I do not own, that would be Rick Riordan.

Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and follows that I have received for the last chapter and the story.

On with the story:

Chapter 22: Scorpions and Entrances.

"You thought he was coming for you?" asked Zeus.

"Not everyone is after you Prissy," said Clarisse rolling her eyes.

"It feels like it sometimes," said Percy.

"I was angry. I needed to blame someone – you just happened to be the person I chose," said Nico.

"Early that morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp," said Percy changing the topic back to the story.

"It was three in the morning. And some Apollo campers lead a pursuit to stop it prowling the borders," said Clarisse.

"We managed to get a dozen arrows into the clinks of his armour and it withdrew," said Will his eyes sparkling as he remembered the excitement and fear that he felt when Lee Fetcher had lead them into battle.

"Go Children," said Apollo a look of pride on his face.

"Where were you Percy?" asked Thalia.

"I didn't wake up. I slept through the noise," replied Percy quietly.

"How could you sleep through a fight?" asked Ares in shock.

"I was exhausted. Have you ever shared a room with a Cyclops, one that snores? You learn to sleep as loud noises occur," replied Percy.

"It is not good that a monster is attacking the borders, but I guess it happens more frequently with Luke and his army planning to invade camp," said Athena.

"We also had fewer campers," admitted Annabeth "when Percy first arrived at camp there were more than a hundred campers, we were down to about eighty."

"Eighty, what happened to them all?" asked Hermes.

"Died, joined Luke or just disappeared," said Travis with a shrug. The gods were not happy to hear that.

"That was the breakfast where Annabeth joined Percy at his cabin's table," said Katie.

"The rules are that you are not allowed to swap tables," said Athena glaring down at Annabeth and Percy.

"Is there a punishment for it?" asked Rachel.

"Don't know," said Will.

"It hadn't happened before," admitted Annabeth who had been at camp the longest.

"If Mr D was present he probably would have strangled Annabeth with magical grapevines," said Percy with a shrug, "however as it was, Chiron had already left the dining pavilion and Quintus just raised an eyebrow but remained silent."

"Connor, are you thinking what I am thinking?" asked Travis.

"Yeah, it is on the list," replied Connor.

"What list?" asked Hera.

"You don't want to know," said Katie glaring at the brothers.

"I feel sorry for the next newbie that comes to camp," said Chris as he shook his head.

"We got talking about the Labyrinth," said Percy "Annabeth with the help of Grover explained the Labyrinth to me."

"He thought the maze was under a building," Annabeth informed the group with a smile while Percy rolled his eyes.

"The Labyrinth is huge and grows. It would connect cities underground due to its largeness," said Athena.

"You could get anywhere through the Labyrinth," said Zeus.

"If you don't get lost and die a horrible death," said Hades.

"I lived," said Clarisse.

"You survived barely. Someone else was driven insane," said Chris with a frown, which minimised when Clarisse grabbed his hand and kissed him. The kiss was a surprise as the couple weren't normally exhibitionists with their relationship. They were private people and kept the personal displays of affection to handholding and the occasional kiss on the cheek.

"Annabeth explained how Clarisse had found Chris, who had just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near her mother's house," said Percy.

"He was wandering around in the desert, wearing full Greek armour, in fifty degree heat, and babbling about string," said Clarisse squeezing Chris's hand.

"Luke and his army are exploring the Labyrinth," said Athena.

"I tried to nurse Chris back to health, even getting Chiron involved but we couldn't get any more information from Chris other than string," said Clarisse.

"Sounds like he is trying to find Ariadne's string," said Dionysus, "the old stories say that the string guided Theseus out of the maze."

"Clarisse went on a scouting mission to try to find out why they were exploring the Labyrinth. I was involved as the Labyrinth had been one of my favourite subjects, because of the architecture involved, a favourite topic of mine" sexplained Annabeth.

"The Labyrinth has many entrances and they could be anywhere, if Luke figures out how to navigate the maze he could move his army around at incredible speed," said Athena.

"Could Luke want to invade camp through the Labyrinth?" asked Ares.

"We thought that, but the closest entrance we found was in Manhattan, which wouldn't help them across the borders," said Clarisse.

"Annabeth thought that the Labyrinth was the key to Grover's problem," said Percy.

"You think Pan is underground?" said Hermes perking up at the sound of another son's name.

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find," said Athena.

"Satyrs hate going underground, no sunshine or flowers. No searcher would ever try going into the Labyrinth," said Dionysus.

"Grover could use the Labyrinth to lead him to Pan, if he could get the maze to help him and not fool and trick him," said Hermes.

"Grover had to think about it, he really doesn't like being underground since the Cyclops cave… or visiting Hades," said Percy.

"That night Quintus had as suit up in combat armour for our training exercise," said Will.

"When does a training exercise not involve combat armour?" asked Connor who received a slap across the back of the head.

"The crates in the arena had disappeared and you knew whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods," said Percy.

"Quintus put us in teams of two and we were not allowed to trade, switch or complain with who our partner was," said Travis.

"The goal was to collect the golden laurels without dying," said Clarisse.

"Sounds simple," said Ares.

"The wreath was wrapped in a silk package tied to the back of one of the monsters," said Katie.

"Not so simple," said Apollo.

"There were six monsters in total, all had a package but only one had the package that contained the laurels," said Clarisse.

"So there is a chance that you slay the monster and managed to not get killed or injured; only to find that the package you just obtained doesn't contain a prize," said Hades who rubbed his hands "sounds like torture, oh a new torture device for me to work on." He ignored the looks he received but some in the room could see his point.

"I got paired with Annabeth, Travis and Connor was paired with each other," said Percy.

"Really when are they not paired together?" asked Katie.

"Well they do everything together, sometimes it feels like they can read each others mind," said Chris.

"We can read minds?" exclaimed Travis and Connor, "Cool." The brothers both smiled mischievous grins.

"I was with Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin," said Clarisse.

"A tough combo to beat- melee and ranged combat combined," said Athena clearly interested in teams and strategies than the fight and victory that Ares was interested in.

"Grover was then paired with Tyson," said Percy, "and neither were happy about it."

"It was still light when we made our way into the woods," said Will.

"Annabeth and I found tracks almost immediately- scuttling marks made by something with many legs," said Percy.

"We jumped a creek and heard a noise nearby but it was ONLY the Stolls," said Annabeth.

"For sons of Hermes, god of thieves- you two were about as stealthy as water buffaloes," said Percy. Said boys glared at Percy.

"Percy and I forged further into the woods once the Stolls had gone," said Annabeth.

"We both realised that we had reached the place where we stopped looking for Nico when he ran away. I told Annabeth about the Iris-message," said Percy.

"Why are you so concerned for me?" asked Nico.

"Percy told me that the ghost was giving Nico bad advice, to take revenge," said Annabeth.

"The spirits are never good advisers, they have got their own agendas, old grudges and they resent the living," said Hades looking into his son's eyes.

"I know that now," replied Nico.

"Our conversation was interrupted by something large moving through the trees," said Annabeth.

"We arrived at Zeus's Fist the group of boulders that definitely DON'T look like a pile of dog poo," said Percy. Zeus just glowered from his throne.

"The scuttling noises seemed to come from all different directions, we were circling the boulders our weapons drawn," said Annabeth.

"We whirled around when a voice said Hi behind us, Juniper was not happy to see our swords as she like the other Dryads don't like sharp blades," said Percy.

"Good thing you didn't hurt her, Grover wouldn't have been impressed if you hurt his girlfriend," said Thalia.

"Juniper wanted to talk about Grover," said Percy.

"In the middle of a game against a bunch of monsters, who want to kill you," said Ares. Percy just nodded but glared at Annabeth.

"She was worried about our FRIEND, she needed reassurance that he wasn't seeing another tree and was just stressed about his searcher's licence," said Annabeth in defence.

"There was a rustle in the woods and Juniper yelled hide, before disappearing into green mist," said Percy.

"I hate when they do that," mumbled Poseidon.

"They don't seem to do that enough when you are around," said Hera giving Poseidon an angry stare.

"Coming out of the woods was a three metre long amber insect, with jagged pincers, an armoured tail and a sting as long as my sword," said Percy.

"A Scorpion, and tied to the back was a package," said Annabeth. "Percy and I decided that one of us would get behind and cut off its tail while the other distracts it from the front."

"Good plan," said Athena.

"I was going to take point. Annabeth had the invisibility hat. It was going to be fine… until two more scorpions came out of the woods," said Percy.

"Three, the whole woods and half of the monsters come after you two," groaned Poseidon.

"The scorpions scurried towards us, their tails whipping liked they had come to kill us," said Annabeth.

"We had our backs to the boulders, we had no time to climb up, a scorpion tried to impale us with his barbed tail but we managed to parry it away. The scorpions would use their barbed tail or their pincers to attack. The only thing we could do was to go on the defence but that wouldn't last long," said Percy.

"It is just Scorpions," said Ares rolling his eyes.

"Three scorpions," pointed out Athena as Ares was hit in the face with a starfish or two.

"We were moving sideways around the boulders when Percy said to get into this crack between the two largest boulders," said Annabeth.

"There is no crack there," said Dionysus.

"I sent Annabeth in first as I covered her. She squeezed between the boulders but grabbed my armour straps pulling me into a pit that just appeared," said Percy.

"We could see the scorpions above us, the evening sky and trees, before the hole shut and we were in complete darkness," said Annabeth.

"Where are you?" asked Aphrodite.

"We were in a corridor, it was cold and wet. The floor felt like it was made of bricks," said Percy.

"You're in the Labyrinth," exclaimed Athena, Zeus, Artemis and Hermes.

"We were frightened as the entrance we had come through had disappeared. Percy and I held hands as we examined the walls for the mark of Daedalus. We found it and the roof slid opened. We could hear people calling out for us as we climbed up the ladder that had appeared," said Annabeth.

"They ran into the search party I was leading," said Clarisse,

"Percy explained that they fallen in a hole," said Will. The gods looked at Percy who gave a shrug.

"They didn't believe that we were only gone for a minute, for them we were gone for over an hour," said Annabeth.

"The game was over, Clarisse and Lee had won," said Travis.

"Grover was mumbling that he would have won, but a Cyclops sat on him, Tyson protested it was accident as he sneezed," said Percy.

"He was sat on by his team mate," said Hermes.

"How did that happen?" asked Apollo.

"They never really told me," admitted Percy.

"Oh Tyson sneezed and lost his balance and ended up falling onto goat boy," said Clarisse who had witnessed the incident before she had won the game.

"We were all confused about what was going on," admitted Travis.

"But Chiron sent us to bed, saying it wasn't the time or place to discuss the issue," said Connor.

"I couldn't believe what Percy and Annabeth had found," said Clarisse.

"We had found an entrance to the Labyrinth. There was an invasion route straight into camp."

Dun Dun Dun: A Cliffhanger for the gods.

Hope you liked this chapter, reviews are so apreciated.

Question: Which character would you like to meet (if you could) and what advice would you give them?