Disclaimer: I own nothing...It gets really depressing to say that after a while, you know?
By time the commanders of Chaos had gone over to the war meeting in the Big House, most of the kids already there, Percy's face was showing absolutely no evidence of his breakdown and "talk" with his ex girlfriend. His cheeks weren't red, his eyes were as clear as ever, and his voice wasn't hoarse. He had missed breakfast in order to make sure he would come out okay, but he still managed to worry his comrades and Bianca di Angelo. It was only more worrying when he came out of his room with a wet head and bags under his eyes- not to mention the lack of talking he did at first. He had merely grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter and then headed out, obviously waiting for everyone else. They had known better not to question what was wrong, in fear of making him close up even further when they needed him most and just let him be the way he was, which he appreciated. His thoughts had taken him some time to get sorted out, but eventually, they came in an order of events, the bad thoughts stashed away in a locked room at the back of the room where hopefully they would stay- at least today, if not longer.
His order wasn't happy. It started with the finding out his math teacher was a Fury, then the pen turns out to be a sword-that-turns-monsters-into-gold-dust. His horrible year of being twelve came next, then the thirtenth, the forteenth, the fifteenth, the sixteenth, the death of his friends, the overwhelming battle with Kronos/Luke, then the joyous days he had known as his relationship with Annabeth Chase.
Then it turned bad- as if it gets any worse than that, right?
He had found her cheating, then the ignoring by his "friends", the way rumors spread about him "acting badly," oh, and the loss of a love ontop of that. Well, what happened next? Ran off, got with Chaos, brooded and trained for thousands and thousands of years, saved more lives, did his job, brooded, trained, saved lives, blah, blah, blah.
Oh, but it gets better.
Then he has to come back to where his ex-girlfriend is, with her boyfriend, where everyone abandoned him and made lies after he'd save them all. While he was on that trip, he ran into someone who he blamed their death for, ran into her and then almost kissed her- on impulse, because they were so close- before stupidly offering to give her a ride back to Earth to endure constant teasing from his friends. They made it to Earth, Annabeth acted like nothing happened, he started to...er, like Bianca and her comfort, he then almost lost her when he said something stupid before almost kissing her again- er, it might have happened- but was interrupted by news about the war. Thalia punched him quite hard, he had a fight with Athena, and then with Annabeth, he saw another old friend, he explains to the whole Camp what he did and then falls in a hole into what turned out to be the "destroyed" labyrinth. Their weapons get taken away, he gets reminded of a history assignment, and in the morning, gets a history lesson on why things turned out how they did and here he is.
Exhausted- mentally and physically-, frustrated, relieved to know that that Josh guy was hurting just as much as him, and he really, really didn't want to go into a war meeting right now. But it had to be done, eh?
So, he walked with everyone else to the Big House- still baby blue and big- in a silence while he ate his apple and everyone else worried silently about him. Such a nice morning, huh? Before they even got there, Percy abandoned his apple to one of the pegasus that was being walked by a camper back to the stables. When they did get there, he was met with someone grabbing his hand and he looked over at them, smiling weakly when he saw Bianca and she smiled at him."You okay?" she asked gently and he shrugged.
"Bad night," he replied simply, and she left it at that as they walked in.
The ping pong table had been extended a little and Zues now sat at the top of the table, Poseidon and Hades flanking either side of him. Next to Hades was Nico and an empty seat which Percy persumed was for Bianca. There were two empty seats next to Poseidon, one of which Vernica took easily, and Percy thought the other was for him- but a choice, nonetheless. He decided to take the spot between his little sister and another empty seat while Ares was on the other side of that, so Jaden sat between them. Across from Jaden, Gerry took a seat, next to Apollo who was sitting next to an Apollo kid- maybe Will Solace, but Percy wasn't sure. Travis and Connor were sitting- sharing a seat, obviously- next to Hermes who was on the other side of that Will kid. Next to Ares was Athena with Annabeth on her side. Next to her was some Latino boy who was next to Hephatues, and next to the Stolls was Artemis, Thalia next to her. Rachel and Chiron sat on the other end of the table, and Percy noticed that some of the gods were missing, but he presumed that because they could be later informed, and Aphrodite couldn't really do much in the war- no offense, Aphrodite.
"Everyone here?" Zues asked, his voice echoing in the room. "Good, let's start."
"I don't think he's too happy about not having a kid with him," Vernica whispered to Percy as Zues glared around the room, daring anyone to share a word.
Percy tried to hide his snicker.
"Okay, what do we have so far?"
Jaden stood up and said in a clear, stern voice, "There's an army of about five to six thousand monsters, demigods- whether it's Roman or Greek, we're not sure-, and tons of spiders. They'll be arriving maybe tomorrow, but two more days the most if Chaos is going to give us a distraction to get a better dealing of everything."
"There's the labyrinth, too," Percy announced, standing up, too, as people gasped. "Jaden, Gerry, and I fell down in there and there's some wind spirit thing that took off with our weapons we were wearing. We don't know whether it's the same labyrinth I was in, but it's definitely the labyrinth."
"How is that possible?" the Latino asked in worry, looking around. "I thought that blew up during the Titan War."
Percy shrugged. "The labyrinth supposedly died with Daedalus..."
"Is it confirmed that Daedalus is dead?" Athena asked, looking over at the Hades group.
Hades rolled his eyes. "Of course it is. Thantos had a cow with that guy for evading death that long."
"And we heard it crash," Travis pointed out. "Right when Daedalus died."
"Is there some kind of underground tunnel system?" Gerry asked. "You know for the campers to sneak from one cabin to another."
"No," Chiron replied, shaking his head. "Even the Hephateus kids couldn't make something with the remaints of the labyrinth under there."
"Could someone have rebuilt the labyrinth?" Vernica wondered with a tilt of her head.
"Only the gods have that power, and if anything it'd be Leo and Hephateus," Artemis said, making all eyes turn to the god and the Latino.
"Woah, woah, hold on," Leo exclaimed, waving his hands. "We couldn't rebuild the labyrinth if we wanted to! We don't know where to start!"
Hephatues grunted an agreement. "I only have access to my forge, and that's it."
Percy, who was sitting again, flinched at the reminder of that place. Now that had been a sucky quest.
"Well maybe, only half of it crashed," Gerry said uncertainly, stroking his chin in that 'thinker' way and looking thoughtfully at the table. "If it dies with Daedalus, and it's still here..."
Annabeth's eyes widened and she raised her hand, her mouth clamped shut. Athena looked at her in confusion before she quickly caught on and breathed, "Then Daedalus may have a bloodline that kept it alive."
"That's not possible," Nico declared at once. "Dad and Thantos have been working on years to pull this guy back into the Underworld, they would've noticed if he left the labyrinth."
"Besides, he was like half-robot right?" Connor said, raising his eyebrows. "How do you have kids if your half-robot."
"And that kid could've died before they even reached teens," Poseidon pointed out.
"But he tricked all of you, didn't he?" Apollo asked, looking around. "You didn't know it was him until he showed himself."
"But that was in the labyrinth and he only came out of it later to die," Percy replied.
"If he did have a child," Artemis began, "and if that child lived to be older, then they could've had children themselves..."
"And with the more Daedalus blood, the labyrinth would grow," Hermes blinked.
"Woah, woah, woah, hold up a second here," Ares interrupted Zues's start of a sentence. "How do we know the enemy knows about this?"
"Ares...has a point," Athena said slowly and a bit surprised. "If they knew about it, they would be using it now."
"I really hope there isn't a spy in here," Apollo mumbled, and everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Well, I think, we should put guards near the entrances anyway," Rachel announced, shrugging. "You can never be too careful, can you?"
"But if no one comes, it'll be useless," Thalia said with a wrinkle of her nose. "I mean, we need all the people we have to fight against that army."
"And what if they're going after the Romans, too?" Vernica piped up, blinking at everyone. "We don't know where they're headed."
"Woah, no, wait, I asked about that," Jaden informed quickly. "The spy says no one has gone towards the Romans. Archane's problem is only with Athena, they said."
"So then the demigods on the other side have to be Greek," the Will guy concluded.
"Whose children are they?" Zues asked, looking at Jaden.
"Hephatues and Ares. We were wondering if any kids went missing or anything."
Chiron looked thoughtful. "Not that I know of, no. Of course, they could've slipped off in the night and were thought to be somewhere else when people asked."
"Or they could've used the labyrinth," Bianca said, everyone wincing at the thought.
"Yeah! If Daedalus's kids had kids, then it's bound to be repaired all the way!" Vernica exclaimed.
"That would explain why that wind spirit took away our weapons," Percy mumbled to himself, but everyone heard.
"Maybe they have them," Leo said hesitantly.
"No, if they used the labyrinth, they're bound to be with the army, which is how they joined," Athena pointed out.
"And they could've easily got lost in there," Apollo shrugged. "It's not there's a sign that says, 'This way to Archane's starting point.'"
"Yeah..." Gerry paused. "But the spiders could've easily navigated it. Left little signs along the way and then since there's thousands of them, sent off in each direction to try and recruit guys."
"What signs could a spider leave?" Percy asked with furrowed eyebrows.
"Cobwebs," he replied with a shrug. "I don't know. I'm not a spider."
"There has to be thousands of cobwebs down there without their help," Connor said, Travis nodding in agreement.
"Maybe, but they could have a specific design to theirs."
"And these kids, they could've just stumbled upon it one day and they were off into it," Rachel reminded them.
"Well, I don't have any other kids I haven't claimed," Ares announced, leaning back in his chair and picking his nails with his knife. "Not yet, at least."
Rolling his eyes at his wife's boyfriend, Hephatues replied with a negative that no, he hadn't any other kids to claim.
"Then they have to be from Camp," Percy concluded with a frown.
"Like I said," Rachel shrugged, "Maybe they didn't mean to come across the labyrinth."
Annabeth's hand shot straight up and Jaden and Percy shared a look, shrugged and Percy nodded at her. "Maybe they went home for school," she said breathlessly, "and they met with Archane somewhere along the way before they could come back."
"That's a good point," Travis declared, nodding with himself.
"Well, we have no idea when they could've possibly started recruiting so it's a possibility," Gerry said, still looking hard at the table.
"Any names of the kids?" Chiron asked Jaden.
"Not that I know of, but if Chaos can give us a distraction for their armies to wait, maybe I can find out."
"Well, Chaos most likely will," Vernica replied matter-of-factly. "Since we're going to need it."
"What kind of monsters are we talking about here?" Poseidon asked, looking over at Jaden.
"Er..." he and Percy shared a look which silently debated on whether they should tell them about the cycolpes, but decided in the end it had to be done. "Giants, drachnae, hell hounds, maybe the Minotuar, but that isn't confirmed, and well...er, cycolpes. Only a few though," he assured quickly.
Poseidon frowned and looked down at the table while Vernica grabbed his hand and comforted him. "And if they did go into the labyrinth, you know, they may have those wind spirits on their side, too," Gerry pointed with a frown of his own.
"You mean like storm spirits?" Leo asked, leaning forward to look at them. "Because only gold kills those."
"No, they're definitely wind spirits," Jaden replied. "We had to do this whole paper on them, and it was obviously them. Moves as quick as a burst of wind, and as sneaky as a little breeze, but huge like a hurricane."
"Did you just say you had to do a paper on them?" the Will kid asked in confusion.
Percy groaned. "Yes, we have homework like everyone else."
"And only Jaden really did that."
Jaden rolled his eyes. "Which means they can be only be killed by the opposite of wind- or, er, air."
"Well that would be the ground," Zues answered with a scoff. "But how do you use them against that?"
"It's just a possibility," Athena reminded.
"But if they do have them, maybe we could have little sling shots," Apollo said with a grin.
"If anything like that comes, they've probably got other things, too," Gerry informed with a deeper frown. "Harder things."
"But we don't know for sure they have those, right?" Connor wondered with a hint of concern.
"Oh, yeah, we don't know, but we didn't know there was a labyrinth either," Nico said.
"Nico's right, I guess," Percy shrugged, though he was frowning. "We don't know if they're actually helping Arachne, or if they just wanted to take our stuff."
"Yes, about that," Athena said slowly. "Those weren't your only weapons, were they?"
"Nope," Vernica replied cheerfully. "We also bring a spare in the ship just in case we need to drop our equipment in a mission to get out of there faster."
Ares stabbed the table and most people jumped. "Well, punks, how are we going to crush these spiderS?"
"Well, obviously, Athena kids are out of the fight," Gerry announced easily.
"What?" Athena blinked in surprise as Annabeth grew red with resistant of holding back her comments. "Why is that?"
"They're spiders, Owl Head," Poseidon explained with a roll of his eyes, "and they're coming for you."
"And you're terrified of spiders," Hermes added before shrinking under her glare.
"My children and I are fighting!"
"If you let them get you, or your children, you're 1) a horrible mom, 2) giving the enemy what they want, 3) letting the pride get the best of you," Vernica said sternly.
"My pride- I am not-"
"There are tons of spiders out there, Athena," Jaden informed. "Your kids freak everytime they even think there's a spider, and Arachne is coming for you. If you just go up, you're letting her win."
"I'm afraid they're right, my daughter," Zues announced. "If you make yourselve known then we wouldn't actually be fighting."
"Why don't you plan strategies?" Apollo offered with a shrug as Annabeth grew redder. "In the back, of course, near the beach or something."
"You won't be out of the fight all of the way," Gerry said distractedly as he looked at the map of Camp Rachel had somehow got him. "Percy, show me the entrance to the labyrinth and someone get me a pen."
Hephateus produced one before someone could even snap their fingers and Percy scanned the map before putting his finger on the rocks he and Annabeth had slipped through in order to drop down into the labyrinth. "It's in between two rocks."
"Right, so we have here and here." He marked each spot- the first one and the one they had seen yesterday- with an x. "Does anyone know any others?"
"I don't think there is," Travis said honestly with a shrug. "We didn't even think it was still there."
"And there's no ship coming this way, right Poseidon?"
Poseidon thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Nothing."
"So they'll have to come in either the forest or the front entrance. But obviously, this Mist stuff won't conceal the spiders, so they'll have to go through the forest."
"Maybe the spiders would go in forest and the rest up to the entrance," Bianca pointed out.
"Right, so then we'll have to position two groups around here. But those two groups would have to broken up in order to scan the entire border."
"We have the Golden Fleece," Leo reminded. "That should at least hold them off."
"The spiders..." he trailed off, looking around at everyone.
"It should," Thalia replied. "I mean, if they count as monsters and we specify.
"It already should," Athena informed. "I put it on when we first started so that my childen wouldn't have to worry."
"Good, because we'll need that. Are you gods fighting in this war or what?"
"We'll be assisting, but not entirely fighting," Zues answered. "This is your fight."
"Actually it's Athena's and we're just here for help," Vernica pointed out cheerfully- he scowled at her.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm fighting," Ares announced, carving into the table, reminding Percy of Clarisse. "It's been a while since I've seen one of my immortal sons fight, and I ain't sitting around like an old coward."
"Okay, Bianca, Nico, you two are staying, right?"
"Of course," Bianca replied with a smile.
"Sweet, that makes seven with all of these guys. You two? Leo? Apollo kid? Hunters?"
"Name's Will, but sure, I'll fight," the Apollo kid replied, yawning.
"I'm in, man, I've got some awesome things we could try out..." Leo trailed off, a huge grin and mischevous glint in his eyes making the others fear for the spiders.
"We're fighting," the Stolls answered together.
Thalia and Artemis looked at each other before nodding. "I'll lead a group of them, but the others should be under a girl," Artemis advised making him grin a little.
"And the other immortal campers, we'll have to check with them, too," Percy reminded him.
"And gods," Vernica reminded them.
"Okay, so I figure we'll station the Athena cabin down here," Gerry said, ignoring them, but circling the ampitheatre. "It's far away from the fight and they have seats."
Jaden rolled his eyes at him. "I'll take the first group of Ares kids to patroll the forest."
The others suggested places and people they'd like to take and with the help of Gerry and Athena, they were able to make a perfect plan that should keep the spiders and army out of Camp and away from their goal. But when people started getting up to bring back other gods and immortal campers to finalize their plans and see if they wanted in, Rachel suddenly was surrounded by green, heavy smoke that seemed to surround her like a mummy in its wrappings before it spread off to the Chaos commanders, the immortal campers, and a few of the gods- more than that offered to help. Her face was seen and she opened her mouth with her eyes that same bright green and a flash of green light erupted from her mouth as she started to speak.
Percy fell to the ground right as it happened, unconsicious and engulfed by the green smoke.
Lots of explanations in this chapter, and the whole bright green light might be overplayed, but hey, what isn't these days? The prophecy, a short one, will be in the next chapter.
Speaking of which, sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but I just couldn't hit the mood right and well I've been up late to write this, so please forgive and forget any mistakes, but if they're big, please review and tell me about it. I really should be more awake when writing. I might've repeated myself and missed it...eh, whatever...
So...now that you're done...
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