Lost
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Darkness. Never-ending black, just a few flickers of light now and then. Lights… No, not lights. Memories. A look at time, passing by all those seven years she was a tree. And now… She took a shuddering breath and opened her eyes for the first time in almost a decade.

She saw green. A pair of emerald eyes, gazing at her, looking bewilderingly fazed and curious. She had seen those same eyes somewhere, she knew. But where…?

"Who –"

"I'm Percy. You're safe now," he says calmly, reassuring her. The boy must be younger than her, she decided. Perhaps thirteen.

"Strangest dream…" All those years, those years of darkness and near-blindness, were they but a mere hallucination?

"It's okay," the boy says again. She looks up and sees his tangled black locks, the familiar set of his jaw, and finally at his face, being met with a shocking recognition. This boy… I sense a strong aura, she thinks.

"Dying."

"No," he assures her. "You're okay. What's your name?" Then, a wave of shock reaches him. Her, this… She was…

"I am Thalia. Daughter of Zeus," she manages. She closed her eyes and let darkness reign once again.

She finally comes to, waking up in a room with white walls. Beds lined opposite walls, covered in white sheets. Where…?

"Thalia!" A figure attacks her, and she instinctively jerks backwards, only to find the person crying.

"Who…?" The person stands up, revealing curly blond locks framing a lovely face and fierce gray eyes. She looked about Percy's age and height, give or take a few centimeters.

"You don't remember me?" the visitor asks. She, Thalia, bluntly shakes her head, wondering who in the godly world this could be. The girl's brow furrows slightly. "I'm Annabeth."

Thalia laughs, the sound filling up the almost vacant, white room. "Annabeth? You can't be Annabeth. Why, I was only gone for –"

"I'm Annabeth," the other girl insists once more. "Honest! It's been seven years, Thal. Don't you think, that maybe, possibly, that I wouldn't be a seven year old anymore?"

She studies her, examining her face through narrowed eyes. Then, she sees a tiny scar, a flaw imprinted on her tanned skin, just right on her forehead. As harmless as it looked, it looked excruciatingly painful. She sees Thalia staring at it, and attempts to laugh.

"Oh, that? I got it on a quest with Percy," she says, as if she didn't care at all.

"Percy? You mean…?"

"Yes. The boy on the hill with you, that was Percy. He… He's different from other campers, in a way that'll really astound you. You see, he's…" Thalia's eyes open wide. No, it couldn't be. He wouldn't, not after Zeus had… She recognized those eyes now, and the black hair, an almost always prominent trait of all children of the Big Three.

"Poseidon's son," she whispers. The girl, possibly an older version of Annabeth, nods. "How…? Why…?"

Annabeth smiles, a bit sorrowfully. "I'll fill you in." The two spend the next hour discussing things, quests, mythology; reminiscing and eventually laughing like they did so long ago.

"Oh, remember when we went to that national park in Cincinnati, just you and me and –" Her eyes fill with joy, and hope immediately floods through her self. "Where's Luke, Annabeth?"

The blond-haired girl looks guilty, and she turns away. "Luke…"

"Hey, you two." They both turn towards the doorway, where a familiar green-eyed teen stands.

"Percy!" Annabeth exclaims. Thalia raises one eyebrow as the girl she knew to be Annabeth ran over to him and punches him in the shoulder. "You were supposed to come earlier, you Seaweed Brain!" Ah, so that was her pet name for him.

"Well, I'm not exactly what you would call punctual," he protests, mouth twitching slightly as he fought back a smirk at Annabeth's face. He turns to her now, solemn and not the least bit the playful boy she had seen just seconds past. "Thalia?"

"Yeah." He nods, absorbing the fact. "Do you know… Luke?" Percy's face morphs into a grimace, seemingly holding back pain.

"I knew Luke."

"Really? Where is he? I need to tell him –" Her anxious voice is cut off suddenly by him.

"Luke is a traitor." His voice is steady, yet blunt.

"I beg your pardon?" she asks, in a calm, dangerous tone.

"Luke – is – a – traitor," Percy repeats, slower this time.

"How…?" She couldn't continue. Luke… Her Luke… Gone? Annabeth wasn't looking at anyone now, just silently staring at the window, sunbeams silently filtering through the dusty air.

"He betrayed the gods and joined forces with Kronos and poisoned your tree so we went on a quest I mean we snuck onto a demon ship with Luke on it and erm kinda stole someone else's quest that is –" She gives him her special, rate-10 evil glare, and he took a deep breath.

"You see, he joined Kronos' league and left the gods. He's trying to overthrow Olympus and destroy Western Civilization all because of Kronos' sake. He was the one who poisoned your tree. Luke's tried to kill me and Annabeth several times." Thalia looks from Percy to Annabeth, asking a silent question.

Is this true?

Annabeth closes her eyes and nods slowly. She (Thalia) runs from the room, never looking back. Her eyes are streaming with tears that fell down her cheeks and landed on the sleeve shirt of her leather jacket. She didn't care if anyone saw; she didn't care that every camper around was staring at her, wondering who this lunatic was.

Why Luke? Why him? Why not anyone else? She thinks as she silently curses the gods for this fault and then not-so-silently screams out at the heavens.

Because the Fates decided so, child. She looked around wildly. She was in the wilderness of the woods, no one was here.

Father?

Yes. Thunder rumbled, and a bolt of lightning shot across the clear morning sky. You may curse the gods as many times as you wish, but we're not always the ones at fault. Don't forget, the memories of your childhood and his are still there, those haven't gone astray. Luke has made his own choices, decided his own string of fate. You have yours to decide. Thalia, you may hate me for this, but I'm always there for you, watching you choose the unknown paths of your life. Do not forget…

She stands there, still silently crying, but remembers her fathers words. He cares after all, she thought, letting her tough, stubborn demeanor slip out, revealing her weak, unprotected self. Her fingers twist around the pieces of grass around her and she lets the sun's warmth brighten her up.

"Thalia? Thaaaliaaa…" Percy and Annabeth were calling for her now. She had to get back. But not now, not just yet. Perhaps later. She steps back after almost breaking out into a run, closing her eyes, and hugging a nearby pine tree's trunk.

Oh, Luke… I think I've finally found my destined path in my fate, I'm finally starting to belong to this world. But without you, I am always lost.

Thalia leans against the coarse bark and listens to the birds sing carelessly, watching the clouds go by as they morphed into various shapes.

Someday, I just hope I'll be found again, found by you. Not who you are right now, but your true self.

I think this one is much better than the others, don't you think? Maybe my best work so far... Anyways, I apoligize for posting so many horrible stories and one-shots and such... But I barely go on Fanfiction now, so I can't make up for it with better stories and things...

I know that for this story, I went too fast in the middle, during when Thalia was in the room with Annabeth. And yes, I made Percy speak a run-on sentence on purpose. This is my first time writing it in present-tense, so if you detect any mistakes...

Ja ne.