Hey everyone,

I'd like to announce that although some myths contradict with others, I may need to change the order in which historical myths took place to be able to fit the characters I want into the story.

Although the setting is ancient Greece, I will make the characters talk in English and informally, as if they were regular boys/men or girls/women in the modern world. It makes writing this a little bit easier, and the characters more relaxed than if they talked formally all the time.

At the end, I apologize for rushing this chapter, but I already had a lot previous. I originally planned to have all short chapters, but my imagination took off and it turned from a planned 4,000 to 6,422 words. So, apologies ahead for the rush at the end of the chapter.

Just a note about copying and pasting author's notes...in the past, I have had readers who did not read the author's notes until later chapters. I just want to keep reminding. If you have already seen the author's notes, you can just skip them and go straight to reading the story. Thank you.

With best regards,
SharkAttack719

Chapter 20

The Final Journey Begins

The manticore was a tough beast to find. It was elusive, sneaky and easily disappeared into the wind.

Or maybe it was the fact that rarely anyone had heard of it. Apparently, it was a very eastern monsters, out further east than the Phoenicians. And they were far east, just like Colchis. Of course, Zoë and Percy didn't really have a map to refer to. It seemed as though to the south and east only desert awaited for them.

It was the native tribes that really helped them through the dusty storms and dry climate. They wore loose robes that were very different from the tunic that Percy always wore. Instead of covering most of the body, the robes covered the entire body, including the head and the feet.

They wore their regular Greek sandals, but traded for the loose-fitting clothing that they had been so explicitly advised to wear. Zoë wore an eastern white headdress, which made her look like some sort of Egyptian princess (even though only the pharaohs were considered important). Percy on the other hand, just wore a brown cloak over his robes. It made him a little bit warmer, but he liked the cloak better than the headdress.

"It doesn't suit me," he had complained to Zoë. Her response was the shaking of her head and the rolling of her eyes.

This was the first beast that he and Zoë was to find to sacrifice to the gods. It was a good thing that those in the far east heard of the legends of the great beast, otherwise the two of them would have been stuck trying to find a monster that was said to have only been seen by a lucky survivor.

Half a year was spent by the duo to travel to the far east. They made their way across the "Grand Desert" to get to an even further east land called India. There, the Phoenicians said that the creature would be a very common story and it would be easier to track the beast down. It turned out that the Indians had as much of a clue as they had about the whereabouts of the manticore, though they rumored that they would find their answers if they followed the coast back west.

After listening to the Indians' advice, they traveled west until they saw more land across a strait of some sort.

Percy threw back his hood and placed a hand over his eyes. "Do you think he might be across that strait? The manticore, I mean."

Zoë looked up in the sky. "Well, you did a great job figuring out how to know which direction we're heading in, so I would assume that this is going south. We don't want to get any further away from Greece than we are now."

"True." He turned around and examined the desert and hills behind them. "It doesn't look like we'll be running into him anytime soon. Why do these creatures have to be so hard to find? How in the world did Heracles find all of those stupid monsters so easily?" He kicked the sand in frustration and dust flew up.

"Athena," Zoë muttered. Then her eyes lit up. "Athena! That's it!"

Percy gave her a confused look. "What are you blabbering on about, Zoë?"

"Don't you remember you idiot?" she said slapping his shoulder. "Athena is the companion of heroes. She's bound to know what we're up to. Now, what was the symbol of Athena again?"

"Whoa! Hold up. Athena is the companion of heroes, that's right, but..." He trailed off, the realization hitting him like a ram. Percy grabbed her shoulders. "You're a genius! Remember the river in India and just outside of the Phoenician settlements? Both times there were owls flying off in the distance. In Phoenicia, the owl flew towards India. In India, it was the opposite! That means—"

"—that the manticore is somewhere in between!" Zoë finished excitedly. Then she froze. "But how are we supposed to figure it out now when we're in the middle of a desert?"

Percy gave her a sly smile. "Oh, but we're not, Zoë." He pointed up into the sky and a giant waterfall of water rose from the strait. Winking at her, he said. "We're not at all."

"But we're still in a desert-like climate," she said. "Will she show us the path in this kind of weather?"

"Ah, but you are forgetting one thing, my dear," he said holding a finger up. "What does water and soil put together equal?"

"Fertile soil?"

"Precisely."

"But soil can't be healthily fertile when there is salt in the ocean's waters," Zoë said. "This is an ocean, right?"

"Yes, but often when there is an ocean, there are rivers and streams along them," he explained. "And sometimes there are places where water gets soaked deeper into the earth, when my father is feeling like he wants to drown the Underworld out. Those help the trees grow from underneath."

"Your father does that?"

"With Demeter's help, of course. They tag-team an area in which they deem good enough to have fertile land. We're bound to run into one, soon. Just keep moving and we'll get there."

Sure enough, just after a couple days of walking, they ended up in a forested area. There weren't that many trees, nothing compared to the hills of Greece, but for this area of the world, it was a lot. Even grass grew near the water's edge, just past the beach.

It was quite convenient actually. It was the perfect place for them to get out of the sun as well, to take off their headgear that had made them hot in the blazing sun. It seemed as though Helios and Demeter didn't like this part of the world very much.

They set up a camp in this nice, cooler region and waited until the owl came to signify where they had to go. When the sun set, Percy was the first one to be the lookout. It would be Zoë's turn halfway through the night. During Percy's shift, he sat with his back against a tree, staring out at the waters of the far east. To him, it was odd and peculiar to see how there were such little rivers connected to this long strait of the ocean, and even weirder that there were barely any living establishments along this oceanside.

Nothing happened throughout his turn as lookout until the very end.

He crept into the tent and gently shook Zoë awake. She let out a soft groan and turned away from Percy on his first attempt. He rolled his eyes and shook her again. "Come on, Zoë. It's your turn to be the lookout."

"All right, all right," she muttered and sat up. Rubbing her eyes, she yawned, and then stretched her arms out. Then she crawled halfway out of the tent when Percy froze, just as he was about to get into bed.

"Wait, Zoë!" he hissed.

She froze and quietly turned her head to the son of Poseidon. "What?"

Percy listened intently for the next few seconds, trying to hear what he had heard just seconds before. It was sort of like a growl, like an animal's... yet it sounded like a human had made that sound. It was a hybrid, like a lycanthrope, and Percy could only hope it was one thing.

Though tired, he took his bow and quiver and slung them. Anaklusmos was still clipped in his messy, untidy hair. He turned to Zoë and said, "Stay quiet and follow me. I think we found the manticore."

Zoë's eyes widened but she listened to Percy and stayed silent. She followed him out with her own bow and quiver full of arrows. A celestial bronze knife was at her side and she kept her bow near it just in case of a surprise ambush.

Percy delved further into the trees, and although it was fairly thin, the dark and cold made it hard for them to see. He thought he saw the silhouette of a monster in the distance in front of him, but when he blinked, it was gone.

He turned to Zoë. "I swear that—" He cut himself off.

"Swear what?"

Percy suddenly pulled out Anaklusmos and was ready to fight. Just as he did that, a huge spike flew past his ear, nearly taking it off. It slammed into the tree behind them.

Zoë jumped back in surprised and let a stray arrow fly into the darkness.

Then they saw the creature they had spent half a year trying to find. He wasn't nearly as scary as the Indians had told them, but he looked dangerous. His face was still human-like, an eye brown and the other blue; however, he also had the body of a lion's, a large predatory beast that neither of them had conquered yet. The lion's body wasn't even the scariest part. It was the tail that made Percy and Zoë wary of the monster. The tail of the manticore was long and large, and it replicated a scorpion's tail except much larger. And bristling at the end of the tail were huge spikes, thorns actually.

Percy shouldn't have been wary of the monster, considering he had fought a drakon before, but as he learned with Jason, expect the unexpected.

The manticore growled and spoke something in another language.

"What is it saying?" Zoë asked Percy.

"I don't know... it sounds... similar to the tribes that we met..." he muttered. Turning his attention to the beast, he said, "I'm sorry, but we don't understand whatever you're talking in. It was only the Phoenicians who knew their language and also Greek that we communicated with the peoples of the lands you prey on."

The manticore grinned. "Such bold Greeks," he purred. "Coming out to the far east, into my domain, to try to kill me. You know this is not natural to you. You are not used to fighting in the deserts. You must be cold right now, those loose robes. But I wouldn't expect you to know much of me, for I have always been shunned, put away because I am not 'dangerous' enough to be considered a threat to Greek heroes. So instead, I prey on the weak tribes of the east, ones with much less might than the city-states of Hellas."

"Coward," Percy said, the hair clip in his hands seemingly bursting with eagerness to spring into action.

"So brave, yet so young," the manticore said, almost as if he had a heart. "I feel it is almost a pity to end the lives of those so young. But unfortunately, that is how life works."

"Scatter!" Percy shouted, just as a barrage of thorns came hurtling at them. When he and Zoë locked eyes as they got up, he shouted, "Run!"

She obeyed his command and ran in the opposite direction of each other. It wouldn't be long before the dirt and trees turned into grass before finally transforming into sand. He didn't have too far to run to. Added to the fact that he needed to get Zoë before he left...

"Where's a shield when you need one?" he muttered under his breath.

He whirled around a few trees before looking back to see where the monster was. The darkness obscured his vision greatly, but he saw a figure roar in the distance, bounding over towards Zoë. Percy growled and started forward, but not before he tripped on a tree root.

He got up quickly but froze before he could take three steps. The thing he had tripped on wasn't a tree root at all. He heard the clang of the metal. Percy turned around to find a random shield sitting on the ground.

"Well, that was convenient," he murmured. Percy picked up the shield from the ground and turned it around. What was on the face of the shield was something horrifying that he thought would instantly petrify him and turn him to stone. Moments later, he realized that it was just a carving into the bronze. Gingerly, he picked the shield back up and realized what it was.

"Aegis, the shield of Athena..." he breathed in awe. "A gift from Perseus."

Looking down at the ground, a sudden fiery determination set in him. The manticore was but another monster that needed to be temporarily eradicated from this world. It wasn't that dangerous, and Zoë wouldn't have a single injury from the freaky scorpion-tailed beast. Not if he could help it.

Bursting down into the forest, Percy ran until he met up with Zoë, who was doing her best to avoid the monster.

"Run, Percy!" she shouted as she ran by. He noticed that a part of her hair had been chopped off, most likely by a throw from the manticore's tail. Zoë stopped and shouted at Percy. "Come on! Why are you standing there?"

"RAWR!" the manticore growled as he appeared in Percy's line of sight. Another barrage of arrows were sent flying, but this time Percy was prepared. He brought up Aegis (or a replica made by Hephaestus, he assumed) and the spikes slammed hard into the shield. But the shield didn't break... nor did it even dent.

"Where did you—" Zoë started breathlessly. It was only then that she seemed to notice the shield.

At the sight of the horrifying Medusa on the shield, the manticore recoiled and hissed. He threw some more spikes at Percy, but the shield held its ground. "Where did you get that?" the manticore growled.

"It's a present from a goddess," he said, lowering his shield at bit. He gave the beast an all-too-familiar smile. "And this is where you are going to die, manticore."

Zoë, in a flash, appeared behind him. Her whisper send a shiver down his spine. "I'll shoot arrows while you advance. Maybe if I get a good shot off, you will be able to attack it and kill it."

"Sounds like a plan," he replied.

And so, the two advanced. Percy acted as a front-line soldier, taking all of the force on his shield that would never break. As quick as an antelope, Zoë darted out and shot an arrow at the manticore. Usually, it would hit the body of the beast, slowly wearing it down.

The human face of the monster started showing real human emotions, his face morphing into that of a worried man and before long a scared man.

Time and time again, Zoë pelted the beast with more arrows than the manticore could throw back, which was an incredible feat considering his tail could fire at least five spikes at once.

Finally, before long, the manticore tried to run. Zoë took that opportunity to aim a perfect shot that hit its neck, making the beast howl and stop moving. Percy bolted forward and cut the tail of the manticore off before beheading the beast. Slowly, all of the manticore but the tail dissolved into the earth and was sucked down into Tartarus.

Zoë sighed contentedly. "We did it! The first monster done!"

"It took a long time, too long," Percy said.

"But we did it."

"True enough. One down, three to go."

"You may be immortal, but we can still lock your remains in a cage before you can re-grow!" Percy shouted as claws nearly decapitated him.

Zoë leaped to his side, fending off the creatures that meant to kill them.

In all honesty, the duo had attacked them first, catching the gorgons by surprise as they seemingly walked aimlessly in some random Thracian forest. It had been months since the two had sacrificed the manticore's tail to the gods. Percy was now sixteen.

At first, Percy thought that Medusa's sisters were like her except immortal. So, he came in using Aegis to look at their reflections. He also first thought that the gorgons only had snake hair and ugly faces. It turned out that they had gold wings, claws of a hybrid chicken-wolf, boar tusks, scaly skin and fangs. That part was new to Percy and he had a knack for staring at strange things he had never seen before. In turn, it caused him to look in their eyes. The embarrassing truth was that Stheno and Euryale didn't have that amazing power that Medusa did.

The gorgons had said that Athena hated Medusa that most and gave her the worse qualities. She allowed Stheno and Euryale to stay immortal whilst their sister was mortal.

After that, Percy again tried attacking them which only earned their wrath. He and Zoë had been running, splitting and hunting for the past week trying to subdue the gorgons, but it was a tiring effort. The gorgons seemed to never tire, and Percy and Zoë were running out of supplies. They didn't want to bring those terrible creatures into town so they had to destroy those gorgons sometime soon.

"We will kill you and feed your eyes to the wolves," Stheno growled from above.

Euryale let out one of her patented cries, making Percy's ears ring like crazy. Too much more of that and he would go deaf.

"Want to try something crazy?" Zoë asked, shooting arrows at a rapid-fire pace.

"How crazy is it?" he asked.

"Not that crazy."

"Then what are you waiting for?!"

Zoë nodded and dropped her weapons. Percy gave her a stupefied look. "Are you crazy? What on Gaea are you doing?"

She ignored him and waved at the gorgons. "Wait! Stop for a second!"

Euryale stopped her shrieking and gave them a cruel smile. Turning to her sister, she said, "My, my. Have these young heroes given up already? What a pity. We were going to enjoy tearing you apart as you fought, to watch your own flesh get torn apart."

Stheno pouted, thought it looked rather awkward with the fangs and the tusks. "You are right, my lovely sister. I was going to enjoy watching your suffering. But alas, a feast is a feast."

"No, wait!" Zoë said, her voice not losing any of the calmness she held before. "This fighting is at a deadlock. Neither can beat the other. You evade easily and we fight strongly. We can come to a solution. If you swear to the River Styx that you will stop following us and attacking us, we will stop trying to kill you and offer you a prize for your great efforts."

"What are you doing?" Percy asked getting anxious.

"Pass me the Infinity Pouch," she whispered, trying to be a subtle as possible.

He knit his eyebrows. "I have no idea what you're up to," he whispered back, "but you'd better hope that it works."

"A prize?" said Stheno, looking intrigued. "What kind of prize?"

Zoë gave her the most convincing look of defeat Percy had ever seen. "Oh, my, anything you want. In this bag, there is the world's entire collection of raw goods and finished materials. Anything you could ever wish for is in here, but you can only take one thing out."

"Anything?" asked Euryale.

"It is infinite," she said slyly. Percy caught on to her plan, and it took all of his will-power not to grin in pride.

"What do you say, Stheno?" asked a greedy-looking Euryale. "We can grab one thing of our choice that we want. Remember what you have always wanted?"

Stheno squealed. "Oh my yes!" She gave the Infinity Pouch a hungry stare. "I've always wanted a live set of miniature babies that I can incinerate and replenish! Do you have that?"

A sudden sickening feeling poured into Percy's stomach like a flood. He and Zoë locked eyes. She wasn't doing too much better on the queasiness scale.

"And I want glory for the both of us, to be as famous as our petty sister," Euryale said dreamily. "Is that possible to get?"

"Of course," Zoë replied carefully, trying not to add some vomit with her words. "Just... find the potions."

Stheno and Euryale glanced at each other before turning to the other two. They based their fangs and for a moment, Percy thought they were going to attack them instead of promise to leave them alone, but together they spoke, "We swear by the River Styx that we will stop harassing you and will never attempt to kill either of you for the rest of eternity."

Then they each swooped down and landed in front of Zoë. Stheno reached for the bag, but Zoë pulled back, earning a glare from both of the gorgons. However, before they could speak, she said, "You have to enter the bag to find what you want. One bag cannot have so many magical abilities. You don't think what you wish for will appear for you right as soon as you stick your hand in there, do you?"

Percy was trying to refrain from laughing because that was exactly what it did.

"Well... I suppose..." Stheno trailed off.

"Feet first otherwise you will land on your head, wings or not," Zoë instructed. "And you should go together so that you can find each other and come back out instead of getting lost inside of there."

The gorgons blinked but obliged. Zoë put the pouch on the ground. The gorgons, together, were sucked into the Infinity Pouch as soon as the first foot hovered over it. Percy leaped for the pouch and shut the top, wrapping the thick string around the top four times to make sure the gorgons couldn't squeeze their way out.

"We did it!" Zoë cheered.

Percy let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Hecate that this pouch is inescapable from the inside."

"And thank Athena for giving it to us," she said.

The Infinity Pouch was another gift from Athena, this time to Zoë. It was essentially a pouch enchanted with Hecate's magic to hold an infinite amount of food and supplies so in that tiny pouch, they could hold a few years' worth of supplies... not that they needed that much. Also, nothing inside could escape, so they could place the gorgons in there without worrying that they will squeeze their way out of the little bag. Then there was the fact of summoning what they wanted. All they had to do was think about what they wanted and that would appear at the top of the pouch. For example, if they wanted some food, they just had to think about it and it would be the first thing they would touch.

Athena's first gift was to Percy was the Aegis replica that he had received all those months ago in the fight with the manticore.

In turn, that night, the two of them celebrated their victory by sacrificing food to the two goddesses, Athena and Hecate, for their victory over the gorgons.

"That was a brilliant idea you know, crazy but brilliant," Percy complimented after their sacrifice.

"Not really," Zoë shrugged. "I just had to bet that they would be stupid enough to take the bait. There were so many thing that could have gone wrong, but they did exactly what I wanted."

"And that was because you knew that they were going to do what they did," he pointed out. "Brilliant."

She blushed. "I suppose so."

"Well, that only leaves two more targets for us," Percy said, poking at the dirt in the ground. "It'll be hard to defeat the next one. She's very sneaky and disguises herself quite well. I think it just might be from my father." He ate some of his dinner. "You know, it isn't so comforting being related to all of these monsters. I don't even know if my father will turn against me for what I do!"

"You think it's hard being related to monsters, do you?" Zoë scoffed. "Think about being related to Titans in a world where they fought the beings of the only other safe sanctuary in the world and then being disowned by them, only to go to the home of your family's enemy."

"That was kind of confusing."

"Well, you know what I mean!"

He gave her a smile. "Of course I do, and you know what. If the gods are too paranoid and freaked out by you being Atlas' daughter, we can just forget about trying to start the Hunters of Artemis. We'll just go on living the rest of our lives together, as hunters."

Zoë's eyes flickered with the reflection of the fire crackling in the middle of the campsite. Her facial features softened and the flickering glow that was cast upon her face every time the fire jumped seemed to make her look more beautiful than ever. "That sounds nice."

Though he was afraid to admit it to her, Percy knew he was very attracted to her, possibly even to the extent of love. He didn't want to ruin anything, though, so he kept quiet and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Then, looking up into the clouds he said, "Maybe we could earn a spot in the sky after completing feats that the gods are envious of. We could be Adelfia Aionios."

"That sounds a lot like eternal siblings," she noted.

"Exactly," he said quietly. "Eternal siblings forever."

"Or Aionia Erastes," Zoë joked.

"Eternal lovers," Percy said, both eyebrows raised.

"Eternal lovers, a tragic story where two outcasts of society come together and spend the rest of their lives loving each other until they die, neither of them having children to pass their blood on," she said dramatically.

"I didn't know you had this side to you... and for what happened to you, to joke about love like that..."

She gave him an expectant smile. "It doesn't matter, Percy, because when I'm around you... I feel comfortable enough to joke about these sorts of things. I know you well enough to know how you feel about what has happened to me. And in either case... it's time for a little bit of rest. You're first watch."

Zoë turned Percy's head to face her before she kissed him, right on the lips.

When they broke apart, she said, "Good night." She then crawled over to the tent that they had set up and hopped inside.

Meanwhile, Percy licked his lips, his head spinning after the unexpected kiss. He grinned at Zoë's actions before leaning up against a tree and watching for any approaching monsters or people.

"Good night, Zoë."

"That is disgusting," Zoë groaned. "And does she have to leave the organs she doesn't like just lying on the ground like that? And the brain... oh I'm going to be sick."

Percy didn't like it either, but he had terrifyingly killed men by cutting their necks open. His defense to not purifying himself was that he was defending himself against their attacks, not really attacking them.

Lamia's habit of devouring children and leaving the organs behind on the ground was pretty nasty. The fact that she was his sister didn't make him feel any more comfortable. Then again, she had been a consort of Zeus and was cursed by Hera. Hera tended to get jealous of Zeus' affairs, and for good reason. He guessed that the same would go to his own father, but considering he was one of those children... he didn't really want to admit it.

"Then she leaves the child right where she kills it," Zoë exclaimed. She turned to Percy. "Someone is bound to find this one. She's right in the farm."

"I feel bad for those harvesting these crops," Percy said.

"We're on the right track though, right?" she asked hopefully. "We know where to find Lamia. Wherever there are children."

"Eudocia!" a female voice rang over the empty fields. "Eudocia, where did you run off to?"

Percy's eyes widened and he gently pulled Zoë into the trees behind the farm. They each took their own tree and hid behind it. Zoë and Percy made eye contact, and braced themselves for the outcry of, what they guessed to be, the mother.

Her scream was a lot worse than Percy would have ever guessed. It seemed to howl in the dark night sky and echo across cliffs that weren't there. "Eudocia!" came the cry after the scream.

Zoë broke off the eye contact and grimaced, her face scrunched up in great sadness. Percy listened as there grew more shouts from further away. He could heard the shouts getting closer, the plants and vegetables growing on the farm being trampled on.

"My daughter!" cried a man. "My beautiful little daughter." There was the unmistakable sob, the continued racking of the man's body.

Percy crouched down and peered from around the tree. The woman was strewn across the girl's remains, looking almost as if she would kiss her daughter's brains. The man was on his knees, staring at the ground as if his entire life had been ripped away from him. Percy couldn't bear to watch the sad couple anymore and pulled Zoë further into the forest to loop around back to Athens.

It wasn't long before they reached the outskirts of Athens, watchtowers standing before them.

"Did you see the parents?" asked a dejected-looking Zoë. "They looked and sounded so heartbroken."

"I know," he replied. "That's why we didn't stay there any longer."

She just nodded and blinked hard a few times.

Percy led her up to the watchtowers where a guard stepped in front of them to intercept their path. It was expected, considering they were fighting Sparta at the moment. The Athenians had to make sure that they weren't spies coming in to send information back to the Spartans.

"Who are you and what is your business in Athens?" the guard asked.

"My name is Perseus and I am a friend of King Theseus," he replied. "I was just doing an errand for him."

The guard gave him a grin. He turned to his comrades up in the towers and shouted, "He thinks Theseus is still king! Isn't he a funny little boy." The guard turned back to Percy. "Theseus hasn't been king of Athens for two years. When he left for that Calydonian Boar Hunt, Menestheus became king. He's a bit young, only nine, but he is the rightful king of Athens."

Percy and Zoë shared a surprised look. "What about when Theseus came back?"

"Menestheus exiled him," the guard said simply. "Now leave. What you said was obviously a lie."

"Wait!" Percy said. He had one more trick up his sleeve. "Remember that old abandoned farm that may or may not have been re-inhabited since the last family that lived there?"

"Eleven and a half years ago?" the guard asked. "That farm is haunted. The last family there was whisked away in a breeze of nothing. The mother was never found, the father never lived there and the child was rumored to have been murdered as he tried to escape."

His face fell. "The—the mother's body was never found?" He heard his voice crack a little. "She was just... gone?"

"Yup."

He felt it often, but every single time it felt as though it was a new experience that flooded him with warmth and comfort. Zoë's hand slipped into his and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

That little squeeze gave him the courage to move past the awful fact that after all of these years, no one had ever found his mother's body. He squeezed her hand back in an act of thanks. Exhaling deeply, Percy said, "I am that little boy who ran away. The rumor was wrong. I wasn't murdered."

The eyes nearly jumped out of the guard's head. "You're the boy who lived in that farm? People have always said that their family worked for the king twice as hard as the others. The farm their looks so much bigger than the others, don't you know. And you're the descendant?"

"Yes, I am," said Percy proudly. "And my friend is with me."

"Where have you been after all these years?" questioned the guard.

"The Argonauts," he replied.

"You mean Jason's crew?"

"Pretty much," he said sourly.

"Let him in Kyros," another guard said from above. "And the girl. They'll be fine."

The guard named Kyros stepped aside and allowed them to pass. Percy nodded his thanks and walked through with Zoë.

"So, where are we going to stay?" Zoë asked when they were out of earshot of the watchtower guards. "I assume we're going to get some more rest. We know Lamia is going to prey mostly in cities and attack children who wander off."

"A trap," Percy replied. "That's where we're headed."

She gave him a confused look in which he returned with a mysterious grin. She scowled and stepped on his foot. He grimaced but had gotten used to it. Her stomps hadn't hurt as much as it had the very first time.

Percy led Zoë back towards his old home, the farm that had been abandoned so many years earlier. He felt a strong sense of nostalgia which Zoë seemed to notice.

"This is around where you live, isn't it," she said. It wasn't a guess, but a fact she had stated. She knew him well enough to tell when something was right, wrong or a mix in the middle.

He nodded and smiled sadly as they turned in the dirt path. The house was now visible, the moon and stars gleaming so much brighter here than anywhere else. Percy let go of Zoë hand and offered his arm, in which she gladly accepted. Their arms linked at the elbow and Zoë leaned against Percy as they walked, her head resting on his shoulder.

"How are we going to turn this into a trap?" she asked.

"We'll set it up tomorrow," Percy said. "For now, just get some rest."

Zoë nodded and when they went inside of the old abandoned building, they immediately fell asleep. At least, Zoë did. Percy, on his part, lied about setting up the trap tomorrow. He knew that someone had to be the bait for Lamia, and it wouldn't work for Percy because he didn't look like a child. Well, neither did Zoë, but under the blankets her growing womanly features wouldn't be so prominent and her soft skin would make Lamia think she was a child.

He snuck out of the house and posted a sign on the front door saying "Children's Party," before writing more replicas of those and throwing them along the path around the house. If Lamia was in the area, she would undoubtedly come to the house to find the children.

Then, Percy hid in the corner of the room, careful not to doze off to wait for Lamia to arrive.

It was a long wait, the night coming up on its final stretch before day, before Lamia arrived. He heard the creak of the door, which alerted him greatly. The only window in the bedroom was on the wall that Percy had his back to. He would be more in the shadows than Zoë.

He also saw Zoë stir, her ears hearing the creak of the door. But Zoë wasn't fully conscious or awake, which made the plan Percy made perfect.

"What do we have here," an insane sounding voice said from the doorway. A beautiful looking woman slowly approached the foot of the bed. "Is this a child? My, my, my. A poor young thing to die at my bite, but I must devour children. Their blood tastes so good!"

Percy slowly got up, making sure not to make a sound. He crept up from behind the monster, just as she made her way to the head of the bed, where Zoë was drowsily waking up.

Then, just as Lamia got to the head, Zoë's eyes snapped open and she screamed. Before Lamia could pounce on Zoë, biting her neck, Percy grabbed Lamia from behind and drove Anaklusmos into the beast's back.

With a wail and a hiss, Lamia dropped to the ground, dead.

Ignoring Zoë's look of horror and relief, he bent down and ripped a fanged tooth out of Lamia's mouth. Then he took out the Infinity Pouch and threw the tooth in. One thing to mention, the bag also froze everything inside of it so the gorgons couldn't move from inside.

"What the Hades?" Zoë managed after a stunned silence. "Lamia just... and you just killed her. Took her tooth—"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but it had to be that way," he said. "I wanted to kill Lamia in the quickest way possible, so I used you as bait."

She slapped him. "You're a terrible person."

"I know and I'm sorry." He clutched his cheek and checked his mouth for any blood. There was none. "You have every right to be mad at me, but I turn seventeen in two months. We need to get to Olympus quickly. I don't want to have to work any further. The next monsters are Agrius and Oreius."

Zoë looked really angry, which Percy didn't blame her for, but nodded. "Well, I suppose it worked, so I can't blame you."

"You have every right to blame me," he said. "What I did was very selfish and I disregarded your feelings. If that doesn't earn me a ticket onto the 'Terrible Males' train, I don't know what will."

Zoë sighed. "Whatever. Let's just go. I got my rest."

Quickly, she walked out of the door, not staying to hear anything else Percy had to say. It was a conversation Zoë really wanted to evade. He guessed that this was her payback. Just by ignoring Percy, she would make him feel bad... and it was working.

In either case, he followed her out to head onto their next adventure.

Slowly, they became closer and closer again, Zoë forgiving him for his reckless actions. He even gave Zoë the honors of slaying the next monsters they faced, Agrius and Oreius. It was fun, though it didn't differ much from the other murders of the monsters. It was basically just fight until the monsters died.

The two of them were ready to go to Olympus, ready to start what would become a revolutionary group of teenage girls; but they also knew that their final journeys together were coming to a close.

And that all started with a prayer and a sacrifice to the gods.

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoy this chapter. Apologies for the rush at the end.

I apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.

With best regards,
SharkAttack719