".....and your sorry for destroying my convertible wheelchair?" Bronk asked in his normal voice.

I sighed. "Yes Bronk, I'm sorry for that too. Is there anything else?"

Bronk thought about it. "Hmmmmm. No I think that's all."

Gwen placed her hand on his left shoulder. "Good. Now Bronk, are you going to stop with the fake accent? I think your normal voice sounds great."

I nodded. "Yeah, you already have an accent, I don't see why it needs to be a weird Steve Irwin expression."

Bronk lowered his head to the ground. "Okay. Its just..... y'know. I just want to stand out. My real name isn't even Bronk. I just made that up."

Gwen and I looked at each other. "Wait what?" Gwen exclaimed. "What's your real name then? You know it's illegal to lie to us when first entering camp, right?"

Bronk shrugged. "Well I didn't know that when Sam first brought me to camp. I just..... saw a chance to have a fresh start. So I picked Bronk, since it sounds cool. My real name is..... John."

I forced myself not to laugh. Cool is not a word I would use to describe the name 'Bronk'. "That's a cool name, John has the same name too."

Bronk gave me a side eye. "I know your talking about Praetor John, but John is the most basic name you can have. We have, like, a thousand John's in New Rome."

Gwen shrugged. "Yeah he's not wrong. What about your last name?"

Bronk shrugged. "I don't know. I'm an orphan, just like Max."

Gwen and I nodded in acknowledgment. "Yeah, I forgot about that." I said. Hearing Max's name reminded me of the dream I had. The girl named Selina from Camp Half-Blood.......

I was prepared to call out to Percy as a question formed in my mind, but Gwen had other plans.

"Go Bronk, thanks for talking to us. But Reyna and I have some issues we need to work out. I want extra tomatoes on my burger." She said as she patted him on the shoulder.

Bronk shrugged. "Okay, weirdo."

He walked off towards the group, while Gwen and I sat together in silence.

"So...." Gwen said, hugging her legs.

I readjusted myself on the uncomfortable rocky surface we sat on. "Gwen..... You should know how I feel. When we connected."

Gwen shook her head softly. "No, Rey. I need to hear it from you. In your own words."

"Why?" I asked her. "If you know already."

"Because none of this would have happened if you had just talked to me. Our fight. Your fight with Jason. If you had just talked to us, then we wouldn't need to have this conversation. Instead you vented to someone else, never addressing the issue, until it boiled over." Gwen explained. She dropped her legs and began playing with her necklace. "I NEED to hear it from you."

I dug into my pocket and mistakenly pulled out Jason's coin. I had avoided summoning the coin so he wouldn't be unarmed. I stuffed it back into my pocket and sighed. "I'm scared." I told her.

Gwen placed her hand on my own. "Why?"

I felt chest tightening again, a sensation I've become accustomed too. "Because...... How do you tell someone you love that you have a problem with them? Y'know? My dad just..... yelled at me and my sister. I didn't want to yell at either of you. So I yelled at Max, because it wasn't about him. He listened and gave the best advice he could, but I was too scared to tell either of you."

Gwen held my hand tight. "What were you scared of?"

"You............ You already know." I responded.

"Rey." Gwen said sternly. 'What are you afraid of?"

I stood up. As I spoke, my pace increased and my voice started to shake. "Of losing you! Of losing Jason! You two are my best friends and the worst thing that could happen to me is to lose you both. And now I have! I lost you both because I was too scared to lose you in the first place. What a moron I am, right? I vented at Max in hopes that whatever bad feelings I had would leave my system and things would be fine."

"But it didn't work. I'm mad at Jason for embarrassing me. I'm mad at him for taking the job as Praetor. We used to spend so much time together, but once he was out of training and doing the job full time he was no where to be seen. Now, he's taken so much responsibility its killing him. And he's doing it for me. You see this note?"

I pulled out the piece of paper that I had picked out when I punched Max,."He wrote down how he feels, Gwen. He feels like a FAILURE. That stupid airhead has given us so much, and he still feels like he let us down. And I don't know how to help him, Gwen, I don't."

I tucked the note back into my pocket and pointed at Gwen. "Then you! Oh my gods Gwen, just quit being a centurion!"

Gwen lowered her gaze, preparing herself to hear what she had already known. "I know you hate it." I continued. "You took the role because you wanted to upstage Ben. Because you were jealous of him. Now he's gone and your realizing the role is not for you. Your better suited at helping people. Healing them. I see you hesitate when guiding the troops. You turn to ME for advice. And it pisses me off, because I want you to be happy. It's all I want."

I rubbed my eyes. "And that's.............. that's it. That's everything I have to say."

Gwen stood up and grabbed my wrists gently, forcing me to stare into her light blue eyes. "Thank you. For being honest with me. Rey........ loving someone isn't just about having a good time. Its also about pushing each other to be the best versions of ourselves. Even if it makes us uncomfortable. Screw that, ESPECIALLY if it makes us uncomfortable. I wish you had told me this sooner."

Gwen pulled me in for a hug. "So.......are you still my friend?" I asked her while I rested my head on her shoulder.

Gwen squeezed me tight. "Rey, your so smart. But also so stupid."

I pinched her. "That's not nice."

Gwen smiled and pulled away to look me in the eye once again. "I never stopped being your friend, Rey. Never have. Never will."

Bronk waved us down. "Hey! You two. Your burgers are ready!"

Gwen put her hands on her hips. "Hey Bronk! We didn't interrupt you!"

I backed away from her. "It's okay. I'm good. Are you?"

Gwen looked at me, smiling. "Yeah..... Plus I had a hard time ignoring those burgers while you were talking. They smelled so GOOD."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up..... yeah same. Let's go have a bite."

*********************
"I'm going to win my money back, Percy." Gwen promised him while she walked beside him

Percy weighed the pouch of denarius in his hand. "Sure thing Gwen."

Grover smiled as he walked next to me. "I can't believe you let Percy get to you. Nobody should bet that much money in a game of go fish."

Gwen crossed her arms and pouted. "He kept bullying me."

Percy looked shocked. "What? No I didn't."

Gwen turned her head away from him. "You kept saying I was a goldfish for letting you win so much."

"That's not bullying. It's just.... You sucked." Percy shrugged, prompting Gwen to push him playfully.

The six of us walked through the many corridors of the labyrinth in single file. Gwen and Percy, holding Bronk's lamp, led the way. Grover and I walked in the center and Bronk and Tyson covered the rear. Tyson carried Nico on his shoulder, similar to how he did for me. Nico hadn't woken up yet, but we thought it was best to keep moving instead of staying in one place for too long.

Bronk and Tyson tinkered with the miniature toilet behind us, discussing different ideas on how to make the toilet more efficient.

"I didn't think of that big guy." Bronk said, in his normal voice. "And that helped you flush your enormous-"

I am just going to check out of that conversation for your sake.

Percy and Gwen got along well. They joked and talked about various topics ahead of us. Currently, they were in the middle of a Superhero debate about Aquaman.

"I just didn't like the movie." Percy said.

"Why?" Gwen asked. "I thought it was fun. I'm usually a big marvel fan girl, but that movie was super fun. James Wan has a fun directing style. That rooftop sequence was so well shot and choreographed."

Percy put his hands in his pockets. "Yeah it was. It's just...... I hate how Aquaman can't talk to fish."

Gwen made a face. "What? That's why you don't like it?"

Percy threw his arms in the air. "It's totally not accurate to real life. ALL sea animals can talk. In the movies, they say he uses weird water waves to control fish. NO. It does not work that way."

Grover and I giggled as the two argued over the importance of accuracy in movies.

Grover turned his attention to me. "Hey, I just wanted to say thank you."

I smiled dryly. "For what?"

Grover shrugged. "You really helped us back there. Without you taking charge, who knows what would have happened."

I shrugged and looked at the ground. "No problem. If it weren't for your vines, I would have gotten clawed up several different times."

Grover waved my praise off. "No, I almost got us killed. If I wasn't so distracted by Pan's presence......"

Grover drifted to silence and looked away. "Who's Pan?" I asked him.

Grover sighed. "Pan's the god of the wild. He's like the ultimate Satyr..... or faun for you Roman's. My people have been searching for him for generations. He's been missing. With the environment taking a turn for the worse because of Humans, we're hoping to find him so he can bring the wilds back."

We walked in silence while I processed that information. "Maybe he doesn't want to be found." I told him.

Grover shook his head. "No, he does. I heard him, last year. During our quest to save Annabeth and Artemis. He called to me. He has to be out there."

"But he's a god. If he wants to be found, he would reveal himself. Right?" I pressed him.

Grocer looked agitated. "Have you ever met a god? They thrive on praise and adulation. He has to be in trouble. Maybe this has been a part of Kronos master plan. To dispose of Pan in order to control the world."

He recited his theory as if he had thought about it many times before, but had trouble believing it. I felt like I should argue more, but I decided to drop the conversation. Grover seemed really passionate about this topic and I would have hated to upset him. Instead I changed the subject.

"I've never met a god before. What god have you met?" I asked him.

Grover groaned. "More then I would like. Ares, Apollo and Hades. Dionysus, god of wine, is our camp director. He got in trouble and has to spend the next one hundred years in Camp as punishment. Overall, my experiences with the gods have not been... great to say the least."

Percy chimed in. "Count yourself lucky, Grover. At least you've never been to Mount Olympus."

"You've been to Mount- Ow!" I said.

Gwen had stopped walking, so I had bumped into her. Bronk tried pushing past us. "You've been to Mount Olympus!?" We asked him.

Percy looked puzzled. "Yeah. The first time was when I had to return the master bolt to Zeus. The other time was last year, when we helped save Artemis."

Tyson laughed. "Look big bro. There mouths are broken."

Gwen, Bronk and I stared at him with our jaws wide open.

Gwen was the first to speak. "That's... that's impossible. There is no way you've been to Mount Olympus. And there is NO way you held the master bolt."

Percy rubbed the back of his neck and avoided our gaze. "It's really not a big deal. Our camp goes on field trips to Mount Olympus all the time. At least, when they let us that is. You mean your camp doesn't know about the entrance to Mount Olympus in New York? You've NEVER met any god before?"

The three of us Romans traded looks. Bronk was the first to speak. "No. In our camp........ meeting the gods is rare. Like super rare. Like super duper rare. Most of us go our whole lives without ever meeting a god."

Gwen chimed in. "Yeah. The only proof of there existence we have is when they claim us. Even that is a rare occurrence. Some of our legionnaires in my cohort still don't know their parentage. Billy Bob is like, seventy and doesn't know his godly heritage."

Percy made a time out sign. "Hold on. How old is Billy Bob? Seventy? That's insane. I've never heard of a demigod living that long."

I shrugged. "Really? It's not uncommon in our camp. After demigods serve their time in the  legion, they can retire and live in New Rome city."

Gwen nodded. "Yeah, like my parents."

It was Percy and Grover's turn to be shocked, their jaws dropping. Tyson was too busy tinkering with the mini toilet to notice.

Grover was the first to speak. "Hold on a minute. Your parents are demigods?"

Gwen placed her hand in her necklace. "Yep. My mom is a daughter of Apollo. My dad is a descendant of Cupid, but many years removed. He's like....... Fourth generation I think?"

Percy looked ready to faint. "What... what kind of camp do you live in?"

Bronk was still processing the Mount Olympus comment. "Have you met your godly parent?" Bronk asked Percy.

Those two question hung in the air while we each processed the information we just learned.

As far as we could tell, the Greeks had a direct line of connection to the gods. Even though I wasn't clamoring to meet my mother, Bellona, the idea that another group of demigods had the privilege of meeting the gods made me jealous.

However, the Greeks seemed to suffer more losses then we did. Luke had told us that Greek demigods had short life times. Luke, who wasn't even twenty yet, is considered old. Percy's shock at Billy Bob's age confirmed Luke's comments as true.

I thought about all the graves back home in New Rome. Many of the Romans buried were from combat, but the vast majority of them lived full lives.

How many lives have the Greeks loss? How many of them lived full lives?

Percy finally answered Bronk's question. "Yes, I've met my dad." He said in a small voice.

Bronk blinked, trying not to meet his gaze. "Wow that's cool. I wish.... I wish I got to me my dad...."

"Our camp is called Camp Jupiter. But we defend New Rome. Our home. After serving tens years in the legion, we can retire and live a full life in New Rome. If we want." Gwen answered Percy.

Percy swallowed. "That... that sounds great."

Percy grabbed his own necklace, as he retreated to the deepest parts of his mind.

I cleared my throat. "Okay, um, that was.... Informative. But we need to keep moving."

"Baaauh," Grover bleated. "Yeah we should get moving."

"YES GET A MOVE ON CONTESTANTS!" A feminine voice called out through a loud intercom.

We all drew our weapons and turned towards the path ahead of us.

The path must have shifted while we were talking, because now, an entrance stood tall before us. Inside, massive flood light brighten the arena ahead of us.

Bronk gulped while holding his hammer. "We can turn back now." He suggested.

Bronk took a few steps back and bumped into a brick wall that suddenly appeared behind us. "Ugh, stupid labyrinth." He said.

"Everyone stay close." I ordered, stepping forward. "Percy and I will take point. Tyson in the center and get Nico off of your shoulders. Gwen and Grover, cover our flanks and Bronk cover the rear."

Bronk and Gwen immediately got into position. The others? Not so much.

Grover tapped my shoulder. "Uh, what's a flank?"

I sighed. "You've never heard of a standard phalanx formation? Gwen is to my right so you cover our left."

Percy shook his head. "We kind of just... wing it to be honest."

Nico groaned in Tyson's arms. Tyson rocked him. "Shhhhh baby dead man. Go back to sleep."

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR CONTESTANTS? STEP FORWARD." The voice urged.

We carefully walked forward in our sloppy formation, forced to squint as the flood lights blinded us with bright white light. I could make out a large, dark silhouette of a person above us.

"WELCOME HEROES! TO THE HOTTEST REALITY GAME TV SHOW ON APOLLO+."

The flood lights softened up, thank gods, while a spotlight somewhere behind us shone brightly at our host.

Above us, a women with the body of a lion and the head of a women spread her arms and suddenly a massive crowd appeared from the stands around us. The crowd were a makeshift of various monsters. Cyclops, centaurs, gorgons and more.

To my left, three doors with various symbols protruded out of the stone wall. The door in the center had a drawing of a trident and a javelin stabbed into the dirt. The door to the left had another trident, but this time a massive eye served as its background and a flaming hammer. The door to the right had the sun and horns of a goat.

To my right, two large metal gates led into a dark room. I was unable to see anything, but those snarls were hard to miss.

Above the gates and at the very top of the stands, I could make out a small group of demigods wearing a combination of purple and orange shirts. A few of them I recognized as traitors of our camp. In the center of that group, a boy with messy black hair and a eye patch watched us intently. It was the same guy who had bailed out Luke when Jason had knocked him out.

Our host locked her eyes on us, giving us a massive, sharp tooth grin. She wore a navy blue women's business suit with a red bow tie. Her hair was tied tightly behind her head and she wore a comical amount of makeup.

Behind me, Tyson whimpered at the sight of her.

"Is that a furry?" Percy asked aloud.

Bronk raised an eyebrow. "What's a furry?"

"People who look like animals." Gwen added.

"Does that make Grover a furry?" Bronk asked.

Grover bleated. "I think you mean DRESS up like animals, Gwen."

"Sorry, That's what I meant," Gwen said. "Her make up is just really distracting. Why did she put so much lip stick on her fur?"

"So it would look like she has bigger lips then she does." Percy added.

"We'll it's not working." Gwen noted.

"You guys are being really annoying right now." I hissed. "That's a Sphinx! We should not be joking about this right now."

Tyson shook his head. "Sphinx bad. Sphinx very very bad."

Nico groaned in his arms. "Kitty?" He muttered to himself.

Above us, the Sphinx grinned ear to ear. "HEROES. YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO PLAY A GRUELING GAME OF-"

"SOLVE THAT RIDDLE!" The crowd chanted along side her.

"THATS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT. NOW, THE RULES ARE-"

Percy interrupted her. "Hey, Lion lady. Yeah, we would rather not participate in this game. I see a group of demigods up there. Some of them I know personally as really smart candidates for this riddle game. So smart in fact that they believe they should decide the fate of the world and throw everyone else who doesn't agree with them under the bus."

Percy gave the group of demigods the middle finger. "Hey guys, how's it going up there?"

The Sphinx did not look please by the interruption. I turned to Grover. "He really does have a knack for getting under peoples skin."

Grover shrugged. "I told you."

"HEROES." The Sphinx voice boomed. "NO FURTHER INTERRUPTIONS OR THE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE DIRE."

Percy waved his hand. "I can take whatever you can throw at me."

The Sphinx gritted her teeth. "IM SURE, SON OF THE SEA GOD. YOUR TEST WILL COME SOON OF ENOUGH! BUT ILL REPEAT MYSELF-"

She pulled a lever near her and a body wrapped in chains dropped for the ceiling.

"THE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE DIRE. ESPECIALLY FOR YOUR FRIEND."

The person wrapped in chains slowly turned around and my heart sank.

Jason hung lifelessly