XXI

Percy

"It's a dead end!" Leo said. "Great. Now what do we do?"

"No, it isn't." Hazel said. "It's a cave in." she looked at Percy questioningly.

"We dig." Percy said. "Guys, we need to clear out these rocks! There's probably a passage behind this, and we most likely need to go there." He picked up a slightly heavy rock and put it down a couple of meters behind them.

"How do you know that?" Annabeth asked.

"When have we ever ended up in a place that isn't important at all?" Percy replied.

It was long, hard work. Every fifteen minutes or so, they would stop and sit down on the floor for a quick break. At one point Jason suggested a guard to protect them from any incoming monster attacks, and Percy got that prestigious position.

He was actually pretty relieved. If anything came to attack them, they'd have to first go through him. At this point, he didn't really trust anyone else to protect them. Besides, he wanted to be able to protect them. Unfortunately, nothing came through the tunnel to try and kill them.

The others were making pretty quick work of the mound of rocks. A small hole, big enough for a person the size of Frank to crawl through, was beginning to take shape.

"Guys, I think we've dug enough." Annabeth squeezed through the hole. "Come on!"

Everyone looked at each other.

"Let's go." Percy said, jumping in after her.

The pile was much bigger than he'd expected.

"Uh, guys?" Percy asked. "Did you seriously clear away all of this?"

"Uh, no." Jason replied. He sounded like he was running out to breath in the tight, enclosed space.

Suddenly, Percy saw light. Annabeth, who was right in front of him, popped out of a giant hole in the ground. The weirdest thing? Inside the tunnel, it had felt like they were going forwards. But it turned out they were going upwards.

Jason was next out of the tunnel. As soon as he crawled out, he rolled on the floor. "What the…" he yelped.

Frank was next. As soon as he got out, he yelped in fear. He rolled on the grass, and grabbed the edge of the hole in hopes of not "falling". When he saw Percy, Annabeth and Jason and realized what was happening, he sat up sheepishly. "Sorry."

Everyone else piled out of the hole, slightly disoriented but okay. Meanwhile, Percy had already noticed that they had come out of a hole right next to a giant pile of rocks.

Rocks, he thought inwardly, that looked like something he knew…

He walked around it, trying to see if he could get that angle. Then he saw it.

The pile of rocks looked exactly like Zeus' Fist, way back at Camp Half-Blood.

No.

It was Zeus' Fist.

"Guys!" Percy yelled. "Follow me!" he ran in the direction where the Camp would have been if they were really in Camp Half-Blood. He ran over a river, through forest, and then he saw the strawberry fields. People were planting berries in the fields. Percy immediately recognized one of them.

"Pollux!" Percy yelled, running towards him.

Pollux, who was engrossed in his work, looked up and beamed. "Percy!" he yelled. He ran towards him, while the other campers- probably new demigods- looked at Percy strangely, undoubtedly wondering why their cabin leader was running towards a random guy with a pen in his hand.

"Guys, this is Percy Jackson." Pollux told his cabinmates. "You need to see Chiron?"

Soon, Percy was sitting outside Chiron's office, along with the other seven of his friends.

Carter leaned towards him. "I feel… unwanted. Kind of like this place doesn't want me here."

Percy knew why. But he couldn't discuss it here. "Yeah." He lied. "I felt like that when I first came here."

Carter looked apprehensive at first, but his shoulders slowly relaxed.

"Yeah." He said. "I guess."

Percy could understand why he felt so uncomfortable. After all, he was seeing Percy's world, the world that he had begun to suspect was real.

Chiron stepped out of his office, in his "wheelchair". His face was grey and worn, and there were more wrinkles than Percy had remembered. He looked weighed down by worry.

As soon as Chiron saw Carter, his eyes flared. "Percy," he grumbled, "Who is this?"

"He's Carter." Percy replied, while staring at Chiron in the eye, trying to communicate a silent, unspoken message: Later. We'll talk later.

Luckily Chiron seemed to get it, because he lifted up his shoulders and said in his worst attempt at an upbeat voice, "Well, we have a lot of catching up to do!"

He piled them into his office.

It was slightly different than Percy remembered it. It now had a giant coffee machine in one corner, a huge couch right where the chair was supposed to be, and a huge pile of papers on the desk, almost to the point where they were touching the ceiling.

Chiron sat them down.

"Please," he said. "Enlighten me."

As Percy told the story, Frank and Hazel's eyes darted around the room. Chiron knew they were Romans by the way he kept giving them sideways glances. But he didn't say anything about it, so neither did Percy.

Percy needed to amend his story by saying that Carter showed up, through a tiny tunnel at the top, dropping in and saving their butts. He was pretty sure the others, even Annabeth, thought that he was a demigod. Perhaps a son of Hecate.

He finished his story.

"So you haven't stopped the Giants yet." Chiron said.

"No." Percy replied. "Oh, by the way, do you know what the date is today?"

"The 28th of July." Chiron replied.

It was just sunset. Judging by the time, they had only been in the Labyrinth for about one and a half days. The strange thing was that it hadn't been two weeks, which was usually the case for monstrous places.

Chiron's shoulders sagged. "The outer boundaries have been keeping us safe in here starting from when the Romans started to attack. But they have some knowledge of magic, and they've been breaking them down over the last month. The Hecate cabin is doing their best to keep them out, but they're tired. They'll barge into the camp, if my calculations are right, on the 31st of July, at 5 in the afternoon. That can't be a coincidence."

"What coincidence?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh, you didn't know." Chiron said. "My research shows that Gaea has planned her final move to be exactly at the right time. She is going to rise everywhere at once- in fact, she waited another two months just so that her entire body would be able to penetrate the surface. That's also why the earth hasn't been as volatile as it was before."

Percy had never realized that until now, but Chiron was right.

"So, Gaea will rise at exactly midnight in Athens," Chiron said, sighing, "Which is 5 in the afternoon here in New York." He got up. "Well, that's all I know." He said. "Percy and Carter, we need to talk."

When the others had piled out of the room, Chiron looked at Percy furiously. "You- you brought this-"

"Egyptian?" Carter said. "Last time I checked."

"Do you know how dangerous this is?" Chiron exploded. Percy was honestly quite scared- Chiron never got this furious, not even when Percy had shot an arrow into his hindquarters (long story). Right now, it looked as though a single bit of fire would create a nuclear blast. His face was red.

"For centuries we've been kept apart! Now with you two together in the same group- it is going to disrupt the peace!"

"How did you know he was Egyptian in the first place?" Percy asked.

"His face. His equipment." Chiron said. "I'm not dumb. I know a shabti when I see one," he said, pointing to a tiny wax figurine inside Carter's bag.

"We'll need him to defeat the giants." Percy said. "So far, no gods have been forthcoming with help, and we'll need a god with us if we're to defeat them. Carter once hosted Horus- he can be a big help."

Chiron shook his head. "That has never been attempted before. Unfortunately, we don't even know if Egyptian gods qualify as being gods in the first place! And to add the explosive reaction when Greek meets Egyptian… I just can't think about it."

"Well, do you know any gods that can help us?" Percy asked.

Chiron slumped over, hand on chin, thinking. He sat there for over ten minutes.

"No."