Whoa MAN does it feel good to be done with this chapter. As you can undoubtedly see by the length, this thing is considerably eventful and was HARD to write. Like REALLY hard. I've been trying to work quickly but not too quickly to where I'm making mistakes or leaving it not as good as it could be. It's a tough balance between speed and quality, at least with how busy I've been lately. But I've edited this a bit and I'm confident in it, so that's a plus. Still, it's kind of nice to have it behind me, haha.

So, I really hope you guys like this chapter for all the work that went into it. Thanks for the reviews (though I'm a little disappointed there've been fewer lately... I guess it's partly my fault for spacing my updates. But I promise you guys I'm working on this like every day!), and enjoy!

I'll tell you all how the story ends / Where the good guys die and the bad guys win

"You really think this is a good idea?"

Annabeth nodded as she peered through the giant, glass windows that framed the series of revolving doors marking the front entrance of the Willis Tower. Turning to face Thalia, she said, "He won't consider you a danger, right?"

"No, I don't think so," Thalia agreed, having answered that question a few times already that morning.

"Then trust me, this is the way to go," Annabeth replied confidently, twisting to continue scoping out the tower's front lobby. "I'm guessing he'd be all for a chance to have a chat with you, what with his being heirless and all. And I've never met him so he shouldn't know me by my face. It'll give us the perfect opportunity to get the measure of the place—which we have to do if this is gonna work. I know what I'm talking about—this used to be my job, remember." It would probably be safer to have Thalia enter alone, but Annabeth couldn't sit this one out. She'd been successful in convincing Reyna and Leo to lie low while she and Thalia went in for a preemptive meeting with Zeus, but she herself wasn't about to miss it.

"Alright, alright, I trust you," Thalia said, turning up her palms submissively. "It would've been nice if we could do this without having to actually talk to him, but oh, well. I guess it's just not in the cards."

Turning around, Annabeth smiled and placed a hand on Thalia's arm. "You can do this," she said assuredly. "I know you can. You've got nothing to worry about from him."

Thalia sighed in conviction. "Okay. Let's do it."

Annabeth led the way through the nearest revolving glass door and into the front lobby of the Willis Tower. Ignoring the early-afternoon rush of people milling about in the huge, high-ceilinged room, she and Thalia strode across the marble floor and approached the man behind the left end of the information desk.

"Excuse me," Thalia said, tapping her fingers on the desk to get his attention. "We're here to see Abraham Skye."

"Do you have an appointment?" he asked in a friendly voice, a small, habitual smile on his face.

"No," Thalia admitted, unconcerned. "Just call up and tell him Thalia Grace is asking for him. Trust me, he'll want to see me."

"Just a moment, ma'am," the man said with a nod. He turned around and picked up a landline telephone from the shelved desk behind him and dialed a number, spoke into it briefly, and finally turned back to face them. "You're cleared for visitation. Take these guest passes and scan them in the elevator. They'll allow you to reach the business floors. Mr. Skye's office is on the seventy-ninth floor. Someone will meet you at the elevator to show you the way."

"Thank you," Thalia said, mirroring his polite smile as she took the passes and handed one to Annabeth, leading the way toward the row of elevators on their right.

"That was easy," Annabeth muttered to Thalia as they entered an elevator. "He must be pretty desperate to have you back. Get ready for some persuasion."

Thalia groaned, leaning her head back lazily. "Great. Time for a conversation I never really wanted to have again."

As the clerk had said, there was a woman waiting for them when the elevator doors opened on the 79th floor. She was dressed in a neat-looking, dark gray suit and greeted them with the same polite smile. She welcomed them to the executive area of United Airlines and led them down the hall into an open room with a typical office layout of cubicles, many of which were occupied by people leaning over paperwork or scanning computer screens. Others were standing around copiers or chatting with one another. At the back of the room were tall windows that looked out over the city, blocked by waist-high iron bars.

At the end of the central hallway, they turned left into a less populated area with a row of larger offices along the right wall. The woman guided them past the first three doors and knocked firmly on the fourth, which had a shiny, silver plate mounted on the wood which read in neat letters 'Abraham Skye, Chief Executive Officer'. A voice from inside said gruffly, "Yes?" and the woman pushed open the door while Annabeth and Thalia stepped aside.

"Thalia Grace and a guest to see you, sir," the employee said pleasantly.

"Show them in," the gruff voice replied, and the woman backed out of the room, holding out an arm in a gesture for Thalia and Annabeth to enter.

Just over fourteen months ago, Annabeth had come face to face with Parker Grace, Percy's father and one of the three division heads of Olympus—arguably the three most powerful criminals in the United States. He had had a noticeable air of authority and prestige, but a strangely approachable friendliness about him at the same time. His sea-green eyes had twinkled with a soft sort of age, like he'd seen and been through much in his life and it had served to teach him a distinct appreciation for the things around him. She could sense the affluence and regency he possessed, but as their meeting had worn on she'd realized that he didn't frighten her—not like she'd expected him to.

With his elder brother, this was not the case.

Ezekiel Grace was impressive, that much was the same. He was dressed in a pristine double-breasted suit—dark blue with narrow, silver pinstripes, every wrinkle that formed as he shifted looking perfectly neat and deliberate. A thin, metallic badge was pinned to the right lapel of his jacket, embossed with the same name and office born by the plate on the door and the small, rectangular sign set atop the desk at which he sat, straight-backed and stiff. His black hair and beard were marbled with dark shades of gray and trimmed with meticulous care, tucked carefully into place behind his ears and trailing a few inches above his broad shoulders. His strikingly-blue eyes were icy and cold as they fixed steadily on his daughter, pausing on Annabeth as briefly as though she were an unidentifiable stain on the office wall.

The prim perfection reminded Annabeth of her mother, Adelyn, and the commanding aura of Percy's father. But Zeke had none of the friendly, careworn welcome of his brother or his former expansion engineer. His gaze was cool, his stature stone. This man was all business.

This man, more than any she'd met before, was dangerous.

"Thank you, Jane," he said to his employee with an expressionless nod. "Check in with Vance, will you? He should have the updated Miami schedule proposition pulled together by now. Have the meteorology team approve it and make sure it's faxed to MI as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir," the woman replied dutifully, before she vanished from the office and snapped the door closed behind her.

There was a beat of silence as Zeke and Thalia watched each other in passive observation. The air seemed thick and charged, sparked with ozone like a storm cloud was hovering over their heads, though the sky through the windows blanketing the back wall of the office was blue and cloudless.

"Hi, Dad," Thalia spoke first, crossing her arms in what must have been an attempt at casual diffusion. "It's been a long time."

"Eight years, I believe," Zeke agreed, his voice a low, steady hum like a distant roll of thunder. "I admit I was highly surprised when I received the call about your arrival. Who is your colleague?" He didn't sound interested at all, which Annabeth didn't miss for a second. All the better. She wasn't here to make a lasting impression.

"This is Danielle," Thalia reported stoically, choosing a name at random. "She's one of my band's managers. And a good friend."

Annabeth inclined her head politely, creating a mental imprint of the room in her mind via her periphery vision. "Nice to meet you."

"You as well," Zeke replied. He turned back to Thalia as though Annabeth had suddenly left the room. "So. To what do I owe this… pleasant surprise?" There was no venom or resentment in his voice, despite the implied sarcasm. But neither, Annabeth noticed, was there any particular amount of familial affection, either. He spoke to Thalia as though she were a business relation rather than his own flesh and blood.

Thalia shot a vaguely suspicious glance over her shoulder. "This room is secure, I take it?"

One of Zeke's dark eyebrows ticked very slightly upward. "Of course."

Thalia breathed out shortly, a frustrated scowl appearing on her tattooed face. "I know what you did," she said in a low voice.

For an instant Annabeth could swear she saw the ghost of a smirk cross Zeke's face. "You'll have to be more specific," he responded.

Thalia clucked her tongue and shook her head. "I'm not playing this game, Dad. I want to know why. And you'd better have a damn good reason."

Zeke's cold, blue eyes flitted toward Annabeth and she stopped her silent survey of the room, staring back at him carefully.

"She knows, too," Thalia said before her father could ask. "He's her friend, just like I am. I had to tell her who was responsible. And now what we both want is an explanation."

Zeke's eyes, still fixed on Annabeth, narrowed a fraction of an inch in suspicion. But he addressed Thalia when he said, "I'm afraid I can't give you what you're looking for. Years may have passed, but I'm sure you remember the way things go. Certain details are, ah… contained, I could say—available only to those directly involved."

Annabeth felt her brow furrow at the evasive answer, but she didn't dare interrupt.

"What are you saying?" Thalia asked sharply.

Her father turned to look at her, tilting his head to the side. There was a bright, piercing intensity in his eyes that seemed to reach for Thalia like a lasso. "I'm saying what I've always said," he replied, a low tone of anticipation creeping into his voice. "It isn't too late for you. Rejoin us—come back to the family you abandoned all those years ago. There's still—"

"Me?" Thalia exclaimed with a sudden look of disgust. Annabeth glanced at her sharply, but neither of the room's other occupants seemed to be paying her any attention for the time being. "I abandoned my family? You're the one who didn't answer my calls after I left—who gave me up as lost. Don't you dare lecture me about family. You tried to have your own nephew killed!"

"My nephew," Zeke shot back firmly, rising from his chair so he towered over Annabeth and Thalia, "drove my daughter away from me. He allowed the death or alienation of every one of his cousins—every one of those who, like him, had claim to the organization."

"You're wrong," Annabeth cut in, glaring at Zeke and drawing his attention. She knew she shouldn't involve herself in the conversation, but she couldn't help it any longer. His words brought back some of her more pained, shameful memories, and those were especially difficult to keep down. "Nico's death wasn't Percy's fault. It was…"

It was mine, she'd been about to say. After all, she'd been the one who'd allowed the CIA to intercept the exchange between Olympus and Centaur on that night over a year ago. A fight had broken out—a fight that had resulted in Percy's cousin Nico taking three bullets to the chest, courtesy of her own former mentor, Luke Castellan. Percy had been a wreck after that. Nico had been like a brother to him, Annabeth knew, and what Zeke was accusing him of was so wrong it made her furious.

She shook herself off and turned a dark gaze on Zeke. "It was an accident. And so was what happened to Bianca." Nico's sister, killed years before Annabeth had met them—another result of CIA interference.

"Oh?" Zeke said flatly, eyes darting over Annabeth. "Surprisingly well-informed. Who did you say you were, exactly?"

"It doesn't matter," Thalia interrupted. "You haven't answered my question—why should we bother answering any of yours?"

"Your question?" Zeke repeated, raising his bearded chin and looking down at them through eyes that seemed to spark with electricity. "My supposed involvement, yes, well, I'm afraid you'll have a difficult time proving anything."

"Your assassin used your name," Thalia argued venomously.

Zeke lifted a shoulder, looking unconcerned. "Maybe he did. But what good is hearsay, really? According to the news reports, the bombing was the work of a brash terrorist group. No one is looking outside Britain for the cause—oh, but I'm sure the word of two young women will be plenty sufficient to change their minds." A tiny smirk appeared on his face, his voice laced with hidden sarcasm.

Annabeth had begun to worry that this encounter was affecting Thalia too closely and that perhaps they should wrap it up, but at Zeke's words she and her friend exchanged glances of mild confusion.

"Bombing?" Annabeth repeated. "What bombing?"

"I'm talking about the guy you sent to Percy's apartment the other night," Thalia snapped, taking a step toward her father. "Don't act like you have no idea what this is about."

For an instant, Zeke's eyebrows knitted in what looked like genuine surprise. He studied them for a brief few seconds until the edges of his mouth twitched upward in apparent amusement. "You don't know, do you?"

Annabeth didn't like the look on his face, or the haughty tone in his voice. "Know what?" she demanded, a bladed edge to her voice.

Zeke chuckled, lips spreading in a sneer. "Ah, I understand now. You rushed here to confront me while my dear nephew was in the hospital recovering from his… accident. Your aim was, what—to convince me to back off? To leave you all be? It appears you've been so busy you didn't hear that you're already too late."

A pinch of cold touched the top of Annabeth's head and trickled through her like water, making her skin tingle with apprehension. "Too late…?" she repeated, her mouth suddenly dry.

The smug, satisfied look on Zeke's face gave Annabeth a surge of resentment—a feeling that swelled to an enormous capacity when he said with an odd, grim delight, "Too late. Percy Jackson is dead."

"You're lying," Annabeth shot back at once, surprised at how low and rough her voice sounded. She felt her hands tighten into fists as Thalia tensed in kind beside her.

Zeke's eyebrows jerked upward. "You don't believe me? Take a look." He leaned toward his computer and punched a quick succession of keys on the keyboard, clicked the mouse three times, and straightened, twisting the freestanding monitor around so Annabeth and Thalia could see the screen. They walked forward tentatively, Annabeth's mind very aware of the machine pistol tucked safely in the waistband of her jeans, and peered at the display.

Shining on the monitor was an online news article bearing the headline 'Bombing at Royal London Hospital leaves at least 80 dead, 130 injured.' Annabeth felt her lungs turn to lead as her eyes fell on the photograph beside the words, which depicted the hospital she'd visited just a day and half ago looking very different than she remembered it. One of the wing buildings had partially collapsed, crushing the bottom few floors and turning the remainder into a haphazard stack of cracked and battered concrete and glass. Thick, dark smoke was billowing from the lower windows, frozen stiff in its ascent to the dim sky. Police cars and ambulances were parked outside, and people were everywhere.

"You…" Thalia said in an oddly breathy voice. "You did this?"

"This doesn't mean he's dead," Annabeth said stonily, tearing her eyes from the article and glaring at Zeke. "He could have escaped. Easily."

"You think I got this far by being careless?" Zeke replied calmly. "Believe me or don't. But seeing as the explosive was planted on him, I can't imagine his chances of escape were too promising."

Thalia breathed in sharply and again Annabeth felt like the air had been swept from her lungs. She wanted so badly for Zeke to be lying, but she could tell just by watching him that he wasn't. He believed what he was saying without a doubt. And with connections and power like his, that meant it was very likely to be true.

"You…" Thalia growled, gritting her teeth and glaring daggers at her father. "How… Why…?"

"Why?" Zeke repeated, eyes darkening. He straightened his shoulders and clasped his hands behind his back, looking over his daughter with an air of dissatisfied condescension. "Perhaps you're right, Thalia, the time for games has passed. My dear nephew had become a problem. He was ruthless and conniving—a threat to our regime. It was my responsibility as head of the family to have him eliminated. And that's exactly what I've done."

"No!" Annabeth screamed. She slammed her hands on the desk and barely resisted the urge to draw her gun, enticed by the mental image of how the barrel would look shoved between Ezekiel Grace's teeth. "We were gone! We left to show you that he never wanted to threaten you! Why couldn't you have just left us alone?"

Zeke glared down at Annabeth, having tensed but not budged an inch during her outburst. "So it's you," he said coldly. "You're the woman from the CIA—the one he handed secrets to and conspired with. You're almost as guilty as he was."

"But nowhere near as guilty as you," Annabeth spat, anger fueling her adrenaline into overdrive. Her fingers were itching to reach for her gun, and the logic holding her back was waning thinner and thinner by the millisecond.

"Annabeth," Thalia said in a barely-controlled voice. "Let's go. I should've known this'd be a waste of time."

"Go?" Zeke repeated, arching an eyebrow. "I don't think so, Thalia. Not this time." He leaned over his desk and pressed a button on the panel of his inter-office phone. "Banks. Code five-six-one-dash-two," he spoke into it, electric blue eyes watching Annabeth and Thalia with icy smugness. "Bring backup. I want my daughter held unharmed. The other woman has plotted against us—show no restraint."

Something in Annabeth snapped. She was normally good at controlling her actions when distressed, but her hatred for this man was too overwhelming. Everything he'd said and done—treating Thalia like a possession, like a robot designed to follow his orders and carry out his will, calling Percy ruthless and conniving, evil, someone who deserved to be cut down, attacking an entire hospital without discretion just to eliminate a single imagined threat—and now he wanted the two of them to give up and let him win again? That wasn't happening. Annabeth wouldn't let it, not after everything she'd been through.

Gathering intel suddenly took a backseat to the main event of the operation and Annabeth reached for her gun with lightning speed, focus zeroed in on the powerful, dangerous man before her. "Annabeth, no!" Thalia yelled as Annabeth took aim with an enraged snarl, her vision a crimson haze. She wasn't the only one who'd been waiting to act, though. As her finger tightened on the trigger, Zeke stooped and lunged forward, shoving his desk across the carpet so the front end slammed into Annabeth. The corner dug into her stomach and she teetered backward, losing her balance and disrupting her aim. The bullet from her handgun flew sideways off target and thudded against one of the huge windows with the dull chunk of a projectile striking bulletproof glass.

"Annabeth!" Thalia called again. She dashed around the misplaced desk and snatched Annabeth by the arm, pulling her back to her feet and dragging her toward the door. Annabeth quickly regained her footing as Zeke started after them with a glare, and she tore her arm from Thalia's grasp and lifted her gun again. But by the time she fired, her target was already too close. He knocked her gun arm aside and she barely had an opening to duck the grab he made for her. She swung her gun at his head but he dodged, driving a fist into her ribs and causing her to gasp and double over. She checked her shoulder into his stomach, but she underestimated his strength and balance—which was stupid, considering how big he was. One of his hands gripped her right shoulder and his other arm slid under her chin, trapping her in a suffocating chokehold.

She staggered and elbowed him in the side, trying to break free, but to no avail. The curtain of anger over her mind billowed with renewed vigor, but her frustration was splitting its aim as part of her cursed herself for her thoughtless actions. What was she doing? She was smarter—better than this. She'd come here today with a rational mind and a singular goal. Where had that gone? How could she let somebody like Zeke trip her up so badly, crush her focus into tiny pieces? Maybe he deserved to win, after all.

Suddenly a suppressed gunshot tore her out of her thoughts as her captor growled harshly and loosened his hold. Mentally smacking herself to attention, she burst free of Zeke's chokehold and gasped, darting out of his reach to see Thalia standing squarely beside the door with her own machine pistol outstretched. Annabeth spun around and saw that Thalia had just shot her father in the thigh in order to free her, and he was staggering backward with his face screwed up in pain and irritation.

"Come on!" Thalia yelled, and this time Annabeth complied. She whirled away from Zeke and followed Thalia at a run out into the hall.

"The elevator may take too long," Annabeth warned, shooting a glance over her shoulder as they sprinted away from Zeke's office and wondering how much time they had until the backup he'd called would arrive.

"You want us to run down seventy-nine flights of stairs?" Thalia challenged a bit frantically. Evidently she was worrying about the same thing.

Annabeth clicked her tongue. "Alright, fine, good point. Let's just hope for a little bit of luck."

They turned the corner into the open office area to see that their silenced gunshots thankfully must have gone unnoticed, as the employees were still going about their usual business. Many of them looked over in interest as Annabeth and Thalia passed the cubicles on the end. Before they could reach the row of elevators, the doors of the one nearest them slid open and five men in black suits stepped out.

"Uh-oh," Thalia muttered as she and Annabeth slowed in apprehension. One of the men spotted them and communicated to his fellows before all five started toward them deliberately. To Annabeth, Thalia whispered, "Now what?"

Tensing and cocking her gun behind her back, Annabeth murmured in reply, "You want them to take you back to your father?"

Thalia scoffed. "Hell no."

Annabeth hid a smirk. "Then there's only one option."

Just then, a voice from behind them growled, "Don't let them get away!" and Annabeth looked to see Zeke limp around the corner and lean against the wall, glaring at them in outrage. His appearance was the catalyst that broke everyone into action. The employees turned or stood, gasps and muttering coming from almost all of them. As she whipped back to face the elevators, she saw glares or determined looks on many faces and wondered how many of them, too, were members of Olympus. Thoughts like that could wait, though, as she had a slightly more pressing problem to deal with—the five suited men by the elevators had all pulled handguns and aimed them at Annabeth and Thalia.

"Move!" Annabeth shouted as she dived to the side, barely aware of Thalia doing the same. Gunshots blared and bullets raced by them. Annabeth dropped to a crouch beside the wall and fired her own gun, piercing one man in the shoulder and chest and knocking him down. She ventilated another in the stomach before weapons were again aimed her way and she was forced to roll to the side to avoid being made into Swiss cheese.

"Do NOT harm my daughter!" Zeke bellowed, his voice muffled—Annabeth assumed he must have ducked around the hall corner to avoid stray gunfire.

As Annabeth darted forward, Thalia leaned out from behind the nearest cubicle—the occupant of which had hastened away from the action—and fired into their attackers, landing a shot in one man's leg and the outstretched gun arm of another. As the second one dropped his weapon, Annabeth, almost upon them, shot him twice in the chest for good measure. She ducked more weapon fire from the two men left standing and jammed her elbow into the elevator button before spinning around and kicking the chest of the one Thalia had shot in the leg. He stumbled back and collided with the last man, knocking them both haphazardly to the ground.

A high-pitched ding sounded the arrival of the second elevator from the left and Annabeth turned to Thalia, yelling, "Let's go!" She leapt over a fallen attacker and made a dash for the elevator, sliding on the carpet in her haste. She threw herself inside, holding the door as Thalia darted around the men as well. The uninjured one managed to shake off his fellow and made a grab for Thalia, hand closing momentarily around her ankle. She stumbled and turned, then kicked him hard in the head to free herself, breaking away as he relinquished his grip with a pained howl. Thalia ducked into the elevator and Annabeth allowed the doors to close, punching the button for the lobby as out in the hall Zeke called after them in rage.

Breathing heavily and leaning against the elevator wall, Thalia said dryly, "Well, that didn't go as planned."

Annabeth shook her head, trying to calm the rushing blood in her body. "I'm sorry. That was stupid. I don't know what came over me."

Thalia's voice softened as she replied, "I do." Looking up, Annabeth saw understanding in her blue eyes—eyes just like her father's and yet so different in every way. "It's okay," she promised with a shrug. "He's got that affect on people. Trust me, I know from experience."

Annabeth gave a small smile, still frustrated with herself but glad that Thalia seemed not to hold her actions against her. They would have some serious reevaluation to do after they got out of there, but there wasn't much time to think about it right then. In what felt like no time at all, the elevator arrived at the lobby and the doors slid open.

"He'll call more guys," Thalia said confidently as they both hid their guns and tried to appear casual as they started toward the front exit. "If he hasn't already. I don't know what code-whatever-he-said means—for all we know he may have requested an army."

"Then let's hurry up and get the hell out of here," Annabeth muttered. They pushed their way through one of the revolving doors and out onto the sidewalk. They'd barely gone a few steps, however, when Thalia breathed in sharply and grabbed Annabeth's wrist, freezing to an abrupt stop. Annabeth followed her gaze to the two black, unmarked cars that had just pulled to a stop a few yards ahead of them. Men in dark, unassuming clothing stepped out, and Annabeth whispered, "You don't think—?"

"I've seen that guy—the one on the right," Thalia said. "He worked for my dad years ago. Safe bet he still does."

"Let's just act cool. Maybe they won't know it's us."

Thalia shook her head. "They'll know me. We need to—" She broke off as one of the men pointed obviously at the two of them and said something to the others. Thalia cursed under her breath. "Never mind. Run!" She turned around and bolted off in the other direction, and Annabeth had a brief glimpse of the men reacting in surprise and shoving each other back into their cars before she turned tail and followed her friend. They'd had Reyna and Leo park the car in a lot half a block away and wait there for word. If they could just get there without getting caught they'd stand a much better chance of escaping.

Annabeth was more than a little out of breath by the time she and Thalia turned down a side street and the open lot came into view. They both vaulted over the low guard rail and sprinted around a row of cars. Halfway down the second row from the right, Annabeth saw Reyna and Leo standing casually by their car, talking aimlessly and waiting for their companions to return. Reyna caught a glimpse of them first and nudged her boyfriend on the arm, and he turned to face them and stood up straight in alarm. Annabeth and Thalia were just close enough to see the frowns appear on their faces.

"What's up?" Leo asked as they neared.

"Get in the car," Thalia said urgently.

Reyna looked between them and started to say, "What did you guys—?"

Annabeth interrupted her, "They're after us! We have to go now!"

That did it. Leo and Reyna exchanged a brief glance before they opened both driver's side doors beside which they were standing and dropped into their seats. Annabeth rushed around and threw herself into the front passenger seat as Thalia took the back, slamming their doors shut in perfect unison as the engine revved to life.

"What happened?" Reyna demanded as Leo backed the car out of the parking space and they rolled toward the lot's entrance.

"We'll explain later," Annabeth replied quickly, twisting around to look out the back window as they pulled out onto the street. "Let's just get far away from here before Zeus's goons catch up with us."

"Too late!" Thalia said suddenly. She pointed out the back window as a black sedan sped around the corner, another at its back. Facing forward, Thalia yelled, "Drive!" and with a scowl Leo pounded the gas pedal, urging them swiftly forward. Annabeth's back slammed against her seat and in the right side mirror she saw the black cars give chase immediately. She slid sideways into her door as they made a sharp left turn onto a side street lined with parked cars. Pedestrians glanced their way with alarm as they sped past. The lack of other motor traffic on the road didn't help much to hide them, and in no time their pursuit was behind them once again. Annabeth heard muffled gunfire and ducked instinctively, turning around to see a man leaning out the passenger window of the closer car and aiming a firearm in their direction, causing the people on the sidewalks to scream and scramble about.

"Not good!" Thalia shouted, ducking the gunfire as well.

"We need some camouflage," Leo said, serious eyes darting back and forth between the rear-view mirror and the road. "Hang tight, guys, this could get messy."

He made another sharp left down the next road they came to and took it straight to the end, where it reconnected them with the main street of downtown Chicago. A speedy right turn threw them into tighter traffic with a screech, drawing a few blaring car horns in their direction as one vehicle slammed its brakes and was subsequently rear-ended by an SUV. Barely slowing down, Leo yanked the wheel to the left to dodge around the sedan in front of them just as the two black cars chasing them sped onto the road in front of the wreck that was now stopping outbound traffic.

Annabeth gripped the handle on her door and held her breath as a taxi veered sideways out of their way, nearly colliding with a two-door sports car. More gunshots fired, and with a frustrated growl Leo pulled them sideways into oncoming traffic. Annabeth forced herself not to close her eyes in panic as a pickup truck slowed with a high-pitched whine and darted evasively into the other inbound lane. Barely a second later Leo guided them back to the right, having placed another car between them and their pursuit.

At the stoplight up ahead, the road split into four outbound lanes, two curving to the right and two going straight. Leo sped up and cut in front of a red SUV, the driver of which pounded their brakes and laid on their horn. Annabeth winced at the sound of metal crunching against metal as another car must have collided with the SUV from behind. A few other cars around them caught on and slowed or darted hastily aside in attempted avoidance of the chase. Their light was red, but Leo didn't even try to stop. He followed the road to the right at an alarming speed to more car horns as many of the motorists in cross-traffic were forced to take evasive action. Annabeth just had time to notice that they were heading for a bridge over the river when her ears registered the police sirens.

"Great," Reyna muttered as all three women turned to see flashing red and blue lights rounding the bend. One of the black cars was two vehicles behind them, rolling back and forth between the shoulder and the road as the man leaning out the passenger window tried to get a clear shot. The other had slid on a patch of damp, winter slush into the left outbound lane and rammed sideways into another car, pushing them both into oncoming traffic that swerved to avoid a pileup. Behind that, two police squad cars were visible and picking up the pursuit of all three offending vehicles.

"Can't you use that super-speed thing again?" Thalia asked, sliding forward on her seat and latching onto the back of Annabeth's.

"Road's too crowded," Leo responded as he weaved between openings in the traffic. "We'd hit another car for sure. Which is not something you wanna do at that speed."

"I think the cop cars may help with that," Reyna pointed out, and she was on the mark. The flashing lights must have gotten the attention of a lot of other drivers, as all around and ahead of them cars were changing lanes and pulling over to the side of the road. Although, they were only a hundred yards or so from the bridge, which offered very little room to maneuver.

Suddenly there was a sharp smashing sound and Thalia yelled in pain at the same time Leo swore loudly and the car jerked slightly to the left. Annabeth twisted in her seat and saw jagged cracks snaking across the back window, a portion of which had shattered and littered glass behind the backseat. Reyna had ducked to the side and Thalia was doubled over, one hand clenching her seat and another gripped tightly over her left shoulder.

Immediately grasping the situation, Annabeth yanked out her gun in anger and aimed it out the back window, firing rapidly at the black car behind them as the man leaning out the passenger window dropped back into his seat. Thalia started to straighten, but Annabeth's eyes shot to the blood on her shoulder and she ordered her, "Stay down." She emptied her magazine, a few of the bullets striking the car in the hood or windshield and causing it to swerve dangerously. It almost collided with a taxi cab to its left, which hit its brakes hard and rotated sideways, causing its tail to clip one of the cop cars pursuing them and spin it out.

They were on the bridge now, hundreds of feet over the river and speeding past cars that were hurrying to clear the way. As the black car straightened and sped after them, Annabeth clicked her tongue and dropped back into her seat, opening the glove compartment for a replacement magazine. She looked over her shoulder and cursed through her teeth. "I can't get a clear shot like this. I feel like we're sitting ducks."

"You want a clear shot?" Leo said, eyes on the rearview mirror. He shot Annabeth a grim smirk and warned, "Hold on." He flattened the brake pedal and yanked on the steering wheel, causing the tires to screech against the road as the car spun hard to the side. Annabeth's shoulder slammed against her door and she grabbed the dashboard with both hands as Leo pushed forward on the gear shift, throwing the car into reverse and twisting the wheel back to the right. He stepped on the gas again and turned around in his seat, one hand on the side of Annabeth's backrest and eyes trained out the back window.

Annabeth didn't have time to be alarmed that they were now facing their pursuers, driving in reverse. She shook herself off and snapped her replacement magazine into place, lowering her window and leaning through it for better aim. Rather than try and break through the windshield of the black car following them, she zeroed in on its front tires in an effort to shake them off. Leo continued to dodge traffic in reverse, and Annabeth forced herself not to think about how dangerous this whole situation had suddenly become as she tried to work with their changing position and get rid of their tail.

Her first few shots missed, clipping the hood of the car or the pavement beneath it. The car swerved to the left in evasion, but there was hardly room between the road and the metal suspension of the bridge. Biting her tongue for focus, Annabeth steadied her arm and landed two bullets in the front driver's side tire of the car, causing it to pull to the right and throw itself in the way of the already-frantic inbound traffic. Another sedan hit its brakes with a screech and tried to turn in avoidance, but both cars hit each other sideways, drawing a third into the mess and causing others around them to jerk sharply or stop. The other police car in the immediate vicinity was locked behind the collision. Annabeth could see more red and blue lights flashing in the distance, but for now their way appeared to be clear.

"Okay, let's go!" she shouted, ducking back into her seat as again Leo slowed and shifted gears, whipping them around to face front and very nearly colliding with the back of a semi truck. They sped around and in front of it for cover and slowed, following the flow of traffic off the bridge and taking the next right turn down a city street. Annabeth sat still and focused on regaining control of her breathing as they drove, and before she knew it Leo had pulled them into a parking garage and they'd stopped neatly on the second level.

For a long minute none of them moved. Annabeth was having a bit of a difficult time believing what had just happened. Part of her was feeling guilty that there was a good chance they'd just gotten innocent people hurt, but a bigger part was simply glad Olympus or the police hadn't caught them—which, admittedly, sort of made the guilty part a little worse.

One thing was for sure, though—they had to keep moving. They didn't have time to sit and relax anymore. Annabeth took a deep breath and forced her brain activity to slow. She needed to proceed calmly and rationally—she'd already messed up once by acting brashly with Zeke. She wasn't about to do it again.

Feeling the adrenaline in her body fade, she turned to Leo and said in a voice gravelly with released tension, "You're one hell of a driver." He looked at her and gave a weak, derisive sort of laugh.

"So now what?" Reyna spoke up. "We may have lost them but we've still got our share of problems." Annabeth and Leo twisted around to see that she'd slid closer to Thalia and had an arm around her back, dark eyes trained on the bullet wound in her friend's shoulder. Beads of sweat slid over the scowl on Thalia's face, her teeth gritted and her breathing heavy. Blood had crept down the sleeve of her jacket, and she still had a hand tightened over the worst of it.

"We need a doctor," Annabeth decided. "There's no way around that. We're gonna have to get Thalia to a hospital."

"That'll be dangerous," Thalia said warningly, her voice airy. "It's not worth the risk—"

"Yes it is," Annabeth cut her off adamantly. "If that's not treated the right way it could get a lot worse. And I'm not having you die on me or lose an arm or something. We're all coming out of this."

"I think we should split up," Reyna suggested in a steady voice. "I'll take Thalia to the hospital; it'll be less of a risk that way."

"Why you?" Leo asked with a skeptical frown.

"No offense," Reyna said wryly, "but you're both criminals. You've got a record and you've got the entire CIA after you. I've got the best chance of getting help without arousing suspicion. We'll say we were caught in the car chase downtown, I'm sure they'll know all about it—how guns were being fired and everything."

"Alright," Annabeth agreed somewhat reluctantly. She didn't want to be separated, but she could see the obvious sense in the plan. "We're gonna need a place to hide—to regroup and figure out what to do from here."

Reyna opened her mouth and hesitated, her eyes traveling from Annabeth to Leo and narrowing just a bit in thought. "I know a place," she said carefully. "My sister lives in Hammond, maybe half an hour from here. If I call her and explain the situation, I think she'd help you stay under the radar."

Leo cringed. "Please don't tell me that's our only option."

Reyna gave him a pointed look. "It's our best option," she said with a bit more confidence. "She may not trust you, Leo, but she knows I do. She'll help."

Annabeth kept quiet. She didn't want to involve even more people than she already had, but a relative had to be better than a random stranger. And besides, what chance did they have of avoiding detection in the city by themselves? Having a place to hide out would be a huge help.

After Reyna had jotted her sister's address on an envelope from the glove compartment, Leo changed the plates on the car again before covering it with a canvas tarp from the trunk. If they did intend to go after Zeus again (which, though they didn't discuss it yet, Annabeth fully did; she had no desire to leave it after that last meeting), they'd come back and retrieve their supplies. For the time being, however, they would be less conspicuous on foot and in taxi cabs.

As Annabeth and Leo left Thalia and Reyna, Annabeth felt a cold wash of loss that she realized had nothing to do with the two of them. It hadn't had time to sink in earlier through the life-threatening danger she'd just fought her way out of, but now her conversation with Zeke was flooding like a river back into her head, and the calm she'd barely attained was crumbling.

Zeke had told her that Percy was dead—that he'd staged a second attack and it had succeeded where the first had failed. But was he telling the truth? Despite what he'd shown them, Annabeth couldn't—wouldn't be sure. Not yet. She needed proof—nothing less was going to make her believe that her fiancé was gone. A tiny voice in the back of her mind tried to convince her otherwise—Zeke had been so sure, so… happy. The only explanation was that he had to be right. But she shoved that thought down, adamantly denying the pricks of the tears it tried to draw from her eyes. His word wasn't enough.

She would find out the truth. And if it was like he said—if the man she loved really was dead at his uncle's hands—then she would make Zeke pay. One way or another, he would feel her pain. He wouldn't get away from her—or anyone—ever again.

This is probably gonna be the longest chapter, judging by my outline. Hopefully, anyway. Long chapters worry me because I feel like it's more likely I've made mistakes somewhere or written too repetitively. Ugh the pains of writing... haha.

So how 'bout a review? I'm gonna get started on the next chapter ASAP, promise. I really hate being behind on my stories. Life would be great if I could just make some solid headway... *sigh*

Later days!

-oMM