A/N: I dedicate this chapter to all my wonderful reviewers. I hope you like it!

Eight Months Later

Shakky kicked her fifth customer of the day out the door, pocketing all his change with a sigh.

Life on Sabaody had been hard ever since Percy Jackson blew up a third of the archipelago. The reconstruction effort had quadrupled everyone's taxes.

Not that Shakky paid taxes to begin with, but it was the principle that counted.

Shaking out a fresh cigarette, Shakky strolled down to the water, where Kuma sat, waiting for the next assailant to try taking the Strawhats ship.

"Busy, today?" Shakky asked him. As always, the giant Warlord remained silent. Shakky worried about him sometimes; it appeared that Vegapunk's programming was chipping away more and more at Kuma's humanity.

"Shakky."

Shakky looked to where the voice had come from in the water, and promptly dropped her cigarette.

It was definitely Percy Jackson, but the boy she'd met briefly and helped nurse back to health all those months ago looked next to nothing like the boy in front of her. The first thing that caught her attention were Percy's eyes. They looked wild and almost feral, as if he'd been fighting every day since the earthquake. His slender build had filled out considerably, his arms now much bulkier. Gone was his deep, beautiful tan; living in the ocean for almost a year had turned him as pale as a cloud.

He flashed her a hesitant smile, and Shakky saw a mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth.

"I wanted to come back and see if you were alright," he said hesitantly, making to climb out of the water and on to the shore, "And I-I wanted to apologize."

Shakky helped him out of the water, noting that even though Percy probably hadn't been to the surface since that fateful day, he was still bone dry, "Apologize for what, honey? Do I look any worse for the wear?"

"But I-," Percy tried to protest.

Shakky held up a finger to silence him, "It's all in the past," she said kindly, "I'm just glad you're ok."

Percy gave a sigh of relief, "What happened? After I, well, you know…"

So Shakky told him about Kuma, gesturing at the man himself, helpfully, while explaining how Kuma had helped the other Strawhats escape.

"Thank you," Percy told the warlord, and he meant it, "I'd hug you, but I know what you did to Zoro."

Kuma didn't reply.

"So Percy, where have you been?" Shakky asked him.

So Percy told her how the earthquake had blasted him to the bottom of the sea, and how his father's guards had found him and brought him to Fishman Island.

"It takes a lot for him to maintain the form that everyone here's comfortable with," Percy told her, "While he's in front of me, I mean, so I don't spend a lot of time at the Palace. I've been hanging out a lot with Kaimi, Pappagu and Hachi, but most fishmen and merfolk don't like me very much."

Shakky's heart ached for the boy in front of her. Not a fishman, but not quite human anymore, either, Percy was doomed to be shunned from both the surface world and Fishman Island.

"So what do you do to avoid it all?"

"I've been sparing with sea kings," he told her, "Hachi's been helping me train too. Sometimes my brothers help me sneak into the hospital so I can practice healing too."

"The mer-princes," Shakky guessed.

Percy nodded, "They've been good to me. Their mother was all about improving relations between the surface world and Fishman Island, so they don't mind me so much."

Shakky wanted to ask him about the mer-princess, but before she could, a brilliantly blinding light enveloped the three of them. When it faded and her vision cleared, Percy was nowhere to be found.

Where he'd been sitting a moment before, lay a single, peacock feather.