A/N: Okay, so I know this chapter is early (Friday in my time zone), but I'm (a) waiting in transit at an airport and (b) not intending to have my laptop at all this weekend, so here it is—the chapter for Saturday, just a day ahead.

Chapter 24: Nico Wrecks A Fortress

While Rachel tried to hustle us a ride, Nico and I went to the gift shop in search of a prism and some food. Percy followed Rachel, which would have annoyed me if not for the grim expression on his face. It looked like he'd guessed what she intended to do and meant to talk her out of it. He'd always been kinda sensitive about stealing stuff. I guess it was because he'd been framed two years ago for the biggest theft of the millennium.

Me, I figured the ends justified the means. And our ends were pretty desperate right now.

Or maybe I'd just hung around Hermes cabin too much as a kid.

The gift shop didn't sell prisms, but they had these twinkling wind chime things that caught the sunlight and sparkled in rainbow shades. They should work well enough. When I was paying for one, Nico came up to the counter with a sandwich and two cokes.

'Thirsty, are you?'

He flushed for some reason, and dug a handful of change out of his pocket. Then his face went even redder. 'Uh, just the one coke,' he told the cashier.

'That's okay, I've got it,' I said.

'And the other one's for … uh, it's for you,' he mumbled.

I stared at him. A crazy suspicion started to form in my head.

'Thanks,' I said. 'Why don't we get one for Percy, too? And Rachel.'

The suggestion seemed to put him at ease. Nico trotted off for more cokes. I paid the cashier.

We had to return to the terrace to make the call. I was relieved to see the outlines of the cabins behind Chiron when he appeared in the rainbow. The attack hadn't happened yet. Chiron brightened when I told him we'd found Daedalus, but his expression faded back to worry once I explained what had passed in the workshop.

'So that was Quintus's secret,' he said. 'I wish I had seen it. Maybe …' He frowned and shook his head. 'You said he was fighting off the Titan army?'

'Yes, but he's not dead. Nico said—' I paused.

'Nico, the son of Hades.'

Nico looked up warily from his sandwich.

'It's okay,' I said. 'Chiron, he's with us. He's fine.'

'Thank the gods,' Chiron said. 'And Luke—he was not with his army?'

'No. The empousa said he was busy preparing for the attack. He's probably—' I gulped. 'They're probably marching to Long Island as we speak.'

Chiron rubbed a weary hand over his forehead. 'We will prepare for battle,' he said. 'Hurry back. We will need you and Percy … and Grover and Tyson, if you can find them.' He craned his neck to locate Nico, standing silently to the side. The half-eaten sandwich hung loosely in Nico's hand, forgotten on its way to his mouth. 'Nico, too.'

'We're coming as fast as we can,' I promised.

'Be careful,' Chiron warned. 'What you said about Luke … I do not like the sound of it. I fear there may be more to this attack that we have not understood.'

'What does he want with me?' Nico asked on our way back to the parking lot.

'Chiron's worried about you, Nico. We all were.'

Nico scowled. 'Yeah, right.' Then he said, so softly that I almost had to ask him to repeat the question, 'Why did you bargain with Geryon to let me go?'

'Because that's Percy. He never leaves a friend behind.' I squeezed Nico's shoulder, then took a deep breath. 'Bianca's death wasn't his fault. It was mine. Percy would have saved Bianca if he could. I know it.'

Nico shook his head, but whether it was to absolve my guilt or insist on Percy's, I didn't know. He pressed his lips together tightly, signifying an end to the conversation.

We found Percy standing alone on the sidewalk, frowning at a shiny black Lexus at the edge of the parking lot.

'I talked to Chiron,' I told him. 'They're doing their best to prepare for battle, but he still wants us back. They're going to need every hero they can get.' I scanned the parking lot for Rachel. 'Did we find a ride?'

She came up to us from the direction of the Lexus. 'The driver's ready when we are.'

My jaw dropped when she led us to the fancy car, straight past its well-dressed chauffeur, and to its open door.

'Come on,' she said, motioning for us to get in.

I followed suspiciously. Every time I'd been on a quest, anything fancy was most likely to get us killed. Monsters always offered luxury to draw us in. But Rachel had found the car. And she had led us to Daedalus's workshop—she really wasn't lying about her ability to see things. I guess she would know if the driver was a monster.

Plus, she talked to him like he was a personal friend. He didn't even question it when she told him to drive through town without a destination in mind.

I needed to revise my impression of her. No juvie kid had connections this good … unless her parents were drug lords or something.

Percy, Nico, and I tucked into the mini-fridge on board (Nico's purchases lay discarded in favour of the ice-cold soda and chips). Rachel kept her face firmly planted against the tinted one-way window. She had no luck. Colorado Springs seemed too small a town to have a Labyrinth entrance.

'Maybe we should try Denver,' I said. It wasn't my favourite place, after the spectacularly bad experience I'd had at a water park there, but it was the biggest city in Colorado. We'd have a higher chance of finding something there.

Rachel shrugged and told our driver to head north on the I-25. But before we'd gone twenty minutes, she ordered him back off the highway and onto a nondescript country road—the complete opposite of city. We ended up in the middle of nowhere, in front of a hill with a boarded-up old mine shaft.

'A door to the Labyrinth?' I said dubiously. 'How can you be sure?'

'Well, look at it! I mean …' She winced at our baffled faces. 'I can see it, okay?'

The driver was reluctant to drop us off in the back of beyond. 'Are you sure you'll be all right, Miss Dare? I'd be happy to call your—'

Rachel cut him off immediately. 'No! No, really.' Her voice was even shriller than usual. She thanked him in a very final tone.

Who was this girl?

We hiked up to the mine entrance. Sure enough, the mark of Daedalus was on the padlock over the hole.

'Back to New York?' Rachel asked.

'Yeah.' Percy opened the entrance and we headed underground. This time, I followed Rachel's lead without commentary—at least, not on her abilities. It was her background I was more interested in now.

'So, you said you're from Brooklyn.'

'Uh-huh.'

'Which part?'

'Oh, uh, like, northeast.' She didn't elaborate. It could have been anywhere from Jackson Heights to Queens.

After ten minutes of one-word answers that didn't shed any light on the mystery of Rachel Dare, I switched tactics.

'Do you do a lot of art at school?'

'Some. It's mostly stuff on the side, you know. Evening classes, summer camps …' She gave Percy and me a sidewise glance. 'Nothing like what you guys are used to, I guess.'

'We have an art and crafts cabin.'

Rachel's tone turned wistful. 'I'd like to see that.'

'Your parents are okay with you doing art?'

'They don't care.' She changed the subject. 'I wouldn't have thought you guys did art and crafts at camp. I thought it was all weapons and monster fighting and stuff.'

'We do lots of stuff.' I explained about the gods and their special domains—especially Athena, patron of useful crafts and architecture. 'Design is very important to her.'

'Makes sense,' Rachel said thoughtfully. 'I never really thought about it, but I guess architecture was kind of like ancient art.'

'It still is! I mean, it still illustrates stuff—culture, values …'

'The GE Building,' Rachel mused. 'You seen that? There's a frieze there—"wisdom and knowledge."'

I hadn't expected her to agree with me, much less pull an example out of her hat. 'You know about architecture?'

'Not much. We did a bit in art class. And I've lived in New York for a while. It's got so many cool buildings. Have you been to the Empire State? I think that one actually has some of your magical stuff going on there. It has this weird cloud above it.'

'That's where Mount Olympus is.'

'No way!' She started rattling off a list of other buildings in her rapid-fire way. I had to admit I wasn't sure if they had mythological connections. Most of them I hadn't even seen yet, which made me greatly jealous of Rachel again.

I had the uneasy feeling that if we'd met under different circumstances, I could almost have liked her.

I also realised that she had expertly deflected all of my questions about her background.

Suddenly, Rachel broke off mid-sentence. We'd arrived at a T-junction with an arched tunnel shooting off to the right.

'Is that the way?' I swung my beam into the tunnel. The darkness swallowed it up, like it had flicked off the switch.

Rachel bit her lip. 'No, not at all.'

'Why are we stopping, then?' Percy leaned into the tunnel. A fresh, cold breeze wafted out, smelling of camphor and captivity. 'Eucalyptus trees.' He caught my eye, and I knew we were thinking the same thing. 'Like in California.'

Rachel's voice was thinner and smaller than I'd heard it so far. 'There's something evil down that tunnel. Something very powerful.'

'And the smell of death,' Nico said darkly.

A phantom ache ghosted over my shoulders. It had the scent of a rocky dirt cell and a cracking column of sky.

'Luke's entrance,' I breathed. This was where he'd held me prisoner last winter. This was how he'd used the Labyrinth. 'The one to Mount Othrys—the Titan's palace.'

'I have to check it out,' Percy said.

I grabbed his arm. 'Percy, no!'

'Luke could be right there! Or … or Kronos. I have to find out what's going on.'

Not alone, he wouldn't. 'Then we'll all go.'

But Percy insisted on splitting up. 'If they got hold of Nico, or Rachel for that matter, Kronos could use them,' he reminded me.

I hated that he was right. Nico had barely escaped being sold to the Titans. The last thing we needed was to take him straight to their stronghold. I was about to volunteer to go instead, but the memory of the last time I'd gone ahead to scout and left Percy to wait paralysed me.

'Percy, don't,' Rachel pleaded, but she was no more effective than I'd been in dissuading him.

'At least take this.' I handed him my invisibility cap. 'And—and be careful.' My throat closed up as soon as I said the words. The last time I'd said them …

Percy looked disappointed when I gave him my cap. Had he expected me to argue more? Insist on going?

No sooner had he slipped out of sight did I regret letting him go. What had I been thinking? It was the cursed Labyrinth again, playing with my head, forging divisions in our group.

'You have an invisibility hat?' Rachel marvelled. 'That's crazy weird.'

'You think that's weird? I thought you were supposed to be the Mist-guru.'

'Hey, invisibility is like the opposite of what I see.' She cocked her head. 'If you've got that, why don't you just sneak around invisible all the time?'

'It's not so simple. Invisibility can only get you so far. And if I know Percy … it might not be enough. He's an expert at getting into trouble.' I twisted the ring on my camp necklace. Should I go after him? Could I leave Nico and Rachel to wait?

'You don't say,' Rachel said. She started ticking off instances on her fingers. 'First time I meet him, he's running from these crazy skeleton dudes. Next time I run into him, he's got demon cheerleaders on his tail. And now this …'

'You don't know the half of it,' I snapped. My insides felt like a musical string stretched too tight. I shouldn't have let him go. I shouldn't have let him go.

'You think he's going to mess it up?'

'We're going after him,' I decided.

'Percy said no!' Nico protested. 'He told us to wait.'

'He's going to need my help, Nico,' I said. 'I know he will.'

'But—'

'I can't let him face whatever's down there on his own.'

'We,' Rachel interjected. 'We can't let him face it alone.'

I crossed my arms. 'You're mortal.'

'You were the one who said we should all go.'

'Fine.' I didn't want to waste any more time arguing. 'We'll all go.'

Nico's eyes were wide and alarmed. 'Percy said—'

'Please, Nico.'

He bit his lip and relented.

It was hard to be stealthy with three of us and no powers of invisibility, but we tried our best. The tunnel was so dark, we could barely see one another. We hugged the walls in case someone came hurrying along, but the tunnel stayed cold and empty. The overpowering smell of eucalyptus made me want to gag.

The tunnel sloped upwards. We passed the open two-foot-square cell I'd been held in before. It was the same path Luke had marched me up to the peak of Mount Othrys. My fingers reached automatically for my dagger, seeking the comfort of its familiar grip.

Our exit from the tunnel was blocked.

'That's the kid from the arena,' Rachel whispered. 'The one with the eye patch. But what are those creatures?'

It was indeed Ethan. With him were a pair of telkhines. They were hunched over a large basin filled with blood. The handle of something poked out from the surface. A sword, I guessed.

'What's in there?' Rachel asked. 'It—it feels evil.'

Nico ran his fingers nervously over the hilt of his own sword. 'Something forged in death.'

'The blade is sanctified!' one of the telkhines announced. 'It is time.'

The other telkhine lifted the blade from the basin of blood. It wasn't a sword. It was a curved, seven-foot blade, one side forged in steel, the other in bronze. A scythe. The weapon in the volcano.

I understood now. It was the greatest Titan weapon, Kronos's symbol of power. Don't ask me how I knew, but I was certain that this blade wasn't just like Luke's sword—it was Backbiter, the Celestial bronze and hard steel fused into a weapon ten times more wicked.

This couldn't mean anything good. Not for us, and not for Luke.

The telkhines wrapped the scythe in a midnight black cloth. They were both very careful not to handle the blade.

'I'm guessing that one wouldn't pass right through me,' Rachel whispered.

'Come, half-blood,' said the telkhine. 'You will present the blade now to our lord and master.'

They made their way up the mountain, holding the wrapped scythe reverently before them. We waited for their voices to fade away before we clambered out of the tunnel.

We were on the desolate mountain peak, a short way down from the funnelled columns of foggy sky that sat on Atlas's shoulders. The last time I'd been here, there'd been a circle of black marble ruins near the top of the mountain. They were no longer there. Instead, a black fortress rose out of the shadows. The towering marble walls of the Titans' palace had reformed, just as Kronos's scythe had been reforged.

Ice crept from the floor of the fortress, spreading across the ground towards us. We exchanged nervous looks.

'What's that?' Rachel asked.

'I don't know.' My knife was burning in its sheath, a warning.

Then we heard Percy's voice ring out: 'No! Ethan, don't!'

Nico, Rachel, and I exchanged another look. We sprinted for the fortress, but as we got closer, the air grew heavy. Frost stung at our skin, slowing us down. My legs felt like they were wading through syrup.

A laugh came from the palace, so high and cold it turned my insides to ice.

It took forever to reach the entrance to the fortress. When we got there, the most bizarre and terrifying sight greeted us: Percy was running in slow motion away from Luke, who strode casually down the black marble hall, Kronos's scythe swinging in his hands.

'PERCY!' Rachel screamed.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from Luke. He was the one laughing Kronos's evil cackle. His body was too chiselled, too perfect, like his features had been immortalised in stone. The look on his face was barely human. And his eyes … his eyes …

A blue plastic hairbrush flew across the room. Rachel had flung it, and her aim was spot-on. It smacked Luke's face dead centre. Glitter flecks showered from its bristles, the same colour as his eerie, foreign eyes.

As if a spell had been broken, Percy broke into a proper run.

Luke's face changed. His inhuman expression broke; a flash of blue flickered through his golden irises. He looked straight at me, bewildered.

'Luke? What's going on?'

Janus hovered in front of me, a ghostly shade no one but me could see.

He'll use me.

I would speak to her before …

Luke's wavering expression beckoned me forward. He'd been turned into some kind of puppet, and Rachel's hairbrush had just knocked him out of his hypnosis. If I could just get to him now …

Was this my chance to fix things? Was this the choice I had to make?

Percy barrelled towards us. He grabbed my shirt and yanked me away, out of the fortress. I was too stunned to do anything but trip along beside him.

An awful voice that couldn't be Luke, but was, screamed after us.

I had to turn back. I had to see what was going on. I had to get to Luke …

But Percy dragged me forward relentlessly. Nico clapped his hands together with a yell. The ground exploded behind us, mountains of rock erupting from the ground, splitting it apart. I heard it crumble behind us, the sound of tons of marble collapsing into dust.

Then we dove back into the Labyrinth tunnel, away from the storm-tossed mountain and the terrible distortion of my oldest friend.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/N: Sorry to go all academic on Annabeth and Rachel's conversation, but I figured that'd be more important to Annabeth than it was to Percy. Plus, if Annabeth is going to geek out on anything, it'll be architecture! And I haven't been to the GE Building, but I reckon Wikipedia images is fairly accurate. The writing: 'Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times' just seems like something Annabeth would appreciate!

Thanks you Hello, JustADerangedFanGirl, Thunderwolf7226, thatoneguy, ArtimuosJackson, and OverLordRevan for your comments on the last chapter! I can't believe we're almost at the end now ... four more chapters to go. *gasp* Thanks for sticking it all this way, guys.