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After making the deal with Nico, the next twenty-four hours were spent training Nico on the bare basics of living as a demigod in the outside world. We skipped our mandatory cabin activities. I told the Stoll brothers to sign in our names or make up excuses when it came to roll call. They were definitely suspicious as to what I was up to, but I didn't give them an explanation. I basically dumped a crash course on Nico for what-to-do and what-not-to-do in every foreseeable situation that I was able to think of in that moment, and also really important details to keep in mind when we enter the Labyrinth. Nico sometimes would treat my words like a joke, but he soon dropped the easygoing attitude whenever I stared at him.

"Once we're inside the Labyrinth, you will listen and follow my orders. You might be the compass, but I'm in charge of our safety so when I tell you to do something, you better do it." My voice was hard, not giving room for argument.

Nico visibly gulped. "Okay."

By the time I was finished giving a demigod rundown, we were behind Percy and Thalia by a full day and a half. I wasn't too worried about how far behind we were, but I was worried about what would happen to us once we go underground.

"And one last thing." I led us to the Hermes cabin.

A moldy wooden padlocked trunk sat in the shadows behind the cabin. I dug around the bushes for the spare key and opened the trunk, making a face when the metal rust got all over my hands.

"Pick a dagger," I told Nico.

The boy's eyes went round as he surveyed the array of dusty metals.

"Not a sword. A dagger," I said when I saw him reaching for a longsword.

Nico pouted. "Why not?"

I picked up a dagger about ten inches long with a nice green leather handle. The casing wasn't too bad either, it'd strap tight on the thigh.

"I taught you how to stab things only four hours ago. I didn't teach you how to swing a sword; if I let you use a sword, you'll probably accidentally hurt yourself with it," I said. "Now which one feels like a more comfortable weight in your hand?"

I placed a dagger in both of his hands. They were different, the right one was short and wide while the left was long and slim. Nico thoughtfully weighed the blades, holding them with the correct grip.

I tilted my head at that. Nico was annoyingly perky, but he learned fast.

"Left," he said. "But it feels a little too light."

I swapped the daggers in his hands with another set. Within a few minutes we found one suited for him, a bronze blade with stitched brown leather. I showed him various ways how to strap it own comfortably on his leg and hip.

I checked my watch that I borrowed from Travis. "Alright, we leave in three hours. I'm going to take a nap, and I suggest you should too."

"Th-three hours?" Nico sputtered. "Just like that?"

"Yup. I've got food and basic necessities packed already, so you don't need to worry about that." I walked into the cabin.

"Shouldn't I know more stuff? I mean, you taught me a lot, like I could move the ground and dodge things, but are you sure-"

"Nico, all you need to know is how to feel the earth and move it," I assured him. "I'll take of the rest."

Nico looked at me with his big round eyes. He was scared. I lowered my shoulders when I recognized the fear in Nico's eyes. I hesitated, but I placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, I know I'm not the nicest person, but I will take care of you," I said calmly. "You only have to focus on finding your sister, and I'll make sure we're safe. You can trust me on this."

Nico let out a shuttered breath. "Okay. See you in three hours."

I nodded. "Get some sleep. You're going to need it."

We climbed into our respective bunks. I kicked off my shoes and pulled the covers over my body, squeezing my eyes shut. I could hear Nico rustling in his bunk, turning and sighing every few minutes, unable to settle into sleep. To ease his mind, I sent him into a restful dreamland. I needed him to be full of energy when we go into the Labyrinth.

My eyes still closed, I let my thoughts wander.

Hypnos was different than what I thought he'd be like, I thought randomly.

Hypnos was stereotyped to be lazy, unwilling to take action, cowardly, lacking responsible, and not exactly a god that invoked terror or awe. He paled in comparison to the glory of the other major and even some minor gods. This was all fine by me, since I always knew that as a child of the god of sleep himself, Hypnos wasn't one to go out of his way to prove himself. He was the god of sleep, capable of inducing near-death states to any being, even Zeus. It made sense since his twin brother was Thanatos, the god of death. There was a reason why the two were twin brothers. Sleep was the closest to death any living being could be.

Nico and I were similar in that sense; he had command over the dead whereas I could control sleep.

I was heavily betting on that relationship between death and sleep for me to live through what I was about to put myself through.

I ran a thumb over Luke's necklace. I hadn't spoken to him in awhile, thinking that I had some time until I could get myself involved, but time flew faster than I expected. In a blink of an eye, winter was already here, Annabeth was gone, the Hunters of Artemis were at camp, and a quest to search for the missing moon goddess has begun.

I had to hurry.

Hello? I silently thought.

Jade, it's been so long.

I cut to the chase, I was never one to beat around the bush once I knew what I wanted to do.

I'm joining you.

Luke sounded pleased, like he had been expecting this all along.

It was only a matter of time.

Don't get ahead of yourself. I'm not joining you just yet. I want to know what you're thinking, what you're planning to do, and what exactly the titan wants to do with the world.

Of course, it's only natural to want to know all that. I'm more than happy to explain once we're face to face.

I let out a slow exhale. I'm at camp right now and I leave in a few days. I'll contact you again once I'm out of here.

Looking forward it.

Luke's agreeable voice left my mind. I could tell he was really happy.

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling.

You are playing a dangerous game, I thought to myself.

I had chosen not to tell Nico about his parentage, which was a hard thing to do when I was trying to help him figure out his abilities. As for now, the boy only believed that he had an affinity with the earth and I wanted to keep it that way. I only needed him to know how to navigate the Labyrinth. His powers over the dead would be used for another time, once we get over this whole situation of his sister. My deal the other night had been this: I'd help him to make sure his sister was 'safe' and in return, Nico would help me with a personal favor.

If we had more time, I would've asked Nico to help me first, then I would return the favor, but I didn't have that luxury. The Hunters, Percy, and Thalia had left for their quest and were on their way to that junkyard. If I wanted Nico to summon some dead people for me, it would have taken at least a week for him to develop and control his powers properly. We didn't have a week.

Additionally, I didn't want him discovering his lineage right before we entered a monster-infested maze in the underground. Nico's blood was probably already tempting for any monster, but if he knew his godly parent, then that smell would explode tenfold.

We didn't need that in the Labyrinth.

So, I had to come to the decision that I help Nico track down his sister while also withholding information from him.

It was only fair.

Fair, I mentally snorted. Sure, keep telling yourself that instead of acknowledging that you're manipulating a child.

Nico was my best chance at chasing the answers to the questions Hypnos had given me. I didn't know anyone else who could summon dead people in a safe way. Besides, I was helping him potentially save his sister, wasn't I? Doesn't that cancel out the negatives in my motives?

It's not like I'm hypnotizing him into doing my bidding, I wanted to complain. If I really wanted to make things easier for myself, I could have totally hypnotized Nico instead, singing him a lullaby or something.

I shook Nico's shoulder. "Nico, get up."

The son of Hades' deep set eyes pinched tighty before fluttering open. The slumbering little boy curled up at my side took less than a minute to become alert. I stuffed down the feeling of regret when I saw the dark circles under Nico's eyes. The air of naivety was gone, only wariness and caution remained on the boy's face. His features had already sharpened within the past fifty-four hours, there was a toughness to him now. It was incredible how much Nico had changed in the time spent in the Labyrinth.

Gone were his former days of Mythomagic Greek/geek card playing past. The kid had grown a fat layer of thick skin faster than anyone else that I had seen. I was sorry for being responsible, taking away his childhood and his chance to be more carefree and innocent. The cynical side of my mind would try to reassure myself that he would have ended up as a pessimistic half-blood anyway, by my intervention or not.

I raised my pointer finger to my lips and quietly gestured to our surroundings.

We had taken a short pit stop for a couple hours of rest and during that time, several Greek monsters, small and large, had formed a loose circle around us. A couple of reptilian dragon-snakes, weird bovine chimeras, and other Greek mythical beings that I didn't recognize were passed out and snoring. Some puffed out tiny fireball puffs out of their nostrils.

Terrifying.

Being the child of Hypnos was so convenient, sometimes.

My knees swayed when I tried standing up, but Nico managed to steady me.

"You okay?" he whispered.

I breathed deeply. "Yeah, just tired."

Casting the Mist and enforcing my godly powers of this level on an hourly basis was taking a toll on me. I knew Nico wasn't doing much better. The Labyrinth was not a place suited for any human being, half-godly or not. It was like the place was designed for people to get lost and die by a monster, which in actuality, it was designed for that purpose by Daedalus for the Minotaur. But that's besides the point. The stress of survival was taking a toll on Nico. For the most part, I've been shouldering majority of watch duty when we sleep since the kid was only ten years old. Nico was still a growing boy, I didn't want lack of sleep to stunt his growth, though godly blood did its works with countering the usual biological activity in our body.

I muttered, "Okay, Nico, what do you see?"

Nico rubbed his eyes and pointed at the hallway with stairs going up at our right. Silently, we carefully stepped around the sleeping monsters and pulled out our weapons at the same time.

The bright side of our situation was that Nico, being the son of Hades, could figure his way around the underground which included the Labyrinth.

We stepped into the hallway, Nico only a footstep behind me, scanning every inch of our surroundings. His abilities allowed him to see every possible thing in the underground. He knew where the traps laid, where the monsters sat, potential disasters, and more. Basically, he saved our lives more times than I could count by now.

Once we were out of earshot of the monsters, I spoke up. "You sure this is the fastest way to the junkyard of the gods?"

"I told you, this is what the place is showing me," Nico answered almost irritable. "I even demanded for it, like you told me, and it changed to a different pathway that time, so we're following that one now. It won't get us there any faster than this."

"Right, right, just checking," I sighed.

The Labyrinth could take anyone, anywhere, if the person had the ability to navigate it safely and correctly. I thought we could use it since Nico could see right through the magic of the maze, which my assumption was correct, Nico was like a bloodhound tracking down a scent. Despite the danger involved, Nico was in his element. Also, the Labyrinth stretched and shortened time. We must be experiencing longer time compared to the surface level. My watch showed that we had been travelling underground for nearly fifty-five hours now, but not more than five hours might have passed in the real time.

I cracked open a water bottle and took out a bottle of Vitamin D pills from my pack. I swallowed four pills while Nico ate two, and then we each snacked on a granola bar as we continued trekking up the stairs.

We continued the path, Nico navigating us through the twists and turns until we hit a dead end.

"I think..we're here," he said with uncertainty.

I stared at the molding brick wall in front of us. There were no openings, no doors, nothing that indicated an opening to the surface world.

"Um. I think," Nico said nervously. "Unless I led us to the middle of nowhere."

I looked up and cracked a small smile. "No, you're right. Look up."

Nico followed my line of sight. A metal hatch lock opening above us glinted in the dim underground light. I reached for the metal latch, twisting it and then pushing up. Dirt rained down, showering us with a coat of dust. The both of us coughed, shaking our head and patting down our clothes.

"Ugh," he muttered.

I've never more appreciated being a surface dweller until the moment we stepped out of the hatch.

"Real air," I breathed in. "Never again."

"It wasn't that bad," Nico commented. I sent him a look and rolled my eyes.

Of course it's not that bad for you, you're the son of Hades, the King of the Underworld.

"Jade, where are we?"

Surrounded by heaping piles of trash, Nico and I twisted our heads, seeing the junk that climbed almost as high as the houses. Anyone could tell that the stuff was neglected, unwanted, and unneeded, but at the same time, it wasn't ordinary trash because they still gleamed like precious metals and jewels. It was a junkyard full of precious godly items. I could feel the power radiating from all around us, like vibrations echoing. Enclosing the mountains of junk was a towering fence of barbed wire and we stood right in the middle of it.

We were in the middle of a remote desert, I could see a low hanging mountain range, some trees, and dried shrubs in the distance. The land stretched on and on, everything was yellow and orange. I checked my digital watch, seeing if the clock will realign the dates and time now that we were out of the Labyrinth. To my relief, we had arrived at the Junkyard of the gods across the country in just three hours, surface time, from traveling underground.

"Okay, Nico, it's time for rules," I said distractedly, staring at the numerous precious stones pouring out of a golden sack in the corner of my eye.

"I hate rule time," the boy muttered.

I ignored the dissatisfaction in his voice. "One, this is a junkyard for the Greek gods. If they threw away something here, that means it's cursed, so don't touch anything. Two, don't take anything. Three, don't even think about it. Four, did I mention not to touch anything yet?"

Nico glanced at me. "I think I get your point."

I think I was starting to overthink at this point. "Good. Alright, let's look for a giant robot. It's going to look very lifelike and advanced."

Fortunately, Nico didn't question me too much like he usually would and instead followed me around as we searched together. The junkyard was deceivingly large, the mounds gave the illusion of a small field, but every time we turned a corner we'd find another area of mountain trash. We drank water and ate another protein bar along the way. Nico would pipe a series of questions occasionally and I'd answer them but my responses didn't provide any stepping stones for a potential conversation. I'd rather he not think of me too friendly despite everything we'd already gone through together. He certainly knew that he could trust me to keep his head on his shoulders uninjured, but I wasn't the best person for the comfort of a friendship.

It took a bit longer than I was expecting, but we found a giant fallen robot.

"That's a big robot," Nico said softly. He was right, it was way bigger than I anticipated. It was the size of a skyscraper and it looked perfectly fine on the outside except that it was tangled in some electrical wires and had ashen rust marks all over. The bronze metal plating was dusty but appeared like a strange combination of a flexible material and an indestructible metal, as if it was liquid metal that could bend easily. It was hard not to admire the robot and I got closer, but I didn't notice how Nico had frozen up. He clutched my jacket sleeve with a cold grip, stopping me in my tracks.

"J-Jade," he swallowed. "I could feel something coming out of the robot. Like, someone died, I think."

I blinked. Oh.

Oh dear.

"Can you sense if that dead feeling is leaving the robot?"

Nico squinted his eyes at the robot. "You mean, like a trail?"

"Exactly like a trail," I confirmed. "Can you see where it's going?"

"O-okay," he let out a shaky breath. "Then I think I can follow it, it kind of looks like smoke."

"Alrighty, let's follow it then," I made a motion to move, but Nico's hand still hadn't let go of my jacket.

"Jade? How does this help my sister?"

Nico's hand was shaking.

I guess it'd be better to explain now before this whole thing explodes in my face.

I turned around and looked at Nico in the eye, putting a firm hand over his cold one holding my jacket.

"Hear me out until the very end," I said. "Do you remember the mummy? How it gave a prophecy to the Hunters and campers? There was a line that said 'One shall be lost in the land without rain'. And we're here, in the middle of a desert. A Hunter or a camper got lost here in the land without rain."

"Lost as in...dead?" Nico looked terrified. "The ghost thing that came out of the robot? Is that Bianca?"

He said that last part in a whisper.

"I think...so," I said slowly. "But we need to follow the ghost and check if it really is her. If it's Bianca, then we can help her."

Nico's bottom lip was quivering. The waterworks were turning on, but he was trying his hardest not to cry.

"We can help her? She's gonna be okay?" His voice was cracking now.

I wanted to panic, I wasn't good with teary children. "Hey, hey, if it's Bianca, then yeah, she's gonna be okay. We have to follow the ghost first to check though."

The little boy turned away, wiping his face, and grew a more determined expression. I was impressed. Nico had every reason to break down and cry, he was physically and mentally exhausted from the Labyrinth, not to mention emotionally stressed, but he was holding up. Just barely, but he was holding himself together much better than I could have hoped.

Thank goodness for that, I didn't know what I would've done if he had burst into tears a second time.

I didn't wait for Nico's response and dragged him by the arm. "Come on. She's not going to wait for us."

The prospect of finding Bianca seemed to have given the Nico a burst of energy. We followed the ghost's trails where it appeared to float aimlessly into the desert, but I suspected that it was looking for a physical entrance to the Underworld. At this point, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know how the dead got to the the Underworld after leaving the physical body. I just knew that we had to hurry, I was hoping to catch the ghost before it gets into Charon's ferry to cross the River Styx. If we got too close to Hades' direct realm, the god of the Underworld would know immediately that his long lost son was there and that was a potential problem I'd very much like to avoid.

Nico's shoulders grew more tense as the search prolonged, but the upside was that his godly powers appeared to grow sharper and more prominent as well as his intuition when he navigated the Labyrinth.

"Left," he said. The tunnel forked into five different passages.

I glanced at the left one he pointed out. It had geodes and crystals jutting out of the walls and ceiling, giving a mysterious glow in the darkness.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Nico sounded confident.

At one point, he was even able to crumble a blocked wall that stood in our way. I was kind of proud; I mean, look at our newbie demigod, getting accustomed to his powers and going on a dangerous mission for his sister. He was becoming a full-fledged demigod already and it hasn't even been a week into the realization of his godly birth. Nothing helped accelerate the learning curve faster than the extremely dangerous pressure of death on your life.

I paused for a moment at that thought.

The stress must be getting to me, I decided.

There wasn't a specific landmark that announced 'Welcome to the Underworld' with ghosts coming out of the ground, but I think I knew when we were getting close. We didn't seem to descend closer to the center of the Earth, but the air got noticeably...cold.

It wasn't a physical sense of coldness, but a chill that went through your intestines. And it felt like there were eyes watching us, a number of eyes that didn't belong to living beings. It wasn't a comfortable feeling. I couldn't shake it off.

Nico saw me shivering.

"Are you cold?"

I rubbed the goosebumps on my arms. "Not exactly. You don't feel anything weird in the air?"

Nico raised and lowered a shoulder. "Actually, I was thinking this place feels familiar?"

I tried not to let my thoughts show on my face. Of course, he'd feel at home the closer we get to the Underworld. At some point into this journey, he'd inevitably find out that he's the son of the god of the Underworld.

I wondered if Nico was going to curse me to the grave when it happens.

We took a break and ate our last packed meal which consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, and cheese crackers. There were only granola bars and ambrosia left for food.

It was very anticlimactic, but we found Bianca right after our meal.

We entered a new passageway and found a ghostly figure waiting for us. It was like a shadow of what used to be Bianca. Muted and faint. Gone and dead, but still having a presence stronger than a simple ghost.

Once we found her, the following interaction between Nico and Bianca was pretty tame.

"I'll leave you two to talk it out," I said quietly, eyeing Nico's pale face. I was watching for any signs of an emotional and mental breakdown, but I didn't find any so far.

I crossed my fingers. Hopefully, there won't be a screaming match.

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