Pissing off Annabeth as soon as he basically came back from the dead while she had been grieving him for the past two weeks? In hindsight, not Percy's best idea.

After Percy told them about his idea, Annabeth had promptly stormed off, calling the idea cowardly and Percy the 'single most annoying person' she had ever met.

He stared at the doorway through which Annabeth had left. "So much for being the bravest friend she ever had."

"Hey," Kia said, nudging him by the shoulder, "if it makes you feel better, you're only, like, the second most annoying person I've ever met."

Looking at her smiling made him feel slightly better. As annoyed as he was, Percy knew that Kia would cut him some slack, if anything. To some extent, Percy also felt irritated because of the things he did to come here. He didn't need to leave Ogygia. He didn't need to come back and try to save the world. But he did, because he cared about everyone here. And when he brought back a possible solution for their problems on the quest, Annabeth was being all pissy about it—all because they needed some help.

"Annabeth's just..." Kia trailed off, and Percy knew she didn't really have an explanation. "I mean, she did think you were dead for two weeks. You have to admit, it must sting to see you back in tip-top shape on the day of your funeral."

"So you're agreeing with her?" Percy said, but there was no bite. He didn't know why he said that. He knew he didn't mean it.

The truth was, he did see why Annabeth was acting like this—but he also knew everything he had done so far wasn't easy either. It was just... complicated.

"No! You know what I mean, Perce."

He dropped his head into his hands and groaned softly. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

Percy could feel Kia and Chiron have a silent conversation while he wasn't looking. Standing up, Kia brushed off her jeans. "I should go find her—see if she's cooled down any. You and Chiron should—you should talk. Bye, Perce."

Without looking, Percy put his hand up to wave back.

Kia found Annabeth in the Athena cabin, looking over all the notes she'd taken for the labyrinth again—probably looking for something she had maybe missed, if only to avoid the reality that they would need to use Percy's idea. Shuffling furiously through thousands of scrolls and journals, Annabeth barely glanced up at Kia when she came in—in fact, she pointedly ignored her and started going through everything even rougher.

With a sigh, Kia took a seat beside Annabeth on the floor. "Annie, I don't think you'll find anything."

"C'mon, Kia." Annabeth still wouldn't look at her. "What's all that trust you were talking about earlier? Have some faith in me."

"There's trust, and there's desperation. Annie, there's nothing you could have possibly missed after all this. I think... I think we're going to have to resort to what Percy said."

"So you think he's right?" At this point, Annabeth wasn't even looking for anything anymore. She was just handling the papers so she didn't have to look at Kia.

"I—that's not what I said. And we both know that his idea isn't the only thing we're talking about."

"Then what, Ki?" Her voice was thick now, and Kia thought her eyes might've been glassy. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Annabeth! Would you just look at me? Please?" Slowly, Annabeth looked up, and Kia had been right. She was about to cry. "I know what you're thinking, but Percy didn't abandon you. He didn't abandon any of us. It took him a while, yeah, but he came back, didn't he? You have to trust he will come back—he'll come back, each and every time, because he's Percy, and he has too much of a saviour complex not to. I might not know how it felt to grieve for him and have him back scot-free, but it couldn't have been easy for him, either. So why don't we just... I don't know, call it even? Put it behind us?"

Immediately, Kia knew she shouldn't have said the last part. Annabeth looked away, now seeming angry instead of sad. "You might be able but o handle this just fine, Kia, but some of us can't just put stuff like that behind us."

"Wait, Annie, that's not what I—"

"I get exactly what you mean. I think it's best you leave for now. Spend some time apart before we get back to the quest. Tell Percy we'll do whatever he wants. I don't care. Just leave."

"Annie—"

"Please, Kia." Annabeth's voice shook. "Just leave."

Swallowing harshly, Kia left, feeling worse than before. Malcolm, who seemed to have overheard the last bit, gave Kia a pat on the shoulder before she left.

Miserably, she made her way to the sword arena, finding the giant fluffy hellhound from before. Kia scratched Mrs. O'Leary's chin—the entire three feet of it, and eventually decided to just lay on top of her. Mrs. O'Leary's fur was soft—really soft. Kia imagined it could probably absorb all of her sadness, so she hoped the first would just engulf her at one point.

Mrs. O'Leary whimpered like she was missing her owner.

"You too, huh?" Kia said into the fur.

"Kia—woah!"

Jerking suddenly, Mrs. O'Leary started barking and bounding forward, forcing Kia to hold onto the fur for dear life so as to not become one of the training dummies in the arena. After it had finally become semi-stable, Kia carefully looked over the hedge of fur to see Mrs. O'Leary licking Percy all over.

"Kia! Wanna help me?"

Kia settled into the fur comfortably. "Mm, no, considering you interrupted by relaxation. I think I'll just watch her lick your skin off."

Much to Kia's dismay, however, Percy eventually got Mrs. O'Leary off of himself and gave her a gigantic dog treat in compensation. He wiped his face off, and he stuck his tongue out at Kia. She stuck hers out back in retaliation, mimicking him childishly.

"You're lucky she didn't bite your head off."Clarisse was standing at the other end of the arena with her sword and shield, shouldering the shield like she was just about to start practicing.

"Would've paid to watch that," Kia muttered.

"Seconded."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Glad to see you both are teaming up, now."

"Came here to practice yesterday," Clarisse grumbled. "Dog tried to chew me up."

"She's an intelligent dog," Percy added. Kia snorted.

"Funny."

Clarisse approached them, but Mrs. O'Leary growled, and her face became pinched as she hesitated. Percy patted her and Kia scratched her fur.

"Stupid hellhound," Clarisse said, squaring her shoulders and coming towards them anyway. "Not going to keep me from practicing." She looked up at Kia and pointed her sword at her. "Wanna spar?" Kia was surprised. She looked around, before pointing at herself. "Yes, you, dumbass. Who else?"

Percy looked offended. "You've never asked me to spar."

"I prefer not to let my emotions drive me to fight." Kia got down, and she took the sword out of her scabbard, rolling her shoulders back and preparing to fight. Clarisse barely moved at all. "You annoy me too much."

Kia raised a hand. "Does that mean I annoy you less?"

"Hey—" Percy protested, but Clarisse interrupted.

"I'd say you both get on my nerves equally." Clarisse levelled her sword, and waited for Kia to charge.

She did, and Clarisse effortlessly blocked, spinning as she made a hit for Kia's shoulder. Quickly whipping her sword about her shoulder, she blocked from the back and spun her sword so Clarisse would be forced back in front of her. In return, Clarisse's sword went down and she kicked Kia's sword out of her hand. Kia ducked as Clarisse slashed at her again, and she grabbed her sword before slicing at Clarisse's feet. One thing Kia noticed was that she was getting tired much quicker than Clarisse. When she looked closer, she noticed that Clarisse was barely even trying—and she was already making Kia lose.

"I heard about Chris," Percy said, after a while. "I'm sorry."

Clarisse started to get rougher with her slashes. Kia had to work harder to evade. She sliced at Kia's abdomen, and Kia stepped back, bringing her own sword around for Clarisse's neck. Clarisse's sword came up for her own swipe to block Kia's. They both stopped for a second.

"Yeah, well. Sometimes things go wrong." Her voice was shaky. "Heroes get hurt. They...they die, and the monsters just keep coming back."

To Kia's surprise, Clarisse put the sword down and picked up a javelin instead. She threw it across the arena, and it hit a dummy square between the eyes. Kia's eyes widened—Clarisse had been holding back their entire spar.

More than that, Kia noticed she had called Chris a hero. She wasn't sure how she felt about that herself, but it felt weird to know that Chris had been on the Titan's side once. People had probably lost lives because of him—innocent people. Kia knew that nothing was as black and white as it seemed, but it still seemed... uncomfortable to call demigods like Chris heroes. Demigods who had willingly gone to a side willing to kill people. Gods have killed too, a voice in the back of her mind whispered. Kia suppressed it, and instead looked at Percy. He looked back at her at the same time—and Kia knew they had both been thinking the same thing.

"Chris was brave," Percy said instead. "I hope he gets better." Kia didn't say anything; she didn't feel like she was entirely a part of the conversation.

Clarisse glared at Percy so harshly Kia wondered what he did wrong. "Do me a favour."

"Yeah, sure."

"If you find Daedalus, don't trust him. Don't ask him for help. Just kill him."

"Clarisse—"

"Because anybody who can make something like the Labyrinth, Percy? That person is evil. Plain evil."

Kia realised it was the first time she had called Percy by his actual name.

The next day, Annabeth, Percy and Kia set off to complete the quest. The car ride in the van was largely silent, with Kia biting her nails every so often along with Percy biting on his lips and Annabeth shaking her leg. Argus drove them, and Kia found time to wave at each of his eyes when they looked at her. She thought she might've seen his lip twitch.

They made not-so-light conversation when Percy finally cracked and told everybody that he'd gotten an Iris-message from someone named Eurytion—a dude at a ranch who had helped him overcome the obstacle of an annoying old three-bodied man. Y'know, just demigod things. Apparently Nico had gotten out and entered the labyrinth, which caused Annabeth and Kia to subsequently worry. Last winter, Nico had disappeared along with Ethan after he made half a dozen skeleton warriors get swallowed by the ground. It wasn't good news for Nico to be prancing about the labyrinth all on his own.

Anxiously waiting in the car, Saturday traffic passed by slowly, and they arrived at Sally Jackson's apartment by noon. Kia was excited to see Sally again (Sally insisted Kia called her by her first name, and who was Kia to refuse) but it didn't stop worry from gnawing in her gut. They had found Nico—even if he weren't in the best position ever, but there was still no news about Ethan or where he had gone. She felt awful for worrying about Ethan when they had a kid in inevitable danger, but she couldn't help it.

It made her feel slightly better to see Sally Jackson hug her son after so long. She seemed obviously relieved to see her son safe. "I told them you were all right."

"So did I," Kia added, unnecessarily. Sally pulled back from Percy and grinned widely at Kia. She pulled Kia in for a hug next, crushing her so tight she thought she might break a rib or two. It was worth it when you got one from the Sally Jackson.

Annabeth received a hug too, and Sally swept them all in for her world-famous (well, demigod-famous) blue chocolate-chip cookies while Percy caught her up on everything, doing a perfectly terrible job at making everything seem less dangerous than it was. More than one time Sally's eyes flashed with worry, especially after Kia recounted what happened at Eris'—evil lair? What would you even call that place?—and Percy told her about what happened at Mount St. Helens—that stuff with the volcanic eruption and getting sent half way across the planet to an island gods-know-where.

"So," my mom said when they were done with the story, "you wrecked Alcatraz Island, almost killed each other, made Mount St. Helens explode, and displaced half a million people, but at least you're safe."

"Yep," Percy said, agreeing with his mom's sum-up of the situation. "That pretty much covers it."

"I wish Paul were here. He wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, right. The school."

Paul was Percy's—stepfather, kind of? Basically, he was this guy in his late forties who was dating Sally Jackson (Kia acknowledged this fact half-jealous) and he was also a teacher at the school Percy was attending orientation for in the beginning of the summer. He was a cool guy overall, but it was still weird sometimes to think that he was dating Sally.

While Sally and Percy discussed what they'd be telling Paul, Kia leaned in to whisper to Annabeth. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean it—honest."

Annabeth sighed like she was tired—tired of everything; this quest, Percy's idea, this entire dilemma. "I know you didn't. I guess I was kind of annoyed too. Didn't know how else to handle it. I think space helped."

"Truce?" Kia held out her hand, and Annabeth rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

"Of course."

"So what are you guys gonna do?" Sally asked them, and everyone exchanged looks uncomfortably.

Annabeth broke her cookie in half, handing half to Kia. "Percy has this plan."

Percy seemed reluctant as he explained it to his mom.

She nodded slowly, seeming to absorb the idea. "It sounds very dangerous. But it might work."

"You have the same abilities, don't you?" Percy asked. "You can see through the Mist."

Sally sighed. "Not so much now. When I was younger it was easier. But yes, I've always been able to see more than was good for me. It's one of the things that caught your father's attention, when we first met. Just be careful. Promise me you'll be safe."

Kia smiled, about to affirm it, but Annabeth seemed to have more to say. "We'll try, Ms. Jackson. Keeping your son safe is a big job, though."

Crossing her arms, Annabeth glared out the kitchen window like the brick of the neighbouring building had personally committed a crime against her. Percy awkwardly picked at his napkin, obviously restraining himself from making a comment. Kia was tired and uncomfortable.

Sally frowned, looking in between the two as if she was trying to connect the dots. "What's going on with you two? Have you been fighting?"

Neither of them said anything. Sally looked to Kia, who nodded her head rapidly.

"I see," Sally said finally. "Well, remember, Grover and Tyson are counting on you two."

"I know," Annabeth and Percy said at the same time. Kia held back a snicker. Sally smiled.

"Percy, you'd better use the phone in the hall. Good luck."