Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.

41. Apollo Wants to be the God of Watching Percy's Back.

"This is not going well," Icarus declared from where he had stopped at the head of the group.

After exiting the service tunnel, much to Leo's dissatisfaction at having to pass beneath the sign, they had simply looked down and noticed that two pairs of footprints had come from the left, so they headed to the right - following the path that Octavian and Nathan would have taken.

And then they had hit the first fork in the path.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked, sliding past a few bodies so he was level with his teammate who was staring at the floor with an uncertain look on his face.

"They're both glowing," Icarus responded. "The path to what you desire is supposed to be the one that glows, but both of them are glowing."

"Which means that what we desire is in two separate directions," Annabeth spoke up. "Think about it. We want to find Nathan and Octavian. That's path one. We also want to find the missing god. That's path two. We need to choose which one we want more."

"So we have to choose between catching a murderous traitor and finding a missing god?" Piper asked. "Great."

"Nico," Percy turned to locate his friend. "This should be your choice."

"You can't say that," Nico denied, shaking his head. "That's not fair. You can't ask me to make that decision because you know what I'll say. I'm biased about this."

"Look, I know we originally planned to go after Nathan and Octavian and I may be playing devil's advocate here with what I'm about to say." Jason held his hands up and looked guilty. "But wouldn't it make more sense to try and locate the god first, Nathan and Octavian second?"

Piper elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ouch, Pipes!" Jason yelped. "Can you at least let me defend my reasoning?"

"Do you genuinely have a defence?" Piper raised an eyebrow.

"Yes!" Jason nodded. "Look, Nathan and Octavian are on the side to Gaia, that's safe to assume."

"Well no shit, Sherlock," Apollo muttered under his breath.

"It is also safe to assume that it is Gaia who is responsible for kidnapping the god." Jason continued, ignoring Apollo. "And no doubt that is where Nathan and Octavian will be heading. The issue with following them is that no doubt they'll be getting lost and going in circles if Nathan cannot properly guide them. We follow the path to the god and we get there first, deal with whoever is holding him and lie in wait for Tweedledee and Tweedledum to show up."

"I can't believe Jason is the one making sense," Leo whispered. "Someone pinch me, Jason is actually making sense."

"He has a point," Nico agreed, though he looked slightly pained. "They'll probably be headed for whatever stronghold they've established within the maze."

"We can follow them there if you would prefer?" Percy offered.

"No," Nico shook his head. "We find the god first."

Apollo had moved up to the front of the group, standing close to Percy and Icarus. "We had better be making the right choice here," the god muttered so only they could hear him.

"We'll find them," Percy stated, determined. "All of them."

Icarus took the left.

"I feel like we've already walked through here four times," Leo announced after they passed through yet another room that had concerningly blank walls. "How long have we even been down here?"