A/N: This chapter is rated PG-13/T because hello battle scene!

Chapter 26: I Get A New Laptop

We got back in time to man our battle stations.

Chiron and the others had stepped up their game. I guess the last scorpion attack had spurred them into action. The fortifications around the Labyrinth entrance were heavier than ever. Beckendorf had outdone himself with the machinery. Traps of bronze and steel surrounded every inch of Zeus's Fist, ready to take out the first wave of monsters to emerge. Jake Mason and Nyssa Barrera each had half a dozen missile launchers set up in the tree line. Beckendorf himself was loading and priming a pair of massive catapults. His other siblings had formed a human chain to supply them with ammo.

Clarisse's cabin was ready for the second wave. She stood at their head like a drill sergeant, barking commands and marching orders. When we arrived, their shields were interlocked in the phalanx formation. Lee's archers perched in the trees, ready with their bows and a wide selection of arrows: barbed, flaming, you name it.

Everyone had stepped into the roles we'd assigned at the start of summer. Will Solace manned the medic station, with his siblings to help inventory the nectar and ambrosia. Silena patrolled the camp borders on her pegasus while the new kids, Mitchell and Lacy, dashed around cleaning up trip hazards. Castor and Pollux kept our little army hydrated, while Katie and the Demeter kids had turned the guard tent into a rest station, growing mossy pillows and leafy blankets out of the ground so the campers could sleep in shifts. I didn't see Travis and Connor, but they were probably scouting the perimeter to booby-trap any weak spots.

Malcolm confirmed this when I found him at the command tent. In my absence, he'd taken charge of strategic operations. Argus stood guard at the entrance, under Athena's banner. Inside, maps were spread over every table, the same ones we'd pored over at the start of summer, but also new ones that had been updated with the location of our defensive lines and each cabin's battle position. One was set up like a board game, with little chess pieces representing our forces.

I scanned the board quickly. 'There.' I pointed to the line of a natural ditch. 'It's a good defensive trap in theory, but Luke knows this area. He'll be prepared for it.' I moved several of the chess pieces around. 'We need to redeploy some of our forces to guard the natural landforms. We can't depend on them to trip Luke up, no matter how we've disguised them.'

Malcolm scratched his head sheepishly. 'I guess I missed that. Sorry.'

I shook my head. 'No, you've done a great job. It's just—'

I thought of the waves of monsters packing Antaeus's stadium, of the seemingly endless battalion that kept coming after us in the Labyrinth.

Kronos, with his evil blade and all of Luke's knowledge and skill at his disposal.

'You did a good job,' I repeated. 'I'm sorry I wasn't here.' I'm sorry I failed.

We went over the rest of the plans together, sending our younger siblings out as runners to inform the others whenever we made a tactical change. The sun sank steadily lower, casting longer shadows on the canvas of our tent.

At last, they came.

It started as a tremor, the faint rumble of the ground beneath us. Then it grew into a full-blown earthquake, as if hundreds of troops were marching underneath—which they probably were. The tables shook. Our chess pieces toppled.

'Let's go,' I said.

The first wave was formed entirely of Laistrygonians, an explosion of giants that shattered Zeus's Fist. The first giant was shot down immediately by a volley of arrows from the Apollo kids, but it had torn the Labyrinth entrance open like a seam. The next dozen came charging out easily.

Malcolm and I drew our swords. 'For Athena!' I yelled, and we rushed forward at the head of our cabin.

I heard Clarisse screaming a battle cry, Beckendorf shouting to launch the catapults, Lee ordering his archers to fire. We held back the first wave, just barely. But as I'd expected, there was a second, and a third, and a fourth. Hellhounds and dracaenae and giants and cynocephali—I soon lost track of just how many monsters poured from the massive fissure in the ground. Worse still were the dozens of demigod warriors who clambered out in full battle armour, adding to Kronos's already-swelled ranks.

I thought I knew what battle was. I'd faced down dozens of skeleton warriors in the palace of Hades. I'd sailed through the raging inferno of Scylla and Charybdis. I'd duelled an empousa and a horde of monsters in Daedalus's workshop. This was beyond all of that combined.

It was a bloodbath.

Giants crushed our defensive lines, sweeping away the traps we'd painstakingly set. Fires raged along the tree line, sending archers plummeting to the ground. Dryads streamed from their trees, their heads ablaze. Lion-headed giants roared after shrieking satyrs. I saw bodies trampled in the dirt—some of Luke's, but more of ours. They were slowly whittling down our numbers. And still more enemies climbed out of the ground.

It would have been a total massacre if it hadn't been for Percy and Nico. The latter raised an entire army of zombie warriors, forming a barrier between a horde of dracaenae and the main camp. I saw him collapse soon after. Percy summoned a tsunami of water to douse the forest fire, freeing up trapped archers and smoking dryads to return to the fight. For a moment, we seemed to draw even.

And then she roared out of the boulders, shooting like a firework into the crimson sky. With a triumphant screech, Kampê landed on our command tent. Her poisonous scimitars slashed through Athena's banner, which sizzled up on contact. Every beastly head on her belt turned in the direction of the main camp.

No one else was free to engage her. I stabbed my sword into the dracaenae I was fighting. I didn't even pause to watch the snake woman disintegrate as I ran for Kampê.

Someone sprinted out from my left. Percy was running full-tilt at Kampê, too, his sword drawn. Here we were again, him and me, charging side by side into battle. Just like in New Jersey, in the Underworld, on Mount Tam, in the Labyrinth … all those times we'd thought might be the end.

It struck me that this could be it, this time.

'Could be,' Percy agreed.

'Nice fighting with you, Seaweed Brain.' The words seemed too simple to encompass the complexity of our friendship, yet somehow, they did.

'Ditto,' he said, and we fell into our familiar fighting pattern.

It was like battling a hydra on a fog bank. Kampê was impossible to distract; each one of her animal heads was capable of snapping at us independently. Her swords were swinging guillotines that issued a blinding cloud of acid with every hit.

'We need help!' Percy gasped.

'There isn't any!' I ducked a vicious slash from Kampê's blade.

Three arrows shot in quick succession into Kampê's chest—Chiron! She howled and arched back, enraged, though by no means defeated. But Chiron had given us an opening.

'Now!'

We surged forward before Kampê could recover, aiming for her chest. We made it under the reach of her scimitars, smacked away two roaring beast heads, and delivered a forward thrust—

A third head sprang from her waist, fangs bared. Percy slashed at it moments before they could sink into my side. I dragged him back, out of its snarling reach.

Something that felt like a tree trunk smashed me flat. My vision exploded into a canvas of stars. When it cleared, all I could see was a forest of hissing vines, swarming around the massive, scaly leg pinning me down. Percy was wedged under me, gasping for breath.

Our eyes met. They were the last thing I'd ever see.

Or not. A ferocious howl rang through the air. The poison-green scimitar flashed inches from our faces. Kampê flew off us as something big, black, and hairy barrelled into her.

'Good girl!'

Percy and I scrambled to our feet. Mrs O'Leary was chewing off Kampê's belt of heads while she screeched and wailed in disgust.

'Daedalus!'

The inventor was slashing his way to us from the Labyrinth entrance, a stream of monsters falling in the wake of his gleaming sword. And behind him, a hundred hands bearing a mountain of rocks, was—

'Briares!'

I could see why Tyson idolised the guy now. The Hekatonkheire rose to his full height—maybe not as tall as the sky, but clearing the treetops for sure—and launched his centuplicate offensive. Boulders sailed towards Kampê, a wall of rock that buried his old prison guard completely. Mrs O'Leary bounded back to us, angling for a reward. Tyson flung her a dracaenae, which she snapped up like a dog biscuit.

Luke's army was starting to panic. Briare's arrival had turned the tide. As he reloaded for another rock assault, a dozen enemy demigods turned tail and ran.

A dracaenae leapt between them and the Labyrinth entrance, promising retribution from Kronos should they flee.

'Yes!' bellowed a giant. 'Stand and fight!'

His club came smashing down. To my horror, Chiron's back legs buckled as it connected. For a second, I saw the centaur in Antaeus's arena and the smear of blood it had left on the dirt floor.

'Chiron!' I screamed. I dodged strikes and teeth and claws, determined to get to him before the remaining giants closed in. A cynocephalus tripped me up. I rolled and came up swinging my dagger in its slavering face. I'd just stabbed it into monster dust when I heard the sound.

A loud wail cut across the clearing—no, that didn't even begin to describe what this sound was. It was a foghorn, an air raid siren, the loudest noise you could imagine magnified ten thousand times. It was accompanied by screams of unmitigated terror. The very sound made me want to curl up and clutch at my head in fear.

It was pandemonium—literally. The cry of panic, Pan's cry, echoed through the woods. It struck terror straight into the hearts of the Titan army. They cut and ran, driven by a fear greater than that of Kronos's retribution.

And it was Grover producing it. Our Grover, whom I'd had to reassure of his bravery so many times over the years. He stood in the centre of the clearing, issuing Pan's power, sending the monsters fleeing back into the Labyrinth. Grover, Pan's chosen one.

Only when the last monster had disappeared and the Labyrinth entrance slid shut did Grover close his mouth. A hush fell over the woods. In the aftermath of Grover's cry, my ears felt like they'd been hollowed out. Dazed, I picked myself off the ground, trying to remember what I'd been doing.

Chiron.

Percy grabbed my arm. Together, we sprinted to him. He was alive, thank the gods, sprawled on his side with his back legs bent at a painful angle. They were broken, a fact that he seemed to find acutely embarrassing.

'You need help,' I told him. 'I'll get a medic from Apollo's cabin.'

I looked around. The med tent had been trampled in the attack, but the combat medics were rushing around, tending to the wounded on the battlefield.

Chiron waved me away. 'There are more serious injuries to attend to.'

He was right. Injured campers were scattered left and right, bleeding and groaning, or worse still, not moving at all. Tyson beckoned us over to the west edge of the clearing, where Nico lay in a ring of withered grass, his clothes smoking.

Percy felt for his heartbeat. 'Get some nectar!'

Someone tossed a canteen over. We gave him a few sips and he spluttered back to life.

Percy leaned back on the balls of his feet, looking relieved. 'What happened? Can you talk?'

'Never—tried to summon—so many,' Nico mumbled.

Will Solace came running over, but Nico insisted he was fine. We waved Will on to the other wounded.

'Daedalus,' Nico whispered suddenly.

Percy and I turned our heads. Daedalus was making his way over to us, dabbing at the scratches on his skin with an oilcloth. His blood ran gold, like machine oil. He nodded to Nico.

'Yes, my boy, I made a very bad mistake.' He held Nico's gaze for a long moment. 'I came to correct it.'

Briares followed him over. He'd shrunk back to normal size, though a powerful aura still radiated around him. This was probably enhanced by the gaggle of impressed nymphs, satyrs, and even several of the youngest campers, who started demanding autographs. Daedalus explained how he'd found Briares in the maze. They'd come together to atone for their previous bad choices.

Tyson could barely contain his excitement. He was about to ask Briares to autograph his shirt—possibly with several hands at once—but Briares stopped him short. 'You are the hero,' he insisted, and held out a boulder for Tyson to sign instead. I thought the big guy might just combust from pride.

'I knew that a long time ago,' Percy said proudly. 'But,' he addressed Daedalus, 'the Titan army is still down there.'

I listened with a sinking heart. The monsters might have run, but they were still alive. Kronos would lead them back eventually, string or no string. As long as the Labyrinth entrance remained, the camp would always be in danger.

'You are right,' Daedalus said heavily. 'As long as the Labyrinth is here, your enemies can use it. Which is why the Labyrinth cannot continue.'

'But you said the Labyrinth is tied to your life force!' I pointed out. It was why our efforts to destroy it had never worked. 'As long as you're alive—'

Daedalus's gaze was solemn. 'Yes, my young architect. When I die, the Labyrinth will die as well.'

It hit me then what he meant—what he intended to do.

The child of Athena's final stand.

There were so many ways that line of the prophecy could have played out over the course of my quest, but I knew this was finally it.

'And so, I have a present for you.' From his satchel, Daedalus drew out a silver laptop. It looked like a MacBook, except where the logo should have been, his mark—the blue Delta—glowed. 'My work is there—it's all I managed to save from the fire.' He explained its contents: project notes, designs, secrets that he had harboured for the last millennium. 'Perhaps you will find them interesting.'

The laptop was light, no more than a few pounds, but it felt like a lead weight in my hands. 'You're giving me this? But this is priceless! This is worth … I don't even know how much!'

More than that—it was responsibility. Daedalus was passing on knowledge, invention … and the charge to use it wisely. More wisely than he had.

I knew now how Grover must have felt, receiving the blessing of Pan.

I blinked back tears as the inventor announced his intention to give up his spirit to the Underworld. After two thousand years evading its justice, he was going to face his demons.

'You won't get a fair trial,' I warned him. 'The spirit of Minos sits in judgement.'

He acknowledged the fact calmly. I could tell he'd already considered all this. Of course. He was a child of Athena, too. He wouldn't have decided without weighing the consequences.

He was ready.

It was me who wasn't.

Daedalus turned to Nico. 'Will you take my soul for ransom, then? You could use it to reclaim your sister.'

Nico gulped. Here was the goal he'd sought for months, the reason he'd entered the maze to begin with. But at last, he said, 'No. I will help you release your spirit. But Bianca has passed. She must stay where she is.'

Acceptance crept slowly across his face. Or maybe it had been there for a while already.

'Well said, son of Hades,' Daedalus agreed. 'You are becoming wise.'

He set his final affairs in order, extracting a promise from Percy to look after Mrs O'Leary. I guess we would never find out how the hellhound had found her master. Nevertheless, a spark of appreciation flared in me, the same one that had endeared Daedalus to me even as we fled, disillusioned, from his workshop. He really loved his dog.

Nico raised his sword. 'Your time is long since come,' he said. 'Be released and rest.'

We watched Daedalus fade, his automaton body going pale and translucent. For a second, I could see all its interior workings: the intricate mechanical wiring and bronze cylinders that had housed his animus. Then he dissolved into ash, which sank into the earth.

The ground trembled, just as it had before the Titan army's arrival. Its vibrations rippled outwards from the spot where Daedalus had disintegrated. The earth warped and buckled like a million earthworms were tunnelling just below, swallowing up the capillaries of the Labyrinth.

Its life force had been extinguished. Destroy with a hero's final breath.

Was Daedalus a hero? After all the terrible things he'd done, the mistakes, the bad choices …

What made a hero, anyway?

Daedalus wasn't the perfect genius I'd made him out to be. Nor was he the villain I'd accused him of being. He'd been a coward, fleeing death for two thousand years. But in the end, he'd found the courage to come and help us. To make amends.

Turning back after you'd made bad choices, admitting you were wrong, choosing to own up to your mistakes—maybe that took just as much courage as making the right one to start with. Maybe even more.

Did you think you would only have one choice to make?

Maybe this was what it was all about. There wasn't just one choice that determined your fate, but a series of them.

I would have more to face. This quest was over. My prophecy was complete. But our war with the Titans was only just beginning.

You will play a great role, daughter of Athena.

Mrs O'Leary finally stopped howling. She sat up and licked my hand. I buried my face in the scruff of her neck.

Percy touched my shoulder. 'Come on, we have work to do.' He held out his hands, one to me and one to Nico.

We took them. Holding tight to Percy with one hand and clutching Daedalus's laptop like a talisman in my other, I returned with him and Nico to the rest of our friends.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/N: As you may have guessed, I've been building up to two themes in this chapter throughout the fic—one on losing heroes, and the other on choices. I'm not quite done yet, but I just wanted to mention how important I feel these are to Annabeth in this book. A lot of you have mentioned how excited you've been to see Annabeth in BotL especially, and I think it's for this very reason: this is the book where she really has to grow as a character and person. There's still two chapters to go where there will be more on her development, but I felt like she's ready to reach that turning point in understanding what it means to choose and lead. I hope that came across. Let me know what you think!

Sorry again about delayed review responses. I've been busy preparing a job application this week, and this chapter is getting posted on the fly as I'm in London all weekend without the laptop (but yay for figuring out how to open desktop version on my phone rather than the default mobile version!) Thank you Livvi May, 2na22, DreamCatcher06, ArtimuosJackson, Hello, thatoneguy, and JustADerangedFanGirl for your comments last chapter!