A / N: Hello! New chapter! I've been writing non stop ... I should probably do something else with my life ...

Disclaimer: As you know by now, I don't own PJO ... yet ...

7

"Maia?"

My eyes fluttered open. Leo was sitting on the end of my bed, his hand an inch away from mine. Just the proximity of our bodies made shivers go down my spine. Leo's expression was soft and concerned.

"Are you alright? You were whimpering in your sleep," he said, his green eyes shiny.

"I'm fine," I said, rubbing sleep out of my eyes. "It's just …"
I told them about my latest dream. Leo and Jack were just and confused as I was about why the voice told me where it was.

"Are you sure it wasn't lying?" Jack asked me for the twentieth.

"If you ask me one more time, I'm going to stick this sock –"

Jack put his hands up. "Alright, alright, just checking."

I didn't trust the voice, but I could somehow tell that he hadn't been lying. Leo stayed silent, his emerald eyes lost and thoughtful.

"How are we supposed to get to San Diego then?" asked Jack.

"Have you even thought that far?" said Leo.

Brushing away Leo's unreasonably snide comment, I felt glad that Jack didn't question the fact that we were going, because I had actually given the means of travelling a lot of thought. The chamber from the dream had reminded me of one of the most popular Greek myths, only now I knew the Greek myth was real. The feeling that the chamber may have been underground, and the moss growing on the walls … they said it could take you anywhere.

"The labyrinth." I said.

Theseus had survived it, and he was only one person. There were three of us, and we were demigods, and I was pretty sure that the Minotaur wasn't in there.

Leo's face suddenly went very white. "No Maia."

My face fell. "Why not?"

"It's … you wouldn't know," he muttered.

"Well maybe I would," I said, starting to get irritated. Leo could be really annoying.

"No you wouldn't. You've never had to fight for yourself," said Leo harshly.

"Maybe I don't fight for myself. Maybe I fight for others!" I rallied angrily.

I couldn't believe Leo was doing this right now. The atmosphere of the room was now brittle, as if it was going to snap at any moment.

"Not maybe. You don't," said Leo bluntly.

The room seemed hotter and brighter, as if it itself was angry too. Jack backed away, clearly not wanting to be part of this.

"Fine," I said, crossing my arms. "I'll go alone. I'll find my Dad without you're help."

"No," said Leo. "Not even if I have to tie you to a chair with some of cabin nine's celestial rope."

"But it's the quickest way!"

"You're not going!"

I flinched. Leo had never yelled at me. I immediately regretted it, however, when I saw the expression on Leo's face.

"Don't let her leave," he told Jack quietly, before walking into the lounge room and shutting the door.

Tears began to form in my eyes, but I blinked them back. No matter how mean Leo was, I wouldn't cry. But why? Had I done something, or was it to do with the labyrinth? Either way it was no excuse for Leo to argue with me the way he did. If he was nice, he might have even been able to convince me not to go. But it was too late for that now.

I walked into the bedroom and began to pack my things back into my bag.

"Maia –" Jack began.

"Jack, you're a good friend, but don't try to stop me," I told him.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and headed back towards the door.

"But Maia," protested Jack.

I whipped around to face him, and channelled my anger into the charmspeak. "Don't try to stop me. Don't even come near me."

"Maia!" Jack called, his fist banging in the invisible wall that separated us. The one that my charmspeak had created. I pushed away the guilt.

I walked swiftly down the stairs until I was in the green and gold waiting room. The receptionist looked startled by my stormy expression, and fixed her collar before asking, "Is the free now?"

"No," I said. It was a tremendous effort just to keep my voice light. "The others are still staying."

She nodded and I exited the large spruce doors. The golden door handles felt cold, but I knew it was just the heat of my hands.

It was still early, and most of the late-nighters of Las Vegas had gone home. The sun stained the sky with various shades of orange and pink, like the sun was a blotch of paint, and someone had added water to it.

I had never actually gone into the labyrinth, but from our studies in camp, I knew how. I had to look for a little Greek triangle, Daedalus' sign. Since Daedalus was the creator of the twisting maze, it was only fitting that his mark would be over the entrance.

I headed towards the Lotus Casino. A dangerous, magical building like that was bound to have an entrance to the labyrinth nearby.

Before passing the neon building, I turned sharply to the left into a dark alley way that ran along the side of the casino. Large trash shoots led into dumpster on my right, and a ginger cat ran across my path and hid under a cardboard box. I ran my slim fingers along the heavily graphitised wall, waiting for them to hit a triangle shaped engraving.

I stopped as my fingers slipped, and looked closer at the wall. Sure enough, there wall a little Greek triangle cut an inch deep into the concrete.

"Hey girl," slurred a drunk homeless man next to the dumpster.

Eugh. I ignored him.

My lip curled up in concentration as I pushed my thumb into the middle of the engraving. I jumped, as with a horrible grating sound a portion of the wall began to slide away to reveal an opening.

The homeless man backed away, yelling things like "The wall!" and "Enchantress!"

I ignored this too.

I waited for the wall to stop moving, and then peered into the hole. It looked like and oversized rabbit burrow, with solid dirt all around with occasional blue stones here and there. Here goes. I stepped into the tunnel, and immediately noticed that the air was colder by the tenfold. A loud grinding noise sounded from behind me; the wall was locking me in. Shadows clustered the walls like flies.

My breath came out in pale mist. I remembered with a smile that when Emma and I were younger, we called it dragon breath. On a cold day, we would beg Dad to make the mist with his breath as he left to work.

With newly founded determination, I started walking. It was surprisingly easy actually. I found a dead bird, but that was it. I noticed that the material of the tunnel never stayed the same. Sometimes it a dirt burrow, other times it was made of all brick, and other times the walls were plated with steel.

The easy going stopped, however, when I reached a fork in the passage way. Which way? I had completely lost my sense of direction, so I had no idea with way led closer to San Diego. I racked my brain, but no amount of thinking was making this easier. I decided to go right. This was probably the worst decision I ever made in my life.

The moment my foot hit the ground, the floor gave way. The concrete cracked and crumbled, before falling into dark empty space. It probably goes all the way down to Tartarus, I thought in the split second I had before falling myself. As I fell, I latched my hand on to the last piece of concrete floor that wasn't giving way. The concrete cut my hand, but I ignored the pain. A piece of concrete fell from the ceiling and my leg screaming in agony as the piece of concrete sliced through it.

I cried out, the sound bouncing of the passage walls. The noise of falling concrete was deafening, and my hands were slippery on the piece of concrete I was holding on to.

Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, I chanted in my head, squeezing my eyes shut. After one terrifying minute, the concrete stopped falling, and with all my might I managed to pull myself up on to the ledge of concrete that remained. I pulled myself into a sitting position, my back against the wall, breathing heavily.

My leg was consumed in agony. I couldn't even cry. I couldn't even breathe. My breaths were raspy and hard to make. Calm down, I told myself. I had trained for these situations in camp, I knew I had.

Maia, said a soft voice.

I opened my eyes and saw Emma. I caught my breath in my chest. She was there. Her curly black hair and bright blue eyes were identical to mine, and her lips were pursed. I was hallucinating. It had been ages since I saw her, and it now felt like an open wound in my chest.

You know how to approach these situations, she told me, in her adorably stern voice.

"Clinically and unemotionally," I hiccupped. It had been one of the first lessons at camp.

Emma nodded. So don't sit on your but, do something!

"Okay," I whispered.

Good, she told me, putting a hand on my shoulder that I couldn't feel.

I opened my mouth to say something more, but she wasn't there anymore. I took a deep breath. There were so many more things I would have wanted to say to her, even though she was a hallucination. Get up Maia, I scolded myself. I knew she wasn't real, but she was right.

I waited until my breathing calmed down a little bit, before going any further. First step, access the wound. I looked down at my leg and resisted the urge to throw up. I deep, long cut ran the length of my leg, bloody and mangled. The concrete chunk definitely hadn't done a clean job. Assessment done: it was horrible and I was doomed.

Second step: Treat the wound. I grabbed my drink bottle and a t-shirt from my bag that was still lying innocently on the ground from when I fell. I poured some of the water from my bottle on the top, and drank some for myself. I raised the wet shirt opened the cut and braced myself as I began dabbing the dirt of it. It hurt. It hurt way too much. I heard myself whimper, but I kept cleaning the cut until it was as clean as it could get.

The shirt was now soaked in dirt, water, and lots and lots of blood. I knew if Audrey was here she would have fainted already. I chucked the shirt down the deep hole knowing that there was no way I'd be wearing it again.

Now for bandages. I rummaged through my bag, ignoring the pain, until I found the small first aid kit I kept on me at all times. It was a routine I had begun at the start of the year. As a demigod, you just never knew what might happen. I pulled out the little first aid kit and opened it up.

It consisted of ambrosia squares, a bottle of liquefied nectar, and some bandages. I popped an ambrosia square into my mouth that dulled the pain from it really, really hurts, instead of, my leg is on fire.

I then soaked the bandages in the liquefied nectar, before wrapping them around my leg. The cut starting bleeding through instantly, but there was nothing I could do about that except hope that the nectar would speed along the healing process.

Now that I had dressed the wound, I began to look for materials for a makeshift splint. I knew the only way I was getting through this was because I had detached myself from my body. As Chiron had taught us, clinically and most important, unemotionally.

I ended up finding two broken wooden planks and some bubble wrap, with which I created the splint for my leg.

I tried to stand, each inch I lifted myself loaded with a wave of slightly numbed pain. When I was fully upright, I wobbled for a moment, before taking my first step with good leg, then my second with my bad leg. I wobbled so violently I had to lean on the wall for support. I took a few more steps, each one as painful and precarious as the last.

I felt like I was frozen in a constant wince, but soon enough I was walking in a consistent limp, leaning on the wall every now and then.

Back in my original path, I took the left fork this time. I stepped in to the new passage and paused, waiting for something to happen. Nothing. I speed up a little anyhow, not wanting to wait any longer for something bad to happen.

At some point along the tunnel the walls change from concrete to tightly packed mossy cobblestones. A vine grew along the right wall that looked something like ivy. Not knowing if it was poisonous, I steered clear.

Then I saw up ahead a wall blocking my way. The passage was a dead end. I didn't get it. This was the only possible route from the Lotus Casino entrance. The passage couldn't just end. I kicked a stone at the wall blocking my way in frustration. I stopped and stared. The stone had passed straight through the wall as if it didn't exist. I moved closer to the wall. It still looked perfectly solid. I reached my hand forward, but instead of hitting the mossy cobble, it passed straight through, just as the stone had done. I pulled back my hand staring at it, but it still looked completely normal.

I then walked straight into the wall, and reached a new tunnel. I looked behind me. The wall was still there. I tried put my hand through it again, but it had solidified. I sighed and moved on. I was met with a fresh wave of pain and I bit my lip so hard it bled. I dug out the last of the ambrosia and popped it in mouth. The pain numbed and I was able to think again.

Nothing happened for a while as I headed along the passage. It was strange. Something was bound to come across. In here, peacefulness seemed unnatural. The material of the walls were changing more often now as the labyrinth passed under more diverse towns. I took my sword out from my bag, and attached it to the leather belt and hilt I wore around my waist, preparing for the worst.

I didn't, however, find a terrible monster, just another fork in the path. This one wasn't quite as easy. I had four paths to choose from. I bent down slowly, leaning on my good leg, and picked up four pebbles from the ground. I wasn't going to be testing each path with my body this time, I'd use the stones instead.

I threw a stone into the first tunnel, where it promptly blew up on contact with the ground, creating a perfectly circular crater. I shuddered, imaging that it had been my body that was blown up. The second tunnel wasn't much better; the stone had dissolved into a fine grey powder.

After checking every tunnel, I figured the third tunnel was the safest. The only thing that seemed suspicious was a dark shape a little way in, but it didn't seem to be moving.

I entered the tunnel and moved closer to the shadow cautiously, but I soon found out that it wasn't a threat. It was a milk cart, with a suspiciously human looking skeleton strewn across the top. Shivers went down my spine. It was horrible that even mortals could wander across this maze.

I now knew that Leo was right. I shouldn't have gone in the labyrinth. But he still didn't have to be so nasty about it.

I kept walking until I reached a large, circular stone chamber. The ceiling was so high that I couldn't see the roof. I looked down when I heard a low hissing noise from up ahead. I stopped dead. I recognized that sound. A blurry shape appeared in front of me, coming into sharper focus as it moved closer. Close up, the Stylaen was huge. Its metallic scales clicked together as it moved closer. The Stylaen had the hind legs of a great bronze dragon, and the front legs of a golden eagle. It had a long head that mostly consisted of a mouth that was filled with millions needle teeth, like those flying dinosaurs.

The Stylaen opened its leathery bat-like wings, each topped with a sharp red-brown claw. Its wings were so big that its claws left deep gashes in the stone walls. The Stylaen moved closer, and I slashed at its muzzle. This only made it angrier. The leathery wings folded around me, so I couldn't escape.

A / N: Please review!