The hall we left from the nursing home w
Has been a hard dirt packed one, and now we jogged down a marble tunnel, the tunnel turned sharply to the left and I almost fell into an abyss. Raph 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. We paused for a moment, catching out breath. Will turned around, but a solid red brick wall blocked out path.

"Dang." He muttered.

"Well, over the out of doom."

"How?" Will asked, turning back, "I don't exactly fly...."

"Monkey bars," Raph said.

"Whoa... I haven't done those since elementary school."

"They have them in the obstacle course at camp."

"I was at camp a grand total of a two days."

"Oh...yeah. Well, no better place to learn. Come on. Will you first."

Will was light and agile, and swung across, no problems. He landed light and agile on the other side, and turned to watch. I took a deep breath and shook my hands out. I backed up a few feet and took a running start, Pushing off the ground I grabbed onto the first rung and started swinging my way across. When I got across, I looked back and saw Raph swinging across. All his muscles in his arms and shoulders flexing. The big guy made it across in only a few swings, skipping bars in between which was a good thing since, just as he landed, an iron bar ripped free under his weight. He landed on his feet with a thud beside me.

"Don't look so impressed Sunshine." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes and turned and headed down the now marble corridor. Which turned to concrete and then to hard packed earth and a wood structure like an old mining hall. There was a faint glow up ahead. We slowed down and glanced nervously at each other. We all took out our weapons without a word. Raph had his sword and shield, Will and I each had our bows. And we took up our sides by Raph's shoulders.

As one, we all slowly moved forward. The glow got brighter and brighter, until we were standing in an open room, a huge pile of gold and treasure, what looked like gold and bronze shields mixed in, old mining equipment, I saw a few old rusty Greek helmets and helmets from other more recent areas. Bones of bodies littered the ground, some white and old and looked ready to turn to dust while some others... definitely not so recent.

I swepty eyes around, panicked, I didn't see any that looked recent enough to be Percy, Annabeth, Grover or big enough to be Tyson. I sighed in relief before my stomach heaved, the sight of the not so recent dead bodies was disgusting. Once I had done a sweep and was satisfied none of the bones belonged to my brother and friends I looked to see what the cause would be. Pile of gold and lots of dead bodies.

"Dragon?" I whispered.

"This isn't Lord of the Rings." Will snarked.

"Then what?" I asked.

"Gryphon." He answered.

"Much better." I mumbled with an eye roll. If I was carful, I'd end with my eyes at the back of my head.

"Lets hope it's one and doesn't have a nest." Raph said urgently. "I don't see it...maybe we can just get across to where the tunnel keeps going."

"Don't Jinx it!"

He definitely jinxed it. Because as he said it, there was a wild screechy squawk. And it did not sound happy. From the opposite side a Gryphon appeared. If it wasn't so scary looking it would have been beautiful. The sleek powerful body of a lion with the swishing if an angry tail slowly and gracefully slid into glossy feathers of an eagle head. Its beak was razor snap and deadly. The creatures dark intelligent eyes regarded us like it was thinking "mmmm yummy fast food."

"We need to draw it away from the entrance."

"It likes gold and shinny things..." Will suggested.

"Raph. This is your area of expertise.."

"Split. I take middle, keep it's attention. Will take the left flank. Nora, right flank. Keep it from using its wings. It's not a big area...keep it grounded."

It's like the monster could understand our words because it shrieked and leaprt at us, it's break snapping, its wings spread wide. Will and I jumped to our respective sides, I had to roll and come up. Raph threw his shield up just in time. The Gryphons claws scrapped harmlessly down the shield. Well it made a terrible racket, but Raph's body was still intacted.

Will ended up on his feet faster then me, I had a large pile of old bones to deal with. He let his arrow go. It wasn't a perfect shot, but it purred the one wing, making it back off of Raph who was slashing and stabbing with herculean like spread and power. The front body of the monster was already slashed and bloody. How he managed that much damage in a few short seconds was beyond me. I let my arrow go, even if I was still tangled in the bones. My arrow slice through its wings.

The monster shrieked.  Both it's wings now useless and hanging by its side, it reared up in its hind legs, screaming, it swatted Raph and sent him flying into the corner of the room. I heard a crunch and he slid down and didn't get back up.

"No! Raph!" I cried.

"No!" Will cried and went to go after Raph when the Gryphon turned and pounced. Will wasn't fast enough to escape and the monster landed on his chest, pinning him to the ground. Will screamed in pain, the front tallons slowly dug into Will's chest. Will screamed and withered in pain under the monsters talons.

With a scream of my own I kicked the skeleton away from me and grabbed the twin blades at my hips as I got to my feet. I ran and leapt, with no regard for my own safety. I landed on the monsters back. Clamping my legs tightly on either side of its bidy. I felt a wild hot burning in my chest. In an instant it exploded out in my arms and up my spine. With a scream, I plunged both knives down into the back of the monsters neck. As a bright flash of brilliant red and gold light lit up the room, the temperature spiked and tongues of fire erupted from my hands, and traveled up my arms and down to twist around my knives. I yelped in surprise. The light reflected off the gold and metal and then I was kneeling on the ground beside a pile of ash and monster dust.

I was breathing hard, my head was spinning and my hands were still glowing, and sparking like a dying fire and felt hot and tingly. I dropped the knives in fear and patted the sparks out. But I wasn't burnt and it didn't hurt. I heard a soft whimper and I scrambled over to Will who was coughing and shuddering. There was blood everywhere, it was pooling around him.

I could feel the panic. I wasn't the healer. The Healer was Will. I was the...the ... I didn't even know. I was the outside nobody who couldn't really do much. I didn't know what I was doing. I had never seen this much blood before. My hands shook and my  stomach heaved.

"What do I do? I don't know what to do!" I felt the hot angry frustrated tears, the burning in my chest was there again, but it felt different. This was hot and...Heavey, it was angry. "Someone help!" I cried. Finally loosing my own stubborn battle. I felt stupid praying for help. It should just come. I shouldn't have to ask my goldy parent and family for help, I'm doing their work the lest they could do is provide help.

A shimmery form appeared. I recognized her as Aphrodite. She had jeans and a simple white t shirt, her hair was down and flowing in loose soft curls around her shoulders. It looked like she wasn't fully here. Like a mirage, like a flickering image, I could see the heat waves shimmering across her image. It looked like she was shopping somewhere, she was pushing a shopping cart.

"My dear Eleanora. What a lovely surprise."

"What? Is this like a video chat?"

"I don't know. You called to me. What can I do for you?" She asked as she picked up a pair of shoes and eyed them up.

"I don't know what's happening! I don't know how to save Will, he's dying and Raph isn't moving! What do I do?" I cried. Tears finally slid down my face. Her image flickered and hissed, like when water hits something hot, it hisses for a second while it evaporates.

"Remember what I told you on the beach, dear. It's not that difficult."

"What? About love and anger?"

"Indeed dear one. What do you think of these?" She picked up another pair of shoes, bright red shinny heels.

I gapped at her. My brother was bleeding out, I was on some kind of godly video chat with a god who was more concerned about shopping for shoes then helping.

"He won't die. It's not his time yet. But you need to figure it out child. And fast."

"I don't remember! What does love and anger have to do with saving his life" I yelled.

She sighed, pushing her cart further down the shoe isle. She waved her gold adorned fingers, flashing her pink manicured nails and a recording of herself came through the shimmering heat induced video chat.

"Love is an intense feeling of deep affection, it's putting someone else's needs above your own. It's an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person, to love isn't just a strong feeling, dear Eleanora. It's a decision, a commitment, a judgment and a promise. Love will do far more than get you moving. Love will put you on a plane and drop you in the line of battle, it will throw you in the way to take a bullet for another. Love is far more powerful than anger. Anger, on the other hand, Eleanora, impacts our relationships with others, as dose love, yet in a very different way. Anger is often fueled by unhappy thoughts of hatred and judgment against another or a group. It cannot truly unify- it can only separate, trust me I have seen this happen over and over. And we're all interconnected, so, child, you must accept that those thoughts will have an impact on the minds and actions of others. Your hatred will be shared and spread. You love your family, Eleanora, and very possibly the people you have met today already. You do not want to see anyone suffer. If a threat to your loved ones, friends, family, your home makes your blood boil, it is because you care deeply about them." 

the video recording scratched to a stop. 

"So?" I cried getting even more frustrated with the goddess, she still had most of her focus on her shopping for shoes. All she had to do was snap her fingers are Will would be okay. 

"Think Nora. That feeling your feeling, worry for your quest mate-"

"My brother!" I snapped. 

"That feeling, worry, why do you feel so worried? What is that worry deeply seeded in?"

"I'm going to guess, because it's you, its love?" I snarked with a roll of my eyes. 

"Exactly dear. Love." She nodded, smiling finally, her pink lips flashed a very delicate smile and her kaleidoscope eyes flicked to me, "Remember that love is not weak. It makes a mother capable of moving  a car off their child, it gives a man extra strength to fight for their family...you need to focus on that, that love. That becomes your teacher and power source."

"Love will save Will?" 

"Yes. Why not? Lest you can do is try. I must go now, I'll see you around dear Eleanora." 

The shimmering heat waves shut off and I was left feeling more confused then ever. I moved even closer to Will's bloody body. His breathing was ragged and shallow. I placed my hands over the more bloody wounds, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. The tears slid even faster down my cheeks, my chest heaved and the sob finally broke out. I was alone, scared, confused and panicking. I placed my forehead on Will's forehead. 

"Please don't die! Please don't." I finally threw my pride out the window. "Apollo..."I whispered. "Help." 

I felt the tingling increase as I thought of what I would do without Will. He was my first friend, my actual half brother, I couldn't do this without him. I clamped my eyes closed as the sob broke and it escaped with a wild flare of heat inside me. I could feel it explode down my arms and into Will. I screamed in surprise and scrambled backwards. His eyes flew open, with a wild gasp, his back arched off the dirty ground, like I had just jump started his heart. He gasped again, and slowly sat up, rubbing his chest like it was slightly sore. 

"What in Hades just happened?" He asked, frowning as he looked around. 

"WILL!" I cried and threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him. 

"Yeah...Nora, I'm fine, What happened? What did you do?"

"No Idea. But your fine? Your sure?"

"Yep. I'm a hundred percent fine! don't even have scabs! Maybe a few sweet scars, but feeling great!" He frowned and looked around, "Where's Raph?" 

"Dammit!" I got off my knees and scrambled over to the corner where he lay in a crumpled heap.  Will followed, and knelt down beside me. I had gently pulled his helmet off. My hands on either side of his face. The scared panic was back, it flooded my system like adrenalin. There was no blood, but he wasn't responding. 

My hearing and vision focused, like I was going through a tunnel, everything shut off around me. I heard his shallow ragged breathing, I could hear his heart struggling to function, the impact of him hitting the wall smacked his head, and I could feel the swelling in his brain. My hands held his face and I placed his head gently in my lap, so I was looking upside down at him. I closed my eyes. Aphrodite's words came drifting back to me  

"...you need to focus on that, love. That becomes your teacher and power source."

Love Raph? That seemed way too soon! But no way I could loose him. He was also one of the few who was friendly to me. One of the few who heard the dark prophecy and yet defended me. He seemed to open up to me about his childhood. I trusted him.  I think he trusted me. I needed him. I cared for him, in what way I didn't care right now, but I did care. He was someone to me, I felt the hot burning in my chest and the warm tingling flowing down my arms through my veins, like lava in my veins. I felt it travel into Raph through my finger tips. 

"Apollo...help, please..."I mumbled. "Come on Raph, please, come back. I need you." I muttered. 

"You need me sunshine?" 

My eyes snapped open, Raph's dark eyes looked up at me. There was a smug amusement behind them. He just lay in my lap, his eyes locked on mine. He raised a bloody hand and gently whipped the tears that clung to my chin. 

"Man, do I ever feel like a third wheel." Will scoffed. 

My eyes snapped away from Raph and looked at Will, he had such a smug know it all smile. I felt my face heating up, and I looked away. Raph slowly sat up with a groan, and looked around. 

"Where is the thing, and how'd you do that?" 

"its gone, back to Tartarus. And I...I don't know." I mumbled. 

"Well, we better get moving." He got to his feet, and grabbed his sword from where it had clattered to the floor. He slid it back into its scabbard, and grabbed his shield, slinging it onto his back. He reached a hand out for Will and yanked him to his feet. He patted Will's shoulder. Will nodded and went for his bag. I hadn't moved from my spot on the floor. I was still wresting with what happened. Aphrodite said tap into my love. But...what kind of love? I was staring at my hands, they had gone back to normal now, they looked no different then before, yet somehow I had healed both guys. 

"Hey Sunshine. We gotta get going." Raph had crouched down in front of me. I slowly looked up at him. 

"What am I?" I whispered. He frowned at me in confusion. "I healed both of you with some weird flowing fire glowing power..."

"You're a demi god of the healing god. Don't other think your power, we're each gifted something. Some its obvious, some is one very strong specific power, some is a little of everything...you're still learning." His deep voice was soothing, and made me feel a little better and I exhaled. "Come on, we gotta go."  

He got up and took my hands and pulled me up. My head swam, and my knees buckled. 

"Whoa." I muttered as sunk back down, holding my head. 

"You over did it." 

Raph pulled me back up and slipped an arm around my waist, as he threw my arm over his shoulders. Will came over and took my other arm. Together they helped me out of the Gryphon lair and into the dark hall again. Will had a flash light in his other hand. My head spun, my vision swam and I felt sick. 

A few more turns later there was a weird glow up ahead. The hall had turned to pavement with bright yellow arrows pointing in two different ways, like a road. We glanced at each other. We slowly approached the glow. The closer we got the clearer it became. We stood blinking in the light and in utter confusion. We stood in front of a big glass revolving door with a big yellow and blue sign above the door. 

The Labyrinth led us to an IKEA.