"Dam. That hurts." Thalia Grace sat up from cabin three's floor. She blinked a few times to clear her vision. The first thing she saw was her cousin, curled up in fetal position, whimpering and shaking, pleaded with some unknown thing or person to let her go. Thalia scooted closer and took the trembling girl into her arms.

"Melody?" Thalia whispered, more gently than she ever had said a word in the entirety of her existence. "Mel, it's me, Thalia. You're safe. You're okay."

She knew the basics of her cousin's backstory. According to what little she'd been told, Percy and Melody's step dad smelled rancid, so it covered up the smell of demigod on the twins, but the guy was an abusive jerk. And because he was an abusive jerk, there were certain topics that triggered PTSD symptoms in the twins, so she, Nico, Jason, and Hazel had been informed of topics to avoid. The idea was that the children of the Zeus and Hades could cut people off if they started going down the rabbit hole of inappropriate topics to mention in front of the Jackson twins, and no one had know why; which saved Percy and Melody from having to do a lot of reliving and a lot of explaining difficult and personal things.

"C'mon Mel. Wake up. Wake up, Jackson."

"Mmmmm…"

The emerald eyes of the daughter of Poseidon fluttered open, locking gazes with the vibrant electric blue ones of the daughter of Zeus in whose arms she lay.

"Thanks, Thals."

"You're welcome. Now, what happened? Who was that guy? You called him, Wood, but that can't be his name, is it?"

"It is sort of. His name is Casey Wood. He's one of the Hypnos campers. He doesn't understand boundaries. Mostly because he can force people ignore their boundaries."

"I'm gonna grab him and he's gonna wish he never ever even got near you and I'll-"

"Calm down, Thalia. It's okay now."

"It's not okay! It's not okay!"

"Thalia, please… stop. Lower your voice."

"Oh. Sorry, I forgot. Noises. And yelling. Yeah, it probably wasn't a good idea to start shouting right after you've had a panic attack."

"It's okay."

"Mel, if you don't mind me asking? What was your nightmare about?"

Melody averted her eyes.

"We can talk about it later. Just not here. Somewhere more private would be better."

"Okay Jackson. For now, let's take that swim we were going to."

Melody smiled.

"Okay. Give me a second. I was looking for a towel for you when Casey barged in."

"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm fine." Thalia assured her, pulling a grey towel from a silver shoulder bag at her side that Melody hadn't even noticed the girl had. "I've got one."

"Perfect."

The girls linked arms and headed to the water. They enjoyed it for a while, but Thalia's mind was preoccupied. After about two hours, she called her cousin over.

"Mel? Would now be a good time to ask?"

Melody sighed.

"There's no way around it, I suppose. And Nico already knows."

"Of course he does," Thalia scoffed playfully, "You two are almost closer than you and Percy or him and Hazel."

"Yeah. But he found out sort of in accident. I didn't want anybody to know. Even Percy didn't know for the longest time."

"What?" Thalia was shocked. "You tell each other everything!"

"I know… but this was bad. Like way more than sibling love and cuddles can fix kind of bad."

"Woah."

"Here Thals, c'mere." Melody reached a hand towards her cousin.

Thalia took it and swam closer.

"You trust me, right?"

"Yeah, but why do I need to right now, Mel?"

"We need somewhere private. The dryads are the biggest gossips I know aside from Drew, but the nyads are closed lipped. I need you to hold your breath, okay?"

Thalia nodded and took a large gulp of air. Melody led her cousin down a few feet below the surface, then made a bubble of air around Thalia's head.

"Follow me to the bottom." Melody ordered.

They swam down, and Thalia got seated on a piece of log that had long since sunk to the bottom. Melody then expanded the bubble and sat beside her.

"So what do you want to know?"

"Everything."

Melody gulped.

"Everything it is."

And that sure as Hades meant everything. It was a long and hard process, filled to bursting with more hugs than Thalia had given in one sitting before in her life, and whispered reassurances of value and love woven alongside stories that made Thalia's stomach churn as she listened to them through Melody's body wracking sobs. It was long after sunset by the time the girls were done, and Melody lead her cousin back to the surface, oblivious to what was to come. She had no idea that Thalia had been subtly memorizing all the names her cousin was using as the daughter of Poseidon described the horrors she and her brother had faced. No idea that later that night, a Iris message would be shared between Artemis and her lieutenant; and no idea of the horrors that these childhood ruiners were about to face.

But first, Thalia thought, as she watched her cousin head into her cabin for the night, she had someone right there within the Camp boundaries she could deliver justice to.

The next day, Thalia confronted her first challenge: Casey Wood.

To be honest, taking him down didn't end up being as much of a hassle she had anticipated. Thalia had asked for permission from Artemis to have the Hunters help her track down and punish the swine that had harmed her cousin and considering that Melody was Artemis' cousin as well, the attitude of the permission granting was nothing short of wrathful encouragement. Thalia and Artemis were both daughters of Zeus, after all.

The Hunters wore earplugs to block out the the son of Hypnos, and poor Wood was weeping like an infant in minutes. Thalia picked the son of Hypnos up by the front of his shirt and growled in his ear.

"If I hear you've laid so much as a finger in my cousin, ever again; I'm going to come back here and I'm going to tie you to a target, and I'm going to shoot my arrows all around you like a chalk outline. And maybe, I might just 'accidentally' miss and land an arrow in your brain. Got it, pervert?"

Casey nodded frantically, blabbering and blubbering, and Thalia dropped him, kicking him in the ribs for good measure.

"C'mon girls." Thalia announced, a dangerous glint in her eyes, "We've got bigger fish to fry."

Screw my tablet this is a line break so yeah dam tablet can leave

AN : I hope you guys liked this chapter set, I know its different from my usual, but I've been having trouble with inspiration. If you guys have some situations you'd like to see, let me know in the reviews! I may just end up using them.