I'm so sorry, but Hazel's battle was just so boring to write that I delayed for a long time and I was and am so busy and I'm going to be even busier because haha we're going to be doing Into The Woods as our musical. The script is literally the size of a phonebook. Long hours, so much work, taxing my mental stability, etc. I'm going to try and finish out this book as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of 2019. The final battles aren't really what I wanted of them, but I rejigged my plans and have a bit of a clearer path to the end. Just gotta like, go read through my stories and make a list of the stuff I still need to resolve.

Enjoy :)

First Person: Rei

I woke to the scream of "BOB!"

I jolted out of a dreamless sleep and found that I was lying on a beach. All of my senses felt slightly dulled, but I wasn't in a dream, I was sure of that. Then again, that's what I've thought before when I turned out to be dreaming. It felt like I was halfway between dream and not. The key was to take a deep breath and see if I felt the air within my lungs. Usually I could breathe underwater in my dreams, and that's when I knew they were dreams.

I looked at the water lapping at my feet, an endless sea, mystic and powerful and dangerous.

Maybe not.

I looked around for the source of my awakening and saw that Veon was resting beside me, breathing heavily and looking extremely distraught. Emily was at his side, letting him grip her hand tightly as he trembled violently. She rubbed his back attempting to placate him.

"Ve?"

When I tried to move, my limbs suddenly felt like jelly. So long as I held still, everything felt normal. I turned onto my side to face them.

"Veon?"

"What happened?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"We lost," Someone answered.

Out of the tide came a figure that I soon realized was Audrey. She looked exhausted, and the waters of this land didn't help her at all. Her trident was in her hand, but it was heavily cracked. She held it up and sheathed it as she joined us, collapsed from fatigue.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"We freed the Doors, got Annabeth, Percy, and No. 1 through," She explained. "But…"

"Bob," Veon muttered. "Damasen. You."

She nodded. "I…I think I was brought here with you guys to help you."

"And Veon was brought here when he'd done his job," I surmised. I twisted and managed to sit myself up. "We're all here, we've done everything we can. Now all we can do is try and save the Primordials."

"I don't think they need much saving," Audrey said. "They began the end of the world. Tartarus is being destroyed right now, and if the damage climbs up to the surface, it'll be the end of everything. They're both still above Tartarus."

"But they've lost their faith in humanity because of him. Tartarus can't overpower Chaos and Order, he knew that, but what he could do was take advantage of their love for humanity. Humanity means flaws, and flaws plus ancient primordial power can be devastating. Essentially, I think we gave them despair. We took their consciousnesses, gave them emotions, focused their power into the form of minds that could be manipulated and hearts that could be hurt. They keep their interest in our world and use hosts to traverse the land anew, but it opens them up to our humanity. A little hopelessness thrown into the equation and here we are."

"So what are we supposed to do about it?" Veon asked.

"You and I have to figure out a way. In the end, Audrey's right. Tartarus is nothing compared to his parents. He only exists because they allow it. Tartarus must have done something to take the humanity within them and twist it into its darkest qualities - which is pretty much everything that Tartarus is. The five rivers, all those souls trapped in his dark armor suffering, the monsters reforming or reformed trapped in his depths - all of it is just…horrific. The most terrible aspects that come with life, regardless of what kind of life it is, that is what Tartarus harbors. The Primordials have given up their humanity because they've found reason to despair."

"And without humanity, they see this world as nothing but something to destroy," He finished.

"So we get to try and convince the creators of this entire universe and reality that we're worthy of living after they've deemed us doomed," Audrey summarized. "Whelp, I guess we've got nothing better to do."

"The others are working hard to fulfill their prophecy, so we should do the same with ours," Emily declared.

"Oh, what was that old prophecy?" I muttered. "Final call, final call, final call…"

"Didn't you say you'd figured out that prophecy?" Audrey asked.

"I had a guess. Now I'm not so sure. Only one way to find out."

I stood and brushed myself clean of sand before heading up the beach with the others scurrying to follow behind. At the top of the beach, stone buildings seamlessly merged the beach with a city. The sky was still gray with clouds, but the area was far from dark. At the center of the city was a large temple-like structure, and actually, I realized what this place reminded me of: Valhalla from Final Fantasy 13-2. And up there was the Temple of the Goddess. No doubt that was where we were going if we wanted to find the Primordials.

"Hey, where are we going?!" Audrey called.

"Wait, 'final call?' That was from my prophecy," Veon realized.

"Your prophecy basically said that you would be held prisoner by Tartarus destroying both the living and dead until you heard the final call. There would be nothing you could do and you'd be feeling the pain of all the souls trapped within Tartarus's depths."

He looked uncomfortable at the memory. "Yeah."

"The final call might be the end of this world," I continued. "I didn't like to entertain the idea, but the final call and the only way we could free you from Tartarus might be…the Primordials deciding the end. The final call…I feared that the only way to free you would to make the Primordials incite the end of this world, and it would have no choice but to start from-"

"From Tartarus," Audrey realized. "The end would have to start from the epicenter of the Primordials' power - the looming depths of Chaos. The destruction would have to get through Tartarus before it got to the overworld…"

"Meaning we had a chance, yes. A chance of freeing Veon then stopping the Primordials before things went too far. Now…" I put my hand to my chest and took a deep breath. There was a tight knot of pain that almost made it hard to breathe. "Now I'm starting to reconsider what I was thinking."

"How so?" Emily asked.

"Perhaps we were right about the final call, but the prophecy said that 'the dead shall rise' and 'the living shall fall.' Those were the conditions. Now that the final call has rung out across the land…did you guys manage to close the Doors of Death?"

"Yes…" Audrey muttered, though she seemed reluctant to admit it.

"What's wrong with that?" Veon asked.

"The final call has stopped the dead from rising, Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus and so did we…" I reiterated. "And now everyone has been extracted from Tartarus in one way or another. I don't…what if what we did finished the prophecy? Then what do we do? We came here to find the Primordials, and we have. But…what do we do now?"

"What do you mean?" Veon stepped in front of me and took my hand. "We made it here, we're close to fixing all of this. All we have to do is get to the Primordials and retrieve their power."

"But to what end? This place, our destinies…when will it end?! I…I walked through that place to get here, a place of desperation and submission and I…I think I understand Chaos better now. Chaos only wanted the end of this constant wheel of life. And at the same time, Chaos wants to go on. But thinking…thinking is so hard. When we win their favor, what happens? Will it all be worth it?"

"You can't be giving up," Emily said. "Not now. We've come so far, we've made our new friends and gone on this big adventure, and now we're close to finishing this. Once we're done, we can go back home. We can go to school and worry about calculus and AP Lit class and going to college. Didn't you want to get into computer programming since computers never attracted monsters for you?"

I shrugged. "That…was because of Zyanya," I admitted.

"But computers are ruling the world these days. Having someone who knows how to use technology even if the camps can't use them is important for missions out in the real world. And didn't you want to do some volunteering at the animal shelter? Once I become a vet you'd bring your dogs to me?"

"Yeah, and we can struggle over being in the drama club together with the hectic process of being part of the musical," Veon added.

"And we can go back to obsessing over fandoms like Sherlock," Audrey concluded. "Who else am I going to share hilarious memes with?"

I laughed. "Well, that's one reason to regain the power of the gods - to make sure that we can continue enjoying the joys of Doctor Who memes."

"That's the spirit!"

I exhaled a deep breath. "Right. Let's get going."

"Great! Where are we going again?"

I looked to the large building at the epicenter of the city – the temple that supposedly held the consciousness of the gods. "In there, I suppose."

"Do you think that thing is a big as the goddess's temple from LR?" Veon asked me.

"If this is really the representation of the Primordials' consciousness, I wouldn't be surprised if being in there will mix up the Primordials' fake worlds and the real world. They connect to everything, after all. Could be more like Orphan's Cradle."

"Oh that's gonna be a nightmare."

"Great, in English please," Audrey requested.

"It's most likely to be another maze," I explained. "In a realm where the physical plane isn't meant to exist, we're probably going to be wandering through a giant matrix of all of time, space, reality, the multiverse, etc. Imagine the Tardis and all the crazy stuff that can happen when it explodes."

"Ah. That does sound like a nightmare."

"If anyone's equipped to get through there, it's you guys, right?" Emily said.

"Right," Veon sighed. "But we're gonna need your guys' help."

"When you're dealing with deities like the Primordials, we may not be able to handle our humanity very well," I agreed. "So…will you stand with us?"

"Is that even a question?" Audrey chuckled. "Of course we're gonna be by your side. We've come this far, right?"

"As if we'd just up and abandon you," Emily smirked.

I looked up to the large temple where our destinies awaited. "Yeah, well…just had to make sure."

First Person: Kaze

Leo could only stare at Hazel as she sobbed over the debris separating us from the others.

She wasn't proud of crying, and she realized that she wasn't being fair to him. The last time the two of them had been together, she'd zapped him into her past and shown him Sammy, his great-grandfather - Hazel's first boyfriend from her past before she had died. She'd burdened him with emotional baggage he didn't need, and left him so dazed they'd almost gotten killed by a giant shrimp monster. Now here they were, together again, while their friends might be dying at the hands of a monster army, and she was throwing a fit.

"Sorry," She said meekly, wiping her face.

"Hey, you know…" Leo shrugged. "I've attacked a few rocks in my day."

She swallowed with difficulty. "Frank is…he's-"

"Listen," Leo interrupting, his voice free softening just a bit from his usual mirth. "Frank Zhang has moves. He's probably gonna turn into a kangaroo and do some marsupial jujitsu on their ugly faces."

He helped her to her feet. Despite the panic simmering inside her, she knew Leo was right. Frank and the others weren't helpless. They would find a way to survive. The best thing she and Leo could do was carry on, making sure that their friends didn't have to worry about them, either. Frank was probably just as worried about her as she was of him.

I pressed my hand to the wall of rocks, trying to contain my growing anger. No one else was as fast as I was. What if no one was fast enough to save Azrael when he really needed it? Slowing down time, letting the rest of the world happen as it happened, and taking a monster with him into the Veil to risk getting killed…just imagining it made me want to both wring his neck for throwing me away and hug the living daylights out of him to try and protect him from everything else.

Hazel was studying Leo. The two of them easily forgot about my presence since my lack of speaking and breathing made me as dead as the rocks that surrounded us. Leo's hair had grown out longer and shaggier, and his face was leaner, so he looked less like an imp and more like one of those willowy elves in the fairy tales. The biggest difference was his eyes. They constantly drifted, as if Leo was trying to spot something over the horizon.

"Leo, I'm sorry," Hazel said.

He raised an eyebrow. "Okay. For what?"

"For…" She gestured around her helplessly. "Everything. For thinking you were Sammy, for leading you on. I mean, I didn't mean to, but if I did-"

"Hey." He squeezed her hand, though Hazel sensed nothing romantic in the gesture. "Machines are designed to work."

"Uh…what?"

"I figure the universe is basically like a big machine. I don't know who made it - if it was the Fates, or the gods, or capital-G God, or whatever - but it chugs along the way it's supposed to most of the time. Sure, little pieces break and stuff goes haywire once in a while, but mostly…things happen for a reason. Like you and me meeting."

"Leo Valdez," Hazel marveled, "you're a philosopher."

"Nah," He said. "I'm just a mechanic. But I figure my bisabuelo Sammy knew what was what. He let you go, Hazel. My job is to tell you that it's okay. You and Frank – you're good together. We're all going to get through this. I hope you guys get a chance to be happy. Besides, Zhang couldn't tie his shoes without your help."

"That's mean," Hazel chided, but she felt like something was untangling inside her – a knot of tension she'd been carrying for weeks.

Leo really had changed. Hazel was starting to think she'd found a good friend.

"What happened to you when you were on your own?" She asked. "Who did you meet?"

Leo's eye twitched. "Long story. I'll tell you sometime, but I'm still waiting to see hit it shakes out."

"The universe is a machine, so it'll be fine."

"Hopefully."

"As long as it's not one of your machines," She added. "Because your machines never do what they're supposed to."

"Yeah, ha-ha." Leo summoned fire into his hand. "Kaze?"

"We cannot get through the wall," I announced.

"Then we can only go forward. Which way, Miss Underground?"

Hazel scanned the path in front of them. About thirty feet down, the tunnel split into four smaller arteries, each one identical, but the one on the left radiated cold.

"That way," She decided. "It feels the most dangerous."

"I'm sold," Leo said.

As soon as we reached the first archway, the polecat Gale found us. She scurried up Hazel's side and curled around her neck, chittering crossly as if to say 'Where have you been? You're late.' My Neko robot crawled out of my pocket and rested on my shoulder, aimed at Gale the polecat and letting out a robotic clicking that might've been the equivalent of hissing.

"Not the farting weasel again," Leo complained. "If that thing let's loose in close quarters like this, with my fire and all, we're gonna explode."

Gale barked a polecat insult at Leo. Neko barked a mechanical insult at everyone. Hazel hushed them all. She could sense the tunnel ahead, sloping gently down for about three hundred feet, then opening into a large chamber. In that chamber was a presence…cold, heavy, and powerful. Hazel hadn't felt anything like it since the cave in Alaska where Gaea had forced her to resurrect Porphyrion the giant king. Hazel had thwarted Gaea's plans that time, but she'd had to pull down the cavern, sacrificing her life and her mother's. She wasn't anxious to have a similar experience.

"Guys, be ready," She whispered. "We're getting close."

"Close to what?" Leo asked.

A woman's voice echoed down the corridor: "Close to me."

A wave of magic swept over us, Mist, and it pulled us forward as though we were suddenly standing on a treadmill. Hazel and Leo were left with a nauseating feeling, skewing their sense of direction. Hazel was hit so hard her knees buckled, and even though her underground sense were normally flawless, she became completely unmoored. Though I could see the Mist because of my special state, from their perspective they didn't move but were suddenly three hundred feet down the corridor, at the entrance of the chamber.

"Welcome," A woman's voice said. "I've looked forward to this."

Hazel and Leo looked around for the source of the voice, but they couldn't see her hiding in the Mist. They noticed the Doors of Death standing fifty feet away, the rubble of an ancient altar to Hades surrounding the rows of iron chains running down either side, bolting the frame of the Doors to large hooks in the floor. Neko hissed on my shoulder, aimed at the Mist shrouding the area and the figures within.

"Where are you?" Hazel shouted.

"Don't you see us?" Taunted the woman's voice. "I thought Hecate chose you for your skill."

Another bout of queasiness churned through them as the Mist shifted again. To be, it felt like little more than a breeze, but to them it must have been like being caught in a sea of radiation. On Hazel's shoulder, Gale barked and passed gas, which didn't help. Dark spots floated though my vision, consolidating into a twenty-foot-tall shadowy figure looming next to the Doors. The giant Clytius was shrouded in the black smoke, just as Hazel had seen in her vision at the crossroads, but now she could dimly make out his form: dragon-like legs with ash-colored scales; a massive humanoid upper body encased in Stygian armor; long, braided hair that seemed to be made from smoke. His complexion was as dark as Death's (we would know, considering Hazel and I had met Death personally). His eyes glinted cold as diamonds, and though he carried no weapon, that didn't make him any less terrifying.

Leo whistled. "You know, Clytius…for such a big dude, you've got a beautiful voice."

"Idiot," Hissed the woman.

Halfway between Hazel and the giant, the air shimmered. The sorceress appeared. She wore an elegant sleeveless dress of woven gold, her dark hair piled into a cone, encircled with diamonds and emeralds. Around her neck hung a pendant like a miniature maze, on a cord set with rubies that made me think of crystallized blood drops. The woman was beautiful in a timeless, regal way - like a statue you might admire but could never love. Her eyes sparkled with malice.

"Pasiphaë," Hazel said.

The woman inclined her head. "My dear Hazel Levesque."

Leo coughed. "You two know each other? Like Underworld chums, or-"

"Silence, fool," Pasiphaë snapped. Her voice was soft, but full of venom. "I have no use for demigod boys - always full of themselves, so brash and destructive."

"Hey, lady, I don't destroy things much. I'm a son of Hephaestus."

"A tinkerer; even worse. I knew Daedalus. His inventions brought me nothing but trouble."

Leo blinked. "Daedalus…like, the Daedalus? Well, then, you should know all about us tinkerers. We're more into fixing, building, occasionally sticking wads of oilcloth into the mouths of rude ladies-"

"Leo," Hazel interrupted, putting her arm across his chest. She had a feeling the sorceress was about to turn him into something unpleasant if he didn't shut up. "Let me take this, okay?"

"Listen to your friend," Pasiphaë agreed. "Be a good boy and let the woman talk."

Leo looked ready to protest, but I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him a step back. Hoping that he knew more Morse than just a few statements he learned as a child, I began tapping his shoulder.

Pasiphaë paced in front of us, examining Hazel, her eyes so full of hate it made Hazel's skin tingle. The sorceress's power radiated from her like heat from a furnace. Her expression was unsettling and vaguely familiar. Somehow though, the giant Clytius unnerved Hazel more. He stood in the background, silent and motionless except for the dark smoke pouring from his body, pooling around his feet. He was the cold presence Hazel had felt earlier - like a vast deposit of obsidian, so heavy that Hazel couldn't possibly move it, powerful and indestructible and completely devoid of emotion.

"Your…your friend doesn't say much," Haze noted.

Pasiphaë looked back at the giant and sniffed with disdain. "Pray he stays silent, my dear. Gaea has given me the pleasure of dealing with you; but Clytius is my, ah, insurance. Just between you and me, as sister sorceresses, I think he's also here to keep my powers in check, in case I forget my new mistress's orders. Gaea is careful that way. I have a feeling she is sending more to guard the Doors, starting with the one you so carelessly allowed to accompany you."

Hazel glanced at me. I realized that the aura in the room was affecting me to some extent, but it wasn't Pasiphaë or Clytius or the Mist. It felt like the earth sending a light hum through my entire being, sending the simple order to not interfere until necessary. It was the order being given to Clytius, it was the warning constantly looming over Pasiphaë that she was under close observation at all times. And I had a feeling that if I was being given orders to attend the Doors, then I wouldn't be the only one. Tsuchi and Kandai might be drawn here, meaning the others might be facing more than just a monster army. The thought that Azrael was now facing my mother and Kandai…it caused me to start gripping Leo's shoulder tighter in distress, but otherwise I gave away no other emotions. If Pasiphaë would fear me because I had Gaea's orders within me, then that could buy us time.

Hazel seemed tempted to protest that she wasn't a sorceress, but she wisely held her tongue. Let Pasiphaë believe what she wanted about Hazel, but whatever she believed, it was keeping them alive right now. Hazel didn't want to know how Pasiphaë planned to "deal" with them, or how the giant kept her magic in check, but she straightened her back and tried to look confident.

"Whatever you're planning, it won't work," She declared. "We've cut through every monster Gaea's put in our path. If you're smart, you'll get out of our way."

If only life were that simple. Gale the polecat gnashed her teeth in approval, but Pasiphaë didn't seem impressed.

"You don't look like much," The sorceress mused. "But then you demigods never do. My husband, Minos, king of Crete? He was a son of Zeus. You would never have known it by looking at him. He was almost as scrawny as that one." She flicked a hand towards Leo.

"Wow," muttered Leo. "Minos must've done something really horrible to deserve you."

Pasiphaë's nostrils flared. "Oh…you have no idea. He was too proud to make the proper sacrifices to Poseidon, so the gods punished me for his arrogance."

"The Minotaur," Hazel suddenly remembered.

The story was so revolting and grotesque Hazel had always shut her ears when they told it at Camp Jupiter. Pasiphaë had been cursed to fall in love with her husband's prize bull. She'd given birth to the Minotaur - half man, half bull.

Now, as Pasiphaë glared daggers at her, Hazel realized why her expression was so familiar. The sorceress had the same bitterness and hatred in her eyes that Hazel's mother sometimes had. In her worst moments, Marie Levesque would look at Hazel as if Hazel were a monstrous child, a curse from the gods, the source of all Marie's problems. That's why the Minotaur story bothered Hazel - not just the repellent idea of Pasiphaë and the bull, but the idea that a child, any child, could be considered a monster, a punishment to its parents, to be locked away and hated. To Hazel, the Minotaur had always seemed like a victim in the story.

"Yes," Pasiphaë said at last. "My disgrace was unbearable. After my son was born and locked in the Labyrinth, Minos refused to have anything to do with me. He said I had ruined his reputation! And do you know what happened to Minos, Hazel Levesque? For his crimes and his pride? He was rewarded. He was made a judge of the dead in the Underworld, as if he had any right to judge others! Hades gave him that position. Your father."

"Pluto, actually."

Pasiphaë sneered. "Irrelevant. So you see, I hate demigods as much as I hate the gods. Any of your brethren who survive the war, Gaea has promised to me, so that I may watch them die slowly in my new domain. I only wish I had more time to torture you two properly. Alas-" In the center of the room, the Doors of Death made a pleasant chiming sound. The green UP button on the right side of the frame began to glow. The chains shook. "There, you see?" Pasiphaë shrugged apologetically. "The Doors are in use. Twelve minutes, and they will open."

Hazel's gut trembled almost as much as the chains. "More giants?"

"Thankfully, no. They are all accounted for - back in the mortal world and in place for the final assault." Pasiphaë gave her a cold smile. "No, I would imagine the Doors are being used by someone else…someone unauthorized."

Leo inched forward. Smoke rose from his fists. "The others."

Hazel couldn't speak. She wasn't sure whether the lump in her throat was from joy or frustration. If their friends had made it to the Doors, if they were really going to show up here in twelve minutes…

"Oh, not to worry." Pasiphaë waved her hand dismissively. "Clytius will handle them. You see, when the chime sounds again, someone on our side needs to push the UP button or the Doors will fail to open and whoever is inside - poof. Gone. Or perhaps Clytius will let them out and deal with them in person. That depends on you two."

Hazel's mouth tasted like tin. She didn't want to ask, but she had to. "How exactly does it depend on us?"

"Well, obviously, we need only one set of demigods alive," Pasiphaë said. "The lucky two will be taken to Athens and sacrificed to Gaea at the Feat of Hope."

"Obviously," Leo muttered.

"So will it be you two, or your friends in the elevator?" The sorceress spread her hands. "Let's see who is still alive in twelve…actually, eleven minutes, now."

The cavern dissolved into darkness as the Mist surrounded and consumed the two demigods, leaving me alone with the giant and the sorceress.

Third Person:

Hazel's internal compass spun wildly. She remembered when she was very small in New Orleans in the late 1930s, her mother had taken her to the dentist to get a bad tooth pulled. It was the first and only time Hazel had ever received ether. The dentist promised it would make her sleepy and relaxed, but Hazel felt like she was floating away from her own body, panicky and out of control. When the ether wore off, she'd been sick for three days.

This felt like a massive dose of ether.

Part of her knew she was still in the cavern. Pasiphaë stood only a few feet in front of them, Clytius waited silently at the Doors of Death, and Kaze was at their side. But layers of Mist enfolded Hazel, twisting her sense of reality. She took one step forward and bumped into a wall that shouldn't have been there.

Leo pressed his hands against the stone. "What the heck? Where are we?"

A corridor stretched out to their left and right. Torches guttered in iron sconces. The air smelled of mildew, as in an old tomb. On Hazel's shoulder, Gale barked angrily, digging her claws into Hazel's collarbone.

"Yes, I know," Hazel muttered to the weasel. "It's an illusion."

Leo pounded on the wall. "Pretty solid illusion."

Pasiphaë laughed. Her voice sounded watery and far away. "Is it an illusion, Hazel Levesque, or something more? Don't you see what I have created?"

Hazel felt so off-balance she could barely stand, much less think straight. She tried to extend her senses, to see through the Mist and find the cavern again, but all she felt were tunnels splitting off in a dozen directions, going everywhere except forward. Random thoughts glinted in her mind, like gold nuggets coming to the surface: 'Daedalus.' 'The minotaur locked away.' 'Die slowly in my new domain.'

"The Labyrinth," Hazel realized. "She's remaking the Labyrinth."

"What now?" Leo had been tapping the wall with a ball-peen hammer, but he turned and frowned at her. "I thought the Labyrinth collapsed during that battle at Camp Half-Blood - like, it was connected to Daedalus' life force or something, and then he died."

Pasiphaë's voice clucked disapprovingly. "Ah, but I am still alive. You credit Daedalus with all the maze's secrets? I breathed magical life into his Labyrinth. Daedalus was nothing compared to me - the immortal sorceress, daughter of Helios, sister of Circe! Now the Labyrinth will be my domain."

"It's an illusion," Hazel insisted. "We just have to break through it."

Even as she said it, the walls seemed to grow more solid, the smell of mildew more intense.

"Too late, too late," Pasiphaë crooned. "The maze is already awake. It will spread under the skin of the earth once more while your mortal world is leveled. You demigods…you heroes…will wander its corridors, dying slowly of thirst and fear and misery. Or perhaps, if I am feeling merciful, you will die quickly, in great pain!"

Holes opened in the floor beneath Hazel's feet. She grabbed Leo and pushed him aside as a row of spikes shot upwards, impaling the ceiling.

"Run!" She yelled.

Pasiphaë's laughter echoed down the corridor. "Where are you going, young sorceress? Running from an illusion?"

Hazel didn't answer. She was too busy, trying to stay alive. Behind them, row after row of spikes shot towards the ceiling with a persistent thunk, thunk, thunk. She pulled Leo down a side corridor, leaped over a tripwire, then stumbled to a halt in front of a pit twenty feet across.

"How deep is that?" Leo gasped for breath. His pants leg was ripped where one of the spikes had grazed him.

Leo heard a clicking on his shoulder and realized that Kaze's pet robot cat was sitting on his shoulder and talking to him in the same mechanical language that Leo had grown accustomed to with Festus. A combination of Morse and a little improvisation. The pit was at least fifty feet straight down, with a pool of poison at the bottom. Hazel sensed it as well, but could they trust their senses? Whether or not Pasiphaë had created a new Labyrinth, Hazel believed they were still in the same cavern, being made to run aimlessly back and forth while Pasiphaë and Clytius watched in amusement. She wondered for a moment if Kaze was trying to help them from the outside. Illusion or not: unless Hazel could figure out how to get out of this maze, the traps would kill them.

"Eight minutes now," Said the voice of Pasiphaë. "I'd love to see you survive, truly. That would prove you worthy sacrifices to Gaea in Athens. But then, of course, we wouldn't need your friends in the elevator."

Hazel's heart pounded. She faced the wall to her left. Despite what her senses told her, that should be the direction of the Doors of Death. Pasiphaë should be right in front of her. Hazel wanted to burst through the wall and throttle the sorceress. In eight minutes, she and Leo needed to be at the Doors of Death to let their friends out. But Pasiphaë was an immortal sorceress with thousands of years of experience in weaving spells. Hazel couldn't defeat her through sheer willpower. She'd managed to fool the bandit Sciron by showing him what he expected to see. Hazel needed to figure out what Pasiphaë wanted most.

"Seven minutes now," Pasiphaë lamented. "If only we had more time! So many indignities I'd like you to suffer."

"More danger," Neko clicked in a series of quick ticks that somehow formed words.

Someone grabbed Hazel and Leo's arms, pulling them a step towards the large pit. Leo gave a shout of surprise, but behind them, a large slab of stone shot out and cut off the corridor behind them, slowly inching forward and pushing them into the pit's direction.

Hazel looked towards the person who had grabbed her, only to see the silhouette of a woman made up of green smoke smiling at her. The green illusion put a finger to her lips and winked, giving her a small 'shhh' that was almost lost in the chaos of the Labyrinth around her. The green woman dissolved into the air, but Hazel realized that she knew exactly what she needed to do. She had to run the gauntlet. She had to make the maze more dangerous, more spectacular - make Pasiphaë focus on the traps rather than the direction the Labyrinth was leading. And if she had Kaze and this spirit watching over her, they might just have a chance at surviving.

"Leo, we're going to jump," Hazel said.

"But-!"

"It's not as far as it looks. Go!" She grabbed his hand and they launched themselves across the pit.

Hazel felt the lurch of someone's arms pulling the two of them along. When they landed, Hazel looked back and saw no pit at all - just a three-inch crack in the floor.

"Come on!" She urged.

They ran as the voice of Pasiphaë droned on. "Oh dear, no. You'll never survive that way. Six minutes."

The ceiling above them cracked apart. Gale the weasel squeaked in alarm and Neko hissed, holding onto Leo's shirt. Hazel imagined a new tunnel leading off to the left, a tunnel even more dangerous, going the wrong direction. The Mist softened under her will and the tunnel appeared. Hazel dashed towards it.

Pasiphaë sighed with disappointment. "You really aren't very good at this, my dear."

But Hazel felt a spark of hope. She'd created a tunnel; she'd driven a small wedge into the magic fabric of the Labyrinth. She floor collapsed under them, but the two were grabbed by their green ghost savior and dragged into another tunnel that was in just the right place. Hazel imagined another tunnel, veering back the way they'd come, but full of poisonous gas. The maze obliged. Green wisps of smoke from the ghost girl covered their faces, a thin layer that could barely be seen, but Hazel could sense it same as she could sense the Mist. Without giving Leo the chance to protest, she dragged him forward and they plunged through the toxic fog.

"Five minutes," Pasiphaë said. "Alas! If only I could watch you suffer longer."

They burst into a corridor with fresh air, their enchanted gas masks fading away swiftly, as if they'd never been there.

"If only she would shut up," Leo muttered.

They ducked under a bronze garrote wire. Hazel imagined the tunnel curving back towards Pasiphaë, ever so slightly. The Mist bent to her will. The walls of the tunnel began to close in on either side. Hazel didn't try to stop them. She made them close faster, shaking the floor and cracking the ceiling. She and Leo ran for their lives. A trapdoor suddenly appeared beneath them, causing them to fall through before they'd even realized what happened, just at the walls slammed shut above them. A gentle breeze held orient them and made their landing far easier than it should have been, as though they'd planned the jump through the trapdoor the entire time, but Hazel didn't even have time to mentally thank their guardian ghost as she sprinted down a new corridor that had turned the angle she had desired and continued following a curve that brought them closer to what she hoped was the center of the room.

"A pity," Pasiphaë said. "I wish I could kill you and your friends in the elevator, but Gaea has insisted that two of you must be kept alive until the Feast of Hope, when your blood will be put to good use! Ah, well. I will have to find other victims for my Labyrinth. You two have been second-rate failures."

Traps sprung behind them as they ran, pressure activated, tripwires, things that sensed their motion, gas, spikes, walls that suddenly shot out and would've crushed them, but they kept canceling themselves out and activating too late. Spikes formed from the ceiling, but a wall shot out and smashed that path, forcing Hazel and Leo to make a few detours as they followed the path laid before them. Pits opened up beneath their feet, but Hazel and Leo were able to soar over most of them from their momentum alone. Tripwires activated spears and arrows to shoot out, but poisonous acid fell from the ceiling and dissolved them, leaving Hazel and Leo only have to jump over the puddle of steaming acid. Pistons shot metal rods at them as they passed, but Hazel felt tugging forces moving her limbs left, right, up, and down, as though she knew where she would be attacked next. The same was happening to Leo, who was almost too disoriented keeping up with everything to do anything more than run after Hazel, who never released his hand.

Hazel and Leo stumbled to a stop. In front of them stretched a chasm so wide they couldn't see the other side. From somewhere below in the darkness came the sound of hissing - thousands and thousands of snakes. Hazel was tempted to retreat, but the tunnel was closing behind them, leaving them stranded on a tiny ledge. Gale the weasel paced across Hazel's shoulders and farted with anxiety.

"Okay, okay," Leo muttered. "The walls are moving parts. They gotta be mechanical. Give me a second."

"No Leo," Haze insisted. "There's no way back."

She noticed the small gathering of the green mist a distance down the pit, close enough that all they needed to do was jump to aim for it.

"But-"

"Hold my hand. On three!"

"But-!"

"Three!"

"What?!"

Hazel leaped into the pit, pulling Leo with her. She tried to ignore his screaming and the flatulent weasel clinging to her neck. She aimed directly for the small gathering of green wisps that suddenly opened up into a chute of darkness. Pasiphaë laughed with delight, knowing that any moment they would be crushed or bitten to death in a pit of snakes. Instead, Hazel aimed her body to slip through the chute, twisting in midair and hitting the chute hard, sliding into the cavern and landing right on top of Pasiphaë.

"Ack!" The sorceress's head smacked against the floor as Leo sat down hard on her chest.

For a moment, the three of them and the weasel were a pile of sprawling bodies and flailing limbs. Hazel tried to draw her sword, but Pasiphaë managed to extricate herself first. The sorceress backed away, her hairdo bent sideways like a collapsed cake. Her dress was smeared with grease stains from Leo's toolbelt.

"You miserable wretches!" She howled.

The maze was gone. A few feet away, Clytius stood with his back to them, watching the Doors of Death. By Hazel's calculation, they had about thirty seconds until their friends arrived. Hazel felt exhausted from her run through the maze while controlling the Mist, but she needed to pull off one more trick. She had successfully made Pasiphaë see what she most desired. Now Hazel had to make the sorceress see what she most feared.

"You must really hate demigods," Hazel said, trying to mimic Pasiphaë's cruel smile. "We always get the best of you, don't we, Pasiphaë?"

"Nonsense!" Pasiphaë screamed. "I will tear you apart! I will-!"

"We're always pulling the rug out from under your feet," Hazel sympathized. "Your husband betrayed you, Theseus killed the Minotaur and stole your daughter, Ariadne. Now two second-rate failures have turned your own maze against you. But you knew it would come to this, didn't you? You always fall in the end."

"I am immortal!" Pasiphaë wailed. She took a step back, fingering her necklace. "You cannot stand against me!"

"You can't stand at all," Hazel countered. "Look."

She pointed at the feet of the sorceress. A trapdoor opened underneath Pasiphaë. She fell, screaming, into a bottomless pit that didn't really exist. The floor solidified; the sorceress was gone.

Leo stared at Hazel in amazement. "How did you-?"

Just then, the elevator dinged. Rather than pushing the UP button, Clytius stepped back from the controls, keeping their friends trapped inside. They were thirty feet away - much too far to reach the elevator - but Leo pulled out a screwdriver and chucked it like a throwing knife. An impossible shot, but the screwdriver was consumed by the green mist that had aided them so many times before, and it curved in the air. The screwdriver spun straight past Clytius and slammed into the UP button.

The Doors of Death opened with a hiss. Black smoke billowed out, and two bodies spilled face-first onto the floor: Percy and Annabeth, limp as corpses. A small figure crawled out of the elevators behind them, pulling Percy and Annabeth each with one arm and pulling them free of the Doors so that they weren't caught when the two elevator doors closed. The Doors of Death trembled, attempting to break free of the chains that bound them. The other side of the Doors were freed, but now the Doors needed to be freed from this side before they could fully relocate.

Hazel sobbed. "Oh, gods…"

She and Leo started forward, but Clytius raised his hand in an unmistakable gesture: stop. He lifted his massive reptilian foot over Percy's head, but the tiny girl dropped the two demigods and held her hands up defensively with a small scream. The giant's smoky shroud poured over the floor, covering the three of them in a pool of dark fog.

"Clytius, you've lost," Hazel snarled. "Let them go, or you'll end up like Pasiphaë."

The giant tilted his head. His diamond eyes gleamed. At his feet, Annabeth lurched like she'd hit a power line. She rolled on her back, black smoke coiling from her mouth.

"I am not Pasiphaë." Annabeth spoke in a voice that wasn't her, the words as deep as a bass guitar. "You have won nothing."

"Stop that!" Even from thirty feet away, Hazel could sense Annabeth's life force waning, her pulse becoming thread. Whatever Clytius was doing, pulling words from her mouth, it was killing her.

Clytius nudged Percy's head with his foot. Percy's face lolled to one side. "Not quite dead." The giant's words boomed from Percy's mouth. "A terrible shock to the mortal body, I would imagine, coming back from Tartarus. They'll be out for a while."

The little girl in the center spoke, now collapsed between the demigods beside her, with Clytius's smoke billowing from her mouth. "I'll tie them up and take them to Porphyrion in Athens. Just the sacrifice we need. And even the girl, the chosen one. Yes, this is a satisfying prize. Unfortunately, that means I have no further use for you two."

"Oh yeah?" Leo growled. "Well, maybe you got the smoke, buddy, but I've got the fire."

His hands blazed. He shot white-hot columns of flame at the giant, but Clytius's smoky aura absorbed them on impact. A large gale of wind surrounded Leo's his flames deprived of oxygen, and Leo's light was snuffed out. Tendrils of black haze traveled forth and joined in the tornado around Leo, covering him in the darkness. Leo fell to his knees, clutching at his throat.

"No!" Hazel ran towards him, but Gale chattered urgently on her shoulder - a clear warning.

"I would not." Hazel turned at realized that Clytius's voice was reverberating from Kaze, who Hazel had almost forgotten about because he had seemingly disappeared. "You do not understand, Hazel Levesque. I devour magic. I destroy the voice and the soul. You cannot oppose me."

Black fog spread farther across the room, covering Annabeth and Percy and their small ally, billowing towards Hazel. Blood roared in Hazel's ears. She had to act, but how? If that black smoke could incapacitate Leo so quickly, what chance did she have?

"F-Fire," She stammered in a small voice. "You're supposed to be weak against it."

The giant chuckled, using Leo's voice this time. "You were counting on that, eh? It is true I do not like fire. But Leo Valdez's flames are not strong enough to trouble me."

Somewhere behind Hazel, a soft, lyrical voice said, "What about my flames, old friend?"

Gale squeaked excitedly and jumped from Hazel's shoulder, scampering to the entrance of the cavern where a blonde woman stood in a black dress, the Mist swirling around her. The giant stumbled backwards, bumping into the Doors of Death.

"You," He muttered from Percy's mouth.

"Me," Hecate agreed. She spread her arms. Blazing torches appeared in her hands. "It has been millennia since I fought at the side of a demigod, but Hazel Levesque has proven herself worthy. What do you say, Clytius? Shall we play with fire?"

If the giant had run away screaming, Hazel would have been grateful. Then they all could have taken the rest of the day off. Clytius disappointed her. When he saw the goddess's torches blazing, the giant seemed to recover his wits. He stomped his foot, shaking the floor and almost stepping on Annabeth's arm. Dark smoke billowed around him until the three at his feet were totally hidden. Hazel could see nothing but the giant's gleaming eyes.

"Bold words." Clytius spoke from Kaze's mouth, who stared at them with blackened eyes. The only one who Clytius seemed to be able to control completely, rather than just his mouth. "You forget, goddess. When we last met, you had the help of Hercules and Dionysus - the most powerful heroes in the world, both of them destined to become gods. Now you bring…these?"

Leo's unconscious body contorted in pain.

"Stop it!" Hazel yelled.

She didn't plan what happened next. She simply knew she had to protect her friends. She imagined them behind her, the same way she'd imagined new tunnels appearing in Pasiphaë's Labyrinth Leo dissolved. He reappeared at Hazel's feet, along with Percy, Annabeth, and the small girl with them. The Mist whirled around her, spilling over the stones and enveloping her friends. Where the white Mist met the dark smoke of Clytius, it steamed and sizzled, like lava rolling into the sea.

Leo opened his eyes and gasped. "Wh-What…?"

Annabeth and Percy remained motionless, but Hazel could sense their heartbeats getting stronger, their breath coming more evenly. On Hecate's shoulder, Gale the polecat barked with admiration. The goddess stepped forward, her dark eyes glittering in the torchlight. "You're right, Clytius. Hazel Levesque is not Hercules or Dionysus, but I think you will find her just as formidable."

Through the smoky shroud, Hazel saw the giant open his mouth. No words came out. Clytius sneered in frustration.

Leo tried to sit up. "What's going on? What can I-?"

"Watch Percy and Annabeth." Hazel drew her spatha. "Stay behind me. Stay in the Mist."

"But-"

The look Hazel gave him must have been more severe than she realized.

Leo gulped. "Yeah, got it. White Mist good. Black smoke bad."

Hazel advanced. The giant spread his arms and Kaze sped to his side, the giant's voice holding one more captive that Hazel couldn't reach.

"Formidable?" The giant demanded. It sounded as if he were speaking through a chorus of the dead, using all the unfortunate souls who'd been buried behind the dome's stelae. "Because the girl has learned your magic tricks, Hecate? Because you allow these weaklings to hide in your Mist?"

A sword appeared in the giant's hand - a Stygian iron blade much like Nico's except five times the size. "I do not understand why Gaea would find any of these demigods worthy of sacrifice. I will crush them like empty nutshells."

Hazel's fear turned to rage. She screamed. The walls of the chamber made a crackling sound like ice in warm water, and dozens of gems streaked towards the giant, punching through his armor like buckshot. Clytius staggered backwards. Kaze bellowed in pain in front of him, but otherwise, the possessed boy didn't move. His iron breastplate was peppered with holes. Golden ichor tricked from a wound on his right arm. His shroud of darkness thinned. Hazel could see the murderous expression on his face, that was mimicked by Kaze standing in front of him.

"You," Clytius growled. "You worthless-"

"Worthless?" Hecate asked quietly. "I'd say Hazel Levesque knows a few tricks even I could not teach her."

Hazel stood in front of her friends, determined to protect them, but her energy was fading. Her sword was already heavy in her hand, and she hadn't even swung it yet. She wished Arion were here. She could use the horse's speed and strength. Unfortunately, her equine friend would not be able to help her this time. He was a creature of the wide-open spaces, not the underground.

The giant dug his fingers into the wound on his biceps. He pulled out a diamond and flicked it aside. The wound closed.

"So, daughter of Pluto, do you really believe Hecate has your interests at heart? Circe was a favorite of hers. And Medea. And Pasiphaë. How did they end up, eh?"

Behind her, Hazel hear Annabeth stirring, groaning in pain. Percy muttered something that sounded like, "Bob-bob-bob?"

Clytius stepped forward, holding his sword casually at his side, as if they were comrades rather than enemies. "Hecate will not tell you the truth. She sends acolytes like you to do her bidding and take all the risk. If by some miracle you incapacitate me, only then will she be able to set me on fire. Then she will claim the glory of the kill. You heard how Bacchus dealt with the Alodai twins in the Colosseum. Hecate is worse. She is a Titan who betrayed the Titans. Then she betrayed the gods. Do you really think she will keep faith in you?"

Hecate's face was unreadable.

"I cannot answer his accusations, Hazel," The goddess admitted. "This is your crossroads. You must choose."

"Yes, crossroads." The giant's laughter echoed. His wounds seemed to have healed completely. "Hecate offers you obscurity, choices, vague promises of magic. I am the anti-Hecate. I will give you truth. I will eliminate choices and magic. I will strip away the Mist, once and for all, and show you the world in all its true horror."

Leo struggled to his feet, coughing like an asthmatic. "I'm loving this guy," he wheezed. "Seriously, we should keep him around for inspirational seminars." His hands ignited like blowtorches. "Or I could just light him up."

"Leo, no," Hazel said. "My father's temple. My call."

"Yeah, okay, But-"

"Hazel…" Annabeth wheezed. "Haze was so elated to hear her friend's voice that she almost turned, but she knew she shouldn't take her eyes off Clytius. "The chains…" Annabeth managed.

Hazel inhaled sharply. She'd been a fool! The Doors of Death were still open, shuddering against the chains that held them in place. Hazel had to cut them free so they would disappear and finally be beyond Gaea's reach.

The only problem: a smoky giant stood in her way.

"You can't seriously believe you have the strength," Clytius chided. "What will you do, Hazel Levesque? Pelt me with more rubies? Shower me with sapphires? And do not forget that I am not the only obstacle standing in your way. Gaea's servant here was made for opponents greater than you. You were a fool to allow him to accompany you here. You shall face your end, by my hand or his."

Hazel gave him an answer. She raised her spatha and charged. Apparently Clytius hadn't expected her to be quite so suicidal. He was slow raising his sword, and Kaze didn't move to stop her, though she knew his speed wouldn't allow her an opening if he did decide to act. Hazel had realized, watching the interaction, that Clytius needed to focus on controlling Kaze directly - the boy wasn't acting with his own will, meaning that maybe Clytius could control Kaze, but he wouldn't have the same intuition or instincts that the true Kaze possessed. Clytius most likely couldn't swing his own sword and control Kaze at the same time, as controlling another person with speed couldn't be easy in the slightest.

By the time Clytius slashed his sword, Hazel had ducked between his legs and jabbed her Imperial gold blade into his gluteus maximus. Not very ladylike. The nuns at St. Agnes would never have approved. But it worked. Clytius roared and arched his back, waddling away from her. Mist still swirled around Hazel, hissing as it met the giant's black smoke.

Hazel realized that Hecate was assisting her, lending her the strength to keep up a defensive shroud. Hazel also knew that the instant her own concentration wavered and that darkness touched her, she would collapse. If that happened, she wasn't sure Hecate would be able - or willing - to stop the giant from crushing her and her friends.

Hazel sprinted towards the Doors of Death, towards the chains on the left side, knowing that hesitation wouldn't do her any good at the moment, and though she'd distracted Clytius-

Hazel was tackled before she could even blink by a force that hit her like a truck. Kaze tackled her, and though his body was just slightly taller than her, his speed combined with the inhuman rock that he seemed to be made of worked to knock her far left of her goal. She gripped her spatha with all she had, knowing that if she lost it, her chances might as well be null and void. Kaze didn't work to pin her down, but he still weighed more than a regular human his size should. She twisted her body with all her might, pushing against the floor to gain herself leverage. Kaze rolled off her, a limp sack of limbs, further proving that Clytius was controlling Kaze, and the boy wasn't working with his own smarts. He might as well have been a ragdoll, and Clytius had thrown him at her in a bought of desperation.

Hazel got to her feet and tried for the chains again, but she felt her ankle grabbed by Kaze, the rest of his body limp but his grip like iron. She nearly fell from her feet again, but she balanced on her sword and managed to stay upright. Hazel knew she wouldn't be able to drag herself towards the chains, not with Kaze's weight and Clytius himself recovering, so she simply chucked her sword with all she had, using her power to guide the weapon in the direction she needed it to fly.

"NO!"

By sheer luck, she wasn't cut in half. The flat of the giant's blade caught her in the chest and sent her flying. Kaze's grip didn't waver, and she felt like her knee and leg were dislocated. She slammed into the wall and felt bones crack.

Across the room, Leo screamed her name. Through her blurry vision, she saw a flash of fire. Hecate stood nearby, her form shimmering as if she were about to dissolve. Her torches seemed to be flickering out, but that might have just been that Hazel was starting to lose consciousness. She couldn't give up now. She forced herself to stand. Though Kaze had released her ankle, her entire leg stung with pain, and any pressure she put on it surged through her knee then her hip like needles. Her side felt like it was embedded with razor blades. Her sword lay on the ground beside the doors, having managed to cut one of the chains.

Hazel knew her mobility was limited, so she made a sacrifice and held her hand out, tugging her sword back into her hand and then staggering forward. "Clytius!"

She meant it to sound like a brave challenge, but it came out as more of a croak. At least it got his attention. The giant turned from Leo and the others. He had raised Kaze and turned him on her friends. Kaze's winds were aimed at the group, attempting to dispel the Mist, and he was succeeding in pushing it back. When Clytius saw her limping forward, he laughed, and Kaze's efforts were halted.

"A good try, Hazel Levesque," Clytius admitted. "You did better than I anticipated. But magic alone cannot defeat me, and you do not have sufficient strength. Hecate has failed you, as she fails all of her followers in the end."

The Mist around her was thinning. At the other end of the room, Leo tried to force-feed Percy some ambrosia, though Percy was still pretty much out of it. Annabeth was awake but struggling, barely able to lift her head. Hecate stood with her torches, watching and waiting, which infuriated Hazel so much, she found one last burst of energy. She threw her sword once more, not at the giant, but at the Doors of Death. The chains on the right side shattered. Hazel collapsed in agony, her side burning, as the Doors shuddered.

"That was for my brother, Nico," Hazel gasped. "And for destroying my father's altar."

One more chain remained, the one of the left she had missed the first time when Clytius had tackled her. Hazel tugged on her sword with her power, trying to pull it behind the Doors to the other side. Kaze was on her immediately, breaking any chance she had at concentration. But as he stared at her with his black, pupil-less eyes, Hazel noticed small pinpricks where his pupils should be. Slowly, Kaze's eyes began to clear. Brown eyes emerged from the black pools of his sclera that seemed to have clouded his eyes, like an island rising from the inky depths. His sclera remained black, but Hazel had hope.

"Kaze?" She whispered.

His eyes darted to the side, aimed right at the Doors and the final chain.

"You have forfeited your right to a quick death," Clytius said, speaking through Kaze's mouth still, but Kaze's eyes moved from the Doors to Hazel, his head unmoving.

He was trying to communicate with her. He looked down at his own body and back at Hazel, up and down three times. Hazel felt around with her powers and tugged, a small object falling into her hand. Kaze's retractable weapon.

"I will suffocate you in darkness, slowly, painfully. Hecate cannot help you. NO ONE can help you!"

The goddess raised her torches. "I would not be so certain, Clytius. Hazel's friends simply needed a little time to reach her - time you have given them with your boasting and bragging."

Clytius snorted. "What friends? These weaklings? They are no challenge."

Behind Kaze, the air rippled. The Mist thickened, creating a doorway, and four people stepped through. Hazel nearly wept with relief. Frank's arm was bleeding and bandaged, but he was alive. Next to him stood Nico, Piper, and Jason - all with their weapons drawn. Azrael grabbed Kaze by his shoulders, pulling him off of Hazel and putting his hands on Kaze's temples. His black sclera bled back to white and Kaze gasped, as though suddenly being pulled from underwater and finally being able to breathe.

"Hazel!" Kaze shouted.

She unleashed his weapon and chucked it with all her might, aimed right at the Doors. Her strength should've never been able to make the weapon fly so far, but spurred by a gust of wind and grabbed by the green mist from before, the shuriken flew up and sliced right through the final chain, piercing the ground beside the Doors. The Doors of Death shuddered and disappeared in a flash of purple light.

Kaze looked down at Azrael with relief in his eyes, taking his hands from Kaze's temples and holding them gratefully. He whispered words of appreciation in his native tongue, something that Azrael seemed to understand, because he smiled and replied humbly.

"Sorry we're late," Jason said. "Is this the guy who needs killing?"