Hey, guys! Short chapter today, but at least you didn't have to wait long, right?

Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy!

If you save yourself tonight

When the door of Silena Beauregard's apartment opened the next morning, Percy had the briefest glimpse of a pair of alarmingly-wide blue eyes beneath sleek, dark bangs before two arms shot around his shoulders and pulled him into an inescapable death-hug. He stumbled in alarm and chuckled abashedly. He probably should've seen this coming and taken an extra step backward before knocking on the door.

"Hey," he said lamely.

"Hey?" Silena repeated in a harsh tone. She backed up and curled her hand into a fist, driving it against Percy's shoulder with a surprising amount of force for someone her size and making him yelp in pain. "Don't hey me! Why the hell are you here?"

Percy blinked uncertainly. "Didn't Grover call—?"

"No, I know why you're here, idiot," she shot back with exasperation. "I mean why are we being told you're dead when that's clearly a little less than true?"

"Hey, I didn't know Zeke was gonna spread the word," he insisted, holding up his hands and taking a step back. Silena was inexplicably scary when she got angry. "It's a long story, okay, just… Can we talk about this inside?"

She huffed and shot him a glare, hands on her hips. "Fine. Come on in." She stepped back out of the way and he walked past her a bit nervously, as though waiting for her to lash out at him if he happened to get close enough. He stopped just inside the door, however, as his eyes caught a flicker of movement across the living room and he looked to see a person step out of one of the bedrooms—a young woman who couldn't have been more than a year or two younger than he was. She was taller than Silena—probably around Annabeth's height—with a slim, curvy build. Her light brown hair fell just past her shoulders—or, most of it did; it was cut in chunky layers and decorated with skinny braids and colored rope-ties. She wore boot-cut jeans and a close-fitted, bright orange cotton shirt that accentuated her sun-kissed skin. The words 'California girl' came immediately to mind, sparking Percy's memory. She looked a bit different from when they'd last met, but this had to be the same girl.

"You remember my sister, Piper," Silena said as she snapped the door closed, confirming his suspicion. "You guys met back when we were still dating."

"Yeah," he said with a brief smile. "Good to see you again."

Piper folded her arms in front of her stomach, a friendly smile gracing her attractive features. "Likewise," she said with a nod. "So you're the one who's dead but not really dead and needs our help."

Percy breathed out shortly in agitation. "Does everybody know about this?" he asked Silena.

"Your dad only told a few of us," Silena replied, shaking her head. "I told Piper because—well, she lives here. I've been filling her in on all the organization details lately. She just formally joined a few months ago," she added in response to Percy's skeptical look.

"What, so you're Olympus now, too?" he asked Piper, who grinned in reply.

"Yup. I've always known about it and all, but last year I finally made the call to move up here and get involved. I was getting crazy-tired of the stupid celebrity life back home with Dad. It was bad enough when people recognized him everywhere we went, but when paparazzi started accosting me I figured it was time to get out. Having a rich, movie-star father is great and all, but I'm more than down for a little secrecy nowadays." She strode lazily across the room and dropped sideways onto a cushy armchair, draping her legs over the armrest. "So," she said impatiently, nodding to Percy, "you're here to tell us a story, right? Let's get to it."

"Uh…" Percy said uncertainly, a little taken aback. Silena giggled airily and shrugged, seating herself neatly on the end of the couch closer to her sister. She held a hand out to the cushion beside her and raised her eyebrows at Percy, indicating that she rather agreed with Piper's decision. Percy didn't have much choice but to oblige.

So for the next few minutes, he recounted to the sisters all the relevant information—why he'd been forced to leave the country, what Zeke had evidently been planning ever since, a full account of both attacks, and how he'd since decided to find Annabeth and Thalia and make sure they didn't do anything stupid without his help. It wasn't, of course, that he didn't trust them—rather he knew for a fact that the Ezekiel Grace they were expecting to see and the Ezekiel Grace they would undoubtedly meet were two different men entirely.

"So now you're asking your ex to help you track down your fiancée?" Piper said with a wry half-grin, arching a thin eyebrow. "Seems pretty tactless to me."

Percy hesitated, not having thought about it like that. His reasoning was pretty simple—to him, Silena wasn't 'his ex'. She was just… his friend. Did it have to be more complicated than that?

Silena laughed at the expression on his face. "She's kidding, genius. We're friends—like family, you and me. Of course I'll help you."

Percy gave a weak laugh. "Right. Thanks."

After having Percy rattle off any information about Annabeth and Thalia that might help to locate them, Silena stood up, stretching her arms. "Alright, just give me a little time. I'll see what I can find out about our missing femme fatales. You two hang tight." She shot them both a winning smile and strode off, disappearing into one of the three bedrooms at the back of the apartment.

At first Percy felt a little awkward being alone with Piper, but he soon found out that she was very laid-back and easy to get along with. They talked aimlessly as they waited for Silena, and during that time he learned that Piper and Silena had, before, had a habit of visiting each other once or twice a year to catch up with their respective divorced parents as well as each other. Piper had attended college in Los Angeles and earned a degree in political science, but rather than hunt for a job in California she'd moved to New York after graduation for a change of scenery and to spend some real time with her sister and mother. She'd decided to join Olympus on her own shortly after—feeling that her political education could be an asset to her mother's intelligence division (she even excitedly showed him the tattoo she'd gotten as a sign of her induction—a pair of feathery dove wings on her lower back to match the same animal her sister had inked over her heart). She was very outspoken about how much she disagreed with the way Zeke had been running the organization in recent years, and was sure to point out that she was all for Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia's aims to take him down. He was a little surprised, to say the least, but at the same time it felt good to have another source of justification for this possible suicide mission.

"Hey, guys!" Silena called out to them after about half an hour. "I think I've got a hit! Come check it out!"

Percy and Piper immediately rose and quickly followed her voice to find her in a sort of study room, with two desks and a few bookshelves against the wall. Like every other room in the apartment, it was impossibly neat and tidy—save, of course, for the desk at which Silena sat, which was cluttered with sheets of paper on which she'd been jotting notes with a red pen. She was leaning toward the desktop computer and squinting at the screen, and when Percy and Piper stepped around behind her they could see a black and white photograph zoomed in on the display.

"Take a look," Silena said, sparing them a brief glance. "The picture's a little blurry, but I'm pretty sure it's what we need." She extended a finger and pointed, and Percy leaned closer over her shoulder to get a better look. The photo was taken in a snowy parking lot outside an unmarked building that was only partially visible. It showed a dark, expensive-looking car and a total of seven people. Four wore police uniforms—though three of these were on the ground near the back of the picture. The other was in the very front left of the photo, his back to the camera. The other three people were dressed normally, and all of them were women. Two stood near the three people on the ground, facing the camera, and the third was beside the car.

"That's her!" Percy realized as his eyes followed Silena's indication toward one of the two women standing by the downed cops. "And that's Thalia, it's got to be. And…" He frowned at the third woman, her face striking a chord in his memory. "I know her. She's… a friend of Thalia's, from when we were kids, I think." After a brief second of recollection, he went on, "Reyna, that's her name. But… I don't get it. Why would she be with them?" He stood up straight, mind buzzing. "Where was this taken?"

"Detroit, Michigan," Silena reported. "Early this morning. I got it from a police report—apparently there was a shootout in the warehouse district. Four unknown suspects escaped in that car and blasted the place to bits, no evidence of whatever was inside."

"What?" Percy stammered, alarmed.

"Your girl sure ain't afraid of trouble, is she?" Piper said, sounding amused as she observed the photograph.

"This is all I've been able to find," Silena reported, twisting around in her chair. "The police still haven't caught them, which means they've probably left Detroit. We could wait until something else comes up…" She let her voice trail off, evidently unable to settle on an alternative.

Percy turned and started absently pacing the small room in thought. Four suspects, that was what the police report had said. It seemed that Annabeth and Thalia had pulled together a few sympathizers—Thalia's friend Reyna included, though how that had happened he was considerably lost on. Whatever the story, Silena was right—chances were high they'd left Detroit. And with a team all set, they must have been ready to make their move.

"They're going to Chicago," Percy decided finally, assuming Thalia would know exactly where to look for her father. "They've got to be. I don't know what they were doing at that warehouse in Detroit, but it had to have something to do with preparing for their strike. If they're on the road, they're ready to finish this. I might be able to beat them there if I hop a plane, then maybe I can—"

"No," Silena interrupted firmly as she stood up and blocked his path halfway to the door.

"What do you mean, 'no'? I told you I was going after them. And by the look of things, I don't have a lot of time to waste—"

"I know, but this is Zeke we're talking about," Silena persisted, folding her arms. "He's led the organization for decades—and not without reason. He's tough and he's ruthless and we're gonna need some help if we're gonna knock his pedestal out from under him without getting buried in the process."

Percy scowled, annoyed at the continual delays that seemed to keep piling up in his way. He hesitated, though, when Silena's words actually started to sink in. "What—'we'?" he repeated.

She gave a wry smile. "Yes, 'we'. Piper and I are coming with you."

A bit stunned, Percy glanced between Silena and Piper to see expressions of conviction on their faces. He'd come to them for help, sure. But he hadn't expected them to go that far. "Why?"

Silena sighed shortly, dropping her arms. "Because you're completely right about him. Olympus is a family—it's been mine for as long as I can remember. Everything we do is for the betterment of the family. But Zeke… He's lost that. He's made it all about him." She shook her head with a momentary grimace. "Percy, he tried to kill you—his own nephew—just because he thought you were a threat to him. He was too scared and paranoid of losing his power to see that he had no reason to be. With him… it's not about the family anymore. He's changed. He isn't the type of leader we need. It's time for him to go, and for somebody new to take over—somebody who understands what family means. Somebody who'll protect us and everything we stand for. That's what we need. And I'm gonna help make it happen."

"You're right," Percy said with an admissive shrug, lowering his gaze. "Sure would be nice to have somebody like that in charge."

Surprisingly, Silena laughed. Percy looked at her with a frown and she said in a misty kind of voice, "Oh, if only we knew someone who was such a perfect fit…" She quirked an eyebrow. "That's what you're thinking, right? We do, moron." She poked his forehead and added matter-of-factly, "You."

"Me?" he said in mild alarm, leaning back and swatting her hand away.

"Yes, you. I know you, Percy. You understand what family means—why we need to protect and fight for each other. You're the opposite of Zeke—you don't want power. Which is exactly why you deserve it."

Staring at the carpet, Percy lifted a hand and absently touched the back of his neck—the tips of the black fire branded on his skin. His reason for joining Olympus when he was fifteen, inked on his back as a permanent reminder, following him wherever he went. He thought of his brother, Tyson, a casualty of someone's base desire for revenge. And of his cousin Nico, who'd been just like a brother to him, killed only a year ago in another misguided act of retribution. He knew what it was like to lose somebody important—and he'd promised over and over that he would try as hard as he could to keep it from happening again. Ever since Thalia had moved to London, part of him had known he might someday succeed Zeke as head of the organization. It was strange, though, to hear Silena say it now so simply—like it was nothing but a basic no-brainer. Was it actually time for that to happen?

Percy gave a wry smile after a conspicuously long silence. "So I'm doing exactly what Zeke was afraid I'd do all along. Ironic, huh?" Silena chuckled and Piper cracked a grin. "You guys are sure you know what you're getting into, right?"

Piper rolled her strangely multicolored eyes. "Duh. That's why she said we're gonna need help. We get it."

"Yeah, yeah, alright," Percy conceded, holding up his hands. He realized he didn't really have a right to try and stop them from getting involved, when he'd recently made the same decision himself. "So, got anybody in mind?"

"Charlie, for sure," Silena supplied with a nod. "He's of the same opinion as me, has been for a while. And… there's one other person I can think of who's had major reservations about the way Zeke's been running things…"

"Who?"

Silena looked thoughtful and answered almost like an afterthought, "Tony's successor."

Percy grimaced at the thought. "Bad idea," he said, thinking of Anthony La Rue, their former head encounter strategist, and his daughter—a no-nonsense woman almost as tough and bull-headed as her father. "I know you and Clarisse are good friends, but she and I have never really worked great together. I'm pretty sure that'd cause more problems than it'd solve."

Silena blinked and looked up, shaking her head. "No, no, not Clarisse—though she probably wouldn't be against it. No, I was talking about her half-brother, Frank."

"Frank Zhang?" Percy said with a frown, wracking his memory. "The leader of Sagittarius?" He'd heard a bit about Sagittarius in the past from his father—they were a well-connected Canadian gang that had allied with Olympus a few years ago, when the illegitimate son of Tony La Rue had taken command of the group. Tony and Frank weren't exactly close, but the relation served as foundation for an amiable alliance all the same.

"That's the one," Silena replied. "After Tony died, Clarisse wanted his spot, of course. But your dad requested Frank join and be considered for the job instead. He signed up on a sort of trial basis, but the rest of their division took to him immediately. We've met with him a bunch of times—he fits in great here. Thing is, like I said—he isn't crazy about Zeke. I think he'd be into this plan of yours."

Percy tilted his head to the side as he considered this. So his father had been the one to draw Frank Zhang into the organization. He himself had never met Frank, but if Parker liked him, then that was a good enough reference.

"Alright," he agreed. "If you think you can trust him, let's meet up with him. The sooner the better."

Silena smiled confidently. "I'll set up a meeting. Don't you try and sneak off." She pointed an accusatory finger at him as she stepped aside, finally clearing the way to the door. "We're in this together now. And I'll hold it against you for the rest of your life if you screw it up. Or my life, whichever ends first."

Her grin was friendly and light, but something about her words bothered Percy. As he forced a smile and stepped past her back into the living room, Piper on his heels, he couldn't help dwelling on the mixed feelings he was having about expanding their assassination party. Any of the people he was dragging along could easily be hurt—or worse—as they went after their ruthless leader. And wasn't that exactly the thing he'd always wanted so much to avoid?

But like he'd realized earlier, his family's involvement wasn't his decision. The best he could do for the time being would be to stay focused and on track, and hope like hell it would be enough to see them all through to the end.

And the team gets bigger... haha. Pretty soon we'll have everyone together and it'll be time to get a move on. But it's only Chapter 8, right? Still 12 to go. Whatever could I have planned? Heh heh.

I honestly have no idea when the next chapter will be up. I've started writing chapter 9, but like I said, it's gonna be very long and very difficult for me to get right. I'm trying something new with it, which I know won't be easy. But if I pull it off, it'll be super awesome. Whatever happens, I can promise you that it'll be action-packed ;)

How 'bout a review on your way out? Hopefully I can crank the next chapter out and still make it as awesome as I want it to be. 'Til then, though, later days!

-oMM