Fourth stage: Depression

[ Christina pov ]

As Charles and Annabeth took the measurements for her arms, Christina stared at Thalia, who was looking amused at her.

"< You could help them a bit more. They are taking the measurements for your arms after all. >" said Thalia from behind Annabeth.

Christina stared at Thalia with the same blank expression before nodding slightly. Moving her arms a bit, she continued to follow the instructions of Charles as he told her how to move them or how to stand so that he could take the measurements properly.

"Good work." said Charles as he finished. "Cassius is talking with Luke about the materials for your arms and the overall design, do you have anything you want to add? We might consider suggestions if they are possible to be done."

Christina moved her eyes away from Charles and looked at Thalia.

"< What are you looking at me for? >" asked Thalia while shrugging her shoulders. "< It is your arms they are talking about, not mine. >"

"Just tell me what you think." said Christina, still looking at Thalia.

"< Well, I liked the idea of painting a red panda. Annabeth is quite good when it comes to those things huh? >" replied Thalia with a small smile. "< Besides, you do love red pandas. >"

"Ehmmm, I don't know." said Charles, who thought Christina asked him. "Maybe something to fight monsters? Like a blade or something similar!"

Christina stared at him for a moment, slightly confused about why he was talking to her before realising he must have mistaken to whom she was talking.

"I want a red panda." she said with the same blank face, ignoring his idea.

"< A blade wouldn't be a bad thing to add. >" said Thalia with a slightly sadistic grin, getting closer to Christina and hugging her from behind before bringing her mouth close to her ear and whispering. "< Think about the surprise monsters would have in their eyes if they thought they were about to kill you and a blade appears from your arm. They would die without even understanding what happened, confused and afraid as death embraces them... how beautiful would that be, right? >"

Christina simply stared at Thalia before nodding slowly. "That makes sense, a blade is a good idea."

Charles was excited for a moment, as a child of Hephaestus he absolutely loved inventing and creating things, so having the opportunity to create arms for someone and add modifications to them was the closest thing to creating a robot he had ever done. He naturally tried to make the best out of this. Besides, as a demigod he knew how dangerous their lives were, so giving the small girl in front of him another way to defend herself was a brilliant idea.

He was slightly confused about why Christina took a moment in silence to think about it, but he just assumed that she was considering the pros and cons or something and moved on.

"Great!" he replied. "I will talk about it with Cassius and let you know what we can do about it. As for the red panda... well, I don't think that would be a problem." he continued, his expression was slightly confused about the red panda drawing Christina wanted, but he just overlooked it as something a little girl would want. "I don't know how you want it painted nor do I have great painting skills myself, but I am sure we can figure something out later on."

Charles left and went to where Cassius and Luke were talking, leaving Christina and Annabeth alone.

Annabeth stared at Christina in silence with a small smile on her face before she finally decided to speak."So you liked the idea of painting red pandas huh?" asked the little girl happily.

Christina turned her head to face Annabeth and nodded. "Yes." she replied shortly before turning to face Thalia again, who moved away from Christina and sat down where Charles used to be.

"< What? You are disappointed with your arms or something? >" asked Thalia while shaking her head. "< I am sure you could make great arms for yourself if you had the materials and.. well, the arms to work properly, so there is no need to feel like they are taking your spot or something. >"

Thalia got closer and placed her hand on Christina's chin, raising her head up and closing in her own face.

Staring at each other with nearly no distance separating them, Thalia grinned and moved her head to Christina's ear. "< Perhaps you should do something about them if you think they are taking your spot... >"

Christina stared at Thalia blankly and shook her head. "They aren't." she replied calmly.

Annabeth simply stared at Christina as her sister ignored her existence and continued to talk to herself fro a few more seconds.

Several minutes passed and Luke finally returned, a smile on his face as he looked at them both.

"Hey Chris." he said, crouching down to face Christina and placing his hand on her head. "They told me that they will get to making your arms right away, so you will get new arms very soon."

Standing up, he pulled Christina up as well and placed her on his shoulders. "You will be awesome! Cool robot arms with daggers inside and red pandas? You would totally be able to defeat a terminator or something huh?" he said excitedly as he looked at her.

"< Aww, why terminators though? >" said Thalia from the side. "< Terminators can't bleed after all, so it is useless to kill them. You would prefer monsters instead, wouldn't you? My dear Chris... >"

"Yes." replied Christina while nodding slightly.

The smiles on both Luke's and Thalia's face grew instantly as they stared at Christina.

"< Of course you would... after all, I know what you like the most. >" said Thalia, getting closer to Christina and walking alongside her, however since Christina was on top of Luke's shoulders she had to look up to see her little sister.

"Great!" said Luke, excited that Christina replied him. "By the way, I have a friend in the cabin that has a DVD player, so I am sure that if I got my hands on a few movies we could do one of those movie nights we talked about. How could would that be right?"

"You do know me best." said Christina, replying to Thalia's comment.

"Awesome!" said Luke at Christina's words. "I will see what I can do about it then. Do let me know if you have any movie you want to see alright?"

Annabeth stared at them from the side as she walked slightly behind Luke. She loved that Christina was talking so much, she really did... but she began to feel as if Christina wasn't talking to them, as if she would get lost in her own thoughts and then reply to a different conversation despite the answers fitting the appropriate reply perfectly.