Author's Note: "*" means it is an extra. You don't have to read it.
Dear Bethany, Jorge, and Darcy,
I didn't want to be the one to tell. It has been a while, quite a while actually and there's a lot to catch up on. You have heard this story many times as your mother may have told you, but she doesn't know the full tale. Though she doesn't know, I very well do. You know this is a big timeline story. This started with people very smart and powerful you didn't even knew but decades later made friends with your great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents Katniss and Peeta Mellark. I'm sure as I tell the story you'll put together everything that's happened. The heroes who defeated Gaea, Percy and Annabeth Jackson, came to be a happily married, immortal couple, rewarded by the gods of Olympus for their hard work and dedication. Chiron, a centaur (half man, half horse) had kids of his own after finding another centaur in a quest of his own in the Amazon. After dying seven years later, one took his place of being in charge of Camp Half-Blood (a Greek demi-god camp), his name being Bireze. Dionysus, the wine god, eventually finished paying off his time at Camp Half-Blood and is back on his throne at Mount Olympus where he should be. Camp Jupiter (a Roman demi-god camp) and Camp Half-Blood came to peace each having one week where they do something called the Great Camp swap (where both camps switch their campers so they know what it's like at the other's camp). Looking at what I've told you, it doesn't exactly seem horrible, but what I haven't told you was who, out of the magnificent seven- Percy (son of Poseidon), Annabeth (daughter of Athena), Jason (son of Jupiter), Piper (daughter of Aphrodite), Frank (son of Mars), Hazel (daughter of Pluto), and Leo (son of Hephaestus)- we have lost. As you should know, well, years ago, Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, the deepest, darkest place in the underworld (long story). To summarize, Annabeth had a quest of her own to find the long lost Athena Parthenos, but as a group, had to close the doors of death in order to show the gods they were worthy enough to work with them. They all went to Rome, but Annabeth went her own separate way for her cause. The others went back to save her in the end, but Annabeth's foot got tied to something heavy pulling her down in an entrance to Tartarus, along with Percy, after trying to save her. The others went to Greece (there are only two openings to the Doors of Death, Greece included) to one side of the doors, while Percy and Annabeth, looking and finding their ways through, found the other side. Well, there never really is a happy ending, and it's known, at least for Tartarus, that in order to secure a close, someone has to stay behind and lock it. Who was the one though? Leo, feeling useless and lonely, stayed behind due to underestimating himself and died. Piper and Jason, a couple, moved on and went to live together in New Rome and from old age, eventually left the world. As for Hazel and Frank, another couple, stayed in Greece to form their life there. -There came a time where they became broke and Hazel had to go underground because nothing came to her when she tried to summon jewels. She got lost and was digging in all directions. She tried praying to her father for help, but he thought that after all she'd been through, she could figure out a way to escape. She probably could have, but ran out of air and…yeah.
*HAZEL'S AFTERLIFE
She had found herself in Elysium, though and saw a curly haired boy fiddling with his fingers, sitting by a tree. She knew him, he was young, but seeing that she was older, couldn't think of any young boy in her life at her age, really. Was it from her first or second life? As she got closer, flashbacks were coming. She saw that boy in a…holographic scroll? Then, they were uncomfortably close together, looking at each other. They looked tall but didn't seem at the age to be that tall-almost as if, they were standing on something, a rock? More and more flashbacks, faster and faster, she didn't have time to think. Then, a flashback of seven, young looking teenagers; it was her…-they all looked familiar, like people she knew, but smaller, younger-she wracked her brain. …Percy…Annabeth…Jason…Piper…Frank… Come on! "Leo!" The boy turned around and she ran to him. "It's been so long! Oh my Jupiter!" She hugged him. He looked at her puzzlingly. "Don't you know me?" He didn't speak. "I'm Hazel. Hazel Levesque, you're Leo Valdez. Remember?" He stared into her eyes for a while. "You didn't do anything; you didn't come back for me. You never spoke up. Who was I to you? Why do you seem to care now? When it's too late?" She didn't know what to say. She stood up and looked far beyond. "It's been a while, Leo. A long time. After I realized what I did, or, really what I didn't, I didn't feel right.-And you have to understand that. It had been too late to try to come back, too late to think of something else. I couldn't dwell on it forever and I eventually had to move on, move on until I forgot… about everything, about you." When Leo didn't speak, Hazel left. The next day, she couldn't find him by the tree, but by a creek kneeling on the sweet green grass. She sat next to him. "So." She looked at him, and looked at him….. He turned away. She softly strung the tips of her finger across the water making ripples. Hazel was about to leave when Leo turned to face her and kissed her nose. Then he hugged her for a long time and started crying into her shoulder. Leo eventually stopped. He picked a dandelion flower and tucked it behind her ear and left. Hazel never saw him again.*
Time passed, things changed. People and demigods gave up on their life, for no reason. The gods (except me, I think love is a blessing and shall forever rein!) retired as well, most of the monsters gave up since there really was nothing to fight for and lost mostly at everything, looking at their history. One thing that did happen was that a new breed of monsters came out. No one knew how or from what. Then more and more were made but in different forms. People started working with them creating more. One of them was called a Tracker Jacker, if they stung you, it would make you hallucinate. The other, by the name of Muttations. Some being monkey-like creatures, others looking somewhat like dogs. Mortals took over and soon, almost no trace of the gods was left. Percy and Annabeth couldn't do anything. The gods wouldn't help. They told them that they did what they were supposed to and fulfilled their job of being gods. Not soon after, things were changing unbelievably. In the ruins of the United States regions were being formed (though referred to as "districts") - each taking a part of something. For example: District 4 took care of fishing or anything that had to do with it, District eleven took care of agriculture, and District twelve took care of coal mining.
*Thinking about it, it's like what used to be. The gods are the districts, the leader Zeus is the president, Mount Olympus is the Capitol, the Fields of Punishment is the arena, and the Victors Village is Elysium.*
Let me explain all of this. There were 13 districts but because the president was being mean and unfair, District 13 stroke a rebellion. Sadly, they didn't win and the district burned leaving twelve districts. The Capitol voted on a "special punishment" to the other districts for 13's behavior. It was said to be that two kids (ages ranging 12- 18 or so) from each district were to be put in an arena together to kill each other to the death until only one was left standing alone. The arena varied, some being woodlands, others a beach, etc. When you were at age, you would be put in a drawing. If you bought extra food, they'd put your name in again, giving you a more likely chance of being picked to go in the arena. They called the part of the drawing a "reaping". When that was done, you would say goodbye to your friends and family, then go to the Capitol to get ready. There they would make you look perfect and set an "image" for you so you can get people to like you and you can get sponsors. Those sponsors could send you food or something you need in parachutes in the arena. If you won the Games, you'd come home and they would give you a fine house and food for you and your family for the rest of your life. Every twenty-five years of having the Games, they would change the Games. This was called the "Quarter Quell". For ex: the second twenty-five years, which was the fiftieth anniversary, they put double the amount of participants. This went on for seventy-three years. Percy and Annabeth couldn't do anything. Then, who stood out to them one year were these kids Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen (your great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents). They made a big impression on them when they saw how well they worked together to be the first two to win in the same Games. They also liked how they fell in love with each other practically the same way they did. Peeta liking Katniss was like Annabeth who liked Percy from the start. They both truly started liking each other after some adventures, Peeta and Katniss' adventure being the arena. Percy and Annabeth decided to go meet them when they got picked again for the Quarter Quell. No one knew about Percy and Annabeth. They could secretly communicate with the star-crossed lovers and meet up with them. They found Leo's old holographic scroll which helped them. The four became close friends and Peeta and Katniss soon knew what Percy and Annabeth were and knew the history of Panem.
*Percy and Annabeth were by Katniss and Peeta the whole time, all the way and even went to their wedding as normal Capitol party-goers.*
The past arena had been the 74th Hunger Games which meant the year they were in then, was the Quarter Quell. Of course, the Capitol got Katniss and Peeta back by having the next Games have the past victors that were still alive, no matter the age, go in again. When Percy and Annabeth found out that the Quarter Quell would be near water after Katniss and Peeta got picked again, they knew they could help Katniss and Peeta because of Percy's power. Once already in the arena, Katniss and Peeta became friends with someone named Finnick and someone he's always loved, Annie Cresta. They took him to meet Percy in the water, Percy and Annabeth's hiding spot. Percy built themselves a home until the Games finished. Percy and Annabeth had actually been some of the sponsors for Katniss, Peeta, and the friends Katniss and Peeta made in the arena. Finnick, who was from District 4, loved Percy, who was the son of Poseidon. They got along real well, though Annabeth wasn't so fond of Johanna, who was one of Finnick's friend from the start. They knew about the "escape from the arena" plan and once the people- including Katniss- they needed were out, gave a lot of their power to fight in the next rebellion. In District 13, Percy and Annabeth were introduced to Prim and Buttercup by Katniss. Katniss thought it best not to show Percy and Annabeth to her mother or Gale.
*Finnick proposed to Annie after some time and celebrated with a small party there in 13.*
During a time in 13, Katniss was working- Percy and Annabeth included- with others to get Peeta, who had not made it out of the arena and who got hijacked by the Capitol. After some time they got him backed but as said, was hijacked into hating Katniss. Katniss was giving up on him and was starting to give Gale a chance at being her boyfriend. Percy and Annabeth wouldn't give up, though. He started gaining his true memory of Katniss back. They were fighting; things were getting worse in the rebellion. Prim was nursing the wounded with her mother. She had tried to help the small ones before a known bomb that Gale helped make exploded, but unfortunately died trying. Along with Prim, Finnick died running from Muttations. The Underworld along with Tartarus was still existent, so Percy and Annabeth made sure Prim and Finnick were sent to Elysium. After everything that had happened, the rebellion eventually ended and they won. President Snow, their president, was killed as well as President Coin (leader of 13). Gale left without words to say and moved to District 2. Katniss and Peeta went and lived together back in District 12, and Percy and Annabeth moved to District 4. Percy and Annabeth ended up having 3 kids five years after settling in their new home. About 10 years later, Katniss and Peeta followed in their footsteps with one blooming boy and one gracious girl. Those five kids then had kids when they grew up… and the rest is history. That is why you're such good friends with Percy and Annabeth's great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren. Small world, huh? Please do share this letter with them; it's time they should know as well. Anyway, though this is a long story, I tried to make it quick. Ta ta!
Aphrodite ;*