Hey people. You know, that I know, that you know, that I know, that you know that I'm not Rick Riordan, so you know I don't own any published characters.
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"You sure this is the place kid? There's nothing here." The cab driver frowns as he pulls next to 3.141 Farm Road.

"Yes, thank you." I hand him a roll of mortal cash, "Come on Kat, let's get you home."

"I don't wanna go home." The six year old girl whines, "I wanna stay with you Percy."

In case you haven't realized, I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. That is my most recent charge, Katherine Adonis, possible daughter of Apollo. She's a bubbly, eager little girl, with blonde hair and deep brown eyes. She can get a little emotional though.

"Now listen Kat." I crouch down to her eye level, "There are very nice people at camp. You will be with a lot of brothers and sisters who will protect you. You want to be safe, don't you?"

Katherine nods at that last part.

"Then you need to go to camp." I continue, using a reasonable voice, "It's not safe with me."

"You're strong." The young demigod insists, "You can protect me."

I sigh and pick her up, "I am protecting you. I'm bringing you to the one safe place for us demigods. Why don't you ride on my shoulders one last time?"

She nods and clambers onto my shoulders. I make the trek up to Thalia's Pine Tree at the top of Half-Blood Hill. At the top is a pair of boys, one in bright colors, and the other in pure black. I smile softly as I recognize Will Solace and Nico Di Angelo.

"Percy!" Will calls out, "You told us you would be here by five."

"Sorry." I reply, "Got held up by a hellhound on 42nd."

I place Kat on the ground, "That over there is Will Solace, one of your brothers. He'll take good care of you."

Katherine remains clutched to my leg, causing Will to laugh, "We've got a clinger here, call the police!"

Will kneels down, "So you're Katherine huh? Can I call you Kat?"

"Only Percy can call me that!" She cries out.

Will laughs, "Ok Katherine, why don't you come with me?"

Kat looks up at me pleasingly. I smile softly and gesture for the young demigod to follow Will.

Together, the two walk down the hill and into the camp.

I step forward, but stop short as I reach the camp border. Nico notices and smiles softly.

"You still refuse to enter camp." He notes.

I shake my head, "The camp is better without me. I've gotten too many people killed."

"You've led us through two wars." Nico reminds me.

"I know." I sigh, "But that doesn't make up for the Chicago Incident."

Nico shakes his head, "That's the survivor's guilt talking. I've talked with their ghosts. They don't blame you." Nico's eyes become sad, "Stop blaming yourself."

I shake my head, "The camp doesn't need me anymore. I'll just keep leading young demigods here. I'll leave training to you, Will and Malcolm."

Nico nods and begins walking down the hill, but then as if in afterthought, he turns, "Maybe you should consider what Athena and Artemis suggested, that team could be useful."

I shake my head, "I don't think I'm ready to lead again."

"Maybe that's exactly what you need." With that last comment, Nico turns around and walks into camp.

Maybe I should back up a little bit. Thanks to my good friend, Mr. Rick Riordan, you all know my story up until the end of the Second Giant War. The events I just described took place about a year after the war. The really interesting stuff started about six months ago.

The monsters were getting smarter and more organized. They'd begun targeting demigods before their powers could manifest. Chiron had heard from certain sources that the monsters were bringing all of these young demigods into Chicago. Myself, the rest of the seven, and a few other experienced demigods (Clarisse, the Stolls and Jake Mason among them) were deployed in a military-style operation to rescue the kids.

The entire situation was a bloody mess (literally and figuratively). We had underestimated the monsters' tactical abilities and Walked into traps on every side. The first to fall was Jake Mason. Then one by one, each and every experienced demigod, Greek or Roman, began to fall. Soon, it was down to just myself and my Wise Girl.

"I guess this is it." I muttered to her.

"That it is." She replies.

Then, she kisses me on the cheek, "Make sure you get them out safely." Annabeth says, "Besides, the world needs Percy Jackson more than it needs Annabeth Chase."

Annabeth then charges the mass of monsters, drakon bone sword reflecting light as she swung it through one monster after the next. The dam girl had forced me into an impossible choice: her or the twenty or so six-year-olds. I look at the kids, then towards the mass that was quickly over-running Annabeth. I then sigh and herd the little pipsqueaks out.

Butch (Who was on air support with Will) told me that I'd had a face like someone who'd just seen their worst nightmare come to life. I told him that I was the only survivor, and he realized my worst nightmare had come true.

We'd dropped off the little ones at camp, and I left Will and Butch to give Chiron the official report. I had to go to Olympus and tell the gods themselves.

I hitched a ride with Blackjack over to the Empire State Building, and entered the lobby. The security guard recognized me, and quietly gave me the security key. I got in the elevator and rode all the way up to the 600th floor. I'd been to Olympus multiple times, but this was by far the most stressful. I was about to have to explain to the most powerful beings in existence that their children had died under my command.

Surprisingly, they didn't even consider killing me for my incompetence. Athena seemed particularly interested in the level of intelligence displayed by the monsters. Artemis stated that she'd been noticing that as well.

Ares was interested in the battle, and he seemed pleased that Clarisse had gone down in "a blaze of glory."

The gods all agreed that something must be done in response to the monsters' new preemptive tactics. This was where I suggested that I could go out and retrieve them, and bring them to their respective camp, be it Roman or Greek origin. The gods all agreed that this seemed liked a good idea (except Dionysus, who couldn't care less). This was where Athena and Artemis suggested that I command an elite team instead of doing this alone.

I refused, on the grounds that most of the more experienced demigods had just died. The gods accepted my reasoning and gave me the rank of Commander of the Preemptive Support Unit. It sounded nice, but to me, I'm still just the seaweed brain screw-up who got lucky his entire life.

I've been doing this job for close to six months now. The gods had given me a notebook that contains every child they have, who isn't at camp. Conveniently, it updates every few seconds. They also supplied me with an infinite amount of money.

For the past six months, I've been delivering demigods to both Will and Nico (who'd become the leaders of Camp Half-Blood) and Praetors Dakota and Gwen at Camp Jupiter and New Rome. I've managed to save around forty young demigods.

I was too late five times.

There's the update on my life post Second Giantomachy. We'll see how the rest of it goes.

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Be awesome,
Leonidas_son_of_Nike