Mission Accepted: Percabeth AU (HoO)✔️

Liar Liar

My heart thunders in my chest like galloping horses. I find it hard to breathe, my lungs contracting. I school my features, saying, "No. I'm not her, you're wrong."

He shakes his head, "You have to be her."

"How?"

"When I entered your head communication, you sounded just like her. Your thinking style, the way you walk, your eyes, everything."

"My eyes?" My breathing stops altogether. I knew my eyes would be a dead give-away.

"I haven't had a close look at them, but Annabeth's have grey with golden specks," Percy answers with such admiration and confidence. He squints through the dark tunnel at me, "Yours look along those lines, but I can't tell if they are grey or really light blue."

"Blue," I answer quickly. General Hedge's voice barks in my head in memory from that day I was chosen to come onto this mission. I am representing the Royal Spies. I embarrassed myself in front of the King, and I have been failing to keep Percy at bay from me. The wheels in my head start turning and I say, "If you run back and to safety while I take care of these men, I promise to reveal my identity to you in two days."

His face forms a shocked expression, before turning stubborn again. "No, I can fight. Also...I thought the kitchen guy said you couldn't speak?" 

I stammer, "Ummm...he lied?" 

Percy shifts, "Well, regardless, I'm going to fight with you." 

I huff in exasperation, "I have been training for years to do this mission, do not get in the way of that. Go, now." I know I'm being harsh, but he needs to not be in danger any more than he already is. Percy watches me for a second before spinning on his heel and running.

Once he is out of sight I slump against the wall in stress. I have been so careless with my relationship with the Crown Prince. My job here is to protect him, not go on dates. But I will have to play the part of one of the giddy girls. I chew my lip; I need to find a balance. However, first I need to solve the mess I just got myself into. Thalia has blue eyes, and I can blame the dim lighting on not bringing out the vibrance in her – oh sorry, "my" – eyes. I know Thalia has a wig, and I know we can pull this off. See what I'm getting at? Thalia will now have to pose as me – as Cassie – in order for him to see me and her in the same room and stop the suspicion. That should work. I halt my train of thought, bringing myself back to the present. First, I need to take care of these men.

*~*

~*~

I watch the guards take the men away. Sally approaches me as the door closes to the staircase to the dungeon. We stand in silence, the soft moonlight casting through the windows. I look over to her, a soft and careful expression on her delicate, strong features. She inhales, "He was almost taken tonight."

I close my eyes for a moment, "I know."

Sally turns to me, "And he also thinks he knows your identity, Annabeth."

"I know."

Her eyes stare at me longer, and I shift uncomfortably, "What's going to happen? How are you going to fix this?"

I look back down the moon casted hallway, "I am going to have to show him my identity."

"Pardon?"

I open my mouth, close it, open it again. "There is this agent back at the base I work at. Her name is Thalia, or Agent Grace as you may call her. I will be sending a letter to her first thing I get back to my room. She will come and pose as Cassie, as me."