LOOK AT THAT PICTURE! Isn't it great? Here's to celebrating my birthday so thanks guys!!

"You have to stop pacing." Zoë told Luke in her brisk way. She shifted the ice pack on her head and waved off the medic who was trying to assess her injuries. "She is a Hunter. Bianca will be fine."

Luke wanted to pull out his gun and shoot himself. He promised he'd take care of them. Both of them, his little family. He'd done an excellent job so far! Ethan was gods know where, possibly back in the underworld, and bittersweet Bianca was inside an apartment building, been held hostage by a psychopath.

Luke paced because it was the only thing he could do.

Zoë gave him another irritated look. With a quick flick of her wirst she flung her ice pack at him. Luke let out a yelp as it narrowly missed his head and splattered against the hood of the police car behind them.

"What the hades!" Luke exclaimed, but the ex-hunter was suddenly right beside him, with a knife at his throat. Luke sucked in a short breath, resisting the demigodly urge to fight her. She wasn't going to kill him. She was not going to kill him.

"Do I have your attention now, Castellan?" She asked in her posh voice. Luke glanced around them, but everyone in the police force seemed to have suddenly found something more to do. The news cast was pointing the other way as they reported live on the top story of the evening news.

"Do not degraded my hunter with your worry. She is smart-- smarter than you." Zoë said, "We do not need to panic. She will out here in a matter of moments."

"I hate you." Luke said, for a lack of better response.

"I do not care."

She flicked her wrist agaisn the knife disappeared. Luke was guessing she had a sheath in her sleeve or something.  Oh dear gods if that wasn't concerning Luke didn't know what was. Here he was with multiplying disaters piling up, and his only ally of the moment was a girl who hated his guts-- with good reason-- and had a mindset from 47 AD.

"Ms. Nightshade,"A voice yelled, "Ma'am there's a call incoming!"

"Put it through." Zoë commanded. She gave Luke another dark look and motioned him over. They walked towards the policeman and he handed her a phone. It was an old fashioned type, a flip phone with a silver casing. Luke decided he liked his head enough to not comment on her choice.

"Hel--"

"Zoë Nightshade. I can assume that Luke is listening in? Hello you bastard."

Zoë glanced at him, her stiff upper lip protruding. "I assume you are the one causing this fiasco? If you weren't holding my hunter hostage I might actually like you."

"Fair enough." The voice sighed, as if dealing with them was a hefty task he'd rather not be doing. Luke tapped his fingers impatiently on his gun handle.

"What do you want?" He asked.

Zoë shot him an irritated look again, but she didn't comment further. The voice on the other line laughed bitterly.

"A million dollars!"

"Excuse me?" Luke replied, "Oh sure just let me whip out my checkbook. I'm sure I have that just lying around."

"You would, wouldn't you, you son of Hermes."

Luke stiftened. Next to him Zoë flinched. A sheering pain in his shoulder worked it's way through his body. He hissed at the phantom pain.

"You are a demigod." Zoë whispered.

"Not anymore." The voice laughed bitterly again, "Your fault for that one Luke. Anyway, I'd love to go into details, but unfortunately we all are running low on time. First off, I'm not the enemy."

"Doesn't look like that to us." Luke interjected.

"Well that would be because you are incapable of seeing the whole picture." There was a shuffling on the other side of the line. Luke could picture the figure, in his dramatic hood, standing up and walking around. The blonde man glanced up at the apartment building on the corner of the block, that had been exvacuated for close to two hours now. Some where in there was the daughter of Hades who deserved her second chance more than him and Ethan combined.

"How about a leap of faith?" The voice suggested, "the lovely Bianca will be waking up any minute now; she would love to see you both. You promise not to shoot me, and we can all have a fantastic cup of tea up here."

"Do you have sugar and cream or should we bring it?" Luke asked blandly. Zoë elbowed him in the stomach, hard enough to force him into doubling over.

"What is stopping us from shooting you anyway?" She asked.

"Well, I can ask kindly that you leave the guns and your stupid bow on the ground." The voice said, "I know I can't get you to leave the knife behind, but at least hear me out will you?"

"Or maybe you could just let Bianca out and give yourself up." Luke suggested.

"If I did that then you would never find Ethan against either."

Luke swallowed hard. He looked up at Zoë. Her volcanic blac eyes, flickered with some emotion, though Luke would not have been surprised if it had been pity. She twisted the phone in her palm looking at the men standing around them ready for orders. Luke tightened his grip on his gun, feeling sick.

Zoë placed the phone by her ear, "You know where Nakamura is?"

The voice chuckled, "Come on, Huntress, take a leap of faith."

***

"This is a terrible idea." Luke whispered.

"If I have to ask you not to say that again, I will put a knife in your chest." Zoë hissed back at him. Her accent was clear in her tone, the foreign sound mixing with her obvious weariness. Luke ran his fingers over the wall as they moved slow and sure. The huntress's acute eyes scanned the hallway for traps.

"We should have brought our guns." Luke insisted as she motioned them forward, "I should have brought my gun."

Zoë did not comment on his pestering. Luke wasn't sure if he was grateful or annoyed about that. He had no love for the huntress before her death (and subsequently his), but now Luke was certain they had no chance of ever getting along. Something about her just---he couldn't explain it.

"Everyone has been evacuated from the building, except for our friend and Bianca." Zoë said instead. Luke didn't need her to tell him. He had eyes that could see the hanging doors left open, the messing inside of homes that weren't expecting their judgement. In another universe Luke could imagine he was camp couselor going around and grading the cabins on their organization. Apartment 134 definately got stable duties.

"We have only a little bit more time before the SWAT teams show up." Luke mentioned, which of course Zoë already knew.

She had made the call to go in, and as much as she had wanted to do it alone, Luke had insisted. With no time to spare they were doing it "together". SWAT team meant that they lost control of the situation, which also meant they lost the chance to talk to whoever this mysterious voice was and any information he had on Ethan. Luke wasn't willing to risk it. Ethan was his best friend, practically his brother (no matter how many times Luke was sure they both would deny it). Their fates were intertwined, his, Ethan's, Bianca's. Luke was in denial about Zoë's being there too, and whoever else had been resurrected.

They skitted to the final stairwell on the floor and shared a quick look of mild understanding. Together going up the stairs, together going down the top floor hall, and together they would confront whatever jackass was holding Bianca. Luke didn't need to worry because Bianca Di Angelo was a Hunter of Artemis and as reasourceful as the goddess herself. Zoë could stop threatening to kill Luke because he was different as a mortal-- he knew more, he cared more, and he was not going to stop until his friends were okay.

"Does this make us allies?" Luke wondered aloud.

"Shut up."

"Yes ma'am."

Zoë lead the way down the hall. Her steps were careful and quiet, which was surprising with her heavy combat boots. Luke was far less elegant but he only tripped twice. The first time because some kid happen dropped an entire container of crayons on the ground and how could he not trip? But the second one... yeah he just tripped.

Zoë looked at him like she was surprised he had lasted this long as a mortal. Luke used the wall to help himself up muttering greek curses that Zoë herself had probably made up back when she was a rebellious teenager. Zoë rolled her eyes.

"Males!" She whispered, like an insult. For her, it probably was.

They steadily made their way up a stairwell. The silence between them was as tense as the situation itself. Luke wished he had something more than a pocket knife on him. Oh the odds of him getting out of this one alive enough to even find Ethan was low. He didn't trust the voice, fuck the leap of faith stuff. The fates were probably just trying to find another creative wa to kill him, and Zoë would be caught in the blast zone along with Bianca. Then when they all ended up in the feilds of Apostle together Ethan would punch Luke for leaving him alone in the mortal world, at the hands of a faceless, nameless gang, or organization, or whoever else kidnapped private dectives of the streets.

"Here we go," Zoë muttered under her breath. They shared a look at the heavy metal door leading to the top floor. There had only been three families living up here, Luke remembered. So there was a chance that he was in any of the other seven rooms.

"What is the chance that he'll be standing in the middle of hte hall with his arms raised ready for us to arrest him?" Luke asked.

Zoë considered it. "Perhaps around five percent?"

"Really? I was going to say two."

"Bianca might have woken up from all the noise you were making and over powered him already."

Luke gave her a look, and swung open the heavy metal door, moving with it in case of gunfire. Zoë weilded her pocket knife ready for some unseen enemy. There was no hoodied figure lying on the ground ready for their arrest and Luke was oddly disappointed. Three of the doors were open, seven of the doors were closed.

"You take the left side, I'll take the right." Zoë commanded, "Try not to get killed."

"That almost sounded compassionant. You're going soft, Zoë."

She strolled to the nearest door and kicked it open with the heel of her boot, and Luke couldn't help but likening the sound to the kerrrchhhh of his spine when she undoubtly did the same thing to him. Luke turned towards the other side of the corridor, well aware now that they had a limited time to catch this guy. He turned his pocket knife in his grip and kicked open the next door the same way Zoë had.

The room inside was unfurnished, with no furniture. The wooden floors were coated in light dust that suggested no one had been by in a while. The walls were a baby blue, with a peeling border of blueberry leaves. There was no hoodied gun man or unconscious Bianca. Luke made quick work of checking the areas, and hte closests, but he was in the next room over without so much as two minutes.

The next apartment was empty and the one next to that had been used by a family of three, a single mom, a teenage boy and a girl around the age of seven. The next one was empty.

Zoë was standing in the hall with her knife in a loose but dealy grip. All of the doors to her rooms were open. From the look on her face, she was having about as much luck as Luke was. They both turned towards the last door. Luke wished he had a better plan.

"I'll go first," He whispered.

Zoë looked at him like he was crazy. "No, I will go first. You might get shot and then I have to deal with your blood and you obstructing my veiw."

Luke shook his head, "We don't have time to argue this." He responded in a low voice. He strolled forward and jammed his heel into the weak lock. The door burst inward sending shards of wood all over the floor. Zoë danced by him first into the apartment her footsteps silent on the floor. Luke scanned hall that lead to the room, recognizing it just like all the other rooms. Dust had been rest there for a couple of weeks now, but footprints too wide for the huntress's feet were clearly displayed in the strange lighting. Luke tried not to think too hard about a discolored blotch on the blue wallpaper.

"Castellan!" Zoë yelled from the front room.

He bolted forward, knife at the ready. The blinds were drawn making it hard to see in the dim lighting. He rounded the corner and froze. The living room, which should have been void of all furniture had on thing in it. An inflatable twin sized bed. Bianca was slumped against it, hands and feet tied with duct tape and gag over her mouth. She was still out of it, her skin pale and head drooped. She looked dead for a moment and Luke couldn't breathe.

Zoë hashed through the tape, but it must have been wrapped six or seven times. Luke checked all the other rooms in the apartment. The only place that had anything was the bathroom which had an empty bottle of advil and the finished roll from the silver duct tape. Luke cursed.

"He's gone!" He told Zoë.

She muttered something unsavory about the mysterious man's mother. "How," She demanded as if Luke would know any better than she did.

Luke shook his head, and knelt next to Bianca carefully checking for wounds. She had a bump on the back of her head, but other than that she looked mostly okay. Luke was no doctor, but he was reasonably sure she wasn't dying. Zoë rechecked the rooms fuming, as if Luke had missed seeing the bastard.

"Bianca, can you hear me?" Luke asked in a low voice. He checked her pulse under her chin, almost panicking when he couldn't feel it at first. She let out a low moan when he turn her head, but other wise remained out. Luke pocketed his knife and carefully picked her up, just as Zoë stormed back into the room.

"This makes no sense!" She said, "Why bring us all the way up here, mostly unarmed, if he was going to leave? How did he leave? No one got past us! You males make no sense!"

Luke resistuated Bianca in his arms, "It doesn't matter now." He told her, "We'll figure it out later. Let's get her somewhere relatively safer."

He hated the idea of this guy slipping out of their hands just as much as Zoë did. He hated that this guy had to have information on Ethan's disappearance and probably knew why they were being targeted. This same guy had stolen from their apartment, and held Bianca hostage and was an undead demigod. Luke wanted answers so bad he could hardly breathe. Bianca felt like dead weight in his arms.

He and Zoë shared a look and it seemed that for once they agreed on something entirely. Bianca came first.

Then they would find Ethan.

Then they would deal out revenge in full.