Author's Note: thanks for all the reviews, here's the next chapter. Sorry for the wait, but i had some issues due to hurricane Sandy. But don't worry, my updates should be fairly quick from now on. From now on, Percy and Annabeth aren't going to be in the forefront of this story. Don't worry, you'll still see them a lot, but the other agents will be coming in. So now instead of just Percabeth, you'll get some Tratie, a smidge of Hazel/ Frank, Silena/Beckendorf, the occasional Grover/Juniper, a bit of the Jason-Piper-Reyna triangle and some other stuff. Happy New Year!

Chapter Eight

Atlantis Agencies

The Next Morning

Rachel paced the floor of her office nervously, worried that her suspicions were correct. Percy hadn't shown up this morning, and she was almost sure she knew the reason for it.

Part of her was kicking herself for not seeing it until it was too late. How could she, with her so- called 'special abilities', have missed it? But it didn't work like that. She only saw flashes, hints, of what was to come. She'd always felt like she could be capable of more, but something was missing. It was almost as if she was a radio antenna whose signal was being blocked, and only played bits and pieces of what it could play.

But that didn't matter now. It was clear what had happened: Percy had unwittingly married an assassin from another agency. Annabeth, whether she knew it at first or not, had obviously realized who Percy really was, and she- or her agency- had used it in a conspiracy against Atlantis.

Someone knocked on the door of her office. "I got here as soon as I could," said Beckendorf, entering the office and closing the door. "Is it true? Annabeth is really from Skyward?"

"Yes," replied Rachel grimly.

"Poor Percy," said Silena, who had followed Beckendorf into the office. "I can't believe it! They were so cute together!"

"This isn't the time, Silena," said Reyna, slipping through the door unexpectedly.

"I agree," said Hazel.

"Hey guys," said Frank, "So what are we going to do about Percy? Do we have any idea where he is?"

"Well, I sure as heck don't," said Conner, appearing behind him.

"Neither do I," Travis added, showing up and closing the door.

"Wait a minute!" shouted Rachel. "How did you people get into my office? And why is my office suddenly the Situation Room?"

"That's not important right now," said Reyna, in her best shut-the-f-up-and-listen-to-me-because-I'm-now-in-charge voice. "What's important is finding out what happened to Percy, where he is, and especially what this means for us."

"Do the Olympians know about this?" Frank wanted to know. "Or are they doing the usual 'I'm too important for this' thing?"

"They probably do," said Rachel. "But I think they're more concerned about the rest of the agency. It's harsh, but I guess they don't want to worry about just one person now."

Mixed feelings spread through the group. Almost all of them had experienced this kind of attitude from the Olympians: they never really seemed to give a moment's thought over what happened to any of them.

To be fair, neither did most regular bosses. But the difference here was that 1. Most of them were related to the Olympians, and 2. They didn't just have to worry about coming into work late. It was all too common that an assassin went on an assignment and never came back. At least in a regular workplace, if someone died on the job, there would be some sort of acknowledgment, a ceremony of some sort. But here, the sad truth was that if an assassin was killed on the job, the person's family was lucky if they received a complimentary fruitbasket from the Olympians.

One of the few good things about the job, though, was that the assassins all looked out for each other. In a world where everyone wants to kill you, you might as well make friends with the other faces on the WANTED posters. And this was why another, who had slipped into the room without anyone else noticing, said grimly, "Then I guess it's up to us."

"Nico! Don't do that! Do you really have to scare the shit out of everyone whenever you walk through the door?" exclaimed Silena. She wasn't really angry, of course-just really freaked out.

Nico looked a bit embarrassed. "Sorry. I can't help it. I think it's hereditary."

"Okay, okay. So let's get back to business," said Reyna briskly, trying to regain everyone's attention. "I think Nico's right."

"About scaring people shitless being hereditary, or about taking matters into our own hands?" asked Connor.

Reyna considered the question. "Both, but let's focus on the second one for now. We have to be levelheaded about this, though. First, has anyone gone to his house to look for him? There might be some clues there about where he might have gone."

..~0~..

The Jackson House

A Few Hours Later

"Is this it?" asked Katie Gardner, raising her head from the bush that she and Malcolm had been hiding in.

Malcolm quickly pulled her back down. "Yes. But be quiet, someone might still be in there."

Katie shook her head in disbelief. "Doesn't it look different to you, though?" she asked quietly. She'd been to the house a few times before, but it had somehow looked different then. More inviting, less... Creepy. She couldn't explain it, but now it just looked cold and deserted.

They climbed in quietly through one of the broken windows and found themselves in the kitchen. There had definitely been a fight there- there were bullet holes in the refrigerator.

"Let's check the rest of the house," suggested Katie. They went into the hallway, stepping carefully over the broken vase and trying not to trip over the fallen curtains. Quietly, they tiptoed up the staircase, searching for any signs that someone was still there.

Finally, Katie said, "I'm sure it's empty now, except for us. But I just can't believe it. I mean, I'm seeing it, but who could've suspected that Annabeth, of all people, married the enemy?"

Malcolm sighed. "No one, Katie. I feel like someone should've known, somehow. But how could we have? He definitely didn't seem like the enemy."

"No," agreed Katie. Suddenly, she tensed. "What was that noise?"

Malcolm was instantly alert. He slipped his hand into his pocket, resting a finger on the trigger of his gun. "Shh. I think I heard it too."

Thump. There was the sound of someone downstairs, probably someone clumsy, seeing as this noise was followed by some colorful language. "You're such a klutz," taunted a voice.

"Shut up, Travis," replied the other. "We're supposed to just check the place out, make sure no one's here."

"But Connor, there's Oreos in here!" said the first voice- Travis.

"Are you serious? Pass me a couple."

There was the sound of munching from downstairs as the two apparently took advantage of Percy and Annabeth's absence and stole their Oreos. Katie and Malcolm traded surprised glances.

"What do we do now?" whispered Katie.

Malcolm thought for a moment. "I think we should stay and listen. They sound like a couple of burglars, but they're a chance that they could be enemy. And if they are, maybe we can learn something from them."

..~0~..

Downstairs

The Same Time

Travis and Connor sat in the Jacksons' ruined kitchen, eating Oreos as they surveyed the damage. "Well, we definitely know she's an assassin now. Looks like they had one hell of a fight," said Travis. He frowned. "I wonder if he's still... I mean, do you think he's okay?"

Connor punched him. "Don't say that kind of shit. He's probably fine. Remember that time in camp where he took down that sumo wrestler guy? You know, the one who looked like a bull?"

Travis smirked. "Or the time he stopped that huge fight that time in Harkins Tavern?"

"Or the time he survived a nuclear explosion by jumping in a refrigerator?"

"Dude, that never happened."

"Oh. Never mind." Then, something caught his attention, and he instantly stopped talking. His eyes flickered up to the ceiling. Travis recognized his brother's expression and followed his gaze.

Connor gestured toward the stairs. Travis nodded. "Hey, Connor, let's check to see of there's any clues in Percy's weapons shed."

"Oh, good idea," said Connor loudly, but not so loudly as to create suspicion. "Let's go outside and check."

They walked to the side door of the house, opened it, and then closed it. Then, they tiptoed back to the kitchen and hid behind the island.

"Are they gone?" asked a woman's voice.

"I think so," answered a guy.

"Come on, let's go before they come back." Travis and Connor watched as a man and a woman came down the stairs quietly and sneaked out the door. As they were leaving, Connor took a tiny object out of his pocket and threw it at the two. The object caught on the back of the woman's shirt.

"Nice," whispered Travis. "With that tracking device on her, we should be able to find their headquarters."

..~0~..

Las Vegas, Nevada

Sunset Inn

12 AM

Percy wasn't a fan of Vegas. He'd been there a few times: when he was twelve, when he was sixteen, and when he turned twenty-one. The first time had been bad: he'd gone there on a trip during his summer training camp, and he'd somehow ended up in a strange casino, where the owners decided it was okay to let children bungee jump without supervision. Plus, some annoying eight year old kid kept following him around, despite his older sister trying to get the kid to leave him alone.

The second time, he'd woken up in an unfamiliar club the morning after he arrived, with lipstick marks covering his face. His mom had grounded him for a month after that.

The third time, that annoying eight year old kid had turned into a depressed, sisterless seventeen year old who had run away to Vegas and didn't want to return. Percy had been forced to practically drag Nico back to New York.

Right now, his stay didn't look too promising. But since Annabeth knew he hated Vegas, he figured it would be a good hiding place. So he'd checked into a random, crappy motel and tried to plan what to do next.

He paced the floor, trying to figure out where she would have gone. He was certain that she'd tried to follow him- she wouldn't just give up. But he felt safe for now, because rather than taking a plane to get to Vegas, he'd taken an Amtrak train. It was a good thing he always kept some vouchers with him, because he wouldn't have been able to think otherwise.

It was strange, actually. He should have been angry that he'd been tricked. Instead, he felt hurt. Betrayed. Depressed. Lonely. There was no getting around it: he'd genuinely loved her. But he had been in love with a mask. A beautiful, convincing one, but a mask all the same. And the woman behind it was nothing more than a heartless liar.

As he stared up at the ceiling, something broke through the window and shattered the glass. Quickly, he grabbed a pistol and prepared to fire, but instead, someone jumped him from behind and tackled him to the ground.

"How'd you find me?" he choked out, trying to pry her fingers away from his neck.

She tightened her grip. "You're remarkably clueless, aren't you?"

"And you're way too cocky," snarled Percy. He flipped them over so they were lying sideways, and reached into his pocket and pulled out his Swiss army knife. Annabeth yelped in shock and pain as he drove it into her wrist. As she let go of his arm, he grabbed her shoulders and slammed her head into the hard floor.

Her eyes became unfocused and closed. Percy figured she was unconscious, and quickly went to his bag to get something bigger to finish the job. As he knelt down to search, something slammed across the bag of his head. He slumped forward, totally unconscious.

Annabeth stood over him, holding the ugly lamp like a club. "Cocky's better than clueless," she muttered before tying him up.

End of Chapter

AN: so, I got the Mark of Athena for Christmas... Anyone care to share theories on House of Hades?