Annabeth drew her dagger as the familiar shink of Riptide extending echoed softly through the trees. She crouched down and studied the soft dirt, holding her dagger high to let the golden glow sift through the trees. Nothing moved, the stillness eerie.

From above her, Percy was scanning the woods. His usually lax sea green eyes were tensed, like the calm before a storm. "Don't see anything," he muttered. Annabeth looked at him. "What did you expect? A glow in the dark camping tent?"

"No need for the sarcasm, Wise Girl," he said. "I get plenty from Harry."

"C'mon," Annabeth whispered and crept forward silently, avoiding tree litter. A massive, fallen tree lay in their way, half propped up against another tree. Percy crouched down and peered under, but couldn't see much in the darkness. He glanced to Annabeth.

"You coming?"

She shook her head. "There are probably loads of spiders under there," she remarked distastefully. "I'm climbing over, if you want to join."

Percy shook his head with equal enthusiasm as Annabeth. "This is a tall one," he said. "I'm not going that high in the air."

"It's not that high," Annabeth said as she gripped the bark firmly.

"There aren't that many spiders," Percy replied with equal defiance.

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said with a smile as she pulled herself up. "We're losing time here. Just get to the other side."

They continued another few yards before a soft crackling stopped them. Percy readied Riptide as Annabeth shifted her grip on her dagger. The dirt in front of them trembled.

Four earthborn rose from the ground, sniffing experimentally. Two were smaller than the others, though they were just as ugly.

"Aha," A taller one said. "I thought I smelled demigod."

A smaller one frowned. "You stepped on me," he snarled accusingly. His six fists balled into what resembled boulders. "Now my nose is all ugly and squashed."

"I thought it was just a family trait," Percy said before flicking out his sword with uncanny speed. The young earthborn let out a little grunt in surprise as he melted into a puddle of clay. The other three stared at his remains, stunned, before roaring and swinging their fists. Annabeth and Percy worked as one, whirling around to get the other's back before taking care of their own. Within a minute, all other three earthborn were shapeless puddles of clay.

"Funny," Annabeth said, kicking the clay. "I almost feel bad for messing up his looks, then I realized he never had any to begin with."

Percy shrugged and poked Riptide at a pile. "Oh well, let's keep looking."

>>>•O•<<<

"Nothing," Hazel reported in a whisper. Far above, Frank the snowy owl hooted softly in response. Hazel smiled grimly as she thought about the unpleasant surprise Sirius Black was going to get when they found him. If they found him, she grudgingly admitted to herself. He might've not even been in the forest.

Hazel winced as a sharp crack echoed through the forest, sending a few bugs scurrying away.

The forest was quiet-- to quiet. It rattled up Hazel's nerves and, without knowing it, was summoning a trail of precious stones and coins in her wake.

"Come out come out wherever you are," Hazel muttered softly. Her instincts told her that they had almost reached the one mile mark when she stepped on something. A soft, black something.

Hazel cast her gaze down, ready for anything. But she wasn't prepared for what she saw. Lying in a pile of monster dust was a massive, limp black spider with monster dust leaking from it's wounds. Farther along were some more, varying from the size of Hazel's head to her entire length of her 4'11". She crouched down and inspected the monsters. Tentatively, she touched one. It dissolved into monster dust that shifted in the wind.

"Wonder why they didn't completely dissolve," Frank said from behind her. Hazel whirled around, her spatha drawn, then saw it was Frank and lowered her weapon.

"Gods, Frank!" Hazel said. "You scared me!"

Frank grinned then crouched down with her. "They were obviously attacked with imperial gold or celestial bronze," he said. "So why didn't they die completely?"

"I think it's because they're magic creatures, not Greek monsters," Hazel said, giving her best educated guess. "They're not made to turn into dust from this, but since they are still monsters, they died."

"Car tracks," Frank said, trailing his finger over two sets of indentations in the ground. They were pretty old, probably about a year old. Like the spiders.

"Well, they're long dead now," Hazel said, standing up. "We should take a look. There's no immediate threat right now."

The pair set off, unaware of the set of beady eyes watching them leave.

>>>•O•<<<

Hermione held her breath as she scanned the forest, her pupils enlarging to the size of oranges.

"And we can't light up our wands because..." Jason looked questioningly at Hermione.

"Black might see it and run, either towards us or away," she said patiently.

"I knew that, I was just testing to see if you knew," Jason muttered, embarrassed he hadn't come to that conclusion before. Hermione pursed her lips to hide a smile, then immediately winced as her next step sent her tripping over a gnarly tree root. She regained her footing and stepped closer.

Jason peered around for anything that was out of ordinary, but he couldn't see much better than Hermione. The tree canopy was so thick only the faintest traces of moonlight shone through. Jason could only wonder what was going on with everyone else, but set his mind to completing the task at hand.

"Do you think that's been a mile yet?" Hermione asked from behind him. He frowned and tried to regain his bearings.

"Let's go a little farther," Jason said.

Suddenly, a shadow moved from behind a crooked old tree. Jason vaguely registered the metallic shrink of his gladius leaving the scabbard, his eyes focused on the shadow.

Then a centaur stepped out and eyed Jason sorrowfully.

"Were you going to harm me, Son of Jupiter?" The centaur had a sleek, obsidian coat with a dark body. Jason studied him warily.

"If you attacked me, then yes," he said.

"What are you doing in the forest at a dangerous time such as this?" The centaur asked. Hermione looked to Jason to answer.

"We're looking for Black," Jason said firmly. The centaur didn't look surprised. "Like the others," he said. "The stars predicted."

"Do you know if he's in here?" Hermione asked.

"The betrayer lies not near, not far," the centaur said simply. "You have a great task ahead of you."

"You don't say," Jason muttered. He sheathed his gladius. "Thanks anyways."

The centaur studied him for a long, silent moment before vanishing back into the trees, his dark coat blending in with the shadows.

"What did he mean, not near, not far?" Hermione asked. Jason scowled.

"Never expect a straight answer from a fortune teller," he grumbled. Hermione stifled a laugh at his tone.

"Alright then," she said. Then suddenly another tree root seemed to rise or of nowhere and she tripped over it. Her shoelace caught on a branch, tugging her feet out from under her.

"Ah!" She let out a small squeal as she tumbled onto the forest floor, knocking Jason off his feet.

They landed, one on top of the other. Hermione was instantly aware that she was on top of him and registered the tension in his muscles.

"Sorry," she squeaked, her voice unusually high as she scrambled up. Jason shifted uncomfortably, making a big show of brushing off his spotless robes. They stood in stiff silence, Hermione blushing furiously and Jason tense as he remembered Piper. 

"Uh..." he stammered. "We'll just turn around now?"

"Okay," Hermione squeaked. She turned quickly and began to pick her way back. Jason shook his head and began to follow her, when his own shoe caught on the root.

With a thump, they landed on top of each other again.

>>>•O•<<<

"Shut up, Death Breath!" Thalia snapped as Nico stepped on a pile of leaves. "You're going to alert him we're here, then your face is going to scare him away!"

Nico scoffed. "Excuse me?" He asked. "If my face is going to scare him, what's your face going to do? Petrify him like Medusa?"

"Oh don't you start--" Thalia growled, when an identical growl resonated through the forest. A pair of beady red eyes flickered open as it drew nearer. Thalia loaded, aimed, and fired her bow between the eyes. One of them flickered off, but the other just narrowed as it drew nearer.

"What the heck?" Thalia muttered. Nico rolled his eyes.

"You don't see it?" He asked. "There were two."

Just then, the second eye flickered open, on the opposite side of the first eye that died. The had both had one eye open, Thalia realized.

Nico raised his sword and sidestepped the hellhound's pounce before slashing it into monster dust.

"Noob," he sniffed at Thalia. Then another large claw came and dragged down his back, making Nico whirl around suddenly.

"Oh, sure, I'm the novice," Thalia said as she fired at the third monster. "What was all this about only two hellhounds, hmm?"

Nico rolled his eyes as he studied the claw mark on his back. "Oh, shut up. Did you bring unicorn fraught? Or some ambrosia?"

"No, I decided that on this one specific mission of hunting down a ruthless murderer that I should leave all equipment at home and maybe test our luck for once." Thalia pulled a small silver bag from the inner pocket of her cloak. "I have it here."

She quickly trickled some silvery unicorn drought on the gash and watched in satisfaction as the blood lessened. Nico winced and rolled his shoulders.

"That one hurt." He grimaced. "Shall we keep going?"

"Nah, let's just camp out in this mound of monster dust," Thalia suggested sarcastically. "Of course we keep going!"

"Geez, I was just asking," Nico muttered.

Thalia shook her head. "Boys."

Nico shook his head in equal exasperation. "Immortal girls." He grinned at her. "Hey, spread out a little, will ya? Your glow isn't shining much."

"Oh, shut up," Thalia snapped. "You have perfect bearings in darkness."

Nico looked at her, all wide eyed innocence. "Oh, it's not for me," he said. "I was just helping you since, you know, you're a ameture at this."

And he ducked under a tree roof to barely a life the silver arrow that came whistling at his head.

>>>•O•<<<

"We've been here a hundred times," Percy whined to Annabeth. "Let's go to the lake. We can ask Marvin if Black sailed by." (Friendly reminder, Marvin's the Giant Squid)

Annabeth rolled her eyes as she tread silently on the forest floor. "Fine," she said. "But only because we haven't seen him yet and we still should look at the lake."

Percy practically skipped all the way down the water, then paused and looked upwards. Several hundred feet above, the glimmer of a dementor could be seen. The lake was freezing cold, courtesy of the soul-sucking monsters, but Percy jumped right in. He barely felt anything.

Annabeth stood on the beach of the lake and scanned the surface of the water. She knew Percy had jumped in somewhere, but he left no ripple. And it was almost impossible to see past the heavy black water.

"Percy Jackson!" She whispered sharply. "You better not leave me here!"

Suddenly a massive black tentacle swept out of the water and seized her firmly around the waist. Annabeth let out a yelp as the tentacle swiftly pulled her into the water, submerging her into the icy blackness.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!" She roared, her voice going up in bubbles as the tentacle released her, recoiling back into the darkness. Then the bubbles gathered into one massive one and clumped around her head. Annabeth gratefully took in a mouthful of oxygen, only to find Percy's lips pressed firmly against hers.

"Percy!" Annabeth laughed. Percy grinned and splashed her with freezing water over her already wet hair. She glared at him, and he just smirked.

"Dry me this instant!" Annabeth demanded, trying not to smile.

Percy circled the air bubble before snapping his fingers. Annabeth dried instantly, and she glowered at her boyfriend.

Percy whimpered and swam back a few feet.

"Marvin, help me!" He whimpered.

You're on your own, the giant squid replied. That one's a scary one.

"Then why'd you pull her in?"

She didn't glare at me yet.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Conversing with sea life, Seaweed Brain? I hope you're asking him about Black."

Percy fake pouted. "Always so serious," he clicked disapprovingly. Annabeth just stared at him and he sighed.

"Fine." Percy turned to the silhouette that was Marvin and rolled his eyes, all like can you believe her?

Annabeth wants to know if Sirius Black happened to come by recently, Percy said. Marvin's tentacles twitched at the reminder of Black.

Not since he came to school here, Marvin replied. I remember he, James, Remus, and Peter would often come in here. Marvin chuckled. Why, once James Potter asked out Lily Evans, and she said she'd rather kiss me than him!

"Did she?" Percy asked. Marvin shook his head (or... whatever is the main body part of a squid).

No, but I was a part of several dares. The amount of times students have tickled my tentacles... Marvin drifted away, deep in memory.

"So?" Annabeth asked expectantly.

Percy shook his head. "Not here," he said. "Maybe we just got the boring part of the woods, you know? Let's get back to the back of Hagrid's hut."

>>>•O•<<<

The dead spiders were more common now, and seemed to have grown in size. Frank's skin crawled at the idea of fighting so many. And they weren't even in the main part of the spider's hollow yet.

"Frank." Hazel suddenly stopped and grabbed his arm. "Look."

Frank glanced over and spotted what Hazel was looking at. It would've been hard to miss. The paths they had followed led up to a massive hollow, covered in spiderwebs. Nestled in the center was the biggest spider yet. It was nearly the size of a truck with thick and hairy legs folded peacefully-- or as peacefully as hairy legs the size of a human body could be-- on his abdomen. The monster was wrapped in a thin gauze of webbing and lain in the center. It was still, obviously dead. Though it was hard to tell, Frank could see it was a female. (btw, it's Mosag, Aragog's wife. Just because why not)

Frank eyed it warily but was respectful as he cast his gaze around the clearing.

"They went that way," he said. "probably moved out after she died. She must've been a leader or something, or the wife of one."

Hazel glanced down and saw that a path to the left was cleared out, covered in cobwebs that strung across the trees with thousands of spider foot prints imprinted into the dirt. They were more recent than the dead spiders, probably four months old, Hazel figured. She turned around.

"No threat here," she said, then froze. "I think..."

Frank turned around and they stared at the creature that crouched before them.

It was something of a small, black platypus-prairie dog hybrid, with a long pink snout. Beady black eyes watched them curiously. But what really caught their attention was the glittering gems in a pile around it. A diamond necklace was draped around its torso luxuriously, and a nearly invisible pouch was stuffed with more gems.

Hazel raised an eyebrow. "Well then..." she said. Frank asked what they were both thinking.

"What is that? And why all the jewels?"

Hazel shrugged and crouched down. The platypus prairie dog took a tentative step forward, the snout sniffing experimentally.

"It's harmless," Hazel guessed. The creature sneezed. Hazel clucked her tongue quietly. "C'mere." Then she took a guess and placed a palm on the spider-web covered ground. After a quick tug on her fingers, an emerald flew into her palm. Excitedly, the creature scrambled over and snatched it, returning just as quickly to it's little pile. Frank watched with interest as it began pushing the lot into a tiny hole by the side of a tree, then listening to the clatter of falling gems. It seemed to echo quite a while. The platypus prairie dog disappeared after the loot.

"I wonder what it was," Frank remarked. Hazel shrugged.

"Oh well, best we turn back now," she said. "Now we know it's just a massive spider cave." she chuckled. "Pray to the gods Annabeth and Ron never find this place."

>>>•O•<<<

Jason and Hermione hurried back to the edge of the forest in silence, stopping occasionally to scan for any sign of Black. Hermione let out a sigh of relief as she noticed the trees thinning, letting the faintest glimmer of moonlight through the forest. She hurried forward faster, then stopped completely. A sudden chill ran from the top of her spine down to her toes, but it didn't go away.

"Why'd we stop?" Jason asked under his breath, hand instinctively going to his gladius. Hermione's vocal chords suddenly stopped working as her eyes stared, glued to the figure in the distance. Jason followed her gaze and tensed.

The Dementor was illuminated by the moonlight, flickering as the wind swept leaves in front of the ray of light. The hood was turned away from them, but that didn't stop the ice that was radiating from its form. Hermione's teeth chattered as her bones turned to ice, darkness seemingly to flow through her veins. Jason prayed to the gods that his plan would work and stepped forward. Every happy memory seemed to be leached from his mind as he drew closer to the hooded demon, drawing him more and more into darkness.

The dementor turned as it was fed on their happiness, locking it's devastating gaze on the Son of Jupiter. Jason now stood almost close enough to touch it, and at that point was chilled to the bone almost as much as Hermione, who had backed away in fear. She watched Jason now, her gut dropping every step.

Jason suddenly snapped out of his depressing trance and jabbed the gladius at the dementor's chest, the blade passing right through it. Jason could feel the darkness creeping up his blade as it conducted the dementor's energy, and yanked out the weapon. As soon as it left the body, the dementor exploded into fine black dust that scattered in the wind. The cloak dropped to the ground in liquid shadow and oozed into the dirt.

Immediately, everything unfroze. Frost melted off the trees and Hermione could feel the blood pumping through her veins. She tentatively crept towards Jason.

"How do you not feel it?" she asked in barely a whisper. Jason shrugged and tried to shake the Dementor off his gladius, like it was infected.

"I dunno," he said, though he could still feel the cold in his bones. "C'mon, let's get out of the forest."

>>>•O•<<<

Thalia's eyes adjusted as they stepped into a particularly dark patch of trees. Next to her, Nico sent out his senses and tried to locate if anything was hiding. He found several bugs and three birds, but no ruthless murderers or other monsters.

He sighed in frustration. They were making slow process as they were in the darkest, thickest part of the woods and therefore was the most likely hideout for Black. And the fact that they had to comb all the trees didn't help.

Nico peered further into the darkness. "Has it been a mile yet?" he grumbled. Thalia sighed.

"I hope you don't go looking for monsters with this attitude Death Breath," she said. "You wouldn't last a day as a hunter."

Nico smirked. "Well, duh I'm not a hunter," he said. "I have something you'll never have. A boyfriend."

Thalia glared at him. "At least I had dignity as a kid," she retorted. Then began to mimic Nico's excitement at Westover Hall. "IsAnnabethyourgirlfriendandcanyousurfreallywellscinceyoiretheSonofPosiodenandhowmanyHPlevelsdoesZuesreallyhave?!?!?!?"

"Oh shut up," Nico snapped at her. "I hope you don't distract all your fellow hunters like this when you're doing all your hunter things. You wouldn't last a day on a quest."

"Well I don't go on quests," Thalia said. "I'm a hunter."

Nico rolled his eyes at her, an expression she returned with gusto. "Just get back to looking," she snapped at him. They continued in silence for a few moments.

"Not here," Nico called as he peered inside a hollow tree trunk. Moss snagged on his robes and he wiped it off with his hand.

Thalia sighed. "How about we stop playing hide-and-seek with him and we actually start looking harder?" she said.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Well, you might just be scanning the area, but you never know when the killer is hiding in a tree somewhere."

"What do you expect him to do, just pop out of the ground?" Thalia snorted, then stopped suddenly. "Nico..."

"What is it?" Nico asked. "Did he just pop out of the ground?" Then he spotted him. "Oh..."

Sirius Black regarded them through sunken eyes as he stood up from his crouch of just turning back from a dog. His hands were limp by his sides, and covered in filth and tatters. His hair was long and matted over a pale and bony face, the skin pulled taut over his skull.

Then Nico looked at his eyes. They were gray, but not sharp and stormy like Annabeth's, or silver like Ollivander's. They were clouded and muddy like sewage water frozen over, then got smashed with a hammer. But Nico saw past the broken eyes and his own resolve softened. In Black's eyes, he could see his previous self. A broken boy, rejected from what pretty much was a society of rejects and cast out to live on his own, struggling for survival with only the gifts that he was blessed with. Constantly fighting for his own life, with others looking out to kill him. That was the person Nico was when he entered the Labyrinth. And now he saw it clearly in the man in front of him.

Black, for the matter, was surprised at who stood in front of him. They both looked not like the average third year, but like someone who had been through a hard life and understood what Black might've been feeling. The boy had a look of someone who was broken but mended, and the girl looked like someone that wasn't the average girl. Her eyes flickered dangerously, like a warning. She was not someone to mess with. Neither of them were.

Black suppressed a smile. Who'd've thought that he, Sirius Black, the 'most dangerous wizard in Britain', was wary of a thirteen year old girl. Yet here they were.

For a moment, the three regarded each other. Thalia, whose original idea was to knock him out and bring him in, hesitated. Like Nico, she saw the brokenness in the man's eyes. Not the cold, hard glint she was expecting. Then Black blinked.

Nico grinned. "I win," he said. Thalia and Black stared at him and he looked back.

"What?" Nico said. "It pretty much turned into a staring contest. And you blinked first. So I win."

"Okay..." Thalia shook her head. Black's lips twitched the slightest, but Thalia couldn't' tell if he was irritated or amused. Hopefully the latter. But his eyes were as empty and hollow as ever, and Thalia found herself readying her knife.

"C'mon," Nico said, and pulled her away. His voice was troubled. They began to pick their way back to the castle. Black watched them leave, unmoving. Nico glanced back at Black and a silent understanding seemed to pass through them, though neither were aware of it. Nico turned back and kept going. Sirius waited until he couldn't see them anymore, before turning into a dog and prowling softly towards the castle he had once called home.

Credit to MonaLisaHola for copy-paste text: IsAnnabethyourgirlfriendandcanyousurfreallywellscinceyoiretheSonofPosiodenandhowmanyHPlevelsdoesZuesreallyhave?!?!?!?