After the tunnel collapsed, Medea wept and screamed like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. She couldn't move the debris that separated her and Leo from the others. If the earth shifted any more, the entire complex might collapse on their heads. Still, she pounded her fists against the stones and yelled.

Leo stared at her, wide-eyed and speechless.

She calmed after a while, her eyes gleaming silver with her magicka sparking within the pupils.

'Sorry.' She wiped her face.

'Hey, you know ...' Leo shrugged. 'I've attacked a few rocks in my day.'

"I made a promise to Lea — Drew… she…"

"Drew's going to be fine," Leo stated firmly. "She has probably three of the most terrifyingly powerful demigods at her side. Annabeth's probably gonna inspect the walls and build a doorway that'll stabilize the whole thing. Jason may blast the rest of the things down and fly them through the air. And Nico, I don't know his skill set, but hey, this is his Dad's house. It's probably other room around here that he can't show guests or something."

Medea eyed him and snorted. "You sound like Lilith."

A small smile appeared on Leo's face. "Thanks. I think I understand what you three had been trying to explain to me about her now."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Machines are designed to work."

"Uh, what?"

"'I figure the universe is basically like a machine. I don't know who made it, if it was the Fates or the gods or whatever. But it chugs along the way it's supposed to most of the time. Sure, little pieces break and stuff goes haywire once in a while, but mostly ... things happen for a reason. Like me and her being matched together."

Venus and Hephaistos shared smiles with each other.

"Leo Valdez," Medea marvelled, "you're a philosopher."

"Nah," he said. "I'm just a mechanic."

"What happened to you when you were on your own?' she asked. "Who did you meet?"

Leo's eye twitched. "Long story. I'll tell you sometime, but I'm trying to make sense of it myself."

"The universe is a machine," Medea said, "so it'll be fine."

"Hopefully. As long as Lilith never finds out.'

Medea raised a brow while Leo summoned fire into his hand. "Now, which way, Miss Underground?"

"That way,"

she decided, pointing towards the one on the left. "It feels the most dangerous."

"I'm sold," said Leo.

They began their descent.

As soon as they reached the first archway, the polecat Gale found them. She scurried up Medea's side and curled around her neck, chittering crossly.

'Not the farting weasel again,' Leo complained. 'If that thing lets loose in close quarters like this, with my fire and all, we're gonna explode.'

Gale barked a polecat insult at Leo.

Medea hushed them both.

"Leo, be ready," she whispered. "We're getting close."

"Close to what?"

A woman's voice echoed down the corridor: "Close to me." Before old, familiar magicka swirled through the metaphysical plane, and the children were pulled down the corridor, at the entrance of the chamber.

Kírkē snarled while Ariádnē buried her head in her hands. Diónusos ran a soothing hand on his wife's back.

Father sighed. "So many traitors. So many punishments. Tis like they never learn."

'Welcome,' said Pasiphaë, hidden within the shadows of the room. The obsidian walls were carved with scenes of death: plague victims, corpses on the battlefield, torture chambers with skeletons hanging in iron cages – all of it embellished with precious gems that somehow made the scenes even more ghastly. 'I've looked forward to this.'

"Honestly," Aphrodítē sniffed. Her gaze moved over the domed roof was a waffle pattern of recessed square panels, but here each panel was a stela—a grave marker with Ancient Greek inscriptions. "You should have let Persephónē do the decorating there."

"She did," Háidēs stated dryly. Persephónē beamed.

"Yep,' Leo muttered, looking to the center of the room were a set of freestanding elevator doors, their panels etched in silver and iron. Rows of chains ran down either side, bolting the frame to large hooks in the floor. 'Those are doors, all right.'

'Where are you?' Medea shouted.

'Don't you see us?' taunted the woman's voice. 'I thought Hekátē chose you for your skill.'

On Medea's shoulder, Gale barked and passed gas. The giant Klythios was shrouded in the black smoke, but he had the nearly the same dragon-like legs with ash-coloured scales as his siblings; a massive humanoid upper body encased in Stygian armour; long, braided hair that seemed to be made from smoke. His complexion was as dark as Death's. His eyes glinted cold as diamonds. He carried no weapon, but that didn't make him any less terrifying.

Leo whistled. 'You know, Clytius ... for such a big dude, you've got a beautiful voice.'

There was a moment of silence before most of the gods in the room snorted in amusement.

'Idiot,' Pasiphaë hissed.

Halfway between Medea and the giant, the air shimmered. The sorceress appeared. She wore an elegant sleeveless dress of woven gold, her dark hair piled into a cone, encircled with diamonds and emeralds. Around her neck hung a pendant like a miniature maze, on a cord set with rubies that looked like crystallized blood drops.

'Pipituna,' Medea said. "Or well, Pasiphaë. You were hardly important enough to be given a name in roman religion that we borrowed it from somewhere else."

Pasiphaë inclined her head, eyes sparkling with malice. 'My dear Medea Williams.'

Leo coughed. 'You two know each other? Like Underworld chums, or—'

'Silence, fool.' Pasiphaë's voice was soft, but full of venom. 'I have no use for demigod boys—always so full of themselves, so brash and destructive.'

'Hey, lady,' Leo protested. 'I don't destroy things much. I'm a son of Hephaestus.'

'A tinkerer,' snapped Pasiphaë. 'Even worse. I knew Daidalos. His inventions brought me nothing but trouble.'

"You're the one that fucked the bull," Medea grumbled.

Leo blinked. 'Daedalus ... like, the Daedalus? Well, then, you should know all about us tinkerers. We're more into fixing, building, occasionally sticking wads of oilcloth in the mouths of rude ladies–'

'Leo.' Medea put her arm across his chest. She had a feeling the sorceress was about to turn him into something unpleasant if he didn't shut up. 'Let me take this, okay? '

'Listen to your friend,' Pasiphaë said. 'Be a good boy and let the women talk."

"You're so right," Medea mocked. "It is time for the women to speak. One cruel bitch to another."

Pasiphaë paced in front of them, examining Medea, her eyes so full of hate.

"Your friend doesn't say much,' Medea noted, eyes dismissing the goddess as she looked at Klythios as he stood in the background, silent and motionless except for the dark smoke pouring from his body, pooling around his feet.

Pasiphaë looked back at the giant and sniffed with disdain. 'Pray he stays silent, my dear. Gaía has given me the pleasure of dealing with you, but Klythios is my, ah, insurance. Just between you and me, as sister sorceresses, I think he's also here to keep my powers in check, in case I forget my new mistress's orders. Gaía is careful that way.'

Medea hummed. "Whatever. You're both going to lose either way, so you may want to get out of our way or things will get really ugly and I ain't talking about your face."

Gale gnashed her teeth in approval, but Pasiphaë didn't seem impressed.

'You don't look like much,' the sorceress mused, nose flaring in offense. 'But then you demigods never do. My husband, Mī́nōs, king of Krḗtē? He was a son of Ζεύς. You would never have known it by looking at him. He was almost as scrawny as that one.' She flicked a hand towards Leo.

'Wow,' muttered Leo. 'Minos must've done something really horrible to deserve you.'

Medea scoffed. "The 'Uptight Miserable Middle-Aged Spawn of Satan meetin' is down the street."

"Little girl, you will speak when spoke to." Pasiphaë's nostrils flared. 'Oh ... you have no idea, Leo Valdez. He was too proud to make the proper sacrifices to Poseidón, so the gods punished me for his arrogance.'

"So as not only his Queen but also a goddess… you went ahead a fucked a bull and gave birth to a bull instead of doing the sacrifice yourself because you should have reasonably known that the punishment would have come, or you know as a sorceress and a goddess… you should have put the fear of the gods into his heart so he could do his job."

"Little girl, you have no knowledge of what you speak!"

"You know, my friend, Lea really admires you. She loved that spell that you used on Minos to make him faithful. The one where you made it so that he ejaculated serpents, scorpions, and centipedes killing any unlawful concubine. I think she'd be so disappointed to realize that you're nothing but a bitter monster-fucking bitch."

"I have every reason to be," Pasiphaë snarled. "My disgrace was unbearable. After my son was born and locked in the Labyrinth, Mī́nōs refused to have anything to do with me. He said I had ruined his reputation! And do you know what happened to Mī́nōs, Medea Williams? For his crimes and his pride? He was rewarded. He was made a judge of the dead in the Underworld, as if he had any right to judge others! Háidēs gave him that position. Your king."

"Pluto actually," Medea sniffed, turning her nose up. "Secondly, Zeus gave him that position. And thirdly, you're still a bitter bitch. Wooow. You fucked a bull, and your mortal husband got a job where he has no choice but to listen to the gods. Woe is you. But your daughter went on to be the wife of an Olympian and your son is the khaos-blessed of another goddess. You have two children that now have immortality and you're yapping about man. Girl, get some respect from yourself. Fuck him."

Pasiphaë sneered. 'Irrelevant. All that matters is that I hate demigods as much as I hate the gods. Any of your brethren who survive the war, Gaía has promised to me, so that I may watch them die slowly in my new domain. I only wish I had more time to torture you two properly. Alas —'

In the centre of the room, the Doors of Death made a pleasant chiming sound. The green UP button on the right side of the frame began to glow. The chains shook.

'There, you see?' Pasiphaë shrugged apologetically. 'The Doors are in use. Twelve minutes, and they will open.'

'More giants?'

'Thankfully, όχι,' said the sorceress. 'They are all accounted for — back in the mortal world and in place for the final assault.' Pasiphaë gave Medea a cold smile. 'Όχι, I would imagine the Doors are being used by someone else ... someone unauthorized.'

Leo inched forward, smoke rising from his fists. 'Percy and Octavian.'

'Oh, not to worry.' Pasiphaë waved her hand dismissively. 'Klythios will handle them. You see, when the chime sounds again, someone on our side needs to push the UP button or the Doors will fail to open and whoever is inside — poof. Gone. Or perhaps Klythios will let them out and deal with them in person. That depends on you, Medea Williams.'

'How exactly does it depend on me?' Medea questioned.

'Well, obviously, we need only one set of demigods alive,' Pasiphaë said. 'The lucky two will be taken to Athens and sacrificed to Gaía at the Feast of Hope.'

'Obviously,' Leo muttered.

'So will it be you two or one of your friends in the elevator?' The sorceress spread her hands, gathering her mageia. 'Let's see who is still alive in twelve ... actually, eleven minutes, now.'

The cavern dissolved into darkness.

Medea took one step forward and bumped into a wall.

"Oh, you want to play with magicka," Medea gave a disbelieving laugh. Mercurius supposed that she had reason to be so arrogant. While Pasiphaë may have been an immortal sorceress with thousands of years of experience in weaving spells, Medea knew about Leaneíras defeating Aeëtes, but Medea's own mother also.

Leo pressed his hands against the stone. 'What the heck? Where are we?'

A corridor stretched out to their left and right. Torches guttered in iron sconces. On Medea's shoulder, Gale barked angrily, digging her claws into Medea's collarbone.

'I will turn you into a furcoat,' Medea muttered to the weasel before turning to Leo. 'It's an illusion.'

Leo pounded on the wall. 'Pretty solid illusion.'

Pasiphaë laughed. 'Is it an illusion, Medea Williams, or something more? Don't you see what I have created?'

"Some bullshit," Medea snapped back, turning to inspect the walls around them.

'The Labyrinth,' Medea murmured a moment later. 'She's overwriting the Labyrinth.'

'What now?' Leo had been tapping the wall with a ball-peen hammer, but he turned and frowned at her. 'I thought the Labyrinth collapsed during that battle at Camp Half-Blood — like, it was connected to Daedalus's life force or something, and then he died.'

Pasiphaë's voice clucked disapprovingly. 'Ah, but I am still alive. You credit Daidalos with all the maze's secrets? I breathed magical life into his Labyrinth. My daughter holds it keys and my daughter-in-law controls its heart. Daidalos was nothing compared to us—compared to me — the immortal sorceress, daughter of Hḗlios, sister of Kírkē! Now the Labyrinth will be my domain.'

'It's an illusion,' Medea insisted. 'We just have to break through it.'

'Too late, too late,' Pasiphaë crooned. 'The maze is already awake. It will spread under the skin of the earth once more while your mortal world is levelled. You demigods ... you heroes ... will wander its corridors, dying slowly of thirst and fear and misery. Or perhaps, if I am feeling merciful, you will die quickly, in great pain!'

Holes opened in the floor beneath Medea's feet. She grabbed Leo and pushed him aside as a row of spikes shot upward, impaling the ceiling.

'Run!' she yelled.

Pasiphaë's laughter echoed down the corridor. 'Where are you going, young sorceress? Running from an illusion?'

"Oh, shut up," Medea snapped. "And let me tell you something… this basement? Funky as hell. Filthy. You need a broom, mop, a little clorox. Get you right. Your mother aint teach you how to be clean?"

Behind them, row after row of spikes shot towards the ceiling with a persistent thunk, thunk, thunk. She pulled Leo down a side corridor, leaped over a trip wire, then stumbled to a halt in front of a pit twenty feet across.

'How deep is that?' Leo gasped for breath. His trouser leg was ripped where one of the spikes had grazed him.

Medea ignored him, pulling her magicka closer to her. "Stay by my side. Don't look in front of you. Matter of fact…" She reached into his toolbelt, bringing out a roll of tape and weaving it around their hands. She conjured a blindfold and wrapped around his eyes then turned back to the way that they came from. "Keep that on until I say that you can take it off." Mist curled through her fingers and around her hands as she slipped her eyes close to gather herself.

"Eight minutes now," said Pasiphaë. "I'd love to see you survive, truly. That would prove you worthy sacrifices to Gaía in Athens. But then, of course, we wouldn't need your friends in the elevator."

The mist around the daughter of Trivia grew denser around her hands, waves and waves of energy waft from around her, seeping into the land under her feet and the air around her. Her hair moved without wind; her eyes snapped open, pupils whiting out into the same smoky haze around her around as she held out a hand towards the walls. "Kotoamatsukami: Umashiashikabihikoji."

There was a moment of silence before the world turned upon itself. The gods sat on the edge of their seats as they watched.

Pure unfiltered divine power tore through the earth, drawing strength from the air and earth, and pulling at the divinity that saturated the world.

"Medea!" Leo shrieked as he felt Medea swayed on her feet. He reached out to stabilize her as the ball of magicka continued to gather strength as it tore into the Labyrinth, snowballing as it grew with each passing second.

A look of horror appeared on Pasiphaë's face as it tore the walls and came right for her. She teleported out of its path right as the ball of magicka hit terminal capacity, detonating a massive fireball that would've wiped out everything around them if not for Klythios.

Medea coughed, letting the shield of magicka fall from around her and Leo. She grabbed Leo's hand and ran across the pit. Her magicka swirled under feet, solidifying into its own pathway.

'Seven minutes now,' Pasiphaë lamented, coughing from where she had landed. She waved her hand to clear the dust in the air while Medea called the latent magicka back to herself. 'If only we had more time! So many indignities I'd like you to suffer.'

They ran as the voice of Pasiphaë droned on. 'Oh, dear, όχι. You'll never survive that way. Six minutes.'

The ceiling above them cracked apart. Gale the weasel squeaked in alarm, but Medea raised her hands to the ceiling, shouting: "Explodere Centena Millia!" It exploded, raining cement down onto them. Pasiphaë blinked in surprise, not expecting that.

Too bad that she didn't realize that second spell that Medea cast that teleported them out of the way.

Illusions poured from Medea, filled with the power to craft false memories. Morphing to take on the appearance of the trio, she sent them through the maze, making it harder for Pasiphaë to pinpoint them. Each died a gory death or narrowly avoid the traps that lied within while Medea tightened her grip on Leo's hand. "Goddess be, protect us from harms. Let us not be sought or seen by those who work their charm."

The mist shimmered around the two, casting them into invisibility.

"Gods, I wished I could see what she was doing," Kaírios murmured.

Stones rose from the ground, throwing themselves at the wall and exploding every time that they made contact. Pasiphaë looked on in confusion and rage.

'Five minutes,' Pasiphaë said, trying to source out which was the true version. 'Alas! If only I could watch you suffer longer.'

Medea's voice rang out next: "Open the doors, open the gate, this is a crisis, we really can't wait."

A wall of stone swung out, slamming directly into Pasiphaë. The cloak of magicka fell from around them, and Medea stood there, trembling in rage; waves and waves of energy waft from around her, seeping into the land under her feet and the air around her. Behind them, inside the maze, the illusions sank into the ground. One notable pair fell into a wide chasm where the sound of thousands and thousands of hissing snakes could be heard.

A few feet away, Klythios stood with his back to them, watching the Doors of Death.

'You miserable wretches!' Pasiphaë howled. "I wish I could kill you and your friends in the elevator, but Gaía has insisted that two of you must be kept alive until the Feast of Hope, when your blood will be put to good use! Ah, well. I will have to find other victims for my Labyrinth. She'd have to make do with those two. I'm killing you myself."

Medea didn't seem to notice her words as a snarl made home on her face. Her eyes flashed with promise, glowing with power, her hair loose and swirling about her, but her voice… her voice ringed with the sound of prophecy and it sounded like a symphony. A mix of her own and something... something not quite human. Something other. "You'll pay for that."

Pasiphaë jumped to her feet, pulling Medea who in turn swung her hand out, yanking the godess back to the ground. Pasiphaë conjured her mageia, and Medea twirled it back around to her.

'I will tear you apart!" screamed Pasiphaë. "I will—'

Medea's hand swung out and Pasiphaë darted away as a blast of mageia crashed against the ground where she had just been standing. A scorch mark was left in its place.

'Where are you going, old sorceress?" Medea mocked, and her voice echoed as it bounced against the walls. "Running from an illusion?'

Pasiphaë raised her hands, coated in mageia once more to attack.

Medea's eyes flared. "I try never to kill, because I can do so without effort, but if you attack me again, I'll snap every atom in your body apart. You'll only exist in books on magic."

The goddess didn't heed her warning, throwing the mageia at her.

And Medea… well…

Medea seemed to be glowing, her veins in stark relief against her skin, the chill of death radiating from her pores. The shadows start to warp around her, ghastly hands screaming for freedom. The girl looks nothing like the eccentric, annoying, lively, lovely, enthusiastic friend of his Lea who had the power to bring a smile to Leaneíras face just by walking in the room. Medea who was always in constant motion, always smiling, who was enthusiastic about everything in life.

This girl was different, her expression almost eerie in stillness, eyes burning with hellfire. This was the soldier within her, the dead one anyway, the one that had one foot in the grave, the one that died when her brother betrayed everything they stood for, when her coven; her own family threatened to toss her out for something she didn't do. This girl was the daughter of Trivia Brimo.

The air in that chamber vibrated with the force of her magicka and the dead within the temple began to swim towards them, empousa and lamia alike that were fighting on the side of Gaía broke off to respond to her call, the shades called forth by that sceptre answer to her call, tearing into the monstrous army just to get to her. Her friends looked confused while Nico and Drew nodded grimly. The boy recognize the call of the dead, and Drew had seen a sight once before with Lea. The very earth beneath and around Medea trembled as the ghastly dead rose to her call, the doors of Death shuddering.

The ghosts are cackling madly and reaching for her, touching, grabbing, and snapping into place.

"I told you," Medea says in a voice that's not hers—there's thousands of them, maybe millions, and they're all coalescing into one, like everything they were ever meant to be— "You'll pay for that."

Pasiphaë shrieked again but this time Medea was more than ready, and their magicka met in the middle. Hundreds of thousands of years' worth of knowledge attempting to press down, but Medea… she was…

Medea was Death in itself, she was magicka at its greatest, she was the shadows that nipped at your heels.

She tossed her head back and laughed and cried and screamed and—

threw

her

hands

forward.

Pasiphaë slammed into the ground, cracking her head harshly on the concrete. Ichor pooled on the ground as the shades clawed into her, pinning her to the ground and tore the skin away from her mortal vessel. They fed on her like a starved man as they dug deeper and deeper and deeper.

'You must really hate demigods. We always get the better of you, don't we? Your husband betrayed you. Theseus killed the Minotaur and stole your daughter Ariadne. But you knew it would come to this, didn't you? You always fall in the end.'

'I am immortal!' Pasiphaë wailed as she crawled backwards, fingering her necklace. 'You cannot stand against me! You think you can defeat me — a goddess?"'

But Medea ignored her words, placing her hands on either side of the goddess' head. Her hands gleamed with the full force of her magicka, and the shades glowed with the force of her powers, and Pasiphaë screamed in pain. "This witch that I see, let her powers no longer be."

A mystical hue of colors swirled about her.

"Take from her that which helps her fight, let her powers flee into the night."

Pasiphaë's legs kicked out uselessly on the ground as Medea's magicka sank into her. Her magicka built more and more in power and a great shaking of the earth came on, and those that lived within Háidēs trembled, and the Titanes banished back under Tartara trembled to the dread encounter and the unending clamour.

"Before the passing of this hour, Take away all her powers."

Ichor drizzled out of her pores and Pasiphaë wailed, curling into herself as the magicka scratched at her essence... as the shades forced themselves into her divinity.

Medea slammed her hands down on to the ground and Pasiphaë sank through the floor. They stared even as the goddess appeared at the feet of Father's throne, shaking and shivering and whimpering in pain.

They all ignored her even as she started breaking apart at the seams.

"You can take your blindfold off now," Medea told Leo gruffly, voice still heavy with power.

Just in time because in the next moment, the elevator dinged. Rather than pushing the UP button, Klythios stepped back from the controls, keeping their friends trapped inside.

"Leo!" Medea yelled.

They were thirty feet away — much too far to reach the elevator — but Leo pulled out a screwdriver and chucked it like a throwing knife. An impossible shot. The screwdriver spun straight past Klythios and slammed into the UP button.

The Doors of Death opened with a hiss. Black smoke billowed out, and two bodies spilled face-first onto the floor—Percy and Octavian, limp as corpses.

Medea sobbed. "Oh, gods ..."

She and Leo started forward, but Klythios raised his hand in an unmistakable gesture—stop. He lifted his massive reptilian foot over Percy's head.

The giant's smoky shroud poured over the floor, covering Octavian and Percy in a pool of dark fog.

"Clytius, you've lost," Medea snarled, and her voice still echoed. "Let them go, or you'll end up like Pasiphaë."

The giant tilted his head, and his diamond eyes gleamed. At his feet, Octavian lurched like he'd hit a power line. He rolled on his back, black smoke coiling from his mouth.

"I am not Pasiphaë." Octavian spoke in a voice that wasn't his— Huákinthos hissed in anger "You have won nothing."

'Stop that!' Medea snarled.

Klythios nudged Percy's head with his foot. Percy's face lolled to one side.

"Not quite dead." The giant's words boomed from Percy's mouth. Poseidón's hand curled tighter around his trident. "A terrible shock to the mortal body, I would imagine, coming back from Tartarus. They'll be out for a while."

He turned his attention back to Octavian. More smoke poured from between his lips. "I'll tie them up and take one of them to Porphuríōn in Athens. Just the sacrifice we need. Unfortunately, that means I have no further use for you."

"Oh, yeah?" Leo growled. "Well, maybe you got the smoke, buddy, but I've got the fire."

His hands blazed. He shot white-hot columns of flame at the giant, but Klythios' smoky aura absorbed them on impact. Tendrils of black haze travelled back up the lines of fire, snuffing out the light and heat but Medea snatched him back before it could cover him.

"F-fire," Leo stammered in a small voice. "You're supposed to be weak against it."

The giant chuckled, using Octavian's vocal cords this time. "It is true I do not like fire. But you, Leo Valdez, your flames are not strong enough to trouble me."

"Well, we'll just make them stronger," Medea stated with amusement curling in her voice. Her arms spread open, eyes sparking at the seams. Klythios' eyes widened in alarm, but before he could do anything, Medea threw her head back as she cackled from within, the force of it mixed alongside a fine level of golden ichor that streamed from her ears and mouth and nose. She placed her hands on Leo's back. "Let their powers fuel my own. Let us all have powers grown!"

Kírkē inhaled sharply, eyes watching the scene in keen interest. "She's—She's tapping into the divinity within his blood… the fire that dances within his soul and—"

The chamber exploded in flames.

Bit by bit they reached for Klythios while one single flame in itself shifted into the form of a tortoise; "Mercurius Testudo, I call upon thee. It was thee who first made the tortoise a singer. Living, you shall be a spell against mischievous witchcraft."

She conjured a sword that she gave to Leo, pushing his own fire out of his body to engulf the weapon as they inched forward. An impressive feat considering that she was not fire natured.

Klythios looked the slightest bit uneasy as they continued to push forward, even more so when the flames began to tint green as the divinity in their blood changed it to become Greek fire. That if anything would be strong enough to trouble him.

That, however, wasn't Medea's goal. The moment that they got close enough Percy and Octavian dissolved, appearing at their feet. Her magicka whirled around them, spilling over the stones and enveloping her friends. Where the white Mist met the dark smoke of Klythios, it steamed and sizzled, like lava rolling into the sea.

"His flames aren't enough to trouble you," Medea smiled crookedly, malice in her eyes. "What do you say we add his to hers?"

"Who…?"

At the entrance of the cavern, a woman materialized in the doorway.

"When did she even leave the room again," Huákinthos gasped.

Gale squeaked excitedly and jumped from Medea's shoulder, rushing up the woman's arms as the mist swirled around her.

"You," Klythios breathed as he stumbled backwards, bumping into the Doors of Death.

"Me," Hekátē agreed. She spread her arms and blazing torches appeared in her hands. "It has been millennia since I fought at the side of a demigod, but my daughter, Medea Williams, has proven herself worthy. What do you say, Klythios? Shall we play with fire?"

When he saw the goddess's torches blazing, the giant seemed to recover his wits. He stomped his foot, shaking the floor. Dark smoke billowed around him until nothing could be seen but his gleaming eyes.

"Bold words." Klythios said. "You forget, goddess. When we last met, you had the help of Hēraklēs and Diónusos—the most powerful heroes in the world, both of them destined to become gods. Now you bring ... these?"

"These," Hekátē murmured as if she was tasting the word on her tongue. "You're right, Klythios. These heroes are neither Hēraklēs nor Diónusos, but I think you will find them just as formidable. Why just last year: one demigoddess engraved her weapon into my skin and even now, I cannot remove it from my true form. My own daughter used the body of my Father, her own grandfather, to lay waste to the Titan army."

The giant spread his arms. The domed ceiling shook, and the giant's voice echoed through the room, magnified a hundred times.

Formidable? the giant demanded. It sounded as if he were speaking through a chorus of the dead, using all the unfortunate souls who'd been buried behind the dome's stelae. Because the girl has learned your magic tricks, Hekátē? Because you allow these weaklings to hide in your Mist?

"My daughter hides nowhere," Hekátē replied instantly. "You will find that the magicka in this room is all hers."

A sword appeared in the giant's hand — a Stygian iron blade the size of a surfboard. I do not understand why Gaía would find any of these demigods worthy of sacrifice. I will crush them like empty nutshells.

Medea shrieked, the walls of the chamber a made a crackling sound like ice in warm water, and soon spikes concrete shot towards the giant, piercing through his arm and skin alike.

Klythios staggered backwards. His disembodied voice bellowed with pain. His iron breastplate was peppered with holes. Golden ichor trickled from a wound on his right arm. His shroud of darkness thinned and all of them bore witness to the murderous rage on his face.

You, Klythios growled. You worthless—

"Worthless?" Hekátē asked quietly. "Have care of how you speak of my child."

The giant dug his fingers into one of the wounds on his biceps, pulling a spike out and flicking it aside.

The wound closed.

Behind him, the Doors of Death were still open, shuddering against the chains that held them in place.

So, daughter of Trivia, Klythios rumbled, do you really believe your Mother has your interests at heart? Kírkē was a favourite of hers. And Mḗdeia. And Pasiphaë. Even your brothers. Alabaster and Trenton. How did they end up, eh?

"Oh, he's done it now," Mercurius snickered.

Klythios stepped forward, holding his sword casually at his side as if they were comrades rather than enemies. Hekátē will not tell you the truth. She sends acolytes like you to do her bidding and take all the risk. If by some miracle you incapacitate me, only then will she be able to set me on fire. Then she will claim the glory of the kill. You heard how Līber dealt with the Alodai twins in the Colosseum. Hekátē is worse. She is a Titan who betrayed the Titans. Then she betrayed the gods. Do you really think she will keep faith with you?

"I cannot answer his accusations, Medea," said the goddess, face unreadable. "This is your crossroads. You must choose."

Yes, crossroads. The giant's laughter echoed. Hekátē offers you obscurity, choices, vague promises of magic. I am the anti- Hekátē. I will give you truth. I will eliminate choices and magic. I will strip away the Mist, once and for all, and show you the world in all its true horror.

Leo struggled to his feet, coughing like an asthmatic. "I'm loving this guy," he wheezed. "Seriously, we should keep him around for inspirational seminars." His hands ignited like blowtorches. "Or I could just light him up."

"Medea ...'" Octavian wheezed.

Medea smiled cruelly. "Yeah, I like that plan." She jerked her hand backwards, and Klythios went flying into the remnants of the maze where dozens of traps sprung to life, fire licking away at his skin, and Leo let out a loud whoop. "I thought you said his flames weren't enough for Clytius? Hm. That's for mentioning my Brother. And this? This is for ever thinking that I would betray the gods."

"The chains ..." Octavian managed as Medea slammed a giant spiked rock onto the giant who roared in anger.

You can't seriously believe you have the strength, Klythios chided as he rose to his feet; the hole in his chest closing rapidly. What will you do, Medea Williams—pelt me with more stones? Shower me with your weak flames? I am not Pasiphaë. I am not afraid of your little parlor tri—

The ground exploded beneath him.

"Leo, get the doors." Medea ordered, turning back to the stumbling giant as he righted himself. The flat of the giant's blade caught her in the chest and sent her flying. Across the room, Leo screamed her name as he sawed at the chains on the left side of the door. She slammed into the wall, disappearing with a quick spell to reappear on top of Klythios, stabbing a conjured sword into his forehead.

He roared in pain, grabbing her by the ankle to slam into the ground, narrowly avoiding the spike of earth that she conjured up in retaliation. Magicka alone cannot defeat me, child, and you do not have sufficient strength to meet me in battle. Your Mother has failed you, as she fails all of her followers in the end.

"Then you don't understand magicka," Medea murmured and Mother watched her, waiting with her torches. "It's believing in yourself, and if you can do that, then you can do anything."

And her magicka attacked the chains on the right side of the doors while skinning his reptilian legs of their scales. On the other side, Leo was trying to force feed Percy some ambrosia, but the son of Poseidón was still out of it while Octavian was struggling to lift his head. None of the gods made mention of how their blood was more gold in color. The Doors of Death shuddered and disappeared in a flash of purple light. "That was for Nico and for destroying King Hades' altar, you bastard."

Klythios roared so loudly that a half-dozen stelae fell from the ceiling and shattered.

You have forfeited your right to a quick death, the giant snarled. I will suffocate you in darkness, slowly, painfully. Hekátē cannot help you. NO ONE can help you!

The goddess raised her torches. "I would not be so certain, Klythios. Medea's friends simply needed a little time to reach her—time you have given them with your boasting and bragging."

Klythios snorted. What friends? These weaklings? They are no challenge.

In front of Medea, the air rippled. The Mist thickened, creating a doorway, and four people stepped through.

Drew grimaced. "Nuh uh. This basement? Funky as hell! Broom, mop, and a little clorox. Word to my Mother." She waved a hand in front of her face as if she could get rid of the smell, an arrow gleaming with greek fire pointed at the giant. "This shit is disgusting. Like now I done brought my mother up and she don't got none to do with this. Medea, the next time, I save you from a maze... it better be a cute one! Deadass. In like the Queen of Britain's garden or something. Third times the charm and all of that."

"Sorry we're late," Jason said, lightning flashing in his eyes with Nico, Drew, and Annabeth at his sides— all their weapons drawn. "Is this the guy who needs killing?"

And then they all began to attack him from every direction — Leo shooting fire at his legs, Annabeth jabbing at his chest, Drew shooting arrow after arrow into whatever piece of skin that she could, reopening wounds as her marks hit true, Jason flying into the air and kicking him in the face.

Each time the giant's smoky veil started creeping around one of them, Nico was there, slashing through it, drinking in the darkness with his Stygian blade. Medea's magicka was empowering the others, flames igniting on the end of their weapons and burning the giant every time, they made contact. She sent blasts of magicka into the wounds that were opened by her friends while the giant panicked.

Percy and Octavian were on their feet, looking weak and dazed, but their swords were drawn. They looked like they wanted to help, but there was no need. The giant was surrounded.

Klythios snarled, turning back and forth as if he couldn't decide which of them to kill first. Wait! Hold still! No! Ouch!

The darkness around him dispelled completely, leaving nothing to protect him except his battered armour. Ichor oozed from a dozen wounds. The damage healed almost as fast as it was inflicted, but it didn't really matter as Drew's arrows sank into the wounds, exploding under his skin every time. One last time Jason flew at him, kicking him in the chest, and the giant's breastplate shattered.

Klythios staggered backwards, sword dropped to the floor. He fell to his knees, and the demigods encircled him.

Only then did Trivia step forward, her torches raised. Mist curled around the giant, hissing and bubbling as it touched his skin.

'And so it ends,' Trivia said.

It does not end. Klythios' voice echoed from somewhere above, muffled and slurred. My brethren have risen. Gaía waits only for the blood of Ólumpos. It took all of you together to defeat me. What will you do when the Earth Mother opens her eyes?

"I will watch as the children defeat her," Trivia stated simply, turning her torches upside down and thrusting them like daggers at the giant's head. His hair went up faster than dry tinder, spreading down his head and across his body until the heat of the bonfire made Percy and Octavian stop shivering. Klythios fell without a sound, face-first into the rubble of Háidēs's altar. His body crumbled to ashes.

For a moment, no one spoke. Then the goddess turned to her daughter. 'You should go now, Medea. Lead your friends out of this place.'

Medea gritted her teeth. "Just like that? No 'thank you'? No 'good work'?"

The goddess tilted her head. Gale chittered and disappeared in the folds of her mistress's skirts. 'You look in the wrong place for gratitude, my child. That anger you feel is the same as Trenton's. Be wary of it.' Trivia said. "As for 'good work', that remains to be seen. Speed your way to Athens. Klythios was not wrong. The giants have risen – all of them, stronger than ever. Gaía is on the very edge of waking. The Feast of Hope will be poorly named unless you arrive to stop her.'

The chamber rumbled. Another stela crashed to the floor and shattered.

'The House of Háidēs is unstable,' Trivia said. 'Leave now. We shall meet again. Perhaps we will have better things to converse about. I believe it is a conversation long overdue.'

The goddess dissolved. The Mist evaporated.

'She's friendly,' Percy grumbled.

The others turned towards him and Octavian, as if just realizing they were there.

'Dude.' Jason gave Octavian a bear hug, lifting him off of his feet.

'Back from Tartarus!' Leo whooped. 'That's my peeps!'

Annabeth threw her arms around Percy and cried.

Drew and Nico ran to Medea. He gently folded her arms around her. 'You're hurt,' he said.

'I'm pretty sure I cracked my magicka core,' she admitted.

"You and Lea will be the death of me," Drew murmured.

"Tell me about it," Kírkē sighed.

'I'm glad you're okay,' Nico said, pressing a kiss to her cheek. 'The ghosts were right. Only one of us made it to the Doors of Death.'

She smiled, cupping her hand gently to his face. 'We couldn't have defeated Clytius without you, so thank you, your highness.' She brushed her thumb under Nico's eye and the boy flushed.

The ceiling shuddered. Cracks appeared in the remaining tiles. Columns of dust spilled down.

'We've got to get out of here,' Jason said. 'Uh, Nico...? Medea...?'

Nico shook his head. 'I think one favour from the dead is all I can manage today.'

"And I'm not strong enough to teleport us all."

To their left, a section of the wall split. Two ruby eyes from a carved stone skeleton popped out and rolled across the floor.

'We'll have to shadow-travel,' Medea said.

Nico winced. 'Medea, I can barely manage that with only myself and you just said that you can't teleport. With all of us—"

"We'll combine our powers," Medea stated strongly. "We're both a part of the Underworld. The shades answer to us."

An entire section of tiles peeled loose from the ceiling.

'Everyone, grab hands!' Nico yelled.

They made a hasty circle and soon, they appeared on the hillside overlooking the River Akhérōn. The sun was just rising, making the water glitter and the clouds glow orange.

Leo staggered backwards and collasped. 'You know ... I think I'll sit down.'

Medea followed right after him, immediately going pale. The others joined them. The Argo II still floated over the river a few hundred yards away.

They began to exchange stories.

Nico explained what had happened with the ghostly legion and the army of monsters — how he had used the sceptre of Diocletian and how bravely Jason and Drew and Annabeth had fought.

'Nico is being modest,' Jason said. 'He controlled the entire legion. You should've seen him. Oh, by the way ...' Jason glanced at Percy and Octavian. 'I resigned my office, gave Nico a field promotion to praetor. Unless you want to contest that ruling.'

Percy grinned as Octavian gave a breathy laugh. 'No argument here.'

'Praetor?' Medea stared at Nico.

"I resigned just as quickly," Nico shrugged uncomfortably. "Gave it back to him and since he doesn't want it...Give it to Octavian or something."

Leo clapped Nico on the shoulder. 'Way to go, di'Angelo. You could've order Dodie to fall on his sword.'

'Tempting,' Octavian agreed.

The others turned apprehensively to he and Percy. 'But you guys ... Tartarus has to be the real story. What happened down there? How did you ...?'

Percy laced his fingers through Octavian's whose shoulders relaxed greatly at the touch.

"We'll tell you the story,'" Percy promised. "But not yet, okay? I'm not ready to remember that place."

"No," Octavian agreed. "Right now ..." He gazed towards the river and faltered. "Uh, I think our ride is coming."

The Argo II veered to port, its aerial oars in motion, its sails catching the wind. Festus's head glinted in the sunlight.

"That's my boy!" Leo yelled.

"About time!" the coach yelled down as he stood at the prod with Pranjal. He was doing his best to scowl, but his eyes gleamed as if maybe, just maybe, he was happy to see them. "What took you so long, cupcakes? You kept your visitor waiting!"

"Visitor?" Medea murmured.

At the rail next to Coach Hedge, a dark-haired girl appeared wearing a purple cloak, her face so covered with soot and bloody scratches that she looked like a different person.

Reyna had arrived.

"Of Medea, the ghosts dark-eyed queen, I will sing. She, lovely dame, of earthly and celestial frame; Medea, daughter of the Torch Bearer, never doomed to fail, she who disperses the Shades and calls them back when scattered. Wandering through diverse groves, she stop rivers as they roar in spate, arrest a star, and check the movement of the sacred moon. Hail, night-wandering, dark-eyed goddess! I invoke your favor with my prayer."

WORD COUNT: 7880

THINGS TO KNOW:

1) Pipituna is attested in Mycenaean Greek, written in the Linear B syllabary. Since they havent been completely translated, this is the closest that they have gotten.

1A) Píptynna is an unknown deity, considered to be Pre-Greek or Minoan.

1B) Since Pasiphaë was the queen of Crete, and therefore apart of that history, I figured that it would be good one to use as her roman name since she doesn't have a counterpart.

2) Mercurius Testudo - It's not a real epithet, but I'm writing it to mean Mercurius of the Tortoise.

2A) A call back to when Hērmês changed Khelṓnē into a tortoise and because he made the lyre from the body of a tortoise.

COMMENTS FROM THE AUTHOR:

1) I really wanted to write Medea's feelings about the battle, the fear and anger and desperation that she was feeling at this moment but since it wasn't in her pov, I was unable too.

1A) Medea battling Klythios and Pasiphaë because it just hits different if its her child fighting them. She establishes herself as being her strongest female child like Alabaster is her strongest male child.

1B) Seriously, what was all that hype about Leo being in this fight and he didnt do anything but throw a screwdriver? Like really hyped it up to be Leo against Klythios, and it doesn't happen wtf.

1C) Anyway, this Medea's aristeia moment with the Leo assist because he actually assists here.

2) I want to iterate that Dodie is not a power hungry megalomaniac here. He is not a replacement for whatever the fuck Rick abruptly turned Octavian into (He realize that he needed an antagonist that's all because the hype for Gaía was not matching.)

2A) Anyway, Dodie is also a legacy of Apollō with the gift of prophecy; I realized that I had this in my notes and didn't even mention it, but anyway, he's moved by jealously. He thinks that Octavian (and previously Augustus)(and Jason) only got his position in CJ because of his bloodline. He's not wrong, but they also are just better than him. Like on a scale of 1-10, he's 7 and they're 10s. This is his chance to prove his worth and beat out Octavian. It's not about New Roma, CJ, CHB, or even the world. He just wants to say that he beat Octavian (and Augustus and Jason.) Everything else is an added benefit for him.

QUOTES:

1) "I try never to kill, because I can do so without effort, but if you attack me again, I'll snap every atom in your body apart. You'll only exist in books on magic." - Jean Grey X-Men #21 (2021)

1A) Tbh, this is really a Livia quote. Like it would make so much sense if I had her say this.