They had been given a way to find Daedalus; through Hephaestus. Eurytion had given them a temporary guide, a metallic spider with eight long legs that scurried hastily across the ground in the direction of Hephaestus' Forge. Annabeth was reluctant to follow behind the spider, but they had no choice or it would get away, because the thing didn't seem to have any notion to stop and let them catch up. Several corpses later, the team arrived in a room, fresher dead bodies leaning against the wall that reeked. But once everyone stepped into the room, metal bars slammed down, blocking them from their exit. Blinding lights flashed, and Reagan had to squint until her eyes adjusted to the harsh lighting. And let's just say that she was not prepared for what she saw: A Sphinx was grinning at them broadly from the other side of the room, allowing a perfect sight or her razor sharp teeth.
Her head was completely human, but her body was that of a lion. Tyson whimpered under his breath from somewhere to her right, and to her left she saw the small spider scurry between the bars without them. When Annabeth tried to advance forward, the Sphinx growled and swiped with one of her massive paws, successfully stopping them from going on. But then she grinned once more, and for the first time Reagan could see a blue sash across her chest that read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED EXEMPLARY! The monster pounced forward gracefully, stepping onto a podium that was lit up by a bright spotlight, and it illuminated the pounds of makeup that was caked on her face.
"Are you ready to play, 'Answer That Riddle!'?" she announced, and there was laughter that switched on afterwards, but no audience watching them. Where had it come from? "Who is the lucky contestant?"
"It should obviously be me," Annabeth muttered to her friends and stepped forward onto an opposite podium, cueing more forced laughter from some invisible force.
"Great!" The Sphinx exclaimed gleefully. "Are you ready, Annabeth?"
She nodded even though she never mentioned her name. "Ask me your riddle."
The monster grinned menacingly. "A series of riddles actually! The riddle was becoming easy to solve, so we decided to change it up."
Annabeth's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. As she opened her mouth to dispute this, the Sphinx asked it's first question, which she answered right after as if she knew what was being asked before it even was. Six questions out of twenty before she spoke up suddenly from the barrage of questions:
"Stop! This is a stupid test!" the girl cut in sharply. "I'm a child of Athena, and this insults my intelligence. I won't take this test."
Reagan wanted her to shut up, to just answer the questions so they can be done and on their without having to start any fight. But part of her felt so proud of Annabeth, to the point that the corner of her lips pulled up into a lopsided smirk and her hands balled up into fists at her sides.
"That's my girl," she whispered under her breath enthusiastically.
The Sphinx's eyes gleamed dangerously in the spotlight, and she smiled calmly to reveal her sharpened fangs once more. "Well, all students who refuse to take the test will be eaten."
Before anyone could say or do anything, the monster launched itself at Annabeth. Tyson shouted something that Reagan hadn't registered fully yet as she activated her weapon, and the Cyclops charged the Sphinx and the two went flying across the room in a mess of limbs that clawed at each other furiously. But the creature wasn't interested in Tyson, she wanted Annabeth. Brandishing her spear in front of herself and Annabeth, Reagan came to her side, watching as Tyson wrestled the Sphinx down bravely. But that didn't last long, because it was slowly overpowering him.
"She doesn't care about us," Reagan said shortly in one breath. "Put your hat on so she can't find you."
"But I can fight!"
To emphasize how much danger she was in potentially, the monster finally overpowered Tyson, lunging itself in their direction. Reagan sneered and grit her teeth, stabbing at the Sphinx defensively, but all it did was create a barrier that the Sphinx jumped over. Reagan grunted as her back smacked into the ground, the sheer force of the creature knocking her down as it jumped right over her to get to Annabeth. She felt her heart leap into her throat, creating a lump that she couldn't push down.
"No!" she choked out breathlessly, writhing to get off her back and pushed herself up onto her knees to see if it had gotten Annabeth.
The Sphinx, with a gleeful expression on it's hideous face, raised it's paws that had swiped for the girl, only to see that she had attacked nothing but air. Annabeth was gone. Letting out a sigh of relief, Reagan began to get up but felt fingers wrap around her arm and looked up, noticing that it was Percy with Riptide in his other hand.
"Thanks."
He shrugged nonchalantly without looking away from the monster that slowly turned to them, it's original target now gone. "Don't mention it."
She smiled and raised her spear with his Riptide right as the Sphinx launched itself at them furiously. Ready to combat it with Percy, Reagan willed the fire to grow, but suddenly a bronze machine went flying into the monster's face, breaking apart on impact.
"Nooo!" the monster shrieked in agony as it gazed down at her precious machine. "Now I have to grade all those tests by hand!"
The fur on the lion part of the body bristled with newfound anger at the half-blood heroes and snarled.
"The tunnel's open now, guys!" Grover chimed as he pulled his reed pipes up out from under his shirt, strung to his neck with a thick rope necklace.
They all began to run towards the exit, and Reagan prayed to the gods that Annabeth was running, too. Tyson caught up with them, his shirt torn to shreds, as they ran out of the room down the tunnel that the metal spider ran through. Grover slowed to a stop, only to begin playing his reeds. Tons of broken pencils that littered the ground came to life, willing themselves into thick rope-like vines that snaked around the lion's body and slowing it down. Roaring angrily and tearing the vines apart with it's claws, the bars slammed down and separated them from the Sphinx before it could dive through and get them.
They didn't stop until they could no longer hear the monster screaming about how she had to grade all those exams by hand now- or by paw, as it goes.
"Annabeth?" Percy breathed out once they all slowed to a stop.
"Right here."
She took off her Yankees cap, rippling back into reality at their side. Since all of them were safe, it was time to try and find Hephaestus and his tiny spider, if possible. Surprisingly, it was comparatively safe considering how much trouble they've already gone through in the Labyrinth. Reagan was ready to give up on finding their escort, but it was Tyson that heard the barely audible pinging of metal against metal further down one of the tunnels. The group had back tracked, gotten lost, and went in circles for what felt like hours before the spider was found, gently banging its head against a bronze door.
Or it was supposed to be a door, but actually looked like one of those portholes atop a submarine. Needless to say, it was Tyson who was the most eager to meet the god. Which wasn't hard to imagine since he loved to build and tinker just as much as Hephaestus. He led the way right behind the spider, and they eventually ended up in what looked like a person's workshop where they'd work on cars. In fact, the god was working under a car nearby, only coming out from under it as the metallic spider scurried underneath to greet its creator.
His massive hands handled the small thing with ample dexterity, taking it apart and putting it back together. "That's better," he grumbled, eyes finally landing on them with a hint of disdain. "I didn't build you, right?"
"Uh, no, sir," Annabeth answered nervously.
He didn't seem surprised by their appearance in the least. "Good. Some shoddy craftsmanship." But then his eyes landed on Tyson, and despite the ever present glowering scowl on his face, there seemed to be a kinder glint of appreciation underneath the hard exterior. "Ah, a Cyclops. What are you doing with this lot?"
Tyson was too caught up in the moment to verbalize a response. "Uh-"
Hephaestus nodded. "I see. What else do you have to say to me?"
The Cyclops hesitated for a moment, playing with a torn portion of his shirt before saying something. "We met a One Hundred Handed One."
"Was his name Briares?" the god sighed.
Tyson nodded eagerly. "Yes! But he- he would not help us."
Hephaestus had lumbered over to a working desk, where a pile of what seemed like useless things sat in a heap. His hands worked effortlessly to assemble it, and the end result was a hand held eagle that took flight, soaring in circles above their heads before landing on Tyson's shoulder and nipping his ear affectionately, causing him to giggle and clap with glee.
"You see, young Cyclops," he began, whistling and attracting the automaton back to land on his finger, where he plucked a single metallic feather and it fell apart in his palm. "The only things you can trust are the things you build. People, monsters, and even gods change. Take my mother for example. She got one look at me and threw me off a mountain."
Reagan paused, her eyebrows raised skeptically. "I thought Zeus did that to you?"
The god rolled his eyes, spitting into a bronze spittoon not too far away from them. Reagan wrinkled her nose in disgust. "That's the story she likes to say." The spider had dropped to the floor between them, and Annabeth unconsciously took a step back and closer beside Reagan. "She saw one look at me and.... Well, I don't really fit into the image of a perfect family," he said, gesturing vaguely to his own misshapen form.
Reagan felt her jaw clench up slightly, a stiff tendon along her neck that could barely be seen under the flesh. "One of the things you built killed my friend."
Hephaestus straightened slightly, and for a split second she was certain that the comment had signed her death warrant, but no killing blow came. "Don't like me, eh? Well, you're not the first. What do you ask of me?"
"We want to find Daedalus," Percy answered for her, which she didn't mind at all, because she had some choice words for him that would make even Hera gasp.
It wasn't easy getting even the slightest bit of help from Hephaestus, if that was what it was called at all. In the end, it came out to be a favor for a favor, and the heroes were sent to Mt. Saint Helens. The spider led the way again without pausing to let them catch up like before, but the trip was rarely exciting at all, save for the moaning and groaning that the Labyrinth did every once and a while. Eventually, the group must have been outside of the mythical underground maze, because the ground was covered in fresh earth; They traveled over slightly damp dirt, moss, and grass, even had to jump over the large roots of massive trees that began to densely surround them. Which made following the spider that much harder, because as it ran under the large roots with ease, they had to slow down to carefully jump or even crawl over them and sprint to catch up with the automaton once again. The ground began to slope down, and as Reagan slowed a little behind the group to catch her breath, she could see Mt. Saint Helens in the distance, smoke rising from the top. Panting heavily, she forced herself to catch up with everyone else, which was just a waste of energy, because they had stopped towards the bottom of the hill they were going over.
"What are-"
But Grover was staring in awe at an open tunnel. It looked like the earth had opened up a gaping maw to swallow them whole. The tunnel was perfectly crafted though- unreal. The walls were straight and tall, the tunnel must have been at least twelve feet tall, and carved straight from the ground itself. There was a gentle breeze that coasted through the tunnel, and the scent reminded Reagan of late spring right after a storm. It was the smell of freshly watered ground and the flowers were all in bloom and she could smell every flower that was near her. She found herself closing her eyes slightly and smiling, imagining they were all sitting back at camp near the strawberry fields filled with ripe fruit and frollocking Satyrs.
"Come on!" Annabeth insisted patiently, but Grover wouldn't budge.
"Can you smell it?"
Percy frowned and stood beside his best friend. "What?"
"Pan."
They all fell silent at that, because finding Pan was always Grover's dream.
Annabeth stepped from foot-to-foot nervously. "I'm sorry, Grover. But we have to go. The spider is getting away from us."
Soon enough the spider would be out of sight and they'd never be able to find it again.
"I have to go this way."
"We can't split up," the daughter of Athena argued in return. "It's never a good idea to get split up, especially within the Labyrinth."
Reagan felt terrible for Grover, but before she could offer to go with him, Tyson spoke up in her place.
"I will go with goat boy."
Percy looked at his half-brother then. "Are you sure about that, Tyson?"
The Cyclops nodded and patted Grover's shoulder gently. "Yes."
Reluctantly the two groups parted ways, with Grover and Tyson going back into the Labyrinth while Percy, Annabeth, and Reagan went into chase for the spider once more. When Reagan glanced over her shoulder, the tunnel was gone, sunken back into the earth where it came from.
xxx
They must have been right up next to the mountain, because Reagan was sweating profusely like they were in sauna from the heat radiating off the volcano. She pulled at her damp shirt that clung to her body absently, behind Percy and Annabeth as they followed the metallic spider to some opening in the side of the mountain.
"Annabeth," Reagan breathed out slowly as she kept her breath as even as possible. "What did Hephaestus mean when he said your mother sworn off marriage?"
The girl arched an eyebrow and glanced over her shoulder. "She doesn't marry. What was hard to understand about that?"
Her tone was mocking, teasing, and Reagan felt her face darken. But fortunately it was already pretty red from the heat.
"Okay," Percy said slowly. "Then how did you...?"
Her grey orbs danced with mirth. "Do you guys really want me to explain this to you?"
"No!" Reagan insisted quickly from the back, her face even darker, eliciting a soft laugh from Annabeth.
The heat was even more intense inside the mountain, and as they reached the ending of a tunnel, the spider's legs curled into itself to create a tiny metal ball at their feet. The inside was bigger than Reagan had anticipated, and she found herself mesmerized by the molten lava far at the bottom. But then her gaze swept over a large steel platform in the center that was elevated by bars rising from the lava and steel cables in various directions. The sight made her lips part in awe.
"This place must have looked really cool when Hephaestus was using it."
Amongst the contraptions atop the platform were dark figures moving, but they were too small to make out. "What do you think they are? I can't make them out." Percy frowned.
Annabeth stooped down to pick the spider ball up and put it in her backpack. "I can. Wait here."
Before anyone could protest, she had slipped her Yankees cap on and vanished from sight. Percy and Reagan looked at each other uncomfortably.
"I think I should have gone with Grover. Not Tyson. I'm not much use to you guys," Reagan said awkwardly with a crooked smile as she turned to look down the tunnel they had come through.
Percy shook his head, but he was also looking back into the tunnel longingly, missing his friend's dearly already. "Are you kidding me? You killed Geryon! You're pretty cool-" He hesitated then grinned. "For an Ares kid."
Reagan almost laughed out loud at that last comment. A year or two ago, she probably wouldn't have hesitated to punch his lights out.
"It's been really great to know you, Percy. I'm glad I've had the chance to meet you and go on quests with you."
Percy wanted to object, because to him that sounded too much like a goodbye. But as he turned to her, she was already walking along an edge down towards the platform.
"Come on!" Reagan called over her shoulder. "I hate standing around like this."
The more she stood around, the more she worried about Annabeth.