Finally got another chapter up! Explanation of absence is in the bottom A/N.

The hallway opened up into a very vast, circular room. There were rows of benches around the outside wall with four columns where corners would be if it wasn't a circular room. There was a great grand chair directly across from the doorway in the center of the front row of the benches. The benches went up like bleachers around the wall looking very similar to how stairs would look surrounding the center floor. All the benches were black marble and the grand chair had a deep red padding on the seat. The floor was made of small tiles and in the center the different colored tiles seemed to spiral out from the middle.

Annabeth observed the vast room in silence. The lackey didn't make any move to direct her to go someplace. They just stood in the doorway. It struck Annabeth as odd, but she didn't feel like contradicting him. It was better than watching some innocent get tortured to make someone else give up information.

"Stay here." The lackey said abruptly.

Annabeth looked up, but he was already walking back down the hallway. She briefly considering running, but she didn't know where she was, much less the exit. It would be nice if they had one of the annoying red exit signs flashing with arrows pointing the correct way, but no such luck.

The lackey reappeared very quickly. Only he wasn't alone. He was striding toward Annabeth with another man. Annabeth could not tell who the other person was though. It looked like it could have been one of the Stolls Nico, or Leo. The only thing Annabeth could judge them off of was their height and build. She was fairly sure it wasn't Nico because he hadn't been with them when the van exploded.

Whoever he was, he wasn't putting up much of a fight against the lackey. That didn't sit well with Annabeth. If it was one of the A2 men and he wasn't fighting, that meant that they didn't stand a chance or they had somehow worked out a plan of escape that involved not wasting energy.

The lackey roughly shoved the man into the doorway next to Annabeth. Annabeth could tell that it was Connor. Travis spoke the truth when he said he was probably the worst off out of their group. Connor looked bad, but not as banged up as his brother had. Then again, he had been brought out of one of the rooms. That could mean that he looked worse before and Dr. Andropov had fixed him up a bit.

"Annabeth." Connor broke the silence.

Annabeth looked over to the side to see Connor grinning at her. It was the type of grin he used to use when he and Travis had pranked the Athena cabin and she was the first to find them before it happened. It was the one that said, I know something you don't! Annabeth wasn't sure what it meant to see that particular grin back on Connor's face again, but it made her slightly anxious, especially since she hadn't seen Percy since they were in the van. All she knew about him was what Dr. Andropov had said.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway before Annabeth could say something to Conner. They both turned around to see a second lackey coming with another man in tow. Connor and Annabeth both squinted to see who was going to be joining them.

The man lifted his head and both Annabeth and Connor gasped quietly. It was Frank, but he looked horrible. Connor tried to go to him to help him walk so he wouldn't have to be practically dragged by the lackey. The first lackey stopped Connor though. He grabbed Connor's arm as he tried to run to Frank and he shoved Connor back through the doorway. Frank shook his head at Annabeth who had started forward toward the lackey that had nearly thrown Connor into the vast room.

The second lackey dropped Frank at Annabeth's feet. He groaned quietly and Connor tried to get up to help him, but the first lackey put a foot on Connor's chest. It was clear that he was making it hard for Connor to breathe. Annabeth started toward Connor, but the second lackey, grabbed her and held her where she was while Connor struggled for air. It was not a pretty sight and Annabeth would have gladly taken several monsters than these mortals. At least she knew how to beat monsters. Psycho mortals? Not so much.

Yet another pair of footsteps came from the hall. Annabeth turned her head and saw that it was Travis. He was walking alongside his lackey. It almost looked as if they were just friends walking together, but the lackey had a firm grip on Travis's upper arm. Travis was still limping and looked the same as he had in the closet, but his expression didn't reveal as much pain. So either he got really good at hiding it, or he had recovered slightly. Annabeth seriously hoped for the latter.

Travis's lackey let him go next to where Annabeth was being held. Travis waited until his lackey had retreated back down the hallway before kneeling next to Frank. He murmured something into Frank's ear. Frank weakly laughed and nodded. Travis stood up and gently took Annabeth's left upper arm. When the lackey just looked at him, he showed the lackey a card. The lackey released Annabeth when he saw it. Travis led Annabeth a little ways into the room.

"What are you doing?" Annabeth quietly asked Travis.

"Listen, Dr. Andropov managed to get me a pass. It gives clearance with any of these guards."

"Is that the card you showed him?" Annabeth asked.

Travis nodded. "It will only work for a short time though. Word will get out."

"Will Dr. Andropov get in trouble because of it?"

"He would if he was going to be here when they find out." Travis responded with a sly grin identical to the one Connor had shown her moments ago.

"How are we going to get him out?" Annabeth asked.

"We're not." Travis said, he smile widening.

"What?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure Percy will explain once we're in safe waters again."

Without giving Annabeth a chance to respond, Travis left and went back to the other men. Annabeth didn't know if it would be better to stay where she was or if she should go back to where the other men were.

"Hey Travis!" A voice called. Annabeth turned to see Leo running towards Travis who was slightly in the hallway.

Travis turned and also saw Leo sprinting towards him. Annabeth laughed when Leo did a flying leap and tackled Travis to the ground.

Annabeth looked at the group. By her memory, only Percy was left to join. She went over to Leo who seemed full of energy, but not entirely healed. He looked about the same as he had when he was in the closet with Annabeth and Travis. Poor Travis didn't jump back up from being tackled. He must have had damage that he had yet to reveal. He did struggle up which meant he was doing better than Frank who had only turned on his side with his arm above his head so he could breathe easier.

A door banged open to break the long silence. Out of it came Percy and four lackeys. His nose looked broken and his jaw was bruised. He was not limping, which was a good sign, but he was also wearing a new shirt and pants. His gizmo was still attached to his leg though. Seeing it made Annabeth check her own and surprise herself when she saw her own box clipped onto her leg.

Percy being escorted by four lackeys did worry Annabeth though. Travis seemed to share her thoughts and ran over to Percy and his guards who stopped when they saw Travis coming. Travis talked to them and tried showing them the pass that he had gotten from Dr. Andropov. One guard snatched the pass out of Travis's hand and examined it. He said something to Travis that made both him and Percy pale.

Annabeth came closer to the rest of the men and saw that they were also watching Travis try to loosen the guards around Percy. Frank was still on the ground, but his breathing had steadied and his head was tilted so he could watch the scene unfold with the rest of the group. Annabeth caught her breath when the guard who was examining the pass tore it up and shoved it in Travis's face.

Percy clenched his fists. He looked like he was ready to start fighting at any moment. Annabeth could see that Travis had gradually changed his stance. He was in a good position to fight if he needed to. Annabeth hadn't noticed that she herself had also tensed up. Fighting was something she understood.

One lackey that had been holding Percy's right arm loosened his grip and was leaning to hit the alarm on the wall, but Percy took advantage of him lowering his guard and managed to free his right arm and backhand the lackey before he could hit the alarm. Before the unconscious lackey had even hit the floor, Travis and Percy had both started fighting the remaining three guards. Travis took on the biggest one while Percy took on the two others. It was two to one, but Percy looked more experienced in fighting.

The other lackeys that were surrounding the others could go to help their comrades because they were too busy holding Leo and Connor down. Annabeth was too stunned to try to help Percy and Travis and Frank was physically incapable of fighting. He did seem to be trying to sit up though. Annabeth decided to help him.

When Annabeth had helped Frank stand, she thought that he would try to help Percy and Travis fight the three lackeys that were still up and pounding. Instead, Frank dove on the lackey that had been holding Leo down. The lackey and Frank both went down, but Frank had done his job. He got another member in fighting condition to be able to assist in a fight that Frank himself had no energy for.

He was smart in battle. Annabeth knew that much. He knew how to make sacrifices. He was a pro at things of that nature. And although Annabeth wasn't romantically attracted to him, she had to admire his battle strategy as a child of Mars.

When Leo joined the fight with Travis and Percy, there was no contest. He took on one of the two guards Percy had been fighting and took him down easily then double teamed with Travis on the bigger man while Percy bashed his lackey's head against the wall. He was out cold and finally Travis got a good shot to the big lackey's temple and hit it with his fist. The last lackey dropped like a sack of potatoes. Percy, Leo and Travis all shook hands then came over to the group.

The lackey that had been holding Connor down rushed towards them when they were distracted and nearly gave Leo whiplash when he hit him in the back causing him to fall down. The lackey tried to run to the alarm, but Percy close lined him. When he fell, he hit his head hard against the floor. He was still groaning when the men stepped over him, but he wasn't going to be attacking anyone very soon.

When Percy caught sight of Annabeth, he ran to her. Wrapping her in his arms, he pulled her close. Annabeth thought he was whispering things into her hair, but she couldn't hear him.

In time, Connor tapped Percy on the shoulder and said, "We gotta go."

Percy lifted his head and nodded. He gently led Annabeth to the door and they walked in the middle of the group. Frank had to stop along the way and Percy eventually gave Annabeth a little nod to tell her to keep walking in the center of the group. Percy doubled back and helped Frank walk at the tail end of their little procession down the hallway. Annabeth didn't like it though. She thought there would be more guards even if the ones they were fighting never did get a chance to raise the alarm.

Travis was at the front of the group and was very cautious when there was another hall joining the one they were in. He would always slow the group down and poke his head around the corner checking if anyone was there or coming. It became clear to Annabeth that none of the men actually knew how to leave the place though. Though they may not have been caught, they were still trapped unless they found an elevator.

Leo looked like he was losing hope as well. His shoulders had sagged and he slowed his eager pace and fell into step next to Annabeth. They all had their earpieces and gizmos. Annabeth thought about trying to pull up the map with an escape route, but she figured that one of the other men had already tied. She just walked with the same dejected look Leo had. They could hear Percy and Frank's heavy breathing behind them while Connor had sped up to walk with his brother in Leo's spot.

"So, what do you think?" Leo asked quietly.

Annabeth looked over at him. It was amazing how much he had grown mentally and physically since she first met him at the Grand Canyon. "What do I think about what?" She responded.

"How are we going to escape and compete the hand off in time? Assuming it's not already over with considering we don't know how long we've been here." Leo said.

Annabeth was silent. She felt like she could never answer anything Leo said. His questions were either too strange or the exact ones she was wondering. It made it hard to teach him sometimes. He asked all the difficult questions sometimes.

"I don't know." Annabeth finally said.

"Yeah, I figured." Leo responded cheerfully.

"Why are you so happy, Leo?" Frank asked from behind them.

Leo glanced back and said, "The rest of you guys are all mopey, but we escaped! We have a right to be happy! I don't know why the rest of you aren't, so I gotta cover for you all until you get into the spirit of escaping!"

Well, Annabeth thought, maybe Leo didn't change as much as I thought he had. But she knew that wasn't true. Leo had changed drastically since he had first been introduced to the world of demigods. Then he went back into the mortal world with Nico, Frank, Percy and the Stolls along with quite a few others. He was back and had adjusted nicely to living and working in the mortal world and fighting mortal battles. He was able to separate time and place for being funny and being serious. He had really grown up.

"We still have to find a out of the actual place though." Percy said, bringing both Leo and Annabeth back to reality. "We haven't escaped until we're off premises."

"C'mon, Percy! Stop being such a downer! Everyone needs a bit a fun and a sense of adventure when escaping an enemy's base. It makes it more enjoyable and if you were to add a superhero soundtrack in the background, that would set the mood quite nicely." Leo said.

Percy raised his eyebrows. "Hate to break it to you, but we're not in a movie."

"Shut up, Percy. You don't know how to have fun anymore. You used to be all over to this type of thing when we're escaping from somewhere during training." Leo said, his tone slightly irritable.

"Yeah. But that was during training." Percy said defensively.

"Bullshit. You're three times more serious on this mission than you've ever been on any other. Even the more important ones. It's because you're too protective of Annabeth and are doing everything textbook style!"

The group was silent. Leo was breathing heavily from spitting the mouthful of words at Percy. Percy had a slightly taken aback look and had confusion in his eyes. He did not show any sign of anger though. Annabeth was still slightly apprehensive. She didn't want a fight to break out between the two.

Percy hadn't changed too much in Annabeth's eyes. She always thought he was just slightly more grown up and acted his age when it came to work (most of the time). From the way Leo talked, it sounded like he was never really different on missions (other than the one they were on) either. He was only really different when it came to the U.S. Navy. Annabeth didn't understand why he was being so uptight when she was along on the mission. She thought they were concerned that she'd be a distraction. Not someone that puts him on textbook behavior.

"Let's just get out of here and we'll sort the rest of this out later." Percy said lowly. Not angrily, but in a low voice so no one would hear other than the group.

Leo sighed through his nose and nodded turning away from Percy and walking forward again. Connor and Travis also continued walking as if nothing had happened. Connor did fall into step with Annabeth since Leo had sped ahead though. He shot her a grin and they kept going. Annabeth could hear Percy and Frank were talking quietly as they walked behind her and Connor.

Some of what Leo had said worried Annabeth. She didn't want Percy to turn into someone he wasn't. It would be added to the Talk to Percy About list in Annabeth's mind.

A/N: It has been a long time. I'm so sorry about that. I collided with another person and got a concussion and three way laceration (cut) in my lip and mouth. I don't even remember what happened because of the concussion. It took me awhile to rearrange all my brainwaves to remember where exactly I was going with the story.

Again, I'm sorry for the long wait. I always hate it when authors do that and I've done it now. When it's a head injury though, not much choice but to lay low and relax as much as possible. The doctor won't let me do any of the activities I like doing either, including computer because light + motion = problem with brain. I still can only be on my computer for a short amount of time, so I don't know when I'll be able to get chapter 24 up.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter even with the long wait for it.