So I got a stock of new books on various mythologies and though my goal was to read up on Norse, I checked out the Greek section to see what was up. It reminded me of this myth and a conspiracy theory that I'd hatched a while ago. I'm not sure how the execution went though- so let me know!

Disclaimer: I don't own the universe of Percy Jackson or most of the characters.

The Legacy of Metis

Hesiod, Theogony 886 ff : "Zeus, as king of the gods, took as his first wife Metis, and she knew more than all the gods or mortal people. But when she was about to be delivered of the goddess, gray-eyed Athene, then Zeus, deceiving her perception by treachery and by slippery speeches, put her away inside his own belly. This was by the advices of Gaia (Earth) and starry Ouranos (Sky), for so they counselled, in order that no other everlasting god, beside Zeus, should ever be given kingly position. For it had been arranged that, from her, children surpassing in wisdom should be born, first the gray-eyed girl, the Tritogeneia Athene . . . but then a son to be king over gods and mortals was to be born to her and his heart would be overmastering; but before this, Zeus put her away inside his own belly so that this goddess should think for him, for good and for evil."

"Next," the guy at the EZ death booth said. Percy walked forwards.

"Name?" The ghoul said.

"Percy Jackson," he answered. The ghoul looked up, shocked. Wide eyes, round mouth, all the kit.

"Percy Jackson…" he said. Percy slid his driver's license on top of the counter. The attendant compared the face on the picture with his, and apparently he wasn't busted up badly enough to create a problem. "Yes indeed… Hmm… how peculiar… Cause of death?"

"My kid," Percy said.

The ghoul snapped its head upwards. "Your child killed you?"

"Yes sir."

The ghoul took a glance at the long, everlasting line and then waved it off. It crossed its arms and leaned its chin on its fist.

"Tell me, Percy Jackson. How did that happen?"

Years beforehand

"I'd tell you that every family has its quirks, but I believe that even you are smart enough to be informed of such," the goddess said plainly.

Percy's heart was pounding. "She's due in a month. I honestly didn't have to hear that now."

"Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is practical," Athena replied.

Never meet your mother-in-law in a coffee shop when she offers it, Percy thought to himself. Never, ever do that.

"Okay, can you just… say it plainly?" Percy asked. "Please? I just... I want to make sure I've got all of this."

"You do know the myth of my birth," Athena said.

"Yeah," Percy said. "Sorry about that by the way."

The goddess ignored him, tossing her hair back. "As I emerged from Zeus' head, my children –such as Annabeth- are what I believe Annabeth explained to you as 'brain children'."

"Yeah," Percy nodded again. His hands tightened around his coffee cup.

"The reason I was in Zeus' head in the first place, as an unborn child," Athena said, "Was that there had been a prophecy. It said that my mother would bring into the world a child that would be the downfall of Zeus. Of course he panicked and prevented such. By technicalities of wording, either Zeus or Hephaestus can be credited with bringing me into the world since the latter split my father's skull- ergo the prophecy was escaped."

"Yeah," Percy said. He was lost.

"Patterns are predominant in our history," Athena said. "Ouranos stopped his kids from growing, Kronos did as well. Kronos destroyed his father, Zeus followed suit. This is another pattern that is repeated. I was born from my parent's head, so are my children. I was possibly to be Zeus' downfall…"

"So will Annabeth kill Frederic? Her dad?" Percy asked.

"No," Athena said as patiently as if she were talking to a preschooler. "Her child will."

"Ooookay," Grover said. He'd been hearing a lot of things recently. He'd been hearing the holy Hephaestus I'm going to be a dad flip-out from Percy, the holy Hephaestus I'm going to be a mom from Annabeth, the we're looking at baby furniture- quick- explain to me what the difference between taupe and champagne is panic... But the 'listen to what Athena said- supposedly my child will kill me' was new. And scary- very scary, couldn't forget the scary.

"So what are you planning on doing? About that particular... situation?" Grover said.

"Well, Zeus' approach was to eat the mother and that was effective, but I'm thinking of not doing that."

"Yeah, okay. Let's go by elimination. Three cheers for that," Grover said.

They were both quiet for a second.

"Have you talked about this to Annabeth yet?" Grover asked.

Percy shook his head. "She's eight months pregnant."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that it'd be bad for both her and the baby for her to kick your butt now for you not telling her this if you keep on waiting," Grover said.

Percy shivered. "I can't handle this, G-man. I can't. This was supposed to be it. The happily ever after, the cliché typical American lifestyle, the normal life."

"Well, you know your track record man. There's a dash of crazy sprinkled onto everything," Grover said nervously. "Just… remember. I'm right here."

"Thanks," Percy sighed.

Grover patted his back again. "Right here."

Annabeth came towards him and took a hand off of her belly to put it on his shoulder. "It's too late now."

"Don't say that. You know that it wouldn't have stopped us. We don't listen," Percy said. "Besides. It doesn't matter."

"Yes, actually, it does matter. A fair bit at that," she said running her hand through her hair. Percy made her sit down before she flipped too much. She leaned against him and he put a hand on her baby bump. It felt more like a baby boulder at this point.

"Godsdamn DNA, Percy I'm so sorry…"

"Don't," Percy said. "It's not your fault. It's not anybody's fault. Look, this may not even happen, right?"

"Right," Annabeth said sarcastically. "Because we're so good at keeping out of the crossfire and ducking out of prophecies."

Percy kissed her hair. "I'd have to say that we're pretty excellent at screwing with the gods' intentions however."

That was a rather good point, but it vaporised in thin air alongside any worries on December 7th 2019 when Cameron Jackson was born and Percy held her in his arms for the first time, and then some more while Annabeth was sleeping.

Her honorary aunts and uncles (a.k.a. Reyna, Grover and the doofs from the Argo II expedition) all said that she took after her mother and gods bless her for that. Well, Percy had reason to hope that maybe there was a genetic loop somewhere in the code making up every single hair on Cameron's head.

But only for a bit, because then she curled her fingers around his thumb while she slept.

"Does this feel like a game to you?" Percy asked flicking the lamp by the door on since everything was dark at 1:12 AM. Cameron stopped whining nearly automatically as he wandered into her room.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said picking her up from her crib and cradling her in his arm. "Yell when I get it right, okay? You're hungry. Your diaper needs changing. You're bored. A helicopter in Chicago moved and woke you up."

She was quiet and he sighed.

"You just want attention because you know that you're a little princess," he said rearranging her in his arms. CJ whined.

"Yeah, I thought so."

Annabeth held Cameron's arms over her head as they took tiny steps (for Annabeth it was more of a foot-shuffling thing) across the living room. It was one of the rare occasions during which the little girl didn't have her fingers (see: entire hand) in her mouth.

"Hey CJ," Percy said materialising her favourite toy –a red fuzzy dragon with orange spikes down his back- from behind his back. Her eyes brightened up as she recognised Piper and Jason's first present ever. She made a sound like a baby bird and then Annabeth slowly loosened her grip from CJ's hands. The little girl stumbled towards the toy without realising it. She stumbled a few steps away but Percy caught her as Annabeth clapped.

"There you go baby," Annabeth said sitting down on the living room floor. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"Now she's just pissed that we tricked her," Percy said straightening her up, placing the dragon in her arms. "Eh?"

Percy sat down next to Mom, who was sitting in the turf and watching Cameron who was waddling nearby. The water wasn't very high and she liked looking through it and picking up seashells or branches or whatever else was in there.

"Hey you," Mom said.

"Hey," Percy said. "Sorry we're late, traffic was hell. Has she been any trouble?"

"What do you think?" Mom said shooting him a look. "Of course not. She's just played in the sand all day. She made hot dogs with Paul, and thought that that was about the coolest thing you could accomplish in your lifetime."

Cameron waddled some more and a particularly big wave hit her. She fell on her butt in the water and started laughing even harder. Percy laughed too.

"CJ," he said. "You okay?"

"Daddy," she said.

"Yes CJ?" He asked looking up from taxes. She had two fingers in her mouth and two pigtails dangling over her shoulders. She was wearing an old camp shirt that Leo had left behind last time he'd showed up at 3:00 AM to crash, and that Cameron had since then claimed as her own and wore like a night dress.

"We play Find Me?"

"Hide-and-seek," Percy corrected her.

"Hide-seek," she repeated.

"Only if you take your fingers out of your mouth," Percy said. She did, turning her big eyes up at him. They weren't grey; they weren't green- a lot of people had lost a lot of money betting on that. They were like his mom's, changing all the time. Usually metallic blue though.

"Alright," Percy said getting up. "Is Daddy counting or are you?"

"I can, I am!" CJ said. She was proud and eager to show off her ability to count at every opportunity that showed itself.

"Sure. You're counting to what?"

"One billion."

"CJ, I don't think that you can count to one billion."

"Yes I can!" She said defensively.

"Nuh-uh," Percy said. "Count to thirty or sixty or something."

"One billion." She insisted.

"Okay, now I think that you're just saying that because you won't admit that you can't count to fifty." Percy said.

"I can do at!" CJ whined.

"Prove it," Percy said.

It wasn't his fault that his baby girl was prideful, he thought to himself as he crawled underneath her bed.

"I picked her up at school," Annabeth said. "CJ's having a sick day. She caught the chickenpox off of Derek last week after all."

"That sucks," Percy said. "I'll go say hi."

He opened the door and found Cameron bundled up in her bed with her dragon.

"Hey angel," Percy said. She looked up from her blankets, spots running down her nose. "You don't look so hot. What's going on?"

"I'm spotty," she said burying her face in her pillow.

"Are you? I hadn't even noticed." He sat down next to her. "Do you know what cures spots?"

"Erasers?"

"Close," Percy said. "Chicken noodle soup and cookies and movies. Does that sound like a good thing to do tonight?"

CJ poked her head out from under her blanket-tavern and nodded.

Percy was out running errands with CJ. He usually kept her sitting in a shopping cart, but at the grocery store she liked to waddle around and look at everything. Occasionally Cameron would grab a vegetable and eat it raw, upon which Percy would pick her up and write whatever it was down on his hand to remember to pay for it. She also helpfully added seven pounds of assorted cheese products ranging from brie to blocks of marble cheese to Cheezwiz into the cart.

Long story short: when Annabeth sent him out for milk and CJ tagged along, it ended up being a five hour long shopping odyssey. It was cute though, and she was learning a lot by walking and looking around.

Today was the first time that she'd managed to get away from him, while he'd been talking to the guy at the deli who was asking him how old his daughter was because his looked about her age but wasn't talking as much yet.

He didn't panic at first. He looked through the aisles quickly and a bored and zitty teenager stacking cans asked him if he was looking for a little girl. He said yes and told him that she'd waddled over that way, pointing to the entire right side of the store. Percy thanked him anyways.

He circled the store and went over to customer service, his heart pounding. A few of the store managers were on the lookout too and all that Percy could think of was of the godly blood in her little veins and the big impact that that could have. He felt like he was in a labyrinth twelve times worst that any that Daedalus could dream up- looking and looking but only ending up faced with strangers or the 30% off ground meat.

He found nothing but an abandoned toy dragon in the candy section. She'd gone to the candy section, that was her favourite part, where else would she have went after that? Why would she leave?

The manager was about to call the police because despite everything –calls on the intercom, a party of moms looking as well, calling out her name- Cameron was nowhere to be found and the abandoned toy was sketchy.

He heard a scream and ran outside. A man with a limp was dragging a little girl with black hair through the parking lot.

"You're not my daddy, you're not my daddy!" A tiny little girl said. Her hair was dyed now, but it was still in braids and CJ was still wearing her purple sweater and the pink and white running shoes and the tiny elastic jeans.

If Percy squinted the man with the limp actually had inhuman legs- thus the limping. It was a Manticore- he'd heard a rumour that they were back in town. CJ was fighting against him and -obviously- getting nowhere. Her fuss wasn't attracting anyone, they probably thought she was just a brat throwing a tantrum.

"Someone, grab her!" Percy cried man looked over his shoulder and Percy ran, hand in his pocket.

"Daddy!" CJ cried out. The man grabbed her in his arms and cussed in Greek, doing his best to control her while she wiggled like a worn. A car swung into the parking lot. Percy didn't even fully register that the car was heading for CJ. He just flipped out, responded and spent a burst of energy that came to him like a shot of espresso, and ran. He dove between the car and the Manticore- and more importantly CJ.

He heard screaming and the sound of a car's doors opening and shutting and someone yelling as they came out. He heard someone yell his name –daddy- and he heard fighting. Someone was tackled to the ground and a little girl screamed. "Put me down- daddy- daddy!" she yelled. He tried to tell her to stay with whoever had taken her from the monster- always stay with people who take you away from the monsters.

"Stay away from monsters CJ…" Was the best that he managed before his mouth went slack, right before his shoulders went slack, his head went slack, his eyelids went slack…

Someone pounded on his chest –it hurt- and then all feeling there went away too.

His nerves went slack… his breathing went slack.

Present

The ghoul crossed its arms and arched an eyebrow.

"Ah. A demigod who wasn't killed by a monster. How peculiar."

"You're right, I guess," Percy said. "But to be honest, I'd die by a monster's hand a thousand times if it could save my kid too."