READ THIS! If you didn't see in the description, or read my other stories, the characters in this story are from previous stories that I have written. (First Blind, then a continuation of that story). So some stuff might not make sense if you haven't already read those. If you have and are here for the new story I hope you like it! I most likely will not be able to post with the rapidity I was able to with my previous stories. I'm really busy at the moment, and I'm not as far as I usually am in a story before I post, but I wanted to at least get the first chapter up. Again, hope you like it.

~secrethalfblood

Dpov

The second I stepped off the bus I wished I hadn't.

"Why is it so humid here?" I asked in horror breathing in the muggy air. It might have been almost twenty degrees cooler here than it was back home in Arizona, but in some ways the heat in the city was almost worse.

"You know DC was pretty much a swamp before it was made into a city right?" Hannah asked pulling her long hair back into a pony tail as other people around us complained about the humidity.

"I am not built for this climate." I muttered grumpily.

"Will you relax?" she said rolling her eyes.

"You realize we're going to a giant green house right? It's going to be just as bad."

"Well if you were so averse to the idea, why did you bother coming?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

I didn't answer because it would have been awkward. This field trip was the last big trip of the year for the naturalist club at our school back home, a club I'd only joined to spend more with Hannah when we were dating. I didn't have much interest in plants, but she loved them so going to the National Botanical Garden was like her dream come true. We'd paid for the trip before we'd broken up so, here I was, stuck on a field trip I didn't really want to be on, with my ex girlfriend, who was now back to being my best friend, and I didn't know how to feel about the whole thing.

"Come on," she said as the group started moving towards the massive building.

I followed, letting my mind wander as my gaze fell on the rest of the students. I wasn't really sure how well I fit in with the rest of these kids. Most of them were underclassmen and, well, geeks. Apart from Hannah I didn't really talk to anyone in the club and if I was honest, I really didn't see me coming back next year. I already missed half the meetings for soccer practices anyways.

"Would you cheer up?" Hannah asked in exasperation and I raised an eyebrow at her. She was the only one who ever talked to me like that, except for some of my siblings. I was nearly a foot taller than her, but when she was annoyed with me she had the attitude of a person with a much more intimidating size. "We're going to one of the most beautiful places in the world and then you get to see your sister after." She continued. "Do you really expect me to feel sorry for you for being in the nation's capital, seeing some of the most exotic plants in the world, then getting to spend a whole train ride causing trouble with Thea?"

"True." I said grinning. Instead of going back to Arizona with the rest of the club, Hannah and I had gotten permission to leave for camp directly from DC with my sister and her fiancé Adam. I was really excited to have this time with Thea because ever since she'd become head of our cabin she'd been really busy. That on top of planning her wedding, and going to a really good school made it almost impossible for her to cause trouble like she used to, and I wanted to get at least some time to hang out with her before the summer was over. No one in our cabin liked to talk about it, but we knew that in a few months when she finally got married, she wasn't coming back.

It was because of this I was determined for this summer to be as much as fun as possible. I loved all my siblings but Thea had always been there for me. She was the one who taught me how to use my powers and consistently supported me, even when I'd done some pretty stupid things.

"So stop sulking." Hannah said linking her arm with mine and pulling me after the group.

My heart skipped a beat in a familiar way at the contact, but I ignored it. This was one of the many confusing things about being around her lately. The line between best friend and girlfriend seemed to have blurred. Sometimes I even forgot we weren't dating anymore.

Despite this, I let her drag me towards the building, her eyes shining with excitement. It looked like it was made out of giant bird cages stacked next together, with glass windows between the wires and from the second we stepped inside the air was damp and I could smell soil.

Hannah practically vibrated with anticipation as we waited to step into the main section of the green houses. She rattled off all the plants she knew were here and which ones she'd hoped to find. Finally, our group made it through the line and she gasped her eyes wide, looking around at what felt like an arena of flora all battling to out do each other. I had to admit the sight of it was staggering. Being from Arizona, we didn't usually get to see this much green.

Sunlight streamed the the walls and the roof, which were all made of glass, and caught the leaves of what looked like a million different species of plants. It threw the floor into shadow, and covered us in a slight emerald tinge which went well with the rest of the shades around us. Flowers were everywhere, in all shapes and colors, some climbing two stories high or winding around trees. They spilled out into the walk way narrowing the path so that we could only walk two at a time.

"Wow." She said breathlessly and I grinned. I couldn't help it. Usually she was so quiet and flowers were the only thing that got her this excited. In that excitement, several plants burst into bloom as she walked by them, and I could have sworn some even turned in her direction.

As I looked around I realized she was right. This place really was beautiful, not that I could let her know that. I knew if I told her I'd never hear the end of it.

"You're such a dork." I said looking down at her.

She didn't respond, but continued to turn looking around the light reflecting in her amber eyes and the moisture in the air causing her hair to curl even more than usual. I was so entertained by her reaction, I didn't notice the skinny boy approach until he spoke.

"Hannah, look at this Lily!" he said eagerly. "It's one of the only ones in North America."

We turned and I felt a stab of irritation go through me when I recognized Darius, the only other Junior in the club. He was tall and awkward, with glasses and curly blonde hair that seriously needed to be cut or styled, but was currently just a mess. I knew he wasn't that interested in flowers, Darius was more of an insect kind of guy, but what he was interested was Hannah. I could tell from my very first club meeting he had a crush on her, and as her best friend and her ex, I couldn't like this guy if he'd handed me a brief case full of solid gold bars.

"Yeah, we can read the plaque too." I said scowling and gesturing towards the sign in front of the Lily that had a small paragraph of information about the plant, including the oh so insightful factoid he'd just spouted at her.

Hannah shot me a look and smiled at Darius.

"Any idea what region it's from?" she asked and I knew she was just being polite. Being a daughter of Persephone, she pretty much knew everything there was about a plant just by looking at it, especially flowers. There wasn't anything he could tell her that she didn't already know and give him a book's worth of additional details.

She let go of me and I felt a little disappointed as they continued to inspect the plant together. I was lucky however, as their conversation was cut short by Mrs. Hags, one of the biology teachers at our school and sponsor of the club. She was waving her arms as she tried to get the attention of our group and we all turned towards her.

"Alright everyone." She said. She was a short, kind woman, with frizzy brown hair that was pulled back into a bandana and deep blue eyes that looked just as excited as Hannah's. "Now I know you're all excited, just remember that you have to fill out your worksheet as this trip is supposed to be educational or the school is going to get cranky. Then when you're done you can wander around as much as you like, just make sure you meet us back here by three thirty, and I don't mean three thirtyish. Thirteen people got off the bus, and I'm most definitely fired if thirteen people don't get back on it."

I raised my hand.

"Uh, Mrs. Hags."

"Yes?" she asked distractedly and I could tell she was itching to have a look around.

"Hannah and I are staying in DC."

I noticed Darius looked a little disappointed and had to resist the temptation to roll my eyes. He'd talked Hannah's ear off the whole plane ride here and I knew that he'd been hoping to get the chance to do the same on the return journey.

"Oh that's right." Hags said looking a little flustered. She was the hippie type and was never really on top of things. "Your sister's picking you up. What time will she be here? I'm supposed to confirm she shows up."

"She said she'd be here around two thirty." I said glancing at my watch. It was already one forty-five.

"Alright, just come and find me when she gets here. I'll be around." She said gesturing to the building at large.

It was really hard not to say something sarcastic, but I resisted for Hannah's sake. She wasn't being very helpful, but she was one of Hannah's favorite teachers and Hannah hated school. She was shy, and didn't have many friends other than me, but she'd come out of her shell a little in Mrs. Hags class. While my ADHD was far worse than Hannah's, she was extremely dyslexic and couldn't stand having attention drawn to her in class, but Hags had always been very nice to Hannah. I had a feeling she was the only teacher that made Hannah feel like she was smart.

"Has everyone got their worksheet?" she asked the group and there were various yeses and nods. "Alright, pair off and have fun kids."

"Ready?" Hannah asked me pulling a pencil out of her back pack as well as our work sheets and handing me mine.

"Oh. I was hoping that we could…" Darius said but his sentence faded when I looked at him. Hannah hadn't heard anyways.

"Let's go." She said happily grabbing my hand and dragging me through the leaves towards an extremely fragrant box of flowers where she immediately started to classify the different types of plants.

The next half an hour went like this, me following Hannah to wherever she wanted to go and copying her answers. Occasionally I recognized a plant we'd learned in the club or Hannah had taught me over the years, but for the most part I wasn't really learning anything.

"What's wrong?" I asked as her smile faded as she looked at a clump of drooping flowers. They were bright red, but turning brown at the edges of their petals and I saw that many had fallen off.

"I think these aren't getting enough water," she said sadly, gently lifting one of the petals with her index finger. "Look, they're dying."

"Well you could fix that." I said and she looked a bit anxious.

"There's a lot of people around." She muttered and I glanced over my shoulder to see several tourists and a couple of classmates on the path with us.

"I can distract them." I said grinning.

"Dennis I'm not sure… you shouldn't go causing trouble." she said frowning.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine." I said easily and smiling at her. "Don't you trust me?"

She hesitated but looked at the flowers sadly, then nodded.

My grin grew and I walked over to a burley man who was looking at an artfully pruned shrub with his girlfriend, easily taking his wallet from his back pocket and pocketing the bills inside. Then, knowing everyone was far too distracted with the explosion of foliage around us to notice, I tossed it carelessly on the floor several feet away, and tapped the man on the shoulder.

"What?" the guy asked looking a little annoyed to be distracted from the girl who's hand he was holding.

"Look," I said pretending to be intimidated. "I don't wanna cause a scene or anything like that dude, but I'm pretty sure that guy over there just stole all your money."

I gestured towards an equally vast man on his own, reading a sign about a pitcher plant.

"That is your wallet right?" I asked gesturing towards the leather rectangle I'd tossed right next to the second man.

"Yeah." He said indignantly. "How did you-"

"I saw him take it while you were distracted." I lied and the man's face went red with anger.

"Hey!" he shouted furiously, drawing everyone's attention as he stormed over to the second man.

I nodded to Hannah who cupped the flowers between her hands as the men started yelling, and their petals started to glow. There was a small flash in which her face was illuminated, then she released the plants.

"You know that's pretty cool." I said walking back to her as the men continued to argue and looking at the petals. "They totally brand new."

"It's nothing." She said sounding a little embarrassed.

"No it's not." I said still looking at flowers. "These things looked beyond saving. You literally reversed death."

"You make it sound a lot cooler than it is." She said scratching the back of her head awkwardly. "Flower powers aren't all that exciting. Not as interesting as you and your siblings."

"I think you're plenty interesting." I said shrugging and while she didn't look at me I could see her smile.

We walked for another ten minutes finishing out worksheets before I checked the time and realized we had to meet Thea soon. We'd just answered the last question and were about to head towards the entrance to wait for her, when a movement in the leaves next to us caught my eyes.

"Hannah?" I asked uneasily as I felt my stomach clench slightly. My battle senses were tingling.

"Yeah?" she asked distractedly. She was sketching a leaf of an ivy plant that was winding itself around a bannister.

"Do you still have my dagger?

Though she wasn't much of a fighter, I'd given Hannah the dagger Thea had stolen for me in my first week of camp. I didn't need it anymore. My father had sent me an enchanted weapon for my sixteenth birthday and I wanted her to have something to protect herself incase she ran into a monster when I wasn't around.

"Yeah, why?" she asked.

"You might need it." I said quietly. The corner of the green house we were in was deserted save for the two of us, and whatever was hissing and rustling between the leaves.

I reached for my belt, and pulled off the key chain that shaped like a miniature labrys that had been clipped to it. I felt the axe grow in my hand as I readied for a fight.

"But why-" Hannah started, but before she could even finish the question, something large and scaly shot out from between the plants straight for her. She let out a cry of shock and I quickly swung my axe.

The basilisk dropped to the floor, dead, it's poisonous body causing the floor to smoke and burn.

"We need to get out of here." I said as she drew the dagger from her book bag and looked around nervously. More leaves around us were rustling and the hissing was growing louder. "Come on!"

I grabbed her hand and dragging her through the narrow corridor created by the over spilling vegetation.

We continued to doge the monsters as they shot out at us like some twisted parody of snakes in a can.

I killed several, while trying to shield Hannah, who was not as adept at evasion as a child of Hermes, as we sprinted for the center of the gardens. The paths were widest there and easily the best place to try and fight this many monsters, but just as I'd though we were going to make it, Hannah let out a shout.

Her hand was torn from mine and I looked back in horror to see she'd tripped over a vine I'd easily stepped over, and the snakes that had been left alive were closing in on her.

Panicked, I sprinted and threw my ax, which sliced easily through the side of a flimsily made wooden arch ivy had coiled itself around. It crashed down between Hannah and the basilisks.

I pulled her up and together we made a break for it, but just as I thought we were clear, something moved in my peripheral vision.

Without thinking I pushed Hannah out of the way and turned to see fangs…

There was a flash of bronze, another hiss, and the final basilisk hit the floor as a tall figure dropped next to me, as if the girl had simply materialized in and fallen out of thin air.

"Hey bro." a familiar voice said and I was stunned to see my sister Thea grinning at me, her hazel eyes glinting in a mischievous way I found so familiar. "Who says you got to have all the fun with out me?"

"Hey!" I exclaimed excitedly as she laughed pulled me into a hug.

"You ok Hannah?" she asked as Hannah got to her feet.

"Fine." She replied looking a little shaken but unhurt. "Hey Thea."

"You know. I was just telling Adam this morning we were having relatively monster free week." Thea said as she let go of me, looking a little amused. "Guess they were all waiting for your guys's arrival."

She was twenty now and looked pretty much the same as when I'd last seen her, but her hair was shorter and instead of a camp shirt that I was used to seeing her in, she was wearing just a regular t shirt and shorts.

"Lucky us." Hannah muttered darkly. Already she was inspecting the damage done to the flora and healing whatever she could.

"Where is Adam anyways?" I asked looking around. Ever since they'd gotten engaged the couple had been almost inseparable.

"Looking for your teacher." She said sounding slightly exasperated. "She was supposed to meet us by the entrance but I think she forgot. I got the sense she wasn't the most organized person from her emails."

"She's not." I agreed. "But she's a pretty good teacher. Hannah really likes her."

"Well, we should probably get going." Thea said looking around at the many trampled plants and the collapsed archway. "This is a pretty big mess and I don't want to be around when someone spots it."

"Good thinking."

"You guys go ahead." Hannah said. "I'll catch up in a second. I'm going to try and salvage what I can."

"Alright." I said and I could tell Thea was about to ask Hannah was she was bothering, but decided against it.

She simply waited for me to grab my axe and together we shrank our weapons and walked back to the main part of the gardens.

"So, how've you been?" Thea asked and only when I saw that she looked up at me did I realize something.

"I'm taller than you." I said in amazement and she grinned.

"Well you are a guy." she pointed out. "It's not that surprising."

"But you've always been so much taller than me. It drove me nuts. It made me feel like such a little kid."

"You're still a kid."

"I'm sixteen." I said resentfully.

"You're still a baby." She said pinching my cheek.

"Thea." I snapped annoyed and she laughed.

"Dennis, you're always going to be my little brother. You could be sixty feet tall and I'd still call you a baby."

I groaned, glad Hannah wasn't here to witness this exchange. As we stepped onto the main path, I spotted Mrs. Hags with a tall young man. He had dark hair and blue eyes that were looking politely at the teacher, who was no doubt yammering on about the plants, but I could tell he wasn't taking in a word of what she said.

Being the son of Zeus, Adam could be a pretty intimidating figure if he wanted to be. In fact, I'd remembered being terrified of him the first time I'd met him. He'd saved me, two other demigods, and a satyr, from being attacked by monsters on our way to camp, and had just utterly destroyed them. But I wasn't remotely afraid of Adam anymore. Powerful he might be, it was hard to be scared of someone who pretty much did whatever your sister said. It wasn't like Thea ordered Adam around, but I could tell he was happiest when he was with her, so he pretty much just went along with whatever craziness she'd decided to get up to.

"Ah, excellent, you found each other." Mrs. Hags said as Thea and I stepped into her line of sight. "Well Dennis, now that I see your sister is in fact a real person, you are free to go."

But Adam, who'd obviously noticed what Hags had not, asked.

"Where's Hannah?"

"Here!" she called jogging out of the leaves looking slightly out of breath.

"Excellent." said Thea brightly, looking at Hannah and I when she'd caught up to us. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah." I said and Hannah nodded, looking slightly disappointed we were leaving the gardens so soon, but not complaining.

As we started to walk, Adam took Thea's hand and I instinctively reached for Hannah's but caught myself. She didn't notice, still too busy looking around the garden, but Thea did. She shot me a curious expression but I shook my head and she seemed to understand.

It was only then I realized I hadn't seen Thea since before Hannah and I broke up, she probably didn't know it had even happened.

I glanced at Hannah who was looking at the plants glumly and I knew she wanted to stay longer.

"You can always come back." I assured her. "It's not like it's going anywhere."

"Yeah I guess." She said but she still looked a little upset.

I was about to ask Thea if it was possible to hang back for a little bit, but before I could ask, Thea broke away from the conversation she'd been having with Adam and looked back at me with a grin.

"What?" I asked unable to help grinning myself. I knew that expression. Whatever was on her mind was bound to be fun.

"We've got a bit of time before our train leaves and as you know, as cabin head I'm supposed to set a good example at camp."

"So?"

"So we're not at camp." She said and I saw Adam roll his eyes. "Feel like challenging the master?"

My smile grew.

"What's the challenge?"

"I'll let you decide, just make sure it's innocuous. I think Adam and Hannah would appreciate not getting involved in the middle of a crime spree."

"Yes we would." Adam said looking at her half amused, half exasperated, and she smiled at him innocently before turning to me.

"Well, what's it going to be?"

I was about to suggest a race, I'd been speed training for soccer and thought I might just be able to take her, but when I spotted Hannah looking a water feature with Lily's floating peacefully in an artificial pond I changed my mind. She'd smiled and even the tiniest buds burst into full boom.

"Wrist bands." I said holding up my own. They'd given everyone who'd entered the gardens an orange wrist band for the day to prove they'd paid to be there. "Whoever gets the most by the time we need to head to the station wins."

"Interesting." Thea said looking at the band critically, then grinning. "Alright, you're on."

"You are so going down." I smirked and she laughed.

"If you think so my little protégé." She said then held up Adam's wrist band. "But you're already behind."

She winked and took off laughing, no doubt to find her next victim. I was about to chase after her, but I felt something tap my shoulder.

I looked down to see Hannah holding up her own wrist band.

"Thanks Dennis." She said smiling at me and I knew she'd realized I'd bought her more time in the garden.

"No problem Han." I said grinning, taking the wrist band, and running after Thea.