Chapter 7 - I'm Not Super Helpful

When I woke in the morning I realized I had one major thing I needed to do - I needed to find Jason and try to help him, as best I could. Despite the fact that I wouldn't be on this quest, I still needed to do my best to help him. I got dressed, picked up my backpack, and headed to Cabin One.

Jason was inside, looking at the photos Thalia had left behind of our travels together. Luke, Thalia and I adventuring across the country. I peered over his shoulder to see which photo it was.

"That's Thalia." I said. Jason jumped. He must not have heard me come in. "She's the other child of Zeus who lived here. But not for long. Sorry, I should have knocked."

"It's fine. Not like I think of this place as home." He muttered. I could tell he was troubled. I felt bad that I had added to all his problems yesterday. He looked me over, noting my travel gear.

"Don't suppose you've changed your mind about coming with us?" I could tell he was holding out hope. I felt a stab of guilt, but I shook my head.

"You've got a good team already." I assured him. "I'm off to look for Percy." I hoped he knew that I meant it. Despite their lack of experience at camp, Jason, Piper and Leo seemed like a well-balanced team. I was good at knowing when a team would play to each others' strengths and this definitely seemed like that kind of situation. Plus, I couldn't ignore the fact that Hera had plopped Jason into the situation with Piper and Leo. It was clear that she was hand-picking her rescue team.

"Hey, you'll do fine." I tried again to reassure him. I could tell he desperately wanted me to lead the quest but didn't want to beg. "Something tells me this isn't your first quest." It was something about the look in his eyes, the set of his body. He had a confidence that comes from winning several battles against impossible odds. Sometimes Percy had that look, before he ruined it with a silly face. Gods, I missed that guy.

Jason was looking back at the photo. I didn't know what he was thinking. Then he muttered to me, "You know who I am, don't you?"

I hesitated. I had many ideas, but I wasn't sure which I should share with him. I didn't want to add any more weight to his shoulders. I gripped my dagger out of habit, and looked for a chair that I could sit on to be more on Jason's level. I didn't like talking down to him. But there weren't any because there weren't supposed to be any demigods here. I turned back to answer his question.

"Honestly, Jason, I'm not sure." And that was the truth. I had a lot of guesses, but I couldn't prove any of them. "My best guess - you're a loner. It happens sometimes, for one reason or another. The camp never found you. But you survived anyway by constantly moving around. You trained yourself to fight." Like Luke, Thalia and I did, I wanted to say. "You handled the monsters on your own. You beat the odds." I couldn't believe that it was true - a son of Zeus would attract more monsters than I could imagine, and he wouldn't have had two other half-bloods to shoulder the responsibility like Thalia had.

"The first thing Chiron said to me was 'You should be dead.'" Jason looked at me with such a mix of emotions. He looked lost, sad, angry, confused, and hopeful, like maybe I could help him put the pieces of his life back together.

"That could be why." I told him. "Most demigods never make it on their own. And a child of Zeus? I mean, it doesn't get any more dangerous than that. The chances of you reaching age fifteen without finding Camp Half-Blood, or dying, it's microscopic. But like I said, it does happen. Thalia ran away when she was young. She survived on her own for years. She even took care of me for a while. So maybe you were a loner, too."

Jason held out his arm with the tattoos to me. I could tell he was hoping I would have an answer for those as well. But if I was being honest, the tattoo unsettled me.

"And these marks?" His face was like a puppy begging for food. I couldn't say nothing to that face.

"Well, the eagle is the symbol of Zeus, so that makes sense." I told him. I decided to break down each piece of the tattoo and maybe I could use wisdom to make sense of it. "The twelve lines…. Maybe they stand for years, if you'd been making the markings since you were three years old." I hoped that he hadn't been on his own for that long. Imagining a three year old trying to fight off monsters was a terrifying thought.

"S.P.Q.R. That's the motto for the old Roman Empire. Senatus Populusque Romanus. The Senate and the People of Rome. Though why you would burn them on your own arm, I don't know -" and I was a little frightened to find out "- unless you had a really harsh Latin teacher."

Jason's frown deepened. I could tell I hadn't cleared things up for him.

"I, um, I had a weird dream last night." Jason admitted to me.

"Happens all the time with demigods." I assured him. "What did you see?"

He told me his dream about a wolf pack, a giant house in a redwood forest, two spires coming up from the ground. I started pacing the room. It always helps me think if I can move.

"You don't remember where this house is?" I asked, but I could almost guarantee the answer. If Jason didn't remember his own name I didn't think I could very well ask him to remember a house.

He shook his head. "But I'm sure I've been there before."

"Redwoods." I thought aloud. "Could be in northern California. I've studied the gods and goddesses, spirits and monsters my whole life. I've never heard of a Lupa."

"She said her enemy was a 'her'." Jason stated. "I thought maybe it was Hera, but…."

"I wouldn't trust Hera." I told him. "But I don't think she's the enemy. And that thing rising out of the earth…."

"You gotta stop it." Not a super helpful statement, Annabeth.

"You know what it is, don't you?" Jason asked. "Or at least, you've got a guess. I saw it on your face last night at the campfire. You looked at Chiron like it was suddenly dawning on you, but you didn't want to scare us."

Jason was smart, far more than I had realized. I had a lot of guesses about what they would face, none of them any good.

We talked for a while more. I did my best to reassure him that everything would be ok, even though we both knew that wasn't always the case. I at least got him started - heading for Boreas. I still didn't feel like I had really helped them. I wish I could do more, but I knew that if I got involved further with Hera… well, it just wasn't a wise choice.

"Thanks, Annabeth." Jason looked back at the photo in his hand of Thalia. "So, um, you said it was dangerous being a child of Zeus. Whatever happened to Thalia?"

At least this was one place I could be totally honest with him. "Oh, she's fine! She became a Hunter of Artemis, one of the handmaidens of the goddess. They roam around the country killing monsters. We don't see them at camp very often."

Jason looked at the photo and then to the giant Zeus statue in the room. I could tell he was deep in thought.

"Whose the other kid in the photo? The sandy-haired guy." Jason asked.

"That's Luke. He's dead now." I didn't like to talk about Luke. Even months later, his betrayal, and then his death, still hurt me deeply. I really didn't want to get into the whole story with Jason, but I would if he asked. Jason kept studying the photo, as if it held the answers to his past. I wondered how many places he would have to look for answers. I hoped his quest succeeded, that he was able to get his memories back. And find answers about Percy, a little voice added. I chose not to indulge the thought.

"How old is she now?"

"Hard to say." I explained, "She was a tree for a while, now she's immortal."

"What?" I started to laugh at Jason's face. He probably wondered if becoming a tree was a right of passage for Zeus's kids. Happy Sweet Sixteen, BOOM, now you're a tree.

"Don't worry," I assured him. "It's not something all children of Zeus go through. It's a long story, but, well, she was out of commission for a long time. If she had aged regularly, she'd be in her twenties now. But she looks the same as in the picture, like she's about, well, about your age. Fifteen or sixteen."

"What's her last name?" Jason asked.

Thalia never really liked to use her last name. I remember her getting mad at me when I was little for using it. "She didn't use a last name, really. If she had to, she used her mom's, but they didn't get along. Thalia ran away when she was pretty young." It was an understatement, but I could also understand Thalia's sentiment. I didn't really get along with my dad.

Jason was still waiting for my answer. "Grace. Thalia Grace." I told him. Jason dropped the picture. He looked like he had just seen a ghost. I wasn't sure what was happening, but I remembered Piper collapsing to the floor yesterday.

"You okay?" I asked him. Jason was silent, but his eyes were flicking around like he was thinking of a million different things. "What is it?" Was he being possessed by Hera again?

"You have to swear not to tell anyone else." Jason managed. He was clearly alarmed by something, I just couldn't figure out what.

"Jason -" I started.

"Swear it. Until I figure out what's going on, what all this means. You have to keep it a secret." He was so insistent I decided not to press him for answers. He was rubbing his tattoo nervously.

I couldn't give him his memory back. I couldn't lead his quest. But I could do this for him. At least, I hoped I could. "Alright. Until you tell me its ok, I won't share what you say with anyone else. I swear it on the River Styx."

Thunder rumbled overhead, a sign that my swear was accepted. I was grateful, though. It meant that the gods were indeed watching us. They just weren't communicating.

Jason picked up the fallen photo of Thalia. "My last name is Grace. That is my sister."

I wanted to sit down. Did she know? Did Thalia know? If she did, she had never mentioned Jason, which meant it hurt more than most of her past. If she didn't… oh gods. Would she give up immortality and the Hunt to come join her brother? The first Great Prophecy was over, she would technically be safe to do so. Did Luke know? Were they keeping Jason from me? Did she take me in because I reminded her of her brother? What did this mean, that Zeus had two kids with the same woman. Hades had also had two kids with the same woman - Bianca and Nico were full siblings. If Zeus did too, did that mean Percy….. No. Sally Jackson would have said something. But there could still be a sibling of Percy's out there. Somewhere. Before my thoughts could continue to spiral, Butch and several others burst in.

"Hurry!" Butch urged. "The dragon's back!"