Hey! So this is update two of the holiday break! I KNOW I'll get at least one more of these out to you guys, and if your lucky you might get two more! Hope this chapter is cool, this is probably my last "author's note" for a while unless I have any problems. ANYWAY... back to Keirin!

When the wind stopped blowing we were standing in a large arena built into the side of a large hill. It was built with seats enough for two thousand people, and had a high wall separating the center where all the events were from the stands so that people couldn't get to the fight, and the fight couldn't get to the people. Hades and somehow Persephone were both sitting at the end arena in their grand seats. Nico was heading back into one of the tunnels leading off of the center floor, and I followed him eventually entering the tunnel to the right of his. I dragged Mike along with me as he tried to get a look at everything at once.

After a few turns that would disorient anyone who didn't already have them memorized, we entered a large chamber. The walls were covered in all sorts of weapons; swords, bows, knives, even a trident and net. There was a table at one end where I already had my armor sitting, polished and ready for battle and an extra set of armor alongside it for Mike to use. There was also a closet of clothes to wear under my armor all fitter just for me.

"Whoa, is this like an everyday thing?" Mike asked as he spun around in circles trying to count how many weapons there were covering the walls.

"Well, yeah. But it's different each time." I said as I moved over to the table where my armor was sitting, just waiting for me to go over and put it on. "Sometimes it's me against Nico; sometimes my dad brings in a monster for me to fight. Sometimes it's me and Nico fighting against the monster. And sometimes we aren't allowed to use weapons."

"Against monsters?" Mike said as he came over to join me by my armor. I handed him his armor and he handed me his bow, which I sat on the table where his armor had been. "Hey, uh, should I like change out of the suit?" Mike said, and as I turned around I realized that we both still had on our dress clothes from dinner.

"Oh…" I said looking down at my own gown and then at Mike's suit. This was going to be a problem. "How about I send you over to Nico's room? Here come on." I grabbed his wrist and he just had time to grab his bow from the table as I drug him out of my room and into the maze of hallways.

When we finally got to Nico's room, I knocked on the large almost black doors. They were made of wood, and stood at least ten feet high. Soon we could here Nico walking toward the doors from the other side. Mike and I both stepped back as Nico pulled the heavy doors open.

"What do you want Keirin?" He asked me leaning up against the one door and crossing his arms over his chest.

That was when I noticed that Nico was only in his boxers. "Mike needs to change out of his suit and I figured that he probably wouldn't want to wear any of the stuff I have in my closet, and Dad would probably incinerate him for changing there anyway, so he needs to get ready with you." I said as fast as I could before shoving Mike towards Nico's room. "I have to go and get ready too so bye!" I said over my shoulder as I turned to sprint back to my room.

Once I entered my room I went straight to my closet, picking out one of the many, exactly the same outfits. It was a tight brown long-sleeved shirt and black skinny jeans, things you might find in a normal girl's closet. I slipped out of my dress, hanging it up on the outfit's now-empty hanger and pulled the shirt and jeans on. I slipped on my armor next and then looked at the necklace that had originally been a scarf. I thought for a while about taking it off and leaving it here, but decided that I'd rather just leave it on. I decided that it at least had to change forms, because the silver chain could possibly break and I did not want to find out what Aphrodite's punishment for breaking her scarf would be. So I stared at the necklace for a while and then willed it to become a different necklace, a sort of chocker-necklace. It was still silver, but instead of being a delicate chain, it was now thick and make up of many panels of silver al connected but flexible at the joints. It was tight enough so that it wouldn't get caught on anything, but not so tight that it constricted my breathing. It almost felt like elastic.

I looked up at the walls, thinking about which weapon I should choose. Hades was having a custom blade made for me, but it took time to add in the magic. It was going to be designed so that it would always reappear around my ankle, like a sort or ankle bracelet. Along with the curses that would make it effective against the dead and the living, there was a lot of magic going into my sword. But for now I was stuck to picking weapons from the wall in my room. This was okay with me honestly. There was a huge assortment of weapons covering the wall, and I liked to use a different one each time, but since I didn't know what would happen with Mike joining us, I stuck to the old reliable, one handed sword that was just in my reach. See, sometimes I had to move the table to where ever the weapon was hanging and the stand on top of it just to reach the weapon. With the one foot long blade in my hand I headed out into the arena to see what Hades had planned for us.

When I stepped into the center of the arena and looked around, I noticed several things. One: Nico and Mike weren't out yet, which I hoped wasn't a bad thing. Two: I wasn't actually standing in the center of the arena, because in the center of the arena there were several large tower-like structures, each connected to another by a single bridge, forming a sort of circle of towers connected by bridges with one tower taller than the others in the center. Three: Nico and Mike WERE out already, and were each standing at the top of a tower.

I soon decided that I should join them, so I went to the bottom of the tower beside Mikes and started searching for a door.

"Keirin, the tower in the center." Hades said from his seat at the head of the arena. I followed his orders and went to find a door open to the center tower. I went inside and was confronted by a large set of stairs, in obvious disrepair. Before I could notice anything more I heard the door slam behind me. Hades' voice was soon booming through the arena, but I had to strain to hear him through the walls of the tower. "Keirin is now locked in the center tower. You two must free her."

Great.

~ In the grand seats ~

"Ooh! Wouldn't it be just perfect is she was dressed like a proper princess, not some ragged armor?" Persephone said with a smile. "It would be just like some sort of fairy tale!"

Hades sighed. "If you must" He said with the wave of his hand.

Persephone squealed once and was gone.

~ Back in the center tower ~

I heard slight sound behind me and turned swiftly and rushed, sword raised at the noise. "Hey!" I shouted as I quickly stopped before I impaled Persephone.

"Ahh!" She squealed as she jumped back from my sword pointed at her neck. "Put that away!"

I sheathed my sword at my side but still kept my hand on its hilt and turned to look at Persephone. "What are you here for and whose idea was this?" I asked her.

"I'm here to help you fit the part!" She said, leaving my other question unanswered. She quickly stepped around me and soon got a smile on her face that I didn't like.

"What part?" I asked cautiously. She was still walking in circles around me. She soon stopped and flashed me a grin before snapping her fingers. Suddenly the weight of my armor was gone.

"This part" She said holding up a mirror, she'd gotten from who knows where. I looked at the girl reflected there, and I did not know her. She was in a large poofy dress that was… pink. It didn't look bad until the waist and down; it was strapless and low cut, but still pink. She was also wearing a crown which had to have been Aphrodite's scarf-necklace thing because it was now missing from her neck. She was wearing glass slippers too. The only thing I was comfortable with was that she still had the same sword strapped to her side. The girl in the mirror was me.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" I shouted still not taking my gaze from the girl in the mirror. I also noticed the make-up, which actually wasn't too bad-looking, but I wasn't telling Persephone that.

"You're the Princess! Oh and here." Persephone snapped her fingers again and we were soon standing at the top of the stairs in a small room with one window. The door soon shut and locked. "Now, you're trapped in the tower, with too handsome young men trying to save you!" As soon as the words left her mouth she vanished.

"Aghhh!" I shouted, leaning out the window I shouted some choice words that made Persephone gasp while Hades and the two boys just laughed and stared at my outfit. I was not giving up. I still had my sword. First I went to the door and tried to get it open.

~ In the arena ~

Mike shouted over to the tower next to him. "Hey Nico, is this a team thing or –"

"No." Nico interrupted him, thinking of how tired he was of helping Mike. I mean sure the guy was okay, the might even be friends. If only he hadn't fallen for Keirin.

Ever since finding out that he had another sister, Nico had had a plan. First, find said sister and bring her to camp. Second, keep said sister safe from all dangers including, boys. Well, the first part of Nico's seemingly simple plan had gone flawlessly, but the second part had proved difficult. I mean what do you do when the boy you're trying to protect her from saved her life? You can't just go bully the kid. So now here he was, with his unofficial enemy asking if they were going to team up to save his sister. He was going to make sure that he got their first, and if things went according to plan, Nico would make sure that Mike never got so much as a glance at Keirin in that low-cut dress.

"Oh, okay… well may the best man win then." Mike said turning away from the tower where Nico was stranded. Mike looked over the edge of his own tower as he thought of a plan. He HAD to save Keirin. There were multiple reasons. First of all, he was Keirin's boyfriend; of course he had to save her! Secondly, he HAD to impress her dad. No question; that was his most important task while in the underworld besides being there for Keirin. Thirdly, he just could not let Nico beat him. Mike wasn't sure what it was, but the guy just didn't seem to like him. Fourth on the list was that Nico carried a sword. Mike didn't have a problem with Keirin and her sword, but he had to stick up for Apollo's honor down here and win with his bow.

Mike looked more closely at the set up of the arena. There were exactly nine towers surrounding the center one, all of them connected to the two on either side of it by bridges and just the one on the very opposite end of the circle had a bridge to the center tower. Mike looked over and saw that Nico was planning on using this to his advantage. Slowly Mike got an idea. Mike knew it had been a good idea to swipe that rope from Nico's collection of weapons. It didn't have a grappling hook which would have been ideal, but it wasn't necessary. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and tied one end of the rope to the arrow and wrapped the other end around his hand. Mike brought his bow up and notched the arrow, praying to Apollo and even Artemis that this shot hit its mark. He let it loose and watched as it streaked across from his tower to the one where Keirin was trapped. He gave the end he still had in his hand a tug, and was overjoyed when he found that it was tight. After praying to every god he could think of, even Hades, Mike jumped.

~ Back in the center tower ~

"Curse you door!" I shouted as I kicked at the door for what seemed like the seven millionth time. I leaned my head on the cool wood of the door as I thought of another way out. That was when I heard a crack. I rushed over to the only small window in the room and looked out too see a rope stretching from where Mike was, on top of his tower, to an arrow that was now embedded in the stone of my tower. I then watched in horror as Mike jumped right off of the edge of his tower.

"NOOO!" I screamed before I realized what he was doing. He was swinging on his rope. I soon heard the sound of his feet crashing into the side of the tower somewhere far below me. That was when I decided.

I would not be saved.

~ In the grand seats ~

"Oh that was brave" Persephone said as she watched Mike start to climb the side of the center tower. She was amazed at his fore thought to bring rope.

Hades looked over at her with a bored expression. "And stupid. If that arrow hadn't held he'd be dead. Nico is the smart one. He's going through the towers." Hades said nodding to where Nico had just burst through the door to tower he had started on. It would have been easier to have shadow traveled strait into the tower, but at Persephone's request to make things fair, Hades had made it impossible to shadow travel inside the arena.

"No Nico's the dumb one. All of those doors are locked. By the time he breaks through every one of those, he won't have enough energy to even climb half way up those stairs in her tower to then find yet another locked door." Persephone said laughing. That shut Hades up.

~Back in the arena ~

Nico had just entered the second tower. He ran across the floor panting heavily, to find that the door ahead of him was locked. Not again. Nico softly banged his head on the solid door, already feeling the pain in his shoulder he would get from smashing through that door. But he had to get to Keirin. He took a few steps back and then ran at the door. The wood gave way and he was through, and the pain was there.

Meanwhile, Mike was scaling the tower now, his feet aching from his impact with the tower. He had a long way to go and as he looked up to the small window he was planning to crawl through to get to Keirin he felt a twinge of doubt that he could make it. But he pushed onward.

~ Back in the center tower ~

I leaned out the window, looking down to see how far up Mike was from the ground. He was only about ten feet up, and the longer I waited the higher he would get. I looked to my left and saw that the rope Mike was climbing up was anchored by an arrow only about a foot from where I was leaning out the window. I reached out and grabbed the arrow. "Sorry Mike!" I yelled before I took out my sword and slashed at the rope, splitting it in one swing.

"Hey, what the- OW!" Mike shouted as he landed with a thud on the ground.

"I'm sorry! Love you!" I shouted down as I tried not to laugh at the expression on his face. It was somewhere between hurt confusion and utter disbelief.

"Love you too." He shouted back up before mumbling some things I didn't catch. I didn't think about it too much as I smiled and yanked his arrow from the side of the tower. If only I had another… But I was not about to ask for help from Mike. I would do this on my own. That would teach Persephone and Hades to trap me in a tower and send two boys to save me!

I climbed out onto the window's way too small edge and looked down. See here's the strange thing about me. I'm not afraid to look down when I'm high up, it's looking UP that freaks the crap out of me. So I slowly stood up and turned my face to the wall directly in front of me. I took the arrow in my hand and stabbed it high above my head into the rock. After testing that it would hold my weight, I pulled myself up and dug my feet into small notches in the wall. "Here goes nothing." I said and began to climb.