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Thalia: Hero of Olympus, Daughter of Zeus, Former Tree, and the Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis.
Or technically the Hunters of Diana , right now, because of the Romans. For some reason, Artemis was extremely particular about the terminology around them, not that Thalia understood why. They were basically the same person to her.
Well, there were some slight differences. Like how Diana refused to show herself in front of the Romans since apparently, that wasn’t the Roman Way for gods to appear in person. Personally, Thalia wasn’t sure how she felt about that policy considering her past interactions with the gods. Mostly since she would have honestly preferred it if Mr. D had followed the Roman Way when she was at Camp Half-Blood. But it’s no matter, Thalia was the de facto leader of the Hunters in her lady’s absence.
And the reason for her lady’s absence was the aforementioned Romans. The Hunters had been tracking a beast only to find it attacking a Roman Patrol. Thankfully both groups managed to kill it with no major injuries, and all’s well that ends well. And because the Hunters of Diana saved their lives (even if the Romans claimed they had it under control) as well as their roman honor code of hospitality, they offered the Hunters lodging at their camp.
A Roman Camp!
She was so going to brag about this to Percy and Annabeth later! How often do you meet a completely different Parthenon!
Well, mostly different.
And Lady Artemis kinda told her to keep the Greeks and Romans as secrets from each other before she dipped, so Thalia couldn’t really brag either.
But that’s not the point!
“This is a bad idea,” Thalia’s fellow hunter, Phoebe, advised. “We should not trust these strangers. It could be a trap for all we know. And I don’t trust these Romans, they are led by a man.”
“Dakota seems nice enough,” Thalia said, “Besides, some of the older hunters vouched for the Roman Camp.”
“They said they were just as annoying as the Greeks.” Phoebe reminded.
“A glowing endorsement!” Thalia corrected since she had been one of those annoying Greeks, “Besides, we have been camping for weeks. It’ll be good to give the girls an actual bed for some rest.”
Phoebe rolled her eyes but gave up. She knew how the Daughter of Zeus could get when she got an idea in her head. She was stubborn. It was a Big Three thing. But of course, her girls’ wellbeing wasn’t the only reason she was so insistent. Well, their wellbeing was a big reason, obviously. Thalia was a good leader.
But the other reason was that it was a Roman Camp!
She had to have a look!
So it was with great curiosity that she led the hunters into a tunnel, to see a large sign that said: Camp Jupiter .
“Some favoritism, huh?” Thalia asked the Centurion, who turned and gave her a confused look. Thalia couldn’t help but compare the place with her former home. Thalia honestly preferred the name Camp Half-Blood, since it showed how they would accept all the children of the gods. Well, not actually, but they were getting better about it after the deal Percy made with the Olympians last summer.
It didn’t help that she had a complicated relationship with her father. For most of her life, she thought he just didn’t care about her. Then, when she was about to die, only then did he finally show he actually cared. Better late than never, Thalia supposed.
But then again, he did do fatherly things every once in a while. Like when he didn’t kill her when she was almost 16.
Father of the Year material right here.
“Yeah, he’s the greatest god and all,” Dakota explained, “In fact, one of our Praetors is one of his sons.”
“What a coincidence, I’m also a daughter of Zu- Jupiter,” Thalia caught herself. She was not going to get used to this. “Although, I was actually hoping we could speak with a female Praetor though. It might set the other Hunters at ease.”
“Ah, you’ll want Reyna then.” Dakota nodded, “We can go to the Praetor’s office first, and if she isn’t there, I’ll go fetch her.” He was nodding a little too much, and Thalia had to question what he was constantly drinking from that bottle. It didn’t look like water.
Dakota led her to the Praetor’s office, which only contained a blonde boy, almost Thalia’s age. Well, her physical age. But since he was the only one in the room, Dakota cursed in Latin.
“Looks like Reyna isn’t here right now. Until then, this is Jason. Jason, this is Thalia, a Hunter of Diana.” Dakota introduced, before bolting to find Reyna ASAP. Probably smart considering Hunters and Campers rarely mixed well.
No way , Thalia mused, My brother was also called Jason.
Thalia sized up who she supposed was the other Praetor. The son of Jupiter. Her half-brother. Honestly, he looked nothing like her, except for the striking blue eyes. But there was something about him, it was just so familiar. It ached.
“Hello,” The blonde boy held a hand out for a handshake, “I am one of the Praetors of Twelfth Legion, Jason Grace.”
No way!
Thalia was on Cloud 9.
After all these years, she had been reunited by her long lost brother who she thought was dead.
Admittedly, it had taken Jason some time to understand that when Thalia told him that she was his sister, she meant his full sister instead of a half-sister. But the same thing that told her that this was her Jason must have told Jason that she wasn’t lying.
So now they had to catch up on 12 years of lost sibling bonding time.
“I’m just glad I found you while I was still the older sibling,” Thalia grinned as she teased Jason. The other Hunters were being given a tour by Reyna, which meant Thalia and Jason could have that bonding time. Thalia liked Reyna. She was Hunter material. If she ever got tired of running the Legion, Thalia had an invitation for her.
“How does that work? I mean the immortality thing. Like, are you 15 forever?” Jason asked, hungry for information about his past and her. He had disappeared when he was three after all. They had some catching up to do.
“Yup! Just a day shy of 16 until I die in battle or decide to leave the Hunt.” Thalia was far too cheery for someone talking about her death. But she just met her baby brother, so could you blame her?
“So how did you become Lieutenant of the Hunt?”
“Well, Mom and I had a huge fight about… You know.” Thalia didn’t really want to talk about her brother’s supposed death, even if he was apparently alive. It was a sore spot. “And I decided that enough was enough, so I ran away. And while I was on the run, I was with some other demigods. And eventually, we ran into the Hunt, and we helped them with some business during the build-up of the Second Titan War, and their Lieutenant fell in battle, so Lady Diana offered me the position.”
“Wait, what about the other Demigods you were with? And wasn’t the Titan War only this year? Why are you so young?” Jason had a million questions, which made sense since there were some glaring omissions in that story, but Thalia couldn’t exactly explain them without bringing up Camp Half-Blood, and Greek stuff was off-limits here.
“Don’t worry about it,” Thalia waved away his concerns, “But C’mon, you gotta tell me about how you became Praetor!”
“Oh, well it isn’t that big of a deal.” Jason started bashfully, “I mean, I had been here since I was 3, so I had a lot of training. And then after I slew the Trojan Sea Monster, they raised me on a shield and I was made Praetor.”
“Not bad, little bro,” Thalia said. That was no easy feat. The Hunters always had trouble with sea monsters since they would always dive beneath the sea to hide from their arrows. Although that was nothing a little electricity in the water couldn’t fix.
But apparently, that wasn’t enough, since Jason continued.
“Yeah, and I also defeated the Titan Krios myself when we sieged Mt. Othyus, the Titan’s headquarters,” Jason looked at Thalia expectantly, as if he wanted something from her.
“You doofus, obviously I'm proud of you,” Thalia ruffled his hair (which wasn’t easy since he was taller than her), “Don’t try to fish for compliments.” She grinned at her brother. His shoulders visibly relaxed at her approval.
And she meant it. Not many people could go toe to toe with a Titan. Admittedly most of the kids of the Big Three had done it during the Second Titan War, but it was no easy feat.
But it’s not like that mattered. She would always be proud of him.
“You wouldn’t happen to have invincible skin, do you?” Thalia asked Jason offhandedly one day.
Thalia couldn’t help but compare the Greek and Roman camps. The Romans were stricter and worked together as a team, and the Greeks were wilder and more individualistic. It could be seen in the way they handled the camper’s groups. Camp Half-Blood had cabins based on your godly parent, and Camp Jupiter put them in cohorts. But despite their differences, they just had too many parallels. And Reyna was basically a Roman Annabeth, which made Jason a Roman Percy.
Sure, Percy was her bro, but this was her actual brother. Well, actually Percy was basically becoming her bro-in-law through Annabeth, but she couldn’t help but want to root for Jason.
“Of course not. Why would I? Is that one of our Father’s abilities?” Jason asked innocently.
“Nah, just curious. I mainly got the lightning powers from him.” Thalia said.
“Oh right, I can do that too. Also air powers, so I can almost fly too.” Jason said.
“You can fly!? That’s so cool! I’ve never tried. We should practice with our powers together sometime.” Thalia asked, curious if she could too. She was scared of heights, so she never tried. They could pool their knowledge and make something extraordinary. “Anything else you can do?”
“Well, I have Ivlivs,” Jason fished out a gold coin, “It can turn into a gladius or lance depending on which side it lands on.”
“Okay, that is so much cooler than a pen sword!” Thalia mentally pumped a fist as she gave Jason a point on the imaginary Jason vs Percy scoreboard.
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it. Wanna see what my bracelet can do?”
“What was our Mother like?” Jason asked one night at dinner, which made Thalia flinch. Honestly, their mother was the actual worst, but she was dead too. It was rude to speak ill of the dead. Besides, wouldn’t it be better to live in blissful ignorance? He could pretend his mother was an angel.
But Jason trusted her.
Thalia only held back about the Greek stuff because of Ancient Laws. She didn’t want to keep any more secrets between them. So with a deep sigh, Thalia unloaded the trainwreck that was their mother.
Jason obviously wasn’t happy hearing about what their mom was like, but he accepted her story. However, he did have one question.
“So why did Mom only send me to the Wolf House? Why didn’t she send you with me?”
“I don’t know.” Thalia lied. It was pretty obvious that he must have been Roman and she was Greek, and they weren’t allowed to see each other because of the divide. Thalia accepted that the gods did things for a reason, but she couldn’t help but curse this arbitrary separation. It tore her family apart. “I suppose my destiny involved meeting Diana, and joining the Hunt, so I couldn’t come to Camp Jupiter.”
Jason scowled at the thought, “I wish they didn’t. We should have stayed together.”
“Right? But at least we found each other now.” Thalia patted his back.
“So you said you met Diana, right?” Jason asked.
“Right, since we directly serve her,” Thalia mentioned, not sure where this was going. Sure, meeting a god was rare, but it wasn’t impossible. Then again, she was the first child of the Big Three since the Pact, which put her at the center of attention for godly trouble. Most people wouldn’t have 6 Olympians directly interfere on their only quest, or visit Olympus two different times.
“I’ve never seen an Olympian.” Jason admitted, “I’ve had to prove myself time and time again, yet I just wish I could meet my father once. Just something to know that I am doing something right.”
“Dude,” Thalia stopped him, “You are a Praetor of the Twelfth Legion. You stormed the stronghold of the Titans! Don’t sell yourself short. If it weren’t for the Ancient Laws, Dad would be all over you.”
“Yeah,” Jason smiled sheepishly, “I guess I shouldn’t read too much into it. Only those who directly serve the gods get to meet them, like the Hunters of Diana or the Ambassador of Pluto.”
“Ambassador of who?” Thalia asked because apparently, the gods were hiding more than just another camp from her. She had never heard of this group.”
“Oh, he isn’t exactly a legionary. He just sort of visited one day and drops by every once in a while. But he serves Pluto, like how you guys serve Diana I guess...” Jason started. But as he described the boy, Thalia slowly realized that he was very familiar to her.
And she had the biggest shit-eating grin as she asked Jason to introduce them the next time he was here.
Thalia was so ready for this. Jason looked at her like she was crazy for trying to ambush the Ambassador to Pluto, but he just didn’t see the bigger picture.
It would be really funny to see Nico flustered.
Besides, Nico was a big softie. He would instantly forgive her for anything if she bribed him with some McDonalds.
So Jason led Thalia to the Shrine of Pluto, which gave Thalia some complicated feelings. After all, Hades was responsible for her first “death”, and the Furies and Hellhounds would have killed Annabeth and Luke if Thalia hadn’t sacrificed herself. But on the few occasions, she had met Hades in person, she had to begrudgingly admit that he was somewhat respectable.
But Thalia wanted to be petty, sue her. Dying is kind of a big deal to most people.
Inside the dark shrine, a person stirred at the sudden light breaking through the open door. Jason twitched nervously as he did as Thalia had told him earlier.
“Uh, Nico?” Jason asked, barely hiding the nervousness in his voice. Someday Thalia would have to give him a crash course on pranks. He was too proper. He needed to live a little. “You in there?”
“Praetor?” Nico seemed surprised that Jason was there, “Why are you here? Did something happen with Hazel?”
“No! She’s fine! It’s just-,” Jason could barely finish his sentence before Thalia had gotten sick of waiting and jumped out to lightly noogie the son of Hades.
“Nico!” Thalia's eyes were filled with mirth as she released him from her half-hug, half punishment, “What are you doing here?”
“Thalia!?” Nico’s eyes widened with surprise and possibly grinned for the first time in front of Jason, judging by Jason’s reaction. “I could ask the same of you!”
“I was just curious since I heard about a very familiar Ambassador of Pluto and I wanted to see him!”
“Okay, Hunter of Diana ,” Nico rolled his eyes sarcastically considering they had the same cover.
“Alright, alright, but you aren’t getting away from me so easily this time! You didn’t stick around after Manhattan at all! We were gonna get burgers.” Thalia joked but was very serious. She missed him.
“Wait, so do you know each other?” Jason asked, after finally getting over his shock. He still looked dumbstruck, “How?”
“Nope, I’ve never seen this woman before in my life,” Nico deadpanned, and Thalia could barely hold back her laughter. Technically they had never met before since that was on the Greek side of things.
But in reality, they were basically strangers before. She had only known him as Bianca’s brother for the longest time, and she hadn’t exactly been on the best terms with the Hunters on that quest. Thalia always felt a little guilty about him after Bianca’s death but figured he would get the support he needed at Camp. And then she only learned that he was a son of Hades when Persephone had summoned the kids of the Big Three for a quest in the Underworld last winter.
That was a surprise.
But there was a lot of bonding on that quest. Well, more like an unspoken pact to not mention the unresolved dead mom issues brought to light by the Goddess of Ghosts.
But nothing breaks the ice like shared trauma!
And Thalia would like to think they were close now.
“Uh, sure…” Jason gave in. He had long understood that there were some things Thalia just couldn’t tell him and learned to drop the more troublesome topics.
“Oh, by the way, who is Hazel? Jason mentioned her earlier.” Thalia asked, and Nico gave a shy smile.
“She is my half-sister here at this camp,” Nico explained.
“Speaking of siblings! Did you know Jason is actually my brother? Like on my mom’s side.” Thalia remembered, which caused Nico’s eyes to widen with shock.
“Your last name is Grace!?” Nico was incredulous, like the fact that her brother was a Roman Praetor was nothing compared to the reveal of her surname.
Well, she did give it up since it only connected her with her mother before, but now it was also a link to Jason, so Thalia didn’t mind.
“That’s what you’re surprised about?” Jason looked scandalized.
Thalia and Jason were stalking in the bushes. Thalia was hunting a monster, and she dragged Jason along. She wanted to see him in action at least once. Now, being a Praetor is a very busy job, so most of the time, they couldn’t just drop everything to go on a hunt with their sister. But Thalia Grace always got what she wanted, and she wanted to spend time with Jason right now.
Thalia’s wolf led the two children of the Thunder God on a trail of the Monster’s scent. It was a terrible creature, having caused thousands of dollars in property damage and almost destroyed a cohort of Roman Demigods. It had to be put down. But Thalia knew that they could take it down.
The wolf stopped and made a signal to tell Thalia that this is where the trail ends. The monster was just up ahead.
“What’s the plan?” Jason asked Thalia. If it were anyone else, Jason probably would have taken charge, but he looked up to her. Thalia thought it was sweet.
“I’m gonna charge in, arrows blazing, and you cover me.” Thalia thought up the plan on the spot.
“That’s a terrible idea,” Jason argued, but it was too late since Thalia was rushing in.
Was Jason right? In all honesty, yeah.
But in Thalia’s defense, she didn’t know his strengths and weaknesses or fighting style that well, so a simple outline was the best. But perhaps the Leeroy Jenkin’s School of Strategy may not have been the best idea.
They did manage to defeat the monster, but there were a few too many close calls for either of them to be comfortable with. And Jason wasn’t exactly happy with that.
“That was reckless!” Jason grumbled, “What would you have done if I hadn’t managed to intercept its tail in time!” The monster almost chopped off Thalia’s head, but luckily Jason was there in time with some well-placed lightning strike. And with that opening, Thalia managed to slay the beast.
“I’m sorry,” Thalia admitted gracefully, “I was just so excited! You know, since it was the first time we were working together!”
“I guess,” Jason sighed, “But I just found you, so I don’t want to lose you too soon.”
“Hey, I’m the immortal one here. I should be worrying about that.” Thalia grinned, and Jason seemed to get out of his bad mood. “Besides I knew you’d have my back. We make a good team.”
Jason blushed a little at that.
“Are there any other children of the Big Three here at camp?” Thalia asked out of the blue one day.
Thalia Grace was apparently Jason’s sister, and for some reason, Jason believed her.
Most people wouldn’t believe if a random stranger told them that they were related, but there was something about Thalia that made him believe her. Maybe it was their identical eyes and aura, even though everything else was completely different. Maybe it was how she knew things, like how he got his scar. Maybe Jason just wanted a sister or someone to make him feel less alone.
He had been at camp for almost 12 years, and he was the only child of the Big Three. Not only that but a son of Jupiter. He was their favorite child and everyone put him on a pedestal and expected so much from him. Don’t get him wrong, Jason loved the Camp, they were his family and he wanted to meet those expectations. But the pressure could just be too much sometimes. It helped to have someone he could look to for once.
Because Thalia was always so self-assured. She was his sister, so she had that natural leadership aura from their father, but she actually wore it well. She was never plagued by doubts like him. She had met Olympians! She survived for 15 years on her own! She was decisive, unlike him who overthought. Although it could go into impulsive territory and Jason honestly wondered how she survived so long.
And she was fearless too! After all, most of the campers other than Hazel tried to stay far away from the Ambassador of Pluto, since he unsettled them. But his sister greeted him like an old friend. Not only that, but Nico actually seemed almost human in that interaction. Jason never really knew what Nico was like. And whenever the Lars would mutter insults at her, like graecus, she just pulled up Aegis and sent them running.
“I think it’s just me and Hazel, right now,” Jason answered, “But of course, there are some old legacy families that have their blood.”
“Legacies, huh,” Thalia apparently just couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of adult demigods. For some reason, the idea seemed so foreign to her. “So did you guys have a Prophecy or something?”
“A Prophecy?” Jason scowled with disgust. They were always more trouble than they were worth. Misinterpretations, fighting fate, and overconfidence always led to disastrous quests. Maybe Ignorance truly was bliss. But his sour mood was mostly due to the fact that his least favorite person, Octavian, was the augur. “No, the Big Three made a pact apparently. Their kids were too powerful, and caused too much destruction, like World War II. So to stop things like that, they swore to not have any more kids with mortals. Although I guess that didn’t work out too well. At least Neptune kept his word.”
Thalia snorted as if she knew something Jason didn’t.
“You’re doing that again.” Jason felt the irritation flare up as she kept her secrets. “You’re hiding something. You know the truth.” Jason knew she was hiding something from him, she was a terrible liar. But Jason trusted her. He knew she loved him. After all, the Hunters of Diana had rarely visited Camp Jupiter in the last 12 years, but now Thalia was visiting every other week claiming the Hunters were “in the area.” So Jason figured he could wait until she was ready to tell him. And it wasn’t like he particularly cared as long as he could see his long lost sister again. But it still bothered him to be left in the dark.
Thalia’s happiness turned to shame as she realized Jason knew. She looked down and spoke deliberately. “I’m sorry, Jace. It’s just, there are Ancient Laws that govern my actions. I swear I would tell you everything if I could, but I can’t.” Thalia looked defeated, which was a first for Jason. She was always so cool and in control.
Jason sighed and gave in, his anger dying, “Alright. It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” Thalia stopped him, “I really do wish I could tell you everything. There are so many people I want you to meet. It’s bullshit.” Thalia looked wistfully towards the east. Jason wondered who she meant. Jason was starting to realize the world was a lot larger than he had previously thought.
“Well, I’m just glad I got to meet you in the end.” Jason admitted despite all his frustrations.
“Don’t get all sappy on me,” Thalia teased, “But I’m glad I found you, too.”