Previously:
"You are welcome, dear," Pontus said, smiling in a way that made everyone's skin crawl. "You were right, they would never listen to you the way we wanted if we did it my way." He reached for the large sword still in her hand. "Go cool down, I'm sure they'll be more than willing to listen to you when you come back."

She nodded, relinquished the sword and left.

Pontus now turned his gaze onto the monsters watching in awe. "Well?"

Without another word, the monsters got back to work. This time, using the moves that Annabeth had shown them at the beginning of the session.

Screams woke Percy from his restless sleep. He keeps going to sleep, half expecting a demigod dream of some kind so he sleeps fitfully. Then the dreams don't come and he's left feeling like he was left out somehow. He's gone to the Morpheus and Hypnos cabin to figure out what was going on but they've had trouble in the dream realm too.

The screaming an hour before his shift did not help but he begrudgingly shuffled to the door of his cabin, rubbing his eyes.

When he got outside to where the screams were coming from, he jolted fully awake rather quickly. He reached for Riptide in his pocket and rushed to the screaming camper's aid. A telekhine was shooting some form of dark energy her way. Percy came out of nowhere and slashed at his arm off, giving him and the child of Hecate time to retreat a few steps.

As Percy took a minute to look down at the beach, he felt his stomach drop. More telekhines were coming up from the water followed by cyclopes, empousa, dracheanea, and hellhounds. They all came up from the water as if they had been walking on the floor of the sea. Not a drop of water still on them.

"Sound the alarm," Percy told her solemnly. He hefted his sword in preparation. "We need to stand our ground."

Without another word, she blew the conch horn three times. No doubt waking the entire camp and part of the forest. Soon enough, there were dryads, saytrs, fawns, and campers fighting alongside each other as they worked to defend the camp.

Leo had made enough of the portal devices for the Apollo campers and the war machines like Mrs. O'Leary, Hannibal, Tyson, and the harpies but not enough for everyone quite yet. They were disappearing and reappearing all over the battlefield, causing so much damage to the enemy forces that Percy started feeling his spirits rise. Maybe they could make it out of this war without too many casualties.

Then he saw her.

Her blonde princess curls waving in the wind, wearing armor that looked to be made from the scales of some kind of sea monster. She sat on the back of a hellhound, holding a handful of fur in order to keep the blood thirsty dog back as she watched the battle unfold before her. Percy was sure he saw her eyes land on him for longer than anywhere else.

But maybe that was a fool's hope.

"Percy, have you seen—" Reyna ran up to Percy, only to stop short when she saw where he was looking. "I see you have. What are you going to do?"

Percy's face did not change in expression as he took out Riptide and made to charge in Annabeth's direction.

"Percy, no!" Reyna grabbed his arm in an attempt to stop him. "I can't let you do that, you could be killed! The camp needs you."

"Then send someone with me," he said. "I am going to confront her."

Reyna sighed and looked around. "Frank! Butch!" When they were both next to Percy, she said, "Go with Percy. He's decided to confront the traitor." She gestured in the child of Athena's direction. "I need you to watch Percy's back."

Frank and Butch nodded, readying their weapons and looking toward Percy. "Ready when you are, Percy," Frank said.

Percy's march towards Annabeth would have intimidated any demigod. As it was, all the demigods in his way felt him coming from a ways away already and dropped whatever fight they had going with a monster and ran. But Annabeth was not just any demigod. Percy knew the moment she realized he was coming her way. His eyes were trained on hers every step of the way. His emotions started affecting the environment around him. It drew every drop of water nearby towards him, creating his signature hurricane.

Frank and Butch flanked him, swiping down any and all monsters that tried coming up behind him. In Percy's hand, Riptide was a force to be reckoned with. Frank and Butch hardly got any monster from the front and if they did, they were already on the ground incapacitated. All that was needed was to finish them off.

When they reached Annabeth, there was a hurricane spanning five feet all the way around Percy. Frank and Butch had finished off Annabeth's guard that had come forward to meet them. The monsters had learned to stay away from Percy's hurricane the hard way. Otherwise they would get ripped apart and turned to dust.

"So you did come." Annabeth said carelessly, as if Percy hadn't wiped out half of her monster army just to get to her.

"You knew I would." Percy replied. "Why did you come?"

Annabeth smirked and slid off the back of the hellhound. "Can I not visit my old home just to say hi?"

"This is saying hi?" Percy swept Riptide around him at the battlefield angrily. "What could you possibly gain from attacking camp?"

Her smirk never left her face as she continued walking forward. "The children of the gods fight the gods' battles for them, Percy," she said. "You should know that. Pontus assures that after we win this war, we can have the life we've always wanted. A calm, peaceful life with no monster attacks to worry about. But we can only do that if we take down the competition."

"You're starting to sound like Luke when he was with Kronos," Percy growled, bending his knees in preparation to fight. She was getting too close for his liking.

Seeing his change in stance, she stopped. "Maybe Luke had it right. Ever think of that?" She said. "Aren't you tired of doing whatever the gods want whenever they want? Tired of fighting, and tired of the gods debating on whether or not to kill you?"

Percy didn't answer. He'd made his choice many years ago, when he fought with Kronos and Luke. The gods weren't great but they were better than whatever came before them. He raised his sword in preparation for the fight he knew was inevitable.

He could feel Frank and Butch raise their weapons behind him. Percy glanced at the five feet radius of the hurricane around him and altered the course of the water. It now clung to him like the fog in the early morning and swirled around his body like a watery cloak.

As Percy and Annabeth engaged in their fight, Frank and Butch began their fight with the hellhounds that joined Annabeth's original ride since they had started talking.

Percy's focus tunnel visioned; he only saw Annabeth and he started noticing things about her he'd never noticed before. There was a fight in her grey eyes that raged like a sea storm. Her moves were angry, but not the kind of angry that was directed outwards. He remembered seeing this usually when she was angry at herself. When she didn't see something until it was too late.

"What is it, Annabeth?" He muttered. The water followed his movements seamlessly. There was no break in his steps even as Annabeth's rage seemed to increase. "What happened? I'm sorry if I was never there for you when you needed me; just tell me what happened."

"This has nothing to do with you." Annabeth replied shortly.

His response was cut off as she hit his right side with her shield as hard as she could. He fell to his knees from the blow, putting his hand on the ground to steady himself. Eying his opponent, he tried to catch his breath before she could make another move.

"Percy!" Frank cried, having seen him fall. But he was too far away to do anything.

Annabeth approached Percy slowly, expressionless. She bent down close to his ear and muttered something that made his eyes widen. But she was thrown to the side by an angry cheetah before she could do anything else.

"Frank!" Percy yelled. He watched as Frank leaned over Annabeth on her back, threatening her with the most intimidating growl he's ever seen the son of Mars do. But the human turned cheetah didn't see what Percy saw. The hellhound he'd been fighting was charging at him at a speed that made him scared for his friend.

Frank, still as a cheetah, spun around and headed straight for Percy. He grabbed him by his hoodie and transformed into a hellhound as he ran back towards the rest of camp. Butch saw what Frank was planning on doing and had already started back. As they ran back, the monsters seemed to be running the other way.

Annabeth had called a retreat.

As Percy watched the monsters follow her back into the water, he had a feeling that this raid was only the beginning.