A/N: I hope you all are enjoying this story so far! It's been a blast to write. Just wanted to let you know that there are three chapters remaining in Part Two. From there, we'll be taking a short break before going into the third and final section of this story! I can't wait to bring it to you.


Chapter Thirty-Two | ALEX GRIFFITH


A LACK OF MONSTERS SHOULD'VE been a welcome sight. But Alex felt his skin crawl as he and the girls drank overpriced Mickey Mouse milk and chewed muffins in a corner of the A-Frame food court, the Contempo Café. They'd just spent the last few hours discussing the black market stockroom Kitty had found, the return address Trigon Utilidors, and what to do now. According to Kitty, who got the info from a cast member, the Utilidors were tunnels under the Magic Kingdom. A sort of walking subway system for employees.

As he nibbled another bite of his chocolate chip muffin, his stomach churned. Memories and dreams of the Labyrinth spiked his anxiety at the mention of a tunnel system under the Magic Kingdom. Was it possible these Utilidors connected to the Labyrinth? Alex scoffed at himself. Possible? More like, almost inevitable.

Aside from the Dracaenae patrolling the second floor, they'd seen no monsters. Alex didn't like it. This felt too easy. They'd seen Laistrygonian guards at every other Disney resort. But not this one? Not the one with illicit goods? It didn't make sense.

He flinched. His finger had pricked the edge of the final wing of the caduceus on his bracelet. Alex paused, looking down at it as they sat in silence. A pit formed in his stomach again. He could feel his churning emotions in every joint, muscle, organ of his body.

When that streak of lightning had split the sky and the Empousai had disintegrated from his arrow, he'd felt a lightness in his chest he hadn't felt in years. He forced back tears. His father hadn't abandoned him, not entirely. Luke said they were expendable to the gods. To Hermes.

But he remembered it now. So clearly. The way the bronze dagger had balanced in his little blood-covered, scraped up hands. The way the wind had shifted, smelling of incense and spices when he threw it. The way the cyclops exploded in golden particles from an impossibly well placed dagger.

He also remembered the cold nights every winter in the Hermes cabin, only Luke, Chris, Kitty and the Stoll brothers for company. He remembered counting spiders that spun little cobwebs in corners. He remembered keeping warm by running the training courses, splitting the straw dummies, sparring with Luke.

He remembered the face of their father standing between him and Zeus's thunderbolt. What he'd written off as stress from battle reminded him more and more of the stress he'd seen on the faces of his friends when looking upon their dying siblings. Fear, sadness. Human emotions. For the first time in his life, Alex had looked on the face of his father and seen a person, not a myth. But he hadn't seen that at the time.

He had seen the god who had sent Luke, the best of them, to get a golden apple in imitation of Hercules. Had he thought so little of the boy who spent day and night perfecting his form, his strength, his leadership? Alex's fist clenched around the carton of Mickey milk as he took a drink. Luke's scarred face left them all angry. Not just the man himself. Connor and Travis had each other. But Alex had Luke. And Luke had been wounded because of their father.

Because of the father who had entrusted Alex with a weapon powerful enough to defend his friends, powerful enough to redeem the traitor demigods. Alex felt his chest burning. Not just them. Powerful enough to redeem himself? Tears filled his eyes. He forced himself to focus.

Kitty and Ophelia stared down at their own bakery dinners. Neither spoke. How long they'd been sitting there, he didn't know. But as golds and reds and purples began to filter through the massive windows of the A-Frame, he knew they needed to get moving.

"We should go," he said, voice strained. He cleared his throat as he stood to clear the table. "Sun's going down."

Kitty popped up next. "Yeah."

Alex glanced at her. Rarely did Kitty look nervous, but as she pushed in her chair her hand shook a bit and she kept her eyes trained above on the hundreds of hotel room doors visible from the food court. He shivered, pushing away memories of the beautiful empousa who'd almost ended his life a night ago.

Ophelia slipped her cool hand in his. She offered him a tight smile, a squeeze, and then led the way towards the escalators. He followed. Alex slipped Vindication off his wrist and clasped it in his palm.

Instead of going up to the Monorail, they went down to the lobby. Kitty had found a walking path that led to the Magic Kingdom. They wanted to play it safe. Any stop at the other resorts left them vulnerable to discovery. And he didn't fancy battling monsters in an elevated train surrounded by mortals. They couldn't die from his celestial bronze but they could all die from electrocution, explosion, or a thirty foot drop to the ground.

Alex had shoplifted some tee-shirts from the gift shop. They blended in now. That was the best armor they could hope for. Mortal disguises and Ophelia's magic would have to make up for the lack of leather pauldrons or chest pieces. And Alex's favorite defense had always been a strong offense, anyways. He tightened his grip around Vindication.

They dodged puddles from that afternoon's rain. A few families followed them in heading over to the park and a few passed them heading back. No one spared them a second glance.

Three teenagers with small backpacks wearing Disney tees hardly raised any red flags. And though Alex still didn't like it, they didn't see any monsters either. Four could walk abreast on the paved walkway over to the Magic Kingdom. Thick bushes and trees lined the path. It would've been the perfect place for an ambush. But nothing interrupted them.

"I don't like this," Ophelia said, lowering her voice as they passed a family of three.

Alex agreed with her. But he didn't dare speak it aloud. That would make it more real.

A few minutes later, he pulled them to the side. Six green covered tables formed security lines and bag check into the Magic Kingdom. And for the first time in hours he'd seen a monster.

"Laistrygonian guards. At least three," Alex said. "Ophelia, can you get us past them."

She nodded. "I'll get us in the tunnel."

She didn't give them time to think. Ophelia grabbed Alex and Kitty, closed her eyes, and a moment later he found himself holding back choked coughs as he leaned against an attraction poster in a small tunnel entrance that ran under the Magic Kingdom railway. Kitty grabbed her stomach but waved off Ophelia's help.

A cart display caught his eye near the exit of the small tunnel. Maps. He tapped the girls and moved over to it. Stepping out of the darkness and into the last rays of dying light, he paused. A wave of smells, sounds, and sights hit him all at once.

He could almost taste the popcorn. Buttery, hot, fresh, he couldn't see a stand for it but it had to be somewhere. All around him, architecture straight out of the turn of the century. Endless American flags decorated the roofs. Lots of cream colors, yellows, reds, and greens contrasted against the grey pavement of the street itself, lit up by white strip lights along all the edges. Main Street, USA according to the map.

Alex couldn't see a band. But he heard one, with trumpets and tubas and percussion. Lively tunes provided the perfect backdrop to make him almost forget he wasn't in the early 20th century.

Children and adults alike lined the streets. Sitting on curbs eating ice cream bars or turkey legs and waving around strobing bubble wands, it made it difficult to breathe and maneuver. But he did his best, leading them along the right side where he could see openings in the crowd. Alex almost couldn't process everything. The chaos crowded his senses.

The sun set completely when they saw it. Lit up by unseen spotlights, Cinderella's Castle dominated the skyline in front of them. When they caught glimpses of it past the crowds, the trio almost halted in their step. But they had to keep moving. They had to get off this central avenue so they could take stock.

Here, Alex's only hope was that there was so much going on, so many lights and sounds and smells, that the monsters inside wouldn't be able to differentiate between them and the rest of the show. He stopped trying to track their surroundings. He put his head down, grabbed Ophelia, and yanked them forward through the crowd.

Suddenly the music changed. Electronic notes drowned everything out. The crowd cheered. He couldn't focus on what the robotic voice over announcer said but his heart dropped into his gut when the lights went out.

Gone were the strips of fairy lights and lamps along Main Street. Now faces glowed at him through rainbow strobing sticks or what light escaped the stores lining the pedestrian roadway. This would be it. This was perfect cover for a monster to grab them. He couldn't see a way out. Just endless crowds, clapping and cheering, not realizing that under their feet—

Ophelia squeezed his hand. He glanced over his shoulder. She just flashed the tiniest smile, Kitty behind her. Alex released the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. They could do this.

They passed an ice cream shop just as performers in thousands of little lights danced through the clear parade route. Beyond them he saw floats covered from top to bottom in multicolored, neon light bulbs. But even more beautiful than the spectacular sparkling lights was the much emptier darkness to their right.

The crowds decreased the further from the parade route they got. Alex still didn't let go of Ophelia as they rounded a bend and passed sculpted red rocks that looked like they may have come straight from Mars. Tomorrowland.

"This is insane," Kitty said. They stood in the shadows of a covered ride queue, watching swarms of people move every which way like scattering ants. "I love it."

"I don't," Alex said. "This is chaos." He saw Kitty shrug before turning to Ophelia. It surprised him how alive she looked. They hadn't showered since being attacked by monsters but somehow her skin practically glowed and her blonde hair bounced about her with every movement as healthy as could be. But she wasn't paying attention.

"Look at that," she said.

Alex turned to see where she was pointing. He had to move out of cover, but what he saw took his breath away. Lit up in purples and pinks against the black sky was a futuristic mountain. Space Mountain, the map had said. His jaw dropped.

"I love this place," said Kitty.

Alex shook himself. He turned away from the magnificent sight back to them. "We need to get inside. Shops should have employee access areas. That's our best bet into the Utilidors." He waited a moment. "Kit. Focus!"

"I am, I am." She turned back to him. "Inside. Utilidors. Got it."

"We can't fail this," Ophelia added.

Alex grabbed her hand again. "We won't."

He led them further into Tomorrowland. The music shifted from electrical parade to futuristic. Or how the 20th century saw the future. Alex loved it. Even though he tried to keep his eyes down, scanning the crowd for monsters or demigod symbols, he couldn't help but admire the scenery.

The second store they reached seemed short staffed. Star Traders. As they hovered outside the entrance, he turned to Ophelia. He didn't need to say anything. She nodded, told him they were good, and he trusted her.

The cast member hectically restocking the pin trading display nodded at them politely as they reached the "Cast Members Only" door. She looked young, barely older than them. Alex didn't spare her a second glance before stealing his nerves and heading inside.

Cramped, not at all themed beyond a picture of Stitch reminding Cast Members not to take photos, the back room mostly featured shelves of merchandise stock and a computer with a time clock. Blessed silence met their ears for the first time in hours, really. Alex took a deep breath.

"What now?" Kitty said.

He glanced around. No one else was there. But he found a sign and an arrow down. "Stairway 25." His hands shook. He held his small caduceus tightly. Down made sense. But he didn't want to go down. Down meant steps closer to the Labyrinth, most likely. And he didn't want to go there. Not again.