Chapter 13: Some Siblings Have Serious Conversations

As everyone headed to bed, too tired to even consider dinner, they debated whether Annabeth had planned the whole thing or not. The theories of how she had were outlandish, but not that much crazier than anything else they'd seen so far. Annabeth had disappeared completely. Or so it seemed.

Thalia had found her passed out on her bed, still invisible. The only reason she had been able to tell was because of the small wrinkles caused by Annabeth's weight. She was pretty sure no one else had been able to tell, except Sadie, who smirked at Thalia when she left the room. The daughter of Zeus had been more focused on Percy who looked at her questioningly, only relaxing when Thalia nodded.

It was cute to see how they interacted but worrying how much Percy changed when he didn't know where Annabeth was, or if was she was okay. She was happy he at least trusted her with knowing Annabeth's state of mind. The little girl she'd first met might have grown up, but she was very much the same in most the ways that mattered. Right now, she knew Annabeth just needed a break, some time to be alone and cope with everything again.

As she walked by everyone's rooms to return to the common area, she saw several people already occupying themselves with something new. Blitz was hard at work with Tyson in the forge, Ella was chattering away at Hearth, who she didn't seem to mind couldn't hear her. Alex and Rachel were working clay, she could tell from the strong scent of clay from the room, plus some upbeat Spanish music. Back in the common area, she smirked at seeing Hazel cuddle against a transformed Frank, in the form of a sloth bear (Thank you Artemis for an encyclopedic knowledge of every creature on earth). She was reading the first Harry Potter book aloud quietly, something she remembered them talking about when the dorks had decided to sort everyone into houses.

Thalia approached quietly, taking a spot beside her brother where he stood with a worried expression. His focus was on his girlfriend and best-friend, who were whispering quietly to each other, not having moved after they watched the last scene.

"What's up?"

Jason shook his head. "They're too quiet. Leo's never this silent, not unless it's really bad, and Piper might not be as loud, but together, the two of them are never quiet. I think watching the Capture the Flag game stirred up more feelings they didn't know they had about older siblings they've never met."

Thalia laughed bitterly. "Yeah, I get that."

Jason looked at her questioningly, then sighed sadly. "Me and you. We got lucky."

"I didn't know that then," Thalia shrugged, "Annabeth has some theories about what else we might be watching. I think I mentioned the little trip to the underworld I took with our cousins."

"Something about mom's mania?" Jason remembered, having recounted his own experience with their mother's spirit to his older sister. He hadn't thought he'd be getting even more depressed, but Thalia's angry huff somehow made him feel worse.

"That too," Thalia agreed, studying her brother's face. While it was usually expressive, her brother's face was as stiff as one of Medusa's statues now. "Do you know where we could talk privately?"

Jason nodded, leading Thalia back down the long hallway, and into the room he shared with Frank and Grover. The room was mostly the same as when they had first gotten here, but now, it actually looked lived in. This was evidenced by the blueprints, diagrams, and notebooks lined up neatly on her brother's bed, and the fletching station and scattered tourist pamphlets on Frank's desk. There was still a roman rigidity and sense of organization, but it was clear this was a place where the boys were comfortable.

Catching Thalia staring at Frank's pamphlets, Json chuckled. "I don't really understand it either. Frank likes reading them, though. Each new place Percy visits on one of his quests, one appears. It's actually kind of funny."

He sat down on his desk chair gesturing for her to sit on the bed as he did. The sweeping motion knocked several things off his desk. Thalia knelt down to help her brother pick them up and laughed when the first thing he reached for was a stapler. "I hope you aren't going to eat that.

"No, I'm not," Jason said with a fond eyeroll. "If it's just mom's ghost, I can handle it. I've already dealt with her Mania, this should be easy compared to that."

"Like I said, it's not just that. Watching these just keeps reminding me just how much I missed once I left, once I became a tree. I love being a hunter, but I hate what I've had to give up."

They sat in silence for a moment, both not looking up at the other's face. "Tell me, about Mom, about us, about everything. Don't leave anything out this time. You don't need to protect me. I want to know."

He could feel the charge of static coming off his sister as she seemed to reminiscence. The one time they'd talked about this had been their reunions, when he saw her again after thirteen years at Pikes Peak and after defeating Gaea. Neither of them had been able to have the long talk they should have. Thalia's other visits to camp were dedicated to getting to know her brother, and vice versa. "Okay. I'll tell you. But Mom was complicated, and so is talking about her."

Jason gave her a pressing look. Thalia sighed. "Mom weas never a healthy person, at least from what I know. She lived off attention and was always doing some publicity stunt to put her on the front page."

"And she was upset when Jupiter stopped giving it to her," Jason said, knowing that at least from their previous talks.

"Mom wasn't meant to have a kid, especially not with a god. She needed constant support and affirmation. She couldn't manage without it. The only time I ever saw her close to happy was when Jupiter started to visit. Then it got much worth when she left."

Jason looked down, trying to hide how upset he was by this. It hadn't been easy hearing it the first time, but now was even worse. "We weren't enough for her."

Thalia shook her head sadly. "She loved us, but it was superficial. I think she put up with us because of that need for attention. We were her connection to Dad. The proof she had attracted the attention of the king of the gods. It was more of a 'let's show off my adorable children' and then forgetting the responsibility. Before you were born, she kept me with her on set, or just sent me off with a nanny."

"And after I was born?" Jason asked tentatively. There was part of the answer he knew, so he was surprised when Thalia smiled, even though she was wiping away a tear.

"Mom was so happy when you were born. She quit acting while she was pregnant, and Jupiter kept coming around for a few months. You were pretty much the perfect baby. You barely cried, plus you were adorable, so it was easy for her to show you off. I remember you being passed around, and mom preening at the attention she got for it. I don't know what happened to all that cuteness, probably sapped away by the Romans."

Jason laughed and batted away his sister's hand from trying to ruffle his hair. He quickly sobered up again, fixing onto his sister's identical electric blue eyes with his. "But—?"

"Jupiter left. She wanted him to stay, and that just couldn't happen. She kept asking for more and more. At first he was happy to shower her in gifts. I remember all the necklaces, jewelry, purses, and other junk. Then it got bigger. She wanted to go to Olympus, to be beautiful and young for longer, and even to be immortal, Zeus's Queen. Dad doesn't like trouble that much. And Mom was getting to be a handful."

Jason frowned. "Why did he even come to her in the first place? As Zeus or Jupiter?"

He was answered with a snort, and a scornful observation. "She had those qualities Dad likes, pretty, exciting and all that. Why men like that stuff is above me."

Jason rolled his eyes at his sister's hunter attitude, but pressed further. "So then why did he come back?"

"I don't really know. Mom was never home before that, I think she might have made him jealous. She was went out a lot, and there were always random guys she brought back home after."

Thalia sighed at Jason's skeptical look. "I really don't know why he came back. Maybe he was jealous. Maybe he wanted to check on me. That doesn't answer why he came back as Jupiter. All I know is it made it plenty worse when he left."

Jason scowled. "I always thought Dad and I just didn't have any relationship because he was the king of the gods. But no demigod does. Dad makes the rules, and he wants everyone else to keep them so he has to too. I just wish other gods, our parents could be more like…"

"Like Percy's," Thalia agreed. "You've seen Poseidon briefly. He's been nice enough to me in the past. Aunt Sally and Paul, well, you've met them. Percy deserves that. And you've met Aunt Sally, if only a few times. She likes to adopt demigods who need her."

Jason smiled, looking at the picture of Percy with Paul and Sally at their wedding on Percy's nightstand and frowned. "I'm excited to get to know her better. I just wish we could have a home like that."

Thalia huffed. "The gods don't often care what they leave behind. I've learnt the only demigods with good relationships with their mortal parents are the ones who accept that the gods aren't going t stay. The nice part is over, now they have a kid, a half-god, to deal with."

Jason clenched his fist, trying to resist punching something. "And Mom couldn't deal with it."

"No. She had no job, stopped auditioning, she thought Jupiter would keep her living in luxury. She would go out, get drunk, high and come back screaming to the sky for him to come back. The nannies quit, and it was just me and you. I wasn't a kid who liked to dress up or do any of that girly stuff, and I reminded her of Dad. I was more trouble than I was worth. Mom still doted on you, though, even if she didn't do much to take care of you. She thought maybe Zeus would realize his mistake. She had given him the perfect son. After all, he'd complained enough about Ares, Apollo, Mr. D and Hephaestus. It was a medieval way of thinking, but she thought it would get him to make her immortal."

"Because she had me?" Jason asked wide-eyed. "That's insane. I mean, Dad's a god. The king of the gods. After millennia things aren't going to change because…"

"I know. But like I said. She wasn't exactly well. It got worse as the monsters started to come after me."

"Monsters," Jason stated slowly. Everyone talked about the monsters. He'd only had trouble with them on quests. Probably the perks of growing up at Camp Jupiter. "What was that like?"

"Terrifying. I was starting to understand Dad wasn't normal, or even human. I found a weapon in one of Mom's piles of gifts and started to take it everywhere. I learned to protect myself. I'd been on my own most of my life, and this wasn't really different. Then finally Mom noticed the monsters. She blamed me for bringing you to their notice, blamed Hera for it, said she was jealous of her, of her perfect son."

Jason gulped as he remembered what happened next. "But she still gave me away."

"I can't tell you why. I know she dragged me away. I was furious, I kicked, bit, hit and used everything I had. But she left. I called the police the second we got home. That made her worse. She barely managed to talk herself out of it, and never forgave me for that. She was never happy with me, and then it just got worse. She didn't have you anymore. No perfect son to show her worth to Zeus. Her youth was leaving, and no one seemed to think she was special anymore. So she started to drink more, leave more, until finally I had enough. You weren't there, so there wasn't anything to stay for."

Jason gripped her hand, remembering how the rest of the story went form there. "And you died. Then she crashed. And all those things that were getting worse took over, becoming her mania."

Thalia wiped her face and nodded. "Pretty much. I ran away, and the idea of getting to camp alone was terrifying. Dad had mentioned it, and that was enough for me to go off of, but I decided I had to go somewhere else first. I headed north."

"The Bay Area?" Jason asked as his sinking heart started to fill back up with hope, lifting it up, like a balloon with some helium that wasn't exactly full.

"I looked around the entire Wolf House, I called your name and stayed for at least two days, fought off a monster or two, before Hera showed up and told me you were gone and I would never be able to find you."

Jason gripped her hand as the static coursed between the two of them, as thick and powerful as the blood in their veins. "But you did. We found each other."

Thalia gave choked on her tears, laughing bitterly. "We did, but we never had a normal childhood. I spent two years on my own on the run, until I met Luke in that Dragon's cave in Charleston. I was supposed to be the daughter of Zeus, but I was all alone. I finally was starting to feel better when I met Luke and Annabeth, they also were runaways whose parents couldn't deal with them anymore. Even then, I never stopped thinking about you."

"Why? You had Annabeth and Luke, didn't you?" Jason asked.

Thalia shoved him, "You know why, you dork. You're my brother. I didn't just go replacing you with the first blond I found."

Jason grumbled. "You found two."

"I could barely look at Annabeth somedays, she was seven years old, and you would be almost six. I was sure you would be just as tough as she was. Then, after I woke up from the tree, I met Percy. A son of the big three." She looked over at Jason, feeling the currents of electricity grow. "Percy and Annabeth are family. I won't argue with that, but I was never trying to replace you. I was reminded of you everywhere I went, but with them, I wondered all the time if you would be like them if you'd had the chance to grow up. I thought you were dead. In fact, the entire time we were in Asphodel on this quest…"

Jason had been holding back tears until now but hugged his sister as they both quieted their sobs. "Hey. You found me. Not in Asphodel, or even close. I was miles above and away."

"Up, up and away," Thalia snorted.

"Wow. You aren't usually so cheesy."

"You wouldn't know," Thalia grinned, shoving Jason again and giving him a little zap. "But you're right. I found you. I'm just sorry it took so long. And that I stopped looking so soon."

"No, you wouldn't have been able to find me," Jason told her seriously, reaching for her hand. "I barely remembered you, and I was in New Rome. You couldn't have fund it without knowing where it is. And you just said you were looking for me, even in Asphodel."

"I got so focused on finding myself, avoiding the prophecy, when I knew you had to be alive. I didn't want to believe otherwise, and I only considered it a few times, counting this trip to Erebos. I lost so much time as a tree, when we met again you were already my age," Thalia said in a tone of disbelief. She unclasped her hand from Jason's, putting her hands on his cheeks and pulling his face to look at her. "Jason, I know how hard it is, being a child of Zeus, Jupiter, or whatever you want to call him. There's the pressure to be the leader, and you've never felt like you belong. It took me longer than I'd like to realize that I didn't have to be what everyone wanted me to be. I can be scared of heights, even though my dad rules the sky. I don't have to be perfect. I felt like I had to keep running from my past to do that, but we don't. I knew at Camp Jupiter you grew up with a lot of expectations on you as well. And I'm happy you've started to find yourself as well. Just promise me you won't run from everything like I did. You stay true to yourself and face it."

Jason nodded, putting his hands over her and looking at her solemnly, "I promise."

"Good," Thalia said, "Now, I want to hear about these projects and I'll tell you more about everything. The good parts. Deal?"

Jason grinned. All his life he felt he'd had no family. Over the last year he learned he always had. Not just the Romans and Camp Jupiter but Thalia and the others. It wasn't something he was used too, being looked after instead of leading and taking care of, but he was getting used to it pretty fast. Even when Thalia jokingly made a huge deal of making sure he got into PJs, brushed his teeth and tucked him in before he reminded her he was physically older. She'd shocked him for that.

Grover and Frank were in the doorway. They backed away fast from Thalia, then laughed at Jason (whose hair was sticking up) until he threatened a shock to them, or worse. After seeing Percy's glare so much, his wolf glare wasn't working on everyone else very well. It wasn't even as close to being scary or intimidating.

Percy watched Thalia and Jason leave. He hope the talk worked. Both of them needed it. Once again he was aware how lucky he was when it came to his family. The only one it seemed. And soon he would be getting a little sibling. Silena and Beckendorf hadn't even been able to meet theirs. He knew that's what Piper and Leo were talking about. Most of the other people were drifting out, Frank and Grover were the last to leave, letting him know they would hang out in the boy's common area until they saw Thalia leave. The entire time Leo and Piper kept talking.

After at least a half-hour, forever to an ADHD demigod, Percy made a decision. With a sigh he steeled himself as he walked over, interrupting the whispers of the two younger demigods.

Both looked up at him, neither willing to show much on their faces. Percy sat down and rubbed his hands over his face. "After all of that, we should probably have another talk. Hearing things, then actually seeing it… Oh gods, when did I become a therapist!"

Leo laughed and Piper rolled her eyes. "I don't know, because you might be the most messed up of all of us.."

"Trust me, I know. Not like you can trust most real therapists anyway."

"They always turn out to be monsters for us," Leo agreed as he grabbed another piece of something from his belt adding it to the small thing he was fiddling with in his hands.

Percy stared at it for a minute, all the gears and pieces, then looked at Piper who seemed to be staring right into his soul. "I'm sorry," he choked out. "I'm so sorry. I tried to save them. I should have. You would have loved them. They would have loved you. You guys are so much alike, except you're not dating."

Piper and Leo pulled almost identical faces of disgust. Percy gave a half-hearted snicker in response. "A lot of your siblings can do similar things, but you guys… it's just so much more. Beckendorf would fiddle with things like that and give little gifts to campers or come up with an idea and rush to the forge. He was a lot quieter, almost always serious, but he was the only other person I knew who got so completely consumed by his projects.

"Silena, she knew what emotions meant, like you Piper. She could look right at a person and know what they were feeling, what they needed, how to talk to them. She made a lot of us realize our emotions were legitimate. It was okay to be sad, angry, happy, anything at times you felt you shouldn't."

Piper smiled sadly. "Good. I don't think she got it through your girlfriend's head though."

"I said most of us, right? And she got there partway. Just needed you to finish the job," Percy agreed. "You're a lot fiercer than her, at least at first sight. She was so gentle, kind, and soothing. I guess that's what your charmspeak does. Otherwise, you can be pretty tough, sarcastic and sassy even. But when the people you love are threatened… you guys had identical reactions. It's amazing."

"I wish I could have met her," Piper voiced for the millionth time.

"I know. I do too," Percy said. "We'll have to settle for me telling you about them though. Hearing about them from those that knew them. I can't say exactly how you feel. I've never felt that way. I had no older siblings, but I still want to help."

Leo nodded. "Thanks, dude. I just wasn't expecting all of that. You know when I saw it… I knew Festus and him had a connection but…."

"It's a lot to take in. That's why I'm here. To talk, to tell you more of what I can."

Percy looked again at the little thing in Leo's hand. "Beckendorf would disappear for a while, just like you. Just start working and keep going until he thought his creations were perfect. He was a bit different, because he was pretty quiet, whereas you never shut up."

"Dude," Leo gasped clutching his heart. "That hurts."

Percy's mouth twitched at the corner. "It's true. He was quiet. A few observations, maybe plans or questions. But when he wanted to be heard, he was. You have the same gift. You seem to disappear from time to time, but when you have something to say, something to stand up for, you're at the front line, at the center of everyone's attention."

"Are you sure I'm the one that can read people?" Piper asked.

"I've had a lot of time to think lately. It's not like I haven't seen most of this before."

"What else?" Leo asked suddenly, leaning closer to Percy.

"Well, Beckendorf was just like you in that he was the most loyal and dependable person I knew. You're the same. There's no better type of friend."

"There isn't," agreed Piper.

Percy nodded but got somber again quickly. "I mean, both of you are even good at sacrificing yourself. The thing is, Beckendorf didn't…. he didn't come back."

A hush fell over the three of them. Piper gripping Leo's hands as he looked at Percy, who was crying, more openly than most of them had ever seen him do. "I tried; you know. I wish it was me. But he put everyone before himself. I've never met two people who loved so intensely."

"I have."

Percy looked up at her with a questioning eyebrow, telling her he didn't believe her. "Not like them. There's so much more…"

"We have all night," Leo reminded him. "What about some stories?"

Percy smiled sadly. "Right. So, stories. How about the Golden Mango?"

"But after, you have to tell me more about Festus. You've been holding out on us. A lot."

Percy didn't say it but was thinking of how Jason had said the same thing. There was a reason he didn't talk. It hurt. It put him in the center of attention. But if other people needed him to talk, then he would.