Doris and the Olympians

[MarkAren]

Spoiler: Author's Note:

Again, some of this might be incorrect both mythically and with regards to the PJO verse. I've used a book I've decided is Doris's main body of mythological knowledge as the source and ignored most everything not in it.

Pegasus and Bellerophon: A Horse and His Idiot Boy​

By Doris​

Since Rainbow takes the form of a pegasus from the depths of Greek hell, I'm going to tell the story of the original Pegasus and the not too-bright halfblood Bellerophon. Like most Greek myths, it begins with a guy who is a king.


Sisyphus was a king of Corinth who did one of two things. Either he tattled to a river god when Zeus was on a booty call with said god's daughter, or he tricked and/or beat the stuffing out Thanatos, the personification of death, when he came for him and tied the protogenos up in his own chains.


Maybe one lead to the other? My mythological textbook only mentioned the first part. If you ask me personally though, I think the second is a load of horse manure. I may or may not have tousled with Rainbow over the TV remote once or twice, and there is no way a random mortal is going to physically overpower and tie up one of her siblings. Except maybe Geras, the personification of old age.


Either way, before he ticked off the gods and ended up being tortured via eternal landscaping, Sisyphus had a son named Glaucus, who like his father was kind of a jerk. Glaucus loved horses, and he had a bunch of his own that he used for war. He wanted them to be fierce, so he fed them lots of long pig.


In case you didn't know, that means he fed them human flesh.


Now on the list of things the gods can't stand, the eating of humans is pretty much item number one. It's up there with killing a family member and doing the dirty in one of their temples. So one day they decided that enough was enough and caused Glaucus's horses to eat him. Yum.


In any case, Glaucus had a wife named Eurynome. She had a son named Bellerophon, who was rumored to actually be the son of Poseidon. Considering what Bellerophon would go on to do, Euynome was totally cheating on Glaucus with old sea-beard.


Now Bellerophon was an interesting person. Some people want to grow up to be president. Some people want to cure cancer. Some people want a wing in every art museum named after them. Bellerophon wanted Pegasus.


I might have forgotten this when I told the story of Perseus, but Pegasus was totally there when Medusa was slain. That's because when Perseus chopped off Medusa's head, a winged horse popped out. Go figure, she was pregnant from way back when she and Poseidon did it in Athena's temple. What makes it worse was that not only Pegasus popped out, but so did his brother Chrysaor. It gets weirder, as Chrysaor was not a horse, but a person. Worst pregnancy ever, giving birth to a guy and a horse via decapitation.


Now Pegasus was pretty awesome. Not only was he a winged horse, the progenitor of all pegasi, but he was a super pegasus. He didn't get tired of flying, he was as fast as the wind, and he had a shiny coat and feathers. Heck one time Pegasus kicked the ground and a lovely fresh-water spring popped out. There was no finer horse on (or in this case above) earth.


So like many a great man and woman in ancient Greece, Bellerophon consulted ancient Google to get what he wanted. Unlike Perseus he didn't visit an oracle, but instead visited a seer named Polyidus.


"Oh great seer, how can I obtain the most wonderful horse Pegasus?" asked Bellerophon.


The seer stared blankly into the distance for a moment. "Go to the temple of Athena and take a nap."


Bellerophon frowned. "That doesn't sound like it will help me. Are you sure you didn't mean Poseidon's temple? He is both the creator of horses and the father of Pegasus."


The seer continued to stare blankly into the distance. "Nope, definitely Athena's. Sorry if this isn't what you were looking for, us seer's use Ask Jeeves instead of Google."


Bellerophon sighed, but did as the seer said and went to sleep in Athena's temple. He dreamed a boring dream that he was sleeping in Athena's temple.


Then Athena showed up. "Hey Bellerophon, I've heard you want Pegasus. While normally I dislike Poseidon and all of his spawn, you seem like a pretty cool guy, sort of like Perseus. Here's a nice piece of bling that'll win that equine's heart. Oh by the way, wake up."


Bellerophon shot to his feet and looked around to find himself alone. Saddened, he looked down and saw that there was a bridle of solid gold at his feet.


Now I'm not the best judge of what's comfortable for horses, but I did ask Rainbow her opinion on the subject. She said that gold, like most metals, is not comfortable to use as a head-strap and does not make for good reins, though it would be acceptable for an ostentatious bit. She then made some vague threats on what she might do if I was honestly trying to get on her back.


However, Pegasus apparently thought differently. When Bellerophon found him near Corinth, Pegasus let him put on the blinged-out metal bridle without any fight.


And so Bellerophon had his heart's desire, and got to fly around on Pegasus. Pegasus didn't seem to mind being ridden, and went everywhere with Bellerophon. Perhaps Pegasus had gotten bored of flying alone, or tired of watching the silly mortals shrink back from him in fear and awe. Either way, the two became the dynamic duo of ancient Greece.

---

"Ooops."


Then Bellerophon accidentally killed his brother. Horrified, Bellerophon rode to Argos to get purified by King Proteus. Unfortunately for him, the king's wife Anteia had other ideas…


"Hey there hunk, what brings you here?" Anteia asked.


"The accidental murder of my brother." Said Bellerophon sadly.


Pegasus nickered.


"Sounds tragic. Say, why don't the two of us go to a secluded glade near here and get to know each other?" Anteia tried.


Bellerophon frowned. "I'm a bit busy, your husband and I have this purification thing going on because of the accidental fratricide. Besides, don't you mean the three of us? I bring Pegasus with me everywhere I go."


Pegasus nodded.


Anteia frowned. "Look, I guess I'll be straight forward. I want you and me to have some nice alone time in the bedroom, starting now. Interested?"


Bellerophon turned white as a sheet. "Oh no! Um, sorry, the offer's nice and all, but I am here to be purified because I killed my brother. I want to stay on the king's good side."


Pegasus nodded.


And so they didn't bang. But Anteia got salty over Bellerophon turning her down and decided the appropriate response would be to get him killed.


"Oh Proteus, you'll never guess what just happened!" Anteia cried as she ran into her husband's throne room.


"Ancient Google predicted my death?" King Proteus hazarded. It was a recurring problem for ancient Greek kings...


Anteia threw up her arms. "Worse! I ran into Bellerophon in the hallway, and he tried to force me to have some alone time in the bedroom with him. I just barely escaped!"


"That fiend! I knew he was trouble the moment he said he'd killed his brother." King Proteus growled. "I'll kill him!"


But like most evil or accidental villains in Greek myths, King Proteus couldn't actually kill Bellerophon himself. While the two weren't related, there was the issue that Bellerophon was King Proteus's guest. It was a serious breach of ancient Greek etiquette to harm your guest. Like, Zeus gets angry breach of etiquette. So instead, King Proteus decided to send Bellerophon on a task that would certainly get him killed.


"Hey Bellerophon, can I ask you to do something?" Asked King Proteus.


"Sure thing king. By the way, thanks for all your help with this purification stuff." Bellerophon replied.


Pegasus nodded.


"I have this letter I need to get mailed to King Lycia in Asia. Unfortunately, the postal service doesn't exist yet. Since you have such an amazingly wonderful flying horse, could you deliver this for me?" King Proteus explained.


Bellerophon nodded eagerly. Pegasus stretched his wings and prepared for flight.


And so the two left for Asia with the letter. When they arrived, King Lycia was so impressed with the pair that he entertained them for over a week before remembering they had come bearing a letter. On the ninth day he opened the letter, and read the note inside.


'Do me a solid and kill this guy.'


Fortunately for Bellerophon, by waiting for so long King Lycia was placed in the exact same dilemma that King Proteus was in. Namely that he wanted to kill Bellerophon, but he couldn't without ticking off the gods.


Meanwhile Bellerophon was off thinking that everything was going great. Having Pegasus with him made him the coolest guy around by default. Horses were sort of like cars for the ancient Greeks, and so when the guys got together to compare cars horses, it went a little like this:


"So I have an 1126 B.C. Mustang with grey withers."


Everyone whistled appreciatively.


"Mine's an 1124 B.C. Pinto with a white coat."


Everyone winced in sympathy.


"I have a Pegasus. It flies."


Everyone stared at Bellerophon and Pegasus in awe.


Anyways, King Lycia finally came up with his plan to get Bellerophon killed. Like Polydectes had tried with Perseus, he decided to off Bellerophon by having him fight a seemingly unbeatable beast. In this case it was the Chimaera, a giant, fire-breathing lion goat serpent.


It was the perfect plan. All who tried to kill it in melee were flambéed. All who tried to hit it with arrows were chased down and roasted. All who used pit traps learned that the goat part made the Chimaera a great climber, and it promptly introduced them to ancient Greek fire.


But King Lycia forgot one important thing. Unlike everyone else who had tried to kill the Chimaera, Bellerophon had Pegasus. The Chimaera couldn't fly.


So Bellerophon flew down to where the Chimaera lived, shot it with arrows from a safe distance off the ground, and called it a day. His return put King Lycia in such shock that he simply sent Bellerophon back to King Proteus.


Bellerophon returned on Pegasus, still completely oblivious that the two kings were trying to get him killed. King Proteus kept thinking up more elaborate ways to get Bellerophon killed. He sent him to go attack the Solymi, who were pretty good at fighting. Bellerophon won. He sent him against the Amazons, who were even better at fighting. Bellerophon won.


Finally King Proteus threw up his hands and decided that if you couldn't kill them, join them. He became good friends with Bellerophon (as opposed to pretending to be friends while plotting his death), and even gave his daughter to Bellerophon in marriage.


What's that? Yeah, women didn't get much say in that part back then.


But then Bellerophon's ego got too big for his body. He thought that he was more than a halfblood, and decided to fly up to Olympus to take his place among the gods. Maybe he'd heard of Dionysus and thought they were in the same boat. Unfortunately, Bellerophon wasn't Dionysus, and the gods were pretty ticked with him for having this ambition. Whether they bothered to tell him he was still half-human or not isn't clear. In any case, one day Bellerophon went up to Pegasus, climbed on his back, and gave a new destination.


"Alright Pegasus, today is the day. We're going to the home of the gods on Mount Olympus."


Pegasus nodded then WHOA WHOA HOLD THE WINGED HORSES! He shook his head frantically in denial.


Bellerophon frowned. "Come on, it's time for me to take my rightful place. Giddy up!"


But again Pegasus refused.


"What's wrong with you? It's time for us to go!" Bellerophon said, giving Pegasus a little kick for emphasis.


Pegasus had finally had enough. He didn't want to get Bellerophon killed, so he did the only thing he could. He threw Bellerophon off and left him.


You know how I mentioned earlier that Pegasus was the thing Bellerophon wanted most in the world? I wasn't kidding. Without Pegasus, Bellerophon was inconsolable. He just kind of wandered around ancient Greece for the rest of his life, perpetually avoiding everyone. He died alone.


The kicker to this story? Guess where Pegasus went next? That's right, Mount Olympus. While Bellerophon was only a halfblood, Pegasus was more. He wasn't exactly a god himself, but he was immortal at the very least. So he flew on up there and introduced his feathery self to none other than Zeus. The two got along great, or at least I assume so because whenever Zeus wanted to get his smite on, he had Pegasus bring him the thunderbolts.


And so ends the tale of Pegasus and his idiot boy Bellerophon. What, you wanted a happy story? Too bad, this isn't Perseus.

---

As Hector left the room, Rainbow stared at me intently. "I can't tell what is more humorous. The parts you got right or the parts you got wrong." She then turned around and trotted out.

 

[MarkAren]

Instead of a maid, the creature before me looked more like a vampire. You know, pale skin, red eyes, fangs, the whole package. But then somebody decided that there was a special going on and threw in a donkey leg, a bronze prosthetic leg, and flaming hair. So the image was pretty well ruined.

"Don't worry!" She said with a smile. "We won't make you play football, it's a dumb sport anyways. Instead, we're going to tear down Olympus and get our mother the respect she deserves!"

The steel-eyed girl and I locked eyes for a second, before we each went for our own weapons. I briefly saw Rainbow drop her normal guise and dissolve into smoke as I ran past her. As I grabbed my spear, I could vaguely hear Hector complaining that destroying mountains was boring.

The girl and I re-entered the room just after Hector introduced himself to the monster at the door. "My name's Deme! My mom named me after a good friend of hers. I'm an empousa!" Deme the empousa responded.

The term was vaguely familiar to me. To my knowledge empousa hadn't been seen outside of the Underworld in centuries. But I was more concerned with ensuring my ticket to gaining wealth and favors wasn't eaten, so I yanked Hector back by his collar and exited the room to confront Deme. Hector's sister followed me into the hallway, Custer's sword drawn.

"Oh!" Exclaimed Deme, clasping her hands together in excitement as she looked at me. "It's so good to see that he can get along with and is already making friends with monsters! You wouldn't believe some of the problems we've been having."

Then her eyes traveled to the steel-eyed girl and she took a sniff. "Hm. We're not really looking for the ability to play nice with mortals, but I guess it doesn't hurt to put it on the resume."

"You're not taking my brother anywhere!" Declared the steel-eyed girl.

"I have to agree. Leave." I demanded.

Deme looked between the two of us. She wasn't armed with anything more than her fangs, while we were both armed with weapons of celestial bronze. After a moment she focused on the weaker of the two of us, and advanced toward the steel-eyed girl.

"This shouldn't involve you, mortal." She leered.

"Stay away from Emily!" Hector cried as he waved his hand. The steel-eyed girl shimmered, and almost faded from view. She froze for a moment, before resuming her previous posture.

Huh, so that's what her name was.

This seemed to excite Deme even more. "Great job! Most children of the Dark Lady don't start learning how to do that until they are at least ten years old." She then paused and a frown came across her face. "You are younger than ten, right?"

"I'm nine!" Hector declared angrily.

"Well I can't have you helping her kill me. Don't worry, this won't hurt. I'll apologize to you later." Deme declared as she spread her arms wide.

It didn't take a genius to realize she was preparing to do something. Emily and I both moved to stop her, but in different ways. I moved back to guard my meal ticket, while Emily advanced forwards to meet the threat.

Then Deme changed, in a way that I recognized from Rainbow as dropping one skin in favor for another. Her inhuman attributes seemed to melt away in favor of more human looking ones. A minute later the very picture of a Hollywood femme fatale stood before us.

"Sleep." She commanded Hector with a smile.

"No!"

She paused. "Oh, forgot that didn't work until after puberty."

I resumed my advance towards her as Emily broke into a run. At this point Deme paused and seemed to evaluate her chances against the two of us. One unarmed empousa, versus a mortal wielding a celestial bronze sword and a spear-armed scythian dracanae. She decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and began to make a run for it.

That's when the smoke that made up Rainbow's natural form fell from the ceiling to meet yet more smoke rising from the ground, blocking Deme's path down the hallway. Now I knew that Rainbow was actually intangible in this form, but Deme certainly didn't. She skidded to a halt and turned around, just in time for a thrust from Custer's sword to enter her stomach.

"Oh…" Said Deme as she looked down at the sword. "I guess I'll see you all later." Then she collapsed into a pile of dust.

I breathed a sigh of relief. As Hector and Emily looked on in fascination, Rainbow began the process of recollecting herself and donning her usual guise. Wait, wasn't there something about Rainbow's form that I was supposed to tell her?

"Oh, before I forget. Rainbow, you and I need to discuss how anatomy works."

"Again?" She sighed.

"Yes. While I'm more familiar with human necks, neither humans nor equines can tilt their heads at right angles. When people talk about tilting their head, it's only a slight tilt, not breaking a pinball machine levels of tilt."

"Speaking of necks…" Spoke up Emily. "What's up with the markings on yours Rainbow?"

I glanced at the pegasus. How exactly do you break 'I was almost decapitated with the sword in your hand' to someone?

"I was almost decapitated with the sword in your hand." Rainbow answered. The girl dropped her sword in shock.

"Don't say it like that!" I protested.

"Then how should I say it?" Rainbow asked quizzically.

"'Oh, don't worry about it' or 'It's an old wound' or 'I'll tell you later'." I suggested.

"Should I be keeping the cause of my wound secret for some reason?"

"No, you just… need to be gentle about dropping that casually into conversation."

Emily looked at the sword on the ground like it might come to life and bite her. "Why did you give me this then? Is it cursed or something?"

Rainbow shook her head. "If there is one, it would only come into play if you attempted to betray us. It might grow more powerful over the following centuries, but that's nothing you need to concern yourself with."

Emily slowly, carefully, picked up her blade again. "By the way, did either of you know what the empousa meant when she said 'our mother?'"

"Oh that's easy." I replied. "Empousa are the kids of the creepy Greek magical cavewoman. Obviously she thinks Hector was her half-sibling. Considering your half-hearted stint into invisibility, I'm inclined to agree with her."

"Doris, please do not refer to Hecate as the magical cavewoman." Said Rainbow.

"So creepy is fine?"

She glared at me.

Spoiler: Author's Note:

I honestly didn't think I would have this out today, but I had a blast writing Deme, so here you are.

 

[MarkAren]

Spoiler: Author's Note:

I'm not too happy with this chapter, but I'm very happy with the next chapter, which is the first from Rainbow's POV. I might come back and edit this later.

"So… what do the titans want with Hector?"

We were on the last leg of the bus to Mobile, Alabama. Emily sat next to me while Rainbow and Hector took the row ahead of us. Hector had spent most of the ride asleep, it seemed his magic trick had cost him most of his energy. His sister had hovered over him nervously for the first few hours, but by this leg of the trip had switched to sit next to me. I had wondered why she'd given up her spot next to her sibling. Now I knew why.

"Oh the usual." I replied. "Someone dumb enough to help free them from their prisons. They'd have a lot more success at recruitment if they weren't all trapped. Don't worry, they've been failing for millennia. Atlas may have succeeded in tricking Hercules for a short period, but if he did it didn't last long."

She didn't speak up again for the rest of the trip, and I let her brood. Sometimes you just needed to think. I didn't understand exactly what it meant to have family that you cared for, but I knew enough to realize she was worried for her sibling.

I felt a little envious.

---

We got off in Mobile, and headed to a mall food court to get dinner before heading to the hotel. The first thing that went wrong was when a clear sighted mortal caught a glimpse of me carrying the still-tired Hector inside. I could tell she was clear sighted because her head kept turning from my snake-legs to the boy on my back.

"What're you looking at?" I hissed at her. She bolted.

Everything went fine for a while. I ate delicious honey chicken, Emily ate a large sandwich, Hector ate some pizza in between passing out, and Rainbow ate our plastic silverware for some unfathomable reason.

The peace was broken when Rainbow suddenly stood up from her seat. "We're being watched. I'll join you later."

Then she shot out of the room. I stared after her, then shrugged and went back to my food. If Rainbow couldn't take care of it, nothing I could do would help.

I probably should have been on guard, because a minute later a unicorn galloped into the room. Everyone, even the mortals, stopped what they were doing and stared at the beautiful white equine. I had never seen a unicorn in my life. I had never expected to see a unicorn in my life. I honestly thought they didn't exist. Yet there was a unicorn standing in the room.

"Whose horse got loose?" Asked a random mortal.

Then the unicorn's head zeroed in on us, and it broke into a gallop. Emily and I stood up, readying our weapons for mortal combat with an actual mythical creature. But instead of going for either of us, it changed course at the last second and snatched up the still half-asleep Hector by the back of his shirt. It then cantered out of the room.

I stared after it in shock. Did Hector just get kidnapped by a unicorn? Why was this kid so popular? Did Hector really just get kidnapped by a unicorn? Man this kid's luck is worse than mine.

"Hector!"

Emily recovered first and bolted after her brother. I followed close behind, cursing at the lack of speed in my snake-legs. We burst out of the food court to find… an empty parking lot. Well it wasn't truly empty, it was full of cars and people, but there was no Hector and certainly no unicorn.

After another moment of looking around, I approached a man sitting by the door. "This is going to sound odd, but did you see a horse go by a moment ago?"

The man looked at me, frowned, and shook his head. Baffled, I turned back to Emily and shrugged.

Then a giant pterodactyl swooped down and grabbed Emily. As she screamed it carried her up and over the roof of the mall, then vanished.

I just stared after her for a moment before bolting back inside the mall, seeking shelter from extinct or imaginary creatures. As I searched for a hiding place, the screams of the mortals alerted me of the entrance of another creature.

I spun around and found myself face to stomach with a black bear on its hind legs. The beast roared, then slapped me away with its paw. I lost my grip on my spear as I skidded across one of the tables, knocking tray after tray of food onto the floor. When I came to a stop and looked back up, the bear was nowhere to be found.

But the unicorn was. It pawed the ground and lowered its head towards me. Realizing where this was going, I grabbed the only thing within reach to protect myself. As the unicorn charged, I bravely held up a food tray in defense, the pizza that was once on it falling on my lap.

The unicorn's horn erupted from the center of the tray before I was thrown backwards again, and impacted painfully with a trash can. As I wobbled to my feet I saw the unicorn comically swinging its head left and right, blinded by the tray lodged about an inch from its face. With it distracted, I ran past it and dove for my spear.

But when I turned back around, the unicorn was gone. My eyes scanned the food court, waiting for the next random creature to attack. But none came, and I was left alone in the food court with a spear and a tray with a hole in it. I left the tray and walked outside to wait.

I felt humiliated and confused. Not only had I lost my meal ticket and his sister, but it hadn't even been to a proper monster.

Half an hour later Rainbow showed up covered in sweat, blood, and dog slobber.

 

[MarkAren]

As she left the cafeteria and the others behind, the daughter of Nyx cast her senses outwards. Her eighth sense, the one she tentatively identified as belonging to her power as a protogenos, was giving her more than the random gibberish it usually fed her. Someone was watching them.

Someone was watching them closely enough that they already knew she was coming. She sped up, rocketing out into the sky above before slamming to a halt. She peered down intently, examining the land below for the person she knew was readying to bolt. As her eyes scanned the trees surrounding the parking lot, she saw a brief flash, a reflection of light off of metal.

There!

Spawning three duplicates, she sent two of them to circle and approach the spot from behind, and sent the last one to monitor Doris and her… charges. Then she herself descended towards the spot where her prey lurked. She was there in seconds, crashing through leaves and branches to arrive in a small clearing. A man, no a demigod her sixth sense corrected, stared at her sudden appearance in shock. He recovered quickly, and shoved a metallic rectangle into his bag before slinging it onto his back.

"Who are you?" She demanded.

"That's unimportant." Deflected the man. "I'm just passing through."

She adjusted her facial muscles to mimic what she believed was a threatening glare. "I asked you a question."

The man sighed. "I go by Quintus. I apologize for prying into your business, I'll take my leave now."

Something didn't add up. "Wait." She called.

The man paused. She began to circle him, studying his form. She could feel that he was a demigod, but he certainly didn't smell like one. Her sense of smell in this form might not compare to that of Doris's, but it should be more than adequate enough to smell him at this distance. Yet all she could smell was a strange scent, similar to that of oil.

As she completed her circuit around him, he shifted uncomfortably. For a brief moment, a scar or birthmark of a sort was visible on his neck. She only caught a glimpse, but with her eyesight and memory, a glimpse was enough. Decades ago, back when she was less than a year old, her mother had told her the stories of the world. Those stories had included tales about the most brilliant of all of Athena's children, one who was branded for the murder he had committed. Doris would probably call him the 'Where's Waldo of ancient Greece', but most knew him as…

"Daedalus." She whispered. The man stiffened, which was confirmation enough for her. She felt something going wrong back in the mall from her duplicate, but ignored it. This prize was far more valuable.

"Do you have any idea just how high a bounty Hades has on your head?" She began casually.

"I don't suppose it would be vain of me to hazard quite a large amount?" He responded, drawing a sword.

"One could conceivably bring another back from the Underworld in exchange for your soul."

His eyes widened. "Truly?"

She honestly wasn't sure what Daedalus was worth to Hades, having only heard rumors on the subject. She threw her wings back in what she hoped approximated a shrug. "Why don't we ask Hades ourselves?" ​

Daedalus took up a fighting stance. "You must understand that you must force me to that meeting. I have been hunted for thousands of years, yet here I am alive today."

Her duplicates struck first. Daedalus sensed their approach somehow, whirling around to dispatch both of them with a single slash of his sword. No matter, they had accomplished their task and had covered her as she closed with her quarry. As Daedalus turned around to face her, she attacked. Her front hooves collided, one after the other, into his legs.

CLANG!

Or at least that had been her intention. Instead, her hooves had impacted with what felt like titanium. Shocked, she barely managed to duck under his retaliatory swipe and had to use her wings to throw herself back from the follow-up kick.

Flying back a few yards, she regarded her prey with a new interest. Daedalus had never been noted for his durability, yet those kicks should have shattered the bones in his legs.

"I am not defenseless." Her opponent noted.

"Perhaps." She replied softly. While she had no doubt that she was physically stronger than him, none of her familiar forms were ideal for grappling. She also had to be wary of his sword, she had no desire for him to finish what the telekhine had begun.

She cursed that beast once more. She was young and malleable enough for a wound that serious to become a permanent weakness. She needed to be careful to not let on that it persisted as anything more than a scar.

She decided on using her speed and physical strength to keep him off balance. Separate him from his sword, then wear him down through repeated strikes until she could drag his sorry carcass to the Underworld.

She burst forward again, leaping into the air to strike at his face. He sidestepped to avoid her and raised his sword to intercept, threatening to impale her soft underbelly. It was a good tactical move against an opponent who could fly.

Of course, most couldn't fly as fast as she could. Likely nothing could, except perhaps Pegasus himself. A short flap of her wings brought her trajectory even higher, over his weapon. This was followed by a hard flap that brought her forward motion to a halt and forced her back down, into position. She kicked backwards.

With another loud clang, her hooves again collided with what felt like solid metal. This time however, it was his sword that was struck. But instead of the sword flying from his hand, like she had expected, it snapped.

Daedalus responded by bashing his head into her body, and then leaping back. She allowed him to, and slowly drifted back to the ground again.

"How are you doing that?" She asked him. She wasn't anywhere near an expert on the body, and strength like that could be useful if she could replicate it.

Unfortunately for her curiosity, Daedalus seemed to have finally comprehended the situation he was in. He simply watched her in silence, completely unmoving. This in and of itself was interesting. She still was a novice at imitating human postures and expressions, but had observed enough to know that people were always moving. Even when they held still, they were never that still.

She idly noted that her remaining duplicate nearby had identified a hellhound heading this way. She decided against acting on this information. Whether Hades or her mother had decided to provide her a little extra muscle was immaterial.

While her opponent still had about a third of a sword more than she would have liked, she decided it was time to begin wearing him down. She rushed forward for a third time, and unlike the others immediately followed it up.

Blows rained down on the demigod, much faster than he could avoid. Whenever he struck or blocked with his sword, she simply shifted around it to strike at other places. He did get in a few blows, a punch here and a kick there, but nothing more serious than a shallow slash from the remnants of his sword.

She felt the hellhound enter the general vicinity and backed off. Daedalus was now panting, and one of his arms slightly bent. She waited for the beast to strike, hoping to take advantage of its-

Pain.

Jaws bigger than her current form clamped down on her, and she cried out in shock. She was lifted up off of the ground and shaken from side to side, disorientating her. Finally, she was thrown off to the side where her body impacted with a tree trunk.

As she struggled to her hooves, she saw Daedalus getting onto the back of the traitorous hellhound before the two of them disappeared into the shadows.

Shadow Travel. Heh, her mother was Night and her siblings included hellhounds. This wouldn't pose a problem.

She leaped into the shadows to follow them, intent on revenge. The cries of her duplicate back at the mall could wait, she couldn't let that beast get away with using her as a chew toy!

But when she emerged from the darkness (in the middle of a highway amongst the mountains), her prey were nowhere in sight. She paused for a moment, checking her location. Andorra. She cursed as she noted that she had gone an ocean too far, and dove back into the shadows.

As the scenery changed again, she caught sight of her prey looking at her in surprise from within a dark tunnel. She charged down after them, and almost succeeded in delivering a solid kick to the hellhound before they once more vanished into the shadows.

She finally noted what her duplicate at the mall had to say, and paused for a moment. Go after her prey and avenge her injuries, or go back and assist Doris. The decision only took a second.

She managed to emerge from the shadows at her correct destination in Colorado, but her prey was already leaping into the shadows again. She once again dove after them, and arrived in the middle of Times Square. She frowned, dove, and ended up in… Mexico she thought. Then Slovenia, then Portugal, then the Kremlin, and after a dozen more trips she finally found herself in another tunnel where her prey had exited.

Of course by now they had a good five minute head start. She followed after them anyways, but soon realized that it was a fool's errand. She was in a maze of sorts, and could not detect either of her prey's presence anywhere near her. In all likelihood they had traveled once more through the shadows while she was not present.

She stamped her hooves in frustration. She had been so close! But now it was highly unlikely she could even find where they pair had entered the shadows, much less their exit. After a further moment of deliberation, she eventually abandoned her pursuit and traveled back to assist Doris.

… And wound up in Tahiti. She frowned and tried again. Ecuador was closer, but still off by a good amount. Another jump landed her in Albany, New York. By this point her head was beginning to pound from so many trips through the shadows, so she simply stretched her wings and aimed in the direction she hoped was Mobile, and began to fly at top speed. Between flying and navigating manually, it might take a while. Probably not, but possibly.

In retrospect, it would have been better to abandon her chase to assist her ally. She would have to remember that in the future.

Spoiler: Author's Note:

Woo! I finally managed to shove in Daedalus somewhere. He's such an interesting character, you'd think the mad-scientist-roboman would feature more in fanfiction, but whatever. Also, Rainbow's assumptions came back to bite her in the everything in the form of Best Dog.
These last two chapters will be tied up in the next one.

 

[MarkAren]

Spoiler: Author's Note:

Upon a second look, it appears that this character does merit a passing mention in PJ's Greek Gods with a slightly different story. However, as I've said before I don't count that book as canon for anything other than characterization due to its blatant disregard for important, title relevant canon.

Also, I know that pterodactyls aren't actually dinosaurs, but Doris doesn't.

"What happened to you?" I asked. Rainbow wasn't sporting injuries anywhere near as bad as the ones she'd had at my apartment (both times), but injuring something on her level was no small feat.

She paused for a moment, seeming to search for the right words. "I mistook one of my siblings for an ally. It's been dealt with. Where are the children?"

I waved my hands towards the sky. "They went that a way. I kind of gave up getting them back on my own when the pterodactyl showed up."

Rainbow glanced at the sky for a moment. "Are you capable of tracking them?"

I snorted. "Maybe if I could fly." Then I thought for a moment. "Maybe if you were your original size then I could ride-"

"No." Rainbow interrupted flatly.

I shrugged. "Have any other ideas?"

Rainbow went quiet for a moment, studying me intently. "Maybe."

---

I was going to die.

"Doris."

I was going to die.

I was going to die and it was all Rainbow's fault.

"Doris!"

Her fault her fault her fault her –

"Doris, we're hovering only two feet off of the ground. Get ahold of yourself."

Since riding on her back was apparently too demeaning for Rainbow, we had to do it a different way. And by different, I mean Rainbow had changed her hooves into hands and was physically carrying me beneath her. I haven't ever been afraid of heights or flying before, but I sure was now.

I took a few deep breaths and centered myself. Right, remember that there's a fat sack of cash at the end of this. Yeah, that and my own halfblood minion.

"Okay, I think I'm ready." I called after I pulled myself out of my daydreams.

The ground slowly fell away beneath us. I froze, but after a second managed to pull out of it. Rainbow dutifully carried me to the spot I'd last seen the girl and proceeded to hover in place. How she managed to do that without flapping her wings as fast as a hummingbird is something I didn't want to think about.

I sniffed the air. My suspicions were confirmed when in addition to the really faint scent I associated with Emily, I also caught a whiff of her brother's much more pungent aroma. There was also a third scent that belonged to the kidnapper, but it was odd. It wasn't anything bird or reptile related like I had expected from a pre-historic dinosaur, but instead was distinctly feminine. It also had an undercurrent that absolutely reeked of death. Then again, it was so faint I might have simply smelled it wrong.

I pointed off to the northwest. "I think the trail leads in that direction."

---

The search wasn't easy. Half of the time the trail had fallen to the ground, and the other half it had almost completely dispersed into the wind. Five times we lost track of them for at least ten minutes, and we had also searched three buildings where I had mistakenly thought the trail had ended.

It was well into the early morning hours when the trail ended on a hotel balcony. As Rainbow dropped me in front of the door and landed next to me, I could hear arguing from within.

"I don't care what lies she told you! Repeating the same story over and over again doesn't make it true." Came the voice of an exasperated woman.

"But it's true!" Yelled Emily.

I'd heard enough. I threw open the balcony door and strode into the bedroom. Hector and Emily were both present, tied to each other on one bed. To my surprise the clear sighted mortal from dinner was there as well, facing us with her jaw dropped.

The question of where all the creatures were was answered when the woman recovered and stood up. Her skin flowed, changing her into a him. It wasn't anything like when Rainbow changed forms. When my feathered friend did it, the changes spread out from one spot to encompass her entire body. When this human did it, it was almost instantaneous. One moment she was a lithe woman I'd mistaken for a normal mortal, and the next she was a he who could bench press a truck.

Now I was tired. I'd spent all day on a bus, and spent half of the night dangling from Rainbow over Alabama. I was grumpy, angry, and did I mention tired? So when I spoke up, intending to say something threatening, what came out was:

"Did you know your scent has a strong undercurrent of death? It really helped to track you down. Oh, and we'll be taking the children back."

(S)He stood before us, fists raised. "If you want to harm these children, you'll have to go through Hercules to get them."

"You are not Hercules." Rainbow stated flatly.

"In physical strength I might as well be." (S)He said.

We paused for a moment, waiting to see who would strike first. I raised my spear, Rainbow flared her wings out, and the Hercules imposter took up a fighting stance. But before any of us could strike, Hector interrupted.

"Miss Doris is a nice snake lady!" He cried. "Please don't fight her."

"She wants to eat you." Our opponent yelled back.

"No, she kept us from being eaten."

"That's just what she wants you to think!"

I spoke up. "I seriously don't want to eat him."

Our opponent snarled at me. "And why should I believe you?"

"I swear on the river Styx that we mean these children no harm." Rainbow replied softly.

Now for the uninformed, oaths sworn on the river Styx are the most serious promises an immortal can make. I don't know what it is about the river that makes it so important or so binding, but even Zeus typically follows through on oaths made on it.

Thunder rolled in the background. Our opponent's jaw dropped, and hands fell to his(er) side.

I frowned. "It wasn't cloudy five minutes ago."

"The sky is clear." Rainbow said absently.

Our opponent's form shifted back into the mortal woman. "Um, perhaps we got off on the wrong foot?" She said nervously.

I snorted. "I'm guessing you're the one who tried to gore me at dinner?"

Her cheeks turned pink. "Yes. You must understand, I've never seen a scythian dracanae do anything to help a demigod. Ever."

"We're paying them to help us free our father." Explained Emily.

The woman's mouth went into a wise 'O', and she seemed to look at me and Rainbow in a new light.

"Who are you anyways?" I asked.

"I'm Mestra. When I was alive, my father made the mistake of cutting down one of Demeter's sacred groves. In retaliation she cursed him to be eternally hungry, no matter how much he ate. He spent his entire fortune on food, until the only thing he had left was me. Eventually his hunger grew so great that he sold me as well. Poseidon took pity on me and gave me the ability to shapeshift, which I used to escape and return to my father. He used my ability to con people, and sold me time after time. It didn't save him though, and one day I returned to find him dead."

Cool, but that was thousands of years ago. "So how does this lead to you assaulting me in the food court?"

Come to think of it, what was with me and getting attacked at mall food courts? Was that going to become a running issue, like Rainbow's problems with getting injured in my apartment?

"I'm getting there. When I died, I found that my father's curse had followed him to the Underworld, where he had been assigned to the Fields of Punishment. I made a deal to get him into the Asphodel Fields, as Hades saw the utility in having a shapeshifter work for him. I typically handle tasks that don't require the attention of Alecto and her sisters, like prescreening for new arrivals and tracking down souls that accidentally wandered out of the Underworld.

I was investigating possible sightings of a soul that's been due for an appearance in the Underworld when I ran across you all instead. Hecate is a good friend of Persephone, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to help one of her kids out."

"What I don't get," grumbled Emily, "is why you continued to help out that jerk of a father even in death."

"He was my father. Why wouldn't I help him?" Mestra responded, sounding confused.

I winced. If Demeter had cursed my father, I'd probably have cheered her on.

"He sold you like cattle!" Emily cried.

A terrible expression came across Mestra's face. "You haven't seen the horrors never-ending hunger will do to a person. Have you ever been so hungry you swallowed gravel in the hope that it would clog and fill your stomach? Have you been hungry enough to feast on your own waste? Have you experience hunger pangs so strong you bit off your own fingers for sustenance? I chose to help my father commit what I thought was the lesser of two evils, buying him a moment of relief from a torture no one should ever suffer. For that to continue for all eternity? I could not stand that. You must understand something about the Underworld: all the dead within who are not in Elysium deserve nothing other than to be pitied."

For a moment, we stood in silence. Well, except for Emily and Hector, who sat in silence.

"So are you going to stop us from untying those two and leaving?" I asked.

Mestra glanced between Rainbow and I. "Since you have sworn on the river Styx, and because they seem to trust you, I'll allow it. I'll make sure to mention this run-in to Hecate, so don't try to pull anything funny."

And so a minute later, our party of four was reunited and unbound. We were so tired that we stayed in the same hotel as Mestra, despite all of us wanting to get away from the old hag. When we got to our rooms Hector didn't even pester me for another story, and instead passed out. Emily had to carry him to bed.

I followed his example and entered the realm of dreams not five minutes later.

 

[MarkAren]

We arrived in Pensacola the next day. Of course, as we had spent most of the night before either being kidnapped or chasing a kidnapper, we didn't really do much that day other than sleep.

I wanted to continue the trend the next day, much to Emily and Hector's protests. But to my surprise, Rainbow overruled me. So we went downstairs and picked up several pamphlets. You know, the pamphlets that every hotel has that advertise local attractions. We grabbed a few and headed out.

Our first stop was the National Naval Aviation Museum. Our bags were searched, but thanks to the Mist the mortals didn't bat an eye at my spear. Emily looked quite nervous with Custer's sword, but relaxed when one of the security guards complimented her on her 'umbrella'.

While the children ran off to look at the fighter aircraft (followed closely by Rainbow in her shadow-form), I drifted towards the flying boats. When I was a kid, I had always enjoyed watching the Catalina flying boats take off from the nearby naval base. Their ability to fly, despite looking like a plump pelican, fascinated me. For a short period I'd even wanted to be a pilot when I grew up.

That dream had crashed and burned when I told my parents about it.

But if the Catalinas were plump pelicans, then the aircraft before me was an exceedingly pregnant pelican. The plaque called it a Coronado, and I wondered what it would have looked like when it lifted off of the water.

I stood there for a while, lost in the memories of a naïve child.

---

Once I finished reminiscing, I went to go find the others. The kids had seemingly grown bored with the displays and had found some other children to hang out with. They looked so happy and carefree, mingling with others not even 48 hours after having been kidnapped. I briefly wondered if this was what Rainbow had meant about children being strong, and decided to ask her.

Of course, that was problematic as she was currently lurking on the aircraft hanging from the ceiling, shifting from wingtip to wingtip as she shadowed the kids. I managed to catch up with her at the Corsair II, where she was lurking inside the engine's air intake.

"It's like you're their parent, following them around like this." I commented. "You've even dropped into your spooky dream-shadow form."

Rainbow solidified in order to respond. "I am not acting like their parent."

"You are quite literally hovering around them. I think you'd make a great helicopter mom."

She glared at me.

"So I've been thinking." I began.

"Always a dangerous proposition." She said with a nod.

My jaw dropped. "Did you just make a joke?"

The expression on her muzzle was inscrutable. "Continue."

I raised an eyebrow at her, but did as she asked. "I was thinking about what you said a while back. Back when you asked if I could feel the power inside the kids. While I don't exactly feel it, I think I might understand what you meant."

She tilted her head. It was only to a 45 degree angle this time. Progress.

I continued speaking. "Their ability to recover from stressful situations is pretty remarkable."

"That was not exactly what I was referring to. If I were to try and put it into words, I would refer more towards their minds."

I thought for a moment, thinking back to those halcyon days when I watched the birds and planes take off. Back when my teachers were proclaiming that by the time I was an adult, anything would be possible for me. They pointed at the heavy inclusion of women in the ongoing war effort and the increasing role women were taking in politics, and said 'that could be you one day!'. Before I grew up and faced the real world, or alternatively, before my parents crushed those dreams, anything seemed possible.

"So maybe it's more that to a kid, pretty much anything is possible? You know, the sky's the limit and that sort of thing."

"That's much closer." Rainbow said, looking thoughtful. "I think the green space midget would have understood. He seemed to get it."

"The green space midget? Do you mean Yoda?" I asked incredulously. I'd certainly never caught her watching Star Wars, but who else could she mean?

Rainbow looked uncomfortable for a moment, before shaking her head.

We sat in silence for a while, watching as Hector and Emily puttered around and generally got to act like kids for the first time this week.

Eventually, Rainbow spoke up. "On a different note, Theoria."

"What?"

"Back at the police station last year, you asked me my name. When I'm in my… natural state, you may refer to me as Theoria."

On the one hand, this suddenly felt like a deep and meaningful moment. On the other hand, we had been sharing an apartment for over twelve months. It's about damn time she told me her name. So I settled for a brief nod, and allowed the pegasus to resume mothering watching the kids.

Nothing else of interest happened that day. The next morning though, I did notice that Rainbow was placing the feathers she'd pulled off while preening into her bags. This was unusual because she normally ate them for some unfathomable reason. I was tempted to ask her about this, but decided not to. We spent most of that day doing touristy things as well, but after dinner we all gathered together to plan our rescue attempt.

---

"Our cabin was 14A. I've marked it on the maps." Emily said, handing Rainbow and I each a brochure.

'Sail the seas like royalty of old! Board the Princess Andromeda!' The front exclaimed. I opened it to find a map of the ship's interior, complete with text blurbs and photographs highlighting important areas of the ship, which were all named to fit the Andromeda theme. You could sing karaoke in the Cassiopeia lounge, play bingo in the Perseus arcade, eat a buffet dinner at the Cepheus cafeteria, and view all kinds of fish at the Dictys aquarium. Even the ship security was affected, if you lost track of your kids you were encouraged to go alert the Hermes travel security service. True to Emily's word, there was a neat little pink star next to a cabin in the bow.

Emily pulled out her wallet and pulled out a picture of her, her Hector, and an older man with an impressive mustache. "Here's his picture so that you know what he looks like."

I passed it to Rainbow, who frowned intently at the image.

"Did you get a dog recently?" The pegasus asked.

"Uh, yes. What does Clifford have to do with any of this?" Emily responded.

"I'm just curious. How has he been lately?"

"He's doing fine. Growing a little faster than I expected, but nothing unusual."

"I'm going to ride Clifford one day!" Interrupted Hector.

Emily sighed. "Brother, we've been over this. Just because Clifford is big for a dog doesn't mean he'll become big enough for you to sit on. We don't want you to hurt him by accident."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Rainbow warned ominously.

 

[MarkAren]

We arrived at the ship's pier early in the morning, just after sunrise. The Princess Andromeda looked just like it had in the brochure, down to the figurehead on the front of the ship. Why anyone thought a chained and frightened woman made for a great figurehead, especially for a cruise ship, was beyond me. Mortals did the weirdest things. Thankfully, the pier and the boat's deck seemed to be deserted so we managed to get on the boarding ramp with a minimum of sneaking around and broken locks.

Our problems began when Rainbow absolutely refused to set foot aboard the cruise ship without assistance.

"You need to carry me." She said to Hector.

"What? But why?" He asked, eyes wide.

"If I were to trot, fly, or otherwise move myself across the threshold onto the Princess Andromeda, I will set off alarms. But halfbloods get to circumvent most rules, and the spells are not geared towards detecting them. You carrying me across is essentially a loophole."

"I'm not letting him set foot back on board that ship." Emily protested. "We've come this far, but this is where I put my foot down. I can't go back aboard the ship, and I'm not letting Hector go anywhere without me. Especially after these last few days."

Aww, she was so adorable when she tried to act like she was in charge. Luckily for her, I had absolutely no interest in babysitting a halfblood longer than was necessary. Our plan called for us to leave both of the kids here at the boarding ramp to await our return.

Rainbow shook her head. "He doesn't have to come with us, merely get me across the threshold."

Emily seemed to agonize over this, and I took charge. "Come on Hector, I'll help. You can go back to your sister once we're done."

Hector and I moved to pick up Rainbow, and I almost immediately threw out my back attempting to lift her.

"How much do you weigh?" I asked incredulously.

"You're really heavy." Hector agreed bluntly.

"Are you calling me fat?" Rainbow asked ominously.

I hesitated. "No, just dense. What are you even made of?"

"Primarily Gallium."

After a lot of straining, much grunting, and three breaks for rest, Rainbow was deposited on the decks of the cruise ship. And by deposited, I mean unceremoniously dropped on the deck. Hector scurried back to his relieved sister, and Rainbow and I found our way into the ship.

---

The first soul we came across was a member of the ship's crew. I almost immediately understood what Hector meant by them acting like broken robots.

"We're having a great time on the Princess Andromeda. The trivia game starts in six hours. We're having a great time…" The woman said in a daze. Her name tag identified her as Ana, of Slovenia.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face but got no response.

"It would be best for us to move on." Rainbow commented softly.

As we left the poor woman behind, something turned within me. How long has that woman been going through that routine? How long has it been since she was fully in control of herself? I was perfectly fine with using the Mist to mess with the perception of mortals, but this? What even was the point of it?

---

We came across a monster next. She was a telekhine, which brought up rather uncomfortable memories of Dogbreath. I turned to the side to see how Rainbow was taking the reminder and found myself alone.

"Man, that was one crazy day yesterday." The telekhine said as she joined me in my walk down the hall.

"Uh, yeah, totally." I hazarded. I really wasn't in the mood for shooting the breeze, but I also didn't want to arouse suspicions.

"I'm kind of glad Agrius and Oreius are gone. Oreius kept hitting on me in really awkward ways, and Agrius would make it worse by telling his brother to punish himself."

I nodded, pretending I knew what she was talking about.

"What did you think of the centaurs?"

"Uh, they have lots of legs." I said. I cursed myself for such a lame and vague statement, but the telekhine didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, their lower body is amazing. Almost as great as the upper body…"

This was very uncomfortable.

"And the way they just rode to the rescue of those halfbloods, it was such a knight in shining armor moment. Well, you know, if the knight was half drunk and his armor was a party hat."

"Halfbloods?" I asked before I could stop myself.

The telekhine looked at me strangely. "Yeah, you know, Luke's totally not-girlfriend and the son of the sea god. Did you sleep through the fight yesterday in Miami or something?"

There had been a son of Poseidon on board? "Yeah. Sorry, I was up all the night before."

The telekhine whistled. "You missed out. Want to hear about it over breakfast?"

Shaking my head, I slithered faster. "No, I'm headed elsewhere. Don't let me keep you."

The telekhine seemed saddened, but went in a different direction at the next intersection. A moment later Rainbow descended from… somewhere, and rejoined me.

---

As we neared the cabin indicated on our brochures, I wondered about both my recent conversation and Rainbow's inexplicable knowledge of what magical protections this ship had. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe these kinds of spells were actually pretty common, and maybe a fight between monsters, centaurs, and halfbloods the day before was just a random event. Maybe there was a perfectly innocent explanation for this.

But my gut told me otherwise. It all but screamed that she was hiding something from me, and I didn't like it one bit. Not only because my gut rarely screamed anything other than 'FOOD!', but also because I thought she trusted me. If not a lot, then at least enough to explain what we were getting into fully.

I needed to find out. "So you're familiar with this ship? You seem to know what magic is protecting it."

She bobbed her head up and down, not looking back at me.

"So what is the story behind this ship? Why is someone going to all the trouble of mind whammying these mortals?"

She froze for a second, before resuming her trot. "The Princess Andromeda is controlled primarily by monsters. It also has a very small complement of halfbloods who are working with them. They are led by Luke Castellan."

That name rang a bell. I wanted to say he was part of that whole Thalia incident that had happened years ago, but I wasn't sure. In any case though, this was very quickly becoming more than just a random sorcerer if you had halfbloods and monsters working together.

Sure, I might be working with a halfblood; that happened sometimes. Monsters and halfbloods entering into short-term alliances were nothing new, and usually ended badly. But for this to have been going on for at least several weeks, and to involve numerous monsters and several halfbloods? And for them to fight other halfbloods?

"Rainbow, what's going on here? You aren't telling me something."

"Cabin 14A." She said in response, pointing at a door just up ahead.

I glared at her, but then focused on our objective. I found the door unlocked and opened it to reveal a homely little cabin. There were three suitcases, two green and one pink. Clothing and possessions were strewn about, and a unicorn stuffed animal sat on one of the beds.

There was just one thing missing. Unfortunately, that thing was the sibling's dad.

"Well this is a problem."

---

Meanwhile, at the Hermes travel security office aboard the Princess Andromeda…

"We're having a great time aboard the Princess Andromeda. Have you found my children yet? They seem to be missing." Asked a man in a daze.

The security officer looked back at him blankly. "We're having a great time searching for your kids aboard the Princess Andromeda. No, not yet."

Spoiler: Author's Note:

We're finally here! I'm so pumped for this and the next two chapters. I wrote most of one of them almost a month ago, and have been waiting to post it with glee.

Oh, and before someone wonders what Hecate is doing about this, that's in the next chapter.

 

[MarkAren]

"So… now what?" I asked Rainbow, totally lost as to what to do.

She stared ahead for a moment, presumably deep in thought. "I suppose you could try tracking him by scent. Of course, we could also go to the ship's bridge, where the spell keeping the mortals docile is projected from. We could interfere with the spell over the entire ship."

"How do you know that the spell is located at the bridge?" I prodded.

"I can feel it from here."

I didn't believe her. I wanted to believe her, but I didn't. "Let's try this Doris's way first. If my sniff-dar can't find him, then we'll resort to your spell-dar."

I took a deep sniff in. I immediately recognized both Emily and Hector's scents, though both were extremely faint. There were a few other faint scents, which I tentatively tagged as belonging to previous occupants or the cleaning crew. Then there was the strong scent of an adult male, tinged with the dullness I associated with mortals. Got him.

That was the easy part. The hard part was isolating which trail was the most recent and following it.

---

I didn't get the right trail the first time, and wound up in the buffet. Nor did I get it right the second time, where I nearly tripped into the pool. I was hoping that the third time would be the charm as I neared the security office. I turned a corner down an open-air promenade and walked headfirst into another scythian dracanae.

As I sat dazed on the floor, I saw Rainbow lurking on the ceiling in her Theoria form, like she had the past few times we'd come across monsters. I got up, and looked at the one who had knocked me over.

Huh, she looked a lot like my mother.

"Doris, is that you?"

No. Oh no. Oh no no no, it was her. Wait, do I really slur my S's like that?

"It is you! Come here and give your mother a hug!"

I stiffened as she slithered up and threw her arms around me.

"It's been far too long since I last saw you. Have you gotten over that ridiculous tantrum you threw last time? Oh, I'm sure you have, that must be why you're here. It's too bad your father isn't around to see you, that old lump is still reforming in tartarus. But no matter, we can still be a family without him."

She motored on and on and on, not giving me a chance to interrupt. When she stopped, it was only because she was sniffing me intently.

"Wait, is that the scent of a halfblood? And not any of the ones on this boat, this one is different."

A horrible feeling came over me.

"Don't try to hide it, momma's nose knows! Oh, and it's fresh too! Just where did you run across this scrumptious halfblood? We can make it a family meal."

I should have just lied and told her it was a new recruit, hoping that whatever this madhouse was doing included hiring more halfbloods. I could have also just told her I'd gotten into a fight earlier. But in that moment, my mind went back to when I had brought home an injured cat, and what my parents had forced me to do all those years ago.

I would not kill and eat Hector. I would never let either of my parents force me to do anything ever again.

"We are not eating Hector." I stated firmly.

My mother's smiling face stretched downwards into a terrifying sneer.

"Oh, still just as soft as ever? Well young lady, it looks like I'll have to step in for you father and toughen you up."

At those words I froze. My grip on my spear became ironclad. My teeth clenched. My eyes were probably twitching, but I couldn't see them to check.

"Now take me to where you found that halfblood and I'll take you through the motions to end that little cretin's life, and then we can-"

"No." I interrupted.

For the first time in my life, my mother stopped talking and listened to me.

"No?" She asked.

"No." I confirmed. "We will not be doing that. We will not be doing anything, as there is no we. There is just you and I, who are about to go our separate ways."

Her face turned an interesting shade of red. "You dare to talk back to me? You dare to try and cast me out of your life? Why I ought to discipline you!"

"Discipline me?" I screeched. "I'm a grown woman, and you're an old hag! There is nothing about discipline you can teach me."

SLAP!

I raised my hand up and felt my stinging cheek. Had she really just struck me?

"There's more where that came from."

I lowered my spear at her. My hands were shaking.

She twisted the spear out of my grip and then cracked it in half over her knee. Then she casually threw both halves out the open windows. I watched the celestial bronze tip splash into the sea below. I honestly hadn't expected my mother to throw away my most valuable possession ever again.

"You forgot who taught you everything you know about combat, didn't you? I think you need a little time-out."

My eyes widened, and I attempted to dodge backwards. But my mother was faster, she had always been faster. Her hands clamped around my throat and she began to choke me.

"When you get to tartarus, tell your father what you've done."

I struggled, but her grip was like iron. I saw Rainbow solidify into her usual form and approach my mother from behind, tilting her head at me questioningly.

I nodded, and managed to speak with a wheeze. "Rainbow… Please…"

She kicked, and dust fell all over me.

---

"Boss!" Cried a halfblood. "We just got an Iris message from the Dark Lady!"

Luke pinched his nose. He really needed to up his recruiting efforts and gain a more competent assistant. He couldn't get his current one to stop calling him that, and it was hard to run a rebellion against the gods and be taken seriously when people called him boss. It made it sound like he was running a restaurant or something.

"What does she want?" He asked.

The halfblood shook his head. "She just wanted to pass on some information. Apparently one of her kids was heading this way. He's not one of the ones we've marked for potential recruitment, but she said you'd be personally interested in who he's traveling with."

Luke waited for the halfblood to continue, and silence reigned for a moment. Sighing, Luke prompted his absent-minded assistant. "And who is he traveling with?"

Spoiler: Author's Note:

That was not at all how I intended this chapter to go. I wanted a confrontation between Doris and her mother, sort of a scene where she formally broke ties with being a monster doing monster things. But then I put the two characters in a room together and one almost immediately tried to kill the other. I'm… not really sure how it happened, and I might go back and change it. It just sort of spilled out onto the page. I did not intend it to get this dark, I promise. You can tell that from the ending scene being much happier, I wrote it first. In recompense, I'll try and get the next chapter out ASAP, it's much happier. It does have some sadness, but in the nostalgia type rather than the implied child abuse and attempted murder kind.

 

[MarkAren]

I sat on the ground, panting for air. Little bits of the sand that were once my mother were inhaled, which was doubly gross.

"Thanks." I whispered to my friend.

She nodded, and sat quietly next to me. I felt a wing resting against my back as I shivered in a pile of sadness.

My mother had always known how to ruin my day.

We sat that way for a few minutes. Once I'd finally managed to collect myself into something resembling a functional person, I got to my feet.

"I think I've had enough of Doris's way for now. How do we reach the bridge?"

We studied the brochure map for a moment, and then set off.

---

Not five minutes later, Rainbow stiffened. "My presence has been discovered. We must move quickly."

Her hooves changed into hands.

"Rainbow no." I said, backing away.

"Yes." She replied as she grabbed me and took off.

If my prior experience flying through Mobile had been trying, then this was excruciating. We rocketed through the halls at a speed no pegasus or monster was ever meant to fly, always a hairs breadth from slamming into a wall or other solid object. I screamed my head off and buried my face in my hands.

But thankfully my flight from Greek hell ended soon, and I found myself released to the sweet mercies of the ground. I lovingly embraced the carpet, and whispered that I would never leave it again.

"I cannot open the door myself. Something is preventing me." Rainbow said.

Oh. I stopped moping and stood up, finding myself halfway across the ship and several stories higher than where I'd begun my flight. We were just outside the ship's bridge, if the label next to the door was anything to go by.

Trying the door handle myself, I found it unlocked. Frowning at my friend, I pushed it open. Rainbow swiftly entered the room and I followed.

While most of the ship had looked normal, this room was anything but that. Strange carvings in a script I was unfamiliar with lined every inch of the floor, walls, and ceiling, even some of the electronics. Computer screens covered with flickering symbols sat right next to radar screens with their familiar green lines. A large window at one side of the room gave a spectacular view of Pensacola.

In a chair at the center of the room sat a man in a captain's outfit. He was muttering very fast to himself. I drew closer and listened in.

"We're having a great time on the Princess Andromeda. We're having a great…"

I backed away.

"This writing is ancient." Rainbow commented.

"Older than you?" I teased.

To my surprise, Rainbow nodded. "Yes, older than me by far. But it's not older than my mother, who taught me most of what I know. I think I can decipher it, given enough time."

Unfortunately, time was one thing we didn't have in large amounts. Deciding to make myself useful, I began to move furniture and other items to block the door.

As the minutes ticked by, I began to sweat. Rainbow periodically moved around the room, laser focused on different carvings. The captain continued to mutter and stare ahead blankly. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Rainbow nodded to herself and looked up to me.

"The ship's mortal passengers and crew are bound in a trance-like state while aboard. They are further required to obey orders from those in command. I assume Castellan is the one in charge."

A look came over her face, and for the first time ever I saw Rainbow look worried. "Doris, I don't know any of the magic that's necessary to undo this."

No! We'd come so far, we couldn't fail now.

"Doris, you need to leave."

"Wait a moment, I want to try something." I said.

I walked to where the captain sat muttering to himself. "Hey, stand up." I ordered him.

Nothing happened.

"Doris, time's running out!" Rainbow said, starting to sound panicked.

"Just let me try this one thing." I responded, then turned back to the captain. I was betting that this Castellan kid had better things to do than direct a bunch of enthralled mortals all day…

I spoke. "Luke Castellan sent me to tell you something."

The captain's eyes instantly fixed themselves on me. I gave a fist pump in victory as I enacted my plan.

---

Throughout the Princess Andromeda, the intercom system sprung to life.

"Now repeat after me." The captain's voice echoed throughout the ship.

"No, not that, ugh, let's start over. Passengers and crew of the Princess Andromeda, this is your captain speaking. Now I know we've all been having a great time on the Princess Andromeda, but unfortunately a situation has come up. On the direct request of Luke Castellan, I need all passengers and crew to disembark immediately. All monsters and halfbloods are required to gather on the poop deck for an emergency meeting. Thank you, and have a pleasant day."

One halfblood turned to Luke. "Where's the poop deck? I don't want to be late to the meeting."

Luke growled in frustration. "There is no meeting on the poop deck you fool! The intruder is on the bridge."

---

"The poop deck?" Rainbow asked.

I shrugged. "I just know it's part of a ship, and I figured it'd be best to give them something to do to distract them."

I turned back to the captain. After I'd ended the ship-wide message he'd tried to exit the bridge, only to sit down again once he realized all exits from the room were blocked. "How do we get him off?"

"We don't. We're out of time." Rainbow's voice said from behind me.

I turned around to see a duplicate of Rainbow shatter the window with a mighty kick before leaping out through the hole. Before I could do anything else, a pair of strong hooves grabbed me from behind and defenestrated me.

I cursed as I spun through the air for a second, before a sharp pain signaled that I'd been caught out of the air by Rainbow's double.

---

Back on the bridge, Theoria watched as Doris was taken to safety. Satisfied that the small sliver of herself would accomplish the task, she set about preparing for her meeting.

Doris's blockade at the door was a nice thought, but ultimately unnecessary. After she finished moving the last piece of furniture back into place, she positioned the captain in the far corner. After one last look around, she nodded in satisfaction and turned herself to face the door.

Her form wavered and her more natural shadowy form replaced the more recent… outfit of Rainbow. While Doris would recognize both forms, Castellan had only seen the first.

Not five seconds later the door flew open. Theoria mentally congratulated herself on her timing as Castellan entered the room, flanked by two other demigods and with a retinue of monsters behind him.

"You." He whispered. While Doris would have said something pithy like "Me!", Theoria merely nodded, then shifted back into Rainbow.

Whatever Castellan was about to say next never left his mouth. Instead, he visibly restrained himself, and a smirk came across his face. "I should be thanking you. You ruined my one chance, driving me onto my current path. You made me what I am today."

She shuddered.

"It was never my intention to cause you to fail. I was blown off course." She replied.

"Uh, what's going on?" Asked one of the other halfbloods.

Theoria ignored them as unimportant, but Castellan didn't. "Why this is one of Night's spawn, a young protogenos. Her mother, in her infinite wisdom, had her join the Oneiroi, who among other things deliver demigod dreams. As the new, shining star of Night, she got some of the most important jobs. It all ended when she was charged with delivering a demigod dream to a halfblood on a quest to steal a golden apple from the garden of the Hesperides."

The other halfblood still looked confused. "But I thought you went on that quest? Didn't you fail?"

Castellan's smirk turned brittle for a moment. "Why yes. The pegasus over there got 'blown off course' through the gate of lies, and my quest ended in failure."

Then he turned to face her again, and his smirk widened. "Why are you really here? It's not for the mortals, we both know that your kind doesn't care enough to go this far to help them."

While Theoria bristled at the accusation, it was completely true. If it hadn't been for Emily and Hector, Doris would have never come in the first place. If Theoria hadn't planned this meeting, she wouldn't have joined Doris in coming. While it was… preferable that the mortals escaped, they weren't her highest priority.

"I… I…" She began, before biting the bullet. She had come this far, she could say two little words. "I'm sorry."

Castellan paused. "You're… sorry?"

"Yes." She nodded.

Castellan's smirk turned into a leer. "Do you honestly think that'll change anything? That one simple apology can offset all the crimes you and the others commit?"

Theoria took a step back as Castellan gained steam. "I'm sorry doesn't' remove this scar from my face. I'm sorry doesn't excuse the mess the gods leave us in. I'm sorry doesn't excuse the overcrowding of Cabin 11. Why do you even bother to say it?" He asked.

"Because at this point, it's all I can say or do." She answered honestly.

Castellan's visage darkened. "I'm sorry isn't good enough. I'm sorry is all your kind ever has in response to their actions hurting us, if even that."

Something deep, something old swept into the room.

"You say I'm sorry? Well I say you will be! I curse you to know failure like I did! To be sure in your success, but be brought down by your own overconfidence."

This demigod, no matter how powerful, couldn't possibly curse her. It wasn't possible, humans and halfbloods was incapable of doing that to something like her without help.

But it seemed as if her presence here was only making things worse. As she fled from the room to rejoin Doris and the children, Theoria tried to convince herself that coming here hadn't been a mistake all along.

---

Luke Castellan turned back from the new hole in the window. His entourage was staring at him with fear and awe. "What are you looking at?" He snarled.

"You." The ship's captain responded from the corner.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Luke roared. His followers quickly scattered, and the captain trooped out after them.

He would be the last mortal to leave the Princess Andromeda.

Spoiler: Author's Note:

Doris finally got defenestrated. I've been pushing that back since... I think it was originally set to occur in chapter two.

Also, we finally got to the big plot! The reason why Hermes didn't played nice with Rainbow in the first chapter is explained! Exposition! Back story! Minor bits of canon! Woo!

For anyone who is confused, in canon Hermes tried to repair his relationship with Luke by sending him on a quest to steal one of the golden apples. It... didn't go so well when Luke ran into the dragon guarding them, and all quests from Camp Half-Blood were put on hold in the aftermath.

In this story, Rainbow getting blown off-course and going through the gate of lies while carrying a demigod dream to Luke (a dream carefully crafted by Morpheus himself) is typically blamed for his failure to get past the dragon. It also shot down her having any further career in the dream business, and made her a laughing stock.

 

[MarkAren]

Surprisingly enough, apart from a short wait on the pier for Rainbow to rejoin us, the evacuation of the Princess Andromeda went off without a hitch. Hector and Emily managed to point out their father from the crowd, and there was a tearful and sappy reunion.

There was just one problem.

"What do you mean you aren't rich?"

The sibling's father stroked his amazing mustache. "Well, exactly that. I am essentially a handyman, the money is good but not that good. I will reward you, it'll just have to wait for me to convert some assets into cash."

"Rainbow! She lied to us! They aren't rich!" I said, spinning around to face my friend.

Rainbow's wing paused in the middle of patting Hector's head, and she turned to face his sister. "Do you intend to cheat us of our payment?"

Emily scowled. "Of course not! It'll just take a little bit longer for you to get your payment. I only lied because it was the only way to get you to help us."

Rainbow resumed patting Hector's head.

Ugh. "Doesn't anyone care that she lied to us?"

"Oh, I certainly care." Emily's father spoke up. "We're going to have a long chat about honesty."

Emily groaned. "But it was for a good cause! I swear!"

"Don't take that tone with me young lady! You can't just excuse your actions because you have a noble goal in mind."

---

Apparently I'd run into Emily and Hector last year while they were visiting extended family, as they lived on the outskirts of New York City. Emily and her father had returned there, after depositing Hector back at Camp Half-Blood with the promise to never leave camp again without permission.

Rainbow and I arrived back at my apartment four days after leaving Pensacola, notably without the riches I was promised. Sure, Mr. Kimbrell had promised to bring by a monthly installment, but it just wasn't the same as walking in the door with a sack of cash over my back. Hector did owe me a favor as well, but that was something to cash in on in the future once he actually knew what he was doing with his powers.

I had gained a halfblood minion, had a run-in with my mother, was going to receive thousands of dollars in cash (eventually), and had lost my weapon as well as a favor with Rainbow (due to her saving my life). On the whole, the adventure was… not as productive as I'd intended. But that's just how life works. Sometimes you get an immortal roommate who makes your apartment one of the safest spots in the city, sometimes your family tries to kill you.

But there was one thing I still needed to know.

---

"Rainbow, that business you had in Florida was definitely aboard the Princess Andromeda, wasn't it?"

Rainbow didn't turn her head from the television. "What led you to believe that?"

"Other than chasing our stalker, you never went anywhere without us the entire time, except for a short period on board that ship. You know, after you defenestrated me."

I was still mad about that. She should have at least warned me beforehand.

The television clicked off, and her muzzle turned to face me, expression blank. "What else have you determined?"

"You were totally talking with someone aboard that boat, probably a halfblood. My bet is on it being that Castellan kid, he's the only one you mentioned by name."

She nodded. "You are correct. He and I had had interactions in the past, and I had wished to clear up a misunderstanding between us."

I wasn't letting her get away with that. "You're doing that thing where you understate what happened, aren't you? What'd he do?"

"He… may have attempted to put a curse on me. He's just a demigod though, he doesn't have the power to place a curse on something like me without significant help."

"Don't underestimate halfbloods." I warned. "That's like the first mistake of every ancient Greek villain."

Then there was silence. I debated reaching for the remote and attempting to watch cartoons when Rainbow resumed speaking.

"While the debt between us was partially settled, I would like to settle accounts fully."

I sighed. "If it bothers you so much you can just get me a new spear and we'll call it even."

"… Are you not worried that I will depart if there is no debt between us?"

"I didn't mean to hold you hostage or something! I just wanted to make sure that when the going got tough, you wouldn't bail. And when the going got tough on the Princess Andromeda, you didn't bail on me. Friends don't have to live in the same home, most don't. As long as you stay in touch it doesn't matter where you go. We'll still be friends."

We sat in silence again.

"Doris? There's some things I'd like to tell you."

And so she told me of the ongoing titan rebellion. Of her small role in a halfblood's quest several years ago, one that failed miserably. Of her chat with Hermes that had ended with her crashing into my apartment. But…

"There's still something else you're not telling me."

She nodded. "It's personal. Just as you do not wish to discuss your parents, I do not want to talk about this."

I shivered, and backed off. Some things you just didn't want to talk about, or if you did you wanted to talk about them on your own time. I had already figuratively faced those demons years ago, and just last week in a literal sense.

---

"George! I'm so glad you're back, your dog's all but eaten me out of house and home!"

George Kimbrell sighed. His life had enough upsets in it recently, he really didn't need any issues to have cropped up with the family pet while he was gone. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, but I swear it looks like your pup has grown almost a foot while you were gone. Hey Clifford! Guess who's here?"

A deep woof! thundered through the building. It was soon followed by the scrambling of paws and claws, and a dog almost the size of a small pony burst forth and tackled George to the ground. It then proceeded to attack his face with its tongue.

"Alright, alright, I'm happy to see you too. My you've grown, Anton wasn't kidding."

Spoiler: Author's Note:

Arc 2 done! So, what'd you think?

There's a big hole in my outline for the next arc. I think, I'll have to double check. Point is, unless I switch arcs 3 and 4 there's going to be a bit of a delay while I figure out what's actually going to happen next. In the meantime I'll probably pump out some more sidestories and Doris's bedtime stories, both to keep my hands busy and because I already have a bunch of ideas for those.

Edit: shoutout to Pinklestia on SB for the part about the weapon.