Author's Note: You all have no idea how excited I was to finally write this chapter. This is where the serious plot stuff start to come in, and so does the fun. Enjoy! Also, I'm sorry about the lateness of the chapter, but give me a break, my birthday's tomorrow!

Chapter Seven: Let the Games Begin

When someone cries for a long, long time, there comes a point where one has to stop. It's impossible to cry for so long, and eventually one must get up and have to carry on. As Annabeth's tears finally subsided, the logical side of her kicked in. What was she to do now? The though threatened to bring fresh tears to her eyes, but she stayed firm. It was time to do something drastic. She picked up her bag from where it had been lying under the bathroom sink and sifted through it until she found what she was looking for: a barely- used container of foundation. Annabeth usually never bothered with makeup, but she had to admit that it had its uses. It was good for covering bruises and scars that might lead to awkward questions, and for hiding the fact that you'd been crying.

After she had gotten rid of any trace that she'd been crying, she gathered her blond curls and swept them up into a tight ponytail. She almost never wore it like that, not since she was a teenager.

Before continuing, she quickly made sure no one else was in the bathroom and locked the door. She knew everyone else was in the meeting room, but she couldn't take any chances. She then went to the second stall from the right and shifted a certain tile on the wall from the right to the left. A compartment popped open in the wall, revealing a generous stock of weapons. She first selected a small knife that Luke had given her and slid it up her sleeve. Next, she took out what looked like a few straps with small round objects hanging on them. She pulled up her pant legs and secured the grenade belt around her calves. Two more daggers were strapped to her thighs, and two shotguns and three pistols went into her purse. As an extra precaution, she took some three-inch long spiked projectiles and braided them into her hair.

She turned to the mirror and examined her appearance. I'm not sure what's coming, she thought, but I'm ready for anything.

..~0~..

Atlantis Agencies,

The fountain room

The large marble fountain in the middle of the room splashed and bubbled peacefully. Normally, Percy found that this had a calming effect. Now, though, nothing could persuade him to calm down.

"Percy?" called a voice. He turned and saw Rachel.

"Oh. Hey," he said. Act normal. Act normal. "So, what's up?"

"Your dad's looking for you," said Rachel, scrutinizing his expression carefully.

Percy straightened. "What? Why? What did I do?"

"Nothing. Don't worry, no one found out that you were the one who taped that 'Kick me' sign to Nico. He just wants to talk to you."

Percy frowned. That almost never happened. He'd always had a pretty distant relationship with his dad. As a kid, he'd seen him a few weekends every year, and although they'd had their share of 'man to man' conversations, they'd never actually gone to the trouble of setting up time just to talk. So this bothered him a bit. And was there a reason he was doing it now? "Okay, I'll go."

He and Rachel left the fountain room and went downstairs to the meeting room.

"Do you want me to wait for you?" asked Rachel.

"No thanks. I'm not sure how long this will take," explained Percy. He entered the long room and crossed straight to the gray stone platform at the end and went through the small door at the end. He was met with a choice of six more doors. One was wooden and had a caduceus carved onto it, and another was metal and had steel rivets on it. There was one was light pink with a crystal doorknob, another a deep purple color with vines carved into the edges, and one gray one with fossilized seashells, like the walls. At the left, there was a black and silver door, but he ignored that. He opened the gray one and entered his father's office.

His father looked up from his desk. "Percy, come in. I have to speak to you about something important." As usual, his expression was rather unreadable. It was always hard to tell whether he was pleased or angry, and he would shift between the two randomly. This had a tendency to make people nervous.

"What is it, Dad?" Poseidon paused as if hesitating to say something, but then continued. "Percy, this will probably be very shocking to you, and I'm sorry about that, but I don't have time to beat around the bush. The problem is, I've just found out that your Annabeth's mother is part of Skyward."

Percy just sat there. Annabeth's mother was part of Skyward... And so was Annabeth... Which made the possibility that she had married him knowing he was an assassin so she could spy on him a whole lot more likely. He swallowed nervously, trying to regain control of his expression. "How long have you known?" he choked out.

"Not long, son. Only a few hours ago. Listen-" But Percy didn't hear the rest. He was already out the door. "Where are you going?" called Poseidon.

"I have to go do, uh, something. Okaynicetalkingtoyoudadbye." With that, he turned and ran back into the meeting room and out the double doors at the end.

"Don't do anything stupid!" yelled his father after him. Percy didn't hear that either. But with Percy being Percy, it wouldn't have made a difference if he had.

..~0~..

The Jackson House

7 PM

The house stood as high as ever, but something had changed about it. The clouds hanging overhead seemed darker, more menacing. It stood in shadow, with ivy creeping up the sides as if threatening to swallow it.

Annabeth, waiting up in the attic to get a better view of the street, sent a quick text to Percy:

Where r u?

He replied back:

Almost at the house.

Sure enough, his car pulled up outside of their house. She watched him step out carefully, and look around to see who was there. The street was deserted. He entered the front door, and she went downstairs to meet him.

"Oh. Hey," he said, noticing her standing at the top of the stairs.

"Hi," she said. Neither of them was smiling. They were both still in their clothes from work: she in gray slacks, a light blue blouse, and black heels, he in a light green shirt and darker tie, but with his old black motorcycle jacket over it.

"So... Where does this leave us?" asked Percy. He was smiling, but his voice sounded cold.

Annabeth's lips curved into an imitation of a smile. She fingered her sleeve. "Right here," she replied, drawing the knife and hurling it with deadly precision right at him.

He was quick, though, and dropped to the ground as it hurtled over him and imbedded itself in the door. He got up casually and pulled it out. "If that's the way you want it, sweetheart, then sure. But you might want to work on your aim." With that, he pulled out a shotgun and fired.

Annabeth leapt off the staircase, surprisingly agile in her high heels, and sprinted back into the kitchen. She pulled the knives from the carving block and tossed them at his head. He dove down and rolled to the side, and came up kneeling. He fired the shotgun, but she ducked and the refrigerator she had been standing in front of exploded.

"Nice try, honey!" she called sarcastically, leaping onto the island in the center of the kitchen, and lunging off of it and tackling him. Quickly, he flipped over and pinned her hands over her head. She swung her legs over and got on top of him, but he kicked her back against the wall. She aimed a high kick straight for his head, but he ducked and tossed a knife at her. It caught her blouse and would have pinned her to the wall, but she just ripped the fabric and punched him. He stumbled back into the large kitchen window and fell through, shattering the glass and slicing his shirt.

Unfortunately for Annabeth, the kitchen was on the ground floor, and he jumped back up and fired a shotgun into the broken window and ran off into the backyard.

Annabeth lunged into the window after him just in time to see him crawl up the drainpipe like a spider. Instead of following him, she ran around to the front of the house and began climbing up one of the pillars.

When she reached the roof of the porch, she looked around, but saw nothing. She decided to keep climbing up the the roof of the house. It was difficult, but the spikes in the sides of the heel of her shoes helped. She looked around again, but saw nothing. Carefully, she walked across the slanting, dark blue roof, past the chimney, and to the side that looked out over the backyard.

Suddenly, he came up behind her and grabbed her, forcing her hands behind her back as she struggled for release. Everything came up a halt. Her heart was pounding, and she racked her brain desperately, but nothing came.

Percy twisted her arm slightly, and she gave a small shriek. What am I doing? He thought suddenly. It's Annabeth. Can I really- But I have to. How did it get like this? A few days ago everything was good, and now I'm seriously going to throw her off our roof?

But Annabeth's instincts of self- preservation still fought. The second she sensed his mind wandering, she seized her chance and twisted in midair, the momentum pulling them both off the roof.

They both screamed as they fell, flailing desperately in an instinctive attempt to stay up. But alas, nothing happened, and they fell nevertheless.

Right into the swimming pool.

Annabeth climbed out of the pool, soaking wet and swearing loudly. She turned around, expecting to see him crawling out of the pool, ready to attack.

Instead, she heard the sound of someone diving into a car and the tires squealing as he peeled out of the street at top speed.

She stomped angrily to the front of the house, and screamed in anger, hurling her left shoe at the window in frustration. Their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Havenfeld, hobbled out of her house with a cane.

"Is everything all right with you two, dearie? I thought I heard fighting." she asked in a quavery voice.

Annabeth looked at her neighbor and smiled politely. "Oh, no, nothing's wrong. Now, if you'll excuse me, Mrs. Havenfeld, I must be going." She stumbled off towards her car, wearing only one high- heeled shoe. "Thank God he's too stupid to slash my tires," she muttered.

..~0~..

End of Chapter

Author's Note: so was the fight scene okay? I tried to keep everyone in character. Next chapter, we'll hear from some other people. Don't worry, You'll find out what Percy and Annabeth are up to, too.

Also, I apologize for taking such a long time to update. But school takes up a lot of my time, and I have tennis afterwards, and then I come home and have a ton of homework to do. For those of you who haven't entered it yet, take my word for it: Junior year of high school sucks.

Review Replies

Monkeypoop: Such a distinctive username! And yeah, lies and the effect they can have are a big part of this story.

BookNerd2918: I hope this chapter brings out more of the intensity. I'll try to update faster, but it's kind of hard.

XxThisMyFriendIsAPenxX: thanks! I'm so glad you liked it, I hope this chapter was even better.

Mrs Percy James Mellark: Of course there's more! Thanks for noticing my technique, I really work hard on it. RandomnessMe: okay, I've actually been trying to avoid the PJO fandom for now, because a lot of people put Mark of Athena spoilers in their summaries and I haven't read it yet, but there are quite a few.

'The Years of Our Titans' by storm- brain : this is one of those, what-if- the-hero-dies-and-the-bad-guys-win stories. Basically, it's about what happens if the titans had won, and who becomes the hero without a prophecy. It doesn't have any original characters unless you count the gods, but it has some pretty complex and amazing OCs, and an actual detailed storyline.

'The Next Generation' series by marykate3000 : I've never actually read this, but my sister(Apocalypse) has and she highly recommends it. It's basically what it sounds: the next generation of demigods.

'Camp Life' by ChalkFourOne :It's a completely hilarious story of everyday life at camp. It has a lot of OCs, but plenty of original characters, and it's hilarious.

'Verge' by FoalyWinsForever : a Chris/Clarisse story. It tells Chris's story in the Labyrinth, and what I really like about it is that it shows that the minor characters matter, too, makes you realize that they may actually have a reason to side against the gods.

'Awkward IMs' by iluv2smile : I warn you: you could die laughing by reading this story. It's pretty funny.

'The Mark of Athena' by Flamepaw : I know that there are a lot of MOAs, but this one is one of the best. I find that there are a lot of good oneshots if you know how to find them, but not full- length stories. Somehow those seem to rely on cliche. But not the ones that I've suggested.

The Lazy Bookworm: I totally wish that they could get back together in the last chapter, but they're not going to. Wow... That makes it sound like the story's writing itself. But it does feel like that sometimes. And thanks, I find OOCness annoying, so it's really important for me to keep them IC.

WeirdButCool: having them both think that they'd been betrayed was the only way to have them trying to kill each other, but still be in character. Because let's face it, otherwise the story would have been like this: Percy: "Hey Annabeth! We're both assassins! Annabeth: Yeah, we are! Let's make out anyway! Percy: Okay! And while that is funny, I think that multiple chapters of it would just be boring.