Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, any other future mythology Rich Riordan writes about, or Rich Riordan Presents. I am simply a humble fan, writing this for the enjoyment of other fans. Please support the official release!
WHY THE HELL ARE YOU READING MY JOURNAL?
Yes, it's a journal. Not a diary or a book, but it's a journal and I didn't give you permission to read it. Go give it back to me right now, so I can shock the hell out of you.
If you're reading this, I might be dead. You better hope, because when I find out you're reading this, you'll be the one who dies. Though if I am dead... Then please, feel free to read this. This is an accounting of my life
This is the journal that I've kept since I first woke up as an eleven-year-old Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus. I don't plan on showing this to anyone, so I assume I'm dead if you're reading this. Then again, before my reincarnation, I wasn't planning on becoming a kid. I know how times can change these kinds of things. So maybe something has changed and you're reading this while I'm alive?
I was born Ryan Johnson, a normal mortal in a world without gods, monsters, magic, demigods, or magicians. I died at Thirty-Eight years old. Stuck in a dead-end theater job, I can remember wishing every day for something to change. I guess I got my wish. How did I die? Car crash. I was taking a bus from one county to another when the driver swerved. We went off the side of the road, and that was it. Darkness...
Then I felt my soul exchange places with someone else's. I can describe the feeling, but I knew what it was. Across time and space, I was being put in someone else's body. The soul I exchanged places with no longer existed in this world, just like mine hadn't before I died. I like to think Thalia's soul ended up in my world, where she could have a second chance at life, but there's no way to know.
You might not believe what I've written above, but it's true. In my world, Thalia Grace was a character in the Percy Jackson books. The Heroes of Olympus, the Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. There was a serious about Apollo and I think Riordan was going to make more books, but I never read anything after the Magnus Chase books. By the time they came out, I wasn't a kid anymore.
This world I've come to isn't the world of the books. There are slight differences, such as Bianca di Angelo being released from the Lotus Hotel and Casino earlier than in the books. Aubrey Chase hadn't survived in the books, and she wasn't a magician. Matt Sloan wasn't a demigod in the books.
Then there are the larger changes. The Prophecy of the Seven. And of course, all the business with the Unborn One. As far as I know, that hadn't happened in the Rick Riordan books. Maybe he wrote about it after I stopped reading, I don't know.
It sounds crazy, but it's the truth. I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?
I guess if you are reading this, you want my account. This is only the first volume of my journal, so if I am dead, you're going to have to go through my things and make sure to find the rest.
Now, where should we start? I never wanted to be a demigod. If I was given the choice to reincarnate to take over the body of any fictional character, it wouldn't be Thalia. It wouldn't be anyone in the Riordanverse books. Reading about adventures and monsters was one thing, but living them? That's worse. It's terrifying and painful.
I guess the beginning is as good a place as any. When I become Thalia Grace, I nearly died. I think I'm going to call this Journal Thalia Grace and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, in honor of the first Percy Jackson book.
When I came too, I was leaning against a tree. Thalia's spear was clutched firmly in my hand, though I didn't know it was her spear right then. The first thing I felt was my damp forehead. I reached up and ran my hand through the liquid. It came away, strained with blood.
Why was I bleeding? Then it came back to me: the bus crash. The bus had fallen over, into the ditch on the side of the road. Maybe I hit my head?
I looked around, expecting to see a bus, but all I saw were trees. I was in the middle of a thick forest. A forest that I knew very well because I had grown up in it: the Redwood Forest. I was willing to bet I was in Northern California or Oregon.
Why the hell was I so far away? The bus I was on was driving through Kansas. How did I go from Kansas to the West Coast?
That's when I noticed the bronze spear in my hand. I had never held anything more threatening than a knife before and that was only when I was cooking. Where had the spear come from? Why was I holding it?
That question vanished from my mind when I looked down at myself. In my last life, I had been on the chubbier side. A little overweight, but nothing too bad. I was also over six feet tall. My body was a lot shorter now. That was strange. Had I shrunk?
My clothes were ripped and shredded, exposing bloody skin. The last time I checked, I was wearing sweat pants and a white tank-top, not a Green Day tee-shirt or blue jeans. Both of which had dozens of holes in them. I wasn't wearing any shoes, but I did have one soak one.
When I tried to sit up, my shirt fell off. I guess it was more damaged than I thought it was. My first thought? I'm going to jail. Was this considered child porn? God, I hoped not. I was left with the realization that I wasn't looking at a disgusting image taken by the scum of the world, but I was looking at myself. My body.
What the hell? Had I been turned into a little girl? Sure, I was hating my life, my dead-end job, and my coworkers, but I didn't want to become a girl. Much less a little girl. I was happy with being a dude.
"THALIA!" someone yelled. The voice was coming from the trees. I could hear the sound of footsteps. A moment later, a blonde boy that couldn't be older than thirteen broke through the treeline. He was carrying a sword and he didn't look to be in much better shape than I was.
When he saw him, he ran over. "Thank the gods, you're alright."
Who was this kid? Why was he so happy to see me?
"I can't care what you say. I'm not leaving you here, Thalia. We might have just met yesterday, but you're the first person I've met that's like me. You can see the monsters too. I can't leave you here."
Monsters?
Something else broke from the treeline. It was a man with the lower half of a snake. He was bigger than the boy. He was carrying a fucking machete. The blade was stained with blood. When he saw us, the monster smirked.
"There you are," the monster said in a hissing voice. "Don't worry children. I promisssse, thisssss won't hurt!"
The injuries on my body weren't made from ripping or tearing. They were clean cuts. Like skin being sliced with a blade. Or a machete.
The boy crouched in front of me, holding his sword in front of him. "You'll have to go through me first."
"Gladly, demigod! I will eat you first as an appetizer!"
"This might be the end," the boy said. "Hermes can go to Tartarus!"
The monster lunged... Only to flinch away from us as an arrow came out of the forest. It impacted the ground in front of us. A blonde girl appeared from the trees, with a bow in hand. She pulled an arrow out of her quiver and aimed at the monster. Her blue eyes narrowed. "Don't move."
A large, muscled boy came out after her, slinging a Warhammer over his shoulder. The kid was bigger than some bodybuilders I had seen. His red hair was long and it blew in the breeze, revealing hazel eyes.
"You!" the snake monster hissed. "How are you still alive?"
"We killed the rest of your friends," a new voice said. Another girl stepped out of the darkness, in between the other two. She had olive skin and black silky hair, tied into a braid. She was wearing a leather jacket that looked a few sizes too big for her. The tree shadows seemed to reach out to her as if demanding her attention. The blonde girl's arrows were bronze. The boy's hammer was bronze, but her blade was black as night.
"Daughter of Hadesssssssss!" the snake monster screeched.
Hades? The god of the dead? Was he claiming this girl was Hades's kid?
"You will pay for sssssssssslaying my kin!"
"Victoria, take him out."
The blonde girl's lips twitched. "You got it, Bianca." Her arrow flew true and struck the snake monster in the eye. It screeched before it exploded into golden. She pulled her jacket off, somehow avoiding the sword strap over her chest, and she tossed it to me. "Here. You can use this to cover up."
I looked down at myself, a budding pair of breasts. That's right, it wouldn't look so good for a young girl to walk around shirtless. I put it up and zipped it up.
The black-haired girl walked over to us, sheathing her sword in the sheath on her back. "So, this is your friend, huh kid?"
The boy looked down at me. I had no idea who he was, so I wouldn't call him my friend. "I've known her for less than twenty-four hours. I wouldn't call us friends."
"You said she saved you right?" The boy nodded. "You saved her. You went out of your way to get us to help you." He nodded again. "I'd say that makes you friends."
"I... Guess..."
The girl shook her head. "I'm Bianca di Angelo, Daughter of Hades. This is Victoria Walker, Daughter of Apollo, and Issac Schuster, Son of Hephaestus. Who are you, kid? You never gave us your name."
"Luke Castellan."
Luke Castellan? That name sounded oddly familiar. I wasn't friends with anyone named Luke, so why was that name so familiar? Bianca di Angelo was as strangely familiar. Maybe I went to school with them? Then I'd be in the past. And not a girl.
"And?"
"... Son of Hermes."
Luke Castellan? Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes. Bianca di Angelo, Daughter of Hades...
They were characters from the Percy Jackson books I used to read. Was this some kind of cringe larping group? If it was, it had the best real-life special effects that I had ever seen.
Maybe this was some kind of near-death fever dream? I could be dying on a bus right now and my brain decided it give me one last dream?
"You. Who are you, girl?"
"That's Thalia," Luke said, a little protectively. Bianca di Angelo exchanged looks with Victoria and Issac.
"Is she the one?" Victoria asked.
"Thalia Grace? Daughter of Zeus?"
Was I Thalia? Maybe my fever dream made me Thalia? "Yeah."
Bianca di Angel walked over and leaned down in front of me. "I met a man in Richmond named Halcyon Greene. He told me to keep an eye out for a girl named Thalia Grace, the daughter of Zeus. He wanted me to give this to you."
She handed me a bracelet. Why was this fictional character giving me a bracelet? It had been years since I read the Percy Jackson books, but if memory serves... Wasn't Bianca supposed to be in the Lotus Eaters hotel?
"You can put your spear away," Bianca said. "We're half-bloods, just like you. We're not monsters."
"I don't know," Isaac said, pressing a button on the shaft of his Warhammer. He held it and the Warhammer began to collapse in on itself, turning into a baseball bat. I guess that would be a lot easier to lug around. "Victoria kind of looks like a gorgon in the morning."
Victoria's body collapsed into a hairpin, which she stuck through her bun. "Shut up. Don't be an ass."
"I'm just stating facts."
"Then next time YOU can take the night watch," she hissed.
Bianca shook her head. It seemed like she was used to dealing with these two. "Thalia, please, put the spear away."
The spear? I looked at my spear. Oh yeah, I still had my spear, huh? "I don't know how."
"You don't know how? It's your weapon, isn't it?"
"She got hit on the head pretty good," Luke Castellan defended me. "She might have a concussion. Thalia, you tap the bottom of your spear to the ground three times quickly."
I didn't know what he was talking about, but I did it. Sure enough, the spear shrunk until I was holding a can of mace. Huh. Was that how Thalia's spear always worked.
"How long have you been fighting monsters?" Luke asked suddenly.
"Two years. Since I got out of that casino," Bianca said. She looked at Luke and opened her mouth... Then she froze. "You've been in contact with a ghost, haven't you?"
Luke looked like a deer in headlights. "How did you know?"
"I'm Hades's daughter, Luke. I can feel these things. What happened to the spirit?"
"... He wanted a stone. I stole it for him."
Bianca narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"
Luke sighed. "He gave me something in return."
"What?"
Luke pulled off his backpack and pulled out a small silver crown. "It's the Crown of Dionysus. It can cure my mother."
"What was the name of the spirit, Luke?"
"He called himself Setne."
"Do you know who Setne is?" Victoria asked.
"Not a clue," Bianca said. "Did he tell you what kind of stone it was?"
"It was an old tombstone. From ancient Greece."
"Why do you want that crown so badly?"
"It can cure my mother. My father did something that made her mad."
His mother was May Castellan. She had tried to host the oracle, but the curse Hades put on it drove her mad. Had no one explained the truth to Luke? Did he assume it was his father who drove his mother mad?
This was turning into a strange fever dream. I pocketed the mace can and slid the bracelet over my wrist. The bracelet was important, but I couldn't remember why. I was it was a weapon.
"I guess I can fault you for that," Bianca said after a minute. "If I had the chance to learn something about my mom, I'd... Well, I might be desperate enough to make a deal with the devil too. I can't imagine what a ghost might want with an old tombstone, but it can't be good."
"Who are you here looking for?" Luke asked suddenly.
"Pardon?"
"I overheard you. You said you were looking for someone."
"... Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?" Bianca scratched the back of her head. "I'm looking for my little brother. We got separated when I left the Hotel. I got some information that my brother had been moved to California, but it's a dead end. If my brother left that Hotel at all, he isn't here."
"Where are you going to go now?" Bianca asked.
Luke looked at me. I shrugged. As far as I was concerned, this was a crazy fever dream that my mind created while I was dying on an overturned bus. I wasn't planning to do anything but wait for the dream to end.
Out of all the shows and anime I watched, my brain chose Percy Jackson? Seriously? I could have gone to a way cooler place in my final moment, but no. My brain decided to turn me into a little girl.
"You're welcome to come with us?" Bianca offered.
Victoria looked at her. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"What do you mean?"
"The three of us are strong enough. With these two, it will make us easier to find."
"You're right... But we can't leave them here. They could die without us. We couldn't save that boy in Oregon, I won't let it happen again, Victoria. Not if I can help it." Bianca turned back to us. "I got a vision from my father. At least, I think it was from my father. There's a safe place for half-bloods. A place where monsters can't get us. It's in New York. That's where we're heading now."
Camp Half-Blood? They had to be talking about Camp Half-Blood We were in California, so Camp Jupiter would be closer, wouldn't it? Then again, we were Roman demigods, were we? We couldn't go to Camp Jupiter.
When I was a kid, I would have loved a chance like this. A chance to visit Camp Half-Blood in real life. Now that I was a dying adult, it didn't seem so interesting. "I'll go with you," I said. It beat sitting around and waiting for monsters to find me.
"I don't..." Luke looked at me. "I guess if Thalia is okay with it, I guess I am."
"You been fighting monsters for as long as Luke has, Thalia?"
I shook my head. Thalia ran away when she was young, but any experience she might have had was lost on me. Better to come clean. "I don't think I'll very much help in a real fight."
"Not even with that spear?"
"I just got it," I said defensively.
"Hey, that's cool. I've been doing this monster-hunting thing for a couple of years now. Victoria and Isaac, even longer than me. We can show you the ropes... But first, we need to get you some new clothes. Yours are shredded. Victoria, can you stay with Bianca while Luke, Issac, and I'll go liberate some clothes from the mall?"
The blonde archer sighed. "Yeah, sure." She walked over and plopped down next to me.
"Let's go, Luke," Bianca ordered. Issac was already following her.
"You can go without me. I don't- AH!"
He yelped as Bianca grabbed his arm and started dragging him. Despite being older, he couldn't get away from her. It was funny, watching a thirteen or fourteen-year-old kid getting grabbed around by a eleven-year-old girl.
Victoria pulled her backpack up and took a pamphlet out. "What's that?"
The daughter of Apollo looked over at me. "It's a brochure." She showed it to me: A WISE CHOICE FOR YOUR FUTURE!
HEALTH BENEFITS: IMMORTALITY AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU! A BOY-FREE TOMORROW!
"What?"
"A hunter gave it to me," Victoria said. "Hunters are the handmaids of the goddess Artemis."
I remembered the hunters from the books. Thalia joined them in the third book. I remember having no strong feelings for them, one way or the other. If this dream lasted long enough for Artemis to ask me to join them, I was going to have to disappoint her. I didn't want to be stuck as a kid forever.
I shifted my weight to get a little more comfortable, and something fell out of my pocket. It was a small rectangle. I picked it up and realized it was a school ID.
Los Angeles, California
McKenzie Elementary School
Name: Thalia Grace. Age: Seven. Birthday: December 22nd. 1987. Grade: 2. School Year: 1995/96.
And next to the information was the picture of seven-year-old Thalia Grace. When the school ID was issued, she had been seven years old. That must have been the year she ran away. After Hera, or Juno, took her little brother, Jason Grace.
"Hey... Victoria?"
She was reading through the brochure. "Yeah?"
"What day is it?"
"September 17th."
So my birthday was only a few months away, according to my student ID/
That was quick. "And what year would it be?"
Victoria looked up at me like I was stupid. "Really? You hit your head so hard you forgot what year it was?"
"Uh... Yeah...?"
"You sure you're the daughter of Zeus?"
"That's what the monsters that try to kill me keep saying."
"It's 1998."
I was born in 1994. I could barely remember the 90s. Why would my brain put me here? Oh well. Maybe I could go buy a GameBoy and old systems. Keep them for a long time and sell them when they're worth a lot of money.
Okay, 1998. If Thalia was born in 1987, that put her at eleven years old. In a couple of months, I'll turn twelve. The dream will end before that. My dreams were never so long.
By the time Bianca, Luke, and Isaac were coming back, the sun was setting. Luke had a sour look on his face, but the other two seemed upbeat. When they showed me the clothes, I was not amused. First, they got me a Green Day tee shirt. Bianca brought me another Green Day Shirt. I was never a fan of the band. I was an Avril Lavigne fan if I was being honest. A pair of black sneakers, which is okay. They had green shoelaces.
The problem came about with the last three garments. A skirt. A freaking skirt. A sky blue skirt, that looked like it belonged to some ten-year-old little girl. If that wasn't bad enough, they expected me to wear panties. Pink panties with purple flowers. Last but certainly least, a bra. A freaking, honest to god, bra. It was white and thankfully wasn't pink, but it was frilly and I didn't like it. Not one bit.
I looked up at them. "Are you kidding me?"
Bianca smirked. "I think they're cute. They'll look great on you."
It didn't matter if they were cute or if they'd look great on me. What mattered was the daughter of Hades trying to make me in girl clothes. I wasn't a girl and I was about to tell them that...
When I looked down at myself. Oh yeah, I guess I was a girl.
Bianca sighed. "Sorry about this. I know they're not your style, are they? But this was the best we could get on short notice. I got you a Green Day shirt-"
"I don't like Green Day."
"Oh. I thought... Because of the shirt..."
"It was the only thing I could grab," I lied through my teeth. According to my fever dream, it was 1998, so I doubted I could find some Avril Lavigne merch.
But still... Skirts, panties, and bras? Seriously? They couldn't have found my jeans and boxers? Hell, I'd take titty=whites over the panties. It felt like Bianca di Angelo had gone out of her way to find the most feminine clothes she could and stick me in them.
Looking at her, I felt she might be a little hypocritical. She was wearing all back, with skinny jeans, and a tank-top. The only thing that wasn't black on her outfit was the brown jacket she had given me. She didn't look particularly feminine.
She interpreted my look wrong: "Isaac, Luke, go over there. Give her some privacy. This is girl time!"
Girl time? Did she have to say it like that? It wasn't creepy enough that these two preteen girls wanted to get me alone to help change my clothes, but she had to call it girl time? Thanks, brain.
Isaac seemed all too happy to leave. Luke left slower, with a smoldering glare at Bianca.
Victoria put her pamphlet away and stood up.
"Okay," Bianca said, a bit softer this time. "Let's get that jacket off."
I had to peel the few tattered remains of Thalia's old Green Day shirt off. I came to discover that either Thalia hadn't been wearing a bra or it had been destroyed. My guess was the latter, considering how rough all of her clothes were. I hadn't got the chance to examine her clothes up close, but her jeans were faded, full of ripped holes, and in those halls, I saw scabs and barely healed battle marks.
Thalia was a daughter of Zeus, one of the big three. Her scent must have been very powerful. Was it a good idea to travel with Bianca di Angelo? She was a Hades girl, her scent must have been just as powerful. If our combined scent would be strong, we had an Apollo, Hermes, and Hephaestus kid with us. How much would we stink?
"Let's start with the bra."
And Bianca brought it full circle. I decided that I hate my brain and whatever this dying dream was supposed to be.
She handed it to me and I took it. I held it away from me like it was radioactive.
"... Do you know how to put it on?"
In a small voice, I said: "No."
I'll spare you the details. No ones going to read this while I'm alive, so I don't have to worry, but I don't want to remember it. It was awkward, strange, and my first experience of a girl's life.
The panties were, if possible, worse. I hated putting the skirt on, it was an article of clothing I never would have worn in my last life, it was the easiest part to put on. If you've never woken up in the body of the opposite gender, I doubt you could understand just how awkward it can get.
Isaac gave me a thumbs up when he saw me. Luke just stared... Before he turned away. Was that... Was that a blush on his face? Oh no. No, no, no. He might have liked Thalia in canon, but this Thalia sure as hell didn't return his feelings. No sir!
Bianca, Victoria, Luke, and Issac did not have mirrors. They had celestial bronze, but nothing big, so we walked over to the stream running through the woods and I got to see my reflection. Could I look any more girly?
Yeah, I could, but I still hated the outfit. Who's genius idea was this? My brains. Hopefully, I died quickly. The sooner this dream was over, the happier I'd be.
"Is this a golf club?" I heard Issac ask, his voice booming through the trees. When I turned to look, Luke was holding a golf club for Issac's inspection. "What happened to your sword."
"It got melted."
Issac whistled. "You can keep that sword I lent you. It will serve you a lot better than this golf club would."
Luke perked up and he smiled. "Really? Thanks, man."
Isaac shook his head. "No problem. If you ever want to learn how to shoot, Victoria has a bow and plenty of arrows-"
"Not a chance," Victoria cut off him. "I have one bow and nine arrows. These are mine. Unless you want to make me some more?"
"If I had a forge."
"Which you don't. Stop trying to give them away. My quiver runs out you know. This isn't some cartoon where I never run out of arrows. Why don't you give Luke your Warhammer and see how he likes swinging it around."
"Hey, I made this thing with my own hands. I'm not getting rid of it. You didn't put in the labor and hours with that bow."
"It's a gift from my dad," she repeated icily. "It's the only gift that he's ever given me. Paws off."
"Okay you two, that's enough," Bianca said. I had the feeling that she was the peacemaker in the group. Wasn't Hades kid's fatal flaws grudges? I remembered that clearly from the books. It seemed strange that she was the peacemaker among her friends.
"We have two new quest members, so let's get along."
"Quest?" I asked. "What quest?"
Isaac laughed. "The quest of life, my friend. The quest of life."
"What?"
Bianca answered me: "Life is one big quest. One big adventure! Half-bloods don't have the longest lifespans, so we like to live our life to the fullest."
Author's Note: Victoria Walker is the character Victoria in the Lightning Thief video game. I gave her the last name Walker. Isaac Schuster is another character from the Lighting Thief video game.
I want to avoid OCs as much as possible. The Riordanverse books had a wealth of characters to draw from, so if I'm forced to use OCs, they will be in very minor roles. This does mean I will be looking for very small characters and characters from other media, such as video games.
I know that Bianca was twelve years old in The Titan's Curse. So we might presume that she was twelve when she was released from the Lotus Hotel and Casino. However, when Hades puts them in the first time, both Bianca and Nico are younger than when we first meet them in the books. So this tells us that they have aged off-screen between then and The Titian's Curse. I'm going with Bianca and Nico having been released a few years before we meet them. So in this fic, Bianca was released when she was nine years old.
Last but not least, I should probably warn you I will be taking some creative liberties with mythology here. Uncle Rick has done it too, and he owns Percy Jackson and all, but this is fanfiction. I will be adding my unique spin to things that might not fit in with mythology. I don't plan to contradict established lore, so to speak, but I will be adding things in that aren't my original ideas.
It would be boring to rehash canon, wouldn't it? We want something new, or at least I do. Maybe I'm not reading the room haha.
This is a reboot of my other story, Thalia Grace and the Olympians. So if you've come here from that, welcome back! If you're new, welcome! I hope you have enjoyed chapter one!