Chapter 11
A reason to die
O-O-O-O-O
The Peryton let out a final shriek as Labrys tore into its neck. As it collapsed to the ground, the Minotaur yanked his axe loose from its corpse as the monster crumbled to dust. Around him the Spartoi soldiers reloaded their firearms, having slain the rest of the stag monster's flock. Mortal weapons were far weaker against monsters than celestial bronze, but their automated fire was enough to bring the winged monsters to the ground for the skeletons to finish them off by hand.
Although it had been a hassle to determine the destination of the train the Demigods rode and find an exit to the Labyrinth nearby, the Minotaur had been able to find an entrance within the general area that the train would stop. Emerging from beneath a pile of rocks, the Minotaur and the squad of Spartoi had stepped into the middle of a herd of Perytons just beyond the boundaries of a small mortal village in the mountains. His gaze trained over the small settlement before he grunted and signaled for the Spartoi to follow him.
The Mist thickened as the group of monsters entered the village, concealing their true selves from the sight of mortals. He had no idea what they were seeing when they looked at him, but as usual, that didn't matter.
"SPREAD. OUT." He growled at the undead soldiers accompanying him. "THEY. WILL. NEED. TO. COME. HERE. ONE. WAY. OR. ANOTHER. IF. THEY. HAVEN'T. ALREADY." The Spartoi let out a clattering hiss of affirmation as they scattered throughout the alpine village, eagerly awaiting for their prey to pass through.
The Minotaur himself wandered through the streets, his gaze passing over signs he couldn't read. He was looking for something in particular, and even though he couldn't decipher the characters plastered on the buildings, he could still- There! The brightly colored sign that spread out wide over the building's entrance with a big bold font. That building was a grocery store if he had ever seen one. The Minotaur had no money on hand nor anything he needed to buy, but that was not what he sought within. Ducking his head low to step through the door, he approached the clerk who sat waiting at the checkout alone.
If the clerk was afraid, he did well at not showing it. He still stiffened as the Minotaur approached, on guard against the incredibly tall figure marching directly at him. "Um… hello?" The clerk greeted nervously. "Can I help y-"
"TRAins." the Minotaur grunted, forcibly lowering his voice as he spoke so as to not frighten the mortal, coughing slightly to clear his throat. "Trains. Are. There. Any. Near. By?"
"T-trains?" The clerk stammered. "I mean, there's the railway just outside of town, but that thing hasn't seen use since the forties. There aren't any trains running on it anymore."
No trains running on it? That meant the Demigods hadn't passed through yet. Good. There was still time to catch them. He turned and left the store and the nervous clerk behind, making his way for the forest and the abandoned railway that lay within it. He would find those Demigods no matter what he had to do, and he would…
"GRRRRR…" But there was still the issue of Percy Jackson. While he had made it his life's goal to hunt the son of Poseidon down, that was not the reason why he was acting as the leader of the Spartoi as they hunted down this questing party. No, he chased the questing party for the simple reason that Atlas would have killed him for his failures otherwise. That was the only reason he had agreed to this mission because Percy Jackson was not supposed to be participating in this quest. And yet, the son of Poseidon mingled with the daughter of Zeus, the Satyr, and the acolytes of Artemis as though he had been one of them all along.
For what reason? Even if they defied Kronos, no Demigod would so submissively agree to every last favor that the gods asked of them. Surely Percy Jackson could not have deliberately gone out of his way to track down the questing party and weasel his way into their ranks out of loyalty to the gods of Olympus alone. So why? Why was he here? Why join a quest he had no part in? Why put his life on the line for a thankless mission into the jaws of peril? For some reason, that question burned at the Minotaur's psyche. He needed an answer, he needed one now. He would even be willing to put his quest for revenge against the sea-spawn aside, at least for a little bit, so that he could ask that question to the boy.
Maybe that was the reason he had ordered the Spartoi to remain in the village, unaware of the train's location.
At last, he stumbled upon the old, worn rails that the questing party would be riding down soon enough. Crouching down to the tracks, he placed his ear near the metal rails and listened. With the mask in the way, it wasn't as easy to track things via sound, but the monster's hearing was still good enough to pick up at least a very small hint of vibration. The train would be approaching soon. Time for him to retreat into the treeline and await his quarry.
Sure enough, the Sun West Lines train pulled to a stop in the woods outside the small village, the fancy sports cars it carried contrasting heavily with the rustic train tracks that carried it. And out from the train hopped the Demigods that he was looking for.
"A-CHOO!"
"Geez Grover, you okay? You've been sneezing like crazy." Percy asked his satyr friend.
The nature spirit sniffled and rubbed his nose. "Yeh. Sorry, I dink de pollen from yesterday is making me act up," he responded, his words muddled by his own mucus.
"Huh. I didn't think nature spirits could even have pollen allergies."
"Dey can't!" Grover moaned. "Dat just goes to show you how potent dose pollen bombs are."
"Then why didn't it work on the Minotaur?" Thalia asked.
Grover blew his nose into a handkerchief. "Dunno. Big nostrils I guess?"
That earned a small chuckle from the group. But not from the Minotaur. His nostrils were not that big!
"Anyway, sorry." Grover apologized. "I won't be able to smell dings as clearly for a bit."
Good enough for the Minotaur. He chortled slightly and continued to trail the party as quietly as he could, slowly gaining on them. He had questions that needed answering.
"So where do we go from here?" Percy asked the others.
"We find another way to continue westward, presumably," Zoe answered. "At least, that is what the prophecy has told us."
Silence fell upon the group as they trekked towards the village. An unspoken tension began to build amongst them at the reminder of the prophecy.
"Okay listen, about that-" Bianca began. "Th-the prophecy. So, they're supposed to be a hundred percent true, all the time, always, right?"
"Prophecies can have many meanings and interpretations," Zoe responded matter-of-factly. "But in general, yes. The words of the prophecy must come true in some form or another."
"Then…" They all knew what Bianca was going to say next. "'One will be lost in the land without rain.' And 'One shall perish by a parent's hand.' Those… Those are all going to come true then? Two of us aren't going to be coming back from this quest alive?"
"Lost," Zoe spoke harshly. "Does not mean killed. It could very well just mean 'lost'. As long as the Oracle offers room for interpretation, then interpret I shall."
"But 'perish by a parent's hand' doesn't really have any double meanings, does it?" Thalia remarked. "That is an absolute, unavoidable casualty, but you didn't say anything about that."
Zoe said nothing and continued to trudge forward. The others slowed slightly, surprised that she didn't have a witty retort ready for the daughter of Zeus. Grover's mother and father were long dead, and Percy had a good relationship with his mother, and Poseidon too, for how little they interacted. Thalia… had some very choice thoughts regarding her father, who himself was temperamental. But in the end, Zeus did seem to care for his daughter's well-being. Bianca's parents, divine or otherwise, were completely unaccounted for, leaving them possible suspects. And Zoe...
"Uh, Zoe?" Thalia asked. "Are you alright? Is… is there something about the prophecy you're not telling us?"
Zoe stopped in her tracks, bringing up her arm to wipe her face on her sleeve. She looked upwards and inhaled deeply. "No. It is as you say. It is unavoidable, one of us is going to die on this quest."
"At. Least. One. Of. You. Is. Going. To. Die. On. This. Quest." The Minotaur corrected.
The Demigods jumped as the monster of the Labyrinth revealed himself. In an instant, Bows were drawn, shields unfurled, magic weapons burst from their disguises, and a reed pipe was placed menacingly at the lips.
"Crap!" Percy hissed. "How in Hades does such a big monster keep sneaking up on us like this?!"
"Well, you know what they say about the quiet ones," Thalia muttered grimly
"No. What do they say?"
"That they're-" Thalia hesitated for a moment. "-Quiet?"
"Why?" The Minotaur growled.
Thalia blinked. "Why are you quiet?"
"Why," he continued. "Do. You. Insist. On. Throwing. Your. Lives. Away. For. The. Gods?! Why. Do. You. Partake. In. These. Inane. Quests. When. You. Know. That. Some. Of. You. Will. Never. Return?!"
"Oh no." Percy groaned. "Is this another 'I hate Olympus, join Kronos' army today' pitch? Because I've really had my fill of tho-"
"ANSWER! THE! QUESTION!"
"Listen," Thalia growled, spear and shield ready for combat. "I don't know if you've noticed, but none of us are particularly fond of the gods either. We aren't on this quest for them."
"Then. Why?!"
"We all have our reasons, beast," Zoe responded with her bow trained on his heart. "It is true, I am on this quest to rescue lady Artemis. But not because she is a god. It is because she offered me kindness and camaraderie when I needed it the most. Family when I had none."
"Yeah," Bianca added. "And I just joined the Hunters. I'm not as close to Artemis as the others, but I owe this to them for accepting me."
"I really joined this quest to stick it to Nightshade," Thalia admitted. "But there's someone on this quest I want to save too."
Percy seemed to wince at Thalia's remark but spoke up as well. "Yeah. I'm on this quest for Annabeth. No use in pretending otherwise."
"I actually tried backing out of this quest so Percy could go," Grover added sheepishly. "But if there's a chance for me to save Annabeth and keep Percy and Thalia safe, I'll do it."
The Minotaur just stood and stared. He was quiet, as though he was surprised at their answers. There… there had to be more to it, right? They weren't just risking their lives because… because…
"...Are. You. Saying… That. You're. Throwing. Your. Lives. Away… For. Your. Friends…?"
"Yeah, I am." Percy responded defiantly.
"Yeah, me too." As did Thalia.
"Th-that's right!" And Grover.
"...The Hunters are my friends, yes." Bianca.
"I… would like to consider Lady Artemis my friend." Zoe.
For their friends. For their friends, their lives were worth risking. For their friends, the worst of fates were a small price to pay. For their friends, they had a reason to die. They had a reason to die because their friends gave them a reason to live. The Minotaur remembered that night he first met the son of Poseidon. He remembered the battered mortal woman who stood before him, refusing to let him pass while her son ran for the safety of the Camp. He remembered that act, how one could so easily put their lives on the line for someone they loved.
He also remembered the Labyrinth. He remembered his head clasped in an accursed bronze mask. He remembered how he would wail in fear of the dark only for his echoes to scream back at him. He remembered feeding on rats and bugs, and when those became too small to feed him, he would devour the flesh of the unlucky humans who wandered the maze and died. He remembered how no one was there to save him in the end.
Why?
WHY?!
WHY COULDN'T SOMEONE SAVE HIM, TOO?!
"* **** ** **** ***"
"Show. Me. Then." he whispered, his voice nearly inaudible to the Demigods. "SHOW ME THAT YOUR FRIENDS ARE WORTH DYING FOR!"
Like a flash of lightning, the Minotaur shot at the Demigods. The Hunters loosed their arrows, but a mighty sweep of his arm was all he needed to cast them to the wind. He crashed into the ground before them like a living missile, immediately swinging his arms like colossal clubs. Percy and Thalia closed the distance between them and their foe, spear and sword at the ready to take him on.
Together, the two Demigods fought like a storm, a flurry of slashes and thrusts keeping the Minotaur on the back foot as he defended against their onslaught. But the Minotaur was a natural disaster in his own right. Although his fighting style seemed wild and barbaric, he moved with surprising grace. Sword strikes were batted away by the flat of their blade. Spear thrusts stabbed at air and dirt as they were diverted away from their target. Whatever strikes he could not parry, he would twist his body away to dodge with surprising agility. What would have been a deep slash to his elbow that would've rendered that arm useless became a small cut on his forearm. What would have been a fatal spear strike through the heart merely grazed his already-ruined body armor. What would have stabbed him in the throat skittered and sparked off of his mask.
Another barrage of arrows flew towards him, but it didn't matter. He ignored them as they sunk into his flesh, continuing his rampage. More sword wounds opened up. More spear wounds were inflicted. More arrows dug into his body. He ignored them all. Just as the Demigods and Hunters fought for their lives and the lives of their friends, the Minotaur too held nothing back.
"RRRRRRAAAGH!" Tree roots burst from the ground as the satyr played a shrill tune on his reed pipes, wrapping around the Minotaur like heavy manacles. With a thundering yell, he tugged on his bindings with all his might, tearing them from the earth and swinging them around like a massive flail. They lashed out at his foes, sweeping them off their feet and scattering them across the snowy ground.
"Hffff... hfff..." He let the thick roots in his hands drop to the ground as his shoulders slumped in exhaustion. He felt as though he had gotten his point across.
...Wait, what?
What point had he been trying to make? It… ah, his head was spinning. He had really exerted himself just now, it felt like he was running out of breath. Damn it, damn it, he was trying to say something! What was it? What was he trying to do?!
Around him, the Demigods were slowly pulling themselves to their feet. They were dazed. Even in his exhausted state, it would be so easy to grab them by their little heads and squeeze until they stopped moving. It would be so easy…
Before he realized he was moving, the Minotaur was standing over the downed Percy Jackson. His quarry for… years. It had been years since they had first fought at the border to the half-blood camp, hadn't it? And now, he was right here. Right in front of him. All he needed to do… was reach down and kill the sea-spawn.
"Hey." The Minotaur didn't find himself surprised as he heard a voice from behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the daughter of Zeus standing shakily, still sore from getting battered by the tree roots- but still standing. Of course she was. It was a toss-up between her and the satyr, honestly. "Stay away from him."
She held her spear in both hands, her shield still laying in the snow away from her. She was clearly as exhausted as he was, and it looked as though he could smack the weapon out of her grip with minimal effort.
He looked back at Percy Jackson, who looked back up at him, fully awake. They stared at each other silently, neither of them moving a muscle. He felt his hand clench into a fist at his side. Why? Why did these people struggle so much? Why did he want to know? Why did he feel these confusing feelings? Why, why, why?!
The other Demigods and the satyr had all recovered now. They all stood around him, cautious but still unsure of what was going on or what to do.
"What is he doing?" Bianca whispered to her fellow Hunter. "Why is he just standing still like that?"
"I don't know." Zoe replied. Both still held their bows but had not nocked an arrow lest they alarm their now unmoving enemy.
But while the Minotaur was standing still, his mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. Questions, contradictions, reasoning, and excuses all forced themselves to the front of his mind and receded just as quickly, like the rise and fall of the tide. He wanted something but he never truly stopped to consider what it was he wanted or why he wanted it. He felt like he was on the cusp of an answer, and yet…!
Click!
...and yet that maelstrom of thoughts and inner turmoil scattered like the wind. A single noise cleared all thought from his mind. The cocking of a firearm may as well have been a volcanic eruption for how it drowned out all other noise.
No thoughts passed through the Minotaur's mind. No questions were asked, no excuses were given, all that was left was pure instinct. His body moved on its own.
BANG
The bullet stung as it struck his flesh, but it mattered little. The round fired from mortal small-arms didn't even break the skin on his shoulder as he threw himself over the prone Perseus Jackson.
The Skeleton soldier chittered with what almost seemed like confusion as the Minotaur reared up to his full height and interposed himself between the Demigods and their undead assailant. The questing party once more regrouped behind their unexpected ally, still confused as to what exactly the bull-headed giant was doing and why. He had just tried to smash them into jam a few moments ago, why was he protecting them now?
Truth be told, the Minotaur couldn't answer that question himself. All that he knew was that he had some unfinished business to attend to, and the Spartoi weren't going to get in his way.
He growled at the skeleton warrior. "Stand down." but the Spartoi were not following his orders. They never were. To them, he was just a key to the Labyrinth and an extra nose to be used to sniff their Demigod prey out. Their mission was to exterminate Percy Jackson, and if the Minotaur stood in their way they would take him out too.
With a chilling hiss, the Spartoi soldier raised his gun to his colossal opponent's chest, intent on felling the new obstacle that stood in its way-
KRACK-KRRNCH
-But the Minotaur was far faster. Faster than the Spartoi could react, his hand shot out and closed over the skeleton's skull crushing it like a grape in a single, fluid movement. The now-headless monster stumbled backward in surprise, having been deprived of 4 of its five senses as well as a part of its body most living beings would consider vital to existing.
But of course, Spartoi were not living creatures. The actual destruction of its skull would take longer to recover from than if it were simply knocked off, but even now the broken fragments of bone began to reassemble like a demented jigsaw puzzle.
The Minotaur had his own way of dealing with that particular problem. With a punt that could have sent a car tumbling through the air, he kicked at the dazed Spartoi and its reforming head, pulverizing the skeleton and sending bones flying. It would take far longer for the skeleton warrior to reform from that.
But the monster's bones had not yet even hit the ground when bullets whizzed through the forest, bouncing off of his body, but very nearly missing the Demigods behind him. The other Spartoi stationed throughout the village past the trees had surely heard their comrade's gun go off; and those that didn't were alerted soon enough. And now they had arrived in full force, prepared to eliminate the traitor and finish off their prey.
"rrrrrrRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" The Minotaur let out a thundering war cry, daring his foes to bring everything they had. Gunfire continued to pepper him and tear through the trees as he rushed in the direction of his foes.
Almost out of habit, Percy made to follow the monster of the Labyrinth as he charged off to battle, only for Zoe to grab him by the shoulder and pull him back.
"What? Shouldn't we help him?" Percy asked, confused as they began to run in the opposite direction of the sounds of conflict.
"No. The Spartoi are after us primarily. If we step up to engage them, they will switch their focus to us. I do not think highly of modern mortal weaponry, engaging a gun-wielding Spartoi at range with only a bow is not a good idea." Zoe glanced behind her in apprehension. "...Besides. If the Beast is indeed trying to help us, it would do him no good for us to waste his distraction. We must get to Lady Artemis as fast as we can."
As bullets whizzed through the trees, the wildlife of the winter forest was sent into a panic as animals of all kinds fled from the invisible threat. Squirrels scattered, deer bolted, birds took to the sky alongside… Perytons. Zoe almost cried out in joy as she saw the deer monsters. It would be difficult, but with the satyr's help…
"Follow me!" the veteran Hunter barked. "I have a plan!"
"RAGH!" A ways back behind the party, the Minotaur charged straight through the closest Spartoi, trampling the undead soldier beneath his boots. More bullets struck his body, bringing pain but drawing no blood. Grabbing Labrys from his belt, he threw the two axes at the skeletons on his right, crushing a skull and tearing one of the warriors in two. One of the Spartoi rushed him, a shock baton drawn, but scattered to the wind like dandelion seeds with a sweep of his arm. The Spartoi threw themselves at him endlessly, but he kept his pace regardless. If they could reform themselves eternally, then so be it! He would continue crushing them for twice as long!
Another charge, shoulder-checking a skeleton to pieces. Labrys reclaimed, he bounced a bullet back into a Spartoi's skull. Three rushing him from all sides, he spun in a circle, axes in hand, slicing the skeletons to bits.
Overhead, a shrill shriek caught the attention of the combatants below. Above the trees, the Demigods flew away, mounted on Perytons tamed by the satyr's magic and the authority of Artemis within the Hunters. Spartoi quickly lunged for their scattered guns to shoot their escaping prey down, but the Minotaur stomped them flat. With their quarry on the run again, the undead warriors began to retreat, but first, they would have to escape the Minotaur.
And no one escapes the Minotaur.
He would have to catch up to the questers as fast as he could, but now? Now was time for a little destruction.
Cing Krimson's Qringe Korner: Eight days? That's basically a week, right?
Ugh. Actually, most of this chapter was done a few days after the last one went up, but I hit a writer's block near the end. I could only write like, a sentence a day until today. So because of that, the latter half of this chapter may be a bit weak. Or not. I don't know, I can't think critically about my own work. Socrates said "I know that I know nothing". Or something like that. Yeah okay, if there is something in this chapter, or really anywhere else in the fic both in the past and future, do let me know in the review! It really would help me grow as a writer, especially since doing that on my own is a bit difficult. Don't worry, I'm a big boy. I can handle criticism. Hell, I can even handle flaming! Unless you're calling me a slur. I can handle that too, I just don't think people should do that.
Uh, the next chapter is going to be quite a bit shorter, but it should come out sooner. It was supposed to be an interlude, but there's no way to mark things as an interlude, so it'll just be a short chapter. After that, It should be the climax/finale to this… arc? I guess I should call it that? After that we'll be moving on from The Titan's Curse, I mean.
Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th... That's all, folks!