So chapter 8 turned out to be pretty long so the next couple of chapters will be following on from it and will mainly focus on key moments from the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus books. Thanks to Driftlover95, I don't want a name 51, Iceman68 (which is a great username) and Empress cookie for following the story and adding it to their favourites lists and to MyFandoms7, siddhu08081992 and Areto2007 for adding the story to their favourites list
Chapter 9
The more the Older Campers told us about everything they went through I couldn't imagine how much harder it got for them to talk about it because it definitely got harder to listen to. The summer after the battle at Mt. Tam Percy and Rachel were attacked by demons called empousai which are basically vampires with one donkey leg and one bronze leg during the 9th grade orientation of Goode High School where Percy's current step-dad Paul works as an English teacher and accidentally destroyed the music room in the ensuing fight but eventually killed the empousai who had been disguised as cheerleaders. After leaving through the new hole in the wall Rachel and Percy encountered Annabeth and Rachel gave Percy her number which led to a long, uncomfortable taxi ride to camp with Annabeth for Percy.
After arriving at camp Percy went to the arena while Annabeth went to talk to Clarisse about something where he met the new sword fighting teacher Quintus and his pet hellhound Mrs. O'Leary along with several large crates that Quintus said were for a special training exercise. After meeting Quintus Percy headed to the woods where Grover was basically on trial by the Council of Clover Elders after claiming to hear Pan during the quest to rescue Annabeth and Artemis and was only being given one last chance to find Pan before his searcher's license would get revoked. Luckily Annabeth and Clarisse had a solution in the form of the Labyrinth after Clarisse's now boyfriend, a son of Hermes called Chris who was one of the demigods who joined Kronos, showed up near Clarisse's mother's house in Arizona having gone totally mad while trying to navigate the Labyrinth which led Chiron to send Clarisse on a scouting mission.
That night Percy was shown an IM of Nico on the banks of the River Styx throwing his Mythomagic cards into a fire while talking to a ghost about exchanging a soul who had cheated death in exchange for getting Bianca back which didn't sound good.
The next night during Quintus' training exercise which involved trying to take tokens from giant scorpions Percy and Annabeth found and entrance to the Labyrinth in the camp woods which gave Luke a chance to attack camp if he found Ariadne's string which let's you navigate the Labyrinth. It seemed like they were only in there for a few minutes trying to find the Mark of Daedalus which gave them the way out but they were in there for an hour because of some weird time difference thing I don't fully understand.
That night Percy had a dream about Daedalus and Icarus after Daedalus was tortured by King Minos and being ordered to build his workshop in the middle of the Labyrinth. The next day during a meeting of all the Head Counsellors at camp Annabeth was to lead the quest due to her unrivalled knowledge of the Labyrinth and because Clarisse refused to go after Juniper admitted she saw Luke poking around the entrance of the Labyrinth before he left to join Kronos. While Annabeth was getting the prophecy from the Oracle Juniper also told Percy she saw Quintus poking around the Labyrinth entrance.
Percy went to tell Annabeth what Juniper told him and found Clarisse trying to comfort Chris who was hallucinating about someone called Mary. Clarisse held Chris' hand as he grimaced at the memory of joining Kronos. When Annabeth came back she chose Percy, Grover and Tyson to go with her into the Labyrinth and Quintus gave Percy a special whistle made of ice from the River Styx that would let him summon Mrs. O'Leary. That night Percy had a dream about Kronos talking to Luke aboard the Princess Andromeda about a bargain and Kronos finally rising again after 1 more person joined them. When he woke up Percy was once again shown an IM Nico, this time in a graveyard making a happy meal offering to the dead in the hopes of seeing Bianca but she didn't show. One of the ghosts who did show up was Theseus who tried to warn Nico against trying to summon Bianca. At this point Nico shook his head and said "I should have listened." and Hazel rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. "If you had you'd still be alone when really you belong here with all the people who love you." she said and Nico hugged her again.
When Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson descended into the Labyrinth they eventually came to a large room full of mosaics of the gods and their attempt to leave the room only brought back this they had the two faced god Janus for company. Janus' kids perked up at the mention of their dad as did Janus himself who tried to offer Annabeth a choice in the Labyrinth before Hera showed up and sent Janus on his way before offering to help the Quest.
"I'm sure you'll agree my help was useful correct?" Hera said looking imperious. Percy and Annabeth looked at each other then back to Hera and said "No." The older campers and even a couple of the gods laughed but me and the rest of the new campers shocked and Hera looked furious. After Hera left them they decided to take the left tunnel after both Tyson and Grover said something big was coming down the right tunnel quickly.
The left tunnel ended up taking them all the way to Alcatraz which I think all of us new campers were surprised at. Eventually I voiced the question "Wasn't the Labyrinth just under Minos' palace in Crete? How could be under the entire United States?" almost all eyes turned to Annabeth who stumbled over her words as if unprepared but eventually found the right words and said "Space and distance matter as little in the Labyrinth as time does." still none the wiser I just shrugged and said "Right, OK" in Alcatraz Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover found the dragon lady Kampe torturing Briares, the last of the Hundred-Handed Ones.
At this point one of Annabeth's siblings piped up and said "I thought there were three of them." Annabeth turned to look at him said "There used to be but the other two faded a long time ago." Percy patted Tyson's huge arm comfortingly as Tyson looked on the verge of tears. Eventually they convinced Briares to escape with them as Tyson held off Kampe. Back in the Labyrinth Percy had a dream of Daedalus and Icarus' escape from the Labyrinth and Icarus' death. I gasped and put my hands over my mouth in shock and horror as Percy described seeing Icarus fall into the sea. After Percy woke up they found their way to the Triple G Ranch and found Nico in the company of Geryon, his stable hand Eurytion and his two headed dog Orthus.
The god looked furious when they found out Geryon was breading all kinds of mythical creatures for food including Apollo's sacred herd of bright red cattle. The rest of the new campers and I couldn't help but laugh at the idea but bright red cows but quickly shut up after seeing the look on Apollo's face. When Geryon mentioned he was gonna sell them all to Luke Percy offered to clean out the stables of the man eating horses in exchange for being let go. He tried to use the river like Heracles did but the naiad wasn't having and convinced Percy to use his powers instead via fossilised sea shells.
My eyes lit up and I said "Can you teach me to do that?" Percy looked at me with a gleam in his eyes and said "Anytime sis." my face flushed as he called me sis. I hadn't really registered it on my first day at camp but hearing now felt nice. Anyway after Percy cleaned the stables Geryon tried to go back on the deal they made and Percy killed him with and arrow in each chest. "I still owe you 2 for that." Percy said looking at Apollo and Artemis. They then tried to convince Nico to go with them but he refused even after he summoned Bianca and she told him to try and forgive them. That night Percy had a dream of Luke at Mt. Tam with Kampe and Kelli one of the empousai who attacked Percy and Rachel at Goode and of Daedalus killing his own nephew.
The next morning Eurytion gave them a small mechanical spider to lead them to Hephaestus. All of Athena's children shuddered at the mention of spiders except Annabeth who started hyperventilating and her eyes glazed over which according to my mam is very common when people with PTSD have a flashback. As Annabeth started shaking Percy hugged her tightly and started stroking her back. As Percy peppered Annabeth's cheeks and lips with kisses, I heard him whispering something about Arachne being dead. Once she calmed down a little bit, Annabeth's brother Malcolm joined Percy in putting his arms around her. Annabeth took a deep breath and continued the story as the spider led them to lair of the Sphinx which made Annabeth answer all kinds of trivia questions. When Annabeth refused to complete the test the Sphinx attacked and the others held it off long enough to escape even Tyson who had been attacked by a Sphinx when he was living on the streets before he met Percy.
Eventually they found their way to Hephaestus' workshop who agreed to help them find Daedalus if they found out who was using the forge at Mt. St. Helens where Typhon was buried under. It was on the way to Mt. St. Helens that Grover and Tyson smelled the presence of Pan so Percy suggested they split up with Tyson and Grover going to find Pan and himself and Annabeth continuing to Mt. St. Helens where they found the forge had been taken over by Telkhines which apparently are sea demons that are part man, part dog and part sea lion.
Turns out the Telkhines had taken over the forge to remake Kronos' scythe from Luke's half steel half Celestial Bronze sword Backbiter. Percy seemed to shudder at the memory but I wasn't sure if it was the memory of Backbiter or the memory of Kronos' scythe and I didn't really want to ask. Percy decided to cause a distraction to allow Annabeth to escape and ended up causing and explosion that let Typhon escape. "Wait a minute, that was you?" I asked as I remembered seeing about the eruption on the news. Percy nodded and I said "Remind me not to get on your bad side." all the older campers shared nervous looks that confused me.
Anyway when Percy woke up after the explosion he was on Calypso's island that I not gonna try pronounce the name of. He was there for two weeks until Hephaestus showed up to give Percy the low down on the aftermath of the explosion which caused the volcano to erupt and Typhon to escape. When he arrived back at camp Percy told Annabeth his plan to go back into the Labyrinth with help from Rachel. That night Percy had yet another dream of Minos arriving at the court of King Cocalus looking for Daedalus only to be killed by Cocalus' daughters. The dream then changed to Luke and his forces in the Labyrinth discussing the fact that a Demigod had entered the maze. On the way to New York Annabeth said she got am IM from Eurytion that Nico had gone back into the Labyrinth after possibly talking to Minos' ghost again.
Not long after entering the Labyrinth through the basement of the Marriott Hotel Percy, Annabeth and Rachel were soon cornered by a group of monsters including Kelli the empousa who took them to the arena of mine and Percy's half brother Antaeus. "Half brother?" I asked looking between Percy and Dad. "His mother was Gaia." Dad replied. Luke and his army were there too providing Antaeus with 'entertainment' in the form of gladiator fights in exchange for passing through his territory on their way to invade camp, and unfortunately Percy became part of that entertainment after Antaeus found out he was a son of Poseidon. Antaeus claimed he was dad's favourite son and built the arena as a temple out of the skulls of people he had killed. I gasped and recoiled in horror at the thought of being related to such a monster.
After killing a dracaena Percy as forced to fight a son of Nemesis called Ethan. Nemesis herself and her kids shifted uncomfortably then relaxed when Percy said he refused to kill Ethan, then everybody tensed, none more so than Dad when Percy said he challenged Antaeus himself and Annabeth visibly paled at the memory. Everyone then relaxed a bit when Percy explained how he killed Antaeus by pulling into the air on chains then stabbing him with Riptide, then tensed again as they learned Luke attempted to reneg on the deal that said they could leave if Percy won the fight but luckily they escaped with a bit of help from Mr's O'Leary.
After escaping the Labyrinth Percy had a dream of Grover and Tyson in trouble before he, Annabeth and Rachel found Daedalus' workshop where they met Quintus who revealed that he was Daedalus in an automaton body. Then Minos, Nico and a few monsters and during the fight Minos revealed he had tricked Nico into trying to help him kill Daedalus so he could return to life before Percy, Rachel, Nico and Annabeth escaped by borrowing a few sets of Daedalus' wings and flying out through the windows.`After they landed Rachel used the fact her dad is some big businessman to score them a ride to help them search for another entrance to the Labyrinth which was in a local mining museum. In the Labyrinth they found the way to the entrance near Mt. Tam which Percy volunteered to check out. He found out the telkhnies had succeed in reforging Kronos' scythe from Backbiter and he tried to convince Ethan not to join Kronos but unfortunately Ethan didn't listen and his oath to Kronos allowed Kronos to rise and possess Luke's body.
The rest of the New Campers and I gasped in shock and a son of Demeter asked "How could Kronos posses a mortal's body?" to which Percy replied "Kronos still wasn't at full strength and Luke had taken on the Curse of Achilles by bathing in the River Styx." I shook my head and asked "What kind of idiot would willingly jump into the River Styx?" to which Percy replied "You'd be surprised." anyway they only escaped because Rachel hit Kronos/Luke In the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush which everyone laughed at, except Thalia and Annabeth who were almost in tears at the memory of Luke being possessed. After they escaped they found Grover and Tyson with Pan who provided some words of wisdom and advice before fading. "How does a god fade?" a son of Athena asked. "If people stop believing in them then a god slowly loses his or her power until they lose it completely."
After leaving the Labyrinth Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson and Nico left Rachel in New York as they headed back to camp by Pegasus, after Annabeth convinced Nico to go with them. They arrived back at camp just in time to finish preparing the defences before Luke's army of monsters attacked. During the battle Grover managed to cause a panic causing the monsters to rout, Briares arrived and crushed and Daedalus sacrificed himself to destroy the Labyrinth and Luke's army with it. After the battle the Council of Cloven Elders tried to exile Grover but reached a stalemate thanks to Chiron and Dionysus who had cured Chris of his madness after Pollux's twin brother Castor died during the battle. A comforting arm was put around Pollux's shoulders and after a moment of silence for everyone who died in the battle Percy continued by saying Nico was leaving cam to continue his training with the dead, and Tyson and Briares were going to stay with Dad.
At Percy's 15th a couple of days birthday party dad showed up and after a brief talk said Percy was his favourite son and gave him a sand dollar as a present. I know favourite son doesn't mean favourite child but tears still formed in my eyes and I tried to wipe them away before anyone noticed but Percy must have as he asked "You OK Amelia?" I managed to fake a tired smile and say "Yeah I'm just a little tired." After dad left and Percy took the moonlace plant he got from Calypso to his bedroom Nico showed up with an idea to fight Kronos, in other words Percy taking on the Curse of Achilles. I blushed and simply said "Oh" Percy smiled kindly at said "Don't worry about it."
"Do you still have that moonlace Percy?" Calypso asked. "Yeah, it's in a window box by my bedroom." Percy replied and Calypso smiled gratefully.
Sorry it took so long to update guys and I have no excuse. I know it may not seem like it compared to other stories but at 5 pages this is my longest chapter yet and I've been thinking about just ploughing on with the story instead of going all over the books again. Besides I've been thinking about doing a reading the books story after finishing this story. Peace out an I will hopefully see you guys next time.