Hi guys! I've been getting this question a lot, so let me answer it now - this story will go through the Blood of Olympus. I'm not 100% sure if I'll go into Trials of Apollo, but it's still too early to tell. Enjoy the chapter!

Before I suited up, I downed two Tylenols and drenched myself with the shower inside the Big House, feeling newfound strength fill my limbs. Now I was kind of wishing that Luke and I hadn't been training for so long, but at least the shower helped with the lethargy and soreness, which would be invaluable during the fight.

Once I had told Chiron about the incoming attack, he blew the conch horn three times, a sign that every camper understood. Immediately, campers dropped what they were doing to get dressed in battle armor and get their weapons of choice before monsters burst out of the Labyrinth.

I met up with Chiron in the middle of the cabin area, readjusting my greaves and vambraces once I stopped. No one ever said armor was comfortable, but I'd rather be uncomfortable than dead.

Up in the sky, I could make out various splotches of colors that were quickly growing bigger as they approached the ground. Some Apollo kids wanted to shoot the pegasi out of the sky, but I told them not to, promising them that these were allies, not our enemies.

Within a few moments, Tyson, Grover, Annabeth, Percy, and Nico were dismounting Blackjack, Guido, Porkpie, and Star. Chiron, Silenus, and I watched as the five approached us, their faces solemn as they noticed what was going on.

Of the five, Grover was farthest back, trying to stay as far away from Silenus as possible. I'd only ever encountered the old satyr a handful of times, and he was about as pleasant as slamming your toes into the corner of a door. Even Mr. D disliked Silenus, which is saying something seeing as he was the lord of all satyrs after Pan disappeared. Well, died by now, but you get the point.

Percy began recounting of the new information they'd gathered while on Annabeth's quest: that Quintus was Daedalus all along and that Kronos had finally risen. Some of the nearby archers heard this and paled, immediately beginning to spread the word amongst the rest of the campers. Great, because we needed to cause widespread panic before a major battle. That makes perfect sense.

"I feared as much," Chiron said. "We must hurry. Hopefully you have slowed down the Titan lord, but his vanguard will still be coming through. They will be anxious for blood. Most of our defenders are already in place. Come!"

"Wait a moment," Silenus demanded, earning a scowl from me. He was wasting time. "What of the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks overdue, Grover Underwood! Your searcher's license is revoked!"

Grover took a deep breath and stepped forward, towering over Silenus by a good five or six inches. He met the old goat's eyes. "Searcher's licenses don't matter anymore. The great god Pan is dead. He has passed on and left us his spirit."

"What?" Silenus's face turned bright red. "Sacrilege and lies! Grover Underwood, I will have you exiled for speaking thus!"

"It's true," Percy insisted. "We were there when he died. All of us."

"Impossible! You are all liars! Nature-destroyers!"

"Oh for the love of – please, shut up!" I shouted angrily at Silenus. "We're under attack right now, if you haven't noticed, Silenus. Pan has waited for thousands of years, so this issue can wait until after this is over. Now, let these campers get ready for battle before I kick your furry rump from here to kingdom come."

Silenus paled at my words and scampered away, most likely to go slander Grover's name to the rest of the satyrs within camp.

"This matter will be discussed, my dear satyr," Chiron promised Grover, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder for a few moments. "Assuming we are still here this evening, that is."

And on that happy note, the rest of us followed Chiron into the woods towards Zeus's Fist. Some of the Ares campers provided Percy and Nico with armor while Annabeth turned down the offer, saying that her siblings would've brought her armor out with them. As for Tyson and Grover, well, the former didn't really need armor, and I used wood and vines to make a nature-inspired chest plate for my favorite satyr.

In the area surrounding Zeus's Fist, all the campers were here, including some of the younger ones. We'd been trying to keep all those younger than ten out of the fighting, but if we did that, we wouldn't have the numbers to survive the first wave of the onslaught. As it was, we only had thirty-six campers, not nearly enough to withstand the thousands of monsters that were waiting to come through the Labyrinth and slaughter us all.

I left Chiron to deal with the questers while I went and found Cleo, who was fiddling with her bowstring as she sat up in a tree. Strapped to her waist were two daggers for when she ran out of arrows, but she looked hesitant to use them, flinching every time her hand accidentally brushed one of the hilts.

I scaled up the tree and sat in an adjacent branch, summoning my bow as well. Chiron had told me a few weeks back that he didn't want me in close-quarter combat until we knew where reinforcements were going to be needed, so in the meantime, I was to be an archer.

"Hey," I said, giving Cleo what I hope was a smile, ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach. I'd be witnessing my best friend's death today, something I wasn't ready for no matter how much I tried to prepare myself.

"Hi," she responded. She smiled weakly, her fingers continuing to pluck at her bowstring like it was the lyre she played during campfires. "Beautiful day, huh?"

Cleo was right, of course. The sun was quickly racing towards the horizon, and though I knew we'd have natural light for at least four more hours, the sky was already turning pink and purple and orange. It was such a pretty sight for such a depressing day.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "The sky may be beautiful, but this day is not."

"Hey, let the dying girl get to say her bit, will you?" Cleo joked, her blue eyes still illuminated with mirth despite the fact that the monsters were moments away from storming the camp.

I held up my hands in surrender. "Whatever you say, Cleo."

She laughed and rested comfortably against the trunk of the tree, seeming perfectly at peace with herself. "I'm not afraid to die, Andy," she said, reaching over and putting her hand in my own. "I am a daughter of Apollo, and a damn good one at that, so if my death helps save the camp, then I am at peace with the Fates' decision. I'd just like to say that you're my best friend, like the older sister I never had. Thank you for being a part of my life, Andromeda Lilliana Collins. It's been an honor to know you."

"The honor was all mine, Cleo Bethany Russo," I said, blinking back the tears that shone in my eyes. "And just for the record, you're like the sister I never had, too."

The two of us reached over the branches to give each other a side hug, holding onto each other for a few moments longer than we normally would've. Cleo then gave me a sheet of paper, telling me that I couldn't read it until after the battle was won.

"But-" I started, only to be interrupted by Clarisse shouting, "Lock shields!"

Then my father's army exploded from the Labyrinth.

Lastrygonians, dracaenae, hellhounds, and telkhines burst forth from the Labyrinth in organized waves, attacking everything in their paths. While the Hephaestus cabin used catapults to bury some of the Lastrygonians under rocks, those that escaped went for the Ares phalanx, tossing a dozen kids aside as if they were ragdolls.

The campers on the forest floor were quickly forced into close-quarter combat, drawing their swords and shields and spears as they fought snake women and seal-dog demons and hounds the size of Sherman tanks.

While all this was going on, Cleo and I were calmly shooting into the fray, making sure to avoid fellow campers whenever possible. Chiron did this as well, standing perfectly still among all the fighting, mechanically reaching back to grab another arrow the moment he released his bowstring. Percy was standing next to him, Riptide tightly gripped in his hand as he waited for Chiron's signal for reinforcements.

"GO!" Chiron finally ordered, and I knew that was as much my signal as it was Percy's.

But before I jumped out of the tree, I gave Cleo my quiver, which was enchanted with unlimited arrows, and wished her luck.

By the time my feet touched the ground, I had my two hunting knives in my hand, slashing fatal blows at any monster that dared to challenge me. While Percy charged to help the satyrs and the sons of Dionysus, Castor and Pollux, I ran towards a dozen dracaenae that were making their way towards the camp.

"Nico! Andy!" Percy shouted, gesturing in the direction of camp before returning his attention the hellhound he was currently fighting.

Nico and I shared a look for a split second before he took a deep breath and pointed his sword at the ground. "Serve me," he said, and the ground immediately responded by creating a large fissure in front of the snake women.

From the fissure, a dozen undead warriors dressed from various eras – U.S. Revolutionaries, Roman centurions, Napoleonic soldiers on cavalry – appeared. The undead climbed onto solid ground, drew their weapons, and charged at the dracaenae. Almost immediately afterward, Nico crumpled to his knees, his face turning slightly yellowish from overuse of his powers.

"Dammit, Nico," I swore, pulling out a crushed piece of ambrosia from the inside of my breastplate – don't worry, it was in a plastic bag – and force feeding him the godly food. Then, after quickly scanning the area, I moved Nico behind a bush that was far enough from the fray that he wouldn't be discovered but close enough that he'd be able to join back in the fight if he woke up.

I ran back into the fray, driving one of my knives deep into the chest of a telkhine as I parried a blow from a dracaena, immediately severing her arm the moment she doubled over in pain when I nicked her with my other knife. I then gave her a haircut starting at the neck before moving onto the next monster.

And though I'd gotten into a pretty good rhythm, that all ended when the earth started shaking like we were standing over the epicenter of an earthquake, knocking me onto my butt. Then, from the already destroyed pile of boulders that was once Zeus's Fist, the horrific monster known as Kampê shot up into the sky, displaying her bat wings in its full fifty-foot wingspan.

I said some very unflattering things about one of the worst monster's in Greek mythology as she pocketed Ariadne's string in the mouth of lion head at her waist and drew her poisoned scimitars instead. Unsurprisingly, any camper that had the unfortunate experience of catching a glimpse of Kampê screamed and ran. Some of the runners were quickly trampled by hellhounds or giants.

"Di Immortales!" Chiron yelled. He released three arrows in quick succession, each one easily evaded by the ginormous snake-headed, multi-animal-waist-ed Kampê.

Tyson then stood up from the giant that he'd just knocked unconscious by beating them over the head with a shield. He ran towards the campers, shouting, "Stand! Do not run from her! Fight!"

Brave words for a Cyclops, or for anyone else in general, but so many campers were fighting for their lives or were already dead, so there weren't that many options of people to fight Kampê. However, Percy and Annabeth decided they'd take on Kampê. I'd keep an eye on them, but right now, there were still way too many monsters on the forest floor for my liking.

"Alright," I mumbled, cracking my neck as I twirled my knives in my hands. "Playtime is over."

Fire raced the length of both my knives, making my attacks much more effective than they had been before. Not only was Stygian iron one of the best metals to use because of its soul-sucking properties, but mixed with fire, it was twice as deadly.

Eventually, like I'd seen in my dream, a stray empousa had found me, and there was a group of five dracaenae behind me closing in on Cleo. From where I was, I could hear her struggling to keep the snake-women away from her, but I couldn't do anything as this vampire with mix-match legs lunged at me with her fangs bared.

I merely ducked and stabbed the empousa directly in the center of her chest with my blade alight, causing for her body to disintegrate from the stab wound outward. I whirled around, hoping that I'd be able to at least take down one of the dracaenae that wanted to kill Cleo, but I turned just in time to watch the three spear tips of a tridents get pushed through Cleo's chest, blood immediately bursting from her mouth.

Her body crumpled to the floor the second the dracaena yanked her trident out of Cleo, her eyes already glazed over. She was still holding onto her daggers, but her grip was slack now, meaning that if anyone tried to take her daggers, they could do so easily. By Cleo's feet, her bow lay discarded, the string severed and arms severely cracked. An empty quiver remained strapped to her back, but for the life of me, I couldn't find the quiver I'd given her.

I rushed forward, pulling Cleo into my lap and brushing her golden locks, ignoring the rest of the battle going on around me.

"Look at this," one of the dracaena sneered, jabbing her spear at me. "She cared for the girl."

"You will pay for her death!" I shouted, tears burning in my eyes as I felt my skin begin to heat up.

"Yeah?" the dracaena with the blood stained trident said. "And what are you going to do about it?"

I smirked evilly. "I thought you'd never ask."

I stabbed my hunting knives into the ground before standing up, holding my palms out towards the dracaenae responsible for Cleo's death.

"What are you going to do?" a third one taunted. "Act like a mime?"

I then acted like I was in an invisible box, but the moment one of the dracaenae took a step in my direction, I pushed outwards, Greek fire streaming from my palms as I screamed in anguish, pulling on every painful memory I knew of.

Within seconds all that was left behind were piles of dust and weapons.

I picked up the bloodied trident and chucked it at a nearby hellhound, watching as it sank into the flank of the beast. As for the other weapons, I hid them behind another bush before picking up my hunting knives once more.

But before I went back into battle, I stooped back down by Cleo and shut her eyes. "Ave atque vale," I said, taking her daggers from her hands and sheathing them at my waist. Not that I needed them at the moment, but they could be used for future campers.

Just then I caught sight of two kids get thrown to the ground, Kampê pressing down on the both of them. Percy and Annabeth, I remembered, running in their direction as Kampê lowered her scimitars, prepared to kill them.

"No!" I shouted, and as I was about to shadow-travel them out of there, a large mass of black fur slammed into Kampê, knocking her sideways.

"Good girl!" I heard someone shout from the entrance of the Labyrinth. Sure enough, there was Daedalus and Briares fighting their way through enemies.

The mass of fur had been Mrs. O'Leary, who was snapping at Kampê while Percy and Annabeth struggled back onto their feet.

As for Briares, in each of his hundred arms, he held a huge chunk of rock, poised to throw at a moment's notice.

"Briares!" Tyson exclaimed, wonder evident in his voice.

"Hail, little brother!" Briares bellowed. "Stand firm!"

The second Mrs. O'Leary jumped out of the way Briares launched his rocks at Kampê so quickly that her pile of boulders was almost as large as Zeus's Fist. I didn't think he'd be too happy to find out about that, being the egotistical maniac he is. Anyhow, the only way you could tell that Kampê was there in the first place was that the ends of her scimitars were pointing out of the pile like reindeer antlers. The green glow had vanished from the blades as well, meaning that she had been sent back to Tartarus for another thousand years, hopefully.

The monsters were scared now, and many looked like they wanted to escape back into the Labyrinth. But one of the dracaenae shouted, "Ssssslay them! Kill them all or Kronossss will flay you alive!"

"Of course he would," I scoffed as I dragged my knives through a giant's nasty, hairy, smelly legs.

That threat had been enough to make the monsters surge one last time. One of the giants had caught Chiron from behind and slammed his club into the centaur's hind legs, sending him sprawling instantly. Six other giants cried in glee and rushed forward.

"No!" Percy shouted, and I immediately shadow-traveled behind the giant that had broken Chiron's legs. I managed to shove my knives through his stomach before Grover let out a scream that sounded like every single brass instrument being played at the same time while being hooked up to a speaker at full volume – the sound of pure fear.

Instantly, every remaining monster scrambled over each other trying to get back into the Labyrinth. The dracaenas were trampled by the Lastrygonians, enemy half-bloods ran over each other, and the telkhines and hellhounds fought over who could escape first.

But I wasn't going to let so many of these monsters return to my father just yet.

I ran towards the Labyrinth, hearing Chiron shout, "Andy, no!" before plunging into the darkness alongside the surviving monsters.

I'd finally stepped foot inside the Labyrinth.

"That was close," one of the demigods commented, removing his helmet as he panted for breath.

"Too close," a second agreed. "I only got nicked by an arrow, but Elisa, Mason, and Enrique are dead."

The first demigod cursed. "I thought they weren't trying to kill us!"

"They weren't. They were killed by the very monsters Kronos sent us with."

"Ugh, how are we supposed to get back without the stupid string? Kampê's dead and took the string with her."

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance," I said, illuminating myself with a single flame at the end of my index finger. There was no need to give them a clear view of my face.

Immediately, the duo drew their swords and pointed the tips at my chest. But I could tell they didn't have the strength to try and attack; they were shaking like leaves in the wind, their teeth audibly chattering in fear.

"Who are you?" the girl asked.

"No one you need to know," I replied. "Just know that Kronos sends his regards."

I immediately extinguished my fire, hearing the two demigods grope blindly in the dark trying to find me. With the hilt of Cleo's daggers, I knocked both of them unconscious and handcuffed them together. I then pulled out some rope from my bag and tied an end off on the girl's ankle before heading in the direction of the fading footsteps.

For some reason, the Labyrinth was still intact, though I didn't know for how much longer. If I was down here when Daedalus died, who knows what would happen.

I was able to find the monsters that stormed Camp Half-Blood, and before they could sense my presence, I froze time around all of them. Let's just say I had a lot of fun running them all through with my knives, making sure they'd never be able to make it back to my father's base on Mt. Tam.

Once I dropped the spell, the tunnel began to tremble around me, in the same way it had right before a ton of monsters invaded camp. Holding onto the rope, I ran back to the kids, grabbed them both, and shadow-traveled us back to the mortal world just as the tunnels began to cave in.

"Dammit, Nico," I said for the second time that day, wishing that he'd have a little more faith in my ability to dispel monsters quickly.

As for the kids, I wasn't going to leave them to die in the Labyrinth, nor was I going to allow them to return to Mt. Tam. So that gave me two options: bring them back to Camp Half-Blood and have Chiron decide what to do with them or leave them to their own devices, which will inevitably end up with them returning to Kronos.

I sighed but had the shadows take me to Camp Half-Blood anyways, knowing that these kids were just misled, not that they were really evil.

I managed to arrive just in time for the shroud burnings that night. The list of the fallen was too long: Lee Fletcher, Cleo Russo, Castor Brown, Mark Downs, Lisa Ramirez, Jeremey Fisher, Jillian Villanueva, Mary Grossman, and Harold Wright. The Ares and Apollo cabins both suffered three losses each, and Dionysus and Hermes both lost a son as well. The only goddess to lose a child was Aphrodite.

We were all so emotionally drained from the day's fighting that not even the siblings of those who died could say anything, so choked up that all they could do was cry and burn the shroud. This would be the first time in eight years that I ever saw shrouds actually contain bodies, and I'll be honest, I never want to see this again. As the torches lowered on the shrouds, smoke curled upwards and floated towards the stars in the sky.

My eyes immediately drifted to the star to the immediate right of the North Star. That had been Cleo's favorite star, because she'd always say, "'Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.'" Peter Pan had been Cleo's favorite Disney movie of all time, and she'd forced me to watch it enough times that I'm pretty sure I have most of the script memorized by now.

Even though I knew Cleo was in Elysium, I'd like to think that a part of her got to follow that second star to the right like she dreamed of doing when she was younger.

God, she was only fifteen, too young to die. Of the fallen, she was the third oldest, with Castor being the eldest at seventeen and Lee next, only being ten days older than Cleo. This was all so unfair, but I guess there is no such thing as fairness in war, especially one waged by a power-hungry Titan like Kronos.

That night was particularly hard for Percy and me, the both of us constantly waking up with a start, our minds still unable to process what we had witnessed the previous day. Even when I served Olympus as a messenger, I'd never been in battle like that before, only ever dealing with minor skirmishes that I could handle relatively quickly. Full scale battle like that was absolutely terrifying, especially when you can hear the screams of those dying and knowing that there's nothing you can do.

When I woke up the next morning, I skipped breakfast and headed straight for the infirmary, helping Will and Kayla with the wounded, which was practically everyone. I'd gotten hurt yesterday as well, but I'd been running on so much adrenaline that I didn't notice the large claw marks on my back that I'd received from a hellhound.

I dumped a bottle of water over my head, feeling my skin knit back together, before tugging on a pair of gloves and starting to set broken bones, treat cuts and stabs, and soothe burns, scratches, and the aftereffects of poison. At least it was something to do other than dwell on dark thoughts, I told myself, subconsciously going through the motions as I moved from demigod to demigod.

The infirmary was so full that I had to set up shop in the living room of the Big House to accommodate everyone. By lunchtime, I'd done so many sutures and casts that my hands were trembling from how still I'd forced them to be.

During lunch, I pushed my food around on my plate, not really feeling up to eat. I still felt sick to my stomach over yesterday, and the deaths of our friends still hung heavily in the air. The only reason I ate anything was the guilt I felt from seeing Tyson and Percy's worried looks, like they were unsure of how to approach the situation. They didn't need to worry about my well-being, not when there were a million other things that we needed to take care of first.

Then we were all summoned by Chiron and the Council of Cloven Elders to attend Grover's trial. I didn't want to go, claiming that I had to deal with the two traitors I'd brought back to camp, but Chiron shot me a stern look, and I knew there was no getting out of this one. Not to mention the chewing out I was going to get for entering the Labyrinth.

Unsurprisingly, the three pot-bellied satyrs that were the Council wanted to exile Grover for his "lies" about Pan's passing, but after some input from Chiron and Mr. D, who had finally shown up for the first time this summer, Grover's case was dissolved, meaning that he could stay at camp, even if the other satyrs refused to believe him.

As campers started heading back to their activities, I stayed behind, watching as Grover started splitting up satyrs on places to go to protect the remaining bits of wilderness that existed in the U.S. and Mr. D, whose eyes shone in the sunlight. He was still as ruddy-faced as ever and looked absolutely miserable, but his usual air of annoyance seemed to have been replaced with grief.

"Andromeda," Mr. D called as I was about to leave, gesturing for me to approach his vineyard throne.

"Yes, sir?"

"Follow me."

He stood up from his throne, levitating a few inches off the ground. I mean, I would levitate too what with how much those clothes must've cost. Not that money mattered to a god, but appearance definitely did.

I trailed behind Mr. D, the two of us alone in the forest as we began walking back towards camp.

"I imagine you know that the situation is dire," he said, stopping so suddenly that I almost ran into him. "Many of the minor gods have aligned with Kronos: Morpheus, Hecate, Nemesis, and Janus to name a few."

"What about Nike and Tyche?"

Mr. D scratched his chin. "As far as I know, they are still faithful to Olympus. I'd shudder to think of Victory and Luck siding with the enemy. Anyhow, that is not the reason I wish to speak to you."

"Do you require my services, sir?"

"Yes, in a way." Mr. D sighed deeply and ran a hand through his black hair, slicking it back as if it were coated in gel. "You know my son, Pollux?"

"I do."

"Good, because I want you to look out for him."

I bit my lip. "I don't think he'll appreciate that, Mr. D."

"I don't care," Mr. D snapped irritably. "Bad enough one of my sons is gone; I won't lose them both in one fell swoop. Watch out for Pollux, alright?"

"Yes, sir." I rubbed my bracelet, already thinking about how I was supposed to do this. Seventeen-year-olds typically dislike having older people hover over them, and I somehow doubted that Pollux would let me follow him around like a body guard.

"Gods, I hate this place," Mr. D muttered, rubbing his temples as if staving off a headache. "Ta-ta, Alejandra."

Mr. D walked off, leaving me by myself in the middle of the forest.

"Great, because I didn't have enough to worry about already." I sighed but took out my bag anyways, finding the little bag of charms I had in there. I'd give one to Pollux later, but right now, I just wanted to be alone.