Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘Damn, this place is hot.’

Sokka itched at his skin, attacking the sweat beads running down his arms and face as if they were bugs crawling all over him.

Katara pulled up a map on her phone, though the layout of the sprawling city was just about impossible for her to comprehend, even with direct instructions. She watched as her brother yanked at his shirt, pulling it back and forth in an attempt at increasing air flow to his sweating face. In fairness he wasn’t wrong, the city was oppressively hot. The air seemed to stand still, almost. Plus Katara couldn't shake the feeling of a thousand eyes on her. A symptom of being in one of the busiest cities in the world, she guessed.

‘I’m pretty sure we’re going the wrong way.’ She sighed, growing gradually annoyed. 

‘Who’s genius idea was it to build a school in the middle of a tourist trap anyway? There’s like a billion people around here!’ Sokka complained, tugging at the uncomfortable straps of his too-small backpack. 

‘This isn’t a tourist spot, this is just how many people live around here.’ She muttered, furiously tapping away at her phone in any attempt at remedying the whole ‘lost’ situation.

‘Welp, this is gonna suck.’ He admitted casually.

‘We haven’t even been here two days and you’re already giving up?’ She exclaimed.

People hardly noticed as she raised her voice, she supposed they had enough on their plate not bumping into the hundreds of other passer byers. It was weird, suddenly being surrounded by so many people who just saw them as two more faces in the crowd rather than being the ‘naughty’ kids from down the street.

‘Well can ya blame me! It’s boiling hot, there’s so many people around I can barely hear myself think and we’re lost. Again!’ He retorted.

‘Fine, you do the map reading, oh genius Sokka! Ugh, you are so frustrating!’ She slammed the phone into his chest.

‘Hey!’ A woman yelled as they stopped in the middle of the walkway. 

‘Sorry.’ Katara blushed and pulled her brother into a side alley.

‘Look we’re barely even lost!’ Sokka said, unaware of the dirty looks they were getting from just about everyone around them, ‘The school is like, two streets ahead.’ 

‘Fine.’ Katara followed as he confidently strutted ahead of her.

Everywhere seemed to be crammed to the brim with people, no matter where she looked. The sidewalks were flooded with fast moving bodies and every inch of the street was taken up by cars, whizzing bikes or people on scooters. She supposed that explained that weird feeling of being looked at, she clearly wasn’t used to being so surrounded. Being the obnoxious new guys probably didn’t help either. 

She paused for a millisecond to look in every shop’s window, curious at the array of junk New York had to offer yet wary of everyone around her giving nasty looks whenever she slowed. Every place, from barbers to antique stores, held some array of mismatched people and an old fan blowing ceaselessly against the stale heat of the afternoon. It was about as different as a place could be from their hometown and she was certainly thankful for the distraction the city offered. She’d hardly noticed her chafing shoes or the way her t-shirt was awkwardly sticking to her back, plus it was another excuse to not think about poor Gran Gran sitting alone back home.

Suddenly Sokka stopped ahead and Katara noticed the thinning out of people. Her brother looked up at the tall building across the street and raised a hand to the sun.

‘Me thinks this is the place.’ He double checked the phone.

‘I expected it to look less…’ Katara wasn’t quite sure how to describe the large, concrete building.

‘Prison like?’ Sokka offered.

‘Yeah, something like that.’ 

Sokka looked down at his watch. No doubt they were late.

‘Well, no time like the present.’ He grimaced.

The massive grey doors to the school opened to reveal a severe looking woman with small glasses and a tight, streaky bun waiting for them with crossed arms. Sokka gulped down whatever he was feeling and Katara was thankful at the heat of the day for hiding her panic sweats.

‘Um, hi! We’re Katara and Sokka, we’re supposed to be transferring here next week.’ Katara put on her bravest ‘talking to the adults’ face.

‘You’re late.’ The woman seemed neither annoyed nor content.

‘Yeah…we caught the wrong subway…three times.’ Katara admitted with a sheepish smile.

Sourly, the woman half-rolled her eyes as if she’d heard that excuse a thousand times before. In their defense, it was true, but she didn’t seem to believe it and Katara wasn’t in the mood to argue with a crabby old lady today.

‘Very well. My name is Ms Darryl, I’m the guidance counsellor here. I suppose I can still offer a tour, follow me.’ They weren’t hesitant to obey.

The inside of the school was about as cheerful as the exterior. Cinder Block walls and minimal decor really added to the Victorian orphanage vibe, the only colour coming from the kids’ wardrobe choices (which were experimental to say the least).

‘This is one of the classrooms. Mr Brown.’ She nodded to him in some sort of greeting.

The class seemed less than enthusiastic at the two of them gawking in. She guessed that was sort of expected from a ‘bad behaviour school’ (as their grandma put it). All of the kids looked to be a few years younger than her, maybe fourteen at most, though only a few looked to have any joy left in their eyes. 

One boy, with super short black hair and a wide grin, caught her eye. Dressed in fluorescent orange, he was pretty hard to miss. He smiled at the two of them and clearly he’d caught Sokka’s attention too considering he smirked awkwardly back. Before Katara had a chance to wave or anything, Ms Darryl was hoiking them off down the corridor.

‘I hope everything was to your standards.’ The woman said with hardly a drop of emotion in her voice as she clicked away at an ancient computer. 

‘Yup, super great.’ Sokka sputtered.

‘Good.’ She said, though she seemed anything but pleased, ‘I see you’re not scheduled to start until Monday but considering the fact that there are only two periods remaining I think it would be best that you started early.’ 

‘Come again.’ Sokka asked, his eyes wide with fear.

‘Day one doesn’t mean anyone here will take pity on you. We expect you’ll know your way around and such so I think it would be wise for you two to remain here for the rest of the day and become…familiar with everything.’ She looked at them with a look Katara could only describe as scorn.

‘Right, right. It's just our dad is kind of waiting on us-’ Sokka attempted.

‘Very well, here are your visitor passes. For the final period go to classroom 3A8. I’ll see you two next week.’ She extended them a sheet of paper with a threatening grin

‘What just happened?’ Katara asked as they wandered out of the counselor's room with ‘visitor’ lanyards swinging from their necks.

‘God only knows.’ Sokka wailed.

A shrill ring filled the corridor and doors began to fly open, spilling rowdy students into the hallway. Sokka practically grabbed Katara and sprinted in the opposite direction.

‘What the hell? Where are we going?’ She yelled.

‘This says its lunch so I guess the cafeteria.’ He shrugged mid-run.

The pair of them staggered into the cafeteria before nearly being plowed down. By the time they got to the ‘food’, Katara was surprised to be alive and doubly surprised to see what they had clearly been excited about considering she was nearly trampled to death.

‘Is this legal?’ Sokka mumbled as a man in a poorly worn hairnet dumped a ladle of brown goop onto his plate.

‘Nope.’ The man said solemnly, ‘Move it.’

Goop and a drink in hand, they stared out at the flooding cafeteria and realised they were very unprepared. Every table was filled with kids double their size, fighting or goth saved for one in the very corner where the overflowing bins stood sorrily. 

‘Yeah, this is the worst moment of my life.’ Sokka said.

‘Shut up. Maybe we just need to give it a few days, I’m sure all of these people are…perfectly nice.’ Katara tried as she walked by a girl and got growled at.

‘Let's just take the trash tale.’ Sokka sighed.

They dropped their brown sludge onto the table and tried to ignore the pungent trail of rotting food powdering the insides of their mouths. Both connected benches were coated with gum but Katara supposed it beat being growled at.

‘First impressions?’ Sokka asked her as he dipped his tongue into the brown stuff.

He looked on the verge of gagging so Katara silently slid her plate to the end of the table. If her brother couldn’t eat it, nobody should.

‘It could be worse.’ She tried.

‘Admit it, Katara, Dad is basically relegating us to prison.’ Sokka said, crunching on a cereal bar from his bag.

‘At least prisoners don’t have to pay to be there.’ Katara sighed, not even she could put a positive spin on this place.

‘Hey ponytail.’ A beefy guy from the table next to them heckled.

‘Ignore it.’ Katara whispered.

‘No duh.’ Sokka replied between chomps.

‘I know you hear me ponytail. You got any more of those bars? Come on, I know you do.’ The guy stood up and rested on one arm against their table.

He was probably half a foot taller than either of them and the width of both of them combined though clearly all his energy had gone into his body considering his face. Pale, rugged and leathery. Ugh, only a mother could love it.

‘Come on, what’s in the bag?’ The boy grinned wickedly.

Katara felt her blood boil but kept it contained. Sokka didn’t need her making a scene, he made plenty of them himself.

‘Sorry that was uh…my last one.’ Sokka squeaked.

‘What a shame. Why don’t you just give me something else then to make up for it?’ He placed a strong hand on Sokka’s shoulder, signalling towards his bag.

‘I don’t know man, I don’t have all that much stuff.’ Sokka tried to sweep the guy’s hand from his shoulder unsuccessfully.

‘Sure you don’t.’ He reached for Sokka’s bag.

‘What is your problem?’ Katara stood up and swung the boy around to face her.

Sure, he could probably pummel her into a bloody mess in one punch but he looked pretty damn shocked at first.

‘Who’s this? You need a girl to fight for you, ponytail?’ The boy looked amused.

‘Actually it's a warrior’s wolf tail but you know.’ Sokka mumbled.

‘What?’ The guy’s face soured.

‘He said you’re just too scared to fight a girl.’ Katara yelled, the cafeteria going silent.

The guy snorted.

‘Says who? I’ll fight you right now, ugly.’ 

‘That’s rich coming from you. Sure, come fight me after school. Or don’t, if you’re not man enough to hit a girl.’ She provoked.

He looked about ready to hit her.

‘Guys, guys, we don’t need to do this.’ Sokka tried, signalling frantically for her to sit down.

‘No it's fine, he wants to take our stuff, he can take what I’m offering.’ She steamed.

‘You bitch! I’ll kill you!’ The boy screamed.

Two slender hands wrapped around the guy’s arm, almost immediately he looked calmer. 

‘Come on, Zay , don’t fight. You don’t want to get expelled do you?’ A girl with a deadly face said sweetly.

Katara noticed Sokka practically drooling at her and rolled her eyes, she really wasn’t in the mood.

‘You’re right.’ He said, ‘After school, though? You’re done, new girl.’ 

‘Fine by me.’ Katara stood her ground.

The girl gave Katara the smirk of the century before guiding the gorilla out of the cafeteria. She sat back down in a huff, only slightly semi-conscious that the whole room was still staring at her.

‘Nothing to see here, people!’ Sokka yelled, and conversation nervously picked back up.

‘What happened to ignoring it?’ He hissed at her the second they were out of the spotlight.

Based on the nonchalance of the dining staff she presumed that kind of skirmish was regular cafeteria entertainment. 

‘I’m sorry, okay? That guy was being a total dick to you, I wasn’t just gonna let him rob you.’ She responded, now quite embarrassed.

‘I was handling it.’ He said sheepishly.

‘Hey! You’re the new guys right.’ A friendly voice chirped from behind them.

Katara looked over to see the smiley kid from Mr Brown’s room. She was surprised to see he was hardly shaken by that little scene she’d just caused.

‘Hey….yeah we are. I’m Katara and this is my brother, Sokka.’ She said with a small smile.

‘Great! I’m Aang.’ He slid himself onto the bench beside her.

‘Cool…I don’t know if you wanna sit here, bud. We just-’ Sokka looked uncomfortable.

‘Nah, don’t worry about it. That was tame compared to normal.’ He said with a shrug, mooching the sludge on his plate around with a fork.

He was infectiously friendly looking compared to the pestilence ridden people inhabiting the rest of the room. Where they lacked a single emblem of their joyous youth, Aang had it written all over his face. She guessed he was probably thirteen, maybe fourteen considering the place was a highschool. God only knew what he’d done to end up there, he seemed like a ray of sunshine in the dingy cave of a school.

‘Where did you guys transfer from?’ He asked.

‘You probably haven’t heard of our old school. We’re Canadian.’ Katara said.

‘Wow, that’s so cool! Like Toronto? My friend is friends with this guy from Vancouver, do you know him?’ Aang’s face lit up.

‘Uh, probably not. We’re from Nunavut. Basically no one lives there.’ Sokka said with a raised eyebrow. 

‘Oh right. Well that’s still pretty cool.’ He shrugged.

‘What about you, Aang, do you live around here?’ Katara asked. 

‘Kind of…I live at the school mostly.’ He said nervously.

Katara took that as a sign not to dig any further. She knew that kids who ended up in schools like that didn’t usually have the best lives at home and his cagey behaviour definitely didn’t scream ‘keep asking !’. 

‘So your family don’t live around here?’ Sokka asked.

‘Sokka!’ She widened her eyes at him but he only looked confused.

Aang chuckled anxiously.

‘Uh, no. Technically I’m in foster care but the home…yeah anyway, I just board here now.’ 

Katara kicked her brother under the table.

‘Oh right. This place kind of sucks, huh.’ 

‘Pretty much.’ Aang shrugged, a small smile playing at his lips, ‘But now you guys are here I guess it's a little better.’ 

Katara couldn’t help but smile. She found it hard to believe that this kid didn’t have any friends but she wasn’t mad that he’d chosen them.

‘Are you guys here all day?’ He pointed to her visitor badge.

‘Yeah.’ Sokka shrugged, ‘And now we have to stay after school too so Katara can fight that beefcake.’ 

Katara rolled her eyes.

‘Where are you guys next period? I can show you where your class is if you want, oh! And I have something else really cool to show you.’ Aang ignored them.

‘Uhh…we’re in room 3A8.’ Sokka read off the sheet.

‘Oh right, come on.’ He bundled off out of the cafeteria.

The three of them clambered down a few corridors, careful to sneak past open doors where potential teachers could catch them roaming during lunch (why that would go against any rules dumbfounded Katara but she conceded, this place was clearly some kind of hell where logic didn’t apply). Eventually Aang found a set of abandoned stairs and shoved open the blocked off doors leading to them.

‘Wow…a staircase.’ Sokka remarked sarcastically.

Katara kicked his shin and smiled at Aang. The last thing the poor kid needed was to be bullied by Ponytail.

‘No, just watch.’ They stood at the top of the stairs as Aang pulled an old metal panel off the wall and used it to slide down the stairs, ending in a crash.

‘Aang? Oh my God are you alright?’ Katara hurried down the steps to check on him.

He uncrumpled himself and gave the two of them a huge grin. Katara tried to exchange a worried glance with her brother only to find him readied with the panel about to try for himself.

‘Jesus Christ.’ She muttered as her brother on the borderline of adulthood sledded down the stairs like a child, cheering all the way down. 

‘Dude! That was great!’ Sokka cheered as he crashed to the bottom, ‘Again!’

‘Katara?’ Aang offered her his sheet of metal.

She winced, though the hope in his eyes seemed to melt her heart a little. 

‘Fine.’ She finally managed, both boys chanting her name as she clambered up the stairs and stood anxiously looking down at them.

‘Just do it! It's fun!’ Aang yelled.

‘I haven’t sledded since I was a kid.’ Katara cringed at the steepness.

‘You still are a kid!’ He grinned back, ‘Come on, just one time!’ 

 The shrill ringing of the bell sounded out, echoing through the dusty room. Katara gulped, trying to psych herself up enough to ignore the obvious hazard of broken bones awaiting her at the bottom of the steps.

Before she could, the doors clanged open behind her and a severe looking Ms Darryl looked displeased to say the least.

Without hesitation, Katara jumped down onto the sheet and skidded her way down two flights of stairs, landing in a heap of pain and adrenaline.

‘Run!’ Sokka screeched.

The corridors melted together into a sea of moving colour as they escaped through the partially barricaded doors. A perfect cover.

Before the snapping of Ms Darryl’s hooves reached them they were blending in with the sea of delinquents. They darted between groups and ducked behind the odd beefcake for cover before turning the corner and sprinting down a long, open hallway.

‘Where did you say your class was?’ Aang asked.

‘3A8.’ Sokka panted.

‘Follow me!’ 

They traced Aang’s footsteps up another two stories and down two more corridors, which were becoming more and more sparsely populated by the minute. Katara felt her lungs burning, her skin practically melting off between the overwhelming reek of body odor, the hanging heat and the sweat of clambering up two flights of stairs. Her brother didn’t look all that great either, if she was being honest. Then again, he was always the smart one, what need was there to run the mile when you have books? What was her excuse?

‘This way!’ Aang darted around a final corner and nearly ran head first into the classroom door labelled ‘3A8’.

‘I think we lost her.’ Katara managed between pants.

‘Let's just go in. I need to sit down.’ Sokka wheezed.

The classroom was deserted when they wandered in. Sokka took a seat in the nearest chair before spreading himself over the desk like he’d just ran a marathon. Somehow Aang seemed barely out of breath.

‘Dude, are you some kind of athlete?’ Sokka asked, clearly thinking the same thing as her.

‘Uh…I like running?’ Aang shrugged.

‘Me too.’ A voice spoke out from behind the door, slamming it closed.

‘Hey.’ Katara suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to jump out of the nearest window as the girl from the cafeteria revealed herself.

Sokka immediately straightened up, trying to look casual.

‘Hey, didn’t see you there.’ He said in an artificially deep voice.

‘I haven’t seen you three around before.’ She hissed, waving her taloned nails around seductively. How girls managed to do anything with those kinds of nails always baffled Katara. She was the first to admit to loving a good manicure, but by god, this girl basically had claws.

‘Yeah well, me and my brother are new so…’ Katara said, faking her nice voice as much as possible.

‘Yeah, yeah, me too…I just moved in last week!’ Aang stuttered for an answer, making Katara raise an eyebrow. Sokka seemed too enchanted by this girl to even notice.

She flipped her fiery red hair over her shoulder dramatically.

‘Yeah sure, how are you finding it? Is it to your taste?’ She flicked her tongue at Sokka and Katara could’ve sworn it was spiked. Leave it to this place to have the literal spawn of Satan walking around, why not?

‘Aren’t other people supposed to be in this class?’ Aang asked, worriedly. 

The girl rolled her eyes and placed a hand on Sokka’s shoulder.

‘I was going to wait until my companion arrived, but I suppose I’ll have to suffice alone.’ She seemed to almost dig her claws into Sokka’s arm, alarm shooting across his face.

‘Shoot!’ Aang cried, shoving the girl off balance.

She hissed at him, her eyes seeming to glow. Sokka darted back, fear warping his face. 

‘What the hell? Aang, what’s going on, who is she?’ Katara exclaimed.

‘Uh…doesn’t matter. We need to get out of here! Now!’ Aang looked around nervously, ‘This was a seriously bad idea!’ 

The girl finally stood up, her hair turning from a blazing red to a literal blaze, her teeth jutting out into hideous fangs. Even her legs, which Katara had assumed were just a little hair before, appeared more like deer’s hooves than anything Katara had ever seen attached to a human.

‘Run where, demigod? There’s no escape, you might as well just give up!’ She yelled, lunging at Aang and Katara.

‘Sounds good.’ Sokka sat back down, the fear melting off of his face.

He looked like he was dazed or in a daydream. Was he on drugs?

Aang, god knows how, parried the demonic girl, chucking her to the floor. He grabbed a baseball bat sitting in the back of the room (which Katara was now realising was more large storage closet than it was classroom) and swung it threateningly at the girl.

‘Don’t come near us or I’ll be forced to use this!’ He said, though his voice lacked any conviction.

Taking the moment of distraction, Katara darted over to her brother and waved a hand in front of his face.

‘Huh?’ He seemed to snap out of his weird trance, ‘Look out!’ 

The girl pounced towards her, the flames of her hair gently licking at Katara’s already very warm skin. Somehow she dodged, running over to Aang. 

He waved the bat at the girl though he was clearly not excited to use it.

‘Give that here!’ Sokka grabbed the bat from his hands and swung hard at the girl’s head, missing only by an inch. 

She swung at him with her claws, catching his cheek. Swinging again, he hit her square across the chest, flinging her to the floor in a crumpled heap. Sokka looked guilty for about half a second before careening out of the door, slamming it shut once all three of them were safely out and using the bat the secure the demon girl inside.

‘What the hell was that?’ He turned to them, terrified.

‘Yeah, Aang, what was that? It sounded like you knew her or something?’ Katara was slightly more angry than her brother.

‘No, no! I- I don’t know, okay! But we need to get out of here, like now!’ He announced.

‘No duh!’ Sokka waved his hands frantically, ‘Come on.’ 

‘Wait! I thought that the woman who was chasing us earlier felt kind of weird. We need to avoid her at all costs.’ Aang warned.

‘Or what? She’s gonna turn into a demon too?’ Sokka mocked.

‘Well…yeah.’ Aang shrugged.

‘Great. Not even our first day and we’ve managed to run into not one but two demons. Just our luck.’ Sokka huffed.

‘Empousa, actually.’ Aang corrected.

‘What, like the Greek myth?’ Katara shook her head in disbelief.

‘Like mythomagic?’ Sokka’s eyes widened, ‘That would make sense.’

‘Would it now?’ Ms Darryl’s stoney voice hissed from behind them.

The three of them screamed in unison before sprinting off down the corridor. This time Ms Darryl was less easy to lose. She appeared in front of them in a shower of flames, her greying bun erupting into a ball of fire.

‘You can’t run from me little demigods. There’s really no use trying.’ She lunged for Katara, ripping half of her t-shirt’s sleeve off in the process.

The unfamiliar sting of burning talons digging into her flesh was not one Katara was eager to relive and within a second Ms Darryl was off of her and on the floor. Had she just punched her or had she imagined that? God, she didn’t even know what to believe anymore.

The three of them peeled off into the nearest stairwell, clambering up to the next floor and through a heavy metal door. Sokka rammed it with his shoulder, bursting open the doors and nearly blinding them with the alien glow of daylight. Katara hadn’t realised how much she’d missed the sun since being locked up in fluorescent light jail all afternoon. 

Perhaps more worrying, though, this was the roof. 

‘Great, so we're trapped.’ Sokka stomped.

‘That’s right.’ Ms Darryl staggered up the stairs, her scorpion-like leg twitching from where she’d fallen on in, ‘Nowhere to run now.’

‘Sokka?’ Katara looked at her brother eagerly. Usually he was the one with the plan to save them from trouble, though admittedly escaping detention and escaping a guidance counsellor shaped demon were pretty different.

He only looked back at her helplessly. They were weaponless, trapped and tired. 

Yup, they were about to die. 

The demon sprinted for them, dragging her claws through the air like five long blades. Katara, not knowing what else to do, pulled her backpack from her back and slung it at the woman’s decaying face. It barely made a dent on her, though it at least gave them two more seconds to come up with something.

Sokka ran to the edge of the roof and scanned the surrounding area. The school was pretty isolated from the other nearby buildings, surrounded by dead grass and a chain link fence. They were about three stories up so any hopes of making the jump down were gone unless they were feeling suicidal, which, at that point, Katara was starting to think she was.

Her brother seemed to have thought of something as his face lit up in that way it always did when he had finally come up with something. He started lugging some piece of old metal satellite dish around and Katara decided to trust him, no matter how dumb he looked.

In order to buy him some time, she decided it was probably best to keep fighting the demon woman, no matter how suicidal of an idea that may be.

The woman, despite her mature age, was far from decrepit and she seemed to have spent all that time at the boxing ring or something because she was about a thousand times stronger than any old woman Katara had ever known. She felt her limbs slowing down as the woman landed a few punches, the deep, jagged cuts on her shoulder stinging like nothing she’d ever known. Just as Katara felt about ready to give up, Sokka and Aang seemed to have freed the strange metal disk from whatever cables were holding it to the roof and Ms Darryl was suddenly uninterested in Katara.

‘Watch out!’ She yelled.

Aang, like someone straight out of a karate movie, seamlessly dodged each and every one of her attacks, even managing to trick her into punching hard into a concrete wall, the woman’s hand becoming lodged within it. 

‘You!’ She shrieked in an almost bird-like manner.

‘Katara, get over here!’ Sokka screamed, hauling the disk to the edge of the roof.

‘What the hell are you two doing? I- I just fought that crazy demon woman and you’re here collecting scrap metal?’ Katara winced, holding her arm carefully.

Behind them, Aang ran over, his feet light against the floor. The wall which trapped the demon, or empousa maybe, cracked as she pulled against it desperately. 

‘I think we have like ten seconds until she gets uh- unstuck. Climb on!’ Sokka panted.

‘Climb onto the satellite dish? Why? So we can die with a good TV signal?’ Katara hissed.

‘Just trust me! Look down there!’ 

She peeked over the side of the roof to find a small, slanted roof about one story below them and a fire escape coming off of it. How they correlated to sitting in a satellite disk, Katara was unsure.

‘It’s like that sledding thing we were doing earlier!’ Sokka said, anxiously aware of the ever less-stuck empousa, ‘We’ll drop down onto that roof and then slide down the fire escape.’ 

‘That’s a terrible plan!’ Aang exclaimed.

‘Agreed! What if we fall off? Or the roof can’t take our weight?’ 

A large crash halted any conversation, the crumbling wall behind them turning to dust. Ms Darryl looked just about ready to eat them now, maybe even more than she had been before.

‘Do you have a better plan?’ Her brother yelled.

Both her and Aang quickly jumped in.

‘Didn’t think so.’ Sokka rolled his eyes before shoving the disk off the roof, narrowly missing the fiery devil woman’s claws in the process. 

At first, Sokka’s plan seemed to be…working? Well really Katara just didn’t have the time to process all the ways the plan was in fact not working, so yeah, it did kind of look like it was working. 

At First.

Then the disk was flying through the air a foot away from them and they were all screaming for their lives. Katara had never really believed it when people talked about their lives ‘flashing before their lives’ and she still didn’t. In that moment, when she truly thought she was about to die, all she could think about was how disappointed her dad and grandma probably would be. It wasn’t even their first day and they’d already managed to cause trouble. 

She almost looked forward to the pain of the fall, at least then she wouldn’t have to deal with them lecturing her and Sokka anymore. She wouldn’t have to see how sad her dad looked walking out of yet another teacher’s office. 

But it never came. After a solid ten seconds of waiting for the long awaited pangs of death, she squeezed open an eye only to find her and her friends levitating a meter off the ground. Then, suddenly, they fell, though, rather than falling three stories, it was barely two feet.

Chapter Text

She looked over at Sokka in disbelief, his logic-wired brain clearly working overtime to come up with an explanation for why the hell they weren’t painting the concrete basketball court right now. Without even thinking, she lunged over and pulled him into a hug.

Aang looked at them shocked, though not nearly as shocked as he should be. She pulled away from her brother and they exchanged a bewildered look.

‘What the hell was that?’ He said, dazed.

‘Yeah, wow, so weird right? Anyway we need to go, like now!’ Aang squeaked.

Above them Ms Darryl stared over the ledge, her fiery eyes seething with rage. Across the courtyard, the similarly fire-headed girl from earlier appeared from around the corner of the building, her eyes wide with recognition, her mouth twisting into a wide grin.

‘Good idea!’ Sokka turned on his heel.

The three of them sprinted from the gates, Katara’s chafing shoes now the least of her worries. Not wasting a second for politeness anymore, they peeled through the crowded pavements, Aang leading the way. 

Where were they going? Katara doubted any of them knew, they just collectively recognised that if they didn’t run somewhere , they would be demon lady food in minutes. 

Speaking of, Katara could feel her shoulder tearing further and further apart with every second. It got to the point where she could hardly see, the pain infecting every other part of her.

At some point, Sokka took the lead and ducked down into a subway. The three of them tumbled down the stairs and found a map of the intricate train network. They’d already been lost on it about a hundred times already so Katara didn’t have high hopes for wherever this was going, even if she was really trying to trust her brother.

‘Where did Dad say his office was again?’ Sokka asked, panicked and out of breath.

Luckily, they seemed to have lost the fiery demon ladies, even if just for a minute. Katara and the others took the brief moment of freedom to breathe.

‘Uhh, lower Manhattan right?’ She answered frantically.

She peeled off her backpack and pulled out the handkerchief her Gran Gran had given her before they’d left. Trying to ignore the searing pain, she pressed it hard into her shoulder.

‘That looks pretty deep, Katara, are you okay?’ Aang said, worried.

‘I’ll be fine. Where are we going then, Sokka?’

Her brother studied the map.

‘Come on, I think we want…there!’ He pointed over to an arriving train.

Feet cracked against the tile floors behind them. 

‘They’re relentless, huh?’ Sokka quipped before dashing off, squeezing into the train of sweating bodies. 

They hardly managed to get a space, the entire carriage filled to the brim with warm flesh and grim faces. Sokka’s face grew paler and paler as the girl grew ever closer and the doors were unquestionably open . Luckily, with barely a second between the girl’s claws and their eyes, the doors squeaked shut, leaving the empousa firmly behind the glass of the doors. 

‘Hah!’ Got you lady!’ Sokka laughed, ‘Nah nah nah nah nah, can’t catch us now.’ 

The girl slammed her fist into the glass, just about shattering it (were it not some reinforced hybrid, they would probably be showered with lovely shards of broken glass in that moment).

Sokka’s face turned white and the car began to move.

When they finally felt air on their faces again, the crowded streets of Manhattan weren’t exactly friendly. None of them were in great shape, they were still on the run from two demons and, perhaps worst of all, the air was somehow even hotter than it was before.

‘Where exactly are we going?’ Aang asked as Sokka tapped away at his janky phone.

‘Our Dad’s office. I don’t know what he’s supposed to do about two demons chasing us but I guess it's better than nothing, right?’ 

‘I have a better idea! There’s this place I know-’ Aang tried.

‘No offence, Aang, but I’m not really in the mood to trust you right now.’ Sokka said, annoyed.

‘W-What?’ Aang looked hurt.

‘Dude? You totally knew what was going on with those empoo- whatevers, and didn’t tell us until we were basically being eaten alive! Then we fall off a roof and somehow start floating around and you don’t even care! Unless you have something you want to tell us, we’re going to see our dad.’ 

Aang looked upset for a second before looking towards Katara, maybe for reassurance. In any other scenario, she probably would’ve jumped to the poor kid’s defence, but even she was out of sympathy.

‘He’s right, Aang. Lead the way, Sokka.’

It took probably half an hour of awkward, tense silence to find their dad’s office, though once they’d found it, it was pretty hard to miss. The place was a skyscraper, mirrored on each side with shimmering windows and a heavy metal frame. It looked more like a work of God than anything man made and Katara could hardly stop herself from gawking. Sokka looked almost possessed by its magnificence, she had to physically shake him to bring him back to reality.

‘Have you guys never seen skyscrapers before or something?’ Aang asked quietly, still anxious of their hostile glares towards him.

‘There’s nothing like this in our hometown.’ Katara said, in awe.

‘Yeah, the tallest building in our entire town was like three stories tall.’ Sokka wiped drool from his mouth.

‘Let’s go find Dad.’ Katara shook her head, only slightly distracted from her throbbing shoulder.

They wandered into the shiny entrance of the office building and Katara felt immediately out of place, not that the feeling was in any way new, if anything she felt out of place more often than not, but the room of majority men in suits had a slightly threatening aura which made her feel on edge. Being chased by a bunch of demons probably didn’t help either.

Every surface of the room seemed to reflect and Katara grimaced at the thought of how they probably looked. The receptionist looked like she was about to call security as she saw them approaching, probably for good reason. Sprinting through New York, falling off a roof and fighting not one but two satanic monsters probably didn’t have them looking their best. Even so, she put on her best smile.

‘Hey, we’re here to see Hakoda?’ Sokka said as confidently as possible to the receptionist.

She raised an eyebrow and exchanged a glance with a man in a suit and sunglasses standing by the door. Katara saw where this was going.

‘He’s our dad! We’re really sorry to intrude but our bus just broke down and we seriously need him to give us a ride home. I’m Katara and this is my brother Sokka, could you just call our Dad and let him know we’re here?’ Katara confessed frantically.

The woman seemed to mull that over before finally picking up the phone. Katara let out a brief sigh of relief.

‘Hakoda, did you say?’ She asked, with an exasperated sigh.

Isn’t this your job? Katara thought, but she thought it best to keep it to herself. Not even heat exhaustion and a gushing wound were enough for her to be outwardly impolite to some random lady who was technically helping them, even if it was begrudgingly.

‘Yeah.’ Katara said with an apologetic smile.

‘Hi, this is Lindsay from the reception, is this Hakoda speaking? Yeah, your kids are here asking for you, Katarina and Santa? Great, sorry to inconvenience you, sir.’ She put the phone down aggressively.

‘He said he’ll be right down. Please take a seat over there.’ She smiled falsey and pointed over to a few white leather sofas near the entryway. 

‘So your dad works here ?’ That’s so cool.’ Aang grinned as they sat down, somehow forgetting how utterly tired he was.

Katara barely had the energy to muster up another smile.

‘You guys must be seriously rich then. If your dad works here and you’re going to that fancy private school.’ He looked in awe.

Sokka snorted.

‘Yeah, no. Plus, didn’t you say you lived at that “fancy private school”. Or were you lying about that too?’ He side eyed him.

‘Sokka lay off him! We’re all tired, he probably just misspoke.’ Katara muttered, pressing her handkerchief to her shoulder in an attempt to prevent blood seeping out onto her pale, blue t-shirt anymore than it already had.

‘Uh, not exactly.’ Aang scratched the back of his neck.

‘Great! Dude, why are you even here? Who are you? I mean, you show up and suddenly we’re being chased down by literal monsters from Greek mythology and we’re flying! Is your name even really Aang?’ Sokka half-yelled, the heat clearly getting to him too.

‘Yes! And look, I’m really sorry about lying to you guys but if I told you the truth you’d think I’m crazy!’ Aang whined.

‘Crazy? Being attacked by monsters is crazy!’ Sokka exclaimed, waving his arms around like an insane person.

‘Fine! I lied because…I never actually went to that school. I had a dream that I needed to go there and then I met you guys and-’ Aang started.

‘You guys need to leave.’ A buff man in a suit and earpiece said sternly, towering over them like one of the skyscrapers outside.

‘But-’ Sokka tried.

‘Now!’ He barked.

‘Great!’ Sokak yelled sarcastically as they sat awkwardly outside the building.

Katara considered trying to lighten the mood, but her throbbing shoulder and feet were just getting bad enough to the point where she wasn’t in the mood to meditate anymore. Carefully she placed her backpack strap over the wound, hoping the compression might do something in stopping the bleeding. 

‘Katara? Sokka? What are you two doing here?’ Their dad marched out of the office, his wrinkling face ploughed with lines of worry, ‘And who’s this?’ 

Their father looked Aang up and down, giving him a confused look as he scanned his clothes. Clearly he wasn’t a fan of neon orange.

‘Hi, I’m Aang.’ Aang smiled, slightly embarrassed.

‘Alright, hello Aang. You guys are here, why?’ Their dad asked, ‘Did the school visit go badly or something?’

‘You could say.’ Katara managed.

Their dad looked unimpressed.

‘Okay, this is going to sound crazy but when we were at the school we got attacked by like, these monsters. They looked like regular ladies at first but then, boom! Demon fire ladies. So we ran away, obviously, and in the process we fell off a roof, but we didn’t even get hurt because we were floating in the air!’ Sokka almost sounded like he was trying to make sense of the events himself as he recounted them.

‘Wait, wait, wait. Start again, you said monsters attacked you?’ Their father’s face was ripe with worry. Katara hadn’t seen that particular look in years…

‘Look, I know I sound insane but it's true!’ Sokka said, almost in disbelief himself.

‘Honestly, Sir! I was there and this will sound crazy but-’ Aang tried, but Hakoda was clearly panicking whilst (poorly) trying to hide it. Katara always knew when her dad was hiding that kind of thing.

‘No, no! I believe you! And right now we need to get a taxi and get the hell away from here.’ He announced semi-calmly, immediately walking off to hail a taxi.

‘What? You- you believe that but you didn’t believe that I was too sick to miss picture day?’ Sokka cried.

‘Because that was obviously a lie, look I’ll explain in a minute. Get in. You too, Aang.’ Hakoda swung the taxi door open.

The three of them piled into the backseat, Hakoda barely squishing in next to them. Katara was very doubtful that their arrangement wasn’t violating multiple laws, but at the moment she really didn’t have the time to worry about that. The clear panic in her father had only made whatever feelings were swirling around inside of her about ten times more violent.

‘Montauk please.’ He said hastily to the driver.

When they were a block or so away from the office, Hakoda finally sighed. Sokka looked completely enraged with not knowing whatever secret their father was clearly keeping and Aang appeared to be a little more nervous than before, almost on the edge of his seat (or he would be if there was any room to do so).

‘I’ve kept something from you kids for…well for as long as you’ve been alive.’ Hakdoa started anxiously, ‘I think your new friend might know what I’m about to say.’

Sokka and Katara shared a bewildered glance before looking over at Aang.

‘Aang?’ She asked accusingly.

‘I told you I had a dream to come and find you guys! I didn’t know…’ He trailed off guiltily.

‘Didn’t know what? What are you not telling us?’ Sokka yelled.

‘We have a long drive for questions, just…okay. Do you remember when you were little me and your mom used to read you all the famous Greek myths? We had that set of Greek myths for dummies we read to you every night?’ Their dad asked genuinely.

They shared another suspicious look before slowly nodding. Where on earth was he going 

with this?

‘Well all those stories…are real. The Greek gods, the monsters, the heroes. All real, of all them.’

‘What?’ Sokka cried.

‘I know it sounds insane but you saw that demon monster whatever thing today didn’t you? That monster was real, as real as any bear or moose or deer you ever saw back home.’ Hakoda almost looked in pain revealing all this, though Katara couldn’t place exactly why. 

‘So…that makes no sense!’ Sokka seemed like he was short circuiting. 

‘How come we never saw any “monsters” before? We’re here for one day and we get attacked, I don’t get it.’ Katara admitted, frustrated.

Hakoda looked over to Aang. 

Aang! What the hell did he know about any of this?

‘New York is the epicenter of the Greek gods in modern times. There are more monsters here than anywhere else, probably.’ He said anxiously.

‘Then why the hell would you bring us here if you knew?’ Katara hissed.

‘Because of where we’re going now! Look, I wanted you guys nearby and I needed to be here for work. I knew there would be issues but there were always issues backhome, we just made sure you guys never knew about it.’ Hakoda winced.

‘Gran Gran was in on it?’ Sokka asked, ‘Typical.’

‘We were doing what we could to protect you but with me down here…I needed to know you were here so I could step in…well in situations like this really. The place we’re going now-’ 

‘It better be a hospital cause Katara us pretty banged up!’ Sokka yelled.

‘What? Are you okay?’ Hakoda suddenly shifted his attention to her but it only made Katara angrier. 

‘Where are we going?’ She shoved his sympathetic hand away from her, trying to ignore the hurt in his eyes.

He sighed and shook his head.

‘It's a place where all this magic stuff is safe. Kids like you are kept safe, trained…all that. Your friend here clearly knows it since he’s wearing one of their shirts.’ 

Both of their heads lurched forward to look at Aang’s shirt. What had before been a plain orange shirt was now clearly something completely different. The entire main body was detailed with a large black horse, the words camp half blood encircling it.

Katara didn’t even know what to think anymore. How could words just appear on a shirt out of nowhere? She was certain they weren’t there before…

‘It's the mist.’ Aang said, ‘It's this magical barrier thing that prevents normal people from being able to see anything magical. You guys probably saw something else, huh? Now you know, the mist can’t hide it so easily.’ 

Sokka shook his head in a mix of disbelief and anger.

‘What did you mean when you said kids like us?’ Katara asked their dad, her mind finally coming back into focus.

Before he could answer, a loud crash filled the car.

Broken glass sprayed over them as the entire rear windshield smashed into a thousand tiny shards. 

‘What the hell is that?’ Sokka screamed as a huge metal bird with a beak as sharp as filed steel slammed into the back of the taxi.

A second bird swooped down from out of view and smashed into the car before swooping back up, cawing in a murderous yet melodious song as it fled.

‘Stymphalian birds?’ Sokka asked, though everyone else seemed just as clueless as he did.

‘Get out! Quick!’ Hakoda ordered, shoving them out of the taxi.

People in cars stuck their heads out of their car windows to gaze up at the birds, their shimmering metallic feathers glimmering like polished metal up above. If Aang wasn’t lying about this supposed ‘mist’, they weren’t seeing what Katara was seeing. God only knew how the mist was explaining birds destroying taxi windshields, but people were not happy about the sudden traffic jam, loud car horns blaring from a block back.

Hakoda yanked them into an alleyway and into a random sidedoor. 

‘Where are we?’ She asked, though it sounded stupid once she’d said it.

‘We just needed somewhere to get away from those…things.’ Hakoda took a deep breath, ‘Those were the monsters I was talking about by the way.’

‘Yeah we gathered that, thanks.’ Sokka stressed, ‘I swear those are stymphalian birds, they had a monster card in mythomagic back in the day. They’re like metal birds created by Artemis. I’m pretty sure they had some kind of special attack but I can’t remember what it was.’ 

‘Perfect. Resident nerd but you can’t remember anything actually useful.’ Katara huffed.

‘Kids, we need to calm down and figure out how we can lose them.’ Hakoda placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

‘Lose them to go where, exactly?’ Sokka pushed his father’s hand away from him, ‘Some magical place where “ kids like us ” can be safe. What does that even mean?’ 

‘Camp half blood. It's a summer camp for demi-gods since we tend to get targeted a lot by monsters and the like, we train on how to fight back and stuff.’ Aang muttered.

‘Demigods?’ They said in unison.

‘The specifics don’t matter! What does matter is that if you two don;t get there soon…I never should’ve brought you here.’ Hakoda shook his head.

Sokka looked at her, his face a mix of confusion and hurt. Katara cleared her throat.

‘Whatever, okay, where is this magical summer camp?’ 

‘Long Island. Somewhere near Montauk, right?’ Hakoda said uncertainty.

‘If we get close enough I can guide us there.’ Aang shrugged, ‘Wait, I have an idea.’ 

In an instant Aang sprinted for the door and fumbled for something in his pocket. He pulled out a small object and swung open the metal door.

‘Aang, don’t!’ Katara yelled, but it was too late.

He stepped out and blew into his little whistle thing, but nothing actually came out. 

‘What the hell are you doing, get back in here before-’ Sokka tugged at Aang’s arm.

Before he could slam the door fully, a sharp, pointed beak shot through the gap between the metal door and its frame. Sokka’s eyes went wide and several more beak shaped holes started appearing in the door, the metal hardly holding together.

‘Move, move, move!’ Hakoda yelled, heading for the door leading further into the building.

They stumbled through into a small restaurant, all heads turning to the dishevelled looking Canadians sprinting through a kitchen side door.

‘Um, excuse me, sir? You’re not supposed to-’ A waitress attempted, but Hakoda was already running through the restaurant. Were they not running for their lives, Katara imagined it might be pretty funny to see a guy dressed in a fancy suit and three beat up looking kids sprinting through a restaurant, unfortunately they literally were running for their lives.

Sokka slammed the kitchen door behind him, pulling a metal rack in front of it. The noise of hard beaks ramming against it desperately shook the restaurant, but the little group just didn’t stop moving.

‘Get to the roof!’ Aang yelled.

‘Isn’t the open sky exactly where we don’t want to be right now?’ Sokka hissed.

‘Just trust me!’ And they did trust him, even though Katara logically knew it made no sense, he just had a trustworthy nature to him despite all the lies he’d told them thus far.

They, again, clambered up four flights of stairs, along a corridor, and then up another two. Katara was hardly breathing by the time they reached the top, her shoulder wound now obviously bleeding into her shirt and backpack strap. That wasn’t good.

They swung open the doors to the roof, luckily the birds hadn’t quite caught onto their plan yet and were either busy pecking away at the poor taxi or were sniffing around in the storage room still. Either way, it wouldn’t be long until they were back on their tails.

‘Where is he?’ Aang mumbled to himself hurriedly.

‘Where’s who? What are you planning, Aang?’ Katara asked.

‘There!’ He pointed, a grin emerging on his previously sullen face.

‘Is that a…flying horse?’ Sokka exclaimed.

A few buildings away, a cream coloured winged horse careened around rooftops, neighing galliantly as it approached. It descended onto the rooftop in front of them, shaking its mane and winnying.

‘Appa! Good boy!’ Aang dashed out and nuzzled against the horse’s face.

Katara swore she heard it say something but since nobody else seemed even more confused than they had been 0.2 seconds ago, she guessed it must’ve been the wind.

‘You have a pegasus? And you made us get the subway?’ Sokka yelled in awe.

‘Can you take them to camp half blood on…Appa?’ Hakoda asked sternly.

‘I think so…I don’t know if he’ll be able to handle four people though…’ Aang said regretfully.

Katara swung around to look at her dad, her face raw with betrayal.

‘You can’t just leave us here dad! Come on, we can just get another taxi.’ She said hopefully, but Hakoda’s face remained stoney.

‘I’m sorry, Katara, but this is for the best. You two need to go with Aang and I need you to promise me you will look out for your brother. I know how strong you are and I just need you to be strong for a little while longer, okay? I love you, but if I go with you…nothing good will come of it.’ 

‘B-But!’ She tried, but the words wouldn’t form. A mixture of betrayal and pain from her stinging wound scraped at her eyes, blurring her vision.

He hugged her and Katara watched, almost dissociated, as her father said something to Sokka before hugging him tightly. Her brother looked just as lost as she did, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the horse’s back. She hardly had the strength to protest.

A gaggle of squawks wafted up from below. They needed to go, and soon.

‘Dad!’ She tried to yell, but the horse was already lifting off the ground.

The last thing she saw before they hit the clouds was her father waving them off, his face wet with tears.

‘We need to lose them somehow!’ Aang yelled as they picked up speed, racing through the clouds. Below them, the New York skyline passed by like it were some distant place, far beyond them.

Bronze birds pulled up into the clouds behind them, their glowing eyes piercing the greying clouds. 

‘I’m all out of ideas, sorry.’ Sokka said, clearing his throat.

A bird screamed out, puffing its wings open a handful of feathers sharp as arrowheads flew at them. Appa the winged horse swung left and right, narrowly dodging each one. Katara swallowed the urge to hurl and kept her grip firmly around Aang.

‘That was their special ability! Yeah, they can launch their super sharp feathers like arrows. And I think their poop was poisonous or something, thinking of it.’ Sokka shouted.

‘Not helpful.’ Katara managed.

The pain in her shoulder was starting to radiate, making it impossible to just ignore. No matter how much she tried, the black spots in her vision just kept growing.

‘How far is it?’ Sokka shouted to Aang, ‘Uh, Katara you aren’t looking so good.’

‘Ten minutes or so? We just need a way to get these birds off our back so Appa can fly straight!’ Aang replied, not hearing the second part assumedly.

Around them, the sky blackened, a thunderous noise overtaking the entire sky. Katara froze, she didn’t remember any mention of a thunderstorm on the news that morning?

‘Oh gods, this can’t be good.’ Aang tensed up.

‘What? What’s happening?’ Sokka yelled, his voice poorly masking his fear.

Ahead, a harsh bolton lighting slashed down across the sky. Appa shook, almost losing balance for a moment. 

‘Is Zeus angry?’ Aang asked himself before silently muttering some kind of prayer.

Another lightning bolt struck somewhere ahead, sizzling the air. 

‘The birds!’ Sokka exclaimed, ‘They’re metal, right!’ 

A third strike hissed just meters behind them, one of the birds blackening and falling from the sky. The two surrounding it seemed dazed, squawking and losing balance before gliding down to land.

‘Yes! A few more of those please!’ Sokka grinned.

Katara tried to smile, but before she could the black spots overtook her vision and she felt herself lean forward, powerless to do anything but let it happen.

At some point, Katara had no clue how long after, light filtered through her heavy eyelids. The stormy clouds had been replaced by a mellow, white ceiling and the stabbing pain was noticeably missing from her shoulder.

Katara tried to sit up, alarm overtaking her as she realised she was a) no longer on a winged horse with her friend and brother and b) no longer in her normal clothes, but she soon found that although she wasn’t in constant pain, her body was still totally exhausted. 

‘You’re awake!’ She heard her brother shuffle around somewhere in the room.

‘Sokka?’ She managed a croak, ‘Wh- Where? What?’ 

Her brother’s relieved face finally came into view. His warrior's wolf tail looked like it had been redone and his shabby, sweaty blue shirt had been replaced with something bright orange. Was he wearing Aang’s clothes?

‘Katara we made it! Right now you’re in the infirmary at Camp Half Blood.’ Her brother seemed to be in disbelief even as he said it, ‘I guess Aang and dad were right, this place really does exist.’

With that, Katara’s body was satisfied and her eyes fluttered back closed.

Chapter Text

‘Rise and shine! Welcome to the infirmary.’ 

A sunny face and a mop of shimmering hair cropped up in Katara’s peripherals as she slowly forced open her aching eyes. The foggy blonde figure slowly came into focus and she watched as he divided up some goopy looking stuff into a small bowl. The room around her was white and looked like a hospital, she guessed that checked out with the whole ‘infirmary’ thing. Strong rays of jittery light flooded the space with a warm glow that made it feel less hostile and more friendly. 

Luckily the blonde guy didn’t look to be the most threatening thing in the world either. He was probably her age and, although he looked tired, she struggled to find any cruelty in his face. She thought he was a bit young to be a doctor, though at that moment she honestly wasn’t sure of anything, let alone the age of this random blonde dude.

The blonde guy smiled and placed a tray with the strange pudding stuff, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some orange juice on her lap. Almost instantaneously her shoulder began to feel like it was exploding again, maybe this strange man’s appearance and the weird new room were distraction enough to ignore the sharp pain but now the novelty had worn off she was in total agony. How on earth had she managed to sprint through the streets yesterday?

‘Yeah your shoulder looked pretty rough.’ The guy said, giving her a nervous smile as she winced. 

‘Yeah.’ She managed, trying to be polite at least.

‘I stitched it up since it was basically gushing blood. Your brother said you got attacked by an empousa? Gnarly. Try eating this, it should help with the pain.’ He pointed at the pudding stuff she’d just watched him put in a bowl.

‘Uh, thanks.’ She smiled as much as she could.

‘It’s ambrosia.’ The guy continued, ignoring Katara’s increasingly darkening face, ‘It heals up demigods like nothing else, you’ll probably be fine to leave today as long as you don’t break any stitches.’

‘Wait what?’ Katara barely caught a word of what he’d said following ‘demigod’. 

‘Uh, what part are you whatting? If you don’t move a lot your stitches should be fine and you can leave the infirmary.’ He looked at her confused.

‘No, no, I mean…demigod?’ Katara cringed as she moved her shoulder much too aggressively.

‘Oh right…yeah I’m just gonna leave that to someone else. Nice meeting you though…Katara? Yeah. Oh, I’m Will by the way, I probably should’ve started with that.’ He gave her a guilty smile before basically running out of the room.

Katara felt almost more confused than before. She wakes up with the vague memory of talking to her brother about some camp, ‘Will’ shows up and calls her a demigod (was that New York slang?) and now she was eating pudding that tasted like her Gran Gran’s chocolate muffins somehow. What the hell was going on?

The events of the previous day slowly came back to her: the monsters, the secret her father had supposedly been keeping, this magical ‘camp’ she was supposedly at. Surely that was all a dream, right? She hadn’t actually ridden away from metal birds on a flying horse, right?

Maybe it was all the thinking, or the weird gelatinous pudding was actually working, but Katara found her shoulder was beginning to hurt less and less. She was almost tempted to get up and go for a wander, see what she could find out about this ‘camp’, but her brother marching in put a stop to that.

‘Sokka!’ She grinned as her brother appeared in the doorway.

Perhaps she hadn’t noticed it but Katara had been rather worried for him. God knows what he’d been up to for however long she’d been asleep but he didn’t look particularly tortured, if anything, he looked better than he had since leaving home.

‘Katara! You’re not bleeding anymore!’ He pulled her into a hug before pulling away, grinning like a dopey kid.

‘Care to fill me in?’ She asked jokingly, even if she was truly desperate for any morsel of information, ‘Some kid called Will called me a demigod and gave me this Gran Gran’s muffins flavoured pudding, I’ve literally never been more confused in my life.’ 

‘Ooh! Lemme taste!’ He reached for her spoon.

‘I wouldn’t eat that Sokka, it's probably ambrosia and you’re not meant to eat too much.’ Aang said from somewhere behind Sokka. 

‘Oh…hi Aang.’ Katara raised an eyebrow, still conflicted on the kid.

‘Hey Katara.’ Aang attempted a smile but just looked guilty, ‘I’m glad you’re okay. I’m so sorry I lied to you guys, I just…’ 

‘Don’t worry about it Aang, you can get into all that sappy stuff later.’ Sokka waved his hand dismissively, ‘We need to fill her in.’

‘Please.’ Katara said, almost annoyed now.

‘Alright.’ Sokka exhaled and sat silent for a moment, ‘Basically, the Greek gods are real. All those monsters and stuff? Real.’

Katara thought for a second, ‘That's what dad said yesterday, right? So that wasn’t all a dream?’ 

‘Yup. The greek gods are real and…I don’t really know how to say this but…Okay basically we are children of the greek gods.’ Sokka blurted out, looking scared.

‘What?’ She asked.

‘I know it's weird, I didn’t believe it at first too but everyone here has a mortal and a godly parent. That guy, Will, he’s the son of Apollo and he has like crazy healing magic. Plus, all the other greek mythy stuff is real too, like the camp director is a freaking centaur and-’ 

‘Wait a minute…This makes literally no sense. Where are we?’ Katara covered her eyes with her palms.

‘Camp half blood.’ Aang said sympathetically, ‘It’s like a summer camp for all half-bloods where we can learn to train in sword fighting and stuff like that. Well technically it's a summer camp but it runs all year long since most of us are here because living in the normal world would mean fighting monsters basically everyday.’ 

Katara felt her brain literally melting.

‘Yeah so basically monsters are super attracted to us because we’re demigods, apparently it's like a miracle we’re even still alive because the older you get the more likely you are to...uh…be dead. I know it's crazy but it's real, Katara, trust me.’ Sokka shrugged.

‘How long was I asleep?’ She asked, unsure how her level headed brother could become so crazy overnight. 

‘About a day and a half. You slept through a full day and a night basically.’ 

‘Oh my god, this is insane.’ Katara pressed her head back into her pillow and covered her face. 

‘Well Will said that you should be good to go soon so you can see it for yourself.’ Sokka said.

‘So…wait, this means that one of our parents…isn’t our parent?’ She suddenly sat up, alarmed. Sure, their mom was dead but not like died in childbirth dead, they remembered her clear as day! And their dad was very clearly a normal man, not some god, a god would never choose to work the boring job their dad did. So where did that leave this so-called ‘godly parent’?

Sokka and Aang exchanged an awkward look. She supposed Sokka had already had this crisis in the day and night she’d been snoozing. 

‘Who’s our godly parent, Sokka?’ She almost yelled.

‘I don’t know, okay?’ Sokka put his hands up defensively, ‘Nobody knows until your parent claims you, whatever that means.’ 

‘Aang?’ She asked, hoping for something more than ‘who knows’.

Aang only shrugged and looked even more shameful, ‘I don’t know mine either and I’ve been here for like three years now. Some kids have been in the Hermes cabin for years without ever being claimed.’ 

‘The what?’ She spat, angry now.

‘The Hermes cabin. All the gods have their own cabin for their kids to stay in but since we haven’t been claimed, we don’t technically have a cabin. Us unclaimed kids stay in the Hermes cabin since he’s the god of travellers or something.’ Aang said smally.

She immediately shrunk down, feeling awful for getting so heated with the poor kid. It was't exactly his fault that her family had lied to her everyday for her entire life.

‘Lemme go find Will, I think you’ll like the camp.’ Sokka tried, dashing off with a fake smile.

The orange t-shirt they’d found for her did not suit Katara in the slightest but it appeared it was the only choice of clothing. The rolling fields of the camp were dotted with kids in neon orange, darting between the towering cabins, trees and bushes which turn into girls. Katara was led to the Hermes cabin, a tall building in the classic Greek style with a worn out looking door and old creaky steps. She managed to find a spot next to Sokka and Aang to leave her (very few) personal items before being dragged out for a formal introduction. 

Katara hardly had a second to process what was happening between leaving the white comfort of the infirmary and being thrust into a large blue house. At the very least it was a way to ignore the million questions in her mind. Her godly parent? Aang? It  could all wait, she supposed.

‘Welcome, you two must be the newest arrivals.’ An older man with the body of a horse said casually, as if his body wasn’t literally a horse, ‘My name is Chiron and I’m one of the directors here at Camp Half Blood. I assume Aang here has filled you in on the basics.’ 

Aang nodded eagerly, smiling like a goofy puppy when Chiron thanked him.

‘I must say, your arrival was on the…unconventional side.’ The horse man said as he led them to a medium sized room, urging them to take a seat at a small dining table.

‘What, you don’t usually have winged horses with a half-dead girl and two screaming idiots clinging on to it for dear life just, dropping in?’ Sokka said sarcastically. Clearly the traumatic events of the past few days hadn’t done much to dim his spirits.

‘Not exactly. Usually, we are aware of the demigods who aren't already enrolled at camp. At some point a protector, one of our centaurs usually, is sent out to find and retrieve them, ensuring that they arrive at camp safely.’ Chiron side eyed Aang with a judgy look. 

‘I’m guessing Aang isn’t a protector by trade?’ Katara asked, similarly glaring at Aang. 

‘Correct, Aang decided to take it upon himself to ensure your safety rather than consulting with me. He claims to have seen in a dream that you would be in danger.’ Chiron took a long sip of his tea.

Aang looked at them sheepishly.

‘Well I wasn’t wrong.’ He shrugged.

‘It was dangerous and irresponsible, any one of you could, and did, get hurt. You’re all lucky to be alive right now, if I’m honest.’ 

‘I’m sorry, I just thought that if I could do something heroic, my godly parent would claim me.’ Aang frowned.

Chiron comforted him for a moment before sighing. The poor guy, if Aang was a representation of your average demigod Katara dreaded to think about how hard his job probably was. 

‘So, how are you two finding everything?’ Chiron finally asked, ‘I imagine you were quite in the dark about all this before…well before yesterday.’ 

‘I guess it's fine. It's all a bit unbelievable if you ask me.’ Sokka shrugged.

Katara raised an eyebrow at him. Had he not been the one telling her it would all make sense like ten minutes ago? Was he not currently looking at a half horse man?

‘Well that is common amongst newcomers but trust me, it will all make sense in due time. I have asked one of our more senior members to show you around, Annabeth?’ 

The three of them turned around to see a girl, probably a year or so older than Sokka, with curly blonde hair and a full beaded necklace stood in the door frame. The more Katara looked at her, the more it seemed that she was older, though at first glance she was sure the girl was at most seventeen. She supposed that was what monster slaying (or whatever it was they did at this camp) did to a person.

‘Would you mind showing Katara and Sokka around?’ Chiron smiled and Annabeth looked just barely content.

‘Sure, come on.’ She nodded.

‘So you guys are twins?’ She asked them as they wandered out of the so-called Big House.

‘Nah, I’m like a year older than her, sixteen, but I’m pretty mature for my age.’ Sokka said, basically shoving Katara and Aang out of the way to walk beside Annabeth.

‘Oh right, so you guys are like a year or two younger than me and my boyfriend.’ She said with a smile, strategically looking at Sokka who immediately backed off, his face drooping.

Katara had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing.

‘Anyway, I’m Annabeth. I’m the head counsellor for Cabin Six aka Athena.’ She pointed over at a large pristine building as they wandered out into the ring of cabins, ‘I’m guessing you guys are in with Hermes for now?’ 

‘Yup.’ Katara said, barely listening as she took in the cabins properly.

The place was gorgeous, no doubt about it, but Katara could hardly make herself enjoy it. Something inside of her all of a sudden felt fundamentally wrong and she couldn’t quite place what.

‘Woah! Katara, robotics station!’ Sokka yelled in awe, running over to a small hut filled with kids fiddling around with bits of old metal and computer parts. 

Annabeth smiled at the sight; Sokka was clearly ecstatic at the sight of all the crumby computer parts, even more so than half the kids in there.

‘Your brother is into computers?’ Annabeth asked Katara, clearly surprised that such a guy could plausibly like something so technical. 

‘Yeah, well, anything like that really. He was always kind of a nerd at school, more than me at least.’ She shrugged. Annabeth had better luck asking a tree about computers than she did Katara, even after listening to a thousand of Sokka’s ted talks she still hadn’t the faintest clue on any of it.

‘Come on, let's move along.’ Annabeth said, a kicked Sokka joining them with sparkling eyes.

‘This is the dining pavilion, we eat here, obviously, and over there is the amphitheatre, that’s where we do performances and that kind of thing. Over there-’

‘What if it rains?’ Sokka asked plainly.

‘If it rains? It pretty much never heres, we control the weather.’ Annabeth shrugged like that wasn’t an insane thing to say so casually.

Sokka and Katara shared a bewildered look but continued on. Katara tried her best to concentrate as Annabeth showed off the fancy (and terrifying) climbing wall, the armoury, the pegasi stables (which included an uninjured Appa), but something just felt off. She was trying to be hopeful, to find joy in all the amazing things she was seeing but for some reason she just felt like crying. Even Aang’s cheery smile couldn’t perk her up, that’s when she knew something was seriously up.

‘Are you alright?’ Annabeth asked.

Katara had found herself on a small dock by the water, staring aimlessly out. Sokka and Aang had run off at some point within the past hour or so, occasionally running back over to show her some little trinket they’d made, or some flower they’d found. It was sweet, but she just didn’t feel up to any of it, not doing, not talking, just nothing. 

‘Sorry, I’m just feeling kind of weird.’ Katara replied, trying to hide the sadness in her tone.

It wasn’t Annabeth, or anyone’s, fault that she felt so awful, there was really no point taking it out on her. Honestly, she wanted to, though. She desperately wanted someone to blame for whatever it was she was feeling. Maybe her dad was the most obvious choice but even then she couldn’t feel anything but sadness when she thought of him, the ache in her heart for both missing him and worrying about him. How could she ever live with herself if she were to find out he wasn’t their real father? Or that their mother, who she still mourned daily, wasn’t their real mother? She could hardly even blame the gods either, nobody had claimed them so there was no single figure to scream at. She was just alone.

Annabeth took a seat next to her, their legs dangling off the docks, barely missing the water. 

‘I get it.’ She sighed, ‘I know that’s probably hard to believe since I seem relatively put together but…well I arrived here when I was like seven, I don’t really know any other home but here. Still, going from living with your parents and then suddenly boom! You’re a demigod and live at summer camp…it's weird. But trust me, it gets better.’ 

Katara found that slightly comforting at least. Annabeth did seem very put together, after all.

‘How did you deal with it? Finding out one of your parents wasn’t…one of your parents?’ Katara asked.

‘What do you mean? Oh…Yeah, my dad always just told me my mom was out there somewhere, I never really had a “real mom”. But you and Sokka…I’m sorry, that must be really hard.’ Annabeth looked uncomfortable.

Katara really didn’t know what else to say anyway so she just let the awkwardness fester until Annabeth either said something else or left.

She left after it became clear Katara was done asking questions.

Dinner came eventually and Katara was dreading the night that followed. Her and Sokka had shared rooms practically their whole lives, they were treated more like twins than siblings in some regards. How was she ever supposed to sleep with everything on her mind and fifty other randos snoring around her?

She envied the kids of the lesser populated gods. Supposedly there was only one Poseidon kid and two Zeus kids. What she wouldn’t give for a nice big cabin alone for just her and Sokka, at least then this whole camp thing wouldn’t be so miserable. Still, she was there now so she supposed she’d better try and fit in. She and Sokka found a spot with Aang. A few kids sat on the opposite end, though she had no clue what cabin they belonged to or if they usually divided themselves by cabins at all. She spotted Annabeth and a handful of grey-eyed kids dominating one table so she supposed siblings may sit together more often than not.

‘The weapons they have here are insane, like, wow! They’re like if mythomagic cards were real, I can’t even wrap my head around it.’ Sokka gushed.

‘Just wait until the first capture the flag. All the cabins get into two teams and have to fight each other to capture the flag, it gets pretty crazy, especially when the big three’s kids are around.’ Aang added with a smile.

‘The big three?’ Katara asked, trying to avoid having to eat any of the fries which had appeared in front of her. As delicious as they looked, she could barely stand the thought of eating.

‘Yeah: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. There was like some prophecy or something, they weren’t meant to have kids since they end up being super powerful but they all did anyway. Last time we played Percy was totally crazy! He’s the son of Poseidon so he was pulling up these insane waves, it was super fun.’ Aang said animatedly.

‘Annabeth’s boyfriend?’ Sokka asked.

‘Yeah! How’d you know that?’ Aang responded suspiciously.

‘Oh right, I was talking to her a bunch today since the Athena kids were doing kinda the same activities as I was so I just kind of stuck with them.’ He said, taking a huge bite into a cheeseburger, ‘Supposedly he’s like, super strong and they’ve been on some insane quests.’ 

‘Wow.’ Katara tried to sound enthusiastic but all it sounded like to her was another reminder of their unclaimed-ness. “Percy” was out questing and having fun while they rotted away in some gross, sweaty cabin. Lucky him.

‘You see that kid over there?’ Aang pointed over to a short boy with dark hair and pale, olive skin. 

‘The scary one next to Will?’ Sokka asked, looking slightly weirded out by the kid.

‘Yeah. That’s Nico, he’s a Hades kid. There’s only one other one but she’s technically Roman.’ Aang said before digging back into his veggie hotdog.

‘Roman? Great, what’s next? Egyptians?’ Sokka said sarcastically, ‘Oh, and let me guess, the Romans have their own summer camp too?’

‘Yup! Camp Jupiter. It's kind of more like a city though, rather than a summer camp. I’ve never been but one of my friends from the Demeter cabin has a friend who lives there.’ Aang said casually.

‘This place makes no sense.’ Katara sighed, ‘How is it fair that they get a whole city and we get a musty cabin full of sweaty teenagers?’ 

‘Katara, I’m saying it now, we need to make it our mission to get claimed as soon as possible because I am not sleeping in that gross cabin for longer than I need to.’ Sokka said determinedly, ‘I’m like ninety percent sure somebody used my toothbrush last night. My toothbrush!’

‘Right, and how do you plan on doing that? Aang’s been here for like four months and he’s not claimed.’ Katara said, annoyed, ‘Sorry Aang, but you know what I mean.’ 

Aang nodded, slightly sadly, and Katara’s heart melted with guilt. She needed to stop taking her emotions out on the poor kid. 

‘I don’t know? We could try out all the activities and hope our godly parent sees us and is like “woah they’re so talented” and claims us right then and there.’ Sokka offered proudly. 

‘And you’re supposed to be the smart one.’ 

‘Hey!’ Sokka yelled.

Katara rolled her eyes, pushing her plate away boredly. They’d had to do some ‘offering’ to the Gods and, if she wasn’t already feeling sick to her stomach, that totally put her off. What was the point of giving offerings when their parent refused to even claim them?

The night was about as awful as Katar had expected. Sweaty, overcrowded and boisterous were the best words she could find to describe the Hermes cabin. As much as she’d tried to be optimistic, and she had really tried, it had certainly become difficult after that night. Sokka had been known to snore, but fifteen kids all crammed into one stinking room snoring in a ceremonious harmony that she was sure could be heard from Olympus? Not quite the same.

‘Where should we start?’ Sokka asked, rubbing his eyes.

Even he seemed to be worn down by the cabin, which was saying something considering Sokka could sleep through damn near anything if he wanted to, even going so far as to hardly touch his breakfast, scoffing down only a small meal of three fried eggs, two sausages, three pieces of bacon and a pancake (or three).

‘I don’t know, is anything catching your eye?’ She yawned.

‘The jewellery making station is pretty fun…if you ignore the Aphrodite kids gossiping.’ Aag offered with an awkward shrug, ‘Oh and the climbing wall is great if you forget about the lava’

Sokka and Katara exchanged a look before sighing.

‘Maybe not.’ She said, ‘What about kayaking? We used to do that back home sometimes.’ 

Sokka shrugged in agreement, ‘Sure, why not. Show these city kids how it's done.’

As it turned out, the ‘city kids’ had actually been kayaking that water since they’d arrived and completely destroyed them, leaving the three of them even soggier and saltier than they’d been that morning.

‘What about archery?’ Sokka smiled, the pair of them still willing to be somewhat optimistic.

They shouldn't have been, though, as neither of them were any good at archery. Sokka was decent enough until he managed to shoot a wandering satyr. Aang managed to smooth it over, though the Apollo kids didn’t seem happy.

‘Horseback riding?’ Aang suggested.

‘Volleyball?’ Katara pointed out.

‘Sword fighting looks fun.’ Sokka attempted.

By lunch, they’d tried half the activities offered and had come up empty handed. At the most, they’d concluded that they probably weren’t descended from Apollo or Demeter (Katara had nearly trampled half the nursery to death after tripping), though Aang seemed to be a bit more of an all rounder than either of them. Where Katara was easily frustrated and temperamental, or Sokka was overly judgemental, Aang was easy breezy and seemed to get along with everyone. As much as it pained her, Katara felt a pang of jealousy festering somewhere inside her.

‘I think I’m gonna check out the Greek lessons, Katara?’ Sokka said, pointing over to a table where Chairon stood over a small group of kids with notebooks.

Katara considered how much boredom she could handle right now, ‘Nah, I’m good, thanks. Have fun.’ 

‘Alright, see you guys later.’ Her brother said before jogging over to the table and finding a seat.

Beside her, Aang started to wander off in the opposite direction, leaving Katara frantically following him, desperate not to be alone. 

‘What are you gonna do, Aang?’ She asked.

‘I have a shift helping out in the infirmary.’ He shrugged noncommittally, ‘You can come along if you want, I bet Will could use the extra hands.’

‘Sure.’ She nodded, ‘One time I helped deliver a baby so if anyone here is expecting I can make myself useful.’

‘Seriously?’ Aang lit up in admiration, ‘That’s sick. I wish I’d done anything cool like that.’

‘You brought us here, basically saved our lives, that’s pretty cool, I guess.’ She said, ‘How did you end up here, anyway?’ 

Aang blushed a bit, biting his lip.

‘Oh, sorry. You don’t have to tell me if it's personal.’ She corrected herself.

‘No, it's fine. I just have a kind of unconventional life so some people get kind of weirded out.’ He took a breath before twisting his face back into a smile, ‘My parents were part of this nomadic group and I guess I never really knew them, or I guess I never really knew the human one at least. Everyone in the group kind of just acted like one big family so “parents” didn’t really exist. Anyway, eventually I ended up in a group home but I was pretty young so I don’t really know exactly why, but I kept getting in trouble, like, everyday. They used to call me crazy and sent me to all these specialists because I kept seeing monsters and Appa. At one point I decided it would be easier for everyone if I just left so I ran away. I…’

He trailed off, his face darkening with confliction. 

‘Its okay, Aang, you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.’ Katara comforted, ‘Me and Sokka have had some pretty messed up things happen so I get it. It's hard to talk about sometimes, like people just don’t get it.’

His frown curled up into a slight smile.

‘Yeah, I guess. Well, basically when I ran away, this crazy storm happened and…And when I went back to the home it had like burned down.’ He scratched his neck nervously, ‘A firefighter told me it was struck by lightning.’ 

Katara’s eyebrows shot up, her eyes wide with sympathy, ‘Oh, Aang, that’s awful. I’m so sorry, was everyone okay?’

‘Yeah, luckily, but I just couldn’t help but think it was my fault for leaving because the night before I’d had a dream showing the home burning down and I didn’t tell anyone…anyway, I ran again and eventually a satyr tracked me down to some side street in New York and brought me here. That was like…three years ago now.’

‘Hey, Aang! Glad you’re here, we could seriously use some help.’ A familiar blonde poked his head out of the infirmary before looking Katara up and down, ‘And you’re looking healthy!’

‘Hey Will! Katara was wondering if she would come help out too, she’s great at delivering babies and stuff.’ Aang grinned, like his depressing story had just dissipated from the air.

‘Uh, sure. Not many babies but three Ares kids just came in with sword fighting wounds and a few broken bones.’ He smiled at Katara, ‘Get some gloves on and get to it.’The infirmary was about as warm as the Hermes cabin, though somehow it felt cleaner even despite the dislocated, bloody leg sitting in front of her. She’d realised, through her two hours of volunteering, that she was actually a fan of medicine and working with it. Growing up where she did, it wasn’t really an option to just casually go to medical school, at least until their Dad had moved to New York, but now she was starting to see it as a real possibility. Maybe the archery thing had been a fluke and they really were kids of Apollo. 

‘You two need to take a break, the next shift should be coming in soon anyway.’ An Apollo kid Katara didn’t recognise said bluntly, writing something violently on a clipboard, ‘Thanks for the help.’

‘I wouldn’t mind helping out a little-’ Katara tried, the kid holding up a palm to her face.

‘Sorry, lady, two hour rule. Come back tomorrow if you want but the next shift is due any minute so you two need to shoo.’ 

Katara stomped out of the infirmary, angry that her newfound talent was not being given the opportunity to shine. How was she ever supposed to get claimed if she wasn’t allowed to show off a bit?

‘I’m beat, wanna go find Sokka?’ Aang stretched out as they left, his disposition still mostly sunny though.

‘I guess.’ She said, trying to not displace her annoyance onto him. After his little confession she was keen to not cause him anymore pain, the poor kid.

They eventually found Sokka at a random picnic table with a handful of grey-eyed Athena kids, all of them fawning over a stack of books and something one of them was puzzling with. After a moment of consideration, Katara realised that the Athena kid fiddling with the object was in fact Sokka, not an Athena kid. 

‘Hey Sokka.’ Aang beamed at him, quick to ask about his little tinker project.

Katara has been quick behind him, though she slowed as she neared. Had she really just confused her own brother for one of them? He seemed to fit right in, so much that she’d even mistaken him for one of them. Was this a sign that they were Athena kids? If so, why was he so them  and she so not . That festering feeling was returning.

‘How was the infirmary?’ He asked with a genuine, relaxed smile as she finally approached. He hadn’t looked this calm their whole trip to New York.

‘Fine.’ She said curtly, ignoring his puzzled expression, ‘What are you working on?’

‘Oh, Annabeth has been working on something she found in these old blueprints so I was just helping with one of these contraptions. Basically, you just…’ He grinned as he spoke, excitedly detailing every tiny piece of the gadget. Over and over again he repeated her name: ‘ Annabeth ’. 

‘Cool.’ She cut him off mid rant, trying to hide her warming cheeks, ‘I’m gonna go for a walk to cool off.’ 

Aang and Sokka tried to say something more but she walked away before they could. She managed to get to the shore of the lake, which was luckily deserted now, with most kids off preparing for dinner, before the tears started falling. She felt awful all over, the awkward mix of guilt, anger and the overpowering feeling of being overwhelmed consuming her body and mind. It was starting to hit her now that this was her life now. Her father (or not) was gone and they were truly alone at some weird summer camp full of demigods and even surrounded by people who supposedly understood her situation better than anyone, she still felt more alone than she had in years. She longed for Gran Gran’s cooking and her thick blanket she’d left strewn across her bed back home, would they ever be able to go back there? The very real possibility that they would never be claimed meant that she would be stuck here forever without even someone to be mad at or someone to help her even the tiniest bit. The common feeling here seemed to be that everyone hated their godly parent at least a bit, even if they were claimed by one of the ‘better’ ones, but she craved that feeling more than she craved freedom or community. She yearned for the feeling of directable anger- someone to hold accountable for her life. Rather, she was stuck crying into a lake with only her own reflection to comfort her.

Eventually, Katara made her way back to the dining pavilion. No matter how much she was in the mood for lamenting herself, two hours of infirmary work had left her famished and she wasn’t prepared to stomach an entire night in the God forsaken Hermes cabin on an empty stomach, as much as she wasn’t in the mood to chat. 

After chucking a measly piece of chicken in as an offering, she sheepishly slid in next to her brother, who it seemed, had forgone the Athena table. 

‘Hey, where’d you go? I was getting worried you’d been eaten by a kelpie or something.’ Sokka managed between violent chewing of a stacked burger.

‘I just went for a walk.’ She said quietly. Purposely she’d waited for her eyes to turn back to their normal colour before making her way back over, hoping to avoid any awkward questions about her crying. She already felt pathetic enough for breaking down so much recently, she didn’t need to give her brother another excuse to worry. 

‘Right…Well apparently there’s singing after food.’ Her brother grimaced and Katara was soon to follow.

‘Hey, I think it’ll be fun.’ Aang offered with that childish charm of his.

‘Sure.’ Katara sighed, ‘Pretty sure we have zero chance of getting claimed for our singing abilities.’

‘You’re right there. Who knows, though, maybe the Gods are fans of off tune wailing.’ 

The singalong, it turned out, was a bonfire surrounded by the campers sitting in a big ring on the floor. After the infirmary, Katara was grateful to sit down at least. 

She recognised a few kids from earlier standing with instruments in the middle, notably Will. 

‘Apollo kids lead.’ Aang clarified, noticing her confusion, ‘He’s the God of music and stuff like that.’

What wasn’t he the God of? She thought.

The Apollo kids lead them all through a few classic camp songs (supposedly, at least, since Katara had never attended American summer camp before) before inviting people up for solos or specific song requests. 

‘Come on guys, no volunteers?’ Will said, disappointed, ‘What about one of our new campers?’ 

The entire crowd shifted to stare at them as Will pointed out a stupid hand. Katara felt herself explode with heat and prayed that a monster would attack or something and take focus off of them.

‘Uh, no thanks.’ Sokka managed.

‘Come on! What do you guys think?’ Will asked the crowd, ‘New Campers! New Campers!’ 

The entire circle began chanting and Katara felt herself getting angry again. How hard was it for them to understand that they were not in the mood? She’d barely been awake for 48 hours for God's sake!

‘I’ll volunteer!’ Aang raised a hand beside them, his face slightly red.

‘Well, I suppose that’ll have to do.’ Will waved down the chanting, the Ares kids booing, ‘Next time, though, you two!’ 

Katara rolled her eyes but sent Aang a thankful smile as he stepped through the crowd. What he was planning on singing was beyond her but she hoped he wasn’t about to embarrass himself for their sake.

He gracefully trotted to the middle and whispered something into Will’s ear, who promptly grinned and said something inaudible to the others. Aang winked at them with an excited grin before shaking his arms out as the music started. 

‘Oh God.’ Sokka groaned next to her, ‘I can’t watch.’

‘Give him a chance! Maybe he’s…a really good singer or something.’ She tried, praying his confidence was at least somewhat based in fact. Admittedly, she wasn’t hopeful. Aang was graceful, more so than any other thirteen year old she knew, but even he had to know that it takes more than good poise to perform.

She watched with bated breath as the music properly began and Aang began moving. Rather than singing, it seemed he was rather going for some kind of interpretive dance, his body moving with the music. After a few beats, though, he was moving like a true dancer, now just some kid trying his best. Katara found herself almost taken aback, the crowd similarly shocked by his genuine talent, people literally sitting with open mouths. 

‘Woo!’ A cheer came from beside her, jolting the entire crowd from their stasis, ‘Go Aang!’

Sokka’s inciting shout let out a wave of claps and excited cheers, the entire camp eventually joining in a synchronised clapping chant. Aang seemed to be only enticed by this, rather than put off, his dancing becoming more and more intricate until it looks like he’s literally walking on air. 

Wait, was he?

Murmurs began as Aang appeared to be actually floating. Katara could hardly make anything out over the music and continuing claps, but as they faded into confusion she managed to make out a few words, notably ‘ magic’, ‘claimed’ and ‘ what the hell?’.

‘How is he…?’ Sokka asked himself in disbelief.

The memory of the other day at the school, when they’d survived a fall after literally landing midair…Had that been Aang? If so, what, or who, was he?

The music slowly faded as one by one members of the band became so entranced by Aang they stopped playing. He seemed so into his moves that he’d completely lost track of the world outside of himself, possibly unaware that he was currently a solid meter in the air. If someone didn’t help him he could seriously hurt himself.

‘Aang!’ She cried, standing up. The bonfire was unsettlingly close and she was not about to watch her new and only friend get burnt to a crisp.

His eyes fluttered open, breaking him from his dance-induced trance, and he finally seemed to register that he was no longer on solid ground. Almost like something from a cartoon, he paused midair, looking down at her then at the ground before finally free-falling and collapsing onto the floor. Chiron immediately rushed over to him, though before he could reach him, a huge glowing thunderbolt lit up the dark evening sky. Aang looked up, bewildered, but the crowd had gone completely silent.

Chiron eventually cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

‘Everyone! Aang, son of Zeus!’

Chapter Text

The crowd almost immediately erupted into a storm of yelling and confused awe. Sokka and Katara exchanged a frazzled look before pushing through the crowds towards Aang, who looked just as bewildered as they did. 

Katara felt her heart racing beneath her hideous shirt, her brain overwhelmed with questions. For one: wasn’t one of the first things Aang told her that the big three didn’t have kids anymore?

‘Aang!’ They yelled out, finally shoving close enough to pull him into a hug.

‘Aang are you okay?’ Katara asked frantically, assessing him for any sign of physical harm after his fall.

‘He looks fine.’ Will said, similarly seeming shocked, ‘The fall wasn’t bad enough for a concussion and, by the sounds of things, the wind probably caught him anyway.’

‘Son of…Zeus?’ Aang asked, dazed, blankly staring up at the bolt above his head.

‘Aang, I think you should come with me.’ Chiron stepped closer, acting as a barrier from the onslaught of mass confusion.

‘Alright. ‘Aang said, his expression growing more and more distressed by the second.

‘We should come soon, he’s scared!’ Katara cried.

‘No, I’m sorry but this should remain private for now. Please, trust me, I’ve seen this before and it's best to get things settled as soon as possible. Annabeth!’ 

Katara lost sight of them as they disappeared into the crowd, the blonde girl running off after them where Katara should’ve been. What was it with her and constantly getting in Katara’s way?

Katara looked down to find someone pulling at her shirt.

‘Let's get out of here.’ Sokka said, tense, ‘Come on.’

The next twenty-four hours were strange, to say the least, though Katara was beginning to feel the word losing meaning with every passing minute at this camp. Aang remained the talk of the town and had been sparse all day, only appearing for meals where he was overcome with both curious campers and jealous kids looking to tear him down. Chiron must have learned a thing or two about big three kids over the years so Katara trusted his approach, though she couldn’t help but worry. Her and Sokka had stayed pretty much alone for the entire day and she was beginning to go insane without hearing any news.

‘Three years and he randomly gets claimed now…Maybe Zeus did see him as a hero for saving us.’ Sokka theorised over breakfast.

‘I hope he’s okay. This has to be a lot for him.’ Katara murmured, continuing to ignore her food for the most part.

‘Assuming he doesn’t magically appear today, what are you gonna do?’ He asked before slurping down a fat rasher of greasy bacon.

‘Do? I don’t know.’ She shrugged, annoyed. Here Aang was getting claimed for dancing after three years of silence, what was the point of their dumb plan anyway?

‘Well you can just hang with me I guess. Apparently the Hephaestus kids and the Athena kids are planning some big project and they said I could help out, pretty cool right?’ He grinned like a little kid on Christmas. Katara couldn’t think of anything more dull than helping with ‘some big project’.

‘I’ll pass. Maybe they could use some help in the infirmary.’ 

‘Your loss.’ Sokka tilted his head, wiping some stray oil from his mouth. 

‘I seriously doubt that.’ She murmured under her breath.

‘Are you guys friends with Aang?’ A short boy with black hair and a very un-orange shirt asked, seeming to appear out of thin air at the end of their table.

Sokka, struggling to hide his surprise, began choking on his hashbrown.

‘Um, yeah?’ Katara said hopefully, ‘Do you know how he’s doing?’

‘He’s fine, kind of shocked I guess.’ The kid shrugged, his dark eye bags being exposed as his even darker hair moved from his eyes.

‘Hey, you’re that kid Will’s boyfriend!’ Sokka said obnoxiously, pointing and everything.

The boy looked vaguely uncomfortable in response, but didn’t deny it.

‘Um, sorry about him.’ She shot Sokka an unimpressed look, ‘Can we see Aang today?’

‘Yeah that’s why Chiron sent me. I’m Nico…Son of Hades…’ He mumbled.

‘Great! Let's go!’ Katara smiled, pulling Sokka away from his breakfast.

As it turned out, Aang was staying at the Big House and Chiron had seemingly convinced a council of all other Big 3 kids to keep him company. Katraa supposed it could’ve been worse for the kid, it wasn’t like he was being tortured or being forced to keep sleeping in the Hermes cabin.

‘Hey guys!’ Aang grabbed them into a bear hug the second they appeared in the doorway, ‘Sorry that I kind of just left the other night, I uh…’ 

‘Don’t worry about it, man. As son of Zeus you’re kind of like our king anyway so if anything we should be apologising for not bowing, right?’ Sokka shrugged.

‘Uh, I don’t think so. Maybe ask Chiron.’ Aang replied sincerely.

‘Ask away. Hello you two, thank you for joining us.’ Chiron smiled, slightly tired.

They followed him into a dining room where Nico, Annabeth and a few people Katara didn’t recognise sat. They stared her and Sokka up and down and Katara suddenly felt horribly exposed. The amount of power in the room was astounding, she assumed they must be kids of the more powerful Gods, maybe the Big 3? The boy next to Annabeth had dark hair and bright eyes and, though he shared her aged appearance, she guessed he was probably a similar age to her, maybe her elusive boyfriend?

‘Take a seat. I asked you both here to act as, uh, emotional support of sorts. These are all the other children of the ‘Big Three’ as you’ve probably heard them described. Nico and Hazel, children of Hades, Percy, son of Poseidon, and Jason, son of Zeus. His sister could not be here on such short notice.’ Chiron’s face seemed to harden as he became focused, ‘We are aiming to keep Aang’s transition as easy as possible from unclaimed to the son of the King of Olympus, I hope you two can aid that?’

Without thinking, Katara answered, ‘Of course. We want to help Aang anyway we can.’ 

He seemed slightly shocked by her fervour, but moved on nonetheless.

‘Good. Well, in the past these things were more…how do I say- difficult. Now that the prophecies have been and gone, however, Aang’s arrival is unprecedented and certainly unsurprising. We want to ensure he has a smooth move to his new role, including his new cabin…’ 

Katara found it difficult to keep focus after a while. Constant blabber about meaningless rules when all she saw necessary was that Aang was safe and happy. What the need was for all this useless discussion, she had no clue.

Later that day, when the meeting was finally over, Katara and Sokka helped Aang bring over his few belongings to the Zeus cabin, which was far from the rundown, overcrowded Hermes equivalent. The place was huge and finely decorated with mosaics of storms and thunder. Katara shivered as she recalled the story Aang had told her the other day and hoped it wouldn’t be an unhappy reminder. Luckily, he seemed amazed by the place, in awe of the cleanliness for one. 

‘Sorry, I tried to move my stuff over but if you find anything just chuck it over there.’ The blonde boy who Chiron had introduced as Jason said with a sheepish smile, ‘I’m not exactly used to sharing the place.’ 

Aang blushed before beaming, ‘Thanks, Jason.’

‘No problem.’ The guy’s lip curled up slightly, ‘I probably won’t be around much, I’m usually at Camp Jupiter most of the time, but if I do stop by I’ll let you know beforehand.’ 

‘Cool.’ Aang pressed down on the mattress, testing its newness in comparison to the worn beds in cabin 11, ‘And what about dad? Any idea when I’ll hear from him?’ 

Jason looked awkward for a moment and Katara silently pulled Sokka out of the door, quietly closing it behind them.

‘Hey!’ He said, annoyed.

‘They needed some privacy! They don’t need us listening in on their family drama when they barely know each other.’ Katara retorted, ‘Why don’t you just go and find the Athena kids.’

Sokka raised an eyebrow.

‘Yeah, I might just.’ Had his eyes always been so grey?

‘Do! Have fun.’ Katara said with a bitter tone.

‘What…Huh?’ Sokka said with confusion, ‘What’s wrong with me helping on this project?’

‘Nothing.’ Katara huffed, ‘Didn’t I just tell you to have fun?’

‘Katara, seriously.’ He looked annoyed now, ‘What is it?’

She bit her lip, ‘I don’t know, I’m just annoyed. I’m annoyed that Aang got claimed by some big famous deity and we’re still unclaimed with no word from dad and none the wiser as to what we’re supposed to be doing.’

He sighed and hugged her slightly, ‘I get it. If you want me to stay-’

‘No.’ She looked down at the ground, ashamed, ‘It’s not your fault I’m jealous, go have fun.’ 

Sokka looked conflicted for a moment before leaving her with a few parting words of thanks. 

Katara found herself mindlessly wandering for most of the morning. Every now and then she would spot Sokka with some blonde kid or some burly person with goggles; he seemed happier than her to be sure. Aang appeared not long after she’d left the cabin, eager to chat, though he was quickly swept away by inquisitive campers and pulled into a myriad of new activities. He seemed content to go with them, so she left him be, not really being in the mood to arrange flowers or climb rock walls. Routinely he would show up looking for her.

‘Hey, Katara, look at this!’ He would yell, displaying his arts and crafts project or his arrow hitting the target or him reaching the top of the wall. 

She would smile and awkwardly give a thumbs up, aware of all the other kids eyeing her down as she stole away the new Zeus kid’s attention. That didn’t help with the pit in her stomach. 

She had tried at the infirmary, who said they weren’t in need of any helping hands, and anyway, Aang was next to her trying to talk or rope her into a new activity every thirty minutes so she doubted she would be much help. Slowly, she felt the rising heat of jealousy and grief on the back of her neck, the world suddenly feeling more and more overstimulating as she was forced to watch another dance battle or to pick another basketful of strawberries with Aang’s entourage of 12 year olds whilst watching as her brother fiddled around with a bunch of kids she’d never even met. 

‘What do you want to do next, Katara?’ Aang asked with a sweet smile, though Katara couldn’t help but seethe with rage at his kindness. She was parentless and more alone than ever and here he was flaunting his newfound parenthood glee in her face. 

‘I don’t know.’ She said through gritted teeth.

‘Alright, what did you like to do at home?’ He continued, oblivious to her resentment, only making her feel worse.

‘Not much. I went to school and helped my Grandma. Sokka was the one with all the hobbies.’ She huffed. Now he was unintentionally reopening old wounds too, great.

‘Oh. Well what if we tried-’ 

‘Look, Aang.’ She snapped, trying quickly to regather herself and failing miserably, ‘I just wanna be alone right now, okay?’

Aang seemed slightly shell shocked but complied sadly, moping off back to his fan squad.

Again, Katara found herself at the lake, staring wistfully at her reflection. She studied herself with immense care, looking for each of her parents in her features. 

People had always told her she looked like her mother, but she’d always taken that to be a symptom of her being dead, like they were trying to give her some comfort. Then again, she had bright eyes like her father and a similarly strong nose. Either way, one half of her would be missing, being unclaimed just meant that which half it was remained up in the air.

Earlier that day, Chiron had pulled her and Sokka aside for a moment as the other big 3 kids had a final chat, a few of them leaving back to the Roman camp soon after. He’d attempted to comfort them over their ‘difficult’ arrival at camp (his words) and assured them he would get them in contact with their father soon, hoping to set up an Iris message (whatever that was) sometime today, though she was starting to doubt the validity of that. He explained the ‘no phones’ rule and Katara suddenly realised why they’d never been permitted much tech; she’d always assumed they just had bad internet that could only handle one computer.

Now she was desperate to see her father, to see his face and remind herself that he was a part of her. Then again, if she cemented that idea it would mean that her mother wasn’t… 

She cast the thought aside. 

For about an hour she meandered the shore line, exploring the nearby trees and dipping her feet in the water. The place was calm and serene and it reminded her somewhat of the lakes back home, even if everything but the water was completely different. She yearned for her hometown, already sick of the American-ness of the camp. She missed being horribly cold walking home from school, she missed the bumpy roads and bad wi-fi. She was even starting to miss New York, and she’d only been there for a few days. Most of all, though, she missed the security of her family. Even when their dad had been away in America, there was no doubt that he was still theirs, that Gran Gran was their Gran Gran and their mom was their mom. Now it was all a mystery yet to be unsolved and the tension was agonising. Which would she prefer? A dead mother killed for a second time or a living father replaced? 

‘Katara? Katara?’ She heard her brother yelling from the hill above. She sighed and shook the water from her sandy feet, slipping her camp-issued sandals on.

‘What?’ She shouted back.

‘Come! Dads on the line!’ 

The two of them found themselves back at the Big House though this time Katara’s nerves were a wreck. As much as she’d only just been begging the Gods to see him, she was doubly scared that she would see him and find a stranger in his place. After all, he had lied to them for their entire lives! 

‘Iris messages can be a bit shaky so give it a moment.’ Chiron warned before tossing a gold coin into a prepared bowl of water and saying some kind of prayer. Before their eyes, a rainbow sprouted from a watery haze, their father’s face appearing in the blur of colours.

‘Sokka, Katara? Is that you?’ He said, amazement colouring his tired face. He looked worse than he’d been when he’d left them, no doubt he’d been worried sick. 

Almost immediately Katara felt her eyes welling up and Sokka didn’t seem to be faring much better. Chiron took a few steps back, though he did still look to be monitoring from afar.

‘Oh, kids, I’m so sorry! I’m so glad to see you in one piece, though. Are you okay?’ He pleaded.

‘We’re fine, Dad. Are you alright?’ Sokka said tearfully.

‘Don’t worry about me. How are you finding everything? Has anything…happened?’ He asked, almost expectantly. That worried Katara immensely.

‘It's great here, to be honest and yesterday Aang got claimed.’ Her brother pressed his lips together in disbelief.

Their father let out a shocked breath, ‘That short boy? Wow.’

‘I know.’ Sokka nodded.

They seemed to fall into an awkward silence, the heavy weight of their father’s lies stagnant in the air between them. The thought crossed Katara’s mind that he had to know who their parent was and had chosen not to tell them. The pit opened again.

‘Okay, well, I…I know you two are probably confused and angry with me-’

‘You can say that again.’ Katara snapped.

Sokka looked uncomfortable, though he didn’t disagree. Their father let out a heavy sigh.

‘I know, and I’m so so sorry that we have lied to you for so long. Children who know…of their parentage often struggle…We thought we had more time.’ He looked down, ashamed.

‘Who? You and Mom?’ Katara asked, her heart stinging at her mother’s mention.

‘And your Grandmother. We all decided very early that this had to stay secret, that we would sort things out when you were older…when she passed, that all went out the window of course…’

‘Dad, stop skirting around the issue.’ Sokka said, his tone serious for once, ‘You do know…don’t you?’

Katara felt her heart skip a beat, her hands clamming up like car windows on a cold day. 

‘Yes…’ Hakoda bit his lip before smiling slightly, ‘It's a long story which I’ll tell you one day, when we’re together, but for now I’ll just tell you what you want to know.’ 

‘I would be quick, if possible.’ Chiron ordered from behind them, ‘I doubt you have much time left.’

Hakoda’s face flushed with panic, ‘Of course.’ he took a long shaky breath, ‘Please forgive me. Sokka, when you were born, if you can call it that, your mother sent you to me in a golden cradle and told me I needed to raise you here, not on Olympus with her.’

Katara felt her soul crack in two at the word ‘ mother ’. 

‘She and I had connected over strategy and one day Athena appeared to me and there you were, borne from her head or something of that nature.’ Their father smiled at the memory, though Katara could only feel betrayal for her mother.

‘So…so we’re children of Athena?’ Sokka whispered, confliction ripe in his raspy tone. Katara supposed he had the right to feel happy, he seemed to already be a part of their clique, though heartbreak was also clear. He was losing his mother too.

‘Well…’ Hakoda looked down again and Katara felt her remaining heart wither.

‘What does that mean? Dad?’ Sokka panicked, their father’s face starting to fade slightly.

‘Katara, your mother came to me after you were born. We were friends and only grew closer thanks to our situations! I-I’m sorry but I don’t know who exactly he was, Kya was secretive with that fact, scared he would return. I’m sorry, really. Please know, though, that you are both my children and I love you more than-’ 

The broadcast shut off abruptly, the water returning to a still bowl reflecting a wearing expression back at them. Katara felt as though she were the girl staring back at her, trapped in another dimension where everything was garbled and unsure.

‘I- What?’ Sokka choked next to her, though Katara could hardly form a single syllable. It felt like her entire throat was closing in on itself, like the whole room was collapsing. She sucked in hard but the air tasted stale, like mouldy bread being forced down her windpipe. 

Abruptly, she got up and shoved past her brother and Chiron, the need for fresh air overcoming her. Ignoring the cries for her to wait, she charged from the house, pushing away tears as they flooded down. Outside, Aang waited with a weary smile, though she was quick to dodge him, fleeing into the woods and away from any prying eyes. 

‘Katara!’ 

‘Katara, wait!’ 

The words floated away into the crunching of leaves as she pushed through the forest, making her way back to the only place she knew to go.

Chapter Text

Katara had dried her tired eyes by the time Sokka and Aang found her, her feet wrinkled like prunes from paddling in the lake. She always seemed to feel calmer around water, especially now when her only other spaces were filled with prankster Hermes kids and curious, judging eyes who see her only as the Zeus kid’s friend. At least half an hour had passed since Katara’s world had been shattered and she was far from okay, though it seemed her tear ducts were more or less dried out thanks to all the crying she’d managed recently. When her brother finally found her she was more ashamed than she was sad.

‘Katara! How did you even-’ He nearly keeled over panting, but managed to make it to her for a hug. Katara felt almost catatonic, unable to flee again yet simultaneously unable to respond how she knew she should. After all, Sokka had just been given the same blow to his heart as she had.

‘I’m sorry.’ She whispered, ‘I just got kind of…’

‘I get it, I get it…’ Sokka stepped back, his face clearly wet with tears too, ‘I can’t believe any of it, honestly.’

Katara couldn’t help but chuckle slightly; of all the things they’d seen this week somehow, them not really being siblings was by far the most unbelievable. 

‘I know.’ She looked away solemnly.

‘I mean, I just can’t believe they hid this from us!’ Her brother seemed more annoyed than depressed now, though tears continued to stream, ‘How many times did they hear people say I looked just like mom and smiled even knowing the truth?’

‘I know.’ Brine swelled in her vision again, somehow hearing it from Sokka made the burn sting twice as bad, ‘What do we even do now?’

‘I don’t know. Chiron is going to announce it at breakfast tomorrow apparently…’ His brows furrowed in shame, ‘I’m really sorry, you know, that he didn’t…’

‘It's not your fault. I’m happy you at least know now, plus you did seem to fit in with the Athena kids pretty well.’ She tried to smile though Sokka didn’t seem to return even a shred of her attempted happiness.

‘We’re still siblings, right?’ He asked bluntly, his eyes raw with hurt.

‘Of course.’

Only then did he manage to scrape together the beginnings of a smile.

The pair spent the entire night chatting under their covers, eventually succumbing to sleep in the same bed in the same way they used to as little kids. Memories seemed to pour out of them: every crinkle in their mother’s skin, every drop of water from the nearby lake. It all flowed back to them with fervour, cementing their bond as something beyond blood and agreements and lies, rather, as something real. 

Breakfast, contrastingly, was a wakeup call to their new reality. Nostalgia could only carry them so far and the real world was hard when it was slapping you across the face. Katara had mellowed over the reception to their revelation, predicted the stares and whispers. She shied away as Annabeth allowed her a sympathetic glance, the wound too open to allow any risk of infection. 

Sokka seemed to handle it even worse than her, though that wasn’t surprising. Where he usually met publicity with a warm handshake, today he was timid in its scrutiny, clambering back to their table as soon as Chiron had uttered his final syllable. At least for now, and as long as the rules permitted it, Sokka was staying firmly with them for meals, even if he was moving out of Cabin 11. His absence was clear that morning when his backpack and hoodie had been cleaned away from their bunk. With both him and Aang ripped away in the span of just a few short days Katara found herself regarding the space with contempt alone. Her offerings at breakfast were more than meagre. 

‘Finally, more news.’ Chiron cleared his throat as Sokka darted away like a scared cat, ‘We have a new camper joining us. He isn’t here yet but I hope you’ll all be friendly and warm this evening when he arrives meaning no pranks.’ He sent a stern look to two Hermes cabin members who Katara had noted as notoriously annoying.

‘Good.’ Sokka groaned as Chiron stepped away and chatter resumed, ‘At least that’ll mean a little less stress on us.’

‘Agreed.’ Aang sighed. In fairness to the kid he had been handling his change well and had been nothing but supportive over their little situation . Katara didn’t doubt that he was starting to tire of the ‘big 3 kid’ attention already, though he was taking it on like a champ. Christ knew that if Katara were in his shoes there would be a few more wind storms than normal; she had never been famous for her good temper.

‘Do they usually announce kids' arrivals in advance?’ Katara asked, hoping to steer the conversation (and her thoughts) away from their current circumstances. 

‘Not usually.’ Aang pondered, ‘Maybe he’s a descendent rather than a demigod or something.’

‘Weird.’ Karara mumbled.

‘Maybe they’re some celebrity, a big 3 kid maybe?’ Sokka offered less enthusiastically than usual.

‘I doubt it.’ Aang chuckled, ‘My claiming was pretty unexpected, to say the least, I seriously doubt there’s any more of us knocking around.’ 

The rest of the morning was overcast though uneventful. The camp was, as a whole, excited as capture the flag was being prepared for the next day, though the damper over their group was clear. 

At first Sokka had tried to stay glued to Katara’s side, a show of good faith probably, signally his continued devotion to his sister, though he wasn’t known for his resolve and was quick to be drawn in by a new Hephaestus kid project in the arena. Aang was similarly committed, though his responsibilities as a new public figure took over relatively quickly. People were floundering over him, leaving Katara as an awkward sitting duck until they left (or if they left). After the fourth gaggle, he decided it was best to just give in and let her be in peace for a while.

This left Katara alone again, a mixed mag of emotions replacing her friends. On the one hand losing the constant attention Aang brought was nice, though the isolation of being friendless and tribeless wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows. 

It was a bit depressing watching Aang practicing his little wind tricks with the others, knowing she would never manage that kind of talent, and even more so seeing Sokka happy with his new family, so she wandered off again. This time, she rebuked her urges and decided to help with strawberry picking instead. Though she would probably prefer a lakeside walk or doing some good in the infirmary, seeing anyone she knew (which was pretty much only Aang, Sokka and Will) was too much for her to handle right now. Boring fields it is!

‘Hey, Katara!’ A voice shouted up from across the field.

Or not. Katara grimaced and pretended not to hear, as much as it pained her to be so rude.

‘Katara! I was looking for you by the lake for ages.’ Annabeth smiled, looking lovely in orange where Katara knew she herself looked washed out in it. 

‘Oh, hi Annabeth.’ She smiled weakly, knowing that it wasn’t the girl’s fault that Katara jealous and currently slightly depressed, ‘I didn’t hear you, sorry.’

‘No worries. I just wanted to ask how you were doing since I imagine the Stoll’s aren’t much in the way of head counsellors.’ Her face shifted its weight back to that sympathetic, nervous look that Katara had come to loathe so. When their mom had died she could’ve sworn it was the only expression she saw for a year.

‘I’m fine, thanks though. Sokka’s in good hands.’ She managed with a giggle, hopeful that her acting skills were better than she remembered.

Annabeth smiled but seemed conflicted.

‘I’m sorry, I’m not great at this kind of thing, but seriously if you want to talk to anyone I’m always here. I won’t ever know what it's like to be in your situation, obviously, but I know what it's like to feel like you don’t belong anywhere and what it's like to feel betrayed. Just…Just let me know if you need anything.’ She smiled for real this time, losing the sheepishly embarrassed sympathy.

‘Thanks.’ Katara said smally, ‘I’m just kind of confused right now, I guess it’ll fade after a while.’

‘Yeah, I hear that.’ The girl looked like she was lost in her own mind for a moment, ‘And know it's normal if you’re kind of mad right now, I know I would be. At your dad but also at them.’ She pointed up towards the sky.

Katara nodded. 

‘I mean, I actually have a kind of relationship with my mom and I still get confused sometimes. Same with my dad. I don’t think you could ever be called unfair for hating them though, if you want to blame anyone, the gods are usually the better choice.’ She spoke sternly, like this was something she had thought long and hard on. Katara supposed she probably had years of internalised confusion and poorly displaced hatred under her belt judging by the stories and her noticeably stacked necklace. 

‘Yeah…It would just be easier if I actually had someone specific to hate, you know?’ Katara managed, feeling a wave of anger rush from somewhere dark in her soul before cascading into the sand and dissipating. 

‘Totally. It’s stupid…we fought a whole war for them and they still can’t stick to their terms half the time.’ Annabeth shook her head with a dismayed smile, if it could even be called that. She looked so much older, the talks of war probably didn’t help.

‘What do you mean?’ She heard whispers of the titan and giant wars, Sokka had relayed the bullet points to them though he’d never been the biggest historian, but the specifics were never exactly ironed out. She’d gathered that the Gods had promised to be better and in return the camp would give cabins to all the Gods, no matter how minor.

‘The Gods promised that every child would be claimed by the age of thirteen in order to stop us being so vulnerable and stop the Hermes cabin being so overrun. If you think the place is gross now you should’ve seen it last year.’ She shrivelled her nose in disgust.

‘I guess the Gods aren’t big on promises then.’ Katara mumbled sarcastically.

‘Bingo. My boyfriend, Percy, literally gave up godhood for them and they’ve barely bothered to stick to anything they said. For one they said they’d free Calypso, uh, like from the odyssey?’ 

Katara shrugged, the name ringing a bell.

‘Well they promised to free her and didn’t, we did. They haven’t claimed half their kids still, you being a prime example, and the big 3 clearly still aren’t sticking to their damn pact.’ She sighed dramatically, ‘Basically we learned the hard way that the Gods are liars and we’ve fought two wars for them for damn near no reason.’

Katara was slightly taken aback by that but Annabeth quickly composed herself.

‘Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that even if your stupid Godly parent doesn't claim you, we aren’t going to try and rip you and your brother apart or anything. And if you ever need anything we’re family.’ She smiled kindly, ‘But I better be getting back. Love Sokka but the guy is kind of…’

‘Enthusiastic?’ Katara quickly finished. That was how he was always described by teachers before they chucked him out of their schools in the same way she was always ‘passionate’ or ‘determined’ right before she was booted for starting fights.

‘Yes!’ Annabeth clicked her fingers, ‘He kind of reminds me of a friend though luckily Sokka’s a little less impulsive. A little more on the dyslexic end of demigod hood than the ADHD one. Well, anyway, I’ll let you pick your strawberries in peace. See you around!’

Katara waved her off and kicked herself internally for being so cruel. Why was her first instinct to hate this kind girl who wanted the best for her brother? Her jealous streak was showing again.

‘Hey, Aang.’ Katara smiled as she finally managed to find her friend alone. He was huddled away behind the Zeus cabin like he was hiding from some deranged killer.

‘Shh!’ He hissed, ‘They might hear you.’

Katara chuckled slightly. It was harder to be jealous of him when he was so clearly feeling the effects of his new found fame. As much as she wanted to, she struggled to envy him.

‘Have a strawberry.’ She handed him a plump red berry from her small jar she’d got for helping to pick. She had to admit they were nicer than the ones her Gran Gran often tried to grow up North.

‘Thanks.’ He smiled wearily.

‘How’s single cabin life going?’ She asked, peering around to admire Cabin 1’s enormity. The back of it alone was grander than the entire Hermes cabin. 

‘It's cool, cleaner than Hermes was.’ He shrugged, sighing, ‘Kinda lonely though.’ 

She supposed going from a lively overcrowded circus to an empty cabin after 3 years had to be pretty jarring. Aang never seemed the most popular amongst the Hermes crowd, though she imagined losing the only people he could’ve called ‘family’ had to be tough.

‘How’s Sokka doing?’ Aang asked as he nibbled on his strawberry, juice dripping down his chin.

Katara handed him a tissue from her pocket, ‘He seems happy. Happier than he’s been in a while to be honest, at least when he’s not talking about Dad.’ 

‘I understand why you’d be mad at him.’ Aang nodded, ‘But at the same time…’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Katara sighed, ‘I guess time will tell.’ 

Suddenly, the ground rattled, sending Katara’s jar tumbling to the floor in shock. The strawberries splayed across the earth, splattering into fleshy red goo.

‘Oh great.’ She huffed as the shaking seemed to cease.

Aang sprung to his feet and peaked around the cabin. 

‘What was that, an earthquake?’ Katara asked. Maybe they were more common here? A side effect of godly presence?

‘Monster!’ Someone yelled out from across the field, answering Katara’s question before Aang could open his mouth.

Katara ran out from behind the cabin with Aang close behind. The monster wasn’t exactly subtle, charging up from the tree line which bordered the camp. Two men, one older and one much younger, ran from it, though with its huge lion-esque body, it was fast on their heels. 

A spray of arrows shot out from somewhere beyond their sight line, the beast pausing for a moment to deflect and send out its own raining of spikes upon the poor campers who’d dared to defy it. The two men sprinted beyond the magical border surrounding the camp though the monster wasn’t satisfied by this, scrounging at the border with thick claws.

‘Should we help?’ Katara asked.

‘No offence but I don’t think either of us could do anything against that thing.’ Aang paled, ‘And I don’t think I would be able to kill a lion.’ 

‘Even if it was about to kill those two people?’ Katara asked. Aang shook his head.

The monster, using its barbed tail, whacked at the shield like it were using a sledgehammer, though it failed to quite break through. Quickly, before Katara could even blink, a sword swung through the creature’s tail, slicing it clean off.

‘What the…’ Katara mumbled.

A second slash attacked its leg and then its side. Eventually the creature was blowing away in a cloud of golden ashes and Katara could hardly believe her eyes. The older of the two men who had been sprinting returned to thank the swordsman, though the younger one remained at the bottom of the hill unmoving. 

‘Percy’s back.’ Aang said calmly, unnerving Kataa slightly. Were all these kids so desensitised to violence?

‘Percy? Percy Johnson? Annabeth’s boyfriend?’ Katara asked, still trying to understand how that giant beast was turned to literal ashes so quickly.

‘Jackson but yeah.’ Aang smiled, ‘He’s great.’

‘He’s pretty good with a sword.’ Katara admitted.

‘He can control water too, he’s basically a god.’ 

Katara tried to size him up, though he was barely a blurred figure from their viewpoint. She supposed that if he was dating Annabeth he must be pretty special, the girl basically ran the camp.

‘Guys! You guys!’ A panting Sokka jogged over, ‘Did you just see that?’

‘Yeah! Percy totally just killed that manticore.’ Aang beamed.

‘Dude, he’s insane! Like a total Achilles.’ Sokka joined Aang in his admiration, ‘That’ll be you one day Mr Big-Three.’

‘I doubt it. Percy’s been in two wars already.’ Aang said, ‘Plus I’m not one for fighting.’

‘He said he wouldn’t kill a manticore because it looks like a lion.’ Katara recalled.

‘Dude you just need some experience and it’ll be like putting your shoes on, you won’t even realise you’re killing anything. Plus monsters are reborn so they’re not even really being killed.’ Sokka said with a grin.

‘Gee thanks, Sokka.’ Aang looked a bit green.

Camp was alight with chatter about the monster attack at dinner. Speculation about the two men and Percy’s return were all one could hear wandering amongst the tables. Chiron basically had to scream just to get a word in over them all.

‘Do you think he’s gonna introduce this new kid now?’ Sokka asked, now in a much better mood than he had been at breakfast. Katara thanked the Gods, she hated seeing him so glum. With the monster attacks on peoples’ minds, the not-so-siblings barely got a mention all meal.

‘I think so. I bet it was that kid from the monster attack.’ Aang said, ‘I wonder what cabin he’ll be in.’

Katara thought back on her conversation with Annabeth. She concluded that this kid was pretty likely to be stuck in the Hermes cabin with her unless he was miraculously under the age of 13. At least she wouldn’t be picked on with new kid pranks so much.

‘Campers! Thank you.’ Chiron cleared his throat, ‘Yesterday I announced we would be having a new camper joining us and, as I’m sure you’re all aware, his introduction to camp was… less than perfect. I want you all to be on your best behaviour in order to make our new camper feel welcome, meaning no jokes and again no pranks! Yes, I mean you Connor and Travis. Anyway, without further ado, everyone welcome our newest camper Zuko.’ 

A kid around Sokka’s age stepped forward. 

Probably not claimed then , Katara thought with a grimace. That probably meant someone new moving into Sokka’s bunk knowing her luck.

He was tall and pale with long dark hair, looking almost Nico-like in appearance. His main feature which seemed to stand out was the large red scar over his right eye, leaving his entire eye and brow disfigured. She winced just looking at it, doubting it could be any kind of birthmark. 

‘Additionally, as again I’m sure you all know, the head councillor of cabin 3 has returned from work at Camp Jupiter, so give a warm welcome back to Percy Jackson.’ Chiron smiled and the crowd clapped, a few ‘Woop!’s peppering the cheer. 

Only now could Katara get a good look at this Percy fellow. He was tall and athletic looking, no shock there based on his sword skills, with dark hair and bright eyes. He had a tanned arm over Annabeth’s shoulders and was smiling brightly. He seemed to share that same ‘tired’ look that Katara had noticed in Annabeth which she could probably attribute to these two wars they’d supposedly fought in. Yikes, she really didn’t want to consider how old he was in the first one considering he was only at most 18 now. 

‘Continue with your meals and tonight be sure to sleep early. Capture the flag is tomorrow.’ The crowd again cheered at the mention of the game.

‘You guys really like capture the flag, huh.’ Katara said as she took a bite of her soup. While it wasn’t particularly seasonal, it reminded her of home when things were a bit less hectic and that mattered ten times more to her than the weather. 

‘Yeah everyone goes crazy over it. Just wait until tomorrow, the Ares and Athena cabins go especially nuts.’ Aang shivered. 

‘You’ll get a chance to show off your cool new wind powers.’ Sokka grinned, acting out Aang’s martial arts style moves.

Aang giggled before dropping to a more glum expression, ‘Maybe.’

‘Oh come on. Stop being so soft, it's just a game! Especially if that percy guy is anywhere near us, we’ll need all the magic we can get.’ 

‘He’s not the only one you need to worry about. Nico’s pretty strong too, plus some other campers have weird magical powers like Leo Valchez from cabin 9 and Piper McLean from cabin 10.’ Aang looked weary at the thought of fighting which only made Katara nervous. He’d at least been here for 3 years, he’d had to have picked up some skills. What about her? Sokka had his new cabin to protect him, could she really see the Stoll twins doing the same for her?

‘Pfft. Whatever. Zeus is the big dog, you’re like the strongest by default.’ Sokka waved away his concern. 

‘Hey, Aang.’ Speaking of the Stoll twins.

‘Hey, Connor. What’s up?’ Aang smiled. 

Behind them, the new kid stood awkwardly. He wore a grumpy, annoyed expression, though Katara couldn’t really blame him for that, she was pretty much feeling the same way, at least she’d come in with friends. 

‘Think you guys could show Zuko around or whatever?’ Travis said with a shrug, ‘We have a capture the flag thing or we would.’ 

Considering the fact Annabeth had shown her and Sokka around instead of them, Katara seriously doubted they’d ever had any intentions of showing this Zuko guy around. 

‘Yeah, sure.’ Aang beamed, ‘You can sit with us if you want.’ 

The Stoll twins shrugged before walking back to their table, shoving each other playfully before accidentally knocking into the Aphrodite table as one of them was doing her mascara. That wouldn’t be pretty.

‘Zuko right?’ Sokka said with a smile, ‘I’m Sokka.’ 

‘Yeah, thanks for letting me sit here.’ He said distantly.

‘No problem! I’m Aang and this is Sokka’s sister, Katara.’ The word ‘sister’ hung in the air with a hissing sting; Katara hoped Zuko didn’t pick up on it. She really didn’t need to bring it all back up again. 

‘Nice to meet you.’ He mumbled, picking at his food. 

‘So who was that guy you came in with?’ Sokka asked, ignoring all social boundaries as per usual. Katara kicked him under the table but it didn’t seem to dissuade him.

‘Oh.’ Zuko looked down, ‘My uncle. He knew about this place already, I guess, but apparently “mortals” aren’t allowed in.’ 

‘Oh right.’ Sokka sank back down into his seat, ‘So that means you know your parent already?’ 

‘Nope.’ Zuko said glumly.

‘Oh…Well anyway, which team are you gonna join for the game tomorrow, Aang?’ Sokka asked between mouthfuls. 

‘Oh- uh, I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it.’ Aang scratched the back of his neck.

‘I bet Annabeth would be open to it.’ Sokka winked, ‘Apparently she’s not keen on the Hermes cabin though, sorry.’ 

Katara rolled her eyes. Zuko looked noticeably confused amongst his angst.

‘Basically the cabins are based on our godly parents, since we’re unclaimed we’re stuck with Hermes for now. In capture the flag the groups are decided based on alliances.’ She explained, knowing how sucky it was to be out of the loop.

‘I thought you were Athena kids?’ Zuko asked, much to Katara’s dismay.

‘As of yesterday, I am an Athena kid…Katara isn’t.’ Sokka explained, masking his pain with a playful smile.

‘Right…’ Zuko looked down at his food.

‘Yeah…Oh well. What about that tour?’ 

Zuko wasn’t exactly shy, though he wasn’t exactly outgoing either. He kept to himself, clearly ruminating on something though Katara didn’t dare ask what. There was something immensely sad in his eyes (or eye since the other was barely visible beyond his scar) though he seemed to mask it all pretty well with anger, she would know she'd been there before.

By lights out, he seemed to cut her out completely. She supposed she couldn’t expect him to be her new best bud, nor did she want that, but after showing him his new bunk (taking Aang’s old one), he left her alone completely. In the morning he spared her a half-assed nod as a sign of acknowledgement before wandering off to do who knows what before breakfast.

‘Alright gang, plan of attack.’ Connor Stoll jumped up onto his chair with vigour, ‘We have some gnarly stink bombs and a butt load of traps but right now Zeus, Poseidon and Athena are allied.’

The entire table groaned, though a few seemed to hold onto the remnant excitement of the stink bomb plan. This breakfast they were forced into their cabins for capture the flag discussion. Katara sulked at the end of the table, enviously glaring over at the Athena table where Aang had tacked himself onto the end. Luckily, she wasn’t alone, with Zuko sitting opposite her looking equally annoyed at the world, though they were isolated in their isolation, only making her more mad. 

‘We’re thinking cabin nine and ten will stack with us, ‘Travis said loudly, ‘Any ideas for fire related traps? Apparently Valdez is back on the field.’

Katara sighed and stopped listening. She didn’t know any of these people, couldn’t fight with a sword if her life depended on it and was too stubborn to do anything she didn’t want to do. That left her feeling like capture the flag probably wouldn’t be the greatest of games for her.

‘Can I sit here?’ The tired looking Hades kid asked suddenly, Katara not even noticing he’d approached.

‘Sure.’ She responded with a quick flash of a fake smile before returning to her grump. Luckily he seemed to agree with their little pact of silent annoyance, staring off into the distance. 

Katara had been silently watching him for the past day or so, whether she had realised it or not. With her mother so at the forefront of her mind, she’d been contemplating death and Hades a lot, the boy just so happening to be the closest thing to that here. Now, sitting next to him, he reeked of death, like a cemetery on fire.

She’d been pondering her mother’s death specifically, with the new revelations of their true identities coming to life certain things made more sense to her: why they had so little technology (they lived kind of remote but not that remote), why they were never permitted to go out as much as the other kids, why they never seemed to mesh well with the schooling system. The biggest mystery, which had only now become one, was how their mother had died. Supposedly, it had been a freak accident. Canada was home to dangerous wildlife if you didn’t know how to live around it, but they were always careful. Somehow, though, their mother had supposedly been killed by a bear whilst trying to protect Katara.

Was that true? She supposed it could be, people did die from bear attacks but Katara had always wondered why it had happened when they had lived there for generations with no such issue. She’d just chalked it up to luck, the same way her and Sokka being kicked out of schools was unlucky, but now…

Monster attacks were very real and, having seen multiple first hand, Katara knew they were not easy to hold off. They almost always attacked demigods, that being the main reason for the camp’s existence, so had it truly been a monster that day? Had Katara been targeted as, unbeknownst to her, she was a demigod? She’d always carried some guilt for it, for being the reason her mother was dead, but this only made it a harder pill to swallow as it meant that it wasn’t just her fault but also that of the Gods. Another check on her list of reasons to hate them. At the top of her hate list, though, was Hades. She’s learned enough from Sokka to know that Hades realm was the home of monsters and where the dead resided. Was he not, then, to blame for her mother’s death? Or at least at fault for not letting her come back when she was stolen so unfairly from them?

‘Nico! Big D! Skellies still up for use?’ Connor yelled down the table.

Nico seemed to flinch, making Katara sigh in annoyance at his existence. 

‘I’ll ask Will if I’m cleared.’ He grumbled, ignoring the Stolls’ repeated goads to ‘unleash the skellies’ (whatever that means).

Maybe Hades' kids had some skeletal powers, like how Aang could control wind. It wouldn’t have surprised Katara, Nico looked borderline skeletal. His olive skin was basically paper, it was so deathly pale, and he had eyebags deeper than the grand canyon beneath his sullen eyes. What Will saw in him was beyond her. He was surely only her age but his eyes alone looked double that at least. 

‘I say we make three groups: traps, runners and guards.’ Travis Stoll proposed as they huddled up with their alliance group.

‘I like the sound of traps.’ A tanned boy who looked slightly frazzled grinned, Katara rightly assumed him to be cabin 9.

‘We claim guard duty.’ A pretty girl with East Asian features snaped, ‘Piper is gone and none of us want to run.’

‘Done. You and the unclaimed guys can guard.’ One of the Demeter girls said, eyeing Katara and Zuko suspiciously, ‘We can help with traps, those tree roots can be nasty if we can use them.’

‘Alright then, Nico, you'll have to be a hybrid.’ Connor said with a snap of his fingers, ‘Even if you’re not technically “cleared” a few skellies wouldn’t hurt. We won’t tell Will.’

Nico grunted before sighing.

‘Cabin 12 can be our backup.’ A large girl with a stocky build and a slightly unnerving grin commanded, ‘We’ll run.’ 

‘Sounds good.’ The Stoll brothers high five.

‘Hades, take those randos down to the flag.’ The buff girl sneered, ‘If they mess this up I’m blaming you.’

‘Whatever, Clarisse.’ Nico hissed, ‘Come on.’

Katara, Zuko and the gossiping Aphrodite kids treacherously followed Nico through the woods to the flag area. The forest seemed to be alive, making Katara feel horribly uneasy, though the Aphrodite kids seemed unbothered, continuing their chatter and looking remarkably uninterested in the game. Based on Zuko’s brooding stance and her own inexperience, she doubted Clarisse would be pleased come the afternoon.

‘Hey, what’s your name again?’ A beautiful girl with dark hair asked, though Katara struggled to tell if she wasn’t about to mock her or compliment her.

‘Katara.’ She smiled slightly.

‘Oh right yeah. So, no offence of anything, but is it true you and your brother-’ 

‘Nope.’ Katara said without letting her finish. All she needed was a bunch of gorgeous gossip spreading about her business. She’d had plenty of that at school.

‘Sheesh, sorry.’ The girl rolled her eyes, her siblings giggling, ‘You don’t have to be so rude about it.’

‘I’m not.’ Katara shrugged, ‘You should try minding your own business.’ 

‘Whatever, sorry.’ The girl looked at Katara like she was crazy.

Katara huffed and stomped away. She knew herself well enough to know that sticking around would only lead to her blowing up. How many times had she spent all afternoon in detention for fighting bullies who couldn’t keep their mouths to themselves?

‘Ignore them.’ Nico said from somewhere behind her. His tone was sympathetic in that monotone, older way of his.

That only made it worse, of course, with the heat inside her seeming to bubble up. 

‘Yeah, I know.’ She snapped, continuing to walk off, kicking pebbles as she went.

Capture the flag started up after a while, the energy of the woods electric with excitement and anticipation. It was infectious and Katara found the flames of annoyance being fanned by this energy. 

She hated it, this part of herself. She’d always had a temper, a fierce loyalty to her beliefs and the inability to let things go. Often, it did nothing but hurt her. Constantly she was angry or ‘moody’ or ‘acting like that again’, it was the main reason she was thrown from school to school. Where Sokka often landed in hot water for his need to speak his mind and correct people even when they were clearly not in the market for corrections, Katara was pulled by a tide of emotion first and foremost, her fists usually doing the work before her mind could put a stop to it. She hated how it made her feel so consistently awful and that only added to the eternal flames burning inside her veins; now the anger at herself and the world was magnified for her newfound hatred for the Gods and the lovely displacement of it onto the innocent demigods who were unfortunate enough to share a space with her.

Shouts tumbled through the trees though Katara had been instructed by some very harsh Aries kids to stay put and ‘guard the flag with her life’ (their words). She was feeling spiteful enough to run off and leave the blame to the Aphrodite kids, but honestly, she was hoping for some miracle where she would magically save the day and prove herself, if not to her Godly parent, then to the other campers who she knew looked down on her. 

It was stupid, a daydream she’d been battling with in a clandestine affair since she could remember. Nowadays it would be about glory and recognition, proof that she was more than someone to pity for her lack of attention, but it had before been an escape. She dreamed about waking up with powers beyond her comprehension and using them to do a myriad of things: assassinate some world leaders she knew to be devils in human skin, help out her family and most of all, show people that she was someone more than a girl with a dead mom. 

It still stood, she was alone and powerless in an even more isolating and powerful world, though she was wishing for it more than ever now. 

As the shouting and the steady hum of footsteps stampeding grew louder, she supposed it was nothing more than a dream. Nothing came for her or screamed out from deep within her soul. Aang had described it as an extension of himself, something he could reach out and bring forth all of a sudden, though she felt only the licking flames of an irate soul slapping against her insides. Sokka was lucky, she supposed, he was blessed with some genius smarts without the awkward superpower part. Katara kicked another rock out of jealousy, deciding it was much more suitable to hit an innocent rock than an innocent brother.

‘Defences!’ A roar came from somewhere ahead of her. 

All of a sudden, arrows were flying towards her, barely missing her as she leapt to safety.

On closer inspection, they weren’t pointy enough to kill, or even really hurt her, but she still couldn’t help but feel the pulsing of adrenaline in her bloodstream. 

‘Get up!’ An aries kid yelled before throwing a trio of opposing kids across a clearing with a swipe of her spear. Katara swallowed and blinked rapidly before yanking herself up.

She rushed forward with the sword she’d had strapped to her side now in hand, trying her best to emulate what the Aries kids had demonstrated to them earlier. A small horde of red kids run towards them, most being picked off by blues before they made it anywhere near her. 

‘Nico, come on!’ Connor Stoll yelled from somewhere Katara couldn’t see, ‘Skeletons?’

She saw Nico jog closer from behind a wall of trees, rolling his eyes aggressively. He swings a large blade from his side and into the group, managing to fend off a few more of them. Everyone fought like they’d been training for their entire lives and comparatively Katara felt like a child failing to hold a pencil correctly, squiggling desperately with her fist in an effort to keep up with their colouring in the lines.

Before she knew it, two large boys were charging her. The Aries girl was pre-occupied chasing off the entire second horde the reds had sent. A sweat bead ran down Katara’s face, her determination clashing with the realisation that no matter her will power, these people could eat her alive if they wanted to. 

The boys barely looked twice at her. Her poor attempt at a swing missed by a long shot and her second attempt at a jab was better though incredibly easy to parry, with one of the boys stopping for only the briefest moment to slam his spear into her leg and shove her over, effectively removing her from battle. In an attempt to not be totally useless, she tried to clamber her way back up only to fall again on a tree root, stumbling back into a prickly bush.

It was humiliating, to say the least. Her leg ached, she was half certain they’d shattered it with just one blow, and she was pretty sure her back was bruised up too thanks to their shove. The skin on her hands and exposed legs bloomed with red spots as she untangled herself from the thorns and brambles of whatever malevolent bush she’d managed upon. Tears priced at her eyes as she ripped her skin off of its tiny teeth and her horrible orange t-shirt now stank of both blood, sweat, mud and failure. 

She pictured Sokka, probably away in some little tent working out logistics or something like a real army general, or maybe fighting away with a sword properly, him always being better at that kind of thing than her. She bit back tears, not wanting to look completely stupid. 

The boys who shoved her ran back past whooping and cheering, the Aries kids fast on their tails. She swore one looked back at her with a cold sneer, though honestly they always looked like that so who could say.

‘Are you okay?’ Nico was back, arriving again with no warning. Was he part ghost or something? Was that a Hades kid thing or just a freaky goth kid thing?

‘Fine.’ She huffed, wiping her face. At the very least she still had her pride, she wasn’t about to get babies by some random kid barely her age. 

‘You can just…go. If you want. There’s a clean stream down there if you need it.’ He pointed down past the flag area, ‘We’re not gonna win either way.’

Katara shook her head in annoyance, nodding slightly before stomping off. It pained her to be so rude but she wasn’t in the mood to be anything but that at that very moment. 

Camp Half Blood was bringing out the worst in her, her worst moods and strongest tempers. Back home she’s been ‘troubled’ but she’d also been kind. She babysat, she helped old people cross the street, she was a grade A goody two shoes. This place made her awful.

Eventually she found the stream Nico had mentioned, her leg killing her as she stumbled down the small incline to it. 

Her reflection was decrepit looking, as expected. Her hair was a rat’s nest and stuck with leaves and a bramble branch whilst her shirt was slopped with thick grey mud and alf broken crunchy leaves. Most worryingly, her face looked a mess. Not thanks to the joys of nature though, it just looked wrong. Her eyes were saggy and dull, her skin dim. Was this a Dorian Grey situation where all her bad moods had been transferred to her appearance in some sick act of justice from the Gods? Judging by the stories, she wouldn’t put it past them.

Slowly she rubbed her hands over her face, forcing her tears to dispel and releasing a long held sigh before cupping some water to wipe the splatters of mud from her cheeks. Carefully she picked out the bits from her hair, ignoring the stinging of her exposed sting as the bramble bites began to itch. 

Wiping another stray tear from her eye, she began scrubbing mud from the front of her shirt, dipping it as much as she could in the stream without getting herself wet. The mud refused to budge and her arms began screaming at her, her banged up leg and knees, which were grazed and now being forced into the rocky floor she’d knelt down upon, hissing at her for attention. 

After a minute, it was all too much. The distant shouts and the slight cawing of birds in the opposite forest sounded like they were slowly surrounding her, the sun suddenly too bright and the water too cold. Her skin clammed up and she bit down hard, catching her tongue slightly. 

By then, she gave up and slid down in defeat, allowing her agitated skin and ruined clothes to be soaked. Her shoes, which she’d borrowed from the Camp ‘lost and found’ bin due to her lack of a change of shoes, slowly filled with the crystal clear water, freezing her feet into solid blocks of ice. At once the water was both immensely calming and horribly overwhelming. It cooled her burning outside yet her insides seemed to keep buzzing no matter what, her clothes floating around her meaninglessly.

The little stream was deep enough for Katara to submerged herself with about 12 inches of water above her, and so she did, the serenity of the underneath calling to her as a remedy for her itching conscience. From underwater, everything seemed to move at a snail’s pace. Noises became silenced, the rushing hiss of the water hushed to a gentle rush. The cool whisper of the water was all her skin seemed to want, the itching almost dissolving away into its kind embrace. She’d always liked water, there was a lake nearby their childhood home which she’d adored. It was as wide as her young eyes could comprehend and as far as anything could go. The water wasn’t as clear as this, though sometimes she could catch glances of fish darting by with rainbow coloured scales and quick witted tails. Every now and then they would spot a moose or two hulking out from the lake’s depths and their parents would usher them back. 

Katara sighed again, those memories now bittersweet. Soured by betrayal and the pangs of guilt she seemed to feel for both her mother and father. Immediately, she sat up, sputtering. How stupid of her to sigh underwater! Was she really so out of it she nearly killed herself?

She grasped at her throat, though it felt calm considering. Realising she wasn’t dying, she sighed again for real and hung her head in her dripping hands before pulling herself out of the rushing stream and back onto the bank. 

That was stupid , she thought, now I’ll be wet all day.

Ringing out her hair (a pointless endeavour thanks to its infinite thickness) she pondered the silence of the forest. How long had she been lying underwater like that without realising?

Silently, she inched back towards the capture the flag area only to find it more or less deserted, besides the odd stray shield. 

Crap, she was definitely supposed to be somewhere else.

Quickly, she jogged through the forest the way they’d come, cautiously so as to not trip again. Eventually, she caught up to her troop of angry looking Aries kids and bored Aphrodite kids. With an awkward smile (to nobody in particular as it seemed nobody had missed her) she joined them in their walk of shame back to camp, hoping to blend in as much as possible. The muffled chatter she was excluded from acted as a nice barrier at least.

‘You’re alive then.’ Nico spoke suddenly, ‘We lost.’

Katara yelped without thinking before flushing with embarrassment. Partly because a few people had turned around with dirty looks and partly because he was keenly aware of her humiliating failure. 

‘Yep.’ She managed with a scowl.

He seemed to run his eyes over her before disappearing into the crowd again. Good riddance, she thought to herself, Hades as a concept was bad enough but his literal spawn wandering around jumpscaring her was more than she could handle.

‘You’re wet.’ The person next to her grimaced.

It was Zuko, it turned out, so she supposed he just had that kind of look to him naturally. Maybe he was an Aries kid, they seemed to share the perpetual sour faces.

‘Yes.’ She replied curtly.

He didn’t expand but his gaze lingered on her.

‘I fell in a stream.’ She shrugged, a bad lie and equally as humiliating as her true story, she internally punched herself.

‘Right.’ He said with a raised eyebrow.

Camp was alive when they finally made it back. 

The red team were still cheering, rushing over to the large amphitheatre where she supposed their victory would be officiated. Their fragmented team, made up of half the random assorted lesser known Gods, was universally annoyed and seemed less than pleased to be filing in alongside the others. 

Katara caught her brother’s eye somewhere amongst the seats, his wide, infectious grin allowing her a tiny one to match even despite her mood. He gave a big thumbs up before raising an eyebrow, signalling to her lack of dryness. She shook her head at him and he shrugged, eventually turning back to gush with his new clan. It stung to see but the conflicting rush of pride for him seemed to keep her jealousy at bay for now.

Down below, Chiron appeared with a ginger girl and the two boys that had pushed Katara earlier. Beside them, Katara could make out Annabeth and, who she assumed to be, the other red team cabin leaders. 

Chiron began a speech about teamwork and all that crap Katara wasn’t in the mood to hear. Rather, she boredly studied the crowds and then her nails, which were still slightly encrusted with mud despite the stream. She picked away at them as the two boys were handed laurel leaf medallions, the entire red side of the building erupting into applause as her side grunted and booed. Chiron continued on, a mention of ‘double dessert for the winning team’ bringing in another wave of cheers and whoops from the other side. Katara’s eyes fell back to the front, studying the camp leaders. They all looked a bit banged up, Annabeth still looking gorgeous and Percy Jackon managing to appear both humble and powerful at once. Aang, beside him, appeared jubilant, any anxiety one would expect from a kid his age clearly lacking. She smiled, happy that he was at least not being swallowed whole by his new reality in the same way she was. 

Next to him was the ginger girl Katara didn’t recognise. Her hair was long and twirled about in the breeze like a willow’s leaves in the evening. She must be a camper, rather than a nymph or God, based on her age, but she was dressed normally, foregoing the orange that coated the entire colosseum. As far as Katara knew, outsiders were forbidden, so where did that leave this girl?

The girl, perhaps sensing Katara’s gaze, suddenly peered back at her, meeting her eyes with a surprising intensity, like she could see more than her unassuming appearance let on. Katara instantly looked away, feeling bad for staring, but the girl seemed fixated, continuing to stare for a solid minute after she’d averted her eyes. Katara forced herself to look away, moving her attention back to her grubby nails until the crowd around her seemed to rise, their whispers turning to murmurs.

‘What’s up with Rachel?’ Someone whispered to the person beside them.

‘Prophecy?’ was another word Katara managed to pick out.

Oh great, this was just what she needed. A prophecy, get real.

She looked down to see the girl convulsing, her eyes and mouth aglow with a bright lime snaking mist of light.

‘What the hell?’ Katara said to herself, looking up and quickly locking eyes with Sokka, who looked equally as concerned as her.

Chiron, Percy and Annabeth were quick to the girl’s side, her mouth opening and closing much like a fish. Was she saying something? The three of them looked amongst each other with frightened eyes before the girl (‘Rachel’ Katara presumed based on the chatter around her) collapsed to the floor. 

The crowd was now up and alight with buzzing questioning conversation.

Chiron shouted something which Katyara seemed to zone out and suddenly she was being pushed along by the tide of people, slowly moved out of the place and back to her cabin where she lay down without thinking.

‘Alright everyone, settle down, settle down.’ 

Dinner was, again, buzzing with news. Katara was seriously getting sick of all this excitement, wasn’t it possible for them to have a nice, depressingly boring stay at the magical demi-god camp?

‘Come on.’ Sokka’s leg jumped under the table like a caffeine addicted rabbit’s. He was antsy to hear more about this oracle business, picking out only the barest crumbs from his siblings’ discussions.

‘I know you are all anxious to hear the news, and yes, Rachel Elizabeth Dare has been shown another prophecy as Oracle as Delphi.’ Chiron said, sounding almost disappointed.

The campers, however, lit up with murmurs of theories and anxious grins of excitement. Katara understood it all to an extent, from what she gathered, quests came from prophecies and they were what you needed to get recognised. What didn’t add up was why these kids were so bothered about that? She was the one with no claim despite being fifteen, if anyone needed this quest it was her, as much as the concept sounded terrifying to her. All the prophecies she’d heard of thus far sounded awful and were tainted with betrayal and death. She could live with being unclaimed but dying in vain trying to achieve parental love seemed like a new low even for her.

Once he’d sufficiently silenced the crowd, who waited on baited breath, Chiron began a short speech about the Oracle, mentioning that Rachel was currently in recovery. Across the dining pavilion, Katara swore she could see fear in the eyes of Annabeth and Percy, who were anxiously whispering to one another. She supposed they’d probably had their fair share of prophecies in their time.

Finally, he got to the bit everyone was clearly waiting for. 

‘Keep in mind, these words are ambiguous and could refer to anyone . We cannot make judgments right away.’ He took in a deep breath, shuffling a paper between his two human hands.

‘ Children of ancients earn their keep

Destruction building to summer’s sleep

Uncover weapons false and true

And break the bonds which cling to you

Death and power join to one

Or leave reality come undone’

The crowd was silent before it erupted back into a craze of theories and gossip that even Chiron couldn’t hush. 

Katara was unable to think or speak, totally unsure of what any of this was supposed to mean. After a hard minute, she gave up. Whatever it was, she was pretty damn sure it had nothing to do with her.

‘ Children of ancients earn their keep’

Yeah right, just a slap in the face for her. Another fad that would wear her out before reminding her just how meaningless she was to this place.

Chapter Text

Katara sat in the Big House with an angry expression molded into her face. By now, she’s sure that she’s getting premature wrinkles with all the scowling she’s been doing.

‘Well it's definitely something to consider.’ Chiron taps a pen on a notebook mindlessly, ‘If Katara was the person you were fixated on before the prophecy came to you, it’s definitely possible that she’s connected to it in some way.’

‘Who is she again?’ A man Katara hadn’t been introduced to on her tour asks brashly, the others call him ‘Mr D’ though Aang assured her that he’s really some God stuck here on punishment.

‘I’m right here you know.’ Katara said loudly, sick of being talked about like she wasn’t there. Typical of a god, she supposed, to ignore her so obviously.

Mr D rolled his eyes and continued to ignore her presence.

‘Yeah so Kataras involved, no offence, but why are we here then?’ Sokka asked from across the room. Aang nodded along confidently, though Katara could tell he was lost (he’d been zoning off the entire meeting until now).

‘Well it's best to be safe, you two are Katara’s closest relations here so we can make the assumption that you very well may be linked to this prophecy too.’ Chiron said with a sigh, ‘And if I had to guess, “ Power” could very well refer to a son of Zeus.’

Sokka crossed his arms, his face a mess of confusion, annoyance and jealousy. What he had to be jealous of, she had no clue. If Katara could run away from this place and never look back, she would gladly take it. A prophecy messed all of that up and put her even more into the public eye than she’d been before. She would take never knowing her father if it meant she could go home to her real dad anyday.

‘Whatever. What I’m hearing is we know nothing and I’ve been dragged here for no reason.’ Mr D huffed, taking a sip from a large chalice of something fizzy.

‘You can leave anytime.’ Katara snapped without thinking. Arguing with gods probably wasn’t the wisest choice but she really wasn’t in the mood.

‘Chiron, where do you keep finding these sassy little devils.’ Mr D again refused to look in her direction, ‘Katrin, do yourself a favour and learn some manners.’

‘Its Katara.’ She bit back.

‘Okay!’ Chiron stood, ‘How about we take a break? As Mr D so kindly proposed, we don’t have much to go off right now. Let’s give it a few days.’ 

The three of them made their way out of the Big House in a huff, Katara stomping ahead with all the fervour of an extremely aggravated teenage girl who had just been repeatedly slighted by an old man.

‘What a douche!’ Sokka cried, ‘I thought Dionysus was supposed to be, you know, jolly.’ 

‘Annabeth didn’t warn you about that one?’ Katara asked with venom.

‘No…’ Sokka said quietly behind her. 

‘Guys, what are we gonna do about this whole prophecy thing?’ Aang ignored the tension, defusing it somewhat.

‘What is there to do?’ Sokka shrugged, still sounding a little bruised, ‘Seems like we’re at the Fates’ mercy now.’

‘Great.’ Katara growled.

Aang looked between them anxiously, seeming unsure what to do. Katara would’ve felt bad, about being so mean and about making Aang feel stuck, but she was lacking in the ‘cares to give’ department at that moment so she made the decision to ignore it.

‘Hey, Zuko!’ Aang called out, distracting the two siblings from their stupors to look up at the angsty teenager now stalking towards them. He didn’t look particularly happy nor unhappy, like he was stuck in a purgatory between relief and anger. Katara sympathised to some extent.

‘Hi.’ Zuko nodded awkwardly.

‘Uh, what’s up with you?’ Aang asked, disregarding Sokka and Katara’s annoyed eyes staring daggers into his back.

‘Not much. What were you guys doing in there?’ He asked.

Nobody responded and Zuko quickly gave up any attempt at getting an answer after seeing Katara’s face.

‘Cool.’ He mumbled.

‘Yeah, not cool.’ Sokka replied quietly, looking away from the rest of them in annoyance. 

What exactly he was annoyed about was beyond Katara. He wasn’t the one with no father currently being blamed for a prophecy, so what had him so annoyed? Was it having a perfect group of genius siblings and a brilliant mother who’s literally the goddess of wisdom that was bothering him so? Or maybe it was having a passion which he’d loved since he was a child giving his life an innate purpose, surely that was super annoying.

‘What exactly isn’t cool?’ She asked aggressively, ‘Sokka?’

Aang cringed and gave Zuko a look (which Zuko seemed perplexed by). Katara heard Sokka roll his eyes, being siblings meant she knew that kind of thing even with his back to her. 

‘What about this is cool? We’re being sucked into some stupid prophecy, we haven’t seen dad in like a week and you still haven’t been claimed.’ He shrugged, his voice hard.

‘Sorry, let me correct myself. What about this isn’t cool for you ? Seems like your life is pretty great! You know, since I’m the one unclaimed, I’m the one with no dad, and I’m the one sucked into this prophecy. You have a great cabin and a bunch of great siblings and a great little life.’ She got close up in his face, ignoring his pained face.

‘Katara…’ He whispered angrily.

‘What? You’re gonna say that being an Athena kid is sooo much worse than being unclaimed? That dad will always be my dad? I know! Just accept that you’ve got things better than me and all you want to do is run off and be a genius with all those little genius freaks! This isn’t “cool” because it's a reminder that you’ll always be stuck with some loser who’s not even your real sister!’

‘That’s not it!’ He yelled back.

‘Yes, it is. Don’t kid yourself, Sokka, you’re embarrassed by me!’ She cried.

‘Of course not! I’m mad because this is all so unfair to you and to me! You think I wanted our family to be ripped apart? I would take you and dad in some stuffy apartment in Manhattan over a cabin of geniuses any day of the week! Don’t make this about your weird inferiority thing.’ He sneered.

‘ My weird inferiority thing? ’ She shouted, ‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

‘Come on, Katara, you’ve been jealous of me having a “thing” since middle school! I heard you talking to Gran Gran about it like a million times so don’t pretend it's not true. All this stupid parent stuff has only made it ten times worse because I got picked first and you didn’t.’ Sokka spat back.

‘Guys, come on.’ Aang tried, but they quickly shoved him out of the conversation.

‘You seriously think I’m jealous of you?’ Katara cried, pushing down the knowledge that everything he’d just said was true, ‘What even is there to be jealous of? A nerd who never had any friends because he didn’t know when to shut his mouth?’

‘Is a girl who lunges at anyone who looks at her wrong any better?’ 

‘We both know that’s not true!’ She spat, ‘That’s just what-’

She was cut off by the arrival of a person she hadn’t even heard arrive. Katara half expected Nico Di Angelo, based on their silent entrance, but instead she was met with blonde curls. 

‘Sorry to interrupt.’ Annabeth raised an eyebrow, ‘But could I talk to you.’ 

She was looking at Katara but surely she was here for Sokka? Katara swallowed down another hiss of poisonous anger before nodding and prowled off after her.

Annabeth wandered over to a small pagoda that Katara hadn’t ever noticed before. She tried to slap the anger from her system, but it seemed to mark her like a tattoo, refusing to budge. Whatever, it was Annabeth’s stupid fault for talking to her again. Surely she should know by now that Katara was ‘difficult’. 

‘That sounded kind of heated, sorry, I didn’t mean to evesdrop.’ She smiled sheepishly, taking a seat on the bench in the middle of the small hut, ‘Rachel told me about the whole prophecy thing so I thought I should check in on you. At this point it feels like you’re a part of Cabin 6, I’ve spoken to you so much.’ 

She couldn’t have known how much that comment would irk Katara, but it certainly did. She pushed the venom back down and kept her mouth clamped shut to avoid a nasty quip snaking out. Annabeth had been nothing but nice to her, she didn’t deserve to be yelled at (though neither did Sokka really…).

‘Okay, well I’ll just tell you that I know how much it sucks to be in a prophecy you never wanted. And- Oh, speaking of.’ Her kind smile melted into a wide grin as the dark haired warrior who’d slain the monster just a few days before approached, ‘Hey seaweed brain.’

The boy smiled back before his eyes turned to Katara. He beamed at her though she hardly trusted herself to smile back without it morphing into something horrible. She allowed herself a meagre smirk. 

‘You’re Katara, right?’ He asked. He had a surfer look to him: tanned skin, bright eyes and an athletic build. It wouldn’t be hard to guess he was a son of Poseidon.

‘Yeah.’ She choked out.

‘Cool name. This prophecy stuff sucks, I thought we would get at least a year without another one.’ He shrugged, gazing off to the lake down the other side of camp, ‘At least you have a brother, right?’

Annabeth violently shook her head, trying and failing to be subtle. If anything it gave Katara a reason to smile.

‘Oh, uh, or you know, you have…Annabeth! She’s a great…pal.’ He recovered, nervously touching his neck.

‘Yeah, lucky me.’ Katara mumbled sarcastically.

‘Yeah…well I have a campfire sing along to attend so…I’ll see you around Katara!’ 

Percy Jackson ran off like a child who’d just broken his mother’s favourite vase. It was a sight, to be sure.

‘Sorry about him.’ Annabeth winced, ‘I thought he might be helpful, he’s the resident expert on bad prophecies, but I guess seaweed brain is a pretty accurate nickname.’ 

Katara chuckled slightly, scratching at her nose.

‘You guys are dating?’ She asked.

‘Yeah.’ Annabeth smiled like a schoolgirl, ‘Trust me, he’s not always so…insensitive.’

‘I can’t blame him. My family is pretty messed up right now, I don’t think even we know quite what’s going on.’

Annabeth played with the beads of her necklace before releasing a long breath, ‘I know the feeling. I think just about everyone here has some family thing they’d prefer to sweep under the rug. It's pretty sucky that yours is so public. Sorry about that.’ 

Katara shrugged sadly, unsure of what to say.

‘Changing the subject, any hints of who your parent could be? I know it seems silly but sometimes little hints do show themselves, like, your brother is pretty smart and your friend was always pretty light on his feet before…catching you three mid air?’ She seemed to be in disbelief about the last part. Maybe it was a little silly that that hadn’t been a bit of a giveaway for Aang.

‘Not really.’ Katara picked at her still muddy fingernails.

‘Nothing during capture the flag? I guess it was probably pretty uneventful from your end, sorry about that too.’ Annabeth couldn’t help but smirk.

‘I pretty much just fell in a bush and sat in a stream.’ Katara sighed, ‘Nobody told me the water here was magical too.’ 

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, urging Katara to go on.

‘Um, well when I sat in the stream all the cuts and bramble pricks were gone.’ She displayed her shiny, uncut arms, ‘I just assumed it was magical.’ 

‘Oh?’ Annabeth seemed to find this revelation concerning sending a wave of anxiety through Katara.

‘Oh God, what did I do?’ She asked.

‘Nothing! Nothing…it's just…’ Annabeth looked perplexed.

‘Just what?’

‘My boyfriend does something similar in water. You weren’t able to like, control the water or anything?’ She asked, Katara watching the cogs spin in Annabeth’s brain as she spoke.

‘Um, no? I was underwater for a while but I’ve always liked swimming so…’ Katara added, only now questioning properly if her fleeting thought that she’d been breathing underwater was accurate.

‘Oh…’ Annabeth said again, her tone surprised yet concerned.

‘Oh God, what are you thinking?’ Katara begged. She may not love Annabeth but she would have to be dumb to not take the leader of the wisdom cabin seriously.

‘It's just a thought, but what you’re describing sounds awfully similar to Percy…’ She seemed to cringe as she said it, ‘And if I’m honest, you kind of remind me of him.’ 

‘What?’ Katara cried, ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It's just a thought, okay? If you haven’t been claimed, there’s no way to be sure of anything.’ Annabeth stood up, avoiding eye contact, ‘Maybe you should head back to the sing along, just forget I said anything.’

‘What? How can I just forget that you just said I’m probably Poseidon’s daughter?’ Katara yelled.

Annabeth, though, was checked out so, without another word, Katara stomped back to the Hermes cabin and slammed the door closed.

She sighed heavily against the inner side of the heavy door, glad that, for once, she could be truly alone. As much as she was partial to all the fun of a sing along, she was afraid that the events leading her to Camp Half Blood made it so they were somewhat less than enjoyable. Tonight especially.

Laboriously, she lagged herself forward, ignoring the heavy weight of a new ocean pressing down on her weary chest. What would she give to be back in her real bed back home? As she turned the corner into her row of bunks, Katara jumped.

‘Sorry.’ A shadowy Zuko sat motionless on his bed staring up at the slats above, ‘I thought everyone else would be out for a while.’

Katara raised a hand to her heart, almost joyous to find it still beating. For whatever reason this sudden adrenaline rush had, for a second, knocked her out of her stupor and back into the real world; the healthy dose of reality she needed.

‘No, I’m sorry, I thought this place would be empty too. I’ll go.’ She nodded after calming down slightly, the seething rage coursing through her boiling blood slowly seeping back into her circulation.

‘It’s fine, you seem a little more- uh, in need of some alone time.’ Zuko said quietly. 

Katara was sure he’d been crying, or at the very least meditating. It was strange for her to see, to say the least, she’d never known Sokka to be unoccupied for more than ten minutes let alone to meditate.

‘Thanks.’ She shrugged, biting back the tears she desperately didn’t want him to see. That was just what she needed, to look like a weak loser in front of the new guy. She thanked the Gods that Zuko was weird and liked to sit in the dark, with any of the lights turned on she would probably look like a babbling baby.

‘Are you…okay?’ Zuko asked after a moment of hesitation. 

Katara looked away, blinking away tears, ‘I’ve been better.’

‘Oh.’ Was all he could manage.

‘Have you, um, spoken to your uncle?’ She asked randomly, the thought drifting into her foggy mind, ‘You said he wasn’t allowed in but knew about this place?’

Zuko looked shocked that she’d remembered, though the true breadth of his expression was shrouded in the shadows of the room. She presumed they were both grateful for the anonymity.

‘No, I haven’t.’ He looked away too, off at some distant thing neither of them seemed to be able to place, ‘I guess cell phones aren’t a big thing here.’

‘Something like that.’ Katara plonked down onto her bed in a heavy knot, her muscles aching with pure frustration.

‘How did your meeting thing go?’ He asked, practically whispering, like the topic was clandestine or taboo for him to bring up. 

‘Hm.’ She shrugged, ‘They basically said we have no clue what it means and just need to stick it out.’ 

‘Oh.’ He looked disappointed, ‘Right. Bummer.’ 

‘Could be worse. I’d rather not be a part of some grand prophecy right now if I can help it.’ She fiddled with her hair, shy to the thoughts that this conversation was dredging up. 

‘Yeah.’ He sat down on his bed opposite her, ‘Your brother and you seemed kind of…’

Katara sniffled down another wave of tears, twirling her hair aggressively.

‘I got mad at him because I had no one else to be mad at. It was dub, I really oughta apologise to him.’ She sniffled, wiping her eyes, ‘Sorry you had to be dragged into that.’

He stiffened, ‘No, it's fine, I get it. Me and my sister…we aren’t as close as you two seem but we fight. I guess it just happens sometimes. Siblings…’ 

‘I didn’t know you had a sister.’ Katara said softly, the iron in her arms melting slowly.

‘Yeah, she kind of hates me so I guess I don’t bring her up much.’ He looked off to that unknown place again.

‘She didn’t get brought here too, though? Does your uncle…?’ 

‘No.’ He said firmly, ‘And doesn’t matter anyway. Azula has always been the perfect golden child, whoever her godly parent is…they’ll probably claim her before they claim me.’

‘Do you have any theories?’ Katara asked, choosing to change the subject rather than dwell. She knew more than anyone that sitting in pitiful silence was the worst feeling in the world.

‘For who they are?.’ He sighed, ‘Everyone here seemed to at least know which parent it was-’

‘You don’t either?’ She asked quickly.

‘Nope. My mom…she- uh, she died when I was young but I remember her. My father is alive and he’s my uncle’s brother. It’s kind of weird trying to decide which one I’d rather lose.’ 

‘I understand that…our mom passed away too.’ It felt good to admit, no longer a shame or an invitation for pity, rather a long cold dip in a refreshing pool on a sweaty day.

‘I’m sorry. Being here just makes it all one hundred times worse.’ He frowned.

‘Exactly.’ 

‘What did that girl want to talk to you about?’ He asked after a moment of silence.

‘Annabeth?’ Katara felt that hiss of annoyance spring back up her throat, ‘I think she feels bad that her cabin stole my brother so she’s trying to make it up by “checking up on me”.’

‘Is she…?’ He was insinuating something about Annabeth that even Katara couldn’t bring herself to believe. As much as she wanted to hate her for being so pitiful, she was well intentioned. 

‘No, she’s well meaning. It just kind of sucks to be an after thought.’ 

‘I know the feeling.’ Zuko murmured.

‘I accidentally told her about some stuff that happened at capture the flag…she’s basically convinced my dad is Poseidon.’ The verbal confession was like another tiny weight taken from the stack atop her head. At the very least it felt nice not being the sole owner of such a secret.

‘Oh…wow.’ Zuko looked shocked, though Katara couldn’t make up in what way.

‘I don’t know which is worse, being unclaimed or knowing exactly who he is and knowing he couldn’t give two shits about me.’ She spoke quietly, with both a touch of anger and grief. Why she was telling this random boy all this, she had no clue. They were friends at a push, but really more like acquaintances by proximity. Was she really that lonely she would confide in the local goth?

‘Could be worse. He’s powerful at least, right?’ He shrugged.

‘Yeah, but honestly I couldn’t care less about all of that status stuff.’ Her fidgeting grew more and more restless, her skin peeling as she scrammed ruthlessly at her nailbeds.

‘I never said you did, but having a powerful deadbeat dad is surely better than having a loser one.’ He scowled, ‘And having one at all is better than having none.’

‘Is it? Giving up my real dad for some guy who can’t even be bothered to claim me?’ She snarled. 

‘At least you have a “real dad” who actually likes you and a brother who loves you. No offence but you have it better than you think.’ 

‘In what world do I have it good right now? Just because your life sucks too doesn’t mean mine can’t!’ She stood up, the emotion in her body making her rigid.

‘Whatever. You have no idea what you’re even talking about.’ Zuko stood up in quick succession and made his way to the door.

Though perhaps Katara should’ve taken a moment for “self reflection”, as one of her school mandated councillors had once told her, she had never been much of a fan. Rather, she was quick on his heels and dripping with rage.

‘Excuse me?’ She cried, slamming the door behind her as she followed him out into the dusky fields.

‘You have a great life outside of this one thing. It sucks, sure, but everyone else is living it too. You have a brother here with you who would give you the clothes off his back if you asked, you have a father who risked everything to get you here! You have no idea how lucky you are!’ He yelled back, not even bothering to turn around all the way.

‘No, clearly you don’t understand! I mean, obviously you’re some rich kid who’s never known anything other than luxury! Designer jeans, two hundred dollar shoes and handkerchiefs with your name embossed on them, come on! I bet you didn’t have to give up your only parent so he could go work in another country, and I bet you never had to give up having any hobbies in order to help your elderly grandmother around the house!’ She shouted, pointing fingers at him aggressively. 

They walked, shouting back and forth with insults of varying degrees and a constant one 

upping of hardships. Where they were going was unclear, but they were walking with aggravated efficiency somewhere.

‘Fine. Whatever, call me whatever names you want, at least I know who to be angry at.’ Katara huffed, panting.

‘And yet we’re both still unclaimed.’ Zuko hissed loudly.

Katara was basically growling by this point, her body shaking with the cumulative rage of the past few days. She drew in her breath calculating some variety of horrible words to throw at him, though she then noticed how the light seemed to crackle on his face. Clearly that weren’t in the cabin anymore, though the scenery around them had seemed to blur as they’d wandered in their little angry marching band of arguing.

‘Oh great.’ She turned to see the entire sing along campfire group stunned into silence, their eyes glued to the two of them, ‘Thanks a lot, Zuko.’

‘How is this my fault?’ He whispered at her aggressively.

Before she could manage a witty response, the lilac sky seemed to illuminate, two symbols appearing above them for the entire camp to see. The pair of them stood there in terrified awe. Though Aang’s had looked immense from afar, Katara now saw the horror in being branded.

A blue trident and a grey helm appear in the sky. Though Katara can guess hers with ease, the other seems a mystery. Zuko is keenly aware of what this shadowy helm represents and based on his expression, his worst fears have just come true.

Chapter Text

The Big House was twice as stuffy the next day, the tense air radiating between Katara and almost every other person in the room was notable, to say the least. She sat with crossed arms and blearing eyes, her hair bushed but untidy and her orange shirt still slightly maimed by the capture the flag incident. Somehow, though, she still looked better than Zuko.

‘Well.’ Chiron started off, slapping the table with a face peppered with surprise, weariness and disbelief, ‘It seems much has changed since our last meeting.’

‘You mean the one we had yesterday where we decided we knew nothing?’ Sokka asked, his temper clearly still short following the previous day's argument. They still hadn’t talked, Katara being pretty unwilling to cooperate with anyone after seeing that damned trident. 

‘That’s the one.’ Mr D said with a cheery-miserable smile, his drink of choice was as flat as his attitude.

‘So, what’s changed then? They got claimed, so what?’ Sokka replied.

‘Katara was the last person I felt pulled towards before I was given the prophecy, then she goes and gets claimed two days later. Seems pretty notable to me.’ Rachel Elizabeth Dare shrugged. Katara could tell she was hoping to wrap this whole ‘prophecy’ business up and get back to the Roman camp she’d supposedly been staying at for however long now.

Sokka mumbled something but ultimately conceded to her logic. 

‘So what does that mean for us? We’re all some part of this prophecy?’ Aang asked, more zoned in on the conversation this time around.

‘We can assume. You four were all claimed recently by major gods, three of you only recently arrived. It makes sense that a recently apparent prophecy would contain recently appeared demigods.’ Chiron said, though he seemed less than convinced himself, ‘With recent revelations “ death and power join to one ” seems to link the two of you, Aang and Zuko that is, somehow.’

‘Great. What about the rest of it?’ Sokka offered sarcastically, ‘“ Uncover weapons false and true And break the bonds which cling to you” ? That could mean literally anything!’

‘Prophecies are often vague.’ Rachel shrugged again. Katara found herself questioning why the girl even bothered showing up when she clearly knew nothing more than what the prophecy read.

‘Indeed. Usually they don’t make a whole lot of sense until after the event.’ Chiron added.

‘Well that's great. You know what they say about hindsight!’ Sokka huffed. 

‘What about “ Destruction building to summer’s sleep” ?’ Katara piped up, stuffing her anger and all the other emotional beasts inside her down into the smallest box she could find, ‘What is that, like until the end of summer?’ 

‘That’s a good point.’ Chiron nodded, ‘It very well could mean that this prophecy is on a time crunch.’ 

Sokka threw his hands up in disbelief and Aang visibly cringed.

‘But that’s only, like, a month?’ He cried, ‘We don’t even know what we have to do to stop reality coming undone but we somehow have to do it in a month?’ 

Chiron looked worried but remained silent. Apparently nobody had anything pleasant to rebuttal with, the room falling into an awkward quiet.

‘Perfect! Seems like we’re about done here then.’ Mr D said, looking down at an imaginary watch, ‘See y’all tomorrow when another surprise big three kid shows up out of nowhere!’ 

Katara rolled her eyes, but for once she saw his point. 

‘I don’t think there’s much point sitting around.’ She said with a sigh.

‘Well things have been known to reveal themselves to powerful demigods especially. Dreams, messages from parents, that kind of thing.’ Chiron tiredly offered, ‘Keep an eye out, is all I mean.’

‘Great, thanks. We’ll look out for any rouge dreams of reality coming undone.’ Sokka sassed before walking out, the others quickly behind him.

Katara, without a word, began off in the opposite direction to the others. Where was she going? She had no idea, but she knew she really wasn’t in the mood to be harassed about some dumb fight or pitied by nice blonde girls. 

‘Katara, wait!’ Aang’s voice chimed out from behind her. As much as she didn’t want to, she stopped and turned around. 

‘What?’ She asked quietly, her voice harsh yet calm.

‘You guys can’t keep fighting like this, we need to have a- hey wait!’ The other three had already begun off again before he could finish his sentence.

The kid seemed to blow steam out of his ears in stress before the three of them found themselves on the floor at his feet, piled into a heap. 

‘What the hell?’ Zuko huffed, clambering up from the dusty path, ‘What was that?’

‘Sorry! I might have accidentally winded you down.’ Aang scratched the back of his neck nervously, ‘Whoops.’

‘As much as I want to be impressed, that seriously hurt.’ Katara winced as she clicked her back into place again.

Sokka, once back on his feet, looked around grumpily, ‘No offence, Aang, but I’m not in the mood to talk.’ 

Poor Aang sighed deeply, hanging his head.

‘But you need to!’ He cried, ‘You two are siblings! You can’t just not talk forever over one stupid fight! Plus if we’re gonna go questing together, we all need to get along.’ He side eyes Zuko and Katara.

Katara huffed, crossing her arms, but deep down she knew he was right. As much as she was damn near irate about the current state of her life, she knew deep down that it wasn’t Sokka’s fault or Zuko’s fault. As much as she disliked his awkward Hades kid vibe and the way he seemed to think her life was all sunshine and rainbows because she liked her brother, she didn’t hate him enough to hold a grudge. Sokka even more so, she’d been wanting to talk to him since the moment they’d stopped. She’d missed him horribly the past week and even more over the past 24 hours. In what messed up world was she finding out she was the daughter of Poseidon and not immediately telling her brother? It was unnatural and she hated it, just another entry for her “ things I hate the Gods for”  list.

‘Fine.’ She murmured, ‘Let’s talk.’

Aang dragged them to a secluded enough area near the strawberry fields. Private enough to talk openly but public enough to have witnesses (as he put it).

‘Okay, Katara, what do you have to say about your fight with Sokka yesterday?’ Aang asked like he was one of her many school councillors, ‘How did it make you feel?’

‘It made me feel mad that my brother…’ She wasn’t exactly sure what to apologise for, she’d said an awful lot of nasty things, ‘It made me feel bad that Sokka got picked before me and that our family got broken up. I’m sorry I yelled at you, Sokka, I was taking out my anger on you when I shouldn’t have.’ 

Sokka kept up his annoyed act, but she could see something melt in his eyes, which were looking more grey-blue than blue-grey these days.

‘Sokka?’ Aang prompted.

He shook his head, ‘I’m sorry that I said all that stuff about you being inferior or whatever. It wasn’t true, I just wanted to make you hurt like you were hurting me by being so distant. I don’t want us to fight, I’m sorry.’ 

‘Me too.’ Katara said, though the bruise was still there.

‘Great! Okay, now Zuko. Do you have anything to say to Katara?’ Aang smiled.

Zuko rolled his eyes in disbelief, muttering something like ‘I can’t believe this’, under his breath.

‘I’m sorry for yelling at you.’ He said.

‘Erm, okay.’ Aang raised an eyebrow, ‘Katara?’

‘I’m sorry I yelled at you.’ She responded. 

‘Guys.’ Aang frowned, ‘Come on.’

Katara sighed, ‘Fine! I’m sorry that I yelled at you, as I now see that I was displacing my anger at the situation of finding out my real father is some asshole deadbeat onto you. I’m sorry that I thought you were weird because you’re a Hades kid. I’m sorry-’

‘You didn’t even know I was a Hades kid then!’ Zuko yelled back.

‘Yeah well I was thinking it then, so I thought I should apologise for it now!’ She shrugged, ‘No offence but you have a kind of… Nico Di Aneglo vibe to you.’ 

‘Well yeah he’s technically my brother I guess!’ 

‘Zuko?’ Aang prompted him again, ignoring their blossoming new argument.

‘Whatever! I’m sorry I thought you had a good relationship with your brother, which you do, and I’m sorry that I thought you were mentally unstable.’ He eyed her down, ‘Is that acceptable?’

‘Uh…sure?’ Aang shrugged, backing down with exhaustion.

‘Good. I have a cabin to move into if this is done.’ Katara yelled, ‘Feel free to help.’ 

Cabin 3 was more or less empty besides a few boxes of stuff and the odd sock. Considering she thought that Percy Jackson was living there, the place seemed pretty unlived in. Other than that, though, it was beautiful, with a large fountain and bronze details on the ceiling. The view was simply to die for, looking over perfectly at the lake, and the walls seemed to almost glow. 

‘Are you sure this guy is real? Not just a trick of the light or something?’ Sokka asked, inspecting the oddly clean room.

‘He’s your sister’s boyfriend, ask her.’ Katara sulked, the sting of their argument still apparent even after their “apologies”.

‘Whatever. Which bed are you gonna take?’ He rolled his eyes.

The room was made up of six bunk beds, the furthest one to the left claimed by Percy and the middle one looking slightly more used than the others. Maybe a travelling friend or something? By default, that seemed to allot her the furthest left one. Katara dumped her small bag onto the bottom bunk and sat down, feeling the wave of beautiful silence overtake her senses. What a life, free from the torment of bunking with a bunch of teenagers very fond of pranks!

‘No offence, but I wouldn’t call this moving in. We really need to go see dad and get some of our actual stuff back.’ Sokka commented, evaluating the room’s delicately detailed ceiling.

‘Yeah, I know.’ Katara sighed and flopped down onto the bed, ‘Honestly I just said I was gonna move in to get out of that weird thing Aang had us doing.’

‘He means the best.’ Sokka frowned, ‘I don’t think he really gets the whole “sibling” thing though.’

‘Definitely not. And, as much as I know its wrong, I’m really not in the mood to apologise to Zuko right now.’ 

‘What were you two even arguing about? I didn’t know you even really spoke.’ Sokka sounded surprised. 

‘You guys didn’t hear it?’ She replied sheepishly, still embarrassed to show her face at meal times.

‘Meh, only the end.’ 

‘Honestly it was kind of just throwing insults to see what stuck. I got mad at him because I was already mad and he was there. He mentioned he had a sister, I guess they don’t get along so he kind of said he was jealous of us being close. I don’t know, I was still heated after our fight so it kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I flew off the handle.’ She covered her face, ashamed. As much as she didn’t want to apologise, she knew she wasn’t exactly in the right either.

‘And what about that HAdes kid stuff? You have an issue with Nico or something?’ 

‘No.’ Katara felt the shame smothering her now, ‘I just…kind of have this weird one-sided disliking for Hades and I guess his kids get lumped into it.’

‘How come?’ Sokka seemed puzzled, ‘Apparently he’s actually a pretty nice guy, as far as parents go around here.’

‘Would it be dumb if I said I blamed him for mom?’ She practically whispered.

‘Oh.’ Sokka took a seat beside her. 

The energy between them was still cold, chicken not quite defrosted nor cooked. She hated it but the little voice in her head seemed adamant that she needed to stay angry.

‘Maybe it's stupid, but I had this thought that maybe it wasn’t a bear, maybe it was-’

‘A monster?’ Sokka finished her sentence, ‘Yeah, I kind of had the same thought. I just…’

‘That kind of makes it way more my fault.’ Katara took the liberty of filling in what he wanted to say. His face was clearly enveloped by guilt, as much as he tried to hide it.

‘No! Of course not, I just meant…’ He struggled for words that never came.

‘No, I get it. It just makes it all worse. I always kind of blamed myself for it, you know, since she was saving me? But at least a bear attack would’ve just been plain bad luck. A monster attack…’ She looked down at the wooden floor and swore she could hear the sea curling beneath it. 

‘No, none of that’s true.’ Sokka looked down too, probably too scared to grasp at her gaze, ‘Even if it was a monster, it's not your fault you were born half God.’

‘Another reason to hate my dad, I guess.’ She supposed it was blasphemous to say that in his cabin, but she was honestly past caring. She didn’t even know what the guy looked like, for Christ’s sake! What right did he have to be mad? 

‘Yeah.’ Her brother awkwardly chuckled.

They fell into silence, which was weird for them. Katara couldn’t help but bite down a fresh set of tears, annoyed at herself for being such a crybaby. 

Sokka cleared his throat, ‘I’m gonna go make sure Aang and Zuko didn’t get sucked into a shadow black hole or something. Wanna come?’ 

The idea of exploring the Hades cabin with Zuko sounded just about as pleasant as bathing naked in front of the entire camp, so she politely declined before collapsing back against her bed, allowing herself to cry after smacking her head on the headboard. Just her luck.

The sheets beneath her (camp provided blueish-grey ones) felt cold and damp. Where the lake had once been a comfort for her, a refuge from her solitude and anger, now she could hardly look at it without feeling that uncomfortable rise of heat in her chest and tears plucking at her lashes. What should’ve been a nice view and fresh air, now smelt like stagnant water and felt freezing. No mother or father in reach, her brother further away than ever despite being hardly a few doors down; had Katara ever felt so alone in her life? She’d always suspected that her mother’s untimely death would be the worst time in her entire life, and maybe that was still true, but this had to be a close second. When her mom had died, at least it was something tangible. She was there and then she wasn’t, nothing to be done about it. She still had her dad, her Gran Gran, Sokka.

Now she had nothing to grasp onto. No grave to visit or brother to mourn with. Her dad and Gran Gran, if they were even that anymore, were far out of reach. What could she even reach out to smack? A cabin in the woods? A boy just as unfortunate as her who just so happened to be forced into this world by Hades? 

Everything seriously sucked. 

After about twenty minutes of self-loathing and fifteen of bawling her eyes out, Katara heard a knock at the door. She yelled for whoever it was to enter, quickly wiping her drying eyes and smoothing out her hair. She supposed she could handle being emotionally wrecked inside, but looking a mess was where she drew the line. 

‘Hey.’ Percy Jackson awkwardly shuffled through the door, closing it quietly behind him, ‘Feels weird to knock on your own door.’

Katara smiled slightly, unsure what to make of that.

He approached somewhat, stopping around the end of her bunk bed, like she were a timid kitten he was afraid would make a run for it if he got too close.

‘So, I guess we’re like siblings now. Pretty cool.’ He smiled genuinely. He struck Katara as a person who was truly himself, which she admired, though who exactly that was she wasn’t sure. Did she really want some insanely powerful war machine as a brother? She supposed she already had the nerd, maybe a jock wouldn’t be so bad.

‘Yeah.’ She nodded, ‘Sorry, I- uh, I assumed that was your bunk over there?’ 

Percy’s head swivelled across the room and back again. 

‘Oh right, yeah. Sorry, I’m kind of moving out right now so it's a bit weird.’ He tilted his head, ‘Plus my- or our, I guess, half-brother used to sleep there but he’s gone now so the middle is free if you wanted it.’

That was a lot to take in.

‘Sorry?’ Katara raised an eyebrow, ‘Half-brother?’

‘Oh, right, yeah I guess you weren’t here for all of that. Basically we have a brother called Tyson, he’s a cyclops not a demi-god, though, and uh- he has this apprenticeship thing going on at the forges so- uh, yeah he’s probably not coming back to stay anytime soon. Even if he did he’d probably stay with Ella anyway.’ He looked at her proudly before realising she looked confused still, ‘Oh, that’s his girlfriend. She’s a harpy.’ 

‘Right.’ Katara eyed him suspiciously.

‘Yeah, sorry, it's probably a lot to take in. You’ll have the place to yourself though so that’s…cool.’ He leaned up against the next bunk along.

‘Where are you moving?’ She asked, though it almost felt wrong. Though they were supposedly siblings, she’d hardly exchanged ten words with the guy. Sokka, at least, was already basically an Athena kid before he even knew he was one, Percy Jackson had basically shown up out of nowhere and was now mysteriously leaving again. 

‘Me and Annabeth are moving up to New Rome, the Roman camp. They have a college there so, since it's safe, we thought it would be a good next step.’ He seemed to realise who he was talking to before clearing his throat, ‘We’ll be back though, camp duties and all that.’

‘Cool.’ Katara said.

Percy looked around, perhaps hoping something would be holding up a sign of what you’re supposed to say if you find out you have a half-sister after fighting two wars. 

‘I wish I had some advice.’ He finally admitted, slinking down onto the bed opposite hers, ‘I should’ve asked Nico what he said to Hazel when they first met.’ 

Katara only had to raise an eyebrow again to make him panic.

‘Right, right! Nico is the son of Hades, he isn’t my biggest fan but you know, we get along I guess, I saved him a couple of times, whatever, long story. Anyway, he was the first of us to realise this Roman camp even existed, this was only like a year ago or something, and he met his kind of half-sister Hazel, daughter of Pluto.’ He sighed, ‘Gods this place is such a wreck.’

‘You don’t have to tell me twice.’ She smiled slightly, ‘I guess you’re going to tell me now that it doesn’t get better? That this whole “dad” thing is only going to go downhill from here?’

Percy seemed to cringe, though a smile peaked through. He looked like he was thinking over what she said before tilting his head to the side like a New York pigeon.

‘Eh, more or less. It sucks but dad isn’t exactly the greatest of father figures, I’ll be honest.’ He said it like it was a common fact, an unfortunate truth that nothing could be done about, ‘I mean, I’ve saved the world for him like a bunch of times by now and he still never calls me. Fountain right here and yet no Iris messages. At least Nico’s dad has a room for him in his palace, even if it's in the underworld. My dad- sorry, our dad, never even brought me to his palace! What a douche! I mean, Hades did imprison me that one time in said palace, but still, it's the thought that counts.’

‘Perfect.’ Was all Katara could manage, face slumping down into her palms.

‘I guess you and your brother are going on a quest soon?’ Percy seemed at least more relaxed now, even if “relaxed” was far from their dynamic, ‘Good luck.’

‘God, I don’t want to think about it.’ She sighed, ‘Weren’t you like twelve when you first went on one?’

‘Something like that.’ He shrugged, ‘Kind of lose count after a while.’ 

‘Not a great omen.’ 

‘Nah, but if you succeed dad might just talk to you for ten seconds, lucky you.’ He patted her on the shoulder and stood up, ‘Well, I’ve got sword lessons to lead in five minutes- nope, five minutes ago was when it started…oops. Okay, well I really have to go, but I’ll see you around half-sister Katara! Hope the prophecy stuff works out better for you than it did me.’ 

That was not a great way to end her first proper conversation with her new brother, but she supposed it would have to suffice. Now she could go back to wallowing.

Around eight, feeling too bored to wallow and too much like wallowing to do anything of use, Katara wandered down to the lake. Slightly hungry from missing dinner (citing that she was too tired when in reality she just couldn’t stomach it), she ignored her body and fueled all her discomfort into anger instead.  She hated looking at the massive grey puddle now, seeing the eyes of some unknown man spying her down like an alligator disguised as a log staring out at her from its murky depths.

Still, she had nowhere else to go where she could be sure she wouldn’t be in view of the entire camp and where she knew her friends wouldn’t frequent. Selfishly, she still wasn’t in the mood to talk to them so ignoring their existence seemed like the best course of action to avoid hurting her relationships more.

Casually she sighed and kicked a stone, watching as it skimmed across the lake and sank down out of her view. Percy had reappeared around six, allowing for another awkward little chat with her new brother. Though awkward, he had made mention of the “gifts” of being a cabin 3 kid, most notably the superpowers. 

Channelling all the watery vibes she could, Katara stuck out a hand like she’d once seen a hero do on TV, grasping at nothingness in the hopes of grasping onto something. She squinted open an eye only to find the water still as could be, hardly even a ripple. So much for that then, now she felt stupid and ten times more annoyed.

Percy had described it as ‘water superpowers’ and relayed some anecdotes which made him sound more God than demi. Perhaps the gene had decided to skip over her?

Aang seemed to have some control over his wind ability he’d inherited, using it even before he’d been claimed, so why was it so difficult for her? After twenty minutes of futile attempts, she gave up and stomped back to the cabin, tucking herself in for an early night of angry tossing and turning. 

‘Hey.’ Katara smiled slightly as she sat down at breakfast.

As much as she was dreading it, she knew logically that she had to speak to them at some point. She was missing Sokka terribly and she’d even found herself missing Aang’s corny jokes. Plus there was always the issue of food, even she couldn’t starve herself forever.

‘Oh, hey.’ Sokka nodded, the air between them still a touch icy.

‘Don’t stop talking just because I’m here.’ She shooed, Sokka and Aang awkwardly looking at one another uncertainly. At least Zuko seemed unaffectedly grumpy.

‘Uh- yeah. We were just talking about this dream Aang had last night.’ Sokka said, taking a modest bite of his scrambled eggs.

‘Oh wow, like a dream dream?’ Katara asked.

‘I guess.’ Aang shrugged, ‘I was walking around in this weird forest place and someone started talking to me, some guy. He told me that my secret weapon is waiting for me in a golden cage.’ 

‘Wow, helpful.’ Katara sighed.

‘Yup. What about that other thing?’ Sokka nudged him.

‘Oh, right. The guy also showed me this weird image on a cloud. It was like a red bridge with a city behind it.’ Aang added.

‘Any idea what that could be?’ Katara asked.

‘We’re thinking it could be where these weapons “ false and true” are, but who knows. Doesn’t really matter if we don’t know where it is.’ Sokka said pessimistically. 

‘I guess. Aang, do you have any idea who that person could’ve been? The one telling you things in your dream?’ 

Aang pondered for a moment before shaking his head.

‘My best guess is that it's Zeus’ twisted way of welcoming him to the family.’ Sokka pointed at the sky with his fork, ‘But if we’re going off of recent legend, for all we know it could’ve been an awakening titan.’

‘What?’ Katara asked, but Sokka only brushed her off.

‘Maybe we can ask Chiron.’ Aang suggested, ‘Unless we know anyone else who knows a lot about bridges and buildings.’ 

Sokka seemed to light up and quickly they were standing awkwardly at the end of the Athena table, Sokka rambling on to Annabeth about Aang’s dream. Katara felt her face flush as the entire cabin’s eyes turned her way. She had to imagine that she didn’t have the greatest reputation in Cabin 6.

‘Red bridge and golden cage? Sounds like San Francisco to me.’ She smiled.

‘Oh great, so on the other side of the country?’ Sokka grimaced.

‘Sorry, but the golden gate bridge seems like the most logical explanation for Aang’s dream. And I used to live there so if you need any help-’ 

‘We’ll be fine.’ Katara said quickly, her brain too late to stop herself.

‘What Katara means is that we think it's part of the prophecy.’ Sokka side eyed her aggressively, ‘So probably no extra guests allowed?’ 

‘Its fine, you're right. I just meant that if you need any help once you're there, shoot me an Iris message.’ Annabeth clarified, her smile faltering slightly as she looked at Katara. Were they technically half-kind of sisters in law now? 

‘Yeah, thanks Annabeth. We’re gonna go talk to Chiron now.’ 

The meeting room is warm as they wait for Chiron and Mr D to arrive. Sokka sits with a bouncing leg as Zuko grumbles in the corner, clearly wishing he were anywhere else. Only Aang seems slightly optimistic about their soon-to-be trip to San Francisco, and even then Katara was pretty sure at least some of it was a cover up for how freaked out he was feeling.

‘You didn’t have to be so rude, you know. She was helping us.’ Sokka berated her.

‘I know! I’m sorry, okay? I lost my temper.’ Katara snapped back.

‘You seem to be losing it a whole lot recently.’ He murmured.

‘Whatever.’ She huffed.

‘Whatever.’ He sneered in response.

Right on cue, the door flew open and a hasty Chiron trotted briskly into the room, a less anxious Mr D not far behind him. Maybe picking up on the awful energy of the room, Mr D chuckled as he sat down, like they were just entertainment for him.

‘Right, sorry to keep you all waiting. Things have been so busy- right, anyway. Aang, you had something to share?’ Chiron pressed his glasses further up his nose bridge.

Aang relayed his dream as well as their conversation with Annabeth. Chiron looked both relieved and worried all at once- not a great sign.

‘Well, I agree, this is definitely a sign. I think you may be right about San Francisco, though it does worry me slightly…’ He nodded.

‘Perfect.’ Sokka mumbled, ‘Why’s that?’

‘Multiple prophecies by now have taken campers to that city, it seems to be a bit of a hotspot, I suppose.’ He chuckled slightly, almost deliriously, ‘Plus it is very nearby to our Roman counterpart, Camp Jupiter. I’m struggling to figure out why this would be a you problem rather than a them one.’

‘No offence, but does it matter?’ Zuko finally spoke up, ‘We have to go either way so why don’t we just make a plan and go?’

For someone so stoic and perma-annoyed, he suddenly seemed pretty keen to get moving. 

‘Uh- well, of course.’ Chiron shuffled some papers on his desk, ‘A plan indeed.’

The “plan” as it currently stood, was not what Katara would describe as waterproof. More or less it was: 1. Go to San Francisco via train-

‘Why not a plane? Surely that would be way quicker.’ Sokka had asked.

Chiron sighed, ‘As Zeus’ domain is the sky, its often not wise to send other big three kids up there…have you had any bad experience flying in the past?’ Chiron had asked her and Zuko.

‘I guess our flight here was pretty rocky.’ She’d shrugged.

Zuko said something similar, avoiding eye contact.

‘Ugh, fine. Train it is.’ Sokka had rolled his eyes.

The second part of the plan was: 2. Find this ‘weapon’ and 3. Save the world.

Not much of a plan, per se, but she supposed it was something. Chiron handed a bag of golden drachma, the money of ancient Greece apparently, as well as permission to raid the armoury for supplies.

‘Can Appa come?’ Aang had asked.

‘Appa? Oh, the horse. I suppose it would be okay, since he did help these two arrive safely enough.’ Chiron conceded, ‘Fine, you can bring “Appa” too.’ 

The armoury, as it turned out, didn’t have the widest selection in the world. Sokka and Zuko both picked out swords, Sokka picking a singular, thicker sword, whilst Zuko opted for two smaller ones. Katara, thanks to her “bad moods”, had skirted almost every opportunity to try out any of the weapons available in any true capacity. Sure she’d held a few of them, swung them around at dummies when she was forced to, but even in capture the flag she’d hardly touched her weapon. Thinking it to be the simplest to wield without accidentally impaling herself, she picked out a celestial bronze dagger with a firm handle. 

‘Aang? Which one’s caught your eye?’ She asked the young boy, noticing his worried expression, ‘I guess you have the most experience with this kind of thing.’ 

‘Yeah, about that…I’m kind of more of a pacifist. These weapons…they aren’t really my thing.’ He confessed, ‘Instead I got one of my friends in cabin 9 to build me this!’

He pulled out a long wooden staff. Where Katara expected some kind of metal blades or pointed barbs, she found…nothing.

‘A stick?’ Zuko said accusingly, ‘What monster are you going to slay with that?’

‘Uh- none?’ He said sheepishly.

‘Aang…’ Katara tried.

‘No,no, really guys, it’s good! Instead of attacking dead on, I use my enemies force against them! Come here Sokka.’ 

The two of them wandered into the middle of the room, where Aang instructed Sokka to try and attack him. Despite his initially conflicted look, Sokka did lunge for him, only for Aang to push him away and trip him up with his staff.

‘Ouch!’ Her brother yelped, dusting himself off.

‘That’s all well and good against a Sokka, but what about against a manticore?’ Zuko again insisted, ‘Or are your wind powers so strong that you don’t need a weapon?’ 

‘Well no-’ Aang stumbled.

‘Look Aang, just pick something else to bring just in case. I don’t want you getting yourself killed over a stick.’ Sokka said firmly.

Aang looked defeated and sighed, ‘Fine…I guess I’ll bring this- uh, dagger thing too.’

‘Good.’ 

From there they split off to their individual cabins to pick up the few belongings they had. Katara collected up her second set of clothes the camp had given her and the pair of sneakers one of the Aphrodite kids had ‘donated’ on her first day, saying hers were such an eyesore that not giving her a new pair would be immoral. Her backpack looked depressingly empty once she was done ‘packing’ and she longed for all her random bits and bobs she’d abandoned back at her dad’s new apartment. The thought of her stuffed animals, her pretty clothes, her books all stacked up still in boxes…it was solemn to say the least, especially since she couldn’t be sure she would ever see them again after this quest. If “ break the bonds which cling to you ” was anything like what she was fearing, she doubted she would ever see New York again.

‘Hey there.’ A familiarly clumsy voice snuck into the cabin, ‘I heard you guys are leaving already. Are you…packing up?’ 

‘Yep.’ She said sadly, ‘Not much to pack though, honestly.’ 

Percy wandered over and took a peak into her bag, ‘Yeah, I remember my first quest was pretty similar. Once you get some food and stuff in there, though, it won’t be so bad.’ 

‘I guess.’ Katara sighed, ‘I just wish I had something from home.’ 

‘Mm.’ Percy nodded, ‘Hey! I know this won’t be the same but you could have this if you wanted.’ He held out a black and white mush of stuffed toy, ‘Technically its a panda pillow pet but this weirdo ripped it up. My mom tried her best but…’

The guy looked genuinely sad as he stared at the poor, mangled piece of fabric. 

‘I’m good, thanks though.’ Katara smiled sympathetically.

‘Yeah, good idea. What about this then? It’s kinda lame but I guess it's better than nothing.’ He tossed her one of those cheesy ‘I heart NYC’ keychains that you see on the corner of every street in the city.

‘Thanks.’ She couldn’t help but smile.

‘I know it's a piece of trash but San Francisco is pretty far. I guess you’re not from New York but still, it's something.’ He shrugged with a smile.

‘No, thank you, genuinely. This is really nice.’ She rubbed her thumb over the embossed lettering, the hard plastic cool against her skin, ‘Sokka nearly bought the entire ‘I heart New York’ look on our first day in the city.’

Percy grinned, ‘Your brother sounds like a cool dude from what I’ve heard.’

‘Yeah, I guess he is.’ 

‘Well, anyway, if you wanna throw it away, feel free. It's yours to do as you please.’ Percy gave a cheesy thumbs up. Was this seriously the same guy that killed a manticore in one swipe?

‘You mean you don’t want this invaluable piece of treasure for yourself?’ Katara teased.

‘Meh, I can live without it. Take it as a “welcome to the family” gift.’ he smiled, ‘Speaking of, my mom wants you round for dinner.’

‘What?’ Katara raised an eyebrow, ‘Really?’

‘Yep. She’s super psyched for whatever reason. When you and Sokka get back, hit me up and I’ll set something up.’ 

‘Cool.’ She couldn’t contain her surprise, ‘No offence but I kind of thought your mom would like, hate me?’ 

‘Meh, she’s pretty neutral on the whole “dad” situation these days. My step-dad is twice the guy he is anyway.’ Percy shrugged, ‘Oh yeah, your dad’s invited too.’

‘Wow, a whole family reunion.’ Katara giggled.

‘Pretty mess up family, but sure, something like that. If your dad and Annabeth are there too…yeah, I’m just not gonna think about any of that. Making my brain hurt.’ 

Katara smiled, though her face quickly turned to confusion, ‘Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something. It’s about the whole “powers” thing.’ 

He leaned up against the wall, ‘Fire away.’

‘Uh- well how do I use them?’ She asked plainly, ‘I mean I tried, like, feeling the water or whatever, but nothing happened.’ 

Percy seemed to wince, chewing over the question or perhaps how best to answer it.

‘Honestly, they aren’t really something you use at first, they kind of just happen .’ He said, ‘It took me like five years to control them properly. Who knows, maybe you’ll be some prodigy, but for now…try not to worry about it too much. Water heals, doesn’t drown us either- oh and we can talk to horses, but the rest is kind of…kind of difficult.’ 

‘Horses?’ Katara raised an eyebrow

‘Long story.’ He shook his head.

Katara sighed and glanced at the bronze clock attached to the opposite wall, ‘Well, thanks Percy. For the gift and the invite.’

‘No problem. And if you ever need anything…’ He waved his hands around as if to imply something.

‘Yeah, alright, thank you.’ She hauled her backpack, now blinged out, onto her shoulders, ‘I’ll see you around I guess.’ 

‘Good luck.’ He waved, ‘I’ll get back to you about the dinner thing.’

She snickered as she wandered out of the cabin.

Chiron’s goodbye was short and sweet. They were all given a few more essentials: easy to carry food (mainly jerky, much to Katara and Sokka’s delight), a few tools like toches and matches, a map and a butt load of firm warnings. Just like that, though, and camp was gone.

‘Right, train station.’ Sokka said confidently.

‘Chiron said this Argus guy should be waiting at the road, which way is that?’ Katara asked.

‘No way we’re already lost.’ Aang complained.

‘Shh!’ Sokka hissed, ‘Look, it's just over there. Follow me children!’ 

After around 20 minutes of arguing and walking in circles, they finally found the road just a few meters beyond half blood hill. Katara and Sokka exchanged dirty looks. 

‘Hey, you must be Argus! I’m Aang.’ Aang smiled, the man (if he could even be called that) he was talking to, blinking back with about one million eyes. 

‘Oh! Hey….Argus. I’m Katara.’ She held out a tentative hand before slipping into his car. 

‘He’s cool.’ Aang grinned.

The ride was quick enough, speeding past all the parts of the journey Katara had missed thanks to her minor blood loss. Sokka stared out the window miserably, hogging the front seat due to his role as “leader” (self-imposed) whilst Aang made friendly conversation with Argus. Katara, trying her best to maintain her good mood as long as possible, stayed quiet, occasionally looking over at Zuko, who appeared to be even more rigid and grumpy than usual. 

Eventually they arrived at Penn Station, where they were promptly dropped off. The surrounding area felt weirdly familiar, maybe they’d wandered through this area trying to find the various places their dad had sent them on their first week in the US, but Katara was keen to keep her guard up. She knew better than anyone that monsters were lurking just about everywhere. 

‘Holy crap! Two hundred bucks?’ Sokka cried as they inspected the train schedule, ‘Do we even have that much?’

‘I have fifty!’ Aang shrugged.

‘I think I have two hundred…do they take Canadian dollars?’ Katara asked.

‘Key word Canadian .’ Sokka rolled his eyes, ‘Great so we haven’t even left New York and we’ve already hit a road block.’ 

Zuko, clearly fed up, finally grouched quietly before pulling a wad of green paper from his bag, ‘There.’

He pulled two notes off of the pile before stuffing the rest back into a secure pocket of his bag. The rest of them stood in shock.

‘How much cash do you have?’ Sokka yelled, shifting to a whisper, ‘Five hundred?’

‘More than that!’ Katara cried, ‘Did you see that stack?’ 

‘You never told us you were rich, Zuko!’ Aang beamed.

‘Why would I? It never came up until now.’ He frowned, ‘Can we just get on this train before it gets dark?’ 

‘You’re right.’ Katara put her hands up, ‘Lets go.’

The train was comfortable enough. It wasn’t a fancy overnight one with beds, but the seats were nicer than those in the airplane they’d taken to New York. The four of them sat around a laminate table, trying to avoid the stickiness of the right corner. Around an hour and a half in, the sky started to shift to a hazy grey as the sun began to set.

‘Okay, so after this we should probably get another train from Philadelphia to Nebraska. An overnight one.’ Sokka said, stoking his chin as he stared at the map, ‘This is gonna be a long trip.’

‘If only my dad wasn’t so weird we could’ve just taken a plane.’ Aang sighed.

‘Yeah, well I’d rather be alive and bored instead of dead in a plane wreck so I guess it’ll have to do for now.’ Katara said with a shrug, ‘Where to after Nebraska?’

‘Keep heading West, I guess. I think we should just wait and see which trains are soonest to leave when we get there. The quicker we figure out this weapon business the easier this will be.’ Sokka nodded confidently, ‘Any more visions of the future yet, Aang?’

Aang, clearly not listening, was staring intently out the window. His eyes fixated on the sky.

‘Aang?’ Katara repeated louder.

‘Huh?’ He snapped back into action, ‘Yeah, yeah, sounds good.’ 

‘Aang!’ Sokka practically yelled.

‘What?’ The kid jumped, ‘Sorry I got distracted.’

‘What’s out there that’s so great? Talking to your dad telepathically or something?’ Sokka grumpily gawked out the window.

‘Nope. I was looking out for Appa. He should be following us but I can’t see him.’ 

‘Right, the horse.’ Sokka looked away.

‘Apparently I can talk to them. Horses, I mean.’ Katara smiled, ‘According to Percy.’

‘Seriously?’ Sokka raised an eyebrow, ‘What does the sea guy have to do with horses?’ 

‘Poseidon created the first horses from the sea foam according to myth.’ Zuko said gravelly before scowling and pretending he hadn’t spoken.

‘Weird.’ Sokka shrugged.

Suddenly, a loud creaking sound sped down the body of the train, the rushing scenery outside the window coming to a hissing stop.

‘What the hell?’ Zuko winced, covering his ears at the squeak of the train halting. 

Aang pressed his face against the glass, horribly uncaring about the billions of germs currently seeping onto his face, his eyes widening in shock. 

‘What is it? ‘Katara demanded, her eyebrows knitting with worry. They were hardly out of New Jersey and they were already being thrown off course.

‘There’s…What even is that thing?’ Aang squinted, ‘It’s a monster alright, and its big!’ 

‘Shit.’ Sokka mumbled, reaching for his sword.

Katara wearily pulled her dagger from her bag, looking around at the other passengers wearily.

‘Don’t worry, they can't see any of this.’ Aang comforted, pointing at the dagger and back at the monster, ‘The mist’ll make them think there’s a cow on the road or something.’

That was a small relief, at least they wouldn’t look totally insane, but the mystery monster was slightly more worrying to her than a few weird looks.

‘Come on, let’s go!’ Sokka signalled them towards the nearest door.

A few passengers were already crammed in there, fighting with a ticket inspector looking man. As Sokka reached for the exit door, the man grabbed his wrist.

‘Young man, I’m sorry but you are not permitted to use this door. This is an emergency stop but you are not in danger!’ He exclaimed.

The car shook and the roar of something ugly damn near shattered the windows. 

‘Sorry, old man.’ Zuko scowled, shoving the guy to the floor and pushing the door open himself.

Sokka and Katara exchanged a look but continued on after him. It wouldn’t have been Katara’s first choice, the urge to help the poor guy up was eating her up, but she supposed not being eaten by some beast was probably outweighed her need for politeness,

‘Holy crap, Aang! That thing is a little more than just big!’ Sokka yelled.

About one hundred metres down the tracks, a huge serpent the size of a car was harassing the poor train, shaking one of the carriages back and forth. Its head sprung out into ten or so smaller necks and heads, each one hissing and growling like hungry bears.

‘A hydra?’ Sokka guessed, ‘Alright, not ideal.’

‘How do we kill it? Cut its heads off?’ Zuko asked.

‘I guess.’ Sokka giggled nervously, ‘Hey! I played mythomagic, I know it has +10 strength and -5 stealth but that’s about it!’ 

‘We could always try and lead it away, get back on the train and hope it loses our scent?’ Aang offered.

‘No offence, Aang, but now isn’t the time for being cruelty free. That thing will eat us!’ Sokka cried.

‘Fine.’ Aang backed down, his face wilted.

‘Let’s just…’ Sokka tried, but Zuko and Katara seemed to have their own plan, running over to the beast before he could finish his sentence, ‘Attack? I guess!’ 

Katara pulled her dagger into the palm of her hand. Although she wasn’t trained, nor particularly athletic, she’d won a few fights here and there (though most of them verbal), she knew how push and pull worked. Similarly, Zuko seemed to know his way around a pair of swords, immediately swinging and slicing one of the serpents’ heads clean off before it had even sensed their arrival. 

Now it had, though, the thing turned around laboriously, its hundred beady eyes turning to look at them. Where the bloody wound of Zuko’s doing had been a second ago, two more glaring heads sprouted out.

‘Oh dang it, that’s what the hydra’s special ability was! Regeneration! Cut off one head, two more grow.’ Sokka said, almost sounding relieved, like the issue had been eating him alive.

‘That would’ve been good to know before I swung!’ Zuko growled, backing up.

‘My bad?’ Sokka smiled anxiously. Zuko rolled his eyes furiously.

‘What do we do now?’ Katara yelled, extremely aware of the passengers staring at them through the windows of the train.

‘What was it that Hercules did?’ Zuko asked angrily, ‘He killed this thing once!’ 

‘I don’t know.’ Sokka shrugged nervously.

‘I thought you were meant to be the smart one?’ 

‘Hey, I’m smart, doesn’t mean I know everything in the world!’ Sokka yelled back.

‘Duck!’ Katara shouted as a head pounced forward, missing Aang by an inch as he leaped high in the air, landing flawlessly a meter back.

‘Just try and aim for its heart or something, I don’t know!’ Sokka said, charging forward, slicing heads as they came at him, new ones appearing in their place.

‘Dude! Stop slicing the heads!’ Katara screamed, running around to the back of the creature in hopes of losing its attention.

‘Sorry!’ 

Five minutes went by with little success, many more heads sprouted and lots of energy wasted. Katar found herself damn near exhausted, swinging at the creature's tough skin with her useless dagger. Zuko had managed a few forceful hits, and Sokka a few clever trickshots, but the hydra was still far from defeated.

Two new heads sprouted above her as Katara sliced one off in self-defence, her arms now unbelievably heavy. A rogue set of fangs punctured her leg, sending her to the floor in a heap.

‘Katara, move!’ Sokka yelled from somewhere behind her, but it was too late for that now. She swung again, managing to take off a head but she knew where this was going. She braced for impact covering her head with arm, only to find nothing had managed a hit. She peaked through her eyelids, deaf to the world thanks to the sensational pain radiating from her calf, to find a sizzling wound and no new head. The beast roared in agony and Katara was shocked back into action, using every drop of adrenaline in her to pull herself up and off the ground.

‘What happened?’ She panted.

‘Zuko just…he just made fire!’ Sokka grinned, his eyes both terrified and in total awe.

Katara turned to see Zuko slashing at heads before spraying a wave of dark flames from his fingertips, leaving the wounds charred. 

‘H-How?’ She hissed, the pain in her leg leaking out into her foot.

‘I don’t know! I thought only cabin 9 kids could- one sec!’ Sokka rushed forward, sliding under a screaming snake and driving her sword into a squishy looking bit of flesh. Zuko, looking semi-exhausted, had managed to take care of a decent few heads, the Hydra preparing to rise up and surround him. Sokka, always the observer, had noticed an opening, sliding in to slice the hydra’s exposed stomach. 

After a while of pain and heads being burnt, the monster disappeared, fading into ash. 

Katara leaned against the side of the train for support, the wound on her leg looking more purple than she thought healthy.

‘Here.’ Sokka ran over, offering her his shoulder to lean on.

‘Thanks.’ She winced.

Aang, appearing from nowhere, sprinted over in suit, ‘Are you okay, Katara? Here!’ He pulled some of the pudding stuff she’d had at the infirmary out of his bag.

‘Thanks.’ She pulled herself down to the ground and stuffed as much as she could in her face. All she remembered from the last time she’d had the stuff was the feeling of total numbness and Christ was she desperate for it now.

‘Where the hell did you run off to, Aang?’ Sokka asked as he helped her to the floor, ‘We just had to fight that thing one man down!’ 

‘I’m sorry! I just…I couldn’t do it.’ He looked to the floor, ashamed.

‘Whatever. You need to get over this whole scaredy cat thing if you’re gonna come on this quest, dude, or you’re gonna get yourself or one of us killed.’ Sokka looked down at his sister.

Zuko stumbled over next, collapsing down next to Katara.

‘You okay?’ She asked.

‘I’m fine.’ He hissed, clearly not fine, ‘Just tired.’

‘Yeah, man, you just made fire! Since when could you do that?’ Sokka cried.

‘Since about five minutes ago.’ Zuko winced, ‘Nico made it out like I would have some skeleton shadow powers…not this.’

‘Yeah, I could’ve sworn Leo Valdez from Cabin 9 had the whole fire thing taken already.’ Sokka shrugged, ‘Oh well, can’t complain about a little extra fire power.’

Zuko scowled again and raised a tentative finger to the scar on his eye. By now, Katara had become so desensitised to the thing, she’d forgotten it was there. Now she was questioning exactly how he got it.

‘What do we do now?’ Aang asked quietly, scared to trigger Sokka again.

Her brother sighed and put his hands on his hips, ‘I guess we try and find somewhere to stay. I doubt this train is going anywhere anytime soon. If this thing found us, I don’t think hanging around will do us any good.’ 

‘Agreed. What’s the nearest town?’ Katara said, her leg slowly feeling less and less decayed.

‘Hmm, let me see.’ Sokka wandered back over to the bewildered looking train worker before strutting back over, ‘Supposedly there’s some place called Montague not too far from here.’