Hi there! Happy Friday! Thanks as always to everybody who reviewed last week. Enjoy this slightly longer update!
So come on / Put on your war paint
It was dark. It was quiet. And Annabeth couldn't move.
Where was she? What was going on? She was sprawled on her back on a cold, wooden surface—of that much she was relatively aware. But everything around her was thick, black shadow, stifling like smoke and still and silent as the grave. She felt no restraints binding her, no force pressing down on her. But still the tendons in her muscles were so tight with soreness that no amount of willpower seemed sufficient to force her limbs into motion. It was like she'd been running at top speed for hours and had finally collapsed, unable to go on.
A powerful anxiety began to take root inside her. She tried to yell in frustration, but her voice came out distant and muffled, as though she were trapped underwater. The air around her seemed to stir and slowly she became aware of a low rumbling, intoned like a far-off voice calling out to her. It was jumbled and distorted and she couldn't make it out, but for some reason a sudden and inexplicable fear struck her. The voice—if that was what it was—hadn't come to bear good news.
As if in response, a bright light flashed and all at once her surroundings were flooded with illumination. She squeezed her eyes shut to shield them, her vision momentarily masked by a sheen of red as her retinas protested the assault. The voice grew louder and clearer, cadences separating into disjointed words until a sentence finally broke through:
"It's over, Chase."
The smooth, cold voice washed over Annabeth like an oil spill and her eyes shot open despite the still-blinding light contrast. Standing over her was a man, tall and lean with gel-slicked white hair and eyes as blue and chilling as the Arctic Ocean. His arms were folded over his pristine black suit jacket as he stared downward with an expression of cool disappointment, like a father about to abandon a discordant child.
Annabeth felt her spine go rigid with dread. She recognized those eyes, that posture, that frown. But she wasn't ready to face him yet. Not now, not like this.
"Look at you," CIA Director Victor Kronos said evenly, his voice low and his upper lip curling just barely in disgust. "Look at the life you've chosen. Or should I say…" His mouth twisted in a sneer. "…The death."
With difficulty Annabeth lifted her head and gave a choking gasp when she saw the blood. It was everywhere—soaking her clothes, pooling on the floor around her. She couldn't see a wound and she felt no pain aside from muscle strain, but her eyes weren't lying. Something was seriously—mortally—wrong.
"Let her go!" a familiar voice growled harshly. Annabeth shifted her gaze and felt an unsettling mixture of relief and dismay. To her right, her fiancé was charging toward her, his expression a fierce glare and his eyes fixed with hatred on Kronos. He seemed different from when Annabeth had last seen him—his black hair longer and unkempt, his face gaunt and pale. The energy in his movements was forced, like a façade hiding age-old weariness. She felt a painful stab of distress—they weren't ready for this fight. How was it happening so suddenly?
But powerless and immobile as she was, there was nothing she could do about it. She lied still as Percy jumped over her and threw himself at Kronos, screaming inside because her mouth refused to form words. Her fiancé shoved her former boss backward with savage force, placing what felt like a world of distance between them both and Annabeth. Kronos's face contorted in a snarl as he took a swing at Percy, striking him across the jaw and causing him to stumble. As Percy lunged for Kronos, Annabeth tore her attention from the fight, instead focusing all of her strength on her own body in a last-ditch effort to make it move.
Come on, she pleaded with her muscles. Come on!
But all she got was a twitch of a finger. Her body was dying, and she couldn't stop it.
Suddenly the loud BANG of a gunshot made her forget all about her struggle for mobility. She glanced back to her left and felt a gasp constrict her throat—Kronos and Percy were standing two feet apart, the former holding a handgun against the latter's stomach.
Percy took a shaky step backward and lowered his gaze to the blossom of red on the front of his white shirt while Kronos's lips spread in a satisfied smirk. The CIA director gave a low chuckle and time slowed to a crawl as his finger tightened on the trigger of his gun, inviting four more successive blasts. Each bullet that pierced Percy's torso forced him back a step, until finally he dropped to his knees, shock on his face and a thin trickle of blood dripping from his lips.
"No…" Annabeth managed to whisper, her voice a hoarse scratch against her tongue. Stinging tears pricked at her eyes, making the corners of her vision turn yellow.
Kronos took three slow, deliberate steps and lowered himself to one knee, grabbing the neck of Percy's shirt in his fist and yanking him forward. Percy's left hand jerked by his side like he wanted to lift it in defense, but—much like Annabeth—he didn't seem able to execute the motion.
With a cruel laugh, Kronos turned to smile at Annabeth, his icy eyes twinkling like sharp knives. "Olympus is ours," he said triumphantly.
Then he jammed the barrel of his gun into Percy's mouth and fired, and the gunshot was drowned under Annabeth's scream.
"Are you okay?"
For a long moment she couldn't fully register the question. Why in the world was someone asking if she was okay when she'd just watched her former boss murder her fiancé? But then the confused roaring in her ears died down and she realized she was no longer lying immobile on a cold floor. She was sitting up, leaning forward and breathing heavily as her shaking hands gripped soft felt on either side of her.
"W…What?" she stuttered, bewildered. Lifting her head, she realized fully where she was—the backseat of the sedan she and her friends had borrowed for their cross-country journey. To her right, Piper was watching her with an expression equal parts confused and concerned.
"You were asleep," Piper said tentatively. "Then you like… gasped and jumped really bad. You know, like you were having one of those falling dreams. Is that what it was? You okay?"
Annabeth took a deep breath. A dream, that was all it had been. Of course Kronos hadn't found them yet. Her subconscious was only worrying colorfully about the future, nothing more.
"Yeah," she said breathlessly, leaning back heavily in her seat and wiping a thin layer of cold sweat from her brow. "Yeah, that's what it was." She caught Reyna's eye in the rearview mirror and thought she saw the older woman's gaze narrow suspiciously, so she quickly looked away and added, "I'm fine. No worries."
Piper seemed to relax, breathing out and giving a nervous sort of smile. "Jeez, don't freak me out like that. I was sort of dozing off too and when you moved I thought we were about to crash or something."
Annabeth chuckled, forcing horrible images from her mind's eye and trying to calm her nerves. It wasn't real. Kronos was far away at the moment. He wasn't a problem she'd have to deal with for—hopefully—quite some time. She needed to forget that fantasy and focus on the present. "Sorry. How close are we?"
"Very," Reyna answered from the driver's seat. "We'll hit the city in a few minutes. Do you want to get a hotel or head straight to the casino?"
"Hotel," Annabeth decided after a moment's consideration. "The rendezvous isn't until tomorrow night. Let's rest up and we can head over a few hours early to scope the place out."
"Sounds good to me," Piper agreed, stretching her arms and craning her neck. "I'm all about that resting up—in an actual bed this time."
Annabeth didn't say it aloud, but she was thinking along the same lines. There was a good chance this recent nightmare had been in part a product of the past few weeks' busy agenda and subsequent restless nights. If they really were about to finally catch up with Atlas, she would need to be at her best, not tired and distracted by personal fears and visions of blood.
Because deep down she knew that if she wasn't careful, that dream—the terrible scene she'd just witnessed inside her head—would become a reality. And the thought of that scared her more than any job, any fight, any other problem she'd ever had.
-0-0-0-
The Temple Grande Casino wasn't the largest building on Las Vegas's main drag, but it was definitely one of the most interesting. The place seemed to be an homage to an actual Roman temple. It had a high, triangular roof and was lined on the outside with sleek, white marble columns so polished their surfaces were reflective. Glittering gold statues of spear-wielding deities flanked the entrance drive. Inside, violet and gold silk banners draped from the high ceiling over the casino floor and ringed the pillars erected at each of the room's four corners. A grand staircase wound around the perimeter of the casino floor, leading up to what was likely a collection of private rooms for rent.
Even in the early afternoon, the place was packed. In a way, that was good for Annabeth, Reyna, and Piper, because it gave them leave to inspect as much of the casino's layout as they could without standing out from the crowd. They killed some time formulating a plan, and by the time seven o'clock rolled around Annabeth was alert and ready to run some recon.
"We need to come back here for a normal vacation sometime after all this is over," Piper suggested with a wistful glance at the fully-stocked bar to their left behind which four very attractive men were bartending. "You know, when we can just let loose and not have to worry about work."
Annabeth gave a rueful smile. "Not a bad idea. I'm sure when this is all over we'll need to let loose a little."
"Right?" Piper agreed with a grin. "What could be a better stress-reliever than a weekend drinking, flirting, and gambling in one of the county's biggest party cities?"
"It could be a while, though," Annabeth pointed out thoughtfully. "I don't think it'd be smart to let our guard down until we're safe from Kronos and Atlas."
Piper sighed. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the small round table at which they were seated, chin in her hands. "Yeah, good point. Well, whenever it does happen, I hope those guys are still working here. Chatting up hot strangers is one of my all-time favorite hobbies. And since you guys both have boyfriends, that leaves all of them for me." Mid-chuckle she noticed Reyna grow tense beside her and her expression deflated. "Sorry," she said sincerely, lightly elbowing the martial artist in the arm. "Touchy subject, I know. I just meant…"
Reyna shook her head. "It's okay."
Annabeth ran a hand through her brown hair to cover her own brief grimace at Piper's mention of 'boyfriends'. The majority of her dream from the previous afternoon had faded from her memory, but just enough of it remained to pull at her nerves when thoughts of her fiancé crossed her mind. She knew her worried countenance wasn't nearly as justified as Reyna's—her boyfriend Leo was in actual, real-time danger—so she didn't think it necessary to acknowledge it. It was just her own imagination running wild.
"Hey, check it out," Reyna went on with a frown, nodding to something over Annabeth's shoulder. The former assassin twisted around and saw immediately what Reyna must have indicated—a group of four men had just entered the casino and congregated near the entrance, looking around the hall but making no effort to approach the exchange booth or any of the machines or game tables. They barely even spoke to each other. It was obvious to the observant eye—they were waiting for something.
"Think those are our guys?" Piper wondered in an undertone.
"They might be," Annabeth noted, watching them carefully as two of them split off and headed through the open double doorway to their right which, according to the plaque mounted above it, led to the restrooms. "We should make sure before we waste too much time on them. Piper?" She turned to the younger woman and raised her eyebrows inquisitively. Piper had a distinct way with words and with people—probably due in part to her celebrity lifestyle and in part to her political science degree—and was unnaturally persuasive. She had a knack for getting information.
"On it," Piper promised with a smirk. She hopped down from her stool and adjusted her clothing to bear noticeably more skin. "You guys sit tight. Be back in a flash."
Annabeth and Reyna watched her as she strode away from them and circled the floor, approaching the men from the left of the entrance doors. As she smiled brightly and started talking animatedly, Annabeth frowned and said, "Maybe we should've bugged her. To hear what they're talking about."
"Too late now," Reyna pointed out. "She'll tell us when she gets back. Probably not safe for anyone else to go over there."
"Yeah."
After a few uneventful seconds, Reyna broke the silence by asking carefully, "Hey… Are you alright?"
Annabeth turned toward her in surprise. "Of course I'm alright. Why?"
"You just seem… reserved." Reyna lifted a shoulder. "Nervous, almost. Does it have anything to do with the dream you woke up from yesterday in the car?"
Annabeth bit her tongue. She almost blurted the same false reassurance she'd given before, but something in Reyna's expression held her back. She realized that the martial artist could probably sense her feelings because she too was feeling the same. Wouldn't it be something of an insult to deny it?
"A little," she admitted, leaning closer across the table and dropping her voice. Though the memory was fuzzy, Annabeth recalled as much as she could of her dream and recounted it for Reyna, who listened with quiet attentiveness. "I know it wasn't real," she summed up afterward, waving a hand. "But that doesn't mean it didn't freak me out. Especially because it's… Well, it wasn't some grand fantasy. The way it happened, it was… entirely possible."
Annabeth looked down at the polished mahogany of their table, considering her admission. She supposed that was exactly why the dream bothered her so much—it could very well have been real. It still could be, some day in the future. Oftentimes dreams were fantastical epics, imaginings so removed from reality that immediately upon waking they were pushed from the mind in their impossibility. But not this time, this dream. It was completely and utterly within the realm of potentiality.
"I get nightmares like that too, sometimes," Reyna said simply, her dark eyes growing distant. "About Leo—what they could be doing to him. I just keep reminding myself that... we're getting closer, that all this is gonna help us find him. It keeps me focused. I think you just need to find some form of self-reassurance, something you can think about to straighten things out. To make sure you don't get side-tracked."
Annabeth couldn't help a depreciative smile at the irony of the conversation. Reyna had no obligation to be sympathetic, not when her own situation was clearly the worse of the two. It was a testament to her character and emotional strength that all she had to give in the situation was advice. Annabeth hadn't been fully aware of it before, but she was really starting to find a good friend in Reyna.
"Yeah," she said with a small nod. "Thanks. I can't imagine how you must be feeling about all this, but I... Well, I really appreciate your talking me down anyway."
Reyna smiled, though Annabeth noticed that the expression didn't quite reach her eyes. "What are friends for?"
Growing serious, Annabeth reached out and gently touched Reyna's arm. "We're gonna make it," she promised. "No matter what it takes. That's what friends are for."
This time Reyna's smile seemed a little more genuine.
They were distracted then by Piper's return as the younger woman slid between them and rapped her knuckles on the surface of the table.
"I think we've got our boys," she reported with an excited gleam in her eyes.
Annabeth felt her pulse pick up. "You're sure?"
"Not one hundred percent, but pretty sure. I tried to get them to leave, just to see if they would, but they said they're waiting for someone. I almost got one of 'em, too, but no dice. Either it's really important, or they're gay. And judging by the way I couldn't keep direct eye contact, I'm guessing it's not the latter."
Annabeth grinned. "Nice work, Piper. Let's keep an eye on them and see if something happens."
"You mean something like that?" Reyna chimed in, jerking her head in the direction of the entrance. Annabeth turned to see one of the men holding a finger to his ear, lips moving in conversation. Then he nodded to his partner and the two of them headed off for the back hallway, the same way the other two had gone shortly before.
"Come on," Annabeth said, sliding off her stool. She led the way across the casino floor, weaving around crowded card tables and game stations. They blended in with a small group of other women heading toward the restrooms, trying to keep the two men in their sights.
The double doorway led into a wide hallway that angled immediately to the right. Around the corner the hallway stretched the length of the casino floor before branching off, and gold-plated signs stuck out perpendicular to the wall indicating each restroom—the women's room near the front of the hall and the men's room farther down. Annabeth noticed a sheet of paper taped to the men's room door that read 'OUT OF ORDER—PLEASE USE UPSTAIRS RESTROOM. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE'. That didn't stop the two potential agents, though; they pushed the door open and strode right in as though the warning wasn't even there.
"Well, that was suspicious," Piper observed in a low voice as the women they'd been following disappeared into the ladies' room and the three of them seceded from the group. "Check it out?"
"Naturally," Annabeth agreed, spurring them forward. They crept casually down the hall until they reached the men's room and paused outside the door. Reyna pulled a listening device from her bag—one of the many gifts Hank Beckendorf, Olympus's chief equipment specialist and codename Hephaestus, had given them before they'd set off. She pressed the sensor to the door, careful not to push it open, and held out a handful of already-tuned earpieces. Annabeth and Piper each took one and slid it into their ears.
"…say what happened?" a voice was picked up instantly.
"Only that they've been compromised," another of the men replied. "He had to call it off and didn't want to contact us until he was out of the state."
"So he's not coming?"
"That's Atlas alright," a third voice said irritably. "Too self-important to bother sending word ahead of time. Probably having a good laugh picturing us standing around in a casino bathroom, waiting for nothing."
Annabeth drew in a breath and exchanged glances with her friends. Atlas wasn't coming? He'd said they were compromised… He couldn't have found out they were this close, could he? Annabeth reached up to remove her earpiece, assuming she'd heard all she needed to hear and thinking it'd be best they make themselves scarce, but her hand froze midway when she heard her name through the wire.
"You think Agent Chase had anything to do with this?"
"Ex-agent," another man corrected his teammate. "And who knows? Probably. You've heard the rumors, that she's been on Atlas's tail for weeks now. I don't know why he doesn't just set a trap and squash her. I mean, how much of a threat can one chick be?"
Annabeth furrowed her brow, mildly affronted. Part of her wanted to march in there and show that guy how much of a threat she could be. She received some gratification, though, when another voice argued, "Yeah, but you know her rep, right? She was one the agency's best. I'm not saying she's a match for Atlas, but, you know… I wouldn't exactly want to run into her on the job."
"What are you, green? I'd love to run into her. Give me a chance to do something important. Think about it—get rid of Chase, Director's guaranteed to take notice. Then it's bye-bye Atlas's shadow, hello promotion. I'm telling you, a few minutes with that traitor is exactly what I need."
At that point, Annabeth was so annoyed she didn't realize that not only were the voices sounding from her earpiece, but they were also now audible through the restroom door. Her eyes widened as she realized the men were getting closer and she gestured frantically to the others, but Reyna barely had time to remove the listening device from the door before it was pulled open from the inside and the three of them stood face to face with four very surprised CIA agents.
"Uh, sorry," Piper said with a nervous smile. "Wrong room."
The man with his hand still on the door frowned at Annabeth, his jaw suddenly tensing. "Chase?" he said in alarm.
Annabeth recognized his voice as the same one who'd just spent the last few seconds insulting her, so she responded with a shrug and a sarcastic grin. "Ask and you shall receive," she said sweetly, before delivering a swift and powerful punch to his face.
Everyone moved at once. As the first agent reeled backward, two others dodged around him and lunged for the girls in the doorway. Piper ducked beside them and shoved one aside as Reyna blocked the other by lifting an arm. Annabeth pushed through into the restroom and bent backward to dodge a swing from the fourth agent, pivoting to kick him in the side as she did so. She noticed the agent who'd wanted to meet her approaching from behind her with a growl and quickly spun to block his hit with her wrist, throwing her own at his stomach. He staggered back and grabbed her outstretched arm, pulling hard and throwing her against the nearest bathroom stall. She lunged forward and shoved him away from her, putting enough distance to land a roundhouse kick to his shoulder and send him stumbling back against the leftmost urinal.
To her right, another agent was approaching. He landed a hit to the side of her face as she turned and she twisted to drive her elbow into his gut before dropping to a crouch and sweeping out her leg, forcing his out from beneath him and bringing him to the tiled floor. Before she could stand, a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and yanked her onto her back. She grunted as pain spiked down her shoulder blades and an angry face appeared above her. A fist collided once with her cheekbone, but she deflected the second strike into the floor and landed her own to her attacker's mouth. She pulled a leg up and kicked the man in the chest, forcing him off of her, and quickly jumped back to her feet. Clumsily he dove for her again, but she did a quick spin to gather momentum and delivered another kick to the side of his chest, this time throwing him backward against another urinal and tugging it partly away from the wall. Water sprayed upward as the agent slumped to the floor, knocked out cold.
A loud crash caught Annabeth's attention and she whirled around to see that Reyna had just kicked another agent against the far wall of the stalls, breaking it free of its hinges and bring it crashing down. A domino effect brought down the adjacent wall and soon the man was no longer visible beneath the fallen debris. Behind Reyna, Annabeth glimpsed Piper swinging what looked like a garbage can against the head of another agent before someone grabbed her from behind and she was forced to avert her attention. She turned and aimed a punch, which the last agent intercepted. He tried to strike at her stomach, but she pivoted to the side and threw a high kick at his back. He stumbled forward and lunged sideways at Annabeth, forcing her toward the wrecked bathroom stalls. She almost tripped into the pile of broken laminated steel, but reached out and grabbed her attacker's shirt at the last second, using his balance to regain her own. She yanked him toward her and rammed her forehead against his, receiving a brief, dazed glare in reply before the man went limp. She dropped him onto the busted stall door and stepped away, brushing her hands together.
"Now that's what I call a rendezvous," Piper said with a grin, kicking spilled water across the floor as she approached Reyna and Annabeth.
"What the—?" a frantic voice interrupted, drawing all three girls' attention to the door, where two men in uniforms bearing the casino logo were staring at the disaster before them in shock.
"Uh-oh," Piper muttered as Annabeth tensed and breathed in sharply.
"Call security," one of the employees said to his companion. To Annabeth and the others, he said, "You three. Out in the hall."
"Wait, this isn't what it looks like," Annabeth tried to explain. "We were… Uh, I mean, they're…"
"Outside," the employee ordered them again, firmer this time. Annabeth sighed and resigned herself to fighting past him when she got a chance, exchanging a nod with Reyna and Piper. When she followed him out into the hall, however, stepping over unconscious CIA agents as she did so, she realized that there was a flaw in that plan—six more casino staff members were waiting outside, not including the one who'd rushed off to track down the building's security detail. Fighting their way out would be a lot more difficult when outnumbered at least two-to-one.
"We don't know what happened," Annabeth told the small congregation of staff, trying quickly to come up with the most plausible excuse for the scene they'd been caught in. "We were going to the bathroom and we heard a crash. We just went to check it out—I swear, we just got there before you."
"Nobody's under arrest just yet," the man who'd escorted them into the hall said, stone-faced. "But you'll excuse us for being skeptical. We'll need you to stick around until the police get here for questioning."
Not police… Annabeth thought with an inward groan. They would have to find a way to escape—and fast. Preferably a way that didn't involve fighting a losing battle. The evening had already amounted in failure. She didn't want to run the risk of any of her friends getting hurt on top of that.
"But—whoever did this is running around here somewhere!" Piper argued, possibly catching onto Annabeth's thought process through her little speech. "Aren't you gonna… you know, sound an alarm or something? People could be in danger!"
The staff member looked down at her coldly. "Not if we already have the attackers."
Piper did a good job of looking scared and annoyed at the same time. "But we didn't do anything!"
"She's telling the truth," a cool, authoritative voice said loudly, drawing everyone's attention down the hall to their right, back toward the casino floor. A few of the employees moved aside and Annabeth's eyes landed on a man approaching them with his eyes fixed on their accuser. He was tall and thin, dressed in a supple black suit with a shirt that looked to be made of the same violet satin that was hanging from the ceiling in the main hall. His hands were clasped behind a perfectly-straight spine and his sleek blond hair was styled back away from his long, stern face. Just from one glance, Annabeth could tell that this was not the sort of person one could argue with easily.
Their accuser seemed to know this as well and paled instantaneously. He opened his mouth, but the newcomer cut him off, stating, "I don't know what's going on here, but I hope you aren't planning to detain these women. I'd hate for my private party to be delayed any longer than necessary."
"Your… private party?" the employee repeated in a small voice.
The taller man raised an eyebrow. "Yes. These three have been with me all evening. They left a couple of minutes ago to use the facilities, and now I hear something about an attack? I certainly hope you aren't assuming my guests were involved."
Alarm bells went off in Annabeth's head. Why was this important-looking stranger lying for them? She felt her body tense, readying herself for whatever dangerous situation was coming.
"Oh, no, sir, of course not," the employee insisted hastily. "Your guests… No, we were just… making sure they were safe, yeah. It was just a minor incident, no need to be bothered. We were about to report it ourselves."
The stranger gave a small smile that was somehow both polite and threatening. It was actually a little creepy. "Good," he said calmly. For a long few seconds, a tense silence took over. No one moved until the man arched an eyebrow at the employee and said, "Well, don't let me keep you."
"Oh—right," the staff member said, jumping slightly. "Sorry, Mister Temple, sir. We'll inform security right away. Enjoy the rest of your night." Then he offered a short bow and the entire group of casino employees scampered away down the hall.
As they disappeared, the stranger released a heavy sigh and lowered his shoulders just barely, ocean blue eyes staring disapprovingly after the staff members as he shook his head.
"Um…" Annabeth muttered unintelligently, still trying to gather her thoughts and get a lock on what had just happened. There was no way this was simply a lucky break. Something was going on here. "Thanks, but… why did you help us? Do we know you?"
He turned his eyes on Annabeth and her muscles tensed, despite the fact that she sensed no ill intent from him. He didn't have the presence or body language of someone about to start a fight.
"I don't fully understand either," he responded, a tiredness in his voice that surprised Annabeth. What was that supposed to mean? "I just received a call from my girlfriend Elizabeth saying it was extremely important that I get down here and stop the staff from taking in three women who'd just exited the men's restroom. I was worried it was a prank at first, but, well… here you are."
"Elizabeth…?" Annabeth repeated, wracking her brain. She didn't think she knew anyone named Elizabeth.
That question was answered barely a second later, however, when a breathy voice behind her called out, "Annabeth!" and as she turned she got a quick glimpse of curly red hair before she was wrapped in a sudden and bone-crushing hug.
"R…Rachel?" Annabeth stammered in shock, lifting her arms to push her assailant back and take her in from head to toe.
Sure enough, the woman before her was none other than her good friend and former coworker, Rachel Dare. She was dressed in a floor-length satin gown and decked out with expensive jewelry, which was so unlike Rachel that for a second Annabeth felt a spark of doubt, but the spirals of ginger hair and mile-wide smile were exactly the same as she remembered.
"Shh!" Rachel hissed, holding a finger to her lips. "Don't call me that. It's Elizabeth now."
Annabeth blinked. "What—?"
"I'll explain, just not here," Rachel interrupted. She threw a glance over her shoulder and stepped past Annabeth, toward the man who'd just saved them. "Come on," she waved them forward. "Oh, you met my boyfriend?"
"Sort of," Annabeth responded with a glance at their helper. There was something so surreal about this whole situation that it took her a few extra seconds to notice that he'd held out his hand for her to shake.
"Octavian Augustus Temple the Sixth," he introduced himself when she finally took his hand. "Call me Ian."
"Nice to meet you," she said vaguely.
Piper snorted, reminding Annabeth that she and Reyna were there. "Your initials spell 'oats'?"
Ian raised an annoyed eyebrow and Annabeth muttered warningly, "Piper…"
"Sorry. I just really have a craving for oatmeal all of a sudden."
Reyna stepped forward before the subject could be further discussed and asked Ian, "Did you say 'Temple'?"
Ian nodded, turning his scowl away from Piper. "My family owns this casino," he told them.
Piper looked impressed. "So that's why those guys wet their pants when you told them off."
"Wait, I don't get it," Annabeth interrupted, rounding on Rachel. "Why are you here? What—?"
"Not here," Rachel repeated more insistently. "We've got a few rooms upstairs, we can talk there. Come on."
With that, she grabbed Ian's arm and marched down the hall, pulling him alongside her and leaving Reyna, Piper, and a completely bewildered Annabeth no choice but to follow.
That was fun, huh? More on this a little later, promise ;)
I have the next chapter started, but as it's not yet complete I'll make no promises about update time. We'll go with the usual "shouldn't be too long".
How 'bout a review? Thanks, everybody! Later days!
