IT WAS DARK for about two and a half seconds before the generator kicked in, bathing the walls in the deep red of the emergency lights. It was so quiet in that moment that the near-silent buzz in the air was almost deafening. They looked at each other. Percy's mind raced. Every possible worst case scenario ran through his head, faster and increasingly, horrifically suckish with each new idea. They built up on each other like a crescendo. A bad, bad crescendo. Something's in the building. Something's outside the building and coming in. Two somethings. Three. Dead. Dead. Dead. We'll all be dead in seconds.

        He looked at the faces of the other people around the table. They, too, looked at least a little expectant, waiting.

         Their unspoken questions were answered when the alarm sounded. It was much louder than Fitz's proximity alarm, to say the least. If he were describing it, say, at 1:48 am in his dark bedroom on a school night, he might say it was an incessant, unyielding scream that grated on their eardrums and rattled the glasses in the cupboard ever so slightly.

There was a collective moment where everyone just stood there silently, like they were all thinking, it's way too early for this. Percy sighed deeply, but he followed the rest of the group as they filed out into the hallway.

"I don't know what's going on, but we need to fan out. Protect the base from all sides," Coulson ordered, his voice quiet. Or maybe the alarms were just loud.

Next to him, Percy felt Annabeth nod. As horrible as it sounded, he agreed—it would be better to cover more ground. Like capture the flag.

Coulson pointed at Annabeth as if he'd caught her doing something she wasn't supposed to. "Not you," he said, gesturing to her injured leg.

Annabeth rolled her eyes but didn't protest. She knew.

Coulson looked down the hall where Mack was recovering, probably worried out of his mind. "Stand guard. Protect him."

Annabeth went to move past them, but Percy grabbed her arm. She looked up at him, and before he could say anything, she reached up and planted a kiss on his forehead. He felt the warmth spread through his body for a moment, but it was quickly extinguished by the cold fear running through his veins. He pressed his forehead to hers.

"We'll be okay," she said, but she didn't sound like she believed it.

"Stay there," he begged. "Please."

She pulled away. "Cross my heart."

And she left.

He let out a shaky breath. Coulson split them into three groups, and they were off. He didn't know where he was going. He just followed close behind Yo-yo (that couldn't be her real name, could it? No, probably a nickname.) and hoped they were heading in the right direction. Was he, really? Maybe he was hoping they were heading in the wrong direction. Then he wouldn't have to deal with whatever the hell was going on now.

          No, he told himself. If he wasn't heading in the right direction. . .that meant the others were. He didn't want that on his conscience. It was heavy enough as it was.

          Yo-yo rounded a corner and they were suddenly faced with a set of doors. Percy's mind raced. Anything, anyone could be out there, and they were none the wiser.

          Yo-yo placed her palm on the reader. There was a tiny flash of blue, and the doors shuddered open. They were greeted with a blast of cold air. The bright white of the sun reflecting off snow blinded Percy for a second, but his eyes adjusted. In front of him was nothing and no one.

          Percy's relief lasted for half a second before he was overcome with worry. One of the other teams was in danger.

          Yo-yo was already reaching for her comms. "East entrance is clear. Does anyone copy?"

          Nothing.

          She waited a beat, then spoke again. Her hand shook. "I repeat, east entrance is clear. Does anyone copy?"

          She locked eyes with Percy. He could see the panic in them. He was sure he looked worse.

♆

          Daisy ran down the corridor, Fitz and Simmons on her heels. She didn't want to think about what was waiting for them—more of those panther eagle things? Medusa? Ward wearing a Zeus costume? An army?—but she couldn't help it. She tried to focus on her breathing. She hated cardio. Maybe she should try to get more into her schedule.

          She skidded to a halt as they reached the doors, reminding herself of the characters on Scooby Doo. She forced the thought out of her head as she slammed her palm on the reader.

          Only to be denied.

          "What?" Daisy practically yelled. She tried again. Denied.

          Fitz appeared next to her and tried his own palm. Denied. He ducked down to check the control panel. "Busted," he reported, and Daisy let out a cry of frustration. "It's been tampered with."

          "How?" Simmons exclaimed. "It'd have to be done from inside. This is a fortress."

          "Can't w-worry about that now," Fitz said, already working. "Little pressed for time."

          Simmons crouched behind him. "Do you want my hands?"

          Fitz shook his head. "Not this time. Easy fix."

          Daisy paced in front of the doors, wanting to be ready when they opened. She thought about blasting them open, but she didn't—if there was something out there, it would leave the base susceptible to attack. As painful as it was, she had to wait.

        But not long. Fitz made a sound of triumph and Simmons pressed her palm into the reader. There was a flash of blue, and the doors shuddered open. Daisy heard her comms crackle, but the sound of the alarms and metal on metal drowned out whatever was being said.

          They were treated with a beautiful view of the mountain and not one single present danger.

          "Damn it," Daisy spat. As cool as it was to know she wasn't about to get gutted. . .one of the other teams was.

          "I repeat, east entrance is clear. Does anyone copy?"

          Daisy let out a sigh of relief at hearing  Yo-yo's voice. She put a hand to her comms. "I copy. West entrance is clear."

          Simmons' face scrunched up with worry. "Yo-yo, have you heard from Agent May? Or Coulson?"

          "Nada," came the reply.

          "Damn it!" Daisy repeated. She closed her eyes, telling herself not to think about the trouble the two older agents could be in and to focus on the task ahead.

          "We have to go. Now!" Fitz urged. He waved them back inside the doors and sealed the entrance. "Which way to the—to the north entrance?"

          "This way!" Simmons shouted over her shoulder, already running.

          Daisy pushed down the panic and followed suit.

★

          Coulson stared out the hangar doors into the nothing that greeted him. Okay, not nothing. Trees. Some snow. Part of a mountain. But nothing that screamed immediate danger. Or mild danger. Or any danger at all.

          "Well, we're definitely at the wrong exit," May said curtly. "Might have to go help the others." The alarms had finally stopped, but the lights kept flashing, bathing her in red.

          They both winced as Yo-yo's voice crackled in their ears. "East entrance is clear. Does anyone copy?"

          Coulson switched on his mic. "I copy. North entrance is clear. Have you—"

          "I repeat, east entrance is clear. Does anyone copy?"

          He looked over at May, who seemed worried. "Are yours working?"

          She fiddled with her earpiece. "Can you hear me? North entrance is clear."

          Daisy's response came almost immediately. "I copy. West entrance is clear."

          Coulson let out a breath. "Ok, we'll have to regroup in the—"

          "Yo-yo, have you heard from Agent May? Or Coulson?" Simmons interrupted him.

          "Nada," came the reply.

          "Something's got to be interfering with our comms," May said, annoyed. She took her earpiece out to examine it.

          Coulson wasn't sure what to do. The team thought they were in trouble when, clearly, the threat was somewhere else. He couldn't tell them otherwise. "We'll have to meet them halfway," he speculated. "But we should be regrouping."

          May nodded in agreement. "I'll go east."

          Coulson didn't like this situation one bit. On the one hand, they had decided to split up and deal with it. And on the other, they had obviously been tricked. Splitting up again was definitely not a good idea.

          Thankfully, the dilemma was resolved when he and May reached the end of the hall and ran smack into the other two teams.

          "Coulson? You're okay?" Daisy asked incredulously. "We thought—"

          "Our comms were down," May explained, waving her earpiece in the air as if to prove a point. "Something's screwing with them."

          "If we're all fine, then what the hell triggered the alarm?" Percy asked. He seemed stressed, but Coulson had a hard time getting a read on him.

Coulson felt a little silly. After all, he just led his team on the defensive against nothing at all. Wearing Captain America pajama pants.

"It must have been a distraction," Daisy blurted, like the idea had just come to her.

Fitz scratched his head. "But from what? It's—it's not like we have anything valuable right now."

Coulson turned to Percy to ask him something, but the boy's eyes widened in fear.

"Annabeth," was all he said before he turned and ran.

★

          Percy was vaguely aware of the agents running after him. His heart pounded—not because of the sudden cardio, but because he was so, so scared. Every beat made his whole body throb and every step sent a jolt up his spine. He prayed to all the gods he remembered the way back to Mack's room. If not, he might've been doomed to wander the building searching for it.

Dead. Gone. Trap. Dead. Gone. Trap. Those words kept drilling themselves into his skull. He had no other thoughts, just desperation as he navigated through hallways and past rooms that all looked the same. He didn't know what he'd do if he got back and she was gone.

She's fine, he hoped.

Probably not, his voice of reason said helpfully. It's not like either of your life expectancy was that long anyways.

Percy squinted against the flashing red lights, trying to banish his voice of reason forever. When he got there, she would be sitting in a chair in the doorway, keeping watch and looking confused. She'd calm him down. There was no reason for him to worry. She's fine.

He kept running.

He perked up as he recognized a room he was running past—they'd had breakfast there not ten minutes ago. That meant that just around the corner. . .

Percy's breath burned in his lungs but he ran faster. He could see the doorway. It was so close. His blood ran cold seeing that the door was ajar, but he burst into the room with hope in his heart.

It was empty.

Percy fell to his knees.

She hadn't just left. The chairs were knocked over. A tray of medical equipment and its contents had been dumped onto the floor. Mack's IV stand balanced precariously between his bed and the wall, like a single breath could knock it over, and the bedsheets were twisted together roughly.

And a spatter of blood dirtied the floor.

He heard commotion behind him and he knew the agents had caught up. But he didn't move. Annabeth was gone.

"Where'd they go?"

"Jesus, what the hell happened in here?"

"Percy, are you okay?"

A lover's oath to be undone.

"Cross my heart."

Did that even count as an oath? A simple, three-word sentence?

A lover's oath.

Cross my heart.

Cross my heart.

Cross my heart.

♆

hello and welcome to it's 3am and it's been a whole fuckin year since i updated this story. i'm not gonna say sorry cuz I do that all the time so i'm just gonna say hi! i missed this! a little thing called life just got in the way. i'm in my 2nd semester of college and it's hard work but it's real fun and that's all i have to say about that. anyways my question to u for this day is: how have u been??
hugs and kisses!!!!
cajoling

2/9/20