Alright boys, chapter 26 is here! First chapter of book four and Battle of The Labyrinth, so I'm excited to begin writing this one. I haven't read BoTL in a long, long time and my story is already wayyyy different from canon, so don't expect to see too many familiar things beside the main plot points. Anyway enough with my shit, let's get started. But first, some reviews.

Zutama: "Niceeee crossover. Love the fights and of course Grayson getting taken out, he deserved it. The character interactions were the best, loved everything about this. It was awesome and I can't wait for Battle of the Labyrinth."

Response: Thanks bro. I loved writing this just as much as you enjoyed reading it. The fight between Zane and Matt was probably my favorite moment, although I did like Zane killing Grayson, too. Anyway, hope you enjoy the first chapter of BoTL.

FabulousOutlaw58: "This as a whole was awesome. Love the crossover, the fights, the interactions and especially seeing you guys write each others characters, it was very interesting. Can't wait for the next chapters of both stories."

Response: Thanks for the review bro. As I said above, this was definitely my favorite chapters I've written for this story, so I definitely put everything I had into it. Anyway, here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy.

Zutama: "This was amazing. From the fights to the character accuracy, I loved this four part crossover, and cannot wait for the next chapters.

Perhaps a rematch in the future? And what was that about Matt and Harper being in Zane's universe, something going on there? Hmm..."

Response: Thanks for the review, man. Me and Echoxenvy had a hell of a time writing the crossover, we had hyped it up for months and finally it's finished. Definitely some of our best work. I'm not certain about a legitimate rematch, as the two are bros now, but we'll see. And Matt and Harper being in Zane's universe has some implications. I'll let you come to your own conclusions and see if you're right in the future. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.

Shadowhunter2077: "Man this crossover was awesome the best part to me was either the fight between Zane and Matt or Zane and Matt vs Hyperion.

I really like the hate Zane and Hyperion have between each other it makes them perfect nemesis to each other."

Response: Thanks man, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Those fights were two of my favorites most definitely, especially Matt vs Zane. That's my favorite fight in the entire FanFiction besides Zane vs Luke in book three. And yeah, the rivalry and hatred between Zane and Hyperion definitely is there and I may be doing something with that in the future. Just maybe. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter, bro.

SuAvE ViPeR: "YES. Great stuff, man. Grayson going out was amazing, that means there's only two left to go, and maybe just one now. I love Zane and Hyperion's archenemy relationship, in my opinion, next to Luke, he's Zane's greatest enemy, and I can't wait to see what happens next. Battle of the Labyrinth and Book Three of Son of Hercules!"

Response: Grayson dying was awesome lol. Back when the Big Four were introduced and me and Echoxenvy were talking about them, I joked that I wanted Zane to kill them all. Lmao he actually got his chance to kill one of them and it's canon for both stories. Just absolutely tickles me. Yes, Zane and Hyperion hatred is amazing. Props to Echoxenvy for deepening that hatred even more in the fourth chapter. One of the best qualities about that one. Anyway, here's first chapter of BoTL and I hope you enjoy it.

Merrik69: "Nice crossover as a whole. I love both stories and to see them collide and it to conclude this way was great. Very interested to see what comes next for both in Book Three and BOTL. I have no idea what Book three of Son of Hercules holds, but I have a decent idea of what BOTL holds. But considering that you do things different from canon, it could be quite interesting to see what you change. Either way, I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter. Please update soon."

Response: Thanks for the review, man. I'm glad you enjoyed the crossover, as I definitely enjoyed writing and reading it myself. Not sure if there will be anymore crossovers in the future, but I'll be glad if there is. And I also can't wait to continue writing this arc. The main villain for this one is going to absolutely wild, and so are the fights. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter, bro.

Alright enough with reviews. Let's blow this pop-stand.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any related media (Except the OCs). If you couldn't tell by the fact that this is on a FanFiction site, you're fucking retarded.)

(000)

{June 10th, 2008}

A loud clanging noise rung out as Taylor slammed the end of his spear against the handle of Thymos, which I held up to deflect his wide sweeping slash. Taylor then pulled back his spear, unleashing a barrage of fast and quick jabs with his weapon. I easily deflected and blocked everyone of them, taking full advantage over my immense speed and finely tuned skill. Taylor eventually turned after another sweep, bashing out with his shield and unleashing a concussive blast in my direction. I let the blast force me back several meters, as the purpose of this fight wasn't to completely overpower the son of Ares. Taylor tried to stab me directly in the face, which I narrowly avoided thanks to my suppressed power. "Footwork, Zane!" Called Chiron from the side of the fighting square.

If you weren't privy to what was going on, both me and Taylor were currently training with each other in the combat arena. After my second clash with Hyperion alongside the son of Hercules, Matt Beckett, I was doing my utmost to become more skilled with combat in general. Hyperion's skill with his spear was godly, something I couldn't hope to even come close to with my Morningstar at the time. So for the past six months I had put most of my time towards getting better at fighting. Surprisingly, I had become much, much better at it in such a short time. Even Taylor wasn't a match for my skill anymore after the period of intense training. Something I proved as I immediately went on the offensive as Chiron shouted his words. With suppressed yet immense speed, I unleashed a barrage of attacks with my Heavenly Diamond Morningstar at my boyfriend, something he barely managed to defend against whatsoever. Taylor was incredibly skilled no doubt, probably the best fighter in the entire camp, but my insane natural battle talent and my acting upon it put me on an entirely different level. I'm completely certain I've taken the title from Luke of best fighter in the past three hundred years.

Taylor tried to bash me with his shield, unleashing a blast of concussive force to knock me back. However, I simply created a small telekinetic around myself to defend. I practically walked through Taylor's counterattack completely unaffected. His eyes temporarily widened in surprise, but I didn't give him the time for any further reactions. I attacked the son of Ares mercilessly, trying to strike out against the weaknesses and holes in Taylor's defense. Taylor did his absolute best to keep up, deflecting my attacks with his spear and blocking them with his shield, and he was doing a damn fine job of it as well. However, even Taylor's skill failed against mine, as I slammed Thymos into the side, knocking Taylor slightly off balance. This was all I needed to overwhelm Taylor completely as I grabbed his shield and tossed it away from him. Before Taylor could even react to this, I lightly slammed an elbow into his torso, knocking the wind out of him and sending him to the floor. I quickly appeared above him and put my foot on his chest, pinning him to the floor. Taylor didn't even try to push me off of him, sighing in futility. "Match over! Zane wins." Chiron announced.

On the ground, Taylor rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. What else is new?" I held out a hand for Taylor as I took my foot off of him, which he took. I helped the son of Ares up and he dusted himself off. He grinned at me. "You've gotten ridiculously good at fighting. And I thought Nico was good at it." After Hyperion basically trounced me and Matt in terms of skill, I had begun training with Taylor every single day to get better, having immense success.

I nodded at hims words with a smile. "I've definitely been putting in a lot of work." I turned to Chiron and nodded to him. "I think we've had enough of the combat training for the day. Thanks for the help, Chiron." Chiron nodded at my words, trotting away to perform the rest of his duties. I turned back to my boyfriend. "Ready to start aura training?"

He nodded with an eager grin on his face. "Hell yeah." Over the last six months, Taylor and I had not just been training to increase my skill, but we had also been working towards getting Taylor stronger as well. You see, Taylor had been feeling inadequate ever since the battle with Atlas, as he felt we had all left him behind in terms of power, which we had. So as Taylor had been helping me with my fighting ability, I had been teaching him to control his aura. Unfortunately, Taylor was not a savant in the field like I was, so I had to teach him every aspect and help him grow. After six months of constant training, he was rather good at controlling his aura. Not as good as me, but that's only because I had a natural ability for it. "We're starting with the aura on the weapon, right?"

I nodded in affirmation. "Yes. Then we'll move on to the other stuff later." Aura could be used in a variety of ways, but the main stuff I was teaching Taylor was enveloping his weapon with his aura, and using his aura to strengthen his physical capabilities. Taylor, while incredibly fast, was not particularly strong or tough. Teaching him to control his aura will allow him to become so. He'll be able to strengthen himself to absurd levels and increase his natural strength as well. Kind of like gravity training in Dragon Ball Z, but with aura instead. Both me and Taylor took a seat in the middle of the combat square, my boyfriend holding his spear in his lap. "Alright, remember, feel the aura deep within yourself and mold it to your will. Then move it to your spear tip."

Taylor took a deep breath. "Alright." Taylor closed his eyes, his breathing normal and controlled. His right hand was enveloped with a dark red aura, which was the same color as his father's and a few shades darker than Matt's. He placed his aura covered hand on the shaft of his spear, transferring the energy through the weapon. The aura moved from the middle of the shaft to the spearhead quickly, surrounding the tip in the dark red, burning aura. Taylor's eyes light up and he grinned. "Yes!"

I smiled at his elation. "Good job. Now, let's do that again." I watched Taylor cover his spearhead in his aura several times, again and again. I nodded in appreciation on his skill. "Alright then, you've definitely gotten that done pat. Now, let's move on to the physical part." Taylor nodded and stood up from the ground. "Remember, it's a lot like the weapon, just gotta move your aura throughout your entire body." I noticed Taylor was struggling, as sweat dripped down his face and his scowled. Unlike both me and Percy and other people like Nico and Matt, aura manipulation didn't come very easily to Taylor. "Focus, Taylor. Make your aura flow all throughout you." It seemed like my words were all that Taylor needed, as a slight red hue came over his body. It wasn't intense or powerful like Matt's, but a small red aura made it's way around Taylor's frame, barely visible. Taylor could only keep the aura up for about a minute before it dropped, forcing Taylor on one knee. I smiled at his success, walking over to him and helping him up. "Good job, Taylor."

Taylor was huffing and puffing, sweat dripping down his face. He smiled, obviously tired from the training. "I don't know how you and Percy do this kind of thing so easily. It's pretty fucking hard." Taylor hadn't changed massively over the past six months, aside from looking slightly older. However, his physique did look slightly more defined thanks to the aura training. He didn't look masculine in the slightest, but he wasn't quite as soft looking as before. "How long have we been training it? Six months?"

I nodded at his words. "Yep. And we'll probably have to be at it longer for you to master it." Taylor looked slightly downcast at that, which made me feel guilty. "Wait, I didn't mean to say you were bad at it. It's just taking you longer than me and Percy at it. You're incredibly talented, Taylor. I bet you'll have this mastered in a month." Taylor's downcast expression turned into a smile. Still kneeling on the ground, he pulled me into a kiss out of nowhere. I grunted in surprise, yet I didn't pull away in the slightest.

The kiss was quick, yet filled with love and passion. "I swear, you have more air in your head than a Lays chips bag." Taylor told me with a smile. I chuckled at his casual insult, knowing he was probably even correct as I was dumb as a brick. Taylor nuzzled his head into my muscular shoulder, making me smile and my face heat up. The son of Ares pulled both of us to our feet. "Now come on, we need to get to the pavilion. Nico won't be happy with either of us if we're late." I nodded at his words, kissing his forehead afterwards. Taylor giggled at my display of affection as he led me out of the fighting arena.

As me and Taylor walked outside the fighting arena, we ran into Quintus. Quintus was an odd fellow. Chiron had hired him shortly after Hyperion's attack on camp a few months ago, mostly to get the campers into more shape. He had also helped both me and Taylor out with training quite a bit. He was currently playing fetch with Ms. O' Leary, an absolute gigantic hellhound the size of a tank that was the pet of Quintus. Don't ask me how he tamed it, he never told a straight story each time. Quintus turned to us as Ms. O' Leary ran after a table sized ball. "Ah, Zane, Taylor. Done with training already? I saw Master Chiron leave a little while ago." Quintus was an odd demigod. For one, he was about fifty, or at least that's how he looked. He was about five foot ten and in decent shape, especially for someone his age. He was currently wearing a full set of Greek armor, minus the helmet.

I nodded at the son of Athena, as that's what he felt like. "Yep, at least for now. We might come back later with Nico after lunch, though." Speaking off how Quintus felt, he felt really weird. Maybe not as weird as someone like Talon, the son of Nikandreos, but he still felt really fucking weird. Like his aura felt old and there was this sort of different type of aura latched on to his. I didn't think too much of it, though. Me and Taylor walked on by Quintus as Ms. O' Leary ran back with her ball. "We'll see you later, Quintus." Quintus nodded at the two of us as me and Taylor walked away, hand in hand.

We walked to the pavilion, which was currently handing out food as we arrived. Chiron was currently giving his report and little speech he normally does as me and Taylor sat down at my table. Surprisingly, Nico was not there when we got there as he normally was. "Boo!" Nico came out of the shadow of the table as both me and Taylor sat down, scaring the shit out of the two of us. Nico found out about this ability he called shadow traveling, which allowed him to literally move from place to place using shadows. Kinda like portals if you thought about it. Nico laughed as both me and Taylor jumped. "Gets you guys every time, I swear." Nico said in between laughs, causing both of us to mock glare at him. Nico has been doing the jump scare thing with his shadow traveling ever since he found out how to do it. Normally trying to scare me would be impossible thanks to my aura sense, but Nico's shadow traveling made him completely go off my radar when he did so.

I rolled my eyes as the son of Hades sat down in between both me and Taylor. "You try getting surprised by someone who can literally move in between shadows everyday." Nico smirked cutely at my words, which caused my fake irritated face to fall. I kissed him on the cheek as he sat down, Taylor doing the same thing. You might be surprised to hear Taylor kissing Nico on the cheek, as you might have thought they were only just dating me. But things change and grow given six months of time, and our relationship became a threeway one. It was more convenient and less awkward, so it was better overall. "Did you bring the Myth-O-Magic cards?"

Nico smiled at my words. "Do you even have to ask?" Nico pulled several decks of cards from his pockets and handed a couple of them to me and Taylor. Both of us immediately went through the cards and shuffled them so Nico couldn't cheat with any preshuffled decks. Nico raised his eyebrow at us. "Hey, you don't trust me?"

I shook my head. "Not after I figured out you've been cheating all these years of us playing by giving me a deck you already shuffled." Nico cringed slightly at my words, causing me to chuckled and shake my head. "No, don't worry, I do trust you. It's just a card game after all. Anyway, let's get started." The game we played through the lunch period was quick and exciting, with me being eliminated in the three way game rather quickly as Taylor and Nico teamed up on me and took me out. The two of them then faced each other in an action packed duel, but Nico's overpowered deck trumps all and he won the game in the end. I shook my head at Nico's victory, someone knowing it would happen regardless. As the game ended, I stood up from the table. "We need to get back to the arena for some more training." I motioned to Taylor, who nodded at my words. I looked to Nico. "Care to join us?"

Nico nodded at me with a smile. "Haven't trained my swordsmanship yet today, so I guess I can do so by beating Taylor's ass in the arena." Nico stated with a cocky smile. Looking at Nico, I noted in the past six months he hadn't changed massively, much like Taylor. His hair was it's normal shoulder length, he wore the same black skull shirt and jeans, minus the aviator jacket as it was hot outside. He was slightly taller and older looking, as he would be fourteen in a couple of months.

Taylor looked at Nico with a smirk. "Oh? Beat my ass? That's funny, because I distinctly remember leaving you face down in the dirt last time we fought." Nico's cocky smirk faltered as he remembered the memory. A few days ago, Taylor and Nico had sparred in the arena. It was an incredibly amazing duel to witness. I remembered as I watched their weapons clashed against each other as they used highly skilled maneuvers and fought at speeds most demigods couldn't even see. But Taylor ultimately won the duel, leaving Nico in the dirt as he said.

Nico's bluster didn't stay gone for long. "That last match didn't mean shit! I was surprised you got so strong and fast since the last time I fought you. I won't let you take me off guard again!" Nico reassured with his smile back on his face. He was definitely right that Taylor had gotten much stronger since the last time they battled. Taylor was easily at least five times as strong and fast since Hyperion's attack last January, which meant he had caught up with Nico's base power. However, Nico's shadow form was an entirely different story.

I smiled at their playful banter. "Guys, guys, guys. You're both amazingly beautiful and talented demigods. You don't have to fight." Both of them blushed from my words, making my smile wider. Speaking of strength, I myself was nearly double the power since my battle with Hyperion, as I had trained immensely since that fight. I, however, didn't train hard enough to open another hole in reality. I was a little more careful. I smirked at both of my boyfriends. "Although...it would be nice to know which of you is stronger, so maybe another fight wouldn't be all that bad."

Both Nico's and Taylor's competitive edge immediately returned and they smirked at each other. "Race you to the arena." Taylor said, immediately taking off in a burst of speed, which caused Nico's eyes to widen, but he immediately raced towards the arena after the son of Ares. I chuckled and shook my head at their antics, taking my sweet time walking into the arena. As I walked into the arena, I was greeted to an odd sight. Quintus and Ms. O' Leary were in the arena, the two of them playing fetch, or at least they had been. But that was not the out of the ordinary part. No, the out of the ordinary part was my best friend Percy Jackson speaking to Quintus in the middle of the arena. Both Nico and Taylor were standing by Quintus, the two of them talking to the son of Poseidon. "You've gotten even taller, Percy!" Taylor said as he looked at Percy in amazement.

The son of Poseidon chuckled at Taylor's observations. "Yeah, I have gotten a little taller over the past six months, haven't I?" Percy, unlike me, Taylor and Nico, was not year round. He went back to New York throughout the school year and only came back to camp during the summer and Christmas. Percy suddenly perked up and turned to me, no doubt feeling my aura as I entered the arena. "It seems I'm not the only one to get taller." Percy stated with a smirk. Looking at the son of Poseidon, I could see how he'd changed over the past six months. Like Taylor had said, he was taller, sitting at around six foot even. His perfect tan was somehow even more perfect and his face had become even more good looking. Seriously, Percy's face was basically without flaw. He still had his signature man bun, although it was thicker and longer than it used to be. Percy was even more muscular now, probably being around one hundred and eighty pounds. He wore his usual getup consisting of his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, his black athletic shorts, and a pair of blue sneakers. Percy smiled as I walked closer to him. "Good to see you again, Zane."

I gave him a bro hug as I approached. "Good to see you as well, man." Like Percy, I had changed over the past six months as well. For one, I was still taller than Percy, standing at about six foot two. I wasn't sure where my height had come from, as I was remarkably tall for my age. Granted, Percy was as well. Other than that, I had grown more muscular, probably sitting at about two hundred and fifteen pounds of muscle. In only six months I had outgrown and outsized my friend Matt Beckett, something that I found odd like my height. My outfit consisted of the legendary orange shirt, a pair of dark red athletic shorts, two black fingerless gloves, and my Nemean Lion cloak on my shoulders. "I'm surprised you didn't arrive five days ago with all the other summer campers. What was that about?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Orientation. I'm starting high school this September at my mom's boyfriend's school he teaches at and they have their orientation during the summer. Pretty dumb if you ask me." Percy then smiled, as if he was remembering something. "And I had a date with Annabeth. Not sure if she told you about it when she left camp." She didn't, but it wasn't really any of my business so I didn't care. "At orientation I got attacked by some kind of vampire monsters with weird ass legs. They weren't anything special though. Killed one of them and the other, the leader, retreated."

I nodded at Percy explanation of the events. "Sounds like a typical day in the life of a demigod, wouldn't you say?" I asked the son of Poseidon with a smirk, one that he returned. "So how did your date with Annabeth go? I know you two are crazy for each other."

Percy blushed slightly as a small smile came up on his face. "It went rather well. We just mostly talked at lunch and then went to go see that new Batman movie that came out not too long ago. Did you know that Annabeth really likes comic books?" No, I didn't know that, but I wasn't surprised. She was an even bigger nerd than Nico.

Before I could say another word to the son of Poseidon, a clopping noise could be heard from the entrance of the arena. "Ah, Percy! There you are." Both me and Percy turned our heads to the sound of the voice, seeing Chiron trot up to our group. Chiron must have finished archery training with the other campers, as he was holding his bow and wearing a casual T-shirt rather than his normal formal vest and pink collared shirt. "I've seen you've met our new instructor and reacquainted with your friends." Chiron turned his gaze upon Quintus. "We aren't bothering you, are we, Quintus?"

Quintus shook his head with a smile on his face. He lifted up the massive chew toy that Ms. O' Leary had been playing with and threw it across the arena as if it was a feather. "No, Master Chiron. I was simply playing with Ms. O' Leary when I met young Percy here."

Chiron shook his head with a small smile. "No need to call me master, Quintus." Chiron turned his gaze back to the son of Poseidon. "Come, Percy. We have much to discuss." He looked to me. "You too, Zane. This involves you as well." I raised an eyebrow at Chiron's words, wondering what I could be involved in. I looked to Taylor and Nico, who looked as confused as I did. 'You two train with Quintus. I'll be back as soon as I can. Then you two can finally decide who's stronger." Both of them nodded at my telepathic message, smirking at each other. I turned to follow both Percy and Chiron as they were leaving the arena.

We walked in silence for a bit, no one saying a word as we left the arena. As soon as we were out the door, Percy spoke. "So..." Percy trailed off but he quickly picked back up. "Quintus seems very..." Percy trailed off again, leaving his words up in the air.

Chiron chuckled at Percy's words. "He seems mysterious? Hard to read?" Percy looked surprised for a second as Chiron finished his sentence for dim, as if reading his mind. The surprise quickly washed its way off his face, as he knew Chiron was just that smart. "Yes. Quintus is both of these things. But he is a very qualified Half-Blood. One of the best swordsman and best fighters I've ever seen." I knew Chiron was speaking the truth, as I had personally sparred with Quintus before. Even with my immense training and newfound incredible skill, Quintus was a tough opponent. Definitely better than Luke in a fight.

I spoke up, giving my own two cents on Quintus. "Did you find his aura weird as well?" Percy looked at me surprised, before he nodded. "Yeah, thought as much. His aura feels incredibly old, as if he is way older than he looks. Not only that, but there's something attached to his aura that I can't really get a good feel on. You felt the same thing?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly what he feels like." He chuckled slightly. "You really put it into words real well, Zane." We walked through the camp for a bit, no one saying anything in a comfortable silence. Percy eventually spoke up again. "So, Chiron, did Annabeth tell you about what happened at my high school Orientation?"

Chiron nodded. "Yes, as a matter of fact she did. She told me you told her you fought some empousai." So that was the name of the apparent vampire monsters Percy destroyed. "You must be careful in the future, Percy. If what Annabeth told me is true, the lead empousai escaped. She could attack you at any moment once you leave camp." Percy nodded, probably making a mental note about that. Chiron continued to speak. "I'm surprised you managed to defeat them unharmed, despite your immense power. Empousai had powerful mental manipulation abilities. Most male heroes fall under their spell easily and are slain."

Percy cringed slightly, as if remembering something. "They almost did get me like that. If it wasn't for Rachel..." Percy trailed off, and both me and Chiron looked at him in confusion and then at each other. Who was this Rachel? Percy looked at our confused expression for a second before he answered us, almost as if he was hesitating. "Rachel is a mortal who can see through the mist. I saved her at the Hoover Dam last December when Thorn attacked us there. Apparently she lives in New York and just happened to go to my new high school."

Chiron's brow furrowed slightly. "Is there a reason you do not tell Annabeth or me of this? Clear sighted mortals are not exactly the most common occurrence." Chiron was slightly annoyed from what my telepathy could sense from his emotions

Percy's hesitated slightly, before he answered in full. "Well, I was worried it would make Annabeth mad or something if I talked about another girl right before her date." This man was very much right about that one. "And I kinda forgot about her after the Hoover Dam, mainly because the whole Atlas stuff happened and I just wasn't as concerned." Chiron nodded, understanding the answer.

I grinned at what Percy had just said. "Well, well, well. Looks like someone had gotten smarter." Percy turned towards me, deadpan on his face. "Six months ago you would have been dumb enough to talk about another girl to the girl that you like. I applaud you for your growth."

Percy shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Ha ha ha. Laugh it up, Zane." Percy turned back to Chiron. "We've been walking through camp for awhile now. Where exactly are we going?" Percy had a good point, as the three of us had just been walking in one direction for several minutes, not turning into any of the cabins or buildings. We had even just walked past the Big House, and that was where I thought we were heading.

Chiron looked ahead at the trees behind the Big House as we walked in that direction. "We are going to Grover's formal hearing in front of the Council of Cloven Elders. They are deciding his fate." Oh. I forgot that was today. I'm being honest, I forgot what Grover had done or said to the Council, as I don't really speak to Grover all that much. "Grover will want you there to defend him, Percy." Chiron turned his gaze over to me. "And you being there will discourage the Council from any nefarious business, Zane. Be prepared to wrangle a few old goats." Chiron said with a smirk as we entered the woods.

Joy.

(000)

Chiron led us through the woods, taking us through paths and ways I had personally never seen before, showing just how much the centaur knew about this place. I mean, I had been here for almost four years at this point, yet I have never gone this way in the woods ever before. Eventually after a few minutes of hiking through the trees, we came upon a small grassy opening in the forest. From a distance away, the three of us could see a large group of satyrs sitting in a circle, surrounding Grover as he faced three old, really fat looking satyrs. I raised my eyebrow at the sight. I've personally never seen the Council of Cloven Elders before, though I'm pretty sure they have definitely heard about me. I didn't even know satyrs could get that fat.

As me, Chiron and Percy approached the circle of goat men, we could see the look on Grover's face. He looked incredibly anxious, sweat dripping down the side of his face as he faced the elders. A couple of years ago the satyr was taller than both me and Percy, standing at around five foot eight, but now both of us towered over him. Standing off to the side of the circle was Annabeth, some tree nymph I'd never seen before, and surprisingly, Clarisse. I hadn't seen the daughter of Ares in a long, long while ever since Taylor took over the Ares cabin. I honestly had assumed she just stopped coming to camp after her loss of her counselor position. "It's going terribly." Said the tree nymph as she was being consoled by Annabeth. The tree nymph was small and petite, having amber colored hair and a elf like face. I assumed this was Juniper, the girlfriend Grover talked about sometimes. As both me and Percy stood close to the trio, Chiron continued walking towards the middle of the circle, stepping over seated satyrs with ease and grace.

"You could say that again." Clarisse said with absolutely no tact as she watched Grover tell some kind of story to the Elders. She glanced over at both me and Percy as we approached. "Punks." She glared and nodded at us, which I supposed was a good enough greeting from the daughter of Ares. I hadn't seen Clarisse in a long time, so she looked massively different than she used to. For one, she actually looked like a girl now. Her face no longer looked piggish and ruddy, now actually looking relatively decent and feminine. She also slimmed down, no longer looking chunky. She actually had a bit of a figure and she had some tone in her muscles. Both me and Percy were taller than she was now, with me towering nearly a head over her.

Annabeth shook her head as Clarisse's answer actively made Junipers somber and saddened face look even worse. "No, no, no. It's going fine, Juniper. Trust me." Annabeth turned her head towards Clarisse and glared at her for her words, but the daughter of Ares just shrugged at Annabeth's withering look. Annabeth looked at us. "Good to see you two are here. Grover needs all the support and help that he needs." Both me and Percy nodded, with me being ready to defend Grover should the old goats get too offensive towards him.

"Master Underwood!" The Elder on the right of the three suddenly bellowed out, his words cutting off whatever Grover was about to say. This guy really looked like an onion had sex with an avocado and then pushed out some weird mutant baby. "Do you serious expect us to believe that what you are saying is true?!" All three of the Elders looked affronted, but the right one had spoken for all three of them.

Grover looked surprised and shook that he had been interrupted but he quickly nodded. "Yes, Councilor Silenus! Everything I say is the truth." Grover, despite all of the crazy adventures and journeys he had been on with my crowd, still looked nervous in front of these three old goat fuckers. Grover, you've literally faced off against Titans like Krios, what the hell do you have to be so afraid of?

Silenus didn't say anything for a bit, and turned to his fellow councilors. Chiron was standing behind the three Elders, looking stressed and tired at the whole situation. Silenus turned back towards Grover, pulling his massive yellow polo shirt of his fat, hairy stomach. Silenus stared at Grover with contempt. "Master Underwood, for six months we have been tolerating your scandalous and blasphemous claims of hearing the great god Pan having spoken to you. And this is after you broke the rules and went to search for him without a Searcher's license over a year and a half ago! You are very lucky we deliberated to give you your license after your survival of the Sea of Monsters quest, but you are trying our patience!" The old goat shouted, his double chin quivering a little bit in effort.

Chiron looked at the old satyr in disapproval. "Patience is something you should be showing now, Silenus." Chiron's tone was stern and his brows were furrowed. His arms were crossed and even in his casual T-Shirt he looked authoritative.

The Elder on the left of the trio scoffed at Chiron's words. "Patience. Bah!" The Elder on the left glared at Grover, who shrunk a bit under his gaze. "I have had it up to my horns with all of this nonsense! As if the wild god would speak to someone like...him." The Elder grounded out that last word as if he was chewing on a lemon. If you couldn't infer from the previous information, Grover had apparently been spoken to by Pan sometime after our victory over Atlas after he arrived back at Camp. I wasn't around to hear Grover's claim when it first happened, but I was inclined to believe him. Grover was too much of a sissy to lie through his teeth.

Juniper lunged forwards, as if almost to charge after the old satyr, but was held back by Annabeth and surprisingly Clarisse. Odd. Usually she likes to see things get brutalized, especially if it was something like that old goat fucker. "Not the right fight, girlie. Wait." Clarisse said as she held back the dryad. Juniper struggled against Clarisse's and Annabeth's hold before stopping, resigned to the fact that she could never overpower either of them. However, I wasn't just going to sit back and let them insult Grover like that.

I glared at the three of the Elders before levitating of the ground slightly. I floated over the rows of seated satyrs into the middle of the circle, where Grover and the Elders were located. At my interruption, I could see Chiron rub his hand down his face, no doubt already done with this entire situation. The Elders froze up slightly at my appearance as I landed back on the ground gracefully. Grover didn't know whether to look relived or anxious I had showed up to defend him. I stared at the Elders in silence for a few seconds, letting my glare really set in to the bastards. "Why exactly wouldn't Pan speak to Grover?" The Council was silent for a few seconds, not giving me any answer. I raised an arm in an underhanded gesture. "Give me a legitimate reason please."

The middle Elder spoke, stammering as he did so. "A-Ah, L-Lord Zane," I rose an eyebrow at the satyr's title for me, as I didn't know the satyrs had so much fear for someone like me. The stuttering satyr continued. "This upstart here, Master Underwood, is not worthy of the attention of the wild god." The middle Elder's tone became one of steel and his old, wrinkly face morphed into an expression of disgust as he motioned towards Grover, who shrieked at the Elder's accusation. "He has only had his Searcher's license for a year, and before that he broke to the rules to search for Pan! Not to mention he is only a child. He's not even thirty!" Satyrs age at half the speed of humans, so the old satyr basically said Grover wasn't even fifteen by satyr standards, which he wasn't.

I rolled my eyes at the old goats reasoning, knowing it was dumb. "You can at least try to do a better job to hide your obvious jealousy, Elder." The old bastard flinched at my casual exposing of his true feelings to everyone and the other Elders looked a little bit uncomfortable. I didn't even need telepathy to tell that this guy was jealous. "Your reasoning is shallow at best and retarded at worst. Why wouldn't Pan speak to Grover. It's not like he's been a part of two major quests back to back in the past year." I said the second sentence with obvious sarcasm lacing my voice. "Grover has done more than any of you old fucks combined have done in all your years. He's faced off against horrifying monsters and powerful Titans. He's more qualified to be spoken to by Pan more than any satyr here is combined." I motioned at the seated satyrs as I spoke, making all of them look a little uneasy. "And so what if he's young? I'm personally only fifteen yet I'm fairly certain all of you have at least heard of half the things I've done in a short time. Do I really need to go down the list?" I really don't want to brag in front of a bunch of satyrs, or even want to brag in general, but I needed to scare the old bastards into submission for Grover.

The middle Elder shook his head and had a hard time meeting my eyes. "N-No. No, you do not, Lord Zane." Both of the other two elders had very similar answers and responses. A fire reappeared in the old satyrs normally glazed eyes and his eyes shifted to Grover. He opened his mouth to say something, probably something dumb, but I wasn't going to have any of that.

I glared at the Elder, stopping whatever words that were going to be aimed at Grover dead in his throat. "Be silent." My words were not loud, but they were firm and authoritative. The Elders listened to my order and didn't try to speak another word. "Alright, you three, listen here. This entire situation is going to be dropped. Right here, right now." All three of the Elders looked completely shocked and anger and outrage quickly made its way onto their faces. However, I unleashed a small burst of my aura, ruffling their clothes and long, grey beards. That stopped any protest immediately. "I'll be honest with you three. I think you're a group of useless, fucking treehuggers who like to lord their status over the rest of camp, despite not actually doing anything. I don't give a shit about your rules, your traditions or your values. You are going to let Grover off the hook right now, or I might let some of my...irritation out on the forest." Every single satyr looked shocked at my words, including Grover, who I was defending. Chiron just sighed heavily at my words. I was obviously bluffing, as I know destroying the forest was not a good thing to do, but if it would finally push these old goats into doing what I want, I would say it.

The middle satyr stammered slightly before replying. "Y-Yes, Lord Zane. We understand." The middle Elder turned his gaze to Grover, the other two Elders quickly following suit. "Master Underwood, you are hearby acquitted of all charges of scandalous claims and blasphemous speak. Meeting adjourned." Heh, the Elders all looked like they were forced to eat an entire lemon when they said that. The satyrs all began to stand up and go their separate ways, the three Elders all walking together and speaking in hushed tones, no doubt trying to plot something.

After the meeting, Chiron trotted up to me, an exasperated expression on his face. "Not a very diplomatic way of handling things, Zane. It appears some things just never change." The centaur trainer shook his head, although I could see a hint of a smile under his beard. Chiron looked at the three Elders who were starting to disappear into the trees. "You've definitely made an enemy of them now. I would make sure you watch your back whenever you can."

I nodded at Chiron's words, although I knew the Elders couldn't actually do anything to me or even people I care about. We were all simply just too powerful at this point. The Council of Cloven Elders had no power over us. I walked up to Grover, who was currently speaking with Percy and the others about things, no doubt explaining what the whole thing was about. "Grover." The satyr turned to me. "It seems those old bastards really have it out for you." I held out my hand for Grover to shake it.

Grover grasped my arm and I did the same to his arm as well. A smirk came up on Grover's face. "They're just jealous that Pan speaks to me and not them. They can't even comprehend that the wild god would speak to someone considered a failure like me." Grover let out a relieved sigh and rubbed his curly brown hair, careful to not hit his small goat horns. "Thanks for helping me with that, Zane. I'm not even sure of what they would have done."

I shook my head a bit. "Anything for a friend, Grover." Over the last six months, Grover and I had actually become friends. Initially we were just associates who were part of the same friend group, with both of us being friends with Percy. We hadn't actually talked too often with each other, but ever since the whole Pan thing, we started talking a whole lot more. He even told me some embarrassing stories of Percy when they were both in middle school, stories I was no doubt about to tease the son of Poseidon about. Speaking of said son of Poseidon, I turned to him and Annabeth, who were trying and failing to hide their obvious attraction to each other. "Percy! Annabeth! How was the movie date?"

Both of the two demigods blushed at my blunt words, but Annabeth was the first to answer. "It was good, Zane. We saw the new Dark Knight movie. The way they did the Joker in that movie was astounding." She began to describe the basic plot of the movie, careful to leave out any major spoilers for me as I had not seen the movie yet. Maybe I should take Taylor and Nico to the movie theaters? That sounds like quite the epic date. After describing the movie, Annabeth's blush deepened as she side eyed Percy. "We also went to Central Park afterwards. It was...quite the experience." Both of them blushed at Annabeth's words, not looking me in the eye.

I grinned at the two lovebirds, not even having to use my telepathy to know that something happened there. "Well, I'd love to hear more about it, you two. But the whole inspection thing is today and I'm sure you haven't gotten the chance to clean your cabin up yet, Percy. You might want to get on that." Percy's eyes widened at my words, and the son of Poseidon quickly nodded. He bid me farewell and immediately super sped off in the direction of his cabin, disappearing out of the eyesight of everyone except for me. I chuckled at Percy's speed. "Does he know Tyson came back to camp yet?" The cyclops had returned at the beginning on the summer, after a year of absence at the forges of Poseidon in Atlantis. I hadn't seen him too much around the camp, as he was spending time with the Hephaestus cabin forging weapons, but I knew he was definitely keeping Percy's cabin fresh.

Annabeth shook her head. "Not yet. It didn't come to mind whenever I was hanging out with him today. We were busy with...other things." She blushed as she trailed off and I smirked at her. She didn't even bother to rebuke me on whatever I was imagining. She shook her head and sighed. "Well, I guess I also need to get back to my cabin and make sure everything is tidy for inspection. I'll talk to you later, Zane." I nodded my goodbye to the daughter of Athena and began to walk back to the arena, intent on seeing the battle between Taylor and Nico play out. I started a simple walk at first, but eventually my impatience got the best of me and I super sped back to the arena as I exited the woods, copying Percy's earlier action.

I appeared in the middle of the arena in the middle of the fighting squares and searched for Nico and Taylor. I found them nearly immediately in one of the squares close to the middle of the arena, their weapons clashing together as they warmed up for what would no doubt be an amazing battle to witness. Nico was on the offensive, swing his sword in quick and precise arcs as he tried to get past Taylor's defense. A few months ago, I wasn't as skilled as Nico in fighting, so I didn't have the best eye for combat back then, but now I had a lot more skill and could see all the intricate precision and speed in each one of Nico's slashes. Taylor, on the other hand, was on the defensive, but was not being overwhelmed. He defended with his shield, purposely not using the concussion ability on it as they were just warming up. While Taylor was mostly blocking and deflecting Nico fast and focused strikes, he was getting a few counter attacks in the form of slashes and stabs that warded Nico off. They weren't immediately aware of my presence, as they were currently warming up. "Hey." Both of them stopped in their paths, with Nico's sword outstretched in a stabbing motioning and Taylor about to move his shield in to knock the sword away. I smirked at the two of them, a smile that they both returned. "So are the two of you warmed up yet? I kinda want to see which one of you is truly better than the other now."

Both of their smirks deepened and they faced each other. "Yeah, I think playtime's over now." Both of them immediately disappeared from what would be a regular demigods view, although I could see them completely perfectly. The two of them slashed, stab and attacked each other in all sorts of way for a couple of brief seconds, but with their immense speed, they exchanged thousands of attacks in that time frame. Eventually, Nico gained the upper hand, slashing his spear into the shaft of of Taylor spear a little harder than Taylor was prepared for, sending the son of Ares skidding back a few feet. Nico jumped in the air, summoning a black shadowy wave over his blade and slashed horizontally at the son of Ares as he descended. Taylor blocked the slash with his shield, unleashing a blast of concussive energy as he did so to dispel the black shadows. Nico was sent off balance as he landed on the ground and took an extra millisecond to right himself. That extra millisecond was all Taylor need to attack Nico with a full speed stab aimed towards the stomach with his spear.

However, instead of being impaled by Taylor's weapon, Nico stepped to the side right before the tip hit him and stepped directly on top of the shaft of the spear as it went by him, performing a Mikiri counter. Taylor pulled he weapon backwards in a vertical swipe, trying to slash Nico with his spear, but Nico now once more held the advantage. He dodged Taylor's attempt at a counter attack with a sideways jump in the air, and held out his arm in an outstretched manner. Black tendrils surrounded his arm and he shout a spike made completely out of shadow at the son of Ares at incredibly high speeds. However, Taylor batted the shadow spike aside with his shield and rushed Nico as he was still in the air. He swung his spear in a fast and focused swipe at The son of Hades' midsection, but Nico deflected the attack mid air. As soon as Nico touched the ground, he melded into the shadows, disappearing from view completely. He then suddenly jumped out of Taylor's shadow out of nowhere and tried to cleave Taylor in two with one powerful stroke. Taylor limboed underneath the attack and quickly shoulder bashed the son of Hades away, creating distance between the two.

The two pranced around each other for a few seconds, sizing each other up and trying to look for openings in each other's defenses. Taylor was the first one to strike, lunging forwards with a power slash with the spear. Nico deflected the spear away, spinning as he did so. Nico then unleashed a barrage of slashes and swipes with his Stygian Iron Sword, jumping, spinning and swerving as he did so. Despite Nico's incredible speed and effort in his wombo combo, Taylor dodged and blocked everyone of Nico's blows. Nico eventually spun around for one powerful swipe, trying to overpower Taylor's shield defense. But Taylor perfectly batted the slash away, absolutely no crack in his defenses or break in his posture. Nico pulled the sword close to his chest with both hands, pointing his blade directly at Taylor's chest for a half second, before he immediately moved forwards in a powerful stab that would have forced Taylor back, even if he did deflect it. However, the son of Ares simply moved out of the way to the side, and planted the edge of his shield on top of Nico's blade, performing the same mikiri counter move Nico had done not several seconds prior in the fight.

Nico pulled the sword up with incredible strength, growling as he did so. He twisted his free hand and the shadows all around the two bended to his will. The shadows themselves became tangible and immediately attacked Taylor in every single direction. Taylor simply jumped into the air with his superhuman strength, soaring nearly twenty feet about the fighting square to avoid all of the shadowy tendrils. He pushed his shield out towards the ground under him, unleashing a concussive blast that dispelled every single one of the ground shadows and fell safely back to the ground. Nico was on him the moment he hit the ground, attacking the son of Ares with a powerful barrage of fast attacks. Taylor expertly deflected every attack with his spear and blocked several others with his shield. Nico suddenly jumped into the air a few feet and slammed his sword down on Taylor's shield with incredible force, making Taylor arms buckle slightly as he blocked the heavy blow. Nico then spun around and swung his blade in a powerful arc, roaring as he did so. Taylor barely deflected the blow with his spear, as he didn't have time to bring his shield up after Nico's first powerful attack. Taylor was sent skidding back several feet from the force of the attack, however his eyes widened once he saw the same thrusting move Nico had used earlier, only this time with even more force.

Taylor quickly moved out of the way, and slammed the side of his shield on the blade, mikiri countering the attack once more. However, Nico quickly disappeared into shadow and just as quickly reappeared behind Taylor. Nico leaped in the air, spinning and unleashing to quick spinning strikes that Taylor barely, but perfectly blocked. Nico had a slight delay in his third spin, moving his hand over the blade to surround the weapon in a coat of shadow and power. He unleashed a final spin and a third immensely powerful blow, creating a slash out of pure shadow with his blade. Taylor was forced to use his concussive blast to even block the attack at all, yet the force of Nico's attack floored the son of Ares. Taylor was sent sprawling to the floor after the powerful blow, but he quickly recovered and got back to his feet. Taylor's eyes narrowed and he immediately blurred towards Nico. He bashed him with his shield, unleashing a concussive blast to know the son of Hades back. Nico was sent to the ground but like Taylor had previously, quickly recovered from Taylor's attack. He recovered just in time to block a quick and precise spear swipe from Taylor, being knocked a little of balance due to the surprising force of Taylor's attack. However, Taylor did not attack just once, no, he attacked several times with several different swipes and stabs with his spear, twirling the weapon in his hand as he did so. He swung with such force the attacks created blasts of wind pressure, with probably would have blow any bystander besides myself away from the arena. Nico, however, perfectly blocked and deflected every one of Taylor's powerful attacks, sweat starting to drip down his brow as he did so.

Nico growled a little, being frustrated with Taylor's unending, powerful barrage of attacks that he continued to unleashing upon the son of Hades. He yelled a bit, creating a burst of shadowy power all around him, forcing the son of Ares off of him. Nico immediately pressed the counterattack, not allowing Taylor to get any breath of relief. Nico slashed, stabbed and swipe with his blade in incredibly fast movements, his attacks definitely being impossible for almost any demigod to see. However, his opponent was absolutely not just any demigod. Taylor met every single one of Nico's incredibly fast and powerful strikes with ones of his one, creating powerful shockwaves that shook the entire arena as their attacks met one another. Eventually, Nico managed to get the upper hand on the son of Ares, staggering him with a particularly fast and hard blow that Taylor barely managed to block with his shield in time. Nico held his sword in both hands close to his side, charging it with shadowy power from his father. The earth underneath the arena started to shift and I could feel Nico's aura starting to flare. He wasn't using his Shadow Form in this fight, but his aura was starting to reach dangerous levels. I was about to step in and stop the fight, as I knew what Nico was about to do was going to be too much, but what Taylor did in response stopped me in my tracks.

Taylor also started to charge his own around into his weapon, mirroring Nico's own action. Dark red energy built on the blade of Taylor's spear, the same color of his father aura back when me and Percy fought him almost three years ago. The two of them built each other's auras around their weapon for several second, creating a brief but incredibly tense pause in their incredible battle. Eventually, Nico struck first, swing his sword in a powerful swipe, a twenty foot long shadow blade being created around the sword and fuming with immense shadow power. Taylor, however, instead of meeting Nico's aura attack with one of his own, narrowly avoided Nico's swing by a hair. Nico was completely vulnerable and the widening of his eyes showed me that he knew it. Taylor spun around in a circle, swinging his spear around as he did so. The move created a massive burst of a red, disc like energy attack from Taylor in all directions. Nico barely got his sword up in time to block the attack, but the force of Taylor immensely powerful maneuver knocked the blade from his hand and him to the ground. Nico hit the ground with a thump, and before he could even try to get up and get his weapon, Taylor appeared above him in a powerful burst of speed, putting his foot on his chest in a blink of an eye. Taylor leveled his spear at Nico's throat. "Yield." The son of Ares said simply, with a stern tone of voice.

Nico looked at the son of Ares with a blank look for a few seconds before a smile made its way onto his face. "Okay, okay. I yield." Nico held up his hands as he did so, knowing he was beat. Taylor sheathed his spear on his back and held out a hand to bring Nico up from the ground. Nico grinned as Taylor helped him to his feet. "Fucking hell, that was intense, Taylor. I didn't know you had gotten so strong in the past few months. I really need to get my training into a higher gear." Nico said with an easygoing tone of voice.

Taylor shook his head with a smile. "Nonsense, death boy. You've been training like crazy ever since unlocking your Shadow Forrm and you're still plenty strong now." Taylor ruffled Nico's hair with his right hand as he put his shield on his back with his left. Taylor's smile turned into a small smirk. "But maybe you should train a little bit harder. I mean, if an Ares kid like myself can beat a big three kid like you..." Taylor trailed off, his smirk growing larger.

Nico pouted at Taylor's words. "Oh don't even start with any of that. We both know I'd completely annihilate you if I used my Shadow Form. You know I was going easy." Taylor smirked and pinched Nico's cheek a bit, earning protest from the son of Hades. Taylor ruffled Nico's long hair once more, making the son of Hades' cheeks red. The son of Ares walked to the edge of the fighting square, where I was standing and where I had been watching the fight from.

I gave Taylor a few claps and an approving smile as he approached me. "Good job. You managed to beat Nico in a one on one fight. You even managed to use the aura weapon technique in the middle of combat as well, and it looked fucking cool as shit when you did it, too. Seriously, nice work." Taylor beamed at my praise, a large smile coming upon his face. "But next time, don't use the aura weapon on that scale in a sparring match. You're lucky Nico was able to actually get away from it unscathed, since that technique is really fucking dangerous when you use it to that degree." Taylor nodded at my words.

Taylor walked up to my side, drapping his arm over my shoulders. It was a little awkward due to my height and large build, but I didn't care or object to the action in the slightest. Taylor sighed contently and looked up at the sun, noting it was a little past noon at the moment. "Well, we have a few hours before dinner and we've basically been training all day at this point." Taylor said as Nico approached the two of us. The son of Hades looked tired and a little worse for wear, but other than a few bruises and small cuts he was fine. "I'd say we'd probably study and train something else for a little bit. Maybe you can show me and Nico some...other techniques?" Taylor said with a sultry smirk, activating some certain neurons in my head.

I smirked right back at the son of Ares. "Well, if you put it like that..." I trailed off as I got closer to Taylor, putting my lips on his.

Needless to say, training for the rest of the day was quite enjoyable.

(000)

{June 11th, 2008}

The rest of the day had went by rather quickly after that. After me, Nico and Taylor's...education lesson, we had resumed training and even both Percy and Tyson joined us a couple of hours before dinner. By that time Quintus had returned from...whatever he was doing and had helped the lot of us train our skills, so everything went on rather smoothly after that. Taylor and Nico had continued to spar, although not at the level and seriousness that they had fought at earlier. Quintus had watched their fights to help them with their skills and battle tactics. Tyson played with Ms. O'Leary, the giant hellhound, so we didn't really interact with him all that much. Both me and Percy also talked and sparred a bit, catching up since the last time I had seen the son of Poseidon.

So the last time I had seen Percy was during the whole alternate universe thing were I had met Matthias Beckett and his friends. Percy had left to go back to live with his mom shortly after that, so it had been nearly six months since I had seen the son of Poseidon. For one, Percy was considerably stronger. Probably nearly eight or nine times his previous level of power, but still a little less than half my own full power. He to,d me he had kicked his training into high gear after meeting his alternate self and had seen how weak he was. Yeah, the alternate Percy had a lot of potential, but he was almost negligible compared to my Percy in terms of power. Percy said he wanted to make sure that never happened to him, and after seeing how strong Hyperion had become once he returned, he really put all his effort into improving his power.

The son of Poseidon's skill had also improved as well, but not as much as his physical power. He said that where he had the power advantage over his alternate self, his alternate self made up for that in skill. Percy said alternate Percy was one of the most skilled opponents he's ever fought and he wants to reach that level of skill. I offered my own aid to Percy's quest, much to the confusion of the skill of Poseidon. That reaction had been justified, as I had never been the most skilled fighter in camp, mostly relying on power. But thanks to my training with Taylor, Chiron and Quintus, that had changed immensely. One quick spar with Percy had shown the fruits of my labour to him, as I was able to disarm him within two minutes in a weapons only fight. It had stunned the son of Poseidon to know I was now that ridiculously skilled, but he then immediately accepted my help.

After training with the son of Poseidon for a couple of hours, everyone in the arena had gone to dinner. Dinner went mostly the same, with everyone sitting at my table and enjoying the food the nymphs served as per usual. Although one key event happened I took note to. Annabeth spoke to Percy and Grover both where Pan could be in hiding. She spoke of the Labyrinth, which was the main reason Clarisse had been absent during the whole Atlas quest from camp. She told us Clarisse had found an entrance to the Labyrinth in Manhattan, explored a little bit, got lost, found a former camper that had joined Luke who had lost his mind inside the Labyrinth, and barely escaped with her life.

Talk about the Labyrinth intrigued me, as Matt and his friends had spoken about it when we had compared our worlds problems to each other. I wondered what would come from the legendary maze, and whether it would be similar or different to what had occurred during Matt's world. Annabeth also went on to give us some general trivia about the Labyrinth, speaking about its size and how it encompasses the entire country and some other general history. She also spoke about how it was the main place that Grover would hide, or how it was the only place in the entire world he could still be if he truly wasn't dead. Gods usually couldn't die, but with the existence of Heavenly Diamond, my killing of Atlas, and the death of Hercules in Matt's world, it wasn't impossible.

Grover was reluctant to actually consider the Labyrinth as an option. As is common, Grover hates underground spaces. It was in his nature as a satyr, as the species loves nature and the wild and would rather be in that than be underground somewhere. Grover hated underground spaces even more than your average satyr, as the whole experience with Polyphemus really messed him up. Grover really did not want to even try to Labyrinth, but Annabeth's logic about it being the best place for Pan to hide since he doesn't want to be found by anyone, especially satyrs, was enough for him to hesitate. He eventually shrugged the issue off, choosing to think about it rather than make a decision.

Early next morning, Lee Fletcher, an Apollo kid, spotted an Aethopian Drakon while on border patrol. The massive monster had been creeping through the woods, trying to sneak up on the demigod guards while hiding in the trees. It was surprisingly stealthy for a massive dragon like monster. After Lee spotted the monster hiding in the trees, the border patrol was called back into camp and Chiron told no one to leave the border of Thalia's tree until the monster was dealt with. The legendary centaur trainer had a simple solution for the problem. "Zane, can you please deal with this problem on our hands?" The Aethopian Drakon's death was quick, as I simply super sped right in front of it and shot a bolt of lightning from my hand and incinerated the monster in an instant. While the Aethopian Drakon itself was not a threat, especially with all of the incredibly powerful demigods at the camp like me, Percy, Nico and Taylor, not to mention several others, the fact that a monster as powerful as an Aethopian Drakon showed up out of nowhere close to camp and tried to get in was very worrying to Chiron. When asked why he was worried, the centaur simply said. "If a monster so brazen such as an Aethopian Drakon would approach the camp so boldly in these times, I am afraid of what will try to force its way into this camp in the future." Chiron's words made us all pause and think about the uncomfortable implications of his answer.

The rest of the day was quick and normal. I mostly trained in the arena with Taylor and Nico, although Percy was with the three of us today as well. He took my earlier offer of aid incredibly seriously and was the first one to arrive for training. I spent most of the day sharing my insights with Percy on swordsmanship, sparring with both Nico and Taylor, and generally just talking and hanging out with the three. Percy felt like an awkward thir- uh, I mean fourth wheel sometimes. We also didn't see Quintus at the arena today, and the boxes he had set all around it were suspiciously missing as well.

I had my suspicions confirmed after dinner that night, as instead of playing Capture the Flag like we usually do on Fridays, Quintus simply brought us all to the edge of the woods with the flags suspiciously missing. He began handing out armor and weapons to people like what was usually done before a game of Capture the Flag, but there wasn't any teams or strategies made beforehand. In fact, Quintus had told us last week after the most recent Capture The Flag that we would be doing something different next week, and to not bother with any team making or planning. After everyone was outfitted in a set of Greek armor, including me and my friends despite not actually needing any, Quintus stood up on a small wooden platform and addressed everyone. "Right, gather 'round." Quintus said as everyone was fully kitted out and ready to go.

A smirk built up on Quintus' grey beaded face as he motioned towards the boxes that were set up in a line all right behind him on the dye of the forest. "Your goal today is simple. Collect the gold laurels without dying." Everyone did a double take at Quintus' words, even me. Was this cleared by Chiron? "The laurels are wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters in those crates." As Quintus said this, said crates started to shift slightly. Most demigods looked at the boxes uneasily. "There are six monsters, with each of them having their own silk package. Only one of them has the golden laurels, so it's your job to find out which one it is and try not to die in the process. Understand? You'll be competing in teams of two with everyone else to obtain the laurels." Everyone started to break away from Quintus, trying to find their friends to team up with. This left me with quite the dilemma. Taylor or Nico? However, Quintus saved me from having to make that choice and held up a hand. "Before you try to team up with your friends, I'm going to inform you that your partner has already been chosen." Almost everyone in the crowd started complaining immediately about the decision, which led to Quintus' eyebrow furrowing. "Silence! There will be no complaining about who you get as your partner!" Quintus' authoritative words silenced everyone. Quintus took out a list out of a pouch on his belt. "I'll announce the one you are partnered with."

Quintus went on to announce the teams, which took a little while since there was nearly a hundred and fifty of us. Taylor and Nico were surprisingly put on the same team, which was kind of a bummer for me, since I wasn't on a team with either of them. Quintus put Annabeth and Arthur on the same team, which caused me to do a double take. I hadn't really seen Arthur around camp in nearly six months, ever since the whole alternate universe debacle with Matt. Tyson and Grover got put on the same team, prompting complaints from the two of them. Tyson and Grover obviously didn't like each other, which was obvious in Grover's case, but not in Tyson's. Why did he not like Grover exactly? "Zane Williams and Percy Jackson." Quintus announced. That caused the entire camp to do a double take, including both me and Percy. Why in the name of Olympus would Quintus put the two strongest demigods in all of camp on the same team. It was basically completely unfair.

As the rest of the teams were being called out and the current teams got together, I walked up to Percy, who was decked out in full Greek armor, minus the helmet. He didn't really need the armor, as I really didn't either, but we both wore it for cosmetic reasons. It just looked cool, alright? Percy currently had Riptide in his hand in its sword form, clearly ready to go. I looked down at Thymos on my belt. Probably shouldn't use a Heavenly Diamond weapon during a camp activity, huh? I stood beside the son of Poseidon. "So, how much should we hold back during this?" I asked Percy with a slight smirk on my face.

Percy looked over at me with the same small smirk on his face as well. "Probably a whole lot. We don't want this game to be over in an instant, right?" I chuckled at the truth in Percy's words, as he wasn't really joking. With our speed and aura sensing, we could find all six monsters in nearly an instant and destroy them to take the laurels. That wouldn't really be any fun though. "But seriously? No using any aura sensing. It wouldn't really be any fair to all the other campers." Percy paused for a second and considered something. "Nico probably won't follow that rule, however. We probably should tell him to not use his aura sense." Like both me and Percy, Nico could sense auras as well. It seems to be a natural ability of big three children, one that the other demigods don't have. I've tried to teach the ability to Taylor, to no avail. Matt Beckett was the only non big three child to possess the ability, so that was rather odd. Malachi, the son of Ouranos I saw in Matt's memories, could do it as well, but he's a Demi-Primordial so he doesn't count.

I chuckled a bit. "Yeah, that sounds like him. He wants every single advantage that he can get." Nico had the same kind of mind set when it came to Myth-O-Magic, so it didn't really surprise me. "He'll need it against us, though. With our power we can be quite overwhelming." I looked at Percy. "And yeah, try not to overdo it during all this. Remember, this is mostly just for fun, at least for us." Percy nodded at my words and got a serious look on his face, readying himself for the upcoming activity.

Quintus finally finished calling out teams and looked at all of us. "I'll be giving the lot of you all a brief headstart. Don't want the fighting to begin before you even get inside the forest." Everyone readied themselves at Quintus' words, tensing up and being ready to go at a moments notice. Quintus looked at the forest. "Begin!" Everyone immediately took off at Quintus' command, with both Nico and Taylor using their speed to immediately disappear out of almost everyone's sight. I deadpanned at their display of immense speed. Both me and Percy move at normal speeds, or at least normal speeds to regular demigods. To regular humans we would have been complete blurs. All of the campers quickly separated as we entered the forest, as we were all competitors.

Me and Percy moved through the forest for a few minutes, the two of us moving in and between the trees with immense grace and fluidity. As we moved, I spoke to the son of Poseidon telepathically. 'So what exactly is our first move?' Percy wasn't able to communicate his thoughts like I could, due to his lack of telepathy. I could only feel Percy feelings instead. All I got from the son of Poseidon was uncertainty. 'I mean, hunting the monsters down would probably be pretty boring, since they would be pretty weak compared to us, even if we held back a lot.' Feelings of agreement from Percy. 'So do you just want to go to Zeus' Fist and hang out in the open. I'm pretty sure our auras will attract the monsters, since we're so powerful. Does that sound like a good plan to you?' More agreement from Percy. 'Alright then. That's what we'll do. Race you to the Fist!" Both me and Percy took off at max speed towards Zeus' Fist, ripping up the ground where we ran.

I made it to the fist first maybe a couple of nanoseconds before Percy, winning the race. The son of Poseidon pouted as he arrived. "Oh, come on!" He complained. Percy sat down on one of the rocks that made up the giant pile of rocks that was Zeus' Fist. Percy mock glared at me, not really angry. "You only beat me because you got a head start. I know I would have won if we had started at the same time."

I laughed as I sat down on a rock beside the son of Poseidon. "Yeah, you can tell yourself that if you want to make yourself feel better." Percy glared at me, but the look faded away quickly as he smiled goodnaturedly. "So, Percy. What's been on your mind for the past few months? You know, besides the whole getting stronger part?" Percy then began to tell me what had been happening in his life for the past six months. He told me his mom had gotten with this guy called Paul Blofis, who Percy called Blowfish for some hilarious reason. He told me in detail about how those empousai had attacked him at his new school that his mom's boyfriend taught at. He also told me of some clear sighted mortal named Rachel, and how he ran into her at the new school. Rachel was some chick he had rescued when Thorne had attacked everyone at the Hoover Dam. Before Percy could tell me anymore, I heard some slight rustling in the trees to the left of us.

I held up a hand, signaling Percy to stay quite. "We're not alone anymore." I stood up from my rock and looked out into the darkness of the night. I resisted the urge to use my aura sensing to tell whether it was a demigod or one of the monsters, as I had challenged myself not to during this game. Percy took Riptide out of its pen form and stood up as well. At both of our movements, whatever was in the trees came forward. As soon as it came into view, I could tell it was not a demigod. It was basically a giant fucking scorpion, dwarfing most hellhounds I had seen, including Ms. O'Leary. I turned to Percy. "You want to take this one?"

Percy shrugged and walked forwards. "Sure. I guess I can." Percy immediately blurred into action, appearing right in front of the giant scorpion. "Let's see what you got." Percy immediately dodged a downward sting from the massive tank sized scorpion, avoiding the dirt that was kicked up as the massive three foot long stinger slammed into the ground. Percy jumped up into the air and kicked the scorpion right in its head, cracking its chitin armor and forcing it to stumble back a few steps. Percy looked at the beast with a bored expression. "Pretty simple, aren't you? Guess I'll just finish you off quickly." Percy did just that, appearing behind the monster with his blade outstretched in an instant. The monster suddenly screamed in pain, fell into two halves and crumbled into golden dust.

I yawned at the display. Is this all Quintus had planned for this whole event? I mean, the giant scorpions would be a tough fight for most other demigods, but everyone in my immediate friend group besides Grover who have virtually no trouble dealing with the things. Quintus probably designed the event for most of the other campers, so I wasn't really going to complain. Before either me or Percy could do anything else, more figures came out of the darkness of the trees. Two more scorpions. I walked forwards, beside the son of Poseidon. "You take one, I take the other?" I offered, even though I knew Percy could effortlessly defeat both of them. Percy nodded and walked towards one of the scorpions.

I sauntered over to one scorpion, which was immediately one it's guard and had its tail ready to try and sting me at a moments notice. I held up a hand. "Oh don't worry, I'm not a threat here." The scorpion didn't believe my obvious lie and continued to stare me down. I walked closer to the monster and jumped at it slightly, as if I was trying to make it flinch. The scorpion didn't hesitate and tried to slam its stinger straight through my body. I caught the three foot long stinger in my hand, the pointy object not doing anything to my skin whatsoever. "I wonder if this is poisonous." I ripped the stinger of the scorpions tail in an instant, getting pained scorpion screams for my trouble. I then threw the scorpion tail right at the scorpions head, instantly piercing through the chitin shell and stabbing the monster through the brain. The scorpion went limp before turning into a pile of golden dust. I sighed, honestly wishing I had gotten more out of the monster. There wasn't any challenge in regular monsters. I had to either fight gods or Titans to really get a good fight nowadays.

I turned back to Percy, seeing him slice of half of his scorpions legs clean off in one swipe then turn what was left of the monster into mush with a single punch to the torso. "Yours have the laurels?" Percy asked me after putting the cap on the tip of his blade, returning it to pen form. I shook my head. Percy shrugged at my answer. "Mine didn't either. I guess that's just our luck. Half of the monsters that were released show up where we are and none of them have what we need. Want to go look for the others?"

I nodded. "Sure. Hopefully they put up a bit more of a fight." Me and Percy began to jog off, running at normal demigod speeds towards the edge of the forest. However, something in the side of Zeus' Fist caught my eye. A slight crack in the side of the pile of stone. I've walked past the little monument probably thousands of times, and the opening on the side was something I've never seen before. I stopped. "Wait." Percy stopped in his tracks as well, waiting for what I had to say. I pointed at the opening. "That's never been there before." Percy looked at the opening in the rocks with a intrigued expression.

"We should check it out." I nodded and followed Percy as he started to walk towards the opening. Normally I would condemn Percy's decision to check without telling anyone, but right now it was probably the best idea. We would just be sent in anyway if we talked to Chiron and the other about it, since we were the strongest, so why not just go now? The two of us walked inside the entrance of the opening, having to duck our head due to our height to get in. We continued to walk deeper and deeper, the stony walls of the cave that was seemingly made in the side of Zeus' Fist smoothining and becoming more square. Eventually, all signs of the cave entrance disappeared and became a hallway that lead to somewhere. Both me and Percy kept walking.

Eventually, we reached the end of the hallway, which gave way into a massive corridor that seemingly expanded infinitely. Ancient Gree-no, Minoan designs filled the walls, intricate detail being able to be made out in all of them. My eyes widened at the sight. Everything felt weird in the massive corridor, which had a nearly thirty foot tall roof and was almost fifty feet wide. Corridor didn't really do what both me and Percy were looking justice. I walked around for a few seconds in one direction, taking in the sight of the ominous hall. I used my aura sense, feeling a weird and ancient aura all around the entire area. I couldn't even make out anything else besides both me and Percy's aura as the corridor was completely muddled with the odd feeling. "The Labyrinth..." I breathed out, knowing the implications of an entrance to it being literally inside camp.

Percy looked at me in surprise. "The Labyrinth? The one Annabeth and Grover had talked about yesterday? The one that everyone from the alternate universe talked about?" I nodded at Percy's words as I walked forwards a couple of steps, feeling the walls and noting how ancient yet stable they felt. "We need to get out of here and tell Chiron of this immediately. He needs to know as soon as possible." Percy's words broke me out of my stupor. Percy was right. We needed out of here right this second. Both me and Percy turned around and walked back the way we came, only to find that the cave entrance was gone. Both mine and Percy's eyes widened. "What the fuck?" The son of Poseidon said in surprise.

I narrowed my eyes and tried to not panic at the fact the entrance was now gone. "Well, that's not good." Percy turned to me, a deadpan look on his face. I could just imagine him thinking 'No shit, Captain Obvious.' I immediately tried to think of ways we could escape the Labyrinth, like tunneling through the walls or simply leveling the entire place. The second option was obviously out, since the Labyrinth ran under the entire country, so if we blew up the Labyrinth, we'd basically destroy the entire country. As I was brainstorming our options, I picked an aura up with my aura sense. It felt old and ancient, but I couldn't get a good feel on how strong it was thanks to the Labyrinth scrambling with the accuracy of the sensing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure emerge from the darkness of the hallway. I turned to the figure and drew Thymos. Percy drew his blade out of its pen form. Both of our weapons illuminated the dark hallway. "Who the fuck are you!?" I yelled out, honestly a little spooked.

The figure came into the light of our weapons after a couple of seconds. It was about ten feet tall and male shaped. As it came into the light, I could make out all of its features. Standing before both me and Percy was a man, a massive one. He had long brown hair that stopped just short of his shoulders, complete with a lightly bearded face. His eyes were bright green and absolutely brimming with intelligence. The figure was muscled, yet not overly so like Atlas or any person this man's height. Actually, this guy was less muscular than both me and Percy, at least proportionately. He definitely wasn't out of shape, however. He wore a simple skin tight black bodysuit, allowing us the see everyone of his individual muscles. He had a few golden Greek designs on the suit, so it wasn't completely boring. The most eye catching figure was an absolutely massive sword on his back.

The blade was as long as the man, so about ten foot in complete length. The handle was at least two feet long with a massive eight foot blade. It was bright silver, and completely filled with intricate runes and engravings so detailed I couldn't even make out all of them even with my enhanced sight. The man smirked. "Ah, I wasn't exactly expecting anyone to actually be here to meet me at the entrance of this place. I'm pretty sure you know who I am. My name is Prometheus."

Ah fuck.

(000)

Alright, well that's chapter twenty six in the books. More than one fourth of the way to one hundred, which is my goal for this fic, but it'll probably be longer.

Anyway, sorry I got this out so late. I just started a new job at Walmart a couple of weeks ago, so it's been pretty hecticfor me lately. And everyone also knows the first chapter of a new arc is the hardest to write, so that also had something to do with it. Anyway, it's here and I'll be doing my best to get the next chapter out as fast as possible. Anyway, I'm going to bed now lol. Later bitches!