Heroes of the 99

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/32384995.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV), Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related
Fandoms - All Media Types
Relationship: Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson) & Jake Peralta, Jake Peralta/Amy
Santiago, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Character: Jake Peralta, Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson), Terry Jeffords, Charles
Boyle, Amy Santiago, Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo, Rosa Diaz, Thalia
Grace, Will Solace, Kevin Cozner, Raymond Holt
Additional Tags: Crossover, Season/Series 07 Spoilers, POV Outsider, Magic Revealed,
does this even count as magic?, you know what I mean..., godly
parenthood revealed
Language: English
Series: Part 2 of Detective Annabeth Chase of the 99th precinct, Part 2 of my
Percy Jackson crossovers
Stats: Published: 2021-07-05 Completed: 2022-02-19 Words: 61,932
Chapters: 13/13

Heroes of the 99
by Dusana

Summary

After working with the squad of the 99 for almost a year, her colleagues start finding out
that Annabeth Chase is more than an ultimate Detective (/Genius).
One by one, they come face to face with the supernatural world their co-worker and friend
grew up in.
And just in time, because a new threat is looming in the distance...

Notes

Hi!
While this might be read as a standalone, reading the first fic of the series would probably
be helpful for understanding this work.
Short recap for those who don't want to bother:
Annabeth Chase works as a Detective at the 99th precinct after finishing college in New
Rome and getting bored by having an office job.
She is partnered with Jake, gets on well with the squad and is good at her job.
Her co-workers don't know about the Gods or any supernatural stuff around them (yet).

For everyone who read the first fic:

Welcome back, happy you decided to read on :)
 Jake
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Annabeth stiffens in her seat even before the elevator doors open with a ding.

Her hands stop their rhythmic tapping on her keyboard, one darting to the knife at her back, the
other rising to interrupt Jake’s report on the mugging he is currently working on.

Jake follows her gaze to the elevator where the display overhead announces that it just stopped on
their floor.

His partner is ready to pounce, every muscle in her body ready for action.

When the elevator doors open, they reveal a lone woman in a grey, impeccably tailored pantsuit.
She is tall, with brown hair pulled up in a topknot, accentuating her grey eyes which immediately
zero in on Annabeth.

She seems to ooze confidence, and, oddly enough, power.

The Detective gets up from her chair, relaxes the grip on her knife and lets the other hand fall to her
side.

The newcomer approaches them, moving like not even an army could stop her and somehow, Jake
believes it.

When she stops, not three feet from Annabeth, the resemblance is uncanny.

The same battle-ready posture, the same proud stance. But most of all, it’s their identical stormy
grey eyes that don’t leave any doubt about who this woman is.

“Mother,” Annabeth greets her tensely. “What a surprise to see you here.”

The smile spreading over the woman’s face couldn’t be described as soft in a hundred years, but it
seems genuine. “Annabeth. My child.” She turns to Jake. “You must be the partner, then,” she
observes.

Jake nods and extends a hand. “Detective Jake Peralta. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Chase.”

The woman’s face is unreadable, still Jake gets the feeling that she isn’t too pleased with him. Jake
is about to ask if he said something wrong when Annabeth jumps in. “My mother didn’t take my
father’s name,” she explains kindly before turning back to her mother. “What brings you here?”

It doesn’t escape Jake’s notice that Annabeth very pointedly doesn’t introduce her mother to him.

“I heard about the engagement,” the older woman says.

“Came to congratulate me, then?”

Annabeth’s mother scoffs. “Hardly.”

Annabeth doesn’t look offended by the statement. It almost seems like she expected the casual
dismissal of the news. “Trying to talk me out of it?”
“I highly doubt it would be a successful endeavor. I… came to pay my respects.”

At that, the blonde does roll her eyes. “I’m engaged, not dead.”

“There is another matter I need to talk to you about.”

Annabeth hasn’t relaxed her battle stance for even once second. “Then talk.”

“Don’t you think we could do this in private?”

“Nope.” Annabeth quirks an eyebrow.

The woman seems to consider fighting her but doesn’t, ultimately. “Very well, then. You’ve been
negligent in your duties.”

Annabeth frowns at her. “Which duties?”

“Protecting New York.”

“What do you mean, she’s been negligent?” Jake immediately exclaims. “She’s a great Detective!”

Boyle, who has been listening to the exchange from the beginning, is quick to voice his support.
“Exactly! She’s one of the best!”

Annabeth’s mother, surprised and a bit taken aback by their interventions, looks from one man to
the other before returning her attention to her daughter. “This-“ she makes an all-encompassing
gesture around the bullpen – “is keeping you from doing your job.”

“This is my job,” Annabeth stresses.

Her mother continues on like she didn’t hear the comment. “There has been a new threat rising for
the last couple of weeks, and I feel like you haven’t been giving it the necessary attention.”

At this point, even Terry sees it fit to intervene. “Detective Chase does outstanding work within
this precinct. However, her duties don’t expand beyond the cases I or our Captain assign her. She
has one of the highest closure rates in the whole of New York.”

This seems to surprise Annabeth, who shoots a grateful smile in the Lieutenant’s direction. “I do?”

Her mother shakes her head, dismissing the broad support her daughter is receiving. “It hardly
matters if other threats go by unnoticed by you…”

“If you have something to report, you are welcome to do so,” Terry informs her sternly. “Until
then, please stop distracting my squad.”

Annabeth’s mother turns to Terry, plants her feet on the ground three feet from him. Terry is half a
head taller than she is, but he starts to shrink under her glare.

Terry is obviously willing to field this attack for Annabeth’s welfare, but the woman in question
starts getting restless once her mother’s attention fully focuses on someone other than her.

“Why don’t we take this outside, mother?” Annabeth interrupts their staring contest by placing a
careful hand on her mother’s arm. “I’ll be right back,” she tells Terry as she leads the brunette
away.

Her mother goes with her, an air about her that screams disdain and annoyance in a way most
people are annoyed by the ants in their kitchen.

“You always were good at finding the stupidly loyal ones,” the brunette says before the elevator
doors close behind them.

----------

Annabeth shows up in the evidence lockup twenty minutes later while Jake is going through case
files.

A pensive frown is plastered on her face, and she seems deep in thought, idly playing with the
engagement ring that she wears with the beads around her neck.

“Everything all right?” Jake asks.

Annabeth drops the ring as she nods. “Yeah… It’s just… talking to my mother is sometimes…”
She shakes her head, not quite able to find a word fitting the situation. “…difficult,” she finally
says.

“You didn’t have to talk to her,” Jake says, pulling another file out of the box in front of him.
“Terry could have thrown her out.”

Annabeth huffs the barest breath of a laugh. “No, he couldn’t,” she says quietly. “I really
appreciate what you did in there, though,” she continues, louder.

Jake shrugs. “I know a thing or two about having a complicated relationship with a parent,” he
deflects.

Annabeth studies him for a long moment. “Still… Thanks for standing up for me.”

“Always. We’re partners. We can trust each other, right?” Jake holds up his fist and Annabeth
smiles as she bumps it with her own.

“Right.”

And though Annabeth smiles at him as she always does, relaxed, with a small crinkle around her
eyes, something about her seems off.

But then, the moment is gone.

Annabeth turns around, grabs a box of evidence and starts browsing through it.

When her phone rings, the blonde is buried to the elbows in an evidence box, one hand keeping at
stack of papers from toppling over, while at least two of the fingers on her other hand mark
positions in a file.

Percy’s face flashes on the screen where the device is lying on the table between the Detectives.

“Could you…” Annabeth jerks her head in the direction of the phone in prompting.

Jake accepts the call and puts it on speaker, so they can talk while Chase continues looking through
the evidence.

“Hi, Percy, you’re on speaker,” Annabeth announces.

“Hello,” Jake offers.

“Hello Annabeth, Jake.” There is a pause.

“Everything all right?” Annabeth asks. She furrows her brows at the extended silence and casts a
quick glance at her partner.

“Yes…” comes the tentative answer. There are some background sounds over the line as Percy
talks to someone else. He sighs. “Nico dropped by. There is a thing we need to take care of.”

Annabeth looks up at Jake, then back at the phone. “What kind of thing?”

Another pause. “Do you remember Kelli and Tammi? Those cheerleaders I had a run-in with at
Goode High School?”

Annabeth’s face darkens. “I do.”

“Yeah… Some of their friends are in the city. Nico and I want to see if we can… meet up with
them.”

“Just the two of you?” Annabeth makes sure the stack of papers won’t fall and starts playing with
the ring on her necklace once again.

“It’s the beginning of summer, all the kids are at camp. Will is on duty at the hospital.”

“I take that as a yes?”

Another sigh. “Yes. But it’s not like we’re helpless.”

“I know. Be careful.”

“Always am.”

Jake frowns. That doesn’t sound like a meet-up with some old friends. That sounds rather serious.

Annabeth snorts. “No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not,” Percy agrees. “But I’ve survived so far.”

“Yes, and isn’t that a surprise?” A quiet chuckle sounds over the line. Annabeth runs a hand
through her hair. “Mom dropped by earlier.”

The laughter down the line cuts off. “Don’t suppose she wanted to congratulate you on the
engagement?”

“No. Something seems to be going on downstairs, she thinks I’m neglecting my duties.”

“Nico mentioned something like that as well. The downstairs part, not the neglecting duties part.”

“Does he know what it is?”

“No, he can’t quite place it yet. But whatever it is, it seems to be moving rather quickly.”

“You think it’s connected with the cheerleaders you’re looking for?”

“Probably.”

They both are silent for a moment. “You tell me if you need backup?”
There is a hum of agreement. “Will do. I’ll keep my phone on me for today as well, so you can
reach me whenever. I love you, Wise Girl.”

Annabeth fondly rolls her eyes. “Love you, too, Seaweed Brain. Keep me updated.”

“Sure thing.” With that, the line goes silent.

Jake tries his best to look only casually interested in the conversation. “What was that about?”

“Nothing important,” Annabeth answers quickly.

“You know that you can tell me the truth, right?”

Annabeth meets his eyes for a moment, then looks down at her box again. “I know.”

It hurts, Jake finds, to know that even after almost a year, his partner still doesn’t trust him. But he
knows that pushing the conversation won’t help her build trust in him, so he doesn’t push the
matter.

----------

“Hey, any news?” Annabeth asks her fiancé over the phone as she and Jake drive to check up on a
report from a frightened accountant in an office building.

He called in due to strange behavior from his colleagues earlier in the day and now suspects people
in the building who shouldn’t be there.

Holt had suspected a link to a drug case in the area and sent two of his best Detectives to
investigate.

“We got one of them, rest got away,” Jake can just make out Percy’s voice on the other end. “Two
left, as far as we can tell. You’re on the move?”

“Yeah, checking up a disturbance call. Nothing spectacular.”

“Ok, talk to you later.”

“Be careful, love you.”

“Yeah, same.”

Annabeth smiles as she hangs up the phone.

“Must one hell of a reunion,” Jake remarks as he parks the car at the waterfront and eyes the
building where the calls had originated.

“That’s one way of phrasing it,” Annabeth mutters as she walks past him into the building.

It being late in the evening, the office building is largely empty. The guy at the reception directs
them to the elevator and they ride up to the 12th floor.

The open-plan office is empty at first glance, but then Jake spots the lone occupant who had
probably called in the disturbance. He is sitting in his chair, blankly staring at his monitor,
paralyzed in place.

The Detectives draw their guns.

Jake goes over to the man, gently jostles his shoulder. He is pale, his eyes empty and staring into
space, two thin lines of blood run down from puncture wounds on his neck.

“He was attacked by vampires,” Jake announces, hoping to elicit a laugh from his partner.

Instead, she curses. Jake looks up at her, watches as Chase holsters her gun and draws the knife she
never parts with.

“What’s going on?” Jake asks.

Annabeth scans the room. “I have a suspicion,” she admits. “And I don’t like it.”

The statement puts Jake on high alert. “What is it?” he urges.

But before his partner can answer, two women approach from the far end of the room.

They are beautiful, is the first thing through Jake’s mind. They are both tall, fit, clad in tight pant
suits with deep cleavage and seductive smiles on their faces. One of them has her chocolate hair in
a modern short cut, gleaming black curls cascade freely down the other’s back.

Jake lowers his gun.

“Hello, handsome,” the brunette purrs. “You don’t need the gun right now.”

Jake nods his assent and puts the safety on the weapon, holsters it. She’s right, of course. He won’t
need his gun to deal with those women. They’re beautiful, and obviously not a threat, and…

He looks over at Annabeth who has a grim scowl on her face, staring at the women while she
angles her body in a way that’d allow her to defend not just an attack from the beautiful ladies, but
an attack from Jake, as well.

It sparks some skepticism in Jake. His partner has always proven to have impeccable instincts when
dealing with strangers or approaching a perp. Her being so on the fence about those people
rekindles a certain caution in him.

“Annabeth Chase,” the second woman purrs.

Annabeth bares her teeth and a small voice in the back of his head asks how the woman knows his
partner’s name.

Chase, for her part has started to slowly back away from the advancing women, gently tugging
Jake along at the scuff of his shirt.

Jake doesn’t really want to go, wants to keep talking to these beautiful women, but he trusts
Annabeth enough that he slowly backs up as well.

“You don’t need to run from us,” the brunette purrs and Jake stops in his tracks.

Annabeth curses.

The women are steadily closing in on them, but for now, there is still a lot of space between them
and the Detectives. The elevator doors at their backs are only a few paces away.

Chase grabs her knife tightly.

“We are not the threat,” the one with the dark curls purrs. “It’s her you need to worry about.” She
points a manicured finger at Annabeth. “She wants to betray you, wants to hurt us, she’ll take you
out first.”

Jake takes in his partner’s stance, the way she clutches her knife, the way she is poised to attack,
and he finds himself agreeing with the tantalizing lady in front of him.

His partner is out to get him.

Jake lunges at her, but Annabeth yanks up her knife, slashing it across his arm in an attempt to
block his attack.

It doesn’t hurt.

That’s the strange thing.

Because Jake had seen the blade sink into his flesh, had seen it penetrate his shirt, but… the shirt is
fine and there is no blood pouring out of his arm.

There is no pain blossoming from his arm, racing through his body and clouding his mind.

The revelation startles him out of the idea of attacking his partner, why did he do that in the first
place?

Annabeth seems to notice his change in demeanor, grabs his wrist and drags her colleague into the
elevator, quickly pressing a button so the doors close behind them.

“You stabbed me,” Jake states numbly.

“I didn’t,” Annabeth counters. “You are completely unharmed.” She runs a hand through her hair
and pulls out her phone.

Jake stares blankly at her.

The elevator starts moving and Jake casts a quick glance at the buttons. Chase had pressed the
button to the roof access, causing the elevator to go up.

He looks back at his partner, who is tapping away on her phone, her attention split between the
device in her hand and the man in front of her. She still holds the knife with its strange bronze
blade.

The knife she always has with her but never before used.

The blade that for some reason didn’t cut his flesh even though it clearly should have.

“But why am I unharmed?” Jake runs his hand over his shirt sleeve where the knife didn’t cut him.
“The blade went… I saw… What the heck is happening?”

Annabeth must have picked up on the desperation in his tone, for she looks up from her phone and
faces her partner. She regards him for a moment, then seems to come to a decision.

“I don’t really have time to explain everything right now, but I promise, I’ll do it later,” she vows.

“Coolcoolcoolcoolcool,” Jake hears himself say like through a veil. He does his best to form a
coherent response. “Is there a short version?”

“A short version?” Annabeth repeats. Jake nods, desperate to have something to hang on to.
Annabeth shakes her head, the motion turning into a nod after a moment. “Magic.” The word
leaves her in a breath. Annabeth presses the call button on her phone and presses it to her ear.

“Magic,” Jake parrots. “Are you serious?”

Annabeth clamps the phone between her ear and her shoulder and grabs Jake’s wrist with the hand
that is not still holding her knife. Very slowly, she brings the blade down on his hand, giving him
ample opportunity to pull away from her.

He doesn’t.

Jake fights down the urge to flinch away from the blade when he sees the blade touching his skin,
his brain screaming at him to do something.

He waits for the pain, for the first drop of blood, but although his eyes tell him that the knife is
cutting into his flesh, although he flinches on instinct as it makes contact with his palm, his flesh is
not feeling any of it.

Annabeth regards him with raised eyebrows, probably waiting for him to flip out. It’s a close thing.

Then, someone picks up the call and she drops his wrist, withdraws her knife and concentrates on
the other conversation.

“Percy, listen. The Empousai are here, two of them. We’re on the elevator to the roof.”

The rushing blood in his ears is too loud for Jake to hear the other part of the conversation.

Annabeth listens for a moment. “Jake is with me,” she admits. “Yes, I told him… No, it isn’t
ideal… Would you just come over and we’ll deal with him later?”

Jake doesn’t like the sound of being someone to be dealt with, but he doesn’t really have any way
to get out of the situation, does he?

Annabeth rattles off the address to Percy and hangs up her phone just as the elevator doors open to
a small room, only a few paces wide before ending in a door.

Annabeth strides out of the building, onto the open roof overlooking the city.

Jake stumbles after her, not willing to be left behind when those women are still after them.

“Who were those women?” he asks.

Annabeth is looking around the roof, cataloging the few obstacles she could use to her advantage
should the ladies get to the roof before backup arrived.

“Empousai,” she says in a way of explanation. “They have very strong persuasion magic.”

“Didn’t work on you,” Jake observes.

“I knew what I was dealing with,” Annabeth counters. “Plus, I’m not attracted to women.”

Jake sits down on the low balustrade surrounding the roof. He can see his car parked in one of the
adjourning streets hundreds of feet below him. The water of the Upper Bay rushes past and he
takes a deep breath to try and calm his nerves.

“What are we going to do if they come up here? Surely, Percy and Nico need some time to get
here. We need a plan of defense.”

“Nico can teleport,” Annabeth states. “They’ll be here in a moment.”

“He can what?”

Annabeth is leaning on the balustrade next to him, her eyes resting on his face, clearly trying to
estimate just how big of a freak-out her partner is having. “Yeah, that’s how we got out when we
got locked up during the bank heist in January. He doesn’t do it too much, though. Takes a toll on
him after a while.”

Jake finds himself nodding along with her explanation. “No doubt, no doubt, no doubt.”

Just a moment later, Percy and Nico round the small structure that holds the elevator.

They both wear leather armor like the one Annabeth supplied when they went to the costume
convention months ago. They look a little bit harried, Percy’s hair is even wilder than normally,
Nico’s pale skin accentuates the faint bruise on his left cheek.

Percy is limping as he makes his way over to his fiancée.

“You all right?” Annabeth immediately asks.

“I was stabbed,” comes the non-committal answer. “I’ve been stabbed before, it’s fine.”

“Knife wounds aren’t exactly something you built up an immunity to,” Jake mumbles, while
Annabeth calmly examines the slash in her fiancé’s trousers.

Percy just shrugs and gives Jake a once-over. “How are you doing?”

Jake grapples for words. “Magic is real,” he finally presses out.

For some reason, it causes Percy to grin and Nico to snort.

“Magic? That’s what you told him?” the former asks his fiancée, his green eyes sparkling with
amusement.

“I didn’t really have time for the long version,” Annabeth defends herself and Jake is lost.

He doesn’t know what is happening and he wants to go home, to his wife, and his son, and he
never signed up to fight sirens or whatever.

“They’re not sirens,” Percy’s voice cuts through his thoughts. “They’re Empousai.”

Jake openly gapes at him. “Can you read minds!?”

“No, that would be so cool, though. You were babbling,” Percy grins at him. Jake supposes the
injury can’t be too bad if he is still able to joke around.

A ding sounds from the elevator, announcing the definitely-not-but-kind-of-sirens.

The three magical friends hastily look at each other.

Annabeth points at Jake. “He can’t be here. He is too receptive to their magic.”

Nico nods in agreement. “Percy probably shouldn’t be here, either.”

Percy is about to argue, but Annabeth cuts him off.

“You’re pretty good at resisting them, Seaweed Brain, I know. But you are injured, and someone
has to take care of Jake. The two of us can take them.” She gestures to herself and Nico, who has
procured a black sword from somewhere.

Percy presses a kiss to her hair. “I know you can.” He pats Nico’s shoulder. “See you later,” he
says and limps over to Jake.

The Detective stands up from the little ledge, already thinking about ways to get past their
opponents and into the elevator or maybe there is a fire escape they can use, or…

Percy Jackson tackles him off the roof.

It’s not like Jake had never thought about dying. He’s a police officer, and there was a time in his
life where he had almost been sure that he’ll die on the job.

But he thought it’d be a gunshot, maybe a knife wound.

He never imagined he’d die because his partner’s fiancé tackled him off a roof.

The water of the East River is rapidly coming closer, and he knows that there is now way for a
human to survive a drop into water out of this altitude.

He squeezes his eyes shut and thinks of his wife and son. Then, the coldness engulfs him.

Jake had imagined death to be more… more.

He is floating and thinks he can still feel the ghost of Jackson’s arm wrapped around his torso, is
still heaving heavy breaths.

He carefully opens one eye and can see something bright somewhere in the distance above him.

Is that the light he’s supposed to be walking towards?

He takes a shaky breath and opens the other eye as well.

“Hey, it’s all right.”

Jake whirls around, as well as he can in his floating state, and the pressure around his torso lessens.

He can barely make out the outline of a face in front of him, two green eyes staring into his.

“Maybe I should have warned you,” the voice says and Jake knows that voice.

“Percy?”

“Who did you expect?”

“I… I thought I died,” he exclaims.

“As I said: should have warned you.” Jackson’s voice doesn’t sound too apologetic. It almost
sounds amused. “You all right, though?”
“Where…? How…? What happened?”

“I tackled you off the roof into the Bay.”

“I remember that part, but how are we not…” How are we not dead, he wants to ask, but can’t. The
word gets stuck in his throat, and he lets the sentence hang in the air between them.

Percy has no such problems, it appears. “Not dead?” he asks.

Jake shakily nods his head.

It’s hard to make out in the darkness, but Percy’s face takes on a thoughtful expression. “Annabeth
told you about… our magic?” The word sounds foreign on his tongue.

Jake swallows, forcing his voice to work again. “Yes.”

“I have water powers. So, we didn’t die on impact, I created this handy air bubble so you can
breathe under water…”

“Don’t you mean so we can breathe under water?”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I don’t need an air bubble for that! But glad that you’re focusing on the
important bits.”

Jake shakes his head, trying to clear his head of all the thoughts and questions racing to be voiced,
forcing himself to concentrate. “You… whatever. Why is it so dark?”

“We hit the water with a lot of speed and are currently some yards underneath the surface. Water
quality is pretty bad around here, so it blocks out the light.”

“Huh,” Jake makes.

His mind starts to clear. The floating sensation and the cold are due to the water surrounding him,
the light above him…

“Why didn’t you get us back to the surface?”

“I wanted to give you time to finish your freak-out in relative privacy.”

“How considerate of you.”

There is a laugh in Percy’s voice. “I have my moments. So, back to land?”

Jake hums in agreement and a current appears and takes them away. They break the surface of the
water only a few feet from a ladder which the two men quickly climb up.

Percy looks happy as he stands on land. His previously injured leg miraculously seems healed, and
for some reason, he’s completely dry.

“Why aren’t you wet?”

Percy looks over at Jake, lays a hand on the other man’s shoulder and all the water expels itself out
of Jake’s clothing and onto the street.

Right. Magic.
Percy sits down on the pier, his feet dangling over the water. After a moment of consideration, Jake
joins him.

They look west over the bay, towards the setting sun.

There are a million questions racing through Jake’s mind, about magic, about the mysterious
Camp, about Percy’s Youth Center as he calls it, the two things they had just encountered, all the
stories his partner could probably tell but never did.

He turns to look over at the building they had just fallen off of, where they left Annabeth and Nico
to fend for themselves.

“Are you sure they are all right on their own?”

Jake knows that he doesn’t really have the right to worry about Annabeth when Percy doesn’t, but
he can’t help it. They went in there together, and he abandoned his partner to run from a fight. That
was simply not how they worked in the squad.

The fact that he attacked his partner before notwithstanding.

Percy looks over at him and regards the Detective for a moment. “Wanna see something cool?” he
finally asks and fishes a coin out of his pocket.

Jake just nods.

Percy casts a quick glance around, and when he is certain that no one is watching them, he waves a
hand over the water below, causing fine mist to rise up in front of them.

The water particles catch the light of the sinking sun and create a faint rainbow.

Percy throws his coin into the rainbow and instead of falling into the water, it vanishes into thin
air. “Oh, Fleecy, do me a solid. Show Annabeth Chase in Brooklyn, New York,” he intones.

And to Jake’s utter astonishment, the rainbow flickers and changes to show the roof they had been
on just minutes ago.

“Hey, Wise Girl,” Percy says, causing Annabeth to turn around and face them through the rainbow.

“That’s awesome,” Jake whispers.

Annabeth grins. “You two got down okay?” Most of her hair has come loose from her braid and
there is a faint red line along her left upper arm, her shirt sleeve torn. But she looks all right
otherwise.

Golden dust has settled on her, almost vanishing in her blond hair, but a stark contrast on the dark
top she’s wearing.

“Jake thought he had died for a moment, other than that, we’re fine.” Percy bumps his shoulder
against Jake’s. “Any problems on your end?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “Took them out, everything’s fine on that end. They killed a mortal
before we got here, though, we’ll have to take care of him before finishing up. You all right with
waiting for us?”

They both nod, then Percy drops his hand, allowing the mist to dissipate and the picture to vanish.
 “Mortal?” Jake asks.

Percy runs a hand through his hair. “Non-magic users,” he replies. “But I think it’s better if
Annabeth explains all of that to you.”

“Will she?”

Percy raises a questioning eyebrow.

“Explain all of this to me?” the Detective elaborates. “Or is there some way for her to make me
forget everything that happened?”

Percy stares at the water. “She could make you forget. Or, at least, Hazel could and if Annabeth
asked her to, she certainly would,” he admits. “But she won’t. She promised to tell you, after all,
didn’t she?”

Jake hums in confirmation as he lets the information sink in.

“So, this is not violating some sort of Statue of Secrecy and your magical government won’t track
me down or punish you?”

Percy chuckles. “This isn’t Harry Potter.”

“So, there isn’t some kind of higher council that makes all the super important decisions?”

“Well… Higher council: yes. Important decisions: not really. As long as we don’t start the end of
the world, they don’t care too much. And since I helped avert the end of the world a couple of
times already, I’d say I have one good on that front, as well.”

“You averted the end of the world?” It sounded more like a throwaway statement than anything
else, but Jake can’t help but wonder.

Percy reclines and lies back on the pavement. “Long stories,” he says. “Maybe another time.”

As they settle into a comfortable silence, hundreds of questions form in Jake’s mind and he
wonders if he’ll get answers to any of them.

Chapter End Notes

Hope you liked it, maybe leave a comment?

Next chapter will have a lot of talking and explaning.
(And I haven't written a single word for it so far...)
Adding tags as I go along, since I'm not quite sure about which characters actually
show up in this.
Have a great day, stay safe.
 Amy
Chapter Notes

Happy Monday.
See, I made it on schedule!
And the chapter actually turned out to be quite a bit longer than I expected.
Kind of a filler chapter, I'm not super happy with it, either, but it kind of got stuck in
my head that this would be the obvious next chapter, even if it isn't as fun as the others
hopefully will be.
After reading a post on tumblr about it, I added a blanket permission for
transformative works to my profile. Not that I really think people want to do stuff with
my stories, but if my artistic skills stretched to drawing, I probably would have drawn
some scenes. They don't, though, and all this stuff is in my head in form of words more
than pictures, anyways, and... yeah, whatever...
Hope you enjoy it reading (more than I enjoyed writing, because this chapter put up
quite the fight) :)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Amy has just closed the apartment door behind her when her phone starts to ring.

Jake's face flashes on the screen and she accepts the call as she crouches down to take Mac’s shoes
off.

"Hey. What's up?"

Jake had left two hours earlier with Annabeth to check up on a disturbance call. She hadn't heard
from him since he informed her that she might have to get Mac from the daycare on her own, but
that really wasn't a reason to worry.

"I was thinking on swinging by the polish place to fetch dinner," her husband's voice comes down
the line.

That on the other hand...

"What happened?"

A pause. Then, "Why do you think something happened?"

"Because this was supposed to be a normal Thursday afternoon, and now you're offering to buy me
comfort food."

"I kind of invited Annabeth and Percy over for dinner." Something in Jake’s voice doesn’t sit right
with her.

Amy furrows her brow. Not that she particularly minds having them over for dinner, she likes both
Annabeth and her fiancé, and due to her working on a different floor, she doesn't get to spend as
much time with the Detective as she'd like to.

Still...
"Any reason for that?"

"Well... Kind of? It's hard to explain over the phone, though, and..." The sentence trails off, hangs
in the air for a moment, like Jake doesn’t quite know how to phrase an uncomfortable truth.

"…and you don't want me to ask further questions right now," Amy realizes.

A hum in agreement.

She thinks about it for a moment, her curious nature rearing its head, demanding an answer to her
questions, demanding to know what happened, to know...

"Bring me some perogies," she tells him. "I'm about to feed Mac, so we can talk when you get
home."

The relieved breath Jake lets out carries over the line.

"I love you, babe."

"Love you, too. See you in a bit."

With that, she hangs up and turns her attention to her son.

-------------

When Jake, Annabeth and Percy arrive at their apartment, Mac is already cranky with sleepiness.

He perks up when he sees Percy, his foul mood vanishing long enough to allow Amy to change
him into his nightclothes. When she tries to brush his teeth, however, he starts fussing again,
stretching over towards Percy who takes the small toothbrush from her and starts brushing the baby
teeth while softly singing to the toddler.

With Mac ready for bed, Jake picks him up, tells his son to say goodnight to which he waves at
Annabeth and Percy, presses a kiss to Amy's cheek and then lets himself be carried to the bedroom
for Jake to put him to sleep.

Amy stays in the living room with Annabeth and Percy and two bags of polish take-out between
them.

Annabeth is tense while Percy seems a bit tired. Amy spots a rip in his trousers.

"What happened to your leg?" she asks as she takes the food into the kitchen.

Percy looks at the rip at his leg and shrugs. "Nothing that can't be fixed," he says, not quite an
answer.

Amy takes a second look, her mind instantly starting to analyze the damage to the fabric. It looks
like it was caused by a dull blade, or maybe a sharp claw. "Have you been attacked?"

Percy smiles reassuringly at her. "It's fine. I'm not even injured."

He lifts the pant leg a bit to prove his point and indeed, the flesh underneath is unmarred.

"You're not answering my questions, though," Amy states.

Percy's grin turns sheepish. "I guess that's true."

"Is this about whatever Jake wants to talk about?" Annabeth and Percy nod and Amy, against all
instincts, lets it go.

She trusts Jake, she trusts Annabeth and even Percy to an extend and she can wait for another few
minutes, until Mac is asleep, and Jake is with them again.

She can.

Doesn't mean she'll like it.

It takes Jake twenty minutes to get their son to fall asleep – a good time, considering it takes the
better part of an hour on most days. Amy spends the time making small talk with her guests, talking
to Annabeth about one of her cases while Percy flicks through Mac’s books with a certain amount
of interest.

When Jake returns from their bedroom, Mac fast asleep, his hand ghosts over Amy’s back as he
gets a glass and some orange soda out of the fridge.

“You wanna do this over dinner or wait for afterwards?” He asks the room at large, but his focus
mainly seems to be on Annabeth.

Weird.

Percy walks over to the kitchen table, grabs one of the takeout boxes, opens it and peers inside. “I
spent my whole day running around the city. I vote food first, talk later.”

Annabeth pushes a platter in his direction which he pulls closer and starts piling food on it. “That’s
what you’d vote no matter the circumstances.”

“I like food!”

“I know, darling. It’s fine. I’m just teasing you.” They look at each other and for a moment, both
their postures seem to sag. They are still jittery, still sharp and present and aware, but this evening,
there is an exhaustion in their expressions that hasn’t been there earlier today.

That hasn’t been there ever before, now that Amy thinks about it.

Amy is curious, she really is.

But Jake shoots her a look while he sits down at their kitchen table and smiles at her in this
calming, self-assured way he only displays around her.

She knows that look. It says “everything is going to be fine”. It says “give it time, it will work
itself out” and “as long as we’re together, nothing can bring us down”.

More than anything, it says “I love you and we can cancel this right here, right now, if you want to
but I don’t think we should”.

So Amy takes her own platter, accepts the box of perogies Jake remembered to buy for her and
listens to Percy talk about how strange it is that all the kids from his Community Center are off for
the summer and how that gives him time to spend with his little sister whenever he wants.

----

“So…” Jake starts after they finished their meal and sat down in the living room. “Let’s hear it.”
He is sitting on the couch next to Amy, an arm around her shoulders in anticipation.

Annabeth is sitting on the armchair, Percy on the armrest next to her, his body comfortably resting
against hers.

There is a tension in the room Amy can’t quite read. Whatever happened earlier today, it must have
been big, it must have been important and interesting to get her husband so fired up.

But at the same time, it can’t really be something bad, something illegal even, because in that case,
Jake would never have allowed the two of them into the flat with Mac asleep two doors down.

Not time sensitive, either, for then they wouldn’t have waited until after dinner, but obviously Jake
is anxious to hear whatever the two have to say…

Annabeth fiddles with the ring on her necklace, looks up at Percy. “Where to start…” she
mumbles.

“How about the beginning?” Jake suggests.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. “Well, in the beginning, there was Chaos…”

“And then God created the world in seven days. We know that story. Maybe not that far in the
beginning?” Jake’s impatience is getting the better of him.

Annabeth lets out a huff of laughter. “It’s not true, though.”

“Yeah, big bang. Heard of it, thanks. Not quite sure what it has to do with this.”

“That not what I…” Annabeth stops when Percy next to her starts shaking with silent laughter. She
shoots him an annoyed look. “Do you want to do this?”

Percy sobers up a bit. “Do you want me to?”

“Might as well.”

“This is why we have an orientation film at Camp,” Percy comments off-handedly.

Annabeth’s glare intensifies. “No one ever watches that film.”

“I watched it with Leo last time I was there for movie night. It’s hilarious. He’s got this version
where he changed the text, so-“

“I feel like we’re getting off topic,” Amy observes, and Percy and Annabeth return their attentions
to their hosts.

“Right.” Annabeth looks at Percy, then at Jake, before her gaze settles on Amy. “Jake told us that
there was some speculation over our Camp, especially after you opened Percy’s juvie file…”

Amy feels a little bad about that by now, slowly being worn down by Terry’s insistence that they
did a bad thing.

The statement does pique her interest, though.

Percy himself just grins. “I would have loved to read it myself.”

Annabeth fondly rolls her eyes. “You’re dyslexic. You would have hated reading it, simply
because it involved reading.”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Amy feels them getting of track again. “Please tell me this isn’t about Jake’s Spy Kid theory.”

“It’s not,” Annabeth assures her.

“It’s more along the lines of Charles’ secret society theory,” Jake says, but there is none of the
joking undertone that usually accompanies this kind of statement.

“You’re kidding me.”

“Actually, he’s not.” Annabeth takes another deep breath, then looks straight at Amy. “What do
you know about Greek Mythology?”

The question surprises Amy. But Annabeth looks at her with genuine interest in her eyes and the
brunette answers honestly. “After you and Holt talked about Hesiod before Christmas, I read up on
it,” she admits. “So, I know a fair amount of it, I’d say.”

Annabeth looks over at Jake, lifts an eyebrow in question.

His eyes light up. “I know that there’s different Gods who control different things. Like… Zeus
controls thunder and the sky, his wife’s name’s Hera. Hades is the bad guy, flaming red hair…”

Annabeth and Percy suddenly sport the most hilariously confused expressions Amy has ever seen
and she decides to stop her husband’s rambling before he can dig himself in any deeper. “Let me
guess: your entire knowledge comes from the Disney film Hercules?”

Jake nods and their visitor’s faces morph into more understanding, but still amused expressions.

“You know the basics, then,” Annabeth tells her partner. “Big dysfunctional family and a bunch of
gods who enjoy coming to earth to have babies with mortal lovers.”

Amy can’t quite follow her train of thought, even less where she is going with this line of
conversation and for a moment, they just stare at each other across the coffee table.

“That’s us,” Percy adds, not helpful at all.

“You’re what?” Jake asks.

“Children sired by one godly and one mortal parent.”

Jake and Amy look at the couple in front of them, then at each other, back at Annabeth and Percy,
waiting for the other shoe to drop, for them to tell the punchline.

It doesn’t come.

When they don’t answer, however, Annabeth keeps talking. “The Camp is a safe space for all half-
bloods, that’s what people like us are called.”

“So, not a Camp for ADHD kids, after all?” Jake’s voice is strangely hollow.

“Well, most half-bloods have ADHD, to be fair. Helps with reflexes during fights. Depending on
the godly parent, many of us have special skills passed on from their godly side.”
“I don’t believe you,” Amy says flatly.

Because she doesn’t. It’s ludicrous.

Magic.

Gods.

Half-bloods.

It’s just… it can’t be.

It’s ludicrous, that’s what it is.

“You’re kidding us.”

Jake takes her hand, slowly, deliberately. “They’re not,” he tells her. “I saw it. Earlier, the
disturbance call Holt sent us to investigate. They used magic. It was real.”

Amy loves her husband, she really does. More than anything – except for Mac – she really does.
But he sometimes is kind of an idiot and sees what he wants to see.

She shakes her head, angles her body away from Jake, his hand still firmly in hers.

She wants to ask… something, for them to prove their claim, but before she can even get a word
out, Percy seems to make a decision.

He gets up and walks from the room, into the kitchen. The sink turns on and a moment later, he
returns with a bowl full of water. He keeps a deliberate distance to Amy, walks a wide semi-circle
around her before setting the bowl on the table between them.

Jackson sits down on the floor next to the low table, his legs crossed. Amy recognizes this as a
vulnerable position, lower than those around him, unthreatening in his inability to get up and
running fast.

She doesn’t quite understand herself why she’s running risk assessment right now. It somehow
calms her, however, that Percy deliberately presents himself as non-threatening as possible.

He sticks his fingers into the bowl, splashing the water a bit. His green eyes settle on Amy, and for
once, they are more calming than wild, almost serene. “If there’s any place on earth you’d like to
see, what is it?”

It’s another strange question, but one Amy doesn’t really have to think about before answering.
“Admont Abbey Library in Austria.”

Percy opens his mouth to respond something but then he turns around, catches the look on
Annabeth’s face, open and seemingly a little bit impressed by the choice, and closes his mouth
again.

He instead pulls his hand out of the bowl and waves it over the water in a slow motion.

Fine droplets of water seem to follow his movement, rising from the bowl into the air, dispersing
around Percy’s hand and causing a fine mist hovering just above her coffee table.

It’s… an interesting trick, but far from proving magic.

Annabeth pulls out her phone, turns on the flashlight and shuffles closer to Percy, holding the
device in an angle that causes the light of the phone to catch in the mist and create a beautiful
rainbow.

She slips her hand into Percy’s pocket, pulls out a coin and throws it at the rainbow.

Amy opens her mouth, wants to ask why she would do such a thing, what the point of all this is,
when the coin simply vanishes.

It’s a neat trick, Amy supposes. The bowl is one of hers, yes, but maybe Percy tinkered with it in
the time he was in the kitchen. The mist… probably just steam and Percy’s tolerance for pain is
beyond questioning at this point.

Amy probably simply didn’t see the coin after it passed through the rainbow, reflecting the light
from the camera to make it harder to spot through the mist, allowing one of them to catch it…

“Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show us the Admont Abbey Library
in Austria,” Annabeth says, in an unfamiliar, formal tone.

The rainbow flickers, and instead of the simple refraction of light, there is an image in the mist.

Amy leans closer, and indeed, she can make out rows and rows of books underneath stunning
artwork on the arching ceiling. Light shines through the windows, bright and friendly and the
sound of laughter drifts to her ear.

A group of people enters the frame, talking in what Amy can only assume to be German, but they
take no notice of their spectators, continuing on their way, lost in a discussion about whatever
caught their fancy.

Amy stares at the scene, completely perplexed.

Her eyes dart to her husband, who appears interested, fascinated even, but not shocked or surprised.

There is no way for this to be real, no logical explanation. It’s almost like…

“Magic,” she whispers.

Jake runs his thumb over the back of her hand and Amy releases the breath she’s been holding
since Percy brought the bowl of water into the living room.

“That’s the short version of it, yes.” Annabeth’s face is calm, understanding, empathic.

Jake is looking at Amy, making sure she is fine, that she’s not about to freak out. She can see his
mind working, can see that he has so many questions, so many things he wants to say. But he’s
looking at her, making sure she’s all right before indulging in what might be the greatest revelation
of his life.

Magic.

Percy just sits there, his fingers wiggling in the mist and after a moment, Amy realizes that the mist
isn’t just a formless blob anymore. It’s shifted to become an asymmetrical star. When Percy notices
her interest, he wiggles his fingers some more, the mist spreading out to become a square, a
triangle, then a dolphin.

Strangely enough, the dolphin is the clearest form, with the neatest lines.
Percy sits back a bit, the mist drawing away from the bowl underneath, away from the coffee table
and upwards, lingering beneath the lamp, simply hovering there. All the while, the visual of the
intricate painting on the ceiling of one of the most impressive libraries in the world lingers.

Then, Annabeth sets her phone down and the picture dissipates, the mist dolphin a lone shape,
floating around the room.

“What… what happened today that brought on this conversation?”

Amy directed the question at her husband, but it’s Annabeth who answers. “The disturbance call
we went to check up on was because of two Empousai. The guy who called it in probably didn’t
know what he was dealing with but got a threatening vibe from them. They are the basis for
today’s portrayal of vampires.”

Amy isn’t sure whether or not to make fun of this. “Vampires… do they sparkle in the sun?”

“No, but they are blood-sucking monsters that can seduce a person to do almost anything,” Percy
replies.

“So, Vampires are real,” Amy repeats. Annabeth makes a wavy motion with her hand, a “not
really, but close enough”.

Jake obviously needs to know more. “Werewolves?”

Annabeth nods. “Yes. Never met one personally, but some of our friends have, and they aren’t
fans.”

Jake nods, like this was exactly the answer he was expecting. “Dwarfs?”

“Not really our domain. My cousin is good friends with one, though.”

Amy lets the information sink in while her husband asks about more and more mythical creatures –
from which most seem to exist.

It seems so far-fetched, that all those creatures exist and this is the first time she hears about it.

She’d have noticed. And if not her, someone would have noticed something. This wasn’t something
that could be kept a secret…

“How did no one ever notice something like that?” she hears herself say like through a cloud.

The conversation stops as everyone turns their attention to her.

“It’s the mist.” Annabeth settles back into the armchair. “Not-“ she waves a hand in the direction
of the mist Percy is currently directing back into the bowl- “not that kind of mist. It’s its own kind
of magic, tricking the eyes of mortals to see what they expect to see.”

“Like what?” Jake asks.

Annabeth seems to contemplate an answer, but Percy is quicker.

“Do you remember Blackjack?” he asks.

Amy nods. “Your horse. He was at Central Park when Will passed his exam.”

Percy smiles at her. “He’s a Pegasus, actually.”

“A what?” Jake asks.

“Pegasus,” Percy repeats. “He’s got wings. Boyle threw a loaf of bread at him, hitting them.
That’s what startled him.”

“It’s a lot of little things,” Annabeth tries another approach. “Humanoid creatures appearing fully
human. Pegasi appearing like horses, Mrs. O’Leary appearing as a normal dog.”

Amy doesn’t know who Mrs. O’Leary is, but her husband apparently does. “Your poodle?” he
asks, looking at Percy.

Percy grins as he settles back on the armrest next to Annabeth. “My dog. She’s not really a poodle.
But having her run around the city in her real form would cause quite a panic, I suppose.”

Amy doesn’t want this conversation to be about Percy’s pets. She is way more interested in what
the humans can do. “So… what can you do?”

“There are some things that set all of us apart from mortals,” Annabeth starts. She has one arm
slung around Percy’s waist, holding him close. “We are faster, stronger, more durable than
normal people. Most of us have dyslexia since or brains are kind of hard wired to read the native
language of our godly parent, and ADHD, which tends to help in battle. And since we train a lot,
even the younger kids are pretty good with weapons.”

She seems more relaxed, now that Amy has accepted this strange reality as a fact, the words
coming easier to her.

It starts to relax Amy, too, just by approximation. The weapons comment, however…

“How good?”

Annabeth’s smile is easy, but self-assured as she answers. “We don’t really go for guns, but some
of us do archery. Expect any half-blood over the age of twelve that has spent a summer at camp to
be able to beat you in a knife fight.”

Even Jake seems surprised by this statement. They are police officers. They’ve had martial arts
training.

“Seriously?”

“If they’re from Annabeth’s part of the family, expect them to be able to disarm you at age ten,”
Percy comments and Annabeth playfully shoves him.

The way he phrased it, though…

“What do you mean, Annabeth’s part of the family?”

Annabeth turns her attention back to the couple in front of her. “In addition to our general
abilities, many of us have skills in their godly parent’s domain.”

Jake looks confused, and Amy runs a hand down his back. “Like what?” she asks.

Percy sticks his hand into the water bowl and when he removes it, the water follows. “My dad is
Poseidon,” he reveals. “Therefore, I can do stuff with water, sea creatures and horses.”

Amy follows the floating water with her eyes. It’s still fascinating. “Isn’t he the god of earthquakes
as well?”
A shrug. “Yes, but I don’t tend to go there.”

Meaning that he is fully capable of going there and did in the past. Not really reassuring. On the
other hand, the city is still intact, isn’t it?

Percy replaces the water in the bowl with a flick of his wrist. “Nico can do stuff with shadows and
the dead, Leo is an amazing mechanic and has fire powers, Will can heal with magic, Katie can
make plants grow…”

“What can you do?” Jake asks his partner, who looks uncomfortable for a moment.

Percy doesn’t let that faze him, answering Jake with a proud grin on his face. “She makes good
life decisions.”

Jake and Amy exchange a look. After fire powers, controlling the dead, healing magic…

“That doesn’t sound too impressive,” Jake blurts out.

“Oh, trust me, she’s our most valuable member,” Percy assures them and the tension that had
taken hold in Annabeth’s shoulders seems to dissipate.

“My mom’s Athena,” she offers. “She’s the goddess of a lot of stuff, but mainly wisdom and
strategic warfare. So, I don’t have super special skills but I’m good at strategizing and solving
problems.”

“What you’re saying is that you’re supernaturally smart,” Jake summarizes.

“I know it’s not as flashy as Percy’s…”

“Are you kidding? I have very little use of magical water or talking fish in the day-to-day life. But
knowing that you’re not just amazing at your job, but literally magically smart while you’re having
my back is…” Jake stops in the middle of the sentence, obviously caught off guard by another
thought.

“Your mother… is a goddess,” he says slowly.

Annabeth nods.

“The woman who came by the precinct this morning… she was your mother.”

Annabeth nods again.

“I met a goddess.” Jake looks floored by the newly found knowledge.

“Two, actually,” Percy offers.

Jake turns his gaze on him.

“The woman in the park when Will passed his exam,” Percy is happy to elaborate, “was Hera.
Goddess of marriage, family and such. That’s why it fell on her to deliver the information.”

“She seemed rather ethereal,” Amy acknowledges. Since she knows that neither her husband, nor
Annabeth and Percy are likely to bring the conversation back to the happenings earlier in the day,
she takes it upon herself. “So… the Empousai… what were they doing in New York?”

“That’s a good question,” Annabeth admits. She runs a hand through her hair, looks at Percy.
“Nico said you got some of them before we caught the last two?”

Percy nods. “There were six of them, in the beginning, two teams of three. They split, we went after
one group, wanted to find the other later. Cornered them in an alley and took them out. When we
left the alley, there was a commotion down the street, we got distracted for just a moment. We
didn’t expect the second group to circle back.” Annabeth sends her fiancé a slightly reproachful
look but doesn’t comment. “One of them stabbed me in the leg, Nico stabbed her in the gut, and
the other two vanished, using the commotion to their advantage.”

“How long did you run around the city with a bleeding leg?”

“Not long. It stopped bleeding after, like, five minutes.” Annabeth raises an eyebrow. “About two
hours,” Percy admits.

Annabeth shakes her head. “Next time, you find water sooner,” she orders him. Percy smiles at her
but nods.

“So… two teams of three?”

Another nod. “Yeah. Seemed to have come from somewhere in Manhattan.”

“Empire State Building?”

“Unlikely. More a destination than a starting point, don’t you think?”

“What does the Empire State Building have to do with anything?” Amy asks.

“Olympus is on the 600th floor,” Percy responds absentmindedly.

Amy shakes her head. That can’t be right. “It doesn’t even have 600 floors.”

“It does, if you have the magical key to get there.”

Amy can see that Jake wants to ask more questions, wants to know the how and the why, the when
and the who and admittedly, Amy wants to know that, as well. But if she allows them to go down
every interesting string of conversation, they’ll never get to the point.

Whatever that point might be.

“Of course, how did I not guess that? What is the significance of two groups of three?”

“It might be nothing.” Annabeth isn’t looking at Percy anymore. Her eyes are flickering around
the room, not lingering on anything, lost in not what she sees but what she thinks.

With instincts like hers, however…

“I sincerely doubt that.”

A moment of silence as Annabeth forces herself to focus on the woman in front of her. “Groups of
three are often used for missions of any kind. Looking at their equipment, their fighting style, the
fact that they clearly interacted with the other group, yet didn’t take any measures to hunt down
someone in the city…” Annabeth and Percy exchange a long look.

“They might be scouting parties,” Percy finishes her thought.

That grabs Jake’s attention. “Scouting what?”

A shrug. “Don’t know. But whoever or whatever sent them must have some pull to send two teams
instead of one or single personnel.”

“Probably thought it would go unnoticed, too.”

“It might have, had Nico not noticed them.”

“Do we know who might be behind this?”

Percy shakes his head. “Nico says he’ll look into it. We talked to Chiron earlier, but there wasn’t a
prophecy, so the Camp will stay out of it for now.”

“Prophecy? Are you serious?” Jake blurts out.

Percy runs a hand through his hair. “It’s a thing. Not the most useful thing, but still… Camp only
acts when there is a prophecy to fulfil.”

“How many prophecies did you have to fulfil?”

Percy sighs. “Too many. Big ones, too.”

“What differentiates big ones from small ones?”

“Well, small ones usually say if you mess this up, someone will die, and chaos and suffering could
come over the earth. The big ones are more along the lines of if you mess this up, everyone will
die, and chaos and suffering will come over the earth.”

“I see… No pressure, whatsoever, then?”

“No pressure whatsoever.”

They share a grin and Amy is relieved that Jake takes this so well, that he’s still able to joke
around with Percy.

“Why are you telling me all of this, anyways?” Amy asks. Because if they kept it a secret for this
long, why would they change their minds now?

“When we encountered the Empousai earlier, Jake was falling under their spell and telling him
was easier than trying to keep all of this hidden. I could have tried to alter his memories, but it can
be a tricky process and I didn’t really want to do it.” Annabeth shrugs. “Partners are supposed to
trust each other, right?”

It makes something in Amy’s chest soar. She knew that Jake had been miffed about Annabeth
keeping secrets from him, disappointed that he apparently didn’t qualify as someone trustworthy.

“Why are you telling me, though?”

Annabeth’s forehead crinkles, a confused expression taking over her face. “It’s not like Jake could
have kept this from you for longer than a few days. And I prefer having this conversation with you
face to face to Jake trying to remember and passing on information second-hand.”

Amy nods. The explanation makes sense, in a way.

“Will you tell the rest of the squad?”

Annabeth looks a little bit uncomfortable. “We’re not supposed to run around announcing
 ourselves to the world without cause. So, I’ll tell them if the need arises, until then I’d ask you not
to share this information, either.”

Amy can see that Jake is going to struggle to keep this from Charles, even from Rosa and Terry, but
her husband nods.

Then, she forces herself to focus back on the previous conversation, the threat that was running
around their city. Amy forces herself to think from the perspective of a police officer. “Do you think
we have to do something about it? The scouting parties? Maybe there are more.”

Annabeth considers the question for a moment, then shakes her head. “Nico is looking for a
source, our Camp knows, Nico probably already talked to Hazel, so their Camp knows as well…”

“I’ll talk to her later, just in case,” Percy offers, and Annabeth shoots him a quick and grateful
smile.

Jake’s mind is clearly still processing the events that brought this revelation on in the first place.
“Any idea why they were in that office building? Killed a random desk clerk?”

“Not yet. I’ll look into it.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

Annabeth looks him straight in the eye, pushes down her shoulders, takes a deep breath. Amy
knows that posture. Whatever comes next is important to the Detective, important enough to make
a point about it but too delicate to start a fight over should Jake decide to push back.

“Just… when we’re out there and I’m doing something that seems weird to you, please consider
that I might be doing this because I have information that you don’t and that I can’t explain in the
moment. Consider, just for a moment, to give me the benefit of the doubt and back my play, even if
it might seem crazy at the time.”

Amy sees the slight vulnerability in her eyes, the fear that, after all Jake has seen today, all she’s
told him, he might still deny her request.

Jake straightens his shoulders, his voice and face solemn as he answers.

“I will.”

Chapter End Notes

So... two reveals down, at least four to go.

I have the rough outline done, planned most of the chapters (even if the outline is ver
rough at this time).
This will end up being about ten chapters if my plan holds up (fair warning: I have no
idea if it will)
Next chapter will probably be Rosa (and some friends from the Camps ;))
Since I'll be on vacation next week, I'm not sure if I'll manage to post the next chapter
on time, but I'll do my very best.
As I said, the rough outline is done, but if any of you have some ideas, I'm happy to
hear them since most chapter outlines are currently "character A talks to character B
about topic C in location D, running into problem E"... which is better than nothing,
admittedly, but still needs some life...
Have a great day, stay safe. :)
 Rosa
Chapter Notes

Happy Wednesday.
I know I'm waaay behind schedule, and I'm sorry. I was on vacation, then I started an
internship, still sorting out paperwork from the trip we took since I'm the one who
signed the lease, stuff was damaged, I'm suddenly at odds with my brother who - after
the trip - started telling me all the things I did wrong during the trip, during all of this,
another depressive episode managed to sneak up on me which I'm still working
through...
Life's a bit annoying right now, but I'm glad that I finally finished this chapter. (Seeing
the good things and stuff like this, right?)
Just in time for Percy's birthday, even if he is only mentioned in this chapter. But
someone else shows up, so that's at least something.
Have fun reading.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Monday morning starts off slow.

With both Captain Holt and Boyle on vacation, there is a certain lack of focus and a lack of chatter,
only highlighting the groggy mood Annabeth is in when she slumps down on one of the chairs
barely a minute before Terry begins the morning briefing.

Rosa casts a quick glance over the younger woman, but while tired and a little bit off, the blonde
looks all right, so Rosa decides that it can wait until after the briefing.

It’s not like Terry has much to say, anyways.

Even if summer break has just begun, crime is low, a break in, some noise complaints, but not
much to really worry about.

When Terry dismisses the group, Scully and Hitchcock scuttle off to their desks while Rosa turns
around to face Annabeth. Amy and Jake, it appears, have noticed her off state, as well.

“Everything all right with you?” Jake asks, an unusual concern lacing his words.
Annabeth looks up from where her chin is resting on her folded arms atop the table and gives an
affirming grunt. “Didn’t get much sleep.”

“Any particular reason for that?”

The way Jake asks the question catches Rosa’s attention.

The thing is, Rosa knows Jake. She knows him damn well. She usually doesn’t pay too much
attention to people, doesn’t really care about them, and even if she does – once in a while – form an
attachment to someone, she does her best not to show it.

But Jake is her oldest friend, they’ve known each other since the academy and by now, she pretty
much knows all his tells. Knows the way he starts rambling when nervous, the tilt of his head
when he finds something particularly fascinating, the small upturn of the corner of his mouth
whenever Amy is as much as mentioned in his vicinity.

But with all this knowledge, all those things she learned without ever really trying to, Rosa can’t
place this expression.

Can’t say where the slight tension in Jake’s shoulders comes from, or what the quick glance he
exchanges with Amy means.

Annabeth lets out a long breath, lifts her head from her arms with what seems to be a tremendous
effort and leans back in her chair, meets their gazes

Jake’s eyes flick over to Rosa, just for a second, and that’s when it clicks.

Rosa knows this behavior, the sideways glance, the faint tension in his yaw, the way he’s angled
himself – just slightly – in a way that puts Rosa on the outskirts of this conversation.

She didn’t recognize it at first because she’s never been on this side of it. Has never been on the
outside of “Jake has a serious secret and actually recognized the importance of it.”

She can’t say she likes it.

Annabeth lets out a long-suffering grunt. “Percy.”

A dozen possibilities and more race through Rosa’s head about just why Annabeth seems
exhausted and Jake looks worried, and if they include Percy, Rosa doesn’t like most of them.

But Jake relaxes, so does Amy, and Rosa allows herself to wait out this conversation.

“I love the guy to pieces, but…” Annabeth’s sentence trails off.

Jake chuckles. “What did he do this time?” He is relaxed, curious, leaning against the chair he was
previously sitting on.

Annabeth grabs the ring hanging around her neck next to the wooden pearls she’d already worn
when she joined the squad. Even in the few short weeks since she got engaged, it turned into a
habit.

“Do you ever get the urge to get out of bed at three in the morning to go on a run?”

“No,” Rosa answers, not even caring whether the question was actually directed at her. She knows
for a fact that neither Jake nor Amy would disagree with her.

Annabeth gives her a tired smile. “See? Neither do I.”

They fall into silence. Annabeth blankly stares at the nearest wall.

“Do you want me to ask what brought this on, or…?”

Annabeth’s attention snaps back to her. “I know exactly two people who think that it’s a good idea.
And I’m engaged to one of them.”

“Percy dragged you out of bed, then?”

Annabeth huffs a laugh. “No, he has some survival instinct. Tried it once, didn’t like the result and
let me be from then on out.”

“So…?” Amy prompts after Annabeth trailed off once again.

“So, whenever Reyna comes to town, she shows up at our flat in the middle of the night, wakes us
up and goes running with Percy.”

There is a slight curiosity to Jake’s demeanor, he’s not worried or tense any more, simply
interested. “Who’s Reyna?”

“The second person I know who enjoys running in the middle of the night.” Annabeth smiles, her
hand ghosting over one of the pearls around her neck, violet and orange colors mixing with each
other in a stunning artwork. “She’s an old friend, we go way back.”

The sentence seems to hold more information than Rosa is able to grasp, but she decides to let it go
and pushes the conversation forwards. “So, Reyna picked up Percy for a nightly run. What happens
then?”

Annabeth makes a vague gesture with her hand. “They run,” she says. “They flip a coin to decide
which direction to go in – today it was head, so they’re going south.”

“What kind of route are they running if their only direction is south?”

Annabeth’s smile grows wider, morphs into the way she usually looks when her fiancé does
something stupid. “They run along the waterside, until they find an open place that offers pancakes
for breakfast and has at least one orange and one violet flower somewhere.”

“That’s oddly specific.”

“It is. Took them almost five hours when they went running in February.”
The comment halts the group in their conversation. “Five hours?” Rosa repeats. “They ran for five
hours because they couldn’t find a place with the right flowers?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “They found a place with orange and violet flowers two hours in, they
even offered pancakes, but Percy and Reyna got there ten minutes before they opened and decided
that it would be cheating to wait for them to open.”

“That’s crazy.”

Annabeth chuckles. “I know. But it’s their thing and Reyna is one of the very few people able and
at this point pretty much the only person willing to commit to a full day of exercise with Percy and
as long as they have fun with it, I won’t complain.”

“So, they find a pancake place with flowers, then what?”

“They have breakfast.”

“I kind of gathered that. But how do they get back? Do they call a cab?”

“You assume that a five-hour morning run is their full workout.” Annabeth shakes her head. “After
breakfast, they go for a swim. Rather short distance, though, since Reyna is not as good a swimmer
as Percy.”

“Do I even want to know what short distance means in this context?”

“Probably not.”

“All right. After the swim, what comes next? Cab home?”

“Nah, where would be the fun in that? They run back.”

There is a beat of silence. Then, “Are you serious?”

Annabeth makes an exaggerated face and lowers her voice. “Well, obviously. We ran the stretch in
the dark, now we have to see what it looks like.”

Jake chuckles at the impersonation of Percy. It was rather spot-on. “So, after hours of running and
swimming, I don’t assume they collapse on the couch and don’t get up for a day?”

“What gave you that idea? No, we usually meet up with Thalia for cheeseburgers during which
Percy and Reyna try to needle us into a sparring session.”

“Thalia?”

Another truly genuine smile. “Reyna’s PHB.”

“What’s a PHB?” Rosa sees her confusion reflected on the other’s faces.

“Preferred Humanoid Being.” Annabeth shrugs. “Reyna is ace, Thalia and her both took a vow of
maidenhood which they take pretty seriously, and Reyna really doesn’t like people calling them
girlfriends.”

Rosa shakes her head. “Am I the only one thrown off by the phrasing of humanoid being?”

The other three exchange a glance. “Apparently, yes.”

“So, you and the PHB, you have a sparring session with them and take them down?”

Annabeth looks like this is one of the most ridiculous things she ever heard. “After they’ve had
hours of warm-up? That’s just unfair.”

“So, you don’t fight. Does… Thalia?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “She has enough opportunity to spar with Reyna and letting her and
Percy face off gets super competitive and destructive. They aren’t allowed to spar in the vicinity of
other people.”

Rosa is sure that she must be exaggerating – has decided that a lot sooner during this conversation,
even if it is rather unlike Annabeth – but the slight purse of Jake’s lips makes her wonder just how
ridiculous her co-worker’s claims are.

Just then, Terry comes back into the room to remind them that while there is not as much going on
in the city as it is at other times in the year, this is still New York, there is still crime on their
streets and as New York’s finest, they should do something about it.

--------------

“Does Percy do this often?” Rosa asks as she and Annabeth walk through a small park on their way
back from a crime scene. She doesn’t really understand why Annabeth insisted on going this route
– something about a rare bird she might have seen and wanted to check out – but the sun is
obscured by clouds today, so the walk is nice. “Going for a run in the middle of the night?”

Annabeth shrugs. “He used to do it a lot when we were still in college and Reyna came by way
more often. During finals week, they’d often get up to go on their runs before I even got to sleep.”
She makes a face at the memory. “We didn’t sleep at the same time for almost a month, barely saw
each other during the day due to entirely different schedules… We finally made a rule that he
doesn’t go on more than three nightly runs a week and I have to go to bed at three in the morning at
the latest.”

Rosa smiles at the admission. To be this young and in love again… “Did it work?”

“More or less.” Annabeth is silent for a few steps. “Our relationship has had its ups and downs. We
made it through everything the world threw at us so far, we refused to be beaten by differint sleep
schedules.”

She is about to say something else, but the young Detective freezes, her gaze glued to a flock of
birds, about three dozen of the animals sitting around on the grass next to their path.

Rosa doesn’t really know much about birds, never really cared enough to learn about them. But
she’s lived in the city all her life and she recognizes a pigeon when she sees one. There is
absolutely nothing special about the flock, jet Annabeth seems thoroughly perplexed by them.
“What’s up?” she asks the younger woman.

Annabeth is still staring at the birds, a careful, attentive look on her face. She is standing very still,
seemingly cautious not to startle the animals.

“Afraid of birds?” Rosa asks mockingly.

Her voice, louder in her mocking than she intended, makes some of the birds raise their heads and
look over at the two women.

“Those aren’t normal birds,” Annabeth croaks. She slowly backs away, her hand going for the
knife at her back.

The way she angles her body like she’s facing an actual threat, a foe she can fight instead of a flock
of harmless birds confuses Rosa even further.

One of the birds squeaks, an ugly sound, ringing in Rosa’s ears. I doesn’t quite sound like a pigeon.

She registers the tightening of Annabeth’s jaw, as much as a warning in the face of a serious threat
as she needs when the birds take flight and come rushing in their direction.

“Get down!” a voice behind them shouts.

Rosa stiffens, starts to turn around to see who spoke, but Annabeth immediately drops to the
ground and pulls Rosa down with her.

An arrow whistles over their heads, piercing clean through two of the birds in quick succession
before getting stuck in a tree trunk.

I startles the flock out of formation, the animals scattering and gaining altitude to get away from
the threat now directed at them.
Rosa gets back to her feet as soon as Chase lets go of her and whirls around to face the newcomer.

The girl in front of them can’t be older than sixteen, even if she carries herself with the confidence
of someone at least twice her age. She has spiky black hair and startling blue eyes, the silver circlet
on her forehead stands in stark contrast to her black skull earrings. Despite the heat, she is clad in a
black leather jacket over a silvery parker and faded jeans. She has a bow in her and, a quiver full of
arrows in strapped to her hip. Knives are fastened in holsters at her legs, a sturdy backpack slung
over her shoulders.

She grins at Annabeth and nods in greeting. “What up, Owl Face?”

“Thalia!” Annabeth gets to her feet, her posture loosening a bit as she shoots the girl a quick grin.
“Fancy seeing you here. Anything in particular bringing you to this area?”

Thalia rolls her eyes, juts her chin in the direction where she just shot the birds, but when Rosa
turns, she can’t find the dead animals. “Bird watching,” she replies with a completely straight face.

“Yeah, me too.” The young Detective follows the flight of the birds with her eyes as they make a
wide berth around the meadow, falling into a tight formation. She gestures to Rosa. “This is my
colleague, Detective Rosa Diaz. Rosa, this is Thalia.”

Thalia. The PHB.

Rosa expected her to be… older.

She pauses for a moment, awaiting an explanation on why the girl is running around shooting birds
in the park or at least a last name, but neither is forthcoming.

She nods in greeting.

The girl returns the gesture, a spark in her eye that Rosa can’t place at all.

“How many…?” Thalia asks, gesturing to the birds.

“Only part of a flock, it appears, about three dozen,” Annabeth replies.

Thalia nods. “Nothing we haven’t dealt with before, then.”

“I hate those things.” Annabeth pulls her knife out of its sheath.

Rosa looks from one to the other, both seemingly haven forgotten her presence. She doesn’t
understand why they are suddenly so intent on killing a flock of pigeons. Then again, pigeons
usually don’t circle back for another go after being startled away.

She watches in astonishment as the birds circle back towards them and go into a dive.

Thalia casts her a quick glance. “Is she…”

Annabeth regards Rosa for a moment, shifts her stance so she stands slightly in front of Rosa. “Not
one of us, but she can handle a knife.”

Thalia accepts the fact with a nod, her attention now solely on the birds. She releases two arrows at
once, then three in one go.

Rosa sees the arrows find their mark, but in the mayhem of the flock, she can’t see the bodies drop.

With a quick and practiced move, Thalia shifts her bow over a shoulder and pulls out a long knife
with a silver blade and leather wrapping along the handle, slashing through the birds flying low
enough for her to reach.

Annabeth does the same, her blade catching in the sun of the early afternoon and reflecting the
light in a strange, bronze tone.

Rosa has her own knife in hand in a matter of seconds, swinging it expertly into the flock, but she
doesn’t seem to hit anything.
And while, granted, hitting flying targets is hard, she didn’t expect to do so much worse than the
other two who seem to hit a bird with every slash.

“Why are those stupid pigeons attacking us?” Rosa demands when the flock has passed them,
noticeable fewer than before.

“Because these aren’t pigeons,” Annabeth answers, her eyes following the flock as it gains altitude
to avoid getting caught between some trees. “They’re Stymphalian Birds.”

Rosa has no idea what to do with this information, the word Stymphalian meaningless in this
context, in any context, really. She wants to ask about it further, wants to demand answers, but the
birds are flying a smaller circle than before and are already lining up again for the next attack.

“How are you so good at fighting them?” she questions instead. “It’s like I didn’t hit a single one.”

“It’s because you fight with a mundane weapon,” Thalia says, bow in one hand, knife in the other.

She looks over at Annabeth and they share a quick glance before Thalia offers her knife to Rosa,
hilt first. “Try this one. Should work a great deal better.”

She is about to argue, to say that her knife works just fine, thank you very much, but Annabeth
steps up next to her, ready to fight off the next wave of attacks at her side instead of in front of her,
shielding her, and somehow, that convinces Rosa to take the silver weapon.

The leather is smooth in her grip, the blade longer than she is used to, it looks wickedly sharp and
well cared for.

Thalia fires off another round of arrows before the flock is on them once again and all three of
them strike at the birds.

This time, Rosa actually manages to hit the birds, but something is off. It causes her a headache
because while she is able to strike down the birds, to hit them, she seems incapable of watching
them die, drop to the floor. She just focusses on the next bird, and the next, and a fourth, and then
they’re gone, off to another go-around.
The birds have come in lower this time. Annabeth has a bloody scratch on her wrist, Thalia an
angry red mark next to her left ear.

Rosa notes with some satisfaction that none of the birds managed to harm her.

She looks out over the meadow, looking for… something, she is sure about it. She wanted to see
if…

She shakes her head. Probably not important if she already forgot it.

The grass is green, the sky is blue, a strange golden hue seems to settle at their feet. Must be the
sun reflecting in dust particles.

“Did you know we had a full flock of them at Camp the summer before you got back?” Annabeth
asks Thalia conversationally.

“Really? What did you do?” Thalia calmly knocks another arrow.

“Chiron’s portable stereo. Chased them off.”

Thalia’s expression is grim as she notches two arrows. “I really don’t want to scatter them,
though.”

“Neither do I.”

The flock has shrunken to just over a dozen birds and Rosa only manages to hit a single one this
time.

She has difficulties keeping count of how many the other two fell, her headache acting up once
again when she tries.

She hears the hiss of pain next to her, the ripping of clothing, a muttered curse in a language she
doesn’t speak, yet the tone doesn’t leave any doubt about it.
She presses a hand to her temple when the wave is gone, earning a concerned glance from
Annabeth. “Everything all right? They didn’t harm you.” The second part is more a statement than
a question, but Rosa has too big a headache to ponder it.

Rosa shakes her head, looks at Annabeth’s torn sleeve. The skin underneath isn’t broken. “Just a
headache,” she answers truthfully.

Annabeth and Thalia exchange another quick glance, Annabeth giving a curt nod. Thalia snaps her
fingers.

For some reason, the headache starts to dissipate, lifting, like a veil being pulled away.

The birds are still circling, only a hand full of them left, all the others already felled.

And that’s what Rosa was looking for, that’s what was bugging her in the back of her mind!

There aren’t any dead birds lying around them.

No lifeless bodies scattered around, no sign of their fight, expect for the steadily shrinking number
of birds each time they attack.

The thwack of Thalia’s bowstring pulls Rosa out of her thoughts. Because whatever is going on, for
whatever reason the killed animals aren’t lying around, she can’t change that, and she can’t do
anything about it right now.

What she can do, is to kill more of them, and concentrate on what happens to them.

Thalia lets loose another arrow. It pierces one of the birds and the bird… turns to dust. Literally.

It rains down in the form of golden powder, scattered in the wind before it even hits the ground.
Rosa notices Annabeth watching her. “I’ll explain once we’ve got all of them down,” the younger
woman promises.

It’s not like Rosa can do anything about it either way, so she just nods and prepares for what will
hopefully be the last attack.

When Thalia changes the bow for her knife, there are six birds left.

Annabeth easily takes down two of them, golden dust raining down on her in the process. Thalia
gets three, flying rather closely together and not prepared for the girl’s quick strike.

The last one, not intent on targeting either Annabeth or Thalia, swerves in a way that brings it close
enough to Rosa for her to strike, but when she raises her blade and actually takes a closer look at
the animal, she freezes.

This isn’t an ordinary bird. Not that anything about their behavior was normal, but their
appearance… How didn’t she notice this sooner?

The bird’s beak is sharp and shimmering in a metallic hue, the talons like daggers, the eyes red and
manic.

Yet, the bird doesn’t pay Rosa any mind, like she isn’t even there, just intent on getting away from
the other two.

Rosa manages to shake herself out of her stupor just in time, slashing the borrowed knife across the
bird’s belly and watching in wonder as golden dust rains down on her.

“What the hell just happened?”

Annabeth’s explanation is as self-assured as it is unbelievable.

She talks about gods and half-bloods and summer camps as Thalia walks around and gathers her
arrows and Rosa just stands there, absentmindedly turning the silver blade in her hands. She listens
to an explanation about the mist, about monsters and about how she wouldn’t even have noticed
anything being off in particular had Thalia not lifted the illusion for her.

“So, that’s why I didn’t hit anything the first time they passed,” Rosa concludes. “Because my
knife is made of normal steel?”

Annabeth nods, gesticulating with her own blade. “There is a number of materials that can harm
monsters. We mostly use celestial bronze at our camp.” She points towards the knife in Rosa’s
hand. “Thalia’s group uses moon silver. Pretty much the only metal able to harm werewolves.”
Because of course, they are real. Why wouldn’t they be? “Our friends from the west coast mainly
use imperial gold. There are a few other materials used for weapons, but not as widely. Nico’s got a
sword made out of stygian iron, mine’s made of dragon bone.”

“How did you manage to get a sword out of dragon bone?” Rosa interrupts her and a shadow falls
over Annabeth’s expression.

“Long story, and not exactly a happy one.” She sighs. “Maybe I’ll tell you one day, but only if
Percy is there.”

Thalia appears next to them, her quiver once again full of arrows.

The angry red spot on her face is already fading, but the scratch on the silver circlet on her head
where one of the birds tried to hack into her skull will probably be there for a while.

She holds out her hand. “I’ll need that back, too.”

Rosa eyes the weapon in her hand. “Are you sure? Could come in handy one day.”

There is a smile on Thalia’s face as she nods. “If you want a hunter’s knife, you’ll have to join the
hunt,” she replies.

And Annabeth has explained that, too, once Rosa remembered her first impression of the girl and
wondered about how this child was one of Annabeth’s oldest friends who she met as a child of
seven. Told her about the huntresses of Artemis, about immortality and of the vow of chastity one
has to take to join.

Definitely not worth the trade – even if it’s a very nice weapon.

She hands over the knife. “Why am I able to hold it, anyways? Didn’t you say that mortals can’t
affect magical metals and vice versa?”

Thalia grins as she takes the weapon, trails one finger over it. “Magical metal, but mundane leather
wrapping on the handle,” she says calmly. “Imbued with just the slightest hint of magic to make it
usable for any woman.”

“And what do I do if I ever run into another monster and don’t have a fancy weapon like this at
hand?”

Thalia methodically wipes the blade down. “Well, first off, you probably won’t even notice. I let
you see through the mist right now, but it won’t last so you wouldn’t even notice if Cerberus
himself walks past you.”

Rosa chokes, remembering the stories her father told her as a young girl about the monster
guarding the realm of the dead. “Cerberus is real?”

Annabeth grins. “Yeah, he’s a sweetheart.”

Rosa just stares at her.

Thalia huffs a laugh. “Annabeth actually once went down there to play fetch with him.”

“What was I supposed to do? I promised him! And he is a good boy.” Annabeth’s voice gets
smaller towards the end, her words losing some of their heat, but still not allowing any room for an
argument.

Thalia gamely rolls her eyes. “Secondly, even if you notice a monster, it won’t be able to harm
you.”
“Nor would it try,” Annabeth adds. “You’re a mortal. You’re not interesting to them. That’s why
none of them attacked you and we got scratches all over.”

Rosa regards the angry red marks along her co-worker’s arms, few of them actually drawing blood.
She nods in understanding. “Probably for the best if I don’t stick my neck too far into this
anyways, isn’t it? Plus, how would I explain away a weapon I can’t even cut myself with?”

Thalia regards her for a moment, then holds out her left hand, palm up. “Give me your arm,” she
demands, and Rosa does just that, placing her right wrist in the open palm.

Thalia raises her right hand, swipes it through the faint golden dust still settled on Rosa’s shoulders
from the birds she slayed.

Thalia brings her fingers down to Rosa’s hand, drawing a small, crescent moon on her wrist. “You
don’t want to be part of the hunt, but you fought bravely at my side today and that makes you a
sister in arms. I hereby mark you as a friend of the hunt.”

It feels ceremonial and goosebumps form on Rosa’s forearm.

“This will go away in like, ten minutes, tops,” she comments flatly, trying to play down the
moment.

There is a faint smile on Thalia’s face. “It will always be visible for those to whom it matters.”

They slowly make their way back towards the precinct, Annabeth in the middle, immersed in a
conversation with Thalia with Rosa trailing along.

“I’m still curious as to why you’re here,” Annabeth says. “Reyna mentioned something about
Artemis sending you this morning, but I was truthfully not awake enough to listen once she said
there isn’t an immediate threat.”
 Thalia nods. “There are currently a lot of monsters around, way more than usual. We think that a
lot of them might come from New York, at least this seems to be where most of them are. With the
kids at Camp for the summer, Artemis thought it would be a good idea for Reyna and I to stay in
the city for a while and see if we can find out what’s going on.”

“Percy and Nico picked up a few Empousai last week,” Annabeth offers. “Looked like scouting
parties.”

Thalia makes a face. “That’s not good.”

“Neither is Stymphalian Birds just hanging around Brooklyn.”

“True. Any leads on your end, yet?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “Nico thinks there might be something at his dad’s end, he wanted to
talk to Hazel and take a look around downstairs.”

“Seems plausible.”

It doesn’t.

Nothing of this seems plausible to Rosa.

And while the two half-gods next to her talk about hunting monsters, she allows herself to opt out
of the conversation, her mind returning to the break-in she and Chase had been sent out to
investigate in the first place.

She’s going to worry about things she can actually do something about.

Chapter End Notes

Sooo...
I'm reasonably happy with this?
Like, it's not my favorite chapter but I think I got all the things across that I wanted to,
the story is progressing, stuff is happening, Thalia is here... We'll get to see Reyna in
at least one of the future chapters, as well, but I didn't want to stuff her in here.
I hope Rosa wasn't too OOC?
Maybe leave a comment if you liked it.
Next up is Terry, who's getting a rather short chapter (at least that's the plan this far,
let's see where it goes).
Have a great day, stay safe.
 Terry
Chapter Notes

Happy Tuesday.
It's me... still alive, still unable to keep to an updating schedule, still not abandoning
this story.
Still getting sidetracked by other story ideas, still buying more books and starting new
series to split my time between even more fandoms...
School started again, don't know if that means I'll post more or less, let's be surprised.
This chapter is rather short, but otherwise I probably wouldn't have updated for
another week or two, so here you go.
Enjoy reading.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Terry Jeffords had been a capable Detective back in the day, went on to be a good Sargent and an
even better Lieutenant.

He knows how to solve difficult cases, how to pick up on small details, knows his squad inside and
out.

So, he takes notice when during the summer, half of his squad starts acting off.

It’s not… it’s not much, is the thing.

It’s small things here and there, none of them alarming or even really noticeable on their own.

It’s in the way Rosa’s eyes seem to linger on Percy when he comes in with his little sister on
Tuesday.

It’s in the way Jake doesn’t even try to insist they follow his hunch before investigating Chase’s
lead on Wednesday.

It’s not exactly in the fact that Annabeth hasn’t turned in her paperwork on time on Thursday –
because that happens with her as frequently as with Jake in his earlier days.
Neither is it in the way Terry grumbles “it’s not like it’s hard, I’m not exactly asking you to hold up
the sky here” and Annabeth replies with a mumbled “been there, done that” – because that’s just
how Annabeth is.

But it definitely is in the way no one laughs, doesn’t even chuckle or smile.

It’s in the way Jake and Rosa freeze at the comment, their faces surprised and almost shocked
before returning to a carefully neutral expression as they continue their previous tasks with great
care.

It's in the way Amy passes Annabeth a stack of reports on Friday that the Detective has no need of
but accepts with a grateful smile. When Terry takes a look at them, it’s just different reports of
rabid dogs, people hearing strange noises in the night and one person swearing up and down that
he saw a werewolf – even after having spent a night and most of the day in holding and being
certifiably sober and not on drugs.

During the weekend, while he plays with his daughters, talks to his wife, meets a friend for a run
and paints in his new studio, Terry almost forgets about it.

Almost.

He is starkly reminded when he enters the briefing room on Monday morning and the conversation
in there breaks up abruptly, before Amy, Jake and Rosa quickly start a new conversation about
how well Mac is already able to run around the apartment.

When Annabeth comes in, there is nothing unusual about the other’s behavior. But when the
meeting ends and Annabeth walks off towards the evidence lockup, Amy trailing after her, it
catches Terry’s attention.

Something is going on with his squad, something that probably has Chase front and center.

Peralta, Santiago and Diaz are all aware, but Terry most decidedly is not.

He is almost certain that asking wouldn’t lead to anything, though, so he settles on keeping an eye
out and maybe getting to the bottom of it all or at least getting a rough idea which direction he has
to look in.
The answer appears on Tuesday, in the form of a man who has so far been the problem more often
than the solution.

Terry’s day had been going great until the Vulture showed up.

Captain Keith Pembroke had the annoying talent to sour everyone’s mood and darken everyone’s
day just by showing his face.

True to his word, however, he’d stayed clear of the 99th precinct since his encounter with Detective
Chase in the park more than half a year ago.

So, him showing up at the precinct this Tuesday afternoon is peculiar, especially since they aren’t
currently working on any cases that might be of interest to him. Even stranger however is his
bearing. Usually brash and demanding, he almost seems hesitant as he looks around the bullpen
before his gaze settles on Terry as the highest-ranking person in the room.

“Where’s Chase?” he asks, but the usual level of disdain in his voice is missing.

Terry meets his gaze. “Why do you want to know?”

There is an annoyed flicker in the other man’s eyes, almost nervous, it seems. Terry waits him out.

“I need to talk to her,” Pembroke snaps.

“What about?” Terry doesn’t want to force his youngest Detective into a conversation with the
notorious Captain without even knowing what this is about.

Even if they know each other.

Even if she has been acting strange that past week or so.

“None of your business,” the Vulture grinds out. “Tell me, Lieutenant, is she here?”
As if Terry needs the reminder that the other man outranks him. He wishes Captain Holt were
here, but the man is still on vacation with his husband and will not be of any help in this matter.

He decides to stand his ground, hoping that his Captain would back him up later if necessary. “She
is on my squad. Whatever you want with her, you should tell me.”

Pembroke shakes his head. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Then I have to presume that your visit is personal, not work-related. In which case you pulling
rank is rather inappropriate.”

Pembroke’s face flushes red with anger and he puffs himself up in front of Terry’s desk, obviously
preparing for a dressing down, when the elevator dings and Annabeth and Jake emerge.

They exchange a quick glance before coming to stand with the higher-ranking officers.

“Keith,” Annabeth greets the Captain. “What brings you ‘round?” Her smile is wan, her voice
apprehensive, like she already knows the answer and doesn’t want to hear it.

“You really want to do this here?” Pembroke asks, all but confirming Terry’s suspicions of this
being a personal matter.

Annabeth lets her gaze wander over the bullpen, the perps, the cluster of lawyers in one corner, the
mingling officers. She shakes her head. “No.” She gestures towards the roof access door. “Let’s
talk outside.”

“You don’t have to.”

Chase and Pembroke both turn at Terry’s words. He doubles down.

“You don’t have to talk to him, Chase, if you don’t want to.” His gaze flickers to Jake, who has
gone back to his desk and is doing an awful job of pretending not to listen in.
You can say a lot of things about Jake Peralta, but his gut instincts seldomly steer him wrong and
he is eying Pembroke with a tenseness to his frame that doesn’t sit well with Terry.

So, he locks his computer screen, puts his glasses aside and stands up. “In fact, I think I’ll join your
conversation if you don’t mind.” It isn’t really a request.

“I do mind,” Pembroke objects anyways.

Annabeth looks from the Captain next to her, who is obviously waiting for her to take the lead, to
Jake, who still sits with his hands frozen atop his keyboard, not doing any work and then to her
commanding officer. She takes in his concerned features, the firm set of his shoulders and gives a
small nod.

Jake relaxes instantly, actually starts tapping away on his keyboard. Pembroke rolls his eyes but
doesn’t try to argue.

“I don’t have much time,” he simply tells Annabeth and follows her to the door.

Air conditioning inside the building is nice, but with the steady breeze blowing over the city, being
outside isn’t so bad, either.

Annabeth doesn’t give the Vulture any time to talk after the door closes behind them, immediately
turning towards Terry.

“You requested to be here and by this point, I suppose you finding out is only a matter of time,
anyways; and I trust you.” She fixes him with a stare. “But we don’t have very much time, the
sooner Keith is gone, the better.” The comment surprises Terry, the two had seemed amicable
enough just a minute ago. Pembroke doesn’t even seem to take offence to the statement, though.
“So, Keith and I will have our conversation and afterwards, I’ll explain the how and the why and
answer all your questions, deal?”

Terry frowns. He doesn’t understand what’s going on and Terry doesn’t like not understanding
what is going on with his work family. Although that has always been hard with Chase, he
supposes.
He nods and Annabeth’s shoulders sag in relief that he doesn’t put up much of a fight. She turns to
Pembroke, taking on the bearings of a commanding officer if he has ever seen one.

“Go on, then.”

Pembroke’s gaze flashes over Terry’s form one last time, then he turns his full attention to the
woman in front of him.

“You know how much I despise not winning and having to ask for help,” he starts.

Annabeth mutters something that sounds like “Obviously, it’s in your genes.”

“I don’t know why, but the… encounters have increased those past few weeks. There is a rapidly
growing population of…” He trails off, looking at Terry.

“Oh, for mother’s sake, Keith, just say it. I’ll tell him everything after you’re gone, anyways.”

“As if I’d do anything in your mother’s name,” Pembroke grumbles. He immediately raises his
hands in defeat and backs off when he sees Annabeth’s stormy expression. “Sorry.”

He takes a deep breath, then continues. “Yeah, so… monsters, right? There’s an awful lot, lately.”

Terry almost snorts at the word monsters, but Annabeth doesn’t even bat an eyelash.

“Yes.”

Pembroke waits a moment. When no further explanation is forthcoming, he presses. “Any idea
why?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “No, not yet. We’re aware of the problem, are working on determining
the source and finding a solution.”
“That’s some PR bullshit if I ever heard some.”

Even if he has no idea what this conversation is about, Terry has to agree.

Annabeth fiddles with her necklace, a nervous habit she seems unable to shake.

“Working theory is that one of the portals to the underworld is open and monsters use it to escape.
Nico and Hazel are doing what they can to find the source from inside, Camp Half-Blood is trying
to find the source from this side. The Hunters are tracking down everything that has managed to
escape.”

“The Hunters are in the City?” Pembroke perks up at the information, his face pulling into the
leering smile he used to direct at Santiago.

“Keep in mind that they are commanded by a fifteen-year-old girl that can summon lightning and
are under the protection of a goddess whose arrows hit any target, no matter how far away.”

Whatever metaphor Annabeth is trying to use is completely lost on Terry, but Pembroke nods, his
expression growing rather apprehensive. “Anything I can do to help?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “The epicenter seems to be New York, but we don’t know if it’s
because the portal is here, because they want something in the city or because there are a lot of
demigods running around here most of the time. Since it’s summer anyways, we’re encouraging
everyone to go to Camp. Stay safe, stay out of the way, give us space to operate.”

“You think that’ll help?”

Annabeth shrugs. “Having so many of us in the city makes it very hard to track where the monsters
come from and where they’re planning on going, since they keep getting sidetracked by all of us.”

The Vulture seems to be able to follow this line of reasoning, even if Terry is not. “I have quite a
few vacation days saved up. Guess I’m taking a trip to Camp.”

Annabeth smiles at him. “Thank you. I know stepping aside isn’t easy for you.”
 “You’re right.” The first real smile Terry might ever have seen on Pembroke creeps onto his face,
without any trace of malice or mockery. “But going home sounds nice.” He sounds almost wistful.
He extends an arm parallel to the ground with his palm facing downwards in an old-fashioned
roman salute. “Ave.”

Annabeth smiles at him, almost indulgently, and brings her hand up to touch her temple in a lazy
salute. “Captain.”

With a last nod to Annabeth and not a single word to Terry, Pembroke vanishes inside the building.

Terry looks at Annabeth.

Annabeth looks back.

They stare at each other for a long moment before the Detective deflates. She picks up her necklace
to fiddle with it again.

“I guess I owe you some answers, huh?”

Chapter End Notes

Hope you liked it.

I have a pretty good idea where I'm going with this, let's see how much I'll let myself
be sidetracked.
Maybe leave a comment (I thrive on attention... ;))
HAve a great day, stay safe.
 Rosa II
Chapter Notes

Not the chapter I meant to write, to be honest...

But hey, sometimes you have to surprise yourself, right? ^^

See the end of the chapter for more notes

“What was that about?” Rosa asks as she watches the black mop of hair bounce down the stairs.

Jake pauses in his task as well, turning to Annabeth to await her answer.

The blonde turns from where she was watching her friend leave, her eyes darting around the room.
“Just a friend of mine, came by to drop something off…” she lets her sentence trail off, her gaze
gliding over Jake before settling on Rosa. She takes a breath, lets her shoulders relax, seems to
make a decision. “She’s a friend from Camp, came by to put new wards on the precinct. She did
the wards on our apartment when we moved there. Best one could ask for.”

Rosa looks over at Jake, his face displaying the same surprise she feels.

“Wards against what?” Jake is the first to voice the question.

Annabeth shrugs, goes back to her desk. “Monsters.” She sits down, grabs the glass paperweight
sitting atop some files and starts fiddling with it. “Well, she didn’t actually ward the place in the
sense of the word, but… Made it harder for monsters to track us here, I guess.”

“What do you mean, track you?” Rosa asks, concerned by the possible lack of security.

“Half-bloods have a certain smell that monsters can track. Apparently, to them, we smell like tacos
or take-out Vietnamese”

Even though they just had lunch, Rosa can see how Jake perks up at the mention of food. “Fun.
So… they can track you here? Why are you installing the wards just now, then?”
“Warding this place properly is hard,” Annabeth admits, “because there are very many beings we
want to keep out but even more we need to let in. We can’t do blood-wards, because we would
certainly miss some groups who should be let in or shut out, depending on what kind of ward we
set. Hazel put up some wards at Halloween last year, to mask mine and Percy’s smell, but with
more friends of ours dropping in, we decided that some more might come in handy.”

“What did she do, then?”

“Lou Ellen installed… a magical fan, I suppose? Our scents now dissipate quickly once we are
inside the precinct. Means that a monster can still track us here if it picks up our trail, but once
inside, the smell doesn’t thicken in a way that would lure them here.”

Rosa is just about to comment on how that sounds like a smart idea when she sees Jake’s face,
stuck in something between outrage and surprise.

“What happened to you?” she asks her friend.

“I just realized something.”

“Did it hurt?”

Jake shakes himself out of his stupor and round on his partner. “Hazel,” he simply says.

Annabeth quirks an eyebrow, deliberately puts a hand on her chest. “No, Annabeth.”

Jake rolls his eyes. “She was here for the Halloween Heist.”

When Annabeth’s face turns sheepish, Rosa understands what he is getting at.

“She helped you to get the blanket. With… magic.”

Annabeth shrugs. “You said that I could use whoever and whatever I like to win,” she replies. “So,
I decided to invite someone who could track the blanket, won fair and square.”
“You put a magical tracker into the blanket?”

“In a way. Hazel is good with precious stones, so she just needed to look for them.”

“The stones were real?”

“You put real gems into a blanket that could have ended up anywhere?”

“It’s not like there was any doubt about me getting it back,” Annabeth simply answers.

“But that’s… that’s cheating!” Jake finally gets out.

Annabeth just laughs. “Whoever and whatever helps, right?”

Before Jake can get out whatever rambling he was building up to, the elevator door open to reveal a
very tired looking Will.

Annabeth’s eyebrows knit together in worry as she watches him enter the bullpen and walk over to
her. He sinks down into her visitor’s chair and lets out a long yawn.

But while he is clearly exhausted, he doesn’t seem to be stressed or upset, so Rosa guesses
whatever caused his exhaustion can’t be too bad.

“What happened to you?” Annabeth asks as she pulls a flask of something to drink out of her bag.

Will opens the flask, sniffs at it and a slow smile spreads across his face. He takes a long gulp and
life seems to filter back into him.

“Double shift at the hospital.” He passes the flask back to Annabeth who very deliberately keeps it
away from Jake’s curious hands.
“You should sleep,” Annabeth states.

A hum in agreement. “Can I crash at your place?”

Annabeth already rummages for her keys. “Sure. But what’s wrong about your place?”

“It’s haunted.”

Annabeth snorts a laugh. “What?”

Will takes her keys, stifles another yawn. “Nico decided that he doesn’t need to start an expedition
through the underworld if he can just summon the underworld to come to him. So, he dug up some
strange summoning ritual to question some ghosts about what’s going on downstairs.”

“Any results?”

“Noting concrete, yet. Parts of the underworld seem to be rather deserted, though, so he assumes
there might be a… gathering of sorts somewhere.”

Annabeth lets out a low huff, suddenly looking just as tired as Will.

“What sort of gathering?” Rosa prods.

“Guess they didn’t pick up weekly pinochle rounds?”

Annabeth’s comment earns a wan smile from Will. “We assume someone is building an army.”

“Any idea who?”

Will shakes his head. “No. The ghosts Nico summoned aren’t really part of whatever happens
downstairs, so…”

“If he finished questioning the ghosts, why are they still in you flat, anyways?” Annabeth asks,
spinning the flask on her desk.

“As I said: he used some new summoning ritual and unfortunately, he doesn’t know the proper
way to banish them.”

“And now?”

“When I left, he was just throwing salt at them, shouting “does this look like a hotel to you?”.”

“Sounds auspicious.”

Will returns the grin Annabeth directs at him and gets up. “Thanks for letting me crash at yours. Is
Percy home? Or should I return the keys later?”

“Don’t worry about the keys. Percy should be home most of the day. He planned on doing some
maintenance on the armors.”

“Might be a smart idea, we might have a battle coming up.”

He raises a hand in goodbye and shuffles over to the elevator, leaving the three detectives to
themselves.

“An army?” Rosa asks after a while.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Jake comments.

Annabeth takes a sip from her mysterious flask before looking up at them. “Nothing for you to
worry about, I promise.” With that, she walks away, off to the evidence lockup to work on her
newest robbery case.
“Call me crazy, but an army seems like something one should worry about,” Jake tells Rosa once
their co-worker is out of earshot.

“She never said she doesn’t. She just said that we don’t need to.”

---

After getting off work, Rosa collects Arlo from her neighbor who – due to working from home –
has volunteered to look after the dog while Rosa is at work.

The dog wags his tail when he sees his owner, obediently sitting and waiting for Rosa to fasten his
leach. She exchanges the bare minimum of pleasantries with her neighbor before taking off.

After a quick stop at her apartment to drop off her work stuff and change into workout clothes, they
take off running around the streets of New York.

It has always had a calming effect on the detective, and with everything happening at the precinct
right now, with the things Annabeth told them, the fact that half the squad is on vacation, she
gladly takes every chance to clear her mind.

Arlo happily runs alongside her, the Labrador well trained and fit enough to keep up with her for
her runs and happy for the exercise after sitting inside for most of the day.

She is just contemplating whether to turn left towards the train station or take the longer route to
her right, when someone barrels into her, almost sending the woman to the pavement.

She catches the girl just before she hits the pavement herself, hauling her up to her feet.

Arlo japs happily, instantly hoping to make a new friend.

The girl can’t be older than twelve, haunted eyes look out from under brown bangs. She has a
backpack slung over her shoulder and while she doesn’t exactly shy away from her touch, it is clear
as day that she wants Rosa to let go of her arm as quickly as possible.

Rosa holds on for a moment, meeting her gaze. “Are you all right?” she asks, real concern
swinging in her voice.

She might be off-duty and this girl might very well have run away from home, but she’s still going
to help the kid however she can.

The girl looks around, back the way she came and lets out a shuddering breath. “I think so, yes.”
She manages to plaster something akin to a smile on her face and Rosa releases the grip on her
arm.

She half expected the girl to bolt, but she doesn’t.

Instead, she looks around, seemingly unsure where to go.

“Is there any way I could help you?” Rosa asks.

The girl shakes her head. “I sincerely doubt that. Thanks for not letting me faceplant into the road,
though.”

“If you’re sure…” Rosa says carefully, reaching for Arlo to offer him a treat for waiting for their
conversation to end instead of tugging at his leach.

The moment the dog snatches up the treat, however, there is a gasp and in the next instant, the girl
has grabbed Rosa’s arm, pulling it close and inspecting her blank wrist.

She fights down the instinct to snatch back her hand; something in the girl’s expression makes it
look like whatever she’s seeing there is important.

She trails a single finger over the skin just above her pulse point and Rosa suddenly remembers.

That’s the place where Thalia marked her, just over a week ago, as a friend of the hunt.
“It will always be visible for those to whom it matters,” the huntress had said and apparently, that
was true.

Because the girl in front of her suddenly seems a little less afraid, a little less stressed. She grabs
the necklace that vanishes into her shirt, pulls it out to reveal the pendants.

Between a silver key and one half of a friendship necklace is a wooden bead, just like the ones
Annabeth and her friends from Camp wear.

This girl is a half-god.

Rosa retrieves her hand and offers it for a proper greeting. “I’m Rosa Diaz,” she introduces herself.

The girl grabs the proffered hand in a firm grip and shakes it. “Hanna Dots. Daughter of Apollo.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Hanna apparently decided to skip the pleasantries, eager to get to the point. “Are you armed?”

Rosa shakes her head. She has her normal knife with her, of course she has, but she sincerely
doubts that it will do any good against whatever Hanna was running from.

Hanna meekly shakes her head. “Of course not. You’re mortal, right?”

Rosa nods in confirmation.

The girl in front of her lets her shoulders sag.

“But I know someone who is not and who can keep you safe,” she says, pulling out her phone.
She dials Annabeth’s number, but it goes to voicemail after the first ring. She doesn’t even have
Percy’s number, so she has no way to contact him.

She briefly considers bringing the girl to the precinct, but after what Annabeth told her earlier, it
would do little good if whatever was after the girl already has her trail.

Staying in one place, however, was apparently a bad thing. She starts walking down the street
towards her left, the girl immediately falling into step next to her.

“What happened, anyways? What are you running from?”

“I was on the train, on the way to Camp, when a Keres showed up.” When she notices Rosa’s
raised eyebrow, Hanna elaborates. “Battlefield spirit. No idea what it’s doing in the middle of New
York. I managed to get off the train in time before she could attack me, but I’m pretty sure she got
off as well and is after me.” She looks around the corner but keeps going as she apparently finds no
threat. “I lost my knife in the initial attack, didn’t bring any drachmae and don’t know the number
from anyone in New York. I thought about just calling Camp, but then I ran into you…”

Rosa nods along with her rambling, already thinking about who else she could call for back-up.

“There are a few warded areas in the City, but I don’t know most of them and I don’t think I’d
make it to the Empire State Building before the Keres gets to me.”

Warded areas. Rosa thinks back to the earlier conversation with Annabeth, to how their apartment
is apparently equipped with the best wards out there.

She grabs Hanna by the arm and abruptly drags her across the street. The girl comes willingly,
quickly catching up to the fact that they now have a destination.

“Where are we going? We can’t get anyone in danger.”

“Colleague of mine,” Rosa answers curtly. “Mentioned her apartment is warded.”

“We shouldn’t drag anyone into this who pulled out of this life,” Hanna argues. “Especially since
we’re likely being followed. Bringing a monster to the doorstep of someone who might not be able
to defend themselves would be…”

“Oh, she’s able to defend herself just fine,” Rosa assures the girl. She has never seen Percy fight,
but the guy is fit enough and going by the stories Annabeth has told from Camp, he got basic
weapons training and should be able to at least defend himself until his fiancée gets there.

At least, that’s what Rosa hopes.

Rosa has to admit that she hasn’t thought much about Percy in this new light.

As they hurry through the city towards his apartment, Rosa reviews what she knows about him,
tries to see him in another context.

Not just as the happy social worker who brings his wife lasagna during spontaneous night shifts,
drops in with blue cookies and goes to have ice cream with his little sister.

She tries seeing him as someone who manages to keep the attention of a formidable warrior,
someone who challenges immortal huntresses to sparring matches, who runs a community center
for kids who literally attract danger. Someone who manages to make a man tremble in his seat
with one scorching sentence.

Slowly but surely, the realization dawns on Rosa that Percy Jackson might be a little more than she
expected him to be.

“You sure your co-worker is even in the city?” Hanna asks after a while. “Most of us were asked to
go to Camp due to recent monster activities, so that the higher-ups can find out what’s going on.”

“Yes, Annabeth mentioned that, but…”

“Your co-worker is Annabeth Chase?” the girl interrupts.

Rosa nods.
“You’re telling me we’re currently on our way to Percy Jackson’s flat?”

Another nod. “You know them?”

Hanna looks at Rosa for a long moment, never breaking her step.

“You haven’t known about all of this for long, have you?” Hanna asks, making a vague gesture
with her hand.

It’s fine, though. Rosa gets what she means. She shakes her head. “Couple of days. Why?”

“You might not quite get it, since you know them from work, but everyone knows who Annabeth
Chase and Percy Jackson are.”

“Why?”

“They are among the best and most powerful demi-gods born in the last century. Saved the world a
couple of times, too.” Hanna suddenly slows her gait immensely. “We’re inside their wards now,”
she declares. “Not the proper ones they probably have on the flat, but the anti-tracking ones
spanning a few blocks.”

The door to their apartment complex is unlocked and the two of them simply walk in.

Hanna pats Arlo while they ride the elevator up to the seventh floor.

When they knock on the right door, it only takes a few seconds for it to fly open and reveal Percy,
clad in shorts and an orange shirt.

He’s holding a baseball bat.

His eyes flitter over Rosa, quickly narrowing in on her companion. “Hanna, what a surprise” A
careful smile stretches across her face. “What happened?”

Hanna retells her journey in a few quick sentences, causing Percy to dart out the door and down the
stairs. “Be right back, make yourselves at home,” he throws over his shoulder, just before the door
to the staircase closes behind him.

“What is he doing?” Rosa asks as she walks into the apartment after Hanna.

“Probably taking care of the Keres.”

“Shouldn’t he have taken a weapon for that?”

Hanna levels a confused look at her. “He did.”

“I’m not quite sure I’d label a baseball bat an appropriate weapon for monster slaying.”

Hanna grins at that. “That wasn’t a bat. That was a sword.”

Rosa shakes her head. “I know what I saw.”

“You don’t, though. The mist is playing tricks on your eyes.”

“I didn’t think it worked on weapons,” Rosa counters. “I can see Annabeth’s knife for what it is,
for example.”

“And do you find it strange that she carries a knife?”

“No.”

“Then why would the mist try and conceal it?”

“But I wouldn’t have thought it weird that Percy has a sword, either.”

“Not today, maybe not. But before you found out about things?”

Rosa doesn’t answer, her attention taken by the state of the flat. There are pieces of armor strewn
around every surface, rags and salves in a little box atop the low couch table.

Right. Maintenance.

She carefully pushes a few of the items aside to make space for herself and Hanna on the couch,
but the girl simply sits on the ground, petting Arlo who visibly enjoys the attention.

It only takes five minutes for Percy to return, an easy smile on his face. “Dealt with the Keres and
called for someone to drop by and pick you up. Might need to sit tight for a while, though.”

Hanna smiles and suddenly, Rosa is reminded just how young this girl is. Now that the danger is
gone, now that she is safe and in the care of someone she obviously trusts, she sags, tension easing
out of her shoulders.

She cuddles up next to Arlo, who just grumbles sleepily and closes his eyes again.

Five minutes later, they are both fast asleep.

Percy offers Rosa something to drink and they sip their cocktails (something delicious with
strawberries for Rosa, something blue for Percy) while they wait for whoever is supposed to pick
Hanna up.

They talk about this and that, about the case Rosa and Annabeth are working on, about how
annoying the construction work down the street is, how pleasantly cloudy the weather is.

They don’t talk about the army assembling in the underworld or the sleeping medic Rosa can see
through the open bedroom door, passed out atop the covers, his blond hair glinting in the evening
sun flittering through the window.

Percy perking up happens in the middle of the conversation, without any discernable cause.

He walks over to Hanna and gently shakes her awake. “Your ride’s here,” he tells her as she blinks
up at him.

Five minutes later, they exit the elevator to the roof access. Rosa had quirked an eyebrow when
Percy had pushed the button causing the elevator to go up instead of down but refrained from
commenting.

When she sees what awaits them, all words leave her.

On the roof, in the middle of New York, alone atop a skyscraper stands a black horse. Rosa
vaguely remembers the animal from the BBQ at Will’s graduation.

That doesn’t explain how or why it is currently standing in front of her.

Percy walks over to the horse, smiling in greeting. “Hey, Blackjack. Thanks for coming. You
remember Hanna?”

The horse shakes its head and huffs a breath.

“No, I don’t have any donuts right now.” Percy pats the horse’s neck. “I’ll bring you some next
time I come to Camp.” Another huff. “I don’t know yet. With everything going on right now…”

Rosa leans over to Hanna, brushing their shoulders together. “How did Blackjack manage to get up
here?”

“Flew,” the girl simply answers.

“Your horses can fly?”

Hanna turns to look at her with a curious expression. “Obviously not.” Rosa lets out a relieved
breath. “But he is a Pegasus, so…”

“What do you mean, he’s a Pegasus?”

“Means the mist is working rather well on you.”

Helen snaps her fingers, but nothing happens. She tries again, but still to no avail.

Her frustrated groan catches Percy’s attention. “What’s wrong?”

“I wanted to lift the mist so Rosa can see Blackjack’s wings, but it doesn’t work,” Hanna admits.

Percy smiles and puts a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t fret it,” he tells the girl. “Manipulating the
mist takes a lot of practice. Took me a while to pick it up, myself.” He snaps his fingers and
suddenly, the horse in front of them sports a set of silky wings.

“I once tried to use that trick on Rachel after I stabbed her with riptide. Did not work.”

The statement is enough to startle Rosa’s cop instincts into working. “You stabbed someone?”

Percy looks at her, a surprised expression on his face. “No. I tried to, but it didn’t work.”

“You missed, you mean?”

He shakes his head, apparently insulted by the mere idea. “Of course not. Got her straight through
the chest.”

“Are you sure telling a cop about your murder attempts is a good idea?” Hanna piques in.
Percy’s eyes grow big, but then, he just grins at her. “I doubt she can make a case out of me
stabbing someone through the chest with a pen who then walked away without a scratch.”

Rosa scoffs. “You’re annoying, you know that?”

“Yup.”

Hanna waves Rosa goodbye, thanks her for bringing her to Percy and walks up to the Pegasus. The
animal lowers its head for the girl to pat in greeting, and Percy helps her mount.

“Be careful, say hi to everyone from me, send a message once you’ve arrived safely. I’ll drop by
soon, all right?”

Hanna nods and buries her hands in the thick black mane in front of her.

Percy gently slaps the horse’s rear, and it takes off, canters across the roof, clears the balustrade in
one leap and unfolds the gigantic black wings, soaring above the city, quickly vanishing from
view.

“What are you grinning about?” Percy asks when he lowers his hand after waving after the two for
way too long.

“You’re such a dad.”

A fine blush colors his cheeks. For a while, he opens and closes his mouth, no words coming to
him.

Finally, he squares his shoulders and looks Rosa straight in the eye.

“And I’m very fond of each of my children.”

“I can see that.” Rosa meets his gaze, gives him a rare, genuine smile. “They are lucky to have
you.”
Chapter End Notes

Yes, I put Arlo in this, because it's a shame he's mentioned all of three times in the
series!
Hope you liked it, maybe leave a comment.
(I looove attention and work on this story is going rather slow right now...)
Have a great day, stay safe.
 Jake II / Holt
Chapter Notes

Happy Friday, everyone!

writing Holt is hard, y'all.

A few days ago, our teacher talked about some english abbreviation and when
someone asked what the k in it stands for, she went "isn't it obvious? It's literally the
wirst word with K of the english language that comes to mind." To which my first
thought was "why on earth would they put the word kidney in an abbreviation for
quality management?!"
So, either my brain is weird or I know way more vocabulary than my class, because
everyone else guessed knowledge on the first try...

It took me three read-throughs to realize that I had put in parts of my home town as
placeholders for Queens and the Bronx, because their names wouldn't come to me first
time around, so you almost got a story with very un-NY city districts and I don't know
who of us would have been more confused by this ^^

This was supposed to be the Boyle chapter, but I changed my mind, thought it fit better
this way around...

Hope you enjoy reading :)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

--Jake--

When Captain Holt returns from his vacation, he returns to a stack of paperwork on his desk and an
otherwise smoothly running precinct.

Hitchcock and Scully aren’t in, two more weeks left on their vacation days, and it makes coming
home to a smoothly run precinct this much easier, this much brighter.

Holt goes through his stack of paperwork, sorting the important bits he’d handle first, from the less
important sheets that could wait for another day or five.

It's what happens every year, and since Jake is used to it by now, he doesn’t disturb his superior,
instead getting to work on the paperwork for the murder case he and Annabeth are working on.
As boring as it might be, the obvious suspect is the woman’s husband, and they send a couple of
uniformed officers to pick the man up from work.

Annabeth is standing behind him, looking at the report on his computer when Holt meets his eyes
and beckons them over to his office.

They walk over, closing the door behind them.

“Great to have you back, Dadptain,” Jake grins. “How was the holiday?”

“Very relaxing,” Holt informs the younger man. “We visited a lot of museums and even went to the
opera.”

“Exactly what I’d do for fun,” the Detective mumbles. Then, he spots the stack of papers in Holt’s
hand and jerks his head in the direction. “What’s that?”

Holt extends his hand, presenting Chase with the stack of papers. She takes them and quickly flips
through, allowing Jake to scan their contents over her shoulder.

A frown appears on her face, deepening as she goes along. It’s mostly disturbance calls, nothing
serious, as far as Jake can tell. But maybe, there is more to it.

“I would like to know that myself,” the Captain answers after giving them a moment to process the
information. “It seems you requested other precincts to send over a bunch of reports. Why?”

“Had a hunch,” Chase mumbles, her eyes still transfixed on the stack of papers, shuffling through
them a second time, way slower.

“Would you please elaborate?”

She puts a few of the reports on the table in front of her, goes over the rest a third time, sorts out
even more. When there are six reports left in her hand, she meets the Captain’s eye, runs a hand
through her hair.
Nervous habit. She’s anxious.

Annabeth takes a deep breath, fiddles with the wooden beads around her neck.

“I think, I…”

She goes through the files in her hand another time, clearly anxious not to make a mistake, though
Jake can’t figure out why a couple of noise complaints would be of this significance.

Annabeth seems to come to a decision, her free hand falling to rest calmly at her side.

“I need you to call your husband.”

The Captain’s gaze narrows, is not open and mildly curious anymore but focused and sharp. “What
did you just say?”

“I need you to call Kevin and tell him to come over. He might be in danger.” Annabeth talks with
the same certainty as always, but the nerves bubbling under the surface are clear as day. She knows
this wouldn’t go over well with their Captain, but for some reason, she stands her ground.

Jake looks from his partner to the Captain and back. They are intensely focused on each other,
staring in each other’s eyes, none of them blinking, none of them backing down.

“Are you,” Captain Holt asks, his voice dangerously calm, “threatening my husband?”

Annabeth backs off immediately. “No,” she says, quickly, raising both her hands in a placating
gesture. “I’m not threatening him, I swear. But he might still be in danger, and I need you to call
him.”

“Why?”
Annabeth’s gaze drops to her feet. “I can’t tell you that,” she answers.

“Excuse me?”

“I can’t tell you why, because Kevin needs to be here for this conversation.” There is no doubt in
her voice, nor any hesitance once she made the decision.

Captain Holt is fuming. “Let me get this straight-“ in every other situation, Jake would have made
a gay joke, and it’s already on the tip of his tongue, but tensions are high enough as it is and he
refrains. “You come in here, tell me to call my husband, a man who – to my knowledge – you have
never even met, to come here, because you think he might be in danger. All based on a bunch of
reports from noise complaints all over the city?”

Annabeth nods.

“How do I know you are not the danger yourself?”

“I’m not.”

“Why should I not simply tell him to run the other way?”

“Because that would be very dangerous for the man you love.”

“And how do you know that? You come in here, with apparently random data, no one backing
your story, and simply except me to believe you when you say my husband might be in danger.”

Jake is very aware that Annabeth hasn’t even as much as glanced in his direction since her standoff
with their Captain begun, but suddenly he has her words from some weeks ago in his head, spoken
over a coffee table with a single bowl of water on it.

“Consider, just for a moment, to give me the benefit of the doubt and back my play, even if it might
seem crazy at the time.”
“I’m backing her,” Jake hears himself say, even before he’s made the conscious decision to do so.
Holt’s gaze immediately snaps to Jake and the Detective does his best to look earnest and
trustworthy as he steadily meets his mentor’s gaze. “You should call Kevin.”

After a long moment, Holt pulls his phone out and calls his husband.

In the strained silence that settled over the office, they can make out Kevin’s voice as he answers
the phone. “Raymond, what a surprise to hear from you. Did something happen?”

Holt shoots another glare at Annabeth and a slightly softer look at Jake before answering. “I cannot
determine the level of danger at the moment, but I need you to come to the precinct at your earliest
convenience.”

“How pressing is the matter? The faculty meeting is about to start.”

“I am not yet certain of the details, but Detective Chase insisted…”

“I’ll be there within the hour,” Kevin’s voice cuts over the Captain’s. “I’ll see you soon.”

Exactly fifty-three minutes later, the elevator doors open to reveal Kevin Cosner.

--Holt--

When Kevin enters the bullpen, Chase is not in the room.

He is not sure where the Detective has gone, yet Holt is oddly relieved by the fact that he gets to
greet his husband without her being present.

He is about to smile at his husband, for who is more worthy of shows of affection than he is, but it
freezes on his face as he takes in the anxious expression on the other man’s face.
Kevin is nervous.

Holt does not need more than the little twitch in his yaw, the slightly stiff set of his shoulders to
practically feel the apprehension roll off the man he loves.

Kevin offers him a small smile upon entering the office. At least something, he supposes.

“Raymond.”

“Kevin. Would you like to inform me…”

He gets interrupted by his two best Detectives entering his office.

Kevin’s gaze goes straight over Jake and narrows in on Chase.

She holds out her hand, steps closer. “Annabeth,” she introduces herself. “Nice to finally meet
you.”

The Captain wants to take offence to Chase just assuming they would be on a first name basis, for
extending the hand first, but Kevin takes the proffered hand, shakes it. “Kevin. The pleasure is all
mine.”

Holt stand up and walks around the desk, coming to stand between his husband and Jake.

“Should we take this to one of the interrogation rooms?” he suggests. “It would get rather crowded
in here, I suppose.”

Plus, it will be easier for him to present a united front against Chase if he is not the one sitting
alone on his side of the table.

There are nods all around the group and they leave the office, walking over to interrogation room
two.
Holt enters first, taking his seat with the back to the one-way mirror. Chase sits across from him,
her fingers immediately starting to drum a nervous rhythm onto the desk’s surface.

Kevin lingers for a moment, then he walks to Chase’s side of the table and takes the chair next to
her.

He meets Holt’s gaze and he can read the pain in his husband’s eyes. Can see that it pains him to
have this conversation, that it has come this far, that he dreads the results. He can also see the love,
the apology, and the trust he puts in him, and it calms him, just a bit.

They are silent for a moment, Annabeth anxiously drumming on the table, Jake restlessly looking
from one to the other.

He seems to be confused by Kevin’s presence, more so than by his own part in this conversation.

Holt does not know the reason for either. But even though Peralta backed Chase earlier, even
though it is his husband and one of his Detectives he is facing off against, he is calmed by the mere
fact that Peralta is at his side, a steady if overactive presence of someone he trusts almost
explicitly, but who, maybe even more importantly, does not have all the answers, either.

Annabeth is the first to speak, even if it is addressed to Kevin, not to Holt. “Are you going to do
this, or shall I?”

Kevin swallows heavily, then nods. “I can do it,” he says.

He looks down at his folded hands on the table for a moment, then up at Holt. “First, I need you to
know that this secrecy was not born out of malice or ill intent or anything like that. I love you very
much and I knew that this information would have greatly affected you and I wanted to spare you
the trouble. Plus, what I am about to tell you is connected to my parents, and I once swore to you
that I would leave them behind. Therefore, I never expected either of us to get in touch with this
ever again.”

“I do not quite understand, I am sorry to say…”

Kevin shakes his head. “Of course, you don’t.” He takes a deep breath and prepares himself to tell
his story. “My maternal grandmother, Edith, was once part of a community at the west coast, near
San Francisco. She was happy enough there, but when she fell in love with my grandfather, she
married him, and they moved to New York together during World War One. She lost touch with
the community she lived in, since communication was more difficult back then and not everyone
approved of her choice of husband. Most of her old friends thought him narrow-minded.”

“You never talked about her,” Holt observes, surprised by this person featuring so heavily in
whatever story is to come.

“I didn’t spend much time with her,” Kevin admits. “For as narrow-minded as people thought her
husband was, my father was way worse. And over the years, mother and grandma lost touch, I only
saw her two or three times since hitting puberty. She told me certain things, and at this point in
time, I didn’t quite know if I believed her.”

“But apparently, now you do, otherwise, you would not be telling me about her.”

A small nod. “She gave me means to contact her side of the family the last time I saw her. And
while I never thought I’d use it, I always remembered and kept the information close at heart.” He
takes a deep breath. “Do you recall the phenomenon of the forgotten days?”

It is, of course a rhetorical question.

Kevin knows very well that Raymond recalls the phenomenon, has spent hours upon hours trying
to find an explanation.

Days, trying to find a paper trail.

Weeks, to find another credible person who even noticed.

Months, trying to get to terms with the idea that maybe, he was wrong, and there was nothing in
the first place.

Years, trying to forget a topic that made his head hurt, his colleagues laugh and his husband frown
in dismay.
But with his only proof for something being amiss being the two blank pages of his daily journal,
there was very little to go on.

Of course, for these two days, no one has heard anything from most of New York, the whole island
of Manhattan shrouded in mystery, barely a word out of Brooklyn, the Bronx or Queens, only
sparse interactions with a few people who were at the outskirts of the city.

Yet, when time righted itself, nobody cared.

Nobody even seemed to notice.

Sure, there were conspiracy theories about it, a few people on social media reporting on a sleeping
city, but no pictures, no proof, nothing credible to answer his questions.

Kevin, unfortunately, had been at a conference in Amsterdam at the time, and like the rest of the
world, didn’t find anything amiss.

But for his husband to mention the incident now… “You say it’s true?”

There is a surprised expression on Annabeth’s face, but it barely registers as Kevin slowly nods his
head.

A sliver of betrayal sours his mood. “Why did you not tell me?”

“At first, it seemed too odd to believe and for a while, I simply didn’t want to. Then, after a while, I
started considering the possibility. And I knew that, should it in fact be true, then grandmother
Edith’s family might be involved. So, I started reaching out to them.”

“When was that?” Holt’s throat feels dry.

“About a year after it happened, I started asking around.” A pause, and a shrug. “Well, at least I
tried to. The community was in quite a frenzy at the time over internal differences, and it took
months until I actually found anyone to talk to. They explained to me what happened, and while it
probably was only a fragment of what transpired that day, there were a few names sticking out of
this most unbelievable of tales. When you came home around a year ago and told me about your
new Detective, the name was oddly familiar. But it wasn’t until you mentioned Percy Jackson a
few months later that I was able to place it. They were amongst the people making sure that the
forgotten days did not last.”

“You noticed the missing days?” Annabeth asks her Captain, surprise clear on her features.

Holt just nods.

“Impressive.”

“What happened?” Peralta jumps in and for a brief moment, Holt is impressed by the fact that he
managed to stay silent for this long.

“A little more than ten years ago, New York went silent for almost two days. Whatever happened
seemed to be centered around Manhattan, for nothing came out of the island at all. No messages,
no travelers, no broadcasts, not even lone telephone calls. The farther away from Manhattan, the
more communication happened, but it was odd, few and far in between. When the world snapped to
right itself, the top of the Empire State Building was glowing blue and that was all everyone cared
about. Everybody wanted to know how and why the top of a building was blue. No one cared that
for nearly two days, for thousands of people, time seemed to have stopped.”

“It did.”

Holt’s head whirls around to Chase, who regards him with a cautious smile. She seems to see
something in his face that makes her go on.

“That day, time stopped in Manhattan. Someone with a lot of power wanted it to stop, so it simply
did. And when it continued, allowing life in the city to go on, a similar power wiped every trace
that it ever happened. We knew that creating negative space of information might tip some people
off, but it seemed enough at the time.”

Holt is rather glad that the Detective has taken over the narrative from his husband. It allows him
to voice his thoughts without having to fear hurting the other’s feelings. “That is ridiculous.”
“You know the saying that in every story is a grain of truth?”

Holt nods.

Chase is oddly calm now, like what she says next is important and close to her heart.

“Most of the Mythology you know is true. Greek, Roman, Egypt, Northern. The gods, their
children, the monsters, the magic. They are real. Not all are as Mythology describes them, but there
is more truth than lies in those stories.”

It does not only sound ridiculous; it sounds downright preposterous.

But Chase appears sincere, Peralta has not made a single joke about it and does not seem to be
about to change that and Kevin…

Kevin just sits there, apprehension clear on his pained face, obviously dreading his reaction. When
they lock eyes, Kevin gives the slightest of shrugs.

Raymond knows this kind of shrug. It means “it is what it is”.

He usually sees it when he has to rush to work for an urgent case, leaving his husband behind after
promising a nice evening together. He sees it when their favorite brand of red wine is sold out at
the store, and they buy a different bottle. He sees it when they are freshly dressed up for an
evening out and Cheddar comes up to one of them, leaving his bright fur on a dark trouser leg.

“How did Edith fit into all of this?” he finally asks the man in front of him.

And while Chase looks caught off guard, and Peralta makes a surprised sound, there is a smile
fighting its way onto his husband’s face and Raymond knows, deep inside, that they will be fine.
Whatever this is, wherever it leads, he trusts his husband implicitly and they will get through this
just like they got through everything else.

“It’s not about Edith,” Kevin answers. “It’s about her father. Apollo.”
--

Half an hour later, Holt’s head is spinning.

At some point while Chase was giving him a rundown on the most recent history of the mythical
world, Kevin hat stretched out his legs, pressing his ankle against Raymond’s underneath the table.

And while playing footsie is both childish and inappropriate in his workplace, it had allowed the
Captain to take a deep breath for perhaps the first time since he summoned Chase to his office
earlier that day.

Their feet stay pressed together and out of sight while Annabeth talks about the new threat
simmering somewhere close, just out of reach.

She talks about the disturbance calls and noise complaints coming in from descendants and what
she calls clear-sighted people. She explains about the mist, how it covers unusual activity and that
some people can see through it better than others. Explains how she tries to use the inpour of
reports to find out where the monsters are coming from exactly or where they are going.

How she got a letter from Kevin a year back, asking her to inform him first if she ever saw the
necessity to tell her Captain about the mythical world hiding in plain sight.

“So, Kevin is not in any immediate danger?” There is a slight movement against his ankle and he
meets his husband’s eyes, who smiles at him.

“Not more than before,” Kevin says.

“With the increased number of monsters in the city, that’s not quite true,” Annabeth counters. “But
no, I don’t think any of them have reason to target you.”

Another small shrug. “Then I’ll just avoid them and not give the monsters a reason to attack me.”
“Hard to avoid something you can’t identify,” Jake points out.

“Seeing through the mist never was much of a problem for me,” Kevin admits and as much as he
tries to stay focused, Holt spaces out a bit as they discuss the finer details of mist manipulation and
how unfair Peralta considers the fact that Kevin apparently has no problem identifying monsters on
sight.

Raymond in uncertain if that is a curse or a blessing.

--

Holt doesn’t ask how Annabeth fits into all of this.

Knowing his husband is the great-grandchild of a god is enough for now.

He has seen her fight, stand up to people, solve cases like they are children’s puzzles. She can take
care of herself and there are certainly worse people to allocate to solve whatever threat is lingering
in the distance.

There is a fleeting thought in his mind about why she ended up engaged to a go-happy social
worker when clearly, she could be with someone matching her fierceness.

Then again, opposites attract; him and Kevin are working out as well, after all.

As they are leaving the interrogation room, there is a commotion in the bullpen, causing all four of
them to hurry on.

A perp has managed to wrangle free from the officers attempting to transfer him from the elevator
to the holding cell.

Just as he manages to het a knife from one of the officers, Percy Jackson comes skipping up the
stairs. The perp lunges at him, grabs Chase’s fiancé from behind and holds the knife to his throat.
Everyone in the bullpen freezes.

Everyone, except for Chase, that is.

The Detective goes on, calmly ambling over to her desk where she drops down in her chair.

“Stay back,” the murderer huffs. “Or I’ll kill him.”

Jackson himself appears greatly unconcerned by the development. He grins at the assembled
group.

“I was just looking for Stella’s backpack. I think she might have left it here yesterday.”

“Shut up,” the man behind him hisses. “I’m currently holding you hostage.”

Jackson turns as much as possible to face his “kidnapper”, an almost apologetic smile on his face.
“Yes, I know, and we’ll get back to it in a moment, but I really need to find my sister’s backpack.”

Holt races trough the possibilities to get the civilian out of the situation, away from the knife. If
someone could get behind him, they might have a shot. Provided the guy does not get himself
killed beforehand by being irritating.

He scans the room for someone to give a sign to advance on the pair.

But his squad of Detectives seems oddly relaxed. True, they are all watching the scene unfold in
front of them, but it is not with the calculating gaze they turn onto a mission, but with the
cautiously amused faces that appear when Scully tries to fit as many marshmallows as possible into
his mouth or when Jake attempts to use the new department issued pens as darts.

They are watching like this is entertainment, not a matter of life or death.

“I haven’t seen it,” Diaz answers with a shrug, her mouth pulled up into a mean smile.
 “You’re not supposed to talk,” the kidnapper growls, obviously taken aback by the lack of reaction
to him holding a knife to a man’s throat.

It is a rare thing that Captain Raymond Hold sympathizes with a criminal, but today, he does.

Percy calmly pats the arm holding a knife to his throat. “As I said, we’ll get back to that in a
moment.” He turns to address Chase again, his hand still lingering. “You know how Stella gets
when she loses her backpack. She loves that thing.”

Chase just rolls her eyes. “Just put him in the holding cell, will you? Then I’ll help you look for the
backpack.”

And in the blink of an eye, Jackson has the blade pulled away from his neck and throws the perp
over his shoulder and onto the hard floor of the precinct, effectively knocking the air out of him.

The two officers he got away from rush in to take over and Percy lets go of the taller man, walks
over to Annabeth and presses a kiss to her hair in greeting.

Then, he looks up into the surprised face of the Captain.

“Hey, Captain, how was the vacation?” He turns his attention to the man still standing next to Holt.
“You must be Kevin, then. Nice to finally meet you. Family resemblance is uncanny, if I may say
so.”

And as he rambles on, clearly unperturbed by the events of the past five minutes, Hold finds that
maybe, his youngest Detective has chosen well after all.

Chapter End Notes

I realized that in over 100,000 words (I cracked 100,000 words!!!), there hasn't been a
single mention of Gina Linetty, and now I feel bad about it and am trying to come up
with a way to incorporate her into this story and I'm dreading it already because she's
going to be so hard to write...

I think there will be another filler chapter after this since I feel like I need to do some
plot and charachter development without throwing the next reveal into the mix. Let's
see where that gets us, why don't we?

Hope you enjoyed reading, maybe leave a comment.

Have a great day, stay safe.
 Game Night
Chapter Notes

Happy Thursday!
This - as most of the time - wasn't quite the chapter I intended to write, but it's the
chapter you get.
Don't ask why I ended up using so many POVs. (It's because I felt like it, no deeper
meaning to it.)
I feel like I should start properly writing the main fight and stuff around it, because so
far, I've got bits and pieces, but I probably should start getting it in order and fill in the
actual fighting, not just write the parts I find funny...
Anyway, this chapter is a little procrastination, I hope, you enjoy it anyways.
Have fun reading.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Jake III

Percy’s youth center is located in a side street with barely any traffic. There is a large glass panel in
the door, orange with a black, winged horse. It looks like the stained-glass windows one finds in
old churches and somehow, that’s fitting, isn’t it? A sanctuary, dedicated to a faith and keeping
their followers safe from the outside world.

The glass window is the only part of the door not covered in marks and symbols and Jake find
himself wondering how many of them serve a purpose and how many are purely decorative.

He raises his hand to knock and the door swings open when his fist connects with the wood,
revealing the space behind.

There is a small corridor, loud voices filtering from the room at the end.

Jake looks at his colleagues and walks in, the others following him inside. They were invited after
all.

To game night.
Whatever game night meant with a bunch of half-gods.

They pass the bathrooms first, then a small staircase and a locked door with a sign that reads enter
at own risk.

The third and last door opens in what seems to be the main room, separated in different areas.

Despite the few windows, the place is bright, airy despite the narrow ceiling. The walls are painted
in an explosion of color, without rhyme or reason. Sketches, doodles and paintings are drawn
between scribbled formulas, math equations and battle plans.

Along one wall stretches a kitchen with large stoves, two full-sized fridges and an abundance of
workspace. Snacks and drinks are standing atop the counter between jars of flour, bottles of sugar,
uncut vegetables, folders of recipes, and a lone book on inheritance laws.

A fire extinguisher is placed on either side of the kitchen, marked with bright red paint, dramatic
green arrows and bold letters declaring “burn the house down” is a song, not a suggestion.

There are more semi-inspirational quotes on the walls, now that Jake knows to look.

When life gives you lemons, throw them back (really, really hard), one says.

When the gods close a door, open it – that’s literally the whole purpose of doors, guys!! says
another.

If you can’t mansplain, manipulate, manwhore your way out of the situation, try
manslaughter, a third. This one, however, is crossed out, with a neat line that does absolutely
nothing to hide the text.

There are more, but many of them are written in what he assumes is Ancient Greek, so he can’t
read them.

At the other side of the room is a boxing ring twice the size Jake usually sees them, the ropes twice
as high and three times as strong.
A woman of an age with Annabeth is standing inside, facing off against a robot.

She is tall, packed with muscle, with stringy brown hair and a vicious sneer on her face which is
littered in small scars. She’s wearing red armor; a breastplate and helmet, heavier and sturdier than
the armor he’d seen Annabeth wear.

Next to the ring is Leo, who is furiously pushing buttons on a PlayStation controller, edged on by
the small audience surrounding him, cheering and laughing at the fight. Jake spots Annabeth,
leaning into Percy’s side, and makes his way over, keeping one eye on the fight.

The woman in the ring jabs her spear at the robot, but the tip glances off of the thing’s armor. The
woman tries again at another spot, then another, trying different angles in an attempt to pierce the
shimmering material.

The robot swings a Morningstar in return but doesn’t manage to hit its opponent with it. Every time
it comes close, it gets deflected in the last minute by the woman’s spear or she simply evades it.

She is undoubtedly good, her movements precise if harsh and had the robot been of a lesser
material, it certainly would be disassembled already.

Due to the spectacle, nobody seems to notice Jake and the others enter the room, but when they
quietly approach, Annabeth slightly turns and gives them a small nod.

She whirls around towards the fight again when the woman in the boxing ring curses after being
nicked by the morningstar after all.

The sneer on her face intensifies and she jabs her spear forwards once again, uselessly connecting
with the armor in a spot she had hit before with an angry grunt.

But instead of pulling back and trying anew as she’d done before, she keeps the weapon in place as
a red light flickers across the barbed metal tip, electrocuting the robot.

It falls down in a heap of metal to Leo’s cursing and the cheering of his friends. “Not fair, La Rue,”
he complains as he ducks through the ropes and onto the boxing ring to examine his creation.
The woman in question – La Rue – scoffs at that. “You asked me to see if I can beat that thing. I
can. You promised me a challenge. You did not deliver. Who is not being fair here?”

“I’ll fight you.”

A girl, barely older than sixteen, climbs into the boxing ring.

Despite her being by no means short, the girl is dwarfed by the woman in front of her. Compared to
the woman’s angry red armor, she is only wearing a purple tunic over silver leggings, her hair
hanging over her shoulder in a shimmering black braid. Her golden spear, however, stands as tall as
her opponent’s when she places the blunt end on the ground next to her feet, waiting for Leo to
clear the damaged robot off the field.

The woman nods grimly, accepting the challenge and there are cheers all around; apparently no
one sees this match as unfair or even dangerous to the girl.

Didn’t Percy say something about protecting the children that come here? Was pitting them against
warriors with electric spears really conductive to that?

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jake whispers to Annabeth.

His colleague just smiles at him. “Don’t worry. They are well matched.”

Jake can’t see how that is true, but nobody objects, and it wouldn’t be the first time appearances
deceived him.

“Does either of them have wings or horns or anything else I can’t see?” he asks as the two begin
circling each other.

Annabeth slightly shakes her head, never taking her eyes off the fighters.

La Rue attacks first, apparently fed up with waiting for her opponent to make the first move. The
girl sidesteps the attack and circles around her opponent again, who tries again and has her spear
deflected.

The girl makes a point of staying just out of reach of the barbed tip of her opponent’s spear, clearly
familiar with its electrocution properties.

When she attacks, however, it’s truly a sight to see. Her movements are flowing and quick, like a
dancer around a statue; she twirls and spins around the woman, who is having an increasingly hard
time deflecting the attacks in time, barely managing to step out of reach when she fails to redirect
the spear with her own.

A hush falls over their audience as they watch the spectacle.

Then, the woman manages to jab her spear out at the right moment, stopping her opponent’s dance
as the younger is forced to duck and roll to evade the attack, the spear almost slipping out of her
grip.

The woman’s fighting style is more focused on strength than on agility, but now that she has
managed to force the smaller demigoddess into a defensive position, she comes down on her hard,
stabbing and slashing and forcing her back a step with every move.

The girl regains proper hold on her spear and instead of evading, she deflects the next attack,
redirecting the spear so it slips through the ropes encircling the boxing ring.

It gives her the time to fully regain her footing, and by the time La Rue has her spear untangled
from the ropes, the girl is dancing again.

Jake finds himself agreeing with Annabeth. They are well matched. He wonders how his partner
would fear against either of them. Wonders just how fucked they would be should the half-bloods
ever decide to take on mere mortals, if this is what practice fights with teenagers look like.

The fight goes on for a while. There are small scratches on the red armor that weren’t there before,
a rip in the purple tunic where the spear had caught the fabric for the briefest of moments.

The girl’s braid slowly starts coming undone after her opponent’s spear managed to rip the tie
holding it.
The girl’s movements are too fast to follow, but she finally manages to land a proper hit, stabbing
the woman’s hand, drawing blood and a string of curses from her opponent. La Rue shakes out the
injured hand, takes a step back, apparently trying to refocus, but the girl doesn’t slow down,
quickly crossing the distance, kicking the spear aside with her foot and holding the golden tip of
her spear under the woman’s chin where the helmet doesn’t protect her, causing a single drop of
blood to emerge from the skin as she swallows.

“Surrender?”

There is a tight clench to the woman’s jaw, but she lets her spear clatter to the floor beside her.

The fight is over.

As lively chatter picks up between the spectators, Terry nudges Rosa and jerks his chin in the
direction of the girl who is now leaning over the railing to talk to Thalia, who grins up in return.
Her hair cascades over her shoulders and she tucks it behind one ear, barely even out of breath
from the recent fight.

“That’s pretty much how I imagine you were at that age.”

Rosa looks at the girl, all gorgeous Latina appearance, vigilant eyes and her spear with a still
bloody tip; and she smiles. “You have no idea how wrong you are with that mental image of me,
and I hope that never changes.”

“Who is she?” Jake asks Annabeth as she turns to them.

She looks happy and relaxed as she answers. “That’s Reyna. And that ray of sunshine-“ she
gestures towards the woman whose hand is still bleeding as she makes her way to the kitchen,
probably to find a first aid kit- “is Clarisse. She came over from Camp to get away from everyone
and insisted on fighting Leo’s fighter-bot.”

“Get away from whom?” Amy asks.

Annabeth shrugs as she leads them to another part of the large room, equipped with sofas, tables
and chairs. “Most demigods from New York have gone to Camp, so we can work in peace on what
is happening without having to worry that the monsters attack any of them or get sidetracked from
their missions so we can’t find out what they’re up to. Clarisse is just getting annoyed by all the
activity. She’s not exactly what one might call a people person.”

Jake snorts. “Yeah, she doesn’t look like one.”

He lets his gaze wander through the room, catching on details of the interior or certain people.
There are about two dozen in the room, most of them watching the trio that has just climbed into
the boxing ring.

“Most of those people can’t really leave the city or are just on their way through,” Annabeth tells
them. “We’ve got a few rooms upstairs where people can stay the night if they need to. This is one
of the safest places in the city, and it has easy access. Plus, it’s nice to meet up once in a while, so
people tend to show up for game night.”

Kevin I

Kevin studies the young man at the kitchen counter.

When his husband had told him that Annabeth had invited the squad to game night at Percy’s youth
center, and that he was explicitly invited to come along, he had been hesitant and excited in equal
measure. He wanted to go, there was little question about that, but he didn’t quite know what he
was going to find; nor what he was hoping to find.

He still doesn’t, not really. But somehow, he can’t quite take his eyes off the blonde as he talks to
who he had been informed was Clarisse La Rue, looking at her injured hand and wrapping a
bandage around it with practiced hands.

It’s not like looking at an old picture of himself, quite far from it, actually.

But there is something so familiar in him, in the way his nose scrunches just like Kevin’s mother’s
would when she concentrated on something really hard. The dimple that appears soon after, when
he starts laughing at whatever La Rue said to him; so similar to how Grandma Edith looked when
Kevin told her he would be a professor at seven years old.
He wonders if Raymond sees Kevin in the young man, because he doesn’t see himself, just his
mother and grandmother.

But the way his husband looks at him makes him think that there might be some similarities. Or
maybe he had just picked up on the fact that Kevin was staring at the guy.

“You should talk to him,” Raymond says in a low voice, full of tenderness and love and Kevin
once again wonders how anyone could look at this man and find him expressionless.

And say what? he almost asks but doesn’t. It’s not Raymond’s problem to figure out. He always
had a way with words, anyways, hadn’t he?

He gives his husband a smile and a small nod.

Raymond walks over to where the squad has gathered on a few couches.

Kevin approaches the man just as he puts away the first-aid kit.

The guy looks up as he hears Kevin approaching. “You must be Kevin,” he says with a smile and
extends a hand. “I’m Will.”

For a moment, Kevin is surprised to be recognized, that this man knows his name.

But Annabeth had mentioned Will, had told him he’s a son of Apollo, and therefore one of the
closest relatives on that side of the family he has in the city.

Percy had said something about family resemblance when they first met, and at the time, the
comment had irked him. Had reminded him of all the comments comparing him to his father in his
youth, the shape of his face, his built.

The older he got, the more he resented the implication that he was anything like his father. Being
compared to his mother’s side of the family, though, so lightly and openly… it feels different,
warm.

He grabs Will’s hand and shakes it. “Pleased to meet you,” he replies.

“No need to be so formal.” Will lets go of his hand and pushes the cabinet door closed. “We’re
family, after all, right?”

Family.

Can it really be this easy?

For years and years, Raymond has been the only family he had, after his parents cast him out for
being gay; for loving the best man, the best person he’s ever met.

Of course, he had his colleagues at work, but the faculty staff at the university never formed a
close-knitted, family-like bond like his husband’s co-workers did. He had colleagues, yes. But it
wasn’t a work-family.

Now, to be accepted so easily into another, a new family, even if it wasn’t really new, just
estranged, was… Well, it was something.

“I guess we are,” he agrees, and the grin Will directs at him widens.

He feels himself relax as Will throws an arm around his shoulders and leads them over to the
couches.

“Annabeth mentioned you are a professor for literacy.”

Kevin nods. “Classics Department,” he specifies.

Will beams. “Great. I need your help to beat Annabeth at Scrabble.”

Because apparently, it really was that easy.

Rosa III

Rosa didn’t quite know what to expect of game night. What she definitely didn’t expect was that it
involved ongoing sparring matches or a climbing wall.

She had managed the wall in a decent time, she thought, and so had Amy, who was eager to take
on the challenge.

But then a boy of maybe twelve years clears the entire thing in about half the time and Rosa
wonders if she’s getting old, after all.

Annabeth laughs when she sees her face and leads them over to the tables where different games
are being set up. “Don’t try to compete with people like us in strength or endurance. We have an
unfair advantage.”

“Still frustrating,” Amy butts in from her other side and Rosa silently agrees.

Amy doesn’t seem too keen to join the board games, but she allows Annabeth to show them what’s
being played, anyways.

“We’ve got a few standard games that we play pretty much every week,” the blonde explains.
“Like Scrabble, Uno, whatever they are doing…” At the last part, she gestures towards a table they
are just walking past, and Amy stops.

Thalia, Percy and Nico are sitting around a table together, playing some game. Rosa doesn’t
recognize it on sight, the sheer number of cards, chips, figurines and dices more complicated than
any game she ever played herself.

Annabeth’s expression sours a bit as she watches their proceedings.

“What are you playing?” Rosa asks, curious why her colleague seems so disapproving.

“It’s the game of games,” Thalia answers, with a mock-important look on her face.

Annabeth scoffs.

“Sounds fun,” Rosa comments, if just to needle Annabeth a bit more. “Can I play?”

“Sure,” Percy easily replies. “Do you know the rules?”

Rosa shakes her head.

Percy gives an apologetic shrug. “I’m sorry, but the first rule is that you can’t explain the rules to
anyone.”

“How do you ever get new players, then?”

Another shrug. “We don’t. We’re usually just playing with the three of us.”

Annabeth rolls her eyes, the look on her face souring even more. “There is no logic to what they’re
doing,” she claims.

That’s when Amy speaks up. “I think I know the game.” Suddenly, all eyes are on her. But she
simply takes the empty seat next to Percy and lets her gaze wander over the setup. “My nieces and
nephews play it sometimes. Do I deal myself in?”

Annabeth looks close to bursting when Thalia simply nods with an intrigued smile playing around
her face.

Percy and Nico both look a little stunned when Amy starts gathering playing pieces. “Since I’m the
fourth player, I get…” she rolls three dice, scoring an eleven. “Two figurines, three playing cards
and nine chips.”
She takes the mentioned pieces and looks at her co-players, who look a little stunned by the
development.

“Did I get it wrong?” she asks, going over her pieces again. Suddenly, her forehead crinkles, in an
obvious show of realization. “You’re playing the north American version, not the central American
one, right?”

She puts two of the coins in front of her back to where she got them, takes 200$ in Monopoly
dollars and turns her cards over, revealing an Ace of spades and a nine of hearts. Then, she grins up
at Annabeth, who is staring at her with the most disbelieving look on her face. “Looks like I’m off
to a good start,” she announces.

And somehow, that’s what startles the other three out of their stupor. Percy lets out a laugh while a
wicked grin appears on Thalia’s face. Nico’s smile is smaller, but he looks no less pleased as he
takes two dice himself and rolls them. He rolls a nine, moves one of the figurines around the table
and ends up right next to Amy’s freshly placed one. “Check,” he announces with a completely
straight face.

Rosa is about to call him out on the fact that this is not – in any kind of way – chess, but Amy just
smiles, pushes her nine of hearts over the table.

“Take two,” she says.

Nico takes two new cards, puts one of them openly on the table in front of him and keeps the other
one concealed.

The game goes on with Percy tossing a coin and demanding 20$ from Thalia as a result who passes
him the money.

Rosa follows Annabeth, who quietly fumes as they settle at another table.

“There is absolutely no rhyme nor reason to what they’re doing. It’s impossible that Amy knows
the so-called rules to whatever they’re doing.”
Rosa looks over, but her friend, who usually plays any game to win, gets super competitive and
hasn’t played much since Mac was born, just sits there, chatters with the three around her and
doesn’t even seem to pay much attention to what she’s doing.

She shrugs. “Why would she lie about it, though?”

Amy II

Jake ends up at a table playing UNO with Rosa, Katie and Leo, Holt faces off against Reyna in a
tense round of chess while Annabeth, Kevin, Terry and Will start the most intense round of
Scrabble Amy has ever witnessed.

There are a few other groups, with people Amy doesn’t recognize, but they disperse after a while,
whishing everyone a good night and leaving only the group of people she already knew before
tonight.

Reyna beats Holt in their chess match only minutes before Annabeth places her last tiles on the
scrabble board, managing to play jacuzzi over a triple word score tile.

Jake is struggling to hold all 23 of his cards in his hands, Rosa and Leo each have only three left
and are now bitterly trying to beat the other to the finish line. Katie, with her eight cards just smiles
at the ruckus they make, and at the indignant shout Leo lets out when he is forced to take four new
cards.

“Time for a new game?” Annabeth asks the room at large.

Amy looks at the other people at her table and they all shrug in agreement. Amy had pretty much
won this round in her first two minutes at the table, and they all know it.

“What were you thinking about?” Jake asks, eager to end the game he is so clearly losing. “Truth
or dare?”

There are a few groans, a few laughs and finally Reyna, who answers. “Never play truth or dare
with people with no social filter and no healthy survival instinct. Doesn’t end well.”
“What then?”

After a few minutes of discussion, they settle on spin-the-bottle story-time. Someone spins the
bottle and whoever it lands on has to tell a story from their life to a given topic. If they can’t, or
don’t want to, they have to make something up, and when they get called out on a lie, they have to
take a drink.

Half of them have non-alcoholic beverages in front of them, but nobody really minds. They are
getting to a point in their lives where getting wasted is not as high on their to-to list as it once was.

After all, they all have to go to work in the morning.

Annabeth starts the game off, and the bottle lands on Nico. “Something that annoys you about
Will,” she says with a small smile as she leans into Percy’s side.

Amy is confused for a moment, stirring up trouble in a relationship didn’t seem to be the goal of
this game, but Will just rolls his eyes and nudges his boyfriend.

Nico thinks a moment before answering. “Every iteration of “get up, the sun is shining”. Seriously,
what am I supposed to do? Photosynthesize?”

Will rolls his eyes, it seems to be an old argument between the two. “No, you’re supposed to
produce vitamin D which happens in the lower layers of skin epidermis through a chemical
reaction that is dependent on sun exposure and…”

“That’s what I get for dating a medic,” Nico says with an eyeroll of his own, but it’s fond, directed
at Will whose nose crinkles a bit as he smiles.

Nico spins the bottle, and it lands on Jake. “What do you think your last words are going to be?”

Jake doesn’t even really have to think about it. “Well, shit, that didn’t work.”
There are a few laughs and Amy shoves him in the side.

When the bottle stops the next time, it lands on Percy. Jake considers his possibilities for a
moment. “What’s the stupidest way you ever got injured?”

Thalia lets out a bark of a laugh at the question, obviously already having an answer in mind.
Annabeth looks intrigued by the fact, apparently not yet aware of the story.

Percy groans, a faint blush creeping up his neck, but he’s smiling. “I was out running with Thalia in
the woods. I was… Do I really have to tell this?” He looks at Thalia, who nods vigorously. “Well,
Thalia was in front of me, and we were talking about defensive tactics, when, out of the blue, she
yells “duck”.” He makes a pause, covering his face in his hands. Thalia is already shaking with
laughter.

“Do I even want to know what happened next?” Annabeth asks with a sigh.

Percy shakes his head, but continues, nonetheless. “I quacked at her and hit my head on a low
hanging branch.”

So it goes on, with anecdotes and random questions, good natured needling and open laughter.

When Amy spins the bottle, after having told the story of her first arrest, it lands on Leo. “Most
stupidly dangerous thing you’ve ever done,” she tells him.

“Stupidly dangerous?” he asks. “That excludes heroically saving the world while dying?” He
thinks about it for a moment, his gaze wandering through the room. When it lands on Annabeth,
something seems to come to him, for he lets out a small laugh and takes a deep breath.

“One night, Annabeth and I fell asleep together, after working most of the night on… what was it
again?” His gaze is still fixed on Annabeth, who regards him with an annoyed look in turn.

Amy is about to argue that she’ll hardly know what project it was until he told the story, but
Annabeth answers anyways, a resigned frown on her face. “A new flying chariot.”
Leo’s grin widens. “Right. So, we fell asleep in the work room, and when morning came, and I
woke up, Annabeth’s sleeping face was just inches away from mine. And you know, since it was
my workroom, there was all sorts of stuff and while I was awake enough to make decisions, my
commonsense filter wasn’t quite functional at that time of day.”

“When is it ever?” Percy interrupts and Leo throws a screwdriver at him.

“However, since I was awake and all, I took a feather, drew it across Annabeth’s face and shouted
“Annabeth, wake up, there’s a spider on your face”, and then…”

He doesn’t get to finish his story, because suddenly the room is filled with roaring laughter.

“You survived that?” Thalia gets out between heaps of laughter.

“I remember that,” Will says, still grinning. “She woke up half the Camp with her screaming.”

“I don’t think I like this game after all,” Annabeth announces while leaning into Percy some more.

There are some more comments thrown around, but they are good natured, and Annabeth takes
them with a false scowl which fades into a contented smile before Leo even gets to spin the bottle.

Leo spins the bottle which lands on Rosa.

She gets to tell the story of how she ended up with Arlo despite never really wanting a dog in the
first place but falling in love with him after having purchased him for Boyle.

When Rosa spins the bottle, it lands on Percy.

“Scariest place you’ve even been,” she tells him.

The room freezes. Or at least those in the room who have known Percy for a while, who probably
know the story.
Percy sits there, very calm, and looks at Rosa. “No,” he says.

Rosa opens her mouth and closes it again, apparently not quite sure whether to press the issue, to
apologize or to go on with a different topic.

It ‘s like all the air is sucked out of the room by the way Percy sits there, his face completely ashen
and his knuckles turn white where he grips Annabeth’s hand in his.

Will clears his throat and everyone turns to look at him in relief. “As someone who is on early shift
tomorrow, I suggest we call it a quit for tonight, what do you think?”

A collective sigh goes through the group and even Percy’s tense shoulders seem to loosen a bit at
the suggestion.

Annabeth escorts them to the door, but when Rosa tries to apologize for putting a damper on the
evening, the younger woman just shakes her head.

“You didn’t know not to ask,” she reassures her colleague. “But Percy and I almost died at that
place and while he is mostly over it, recent events kind of bring up old memories. And I doubt
either of us will ever fully be over what happened.”

It is clear in the way she is talking that they wouldn’t get the story from her, either. At least not
tonight.

They say their goodnights and their see you tomorrows and then they leave, off into the night,
going home to catch a few hours of sleep before they have to get back to work the next day.

“What was that game you were playing earlier?” Jake asks his wife as they turn into their street.
“With Percy and Thalia? Rosa said not even Annabeth was able to figure out the rules…”

Amy just laughs. “It’s not about the rules,” she tells him. “It’s about the goal.”
Jake’s brow furrows. “And what, if I might ask, is the goal.”

Another laugh. “To mess with Annabeth.”

Jake makes a confused sound and Amy decides that it won’t hurt to tell him.

“You remember Havier, Rafael and Alaya?”

Jake hums in agreement. They are the youngest kids at Santiago family reunions – except for Mac,
of course. The boys are five, following their much older and wiser seven-year-old cousin around
on family functions like ducklings.

He met them not too long ago, so Amy isn’t surprised he actually knows who she’s talking about.

“They got annoyed when the older kids wouldn’t let them play cards with them, because they
wouldn’t understand the rules. So, they made up their own game, just to have an activity to exclude
the older kids from.”

“Game with what rules?” Jake asks, although the answer begins to dawn on him already.

“There aren’t any rules,” Amy confirms his suspicions. “As long as the others can’t play with,
everyone is winning.”

“So, Percy, Thalia and Nico made up a game, just to mess with Annabeth?”

Amy grins slightly. “Apparently, Annabeth would rope them into playing Scrabble or something
like that and mercilessly destroy them, so they came up with something else to do.”

“What did you actually do, then?”

Amy shrugs. “Played cards at random, rolled the dice, said random things to each other from any
 game we know and discussed how many priests one would need to turn the whole Pacific Ocean
into Holy Water.”

“Is Holy Water actually a thing, then?”

Amy shrugs as she opens the door to their apartment building. “You know what? I didn’t even
ask.”

Chapter End Notes

I hope I managed to get the tone of this right.

My nephey is in the hostpital in the ICU right now and my emotions are a little bit all
over the place and that makes writing a little difficult, since I'm currently not trying to
write an angsty story...
If you enjoyed, please leave a comment.
Have a great day, stay safe.
 the Hospital
Chapter Notes

Happy sunday?
I wrote this on the train home from my sister's on my tablet.
So, this is how I write when I don't have two screens open all the time to look up
words or spellings, don't have a device that's amazing at spellchecking and making
sure I use the correct words for the context. I proof-read this once and have no
illusions about this chapter being on par with what I usually write. But I've got a pretty
busy week ahead of me and won't get any work done on this.
I'll go over this chapter again and probalbly post the final version along with the next
chapter.
Thanks for all the well whishes for my nephew. He's been in the hospital for 17 days
now, 13 of those in ICU. He'll probably get out tomorrow. Hopefully.
Prepare for light angst in this one. You'll never guess my inspiration...
Edit: rewritten version posted on 23.11.21
Have fun reading.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Amy knows that they are lucky with Mac. Not just because he mostly outgrew his temper tantrums
and allowed people besides his parents, his grandmother and - for some reason - Percy Jackson to
rock him to sleep.

They are also lucky with him in the aspect that he is by and at large a healthy kid.

Sure, there are days where he is feverish, the odd flu, the fussing and screaming when new teeth
emerge. But mostly, he powers through things and is up on his feet again in a matter of days.

That's why, when Mac wakes up and is a little off one morning, neither Amy nor Jake thinks much
about it, and they just go about their days.

Mac is already fussing when Amy drops him off at the daycare in the morning, but at the time, she
is rather certain that he'll be fine once he gets to play with his friends. So, when she gets the call
around midday that her son is getting worse, refusing to sleep, she is somewhat surprised.

She is even more worried.

But she tells the lady from the daycare that someone will be around shortly to pick Mac up.

She is out, though, on a meeting across town that she can’t just abandon. She tries calling her
husband, but Terry informs her that Jake and Annabeth are out working an attempted murder case.

She calls Karen then, and her mother-in-law immediately tells her not to worry and that she'll pick
the kid up from daycare.

Amy finishes her meetings for the day, goes back to the precinct to talk to Captain Holt and when
he just waves a dismissive hand in her direction when she is barely halfway through her
explanation / excuse / reasoning, she gives a few orders on what needs to be done in her absence
and then dashes out the door, home to look after her son.

When she arrives home, she can hear Mac before she even opens the front door.

Karen has him in her arms, pacing up and down in the living room. But Mac is screaming anyways,
the sound high and heart-wrenching, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Amy holds out her hands hand Karen passes her the child.

To her eternal relief, it has the intended effect. Mac calms down, snuggles into his mother's form
and his ear-piercing screams calm down into tired sobs.

While Amy paces the length of her flat, the tired sobs die down and give way to light snores. Amy
finds Karen in the kitchen where the older woman is preparing tea. Amy gratefully takes a cup and
texts Jake a quick "he fell asleep, seems all right".

"He was fine when we got home," Karen tells her as they sit down to drink their tea, a worried
frown on her face. "He slept for maybe half an hour before waking up and then wouldn't stop
screaming. I was about to call you."

Amy considers putting Mac down into his crib, but she suspects that he'd wake up from it, and
doesn't want to risk it.
"I think he's getting new teeth," Karen says.

Amy nods. She knew that already, but usually, he isn't that fussy about it.

Karen leaves and for about an hour, it's just Amy and a sleeping Mac. She takes a chance on
putting him down and he fusses a bit but doesn't wake, his breathing steadily getting heavier, the
snores louder.

When he wakes, it's almost time for dinner anyways. She cooks some pasta, but Mac doesn't want
to eat, instead throwing the food around the kitchen until Amy takes it away from him. She
manages to convince him to eat a few apple slices and drink a few sips of water, but she knows that
it isn't even close to enough.

With him not having eaten anything at the daycare either, it’s rather worrying that Mac isn’t
willing to eat, even while toothing.

Jake calls, telling her that he has to stay late to solve the case he and Chase are working on. They
think their suspect might plan another murder and they don't want to give him any more time than
strictly necessary.

He says that Rosa is willing to cover for him should the need arise, but Amy tells him to stay, to
work the case. She'll manage on her own.

And she does, puts Mac to sleep at his usual hour with only minor fussing and falls asleep right
next to him, missing the energy to get out of bed again.

When a sound wakes her in the middle of the night, she thinks it's Jake coming home for a short
moment. But the entire flat is still doused in darkness, she can’t hear the soft click of the door
closing nor the jingling of her husband’s keys.

Then, Mac coughs again, and she turns to her son. Another cough. And another, a fifth, a sixth, a
seventh.

He calms down again and Amy cards a hand through his hair, her finger stilling when the heat of
the skin registers in her sleep-muddled brain. She gets out of bed, gets the fever thermometer.
Mac's fever isn't even low, or in the beginning stages. He's at 105,5 F.

Amy’s bag is half packed when Jake comes in, his gait tired and weary, his eyes concerned, put on
guard by the pitiful sobbing coming from their bedroom.

"What's going on?" he asks his wife, who just comes bustling out of the bathroom, already dressed
for departure.

Amy presses a quick kiss to his lips in greeting. "I'm taking him to the hospital," she informs her
husband. "He woke up with a fever, won't stop screaming, has started coughing-" As if to prove her
point, Mac interrupts his wailing with a fit of violent coughs, hacking and deep and the worry
seems to slowly shake Jake awake.

"I'll come with you," he says, grabbing his shoes from where he had already toed them off.

Amy shakes her head. "I'll be fine. You go to bed; you've got a murder to solve in the morning."

Despite himself, Jake looks relieved by her words.

Amy knows that he'd come with her to the hospital, stay up all night and somehow drag himself to
the precinct in the morning for another shift of chasing criminals, and she admires that about him.
But it really is unnecessary, so she gives him another kiss, grabs her bags and her son, and drives
them to the hospital, allowing Jake to rest.

--

Having a screaming baby, it turns out, does indeed help getting attention in the ER, and it takes
only half an hour for them to have been ushered to a room with a bed and a crib, the window
overlooking the small park around the hospital and the art on the walls meant more for children
than adults.

A nurse had taken a blood sample, Mac's temperature and done a quick check-up before bustling
off, telling Amy that a doctor will be by shortly.
She glances at the clock and wonders which poor sod had to be on shift at two in the morning on a
Tuesday and whether a screaming child would be a welcome change in a boring night or just
unwanted trouble.

The nurse leaves the door open when she leaves, and Amy doesn't have the energy to get up to
close it. She drags the chair over to Mac’s crib, sags on the railing while still half-seated in the
chair, one arm hanging in the crib to calm her child.

That's how she still is when just a few minutes later, a young man in scrubs enters the room, a
concerned frown on his surprisingly familiar face.

It takes Amy a moment to place the man, put a name to the face.

She had seen the young man a few times, even talked to him on one or two occasions, but he
somehow looks different in his scrubs than he does in the shirt and jeans he usually sports.

"Didn't know you’re a pediatrician," Amy says in lieu of a greeting and Will just smiles slightly,
shaking his head.

"I'm not. I just happened to come by, saw you and wanted to say hi." He jerks his head towards
Mac. "What's up with him?"

Amy shrugs, a little helpless. "He's feverish, coughing... I don't know. The doctor hasn't come by
yet."

Will doesn't quite smile at that, and Amy appreciates that, but his face pulls into a mask of
empathy and understanding. "Doctor Jones is on duty tonight," he informs her calmly. "She's good
at what she does, gets to the point, has a good eye for things." There is a little beeping sound from
the pager on his hip and he thumbs it to shut off the alarm. "I've got to go, but I'll be by later," he
promises. Then, he’s out the door, probably off to save someone’s life.

Doctor Jones comes in only a few minutes after Will left. She's a woman in her mid-thirties,
probably around Amy's age. Her face is friendly, her dark skin and black hair a stark contrast to her
pristine white coat.
She greets Amy, asks what the problem is, and Amy describes the symptoms for what feels like the
tenth time this night. But the doctor smiles at her, talks in a calming if firm voice as she flips
through what must be the results of the blood tests.

Mac, who had just fallen in a light sleep minutes ago, wakes again once she starts examining him
and fusses immediately. Doctor Jones asks if it might help if Amy picks him up and Amy tries, but
to no avail.

The doctor continues her tests, accompanied by coughing fits, ear-shattering screaming and heart-
wrenching wailing.

He's got the flu, she finally tells Amy, like she hadn't gathered that already. She gives him some
medicine, plops a device on Mac's foot to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood and smiles
when the small screen next to his bed shows it at 100%.

“There is this 24-hour-virus currently making the rounds in daycare centers,” Doctor Jones
whispers as Mac is about to fall back asleep. “Does he go to one?”

Amy nods, even though she doubts this being over in a day.

Doctor Jones rests a hand on her shoulder. “His oxygen levels are good, he managed to fall asleep,
I gave him something against the coughing. Try to get him to eat something when he wakes up
again, or at least see if he’ll drink. If there is a problem, just press the button and one of the nurses
will come in.”

Amy looks up at her, nods in thanks. She settles in the chair, preparing for a long night with little
sleep.

Even while asleep, Mac isn’t calm. He’s trashing around, wailing slightly, not quite awake, but
certainly not properly resting, either.

When Amy returns from a quick bathroom break, her son is uncharacteristically silent.

In the dark of the night, it takes a moment for her to even make out the dark figure leaning over the
crib. The fact that she immediately recognizes the man does absolutely nothing to stop her heart
from speeding up.
For a moment, fear grips her, and she is about to lunge across the room to rip her son to her chest,
out of reach of the newcomer, to get him into the safety of her own arms.

Terror races through her veins at the possible implication of him being here; she dreads the
implications of this man bowed over her silent child who hadn’t been silent for more than a minute
all night.

Amy has barely made a sound, first careful not to wake Mac, then frozen in fear, but somehow, the
man in front of her has noticed her entrance anyways.

"He just fell asleep. Your son has quite the scream." Di Angelo's voice is low, barely above a
whisper.

When she comes closer, Amy can see the steady rise and fall of Mac's chest, the first drops of drool
on the sleeve of a black dress shirt which the toddler is clasping firmly.

She lets out a relieved breath. Maybe, the son of the god of death being here doesn't mean the
worst, after all.

Nico looks up at her, away from the sleeping child in the crib and Amy assesses his clothing with a
practiced eye. He's wearing a dress shirt, fitted black jeans and black dress shoes. The coloring - or
lack thereof - isn't surprising, though, it's the fanciness of them that catch her off guard.

It's not really the kind of outfit one would wear to a hospital in the middle of the night.

Nico must guess her thoughts, for he shoots her a small smile. "My fault, really, to think Will and I
could have a nice evening while he's on call duty." He shrugs. "We had a reservation in that new
Italian pizza place. Guess we'll have to try it another time."

Amy chances a glance at her watch. It’s half past three in the morning.

"Where did you even find a restaurant that still has open at this time of night?" she asks, though she
doesn't really care about the answer.
"Venice," Nico answers with a small smile on his lips. “At the waterside, comes highly
recommended.”

Amy looks at him, tries to figure out whether he is kidding or not.

But to be honest, she's too tired to give it much thought.

"What brings you in here, then," she dares to go back to her initial fears.

But to her relief, Nico just shrugs. "Will said you two are here. Thought I'd drop by and ask how
things are going." There is something in his face that Amy can't quite place. Fondness?
Annoyance? A memory Amy isn't privy to?

"You mean, apart from my son who has a fever, the worst cough I've ever heard, doesn't eat,
doesn't drink, barely sleeps?"

The smile dies away as Nico looks down at Mac. Amy wants him to look at her again, not quite at
ease with this guy putting his attention on her sick child. "Yeah, apart from that."

"I'm dead tired, but I can't sleep because this one wakes up every half an hour, and even keeps
fussing in between. I can't really call in Jake to take over since he's working an important case and
I’ve barely had a quiet moment since I got out of bed yesterday morning."

The expression that appears on Nico's face now is one Amy can read well enough.

Sympathy.

"Sleep," he tells her, gesturing towards the empty bed in the room. "I'll do my best to keep him
asleep as well."

Amy hesitates.
"Look, I might not have a child of my own, but I know a thing or two about being sleep deprived
and barely able to function because of it. Will's surgery is going to take another two hours, at
least." He shifts in his chair, getting to a more comfortable position. "I'll wake you if anything
changes."

It's too good an offer to turn down. Amy shuffles over to the cot, and as soon as her head hits the
pillow, she's out like a stone.

Amy wakes in an eerily silent room.

It takes her a moment to remember where she is. The bed is unfamiliar, missing her husband on
one and her son on the other side. The meek ray of sunshine falling through the window shouldn't
be able to hit her face, their bedroom isn't on the east side of the apartment.

Then, things come to her, first slowly and then all at once.

Mac being sick, the hospital, Nico di Angelo.

She looks around the room, but neither her son nor the young man who had promised to look after
him are anywhere to be seen.

Amy is out of bed and stumbling down the hallway in an instant.

She finds the two of them in the abandoned waiting area of their floor in front of the large
windows. The early morning sun casts di Angelo in an odd light, the pink color of the puffy clouds
outside silhouetting his black-clad form.

He turns around when Amy gives a slight gasp and there is Mac, carefully cradled in his arms. She
rushes over and Nico willingly passes her the child.

Mac doesn’t even stir.

"He started fussing around four, I got him to drink a glass of water and eat half a banana. Didn't
want to wake you, though, so I went outside."

Amy runs her hand over the child’s head. He’s still hot, but his breathing is steadier, the snores
lighter. "And he fell asleep again? Just like that?"

Nico plops down on a nearby chair with a relieved huff. It occurs to Amy that she doesn't know
how long he'd been standing, holding her son, and making sure each of them gets the rest they
needed. "Most adults are wary of me," Nico starts calmly. His face is not unkind, but it's plain in
his expression that he knows to count her among those people. He isn't wrong. "Children -
especially in that age –“ He gestures to the sleeping toddler in Amy’s arms- “are different. They
don't see death as something scary or threatening. They just see the calm, the stillness, the peace.
Strange as it is, I put them at ease." He must notice Amy's doubtful expression. "I'm good with
children and old people," he tells her with a quiet voice. "I'm aware that I don't really click with
those in between."

There is no heat in his words, not even remorse. It's just a statement, an it-is-what-it-is. There is no
need to please in him, no need to impress strangers or fear of missing out by not being part of
things.

It’s so different from herself that Amy doesn’t quite know what to reply.

"He's still hot," Amy says, an obvious attempt at changing the subject.

Nico nods. "It's gotten worse during the night, I think. But the coughing drought seems to have
worked, his throat is way better than earlier."

Amy regards him, this man with death powers, thinks about his boyfriend with his healing powers,
and an idea comes to her. "Do you think, Will might..." She lets the sentence trail off when she
sees Nico shaking his head.

"Will's father is the god of medicine and healing," he explains calmly, his head tilted back against
the wall, eyes half closed. "But he’s also the god of pandemics and viruses. And while Will is a
doctor, he knows he can't take on everything. He knows that, to make an omelet, you have to break
a few eggs, so to speak."
There is a sinking feeling in Amy's stomach. "And the omelet in this case is..." Her voice is a rough
whisper, a pitiful sound in the quiet of the hospital.

Nico's eyes bulge as he gets what she is referring to and snaps awake.

"No. No, no, no. Sorry." He shakes his head, fiddles with the hem of his dress shirt. "I'm not, he's
not..." He takes a breath. "He's not going to die from this."

The fluttering feeling in Amy's stomach settles.

"It's just... the... gods, I'm bad with metaphors. The eggs aren't his life. His immune system is the
omelet. He has to fight through a bunch of infections to build up a defense to the next infection he
might catch."

Amy feels herself breathe more easily. "So, he's not dying?"

There is a non-committal shrug. Not quite the answer Amy was hoping for. “We’re all dying. Some
faster than others. But no, I don’t think he’ll die of this.”

For the first time since she spotted him in her room earlier this day, Amy would actually describe
his smile as comforting.

"I know what death looks like, how it smells, know the way it feels. Your son is a long way from
entering my father's domain."

Amy doesn't reply to this. She doesn't know how. She sits in a chair next to him, both facing the
room, none quite comfortable putting their backs towards the open space.

There must be something in her face, some sort of curiosity, that prompts Nico into talking on.

“There is someone two floors up-“ he makes a vague gesture towards the ceiling- “who has been
slowly dying for quite a while now. Probably cancer or something like that. They’ll probably make
it to tomorrow, maybe to next week. Certainly not to next month.” He looks around, like he’s
looking for something. “Someone a floor down is dying… well, faster than probably-cancer, but is
further away anyways. If they don’t find whatever it is, he’ll probably be dead by Christmas.”
There is no sadness, no sorrow, no hint of pain in his expression. It’s like he’s talking about the
weather. He looks at Amy again, apparently sees the stricken look on her face. His eyes dart
around the room once again before focusing on the wall ahead. “The woman Will was called in to
operate on was pretty close to death when she came in, but apparently they did something right.
She seems stable now.”

They sit there for a while, the two of them, with the sleeping Mac in her arms in the corner of a
quiet waiting room.

The sun rises, but by chance, they'd taken chairs at the edge of the room, where the sun doesn't
reach and a room divider casts a slight shadow over Mac's sleeping form, shutting them off from
the world.

Once in a while, a nurse bustles through, a tired relative slinks over to the vending machines or a
doctor passes, immerged in a paper file.

When the clouds outside have lifted and the light has gone from pink to yellow, Will comes in. He
doesn't appear the least bit surprised to find the three of them together, just plops down on the seat
next to Nico and burrows his face in his boyfriend's shoulder.

“She’ll live,” Nico tells him.

There is a barely distinguishable hum. “Thought so,” Will mutters. “Motorcycle accident. Promise
you’ll never fall off a motorcycle?”

Nico cards a hand through the mop of blond hair. “Promise. Motorcycles are way too dangerous
for me, anyways.”

Will huffs out half a laugh. "'m tired," he mumbles. "Wanna go to bed."

There is plain fondness in Nico's voice, as he answers, "My place or yours, honey?"

And he looks soft like this, and happy and not the least bit threatening.
Will gives an annoyed groan, lifts his head an inch and lets it plonk back onto Nico's shoulder. He's
even too exhausted to lift his hand to shove the man he's using as a pillow. "We live together, you
idiot."

Nico’s shoulders start shaking with silent laughter. "I know." He lifts his gaze to look at Amy. "I
better get him home before he falls asleep at his workplace.”

"Good luck," Amy tells him. "And Nico?" She waits until he meets her eyes. "Thank you."

The fondness previously directed solely at Will now seems to stretch to her, at least a little bit. She
thinks he's going to wave her off, tell her he doesn't know what she's talking about, but he holds her
gaze for another moment, then answers "It truly was no bother, but you're welcome, all the same."
He nods towards Mac. "I hope he'll make a quick recovery."

He throws an arm around Will, hugs him close.

The shadows from the nearby room partition seem to stretch towards them and for a moment, Amy
wonders whether she got enough rest, whether she might have fallen asleep again.

The shadow continues encroaching on them, slowly swallowing the couple in front of her.

Then suddenly, they are gone.

She pulls out her phone and shoots off a quick text.

“Your friends have just been swallowed by shadows. Literally."

Annabeth only needs a few moments to answer. "Don't worry. It's Nico's preferred way of
travelling. Even if Will isn't too keen on it."

For a moment, Amy wonders if Annabeth being up and about means that Jake is already back to
work as well. She gets her answer a moment later when a second text from Annabeth makes her
phone vibrate in her hand. "Jake told me about Mac. Hope he'll get better soon. I'm probably
going to drop by later."
Rosa prolongs her breakfast break to visit at the hospital, bringing coffee and bagels and news
about Jake's case on which he and Annabeth are still working against a ticking clock. Mac’s fever
has gone down considerably by that time.

Percy comes in for an hour around noon, allowing Amy to have lunch in peace. He even convinces
Mac to eat the remaining half of the banana and part of the Spaghetti a nurse brought for lunch.

Will checks in when he gets in for his afternoon shift, eyes roaming over the folder containing
Mac’s paper trail and taking a few minutes to chat.

By the time Annabeth and Jake arrive, Doctor Jones is already sorting out the paperwork for
discharging Mac.

"One of those 24-hours-flus," she'd said when the afternoon examination revealed a largely healthy
baby who was just unhappy about getting more teeth.

There is no gloating in her voice, just a satisfied smile and a relived posture at the fact that she can
discharge the toddler this quickly.

Jake and Annabeth tell Amy about the man they caught only minutes before getting to his second
victim.

"Good thing you stayed on the case, then," Amy says.

"I'm still sorry you didn't have any family around for the majority of the day."

She looks at Annabeth as the faces of her friends - her family - flash in front of her eyes. Nico,
Will, Percy.

"I had all the family I could have asked for," she replies and when Annabeth smiles, it's clear that
the Detective knows quite well who the Sergeant is referring to.
Chapter End Notes

Yes, Doctor Jones (or at least her appearance) was very closely inspired by Martha
Jones from Doctor Who, because my mind needed someone to picture.
As I said, I'll rework this in the nearer future.
Hope you kind of enjoyed it anyways.
Stay safe, have a great day.
 an Enigma
Chapter Notes

Happy Tuesday!
I rewrote the previous chapter a bit. The main storyline is the same, but I orrected a
bunch of mistakes, changed a couple of things and added almost 1.000 words to it, so...
maybe read it again? I'm rather happy with how it turned out the second time around.
For everyone sending well wishes to my nephew: thanks. He's all right now, back to
daycare, all healthy :)
Have fun reading.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

For the first time since she started working at the 99, Annabeth is late to work.

She slides into her chair just before ten, starts up her computer, throws Jake a tired smile.

“You’re late,” he says, unnecessarily. “What happened?”

“A technical error occurred, causing an unexpectedly long bout of unconsciousness.”

Jake takes a moment to sift through the statement. “Overslept?”

Annabeth meets is eyes over their desks, nods. “Overslept. Batteries of my alarm clock ran out.
Then, I ran into someone asking me for a favor on my way here and I lost another ten minutes
arguing with a god.”

“I’m not sure whether or not that is just a phrase and by now, I’m a little afraid to ask.”

Annabeth smiles back at him. “I’m just glad the Captain lets me work on my stuff during work
hours. No idea how I’d manage otherwise.”

“What are you up to today?” Jake asks, because Annabeth chasing monsters is probably more
interesting than him chasing whoever stole Mrs. Evan’s purse the day before.
Annabeth groans. “I need to talk sense into the mother of a young half-blood who lives in the city,
so she stops drawing this much attention to her daughter. Need to find her first, though.”

“Why?”

Annabeth directs a frown at him. “Because I don’t know where she is?”

Jake rolls his eyes. “No, why is she even still here? Weren’t all half-bloods supposed to leave the
city and go to Camp already?”

Annabeth nods. “Yes, but the kid is too small to go to Camp on her own, and her powers haven’t
manifested yet. Unfortunately, her mother is apparently internet-famous and draws a lot of
attention, so the kid’s father asked me to talk to her.”

Jake takes a moment to digest the information. “With father, you mean…”

“Hermes. God of messengers and a bunch of other stuff. Luckily enough, this woman seems to
have spoken more to his interest in orators than the kleptomaniac kind.”

“Kleptomaniac?”

Annabeth nods. “Yes, because the guy responsible for diplomacy and trade is also the god of
thieves. Because nobody said that this stuff has to make sense. Why the literal God of messengers
can’t talk to his lover, though, I really can’t say.”

She runs a hand through her hair, obviously exhausted by the events of the past few weeks. “It’s
not enough for me to find whoever is amassing an army in the underworld, try to find a way to stop
them before we get overrun, manage efforts to direct searches. No, I need to run errands for the
gods, as well.” She shakes her head. “I shouldn’t complain too much about him. He’s usually a
pretty helpful guy.”

Annabeth looks around the barely populated bullpen, then allows her shoulders to sag and lowers
her head so her forehead rests on her hands, folded on the table. She lets out an annoyed groan.
“Maybe I can help,” Jake offers, opening the search bar on his computer. “What’s the mother’s
name?”

Annabeth lifts her head, regards him for a moment, then shuffles through her stack of paper, like
anyone would believe she doesn’t have the name memorized. Then, she tells him the mother’s
name.

Jake blinks.

Blinks again.

Closes his mouth with the utmost difficulty from where it dropped open.

Blinks a third time.

“Can’t be,” he croaks out.

Annabeth’s face does something that means she’s very unimpressed by him doubting her.

“What’s going on?”

Rosa and Terry must have noticed Jake mentally blue-screening and have wandered over to find out
the reason.

Jake opens his mouth to answer, but no words come out.

All his thoughts are still circling the new piece of information his partner just handed him.

He makes a vague gesture towards Annabeth, prompting her to fill their co-workers in.
Annabeth still has a confused expression on her face, but starts explaining, anyways. “Hermes,
God of messengers and other stuff asked me to find one of his daughters and her mother who are
presently in the city and drawing more attention than is advisable in the current situation. No idea
what’s wrong with him, though.”

Jake is slowly regaining control over his thoughts, mainly by convincing himself that he somehow
misheard, imagined another name than the one his partner actually said.

“The mother have a name?” Rosa asks, an eyebrow raised, thoroughly unimpressed by the fact that
Annabeth recently had a conversation with a god.

“Gina Linetty,” Annabeth repeats and this time, when Jake’s mind goes offline, so do Rosa’s and
Terry’s.

It takes a while for everyone to get their brains back into working gear.

Apparently, the G-Hive is more successful than any of them realized. Successful enough that
Hermes stumbled upon it, was intrigued, and went to one of Gina’s public appearances to hear her
speak. And somehow, inexplicably, the God of orators heard her and was enamored. Enamored
enough that nine months later, little Iggy was born.

“But she told us Boyle’s cousin is the father,” Rosa says.

Annabeth shrugs. “Not uncommon. History books are full of women claiming mundane men as
their half-blooded children’s fathers. Easier than telling them the truth.”

“I’ve known her since we were kids,” Jake complains. “She would have told me something like
this.”

Annabeth appears unimpressed. “I’ve never met her. But would you have believed her if she’d told
you the truth? If she told you she slept with a god?”
Jake shakes his head. Funnily enough, it wouldn’t even have been the strangest thing Gina ever
said to him. “But… Boyle…”

“Maybe he even knows about it. Was willing to go along with the ruse to keep up appearances.”
She runs a hand through her hair. “One way or the other, I need to talk to her.”

“So do I,” Jake mutters as he pulls out his phone. He hits the speed dial 5, puts his phone on
speaker.

It takes only a moment before a very familiar voice fills the room. “Epicenter of the universe, god
speaking, how can I help.”

--

Gina is still Gina.

She’s glued to her phone when they meet her at one of her favorite food trucks from back when she
was still working at the precinct. She barely looks up when Jake hugs her but lays her phone down
on the table in front of her when Jake presses a taco into her hand, because not even Gina Linetty
can eat a taco one-handed without making a mess.

Introductions are short as Gina doesn’t really seem interested in Annabeth. She’d agreed to the
meeting on the basis of Jake buying her food and as far as she is concerned, she’s probably holding
up her end of the deal.

“I need to talk to you about your personal safety and that of your daughter,” Annabeth states
carefully.

Gina nods. “Uhu. Sure thing.”

Annabeth takes it as the polite prompting everyone not intensely familiar with Gina would take the
statement as. Jake doesn’t. He knows the absent look, the slight tilt of his friend’s head, the barely
noticeable peering towards the phone screen. Gina is somewhere very far off with her thoughts.
“You need to leave the city and draw less attention for a while,” Annabeth goes on.

Another agreeable hum.

Annabeth seems to catch up to the fact that Gina isn’t quite listening to her. She snatches Gina’s
phone up with a quick movement, finally causing Gina to look up.

“Hey, that’s mine!”

“Were you even listening to what I was saying?”

Gina shakes her head, eyes wide and innocent. “No. But to be fair, I didn’t think you’d notice.” She
makes a grabby motion for her phone, careful not to spill the filling of her taco.

Annabeth groans. “Hermes asked me to talk to you.”

That gets Gina’s attention.

Her eyes snap up to meet Annabeth’s. Her eyes dart over to Jake for just a moment, before settling
on the blonde once again.

“That stripper from two weeks ago?” Gina asks. It’s a classic misdirect, but Jake knows her well
enough to see through it, right to the insecurity, the surprise, the shock.

“No, your child’s father.”

The fight doesn’t drain out of Gina as much as it converts into something else, a little less manic, a
little more secure. She turns into something closer to the girl Jake remembers from his childhood,
when she was still his best friend with whom he hid in her neighbor’s abandoned treehouse to listen
to her fantastical stories.

He wonders when she stopped telling those stories, why he hadn’t noticed her imagination turning
into the slightly manic energy she developed during early adulthood.
Wonders what that meant back then, what it means now.

“You’ve met him?”

Annabeth nods, hands Gina’s phone back.

“You… know who he is?”

“And what he is, yes.”

Gina puts her phone aside. A rare thing, even before Ginazon got popular. “I… didn’t believe it
myself, in the beginning. It was impossible, right? Him being… what he is. He shouldn’t even have
existed and Iggy… That’s why I called her Enigma. Because she was impossible.”

Annabeth takes another bite of her taco, waits the other woman out. It takes Jake a lot of self-
control, but he stays silent, as well. This isn’t about him.

“I’m used to people being intimidated by my sheer level of awesomeness. But with him as a father,
I feared Iggy might be so much above everyone around her that she’d never connect. I thought I
was going crazy. I thought… I thought that I was alone. That no matter who I’d talk to, nobody
could ever understand what I’m going through, let alone her.”

Annabeth’s smile is sad. “You’re not. Not crazy, nor alone.” She gets a business card out of her
wallet and scribbles an address on the blank backside. “This is the card of the community center
my fiancé runs. It’s meant to give a safe space for people like your daughter. People like Percy and
me.” Gina’s eyes widen, but Annabeth just goes on, shows her the second address. “This is the
address of Percy’s mother. Her experience might have been different from yours, but I’m sure
she’d love to meet you, either way.”

Gina takes the card, turns it around in her hands. “Do you think… Do you think I’ll ever see him
again?”

Neither of them has to ask who she’s talking about. Annabeth considers the question for a moment
before answering. “Hard to say. He keeps himself updated on you, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.
Would you want to see him again?”

Gina shrugs, pauses, then nods. “I think so, yes.”

Annabeth smiles at her. “I’ll tell him.”

“Thank you. That’s not why you came here, though, is it? To check up on me?”

Explaining to Gina that she has to tone down her internet presence for a while isn’t easy. She fights
back, but when Annabeth calmly reminds her that it is to keep Iggy safe, Gina relents.

She vows to keep her internet presence to a minimum (even if Jake knows it’ll still be more than
his), to leave the city for a while and hit up the community center and Sally once she returns.

She hugs Annabeth as they say goodbye before throwing her arms around Jake. “We need to
properly catch up once you’re back in the city.”

Gina nods vehemently. “Now that you know, I have to brag about how I boned a god.”

Jake groans and pushes her away. “I really don’t want to hear about it,” he explains and Gina
cackles.

Motherhood seems to ground her some, seems to be good for her. But some things will probably
always stay the same.

“I love you,” he tells his oldest friend as they part.

“That’s a sign of good taste,” Gina answers. Jake understands the underlying message.

I love you, too.

They are halfway back to the precinct when Jake asks the question burning on his mind. “Do you
think she’ll ever see him again?”

Annabeth shrugs. “As I told Gina, it’s hard to say.” She looks at Jake out of the corner of her eye.
“Has she always been so…” She trails off, visibly looking for a fitting word.

“Special? Weird? Loud? Because the answer to all of these is yes.”

“Manic.” She must see the shocked expression on Jake’s face, because she hurries to soften the
statement. “It’s not too bad with her, I know. Not yet, anyhow. But… Percy once met the mother of
one of his other children. As a young woman, she’d been confident and kind. Hermes fell for her.
They had a son. Then she turned mad, due to a bad decision. I’m not sure if I can say that it broke
Hermes’ heart, but he blamed himself for her descent into madness. He wasn’t entirely wrong
about it, either. My guess is that he’s going to wait and see whether Gina is descending further into
madness before returning. He won’t want to loose another woman to madness.”

“So he’d just cut her out of her life, because she’s a little bit off, sometimes? Not really the proper
thing to do, don’t you think?”

Annabeth shrugs. “Prolonged exposure to our madness doesn’t always help with mental health. If
May hadn’t met Hermes, she probably wouldn’t have turned mad. I’m not saying he’s right. I’m
just saying he has his reasons to stay away for now.”

“You really think he’d return to her one day? After she’d already given him a child? You said the
people in your cabin are your half-siblings. It never sounded like the gods made a habit of
returning to their lovers.”

“They usually don’t. But it wouldn’t be the first time for Hermes, either.”

They slow down again, roads filled with the evening rush hour.

Jake tries but fails to get his thoughts to focus on anything else. “I think after today, I’ll need a
drink. You in?”
Annabeth hums an affirmative. “Percy wanted to go to the community center today. Maybe he’ll
swing by as well.”

“I could ask him about the other lover of Hermes, then. You said he met her?”

Annabeth sits up suddenly, grey eyes hard. “Don’t. You don’t want to hear what he has to say, and
he doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“What became of her kid, then? Grew up to be a happy camper, despite his mother’s manic
tendencies?” There is hope, right?

“Luke Castellan. No, he didn’t. But he died a hero.” Jake is about to prod, to ask further questions,
but his partner shakes her head. “I don’t want to talk about it, either.”

So, Jake doesn’t ask.

----

They end their day at Shaw’s, beers in hand, smiles on faces. Jake and Rosa are playing darts,
Terry and Amy are sitting in a booth together, Annabeth is getting new drinks.

That’s probably why Jake and Rosa are the first to notice the two strangers entering the bar, both
looking a little bit out of place as they scan the room. Their eyes settle on Annabeth, her back to the
door and oblivious to them.

The man, tall – easily over 6ft, with broad shoulders and muscled arms, nudges his companion, a
slim, short redhead who is constantly muttering under her breath.

When Jake turns to Rosa, her attention is already on the odd pair.

Jake is about to intervene, but he is too late. The two newcomers rush across the room towards
Annabeth.
Jake lets out a startled shout, and Annabeth whirls around just in time for the guy to crash into her.
She manages an aborted motion for Jake and Rosa to stand down, then lets out a pained gasp when
the muscled arms wrap around her shorter frame. She manages to pat the guy’s arm a couple of
times, choking out a strangled “Air, buddy, I need air”.

He lets her go immediately, sheepishly looking down at his feet. “Sorry. Was just happy to see
you, sister.”

Annabeth grins up at the guy, who she doesn’t seem to share any family resemblance with. “Glad
to see you too, big guy,” she answers as she carefully hugs the redhead. “And you,” she tells the
shorter woman.

Jake and Rosa have made their way over to them while they were exchanging greetings.

“Sister?” Rosa asks, an eyebrow furrowed in confusion.

“In law; to be,” Annabeth supplies. “Tyson is Percy’s brother and happens to have a very strong
sense of family.” She is still grinning, obviously fond of the guy.

“I didn’t know Sally had more than two kids.”

A note of amusement creeps into Annabeth’s expression. “She doesn’t. Tyson’s his half-brother
from the other side of the family.”

“Other side? You mean…” Jake casts a quick glance around, lowers his voice. “He’s a half-
blood?”

Annabeth shrugs. “Not really. You see, half-blood implies that the other parent is a human, but
that’s not the case for Tyson.”

“What is he, then?” Jake wants to know. He immediately scolds himself. “If, you know, that’s not
offensive to ask or anything.”
Tyson laughs at that. It’s loud and booming and probably more intimidating than it’s supposed to
be. “I’m a cyclops.”

“Then why do you have two eyes?” Rosa points out the obvious.

“Oh my god, Rosa. You can’t just ask someone why they have two eyes.”

Rosa hits Jake in the shoulder. Hard.

“It’s the mist.”

Annabeth turns to Hank, who just came to put two beers down in front of her. Annabeth orders a
coke and a lemonade for her friends and the bartender quickly pours them, hands them over. Tyson
grabs the coke, the muttering redhead the lemonade, Annabeth the beers after paying.

They make their way over to the booth Amy and Terry are already sitting in, conveniently located a
bit off from everyone else. Annabeth and the redhead sit down next to Terry, Jake and Rosa next to
Amy. Tyson pulls a chair over and sits at the end of the table.

Annabeth gives a quick round of introduction – the redhead’s name is Ella – before turning to
Tyson once again. “Not that I don’t always appreciate your visits, but is there a purpose to this
one?”

Tyson just smiles at her. “Yes. Ella needs to tell you something.”

All eyes turn to the small woman, whose mumbling has become louder, more insistent. Jake
focusses to make out words.

“… has been stolen in the night. The artefact had been found in an archeological site in Cyprus
just two years ago and has been displayed for the public for the first time. ‘The artefact’s worth is
impossible to estimate,’ the Museum’s curator, Michael Neuer, says. ‘There are few pieces like
this ever discovered, and barely any this well preserved. It’s a shame, really.’ The amulet was
found in what appears to be the ruins of an old temple dating back to Ancient Greece close to the
city of Paphos…” She trails off, takes a sip of her lemonade. “Paphos is a coastal city in southwest
Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations…” she goes on, but
Annabeth focusses her attention back on Tyson.
“She’s quoting Wikipedia again, isn’t she?”

Tyson nods.

“What was she talking about, before? A stolen amulet? Some article she read?”

Another nod. “She started talking about it a few days back. We came across some old newspapers
and she started repeating this article, so I looked in on it.” He starts rummaging around in his
pockets.

“Why would anyone steal an amulet? Or put it in a museum?” Jake asks, confused.

“Do you even know what an amulet is?”

Jake nods. “Of course. I like mine with cheese and onions.”

There is a beat of silence. Amy pats her husband’s hand. “That’s an omelet, darling.”

A laugh ripples around the table but is soon interrupted when Tyson procures what appears to be
the printed article his girlfriend had quoted. Annabeth grabs the paper, scans the article. Her eyes
narrow on the small picture of the amulet itself – which turns out to be a bronze disk the size of a
palm. It’s littered with markings, small pictures and some form of writing. Ancient Greece? Runes?
The dark tongue of Mordor? Jake couldn’t tell. (Well, he can tell that it isn’t the Dark tongue of
Mordor, he’d seen the Lord of the Ring movies enough times. But other than that…)

“You don’t happen to have a magnifier glass on you?” Annabeth asks, little hope in her voice.

Tyson shakes his head but places another page in front of the Detective. “But I brought a detail
drawing.”

Annabeth grins at him. “Sometimes, I really enjoy your love for detail.” She stares at the picture
for a long moment, then gets up, walks to the bar. She returns with a blank piece of paper and a
pen, sits back down, and makes a note.

“Does Percy know you’re here?” Annabeth asks, five minutes later, after making the third note on
her piece of paper. Whatever she is doing seems to be going slow. “He’d love to see you too, you
know.”

Tyson shrugs. “Thought about visiting him later. I made him something.”

He pulls a wristwatch out of his pocket and puts it on the table. It’s simple enough, silver with a
leather bracelet. Certainly neat work but not quite enough to explain the way Annabeth’s eyes
widen in surprise. “Tyson! That’s… That’s amazing. He was so miserable after he lost his last one.
How many did you make for him now?”

“This is the sixth.” Tyson looks a little bit sheepish. “I’m glad to be able to make him something
that helps him stay alive.”

“He is so lucky it’s literally impossible for him to loose his sword.” Annabeth taps a quick
message into her phone, hits send. “He thought about swinging by anyways. He’ll probably be here
soon.”

Annabeth’s statement proves true not much later, but she doesn’t look up, doesn’t even seem to
notice when Percy enters the bar after just a matter of minutes. He pulls up another chair, sits down
next to Tyson. He smiles at everyone, hugs Tyson, gives Ella’s shoulder a squeeze.

He quicky glances at the paper Annabeth is still working on, at Ella, still muttering nonsense, then
turns to his half-brother. “Something Ella dug up?”

Tyson nods and hands over the watch without any preamble.

Percy’s eyes go round as he sees it. He opens his mouth a couple of times, closes it again. “Did I
ever tell you you’re the best brother a guy could ask for?”

Tyson beams at him.

Before any of them can say anything else, Annabeth sets her pen down with a firm clonk. She turns
to Percy, Tyson and Ella.

“I’ve got good news and bad news.”

“Bad news first,” Percy requests.

Annabeth looks at him for a long moment. “Doesn’t work that way,” she replies. “Good news is
that I finished translating this thing and am fairly sure that I understand what the amulet can do.”

“Bad news is that it’s in the hand of our enemies who can do pretty powerful stuff with it?” Percy
guesses.

“However did you get that idea?” Annabeth deadpans.

Percy grins. “Lucky guess.”

Percy makes a grabby motion towards the paper and Annabeth hands it over.

“It seems like a priest of Apollo made this,” she begins.

Percy looks up from the picture. “What gave it away? The giant sun in the middle of it?”

Annabeth raises an eyebrow at Percy and he lifts a hand in surrender, the other one still clasping
the photo. “Sorry. Will shut up now.”

“The wearer could bind others to a purpose with this, to wait in darkness until awakened by light
and to attack those who’d upend their rest. It was probably used on golems who were supposed to
protect the vaults or tombs underneath the temple.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad,” Jake tries.

 Annabeth turns to look at him, her expression less than pleased. “It wouldn’t be, if there was any
specification that this could only be used on golems or the likes. Unfortunately, whoever made this
was not only going for the light aspect of Apollo but was very keen on gaining a few points in the
department of poetry as well. It’s beautifully written, but unfortunately allows whoever wears it to
assemble an army in the underworld, and as soon as they are set free in our world, they’ll attack
everything they see.”

“I withdraw my statement,” Jake acquiesces. “It does sound pretty bad.”

Chapter End Notes

I hope I didn't butcher Gina too much...

I just thought Hermes would be kind of fitting for her and then I thought about May
Castellan, and... tell me if this was a good idea? because I'm not quite sure about it, but
I had the idea and it wouldn't let me go, so... (my story, deal with it???)
I kind of have the headcanon that after Percy lost the first wristwatch shield Tyson
made him, he got another. Which he also lost. Because he's Percy and his sword
always comes back and he doesn't really think about it in the moment. But then he
feels bad when he looses another watch, but Tyson will just smile at him and make
him a new one, with new art on it and maybe cool new features and Percy loves him
but kind of wishes it wouldn't be neccesary in the first place?
Anyhow... Introduced a magical item I kind of needed to further my plot, and I
managed to give an estimation of the final chapter count.
Maybe leave a comment to let me know what you thought.
HAve a great day, stay safe.
 Jake V
Chapter Notes

Happy Monday!!
Guess who got a Beta!
Thanks to Azure_Allumiia for getting rid of more mistakes than I thought I put in this
chapter!
This chapter doesn't have too much going on, but I needed certain information to be
brought up, certain people in certain places...
Also, don't lecture me on inconstistency of my chapter titles, please ^^
Have fun reading!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

There is a restlessness in Annabeth when she comes in on Thursday morning. She is always a bit
fidgety, a constant air of movement to her that has turned from being distracting to being a
comforting presence in the precinct over the course of the last few months.

But it’s different, today.

Jake looks at Annabeth as she sits at her desk, fidgeting with her pen, doodling on a spare paper
instead of reading any of the case files she’d pulled from other precincts.

He needs to address his partner three times until her gaze snaps up, catching on Jake’s.

“Did you say something?”

Jake frowns, worry starting to pool in his gut. “Are you alright? You seem off, today.”

Annabeth runs a hand through her hair, open for once.

“My scrunchie just felt weird today,” she had said when Jake asked her about it. She has it wrapped
around her wrist now, black and simple. And apparently more interesting than what Jake has to say,
because she is playing with it, stretching it and letting it snap back against her skin. She flinches,
then does it again.

“Annabeth.”

“Yes?”

“What’s up with you?”

Annabeth carefully eases the scrunchie back to her skin before letting go of it and placing both
hands on her desk, palms down. “Everything is all right,” she says, but it’s unconvincing.

Jake just continues to look at her, waiting her out.

He never thought he’d win a staring contest against her, but Annabeth falters after just a moment.
Her gaze flickers through the bullpen while one hand goes to her necklace, starting to fidget with
the wooden pearls.
“It’s just… the stress of everything going on combined with the ADHD is making it difficult to
focus on anything. I know I have work to do, but… I know what is happening, when it is likely to
happen, what to do to prevent it. I just need to find out where it’s happening. Unfortunately, my
brain decided that solving 90% of the mystery is enough and got bored with the problem.” She
looks utterly frustrated as she tells him this.

“Anything I can do to help?”

Annabeth shakes her head. “I can’t concentrate in here. With everyone talking, it’s too loud.”

“I could get you earplugs,” Jake offers.

His partner shakes her head again. “Even more distracting, I’m afraid.” She morosely looks down
at the stack of papers in front of her. “There’s a lot of monster activity in Manhattan, but I can’t say
if it’s the point of origin or if they go there because that’s where they want to attack. There was a
door to the underworld in Central Park when I first needed to go there. But a few years ago, the
doors relocated, and we haven’t found that one yet. Didn’t put very much energy into the search,
granted, but still…” she lets out an annoyed huff, then shrugs. “Nico is looking around, though.
Sooner or later, he’ll find what he’s looking for.”

“Searching the whole underworld for a door sounds like it could take a while,” Jake remarks.

Annabeth makes a face. “Really? Never occurred to me.” The sarcasm is palpable. “Unfortunately,
until Nico manages to find the doors from his side, it’s my job to keep looking from this side. Not
that I’m getting much done here…”

Jake considers her for a moment. “I might have an idea,” he says after a beat, then dashes off to
talk to the captain.

Annabeth ends up taking over interrogation room one. There’s little inside to distract her, and it’d
still be easy for her to get to any resources she needs. If someone needs her help on a case, she’ll be
right next door.

Jake helps her carry her bag and her stacks of papers over, even running down to IT to get a laptop
for her.

Annabeth smiles when she’s fully set up.

Jake asks her if there is anything else he can do for her, but when she declines, he leaves, closing
the door behind him.

There is an attempted burglary afterwards, and Jake heads out with Rosa to try and find the
perpetrator.

He is in and out of the precinct for most of the day, running down leads and making a pretty strong
case against the victim’s aunt. The detectives grab lunch on their way from the crime scene to the
victim’s workplace and eat it while exchanging theories.

When they finally get back to the precinct in the early hours of the evening, Terry has already gone
home, and Captain Holt is packing up his things as well.

Amy texted him when she got off work that she’d get Mac from daycare. Again. Jake resolves to
make it up to her soon. Maybe he could take a few days off on overtime. It isn’t fair to his wife that
she always has to get off work early to pick up their son. Plus, Jake genuinely enjoys spending time
with him and feels like he is missing out.

With Boyle, Hitchcock and Scully on the last leg of their summer holidays – Charles is due back to
work on Monday, the other two on Wednesday – Jake and Rosa are the last two from the day shift,
and the colleagues from the night shift are due to arrive any minute.

Jake picks up his bag and waits for Rosa to join him on his way to the elevator when the light of
Annabeth’s computer screen catches his eye. He frowns as he follows the animated picture of her
screensaver slowly bouncing across the screen.

He moves the mouse and a bar for the password appears, showing Annabeth Chase as still being
logged in. Jake frowns. “Annabeth forgot to log off her computer,” he tells Rosa.

“Doesn’t sound like her,” the woman replies.

“No, it doesn’t,” Jake agrees. “She was really off earlier, though.”

“Did working in the interrogation room work better for her?” Rosa asks as they walk over to the
elevator.

“Don’t know,” Jake admits. “I haven’t talked to her since Holt put us on the burglary case. I
haven’t seen her either, now that I think about it.”

“Neither have I,” Rosa replies as the elevator arrives on their floor and the doors open in front of
them.

The two detectives look at the empty box for a moment, then turn away from their way out of here,
off to find their colleague.

They make their way over to the interrogation room Annabeth had secluded herself in earlier. The
light is still on, shining through the crack under the door. Jake knocks, and when he gets no
answer, pushes the door open.

Annabeth is still there, looking like she hasn’t moved from her chair since Jake left her hours ago.
She doesn’t look up, not seeming to notice the two detectives standing in the doorway.

Her hair is up, held together by a pen and a truly impressive bun at the nape of her neck. At some
point, she’d taken off her shoes, one of them lying beneath the chair, the other carefully balanced
on the edge of a box with files. Her bare feet are pulled up to the chair in a way where she can sit
cross-legged, even though the chair is too small for a grown person to do so comfortably.

Jake exchanges a glance with Rosa, who looks as worried as he feels. He puts his bag down next to
the door and carefully goes over to the desk.

He considers touching Annabeth’s shoulder to get her attention for a moment, but he doesn’t want
to startle her, fearing the consequences too much. He knows her knife can’t hurt him, but her fists
can. He’s not risking that.

Talking to her in this state of mind doesn’t quite work, as he’s seen earlier, so he starts by taking a
seat opposite her on one of the free chairs. Rosa sits down next to him.

Between stacks of police reports are pages with what Jake now recognizes are notes in Ancient
Greek, doodles and sketches of monsters, artifacts and scenes of history. He recognizes the Trojan
Horse, a ship sailing towards a castle on a hill and armies facing each other. There’s the silhouette
of a goat-legged man with curly hair playing the flute. Strewn in between is a sketch of Estelle,
random patterns drawn by pens in different colors, the beginnings of a shopping list, tucked
underneath a glass paperweight in the form of a pyramid.

A torn-off piece of paper says, “Remind Chiron to do the thing!!!” The three exclamation marks
are of varying sizes, each depicturing a blade. Jake vaguely recognizes the first one as Annabeth’s
knife.

A small map of New York City is filled over and over with little marks, small notes and
minimalistic sketches. A small spider sits trapped under an upside-down glass cup sitting on the far
edge of the desk, almost out of Annabeth’s reach.

Annabeth is clicking her pen against her forehead, over and over. She has a small red spot there,
right between her eyebrows. She must have been doing this for quite a while. The other hand is
holding the article Ella had found the previous day about the stolen amulet. She’s staring at the
text, but doesn’t seem to be reading the words.

Rosa slowly grabs the map to take a closer look at it. Annabeth’s hand with the pen drops onto the
paper, stopping Rosa in her action.

It takes another moment for Annabeth to frown and to look up at them. She seems surprised to see
them, but too out of it to be properly startled.

She closes her eyes for a moment and shakes her head. “What are you doing here?”

“We just wanted to see if everything’s alright with you,” Jake replies carefully. “You’ve been in
here for a while.”

“How late is it?” Annabeth asks, her voice hollow.

“Almost seven,” Rosa replies, uncommonly soft. “When was the last time you left this room?
Taken a break?”

Annabeth frowns, like she doesn’t understand the question, or like she can’t quite believe it’s really
this late.

“I didn’t,” she finally says.

“You didn’t leave this room after I helped you set up in here around ten?” Jake asks, just to clarify.
Because that couldn’t be, could it?

Annabeth slowly shakes her head.

“Have you eaten anything?” Jake asks, concerned for her well-being.

Rosa, just as concerned with her well-being but less concerned about her privacy, grabs
Annabeth’s bag and looks inside. A moment later, she pulls out an unopened lunch box, followed
by two full bottles of water. She places one in front of the younger woman who is slowly shaking
her head in response to Jake’s question.

“Drink.” Rosa goes to grab the glass on the edge of the table, but Annabeth startles awake by the
attempt, grabbing Rosa’s wrist in a steely grip.
“Don’t.”

“Why not?”

“You’d free the spider,” Annabeth answers, something like fear in her voice.

“You’re afraid of spiders?” Rosa asks, a mocking undertone in her voice. “Seriously?”

Annabeth’s jaw clenches as she answers. “Yes, seriously.”

A smile starts playing around Jake’s lips. “You do know that they can’t harm you, neither do they
want to?”

Annabeth glares at him, no sign of humor in her eyes. “They do want to hurt me, though.”

She lets go of Rosa’s wrist but doesn’t let the spider in its confinement out of her line of vision.

“I’m a daughter of Athena. All spiders hate me.”

For a moment, Jake wants to ask if she is serious, if there is a possibility of it just being paranoia,
but he thinks better of it. All things considered, it wouldn’t be the strangest claim she’s made that
he ended up believing.

Rosa seems to have come to a similar conclusion. “So… spiders are no good,” she slowly states.
“Any other animals you have a special relationship with?”

Annabeth manages a small smile. “It’s not just me. It’s every child of Athena. All spiders hate us,
but owls usually like us. Being mom’s sacred animal and all that.”

“Reminds me,” Jake pipes up, feeling a grin spreading over his face. “Someone said you sound like
an owl.”

“Who?” Annabeth asks.

Jake beams, thrilled that it worked, and even Rosa lets out a small huff of laughter. Annabeth takes
a moment longer to get the joke, but then she rolls her eyes and smiles at him.

She takes one of her water bottles and downs it in one go. Life seems to slowly start seeping back
into her. “Are we the last ones here?”

Jake nods. “Everyone else has gone home.”

Annabeth looks at the clock hanging above the door. “We probably should, too.” She glares at the
mess on the table in front of her. “I’m going to clean this up, you guys get home.”

Rosa throws an arm around Annabeth’s shoulders. “Nope. You’re coming with us.”

She drags the other woman up and out of the room. Annabeth comes willingly; none of them have
any illusions of being able to manhandle her if she isn’t willing to cooperate. Jake picks up her bag
as well as his own and slides a piece of paper underneath the glass to carry the spider outside.

He lets the spider free on one of the window ledges, then follows the two women to the elevator.
“You want me to drop you off at home?” Jake offers as they step inside.

Annabeth shakes her head, though. “I’m running. Might help me wake up properly.” She exits the
elevator on the ground floor, Rosa and Jake staying inside to ride to the parking garage on the
lower levels. “Thanks. For getting me out of there. Otherwise, I probably would have stayed in
there until Percy came looking. Sometimes, when stuff gets overwhelming, I need someone to snap
me out of it. So… thanks.” Her smile is a bit sheepish, but genuine.

“Every time,” Rosa says as the doors shut between them, not giving Jake the opportunity to echo
the statement.

The next day, when Annabeth enters the precinct, all her stuff has been moved out of the
interrogation room and into their briefing room. Someone had gotten a bigger map of New York
and pinned it up. After the squad realized that most of her markings from the day before were in
Manhattan, she got a more detailed map of the island, as well.

Annabeth smiles when she comes in and notices the new setup.

She gets to work without much ado.

When she starts bouncing a ball she’d brought in against the wall and doesn’t stop after five
minutes, Jake gets up, joining her in the meeting room and showing her pictures of Mac.

Annabeth looks at them and smiles, talking to Jake for a few minutes before grabbing a case file
and a pen and starting to make notes.

Two hours later, after she’d stood in front of her map for ten minutes straight without so much as
blinking, Terry walks over and tells her about Sharon’s plans to buy more flowers for their new
balcony and shows her pictures of the most likely plants.

Annabeth engages in the conversation after a moment of switching gears and even laughs at
something Terry says. Then, she grabs her colored post-it-notes and starts sticking them on the
map, scribbling notes onto them.

Yet another hour later, when Annabeth has stopped putting the post-its on her map and started
sticking them to her nose instead, Rosa pulls her out of there and into the break room for lunch.

“Getting anywhere?” Jake asks as he joins them in the break room.

Annabeth is munching on a couple of blue cookies (Percy’s doing, obviously,) and takes a moment
to answer. “Maybe. Not sure, yet. We think that they’ll wait for the summer solstice for their
attack, since the amulet draws power from Apollo and the sun strengthens its powers. So, our
estimation is that the attack will happen at noon in nine days. Hazel has someone trying to figure
out how many souls can be controlled by it, that should give us a number of the enemy. All that is
missing is the place.” She shrugs, takes another bite of her cookie. “We have a meeting on Sunday
at Camp to compare notes. Hazel is coming over from Camp Jupiter, and Thalia is coming along,
as well. So, I’ll hopefully know more on Monday.”

“Just in time for Charles to come back,” Jake comments.

He doesn’t quite know why he felt the need to say that. Except that he might be missing his best
friend. Except that he might really want to talk to his best friend about certain live-changing
information he received over the past few weeks.

“Right. Charles.” Annabeth sounds a bit surprised at the mention of their colleague.

“Boyle’s gonna flip when he hears of everything,” Rosa states bluntly.

 And, yes, that is probably true, but still…

“You’re still going to tell him, right?” he asks his partner.

Annabeth must see that it’s important to him, because she just nods. “Sure. Just… Maybe we
should give him a few days to get back, to tell us everything about his holiday before we spring
this on him?”

Jake hears the unspoken “maybe wait until after the attack so he won’t freak out as much”.

And… he doesn’t know if he wants to argue that point. On the one side, this is his best friend
they’re talking about, and he wants to tell him stuff. Not telling him when Amy got pregnant was
hard enough, and he promised himself that he’d never keep anything from his best friend if it could
be helped. On the other hand… Charles is the biggest drama queen he knows.

They’ll tell him. Sooner or later.

Who knows, Charles might surprise them yet.

Chapter End Notes

Next chapter is currently at 10.000 words (and that is the split version of it, don't ask
how much the two finale chapters make up combined...)
By the way, I started reading the Kane chronicles (by that I mean "I read the first one
on the train, (don't ask why I didn't buy all three at once) bought the other two, waited
for a month until reading the second one on one weekend and am now waiting for me
to get bored enough by fanfiction to find the time and read the last one...)
That being said, I'm now planning on crossing over the Kanes with this universe, even
though it'll probably just be something short. (currently at 1500 words.)
Of course, I started writing it before I even finished the books, what did you expect?
Please leave a comment, I thrive on attention.
Have a great day, stay safe.
 A tree-mendous development
Chapter Notes

Happy Tuesday!
This turned out being a looong chapter. There was just so much stuff I wanted to
include.
Thanks again to Azure_Allumiia for beating, freeing this story from a lot of run-on-
sentences and telling me where to put the "and"s and commas. (Among other things,
but I feel like those are the bulk of comments they give me ^^)
Anyways, enjoy reading :)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Boyle I

The first day back to work is heartwarmingly normal.

Charles gets assigned to work on a robbery with Rosa and she mostly allows him to ramble on
about his holidays. He’d been on a road trip with Gwen and Nikolaj and it had been awesome.

When they come back shortly before lunch, they find Jake and Annabeth huddled up in the
briefing room, case files lying around them and two maps pinned to a wall with a bunch of pins
stuck in them. Annabeth is biting on a pen cap, her head in her other hand and her elbow on the
table. Jake is crouching in front of her, talking to her in low tones.

Charles is about to ask what exactly they are working on when Jake spots him, gets up and hurries
over. He throws an arm over Charles’ shoulder and leads him away from the briefing room, over to
their break room.

“You need to tell me about you holiday,” Jake says as he grabs his lunch from the fridge.

“What do you want to know about?” Charles asks, eager to answer all questions. “I know I only
sent updates every other day, but I simply didn’t have the time for more.”

He really didn’t, but keeping his friends and family informed of their vacation was important after
all, so he took the time every other day at least. A good thing, apparently, since Jake is so eager to
hear even more about it. He must have loved the update emails.

Jake pauses for a moment, lunch in hand, and looks at Boyle. Blinks. “It’s just… It’s so different,
hearing it directly from you, opposed to your carefully crafted mails. Tell me everything. Spare no
detail.”

And how could Charles Boyle ever say no to that?

As normal as the first day back to work was, the second would soon turn into the strangest day he
ever had.

(Maybe second to the day Gina first slept with him, but the jury is still out on that.)

He’s still working the robbery with Rosa while Annabeth is still huddled up in the briefing room
most of the time.

Once in a while, someone goes in there to check up on their youngest squad member, but whatever
she’s working on, she doesn’t seem to be making much progress. A detailed map of Central Park
has joined the ones of New York and Manhattan on one of the whiteboards.

Charles goes in once with Rosa and takes a long look at the maps, trying to figure out what this is
all about. His colleagues have been strangely tight-lipped on the subject, but Charles has been with
the police for long enough to not take offence to that. Some cases were simply on a need-to-know
basis.

Meanwhile, Rosa whispers something to Annabeth. The blonde shakes her head, seeming a bit
defeated.

"Nico might have something, though. He wanted to check it out and come back to me with any
intel he can find.”

“You don’t sound too optimistic about it,” Rosa observes.

Boyle wonders silently why Chase’s civilian friend can know about the case when he can’t.

She shrugs. “With the amount of resistance we’re currently estimating, I’m a little afraid he might
tip them off and startle them into action ahead of time.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if they moved before having a fully formed plan? Forcing them out of hiding
sooner might be beneficial.”

Annabeth’s face darkens. “Not if it means we don’t have a plan, either.”

Charles knows when he’s out of the loop, knows the signs well enough. He knows that something
is going on that he isn’t privy to. He does his best not to take it personally.

It still stings when Rosa leads him out of the briefing room, leaves him at his desk and goes to talk
to Terry. Alone.

When Guinevere texts him that she and Nikolaj haven’t figured out what they want to do today, he
suggests going to Central Park. He can’t quite say why, just that he was looking at the map at the
time and it seemed like a good idea.

An hour later, he gets the first picture, the two of them at the entrance of Central Park in the bright
morning sun. They took his suggestion. He’s oddly proud of the fact.

Charles just returned from the evidence lockup when his phone dings with a new message from
Guinevere. It’s a photo of a lone apple tree in the middle of a meadow. He can see other trees
further back, the edge of a pond, the skyline of New York in the background. They’re still in
Central Park, then.

“Nikolaj swears up and down that the tree simply appeared twenty minutes ago. Please tell
him that’s not possible.”
He smiles and nudges a passing Jake to show the picture to his best friend. Jake gives an interested
hum as he looks at the picture.

“Gwen just sent this. Nikolaj claims it appeared out of thin air.” He chuckles. His son’s creativity
is growing day by day and he has developed a great interest in fantasy.

Jake surprises Charles by taking the phone out of his hand, an unhappy frown on his face. He takes
the phone over to Annabeth, still standing in front of her maps, and hands the device over with a
tense, “Look at this.”

Annabeth does and goes worryingly still. “Is that an apple tree?”

Jake just nods.

She taps the picture and the short text Gwen sent with it appears beneath the image. The color
slowly drains from her face as she looks up at Boyle. “Where?” There’s barely any sound in her
voice.

Boyle barely understands her, struggling to understand what is going on, but before he can say
anything, ask anything, Jake has already answered her question. “Central Park,” he says and taps
the corresponding spot on her map. Curiously enough, there’s already a post-it at the location,
orange with nothing but a question mark.

Annabeth swears. Violently.

After a few choice words in English, she slips into another language that Charles can’t follow.

Jake eyes her with concern, and Rosa stops on her way to the elevator. Terry looks up from his
computer and takes off his glasses.

Annabeth snaps out of her very impressive string of curses once Jake lays a hand on her shoulder.
She blinks up at her partner, nodding. Charles can’t tell if it’s for herself or for Jake. The whole
squad looks at her in anticipation and when Annabeth stands up and squares her shoulders, she
looks ready for a fight.

“What’s happening?” Jake finally asks.

“This-“ Annabeth waves Charles’ phone around to emphasize her point- “is a harbinger of war.”

“Actually, it’s my phone,” Charles comments, grabbing his phone back from his younger
colleague.

He expected some sort of reaction from his colleagues. Amusement, laughter, disbelief. Not the
grim expressions all around.

The faces around the room darken and when Annabeth rushes over to the captain’s office, the other
four follow. Jake taps out a quick message on his phone, probably telling his wife that something is
happening.

Holt looks up with an annoyed twitch around his eyes when they storm his office, but when he sees
Annabeth’s distressed face, he abruptly ends his phone call.

“We miscalculated,” Annabeth starts rambling. “We thought we’d have more time, but with the
apple tree arriving, they’ll move soon, they won’t wait anymore, they couldn’t, Nico probably set
them off-”
“Detective Chase,” Holt interrupts her and Boyle braces for the admonishing she’d get for bursting
into his office and rambling nonsense like this. But the captain surprises him. “Where is it
happening? When is it happening? What do you need?”

Annabeth looks at the clock on the wall. It’s 10:15. “They’ll probably strike at noon, sun at its
highest point and all that, means the amulet should have the most power. Means we have less than
two hours to get a counter-attack going. Central Park. I need you to…”

She takes a moment to breathe, looking around the room. Then, she faces the captain again, a plan
apparently forming in her mind. Boyle just wishes he knew the problem they were trying to solve.
“I need you to stay here, hold down the fort. Give us half an hour to get over there, then call the
appropriate channels to evacuate Central Park between 86th and 65th street. Bomb threat, sniper,
arsonist, I don’t care. Make them clear it and make sure no one will send additional troops inside.”

A firm click sounds as Rosa closes the door to the bullpen with a pointedly raised eyebrow. It earns
her an appreciative nod from Holt and a flighty smile from Chase.

“I will back up whatever you come up with, we have ways of making a paper trail appear,”
Annabeth promises the captain. And what is she on about? “Can I take the team?”

Holt gives a firm nod.

Annabeth turns to Terry. “I need you to come along, pull rank on anyone who thinks they know
better than us. Rosa, you go with him, make sure people listen to him.”

The door opens and Amy slips in. She takes one look around the room, taking in their grim faces
and Annabeth’s determined stance, and just stands next to her husband, grabbing his hand and
awaiting orders.

Annabeth immediately turns to her. “How many uniformed officers are currently at your
disposal?”

Amy barely has to think about it. “We just got back to full strength now that everyone is back from
vacation. 21 currently on duty, five of those need more than ten minutes to get back here if recalled
from their posts. I can call in more, or take over a few from other precincts, if needed. Would take
some time, though.”

Annabeth waves her off. “It’s fine. Take a dozen. Tell them to get to Central Park as fast as
possible. Tell them it’s a pressing matter, but absolute need-to-know-basis. Make sure they don’t
ask questions, because we can’t answer them.”

Boyle has a few questions of his own.

Amy nods. She takes another look at Jake, who gives her a comforting smile. Then, she’s through
the door again, gone as quickly as she came.

Annabeth is still arranging her troops. “Charles, you’re with us. Jake, you’re driving.”

Charles doesn’t get what is going on. Doesn’t get why they need to hurry to Central Park, or why
the captain so willingly let one of his Detectives take command over his whole precinct. He
follows Jake out the door anyways.

Just as they’re about to leave the office, there’s a faint voice from their captain. “Kevin is in the
Metropolitan Museum right now.”
Annabeth turns around, facing him again. The Met is in the middle of their evacuation area and
whatever is going to happen might stretch to it. “Tell him to meet us at Belvedere Castle.”

Annabeth doesn’t even wait for his affirming nod before she strides out of the office, straight for
the elevator. Jake hurries to follow her and so does Charles. He still doesn’t know what’s
happening, but this might be his only chance to find out.

Jake grabs his keys and jacket on his way out, and Boyle grabs his bag. Annabeth grabs her
backpack and a glass paperweight from her desk before hurrying to follow them to the elevator.

When the elevator doors close in front of them and they begin their descent to the sublevel parking
space, Annabeth turns to face Charles. She puts a hand on his shoulder and looks him firmly in the
eye.

“I know this is a lot and I know that currently, you don’t understand what’s going on. But I need
you to keep it together for another moment. This is need-to-know-basis, and you do need to know.
But I have to do some other things first. So can you give me another five to ten minutes?”

Boyle looks over at Jake, his best friend, who looks at him with the smallest of smiles on his face.
Jake is battle-ready, moving out to fight evil. But he isn’t nervous about it, doesn’t doubt the
mission.

And even if he did, Boyle would always stand at his side.

Charles looks back at Annabeth and nods.

His colleague rewards him with a grateful smile.

The elevator doors open and the three of them hurry over to Jake’s car, Annabeth rummaging in
her pockets on the way, pulling out her wallet and looking for something. Mac’s new car seat, still
in its original packaging, is blocking the passenger seat, so Annabeth and Charles both get in the
back of Jake’s car.

Jake gets in the driver’s seat and pulls out of the parking lot while Annabeth puts the glass pyramid
she had taken from her desk on the middle seat. She then turns on the flashlight on her phone and
holds it at an angle, the light reflecting into a small rainbow across the seat. She pulls a quarter out
of her wallet and puts it in the middle of the rainbow.

“Fleecy, please do me a solid. I’ll pay you double when we have dealt with our current crisis, but I
really need a conference call. And I’m all out of Drachmae.”

For a long moment, nothing happens. Then, the coin vanishes into the seat cushion.

“Thank you.” There is a world of relief in Annabeth’s voice before she starts rattling off names. “I
need a bunch of people who should all be in New York City. Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace, Reyna
Ramírez-Arellano, Leo Valdez, Will Solace, Nico di Angelo. If Nico isn’t in the city, don’t bother
looking for him. And if you could find Hazel Levesque, that’d be awesome. She’s probably still at
Camp Half-Blood.”

After a second of absolute silence in which Jake turns onto the Prospect Expressway and Charles
questions his own sanity along this of his coworkers, there’s a cacophony of voices, apparently
coming from the rainbow between them.

“What’s happening?”
“Who’s there?”

“Wise girl, is that you?”

“Annabeth?”

“Can this wait? I’m just about to put a pizza in the oven.”

A chorus of groaned “Leo!” rings out.

“Guys,” Annabeth cuts over them.

“Isn’t that a bit discriminating?” the voice apparently belonging to Leo asks.

“He’s right, you know?” says another. “I’d recommend beloved friends and tolerated
acquaintances.”

“Nice,” a female voice cuts in. “I usually go for allies, enemies and those I’m still deciding about.”

“Entities of interest.” Was that Percy?

“A warm welcome to everyone who managed to sneak past the guards?” Someone else suggests.

“Idiots,” Annabeth snaps.

“That works too,” Leo acquiesces, then falls silent with the rest of them.

“I figured out the place of our battle, but the timetable seems to have been moved up. Everyone,
gear up and meet me in Central Park, at Belvedere Castle. I’ll be there in twenty-five minutes. I
expect you all to beat me there. I’m bringing police backup.”

“Nico thought he had a lead this morning, and he went downstairs to check it out.” Charles vaguely
recognizes the voice as belonging to Will.

Annabeth nods, even though the others can’t see her. Right? “I know. From what I gathered, he
found what he was looking for but set them off. He’ll meet us there, I’m sure. Anyone hard pressed
to make the twenty minutes?”

“I’ll have Mrs. O’Leary drop me off,” Percy answers. Isn’t that his poodle?

“I’m good,” Leo says.

“Arion and I can make the twenty minutes work.”

“We’re close anyways,” answers the female voice Boyle still can’t place.

“I can’t do the twenty minutes. I’m still at home.” Will.

“Mrs. O’Leary and I can pick you up,” Percy offers.

There is a small, annoyed groan from Will. “All right. Thanks.” The words sound somewhat
reluctant, like Will would have preferred another form of transport.

“Percy, can you bring my armor and sword?” Annabeth asks.

“Sure thing.”
“Anything else?”

There is silence over the line.

“See you in a bit.”

Annabeth picks up her phone, turns off the flashlight. The rainbow disappears and the voices cut
off.

She meets Jake’s gaze in the rearview mirror, gestures towards Charles. “Would you mind filling
him in? I have thinking to do.”

Kevin II

Kevin didn’t ask many questions when his husband called and told him to meet Annabeth at
Belvedere Castle. He excused himself from the conference he was participating in, grabbed his bag
and went into the park.

It only takes him a few minutes to reach his destination, the castle towering next to the sidewalk;
the flag on its highest tower flapping lazily in the faint breeze; grey stones beaming in the summer
sun. A low balustrade runs along the path, separating the cobblestone way from the small garden
around the castle.

Kevin always liked the mix of Gothic and Romanesque styles the architects had used. Even if, as a
folly, the castle had never been functional in the traditional sense of a castle, it has always had a
purpose, currently serving as a visitor center and housing the New York Meteorological
Observatory.

The only recently finished renovations have been worth the effort, as well, letting the castle shine
in all its grandeur.

Kevin doesn’t recognize the woman clad in golden armor astride a magnificent horse with a sword
strapped to the saddle and a deep violet cape billowing behind her as the horse trots up and down in
front of the building. But he doesn’t need to recognize her to know she is part of the reason he
needed to come over here.

“Ave Romanus,” he says as he approaches and a pair of golden eyes drills into him.

Looking down on someone is easy while sitting on a horse, but somehow, that’s not why Kevin
takes a careful step back. The woman in front of him assesses Kevin in a matter of seconds, her
eyes roaming over his form, probably looking for a weapon.

“Who are you?” Her voice is commanding and firm, but not unkind.

“Kevin Cosner,” he hurries to reply. “I’m…”

“…a descendant of Apollo,” the woman interrupts him. “Will told me of you. He’s been teaching
you to handle a knife, right?”

Kevin is stunned for a moment. He didn’t expect to be identified as a descendant of Apollo. He’d
expected to be recognized as Raymond’s husband, if at all.
He nods, surprised that Will even mentioned their weekly get-togethers. It had started out as what
Will called “family bonding,” but soon turned into the younger man teaching Kevin all sorts of
things – including how to properly wield a knife.

The woman’s posture immediately relaxes; she loosens the grip she had on her sword and gives
him a warm smile, swinging a leg over the horse’s back and dismounting. The horse canters away,
vanishing around the building in a matter of moments. Its rider appears unconcerned by the
development.

Standing in front of him, the woman is rather short, but no less imposing. “I’m Hazel.” She extends
her hand.

“Pleasure to meet you. Do you have any idea what’s going on?” Kevin asks carefully, shaking the
proffered hand.

Hazel shakes her head. “No, but it’s something big. Annabeth called and I can feel it.”

She doesn’t elaborate on what exactly she feels, and Kevin doesn’t think she’d answer, even if he
asked.

He doesn’t really have to try and keep a conversation going though, because Thalia and Reyna
come jogging around the castle, fully dressed in battle gear, bows hanging over their backs, and
multiple blades strapped to their bodies. They carry spears and a round shield is strapped to
Thalia’s back, the surface covered by a leather cloth.

Reyna gives Hazel a hug in greeting while Thalia just nods at them and perches on the low
balustrade.

As the three women exchange a few quick words, a family of four approaches them and asks for a
picture. Kevin doesn’t know what they think the group of them are but clad in armor and equipped
with a multitude of weapons, they must make quite an impression.

Reyna politely and firmly denies the request and the family walks off, the youngest child with a
defeated slouch to their shoulders.

Thalia looks at Hazel as the group walks away. “Could you…” she trails off, making a wavy
motion with her hands.

Hazel rolls her eyes, and Kevin feels something change around them. He has to blink a few times
before he’s able to focus on the three warriors in front of him again. But as soon as he looks at
Hazel, he finds his gaze slipping off of her, drawn in by the imposing building behind her.

“Could you please exclude me from whatever you’re currently doing?” he asks, slightly annoyed
by whatever is happening.

Suddenly, he finds himself able to look at her again, and he meets Hazel’s surprised frown. “What
was that?”

“I made us uninteresting to the human eye. Forgettable. Kind of surprised it worked on you this
badly.”

Kevin just shrugs. “I’ve always been good at looking through the mist. Even before I knew what it
was.”

Hazel’s eyes focus on something behind him. “Might not be doing you any favors right now,” she
tells him with a slightly amused smile.

When Kevin turns around, he is presented with a horrible sight. He might have described the beast
as a mastiff if it wasn’t as big as a truck and looking at him with terrifying, intelligent, glowing red
eyes. He can spot sharp teeth in the monster’s mouth, each long as a knife, with jaws that are
probably strong enough to snap bones in half with one bite. The pitch black fur somehow fails to
reflect the sunlight, like shadows are clinging to it.

Kevin hadn’t noticed the beast approaching from the close tree line, but it makes its way towards,
him; puffy breaths fill the air with a slightly rank smell as it closes in on them.

He finds himself backing away from the monster, not even caring about the fact that he is seeking
cover behind two sixteen-year-old girls and a woman not even half his age. Kevin has never seen a
monster this close, and he really could have forgone the experience.

The beast follows him, but Hazel bravely steps between the two. She even has the nerve to laugh.
“Get back, you big fluffball. Don’t you see that you’re scaring him?”

To Kevin’s great surprise – and even greater relief – the beast does stop in its tracks, head tilting to
one side as it stares at the small form. Kevin would never have considered voluntarily getting
closer to the beast, but Hazel raises a hand to pet it.

She doesn’t even seem to be afraid for her hand.

“It’s all right,” Will speaks up next to Kevin. The older man flinches; he hadn’t even noticed his
relative’s arrival. “That’s Mrs. O’Leary. She’s nice.”

Kevin doesn’t quite dare take his eyes off Mrs. O’Leary but turns slightly to offer Will a smile in
greeting. “When did you get here?”

Will sits down on the balustrade with a small huff. “Just now. Percy and Mrs. O’Leary picked me
up.” He drinks a sip of what is probably a flask of nectar. “Don’t get me wrong, shadow travelling
is super useful. But I’m a child of the sun, and it’s not necessarily beneficial to my health.”

Now, Kevin fully turns to take him in. Will appears a little worse for wear, and there’s a paleness
underneath his tanned complexion as he closes his eyes and turns his face towards the sun. When
he opens his eyes again and sees Kevin’s concerned face, he smiles comfortingly. “It’s all right,”
he assures the older man. “I’ll be fine in a moment. It just kind of… disorients me.”

“And the…” Kevin makes a vague gesture towards the beast that had turned onto its back to
receive belly rubs from Percy while he simultaneously chats with Hazel. He takes a seat next to
Will, knees wobbly from the adrenaline rush.

“Hellhound,” Will provides. “Probably the only friendly one in existence. She’s Percy’s. Since I
would have been hard-pressed to make it here on time otherwise, they picked me up.”

Kevin hums. It sounds… reasonable?

The wail of a child draws his attention. On the other side of the path, a girl had apparently let go of
her balloon, causing it to float over the balustrade and out of reach of the child. The father comes
over and tries to calm the child down, but it’s of no use. The child only screams louder, having a
fully-blown breakdown.

Thalia makes a decisive gesture with one hand and a sudden gust of wind appears, blowing the
balloon back into the hands of its owner.
The child stops screaming immediately, happily clutching the retrieved toy, and walks off with her
family.

Percy grins at his cousin. “I always knew you had a soft spot for children,” he teases.

“The screaming was annoying,” Thalia shoots back with another quick gesture. A gust of wind
blows Hazel’s cloak into Percy’s face, who just laughs.

Kevin doesn’t have much time to marvel about Thalia’s ability to control the wind, though, because
a motorcycle halts in front of them with screeching tires. Leo jumps off, pops the kickstand, grabs a
bag from the back of the motorcycle, and looks around. After finishing the quick assessment, he
lets out a relieved laugh.

“I made it before Annabeth,” he says happily as he makes his way over to Hazel to hug her. He fist
bumps Percy, gives a slight salute to the huntresses in passing, gives Kevin a grinning nod and
Will’s shoulder a friendly pat as he plonks down next to them on the balustrade.

“So, you actually decided that this was more important than your pizza?” Thalia asks and
something in her expression reminds Kevin of Rosa.

Leo looks genuinely confused. “Who said I couldn’t have both?” he asks, reaching around in the
bag he brought and pulling out a fresh, warm pizza. He grins at everyone, obviously pleased with
himself.

“Are you serious?” Hazel asks with a laugh.

Reyna’s eyeroll looks more fond than exasperated. “Could you think about the bigger picture, for
once? There is no “I” in team,” she lectures with a mockingly stern voice.

“But there is one in pizza,” Leo answers while plopping the first slice into his mouth.

“Does that mean you’re not sharing?” Percy asks, a slightly hurt look on his face.

Leo points at him with his free hand in confirmation, nodding vigorously.

“That’s so not fair, Valdez!” Hazel exclaims while walking over.

Leo raises a hand to keep her away, the other hand holding the box on his lap. While he’s
distracted with the young woman, Will slowly and deliberately sneaks a hand under his defenses
and steals a slice, taking a hearty bite and humming in appreciation. “I get why you don’t want to
share, it’s really good.”

Leo’s head snaps around to face the perpetrator. Hazel uses the moment of distraction and pounces,
snatching not just one piece, but the entire pizza box from his lap.

Leo is on his feet in an instance, leaping after the box.

Hazel grabs a slice and tosses the box at Thalia who catches it with a cackle. She offers Reyna a
piece first, then takes one for herself. Before Leo can reach the huntresses, however, the box is
passed on, thrown over the hellhound in Percy’s waiting hands. He grabs a piece as well, even
throws out a quick “thanks”. Whether it was for Leo or Thalia, though, Kevin couldn’t say.

Percy tosses the box in Kevin’s direction, probably because he’s the only one left without any
pizza. Leo anticipated the move, though and intercepts the throw, grabs the box clean out of the air
with a shout of triumph.
He sits on the balustrade again, this time on Kevin’s side, and with notably more distance. He
grabs himself another slice, munching it down quickly while glaring at his friends. His anger
disappears quickly, though.

Kevin looks over when he hears a questioning hum from the Latino and Leo is offering the pizza
box to him, a few slices still left. Kevin is just about to decline when he meets Will’s small smile,
and it occurs to him that this is about more than offering pizza.

This is about equality. And maybe, just a little bit, about family.

Jake VI

Charles Boyle is a trusting person.

Never before has Jake appreciated this fact quite as much as now while he is speeding down FDR
Drive, filling his best friend in on the broad information he’s received over the past few weeks.

Charles sits there, in his seat behind Jake, with bulging eyes and an open mouth as he listens to
Jake explain about gods and monsters and a supernatural threat waiting to take over the city –
maybe even the world.

Annabeth has taken out a notebook and is scribbling furiously on it. Knowing how little she takes
notes, it unsettles him slightly. But he does his best to ignore the fact. He’s got a task. Two tasks,
really. Getting them to Central Park and getting his best friend on board with what they are doing.

When he concludes his explanation, Boyle continues staring at the back of his head for another
long moment. Then he mechanically blinks his eyes. Once, twice, a third time.

“Are you having me on?”

Jake meets his eyes in the rearview mirror. “No. On Mac’s life, I’m telling the truth.”

Jake notices Annabeth’s eyes flickering up at the vow, a ghost of a smile, a mouthed thank you,
then she is back to her notes.

A red truck pulls into the lane in front of him way too closely and Jake hits the breaks, swears, and
endures the enraged honking from the car behind him.

His eyes flick to the rearview mirror, landing on Charles, who sits behind him, unblinking,
unmoving. Jake is tempted to tap the mirror, like the image somehow got stuck like a videocall
with bad reception.

“How long until we’re there?” Boyle’s voice sounds choked.

“Less than ten minutes,” Jake replies evenly.

Charles lets out a shuddering breath, shaky with suppressed emotion. Jake hates seeing him like
this, hates seeing his best friend, who always feels so openly, so willingly, so honestly, forcibly
and intently shove down his emotions. “So, I don’t even get the chance to properly freak out.”

“Charles, I’m sorry, I…”

“Don’t.”

Jake falls silent.

“After we dealt with whatever is going on, after I made sure Guinevere and Nikolaj are safe and
the world isn’t ending, we’ll talk about this. I’ll show up at your place tonight, and I will get to
have a proper freakout over the fact that there are literal gods living in America.”

Jake could never have asked for a better friend. “Deal.”

And Boyle, because he is Boyle, because he is trusting, and kind and Jake’s best friend, and
because, while he is a total drama queen, he’s also one of New York’s finest, takes Jake’s words as
the truth.

When they make it to Belvedere Castle, everybody has already gathered there.

Kevin is wearily eying Percy’s poodle while he talks to Will, both sitting on the low balustrade.
Percy, Reyna, and Hazel are talking among each other. Leo is standing with Thalia, speaking at her
more than with her as it appears, but the huntress listens to him with a certain amount of interest.

Nobody even notices Annabeth at first.

When they do, their attention snaps to the blonde and everyone starts talking at her at once.

“This hot-head has some decent ideas for traps,” Thalia says in lieu of a greeting, jabbing a finger
in Leo’s direction.

“We probably need to clear the civilians out of the park” Reyna says.

“I tried reaching out to Nico again but couldn’t get him.”

“Are you going to tell us what’s happening?”

“How did you even find out?” Percy asks, pressing a kiss into his fiancée’s hair.

“I could set fire to…”

“Stop.”

The word is calm and quiet, but the flood of voices immediately quiets at Annabeth’s request.

Annabeth turns to Kevin first. “In a few minutes, Police is going to evacuate the Park. I need you to
find Guinevere and Nikolaj and get them to safety. Boyle is going with you. We’ll do our best to
make sure none of the monsters we encounter make it out of the park.”

She runs a hand through her hair and seems to consciously force herself to slow her flow of words.
“What we’re about to do might rile up the monsters already in the city. It’s probably nothing, and
they don’t really have a reason to attack you or Charles’ family, and I’m probably just being
paranoid, but I need to make sure you’re safe. I can’t properly do my job here while any of you is
in immediate danger. You’re good at looking through the mist, spotting monsters. So, stay alert, be
careful, and get to safety.”
Kevin nods. “But where to? All the warded places I know are in Brooklyn.”

Charles is staring around the area, obviously looking for his family. When he notices them,
walking towards the general direction of their group, he takes off, jogging over and hugging them
in greeting.

Annabeth pays him little mind, and points south where a familiar monument barely peeks out
between the other skyscrapers. “Empire State Building. While strictly speaking not warded, still
the safest place to be in the city.”

One of those days, Jake really has to ask her what is so special about the Empire State Building.
But that’s probably a question for another day.

“What do I do if a monster does decide to attack us?” Kevin asks.

Annabeth just shrugs. “You slay it. Will has been giving you lessons, hasn’t he?”

Kevin nods, a slightly stunned expression on his face. “But I don’t have a weapon.”

Everyone pauses for a moment, lets those words sink in. There is no use in him being able to spot
the danger if he can’t do something about it.

“Anyone got a spare blade?” Annabeth asks, looks around the group.

There are a lot of heads being shaken. Percy doesn’t seem to carry a weapon at all. Neither does
Leo, but who knows what he hides in that toolbelt of his?

Will has a single dagger strapped to his hip; a golden sword is strapped to the saddle of Hazel’s
horse which is grazing a few feet away.

Percy shrugs. “You know I would probably have forgotten my own blade if I could.” So, he does
have a blade somewhere on him.

Reyna and Thalia can’t claim not to have a spare blade, sheaths strapped to their hips and legs,
bows and arrows slung over their shoulders, spears in hand; their weaponry glinting silver in the
low light.

“Those are huntresses’ knifes,” Thalia says, her face almost apologetic. “It’s not like they will do a
man any good.”

There is a long knife made of celestial bronze strapped to Annabeth’s back, barely peaking out
beneath her jacket. Jake knows it’s there, because it always is. He has the feeling her friends know,
as well. No one mentions it, though, everyone pointedly avoids even looking at it.

Annabeth looks around her circle of friends, lets her gaze wander over to the Boyle household,
talking in rushed voices while they slowly make their way over. Nikolaj has grown since Jake last
saw the boy, his puberty fully setting in. Charles has a hand on his shoulder, the other clutching
one of Guinevere’s.

They are the embodiment of what each of them swore to protect: the innocent, the young, the
untrained.

Jake’s heart clenches at the thought of the two getting caught up in all of this and he doesn’t think
it’s any different for Annabeth. Sure, she might not be as close to Charles, nor to his girlfriend or
son. But she sees this as her responsibility.
And Jake knows how Annabeth sees family. How she rarely, if ever, uses the term to describe her
father, stepmother, or younger half-brothers. How she always uses the term for her friends from
Camp, and more recently even for the members of the squad.

He knows that she sees each of the kids visiting Percy’s youth center as family, as well as any
friends or partners they ever bring along. Even if she never talked to the boy, Jake is sure his co-
worker sees Nikolaj just as much as family as Jake does.

Their happy, dysfunctional work-family.

What they would do to keep them safe.

Annabeth draws her celestial bronze knife and steps over to Kevin. “As far as prized possessions
go, this knife is rather high up my list,” she admits. “I trust you with it because someone needs to
keep those people safe, and I can’t leave to do it myself. Use it to the best of your abilities. If that
leads to you losing the knife, don’t go back for it, get yourself to safety. Not even my most prized
possession would be worth your life.”

Kevin takes the proffered knife. “I’ll keep them safe,” he tells her. The young Detective’s face is
still scrunched in a worried frown. Kevin reaches for her hand, lowers his voice so Jake can barely
make it out. “I promise, Annabeth. They’re my family, too.”

Jake can’t quite say what it was, but Kevin must have said the right thing, for Annabeth takes a
shuddering breath, squeezes his hand, and gives him a sharp nod.

Kevin joins Charles at his family’s side and together, they leave the park.

Annabeth turns around, taking charge of her friends and leaving their shared chosen family for
Kevin to protect.

Thalia hands her a dagger and Annabeth takes the silver weapon, placing it in the empty sheath on
her back. Everybody seems to wait for Annabeth to start giving out orders as she takes the others in
slowly.

Percy hands her a bone-white sword, and she fastens it around her middle.

“Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” Annabeth says and takes off in a jog. Everyone follows her,
quickly matching her pace.

Her speed is slightly above what Jake is used for a workout, but he manages to keep up well
enough. He still envies Hazel a bit who just rides alongside, her stallion’s hooves clip-clopping on
the cobblestones.

Annabeth waits for a loose formation to fall into place before she starts speaking. “Listen up,
everyone. We knew all the doors to the underworld got relocated a few years back. We didn’t
know where the Doors of Orpheus went; they weren’t at their old place and we assumed they got
relocated out of Central Park, possibly even out of New York. They haven’t. They’re still in the
park, just in a slightly different spot.”

“I think I can feel them,” Hazel says. She makes a vague gesture towards the large meadow on the
other side of the castle. “Somewhere in that direction. Not too far.”

Jake realizes that they are currently making their way around the turtle pond behind Belvedere
Castle, towards the great lawn laying on the other side - exactly where Hazel is pointing. Exactly
where Guinevere and Nikolaj were having their picnic earlier.
Annabeth nods. “An apple tree appeared in the middle of one of the lawns about an hour ago.
That’s what tipped me off.”

“An apple tree? Seriously? Couldn’t it have been something cool?”

“Stupid Paris of Troy.”

“We always knew Paris was an idiot, even before he gave that apple to Aphrodite.”

“He was in love.”

“As I said: an idiot.”

Annabeth clenches her jaw against the wave of protest and fastens their pace. It does little to
dissuade the bickering between the demi-gods, but Jake starts to struggle keeping up with them.

There’s a pat on his shoulder and there is Hazel atop her horse, smiling down at him. She reaches a
hand behind her own back, offering it to Jake. He doesn’t take the time to hesitate, grabbing the
hand. Hazel pulls him up behind her without any problem, and they make their way towards the
meadow together.

They come to a halt in the middle of a small field. They can still see Belvedere Castle, from the
opposite side now, towering over the turtle pond. There’s a little forest, reaching up to the water
and around the pond, low branches of the closest trees hanging in the water. The third side of the
meadow, the side they are now facing, is bare, just grass and a couple of flowers.

A few groups of people are lounging around on the grass, talking. Two children are playing ball.
Will jogs a few steps further away from them, phone to his ear and rapidly talking into it.

The tree that had sparked all of this – the one Guinevere took a picture of and sent it to Charles –
stands in the middle of the meadow. Unremarkable except for the placement and the bright red
fruits that are ripe ahead of time.

“What does an apple tree have to do with anything?” Jake asks.

Annabeth helps him off the horse which takes off with Hazel as soon as his feet hit the ground.
“Do you know the story of how the Trojan War started?”

Jake shakes his head. Of course he doesn’t.

“There was a fight,” Annabeth tells him, “between the three goddesses Hera, Athena and
Aphrodite. They wanted to know who was the most beautiful and they chose Prince Paris of Troy
to judge. He was supposed to give an apple to the most beautiful of the three. All of them tried to
bribe him. Hera offered power, Athena glory on the battlefield. Aphrodite offered him the heart of
the woman he desired – Helen, who was already married to the King of Sparta. Paris gave the
apple to Aphrodite, Helen ran away with him, and her husband followed them, bringing war upon
the City of Troy. Since then, apples are mostly seen as tokens of admiration, or love, when given
to a dear person. The apple tree appearing here, though, just like this, unbidden, unprompted… It
spells disaster more than it does devotion.”

Hazel comes over from where she’d been inspecting the tree. “As expected, you were right. The
tree pretty much stands on top of the Doors of Orpheus.”

Annabeth nods, like that was exactly what she suspected. It probably was. “Any news on Nico?”
she asks Will as he hangs up his phone and walks over to their group.
The medic nods. “He just called, told me to get everyone to meet him in Central Park behind
Belvedere. Guess how surprised he was when I told him we’re already here?” He puts his phone
back into his pocket. “Should be here in a couple of minutes.”

Annabeth nods again, pleased with the information. Before she can say anything else, however,
there is a loud voice, coming from the speakers on Belvedere Castle, telling everyone to evacuate
the area immediately.

The other people on the meadow look up at the voice but make no move to vacate the area.
They’re New Yorkers, after all.

It takes only a few more moments until police officers appear at one end of the lawn, walking up to
the group and urging them on.

“Hazel?” Annabeth prompts, her voice more a statement than a question.

Hazel just shrugs. “Already done. They won’t notice us.”

Nico appears just as the police officers and the civilians walk off the lawn.

He stands in between Will and Hazel, ghosts his fingers across his boyfriend’s wrist, gives his
sister a quick sideways hug, and waves to the rest of them. “What tipped you off?” he asks the
group.

Annabeth jerks her head towards the lone apple tree. “Apple tree,” she says, in way of explanation.

“Stupid Paris of Troy,” Nico mutters to himself.

Annabeth barely suppresses a grin. “What’d you find down there?”

“I finally managed to track down the idiot with the amulet. Don’t really know who she is, didn’t
stick around to ask for a name. Probably a witch, with the way she was chanting. Tried to take the
amulet from her, did not succeed, might have tipped her off about knowing their location…”

Annabeth raises a very pointed eyebrow, gestures towards the apple tree.

Nico throws up his hands in a defensive gesture. “All right, definitely tipped them off. Managed to
get away, though, snuck back to confirm that she was holed up near the Doors of Orpheus, did my
best to properly locate their place out here. Shadow-travelled out, called Will, came over.”

It's a cliff-notes version of his morning at best, but nobody seems to mind. Moreso, it seems to be
pretty much exactly what everyone had already gathered from their previous information, because
there are nods all around. Thalia speaks up next. “What’s the situation down there?”

“About what we expected,” Nico relays. “They’ve amassed an army.”

Reyna makes a very unimpressed face at that. Jake gets the feeling it would take a lot to impress
her, even on her worst day. “How many?”

Nico shakes his head. “Didn’t exactly count them. Enough to start a war if they get free up here.
We’ve gone up against worse odds.”

“Gathered around the witch with the amulet, I presume?” Hazel asks her brother.

“Obviously.”
“Rough estimation?” Annabeth asks, pressing Reyna’s question.

“500?” Nico replies, the tone in his voice making clear that it’s not necessarily a good guess. Jake
swallows harshly at the number. That’s a lot of monsters.

“Any idea of how we get to their leader?”

Nico shrugs. “She took me by surprise the first time; I came at her from the wrong side. Once I
tipped her off, I knew I needed to get you here as backup in case they decided to change the
timeframe before I try a second time.”

“And what exactly is you plan?” Will asks.

“I shadow-travel in there, draw the shadows close enough so they won’t spot me and do what I
need to do.” Everyone stares at Nico. After a while, he even has the good sense to shuffle
uncomfortably on his feet.

“I still mourn the day you lost your self-preservation instinct,” Chase tells the son of Hades.
“We’re not doing that.”

“Any better ideas?”

A smile plays around Annabeth’s mouth. “We draw them out.”

There’s a beat of silence.

Then, the calm, collected and virtually concentrated faces pull into almost manic grins in unison.

“Bring it on,” Leo says.

“Has been a while since I participated in a good old slaughter,” Thalia drawls.

“I’ll take the south end,” Percy announces and points towards the lake framing one side of the
field.

“If we do this, we can’t let anybody get away,” Annabeth announces.

Hazel pats her horse’s neck. “Leave that to me. We’ll get everyone who tries to flee.”

“I’m going with Nico,” Will announces.

“You really don’t have to…” the man in question starts, but Will cuts him off.

“I’d willingly follow you to hell any day of the week,” he says solemnly. “I just wish you’d stop
going there.”

Nico blushes, but he smiles at his boyfriend.

“I’ll go with you, too,” Reyna announces. “We work well together.”

Jake never really pegged Nico as someone who willingly accepts help, so he suspects a polite
rebuttal of the offer. But the guy just smiles at the huntress. “We do. And I’ll be able to get the
three of us out once I’m done.”

“Yay, more shadow-travelling,” Will huffs. Nico gives him a crooked smile and squeezes his hand.
Will squeezes back and they turn back to the conversation at hand.
“We’ll need someone to open the Doors and keep them open,” Annabeth says, her eyes flickering
over at Will.

He raises his hand. “Oh, no. You all know very well that healing is the only gift I got from my
father. Instruments are so not my thing. And anyways, I’m going with Nico.”

Annabeth’s smile is soft, like she never expected any other answer and was looking at Will more
for inspiration than for actual help.

Percy shoots the son of Apollo a calming smile and pokes his fiancée in the side. “Leave that to
me.”

Annabeth nods, turns slowly in place, and regards the field and the people around her. “All right.
Percy, you take the lake. Since it’s the south end of the field and the monsters are bound to race
towards the light until they find something to attack, you’ll probably get most of the attacks in the
beginning.” Her fiancé nods but doesn’t move from her side.

“Thalia, you get the forest front. Make sure none of them get inside as we’ll have a pretty bad
chance of catching them once they’re between the trees. If in doubt, push them towards Percy or
Leo for them to deal with or tell Hazel to take care of them.” The huntress scoffs at the suggestion
that she might need help, but nods in affirmation.

“Leo, you’ve got the open side of the meadow. Build traps and prepare yourself. At least try not to
burn down the entire park. Ask Thalia and Reyna if you need help with the traps, maybe help
Thalia with hers.” Leo nods, already fiddling with something he pulled out of his toolbelt.

“Both of you: show Hazel all the traps before things go down. Last thing we need is Arion trapped
and injured because they didn’t know of your traps.” More nods from Thalia and Leo. “Hazel, see
if there are tunnels for you to collapse if needed.”

Annabeth stops in her instructions once she notices the gleeful grin on Leo’s face that somehow
doesn’t seem to stem from looking forward to the fight. Nor the promise of limited arson. She
levels a long look at him, dares him to speak up.

“So… what you’re saying,” Leo’s words are drawn out and he is barely suppressing a full-out
laugh, bouncing in place on the balls of his feet. “…is that myself, Thalia, Percy and Hazel are
working together out here?” There is a slightly manic gleam in his eyes.

It only takes a second for Percy to have the same expression on his face and that’s what tips
Annabeth off.

“First one to make an Avatar reference gets on my shitlist,” she warns.

Jake wonders how long it has been since threats of this kind have worked.

“Once upon a time, New Yorkers lived together in harmony-”

Jake can’t suppress the snort at that. “When?”

Leo shoots a glare in his direction and continues, louder. “But everything changed when the forces
of the underworld attacked. Only a group of heroes, masters of all four elements can save the
world.”

“But when the world needed them most, they realized that they wouldn’t have even found the
threat if not for their amazing, non-bender friend?” Annabeth cuts in.
“A hundred possible strategies were discarded until we found a master of strategy, a daughter of
Athena named Annabeth,” Percy supplies happily.

“And while her knife-fighting skills are great, she has a lot to learn until she can defeat an army on
her own,” Leo continues, his voice rising dramatically.

“But I believe, we can save the world,” Percy closes in a dreamy voice.

“Wouldn’t watch it,” Thalia comments dryly.

“Why is it that you can recite the whole intro of a kids show that aired over a decade ago but
neither of you can remember where you last parked your car?” Annabeth asks, shaking her head
fondly.

“It’s not just a kids show,” Leo interjects. “It’s an amazing…”

“Leo.”

He looks at Annabeth. “Yes?”

“Could you please let me do my job as master of strategies and listen to what strategies I want you
to use?” Leo takes a breath, apparently to start another argument, but Annabeth continues talking
before he can. “Once this is over, I’m happy to listen to your rant on how amazing the series is.”

Apparently mollified by this, Leo pulls a few cords out of his pockets and begins fiddling with
them as Annabeth starts laying out the finer details of her plan, full of back-up plans and back-up
plans for her back-up plans.

Jake is utterly lost after just a moment. Even more important is that he obviously can’t do anything
to help around here. He wanders off to find Rosa and Terry and offer his help.

He finds the two of them herding civilians towards the exits of the park.

“Where have you been?” Rosa asks as soon as she spots him. “We’ve been looking for you guys.”

“The lawn behind Belvedere Castle. Hazel did something so we wouldn’t be found,” Jake tells her.
“How is it going?”

Terry comes over to them, gives Jake a tight smile. “Quite well, so far. Holt called in the threat,
most of the park is evacuated. Amy has taken control of the on-site command-center and the
uniformed officers on scene.” There is concern in his tone and Jake understands why.

It's not Amy’s place to do what she has done; she’s not ranking high enough. Holt is going to back
her on the move, but still; it’s risky and potentially something people will hold against her for a
long time to come. She could have tried to push Terry into taking the command, since he’s the
higher-ranking officer, but she hasn’t.

Jake really hopes all of this turns out well and they don’t have to bear too many repercussions.

When Jake returns to the field to tell Annabeth that the park is almost evacuated and they won’t
have to worry about other precincts interfering with whatever is going down here soon, he runs
into her fiancé first.

Percy is pacing up and down along the tree line, fingers pressed to his temples. “Pick up, pick up,
pick up,” he mutters.

Jake walks up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder to get him out of whatever funk he’s in.
“Whoever you’re trying to reach, you don’t even have your phone, so it probably won’t work.”

Percy looks at him with wide eyes, blinking a few times. “I was trying to get Grover here, he
should…”

Jake takes a deep breath. If that’s what they’re dealing with already, he doesn’t really want to know
how them fighting an army is going to look like. “As I said, it will be hard without a phone or at
least an Iris Message.” That, of course, is the moment Grover emerges from the tree line, jogging
straight for Percy without even looking left or right.

“Sorry I didn’t pick up at first,” he tells his friend, raising his hand for a fist bump. Percy beams at
him and gathers him up in a quick hug.

Jake is a bit lost, looks between the two friends with confusion openly written across his face.

Percy takes pity on him. “We have a mental link,” he explains.

Jake nods, like that’s something normal. Who knows, maybe it is. “Cool. Coolcoolcool. That a
normal best friend thing where you are from?”

He thinks of Boyle, and how much the other man would probably love to have a mental link with
Jake. It might even be fun, being able to communicate without problem, to not have to talk, not
even need eye contact…

“Not really,” Percy’s answer cuts through his thoughts. “Easy enough to establish, but hard to
separate and if one dies, the other mostly gets driven to insanity or dies, as well.”

Maybe not such a good idea then, after all.

“I was meaning to talk to Annabeth,” Jake says slowly.

Percy simply nods, pointing her out across the field and starts a conversation with Grover about
something or someone called Juniper. A tree? A spirit? Who knows? Jake doesn’t, but right now,
he really doesn’t have the energy to bother.

Annabeth is having a conversation with Will when Jake arrives. She finishes her train of thought,
then smiles at her partner.

Jake clears his throat, relaying what information he came to tell her from the police side of things.
“Oh, and Grover just arrived,” he adds.

Annabeth looks over at Percy and his best friend, a smile stretching across her face. “Good. That’s
good.” She turns to Thalia and Leo, squabbling a few feet away. “How is it going on your end?”

When Thalia looks up, it’s with a mean glint in her eyes. “The hothead has some pretty good ideas
for traps,” she admits. “Although I stand by my point that most of them are overly dramatic.”

Leo whirls around, one arm sunken into his toolbelt up to his elbow. Jake wonders what kind of
Mary Poppins magic he has on the thing. “Which part do you mean? The glitter or the napalm?”
Thalia makes a face that seems to say, “do you see what I have to put up with?”

Annabeth turns to the Latino in front of her. “No glitter,” she says firmly. “And no napalm if it
isn’t used for anything but dramatics.”

“But…”

“Leo, we’re trying to keep an army of monsters at bay. Burning down half the park in the process
is not on the agenda.”

“Arson shouldn’t be on anyone’s agenda!” Jake exclaims, feeling that someone should point it out
and having the sinking feeling that nobody else was going to.

“It’s on my to-do-list for Saturday,” Leo counters, equally empathic.

Jake doesn’t get an opportunity to reply because Annabeth is talking to him, again. “Where are
Terry and Rosa?”

“Making sure the last of the civilians leave the park and assigning the police staff posts that won’t
interfere with you guys here. They’ll come over once they’re done.”

Annabeth nods appreciatively. “Good. I want you three to make sure nobody enters this field while
the fighting goes down. Hazel will make sure you can see through the mist well enough so that you
can make out the monsters. I need you to stay far enough away so that the large area attacks from
those guys won’t harm you.” She gestures one hand towards Percy, Thalia and Leo, who are
walking the field, talking about traps with loud voices and big gestures.

Jake’s gaze falls on Hazel who is talking to Nico underneath the apple tree.

“What about Hazel?”

“What about her?” Annabeth echoes the question back.

“If Thalia, Percy, and Leo do area damage, how do you make sure she and the horse don’t get
caught up in it?”

Annabeth shrugs, apparently unconcerned by this. “It’s different for her. She can do quite a bit of
area damage as well if she intends to. Plus, Arion is the fastest horse in the world. He can get her
out of a tight spot without a problem.”

“Even the fastest horse in the world couldn’t outrun an arrow,” Jake states absentmindedly.

Annabeth arches an eyebrow and Jake startles. “Seriously? He can outrun an arrow? How fast is
he?”

Annabeth gives a small laugh. “Very,” is all she says before walking off to talk to Reyna.

That leaves Jake alone with Will who smiles at the detective. What was it today with everyone
smiling to try and calm him down? They were about to enter a fight. They shouldn’t be smiling at
him; they should be worried, terrified, even.

“I get why you’re worried,” Will says as he crouches down next to Jake and opens the pouch he
had slung around his shoulder. “But you don’t have to be.”

Jake looks over the small group of people who are determined to defend the city from monsters. “I
don’t want to, like… insinuate that I don’t think you guys competent, but…” Jake lets his sentence
trail off as Will looks up at him with a stiff smile on his lips. He looks just a little bit tense, focused
on the task ahead, fingers meticulously searching through his first-aid pack, double-checking that
he has everything he needs.

“But what?” he asks, anyways.

“Isn’t it time to… you know… call in the A-Team?”

Will looks up at him, hands stilling in their task. His smile suddenly looks less strained, more
amused. “The A-Team?” he echoes, and Jake is reminded that sometimes, cultural references go
over the half-bloods’ heads.

“It was a TV-series in the eighties, it means that…”

“I know what the A-Team is,” Will interrupts him, not unkindly. His eyes narrow a bit as he studies
Jake. “I just don’t see why you’d ask…”

“Look, I don’t mean to insult anybody, but seriously? Nico said there’s an army down there. And I
know that Annabeth kicks ass and Percy has some moves as well, I know that. But isn’t that the
kind of thing you’d call your best people in for?”

“What makes you think they aren’t the A-Team?” Will asks, and the question takes Jake by
surprise.

He just shakes his head, not quite knowing what to reply.

“They are,” Will says after a long moment. “No matter in how many teams you try and group the
living half-bloods, heck, the living fighters in our world, they always make the top team. In the
whole world, there are few who could take any of them on in combat. They are quite literally the
best our world has to offer.”

Jake has trouble processing Will’s words. He didn’t expect that. Didn’t expect his friend and
coworker – never mind her go-happy fiancé – to be among the most powerful of fighters.

But even if they are good, even if they are amongst the best…

“Nico spoke of an army. There are three of you wherever you go and five of them here. Six, if we
count Grover. Against an army. How on earth are they going to fight them all off? It feels like
you’re trying to halt an unstoppable force.”

“And what happens to an unstoppable force when it meets an unmovable object?” The question is
rhetorical, so Jake doesn’t answer, just looks at the younger man and waits for him to continue.

Will looks over the field towards the lake where Percy and Annabeth are checking each other’s
armor. “I’ve seen a fair share of battles over the years. As a field medic, you notice more than
others, I suppose. Because we always try to keep out of the worst, but close enough to pull out the
wounded. I learned one thing: If you want to beat an unbeatable foe, you put it on a field with
Annabeth, put Percy between the two of them and go find cover. It’s as close to a guaranteed win
as you can get.”

“Annabeth sure loves being the damsel in distress you make her out to be.”

Will laughs quietly. “She’s far from that, and we both know it. But Percy will literally move
mountains to keep her safe.”
“Figuratively,” Jake corrects. Amy is really rubbing off on him.

Will is silent, waiting for Jake to turn and face him, to meet his eyes and take in the serious
expression. “No. Literally.” With that, he closes his satchel and walks over to talk to Reyna.

Jake looks after him and remembers a conversation around his coffee table and someone saying
that Percy’s father is the God of Earthquakes as well as the Sea.

He doesn’t usually go there, Percy said back then.

Maybe today, he will.

Things happen rather fast, after that. Nico, Reyna, and Will band together. They get a round of
hugs, well wishes and “be careful, see you on the other side”. Then, the shadows beneath the apple
tree grow darker, thicker, and suddenly, the three are gone.

Annabeth raises her voice as soon as their strike team vanished. “They get a ten-minute head start,
everyone. See that you’re in position in nine.”

The daughter of Athena had been adamant to draw the army out at least half an hour before noon,
so that they wouldn’t already be prepared to roll out and attack. So that they might catch them at
least slightly off guard.

Jake walks over to his assigned spot a few yards behind Leo. Hazel had done something so that he,
Terry, and Rosa could at least partly look through the mist.

“Thinning it out a bit,” she had called it. “If I completely lifted it, everyone could see what’s really
happening here. And lifting it for you but keeping it in place for everyone else takes too much
effort. You might have to concentrate to really look through it but knowing you might be looking at
monsters will make it easier for you.”

Everybody slowly shuffles over to their places.

Annabeth and Grover take their position on the waterfront where the tree line hits the lake,
Annabeth in a defensive position with her bone white sword, and Grover with a flute under the
protection of the blonde.

Thalia has found a boulder in front of the tree line and climbs on it. Leaning against it are her spear
and her truly terrifying shield, displaying a woman’s face. The huntress has her bow loosely held in
one hand, two arrows in the other. Electricity seems to crackle around her, and a light wind blows
her hair out of her face on the otherwise wind still field.

Leo is standing in the middle of a lot of grass. All around him are traps, littering the floor and
waiting for their prey. He’s holding a screwdriver in each hand. Whatever he’s planning on doing
with those.

Hazel is nudging Arion up and down between Leo and Thalia, both horse and rider too pent up to
stay still while they wait for the fighting to begin.
 Percy is standing in the lake, the water splotching around thighs. He taps the wristwatch Tyson had
given him the week before and with barely a sound, it unfolds into a magnificent round shield with
whimsical artwork Jake can’t quite make out from the distance.

Terry and Rosa have taken their places a safe distance from where the fight is set to take place,
closer to Thalia than Jake is.

Everyone is where they are supposed to be.

“Everybody ready?” Annabeth asks, her voice carrying over the field despite being barely raised.

There are nods and hums in agreement.

Annabeth turns to Grover and makes an inviting gesture. The satyr keeps fiddling with his flute.
“Any requests?” he asks.

Percy claps his free hand on his leather-clad shoulder twice, then hits the surface of the lake.

Clap. Clap. Splash.

A grin immediately breaks out on Leo’s face who picks up the rhythm, stamping the ground twice
and clacking the tools in his hands against each other.

Stamp. Stamp. Click.

Thalia lets out a small, startled laugh but joins in as well. So does Annabeth after a moment.

Hazel is the only one not participating, keeping one hand on her horse’s reins, the other gripping
her sword tightly.

Grover grins, his hoof starting to tap along. He raises the flute to his lip and Jake is sure that it will
sound ridiculous.

By some miracle, it doesn’t. When we will rock you wafts over the lawn, it’s with an eerie air to it,
uplifting and toe-curling at the same time.

Jake is so entranced by the sound that he doesn’t even notice the portal to the underworld opening.
What he does notice – couldn’t miss, even if he tried – is the screeching sound that emerges.

Percy uncaps his pen which transforms into a sword. Thalia grabs her bow a little bit tighter, nocks
two arrows. A fireball hovers over Leo’s hand, enclosing one of his screwdrivers.

The screeching dies down and for a moment, they all stare at the dark hole in the middle of the
field. We will rock you provides the strange soundtrack to this even stranger situation.

Then the monsters attack.

Chapter End Notes

So...
What do you think?
Yes, Thalia has the same wind powers as Jason does, because why wouldn't she?
I've never been to New York and the pictures I found of Belvedere Castle were mostly
from the lawn with the turtle pond in front of it, not the side with the actual entrance to
the building, so my description of it might be off.
I think I'm allowed one cliffhanger in this story, am I not? Plus, this is at 11,5k words
already. Imagine that monster of a chapter (no pun intended) it would have turned out
to be if I actually included the fighting.
To all those who celebreate: Happy Holidays. To all those who don't: Have a great
totally random weekend.
Have a great day, stay safe.
 Battle in Central Park (Jake VII)
Chapter Notes

Happy Sunday!
And a Happy New Year to everybody!
This took longer than I planned. I originally wanted to have this fic finished by the
start of 2022, but then the holidays were more stressfull than anticipated and it took
me way longer than expected to wrangle this chapter into shape.
For a rather long time, all I had for this chapter was "insert more-or-less epic fight
scene here". I'll let you decide how well I managed that ;-)
Jake can more or less see through the mist, but only when he concentrates on it,
because Hazel did a thing (and because I really didn't want to research every foe I
throw at them, so if you find things they wouldn't actually fight: it's just the mist
playing tricks on an unreliable narrator ;-)
As always, thanks to my amazing beta Azure_Allumiia.
Have fun reading.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The first creature emerges with an unholy screech. Jake sees a pair of feathery wings, attached to a
vaguely canine body. Before he can make out any details, an arrow buries itself in the beast’s side,
and it crumples into dust before it can even take stock of the situation.

Next out of the hole is a pack of murderous looking dogs. They barely take a moment to orient
themselves, just running straight ahead, leaping across the field with increasing speed.

Hazel hurries over, cutting two of them down. A third is felled by a screwdriver Leo had thrown
through its eye with frightening precision. The other two fall victim to Leo’s traps which snap shut
with a clonk, followed by a whimper from the beasts.

As soon as the golden dust rains on the traps, they open again, ready and loaded to take on the next
victim.

By the time the dogs are gone, the next pair of monsters have already emerged. A group of what
appears to Jake like three young men are storming towards Percy in an oddly hobbling pace. Two
of them have what looks to be baseball bats, the third holds a long stick. Swords and a spear,
probably.

Percy lets them come to him, allowing them close before he takes a step, slashing through the gut
of the first, and stabbing his sword in the throat of the second. The third, the dude with what is
probably a spear, is more cautious, keeping his distance. It’s of no use, though. A sudden wave
pulls the ground out from under his feet, and he stumbles right into Percy’s waiting blade.

Jake’s gaze shifts to Thalia, who has put down her bow and grabbed the shield that had laid at her
feet, tightly grasps her spear in the other hand. Jake finds himself taking a step back at the sight of
the shield.

The creature in front her is huge, the size of a tank and the form is… Vaguely familiar? Jake
concentrates, blinks, and forces himself to see through the mist.
And yes, Thalia is currently fighting a dragon. The beast shies away from the shield a bit but is
otherwise vehement in its attack. It spews fire at the huntress, but Thalia manages a jerking move
with her hand and a sudden gust of wind blows the attack aside. The dragon seems as surprised as
Jake feels for a moment, and Thalia uses the moment of inattention to drive her spear through the
soft underside of the beast’s throat.

Annabeth stands guard in front of Grover, never leaving her post. Due to their position further
back, there are only few monsters she has to go up against. Those who make it to the pair are slain
in a matter of moments.

More and more monsters crowd the space. Some of Leo’s traps aren’t quick enough to reset, and he
almost gets overrun by murderous sheep. He throws screwdrivers and knives at them, but it’s not
enough.

Even with Hazel zipping around him and cutting down their numbers, it’s too much, and the flock
is slowly gaining ground.

“Hazel,” Leo calls in a pressed voice as his foot hits the chalk line he had drawn in the grass
earlier. When she looks over, Leo makes a jerking motion with his hand, some kind of signal Jake
can’t interpret but Hazel answers with a nod.

Jake expected the rider to come to his aid, to make her way over and continue the fight closer to her
friend’s side. Instead, she nudges her horse’s flanks and speeds away, leaving Leo to fend for
himself.

Grover’s music changes, a brief interlude leading from one song into another, picking up in tempo
and completely changing the tune. Leo cackles out loud, silently mouthing along a few lines until
Grover hits the refrain at which point Leo starts to loudly (and very tunelessly) sing along.

“This girl is on fire!” he practically screams as he lights a fireball in each of his hands.

“This girl is on fire!” he repeats, pushing his hands down, setting the grass aflame.

Just that it’s not just the grass, because apparently, Leo had laced the ground with tar and the fire
spreads quickly, engulfing him fully as he continues to sing. “She’s walking on fire!”

The sheep around the demigod go up in flames in a matter of moments, disintegrating into golden
mist that gets swallowed by the flames.

Leo starts dancing a bit, arms swaying back and forth as the flames lick at him but never quite
seeming to touch him. And suddenly, Jake gets why he ordered Hazel away, understands that the
pyromaniac wanted his friend away from him before he set everything in his vicinity on fire.

Jake stares in horror at the scene, the fire reaching around and spreading in all directions. He has
half a mind to do something about it, but after a few moments, the flames recede slowly,
seemingly drawn back to Leo.

“We got our feet on the ground, and we’re burning it down,” Leo happily sings as he stands alone
in the center of a burned patch of grass. The last of his traps spring open again. Leo walks around,
gathering a few of the missiles he’d thrown earlier and putting them back into his toolbelt.

Put off by that obvious show of power, a few monsters redirect their attacks, heading over towards
the lake instead, where Percy is already waiting for them.
The man is already fighting a group of humanoid creatures when about a dozen sheep join the
attack. Their combined numbers force Percy back, step by step. He slashes and stabs at them,
slowly chopping their numbers away, but not really making a dent in the continuous flow of
enemies.

The water is around Percy’s hips when the new melody sets in. Percy grins over at Grover, then
suddenly yanks his shield up as someone throws a knife at him, focusing back on the enemies in
front of him instead of his friend at the sidelines.

Grover, as it turns out, knows how to work an audience, knows which songs to choose, and knows
how to keep up a certain energy. He knows to start a song at the refrain in a situation like this
instead of at the beginning, only a short interlude to lead from one song to the next.

Percy twirls the sword at his side, slightly shifting the angle at which he holds his shield. He takes
a deep breath, just as Grover hits the first notes of the refrain.

“This is my fight song,” Percy sings, rising out of the water to hover over his opponents, his feet
and ankles gripped by swirls of water. “Take back my life song. Prove them I’m right song.” A
huge wave rises with him, drowning the smaller opponents unable to swim underneath. “My
power’s turned on.”

He falters a bit on the text then, going over to sing “da da da be strong” as he slashes through one
of the hounds in front of him. “da da da fight song.”

Even though he has trouble with the words, Percy’s singing voice is beautiful, hitting every note
even where he doesn’t know the lyrics. Jake isn’t even capable of holding a note while walking, let
alone running. Yet Percy somehow manages to hold the tune while fighting monsters, spinning
around them, and decimating his enemies in what almost seems like a dance.

Waves rise at the slightest gestures, separating the monsters from each other, cutting off their back-
ups, taking them down one by one.

With Percy and Leo getting rid of the ground threats, Thalia has taken up her bow once again,
shooting down a flock of birds emerging from the darkness before they even manage to fall into an
attack formation.

Hazel and Arion zip around the field, taking out the monsters that want neither the fiery nor the
watery death and being smart enough to avoid both.

Between her taking care of the stragglers and Thalia firing her bow, there are quite a few monsters
who take to running towards the daughter of Zeus, the apparent easiest way out.

The path straight up to her has few traps and the monsters seem to notice that, crowding together in
their attack to avoid being killed before even getting the chance to fight their opponent.

As the herd of monsters approaches, Thalia drops her bow, picks up spear and shield once again,
and leaps into the mass of monsters advancing on her. She vanishes from sight, her small frame
swallowed by cats the size of horses who hiss at her as she advances.

Jake’s heart stops for a moment, paralyzed by fear for the girl who is out of sight and cut off from
any help of her friends. For a few moments, he can only see the bodies of monsters leaping at
where the huntress vanished, can only hear the hissing and growling of the monsters seemingly
piling up in their attempt at ripping the huntress apart.
Jake spots a flash of the silver-tipped spear and breathes a sigh of relief at the confirmation that
Thalia is still fighting.

Energy crackles in the air, dancing around the glinting weapon, and charging the air with static
energy. With an ear-shattering crack, lightning strikes down from the clear sky. It hits the raised
tip of the spear, and from there jumps outwards, hitting the large cats first, then the slower moving
forms around them, decimating the huddle of monsters in seconds.

As the beasts crumble to dust, they allow a clear view of Thalia once again, spear raised high in the
air, hair standing in all directions. Her eyes are almost glowing, the crackle of energy running
down the spear reflected in them as she raises her gaze and points her weapon at the last birds who
have started circling the field.

Lightning jumps from the tip of the spear into the air, striking the closest bird and quickly spreads,
hitting all of them in quick succession and eradicating them all. Jake is oddly reminded of Mario
Cart games, only that the birds don’t spin and shrink in size, instead raining down on the field as
golden dust.

The lightning fizzles out then, Thalia’s eyes returning to a slightly darker shade as she hops back
onto her boulder and takes her position once more.

The flood of monsters is never ending, though. There are always more taking the places of their
fallen comrades. As soon as one monster has fallen, another takes its place.

Hazel does her best to catch each one that manages to avoid the other three’s areas. And Arion is
faster than Jake could have imagined, darting around, reacting to minute orders Hazel gives him.
He’s always in the right place for his rider to slay another monster, always gone before an attack
can strike, always on point, always where he is needed.

Annabeth’s fighting, even if it’s less flashy than her friends’, is exceptional on its own. Jake had
seen her fight a few times in sparring matches with friends. He had been impressed, almost beyond
words even then. But this… this goes beyond any description.

Not a single monster manages to come in a fifteen feet vicinity of Grover, slain long before they
can pose any kind of threat to the Satyr. And Underwood knows that. He keeps up the music,
happily changing tunes, going from evergreens to modern music to songs Jake has never heard
before. His music is upbeat, happy, energetic. It’s the music one would want to hear during a
workout. Or while slaying monsters, apparently.

The nest of snakes is somewhat unexpected to Jake, but suddenly, about fifty snakes, varying
widely in sizes and colors, make their way across the meadow, heading in all directions. They
skillfully avoid the first line of Leo’s traps, and Thalia seems to find them too small to shoot, as
well hidden in the grass as they are.

Annabeth stabs three snakes but is forced to back away to hold her position guarding Grover after
that.

Hazel cuts a few in two but has to lean down so far to get them that she soon stops trying.

She races towards Percy – the lake the only direction the snakes don’t seem very interested in –
and leaps to the ground a few feet from the waterfront, her sword back in its sheath at Arion’s side.

The horse canters on, leaving his rider without a mount and without a weapon as she lands in a
crouch, both hands pressed to the ground.
For a moment, all Jake hears is Grover’s rendition of “Young Volcanoes”, the hissing of snakes,
and Leo’s unfailing singing. Then there is a deep sound, like something cracked an egg of epic
proportions, or like someone took a sledgehammer to the side of a building, or tried to force open a
steel door.

The sound is deep and loud, reverberating in the ground and rippling the grass as it seems to move
over the field in waves.

The crack starts underneath Hazel’s hand, extending to either side of her. First slowly, then with
increasing speed, the creak gets longer, spreading to encircle the apple tree in their midst in a wide
arch; it then widens to span three feet even at the narrowest places.

The trench encircles the opening to the Underworld in their midst, and a good piece of grass. All
the half-bloods are outside and most of the snakes trapped on the inside of the ditch. The snakes
don’t falter for long, however. Soon, they start slithering on, into the trench and the biggest of
them soon make it to the other side. It quickly becomes apparent that they’ll be able to make it out
soon.

Hazel turns a bit, places one hand to her left while keeping the other in front of her as another rip in
the earth appears.

The new bit of ditch connects the trench surrounding the field with the lake Percy is standing it. As
soon as it’s done, water floods the rift and turns it into a moat, drowning the snakes, the golden
mist they leave behind washed away by the strong current.

When the ground stops shaking from violently creating a rift, Arion reappears at Hazel’s side. She
grabs something out of her pocket – something shiny, but Jake heartily doubts she’d feed her horse
valuables – and offers it to the horse who eagerly munches it down as Hazel remounts.

The few snakes who make it out of the moat are quickly dealt with, transformed into golden mist
by swords and knives.

The group of wolves emerging next, however, doesn’t care about the water. They clear the trench
in one leap, baring their fangs as they pounce at Thalia.

And so, after just a short reprieve, the next horde of monsters appears.

One of the monsters – a woman with sharp teeth and leathery wings – manages to throw a dagger
at Leo before she meets a fiery death. The weapon imbeds itself in Leo’s upper arm, startling a
pained shout out of him.

Hazel is there not a moment later, keeping the monsters at bay while Leo hurriedly pulls the
dagger out of his arm. He grabs Hazel’s cloak, cuts a long stripe from it, and uses it to haphazardly
bandage the wound. He takes a sip from the flask at his hip, washing down a brown square of
ambrosia.

He experimentally moves his arm a few times, flinching slightly at the movement, but clenching
his jaw and giving Hazel a determined nod nonetheless.

Hazel returns the nod, cuts down the remaining two creatures around them and speeds off, chasing
down a few hounds who have managed to evade the traps and Thalia’s bow and are now hurrying
towards Rosa.

Hazel reaches the monsters before they reach the detective, effortlessly cutting them down and
turning back to the main fight.
Annabeth is slowly driven back by a group of three broad, armed men who are successfully
keeping her on her back foot, timing their attacks well enough to force the blonde into a fully
defensive fighting style. Whenever Annabeth starts an attack on one of the men, another tries to
sneak away and around her, trying to get to Grover and forcing her to cut off the attack.

One of them nearly manages to slash her, but Annabeth jumps back at the last second. The blade,
aimed at her throat, instead slices across her armor, separating the left shoulder strap. The leather
sags a bit, presenting an unprotected piece of the bright orange shirt underneath, but it doesn’t fall.

Grover’s eyes widen in fear and in the same moment, Percy whirls around, wild eyes blazing as he
takes in the situation.

A swirl of water rises around him, lifting him out of the water until he floats in a little cyclone. One
of the monsters with sharp teeth and muddy brown fur takes it as an opportunity instead of a
warning and leaps at the son of Poseidon. It manages to sink its teeth in Percy’s leg but crumbles to
dust the next moment as Percy plunges the sword through its neck.

The other monsters in front of him back off at the sight, and it’s enough of an opening for Percy to
slay them before heading over to help his fiancée.

He manages to stab one of the attackers in the back before it even notices him.

The momentary distraction of its two compatriots is enough of an opportunity for Annabeth to duck
under the shorter one’s defenses, plunge her sword into his gut and slash the other’s throat with the
silver dagger in her left hand.

She draws the sword back, plunging it through the eye of the beast attempting to sneak up on Percy
from behind. His cyclone is slowly collapsing, returning him to ground level where he shoots his
fiancée a grateful smile.

He checks her damaged armor, but it’s not like he can do anything about that right now. Annabeth
frowns down at Percy’s ripped trouser leg, but there is no blood; the bite either hadn’t been deep
enough or the wound healed already.

A huge form suddenly blocks Jake’s view of the scene as a giant – tall as a house and almost as
wide as one – emerges from the doors. Thalia shoots at it, but the arrow glances off its thick skin
harmlessly. It’s enough to gain his attention, though.

The giant walks over to the huntress with a few steps, raising a spiked bat and swatting at her.

One of Leo’s traps uselessly closes around its foot.

Thalia ducks under the attack, stabbing his hand with her spear. It gains her an enraged shout, and
another attack. Suddenly, Percy is there, attacking the monster from behind and drawing some of
its attention.

Watching the two of them fight alongside each other is impressive. Jake watches speechlessly as
they weave around each other, constantly attacking and backing off the next moment to avoid the
incoming attack.

Hazel speeds in on Arion, taking care of the smaller monsters around, making sure none of them
gets away, running back-up, but not getting involved with the giant itself.

Thalia manages to trip the giant over the boulder she’d previously been perched on while Percy
stabs at its knees. When it falls, the giant takes some of the trees with it, crushing them under the
weight.

Percy pins the monster’s arm to the ground, driving his sword through its leathery glove and into
the soft ground underneath. The spiked bat uselessly clatters to the ground.

Thalia, unmindful of a possible incoming attack or probably just certain in the knowledge that
Percy has her back, goes in for the kill. As soon as she has the monster flat on its back, she charges
towards the head, spear raised above her as she jumps – first up upon its throat, then high in the air
to drive the next blow in with maximum impact.

The giant tries to sit up, but it only accelerates his death as the tip of Thalia’s spear plunges into his
eye. It’s an odd angle, but with the entire body weight of the girl behind it, the spear drives home, a
sick, crunching sound echoing over the field.

When the body falls to dust, the head remains, the broken-off tip of the silver spear imbedded deep
in the skull. Thalia looks at the remaining shaft of her spear, two feet long with a jagged ending,
and kicks the head lying in front of her.

“I don’t need a trophy, I need a weapon!” she shouts at the heavens, but there is no indication
anybody might have heard. She tosses the end of her spear at the ground and pulls out a sword,
already looking for the next opponent.

Percy hurries back to the lake, or at least he tries to. While he helped his friends, enough monsters
have made their way to the waterfront to block his return, least he draws them towards Annabeth in
his attempt to get around them.

He charges straight ahead, a battle cry that drowns out Grover’s music ripping from his throat as
the water around the monster’s feet rises. Jake watches in fascination as a patch of ground becomes
visible in the lake as the water is seemingly separated into two. The closer part engulfs monsters,
rapidly rising, swirling, and splashing, pulling a few of the monsters off their feet and even
drowning a few foxlike creatures trying to clear the connected moat. The other side is calm and
apparently undisturbed, with ducks and turtles swimming about.

Jake’s attention is wholly focused on Percy, as are all the monsters.

But he whips his head around when a loud crack echoes over the field, accompanied by a blinding
light. His gaze whirls to stop on Thalia, crouching next to the moat, one hand in the water.

The lightning strikes down from the skies as if it’s in slow motion, hitting the daughter of Zeus.
She directs the energy into the water and it spreads, electrocuting everything inside and killing all
monsters currently held in the water by Percy’s power.

When the lighting fades and the monsters in the water have turned into golden mist, Percy releases
the waves, allowing the water to splash back into the lake and hurrying to take his position once
again.

Leo burns a group of foxes, clearly favoring his uninjured side and holding the bandaged arm close
to his body in an attempt not to jostle it.

Hazel quickly dismembers the three hobbling women who emerge from the doors. Thalia takes
care of what appears to be winged snakes, her sword fighting just as proficient as her abilities with
a spear.

Percy drowns the two weasels attempting to munch on his ankles. Annabeth stabs a lion. They all
watch in unison as the golden dust rains down onto the grass.
Grover plays “Everything you can do, I can do better”.

They turn towards the open doors, but no more monsters come forth.

“They did it,” Hazel says after a moment, a relieved smile on her face as Arion trots around the
Doors of Orpheus. “Nico, Reyna and Will must have gotten the amulet from the sorceress.”

Grover plays a few quick notes, causing everyone to turn towards him. He raises an eyebrow in
question.

Annabeth shakes her head. “Leave it open for another moment. Let’s give them a chance to get out
without Will having to suffer through shadow travelling again.”

Grover shrugs and the tune he plays changes once again – now the happy melody of “Ding Dong,
the Witch is Dead” sounds across the field.

Annabeth laughs at the choice as Percy jogs over to her, quickly scanning her for injuries. She
stands still, lets him check her over to his liking until her fiancé lets out a satisfied nod and allows
her to check him over in turn.

Hazel dismounts, pressing her hands to the ground once again and scrunching her face in
concentration as the floor slowly puts itself back together, the moat closing to leave a flat surface
drenched in water.

Leo takes another look at his injured arm. The bleeding has stopped a while ago, and the pain can’t
be too bad because he starts picking up his traps, disassembling them and stashing them in his
toolbelt, slowly ridding the burnt area he had defended of the last threats.

Thalia relaxes the string of her bow and starts gathering up her arrows. A few of them are broken,
although most of them seem good to use again. She frowns at her broken spear and ultimately
sticks the two ends in her belt to take care of later.

Jake is stunned.

Those people just took down what must have been upwards of 300 monsters with only five people
between them, and not a single casualty. Sure, there are a few injuries: Leo’s bandaged arm, the
ripped leg of Percy’s trouser, Thalia’s broken spear, Annabeth’s damaged armor.

It was still the most impressive, most skillful, most dangerous display of martial arts Jake has ever
witnessed. And now, they are simply packing up, like it was a music gig and the band is packing
up their instruments.

Arion stays close, though. Percy, while he transformed his shield back into a watch, keeps his
sword drawn. Annabeth doesn’t get out of her armor, even though it’s damaged. Thalia keeps an
eye on the open door to the underworld, and even Leo doesn’t turn his back towards the thing as he
goes about dismembering the last of his traps.

Grover ambles over, the music changing into something slower, more festive. He makes sure that
Percy always stands in between him and the open doors. Percy makes it easy, staying close to his
friend as Annabeth walks over to talk to her colleagues.

“Is it over?” Jake asks, still in awe of what he just witnessed.

Terry and Rosa glance at them with interest, trying to listen to their conversation while maintaining
their positions.
Annabeth shrugs. “Almost. As soon as the other three are back with us, it will be. Then, damage
control begins.”

“Anything we can help with?” Rosa has come closer after all.

Jake feels like they asked this question so many times those last few hours, but it’s still all they can
do. Offer their help and do whatever Annabeth asks of them.

She gestures towards the meadow in front of them. “Come up with a cover story for this,” she tells
them. “Nobody saw anything, and we can fake any paper trail we need. But we need to have a
convincing story as to what happened here, burning the grass, and all that.” She gestures towards
the burnt patch of grass where Leo had fought, the scorch marks where Thalia’s lightning had
struck, the slightly uneven ground with patches of dead earth where Hazel’s trench broke the neat
grass.

Terry gets out his phone to call their captain and ask what he told everyone to get the park cleared
of civilians. Rosa wanders off to check on Kevin, Charles and his family. That leaves Jake to
follow Annabeth back to the still open doors to have a closer look at the damages the fight had
caused.

Hazel keeps shooting glances over at the door, worry for her brother and friends clear on her face.
The others aren’t much better. The monsters stopped coming minutes ago, but there is still no sign
of the rest of their group.

“Nico could have shadow-travelled them out by now,” Hazel mutters. “Why aren’t they here yet?”

Annabeth is handing out brown ambrosia squares to everyone and they munch it down while
waiting.

“Maybe we should go in, see if we can find them,” Thalia suggests.

“Give them another five minutes,” Annabeth instructs.

The huntress nods her assent and takes her place close to the entrance, a knife drawn and ready to
attack any stragglers that might want to use the opportunity.

Grover plays the soundtrack of the Lord of the Rings.

Thalia spots them first, racing towards the doors with a shout, startling everyone to attention.

Nico and Reyna stumble out of the entrance, the limp form of Will hanging between them. There
are more shouts, everyone storming over to offer assistance.

“What happened?”

“Why is he injured?”

Annabeth’s voice cuts through the chaos, shutting everyone else up. “What does he need?”

“Camp,” comes Nico’s hoarse reply. “He needs the medics at Camp. I can’t shadow-travel him
there, though, it’s too dark, he…”

“Give him to me.” Hazel has already whistled for her horse, the stallion cantering over in an
instant. “We’ll have him over there in no time.” She jumps on the horse’s back.

Nico is clearly reluctant to part from his boyfriend, but he gives a slight nod at the offer. He
doesn’t protest as Percy takes the slack form of the son of Apollo from his arms and holds him up
so Hazel can grab and hoist him atop the horse in front of her. She grabs the reins, kicks the horse’s
sides, and vanishes without even a goodbye. A blur of movement for one moment, completely
gone from sight in the next.

Nico stares after them for a moment, then suddenly, like someone cut his strings, he collapses.
Reyna manages to catch him, gathering him in a tight hug. “I can’t lose him, I can’t…” he
whimpers into the girl’s shoulder.

Jake absentmindedly notes that the music has changed the tune, now calming and just a little bit
hopeful and he is once again impressed by Grover’s abilities to read the emotions wavering over
the field.

The last note lingers in the air for a moment, before silence stretches across the field. The Doors of
Orpheus close and suddenly, it’s like they’ve never been there.

It instantly seems warmer, and Jake breathes a sigh of relief.

“What happened?” Thalia asks once again.

She lays a careful hand on Reyna’s shoulder, the other huntress having both arms slung around
Nico.

“At first, everything went according to plan,” Reyna tells the assembled group. “Nico shadow-
travelled us a safe distance from their main camp, we took position, even had a few minutes to
observe and strategize before the doors opened. As planned, the troops took off instantly. They
weren’t as prepared as they wanted to be, and the door didn’t seem to be big enough to allow too
many of them through at a time.”

“Of course, they didn’t all fit at once. They’re doors, not gates,” Nico mutters.

Reyna rolls her eyes but goes on with her explanation. “However, they left the witch open to attack
pretty quickly. We snuck in from behind, but she noticed us. We didn’t…” Reyna stops in her
story, takes a moment to find the right words. “We never assumed she’d have so many following
her willingly, not enthralled by the magic of the amulet but fighting out of free will,” she admits.
“We managed to sneak up at her well enough. But when we tried taking the amulet from her, she
noticed us and raised the alarm. The monsters under the control of the amulet didn’t care, they
were drawn to the light, and went on anyways. But about fifty of them turned around to fight us.”

Jake can’t quite gauge the severity of that statement, but according to the reactions of everyone
around them, it wasn’t good.

“You were there on a stealth mission,” Annabeth whispers, dread creeping into her voice.

Reyna nods. “We didn’t think it’d get this bad. Nico got us some help; I did my thing. I went front
left, Nico went front right, Will had the back. We hadn’t managed to get the amulet off her at that
time.”

“Thermoplyen formation,” Percy comments. “The obvious choice, with the situation at hand.”

Annabeth and Thalia nod in agreement.

So does Reyna, even though she quickly aborts the motion, changing it into a shake of her head.
“We thought so, too. We didn’t think they’d manage to sneak around us this quickly. Nico and I
held the troops at bay, Will tried to get the amulet.”
“Unfortunately, he’s not the best with a weapon?” Leo butts in. Reyna shoots him an annoyed
glare, but nobody contradicts him.

“He wasn’t quite able to beat her, no. But we were running out of time, so he went at it another
way. He lit up.”

“The flashlight trick,” Percy says, a small smile on his lips.

Nico hums in agreement.

“Worked quite well,” Reyna says. “Blinded everyone enough for Will to snatch the amulet off her
and stab the sorceress in the gut. Unfortunately, the light blinded Nico and me, too. We didn’t
notice the hellhound sneaking around us until it was too late.”

Nico slowly frees himself from Reyna’s embrace. “I killed the hellhound and the other monsters
dispersed once they realized they had lost. The ones on their way to the open doors started fighting
each other when the compulsion from the amulet let off. I didn’t want to risk shadow-travelling
Will in that condition, and since the path through the doors was mostly free, anyways, we dragged
him out this way.”

He looks small and defeated as he stands there, pale and hunched over. Annabeth presses a square
of ambrosia into his hand. Nico stares at it for a long moment.

“Eat,” Reyna gently commands him, squeezing his hand.

Nico reluctantly does. When he finished the piece, he stands a little taller, throws a small smile
around. “I should go to Camp, see how everything is…”

“No.”

He looks up at Reyna, an almost petulant expression on his face.

“You promised Will you’d wait for at least a week until you did any other underworld stuff that
isn’t strictly necessary,” she reminds him.

Nico pouts. “But it is necessary.”

“No, it’s not. Hazel is going to come back and pick you up as soon as she can, I’m sure of it.”

Nico lets out a low groan but doesn’t argue the point any further.

“What happened to the amulet?” Annabeth asks after a long moment of silence.

“Put it into Will’s satchel.”

“So, it’s at Camp now.”

“Yup.”

“Great.” It’s hard to tell if she’s relieved the amulet is safe or miffed that she couldn’t have a closer
look at it. Relief seems to win out, though, as Annabeth turns to more pressing matters.

“Boyle and everybody are safe,” Rosa announces, coming over to them. Her gaze lands on Nico.
“What’s up with you?”

“Will got injured,” Jake tells her.

Rosa’s shoulders slump. “I’m sorry. Anything we can do to help?”

Heads are shaken all around and they just stand there awkwardly until Terry joins them a moment
later. “I worked out a cover story with Captain Holt, but we’d need a decent paper trail to back it
up.”

Annabeth stares at him for a long moment, buries her face in her hands and lets out a loud, drawn-
out groan. When she looks back up at Terry, it’s with a tired smile. “Tell me.”

They wander off to talk about the best way to cover everything up. Jake calls Amy; updating her on
the situation. As he hangs up, he spots a black form on the sky quickly drawing near. He points it
out to Percy.

The man looks up, a surprised smile on his face. “Blackjack.”

The winged beast lands, letting out a small huff when Percy pats his snout. “What are you doing
here, buddy?”

Percy looks at the horse and Jake is reminded that the guy can talk to horses. They seem to have a
quick conversation before Percy addresses Nico. “Want a lift?”

Nico stares at Percy and the winged horse with narrowed eyes for a long moment. Finally, he huffs
out a “whatever,” gets up, and walks over to the horse, offering his hand.

Blackjack takes a step back. Percy grabs his mane. “Don’t be like that, man. You offered. Plus, I’ll
get you donuts once we’re back at Camp.”

Blackjack nudges Nico’s shoulder and the son of Hades walks around to its flank and allows Percy
to help him mount. Percy gets on as well, his eyes skimming over the field to where Annabeth is
immerged in a conversation with Terry. “Tell her where I am,” he instructs them before gently
nudging Blackjack’s flanks and taking off, the black form quickly vanishing between the tall
buildings surrounding the park.

“I’ll go and see if Amy needs help wrangling the uniformed officers,” Rosa says and walks off,
leaving Jake alone with two huntresses and a hobby arsonist.

Leo looks at the three of them for a moment. “Yeah, I’m off, too. Pleasure like always, let’s not do
it again too soon, all right?” He waves his hand as he walks back towards Belvedere Castle.

“I’m going to…” Jake looks around, searching for something to do, “…see if Annabeth and Terry
need help with anything.”

They don’t.

Annabeth is just taking her leave from Terry as Jake joins them. “Give me an hour to get the
paperwork in order,” she tells her Lieutenant, her gaze gliding across the field before addressing
Jake. “Where did Leo go?”

Jake shrugs. “Home, I guess.”

Annabeth lets out a low curse. “He was supposed to be my ride. See you tomorrow.” With that, she
runs off, intent on catching Leo before he gets on his motorcycle.

Terry and Jake watch her leave.

 “So, what’s the story?” Jake asks.

“Wannabe arsonists stashed their explosives and blowing agent here, and it went up in flames
when we went to retrieve it. Suspects are in the wind.”

Jake nods. It sounds reasonable enough and has the fun side effect of leaving nothing behind.

“I always thought Adrien Pimento is the most dangerous person I’m ever going to work with,”
Terry states after a while, still staring at the spot where Annabeth vanished around a corner. “But
she exceeded even my wildest dreams.”

Jake laughs. “Title of your sex tape.”

Chapter End Notes

Aaaand this is it.

I should get the Epilogue up in not too long a time since I've already written most of it.
It still has a lost of edges that require smoothing, though. Could take a week or two, I
guess.
I thrive on attention (it makes me work faster ;-)), so maybe leave a comment
Have a great day, stay safe.
 Epilog (Jake VIII)
Chapter Notes

Happy Saturday!
This comes quite a bit later than I intended it to.
I finished the chapter pretty quickly, put it in an e-mail to send to my amazing beta to
get rid of run-on sentences and straighten out my verb forms (among other stuff). Then
I went to watch the new Spiderman-movie, got sucked into writing another story
(totally against my will, what's the opposite of writer's block? My muse decided that I
needed to write something in response to NWH and took of running) and started
wondering why I didn't get anything back for the epilog. It took me over two weeks to
realize I never sent the Mail, instead saved it to my drafts... But it's done, now :)
Have fun reading.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Coming into work on Wednesday is both easier and harder than normal.

It’s harder because neither Jake nor Amy nor any of their colleagues could have gotten even close
to their ideal eight hours of sleep. After the cleanup and the furtive manhunt – after perps they all
knew didn’t exist – through the city they had to fake, they sat down and got their story in order.
They made up reports about things that never happened, infusing them with just enough truth to
pass muster. At one point, Annabeth sent over a bunch of documents detailing everything they
claimed in their fudged reports, backing their story.

When that was done, Charles had followed Jake home while Amy got Mac from daycare. The men
sat and talked until mother and child got home, then they played with Mac and had dinner together.
Once Mac fell asleep, the detectives returned to the couch. Jake told his best friend everything he
knew about Annabeth, the Gods, the monsters, and everything that happened while Charles was on
vacation. They talked until the sun set and New York was illuminated by billboards and
streetlamps. Only when Guinevere called did Boyle take his leave and went home.

Jake had joined Amy in her office, talked to her some more, and tried his best to help with the
paperwork she took home. They’d gone to bed long after midnight, and when the alarm blared at
them after too short a rest, even Amy grumbled as she dragged herself out of bed.

It’s easier than on other days, though, thanks to the fact that Jake wants to go to work today. He
wants to see Annabeth and make sure everything went over well, that Will is all right, that no one
got too suspicious.

She hadn’t answered to any of his texts the previous night and he’s getting worried.

Entering the precinct, everything is deceptively normal. Holt is sitting in his office, Terry at his
desk. Hitchcock and Scully are back from their vacation and are restocking the fridge. Rosa is
talking Charles through an open case he is supposed to take over. Annabeth isn’t in yet. Jake didn’t
really expect her to be.

He did, however, expect her to be there an hour later when the morning briefing starts.
She isn’t.

She comes in just as Holt is closing the meeting, slipping into a chair at the back of the room.

“Chase, how nice of you to drop by. Had something more important to do?” There is no heat in the
captain’s voice, barely even a reprimand. It’s for appearances, since quite a few officers from the
other floors are still in the room. The “take-down of an arsonist” the day before had caused quite a
flurry within the whole building.

Annabeth smiles sheepishly. “I’m sorry, Captain,” she replies around a yawn.

Captain Holt graces her with a hint of a smile. “Detective squad, stay for a moment. You too,
Santiago. Everybody else is dismissed.” The officers from the other floors dutifully get up and out
of the room, chattering about the events of the previous day.

Silence settles over the meeting room once the last of them have left and closed the door. Slightly
uneasy glances turn towards Hitchcock and Scully.

“What? We’re detective squad,” Scully says, defensive of his attendance in this.

“Still, please give us the room for a moment,” Holt tells them.

Scully gets up, ready to shuffle out of the room, but Hitchcock stays seated, grabbing his friend’s
arm and pulling him back down. “No. This concerns the team, we get to hear it,” he insists.

Scully looks around at their uneasy faces. “Oh, is this about whatever happened in Central Park
yesterday? Are we the ones trying to cover it up?” He stands there, all big eyes and innocent smile
as he tries to gauge his co-workers’ reactions.

“Why do you think we’re covering anything up?” Rosa snaps, and Scully retreats slightly.

“It’s just…” He falters, looks over at Hitchcock.

The other man scoffs. “Because the chances of your arson thing happening the same time at the
same place as something supernatural are exceptionally thin.”

Jake’s mind is whirring as he tries to make heads or tails of what they’re saying. Somehow, they
found out. Someone must have been a leak; they hadn’t been as careful as they thought…

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Boyle says, his voice too high to be believable, his gaze
skirting across the room as he avoids everyone’s eyes.

Hitchcock scoffs again. “Oh, come on, I recognize a flying horse when I see one.”

“That and fact that lighting came down from the clear skies. Didn’t think we’d miss that, did you?”
Scully asks with a proud smile.

They all stare at the two oldest detectives in shock.

“To be fair, most people do,” Annabeth replies after a moment, way too relaxed for this kind
conversation. She seems to haven woken up properly, though, her grey eyes now fixed on the old
men. “You’re clearsighted,” she says, tilting her head in that way she sometimes does when she
tries to figure something out. It’s not a question, it’s a fact.

The two men nod, anyways.

Annabeth stares at them for a long moment, pondering a question for what seems to be the longest
time. “What was the case that brought you down?” she asks after a long moment.

Everybody looks at her, now, just as confused as they were before.

“What do you mean by that?” Amy asks.

Annabeth shrugs as she addresses the group. “I read all of your files. Those two-“ She nods
towards Hitchcock and Scully- “were pretty good at their jobs, until they weren’t. Something must
have happened.”

Hitchcock and Scully exchange a long look, shoulders slightly slumped. Scully finally sits back
down.

“A little girl got abducted,” Hitchcock starts the story off, uncommonly somber. “For weeks
beforehand, she told her parents about a guy with goat legs and horns who kept following her
around.”

“Sounds like a satyr,” Annabeth supplies.

Hitchcock shrugs, uninterested in the name of the creature who abducted the girl. “Whatever it’s
called, we saw it. Lived right across the street.”

“Problem was just that nobody else saw the furry legs. Or the horns. And they called us prejudiced
for blaming the poor man, just because he looked a bit different, just because he walked funnily,”
Scully goes on, affecting a mocking, high-pitched voice. “By the time we managed to get an arrest
warrant for him, they were already gone. We found her backpack in his apartment. But no one even
remembered that the girl mentioned him. They wrote it off as a lucky guess on our part.”

“He must have used the mist,” Annabeth says, and the two men nod.

“Had they believed us sooner, we could have saved her,” Hitchcock grinds. “But the police were
too busy sticking to protocol and having a stick up their asses to allow us to save a girl’s life. We
looked for her for weeks, but we never found her. Got hard to become properly motivated,
afterwards.”

Scully’s face is drawn and tired. “People kept mocking us, saying that we saw things that weren’t
there. Said that we got our only lead by pure chance and that even that came too late. That we
couldn’t do any police work this way.”

“We investigated the guy with the goat legs, found out about the gods and half-bloods, and
magicians, and whatnot,” Hitchcock says with unmistakable pride in his voice. For once, it might
even be earned. “But since the NYPD wasn’t willing to listen to what we had to say, we stopped
bothering to try.”

For a long moment, they sit there, slack-jawed as they take in the story.

Annabeth smiles slightly. “I can’t say for sure, but I’m fairly certain that the girl was alright,” she
tries to calm them. “The satyrs work for Camp and escort the kids to safety. She probably went
there and didn’t return to her parent. Not all the kids who go to Camp come from happy families.”

“We figured that out, as well,” Scully says after a moment. “But by that time, we already were the
laughingstocks of the precinct.”

It’s silent as they let the words sink in, as they ponder the repercussions of the story. “Maybe we
should get back to the matter at hand,” Captain Holt says, breaking the tense silence. “Detective
Chase, anything to report?”

Annabeth shrugs. “Not really. I called in a few favors, had my people plant evidence like we talked
about. Our story is going to hold up.” She sounds confident and after all they went through
together, nobody doubts her words.

“In that case, you are all dismissed,” the captain declares. “Back to work, everybody.”

“Since Percy tends to stress-bake, I brought a bunch of cookies,” Annabeth tells the group as
they’re getting up. “Feel free to help yourselves. I think I have some things to make up to you,
anyways.”

They file from the briefing room into the kitchen, where they start on the heap of blue cookies
Annabeth brought. Holt doesn’t say anything about it, leaves them to their own devices. He’d
probably give them ten minutes before shooing them back to work, Jake estimates.

“How is Will?” he asks between bites.

Annabeth smiles. “He’s going to be all right. The worst part’s over. Nico hasn’t left his side since
they arrived at Camp, but the medics had stabilized them at that point.”

“And everyone else?”

Annabeth shrugs and takes a bite of her own cookie before answering. “Hazel went back to Camp
Jupiter, Thalia and Reyna are staying until the end of the week before rejoining the hunt. Percy
spent the night baking. He crashed just before I came into work and wants to spend his afternoon
with Estelle. All the half-bloods who were driven from the city during all of this are free to return
at will.”

Terry frowns at that. “Does that mean the Vulture will be back here?”

Annabeth nods. “Probably, yes. But he won’t make any trouble for us.”

“Honestly, after seeing you fight, neither would I,” Terry mutters.

Annabeth grins up at their superior and is about to answer when the door to the captain’s office
opens and the man sticks his head out. “As happy as I am that everyone is healthy and bonding,
there is police work to be done,” Holt drones.

Jake glances at his watch. Nine and a half minutes. Their captain is so predictable.

He grabs another cookie and hurries to get to work with everyone else.

With everything going on the past few weeks, a lot of paperwork had been neglected, causing the
entire squad to be in the precinct busy filling out reports by the time Amy comes upstairs for a chat.

She points out an error on Annabeth’s form as she skims through the papers on Jake’s desk for a
report she needs from a case he worked on two weeks ago. There is a lull in the precinct, this close
to lunch. The officers who don’t belong on their floor have retreated to their own offices. Charles
has just finished with his witness, and Rosa has gotten rid of the two lawyers who swung by to talk
about one of her ongoing cases. There are two perps in the holding cell, drunk and passed out
against each other after being brought in for fighting earlier.
 Terry finishes another form and signs it, taking off his glasses and squeezing the bridge of his nose.

“By the way, Chase, I finished you one-year evaluation.”

They all look over at their lieutenant.

Annabeth raises her eyebrows in mild surprise. “My what?”

“Department regulations demand that every new officer needs a full evaluation about their
integration in the new squad to see whether they fit or should be reassigned after a stay of a year.”
Terry holds up some paperwork.

“So, what’s the verdict, Lieut?” Annabeth asks, leaning back in her chair. There is just a hint of
apprehension in her tone, but she’s smiling at the man across the room.

“What do you think?” Rosa says before the lieutenant can answer. “Obviously, we all hate you and
want you gone. This might be our only opportunity to achieve that.”

Annabeth beams at the older woman, swiveling in her chair to face her full-on. “Aw, Rosa, so nice
to know you care.”

Rosa scoffs out a “Whatever,” but none of them are fooled into thinking she’s even remotely
serious. For all that Rosa can be a badass, she loves having another badass woman on her team.
And they’d never find another one that comes even close to Annabeth.

Amy – because she’s Amy – simply takes the forms and flips through them. Her brow furrows in
confusion.

“What’s up?” Jake asks, his wife’s expressions too ingrained in his mind to miss the short bout of
dismay before she manages to consciously even out her face. “Don’t tell me Terry asked to have
Chase removed from the squad.”

Amy looks up, shakes her head, a smile now tugging at the corner of her lips. “No, of course not.
He compliments her skills in all regards, recommends that she stays, says we couldn’t ask for a
better fit, and all that. It’s just…”

Even Terry seems confused, and he wrote the thing. He stretches his neck to be able to squint at his
own words on paper. Amy angles the form so he can see better, points out one part of it.

“You’ve got a typo,” Amy tells the lieutenant. “I think it’s supposed to say ‘stronger’, here.”

“What did I write?” Terry asks, glasses still lying atop his desk.

Amy’s lips twitch into a smile. “’Thanks to the addition of Detective Chase, the squad has become
stranger than ever before.’”

“To be fair, it works either way,” Jake comments dryly.

Chapter End Notes

I FINISHED ANOTHER ONE!!!!!!

I've got a few one-shots planned out that I'll write for this universe and post to the
 series. I have no idea when this will be, though, since I plan on working on other
projects, first.
The one-shots I've planned so far are the next halloween heist, the squad meeting the
Kane siblings and the Percabeth wedding. I've written a bit on each, but they all need a
lot of work before I can post them. If you've got ideas for other one-shots, let me
know, I'm always happy about input ;-)
(And until then, maybe check out my other works?)
Please comment if you liked this story.
(Let's be honest: this story is 138.000 words. If you didn't like it, you probably
wouldn't be here any more ^^)
Have a great day, stay safe! :-*

Please drop by the archive and comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!