Author's Note: So sorry for the long, long, LONG wait! I've had a lot of other stuff going on, plus writing a different fanfiction and two original, novel-length stories! Ack! So, here you go! A heads up that I'll put in the next chapter, too: for those of you who haven't read THROUGH Superior Saturday or The Battle of the Labyrinth, this is your chance to do so! They're exciting and easy reads (in my opinion). Exciting stuff is commin' up!

Now, for the story!

When I woke up, I found a satyr lying on the couch by the chair I was in. He immediately jumped up when he saw I was awake, however.

"Hi, Arthur," he said, "I'm Tommy."

"Ah," I replied, not knowing what to say. "Hi."

"You feeling better?"

I moved my hands and ankles a bit and said, "Yeah, I think so."

Eventually, I was up and walking around like normal and made it out to the sword fighting arena before I needed a bit of rest. I sat down and watched all of the swordplay. Eventually, Tommy and I got to chatting about random things.

The swordplay ended and I decided to make my way down to the rink. I pulled the Fourth Key out of my pocket and willed it to become a saber. I swung it around a few times, attacking the straw practice dummy that looked like it would fall apart during the next strong wind. I used energy that I didn't know I could have after recently recovering from an injury like the one I'd had. Normally, this would have made me just ecstatic, but, at a time like this, that wasn't the case. As much as I needed the energy, it did show that I was becoming more and more like a denizen.

I eventually relaxed my muscles and turned around to see Tommy staring at me and smiling. That's when I noticed that Percy was next to him, also smiling, and walking down toward the floor of the arena.

"That was really impressive," he said. "But, to say the least, you need to get some rest."

I looked up at him.

"No."

Percy raised an eyebrow.

"No?"

"You got that right, no. I need to get back to the House."

Percy's other eyebrow raised at this.

"Um, okay." He sat down on the first row bench. I came over and sat down next to him, while turning the key back into a baton, of course. Percy wrung his hands. Out of the corner of my eye, another satyr came over and told Tommy to "come see something really cool". I ignored this for the most part.

Percy sighed and looked up at me, searching my face with his sea-green eyes. "Arthur?"

"Hm?" I replied as I sat down next to him.

"I have a message from Chiron...he wants me to tell you that you're coming on a search with Annabeth and me into..." he paused.

"Into...?"

"...into the Labyrinth."

There was an awkward pause. I looked right back at him in surprise. I didn't think I would get a "quest" (as it was called) soon, if at all. I was still trying to figure out what to do: how to make my next move. I had a problem because I really wanted to go back home, but I also really wanted to get back to the House to sort things out again.

Without really thinking about it, I said, "Of course I'll come."

Percy half-smiled. I could see a sort of sadness in his expression. I really didn't want to go, and I'm pretty sure he didn't want me to either. However, I figured that it was a good idea to take any opportunity to get into the Labyrinth. Supposedly, it was something that was like a living maze under the country...or that's what Tommy had told me while we were chatting. Apparently it could drive a person insane and there was a rescue mission being assembled for two Camp members who'd gotten lost in the maze. I assumed, then, that I was being taken on this mission.

"Well," Percy said, coolly. "Get yourself together and ready for this evening when we're going in."

I smiled at him. He half smiled back.

If this maze went all over the place, there was a chance that there was a connection to the front door in it. And, if there was, I was going to find it.

Percy's POV (point of view)

It was sort of terrifying, the determined look on Arthur's face; the expression that I probably had at that age...when I traveled to the underworld for the first time. I was sort of disappointed that he'd agreed to go with Annabeth and me. Anyhow, I needed to find Grover and Tyson. The only way to do that was to go into the Labyrinth.

Arthur looked like he wanted to find someone...or something in the Labyrinth. There was no turning back after he said yes. I'd have to introduce him to Rachel, too (which would be painstakingly difficult, or so it seemed to me at that point).

"Yo, Seaweed-brain!" Annabeth's voice rang across the volleyball court. I turned around and smiled at her, but quickly wiped the stupid grin off my face.

"Did he say yes?" she continued.

"Yeah," I said, "I sorta wish he hadn't, too."

"Just cool your jets, Arthur's a tough kid...or he's proven to be so far. I'm sure he'll be fine."

I sighed and nodded. "I guess you're right. I just don't want to...you know...take him into too much danger. I think this is even way too much for just getting here and recovering from an injury. Maybe I am over thinking it, but I think it's just too early for him."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Last I checked, you had about this much time before you got a full out quest."

I turned around to go to my cabin and make sure everything was in order before I left. Annabeth ran after me after a second.

"Make sure you're ready to go this evening, okay?" she said. "I'll get Arthur when it's time."

I turned around and looked at Annabeth.

"Thanks. I'll see you then."

She smiled and walked off, leaving me.

Arthur's POV (again)

Later that afternoon, Annabeth came and got me and Percy. We got a taxi to take us to a street corner in Manhattan. There were a few kids standing on a tarp. At first, I didn't know they were kids because they were completely covered in shiny paint and glitter so that they looked like metal statues. One of the girls moved and another moved out of place, another kid replacing her, and came up to the three of us.

"Hi, Rachel," Percy said to the girl.

"Percy." She smiled and nodded her head.

"I've met Annabeth here," she continued, just to Percy, "but who's this?" Rachel pointed her finger in my direction, sprinkling a little bit of glittery paint shavings on the ground.

"Arthur," I answered for Percy and offered my hand to her, after thinking about it for a second (I figured that the paint would wash off, and, no worries, it did...eventually). She shook my hand, glanced at Annabeth, and looked back at Percy.

"I'd better wash up, don't ya think?"

One thorough washing later, we were sitting in a coffee shop. Rachel was still sort of glittery in a few places, but it was definitely an improvement over how she was about a half-hour before.

Percy and Annabeth explained the situation to the two of us: that a couple of their friends were stuck in the Labyrinth and they needed Rachel as their mortal eyes. This part confused me, so Percy said that a mortal could be sort of like a tour guide in the Labyrinth. I decided not to question this any.

Annabeth then went into explaining that there was a door that they needed to find to get into the Labyrinth. It would be marked by a triangle: (aka a delta). That's when I could practically see a light bulb go off in Rachel's brain.

"I think I've seen one," she said. "Come on."

We got up and walked into the basement of a hotel where there was a locked door with a little delta etched next to it. Annabeth touched the triangle, making it glow blue. I could feel my eyebrows arch with interest.

"But I..." Rachel looked just as surprised as I felt. "I've even tried that. Why'd it work for you?"

"I guess it just needed a demigod's touch," Percy replied.

The doorway opened to reveal a Cyclops's skeleton. That was another surprise that made me jump a bit instead.

Percy blinked a few times. Annabeth furrowed her brow, just to straighten her expression again and push the skeleton aside.

"Come on," she said. "Not anyone we know."

Percy nodded nervously.

"You know a Cyclops?" Rachel's voice piped up from behind me as we entered the tunnel.

"Yeah," Percy said. "Um, my half-brother."

Rachel raised an eyebrow at Percy, "Your brother's a Cyclops?"

He nodded.

"It's, um..."

Annabeth saved him by saying, "Time for explanations later."

Rachel took the lead and pointed at different places to show us where to go and survive. At one point, we all got chased by something unidentifiable, even by Annabeth (our daughter of Athena in the group).

"And I suppose that I would hate to see the not-safe path," I remarked when we lost our creepy tail.

"Hmm, yeah," Rachel said. "You really would."

After what seemed like a few hours more, I was starving and tired beyond imagination. Finally, there was a large room where we sat down on Rachel's okay and ate a few granola bars. I would have conjured something a bit better from Nothing, but that would have simply wiped me out, not that I didn't pass out right after I finished the snack.

I had no dreams, but I did wake up to see that Percy and Annabeth were asleep, leaving Rachel to guard. I got up and walked over to sit next to her.

"So," I said. This apparently surprised her. She jumped and spun her head around, relaxing, of course, after she saw it was just me.

"Gah! Don't do that!"

I chuckled, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Rachel sighed.

"Tired?" I asked.

"Not yet."

I smiled, then sat down next to her.

"So what's your story?" she asked. "Mine's that my dad's one of the most successful businessmen in America and he treats me like a little girl. My life needed something exciting like this badly, so this is just a nice break from school and life for me."

"If I told you mine, you'd really..." I trailed off. "Well, you'd never really believe me."

"What, you another one of these demigod types?" she guessed.

"No, actually," I said, "I've been trying to tell Percy, Chiron, and the others that I'm really not. I'm...well, I'm the heir to the universe, I suppose." I looked up to see her reaction. Her eyes looked more interested than scared-of-this-freaky-deluded-kid, so I continued.

"My parents died of a freak outbreak of influenza when I was little, so I was adopted by some great people who I may have lost...I don't know, but I was chosen to be the heir to the seven 'Keys to the Kingdom' of the House, aka the epicenter of the universe. I've been collecting the different parts of the Will of the Architect. The Architect built the House and was the first being to come into existence. I'd just gained the Key from Sir Thursday, you might see it as my baton-sword-thing." I gestured to the Key at my belt.

"I was going home by means of a...well, I guess a teleporting device called the Seven Dials when I somehow managed to get to the beach by Camp Halfblood. The rest was just hectic, landing me here in the Labyrinth."

Rachel raised her eyebrows, quizzically. "Wow. After that story, you really seem different to me. Hah, you stressed at all?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "You bet."

Rachel yawned so big that it actually made me need to suppress a laugh.

"I might take up that offer now that I think about it." She stood up and stretched. "Can you watch for a while?"

"Sure," I said.

She walked over to a nice spot on the floor and was out like a light. I smiled, and waited for everyone to wake up before we continued on our way.

Rachel pointed us in the right direction the whole day (at least it seemed like a day. Percy explained that time runs differently in the Labyrinth. To say the least, I was about sick of all of these time changes.)

We were walking quietly down a tunnel when we heard something up ahead of us. All four of us thought the same thing at the same time: run.

When we reached the entrance to the tunnel, however, there were these snake-women standing there, blocking our way. Trapped. We were hopelessly trapped. Even Rachel couldn't have seen it coming. The monster from behind us came and grabbed Rachel and me.

The snake-women led us to an arena-like room. There was a crowd of monsters filling the stands that, before I showed up at Camp Halfblood, would have given me a Nithling-heart-attack. They took Percy's and Annabeth's weapons and, after a moment of hesitation, took my baton as well.

As I searched the crowded space with my eyes, I spotted a man who seemed two or three times the size of a regular human being. Plus, sitting next to him, was Luke. I'd only seen Luke once, and I knew that there was something important about him if he kept turning up like this. This worried me; I'd had enough trouble with important people in the past. Two creatures were fighting in the center of the arena, which was, apparently, getting quite a good review from the audience. One of them was about to kill the other when the one on the offensive glanced up at the large man. The man grinned and gave him the thumbs-down. The defensive creature was then killed, and, just like a Nithling would, turned to dust.

It was difficult to watch. I looked up to see Luke staring at the four of us, especially Percy, Annabeth, and I. I suppose his interest didn't orbit around mortals that much. At that moment, I knew that I would need the Fourth Key to get out. I couldn't do anything without it.

The next sequence of events happened so fast, it was like a blur. Percy told us to stay put as Luke called him out to the arena. When another kid came out, Percy was given his sword back. He and the other kid had been engaged in battle for a bit when suddenly Percy knocked the boy to the ground, his sword pointed at the throat.

Don't do it, Percy, I thought. Some part of me knew that he was too dignified to do something so low as to kill another person. He helped the boy back up, gaining plenty of jeering from the monsters. Next I knew, Percy had challenged the large man to a duel. They exchanged blows until Percy lost his sword. He thought for a second, then did some amazing hand-to-hand that I didn't expect from a child of Poseidon like him. He jumped off of the man's head and grabbed one of the chains hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly, he had his sword back in his hands (later, I figured out this was a magical quality that his sword had where it re-appeared in his pocket after a few minutes of not being there) and he let the man weaken before dropping to the ground.

Luke ordered an attack from all of the monsters sitting in the stands (who were apparently under his command). I reached out my hand and concentrated on the Fourth Key. It suddenly flew into my hand, scaring the monster holding me to pieces. I pointed the baton at the thing's face and said, "Sand!" thus, turning it into sand.

I was running alongside Rachel, Percy, and Annabeth when I heard an ear-splitting, high-pitched whistle that made me slam my hands over my ears and drop to my knees (in the middle of running for my life, may I remind you. That hurt bad.) That's when I noticed that it was Percy, blowing a dog whistle that looked like it was made out of some metal frozen with liquid nitrogen. It shattered, and a huge hellhound came bounding out of the tunnel in front of us, attacking the monsters behind us. I was, meanwhile, recovering from the noise.

Rachel grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, only to have me collapse again.

"You actually heard that?" Percy asked above the noise.

"Y-yeah," I said much more quietly than him.

"Come on, Arthur!" Rachel said, tugging at my forearm, now. "Get up! This isn't the time to be collapsing because of a high-pitched noise!"

I took a deep breath and said, "No, I can't recover that fast from even something like that." It seemed as if the whistle had struck my nerve endings so hard that it was hard to move.

"But-" Percy started to say.

"You're loosing time! Go! While you can!" I screamed at them. Annabeth grabbed Percy and Rachel, gave me a concerned look, and ran. I buckled over, holding my head. Someone calmly walked up behind me and put their hand on my shoulder.

"Shh, shh," a voice said behind me. "Here, how's this?" The person touched the back of my neck and everything eased. It was so sudden that I simply collapsed on the ground. I looked up to see Luke standing over me. I didn't know what to think; why did he like me? He hated Percy, Annabeth, and Camp Halfblood, so what made me any different than them? Oh, yeah. I was resisting them too. There was a mystery with this, but maybe he knew...about the House...about me.

"Let's get you somewhere better than here, all right?" Luke suggested.

I swallowed then paused.

"Well, only if you help me up."

Luke grinned and helped me to my feet before leading me back to the arena where I promptly passed out, leaving Luke to lug me along the rest of the way.