Note: When I edited this chapter, it felt a little choppy and rough at times, but I hope the general idea and premise is still understood.

Chapter 30

Xanthe sprinted through the trees.

"On your right!" Leon's voice came from her left. "Catch him!"

She poured on the speed, strapping her spear to her back, and drew a hunting dagger from her belt. They couldn't let him get away. Not again.

The wind whipped by her face as she angled right and began her descent down the slope. She leaped over tree roots and ducked beneath branches, desperate to find a glimpse of the fleeing Roman.

A shrill whistle came from somewhere ahead. It was Thanas' signal. He'd cut the Roman off.

Irene had taught them how to tell which direction sound was coming from, even through thick forests. Her ears and her head told her that Thanas had shadow-travelled somewhere farther to the right, meaning the Roman had to cut back left if he wanted to continue to flee.

"Leon!" she shouted. "Fly and cut him off ahead!"

"On it!"

Xanthe diverted her course to the left, maintaining a wide approach just in case the Roman decided to turn back toward her.

Her breaths grew shorter and shorter the farther they ran, but they were up against an aged man. Their stamina would last longer than his.

Eventually, she spotted him. He was near a clearing, in front of her but slightly off to the right. She gritted her teeth and charged toward him. He'd slowed down, looking like his age had finally caught up with him. Despite his strength, his days of youth were over. There was a reason why he made others do his dirty work.

Xanthe caught him at the edge of the clearing. He noticed her at the last second and tried to raise his blade to parry her strike. But she caught him on his non-sword side. She slammed her shoulder into him and drove the dagger into his side. The momentum carried them both into the clearing, and Xanthe rolled to reduce the impact of her tumble.

The Roman's sword was on the other side of the clearing, leaving him defenseless and wounded. The dagger stuck out of his side. It wasn't high enough to pierce his heart, but it would be enough to slowly kill him.

Thanas and Leon appeared, cutting off the other angles of escape, trapping the Roman between the three of them. Leon moved forward, forcing the Roman's feet together and driving Koptos through his ankles and pinning him to the ground.

Xanthe got to her feet slowly and approached the man.

He was grimacing in pain, his hand on his side near the dagger. His eyes were weary, as if life had finally caught up to him, as if he'd aged fifty years since the last time they saw him.

"You're more gullible than I thought you'd be, Marcus," she said.

The Roman looked up at her and sneered, "You know nothing, little girl."

"Little girl?" she scoffed. She grabbed her spear and stabbed the point into the ground next to his head, causing him to flinch. "Maybe relative to you, I'm little. But I'm not the innocent girl you saw three years ago at camp. If it wasn't for others, I would have killed you ten times over already."

"Ooh, you scare me," he mocked, trying to feign amusement. But she could see the fear in his eyes. It had occurred to him that these might be his final moments.

"You did exactly what we wanted you to do when we let you go," she told him. "I was hesitant. I thought, considering how you'd found out exactly how to play with Leon's weaknesses, that you'd think this through. No, then again, I suppose it was hearing about your son's actions that riled you up, that made you act stupid."

"Don't you dare mention that traitor in my presence," Marcus snarled.

"He may have been a traitor to Rome, but he knew where his loyalties lied. He was true to himself until the very end. You were never there to raise him. You were a distant figure in his life, only appearing to use him as a tool to continue your hideous family line. What human could possibly be loyal to an animal like you?"

Marcus glared at her.

"Do you think fear and power is enough to control the will of others?" Xanthe asked. "You may control the weak-minded, those who don't have the power to defend themselves. But, ultimately, it only takes one successful traitor to destroy the delicate balance you've tried to instill."

"The only reason your family ever held power was because the Roman legions continued to exist," Thanas added coldly. "Without the protection of the legion, without the Roman propensity for tradition, your family would have died out a long time ago."

"You fools will never understand the power of the legions," Marcus said with a hateful glower. "The Roman legions become more powerful the more Greeks we kill."

"That may be true," Leon said, "but you seem to think the legions are the only way forward. You seem to think that, somehow, the Greeks won't evolve and reconquer the territory stolen from us by the Romans. As if the Romans are the final evolution. Look at where you are now."

The Trio looked at each other.

"It only took four demigods to destroy almost an entire legion," Xanthe said. She turned back to Marcus. "And, actually, it only took one Greek demigod to destroy the Thirtieth.

"You think you can intimidate me with such foolish lies?" Marcus laughed.

He laughed so loudly and brashly that Xanthe thought he had one last trick up his sleeve. For a moment, she thought of the possibility that Romans were hidden in the forest, ready to strike at them when given the order. But then she noticed something in the laugh that didn't seem right. She noticed Leon's slight frown, like he'd picked up on it too. Marcus wasn't laughing because he was amused. He was laughing because he was scared.

She curled her lip and gave him a humorless smile. His laugh faltered, and Thanas came to the same cold realization.

"You're done, Marcus." She tore her spear from the soil and planted a foot on Marcus' abdomen, causing him to grunt in pain. She could see blood in his mouth. "It hurt to believe that I killed Florian for all those years. But now that I've seen the truth, seen his health, seen what he did in the end to protect me... The only one that's disappointed is you. Both my mother and my half-brother sacrificed themselves to protect someone they loved. You wouldn't know how to do that."

"You..."

"You're even scared to die now," she continued, pressing her foot down harder. "If we gave you the option to save your own life, I'd be willing to bet that you would do anything to save yourself."

Marcus gritted his teeth.

"You might try to convince yourself that you would be remembered by Rome as the martyr who sacrificed his life in order to destroy the filthy Greeks. But, in reality, they wouldn't write that about you. They'll call you the failure of your family. You are the only father, only winner who was unable to raise a proper heir. All of your children were slaughtered. You died heirless to a handful of pathetic Greeks. You'll be a laughing stock in Roman history. You'll be nothing more than a footnote. Or, perhaps more likely, your family's legacy will die out with you."

The Roman spat at her.

She smirked as it fell short, landing the patch of grass between them.

"You know nothing about honor," he snarled. "You know nothing about sacrifice. You think you will win this war? No, your hubris will bring about your downfall."

"Don't project yourself onto us," she replied. "We may not achieve peace. But we will achieve victory. And it's a shame you'll never see it."

"You will rot in the Fields of Punishment!"

Xanthe sneered. "I can't wait to meet you there."

She raised her spear and drove it down into Marcus' chest, through his heart, and ending it all.

"How do you feel?" Irene asked Xanthe.

"Vindicated but filthy," the daughter of Poseidon replied.

Percy understood the sentiment. True change was only possible with sacrifice. That didn't always mean sacrificing one's life but rather one's humanity. It was cruel. But he'd once heard someone say that the few get their hands dirty so that the many live with clean hands. It was a proper sentiment in their given circumstance.

"That leaves our job here in Attaleia complete," Percy said. He looked at the map on the table. "Our next stop is Tarsus, where the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Legions are situated. If we draw them out in detail, we can defeat them."

Irene nodded. "It'll be difficult to face the entire Roman force. It'll be even more difficult to draw them out in detail. They know we're severely weakened. Their eagles will have made that ultimately clear."

"They'll stick together, won't they?" Thanas guessed. "They'll wait until we arrive and then try to crush us."

"Probably."

"Which is why we must arrive quietly," Percy responded. He turned to Irene. "We will take the Labyrinth to Tarsus. It is the easiest way for us to arrive unannounced. The Romans won't dare travel underground. Especially not in the Labyrinth. The battleground there disadvantages them significantly."

"It's going to be dangerous down there," Irene warned them.

"Which is why we must stick together until we're out of there." Percy looked at Thanas. "Even if you are Hades' son, the Labyrinth is a layer above the Underworld. It isn't your domain or your territory. I don't want to lose any of you. I realize that you're all here for your own reasons, but I also recognize that you're here because of me. I chose you three to be my heroes, and you've responded by being even more than I could imagine. I won't let anyone be harmed."

The Trio nodded. Irene gave him a small smile.

"What's the status on the Hunters?" Thanas asked. "They're close, aren't they?"

Irene nodded. "Very. I've cut off contact with them ever since we arrived in Attaleia, but I'm sure they'll figure out where we're headed. Phoebe will lead them. Zoë won't be far behind."

"Then we'd better get going," Percy said.

Within an hour, the five of them packed their belongings, burned the rest, and left to the nearest Labyrinth entrance.

With Ariadne's string, navigating to Tarsus was easy. They avoided traps and monsters that were surely waiting for them in the dark. It was a quiet journey, an uneventful journey. Until the end.

"Someone's following us," Leon said.

Percy searched the walls for the symbol of Daedalus. "How can you tell?"

"I... I don't know. Something just feels off."

"Got it!" Percy pressed against the tiny fissure in the wall, which began to glow blue. The Delta appeared, and the ceiling above them began to slide open.

"Stop right there!"

A chill went up Percy's spine. He recognized that voice.

Phoebe, leading a small group of Hunters, aimed her arrow straight at him. "Everyone surrenders unless you want to get shot."

There was a brief pause as both sides sized each other up. He noticed the string leading into the darkness where the Hunters had come from. They'd followed them into the Labyrinth. How could they not notice? At first, he thought Irene had led them down, but she looked just as surprised as he felt. Her plan was something else, if she was even plotting against him in the first place.

Suddenly, the ground erupted in between them, and skeleton warriors climbed to the surface. Phoebe fired her bow, but Percy already dove to the side.

"Let's go!" Thanas shouted. He was climbing the rungs of the ladder that had appeared on the side of the wall.

Percy glanced at the Hunters, who were ripping through the skeleton warriors like they were practice dummies. Thanas hadn't summoned enough to stop them.

Leon and Xanthe were beginning to climb up the ladder, but there wasn't enough time for him and Irene to get out.

He cursed and called out, "You three go first! We'll meet you in the taverna at the edge of the city."

Thanas paused to look down, looking like he was going to retort.

"Go!" Percy commanded.

Thanas looked pained, but he obeyed. He helped Xanthe and Leon get out, and the ceiling closed behind them.

Just as they did, Phoebe and the Hunters finished dispatching the skeleton warriors, bearing nothing but a few scratches.

He could sense Irene tense up next to him, her sword already drawn and readied.

Percy couldn't afford to harm any of them, otherwise Phoebe could easily convince Zoë and the rest of the Hunters that he was a dangerous threat and that hunting him was their priority above all else. But the ones who'd followed them down wouldn't go down without a fight. He trusted his own skills with the blade enough that he was confident he could take them all down without killing anyone. The problem was that Phoebe had chosen the battlefield. There was no water in the Labyrinth. They were ranged experts, making getting close enough to knock them out a serious challenge.

Aegis sprung to life as he tapped his bracelet.

"Ready?" he asked Irene.

The daughter of Aphrodite tightened her grip on her sword. "Ready."

Percy charged forward, holding his shield up to protect himself. The arrows flew from everywhere in front of them, slicing past his exposed limbs as he rushed forward. With Irene off to his right, the Hunters had two targets to shoot at. That would divert their attention and make it easier to duck and weave.

He slashed through the arrows, the world around him moving in slow motion. His senses worked on overdrive as he fought to stay alive.

The Hunters kept retreating, pulling back and firing at them to keep them at bay. Percy knew they were luring them into some sort of trap, but it wasn't like they could turn and run. They would become even easier targets to pick off. The Hunters glanced backward as they retreated, looking down toward the ground.

Irene ducked behind him as two more arrows were let fly. He raised his shield, and the arrows bounced harmlessly off the metal face.

Phoebe fired another arrow. This time, it was a screamer arrow. The high-pitched wail grew louder and sharper as it flew toward him. He clenched his jaw, gathering his nerve and blocked it with Aegis. His ears rang, and his head pounded with agony. He stepped back, taking Irene with him.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "We need to keep advancing."

"It's not working," he told her. "They're retreating. They're not giving us an opportunity to push past them."

"It's not like we could push past them anyway," she countered.

Percy shook his head. "You see down there, where the torchlight ends?"

Irene glanced around him, down the tunnel, and nodded. The wall torches only continued for a short while. About fifty paces behind the last Hunter was the end of light. All they could see in that direction was darkness. The floor of the tunnel was the key.

"There's a patch of loose rock," he explained. The Hunters were taking a break, just like them, getting ready to fire once again. "If we got past them and knocked it loose, we could split up and escape. Clearly, they know about it. I've seen them glancing down. Their plan might be to hold just in front of it, lure us on top, knock the rock loose, and have the tunnel collapse in on itself. We'll be killed after falling into... whatever is below us."

"Can we even turn back?" Irene asked.

"I don't know, but I'm not eager to keep advancing."

Irene cursed, muttering in thought.

Phoebe shouted at them. "Are you afraid now? Bring on the fight!"

Suddenly, he felt Irene's warm breath along the back of his neck, sending a shiver up his spine. A feeling of dread came over him.

"Do you trust me?" Irene whispered.

Percy stared at the wall of Hunters in front of him. He didn't really have a choice. Slowly, he nodded, careful not to alert the Hunters of any potential plan up Irene's sleeve.

In a flash, she turned her blade on him and pressed its edge along his neck.

"Yield!" she shouted. "Drop your blade!"

Percy almost felt like whirling on her and demanding to know what she was doing. But she said to trust her. He reminded himself that he had no choice. He followed her orders, dropping Anaklusmos, knowing it would return to his belt, and deactivating Aegis.

"Give me Aegis," she whispered.

Reluctantly, he took the bracelet off and tossed it to the ground behind him. Irene bent down to pick it up, keeping her blade pressed to his neck. She stuffed the bracelet into her pouch and nudged him with the sword.

Percy clenched his teeth and began to walk forward. "You better have a good plan."

"It's not a good plan. But it's a plan."

"That isn't comforting."

"I don't care what comforts you. This might get you out of here alive."

They continued forward until Percy was less than an arm's length away from Phoebe. He could see the satisfied smirk on the Hunter's face, as if she was finally able to taste victory. Her very aura made him irritated. He resisted the urge to break her nose and snap her arms in half. Irene continued to hold her blade to his neck, pushing him past the Hunters until they were standing right on top of the loose rock.

"Perfect, Irene," Phoebe called out. "Stop there."

Irene kept her blade to his neck, but took a step back.

"See, isn't this nicer, Irene?" Phoebe sighed, as if the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders. "Percy is the sole reason we're in this mess. Now, I'm sure you haven't changed your mind about the Hunters, but self-preservation is always a sound strategy. And it's not unlike you to betray your allies to save yourself."

"You do what you have to do," Irene said.

Percy glanced over his shoulder and began to turn around, but Irene stopped him. "No one said you could turn around. Keep facing that way. There's nothing for you to see here."

He obeyed the command, though hearing the Hunters snicker and laugh made him angry. He couldn't help but wonder what plan Irene had in mind. He couldn't think of any logical plan that she could have conjured up. The wary part of his mind thought, What if it's not logical at all?

He glanced down at the rocks below him. Could she possibly...?

"End him," Phoebe commanded.

There was a blast of bright white light behind him followed by a violent explosion of sound, popping his ears. He whirled around to see Irene blink off her daze. She began to run forward, taking Aegis out of her pouch and throwing it at him. He snatched it out of the air and began to run away.

He realized what Irene's plan had been. She had a vial of blinding light, a gift from the goddess Hecate no doubt, that she used to stun the Hunters by smashing it to the ground. While they were distracted, the two of them would take off, destroy the loose rocks, and prevent the Hunters from following them.

"No!" Phoebe bellowed.

"Go!" Irene shouted, telling him to keep moving.

The two of them rushed forward, Percy in the lead. They were halfway across the rocks when Phoebe fired a stray arrow right at the center rock. Normally, an arrow would do nothing to a rock other than bounce right off, maybe make a scratch or something. But it must have been enchanted. It exploded as it hit its target, knocking everyone in the area off-balance, and triggering the collapse of the loose ground.

In desperation, Percy leaped toward the safe ground, where the stone pavement had been securely built. He landed and rolled forward, grunting as his shoulder slammed into the wall as he came out of his roll.

He turned around to see if Irene had made it.

"Go!" Her voice rang clearly through the wreckage. "Save yourself!"

Percy squinted through the darkness, past the dust and rubble, finally spotting Irene. His breath hitched in his throat, and, for a moment, his heart stopped.

She never made it to the safe zone. The rock she was holding onto was beginning to slip away. Below her was a void of never-ending darkness. She didn't look scared or angry as she slowly lost her grip. She just looked tired, like she wanted to go to sleep after a long day.

Across the chasm, the Hunters were regrouping, backing away from the edge.

Phoebe was staring at the wreckage like she couldn't believe what had just happened. Her eyes locked onto Irene, and her eyes widened like saucer plates.

"No, Irene!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry, Percy," Irene said, giving him one last smile. "I had to."

"Irene!" he shouted.

Before he could even move, the rock broke free, and both Irene and the rock fell away into the void below.

Percy felt grief and hatred swell in his chest.

Get out of here, first, the rational part of his mind said. Survive!

He ran.

For the first time in centuries, tears fell from Percy's eyes.

Thanas clutched his chest and fell to a knee.

Xanthe bolted upright from her seat, eyes wide in alarm. "What happened? Did they not make it?"

Leon held his breath as he waited for the answer. He didn't like the way the son of Hades was reacting.

"Irene..." Thanas stared at the ground in confusion, still holding his pose. "She's gone."

"What?"

"It doesn't feel like she's dead, exactly, but... she's just... gone."

Xanthe cursed and put her head in her hands.

"Her soul just... faded," the son of Hades continued. He looked more confused than anything else. "As if her soul has been stripped away."

"What about Percy?" Leon asked.

Thanas shook his head. "Nothing happened to Percy. At least, I didn't feel anything happened to him."

"Oh, gods." Xanthe turned as white as a phantom as she looked up. "Percy... how is Percy reacting to this?"

Leon winced. If Percy's past was anything to go by, he would wreak havoc on everyone around him the moment he got his chance. In fact, it would surprise him if Percy hadn't at least taken out a couple of Hunters by now.

"I can't tell..." Thanas mumbled. "It's like Ionna all over again."

The three of them sat in stunned silence, waiting at the taverna in Tarsus, right where Percy told them to wait. Leon wasn't even sure if Percy could navigate his way out. Unless Irene gave him Ariadne's string, it was near impossible to navigate the Labyrinth, but if anyone could do it, it was Percy.

"How long is it going to take him to get out?" Xanthe wondered.

Leon wished he had an answer. He took her hand and squeezed it to comfort her. He couldn't imagine how he would feel if he lost her in battle. It didn't matter how skilled Leon was in battle, how powerful he was with his powers. He could never handle the death of a loved one well. He was nowhere near as mature as Thanas. He managed to save both his mother and his friends from Marcus' clutches, and, even though his mother was in special treatment for insanity under Chiron's watch, at least she was alive. And, despite all that, he still felt depressed about what happened to her.

Now, with Irene's effective death, he just felt numb. If anything happened to Xanthe, he would probably just kill himself to end it all.

Thanas didn't answer either.

The three of them waited until the taverna closed. Percy still didn't show up. They had no choice but to head back to lodging.

Thanas was silent was he made his way to his room, shutting the door behind him, as if to keep them out. Leon and Xanthe sat down in the common room, lighting the candles and sitting next to each other on the seats.

She nestled her head on his shoulder, holding his hands with her own.

"We're too tired to do anything, but we're too restless to sleep," she mumbled.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

Xanthe looked up at him. Her eyes were as dark as the deep ocean, swirling ominously and anxiously. Her recently cut hair felt different on his shoulder, but she was still as beautiful as ever.

"I don't want to lose you," she whispered. "If we die, I'd rather we died together."

"Same."

"How does Percy do it?" Her grip on him tightened. "How does he watch people die over and over and over and endure it? Especially people he loves."

"He hasn't endured it," Leon replied, remembering the old spheres. "It broke him."

He paused.

"Do you think, maybe, he was beginning to heal?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Remember what you told me about Phoebe and Irene? How they were fighting about all the terrible things Percy has done? Everything they brought up was from a long time ago. The worst thing he's done in the past few centuries is, what, egg the Romans and Greeks on? To help the Greeks fight the Romans?"

"I mean, drowning a whole legion is pretty bad."

"But necessary in war, right?" he pointed out. "You fight to kill the enemy. Not to injure. And how he was going about it was rational... logical. To kill an idea, you have to take out its roots. Destroy anything that holds that idea to its core and wipe it from existence. But, again, think about it. Did we ever hear that Percy hunted down the legion to destroy it? No, we heard that the legion hunted him down and he destroyed it. What if he was cornered? What if he had no choice if he wanted to survive?"

Xanthe was still for a while. "You have a point. He was also a member of the Twelfth Legion."

"Wanting to kill the people that hurt the ones you love is normal in our society. I can't think of many people who wouldn't do that. Of course, we value human life. We want to save it. But if someone else takes something away from us over and over and over again, why wouldn't we fight back? Are we just supposed to let them take from us?"

"It's not a good reaction, though," Xanthe replied. Her expression darkened. "My brother changed his mind."

"You're right. It's not a good reaction. But rehabilitating him, helping him return back to a sensible human being, instead of shunning him and tossing him aside is what the gods should've been doing. Everything Irene told us about the way he was after the Trojan War, before he was exiled... none of it points to the monster he eventually turned into."

"So it's the fault of the Olympians?" Xanthe pulled away from him and looked at him incredulously. "You're blaming our parents?"

"Parents are supposed to help and support their children no matter what," he argued. "My mother, despite our differing beliefs, never stopped supporting me. She loved me with all she had, even when times were tough. You saw her after she went insane. Even when lightning shot out from my fingers, she still took my side. To her, I'm supposed to be a demon from Hell. What about your mother, who sacrificed her life to protect you? She raised you and helped protect you for years. The gods? They just destroy each other and cast aside their children simply because they are mortal and they can die and they don't live forever."

"I..." She looked speechless. "I can't disagree..."

"Maybe I'm wrong," he admitted. "Maybe there's some flaw in my logic. But that's how I see it. How else can you explain why Percy is the way he is? Who started it all? It wasn't him. He was pushed to the brink, and I wonder if... if Irene's death is going to reset everything back to ground zero. If—"

"I'll turn into a rampaging murderer again?"

Leon looked up, startled at the voice. Percy stood at the door, his expression ghostly in the dim light.

He looked as normal as usual. All his clothes were intact. He didn't look injured in any major way. There was no limp, no abnormal posture, no outward expression of pain. There were a few cuts and bruises that weren't there before, but other than that, he was physically fine.

It was his eyes that were different.

They were full of pain and anger. They were full of resentment and hatred. He looked the same way he did after Mei's death, if not worse. He looked like he wanted nothing but to see the world burn.

"The Hunters are actively and directly working with the Amazons and Romans," he announced. "I ran into a scouting group on my way out of the Labyrinth. They were the ones supplying Phoebe with the necessary information. That's how the Hunters were so easily able to keep on our heels."

"What... what did you do with that group?" Xanthe asked, her voice wavering with hesitation.

A cold smirk appeared where his scowl had been just moments before. "What do you think?"

Thanas' door swung open slowly, revealing a messy-headed son of Hades. He was holding a candle, which cast a dark shadow across his face. He stared at Percy like he was seeing Nemesis' right-hand man. "You killed each and every single one of them."