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She had considered many things about joining the Hunters, long before Artemis had offered her a position in her ranks. (For the second time.) But it appeared that one thing she had neglected, or perhaps she'd just avoided thinking about it altogether, simply because it would be too hard to think about living a life without her.
Thalia knew that her little sister would be perfectly fine back at Camp Half-Blood without her, she had Chiron, Percy, and Grover to keep her occupied, along with all her other friends at Camp Half-Blood. But that still didn't make having to accept that she'd be going from seeing her every day to just seeing her every once in a while any easier.
But that just came with the territory of being a Hunter. And besides, Thalia definitely had her ways of checking in far more frequently than she needed to.
There had been two primary reasons why Thalia had declined the offer to join the Hunters years ago. Luke Castellan. And Annabeth Chase. They needed her and she needed them too much to leave them.
Then she died. She spent roughly six years as a pine tree. And Luke got lost. She still had Annabeth though.
But Annabeth didn't need her as much at thirteen and fourteen as she had when she was seven.
And damn was that a tough pill to swallow.
It was for the best that Annabeth had grown up a bit in Thalia's absence, she had made some new friends she could depend on and found a new safety net that she could fall into and depend on. (Even if they all knew that the chances of Annabeth admitting that she was dependent on someone else, was slim to none.) She didn't need Thalia to keep sticking around her at camp all the time. Annabeth had grown up just enough.
Luke was long gone. (The chances of being able to bring him back, in any facet, was slim to none.)
Annabeth just didn't need her around anymore. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it was just the facts.
So when she got a second offer, from Artemis herself, Thalia accepted it.
That fateful day in December on Mount Olympus, when Thalia joined the Hunters of Artemis, she threw herself into her newfound duties as their lieutenant. She first told herself it was to get more acquainted with the girls she'd once been enemies with, turning a new leaf, extending an olive branch, etc. But that wasn't truly why she'd focused almost solely on the Hunters.
It was because of Luke and Annabeth. Separately, of course. And for very different reasons.
Funny how it always seemed to lead back to them.
She was distracting herself from the utter guilt and contempt she held for Luke. For a while, she had honestly thought that it could just be Thalia and Luke forever and ever. She thought he could've been The One. But, like everything else seemed to, then she died. And it ruined everything.
He morphed into a disgustingly angry and vengeful person that was hardly recognizable as the sweet, caring boy she'd once loved. Even when she did the impossible, thanks to Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and Clarisse, and came back from being stuck as a tree to a living, breathing person, it was just so different, everything was so different, that long before she'd even seen him again, Thalia knew it just wouldn't be the same between her and Luke.
That connection was just gone. And it fucking sucked.
And it wasn't just with Luke either. And that made it all just that much worse.
The stubborn, hardheaded, know-it-all little sister she'd known and loved for those short-lived months had grown up, still a know-it-all, but she was so much more confident and comfortable in herself and her place in the world. It was amazing to just witness, even if Thalia hadn't been able to be along for that journey. (And she had a real strong feeling that a certain Son of Poseidon had a little something to do with that. Even despite the centuries-long rivalry between her mom and his dad, which Thalia just knew was something Annabeth would've used against him for a while.) Hades, Annabeth had befriended a cyclops in the meantime, which after their encounter in Brooklyn, she wouldn't have expected to happen in a million years. She'd completed two quests with Percy over the past two summers, one with Grover and the other with Tyson.
Even just at Camp Half-Blood, Annabeth, and Percy, had established themselves as leaders, role models, and figureheads, easily two of the most important people (aside from maybe Chiron and Mr. D) at camp. It was astounding. All Thalia could think about, as she'd gotten to watch Annabeth just about run nearly any and every aspect of camp, was all the nights on the run when all her little seven year old head could think about was making herself a place in both worlds, mortal and Godly, to a place where she was the one that everyone else wanted to be around, that they wanted to listen to, and they thought were just so important (and perhaps feared slightly). And in just over six years, Annabeth had done just that.
She wasn't sure how long it had been, to be perfectly honest. Throwing herself into all her work and responsibilities with the Hunters had actually worked, and for a while she was able to pretend that she wasn't thinking about either the shit with Luke or how Annabeth was doing with everything that had happened. But then she couldn't stop thinking about one of them.
After the fight on Mount Tamalpais last December, it was much easier to quit thinking about Luke so much. He'd truly deserted all of the other half-bloods and was actively trying to raise Kronos from Tarturus and destroy all of the Gods and Mount Olympus at the same time. He wanted to destroy everything that any of them had known and found some comfort and security in, all because he was angry. It was fucking ridiculous.
And so, nearly all of the time, intentionally or otherwise, that Thalia had once spent thinking about Luke was given to Annabeth and Percy back at Camp Half-Blood. She'd sent Annabeth several letters and postcards, some of the spare postcards she picked up here and there got sent to Percy, at Camp Half-Blood. But because of how much and how quickly the Hunters moved, neither of them had a shot at being able to send her anything back. Which really limited their communication to being completely one-way. They (somewhat) knew what she was up to, but she had hardly a clue what was going on with either of them, between them, or at camp.
Then, on a very random summer day, Artemis taught them all how to use Iris Messages.
None of the other girls were even the slightest bit interested in learning how Iris Messaging worked, after all, none of them had anyone still living that they needed or wanted to be in any form of communication with. But Thalia did.
And that very same night, after most of the other girls had gone to bed, Thalia very carefully and cautiously found a nearby spring with her flashlight (which she probably wasn't supposed to have) and found the tiniest of waterfalls creating just enough mist for her to create a makeshift rainbow and at least attempt making the call. She fished one of the drachmas she'd kept in her pocket and tossed it into the mist as she asked in a whisper, just as Artemis had taught them to do, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering." And when she didn't get any kind of indication that the goddess wasn't willing to at least hear her out, Thalia continued, "Show me Annabeth Chase at Camp Half-Blood."
Within a few seconds, the faint rainbow in front of her morphed into an almost portal into Cabin Six at Camp Half-Blood. It was only then that Thalia had realized how late it actually was, as Annabeth, along with the rest of Cabin Six, were fast asleep, completely unaware of the fact that Thalia had called their cabin leader. While she hadn't been able to talk to Annabeth that night, being able to see her, and know that she was safe and perfectly fine, it was enough for Thalia. Plus, now she had a way to talk to her little sister again. Whenever she wanted to.