Percy may have been eight feet in the air, fighting to stay alive on the back of thirteen hundred pounds of rage and flesh-eater, but he was grinning like an idiot. Deinos wasn't a tall horse, but she had an unbelievable power that he could feel coiling and unleashing itself between his legs. He gripped his rigging strap tightly, hands raw from foregoing the glove and resin rodeo riders preferred, and sat back to let Deinos do what she would.

What she did was surprise him, again.

As she came down from her buck, she planted all four hooves firmly in the dirt. Then, she launched herself into a twisting turn, but as she did so, she turned her haunches over to one side and lashed her hooves backwards, leaving her back at a better than forty-five degree angle to the vertical under Percy. Then she set down all her weight on her front hooves, forcing him further forwards from his already precarious position, and Percy was almost certain he would have come off. Fortunately, he could cheat - he flashed his legs out around her neck like a bareback rider and threw his weight as far back as it would go, just barely managing to stay on while she stuck herself instantly into the next buck.

Percy knew he didn't have much longer left - even sons of the horse god had their limits, and his massive fall hadn't left him feeling particularly healthy. His ribcage groaned with every single leap, and he was pretty sure one of his ribs had cracked under that last extraordinary move Deinos had pulled. Fortunately she wasn't bucking out of fear or pain, but just sheer mule-headed boredom. She wanted Percy to work with her.

So as she came down onto her hooves again, he urged her forwards, turning what had been the preparation for another forward leap into a dead gallop, straight for the stands where Thalia was sitting.

Percy hoped he looked hot.

Ten feet from the wall, he managed to settle his seat onto Deinos's gait and dug his knee into her right shoulder. Still at a breakneck pace, she dove into the turn and set off along the rail. Her ears weren't pinned back anymore, though - she was just running for fun now, happy that Percy had picked up the hint. She just wanted somebody to play with, more than anything.

And maybe somebody to buck off, too, but that was kind of the same thing.

For the first time, though, as she was still barrelling at a full gallop towards the far fences, she spoke to him.

Sure, he'd spoken to her, softly, calmly, almost the entire time. But unlike every other horse he'd encountered in his short, embattled life, she hadn't responded. There was no telepathic worship, like he'd encountered from the ponies on a childhood field trip, shortly before they kicked the class bully. There was no mental banter like Blackjack had entertained him with on that long flight to D.C., nothing at all except flared nostrils, beating hooves, flickering ears.

Is that all you got?

Percy grinned and shook his head, but he knew that Deinos was in control at this point. It was all he could do to keep himself seated on her back, and she was hardly even breathing hard, tiny gouts of flame spurting from her nostrils. Percy rolled his shoulders, pinched his knees on her shoulders ever so slightly, and dropped back onto his back pockets. On a dime, the mare beneath him dropped from a gallop to a halt, three hundred feet from the stands, haunches nearly dragging on the sands beneath her.

I like you. The mare tossed her mane, snorted a great gout a fire, and stamped one hoof in the ground. But why are you here?

Placing his hands on her withers, Percy swung his leg over her haunches and set himself down on the ground. "To be honest with you, girl," he began, "I haven't got a clue. The owners of the ranch, I need them to help me and my friend. My home… it's being threatened, and I need information to help protect it. To get that information, I had to promise to tame you."

Fat chance, the mare snorted, bumping Percy's chest with her soft nose. He patted out the small fires that she started on his shirt, shrugging his shoulders and rubbing one of the horse's ears. I'm tame, when I want to be, she said.

"Do you ever want to be?" He asked with a grin.

Geryon and Eurytion were waiting for them when they walked back to the main arena stands. The enormous cowherd and the three-chested man made a strange pair, and Percy almost thought he'd concussed himself somehow before he remembered that he was just in a really, really weird place in his life. Thalia stood off to the side, chewing on her lip nervously, and Percy tripped over his own feet for a step.

Smooth.

"Shut up," he grumbled, shoving the mare with his shoulder. Instantly, she shoved him back, and he tumbled into the sand with a smile.

"How did you do that?" Geryon practically shouted. "That horse damn near took off my hand."

"We had a deal," Percy said. "She's as tame as a kitten. A fire-breathing kitten, but the point stands. How do we get through the maze?"

"So brash," Geryon sighed. "But a deal is a deal, I suppose. The problem is… well, if I tell you how to get out of here, I don't get paid for delivering your skull to my client." His hand lashed out from his side, snatching Thalia by her bad shoulder, and she nearly crumpled - clearly it hadn't healed as well as she had thought. This fucking Labyrinth was getting worse and worse. "So, thank you for taking care of that piece of business for me. You should always get a solemn oath. Eurytion, kill the boy - I think I'll enjoy the girl's company a little longer before we claim our reward."

Percy's blood ran cold. Beside him, Deinos pinned her ears flat against her mane, the flame of her breath melting some of the sand of the arena into glass. Percy wasn't really in good shape for a fight, exhausted from the ride and still aching from the fall that had preceded it, but he'd do what he had to.

"Kill him yourself," Eurytion said, leaning back against the arena wall. "Actually, better yet, let them go."

Geryon whirled around, ready to reprimand his employee, but it was a mistake. Thalia kicked out with her leg, managing to buckle the triple-chested man's knee, and she stumbled out of his reach towards Percy, her arm hanging limply by her side. Deinos launched herself forwards and bit down hard on Geryon's ear. Rearing back, she spun and ripped the ear clean off - then lashed out with a powerful kick and caved in one of his chests. The monstrous man tumbled back towards his ranch boss, coughing up blood with a sickly wet hacking sound. Above him stood Eurytion, who looked rather disinterested.

"Help me, you simpleton," Geryon said as strongly as he could muster. In response, the behemoth of a man whistled. Orthus leapt up from where he had been sitting and bit down hard on Geryon's arm. Eurytion stepped on the other.

"I'm tired of doing your dirty work, Geryon," he said, "and frankly I've let you get away with far too much. But I have to draw the line somewhere."

"Fine," the triple-chested man grunted, "I'll deal with you later." Then, in a feat of incredible strength, he flung Orthus across the arena, easily twenty feet or more, and with his newly freed, bloody arm backhanded Eurytion. Neither moved from the dust where they fell. Geryon sat up, two hoofprints embedded eight inches deep in his rightmost chest, and smiled grimly at the two demigods, flanked by their newest fire-breathing horse-friend. "First, I'll kill you brats."

"Three chests, three hearts," Thalia breathed in realization, still nursing her shoulder. "Can't kill just one."

"One head," Percy pointed out. His breathing was coming raggedly, unable to compel himself to calm down and focus. Geryon was standing up now, stalking towards them. Deinos was prancing in place nervously and Thalia wasn't faring much better. Percy just glared at the nine-foot-tall abomination as he approached.

Geryon swung one massive fist directly downwards towards Percy's head. Time slowed to a crawl. He'd deflected a bullet once, somehow, before he'd even had magic powers. One giant-man fist was nothing.

The magic of the Labyrinth thrummed in his ears as the fist plunged ever nearer. He'd been unable to summon any magic from within himself, before. The maze took whatever he could summon for itself, greedily consuming any magic he could provide. But now Percy summoned that magic back into himself, his blood rushing with power. He sidestepped Geryon's fist and thrust one of his own forwards, a quick jab with his right hand. The first two knuckles connected squarely with Geryon's jaw. Lights out.

But somehow, the magic he'd managed to pull out of the Labyrinth had enhanced his strength. Geryon's jaw dissolved in a fine mist, blood spraying across the sandy floor as the creature stumbled backwards. Geryon gaped, tongue hanging loosely out of his mouth, and Percy felt his stomach twist with the violence of what he'd done. Then he remembered what Geryon had threatened to do to Thalia, and something else twisted inside him.

Geryon's head imploded, and the magic that had been coursing through Percy's veins vanished, exhausted. Its residue set his very being aflame, like he'd had too much ambrosia and chased it down with a fifth of nectar, then gone for a half marathon just for fun - everything hurt. He collapsed to his knees as the now-headless corpse with three chests did the same. In the distance, some great splintering noise began, as though the heavens themselves were falling. Dimly Percy registered this as 'probably not a good sign.' But blackness overcame him and he tumbled to the floor.

Sleep was rarely Percy's friend. Now was no different. Flashes of blonde hair interspersed with a sense of mortal peril dominated the blackness of his unconsciousness, until shortly afterwards he was whisked away to a dream proper.

Tyson and Grover were rushing through a cramped tunnel, clearly still in the Labyrinth, and behind them followed the sound of scales dragging on cobblestones. "Hurry!" Tyson urged, barreling forwards with Grover scrambling to stay just ahead of him.

"Your friends are in peril, Perseus," a voice said. His voice was velvet-smooth, but his tone was sharp as nails. Percy turned his head from the gigantic snake which plunged down the tunnel after his friends and saw Luke, but not Luke. Percy wanted desperately to punch him.

"They're tough," Percy answered defiantly.

Around Tyson and Grover the tunnel walls began to shake. Pebbles showered down from overhead. Cracks began forming in the ground - Grover had to bound across them, and often Tyson needed a flying leap and to pull himself up the other side. The benefit of all this was that the snake was also slowed significantly - but the pair were running out of time, and running out of tunnel.

"You don't even know what you just did, do you?" Luke chuckled. "Your little stunt with the magic - sick powers, by the way - it took some of the life force of the Labyrinth. This place is alive, it needs magic to sustain itself. You're bringing the house down, Percy, right on your own heads."

Tyson and Grover eventually stopped, confronted by a gap of more than thirty feet. Behind them, the snake coiled up, poising itself to strike.

"You've doomed your friends, Percy," Luke said again. "Why don't you give up before you doom humanity as well?"

The dream faded, and Percy found himself returning to consciousness.

The ground around him was indeed shaking. Deinos was nickering nervously, fretting and circling. Eurytion and Orthus had managed to wake up and were nursing each other's wounds, and Thalia was kneeling over Percy.

"I could get used to waking up to this," he muttered, then snapped his jaw shut - that had been out loud. Thalia didn't seem concerned with that, though.

"We have to get out of here, Percy," she said. "This place is coming apart, and we need to get back to Camp - clearly we can't navigate like this."

"Geryon," Percy managed, sitting upright. "He was going to tell us."

"You exploded his fucking head, Percy, I don't think he's going to say much," Thalia said impatiently. "We need to get out of here!"

"Deinos," he said. "She can guide us out." He stumbled up to his feet, heart pounding in his ears. A double-time oompah, percussion generously provided by stones tumbling down from somewhere far above and cratering themselves feet deep into the ground. Thalia stood up too, grabbing Percy to steady him from falling back down, and together they managed to stumble over to where Deinos stood. The mare was fretting, practically jogging in place, but she stood steady for Percy as he lifted Thalia up - her shoulder meant she couldn't pull herself up, but with Percy's help she clambered up onto Deinos's back and helped him swing himself up. Behind them, Eurytion and Orthus scrambled into the shelter of the arena stands, huddling close together.

Wrapping his arms around Thalia's waist, he spurred Deinos gently forwards, and the mythical horse set off at a breakneck pace. Somehow, she knew where to go, dodging plummeting rocks even at her incredible speed, plunging ever further into the ranch. She leapt a fence in a single stride, and soon they were in a pen full of red cattle, themselves panicking and rushing around as their world caved in on them.

The fire-breathing horse scythed through the center of the herd.

The shaking seemed to be reducing now; fewer stones were crashing down around them, the floor was not undulating nearly as harshly. The Labyrinth was massive, so no matter how much magic it had taken to kill Geryon - and Percy could feel every single inch of his skin on fire, so it was a lot - he probably hadn't taken enough to destroy it. Just… destabilize it a little. Or a lot.

Deinos kept running, and the walls kept falling, and Thalia was having a hell of a time staying astride the horse. The world was ending again.

Percy was back at home.

Eventually they made it to a more stable part of the Labyrinth, and Deinos let the two slide off, her flanks heaving and streaked with sweat. The walls around them were solid granite, precisely cut and perfectly flush, but for some reason they were hot to the touch - the whole hallway was warm.. Deinos tossed her head.

You gonna be okay?

Percy and Thalia slumped against the wall, and Percy nodded. "Yeah, girl," he sighed. "We'll be okay." The wall he was leaning on shook slightly, the tiniest tremor, and beside him he felt Thalia tense up. "You should get out of here, girl," he said with what little energy he had left.

Be careful. I'm the only one who gets to kill you.

Percy summoned up a smile and leaned against Thalia tiredly. She was already passed out, drooling slightly as she leant on his shoulder. "I know."

Then, embarrassingly, he passed out again. Not the safest place for a nap, but he was too tired to care.

This time, he didn't see Luke, which was a relief. Instead, he was at the top of a high stone tower, a frothing sea crashing onto cliffs below. An old man hunched at a workbench under the sun in the small circular area of the tower's top, grumbling to himself in clear anger at whatever he was working on.

A young boy rushed up the wooden stairs of the tower, heavily laden with scrolls and diagrams, toys and inventions. "Uncle!" he shouted. "I have a question."

The old man didn't seem particularly happy to see the boy, and didn't even turn away from his work to look at him. "Perdix," he said. "Finished all your projects already?"

"Yes, Uncle Daedalus," the boy said, "they were easy! But I have a hard question. Why do we have to die?"

The old man froze, finally looking up from the metallic contraption on his desk to the young boy eager for his attention. "That's not a question for a boy to ask, Perdix," he cautioned, taking some of the boy's homework from his hands. "It is the way of things, and we must not challenge it."

But Perdix would not be stymied so easily. "Mother says that I should challenge whatever I can," he enthused, "and solve any problem I can. Death is kind of the biggest problem, right? So why shouldn't we try to solve it?"

"Only the gods live forever, boy," said the man. He wasn't even pretending to examine the scrolls the boy had brought him. "What makes mortals special, what makes us different, is that we do not. Time matters, for us - it allows us to find beauty in life, when it can be taken away."

"Okay," Perdix said, somewhat crestfallen. "But… as a purely engineering problem. You've told me about your automata, Uncle. If you can capture the essence of a man, like you capture that of a bull… why could it not be done? With the use of a little magic, surely a soul could be transported between bodies."

"Such a thing is impossible!" Daedalus said. "It cannot be done! It must not be done. To bring bronze to life, to separate a man's soul from his body, to invade one being with another… any permutation of such an idea is reprehensible. One day, you will understand. Not every problem can have a solution."

"Okay, Uncle." Perdix seemed to accept this, and sought about for a new thing to occupy his mind. A bronze beetle took his fancy, and he grabbed it, scurrying over to the tower's sill. "I heard you made wings for your son, once. But they failed and he died. Do you think I could make wings? Mother keeps saying I could be smarter than you, someday."

Daedalus's mood soured even further, if such a thing was possible. He scowled at the boy's back. "Smarter than me," he muttered. "Better than me." He cleared his throat. "Surely you could, Perdix," he said. "But be cautious - heights are very dangerous."

Something glinted in the man's eyes that Percy really didn't like. He picked up another metal bug from the pile of the boy's toys, groaning as he bent over - he really was getting old, clearly.

"Perdix," he called. "Catch."

Percy jolted awake. The memory of the boy's screams as he plummeted, the skin of Daedalus's collar sizzling as Athena branded him for life, hung before his eyes for a moment.

"Hey, Kelp Head," Thalia said. "You drool in your sleep."

"Do not," Percy grumbled. He glanced around them - something was not right about this place. "Do you know where we are?" Thalia sent him a pointed look, and he sighed. Clearly, she meant that he was an idiot for asking - they never knew where they were, down in the maze. "Well, Grover and Tyson are in danger. We need to find them, or get help, or… something."

Thalia nodded, and Percy took a second to check her over. Her leather jacket was covered in dried mud, her bad arm slung up across her chest to relieve some of the pressure on her shoulder. He guessed that when Geryon had thrown her around by it, he'd undone whatever healing the nectar and ambrosia had accomplished, slowed as they were by the magic of the Labyrinth. She'd used a strip of fabric cut from the bottom of her shirt to do it, and Percy felt his breath hitch for a reason completely unrelated to the magic residue that was still coursing through his body.

"Yeah, we do," she said, and Percy snapped himself back to the situation at hand. "That horse of yours is super helpful, by the way. She was really nice to me - brought me my backpack." Thalia gestured with her left hand to the sandwich on the floor next to Percy, still in a plastic bag. "You should eat something."

Around bites of sandwich, Percy complained. "Why would she be nice to you and mean to me?" he grumbled. "I'm the damn son of the guy who made horses." Thalia shrugged. "Anyways," he said after finishing off the first half of the sandwich, "Any ideas on how to get us out of here, or to Grover and Tyson?"

"Perhaps I can help with that," said a gruff Texan drawl. Percy scrambled to his feet, Riptide already in hand, as Thalia managed to summon Aegis, but Eurytion seemed unphased. "Sorry to surprise you like that," he said somewhat regretfully, "but I wasn't sure you'd be excited to see me so soon after my boss tried to kill you."

That was a bit of an understatement, as far as Percy was concerned, but he reluctantly lowered his guard somewhat. He made sure to stand directly between Thalia and the cowherd though, just in case. "How can you help us?" Percy demanded.

"Well," Eurytion said, wincing only slightly at the venom in the demigod's voice. "I can help in two ways. One, I have a way to get you to Hephaestus's shop, and he can probably get you home. And two, I can tell you a bit about the demigods we've had come through the ranch recently. The way I figure it, I owe you both big-time for getting rid of Geryon, even for a bit. Maybe if I can turn the ranch around, I can make it a place worth being."

"Great," Thalia said from behind Percy. "Demigods first, then navigation."

Eurytion looked at Percy for confirmation, who shrugged in turn. With a nod, the cowherd began. "Well, we had this guy through here, last week maybe. Eyepatch. Weird kid, but aren't you all? Didn't stick around long, just looking for passage. Said he had to find a way through the maze." He paused to think. "Then, one blond guy, just a day or two before y'all. One of our usual customers, on the… other side, maybe, if you catch my drift. That's who the horse was for."

Percy and Thalia exchanged a glance. "Luke," Percy said. "What does Luke need a horse for?"

Eurytion shrugged. "Beats me," he said. "Guy wouldn't know a good horse if it bit him. Could barely stand to see Deinos. But he was dead-set on getting one, so…"

"I guess he also put Geryon up to killing us?" Thalia prompted. "Anyone else?"

"Just one," Eurytion said. "About a month ago. Another blond, but younger. Very orderly, disciplined, led a small group. Needed a place to stay after a big fight with some Cyclops, apparently." Eurytion shivered. "Something kinda weird about that kid. Seemed like a good kid, just… not my style. The kids he was with all looked up to him."

Percy couldn't make heads or tails of it, and by the looks of things Thalia couldn't really either, but he filed it away anyways. All information could be important somehow. Annabeth had pounded that into his skull over the years.

He shook off the sudden memory of Annabeth's frail body limp in Poseidon's arms. Not now. Guilt and trauma later - survival today.

"How do we get home?" He pressed.

Eurytion pulled a small metal disc from his oversized pocket, with a circular depression in the center of one side. "Did a favor for Hephaestus a few years back, when he came to the ranch," he said. "Gave me this, said if I ever needed a different job that it would take me to his shop. I, uh, never really took him up on that. But it should work. And he should be able to get you home." The cowherd looked a little embarrassed. "Like I said, I'm really sorry about… all that, earlier. I hope this helps, a little bit at least."

Percy nodded. "It does," he confirmed. "Thanks."

Eurytion nodded too, more to himself than anything, and turned back to the maze he'd come from. "Best of luck," he said. "You'll need it, I'm sure."

Percy wasn't especially enthused to be going off on some tangent while Tyson and Grover were in mortal peril - but Thalia had made the rather perceptive point that they weren't in any shape to go help their friends, and furthermore that Tyson and Grover could take care of themselves. Considering Thalia's shoulder had hardly improved since being re-injured, and that Percy was still feeling the after-effects of sucking enough magic to explode a man's head out of thin air, he'd been forced to admit she was probably right. Didn't mean he liked it, but even Percy had to see reason at some point.

So, doing his level best to avoid thinking about the possible gruesome and bloody deaths of his best friends, he pressed the tiny button on the disc and waited for something to happen.

What happened was a bit of a surprise - metal legs shot out of the sides, eight of them, and began thrashing wildly. Percy jumped, startled out of his exhaustion for a moment, and fumbled it out of his hands - but Thalia managed to snag it with her free hand by one of the legs and dangled it in the air.

"Annabeth would hate this," she said with a grin.

"Yeah," Percy nodded wistfully. Again, Annabeth flashed before his mind's eye - now, laying comatose in the Big House, blonde and gray hair matted by sweat against her forehead, her body sickly and weak. He shoved the thoughts away. "Uh, by the way," he said. "I think maybe we should, like, leash this thing. I'm not in any kind of mood to chase it."

"Good idea," Thalia said. "But we don't have any ropes." For effect, she gestured to the makeshift sling supporting her right arm, fashioned out of a strip of her tank top. "Hell, we don't even have bandages. They're all in Grover's pack."

"Man," Percy said. "That was… really stupid of us."

Thalia's improvised sling gave him an idea, though. Taking off his shirt in front of his friend and crush to make a leash for a spider-robot that would lead him through a mythical, living, magic-absorbing maze wasn't the weirdest thing he'd ever done, probably.

It was up there, for sure.

Once his shirt was off, he set about cutting it into shreds, tying them together at the ends to make a short leash. Then, he tied it around the spider-creature as best he could. With what little remained of his shirt, he tied Thalia's arm up a bit more snugly. When he was finished, her face was flushed red, but he put that down to the slowly increasing heat of the hallway. It had been pretty warm when they'd fallen asleep, but now it was swelteringly hot. Even shirtless, Percy was sweating like crazy. Thalia wasn't faring much better, and she was still wearing her coat.

"Why is it so hot?" he asked as he stood up, gathering the backpack and taking the spider's leash from Thalia. She shrugged, staring resolutely at the wall. "I can take your coat, by the way. Since it's so warm and all." Thalia gingerly removed her jacket and wordlessly handed it over to Percy. He couldn't help but wince at the sight of her injured shoulder - it was deep purple and black, splotched heavily and visibly pulled from its socket. Geryon had clearly used quite a bit of strength when he'd grabbed her.

"Let's get going," Thalia said, still red-faced. "Maybe the heat is from Hephaestus's forges. Maybe we're close." It made sense, Percy supposed. He set the spider down on the ground and it took off, skittering away at an incredible pace - until it hit the end of the makeshift leash, which managed miraculously to hold it tight and force it to maintain a reasonable pace.

Together, he and Thalia limped off after it, hoping it wouldn't lead them into a trap.

The hallways grew hotter and hotter, the sounds of machinery increasing in strength as they allowed the spider-thing to drag them further forwards. Eventually, they arrived at a peculiar spot in the maze - one of the walls dropped away, a sheer cliff face, and beneath it was another pit of deep blackness, like the one they'd fallen into just a few hours prior. Thalia shied away from it as much as she could, but unfortunately for the both of them, Percy noticed something else. The spider was pulling incessantly towards the cliff edge, and more specifically, to a wrought-iron ladder frame extending into the darkness.

"Monkey bars?" He said incredulously.

"I can't do those," Thalia said. "My shoulder won't make it, and I took some ambrosia, but it's taking forever." She swore. "I don't think I can control the air, or anything, either - we're too far underground for my powers to work like that."

Percy nodded. "I can try my magic again, probably. But I have to take it from the Labyrinth, and that… didn't go well, last time."

Thalia took one look at his face and laughed. "You look very, very guilty right now, Perce. Don't worry about it." The brief moment of levity faded quickly. "But yeah… what do we do about this? No magic, no flight, my shoulder…" she trailed off. But Percy wasn't listening. As he peered into the blackness below, he was reminded once more of Annabeth's fall last December. His inability to protect his friend. His failure to save even one person. And here he was, again, inserting himself on another quest upon which the fate of all his friends, and indeed quite possibly the world, rested.

"Percy," Thalia said, snapping her fingers in front of him. "Earth to Percy. Hello?"

"Huh?"

"I said," she explained slowly, "What if you go ahead and cross, just to see what it's like? I'll stay here. You can cross the gap on your own, explore a bit, and come back."

Percy shook his head immediately. "You're pretty much defenseless right now," he pointed out. "And there's no guarantee I can find my way back here - plus, even if I can, this could just be the Labyrinth trying to split us up." He racked his brain, searching for a solution, and cast about the Labyrinth walls for an answer.

Behind Thalia, he spotted it. The Greek letter delta, embossed just millimeters deep in the wall. Rushing towards it, he pressed it firmly - and behind him, the wrought-iron monkey bars dropped about eight feet, to make a ladder path across the abyss.

"Well," Thalia said. "Shall we?"

"Ladies first," Percy replied.

Well. It's not perfect, but it's a chapter, and hopefully vaguely up to snuff - Please tell me if not, I'd rather rewrite a chapter than keep a bad or unsatisfying one. I know it jumps around a bit, a couple dreams and a bunch of locations, but, well, it's the Labyrinth. People seemed to like Deinos okay, which I'm glad about - really didn't feel like rehashing a rehash of a Hercules quest. About 5200 words too, which isn't too shabby.

More romance-adjacent activities, more of Percy's powers without really making things too easy, little bit of trauma that I think Percy would probably have from the whole "watching your friend almost die" thing. Hopefully the logic behind Thalia's injury makes sense too - I figure if the Labyrinth feeds off Percy's magic, it can feed off ambrosia too, and Thalia wouldn't heal very well.

Beyond that - you guys have a lot more faith in my planning abilities than maybe you should.

Anyways - hope you enjoy. Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately, no promises for another chapter until maybe the new year.