Whoops, forgot about this. Bit later than I'd planned...

Hey young blood / Doesn't it feel like our time is running out?
I'm gonna change you like a remix / Then I'll raise you like a phoenix

Annabeth wished she could've taken Percy's advice and gotten some sleep. But despite the late hour, she had far too much on her mind to do so.

Duke Atlas was dead—dead at her own hands. And like she'd told her fiancé on the plane, the win didn't give her the satisfaction she'd expected it to. In a way, she felt as though a part of her had died along with her former boss. Maybe it was like Percy had said, and she was simply letting go of a piece of her past—a piece of who she used to be. But if that were really the case, why did she feel so sick and tired? So… heavy? Like her body just didn't agree with her mind?

"I still kind of can't believe it," Piper cut the silence, reading Annabeth's thoughts. Annabeth glanced to her right to see her friend sitting three seats down in the basement lounge, staring at her hands in her lap. "I mean, I saw it with my own eyes, but… After all that time we spent chasing him across the country, it's like… it seems wrong that it happened so fast."

"I know," Annabeth agreed sullenly, leaning back and lifting her eyes to the ceiling. "Almost like… what was the point of it all, right? If it was really so easy in the end." A painful spike dug into her chest as she thought back on the night—on what she and her friends had gone through. "No, I shouldn't say 'easy'," she backtracked guiltily. "It's just… It was different than I thought it'd be. That's all."

"Annabeth, are you okay?" Piper asked, turning toward her with clear concern on her face.

"I will be," Annabeth replied, lifting a shoulder. "I think I'm just… still kind of in shock, I guess. I just need to clear my head for a while. When Percy comes back, we'll—"

She broke off as a dull ding interrupted and the doors to the nearest elevator slid open. This was surprising enough given that it was the middle of the night, but inside the lift was a very unlikely pair that momentarily rendered Annabeth speechless—Jason Sharpe, Ezekiel Grace's adopted son and heir, and seven-months-pregnant Katie Gardner.

"Uh… Morning, guys," Piper greeted them skeptically, also looking startled.

"I came as soon as I could," Jason told them with a frown. "Figured you'd need all hands on deck after tonight." He was dressed less formally than when they'd last met in dark jeans and a button-down shirt, his blond hair disheveled and shadowy circles under his eyes. He must have hopped a flight from Chicago as soon as he'd received their phone call a few hours ago.

"I heard from Paul you were back," Katie explained. "I thought I'd check in and see how things went. Ran into him in the lobby." She pointed a finger toward Jason. "Some story he's got there. Always was like Zeke to keep secrets, I guess."

"Yeah," Annabeth muttered absently, not really listening. The only thought circling her mind: She doesn't know.

"So where's everyone else?" Katie asked, glancing back and forth between Piper and Annabeth and peering around as though the rest of their team was hiding in the vicinity. "Did your plan work?"

"It did," Annabeth answered, swallowing hard, "to a degree. Atlas is dead. I shot him myself."

"Wow, that's a relief," Katie observed with a smile. She sat down carefully a few seats to Annabeth's left and went on, "You should be happy—this whole thing was your idea! You won!"

"Don't remind me," Annabeth complained with a pained grimace, eliciting a questioning glance from Katie.

I have to tell her, she ordered herself firmly. There's no use playing around with it. She deserves the truth. She glanced at Piper, who inclined her head solemnly, and at Jason, who remained standing a few feet in front of the elevator and watched in respectful silence.

"There's something you need to know," Annabeth said, looking Katie in the eye and keeping her voice steady.

Katie's gaze darkened—she could tell something was wrong. "Annabeth, what happened?" she asked with sympathy. Annabeth wasn't sure what Katie was expecting, but she wasn't the one who needed to be sympathetic.

"I beat Atlas," she repeated, "but… not right away. Not without a fight. Not before… he killed some of our members—including Travis."

For a second, Annabeth wasn't sure Katie had understood her. She stared at her blankly, as though the language passing between them wasn't English. Then her eyebrows knitted together in a frown and she said, "What do you…? But, that didn't—couldn't happen, it's…"

Annabeth took a slow breath, refusing to break eye contact. "He's dead, Katie," she said—gently but with finality. "I'm sorry."

"No," Katie argued, voice growing stronger in contrast to Annabeth's. She set a hand protectively on her stomach, chocolate eyes growing wide with hurt and disbelief. "No, I told him to be careful—to come back. Lila… He promised me…"

Annabeth winced. She'd lost people in her life, but never someone as close to her as Katie and Travis had been to each other. The only similar occasion had happened three months ago, when she'd been convinced for a short time that Zeke had killed Percy in a jealous vendetta. But of course, her fiancé hadn't really been dead. She wasn't sure if the situation could truly be compared.

"If it means anything," she tried, "we couldn't have done it without him. If it hadn't been for him, Atlas might've killed Connor and me both."

Katie's eyes filled instantly with tears—as though one of the words Annabeth had just uttered was some sort of trigger. She hunched forward and covered her face with her hands, an anguished sob tightening her shoulders. Annabeth thought of reaching out to her, but something inside held her back. She wasn't entirely convinced she had the right to provide comfort.

To her slight relief, Piper had no such reservations. She stood and limped across the room (her twisted ankle was much better after having been reset) at once, dropping into the seat on Katie's other side and wrapping both arms around her. Katie leaned reflexively into her and relaxed as tears fell from her eyes.

Jason dropped heavily into the nearest chair, looking as though the heavy atmosphere had begun pressing down on him. For a while none of them spoke—just sat in sullen, stifling silence. Annabeth stared at the floor and repeated in her mind what Katie had said: This whole thing was your idea! You won! She was right, of course—this whole thing had been her idea. The night after their successful raid of the CIA's headquarters building, she'd suggested that the best thing for them to do would be to stay on the offensive—to draw Atlas into a fight in order to take him down. But now, looking back, she realized something—when she'd made that decision, she was thinking like an assassin. She'd slipped back into the CIA mindset, with her focus zeroed on the end goal and her senses blind to collateral damage. And so she'd succeeded in defeating Atlas, her goal, but the collateral damage had been Travis and their other teammates—people she hadn't even known. She'd told Reyna she wanted to be like Percy and her mother Adelyn—living for the purpose of protecting those close to her. Well, so far she wasn't doing a very good job of that.

But I can do better, she decided adamantly. No, I have to do better. This is my family now. I owe them at least that much.

The ding of another elevator drew her attention, this time announcing the arrival of a very tired and careworn Connor Stoll. The second he stepped into the lounge, Katie stood from her chair and grabbed him, pulling him into a tight embrace. Wordlessly he slid his arms around her back and let her bury her face against his shoulder.

"He was thinking of you," Connor told Katie softly without pretext. "In the end, I mean. The last thing he said was…" He pulled back to look her in the eye. "He wanted me to look after you and Lila." With a sad smile, he joked weakly, "I didn't have the heart to tell him you're tough enough to look after yourself."

Katie gave a small smile and gently swatted Connor on the arm. "You're right about that."

"We're all here, though," Piper spoke up to Katie. "For both of you—all of you."

"I promise to try and make up for this," Annabeth added, earning an encouraging smile from Katie. "Lila Gardner will grow up with the single greatest family anyone could ever have. You watch."

As Piper nodded enthusiastically in agreement, Katie glanced at the child growing inside her and muttered. "Stoll."

Annabeth frowned. "What?"

Looking up, Katie clarified, "Her name is… I want to call her Lila Stoll."

With a smile, Annabeth replied, "You're right. That sounds better."

Connor and Katie took the time then to sit down amid the others, but barely a few seconds of silence passed before footsteps from down the hall stopped the conversation from resuming. They waited impatiently until, finally, Percy appeared around the corner.

"How is he?" Annabeth asked at once, having been anxious about Parker's condition ever since her fiancé had disappeared a short while ago. The second he looked at her, though, she realized she needn't have asked—the pain in his eyes was indicative enough.

Glancing around at the group, Percy let his shoulders drop just barely noticeably. He shook his head in defeat and answered, "He's dead."

"No…" Piper muttered, lowering her gaze. Connor and Katie followed suit, their own sadness renewed. Annabeth bit her lip as her fiancé sat down beside her, a certain stiffness in his movements that likely had little to do with physical injury. She slid closer in her chair and took his hand, brushing her fingers across his skin in a soothing rhythm.

"You mean your dad… I'm sorry," Jason told Percy from his seat across the room, looking regretful. "I wish I'd gotten a chance to meet him, but… With Zeke…"

"I know," Percy responded. He didn't appear to have shed any tears, and briefly Annabeth wondered if that was due to strength or some unhealthy self-denial. "Thanks for coming. I've got a feeling we're gonna need your help real soon."

Jason nodded. "You'll have it."

Annabeth was about to inquire as to their plans for the immediate future when a loud buzzing hum suddenly interrupted and Percy shifted beside her. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and removed his cell, revealing it to be the source. The screen was lit with an incoming call, but the number flashing on it was unfamiliar.

She saw his finger slide toward the lock button to ignore it and said quickly, "You should get that. It could be important."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "It's the middle of the night."

"Exactly my point," Annabeth insisted. "Who calls this late unless it's important?"

Rolling his eyes, Percy tapped the surface of his phone and brought it to his ear, offering a gruff "Jackson," in greeting. He was silent for a few seconds, eyebrows drawing together in confusion. "Who is this?" he asked sharply as everyone in the room waited in absolute silence. After a beat his expression grew hard as stone and a dark, almost frightening intensity appeared in his eyes. "How did you get this number?" he demanded as he jumped to his feet, voice dropping almost an octave.

Alarmed, Annabeth stood up beside him, fixing him with a bemused frown. Important or not, whoever was on the other line clearly wasn't someone he wanted to talk to.

Percy's eyes darted toward Jason as he listened, prompting the CFO to lean backward in a defensive sort of manner, seeming to tense. Annabeth wasn't the only one glancing curiously back and forth between the two as a buzzing silence stretched until Percy said tersely, "What do you want?" Barely a few more seconds passed before his eyes widened harshly and he spun around and paced two steps, growling into his phone, "Listen to me, you son of a—!"

He broke off and froze, and Annabeth wanted so badly to ask what in the world was going on. It took a large fraction of her strength of will to refrain, her rationale knowing not to interrupt. He would tell her when the call was over.

Percy turned to the side and Annabeth watched him grit his teeth in frustration. "Meaning what, exactly?" he snapped. He waited as the person on the other line spoke, his expression twisting into a snarl as the seconds passed. "And you're killing my family!" he shouted. "You think it's the same thing?"

Annabeth breathed in quickly. After that, she was beginning to suspect she knew exactly whom her fiancé was speaking with.

"Keep stalling," Percy said stonily, tapping his foot in an agitated manner. "I'll hang up."

Annabeth exchanged a worried, serious glance with Piper to her left as Percy yelled, "So spit it out already!" The air in the lounge was so thick and tense as everyone waited in nervous silence for the end of a conversation they weren't part of. Judging by the bewildered looks on the faces around her, many of the others hadn't yet drawn the conclusion Annabeth had.

Percy clucked his tongue angrily. "Yeah, right. What makes you think I'm that stupid?" he demanded. After another few seconds, though, he took a slow breath and said evenly, "…Fine. I'll be there."

He finally lowered the phone from his ear and tapped the screen, ending the call. Annabeth took a tentative step toward him as he stood stiffly near the doorway to the south hall, hands twisting tightly into balled fists at his sides and ordinarily-bright eyes glaring darkly at the floor as though the carpet had just insulted his closest relative.

"Who was that?" she asked carefully.

His gaze snapped up to meet hers and she couldn't help but recoil a tiny bit at the venom in it. She felt no surprise whatsoever when he answered with a measure of restrained harshness, "Victor Kronos."

"What?" Jason blurted amid numerous exclamations of surprise. "How?"

"They found your mole," Percy told him with a scowl. "Shared a few numbers."

Jason looked horrified. "He sold you out? That good for nothing—! I swear, man, if I'd known he was the snitching type, I'd—"

"No, it's okay," Percy assured him, having appeared slightly surprised at Jason's reaction. "I believe you, I don't think this was your fault. Either way, I think I'm gonna need a new phone, stat…"

Piper slid forward on her seat. "What did he want?"

"He knows about Atlas. What we did. And just like we do, he thinks we've all done more than enough damage—now it's time to end this. He said he wants to meet with me, face to face."

"How does he plan on doing that?" Annabeth wondered suspiciously.

"By inviting me to a party, apparently."

"What?"

Percy shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Seems he's in the area. He's rented out this theater in Times Square tomorrow night—said he's throwing a 'dinner theater extravaganza' and wants me to attend. He made sure to tell me to bring a date, so I'm thinking it's a trap for you, too."

"Wait, tomorrow?" Jason asked, seeming to perk up in interest. "Is it at the Baltic?"

Percy blinked in surprise. "Yeah. How did you—?"

"I got an invitation to that party, too," Jason explained with incredulity. "Came in the mail a couple weeks ago, addressed to the acting CEO of United. It was from some financial guild and said something about a business expo after the show. I never responded—not really my kind of thing."

"Wow," Piper observed. "Small world."

"If it's really Kronos who's holding this thing," Annabeth concluded, "he must have been trying to draw you out, figuring the next head of the company was probably related to Olympus just as Zeke was."

"Well," Jason said with a shrug, "guess I'll be going now."

"Wait, he still doesn't know you're involved," Percy pointed out. "Assuming your guy didn't spill all the beans… Either way, it's probably safer if you sit this one out."

"Safer for me, maybe," Jason argued, climbing to his feet. "But right now, it looks like all his focus is on you. You're not going to this thing alone. Besides, I was invited. Not like it's suspicious for me to answer a formal invitation."

"He's got a point," Annabeth said to her fiancé. They could use the extra help.

Finally, Percy nodded. "Alright. But let's not be idiots and show up together."

Jason smirked. "Good call."

"Do you get a plus-one, too, Mr. Big-Time CEO?" Piper asked Jason, standing up and elbowing him in the side. When he took an awkward step back and replied in the affirmative, she grinned and crossed her arms. "Excellent, then I'm coming with. We'll make it a double date."

Somehow Annabeth couldn't help a smile. "Sounds like fun," she joked.

"So… you want us to spread the word?" Connor suggested. "Maybe grab a few more attendees? Or, you know… keep it under wraps?"

Percy glanced down at the floor, rotating his jaw in thought. "No," he decided slowly. "This time, I think we'll be safer if no one knows—not even Harley. If Kronos really did rent out the whole theater, he'll know if any uninvited guests show up. It'll just put any backup we bring in danger. And I am sick and tired of putting people I love in danger."

He's right, Annabeth thought inwardly. No more collateral damage.

Percy turned to meet Annabeth's uneasy gaze and something in his eyes struck her—a hidden certainty and conviction that hadn't been there before, not at such a true level. He'd always seemed sure and powerful to her, but somehow, after watching his father die—after whatever they'd talked about with Parker's last breaths—he looked more a leader now than she had ever seen him before.

"This started with us," he told her. "And that's how we're gonna finish it. One way or another… this war ends tomorrow night."

Okay, only three more chapters!

'Til next time, later days!

-oMM