Reyna's POV

"Anyone remember the way out?" Some boy asked.

"Can someone explain to me who you two are?" I asked, gesturing to two unfamiliar people; a boy and a girl.

"Name's Leah. This is Andy. We're Thia's friends." The girl explained gesturing to herself and the boy I. I had to admit I was surprised. I'd never seen either of them before.

"Next question what the hell are you doing here?" Thia had made a point of not saying anything. She was trying to go unnoticed but it wasn't working.

"I told her not to come." Thalia frowned. "She uh, didn't listen."

"I just wanted to help." This insisted, giving a small shrug as if it weren't a big deal only it was a very big deal.

It took ever ounce of my willpower to think before I spoke. There were dozens of things I wanted to say at the moment. She'd somehow managed to get here on her own and dragged two other people with her. I mean, I wasn't entirely surprised that she'd just willingly dive head first into danger considering it seemed to run in the family but that was exactly what worried me.

Thia wasn't well equipped, so to speak, to take care of herself in certain situations. She had no weapon with her and neither did her friends let alone protection. There wasn't a shield or piece of armor in sight. Not to mention she rarely fought. It wasn't something she enjoyed so her skills weren't decent enough to handle a situation like this. Maybe sparring was her favorite class but that's because she got partnered with the younger kids and could win based on age.

"Thia, you could have gotten yourself killed along with your friends," I sighed.

"We were fine! Right guys?" Thia looked at them expectantly. Andy held his hands up in a non threatening manner clearly not wanting to get involved and Leah pursed her lips flicking her eyes to the ground also taking the silent approach.

"You don't have the training to dive into situations like this," I explained, trying to help her grasp the stupidity behind her impulses.

"Of course I do. I can handle myself," she insisted.

"Where's your weapon?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you even have a shield. Did any of you actually come prepared?"

"Look, everything's fine. See? We can go back home and forget this ever happened." Thia gave a tentative smile.

"Not happening. Do you understand what could have happened to you?" I asked getting slightly frustrated by her eagerness to act as though nothing had happened.

Grover grabbed Thia's friends and mumbled something about looking around. I think he just sensed the tension behind the situation and was looking to avoid witnessing such a thing.

"Of course I understand but you're missing the point Mom. None of that stuff happened," Thia smiled, bouncing on the balls of her feet oblivious to what I was getting at.

"That doesn't mean it won't happen. Maybe it will next time or the time after that," Thalia interjected with an opinion of her own.

"Well I won't be doing it anymore because like I said, we can go home, and let someone else deal with this for the time being." Thia stopped her fidgeting for once.

"Thia you could have been hurt or worse. You could have died. And it's not like I could help you if you needed it." Just thinking of such things made a chill run down my spine. It was something I preferred not to think about. Thalia and I had been lucky in the fact that so far ,as Thia had been growing up, there weren't any problems that presented themselves where she was put in danger.

"Hey, I took on Jenna and her stupid friends just fine." Thia crossed her arms giving a stubborn look to match her words.

"Fighting a bully is different. It may sound harsh but you got the pulp beat out of you." Thalia reminded, though she probably should have phrased it better than that.

"What? So it doesn't matter? I'm just as tough as the next person." Thia seemed to sense that this argument was going to get her no where but I also knew she wasn't one to quit easily until she had said all she desired to.

"Standing up to people is a good thing but they can't really rip you to pieces or eat you. Or worse," Thalia explained. "Monsters are very different."

"I saved Leah like ten minutes ago what about that?" Thia asked, a slight waver showing in her voice.

"An impulsive and dangerous decision," I sighed.

"So I'm just not allowed to do anything?" Thia asked, her eyes falling in defeat. "This is the first time in forever I've felt like I did something important and I'm just chilling back in New Rome doing nothing."

"Wanting to do something important doesn't mean you go searching for trouble. You certainly don't throw yourself into dangerous situations. If something happened to you I don't know what I'd do." It was something that would keep me awake at night. Just the idea of not having This around made my heart flutter with pain.

"Do you ever think that maybe I feel the same way? You guys just go off and do things and I'm left at home and I get scared, okay? Cause what if I have to be on my own? It's the exact same thing. At least when I'm here I'm with you guys not worrying myself to death!" Thia sniffled and for a moment I felt guilty for lecturing her but it was something that needed to be addressed. "It's hard sometimes because I hear all the stories. How you both did all of these cool things and I've done nothing. I just, I don't know."

"Thia you don't have to do dangerous things to do something good. Right now you just aren't capable of such feats. You're just not-"

"Strong enough," Thia mumbled, almost too quietly to hear. "I know I'm not strong enough, I don't have powers and I'm not like the two of you. I get it. I'm just me. I'm a helpless little girl and it sucks."

"That's not what I meant." Thia's eyes glistened with tears and I didn't know I was capable of feeling such guilt.

"It doesn't matter I'm quite aware of my deficiencies," This laughed lightly. "You know I'm just gonna go look around for a bit, okay? I'll be back. No need to worry. I'll stay close incase you need to rescue your useless daughter or something."

Before I could protest Thia disappeared into the dark. Groaning, I hid my face in my hands. "I feel horrible. That's not even what I meant."

Thalia sighed and pulled me into a gentle hug. "I think part of her knows that but she did do pretty well holding her own."

"I understand that but I just...I don't want her to have to deal with the things we do. We still have to figure out whatever this is. I don't event think we're going to be able to go home Thals," I sighed, resting my head on her shoulder.

"What do you mean?" She asked worriedly.

"I have a feeling this is something bad. Something big. If anything we need to go to CHB and see if they're aware of it. After that, who knows?" I hated to admit it but I really did believe we were going to be faced with something rather horrible.

What was worse, Thia was with us. Now that she was involved she was going to have to stick it out to the end. That's how these sort of things worked and it only caused me to worry. She really had no idea how demanding these things were. The kind of scars they left on you physically and emotionally.

Even after all these years though Thalia still despised loud noises and would attack anyone who snuck up behind her and touched her. They were just subconscious reflexes. Even I had remnants of our past conflicts. On occasion when things became to strenuous the scar on my chest would flare up with an intense and almost crippling pain.

The kind where just the slightest breath caused your chest to feel like caving in. Thia didn't have a single scar on her skin. I wanted it to stay like that. I wanted her to remain untouched by the evilness of the world and more importantly the cruelty of war.

Maybe it was an unrealistic desire but it was something I had always strived for ever since she was little. I'd never seen something as innocent as a little kid learning all about the good things in the world. Watching their eyes light up it made you melt. Every ounce of your being wanted you to protect them, to keep them away from anything that could cause potential harm.

You wanted them to see the good things. Like butterflies instead of spiders. Yet Thia had always drifted in the opposite direction. She absolutely loved dragons when she was younger despite the stories surrounding them as viscous creatures.

Thia didn't like flowers. Instead she liked carnivorous planes. She'd seen a Venus fly trap once and thought it was the coolest thing ever and had even stuck her finger inside of it. She didn't like sunny days but rainy ones. She even ran out into an open field during a rainstorm once so that she could feel the thunder and lightning.

Thia didn't like the fluffy and cute small animals. She loved the lions and tigers and bears. Thia liked fun and wild things. As much as it drove me nuts sometimes it was who she was.

That was just how Thia worked. She was the girl who did the opposite of everything you would expect. It was what I loved about her I just wished that in times like this I could go back in time to when she was small and full of wonder. Back when she didn't understand how bad the world could be.

But I also knew that Thia was trying desperately to feel less helpless. She hadn't talked about Marianna's suicide since the night it had happened. I knew she'd just shoved it away into a small corner of her heart because she didn't want to deal with it. She didn't want to acknowledge the fact that she hadn't been as strong as she would have liked. Yet she had been. She'd done all she could given her abilities.l but here I was making her feel small. It was quite the predicament.

"I'm gonna go find her. I think I owe her an apology. I was probably being too hard " I sighed. Thalia ran her hand gently up and down my back.

"You were right though. She's not capable of handling stuff like this. At least not yet. In time she'll be fine. She just needs to be a little more cautious until then. A balance so to speak. Impulse isn't always bad," Thalia replied.

"When did you get so wise?" I asked pulling back from the hug.

"I have my moments," she winked, kissing me lightly on the brow. "Now go apologize. We have to move. I do not want to deal with any more of those nasty black monsters."

"Right," I nodded, and headed off in the direction Thia had disappeared in.