I'm back from school, I said.

I'll update consistently now, I said.

Also me: vanishes off the face of the planet for several weeks.

I suppose I owe you an apology for that. I got a job, and have to go to work. I had to move to a different city, so that was fun.

Anyway, I'm back now, continuing the Therapy arc, as requested.

Enjoy, and leave a review!

Apollo picked up an arrow, nocked it, and fired.

It hit the intended target. And the surrounding area. As it was, there was now a small crater around the wooden board Apollo had been using as a target.

"Oh," he said. "My mistake."

Behind him stood Meg and her adopted siblings. The sibling had expressions somewhere between surprise and fear. Meg had a look somewhere between exasperation and sympathy.

"Apollo," she said. "Try hitting lighter."

Apollo frowned, "This is light."

But his gut pooled with something akin to dread.

For a being who had spent four thousand years being a powerful god, Apollo forgot that he was one surprisingly often. As Lester, he had gotten accustomed to putting in every ounce of strength and power into his tasks. As a god, "every ounce of strength and power" equated to roughly the power of a hydrogen bomb.

If one day, he lost control, and someone was in the vicinity…the possibilities were too horrifying to imagine.

"I have an idea," said Meg. "Maybe we can do this somewhere else. We can go to an archery range."

"An archery range?" Apollo frowned. "But aren't there more people there?"

"Use your goddy powers. You got this."

And perhaps Apollo was just used to doing what Meg said, or because he had been itching to go to one anyway, but within minutes, the god, Meg, her floral protectors, and her eleven siblings were packed and ready to go.

Meg called ahead of time, using a smartphone that she was slowly getting addicted to. Phones might not be safe for demigods, but they had seven trees of Mass Destruction and around a forest's worth of other nature spirits on their side. What were monsters supposed to do, attack them? They might as well kill themselves for how much damage they will do.

Oh, and a god. Who was still slightly afraid of the small army his demigod friend had amassed.

"Peaches," said Peaches, who had hogged the Driver's seat, snarling at anyone who tried to fight him for it.

"Peaches," Lucius tried. "Please, I'm trying to drive here."

Lucius looked cautious, probably because he had been tasked with burning plants at one point under Nero's orders, and Peaches had taken that as a personal insult. Peaches snarled again, and Lucius retreated before he could bite his face off.

That wasn't even an exaggeration. Peaches bit off appendages of monsters, and people he mistook for monsters on a regular basis. Apollo knew, because he had been called in for emergency surgery just the past week.

"I can heal you," Apollo offered, "If Peaches does bite your face off."

"Thanks," he muttered sarcastically. "Meg, get your monster under control."

"Peaches is a friend," Meg said stubbornly. "Not a monster."

"He bit off Aemillia's arm just last week!"

"He shows affection through biting," Meg said defensively.

"You call this affection?"

"Brave words coming from the boy who introduced himself by stabbing me," said Aemillia, who rotated said arm in discomfort. "But yes, that did hurt. Meg, please tell Peaches to get off the driver's seat. He could terrorize Lucius from the passenger's seat instead."

Lucius and Meg both shot her looks of betrayal.

"No," said Orion. "Absolutely not."

Childe gave him a Look. The same one his younger siblings gave him whenever they wanted something from him. On them it looked cute (he will, of course, deny ever admitting that). As Childe was an adult, it was far less effective.

"No," said Orion.

Childe whined, "But I have a meeting with the Chief Lector today, and I have to actually be in Egypt for that. Can't you just take them with you to work or something while I'm gone?"

"Why can't you take them to work?"

"It's complicated," he admitted. "Long story short, there was a civil war a few years back, and the animosity hadn't fully died down. I'd rather the kids not see that."

There was something Childe wasn't telling him. Fair, considering that Orion was still trying to figure out the best way to break the news to Childe that he had once been a mass murderer.

"Is that the incident involving the giant snake?" he asked.

"That was part of it, yeah. But the war was more over who got to rule Egypt and how it should be ruled."

Ah, Orion nodded in understanding. There was an attempted overthrow of the government. It seemed that some things stayed the same no matter which pantheon it was in.

"So what happened?"

"Well, the rebel side was actually doing pretty well. Then it turned out that the two leaders were actually working for the evil snake, which was not a vibe, so everyone decided to deal with the snake first instead."

This was consistent with what Orion knew. But for Childe to be so reluctant to bring the kids along…

"You were one of the rebels, weren't you?" Orion realized.

Childe hesitated, but didn't deny it. Orion suddenly had a newfound respect for him.

"I didn't think you had it in you," Orion praised. "What happened? How did you end up joining?"

"Honestly?" Childe said. "I'm of the opinion that the age of gods and pharaohs had long since passed, and to attempt to bring them back, as our Chief Lector did, was just an attempt to relive the glory days that had only been glorious for them and not for those who lived under them."

"So you tried to overthrow them, huh?"

"So I tried to overthrow them," he agreed. "Regrettably, it didn't work out, and now we have a new pharaoh crowned. I suppose we're lucky he decided to yeet off to New York and doesn't actually do much ruling, and the gods retreated back to the Duat afterwards. Still, I would rather that we have just gotten rid of the monarchy entirely."

"That's ambitious of you."

"Yeah. Small steps, though, right? Anyway," Childe's smile turned strained. "While I had my views, and I still stand by them, they're not very...popular. Even among the ones who used to be rebels, as we found out the hard way when we hosted them last."

"And you don't want the kids to get caught up in it," Orion guessed. "Or worse, be the target of ostracization because of you."

"There had already been incidents," Childe agreed. "The kids kicked their asses, of course. You know what they're capable of. But still. They're kids. They shouldn't have to put up with this nonsense in the first place."

"I see."

"So will you watch the kids for a day?"

Orion groaned. While the kids were cute (Orion will again deny ever having said that), being within their vicinity for an extended period of time was headache inducing.

Still, Childe was letting him stay for free, and he was already buying him most of his meals. He supposed he should return some of his hospitality.

"Alright," he relented. "Just this once."

Childe gave him a pat on the back. "I knew I could count on you."

Orion hummed and considered. He could probably get away with taking them to the archery range. Tonia had been making pointed remarks at him about how much she wanted to shoot things ever since he moved in. Perhaps it was time to indulge her wish.

Orion arrived, with the three children in tow, to an empty archery range.

"Where is everyone?" he asked his boss.

"Some family booked the range for some private event," she said, eyeing the kids with some curiosity. "Officially, we're closed."

"Oh," it was not unheard of, though the concept didn't make sense to him. The wealthy among mortals must hate other mortals, Orion decided. Why else would they close down a place just so they were the only ones to enjoy it?

"And the lessons?"

"I sent a mass email telling them to reschedule. So uh, your kids. They would have to go."

Orion had been expecting that response, and had prepared a list of possible ways to trick his boss into letting them stay. It was not a good list, mind you. He had "dressing them up as archery equipment" on there somewhere, but he was fairly confident at least one of them would work by sheer mathematical probability.

Someone would have to give him a crash course on mathematical probability soon, but all plans he might have planned on executing halted when the group that booked the range walked in.

"Sorry," the youngest of them said. "The baby wouldn't get out of the driver's seat."

He gestured to the thing in his arms, and Orion froze because that was not a baby.

He made the mistake of making eye contact with everyone in the group.

"You!" said Apollo.

"Trees!" the three kids shouted with glee.

"Die," said the trees.

So, that was fun.

Will Orion get murdered? Will his newfound friends turn against him? We don't know. I'm not done writing it yet.

But soon. Soon we will find out.

As for the next chapter your options are again as follows:

A. Therapy (a continuation of this current arc)

B. Aradia in Medieval Tuscany, part 2

C. Iphigenia (or, what really happened to the kid)

D. Some more confusing AI things

E. Suggest your own prompt!

I again look forward to hearing from you people. Also, feel free to leave a review on how you think of the story so far.

I'll see you soon. Hopefully.