A/N: I'm back!!! And now, to my dedicated reviewers...

mattsudoku: I know it was destroyed, but it's still there. It didn't just disapear, and I did say that they had to take detours due to cave-ins

Rhiannon Hunter: Thankyou! :D

Square One

Rachel screamed. I ducked and covered my head, praying to every god that I knew that Rachel was doing the same.

It was sudden, like how it began, but the rumbling stopped. I caught my breath and slowly stood. My legs were trembling and my heart was racing the way it did whenever I was near Annabeth… Oh, gods! I thought, Rachel!

"Rachel?" I coughed. I couldn't see anything. The air was filled with dust and the acrid smell of burning paint… "Rachel!"

"I'm right here!"

I could hear the frantic panic in her voice. "Keep talking," I called out to her, "I'm going to follow the sound of your voice to get to the exit!"

"Okay! Just keep walking, but watch out! Don't fall on anything, okay?"

"Got it!" I warily made my way through the room, navigating through pathways of sheet-rock, ruined easels, and crumbling rock from the ceiling. I reached out cautiously with my hand and felt Rachel's hand grab my own.

We both breathed sighs of relief; we had made it- so far.

"The door's right behind me," Rachel said, "but I can't get it open."

"Let me try."

She shuffled past so that I could get close to the door. I felt the handle. I tried turning it, but it wouldn't move. I did know, however, that we weren't going to last much longer in here if we didn't get out.

"Do you think that there's a back door?" I asked.

"It's worth a try."

So we sidled our way back through the room and up the stairs. The air was cleaner up there than it was on the first level. We started looking around.

I didn't even realize that Rachel had left my side until I heard then protestant groan of a metal door. I looked over to see her opening the door into the room where I had gotten the grenades. "That door leads to a storage room," I told her, "It won't get us anywhere."

"Are you sure?" She gave me this look that just said, 'are you really going to try and pull something like that at a time like this'.

I walked over to her and looked in the door. It was still an endless hallway, yet now devoid of the shelves and machinery of before. I looked behind me. Daedalus's workshop was gone, replaced by an endless hallway that looked, and smelt, of a New York sewer.

I looked at Rachel, "Lead on."

She pointed forward and said, "This way."

…And so we trudged on.

Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις

It didn't take near as long to get out of the labyrinth as it did to get in. We did, however, still have to take several detours due to cave-ins and such. We traveled fast, yet it still took about five days, as opposed to the earlier three, to get to an entrance.

Our supply of food had started running out on about the second day, and by the fifth we were tired and hungry, devoid of both nourishment and sleep. We weren't going to last much longer and we both knew it.

We didn't say much, we just walked, trying to conserve the little energy we had. We had only one meal a 'day' and slept for only a few hours.

It was then, on the fifth day of our wandering hell that we found it. Rachel found it, really, but it seemed to give us the same assurance as the guiding light of the northern star to a shipwrecked sailor.

Our breath seemed to speed up in anticipation. This was it, we were finally getting out…. I pressed my hand to the Greek Delta. There was a breath of fresh air on my face, wind in my hair, I detected the mingled scent of pine and strawberries in the air… There were rocks beneath me and scattered yells that I recognized.

"Someone get Chiron! Prepare to fire!"

"Don't shoot! It's me, Percy!"

I emerged into the shaded sunlight of the forest to see Charles Beckendorf and half of the Apollo cabin beneath me.

"Rachel," I said, turning to her, "welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

A/N: O.o Cliffie! Those are so fun! Sorry it took so long, dudes, my muse left me... again...

Nico: But you still had me

LBP: OH! I know, my love, but that is not the way you inspire me... (Not in that way either, you pervs.)

Nico: ~smiles~

LBP: ~smiles~

Both: REVIEW!!