Hello everyone,

Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.

Unlike other authors, I will continue to post even if my review count does not rise. I'm just that nice.

Don't forget, if you have nothing better to do, check out my other story The Argonauts: Quest for the Golden Fleece

With best regards,
SharkAttack719

Περσεύς 19

The Heart of Camp

Before I left Mount Olympus, Dionysus managed to catch me.

"Perry Johnson," the wine god said. "You've managed to survive that little Council vote, but that doesn't make you any less dangerous. Consider yourself lucky."

"What makes you think that?" I replied.

Dionysus raised an eyebrow. "You have snuck out of camp twice in the past year, yet you are not banished."

"Well, then why didn't you banish me?"

He gave me a sly smile. "Truth be told, you are amusing to annoy, and I want to be annoyed at times. You are useful for one thing. But remember what I told you about Theseus." He gave me an inquisitive look. "I can tell when something is of Aphrodite's doing. You, I realize, have a chance of redemption. Be like the first Perseus and don't hurt your first love, or else I will be after you like a pack of Artemis' wolves."

Then the wine god disappeared into the crowd.

Compared to Mount Olympus, Manhattan was quiet. Friday before Christmas, but it was early in the morning, and hardly anyone was on Fifth Avenue. Argus, the many-eyed security chief, picked up Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, Luke, Bianca and me at the Empire State Building and ferried us back to camp through a light snowstorm. The Long Island Expressway was almost deserted.

Chiron greeted us at the Big House with hot chocolate and toasted cheese sandwiches. Grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about our strange encounter with the magic of Pan. Within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.

Annabeth, Luke, Thalia, Bianca and I talked with Chiron and some of the other senior counselors—Silena, Beckendorf, Lee Fletcher, and Dionysus' kids. Even Clarisse from the Ares cabin was there, back from her secretive scouting mission. I knew she must've had a difficult quest, because she didn't even try to pulverize me. She had a new scar on her chin, and her dirty blond hair had been cut short and ragged, like someone had attacked it with a pair of safety scissors.

"I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news."

"I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is you have prevailed. You saved Luke and Annabeth!"

Annabeth and Luke gave me grateful looks, but I turned away.

I may have been on that quest to save Annabeth and Luke, but the only reason I hadn't died trying to rescue them was because of Coeus, the Titan, and Zoe Nightshade, who'd allowed me to travel with the group on the quest with a single word against. Otherwise, I would have probably died back in Washington D.C.

"Ethan is alive," I said. "My feelings were right."

Everyone fixed their eyes on me. Thalia asked, "How do you know?"

I told her what my dad had said about the Princess Andromeda.

Thalia slumped in her chair. "That doesn't sound good at all."

"It does not indeed," Chiron said grimly. His expression was gloomy. Sitting by the fire in his wheelchair, he looked really old. I mean…he was really old, but he usually didn't look it.

"But have two years until the final battle, right?" Luke asked. "Percy turns sixteen in two years. Maybe by then we can think of a way to figure something out."

Bianca looked doubtful. "You saw how Atlas freed himself. Had Percy been eliminated like they called for, Thalia probably would have given in to the Titans. In fact, had it been anyone besides Zoe or Percy, they would have accepted it. To have the power of destroying the gods would be very intriguing to most demigods. As lieutenant of the Hunters, I will scour the country for any notice of other Titans that are freed."

"Bianca is right," Chiron agreed. "This second time, Kronos has gained more allies than the first Titanomachy. I had hoped that the prophecy would not be unveiled for another few hundred years; however, it appears the Second Titan War is upon us. And Kronos' first strike will be here."

Everyone paled, including myself. The thought of Kronos' army attacking camp was devastating.

"Destroy the tools, and the gods will be crippled," the old centaur continued. "As heroes, you are the tools of the gods. We will need to be prepared for an attack on camp by Ethan's forces. Mortal, demigod, monstrous…We must be prepared. Clarisse's news may give us a clue as to how they will attack, but—"

There was a knock on the door, and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red from the cold.

When he spotted Bianca sitting at the spot designated for the counselor for the Artemis cabin, his face broke into a huge smile. He ran up to his sister and hugged her. "Bianca!"

The lieutenant of the Hunters hugged her brother back. "Nico. It's good to see you again."

Then the son of Hades turned to me. "Thank you, Percy! You kept my sister safe."

Bianca looked at me. "Why is he thanking you?" She looked a little hurt, as if I meant as much to Nico as she did.

"I made a promise," I admitted. "I promised him that I would do my best to keep you safe. That was part of the reason why I never told you why I was getting into Talos' foot."

Bianca gave Nico a stern look. "You can't do that again, Nico. Making someone promise something when they cannot control what happens is not safe."

He looked down in shame. "I'm sorry, Bianca. I just couldn't let you die. Even if you go with the Hunters...you'll still come visit. I wanted to see you again, alive."

Then something popped in my head. "Ah, Nico. Um, we found out your godly parent," I said.

The ten-year-old boy turned to me. His eyes shined with hope. "Who is it?"

Bianca gave me a look that said, I've got this.

"Here, Nico." Bianca pulled a mini statue out of her pocket, placing it in the boy's hands. "This is our father. Do you recognize him from Mythomagic?"

"Hades," the boy murmured. "Hades."

"Yes, Nico." Bianca bit her lip and turned to me, her eyes asking for help. I agreed with what she was thinking. Nico seemed excited, but he was also stunned, and I had a feeling that he wasn't a big Hades fan.

"Don't worry, Nico," I comforted him. "Hades isn't such a bad god."

"But...where will I sleep? There's no cabin for Hades."

"My father and Hades agreed that you can stay in my cabin until one is built for your father, which I am sure will happen soon."

The boy's stunned face morphed into one of content. "Thank you, Percy. Maybe I can even teach you some Mythomagic."

Bianca tried covering up her laughter, and I glared at her.

I turned to look at the rest of the head counselors. Most of them were staring in shock at the two children of Hades, probably scared that there were two of them now. I realized that now Nico, Thalia and I could be the Big Three trio at camp.

Bianca looked to Chiron and asked for permission to leave the meeting. He nodded his consent, and she led Nico out of the room.

The rest of the meeting was pretty much telling the story of how the quest went. Silena, Beckendorf, Lee, Castor and Pollux (Mr. D's kids) made comments throughout. Clarisse just sat there gloomy-faced. I wondered what she had experienced on her top-secret journey? Whatever it was, I didn't have high hopes about them.

"A very dangerous quest indeed," Chiron summed up. "I am glad that all four of you have returned, though. I have one request to Percy: stop killing your friends."

I blushed. I knew what he meant. I was practically killing my friends by disappearing after I seemed to be dying. The thought of me dying was probably eating them up from the inside. I would have felt the same way if it were the other way around.

Soon after, the counselors were dismissed from the meeting, everyone ready to go out and eat lunch. My own stomach was rumbling, but I had a little chore to take care of first. I waited for everyone to leave the room until only Chiron and Clarisse remained. They shared a look before regarding me, Clarisse with weary, bloodshot eyes, and Chiron with sad, old eyes.

"He should know first, Clarisse," Chiron said suddenly. "It will be best."

"Whatever." Clarisse got up and beckoned me to follow her. Wanting to know what had happened to her, I followed. She brought me to the arena where we usually sword-fought. She picked up a sword from the rack, examined it in her hands, before walking to the center of the arena.

When I looked at her questioningly, she rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you while we fight, so the clashing of swords kind of impairs what people hear. I can't let everyone know yet."

"You know like half the people who are usually here are in the mortal world," I noted. "It's safe."

"Just fight, Jackson."

I shrugged and pulled Riptide out. It was more of a practice round, Clarisse not giving it her all. She whirled around and slashed at me. I parried the strike.

"What happened, Clarisse?" I asked. "Honestly, you look like shit."

"That's what the place does to you," Clarisse said, her voice breaking a little. "It turns you into something you're not."

"What place?" I asked.

She kicked my sword arm sending my sword flying, and dropped her sword onto the ground. "The Labyrinth."

Dejected, she trudged over to the side of the arena and plopped to the ground. Meanwhile, my face went white. The Labyrinth? That did not sound good at all.

I walked over to the daughter of Ares and sat next to her. "You went into the Labyrinth, by yourself? Why?"

Clarisse shook her head, refusing to answer. There was a look of pain in her eyes that I had never seen before. Something horrible had happened to her down there.

"Clarisse, I'm here to help," I said. "What happened in the Labyrinth?"

"The usual as they said in Theseus' myth," she responded shakily. "Monsters you've never seen before, ghosts haunting you, driving you...insane. Just for the record, I'm not insane. I—I just saw things that were too scary to be real."

"Why did you go in the Labyrinth?" was my next question.

Clarisse gave me a cold stare, but the pained look in her eyes was still there. "You have to promise that you won't say anything to anybody about what I am about to tell you until we figure more about it. You can't tell people the way I tell you, even after."

She sounded so frightened, I actually felt pity for my rival. "I promise I won't say anything about it until you deem it is okay to."

She swallowed. "It was the fall and I'd just come home from Camp Half-Blood. I went to school for a few weeks, beating annoying kids up and struggling with my studies. My mother lives in Arizona, in Phoenix, and she got us a private tour of the desert that no one came on, just the two of us. Then I see him. He's just walking through the desert, stumbling and muttering random phrases." She blinked hard.

"Who?"

"Chris Rodriguez," she said.

My blood turned to ice. "He was...but..."

"With the Titans," she nodded. "But we found him in the middle of the desert muttering something about a string. He was talking about the Labyrinth, talking about a maze. He started wildly yelling out, and his eyes were a pale brown, something I've never seen before. He had a seizure, and my mother immediately recognized that he was a half-blood. She took us back to our house and tended to Chris. I came back to camp and warned Chiron about the Labyrinth, and just before he gave me a quest to go and search the Labyrinth for clues as to what Chris was talking about, he interviews Chris. All we get out of it is that Ethan's men are exploring the Labyrinth. Then later, before I left the Labyrinth, I overheard monsters talking about Ariadne's string. That was all I needed to hear and I visited Chris again. His condition is getting worse. My mother is probably going to send him back here soon. I—just..."

Clarisse closed her eyes and slowly shook her head.

I stared at the ground. Long ago, Ethan had told me that they would strike at the heart of camp. A slow, dawning realization hit me.

"They're planning to invade camp using the Labyrinth," I said.

"No shit, Sherlock," Clarisse snorted.

"But you haven't found the entrance to the Labyrinth from camp, have you."

She hesitated. "No, I haven't."

"Where is the closest entrance?"

"I—I don't know. The entrance Chris came out of is in Arizona."

I licked my dry lips. That was when I realized what Clarisse had been talking about last summer. She'd been talking about losing someone, someone that she may have liked more than a friend. Now that she told me about the story of Chris, and the way she sounded so pained and broken. The boy she'd been left by was Chris Rodriguez. Then there was the trip into the Labyrinth itself.

A fiery determination started burning in my eyes. I pulled Clarisse up to her feet. "You know what, Clarisse? I'll help you figure out this problem of yours. And we will cure Chris. I'll make sure of it. This time when you go in, I'll have your back."

Clarisse eyed me warily. "You? Have my back?"

"Let's forget about our past differences." I stuck my hand out for her to shake. "We'll figure out this problem quickly, I'll be sure of it. Partners?"

She stood there for a little bit, staring at me. Then she grabbed my hand firmly and shook it. "Partners."

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks to those who've put this on their favorites, followed and reviewed.

Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.

I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.

Don't forget, if you have nothing better to do, check out my other story The Argonauts: Quest for the Golden Fleece

With best regards,
SharkAttack719