Chapter 10 ~ Night and Lightning

A very tired Percy, Bianca and Annabeth were spat out from the dark shadows of the great pine tree. The two girls shivered a little after the unpleasant feeling of traveling in the shadows, but Bianca was the first to recover. Percy almost fell asleep standing up, but grinned when he saw that they had arrived at their destination and had not dissolved into the plane of shadow on the way.

Normally such small trips in and out of Tartarus would not be a problem for Percy, but he had just fought two Titans, a small army of monsters, and had found a new use for his solidified shadows. The large tendril of shadows at his back had been extremely helpful in getting up a level in the middle of the fight and involved far less risk than shadow travel.

"I'll have to look into that," Percy thought, "Maybe I could use it not only for movement but also for combat..." a sudden wave of dizziness hit Percy and he stumbled for a moment. Bianca put her arm around his shoulder to keep him from falling over. "Woaahh, you really need some ambrosia and nectar, Percy." Bianca murmured worriedly, looking into Percy's eyes, dark brown in black and sea green.

"Don't worry about me, I'm just a little tired. We'll have that fixed in a minute." Percy said, reaching out to the shadows they had just stumbled from.

The shadows twitched briefly in his direction, but nothing else happened. Percy frowned and glared at the shadows. He stretched out his fingers and made a movement in his direction, as if he were tearing something off. This time the shadows were torn to his position as if by an invisible hand and as soon as they touched Percy's skin they were absorbed by it. Now the last of Percy's injuries healed and he felt his energy reserves replenish.

"I suppose you can't do that for us too, can you?" asked Annabeth. Percy twitched his guards and sent a few of the shadows in her direction, now touching Annabeth's skin. She jerked her arm back and said "Nope, feels like ice water. Don't do that again!"

"I'm kinda jealous of you now Percy, I would love to have cool healing powers like you... All I have are some animated clattering bones." muttered Bianca.

"Hey you have other cool powers too, like shadow traveling and shadow manipulating. I just discovered my healing powers today. I'm sure you'll expand your powers too, you'll see." Percy tried to cheer her up and laid a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

"I just wish I had something like your healing powers to help people with. I don't always want to be fighting and hurting. Well, I guess your healing powers aren't exactly useful for others but still." Bianca muttered. Annabeth looked thoughtful. Bianca's eyes wandered in her direction and then widened. "Oh Annabeth, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you with that talk about powers."

"What, no it's okay, I have my brain, that's all I need. Just thinking about something." replied Annabeth and Bianca looked a little relieved.

"The same thing as me, I suppose? Would you heal if you touched a dictionary?" asked Percy grinning, looking at Annabeth as if he were about to experiment on her. Annabeth and Bianca stared at him intently for five seconds and then facepalmed in sync. "Where do I even begin?" exclaimed Annabeth, throwing her hands in the air.

"Just asking." muttered Percy, then pulled a random book out of the shadows. It was a Greek dictionary from the library in the Mansion of the Night, a place Percy had entered only once in his life. He had taken out this book to cheat on a test his mother had him write during his, admittedly rather forced, education. Of course, Percy had forgotten to return the book and had kept it in his little pocket dimension of darkness ever since, forgetting that it was there. He just walked up to Annabeth who was looking in her bag for some ambrosia. Percy was about to touch her with it when Annabeth suddenly called out, "Wait a minute, you can store books in the shadows?"

Bianca began to grin and felt sorry for Percy, knowing what would follow. "You can carry an infinite amount of books around with you in your pocket dimension without any effort and then pull them out at any place you want?" asked Annabeth excitedly, shaking Percy's shoulders with a firm grip while her stormy gray eyes lit up.

"Um, yeah kind of?" replied Percy.

"Oh, I'm so going to take advantage of that. Ha, you're not going anywhere now!" Annabeth exclaimed with the grin of a mad scientist, something that looked very strange and inappropriate on her face. "Ahhh, dammit." Percy groaned inwardly.

Needless to say, Annabeth and Percy were true friends from that moment on.

"Okay, let's just go to Chiron and tell him we have the Phelegethon water." said Percy walking towards the Big House.

Chiron was standing on the porch with a worried look on his face. He seemed to have more wrinkles and his hair looked a little grayer and thinner. Behind him, the was open and Mr. D could be seen sprawled out on a couch, flipping through a wine magazine and completely ignoring their existence.

When the three reached him, Chirons old eyes lit up with delight and he waved them over. "Oh I'm so glad you're back, we haven't heard from you in two weeks!" he said.

"So that's how long we've been gone. Hmm in Tartarus was less than 48 hours for us." said Percy and then grinned "But it was worth it, we got what we needed." and pulled the flask they had received from Phlegethon from the shadows into his hands. Chiron breathed a sigh of relief and then said "A quest into Tartarus, how could I possibly be responsible for such a thing? I thought I had sent you to your certain death."

"It's okay, it wasn't as bad as everyone says." Bianca tried to reassure him and Annabeth put her hand on her father figure's arm.

"It would have been if you two had been down there alone, though. Akhlys alone would have either drowned you in poison or sacrificed you to my mother or something." grunted Percy.

"You've encountered the Embodiment of Misery?" Chiron asked astonished.

"She wasn't that bad…" Bianca told him.

"Not that bad?" Percy asked. "Didn't we meet the same noisy, depressed sister of mine with tears and so on all over her?"

"I think she just needs some love!" Bianca grumbled back.

"I tried that! I can be friends with anyone, heck, I am friends with several monsters, but no matter what I do, she always brings the mood down to Tartarus level. That's why we don't invite her to our Halloween parties anymore."

"We will talk about your quest later in detail. Our priority is now to heal the tree as fast as possible. Come children, we should hurry." Chiron interrupted their banter and trotted off in the direction of the camp borders.

The three questers followed him in quick steps to the trunk of the pine tree.

"Percy, the Phlegethon water please?" asked Chiron.

Percy pressed the flask of firewater into his hand and Chiron did not even question its small size. Presumably the old Centaur had also seen vessels with infinite quantities of liquids in all his years.

Chiron unscrewed the cap and turned the flask upside down while pressing it against the trunk of the tree. Quietly, Chiron murmured words that Percy did not understand. Just as the first bit of liquid fire dripped from the flask, the bark of the tree suddenly closed around the flask. It was completely enclosed by the tree and a faint fire-red glow emanated from the spot.

"Nature magic!" realized Annabeth. "I've seen satyrs and nymphs do similar things.

"Indeed, Annabeth." nodded Chiron, smiling as the tree could be seen to regain some of its color. "Come children, let's go back. It will take some time for the tree to heal completely, until then we must continue to keep the border patrols active to make sure no monsters can break through," Chiron said, leading them back and waving to Connor and Travis Stoll, who were just walking along the border in armor and armed with swords. Even these two seemed to take their duty to defend the camp quite seriously. Never mind, the two had backpacks with them whose contents rattled strangely and giggled to each other.


Two days later, Percy and Annabeth found themselves back at the border patrol. Since their return, the mood in the camp had become much better. They had all three been carried on the shoulders of the other campers and awarded laurel wreaths and several campers seemed to look up to three questers by now. There had been a very cuddly reunion with Nico, who had looked up at Bianca with shining eyes and then told her about his time in camp. Percy had watched with a smile as he excitedly told how he had made friends with some of the Apollo kids, namely Lee Fletcher, Michael Yew and Will Solace. Moreover, when the two were alone, Nico had thanked Percy for looking out for his sister and bringing her back safely. Percy had indeed tried to explain to him that Bianca had taken very good care of herself, but Nico was having none of that.

"Hey, Bat Brain?" asked Annabeth.

"Yeah, Wise Girl?"

"Did I actually thank you for letting me come on the quest?"

"Well more or less you did, so yes." replied Percy.

"Thanks anyway, I've always wanted to be on a quest."

Percy frowned. "You've already been on a quest."

"I meant a successful quest, that didn't go as planned the first time."

"Hey, Wise Girl?" asked Percy.

"Yeah, Bat Brain?"

"Did I drink too much mushroom-spiked juice from the Stolls, or does Thalia's tree glow more than usual?"

Annabeth's eyes widened and the two broke into a sprint to the tree while watching for monsters.

Meanwhile, Annabeth called out, "You drank what?"

"It looked funny, black with blue dots in it. They knew they would get me with that. Turned out that I got hallucinations from it." explained Percy.

Annabeth snorted just as they reached the tree.

"We have to go and get Chiron!" Annabeth said when she saw the now very clearly glowing bark of the tree, but Percy held her back. Maybe it was a gut feeling, but something told him it would be better to wait, even though the tree was glowing increasingly brighter where the Phlegethon water was allowing it to heal, and looked like it was about to explode.

Percy's jaw dropped as he and the blonde daughter of Athena beside him watched the bark of the magical tree split. Piece by piece, it pushed back as the glow grew more intense.

Annabeth could only gasp and pointed with a finger at the hollow space that had now appeared inside the tree, from which, to Percy's amazement, a person emerged. It was a girl, still partially covered by wood and bark, with a black leather jacket that Nico would surely like, torn black jeans and hair, only slightly less darker than Percy's, which was also cut rather short and spiky.

Without thinking any further about it, Percy and Annabeth snapped out of their confusion and rushed to her aid. They each reached under her arms and pulled her a good distance away from the tree, which, after a brief crackling of the wood and diminishing glow, closed up again, looking just as it had before.

Percy looked down at the girl, who looked about fourteen years old, just as she began to cough and catch her breath. Her eyes snapped open and Percy saw into electrifying blue, flaring like a thunderstorm.

"Thalia?" sobbed Annabeth in disbelief.

After another cough came the answer, the first words Percy was to hear from the legendary Thalia Grace: "Where the fuck am I and who are you?"

Annabeth ignored her and helped her up into a slightly more upright position on the hill. "Thalia, it's me. Don't you recognize me?"

"Annie? Is that really you? Why do you look so much older? What happened?" Thalia gripped her head with her hands and grimaced. "Aargh, my head hurts and my stomach burns like fire. I feel like I drank lava."

Annabeth smiled broadly and threw herself into the arms of the somewhat overwhelmed Thalia when she heard her name and even forgot to correct her for butchering her name like that.

"Because that's probably exactly what happened," Percy remarked softly "It seems like the Phlegethon's water not only healed the tree, but was even more potent than we thought. The tree infused the Phlegethon water into you and slowly healed you with it."

Thalia's eyes now turned to Percy "Phlegethon water? What are you talking about, man? And who the Hades are you anyway?"

"Percy Jackson." he introduced himself with a wide grin. "I've heard a lot about you, daughter of Zeus. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood!"


Percy and Annabeth supported Thalia, who was walking a bit shakily, and walked together to the Big House. When Chiron caught sight of them, his eyes widened many times and he rolled over to them in his disguise as a man in a wheelchair with a cup of tea in his hand.

"Annabeth, is that who I think it is?" asked Chiron with a gentle smile as they took Thalia to the infirmary and Annabeth just nodded, all the while looking at Thalia's face as if she was afraid she might disappear again at any moment.

"I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus, and can someone fucking explain to me what the hell is going on?" grumbled Thalia as she finally lay on one of the infirmary beds and one of the Apollo campers examined her condition.

"Well Thalia, I know you probably have a lot of questions..." began Chiron, then was interrupted by a "You bet. Who are you?" from Thalia. Chiron stroked his beard with one hand and explained "I am Chiron, Director of Activities at Camp Half-Blood, the only safe place for demigods in the entire world. We will show you how to survive here."

"So we made it!" said Thalia, breathing a sigh of relief. "I explained that earlier, didn't I?" Percy grumbled quietly, standing a bit awkwardly to the side, not quite sure if he was still needed here.

"On the other hand..." thought Percy "...dinner isn't for another half hour. Hmmm, I heard there are cookies for dessert. Well, there's nothing else I can do in that time anyway. Although, maybe Clarisse is up for a little training fight. Hehe, Clarisse's face was so funny when I took her to Tartarus and she really thought I would leave her there. Maybe I should do that again... Nah, twice in a row and it wouldn't be funny anymore. Oops, where am I with my thoughts again, stupid ADHD!"

"Where is Luke anyway?" asked Thalia just as Percy turned his attention back to the mortal plane of existence.

"Oh man, this is going to be awkward..." thought Percy as Annabeth gently tried to explain how Luke had attacked the pine tree and the camp with an army of monsters and betrayed them all for Kronos.

Thalia's expression changed from confusion to shock, betrayal, and finally to anger. Tiny flashes of lightning flashed in her eyes and a smell of ozone filled the air. Electricity was briefly visible in her palms and very light thunder sounded in the background.

"That damn rat! I'm going to shove my spear deep down his throat and shock him until he regains his senses!"

"Unfortunately, it does look like we're in for some dark times. It's a shame that such a brilliant student like him could fall like that... But it is all the more important that we stick together now. The Fates burden us with a difficult future, but I think with three children of the Big Three and a demiprimordial, we certainly have a chance." Chiron said and rolled out of the room leaving behind a very confused daughter of Zeus.

"Demiprimordial?" asked Thalia, her eyes darting over to Percy. "I knew there was something different about you right away... Who's your divine parent, then?"

Percy sighed, but then grinned and said "Another round of introductions then, I guess. I am Percy Jackson, son of Nyx, Primordial Goddess of the Night, one of the oldest children of Chaos and beings in existence, only demiprimordial that we know of."

At the mention of her name, the temperature in the room dropped, the shadows thickened, and the sunlight seemed to flicker briefly, having trouble shining through the window.

Thalia gasped and then muttered "Heard she's more powerful than Zeus and the Olympians." There was no response in the form of thunder to this statement, therefore not explicitly denying it.

"Well we'll see who the top dog is. I'm itching for a spar anyway, how about we find out who's really on top of the food chain?" asked Thalia with a grin.

"Thalia, we just got you back and you need to rest first!" interjected Annabeth.

"I've just rested for several years, don't worry Annie, I'm fine."

"Okay, you will get your spar with me. Rest and become strong. I'll be ready when you are." said Percy, turning around. To Thalia's amazement and an eye roll from Annabeth at his dramatics, Percy melted into the shadows of the room and was gone.

"Where did he go?" asked Thalia, and Annabeth just frowned. "He probably went to stuff his face with food or something," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "But I advise you not to underestimate him in battle, Thalia. He's powerful and has more fine control over his powers than any demigod I've ever seen, including you."

"Really? We'll see." scowled Thalia as her competitive side shone forth.


Thalia didn't see Percy again until lunch the next day, when she was finally released from the infirmary and declared healthy. Annabeth showed her around the camp and Thalia was somewhat surprised to see that the Zeus cabin was overshadowed by the overly intimidating Nyx cabin, which now formed the beginning of the row of cabins. She was also surprised to see two more dark-haired children sitting with Percy at the Nyx table. Before she had to part from Annabeth, she asked "Why didn't you tell me there were other children of Nyx here at camp?"

"Because they aren't. They are Nico and Bianca, children of Hades. They just sit together with Percy and sleep in the same cabin because his mother doesn't mind." replied Annabeth and then joined the other Athena campers at their table.

Thalia clenched her fists when she heard the name of the Di Angelos' father and tried to block out the horrible images of monsters, especially the Furies, that the ruler of the underworld had sent after her before she was almost killed. She settled down at the Zeus table and whispers broke out among the campers as all eyes turned to her. She ignored the stares and continued to focus on Bianca and Nico as she hacked her knife into the sausages on her plate.

It didn't take long for the three at the Nyx table, which was placed right next to Thalia's table, to notice her strange behavior. "Um, are you okay?" asked Bianca cautiously, and Thalia gritted her teeth as her gaze crossed the dark eyes of the daughter of Hades. "Everything's fine," she grumbled.

"Are you sure? Because you're kind of staring at us a little intensely," Nico remarked.

"Nothing to do with you, kid." snorted Thalia, gripping her knife even tighter.

Nico winced slightly as he looked into her eyes and Percy couldn't blame him as Thalia's eyes now glowed electrifyingly once again.

Percy put a hand on Nico's shoulder and spoke in a sharp tone to Thalia "Listen Thalia, if something bothers you, just say it, but stop staring at a nine year old boy like you're about to stab him!" While Bianca also glared at Thalia Nico shouted between them "I'm ten years old, Percy!"

"You want to know what my problem is, Jackson?" asked Thalia, who was already irritated, but this particular demigod in front of her was somehow especially getting on her nerves.

"Why do you think I just asked that? I'm sorry, I think you misunderstood me. I actually just wanted to know what the weather would be like today. I'm thinking stormy, with some murder of innocent nine year olds, from the looks of the weather forecast." replied Percy, leaning forward in his chair.

"I'm ten!"

"I'll tell you what fucking problem I have! The father of those two," Thalia exclaimed, pointing at the Di Angelos, "is the reason I spent my last five years as a tree. He's the reason my life out there was twice as dangerous, with all the monsters he sent after me. He's also probably one of the reasons Luke betrayed us!"

"Look, Thalia..." began Bianca, whose face now showed a little more sympathy, but was unexpectedly interrupted by Nico, whose face was flushed red and who shouted angrily "And do you know why Hades did all that? Because your oh so great father killed our mother with his master bolt and blew up a whole hotel full of people just to kill us. But do you see us blaming you for that? You think you lost time? We were trapped in the time stop of the Lotus Casino for over 80 years because our father had to hide us there from yours. This isn't even our century! Still, we don't hold you responsible for your father's actions, but apparently you inherited his paranoia. So don't blame random people when you don't understand anything!"

Percy's jaw dropped, then he grinned slightly. Thalia gaped and stared at the boy in front of her. Bianca looked at her brother in surprise. On the one hand, she didn't want him to treat fellow demigods like that and in a way she could understand Thalia's point of view, on the other hand, she had just massively offended Hades and Nico seemed to have finally gotten some independence and a backbone. The other campers all stared at her and started whispering among themselves. Meanwhile, Annabeth viewed the argument with calculating eyes, but did not yet decide on a side.

Thalia shook off her shock and jumped up, fists clenched and with a few slight cracks, small blue flashes appeared on her fists.

"Looks like you're ready for a fight, don't you think? Better find an opponent on a level playing field or can the great daughter of Zeus only take on a ten year old? No offense Nico." Percy interjected and also stood up to prevent Nico and his big mouth from ending up impaled on a spear.

"All right, don't think I'm scared, Jackson. Off to the arena, come on!" snarled Thalia and stormed off in that direction.

Chiron arrived at the food pavilion just a little late, only to see Percy following an angry Thalia toward the arena and all the campers running after the two with their plates in hand.

Chiron sighed and grumbled "Kids these days."

A purple flash beside him alerted him to the arrival of Dionysus, who sipped his Pepsi and said "Ten drachmas on Tanila."


Percy looked into the eyes of his opponent, Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, who was now very pissed off and holding her spear, lightly crackling with electricity every now and then, while the two of them stood in the arena. Campers filled the ranks around them, watching the drama unfold with interest.

"No armor?" asked Percy with a raised eyebrow while eyeing Thalia bracelet on her arm suspiciously. He didn't summon any weapons or armor yet.

"Don't need one for this. All out, every power allowed?" asked Thalia, already placing herself in a battle stance, her spear pointing to the front.

"As you wish," replied Percy calmly and summoned his belt with throwing knives and his katana from the surrounding shadows.

Thalia wasted no time and attacked immediately, jumping forwards while thrusting her spear at his gut. Percy however, was prepared and made use of his katana, blocking the strike. He grunted as it was harder than he expected, then sidestepped the next thrust and jumped over her following swipe, as she was trying to get his legs.

Thalia kept pressing on him rather aggressively, while Percy waited for an opportunity. Instead of directly blocking her next heavy attack, Percy used his sword to redirect the swipe in another direction, to avoid taking on the blunt force and tiring himself out. He the quickly followed his counter attack with ramming his shoulder against her, bringing Thalia out of balance for a moment. She quickly raised her guard, but could not fully avoid the next three quick strikes from Percy as he managed a cut on her lower arm. She hissed and grumbled "Not bad."

They went back and forth, managing a few hit here and there on each other, but nothing that could end the fight. "Enough with this foreplay! Let's see how you fair against lightning!" shouted Thalia and raised her spear to the sky. Lightning flashed at her spear and shot in Percy's direction as she pointed it at him.

Percy smirked as he sunk in his own shadow, not only avoiding the lightning without trouble, but also reappearing right behind her.

"You want to play with powers? Haha, your mistake!" thought Percy as he kept shadow traveling between his strikes, causing Thalia to curse at the unpredictable nature of his attacks as she was barely able to avoid his attacks at her back and side while she had to keep spinning around herself in order to be able to block his swipes, when he randomly appeared out of her own shadow or these of the arena. Percy managed a few hits, slicing her jeans and her leg open, before Thalia pulled her next trick by tapping her bracelet.

A bronze shield appeared on her wrist, decorated with the terrible face of Medusa, just as Percy jumped out of a shadow. As he looked into the gorgons depiction, he felt a strange shiver run down his spine and could not avoid flinching a little bit and having to avert his eyes, for the fraction of a second. That was a Thalia needed and her spear lit up with a lighting coming from the sky again, this time hitting Percy in his chest and sending him back a few feet against the ground of the arena.

The audience gasped, but Percy rose yet again, smoke coming of his clothes.

"Have enough yet?" asked Thalia and charged up her spear one more time.

"Yes, I have had enough of this," replied Percy, letting his blade sink to his side and to the astonishment of the audience, he let it vanish in a burst of dark smoke.

He looked her in the eyes, blue meeting green and black. Then both of his eyes turned completely black, including the normally white sclera, giving him the look of a child, born in the depths of Tartarus and he whispered "Because play time's over now," and threw one of his knives at the incoming lighting. The lighting could only hit the stygian iron blade in the air, being drawn to it and never reached Percy.

He threw several more knives at Thalia, forcing her behind the shield as the knives slammed into it's surface. Now that she was distracted for a moment, Percy summoned the metal gauntlet of Erebus onto his left hand, feeling the power behind the cold, dark stygian iron. Before Thalia could act further a cloud of pure darkness burst forward from his gauntlet, slamming into her shield with the force a small car and threw her 15 feet back into the ground of the arena. It surprised Percy to see her managing to stand up shakily and still seemed to have enough fighting spirit in her, causing him to call another cloud of pure darkness from the gauntlet, this times much more massive. He thought back to his fight in Tartarus with the Titan Epimetheus and gathered the shadows on his back in this time not one, but four tentaclelike constructs, each one with a pointy end.

He then commanded the newly formed shadow tails to raise him up, two of them keeping him about 8 feet high in the air and acting as his legs, while the other two flowed over his shoulders like two several feet long vipers, ready to attack. Thalia could only do so much as trying to dodge the unforgiving strikes of the shadow tails until one of them curled around her spear and ripped it out of her grasp. She instinctively raised her shield to block the other incoming tail strike, but could not predict it suddenly changing directions without losing any momentum, extending around the edges of her shield and hitting her wrist with enough force to bruise bones and ripping her replica of the Aegis to the ground.

The last thing she saw before a shadow tail slammed into her head with the force of a charging bull and knocked her unconscious, where the hollow black holes that had replaced the eyes of Percy, as he said while looking down on her from the air, held up by the shadow tails "You have potential Thalia. But there is a reason, why the Olympians are nothing in comparison to the Primordials. Pick your fights better next time, Pinecone Face."