Hello my lovely readers, I hope you all enjoy this chapter- in which Annabeth nearly lets her pride get the better of her. As always please do review I love knowing what people think.

The journey back into the Labyrinth was not a fun one- it wouldn't have been fun even if they hadn't had to follow the mechanical spider- the Labyrinth was dark and oppressive compared to the safe warmth of the ranch under Eurytion's new management.

The spider just made it that much worse- because it moved so fast that they could barely see it even as they ran after it- if it wasn't for Grover and Tyson's hearing they'd have lost it on more than one occasion.

They ran down a marble tunnel, then dashed to the left and almost fell into an abyss. Tyson grabbed Percy and hauled her back before she could fall. The tunnel continued in front of them, but there was no floor for about a hundred feet, just gaping darkness and a series of iron rungs in the ceiling. The mechanical spider was about halfway across, swinging from bar to bar by shooting out metal web fiber.

"Monkey bars," Annabeth said. "I'm great at these."

"Wise girl-" Percy didn't even get to finish her sentence before Annabeth was leaping on the first rung and swinging across- And Percy shrugged, taking off after her, it reminded her of the days when she'd been little, when her mom and Luke would take it in turns to hold her up under the bars as she grabbed each bar- but eventually Luke had let her go, and she'd swung- and it was exhilarating, she laughed brilliantly as she almost felt like she was flying through the air, catching the rings each time and swinging to the next until she was dropping down on the other side, where Annabeth was waiting- with Nico, Leo and Kayla, and Nico had a raised eyebrow, "The one good thing about the Labyrinth, it's full of shadows-"

"Did you just-"

"That was so cool." Leo looked slightly pale but he was grinning manically, "Nico, that was so freaking fun-"

"I always feel like I'm gonna puke." Kayla grumbled- and yeah, yeah her faced looked kind of green. "I mean, I've done it so many times but I still feel gross after-"

"I figured Leo would probably struggle- he's not had as much time to train." Nico shrugged, "Besides, I hate monkey bars-"

"Best brother ever!" Leo tossed an arm over Nico's shoulder, which had the son of Hades rolling his eyes.

Percy snorted as she turned back to look towards the monkey bars and she saw Tyson giving Grover a piggyback ride across the abyss.

They made it across in three swings , which was a good thing since, just as he landed, the last iron bar ripped free under his weight.

They kept moving and passed a skeleton crumpled in the tunnel. It wore the remains of a dress shirt, slacks, and a tie. The spider didn't slow down.
Leo slipped on a pile of wood scraps, but when Percy shined a light on them she realized they were pencils—hundreds of them, all broken in half.

The tunnel opened up onto a large room. A blazing light hit them. Once Percy's eyes adjusted, the first thing she noticed were the skeletons. Dozens littered the floor around them. Some were old and bleached white. Others were more recent and a lot grosser. They didn't smell quite as bad as Geryon's stables, but almost.

Then she saw the monster. She stood on a glittery dais on the opposite side of the room. She had the body of a huge lion and the head of a woman. She would've been pretty, but her hair was tied back in a tight bun and she wore too much makeup, so she kind of reminded Percy of her third-grade choir teacher. She had a blue ribbon badge pinned to her chest that took a moment to read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED EXEMPLARY!

Tyson tensed, whimpering and Percy's gaze swung to him quickly as she realized what was wrong even as he spoke.

"Sphinx." and Percy moved quickly, grabbing one of his big hands and squeezing reassuringly- and she felt a rush of pride when Nico did the same and grabbed his left hand- at Leo's questioning look Percy muttered.

"He was attacked when he was little- scars all over his back."

"Spinx is nasty." Tyson whimpered, and Grover, Leo and Kayla all shifted so that they were slightly in front of the Cyclops- protecting him.

Annabeth started forward, but the Sphinx roared, showing fangs in her otherwise human face. Bars came down on both tunnel exits, behind them and in front.

Immediately the monster's snarl turned into a brilliant smile.

"Welcome, lucky contestants!" she announced. "Get ready to play…ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!"

Canned applause blasted from the ceiling, as if there were invisible loudspeakers. Spotlights swept across the room and reflected off the dais, throwing disco glitter over the skeletons on the floor.

"Fabulous prizes!" the Sphinx said. "Pass the test, and you get to advance! Fail, and I get to eat you! Who will be our contestant?"

Annabeth's gaze flicked to Percy, and Percy nodded in agreement.

"Looks like you're up Wise girl."

"I've got this." Annabeth gave them all a reassuring smile "You're gonna be okay Ty, I'll look after us."

She stepped forward to the contestant's podium, which had a skeleton in a school uniform hunched over it. She pushed the skeleton out of the way, and it clattered to the floor.

"Sorry," Annabeth told it.

"Welcome, Annabeth Chase!" the monster cried, though Annabeth hadn't said her name. "Are you ready for your test?"

"Yes," she said. "Ask your riddle." "Twenty riddles, actually!" the Sphinx said gleefully.

"What? But back in the old days—"

"Oh, we've raised our standards! To pass, you must show proficiency in all twenty. Isn't that great?"

Applause switched on and off like somebody turning a faucet.

Annabeth glanced towards them nervously, her eyes wide- she hadn't expected this development- but Percy gave her a thumbs up with her free hand and Grover nodded at her reassuringly. "Okay," she told the Sphinx. "I'm ready."

A drumroll sounded from above. The Sphinx's eyes glittered with excitement. "What…is the capital of Bulgaria?"

Annabeth frowned. For a terrible moment Percy thought Annabeth didn't know the answer- which was ridiculous, Annabeth was the smartest girl Percy had
ever met.

"Sofia," she said, "but—"

"Correct!" More canned applause. The Sphinx smiled so widely her fangs showed. "Please be sure to mark your answer clearly on your test sheet with a

number 2 pencil."

"What?" Annabeth looked mystified. Then a test booklet appeared on the podium in front of her, along with a sharpened pencil. "Make sure you bubble each answer clearly and stay inside the circle," the Sphinx said. "If you have to erase, erase completely or the machine will not be able to read your answers."

"What machine?" Annabeth asked.

The Sphinx pointed with her paw. Over by the spotlight was a bronze box with a bunch of gears and levers and a big Greek letter Ȇta on the side, the mark of Hephaestus.

"Now," said the Sphinx, "next question—"

"Wait a second," Annabeth protested. "What about 'What walks on four legs in the morning'?"

"I beg your pardon?" the Sphinx said, clearly annoyed now. "The riddle about the man. He walks on four legs in the morning, like a baby, two legs in the afternoon, like an adult, and three legs in the evening, as an old man with a cane. That's the riddle you used to ask."

"Exactly why we changed the test!" the Sphinx exclaimed. "You already knew the answer. Now second question, what is the square root of sixteen?"

"Four," Annabeth said, "but—"

"Correct! Which U.S. president signed the Emancipation Proclamation?"

"Abraham Lincoln, but—"

"Correct! Riddle number four. How much—"

"Hold up!" Annabeth shouted.

"What's she doing?" Kayla's voice was a hissed yell, a panicked look in her eyes.

"I don't know." Nico turned to look at Percy- who exchanged wide eyed looks with Grover- who'd gone pale too.

"Uh oh." Percy let go of Tyson's hand quickly as Annabeth kept speaking.

"These aren't riddles," Annabeth said.

"What do you mean?" the sphinx snapped. "Of course they are. This test material is specially designed—"

"It's just a bunch of dumb, random facts," Annabeth insisted. "Riddles are supposed to make you think."

"Think?" The Sphinx frowned. "How am I supposed to test whether you can think? That's ridiculous! Now, how much force is required—"

"Stop!" Annabeth insisted. "This is a stupid-" She was cut off by Percy almost knocking her over, slapping a hand over her mouth.

"We're incredibly sorry about this." Percy gasped out as Annabeth tried to rant- though Percy's hand was successfully keeping her quiet. "I'm afraid my girlfriend's just a little bit overexcited-"

"You can't interrupt the test like that!"

"I'm very very sorry. She just gets a bit worked up sometimes." Percy invented desperately. "It's a very good test by the way-"

"Well- I suppose- if she finishes the test-"

"Can you do that Annabeth?" Percy glared at her girlfriend- who glared back, her eyes narrowing at Percy as she grumbled some complaint against Percy's hand. "Annabeth." Percy hissed her girlfriends name, "I love you so so fucking much but if you don't do this you are putting all of us in danger- that includes my brothers and Grover Annabeth. And I will not forgive you-" and Annabeth's eyes widened slightly at that and then her shoulders slumped very slightly and she gave as much of a nod as she could with Percy's hand clamped over her mouth.

Percy let out a relieved noise and slowly moved her hand away from Annabeth's mouth, their eyes glued to one another as they had a silent conversation, which essentially went;

'Fine, fine I'll answer the stupid questions but they are stupid.'

'You can complain about the insult to your intelligence when we're not dealing with a Sphinx! You know how scared Tyson is!'

'I- oh gods I let my pride get the better of me didn't I?'

'Yeah, yeah you did.'

'I'll fix this'.

And with that Percy did remove her hand from her girlfriends mouth, whirling to give the Sphinx a sunny grin. "I think she's ready to finish the test now." and with that she almost skipped down to join the others- who were looking at her with a range of curious, confused and exasperated expressions- the latter coming from Grover- he knew them well enough to know about their silent talks- at his raised eyebrow Percy gave a small reassuring nod and muttered loud enough that her brothers would be able to hear her, "Annabeth will be answering all of the questions now. And not complaining."

Admittedly, the blonde did look like she was sucking a lemon as she answered each question, gritting her teeth and gripping her pencil tightly.

And when the text was over and marked, the bars that had been locking them in lifted- and they practically ran to the tunnel on the far side of the room, glad to be away from the Sphinx, Tyson leading the way- and Percy really, really couldn't blame him, she was painfully glad they hadn't needed to fight the
monster- she didn't want her brother to have to deal with the trauma that would bring up.

And once they were a fair distance away they slowed down and then came to a halt, panting and catching their breath for a moment- during which Annabeth, her face flushed blurted out, "I'm sorry you guys-"

"You're crazy." Leo let out a slightly hysterical laugh, "You tried to pick a fight over the- I mean that-"

"You know-" Kayla snorted, "Everyone always says Percy's the dumbass reckless one but you're just as bad-"

"Are you kidding?" Percy laughed weakly, "Annabeth's worse when it comes to people insulting her intelligence."

"I really am sorry guys." Annabeth shook her head, "Especially you Tyson-"

"It's okay." Tyson nodded seriously, "I forgive you for yelling at the scary Sphinx."

"Yeah Annabeth, we all forgive you- just don't do it again please." Nico gave a wry grin, "Or you may just win the craziest demigod of the year award, and
that's meant to go to Percy or Leo- they're still competing-"

"Hey!" the twin yelps echoed through the tunnel- and they would have said more- if it wasn't for the fact that Grover suddenly held up a hand and hissed-
"Wait! Wait- I think- I can hear the spider!"