I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.
Chapter Thirteen: Thalia
Predictably, Tantalus threw a fit the next morning when neither Percy nor Annabeth nor Tyson showed up for breakfast. Chrysa only managed to calm him down by shoving a pastry into his mouth, which then proceeded to choke him in its escape. Before Tantalus could say another word, Chrysa calmly informed him that if he said another word on the subject, she would double the time his curse lasted every time he spoke.
Needless to say, Tantalus was predictably silent after that.
Clarisse left right after breakfast, summoning a Confederate iron-side ship manned by skeletal warriors to travel in. To everyone's surprise, she chose to travel alone.
Chrysa approached her right before she left.
"I don't know what the Oracle said that kept you from taking people with you," she said in a low voice, "but don't let that control you. The Oracle always speaks in riddles. If you run into each other, let them help you."
Clarisse frowned, but didn't speak against her.
The next few days were relatively boring in comparison. There were several more monster attacks, most of which occurred at the boundary line while Chrysa was tending Thalia's tree. As usual, her scent was the strongest one around. As long as she was on the outskirts of the camp instead of the center, she always attracted the monsters first.
Most of the time, she was alone, so she didn't hesitate to use the full force of her powers (and her full collection of Stygian iron weaponry) to kill her attackers with a near-terrifying efficiency. She had spent her adolescence in Tartarus. She knew how to deal with monsters.
Ten days after Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson had left camp, an Iris-message appeared in the middle of dinner. Percy was the one facing them, but they could see the backs of Luke, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover. Annabeth and Grover were being held by some strange half-bear appeared to be on a cruise ship, probably docked in Miami. Everything weird ended up in Miami. Clarisse was nowhere in sight, nor was the Golden Fleece.
Percy uncapped his sword.
"This is no time for heroics, Percy," Luke said scornfully. "Drop your puny little sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later."
"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?" Percy demanded.
"I did, of course," the treacherous demigod snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."
"Chiron had nothing to do with it?" Percy pressed.
"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."
"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"
Luke raised his sword.
"You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece…once I was done with it."
Percy hesitated, then accused, "You were going to heal Kronos."
"Yes!" Luke exclaimed. "The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."
"And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up – all to help Kronos destroy the gods," Percy said. Though his focus was on Luke, he glanced towards the Iris-message where Dionysus, Tantalus, and Chrysa were sitting.
"You know that!" Luke growled. "Why do you keep asking me?"
"Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you," Percy said smugly.
"What audience?" Luke demanded.
He suddenly looked backwards to see the Iris-message of the entire camp dining pavilion. He gasped and stumbled back.
"Well," Dionysus said drily. "Some unplanned dinner entertainment."
"Mr. D, you heard him," Percy said. "You all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."
Dionysus sighed.
"I suppose not."
"The Iris-message could be a trick," Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands.
"I fear not," Dionysus said, looking distastefully at Tantalus. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."
Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn't bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world.
"I got it!" he crowed.
"We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus," Dionysus announced. "Chrysa, if you would?"
Tantalus looked stunned.
"What? But…"
"Continuation of your punishment will be discussed in a committee," Chrysa said, trying desperately to keep the gleeful smile off her face. "You are to return to the Underworld."
She raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
"No!" Tantalus cried as be dissolved into mist. "But – Noooooooooo!"
He tried desperately to bring the cheeseburger to his mouth, but it was too late. He disappeared and the cheeseburger fell back onto its plate. The campers exploded into cheering.
Luke bellowed with rage and slashed his sword through whatever it was creating the rainbow. The Iris-message disappeared.
Chrysa wiped her mouth with her napkin and stood from her seat, laying the napkin on the table.
"If you'll excuse me, Dionysus, it seems I need to make a short trip to Miami."
"Don't die," the god said. "And when you see Chiron, tell him he's expected back here immediately."
Chrysa saluted him, then turned on her heel to Apparate away.
She reappeared on the deck of the cruise ship, thankfully not in Luke's direct line of sight. Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and the satyr were in the center of a group of a dozen armed spearmen.
"…never leave this boat alive," Luke told the group of four nastily.
"One on one," Percy challenged. "What are you afraid of?"
Luke curled his lip. The soldiers surrounding the four hesitated.
Before he could say anything, one of the bear-men burst onto the deck leading a pure-black pegasus stallion.
"Sir!" the bear-man called as he dodged a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"
Luke's eyes were focused on Percy.
"I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't beat me in a fight."
"And you keep avoiding one," Percy shot back. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"
Luke glanced at his men. Percy had trapped him.
"I'll kill you quickly," Luke said, raising his sword. The half-steel, half-celestial bronze weapon was a foot longer than Percy's Riptide, grey and gold and built by evil.
Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.
He grinned wickedly at Percy.
"Luke," Annabeth said, "at least give him a shield."
"Sorry, Annabeth," Luke replied. "You bring your own equipment to this party."
"Well, I suppose it's a good thing I'm here," Chrysa said, walking straight towards Luke, knives already in each hand.
The soldiers working for Luke parted before her, giving her a straight path to the confrontation.
"Chrysa," Luke spat.
Chrysa smiled sweetly at him.
"Given how much younger Percy is than you, I don't think it would quite be a fair fight. Don't you agree?"
"You're older than me," Luke pointed out.
"Yes, but we're both adults now, Luke. It's different. Percy's still a child."
"Hey!" the boy protested.
"Quiet, little cousin," Chrysa replied. "Besides, Luke, we haven't gotten to play with our new weapons yet. You have your little halfling sword, and I got a present for babysitting Tantalus. Have you yet felt the sting of Stygian iron?"
She drew the inky black blade from its sheath at her side.
"Do you like it?" she asked. "I'm thinking about calling it Melaina," she continued cheerfully, trying to delay the inevitable. Her shadows told her help was on the way.
Luke growled wordlessly and lunged at her. As soon as their blades met, he yelled, "Dinner, Oreius! Bon appetit!"
The bear-man holding Annabeth and the satyr laughed sinisterly.
"He-he! He-he!"
Chrysa continued to occupy Luke, knowing that it would only be another moment…
Whish!
A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius' moth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumbled to the deck.
"Brother!" the other bear-man wailed. He let the pegasus' reins slacken just enough for the stallion to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.
For a split second, Luke and his guards were stunned as they watched the bear-twins dissolve into smoke.
Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell, just as the shadows warned her.
"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.
Chiron was amongst the dozen centaurs, but his relatives were nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored t-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said Party Ponies: South Florida Chapter. Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Native American warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number 1. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball camps with soda can and straw attachments on either side.
They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that even Luke was stunned. Chrysa took the opportunity to disarm him with the same maneuver he had once taught Percy, and then kicked him in the chest, throwing him back into the swimming pool.
Luke's warriors scattered. Chrysa couldn't blame them. Facing the hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but when it's a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up and a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat.
"Come and get some!" one of the party ponies yelled.
They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.
Chiron galloped towards Annabeth and the satyr, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back. Another pony grabbed Percy even as Luke crawled out of the pool.
"Attack, you foo…umph!" he yelled as Chrysa pushed him back under.
It was too late, however. An alarm bell went off below decks.
"Retreat, brethren!" Chiron yelled.
The palomino centaur holding Percy ordered, "Dude, get your big friend!"
Tyson was in the midst of throwing warriors off the side of the boat.
"Tyson!" Percy yelled. "Come on!"
Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after them. He jumped onto the centaur's back.
"Dude!" the centaur groaned. "Do the words 'low-carb diet' mean anything to you?"
Chrysa didn't hear any more, because she had just been scooped up into the arms of the green-painted centaur.
"Sorry, lady, no time to let you do this the easy way," the centaur apologized. "You might want to put that sword away though."
Chrysa somehow managed to sheathe her sword while being carried bridal-style by a bare-chested green centaur, just before they galloped over the guardrail and plummeted ten stories to the pavement. The centaurs all hit the asphalt with barely a jolt and galloped off, whooping and yelling taunts at the cruise ship as they raced into the streets of downtown Miami.
The streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. In just a few minutes, they found themselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito nets. It was a typical centaur camp.
"Dude!" one of the party ponies said as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like: 'Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!'"
The centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!"
The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.
"Could you please put me down now?" Chrysa asked the centaur holding her.
"Sure, lady. But hey, I can't say that I mind carrying a beautiful woman around," he said with a wink as he set her down on the ground.
"Thank you, but I'm engaged," Chrysa replied, before walking over to where Percy, Annabeth, and the satyr were sitting on a picnic blanket by Chiron.
"I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare," the elder centaur sighed.
"Chiron," Percy said, looking stunned. "You saved us. And Chrysa. How'd you get there so fast?"
"Magic," Chrysa said, flicking her wrist so she could hold up her wand before putting it away again.
Chiron smiled drily.
"Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."
"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.
"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."
"Gee, thanks," the satyr mumbled.
"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean…Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."
Percy glanced over to where three of the Party ponies were teaching Tyson how to use a paintball gun, then back at Chiron.
"So what now?" he asked. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."
"At least we know where the body is now?" Chrysa said. "That's honestly better than it being carted around everywhere. At least this way its evil is contained."
Chiron knelt, carefully folding his legs under him.
"I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won."
"But we got the Fleece!" Annabeth said. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."
Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy.
"You are all true heroes. As soon as we fix up all your scrapes and bruises, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."
"You're coming too?" Percy asked.
"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see…I'm curious about the Fleece."
A thought struck Chrysa.
"Oh," she said. "You're hoping that the Fleece might fully heal Thalia."
"Hoping? I'm not sure. If Thalia were to return, Kronos would have a much better chance of getting a child of the Big Three on his side. You seem to be quite firm in your position, as does Percy. Thalia, however…Luke might be able to persuade Thalia to his side," Chiron sighed.
"Thalia wouldn't!" Annabeth protested.
"Luke did," Chrysa pointed out. "Don't get me wrong, I would love to meet my sister. I just don't know if that's possible."
Over by the campfire, Tyson let loose with his paintball gun. A blue projectile splattered against one of the centaurs, hurling him backward into the lake. The centaur came up grinning, covered in swamp muck and blue paint, and gave Tyson two thumbs up.
"Annabeth," Chiron said, "perhaps you and Grover would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?"
Annabeth met his eyes, and some kind of understanding passed between them.
"Sure Chiron," Annabeth said. "Come on, goat boy."
"But I don't like paintball," the satyr protested.
"Yes, you do," Annabeth said, hoisting Grover to his hooves and leading him off toward the campfire.
Chiron bandaged up a scrape on Percy's leg he'd received in the battle-that-wasn't.
"Percy, I had a talk with Annabeth on the way here. A talk about the prophecy."
"It wasn't her fault," Percy said. "I made her tell me."
His eyes flickered with irritation, but then his look turned to weariness.
"I suppose I could not expect to keep it secret forever," he sighed.
"So am I the one in the prophecy?" Percy asked.
Chiron tucked his bandages back into his pouch.
"I wish I knew, Percy. You're not yet sixteen. For now we must simply train you as best we can, and leave the future to the Fates."
"That's what it meant," Percy said.
Chiron frowned.
"That's what what meant?"
"Last summer. The omen from the Fates, when I saw them snip somebody's life string. I thought it meant I was going to die right away, but it's worse than that. It's got something to do with your prophecy. The death they foretold – it's going to happen when I'm sixteen."
Chiron's tail whisked nervously in the grass.
"My boy, you can't be sure of that. We don't even know if the prophecy is about you."
"But there isn't any other half-blood child of the Big Three! Besides Chrysa." He looked at her quizzically. "Why weren't you the child of the prophecy?"
"I had my own prophecy," Chrysa replied. "Which I've already fulfilled, thank you very much. Already dealt with that war and death and destruction. Plus, I'm one of Hecate's Blessed, which throws off my half-blood status a bit. And I'm more of a three-quarters-blood anyway."
"You two are the only children of the Big Three that we know of," Chiron said calmly. "As Chrysa said, the Golden Fleece may be able to bring back Thalia."
"But Kronos is rising! He's going to destroy Mount Olympus!"
"He will try," Chiron agreed. "And Western Civilization along with it, if we don't stop him. But we will stop him. You will not be alone in that fight."
"I'm just a kid, Chiron," Percy said miserably. "What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?"
Chiron managed a smile.
"'What good is one lousy hero'? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something like that to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War."
He pulled an arrow from his quiver and turned the razor-sharp tip so it glinted in the firelight. "Celestial bronze, Percy. An immortal weapon. What would happen if you shot this at a human?"
"Nothing," Percy said. "It would pass right through."
"That's right," he said. "Humans don't exist on the same level as immortals. They can't even be hurt y our weapons. But you, Percy – you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be harmed by both, and you can affect both. That's what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal. Monsters never die. They are reborn form the chaos and barbarism that is always bubbling underneath civilization, the very stuff that makes Kronos stronger. They must be defeated again and again, kept at bay. Heroes embody that struggle. You fight the battles humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human. Do you understand?"
"I…I don't know," Percy stammered.
"You must try, Percy. Because whether or not you are the child of the prophecy, Kronos thinks you might be. And after today, he will finally despair of turning you to his side. That is the only reason he hasn't killed you yet, you now. As soon as he's sure he can't use you, he will destroy you."
"You talk like you know him," Percy said, confused.
Chiron pursed his lips.
"I do know him."
Percy stared dumbly at Chiron.
"Is that why Mr. D blamed you when the tree was poisoned? Why you said some people don't trust you?"
"Indeed."
"But, Chiron…I mean, come on! Why would they think you'd ever betray the camp for Kronos?"
Chiron looked very sad.
"Percy, remember your training. Remember your study of mythology. What is my connection to the Titan Lord?"
Percy looked confused as he shook his head.
"You, uh, owe Kronos a favor or something? He spared your life?"
"Percy," Chiron said, his voice impossibly soft. "The titan Kronos is my father."
"It's still dumb of people to automatically accuse you of being a traitor because of that," Chrysa scoffed. "In case anyone's forgotten, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus are all Kronos' children as well. Are you both ready to leave, Chiron, Percy?"
"Indeed," Chiron said, standing up and helping Percy to his feet. "Are you travelling back with us, Chrysa, or taking your own way?"
"I'll be Apparating. Much faster, and I won't have to deal with your cousins' flirting. My lover and I are quite happy together, and he gets a bit angry when people flirt with me. I'll see you both at camp. Percy, I expect full disclosure on what happened on your trip. Oh, and your mother says hello, we've cleared your Meriwether Prep record, and she's already found a school for you for next year. Your mother also wanted me to tell you that you're grounded for leaving camp without telling her. I'm supposed to enforce a no-dessert rule for a week."
Before Percy could reply, she Apparated back to camp.
Dionysus met her on the front porch of the Big House.
"I assume everything worked out?" he asked.
"Clarisse is on her way with the Golden Fleece. Chiron is bringing Annabeth, Percy, Tyson, and the satyr back. They'll be here shortly. I'd meet Clarisse at the airport, but I don't know if she's flying into JFK or LaGuardia."
"Well, we might as well assemble on Half-Blood Hill, then. Would you summon everyone?"
Chrysa tapped her throat with her wand.
"Sonorus."
Her voice boomed across camp.
"Attention, all campers. If you are not wounded or tending to the wounded, please report to Half-Blood Hill while we await the return of the Fleece. We don't know how long it will take, so feel free to bring something to occupy yourselves."
She tapped her throat again.
"Quietus."
Dionysus began to move towards Half-Blood Hill, then stopped, sighed, and offered her his arm in a lackluster display of chivalry.
"Shall we?" he asked.
"Might as well," Chrysa replied, taking her half-brother's arm.
They were only on the hill for a short time before Chiron and the Party Ponies showed up with Annabeth, Percy, Tyson, and the satyr. It was only a few moments before a taxi pulled up at the base of Half-Blood Hill to release Clarisse with her precious cargo.
The moment Clarisse draped the Golden Fleece over the lowest bough of Thalia's tree, the moonlight seemed to brighten, turning from gray to liquid silver. A cool breeze rustled in the branches and rippled through the grass, all the way into the valley. Everything came in to sharper focus – the glow of the fireflies down in the woods, the smell of the strawberry fields, the sound of the waves on the beach.
Gradually, the needles on the pine tree started turning from brown to green.
Everyone cheered. It was happening slowly, but there could be no doubt – the Fleece's magic was seeping into the tree, filling it with new power and expelling the poison.
Chiron ordered a twenty-four/seven guard duty on the hilltop, at least until he could find an appropriate monster to protect the Fleece. He said he'd place an ad in Olympus Weekly right away.
In the meantime, Clarisse was carried on her cabin mates' shoulders down to the amphitheater, where she was honored with a laurel wreath and a lot of celebrating around the campfire. Everyone ignored the fact that Annabeth, Tyson, and Percy had been absent from camp after sneaking out for two weeks. Though technically, they did have the permission of a god, so it was somewhat approved.
The next morning, it was announced that the chariot races would go on as planned. Chrysa was pleased to see that Annabeth and Percy were working together again. They had recruited Tyson as their pit crew.
The morning of the chariot races, Chrysa had breakfast with Percy at the Poseidon table. He was fidgeting for most of breakfast, until Chrysa asked him, "What's wrong?"
"I saw Hermes last night," he blurted out. "We talked about Luke, and my dad, and messy immortal families, and then he gave me a letter from my dad."
"What did it say?" Chrysa asked calmly, sensing that was where Percy was going with that.
"Just two words," Percy said with a bitter laugh. "'Brace yourself.'"
"The worst has yet to come," Chrysa said with a nod. "Kronos is biding his time until it's appropriate for him to rise. I suspect that he'll be able to return sometime next summer, but he won't be ready to attack until your sixteenth birthday – or close to it, anyway."
Percy nodded slowly.
"Hermes said that if I wanted an example of messy immortal families, to ask you. What did he mean?"
Chrysa was saved by the conch shell that announced the race was about to start.
"I'll talk to you after the race," she replied. "Good luck!" She pressed a kiss to the top of his head before hurrying off to her seat beside Dionysus'.
Percy and Annabeth won the race, with some help from Tyson. Chrysa was incredibly proud of Percy when he identified Tyson as his 'baby brother'. She barely managed to congratulate the three of them before they were whisked off by the rest of the campers to the laurel ceremony.
Unfortunately, she never had time for the planned chat with Percy. Right after the laurel ceremony, she received a message from her father with an assignment she needed to take care of. She quickly said goodbye to Chiron, Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson, noting that she would be back later, and then hurried off to Zeus cabin where she could shadow-travel in peace.
Once she was safely ensconced in her cabin, the shadows coalesced around her body, forming into what Hades had deemed her "work clothes": black jeans, black turtleneck, black boots, black gloves. The dark colors made it easier for her to blend in with the shadows. If she was going to be stalking her mark through them for the next few days, she'd need it.
It took four days before her mark and several of his close associates were dead, and the evidence of their elicit activities left where the police would find them. One quick call to emergency services, and Chrysa was free to shadow-travel back to the Underworld.
She was still in the shower, washing the blood and grime off, when Hades came in.
"If you're thinking about joining me, dear, you'd best wait until I'm clean," she called out to him.
"Actually, I have news for you. You're probably going to head straight to Camp after this," Hades said.
That caught Chrysa's attention.
"What happened? Did the Fleece not work? Is someone hurt? Percy, Annabeth?"
"No, everyone's fine," Hades soothed through the glass door of the shower. "More than fine, actually. Chrysa…Thalia's awake."
Chrysa froze.
"Awake as in aware-awake or awake as in human-body-no-longer-a-tree awake?" she asked, hope rising in her breast.
"Awake as in human-body-no-longer-a-tree-awake," Hades confirmed. "Do you want a camp shirt and jeans?"
"Please," Chrysa replied, returning to her scrubbing with vigor. It had been six years. She wanted to meet her sister.
Thirty minutes later, she was knocking on the door to the Big House. It didn't matter that she hadn't slept in four days, or eaten since the day before. She had to see Thalia.
"In the back!" Chiron called.
Chrysa power-walked around the wraparound porch to where Chiron and Dionysus were playing pinochle.
"I see you heard the news," Chiron said, rising to greet her.
"It's true then?" Chrysa asked shakily.
"Thalia has returned to us," Chiron confirmed.
Chrysa had to steady herself on the railing of the porch at the news. She had believed Hades, but hearing Chiron confirm it allowed the realization to truly set in.
"Can I see her?" Chrysa asked. "Where is she?"
Chiron smiled at her.
"She was released from the infirmary this morning. Percy and Annabeth are showing her around camp," Chiron said calmly. "I believe you should wait until you can stand up properly before going to find her, however."
"I'm good," Chrysa insisted, releasing the railing and forcing her legs to bear her weight. Which way did they go?"
"Towards the cabins," Chiron replied, and before he can say anything more, Chrysa was running, running towards the cabins, running towards the sister she'd always blamed herself for not saving.
As soon as she crested the hill leading towards the cabins, she spotted three heads near Cabin One – two black and one blonde. She changed directions slightly and continued running toward them.
Chrysa had always been in relatively good shape. She had plenty of experience in running – both cross-country and sprinting – in running from Dudley as a girl. She'd also continued running during Quidditch training while at Hogwarts, and it was part of the exercise routine she'd kept up since receiving her memories. Granted, she had just enough immortal blood to stay naturally fit, but it was always more convenient to fight monsters – and run away from monsters – when you had the training to do so.
All three obviously heard her coming and turned around to meet her. Chrysa stopped several feet short of the trio.
Annabeth and Percy stood on either side of Thalia, but Chrysa barely noticed them. Her entire focus was on the black-haired, blue-eyed teenager.
"Thalia," she said quietly. "By the gods, Thalia."
The girl looked confusedly at Annabeth.
"Thalia, this is your sister, Chrysa Potter," Annabeth introduced, once it became clear that Chrysa was in no position to say anything more.
Chrysa took a few shaky steps toward her sister.
"I've wanted to meet you for so long," she said quietly. "I blamed myself, you know? You'd been out there, on your own, for all that time…I could have protected you. I could have gotten you to camp, if I'd just known you existed…."
"Annabeth and Percy have told me a lot about you," Thalia said slowly. "Annabeth says that you looked out for her and…and Luke, once you were here. She said that you took care of them since you couldn't take care of me."
"They were your family, weren't they?" Chrysa asked, tilting her head slightly. "You're my sister. That made them my family by extension. Family looks after one another."
Thalia ducked her head.
"I wouldn't know," she muttered.
Chrysa took another step forward so that they were face to face. She grabbed her sister's chin gently and tilted it up so that she could look into her eyes.
"I swear to you, Thalia, I swear on the River Styx that family is the most important thing in the world to me, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are safe and happy. Family is my first priority, as Percy can tell you. The fact that you're alive…that you're no longer a tree…it means the world to me."
There were tears in Thalia's eyes. Chrysa was sure that her eyes looked similar.
"Can…can I hug you?" Thalia asked in a small voice.
Chrysa opened her arms widely.
"I'd love that," she replied, just before receiving an armful of teenaged girl.
The rest of the summer flew by. Much as she would have liked to spend all her time with her newfound sister, Chrysa couldn't abandon Hades for the rest of the summer. Instead, she arranged to visit during the weekends so she could get to know Thalia.
Despite the embrace at their first meeting, building their relationship wasn't easy. Thalia had spent a third of her life on the streets and had a great mistrust for adults. Besides that, her entire world had changed as an instant. She woke up to find that six years had gone by and she was three (or so) years older. Her best friend was declared a traitor and tried to kill her. The little girl she had taken care of was older than she remembered being. She suddenly had a sister, a sanctuary, and a cousin. She suddenly had an offer for home and the potential to return to school. It was overwhelming for her.
Still, Chrysa, Annabeth, and Percy did their very best to help Thalia reintegrate to life. Chrysa stayed with her for the first few days, so that she wouldn't be alone at night or at mealtimes. She also shrunk both Zeus table and Poseidon table so that Percy and Thalia could push them up against each other and pretend they weren't alone.
By the end of the summer, Chrysa had arranged for Thalia and Annabeth to attend the same New York all-girls private school, the sister school to the all-boys school that Percy would be attending in the fall. Annabeth's family was moving to San Francisco, and Annabeth refused to go with them. Both girls would be staying in Chrysa's apartment, though they would mostly be on their own with Sally's supervision until Chrysa returned from the Underworld.
"I've already taken enough time off my job," she told Thalia apologetically. "My boss has been nice enough to give me this much time to spend with you. I can't leave an entire month early when I've already been at Camp so much of the summer. Especially after I took three days to go visit my new goddaughter. You should be fine though. You're physically fifteen, and while you may only remember twelve years of your life, living on the streets made you more mature than that. I think I can trust you to get yourselves to school and back, and not burn the building down. Besides, Percy and Sally are just a couple floors down, and I'm sure Sally would be willing to have you over for dinner every night until I'm back."
Though Thalia had pressed her about her job, Chrysa had never revealed more than the fact that her boss was a god who paid extremely well for her assistance. Hades was mostly responsible for Thalia being turned into a tree (except for the actual turning part) and Chrysa did not want to unleash the anger that would come with revealing that fact.
All things considered, their first explorations into sisterhood went extremely well.
AN: I really hated this ending. I just got kind of stuck on it and ended it quickly so I could move on to Titan's Curse. I know everyone's looking forward to it.