AN: I keep getting blown away. This story is ranked 18th place! My readers are awesome!
Son of the Moon
Chapter 39
-Chiron-
"That boy was really able to rally them, wasn't he?" Quintus asked next to him as they observed the fortifications being built around the entrance to the Labyrinth.
"Of course he does," he snorted, remembering Percy's past actions at rallying the camp "that boy was born to be a leader. I just hope we can weather the storm ahead of us."
"I…is that them?" turning to where Quintus pointed he saw Percy, Nico, Bianca, and Amanda walking towards the group, all of them armed to the teeth.
Amanda had daggers on each leg along with two bandoleers of throwing knives. He saw a pouch at her waist with who knows what sort of deadly toys stuffed inside for the daughter of Hermes to use. Bianca had a stygian iron bow along a divine silver short sword and a bandoleer of some sort of small black orbs. He also noted she had a supply pouch, which he figured was full of trap making supplies, something he had heard from Artemis that the girl had recently taken an interest in. Nico had his usual stygian iron chains but also had a pair of gauntlets with spiked knuckles and a bandoleer of what he saw was Greek Fire. Finally, Percy had Riptide at his waist, a bow at his back, a spear in one hand, two bandoleers of some sort of vials on his chest, and on his belt were a small baton which he knew could become a kanabo as well as a set of stygian iron throwing knives.
"Olympus preserve whatever pisses them off." Quintus muttered with a shudder at the four armed and dangerous demigods.
"I'd think Olympus would rather see whatever pisses them off destroyed to be honest." He responded before walking over to the heroes. "Are you all ready?" he asked them, concerned despite the displays of power and skill he'd seen from this generation of heroes.
"We are Chiron," Perseus said with a nod "we'll stop the Titans from using the Labyrinth."
"Do you have a plan?" he asked them as they walked over to the entrance of the ancient maze.
"Daedalus." Bianca spoke up, "The Labyrinth is a soul construct and to still be around it would need its maker to still be alive. If we find Daedalus and get him on our side then we should be able to stop the Titans from using it to their advantage, maybe even use it to our own as well."
"Not to mention that if Kronos gained the allegiance of Daedalus then he'd have an entire army of Automatons at his disposal, ones that can think on their own and far surpass any other given that the man has had thousands of years to prefect his craft." He shuddered, hating the thought of the enemy with that kind of power.
"Luckily the Titans gained an ally which may prevent them from gaining the allegiance of Daedalus." Nico spoke up with a rather shark like smirk, "Remember what I told you during the war council? About Minos defecting? That man's spirit hates Daedalus with a passion and tried thousands of times to convince my father to have the Furies focus on only finding Daedalus, kill him in the most painful manner possible, and send him straight to Tartarus."
"I doubt that those two would be able to stay allied to the same force without it causing a massive blow up." Bianca finished, her smirk matching her brothers as he gave a nod, not noticing Quintus stiffen up at that part of their conversation.
"Well good luck young Heroes. Fight well and return home to us safely." He ordered as they all saluted him before descending into the darkness of the endless maze.
"You sure they'll be alright?" Quintus asked, the old swordsman walking over to stand next to him.
"I know they will." He said confidently as the camp resumed their work, "Those four are some of the greatest heroes of the age, quite possibly some of the greatest heroes I've ever seen."
-Percy-
"Alright, it's official. We're lost." Nico said despondently as they looked around the circular room they found themselves in…when they had previously been standing still in a corridor…and there was no door behind them…this place was evil.
"The Labyrinth is a living entity," he stated, reaching into his bag to pull out a flashlight "tied to the life force of its maker. It probably won't make things easy for us unless its owner tells it to or it feels that we should have it easy."
"Please make things easier for us Mr. Labyrinth!" Nico pleaded to the stone ceiling as he sighed at his honorary brother's antics and flicked on the flashlight.
"Whoa." He breathed as he took in the frieze on the wall showing the Olympian gods on Mount Olympus…despite several embellishments on their features. In the middle of the room there was a fountain that he could sense hadn't held water in a very long time.
"This place looks Roman." Amanda said, observing the frieze on the wall and scowling slightly at how they made her dad's nose huge in it.
"Probably around two thousand years old." He nodded in agreement.
"This is good right?" Nico asked, "Wouldn't Daedalus'' workshop be in the oldest part of the maze?"
"Not necessarily," Bianca shrugged "it could be trying to trick us and it could be that Daedalus moved his workshop or even has more than one in this place. Take nothing at face value in here."
"Joy." Amanda sighed "Well I guess there's nothing else for it, further into the darkness we go." Fifty feet in and the cobbled stone Roman style streets turned into cement, the beautiful mosaic walls turning into a graffiti covered mess.
"I'm guessing…not Roman." Nico supplied helpfully before being slapped upside the head by Bianca. The next change however gave opportunity for some potential aide although he wondered if the Labyrinth did it on purpose or not. The change was to an old looking wine cellar, dusty bottles covering the racks but there was no way out except through the Labyrinth.
"Grab the bottles and stack them in the corner," he ordered everyone "but make sure not to break them. After that grab the racks and toss them in the middle of the room."
"Um…why?" Amanda asked even as the three began to help him with what he ordered.
"The gods are usually forbidden from helping on quests," he explained "but they can if they receive a sacrifice that's fitting. It also doesn't even have to be aide right that moment and can be saved for when it's needed most during the quest. We're going to test the wines for poison with a spell and then sacrifice them to Dionysus."
Once all the wine was moved he had Amanda do the poison detection spell on the wine, wouldn't want to give an unworthy sacrifice, as he and Nico began stacking up the racks they had been stacked on. "They're clean!" Amanda called as he nodded and pulled out a lighter and a bottle of lighter fluid, setting the wood ablaze before grabbing the wine.
"For Dionysus." He said and started tossing the wine into the fire, the bottles turning into purple mist and vanishing with every toss.
"Well at least we have that in our favor." Bianca said cheerfully once they tossed the last bottle.
"Yeah, you never know when you'll need it." He said as they continued down the tunnel. After a few more twists and turns, and surprisingly a trip underneath a bar, they found themselves back in the Roman Frieze room…but this time they weren't alone. There were now two doors opposite them, the one behind them vanishing upon their entrance, but the doors were guarded by a two-headed figure he recognized. "Janus." He snarled, angrily at one of the minor gods who had betrayed Olympus for the Titans.
"Ah, the bastard son of that pathetic moon goddess." The two faced cur's left head sneered at him, the right head chuckling like an idiot.
"Try saying that again, see how long it'll be before you can try having a demigod again." He spat, gripping his spear so hard that his knuckles turned white.
"Testy, testy." The right head giggled "But we aren't here for you…well not yet at least. We're here to work our domain for our new Master and our new target…is you." Janus pointed not at him or the girls but at Nico.
"Who is this dip shit Percy?" Amanda whispered to him as the daughter of Hermes moved protectively in front of her boyfriend.
"Janus. The god of beginnings, endings, doorways, and choices." He snarled "Recent traitor of Olympus…and soon to be a Eunuch."
"Agreed!" the girls intoned before they all stiffened apart from Nico while Janus sneered.
"Uh, uh, uh children." The right head smirked as the left head picked up the sentence "It isn't your turn yet. Now, Nico, we're giving you a choice. You can kill Nico, Amanda, or Bianca. So who's it going to be? Your brother in all but blood, your sister, or your girlfriend?"
"I'm not killing any of them." Nico spat, readying his chains.
"Then we'll kill all four of you." Janus' right head cackled.
"I was hoping to get to do that." The left head grinned.
"No…you won't." a new voice called out before there was a pillar of light in the middle of the room and out stepped Grandma Hera. "You just threatened my grandchildren…prepare for a beating."
"Oh shit!" the two heads Janus said in wide-eyed tandem.
"I'm just going to borrow this sweetie." Hera said, taking his kanabo in its baton from his waist before expanding it and turning to the minor god who was trying to escape through one of the two doors but they had an energy field in front of them. "Get ready for a world of hurt bastard!" Hera yelled as she ran at Janus.
"Please don't hurt me!" right head screamed as the traitor started running around the world to escape Hera's wrath.
"Yeah, we were just doing our job!" the left head cried.
"No you weren't you were trying to stop this quest and remove a threat to your master you little worm!" Hera yelled, swinging the Kanabo and smashing part of the wall, getting a high-pitched scream from the minor god she was trying to squish.
Running behind the fountain Janus yelled, "Well you aren't allowed to interfere with a quest!"
"They made a sacrifice and me helping was the reward." Hera grinned, "That and the council is making sure no other minor gods interfere." As Hera finished she brought down the Kanabo and smashed the fountain to rubble as Janus gulped.
"Mommy." The two heads squeaked before Hera started going to town at smashing the traitorous god into a pile of broken bones and ichor.