Klaus's Demigod Daughter

Chapter 9

Thea spent the day leaving everyone alone. She did not like having to share as much as she did. She was fighting off flashbacks of Tartarus and of the wars, of those she lost, of the other demigods she killed, because they joined the enemy and were trying to kill her.

She spent most of the day in bed, staring at her ceiling. 

It was a little after when lunch is normally served when there was a knock on her door. She used her magic to let the person in, knowing it was her dad.

"Lunch is ready," Nik said, sticking his head in the door.

"I know. I'm not hungry," Thea replied, her tone monotonic.

Niklaus walks into her room and grabs the chair from the desk, "Are you okay?" he asked her. He knew she wasn't, but he didn't really know how to deal with this. He's never dealt with this type of trauma.

"No. I shared a lot more than I wanted to. Flashbacks suck," Thea replied.

"What were the flashbacks of?" Niklaus asks his daughter gently.

"The wars I fought and led, the Pit; where I was tortured for months on end a few of the times I was down there. Oh, not to mention the other demigods I had to kill since their parents ignored them so much they decided to join the enemy," Thea answered her father.

"How many wars have you fought in?" Nik asked his daughter, rather surprised that she fought wars when he did his best not to.

"I have fought in every war after World War II. And I didn't fight in that one because I wasn't old enough to go into battle with the other demigods," Thea explained.

"How old were you when they let you?" Niklaus asked, with a feeling of dread flooding his body.

"Twelve years old is when they tell you to go get your armor on and go help," Thea answered.

"WHAT?" Niklaus shouted.

"Yea, as a demigod, by the time we hit twelve, we are basically adults in their eyes, since most of us don't live past sixteen," Thea answered, "The wars were all greek god related. Even World War II was a fight between the sons of Hades and the sons of Zeus and Posideon. Most of the wars afterward were also Greek related, like the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Somalia, Haiti, Panama, Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, etc. The only ones I didn't fight in were because I was being tortured down in Tartarus, on a different quest, completely unrelated to the war on earth," Thea added.

"How many of those wars did you lead?" Niklaus asked, starting to feel sick at this point. How can greek gods and goddesses force their children to fight for them, when they are GODS and GODDESSES!

"Well, out of the list I mentioned, I did not lead Lebanon or Somalia," Thea answered.

Niklaus did not like hearing about this, but he needed to. He wanted to be able to help his daughter heal, to be able to be there for her, and he knew he needed to know this stuff in order to do either of those things. "Is this part of the reason you decided to not train anyone today?" Nik asked, looking at his daughter's sprawled out form, on her bed. Her eyes not having looked at him once since she started explaining things.

"Not completely. I meant what I said when I told you that I knew this was a lot to take in and wanted to give you all the space to do that. However, doing this also allows me to get my flashbacks under control and be able to teach you all tomorrow. By the way, I will not be going lightly on any of you. In camp, you train or you end up dead. Sometimes you still end up dead, so I am going to train you with that mindset. Just so you are aware," Thea answered.

"I look forward to it. Have you called Apollo yet?" Niklaus asked her.

"No, I'm dreading the prophecy he's going to give me. And based on the fact that Hephaestus gave all of you swords, I have the feeling that you all will be involved too, which I did not want to happen," Thea answered.

"I picked up on that when you hinted at it earlier," Niklaus replied.

Father and daughter sat in silence for a bit, not an awkward silence, more of a comfortable, yet both were thinking about all that was said and needs to be done. And they were very worried.