Thalia was tired of her memories. They were never reliable, and of course, there was that six-and-a-half gap that jumped from her almost being mauled by hellhounds, to herself lying in what was presumably an infirmary bed, and Annabeth sitting next to her, except, Annabeth wasn't... Annabeth. She was older, more mature, had obviously seen more of the world.

And then Thalia had turned to see Luke.

But where she had expected to see Luke, had been a shorter boy, with black hair instead of sandy brown, and sea green eyes instead of blue. There was no scar on his face, and instead of a silly smirk and an unneeded quip, the boy just sat there.

This was not Luke.

"What... what happened?" is all she remembered saying. Later that night, all she did was cry.

Luke was gone.

And he was betraying the gods because she had saved his life.

Annabeth had explained everything after dinner, in the Big House. Who the greened-eyed boy was, what Luke had done to him, Luke's failed quest, and the quest they had returned from recently, to retrieve the Golden Fleece, which had inexplicably brought Thalia back.

"Thals," she had said, "don't get me wrong. I'm so, so, glad you're back, but we just played right into Kronos' hand."

Thalia didn't remember anything before waking up in the infirmary, not even the brief period of time that she had supposedly been awake a few days ago, when she had introduced herself to Percy and scared the camp out of their minds.

She had been filled in on the Great Prophecy, and Percy had explained what that meant for the two of them during breakfast the next day.

"Our lives are always at stake, not like that's any different than usual," he stated with a half-grin, half-grimace, exactly the way Luke would've. Thalia had felt a pang.

Not now, she remembered thinking.

So those specific emotions were placed in a locked chest, buried beneath the new memories she was making, and were being shoved farther away by the second. She did not feel that way about Luke anymore, she never had, and he never would.

And now that Thalia was a Hunter, the first leiutenant to be exact, she wasn't exactly allowed to feel that way about boys. Or men. Plus, Luke was dead, so she would never love anyone again, not in that way.

Thalia had no doubt that he would have chosen to be reborn, especially after what Annabeth had said happened in the throne room. Luke had still been her Luke in the end.

Thalia had felt that familiar pang when she heard that, which was okay because she hadn't been a Hunter yet. But now that was not allowed.

That was the last time she had ever felt that way.

In the ideal situation, if she allowed herself to think about it, she and Luke would be living together at the Isle of the Blest, after living through three other lives. Annabeth would be there, probably with Percy. The couples would share houses, and although they most likely couldn't have pets or kids or anything like that, she knew they would've been happy. But of course Hades had to have his revenge, and instead of her father letting her go to wait for Luke in Elysium, he had to make her into a pine tree.

Why in Tartarus a pine tree, anyways?

Thalia supposed that if she had died, Luke would've tried to dethrone Hades or something like that, but if that had happened, maybe he wouldn't have died. If he had, then they still could've stayed together in Elysium.

Dumb Zeus.

It was all his fault that the prophecy turned out the way it did. Okay, maybe not entirely.

But it was still mostly his fault.

Dumb, dumb Zeus.

And Thalia, being the child she was, had assumed that she was going to die.

Or that if her dad truly loved her, he would've teleported her or whatever over into safety.

And that Luke and Annabeth would go on and become the two strongest demigods ever.

Clearly, she was wrong about all of the future.

Luke had died, supposedly a hero's death, Annabeth had grown up without her, and then there was that whole shebang with Percy.

Had Thalia thought he was cute when they had met? Maybe a little bit.

Had that been overshadowed once he opened his big mouth? Absolutely.

"So what's it like, being a tree?" was the first thing she had ever heard from those lips, and everything went downhill from there. (To answer his question, she hadn't known that she was a tree at the time.)

Apparently, Dionysus had also commented on her treeness, saying that he hated it when pretty girls turned into trees. Thalia would've found that funny, except she was the one that was a tree, and Dionysus had called her pretty.

Dionysus was a total doofus, too, but don't tell him she said that. If Percy was Kelp Head, then Dionysus was Vine Brain, according to Thalia.

Maybe she was too bitter. That was probably her fatal flaw, assuming that everyone was out to get her (except Annie, of course).

If Luke were still here, she wondered if he would have approved of her choices.

If Luke were still here, her choices would've been different.

She most likely wouldn't have become a Hunter of Artemis.

If Luke were still here, she wondered if they would've had a ship name like Percy and Annabeth, whatever Piper had meant by that. (There was this whole incident with Piper explaining what ships were, how they worked, who was allowed to "sail" with who, etc., and Thalia honestly understood none of it. Love was not exactly her area of expertise.)

Percabeth was "sailing smoothly," whatever that meant. Piper was blabbing one day about how "seperation makes the heart remember what it missed" and "just look at Persephone and Hades, Percabeth is just like it" and things like that which had made Thalia want to punch her.

Thank the gods that Annabeth was on her way over to Camp Jupiter with Leo, Piper, and Jason now to find Percy and the other three of the seven.

Oh Styx... Piper would have even more to say about Percabeth when they got back...

Would Thalia have wanted to be talked about with Luke, if he was still around?

Definitely yes. She was sure that they would have their fair share of fights, arguments, breakups and makeups. She just wished (slightly) that he was still around to do that with.

When she had been taken to limbo by that godsawful pine tree, she had prayed that Luke and Annabeth would live.

Yes, she had known that she would have died; yes, she had realized at the last second she had started to feel tingly. But those memories were hazy and unclear.

Thalia wasn't sure if they had really happened or not.

She also was unclear on if she had known she would end up being alive again. Probably not.

She had taken her life for granted before then. Sure, they were always on the run, but she had known in her gut that none of them would die - yet. She had known that they would all live.

But now that she knew what it felt like to be on the verge of death, knew what it was to accept the fact that you were dying, she wasn't ready to go back to that point.

So she had promised herself. Never again.

Thalia was never taking anything for granted again, not even life.