Mother to Monsters

Well, as you can see, I decided to go with this story instead of another chapter of Ghoul. In case you've forgotten what happened last chapter, and haven't gone back to re-read it, here's a quick refresher: Percy and Clair have returned from their interdimensional vacation, conveniently just in time for the Battle of the Labyrinth arc of PJO. The Maze's magic doesn't affect them, and so those two are the perfect candidates for going down there. Before the quest could begin, Zoё Nightshade's maternal role in the children's lives was fully cemented on account of Percy and Clair curling up on either side of her, resting their heads on her thighs, sucking their thumbs, napping.

Like a couple of kittens.

Anyway, here we return to the madhouse!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or any Naruto related themes or items.

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"And the Oracle didn't tell you anything regarding what we're supposed to do in there?"

"Nope."

"Nothing?"

"Not a thing."

"Then how do we know what to do down there?"

"The Oracle said to just take Percy and Clair, so, I guess they know what to do."

"Do they?"

"Don't know. Haven't asked."

"Well, then let's go ask them."

"Bad idea."

"Why's that?"

"Because Zoё is with them, teaching them how to shoot a bow."

"...why?"

"I'm pretty sure she's their mom now."

"Oh."

And that was how Thalia and Annabeth's conversation ended.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Widen your feet a hair more...raise your elbow a tad higher...pull back slightly...aaand—release!" The arrows released by Percy Clair had such scary force behind them that the straw targets and the wooden stands behind them were shredded and shattered. Zoё beamed. "Excellent job!"

Percy threw his arms and his bow over his head, cheering. Clair just smiled happily, soaking the praise up like a sponge. Some of the Hunters were nearby, watching, and they saw how their Lieutenant interacted with the psychotic children. It was the same way Zoё treated Amelia, with all the love affection a mother showed her young, energetic children. It was a heartwarming sight, especially more so given how cold the Lieutenant could be, and how the childhoods of Percy and Clair had been, and yet still...there was a certain wrongness with the sight.

None of the Hunters could place their disconcertion on a single feeling or phrase, but they all could agree that watching Zoё act motherly to Percy and Clair, watching her treat them like small children, was simply just wrong. Lucy disagreed; she thought it was simply the most adorable thing she had ever seen, but Lucy was weird like that.

No one understood the witch, and no one tried to.

"Ne, Zoё?"

"Yes, Percy?"

"Are we gonna be better fucking archers than you?"

"Language," the Huntress chided lightly, "but yes. A few more years of practice, and both of you will be challenging M'lady."

"Speaking of," Clair started, "where is Artemis?"

"Lord Zeus needed her for a mission."

"What mission?"

Zoё made a face. "No further details were given."

"Oh."

"Is Sparky fucking his daughter?" Percy asked this with all the innocence of a child asking if they could have a cookie.

Zoё couldn't look more aghast even if she had put forth Oscar-worthy effort. "Gods, NO! Zeus would never—"

"Didn't he fuck his mom? Like, Oedipus Rex and all that shit?"

"No, Oedipus Rex was a play created by Sophocles in 429 BC about a king who killed his father and then married his own mother. I saw it when it was first performed. I thought it was boring."

"Wow~," Percy gasped. "You're really old!"

Zoё deadpanned. "Thank you for that observation."

Clair elbowed her boyfriend none too softly. "You. Dick."

"What the fuck did I say?" Percy whined.

"You called Zoё old! That's mean!"

"I'm sorry, Zoё," Percy said quietly, looking at his feet like a downtrodden child.

The Huntress rolled her eyes at the antics of her babies. "Enough, you two. Clair, Percy's apologized, so no more antagonism, and Percy, please just stop cursing."

"Why?"

"Because, little boys don't need to be saying such filthy words."

"But why the fuck not? Doesn't everyone talk like this?"

"No, Percy, no we don't."

"But my mom said that everyone cusses!"

"Percy," Zoё said patiently, "is this the same mom that tortured you and tried to turn you into a girl?"

"Yeah…"

"She lied to you. People don't curse that often."

"They don't?"

"No."

"Okay...is it okay to cuss sometimes?"

"Sometimes. I'll let you know when you can curse."

"Okay!" Percy chirped.

Clair shook her head at her boyfriend's immaturity. It never ceased to amaze her how he, someone who could kill metahumans of Justice League caliber, someone who could fight and kill gods, someone who had sex with all three of her holes...could be so childlike and immature. Honestly, sometimes Clair thought she was dating an oversized toddler.

Zoё's smile was just a little strained. There was a dark glint in her eye, one that spoke of pain and torture directed at someone or something beyond what could be seen. Percy missed it entirely on account of his childlike nature, but Clair saw it. Her greater maturity allowed her to see things Percy couldn't, and she saw how Zoё looked, and she knew just who that darkness was aimed at.

Percy's mother, Sally Jackson, the woman who had beat and broke her son to the point that he was like how he was today.

If ever given the opportunity, Clair would gladly chip in her efforts in bringing pain and torment upon that woman's rotted soul.

She would also relish the opportunity to get some from her own mother as well, and she was sure Percy would simply be over the moon to help.

Annabeth walked onto the archery range. "Hey, we're ready. Just waiting on you guys."

Zoё straightened. "Very well. We'll be there shortly."

The daughter of Athena nodded once, and then took her leave, heading for the hole in the ground where Zeus' Fist used to be, before Moon-Moon blew it wide open.

Percy promptly latched himself to Zoё's hip, wrapping his legs around her waist, and his arms around her neck. He grinned like a loon. "Hi."

The Huntress looked at him from the corner of her eye. "Hello there. Comfortable?"

"Yep."

Clair took Zoё's free left hand.

The Lieutenant raised a brow. "Don't want me to carry you?"

"Nope. Being carried is for babies."

Percy stuck his tongue out at her. "MMM!"

Clair stuck her tongue out in return. "MMMM!"

"MMMMM!"

"MMMMMM!"

"MM—!"

"Children, please," Zoё interrupted with an irritated voice, though a smile seemed to be tugging at her lips. "Your tongues are for tasting, not pointing."

They both stuck their tongues at Zoё. "MMMMMMM!"

She sighed at her baby's antics.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Bye, Quintus!"

The aged man looked like someone just shoved a sword up his ass, but he managed a hesitant wave back. Mrs. O'Leary whined and hid her face under her paws, because Moon-Moon was staring at her with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, a devoid look in his large eyes.

"Moon-Moon! No fucking the hellhound! That's like, interracial shit!"

"Actually, it'd be more like interspecies."

"Oh yeah...thanks, Clair. No doing interspecies, Moon-Moon!"

The mutated wolf warbled something beyond animal grunts, but not quite human speech.

"No, you cannot sniff her fucking butt."

"Percy, what did I say about cursing?"

"...only to do it when you said I could…"

"Good boy. Did I tell you you could curse?"

"...no…"

"I thought so. If it happens again, you're going over my knee."

"Kinky."

Clair snorted, and Zoё eyed the little cretin attached to her hip. "Percy," she warned, "no."

"Yes."

"Percy."

He giggled. "Just kidding." he kissed her cheek with a wet smooching sound. "I love you!"

"I love you, too."

The trio found the rest of quest, consisting of Bianca, for her underground affinity, and Annabeth, because this was her quest and she needed to lead. Clarisse had something else to attend to, and Bianca didn't want her little brother down in a dangerous place like the Labyrinth (and as far away from the wrath of Clair as possible). Chiron was there as well.

"Remember, the Labyrinth is sentient, and distance means nothing to it, nor does time. Down there, a minute could be an hour, and a few feet could be a few hundred miles."

"Yeah. This one time, I went from Jakarta to Colombo in ten seconds flat and only went through a single door. It was awesome."

Annabeth's ADHD-laden mind made her blurt out, "What did you do in those places?" and she instantly regretted asking.

"Oh, just gave a bunch of people some mastectomies and vasectomies, then I sold what was left to some nearby guys. It's some good money, you guys should try it!"

Zoё patted the child's head slowly. "Yes, Percy, we'll get right to the illegal sale or human organs after we're done the Labyrinth, okay?"

"Okay!"

Chiron, Bianca, and Annabeth were white as sheets, and Clair was just passively looking on, holding Zoё's hand.

"Right, let us depart."

The Huntress promptly hopped down the hole in the ground, Percy on her hip, Clair hopping down with her.

"We're all going to die," Annabeth muttered.

"Well, eventually, yeah," Bianca said. "But down there? The only things that are going to die are the things that Percy wants to kill."

"And if he wants to kill us?"

"Zoё will stop him."

"How do you know?"

"She's his mom now," the daughter of Hades said matter of factly. "See ya in a bit, Chiron!"

She hopped down the hole.

Chiron's face had yet to regain its color. "Annabeth, my dear, please be careful down there. Percy and Clair are certainly powerful, and the relationship they've established with Zoё is indeed a step in the right direction, we both that they're…"

"Loose cannons?"

"Something like that."

"Got it. I'll be careful, Chiron."

Annabeth hopped down the hole.

The centaur made a strange whimpering noise at his sudden lonesome.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Strangely enough, there was light down there in the Labyrinth. Where it was coming from, they didn't know, but they weren't complaining. Well, Bianca and Annabeth weren't complaining; Zoё had enough experience in the dark to see in just about every environment, and Percy and Clair's eyesight was just naturally superior to anything short of the gods themselves.

But anyway.

"So," Annabeth started, "the Oracle said that you two would know where to go so...where are we headed?"

Percy pointed exuberantly. "That way!"

Zoё began walking that way, and Bianca and Annabeth followed after a shared look of dubiousness. As they all progressed that way, they noticed that the walls changed. From simple tiles to dirt with tree roots poking out, from dirt and tree roots to concrete, from concrete to the linoleum floor of someone's kitchen. There was one stretch of floor that made Percy say, "Wait, hold up!"

The quest came to a stop, and watched as the boy pulled a black light lamp from somewhere behind his back, which was really confusing for Bianca and Annabeth since they were behind him. Percy aimed the light at the floor, and then giggled when a bunch of white splotches appeared at random.

"What in the Hades?" Annabeth said aghast.

Bianca was too stunned to take offense to the jab at her father.

"What? It's just a Jackson Pollock painting…" Percy said innocently.

Clair was hiding her snickers behind the cylindrical sheath of her sword.

"Moving on," Zoё commanded.

And so the quest moved on, with varying levels of disturbed on their faces, ranging from almost traumatized to not even fazed. Then they came across a crossroads.

"Huh, I'm surprised Hecate isn't here."

No sooner had Percy spoke, then did the witch goddess appear out of nowhere like something out of a poorly edited video. "Greetings travelers, I am—"

"Hi, Hecate~! Can you teach me Cheerios now?"

The goddess blinked, then she looked at who spoke. "Fuck this shit I'm out," she sang. Then she popped away into the ether.

"Percy," Zoё said after a pregnant pause, "what did you do to Celyn and Lucy's mother?"

"Notothen'."

"Percy…"

"Yes?"

"Don't lie."

"I'm not lying," he defended petulantly.

"Percy, if you don't me the truth, I'm going to make you walk the rest of the way."

He gasped. "You wouldn't dare!"

Zoё gave him a sideways glance, and then dropped him from her hip. Percy squeaked and latched on tighter. "Meanie!"

"Says the little boy who's lying to me."

The Son of Jashin huffed. "Fine, I did a ritual with a bunch of virgins so I could summon her, so I could get her to teach me that pain spell from Harry Potter."

"Crucio?"

"Yeah, Cheerios. She took exception that and left. I did a bunch more rituals with virgins but she never reappeared."

Zoё sighed. "Percy, she hates every mention of Harry Potter. She hates J. K. Rowling for every misconception about magic and witches and wizards brought on by that book series."

"Oh...why?"

"Reasons. It's not clear as to why Hecate is so displeased with Harry Potter."

"Then she's just a gripey bitch."

Zoё let go of Clair's hand to pop Percy in the mouth. "Language. I won't tell you again."

The child whined.

Annabeth coughed. "We're on a quest. Which way?"

Percy immediately brightened up. "That way!"

Going down that way for a solid ten minutes led the quest to a tetanus-ridden door. Annabeth cocked her head to the side. "I always thought someone like Daedalus would have a better door to his workshop."

Percy gave the daughter of Athena a weird look from where he sat on Zoё's hip. He didn't say anything, just hopped down and opened the door, and revealed not a workshop. It looked something like a prison, actually.

"Is that...Alcatraz?" Annabeth asked.

"Yep!"

"Why are we here?"

"I wanted to say hi to Briareos."

"Briareos...you mean Briares?"

"Yeah, that."

Percy then ran into the prison with his arms splayed wide, making airplane noises. Clair jumped and pecked Zoё on the cheek, before she ran after him, like a normal person though. Bianca and Annabeth came to stand next to the Huntress.

"You have strange children," they said in tandem.

Zoё paused, her mind working to get past the sudden freeze suddenly thrust upon it. Those two thought that...Percy and Clair...her children? Her own offspring? Sure she loved them and cared for them and hated their lots in life, but motherly love? Was that what it looked like from an outside perspective? The Huntress swallowed the lump that had developed in her throat.

"Indeed I do. Let us go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Briareos!"

The chained hundred handed one sighed. "My name is Briares, Percy, not Briareos."

"Yeah, but Appleseed disagrees."

"That is a CGI anime adapted from a late 80s original video animation which is adapted from a from a mid to late 80s manga. The main supporting character is a cyborg implemented with the Hecatonchires System, and happens to be named Briareos. There is no relation between the two of us."

"You mean except that you both have Hecatonchires as in your description, and your names are exactly the same barring the letter 'o' between the last 'e' and the 's'?"

Briares sighed. "There is no working with you...wait, how did you manage to say so many lines of speech without a single curse word?"

The Hecatonchires' surprise, the boy looked sheepish. "Zoё said I couldn't curse unless she said I could, and if a do she's going to spank me…"

Briares stared at Percy. "Who is this Zoё and how has she managed to...discipline...you?"

"That would be me, and I'm not entirely sure myself."

Everyone else popped up at once. Bianca and Annabeth were gobsmacked, Zoё looked upon the Hecatonchire with respect, and Clair had her head cocked to the side.

"Ah, a Huntress, Artemis' lieutenant no less. Yes, I can see how you could have reigned Percy in. Also, a daughter of Hades and a daughter of Athena, not a common sight, for sure, and a...who are you?"

"I'm Clair, daughter of Amaterasu."

"Amaterasu?" Briares said surprised. "Why, I haven't heard a peep of any Shinto deity for millennia, not since the Titans came into power and they all left for their own dimension."

Annabeth picked up on something. "You clearly know Percy, but how did you not know he was Shinto?"

"He's Shinto? I always thought he was just an unusually foul-mouthed and powerful son of one of the Algae. Who's his parent?"

"Jashin."

Briares face went blank. "Well, that certainly explains a lot."

"Yeah, Dad's a di—" Percy looked at Zoё, who nodded in the affirmative.

"When it comes to your father, you are free to curse as much as you like."

"Oh, okay then...yeah, Dad's a real big fucking dick who needs to die. He even turned me into a fucking girl because he thought it was funny!"

Everyone watched as Briares' face contorted as the mental images of Percy's words formed in his mind. Then his face morphed into one of pure revulsion, like he had just something worse than Two Girls One Cup. "SWEET BABY JESUS HAVE MERCY ON THIS WORLD!"

"Yeah, and then he made me have lesbian sex with Clair! It felt good for a little bit, but then it started hurting, like, a lot."

Briares moaned loudly in despair for the world.

Unfortunately, his shout and his moan attracted unwanted attention. A terrible screech rang out from the bowels of the Hecatonchires' prison, one that had Zoё getting her bow out, Annabeth her knife, Bianca summoning her sword from the ground, Clair examining her nails, Briares sighing in annoyance, and Percy frowning.

"Kampê's still here? But she's so annoying."

"Try being imprisoned with her for all eternity. Now that sucks."

The screeching demon came flying up out of the shadows of further down the hallway. Winged, serpentine, with a trio of live animal heads about her waist, a fanged mouth, snakes for hair, and a couple of scimitars that were dripping with literal poison.

"Hey, Clair! It's your mom!"

"Which one?"

"Both of them!"

"Do what now?"

The other three girls were just as lost as Briares was, until it dawned on them that yes, Clair technically had two mothers, her mortal one and Amaterasu. Considering the situation, they didn't have time to inform Briares of this.

Kampê screeched and shot forward. Zoё fired off a slew of arrows, all of which were batted aside by the monster's scimitars. Then Percy giggled, his bones tearing out of his arms with a wet ripping sound, blood spraying across the floor. The soaked bones shot at Kampê far faster than Zoё's arrows, but Clair wanted in on the fun too.

"Amaterasu."

The bones lit up with black fire a nanosecond before they lodged themselves into Kampê's breasts. The monster screamed as she was doused in the black fires of the Amaterasu. Bianca, Annabeth, and Zoё watched with dull eyes as one of the most feared and powerful monsters in Grecian history...was taken down like a total noob.

The skeleton shattered against the ground, and continued to burn till it was tiny little ash piles, and then those burned into oblivion as well. Briares raised a brow, "Well, that was certainly anticlimactic."

"Yep, we're overpowered, makes things kinda boring," Percy said. "So, want me to free you?"

"Yes, and then Zeus will be more than happy to simply let me roam about at my leisure. Surely he wouldn't attempt to press me into some kind of service."

"Oh, guess you're right. Bye, Briareos!"

"Good bye, Perry!"

The son of Jashin blew a raspberry at the Hecatonchire as he attached himself to Zoё's hip once more, and he received a hundred middle fingers at once. He giggled in response.

"Back to the Labyrinth!"

"And which way would that be, Percy?"

"That way!"

"That way?"

"That way!"

"The last time we went 'that way' we ended up here, not where we're supposed to be."

"Yeah, but that was last time. This time we need to go to the Labyrinth, and the Labyrinth is that way!"

Zoё sighed. "Alright, let's go."

And so, with Clair holding her hand, Percy on her hip, Bianca and Annabeth trailing behind, the Huntress followed Percy's directions to the Labyrinth. When they disappeared, Briares sighed. "Oh, that boy...it's already getting lonely."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"How did you end up meeting, and seemingly befriending, the last living Hecatonchire?" Annabeth asked.

"I came to Alcatraz because there's a bunch of loose souls floating about and I wanted them for my collection. That, and there's a bunch of tourists that come here, and I was going to kill all of them."

"...oh."

"But then I felt Briareos' energy, and I wanted to say hi."

"Not kill him?"

"Why? Briareos is cool. And he was depressed. I don't like killing depressed people. They're boring."

"Thank the Fates for small favors," Bianca muttered quietly.

"Agreed," Annabeth muttered just as quietly.

"Zoё," Clair said suddenly. "I'm hungry."

And that was when the quest realized that they had neglected to bring bags that had food, supplies, or clothes in them.

"Man, we are really underprepared," Bianca surmised. "Annabeth, you're the smart one, how did we start this without having supplies?"

"Because every time we do bring supplies, we inevitably lose them to some unforeseen circumstance, therefore making our situation that much more desperate, so I figured we might as well not bring anything so we can immediately start off in peril."

"Oh...good thinking, then."

"I'm still. Hungry." Clair whined.

…

Clair whined. Clair never whined, that was Percy's thing, whining. Clair was the mature one, the calm and collected one; she was the one whose mental age was twice that of Percy's, if not even three times more. She was not the one who whined, especially not about hunger. Still, it was only Annabeth and Bianca who noticed that, as Percy had nuzzled into Zoё's neck, and Zoё herself was trying to think of a way to satiate Clair's hunger.

"Take a left. There's a door that'll lead to McDonald's."

"How do you know that?" Annabeth asked.

"Because I've used it before, duh...stupid head."

"Percy, be nice."

"Bleh."

Zoё eyed the child clinging to her. He had gone from exuberant, bouncy happiness, to tired, sleepy, and borderline grumpy. Children and their mood swings...maybe he was just hungry. Amelia got like this when she was hungry.

Following Percy's instructions, there was indeed the door to the average McDonald's bathroom, and, upon exiting, the quintet found themselves in the front lobby of one of the fast food giant's locations. They attracted no looks, surprisingly. The door shut behind them, and when Bianca opened it again, she saw only the bathroom, not the Labyrinth.

"Well that's...trippy."

"Indeed. Now let us order and eat."

The quest approached the empty line, and Zoё set Percy down. "Do you two know what you want?"

"Mm-hm!" was Clair's response.

"Yeah," was Percy subdued one.

The worker at the register, a young African woman in her late teens, smiled in that 'I'm told to smile at you but I don't really care for you so let's just get this over with' kind of way, the way all retail workers smiled at someone. Her name tag read 'Keesha.'

"I'll have four Bacon McDoubles, plain and dry, with extra bacon, a large fry, and a large drink."

Keesha blinked at Clair's order, and then looked at Zoё for confirmation. The Huntress nodded. "She's a growing girl who needs her food."

"She's also going to need a toilet later on…" Keesha mumbled, thinking it was quiet enough to not be heard. In any other circumstance, she wouldn't have, but she was dealing with a couple of superhuman children, a thousands of years old demi-Titan, and a duo of demigoddesses. Clair frowned as Keesha pressed the buttons.

"Yeah I'm going to need a toilet later on. I'd rather not crap in my pants, thank you."

Keesha looked like a deer in headlights at being found out. "R-Right. Next order please?"

"I'm gonna get two twenty-piece McNuggets with extra Buffalo Sauce, two large fries, and a large drink. Also, are you the same Keesha that was on the Magic School Bus?"

"The what bus?"

Percy stared at the cashier. "I'm going to sacrifice you to my dad."

Zoё stepped in real fast. "Yes, he loves that show. Percy, go help your sister find us a place to sit and eat."

"Clair's not my—"

"Percy. Now, please."

"Okay…"

The vest-clad child trudged off to do as Zoё told him to do. Funny how his exposed scar-covered chest didn't raise immediate red flags.

"Are those two like, your foster kids or something?" Keesha asked.

And there it was again, the outside perspective of motherhood. No, Zoё wasn't at all opposed to being their mother, especially more so considering how she had been acting around them, and how they acted around her. It was just that...that was how people saw their relationship? Mother and children? Was Zoё just in denial about what others thought as obvious? And if so, why was that? It wasn't like she didn't want to be their mom...maybe it was just the way it sounded that gave the Huntress such pause.

Mother. Their mother. The mother of Percy Jackson and Clair. Zoё Nightshade, mother. Yeah, that did sound kinda weird...but it also sounded right. Zoё Nightshade, mother of Shinto demigods Percy and Clair.

Hm, not bad at all.

"Yes, yes they are." She proceeded to place her order, a handful of Big Macs with everything on them and a couple of large fries along with a large drink, and Annabeth and Bianca proceeded to place their own heaping orders as well. When everything had been confirmed, the total bill was over seventy dollars. Considering this was McDonald's, a seventy-dollar total was huge, and it gave many people a bad case of the open-mouthed shock.

Zoё just smirked and snapped her fingers, a small gust of wind shooting out, glazing every human's eyes.

"Your food will be right out, ma'am," Keesha said dazedly.

Ah, the broken power of the Mist. Never gets old.

The three ladies easily found where their younger companions were sitting, and took their own seats. Bianca and Annabeth on one side, with Percy and Clair on the other. The redhead slid out the way so Zoё could sit between her and Percy, who had his head resting on his arms, looking dejected and tired.

"Zoё, Percy's acting weird."

"He's just hungry, baby. He'll be fine after he eats his chicken nuggets."

Annabeth scrutinized Zoё for all of a second; that 'baby' remark...Zoё was acting weird herself. Bianca picked up on it too, but where the blonde found fault, the brunette found benevolence. She thought it was absolutely appropriate for the Huntress to basically adopt Clair and Percy as her own children.

"Okay," Clair said uncertainly, clearly doubting Zoё like all children did when it came to their parents' knowledge about the world.

After a solid fifteen minutes of waiting for all the food to be prepared, the quest was now happily digging in. Their table was piled high with burgers and nuggets and French fries and drinks and napkins, and drew many gobsmacked looks. Eh, if anyone asked they were all just a bunch of growing girls and a boy. In the midst of eating her own gargantuan meal, Zoё dutifully dabbed at both Percy's and Clair's mouths with a napkin whenever they got sauce or crumbs all over themselves, making both half-bloods whine and squirm.

And yes, true to Zoё's earlier conclusion, Percy's funk stemmed solely from his empty stomach. Upon the finishing of his last fry, he sighed in contentment. "Thank you, Zoё!"

The Huntress gently ruffled his hair. "You're welcome, Percy."

After everyone's trash was thrown away, she asked, "Does anyone have to go potty?"

Once again, Annabeth instantly caught on to the juvenile word, once again concluding that something wrong was going on inside Zoё's head, and Bianca thought it was sweet. But to answer Zoё's question, neither teen had to go.

"Uh-uh," Clair shook her head.

"Nope!" Percy chirped.

"Okay~," Zoё drew out, "then both of you had better not say anything ten minutes from now."

"We won't!"

Clair offered a pinky. "Pinky promise we won't."

Zoё clasped pinkies with her babies, and shook.

"To the Labyrinth!" Percy crowed, and then he stormed through the women's bathroom door. Zoё palmed her face, Clair ran after him, Bianca just smiled, and Annabeth had the same input she had earlier.

"You have strange children."

"Indeed. Let us go and make sure he did not just scare the feces out of some poor girl."

"Well, depending on if their panties are down and their butts on the toilet, having their crap scared out of them shouldn't be a problem. On the flipside, if their pants aren't down, then there's cause for concern."

"Thank you, Annabeth, for your observations."

"No problem."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Miraculously, there bathroom door lead straight into the Labyrinth, so there were no scared shitless ladies to worry about. The quest resumed its previous endeavor, with Percy being carried by Zoë and Clair holding Zoë's hand, and the other two trailing behind. Percy pointed and spoke, and everyone obeyed.

However, like all children with full tummies, the Shinto half-bloods began to exhibit signs of drowsiness about twenty minutes of walking later. Clair's eyes continued to droop as she battled against the Sandman, and Percy kept yawning like there was no tomorrow. He had already rested his head on Zoë's shoulder.

"Alright," the Huntress said. "I know two little ones who are ready for a nap."

"But I'm not tired," the tired little ones yawned in tandem.

Zoë just smiled. "Of course you aren't."

She examined where they were, a wide corridor of soft, moist earth. It was cozy down here, and the floors and walls would be comfortable enough. Zoë sat down, Clair sitting on her left, Percy on her right. Immediately, the boy laid his head down on Zoë's thigh, and Clair was short to follow. As they quietly dozed off, their thumbs slowly, unconsciously, entered their mouths.

Zoë calmly stroked their heads, smiling serenely, so much like a mother soothing her children to sleep. Soothing...soother. Zoë reached into the pocket of her jacket, and brought out two little objects. These were Amelia's pacifiers, and Zoë's pockets had been enchanted by Lucy to hold infinite amounts of stuff, namely an armory and a nursery, for when it was her turn to babysit Amelia.

Slowly, hesitantly as she herself realized how strange her actions were, and how harshly these two could react to having pacifiers in their mouths, especially so given how their mothers' abuses had been infantily oriented, Zoë gently pulled Percy's thumb from his mouth, and replaced it with the pacifier. His eyes cracked open, and he reached for what was in his mouth, but he must've deemed it worthy for he dropped his arm and snuggled closer to the Huntress. Zoë did the same to Clair, and she only stirred before adjusting slightly.

The daughter of Atlas smiled at how cute these two looked. She didn't know why she had done that, or what had possessed her to make her think that it was a good idea to substitute their thumbs for pacifiers, but they were still adorable.

And it all looked wrong. Zoë could see it, she wasn't blind to what she was really looking at. Yes, Percy and Clair, napping with pacifiers in their mouths, were the cutest things Zoë had seen in years, but the image of innocence was shattered when you remembered the horrible things they had done. Percy was a mass murderer who thought torturing and cursing were fun things to do, and Clair was a pyromaniac who single handedly brought about a recession due to millions of acres of farmland going up in flame, and between the both of them, they had killed several thousand people.

So yes, this sweet, innocent little sight was undeniably adorable...but it was false.

It was gilded.

And Zoë knew it.

Meanwhile, Bianca and Annabeth were still here, and they watched the entire episode unfold with varying levels of acceptance. This time, the daughter of Hades found it to be strange.

"Hey Annabeth? Why are Percy and Clair acting like little kids?"

The daughter of Athena eyed the napping trio. "They are regressing," she said finally.

"What does that mean?"

Annabeth looked at Bianca. "In psychology, regression means reverting to a previous state of mind. Usually, it's seen in drunks and smokers and addicts, when they go back to drinking or smoking or whatever drug they were on."

"Okay, but Clair and Percy aren't smoking."

"You didn't let me finish. The next common instance of regression is seen in children. The older sibling becomes jealous of the younger and so begins to suck their thumb, soil themselves, and generally act out for attention.

"Right now, I get why Percy and Clair are regressing. Their mothers beat them and tried to kill them, making them obviously despise both of them, but it also robbed them of their childhoods, and what it was like to have a real mom. Then Zoё comes along and treats them like she's their mother, and they love it. They've latched on to the idea, the illusion, that Zoё is their mom, and, in an effort to get the full experience, their minds are reverting back to a younger age, making them more juvenile, innocent, and prone to acting like they do now."

"So," Bianca said with a screwed-up face, "what you're saying is...Percy and Clair's heads are making them act like little kids...because their heads want to relive life...because they see Zoё as their mom?"

"More or less. The human mind is a weird thing, and no one fully understands how it works."

"Okay," Bianca just thought it best to accept it and move on...then a thought struck her. "Hey, you said that their minds were getting younger, and that regression is a revert to a previous mindset, right?"

"Yes…"

"Well, how far back would you say Percy and Clair are right now?" there was a tinge of worry to the brunette's tone, and it made Annabeth antsy. Nevertheless, she answered, "I'd say Percy is about three, maybe four, and Clair is probably five, give or take a year. Why?"

"Well, remember how their mothers didn't care for them, and basically left them to stew in their diapers until they both self-taught themselves?"

"Yes…"

"They were potty trained when they were three and five, right?" Bianca asked worriedly.

Annabeth opened her mouth, shut it, opened it again, shut it, and then she paled. "Oh no…"

"They were," Zoё said with a hard voice, startling the girls. "And if they weren't, then a few soiled pull-ups is something I can deal with."

"You are a shining example of what a mother should be," Bianca said after a pause.

"Yeah," Annabeth said, "a shining example." Her dejected tone was not lost on the other two girls. They both saw in those grey eyes, those eyes that looked at Percy and Clair, jealousy. Annabeth was jealous of the two, but why wouldn't she be? She grew up without a true mother, only a step-mother that kicked her out.

A sad looked crossed Bianca's face, but she didn't know what to do. A hand on the shoulder and the words 'are you okay' would have been highly inappropriate, and something along the lines of an offer, along the lines of 'I'll be your mom' would have been shooting way beyond the lines of what was and what wasn't okay. So Bianca just brought her friend in for a hug, one that was reciprocated instantly.

"Life sucks," Annabeth mumbled.

"Yeah," Bianca said. "Life does suck."

"And it's not fair."

"Clair and Percy would agree."

"That they would. Can we take a nap now? I'm tired."

"You know what? I'm tired too."

And with that that, the two girls slumped against the earthen wall, and caught some Z's.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That took a lot longer than I expected, and no, Percy and Clair are not about to be in diapers. There's been enough of that.

In other news, the Delay for this chapter stems directly from my playing Assassin's Creed: Origins, but I've beaten it, so updates should be more frequent now. Hopefully. In more other news, my friend, the one that was in the car accident, is much better now. Their brain has healed and their bladder too, so no more diapers for them; now it's just an endless amount of jokes, and a few physical therapy sessions to make sure there's nothing the scans missed.

Finally, in the event that I don't update by Thanksgiving this coming Thursday, the 23rd of the year 2017 (for those reading this many weeks/months after it's finished/updated)...

Happy Thanksgiving!