I rubbed my eyes as I sat up the next morning...at the beach. How in the god’s name did I end up on the beach? I shook my head as I stood up. I was in a tank-top and some pajamas shorts which wasn't my usual bed-time attire. I glanced up and saw someone walking down the beach towards me. I thought I saw the sun glint off something in their face and I smiled as I ran over towards them.

"Blake!" I laughed as I ran towards him but as I got closer I gradually slowed down to see that it wasn't Blake coming towards me but someone that sent my heart plummeting into the Underworld. My heart started to beat widely as I saw Luke walking towards me. He had the dog-tag between his teeth, which was what I say glinting in the sun. It wasn't Blake's snakebites.

"Not who you were expecting?" He asked as he stopped about ten feet away from me with his arms crossed.

"That's impossible. I saw your body!" I accused pointing my finger at him. He chuckled, smiling at me. He glanced up at the sun before looking out at the sea before taking a casual stance, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"You should know by now Cassi that Kronos can work miracles." He said as he looked back at me. I shook my head in disgust.

"No you need to be dead." I said. A flash of hurt crossed his face before returning to the normal look he had on before.

"You want me dead?" He asked.

"Everything would be a lot easier if you were, Luke. The war would be so much easier to fight knowing I wasn't fighting against someone who I considered family at one point." I said. He stared at me for a moment.

"What about fighting against the person you love?" He asked.

"Loved." I muttered. He stared at me and shook his head.

"I don't believe that." He countered. I took step backwards knowing that if I went closer to him things might get a little messy.

"You don't have to." I muttered as I made fists. He just set a glare at me and I swallowed.

"You just should have stayed dead!" I screamed at him which caused the dream scene to ripple slightly. He glanced down at his shoes before looking up at me with something in his eyes.

"I never take them off." He muttered as he put the dog-tags into his shirt. I shrugged.

"It doesn't matter Luke. It never will again." I muttered. He just chuckled and glanced up at me.

"See you soon Cassi." He muttered and I shook my head.

"I'll kill you myself." I screamed as I ran at him before everything went black.

I jerked up in bed covered in my own cold sweat. Percy was standing over me and had his hands on my shoulders. I noticed that Annabeth and Grover were here to, along with Blake.

"Cassi." Percy said as I tried to settle my beating heart. They were all staring at me concerned.

"I let you sleep through breakfast because I woke you up early this morning." Percy said as I ran a shaky hand through my hair. I nodded not sure if I should be thankful of him leaving me sleep with my nightmares or not. I would decide on that fate of that later because he was staring at me expectantly and I didn't want to tell him while Blake was here.

"Do you want to talk about it now?" He asked. I shook my head.

"No, not now. Later." I agreed. He nodded.

"So I have a few questions for you." Percy said and I raised an eyebrow before swinging my legs over the side of my bed and standing up.

"Of?" I asked as I went over to my dresser and pulled out my camp t-shirt and a pair of jean shorts before going behind my changing screen.

"The labyrinth." Percy said. My blood ran cold and I froze behind the screen staring down at my discarded clothes.

"Cassi...have you been in there?" Annabeth asked. I swallowed and continued changing before stepping out from behind the screen. I nodded.

"I once stumbled upon it in Manhattan when I had run away once from my boarding school. It was purely an accident that I had ended up at it but once it happened I....it was a bad place." I muttered shaking my head. I thought about the things I had seen in that. It was the same year I had abandoned the Hunt.

"You have to tell us about it!" Annabeth protested. I glanced up at her and stared her in the eyes and she knew what she was seeing. She saw that I was terrified.

"I almost died alright. If I hadn't been with the hunters for the years I had been I probably would've died in that maze, which the gods probably would've been happy about." I muttered.

"Then how did you get out?" Percy asked.

"A man inside the maze helped me. He saw that I had gotten inside there by pure accident and he didn't want to see me die inside. I tend not to think about the maze much because it was such a blur of running from monsters." I muttered and he nodded.

"What's with all the questions of the labyrinth?" I asked quickly as I watched their body language.

"We were thinking maybe Pan was there..." Annabeth said.

"And you guys were thinking about going down into that miserable thing?" I demanded. Percy shrugged.

"You're insane!" I said loudly to all three of them as Blake moved so he was behind me. He set his hands on my shoulders.

"Calm down Cassi." He murmured as he placed a kiss on the back if my head. I sighed and shook my head.

"You seriously have no idea what you're going up against in there. I promise you that." I muttered. Percy nodded and stared at me as I fiddled with nails.

"Oh, there's a capture the flag tonight, too, after dinner." Percy said. I nodded.

"Then I'll see you then. I need to go and walk around for a bit." I whispered. Percy nodded and I gave Blake's hand a squeeze before making my way out of the cabin. I headed to the strawberry fields to go pick some strawberries so I could get my head together thinking.

******
By the time it was ready for me to get ready for capture the flag my hands were dirty as hell and my skin had taken a nice little tan hue from being under the sun for the last few hours. I was ready to fight someone now. I hurried to where they were going to be with my equipment dragging behind me and my weapons slapping against my chest on my necklace still as Quintus was explaining that the monsters in the forest had laurel wreaths on their backs and we had to get the wreaths to win. Blake helped me get my armor on before I slung my hair up into a messy pony-tail and pulling my Stygian Iron sword out. I got a few looks for using it but I just stared at them until they looked away.

"Did he read off the names yet?" I asked. He nodded.

"You're all late and wrong tonight." He chuckled as he put the helmet on my head. I just smiled at him as my nose poked the end of the part that protected the bridge of my nose.

"Who am I with tonight?" I asked.

"Me princess." He chuckled. I smiled up at him.

"Good," I murmured. He chuckled and then we started to talk how we should just head into the woods and start looking for monster tracks and take down anyone in our way. It was a good plan but I thought but I said we should play defensive too, which took Blake for surprise. I wasn't the one to do defense but offense.

"Your call Cass." He said as we headed into the woods. I had told Percy and Annabeth to call us if they needed help. Percy and I had worked out a whistle that we carried with us in case we got into a sticky situation in the city. It had been handy this past winter for things. Blake and I walked through the forest quietly not saying anything to each other. We were quiet and then Blake stopped me. He was staring at the ground.

"What?" I asked.

"There are tracks heading this way to Zeus's fist." He muttered.

"Okay, so I guess we're following?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Why not? I'm starting to get bored." He laughed. I just rolled my eyes smiling and we started to trek towards Zeus's fist. When we got to the pile of rocks that looked like Zeus's fist we saw three huge scorpions, or something that looked like them. The thing had pincers and an armored tail. It was about ten feet long give or take and had a stinger...the size of my fucking sword. Oh my god. There had to be someone here for them to just come together here. One of them turned towards us and Blake grabbed me in warning as all three of them turned towards us.

"Who do you think was here before hand?" He asked. I shrugged.

"I have no idea but where did they go? They must have been cornered against the rocks." I muttered as they started to move closer to us. I sighed as I swung my fingers through my fingers.

"You ready?" He asked. I nodded and we waited for a moment before dodging off to the side of one of them while I took my own running towards it. Its stinger came at me fast and I parried it out of my way and grabbed my shield putting it out in front of me. The stinger dinged against my shield sending me backwards three feet.

"Why did all three of them come at whoever was here?" I muttered. I ran at them only to jump over a pincer as it stabbed my way.

"Cassi be careful!" Blake yelled at me as he worried about his own. I smirked at the creature in front of me and I saw the stinger coming at me again. I dodged it barely. It caught my camp shirt ripping it but not breaking the skin on my arm. That was too close for comfort. While fighting my creature I had totally forgotten that there was another. I felt a crushing blow throw me backwards ten feet towards the tree line. I rolled onto my to see that the third creature had knocked me off of his friend. Now they were both advancing on me and I was actually getting scared. I couldn't take on two at once. We needed more people. I started to try and run to the left but one caught off my way. The other was to the right and my only way was straight and I knew that if I did that I was a sitting duck for the stingers. I glanced up at Blake to see him stabbing his scorpion. He was getting the package off his back as I looked up at him. He wasn't looking over at me trying to keep the stinger of his away from himself. I took a deep breath.

"Father be with me." I whispered. I took a deep breath again and siked myself up because I saw them both inching towards me from the sides. I ran straight through as fast as I could. I saw a tail come at me and I slid underneath it while the other one came from the other direction behind me. It clocked me in the head making me fall to the ground. I let out a strangled cry and that got Blake's attention as he killed the creature. I was scrambling to get up when I felt something pierce my skin on my waist. My breath caught in my throat as fire seemed to rip through my body. I glanced down to see the stinger in the side of me. I screamed and Blake stopped and stared, mouth open.

"Cassi!" He yelled as I fell to the ground. My breathing was coming out in strangled gasps as the venom started working slowly into my system. He ran over to me as we heard footsteps coming through the forest. The creatures ran off at the sound as Blake set down the package, kneeling besides me. Blake raised my shirt and winced. I glanced up to the footsteps struggling to keep my eyes open.

"Guys it's Cassi and Blake!!" Clarisse yelled. I heard more steps as blackness took over

Blake
"Cassi." I said as her head lolled to one side. She didn't respond and my heart jumped into my throat. I felt for a pulse and it was weak and thready.

"Clarisse get Chiron. Hades get someone!" I yelled at her as she started to walk towards us. She nodded and disappeared through the trees running. I looked at the blood pouring from the wound and I glanced at her face. In her passed out state her face was contorted in pain and I knew it was from the stinger. I should've never moved away from her. I should've stayed next to her in the fight. I didn't want to move her either because of the venom. I didn't want it to start spreading quicker because of her being jostled around. A thing of sweat appeared on her forehead.

"Cassi." I muttered. I heard hooves against the ground and glanced up to see Chiron.

"She got hit by a stinger in the side. Three of them came at us at once!" I said. He nodded and then two people appeared with a stretcher before rolling her onto it.

"She'll be fine Blake." Chiron said but there was something in his eyes that made me question what he was saying. I watched them carry her away and I ran after them following them to infirmary.


Jake
A pair of Apollo kids went by carrying someone on a stretcher and by the way they were running it was serious. I wandered what happened. I kept walking towards where I had heard the scream when Blake went running by following them.

"Ah shit." I muttered. If it was Blake running after the pair, then Cassi must've gotten hurt. I got to the clearing where Zeus's fist was to find everyone scattered around it.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Cassi got hit by a stinger. Didn't look good." Clarisse muttered. I nodded and sighed. Only Cassi would manage to get hurt in a game at camp. I shook my head and looked at Chiron who sighed and only shook his head. He must've been worried.

"Alright everyone back to the game." Quintus said appearing. That annoyed me a little. A camper just got really hurt, a kid of the big three, and he was acting like it was nothing. Clarisse glanced over at me as I glared at him slightly. She just nodded and made her way back through the forest.

"Chiron. Is she gonna be okay?" I muttered walking over to him.

"She should but it'll take a couple days or so. It's going to be rough. That poison is nasty stuff." Chiron said. I nodded and sighed. Only Cassi.

****

It was an hour after the game ended and everyone had shown up to see who the winners were except Percy and Annabeth. Clarisse was announced the winner. At this point everyone knew that Blake was with Cassi in the infirmary while some Apollo kids worked on Cassi. Her condition hadn't changed, or so I hadn't been informed of anything different.

"Spread out and look for Percy and Annabeth. They still have to be in camp." Chiron said. We nodded and I went with Clarisse, Grover, Tyson, and Chiron. We were walking around for about an hour when Percy and Annabeth both came around a corner of a rock pile that we had been walking around.

"Where have you two been? We've been looking forever." Clarisse demanded.

"But we were only gone a few minutes." Percy said. I shook my head.

"Percy! You are okay?" Tyson asked. When we had told Tyson what happened to Cassi he wanted to rush over to the infirmary to see her but we had persuaded him to help look for Percy instead so Cassi would rest. In reality she wasn't even conscious.

"We're fine. We fell in a hole." Percy said. I glanced at both of them weirdly. A hole? What holes did we have here at camp?

"Honest! There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only god a minute." Percy said. I shook my head. So the three scorpions that attacked Cassi and Blake were the same ones after Percy and Annabeth.

"You've been missing for almost an hour. The game is over." Chiron said.

"Yeah, we would've won but a cyclops sat on me." Grover said. I rolled my eyes. Grover needed to get over the lose already. It was too bad that we lost but we had bigger things to worry about if we had holes popping up in camp because if I was right it was a bad thing to have a hole leading underground because that sounded a lot like the labyrinth.

"Was an accident!" Tyson said.

"A hole?" Clarisse said echoing my thoughts.

"Chiron...maybe we should talk about this at the Big House." Annabeth said as we started to get an audience.

"You found it didn't you?!" Clarisse gasped.

"I- yeah. Yeah, we did." Annabeth said. I slammed my hand to my forehead. That's all we needed was an entrance to the labyrinth underneath camp so Luke and his stupid cronies could come through and tear this place to pieces. That's when we heard the muttering of things behind us from the campers that had shown up. Chiron raised his hand silencing the crowd of people.

"Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place. All of you back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well, played, but curfew is past." Chiron said. We watched as they all headed back to their cabins begrudgingly.

"This explains a lot. It explains what Luke is after." Clarisse said. I growled. I still hated him, after everything he had put Cassi through that boy was number one on my hit list.

"Wait a second. What do you mean? What did we find?" Percy asked confused.

"An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp." Annabeth said as she looked at Percy. I rubbed my temples and Chiron coughed. I glanced up at him and he was looking at me to Percy. I nodded. He wanted to tell Percy about Cassi.

"We also have another problem.... a little less serious cause she's going to survive but still." I muttered. Annabeth and Percy looked at me.

"She?" Annabeth asked confused.

"Who got hurt?" Percy asked.

"Cassi. Her and Blake stumbled upon the three scorpions that were on you and attacked them. She got stabbed by a stinger in the process." Chiron said. I nodded.

"Where is she?" Percy asked quickly as panic set into his eyes.

"She's in the infirmary. You can go see her if you wish." He said. Percy nodded and took off towards the Big House. We all followed and when we got there Blake was talking to Percy outside the door so they wouldn't disturb anyone inside.

"How is she?" I asked. Blake just ran his hand over his face. His eyes were glassy and he was pale. I glanced over his shoulder to see a bed with an empty chair beside it.

"Not good. They're all saying that she's going to be fine it just might take a while. They're not saying tho how long 'a while' is." He muttered. I nodded as I pushed past them both and went inside. Cassi was laying on her back. She was pale as death but had a sheen of sweat covering her forehead. I heard footsteps behind me and Blake took his normal seat beside her.

"Her body is trying to fight the effects of the poison. They have been feeding her nectar and ambrosia but still." He muttered. I nodded. Her breathing was shallow and Percy pulled up another chair. I sighed.

"Percy you should get some sleep." Chiron said as he walked in. Percy shook his head.

"I'm just gonna sit here for a little bit. It's partially my fault. Those scorpions were after Annabeth and I and if we had taken them on she wouldn't have gotten hurt." Percy muttered. Blake glanced up at him.

"You do realize that she wouldn't want you blaming yourself, right?" He asked. Percy just shrugged and I sighed. It was time for me to get some sleep though.

"Let me know if she changes any, alright?" I asked. Blake nodded and I put my hands into my pockets and followed Chiron out.

"Cassi is a strong girl. She will be alright, Jake." He said. I just nodded and headed back to my cabin hoping that she would be alright by tomorrow instead of a while.

Notes