Holograms began to show up in existence slowly, but surely. It formed a library and entering the library was—

"Wow. Is that you, Sephie?"

Percy nodded. "I had forgotten how short I was."

"'Was'?" Jason G laughed. "You still are!"

She scowled. "I'm 5'8!"

"Yeah, and I'm 6'0, so to me, you are small."

Zeus frowned at the noise they were causing, but opted to stay silent from the glare sent by Poseidon.

Okay, let me get one thing straight.

"And that is?" asked Thalia.

I. Did. Not. Want. To. Be. A. Freaking. Half-Blood.

"Did any of us?" Leo was joking, but the hidden grief was exuding through his voice. The demigods' expressions became anguished as memories of loved ones and siblings lost during the wars.

"Wait, you don't want to be the children of the Greek gods?" said Julia in her incredulity. "Or even the Romans?"

Will looked her dead in the eye. "Trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be."

There was an ominous silence until Piper raised her hand and said, "Um, does anyone know why Percy's doing a voice-over?"

A flash of light later gave Piper her answer.

If you read this, and believe that you are, then CLOSE THE DAMN BOOK NOW! Believe whatever you're "parents" told you about whether or not you're their kids, and try to lead a normal life.

"If only that were so easy," Travis muttered.

Even he—hiding it better than others, of course—felt misery and despair. Depression was basically a habit for all the demigods who had been through even one of the wars.

If you think you're a regular kid, go ahead and read. It's not like anything's gonna happen to you.

But it you feel like whatever I'm telling you is similar to your own story, slam this book shut and forget all about it!

If you don't...well, it's just a matter of time before the monsters come after you, too.

Well, I warned you.

My name is Persephone Jackson, but if you ever call me by my first name without my permission, I can personally guarantee you a life of torture both here and in the afterlife.

"That's rude," scoffed a blonde girl who had drooled over Jason.

Percy put her hands on her hips and said, "Deal. With. It."

Capiche? Instead, call me Percy.

I'm 12 years old and I know you're probably thinking that my language isn't the way a girl my age should be speaking, but you know what?

"What?" Reyna asked, amused.

Deal with it.

"It's my catchphrase!" Percy defended herself at the laughs she got from everyone.

That's what you get for living with a complete jerkwad for 5 years.

The laughing subdued. Haunted memories of Smelly Gabe recalled Percy and Sally, who let our quiet, broken sobs of grief. They were both held by their lovers. Poseidon clenched his fist, wishing he had been able to stop it, because no matter how many times Sally and Percy had told him the past was in the past, he never stopped thinking of the what-ifs if he had stopped Sally from marrying that walrus.

I'm in my junior year of high school right now. I know what you're thinking: a child prodigy?!

Well, yeah. I've always been smart and when my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Wilson, noticed that I was reading The Odyssey, she kept pestering my mom to let me take an I.Q test.

The result was 140.

"Woah!" The mortals began focusing all their gawking at Percy, especially the government agents, who scribbled stuff down on their notepads.

Info that they can use against us, no doubt, Percy thought bitterly.

I was entering the library when the librarian, a cool guy that went by the name of Mr. Brunner, smiled as he noticed me.

"Hello, Percy," he greeted me. "Done already?"

"Isn't that Chiron?" Hazel asked.

Percy nodded. "He was keeping an eye on me."

"Who's Chiron again?" asked one of Arnold's goons.

Hazel smiled, though it seemed strained because of the glares she earned, probably because of her race. "You'll see."

Percy leaned closer to the daughter of Pluto. "Ignore the racists, Hazel. You're awesome."

Hazel nodded and smiled gratefully before leaning further into Frank.

"Oh, yes," I said happily. "Romeo and Juliet never gets old. But I think I want to read something a bit more modern right now."

"The heart wants what the heart wants."

"No kidding," Jasmine murmured, leaning closer to her boyfriend, who heard her loud an clear.

He grinned giddily and purred, "What was that mi amor?"

She blushed and swatted his arm. "Shut up, Hammerhead."

Leo just smiled knowingly. "Whatever you say, Mi amor."

"So does the mind, it seems," I joked along. "The Perks of Being A Wallflower, please."

Mr. Brunner pointed his ballpoint pen to the left. "Young Adult section."

"Is it the same pen?" Jason G asked. Percy nodded solemnly.

"What is a pen?" Jason asked.

The demigods glanced at each other, unsure of how to answer, until Malcolm Pace spoke up and explained as best as he could. "It's a writing utensil that uses ink, but instead of dipping it into a pot of ink like you do with a quill, the ink is in the tiny cylinder that's made of metal, or plastic, which mortals haven't discovered in your time yet."

Jason nodded, also feeling bit awkward himself conversing with someone bearing the same name as him.

I thanked him and went off. On the way, I saw a familiar face: Mrs. Dodds.

"And so it begins," Grover groaned.

Percy snorted—if only he knew.

See, Mrs. Dodds is this little old lady that came here everyday. She had short gray hair cut in a bob, a leather jacket, and looked mean enough to ride a Harley Davidson straight at you.

"She would," Nico said gravely. The mortals gulped and scooted away from the boy they had all mentally dubbed "Emo Goth". He was no good, just like all the demigods.

The strange thing was, she always seemed to be at the same section that I was (and believe me, my tastes varied every time I came here; I never chose the same section I did last time) and picked a book-possibly by random?-that was closest to where I was. Then, she'd sit at a table not far from mine, but never actually read. She'd just watch me.

Creepy, right?

"YES!" All the demigods, both of Old and New shouted in unison. Even the mortals knew this was not the behavior of a normal person.

Now, I'm not dumb—

"Never, darlin'," Will assured her. Percy bit her lip like she always did whenever she heard his southern accent. It couldn't be helped—it was so hot.

—so even I know that I should have told someone, but me being the curious person that I am, wanted to find out for myself why Mrs. Dodds acted this way. Who knows, maybe she just wants to talk to me, right?

"NO!"

Percy huffed. "I was trying to not think anything rude of her, okay?"

Poseidon shook his head, amused. His daughter could be too kind at times. Not that he saw anything wrong with it, seeing as it reminded him of Sally.

Anyways, I put back Moby Dick and picked up Pride and Prejudice. I'd already read it, but it was so good—I had to re-read it again. I went over to the nearest table and, sure enough, Mrs. Dodds was already there, the bottom of her face hidden by The Iliad and The Odyssey.

"What are those about?" asked Heracles.

Percy hid a grin as she explained, "The Iliad is about the Trojan War and the wrath of Achilles, while The Odyssey is about the story of, well, Odysseus as he traveled home from the war. Both those tales came in handy for me."

The ominous ending made the Demigods of Old tense. What did she mean by that?

Mrs. Dodds kept on flipping a page, waiting a couple minutes, and flipping it again. I have to admit, she was good at pretending to read. However, I kept squirming in my spot, because it felt life she was still watching me like a hawk observing a mouse, right before it...well...you know.

Poseidon started growling. He knew why Hades had done it, and had even forgiven his big brother for it, but that didn't mean that he couldn't be upset about it still.

I kept debating whether or not to just stand up and join Mrs. Dodds when she stood up abruptly, glanced at me for barely a millisecond, and left to a more secluded section of the library. She was so fast, I almost thought I'd imagined it. Almost.

Then, I realized that I should catch up to her and question her is she was actually stalking me (I tend to be straight-forward with some things) before she left the library, or else this would keep me up at night.

I followed her.

Later, I looked back and wondered what might have been if I hadn't, because that was a huge mistake to make.

"Humongous mistake," Percy corrected herself. "But it was worth it."

Will's smile grew as big as the Cheshire cat's.

I found Mrs. Dodds standing in the corner of a not very popular section of the library. I approached her slowly, unsure of my choice once again, which was very annoying.

Her back was turned, so I tapped her on the shoulder. "Um...Mrs. Dodds?"

"Yes?" She still didn't turn around. I was certain my mind was playing tricks on me: I could've sworn I heard growling from the back of her throat.

"Um..." I stopped myself, unsure of how to phrase the question without sounding like a complete idiot.

However, it seemed as though Mrs. Dodds had something to say to me. She glared at me so hard, I felt like I was guilty for something, but I'd never committed any serious crimes in my life. Honest!

"Seriously?" Clarisse said skeptically.

"Hey, I said no serious crimes!" Percy said in defense. "Plus, that was when I was, like, twelve at the time. I've committed enough crimes now that I'd..."

She paused and glanced at the mortals, especially the government officials, who were perusing her every word. Percy knew they were going to use every crime she'd ever committed against her and put her in a facilitation, as well.

Her sea green eyes locked with Will's ocean blue ones as they held a silent conversation.

Percy: What should I say? They're all going to find out what we did one way or another, you know.

Will: Then they'll know that we saved the world twice and deserve a break. Besides, they wouldn't dare to try anything with so many demigods to back us up.

"You have caused us much trouble, Persephone Jackson," she hissed. "Where is it?"

"What?" My voice was weak, but she still heard me.

"WHERE. IS. IT?!"

"Where's what? I don't know what you're talking about!"

Okay, forget creepy, this woman's homicidal!

"Not a woman, a Fury," Percy said. Then, her eyes widened. "Oops."

"WHAT?!" shouted everyone who knew what a Fury was and didn't know that one had been Percy's "first" monster.

"How did you defeat a Kindly One?!" demanded Perseus. "And so young at that, too!"

"My crazy luck?" Percy tried for a smile. It didn't work.

Then, the craziest thing happened.

Mrs. Dodds's eyes began to glow an eerie black like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched until they were talons and her jacket melted into leathery bat wings, but human-sized.

She wasn't human. She was some leathery, wrinkly, hag with razor-sharp teeth that, for some reason, had a bone to pick with me.

This was not good.

"Not good?!" Poseidon shrieked. "That's all you have to say about this?!"

Percy shrugged. "Well...when you compare her to the other ones that I've fought...well, she just doesn't seem that threatening anymore."

"What could be worse than Kindly Ones?" Theseus asked.

"Eh, some evil gods, Titans, Giants," Percy listed off the top of her head. "And that's not mentioning Polyphemus!"

She grinned at Odysseus, who blanched. "Polyphemus? The one I defeated?"

"As far as I know, there isn't any other. And I should know."

Mr. Brunner, who'd been at the front desk of the library a minute before, wheeled his chair in their direction, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

"What is she supposed to do with a damn pen?" shrieked Atalanta, running her hands through her hair. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but the daughter of Poseidon had managed to worm her way into Atalanta's cold heart, even if it was just the first chapter.

"It's okay," Percy assured her, trying hard to not make her "dam" joke. "He knows what he's doing."

I caught the pen incredulously. What was I supposed to do with a freaking pen? I uncapped the pen, but it wasn't a pen anymore, it was a sword.

Heracles gaped. "But that's my sword!"

Percy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but you didn't need her after you became a god and she was given to me."

The son of Zeus choked. "Her?! She?!"

Percy quirked an eyebrow. "Who decided that Riptide was a male's name?"

Silence answered her.

"I thought so," said Percy smugly, leaning back into her chair, snuggling into Will.

Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.

A wave of shivers ran through most of the crowd. The modern demigods, however, were barely fazed, especially the ones who'd been on the Argo II.

My knees were jelly and my breath was held. I didn't know if it was going to be my last. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the first thing I could process. I swung the sword at her with as much force as I could manage, recalling fighting position in pictures that I'd seen in books and how sword fighting had been described in some of my favorite fantasy books.

"That was the first thing you could do?" asked Leo. "If it were me, I'd have just made a classic Leo joke and ducked outta the way hella fast!"

"That's what makes us different, Leo."

The metal blade sliced through her waist and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!

She exploded in a shower of gold dust and rained over me. And yet, I could still feel her eyes, glaring at me with the hate of a thousand demons, as if warning me that this wasn't going to be our last meeting.

"Man, I sound so ominous," commented Percy dryly. "I'm not wrong, though."

"How many times did you fight that Fury?" asked Reyna.

"I fought her once more during my first quest," answered the daughter of Poseidon. "We come to an agreement later, though. Now, we get along pretty well."

I was alone.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.

"But how?" asked a mortal girl.

Percy did jazz hands, but her expression was a deadpan. "Magic."

My hands were still trembling, but I picked up the cap of the ballpoint pen and capped the sword. It changed back into a pen. I stuck it in my shirt pocket and marched out, determined.

Mr. Brunner had better not lie to me.

"Oh, he definitely won't," Piper said.

"Why?" asked Heracles arrogantly.

Piper glared at him, still angry about what had happened at the Pillars of Hercules. Stacey answered for her: "You haven't seen Percy's temper. She is Poseidon's daughter, remember?"

The others shivered, remembering their own moments when they'd upset Percy and she'd lashed out. It was especially bad whenever Will had gotten injured, which was, thankfully, a rare occurrence.

The holograms shifted to form the front desk of the library, Percy marching towards it.

A/N: Hey, I finally updated, right? I know that the chapter is kinda small and Grover wasn't really included, but I promise, he will be playing a huge part in the next one.

Anyways, read on and please, comment on any ideas you have. Since Annabeth isn't going to be a part of the series much, at least, not in the way she was in canon, I need a different idea for Mark of Athena. I kind of know how to fit Will and Stacey into the alternative, but how to fit the Athena Parthenos...

Please follow, favorite, and review this! I would really appreciate it!

—LEOVALDEZ765