Chapter 46: Unplanned Back-up

Disclaimer: Don't own nothing blah blah blah
I hope you remember where I left off at… but tbh this is probably going to be a bit more like mission rather than love fest cause I'm not feeling much love right now to write anymore love scenes.

Percy's POV:

"Grab those bags." Nico said as he struggled to put his own supplies into his own bags.

"What are you doing? You just got shot yester-" I started, not even bothering to pack up.

Ever since Nico regained consciousness, he's been at it like crazy. Disregarding the pain on his sides, Nico was up and packing.

"Percy, I mean it! Listen to me! We've only got 20 minutes before she gets back!"

"Thalia?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Yes Thalia!" Nico yelled in frustration. "So get packing and let's go!"

"Go where?"

Nico took out a familiar map, "Krono's so called hideout. We're going to bust them, hopefully gather enough information to put them away for good."

"Shouldn't we wait for Thalia…? I mean-"

"No." Nico said stubbornly. "All she's going to do it stop me because of Luke." Nico said bitterly.

"Nico, she saved your life yesterday-"

Nico shot me a death glare, "You could pack and come with me, or I'm going alone."

I sighed and grabbed my bag, "Just tell me what to do."

~PAGEBREAK~

"We should've got back-up." I mumbled to myself as we crawled through the vents.

"Yeah and risk seeing Thalia with her 'I'm-always-right' attitude? Yeah right." Nico scoffed as he tried to locate the direction. Suddenly Nico stopped and clutch his sides.

"You should've waited-"

"Percy, just shut up. I'm fine! Thalia just didn't want me completing this mission because of Luke." Nico frowned.

He looked so angry that I didn't even want to argue with him, but of course I had to open my mouth. "Even if you're mad at her… she's still your fiancé… if not at least girlfriend." I knew that Thalia had said that they weren't dating, but Nico's jealously seems to be saying something else.

"Oh yeah did I forget to tell you? She's not my girlfriend." Nico said it bitterly as if the thought just popped up in his head. "Actually we got put together just because we were great at these life or death missions."

"So… you weren't really together?"

"Yes? No?" It seems like Nico wasn't even sure what their relationship was about. "To be honest we starting dating to stop her dad's and my dad's company from completely destroying each other."

For some reason I wasn't really surprised. "So your relationship… let me guess… fake all along?"

There was silence for a while before he replied, "Percy you can't tell anyone this… not even Annabeth."

I stared at him weirdly. "Uh… sure?"

"You know that Thalia's dad killed my mom. You know that Luke is Thalia's boyfriend."

I nodded, wondering what Luke has to do with all of this. "Wait… you did the same thing again. You said boyfriend, as if they never broke up."

Nico looked down, "They never did break up. Thalia just left and never contacted him ever again. Thalia left Luke for me." Nico sighed. "Well not for me, it's more like, she left Luke for the sake of her job."

"Wait then-"

"I know she still likes Luke. She won't admit it. She hated my guts when we first met." Nico managed a slight smile. "Well now…"

"So what's your status now?"

Nico took a deep breath, "I don't know what Thalia's thinking about our relationship… but the relationship we put up for you and Annabeth and practically everyone else, it's fake."

"Wait I'm confused… then you're pretending to be dating, yet you keep it a secret from us that you are dating, when you really are not dating?"

Yeah I was confusing myself as well.

Thankfully Nico understood and managed a weak laugh as he disabled a camera in the vents, "Yeah, umm… our dads are sort of weird. Understandable since they are pretty fucked up in their head, but they were a bit confused at why our friends never knew about our relationship, so of course Thalia had this elaborate plan that we had been dating in secret. That way, they can't try to uncover how fake our relationship really was. Of course there was a downside to that, we were on constant watch by either Thalia's or my dad and hence the fake romance."

"So when Annabeth and I found out-"

"Actually that was purely a mistake on our part. To be frank, I believe that there's camera's in our house and to be honest, our dads still hate each other. So we kept up the act 24/7, well when you found out, it didn't really effect anything except now we had to act friendly and lovingly in front of you so our cover won't be blown."

I tried to absorb all the information. I didn't get it… if their whole life was an act… then why not just make it real. "What's the difference in making it fake then? Might as well make it real if you are keeping up the act 24/7."

Nico shook his head, "But it's not real. We both knew it was fake, and Thalia is… well she obviously still have feelings for Luke. I wasn't going to-"

"So then you guys didn't date anyone else while you had this thing going on?" I decided to change the direction of the conversation since Nico was obviously distressed about the Luke thing.

"Nope, work and constant watch from our dad kind of made it difficult. Plus, it's not like I was exactly interested in dating anyone else."

"Wait so all those time when you blew us off cause you said you were busy-"

"On a fake-date with Thalia." Nico replied with ease. "Or something with Thalia."

"And how long has this fake dating been going on?"

"As long as I can remember… probably sometime since high school."

Obviously I said the only thing that was on my mind. "You seriously should've gone into acting."

Nico gave me a look, "So yeah… my life story-"

"Wait…. If your relationship was fake then what's with all this crazy talk?"

Nico turned around confused, "What do you mean?"

"You guys deliberately make out- and might I add rather passionately- whenever I'm around or whenever there's no one around… and no… all those times I've walked in on your sucking lips with Thalia couldn't have all been planned."

"Friends with benefit." He replied a bit too quickly.

"You asked me for help on proposing to Thalia." I remembered. "You were also extremely pissed… more pissed off than a normal person would be."

"Your point?" He cut off the wire and continued to crawl.

I couldn't help but smirk, "Dude… you are totally in love with her."

Nico turned around to get a look at me. Instead of scoffing as he usually would he simply answered, "Maybe? I don't know. Honestly Thalia confuses me something. Like one minute, I'm pretty sure she's totally into me, and the next… well example of what you saw a few days back. And girls say that guys are fickle about their feelings…"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Dammit, I'm turning into a sap like you." Nico groaned as I tried not to take offense to his statement. "Who knows what's going on between us… all I know is that we spend lots of time together and just-" Nico stopped abruptly. "Just come on."

"Don't try to change the subject, I'm still-"

"Percy, you could question my love life later, as for now, we need to focus on not dying. Nico turned on his beam and shined it ahead. "Second right and I'll cut an opening and jump down. You stay up here until the coast is clear."

I couldn't help but noticed how depressed he looked. Almost as if not being with Thalia sucked the living daylights out of him. For some reason, he seems to be sulking back to the days when he had just lost Bianca.

Fuck… he really did like Thalia. Did my bad luck in the love department ruined his chances too?

"You got the vest?" I asked him knowing that everyone will be carrying guns around this place.

"Never going to forget it again after last time." Nico replied half-heartedly as if remembering something. "Thalia always did the buddy check for me." He mumbled probably thinking I couldn't hear him, but I guess he forgot that he handed me some sensitive hearing aids.

He looked at something on his finger.

"Your engagement ring." I noticed.

Nico grumbled, "Don't even know why I even bothered to keep it. It wasn't even a real engagement." He sighed but didn't bother taking it off, instead he twisted the diamond on the ring and placed it on the metal. "Diamonds." I stared at him in amazement as he carved a hole in the metal. "With the right mixture, it could pretty much cut through anything."

In a few seconds there was a perfectly huge gap right in front of me. Nico attached a device onto the latch right under us as he took out his phone. "Five guards here and another seven within hearing range."

"That's twelve." I said fearing if the two of us could take on twelve highly trained men.

Nico smirked, "Piece of cake."

"This is dangerous, even for you-"

"You want to go instead? Be my guest, but I'm not going to promise a proper burial for you." Nico joked.

I will never understand his humor.

"And Percy?" He said before stepping into the gap.

"Hmm?"

"Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

~PAGEBREAK~

Even though I may not be good at math, I was able to count the bodies on the ground …all twelve guards should be here… "We're missing three."

"Damn right you are." A voice from behind me growled. I turned around to see two guards standing with their guns up. "Weapons down, we don't want to hurt you."

"Yeah and protecting a man that's trying to hurt everyone in the world is call 'not hurting'?" Nico scoffed.

The guards just laughed. "And you hurting my friends are any better?"

"Hey at least I could promise that there will be people left to mourn for their death-"

"Nico… please shut up." I said knowing that he was going to crack one of his wiseass jokes.

"Come on…" They trained their guns on us and we had no choice but to drop our weapons.

"On my count run to the left, I'll distract them." Nico whispered to me as the guards stepped closer. I simply nodded too scared to say otherwise.

"Now that's more like it… now tell me…" The first guard was knocked down and the second one quickly followed.

"One, two-"

"What the hell?" The first guard sprang to his feet as a person dressed entirely in black quickly performed a round kick towards the guard's face. Before the second guard had a chance to respond to his friend's attack, the attacker quickly twirled around and landed a punch on the guys jaw. I felt sad for the poor guy as the attacker punched his stomach and knocked him out.

I looked at the two guards that dropped down dead in alarmed. "Damn… Nico I didn't know you were that goo-"

From behind me, Nico dusted his pants and stood up, "That wasn't me-"

"Then who-?"

"Serves you right." The attacker commented before taking off the mask.

"T-Thalia?" I said a bit surprised as Nico's face lighted up like a kid that just got his Christmas present.

She nodded grudgingly and placed her gun down, "Well someone's going to have to keep you guys out of trouble."

"How'd you find us?" I asked a bit surprised because I remembered that she stormed out before Nico even told her anything.

"Tracking device." Nico answered as he stared at her and for once lost at words then looked at his finger that held their fake engagement ring.

"Finally figured it out huh?" Thalia grumbled as she held up her own ring. "Why did you think I insisted on getting the rings?"

Nico just stared at her. "I… uhh… I just thought it was like… to make it more official?" Nico stuttered.

Thalia stared at him curiously for a second, "Official as in-"

At that moment Nico shot her a look, "Nothing." He said quickly. I raised an eyebrow, he didn't seem pretty interested in telling Thalia that I knew about their real yet fake relationship. But considering that Thalia never told Nico about my knowledge of their real yet fake relationship, I would assume that they both had the same motive.

I scoffed, 'Friends with benefit… those little shit.'

"Secret compartment that can hold a tracking chip. I placed it in there just in case you decide to hide any mission from me." Thalia commented with a frown. "I'm actually glad you kept the ring and it wasn't hard to hack into your computer, considering I've already placed a chip in there to make sure you're not doing anything dangerous and stupid."

"Thanks for trusting me so much." Nico grumbled.

"Be thankful, cause I could whip your ass like I did with those guys." She pointed at the guards.

Nico frowned before realizing that Thalia was serious, "Erm…. Thanks."

Thalia didn't bother answering instead she picked up my gun and threw it to me, "Without a weapon in this place you're pretty much screwed." She paused reaching something out of her pocket and threw it at me. "And while you're at it, reload your gun and check the surroundings for any other guards."

I nodded and first checked the guards that were knocked out. To be honest, I kicked them a couple time just to make sure that they stayed down.

Of course I was wary to keep an eye on Nico and Thalia. Let's just say I was glad for the sensitive hearing aid.

Thalia threw Nico his gun. "That includes you too, asshole."

Nico caught his gun and reload it. "You forgot to strap your vest." He walked over behind her and fixed her vest.

Thalia looked over her back side as Nico quickly helped her out, "Thanks…" She managed to cough out.

"So… did your dad send you here?"

Thalia frowned, "No."

"Then why-"

"There is no fucking way that I'm going to go MIA when there's some butt that needs kicking. Plus your wound is not exactly healing yet."

"Seriously?"

Thalia sighed, "You really think I would let you die?"

"It's possible." Nico mumbled.

"Even if you're not friend," Thalia begin grudgingly. "You're still my partner."

Nico struggled to form words for a second, "Oh yeah partners huh?"

"Of course." Thalia said obviously oblivious to his feelings.

"I was not kidding about Athena still being alive. She is alive Thals. That's why Kronos is striking back, he realized the same thing-"

She hesitated as if the word were hard to get out… like she would rather die than admit she was wrong. "I know."

"So you're here to stop him?" Nico asked her.

"No, if anything I don't give a damn about Kronos. He could die for all I care… actually if he died it would be a blessing… but aside from that, I'm here because I've been your partner for one hell of a long time and I am not letting this Kelp Head here replaced me. SERIOUSLY?! I mean… of all people you pick him to replace me?!" Thalia pointed at me.

"Hey-" I began, but at that point I knew the two were off in their own little world. I tried not to feel so offended.

Nico managed a slight smile, probably thinking that Thalia is at least not mad at him anymore, "So-"

"No, I'm still mad at you." Thalia answered quickly before turning to me, "And you too. You knew that he still needed some medical care to that wound of his, yet you agreed to go with him on this mission. I understand that you're an idiot-"

"Don't go blaming on me!" I tried to defend myself.

"Oh sure… and you didn't even bother to wait and explain everything to me before going off on this mission." Thalia scoffed obviously still angry. "Just because I rescued you, it doesn't mean that I'm going to forgive you. I'm still completely angry at you for accusing me-"

"Accusing you?" Nico's anger flared for a second, whatever gratefulness he expressed towards Thalia before was forgotten. "When have I ever accused you?!"

"So many times Di Angelo, regarding with my father and regarding with Luke."

"Again with Luke! He's always involve even when he's not involve! It's always him! Can't you just get it in your head that he's not here anymore! You made your choice when you left him! You made your damn choice when you decided to go along with this and he made his damn choice when he choose to side with Kronos. If I ever get the chance I would not hesitate to shoot him." Nico glared angrily at Thalia.

I briefly remembered that Nico had actually let Luke go, sparing his life at the hotel the other day, but right now Nico would probably not appreciated it if I shared that fact with Thalia.

"You guys need to get this sorted out another time because we still have a mission-" I began hoping that the two of them would see some sense. For gods sake! They are trained professional but still manage to bicker at a time like this.

"If I didn't know any better I would say that you are completely jealous of him!" Thalia glared at Nico.

Nico's face morphed into one of absolute anger. "Of him?! Of the stupid guy that managed to join a terrorist group that is set on killing innocent people. If so, yes… yes Thalia Grace-" He said her last name with emphasis of anger. "I AM COMPLETELY JEALOUS OF HIM BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE A BIAS TOWARDS MURDERERS!"

"Ha!" Thalia laughed bitterly. "Murderers?"

Nico pretended to be thinking deeply, "Yes murderers… like hmm… your dad for example. And… oh wait." He laughed. "Luke! Me jealous?! For a girl who's related to a murderer and is completely in love with a murderer? Yep you got me!" Nico snorted out a sarcastic laugh.

"Nico stop it!" I stood between the two of them. "Thalia just calm down. Now is not a good time-"

Thalia balled up her fist, ready to punch him. "Take that back Death Breath!"

"Ooo nicknames! I'm completely scared now."

"Guys this is stupid!" I tried to make them see some sense, in this situation, I didn't know how far their voices can carry but I knew it was only a matter of time before more guards were upon us.

Thalia's fist tightened as she glared at Nico, "I'll show you what real fear is-"

"Real fear?" Nico laughed almost as if he's a mad man. "I'd like to see you try Pinecone face!" He snarled at her. "The last time I ever felt real fear was when my mom died, so what are you going to do? Bring her back from the dead and kill her all over again like what your dad did?!"

"I am not my dad." Thalia glared at him.

"Obviously not, because you are worst, you are nothing but an insufferable, emotionless bitch."

Thalia's fist tightened as she got closer to him. "Take that back."

"Insufferable, murderer bias bitch." Nico sneered.

Thalia's voice got dangerously low as she gripped Nico's vest. "I said… take that back."

"Make me."

I tried to step in to stop them. "Maybe we should all just calm down and-"

BANG!

A gun shot rang behind me and my heart almost stopped. A shadow stood there, placing her gun back in its holder. "Gods Thalia… you need to seriously chill."

I turned to my left as a guard dropped down dead.

They were both so surprised that all their anger just disappeared. Both Nico and Thalia turned to look at our new shooter.

"I know I'm not as skilled as you guys… but seriously look around before you decide to make a conversation." The shooter said.

"Dammit Percy, I told you to check around-" Thalia began, the anger still lingering in her voice.

"Who are you-?" I began.

The shooter took off her mask and her blond curls fell to her shoulders. Her grey eyes are piercing in the dark room.

In other words, she never looked more beautiful.

"I hate not knowing things and you know it Percy."

~PAGEBREAK~

"Hey! That's my suit!" Thalia glared accusingly at Annabeth.

"I just saved your life." Annabeth grumbled. "You should be glad that I stole your suit."

"You went through my room!" Thalia accused her friend.

"Well obviously, I needed equips to crash a mission since none of you were willing to give me any information." Annabeth glared specifically at me.

I swallowed and looked down. Annabeth scared me worse than Thalia and Nico combined, which is to say a lot.

"I should've noticed something was up when you stopped asking questions." Thalia mumbled to herself.

"So you guys need my help?"

"It's not like we could ditch you." Thalia grumbled.

Annabeth smiled, "It wasn't hard to find you. Your yelling could be heard way back there. There are a few guards coming this way. I suggest we start to get going."

"Well maybe if the Pinecone face over here would stop trying to pick a fight with me-" Nico began obviously still angry.

"My fault?! If anything this is your fault!" Thalia glared at Nico.

"Sure! It was totally my fault that YOU decided to crash my mission-" Nico scoffed.

"Last time I checked, this was also my mission."

"I didn't ask for your help!"

"You didn't have to!"

Nico laughed bitterly, "Of course, I'm here to kill Luke, and Luke's life is at stake."

"Luke?" Annabeth's voice came out of nowhere as the two continued arguing. Deciding to delve on her confusion later Annabeth looked at the two agents, "Can you guys stop it!?"

Thalia reached out her fisted and punched Nico square in the face, "You don't know anything Di Angelo."

Thalia reached her arm back to go for another punch but Annabeth stopped her, "Thalia! Enough already! Do you want to get us killed?! You guys have been arguing for almost two minutes, it's only a matter of time before they catch up to us. I don't really care what happened, but as of right now can we focus on getting out alive!"

"Exactly what I've been trying to tell them for the past few minutes." I mumbled under my breath.

Annabeth ignored my comment and continued. "We'll split into two, a direct attack and a sneak attack."

"Who died and made you the leader?" Nico grumbled.

"Since the both of you can't act like mature agents, I'm the only one with enough brains to do this." Annabeth continued ignoring my presence completely.

I mean I understood that Annabeth was mad at me, but this was getting way too much.

Thalia glared at Nico obviously still mad, but this time she was able to keep her anger under control. Maybe suddenly having Annabeth's life at stake, opened up her eyes a bit. "You guys need to learn to check around the room for bugs before discussing the plan."

"And Thalia's ingenious hack into your computer did prove to be helpful." Annabeth smirked.

This time it was Thalia's turn to be surprise, "How did you- you know what… I'm not even going to ask."

Nico finally regain his wits of being outsmarted by two girls, "Fine… two teams, Percy and I will-"

"No." Annabeth suddenly said, her voice indicating that she already thought this out. "They are expecting you and Thalia. It's better if you guys paired up and lead the direct assault, since well… you guys are trained for this thing. If there's anything that I'm good at, it's figuring things out. I'm going to leave the brute force to you guys. I may not know much about all these, but we'll meet you at the heart of this place."

"But you guys are not trained for this-" Nico began probably finding all excuses to stray away from Thalia.

"They won't be expecting a sneak attack if they have already captured the two agents. Considering that Percy and I are just victims of this case, we'll be the last ones that they would expect to break in."

"There is no way I'm going with him." Thalia decided her voice filled with venom. I glanced over at Nico who tried his best not to look so hurt. Despite his harsh words from earlier I could tell that he cared a lot about Thalia.

"If you think I would want to go with you, you've got to be kidding me." Nico retorted back with equal anger, his eyes completely betraying the tone of his voice.

And here I thought my relationship with Annabeth was bad.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow in my direction as if asking me the situation of Nico and Thalia. I simply just shrugged, while happy that she's finally acknowledging me, I was a bit fazed at her lack of emotion towards me.

"Fine what else do you guys have in mind?"

Before we could answer, a gun shot rang and I felt a sharp pain on my sides. I knew the bullet proof vest did help, but I couldn't help but fall down from the impact. From my right I heard Annabeth called out my name, "PERCY!"

My vision went blurred for a second. I was only able to see Thalia fighting off the mob of guards, "GET THEM OUT OF HERE!" She yelled at Annabeth and Nico who were the only ones to not be captured into the fight.

I looked to my right to see a blur of blond hair approaching Thalia who kept on yelling at Nico to get out. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before she was taken over completely by the guards.

Nico hesitated for a second before pulling me up and dragging Annabeth away from the scene. "Come on!" He half-dragged me through the corridors of the hideout before settling down behind boxes of explosives.

Nico looked at the both of us for a second before dusting off his pants. "Try to get out of here. Percy knows the escape route." He glanced back at the direction that we came from. I could hear the sound of guns going off and couldn't help but worry about Thalia.

I stared at Nico for a second. "You can't just-"

Nico managed a slight smile and I knew that even though they might've been fighting and shouting hateful words at each other just a few minutes before, Nico still cared deeply for Thalia. "She's my partner, and I would risk my life for her."

"There is no way-" I stammered for words. "You- I- I promised Bianca I would protect you, I can't just-"

Nico gave me a crooked grin. "I came back from the dead before; I'll make it out alive, just get out of here Perce."

Annabeth's POV:

We dropped down low behind a box, trying to hide away from the guards. It's only been roughly two minutes since Nico had left me here with the Seaweed Brain. Chances are they were already captured…

Not really a good start if you ask me.

I couldn't understand what I was doing. All I knew was that Thalia came home this morning with a grim look on her face and she grabbed her bags and quickly rushed out. I wasn't really sure what was happening, but I knew from the papers she left behind that it was about Percy. Of course, I packed my own share of Thalia's stolen supplies and rushed after her… lucky I did too because they would've died without me.

Now that I was alone with Percy, I wanted nothing more than to yell at him. For being such a stupid idiot! For being such a stupid Seaweed Brain! But… I couldn't bring myself to yell at him. I knew it would not be wise to yell at him when we're trying to keep ourselves hidden, especially since we don't have any particular fighting skills like Nico and Thalia.

Despite being mad at him I could tell that Percy was clearly bothered. Hesitantly I placed my hand on his back and consoled him. "Percy, they'll be okay." I was trying to reassure Percy, but at the same time I was worried about Thalia. It's exactly like her to be sacrificing herself for her friends… I'm even willing to bet that she'll risk her life to make sure that I was safe. "First we need to leave this place, notify someone-"

For a moment I was a bit scared that Percy was having a spasm until his face got this determined look, "We're going in."

"The exit is- wait what?" I stared at Percy. I knew that he was a Seaweed Brain, but both of us lack training and probably wouldn't even make it without the help of the two probably already captured agents.

Percy's face lit up, "The whole plan was to use Nico and Thalia as a distraction wasn't it?"

I nodded hesitantly, "Yes… but-"

Percy's voice got down to a whisper, "They just sped up our plan. They captured Nico and Thalia. Now they are probably expecting us to escape, I'll bet you a million bucks that there will be guards at every exit. Our plan just got sped up a bit... okay maybe a lot." Percy admitted.

"Percy, they could be dead right now, we don't even know-"

Percy looked up as if he suddenly realized something, "Luke…" Percy's eyes narrowed as he stood up carefully searching for any guards. "He'll keep them alive."

There's that name again. I wasn't sure if it was the Luke that I knew at Columbia or not… but with the same tone in Percy's voice, I had a hinting feeling that it was. "Luke…?"

Percy grinned, "I warned you that he was a bad guy." I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't bother. "I know they are still alive." Percy said confidently.

I stared at Percy a bit surprised. He was actually smart when he wanted to be. "Fine, let's say that your assumption is true… what can we do without their guidance? You don't even know what Nico was looking for-"

Percy stared at me as if he was at lost for words, "Well… yeah. I don't care, I'm not letting anything else happen to my friends." He said with a steely look in his face.

"First things first, we get Nico and Thalia out of here." I decided. "I'm pretty sure if we just follow the right hallway it'll lead to the main processing room." I remembered, mentally making a map inside my head. "As for where they are holding Nico and Thalia…"

"Leave that to me. Nico left a tracker on his watch to help us locate one another." Percy added helpfully.

I hesitated for a second, "Are you sure Nico and Thalia will be kept alive?"

Percy nodded confidently, "He won't kill them-"

"Luke?" I asked as Percy nodded, confirming my assumption that this was the Luke Castellan. "You trust him?"

This time it was Percy's turn to hesitate, "Any other situation, I probably won't trust him, but as for now, I'm positive he won't let anything happen to them."

I slowly nodded, "Fine, if you are that sure, we need to get the files first."

"But Nico-"

"You said it yourself that they won't get hurt, if we get the files first, it'll distract the guards attention towards the missing files giving us the perfect escape opportunity."

"But-"

"Do you know where the files are?"

"Well yes but-"

"Good-"

"Annabeth listen to me! We have to get Nico and Thalia first-"

"No you listen to me!" I glared at him, "It's basically a death trap if we decide to rescue Nico and Thalia first. The obvious choice would be to rescue our friends, right now we need a distraction and the best way to get the distraction is to divert their attention to something more important than Nico and Thalia."

Percy stayed silent, he looked like he wanted to argue. "Fine, you have to promise me something though."

"What?"

"If anything goes wrong, you have to find the exit and leave right away…"He looked at me with such intensity that I couldn't help but shiver. "No matter what."

I met his gaze with an equal challenging statement, "I'm not promising anything."

Percy looked like he was about to break, "Annabeth, now is not the time to play hero, I 'm not kidding. This is not your problem. I'm the one that caused this, you have nothing to do with this."

"Yes I do-"

"You could tell me your mom is involve, I don't care. To me, the most important thing right now is to make sure that nothing happens to you. I need you to promise-"

"You can't make me." I said stubbornly.

"I have the directions and tracker, you can't go anywhere without me." He said with equal stubbornness.

"You can't do this!"

"I don't want another death on my shoulders." Percy said grimly.

I felt an anger spark. The selfish bastard only cares about his own guilty conscious. "If you go alone, there will be no shoulders!"

"Annabeth just stop making everything so complicated!" He grumbled.

"I'm making everything complicated?!" I was ready to punch him. Whether or not I actually love Percy, I really wanted to punch him right now. "You were the one that decided to keep all of this from me! The fact that my mom was still alive-"

Percy sighed, "You need to seriously chill!"

I huffed, "Really? You're telling me to chill!" A crash sounded from a distance and I heard a gruff voice shouting out commands. I knew that within seconds they would be onto us if we don't make a move fast. I glared at Percy. "See what you did?!"

"So now it's my fault?!"

"If it's not then who is it?"

Percy looked at me accusingly. "It's pretty obvious that you were the one screaming."

"If I remember correctly you were the one making a big deal about leaving me behind." I retorted back.

"If I remember correctly I'm the one making this big of a deal because I care too much about you." Percy said back right away without a moment's thought.

"I never ask you to care for me!"

"It's not like you could pick who you care for." Percy scoffed. "Trust me, if I could, I would've stopped myself from falling in love with you." He mumbled under his breath.

I didn't know what to make of that.

Percy glance quickly over towards the sounds of approaching footsteps, "Are we going to sit here and argue all day or-"

I grabbed his hand. Before sprinting away from arriving footsteps I quickly turned back, "We're not done talking, once we get out of this hellhole, you have some explaining to do." I grumbled before dragging him in the opposite direction.

I could almost imagine Percy grinning behind me as he tightened his hand around mine, "Naturally."

~PAGEBREAK~

"ANNABETH-!"

"Shhh!" I clamped my hand over his mouth and wrestled him down behind a big metal box. "You want to get us killed?"

Percy stared at me. I raised an eyebrow, "Percy, what's your problem?!"

Percy pointed towards the sound of the approaching footsteps, "We're going to have company!" He quickly explained that he already managed to get the files… or at least to him it seems to be the correct files, but at the same time he triggered a trap.

"Here," he handed me the files.

"What are you doing?" I asked as panic got caught in my throat.

"Trust me, the most important thing is to get that file out. You need to get out of here. I- I have a plan." He assured me. "I'll get Nico and Thalia, we'll get out somehow."

"There is no way-"

Percy gave me a small smile, "I have a plan."

He obviously doesn't have a plan. If anything Percy is the last person to ever have a plan about something. I wanted to punch him, I wanted nothing more than to punch that face of his for making me feel as if my brain is having an overload. I knew that nothing I could do will change his mind. His first priority is making sure that I was safe… HE WAS ACTING LIKE I WAS SOME DAMSEL IN DISTRESS!

"No fucking way-"

"All that time you lied to me about who you were… you still owe me a lot-"

"Percy… don't you even try to guilt trap me-"

"You used all my money for your own interest and lived in my house, I could've sued you for fraud. If you want to repay what I've done for you… get out of here. Now."

I knew in my mind that Percy was definitely concerned about me and still loves me despite his claims from before. I was mad at him. I wanted nothing more than to punch his face… but right now, when he's looking at me with those eyes as if there's nothing in the world more important than my safety. As if he would risk his life just to make sure that I was safe.

Without waiting for my answer, Percy crouched up a bit and was about to run off when I called his name."Percy."

Percy turned around for just a second, but that second was just enough for me to lean up and give him a kiss. "Good luck Seaweed Brain."

Percy stared at me for a second, unable to comprehend what I had just done, but I didn't stay long enough to see his expression. Instead I rushed away towards a different hallway. Before disappearing around the corner I heard Percy rushing off making as much noise as possible in the opposite direction, away from the exit that I had mapped out in my head.

I knew what I was supposed to do. Maybe it was a bit altered from my original plan, since Percy decided to be the hero and everything.

I opened my cell phone and grinned. "I have the file and Percy's going straight to the storage room."

"Keep to the plan, we can't have anyone suspecting anything." The voice on the other line told me with a harsh tone.

"You think I'm a dumb blond or something?" I retorted back.

"Whatever, stick to the plan Princess or else they'll all die."

I grumbled a few unpleasant words before answering, "Fine, you just need to do your part and I'll do mine."

I stuffed my phone into my pocket and looked around before following the same path that Percy had taken before.

I know saying I'm sorry doesn't cover up for the time I've been like gone. But I've recently moved out of my house cause of problems. I'm no longer living with my family anymore because of a certain asshole shit head.

I'm just going through mid-life crisis and subtle depression at the moment and I can't bring myself to tell anyone so of course I just write my feelings out. Been doing some poetry and writing out ranting drafts on tumblr without the intention of publishing them because it's dark as fuck… I seriously need to get a mental therapist with all these thoughts in my head….

Anyways I'll try to update soon! Promise and I'm having another idea for another story.

Merry Belated Christmas, Happy New Years, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Halloween… dam how many holidays did I miss….

Song: Demons- Imagine Dragons because it's a fucking amazing song and I don't think I love a song as much as I love this one and Imagine Dragons are amazing!

Agent Astro Zombie