x. family ties

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THEA VOLUNTEERS TO CAUSE A DISTRACTION AGAIN TO GET THE PRESS TO GO AWAY, BUT NONE OF THEM AGREE. Apparently, she's "too tired" and they "have to deal with the issue eventually." Which is easy for them, because it's simple. They are spoon-fed a story, that Ares is a kidnapper who took them from New York City all the way to LA, and that they just want to see their families.

Thea, however, makes up a fake name because technically she doesn't exist, and says she's a friend of Percy's, which is . . . definitely a lie, Percy isn't her friend at all. They did fly, something that terrifies her to no end, and they split up once they get outside of the airport in New York—Percy going to Olympus with the master bolt, and them to Camp Half-Blood.

She had gripped the collar of his shirt and said that she'd break his nose, that she was going, but he had made a sarcastic comment that she was worried about him, and she decided he can get smited if that's what he wanted.

It all leads up to her, on the porch of what is called the "Big House," in front of Chiron. He looks older than her mother described, but just as Thea had pictured.

"Thea Vasquez, Andraya's daughter," he greets, his eyes sparkling with something she thinks is love. "I feared that you were gone after I sent a satyr to your home. I waited for you to arrive, but when you didn't, I assumed you died."

"Well, I did die. Technically."

He nods and gestures for her to sit down. She does. "I heard about that from Luke. You were . . . turned to stone by Medusa, and awoke when they were fighting her?"

"Yes, I—I don't know how. It was strange. I didn't even know any time had passed until they told me."

"It's alright, child, no one expects you to." He sits down in a wheelchair, his legs disappear within it, and she tries not to focus on whatever that is. "You made it to Camp Half-Blood after all these years, that's all that matters."

She blinks and stares down at the table as her eyes begin to burn. She did it. She made it here. She's at Camp Half-Blood, where her mother wanted her to be, where her father might claim her, where her cousin—

"My cousin," she says, abruptly. "Is he here?"

"Your cousin?"

"Charlie—Charles Beckendorf, he said everyone here called him by his last name." She holds her injured hand a bit too tightly and allows the pain to stop her from crying. "Is he still alive?"

"I forgot that was Angela's son, I'll go get him—"

"He's alive?" she says, eyes wide. "Charlie's alive?"

"Of course. He's at the forges, I think it might be best if I get him—"

"Go get him," she says, sharp. "Please."

He leaves and Thea pulls nervously at the hilt of her sword. Charlie had made it when he was only eleven, so it wasn't the best, but he was proud of it, and Thea had hugged him unbearably tight when he gave it to her. He'd gotten help from his siblings at Camp Half-Blood, and they gave input, helping him along. He had put the same tape that went on baseball bats around the hilt because he remembered Thea always got painful callouses from the metal of her other sword's hilt.

It's fraying, too many battles in such a small amount of time. But it does help, her hands aren't as raw. Charlie was always right.

Charlie was always right.

That's what her mother had always said, because every time Thea and Charlie got into an argument, he was always right. He was a year younger than her, but he was always smarter. "It's because of my dad," he'd always say, and Thea would laugh, because no, it was all him. It always was.

She looks out over Camp Half-Blood, where people are playing in the strawberry fields and lounging carefree. She knows that this is why he loved it so much. It's just like he said—undescribable.

"Hey, Chiron said you were here for me? I—"

Thea turns her head and Charlie's words catch in his throat, his eyes wide. Tears immediately fill her eyes. He's so tall. Because, of course. He's fifteen, he's older than her. He isn't that scrawny little kid anymore. It's been three years without her. Three years of her being stone and him growing older.

"T-Thea?"

She stands up and her sword clatters to the ground. "Charlie."

As if her words break whatever spell he was under, his arms are around her, hugging her so tight that she almost can't breathe. Charlie's little twig arms never did that, not before. He's still warm from the forge, ash still on him, but she doesn't care about that, not when he is there, real, hugging her like his life depends on it.

"How are you—you're so young—"

"It's a long story," she laughs, her tears getting caught in her throat. "There were these kids—Grover and Percy and Annabeth—and they found me and—"

"You were the girl in the stone," he whispers, hugging her even tighter. "Thea, I swear I had no idea, if I did—"

"Charlie, you couldn't have known. I'm just . . . I'm happy you're here now."

"So, you're, what? Still thirteen? Fourteen?"

"Thirteen," she says. "Crazy, I know. I'd be a year older than you if I hadn't gotten trapped by Medusa. Guess it's Big C and Little T now."

He laughs but it comes out like a cough from his tears. "Gods, that's weird. I just—I can't believe you're here. We all thought you were dead, I thought you were dead."

"Nah, I escaped death twice. Or a lot more than that, actually. But, hey, enough with the tears, it's making me uncomfortable." He pulls away and rolls his eyes at the typical Thea comment. "You better show me your siblings, I didn't hear about them for years for you not to show me them."

"Oh, you'll love them. Nyssa was excited to meet you until—"

"Yeah, that," she says. "Now c'mon, show me this 'Nyssa.'"

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THEA MEETS ALL of Charlie's siblings. At least the ones on his godly side, she's never met the ones on his mother's side in person. And it's safe to say Thea feels perfectly at home amongst them. They were overjoyed to see her, happy that Charlie's cousin was alive and happy to see him at what they said was "the happiest he's ever been."

Thea hasn't seen Annabeth or Grover since she arrived, not since they split apart at the Big House when she said she wanted to ask Chiron about Charlie. Part of her wants to go, to make sure they are okay, but she can't force herself to move off of Charlie's bed, in the cabin where all of his siblings are, where they're talking and laughing—where he is alive.

"It's still so crazy," Nyssa says, her dark brown eyes practically glittering with excitement. "Annabeth and Grover are the first people to ever make it back from a quest in years—and, y'know, Percy too—and it's the first time they've ever brought someone back in decades. The last time they did it was, like, 1968."

"Oh. I didn't know that people didn't come back from quests," Thea says. "My mom went on quests a lot, mostly when she was younger, and she always came back . . ."

"Well, it's different here," Jake says. "Who was your mom? I didn't think demigods made it long enough to have kids."

"She wasn't a demigod, her grandmother was Hecate, so she knew about the demigod world since her mom was one." She shrugs. "Her name was Andraya Vasquez."

"Andraya?" Nyssa gasps, lurching forward on her bed. "Oh my gods, Beckendorf! You never told us you were related to Andraya Vasquez!"

"I didn't know she was a big deal, and then it was too late . . ." He smiles apologetically. "I didn't think anyone would believe me."

"Is my mom popular?" Thea hesitantly asks. "I know she was amongst the gods, but—"

"Are you kidding, she's famous!" Nyssa says. "She was a beast. But she wasn't really known until—until you know . . ."

"Her death." Thea pulls a knee to her chest. "Yeah, I get it. Did . . . did anyone ever go back to my house? To see if we were alive?"

"People tried," Charlie says as he puts a hand comfortingly on her knee. "Chiron sent out two quests, but no one ever returned. He even sent some of his brothers but—I don't know. They said the woods had a 'bad aura' and they wouldn't go near it. We just . . . assumed you were gone. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Bad stuff happened there, anyway, I doubt the place is still standing."

A part of her shrivels at the thought of her home being nothing but ruins with ivy across it, scorch marks in the gardens. It hasn't been her home for some time, not since she left it after her mother died, but still, it's awful to imagine what it has become.

"We should get you to the Hermes cabin," Charlie says. "You can sit your stuff down, take a shower. By then it'll be dinner. It'll be fine."

She nods. "Okay. Sure. That—that sounds okay."

He leads her out and she tucks her jacket tighter around herself as they pass other people who stare at her. At the girl from stone. At Charlie Beckendorf's not-dead cousin.

"Do you ever sit that bag down?" he asks humorously. "And where'd you get it from? You didn't have it—well, back then."

"I didn't." She kicks a rock with her boot. "I stole it after a monster ripped mine apart. It holds a lot, and it doubles as a pillow. Kinda stiff, but it works, y'know?" He doesn't laugh. "Yeah, the homeless joke doesn't usually make people laugh."

"Yeah, not really funny." He glances at her. "Thea...what really happened?"

"Someone didn't want us alive," she says, her eyes beginning to burn with tears. She tried to push the image of her mom, ax in hand, as the hellhound grabbed her, but it was impossible. "I don't—it's hard to understand, I can't explain it. But there were so many . . . more than I've ever seen. And with mom's magic—they couldn't have known we were there, someone let them know, Charlie. Someone—someone killed my mom, and they tried to kill me, too. I think—I think I was supposed to die that night, and I think I was supposed to die three years ago, too."

"Thea, you can't say stuff like that—"

"But it's true, Charlie," she says, her voice cracking. "I can feel it. Something doesn't want me alive. I don't know what it is but it's-—t's not happy I didn't die with her."

"So . . . you're saying something out there tried to kill you—twice, actually—and it still wants to?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Well, shit. Guess we got our hands full, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess we do."

Things are wrong, something powerful is angry—but Thea is alive, she is happy, and she has her cousin. That is enough for her.

A/N: here's the end of act one! i
know it's soon, but it's the right
place to end. thea doesn't know
luke, so the betrayal doesn't matter
to her. this is her "ending place" for
the year. so into the sea of monsters!!
also: sometime this month i'll unpublish
to edit, but it'll be back up soon after that!