Chapter Text
"Kai'lin, child of Anteros, god of requited love," Chiron announced upon the rippling symbol of butterfly wings hovering above the young eleven-year old's head. Their dark hair was tinged slightly red, and eyes a shade of pink that almost appeared brown shimmered a brighter shade for a moment. The small child's features colored similarly to their father's, but the light brown skin had to be from their mother.
They looked out to the camp beyond them, and Chiron wondered what was going on in their head. When Anteros had made his wife immortal, Chiron had known there would be a tragedy in the making for their mortal child. Here they were, luckily more prepared than other campers ever would be: a fund in their name, schooling nearby with a relative of their previously-mortal mother, and many more personal items than Chiron would expect of a demigod child. They'd even been carefully escorted to camp.
He had an inkling of where Kai'lin's siblings were, but he didn't linger on the thought.
"Where will I stay?" the child asked, looking up at the centaur.
"The Aphrodite cabin would be glad to host you, I believe," Chiron answered, resting a hand on their shoulder, "They are your family."
Kai's shoulders hunched in for a moment, and the air flickered around them for a moment before them and their suitcase turned invisible. Chiron felt them walk away, and saw their footsteps. A few other campers had looked over, but it was the beginning of the summer, and very few campers were there. Most of the all-year demigods had not gone out yet.
Chiron was slightly worried for the child.
--
Silena knew there was a new kid in their cabin, not a sibling, but family nonetheless. Kai'lin was quiet, with the same unrealistic attractiveness any child of a love god had, but was almost antisocial. Silena had only heard them speak once in the week they'd been here, and it was to introduce themself.
Also, to threaten to kill anybody who misgendered them. Considering Silena literally has a mom who can turn into a fish or any animal, having a cousin (of sorts?) who was nonbinary wasn't the weirdest thing to happen to her. Besides, this made Kai the oldest in the cabin. Chiron was probably going to make them the head of the cabin; Silena was kind of glad for it, knowing she was technically the one with the most seniority in the Aphrodite cabin. She'd been dropped off only a year after she was born; her dad had a heart attack and she had no other family. Apparently Aphrodite had gotten the chance to take care of her for a month before deeming her safe enough to be at camp.
(Chiron said that her mom got the chance to parent her, and that was why Silena's charmspeak was so strong. Silena could remember accidentally getting somebody to do something for her even if she didn't mean to as she grew up.)
Silena decided she'd go up and talk to the older child, but Lacy, one of the youngest children at camp, went up to them from where they sat on one of the pink loveseats.
"Kai?" Lacy prompted, using her big dark eyes on the other.
Kai'lin's expression, which was generally a stilted form of neutrality, softened slightly, "Yeah?"
"Could you..could you help me with archery tomorrow?" Lacy asked.
Kai'lin smiled, "Sure. Lacy, was it?"
"Mhm! Silena said you were good at archery, because of..um..your dad," the five year-old said, grinning.
Silena suddenly thought that Kai'lin, or Kai, was much kinder looking when they smiled.
It seemed after that, Kai found their way out of their shell; they talked to the other Aphrodite kids as they slowly piled in from school, took care of all the younger children, and even began acting somewhat like an older sibling to the entire cabin. They weren't that much older than some of them, but they were still the oldest.
Nobody complained when a year later, Kai became the head of the cabin at thirteen.
Silena had seen how Kai had good aim for archery, not quite reaching some of the Apollo kid's uncanny aim, but being a child of Anteros gave benefits.
Still, Kai preferred using a gun. It wasn't the best weapon for stealth (hence why Silena knew they had daggers in their boots), but it came to them easily. The Apollo kids could beat them at the archery range, but if they pulled out a gun, it was a 50/50 chance.
Kai was also stronger than most of the children of minor gods were, something Silena had asked them about at some point.
"Why are your powers so strong?" Silena asked, curious eyes looking over to their cousin (as all the Aphrodite kids had began referring to them as) as they gathered the other kids' laundry.
"I don't really know," Kai answered nonchalantly, but their eyes had flickered pink for a moment, "Maybe because Anteros has no other kids?"
"Maybe," Silena shrugged.
She thought of the way Kai turned invisible in the blink of an eye, or that one time butterfly wings sprouted from their back in order to swoop in and save a falling kid from the lava wall, and the flowers that sprouted from monster's throats when they came too close to camp.
Mr.D kept care of the camp for the most part, with the barrier that would keep mortals away from camp, and the vines that surrounded the woods. Nymphs and other nature spirits, along with satyrs, also did their best to keep camp safe. But it was no complete haven, and the stray monster came in once in a while.
If Silena didn't know any better, she'd think Kai was a child of an Olympian, or even one of the Big Three, considering the strength of some of their powers.
Furthermore, as they became head counselor, they began taking control of the training around camp.
Kai took everything very seriously. Previously, Ares kids did the most training, with Apollo kids coming second. The others just weren't suited for combat using their powers.
But Kai thought otherwise.
Demeter kids could control the earth and plants, so Kai taught them how to use those powers offensively by trapping enemies midway through the ground, or reaching vines upwards to carry them downwards. Aphrodite kids used their charmspeak offensively, or charmed monsters as bait into Hermes' kids traps, which Kai had insisted be set up around the borders of camp. No child was left out, even the minor gods' children.
Kai had established everybody's strengths and forced them all to make breakthroughs the best they could.
Once, Silena was sneaking around to listen to the meetings with the Stoll brothers when she'd overheard Clarisse and Kai at the end of the meeting.
"Why do you even bother with half of these pipsqueaks?" the harsh girl had asked. She'd become Head of Ares cabin early, mostly because they chose their Head by who beat everybody else in a fight.
"Because all of them deserve a chance," Kai answered, shrugging, "And I want them to live. All of them, if possible. If this is the only way, then I'll be the change. If Chiron doesn't know how to teach dozens of kids, then I will."
Clarisse had been silent for a moment.
"Good luck, cupid."
"Wrong one," Kai had called out as the other walked away.
Silena had shared mystified looks with the Stoll brothers the whole time, because Clarisse was just a bully. Curiously enough, after that Clarisse had gotten..nicer, in a way.
--
Annabeth was running ahead with Grover, knowing Luke and Thalia had to be at their heels. They'd be okay. They'd all be okay.
There were so, so many monsters. But Thalia could electrocute them all, and it'd be okay.
Annabeth had to run. Just keep running, like always.
They'd made it in, where there was a line of blond kids - Apollo? - who were shooting stray monsters. A kid with dark hair in a long braid looked over the camp, voice echoing around, calling out commands as they held a gun (!) up, shooting stray monsters.
"Demeter kids, Castor and Pollux, keep up the vinework- get that flying one out of the way! Front archers, focus on the nearby ones off of our campers, backline hit the ones near the two demigods- is the girl in? Good!" They interrupted for a moment, glancing at Annabeth, "Clear a path for them!"
The monsters, majority hellhounds, were actually thinning. For a moment, Annabeth had true hope.
Then the three Furies appeared, and Annabeth's hopes died.
"Little daughter of Zeus!" one cackled out, "Your father cannot save you here!"
Thalia was- NO-
The one seemingly giving commands yelled out desperately, "Archers, all focus on the furies' wings! Castor and Pollux, use your vines to drag them down as soon as possible, and Demeter kids drop them into the earth where they belong!"
One fell to the strategy, but then the other two stayed up.
Annabeth looked over in confusion, from where she'd been pulled behind the line of archers with other young children, some of which were throwing rocks by slingshot where they could.
A blond girl beside her reached over and dropped rocks into her lap, "Help out!"
The little girl nodded, taking some rocks and the offered slingshot to shoot at some of the hellhounds.
The one in charge yelled out, "Fuck! We're not getting that other one unless..archers, focus on the ground! I'm going up."
"If you say so, Kai!" a voice called out.
Kai. Kai was the camper's name. The one who was, unbelievably, getting the entire camp to fight for Luke and Thalia.
Then pink butterfly wings emerged from their back, and Annabeth stared in awe as Kai rose up to one of the Furies, tackling them.
"DIE!" they'd yelled in Ancient Greek, "Take thy curses unto thee, let it seep to your lungs, and let flowers take your every breath!"
The second Fury fell, coughing out flowers and blood as Kai stood over them viciously. One of their wings was torn, laying listlessly against their back.
It wasn't enough, even as they began falling back.
Annabeth peered over the hill and lost all the blood in her face.
Luke was carrying a bleeding Thalia, desperate tears in his eyes.
"Get an Apollo kid over here, and Silena, charmspeak like I taught you to!" Kai yelled backwards, flying after the last Fury. Their flight was hindered by the injured wing, and Annabeth just barely caught the sight of the winged demigod clutching onto the Fury's legs.
It wasn't enough. The Aphrodite girl had tried her best to charm Thalia into keeping her eyes open, and the Apollo boy had tried his best to heal the girl, but her death was almost unnatural.
In one flash and the next, Thalia was a pine tree.
"Kai, right?" Luke greeted, feeling tired from staying in the infirmary, "You were giving all the orders out there."
"Yeah," Kai said, eyes staring into him. It was unnerving, the way they flashed an unnatural pink shade before settling into a normal dark brown.
"You did a lot to try to get us here," Luke offered with a smile that felt faker than anything, "Thanks for that. I know you were injured, too."
They shrugged, "My wings will need to recover, but it's nothing too bad. How are you taking it?"
Luke's fake smile slipped off his face. He didn't want to talk about this.
"As fine as I can be," he answered with a bitter smile, but once more it felt fake. Forced. Not only was the grief swallowing him whole at the last memory of Thalia's arrogant grin, but the anger felt like a void ready to take him all. Zeus was King, but he couldn't even save one daughter.
It had to mean he didn't care. It sounded right. The Gods didn't care.
"Sure," Kai said, leaning against the wall with a slight wince, "You could say that."
"That sounds like you don't believe me," Luke tried joking, but it was a bit too angry to actually be anything light.
"Because I don't," Kai answered, and when they looked back at Luke, their eyes were a bright pink for a moment, "You loved her."
He fell silent, jaw tightening, "Of course I did."
"Of course," they echoed, "You can grieve, you know."
Luke didn't say anything more as they walked out of the infirmary. As they left, Luke noticed the bandages on their back that reached upwards toward their neck.
Maybe if Luke wasn't so upset, he'd have felt more gratitude to the camper who'd tried their best to save Thalia.
But it hadn't been enough, and for one loud moment, Luke had the thought, I wish they'd died instead of Thalia.
And even after that he felt no guilt of the thought, just brushed it away.
(He'd regret it later.)