Story Name: The Iris Network

Author:turquoiserainlilies

Disclaimer: Do not own Percy Jackson or anything related, just the plot (really, not even that original). THANKS RICK!

Summary: He's a gamer. She's the Queen Bee. Percy struggles with unwanted fame from his father. Annabeth can't forgive her best friend for falling in love. Living miles away doesn't stop two people's fate from meeting, after all, the best thing to fall in love with are someone's words. AU!AH.

Chapter:22 of 22

greek3fire xi

los angeles 02/14/14 15:38 utc-8

percy jackson

VidGameCon was everything Percy imagined.

Stacks and stacks of The Skirmish at the Maze were stacked in the Greek Fire panel, with the producers of the game, sibling duo Nyssa and Jake Mason standing proudly next to it, answering all the questions. Greek columns were set up that reached up to the sky, ivory and pale (though made out of plastic), and bunch of freebies were available as well—buttons, posters, stickers, anything possible with the Peter Johnson's face scattered all over it.

"This. Is. Awesome!" Percy drooled, rushing over to a booth were everything was dedicated to Cabin 3—Percy's cabin at Camp Half-Blood—which looked exactly in the game, down to the detail about the hot tub at the back and bunk beds stacked at the edges. A cheesy lighting technique was used to create wave like projections on the wall, but that made Percy felt a lot better.

Percy exited Cabin 3 with a little frown, settling down next to Bianca, who bought a book of all things. Grover had gone with a group of satyr worshippers to check out the life figurine of Pan The God of the Wild (Who's origin story was supposedly explored in the Skirmish at the Maze). Percy skipped the meet-and-greet.

"You were reading all yesterday at the carnival again." Percy noted. "What? Are you trying to swallow up all the words?"

"Well, not all of us get free admissions to the college of our choice." Bianca said pointedly. He felt a bit guilty, it was truly unfair that Percy out of their small group of friends got his college acceptance first. He had been the one most unsure about it to begin with.

How much things have changed in the past two months? Grover wasn't with June. Bianca's relationship with Nico was a flux. Reyna was still pinning after him. He and his dad were totally rocky. Not to mention…no Annabeth.

Percy didn't believe in things changing in a matter of seconds, but he was surprised to see how far he came in a few weeks.

"Percy!" Beckendorf, the African-American from a few days ago at the carnival, approached him with a feeble grin. "Good to see you again."

"You too Beck." They nodded in greeting. Bianca rolled her eyes and continued to stuff her nose further down the book.

"So where's Chris and Clarisse?" Percy asked, for the lack of a better topic.

"Somewhere by the Quenching Quell games." Beckendorf waved. "Actually, it doesn't really matter. I just needed to get away from them for a while." He paused, probably wondering about Percy's trust. "They dragged me out for a one month vacation because they thought I worked too hard. I love them, seriously, but sometimes they could be a little…"

"Overbearing." Percy nodded. "But sometimes you can be too wrapped up in your own problems and not notice other people's feelings."

Beckendorf looked a little insulted. Percy thought that it wasn't the best idea to piss off a guy a foot taller. To his relief, Beckendorf simply sighed.

"Maybe, I'd been too busy thinking of Silena." He admitted.

"Right, your Iris Network girlfriend?"

"You must think I'm pretty crazy." Beckendorf laughed sheepishly. "Trust me, I had that whole internet privacy talk from Chris before."

"You're not crazy, trust me." Percy laughed. A bubble of worry formed in the back of his mind. He didn't even think about Annabeth since he arrived at VidGameCon, though admittedly he did spent the previously day trying to call her repeatedly and not getting through. Beckendorf wasn't the only one worried about their online friend.

Still, the second emotion he felt was jealousy. They've gone past the whole middle-school-esque gf/bf thing, while Percy can't even admit that Annabeth is pretty to her face without freezing up. And they were talking through a screen. He'd probably explode if he actually meet her in real life.

Which might be today.

Oh god.

Distraction came in the form of Chris and Clarisse, the former patted Beckendorf on the back. "Hey man, where did you go?"

Beckendorf made eye contact with Percy. "Just met our good friend from the carnival. Percy here's going to check out the The Skirmish at the Maze with me. They're holding a TV room in the back."

"Dude, you don't think that you're playing that game without us, do you?" Clarisse laughed.

Beckendorf apologized quickly, for a big bluff guy, he sure was a softie.

"Where's Leo?" Chris changed the subject, "He said he was just popping into the washroom for a second, and now he's gone!"

"Never take your younger brother to anything, Beckendorf." Clarisse shook her head, "I swear, one time I took Frank to the zoo, I think I lost him by the eagles section…"

"It wasn't my plan, Clarisse." Beckendorf said. Percy remembered his brother (or half-brother, because they didn't look too similar, other than the calloused hand and coal eyes), Leo, from the day before yesterday. What happened after he left him with Calypso anyways?

Suddenly, their company of four became five, as a flaming ball of energy bounced into the group. Leo.

"Look who showed up." Chris said sardonically. Leo chuckled nervously, the same laugh Percy did whenever he got in detention and had to explain to his mom why he was home an hour late.

"Leo." Clarisse sighed, "Honestly, we should keep a leash on you."

"I was thinking a chain." Beckendorf nodded, but by the ruffling of his younger brother's hair, Percy knew that he wasn't serious.

"Hey, I'm Percy." He introduced himself, since they didn't get the chance when they were stranded at a carnival. Leo shook them so hard that Percy felt a bit numb. He had a nervous energy aura around him, though Percy wasn't the best judge of auras, always bouncing around and kind of jumpy. He wouldn't be surprised if Leo had ADHD like him.

"Yeah, I remember." Leo grinned crookedly. "Thanks for setting me up with Callie though, we're going on a date on Tuesday."

"Leo, we're leaving LA on Sunday." Beckendorf reminded him.

"Like I said, we have a date."

Percy didn't 'set-up' Leo and Calypso but rather dumped him with her at the information desk when they wanted steak. That was a little cruel on his part, but if Leo is happy, hey, there's no fault there.

"Let's got to the TV room." Percy suggested. "I can't wait until home to open this bad boy."

Everyone had scrambled for their couple of the Skirmish when they first came in, but there was no need at the TV room. Hundreds of rolls of consoles stacked up in an Auditorium. They must've had some seriously funding for this. Percy couldn't even see anyone in the back of the room. Everyone's face is absorbed in their TV screen.

So this is what we look like as a collective. Percy thought, sort of like a mind control machine took over the population. He passed by a few Quenching Quell Tributes, Harold Perry Wizards, and of course, the Demigods of Greek Fire. They all spread out to find their own TV set, which was already logged on to the Wifi.

He logged onto his account (same as his IrisProfile name) and immediately started a quest, that was always the best part about Camp. However, there was a bit of a storyline at first. He watched through five minutes of intro were they found that Lucas Caswell (the main villain Demigod) was going to storm into camp via the Labyrinth, so Peter (son of Poseidon in Percy's version) had to go on this quest led by his sort-of-girlfriend Anabel (fierce, blonde, and not unlike some people Percy knew), along with his half-brother Tyler and friend Garth.

There was a part with Hera, the Queen of Olympus that he got through, and then they went to a farm to meet up with a previous ally-turned-enemy Nicholas Angleton. Percy was actually doing aright, up until the navigation.

You see, the Labyrinth was designed to suit to the demigod's needs, but in the most horrific way possible. The more you try to navigate it, the more you can't. He tried to get to Daedalus' workshop, yet it just seemed that the team was running in circles. They had talked to Hephaestus about it, but the next task involved blowing up a mountain—Percy wasn't sure how Peter was going to survive that.

He quickly logged onto the network—a portion of the game which you can see the progress of other gamer's online—and found that most people seemed to be stuck at that level. He poked around, found Grover, but he was still stuck in finding Pan (obviously haven chosen another route). He rested his eyes for a moment, and looked around.

Something caught his eyes. A gamer he couldn't see properly was already on the island of Ogygia, which was supposed to happen after the thing on Mt. St. Helen. How did this guy get further than Percy?

The gamer was on the network now, probably taking a rest. He squinted at the username: cabin6213. Newbie, Percy cursed. He quickly found the guy.

greek3fire: hey you

cabin6123: oh, hi

greek3fire: How did you get past the navigation glitch?

cabin6123: What do you mean, there's no glitch.

greek3fire: I mean, I can hardly take two steps into the maze without wondering if I'm going to fall into Tartarus

cabin6123: Oh, you're still stuck at Mt. St. Helen?

greek3fire: Me and the rest of the world, except for you

cabin6123: You know you can always work it out on your own, right?

Percy gritted his teeth, the nerve of this guy.

greek3fire: Look, I don't have patience for this

cabin6123: I can't tell you, that'd be cheating

"That's it!" Percy said, getting up from his plastic chair that was totally not good for his posture. He marched over to the gamer's console, just in time to see another level passed, and her cry. "YES!"

"How did you get past Ogygia? Isn't there a curse that's supposed to be preventing you from leaving?" Percy inquired, looking at the screen. Peter (normally wore blue as a son of Poseidon, but in this case it was wearing grey in honor Athena) was floating on a raft back to Camp Half-Blood. From what he read online, Ogygia was an island that was where all the lost heroes go. They can't go anywhere and are essentially stuck until some help came from the gods. Percy personally hated the idea of being trapped.

"Just befriend Calypso, a little niceness couldn't hurt anyone." The gamer said. It wasn't a he, like Percy originally thought. It was a girl, with blonde hair, and grey eyes, and the child of Athena.

He stared at her until she turned to him, irritation written all over meaning that she was probably going to start yelling at him for staring. Instead, her opened mouth turned into a gasp.

Across the room, someone was screaming.

"CHARLIE!" A wild black-hair blue-eyed girl appeared, tackling Beckendorf into the seat with kisses that were probably not PG. Annabeth's eyes widened.

"Oh gods Silena." She whispered.

"What? You played the game for one day and you're already using Greek lingo?" Percy asked her. Great, that's his first line to her?

As expected, Annabeth pulled out a fist to punch him. Unexpectedly, he pulled her into a hug. She smelt like the beach and lemon, like a normal California girl, but he knew that she wasn't. She was soft and warm, and up to his chin; the perfect height for hugging, and kissing, or whatever.

She pulled back with a grin, which turned into anger immediately. He opened his mouth to apologize for whatever he did, then probably to ask what he did. Then she punched him.

"That's for leaving me hanging at San Jose!" She exclaimed.

"Your phone was dead." Percy said stupidly. "Was I supposed to drive around the entire city looking for you?"

"No." Annabeth said with a grin that seemed inerasable. "That would be illogical."

"Wise Girl." He teased.

"Seaweed Brain."

Silena and Beckendorf were still making out across the room, which gathered some stares from the gamer community that were all too foreign to the idea of kissing. Annabeth laughed, which was annoying perfect. She hugged him again, except this time to linger and whisper something.

"Miss you."

They ended up at the food court after Annabeth lectured Percy about eye health and he told her that he wore contacts already. Silena introduced Annabeth to Beckendorf (well, Percy too, but that was redundant). There were a lot of boyfriend-girlfriend joke thrown at the two of them, but Annabeth just brushed them off. She, however, leaned closer to him whenever they were made. Great, he was in love with the Queen of Mixed Signals (a title he previously granted to Anabel Chance, who left Peter stranded at Mt. St. Helen after a kiss).

Grover was at the food court, and almost shocked to find that Annabeth was a real person ("So you didn't just google blonde girls on the internet!"). Annabeth laughed at that and got to know about Grover's girlfriend June.

He was a little miffed that Annabeth knew so much about Percy's personal life.

"That wasn't safe." Grover chastised.

"Definitely not." Percy agreed. He then chanced a small kiss at Annabeth's temple as he hugged her sideways. She didn't flinch. Maybe Percy was wrong about the whole life-changing-within-a-second thing, because his life just got exponentially better in that one.

She's the one.

Bianca was also at the food court. The first thing Annabeth did when she was introduced to her was asked how Nico was doing. That lead to some question.

"So you knew both of us." Percy clarified. "But you didn't tell either of us?"

Bianca shrugged. "I showed you my vacation pictures, you just don't bother looking at them."

Now it was Percy's turn to be miffed. Would he have seen Annabeth sooner had he paid more attention to Bianca's lectures? Karma really bites.

Chris and Clarisse joined them too, so now they were three couples (plus the awkward Grover and Bianca, Leo already disappeared). The announcement system cracked, and a voice blared through. Percy could see a middle-aged men standing on the stage across the convention. He wore a precisely made Harold Perry robe and customized a microphone to shape like a wand.

"Hello gamers!" He got an enthusiastic clap from the population. "This is the official welcome to this year's VidGameCon, Los Angeles. We've got everything form Pac Man to Quenching Quell. This is just a reminder that it is the birthday of Love, so if you have a loved one with you, it's perfectly fine. In fact, extra business for us." A trickle of laughter. "However, if you do get too excited, like our…err…more enthusiastic friends from the TV room." Silena blushed to her roots. "I might suggest the corners of the room, though not the east 'cuz that's where my girlfriend and I are going." The crowd howled. "Have a good day folks! And don't forget to check out the new release Skirmish at the Maze by the lovely Mason siblings over at aisle C!"

The speakers cracked again, and the entire convention returned to normalcy. Except for Silena and Beckendorf, who were apparently following the advice of the spokesperson and finding themselves a corner. Chris kissed Clarisse quickly, and an uncharacteristic blush lit up her face. Grover and Bianca shared a (beyond) platonic hug. And Annabeth kissed Percy on the cheek.

"It's Valentine's Day." She reasoned. He wondered if she'd think it was romantic or creepy if he kissed her right now. In the middle of a gaming convention. After actually meeting her for two seconds.

But he was in no rush with Annabeth. Thankfully, he'd get the rest of his life to do that.

"Race you back to the games?" Annabeth inquired.

"Yeah." Percy agreed. "You've got to show me how to get off Ogygia. It's the only way Peter and Anabel would end up together, you know, after he escape the witch Calypso."

Her grey eyes twinkled. "How romantic."

THAT'S IT THAT'S THE END DON'T ASK FOR MORE!

Just kidding, the epilogue is the next chapter :DDDDD

My favorite ship outside of Percabeth in PJO is definitely Caleo. My mother of all OTP is Jily from Harry Potter though ;)