sempiternal
Chapter 1:
Annabeth Chase walks down the dark hallways of the Imíaimos Institute, her back stiff and head held high. Surrounded by an aura of temerity and arrogance, fellow spies step back as she strides past them, her black heels clacking against the cold tiled floor as she reaches Athena's office, she knocks on the tall door.
"In." Athena's strict voice calls from behind the black wooden door.
Annabeth opens the door and enters the office, her footsteps light like a lion stalking its prey, closing the door behind her, Annabeth turns to look at Athena, who is seated behind her mahogany desk in her black armchair. The plaque on her desk, which reads Athena Pantazis gleams in the lamplight of the room.
"You asked for me, Ms. Pantazis?" Annabeth sighs inwardly at the lack of voice cracks as she speaks.
"Perseus Jackson, do you know him, girl?"
Annabeth didknow him.
Perseus Jackson, a spy from their rival agency, Atlantída Academy. One of the best at that, some rumours say he's even better than Annabeth and others say he got promoted from rookie to agent in six months, faster than anyone before him, Annabeth wasn't fond of either rumour.
Athena continues, not letting Annabeth speak.
"You two will be working together on an assignment regarding the Circle of Othrys, a file about it is on your desk, we will discuss more with Perseus and Poseidon tomorrow" She gestures for Annabeth to leave.
Annabeth walks back to her desk, dazed, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. The Circle of Othrys was a group of people keen on controlling the world, and they probably were already. Members of the Circle are unknown, except for one, Kronos Hasapis. With strong ties with politicians, the Circle was almost untouchable, working discreetly and with the help of big names, almost nothing was known about them. Except for the Scythe. The Scythe was, well, no one knew. It could be a plan, it could be a weapon, no one had any idea, that's what made the Circle of Othrys so dangerous, they could be planning something as cliche as world domination and no one would know.
Shooting a smile at Drew, Annabeth approaches her desk, a beige Manila folder titled Assignment: 00297 sits on the black surface of the table. She picks it up as she sits down, opening it, typed out words stare up at her.
Assignment: 00297
Assigned; Annabeth Chase (Imíaimos Institute), Perseus Jackson (Atlantída Academy)
Annabeth scowls at Perseus' name, the dark letters stand out against the stark white paper.
Task; get close to Ethan Nakamura and find information about the Circle of Othrys, specifically; Kronos Hasapis and the Scythe.
Ethan Nakamura:
Date of Birth: November 13, 1994
Mother: Nemesis Kokkinos
Father: Max Nakamura
Physical Attributes: East Asian, eyepatch over left eye, brown eyes, black hair
Annabeth sighs, who was Ethan Nakamura and what connection does he have with the Circle of Othrys? How was she supposed to get close to him? She didn't get it, it's not like she could just walk up to him and go 'Hey! What do you know about the Circle of Othrys, Kronos Hasapis, and the Scythe?'
"What happened to you?" Drew Tanaka asks as she noted Annabeth's confused face.
Annabeth slides the folder over to her and watches as Drew's face shifts from confusion, to shock. She looks at Annabeth, eyes wide.
"The Circle of Othrys and the Scythe? How are you supposed to do that? No one even knows what the Scythe is or if it's even real."
"Exactly! How am I supposed to find information about something that might not even exist? With someone from Atlantída nonetheless."
Drew shakes her head. "What was Athena thinking?"
Annabeth takes the folder back from Drew, bringing her shoulder back pridefully she speaks.
"She was thinking that if anyone could find information about the Circle of Othrys, it would be me."
"Damn your pride," Drew mutters, shaking her head, her concern still obvious in her features and posture.
::
Pose as a married couple and go undercover as a marine biologist and tour guide at Phorcys Aquarium.
Drew cackles as Annabeth reads the words over and over again until they're seared into her mind.
"Pose as a married couple?!" Annabeth exclaims, glaring at the paper and Connor.
"Hey, I'm just the messenger, you can talk to Ms. P if you have a problem." He holds his hands up, shrugging his shoulders helplessly.
"No! No, Ms. Pantaziz doesn't need to be involved, I can handle it." Annabeth jumps up.
"Why do you want to impress her so much, Annabeth? God," Drew asks.
"I just want to show her that she can trust me!"
"Annabeth, she's Athena Pantazis. She trusts no one." Drew raises a dark eyebrow at her.
"Well, maybe I can change that."
"God, you sound like those girls in Wattpad book who think they can change the bad boy," Connor says.
"You do." Drew nods.
"Shut up, you two. But god, a married couple? I don't even know how married people act." Annabeth scowls at the smooth surface of her desk.
"Priya and I just act like we always do," Drew adds.
"I have never even met your wife, Drew." Annabeth leans back into her chair.
"Just do normal couple things," Connor adds.
"But we're not normal."
Drew rolls her eyes. "Show affection, it's simple. You can show affection, right?"
"I don't think she can." Connor sips his coffee.
"I hate you both." Annabeth grins.
"Annabeth!" Athena's sharp voice cuts Annabeth's protest, and she scrambled to fix her posture and tucks back her blonde hair haphazardly.
Athena's eyes narrow at her as she gestures for Annabeth to follow her before turning on her heel and striding into the shadowed hallway leading to her office.
Annabeth swallows as she stands up, smoothing down the front of her black blazer, she glares at Drew, who mouths 'good luck' to her, and Connor who gives her a look of pity.
Raising her head arrogantly, Annabeth catches up with Athena.
"You called, Ms. Pantazis?"
"Perseus is here, you will discuss the mission with Poseidon and me in my office." Athena doesn't spare Annabeth a glance as she opens the door to her office.
Entering, Annabeth analyzes the two men in the room as she sits down. She looks at the younger one, Perseus. Jet-black hair, dark tan, sea-green eyes. Then she looks at the other, older one, Poseidon Filo, head of Atlantída Academy, the same hair, and eyes as Perseus, she notes. They must be related, Annabeth analyzes them both before turning her attention back to Athena.
"Nemesis Kokkinos and Ethan Nakamura have been spotted with Kronos Hasapis, we cannot have people sent to Kokkinos, you two will go undercover as Caspian and Genevieve Parker at Phorcys Aquarium, where Nakamura works as a marine biologist. Get close to him and report back information about his mother and anything about the Scythe, the Circle of Othrys, or Hasapis." Athena paces behind her chair as she instructs them.
"This is serious, we have intel that the Circle of Othrys have been planning something surrounding the Scythe for months if not years, that's why we need both of you on this," Poseidon speaks, turning to look at them.
"You will be staying at the apartment complex Ethan lives at. Your backstory is as follows; Percy transferred to Annabeth's school in the sixth grade, you two disliked each other at first, then got paired up on a project and became close friends, started dating at 16, got married at 23. You can make up the rest, any questions?" Athena's stare bores into Annabeth like they had many times before.
"Why do we need to be married?" Perseus asks the obvious and Annabeth nods.
"We have equipment in that apartment, it's easier to use one set of everything than two," Athena clarifies.
"Yeah, but-"
"That is all, Perseus. Argus will take you to the apartment where you will be staying, you will find all your belongings have been transferred there, you are both dismissed." Athena cuts him off.
Annabeth risks a look at Percy, observing the way his jaw clenched as he muttered something incoherently. She rises from her chair and nods at Athena before turning on her heel and walking out of the small room, trusting that Perseus would follow.
The door closed behind her and Annabeth turned to face him.
"Look-"
"Jackson"
They both start before stopping again, Annabeth continues after realizing he wasn't going to speak.
"Jackson, I know these aren't the best circumstances, but we need to stay professional. This can help my career and I can't have you mess this up for me, so as long as we're working together, we will act like Caspian and Genevieve, got it?" Annabeth looks at him expectantly.
"Look, Anna, I'm not dumb, okay? This can help my career too, I'm not going to mess something as serious up, and it's stupid of you to think that lowly of me just because I'm from Atlantída."
Annabeth's nostrils flare as Perseus' words sink in.
"How-" she's cut off by knock from down the hall, turning, she sees Argus waiting from them.
Huffing, she turns to Perseus.
"Let's go then." She follows Argus without sparing a glance at the green-eyed boy.
::
The apartment was nice, Annabeth would admit that. The living room was large, decorated with a black, leather couch set, a glass coffee table amongst other things. Behind her, Perseus whistles, taking in the room. Wanting to put as much room between herself and him, Annabeth walks down a hallway and opens the first door, a bedroom, and enters, locking the door behind her, she sighs.
The nerve of that boy, waltzing into her Institute then calling her stupid for wanting to succeed. Annabeth curses him.
"Uh, yeah, Anna? When you're done acting like a toddler, come out so we can talk about the assignment." Perseus' annoyed voice calls from behind the door.
Flinging open the door and marching over to him, Annabeth glares at Perseus. He just grins at her. Asshole.
Perseus tosses her a Manila folder, specifically the case file.
"I've already read this." Annabeth sits down on the large couch.
"Well, read it again then." Perseus rolls his eyes as he leans back into the couch.
Annabeth scowls. "Let's just talk about it, what do you know about the Scythe?"
"As much as you do, almost nothing, just that it's a weapon or tool they have." Perseus stares at the glass coffee table in thought.
Annabeth exhales roughly. "Great, just great."
"Well, it's not like you have any info either." Perseus sends her an annoyed glance.
Ignoring him, Annabeth speaks.
"Okay, we know that Nemesis and Ethan have been seen with Kronos, so they both have links to the Circle of Othrys. If we get close, we might be able to get something from Ethan."
"But what does the Circle do? No one even knows, how are we supposed to get information on it if it might not even exist?" Perseus groans as he leans back into the soft sofa.
"That's why you need to take this seriously."
"I am taking it seriously, it's not my fault your superiority complex won't let you see that." Perseus glares at her, his eyes dark.
"Well, I ignore you, you ignore me, then." Annabeth huffs.
"I don't know if you realized, Chase, but we need to work together if we're going to find out who the Circle is and what they want."
"We already know who the Circle of Othrys is, they're a group of people who work with Kronos Hasapis to…" Annabeth trails off, what did the Circle want and who were they specifically?
Perseus smirks. "See? We know nothing except for the fact that their boss is Kronos Hasapis. We have nothing except for the fact that he's been in contact with Nemesis Kokkinos and Ethan Nakamura, Kokkinos is a dead end, and Ethan might not even know anything. Imíaimos and Atlantída are just pulling at loose threads here, let's admit it."
"No, no, Ms. Pantazis and Mr. Filo assigned us on this because they knew we could handle it, they always know what to do, if they think we can figure out the Circle of Othrys is, we can," Annabeth says more to herself than Perseus, who just stands up and wanders to the hallway, muttering about being 'so fucking optimistic' and how 'Athena and Poseidon have been off their rockers for a while, probably don't know shit about the Circle and Scythe'. Annabeth watches him go, silently seething. How dare he? Ms. Pantazis was the strongest and wisest women she knew, how could Athena Pantazis be off her rocker?
Annabeth stands up, walking over to the window overlooking the New York skyline she sighs. Acting like a married couple would be hard, but acting like Perseus Jackson's wife? Well, that would be even harder.
::
"And these are the tiger sharks, these animals can grow to be as long as 20 to 25 feet!" Annabeth plasters a smile onto her face as she overlooks the group of awed third graders she's giving a tour to, she inwardly scowls when she notes Perseus in the corner by a tank of spiny dogfish sharks snickering at her. Annabeth Chase, renowned spy in both Imíaimos Institute and Atlantída Academy, known for her stealth and speed in missions giving a tour of an aquarium to a bunch of nine-year-olds. Annabeth sighs, what has her life come to.
"Alright, children, lunchtime, now follow me!" Silena Beauregard, Annabeth's co-worker, grins at the group and leads them to the cafeteria.
Annabeth sighs, she loved children, but god, if another kid asked her if they could bring a fish home she would snap. She catches Perseus' nod towards the empty janitor's closet as he walks into it, waiting for a few minutes and making sure no one would see her, Annabeth follows him into the dark cupboard.
"Have you seen Nakamura?" She questions once she closes the heavy door as quietly as she could, which wasn't that quiet if she's being honest.
"Cutting to the Chase, huh, Chase?" He grins at the pun as Annabeth groans.
"Just tell me, Jackson." Annabeth scowls at him, although she wasn't sure he could see it in the dark of the closet.
"No, I passed by his office a couple of times, but couldn't go in," Perseus admits.
"After hours we can sneak in, go through Nakamura's office to find anything about the Circle of Othrys, then get out as soon as possible."
"We?" Perseus raises a dark eyebrow at her.
"Yes, we. I'm not letting you do everything, Jackson, I have a part in this too. I need to show Ms. Pantazis that I'm trustworthy."
"Oh my god, just shut up about Athena, all you do is talk about how you want to earn her trust. You sound like Zuko with his honour." Perseus scowls.
Annabeth blinks. "Who and his honour?"
"You've never watched Avatar: The Last Airbender before? You're more boring than I thought."
"Well, I'm sorry I don't waste my time on stupid things like pop culture." Annabeth narrows her already narrowed eyes at him.
"Whatever, I'm going, wait a little bit before you leave."
"I'm not stupid, you know," Annabeth scoffs.
"I doubt that." She hears Perseus mutter before leaving, Annabeth's fist clenches around a broom handle as thoughts of him run through her head. How infuriating can a guy be?
Taking deep breaths to calm herself down, Annabeth straightens the front of her uniform before stepping out. Walking out of the closet, she comes face to face with Charles Beckendorf, electrical engineer at Phorcys, he raises an eyebrow at her.
"I get you two are married and everything, but can you refrain from making out in closets?"
Annabeth's eyes widen. "Oh, uh, we weren't doing anything, just uh, just talking." Heat rushes to her cheeks involuntarily.
Beckendorf just laughs. "Yeah, I've heard that before."
"Beckendorf!" Katie's voice rings out around the room as she beckons him over.
Shooting her a look, Beckendorf walks away as Annabeth lets out a long breath.
"Genevieve!" Silena calls and Annabeth sighs again.