Colors [Percabeth]

Machinate// Chapter 5

Piper

"Will you hurry it up, Valdez?" Chewing my lip nervously, I scanned the area again.

Propped up against the side of an old one-story building, a sigh escaped my lips. Most of the blazing red paint was peeling and sitting on the cement ground. It was quite large and surrounded by a tall fence and barbed wire. Luckily for me, there had been a hole near the right side of the fence. Boy, they sure knew how to clean up well.

Leo was a few streets from the location, at a safe distance where any other member of the Deimos gang wouldn't recognize who the vehicle belonged to. Shuffling was heard through the small earpiece tucked between my right ear, a sigh following the noise. "I'm going, Beauty Queen. They got a tough security, what can I say?" Fondling with a detached piece of the barbed wire that balanced atop of the fence behind me, I let my voice cut to a challenging whisper.

"Saying you can't do it?"

Leo scoffed loudly, as if surprised I would even dare ask such a ridiculous question. "Did you seriously just ask /the/ Leo Valdez if he can hack a damn low-rank gang's security?" The sound of keys being clouted with my partner's callused hands brought a small smile to my lips.

Though the smile instantly faded as I heard his voice through the earpiece again. "Pipes, I'm in. The room you're looking for is on the far left side of the building. Each room is heavily guarded with both people and cameras."

"Looks like I'll have to take the vents." Standing back up from where I was crouched at the side of the building, I avert my eyes to the air grille right above me. "Tell me if someone's coming."

I climbed upon a wooden box against the wall and began unscrewing the bolts as efficiently as my hands allowed me to. As I did this, my mind couldn't help but drift off to the previous conversation I had.

***

The door to the diner swung open and I looked up from the menu to find my blonde friend. Once her eyes spotted me, she rushed over with a small limp in her walk and slid into the booth opposite of mine.

"Annabeth, what's so important you begged me to meet you here for? You're lucky my dad's away in California because he would not let me out this late."

Annabeth nodded slowly as she fumbled with her thumbs. A lock of her hair fell over her eyes as her gaze remained at the table.

"Annie?"

At last, she met my gaze and let out the breath I didn't realize she had been holding in. Her eyes were bloodshot and I took careful notice that she was shaking. "Percy was walking me home and we ran into Luke."

Silence filled the air as I swallowed hard.

She continued, "He asked me to join him."

My breath hitched. I knew Annabeth had a weak spot for Luke. Her feelings were discernable, but would she really say yes to his offer after betraying her?

"Piper, I refused. No amount of feelings for him was going to make me side with that monster. That's not the Luke I once knew and I'll be damned if I can ever see things from his perspective. But he threatened Percy's life, shot me twice, only one of which I managed to dodge, and I missed my aim."

"Well, I'm sure you were just shaken up and-"

"Purposely, Piper."

We sat there staring at each other, the silence suffocating us like a thick blanket on a hot night.

At last, I managed to find my voice again. "And then?"

She shrugged and leaned back a bit. Her gray eyes glanced around the room but not once, I noticed, did she look my way.

"I led Percy out of there before he could find out. And then I ran before he could ask me any questions. I'm scared he knows. He can't know, he'll get involved and he's too good of a kid to get tangled up in our messy lives." I bit my lip and nodded. "Percy definitely can't go knowing about the gangs especially not now when we're headed into war. I'll talk to him tomorrow, make sure that I feed him a lie he can't resist believing."

Hearing my words, Annabeth knew she could relax. After all, I'm quite manipulative. I can have anybody believing the pretty little lie I throw at them. Am I proud of it? Unfortunately, yes.

My teeth chewed at my lower lip as I anxiously asked, "Why did Luke try to contact you now? Both gangs have been getting ready for war a while now. He's suddenly asking you to side with him?"

She took a deep breath as she tried to find an explanation for the chaos that is Luke's choice of actions. "I dunno, maybe he's starting to realize that we're prepared for this war too."

Looking out the window of the diner, I stared at my reflection frowning back at me. "I sure hope so, A."

***

Once I finished the task at hand, I set the air grille to the side and started climbing into the air vent. "Alright, Repair Boy, which way am I headed?" "You'll take three lefts, two rights, two lefts, and the last is a right."

Slowly crawling forward, I looked ahead as I followed his directions. Soon enough, I was guided right below a room that I could barely see through the holes of the blower.

"What can you hear?"

"Shush, Valdez. I'm trying to listen."

I rolled my eyes at my impatient friend's sigh and leaned closer to the wall of the vents.

Down below I could hear the sinister and all too familiar voice of Luke Castellan.

He let out a heavy sigh and grumbled, "I can't believe Annabeth found my dear cousin before I did." The scar on his face seemed to twitch as he spat on the floor; a sign of disrespect in New York.

Luke let a sigh escape his lips as he twirled a dagger around his fingers. One of his comrades had been standing off in a corner when he suddenly jumped in surprise as Luke threw the sharp weapon. It grazed the boy's ear, drawing in a bit of blood.

Again with another sigh, he shook his head. "I'm lucky the last time I saw Percy was when we were younger. Though maybe this could be an advantage."

From the corner of the room, a familiar voice piped up. "If Annabeth happens to fall for him and we can convince him to join us, it'll be her Achilles heel."

My eyebrows furrowed as I thought, why did that voice ring a bell?

"My dear cousin is too noble of a hero to break Annie's poor heart and side with us. I doubt he's even acquainted with the war that we've started." He sat up in his chair a bit and cocked his head to the side, a grin playing on his face. "Unless we can trick him into doing both. If I know Percy Jackson, he never disappoints. Except to poor Annie in this case."

I noticed the familiar voice was starting to move forward towards the light. If I could just get a clear view-

"Piper, the system's been breached. Get out of there!"

Below me, I could hear a door burst open and a voice boomed out, "Sir, someone's hacked into the security."

I inhaled sharply and quickly started crawling my way back.

Right, two lefts, two rights, three lefts.

Managing to shimmy my body back onto the ground outside, I bolted as soon as I landed. I ran until I saw the comforting view of Leo's van waiting for me. I slammed the door behind me and commanded, "Step on it!"

He obeyed and drove down the street back to our familiar territory. It was silent for a bit before he turned to me and asked, "Well?"

I looked back at him and shook my head worriedly. "We have to keep Percy away from Luke."

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A/N: Aye I finally updated, how about that. I'm sorry this took so long, I really had no clue what to write. This chapter was so serious yikes, I promise the next one will be a fun little filler. But don't forget about the familiar voice Piper heard, they'll be important. Comment on what you thought on the chapter.

-Alexa