This chapter and next chapter will really show the differences from Aaron's influence, I think I finally figured out what I wanted to change. It was the hardest part and what has been the greatest cause of delay for this story here... but I figured it out.

Hera served them sandwiches and poured lemonade. "Grover, dear," she said, "use your napkin. Don't eat it."

"Yes, ma'am," Grover said.

"Tyson, you're wasting away. Would you like another peanut butter sandwich?"

Tyson stifled a belch. "Yes, nice lady."

"Queen Hera," Annabeth said. "I can't believe it. What are you doing in the Labyrinth?"

Hera smiled. She flicked one finger and Annabeth's hair combed itself.

All the dirt and grime disappeared from her face.

"I came to see you, naturally," the goddess said. She turned to Aaron. "I know you are considering becoming vegetarian, so I brought some quinoa salad for you. " She kissed his forehead, her love clear.

"I didn't think—" Annabeth faltered. "Well, I didn't think you liked heroes."

Hera sighed. "Before ... well before Aaron, I did not care for most heroes. Working with my children, those mortals who serve me and help heal the world, and since my divorce from that brute Zeus, I have come to realize the errors of my ways. All of them. Heroes deserve so much better than they have been given, all of you. I will help you, as you deserve it. You are a wonderful child, Annabeth, with a powerful future. I am so proud to watch you, to call you my granddaughter and niece. You have accomplished so much." She kissed Annabeth's forehead, making the girl blush.

"Thank you... Ma'am..."

Hera sighed. "You must understand, the world is not in a good state right now, though it has gotten better through Aaron's ambassadorship. Much is out of wack, many lesser gods are rebelling. That is why Dionysius is not at camp. The minor gods like Janus have always been frustrated by the small parts they play in the universe. Some, I fear, have little love for Olympus, and could easily be swayed to support the rise of my father. We must watch the minor gods," Hera said. "Janus. Hecate. Morpheus. They give lip service to Olympus. You see, in times of trouble, even gods can lose faith. They start putting their trust in the wrong things. They stop looking at the big picture and start being selfish. But I'm the goddess of marriage, you see. I'm used to perseverance. You have to rise above the squabbling and chaos and keep believing. You have to always keep your goals in mind." She turned to them. "I will allow you one boon, though not now. You already figured out how to see through the Maze. Do what you need to, what you must, but remember the Ranch, which you will see soon enough, will be a test for more than you can realize. For all of you. Go with my blessing, all of you and remember, call to me when you need aid."

She vanished then and the fountain faded away, but the food remained. Everyone quickly finished their meals before standing.

"Which way?" Percy asked.

Grover and Tyson and Aaron all tensed. They stood up together like they'd rehearsed it. "Left," they all said/

Annabeth frowned. "How can you be sure?"

"Because something is coming from the right," Grover said.

"Something big," Tyson agreed. "In a hurry."

"It is approaching at a great pace." Aaron said.

"Left is sounding pretty good," I decided. Together they plunged into the dark corridor.

The good news: the left tunnel was straight with no side exits, twists, or turns. The bad news; it was a dead end. After sprinting a hundred yards, they ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their path. Behind the,, the sounds of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor.

"Tyson," Percy said, "can you—"

"Yes!" He slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

"Hurry!" Grover said. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"

The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room and they dashed through behind it.

"Close the entrance!" Annabeth said.

They all got on the other side of the boulder and pushed. Whatever was chasing us wailed in frustration as we heaved the rock back into placed and sealed the corridor.

"We trapped it," Percy said.

"Or trapped ourselves," Grover said.

They turned. They were in a twenty-foot-square cement room and the opposite wall was covered with metal bars. We'd tunneled straight into a cell.

"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. They didn't budge.

Through the bars, they could see rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard—at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks.

"A prison," Percy said. "Maybe Tyson can break—"

"Shh," Aaron said. " I can hear someone talking, and I can sense tremendous mystical energies. Dark powers... primal magics."

Somewhere above they,, deep sobbing echoed through the building. There was another sound, too—a raspy voice muttering something that though Aaron could hear he could not understand. The words were strange, like rocks in a tumbler.

"what's that language?" Percy whispered.

Tyson's eye widened. "Can't be."

"What?" Percy asked.

He grabbed two bars on their cell door and bent them wide enough for even a Cyclops to slip through.

"Wait!" Grover called.

But Tyson wasn't about to wait. They ran after him. The prison was dark, only a few dim fluorescent lights flickering above.

"I know this place," Annabeth told Percy. "This is Alcatraz."

"You mean that island is near San Francisco?"

Aaron froze, they were so close to Camp Jupiter... something was wrong about that. Now that he knew he was that close, he could feel his spell on the walls of the Labrynth so close to Camp Jupiter.

She nodded. "My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum."

"Freeze," Grover warned. But Tyson kept going. Grover grabbed his arm and pulled him back with all his strength. "Stop, Tyson!" he whispered. "Can't you see it?"

On the second-floor balcony, across the courtyard, was a monster more horrible than anything Aaron had ever seen before.

It was sort of like a centaur, with a woman's body from the waist up. But instead of a horse's lower body, it had the body of a dragon—at least twenty feet long, black and scaly with enormous claws and a barbed tail. Her legs looked like they were tangled in vines, but then I realized they were sprouting snakes, hundreds of vipers darting around, constantly looking for something to bite. The woman's hair was also made of snakes, like Medusa's. weirdest of all, around her waist, where the woman part met the dragon part, her skin bubbled and morphed, occasionally producing the heads of animals—a vicious wolf, a bear, a lion, as if she were wearing a belt of ever-changing creatures.

Aaron knew her immediately. 'Kampe,.. here... how is our luck this bad?'

"It's her," Tyson whimpered.

"Get down!" Grover said.

They crouched in the shadows, but the monster wasn't paying them any attention. It seemed to be talking to someone inside a cell on the second floor. That's where the sobbing was coming from. The dragon woman said something in her weird rumbling language.

"What's she saying?" Percy muttered. "What's that language?"

"The tongue of the old times." Tyson shivered. "What Mother Earth spoke to Titans and…her other children. Before the gods."

"You understand it?" Percy asked. "Can you translate?"

Tyson closed his eyes and began to speak in a horrible, raspy woman's voice. "You will work for the master or suffer."

Annabeth shuddered. "I hate it when he does that."

"I will not serve," Tyson said in a deep, wounded voice.

He switched to the monster's voice: "Then I shall enjoy your pain, Briares." Tyson faltered when he said that name.

Then he continued in the monster's voice. "If you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, you have yet to feel true torment. Think on this until I return."

The dragon lady tromped toward the stairwell, vipers hissing around her legs like grass skirts. She spread wings and leaped off the catwalk and soared across the courtyard. They crouched lower in the shadows. A hot sulfurous wind blasted Aaron's face as the monster flew over. Then she disappeared around the corner.

"H-h-horrible," Grover said. "I've never smelled any monster that strong."

"Cyclopes' worst nightmare," Tyson murmured. "Kampê."

"Who?" Percy asked.

Tyson swallowed. "Every Cyclops knows about her. Stories about her scare us when we're babies. She was our jailer in the bad years."

Annabeth nodded. "I remember now. When the Titans ruled, they imprisoned Gaea and Ouranos's earlier children—the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires."

"The Heka-what?" Percy asked.

"The Hundred-Handed Ones," Aaron said. "Giants, immeasurably powerful, brothers to the Titans and Cyclopes. They were banished to Tartarus by Your Grandfather for their stench and loud sounds. He's a real dick, Percy."

"Very powerful," Tyson said. "Wonderful! As tall as the sky. So strong they could break mountains!"

"Cool," {ercy said. "Unless you're a mountain."

"Kampê was the jailer," he said. "She worked for Kronos. She kept our brothers locked up in Tartarus, tortured them always, until Zeus came. He killed Kampê and freed Cyclopes and Hundred-Handed Ones to help fight against the Titans in the big war."

"And now Kampê is back," Percy said.

"Bad," Tyson summed up.

"So who's in that cell?" Percy asked. "You said a name—"

"Briares!" Tyson perked up. "He is a Hundred-Handed One. They are as tall as the sky and—"

"Yeah," Percy said. "They break mountains."

"I guess we should check it out," Annabeth said, "before Kampê comes back."

Aaron summoned his bow and readied himself, he doubted his magic would do too much to Kampe of all beings, but he was ready just in case... an ice arrow to the face should put her down for a little bit at least...

Right?

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

This was a blast to write. I cannot wait til next chapter.

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.