Fatal Flaw: Empathy (Nico di Angelo)

Chapter Four

"All hail Aletha Fárence," Clarisse gulped, looking at the details of the three pokers on the stick. The pearl in the middle. "Daughter of Poseidon."

And she continued to cry on her knees, grateful that her father had cared enough to claim her, while simultaneously smiling for joy,

'Oh, gods' she thought, 'I must look insane!' She stopped smiling, and wiped her tearstained face.

Clarisse helped her move out of the Hermes cabin. Some Hermes boys, now sure she wasn't their sister, asked her out on a date, to which she politely shook her head no, and to which Clarisse's fiery eyes flared.

Aletha, despite being Seaweed Brain's sister, was like a sister to Clarisse. Clarisse's sisters (and on occasion brothers) did not have a boyfriend (or girlfriend) that did not receive a death threat from Clarisse the moment she learned of something that she didn't like. And Aletha would be no different.

Aletha moves into the Poseidon cabin, welcomed by a delicate squeeze from Percy, who was unsure whether to apologize, mourn his sister's mom, or congratulate her on being claimed. He treated her with casual, careful words and gestures.

Aletha smiled politely at him, throughout the entire thing unsure of what she was supposed to do as a younger sister. Percy eventually revealed to her about a week later that he'd always dreamed of having a sister, and that if she was okay with it, he wanted to act more brotherly and get to know her better.

Aletha has smiled and wrapped her arms around him tightly after tackling him. He happily gave her a piggyback, or rather Percy-back, ride to pretty much anywhere in the camp. She hung out with Percy and Annabeth a lot, but it seemed that while she was extremely close to the two, she preferred to spend her time with Clarisse.

Clarisse and the other Ares kids were rowdy and didn't treat her like she was made of glass. Clarisse, of course stopped them from going too far, but that didn't keep her from making savage comments about them on her tablet. Once, a boy at Clarisse's table had walked over and asked her out on a date while Clarisse wasn't there, and she'd responded by writing, "You'd have more luck convincing a rock. BTW, are you asking cuz Clarisse isn't here?" And innocently blinked at him. He'd opted to ignore the comment and turn away flustered.

Her life at camp was going great the first few weeks she'd been there. Aletha made many friends throughout the next two and a half weeks, but she had not seen the future coming. She might not have been Percy, leading people into wars and falling into Tartarus. But Poseidon's children tended to have a lot of trouble on their hands while they were alive. They were just fated to be that way.