Thalia took the book from Rachel without batting an eye and used all of her immortal grace to grab just a few to many pages as subtly as possible, it would be no major difference to Percy she was sure if he just skipped this one part and arrived at camp without-

Rachel caught her before she could finish flipping the few innocent pieces of paper necessary, gently meeting her eyes and giving her wrist a reassuring squeeze.

How to explain? She couldn't be seen as weak in front of them. She was a Hunter of Artemis, she was Percy's closest friend in here and his guide on how to navigate this insanity. And Jason...

Whether that guy was the ghost of her baby brother back to haunt her or some deranged joke by the gods of a look-alike, he was as lost as Percy. She wanted to be the example for the two of them how to calmly get out of this, and she didn't think she could do that with this chapter.

She wished Annabeth were here, her little sister at least knew what she didn't want to share. Rachel just seemed to know she was afraid of something. Then Thalia glanced at Percy and Nico, both of whom were going through pretty much their most miserable time in this book. Her eyes lingered on Jason, the little two-year-old in her mind crying as his lip bled from that cut as she tried to stop it while their mom had been on the phone telling them to quiet down. The first thing Beryl Grace had said when she'd seen it was it might need cosmetic surgery to hide a scar.

She felt like she'd shared more than enough already, wasn't dying and coming back to a broken world enough? She didn't want to expose this fear too.

Percy leaned forward in his seat as she kept hesitating, he'd watched her try to skip those and wasn't going to say a word. "You want to get out of here Thals?" Eyes flickering to the door in clear invitation, just the two of them could leave. It really wasn't anybody else's concern, and at least if just Percy found out she wouldn't have to endure him mocking and laughing at her like the others would be prone to do. A child of Zeus afraid of heights, who wouldn't laugh?

It was the choice that made her decide to stay though. Like nobody had ever given her before on the course of her life.

If she'd just skipped over every awful thing that had happened to Percy thus far he'd have no clue what was going on in his own life. This wasn't the only time it would come up in hers, and if she started picking and choosing now what unpleasantness she wanted to skip, how would that be fair to Percy and Nico who hadn't once complained of their own pasts being revealed?

"No, I'm, I'm good," she lied. She was glad that Percy had moved away though, she might intentionally zap him when he figured it out. She could still do it across the room sitting next to Jason, but she might hesitate a little more.

She still had to give Rachel's hand a little shake to let go of her wrist, and her friend reluctantly did so with troubled eyes. 'Sorry,' she mouthed, but Thalia knew she was right too. Even being immortal now, keeping this kind of thing buried didn't mean it would never come back. Annabeth might have let her get away with skipping, but she would have protested later about the wisdom in that.

With a ragged breath, Thalia read, "Thalia Torches New England. Wow, it is kind of weird reading your own name."

"Know my pain!" Percy agreed triumphantly.

'You have no idea,' she silently agreed as she forced herself to start over Alex and Jason's spluttering, already laughing protests they wanted her to give a clue she would not be providing.

"When did this happen? Am I secretly dead?" Magnus asked. He'd notice his city on fire, even the Mist couldn't hide that. He was ignored right along with them though.

... dawn was coming, but it was darker than ever.

"You've never heard the saying the night's darkest just before the dawn?" Nico asked in surprise. Perfect time for shadow traveling.

"Must have missed that one in all the classes I got kicked out of," Percy clearly wasn't impressed regardless.

... the only name they'd remember was mine, and there'd be another manhunt .

"See, this is why you should have used fake name's Prissy," Alex oh so helpfully reminded.

"They still would have found a way to blame me," Percy said confidently. "The newspaper would have misspelled that into my name!"

"You might even get kicked out of a school before you even enrolled in it for once," Jason chuckled.

... how selfish it was of her, abandoning Nico like that.

Nico's throat threatened to close shut and never open again as he heard that. Percy agreeing with him, on top of remembering the piss poor words his sister had used to try and explain how this was going to be great for both of them, some space, like he'd never asked for...

"Thanks Percy," he found himself saying, "I thought so too, but now I'm, I'm glad she did what made her happy." The words sounded more mechanical than if an automaton had pulled them out of him, but somewhere in him, he meant it. He was trying to at least.

"Yeah," Percy said softly, "sucks man." He felt while looking at Nico now he finally had an inkling of why the guy was so weird, just a little off. Had his sister dumped him at camp and not come back yet? There was still something he was definitely missing about the pair of them as he studied his olive complexion and dark eyes he couldn't connect a dot with.

..."The last time the Hunters visited camp, it didn't go well."

"Do they torch every place they go?" Magnus asked wearily. "Do you get tricked into joining them early and torch New England in retaliation?"

"Not even close," but Thalia was smiling lightly back, it did sound funny out of context and she wasn't looking forward to when it was corrected.

... "It's all Zoe's fault. That stuck-up, no good—"

"And I thought you hated me," Percy grinned uneasily. "Glad I never did whatever she put in your bonnet."

"Percy, that is not what that means," Magnus sighed.

Percy didn't hear what the saying actually was as he realized Thalia hadn't corrected him, instead studying the wall behind him very intently until she realized Magnus was done talking so she could keep going.

 ...she's so, into nature," Grover swooned.

"I really hope you're there when he meets Pan now," Jason chuckled. "If this is his reaction to meeting a goddess associated with nature, he might faint upon the God of the Wild."

Percy laughed along in agreement even as he winced, while Nico sat very far back in his seat with a pit in his stomach. Will did a double take upon seeing that look on his face, but Nico was already going through enough with his sister on display, he really didn't want to push him over what that was about.

In all the retellings of Grover's tale that day, nobody had mentioned Nico was there though.

"You're nuts," said Thalia. "Nuts and berries," Grover said dreamily.

"Being proud of you who are," Alex nodded saintly.

...He's so-o-o lazy during the winter."

"According to her he's lazy year around," Thalia happily pronounced, "the weather makes him different kinds of lazy."

"I think I found my spirit god," Percy shrugged as he rubbed at his eyes. They'd barely been at this for an hour, two tops today, and he was already getting drowsy again.

... I didn't see how Apollo could drive the sun.

"That's definitely got to be a metaphor or we're all going to die," Magnus said with confidence.

"I thought you were past the whole questioning the reality of all this phase?" Rachel smiled at his naivety.

"Never," he promised.

... I couldn't believe it. It was my car.

"Unless Beckendorf built you a Transformer, I don't think so," Will grinned, his smile weary but genuine as he kept mentioning the old head of cabin 9 with great effort not to wince.

"I'm pretty sure Chiron would ban you and the Stoll brothers from camp if you said that anywhere other than here," Thalia promised.

Well, the car I wanted. A red convertible Maserati Spyder.

"I don't speak car," Jason informed with a mystified expression.

"I don't either. A red convertible," Nico repeated with a shrug, "looked fancy."

Percy looked devastated at the pair of them and promised, "I have got to introduce you two when we get out of this."

"Does it show everybody the car they'd want?" Magnus asked with an old smile, imagining he'd see his mom's beat-up truck with that dent in the hood.

"It shows the car Apollo wants," Thalia corrected.

It also seemed to be hot-rod red, because it melted all the snow around it.

"These books are going to melt my brain," Magnus promised. He missed science class. This was not a good substitute.

"Would it help at all if I said don't think about it to hard," Percy offered. "They, coexist?"

"No, but thanks for trying," Magnus answered, tapping his ears to make sure goo wasn't leaking out already.

...for a second, I had the uneasy feeling it was Luke, my old enemy.

"You're not old enough to have an old enemy," Jason rolled his eyes. Apollo, like all of the strange Greek gods, seemed a lot more relaxed than he'd ever believe possible a god should be, but he kept telling himself he was getting used to it.

"He's your only enemy," Alex added, considering he worked directly under the ultimate enemy.

"You're about to make the list," Percy rolled his eyes, not indicating which one of them he meant.

...The driver wore jeans, loafers, and a sleeveless T-shirt.

"Just what my dad needs, more compliments about him imprinted in these pages," Will chuckled.

"You look like him," Nico said absently, still internally shaking his head at his younger self. The second god had appeared in a matter of hours and he'd still just been smitten with Percy and now more angry and confused than he ever had in his life at his sister.

"Thank you!" Will beamed as he stretched out like a cat, though he was wearing flip-flops and an orange shirt, otherwise it was an eerie resemblance to that sunlit morning, he even looked like he was glowing for a second.

..."That's not what I meant."

"You are so clueless Percy," Thalia sighed, even now he was watching her like he thought her answer wasn't up to scratch.

... You never write. I was getting worried!"

"Can't they just pop in on each other whenever they want?" Jason chuckled.

"Oh they do," Thalia rolled her eyes, "Apollo is pretty terrible about it, he is this flamboyant about everything."

"I'm just imagining a god going missing now and Oceanus snapping his fingers to fix it," Magnus rolled his eyes. He'd probably nab the wrong god and snag Apollo.

"I can't even imagine what would trap a god away," Percy muttered with an uneasy wince.

"I can," Alex said with a dark, pleased look on her face Magnus was a little afraid to know the meaning behind.

Thalia quickly kept going, swallowing a lump in her throat as Percy brushed his hand through a few gray strands of hair.

..."We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue—"

"Eternity," Will assured.

... You all need some tips on archery?"

Artemis grit her teeth.

A sentiment shared by her lieutenant, making the next sentence come out muffled and funny.

...The Hunters all groaned. Apparently they'd met Apollo before.

"Frequently," Thalia's smile was nostalgic, and a little sad. It wasn't so unusual to go weeks without seeing Artemis, but even before she'd been trapped down here and heard of Olympus closing it was going on longer than usual. Was it naïve of her to wish Poseidon had a book in that massive pile explaining all of this? She certainly had to wish for something good to come out of this torture she was about to endure herself through.

...He grinned at us, waiting for applause.

"Nobody applauded by the way," Nico offered.

"That wasn't five syllables," Alex looked devastated. "A god can't keep count? Isn't he the god of music too?"

Will rubbed the back of his head and chose not to answer that.

...What about I am so big-headed." "That's six syllables." He started muttering to himself.

"I kind of like him," Magnus chuckled, apparently having decided his brain wasn't melting since the sun god didn't blow up the continent from his sister's light ribbing.

 ... There once was a goddess from Sparta—"

"That was the most pleasant sentence she'd yet said to us," Percy grinned.

"The enemy of the limerick is my friend," Thalia nodded along.

...I am so awesome!" He bowed, looking very pleased with himself.

"Someone has to around there," Rachel smirked.

"I want all of this on record," Percy reminded, "when you were all freaking out about how I spoke to Ares."

"Apollo isn't Ares," Thalia scoffed, "he's chill to play along with, most of the time."

"If you're a girl, or one of his kids," Rachel reminded with a proud gesture at herself which only a few got; or his mortal oracle.

"I'm still hoping Percy doesn't press his luck by calling him something worse than big-headed," Jason muttered. He didn't think he'd ever get used to the casual way these Greek kids interacted with the gods.

...Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

Thalia gritted her teeth and talked herself out of getting seven arrows ready as someone muffled a snort. She didn't look up to see who.

...I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees-" Artemis interrupted, "you should get going."

"Wise words," Will said, but his smile was more sympathetic. "He gets all weepy every time about Daphne."

Percy gave him a blank look and assumed Will was talking about one of his siblings.

... They tended to get offended easily. Then they blew stuff up.

"See, that threat keeps being mentioned, but has yet to happen," Alex waved a hand around in disappointment.

"Are you hoping for a whole building, or a state?" Magnus asked indulgently.

"I'll settle for one person who annoys me," she shrugged.

... Ride only goes one way, west. And if you miss it, you miss it."

"That was ominous," Alex said cheerfully.

"Your dad's the god of prophecy too, right?" Percy asked uneasily to Will. "He's not as weird about that as he is with the poetry is he?"

Will helpfully didn't answer again by tugging on his ear and not looking at him. His dad had likely fixated on not just Percy in that moment, but maybe even scattered to the cosmos and back as he realized he was standing amongst the four children of the big three, more than had existed in decades, if not longer considering even before the pact they didn't congregate in the same place much. Perhaps Apollo had been trying to sense which of them was the child of the prophecy, or he'd had some internal sense about the Di Angelo kids or even Thalia's coming immortality in joining him as his half sister.

Or his dad could have been arguing with executives in Nashville, Tennessee and gotten distracted for a moment. It really was no telling with him.

... how will we all fit?"

"I was imagining him tying us to the bumper and was way to excited," Nico admitted, deciding if Percy wanted revenge for him laughing at that guinea pig moment he should get it over with now.

"I thought he'd tie us all to the hood instead like trophies," Percy instead agreed.

...Turtle Top shuttle buses like we used for school basketball games.

"Does it shoot manhole covers out of the front?" Alex grinned. "Does it have giant nunchuck arms?"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Percy was pleased to see everybody looked as confused as him about something for once.

"And I thought I had a bad childhood," she huffed without further explanation.

... You do not flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."

"She has that speech down pat," Thalia got her last ditch moment to smile at something as she informed them.

 "Sorry. I forgot.

"Be glad he's not the god of memory," Magnus muttered.

..."No, no! I never mess around."

Eight collective snorts circled the room this time, and Thalia's tense grip on the book finally eased just a bit.

... Zoe, you are in charge. Do as I would do."

"Can she turn people into jackalopes?" Percy asked in concern.

"If so, it's not a power I've discovered yet," Thalia said tragically, but she at least got one last genuine laugh too.

... "Who wants to drive?"

Alex's hand shot up like it was on fire, but the look on her face made all of them want to run screaming how soon she'd crash on purpose.

"Well that's already spoiled," Magnus reminded with that same way he always talked to her, like he'd be sitting in the passenger seat through the whole ride. "I'm sure you're not that bad of a driver Thalia, Apollo probably fixed New England," he finished cheerfully to her.

She didn't answer, eyes trained on the pages, the spine to close to her face. It was starting to worry them, they'd yet seen Thalia so unsettled.

The Hunters crammed in as far back  possible from the infectious males,

"That toxic masculinity crap is very contagious," Will said breezily.

"Makes you wonder what they were calling Thalia in their head," Jason said defensively.

"Nothing I cared about correcting," she shrugged. Some of the hunters were still old fashioned and thought her casual approach to boys insubordinate to the cause, but were still respectful of her position. It was a fine line she walked. Speaking of her sisters had kept the strain out of her voice for a moment, but Will grew concerned when it jumped right back.

Bianca sat with them, but Nico didn't seem to mind.

"Seemed to," he repeated, but managed to keep his own ire off the grid much better. He'd sat apart from his sister in busses before, she was usually good at making friends while he kept himself entertained. It never seemed to last, she'd always drift back over to sit with him and make sure he wasn't getting car sick or ask if he needed the bathroom. She hadn't this time. He had kept telling himself maybe Bianca was right and this might be a good change, let him grow up just a little without his sister constantly nagging at him in front of Percy.

"This is so cool!" Nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat.

"Your feet couldn't even reach the pedals," Percy told him fondly.

"Apollo could have readjusted it if he wanted," Nico insisted, "he's just as prejudiced as his twin. He wanted to impress his half-sister!"

"Maybe I can talk him into letting me drive it, I'll sneak you in and he'll have no choice," Will offered.

"I'm game!" Percy fist-pumped the air as hard as Alex had, apparently not picking up on the fact Will had been looking at Nico when he answered.

Nico's dark eyes were dancing with just a hint of excitement too as he whispered, "road trip, right. Because we haven't been forced to spend enough time together."

"It's strange, I've yet seen a hint of a hellhound being sicked onto me for this dragging out," Will grinned.

"She's on her way," Nico vowed, knowing it wouldn't take much coaxing to at least sick Mrs. O'Leary on him when they got back. He was pretty sure Will wouldn't drown in her doggy drool.

..."Downsizing," Apollo said. "The Romans started it.

Zzzzaaapp!

"Ouch!" Percy yelped, jumping away from Jason and rubbing his arm. "Dude! Nobody can complain I'm related to an electrical eel if you're going to shock me like that."

Nico's hair was standing on end too from sitting on his other side, but he quickly brushed it back down with an intrigued look at him, and then his forearm.

Rachel was studying him too with those eerie, too intelligent eyes that normally saw more than just the scar on his lip in the gloom.

"I what?" He hadn't taken his eyes off the book.

Percy sat back down beside him and made a few more jokes about the sea life starting to convert Jason, but Thalia was still jittery like she was sitting on an angler fish ready to snap and reading on distractedly before silence had fallen despite the fact she'd have liked the reprieve for a while longer.

... all those temple sacrifices. It was pretty annoying at first, but I got this cool car."

Jason's single minded focus on the book felt as unfulfilled as as popped balloon. Roman. The word battered around his brain disconnecting any smidge of rightness he'd thought he'd gotten used to.

For just a split second as the strange girl with black hair took a breath, he felt trapped between the Son of Neptune and Pluto. In a room full of enemies he'd have to escape.

Then Thalia kept reading, and Percy was still watching her with a clear feeling of nerves. He'd seemed ten times more on edge all day, with Annabeth now out of the foreseeable picture and his best friend in here as constantly on edge as him. It wasn't a problem he actually felt like he could help to fix, but it soothed away the building pressure in his skull he couldn't unravel.

...They've got a lot riding on the sun, er, so to speak.

"Pun, pun, pun," Will chuckled.

"I hate to ask, but your dad invented the dad joke, didn't he?" Nico sighed.

"He'll certainly claim he did," Will nodded.

...Make sense?" Nico shook his head. "No."

Rachel was smiling genially at the end and promised, "oh I'd love to go over this with you later then. My school actually has an interesting art program, and I did a construct take on Western Civilization over the eras and used cars to symbolize it."

Nico looked at her without response. He'd never had a direct conversation with her before, she was around camp more frequently than him but always hung around Percy or Chiron. "Um, that's not necessary, I'm good now."

He half expected her to be like Will and stubbornly insist he'd enjoy it, but she merely looked disappointed and let it go and he was surprised to feel guilty about that too.

..."Too furry." He looked past me and focused on Thalia.

Alex at least got a good laugh out of Percy and Nico's exact same disappointed look, and could all to easily imagine Grover would be even more offended.

... "How old are you?" Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."

"And the number gets murkier every year," she murmured to herself. Being immortal now meant she wasn't to concerned with keeping track of it either.

... she had kept aging while in tree form, but much more slowly.

Magnus let out an uneasy whistle. "That can't be fun."

"It's," she didn't finish, she didn't have to. She was sitting tense in her seat, she wanted to bury this book. She just had to be reminded of all that right before the worst Drivers Ed test in the universe!

... "That's not what I was going to say."

There were several things she'd like to say, most of them in Greek she was hissing now. Will shifted uneasily in his seat and wanted to go check on her, but Nico caught his arm and shook his head. He didn't know what was wrong, but he worried it was closer to Percy's headaches than something Will could diagnose.

...You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

"Um, should I be concerned!" Percy raised his hand with a lot of concern.

"This is a godly sanctioned trip?" But Rachel didn't sound all that convinced, and she was starting to feel terrible about encouraging Thalia to go through with this. She could feel a storm brewing in the air, and she was sitting next to the eye of it.

...Thalia tried to protest, but Apollo was not going to take "no" for an answer.

"I'm going to blow a whistle in this guy's ear and see if he can hear anything again," Alex scowled.

"Err, maybe save that for plan B," Magnus muttered.

... "You're gonna be a natural!"

'A natural disaster,' Nico kept to himself as he rubbed at his abused rib cage.

I'll admit I was jealous.

"That's twice I've admitted that to you," Percy tried to coax a fun rise out of her like usual, "I'm getting worried, where's the boasting Thals?"

She didn't answer, her bow and arrows were flickering in and out of existence on her back like a hologram swirled in with the plankton floating off the floor now, migrating towards her.

...make sure you've got good altitude before you really open up."

Thalia's voice cracked with stress, and an arc of lightning flickered over her fingers on the purple spine. She cleared her throat valiantly, and they'd all swear they felt thunder rumble on the ocean floor.

"Er, so, what do you think he named her?" Percy tried again. "Sunny?"

"I've never asked," Will admitted, his own hint of jealousy much more well covered than Percy's had been. He'd never actually been in his dads car and it had been a false promise to Nico anyways.

...She looked like she was going to be sick.

They needed that description since no one could see her face, and had guessed it without the proof.

... "N-nothing is wrong."

"Thalia, you sure you don't want to step out of here?" Percy stood up wearily in concern.

"Nothing's wrong!" She repeated in the same convincing tone as she continued reading in. Percy forced himself to sit back down, feeling useless how to help her but ready to drown someone on the spot if anybody else bugged her.

... "I'm loose!" She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood.

"That tree got its roots in you?" Magnus asked uneasily, his mind still on that fleece. Did she get sick when she left the ground?

She was still ignoring everybody, they could see tendons in her neck. It looked painful reading, and Rachel would swear she saw a bead of blood on the page like she'd bit her tongue before she'd violently flipped pages.

... We were at airplane height, so high the sky was starting to look black.

"That's one way to stop global warming," Alex said under her breath, but more because she felt like it would insult Thalia if they pretended everything wasn't okay. Even if she wasn't listening, the background words had to help a bit.

... I'd never seen her like this.

Nobody had before, except Luke. She could still vividly recall standing on that roof, the way the world had spun sickeningly- but it was Apollo trying to talk her through this stupid bus! She was fine, she was in control!

The bus pitched down and somebody screamed. Maybe it was me.

"I think Zoe was guilty actually," Nico muttered as he rubbed his ear, but it could have been Thalia, or himself. Maybe Grover could shriek that loud if his fur was in a twist too.

...The white steeple on a church turned brown and started to smolder.

"Talk about divine intervention," Alex offered.

"I thought that was a comet," Magnus said in wonderment, it had all blinked in and out of existence so fast, he'd thought he'd imagined the heat before the snow surrounded them again. That Mist was powerful stuff.

... "Long Island, dead ahead. 'Dead' is only an expression."

"Only if you use it wrong," Nico said softly, studying Thalia carefully. She didn't have a death aura, the opposite with her faint, immortal silver glow still around her, but power was crackling out from her in the same dangerous current Percy so often gave off. She was starting to sweat, and he couldn't decide if he should let Will go to check on her or duck in front of the guy if she went off.

... slamming into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake.

"That explains that warning sign," Rachel popped the side of her head in relief. "I always wondered why the naiads told me they needed one for no bus parking in there."

Thalia still wouldn't look up.

... Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"

"Define important?" Percy asked as he rubbed at his head to make sure it was still attached.

"If Dionysus hasn't killed them yet I like her chances," Nico shrugged.

"Oh shush, all of you," Jason jumped in as Thalia still had a strangle hold on the book and didn't even seem to realize she was done despite Rachel trying to tug it away. "We don't have to learn every detail of each other's lives, Thalia's entitled to whatever was bothering her to stay with her."

"We weren't teasing," Nico assured as he got up. "Awkward silence would be worse though, right Thalia?"

She was still taking calming breaths and fighting down shame just the memory of that had freaked her out so badly, but quickly waved Nico on so she wouldn't have to respond, practically throwing it into his chest. So Percy hadn't figured it out, his face as clueless and concerned as ever, but it was just a matter of time until they had to deal with that pig and Percy truly did remember, then the jokes would start. If nobody else got it sooner.