𝒊𝒗. 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔

𝒙𝒊𝒊.

Percy visibly deflated. "So you think she's dead?"

Chiron nodded solemnly at the boy who simply stared in front of him as he accepted the news.

Percy was the one who ended up breaking the silence. "I figured out how to get through the Labyrinth. I talked to Hephaestus." 

"He told you the answer?" Annabeth asked. 

"Well, he sort of told me that I already knew. And I do. I understand now." 

He told them his idea. 

Annabeth's jaw dropped. "Percy, that's crazy!"

Chiron sat back in his wheelchair and stroked his beard. "There is precedent, however. Theseus had the help of Ariadne. Harriet Tubman, daughter of Hermes, used many mortals on her Underground Railroad for just this reason." 

"But this is my quest," Annabeth said. "I need to lead it." 

Chiron looked uncomfortable. "My dear, it is your quest. But you need help." 

"And this is supposed to help? Please! It's wrong. It's cowardly. It's—" 

"Hard to admit we need a mortal's help," Percy said. "But it's true."

Annabeth glared at him. "I can't believe you. You're not even mourning Noelle after you've just found out about what happened, and now you want to go and run off into the labyrinth again where she might've died with a mortal."

Percy's calm façade broke. "You think I'm not upset? I loved her, Annabeth! And I-I never got to tell her."

Percy crumbled to his knees sobbing. Annabeth rushed to him, pulling him into a comforting hug and crying with him, keeping quiet about how she felt similarly to him.

Chiron stood there awkwardly as Will Solace burst into the room. He didn't even take in the two crying teens as he told them the news.

"The labyrinth," he said. "Defenses said someone just popped up out of nowhere."

~

Chiron cantered ahead of the three demigods as Will explained more what happened as they jogged towards the woods.

"They said the person didn't come from labyrinth," he said as they neared the defense lines. "That's part of why they didn't attack. The person just appeared from nowhere and collapsed."

As they reached the defense lines, Beckendorf came up to them. He nodded at the group in front of him.

"Juniper's with her now," he informed them. "That nymph is lucky we didn't fire at her, but she saved the girl's life."

"Girl?" Percy asked, eyes wide with hope. "Is it Noelle?"

Beckendorf gave Percy a sympathetic look before looking up at Chiron. "You might wanna check it out. She's not in the best of conditions."

Chiron nodded. "Come on, Will. I assume we'll need your healing powers."

Beckendorf instructed one of his siblings to lead them to where Juniper and this girl were before her turned back to Percy and Annabeth.

"Well?" Annabeth asked. "Is it her?"

Beckendorf managed a smile. "It's her."

Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief, turning and smiling at Percy. "She's alive."

"But you said she's in bad condition," Percy pointed out. "What's wrong?"

"She's, uh, very malnourished," Beckendorf said. "If she had been down there much longer she would have died."