Hey guys! Did any of you guys read the Blood of Olympus? I was just kinda eh about it. I have a full post of what I thought about it on both of my Tumblr blogs.

And speaking of Tumblr, I'm writing this original story (only finished the first chapter though), and I posted it on Tumblr. I'm thinking of maybe uploading it FictionPress or Wattpad, but not until I start writing more frequently.

^^And speaking of that, I'll probably be slowing down updates for a longer time because my school thinks it's amusing to send us a barrage of homework all at once. ._.

Won't be replying to reviews since I need to get back to my homework, but thanks for all of you who did.

Annabeth told me her story as we ate. After I had left, she and Thalia had made it back to Goode and started moving the students out. A few of the students were already experimented on, but still made it out.

"There were a few that got wounded and didn't make it out of the school," she continued. "And there were more of them that just collapsed in the middle of the Labyrinth."

"You didn't save them."

"We couldn't," Annabeth said. "We would be risking the lives of more people like that."

"What about in that fire?" I asked.

"We herded the majority of them out," she said. "Some of them might have died."

I was sure that she could sense my rising anger, but she continued on. Nico had got in contact with Rachel and Grover a while ago. They were in Colorado. Annabeth had gone to go get them.

"Your turn," she said, her arms crossed.

I gave her the short version of the story. I was blasted out of the limbo into Goode. Someone had put a spell over that area and I couldn't get out until now.

Thalia walked in, and Annabeth nodded to me like, This isn't over, and walked away.

"You shouldn't lie to her, cuz," Thalia said, sitting next to me with a plate of lean-cut barbecue.

"'Cuz?'"

"Daughter of Zeus," she sighed. "Don't change the subject."

"I just don't want her to get worried," I said.

"What, were you stranded with a girl and you wanted to have an affair with her? That might anger her, but it won't worry her," she said, rolling her eyes.

"That's not it," I said, the heat rising to my face as I thought of Calypso. "Why? What else happened?"

"Nothing much," Thalia shrugged. "She just found out how much the injection they gave her changed her memories."

"Like?"

"Nothing major. Just that Luke was actually seven years older than her, but that's not a big deal," she said. "I mean, I know she likes him, but I don't see that as romantic."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who knew you could be such a master on love?"

"Shut up, Kelp Head."

"So what's your story? Like, with Othrys?" I asked.

Thalia flinched. "Well, I guess it's only right that you know. When Othrys separated us, Luke and Annabeth was told that I was dead. I wasn't. I was used for their experiments. I saw Luke, but he was different, like a stranger. He didn't do anything to help me." She took a deep breath.

"I stopped aging for a while. That's why I'm still around fifteen or sixteen. I should be in my twenties right now. Heck, they even turned me into a tree for a while. And then they made me be able to do this." She raised her hand, and the lights flickered off. There were groans from upstairs, and the lights turned back on.

"But why were you at the limbo?" I asked.

"I'm getting to that. Be patient," she said impatiently. "So Luke wanted me to help achieve Othrys's goal, but of course I refused. He took me to the limbo kind of as a last chance. He said that he would die if I didn't. He said something about Kronos and that I was going to regret it. Then you two came."

"Oh," I mumbled. I put down my fork. "Are you going to try talking to him again?"

Thalia laughed incredulously. "Nope. He'll probably chuck me off a mountain." She paused. "I'm afraid Annabeth might though."

"What do you mean?"

Thalia sighed. "Annabeth always admired Luke. That can't change in such a short time. I think that she just refuses to see Luke as the enemy."

"Why? That's just… stupid," I said.

She glared at me. "Well, she was like that for several years. This one thing won't just change that."

She threw her utensils down and stormed out of the room, muttering about stupid boys and bad tastes in guys.

Hestia scuttled in and picked up the mess. "Oh, dear."

"It's okay, Hestia. I'll clean it up," I said, getting up. "It was my fault."

"Oh, no—"

"Really, it's fine," I said.

Hestia shook her head. "Your friends want to see you."

"Which ones?" I sighed.

"Grover and Rachel," she said. "Upstairs, first to the right. They should be in Rachel's room."

"Okay. Thanks Hestia," I said, and ran upstairs.

Grover and Rachel were sitting on the bed—or at least Rachel was. Grover was sound asleep.

"Percy!" Rachel said. She gave me a hug. "Nice to see you again."

"Same," I said. I shook Grover awake. "Hey, G-Man."

"Perrrcy!" he bleated. "You're alive!"

"Of course I am," I said. "Are you okay?"

"Well, kinda," Grover said. He looked at Rachel for help.

"We think he's turning into a goat," she said casually.

I stayed silent for a minute, then yelled, "What?"

Grover sighed and folded up his pants and kicked off his shoes. "See?"

I almost fainted. His legs resembled goat legs, and he had hooves for feet. Hooves.

"Oh my gods, " I mumbled.

"Sush!" Rachel said. "We're trying to keep people from knowing. Only Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico know."

"Okay," I said.

"Well, I'm gonna go because I feel so awkward here," Grover said, and walked back to his room.

"So…" I said awkwardly. I wished Grover hadn't left. I could feel the tension rising in the air.

"So it's time for you to go to your room and rest," Rachel said. She pushed me out of her room. "Good night."

She grabbed me and pulled me toward her. She gave me a quick kiss and pulled away just as fast. She slammed the door in my face.

I stood there like an idiot with my mouth open.

"You should go to your room," Annabeth said, crossing her arms. "No boys allowed."

"What?"

"We don't want affairs happening here," she said coldly. She glared at me as if I should know what she was talking about.

"Annabeth look. Rachel and I—"

She pointed to the stairs. "Up to your room."

"I don't have a room!" I protested, throwing my arms down.

Annabeth sighed and fished a key out of her pocket. "Same room as Goode. Room 03."

She stalked off back to her room, ignoring me even when I called her name. "Girls," I muttered, and went up the stairs.

Luckily this time, my room was near the stairs unlike Goode where they made me walk all the way to near the end of the hallway. The room was also in better shape. Clean bed and sheets, clean restrooms, and everything looked like it was in good condition.

Yet I still missed my room back in Goode. I didn't know why. It wasn't like it was sentimental or anything. If there was one thing that room wasn't, it wasn't sentimental.

I was about to change, but I felt something in my shirt. I took out the little moonlace that Calypso had given me. It got dried up from the fire and from being in the Labyrinth. I pulled on some clean clothes provided in the closet and went back down. Hestia was nowhere to be seen.

I slipped out the back door to the gardens and found an empty patch of dirt. I carefully planted it like Calypso had shown me, and sprinkled some nectar that Hestia had kept in the kitchen. The plant shook and wilted, but another quickly took its place.

"Nice plant," a voice said from behind me.

I jumped. "Nico."

"Glad that you're alive," he said. He grew some more during the time I hadn't seen him which seemed impossible. "I was just talking to Bianca."

"Oh, right," I said, trying to wrap my head around the fact that he could do that. It seemed impossible, especially for such a skinny and frail looking guy like him, but I didn't doubt it. "Thanks for finding Rachel and Grover, by the way."

"No problem. It was easy, tracking their shadows," Nico shrugged. He leaned in. "Listen. I need you to go somewhere with me."

I gave him a wary look. "Where?"

"Daedalus's lab," he said. "Daedalus was given a death penalty for 'aiding the evacuation of the experiments.'" He rolled his eyes. "There are a few last things he wants us to do. He'll be killed tomorrow at daybreak."

"How will we get there?" I asked. "Through the Labyrinth?"

Nico shook his head. "Shadow-traveling. Hold my hand."

I hesitantly did what he asked. "What's shadow-traveling?"

"Traveling through shadows," he said, not really answering my question. "Don't freak out and don't let go."

Nico closed his eyes, and the next thing I knew, we melted into the shadows.

Shadow-traveling felt like riding a roller coaster in a dark tunnel. Wind blew against my face so hard that it felt like it was peeling off, and I couldn't see anything. Then we popped out of another shadow of a desk, and I banged my head against it.

"Ow!" I cried. "A little warning next time, Nico?"

Nico just swooned and fell on me.

"So it's only you two," Daedalus said.

I looked up. For someone who was scheduled for execution in a few hours, he didn't look so bad. He was wearing the standard Goode uniform for the staff which seemed kind of strange.

"Wh-where are we?" I asked.

"My original lab," he smiled. "Lovely, isn't it?"

This lab was circular with smooth walls and a spiral staircase leading upstairs. There were aisles of drawings and blueprints all along the walls. The most prominent things were the pairs of bronze wings hanging on the walls.

"They don't actually work, do they?" I asked.

Daedalus shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. I never got to test them, and now it looks like I never will. But that's not important."

He whistled, and a huge black dog the size of a tank bounded in the room.

"Whoa, wait! That's a hellhound!" I exclaimed.

"She's a friend," Daedalus said. "Meet Mrs. O'Leary."

Mrs. O'Leary barked.

"I want you to take care of her. You'll find that she's a good dog. Loyal, and brave to her owner." He scratched her ears. "A few more things."

Nico mumbled something under his breath, and I hoisted him on my back so I was giving him a piggyback ride.

Daedalus gave me his laptop—a sleek laptop with a blue Delta glowing on it. "Give it to that girl, Annabeth Chase. This has some of my ideas that I'll never get to finish. I think she'll find it interesting."

I hoped that he didn't mean the whole experimental thing. Annabeth would probably smash the laptop into bits if it was that.

He rummaged around his desk some more and handed me a syringe filled with some murky solution and another one with dark green liquid in it. "Give this to Grover," he said, motioning to the green thing. "It should stop his goat-transformation."

"What about that one?" I asked.

His smile made me sorry that I asked. "Inject this to yourself when you're ready."

"Ready for what? What will it do?"

"Ask him," Daedalus said, motioning to Nico. "He knows."

The door to his office shook. "Open up!"

Daedalus cursed. "They're early."

"What do we do?" I asked.

"You are going to leave with Mrs. O'Leary. She'll shadow-travel you out of here," he said.

"What about you?" I said.

"I'll have to face my fate," he said dryly. "One more thing: Kronos isn't a physical being. He used to be, but when he was in the same room as the Olympians when they were being experimented on, he just somehow disappeared from all that energy. His soul went into one of the Olympians, and it was decided that he would take over the body of that Olympian's child. Now he's going to try to overthrow the world government with his army of people like, well, you."

The pieces clicked together in my head. "You mean Luke—"

The door shook again. "I don't have much time. I'm going to try to disable and bring down the Labyrinth before I'm taken away. You need to leave now."

Before I could protest, Mrs. O'Leary jumped into a shadow, leaving me the last image of Daedalus hunched over the computer screen.