1

After a particularly dicey game of Capture the Flag, involving some lightning, too much wood and Clarisse's spear, Percy found himself standing outside the infirmary, wondering if visiting his recently back-from-being-a-tree cousin would only result in him joining her in the infirmary. He was still debating (on one hand, he was genuinely worried about her, since she had collapsed in the woods, on the other hand, his cousin probably wouldn't appreciate the sentiment) when Will Solace made the decision for him. He grabbed Percy by the arm, dragged him in and promptly ran out, telling him to not let Thalia get up, no matter how much bodily harm she threatened him with.

Thalia didn't look all that bad, just a few cuts and bruises, but she was pale and looked absolutely exhausted. She still managed to shoot Percy her signature death glare when he sat down next to her bed.

"Hey Thals," he greeted.

She grunted in response.

"How you doing?"

She snorted this time, "I'm fine Kelp Head. Just tired."

"Come on cuz, give me a number at least. 1 to 10. 10 you're dying."

Thalia rolled her eyes, but conceded (Percy honestly had no idea why.). "Like, a 1 Perce. And that's an exaggeration. Okay? I'm good."

She ignored the sigh of relief that escaped him, and he ignored her grunt of pain when she turned onto her side. Just like that, the system was born.

2

It was safe to say that Thalia was slightly worried. Percy, her annoying, idiotic, Kelp Head of a cousin had seen a lot in the past few days. He had seen Annabeth get kidnapped, watched Bianca Di Angelo walk to her death, seen Zoe die in front of him, held the sky up (the sky), witnessed Thalia join the Hunt after seeing two Hunters die and now the kid that he felt personally responsible for had blamed him for his sisters death, and then run away. A little too much for your average 13-year-old.

She was worried about him, given just how bad his nerves had been stretched recently, so when she saw him sitting there alone after the campfire, watching the embers die, she felt a surge of protectiveness flare through her, the kinds of which she hadn't felt since, no, she couldn't think about him, she had another brother to take care of at the moment.

Thalia sat down next to Percy, resting her hand on his shoulder. His head shot up, faster than a bullet (she had seen one hit him on the quest, she knew how fast they were).

"Hey," she whispered.

"Hey."

"You okay?"

Percy nodded, but she wasn't buying it. She hadn't known him long, but she knew what he was like. He was probably internally beating himself up, finding a way to blame himself for every loss on the quest, everything that had gone wrong.

"Kelp Head, I'm not stupid."

"You sure?"

Normally, she would've slugged him for that, but in the circumstances, she let it go.

"Shut up Perce. Alright, listen, 1 to 10."

He blinked at her like she was mental. "What?"

"Ya know, your little number system. If you're not going to tell me how you're doing, give me a number. 10 you're dying and whatnot."

Percy blinked again before nodding slowly, "Yeah, yeah okay sure. Uh, I'd say about a 2."

Thalia forced down a sigh of relief when Percy frowned.

"Shouldn't I be more beat up about this than a 2? What's wrong with me?"

Thalia could've hit him. "Nothing Kelp Head, absolutely nothing. Trust me, Biana and Zoe would be upset that you're even at a 2. They wouldn't want you to be upset at all, okay?"

Thalia wasn't sure about how well her pep talk (okay, more like two pep-sentences) went, but Percy rubbed his eyes (they had turned red) and gave her a small smile.

"You're right."

"Yeah"

And they sat there in silence, staring at the stars, believing that they would be alright.

3

When Thalia IM-ed him to meet her at a burger place downtown, his first thought was that Artemis was going to shoot him for hanging out with her Lieutenant, but Thalia offered to pay, and that burger place was good so he figured risking pissing off another immortal being was worth it. Sort of.

When he got there, however, he was thankful that he agreed.

Thalia was there already, with a bandage wrapped around her left arm, and her right foot in a cast. She had a pair of crutches next to her and was staring at the menu.

"Hey," he greeted, taking a seat across from her.

She looked up and smiled, "Hey, Kelp Head."

Percy rolled his eyes, "What happened to you?"

"Cutting straight to the chase are we?"

Percy now understood why Annabeth told him that he could be so ridiculously infuriating.

"Thals, I'm serious, what happened to you?"

She eyed him over the menu, "Broken foot, cuts and bruises, I'm good."

"Broken foot? How'd you manage that?"

"I didn't," she laughed, "A hellhound did."

He blinked at her, not sure whether to be worried about her foot, or amused that a hellhound, of all monsters, had caused it.

"A hellhound...really Pinecone Face? You let a hellhound under your guard?"

Thalia blushed at this, and her voice got lower, "Look, Perce, I was alone in the woods and there were three hellhounds and a couple dracnae and they wanted to bring me back to Luke but I fought back and one of the hellhounds broke my foot by sitting on it and one of the dracnae had a poisoned blade and it hurts and gods damn," she trailed off, her eyes slightly moist.

Percy gaped at his cousin before slipping his hand over hers and squeezing a little, "Alright, Hades, that sounds bad. 1 to 10?"

Thalia managed a small smile, "A 4. No, a 3. Yeah, definitely a 3."

Percy nodded, "Alright, okay, a 3's manageable."

"Yeah, it is."

Percy nodded again before gesturing to the menu, "Lets eat then, shall we?"

4

Thalia had no idea why he wanted to do this. The Battle of the Labyrinth (as everyone had started to call it) had been bad enough. Why Percy, over-emotional, over-loyal, boy that he was, wanted to inform a mother out in Texas that her 8-year-old daughter was dead, she couldn't figure out. But he had insisted on doing it, so she had insisted on coming. Annabeth had wanted to as well, but Percy wouldn't hear of it (probably because he knew that he would end up crying).

So, now, they stood in front of a nice, suburban home somewhere in the middle of Texas, trying to build up the courage to knock. Thalia eyed the swing set out in front, the kids bikes, the minivan. Clearly, the family that lived there was a nice, happy one, and they were about to tell them that their daughter was dead. Lovely.

Percy finally knocked, and in a few moments, the door was answered by a middle-aged lady with brown hair, green eyes and a kind smile.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Um, yeah, Ms Harrison?" Percy replied, sounding nervous.

The woman raised an eyebrow, "Uh, Mrs Wells, actually."

"Oh. Oh, okay." Percy stammered and stared at the ground.

Thalia decided it was time to step in, "Mrs Wells? I'm Thalia and this is Percy. We're from Camp Half Blood?"

Mrs Wells' eyebrows shot up before they furrowed, "Percy as in, Percy Jackson? Wait, Camp Half Blood? Is Abigail okay?"

"Uh, actually ma'am, that's what we needed to talk to you about," Percy spoke, his voice suddenly calm and reassuring.

"Oh, oh gods, okay. Okay, you can just come in then. Yeah, come in," Mrs Wells stammered, obviously shaken up.

Percy and Thalia stepped in together and Mrs Wells led them to the living room. They sat down on the sofa and Mrs Wells sat across from them. Mr Wells joined them from the kitchen.

Mr Wells looked a bit like Ares, with his military cut and mean eyes, so Thalia found it slightly funny that Abigail had been a daughter of Apollo.

"Honey," Mrs Wells told her husband, "These children are from Camp Half Blood. They have something to tell us about Abby."

Percy took this as his cue and with a deep breath, began, "Mr and Mrs Wells, I'm not sure if you were aware, but we're in the middle of a pretty big war right now. Well, we're not actually fighting yet, but its on the brink. We had a pretty big battle at Camp last week, and well, we lost a lot of people."

Mrs Wells gasped and her eyes filled with tears, "Abigail."

Percy looked down, "I'm sorry Mrs Wells, she wasn't on the battle field, but a few monsters got past our lines, and, well..."

Mrs Wells broke down crying, and Percy looked like he was about to follow suit, but he took a breath, steadied himself and looked Mrs Wells in the eye.

"Ma'am, your daughter was a beautiful person, and she died a hero. A hero braver than any of us who were on the front line. I'm truly sorry that I couldn't protect her," whatever Percy was going to say next was cut off by Mr Wells punching him in the face.

He flew off the sofa and hit the floor clutching his nose. Thalia was on her feet in seconds, Mace canister in hand and her shield in full form. But, not even Medusa's head would stop Mr Wells.

He started yelling, cussing at Percy, saying it was his fault Abigail was dead, yelling at him for making his wife cry. Percy was still on the ground, slowly straightening. Mrs Wells was yelling now as well, trying to get her husband to stop.

Thalia yanked Percy onto his feet and they stumbled to the door, Mr Wells chasing after them, telling them to never come back. They were halfway down the block before Thalia remembered that Percy was injured and stopped, whirling on him.

"Are you okay? Let me see, "she demanded, prying at his hand.

"Fine, I'm fine," he grunted, hand still firmly in place, "He broke my nose, hand me some ambrosia would you?"

Thalia broke off a piece from her emergency pack and tossed it to him. He swallowed it and waited a minute before letting go of his nose. It was bleeding pretty badly, but healing now.

They sat down on the curb and Thalia stared at Percy. His expression was empty, but his eyes were full of pain; clearly, what Mr Wells had said had gotten to him pretty badly.

"Perce?"

"Yeah?"

"Its not your fault."

"Yeah, I know."

"You okay?"

"Fine."

"1 to 10."

"Physically? A 2. Everything? A 4."

"We can manage a 4."

"Yeah, we can."

5

The battle was turning ugly. They had the forces of the dead on their side, not to mention, a major god, but Kronos was gaining. Chiron was buried under a pile of bricks, his parents were in the thick of battle and Kronos was up in Olympus. Yeah, they were looking pretty screwed.

Nico forced them to follow Kronos, and though it killed him to leave his parents behind, he figured they could take care of themselves. Getting into Olympus itself almost killed them, what with disintegrating stones and whatnot, but then, the statue had fallen.

Now, he didn't know why a goddess would want to kill the demigods who were saving the Western Civilization, but apparently, Hera wanted to. The statue would've crushed both him and Annabeth flat if Thalia hadn't pushed them out of the way. And now, Thalia was lying in the rubble, her legs pinned by a giant stone Hera.

For a second, Percy forgot how to breathe and he was pretty sure his heart, stomach, intestine and maybe even spleen had immigrated to his throat.

Annabeth screamed, but Thalia coughed and choked out an, "Alive. Kronos. GO!"

Annabeth and Grover were still gaping at Thalia but Percy, now convinced that his cousin wasn't dead, crouched next to her.

"Alright, Thals, we can try to pull you out so you need to just,"

Thalia stared at him wide-eyed, like he was crazy. "WHAT? NO! You'll pull

my legs off."

Percy was about to argue more but crashes sounded from further up the path. Thalia stared at him with pure determination in her eyes.

"Percy, Kronos is still trying to destroy civilization. You need to stop him. I'll be fine, okay?"

"1 to 10," he choked out, ignoring the burn in his eyes.

"Uh, a solid 5, okay?"

"You sure?"

"Positive. Now, GO!"

And they ran up the path, because, given the circumstances, they could handle a 5.