Zoe Nightshade had gone after Ethan Nakamura before. Of course the circumstances had changed since then. For one she was no longer a fresh recruit looking to prove herself and second, back then Ethan hadn't personally offended her.

"It doesn't matter what the report says. There's always another way."

Zoe was wearing earmuffs that could have blocked out the end of the world. Her sunglasses were pressed up her nose and the world around her was a murky blur of things that didn't matter.

Here she was queen. Here she could think, plan, plot, and execute anything. It was all possible while she stood tall, arms bent, teeth grit, and eyes sharp. It didn't matter what had happened in the past. Here she still heard Artemis talk her out of her rages and corrected her posture.

"So he thinks he's smart. I'm smarter, remember? Keep your chin up Nightshade."

Zoe fired four shots rounding them off as if she had no time to waste.

"He slipped up." Artemis continued in her ear. "The girlfriend. He mentioned the girlfriend."

"It was a dead end." Zoe muttered she fired again this time aiming left of the chest, an arm shot that would hurt like a bitch but cause no permanent injury.

"It was a beginning, Nightshade. What do you remember about high school? College? What did everyone care about?"

Zoe inhaled fast, clicking the safety back on her gun. She blinked in the sun. She knew Artemis was not standing behind her but it was hard not to imagine that she wasn't nodding approvingly at her.

It was harder to imagine that she wasn't there because of Zoe herself.

She tore off her earmuffs launching herself off the firing stand. Her work sneakers were hardly work attire but she was running towards the office. Most likely no one would have the courage to bring it up to her.

"Zoe! Wait Nightshade!" a voice she knew well called after her. She motioned for the raven haired agent to catch up with her, but didn't slow her pace.

"What is it, Jackson?" she huffed, "I'm in the middle of something."

He readjusted his police cap and rolled his green eyes. Percy Jackson was still a new recruit, at least by Zoe's standards, but he had already proven to be a valuable as even her in the field. She had little doubt that one day he might be running the police sanction himself. That, and only that, was the reason she didn't use him as target practice most days.

"When at you not in the middle of something?" he asked without a hint of being rhetorical. He shook off his question walking alongside her, "Anyway I heard the Kronos case got reopened. I wanted to see if you were okay."

Zoe stopped short. Before she was even thinking about it, she had grabbed his collar and rammed him against the wall. He was winded, Zoe felt it in the way he didn't immediately shift into Fight Mode.

"Never," she snarled, "insinuate that I am not okay."

He coughed in reply. "Got...it..."

"Good."

Zoe let him go and had the audacity to give her a small smile. He fixed his collar and tie. Zoe barred her teeth.

"My next assignment is in San Francisco. Something about a gang war?" He laughed and rubbed his neck, "I don't know. I'm suppose to pick up a girl like right off the bat. Anyway I guess I won't be around for a bit."

"Fantastic," Zoe started walking away again.

What did she care if there was one less agent walking around? She had her team.

"Oh and one more thing," he opened his jacket and pulled an envelope out of the inside pocket, "The Director asked me to deliver this, to you. Luke Castellan? Good luck with that."

Zoe snatched the letter with vigour. She almost smiled. She now had a lead and a new resource. She would crush Ethan Nakamura, that drug dealing sadist, and his partners and his partners partners. Even if he had ties back to Hades, she wouldn't stop until he and every other goddamned dealer was behind bars.

"Zoe! Wait! They have--!"

Then maybe Zoe would have the courage to see her again.

She left Percy in the hallway, like she left her earmuffs and the gunshots of her past. It took her all of five minutes to get to her floor, in the building across the street. Her keys jangled in her pocket as she strolled into the room. It was noon so half of the agents were out. Her desk was immaculate, with everything sorted and placed perfectly. She could see from where she was that no one had touched it; Everyone was too afraid to touch it.

Will Solace was doing paper work from a top Nico's desk. His white lab coat hung down to his knees and his clipboard was filled with a stack of paper. He looked troubled, sitting alone in their cubical section, but the moment she walked in he brightened up.

"Sup Zoe?" He smiled, "Firing range?"

"Where's Castellan?"

Will ever unperturbed thumbed back to the extra desk he normally reserved for himself. He had his real one downstairs in the medical room but the word was he hated the quiet and loneliness so he always did his paperwork in a room filled with bustling people. He even had his phone reconnected up here. Since he rarely caused problems, Zoe had let it slide.

Luke was slumped in his chair, but even sleeping he looked like he had walked through Hell. His face was still pale and raw in places Will had to scrub the blood off of. The scar down his cheek would be ever the reminder of that night. He wore brand new clothes: jeans that might have been Will's and a shirt that was definitely Nico's. He sported an old lab coat from storage with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His forearms were hot red and raw, probably from two hours straight of his own physical torment trying to get rid of the blood under his nails, so much so that the black X's were barely left on the back of his hands. In front of him were the photos of Ethan Nakamura's bedroom and the parking lot; Zoe scowled at just seeing them. To think he made all that mess and she hadn't heard a thing.

"Di Angelo back yet?" Zoe asked slamming her pistol on her polished desk.

"No ma'am." Will said, "I can try reaching him on the phone again but he probably threw it in a trashcan or a fountain. Again."

"Do it." Zoe waved to Luke's form, "and wake him too."

He grinned, throwing his clipboard on Nico's desk without celebration. "We got a lead? What is it?" He picked up the desk phone dialing a number off the top of his head while simultaneously whisking a rubber band ball from the top left drawer. He tossed the ball at Luke and hummed happily to the ringing of the phone.

Zoe decided she could ask later why he knew where everything in Di Angelo's desk was.

Luke woke with a start, gasping for breath like he had been drowning before. He looked around wildly before his unnerving blue eyes settled on her with a miserable expression.

Zoe pretend that she hadn't seen that before, that it wasn't one she had noticed on her face in the mirror for many years, that sometimes the breaking of the mirror in the sanctions women's restroom was not the fault of that look in her reflection.

"The girlfriend." Zoe said, she grabbed her laptop off her desk, "or more specifically the girlfriend's house."

Will cocked his head to the side, "We tried that, remember? Led us too Bianca Di Angelo's grave? Nico went on a rampage?"

"Who's Bianca Di Angelo?" Luke asked. He was all attention now, sitting up in the chair and arms folded neatly on Will's desk.

"She was the daughter of a wealthy business man, Hades Di Angelo, who you might know, is suspected of having started the gang Hades. She died two years ago when her driver drove the car off Westmore bridge late one night." Will said, hanging up the unanswered call, "The Police fished the car out of the water hours later, and we found the driver still seatbelted in, but Bianca was gone. Her jacket was still in the car, and the window was broken and the door open...We never found her body. We...uh.. think she managed to get out, but the undercurrents of the river caught her and dragged her across the rocky bottom until she drowned and her body is somewhere under the muck and trash." Will swung his legs a little in thought, "It's the reason Nico wanted to be a police officer so bad. Like he wanted to be one before, but after his sister's death, I don't think there's a force on Earth that could have persuaded him otherwise."

"In her driver was the first samples we got of the Kronos Drug," Zoe said, bluntly just to watch Luke flinch, "We found Bianca's hat in Ethan's apartment. If Ethan Nakamura is connected to both these crimes there will be Hell to pay." She scowled, "Which is why we are going to find his girlfriend's real apartment, and drag his ass right back here to get my answers."

"How are you going to do that without an address or a name?" Luke seemed to be interested now, much like a kid watching a line of ants crawl across the floor. Zoe wondered if she had sounded this stupid when she had been a new recruit. Did Artemis constantly feel like she had needed to be hit or was that just because Zoe hated the CEO's son?

"He's got a point on this one, Zoe." Will said, "Do you know how many Angela's are in this state? Assuming that is even her real name."

"Idiots," Zoe reveled in her verbal abuse, "Do you remember High School? How it was everyone's business who was dating who?"

Luke and Will shared a look.

"I never paid attention." Luke shrugged, "Dad would pull me out of school to go to Tokyo and Zimbabwe to see what being a CEO was all about. He wanted me to take over the company."

"I was homeschooled." Will admitted.

Zoe rubbed her temples, "Alright well, that's what it's like. It's Everyone's business who was dating who, and how long until they broke up. We just need to find someone who likes to talk."

Zoe opened up a tab on her computer, pressing the keys with the power of spite. Will had already moved to look over her shoulder and after a moment Luke realized that he was going to have to join them. She skipped through pages of witnesses on the online report of two nights ago. She could see Luke making faces as he caught pieces of what people he had known had said about him or about what happened that night. All in all he seemed to be taking it better than she thought he would. In the reflection of the screen she could see the resolve in his eyes, the fury and the untamed determination.

He had decided to find Thalia Grace's other murder. Zoe wondered if she was going to have to stop him from killing Ethan when they finally found him.

"Stop." He said suddenly flinging his arm up at the screen.

Zoe scowled. "Don't put your hand in my face." She said batting it away. The page she was at was a girl's, one Zoe vaguely remembered from the haze. The report had been done by a lower agent signed off by an agent higher than Zoe.

Luke stared at the page. "If you want information..." he said, "this...this is who you want."

"This is like the worst report ever." Will commented, "She doesn't remember anything. Look here she is saying that you were making out with another girl right before the incident." Will stole a look at him. "You weren't, were you?"

"I wasn't," Luke confirmed sounded a hundred years older, "but that's why you want her. She deals information, if you notice. We just have to give her something else in exchange."

Will frowned, "But what would a...Silena Beauregard want from us?"

Zoe closed the laptop, "Let's go find out.

***

"Ethan Nakamura, you say?"

Silena was a thin woman, with a meek complexion but eyeliner that suggested she knew every way to get someone to talk. She smiled at Zoe as if they were friends, which they most surely were not. "Sorry Officer, don't know of him!"

"Impeding a police investigation is a federal crime, Miss Beauregard." Zoe reminded the woman in front of her.

"Well so is hijacking a plane," The other girl said, "I don't see me doing that one either. I wish you luck in your investigation, but I don't have the information you are looking for. May I go back to my date now?"

Zoe had patience, just not a lot of it. Artemis had scolded her about it many times. And after Artemis...well Zoe wasn't one to forget her own mistakes. The case, this case was wearing her down, bit by bit. Somehow Silena had added to this weight more than anyone other than Ethan Nakamura himself. She was dressed in a way should have been illegal: a dress that seemed to be laminated to her body, hugging her curves from her breasts to her calves with cut outs around her hips and a deep v-neck. Her jewelry sparkled like an expensive vice. Zoe had a hard time looking at her.

She said everything with a polite smile, and a pleasant tone. Zoe wanted to rip her head off and see if she was truly made of happiness or she was pulling one over her.

Luke was leaning against the wall not far away. Silena had acknowledged him with a wave at first but having not received a name or a badge she seemed to forget he was there. Zoe had him there for purely observing duty; he had no need to interfere regardless of what happened. And if he snuck away while Zoe was in conversation, she made sure to show him every bone in his body that she would break when they caught him again.

He had nodded so fast, so terrified, that Will had trouble prying him off the chair.

Said medic was waiting on the car with the music on and phone in case Nico called back. Zoe doubted he would. If he didn't check-in in the morning she was going to fire him, file a missing person's report, and kill him, not necessarily in that order.

Silena shrugged helplessly in the face of their investigation. "I wish I could help, but I can't."

Zoe snapped her notebook shut, fuming. "Yes," she said through gritted teeth, "Thank You for your time." Artemis would have been proud. "Have a good date."

She clapped hers hands with some sickening expression of gratitude. It was the first thing that sounded hollow coming of her lips like another layer of makeup. Zoe was sure it was just as international as it too. She turned back to Luke and motioned that they would be leaving.

He ignored her.

"Mrs. Beauregard," he said, voice silky with diplomacy. "Did by chance...you know Thalia Grace?"

She stopped suddenly in the hall. The sounds of fancy glass clinking and expensive silverware on china plates sounded as if they were coming from another dimension. Silena was stock still, the dangerous form. The form that could lead to any manner of attack. Zoe's hand drifted to her gun handle, though the last thing she wanted was to explain to the director why there were bullet holes in a Five Star Restaurant wall that's tap water was above her pay grade.

"That's a reckless thing for you to ask, Mr. Castellan." Silena said, her voice cold. "Lot's of people liked Thalia more than you."

Luke nodded as if this explained a lot. Zoe analysed his stance, casual but nervous, and decided she would break his kneecap first when they got back to the car.

"Lying to us about Ethan's whereabouts won't avenge her." Luke said. "She still dead."

Silena whipped around with a bright grin on her face, "Oh yes, and who did that to her? I might have been drunk, but I am not blind." Her eyes narrowed but the smile remained, more of a threat than a pleasantry.

"If you say that, than you must know that I never would have hurt her. You know that I loved her. That she was my world, and my soul, possibly just as much or even more than Charles Beckendorf is for you." Silena retracted a step as if she had been punched. Luke swallowed hard, plowing ahead so fast he was tripping over his own words, "You know all that Silena. You were her friend, speed dial number three, despite the fact that the two of you hadn't talked since Thalia walked out on your co-owned apartment. You know...." Luke took a long deep breath, "You know that I made her the promise you wouldn't make with her."

Silena dropped her smile. "You broke that promise."

"I did," He acknowledged, "And I didn't. You see, I was drugged that night, Mrs. Beauregard."

She stared at him, her furious blue eyes demanding to see the truth his his soul. Zoe waited with baited breath for one of them to break the contact. Forget breaking kneecaps; She was going to kill him when they got back to the car. He knew all this coming in here? He let her talk and ask stupid questions like a moron in front of the this aggravating woman?

"I wasn't lying." Silena snarled coldly, "I don't know an Ethan Nakamura personally." She readjusted her gaze to fall on Zoe with the same amount of hatred she might have for a cat that made a litter box out of her snakeskin prada purse. "I heard a while back that Michael Yew had some beef with him. Something about a stabbing. Yew hangs out at the Apollo's Grin bar downtown on weeknights drinking away his sorrows." She gathered herself together and turned back around, "I wish you luck catching him, Miss Nightshade. Second time's a charm right?"

She was smirking, Zoe was sure but she was already stalking towards the dinning room again, magnificently balanced in her black high heels. Luke exhaled like he was dropping the weight of the world off his shoulders.

"You've gone after Ethan before?" he asked.

"If you cherish your tongue, I would not speak another word." Zoe told him. She pulled out her phone making a beeline for the exit doors. "Will, it's me. Start the car."

***

"Okay, what did you do that made her so pissed?" Will asked Luke in a low voice as if Zoe would hear from right in front of them. The CEO's son for his part, remained silent. Zoe kept her eyes firmly on the road in front of her listing the number of calming exercises that Artemis had taught her once upon a time. None of them had worked but it somehow felt like her presence was in the car while she drove.

"Castellan," She called him coldly, "Wanna explain why you are already holding back information on me?"

"Not particularly," He said, "But I guess my only other option is you forcibly removing my spleen and I think I'm okay with that. You don't need a spleen to live right?"

Will groaned, "People like you are the reason I don't sleep at night."

Despite herself Zoe snorted. "Did you hear from Di Angelo?" She swerved around a particularly slow car, The lights of the oncoming traffic in the lane beside them threatened to blind her, but she didn't slow.

The answer was silent so Zoe tossed her phone into the back seat. Will didn't waste time reminding her that he had his own phone. He dialed Nico's number from memory and waited politely until it went to voicemail. He put Nico's generic voice mail on speaker phone just so she could hear it herself.

"That would be a no." Will inserted hanging up before the tone beeped. "I've left him a dozen messages so far but--"

He was cut off by the phone vibrating violenting in his palm.

"Yell-o, Will Solace speaking," He said almost bitterly, pausing for the reply. Luke busied himself with staring out the window, frowning. Zoe almost pitied him. She could see his obnoxiously tall figure in her rearview mirror and he looked more distraught than last night. Was it possible that Silena's words had shaken him up? Just how good was he at acting? She recalled that he had that eidetic memory; that made his memory his biggest enemy these days, didn't it?

What was it like to remember every insult ever tossed his way?

"You say that like that wasn't you once, Nightshade."

Zoe jerked the car, sending Luke slamming into the window. The car behind them honked. Will made a blundered excuse to the phone.

"Yeah, sorry, sorry, Zoe's driving." Will said haggardly, "You don't have to be an ass about it Nico. I don't care if you already guessed that.....where are you anyway?" He shifted in his seat frowning, "That's pretty far from the city--what are you doing?....No you're right I don't want to know. Am I going to have to reset your broken arm like last time?....Sorry! Okay Sorry! Geez... Look we're on a lead and Zoe would be thrilled if you would maybe join us." He rattled off the address of Apollo's Grin as if he had been there a million times before. Zoe doubted he had ever been in a bar before in his life when it wasn't work related. "Okay, yeah, thanks Nico. We're going to nail this guy, I just know it! See ya there!"

Will closed the phone and reported that Nico would be joining them shortly at the bar. He smiled, "We're going to catch him tonight." His confidence was as annoying as his tone was perky. Zoe sighed.

"Luke I want everything there is to know on Michael Yew." She commanded. The blond boy met her eyes in the mirror seeming ready to argue, but after seeing her glare and remembering how thin of ice he was on, Luke merely nodded and pulled out his phone for an informative Google search.

"Okay, uh," Luke tapped on his screen. "Uh, oh boy. This guy has been brought in on multiple charges of street fights, shoplifting, cage fighting and illegal betting. The police haven't been able to make anything stick though, judges pardon his crimes as misdemeanors with community services."

"Family?"

"Uh... looks like just an adoptive mother who passed a couple years ago. Cancer."

"Address."

"How the fuck do you expect me to find an address on-- nevermind." Luke sighed and read of the location as if disappointed in the internet as a whole. "Do you want to know his dating preferences, too?"

Will whistled as he looked over the other blonde's shoulder, "Damn she's hot."

"Will you're gay." Zoe reminded him.

He looked offended making an ungodly noise, "I'm bi, Zoe. Even then I can appreciate the inner beauty of a woman."

"Who is she?"

Will furiously tapped Luke's screen, but the other boy beat him to it, "Looks like...Tanka. Drew Tanka. She's a model from Cupid's Arrow." Luke closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them again it seemed as if he was no longer in the car with them. "She's won Miss Aphrodite twice in a row, but loss this year to her stepsister Piper McLean. Shortly afterwards she got convicted in a crime... shoplifting, but as a misdemeanor the judge had her do twenty hours of community service with the same group as Michael Yew."

The car was silent for a fill minute after he spoke. Zoe eased them between traffic, pausing only slightly to catch Will's eye in the backseat.

"They broke up yesterday." He added, as an afterthought. "Apparently, she's gay."

"Anyone ever tell you that's creepy?" Will asked.

Luke sighed, "I think it's creepy, man. You've got no clue."

"You've got no clue what's coming for you, Zoe."

Zoe stared ahead and drove like everything was fine. Will and Luke scrolled through feeds and feeds about Michael Yew and his relationship, and Zoe heard none of it. She would see him soon enough, and Zoe always thought she did better at reading people on the spot than what blasphemy the internet created. She told herself it as many times as she could. Again and again.

She pretended like she wasn't seeing her superior officer, the woman who took her in, who gave her a chance, her loyal Lady Artemis, getting shot three times in her head, and hearing the sounds of her own screams grating on her ears.

***

"You'll get nowhere with that case, Agent."

"Don't tell me what I'm going to or not going to do."

"You must be the new recruit, aren't you?" The woman's voice was like a warrior's, commanding respect. Zoe wasn't one to give it easily. "I heard you had an attitude."

"If you came here solely to comment on my attitude then kindly dismiss yourself please." Zoe told her, polite enough to not get herself fired but hard enough that the woman before her would get the picture. They could tell her a million different ways in a million different tones that she was not welcome here, that she should go back to her private school and dainty dresses, but Zoe was not going to listen.

The woman smiled at her, and tapped the file, "His mother was a con-- he knows all the tricks in the book and is smart enough to make up his own on the spot. You'll waste yourself on him."

"And this is your problem because...?" Zoe leveled her a hard glare.

"Because I have a weak spot for girls who are being wasted on minor drug dealing cases rather than the homicidal maniac I have lined up right now." The woman dropped another file on top of Zoe's, her hand pressing it down like she could bury the case file with her own papers. "I think you'll find this one to be a bit more...rewarding. But if you're set on putting Ethan Nakamura away, he can be a side project if you like."

***

Nico was suppose to have stopped smoking about a year ago, but when they pulled up, he was standing in the smoking zone with a pack out and a lighter flicking open and closed in his hands. Zoe could see the wear that the day and a half had taken on him. If there was one thing he hadn't done that Zoe could prove, it was sleep. He still wore the same suit from the last time they had seen each other, rumpled, crumpled and harboring dark splotches of what Zoe hoped was an energy drink or coffee. He had been staring at them the entire time, but didn't seem to actually see them until Will was directly in front of him chastising his health.

"Really, Nico!" Will splurged, "Those things will kill you!"

Nico looked like he hoped they did. He blinked twice before his dark eyes focused on Will. They were rimmed with red; strain from tears or the lack thereof Zoe noticed. He was too close to the investigation, but too far in to be able to drag himself out of it. It was his sister, and her murderer, and a fear of death that dragged him to Apollo's Grin Bar that night. Zoe wondered if a need of Revenge was a suitable excuse to keep him on the team.

Nico put out the cigarette and Zoe pulled him to the side, "Are you okay?"

He gave her a blank look. Of course he was alright; didn't she see how alright he was? "I'm ready to Fucking nail this Son of a Bitch so my sister can finally rest."

Luke shifted behind them, glancing across the street with a hollow and haunted look. His sensitivity almost made Zoe want to pity him. Will bit his lip, looking at the building before them.

It wasn't the fanciest place Zoe had ever been, but it was far from the roughest that she had tackled with Artemis while sniffing out criminals. It had a blinking neon sign full glass windows. The doors were cleaned and the lights dimmed but still visible. It looked to be some type of band playing night because it was full and music dripped out of the doors when she opened them.

Almost immediately a waitress was in front of them, a mousy, meek looking girl. She wore a new uniform but must have been used to the job because she barely had to shift her hands to carry her weight load of cups and beers when she saw them.

"Table of four?" She asked. Zoe flashed her badge, quickly quietly while Nico scanned the crowd for their charge. "Oh, officers." She sobered up her smiled straightening her back, "What can I do for you?"

"We're looking for a man by the name of Michael Yew." Zoe explained, "Would you--"

"Got him," Nico cut in and dove head first into the mix. Luke was barely a step behind him, slipping a drink from the waitresses tray with an apologetic smile. Zoe wished she had just shot him back on that dance floor when they had first met. She glanced at Will, who fluttered nervously at the doors while people shuffled by him.

"I think..." He said, "I'll just...car." He shrugged and ducked back out of the bar. Zoe hoped that no one ended up being shot tonight. Will would have a heck of a time getting notified of that while in the car.

The waitress bit her lip, looking the same way most people looked when they wished they could throw rowdy customers out of the establishment. Zoe handed her a twenty and hurried after the boys.

To be honest, she was surprised Nico had managed to walk up to him and introduce himself like a normal person. She saw in slow motion his graceful movement, and not for the first time wondered how he seemed to unmoved by the people around him. He was a shadow, untouchable, and dare Zoe say unbreakable.

Nico walked up to Michael, who sat at the bar in a sweatshirt a size too small. His black bangs swept across his forehead, and muscled arms were splayed in the form of utter defeat on in the counter. The barista rolled her eyes at him talking but Zoe couldn't hear what she was saying.

Nico pulled out his badge, his smile all teeth and none of the kindness.

Michael took a swing at him.

Zoe cursed.

The fight was over within seconds, almost too fast to be called a fight, and definitely not equal enough. Nico saw the attack coming-- he probably had been hoping for it. He dodged the punch sweeping under Michael's defense like a breeze of wind. Nico's fist slammed into his jaw, a strike that made even Zoe wince, and his other hand grabbed the wounded man and threw him against the counter. Two drinks spilled over the edge and the sounds of glass breaking was enough to get the rest of the patron's attention.

"It's okay!" Zoe hollered at them, "It's okay! Police!" She waved her badge for all of them to see, while Michael spit out some drunken curse. "If I could have everybody vacate this area please-- yes thank you, thank you!" She shot Agent Di Angelo a glare to go along with her sweet talking.

The Barista sighed as she watched the customers leave like this happened every Tuesday night. She met Zoe's eyes and put down the cup she had been drying. "I'll be in the back." She said.

Luke sat himself at a chair not far away, eyes alert and fingers tapping. He had already gotten rid of his first drink but he didn't look any worse for wear. With as high as his alcohol tolerance had to be, Zoe would have been surprised if it took any less than seven cups to get him to loosen up.

(Zoe also was amazed he dared touch another drink; last time someone had tried to overdose him on a deadly drug)

"Mr. Yew," Zoe addressed, motioning for Nico to let him up. The boy in black scowled waiting a second or two before roughly releasing his hold on the other man. Michael coughed violently and rolled his shoulder, flexing one arm in a motion that was supposed to be intimidating.

"I'll kill you, you little brat--"

"Mr. Yew," Zoe snapped harsher, "Did you know it's a crime to threaten an officer of the law?"

He set his beady little eyes on her, with an unflattering snarl, "I don't give jackshit who he is! He spilled my drink!"

"He's drunk." Luke put in, as if Zoe couldn't figure that out by herself. He smelled like alcohol.

Michael swiveled on his feet, "You're drunk!"

"Okay, Alright! Mr. Yew!" Zoe commanded, "You need to calm down!"

"I am calm!"

Zoe resisted the urge to lose her own cool. Nico's hands disappeared from view, but Zoe knew he was no less dangerous with his hands in his pockets than he was with them pointing a gun at them.

"I was more calm before your shitfaced friend here dropped in like I'm some kind of criminal!" He threw his arms up, "I ain't no criminal! You cops do more damage than me! Ya'll are all just...big..." He struggled to find a word, but Nico wasn't having any of it. He twisted Micheal into a choke hold, despite being taller than him by a couple inches. Michael jabbed his elbow back, but Nico was unaffected by the blow. Zoe watched until Michael's face turned red, before realizing that Nico might actually not stop with the day he'd been having.

"Di Angelo!" She growled, "This is not the time nor the place to be killing possible suspects. Save it for Nakamura."

It took a moment for the words to sink in, Nico's eyes flashing with murderous rage, before they were swallowed by the dark desire in his irises, the desire, the craving of revenge. Ethan was the only one who could give him what he wanted, and Zoe, be damned to hell as she was, would manipulate that desire until it wa fulfilled.

Nico let go of Michael again and the older man dropped to the floor gasping for oxygen. Zoe took one step forward and then knelt beside him. When he looked up she was right in his face, eye to eye, and one hand on her holstered gun.

"Now, Mr. Yew," She said calmly, "I don't have all night. Tell me the whereabouts of Ethan Nakamura and we will leave you to your night."

"I don't know nothing--"

Zoe gave him her best unimpressed look, "Nico--"

"I swear!" Michael scrambled back, away from the officer in black with a look of pure terror, "I don't know nothing about Ethan Fucking Nakamura! I stay the Hell away from that guy!" He shook, desperately scraping at his sleeve. He rolled the fabric back with difficulty, and showing Zoe his forearm, "That bastard stabbed me! Look! Doctor said I would've lost my hand if he had been a centimeter to the right more!"

Nico snorted, as unimpressed as one got with reports of stabbings, "Why'd he do it?"

Michael's face screwed into a sneer, "Fucker off! Because he's crazy that's why! Ethan Nakamura is the biggest fucker out there! If I had that information I would have already paid him a home visit myself!"

Zoe clicked her tongue. It annoyed her when people took the law into their own, inexperienced, incapable hands. It usually left more of a mess for the police to clean up and that was before the lawyers got involved. It annoyed her more that she believed him. Michael Yew did not know where Ethan was and they were at a dead end looking for them.

The door chime rang.

"Wow, I've never seen this place look so empty. Not even back when it was a shitty night club!" A voice rang out, "It's atrocious! Katie! Katie! Quick I need a Beer!"

The owner of the voice was a teenager of the fallen society. Zoe was pretty sure she had seen his picture on the latest edition of Parents Weekly: Your Children Are Out Of Control. He was in his fresh twenties with a clean shaven face and expensive clothes, his eyes had a wild look to them, the green jumping and popping and dark bags under them. His smile sang of intoxication, and he walked with a deliberate pace, brows furrowed as he struggled to keep in a straight line. His brown hair was overdue for a haircut, as it splintered up in all places as if hands had been tugging the locks all night long.

"Katieeee!" He sang, "I don't have all night!"

"Excuse me sir," Zoe gritted her teeth, "This bar is off limits now."

"Oh don't bother with him." Luke called to her, "That's Alabaster C. Torrington." He said the name like it should mean something to her. When Luke realized it didn't he was hasty to put down his drink and explain, "Rich kid with a sister who runs the MistForm Family Company. She works, he spends the money get drunk and harassing cops, usually not on purpose."

He banged on the front counter, "Damnit Katie Gardner! This is because I didn't tip last time isn't it?!"

"He's also oblivious to his surroundings." Luke added.

"Can I forcibly remove him?" Nico asked.

Zoe considered it, mouth open to give the go ahead, when Michael had suddenly leapt up. He threw an arm at Alabaster, "YOU!" He roared, "YOU KNOW!"

The rich kid finally seemed to notice the rest of them. "Hey!" He smiled, "Yew! Castellan! You won't believe the wicked rumors going on! You can get Katie on out here--"

Michael grabbed him by his collar, yanking before Zoe, "He knows where Nakamura hangs! He buys his drugs!"

"Drugs?" Alabaster said, "What kind? Are we doing drugs tonight? I thought you were drug free since Grace came into the picture Castellan! Katieee! Come on!"

Luke casted his gaze around the store at the mention of Thalia. His face was blank but Zoe could get that his chest was tight from the way his hands suddenly curled into fists. She wondered if he had flashbacks every time someone said her name.

"Mr. Torrington," She started.

"Are you the druggie? You don't look like a druggie. Or maybe the term is drug supplier. Are you the drug supplier?"

"I'm not a drug supplier. I'm the police." She showed him her badge, "And you are going to tell me where Ethan Nakamura is, or I'm going to arrest you right now."

He looked at her. "So you don't have drugs?"

"Resorting to violence with every suspect is not a good habit to make, Nightshade. Our restraint is the only real difference between the police and Hades."

"Maybe I should join the gang, then."

Nico stepped forward, his shoes sounding like gunshots on the floor. Michael flinched and drew away immediately. Alabaster took in the new form with a smile.

"Hey I know you!" He said, excitedly, "Aren't you--"

"I have drugs." Nico cut him off impassively, and let the words shut him up, "I'll give them to you."

"No way!" Torrington shook his head swaying on his face.

"I'll give you them all," Nico added, "but only if you tell me where I can find Ethan Nakamura."

The rich kid thought about it for a bit more than a millisecond, before he shook his head so violently he lost balance and fell into Zoe. He smelled like straight vodka.

"Ethan likes to watch his night clubs!" The boy said, "All the time. Makes sure no one else is selling things so he can make a mona- moana- monopa- "

"Monopoly?" Luke suggested.

"That!" Alabaster nodded again, "But then he heads back home to his apartment!"

Zoe tapped her foot impatiently, "We checked his apartment. Where else would he be?"

"Sometimes he and Cecil hang out, he's got a room at Cecil's apartment. Well it's really his apartment now, isn't it? Cecil moved in with his girlfriend!" He laughed, conspiratorially, "I heard Lou Ellen locks him in the basement when he's bad."

"Cecil or Ethan?" Michael frowned.

A clear, clean look flashed in Alabaster's eyes, a mischievous smile, "Cecil's easier to punish now, isn't he?"

Luke made a sound like someone had stepped on a cat. He covered his face, "I didn't need that picture!"

Alabaster laughed until he was crying, which wasn't all that long. He sobered up just enough to finish tell Zoe exactly where this Cecil's apartment was. It was a good five blocks away, and to be honest they could probably get there faster running than driving. Zoe nodded at Nico, who tossed a baggie of ibuprofen at the brown haired boy before racing towards the doors, Luke following only half a second later.

Michael watched them with a scowl, "I hope Nakamura dies."

Torrington laughed drunkenly.

"Look at the full picture, Zoe. Not the individual pieces. You can come back and arrest every person that helped you later."

Zoe wished the sounds of her sneakers on the ground had drowned out the voice in her head.

****

"So that's the plan?" Will repeated, "Just...break down the door and arrest him?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" Zoe asked jerking her wheel to take a sharp turn at the intersection rather than worry about traffic up ahead. Nico clung to the overhead handle in an attempt to keep himself balanced. Luke was looking a bit green in the rearview mirror.

"Well beside the fact that it is not a plan..." Will shook his head, "Whatever, if you guys get shot, don't blame me for not being about to patch you up."

Zoe flinched, and Will went pale as if suddenly realizing exactly what he had said. "Uh, I mean- Look I didn't-!"

"Solace," Nico cut in, "Your best move is to shut up."

Will nodded and slumped back in his seat. Luke watched with a confused complexion, but was smart enough not to ask.

"Next left here." Nico reported.

"Castellan stay in the car." Zoe told him as she swerved the car into a parking lot but not bothering to park in a space. Nico checked his gun on his hip, and Will hefted a first aid kit

"What, why?"

"Because I said so." Zoe growled. She kicked open her door, "I don't need a civilian casually on my record. Too much paperwork." Luke looked offended, but he sat back in the seat. Zoe appreciated the idea that she could control him. Even the stupid ones could learn, she supposed.

She nodded to Nico and he disappeared in the shadows, in front of her, his gun held tightly in both hands at his side. Zoe was only a couple silent steps behind him, her breath angry with anticipation. Luke hadn't known any of those creepy facts about Cecil Markowitz so they were flying in blind. Will stood in the open door of the car watching the dark windows of the apartment building. A simple page on his phone would have him up the stairs faster than a gunshot itself.

They gained access to the building fast, and were crawling up the stairs at a quick silent pace. Sound poured from behind a couple of the wooden walls: music, arguements, children laughing, and the tv. But when they got to the floor where Cecil's and Ethan's apartment was, the silence was unnerving. Nico stuck to the walls, but with her questioning glance he simply shook his head. All of the apartments were empty, or made to seem that way.

The door they were targeting was in the middle of the hall, facing south. The door was missing the marked number and the handle hung a clip with a sign of DO NOT DISTURB. Zoe grinned. She couldn't wait to break the door in and disturb every sinister plan Ethan Nakamura was making.

Nico stole across the doorframe, and Zoe stayed on her side. They shared a look and he nodded his readiness. Zoe held her gun by her hip and slammed her heel into the weakest part of the door: right under the handle where the lock hitch rest. The door splintered and exploded against the opposite way.

"Police!" Zoe yelled to anyone in the house, "Come out with you hands up!"

She stormed the short hall, with Nico on her tail.

Something was wrong, she noticed right away. The small hall was filled with cardboard boxes, labeled in horrible sharpie handwriting. Some were opened, but most were closed and wrapped with clear packing tape. Zoe glanced in the closest open one, seeing neatly stacked piles of vintage Marvel Comics.

Someone was moving in, or moving out. She checked the corner and when no bullets shredded the wall she took her chances into the next room, the living room she guessed.

It didn't look like a place for the living anymore.

The area was clear, but crimson painted the sleek wooden floorboards. The stench hit her next, the smell of souring blood. Zoe's eyes watered as she scanned the room for hazards. Jagged edges of a glass mirror scattered across the floor, a roll of duct tape soaked up a red color from a puddle nearby. A bookshelf was thrown to the ground and the literature works lost like leaves in the wind. A single lamp was on, flickering in the corner, knocked to the ground and lightbulb threatening to catch on the ground on fire.

In the center of it all was a body tied to a knocked over chair, head hanging low.

"Call Solace!" Zoe commanded, as she rushed towards the body. It was a male, younger than her, but not by much. His sandy hair pasted across his pale forehead, and mouth covered with a gag tied tighter than necessary. Her breath caught as she dropped in a pile of blood. Her hands reached to check his pulse but she already knew what it was.

There was so much blood.

"Nightshade! Clear the Room!"

Too much blood.

"ARGH!"

The boy in front of her was Cecil Markowitz. He looked different than the photo they had on file. His face was devoid of the smile his driver's license had, his eyes closed enough to look like he was just sleeping uncomfortably. His legs were fastened to the legs of the wooden chair with ten layers of grey duct tape, his hands had gone limp, wrists stuck to their sides of the wooden backrest. Cuts danced up and down his bare arms, like a million paper cuts, and Zoe could smell lemon on him amidst the blood. She thought his T shirt might have been blue, but it was just a dark blob now. Someone had cut him open, repeatedly.

Someone had tortured him.

"Holy Shit," Will's voice pulled her back from her thoughts. His med kit was in hand, but he knew now that he wouldn't need it. Luke was standing behind him with a hand of his mouth and looking petrified.

"Zoe, you're covered in blood." Nico said.

She ignored him, "Call Dispatch. Let them know we've got a body. Solace, can you get me a time of death?"

The blonde boy shook his head and looked away, "I deal with living people, Zoe. The dead are beyond me." He swallowed hard, "But based on blood dispersion, four hours at least."
Four hours ago, Zoe was entering the firing range. While she had been shooting red and white targets and talking to ghosts, someone--Ethan--had tortured this boy. Why? Why would someone possibly want to do this?

"He bled out," Will said softly. Luke leaned back against the wall, staring at anything that wasn't the body.

Nico snapped on a pair of disposable gloves, and picked through some of the wreckage nearby, a knocked over cardboard box with snow globes from California and Disneyland, the broken glass and glitter shined in the flickering light. Zoe pulled out her phone to start preliminary pictures; she's come expecting a drug dealer with a gun, not a murdered body. She tried to pretend like she wasn't documenting the last things that Cecil would have ever scene.

That was when a phone went off, playing a generic tune that sounded like bells and sunshine. Luke frowned over Will's shoulder as the medic checked the caller ID distantly. Whatever it was he didn't recognize it.

"Yell-o, Will Solace--" He cut off suddenly, his face going pale. Zoe took a picture of the broken bookcase. Cecil must have been into romance novels too, She noticed.

"Who is this?" Zoe watched with detached curiosity as Will fumbled with his phone as if he was hearing things, a voice of someone long gone or a famous celebrity, maybe. "You said you were getting rid of my number! Do you even know where I am right---" His mouth fell into a circular shape, and his eyes widened as he stared at the wall behind them, "Excuse me? You did what?"

His sharp tone cut the silent air like a knife. Nico stood up to watch him, and Luke leaned against a wall in thought.

"Don't move, alright? I don't care--Don't move." Will said, then he winced at whatever the reply was, "I--I'll be right there." He hung up whisking around with to face the three of them.

"Who was that, Will?" Nico asked.

Will forced a smile, "There's an Emergency; I need to go. Since I'm of no use here-" There was something in his tone, a weariness in his eyes. Zoe's senses were on high alert at once. It wasn't like Will to step out of an investigation, he tagged along in everything. If his friend was hurt he should just call an ambulance.

"Who was it?" She asked.

Will looked like deer in headlights. His hand clamped his cell like he could break it with just a grip.

"Something's been bothering me," Luke added suddenly. He uncrossed his arms and pushed off the wall, "You said that you never heard Ethan getting ready, but the pictures of the room showed it in totally disarray. That kind of mess makes a noise. And opening a window in a building like that...I would know how much noise that makes, I've snuck into a million rooms like that. Ethan had to have been prepared before you ever knocked on the door."

"And the number of people who knew we were going after Ethan is narrowed to three people in this room." Nico said.

Will looked like he'd been shot, "You...you can't be serious!" He backed away, "Guys... it's me." He looked around wildly at them, meeting their eyes desperately. Zoe was sick to her stomach when his crystal irises fell on her. She could see the truth them, her breath caught. "Guys?"

Her fingers twitched towards her belt loop where she handcuffs were tucked in their pouch. The same handcuffs that had put away villains from shoplifters to murders to serial killers. They were made to bind the darkness that haunted the city, control the dangers and protect innocent people.

She couldn't...not on Will.

She turned to Agent Di Angelo who looked murderous. Hurt splattered across his face in dangerous shades of red, his hands gripping his holstered gun with straining white knuckles. He wanted to draw it, he wanted to grab Will by the throat and slam him on the ground and demand answers, he wanted to hurt Will the way that Ethan had hurt his sister. How could Will have protected that monster? How could he have still smiled and laughed knowing that he let a seventeen year old's murderer get away, that the same man had attempted to kill Luke with an over dosage?

"Call the office. I want a record of the calls from Will's desk phone and his cell phone." Zoe said wondering when her voice had retained that cold and distant tone or if it always had.

Will slumped his shoulders. He stared at the phone and for the second it felt like eternity. No one could move. When he looked back up his eyes were brimming with tears, even in the the dim lighting they shown. He dropped his phone on the ground. It's clatter sounded like a grenade in the middle of them.

"I'm sorry," He said, "I'm sorry, so sorry."

"You Son of a Bitch!" Nico screamed. "I trusted You!"

"He's at an apartment in the New Rome district." Will went on, "I'm sorry. It's under a fake name, Clovis Hypnos. I swear...I'm sorry."

Zoe didn't think she would ever forget the sound her hand cuffs made as they locked around his wrists. She should have seen it coming. But she didn't, and now Cecil was dead. Will had...Will had leaked information to Ethan. Will had known where he was the entire time hadn't he?

Nico had called dispatch to add in the new information, a dirty cop. It could have been anyone, but Zoe never would have guessed it had been Will. Nico and Luke hung Police tape around the apartment.

They were silent, cold. In a normal day this is the point where Will would have dropped a joke or two, cheered them up, reminded them that they would find the killer soon.

Zoe tried not to feel like everything she knew was a joke. Had she been playing the fool for the entire time they had know each other? She was their supervisor. How did she not know Will was threading information? What would she have done if she found out another way? Reading him his rights was like twisting a dagger in her chest. Would Artemis have seen this coming?

The police cars pulled up later. Nico and Luke talked to them, Zoe led her charge to the nearest cruiser.

"Zoe." Will's voice was low, apologetic. Zoe didn't want to hear it. "Zoe."

"It's Agent Nightshade," she snapped.

He snorted, hanging his head. Zoe shoved him into the padded interior of Agent La Rue's cruiser. She could hear the other officer loudly exclaiming threats behind them, disbelief. No one wanted to believe that Will was a snitch.

"Take a doctor with you." He told her, "or you might not get anything."

Zoe couldn't resist, "Did you know all this time, Solace? How long have you been leaking information?"

He stared straight ahead, "It was suppose to be a one time deal. He...he saved my sister." His hands were fists against the aching metal bracelets. "I don't think he did it." Will swallowed hard, "I really am sorry, Zoe."

"Sorry doesn't bring back Thalia Grace or Cecil Markowitz." She snapped. She slammed the car door wishing the force would wake her from the nightmare. Why did it have to be Will Solace? "Fletcher!" She bellowed across the lot, "You're with me. Castellan, Di Angelo get in the fucking car. I'm catching Ethan Nakamura tonight."