In which Will has very very bad memories about the Labyrinth and is not happy to be forcefully reminded of them thank you very much. And Calypso can and will fight anyone who tries to stand between her and her Leo.
Replies:
Weirdhead: I'm glad you enjoyed it, though I hope you weren't expecting the twist with Bob and Damasen lol.
Undeath9087: Hah! I posted the extract from that chapter purposely to mislead everyone, I did a nice thing for once!
MKDemiGodzilla-Warrior: You shall have to wait and see :)
PJ Fan 285: I am glad to have shocked you all! And yes, yes Hecate does show up, and I like to think it do that meeting justice.
Guest: Darn right!
Drizzle: A happy one for once.
Guest: Yes! Yes he can! He and Damasen get to be free and happy and help their friends.
JjlovesPJO: Well I'm usually mean so I decided to be nice for once.
ArachnidHiveMind: And Bob gets to meet his granddaughters soon.

Hazel, Will and Calypso were alone and Hazel felt like screaming. Frank had told them to go on ahead- they'd been attacked by an army of monsters and Frank had yelled at them to go on ahead- sending them up the only tunnel that was monster free- and they'd been separated.

The only thing holding her together was the presence of Will and Calypso- who had both spent some time reassuring her that the others would be fine- and gods but Hazel wasn't sure what she'd do if she lost Bianca and Frank.

But they couldn't just stand by the pile of rocks and do nothing- and she knew Will and Calypso were desperate to get to the Doors of Death. They both wanted their boyfriends back. And Hazel owed it to everyone to get them there- so they plunged onward- Will glowing to cast some light into the darkness.

And Hazel was also kind of glad that Calypso was with her. She knew sooner or later she'd have to face Pasiphae and- while it was her task it would be comforting to have someone who knew how to wield magic by her side.

Hazel wasn't sure how long it was before Gale, Hecate's polecat found them- and Hazel felt Calypso grabbing her hand and squeezing it comfortingly when Gale curled around her neck.

Hazel took a deep breath after that. "Stay close to me you two." she whispered the words, "We're getting close."

"Close to what exactly?" Will frowned slightly.

A woman's voice echoed down the corridor: "Close to me."

A wave of nausea hit Hazel so hard her knees buckled. The whole world shifted. Her sense of direction, usually flawless underground, became completely unmoored.

The three of them didn't seem to move exactly, but suddenly they were three hundred feet down the corridor, at the entrance of the chamber. "Welcome," said the woman's voice. "I've looked forward to this."

Hazel's eyes swept the cavern. She couldn't see the speaker.

The room reminded her of the Pantheon in Rome, except this place had been decorated in Hades Modern.

The obsidian walls were carved with scenes of death: plague victims, corpses on the battlefield, torture chambers with skeletons hanging in iron cages—all of it embellished with precious gems that somehow made the scenes even more ghastly.

As in the Pantheon, the domed roof was a waffle pattern of recessed square panels, but here each panel was a stela—a grave marker with Ancient Greek inscriptions. Hazel wondered if actual bodies were buried behind them. With her underground senses out of whack, she couldn't be sure.

She saw no other exits. At the apex of the ceiling, where the Pantheon's skylight would've been, a circle of pure black stone gleamed, as if to reinforce the sense that there was no way out of this place—no sky above, only darkness.
Hazel's eyes drifted to the center of the room.

Fifty feet away was a set of freestanding elevator doors, their panels etched in silver and iron. Rows of chains ran down either side, bolting the frame to large hooks in the floor.

The area around the doors was littered with black rubble. With a tightening sense of anger, Hazel realized that an ancient altar to Hades had once stood there. It had been destroyed to make room for the Doors of Death.

"Where are you?" Hazel forced herself to sound braver than she felt- and she felt Will and Calypso moving closer to her protectively.

"Don't you see us?" taunted the woman's voice. "I thought Hecate chose you for your skill."

Another bout of queasiness churned through Hazel's gut. On her shoulder, Gale barked and passed gas, which didn't help.

Dark spots floated in Hazel's eyes. She tried to blink them away, but they only turned darker. The spots consolidated into a twenty-foot-tall shadowy figure looming next to the Doors.

The giant Clytius was shrouded in the black smoke, she could just about make out his form through the smoke- he had dragon-like legs with ash colored scales; a massive humaniod upper body encased in Stygian armor; long braided hair that seemed to be made from smoke and his complexion was as dark as Thanatos'. His eyes glinted cold as diamonds.

He carried no weapon, but that didn't make him any less terrifying.

"You're the guards for the Doors of Death." Will said the words slowly, "You're who we have to take out to get our friends back."

And Hazel forced back a shaky laugh when Calyso cracked her knuckles- for such a sweet girl she was definitely willing to fight anyone who got between her and Leo. Hazel could appreciate that.

And then, half way between Hazel and the giant the air shimmered. The sorceress appeared.

She wore an elegant sleeveless dress of woven gold, her dark hair piled into a cone, encircled with diamonds and emeralds. Around her neck hung a pendant like a miniature maze, on a cord set with rubies that made Hazel think of crystallized blood drops.

The woman was beautiful in a timeless, regal way—like a statue you might admire but could never love. Her eyes sparkled with malice.

"Pasiphaë," Hazel said.

The woman inclined her head. "My dear Hazel Levesque." And Hazel couldn't help but notice how tense Will was, the way he was clearly forcing himself not to shake.

"I cannot recall your story." that was Calypso, who's brows furrowed- and Pasiphaë scoffed.

"Of course you cannot, the faithless gods cast you away long before my time."

"I know who you are." Will's spoke up, "I know exactly who you are-"

"A boy." the sorceress scoffed, "I have no use for demigod boys—always so full of themselves, so brash and destructive."

"I'm a healer." Will shot back. "I help people. Unlike you."

"Will-" Hazel frowned- she didn't know her brothers boyfriend well but he seemed very on edge- and upset. Which- okay could be because he wanted Nico back but Hazel got the feeling that there was more too it. "I can handle this okay?"

"Listen to your friend," Pasiphaë said. "Be a good boy and let the women talk."

Pasiphaë paced in front of them, examining Hazel, her eyes so full of hate it made Hazel's skin tingle. The sorceress's power radiated from her like heat from a furnace. Her expression was unsettling and vaguely familiar.…

Somehow, though, the giant Clytius unnerved Hazel more.

He stood in the background, silent and motionless except for the dark smoke pouring from his body, pooling around his feet. He was the cold presence Hazel had felt earlier—like a vast deposit of obsidian, so heavy that Hazel couldn't possibly move it, powerful and indestructible and completely devoid of emotion.

"Your—your friend doesn't say much," Hazel noted.

Pasiphaë looked back at the giant and sniffed with disdain. "Pray he stays silent, my dear. Gaea has given me the pleasure of dealing with you; but Clytius is my, ah, insurance. Just between you and me, as sister sorceresses, I think he's also here to keep my powers in check, in case I forget my new mistress's orders. Gaea is careful that way."

"Gaea is using you." Calypso spoke up, "You are a fool to trust her. But it's no matter. Hazel is more powerful than you-" and Hazel did appreciate the vote of confidence even if she didn't feel it.

"Calypso is right. Whatever you're planning it won't work. We've cut through every monster Gaea's put in our path. If you're smart, you'll get out of our way."

Gale the polecat gnashed her teeth in approval, but Pasiphaë didn't seem impressed.

"You don't look like much," the sorceress mused. "But then you demigods never do. My husband, Minos, king of Crete? He was a son of Zeus. You would never have known it by looking at him-"

"Oh don't complain." Will couldn't seem to resist, "You're the one who married the asshole. I might have felt sorry for you but you seem just as bad as him."

Pasiphaë's nostrils flared. "Oh…you have no idea. He was too proud to make the proper sacrifices to Poseidon, so the gods punished me for his arrogance-"

"Uh huh, I'm aware." Will pulled a face, "I've heard the stories."

"The Minotaur," Hazel suddenly remembered.

The story was so revolting and grotesque Hazel had always shut her ears when they told it at Camp Jupiter. Pasiphaë had been cursed to fall in love with her husband's prize bull. She'd given birth to the Minotaur—half man, half bull.

Now, as Pasiphaë glared daggers at her, Hazel realized why her expression was so familiar.

The sorceress had the same bitterness and hatred in her eyes that Hazel's mother sometimes had. In her worst moments, Marie Levesque would look at Hazel as if Hazel were a monstrous child, a curse from the gods, the source of all Marie's problems. That's why the Minotaur story bothered Hazel—not just the repellent idea of Pasiphaë and the bull, but the idea that a child, any child, could be considered a monster, a punishment to its parents, to be locked away and hated. To Hazel, the Minotaur had always seemed like a victim in the story.

"Yes," Pasiphaë said at last. "My disgrace was unbearable. After my son was born and locked in the Labyrinth, Minos refused to have anything to do with me. He said I had ruined his reputation! And do you know what happened to Minos, Hazel Levesque? For his crimes and his pride? He was rewarded. He was made a judge of the dead in the Underworld, as if he had any right to judge others! Hades gave him that position. Your father-"

"Actually Zeus insisted." Will interrupted, "Lord Hades hates your husbands guts for what he tried to do to Nico-" Hazel blinked.

"Nico?"

"Yeah." Will scowled, "I wasn't there but- it was a whole thing. Back when the Labyrinth was around-"

Pasiphaë sneered. "Yes. Yes." her voice sounded almost amused, "So you say. See, I hate demigods as much as I hate the gods. Any of your brethren who survive the war, Gaea has promised to me, so that I may watch them die slowly in my new domain. I only wish I had more time to torture you two properly. Alas—"

In the center of the room, the Doors of Death made a pleasant chiming sound. The green UP button on the right side of
the frame began to glow. The chains shook.

"There, you see?" Pasiphaë shrugged apologetically. "The Doors are in use. Twelve minutes, and they will open."

Hazel's gut trembled almost as much as the chains. "More giants?"

"Thankfully, no," said the sorceress. "They are all accounted for—back in the mortal world and in place for the final assault." Pasiphaë gave her a cold smile. "No, I would imagine the Doors are being used by someone else…someone unauthorized."

"Leo-" Calypso breathed the name, "Leo, Nico and their sister- Percy." Hazel couldn't speak. She wasn't sure whether the lump in her throat was from joy or frustration. If their friends had made it to the Doors, if they were really going to show up here in twelve minutes…

"Oh, not to worry." Pasiphaë waved her hand dismissively. "Clytius will handle them. You see, when the chime sounds again, someone on our side needs to push the UP button or the Doors will fail to open and whoever is inside—poof. Gone.

Or perhaps Clytius will let them out and deal with them in person. That depends on you three- well, two really. The daughter of Atlas is unimportant."

Hazel's mouth tasted like tin. She didn't want to ask, but she had to. "How exactly does it depend on us?"

"Well, obviously, we need only one set of demigods alive," Pasiphaë said. "The lucky two will be taken to Athens and sacrificed to Gaea at the Feast of Hope, so it will either be you two-" she gestured to Hazel and Will, "Or two of your friends in the elevator. So." the sorceress spread her hands "Let us see who is still alive in twelve- actually, eleven minutes. Now."

The cavern dissolved into darkness.