And Then I Wrote Marvel

Just Like Their Parents (Percy Jackson)

I hope you don't mind that I stuck this in here. Yeah, it's a little late for my boy Percy Jackson's birthday. Shush. Also it might be just a touch sad. Sorry.

Rachel sat in her cave, still alone after all this time. Her walls were still white; she hadn't had the heart to paint after everything had happened. She'd painted layer after layer over the portrait of a certain god, who she blamed for the whole mess. The spot had been blacklisted, for sure.

She'd been had this job for twenty two years, but still looked 22, coincidentally. Just old enough that some of the oldest of the campers looked half a decade younger than her. No one really talked to her anymore unless they wanted a prophecy, and even then, it was as awkward as they decided to make it.

She'd had some friends among the Greek demigods, but they'd all passed on to Elysium or moved on to live lives outside of camp. They'd all promised to come back and visit, but they all had yet to follow through on that. She just had her blue plastic hairbrush, to which many campers fifteen years or so back had taken to calling the love of her life. Some Hecate kids had heard the tale of her chucking it at Kronos's eye, and insisted on enchanting it would that it would always hit its mark.

It had only been a few years before that that idiot Apollo had gotten her friends killed--Percy, Annabeth, Grover--and she'd never be able to forgive him for that. No one, save Chiron, gave Rachel
a second thought as the camp grieved the loss of the demigods and the satyr.

Books had become one of her only sure friends, and she grew to love them more than the Athena cabin did. It was impressive how many books she burned through, and how many times she'd been through her personal library.

One might ask why she didn't just leave camp, if she was just so lonely. Chiron could always just give her a call if they needed a prophecy, right? It was true in some ways, but she'd acquired a scent of her own as the Oracle that monsters could trace. It wasn't safe for her. She stayed in the Big House during the winter, but no one bothered her there, either.

August 18th, 22 years after she had taken the spirit of the Oracle, her life began again. Two teenagers walked up to the entrance of her cave, bickering like an old married couple.

"Okay, Smart Alec, you're doing the talking from here on out," a boy stated comfortably

"Not a chance, Mush Head. We agreed that I would make our presence known, but you would be doing the talking," a girl fought back.

"Times change, Zo. How about I say something so she knows we're here, then you say everything?"

"Incentive," commanded the girl. Her voice sounded familiar. Come to think of it, so did the boy's.

"Cookies?"

"We all know you can't bake worth--"

"I could hear you arguing a mile away, kids. Just come in, I'll see if the Oracle has anything for you, and you don't have to continue debating."

The kids entered sheepishly, but Rachel didn't look up from her book.

"Sorry, Ms. Dare. We didn't mean to bother you."

"Ah, you're fine. It's nice to hear someone's voice, other than the ones in my head, you know?" She still didn't look up to meet their strange gazes. Instead, she finished her page, found the popsicle stick bookmark that she's painted on, and closed her book on it. She continued to stare at the cover wistfully.

"Aaanyway, I'm Luke, and this is Zoe. We'd like a prophecy," the boy said bluntly.

"If it isn't too much trouble," continued Zoe.

"Nah, no trouble at all." She finally looked up, and realized why the kids sounded so familiar. They could have been Percy and Annabeth's kids, but that was unlikely. To her memory, they didn't have children when they had died. Although, if they did, they looked about the age. They were probably a random pair of demigods from the Athena and Poseidon cabins.

She smiled and decided not to bring up her two late friends. After fifteen years, it was still hard. "Just give me a minute to prepare myself, I guess. How old are you guys?"

"We'll be sixteen in December," supplied Zoe.

"Both of you in the same month?"

"Yeah, Zo's on the 5th and I'm on the 6th," Luke elaborated. "She likes to claim seniority even though it's only by 11 minutes."

"Crazy that you guys were born so close together," Rachel commented.

"We grew up together, too, so I've gotten used to dealing with this Mush Head."

"It's not as bad as having to deal with you, Smart Alec."

"Believe me, it's a hundred times harder for the intelligent to deal with the plain stupid."

Zoe was the smart one of the pair? She had the traits of a child of Poseidon, while Luke looked like an Athena kid. Odd.

"Calm down, kiddos. You remind me of an Athena/Poseidon couple from my generation, come to think of it."

"Percy and Annabeth Jackson?" Zoe asked. "We get that a lot. Not sure why, though." There was a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because they're our parents? But that wouldn't make any sense at all. No. Certainly not," said Luke, exchanging that Percy Jackson trouble-maker smile with his apparently twin sister.

"The Jackson legacy lives on," Rachel exhaled, not sure how to react to this news. "And of course they named their kids after Luke and Zoe."

"What else were you really expecting?" inquired Luke.

Rachel laughed. That hadn't happened in while. "Nothing different."