Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

Consul of the Underworld: End of Disc 1

Chapter Nineteen: Titanomachy II - Black Ops Save 5

Beta: ShadowofAxios


Pyrrha was just spending a quiet evening in the living room with Alkaid and their daughters. Kura and Mina were playing with a set of dolls recreating the mass murder of the Titan Army. Morbid perhaps, but only if one forgot that Mina was the goddess of the serial killers. As her younger sisters were enjoying themselves stimulating the slaughter of their enemies, Gracie was reading a tome while snuggling into Alkaid's side. Ever since the close shave that her wife had recently and the helplessness she had felt about the situation, their eldest had been super clingy to Alkaid. Not that either Alkaid or Pyrrha minded. Their little girl could be as clingy as she wanted.

Speaking of the Potter parents themselves, Pyrrha was currently on the opposite side from Alkaid as Gracie and using a tablet to scroll through the newly launched online catalog of a store that sold magical gems and seeing if something caught her eye. She was on the market for adding a new gem and its accompanying stored spell to her labrys. As for the daughter of war's darling wife? She was looking at a tablet of her own and looking over the intel reports they had received and trying to pick the next target for Black Team.

'Kaidy needs to relax. She's gone over those reports like a dozen times now. Pyrrha thought with a shake of her head. Though even as she thought that, it struck the daughter of Ares that her wife wouldn't have needed to go over the reports that many times if all she was doing was selecting their next target.

"'Kaidy, what are you looking for?" Pyrrha asked, her shopping forgotten.

"I'm not entirely sure." Alkaid admitted with a tired sigh. "It's just there's something odd about these reports."

"What do you mean, Sensei?" Gracie asked as she put her tome down and turned to give Alkaid her full attention. Even Mina and Kura had paused their game and turned to look at the daughter of Hades curiously.

"These sightings of the Titan Army." Alkaid said, tapping the screen of her tablet. "They are too spread out. It's like someone is helping them."

"Uh. Can't the Titans teleport?" Kura asked, shooting Alkaid a confused look alongside Mina and, she was not ashamed to admit, Pyrrha herself.

"Yes, but we're tracking their movements. Their power signatures are known, as are those of those among their allies who might be able to carry out the teleportations on the scale to set up these many far flung operations." Alkaid said with a frown. "And we would be able to detect them if they were using teleportations to move the men and materiel needed to keep so many scattered operations going at once. Consistently hiding the power needed for that is impossible."

Gracie hummed thoughtfully before adding. "Which means either the Titan Army is a lot bigger than we think it is and can cover so many different operations all at once without large-scale teleportation, which is unlikely considering how closely we've been tracking them. Or…"

"Someone is helping them. Someone who we aren't tracking." 'Kaidy finished where their eldest left off.

"And by that you mean an outsider, don't you?" Pyrrha said with a frown. "Any idea who?"

"Not the faintest." Alkaid confessed with a cute frustrated look. It was a rare sight. "That's why I've been looking through the intel reports. I've been trying to find a clue as to who we're dealing with."

"T-There's a third option, Mum." Gracie said hesitantly as she twisted her hands together nervously.

"You don't mean-"

"I do, Sensei." Gracie said with a nod. "If the Titans somehow regained access to the L-Labyrinth then-"

"No, it can't be that." Pyrrha said with a shake of her head. "If they did, Daedalus and Talos would've told us."

"But that doesn't mean they couldn't have found something like Daedalus' Labyrinth, right?" Mina asked, looking at Pyrrha in confusion from her seat next to Gracie, having at some point teleported there to offer her sister comfort. Bringing up the Labyrinth always unsettled their eldest. It reminded her of her horrid experiences during her brief time traveling through it whilst she'd been part of the Titan Army and Mina, who had helped Gracie learn to cope with the madness that it had induced in her, was especially sensitive to that fact.

"There are other things like the Labyrinth?" Pyrrha asked, blinking in surprise.

"Loads, Mama." Kura said, nodding her head in a way that she probably thought made her look sagely but in truth just made her look adorable. "The Egyptians can do something similar by traveling through the Duat, the Mayans through Xibalba, the-"

"I think Mama gets it, Kura." Alkaid cut Kura off with a smile to show she wasn't scolding her, before turning to Pyrrha and elaborating. "She's right, Py. There are plenty of ways that would duplicate the effect of the Labyrinth."

Pyrrha nodded. "You learn something new every day."

She would have asked more about the topic with the intent to get enough of an understanding to offer her wife some help as the other woman tried to figure things out but before she could do so, the house phone rang. The ringing sound startled all five of them. With them having limited interactions with the mortal world, they rarely got calls. The Potters thus exchanged looks and wordlessly asked each other if any of them knew why they might be getting an unexpected call all of a sudden.

They were all shaking their heads when the call was cut off and Cappy popped in a moment later with the handset for the cordless phone in hand. "For yous, Mistress Pyrrha. Froms yours mother."

"Mom? Why would mom be calling me?" Pyrrha asked, surprised, even as she accepted the phone and put it to her ear. "Hi Mom. What's up?"

"Pyrrha. Good, you're home. I was worried you and Alkaid might be out or something."

That reminded her that there was a eight hour time difference between her Mom's house in Wales and their house in California. Something which prompted Pyrrha to frown and glance at a nearby clock and saw that it was just a little after eight in the evening. Which meant that it was a little over four in the morning over at Mom's!

"Mom, why are you calling me so early in the morning!? Did something happen?"

"Yes, but I'm fine." Mom reassured her. "I just have something important that I need to tell you."

"What is it?" The usually fearless daughter of Ares asked, her heart full of trepidation. Anxiety that spilled over into her family as they all looked at her worriedly.

"I think I'll let Master Talirwig tell you directly." Mom said. "And just in case you forgot, he's the Patriarch of the Rockwell Gnomes that your fairy friends arranged to help guard my house."

"He was the one who woke you up to pass along this message?"

"Yeah, but don't blame him. He got woken up and told to deliver it immediately. It's not his fault."

I'll be the judge of that. Pyrrha thought but did not voice, just grunting noncommittally.

Mom sighed at that but did not continue to try to persuade her. Instead, she just forged ahead. "Let me put him on, okay?"

"Go ahead."

At her acquiesce, Pyrrha heard the static that accompanied the phone being handed to someone else and a moment later, the gruff voice of what she presumed was Master Talirwig came on.

"Hello, are you there Miss Pyrrha?"

"I'm here." Pyreha replied to the unfamiliar voice. For all that the gnome was responsible for keeping her mother safe, she'd only spoken to him a handful of times. "What do you have to say that's so urgent?"

"Well… Give me a moment alright. I took down notes so just let me refer to them so I don't get anything wrong okay?" Pyrrha just snorted her agreement and waited patiently for the gnome to continue. "Okay… So, my king and queen, His Majesty King Lus Nam Ban and Her Majesty Lá Glan, asked me to invite you and the rest of, uh, Black Team? Yeah, Black Team. So my king and queen want to invite you and Black Team to Wyldwood."

Pyrrha frowned. Why were the fairy rulers of Wyldwood inviting them to visit now? They had been allies for years - ever since they'd worked out the deal for them to help protect Mom - and whilst there existed something of a standing invitation for them to visit, there had never been such a direct request for them to do so.

"His Majesty said you might be wondering why now, so he said to tell you that it's 'cos you mentioned the Labyrinth and that names have power. What that's supposed to mean, I dunno but-"

The gnome might not have an idea of the relevance of the Labyrinth to things, but Pyrrha had an idea so she cut him off.

"I see. I might have an idea. Thank you, Master Talirwig. Please let His and Her Majesty know that we will be visiting them as soon as we can gather our team. We'll call again to inform you when exactly shortly so you can pass on the details."

"Uh, sure. Glad to help." The gnome said, sounding confused. "Talk to you again."

"Yes, we will." Pyrrha assured him. "Good night."

"Good night." The Rockwell Patriarch replied uncertainly before Pyrrha cut the call.

Pulling it away from her ear and passing the phone to a waiting Cappy, who promptly popped away to put it back in its cradle, the daughter of Ares turned to her wife. "'Kaidy, is there a fairy equivalent to the Labyrinth? One which would be invoked when we talk about Daedalus' Labyrinth too?"

Alkaid frowned at that and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "A fairy equivalent to the Labyrinth? Hmm…"

A moment of thinking later, Pyrrha's wife suddenly stiffened.

"Mum?" Gracie asked worriedly, voicing everyone's feelings.

"There's one fairy kingdom that fits the bill, Pyrrha."

"Which one? And why has it got you all spooked?" Pyrrha asked warily.

"The Goblin's Labyrinth." Alkaid replied with a hiss. "The kingdom of Jareth, the Goblin King, and his queen consort, Queen Sarah 'Morgan' Williams."

At the mention of the one fairy, above all others, that hated Alkaid's guts, Pyrrha understood her wife's reaction. She'd had her own run in with the Goblin Queen and it had not been pleasant. Not in the slightest. So the thought of tangling with her again made her just as terrified as Alkaid felt, if not more so.


It had taken a day to gather up Black Team and to teleport over to Mom's house before using the fairy ring the Rockwell Gnomes had set up on the property as a portal to their homeland to transport Alkaid, Pyrrha and the rest of the team to the fae kingdom. And as the brilliant prismatic light of said interplanar teleportation faded, the five Olympian Heroes found themselves standing under a full moon and on top of a hill whilst they gasped in awe at the ethereally beautiful city they found themselves standing across from.

Wyldwood, the eponymous capital city of the kingdom they found themselves visiting, was a city built on an island surrounded on all sides by a gently flowing river, it was further encircled by a fence covered in thorny rambles and powerful enchantments that made them as strong as the sturdiest walls. Its buildings, each more fantastical in appearance than the next, were built almost seamlessly into the massive trees that covered the island. So much so that they seemed to have been more grown out of the trees rather than been built on them.

Movement by the river caught Alkaid's eye however, pulling her out of her awed appreciation of Wyldwood's splendor. Turning to its source, she saw Queen Lá Glan, a Merrow using the guise of an elegant Caucasian woman with classically aristocratic features and long light blue hair dressed in a white Victorian dress, and a squadron of her fellow mermaid-like fairies and other aquatic fae that Alkaid did not immediately recognize emerge out of the river and begin climbing up the hill on top of which Black Team had appeared.

Said fairy party did not deign to lower themselves to walking up the hill to greet them for long however. Instead, as soon as the last of her escorts stepped out of the river, in a shimmer of air, Glan and her entourage suddenly teleported from the riverbank and reappeared right in front of Black Team.

"Greetings, Alkaid, Pyrrha, other esteemed members of Black Team." The Queen of Wyldwood said, offering them a truly welcoming smile. "Welcome to Wyldwood!"


Several hours later and after they had been escorted into Wyldwood by the queen herself, Black Team found themselves being shown around the wondrous Waterfall Palace that was the home of the kingdom's royal family. A palace that was as opulent as any palace of the gods and decorated in a style with a clear aquatic theme with plenty of pearls, seashells, and other similar elements in its choice of furnishings. So much so that it probably would not be out of place in Atlantis. It was further crisscrossed by canals of water that bordered every single corridor, something which just furthered the aquatic motif.

It is clear whose convenience was the priority when this palace was built. Peggy thought with amusement as she and the rest of her team were led down one of the palace's corridors decorated in the aforementioned style. After all, as far as she knew, there was only one of the Wyldwood royal family who was this heavily aligned with water: its Merrow queen, Queen Lá Glan.

"Oh! I'm sure you'll all love the garden! Especially you, Alkaid! I've heard that it has a passing resemblance to Lady Persephone's garden in the Underworld." Their guide, Dìomhaireachd, the Princess of Wyldwood, a Pixie with the body of a beautiful Caucasian young girl with long, dark hair and bright black eyes, said excitedly as she buzzed around them on the set of dragonfly wings that grew out of her back.

"Is that so?" Alkaid replied politely. "Then I do believe I will."

"I'm sure of it." The Pixie princess said confidently as they stepped through an arched opening and into a garden.

Like the princess had said, it was a lovely place. It was full of bioluminescent plants. Many of a fantastical variety that did not match anything from the mundane world and would have looked out of place in it. Here in faerie though, they fit in perfectly. In fact, Peggy couldn't help but think that the whole garden would have felt out of place if they weren't there.

"This is very nice." Alkaid admitted as their little group, including the small entourage of guards and handmaidens that followed after the princess walked down one of the garden's paths. "It does remind me of Mother's garden if a little on the tame side."

"Yeah," Pyrrha agreed with a nod. "There's no petrified mortals acting as lawn gnomes."

"If that's the case, then you havta wonder what Persephone's Garden is like." Caelus said, leaning in to whisper to Peggy. "'Cos this place is freaky enough as is."

Peggy grimaced. "Yes, it sounds like a most unpleasant place."

"Papa and Mama wouldn't allow something like that anyway." Dìomhaireachd said with a shrug. "Keeping those innocent mortals that Medusa petrified in her garden as ornaments is the one thing about it that they did not want to emulate from Lady Persephone's Garden. No offense, Alkaid, but doing that to those poor souls is just cruel."

Alkaid shrugged. "The gods never claimed to be kind."

And isn't that the truth of it. Peggy thought with another grimace. She might fight for the gods but she was not blind to their faults. They were cruel and capricious beings. But they were also the better option. She'd rather the gods than the Titans. At least the Olympians cared about the mortals, even if they were monstrous at times. They weren't wholly monsters, not like the Titans were. She'd researched what they got up to in the Golden Age and she'd fight to the death to ensure they never got a chance to do anything like that again.

"True." Princess Dìomhaireachd said, pulling Peggy from her thoughts. "And I suppose us fairies are the same in that regard."

A sad silence fell upon them all after that depressingly true statement. One that was only broken when Michael suddenly coughed and looked at Alkaid meaningfully.

"What's he trying to say?" Caelus muttered in confusion, prompting a urge in Peggy to smack her lover's head for being such a simpleton. She managed to restrain herself though. Barely.

Alkaid, thankfully, was not as daft as Caelus and got the gist of what Michael was asking and posed it towards the Pixie princess.

"Pardon my impudence, Dìo." Alkaid said with all politeness despite her familiar address of the princess. "But we came here to find out what your parents have to tell us. As such, may we know when we can speak to them?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, Alkaid." The princess said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Papa and Mama will tell you what they have to say after dinner and that's being prepared right now. Mama even went to oversee it. For now, just relax for a bit."

Is she trying to say that what they have to share isn't that urgent? Is that why she wants us to relax? And what can we do about it either way?

With that thought in mind, Peggy shot questioning looks at the rest of her team in response to Princess Dìomhaireachd's statement. All she received was a series of shrugs that echoed the helplessness she herself felt at the situation.

"Yes, of course." Pyrrha said, offering the little fairy princess a smile. "Thank you for your consideration. We'll wait till after dinner to speak to your parents."


After a dinner in a truly fantastical dining room and servings of equally otherworldly food, Caelus leaned back in his chair and took a moment to appreciate the incredible hospitality that had been offered to them.

"You are being a boor." Peggy told him teasingly.

Caelus just shot her a cheeky grin in reply.

"Dear, I think it's time for Dio to head to bed." Their host, King Lus Nam Ban, said, causing Caelus and his team to turn their attention back towards the fairy king.

Said fae monarch currently had the shape of a teenage Caucasian boy with classically aristocratic features dressed in a long, black overcoat worn over an equally black outfit and was offering his daughter an adoring smile. A daughter that was pouting adorably at him.

"Papa~! I'm not a little girl anymore! I can stay!" The little princess whined.

"Ah! But you'll always be our little girl." Queen Lá Glan said as she stood and moved to stand beside her daughter.

"That's not the point, Mama!" The Pixie retorted, crossing her arms defiantly.

The Merrow queen just smiled and kept trying to cajole her daughter. "So you don't want me to bathe you tonight? To read to you before bed?"

The little princess blushed at that and looked away from her mother even as she replied in a barely audible whisper. "No. I want that."

"Then let's head to bed, Dio." The fae queen said as she stretched out her arms towards her little Pixie.

Still blushing brilliantly, Princess Dìomhaireachd reached out for her mother's arms and allowed herself to be picked up. She shrunk down in size as she did, her shape changing from a ten year old into that of a three year old so that her mother could more comfortably carry her.

"Say good night to our guests, Dio." Queen Lá Glan urged her daughter as she turned to Caelus and the rest of his team.

"Good night." The blushing princess, clearly embarrassed at behaving so childishly in front of guests, said as she leaned slightly out of her mother's arms to offer them a wave.

She's adorable. Caelus could not help but think as he joined his team in returning the farewell. He did not usually have an eye for cute things but the little fae princess was just too adorable to not be moved by her behavior.

"Good night as well." Queen Lá Glan added, offering them a curtsy and upon receiving the same returned farewell, she left with her daughter in her arms and her entourage in tow.

They all waited in patient silence until they had all left and the doors to the dining room were closed behind them by the magic that animated them. Only then did King Lus Nam Ban catch everyone's attention with an unexpected purr. Startled, Caelus turned towards the King of Wyldwood and saw that he transformed into a large panther sized cat with a white spot on its chest.

"Ah! It does feel wonderful to be in my true form." The fae monarch said with another purr, this one clearly pleased.

"I can only imagine." Alkaid said with an amused smile.

"So now that Dio is sent to bed and you're comfortable, how about telling us what you summoned us here to tell us?" Pyrrha asked as she looked at the fae king expectantly.

They are talking to him like he's a friend. Isn't that risky? I mean I know they told us that the Wyldwood royals were allies but they're still fae. And their kind are notorious for being duplicitous.

If the Diplomats of Olympus shared his concerns, they showed no sign of it. And neither did King Lus Nam Ban seem to show any sign of deceptiveness. If anything, he looked friendly and earnest. It was frankly a little odd, especially considering what Caelus knew about how the fae operated. That said, it could all be a lie but somehow Caelus doubted it.

"Yes," King Lus Nam Ban nodded, even as he offered a teasing smirk at them. How he managed that with his feline face was beyond the Roman Legacy. "Of course I would tell you."

Smiling back in amusement, Alkaid played along. "So what did you have to share?"

The Cat Sith - At least that's what the intel on the fae king provided to him by Alkaid identified him as. - turned serious at the question even as he replied. "I am afraid I have bad news, my friends."

"Since you're the one telling us this, it has to do with the Goblin King and Queen, correct?" Alkaid said with a sigh. "Them and their Labyrinth?"

The feline fae nodded. "Indeed."

"What exactly are they doing, Lus?" Pyrrha said with a frustrated sigh.

"It seems that in a bid to spite Alkaid, Jareth and Sarah have been offering the Titans the use of their Labyrinth as a shortcut for moving between locations in the mortal realm."

"Just to confirm, the Goblin Labyrinth is functionally the same as Daedalus Labyrinth in its ability to connect between different places in the mortal world and act as a shortcut?" Alkaid asked with a frown.

"Yes it is." The faerie king confirmed.

"And the Goblin monarchs allowed the use of something that powerful to the Titans simply to spite me?"

"Yes, I am afraid so, Alkaid."

Seriously!? What did Alkaid do to piss them off that badly!?

"Truly, Morgan is my Navi." Alkaid with a groan, leaving Caelus and most of the team confused even as her wife gave her shoulder a comforting pat.


Teleporting before the front of Jareth's Castle, Alkaid, Peggy and Caelus looked up at the fantastical castle. It was as fantastical as all fairy castles, but unlike the Waterfall Palace of Wyldwood, the castle of the Labyrinth, the Goblin kingdom, was much more mundane looking. It was however covered in spikes at the top of its towers that gave it a fantasy barbaric edge.

"Nice place." Caelus whistled, trident hanging on his shoulders, his arms looped over it.

"Focus, dolt. We have damage to deal." Peggy chided their teammate.

My word, they're going to bone like rabbits after this. Alkaid huffed with some amusement as she prepared her spells.

"Right, right. Hey Boss, wanna knock for us?" The Roman Legacy asked, gesturing at the castle with a polite wave.

"Oh, I think I can get us the attention that we want." Alkaid tittered as she took a spell card and snapped it shut within her Grimoire and chanted the appropriate incantation. "Incendium Gehennae (Hellfire Conflagration)."

In response, a spiraling twister of black hellfire slammed into the defenses of the castle. It caused a dark iridescent barrier that no doubt protected all within to flare into visibility and quiver from the deadly assault as large cracks formed along its surface.

"That should do it." The daughter of the Rich One nodded, pleased with herself.

"If you wanted our attention, you could have sent a message from the gate." The voice of a stunningly beautiful woman with pale gold skin, hair as black as midnight and eyes like liquid emeralds said from the battlements of the gatehouse that they were standing in front of. A woman that Alkaid recognized as the Goblin Queen.

A queen who was quite unexpectedly dressed in a mundane and practical outfit consisting of a snowy blouse, an ivory swirl waistcoat, blue denim jeans, and caramel brown boots. The only sign of her status being a feral, silver circlet.

"So that's the queen, huh? Not bad." The blue haired Legacy on her team hummed with appreciation, earning himself a grunt of pain as he took a elbow to the ribs from Peggy. "Rude."

"Zip it." She hissed and gestured to Alkaid. With a thankful nod, the Sorceress began to speak to the Goblin Queen.

"I must say, your ladyship, I'm surprised by your attire." Alkaid said, schooling her features to not look outright bewildered.

Queen Sarah shrugged with little care. "I was in a nostalgic mood."

"Oh? Nostalgic for what?"

"None of your business, little Sorceress." The fae queen said as with a wave of her hand, she conjured thousands of deadly looking icicles that she rained down on Alkaid and her teammates.

"Very well, but may I ask why are you the one to confront us?" The daughter of Hades segwayed even as she conjured an Oval Protection and shielded them against the rain of ice lances. Half of which turned out to be nothing more than illusions. "Why not send your kingdom's loyal soldiers instead?"

"I'm not going to risk the lives of my loyal subjects. Especially against a freak of nature like you." Williams said as she snapped her fingers, conjuring a pair of massive golems behind Alkaid and her team.

"Peggy, Caelus, could you deal with those golems?"

"Sure!" "Leave it to us!" Her two teammates replied as they leapt at the two earthen automatons.

"Tsch!" The Goblin Queen hissed unhappily as she leapt down from the top of the gatehouse, her body transforming as she did, four Manticore tails growing out of her back from which she shot a barrage of supersonic spikes at Alkaid.

"Exelion Shield!" Alkaid cast, conjuring a buckler of magical energy to shield her from the assault before proceeding to hold a hand over her mouth in mock shock. "Oh? For you to think so highly of me, I am honored. And to face me yourself for them? You truly are a grand queen."

The Goblin Queen scoffed at her words, a scowl marring her face as she landed and her lower body shifted into those of a centaur's. This granted her super speed which Williams exploited to blur behind Alkaid.

"And where might your husband be?" The Sorceress retorted as she wordlessly cast Gefängnis der Magie (Capture Force Field) around the space behind her, knowing that was exactly where Williams would attack her from.

That should deal with her speed.

"And where might your wife be?" The queen retorted with a mocking tone, seemingly not caring that Alkaid had her trapped.

"I'd wager they are both likely facing one another." Alkaid sniped back with a smirk, using a quick step via Shadow Travel to transport herself a good few feet towards the gatehouse. A move that narrowly allowed her to avoid the massive lobster-like pincers brimming with magical energy that Williams used to easily shatter her Gefängnis der Magie (Capture Force Field) and had been inches from crushing her.

"Agreed. Though do you really think your lacking wife has a chance against my husband? I beat her myself and my love is far stronger than I am." The brunette goaded with a sharp smile as she shot a salvo of sharp spikes at her with her Manticore tails.

"I'm confident she'll be just fine." Alkaid smiled just as sharply as she cast a Balm Blazer, sending a sky-blue beam of astral energy at the fae queen.

The Manticore spikes were consumed by the Balm Blazer but unfortunately, as fast as Alkaid's spell was, it could not catch up to a centaur's speed and Williams evaded it entirely. Instead, she burst forward like a rushing gale and swung her massive claws down at the daughter of Hades to crush her.

Unfazed, Alkaid fired off a Axel Shooter straight into Williams' face. The dozens of emerald bullets of magic slamming into the fairy queen and sending her toppling back.

Seeing this, the Sorceress was inclined to press her advantage but refrained, wary of a trap. She was wise to do so when the entire area around the Goblin Queen exploded in a burst of hellfire even as she stood.

"Round Two?" The damnable fae queen said, shooting Alkaid a glare even as the hellfire she had shrouded around herself rolled off her and became a pair of elementals that promptly moved to replace their earthen counterparts that Peggy and Caelus had by now defeated.

"Sure. Why not?" Alkaid said with a shrug as she wordlessly cast Axel Shooter, Phalanx Shift and conjured hundreds of emerald bullets of magic all around her.


Sticking the landing of the teleport, Helena looked around, surveying the area where the portkey had deposited them. Michael and Pyrrha were next to her, weapons out as they examined the main storehouse of Jareth's Castle where they found themselves. A place they had managed to teleport into thanks to the coordinates provided to them by their Wyldwood allies and some portkeys prepared for them by Alkaid.

"Alright, let's go." Pyrrha told them.

Helena and Michael both nodded as they rushed off to begin planting the explosives around the room.

However, the moment they did so, a slow, echoing clap suddenly filled the room.

"Bravo! Bravo! I must say… having rats in my dwelling after so long is a true treat." Jareth, the Goblin King, greeted them as he seemingly shimmered into being right in the center of the room just a few feet away from Pyrrha. He was in the form of a short, handsome man with flamboyant blonde hair in a long, layered style in the shape of a mullet and dressed in an overly elaborate and unnecessarily tight fitting set of armor and a feral, silver crown.

"Go. I'll hold him off." Pyrrha muttered to them as she visibly mustered her resolve to fight a damnable archfae.

"Right, let's go." Helena urged her husband as they turned tail and rushed towards the far side of the expansive storeroom. They still needed to blow it up so they needed to plant some of their explosives in it, but that didn't mean they had to be anywhere near the fight with the Goblin King.

A fight that from the sounds of things was getting into the swing of things behind them.

"Damn, they're really going at it." Michael commented as he presumably glanced behind them.

"Focus, Michael!" Helena hissed at her husband. "The sooner we get our side of things done, the sooner Pyrrha can stop fighting an archfae and we can all just get out of here."

"Right." Her husband replied, before suddenly pointing to their right. "That pillar over there should do. It's load bearing."

"Got it." Helena nodded and they altered their course towards the aforementioned pillar.

Even before they came to a stop next to it, Michael was already reaching into his Hammerspace Backpack and pulling out one of the bombs he had prepared for the mission. And as he got to work setting it up, Helena took up a protective guard over the father of her children.

Something that proved quite necessary when there was a sudden angry roar from nearby. "Who you people? What you do in King's castle!?"

Turning towards the bellowed demand, Helena could not help but whistle in appreciation at its owner. Said magnificent creature being a hulking troll with a pair of buffalo-like horns growing out its head and thick orange fur covering its body that gave it a passing resemblance to an orangutan.

"Okay, that's a big boy." Helena said even as she pulled Long Memory from her own trusty Hammerspace Backpack.

She would have preferred to take the troll on with just her Bladed Heels and Huntress' Crossbow, both of which she was already equipped with, but against something as big as this creature, she doubted they'd be enough. No, she'd have to rely on something capable of a little more destructive power.

With that thought in mind, she fired off a bolt from Huntress' Crossbow. One that she had wisely swapped out for an explosive variant ahead of time and which exploded upon hitting the troll in a satisfying ball of Greek Fire. That was sadly, and predictably, not enough to take the fairy down but it did make it stumble back in pain. An opening that she exploited to flip a hidden switch along Long Memory's side that caused it to extend from its compact form which reduced it to only its handle and into its full combat mode. So disorientated was the troll by her opening attack that she even had time to rapidly tap it against the ground so the weapon could gather up some kinetic energy.

I'm going to need a big hit to take this sucker down. The Legacy of Venus thought to herself as she eyed the hulking troll as it finally seemed to recover its wits and stopped stumbling around, instead turning to glare at her angrily.

"Helena." Michael said, tensing up and getting ready to intervene. Which was not in his job description.

"Honey, go do what we need to. I'll be riiight there." She said with a smile and wink before spinning the cane in her hand, smacking it against the ground a few more times even as the troll started to howl, lumbering towards them.

"Die intruderz!" The belligerent fairy roared, his voice magically causing man sized chunks of stone to break away from the roof and fly at them like cannonballs.

Like a baton, she whipped the cane at the incoming projectiles, using brief bursts of the stored energy to turn away the attacks with glancing strikes. Her arms rattled a little from the sheer speed of the troll's attack, but that was a good thing. It meant more stored energy for Long Memory.

Growling angrily at the failure of his geomantic attack, the troll reached for her with its lanky, ape-like arms. Its thick fingers made to grab her, no doubt to rip her in two. Yet Helena twisted her body, evading the grapple and jabbed the tip of Long Memory against its throat. The kinetic shockwave that she released with the touch rippling through it.

"GRAH!" The monster screamed as it staggered back, grasping its throat in agony. Yet, it still stood.

Either I didn't put enough umph into that hit or this guy's hardy as hell. Helena thought and pulled up Huntress' Crossbow and fired a trio of bolts, aiming for its eyes.

One of its burly arms rose up, the bolts snapping against its thick hide and the Greek Fire of their explosive charges singing its fur. However, they didn't do more than that and the fairy still managed to swing at her with its other arm.

Helena leapt over it though, landing on the limb instead and swung Long Memory against one of the horns, cracking the base of it. In response, the beast howled in more pain, blood flying from its mouth as he tried to grab her again. The Legacy of Venus moved like a snake however, contorting her body to escape its grasp and even managing to slap the back of the troll's head with another burst of kinetic energy in the middle of her evasion.

It staggered forward a few feet, dazed before finally succumbing to its injuries and fell to its knees, coughing up blood.

Leaping onto its back, Helena pressed Long Memory at the base of the troll's neck and with one final release of the weapon's kinetic energy put the fairy out of its misery. A strike that caused the troll to slump to the floor, unmoving as its gray matter and blood spilled from its orifices.

Looking away from the fresh corpse, Helena turned to her husband. "Michael, you done? We have more bombs to plant!"

"Just about." Her beloved tinkerer replied. "There! We're good here. Let's go!"

Hefting Long Memory into a ready position, Helena nodded. They had more demolition charges to put in place.


"Go. I'll hold him off." Pyrrha ordered Helena and Michael as she mentally prepared herself for the fight against the Goblin King standing in front of her.

"Do you honestly think you can manage that, little daughter of Ares?" The archfae said with a mocking grin even as hundreds of crystal balls materialized around him. "Even your father would hesitate to face me and yet you do so fearlessly?"

"I'm not stupid. I know that facing an archfae like you is as good as facing a god but I've done the latter plenty of times." Pyrrha replied defiantly as she pulled her wand out of Akoúo̱'s (Listen) hammerspace. She had a feeling she'd need it.

"Alone?" The Goblin King pointed out with a smirk even as he nodded in her direction, a gesture that transformed his various conjured crystal balls into fireballs that proceeded to rain down on Pyrrha.

"Αιμοληψία (Bloodlust)." She incanted instead of a reply, shrouding herself in the blood red aura conjured by her spell. Thanks to its power, fire sang in her veins; her muscles bulged a little; and as she focused on the archfae, her senses focused with superhuman intensity. With swift and deadly swings, the redhead struck the fireballs with her labrys as they zeroed in on her, slicing through them, making them dissipate behind her.

Fire wreathing her dual bladed weapon, she swung it once more, chanting under her breath. "Come forth, Burning Swarm! Apes Igniferae (Crimson Bees)!"

The baleful flames erupted from her weapon, changing shape into large bees that beelined towards the freaky Goblin King. Seriously! Who dressed like he did!? There was a massive bulge in his pants that was either a sign of just how well hung he was or an oversized codpiece. Either way, that it was so obvious suggested he was compensating for something. What exactly that was… Pyrrha didn't want to know.

"Bees? Oh my! I worry for my allergies!" The fae king jeered as he grasped a crystal ball that appeared beside him and tossed it up into the air like a beach ball. Mid-flight, it shifted into a sphere of murky brown water that shot at her flaming bees like a firehose, dousing them.

Okay, so he's pretty damned good at magic. Great. Pyrrha deduced and decided to get in close. If she couldn't beat him at magic, then she would just have to play to her strengths.

With the snap and crack of Apparition, she was on him, going for a mighty blow. Her swing cut through him but she felt no resistance.

Fuck, illusions! Pyrrha grit her teeth, anger bubbling inside her throat as a low growl escaped even as the illusion of the Goblin King's decapitated body shimmered out of existence. Instincts flaring, she quickly whipped her wand around her feet in a circle and transfigured the floor into a stone wall to defend her.

She was just in time. No sooner did she complete the transfiguration when several steel balls covered in spikes slammed against her impromptu defense with enough force to release an mighty gonging sound. Feeling the floor start to sink below her, she leapt up onto the ledge of her wall just as a pit opened up where she had been standing.

Dammit, this palace is nothing but his playground! Can he make anything happen or what?

"Yes, I can." The Goblin King said with a sneer from where he was standing on the roof like gravity was reversed and it was the floor.

"Are you reading my mind?" Pyrrha hissed as she snapped her wand in his direction and sent a silently cast Exploding Charm at the archfae, even as she leapt off the top of her wall.

He was consumed by the explosion but somehow still looked utterly unfazed. Heck! His clothes didn't even look singed. If anything he just looked amused.

"I did not need to. Your thoughts were obvious. And, on another note, did you honestly think that petty Wizarding magic would be able to harm me?" The Goblin King asked as he conjured another of his crystal balls into his right hand and proceeded to crush it. The crystal shards this created promptly swirled around him, somehow multiplying as they did before they proceeded to shoot down at Pyrrha.

"Protego!" Pyrrha incanted, conjuring an invisible barrier in front of her with the Shield Charm that flared into visibility as the innumerable crystal shards of the Goblin King's latest attack slammed into it like a flash flood. The crystal flood was unrelenting and soon Pyrrha began to feel the strain and with sweat pouring down her face, she saw her barrier start to crack.

It was only the enhanced reflexes granted to her by Αιμοληψία that allowed her to dive out of the way just before her Shield Charm failed, saving her from being torn apart by the crystal shards. However, the Goblin King was not so easily thwarted and he had the crystal flood chase her. The attack defied all logic as it became an actual river of tiny, jagged crystal that coiled through the air as it ruthlessly pursued the daughter of Ares.

Thanks to the Αιμοληψία she had cast on herself, Pyrrha was just about able to keep ahead of it but of course, her opponent accounted for that. Thus she was just making a turn between the many shelves that filled the storehouse, hoping that it would shake the torrent of crystal chasing her when she found herself slamming into a wall instead.

Shit! He tricked me with one of his illu- The daughter of war managed to think before the crystal tide caught her and she was in too much pain to form coherent thoughts. The protective wards that Alkaid cast on her whenever they entered combat helped but they were torn apart soon enough and before Pyrrha knew it, the crystal shards began cutting into her flesh. Agonizingly so. Much more so than they had any right to, which could only mean that the Goblin King must have mixed in some kind of pain enhancing curse to his attack.

Despite all that pain, Pyrrha refused to give the enemy the satisfaction of hearing her scream. So gritting her teeth, she weathered the crystal storm and focused on the source of the attack. The annoying archfae wasn't even hiding his power, so pain notwithstanding, it wasn't that hard to pinpoint her target.

"Tidal Slash!" She shouted defiantly as she sent a cutting wave at the fairy king with a swing of her labrys.

The daughter of Ares didn't see her spell land. She had screwed her eyes shut against the crystal tide and had been relying on her other senses to target him. But since the attack stopped, she guessed her spell must've done some good.

Damn! That last attack did a real number on me. Pyrrha thought as she staggered towards a wall and leaned against it, the aura of her Αιμοληψία flickering and eventually fading. Panting, she blew some hair out of her eyes as she gritted her teeth against the pain. Her whole body just hurt. It'd been a while since she was this badly injured. Ugh, it reminded her of the last time she was in the fae realm.

Really starting to hate it here.

"Well, dear." The Goblin King clapped his hands and offered her a twisted smile that showed off far too many teeth - Pit! It looked like he had a second row of them! - as he just blinked into existence in front of her looking entirely unscathed. "This has been fun and all, but I have other rats to deal with. Now, be a good little Half-blood and stay still while I erase you from existence."

He held a hand out, palm aimed at her as he spoke in a deep and authoritative voice. "I, Jareth, who bears the title of King. Hereby proclaim, as he who holds the Authority of the Fifth Season, that the mind of this hapless fool before me is to be sent into the realm of neverafter. Whence it shall be lost for years to be and not to be. May madness take you! Take your thoughts! Take your dreams! May they be lost for years unnumbered!"

Pyrrha flinched, closing her eyes tightly. Fear, anger and sadness welled inside of her as she felt the Goblin King's magic, his authority, beginning to reach into her mind to do what he commanded. Tears welled in her eyes as she realized that she would never hold Alkaid in her arms again. Never scold Kura for another silly joke. Never help Gracie with some project. Never nap with Mina curled up with her.

And then like the hiss of a knife, Mina's familiar voice suddenly boomed in her mind.

Mine! This is mine! You cannot touch it, you filthy thingie! Keep your dirty hands away from my mama!

A shout from Jareth filled the storeroom and he recoiled, covering his wounded face. Sparkling, golden ichor seeped between his fingers as he wailed and flailed around. "My eyes! My face! Argh!"

Pushing herself forward, an agonizing effort to be sure, Pyrrha charged, rushing at the Goblin King. Her labrys turned into a spear for ease of carrying and because it was just better at what she wanted it to do.

"Stay out of my head, you fae fuck!" The mother of the goddess of serial killers roared as she imitated her daughter's favorite activity and stabbed the Goblin King. Not once, not twice. But more times than she could count. Small golden crystals of his ichor flew from the archfae's body with each stab and he howled in pain, both things that filled Pyrrha with joy and provided her with the strength to keep stabbing. Over and over again. She only stopped when the Goblin King finally gathered enough self-control to teleport away. Though not before he'd already been reduced to a bloody mess.

She collapsed to her knees afterward, only barely managing to maintain enough of her wits to pull out some ambrosia squares from Akoúo̱ to heal her wounds and to use the Summoning Charm to retrieve her wand, that she had dropped at some point. Thankfully her focus was still miraculously intact. Replacing it would have been a pain. Beyond that… Well, Pyrrha was frankly too exhausted to do anything else.

So she just knelt there until Helena and Michael circled back to find her.

"Pyrrha, you okay?" Helena asked as she approached her cautiously, using an arm to indicate to her husband to hang back.

"I'll live." Pyrrha confessed. Mina was totally getting all the hugs for this.

"I see." Helena replied with a wince. "So, um, Michael and I are done. Are you good to go?"

"Yeah. Let's go." Pyrrha said as she forced herself to her tired feet. "Trigger the timer. How long did you set it for anyway?"

"10 seconds." Michael said as he pulled out a stereotypical metal tube with a big red button on top and pressed the aforementioned button.

"Let's get out of here." Pyrrha said as she activated her exit portkey that transported her to the safety of Wyldwood, followed shortly afterwards by the Bertinellis doing the same with their own portkeys.

Their departure serving as the prelude to a series of explosions that ripped through Jareth's Castle that brought a sizable portion of the towering stronghold crashing down. And making a firm statement to the Goblin King and Queen of the price they would have to pay for their continued support of the Titans.


"Argh! I never want to visit the fae realms again if I can help it. Nothing good ever comes of it." Alkaid heard Pyrrha grumble as they and the rest of Black Team finished the transport back from Wyldwood via the Rockwell gnomes' fairy ring in Jane's estate.

"Can't say I blame ya, lass." Master Talirwig said as the light of the transport faded and he stepped forward to greet them. "You certainly have terrible luck whenever you visit."

"Tell me about it." Pyrrha said with a tired groan.

"I would very much like you to, Pyrrha." Jane said as she too stepped into the circle of mushrooms and pulled her daughter into a hug. "Master Talirwig didn't know the details but he told me what he could and you seemed to have had quite an unpleasant trip. What happened?"

As her wife filled her mother in on what happened, Alkaid turned to the rest of Black Team and gestured for them to head to the house where she was sure Jane's House Elves would see them to guest rooms where they could get cleaned up and some rest, should they want to, before they headed home. They had a chance to do so in Wyldwood immediately after they had retreated from the Goblin Kingdom but if they wanted more of a chance to relax, the daughter of Hades was sure that her mother-in-law was more than happy to oblige them.

In fact, she herself was just about to partake of Jane's hospitality when Master Talirwig cleared his throat. Turning to the gnomish Patriarch, she cocked an eyebrow curiously.

"What is it, good sir?"

It never hurts to be polite.

"I've got a letter for you." The elderly looking gnome said, pulling a human sized letter out of whatever hammerspace he was keeping it in and passed it to her. "It's from Artemis Fowl. Oh, and he wanted me to pass on a message too."

"Yes?"

"He says to be careful. That the mob has hired an assassin of Fae descent and loosely aligned with the Unseelie fae courts to kill you. He's put together what he knows about them in the letter."

Alkaid sighed. It seems it was just one thing after another.


Even as Alkaid lamented the seemingly unending challenges that appeared before her, the source of her latest troubles was spying on her home back in California through the telephoto lens of her camera from a parked car some distance away from the Potter property.

"Damn! To afford something like this… Yup! She's definitely the daughter of the Rich One alright." The magenta haired assassin said as she looked away from her camera. "Hmm… I wonder if I can loot some of that money of hers after I kill her? It'd be a nice bonus on top of what I'm getting paid."

Smirking at the thought of all the money she'd be rolling in once this job was done and how it would hopefully finally put an end to her neverending money problems, the assassin returned her attention to the task at hand. If she wanted to get her hands on that cash, she'd need to do this properly and that meant getting to know her target well before she struck.

And there's no better way than to spy on them yourself.


Done and done! Thanks to Nameless and Axios as always!

Phew! Man this one expanded from the little notes we had on this chapter. But for real, it was just awesome to get another jab into the fae realm. So nice to see and go into the wackiness of fae in general.

Nameless: Indeed. Though, sadly we didn't get as much of a chance to worldbuild our interpretation of the fae realm this time around as last time. That said, I still hoped it was a fun enough trip into the world of the fair folk.

And thus Pyrrha stabbed Jareth and prizes came out. It was like stabbing a beanie baby. As expected of Ares' girl. She learned so much from her divine daughter too. Really, is there any question that Mina would be more Pyrrha's daughter than she is Alkaid's? They just click on a spiritual level.

Nameless: They both like to stab things. XD

IMPORTANT: No Ludos were harmed in the making of this chapter.

Nameless: Indeed. That was just another rock troll/rock caller. If he was Ludo… Well, Sarah hates Alkaid enough as is. Hurting one of her friends and one who helps her remember her times as a human no less (remember Ludo was one of her friends when she was still human)? Yeah, that's one way to make an enemy hellbent on your destruction. But damn… I'm so pleased with how we're incorporating Labyrinth, of all things, into this fic!

It's crazy how easy it was. It just fits so nicely!

You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!