If Annabeth had thought Kronos's soldiers were horrid before, they only got worse the longer she stayed. On her first night, they had surrounded her temporary tent and taunted her until slowly, one by one, they trickled off to sleep. Terrified that one would return and enter her tent in the silence of the night, she hadn't slept at all.

When morning came, she stayed in her tent until Nakamura burst in with leftovers from the soldier's breakfast.

"How are your ribs, doll?" He smirked.

Annabeth scowled and snatched the plate from his hands. With a snicker, he ducked back out of her tent and Annabeth was once again alone. Unfortunately, his trip to her tent seemed to have reminded the others that she was still there. Although the jeers weren't as loud or half as crude as the night before, they were constant enough that Annabeth had difficulty tuning them out. 

Time passed slowly. Her tent provided minimal safety from the soldiers outside and she was regularly reminded of this when one pressed against the walls or kicked up the dirt underneath.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there before Nakamura returned with a grin and a strip of leather in hand.

"Your presence is requested, Your Highness."

He pulled her to her feet and her ankle nearly gave out under her weight. Unfazed by her stumbling, Nakamura grabbed her wrists and bound them tightly in front of her before shoving her through the tent flap.

The walk to Kronos's tent was short, but every step was painful. Annabeth limped as quickly as she could, but her ankle protested greatly and her bruised ribs made it difficult to breathe.

When she stepped into Kronos's tent, she was once again shoved gracelessly to the ground as Nakamura kicked her feet out from under her and pushed on her shoulder. She inhaled sharply as her knees hit the ground, but she did not give Nakamura the satisfaction of groaning.

"I hope you slept well," Kronos crooned above her.

Annabeth lifted her head to look at him, but Nakamura was quick to push her back down.

"Am I no longer allowed to look at my captor?" Annabeth hissed, scowling at the dirt in front of her. "Or is it too threatening to his supposed reign?"

She should have anticipated Nakamura's knee, but she still gasped as it made contact with her ribs once again.

"Perhaps after a full night's sleep," Kronos suggested, "you'll be more accepting of my offer."

"Or you'll be more accepting of my refusal," Annabeth snarled. She had expected Nakamura to hit her again and had braced for it. Instead of a hit, however, she was pulled to her feet.

"It isn't a request, Princess," Kronos hissed, his gold eyes searing into hers. "It's a bargain."

"I don't care what you call it," Annabeth said, writhing under Nakamura's grip. "Neither Athens nor Atlantis are mine to give and if they were, I would still say no."

Kronos's hand wrapped around her chin. "Your mother rules Athens. Your husband rules Atlantis. I will get both with or without you, but it will be more pleasant for you if you cooperate."

Annabeth's mouth stayed firmly shut and with every passing second, Kronos's eyes narrowed.

"You are young and stupid," he told her. "I will give you another day to change your mind before I become unpleasant."

"Nothing will change my mind," Annabeth said, her words distorted as Kronos's grip on her jaw tightened. "No matter what you do."

"We'll see about that."

Kronos nodded at Nakamura and soon she was being pulled out of the tent. As they ducked through the tent flap, Annabeth caught sight of Luke standing a few paces away, watching with an unreadable expression as Nakamura paraded her back through the camp and to her tent.

"In you get," Nakamura hummed, pulling open her tent flap with one hand and shoving her forward harder than necessary.

Even with her hands still bound, Annabeth caught herself despite the way her stumbling twisted her ankle further. When she turned around and stretched out her wrists for Nakamura to untie, he was gone.

There was little she could do in her tent, but the leather binding her wrists provided a simple enough distraction. If Nakamura didn't have the decency to untie her, she would at least entertain herself through it.

Settling onto her single blanket, Annabeth stretched her aching ankle out in front of her and brought her wrists up to her face.

Nakamura knew how to tie knots, she would give him that, but she was nothing if not skilled at problem-solving. She would have the knot undone by the time he brought her dinner.

Using her teeth, Annabeth tugged on the top of the knot to loosen it. It was tight and took many, many tries before it began to budge. By then, Annabeth's jaw was starting to hurt and her teeth felt dirty and gross. Never one to give up, though, she ploughed on until she got one part of the knot loose enough to carefully tug the end through with her teeth.

She continued throughout the day, taking breaks when her jaw got too sore and her teeth began to feel a bit too wriggly. When night fell, she was only halfway through the knot. Dinner hadn't arrived yet, so she still had time to meet her self-set goal. To Annabeth's grief, the darkness made it nearly impossible to work and she had difficulty seeing what parts needed to be loosened and where the knot began.

"Annie?"

Annabeth's gaze snapped up to the flap of her tent. With a lantern in one hand and a plate of leftovers in the other, Luke was looking down at her with that same unreadable expression.

She huffed. "What?"

"Dinner." Luke held up the plate then set it in front of her. Frowning, he nodded to her still-bound wrists. "Nakamura didn't release you?"

"No," Annabeth snapped, " and if you're going to mock me for it, feel free to leave."

Instead of sneering at her like Annabeth had anticipated, Luke took a hesitant step forward and gestured towards the knot.

"I can—"

With a huff, Annabeth held out her wrists for him. Although the satisfaction of untying the knot herself would have felt nice, the leather had already given her several blisters and she doubted she could finish untying it in the dark.

Luke made quick work of the knot and was soon stepping back with the leather strap in hand. Annabeth eyed her wrists and gently blew on one blister that had broken open and started to bleed.

"This morning with Kronos," Luke said anxiously. "What was that?"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him, suddenly worried she'd somehow been tricked and Luke's kindness was a front for something.

"Don't pretend to be worried," she said coldly. She pulled her ankle to her in an effort to give herself more space from him. "No one here cares."

"I do."

The admission didn't put Annabeth at ease. She was here because Luke had been willing to trick her and bring her to Kronos himself. There was little reason to trust him now.

"There was a time when I would have believed that," Annabeth murmured.

Luke sighed. "I can't say I didn't know what he wanted, but I didn't think he'd hurt you."

Annabeth's face darkened.

"You didn't think Kronos, Prince of Tartarus," she hissed, "would hurt me to get what he wanted?"

Luke had the decency to look away at her accusation.

"If you think there's any other way this ends, then you're a fool, Luke," Annabeth said. The bite of her words was enough to make Luke look ashamed for a split second, but she didn't feel guilty. "You brought me to my death and I hope it was worth it."

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