The Sons of Light and Dark

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Percy POV

After Mikayla, Bianca, and Ethan left, Zoe, Alex, Killian, and Lilly were scheduled to go into the Labyrinth.

"Make sure to not let those two die," I said to Zoe. "Lilly is still inexperienced in combat and such and Killian still has a lot to learn about fighting. I trust you two to come back alive as well."

"Don't worry Percy, we will," Zoe said with a smile. I smiled back. She walked away and I turned to Alex.

"Alex, I expect you to listen to Zoe while on this quest. I'd rather not have to burn any shrouds anytime soon."

"Don't worry, I will make sure that if anyone blows up, it is Killian," he said with a smile and walked off towards the others, leaving me to wonder what the heck that meant.

Later that day, we had several cases of missing demigods. Silena, Summer, Lee, and Katie, all disappeared. We were all super worried but couldn't do anything about it. We asked the gods but they didn't know anything about it either. We were forced to sit and wait for them to return.

A day after the questers entered the Labyrinth, three of them returned. Zoe and Lilly have been very emotional since they came back. Apparently, Alex was right in some weird turn of events about Killian blowing up. To take out the telkhines making Kronos' scythe, he made Mt. St. Helens erupt, blowing him sky high and most likely to Ogygia. I must say, I was very impressed with Killian's power. He caused a volcano to explode. Very few demigods—of any parentage—could do that.

Lilly herself was a wreck. She thought Killian was dead, as did everyone else wasn't alive or didn't remember the other timeline. Myself and the others who remember like Malcom, Beckendorf, Clarisse, knew better. We were just waiting for him to come back on the magical raft. Zoe and Lilly practically thought we were heartless at how we were dealing with the predicament. We just told them to wait.

Two days later was the day for burning Killian's shroud. Michael Yew and I were waiting at the beach to the ocean for him to come back.

"How long do you think it'll take him?" Yew asked and I thought about it.

"A couple more minutes, five at the most," I answered.

"I say over five." he countered, staring out over the horizon.

"You're on." So we waited. After three minutes he appeared on the raft in the distance. "Haha! I win!" I jumped up and did a victory dance while at the same time making the water propel Killian towards us faster. After another minute he was ashore. "Come on fire breath, we have a funeral to ruin." Yew and I pulled him quickly to the campfire where the shroud should be. He just went along with it and didn't say anything.

When we crossed the hill we saw everyone. Beckendorf, Luke, Will, Clarisse, Chris, and Malcolm were sitting off to one side, conversing about something. Everyone else was moping and sulking about Killian's 'death'.

"Hey y'all!" I called down into the valley, getting everyone's attention. "Get ready to see the walking dead!" I pushed Killian into their view. The first person to rush him was Lilly. Once within enough distance, she threw herself into him, smothering him in a hug. Zoe was next, hugging both of them, which surprised me so much I thought my head was going to pop off. Then another person, then another, all to the point where Yew and I had to get them to stop.

"Alright guys, that's enough. You don't want to actually kill him now." Will joked and most of them backed off. Lilly was the only person wouldn't separate from him, which neither of us tried to stop. The only people who this seemed to bug was Theo and Killian himself. Theo, I could understand, but Lilly had thought Killian was dead. Some things must've happened on that quest where they had grown close and then this happened. I say that she was fine with making sure Killian stayed alive. I didn't understand Killian's behavior, though. He kept on trying to distance himself from Lilly, which sometimes led to her having a hurt look on her his face while he looked away from her, almost ignoring her.