Chapter Text
Georgie surveyed the fifteen teenagers curled up in the seats of the private plane. She was glad her boss had entrusted her with such an important mission, but she was also exhausted and nervous. Fifteen new demigods was a lot. She knew that when they awoke, every single one of them would want an explanation. She had to be awake when that happened. If one of them got frightened they could all go crashing into the Atlantic ocean.
She was excited. She was born in New York, but she hadn't been there since she was very young, and she was eager to be back. The rest of the satyrs in the London-based outreach team spoke very highly of Camp Half-Blood, and Georgie was glad to finally get the chance to see it.
She looked over the kids before her. Her boss hadn't told her anything about them -- where they came from, what their lives had been like, why they were all three or four years older than demigods normally were when they were found and brought to camp. She was burning with curiosity, but she couldn't let herself wake them. Instead she just watched and waited.
They were certainly a strange bunch. In the front row, sprawling into the space in front of her, was the tallest girl Georgie had ever seen. Her gangly form seemed very wrong yet somehow not ungraceful. Her sleeping face was set in a pleasant expression like the face of a doll. Curled next to her was a girl with long unkempt black hair, her red dress tattered by some monster's claws. She was covered in small round scars as if tiny tubes of her flesh had been removed.
The two behind them leaned against each other as if competing for space. Georgie they were twins, even though they looked nothing alike. The boy's blond curls and the girl's dark locks swirled together in hypnotic intertwining patterns, and their faces shifted in lively sleeping expressions. Across the aisle was a beautiful and almost tortured-looking dark-skinned boy, dreadlocks flopping across his face, and a pale goth-looking young man with poorly dyed hair and small eye designs tattooed on his knuckles.
In the third row, a short, pale boy leaned against the window, and Georgie saw he had a strange branching scar all down one side of his face and neck. Next to him was a stocky Asian girl with rough-cut hair, snoring obnoxiously but not loudly. Across from them was a squat dark-haired boy with clever-looking hands and a girl whose eyes were hidden by her long wavy hair, seeming to cast her whole person into shadows.
Finally, there was a tall, thin girl whose short bleached hair stood out against dark skin, an enormous boy whose bones seemed to push his shapes in horrible yet strangely beautiful directions, a chubby boy with glasses and a mess of ginger curls on his head, and a scrawny boy with dusky dark skin and hair. Georgie knit her brows upon the sight of this last demigod. He was strangely familiar, but she knew she had never met him before.
Georgie shrugged off the strange feeling that she was forgetting something and sat down in the empty seat in the front. Then she took a good look at the girl next to her. She was small but fierce-looking, the ends of her dark hair dyed blue-green and blowing softly across her face in the flow of air from the vent. Again Georgie felt that she knew her from somewhere, but that wasn't possible. This was a complete stranger. A very pretty stranger, but a stranger nonetheless.
All of them were strangers. Georgie's one job was to transport them to Camp Half-Blood, then she would probably stay a while and then return to England. She leaned back in the uncomfortable airplane seat and pushed aside her nerves.
--
Daisy woke to sunlight filtering through silver canvas. Birdsong and the gentle rush of a breeze through trees washed over her. She was warm beneath a blanket and allowed herself a few moments to lie still.
Then she realised she had no idea where she was or what she was doing there.
She sat up frantically, and her hair flew out of her face. That wasn't right -- she hadn't had hair long enough to cover her face since high school. She didn't have time to consider that as she took in her surroundings.
She appeared to be in a spacious yet cozy tent, and there was a teenager beside her. Daisy scrambled away in alarm, but then she paused. The girl looked just like Basira, Daisy's partner. Or rather, she looked like what Daisy imagined Basira would have looked like as a teenager.
The young Basira was beginning to stir as well. She opened her eyes and Daisy leaned over her. "Basira, is that you?"
The girl blinked and squinted at her. "Daisy? Where are we?"
Daisy's relief that Basira was there was quickly overtaken by dread that she had no idea where "there" was. "Basira, I think something's happened. I don't know why we're here."
Basira sat up and grabbed her glasses from where they lay beside her mattress. She put them on and looked around, her brow furrowed in confusion. "What's going on?" Then her eyes landed on Daisy and she let out a low whistle. "I think I'm missing quite a bit here."
"No comments on the hair." Daisy stood and was surprised that she didn't have to stoop -- she was tall, but the tent fit her easily. "Come on."
Daisy unzipped the tent entrance and slipped out, senses on high alert, Basira right behind her. She thought she was prepared for anything, but she did not expect the scene in front of her.
The tent they had come out of was almost perfectly camouflaged in the surrounding forest, but looking closely Daisy could see several more arranged in a circle before them. Movements came from within as the inhabitants began rising in the light of dawn. In the centre, a figure with their back to Daisy and Basira was tending a low fire. They had spiky black hair and wore a silver parka and what appeared to be an adventure-movie-style quiver of arrows across their back.
The spiky-haired person turned at the sound of Basira and Daisy leaving the tent and Daisy saw they were a girl about sixteen years old, with intense blue eyes and a silver circlet across her forehead. She smiled warmly at Daisy and Basira, but the harsh look didn't leave her eyes.
"Good morning," she greeted. "Come talk." Daisy was momentarily taken aback by her American accent. Where they in America? Would she look like a fool if she asked?
Basira and Daisy exchanged a look, but the girl had already turned back to the fire, so they shrugged and crept up to sit beside her. They needed answers.
"What are your names?" the strange girl asked.
They figured it wouldn't do any good to lie. "I'm Basira, and this is Daisy."
"I'm Thalia," the girl said. "Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. You two had quite a rough time back there, but I think we patched you up okay."
Daisy stared steadily at Thalia. "What do you mean, 'back there'?"
"Well, with the monster attack, and the fall and everything. You two did pretty good for mortals, but ..." Thalia trailed off, seeing the others' confused exchange of expressions.
"We don't remember anything like that," Basira said.
Thalia frowned and set down the stick she was using to poke at the fire. "Well what do you remember then?"
Basira and Daisy looked at each other cautiously. Daisy chose her next words carefully. "We were ... in the police force. Until we weren't, and then we worked at ..."
Thalia laughed harshly. "The police force? You guys are like fourteen! Where are you actually coming from? What were you doing alone in the forest?"
Basira pressed her lips together the way she did when she didn't like what she was hearing. "Give us a moment, please."
"Sure." Thalia stood and walked over to the other side of the circle, disappearing inside a tent. Daisy and Basira turned to each other and lowered their voices.
"This isn't right." Basira stated the obvious. "We're fourteen?"
"Apparently," Daisy huffed. "So we've been dropped in the middle of the forest and taken in by a bunch of -- as far as we know -- teenagers talking about monster attacks like they happen every day. We have no idea how they got here, or where 'here' even is, and everyone around us seems convinced we're wayward teenagers and definitely not former police officers."
"Maybe they're larpers?" Basira broke in.
"What?"
"You know, a bunch of teens spending a weekend in the woods, with wooden swords and stuff."
"I wish." Daisy laughed softly. "But that doesn't explain why we both seem to remember being something completely different from what they believe us to be."
The two were silent for a moment. Daisy shook her head. "There's no explanation."
Basira pressed her lips together again. "I guess we play along, then."
"Figure out what they want," Daisy agreed. "They think we're teenagers? We can be teenagers."
"Don't give them any backstory we can't be sure makes sense," Basira warned. "We have no idea what they think they know about us."
Thalia stepped out of the tent, followed by a taller girl with a long black braid, wearing the same silver parka and quiver. Daisy glanced at them and hurriedly whispered one last thing: "I'm not good with kids!" Basira wanted to reply, but the others had already returned.
Thalia crouched down next to them again, setting down an armful of pots and a box of oatmeal. "Done?"
"Yes." Basira gave Thalia a wary smile. "Thanks for helping us out back there. Sorry we can't remember how it went down."
Thalia shrugged. "That's alright -- maybe you'll remember later. For now, we'll just explain ourselves. This is Reyna."
The other girl nodded curtly. "Hi." Her eyes bored into Daisy like she knew Daisy was hiding something. Daisy tried not to glare too hard, but the alternative was looking nervous.
"We belong to a group called the Hunters of Artemis," Thalia continued. She was setting up the cooking, pouring water from a thermos into the pot. "We follow Artemis, the Greek goddess of the Hunt. By the way, all the Greek gods are real. Also the Roman ones. Keeping up so far?"
Daisy and Basira stared at them for a moment, then nodded. They had inexplicably become teenagers again and couldn't remember anything -- what was a few revived pantheons from ancient cultures?
"They're capable of interacting with the mortal world. Sometimes they also have children with mortals. Reyna and I are two such children -- my dad's Zeus, Greek god of the sky, and Reyna's mom is Bellona, Roman goddess of war." Thalia watched their faces carefully to gauge their reactions.
"Okay," Daisy said. "And there are monsters too?"
"Are you sure you're okay?" Reyna sounded concerned. "Usually people take this harder. It's a lot."
"Have to explain often, do you?" Daisy asked coldly.
"Yes, there are monsters," Thalia broke in. "And one of the main missions of the Hunters is to hunt down the most dangerous and elusive ones, and capture or kill them. Our goddess grants us immortality in exchange for loyalty and also eternal rejection of romance."
"Sounds like a sweet deal." Basira sounded impressed. "Goddess is nice to you?"
"Yeah --"
"And you're American."
Thalia laughed, and Reyna huffed. "Caught us," Thalia said. "Our girls come from all over the place. We happened to be chasing a beast over here in England, when you two showed up with our target. We travel a lot."
"You camp in the woods often?" Daisy asked. She was surprised at how appealing the whole thing sounded.
"Yeah, but we stay lots of other places, too." Thalia stirred the oatmeal one last time and took the pot off the fire.
"Now that we've caught the monster we were chasing, we'll be headed back to Long Island." Reyna held out some bowls for the oatmeal. "The Greek camp for demigods is there. There's a Roman one, too, in California. They let us hang around."
"You could come with us, if you want," Thalia offered.
Reyna looked startled. "Thalia, we hardly know these people. We have no idea what they're doing --"
"Why don't we ask them, then?" Thalia turned to Basira and Daisy. "What are you doing alone, fighting monsters in the woods?"
Basira inhaled slowly. "We don't consider ourselves bound to reveal such information."
"See, we can't trust them," Reyna burst out. "We should dump them at the nearest train station."
"And how do we know we can trust you?" Daisy growled. "As far as I'm concerned, you kidnapped us."
"We saved you when we could have just left you --"
"She has a point," Thalia interrupted. She sighed. "You're right. You two have a right to protect your secrets. Just ... know our offer still stands. If you choose to accept, I guess we'll just have to agree to trust each other." She gave a pointed look to Reyna.
"Thank you." Basira frowned at Daisy. "If you don't mind, we'll need a minute to discuss ..."
"Of course," Thalia said. "It's a big decision. Make it over breakfast." She handed them each a bowl of oatmeal, then stood with a nod, nudging Reyna to follow her to the other side of the circle.
Daisy turned slowly to Basira and raised her eyebrows.
"It's better than nothing," Basira said carefully. "Strategically, you know. They're willing to take us in, help us out --"
"I can't," Daisy said.
"Daisy --"
"Have you forgotten what happened to me the last time I got involved with something including the word 'Hunt'?"
Basira closed her eyes a moment. "This is different. We're in some new ..." Basira grasped for a word. "A new world, maybe. With new rules to learn. We're fourteen again -- we can't go back to the police. We don't even know if there's a Magnus Institute here, or The Hunt the way we know it. We don't know what else is different. These Hunters are the only secure plan we have."
Daisy growled softly and looked away. Across the circle, Thalia and Reyna were talking in low tones to another younger girl. Daisy turned back to Basira but wouldn't meet her eyes. "I'm ... worried. About what I'll become, given a second chance. The Hunt didn't put anything in me that wasn't here already."
Basira put a hand on Daisy's shoulder -- a rare gesture. "I won't make you do anything you're not comfortable with. But ... I'll be here to support you whatever you decide. And these Hunters will support you, too."
Daisy was silent.
"You don't trust them."
"No."
"Daisy ... you have to trust someone. I think these kids really want to help." Basira tapped her bowl. "Plus, this is the best oatmeal I've ever had."
Daisy looked over at Thalia and Reyna again. Reyna was smiling at Thalia. How could Daisy trust them? How could she trust herself?
"You trust me, don't you?" Basira's voice was reassuring. Daisy turned back to Basira and looked her in the eye. "I'll be right here," Basira promised. Daisy knew then that she did trust her.
"Okay," Daisy said. "Let's join."
Basira blinked, surprised. "Okay. Great." She waved to Reyna and Thalia, and they walked over.
"Made a decision?" Thalia asked.
"Yes," Basira replied. "We're in."
--
Melanie awoke to a delicious commotion.
"I want answers," a deep voice snarled, but it wasn't directed at her. A few feet away, an enormous teenage boy was holding a fluffy-haired girl in the air. She looked terrified, yet somehow resigned, and was wearing a flannel shirt and some sort of fur pants. Wait -- why did her legs bend like that?
"Put her down, idiot." Another girl stood behind the big boy, hands on her hips, and there was a boy standing at her shoulder. "None of us will get any answers if you hurt her!"
Melanie took in the scene. She was on a plane, and there were several other teenagers sitting and standing in the seats and the aisle around her. Many were waking up from naps, others were drinking in the chaos. A few were yelling at the girl as well. Melanie took a closer look at the girl in the grip of the big boy. She looked about fifteen, with chestnut skin and dark curls, and though she was definitely too young, she looked just like --
"Georgie?" Melanie said. The girl looked at her, surprised.
"There now," she said to the boy holding her, "everyone's awake. I'll explain everything now." The boy set her down roughly.
Melanie rose and took a step towards the girl who looked like Georgie, but she backed away with a strange look in her eyes.
"Okay, I don't know how you know my name," she said, "but it's not fair if I explain anything before knowing yours."
Melanie realised two things in that moment.
The first was that this was not her girlfriend.
The second was that something was very, very wrong here, and Melanie needed to get an explanation by whatever means necessary.