CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

₊˚࿐࿔ 𖥧‧₊⚘ ❀༉. 𓏲｡

The next morning there was a lot of excitement at breakfast.

Apparently around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. Sylvie was so exhausted she slept through the noise. The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in their defenses, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Lee Fletcher from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the fissures of the drakon's armor, it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned them during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. Its eyes—" He shuddered.

"You did well, Lee." Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves.

Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that their attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers. Five years ago, when Sylvie had started, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods!"

They all raised their glasses and repeated the blessing.

Sylvie and her siblings took their plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of their food into the flames. She hoped the gods liked her raisin toast and granola.

"Demeter," Sylvie said. Then she whispered, "Help me with Eurydice, my powers, this war, and maybe grant me luck with... you know who..."

And help my dad, she prayed silently the same way she did every night. Please.

There was so much to worry about Sylvie could've stood there all morning, but she headed back to her table.

Once everyone was eating, Sylvie realized that all her siblings evidently woke up in energetic moods. She hadn't seen this happen in a while, especially in such a large quantity. Katie was here, her ankle basically all healed. She was eating a Pop-Tart, but Florian, on the other side of the table, wanted it for himself. He was trying to snatch it, swatting and slapping hands with Katie, whilst simultaneously singing the song stuck in his mind today (the fifteen minute prologue for Into the Woods). Miranda was decorating her plate by growing flowers out of thin air. Her laughter kept being heard over Florian's singing, because Cedar was recalling the first fun dream he'd had... ever, really. Something about jelly donuts and the opera? Sylvie didn't really know.

"Henriette?" Florian leaned over the table and ruffled Sylvie's hair annoyingly. "You're zoned the hell out."

Sylvie exhaled slowly. "I'm just... remembering."

"Remembering what?"

This. Katie's soft smile. Florian's methodical singing. Miranda's cheery laugh. Cedar's innocent energy. Everything.

"Nothing," Sylvie said. "Forget I said anything." She smiled at Florian, not even wishing to reserve it like she had been recently. She hadn't felt so light in a while. She was almost a little sister again. "Katie stole your pancakes, by the way."

Florian roared incredulously, enacting a war with their older sibling that was probably going to get them banned from sitting by each other, too. Sylvie felt like herself not being able to go near him in the dining pavilion was already enough, but evidently Florian didn't feel the same.

Still, she couldn't help but laugh at the scene playing out before her. Cedar had forgotten his storytelling as he, Sylvie, and Miranda amusedly watched Florian try and steal his pancakes back. Katie yelled at him about the consequences of trying to snatch her Pop-Tarts. In a moment, Sylvie was sure they would bring their powers out—

And suddenly Sylvie was being yanked up by the back of her shirt.

"I need you," said Annabeth. "Follow me."

"Well, it doesn't seem like I have a choice," Sylvie stumbled along as Annabeth dragged her by the shirt. "Good morning to you too, by the way. How'd you sleep? I slept fine enough. Was your breakfast good? I didn't even get to eat mine yet, because someone—"

"Shh," Annabeth said, and Sylvie shut up. "I'm trying to listen."

It just dawned on Sylvie that Annabeth was bringing her over to Percy's table in the dining pavilion. Her eyes widened at the realization. Sitting over there was Percy, Tyson, Grover, and Chiron. An odd quartet, but Sylvie was more hung up on the Percy's table part.

"I brought Grover over," said Chiron, "because I thought you two might want to, ah, discuss matters. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Iris-messages to send. I'll see you later in the day." He trotted out of the pavilion.

"What's he talking about?" Percy asked Grover.

Grover chewed his eggs. Sylvie could tell he was distracted, because he bit off the tines of his fork and chewed those down, too. "He wants you to convince me," he mumbled.

Annabeth shoved Sylvie into the spot right next to Percy, then Annabeth sat on the other side of her.

"I'll tell you what it's about," Annabeth said. "The Labyrinth."

It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying, because Sylvie was literally right next to Percy. Their arms and thighs were brushing up against each other with every shift. He wasn't scooting away, so Sylvie didn't either, and that might've been the part that made her so light-headed. It didn't help that everybody was stealing glances at them and whispering.

"You two aren't supposed to be here," Percy's throat sounded tight.

"We need to talk," she insisted.

Sylvie protested, "But the rules..."

Annabeth knew as well as Sylvie and Percy did that campers weren't allowed to switch tables. Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigods. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. Sylvie wasn't even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. She'd never seen it happen. If Mr. D had been here, he probably would've strangled Sylvie and Annabeth with magical grapevines or something, but Mr. D wasn't here. Chiron had already left the pavilion. Quintus looked over and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything.

"Look, you two," Annabeth said, "Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating."

Sylvie shifted her weight, trying to think clearly with Percy at her side. "You mean... the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"Exactly," Annabeth said.

"So... it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore, I'm guessing?"

"The Labyrinth is definitely under some building in America," Percy declared with full confidence.

"Under a building?" Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Please, Percy. The Labyrinth is huge. It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."

"So," Percy thought, "is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?"

"No," frowned Annabeth. "Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down into the Underworld. I'm not sure. But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin."

"Ew?" said Sylvie.

Annabeth sighed. "It's been growing for thousands, of years, lacing its way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere through the Labyrinth."

"If you don't get lost," Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Grover, there was has to be a way," Annabeth said. Sylvie got the feeling they'd had this conversation before. "Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Grover said. "And the other guy—"

"He was driven insane. He didn't die."

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much better."

"Woah," Sylvie said. "Back up."

Percy nodded, "Yeah, what's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?"

Annabeth glanced over toward the Ares table. Clarisse was watching them like she knew what they were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate. Phoenix Harden sent Sylvie a middle finger just for looking in his direction. What a sweetheart.

"Last year," Annabeth said, lowering her voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron."

Sylvie stiffened up. She still got tense around the topics of secret missions. She was still so envious that Clarisse's had been real, however horrifying it was. Clarisse had come back. Eurydice had never been on one in the first place.

"We remember," Percy said for her. "It was secret."

Annabeth nodded. "It was secret," she agreed, "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"The guy from the Hermes cabin?"

Sylvie remembered him from two years ago. They'd eavesdropped on Chris Rodriguez aboard Luke's ship, the Princess Andromeda. Chris was one of the half-bloods who'd abandoned camp and joined the Titan army.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."

Hah. Phoenix. Like Phoenix Harden.

(She was spending too much time around Cedar.)

"What do you mean he just appeared?" Percy questioned.

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string."

"String," Sylvie said. "That's sane."

"He'd been driven completely insane, actually. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's people have been exploring the Labyrinth."

Percy shivered, accidentally brushing up against Sylvie more. That made Sylvie shiver too, but for entirely different reasons. Still, she definitely understood Percy's reaction. Poor Chris... he couldn't have been that bad a guy. What could've driven him mad? Sylvie looked at Grover, who was chewing up the rest of his fork.

"Okay," asked Sylvie. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because... well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?"

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"But not if you had Ariadne's string," Annabeth said. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"Right," Sylvie nodded. "The really sane thing."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," said Percy. "Why? What's he planning?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make sense. The closest entrance Clarisse found was in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders. Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but... it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I could find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

Sylvie blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find."

Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

"Sounds lovely," Sylvie squirmed, sounding frightened herself.

"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, to trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—"

"It could lead you to the wild god," Percy said.

"I can't do it," Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

"Grover, it may be your last chance," Annabeth said. "The council is serious. One week or you learn to tap dance!"

"She's got a point," Sylvie admitted. "You'd be a horrible tap dancer."

In distress, Grover wailed, "I know!"

Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. Sylvie got the feeling he didn't want to make a scene, but Sylvie and Annabeth were really pushing it, sitting at Percy's table so long.

"We'll talk later," Annabeth squeezed Sylvie's arm to get her standing as well. "Convince him, will you?"

"Bye," Sylvie told Percy and Grover quietly.

She turned to leave, but—

"Wait, Sylv," said Percy. In one of his hands, he was holding out the rest of his cereal to her. "Take this back with you."

Sylvie took it, because Percy told her to, but she didn't understand his motive. Her face demonstrated the confusion she felt.

"And... why am I doing this?"

"Because you skipped breakfast," he said.

And you noticed, Sylvie thought.

╰━━━ ◦ ❀ ◦ ❀◦ ━━━╯

That night after dinner, Quintus had them suited up in combat armor like they were getting ready for capture the flag, but the mood among the campers was a lot more serious. Sometime during the day the crates in the arena had disappeared, and Sylvie had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods.

"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."

He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost. Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. Everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, Percy even looking down at Sylvie with a grin, but Quintus yelled, "Which have already been chosen!"

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course... you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward. Hey, they'd all slain monsters before. That's what they trained for.

"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena Beauregard, which they both seemed pretty happy about. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, would be together. No surprise. They did everything together. Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin—melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat. Florian was with Phoenix, which was definitely a duo that Sylvie hadn't thought of before. She hoped Florian found the golden laurel before Phoenix could kill him for being so annoying. Percy was with Mickey, who seemed a million times more excited about the pair-up than Percy was. Sylvie just knew Mickey's motives were related to mind games rather than war games. Quintus kept rattling off the names until he said, "Sylvie Duvall and Annabeth Chase."

"Nice," Annabeth smirked at Sylvie. Sylvie nodded back.

"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."

Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

"Well," said Percy, "this is where we part ways, Applejack. Be prepared to lose."

"Your armor is crooked," Sylvie commented. With a burst of courage, she decided to redo the straps for him.

Annabeth snorted. "Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure you're winning, Seaweed Brain."

Percy barely even heard Annabeth's tease, too busy staring down as Sylvie finished redoing his armor. She pressed the buckles when she was done, with an approving nod.

"Now, you go and prepare to lose," said Sylvie. She used Annabeth's shoulder as an elbow rest.

"Yeah, come on, Jackson!" Mickey called from a good distance away. "Let's go lose!"

Percy turned, but instantly groaned when he caught sight of Mickey.

"Why aren't you wearing any armor, Hayes?!"

"It smells like your stink ass dick!"

"No swearing!" Quintus called out. "Everyone get to moving!"

"They'll be fine," Annabeth said to Sylvie. "Come on. Let's worry about how we're going to stay alive."

It was still light when they got into the woods, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. It was cold, too, even in summer. Sylvie's least favorite combination, really.

She and Annabeth found tracks almost immediately—scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. They began to follow the trail.

The two girls jumped a creek and heard some twigs snapping nearby. They crouched behind a boulder, but it was only the Stoll brothers tripping through the woods and cursing. Their dad was the god of thieves, but they were about as stealthy as water buffaloes.

Once the Stolls had passed, they forged deeper into the west woods where the monsters were wilder. They were standing on a ledge overlooking a marshy pond when Annabeth tensed. "This is where we stopped looking."

It took Sylvie a second to realize what she meant. Last winter, when they'd been searching for Nico di Angelo, this is where they'd given up hope of finding him. Sylvie, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had stood on this rock, and Percy had convinced them not to tell Chiron the truth: that Nico was a son of Hades. Sylvie still dissented the idea heavily his idea. Percy wanted to protect Nico's identity, but he'd forced the Great Prophecy on himself in the process. He wanted to make things right for what happened to Bianca, but 1) that wasn't his fault and 2) he hadn't even come close to finding Nico.

"Percy told me he saw Nico last night," Sylvie said.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

Sylvie told Annabeth about how Percy received an anonymous Iris-message. It showed him Nico and what the young Hades son was up to. When Sylvie was done, Annabeth stared into the shadows of the woods.

"He's summoning the dead? That's not good."

"The ghost was apparently giving him bad advice," Sylvie said. "Something about telling Nico to take revenge."

"Yeah... spirits are never good advisers. They've got their own agendas. Old grudges. And they resent the living."

"I'm scared he's going to come after Percy," Sylvie said. "Or me. The spirit mentioned a maze."

Annabeth nodded. "That settles it. We have to figure out the Labyrinth."

"Maybe," Sylvie said uncomfortably.

"Wait," Annabeth's head turned wildly to Sylvie. "When did Percy even tell you all of this?"

Now Sylvie was really squirming in discomfort. "Uh—earlier today. He... wanted to hang out?"

"Alone?"

"Yes..."

"And he just told you all of this randomly?"

"I guess so," Sylvie shrugged, getting flustered.

Annabeth sent her a particular look. "He's being weird recently. To you. Have you noticed?"

"W—To me?" questioned Sylvie. "You think he's mad at me?"

"No!" she cried incredulously. Annabeth looked one second away from snapping. "Not that kind of weird—Oh, come on, Sylvie, seriously? You don't see it?"

"See... my hopeless cause?" Sylvie guessed, raising an eyebrow. "Because, trust me, I very much have. I've been pining over him for most of my camp life, never with any success."

Annabeth seemed as if she wanted to throttle something, or someone. "No, that's the point—You know what? Fine. Whatever. Sylvie, look: What if you just told Percy you like him?"

Sylvie laughed, a sarcastic note to the sound. "Yeah, what if?" she echoed mockingly. The chance of Sylvie confessing her feelings to Percy was about the same as the chances of Phoenix Harden giving Sylvie a hug.

"No, I'm serious. I wasn't going to tell you, but he—"

A branch snapped in the woods. Dry leaves rustled. Something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

"That's not the Stoll brothers," Annabeth whispered.

Together they drew their weapons.

They got to Zeus's Fist, a huge pule of boulders in the middle of the west woods. It was a national landmark where campers often rendezvoused on hunting expeditions (or other expeditions), but now there was nobody around.

"Over there," Annabeth whispered.

"No, wait," Sylvie said. "Behind us."

It was weird. Scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions. Sylvie and Annabeth were circling the boulders, their weapons drawn, when someone right behind them said, "Hi."

They whirled around, and the tree nymph Juniper yelped.

"Put those down!" she protested. "Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"Juniper," Sylvie exhaled. "what are you doing here?"

"I live here."

Annabeth lowered her knife. "In the boulders?"

She pointed toward the edge of the clearing. "In the juniper. Duh."

It made sense, and Annabeth looked kind of sheepish. Most people at camp didn't really speak to the dryads, despite hanging around them for years. They rarely knew much besides the fact dryads couldn't go very far from their tree, which was their source of life.

"Are you guys busy?" Juniper asked.

"Well," Sylvie said, "we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die."

"We're not busy," amended Annabeth. "What's wrong, Juniper?"

Juniper sniffled. She wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. "It's Grover. He seems so distraught. All year he'd been out looking for Pan. And every time he comes back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

"No," Annabeth panicked, as Juniper started crying. Sylvie and Annabeth shared frantic looks. "I'm sure that's not it."

"He had a crush on a blueberry bush once," Juniper said miserably.

"Juniper," said Sylvie, "Grover would never even look at another tree. Trust me, that's a, uh, Demeter kid power..." she lied. "He's just stressed out about his searcher's license."

"He can't go underground!" she protested. "You can't let him!"

Annabeth looked uncomfortable. "It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start."

"Ah." Juniper wiped a green tear off her cheek. "About that..."

Another rustle in the woods.

Juniper yelled, "Hide!"

Before Sylvie could ask why, she went poof into green mist.

Sylvie and Annabeth turned. Coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as a sword. A scorpion. Tied to its back was a red silk package.

"One of us gets behind it," Annabeth said, as the thing clattered toward them. "Cuts off its tail while the others distracts it in front."

"I'll take point," Sylvie said. "You've got the invisibility hat."

She nodded. It was surprisingly easy to team up with Annabeth, after the years they'd been building up this friendship. But it all went wrong when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods.

"Three?" Sylvie choked. "That's not possible! The whole woods, and half the fucking monsters come at us?!"

She swallowed. One, they could take. Two, maybe with a little hope. Three? Doubtful.

The scorpions scurried toward Sylvie and Annabeth, whipping their barbed tails like they'd come here just to kill the girls. The two put their backs against the nearest boulder.

"Climb?" Sylvie said.

"No time," Annabeth said.

Sylvie groaned miserably, throwing her head against the rock too. "The one thing I'm good at."

But Annabeth was right. The scorpions were already surrounding them. The creatures were so close Sylvie could see their hideous mouths foaming, anticipating a nice juicy meal of demigods.

"Look out!" Annabeth parried away a stinger with the flat of her blade. Sylvie stabbed with Halcyon, but the scorpion backed out of range. The girls clambered sideways along the boulders, but the scorpions followed them. And Sylvie couldn't go on the offensive, because that was too dangerous. All she and Annabeth could do was defend, and they wouldn't be able to keep that up for very long.

Sylvie took another step sideways, and suddenly there was nothing behind her. It was a crack between two of the largest boulders, something she'd probably passed a million times, but...

"In here," Sylvie said.

Annabeth sliced at a scorpion then looked at Sylvie like she was crazy. "In there? It's too narrow!"

"Just go!"

She ducked behind Sylvie and started squeezing between the two boulders. Then she yelped and grabbed Sylvie's armor straps, and suddenly Sylvie was tumbling into a pit that hadn't been there a moment before. She could see the scorpions about them, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera. They were in complete darkness.

Sylvie and Annabeth's breathing echoed against stone. It was wet and cold. Sylvie was sitting on bumpy floor that seemed to be made of bricks.

"I think I just peed my pants a little," Sylvie's voice cracked.

She lifted Halcyon and Cereal. The faint glow of her blades was just enough to illuminate Annabeth's frightened face and the mossy stone walls on either side of them.

"Wh-Where are we?" Annabeth said.

"You're asking me?" panicked Sylvie. If Annabeth didn't even know, they were screwed. Sylvie was going to die in this random, dark pit.

The crack between the boulders couldn't have led into a cave. Sylvie would've known if there was a cave here; she was sure of it. It was like the ground had opened up and swallowed them. All Sylvie could think of was the fissure in the dining room pavilion, where those skeletons had been consumed by Nico last summer. She wondered if the same thing had happened to Annabeth and her.

Sylvie lifted her daggers again for light.

"It's a long room," she muttered.

Annabeth gripped Sylvie's arm. "It's not a room. It's a corridor."

She was right. The darkness felt... emptier in front of them. There was a warm breeze, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow.

"Don't move," Annabeth warned. "We need to find the exit."

She sounded really scared now, which only made Sylvie more scared.

"I wasn't planning on it, trust me," Sylvie promised. "Let's just leave where we c—"

Sylvie looked up and realized she couldn't see where they'd fallen in. The ceiling was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.

"Oh, so we're going to die in here," declared Sylvie in full confidence.

Annabeth hit her in the side, very unamused.

"Two steps back," she advised.

They stepped backward together like they were in a minefield.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "Help me examine the walls."

"What for?"

"The mark of Daedalus," she said, as if that was supposed to make sense.

Sylvie shrugged. Why not? "Uh, okay. What kind of—"

"Got it!" Annabeth said with relief. She set her hand on the wall and pressed against a tiny fissure, which began to glow blue. A Greek symbol appeared: L, the Ancient Greek Delta.

The roof slid open and they saw night sky, stars blazing. It was a lot darker than it should've been. Metal ladder rungs appeared in the side of the wall, leading up, and Sylvie could hear people yelling their names.

"Boots! Annabeth!" Tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, but others were calling out too.

Sylvie looked nervously at Annabeth. Then they began to climb.

The girls made their way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.

"Where the fuck have you two been?" Clarisse demanded. "We've been looking forever."

"But we were only gone a few minutes," Sylvie said.

Percy ran up the quickest Sylvie'd ever seen, followed by Mickey, Chiron, Tyson, and Grover.

"Holy shit!" he panted. "Why the...? Don't fucking do that! Either of you!"

Sylvie thought for a moment he was going to hit them both, but what he did instead surprised her a million times more. Percy was wrapping Sylvie into a hug before she could blink. She felt his chest caving in and out, breaths slowing down.

But suddenly Sylvie was being ripped from Percy's arms. Mickey had two hands on Sylvie's shoulders, watching the younger girl with crazed eyes.

"You are an asshole, Silviana Henriette Duvall!"

"I didn't do anything!" Sylvie cried defensively. "This time."

Percy had just pulled away from giving Annabeth a quicker side-hug. Annabeth looked desperately at Sylvie, both girls wondering what the hell the dramatic reunion was for.

"You are okay?" Tyson asked them both.

"We're fine," answered Sylvie, still confused. "We fell in a hole."

The others looked at Sylvie skeptically, then at Annabeth. Florian and Phoenix had showed up, both wearing the gold laurels, but the boys didn't even brag about winning, which wasn't like them. Seeing them together with those facial expressions directed at Sylvie, she realized just how lethal the insults directed towards her would be if they teamed up to throw any out. Before the boys could open their mouths:

"Honest!" Sylvie said. "There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were gone a minute."

"You've been missing for almost an hour," Chiron said. "The game is over."

"Yeah," Grover muttered. "We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me."

"Was an accident!" Tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

"We would've won," Mickey started, "but someone realized that you were missing and literally started going insane."

Percy argued, "I wasn't going insane!"

"Um, do I need to quote you saying—"

"A hole?" Clarisse interjected suspiciously, only focused on Sylvie and Annabeth.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked around at the other campers. "Chiron... maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

Clarisse gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "I—Yeah. Yeah, we did."

A bunch of campers started asking questions, looking about as confused as Sylvie was, but Chiron raised his hand for silence.

"Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at the boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking among themselves and giving Sylvie suspicious looks.

"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Luke is after."

"Wait a second," Percy said. "What do you mean? What did they find?"

Annabeth turned toward him, her eyes dark with worry. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

╰━━━ ◦ ❀ ◦ ❀◦ ━━━╯

BAILEY YAPS...

Alternatively titled, a slight Sylviebeth slay

Alternatively titled, SOMEONE NEEDS TO STAND UP AND IT'S NOT SYLVIE...

EKRHRFD I'M SO EXCITED FOR BOTL FLAYEDCRANK NATION

Sorry Sylvie and Percy weren't teamed up together but I couldn't do that & have them find the Labyrinth cause both of them know absolutely 0 about it...

But it's okay because I love the Sylvie and Annabeth duo likeeee those are my 2 gfs. Or my 2 children. Idk I just love them so

And we got Percy and Mickey again Don't ask why I'm suddenly pairing them up but they're lowk so funny to me??? Duo growing on me idk. Micheline Hayes and Piper McLean you could change lives together one day I fear

Florian and Pheonix? Close enough, welcome back Deadpool and Wolverine