~ ☼ ~

Riley and I got up once we heard the Roosevelt Island Tramway moving again. I guess we should've gone back and told Lucky ourselves that the battle was done; I didn't know how she knew, unless she had really good vision. Knowing her, she had just been willing to take a guess.

She was obviously as smart as Apollo, too, because she figured out how to have the gondola move backwards whether than making it go around the whole system. I had to empathize with the poor minimum wage worker who'd wake up soon and find somebody had been screwing with his controls.

"Are we good?" Riley asked, brushing stuff off of her knees.

"I think so," I said. "I don't see any more monsters."

Riley let out a breath. "I mean us. As sisters."

I turned back towards her, surprised there was even a question.

"If you are," I said, "So am I."

She grinned.

I didn't fight as she took my hand and together we started to walk back to the tram station. It'd all happened so quickly. I kept having to look over my shoulder. Something was wrong. There was still something out there we - we as in Riley and I, not camp as a whole - had to take care of. Maybe I was thinking of the starry woman, who I'd last seen in the river. Who was nowhere to be found after I'd made her spin out.

I told Riley what had happened earlier after she'd run away, and she looked surprised. More surprised than I thought she'd be.

"Wait," she said. "Describe her again."

"Silvery," I said. "Like pure starlight. Like a prism reflecting every color."

Riley suddenly stopped, letting go of my hand to lift hers to her mouth.

"Oh my gods," she said. "Wait..."

This pricked my interest, of course. "What?!"

But Riley turned away from me. "I don't know-"

"Riley!" I exclaimed, grabbing her by both shoulders. "Come on. After everything. Trust yourself. What is it?"

Slowly, she turned back towards me. Let out a breath.

"I think I remember something now," she said. "Just a little bit. I remember being on the ground, being... preened over. Like I was sick and my dad was giving me cough syrup. Then somebody came - a great burst of light. It scared everyone away."

I sucked in a sharp breath. "A great burst of light."

My echo was not a question. She did not need to clarify what color the light was, that it was not Alec or his father. It was obvious based on her tone.

"I think you were right," she said, after a moment. "It was the dryads that had taken me. But before I could wake up, your titaness scared them away. And Hemmings saved me."

I was breathless. Theia was connected to the park. Theia was connected to the dryads. The dryads, at least one of whom knew about Alec and I's kiss. Theia, who was both Alec's step-mom and my unrequited mentor.

I was gonna be sick.

"Riley," I said. "There's - there's something you need to know."

But as I turned to her, before I could get the words out, I saw she'd gone still. Statue still - paralyzed still. I hardly had the time to grab her hand again before her eyes shut and she suddenly began to jerk.

I gasped, but didn't say her name. Just watched in both terror and excitement. She was having a vision. Oh my gods, she was having a vision, right here right now, like she was a non prophesying oracle.

As she jerked and jerked like she was being possessed, I grabbed her and held her close to me. Slowly, she began to still, until, finally, her head dropped with a thud onto my shoulder.

I waited a moment, my breath caught.

"Riles?" I asked.

For a beat, I was terrified I was wrong, and she'd just had a seizure. But then, slowly, I heard her groan.

"Riley!" I exclaimed, pulling away so I could look at her. "Are you-"

She was conscious again, but her face was terrified. I immediately lost my voice.

"Downtown," she said. "We have to go downtown. It's Alec."

"Where downtown?"

"A giant apartment building," she said. "With a clock tower at the top."

I did not need another word. I took her hand and we ran.

~ ☼ ~

We stopped to tell Lucky, who'd come out of the station to wait for us. Told her to go back to home base and stay safe. Riley and I had to find Hemmings. We'd never get down there in time otherwise.

"Hemmings!" I shouted. "Hemmings, please! Come to me!"

I didn't know where he was, so I might've just been shouting into the void. I spun around, looking for him. nothing. no sign of him at all.

"Come on," Riley said. "We - we'll find another way."

"Riley!" I exclaimed. "It's a half hour walk at least!"

"Then-" Riley looked around at the cars near us. Then, in a burst of uncharacteristic behavior, she ran over to a Prius and opened the door. It was unlocked, because it looked like the driver was just about to get out before she'd fallen asleep.

"Get in!"

"Wha-"

I didn't have any other choice; Riley was glaring at me, her nostrils flaring, so I quickly did as she said.

"You drive."

"Why am I driving?"

"You're the new Yorker!"

I paused, just as Riley shoved the lady - god knows how she'd been able to pick her up, but you did need arm strength to shoot a long bow - into the backseat.

"I'm not a new yorker!" I said. "I'm a - a Hudson Valleyan!"

"Still in the state of new york!"

Before I could argue with her, she was getting into the passenger seat. I groaned, then got into the driver's seat, which was not only warm from the woman sitting there, but... wet...

"AH!" I screamed.

"AJ!" Riley shouted back. "This is about Alec!"

Would Alec still love me if I showed up with someone else's pee on me? I found it hard to believe.

I was so disgusted I could hardly sit, so Riley groaned and pulled off her shirt, throwing it on the seat. Seeing her in just her sports bra was enough to make me suck it up and sit, thankful the pee didn't soak through.

"You're in war, girl!" Riley shouted, like a drill sergeant. "Act like it!"

If it wasn't for the fact that I was in war, I might've laughed hysterically again.

I turned on the car and ripped it out of its parallel parking space, dinging the truck in front of it on the way. I winced, but had no time to think about it. Within a moment, I was speeding down what I think was 2nd Avenue.

"Do you have a map?!" I exclaimed.

Then I realized it didn't matter if I had a map or not if I didn't know the exact address of Red Square. Riley still opened the glove box anyway to check, only for 5 oranges to come rolling out. We both stared at them for a minute, until I realized I was about to hit a stopped car and I quickly swerved out of the way, careening westwards.

Somehow I was in a car chase without anybody actually chasing me. I hoped Annabeth would be proud.

Riley's camp necklace hit against her collarbone as she bent down and picked up the oranges. She immediately began to peel one, and, in between my eyes on the road, I glanced over at her.

"Girl, what the frick?" I asked. "Aren't you too sick to eat?"

"I haven't eaten all day!" she reminded me. "Besides, I'm peeling one for you, too."

I grimaced as I brought the car to a slower pace as I tried to figure out how to weave my way through two cars in both lanes that were too close together. Eventually, I decided to just turn around and take another street, thankful that the center of the city didn't have straight bumper to bumper traffic like the outer highways did.

"Should we really trust random glove box oranges?" I asked. "That seems suspicious."

Riley shrugged. She already had a slice in her mouth. "It tastes fine to me."

She held a piece out for me, and I opened my mouth. not one has anybody fed something to me, aside from when I was a baby, but this was a revolutionary couple of days apparently.

I couldn't deny that Riley was right. It was beyond nice to taste my favorite fruit. I was so pleased by the taste that I almost hit a fire hydrant.

"Where are we going?"

"Red Square," I said.

Riley almost choked on her orange. "Moscow?"

"no!" I exclaimed, though once again I had to try not to laugh.

Riley did too, quickly swallowing that piece so she could more clearly say, "Then- where?"

"It's in the East Village," I said. "After you ran away, after a bunch of stuff, I ended up there. There's this Lenin Statue on top, and a clocktower-" I shook my head. "There's an armory underneath. I lost Liakada there, but more importantly, Demeter's Sickle is there."

Riley gasped. Then realization dawned on her. "That boy..."

She was assuming that was why Alec was down there, but I wasn't so sure. If Alec had been so determined to do something un-medical, I think he would've come with us. He wouldn't have snuck out to find the sickle again. At that point, what would be the purpose of it, if Riley and I were possibly dying at the same time?

But I still didn't know how he'd ended up down there. Was he kidnapped? I almost would've rather him snuck out than that, so at least it was his choice. The man kept having his choices ripped from him.

Or maybe I just cringed a little at someone somehow kidnapping tall, angry Alec. It felt wrong.

As my hands squeezed the steering wheel, Riley said, "AJ? Hello?"

I snapped out of my daze and realized she'd said something.

"What?"

"I asked you what you wanted to tell me. Before I had my vision."

She was smiling so big at the memory that she'd had a vision that I almost didn't want to ruin the moment. I swallowed. I wanted to tell her - wanted to believe so badly, after everything, that she wouldn't judge us. But that didn't take into account whether or not Alec and I would even make it out of this with our friendship intact. I'd rather make sure he and I were on the same page first...

"AJ," said Riley. "Please?"

now, when I glanced at her, I saw her eyes were big and puppy-dog like. But I couldn't do it. As I tried to get out the words, my throat was tightened. I felt sick. As always.

Luckily, I was saved by the bell. There was suddenly a noise from ahead of us, then a plume of smoke erupted into the sky. I could tell by the buildings around us that we'd reached the East Village, which must meant this was round 2 of the attack on Red Square. I immediately pushed the car into overdrive, speeding past other stopped cars to get there.

Within a second, we were on East Houston Street, and there was Red Square, completely crumbled to the ground. I stopped the car unceremoniously, literally wanting to vomit at the sight of it. Riley instantly burst into tears. I'd not seen that sort of destruction yet. It looked like a foreign warzone, not something that could happen here. not something that I... I was in part responsible for.

I swore. "Riley..."

"It's okay," she said immediately, sucking back tears. She reached over and grabbed my arm. "Come on."

She and I got out of the car, but I couldn't stop from still feeling sick. How many people had lived there? When I'd sicced the Lenin statue on Perses, I thought I'd been doing something good. Killing a titan who would no doubt go on to hurt someone else. now I was wondering if the Cabin 6 girls and I shouldn't have just run away and left Perses to his job. All he was doing was defending the armory. I was the one who had pissed him off.

I had to stop, taking a deep breath. I was about to break down again.

"AJ," Riley said. "Come on. Come on."

She pulled me close to her, and I manually tried to breathe, calm myself down. I couldn't fall for this again. She was here. If I didn't keep going now, I'd-

I was gonna say I'd fail her, but more importantly, I'd hurt her. Her and Alec both.

I took a deep breath, then forced myself to not think about it, focusing on foot in front of another. Trying to figure out where Alec could be.

"There's a basement," I got out, as we got to the edge of the rubble.

There was no clear way in, only gaps in what used to be the walls. The building looked like it had crumpled like a house of cards, now a mess of slate floors and walls all on top of each other, including all the way across the street, over the cars that had been parked.

I had to hold up my arm to my eyes to block the smoke, but then it got in my mouth. I pulled my shirt up to block out the dust, then I remembered -

Riley couldn't do the same.

I realized just as I'd taken a step across a pile of bricks. I turned to look at her and saw her hesitating. Then she took a few steps forward, before I stopped her.

"Wait," I said. "You don't have any sort of mask."

If we hadn't left the hysteria behind in the car, I think she would've pulled off her last layer, too. Instead, she frowned, then said, "Alec's in there, AJ-"

"I'll find him," I said, pulling down my shirt just enough to say it. I glanced around, trying to see if there were any monsters, but there wasn't. There was no sign of Perses, either, or Lenin. Or Alec.

"I'll find him," I repeated. "There's gotta be people trapped in those cars. They'll suffocate. Go help them."

It was a bandage on a deep wound, but Riley was eager. She nodded, then ran away, towards the nearest car. Leaving me alone again - to head into the house of cards.

Once I ducked into the actual building itself - what used to be the building, at least - the dust got even worse. I coughed a couple times, tears coming to my eyes. I could see the staircase down to the basement, surrounded by slanting walls like a tent. And beyond that, I swear I could feel Liakada calling me, heat and sun. My heart was beating a million miles a minute.

I ran up to the staircase, but the door itself had been crumpled inwards, jammed in the door frame that there was no way I'd be able to open it normally. I threw myself against it. Then again, and again, until finally-

It crumpled inwards, and I fell.

~ ☼ ~

A/n: This chapter is so unhinged compared to all the drama around it lol, I loved writing it