Annabeth cried out. The empousa lunged forward on its mismatched legs, hissing at her with fangs like a vampire's. The girl dodged the attack, swinging around with her bronze dagger in hand. The creature looked up at her with gleaming red eyes from its spot against the wall. With a sly smile, it grabbed onto a pipe and shinnied up the back of the building, disappearing into the darkness. Just like that.

Annabeth grumbled, sheathing her dagger. The brick wall before her was desolate and scarred by years of New York City traffic. She brought her fist up to slam it and call the empousa back down, but hesitated. She lowered her hand with a sigh, knowing it was no good. "What was that?" She said. "The tenth? Eleventh?"

"Twelfth," replied Rachel, splitting from the shadows. She was much better at that since she had become the Oracle. Was it some sort of creepy power that came with the job? Annabeth didn't know. "Twelve empousai that ran away after they attacked us. That's not counting the other twenty we killed."

"So what do we do now?"Annabeth asked, running a hand through her blonde curls. "All the empousai are scurrying up walls and disappearing. We can't catch them, and honestly, it would be counterproductive to try."

"It's your call, wise girl," Rachel said. "You're the genius here, not me." Annabeth shot her a glance. She hadn't wanted to take the obnoxious redhead with her on her hunting trip. She had asked for Percy, but he was busy counseling a new batch of campers that week. He had begged Mr. D to leave that up to Clarisse or another senior camper, but the god was adamant (how he got past the big, sea green puppy-dog eyes, Annabeth would never know). And technically, she was busy with counseling too, but Chiron had offered for her to take over a mission involving empousai overrunning the city. So of course, she accepted. Little did she know that the centaur had made the infamous Oracle of Delphi follow along. Annabeth wasn't entirely comfortable with it, but she didn't say anything. Although the tension between herself and Rachel had diminished, it was still there.

"It's late," Annabeth decided. "We should get back to Camp. Tell Chiron-"

"Tell Chiron what?" Interrupted Rachel. "That the mission was just too hard for us to complete? That we went home because it was getting dark outside?"

The blonde girl set her jaw. She hated this. If she went too far or too deep into the city, the empousai would overwhelm them and the mission would be lost. But if she turned back now, her pride would be bruised for years to come.

"Fine," she said. "Counter-productivity, here we come."

They climbed the pipe up the side of the building, slipping on the smooth metal, but finding hand- and footholds on the rims of pipe segments. Finally they reached the roof of what smelled to be an Italian restaurant. "There must have been an easier way to do that," remarked Rachel, panting.

"There was," said Annabeth. "But we're letting inefficiency be our guide, remember?"

The girl nodded and rolled her eyes, moving to the edge of the roof. The view was stopped short here and there by taller buildings and skyscrapers. Annabeth didn't know what she expected to see, and nothing presented itself to her as important or strange. Mostly just darkness, despite the lights of the city. She scratched her head, but hadn't a clue what she planned on doing. "The empousa must have crossed onto a nearby building, or else she wouldn't have climbed up here." Her mind began to link the gaps between what she knew and what she didn't. She turned to see the surrounding buildings. There was only one close enough to jump onto, even for an empousa.

She pointed. "There."

It was a few feet away, easily crossable if they jumped. Annabeth did first, taking a few steps back, then sprinting and launching herself over the edge, using the low wall as leverage. Her sneaker left the roof and for a moment she was airborne. Then she stumbled onto the roof of the other building, gaining stability as she jogged forward. She stopped for a breath, looking out over the city. Rachel joined her and they nodded, leaping onto the next building, and the next.

Then they came to a crossroads: three buildings, one on each side. Rachel and Annabeth stood there, hands on their hips, examining their choices. Annabeth sighed and scratched her blonde hair, thinking. Rachel was distracting her by mindlessly drawing on her jeans. If Percy was there, maybe he could've done something about this. He was a good fighter, and-

Uccchh. Annabeth made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat. Now she sounded like she was inseparable from her boyfriend. She had seen other couples clinging to each other like life preservers and despised every disgusting minute of their presence. She loved Percy—more than almost anything in the world—but there was no way in Tartarus that she would become dependent on him.

But the situation hadn't lessened. Annabeth had to think; where would an ugly, odd-legged she-devil go?

She looked at her choices. Building A was taller than the one she stood on, almost impossible to reach. She turned; Building B was an abandoned office complex with crumbling dry wall, the wooden structure visible underneath. The young demigod wasn't sure if she wanted to walk on that rickety roof anyways. Building C was low, a long drop to the rooftop. It wasn't unstable, but she wasn't sure if the empousa would be able to land with its awkward leg pairing.

That counted Building C out. Building A was tall but sturdy, and Building B was about the right height, but dangerously unstable. Annabeth tried to imagine the empousa on that. It would be difficult for it, but the creatures were surprisingly light on their feet. It could make it. But it would also be able to pull itself up onto the roof of Building A.

Annabeth tapped her chin, almost at a conclusion, she knew it. Wherever the empousa went, it was trying to kill the demigods, or trap them at least. Building A would give it higher ground, but if that was what the monster was seeking, it would've already leaped onto the girls from that roof above them.

She turned to Building B. There were gaping holes peppered across the roof, and many more to come judging by the way the wooden frame lay visible beneath the surface of the dry wall like a starving ribcage beneath the skin.

That had to be where the empousa had gone.

Annabeth called to Rachel and the girls stood by the edge of the roof, debating.

"This has to be where it went."

"Uh yeah, that's great, but I'm not walking on that!" Rachel threw her arm out like a Frisbee.

"Trust me on this," Annabeth said. "You don't want to go back to camp without even trying, do you?"

"I may never get back to camp if I follow you!"

"Just-" Annabeth softened her tone, realizing it had grown an edge. "P…" her Fatal Flaw kept her from saying it too often, but she spit it out. "Please."

Rachel eyed her. "Since when do you care about this quest?"

"It's not even a quest, really. Well it is, but compared to-"

"Yeah, I get it," Rachel interrupted. "You took down the Titans, so did I, pretty big quest, now get on with it."

"I've cared about this quest since I decided that going home without figuring out these empousai's weirdness would be an epic fail."

"Homer epic?"

"Homer epic." The blonde girl affirmed. "At least to me."

"Right—cocky Athena crap, I remember."

"Will you just come on?"

"Fine, but you're going first." Rachel said.

Annabeth bit down on her lip in frustration. Why did everything that girl did get on her nerves? It was like a bug skittering up her shirt whenever she spoke, or nails digging into a chalkboard whenever she smiled. She respected her, yes; Rachel was resilient and headstrong, and had clarified with both Percy and Annabeth that anything between her and Percy had been a mistake. So what made her so… aggravating?

She knew. It was her own self. Another side-effect of her Fatal Flaw, pride, was possessiveness. At times, the daughter of Athena could feel herself mentally wrestling with jealousy that threatened to ruin her relationships with people. Making friends was great, until she realized someone else might be better friends with them than she was. How was that possible? She had worked so hard! To be friends, to find common ground—heck, she had spent her whole life preparing to win every battle she entered, and this person was trying to steal her friend? It was a problem. That's why she wanted to protect Percy, keep him for herself. He was Annabeth's, and that was… scarily protective. It was just another thing she would have to overcome if she were to work together with the Oracle of Delphi. Annabeth massaged her temples and refocused on her plan. She braced her feet against the edge of the roof.

"Well, counter-productivity, looks like we're friends now." And jumped.

She flew across the gap, landing on the next roof. Her heel dipped over the lip of the building. She balanced, eyes closed, and stood up again. She stepped forward, gingerly laying her foot where the roof seemed more stable and made her way a few more steps.

Then something slammed into her and she fell.

The ceiling caved in beneath her and she tumbled into the debris. And then she stopped. Why wasn't she falling? She looked up to find a ball of red frizz gripping her ankle and swearing into the abyss. Rachel. The Oracle groaned, doing her best to keep hold of Annabeth.

"You're really heavy!" She shouted.

Annabeth scanned her upside-down surroundings for a way to help the smaller girl. Rachel was a big part of Camp Half-Blood, but she wasn't a demigod; she hadn't been trained for strength or speed or stamina. Her arms would give out and send Annabeth into the dark, moldy hole beneath her. Like falling into Tarturus, Annabeth thought. Hopefully, she would never have to know what that was like.

Then a thought struck her: what had knocked her into this hole in the first place? The grim realization dawned on the blonde girl. She craned her neck to look at Rachel. "You!"

Rachel turned tomato red—or perhaps that was just from the exertion of holding up a sixteen-year-old girl. "I'm sorry!" She blurted. "I'm so sorry, I- I didn't mean it!"

"Give me one good reason I should believe that!"

"Reason one: you're still alive!"

Annabeth growled. "How much longer can you hold?" She asked.

Rachel paused, considering. "Not long. Please hurry." Her voice was strained and it was obvious that she no longer had the capacity to keep her grip. Annabeth felt sweaty fingers grasping her ankle again and again.

Her heart accelerated. Think…

There was a wall not far from her, a bit beyond the reach of the hole. She scrabbled at the face of the wall, trying to grab onto something, but it was useless, the most she could do was scrape her fingers on the narrow ledge between brick and mortar. Her heart pounded in her ears and she wondered: why wasn't she falling?

Rachel was still holding on, grunting and breathless. Annabeth tried desperately to swing back up onto the building but she wasn't strong enough, not after one of the empousa from earlier had left a deep cut on her abdomen. It was bandaged up, but now she felt blood seeping through her orange t-shirt. She gulped at the air, pushing all her power into swinging back onto the roof and struggling to grab the edge of the hole. Every time, her fingers slipped and chunks of cement and dry wall sprinkled onto her face, scraping it in places. Her arms and chest were drenched in sweat. She heard Rachel cry out as her hands slid up Annabeth's ankle.

Time slowed down in her head. This was it. Rachel was gripping her foot now, her palms slick and her entire body flushed. There was no way she could hold for longer than a few seconds. Then Annabeth would drop like a stone into the moldy, rat-infested chasm grinning beneath her. It was several-dozen feet to the ground; she could almost hear her body crunching against the concrete when she hit the bottom. She looked around; none of her wisdom could get her out of there. None of her wisdom could save her. She prayed to the gods for help but she knew there would be none. The only person who cared enough to save her now was…

Percy, she thought, and her lips parted. And she fell.