It was like a dream, a long, long, long dream.

I knew it was longer than your average night, but it still only felt like I'd closed my eyes for a second when my stomach started to turn, my head pounded, and the world spun sickeningly, even in my sleep.

What was wrong? Dying should not feel like this.

Dying should be painful, then there should be some sort of nothingness or a counsel waiting to judge me, or something other than this half-dream uncomfortable, dizzying feeling.

It had been painful, yes, but then there'd been this dream. A dream that could've lasted seconds or hours or days or years… time held no meaning because there was only this dream of this valley and this hill. I sat with my legs crossed looking down at the valley, though the big white house and the cabins that had been there when I first caught a glimpse of this valley weren't there, there was still the forest and the lake and the sloping fields.

I must've sat there forever, and yet it also felt as if I hadn't even let the dust settle from sitting down before the dream titled sideways and I felt sick to my stomach.

It was over in a flash, and the dream and the sickness was gone, replaced by the regular blackness of sleep.

Is this what dying was? How strange. You'd've thought Hades would be more creative, or at least less of a manipulative jerk—I'd rather have just be dead over this half-dream, confusing crap.

"Thalia!? Oh my gods, Thalia!" A very familiar voice was whispering in my sleeping ear. No, not whispering, she sounded more like she was screaming, but she was so far away it was like hearing her through cotton.

"Chiron!"

"Grover, get Percy!"

"What're we going to do-?"

"How the Hades…?"

"Not good! So not good!"

Distant voices chattered as they seemed to get closer and closer, or rather, my consciousness started to get clearer and clearer and things came back to reality.

First I felt my body, but it felt strange, like I'd just jumped into someone else's head rather than be truly comfortable in my own body as I'd been my entire life. My head pounded with the biggest headache I've ever felt, my chest ached and throbbed, and my stomach still spun sickeningly—but it was very much there; I was hyperaware of every little muscle and eyelash on me, and I wondered if this was what it felt like to be electrocuted (not that I would know).

Then, I got my senses back, just in time to feel a hand brush gently against my cheek.

"Thalia… oh Thalia…" Someone, a girl it sounded, was right above me where I lay… on the ground? It felt like grass and dirt beanth my skin.

Everyone was talking at once, and it made my head spin—how many people were here, watching me sleep? Freaks.

The ground beneath my ears thundered, and I recognized horse hooves fast approaching. The girl beside me moved, and for some reason I didn't like that, so I doubled my energies to open my eyes and come completely back to the land of the living, though it was a slow trek.

Everyone's talking had dropped down to whispers, and it helped me focus so that I could start pulling myself further and further back to consciousness.

I heard two feet hit the ground hard and someone yell, "Percy, wait!"

What should he be waiting for? What was going on?

I felt another presence by my side, and a gentle hand on my forehead. This hand was rougher, bigger than the last, but it sent shocks over my skin. My own shocks actually, as if I was naturally warding this person off by little tremors of electricity. As it happened, that actually helped and sharpened everything up.

Which, would've been helpful if I hadn't been so incredibly sore!

And suddenly it was just me lying on the ground with nothing stopping me from opening my eyes save for the painful soreness that felt more like rigor mortis than sleeping wrong for a night.

"She needs nectar and ambrosia!" The voice said beside me. Oh, yes, that would be very helpful right now I thought mentally with an internal flinch as a hand curled around my shoulders and helped me sit up.

Ow… yes, a sip of ambrosia would be very helpful right now, I mentally groaned.

"Come on! What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House!" The voice—a guy I realized—said commandingly of those around, which, I realized had been talking about me but not actually helping.

Jerks.

I groaned, coughing a little as air filtered down into my very sore lungs (how could my lungs be sore!? It's not like I don't use them regularly!) and finally managed to flutter my eyes open.

Shocking emerald eyes were looking into my own blue eyes with concern and confusion. While my eyes were sapphires, his were emeralds, but he had matching pitch black hair like I did. He kinda looked like he just woke up though, this his hair pointed every which way. On second thought, he must've really just woken up, seeing as he was wearing sweats and no shoes, as if he'd literally just rolled out of bed.

But his eyes were concerned and his protective touch around my shoulders spoke of honest worry for me, where as the crowd of people gaping at us were… well, just gaping.

Fat lot of help they were.

Jerks.

I finally found my voice. "Who…?"

"I'm Percy," He said with a crooked smile. "You're safe now." He told me so earnestly I had to believe him.

Then I remembered that crazy-ass dream.

"Strangest dream…" I commented dully. It was the first thing that popped into my head, so forgive the lack of creativity.

"It's okay." He said, the worry and sympathy in his eyes doubling his concern.

Uh, no it was NOT ok…! I suddenly remembering what was happening before the dream and something was very-much off right now. My natural demigod paranoia as I called it started to kick in and I remembered the hellhound on top of me, tearing and ripping and shredding...

"Dying…!" I coughed again, tensing in preparation for the attack that had already happened apparently. Was I in shreds? Where was all the blood, I wondered, glancing down at myself though I seemed to be perfectly fine.

Weird…

"No," He assured me, a hand resting on my clenched fist to tell me it was all ok. "You're okay." He promised. "What's your name?"

I looked back into his shocking green eyes, and even before I said it I saw the flash of recognition in his face as he put together some pieces of information belatedly.

"I am Thalia, daughter of Zeus." I said, giving the standard demigod intro of name and parent. And, this guy was totally a demigod too, seeing as there was a centaur standing ten feet behind him and he wasn't freaking out.

"Uh…" He said cleverly. "Nice to meet you?" But it sounded more like a question. His green eyes were very much confused, his mild surprise seeming to be unique compared to the dozens of flabbergasted expressions crowding around us.

"Pleasure." I deadpanned, groaning a bit as I leaned forward to sit up on my own, and he sat back to sit close, but not awkwardly close to me on the ground, only there to help if I needed it.

Which, I didn't. The concern was nice, but I didn't care for being babied, especially not in front of a crowd.

"Thalia?" A girl's voice whispered, and I glanced up instinctively.

A girl, about thirteen or fourteen years old in full-on battle armor, stood just inside the ring of those onlookers, who still seemed to be frozen in shock and staring rather uncomfortably at me and Percy sitting in front of the… tree? Wait a second, they were on half-blood hill, and there hadn't been any tree there a second ago…

But the tree was shelved for the moment as the familiarity of the girl struck me, hard. She had wide, tearful gray eyes set into a pretty face, and long, golden, curls swirling down her back and hanging in her face where it fell from a messy ponytail. She looked lost, with those tears streaming down her face, and the rather deadly looking familiar knife in her hand held limply as if she'd forgotten she still held it.

And suddenly it wasn't this teenager standing there looking at me like that, it was my little Annabeth.

But… Annabeth was only seven…?

"Thalia…!?" The girl said again, almost pleading in a broken little sob.

"This is… wait, what the heck's going on!?" I demanded, glaring out at the ring of very unhelpful people, who all either jumped or took a step back at the growl.

"Annabeth," Percy said, his concern shift from me to the blonde girl on a dime, and he was up in a second to stand beside her, holding her hand in comfort. It looked like her tears were physically hurting him as he struggled to find a way to make them stop.

Wait a minute…

"Annabeth!?" I half yelled, half gasped. "You're- you're…"

"Grown up some." She sighed, lurching forward and landing on her knees in front of me, wrapping me in a hug.

I was shocked for a long few seconds before hugging her back fiercely. I had no clue what the hell was going on, or why my little Annabeth was all… teenager-ish now, but I did know she was the little girl I've semi-adopted with Luke, and not ten seconds ago I watched her run into the camp while I held off a heck of a lot of monsters, not expecting to live to see her again…

But suddenly the shock wore off, and the soreness I'd been ignoring came back full force.

"Ugh," I groaned, pulling back from her and grimacing, lamenting my muscles and holding my still-lurching stomach. "Help me stand up, I'm sore as hell." I groaned, and she quickly nodded and gripped my arms, pulling me to my feet.

I stumbled as my knees buckled under unfamiliar weight, though I had no clue why. Suddenly there were two people standing on either side of me, draping my arms around their shoulders to support my weight. Annabeth on my right, and Percy returned on my left.

"We should get you to the Big House." Annabeth said, still biting back her tears.

"Yeah, and can someone please grab some ambrosia?" Percy chimed in. Yes, ambrosia sounds like a great idea right now, I thought again.

The crowd of jerks parted to let us three hobble with difficulty down the hill, me finding it harder than anticipated to find my legs again.

"Holy hell, what in the name of Hades is wrong with my stupid legs?" I groaned upon tripping yet again on what apparently seemed to be a blade of grass.

"Thalia… it's been awhile. You've haven't used your legs in a long time." Annabeth said in a forced calm, her tears drying some as she stopped crying with difficulty.

Somehow, that made sense. That dream… well, deep down I knew it wasn't the seconds I thought it was at times… but maybe a lot longer.

I gritted my teeth. "Why do I feel like I've been pumped full of LSD?" I sighed.

Annabeth looked confused for a spit second. "You were poisoned." Percy said, and Annabeth gave him a look.

"Technically she wasn't poisoned…" She said to him, but didn't sound so sure.

"Her tree," He shrugged, but stopping midway as I stumbled as his support shrugged with him.

"What's my tree?" I demanded. "And why are you not seven? And where's Luke?" I demanded of them. Only on my last question did they both respond by tensing up. I couldn't judge who was more upset about that topic: Annabeth, who trembled slightly underneath my arm, or Percy, whose muscles had turned to stone as he tensed at the subject.

"Touchy subject?" I murmured.

No one answered, though it felt like Percy wanted to and remained silent out of respect so Annabeth could find her words.

"Something like that." She said weakly. "Let's get you better and… then we… can talk…" She said, seeming to find this whole ordeal a lot harder than Percy or me. I was the one who was totally lost and out of it right now and Percy… well, he didn't seem like the kind of guy to be freaked by anything.

I wanted to start up a conversation to distract from Annabeth's internal freak-out, but since she was obviously lost in her own thoughts, I turned to Percy.

"So… what do you do around here for fun?" I asked causally, and this time he was the one to stumble in surprise.

"Uh… train." He blurted out, seeming surprised by his own truthfulness. It made me smirk deviously, realizing that this guy was everything Annabeth and Luke weren't: all muscle and very little brain. Not that I didn't love Luke's craftiness and Annabeth's brilliance, but I was always a throw-a-punch-first-and-talk-about-it-later kind of girl, combined with just a dash of fore-thought and deviousness and flicker of common sense. I learned my brains from the streets, not books like the other two of my family, and just by a glance I could tell Percy learned it that way too.

For once, there was someone I was smarter than, and I kinda enjoyed the flicker of evil pleasure it gave me in being able to flaunt it like Annabeth used to love to do to me—as if being outsmarted by a seven year old wasn't sigh-inducing enough.

And he seemed like a good guy—after all, he'd jumped up to help a complete stranger while everyone else (including Annabeth, who'd known me better than everyone save maybe Luke) just stood by and stared.

Again: jerks.

He seemed to be painfully honest, not having the brain power or the deviousness to lie, and not an evil bone in his body too corrupt him from being the innocent, if not slow person he was.

"You don't say! Train, at a training camp?" I smirked.

He blinked. "Uh… I swim too, I guess. And play capture the flag on Fridays." He added.

I shuddered involuntarily. "Ugh, I hate swimming." I scoffed. "To each their own or whatever," I allowed, giving him an impressive eye roll if I do say so myself.

He frowned, opening his mouth to say something, but Annabeth cut us both off.

"Give her a break until we get this sorted out," She told him, and he looked at her before dutifully closing his mouth though he still frowned at me. "And you, leave him alone." She told my with a stern look.

I wanted to roll my eyes at her, but as always, I listened and simply shrugged, focusing on getting to the Big House.

Once there, I was pretty impressed by the rec-room décor, but even more thankful for the satyr waiting there with a glass of golden liquid with the sweet smell of grilling hamburgers coming from it. Gods she'd love a hamburger right now, as she realized just how hungry she was.

Then she did a double-take as who was holding the ambrosia.

"Grover!" She cried happily. "Looks like you're still kickin', and… have horns. And a beard. That's just great, I was getting really confused with little Annie here suddenly gone teenager on me, and now my favorite satyr has too. Tell me I'm missing something," I sighed as Annabeth and Percy helped me to a couch and Grover came closer, looking like he was trembling.

"Oh gods, T-Thalia… I'm s-s-so sorry!" He bleated, tears welling up as he shook. Annabeth kindly took the glass from him to keep it from spilling while Percy clapped Grover on the back comfortingly.

"It's ok G-man, she's fine," Percy told him gently, "Already making fun of me and everything. Don't freak…"

I, for my part, was in shock. "Grover? What's wrong dude!? I'm okay, I really am—come here you over grown goat-boy!" I struggled to stand again, but Percy got the message and shoved Grover forward. I caught him in a surprise hug as he came close enough, and the satyr bleated with soft little sobs.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so, so sorry! You can't forgive me, you just… you can't! I'm so sorry…" He whimpered.

"Grover," I said semi-scoldingly, pulling back to catch his gaze. "I've no clue what you're apologizing about, but I'm perfectly ok save for being sore as hell, and am about a thousand percent positive you could never do anything to get me truly pissed at you to the point where you need to cry about it! So, if you'd be so kind, shut the hell up." I smirked at him, hugging him tightly once more before letting him go.

"Oh Thalia…" Grover sighed, smiling weakly back at me. "You've been gone a long time. And… it's mostly my fault."

"Yeah, right." Percy scoffed. "So far as I'm concerned, it's Hades fault." He declared comfortingly.

"It's Hades' job to be difficult, and I should've-"

"Are you seriously arguing this? Uh-uh, no way, I agree with Thalia that you can shut up now." Percy smiled at the satyr, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and grinning broadly.

Thalia frowned a little bit, watching the two of them. Something about their posture and the way they seemed so totally comfortable with each other reminded her vaguely of… well, of how she used to act around her protector.

"Here, drink." Annabeth said, putting the glass of ambrosia in my hand. I gladly took a couple sips, relishing in the taste of Seattle's Rain City's Burgers, and relaxing as I felt my soreness melt away.

"Well, that did the trick," I smiled, stretching my arms free of pain and actually standing and jumping a little to get my joints moving. "I've no clue why I was so stiff instead of bloody, but I expect that's one of those things you're going to explain later?" I said, challenging Annabeth with one raised eyebrow.

She bit her lip and gave a weak nod.

I frowned at that reaction. "Is it later yet?" I demanded.

She glanced at Percy, who was looking at her with a steady but blank gaze. She turned back to me and gave a very weak smile. "Yeah. It's later." She sighed.