"This is the guy?"

"Yeah? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well. Kinda expected him to be taller. He's underwhelming."

"He's 13 and been a coma for a year. That's just ableist..."

"Doesn't make him any more impressive."

"He did use your dad's lightning to beat Ares. Haven't seen you do that..."

A low thud was followed by a wince.

"Children, can we just try and heal the boy? We shouldn't be disturbing him anymore than you all already do."

The voices were faint. He could hear. A sense returned. Hope.

His mind was racing a thousand miles a minute, his body jittered as a hand was placed over his chest. The small remnants of lightning danced and coiled towards the pressure on his chest, making his jaw twitch and chatter.

Suddenly, Ashe rose up and shouted: "BOO!"

Everyone but Chiron screamed, falling to their knees or cowering beside the centaur with widened eyes.

Ashe grinned, wiggling his fingers with a snicker as he looked at familiar faces and a distinct new one.

"Woah. You guys catch a wild goth while I was gone? Didn't know you had it in you, Percy."

Having thrown her hands up defensively, the goth in question dropped them with a glare. "I don't like him already."

"Well, that's too bad, I think I'm falling for you already." Ashe traced a fake tear down his cheek, before being tackled back into bed by Percy's Annabeth, and Grover.

"Dude, you're back! You're actually back!" They gave him the biggest bear hug, and Ashe returned it with a smile.

"Yup- so, what's the scoop? How long it been?"

Annabeth and Grover sat up, glancing at Percy with concern. "Well..."

"A year, child." Chiron answered bluntly. They watched to see whether he would fall in to despair at the passage of time, but if anything, he seemed relieved.

"Woah. That's way better than how it felt in my head..."

"You were conscious?" Annabeth asked in shock.

"Yeah. I guess so. But enough about me, I'm still kicking so get to the gossip! I wanna know what I missed."

•

Percy and Annabeth recapped the events of traversing the Sea of Monsters for the Golden Fleece, and how it revived Thalia, daughter of Zeus, adding a new piece to the prophecy.

Ashe hummed, squinting his eyes at Thalia, who glared back at him with discomfort.

After a few seconds, she plucked his forehead.

"She's mean- gotta be Zeus' kid." Ashe deduced, patting his palm with a fist.

"He's really back..." Annabeth mumbled, her voice still shaky in relief.

"Wait..." Ashe got out of bed and stood next to Percy. They had previously been the same height, but now he was two inches taller. "No..." Ashe stood beside Grover, and even he was a centimeter or two taller.

Ashe scrambled his hair with a groan.

"You guys really grew up and got taller. This sucks..."

Ashe looked at Annabeth, and she was now at least five inches taller. He didn't even wanna look at Thalia- she had to be almost a foot, since she was a few years older.

Percy chuckled seeing him glare at Thalia again, knowing that the two would butt heads more than enough to entertain the group.

"Where's my birthday presents?" Ashe asked.

"You don't even know when your birthday is..." Annabeth spat with a smirk.

"That doesn't make it any less important that I lived another year, Annabeth, or did you not miss me?" Ashe feigned a wound to his heart, leaning against Grover dramatically.

"This is the clown you all hyped up... Can't believe this is the guy."

"The one and only, actually. Not sorry to say I'm back and better than ever." Ashe crossed his arms, but suddenly flinched and fell to a knee.

Grover caught him, easing him back to his feet as everyone stared with concern.

"I, uh... might have phantom pains. I was being electrocuted for a year straight."

"That's what we have to talk about." Chiron finally spoke up again, his expression grim. "You've been cursed, child. Your mortal hands were not meant to wield the power of the gods. The Master Bolt is not a magic item. It was pure divine energy. The fact you live alone is a matter of important discussion in Olympus."

"A... good discussion...?" Ashe asked hopefully.

"...Like I said, you've been cursed. Zeus did not spare you despite your efforts. You were presumed dead, but your legacy lived on. Now that you are back, I can't imagine what's in store for you." Chiron couldn't understand why he wasn't bothered.

Maybe he had shed all the tears he could. Maybe there were no regrets to begin with.

"It will be a long time before your body is freed from this curse, but Thalia here is your only means of suppressing it. As the Daughter of Zeus, it's only a given she can."

It didn't take a genius for to catch what Chiron was saying. Thalia would absorb the buildup of electricity whenever it became too much.

Ashe looked at his body, and sure enough, the lightning was still coursing through him, softly illuminating his veins. With time, Thalia could probably remove the curse, but even she could only handle but so much divine energy at once.

"So, what's gonna happen if Thalia doesn't alleviate the charge?"

"We are unsure. We suspect comatose once more."

Ashe closed his eyes, fidgeting with Aphrodite's scarf to remember its warmth and how it helped him. He saw his amulet was on a nightstand beside his bunk in Poseidon's Cabin and smiled.

"Nah, no way that'll happen again. Can't leave you guys alone on another adventure, can I?" He smirked and opened his arms for a hug.

His friends embraced him with teary smiles, happy to have him back.

~•~

Being an all-year camper, since Ashe had no where else to go, he got back into the swing of things with relative ease.

His only struggle was his lack of a weapon. He had his sword for a year, but couldn't imagine losing it any other way.

The Hephaestus Cabin was more than happy to whip him up a new weapon, but they were taking their sweet time to commemorate his return, so he'd have to wait a bit longer.

Sitting on the porch of Cabin Three, Percy and Ashe were playing uno.

They hadn't spoke a word in several minutes, which concerned Annabeth since she'd been standing watch for five of them. She was here to announce that the Hephaestus Cabin finished his sword, but she was captivated by the game.

The game came to an end when Percy finally stacked enough reverses to get rid of his whole hand.

"Uno out." Percy announced with a smirk.

Ashe clicked his tongue and set down his hand. "This game sucks. You suck."

"Woah, hate the game. Not the player." Percy put the cards up as Annabeth cleared her throat.

The two jerked their heads over in fright, but quickly greeted her with waves. "Hey, Annabeth."

"The blacksmiths are really eager to show you your weapon." She smirked and gestured the two to follow.

They quickly got up and jogged after her to the forge. A funnel of smog was rising above the building, but somehow it seemed to fade into pure vapor. Probably magic, Ashe thought.

It was kinda what he traced anything back to after the wild week finding the Lightning Thief.

Happily following his friends, he was led up to a tall African American boy with black, curly hair cut short. He wore an apron of sorts with an orange tank top and baggy sweats, a pair of goggles atop his head.

"Ah, the man of the hour. The fabled human to wield the power of gods. It's nice to finally meet you." The boy was much taller than him, so Ashe had to reach his hand up to shake it.

"Charles Beckendorf. Son of Hephaestus."

"Uh... Ashe... of myself?" Ashe tried to respond formally, but Charles pat his back with a chuckle.

"You're funny," Charles suddenly handed him a familiar looking keyring. A black key with a familiar rose gold lining along the edge was held there.

"You know what to do."

Percy and Annabeth began to grin seeing Ashe take the key ring and spin it around his finger, before he slashed it out in a spark of light.

A black baseball bat erupted from his hands- a welcome surprise.

"Our cabin recently got into baseball, but it's a quick fix if you're prefer a sword again." Charles announced, but Ashe shook his head.

"No, no way. You guys made this for me, so I'll knock some heads in your name." Ashe flipped the bat up, but it came back down as his key ring.

"I love to hear it. Glad to have you back, legend." Charles waved to the three as he disappeared back into the forge.

Ashe crossed his arms and closed his eyes with a smile. Percy and Annabeth both knew what he was looking for.

"You're so cool, Ashe." Percy sarcastically muttered. "Yeah, the coolest." Annabeth added in the same tone.

Ashe shrugged, "I'll take what I can get."

"A baseball bat is certainly a change of pace though. Its weight is all at the end. You should train to get accustomed to it." Annabeth tried to encourage he get familiar with it, but Ashe shook his head.

"I think I'll be alright. Besides, I've still got to catch up with you guys. That's more important."

Percy rolled his eyes, "Round two for Uno then?"

Clicking his tongue, Ashe pushed Percy back towards their Cabin. "You're on."

Annabeth frowned and followed after them. She wished he'd take training seriously after fighting the God of War, but she couldn't be upset with him wanting to forget about his coma and hang out with his friends again.

"Deal me in too!"

~•~

It was a cold Friday night, the day before winter break. Percy was riding passenger with his mom, nervously tapping his knee.

In the back seats, Ashe was sat between Thalia and Annabeth, who Percy's mom, Sally Jackson, had picked up before the eight-hour ride to Bar Harbor, Maine.

Several months had passed since Thalia's revival and Ashe's awakening, so Percy had returned to a new boarding school in the meantime.

That was until Grover had been assigned as a new guardian over potential Demi-gods.

Sally glanced at Ashe in the rear-view mirror, unwillingly to admit that she was greatly disturbed by his presence. She didn't have anything against him, but for whatever odd reason, he seemed to freeze whenever she spoke to him.

She assumed it was trauma with his parents, since she was informed that he was an orphan.

The reality however, was that Percy threatened Ashe not to sweet talk his mom after seeing him do the same with Medusa.

Even Thalia and Annabeth were shocked to see him so quiet, but neither would complain that he wasn't antagonizing them.

As the snow fell, Thalia wiped a bit of fog off of the window. "This is gonna be fun..."

Their destination was Westover Hall, a boarding school that resembled an evil knight's castle. Towers of dark stone with slit windows and a big set of wooden double doors. It even stood over a snowy cliff, with a big frozen forest on one side, and the churning grey ocean on the other. Clearly, it had the whole sha-bang.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" Sally asked Percy.

"No, thanks, Mom," Percy began. "We don't know how long it'll take, but we'll be okay."

Ashe could tell Percy was a bit embarrassed, since it was his mom driving him to their next task. Sally however, didn't notice at all. "But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy."

"It's okay, Ms. Jackson. We'll keep him out of trouble." Annabeth spoke up, quickly reassuring the woman.

"Speak for yourself." Ashe mumbled with a smirk, immediately making that reassurance falter, but Annabeth elbowed him in response.

"Both of them..." She added.

Sally felt that Annabeth was the most levelheaded Demi-god she'd ever meet. She smiled and turned over her shoulder.

"Alright, dears, do you have everything you need?"

"Yes, Ms. Jackson," Thalia spoke up. "Thanks for the ride."

"Extra sweaters? You have my number, right, Ashe?"

Ashe nodded, spinning out his new phone with a grin.

"Ambrosia? Nectar? And first-aid for Ashe? Oh, and golden drachma in case you need to contact camp?"

Ashe, Thalia, and Annabeth nodded at everything, but Percy was growing more and more embarrassed. "Mom! Seriously, we'll be fine. Come on, guys."

Sally smiled solemnly, knowing that he was just ready to get to work. She chuckled seeing the blush on his face.

The four left the car, and her SUV disappeared into the fog.

Ashe glanced down at his navy blue parka, adjusting Aphrodite's scarf, pulled out Medusa's amulet, and plucking his latest accessory, an earning that hung down by a chain with a pearl and a two owl feathers- a gift he found not too long ago from Athena after finding out he had woken up.

He still wore his baggy black pants that tucked directly into his boots, but he traded his leather gloves for wool fingerless ones.

He glanced at his companions and analyzed their winter clothes as well.

Thalia was adamant on wearing her black bomber jacket over a thick black pullover hoodie, but did wear a ski cap. Annabeth wore a grey ski cap, a baby blue peacoat, and black jeans. Lastly, Percy wore a black parka and blue jeans with his hood up.

"Your mom is really cool." Thalia suddenly commented.

Percy sighed, "Yeah... she is."

"We better get inside. Grover will be waiting." Annabeth began trudging through the snow, so they all followed.

"Right. Whatever the deal is was concerning enough to send a distress signal." Thalia shivered from either the cold, or the menacing atmosphere of the castle.

Being Demi-god Deodorant, Ashe opened the massive oak doors, allowing the three to step by in a small flurry of snow.

"Woah..." Percy mumbled in awe.

The place was humongous; walls lined with battle flags and weapon displays: battle axes, swords, antique rifles, etc. Westover was a military school, but this was surely overkill.

As Ashe followed after his friends, he watched both Percy and Thalia fidget with their weapons. Percy with his pen and Thalia with a silver bracelet.

As soon as he was away from the door, they slammed shut behind him, making the four flinch.

"Guess, we're staying awhile..." Percy mumbled again, on edge from how ominous everything was.

The four stashed their bags behind a pillar, before shuffling towards the sound of music in the distance. Walking down the hall, Ashe suddenly stopped as a man and woman in black uniforms stepped out of the shadows.

"What are you doing here?" The woman with a... mustache...demanded.

"Visitors are not allowed at the dance!" The man snapped in a thick French accent, "You shall be eee-jected!"

Percy was never good at improve, so he looked to Ashe for his usual stroke of genius when it came to manipulation.

However, it was Thalia who came to the rescue, snapping her fingers with a pulse of translucent mist. It washed over everyone and puttered down the hall as she stepped beside Ashe.

"We're not visitors, sir. Don't you remember we go to school here," She gestured to her friends. "I'm Thalia, this is Annabeth, and this is Percy. We're in the eighth grade. Ashe is in the seventh."

Somehow, whatever she did gave room for the staff to hesitate. He looked at his colleague. "Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?"

Percy and Ashe had to stifle laughing at her name...

The woman blinked, like someone had just woken her up from a trance. "I...yes. I believe I do, sir." She frowned at us. "Annabeth. Thalia. Percy. What are you doing away from the gymnasium?"

Before the four could answer, they heard more footsteps, and Grover ran up, breathless. "You made it! You-"
He stopped short when he saw the teachers. "Oh, Mrs. Gottschalk. Dr. Thorn! I, uh-"

"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" said the man. His tone made it clear that he detested Grover. "What do you mean, they made it? These students live here."

Grover swallowed. "Yes, sir. Of course, Dr. Thorn. I just meant, I'm so glad they made...the punch for the dance! The punch is great. And they made it!"

"Yeah, I'm something of a punch professional." Ashe boasted, flexing an arm and tapping his bicep as a joke.

Dr. Thorn only grumbled at him, before Ms. Gottschalk sighed dreamily. "The punch is indeed excellent. But run along now, all of you. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!"

The five hurried back into the gym with Percy and Ashe giving unsure salutes.

"That was close! Thank the gods you got here!" Grover was quickly hugged by Annabeth and Thalia after months of not seeing him.

Percy and Ashe both gave a special hand shake before knocking knuckles and grinning at each other.

He'd gotten a little taller and had sprouted a few more whiskers, but otherwise he looked like he always did when he passed for human-a red cap on his curly brown hair to hide his goat horns, baggy jeans and sneakers with fake feet to hide his furry legs and hooves.

"So, what's the stitch? Gotta be crazy if you've called the Big 3." Ashe said with a smirk.

Grover took a deep breath. "I found two..."

"Two half-bloods? Here?" Thalia was amazed, since one was rare enough as is.

Percy told Ashe awhile back that Chiron had assigned nearly double the amount of satyr scouts to recruit half-bloods after Luke's betrayal. They were losing far more campers from it than they were gaining.

"A brother and sister. Ten and twelve. I don't know their parenting but they're strong. We're running out of time, so I called you guys."

"Any monsters?" Percy asked.

"One. He suspects them, but he's not positive yet. It's the last day of the term, and I don't think he'll let them leave without finding out. Every time I try and get close to them, he's always there blocking me. I don't know what to do!"

Grover looked to Thalia for answers, making Percy a bit hurt. Normally Grover looked to him for guidance, but it was just natural that he'd consult with the older and more experienced of the group.

"Well, if they're at the dance, let's dance. Who's the monster?" Thalia replied.

"Oh... You just met him." Grover looked around nervously. "The Vice Principal, Dr. Thorn."

There were black and red balloons all over the gym floor, and guys were kicking them in each other's faces, or trying to strangle each other with the crepe-paper streamers taped to the walls. Girls moved around in football huddles, wearing lots of makeup and spaghetti-strap tops and brightly colored pants and shoes that looked like torture devices. Every once in a while they'd surround some poor guy like a pack of piranhas, shrieking and giggling, and when they finally moved on, the guy would have ribbons in his hair and a bunch of lipstick graffiti all over his face.

"If this is what school is, count me out. All you, Percy." Ashe was about to walk away aimlessly, but Annabeth grabbed his hood and kept him in place.

"There they are." Grover pointed to a couple of kids arguing in the bleachers. "Bianca and Nico di Angelo."

The girl wore a floppy green cap, like she was trying to hide her face. The boy was obviously her little brother. They both had dark silky hair and olive skin, and they used their hands a lot as they talked.

The boy was shuffling some kind of trading cards. His sister seemed to be scolding him about something, looking around like she sensed something was wrong.

"So, we grab them and get out of here?" Percy asked, but as if heard, Dr. Thorn emerged from the shadows and began hovering around the two like a chaperone.

He seemed to understand what was going on now, because he nodded at the five with a glowing blue eye.

The four began to mutter and argue about how they'd approach the two siblings, but Ashe slipped out of Annabeth's grasp and simply began heading to the bleachers.

Ashe passed the punch bowl, got him a cup, and bobbed his head to the rhythm of whatever song was playing as he strut across the gym.

Due to his pure human scent, Dr. Thorn only spared him a bored glance as he stepped up the bleachers.

Ashe smirked as he shuffled through the seats, watching as Percy and Annabeth began to dance rather awkwardly- but couldn't ignore the smiles on their faces.

Thalia was grumbling about the music as she shuffled with Grover, who tried his hardest to not stumble with his fake shoes on- but certainly failed.

Ashe laughed, simply happy to be back and in the action.

His chuckle caught the attention of Bianca, who leered at him skeptically. Ashe caught her gaze and smirked, "Hey, any longer and I'll think you want to dance."

Her face flushed red and she frantically shook her head as Nico laughed. "No! Not on your life. Who are you anyway?"

"Ashe is the name. And you?"

She looked reluctant to tell him, but gave in. "Bianca di Angelo."

"I'm Nico." The boy gave a light wave, looking way friendly than earlier. Ashe assumed that came with anyone who could make his sister flustered.

"You two not dancers?" Ashe wondered.

"Absolutely not." They answered simultaneously.

"Say, if that's not your speed, why don't we leave and you can tell me all about that game you're playing?" Ashe grinned mischievously.

"As much as I'd love to lea-" "You've never heard of Mythomagic?!"

Gottem, Ashe thought with a smirk.

"No, but it sure looks better than Uno. Tell me about it." Ashe stood up, and Nico quickly picked up his cards and began to follow. Bianca looked like she wanted to pull her hair out, but spotted Dr. Thorn heading their way.

She looked at Ashe in shock, feeling for some odd reason, that he was trying to help them.

She quickly followed after Ashe and Nico as they slipped into the nearest exit.