Hey~ School's really awful, and I already have a test on Tuesday. Bleh. And I haven't reached 70 reviews which is kind of a disappointment, but whatever. It's Percy's birthday today, and I didn't have time to write a oneshot like I was planning, so here's the next chapter!

hermes child awesomness- I live in California, and it's so freaking hot every single dam day. XD

Lonely diamond in the sky- Percabeth = OTP! :)

Burned Blue Cookie- I loved them even before they were together. It made things a bit more interesting. ^^

HuntressJadeDaughterOfPosedion- Yup. ;) There's a bit more in this chapter too.

I just finished my one page essay of Archimedes (I chose to write about him for science class because of Leo. XD), and it turns out that my freaking printer doesn't work. Schist.

Was 70 reviews too much? How about 73 reviews until I start writing?

I let myself be dragged to the library. We passed by the empty art room which was a whole mess—messier than usual.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, and peeked into the doorway.

Paints were splattered on walls, chunks of clay were thrown everywhere, and the tables were overturned. Then I saw the worst thing.

I picked up the painting of me and the di Angelo siblings laughing under the tree. It was ripped in pieces, and my face was scratched out.

"Oh," I said softly.

"He wasn't very subtle about it either," Annabeth said and held up a skull ring on the ground.

"Nico," I said.

Annabeth nodded. "Which is why we have to work even harder."

She continued walking to the library.

"Daedalus," she mused. "Who could he possibly be?"

"My mom said that he was a famous genius that worked for Olympus," I recalled. "Then he moved to the Labyrinth, but something happened. The letter got cut off after that."

Annabeth snapped her fingers. "That's it! Percy, your mom is a genius! Why couldn't you get some of her brain?"

"Uh…"

She made her way over to the section about businesses. She looked through the titles and pulled out a book.

"Read this," she said, and shoved it into my arms and ran off to find something else.

"Nice you wanted me to help," I muttered.

I sat at a table and started reading. My dyslexia was messing with me again, but I kept trying. I started reading about Athena's department which sounded like a place where a genius would work.

I was reading for about an hour about the education section and her most famous work—architecture. It seemed interesting, but not where Daedalus would work at. Maybe the chemistry section? Did Athena even have a lab?

"Here," Annabeth said, slamming down a newspaper in front of me.

"What?" I said, staring at the newspaper and back at her face.

"It took me a lot of trouble to find these, okay?" she said. "This dates back to a bit before we were born. Apparently Olympus made this breakthrough discovery. Here's the staff."

She pointed specifically at a name in the middle. Quintus Ezam.

"And look," she said, following his name to his department. It said Lab. "It's Daedalus."

She got my book and flipped through the pages. She got to the lab section.

"It says that he was a great inventor," she said. "He created many great things, but felt like he was a threat and fired him. So he created another company called the Labyrinth, but of course, Olympus bought it."

"Go on," I said.

"That's it," she said, closing the book. "Let's go look at the newspapers. Like I said, it took me a lot of effort to get access to these. Come on."

She went to the reading corner of the library and ran her hands across the wall and kicked it. It swung open like a door.

"I'm not supposed to know about these," she said as we stepped in. "But Luke helped me find it."

Her voice trembled a little at Luke.

It was a small room with a reading light and a box of newspapers. She closed the door behind me. She started looking through the newspapers, muttering and tossing them aside.

I felt awkward together with Annabeth. Normally it was fine, but this was a tight space, obviously meant for one person at a time. And now that I think about it, Annabeth was the only girl that I liked and who also liked me back, aside from Bianca and Rachel.

"Here," she said, and spread the newspaper on the table. Our bodies were touching now, and I could've sworn I saw Annabeth's face turn slightly red. "Says here that Othrys bought the Labyrinth. Wait, let me read it first."

Her eyes moved across the words quickly. I couldn't help but admire her reading skills, even though she was dyslexic.

"Okay," she said. "So Othrys bought the company right? Daedalus wasn't very happy about that. They didn't give him much freedom, literally. They locked him up in their company building with his son, Icarus. They tried to escape multiple times, but failed. Then Minos became the boss of the Labyrinth. He made Daedalus do his work, and thus they made all those amazing things."

"So how does that end up with him being here?" I asked.

"I have a guess, but I'll have to check," she said and started digging through the news again.

This time, she was a bit faster. She showed me a newspaper with the heading Daedalus, the Great Inventor, Disappears.

I started reading it, but Annabeth said, "He disappeared around the same time this school was founded. Interesting, don't you think?"

"Sure," I shrugged. "So what does that give us?"

"He doesn't like working here," she said. "But we can't confront him just yet. I think the staff here is starting to pick on. Maybe Luke told them? I don't know."

She sounded so frustrated and bitter, that I couldn't help but go over and hug her.

"What—"

"I'm giving you a hug," I said. "I feel as bad as you. Two girls died because of me. Your reason is different from mine, but I guess you're heartbroken." Especially since you have a crush on Luke, I wanted to add. "How about we give it a rest for the day? Sound good?"

She nodded. "Sounds good."

We walked out of the room and put back the books.

"There he is!" Mr. Graz pointed.

"Please refrain from yelling in the library please," the librarian said absently.

I cursed. "I forgot."

"The windows are too far," Annabeth said.

I saw her tense up, as if expecting a fight. "Annabeth, its fine. I don't want you getting hurt," I said. "I'll just go to detention. See you later, hopefully."

Her eyes widened, but I went up to Mr. Graz, and he led the way.

"Don't protest," he said, and shoved me up the stairs.

So naturally, I had to trip while coming into detention. He had already closed off the entrance with cardboard boxes.

My legs were trembling, and I felt sick. I haven't felt like this in a long time. The last time was when I first joined the gang. Other than that, it was when Gabe started beating me. I was too scared to come home.

I felt the same now, only much worse. Blood was pumping in my ears, my heart beating rapidly. I gulped and forced myself to go in the room.

"Hello, you must be Perseus Jackson," Daedalus said, looking at a file. "Sit."

He motioned at the chair that Nancy had sat on.

"Thanks, but no thanks," I said. "I'll stand."

He shrugged. "If that's what you want."

He put down the file on a table and filled up a syringe.

"Oh, no," I said. "Not that."

He ignored me and came towards me with the syringe in hand. There was green liquid in it. I backed up, but he maneuvered around me, so that I was backing up back into the room.

"Please, sit," he said, and shoved me into the seat.

I tried to get up, but cold metal things popped up and pinned me to place. I kept struggling, but the grip got tighter.

"Stay still," he said, and injected the syringe.

I understood how Nancy felt now. I still felt the metal grip, but my mind fell in like a dream-like state.

I was back at home, but something was different. I was eight years old. I was in my room. Why? I had no idea.

I opened the door slowly on habit, and crept out, only to be exposed to loud yelling and cursing.

"Hey, Gabe! Looks like your little son came for a visit!" one of his friends said.

Then it all came to me. Gabe was having a poker party. My mom had specifically told me, "Don't come out until I tell you to. Okay, Percy?"

"You runt," he snapped.

The next thing I knew, I was getting beaten up by Gabe and his buddies. My mom had tried to help, but Gabe locked her in her room.

"Maybe he wanted of taste of this," one of them said. I could smell his stinky breath from on the floor.

I was bleeding, and my head was all fuzzy. I didn't know what I was seeing.

"Pass me the bottle," Gabe ordered.

Bottle? What bottle? Like a water bottle?

He shoved something in my mouth, and liquid poured out. It kept pouring out, and I couldn't help but swallow. It tasted awful, and made my mind even fuzzier. Only later I found out that it was alcohol.

I tried to get the bottle out of my mouth, but Gabe held it in place and punched my stomach. I retched, and he took the bottle out. I spewed the liquid in his face which was a small victory for me. But that was nothing compared to what he was going to do.

Then I woke up.

"So you've survived," he mused, writing down some notes.

"Well, of course I survived!" I said, but I felt different. More… how to say it… agile? antsy?

"You were squirming and moving around a lot more than you usually do," he noted. "That's it for this detention. You've wasted three hours in here."

My jaw dropped. "What did you inject in me?"

"Do you really think I will tell you?" he said. I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off. "Maybe sometime later. Get going, Perseus Jackson."

I gave him a strange look, and tried to read him, but he was a closed book. I sighed and went down the stairs.

"Perrrccccyyy!" Grover brayed. "Annabeth told me! Are you okay?"

Grover was wearing nice clothes today, and he had a lipstick mark on his cheek, presumably from Juniper.

"Yeah, I think," I said. "I'm a bit dizzy."

"You missed lunch," Grover said. "You hungry?"

I shook my head. "I think I'll go take a nap or something. I don't feel too good."

Grover gave me a worried look. "I'll go back with you."

"Nah. I'm fine. Have fun with Juniper," I said, and walked back to my room.

"So you're back," Daedalus said.

"Not like I had a choice," I grumbled.

He ignored me again. "So how to you feel?"

"Awful."

"As expected," he said. "You're different from others, so we'll have to be a bit different."

He stepped over to his table and filled his syringe again. This time it was a different liquid.

"Give me your arm," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"You already know," he said, and grabbed my arm.

He injected the syringe in my wrist, and I gasped.

The world suddenly sharpened in color. My mind drifted off elsewhere. I saw an ocean, and I could smell the salt and hear the waves. Then it was gone, as soon as it came.

"How do you feel?" Daedalus asked.

"Light-headed," I murmured.

"And…?" he pressed.

"Thirsty," I said.

He tossed me a bottle of water. I gulped it down, but I still felt thirsty. I kept drinking, but it didn't quench my thirst.

"More," I pleaded.

"Oh dear," he said, and handed me another bottle. He wrote down some notes.

I downed five bottles, but I just kept getting thirstier with each drink.

"This is bad," Daedalus said. "Looks like that was wrong. It makes you thirsty for water instead. You're drying up too."

I looked at my hands, and saw that he was right. My arms were dry, and I probably looked really bad.

"One of the sponsors are coming tomorrow, so we can't have a session then," he said. He grabbed a canteen. "I don't know if this'll help, but I think I've got it just right."

"Is it that thing that tastes really bad with healing qualities?" I croaked.

"Yes, but I think it should be okay," he said. "Drink."

I grabbed the canteen and chugged it down. It tasted like my mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies. A pleasant feeling tingled in my stomach.

Then that pleasant feeling was replaced by flaring pain. I groaned, and Daedalus got a syringe and quickly took some blood out of my arm.

I immediately felt better, and Daedalus was writing more notes down. Did he write down notes all day? Doesn't his hand hurt?

"I feel quenched now," I said, amazed.

"Yes," he said. "But it won't stay like that for long. I think that you'll burn up if you drink too much. You were smoking."

He didn't seem to be joking.

"Here," he said, handing me the canteen. "Take a sip whenever you feel dried up. Never drink too much."

"Right," I said, taking the canteen.

"And don't let anyone else drink it," he warned. "It only works on certain people."

"How did you know that I was one of the 'certain people?'" I asked.

"Well, you're the one everyone's talking about," he said. "You're not the only one out there though. Now leave. Tomorrow's a busy day."

"Right, classes," I muttered. "I have homework to do."

"Classes are canceled," he said. "The school's trying to impress the sponsor and try to get some help. As long as you're careful, it's a great time to be snooping around." The corner of his mouth came up in a small smile. "Not that I said anything."

I stood straighter. "I'll be going now, sir."

"Right, you'd better get going," he said, and waved me off.

I came down the stairs, and I should've been scowling. I mean, who wants to be at risk of drying up completely?

But instead, I was smiling. I couldn't wait to tell Annabeth. Tomorrow would be a good day.