surprise, he returned the hug.

"C'mon! I'll show you the place. You can meet my friends too!" Luke grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me with him.

That was how our friendship blossomed. We did almost everything together from then on. We played, we studied, and we ate and did activities together all the time.

However, as time passed by, Luke changed. He grew colder and meaner. He started to go around treating people like they were below him, ants that could be stepped on anytime.

Eventually, it became my turn.

"Thalia, if you want to stay by my side, you need to support me, not correct me!" Luke screamed like the kid he was-we were only ten years old then.

"But Luke, you were hitting that boy! You were hurting him. That's not the right thing to do!" I retorted.

"Who cares about that boy? He's nothing but a peasant who can't even stand up for himself!" Thankfully, we were alone in the classroom. Everyone was at he canteen, thus no one was there to listen to us.

"Luke…" I tried to reason with him. Little did I know he was beyond help already.

He had been changing for the past one to two years. From the kind, caring boy that I had met at the playground in the middle of the night two years ago, he had changed into a cruel, cold, arrogant prick.

"And you! I helped you onto your two feet, supported you and treated you so nicely, and this is how you repay me?" He glowered at me, anger brimming in his eyes.

"I'm helping you Luke! This road is destructive!" I tried in vain.

"You don't deserve to be my friend anymore, you ungrateful bitch. Get out of my sight," He spat out angrily. My eyes widened and hurt exploded in my chest.

"Deserve? Do you really think so highly of yourself? Do you think you're so expensive or something that people need to deserve to be your friend?" I whispered in a soft voice. I had hinged my wellbeing too much on Luke. It was breaking apart, just like how our friendship was right in front of my eyes.

When he heard that, he looked at me straight in the eye and said "I only helped you because I pitied you. I guess you're really the ungrateful bitch your mother says you are," He said cruelly.

His words struck me like a ton of bricks, and my entire wellbeing shattered. My trust in humanity was lost- there was no such thing as kindness in the world. The only things that existed were arrogance, cruelty, spitefulness and anger.

No more words needed to be said. Even if I tried, I couldn't have gotten anything out. I did the only thing that came into mind- I punched him straight in the face before rushing out of the room, needing to get away form him.

The next day, my mother got a call. She beat me relentlessly, screeching about how stupid and how much of a burden I was to her.

The day after, we moved to another city. From that day forth, I decided never to trust anyone again. People were shallow freaks. My mom, Luke, the bullies in school…

All the people I knew were shallow and evil. In my mind, Luke had never been a friend.

It was easier to think I had been alone forever, than to think I once had a friend who decided I was no longer worth his time.

It was only two years later I met Percy, and finally found someone whom I could trust again to never do what Luke did.

And now, he's back. Honestly, I had no idea how bad he was going to be. I hadn't heard of him ever since I left him so many years ago, and now he's back.

As I stared at the crowd, Annabeth suddenly asked about him. She seemed genuinely curious. When she asked what was his name, I couldn't keep the disgust out of my voice as I told her.

That was when everything went to hell. Annabeth suddenly paled so much, she looked as white as a blank sheet of paper. She started hyperventilating and even crumpled onto the floor, shivering like a leaf. It shocked me to the core.

Even after calling her name countless times, she didn't respond. I was about to pick her up when she suddenly stood up and ran to the toilet as fast as lightning. I chased after her, telling Leo to settle the books and stuff.

When I reached the toilet, I could hear her sobbing in the toilet door. It made me wonder- did she know Luke? For her to react to his name this way…the only reasonable explanation is that she knew him.

From the looks of it, he hadn't left her on good terms as well. I suddenly remembered how Annabeth was like when she had first entered into half blood school. She had been so scared and timid; it was as though she had been bullied a lot in the past.

Rage and fury radiated off me as I thought of what Luke. He surely was a big reason of why Annabeth had been like that.

After ten minutes of trying and getting absolutely no response from her, I decided to give up and search for Percy. He was the closest to her. Only he could bring her out of her current state.

I promised myself that after that, I was so going to have a match with Luke. Swordsmanship world champion or not, I was going to give him some serious injuries as payback for all the crimes he had done in the past.