Fire boy and water girl

The one in where he hugs me

    We ran until we couldn't run.

    Rachel steered us away from traps, but we had no destination in mind, the only thing we wanted was to be far away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.

    We finally stopped in a tunnel of wet, white rock, but I didn't feel safe.

    "I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest. And I collapsed next to her, face planting into the ground.

    Annabeth had been crying the entire time we'd been running. Now she collapsed and put her head between her knees. Her sobs echoed in the tunnel. 

    Nico and Percy sat next to each and with a shaky breath. Nico said "That sucked."

    "You saved our lives," Percy said and I was too busy gasping for air as my throat hurt and I chugged water.

   "Blame the girls for dragging me along. That's the only thing they could agree on. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up."

   "Nice that they trust me so much."

  "oh my god I'm dying." I gasped as I struggled to get myself together, heart beating fast and head pounding.  While everyone ignored me.

   I ignored the rest of the conversation looking up at white shards that were poking out of the ceiling when Annabeth spoke.

   "What...what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

   And Percy explained everything. the way the last piece of Kronos's spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan Nakamura, a demi god, pledged his service.

   "No," Annabeth said. "That' can't be true. He couldn't—"

     "He gave himself over to Kronos," Percy said. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone." We were all screwed.

    "No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."

    "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush." I laughed at Rachel who looked embarrassed

   "It was the only thing I had."

   "But you saw," Annabeth insisted. "When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."

    "So maybe Kronos wasn't completely settled in the body, or whatever," Percy said. "It doesn't mean Luke was in control."

    "You want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth yelled.

    "Annebeth I know it's hard, but he let Kronos take over him willingly, he is a bad guy." I said softly.

   " No! You didn't know him before, None of you did, But I did!" She yelled.

    "What is it with you?" Percy snapped. "Why do you keep defending him?"

   "Whoa" Rachel said. "Knock it off."

    Annabeth turned on her. "Stay out of it, mortal girl! If it wasn't for you..." But her voice broke off and she started crying.

   "We have to keep moving," Nico said. "He'll send monsters after us."

    We were too tired to move but Nico's right.

    I rose with shaky feet and heard Percy say to Rachel,"You did good back there." And I walked over to Nico.

   "You did a good job too, you know." And I ruffled his hair. For the first time he didn't glare at me.

   "Thanks." And he hugged me. I hugged back after I got out of shock and smiled as I rested my chin on his head.

   I saw Percy knelt next to Annabeth over Nico's head. "Hey, I'm sorry. We need to move."

   "I know," she said. "I'm...I'm all right." She clearly isn't but she got to her feet,

    I let go of Nico and we started walking through the Labyrinth again.

  "Back to New York, Rachel, can you—" Percy started then froze. His flashlight beaming on a trampled clump of red fabric lying on the ground.

   "What is that?" I asked as Percy picked it up.

"It's Grovers." He answer. Then I noticed large footprints, and smaller ones, goat hooves, leading off to the left.

   "We have to follow them," Percy said. "They went that way. It must have been recently."

   "What about Camp Half-Blood?" Nico said."There's no time."

"We have to find them," Annabeth insisted. "They're our friends." And we walked into the tunnel.