A storm raged over Camp Half-Blood the night that Tyson left for the Cyclops Forges at Poseidon's court. Due to the Golden Fleece having healed Thalia's pine tree sufficiently, the storm passed over camp like normal. However, this knowledge did nothing to help the foreboding feeling that had placed itself in my chest. My predictions always had a knack for coming true, and as if I was one of the Three Fates myself, they were almost never pleasant. My predictions were never wrong, no matter how much I might want them to be.

Lightning danced in the sky above camp as I feel asleep, as if the sky was sharing my feelings as well. My dreams were just as restless as they have been for weeks now. Demigods' dreams were almost never just dreams, but visions not meant to be easily brushed off as some nightmares dream scape.

When I opened my eyes in the dream, I saw the same cliff that I saw a year ago when Annabeth, Grove, and I had snuck into the Underworld. It was the cliff that Luke's shoes tried to drag Grover down into. Tarturus waited down there, with monsters and creatures older than some of the gods themselves. I could hear a voice calling from down below, taunting me. Polybitues sits alone in his cave, fooling himself into believing that he has won a great battle, Kronos' sickening voice calling up to me, what stops you from being the same as him? And there it was, a source for my uneasiness. Something had felt off since we sent Clarrise back to camp with the Fleece, it seemed as if Luke let us go too easily. Now I know that's because he had.

My dream changed as I heard Kronos' acidic laugh. This time I was following my brother, Tyson down to Poseidon's court. On a deep blue throne, with coral decorating it, sat a man that somehow looked regal in a fisherman's clothing. As if noticing my presence, he looked me in the eyes and spoke the same two words that had been mailed to me days ago, "Brace yourself."

I woke up with a start.

There was a loud banging at my door. Though annoying, it could not yet be called persistent since the perpetrator of the noise let themselves into my cabin before I could even call out to them. Grover. The half goat was stuttering something about Annabeth and the hill. "She's lying there... just lying there..." was the most coherent sentence that the boy could manage to form. The look in his eyes wasn't that of grief or wordiness like I would have expected if Annabeth had been attacked while on guard duty last night, or if she had been killed. Instead there was an intense look of panic, wrongness, and above all, fear.

Something was off.

I ran outside, across the central yard with Grover following close behind me. Dawn was just breaking on what would have been another pleasant day at camp. The horn for breakfast had not yet rung, but still the whole camp was alive due to the event happening at Half-Blood Hill. The campers were stirring and coming out of their cabins, whispers following us as we ran to the hill. I couldn't help but to recall my dreams as we ran, some of the other campers joining us in some bizarre fashion of armor and pajamas. Kronos' strange proclamation and my sense of foreboding. I think I'm starting to understand where this is going, and I wasn't sure I liked it all that much.

A familiar clop of horse hooves rang in my eyes, and out of the side of my eye I saw Chiron galloping up beside us. His face was grim. The centaur grabbed me by my arm, hurriedly swung me up onto his back, his actions telling just how dire the situation was since this was something the man would normally never do.

We thundred to Half-Blood Hill. Chiron was mumbling something to himself, like a scientist just figuring out why the experiment had not quite gone the way that he had wanted. "Cure the titan lord," he whispered. "He's tricked us again, given himself another chance to control the prophecy."

I didn't have to ask him what he meant.

We came upon the top of the hill, everyone lifelessly moving out of our way, their faces all similarly struck like they had seen a ghost. We stopped at the base of the tree, where a strange girl was lying. Annabeth, still clad in her Greek armor, was kneeling next to the girl.

Chiron was speaking to himself again, "The fleece healed the poison from the tree," he whispered just loud enough for me to hear, "but it seems that the position was not the only thing that the tree had purged"

I lept off of Chiron's back and went to the girl. Chiron was screaming at me to wait, but I ignored the centaur. Kneeling by the girl's side, I studied her as I put my hand to her cool forehead. She was freezing, but alive. The girl was dressed somewhere between the styles of punk and goth: a black shirt made ineffective by the holes in it from some monster's claws, the tattered black jeans of a street kid, and a well kept leather jacket with buttons on it of bands that I had never heard of before.

"She needs nectar and ambrosia," I called out. I had none on me, but I figured that at least one of the campers that had taken the time to throw on armor would have at least thought to bring something to help any wounded. The girl below me had just been removed from the tree and the fleece's care, and if no one did anything fast, her father would have to turn her into a tree once more.

"Come on! What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House." I screamed at them. I knew what was wrong with them, the demigods were too caught up in their own shock to be able to function efficiently. The campers that had all fought, and won, against monsters, were now standing uselessly around us.

Still, someone moved, just not a camper. The girl in question took a shaky breath below me. Her movement reminded me of someone who had just woken up from a nightmare that they had been unable to escape. She coughed as her eyelids fluttered open to reveal startling electric blue eyes. She stared at me, those same eyes holding a question in them.

"Who-" she started.

I cut her off, not wanting her to waste her energy on something so pointless. "I'm Percy," I told her, "you're safe now."

The girl commented on having a strange dream of dying. I didn't tell her that this had happened, nor how long ago it happened. This girl was the very same girl from my vision not too long ago. The one that had traveled with Grover, Luke and Annabeth. The person that I had been told would either be my best friend, or my worst enemy.

Though I already knew her name before she said it, I asked anyway.

"I'm Thaila," the girl said, "Daughter of Zues"

‐‐‐

Thalia passed out not much longer after that. She must have exhausted her limited energy while speaking. I glanced around and couldn't help but feel disappointed at the still shocked faces of the campers. My cousin was light in my arms as I picked her up and carried her down Half-Blood Hill. I would have to talk to Chiron about getting her on a proper diet now that she's no longer a street kid or a tree.

My movement must have woken some of the campers up from their stupor, because the next second I felt the wind of bodies rushing past me. Some of the older Apollo cabin members were running down the hill, golden hair blazing in the morning sun, to the Big House to prepare a spot for Thalia in the infirmary. I arrived a minute or so later, the place was bustling with movement. One of the campers directed me to a bed and helped me place Thalia down on it.

"Need a hand?" I asked the older boy. The camper was reluctant, but after glancing at the chaos surrounding us, he sighed in resignation.

"Sure. The nectar and ambrosia are over there," he pointed to a tall cabinet, "grab some of both."

I looked at the condition of Thaila's body for a second and asked, "child size amount? She doesn't like she could handle much more than that." Even though Thalia looked to be about fifteen, having still aged while she was a tree, she was still weak from the poison.

The camper's face became puzzled for a moment and then seemed to wash over with a pleasant surprise. "That's right," he nodded at me while smiling.

Over the next two days, I spent most of my time in the infirmary helping the Apollo Cabin with the minor day-to-day demigod injuries, so someone could always keep an eye on Thalia and her condition. I learned how dress wounds, preform stiches, and do other menial medical task that were too small to really justify the use of ambrosia.

"You sure your not a child of Apollo," the same camper from before jocked at one point. I only gave him a playful smile while messing with the water from a nearby pitcher as if to prove my point. The camper sighed jokingly and watched as I maneuvered the water and refilled all the patients' cups. Spending time here has helped with my control.

Despite all the positive effects of my being here, my motive wasn't to help, but to observe. I listened to the way the campers talked and gossiped about Thalia's sudden re-emergence. The campers were scared of what was to come. Now that there was a new child of a broken oath, there was a new chance for Kronos to control the prophecy.

Though no one out right said it, I could tell that most camper were wary of the girl for this very reason. Anytime someone came into the infirmary, they made sure to give Thalia a wide berth. In her frist life, the sleeping girl had been very close to Luke, they were like family. The campers were worried that this closeness. To them, she was a loose canon waiting to explode.

However, something told me this wasn't the case. Eventhough I know that their fears are plausible, I couldn't seem to make myself care about them. If Annabeth, a girl that was desperately and disgustingly, in love with Luke could stand against him, so could Thalia.

During the time that Thalia was asleep, Grover and Annabeth barely left her side. This was the other reason that I offered to help; it was easier to study people when they didn't know that was what you're doing.

For his part, Grover seemed stuck somewhere between sadness and relief. Thalia was the girl whose reaponsiblity for her death he had been carrying on his shoulders for years now. The thought of her being back was like drinking nectar after the hardest battle of your life.

Annabeth couldn't stop staring at Thalia. Every few minutes she would touche the sleeping girl in some way. It was like Annabeth was checking to make sure this wasn't all a dream. That her friend was really back.

Chiron stopped by on the second day, the look he gave Thalia was almost... fatherly. If I were to guess he and Annabeth had talked since Thalia came back. They both seemed determined to keep her on the path of Olympus and its perseverance rather than ruin. 

---

On the night of the second day since Thalia's emergence, I was cleaning the storage while the three were sitting with Thalia.

"It's like she's auditioning for Sleeping Beauty," I commented while walking over to them, "you know, minus the old timey clothing" Annabeth shot me an acidic look. "Okay. Not funny"

Just then, the Sleeping Beauty in question concluded her audition. The girl's eyes fluttered open. "Where-" she didn't get to finish her question as Annabeth threw herself at Thalia.

"Welcome back to the land of the living Mrs. Grace," Chiron said. He smiled warmly at the girl. "Maybe once your better I could teach you some tricks like controlling the mist"

Oh.

"Hey! Once your better let's go on a quest together, like old times" Annabeth exclaimed. She looked like a little kid again.

Oh.

"Yeah, I'll come too" Grover added.

"Yeah-" Thalia said. She seemed to be coming out of being startled. "I'd like that."

Watching the three of them. It felt like losing something that was never rightfully mine in the first place. Like I was the interloper instead of her.

They were all too consumed with eachother to notice that I was gone...