In the years since learning that one of her mothers was an immortal goddess, Natalia Knight had been faced with a lot. A prophecy that shaped her into a hero, a little brother she had no idea how to care for, a potential source of power that she still found herself avoiding. All of this had been okay because she had Percy. He'd been her best friend since before the gods had turned their lives upside down. She felt his absence now like a lost limb.

The past few days had felt entirely surreal. Unlike the rest of her friends, Natalia's stuffy private girls' school didn't let out early for Winter break, so she'd still been stuck going to classes when she got the call—Percy and Kathleen were missing, no one could find them anywhere and she needed to get to Camp quick.

It had been Annabeth who had told her, because of course it was, and hearing her so distraught had made Natalia feel physically sick. The feeling hadn't gotten any better over the past three days. She and Annabeth both had been going almost nonstop, searching for their missing friends in any way they knew how, to no avail.

And then that morning, Annabeth had shaken her awake with the news that they had a lead. She'd been ecstatic until she'd heard who it was from...

The thing about Annabeth was that she still, even after all these years, believed that everyone would eventually leave her. A long time ago, Natalia had simply resolved herself to proving her wrong (which wasn't exactly hard on her part, she may have enjoyed spending time with her a little too much. It could very quickly become unhealthy). But with Percy and Kathleen gone, Natalia knew what would happen—Annabeth, usually ever so logical and level-headed, would run herself ragged trying to find them, blaming herself for them being gone in the first place.

She knew there was no way to stop her from doing this, so she'd simply resolved herself to be the logical one, for the time being. To remind Annabeth that this wasn't her fault and steer her away from any idea that seemed a little too crazy. So when she'd heard about the message from Hera, she had been more than a little skeptical.

And now, standing in the back of Apollo's chariot, she hated to see the shape Annabeth was in. Her girlfriend hadn't been in the best shape before, but now...

Despite all this, Annabeth still looked perfect. Minutely adjusting the navigation device, her braids flowing behind her in the wind, Annie looked just as ethereal as usual. But Natalia had spent more time than she'd like to admit studying the ins and outs of Annabeth Chase, and she could see in her pinched expression and white-knuckled grip that she definitely wasn't alright.

To be completely fair, none of them seemed to be in the best of moods. The blond guy, Jason, stared longingly out the back of the chariot like he was some cookie-cutter action hero. Piper was staring holes into his back, looking very much like a troubled girl in love. The other girl was also staring at him, although there was much more apprehension in her gaze than in Piper's.

The only one seemingly not distressed by the events of the day was Leo, the elfish boy. Quite the opposite, he looked like he was having the time of his life. "This," he gestured all-encompassingly, "is so cool!" A pegasus flower flew into his mouth and he coughed, trying to hack it up. The blonde girl, Rylee, turned to stare at him, looking both bemused and disgusted. His mood suddenly dampened, Leo took a breath. "So, where exactly are we going?"

"A safe place," Annabeth didn't turn to look at them when she spoke. Natalia wasn't sure she believed her own words (at this point, Natalia herself didn't know if she did). "The only safe place for kids like us: Camp Half-Blood."

"Half-Blood?" Piper questioned, voice cagey. It took Natalia a moment to understand why. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"

Natalia's eyes widened, but before she could clarify, Jason finally finished his brooding. "She means demigods—like us. Half god, half mortal."

She and Annabeth shared a look. There was something...off about this Jason guy. Rylee too, she had to assume, since they were in the same predicament, memory-wise (although the girl reminded her of a scared mouse more than an enemy).

With a silent nod, Natalia decided that she would handle it. "It seems like you know a lot Jason, but yeah, demigods. My mom's Persephone, the goddess of spring; Annie's mom is Athena, the wisdom goddess; and Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."

"You're mom controls...rainbows?" Leo sounded thoroughly bemused.

"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said, attempting to sing Butch's praises. "He gets along great with the pegasi."

"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.

"Leo, shut up," Rylee hissed in reprimand.

"I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch warned.

"No, you're not," Natalia admonished. "I am not explaining that to Chiron."

"Demigods," Piper squeaked, apparently still caught on the conversation at hand (Natalia silently cursed her own ADHD). "You mean you think that you're...that we're all—"

A flash of lightning cut across her question. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, "Left wheel's on fire!"

This fact was kind of obvious, what with the white-hot flames lapping up the side of the chariot. The winds roared, and one glance behind them was enough to see why: the dark shapes of Anemoi spiraled after them—dark horses with lightning glittering in their manes.

Piper was apparently confused by their appearance. "Why are they—"

"Anemoi come in different shapes," Annabeth explained urgently, trying to keep their navigation device under control as the wind yanked them this way and that. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallion, depending upon how chaotic they are."

Her eyes found Natalia's, a silent question passing between them. Natalia's hand found the edge of the chariot, her knuckles blanching under her gloves. With a deep breath, she clenched her eyes shut. "Hold on tight. This'll get rough."

Butch flicked the reins. The pegasi put on a burst of speed, and time blurred. Natalia's vision faded to black around the edges and she felt her breath shallowing with panic. Before she could lose herself entirely, though, the chariot slowed and she was welcomed by the sight of home.

Natalia was twelve the first time she stepped foot in Camp Half-Blood, still in shock after finding out her mother was a goddess. She had vowed that she wanted nothing to do with the place or anyone in it—her eomma would pick her up, and she'd never have to think about the whole experience again. It was an opinion she was quickly shaken of when introduced to Annabeth Chase, a girl she knew she'd never be able to stop thinking about, no matter how hard she tried.

She glanced over at the girl now, feeling her stomach drop—although this was probably because of the wheels falling off the chariot, sending them careening toward the ground below.

Annabeth and Butch fought for control of the pegasi, but the weight of seven people and a chariot was too much, especially after the speed they'd just put on.

"The lake!" Annabeth yelled. "Aim for the lake!"

Natalia went rigid, bile crawling its way up her throat. A hand grabbed at her wrist, pulling her into the warmth of a body, a familiar comfort—Annabeth. She clenched her eyes shut as they hit the water.

Natalia had been terrified of all sorts of water since she was a little kid. It had always been a tad bit ironic, seeing as her best friend was the son of Poseidon. But either way, falling into the lake had never been her ideal. Although she was currently having a hard time focusing on the prospect of drowning, what with Annabeth pressed close as she was (the number of times Anna had distracted her from near-death experiences was embarrassingly high). Annabeth's arms left her waist, motioning up toward the water's surface. She nodded as best she could, mind back on the task at hand, but still desperately trying to ignore the prospect of drowning.

They were the first to emerge from the water. Immediately upon reaching the shore, they were bombarded by campers with high-tech leaf blowers. After they were thoroughly windswept they were handed scratchy blankets and expectant looks. Before they could fend off any questions, the others were spat out of the lake and given the same treatment.

Faced with the crowd their entrance had gathered, Natalia didn't know how they were going to explain. All of these people expected them to return triumphant, with Percy and Kathleen in tow. Instead, they'd brought a broken chariot and a bunch of newbies with amnesia. Gods, Natalia didn't know where to begin.

The choice was taken away by a voice booming through the crowd. "Annabeth!" Will Solace pushed his way toward them, looking positively livid. Rightfully so, as it was his chariot they'd just decimated. "I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!"

Annabeth sighed, like this was currently the least of her problems (which, to be honest, it was). "Will, I'm sorry. Nat and I will get it fixed, I promise."

He scowled at the broken chariot, but finally deemed the four new campers more important. He sized them up like he was already trying to determine whether he wanted them on his team for Capture the Flag. "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?"

"Claimed?" Leo asked.

Will ignored him, moving on to more important topics. "Any sign of Percy and Kathleen?"

Natalia could hear Annabeth's breath catch. "No," she admitted, sheepish.

Whispered noise erupted among the crowd. Will's expression soured. He muttered, "And I thought today was a good day."

"Hey," Natalia stepped forward, frustration seeping into her bones. "Trust me, no one wants to find them more than us, and we're doing all we can with what we have, but—"

"He didn't mean it like that," someone pushed forward. Natalia would recognize that voice anywhere.

Cordy Devitt stepped forward, the crowd parting cautiously around her. It had been less than a week since they'd last talked, but Natalia still found herself looking the younger girl over to make sure she was okay. She wanted to ask a million questions, most of which were selfishly about her own step-brother. Natalia hadn't seen Nico in months, and his absence was beginning to worry her.

Until a year and a half ago, Natalia hadn't really had much of an opinion regarding Cordy Devitt. As far as she was concerned, the girl was just Nico's traveling companion, wandering the country with him, disapproving of but still abetting in his quest to bring his sister back from the dead. But that was before the war ended—before Cordy had accepted the Jacksons' offer of a place to stay. The last she had heard, Percy would not stop raving about how happy he was that his mother and step-father wanted to officially adopt the daughter of Hecate. Now, being his best friend, Natalia couldn't help but feel obligated to make sure his little sister was safe and sound.

Before any sort of interrogation could take place, another demigod pushed her way forward.

"Well," she said. "I hope they're worth the trouble."

Drew Tanaka somehow managed to keep her hair in perfect ringlets, even in the humid summer air that pervaded Camp. She was Japanese, tall, managed to pull off jeans and an orange t-shirt. She and Natalia had been friendly once, a long time ago.

She scanned over the four newbies with obvious distaste (except for Jason, whom she seemingly deemed worthy of her time, which Natalia was not about to comment on. Especially not with how Piper also seemed to be looking at him. She really wasn't going to be made privy to another Percy/Kathleen/Rachel-style forced love triangle, if she could help it).

Rylee snorted. "Gee, thanks, are we your new pets or something?"

"No kidding," Rylee practically preened under Jason's agreement. "How about answering some questions before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, when are we allowed to leave?"

"Jason," Annabeth said with a sigh, "I promise we'll answer all your questions. And Drew—" she frowned at the girl, "all demigods are worth saving. Although I'll admit, we certainly didn't get what we wanted out of the trip."

"Hey," Piper said defensively. "We didn't ask to be brought here."

Drew sniffed. "And who told you we want you here? Do you always make this sort of...entrance?"

Piper stepped forward like she was ready to start a fight, but before anything could break out, Annabeth warned, "Piper, stop." However reluctantly, the girl listened.

"We need to make sure our new arrivals feel welcome," Natalia admonished. "We'll assign them each a guide, show them around Camp, and hopefully, by campfire tonight, they'll have been claimed."

"Can somebody please explain what the hell 'claimed' means?" Piper demanded.

Before anyone could, a collective gasp rumbled through the crowd. Hovering a few feet above Leo's head like a fiery red omen was a blazing holographic symbol—a dark hammer emblazoned in a circle of flame.

"That," Annabeth said blandly, "is claiming."

"What'd I do?" Leo backed toward the lake, catching sight of his reflection in the glassy surface. "Is my hair on fire?" His voice cracked. He tried to duck away from the symbol, but it followed him, making him look like some sort of weird fire-eating circus act.

"This can't be good," Butch muttered, "The curse—"

"Butch, shut up," Natalia elbowed him. Annabeth turned to Leo.

"Leo," she sounded as though she was talking to a cornered animal, trying not to startle him any more than the holographic symbol already had. "You've just been claimed—"

"By a god," Jason interrupted.

"The forge is the symbol of Vulcan...right?" Rylee said it as though an amnesiac being able to name the Roman form of a god was an everyday occurrence. When she saw the way everyone was looking at her, she shrunk behind Jason.

"Jason, Rylee..." Annabeth said carefully, "How did you know that?"

Rylee gave a placating shrug, practically standing behind Jason, who at least had the decency to give an, "I'm not sure."

"Vulcan?" Leo demanded, apparently not pleased with how off-topic they'd gotten. "I don't even like Star Trek. What the hell is everyone talking about?"

"Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus," Annabeth explained, "the god of blacksmiths and fire."

It already looked as though the hammer had never been there in the first place, but Leo kept swatting at his head nonetheless. It was like he thought he was on fire. "The god of what? Who?"

Annabeth heaved an exasperated sigh before turning to Cordy, who had been watching the entire conversation with a puzzled expression. "Cordy, would you mind taking Leo? Give him a tour of Camp; introduce him to his bunkmates in cabin nine?"

Cordy seemed surprised at the request. To be honest, Natalia felt the same. Sure, Cordy was well versed in dealing with newbies, but she had only spent a couple of months at Camp. Surely Will, standing right next to her, similarly perplexed, would've been a better choice? Except...for some reason, Annabeth wanted to get rid of Cordy, and Natalia had no idea why. When she tried to catch her eye, to get some kind of answer, she was deftly ignored.

Eventually, Cordy got over her surprise. Clearly displeased with the rather obvious dismissal, she grits out, "Sure, Annabeth."

"What's cabin nine?" Leo asked, frantic, clearly oblivious to the nuance of the situation. "And I am not a Vulcan."

That puzzled look came over Cordy again as she made her way toward the boy. "...I'm sure you're not. C'mon, I'll explain everything." She took a firm grip on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins.

Seemingly satisfied with that conclusion, Annabeth turned back to the amnesiacs. She got this look on her face, the one that she usually got when she and Natalia were looking over strategies for Capture the Flag. After a pregnant pause, she said, "Hold out your arms."

When Natalia saw what Annabeth had, she didn't know whether to be impressed or surprised. The amnesiacs had ink. On the inside of their right forearms were similar darkly etched markings. Jason's had an eagle soaring over the letters SPQR and a dozen short, straight lines. Rylee's depicted the letters too, although they were used as the base for an intricately engraved lyre and came before only nine lines.

"I've never seen marks like these before," Annabeth breathed. She and Natalia had approached the blondes, the rest of the crowd pushing in behind them to try and get a look. Anna's hand hooked itself into Natalia's glove-clad one, a silent question: had she? Really, she didn't need to think about it. Some part of her knew that Annabeth already had a theory about what these marks meant and that—because (in the words of Cordy Devitt) the Fates were a bitch—she probably had the knowledge to help.

But they couldn't decipher the complexities of that in front of a crowd of nervous campers. So, Natalia shook her head: not a no, but a later.

"Where did you two get them?" Annabeth finally asked.

Jason, apparently the more talkative of the two, shook his head, "I don't know how many times I have to say it: neither of us know."

His tone put a stop to the pushing of the campers around them. There was something sharp to him, Natalia noticed, a kind of feral second skin that had her itching to reach for the axe strapped to her back. He didn't seem to notice it was there.

"They look burned into your skin," she observed. A feeling came over her, like a line of ice water trickling down her spine—like she was close to something. She tucked the feeling away for the aforementioned later.

"They were," Rylee nodded easily, like this was common knowledge. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and pushed her palms into her temples like she was having sudden onset brain freeze. After recovering, she corrected herself. "I mean, I think so...it's all really hard to remember."

No one said anything, looking to Annabeth (and by extension, Natalia) for answers, as they often did. They exchanged a tense glance, but not much deliberation was really needed.

"They need to go straight to Chiron," Annabeth announced the verdict. "Drew, would you—"

"Absolutely." Drew demurely laced her arm with Jason's, sending a disregarding look to Rylee. "This way, handsome. I'll introduce you to our director; he's an...interesting guy." She flashed Piper one last smug look before strutting off toward the Big House with Jason, Rylee trailing awkwardly behind them.

Seemingly sensing that the spectacle had come to an end, campers began to disperse, returning to their daily activities with a thin sheen of dread. In the end, only Annabeth, Natalia, and Piper were left.

"Who's Chiron?" The newbie asked. "Are Jason in Rylee going to be okay? They aren't in trouble, right? 'Cause having amnesia wasn't really a choice, y'know."

Natalia's answer stuck in her throat. Honestly, she was beginning to understand that they were all in a lot of trouble. "Good question, Piper. Annie and I'll give you the tour. We should really talk about some things; get all of our stories straight."

【speak!! 】
and boom!! another chapter!
this is short and kinda inconsistent quality-wise because i hate writing natalia in the lost hero. she's just really not herself in this part of the story—she's one of those people who are so oblivious to tonal and social cues that she sometimes comes off as a bitch on first impression, but she's intentionally acting out of character here so it doesn't come across at all. her in lost hero is just natalia doing her best annabeth impression while annabeth is in the corner having a quarter-life crisis. she'll be much more fun in the intermission between lost hero and son of neptune (and also after that. natalia really lets loose after son of neptune)
but all the parts where she gets distracted just staring at annabeth, those are entirely in character. natalia is simp #1. even if she is cosplaying as a confident leader.
also!! cordy!! aka, the one from the summary that you literally don't meet until the third chapter and even then it's only barely!! but you do get a little clarification on her whole deal. yes, she and percy consider each other siblings. no, they are not biologically (or mythologyically) related. no extra child of poseidon here (i say as though i don't have one of those fics in my drafts).
there might be a bit of a longer wait for the next couple chapters as i'm doing something a bit different with them. usually there'd be another natalia chapter that is like super long and then we'd get to cordy's pov, but this time i'm gonna rewrite both of them and then splice them together into two chapters that both alternate between cordy and natalia, so double update next time!! but also a little wait since i'm rewriting two chapters rather than one.

【qotc!! 】
what's your favorite part of the lost hero (cannon or fanon)?