"Hurry!" Tyson screams while I push him ahead of me. If we were lost before, we're even more lost now. It was all I could do to get us away from the giant snake before it could eat us.

Yes, it was planning on eating us. It told me as much. Sometimes talking to animals isn't as fun as it sounds. I watch as Tyson gets clobbered by the snake in a horrible giant headbutt, followed up by the worst hug ever. "No!" I scream, hitting and punching the big reptile to no avail.

Realizing that I'm using my reed pipes incorrectly, I put them to my lips and blow. It's a dangerous, desperate tune. I look up at the stalactites, willing them to fall. And they do.

I wish I had more control over them, but they get dangerously close to Tyson, eventually knocking him out cold. I stop playing and whimper. At least the snake was also knocked out, even pinned to the ground by the sharper ones. Tyson rolls out of its grasp, landing in a heavy, unconscious heap at my feet. Great. Now what?

I pocket my reed pipes and muster up all the strength I have to pull the young cyclops behind me. It's surprisingly easy as he slides across rolling stones and the fallen stalactites. He rolls along quite nicely as I pull him out of the cavern where the snake will undoubtedly be waking soon enough.

"Uuunnnngggghhh…" the cyclops moans.

"Whoa, big guy… You okay?" I ask.

"Goat-boy makes caves fall… I do not want to know what else you can do…"

I can't help but smile. "Yeah… Sometimes I scare myself, too."

"Not scared!" Tyson sits up suddenly, then closes his big eye and clutches his head. "Ow… Headache…"

"I think it's time for another rest."

"We did not finish the first rest."

That's true. We didn't. The snake found us too quickly.

Tyson looks up at me with his big, sparkling eye. Then, the eye shifts to look behind me. "Puppies!" he shouts.

I turn around. Sure enough, there are three small dogs sniffing about in the tunnel beyond. "Strange…" I say. "I wonder where they came from… Think they wandered into the Labyrinth somehow?"

They look up at us, then bare their teeth.

"It's okay…" I assure them. "We won't hurt you."

…I think I just heard them say, "But we'll hurt you!"

It's then that Tyson and I realize… They're not puppies. The Labyrinth played a trick on our vision. They're dogs the size of ponies, and they're charging us.

"Nope! Still not resting!" I yelp.

Tyson grabs my wrist, and we run off down the tunnels once again. Well, I'm more being dragged than running at this point, just because of how Tyson is holding onto me. I yelp again when my hooves hit hard against the brick floor. Tyson stops and releases me. "Hurry!" he says, running in place.

I rub my hooves. "Take it easy. I can run on my own, you know."

"Sorry…" the big guy frowns.

I turn back to try and sniff out the dogs. They're still coming, and I have a bad feeling we won't be able to outrun them for long. "We need to fight them…" I conclude. Then I look back at Tyson.

The poor guy has been beaten and battered all day. How can I expect us to fight something again? Between the Minotaur and the snake… and now these hounds…?

I hit my hoof against the brick beneath me. No nature here. My music won't do much good away from nature. I don't want to fight. I don't want Tyson to fight. "Come on," now I'm the one to drag Tyson behind me.

"I thought we will fight."

"No good," I huff, trying to smell my way through the Labyrinth. Please, Pan… Call to me again… Find me again… So I can find you.

.

Ethan didn't stick around, and to Percy's surprise, neither did Mrs. O'Leary. By the time they had stopped running, both demigod and dog were nowhere to be seen. When he, Rachel, and Annabeth stopped to make camp, the three were mostly quiet. Between Annabeth's stubborn attitude toward Rachel, Rachel beginning to wonder what she had gotten herself into, and Percy lamenting about losing Ethan and Mrs. O'Leary, it was a long, somber, quiet night.

That was, until Percy fell asleep and had a front-row seat to watching Grover and Tyson flee from monster after monster, thanks to Kronos taking over his dreams again. Before he could see what became of them, he woke up. A cruel trick by Kronos, he decided, but perhaps that meant they were alright. After all, wouldn't the Titan just show him their death if that was their fate? No… they were still alive. They had to be.

"Let's go," he told the girls. The sooner they found Daedalus, the sooner they could find Grover and Tyson.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare never skipped a beat, never hesitated. She walked assuredly, confidently, even when the group came to an area more like the entrance of a sci-fi base than an old Greek workshop. "This can't be right…" Annabeth mumbled, but sure enough, before them, was a neon blue Greek delta. When Annabeth touched it, the door opened like an airlock.

The three of them gaped at the room before them, filled with sketches, blueprints, computer screens, and models. Then their eyes fell on something else—or rather, someone. "Quintus!" Percy grasped Riptide. "What are you doing here?"

Quintus smiled. He was scratching Mrs. O'Leary behind the ears. "Well… it is my workshop."

Annabeth and Percy were stunned to silence. Rachel Elizabeth Dare looked back and forth between them and the swordsman. "You guys… didn't know that?" she shrugged. "Man… you really don't see clearly in this maze, do you?"

Quintus regarded her. "Clear sighted, are you? You remind me of another mortal girl I knew… another princess who came to grief…"

Rachel frowned at his words.

"Wait… wait… WAIT," Percy waved his hands around. "I don't get it. You can't be Daedalus. You don't even look—" He gulped. "Wait. WAIT. No…"

"What?" Annabeth whispered.

"He…"

Quintus smiled again.

"He's an automaton… He made himself a body…"

"That's… impossible…" Annabeth insisted.

"Quintus… my fifth body."

"That's… unnatural…" Annabeth restated.

However impossible or unnatural it was, Daedalus was standing before them, and they had only this chance to talk him to their side. He had spoken to Luke, but he had seen the camp for himself. Would he decide it was worth saving?

"I'm afraid you're too late," Quintus, or rather, Daedalus told them. "I gave Luke the string hours ago. Kronos has promised me freedom… the chance to make things right… and safety from the relentless pursuit of Minos."

"No!" Annabeth cried, red with frustration. "You'll let Kronos kill hundreds of demigods… storm Olympus… destroy the whole world… just to get what you want?"

"I saw that you stood no chance. I've seen you all at camp. It's a lost cause."

"No it isn't!"

"I'm sorry, my sister. The offer was too sweet to refuse."

For a cold, horrifying moment, it was silent. It was as if Quintus's words hovered in the air for them all to feel the weight of. Then, Annabeth screamed, knocking over an easel and pushing aside a computer. "You were my hero! You—you built things! Solved problems! Used your genius to make things better! But now…" there were almost tears in her eyes, and her voice dropped to a whisper, "you're just a machine now… You should have died two thousand years ago…"

Before Quintus could respond, Mrs. O'Leary growled. The air-lock door opened again, and Nico entered, in chains, being led by the familiar empousa, Kelli, as well as a few giants. "Nico!" Percy shouted. "What happened?"

"What, indeed…" Quintus was paling at the sight of one more person who entered. It was the ghost of Minos.

"Luke sends his compliments," Kelli grinned. "It's a shame that Minos's price for this little demigod was your head, otherwise the deal would have worked out for you."

"Treachery…"

"Minos told me you guys were in trouble," Nico said, frowning. "He tricked me. I should have listened to you… I should have listened to Bianca…"

Before Percy could wrap his head around the fact that Nico had actually wanted to help them, he heard a whisper behind him. It was Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and she was holding onto a few of Daedalus's sets of wings. No one had paid her any mind this entire time. Perks of being a mortal, Percy figured.

Meanwhile, the empousa and the giants had gone on the assault. Annabeth was fighting with her dagger. Nico seemed to be arguing with Minos. Minos had summoned an army of the dead around him, but in an instant, Nico escaped from his bonds and used his dagger to open a portal to the underworld in the floor of the workshop—or at least that's what it looked like. The ghosts, including the ghost of Minos, vanished, and Nico huffed, pale and exhausted.

Eventually Rachel had gotten a set of wings to everyone except Quintus, who was bleeding golden oil and fighting alongside Mrs. O'Leary. "We need to go—NOW!" Annabeth yelled.

Percy looked back at Quintus, who waved them off. "Go! Warn your camp of what's to come!"

Rachel, surprisingly, was the first to jump. Not one to be shown up, Annabeth followed. Percy stood with Nico at the edge of the window. "I don't know how to fly…" Nico mumbled.

"Time to learn," and Percy jumped.

.

I rely only on my nose, which is hard when I have Tyson in my grasp. His smell is overwhelming, but I've gotten used to it by now. Being stuck underground with him for so long now, I can distinguish his smell from other monsters. We're exhausted, but we don't dare stop running. That is, until we're forced to.

"A dead end?!" I bleat, panicked. The Labyrinth isn't supposed to have a dead end.

"Not a dead end," Tyson points. There's a wall at the corner that has rungs like a ladder, leading up to a door.

"Dogs can't climb ladders…" I say, giddy with relief. "Come on!" I run toward the wall. I hear the howling behind us and quicken my pace.

Hand over hoof, I scramble up the wall. Tyson is right behind me. The two of us collapse. The new hallway is narrow, so narrow that Tyson can barely fit in it. He does a good job of plugging up the tunnel to block the scene down below. The dogs are growling and yapping at us, promising to tear us to shreds once they figure out how to get us down.

"Now we rest?" Tyson asks.

"If you can with all that noise," I reply.

Tyson curls up in a ball and lays his head on his hands, closing his eye.

"I guess you can."

I, meanwhile, look down the tunnel towards our new path. I am still determined to find Pan. If nothing else, every trial and near-death experience has only made my ambition stronger. I have to find Pan. Not only for my sake… but for the Wild… for the Council… for Juniper… maybe even for my best friend and the gods themselves. Pan could help us. He's already helped me overcome the Minotaur and a giant snake.

Before I know it, I'm fast asleep… asleep with the hope of finding Pan surging within me. I can feel his power… his comfort… his presence…

I will find him.

.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare proved to be as useful for transportation in the mortal world above as the Labyrinth below. She managed to get the group a ride to a new entrance to the maze, but much to the frustration of Annabeth, Percy, and Nico, she refused to acknowledge any questions of how.

Annabeth tried to get some answers out of her, but when that didn't work, they just talked architecture. Percy was happy that the two of them were finally getting along. Nico walked silently ten steps behind everyone. That was, until he smacked into Percy.

Percy had stopped. Beside them was a tunnel carved out of what looked like volcanic rock… but it was ice cold. "What are you staring at?" Nico asked, annoyed.

The girls turned around. Rachel inhaled so sharply, she almost choked. "Percy… Come on… You don't want to go down there…"

"It's Kronos, isn't it?" Percy asked.

Annabeth stared. "What, are you clear-sighted now?" she asked.

"He's been in my dreams for the past few years… It's like I can feel him…"

Rachel moved toward him. "Kronos is the big bad, right? So let's stay away from him," she reasoned.

Percy shook his head. "You're right. He's the big bad. And this may be my only chance to stop him."

"Percy, that's stupid," Annabeth argued. "You're not going in there. There's an army waiting for him at camp, remember? We're ready for war."

"But it's supposed to be me, right? The prophecy? The fight? All me…"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rachel began, "but that sounds like a lot to put on yourself, Percy."

It was true, but Percy couldn't help but think he could do something. And he had to do it on his own. If Kronos got ahold of Rachel or Nico, who knows what he could do? And Annabeth… Percy still didn't trust her anywhere near Luke. She was too easily manipulated by him.

"I have to try," he said, looking earnestly at his friends.

"At least take this," Annabeth said, handing him her invisibility cap.

He nodded, and after donning it, he left them behind.

Nico mumbled, "He's gonna get himself killed."

Somehow it sounded more certain coming from the son of the god of death. The girls looked at each other. "We're going, aren't we?" Rachel said, not certain whether she was dreading the idea or hopeful about the chance of keeping Percy safe.

Annabeth nodded. "Someone's gotta make sure that knucklehead survives to fulfill the prophecy."

"Someone's gotta fill me in on this prophecy thing," Rachel Elizabeth Dare said, and the two of them dragged Nico with them into the tunnel.

.

The tunnel is small, which is making it hard for Tyson to move through it. And it isn't like the bricks are going to give any. I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to leave him behind, too. Just like we did with Percy and Annabeth.

I feel a little sick.

Was it wrong to leave them? This was Annabeth's quest. Finally, after all these years, she had one. Was it wrong of me to abandon her like that? How many days has it been? Did she succeed? Did they find Daedalus? Did they stop Luke? Did the world end up there while Tyson and I have been running back and forth, avoiding monsters?

"You okay?" Tyson asks, stirring me out of my spiral of thoughts.

I realize that I've stopped moving. The cramped space is starting to make even me uncomfortable. I want to tell Tyson that I'm worried, but I don't want to worry him. He's just a kid, after all, and I'm sure he's worried about his brother.

"You will find the god person, Grover."

Did Tyson just call me by name? I turn around and look at him. He is smiling, his big eye sparkling despite how dark it is down here. Last year, I would have been scared of the view. Right now, I'm comforted by it.

"You're right, Tyson." I say. "I will." And Annabeth will find the inventor-person. And Percy will be safe. After all, I still have that link with him, and even though things are dim and dark and distant here in the Labyrinth, I know that he's at least alive.

Of course… there are things worse than death.

"Grover?"

"Sorry, big guy… We're moving…"

It isn't long before our tiny tunnel opens up into a huge cavern. It's such a difference from what we just came from, I can't help but gape at the size of it. Besides that, it's dirt and rock. Once again, stalactites and stalagmites surround us. We are in a natural, white cavern.

That's when I feel him again… Pan.

Before I can say a word, though, I hear something not nature-based, the clinging of iron.

Tyson and I turn and realize we are face to face with three men in full armor, carrying large, sharp swords. We freeze. Are they friend or foe? Maybe we can help each other. "Uhmm…" I bleat.

They draw their swords.

"We come in peace!" I wave my hands around.

They advance.

"They are not listening…" Tyson notes.

I noticed that, too.

I back up a step and find myself against the wall where we just squeezed out of. No way we're going back in that tiny tunnel.

The men are getting closer.

"Okay, then…" I pull out my reed pipes. Tyson rips a stalagmite from the ground.

The men pause for a beat, but that doesn't last long. With surprising speed for their armored selves, they charge at us. Tyson hits the first one like a baseball. I manage to gallop away from the other two and blow a sharp note on my instrument, causing the dirt to soften at their feet.

With one knocked out and the other two in sinking sand, we skirt around them, but it doesn't take long before they manage to get out of the muck. They step toward us again, ready to charge as fast as they did before. Tyson readies his bat. I ready my reeds. Then, from behind us, the one Tyson hit before grabs us both, making us easy targets for the oncoming swords. But he doesn't realize how strong Tyson is. With a loud bellow, Tyson throws the man into the other two, who topple to the ground in a heap. Unfortunately, I am heaped up with them, having flown in the grasp of the one Tyson tossed. I think I even lost my hat while I soared across the cave.

"Oops!" Tyson shouts, running at me to pick me up and dust me off.

"No time for that!" I say, readying my pipes again. I blow into them, a swift arpeggio, making stones from above topple between us and the pile of swordsmen, shrinking the cavern to a quarter of its original size.

Unfortunately, we're on the same side we came from. Turning around, I see our tiny brick tunnel. But I also see something else.

This cavern had many tunnels… and one of them is still within sight.

That one.

"This is it!" I forget everything else and dash toward the tunnel. I can smell traces of the Wild even more strongly… I breathe it in… It's unmistakable… The scent of wet earth and the sound of flowing water. "This way!"