Chapter 7


"They know exactly what we're here for
Don't look up, just let them think there's no place else you'd rather be"

- Fences, Paramore


"What the hell, Chase?"

Annabeth looks up, startled. Drew stands in front of her, furious, her chest rising up and down like she's just sprinted heer. Behind her, the door is flung wide open. Annabeth would normally chastise her for not knocking but she's pretty sure she's here about Percy again, because she always is ("I am seething, Annabeth," she had said a few days ago, utterly calm. "Percy peed on me. He peed on me. I demand either you take me off bathroom duty or cut his dick off entirely, and if you don't then something very, very bad will happen you") and she really doesn't want to add any unnecessary fuel to the fire.

She sighs. "What, Drew?"

Drew is trembling with rage. "Don't you dare play daft with me, you know what you did."

"If this is about Percy–"

"Where the hell is Silena?"

Oh. Oh.

Annabeth stares pointedly down at her desk.

"I won't ask you again," Drew says.

"You can't speak to me like that."

"Where. Is. Silena."

"Gone."

Drew goes ashen. "What?"

"She's gone."

"Where? Why?"

Annabeth straightens the edge of her T-shirt and tries not to look as troubled as she feels. "I had reason to believe she was sneaking Olympus outsider information about Minerva."

There is complete silence, and when Drew next speaks, her voice is dangerously low. "What?"

Annabeth looks up, and stares at her straight in the eyes. "You heard me," she says. "Silena was the rat, so she's gone."

"Why the hell would you think Silena was the rat?"

"I don't know, Drew. Maybe because when I accused you she was remarkably quick to defend you, like she was certain it wasn't you, and the only way she could have known that is if she knew who it really was, and the video came right in the middle of her presentation. It wouldn't have been that hard to sneak a bug into her own computer."

"So you thought having two purely coincidental pieces of information meant that you could send her away to die?"

"I didn't–"

"Don't you dare say you didn't, Chase, because as soon as news breaks that an ex-Minerva agent is happily strolling across New York Olympus is going to bust heads to get their hands on her."

"She could have escaped into a surrounding state."

Drew just scoffs. "You're a monster."

"Monster?" Suddenly Annabeth is on her feet, her hands planted against her desk. "Oh, I'm the monster? For what, for protecting this gang? I have put blood, sweat and tears into this. I will lay my life down for any one of these girls, even you, Drew, and you dare call me a monster for chucking out someone who won't do the same?"

Drew points a finger at her. "Silena was the best damn person in this place. She loved you, Annabeth, and she would have thrown herself in front of six trains before letting anyone hurt you. And this is how you repay her? By leaving her out there to die?"

"She was a spy, Drew!" Annabeth shouts. "I don't care if she was Mother fricking Theresa, I am not going to let someone who is only going to run this place into the ground stay here!"

"Silena wasn't a spy!"

"And how would you know?"

Drew stares at her, winded.

"Exactly."

"Silena wouldn't have done this."

"You have no proof of that."

"And neither did you."

"I don't need to," Annabeth says. "This is war, Drew. I'm not sure if you've looked up from any of your dumb magazines long enough to realise, but we're in the middle of a war. Olympus are better in almost every way. They are superior in number, and manpower, and probably also brains. This is not a game. We're already treading dangerous water, and now that we've found out that there's someone here who's smuggling information to them, like we weren't already in trouble, we are almost certainly going under. Everyone who even thinks about being part of this must be prepared to give Minerva their full trust and secrecy. That's a vow we all made. Anyone who seems even slightly suspicious is out. I'm not taking any chances."

"But– Silena wouldn't–"

"That's enough," Annabeth says firmly.

"Annabeth–"

"I said, that's enough."

Drew's mouth snaps shut. She toes the line but she knows when Annabeth isn't playing around.

"I am the leader here," she says. "And I'm aware I've dropped the ball a bit when it comes to that. But I'm stepping back up now. You may not necessarily agree with the way I run things around here, and I don't really care, so long as you keep any comments about that to yourself. But what it does mean is that my word is final and I don't care if you and Silena had just gotten matching tattoos or had just realised that you were in love with each other, but she's gone now, and that's al I'm going to say on the matter. Okay?"

Drew's eyes flash.

Annabeth stems it before it gets any angrier. "Are we clear, Drew?" she says, her voice hard.

Drew glares at her for a very long time, but eventually she sighs and hangs her head. "Yeah, whatever," she mumbles. "I'm still pissed at you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Annabeth says. "But for your attitude today and the fact that you thought that you could speak to me like that, you're in isolation for three hours."

Drew's jaw drops. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Are you serious? I'm not some sulky kid!"

"You sure about that?" Annabeth says coolly.

"Uh, yeah! I'm an adult! I don't need to be put in isolation!"

"You should've thought twice about speaking to me like that."

Drew huffs. "You've never put me in isolation for cheeking off before!"

"Times have changed," Annabeth says. She pauses. "I'm just trying to be a better leader, Drew. Surely you'd understand."

Drew's glare turns evil. "Don't use my words against me," she hisses.

"Your time starts now," Annabeth says, undeterred. "There's a free interrogation room if you want to use that. You are not allowed to bring anything with you, or I'll double your time. The sooner you get there, the sooner you'll be out. I'll send Rachel to check up on you."

Drew's eyes narrow. "I still don't forgive you for what you did to Silena."

"That's nice, you can think about it in isolation. Now go, shoo. Just you being in my sight right now is giving me a rash."

Drew gives her one final scowl, and then she rather impressively turns on her heel and stalks out the room. She bumps into Piper going out, and bares her teeth at her when they jostle shoulders. Piper looks a bit surprised but not afraid in the slightest, and keeps blithely walking into the office with Leo in tow.

"What's up her ass?" she says in lieu of greeting.

Annabeth runs a hand through her hair, suddenly feeling drained. "She found out about Silena," she says. "She yelled at me so I put her in isolation."

"Isolation?" Leo says incredulously.

"Yes, Beth," Piper says, ignoring him, and gives her a high-five. "This is what I'm talking about."

Annabeth rolls her eyes, trying to hide her amusement. "What do you need?"

"Oh." Piper gestures to Leo. "I wanted to take him on a run, to show him the ropes. Can I?"

"Sure," Annabeth says. "He can borrow a motorcycle."

"He is here," Leo says mildly.

"Your opinion is kind of invalid for the next while," Piper says to him. "No offence."

"None taken."

"But be careful," Annabeth says. "Olympus would have probably heard of Silena's departure by now. The streets will be crawling with them, and if you're caught with Leo, it'll be game over."

"Not necessarily," Piper says. "We can pretend that we're momentarily on different sides and I'm kicking his butt."

"Yes, and then they'll step in and kick your butt. And then his butt again for running away."

"I didn't run away," Leo says. "It was a slightly botched rescue mission."

"Still," Annabeth says. "There's gotta be some sort of impressive bounty on your heads. Both of you."

"That's actually true," Leo says. "In Pluto everyone's got a running score based off how many Minerva deaths/captures they have . If it's some faceless initiate, they get one point. If it's a civilian, it's minus one. But if it's a higher-up, they get a bunch of points. Currently, you're worth 100 points, Annabeth, and I think Piper might be worth 40."

"Forty?" Piper demands, sounding insulted.

"How do you even know this?" Annabeth says.

Leo shrugs. "I work in all three subsections. You get around."

Huh. Annabeth lets this sink in. "Fascinating."

"I can't believe I'm only worth forty points," Piper grumbles mutinously.

"There's a bonus ten if they can get a name," Leo says. "Annabeth doesn't count because they already know her name, but there are a bunch of blurry security camera screenshots of you guys. Your nickname is Beauty Queen."

Piper subconsciously puffs out her chest. "Well."

"All this tells us is that you two need to be careful," Annabeth says. She tries not to let her smugness show. Like, yeah. She is worth 100 points. Olympus may be ruthless and evil and her rival, but at least they know what she's worth. "It means that they know what you look like, and obviously they know you're a higher-up. It's why you're worth so much."

"Well, they don't know everything," Piper says. "Or I would have had many points. I mean, I'm second in command! I should be worth at least seventy. Not forty."

"Fifty if they get the name," Leo says.

"Shut up, Leo."

"Sorry."

"Just be careful," Annabeth says. She perches on the armrest of her chair. "How did everyone take the news?"

Piper's demeanour changes instantly. "Not well," she admits. "I think Drew rallied them up."

Annabeth rolls her eyes. She had let Piper lead the morning brief that day – she'd stayed up all night wracked with grief and guilt and self-hatred and knew that if she had to stand and lead a brief with a very pointed absence she might just break down – and in there Piper had broken the news of Silena's departure. It's partially why Annabeth's kept herself locked in her office all day. She's done something terrible but necessary, and she knows she'll hate herself for it for the rest of her life.

"Some started crying," Piper says. "Silena was a big part here. If you're thinking this'll all die down in a couple hours you're wrong. They'll probably all be mourning her for weeks."

Annabeth tries to hide the ache in her chest. "It's not like she died."

Piper gives her a look.

"Intentionally."

Piper just sighs and comes around behind Annabeth's desk, taking Annabeth's hand in her own. Her nails are painted green. It was one of Silena's colours. She's also pretty sure that's Silena's T-shirt, too. Annabeth can only stare down at her hands. They all grieve in their own ways. "Annabeth," Piper says. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I am."

"I'm asking this friend to friend, Beth."

Annabeth sighs. "I– I don't know. I couldn't sleep at all last night."

Piper waits.

"We had no proof. It was all just speculation."

"Then why'd you do it?"

"Because if there was even a chance that someone was sabotaging Minerva, especially this close to Tartarus getting invaded, they had to go."

Piper squeezes her hand. "There you go. Don't beat yourself up about this. You had to. For the sake of Minerva."

"It's all just hit me," Annabeth whispers. "She's gone, and she's probably dead. And it's my fault. Because I believed a whim."

"I trust you," Piper says, eyes blazing with sincerity. "You don't do things on a whim, Annabeth. If you felt like you had to do this, then you did. You're allowed to mourn her. We all are. But you can't mourn like – this. This is destructive."

"I can't help it. This is my fault."

"It was hard, but it was necessary. You did this for Minerva."

Behind them, Leo awkwardly clears his throat. "Should I leave?"

"No," Piper says, her eyes not leaving Annabeth. "You can see what human emotion looks like."

Leo sighs. "For the last time, the people at Olympus were not droids, Piper."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Piper says. In a stage whisper, she says to Annabeth, "I have a theory that Leo's sob story about rescuing Percy was just a cover because he was frightened for his life as the only human at Olympus."

Leo just rolls his eyes.

The conversation is enough for Annabeth to regain her composure. She sets her shoulders back and shoots Piper a quick, reassuring smile. "Thanks, babe," she says in a low voice.

Piper squeezes her hand. "No problem." She stands up and then dances around to where Leo is still standing. "You ready to go for a ride?"

"Not really," Leo says. "I can't really ride a motorbike."

Piper pats his shoulder understandingly. "Right, because everyone had built-in wheels and therefore no need for motorbikes, I get it." She taps her nose and winks at him, ignoring his sigh, and then beams at Annabeth. "Well, I'll see you soon!"

As they leave, Annabeth hears Leo say, "Can I die on a motorbike?"

"Probably," Piper says, "but don't worry, we won't care that much if you do. You're not that important yet."

The door swings shut behind them. Annabeth stares at it for a long time.


"So," Percy says as soon as Annabeth walks in the room. "I heard an interesting rumour today."

Annabeth frowns. "Are– you making small talk?"

"I mean, I'm basically just confronting you about something that I overheard that I'm very fascinated about, but sure, small talk." Percy arranges himself on the bed. "Do you want to know about this rumour?"

"You haven't properly spoken to me in two months."

Percy rolls his eyes. "Are you surprised?"

Annabeth thinks about it. "Not really."

"Well, you're not as dumb as I thought," Percy says, which hurts. "As for your question, I've literally already said I'm asking you about a rumour. Will you just let me grill you for two minutes without you being all mysterious and cryptic, or sticking something into my flesh?"

"That depends how good the rumour is."

"Oh, I think you'll like this one." Percy smiles innocently up at her, but there's no mirth in his eyes. "Is Leo here?"

Annabeth blinks. "What would make you say that?"

"Eyelashes. You should probably transfer her to something else if you don't want me to hear the Minerva gossip. She talks to herself like nobody's business."

Drew. Damn it. "Of course it was her."

"She's interesting," Percy says. "Today she was very colourfully cursing your name. What did you do? Take away her nail glue?"

"Close. Sent her best friend to die because she's been ratting us out to Olympus."

Percy stops. "What?"

Annabeth can't look at him. She turns to the cupboard and starts pulling out some equipment. Her words are clipped and impersonal. "I'm not saying it again."

Percy looks completely shocked. "You– you had a girl ratting you out to Olympus?"

"That's the theory."

"I don't remember there being a Minerva spy."

"Well, obviously it happened recently, didn't it," Annabeth says, probably a little too harshly. Normally she'd back down and apologise but she's so tightly strung she doesn't even care. She pulls out various pieces of equipment from the cupboard, so wrapped up in her own bubble she doesn't even realise they aren't the right things. "You've been here three months now. Some things would have happened at Olympus that you don't know about. Get over it."

Percy looks a little confused. "Are– you okay, Annabeth?"

She slams down a coffee pot and whirls on him. "Of course I'm okay, why wouldn't I be?"

Percy does a very obvious once-over, taking into account her wild eyes and dark circles and matted hair, and then looks up at the ceiling. "No reason, of course you're okay, don't know what I was thinking."

Annabeth just sighs. She doesn't apologise.

"So," Percy says. "Leo."

"What about him?"

"He's here, isn't he?"

"Possibly."

"Can I see him?"

"Absolutely not."

Percy frowns. "Why not?"

"Are you mad, Percy? You're our hostage. This isn't a social event."

"Well, why's he here then?"

"Tried to bust you out of here. It went very well, clearly."

"What are you gonna do with him? Tie him to a table and torture him for hours on end?"

"Hilarious." Annabeth finally finds what she's looking for and places them on the counter. "No, we're using him for handy work."

There's a pause. "Seriously?"

"Apparently he's a mechanic, and a good one, and also the only one at Olympus – which, by the way, is a terrible thing, you guys need to get your team under control. We're using him to help around the building. He's like a handyman."

"Good." A beat. "I mean. Grr, not good. You should torture him. Make him – hurt. We hate each other. He's my greatest enemy. It will cause me great pleasure to see him tortured, so you should potentially not do that to get under my skin."

Annabeth rolls his eyes. "Don't be stupid, Percy. He's your best friend, and you two love each other. That's why I'm not letting you see him. Also because I still don't trust him in the slightest and I don't want him trying to break you out. And you don't have to be afraid. We're not going to hurt him. That privilege is for you only."

Percy snorts. "Yes, I'm so blessed. Speaking of, what are we doing today? Personally, I think we should do some more of the sound torture stuff. It's totally effective."

"It's also the least painful," Annabeth says, turning around. She heads over to his bed. "The very idea is so ridiculous that I tried to veto it, but Rachel insisted. I don't really see why blasting loud music in your ears for several hours straight would be any more effective than letting you slowly bleed out, but whatever."

"I mean, I can think of several reasons," Percy says. "Sleep deprivation. Potential madness. Loss of hearing. Honestly, and you call yourself a pro."

"I don't," Annabeth says. "But very convenient you mention loss of hearing, actually."

"Are you gonna bust my hearing? Because it would break my heart, Annabeth, not to hear your voice every day."

Annabeth ignores him. "What we're going to do today is a bit of what I like to call sensory deprivation."

"What?"

Annabeth sits on the chair, and produces the equipment. In her hands lie a simple blindfold, and noise-cancelling headphones.

Percy only looks more confused. "Am I gonna listen to some music in the dark? Because not to burst your bubble, but that sounds kind of nice."

"Oh, no."

"Well... what are we doing?"

Annabeth rests the headphones on her lap, and fondles the blindfold, stroking her fingers across it. It's cool and soft to the touch. "For the next week," she says, "all your visits are going to be irregular."

"Okay?"

"The only thing that will stay the same are the bathroom breaks. They'll be exactly every twenty four hours. Everything else will be completely random."

"And by random you mean you've just made your timetables a little less meticulous."

That's absolutely what she did. "That's not the point. What the point is, for the next week, everything will be completely at random – and you won't know what's going to happen, and when. That's where these babies come into the equation." She pats the headphones and keeps her thumb stroking across the blindfold. She hasn't slowed down or sped up. It's distracting him. She suppresses a smile every time his gaze falters and glances down at it. "You are going to be wearing both of these, so you won't be able to see or hear a single thing."

Suddenly, the magnitude of it all seems to dawn on him. His eyes go wide.

"You won't know when someone's in the room with you," Annabeth says. "For all you know, there could be someone in the room with you for the entire time." She starts slowly dragging her fingers up and down his arm with her spare hand. Percy's whole body jolts. "You won't hear them come in or come out. You won't hear them go through the cupboard." Her touch is featherlight. Goosebumps trail in her wake. "You won't hear them pull out equipment. You won't know what they're going to do to you." The touch becomes more purposeful. Percy shudders when she trails the pads of her fingertips from his palm to shoulder. "Think about that. You'll be completely at our mercy."

Percy's voice is rough. "When will I be able to take it off?"

"At the end of the week." She keeps her tone gentle and soft, to match her strokes. It's a beautiful juxtaposition, especially seeing something crack in Percy's expression as he fights both fear from her words and peacefulness from her touch. "Something about what Rachel said about the noise really – stuck with me. Blaring noise in someone's ear for hours is effective, sure, but only if you're prepared to also have to listen to that for a long time, too. But silence? With nothing to connect to reality but the bed under your back and the trail of a knife against your skin?" Her voice drops to a whisper. Her fingers are still moving. "Bliss."

Percy doesn't speak. He just watches her with wide green eyes.

Annabeth takes that as her cue, and stops her thumb on the blindfold. His eyes jerk. She lifts it and then, with a smirk on her lips, places it over his eyes. He starts at the initial coolness of it, but she soothes him.

"Shh," she murmurs, knotting it deftly behind his head. "It's okay." She even lets her hand brush some hair off his forehead, and his body trembles. "There you go. Are you okay?"

"I mean, I can't see, if that's what you mean."

He wants snark, to remind him that she's still Annabeth. But she's not, not anymore. She's transcended into her headspace, something ethereal and seductively deadly. She feels the most powerful when she's like this. When she's untouchable. "Shh," she says again, her hands still stroking. She keeps it tame, his arm and his hair, but he's still tense. "Are you comfortable?"

He must hear it in her voice. She's long gone. He sighs. "I guess."

"Good, good." She keeps stroking his arm. "I'm going to put the headphones on now, okay?"

"Okay."

She momentarily takes her hand off him so she can secure the headphones securely over his ears. If he was tense before, now it's like his muscles have turned to steel. He jerks in the cuffs, his hands fisting the sheets beneath him. All he has now is touch, smell and taste, but they clean the room with unscented sprays and all he ingests nowadays are plain crackers and water, so the bed is all he has left on reality.

Somewhere, Annabeth thrums back to life inside her own head. It's a terrifying concept. She wouldn't be surprised if he develops a headspace of his own. He's going to be spending so long in his own head.

She rests her fingertips against his arm again, and his body jumps, once, twice, and then it's almost like he's leaning into it. She strokes his bicep, her fingers barely rasping against his skin, and even though he can't hear him, she keeps silent, as to not disturb him.

She doesn't know how long she sits there. Her fingers have a mind of their own and they begin to trace his whole body. She never applies anymore pressure than the lightest breeze, but goosebumps still ripple across his whole body. She strokes up his arm, his shoulder, his neck, the side of his face, down, to his chest, his stomach, down his thigh, his calf. She even brushes her fingers against the bottom of his foot, and his whole body jerks. She's somewhere else. She doesn't even think she's Annabeth anymore. She's lost in this whole world where Percy is completely at the mercy of her touch and the possibilities are overwhelming.

She can do whatever she want. But she doesn't. She strokes up and down his side, watches as he settles, watches his whole body lose its tension and gradually sink back into the mattress. She watches and waits until he's almost completely boneless.

Then she takes her hands off him.

His whole body tenses back up again, but she takes a step backwards before she can do anything else. She can feel Annabeth begin to seep back into her head, and quickly heads out the room so she can process away from him.

She doesn't know what just happened, but she does know this week is going to be long.


A/N hello friends! how are we all today?

did you like that chapter? it's a bit fumbly and a teeny bit filler-ish but the next chapter is definitely where things properly kick off. I hope you liked it anyway! piper/Annabeth are one of my favourite things to write so whoopee that

(also get this I'm so lame I had to look up lists of tortures to get some more ideas! will say some of it is so awful [I say writing a story about torture lols] humans can really get quite creative)

anyway thank you all SO MUCH for your wonderful wonderful reviews last chapter! we're nearly at 150, isn't that bizarre? anyway, as promised from last chapter, I have got all the replies to everyone so here we are!

leighismyname – your review was such a lovely thing to read! like it was so nice and refreshing and just so genuinely sweet so tahnk you so much for that friend it was really really appreciated xx

Yuenne – thank you so much! x

Bunearybunny – ahh thanks! I hope you liked this chapter :D

AnnabethGinevraJacksonPotter – thanks pal! xxx

T [guest] – why thank you! the eventual goal is an original novel haha but for I'm nowhere near original enough to create a whole basis for a book, so fanfiction it is for now :)

Mmmm [guest] – firstly, thank you for your review! it was actually very eye-opening and stuff. like I said above the reason why Annabeth chucked her out nothing more than just speculation is because at this point in time Minerva and Olympus are in the midst of a war. Was Annabeth acting rationally? absolutely not. she's terrified on the behalf of her girls. it's all of this together that caused her to boot out silena – for her, the evidence was enough. it wasn't sufficient proof but she didn't care about that, because there was a chance that the spy was silena and she wasn't going to just sit around and wait for actual evidence to fall into her lap while someone keeps giving information. she can't waste time like that, which is why she acted that way.

amalspach – aw thank you so much friend!

Shauna Kullden – yes haha leo is a little bit stupid sometimes! glad you're enjoying the story!

aRTsyisAwsome – thank you so much for your review! and *mysterious voice* all shall be revealed

Meistar – thanks friend! hope you liked this chapter!

Penny [guest] – hey friend! I'm so glad you liked the chapter! and yes I am going on holiday I'm going to Italy! woo!

mounte – I know annabeth's so stupid sometimes xD

allineedisabook – honestly bae you're such a darling xx I love you so much! have fun on holiday! xx

miss impossible [guest] – bABE ily

ThankYouKanyeVeryCool – hey thanks friend! and yes I might introduce caleo. I do love it a lot, I'll just have to see if it works x

2dancegirlb2 – haha I hope you liked the chapter! and that's an excellent question I guess you'll never know (I'm totally kidding I'm not but thank you anyway haha)

zaidysgirl [guest] – hope you enjoyed!

Percabeth824 – aw thank you so much! xxx hope you have a wonderful summer too!

Guardian'sDragonOfDeath – thank you!

Amalia [guest] – you'll see ;)

BethnPercy – thank you for your review friend! and yes I can assure you leo and percy will see each other at some point x

MissFortune713 [guest] – thank you so much! x

Komodovaran – haha here you go!

Shadow3636 – I'm so glad you liked it friend! xx

KittyCat809 – thank you SO much! your review was so much fun to read haha thank you for enjoying xxx

Anyway! I hope you liked that and I shall see you all next Saturday! farewell xxx