Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Okay, I finally decided on this chapter's title lol! Fr tho, I'm kind of surprised that Rick didn't come up with something similar for the chapter in the book. Like, child of Athena pointing out that the Sphinx is wrong? Hello?

I'm planning on using the canon chapter title for the next chapter, but don't be surprised if that one gets changed. I'm not 100% set on it.

Anyways, as always, I hope you enjoy. Until next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 96: Annabeth Outsmarts The Sphinx~

Annabeth and I crashed on the couches in Geryon's living room, which were a lot more comfortable than a bedroll in the maze; Katie and Travis took the bed in the spare bedroom. They tried to convince me that I could have it, but I knew that one of the couches wouldn't be all that comfortable for them together. Travis wasn't as tall as Luke, but he was still pretty darn tall.

The comfortableness of the couch didn't make my nightmares any better, however. And I was getting more than sick of the dreams, too, though I knew there wasn't anything I could do about that.

In my first dream, I was back in the old man's Labyrinth prison. It looked more like a workshop now. Tables were littered with measuring instruments. A forge burned red hot in the corner. The boy I'd seen in the last dream was stoking the bellows, except he was taller now, almost as old as Annabeth. A weird funnel device was attached to the forge's chimney, trapping the smoke and heat and channeling it through a pipe into the floor, next to a big bronze manhole cover.

It was daytime. The sky above was blue, but the walls of the maze casted deep shadows across the workshop. After being in the tunnels for so long, even with currently being at Geryon's ranch, I still found it weird that part of the Labyrinth could be open to the sky. Somehow it made the maze seem like an even crueler place.

The old man looked sickly. He was terribly thin, his hands raw and red from working. White hair covered his eyes, and his tunic was smudged with grease. He was bent over a table, working on some kind of long metal patchwork – like a swath of chainmail. He picked up a delicate curl of bronze and fitted it into place.

"Done," he announced. "It is done."

He picked up his project. It was so beautiful, my heart leaped – metal wings constructed from thousands of interlocking bronze feathers. There were two sets; one was still laying on the table. Daedalus stretched the frame, and the wings expanded twenty feet.

Part of me knew it could never fly. It was too heavy, and there'd be no way to get off the ground. But the craftsmanship was amazing. Metal feathers caught the light and flashed thirty different shades of gold.

The boy left the bellows and ran over to see. He grinned, despite the fact that he was grimy and sweaty. "Father, you're a genius!"

The old man smiled. "Tell me something I don't know, Icarus. Now, hurry. It will take at least an hour to attach them. Come."

"You first," Icarus said.

The old man protested, but Icarus insisted. "You made them, Father. You should get the honor of wearing them first."

The boy attached a leather harness to his father's chest, like climbing gear, with straps that ran from his shoulders to his wrists. Then he began fastening on the wings, using a metal canister that looked like an enormous hot-glue gun.

"The wax compound should hold for several hours," Daedalus said nervously as his son worked. "But we must let it set first. And we would do well to avoid flying too high or too low. The sea would wet the wax seals – "

"And the sun's heat would loosen them," the boy finished. "Yes, Father. We've been through this a million times!"

"One cannot be too careful."

"I have complete faith in your inventions, Father! No one has ever been as smart as you."

My stomach churned as I watched the two of them. I knew this story; I knew it like the back of my hand. Not only had it been one of the stories that Annabeth had taught me when I'd first come to camp, and not only had Chiron taught it to me, too, that year of eighth grade he'd taught me, but I had the distinctive memory of learning about it in one of my elementary schools. Some kid had been going on and on about how much they wanted to have wings, and the teacher had gotten the bright idea to borrow an encyclopedia from the library and show them in front of the class why that would be a bad idea.

(Spoiler alert: it hadn't worked. She hadn't been able to convince them.)

Knowing what had happened to Icarus had already been bad enough before. Now, though, when I was pregnant with my own babies...I couldn't imagine what it was like to lose your own child, and ultimately by your own hand.

I didn't want to imagine it.

Nor did I want to see it, just like how I hadn't wanted to see what had happened with Kronos and my great-great-grandmother.

This time, while the dream did speed up, like I was watching it on a television or something, however, I had to watch the entire thing. I watched as the guards tried to break into the room while Daedalus was now the one to strap up Icarus, and how when they finally did, King Minos was with them. I watched him talk with Daedalus.

"You let my daughter escape, old man," the King of Crete said with a sneer. "You drove my wife to madness. You killed my monster and made the laughingstock of the Mediterranean. You will never escape me!"

But Icarus and Daedalus were able to escape him – for a short while, in the case of the latter. They shot into the sky on their bronze wings, carried by the updraft. Minos ordered his guards to shoot them, but it was of no use.

They wheeled above the maze and the king's palace, then zoomed out of the city of Knossos and out past the rocky shores of Crete.

Icarus laughed. "Free, Father! You did it!"

The boy spread his wings to their full limit and soared away on the wind.

"Wait!" Daedalus called. "Be careful!"

But Icarus was already out over the open sea, heading north and delighting in their good luck. He soared up and scared an eagle out of its flight path, then pummeled towards the sea like he was born to fly, pulling out a nosedive at the last second. His sandals skimmed the waves.

"Stop that!" Daedalus shouted. But the wind carried his voice away. His son was drunk on his own freedom.

The old man struggled to catch up, gliding clumsily after his son.

They were miles from Crete, over deep sea, when Icarus looked back and saw his father's worried expression.

Icarus smiled. "Don't worry, Father! You're a genius! I trust your handi – "

The first metal feather shook loose from his wings and fluttered away. Then another. Icarus wobbled in midair. Suddenly he was shedding bronze feathers, which twirled away from him like a flock of frightened birds.

"Icarus!" his father cried. "Glide! Extend the wings! Stay as still as possible!"

But Icarus flapped his arms, desperately trying to reassert control.

The left wing went first – ripping from the straps.

"Father!" Icarus cried. And then he fell, the wings stripped away until he was just a boy in a climbing harness and a white tunic, his arms extended in a useless attempt to glide.

In my other dream, I was once again with Luke, walking through the dark palace on top of Mount Tam. I was kind of surprised he'd gotten here from the Princess Andromeda in such a short time, but then again, I didn't know where the Princess Andromeda had been before. I didn't know for sure that I was seeing these dreams in real time, either; maybe I wasn't. Maybe they were slightly off.

The building here was a real one now – not some half-finished illusion like I'd seen last winter. Green fires burned in braziers along the walls. The floor was polished black marble. A cold wind blew down the hallway, and above us through the open ceiling, the sky swirled with grey storm clouds.

Luke was dressed for battle. He wore camouflage pants, a white t-shirt, and a bronze breastplate, but his sword, Backbiter, wasn't at his side – only an empty scabbard. We walked into a large courtyard where dozens of warriors and dracaenaewere preparing for war. When they saw him, the demigods rose to attention. They beat their swords against their shields.

"Isss it time, milord?" a dracaena asked.

"Soon," Luke promised. "Continue your work."

"Milord," a voice said behind him. The owner was an empousa, looking around the same age as me. She was wearing a blue dress, and looked wickedly beautiful. Her eyes flickered – sometimes dark brown, sometimes pure red. Her hair was braided down her back and seemed to catch the light of the torches, as if it were anxious to turn back into pure flame.

I wondered if she was Kelli or Tammi, the empousae who had tried to kill Callie a few weeks ago.

"You have a visitor," she told Luke. She stepped aside, and even he seemed stunned by what he saw.

The monster Kampê towered above him. Her snakes hissed around her legs. Animal heads growled at her waist. Her swords were drawn, shimmering with poison, and with her bat wings extended, she took up the corridor.

"You." Luke's voice sounded a little shaky. "I told you to stay on Alcatraz."

Kampê's eyes blinked sideways like a reptile's. She spoke in that weird rumbling language, but this time I understood, somewhere in the back of my mind: I come to serve. Give me revenge.

"You're a jailor," Luke said. "Your job – "

I will have them dead. No one escapes me.

Luke hesitated. A line of sweat trickled down the side of his face. "Very well," he said. "You will go with us. You may carry Ariadne's string. It is a position of great honor."

Kampê hissed at the stars. She sheathed her swords and turned, pounding down the hallway on her enormous dragon legs.

"We should have left that one in Tartarus," Luke mumbled. "She is too chaotic. Too powerful."

The empousa that I thought was either Kelli or Tammi laughed. "You should not fear power, Luke. Use it!"

"The sooner we leave, the better," Luke said. "I want this over with."

"Aww," the empousa sympathized. She reached out to him – and rage filled my entire being, even though I knew that she probably didn't know about me and Luke. How dare she? Thankfully, he carefully stepped away. She didn't seem that bothered by it. "You find it unpleasant to destroy your old camp? To reunite with your old love there?"

...Did she know about my relationship with Luke, even if she thought it wasn't a thing anymore?

Shit.

"I didn't say that," Luke said.

"You're not having second thoughts about your own, ah, special part?"

His face turned stony. "I know my duty."

"That's good," the demon said. "Is our strike force efficient, or do you think I should call Mother Hecate for some help?"

"We have more than enough," Luke said grimly. "The deal is almost complete. All I need is to negotiate safe passage through the arena."

"Mmm," the empousa said. "That should be interesting. I would hate to see your handsome head on a spike if you fail."

"I will not fail. And you, demon, don't you have other matters to attend to?"

"Oh, yes." She smiled. "I am bringing despair to your eavesdropping enemies. I am doing that right now."

She turned her eyes directly on me, exposed her talons, and then ripped through my dream.

I woke in the dark, my hands clutching my throat.

"Percy?" Annabeth mumbled from the other couch. "Are you okay?"

I steadied my breathing. I wasn't sure how to answer. The television was going – what looked like some sort of special on The Smithsonian Channel was playing, since all of the children of Athena had told me before how much The History Channel sucked. Blue light flickered through the room.

"What – what time is it?" I croaked out.

"Two in the morning," she informed me. "I couldn't sleep."

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "Yeah, I know how that goes."

"I turned on the news earlier," she said. "Do you know what day it is? It's been seven days since we left camp."

"What?" I said. "That can't be right."

Even if it would explain the timing of my dreams, I thought.

"Time is faster in the Labyrinth," Annabeth reminded me. "The first time Travis and Katie went down there, they thought they were gone for only a few minutes, right? But it was an hour."

"Oh," I said. "Right."

Neither of us said anything for a few minutes. I watched what was going on the TV. Annabeth had the captions on since it was on mute, but I was too tired to work through my dyslexia and try and read them.

"Go back to sleep, Percy," she told me. "You need it."

I was a little irritated at her telling me what I did and didn't need, but she was right. Being on this quest, even without over-using my powers between Kampê and the flesh-eating horse stables, was wearing me out. So I fell back asleep and didn't wake up again until after seven, getting more than the nine hours I'd said I'd needed.

Eurytion and Orthus walked us down to the cattle guard once we were ready. He told us somewhat about his plans for the ranch – he wasn't going to make any more beef patties out of the sacred cattle, and he was thinking about befriending the flesh-eating horses. Then he spit into the grass and said, "I reckon you'll be looking for Daedalus' workshop now?"

Annabeth's eyes lit up. "Can you help us?"

Eurytion studied the cattle guard, and I got the feeling the subject of Daedalus' workshop made him uncomfortable. "Don't know where it is. But Hephaestus probably would."

"That's what Hera said," Annabeth agreed. "But how do we find Hephaestus?"

The son of Ares pulled something out from under the collar of his shirt. It was a necklace – a smooth silver disk on a silver chain. The disk had a depression in the middle, like a thumbprint. He handed it to Annabeth.

"Hephaestus comes here from time to time," Eurytion said. "Studies the animals and such so he can make bronze automaton copies. He gave me that chain in gratitude. Said if I ever needed to find him, the disk would lead me to his forges. But only once."

"And you're giving it to me?" Annabeth asked.

Eurytion blushed. "I don't need to see the forges, miss. Got enough to do here. Just press the button and you'll be on your way."

Annabeth pressed the button and the disk sprang to life. It grew eight metallic legs. Annabeth shrieked and dropped it, much to Eurytion's confusion.

"Spiders!" she screamed.

"She's, um, scared of spiders," I explained to him. "That old grudge between Athena and Arachne."

"Oh." Eurytion looked a little embarrassed. "Sorry, miss."

The spider scrambled to the cattle guard and disappeared between the bars.

"We need to hurry," Katie said grimly. "That thing's not going to wait for us."

Annabeth wasn't anxious to follow, but we didn't have much choice. We said our goodbyes to Eurytion, who helped us get the cattle guard off of the hole, and we dropped back into the maze.

I wish I could've put the metal spider on a leash. It scuttled along the tunnels so fast, most of the time I couldn't even see it. If it hadn't been for Travis focusing on it really hard, his stealth powers as a son of Hermes coming through, we probably never would've known which way it was going.

We ran down a marble tunnel, then dashed to the left and almost fell into an abyss. Travis grabbed me and hauled me back before I could fall. The tunnel continued in front of us, but there was no floor for about a hundred feet, just gaping darkness and a series of iron rungs in the ceiling. The mechanical spider was about halfway across, swinging from bar to bar by shooting out metal web fiber.

"Monkey bars," Annabeth said. "I'm great at these."

She leaped onto the first rung and started swinging her way across. She was scared of tiny spiders, but not of plummeting to her death from a set of monkey bars. Go figure.

Annabeth got to the opposite side and ran after the spider. I followed her, Travis insisting on me and Katie to go in front of him.

We kept moving once we all got across and passed a skeleton crumpled in the tunnel. It wore the remains of a dress shirt, slacks, and a tie. The spider didn't slow down. I slipped on a pile of wood scraps, but when I shined a light on them I realized they were pencils – hundreds of them, all broken in half.

The tunnel opened up into a large room. A blazing light hit us. Once my eyes adjusted, the first thing that I noticed were the skeletons. Dozens littered the floor around us. Some were old and bleached white. Others were more recent and a lot grosser. They didn't smell quite as bad as Geryon's stables, but almost.

Then I saw the monster. She was standing on a glittery dais on the opposite side of the room. She had the body of a huge lion and the head of a woman. She would've been pretty, but her hair was tied back in a tight bun and she wore too much makeup, so she kind of reminded me of my third-grade choir teacher. She had a blue ribbon badge pinned to her chest, which took me a moment to read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED EXEMPLARY.

"A Sphinx," Travis said.

Annabeth started forwards, but the Sphinx roared, showing her fangs in her otherwise human face. Bars came down on both tunnel exits, behind us and in front.

Immediately, the monster's snarl turned into a brilliant smile.

"Welcome, lucky contestants!" she announced. "Get ready to play...ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!"

Canned applause blasted from the ceiling, as if there were invisible loudspeakers. Spotlights swept across the room and reflected off the dais, throwing disco glitter over the skeletons on the floor.

"Fabulous prizes!" the Sphinx said. "Pass the test, and you get to advance! Fail, and I get to eat you! Who will be our contestant."

"I've got this," Annabeth whispered to us. "I know what she's going to ask."

I didn't argue too hard with her on that. I mean, of course I didn't want Annabeth to get eaten by a monster, but I figured if the Sphinx was going to ask riddles, Annabeth was the best one of us to try – and Katie and Travis seemed to agree.

She stepped forwards to the contestant's podium, which had a skeleton in a school uniform hunched over it. She pushed the skeleton out of the way, and it clattered to the floor.

"Sorry," Annabeth told it.

"Welcome, Annabeth Chase!" the monster cried, though Annabeth hadn't said her name. "Are you ready for your test?"

"Yes," she said. "Ask your riddle."

"Twenty riddles, actually!" the Sphinx said gleefully.

Annabeth gaped at her. "What? But back in the old days – "

"Oh, we've raised our standards! To pass, you must show proficiency in all twenty. Isn't that great?"

Applause switched on and off like somebody trying to adjust a faucet to the right pouring amount.

Annabeth glanced at me nervously. I gave her an encouraging nod.

"Okay," she told the Sphinx. "I'm ready."

A drumroll sounded from above. The Sphinx's eyes glittered with excitement. "What is the capital of Bulgaria?"

Annabeth frowned. For a terrible moment, I thought she was stumped.

"Sofia," she said. "But – "

"Correct!" More canned applause. The Sphinx smiled so widely her fangs showed. "Please be sure to mark your answer clearly on the sheet with a number 2 pencil."

"What?" Annabeth looked mystified. Then a test booklet appeared on the podium in front of her, along with a sharpened pencil.

"Make sure you bubble each answer clearly and stay inside the circle," the Sphinx said. "If you have to erase, erase completely or the machine will not be able to read your answers."

"What machine?" Annabeth asked.

The Sphinx pointed with her paw. Over by the spotlight was a bronze box with a bunch of gears and levers and a big Greek Η on the side, the mark of Hephaestus.

"Now," the Sphinx said, "next question – "

"Wait a second," Annabeth protested. "What about 'What walks on four legs in the morning?'"

"I beg your pardon?" the Sphinx said, clearly annoyed now.

"The riddle about the man. He walks on four legs in the morning, like a baby, two legs in the afternoon, like an adult, and three legs in the evening, as an old man with a cane. That's the riddle you used to ask."

"Exactly why we changed the test!" the Sphinx exclaimed. "You already knew the answer. Now second question, what is the square root of sixteen?"

"Four," Annabeth said. "But – "

"Correct! Which US president signed the Emancipation Proclamation?"

"Abraham Lincoln, but – "

"Correct! Riddle number four. How much – "

"Hold up!" Annabeth shouted.

I wanted to tell her to stop complaining. She was doing great! She should just answer the questions so we could leave.

"These aren't riddles," Annabeth said.

"What do you mean?" the Sphinx snapped. "Of course they are. This test material is specially designed – "

"It's just a bunch of dumb, random facts. It's trivia," Annabeth insisted. "Riddles are supposed to make you think."

"'Think?'" The Sphinx frowned. "How am I supposed to test whether or not you can think? That's ridiculous! Now, how much force is required – "

"Stop!" Annabeth insisted. "This is a stupid test."

"Um, Annabeth," Travis cut in nervously. "Maybe you should just, you know, finish first and complain later?"

"I'm a child of Athena," she said. "And this is an insult to my intelligence. I won't answer these questions."

Now, part of me was impressed with her for standing up like that. But the other part of me...yeah.

Damn your hubris, Chase, I thought.

The spotlights glared. The Sphinx's eyes glittered pure black.

"Why then, my dear," the monster said calmly. "If you won't pass, you fail. And since we can't allow any children to be held back, you'll be EATEN!"

The Sphinx bared her claws, which gleamed like stainless steel. She pounced at the podium.

Travis was the one to charge at her first. He swung his sword and it hit the Sphinx straight in the face. Although it didn't cut through her skin – she must've had a more durable hide, but not quite like the Nemean Lion's – the Sphinx let out a yowl as she shirked back. Katie followed after him, the vines already growing from her arms.

I drew Riptide and stepped in front of Annabeth.

"Turn invisible," I told her.

"I can fight!"

"No!" I insisted. "The Sphinx is after you! Let us get it!"

As if to prove my point, the Sphinx knocked Travis aside and tried to charge past me. Katie used a leg bone which she'd grappled with her vines to poke her in the eye. The Sphinx screeched in pain. Annabeth put on her cap and vanished. The Sphinx pounced right where she'd been standing, but came up with empty paws.

"No fair!" the Sphinx wailed. "Cheater!"

With Annabeth no longer in sight, the Sphinx focused on me. I raised my sword, but before I could strike, somehow with her vines, Katie was able to rip the monster's grading machine out of the floor. She wasn't able to throw it at the monster, but the sound of her vines going into machine and knocking all sorts of things loose, so that it wouldn't work even if it was plugged back into its slot, was enough to make the monster turn around.

"My grading machine!" she cried. "I can't be exemplary without my test scores!"

The bars lifted from the exits. We all dashed for the far tunnel. I could only hope Annabeth was doing the same.

The Sphinx started to follow – and to be honest, I'm not sure how we managed to evade her. I heard some more crashes behind us, but I didn't dare to look.

"Annabeth!" I yelled.

"I'm right behind you!" she called back. "Keep moving!"

We ran through the dark tunnels, listening to the roar of the Sphinx behind us as she complained about all the tests she would have to grade by hand.

Word Count: 4,122

Next Chapter Title: I Set Myself On Fire