Can you believe I'm already on single digit chapters left of the first book?

PJOPJOPJO

"Like, with an actual plunger?" Jason asked as he took the book from Will and saw the forbidding proclamation at the top. This didn't seem like a lucky kind of thirteen.

"I think I'd rather literally fall from the Statue of Liberty than wherever your mind went," Percy frowned at him.

Jason adhered to that and didn't elaborate no matter how much he wanted to make jokes about his Lordship's Bathrooms coming back into play.

"Sounds like it would have been nice to see under better circumstances," Will smiled.

"That tends to happen when you just got done killing Kindly Ones," Thalia sighed.

"Better than a gun?" Magnus tried to make that sound more optimistic than he felt.

"Annabeth accosted them more than me!" Percy protested.

"I think Grover might have done the worst damage actually," Alex said with a straight face, "throwing those tin cans must have hurt."

Nico sighed and wondered when it would stop being so endearing that Percy Jackson could laugh off anything as he did so again.

"That is the most ludicrous thing I have yet heard, including the talking poodle," Jason frowned.

"Maybe he's worried Percy will come back to haunt him for the rest of his inheritance, oh wait," Will rolled his eyes.

"The important question there was, did you wave back?" Alex challenged.

"Yeah," Percy smiled.

"You have clearly never been traveling down the highway and had a cougar dart across your path," Thalia snarked, "talk about your life flashing before your eyes."

"I lived in New York, when would that have ever happened to me?" He frowned, deciding to shelve the rest of that in the 'I don't want to know' category.

"They didn't notice a centaur out the window, I think the mist just would have made him look like he had a broken toe and not batted an eye," Alex shrugged.

"Unless they had a foot fetish, better safe than sorry," Percy shrugged right back and the others were mildly concerned for a moment why he made that sound so casual; but as he'd just reminded, you know, New York.

'Is she psychic now? Does Annabeth literally pull answers straight from your brain?' Hearth asked in concern.

'If so, then that's new,' Magnus didn't seem particularly concerned about it.

"I can vouch for that," Nico muttered, the man was immune to every knock-knock and dad joke he'd ever tried.

Thalia was starting to feel guiltier by the word she couldn't just tell Percy the truth. First Luke now this, he was clearly miserable and up to his eyeballs in questions and the only thing she could do was tease, "look, even Grover's calling you brainless now."

Percy gave her a brave smile and clearly wasn't holding it against her as he ran his hand through his hair, ruffling up the usual windy mess.

Percy leaned forward in his seat, somehow looking more anxious about whatever could be coming out of her mouth next than when they were discussing the monsters.

"Lord of the Underworld," Nico corrected automatically.

"I'm with you there buddy," Jason nodded to his stunned red face, "I don't want to know what these gods'll do to us if we don't be clear."

"Cut her some slack, we've been stressing nonstop for days, she hadn't even cracked open her book yet between the sleeping and running," Percy frowned.

"What's the difference?" Magnus asked.

"Thanatos is the god of death, but Hades is still his boss and lord of both, it's a rather pedantic argument," Percy sighed, before he clapped his hand to his mouth and then lowered it with a chagrined smile. "I'm guessing Annabeth gave me a lecture on this herself later."

"I'll just be sure to mention you listened," Thalia chuckled.

Magnus scowled at nothing in here, he'd been to young to wonder why his cousin had run away at the time, but he sure wanted to find out now.

Thalia sighed and fidgeted with her bracelet, they'd been getting along, better, in recent times. Enough this would still be her answer? She wasn't sure, and she didn't think her friend would be either if demanded of it.

'Is Percy, or her dad the hellhound in this situation?' Hearth asked.

'I'm not going to be the one to ask,' Magnus shook his head.

Hearthstone got his answer anyways as he twined up his fingers and looked on at nothing. He knew that feeling all to well.

Thalia winced and wished she could hug her friend in empathy, a child should never be raised by someone who didn't want them. Bad things happened to everyone involved.

Magnus swallowed a horrible sense of regret he couldn't have been there for her for that, why his mom couldn't have just raised them both, but then they'd both be in the exact same situation. He almost hoped Annabeth was getting it wrong somehow and these resentments had just come with age after she left, but then, he trusted her to know she'd left for her own good.

Will sighed in sympathy, he never knew he had something like that in common with Annabeth, but the reason he'd left his own mother gladly that day was for something inherently similar. She'd never been able to get more fame leached from him being the child of Apollo, so he might as well not have existed to her.

"Most times, it helps just to listen," Alex assured, she wished they weren't hearing about Annabeth's troubles this way. If ever they met her, she'd apologize, people should be able to tell their story in their own time.

"Some memories you don't let yourself forget that have nothing to do with the good times," Nico spoke solemnly. He'd only kept that stupid Hades toy Bianca had died for, that Percy had still tried to give him, so he could smack himself in the face with it any time he let himself look at Percy a moment to long.

Percy fiddled with his own camp necklace, running his thumb over the beads with a feeling he'd know what Nico meant soon enough. Jason was rubbing his tattoo, for the first time questioning if he'd even want his own memories back.

Percy wished he could curl his arms around her now, promise her she was wanted and this whole journey would have collapsed without her already. He had no clue how he ended up like this, but he doubted he volunteered, and he hoped she knew that.

Nobody called Percy out on his little revelation before with Grover, leaving it to Annabeth to explain her side of what went so wrong on that trip.

Nico frowned at the idea a child of the Goddess of wisdom had needed help, that perfect Annabeth couldn't do anything on her own.

Thalia twirled the bracelet on her wrist around a few more times as the same plagued her. She would make her sacrifice again and again, but the what ifs would never stop haunting her had things gone differently for her friends.

"I'm sure that's exactly what the architect was going for," Will chuckled.

Magnus smiled with pride for his cousin, he imagined she could reshape even Uncle Randolph's home into something less creepy.

"While shouting orders and tearing through schematics and running around making sure it all goes perfectly, yeah, the sitting quietly part and drawings goes into like, five percent of that," Thalia laughed.

"Did she just create a wagon with wheels but no way to move it?" Jason chuckled, didn't seem very wise.

"Please don't get her started on the history of this or you'll be taking a test of the Illiad in a week," Percy said with something close to longing for that future lecture.

"She's the smarts and your the momentum, yeah, I can see that," Alex nodded.

'That's not just a goat thing,' Hearth signed with a very sad smile at his friend, who nearly always had food on the mind for his homeless time. Even now he was storing away whatever leftovers from that fridge he hadn't finished into every available pouch and bag to be taken back to Blitzen and stretched out as long as possible, and he was helping. With heavy guilt like they did most days. Oh how much they wished they could simply take Magnus back to Svartalfheim with them and save him from whatever they were supposed to be watching him from.

'Who doesn't wake up hungry? Normal people?' He shrugged.

"No more Medusa burgers? And I thought he'd like another swing at her," Percy chuckled.

Nico was fascinated this was all it seemed to be to keep Percy content, even now he was eating blue fudge off a plate and listening to the fun facts about his and his friend's lives and just smiling along.

"Underground smells like them, electricity draws them, monsters can smell your parents, am I missing anything that doesn't make this harder," Jason sighed.

"Running right into their lair," Thalia smirked.

Percy resisted throwing fudge at her by popping it in his mouth instead, it was to good to waste.

"If people can't look up from their phones long enough to see a centaur, I don't think they'll be listening into their conversations," Magnus shrugged, he had a way of feeling invisible on the streets.

"There was another one," Jason huffed, "just saying their names!"

Nico choked and beat down a hysterical laugh one was being compared to the other, like comparing a Nemean lion to a mortal big cat, or him to Percy.

"What you've heard is nothing to seeing it," Nico grimly confirmed.

"Does he just keep it lying around that day like Zeus's bolt?" Will asked quietly as he suppressed a shudder.

"Right in the throne room," he nodded, "it makes quite the impression, makes my shadow traveling look like a parlor trick."

"I'll take you and Annabeth combined over that thought any day," Will promised.

"You're not afraid of being alone in the dark, you're afraid of not being alone in the dark," Jason frowned.

"Thanks for that little adage," Magnus frowned at him.

"The same way we know he's not here right now," Thalia sighed, "we don't."

"That wasn't comforting," Percy informed her.

"Would he go into a Titan's domain?" Will tried to protest, though more wondering why Nico hadn't tried to.

"I wouldn't put anything past him," Thalia shook her head. She felt a little bad at seeing Nico grimace, but she hoped he knew she would never judge someone based on their parent, as she strived to be the opposite of her father. Loyal, a maiden, for starters.

"Explains why you've eased up some since the door appeared," Jason said in understanding.

"Helps we got an explanation," he nodded.

"I don't see why pets wouldn't be allowed at monuments," Alex said just to be argumentative.

"You've clearly never stepped in dog shit," Magnus huffed, he no more believed people would pick it up there than they did on the streets.

'That went without saying of the little beasts' Hearth frowned, he'd known friendlier party guests than those Midgard beasts that had once chased him around a park. Blitz had nearly turned to stone he stayed so long helping him get rid of it, and the owner had done nothing but laugh while they'd eventually run up the tree.

"She's one of those people who calls their animals their babies isn't she?" Thalia sighed.

"That's a, kind explanation," Will agreed uneasily, they'd still found no mention of Percy going to the bathroom or a plumber getting involved. The other option of being so high up didn't sound like it was leading toward a good thing.

"Which was obviously helping your unease of being so high up," Will smiled.

"Just be happy she wasn't suggesting windows that opened," Percy sighed.

Will started humming under his breath, something that was probably supposed to be a cheerful tune since they were so close to this one stop being over without anything catastrophic happening or depressing friends' stories coming out.

The others thought it sounded like a serial killer's theme song playing under Jason's ever growing uneasy voice.

Jason paused like he had a frog in his mouth, before assuring he'd double checked he'd read that right.

"I don't suppose she's got a tool belt made of denim too you haven't mentioned?" Nico asked without hope. This wasn't leading to a good start, considering the location, but a river had been mentioned at the bottom...

"Negative," Percy sighed.

"Some gruesome, voluntary, totally arbitrary and normal person body modification perhaps?" Alex played dumb just to see him roll his eyes.

"Smart idea even if it was a normal dog," Nico frowned while Will was bracing himself for which mad creature the Mist was disguising. Shoot, it had been to long since he'd sat in on the campfire stories of Percy's first quest, his more recent extravagant victories were diluting the older ones like who this could be.

"Is it though?" Jason was looking queasier by the word, like that frog was trying to swim back up his throat. "I'll take the pint-sized pup over this madness!"

'That would sound kind of cool, under better circumstances,' Hearth admitted.

'There are no good circumstances with this!' Magnus protested.

"Well they sure see something now," Jason kept speaking into the loudly awkward silence. To many people seemed grateful the ocean would probably hide if they wet themselves at the mental image being painted here.

"That is officially the coolest monster I never want to meet, easily top ten," Thalia at least seemed stoked for something, planning out a trap in her mind of what could lure this beast in. She wondered if Artemis would caution her to call that number first though, she'd rather avoid offending the mother of all monsters if she could avoid it.

"Is that better or worse than Medusa? What's with all the snakes?" Will shivered.

Nico gave him an absent pat on the shoulder as he wondered what the extension number for Cerberus was. Did his dad have one on there for his kids too? He'd have to ask someone for the phone book to the Underworld, it seemed rude nobody had informed him of this.

"I'm really starting to hate Zeus," Jason groaned. "Doesn't he know Percy's trying to get back something he didn't even steal, why does he keep interfering with that?"

"Pretty sure we've been asking ourselves why Zeus does anything since he began meddling with humans," Thalia sighed.

"That's actually kind of cool," Magnus looked like his head was going to pop again from too much information alert. "There's a mother of all monsters? Do they have family gatherings? Who's the dad?"

"Magnus, no," Alex shook her head at him and he realized now wasn't the time while Jason had ignored those pertinent questions anyways.

"So are aardvarks and pangolins, but I'm not crazy enough to remind her of that," Nico frowned at him.

"Would you have rather I compared her to Medusa? I think that would have made it worse!" Percy snipped back.

"That explains a lot actually," Thalia nodded as if a great mystery were suddenly resolved. "I'll bet she sends a lot of her deadly creatures there and the mortals mistake them for normal, deadly animals all the time."

"I'll send her a letter too," Percy sighed. "Can we get to the plunging part already?" He'd like to stop remembering that awful smell of burning air soon.

"There's a sentence I never thought I'd hear," Jason frowned before agreeing there was only one alternative left.

"That's definitely worse than blowing up a bus," Magnus offered.

"Why are you keeping track of that!" Percy protested.

Nico gasped and the others winced with worry. If Percy weren't sitting in front of them now, decidedly alive, that could have just marked him an even faster trip to the Underworld without return.

Thalia hissed and drew an arrow, adding the chimera to her list of creatures to be hunted herself now in retribution.

"Instead of the blind leading the blind, it's going to be the sword leading the wielder," Magnus grumbled, mind boggling how anyone could survive that fall.

"At least it's not a welder," Jason sighed. "We don't need anymore firepower up there."

Nico's mouth was hanging open by this point, he'd never in his life have envisioned Percy losing a fight, let alone the only option left before him, plunging to his death! Fleeing...

No, being the big, sacrificial hero, Nico mentally corrected. Annabeth would be proud of this new strategy, he decided. Will was shifting uneasily beside him, fanning his face and seeming to enjoy being underwater for once so no fires could be in the middle of the room. He was looking on at Percy with just as much admiration too, and Nico reminded himself it wasn't so out of the norm to hero worship the Son of the Sea God like every other camper for all the inhuman things he managed to do in the face of death.

It still didn't feel quite real to hear though for the first time to Nico. Percy Jackson had actually been scared of something, the same way he would have been first seeing that thing.

Thalia was breathing calmly and evenly through the growing tension as Percy went more still and paralyzed beside her. He kept rubbing his leg where the snakebite had once been and checking his pants to make sure they weren't smoking, he was making the water churn around him, just slightly, and he fought with himself to remember there was nothing to be scared of now in his domain no matter how raw the memory had left his charred flesh. She tapped her bracelet but fought the urge to draw Aegis again, her friend needed no shield to hide behind to face this demon.

"A test of faith I suppose I passed," Percy murmured as he rubbed at his heart now.

"All drops lead to the ocean," Will reminded with that same cheerful smile as always. "You have no idea the power you yet wield Percy."

PJOPJOPJOPJO

I have a question for you all that I've been torn over for years. If Echidna did have a demigod child, would it be with a human equivalent of a monster, like Hitler, or would it be with someone who treats animals with the same love and respect as she treats her monster babies, like Steve Irwin? I'm so fifty fifty on this and have created multiple scenarios for both kids lineage, but I'd love your input.