The New Trinity -- Percy Jackson Batman Crossover -- The Olympian Heroes Book 4

19. Percy

"Where are we" Annabeth whispered nervously.
I frowned one second we were in the woods fighting the scorpions. Originally it had just been one but then two others came from the woods so our options were essentially either run or die. We took our first choice. I'd found a small crack in Zeus's fist just large enough for us to squeeze into. But that had led into a...cave? There's no way it had led into a cave. Between the probably thousands of Demigods who had past this someone would've found it.
I lifted my sword again for light.
“It’s a long room,” I muttered.
Annabeth gripped my arm. “It’s not a room. It’s a corridor.”
She was right the darkness felt…emptier in front of us. There was a warm breeze, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow.
I started forward, but Annabeth stopped me. “Don’t take another step,”
she warned. “We need to find the exit.”
She sounded really scared now.
“It’s okay,” I promised. “It’s right—”
I looked up and realized I couldn’t see where we’d fallen in. The ceiling
was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.
Annabeth’s hand slipped into mine. Under different circumstances I
would’ve been embarrassed, but here in the dark I was glad to know where she was. It was about the only thing I was sure of.
“Two steps back,” she advised.
We stepped backward together like we were in a minefield.
“Okay,” she said. “Help me examine the walls.”
“What for?”
“The mark of Daedalus,” she said, as if that was supposed to make sense.
“Uh, okay. What kind of—”
“Got it!” she 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: ∆, the Ancient Greek Delta.
The roof slid open and we 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 I could hear people yelling our names.
“Percy! Annabeth!” Tyson’s voice bellowed the loudest, but others were calling out too.
I looked nervously at Annabeth. Then we began to climb. We made our way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.
“Where have you two been?” Clarisse demanded.
“We’ve been looking forever.”
“But we were gone only a few minutes,” I said.
Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.
“Percy!” Tyson said. “You are okay?”
“We’re fine,” I said. “We fell in a hole.”
The others looked at me skeptically, then at Annabeth.
“Honest!” I said. “There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid
in the rocks. But we were only 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.
Clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she didn’t even brag about
winning them, which wasn’t like her. “A hole?” she said suspiciously.
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 I was, but Chiron raised his hand for silence. “Tonight is not the right
time, and this is not the right place.” He stared at 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 me suspicious looks.
“This explains a lot,” Clarisse said. “It explains what Luke is after.”
“Wait a second,” I said. “What do you mean? What did we find?”
Annabeth turned toward me, her eyes dark with worry. “An entrance to
the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp.”

I paced around the arena waiting for Annabeth to get back. After a quick war council Chiron had sent Annabeth to the Oracle.
"My dear,” Chiron said. “You made it.”
Annabeth looked at me first. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to warn me, or if the look in her eyes was just plain fear. Then she focused on Quintus. “I fot the prophecy. I will lead the quest to find Daedalus’s workshop.”
Nobody cheered. I mean, we all liked Annabeth, and we wanted her to
have a quest, but this one seemed insanely dangerous. After what I’d seen of Chris Rodriguez, I didn’t even want to think about Annabeth descending into that weird maze again.
Chiron scraped a hoof on the dirt floor. “What did the prophecy say
exactly, my dear? The wording is important.”
Annabeth took a deep breath. “I, ah…well, it said, you shall delve in the
darkness of the endless maze...”
We waited.
“The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise.”
Grover perked up. “The lost one! That must mean Pan! That’s great!”
“With the dead and the traitor,” I added. “Not so great.”
“And?” Chiron asked. “What is the rest?”
“You shall rise or fall by the ghost king’s hand,” Annabeth said, “the
child of Athena’s final stand.”
Everyone looked around uncomfortably. Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, and a final stand didn’t sound good.
“Hey…we shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Silena said. “Annabeth isn’t the only child of Athena, right?”
“But who’s this ghost king?” Beckendorf asked.
No one answered. I thought about the Iris-message I’d seen of Nico summoning spirits. I had a bad feeling the prophecy was connected to that.
“Are there more lines?” Chiron asked. “The prophecy does not sound
complete.”
Annabeth hesitated. “I don’t remember exactly.”
Chiron raised an eyebrow. Annabeth was known for her memory. She
never forgot something she heard.
Annabeth shifted on her bench. “Something about…Destroy with a hero’s final breath.”
“And?” Chiron asked.
She stood. “Look, the point is, I have to go in. I’ll find the workshop and
stop Luke. And…I need help.” She turned to me. “Will you come?”
I didn’t even hesitate we'd gone on quests and missions and battle countless times I wasn't going to leave her hanging for this one “I’m in.”
She smiled for the first time in days, and that made it all worthwhile.
“Grover, you too? The wild god is waiting.”
Grover seemed to forget how much he hated the underground. The line
about the “lost one” had completely energized him. “I’ll pack extra
recyclables for snacks!”
“And Tyson,” Annabeth said. “I’ll need you too.”
“Yay! Blow-things-up time!” Tyson clapped so hard he woke up Mrs.
O’Leary, who was dozing in the corner.
“Wait, Annabeth,” Chiron said. “This goes against the ancient laws. A
hero is allowed only two companions.”
“I need them all,” she insisted. “Chiron, it’s important.”
I didn’t know why she was so certain, but I was happy she’d included
Tyson. I couldn’t imagine leaving him behind. He was huge and strong and
great at figuring out mechanical things. Unlike satyrs, Cyclopes had no problem underground.
“Annabeth.” Chiron flicked his tail nervously. “Consider well. You would be breaking the ancient laws, and there are always consequences. Last winter, five went on a quest to save Artemis. Only three came back. Think on that. Three is a sacred number. There are three fates, three furies, three Olympian sons of Kronos. It is a good strong number that stands against many dangers. Four…this is risky.”
Annabeth took a deep breath. “I know. But we have to. Please.”
I could tell Chiron didn’t like it. Quintus was studying us, like he was
trying to decide which of us would come back alive.
Chiron sighed. “Very well. Let us adjourn. The members of the quest
must prepare themselves. Tomorrow at dawn, we send you into the
Labyrinth.”
Quintus pulled me aside as everyone was filing out of the arena.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” he told me.
Mrs. O’Leary came over, wagging her tail happily. She dropped her shield
at my feet, and I threw it for her. Quintus watched her romp after it.I
didn’t trust him, but when he looked at me, I saw real concern in his eyes.
“I don’t like the idea of you going down there,” he said. “Any of you. but if you must, I want you to remember something. The Labyrinth exists to fool you. It will distract you. That’s dangerous for half-bloods. We are easily distracted.”
“You’ve been in there?”
“Long ago.” His voice was ragged. “I barely escaped with my life. Most
who enter aren’t that lucky.”
He gripped my shoulder. “Percy, keep your mind on what matters most. If
you can do that, you might find the way. And here, I wanted to give you
something.”
He handed me a little silver tube. It was so cold I almost dropped it.
“A whistle?” I asked.
“A dog whistle,” Quintus said. “For Mrs. O’Leary.”
“Um, thanks, but—”
“How will it work in the maze? I’m not a hundred percent certain it will. But Mrs. O’Leary is a hellhound. She can appear when called, no matter
how far away she is. I’d feel better knowing you had this. If you really need help, use it; but be careful, the whistle is made of Stygian ice.”
“What ice?”
“From the River Styx. Very hard to craft. Very delicate. It cannot melt,
but it will shatter when you blow it, so you can only use it once.”
I thought about Luke, my old enemy. Right before I’d gone on my first
quest, Luke had given me a gift, too—magic shoes that had been designed to drag me to my death. Quintus seemed nice. So concerned. And Mrs.
O’Leary liked him, which had to count for something. She dropped the
slimy shield at my feet and barked excitedly.
I felt ashamed that I could even think about mistrusting Quintus. But then
again, I’d trusted Luke once.
“Thanks,” I told Quintus. I slipped the freezing whistle into my pocket,
promising myself that I would never use it, and I dashed off to find
Annabeth.