If you haven't seen it already, I have a sort-of epilogue to this story already published called "Safe", so make sure you check it out!
This part of the story takes place between The Titan's Curse and The Battle of the Labyrinth.
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Part 2
Chapter 4: Help
"Chris, please try to remember. I'm Clarisse, not Mary."
Over the past couple of months Clarisse had been nursing Chris back to health. Physically, he had improved tremendously, but mentally there was still no progress.
"Mary, the son of Poseidon! He will make you fight and you'll lose! Mary please!"
"Chris, there are no sons of Poseidon here."
"Don't! Please!"
"Clarisse?" Clarisse's mom had appeared in the doorway, phone in hand.
"Yes?"
"I just got a call from Chiron. You need to IM him."
"I will."
"Now."
Clarisse looked at Chris, who was curled up in the corner and back at her mom. She looked worried, but Chris shouldn't be left alone for long.
"Now." Her mom repeated.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Chiron at Camp Half-blood." Clarisse tossed the drachma in, and the image of Chiron and Annabeth talking in the Big House appeared.
"Clarisse," Chiron said, cutting Annabeth off from whatever she was rambling about.
"What do you want?" Clarisse asked gruffly.
"Mr. D has been 'called back' to Olympus," Annabeth said. "By either Zeus or Ariadne."
"Ariadne? You think Luke is getting closer to the Labyrinth?"
"It would appear so," Chiron confirmed.
"What would you have us do?" Clarisse questioned.
"I'm thinking we need to do a search of the Manhattan area. Also, you need to start preparing your cabin for a fight."
"And Chris?"
"We should move him to camp. Maybe we can help him better here."
"How? People are going to notice if I bring him on a plane."
"I have sent Argus to fetch you two. It will be several days before he gets there."
"And until then?"
"Keep your eyes open."
Doing a several day car trip stunk when hotels weren't an option, and Clarisse was glad when they pulled up at camp.
Two daughters of Apollo helped set up a room for Chris in the basement of the Big House while Clarisse took her stuff back to her cabin.
"I'm back," Clarisse barked at her siblings as she opened the door. Mark, her second-in-command, gave her a quick briefing of everything that had happened while she was gone.
"Do I look like I care?" Clarisse asked when he started talking about the Aphrodite head counselor, Silena Beauregard. "Because I don't. Stop drooling over some Barbie doll."
"I'm not drooling over no one." Mark grunted.
"You better not be. Now, don't expect me to be doing much here, Chiron had me on an important assignment. And tell the rest of the cabin that we might have a battle coming up and to start training like it."
"So, did that thing with Grover ever happen?" Clarisse asked as she and Annabeth walked down Manhattan, looking for a Labyrinth entrance.
"Yeah. Two siblings - a girl and a boy."
"Have they been claimed yet?"
"No. The girl joined the hunters and, well, died. First death of the war. The boy ran away."
"Oh." First death of the war. This is getting serious. "How'd she die?"
"Apparently she annoyed one of Hephaestus's inventions while on a quest."
"Oh." And the silence resumed.
"Want a pizza?" Annabeth asked.
"What?"
"A pizza. I didn't have lunch and Percy said there was a really good around here."
"Nothing close enough to benefit Luke," Annabeth reported back to Chiron.
"That just confirms that there's something here on cam- and who would you be?" Both girls turned around to find a stranger lurking in the doorway.
"Quintus. I'm a demigod, and I was told you needed help running camp." Annabeth and Clarisse exchanged curious glances.
A demigod that old?
"And who might have you heard this information from?" Chiron questioned.
"An old friend," Quintus stated.
"And you've never been to camp?" Chiron asked. Quietus shook his head. "Well, I must say you've done a good job surviving on your own."
"Thank you," Quintus replied. "I'm quite a good swordsman."
"Perhaps you'd like to teach sword fighting classes? Our previous instructor graduated from college last year and is now in Peru."
"That would be great," Quintus answered. "It will be a pleasure to work with you."
"May I find you a room to sleep in?" Chiron offered.
"That would be great." And with that, they left.
"That was odd," Annabeth commented.
"Could Luke have sent him?" Clarisse asked.
"Maybe. Or Ariadne. Chiron mentioned she was acting weird."
"She's the one with the string, right?" Clarisse questioned.
"Yep. In the original legends, Daedalus gave her the string to rescue her love, Theseus. Daedalus was eventually thrown into the Labyrinth as punishment."
"And Chiron thinks he's still alive."
"Appears so. Daedalus was a genius, he might have found a way to defeat death. If so, Hades probably has a high interest in him."
"What does the Hades does Hades have to do with this?"
"His s- nothing, actually. It was just a thought."
"So are we backing to searching camp?"
"Looks like it."
"How the Hades are we supposed to search every inch of a forest?" Clarisse wondered.
"We can't. But if we can find it we can prepare better." Annabeth replied.
"We should get Jackson here," Clarisse suggested. "He'll probably accidentally find it, though we might have to rescue him at the end of it." Annabeth chuckled.
"He'll probably get me stuck with - what is Quintus doing out here?" Annabeth whispered the last part, but the man in question seemed to hear her.
"Looking for you girls of course," he answered. "It's nearly dinner time, and you'll need to eat to keep up the search."
"Chiron told you what we're doing?" Clarisse questioned.
"No, but you're wondering out in the woods looking around, so the logical conclusion would be that you're searching for something." Quintus explained.
Clarisse gave a grunt in reply. Annabeth looked equally unimpressed.
"Dinner," Clarisse called, knocking softly on the doorframe while balancing a tray of food on her arm. Chris looked up from where he was sitting, recognition still far from his eyes.
"Mary?" He asked.
"No, Chris, it's me. Clarisse."
"No, y-you're an illusion, aren't you? One of the traps!"
"No, I'm not. Chris, please try to focus. You're safe."
"The string. We need to find the string. If we don't find the string he'll just keeping forcing us down there."
"Chris, you're not down there anymore."
"We'll die down here if we don't find it."
"You aren't going to die. You're safe, Chris, you don't have to be so scared anymore."
"Luke said that-"
"Luke isn't here, Chris. I am. And I'm trying to help you. Please, please let me." Clarisse gave him the tray of food. "Please eat something."