This is a rough rough chapter my friends. Poor editing on my part. But I was just so sick of it. I started and restarted and restarted this chapter a thousand times and in a thousand different ways. If you don't remember me then hi, I'm sorry I left ya hanging. I'm trying my hardest now to get this completely done but man endings are rough when you want them to be good. Also when you have too many strings to tie up like an idiot. Am I weaving a tapestry or writing a story. I don't know anymore.

Chapter 50: Unexpected Friend

Percy didn't know what to think of Annabeth in that trainee uniform. He didn't know how she acquired it, or where she got the designs. All he really knew was that it knotted his innards with confliction.

She looked gorgeous obviously, but the S.I.G.H.T logo on the shoulder and a fake agent number printed on her back wasn't suiting. S.I.G.H.T owned its agents, there was no denying that. Seeing her embarbed in the familiar attire felt like looking at a burn brand on a swan.

It was wrong.

She'd changed her hair again. This time she'd managed to dig up a convincing silky brown wig instead of damaging her stale blonde locks with more dye. Styling it into a customary army fit bun on the back of her head that wobbled slightly as she walked confidently.

With that moxy in her stride, her shoulders held upward and the assemble of the costume she was practically invisible on the S.I.G.H.T. campus.

Percy on the other hand, being too well known for a disguise, had to agree with hiding in the brush just outside of anyones eyeshot. Lazy stems of long grass swayed before him and the gentle murmur of wind through the trees reached his ears from above as he lay belly down with a pair of binoculars. Watching her closely. Feeling the hair on the back of his neck raise every time another agent so much as stepped in her direction.

He couldn't protect her from there. Clipped to his belt was a single pistol that didn't have enough range to reach a potential attacker. Her vulnerable state pricked his skin with sweat as he swallowed down the third knot in his throat.

Me. Sweating while just sitting here.

Fear had supposedly been trained out of him. Every situation could be dealt with calmly if you knew how to keep your head. So why was he suddenly engulfed with this emotion? Why couldn't he wish it away? Let it flow out of his reach?

Someone started walking towards Annabeth and Percy felt his heart start ringing like a bell. However, they glanced past her without a hint of interest and his rollercoaster heart gave another little gasp of relief.

Trigger the alarm already.

Annabeth paused and gazed around the square. Surrounded by busy agents hurrying from one building to next, jogging in sharp line ups or milling by the fountain in the center to fill up empty water bottles. Agents weren't allowed phones so she had to discreetly work on a smart watch hidden beneath her sleeve.

Suddenly the piercing shriek of an alarm resonated over the campus. A jolt energy waved over the grounds as heads jerked up, and eyes flickered to one another in confusion and concern.

The lockdown alarm. Percy's brows knitted together. He wasn't expecting that one.

All agents started flocking into buildings. Silently, carefully, and in long strings of lines. It was quiet chaos as the noise died to shuffling feet, and creaking doors.

Annabeth stood by the fountain, pretending to read an important manual like a true newbie.

With his last look at her, Percy stashed the binoculars behind a hefty tree and crawled. Bellying his way down the short incline peppered with coniferous bushes. Dragging his still throbbing leg over lumps of rock and pokey sticks all the while being reminded that he hadn't really recovered yet.

Finally he reached one of the pathways bricked in pale cream stone for the campus and he rolled up onto his feet naturally. Falling into the smooth motion of the quiet chaos, and keeping the brim of his S.I.G.H.T cap down to cover his distinguishable face.

Annabeth was waiting for him, with a slightly flighty look in her grey eyes.

"What is it?" he breathed. Keeping his eyes away from her as they both lined up to the main buildings entrance. Quickly stepping into the pace of moving bodies.

"It wasn't me," she whispered back.

"What?"

"I didn't set off that alarm."

Percy's heart sunk and scattered into a few frantic pieces that scurried around his chest.

"Oh," he said helpfully. Collecting his thoughts once more and trying to fit them into a calm state.

"Should we make a break for it?"

Percy glanced back at the woods. Each towering tree waved at him like a welcoming family member but they were already nearing the front doors. It would look peculiar if they sporadically peeled off and went the other way. He'd rather let them blend in.

Besides-

"They don't know we're here," Percy said. "They wouldn't call everyone into lockdown because of us. They'd call for an organized defensive position. Something else made this alarm necessary. Either there's a bomb on campus, or an airstrike coming."

Annabeth scoffed to her herself and twisted the edge of her uniform shirt. "Just our luck. We come to destroy this place, and someone else has the same idea."

As they were crowded in through the doorway and into the cooler darker spanse of hallways, Percy absentmindedly brushed the palm of his hand against the small of her back. Guiding her to a narrow hallway that fewer were jogging down. All around them was the sound of shoes squeaking and patting against the white tiled floors, and the clicks and hisses of doors opening and shutting.

Percy wrinkled his nose at the familiar smell of strong cleaner, and damp concrete. In his head he had a map of every floor, of every nook, and of every hallway. Six stories down was the cell he had been pacing back and forth in only three months earlier. With the lockdown in process it was only a matter of time before every door leading to where they were going was locked tight.

"Hurry," Percy muttered in Annabeth's ear.

"I'm trying." She was fiddling with the watch as she went. "I need to mess with the security cameras unless everything we do will be for nothing."

It was a risk, but Percy followed the flow of people down the main staircase. Joining in the crowds like he had never left, and glancing back at Annabeth every few seconds. As they neared the bottom the small string of people cleared, having left to different floors. Alone, they stood in front of the thick metal doors. Percy took out his gun, while Annabeth worked her big brain on the electronic identification panel to the right. With a flash of bright green, and a pleasant ding the doors parted.

Revealing a simple white cast room with a single standing metal detecting door frame, and a wall full of gadgets designed to extract bits and pieces from new prisoners that didn't belong. Here is where they took that little tracker Annabeth had made off of him. And his necklace.

Percy's scowl deepened.

Before a moment could be missed, he alighted into the room with the agility of a deer. Aiming his gun at the only person sitting mindlessly on a heavy white chair behind the guards desk. The security man started, but Percy jabbed the gun as a warning.

"Let us in and keep your hands where I can see them" he hissed. Gesturing broadly to the elevator doors on the other side. The security man wheezed a little breath of shock before pushing up the sleeves of his navy blue uniform.

"Agent 11-"

"Unlock the elevator."

"But agent-"

"Oooh, this looks useful." Annabeth said from across the room. Unclipping a menacing black rod with a nifty button on its rubbery handle from the wall of devices. A spasm of blue and the sound of machine gun static crackled fiercely when she pressed her thumb in the hilt.

A shock baton.

Smirking, Annabeth pointed the baton at the security man and stepped forward with the same confidence she held on the campus. "Now are you going to let us in?"

The man held his hands up further. For some reason, more intimidated by the prospect of being shocked rather than shot.

"Right this way." He swiped his watch against the panel, before holding his fingers against the glass screen for a moment. Finally he blipped in an eight digit code.

The elevator doors parted almost immediately. Percy nudged the guard to go in first, and they followed in silence. Somewhere between the electric beeps of more codes, and the whirrs of the elevator sinking Percy glanced at Annabeth and she shot him a warm and reassuring smile. Percy's insides tittered, and his determination doubled.

Bing.

Bottom floor.

It looked the same as Percy had left it. White walls, white ceiling, and a flecked grey floor lain in panels. He held his gun down and poked his head out to peer down the long corridors filled with stale fluorescent light.

Thankfully, S.I.G.H.T relied on technology to safeguard their prisoners. Only high profile, or Houdini level criminals were watched by guards. This time round, the halls were emptier than a crypt.

Warily he waved Annabeth forward, and she jabbed the very useful security man with her baton. Huddled into a tight group, they crept forward, and down the single hallway. Passing doors upon doors numbered with potent black ink.

Annabeth pointed to one seventy-five while staring at her watch. Her lip caught under her teeth nervously.

Percy didn't have to prod the guard forward. He scanned his watch, and pressed the digits. Again the door clicked, and Percy thrusted it forward with beating anticipation swirling around his chest.

It banged against the wall, and a startled agent leapt from her simple white steel bed. Somehow, she had managed to make her white jumpsuit greyer, and had grown her light brown hair from choppy ear length to waves that stopped just below her pointy chin.

"Ugh," Percy rolled his eyes as Clarisse gave him the death glare. "Chiron's cell Wisegirl. Not Clarisse's."

Annabeth shrugged. "We were going to get her out anyways."

"What the hell are you doing back here you little shit?" Clarisse barged for the door. More in anger, than for escape. She seemed deceptively displeased to see him again. Figures.

"See?" Percy said. "She complains about everything. We should've gotten her out second."

"Well Chiron is just two cells over so after you Mr. Security guy." Annabeth made way for him.

"Alan." The security man corrected. Not seeming to care whether or not he was charged for aiding intruders. (Which made Percy clutch his gun a little tighter)

"WHY ARE YOU BACK HERE?" Clarrisse followed. Flares of anger licking in her gaze. "The whole reason we did what we did was for you to ESCAPE."

"Can it monkey face, we're busy." Percy snuffed over his shoulder. Hiding a small smile to himself because yeah, he missed her arrogant ass. Even if she was seconds away from pancaking his brain against the wall.

"Monkey face?!"

"Fine. Baboon. Ape. Whatever is your marsupial of choice." Percy glanced over his shoulder at her teasingly. Clarrisse's face reddened and her big meaty fist went up in a motion Percy was all too familiar with.

"Percy, comport yourself," Annabeth said authoritatively before he could be punched. "Clarisse? We're here. Deal with it."

"But-"

Click.

The second door creaked as Annabeth pushed it open. Alan stood back, with a face that said he was slightly amused by the three of them. Percy didn't know whether or not to duck tape Alan to a chair or just cut the risks and knock him out. Either way he didn't care at that moment. A sight for sore eyes was before him.

Chiron.

He was sitting on his bed staring up at the ceiling like Percy had when he was imprisoned. At the noise of them entering he lifted his head, and a great expression of concern poured over his weathered face.

"Percy?"

Percy sprinted through the threshold of the door, and by the time Chiron had made it to his feet Percy had thrown a huge bear hug around him. A sense of peace aching through his body as that one stress, and fear of Chiron's well being started to diminish. He was safe. He was alive. It was going to be okay.

"What are you doing here?"

"That's what I want to know." Clarrisse harrumphed.

"We came to rescue you." Percy filled in. "And we were hoping you might help us take down S.I.G.H.T while we're at it."

"Take down- what? You mean to say that you didn't come for the others?"

Percy's brow knitted up in confusion. "The others?"

"The kids you met back on your mission in San Francisco. I saw them while I was being interrogated a few days ago. Don't you know they've been brought in?"

"Brought… in?" Percy's heart started thumping in the back of his skull as his eyes naturally found Annabeth's. For a moment they locked gazes, processing.

"Are you sure it was them?" Annabeth asked. Helplessness leaking through her voice.

Chiron just nodded solemnly.

Percy's insides knotted. A weight felt like it was pushing into his chest. Her friends? His friends?

Our…

"Get me to a computer." Annabeth's eyes were working faster than the gears in a lawn mower. She was working out invisible calculations. Some sensational plan probably growing in that mind of hers.

Surprisingly, Alan took the lead and marched them back to the elevator. Sleeve already pulled for enough back so that he could swipe it. Clarrisse and Chiron in tow. For a hot moment, Percy thought about ordering the guard to stop and explain but his gut told him to hang on. Trust him. He didn't know why.

When they reached the extraction room again, Alan got out first and pressed a button under the edge of his desk.

An alarm! Percy raised his gun with a growl on his lips.

But no, a screen rose from a panel in the middle of his desk. A keyboard popped out from underneath.

"Voila,' he said. "State of the art."

Annabeth nodded in thanks. It took her seconds to melt into the world of the screen and become oblivious to them standing around her, watching the furious clicks, and taps. While she worked, Percy's eyes caught on Alan again. Looking so at ease with his arms leisurely crossed, and a half interested expression caught up on his face.

Percy jutted the gun at him. "What's your deal?"

"My deal?" Alan straightened.

"Yeah, why are you helping us?"

"Well, I figure that you guys are my best chance of getting out of here."

Clarrisse snorted ironically. "Traitor."

Chiron raised an eyebrow at her. "Unexpected friend." He corrected.

"Why do you want out of here so bad as to trust a rogue agent, a dishonored council member, a wanted brainiac and a maniac gorilla." Percy persisted his conversation while giving Clarrisse the stink eye.

Alan's eyes seemed to age by decades. Rubbing the back of his neck, he gave them a pursed smile.

"I don't like being a pawn. I don't like not having the ability to say no. If they tell me to kill someone, I have to do it or face death myself. It's as if by accepting this job, you have to sign away your humanity, your morals, and your conscience. I just don't…"

"I get it." Clarrisse said with a surprising amount of empathy. "Hundreds of us feel the same way… It's why I busted out squirt here. I didn't want him to have to live a life he didn't sign up for."

Alan shared her uncharastically timid smile.

Percy went between being weirded out by Clarrisses sudden vulnerability, to honoured that she felt that way. A tingling warmth spread from deep inside of him, growing and beating in his chest as he fought for words to come to his lips. Any form of a thank you. Clarrisse wasn't one for feelings but...

Softly, he punched her shoulder. That seemed to be enough because she chuckled at him for the first time in years.

"There." Annabeth said from behind them. "Somehow, they escaped but they didn't get far."

Instantly they gathered around the computer. Seeking every cranny of it to find out what Annabeth had found out.

Percy's heart plummeted when he saw the group of people huddled close in the corner of an office. What office? It could've been anyones. Percy didn't recognize this particular place. It had the typical bullet proof glass lining one side, a modern grey desk, a few bookshelves towering on the opposite wall and a standing lamp in the corner. But none of that was really important.

What was important was that a panel of the wall had been stripped away, revealing the pipes underneath. The group of people, the wonderful, funny, quirky little group Percy was sure was the gang, was guarding this exposed panel.

"There's our lockdown grade bomb threat." Percy pointed to a little device clutched in the hand of none other than Leo Valdez.

"What is it?" Chiron asked.

"I don't know, but it has something to do with the gas pipe." Annabeth muttered a bit absent mindedly, as if she were still trying to sort out a jigsaw puzzle in the back of her brain. "By correctly detonating something in the gas line, he could potentially bring the whole campus to its knees."

"A system wide collapse." Chiron and Percy said in unison.

"Exactly."

Annabeth clicked something and the image changed.

Outside the office. A thick mass of fully armed and armoured agents waited. Calling negotiations through a crack in the door. Ready for action but sitting pretty.

"They're waiting them out," Alan muttered the obvious. "It's like a mini siege."

From this angle, they could see the fear in the gang's eyes. The way Hazel clutched Frank. How Calypso stood firmly between them all and the threat. Jason's gaze darting around looking for something, anything that would help them. Pipers quiet panic. Leo's resilient yells at the enemy.

Percy's heart cracked, and he buried one of his hands in his hair. Pain snaking its way around his neck, suffocating him.

How much distress had he already caused them? The apartment bomb, the lies, the names, the acid words and alley attack. Now they were prisoners. It was too much. Why were they even here? Why would they bring them in unless…

A gasp tore open his throat.

"They know they know." Percy breathed. Turning, he gripped Annabeth by the shoulders urgently. "They know they know!"

His lovely girlfriend cocked her head at him as if to say. Oh, so you're actually just insane?

"S.I.G.H.T. knows that the gang knows about me working for S.I.G.H.T. They must've suspected my dishonesty stretched back farther than the night I was asked to kill you."

Understanding seemed to dawn on everyone except Alan.

Chirons face grew grim and he leaned against the desk, exhausted from thinking. "You know what that means."

Percy didn't want to say it. He didn't want it to be a reality. But there was no hiding from the truth.

"As soon as they catch them again, they're going to wipe all of their memories."

Last Chapter Trivia answer: Her hamster died

This Chapters Trivia: Who is described as an orthodontist's nightmare?