Hello guys! And so the new story beings, I hope you all enjoy this one-it's gonna have some significant changes-though a lot of the main basic things sort of need to stay the same. In any case I hope you all enjoy this as much as you enjoyed the first fic.
I thoroughly enjoy writing it all and I look forward to your reactions.

Tyson had arrived a week after Nico-and he quickly became a member of their little family, just as Nico did.

Admittedly it complicated the plans to visit Camps on weekends having a Cyclops around, but Luke countered that by visiting them instead.

Within a month both Tyson and Nico were Percy's baby brothers, she'd gotten rather excited over Iris message with Luke over it, screaming that she wasn't the baby of the family anymore-at which point Nico had burst into her room and started quizzing Luke about Camp.

They'd agreed, after some family discussion that it probably wasn't a good idea to tell anyone at Camp who Nico's father was-Hades had a bad reputation and since Percy had already declared very loudly that she'd maim anyone who dared say boo to her baby brother it was considered the safer plan.

She also kept in contact with Grover and Annabeth, they'd have three way Iris calls every few weeks, and over Christmas Annabeth had convinced her dad to let her visit Percy for the week in New York.

There had been some trouble with that.

Annabeth knew about Nico and Tyson, but she was very obviously weary of Tyson, and it hadn't been until Percy had pulled her aside to demand to know why she wouldn't talk to Percy's baby brother that she'd learned about her friends past experience with a Cyclops.

After that Percy had been more understanding, and gradually over the week Annabeth became less scared-if only because Tyson was quite literally the biggest softy in the history of Cyclopses-she'd even given him a hug when she'd had to go home after Christmas, and Nico had developed a hero worship of Luke when the older boy had managed to get his hands on a Hades Mythomagic figurine and had given it to him.

And then summer was approaching and the days seemed to race by, Tyson was a bit sad-he'd likely have to stay behind, but she'd pointed out that he could protect her mom while she was gone and he'd cheered up at that, and Nico was excited too-he was looking forward to the chance to see Camp for himself after hearing stories from Percy, Annabeth and Luke.

And Annabeth-who from what Percy could tell over the Iris messages wasn't doing so well at home, had declared that she'd come and stay with the Jacksons for a week before they'd head to camp together.

It was the day before Annabeth was due to arrive that things went wrong.

Percy had woken up early after a strange dream about Grover, which she'd planned to speak to her mom about, but when she got downstairs she could hear voices, so she padded to the kitchen and peered through the slightly open door to see that her mom was in the middle of an Iris Message with Luke and Chiron, who both looked incredibly stressed.

"We've convinced Lord Zeus that it has to be Alabaster's doing, but he's angry, it was luck alone that stopped him from ordering me to leave Camp, but I'm worried."

"There's been two attacks already and the sickness only started a couple of days ago." that was Luke, "It's bad enough with all the Campers here, we don't have anywhere safe to send them. Bringing Percy, Annabeth and Nico here will just put them in danger too-Tyson's been scaring off most monsters but-"

"What do you want me to tell them Luke? Especially Annabeth, we know Camp's more of a home to her than her own home-she didn't even want to spend Christmas there." Sally's voice was tight with worry. "What's going to happen when the borders fail?"

"I fear that Camp will be overrun." Chiron admitted, "I don't know what to do. We know that it must be some kind of poison effecting the tree but-"

"What about sending the younger Campers here." Sally suggested suddenly, "The ones who aren't able to really defend themselves-"

"Mom it's dangerous monster-"

"We have Tyson here. He's been scaring off monsters all year and maybe if one or two older Campers who can fight come too..."

"It's not a bad idea." Chiron said after a moment, "Not ideal but it may be the best way to protect the children. How many can you fit?"

"Well the house has five bedrooms, I'm sure none of the kids will mind having to share, and there's a fairly big living room we could set up sleeping bags in-it'll be a tight squeeze but we should fit most of the younger year rounders if the Summer campers stay home."

"We'll call all of the Summer Campers." Chiron sounded incredibly sad, "And we'll select a few of the older campers who can fight to come and guard the younger children, leaving a few to help defend camp."

"What's wrong?" Percy spoke up suddenly, slipping into the room, "What's going on-"

"Percy! Honey I thought you were in bed."

"No, I had a weird dream about Grover and I was coming down to talk to you about it. Mom what's going on? Luke, Chiron is something wrong at Camp?"

Chiron glanced at Luke, who grimaced and nodded. "Yes." he admitted reluctantly, "Someone's poisoned Thalia's tree and the magical border's fading."

"You mean Alabaster." Percy's voice was flat and Luke winced as Chiron let out a heavy sigh.

"He is the most likely suspect yes. He still hasn't been caught after his escape from Camp."

Percy's eyes flicked to Luke, to the scar on his right cheek. Alabaster had given him that when they'd fought, when Luke had stepped in to defend her after she'd been too weak to continue fighting.

She bit her lip hard as her mom stood and wrapped her arms around her protectively-the thought of Alabaster being anywhere near camp was a troubling one-it almost made Percy glad that she hadn't been there because he would have probably showed up to talk to her, to try and convince her to join him again, and she wasn't sure how that would have gone down-there would have been a fight she knew that much, it would have probably ended badly-she hadn't come out victorious either of the last times she'd seen him-in the Underworld or at Camp.

"Is there anything we can do?" she asked after a long moment, "To save Thalia's tree?" and Gods she'd have to tell Annabeth-her best friend would lose it when she found out. Thalia had been her best friend before she'd been turned into a tree-and Percy wasn't actually sure her mom or Luke knew the story of that, no one at Camp really liked talking about the tragic death of the daughter of Zeus.

"The poison that was used is extremely powerful." Chiron's voice was strained, "There's very little that I know of that could cure it.. and nothing at all that I'd know where to go to get it."

"So.." Percy swallowed hard, "Thalia's tree is going to die?"

"I'm afraid so. We'll find something else to protect the borders in time but.. the tree is going to die."

Percy pulled away from her mom at that, blinking back tears as she thought of the cousin she'd never meet, "Annabeth will be here tomorrow. I'll tell her." she saw Chiron flinch and she ignored the confused looks her mom and Luke exchanged.

"That... that would be for the best. If she wishes to come and say goodbye then I'm sure we can arrange for transport here before we get the younger Campers out safely."

"Goodbye?" Luke frowned, "Why would she need to say goodbye to a tree?"

"Because." Percy looked away, "That tree used to be Thalia Grace."

"The tree was a person?" Sally's brows furrowed, "What happened?"

"She was turned into a tree to save her." she looked at Luke, "We met her once-" that earned a startled look from Chiron-she and Annabeth never had gotten around to telling everyone how they'd first met when they were kids. "Mom called the Camp to tell you about her."

Chiron's eyes widened and Sally and Luke both paled in surprise.

"Wait-the girl from that day in the park?" Luke paused, "Oh Gods the little girl you played with-"

"Annabeth. She called herself Bethany because she didn't trust anyone but it was Annabeth."

"Oh that poor child." Sally's voice was thick with sadness as she shook her head, "And poor Annabeth."

"This is gonna devastate her." Percy shook her head, "It isn't fair."

"Honey-"

"I'm gonna go to my room. I'm not gonna get much sleep before school now so I might as well get ready. Annabeth should be here around the time school finishes from what she said yesterday"

"Of course." Sally nodded, watching as Percy turned away and headed to her room-wincing at the sound of the door slamming shut behind her.

And Percy threw herself onto her bed, grabbing her pillow and pressing her face into it, letting out a furious scream.

She would maim Alabaster if she ever saw him again, violently and brutally.

And to think she'd thought that it wasn't possible to hate him more than she already did.

She shook her head, dropping the pillow and rolling so that she was on her back, glaring up at the ceiling.

She hated this.

Last time there had been a huge problem she'd been able to handle it-there had been an obvious answer as to what she needed to do to fix things.

Sure it had turned out to be more complicated than she'd expected and there had been a fair few near death moments but still, she'd known roughly what needed to be done and she'd done it.

The Master Bolt had been stolen, it needed to be found and returned, see simple.

Now Thalia's tree had been poisoned and Chiron said there was nothing they could do to save it.

She groaned to herself, shifting slightly again and reaching over to her bedside drawer, opening it to show her stock of drachmas.

She stared at them for a moment, considering.

A part of her wanted to call Annabeth, to tell her what had happened but that wasn't right, Annabeth deserved to be told about her best friends impending final death in person.

She groaned to herself before she sat up and grabbed one.

Even if she couldn't call Annabeth she could call Grover-though he'd be almost as devestated.

It would help sooth her worries about him too.

Her dream had been pretty damn weird she had to admit.

She got up, padding to the bathroom and closing and locking the door behind her, quickly using the water from the taps to form a rainbow and tossing her Drachma in, "Goddess Iris, please let me speak to Grover Underwood, wherever he is."

A moment later the image formed in the mist of the rainbow, Grover in... well she wasn't sure because it was dark but she could see a dirt floor and he was huddled up wearing-

"Is that a wedding dress?" she hissed quickly, "Is that a wedding dress Grover-" and Grover jumped, his eyes wide as he let out a relieved noise.

"Oh thank the Gods it's you Percy. Listen you need to help me please-I can't get away-" he was whispering, as if he was scared someone would hear him. "He's blind he doesn't realize I'm a Satyr."

"Grover what-"

"He's the reason no Satyr's ever come back, they think it's Pan-the nature magic is so powerful-"

"Grover where are you?"

"The Sea of-" there was a loud noise like footsteps and Grover paled violently, going silent as he lurched forward, swiping his hand through the rainbow to end the connection.

Percy cursed in Greek, staring blankly at the spot where her friend had been just a moment earlier. He'd been caught by something bad. He needed her help.

The sea.

She wondered what sea he'd been talking about. Annabeth should be able to help figure it out-and Gods but she was going to have a long day having to explain to her best friend what was going on with Thalia's tree, let alone telling her that their other best friend had probably been captured by a monster and was dressed up in a freaking wedding dress.

She groaned to herself, closing her eyes and just sitting there.

She'd have to go to school-how the hell was she supposed to act like her life wasn't verging on falling apart? Seriously how? That was an impossible ask!

She was distracted from her minor breakdown by a frantic knocking on the door and a familiar voice whining, "Percy! C'mon hurry up in there I know it's you. I need to pee and do my teeth and stuff before school and Tyson always takes ages so let me in."

Percy let out a slow breath before she turned off the tap and got up, moving to the door and opening it quickly, "Go on then pipsqueak-"

"I'm not that much shorter than you!"

"Yeah, yeah you are." she ruffled the ten year olds hair as he went past and she shook her head.

For now she'd deal with school-which involved walking with Tyson to drop off Nico at school, surviving the actual school day, and picking him up on the way home.

One step at the time, that was what she had to do.

She could totally handle this.