A/N: I accidentally put the other chapter here instead of the one I originally planed. Gosh, I feel so dumb.

So, this chapter is ripe with content. Trust me this is a great chapter. Also, I'm sorry, in advance.

One more thing, from now on, this story will be updated every Saturday, because Uni has started and finding time to write fan-fiction is becoming difficult.

Chapter 26

Percy

Present day

This is just great. My whole body feels like it's on fire. I'm pretty sure I have blood in my mouth and my soul feels like it's ready to give up on my body. But I don't care. I need to know that Annabeth is okay.

I don't even know how long it has been but when I caught Annabeth's eye in the warehouse all I could concentrate o, was the guy approaching her from behind. I tried my level best to alert her but he got to her in time and then everything went black.

I'm assuming someone hit me in the head with something hard and gave me a few blows all over my body, before they tied me up. I could have escaped if I had continued training for the past five years but I didn't and so here I am, trapped and thoroughly helpless.

My wrists are tied on the back of the chair with what I'm assuming is some sort of tape while my legs are tied to the legs of the chair. They didn't bother gagging me.

Amateurs!

If I had been running this organization I would have gagged myself. But then again, I wouldn't have been caught so I would need to be gagged.

The worst part about all of this is that I found Piper and they have her tied up in a container ending in 507. She saw me and now I have to come up with an excuse about what I was doing there.

I slightly nudged Annabeth with my head but I think she's still out. After I woke up tied to the chair, for a long time Annabeth wasn't there. Later two men came in and dumped her in a chair right behind mine and tied her up, exactly like I was.

I pretended to be out so that they wouldn't be alerted.

I know that Annabeth is smart enough to not have given any details about why we were here, so Piper is safe, but why hasn't she woken up yet? What kind of drugs had they used on her?

Just then I heard something, maybe Annabeth woke up.

"What the…" I heard Annabeth whisper.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked her, trying to touch her in any way possible.

"Percy?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll get us out of here. You just concentrate on my voice okay Wise Girl?" I said.

I almost bit my tongue at that one, I called her Wise Girl, why did I have to call her Wise Girl? But I don't think her groggy brain processed it.

"We'll be fine" she whispered.

"Oh yeah?" I asked as I finally made contact at what felt like her tape covered wrist.

"I have an idea" she said but this time she didn't sound woozy, is she already coming out of it? This woman never fails to surprise me.

"What?"

"I have a key in my right hand, I can try and cut the tape around your wrist and then you can escape"

"I'm not escaping without you," I said.

I don't know why but I was getting a little angry. What does she mean by 'You can escape'? I would never do that in a million years.

"Percy, they wouldn't do anything to me, but they will skin you alive. Besides Piper isn't here" she said as I felt something digging in my wrist. She was using the key on me, but she wasn't applying nearly enough pressure to actually cut the tap open. She was weak after being drugged.

"What? Piper is here, so both of us need to work together to get her out. Also, where did you get the key?"

"Luke, he gave me the keys before someone drugged me. This key will get us out of this container"

Oh, there it was, 'Luke'. If this guy was so great then why did he have her drugged?

"Annabeth you need to give me the key, you are still woozy from the drugs I'll do it"

"Fine" Annabeth said as I held out my palm to her hands.

Annabeth dropped the key and I quickly started getting to work. I grabbed the key with my thumb and index finger and started sawing away at her tape.

"You can talk to me, you know, we have the time. It would give you something to do, so that you can regain all of your consciousness, faster" I said.

Honestly, my hand had already began cramping but I have to do this. There was no other choice.

"Umm, I don't know what to say"

"How about your restaurant? You were pretty excited about that. What about your relationship with Jason? Literally, you can talk to me about whatever you like. Or I don't know, do you want to ask me a question?" I said, just a few more minutes and she'd be free.

I could tell that she was thinking and then she sighed as if she was scared to ask me something "Do you regret us? That you used to love me? That Piper got kidnapped because of me? That if we never happened, then none of this would have happened" she asked.

Wow that was a lot to take in, is that what she really thought about us?

"No, I don't regret us. That one year we were together was the best time of my life, I have never connected with anyone like I have with you and no, I don't blame you for anything" I took a deep breath to muster up courage for what I had to say "I think, I'm still in love-"

Before I could finish the sentence, I heard Annabeth pushing her hands against the tape and breaking free.

"You did it!" she said before I felt her pulling away.

Within seconds she had freed herself and was now standing behind me pulling the tape off my hands.

I quickly undid the tape at my feet before I turned to face her.

"Oh my god Percy!" she said as her hand went towards my cheek. She swiped her thumb across my lip and I saw blood on her thumb.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine" I said as I took the key from her hand and quickly unlocked the door to the room that had us trapped in. I ducked my head outside and there was no one there.

I slowly led the both of us outside and tried to remember my way towards the container in which they had kept Piper.

"Where are we going?"

"Do you know where a container ending in 507 is?" I asked, I don't know if she had ever seen this warehouse but I guess I could take a shot, right?

"Yeah, follow me" she said and took me in the complete opposite direction. Wow, thank god she knew this place.

"Are you packing? They took away my gun" I asked.

"No, they took mine too"

"What about your knife?"

"I didn't bring it here" What? The one thing she should have done, rather I counted on her doing. Why had she left her knife at home? "I don't carry it anymore, not after- well I don't carry it anymore"

"Hmm" I said because I wasn't sure what else I could say to her.

The rest of our way towards 507 was quiet, none of us spoke anything. I can see why she found it difficult to talk to me. There was still so much awkwardness between us and I can't believe I almost told her that I loved her. Imagine her reaction to that.

"Are you sure she's here?"

I nodded and pulled down the lever trying to make as little noise as possible, unlike the container we were in, this was a little different. It didn't have a lock on it.

Amateurs.

I pulled the doors open as slowly as possible.

"Annabeth? Percy?"

"Piper don't worry we will get you out of here" Annabeth said and started unwrapping the tape around her wrist while I undid the tape around her ankles.

"What are you guys doing here? How did you find me?" Piper asked.

"Now is not the time for this. Piper you remember my car right?" I looked up at her face as she nodded "Here's the key, take it and hide inside of the car and wait for us there" I said before I gave her the keys.

"What about you guys?"

"I'm not leaving without a fight," I said.

"Percy? You promised!" Annabeth said as she looked down at me.

"Look Annabeth, I get it, you are worried. But they messed with my family. What if they come for Piper once again or for me? I need to make sure they would leave us alone"

"Then we will move somewhere outside of Florida, outside of America but please don't do this" she said.

I almost felt a smile creeping on my face. She said 'we'.

"I have to do this Annabeth. You can drive Piper back to my apartment. I will be back soon, I promise"

"No, I'm not letting you fight these guys alone"

"What? No Annabeth, it's too dangerous"

"I told you Percy, we are doing this together"

I knew Annabeth, but I almost forgot how stubborn she got. There was no way she was going to let me do this alone. And to be honest, I'd rather kick some butt with her by my side.

"Alright Piper, let's get going" I said as I led both of them out.

We walked slowly towards the rare exit. We couldn't get caught, not again. So, I was walking in the front while Annabeth watched my back as the both of us guarded Piper. We didn't really come up with this plan but it sort of just happened.

"Alright, that's my car right there. Go in there and hide" I said as I watched for people on the road. It was mid-day so people might have been at work, but that worked out for us.

I watched Piper reach my car as she got in and locked the door behind her before I turned towards Annabeth.

She had a worried look on her face, the kind of look she gets when I'm about to do something stupid. But I just smiled at her. I don't know why I was doing this but I knew I couldn't leave this place without knocking some people on their butts.

"Hey, who are you!" I heard someone shouting behind me, both Annabeth and I turned around.

"Ms. Chase?" another one of those men said as he approached us.

Soon three other men joined us, wow, now it was really a party. The men started approaching us. I looked down at Annabeth, she looked like she was ready to fight.

That's my girl!

That's the confidence I needed. I started charging towards the man in front of me while Annabeth got the man on her right.

I punched him straight in his face and ducked before he got a swing at me. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see a couple of more coming our way, but I didn't care. I would take them all down. How dare they come after Piper!

"You doing okay there?" I yelled at Annabeth before I saw that she had already taken down three of them.

I guess she was. I knocked down the second guy before I charged towards another one. I was getting out of breath. I was getting old, if only I had trained in these five years, I would have been able to deal with this situation well.

"NO!" Annabeth screamed.

I took down the last man before I felt someone on my back. I turned around.

What happened next riled me up. I had never felt so angry yet so hopeless at the same time.

This guy had his knife out and it was covered in blood. It would have gotten me pretty good in the back, but Annabeth had dived in front and she had gotten stabbed instead.

I saw the whole thing in slow motion. I saw the knife piercing through Annabeth's stomach hitting the same spot on the left side of her abdomen. I saw him twist the knife further in before he pulled it out and tried to get to her again.

But this time I got in the way and drove the knife into him and pushed him out of the way. Annabeth had already dropped on the floor as she clutched her stomach. Her face was scrunched as pain filled her body.

"Annabeth?" I knelt down on the floor before I lifted up her shirt to examine her wound.

It looked really nasty. He had gotten her good. I put pressure on her wound and she winced. I could see that she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a few more people had gathered around us, so I quickly got up and stood over her.

"Nobody touches her!" I screamed and held my hands up. I looked down at Annabeth as she yelled out in pain.

"Perce-" I heard her say before she lost consciousness.

A/N: I already apologized in the beginning of this chapter so you have no right to be mad at me.