There was a flash of light. I couldn't look up. I didn't know what to say, or what to do. I didn't have the answers she wanted. I don't know if I ever could.

We just...couldn't...

"You promised."

I did. And I hadn't broken a promise yet, had I? Maybe that's why this felt so difficult. Because doing this meant going against everything I thought I stood for.

"YOU PROMISED ME!"


I jolted awake, blinking rapidly as my eyes adjusted to the low light of the morning. I felt like I'd just had the weirdest dream, for some reason. Trying to shake the sleepiness out of my system, I sat up a bit on my bed.

The covers fell.

MJ was soundly asleep on my chest, holding me in a vice grip, all while still being wrapped in a crewneck that was way too big for her. A puddle of drool was growing under her face. For a moment, her soft snores were the only noise in the room, and I was left wondering what exactly it was that woke me up.

And then- RAP! RAP! RAP!

"Percy!" I heard Grover bleat from outside the cabin. "Percy! Please!"

I gently disentangled myself from MJ, who muttered something in her sleep and swung the door open.

It was pouring outside- which surprised me. I could vaguely remember a storm raging last night, but I was under the impression that it was going to part around Camp Half-Blood as storms usually did- especially with the new wards supercharging all of the things the old ones did.

"G-Man?" I said incredulously. Said satyr looked beside himself- he was nervously chewing on a can of soda, pacing the porch. If I gave him a few more minutes, he probably would've worn down the wood and ended up hind-first on the sand. "It's, like, five in the morning!"

Lightning flashed against the horizon, and waves pounded the shore. Bits of salty ocean sprayed against my face. The wind howled against us. There was this low rumble, somewhere off into the distance.

Worse, even, I could feel that this wasn't any normal storm. I could feel echoes of my dad in the air- this was his doing. Some of it, anyway.

Just what in the world was actually going on?

Grover continued pacing on the porch, his hands in his hair. I hadn't seen him this nervous since that one time Mrs. Dodds- Alecto, if you prefer- had given us a pop quiz worth half our grade. He was so inconsolable he'd actually given me his breakfast burrito that day- and Grover loved his breakfast burritos.

Man, did that woman love torture. And now, of course, it made even more sense why she was so, well, evil that whole time.

"Percy!" He stammered. He calmed down a bit in my presence, "Annabeth…on the hill…she…"

The look in his eyes told me something was terribly wrong. Annabeth had been on guard duty that night, protecting the Fleece. If something had happened to her…

I didn't bother putting on a shirt, or pants over my boxers. The rain wouldn't bother me anyway.

Grover tried to make a complete sentence, but he was too stunned, too out of breath. "She's lying there…just lying there…"

The water puddles pooled around my feet. I grunted, and they exploded outwards, propelling me across the camp.

I had a running theory that artifacts like the Fleece had this immense magical presence, and that's why someone as high up on the food chain as Polyphemus was attracted to it in the first place. If that theory rang true, there was a fifty-fifty chance I'd be walking into the fight of my life. For all I know, there's about to be a Hydra coiled around the tree, spewing fire.

Maybe I should've put on pants. Just maybe.

SCHWING!

Riptide sprang to life my hand, and I flipped it into a reverse-grip. Even then, I wasn't too worried. With the storm brewing overhead and the massive amounts of water around the camp, I'd be in even better shape than when I fought the Titan Trio a while back.

Dawn was just breaking, but the whole camp seemed to be stirring. Word was spreading. Something huge had happened.

A few campers were already making their way toward the hill, satyrs and nymphs and heroes in a weird mix of armor and pajamas.

I dashed away from my theory from earlier. If there was some big threat attacking the camp, people wouldn't be walking up like this. There would be pandemonium! Picnic tables would be flipped over, the volleyball courts would be home to spare pieces of armor. No one would be this relaxed.

It would be more like when I first got to camp this summer. Not like…whatever it was now.

Hopping from puddle to puddle, I thundered up Half-Blood Hill, where a small crowd had started to gather. I expected to see the Fleece missing from the pine tree, but it was still there, glittering in the first light of dawn.

The storm had broken, and the sky was bloodred. A bad omen, no doubt.

"Curse the Titan Lord," Chiron said, walking up behind us. How did he get up here so discreetly? The man had to have all but mastered stealth, especially for a half-horse being. "He's tricked us again, given himself another chance to control the prophecy."

"What do you mean?" One of the gathered campers asked, but I already knew.

There wasn't just one person ahead of us- there were two. I slowly put away my sword.

"The Fleece," he said. "The Fleece did its work too well."

At the base of the tree, a girl was lying unconscious. Annabeth was kneeling next to her.

I flipped off the final puddle, skidding to a halt near her, and ignoring the outcry from everyone.

I knelt by her side. Confirming the theory I had in my head, I pointed my hand up to the sky.

There was a buzzing noise. Little arcs of electricity jumped back and forth on my fingertips, inching higher and higher. A moment later, a wide lightning bolt shot into the sky. It dissipated into millions of fizzles as it slammed into the camp's wards, and I felt a shift in the winds.

That was the signal Jason and I had agreed upon- after all, to the extent of our knowledge, we were the only two people capable of bolts that large. He'd be here soon. After all…he'd need to see this.

Well, looking down at the girl, I figured there would be another person joining that list soon. If this really was somehow Thalia Grace, my cousin and the daughter of Zeus, the camp had suddenly just gotten a whole lot weirder.

I examined her closely.

She had short black hair and freckles across her nose. She was built like a long-distance runner, lithe and strong, and she wore clothes that were somewhere between punk and Goth—a black T-shirt, black tattered jeans, and a leather jacket with buttons from a bunch of bands I'd never heard of.


[THALIA GRACE]

[DAUGHTER OF ZEUS]

[TRANSCEDENTAL TREE]

[SPARK PLUG]

[LVL]: 48 (19,500/34,400)

[HP]: 38,000/38,000

[SP]: 50,000/50,000

[MP]: 10,000/10,000

[FEALTY]: N/A

[STR]: 38 (+5)

[VIT]: 35

[DEX]: 55

[INT]: 33

[CHA]: 40

[WIS]: 45

[LUC]: N/A


"It's true," Grover said, panting from his run up the hill. His eyes were wide and shaky- almost like they'd been in the cave of Polyphemus. "I can't believe…"

Nobody else came close to Thalia. I put my hand on her forehead. Her skin was cold, but my fingertips tingled as if they were burning.

I ran my thumb across her cheek, summoning all the water droplets off her. I moved her over to my knee and pressed down on her chest, summoning all the water out from there, too. I didn't want her to get hypothermia on her first day back from, well, being dead.

Almost as if on cue, Thalia took a shaky breath. She coughed and opened her eyes. Her irises were startlingly blue—electric blue.

I didn't know what else to say, "Hi."

"Hi?" Thalia stared at me in bewilderment, shivering and wild-eyed, "Um, why are you wearing SpongeBob boxers?"

"Oh," I looked down. "That, uh, that's a good question. One I don't really have an answer to."

"You're Percy," she said plainly, scrunching her eyes up at me. "That's weird. I thought you'd be shorter."

"You know me?" I asked in a confused tone. "How?"

"I saw you in my dreams," Thalia said, looking up at me. "Speaking of dreams, I feel like I had…the strangest dream. I…was dying…"

"You're okay," I assured her. "You're fine. We should probably get you looked at anyway, just to be safe—"

WHOOSH!

Jason dropped out of the sky, running toward me. I stifled a laugh at his Power Rangers onesie, "Percy! Percy- what?"

"Jason?" Thalia stirred in my arms, trying to get up.

Jason looked at Thalia with wide eyes, and turned back to me, his expression teetering somewhere between disbelief and nervousness. This time, more unsure, he mumbled, "Percy?"

"This is Thalia," I said, gesturing to the girl on my lap. "And I think we're all overdue for a long conversation."


"Everything seems to be in working order," We heard behind the door. Someone closed a cabinet. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Ms. Grace."

After witnessing the events over by Thalia's Tree, Medea had called for one of her colleagues, the head of EDEN's medical division, to come in and personally take a look at Thalia. She also told me she'd gone ahead and summoned all of her colleagues, actually.

I was more surprised that all of these important people happened to be up so early, but yeah.

Medea said something about making use of a good opportunity.

As if. All I heard was meeting and I felt like groaning. Can't a guy get a day off once in a while?

After an IM or two, a portal had opened next to us, and Elena walked through. Even without observing her too closely, I could tell she was Apollo's kid- blonde hair, high cheekbones, blue eyes. She did carry herself a tad more seriously than her father, even if their bright personalities seemed to be somewhat similar.

Also, she's kind of hot. Am I still allowed to say that? Probably not.

Anyway, together, we'd walked down from the tree to the infirmary, where Elena had immediately gotten down to work. We took one of the rooms in the infirmary- the one farthest away from the entrance, actually, and she started calling the shots.

While telling us what supplies to get- things like basic cough medicine, vitamins- she'd pulled out this piece of sheet metal. Celestial bronze, probably. It couldn't have been bigger than an index card, really, but she puckered up and blew on it.

Almost as if responding to her breath, the sheet folded outward, expanding into a stretcher, with a smaller version of the machine I'd been hooked up to after my fight with Luke. With some help from Jason and me, we hefted Thalia onto the stretcher, and Elena got to work.

I'd never seen an adult daughter of Apollo before, but it was clear that she'd honed her craft.

Once Thalia was settled in, Elena began walking around her, muttering to herself as her eyes glowed a pale shade of yellow. I could only imagine what she was seeing, but based on the way she was gently touching Thalia's wrist, to her shoulders, I'd put money on the fact that it was some sort of enhanced medial vision.

Then, she booted both of us out of the room, claiming she needed to give Thalia a physical, and for that, she'd have to undress, so we'd better leave.

Heh. We'd cleared the room before she was done with the sentence.

And now, well, we were just waiting. I'd taken the time in between to go grab a shirt and pants, but I made sure to come back fast.

I wanted Thalia and Jason to have their moment- really, I did- but I got the odd sense that I needed to be around. For both of their sakes. Even if it was just for a minute.

The door creaked open. Elena poked her head out, a sunny smile on her face, "She's ready for you guys."

Jason and I nodded and started walking in. Jason went first, and before I could go in, Elena lightly grabbed my arm.

"Be gentle with her," Elena warned, the smile dropping from her face and molding into a glare. "She's been through a lot. Waking up in the future isn't a pleasant feeling."

"Yeah, of course," I said, a little taken aback at the sudden change of pace. "No problem."

"I need to run the specifics to our record-keeping department. Do you have any particular plans for this hospital?" Elena continued, dropping her voice to a whisper.

"Um…no?" I said eloquently. "I'm a little swamped at the moment, clearly, but if you don't mind waiting a little while, I was thinking about bringing everyone in with Medea and kind of banging out all the logistical things in fifteen minutes. I'll meet with your government, and just lay down the groundwork for what this is going to look like. The sooner the better, so we can get your citizens here."

"Right. Okay. That works," Elena said slowly, handing me the file. "Hold onto it, then. I don't want it getting lost in the merger."

"Sure."

With that, Elena returned to her normal, bright, self, and waved goodbye before walking out of the infirmary.

Inside the room, things were charged- not literally, mind you, but I almost would've preferred that.

Jason had taken the seat closest to Thalia, but he was looking everywhere but at his sister, who was tearing up at the very sight of him.

"So," I said awkwardly. Thalia turned to look at me, and I felt a weird tingle. "How, uh, are you?"

Thalia blew a raspberry, "I'm…honestly, Percy? I'm kind of fucking weirded out. The last thing I remember…well…I don't know. It's just weird. Time's wonky. For me, it was yesterday that Annabeth, Luke, and I made it to camp. It was just yesterday I thought I lost Jason, Zeus, and now look at you!"

She let out a long exhale.

"I'm a mess! I keep telling myself that there's no way that I'm here, that Jason's there. That I must've died and I'm hanging around in some purgatory, but no, it's real," She made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and turned to Jason, "I know it's you. It has to be. You're still my Jason, with all the right features- everything from that little blemish on your right cheek from that time you had chickenpox as a baby, to that little scar on your lip from when you tried to eat a stapler when you were two!"

"I did?" Jason spoke for the first time. He was still studying his sister like she was a scary device—one that might explode if handled incorrectly. "Why?"

"I told you there were jellybeans inside."

"So, you've just got a penchant for food-related distractions, eh, Jace?" I snorted, looking at Thalia. "One time, my mom accidentally gave him whole milk brownies before we practiced. You should've seen his face- Auntie Sally, oh, I don't feel so good."

Thalia chuckled, hiding her smile behind her hand. Jason glared at me, but I could see some relief in his eyes- the ice was broken.

I leaned against the wall, "Now, I'm probably going to duck out and let you guys catch up, but before I do, I need to know- how do you know me, Thalia?"

"I…I'm getting really sick of saying this, but I don't really know. I remember dying…painfully, trying to get everyone into camp, and then I was kind of just existing. In a void. I couldn't feel or hear anything, or say anything," She trailed off, and I nodded comfortingly. "And then, all of a sudden, everything hurt. At the moment, I couldn't place the feeling, but my whole world became tinged green, and I felt like I was burning from the inside out."

One look at Jason's face told me that the next time he saw Luke, the ass-kicking of the year was about to take place. I'd have to remember to bring the popcorn.

"And then…it stopped. I heard two people talking for a while. Then, clear as day, I heard your voice: Don't you worry, Thals. I'm going to beat the hell out of that dragon and get that apple. The camp will be just fine," Thalia quoted. "And I was back to feeling nothing, but then, every time you fought or used your powers, I could get glimpses of what you were doing. Your fight with the mummies, the weird magician guy. Luke. I could feel it and see you. Almost like a part of you was inside of me. Then, things got quiet for a little bit, and I heard Jason talk to that voice from before, and boom. I felt myself waking up."

"The Fleece," I commented, still unsure on how to proceed with what she'd said.

There were a few theories running through my head, of course. I didn't want to go too in-depth before I had the chance to speak to Aphrodite about it, though….

"Well, I guess it comes down to logistics," I said a moment later. "When you were a tree, even though you vaguely had the sentience of a human, you were still, well, physically a tree. So, I'm guessing that when I healed you, some of my, well, power might've seeped into you."

"God, that sounds so wrong," Thalia commented, shuddering. "You seeped into me. Ew. What does that even mean for us now?"

"No clue. We can talk about it later, though. You just got back," I smiled, though my brain was reeling. "I'll excuse myself."

I found Medea waiting for me outside the infirmary.

"You done reuniting Jack and Jill, over there?"

"Ha, ha," I rolled my eyes. Medea had my penchant for lame joke-telling, with none of the situational awareness. "Anyway, yeah. I'm done. How are we doing this?"

"You might remember me mentioning the existence of strategoi. The board of ten elected officials?"

"Kind of."

"You're honest. I like that about you," Medea remarked, gesturing for me to walk with her. "Well, basically, it works the way you'd expect. We have ten elected officials serving on the board of EDEN, and we all take votes whenever a major decision takes place. Again, if that sounds general, that's because it is. We've had meetings centering around voting for when the next Halloween party is going to take place, what we should invest in, to even bringing you on board. This point of this board is to make sure no one person hoards power."

"That makes sense," I nodded. Demigods were kind of territorial by nature. All it would take is one mistrustful official, and they'd lose all faith. If that one person was in charge of everything... "How are these people selected? Is it just based on their parent?"

"No. For one, we don't necessarily have children of every deity on hand like that. Second, it could, again, lead to power hoarding. You'd be surprised, but oftentimes, children of closely related gods tend to ally together. Apollo and Hermes, for example, in the first iteration of the board, never once voted against each other. That's why the idea was scrapped, actually."

I waved to some of the campers, who were walking over to the basketball court. Man! I want to play some basketball! But no, instead, I'm going to a meeting…"So how does it work?"

"Well, there's an election every two years, and rather than getting put on the board for your heritage, you're elected to fill a specific role- to become a representative, if you will. That could mean anything from administrative staff, to hospitals—"

"—like Elena."

"Like Elena, yeah. I've overseen the military stuff for a while now. Cleo, a child of Hermes, handles trades and exports. That kind of thing."

"And I'm going to be meeting these people for…"

"You own camp, dunderhead. In this meeting, we're going to decide how to structure and partition all the available space in a way that is accepted by everyone there. Including you."

"So, I'm kind of representing camp in this government," I asked to which Medea nodded. "Ah. Does that mean you want me to be the strategoi for camp?"

"Well, ideally," Medea admitted, kicking a pebble out of our way. It went searing through the sky. "You seem to have the best interests of everyone involved in mind."

"I mean, I'd be down, don't get me wrong," I said hastily. "But I'm off-site a lot. Like, literally last night, my dad told me I'm being summoned down to Atlantis again. And, during the school year, I usually head back to Queens to go to school."

"Appoint a liaison, then," Medea suggested. We'd walked out of the lower half of camp, and the Big House was swimming into view. "That way, when you're here, you can make the calls, and when you're not, someone you trust will."

"I'll think about it."

The door creaked open. The few voices I'd heard when we stepped onto the porch abruptly stopped talking.

We stepped into the rec room, where ten people were posted up around the ping pong table.

It was a funny sight, really, a group of adult men and women wearing suits and dresses all crowded around a half-broken ping pong table while the ICEE machine we'd gotten last year beeped, pouring out slush indiscriminately.

The man closest to the machine, a shorter fellow, hopped up to his feet immediately. I got a weird wave of nostalgia looking at him- he almost reminded me of Carcinus, except a little less fat and a bit more put together.

Just a bit.

He shook my hand, "My word, it's a pleasure to meet you, my boy! Apostolos Laskakos, you see, I was one of the primary advocates of reaching out to you."

"I'm very delighted to meet you as well, Mr. Laskakos," I said politely, turning on the good ol' Jackson charm. Medea poorly hid a disguised laugh behind me. "What is it you oversee?"

"I'm in charge of the localized departments, you see. Our fire department, teachers, police force- just about anything you'd expect from a local government," Apostolos said excitedly, still vigorously shaking my hand. "You see, I wanted to thank you. We were getting so unbelievably cramped! Our children were getting antsy, you see—"

"I think he sees it," Elena interrupted. Her mean face was back, "Let the boy sit down, Pasty. We'll all go around and introduce ourselves."

I nodded at Elena, giving her my best you're a lifesaver look. Her lips twitched.

Medea offered me the seat next to her, which I took soon thereafter.

The first man on my left waved his hand. He looked closer to Medea's age than Apostolos did, and he was clad in a leather jacket and a pair of faded jeans. "I'll go first. What's up, lil' cous? My name's Magnus, I'm the guy in charge of construction. My mom's Athena, so I got the know-how to make things look pretty and strong."

"You're the one behind the steampunk vibe?"

"Meh. I ripped it off a city my dungeon master described to me once, in middle school," Magnus grinned. "I figured if we were going underground, we might as well do it in style."

"You better keep that tar out of my camp," I said jokingly. "We're only au natural out here. Log cabins and beat-down houses."

Magnus chuckled, "Can do, lil' cous, can do."

Next to him was probably the palest woman I've ever seen.

Like, I want you to imagine the color of snow. Got it? Try going a shade of white above that. I found it a miracle she wasn't fully transparent at that point.

She wore a simple black dress and had this severe look on her face like she was perpetually reprimanding someone. "You may address me as Morgan. I oversee the financial department. This includes, but is not limited to, our subsidiary companies, our record holdings, and keeping a close eye on our stock. I trust that the importance of this is clear to you?"

"Crystal."

"Well, you already kind of met me," Elena said, smiling at me. "But yeah. Elena. I'm in charge of our medicinal stuff, everything from training new healers and running the hospital, to helping research new drugs and treatments."

I resisted the urge to yawn, "Very cool."

"I'm Cleo," A sandy-haired boy next to Apostolos- who they skipped, much to his ire- waved. He kind of gave me pre-crazy Luke vibes, with his hair and athletic build, but I shook those thoughts away for now.

There's already one son of Hermes hellbent on killing me, and Zeus knows I don't need another.

"I'm the guy in charge of imports and exports. So, if you go to our shop and you don't see the gummy bears you like, or something, hit my line. Also, if you want to sell some stuff, again, hit my line. I'll handle it."

The person next to him was probably the youngest member of the board I'd met yet.

Not to be racist or anything, but he kind of looked like a Latino Santa's elf if I'd ever seen one, what with his curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told me right away this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects.

His long, nimble fingers wouldn't stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. Even by demigod standards, this kid was hyper.

Besides, he couldn't have been older than twelve, thirteen. Somewhere in that range.

"Leo Valdez, at your service!" Leo grinned, bowing his head. "I'm your guy for any machinery! Swords, shields, armor, automatons- I can do it all! I made my own Wii, once, though it did catch on fire—"

Medea coughed.

"Oh, and I'm the representative for our armory! It's pretty important, because of, like, politics and stuff, and we also make some cool things. That's why they chose me. I make the coolest things."

"Sure."

Next, a thin, short man. He was dressed kind of like a principal, "Antemion. I oversee the educational facilities."

Of course, he does.

The last two, a pair of twins, mentioned something about moving between the departments, but by this point, I had a pounding headache for some reason, so I won't pretend like I was paying attention.

They all turned to look at me expectantly.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet everyone," I said, stretching my arms despite the wooziness I felt. "Um, I'm Percy Jackson, but I'm guessing you probably know that considering, well, you voted on me. I'm the Son of Poseidon, and as of recently, I've kind of become the owner of the camp. I've been called down to Atlantis, and I'll be gone in about a week, so I think it's prudent to knock the beginning frameworks of this whole deal out of the way, so we can begin construction and get everyone safe and sound under the wards."

"You're a pragmatic dude. I like that. Well, first off, let's touch base on architecture stuff," Magnus kicked us off. "First, location. You've seen our base underground, and I think it's clear to everyone involved that we'll need to revamp everything."

He snapped his fingers, and a map appeared on the table, sprawling out. Red lines began appearing on it, "The Big House is here. The rest of the camp is here. The amplest space is this long stretch of land that goes from right next to the pavilion to, well, where we are now. The Big House."

"This is convenient, actually," I said, looking at the map. "That stretch of land has the armory and forge on one end, and the combat arena on the other. If you'd be so willing, we could knock some of your buildings off right there and merge them with our pre-existing ones."

"I thought you were thinking about keeping the bases separate?" Medea reminded.

"I thought it would make sense at first, but looking at the map, I don't know about the practicality of that," I said plainly.

And it was true. The largest open stretch of land was smack dab in the middle of the camp. Sure, some parts of EDEN were going to have to be intermixed away from base camp, but I figured it made more sense to keep important things like the armory within reach of everyone.

"That makes sense," Magnus backed me up. He looked around the table, "Any objections?"

There were none.

"Okay, onto specifics. Leo?"

Leo clapped his hands together, "Uh, well, I'd have to see what kind of toys camp has, but I don't see any problem with merging our stuff into there. It would have to be big, yeah? Are you fine with big?"

He looked at me expectantly, and I shrugged, "Uh, sure."

"Okay, coolio. Maggie, I think we could do the same setup we have at EDEN right now. First floor FAB lab, baby!"

We all kind of gave him a weird look.

"FAB lab? Fabrication and Prototyping? You know, bench spaces, light tools, 3D printing, precision equipment, electronic assembly areas. FAB lab for short?"

"You know technology won't work in these borders, right?" I reminded him. "I had a radio here for like, a summer, and it exploded."

Leo waggled his eyebrows at me, "Ah, ah, ah, dear friend. That's because you don't know how to suck up the latent élan vital in the air."

"What did you just say?"

"I said élan vital. Come on, do you guys not know about that energy inside of us? The blue kind that shoots out randomly?"

"Mana," I amended.

"Sure. Whatever floats your boat, Jackson. As long as you know what I'm talking about," Leo said, pulling out a copper wire and fiddling with it. "But yeah. We figured out a way to safely use tech."

"That's genius," I complimented genuinely. "How'd you do it?"

"In the interest of not boring everyone's pants off, I'll give you the lite version. This was before my time, anyway, but EDEN conducted an experiment where a sample size of a hundred or so adult demigods touched a latent piece of celestial bronze. Said piece of metal was being constantly monitored by a juiced-up ammeter modified to detect élan vital, or mana, like you weirdoes call it. It wasn't a perfect experiment, but it led to us realizing how much latent power your average demigod was tossing around, and it helped us in creating bracer claws, which are what we use to negate said power today."

"That's actually pretty interesting. So, how does that help with the tech?"

"We just make the tech- or augment it- with that certain threshold in mind," Leo replied, a grin on his face. "The average demigod, whether they know it or not, unconsciously lets out the equivalent of around 2 microwatts of energy. It may not seem like a lot, but having all demigods put out somewhere around that, in a tight space- well, you don't need me to keep going. We just buff up our machines to help. You wanna see how strong you are?"

"Uh, sure."

Leo pulled out a small circular dial. He clicked it. A bright 1.5690 appeared on the end facing me. "See! I'm a little under average. You try."

I caught the dial out of the air and clicked it. There was a loud hiss and the dial sparked, "I think I broke it."

Leo's jaw dropped. "But…"

"Can we please get back to the meeting?" Medea interrupted, her eye twitching. "You can run your lab experiments on Jackson later. Finish with the plans."

"Right. Plans. Sorry!" Leo ducked his head. "But anyway, we move the existing armory to the second floor, make a bridge to the forge with the proper ventilation. Problem solved. On the right side, we hook up all our indoor forges, outside forges, and the third floor becomes the supply room. That's all we really need from you, we can handle the rest."

Magnus, who was diligently taking notes, nodded. "Done. Next?"

"Closer to the cabins would be a good place for the schools," Antemion spoke up. "That way, a lot of the kids who are currently a part of camp can also get the education they so richly deserve, along with our current classes."

"That's fine," I agreed. Malcolm would love it! "What about the university?"

"That'll be in the city. As for schematics, we can port our current school over and build around it," Antemion said. "It was already a Greek-style building. I'm sure it falls in line with the vision you have."

"Alright."

And just like that, the meeting continued. Magnus would jot down the notes, open the conversation back up, the person in question would speak, and I'd give my two cents before we moved on. Halfway through, Chiron walked in, and he kind of took on the same kind of advisor role I was, too.

By the end of the second hour, our blueprint for the new camp looked something like this:

The forge and armory we currently had would be combined and then built upon, with all of the EDEN tech being used to improve on the initial design.

Next door, the combat arena would be expanded to about five times its original size to account for the EDEN military, police, and everything in between. This colossal structure would feature a barracks, multiple training grounds, classes, internships, and by popular demand, a cafeteria with a waffle bar.

In Medea's words, the good kind, that has over twenty toppings.

Zooming downward a bit, the Big House, per Chiron's request, would remain untouched. To the right, of it, a somewhat monumental structure would be created to house EDEN's government. Apostolos only had a few requests, and they were all doable: air-conditioning, heating, and a separate floor for each department.

To the left of the Big House, in the middle of the strawberry fields, would be my office.

I won't lie, I kind of went crazy. Medea gave me free rein, within reason, and I abused the hell out of it.

I originally wanted a three-floor building, which was eventually negotiated down to a two-floor building with a basement. The first floor would be your average office type, with formal décor and plants and a desk for me to work at.

Computer not provided, but I decided to just ask Triton for his, so problem solved.

The second floor would be more of a relaxation spot, where I could have a flatscreen, some gaming consoles, a slush machine, candy bar, pizza oven- you know, business stuff. Really important.

And the basement would have a futuristic gym with machines that could scale to my growing strength. I was a happy boy at the end of that conversation.

The main idea, though, was that I'd serve as the middleman. If a demigod in training had issues or questions about the adult side of things or wanted to graduate, so to speak, they needed their head counselor's permission, along with a note from Chiron, and I'd set up a meeting between them and the government to get the ball rolling.

We also decided that head counselors would get paid a salary. It only felt right.

The infirmary would be replaced by a state-of-the-art hospital, and that was the only building I was okay with being not entirely with the theme of the camp. I mean, when you're saving lives, does appearance even matter? Even then, I was assured it wouldn't be too much of an eyesore.

Across the camp, in a grove near the forest, we'd put down shrines for all of the gods. Even the minor ones. That way, anyone could go and pray, if they so desired. We debated making cabins for them, but that seemed like a bit more work than we were comfortable doing as a part of the initial plan. I was told it would be kept in consideration for the future, though.

The hardest part was deliberating on where the actual citizens would live, and the second part of that, which was where all their quality-of-life buildings like nightclubs and gyms and whatnot would go.

Originally, Magnus proposed building a replica Greek city somewhere over near the Council of Cloven Elders' meeting grove, but that idea was voted against pretty fast- even by me.

While the setting would definitely be the nicest one around here, there would be the issues of a) monster attacks and b) Capture the Flag.

We kept the woods stocked with monsters for the sole intent of being able to have competitive games like that, so sticking a bunch of people in the middle of that would kind of defeat the purpose, and deforesting some of it would completely remove the mystery and intrigue from Capture the Flag. Just a bad situation all around.

Imagine trying to emulate a war-like setting or even a slightly competitive one for that matter, but the second you step into the forest, you can peek into someone's house.

Then, on the flip side, imagine needing to grab a dagger just to walk out to your porch and get the newspaper, or something, in case a lower-level monster comes to chomp your head off.

Yeah. Exactly.

I headed the second proposal, pointing out the speck of land on the other side of the canoe lake- a strip of unused camp property that curved around the climbing wall. It would be the perfect spot for a city. That way, some people could live on the beach if they so desired, and that whole part of camp would be equidistant from things like the dining pavilion the amphitheater, the courts- you get my point.

That proposal went through, and we decided there would be a whole city dotting that shore and a bit more inland, as well.

As for more general things, we agreed that there should be dirt paths to and from everything, magically powered lanterns that would turn on at night, and updating the size of things like the dining pavilion, amphitheater- all boilerplate stuff, really. I won't ramble on about every last detail.

Campers could move back and forth as they pleased, and there would be job postings available for some of the older ones if they chose to move into the city. The money would be accepted in the form of dollars or drachma, and there would be banks all over the city.

Of course, police would be patrolling, just to make sure no funny business was going on. I'm not anticipating any kind of stuff going down, but it doesn't hurt to be safe, right?

As a thank-you for letting them move in with us, EDEN was footing the bill for all this, but all future additions would require compensation, which I figured was fair. We'd cross that bridge in the future.

I also appointed Chiron as my liaison. My other choices were Jason and/or Annabeth, but I realized Jason would still be coming back and forth with me, and that Annabeth was a bit too young to deal with this many adults.

Even though we're the same age. Huh. It hasn't felt like that in a while.

Meeting adjourned, I left the Big House in high spirits, ready to get back in bed with MJ, only to run into Thalia on my way there.

"Oh hey!" I said pleasantly, waving. "How's it going?"

"It's going," Thalia said tightly. "Can we talk? About Jason?"

My smile died down a little, "Sure. I know a great place to talk."


"A pile of deer poop," Thalia remarked. Her hands were in her back pockets, and despite her sarcasm, her eyes were shining with happiness. "Your idea of a good spot is a pile of deer droppings."

"Nah, Thalia," I grinned, lightly grabbing her shoulders and making her shuffle to the right. "Ta-da!"

"Still looks like a pile of deer poop."

"Okay, fine, move the other way."

She shuffled to the left. "Oh! It kind of looks like a fist!"

"Yeah! Zeus' fist!" I said, walking past the rock formation and toward the edge of the cliff. "As for your previous observation, I will not comment. He gets mad."

"Yeah. No surprise there."

The cliff curved downward, plunging deep into the northern part of the forest. Even though it was still relatively early in the morning, the Sun cast a low, pink light. A gaggle of birds erupted from somewhere in the middle, chirping and battling over something.

Past the forest, the ocean was still choppy and gray. Huh. My dad must still be mad about something.

"It's pretty," Thalia said, walking up beside me. "You know, I never really cared about stuff like this. Before, I mean."

"Before you became a tree."

"Exactly," Thalia smirked. I examined her face closely- how did she still have eyeliner on? Didn't she die and come back to life? Whoever manufactured that product line deserves the raise of a lifetime. "I wanted to talk to you about Jason."

"Yeah?"

"Is he…okay?" Thalia asked quietly. "We talked for a while, and he didn't go into detail about his childhood, but…"

"I've never really asked, either," I replied honestly. "Because if I'm being honest, it doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter?" Thalia repeated dangerously, turning to me. I got the sense that Thalia was great at giving evil looks, what with the punk clothes and those intense blue eyes, and the look she gave me now was a perfect evil ten. "Are you kidding me? Who knows what could've happened to him? What Prometheus did to him as revenge against my father who abandoned him."

"And that's just the thing!" I replied, raising my voice a bit, too. "It sucks! I know he's probably been through hell and back, but I realized pretty early on that prying wasn't going to work, or even help!"

"So, what, we just forget it happened?" Thalia's eyes pooled with tears. "He couldn't have been older than five!"

"I know," Just the thought of it made my skin crawl. "Trust me, Thalia, I know. What I do know is that we can help him now. I've been trying to help him develop healthy habits and deal with emotions, all that stuff. He's also really opened up to my mom."

"He talked about her a lot," Thalia said with a faint smile. There was still pain swimming somewhere behind her eyes. "I…I'm really glad. I doubt he remembers a lot, but, uh, our mom wasn't exactly stable. She caught Zeus's eye because she was a television actress, and she was beautiful, but she didn't handle the fame well. She drank, pulled stupid stunts. She was always in the tabloids. She could never get enough attention. Even before he was born, she and I argued all the time. She … she knew Dad was Zeus, and I think that was too much for her to take. It was like the ultimate achievement for her to attract the lord of the sky, and she couldn't accept it when he left. The thing about the gods…well, they don't hang around."

There was a soft summer breeze. The trees around us fluttered, and bits of polled drifted downward. I thought back to my relationship with Poseidon. Even before I'd known about any of this, he'd still visited me. Maybe I'd been too harsh on him, even when I was a kid. Hearing stories like Thalia's definitely made me take a step back.

"When I was about seven," Thalia continued, "Zeus started visiting Mom again. I think he felt bad about wrecking her life, and he seemed—different somehow. A little older and sterner, more fatherly toward me. For a while, Mom improved. She loved having Zeus around, bringing her presents, causing the sky to rumble. She always wanted more attention. That's the year Jason was born. Mom…well, I never got along with her, but Jason gave me a reason to hang around. He was so cute. And I didn't trust Mom to look after him. Of course, Zeus eventually stopped coming by again. He probably couldn't stand Mom's demands anymore, always pestering him to let her visit Olympus, or to make her immortal or eternally beautiful. When he left for good, Mom got more and more unstable. That was about the time the monsters started attacking me. Mom blamed Hera. She claimed the goddess was coming after Jason too—that Hera had barely tolerated my birth, but two demigod children from the same family were too big an insult. Mom even said she hadn't wanted to name him Jason, but Zeus insisted, as a way to appease Hera because the goddess liked that name. I didn't know what to believe."

"I'm sorry, Thalia," I said quietly. While I didn't think as poorly of Zeus as I used to, this story was just highlighting the things about him I didn't like in the first place. Sure, he could be a good leader, and he's definitely powerful, but, in a lot of ways, Zeus's like a celebrity that's out of control, himself. "If it helps, and I'm sure it doesn't, I want you to know that Hera doesn't have ill will toward Jason. You, I'm not sure of, but Jason is on her good side."

"I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't," Thalia's face soured. "If I'd known Jason was alive…gods, things would've been so different. But when he was two, Mom packed us in the car for a family vacation. We drove up north, toward the wine country, to this park she wanted to show us. I remember thinking it was strange because Mom never took us anywhere, and she was acting super nervous."

I rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. In a way, I also felt like I kind of failed him, too. I'd been so focused on what Prometheus could have done to him, I never wondered about his own family or the kind of situation that could've led him there in the first place.

"I was holding his hand, walking him toward this big building in the middle of the park, and…" She took a shaky breath. "Mom told me to go back to the car and get the picnic basket. I didn't want to leave Jason alone with her, but it was only for a few minutes. When I came back…Mom was kneeling on the stone steps, hugging herself and crying. She said—she said he was gone. She said Hera claimed him and he was as good as dead. I didn't know what she'd done. I was afraid she'd completely lost her mind. I ran all over the place looking, but he'd just vanished. She had to drag me away, kicking and screaming."

I didn't even know what to say. I just gave her a hug- I was fifty percent sure she was going to toast me, but it must've been my lucky day, because she let it slide. It felt like she needed one.

"For the next few days, I was hysterical. I don't remember everything, but I called the police on Mom, and they questioned her for a long time. Afterward, we fought. She told me I'd betrayed her, that I should support her, like she was the only one who mattered," Thalia whispered. "Finally, I couldn't stand it. Jason's disappearance was the last straw. I ran away from home, and I never went back. I don't even know if she's still alive, but it doesn't matter. I thought he was gone forever, and that was unforgivable to me. I never told anyone about him—not even Annabeth or Luke, my two best friends."

"I'm really sorry," I rubbed her back. "He's okay now. And now you're back, too. Just because you weren't there before doesn't mean you can't be here now."

"I'm glad he's had you," Thalia told me. "He wouldn't stop talking about you, either. How strong you were, how good at everything you are."

"Well, not at everything…"

"How you play for the basketball team, how you have so many friends," Thalia kept listing off, a smile on her face. "How you let him have your clothes, live with you…do you want me to keep going?"

"I think I get it," We both went back to looking at the view.

"Really, though. He made you seem like this larger-than-life hero. A god, almost."

"Trust me, Thalia," I said, looking back at her. "I don't feel like one. I can tell you that for sure."


AN: And so we begin the second summer! Thanks, everyone, for your reviews as usual, and just one announcement.

I will be revamping some parts of the story, namely the Gamer visuals and some plot points. This is going to be an ongoing process, so if, for whatever reason, you get some notifications, please disregard those. I just think it's important to go back and tighten up some things.

That being said, it is a boring process, so I'll still be uploading new chapters in the meantime, as well.

Other than that, I'm excited to keep this story going! I noticed a huge influx of followers, so hey everyone! Keep showing the luv! This Atlantis arc will be even better than the first ;)

- Maroon