The woods were always cold. Even in the bright summer, the cold of the night would always pierce through their armour. The shadows coated their surroundings, blocking out even the light of the moon, making it seem like it was twilight. It would have been, daresay, peaceful, even, if Percy and Kia weren't currently monster-hunting.

Fairly quickly into entering the woods, Percy had detected scuttle marks, marks that would be left behind something like a sharp tail, and the prints of something with many limbs. He nudged Kia, pointing his sword towards the marks, casting a dim bronze glow onto the area. Kia nodded, understanding and they shuffled along, carefully following the tracks.

The skin on the back of Percy's neck stood up when he and Kia heard a few twigs snap, just short of a few metres away from where they were, having jumped the creek. He let out a breath of relief when he saw that it was just the Stoll siblings—it was ironic how their father was the god of thieves while their stealth probably wasn't something that they could rely on.

Still, to remain hidden, they tactfully stayed quiet as they waited for the Stolls to pass by. They continued forward, forging deeper into the darker parts of the forests, where the crickets chirped louder and the voice of the wind was all you could hear. In dead silence, they stood on a ledge, closely clipping off a marshy lake.

"This is where we stopped looking," Kia said, her voice seeming to be missing something of its original tone. A second later Percy realised what she was talking about.

Last winter, two campers had disappeared: Nico di Angelo and Ethan Nakamura. This was where they had given up looking. It had been months since then, and still there was no sign of either of them. It made the back of Percy's throat taste bitter.

He looked at Kia, and he saw that her face was hardened. Her eyebrows were pulled together and the set of her mouth was tight; she looked angry and upset. One look at her was enough to tell him that she blamed herself.

"I saw Nico last night," Percy said, breaking the thickening silence.

Kia's gaze whipped to him immediately, interest and maybe a trace of hope clearing up her features. Percy knew it was impossible, but her eyes seemed to brighten just a little bit, taking to a slightly less intense shade of brown. Her eyes were quite beautiful if you learnt to look at them right. "Did you see Ethan?"

Percy shook his head no, feeling pathetic and helpless. He hated watching as Kia deflated slightly, and for a brief moment, he believe he shouldn't have told her at all. She knitted her eyebrows together right after though, pursing her lips. "Okay, never mind. How did you see Nico? Is he okay?"

Percy didn't know if 'okay' was the word to describe a child summoning the dead and talking to a ghost that was poisoning his thoughts, but he told her anyway. After he was done, she looked thoughtful. They kept walking as he waited for her to say something. A slit of moonlight poured through a gap between two tall trees, and it illuminated the darkening curves beneath Kia's eyes. The light made her skin look grey and ghoulish; Percy thought she looked like a very old ghost then, one who had seen much—wise yet so, so undeniably haunted.

"That can't mean anything good," she said at last. Kia sighed. She whispered, like it was to herself, "One job Bianca gives me and I can't even do that properly."

It didn't seem like it was meant to be heard by Percy, so he pretended not to, keeping quiet. He wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault, that she couldn't have known, and about a million other things, but in the end, he knew that Kia wouldn't listen. He knew that because he couldn't make himself listen either.

Just beyond the ridge, a branch snapped, lighting aflame the air between them with an edge of survival. Something large, something with a clear intention to wound or worse, was lurking behind the bushes, rustling the branches and snapping twigs.

Kia and Percy shared a silent thought: Guard and fight together.

With a simultaneous scrape of metal on the leather of their holsters, Kia drew her dagger—Ethan's dagger, a simple sixteen inch blade of Celestial Bronze with a worn brown leather hilt with the inscription Àpeiro, Infinity, scribed onto it, and Percy drew his sword—Riptide, a double-edged bronze blade with a leather-wrapped hilt embellished with gold studs.

With their weapons out, they reached Zeus' fist, a pile of boulders in the west woods. Usually, the place would be trodden with other campers as it was a common rendezvous point on hunting expeditions, but it was completely deserted now.

"There," Kia said, jutting her lip out east.

"No," Percy whispered, "behind us."

But it wasn't. The sound seemed to be coming from all around them. In little thickets, the sound of scuttling and scraping seemed to emerge from all around them. This wasn't good. They needed one single place to focus on so that they could coordinate their movements accordingly. They circled the rocks meticulously, tense for any sort of unwanted movements. From behind them, a voice said, "Hi."

Percy would have found the way Kia almost actually jumped out of her own skin funny if he didn't do the same. Blood was rushing in his ears and his heart was beating out of his chest. He was sure he could actually hear Kia's heart beating too. They whirled around, their weapons extended, Percy holding his out from where he stood and Kia's dagger diagonally to the voice's throat. Juniper the tree nymph yelped.

"Put those down!" she said blasphemously, as if she hadn't just scared the living daylights out of the two. "Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"Juniper!" Kia let out a shaky exhale. "We thought you were trying to kill us. What are you doing out here?"

"I live here," she said, staring at Kia.

The tip of Percy's sword fell in confusion. "In the boulders?"

Juniper pointed to the edge of the clearing. "In the juniper, duh." Kia looked at Percy like he was an idiot. He sure felt like one.

"Are you guys busy?" Juniper asked.

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

Kia stepped on his foot harshly and thoughtlessly, uncaring of the sharp wince it produced from him. Percy glared at her, which she pointedly ignored. "Nope, not busy at all. Is there anything you need?"

Juniper sniffled a little. Her eyes looked a little greener, like a more vibrant form of chlorophyll. She wiped the green silk sleeve of her arm underneath her eyes. "It's Grover. He seems so distraught. All year he's been out looking for Pan. And every time he comes back, its worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

Kia's eyes widened and Juniper started crying. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Of course he wouldn't! Grover would never." She looked to Percy in alert. He shrugged back cluelessly in a panic. He had no idea what to do with crying people either.

"He had a crush on a blueberry bush once," Juniper said, miserably crying and her tears messily spraying all over her dress, soaking in and forming wet patches.

Kia looked on blankly, having absolutely no idea what to say or do to make her feel better. In a last ditch attempt, she said, "But he picked you didn't he? He likes you, not the other blueberry bush." Was Kia absolutely sure this wasn't some cult that had kidnapped her and brainwashed her into saying all these ridiculous things she never thought she'd say? "I'm sure it's just him stressed about his searcher's license."

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

Uh oh. This was usually the area Annabeth held expertise in. Kia was at a loss for words. At least she was off the whole 'another tree' thing? Kia tried to channel her inner Annabeth. "It might be the only way to help him. We just need to find the entrance."

"Ah." Juniper wiped a thick blot of green tears off her cheek. "About that..."

There was a quiet rustle in the woods again. Juniper's eyes grew bigger. "Hide!"

Before they could ask what was going on, she dissolved into thick green mist. If only one of their powers was talking to literal dirt.

Percy and Kia turned, and there, they saw a shimmering amber-coloured insect, about a dozen feet long with jagged sharp pincers with an armoured tail and a stinger as long as Riptide. The scorpion had a red silk package attached to its back.

"I'll go behind and cut off its tail," Kia said. "You keep it at a distance since your sword is longer than my dagger."

Percy nodded. That was all that needed to be said; the rest they could communicate by observing each other. They had gotten pretty good at guessing what the other was planning simply by looking at each other.

"Be careful," was all Percy said.

As Kia was about to advance, crouching down to gain some cover, another two scorpions emerged from the woods, looking to be staring right at the two demigods.

"No way," Kia whispered.

"Half the scorpions coming straight to us is impossible," Percy agreed.

One, they could take on. Two, maybe if Apollo and Poseidon helped. Three, there was no chance they'd be able to get through this without becoming demigod salami for the three hungry monsters.

They fended them off as much as they could while inching backwards, their backs eventually meeting a bunch of boulders. This avoidance strategy wouldn't work forever.

"Climb?"

Kia pursed her lips. "We can't. There's no opening."

The scorpions were already surrounding them, heads coming closer and mouths foaming with something that reeked of acid. One in particular seemed eager to get a taste of some demigod delicacies, lunging forward to reach Kia. Percy reflexively clambered to slash with Riptide, but it backed out of range. Going onto offensive was too dangerous. They'd have to remain on defence for now, but how long could that possibly last?

Percy jumped to shift his weight on the other leg, going slightly to the right. Suddenly, there was nothing behind him. He looked back and saw the crack that was now there, between two of the largest boulders on Zeus' fist. It had never been there all the million times he had passed by before, but he wasn't about to let this chance to safety escape him.

"Kia," he said steadily, "get in here."

She swiped at a scorpion, forcing it backwards just a bit. Another was right behind her as she looked back at Percy. She looked to where he was pointing. "That thing? There's no way either of us would fit."

"I'll cover you. Go!"

She swiftly slipped behind him and fitted herself in between the rocks. Abruptly, she yelped and held onto Percy's shoulder. Instead of pulling herself up, she pulled him in. The rocks felt like they were swallowing them, and they were falling into a pit they were sure no one knew about before. The sky and scorpions were all they saw before the rocks seemed to close in on themselves. Just like that, they were engulfed in darkness.

The floor was cold and damp. It felt lumpy and uneven, like it was a dump of hardened asphalt. Percy lifted his sword. The light was just enough for him to see Kia's ghostly face. It looked pale and frightened. Genuine and unbridled fear polluted her features.

"What is this place?" Kia said shakily. Her breathes seemed choppy and uneven.

Percy tried to keep her calm, but he was freaking out like crazy too. "Safe from the scorpions, anyway." How was there suddenly a cave either no one knew about or talked there in between the cracks of a well-known place like Zeus' fist? It couldn't have just come out of nowhere. It reminded Percy way too much of the fissure Nico had formed in the ground to swallow the skeleton warriors.

Percy lifted his sword higher. "It's a long room."

"Corridor," Kia said, holding Percy's wrist to keep him from moving anywhere. She sounded like she was having trouble getting the words out properly. Her palm was as cold as a corpse, and after a few seconds, Percy realised she was shaking. He wondered if there was something more about this place that was troubling her. He shifted her hand so that it held his own instead of his wrist. She gripped it back tightly. He had a feeling she wouldn't be letting go until they got out.

There was a warm breeze, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow. It made Kia shiver and shake even more. Percy squeezed her hand. His hand was turning blue with how tightly she was holding it, but he didn't mind.

Kia lifted her other equally as quaky arm to hold Percy's shoulder, as if she knew what he was going to do. "Don't move. We need to get out of here. Now. If it's what I think it is..."

Percy could hear the fear in her voice. "Okay. It's okay. What should we do?"

"One step forward and one step back is all we can move, okay? Don't go further than that. Now touch the walls."

Percy followed her instructions. She seemed to be unsure of what she was saying, but that was all they had to go off of and Percy was sure she knew more about wherever they were than he did. "Look for a triangle shaped indent in the wall."

As he did, he felt that very thing in the wall, kind of like a fissure. "Kia, I found it."

"Press on it with your palm."

He did, and it lit up, glowing with a pale turquoise sort of glow, in the shape of the Ancient Greek letter Delta: Δ.

The pseudo-roof slid open, revealing a blanket of a starry night sky, which was way darker than it should have been. With one more look, they climbed up and out of the cave.

"Percy! Kia!" Tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, with other voices shouts in the background.

Once they got out, they ran right into Clarisse and the other campers, torches in their hands. "Where have you two been?"

"We've been searching for you two for almost an hour!" Vidya said, uncharacteristically distressed.

"But we were gone only a few minutes," Percy said in confusion.

Chiron trotted up, his hooves clip-clopping on the ground, tailed (hah, get it?) by Tyson, Grover and Annabeth. As soon as Annabeth saw them, she shot forward and wrapped them up in a hug.

"You idiots!" she said right after, because Annabeth. She punched both of them in the chest. Kia coughed aggressively, still not used to the power in her punches (it wasn't fair; Percy had, like, two years on her!).

"Percy!" Tyson said. "You are okay?"

"We're fine," Percy said assuringly. "We fell in a hole."

"Is that really the best way you could describe what happened?" Kia said tiredly.

The others looked at Percy skeptically, then at Kia, which was dumb because she was just as non-credible as Percy.

"Honest!" Percy exclaimed, his face twisting in offence. "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 grimly, a grave tone woven into his voice. "The game is over."

"What do you mean, 'a hole?'" Annabeth asked carefully.

Kia looked at her. "Beth... we should talk about it somewhere more private."

Clarisse had a gold laurel sat atop her brown hair. She gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

Kia refused to meet anyone's eyes. "I–I think so."

A clamour raised from all the campers, asking questions and fiercely demanding answers. Percy's expression tightened when he saw how small and weak Kia looked against all of them. Thankfully, however, Annabeth pulled her aside and Chrion raised a hand to the campers for silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at boulders uneasily while talking as if they were filled with explosives. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of minor protesting and mumbling and complaints, but the campers fanned out eventually in small groups.

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

"Wait a second," Percy said, deciding it was the right time to ask for answers. "What do you mean? What did we find?"

Annabeth answered, still holding Kia tightly, "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

Kind of a crappy chapter, but whatever, I guess. Gee, I wonder why Kia is so shaken up about the experience in the Labyrinth. Guess I'll just have to waiting until future chapters because writer is a non-explaining piece of shit. Excuse my language and stuff please, I am sleep-deprived. Also, there is some Quotev exclusive content on this fic, so if you'd like to check it out, you can. It's basically like a mind dump of all the original ideas I had for this fic, both the ones I ended up adding as well as the ones I didn't. If you're interested in seeing those, it can be found on Quotev under my username, undeadauthor. I hope you guys enjoy reading as much as I love writing. I will be sleeping now because I am very tired. Goodnight, good evening, good morning or good day!