Author's note: The second part to Kaia the Manticore slayer, because I have been writing furiously this morning in order to make up for my negligence, and because I just couldn't resist ;)

Hope you enjoy!

And no, I am not Rick Riordan. In case there were any of you out there in any kind of doubt!

Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet~ Vietnamese Proverb

"Why on earth is Sofia coming with us?" Kaia asked, the moment her sister piled into the back with her father.

"I go to the same school as you, idiot." Sofia snapped. "There is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't join you. Unless… Is it too dangerous for baby Soph? Too many big, scary monsters for her to fight? Should she just stay at home whilst her family risk their lives?"

"Yes!" Cried Kaia. "Heavens sake, Sofia, this isn't about bravery. You know what happened last time you tried to fight a manticore-"

"I would have been fine if you hadn't-"

"Girls!" Cried Percy, his already stretched patience snapping in the face of their argument. "This is not the time. Pick up, pick up, pick up." He urged his phone, as Annabeth's mobile once again rang through to voicemail.

"You really shouldn't have one of those, Uncle Percy." Zoe chimed in helpfully. "They attract monsters, you know."

Throwing her an annoyed look, Percy found himself thrown back into the seat of the cab, the gray sister's taxi once again making him want to empty to contents of his stomach onto the floor.

He really wished they had more than one eye.

...

When they arrived, Percy felt like he had been slapped in the face by memories of a past life.

The school building was on fire, smoke billowing from what looked to be the cooking room, a group of early rising students accumulated on the front pathway. Fire fighters were doing their best to fight the blaze, but Percy knew they would not succeed- they were mortals, and this was no ordinary arsonist.

"Stay back." He told his daughters. "If either of you follow me, I will personally ensure that you are grounded until Christmas."

"Not a chance." Kaia informed him, a grim expression on her face. Sofia just unsheathed a dagger from the belt concealed under her school skirt, her eyes glowing in the most menacing fashion.

"I hate to break up this lovely family moment." Zoe piped up, her voice soft but determined, wispy strands of dark hair coming free from her perfectly plaited hair. "But I'm not getting left behind either."

Bracken clopped his hooves nervously in his oversized sneakers, then stepped neatly out of them. "No one messes with the friends of this goat."

"You're part tree." Zoe said, looking at her friend with interest. "Won't you just catch fire?"

Bracken threw her a hurt look. "You're the immortal daughter of a titan and a demigod, named after your aunt, the lump of molten rock. Do you really want to be commenting on my genetics?"

Percy rolled his eyes. Aiden Zhang just grinned.

...

It was so clogged up with smoke inside the classroom, even the part immortal demigods were struggling to draw breath. Poor Bracken was whimpering quietly to himself as he hummed what sounded like over the rainbow- Grover's current favourite, apparently.

Drawing her scarf up to her mouth, Sofia dropped to the ground, beckoning the others. "The air's cleaner down here." She told them.

"Right." Kaia said, her voice filled with steely determination. "Bracken, didn't your dad teach you that song to clean polluted air?"

Bracken nodded his assent, and reached into his pocket to draw out a reed pipe. Almost instantaneously, the air became easier to breath.

"Right. Dad, you should probably start summoning some water to fight off this fire. I don't know if you can stave it off indefinitely, since it looks magical to me, but you can probably get it back a bit. Soph, if you insist on helping-"

"Hey!"

"What? I'm letting you do something, aren't I? You and Zoe can go and free Ethan. He's over by that oven, tied with chains bound with ichor. You can use the necklace Grandma gave you."

"How do you-" Ethan started, in awe.

"I had a dream." Kaia said dismissively.

"I don't know how good an idea it is for me-"

"Heaven's sake, Zoe Valdez, this is not the time for your silly little personal dramas! I don't care if you don't want to date my brother, and neither does he right now!"

"What?" Asked Percy, blinking in shock. Kaia rolled her eyes.

"There is a time and a place for these things! A burning room filling with smoke, a manticore in the corner and Ethan tied to an oven? Yeah. Not it! Aiden and I will go this way. We fought a manticore on a quest last year, so we know what we're doing. Alright?"

Percy blinked, Zoe blushed, and Kaia marched away.

...

Sofia was trembling as she and Zoe set to work on her brother's chains.

She'd always had a feeling she wasn't like her brother and sister. That she couldn't be brave like they could. And here was final and irrevocable proof. For even whilst Ethan was chained up, hostage, about to be roasted alive, all she could think about was the fact that there might or might not be a manticore behind her.

Zoe put a hand on hers. "Kaia and Uncle Percy aren't going to let the manticore hurt you, Soph."

Sofia just shook her head. Zoe turned her face towards Ethan's, her eyes wide.

"It's not that I don't want to go out with him, you know." She whispered.

Sofia looked at her in shock. Ethan hadn't been to Uncle Leo's in weeks, his moods turning inexplicably dark, and it was only his two sisters that knew why. If Zoe wanted to go out with her brother, then Ethan would probably have made her his girlfriend in a matter of seconds.

"Dad accepted immortality from the God's for my mother." Zoe said, her hands trembling almost as badly as Sofia's as she took the pendant from her friend's hand and slashed with unwarranted violence at the chains. "So that he could be with her for as long as her life lasted. So that she'd never be alone."

Sofia looked sideways at her friend, the pieces suddenly falling into place. "You don't think my brother can earn immortality for you?"

"No." Said Zoe softly, looking at Ethan's face. "No, your brother is a great hero. As good as our parents. I think he could. It would be hard, but I really do think he could do it."

"Then, what's-"

"You'd think being immortal would be amazing, Soph. But it's not. I don't want immortality. I want to live a normal life. Sometimes I think that perhaps… Perhaps my dad regrets his decision to become immortal. That my mother regrets him taking it."

"They don't have to live forever." Sofia said. "Dad always said that they'd succumb to death, when the time was right."

"And so they shall. But is that right? To take your own life, to decide when your life is over, to end it by your very own hand? Perhaps you can be damned for it. There are people in Asphodel for much, much less."

"Zoe." Cried Sofia, impatient now, as Zoe set to work on the manacle of her brother's right hand. Blood was trickling down his chin, and she thought no more of the manticore and her fear, so anxious she was for her brother's sake. "My brother did not ask you to marry him! You're only just turned fourteen. He asked you to go to the cinema with him, and maybe MacDonalds afterwards, if you're lucky. Do you know how few people marry the boyfriends they had at 14 and 15?"

Neither of them, of course, mentioned that every single one of their parents and their parents friends had done just that.

Biting her lip as the final manacle came free and Ethan slumped forwards onto his sister, Zoe nodded slightly.

"Perhaps you are right." She murmured.

"No perhaps about it." Sofia told her firmly, just as there was an almighty cry, and the world exploded into light.

And when the girls opened their eyes, it was to hear a familiar voice.

"Kaia the manticore slayer." Aidan grinned as he offered Kaia a hand out of the pile of dust that was all that remained of Sofia's worst nightmare.

Catching her sister's eye, Kaia grinned. "What idiot cries over the Sam Blacks of the world when there are so many more formidable terrors roaming free?" She asked.

And for once, Sofia forgot the fear that she might be a terrible demigod. She forgot that she wasn't a hero, and that the very idea of manticores made her go weak at the knees, and that her elder siblings had already been on quests. She forgot that Flynn and Holly were both expecting her to be ready for two years time, and that she had no idea what to do.

She forgot everything but Kaia's smile, and the fact that they had won, and scrambling up under her brother's weight, she launched herself at her sister and buried herself in her embrace.

"Kaia the manticore slayer indeed." She murmured, grinning over her shoulder at her father, and her friends.

...

"Oh, gods." Was the first thing Annabeth said when they staggered out of the building, supporting Ethan's deadweight between them. "Oh, gods."

"Don't worry." Percy mumbled as she hugged him so tight, it was a miracle he could even draw breath. "We're fine. We're fine. Everything's fine."

And later, there would have to be explanations. There would be tears and embraces and tellings off. Later, Ethan would tell them of Sam Black, the mortal who was not, in fact, a mortal at all. But for now, Annabeth just embraced her husband so tightly, breathing in the scent of salt water and soot, counting each of her children, and god children, and thanking God for their lives.