A shaky breath left Annabeth as she walked down the hallway. This was a long time coming. She was finally going to talk with Reyna, and they were going to fix their problems. They were finally going to be united and they would solve the problem that was the peacekeepers.
Shame burned in Annabeth's chest as she looked down at the floor. She couldn't believe that Eirene tricked her. The goddess of peace convinced her that Reyna would not only kill a member of Camp Jupiter but also find herself in a throne room covered in blood. With all the things that Reyna had done, Annabeth found all of that believable.
Between trying to kill Jason, working with Circe, killing those two Hunters of Artemis, the blackouts, and the all-around anger that Reyna allowed herself to be controlled by, Annabeth could not trust her. Something had to give.
An exhausted sigh escaped Annabeth, and she continued her trek towards one of the members of the Sixth Legion: Bristol. Annabeth could see that he was talking to Sparta. She debated just walking on by, but she needed to know where their so-called emperor was. The daughter of Athena made up her mind and walked towards them.
"Annabeth Chase," Bristol greeted as he bowed his head. "What can we do for you?"
"I was looking for Reyna. Do you know where she is?" Annabeth questioned. Sparta looked her up and down with a judgmental glare. Bristol turned his head to look at Sparta, but his face was obscured by his faceplate. Whether it was a reprimanding look or something else, Annabeth didn't know. Bristol turned his gaze back to her.
"I believe she is sleeping," Bristol responded.
"When she wakes, can you tell her I need to see her?" Annabeth asked. She didn't like how Reyna had just disappeared. Something was wrong about the entire situation, but Annabeth couldn't put her finger on it.
"Of course," Bristol answered with a bow of his head. Annabeth nodded to him and turned on her heel. She walked back the way that she came and tried to gulp back down the nervousness brewing in her gut. With everything that she had been through with Reyna, it was just too hard to trust her. There was no telling when Reyna would have another blackout or explosion of anger that would cost them dearly.
As Annabeth walked past an empty room, she felt a powerful presence. She stopped in her tracks and turned her head, curiously getting the better of her. A thirteen year old girl stared up at her, but Annabeth knew this wasn't a normal thirteen year old. She bowed her head towards the goddess.
"Lady Artemis," Annabeth greeted. If there was one goddess who hated Reyna more than anyone else, it was Artemis. Reyna had killed two of her Hunters, and Artemis had hated her ever since. "What do I owe the honor?"
"We must speak," Artemis ordered in a hush tone. Her eyes shot around like she expected an Amazon or Legionnaire to see them. "Now."
"Of course," Annabeth complied. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Artemis held out her hand, and Annabeth slowly took it. They stepped back into the room, and Artemis glowed brightly. Annabeth closed her eyes and was flushed with the sensation of spinning.
When Annabeth opened her eyes, she was standing in the main lobby of the Empire State Building. There was no one to be seen, not even the guard at the front counter. Annabeth's eyes carefully scanned the empty lobby, and her gaze landed on the broken laptop that was scattered on the other side of the room.
"Come," Artemis ordered, and she walked towards the elevator. Annabeth followed behind her, and they stopped in front of the elevator doors. It opened a moment later, and Annabeth could only gawk at the dried golden ichor that stained the elevator's interior.
"What happened?" Annabeth slowly asked as she looked up at Artemis.
"We found Bellona's body in this elevator," Artemis stated. Annabeth's jaw dropped in shock, baffled at the information she was given. Then, her mind started racing to the conclusion that she knew Artemis probably came to as well. Reyna had disappeared, but when she came back, her mother was found dead.
Reyna wouldn't kill Bellona, would she? Sure, Reyna had her blackouts, and she verged on the edge of insanity because of her schizophrenia. But surely she wouldn't kill a goddess, her own mother out of all of them? How could she even do that without Kronos' sword, or had she found it?
Annabeth crossed her arms and looked down, thinking carefully on the whole situation. Reyna had tried to kill Jason. She had killed the two Hunters of Artemis. Reyna was not the same person that Annabeth knew a year ago. Something in her changed during the war with Ouranos, and Annabeth knew it wasn't just her schizophrenia.
But, family was important to Reyna. When Hylla had almost died, Reyna went on a bloody rampage, butchering barbarians by the dozens. Reyna wouldn't just kill her mother. This had to be the work of the peacekeepers. Annabeth scanned the walls of the elevator and spotted a security camera in the corner.
"Do you have the footage?" Annabeth questioned.
"It's all stored on that," Artemis replied, and she pointed down at the broken laptop scattered in pieces across the lobby floor. "Whoever did this knew about the cameras and tried to destroy the footage. I believe they also killed the woman that was filling in for our security guard. Or, our guard helped whoever did this."
"Is the footage backed up anywhere?" Annabeth questioned. Artemis gave her a confused look. "Is the footage from the security camera stored only on the laptop, or is there another computer that we can get it from?"
"As far as I understand, it's only stored on the laptop," Artemis answered. Annabeth nodded and rubbed her chin.
"Did you talk to Hephaestus about putting this back together?" Annabeth asked.
"He refuses," Artemis replied. "He said that playing with a mortal's laptop is beneath him when he has other machines he can work on. Personally, I think that he just doesn't know how to use mortal technology."
"A child of Hephaestus might be able to fix this, then. I just need to gather up all of the pieces," Annabeth decided. She walked towards the frame of the laptop. The screen was cracked and broken in half. The keys were scattered around the room. There were a ton of inner parts strewn around the lobby.
Annabeth would be the first to admit she didn't know too much about computers. She couldn't rebuild this by herself, but she knew that Leo could. Annabeth started to gather up the pieces of the laptop. Artemis disappeared for a moment and then came back with a bag for her to put the pieces in.
After carefully gathering up the pieces and putting them in the bag, she did another search for anything left behind. Then, the goddess held out her hand. The nervousness from before swelled again in Annabeth's gut. She didn't know if they could fix this laptop, and if they could, what secrets did it hold?
What would happen if Reyna had killed her mother? There was a huge leap between killing a pair of Hunters and murdering a goddess. At that point, Annabeth couldn't imagine what the punishment would be.
"I will take you back to Camp Half-Blood. You should distance yourself from the reaper," Artemis warned. Annabeth nodded and remained silent, not missing the warning. She felt a hand grab her shoulder, and the world spun in a frenzy once again. Annabeth tried to keep herself from stumbling.
When Annabeth opened her eyes, she was standing on the hill overlooking Camp Half-Blood. Her eyes slowly surveyed the camp. It had survived war after war, but all she wanted was peace. Could the world not tear itself apart for at least a few years?
Annabeth's eyes moved towards Percy's cabin. She would spend the night with him, but first, she had to get this laptop looked at. Annabeth hurried down towards the Hephaestus cabin. As she walked, her eyes shot around for anyone who wasn't a regular Greek camper.
A few Romans had been running back and forth between the camps. There were also the demititans. It felt like a lifetime ago that Annabeth met the demititans on a quest to find Ares' shield. There had been four leaders at the time. Only one of the original four was still alive.
As Annabeth's eyes swept around the camp once again, she didn't see Sarah anywhere. The daughter of Lelantos was odd. She liked to stay in the shadows, but as the most senior leader, Annabeth knew the other demititans looked up to her. They had been helping the Greeks out for the past couple of wars, and they needed the help now more than ever.
First things first: find Leo. Annabeth debated walking to Bunker 9. Instead, she settled on checking the Hephaestus cabin. Annabeth made it to the door and glanced inside as she knocked. Like the Athena cabin, most of the beds were pushed to the corner of the room. Unlike her own cabin, there were no large books scattered around the room.
Instead, blueprints littered the cabin. Wires laid about on the ground, making the room seem like a death trap if one stepped the wrong way. Annabeth saw a few children of Hephaestus sitting on one of the bunks. Leo was in the middle of them.
"Annabeth!" Leo called with a grin on his face. He slowly stood and hobbled towards her. It had been a slow healing process for Leo. They lost track of him during the war with the Arimaspi and Metis. They thought he was just off on his own. Instead, he was being crucified and barely survived. "What's up! Need something?"
Leo could not lose his positive attitude, though. That was something Annabeth appreciated. She answered his question, "I have a laptop that I need you to rebuild."
"Which one of your siblings finally lost it?" Leo asked, dawning a faux investigative gaze, "Finals got them stressed out? No! Marcus has been playing League of Legends with randoms again, hasn't he?"
"No, nothing like that. There is footage from a security camera on this. Can you restore it?" Annabeth asked. The two children of Hephaestus cleared one of the tables of blueprints, and Annabeth sat the bag on it. She started to pull out the pieces.
"It's like a jigsaw puzzle," Leo commented, and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Alright. I'm going to need a lot of Monster and a lot of pizza."
"I can get you that," Annabeth promised. Leo looked at her and grinned.
"Good. Now, how juicy is the information on here?" Leo asked.
"I'm not sure," Annabeth began. "I'm hoping it tells us more about the assassins. If the assassins aren't the ones that tried to destroy this laptop, I have a bad feeling about who did, and I'm scared about what could happen next."
"Ooh suspenseful. I like it!" Leo proclaimed. He rubbed his hands together again. "Now, let's see what secrets this baby holds!"