Chapter 2: The Catalyst

1 week earlier

Annabeth had been sure it had been a bad idea from the beginning. The moment Eurytion gave them the disk and it turned into a spider, Annabeth had gotten a bad feeling in her gut. Logically, she told herself it was just her irrational fear of spiders telling her that any idea involving spiders and didn't include immediately killing them was a bad idea. Now, however, she wondered if her gut had been saying something completely different.

She didn't know what to do when the telekhines discovered their presence in the volcano. They were already so deep into enemy territory and her hat could only shield one of them if they were to successfully escape. One more plan, she had thought desperately. Please, mother, one more plan, one more trick, don't let my brain fail me now. But she couldn't think of anything and with the heat of the volcano sending sweat beads down her back, she didn't think she could feel more afraid in her life.

Even the last winter when she had been kidnapped by Atlas couldn't be comparable. Then, she had been sure she would survive, confident in her will to hold the sky and confident in her friends to find her. And she had known Luke would not let her die.

She had felt no confidence in the volcano. Perhaps it was the raw power the mountain gave off. Home of the ancient monster Typhon, powerful enough to cause the gods to quake in their feet; what chance did the meager power of wisdom stand against that?

In a way she could never admit, Percy had saved her. They had been standing in the middle of a platform above a pool of lava with telekhines about to surround them when he had valiantly announced he had a plan. Even with the ash and grim covering his face, he'd simply looked so confident.

It had all happened so fast. He had told her to put on her Yankees cap and leave, to trust that he would get out safely by himself. She had only a split second to make her decision as the telekhines narrowed in on their location. She had to leave. She couldn't give into her pride of how cowardly it would be to leave him and ignore the solid facts. She couldn't avoid knowing they were trapped with only one way out, a way only one of them could use.

She looked into his eyes. They held steady into hers, stubbornly refusing her protests of his safety. She had to go, or she might die too.

His face was covered in ash and grime, matching the landscape surrounding them, but his eye still stood out like a flame in the night. Bright sea green, shining with the strength of the ocean behind them, completely in contrast to the heat and stuffiness of the volcano. When they first met, his eyes offended her. How could anyone so annoying, she had thought, own such beautiful eyes? Now, in a strange way, she was almost proud of those eyes. Of course, someone with a soul that burns as bright as Percy's deserves those kind of eyes. They simply just fit him.

Annabeth had already made her decision by that point. Percy had a plan, there was a chance he wouldn't die. Still, something in her hesitated, perhaps the feeling in her gut already beginning to twist. What if he died? She couldn't afford to second guess herself now, but she did.

Just in case, she thought, moments before she brought her lips to his and kissed him. I can't have him die before I see how it feels. And it felt nice. Even far away from the ocean, his lips tasted salty as the sea. Annabeth had never kissed anyone before, but it was almost too easy to fit her lips into his. She wished things between her and Percy weren't so confusing, because, boy, she could get used to kissing his lips.

Too soon, she had pulled away. Now, she wished she would have kissed him longer, but the sounds of the telekhines were getting closer and Percy's frozen form made it clear he wasn't going to be the first to move.

She put her cap on and ran out, chasing the spider (never again) that would hopefully lead her to Hephaestus. The god would help; he'd better help.

Before she completely reentered the Labyrinth, Annabeth couldn't help but glance back to the boy she had just left behind. Percy had turned around, uncapping Riptide as the enemy began to confront him. Stupid Seaweed Brain, she had thought frustratingly as her feet took her in the exact opposite direction of where she wanted to go. Stupid, stupid Seaweed Brain, she chanted to herself, running blindly through the Labyrinth. Why did he make her feel like that?

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she heard the explosion. It came deafeningly from the way she came, blasting her eardrums. Please don't be him, she prayed, please, Hades, don't take his soul yet.

Her feet took her down the passages faster than before with even more desperation in her. There was no going back. She needed to get to Hephaestus; she might not be too late. Please, mother, he may be your enemy's son, but let me have this.

When she finally reentered the god's forges, Hephaestus was tinkering with the handle of a huge sword, almost as long as Annabeth. "Ares will have his hand wrapped in badges for a week after this!" the god said gleefully to himself while Annabeth came rampaging in.

"Hephaestus!" she cried, panting between breaths, "We need your help!"

The god sighed, glancing up from his work to the daughter of Athena, "Back already? Where are the other three?"

"Grover and Tyson split up from us, but Percy's in trouble!" Annabeth spoke quickly, straight to the point. "Mount Saint Helens is infested with telekhines!"

Hephaestus threw the sword carelessly to the side on a random workbench. The metal spider that had led her back to the forges scurried away from it. "Telekhines?" the god furrowed his eyebrows which was not a very attractive look to say the least. "That's not good."

"Please, sir," Annabeth said desperately, "the telekhines found us out and Percy's still there!"

"Calm yourself, girl," he huffed, "I cannot help you if you continue to act like a malfunctioning automon; tell me what happened."

Annabeth glowered at the god, but knew he would be no help if she argued. She told him about how they discovered the telekhines were there building weapons for Kronos. She explained how her Yankees cap could make her invisible, so she spied on some of the older ones speaking about an important blade. Hephaestus looked troubled as she told him about the blade, but he gestured with a large hand for her to continue. Her voice broke at the part when she spoke of how the telekhines began to surround them and she was forced to leave Percy.

"An explosion?" the god grunted when she explained her escape.

"Yes, sir."

"Well," the god's focus left her, instead focusing on the springs and bolts covering the workbench in front of him, "there's nothing we can do for him now."

"You mean to say he's dead?" Annabeth asked in horror, a deep, sinking feeling hollowing her stomach.

"Probably."

"But you're a god! Shouldn't you know if he's okay or not?" she argued. Percy couldn't just be dead, that was unacceptable.

"Who do I look like to you, girl? Thanatos?" Hephaestus's black beard caught fire for a moment as he let out a hearty laugh, finding his own comparison to the god of Death hilarious. "I deal with machines not people– and I'm certainly not as pretty as him."

Around gods, Annabeth tended to use her head and not impulsively yell the first thing that came to mind like Percy, but right now her head wasn't in it as much as her heart. "So what? You're just not going to try and help him at all? You're the one that sent us to our deaths in the first place! Do something!" Percy would be proud.

To Hephaestus's credit, he handled Annabeth's insolence rather well, twiddling with a piece of scrap Celestial Bronze metal and looking almost as if he wasn't even listening to her. "You agreed to the favor," he said with a sigh, not even looking up, "You and the son of Poseidon owed me nothing, yet despite the risks I already informed you of, you agreed to the terms. Now you have finished your task and I owe you the answer to your question."

"I don't care about finding Daedulas!" Annabeth would be lying if she said there weren't tears in her eyes, "I just want to help my friend!"

The god of the forges glanced up for a moment to see the tears in her eyes. He wasn't angry at her outbursts by any means, but rather confused. Like he said before, he dealt with machines, not humans. Emotions were messy, painfully, and in all honesty, more trouble than they're worth. He just wanted to return to his work on boobytrapping Ares's sword, but he still had to deal with a strangely high emotional daughter of Athena.

"Look," he grumbled, "Maybe I should just send you back to your camp."

"But–"

She was clearly not used to losing an argument. "No, girl, you are acting like a shoddy built automon; you are in no condition to continue your futile quest solo." He was very adamant about getting her out of his workshop as soon as possible. "Pray to me when you tighten a few loose screws on your head and then I'll give you the answer to your question."

Annabeth opened her mouth to argue, but a bright light had already engulfed her.

When Hephaestus said he was going to send Annabeth back to Camp Half-Blood, she was rather sure that anywhere but on top of Hermes table in the middle of a food fight at the dining pavilion would've worked.

"Incoming!" Conner Stoll shouted, popping his head above the table to launch something off his spoon. She found her already ragged-to-wear, orange camp shirt splattered in ketchup.

Clarisse leaped on top of Ares table, looking murderous with spaghetti balled up in her hands while red sauce dripped from them, "Oh, no you don't, pun–" her eyes doubled back to seeing the daughter of Athena standing on top Hermes table. "Wait– Annabeth?"

As if Clarisse had lost a game of taboo, the whole pavilion went quiet, and food stopped flying. They all looked to the daughter of Ares in question, but followed her line of sight to see a bewildered but familiar face matching the one of their current quest leader.

Then, almost spontaneously, the campers erupted into speech, all questioning her or talking loudly amongst themselves.

"What happened?"

"How'd she get here?"

"Annabeth!"

"Where's the others?"

"Where's Percy?"

"Shut up!" Clarisse roared finally, immediately prompting them all to whisper instead. She looked at her friend, seeing the ashen face marked completely in dirt, save for the tearstains streaking her cheeks. Clearly, something had happened in the Labyrinth.

Annabeth herself was still in shock. She still felt as if it had only moments since she had left Percy, her best friend, to the telekhines. Where's Percy, they asked. She could only pray the answer wasn't involving the Underworld.

Clarisse hopped across the godly tables till she got to Hermes, then, slowly pulling Annabeth down with more comfort than anyone would have thought possible, they were on the ground. "Alright, everyone," she announced, arm around Annabeth, "get back to your regular activities– and, counselors, head to the rec room!"

Annabeth sulked in her chair while all the counselors began to gather around the Ping-Pong table in the Big House. Her first quest as leader and she had come back without all of her companions. Grover and Tyson were still somewhere out there searching for Pan, and Percy… She knew Chiron warned her about questing with more than three, but she hadn't really thought anyone would die because she took an extra member.

And lose a love to worse than death

The prophecy had warned her of this exact moment, she was sure, and yet she still asked Percy to come along with her. Had she really just sentenced her best friend to die? She knew she wasn't very compliant with relationships, but surely she wasn't that bad.

Chiron called for their attention, "As you all know, there is currently a quest in attempts to successfully travel the Labyrinth and locate Daedulas's workshop. The goal is to convince the inventor to gift us Ariadne's string before it falls into our enemies' hands. Now, our quest leader, Annabeth," he looked towards her, but she kept her head low, "has returned to give us a report on what has happened since they first entered the Labyrinth."

Yeah, right, she thought bitterly, he acts like I purposely choose to come back to camp empty-handed.

"Well?" Lee Fletcher from Apollo cabin asked impatiently, "What happened?"

She sighed, resounding to the fact that she was going to have to explain her complete failure of a quest to them at some point anyways.

Annabeth started by explaining how the moment they even passed the first turn in the maze, they were all completely and utterly lost. She briefly covered the meetings with Janus and Hera, not wanting to disclose too much about her growing dislike for the Queen of the Gods, nor the visions the other god showed her to choose from. When she explained their visit to Alcatraz, all the counselors and Chiron appeared equally anxious about the idea of Kampe being loose from Tartarus. Only when she reached their stay at the Triple-G-Ranch, did Annabeth leave holes in her explanation, not wanting to reveal anything about Nico. The poor kid's parentage was unknown to all except her, sitting in that room at least, so she would keep it that way.

By the time Annabeth reached their fight with the sphinx and agreement with Hephestus, her throat was raw from speaking. Chiron looked uneasy when she told them how Tyson and Grover chose to split up from her and Percy to search for Pan, but he nodded for her to continue. Now more than ever, she was sure the other counselors were glancing at the air around her, as if expecting Percy to pop up.

She explained as well as she could to the group all of what she heard while spying on the telekhines in Mount Saint Helens, but her throat began to close up the more she continued. "We were surrounded… and–" she choked up a bit, "there was just no time. No other good decisions to make…"

Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter, was usually quite the hot head, specifically when it came to the Stolls, but now she rested a hand comfortingly on Annabeth's shoulder. "What happened?" she asked softly.

Annabeth didn't deserve their pity. "I left him." she told them, already preparing herself for their outrage. "He told me he had a plan and to go, so I just left him!"

The counselors were undeterred, however, just calmly asking for her to continue, wanting to know what Hephaestus had said before they mourned a fallen comrade. But just like Annabeth, they were all confused and concerned as to whether or not Percy survived after she summarized her second meeting with the god.

"It appears we must seek the answers of what happened in the volcano without godly help," Chiron concluded.

The centaur stole a steaming cup of hot chocolate from in front of a baffled Silena and set it in the middle of the Ping-Pong table, allowing the mist to billow out. Then, he snagged a golden drachma from his pouch. "O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow," he murmured, tossing the coin through the mist, "show us what has happened on Mount Saint Helens."

The mist shimmered, before showing them all an image of a once beautiful mountain now surrounded by clouds of ashen smoke and bright red lava. No sign of green in sight, all the trees destroyed.

Pollux's eyes widened, Katie Gardner gasped, and Beckendorf clenched his fists so tightly they began to pale. All Annabeth could do was pray to her mother. Please, she thought on repeat, not him.

A newscaster's voice was in the background of the aerial view, "–uncertain about further eruptions. Authorities have ordered the evacuation of almost half a million people as precaution. Meanwhile, ash has fallen as far away as Lake Tahoe and Vancouver, and the entire Mount Saint Helens area is closed to traffic within a hundred-mile radius. While no deaths have been reported, minor injuries and illnesses include–"

Chiron finally slashed his hand through the mist, ending the image and the announcer's voice, but the scene had already done its damage. Many counselors still sat pale-faced and staring at the empty space the mist had once gathered in.

"So…" Lee Fletcher started tentatively in the silent room, "is Percy alive?"

The thought that Percy died in the eruption shook everyone in the room to their core. Not only because he was a great and loyal friend, but because he was supposed to be the one of the prophecy, destined to do something important when he turns sixteen. But now with his life at a possible end, no one knew who was going to take up the mantle as the prophecy child now– save for Annabeth.

"Prissy's good," Clarisse said reluctantly, "but he's not that good; not even he could survive an explosion of that power."

The daughter of Aphrodite snuck a quick glance at Annabeth. She was stuck in a prone position, staring at the mug full of hot chocolate. "Maybe that was his plan he told Annabeth about," Silena argued in an attempt to cheer the blonde, "maybe he made the volcano erupt and got away."

"You think he made Mount Saint Helens erupt?" Katie asked incredulously.

"Earthshaker is one of his father's titles!"

"Enough!" Chiron grabbed their attention, slamming his hands against the Ping-Pong table with enough force to nearly flip it. "It hasn't even been a full day yet and it's fully possible Silena's right about Percy being the catalyst to this eruption– meaning he may have managed to get away. I say we wait and pray to the gods he's alive and safe before we determine anything for sure."

"Well, if he is alive," Travis Stoll said weakly, thinking about all the damage the eruption caused, "remind me not to put shaving cream in his sleeping bag anytime soon."

Author's Note: And another chapter finished! Next one should go back to Percy's side of things, but I haven't fully decided yet.