Okay, it has been two years I believe since I last updated any of my stories and I apologize for taking so long to update and for keeping you all waiting. I don't want to say much just yet.

Enjoy the chapter.

Warning: Mentions of blood and brutal deaths.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians

Crazy In Love

Percy

I was floating, I felt weightless...

I felt...nothing and yet...

"Percy!"

Pain slowly ebbed it's way, crawling through my veins. Heat slowly started to seep through me.

"Percy!"

Pain erupted all over my body. I ached all over. The pain was so sudden, that it knocked the wind out of me.

"Please-alive!"

My back hurt so much, and my skin felt raw.

"Help!" A voice was shouting, the same voice I had been hearing.

My legs felt like jelly, my arms like bags of sand.

"Oh god," the voice sobbed, "what happened?!"

I felt water falling on me, steadily.

Suddenly, it felt like I was free falling. The gush of wind rushing through my hair and around my body felt so real. Like at any moment I was about to drop-

When I opened my eyes, the world was still dark and still asleep, my heart was pounding in my chest and sweat drenched my forehead as I looked up at my ceiling.

This dream was new. It wasn't like my usual nightmares of Danny or my parents. This somehow felt more real and a little bit more terrifying.

I got off my bed and went to the bathroom, turned on the sink and washed my face before going back to bed. I tried to go back to sleep but it didn't come so easily.

Downtown Metropolis 6:15pm

A pretty, blonde twenty-six year old made her way through the downtown shopping area. A few bags on one of her hands, she wanted to go to one last shop before heading home but she kept getting distracted by other things, the latest thing that was distracting her was her friend.

"I know, like I can't believe Jenny didn't invite you to her little get together all because of the drama that's going on between you and Lisa, like she doesn't even know the full story and-you're so right! She did pick a side by doing that and like how many things have you done for this girl I mean like let's be serious, you've done so much for her and she's just going to leave you hanging out to dry like that. Whatever I'm not going to that thing."

She made her way through the crowd, summer was leaving soon and people were trying to enjoy the weather as much as possible and so it would often get extremely crowded towards the end of the workday.

She made a right and walked down through this little park in the middle of a busy intersection as she made her way to the coffee shop which was one more block away. A french vanilla latte was calling her name along with maybe a blueberry muffin.

"Yeah we could totally d-ah!" She yelped as she was suddenly pulled off to the side and thrown into the chest of the person who grabbed her. She looked up to see a helmet instead of the person who still had a hold of her.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" She tried to make it seem as if she wasn't scared but she was terrified.

"Hey, what's going on?" Her friend asked through the phone but she couldn't be heard that clearly.

"Let me go," she demanded.

The person shook their head no. Then, they put their finger on her lips, to let her know to stay quiet.

"Wh-what are you going to do?" Her voice caught in her throat.

A knife was suddenly pressed against her stomach. The person in the helmet shook his head once more before plunging the knife into her stomach.

"Ahhhh!"

People stopped walking, and looked to the blonde woman who let out the loudest scream they had ever heard. And watched as the man with the helmet stabbed her.

"Stop!" She shrieked, as he continued to stab her, every time plunging the knife deeper in. "Sto-stop!" She begged as he continued. She looked towards the crowd of people who weren't stopping him, the drones didn't even react. "H-help!" She yelled at them, her hands slipping against the arm holding her back. She clawed at him and tried to get away, blood was spilling from the side of her mouth and every time the knife went in, she felt a new wave of pain.

"Help!" Her voice was failing her as he continued mercilessly.

"Hi we notice your distress, we are now reading your state of mind," the drones finally made their way through the crowd and circled her and the man currently killing her.

"We have informed the dispatcher and Enforcers should be on the way."

"Somebody! St-stop him!" She shrieked, spitting the blood that overflowed her mouth on the ground.

"Ahhhh!" A lady watching from the crowd screamed, finally coming her to senses, "he's killing her! Call the enforcers!" She yelled, and soon after her, the rest of crowd started to panic. More drones came, trying to calm the crowd, more enforcers were called but the man with the helmet kept stabbing the young blonde girl.

"Please...stop..." she gasped, she was dying, she knew it, there was only so much she could take before it became too much.

"We will tranquilize you now ma'am, you are too erratic and we need you to calm down," one of the drones told her before a mechanical little arm with an injection popped out of the center of the drone and was inserted in her arm. The little arm dropped the used injection in a compartment the drones carry and went back inside the drone.

The man with the helmet stood up over her, watching as the life left her eyes and then made a break for it. He ran all the way out of the park, with people panicking in masses, and drones making it worse. He made his way to the train station near the end of the small park and disappeared before any of the enforcers could arrive, avoiding drones all the way through, as if he were invisible.

Percy; at the AECPC

"Unbelievable," Luke muttered as he walked through the lunch room.

"What happened?" Asked Amber who was eating a salad, while I filled my cup with a bit more coffee.

"We missed the person who did this mess; in front of a lot of people too. A lot of paramedics were called to the scene because people who were watching were panicking, not to mention the dead body that was still there out in the open long before we got there."

"Are you guys gonna be working on this case? I know me and Nico are," I asked him.

"No, they handed this to Will and Amber," Luke answered.

"What?" Amber looked up surprised, "seriously?"

"Yeah, you're bound to be called soon," Luke told her, "I'd suggest saving that salad for later if you have a weak stomach."

Amber looked down at her food and frowned a little before covering it, right as her wristband rang, signaling a call coming.

"It's Will," she let us know before getting up to get out of the break room and taking the call.

Soon enough I got a message on my wristband to meet Nico at Calypso's office.

"Well," I looked over at Luke, "looks like duty calls."

"Good luck," Luke said as I left the break room.

"Okay," Calypso started, looking at all of us in the room, which was myself, Nico, Will and Amber, "this is pretty brutal...but it's the footage from the security camera where the murder happened. Brace yourselves," she said before she turned to the computer and tapped away at the keyboard, bringing up the video so fast no one had time to say anything.

Once the video from the security camera started playing, on the big screen in the center of her office which was connected to her computers, we could see the victim walking through the park, talking on her phone.

She was suddenly pulled harshly to the side and they could see her say something to the man with the helmet. It looked like she was arguing with him yet he said nothing, he would only shake his head. Suddenly she was stabbed; where he pulled out that knife from, I don't know I didn't even see it and he just kept on stabbing her. You could see the people start to form a crowd around her, yet no one helped her. The drones came and would speak to her, completely ignoring the guy in the helmet, as if he were invisible.

"I'm trying to get the sound to work but I got orders from Minerva to show you the video as soon as possible, with or without sound, so this was on short notice," Calypso said as the video continued to play until the end.

No one had helped her. No one. Not even the fucking drones. I was sick to my stomach, I couldn't believe people would have reacted like that. Not to mention, the drones weren't even doing anything to the guy in the helmet. Right there, the drones should have shocked him or something. And I knew I wasn't the only one thinking that too, I could see the gears turning in Nico's head as he watched the video.

"It's fine, just work on getting the sound and pinpoint it so that we can hear their conversation, in the meantime, we should go down to the morgue and find out who our victim is," Nico said, looking at us.

"Good idea," Will spoke up, "let's go."

We made our way down to the morgue, which was the last level in the building and entered through steel double doors. We found Dr. Chakrabarti typing away at his computer when we entered the room.

"What's up, Chakrabarti," Will greeted as he neared the doctor.

"Hello there Enforcers," Dr. Chakrabarti turned around from the computer, "I assume you're here to know more about your victim?" He got straight to the point.

"Yes," Nico said, "tell us everything you know so far."

"Well the victim's name is Brenda Smith, 25 years old; close to turning 26, her home address is on her ID, which was left in her purse. Her phone was also with her but I let Enforcer Leo take it so that he could hack into it as it was password protected. She was stabbed twenty eight times as well as receiving blunt force trauma to the head. Seems like the killer might have slammed her head against the concrete as he was trying to kill her. Cause of death was her bleeding to death. Out of the twenty eight times that the killer stabbed her, he had stabbed her in the aorta arteries, both the thoracic aorta and the abdominal aorta. I'm not sure if the killer meant to do that or not but she bled to death and bled quickly."

"Oh god," Amber grimaced, clearly disgusted.

"Now, when you look at the stab wounds," Dr. Chakrabarti moved to the body of Brenda, being partially covered, "I haven't completely finished yet but if you look at the stab wounds, you'll notice a lot of the wounds are erratic, the killer had no sense of human anatomy so he could have hit those two points accidentally if not purposefully."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Will asks Dr. Chakrabarti.

"That means that the killer was messy in killing his victim, this murder didn't seem to be too thought out, it's an amateur who did this. I would suggest in talking with Enforcer Leo and see if he cracked the phone yet," Dr. Chakrabarti suggested while going back to his desk, "and here is her information as well as her emergency contact list."

"Thank you Dr. Chakrabarti," Nico thanked him looking a bit confused at that last bit, while taking the manila folder the doctor was giving him, "we'll check in with Leo and contact Brenda's immediate family. We'll also come back when you've completely finished with the victim."

"One other thing," Dr. Chakrabarti said, stopping us before we left, "on her arm, there's a mark as if a drone injected the victim. My best guess is that it was a tranquilizer but we won't know until pathology gets back to us with the results of what was in her system."

"Why would the drones only do that to her but not the man who attacked her?" Will asked, looking at the three of us.

He didn't need to say it, we all thought it. There was something off about this case. With that, we took our leave while taking in the information given to us.

"I suggest splitting up right now," Nico told Will, "one of us should contact Brenda's family and have them come down and identify her while also trying to gain insight on who could have down this, the other two of us should go see Leo and see if he got that phone unlocked to see who Brenda was talking to at the time of the murder."

"Sounds good," Will agreed, "when will we be going to her apartment to search it?"

"Right after we contact the family and get a name from Leo."

"Okay, well, Amber and I will contact the family, and you and Percy could see Leo," Will told Nico, "I think it would be better if I break the news to them seeing as I am more gentle in that department," he smirked at Nico, who made a face.

"Fine, I'll give you a call once we have an answer," Nico said, "oh also, let's look into what Chakrabarti said about there maybe being tranquilizer fluids found in her body coming from the drones, we need to find out which drone did this exactly. Maybe we can take a second look at that security footage again, we might have missed the drone tranquilizing the victim."

"Okay sounds good, we'll meet up with you guys then, come on Amber."

"Okay," Amber answered, "goodbye Enforcer Nico, bye Perce."

"See ya Amber," I waved my goodbye as I walked behind Nico.

We went back to the third floor where we knew Leo worked alongside Jason and was fairly close to Calypso's office, just three doors down. All the while I got a bad feeling about this case. It was weird, weirder than the few I had worked on. Different.

"Leo," Nico said as soon as we entered the room.

"Enforcers," Leo responded, not looking up from whatever he was working on, "I've got a feeling I know why you're here."

"Yeah, it's about Brenda Smith, have you cracked her phone yet?" Nico asked him.

"Yes, I've also saved a few files onto my computer," Leo answered.

"What can you tell us?" I asked him as soon as we got to his desk.

"Hey Perce," Leo nodded my way with a small smirk, typing away at his computer, I could see Nico frown a bit, "well so far, the last person on her call list was named 'Bestie' on her contacts. I traced the number and it belongs to Megan Olivia Ray. Her most recent contacts were her 'bestie' Megan, Brenda's mom and dad and of course her boyfriend Blaine Osario."

"Do you have any addresses that belong to Megan and Blaine?" Nico asked Leo.

"Yep, already emailed you the addresses to both, although from the looks of it, Megan is already here, she had filed a report with one of the Enforcers explaining her concern for her friend after hearing her scream and then having the call end. She's still here being detained for questioning."

Nico started to type away at his wristband, plugging in his earpiece that was connected to the wristband into his ear. A moment later, "Will, Brenda's friend, Megan is here at the AECPC, we need you to question her right away."

I couldn't hear what was said on Will's end as Nico had his earpiece on, and I couldn't tell from Nico's face if it was good or bad since he was always scowling. I turned to Leo who was still typing away at his computer.

"Hey," I said and he looked at me briefly before turning back.

"What's up?"

"Can our drones tranquilize the citizens?" I asked, because something about the drones having the power to do that was seriously freaking me out.

"Yeah, ever since their update last year, they let every citizen know, but I'm sure you wouldn't have heard of it because you weren't exactly a citizen back then. You were in the system enough to land a job and look clean to the drones but remember how you didn't have options to choose how to change the apartment you lived in or change clothes too often and had to scavenge in the underbelly?" I nodded, following where he was going, "yeah, you also weren't given updates on what went on in the city with the Enforcers or drones. You would have had to catch that on the news but my guess is you missed it."

"Yeah I did."

"Why?" Leo asked me.

"From the video Calypso showed us," I started, looking at Nico who was still talking to Will on wristband, "the drones had completely ignored the dude with the helmet clearly out of his fucking mind killing the victim and the drones chose her to tranquilize because she was losing her mind, obviously. I thought that was...scary. How could they just ignore that person killing that innocent victim..."

"Huh," Leo said, stopping his typing, "seriously?"

"Yeah, you should go see it for yourself," I told him, "it was like he was invisible and I don't know why."

"The drones didn't even do anything to him?" Leo asked me.

"No, nothing, they must've only talked to the victim before administering the tranquilizer."

"I might have to look into that with Calypso," Leo said, looking thoughtful, "I'll let you know what I find."

"Thanks Leo."

"Don't mention it."

"Okay dog," Nico came back from his call, "Will is interrogating Megan, now we need to go pay Blaine a visit, see what he was doing around the time of the murder."

I felt my jaw clench, god I hated when he called me that, hated it even more when he did it in front of people, people I considered my friends. Leo looked at Nico as if something was wrong with him before looking at me.

"Yes sir," I said, with the most sarcastic tone I could muster. I had a small victory right there when I saw his eyes squint up and his mouth puckered in distaste, "See you Leo," I said as I walked out of the room.

"Bye Perce, Enforcer Nico," Leo looked over at us before going back to his computer.

We parked right in front of Blaine's apartment, which was a miracle seeing as how it was around eight at night and parking would have been difficult. We walked right up to the apartment complex and looked for Blaine's apartment number.

"Found it," Nico said before ringing the doorbell. A moment later, static was heard on the intercom before

"Hello?"

"Blaine Osario?" Nico asked.

"Yes?"

"I am Enforcer Nico di Angelo, this is my partner Enforcer Percy Jackson, we need to ask you a few questions concerning Brenda Smith, may we come in?"

"Sure," Blaine answered, before a buzz was heard on the door and we walked in the complex to the second floor.

The door was already opened when we reached the second floor and we saw Blaine waiting for us with half his body sticking out. He seemed to be confused as to why we were here and he also seemed to be just getting out of work.

His tie was a little loosened, his shirt untucked and the sleeves rolled up, his shoes were off and he was left in his navy blue, dress socks and slacks.

"Hello Enforcers," he said as he stepped aside and let us come in to his apartment, "what seems to be the problem?"

Nico hesitated for a moment, working out how to break the news of his girlfriend to Blaine, "well," he started, "Blaine, we have some news about your girlfriend, Brenda."

Blaine breathed in for a moment, his eyes growing wide with concern, his adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously, "did something happen to Brenda?" He asked, unable to keep the panic out of his voice. I could tell straight away that if we said Brenda was dead he was sure to lose it, I could see it in his face, because I saw myself in him. When I found out Danny had died. "I-is something the matter?" He asked again, looking from Nico to me.

"Blaine," Nico struggled, wincing a bit.

"Please Enforcer tell me what happened," Blaine's voice rose slightly, his panic rising along with it.

"Blaine," I spoke suddenly, "your girlfriend Brenda is," I stopped for one second and closed my eyes, "dead."

Blaine's face turned white and his arms went slack.

"We are sorry for your loss," I finished off, wincing at the cliche, but it was like he couldn't hear me. And that fucking expression can't be used enough. "I'm so sorry for your loss" I thought to myself, "my condolences" I mocked those sayings in my head. Because when you hear that someone you loved and cared about is dead, your fucking world is turned upside down and no amount of people saying these stupid phrases that sound hollow in your ears, is going to take the pain away.

Blaine's face crumpled up and a strangled sob left his throat before he completely collapsed on the floor. Nico and I looked down on him, Nico somewhat shocked. Blaine's head hung down, as his hands covered his face and he let out another sob before fully crying on the living room floor.

"Nooo!" He screamed, "oh god no!"

"Blaine," I tried.

"You've gotta be wrong, you have to be wrong! Brenda can't-can't be d-dead!"

"Blaine," Nico finally spoke up, "this is an extremely bad time but when you feel ready we will need you to come down to the AECPC to answer some questions, Brenda's family have already been told. I'm sure they would like your support and they can offer you support as well."

Blaine just continued to sob, I felt so sorry for the guy and I actually could feel what he was feeling, because I had gone through it. We couldn't just leave him by himself.

"Blaine, we can take you to Brenda's family if they are at home or at the police station," I offered and looked to Nico who only nodded his head in agreement, his face grim.

Just then Nico got a call on his wristband, he looked at his watch and then at me, "it's Will, let me take this call and I'll be right back."

I looked over at Nico, nodding at him before I knelt down to Blaine's level and tried to talk to him, but the poor guy was just crying his eyes out.

"Hey," Nico whispered to me, "Brenda's family are at the AECPC, they've been told the news and are about to identify the body, we should go there with Blaine so that they're together."

"Okay," I said, I turned to Blaine, "Blaine, we need to go down to the AECPC, Brenda's family is there and my partner and I think it would be a good idea if you are there with them."

Blaine didn't even answer he just shook his head before getting up and putting on his shoes that were near the sofa. His face was red and tear-streaked, his eyes were puffy and red and the tears continued to spill down his face. Blaine followed us of the door, grabbing his keys and locking up his apartment before following us down to the car.

When we got to the AECPC, Will and Amber were there to meet us, they told us the family was notified of Blaine coming and were waiting for him since they had already ID'd Brenda.

"The mother is in a state of shock," Will told us, "she's being looked at by a drone and a medic."

As Will said that, Blaine ran across the room to where a lady with blonde hair, staring vacantly at the floor, was sitting. Along with a middle aged man with graying hair and another blonde girl crying silently into her hand.

"Marybella," Blaine practically yelled, he started crying once more and the older blonde woman, who must have been Marybella, looked up and started to cry with him. They hugged each other, clinging onto one another as if their lives depended on it. "I-I-" Blaine sobbed, "I don't even know!"

I looked away from the scene, that was something I hadn't done with Danny's family. I had never hugged her mother, had gotten nor given support when we had needed it most after her death. I ran away, with the shame and guilt of how Danny died and left her family grieving by themselves. I couldn't bear to look at the scene in front of me. I was still filled with such guilt.

"We got a spare key from the sister, who said the boyfriend Blaine, had given it to her two days ago to get in to Brenda's apartment," Will let us know.

"Why would she need to get in her sister's place?" Nico asked.

"Big sis was going to be going away with the boyfriend to a little retreat with a couple of friends. They were going to leave two days from now, on Friday morning and the little sis was going to be taking care of the cat and plants in her sister's place. As well as the boyfriend's place, she had both their keys," Will explained.

"Will interviewed the mother and sister and I interviewed the father, so far, he has no clue as to who could have done anything to hurt his daughter, everyone loved her," Amber jumped in.

"The mom was..." Will winced a bit, "somewhat hysterical, which is understandable but it didn't make her a reliable source for information at the moment of the interrogation, I suggest we come back to the mom the next day. As for the sister, she's keeping some of her older sister's secrets. I noticed it while questioning her that she was hiding something, we just don't know what yet."

"Okay," Nico started, "I suggest we go right now to Brenda's apartment and look through it, I'd suggest telling either the boyfriend or the sister to take the cat with them."

"We're going right now?" Will asked Nico.

"Yes, the sooner the better, besides, that manic got away, he could break into her apartment if he already hasn't to get rid of any evidence connecting him to Brenda."

"Aye-aye captain," Will saluted jokingly, "I'll let the sister know about the cat, give me a few minutes."

Brenda Smith's Apartment 8:33pm

Once inside her first floor apartment, Will instructed Amber to look through her bedroom while Nico looked through the living room, Will in the kitchen and bathroom and told me to look in her home office.

Brenda had been a book keeper for different businesses, freelance so that it wouldn't interfere with her full time job as a bank manager.

I looked through some of her work and thought we could probably contact some of these businesses as well as her job, to see if anyone knew anything that could help. I didn't find much, just a couple of spreadsheets, some templates that looked to be some sort of training for the bank. One template had G.A.I.N written across it with columns and lines separating each word with descriptions underneath. My guess was that it had to do with her bank job.

I put those down and looked at her desk, where I found her laptop. I went over to her desk, sat at her chair and opened up the laptop with the hope of not having to hack into the laptop. I remembered back at the ranch where we had trained for the month, John had taught us a bit of the basics of hacking into a basic person's computer. Leo and Adam of course knew all of what John was going to teach us so they moved onto a more advanced course.

I could remember what I was taught but if it required hacking, I knew right away it was going to be given to either Calypso or Leo. The screen turned on and as soon as I opened it, the internet was being opened, with several tabs loading. Brenda must have just left her computer logged in for the day.

I let myself have a small victory before going straight for her social media, I had to see if there was anyone that looked like they were going to hurt her.

On her Zoomby account, I found a couple of messages from her boyfriend Blaine, her sister and parents, and of course the friend Megan. I looked through more messages, some from different friends, there was a group chat and I clicked on it to see what they talked about. But it was only about the retreat Blaine and Brenda were supposed to go on.

I looked through further back into the year and found a message sent by Brenda.

If you don't leave me alone I...

I clicked on the message and saw she was talking to someone who had deleted their account. I scrolled through the messages to see if I could start from the beginning but I read what some of the messages contained so far.

I won't leave you alone until you pay for what you've done!

Who the fuck are you?!

Your worst nightmare.

Leave me alone or I'll go to the cops.

You're going to pay for what you did to me.

There were a couple more messages, some with the other person threatening Brenda, then some mocking her. The more I read, the more I wondered what exactly had Brenda done. Who had she crossed to make them so angry they'd kill her?

"Hound," Nico called out from the living room before walking into the office space I was still in. He came in and saw me hunching over the computer, "what did you find there?" He asked.

"Brenda's laptop, I think someone was threatening her if these messages indicate anything," I looked over my shoulder to see Nico reading some of the messages shown on the computer.

"We should get this to Calypso," Nico said, "come on, it's getting late and we should get some rest, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Okay."

With that we took our leave, a specialist team was already outside waiting for us to come out so that they could come in and start gathering evidence. We each got into our cars and drove off for the AECPC to get the laptop to Calypso and Leo.

Once at the AECPC, we went down to Calypso's office where we saw Adam there.

"Hey," Will said as soon as we came in, "we've got something for you, what's Adam doing here?"

"Oh, he's helping me out with breaking into Brenda's online profiles and things like that. Leo got called away on a case with Jason so Reyna offered Adam to help me instead of it just being me. I hear he's supposedly good," Calypso explained.

"I'd say I'm better than Leo but you know," Adam said smugly, "that's just my opinion."

"What've you got?" Calypso asked us, rolling her eyes at his comment.

"We have Brenda's laptop, unlocked," Nico said, handing it to her, "my hound found an interesting little chat between her and someone unknown with a deleted profile."

I really hated the way he would call me dog or hound so easily, as if I were nothing to him. Which I knew I was, but there something called decency.

"Do you think you'd be able to get anything off that conversation? I saw many more like those in her inbox," I said, ignoring Nico.

"Well it could be hard," Calypso started.

"But I'm sure we can do some digging see if anything was left behind," Adam finished for her.

"Call us when you think you have something," Nico said as he turned to leave.

"Let us know Calypso! Adam! Night!" Will called as we all walked after Nico who had already left the room, "hey Nico, wait up."

"What's wrong Will?" Nico turned back to face the blond.

"I was wondering if we could hang out tonight at my place?" Will began, not so subtle, in a flirty way, "I needed to run some things by you."

"Will," Nico shook his head and smirked Will's way and for a minute there I envied Will so much. At least Nico treated him with some decency instead of treating him like nothing, like me, "I think maybe we shouldn't besides..." his eyes flickered to Amber and me as we stood off to one side.

"Oh," Will said catching on, "Amber, would you mind staying over at Nico's for the night, I'm sure Nico wouldn't mind you using his bed to sleep on," he turned to Nico smiling cheekily.

"O-oh," Amber spoke as she shook her head, "not at all I don't mind..."

"Great! Then it's settled, what do you say Nico?"

Nico closed his eyes for a moment, "fine," he answered then turned to look at me, "take Amber in our car and show her to my room, don't expect me until the morning hound." His tone acerbic, his eyes narrowed whenever he did speak to me.

"Yes sir," I said contemptuously.

He heard my tone but thankfully only glared at me. The elevator doors soon opened and we went out, Amber and I going inside my car and Nico and Will in Will's car. I watched them drive off, making a show of turning on the car and readjusting my mirrors.

"Hey," Amber spoke quietly.

"Hey," I said turning to her.

"I don't know why he's so mean to you," Amber began, "but I want you to know that a lot of the other Enforcers don't feel the same way as him and you us hounds, we've got your back Percy. Luke especially hates the way he purposefully calls you dog."

"Yeah I know but I can't escape from it either, he's my partner whether I like it or not," I said glumly.

"I hope things get better, they have to," Amber said, trying for my sake to be optimistic.

"Thanks Amber," I said gratefully, "come on let's go home, we've probably got a long day tomorrow."

Nico

Will had taken me back to his place while Percy and Amber were parking the car. We weren't supposed to leave our hounds alone for extended periods of time, that wasn't how it worked.

"Stop thinking about the fact that our hounds are left alone in your apartment, stop worrying, nothing is going to happen," Will said, interrupting my thoughts and of course he knew exactly what I was thinking about.

"I'm not saying anything about Amber, I'm sure she's to be trusted."

"You don't trust Percy?" Will asked me as he came back from the kitchen, two drinks in his hand.

Liquor was banned in both Attica and Tribeka, while these cities were being created, Gaea had decided to ban alcohol. She had done statistics about the benefits of having a society without it and weighed in the options. It was something that the people coming to Attica and Tribeka had to give up if they wanted a chance at living in the experimental cities.

That of course didn't stop people from smuggling it in. How? Well a team was working on that. There was an ongoing investigation and specialist team assigned to infiltrate the underbelly of both islands to see just where exactly people were getting their shipments from but it was very secretive. Most Enforcers didn't know about it. Only those within the department knew.

That didn't mean that Gaea had just let people live their lives cold turkey as they moved in almost twenty years ago.

She developed two special serums in her labs, one that mimicked some of the effects of alcohol without the other side effects and one that completely "sobered" you up once you were ready to leave the haze that came over you with the mock alcohol.

I grabbed one of the drinks Will had poured out for us. Whiskey, fake whiskey but whiskey all the same.

"No, I don't trust the dog," I replied, settling on the couch.

"Why do you call him dog? Or hound? Or literally anything else other than his name? Don't you think he deserves some form dignity?"

"No."

"Why?" Will asked, "what do you have against him?"

"Is this what you wanted to run by me?" I asked, looking over at him, "because if it is, I'll just be going back to my apartment."

"No, Nico stop," Will grabbed my wrist, "this wasn't it, honestly there was nothing to run by you I just..." his fingers brushed against my hand, rubbing circles, "I just missed you is all."

"I'm right here," I said, "right across the hall."

"You know that's not what I meant."

I looked at him then, and he stared back at me, his azure eyes burned through me.

"What did you mean?" I asked, teasing him.

"You know already."

"No I don't, remind me again, what did you mean?"

Will grabbed the drink from my hands and set both his and mine down on the coffee table, soon he yanked me by the front of my shirt, bringing me flush against his body. There was a pause, very brief before he crashed his lips against mine. There was nothing soft in his kiss, it was desperate, rough. Our tongues battled for dominance, I felt myself climb over his lap, straddling him, my fingers gripping his hair as my lips smacked against his. Our breaths were coming in pants.

"How's that for a reminder?" Will muttered against my lips before picking me up, my legs wrapping around his waist, as he took me to his bedroom.

"I think I need to remember a bit more," I said, "maybe you should help me with that."

His bedroom door opened and he threw me on his bed, he started to take his tie off, as I undid my own. Will crawled over to me on the bed, before pushing me back as he stood over me, his eyes hazy with desire.

"I'll make sure you never forget," he whispered before attacking my mouth again.

Percy

AECPC Headquarters; Calypso's Office

"You guys are never gonna believe this," Calypso began, ushering us to go to the main screen in the center of her office.

"What is it?" Asked Nico, I looked over to him and saw just the hint of a hickey. He was different somehow this morning when he came to the apartment after Amber had left. He hadn't been too harsh with me or insulted me.

If having sex with Will was going to make him more friendlier than he should continue having as much sex with Will as possible he was lot better to hang around when he wasn't being a dick.

"Adam, Leo and I fell down a rabbit hole last night when looking into Brenda's files," Calypso said before gesturing to Adam's sleeping form on a cot in the corner of her office, "we found out there are several now deleted accounts where the attacker is threatening Brenda with death to pay for what she had done. Obviously we needed to find out what provoked the attacker to zero in on Brenda so much. We had to dive in deep to conversations as far back as last year, mostly with Brenda's sister, her friend Megan and Blaine."

"What'd you find?" Will asked.

"We found finally an old conversation between Megan and Brenda talking about when was Brenda going to finally dump this guy named Dylan and finally come out in public with Blaine," she said, "just take a look at the conversation," she quickly tapped away at her computer bringing up screenshots of the conversation between Megan and Brenda.

Megan: When are you gonna dump Dylan already?

Brenda: Soon, but I gotta wait you know how crazy he is and I'm scared of what he's gonna do when he finds out

Megan: I told you not to go out with him, I knew something was off about that dude

Brenda: I know I know

Megan: Let's just hope he doesn't find out

Brenda: No! That could make it worse and he's crazy enough to kill me!

"Stop," Nico said, looking over the messages, "who is Dylan?"

"That's what we've figured out last night too, we hacked into her profile to see her friends list but we had no luck there until Adam found her blocked list, where someone named Dylan E. was blocked from looking at her profile. His account has since been deleted and we've made no headway in recovering those deleted accounts of the attacker."

"Is there more to that conversation between Megan and Brenda?" I asked, looking over at Calypso.

"They continue of that she's gotta be careful but nothing else, we thought that from the looks of these texts, Brenda might have been cheating on an old boyfriend which would be cause for murder, if her old boyfriend is as crazy as they made him out to be and if she was cheating and he suddenly found out, that would be motivation enough," she said, taking down the conversation.

"Okay," Nico began, "looks like we're going to pay Megan a visit."

...

"Dylan was an old boyfriend of Brenda's," I looked over the brunette as we sat in her kitchen table.

"What can you tell us about him," Will said, "anything helps."

"He was very controlling of her, very possessive, and he got jealous easily. They dated for only a year and it was very hard for Brenda to leave him, he made it hard for her to leave him. Whether it was promising to change to threatening her, her family, her friends, even me. He told her he was going to make her life a living hell if she ever left him."

"What happened to him after she finally did leave him?" Amber asked.

"She got a restraining order against him because he was stalking her, leaving her threatening messages through text or on her social media, she had to make her profiles private and blocked him but he kept making fake ones just to bother her again. Until the restraining order. After that, things had quieted down, last I heard he had just come out of a rehabilitation center because his hue was beginning to cloud over. One of the drones let an Enforcer know and there were a couple of follow-ups on him, he was put into a center and things stopped after that. Brenda moved on with her life and hadn't heard from him again."

"What was Dylan's full name?" I asked.

"Dylan Ethan Donahue," Megan said, "I haven't heard from him since he went into the rehabilitation center."

"Thank you Megan," Nico said, "we'll let you know if we have anymore information."

We left Brenda's apartment, and walked back to our cars.

"Will," Nico began, making the blond stop short, "we need to split up, one of us needs to go to Blaine's apartment to see if we can get anymore information about Dylan and the other pair need to go to Calypso so that she could look up Dylan's whereabouts, see if we can an address on stalker boy."

"We'll go to Blaine's," Will said, looking to Amber, "let's go."

"Hound," Nico said gruffly, making his way to the driver's side as I got in the car. As soon as he was in, we sped off to the AECPC, "send a message to Calypso, give her Dylan's name and tell her to give us his address."

"Got it," I said as I started to type a message on my wristband.

"Let her know to pull his patient files at the center he was sent to and tell her to send us once she's got it."

"Okay."

Two minutes after I had sent the initial message I had a message coming in, "okay address for Dylan is 1312 Mockingbird Avenue, she's sending the file over soon."

"Got it."

We parked out front of the complex building Dylan lived in. It was the lower parts of Attica where most of the buildings weren't too developed, it reminded of where I used to stay back when I was in hiding.

Usually if a person is deemed unfit and goes into a rehabilitation center, when they come back out, most of they're credit goes down. Losing the apartment they used to have, to having more drones check up on you, to being forced to work lower paying jobs therefore being able to afford only the lowest forms of housing. The jobs Anna had once picked out for them and all other opportunities lost, there was a form you could get it back if you stayed on good behavior long enough, eventually, slowly what you once used to have would become available to you.

There were some slight differences, it wasn't going to continue being the old life you used to have. Instead of having Anna prepare to give you the daily injection to better control your emotions and to keep your hue from clouding over in the privacy of your own home, drones would come to your place every morning and night to make sure you got the two doses recommended to you. In special cases, if needed only, you would get three throughout the day.

Enforcers and of course latent criminals along with those who worked in the government of Attica and Tribeka and those who worked in the justice system were exempt.

When I was in hiding, I used different aliases to be able to avoid getting caught and avoid the injection. James had been the longest one I had used, mostly because I couldn't change it while I was with Danny. It was honestly a miracle that I hadn't been caught with it before.

Nico and I both drew out our TGs and quietly made our way inside the building, passing by some of the people who lived there. We made our way to the third floor where Dylan's apartment was located at and I knocked on the door. Nico watching my back as I did.

"AECPC!" I said, as forcefully as I could, "open up!"

There silence of the other end and I knocked once more, "I'm not gonna ask again."

I looked over at Nico and he nodded his head minutely, I backed away from the door before shoving my left arm as hard as I could and as near as I could get to the opening of the door. The door was ripped open and Nico and I made our way inside the dark apartment. I watched his front and Nico watched my back as we slowly moved about the apartment.

It was trashed, as if Dylan had left in a hurry.

"Fuck," Nico mumbled, "we're too late."

"Let's see if he left anything," I say once we clear out the apartment and turn on the lights.

"Good idea, I'll send word out to Calypso to put word out to the drones, make sure other Enforcers and drones have his picture and his hue to keep an eye out on him."

I nodded my head before making my way to his bedroom. Dressers had been left open, along with the wardrobe that was off to the side, some clothing had been left behind along with some shoes and some papers were left messily on the desk. I walked over and found Dylan's laptop, smashed and broken.

"What did you find?" Nico asked, coming into the room.

"Dylan's laptop, his clothes are gone, so are some papers, I guess he thought these weren't important."

"He left behind his laptop?"

"It's smashed though, I doubt we can get it to start working."

"No maybe we can't," Nico started, "but I bet Leo can. Didn't he use to repair things for a living?"

"Yeah, he did, not just repair, he used to make his own gadgets too."

"Good, we're taking the laptop, there's no phone anywhere in here so it looks like Dylan took it with him. I already called out a team to come and look more thoroughly they're about 2 minutes away we should head back to Calypso."

"Okay, any news from Will?" I asked him.

"No, not-" we were interrupted by a ping on Nico's wristband, signaling a call coming in, "that's Will," he said before answering the call and putting Will on speaker, "talk to me Will."

"Blaine's dead."

Nico and I looked at each other, "what?" We said at the same time.

"Amber and I just got to Blaine's and when he didn't answer I had to break the door down, found Blaine stabbed to death in the kitchen. It hasn't been too long, his body is still warm, I've called Dr. Chakrabarti and sent for a team to come down here."

I looked over at Nico, "do you think Blaine knew about Dylan?"

"He must have," Nico said, "Will, Megan might be in danger, Percy send word to any nearby Enforcer's to make sure Megan is safe and in our custody until we can track Dylan."

I sent out word, thinking about it already before I stopped short, "did you just call me by my name?" I said, and saw Nico going rigid.

"Get it done!" He growled, ignoring my question.

I was still in shock to continue questioning him, not to mention someone's life could be in danger. I sent a mass signal to every Enforcer's wristband letting them know that anyone nearby Megan's address, to go to her home and make sure she was safe in our custody.

A ping sounded out as Nico and I made our way out of Dylan's place, his laptop in Nico's arms.

From Rose:

Nearby Megan's checking it out. Keep you updated.

"Rose is checking to make sure Megan is okay," I said as I got in the car.

"Great hold this," Nico said, avoiding eye contact with me as he handed me the ruined laptop, "we're going to Calypso's to make sure Leo starts working on that."

I got an incoming call from Rose and I answered it, putting it on speaker.

"Tell me you've got good news," I said.

"She's dead, multiple stab words and a broken neck," came Rose's reply.

"Goddamn it!" Nico grit out.

"I tried to get here as fast as I could," she continued, "but when I did, her apartment had already been broken into. That bastard's fast. I called in another team and once Chakrabarti's done with Blaine, he's coming here."

"We'll be at headquarters," I said, "call us if you get any new information."

"I will, Luke is already interrogating Megan's neighbors and Hazel's team is over at Blaine's doing the same with his neighbors."

"Talk to you soon," with that, we hung up and the drive back to headquarters was tense.

"Do you think you fix it?" Nico asked, handing the laptop to Leo.

"Nothing is unfixable," Leo said, taking out some tools and setting the laptop down at his work station.

"How soon until you can get it up and running?" Nico asked.

"Give me a day," at Nico's growl, Leo looked him over, "not to mention, if he deleted his files, it's gonna take some time to recover. In the meantime, we should make sure Brenda's family is safe."

"Will is already doing that, he and Amber headed out right after Blaine was found dead and the teams were sent to his and Megan's house."

"What else can we do?" I asked Nico, he was pacing back and forth as Leo began work on the computer.

"We already stationed Enforcer's outside of Blaine's, Megan's and Dylan's house..." he stopped, "let's get some footage from the security cameras surrounding the areas, let's go hound."

"Going back to Calypso's?" I asked, rolling my eyes as I followed.

"Yes we are, maybe we can find something, maybe it can give us a clue as where he could have gone."

When we got to Calypso's, we asked her to pull security footage around the victim's apartments. Soon enough, she pulled up the first footage she could get into before working on another. It started to play out on her main screen as she worked on her other computer, it was around Blaine's apartment.

"Wait, there," I said, seeing a figure with a helmet on walking towards Blaine's complex. It was the same helmet wearing guy who had stabbed Brenda in the park.

"Why does he have that stupid helmet on him?" Nico ground out, his frustration showing.

"Maybe to hide his face?" Calypso suggested.

"Something isn't right..."

"What are you talking about, dog?" Nico spat, looking over at me.

"That helmet...the way the drones had ignored him as if he were invisible as he stabbed Brenda. Why there is not one drone out there, who could pinpoint his location despite the fact that they have his hues and at what levels they can reach...why is that?"

Beep.

I looked over to where Nico got a call.

"Hello?" He answered.

"The laptop wasn't in too bad condition, I got it working and it looks like most of his files have been deleted except for this one particular chat a day before Brenda's murder, with someone named KillerInstinct."

"We'll be down there soon."

"No need, the chat's brief, KillerInstinct is asking Dylan if the Helmet works fine. If the drones are able to read his hues when he has it on. Dylan replies back that it's working to perfection. He then says he's putting everything into motion the following day. Something about the helmet he's wearing makes it so that his hue stays normal despite the atrocious acts he's doing."

"I knew it," I breathed out, "I knew something wasn't right with this case."

"We've gotta find the dude and quick, he's blending in with crowds, he doesn't arouse suspicion from the drones because that helmet makes him seem normal. He can easily leave and never be caught again. This KillerInstinct person advised him that as soon as his plan was in motion, to go into hiding and delete all the files he has on the helmet, how to work it, how to turn it off, I'm recovering them as fast as I can but not fast enough. Not to mention, the laptop isn't in good shape."

"I'm already pulling live footage from almost every security camera leading to train stations, bus stations and the docks," Calypso, her fingers furiously typing away at her computer.

"We should send out a picture of what he looks like with the helmet on to ever Enforcer and drone so they know to stop him."

"Good idea," Nico said, "we'll talk later Leo," with that he hung up, "let's tell Will and Amber, send out the updated picture of our perpetrator. Call Rose, Luke, Annabeth, Piper, we're gonna need all the help we can get to catch this guy we won't let him get away."

We were driving to a nearby train station that lead to the mostly under developed districts when we got a call from Will.

"Patch it through," Nico instructed as we continued to scan the streets for Dylan in his helmet.

"We have Dylan!" Will's voice rang throughout the car.

"In custody?" Nico asked.

"No, chasing him, it's just me and Amber we need backup, your location has you nearby come quick."

"Alright we'll be there soon, in the meantime we're calling for more backup," I said before hanging up and sending out a mass text to any nearby Enforcers.

"Hang tight," Nico grunted as he stepped on the gas, making the car lurch forward as it sped off, siren blaring as we made our way to Will's location, "when I say so, you're gonna jump out of the car and chase that son of bitch down, roll when you jump out, got that?"

"I got it, just let me know when," I said as I took off my seat belt.

That was when I saw Dylan, running a few meters ahead of Will and Amber, the car was speeding down, almost right next to Dylan.

"Now!" Nico yelled, slowing down enough so as not to let the fall be too rough but not too much to allow Dylan to get away.

I opened the car door and rolled out, tucking in my head to avoid hitting it against the pavement. I rolled down but quickly got up to my feet, running after Dylan before tackling him to the ground. Just as I was about to arrest him, pain seared at the back of my head and I fell of Dylan. I looked up to see a man in a mask standing before me, he had a bat in his hands and I guessed he hadn't hit with too much to knock me out.

"Percy!" I heard Will yell my name but I couldn't focus on him, Dylan was getting away and like hell I'd let that happen. The man before me prepared to swing at me again but this time I was ready for him.

Right before he could connect, I rolled out of the way, taking out my TG at the same time, it automatically chose the setting appropriate as the man in front of me dropped his bat once seeing it out and tried to run away before I took my shot. An electric ball shoot out, perfectly hitting my attacker square in the chest, shocking him so hard, he got knocked out.

I looked over to where Will and Amber were fighting off a couple more men in masks as well, shooting them with their TGs. Some get shocked, knocking them out cold as well, the others get stunned, paralyzed for thirty minutes so that they're easier to detain.

I turn and run after Dylan, seeing him a couple blocks ahead of me. He's tired from all the running and so he isn't as fast before. I hear footsteps behind and look back, my TG in hand, thinking it's another attacker but seeing only Nico.

"Don't let him get away!" Nico shouted.

"I won't!"

My pace picks up, until I'm right behind him. Despite the fact that my legs are burning, despite the fact that my head is aching with an almost blinding pain, having not had the time to recover from the hit I received I don't stop. I'm close enough, I run just a bit faster before tackling him again. I grab him by the legs, making him fall down with me. He's already starting to kick at me, trying to get me off of him. Nico closes in, kicking him right in the gut.

Nico pulled out his TG and aimed it right in Dylan's face but it doesn't transform.

"What?" Nico looked down at his wristband, "his hue is normal, my TG is useless!"

Dylan is hunched over in pain, but that didn't stop him, instead he reached into his jacket pulling out a gun. An actual, honest to God, metal made, bullet toting gun. He pointed it straight at Nico and saw him freeze for a second but a second was all Dylan needed.

"Nico!" A scream is ripped from my mouth as I grab Nico's leg and swipe at it, bringing Nico down but at least out of range. I see him take aim again, right at Nico and I let go of his legs, jumping over Nico's body before a shot rings out, right from Dylan's gun. I roll us away just in time, but not fast enough, pain sears in my left arm right where the bullet lodges itself. I grunt in pain, collapsing on top of Nico.

"Well, you know what they say," Dylan smirked down at us, "third time's the charm." He's aiming right at us before the back of his knee gives out, and he falls down on one knee.

Amber is behind him and she quickly works to take the helmet off his head. She feels around for a latch or button before finding one at the bottom of the helmet, right behind his head. With his helmet off of him, Nico's wristband beeps, his TG transforming and right as we're about to shoot, Dylan starts to throw up.

Blood.

Blood started spilling out of his mouth in gushes, as if he were vomiting his insides. His eyes were wide with panic.

"What's happening?" He gurgled continuing to vomit until suddenly, he falls flat on his face, his eyes still wide with panic but motionless.

"Is he dead?" Nico asked, looking at Amber.

"I don't know," she replied, "Percy are you okay? Your arm is bleeding. I'll call for an ambulance to get that bullet out of you as soon as possible."

I roll over, getting off of Nico and grit my teeth, pain racing down my arm and my head.

"Thank you..." Nico looked over at me, "thank you for saving me from that bullet, twice."

"Despite the fact that we don't like each other," I ground out, the pain is almost too much, "you're still my partner. We gotta have each other's back."

"Oh god, Percy," I looked up to see Rose and Luke walking into my room back at mine and Nico's apartment. I had just gotten back from the hospital having taken pain meds for the headache and bullet, that had gotten taken out of my arm. "I heard what happened, how are you feeling?" She asked me, sitting down on my bed.

"I'm good, really I am."

"Hey Will, Amber, Nico, how's it going guys?" She looked over at the other three.

"Not too good," Nico answered her, "our perpetrator was killed, the morgue is checking to see how and why. And we still don't know how sold Dylan that helmet," Nico groaned in frustration, "this report is going to be hell to write."

"We can work on it together if you want?" Will asked, looking over at Nico, his eyes alight and his smile flirty.

"Very subtle blondie," Rose teased.

"I'm just a colleague, helping out another colleague while we work on a report for a case we were both in," Will smiled over at the latina innocently.

"Sure," Rose shook her head, letting out a laugh.

"Not tonight Will," Nico declined, "I gotta stay in, Percy might need something as well and someone's gotta look after him."

I watched as all four other Enforcers looked over to Nico, as if he had grown a second head.

"Did you just call Percy by his name?" Luke was the first to speak.

Nico scowled over at my blond friend, "why don't you mind your business."

"Okay," Rose began, "but did you just call Percy by his name?"

"I know," I started, "I was as shocked as you are when he said it the first time." That earned me a glare from the shorter male.

"So it's not the first time?" Will asked, incredulously.

"Okay! Everyone out! Percy needs to rest, goodnight!" Nico began ushering everyone out, they all said their goodbyes and I heard as Nico closed the front door.

I settled back on my bed, tired from today's events. Dylan hadn't gotten away which is we wanted, but he was still and with him being dead-

"I hope you don't mind," I looked up to see Nico walking into my room, settling into the desk near my bed, "I'm gonna work on our report here. Maybe you could help me with some details, if you're not too tired. If you are, I'll go back to my room."

"N-no, it's okay, stay."

He nodded his head as he opened up his laptop. He started to type away, writing up the report on our case, asking me questions to either confirm or help him remember.

"Hey," I spoke up, bringing his attention to me, "was Calypso ever able to track down that guy Dylan was talking to-"

"KillerInstinct?" Nico supplied.

"Yeah him, did she ever track his IP address down?"

"No she didn't," he replied with a frown.

"You know," I began, my eyebrows furrowing, "it's weird..."

"What is?"

"In almost every case we have had so far...there seems to have been one common factor."

"Like what?" Nico asked me, and I could tell I had piqued his curiosity.

"Think about it, at the factory in our first case together. The gaming competition, the all boys school, there was always something each case had in common. All of the perpetrators were in contact with someone from the outside. Someone who..knows their way around Anna's system. Being able to hack it. Someone who might look at a drone being able to check a person's hue and be able to trick it by using a helmet. Someone who helps with supplying them with maybe weapons or maybe a lab to do their experiments. Every single case had the perpetrators talking with someone we have never heard of. Never seen, that person's like a ghost."

I looked over at Nico once I was done and I saw the look on his face.

"Who is this person?" He asked, "what is their goal?"

"And the worst part, just when we're close. So close to bringing them in to interrogate them, they die. Suspiciously. Suddenly. Abnormally."

We looked at each other then, and I could tell we were thinking the same thing.

Just who was this person causing all of this chaos?

Okay! I know it's been so long since I last updated. And I probably won't get as many views on this as I once could have. I feel like the Percico fandom has changed a lot. I feel like there's less of us out there but I'm happy to say I think I got my love of writing, especially for this pair back. I know it's been awhile and I'm hoping the people still following this story continue to read it because things are about to get interesting from here on out.

As I mentioned, things are different now and even if I don't get too many views and reviews I will finish this fic until it kills me haha.

Next chapter should be interesting. I'm thinking about diving into Rose's past, maybe we get to meet Marisol. And the little connection Percy made at the end is going to play a part in helping Rose with making a connection of her own. There will be different POVs as the next case plays out and trust me next case is going to be crazy.

There are about four more cases to go before shit hits the fan and everything gets messed up.

Thank you for reading and if you can please leave a review telling me what you think!