•as the world caves in•

•a battle and goodbyes•

After reaching New York, getting some Pegasi and listening to a goodbye from Percy and Rachel that sounded more cringe than the one Percy and I had, I looked to Nico, who's Pegasus was backing away from him.

"Just go without me." Nico said. "I don't want to go to camp anyway."

"Nico," Percy said, "we need your help."

I looked to Nico, holding his shoulder. "Please?"

Nico huffed. "All right. For you, I'm not staying though."

Percy raised an eyebrow at me and I stuck my tongue out at him.

When we arrived at camp, we were in the middle of the cabin area, where Chiron, Silenus and some Apollo kids greeted us. We told him everything, and instead of being surprised, he sighed.

"I feared as much. We must hurry." Chiron said. "Hopefully you have slowed down the Titan lord, but his vanguard will still be coming through. They will be anxious for blood. Most of our defenders are in place, come!"

We went to follow, Silenus looked to Grover. "Wait a minute. What if the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks overdue, your searcher's license is revoked!"

Grover took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. "Those don't matter anymore. The great god Pan is dead and had left us his spirit."

"Sacrilege and lies! I will have you exiled!"

"It's true," Percy argued. "We were there when he died."

"We will speak about this later." Chiron said firmly, glancing to the older satyr. "My camp is under attack. The matter of Pan has waited two thousand years, I fear it will have to wait a bit longer assuming we are still here this evening."

On that note, he galloped away leaving us to follow.

What I saw was the biggest operation I'd ever seen take place at camp. There were traps laid on the ground, campers giving orders, hiding in the trees, it was a full on military operation.

I ran to Silena, Annabeth going to her cabin. Silena quickly hugged me. "Still no luck with him?"

I shook my head. "That'll have to wait til later, Silena. We have our home to protect."

Silena nodded, handing me the armor I only really used in capture the flag and helped me put it on. I held a shield, sometime I rarely used, and turned my ring into a sword. The ground rumbled beneath us.

"Lock shields!" Clarisse barked at us.

The first thing I saw were a dozen giants erupting from the ground, Charlie set off his catapults and the Apollo kids sent a volley of arrows to them. I backed away from the swing of the clubs the giants wielded, then quickly ran in to slash at their legs, then retreating again.

When we were almost done with them, a ton of snake women followed out. I engaged with some, but more and more enemies came.

We were overwhelmed.

A hellhound that wasn't Mrs. O'Leary launched out and half-bloods were fighting half-bloods. Fires started and I felt the ware of the battle as I stabbed another snake woman.

Right as we seemed evenly matched, Kampê launched from the ground, shoving Ariadne's string into her lion mouth. Her blades glowed green with poison.

Kampê landed on the command tent and I ran with Percy. "This might be it."

"Could be," he agreed.

"Nice fighting with you, Seaweed Brain."

"Ditto."

Together we charged at the beast, Percy doing his best to distract while I took tries at stabbing, but Kampê was able to fight us both with ease. She knocked us down and put her feet on us, grinning with laughter, holding her blades above us.

I accepted my fate, that perhaps my time that Pan spoke about was now, but suddenly a howl erupted and Mrs. O'Leary was snapping at Kampê.

"Good girl!" Daedalus shouted, slashing at enemies of his own.

Next to him was a rather familiar man.

"Briares!" Tyson shouted.

"Hail, little brother! Stand firm!" Briares bellowed to him. He launched boulders at Kampê that seemed to grow the more they were in the air.

Where Kampê once stood was now a pile of rocks as large as Zeus's Fist. In a final attempt, the giants attacked but Grover opened his mouth and the most horrible sound ever came out, sending the enemies back into the Labyrinth.

We all joined in the middle of camp. Daedalus looked slightly upset. "As long as the Labyrinth is here, your enemies can use it, which is why this cannot continue."

Annabeth stared. "But you said it's tied to you. You'd have to die."

"Yes, my young architect, when I die the Labyrinth will as well. So I have a present for you." He opened the satchel on his back and pulled out a silver laptop. "My work is here. It's all I managed to save from the fire. Notes of projects I never started, some of my favorite designs. Perhaps you'll find it interesting. You were right, children of Athena should be wise, and I was not."

Nico agreed to free Daedalus and sighed. "Bianca had passed and must stay where she is, but I will help release your spirit."

Daedalus nodded and turned to Percy. "Will you care for Mrs. O'Leary?" Percy nodded. "Then I am ready to see my son and Perdix, I just tell them how sorry I am."

Nico freed Daedalus and his body revealed its gears and it turned to ash.

But this was not the end of the night.

Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin was dead, I wasn't too close to him, but we did speak sometimes. Castor, one of the twin sons of Dionysus had died. His twin, Pollux tried to say something but ended up just lighting his shroud. I felt horrible. There were so many more campers, but I couldn't look at them.

The next day we treated our wounded and Grover had to argue about how Pan really was dead when Dionysus himself appeared.

"The minor gods are changing sides. Morpheus, Hecate, Janus, and Nemesis. Who knows how many more. Now, I want to hear Grover's story."

"It's just nonsense!" Silenus protested.

His eyes flared. "I have just learned that my son Castor is dead. I am not in a good mood." Grover told his story. "Sounds like Pan. He's right, this search is fruitless."

They voted where it was three-two on Grover being exiled, but Dionysus claimed a gods voted counted twice, so it was tied.

Grover and the satyrs who believed him divided the work Pan had given them, and it made me happy to see Grover growing up.