Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson & the Olympians or Naruto. Percy Jackson & the Olympians and Naruto are the property of Rick Riordan and Masashi Kishimoto respectively and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

-|Anticlimax|-

You shall be the lone demigod to take this quest

You may earn a pardon through twelve tasks as a test

At death's entrance, the heroine to bid farewells

Thorny walls and fiery towers to toll their bells

Thalia stands in the Big House Attic staring at the Oracle of Delphi. Her mind repeats the prophecy the dried up corpse gave her.

"Thalia?"

Pride sparks in her for not jumping in surprise at Luke's voice. If she had to guess, her lack of a reaction stems from the lack of full surprise. Her experience with Luke, Annabeth, and Grover gave her a heightened awareness. It gave her the edge over other demigods who's main alarm system was their ADHD. Her experience in her quest trumps that.

The cold metal under her fingers brings a smile to her face. She didn't jump in surprise. While her mind was absent, her body was ready and was already reaching for her mace before Luke spoke up. It isn't up to par with Zoe's or Shinobu's awareness or reflex, but it far better than most demigods'.

"Thalia?"

She jumps. Her cheeks warm with embarrassment. She was so far into praising herself in her own mind that she zoned out.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you." Luke's tone lacks its usual vibrancy. The Big House Attic does that.

All joy drains away from everyone one who enters the room.

"Are you alright?"

Thalia shakes her head. "I'm fine. Just thinking."

"The quest?"

She glances at the various trophies stored in the attic. Many of them are the spoils taken by demigods along their quests. "The prophecy."

"What of it?"

Her eyes return to the corpse sitting on the wooden chair. "It's funny."

"Excuse me?"

"When I first got the prophecy, it scared me." It's hard to admit that a few words could scare her like a child. "It said that a heroine would say goodbye at death's entrance."

"And of course, you consider yourself as the heroine."

She elbows him at the rib but gives him a grateful smile at his attempt to lighten the mood. "That part isn't wrong. I am the heroine."

"You're here," he whispers.

"It wasn't saying I would die, just say goodbye. Daedalus and Shinobu had to stay at the Underworld and Zoe left with her hunters." The Hunters of Artemis heard rumors of a rare creature in the Underworld and couldn't pass up the chance. Something in the way Zoe told her of their plans told Thalia to keep that tidbit of info to herself.

"I'm sorry about Shinobu."

"She's not dead, just unwell. Daedalus mentioned something about soul energy or something. Shinobu's not staying there forever, just a year." She smiles. "Maybe the old robot can teach her some English while she's recovering."

"Sounds like good news all around. You didn't even have to go through the twelve labors garbage Heracles had."

"I talked to Chiron about that. He disagrees."

"You don't sound convinced."

"He says I did do twelve tasks. I killed the Stygian birds for stupid deer antlers. We went through the labyrinth. Me powering up that machine to clear our path is enough of a chore. Shinobu killed the Nemean Lion. Heck, if chipping paint off from Hades' palace doesn't count, nothing should."

Luke chuckles.

Thalia zaps him. "I mega-tasered a lot Arai for Shinobu to finish off after I flew over the Acheron. The Maeonian Drakon was far from a cakewalk."

"There you go. You did a lot of tasks."

"I forgot you don't know how to count. Seven is far from twelve."

"Count flying over the Acheron and killing Arai as separate tasks and you get eight."

"And the four."

Luke rolls his eyes. "If you didn't have such a large ego, you'd have noticed that you didn't do half the things you mentioned."

"I'm not a liar!"

"You're not humble either. By your own words, Shinobu killed the Nemean Lion and the Arai. I'm also guessing you 'forgot' some of the hunter's contributions."

She crosses her arms and raises a brow at him. "What are you saying?"

"Come on. I saw the fight you had the last time she sent you an invitation to her little group."

"We didn't have a fight."

"You almost fried her."

"That was an accident! It's not like I threw a lightning bolt at her!"

"You'd miss."

"Funny. I don't seem to have much trouble hitting you."

"You got me once. The others don't count as throwing lighting."

She punches him in the shoulder and heads down to stairs.

"What? No comeback for that one?"

"Too easy." Despite her cocky words, she felt tired. The back and forth reminds her too much of her time with Zoe. Luke is right. She and Zoe tended to clash against each other. He is also wrong. She doesn't hate Zoe. Thalia understands why Luke would assume she does.

For a brief period in her life, she thought she disliked the hunter too. It wasn't until she and Zoe parted ways that she realized she didn't hate her. She didn't even dislike Zoe. They disagree on many things, but she disagreed with Luke, Annabeth, and Grover a lot too.

It brings forth the question of how she feels about the Lieutenant of Artemis. The easy answer is as a friend. It isn't wrong, but the friendship she has with Zoe is different. Why? Her friendship with Luke, Annabeth, and Grover grew under the camaraderie forged in hardship.

She met Luke first. Two demigods together have a better chance than each has alone. They later ran into Annabeth, or she ran into them. They moved from safe house to safe house until they had to get supplies from Luke's house.

Thalia rubs her knees at the memory.

Luke's mom was nice, kinda. She was leagues better than some mortal parents at least. They left soon after for reasons personal to Luke.

The three of them came upon Grover who convinced them to head to Camp Half-Blood. They met the Hunters of Artemis on their way to camp. Thalia almost joined them instead. Zoe gave convincing arguments of the benefits of being a hunter rather than a camper. She and Zoe argued.

Thalia turns her eyes to Luke following behind her.

It was after that when more dangerous monsters chased after them. She blames Hades for that. The Furies and hellhounds that attacked once they neared camp made his involvement obvious. It was then that they met Shinobu who helped them out.

Thalia winces as she remembers how that ended.

"What do you want?" She gives herself a pat on the back on how convincing her false annoyance is.

"No longer wanting to get lost in your own head?"

Not convincing enough for Luke it turns out. "Any ideas on what the other four are?"

"Subtle."

"Shut up."

"I thought you wanted to talk?"

"Luke."

"Fine. You're no fun today."

"Says Mr. Broody."

"I don't brood."

"Right."

"I'm not sure how much of the rumors I heard are true."

"Subtle."

"Do you want to hear my guesses or not?"

"Go ahead. If you say something that didn't happen, I'll let you know."

"The hunter asking the giant to fix Hermes' shrine might be one."

"Would Damasen's repair job count?"

"Like I said, a task may not have to be something you yourself do."

"How about Zoe convincing Damasen to give everything he had as a sacrifice to Hermes?"

"It might count, but the repair and sacrifice might count as a single task."

"I guess that counts out Zoe freeing him from his curse as well."

"Yeah. If it doesn't link to him fixing the shrine, it might link to killing the Drakon."

"Great. We get a single credit for kill the Drakon twice and cursing it for eternity."

"When has being a demigod ever been fair?"

She sighs. "Shinobu got the finishing blow on the Drakon twice."

Luke raises a brow at her sudden admittance.

"Demigods already don't get their fair share. I won't take credit for someone else's victory."

Luke nods. "You getting Hades his pets back should count."

"Do you think surviving Tartarus as a whole is one?"

"It's possible that everything you did in Tartarus gets grouped into one. Maybe other than surviving Nyx."

Thalia makes no comment. In truth, she doesn't remember much of her encounter with Nyx. Sometimes she wonders if that part was just a vivid nightmare.

"You're lucky the giant held his end of the bargain. I doubt the gods would have sent you that battleship if not for his offering."

"We were lucky to have survived any moment in Tartarus. Too bad surviving is all we got out of it."

"Don't be so sure."

"More rumors?"

"There was another meeting between the cabin counselors. They were talking about the stuff you brought back."

"And?"

"The laptop you brought back got the most interest."

"Daedalus' gift?"

"It has blueprints."

"The counselors are showing interest in blueprints? I'd understand Cabin 6. Athena is their mom." Annabeth, for example, didn't hide her own desire to see the laptop when she heard about it.

"Cabin 5 is demanding a camp-wide project."

"Ares's brats?"

"Wow. You have no idea what the blueprints are about at all. Didn't you at least take a peek?"

"Technology and demigods don't mix."

"The laptop doesn't attract monsters. Maybe it's because it can't connect to the internet."

It wouldn't surprise Thalia if Daedalus made sure it couldn't attract monsters. "So? What's the big fuss about?"

"Camp Half-Blood."

"What?"

"It's a blueprint of camp with proposed upgrades. They say it's the whole point of the quest."

"How?"

"The quest was to get camp more protection."

"Sure, but I thought getting Hades to back off is the point. He even gave us some of his hellhounds as guard dogs."

"It helps, but we can't rely on the moods of the gods for safety."

"And these upgrades?"

"It has layouts for fortified walls and guard towers with turrets and inbuilt flamethrowers. There are also chemical formulas to fuel those flamethrowers."

"Let me guess, Greek fire."

"Nah. From what I hear, it's something people invented more than 150 years ago."

"I get why the war kids are into this, what about the rest? It's hard to see Cabin 4 jumping for joy at the news."

"There are also a few notes on covering the walls with special vines to make them impossible to scale. The kids of Demeter are trying to breed something thorny, slippery, poisonous, and venomous."

"Don't tell me they're still mad about the strawberry thing?"

"They are, but it's not their main motivation. The satyrs are holding a protest."

"You're serious."

"Yeah. It's something about how Demeter is the Goddess of Agriculture, not nature."

"I don't get it."

"Agriculture is a science. It involves breeding plants and animals so they're better for human or divine wants."

"They've gone mad scientist, haven't they?"

"No."

Silence.

"Maybe a bit."

"Cabin 10?"

"Aphrodite's kids?"

"The chatterboxes must consider the whole thing is unfashionable or some junk."

"They helping with the vine."

"Why? No, wait. I don't want to know."

"Want to hear what Cabin 7 is up to?"

"No. I'm no longer interested in whatever Apollo's children are up to."

"Why not?"

"I've got a headache."

"It's a lot to take in, huh?"

"So much is changing."

Luke nods. "Chiron said the same thing. I don't get the sense he's seen such a rapid shift in Camp Half-Blood in a long while."

"Camp Half-Blood is changing."

Is it for the better?