Percie Jackson: The Fighter Girl

The Way It Began (Epilogue)

Percie POV

I staggered into my cabin, still clutching a pen-form Riptide in my hand.

My mind was reeling from what happened in the past few hours.

So many lives.

Gone.

Lucy. Alee. Samuel. Charlene. All of them.

"Don't let it happen again." Lucy's voice rang through my head.

Lucy.

She'd done the right thing in the end.

Stabbed herself to kill Kronas.

I sent a quick prayer to Haden to at least make sure she got Asphodel.

"Percie, your dad sent this over." Goldenrod said from the doorway.

I turned and took the package, wondering what it was. "Thank you, Lady of the Wild."

Goldenrod laughed. "I should get back to that... see you, Percie."

"See you." I murmured as she walked off.

My mind was still on other things.

Opening the package my dad sent me, I found a note on top of a bubble-wrapped rectangle shape.

'Dear Percie,

I heard about what happened. That must be hard, losing your friends. I'm glad you're okay.

You know, they'll need to be remembered. I sent something that may be able to help with that. I'd suggest name changes, maybe even gender changes. You can change some details, make it a story, but make sure the world knows what happened.

I love you,

Sal'

I frowned. What could Dad have sent me.

I quickly unwrapped the bubble wrap.

"A tape recorder?"

'Make it a story.'

I stared at the device in front of me.

Picking it up, I slowly clicked the on button.

"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."

------------------------

"Seaweed Brain, where are you?" Andrew shouted.

"In here!" I shouted back, tossing the ball of water in the air again and 'catching' it with my powers.

Andrew burst into my cabin, grinning from ear to ear.

"You've got to come see this!"

I stood and carefully walked around the stack of tapes in the middle of the floor.

"Who's got the recorder?"

"Well, Hazel and Francis have been passing it back and forth for a while, but I think it might have gone to Jessica at one point as well."

Recording up to the first war had taken a long time. I had only recently finished it. That was what the stack of tapes had been.

Now we were past the prophecy of the seven. This one I knew I couldn't tell on my own.

So I enlisted some help.

Jessica, Peter, Hazel, Francis, Ray and Nika all helped. So did Lea before she died.

"Okay, what did you want me to see so badly?" I asked. Andrew had gone into computer mode, probably trying to decide how long it would take to get the rest of the story on tape so we could send them in. I had decided to make it a story, just like my dad told me to.

"Oh, yeah! Come see, Seaweed Brain!" He exclaimed, grabbing my hand and dragging me outside.

Immediately I heard Peter yelling at the top of his lungs.

"What's his problem?"

"Come see!" Andrew was certainly excited about this, so I let him drag me along towards a huge crowd that was assembling around... a metal dragon?

"Lea!" I shouted, freeing myself from Andrew's iron grip (no small feat, trust me) and running towards my friend.

"Percie!" Lea shouted, running towards me. Instead of the hug I was expecting, she grabbed my shoulders and slung me in front of her. "Save me, Peter's out for blood!"

Looking up, I saw what I expected. A very angry Peter was being held back by the winds that Jessica was frantically creating. I knew it was only a matter of time before the son of Aphrodite charmspoke his way out, so I grabbed Lea's hand and forced her to let go of me.

"Run. And come see me later, I've got a job for you!" 

"Got it! Come on, Cal!" Lea took off running, a familiar boy at her heels.

"Cal?" I murmured. "She met Cal?"

Peter's voice boomed over the commotion that had begun.

"VALDEZ!"

---------------------

I carefully placed the last tape into the box. 

"Are you sure they're in the right order?" Andrew asked.

Again.

"Yes." I put the note in on top. It simply explained that this was a story I wished to have published. I hoped the publishers would do their job.

"But are you positive?"

"Yes!" I closed the box and held out a hand. "Tape?"

Lea slapped my open palm before Jessica could give me what I asked for. I rolled my eyes at the daughter of Hephaestene's antics.

"Thanks, Jess." I carefully taped the box shut and attached the sticker that Chira had given me.

It had the address of the Delphi Strawberry Company on it.

"Send it off." I murmured, placing a few drachmas on top of the box. It disappeared with a poof, thanks to a certain goddess off messengers.

I didn't know then that our story would become famous.

Well, not quite our story.

Check the censuses. Censi? Whatever they are.

There was never a Luke Castellan. Nor a Jason Grace nor a Nancy Bobofit.

They're made-up characters.

But there will be a Lucy. A Jessica, a Nathan.

Because we're all just stories in the end.

So I made sure it was a good one.

[A/N and that's a wrap! Also, I know two guys named Hazel, it is a gender-neutral name!]