Annabeth's POV
My hands had slapped over his mouth of their own accord, but the damage was already done. Brayden was breathing heavily in his anger and his words came out in splutters as he pushed me away. "There!" he screamed, "Now you know the truth! I was going to tell you after he had left you to assume his Titan form, but no! Annabeth Chase just has to know!" The door swung open and Hatch strode through the door, both Eagles trailing behind him. My body was having a hard time processing this new information. I was mentally shaken, but the Titan Lord was in control and you couldn't see how much this news had affected me.

Hatch raised a slim eyebrow, his arm crossed over his chest, "So she knows?" Brayden took a shaky breath as he struggled to calm himself down. "I'm sorry, Admiral-General." Surprisingly, Hatch only smiled, "She was going to know eventually. And it is not as if she can tell her friends. But I suppose it was C10 information and we should follow protocol. However, you are a great asset and I would think two days in Cell 25 would be necessary." Brayden's eyes widened, "No, please. Hell is better than there!" Hatch snapped his fingers, a small vortex appearing in the floor next to Brayden. "I can arrange that as well, Mr. Tuckerman." Brayden's eyebrows furrowed and he followed the Eagles out of the room, not ashamed, but definitely not happy.

Hatch turned his disgustingly calm face to me and his lips formed a tight line as he stared into my golden eyes. "Well, Ms. Chase. I know you and your pesky little brain are already planning some way to get out, or to at least warn your friends. But you will be under tight surveillance 24/7 and if for some reason that fails, you do have a Titan Lord residing within you." I felt the golden glare recede from my eyes and suddenly I could speak again. "My friends will best you," I croaked, "With or without me there to help them. When they do, I will be laughing, whether from the Underworld or the Mortal Realm, I do not care. Mark my words, Tartarus. This June, you will finally arrive at an opponent you simply cannot best." My heart caught in my throat as Tartarus waved behind him, where an Iris Message was shimmering.

With a smirk on his face he retorted, "Is that a threat I hear, Ms. Chase? An enemy I simply cannot best? Take a look at your so-called heroes and tell me that they will win. A one way Iris Message." I saw the entirety of the Electroclan confined to the infirmary, the Apollo cabin tending to their many wounds. I saw Michael hobbling around without crutches, in a way that made my old ankle injury throb in sympathy. The image shifted and I saw Piper and Hazel with Frank, Leo, and Calypso, who were trying their best to console them. Again, the image changed. Camp Half Blood was being fortified by the Romans and the Hephaestus Cabins, but that could only do so much. The last image was what finally weakened my resolve. It was Percy, without the carefree, happy smile on his face. Without the company of people. His eyes were broken, his hair more disheveled than normal, and his face gaunt and miserable. Hatch's laugh sent shivers down my spine as if pieces of styrofoam were being rubbed together. "These are your heroes, your saviors. And they are broken. They are weak. They are this close to losing hope. How will they be prepared for battle in two months? Can they possibly stand against me? With my eons of experience, of simmering anger and need for revenge? I think not."

I could not stand to look at him any longer. I closed my eyes and tilted my face toward the floor, hoping to shield my defeat from him. I prayed to the gods, to anyone who could help me. I prayed for my friends and hoped that they would receive my message, that they would hear my one thought, no matter who far I was from any of them.

The only thing you can't afford to lose is hope.

Percy's POV

June was approaching much too quickly. The demigods, the hunters, and even some of the Amazons were working as hard as they could, but even then we might never see summer. The Hephaestus and Athena cabins had pulled away Michael to Bunker Nine for some kind of experimental defensive mechanism, and despite his injuries, I let him go.

I was almost never seen with a genuine smile on my face anymore. My friends had gone their separate ways to undertake missions and such. Leo had returned from New Rome to work with his cabin. Piper and Hazel had tried and failed to rescue Annabeth, and Frank was doing his best to keep Piper happy, as one of her best friends had pushed her away to protect the camp. Annabeth's effort had been futile at best. We had lost one camper, we had not retrieved Annabeth from the hands of the enemy, and we had no more information than when we started. Connor and Travis were hunting for extra celestial bronze for more weapons and fortifications. Everyone was preoccupied with preparations for a war we knew may finally be too much. And I was here at Camp Half Blood, stuck in a slump. I had not eaten in several days, only ever leaving my cabin to try and think at the beach.
I was just about ready to give up, something I knew would crush the campers. So I didn't. I continued to run scenarios in my mind about the upcoming battle, but I couldn't see any way, except by stroke of luck, that would get Annabeth back and get the war won. Things were not looking good for us at the moment.

I do not know how, but I suddenly felt like Annabeth was right there with me.
The old Annabeth, before she was possessed by a spirit and taken into the hands of Brayden and Hatch. I could almost see her, almost hear her voice next to me, scolding me for being such a Seaweed Brain. It might have been me hallucinating from lack of sleep and food, but I did not care. She was speaking, she was helping, and most importantly, she was here. I imagined her swatting my arm to shake me out of my mood and kissing me on the cheek. Just then, I heard her voice in my head as clearly as I had ever heard it, saying 'The only thing you can't afford to lose is hope.' It seemed like a very Annabeth thing to say, so I pulled myself out of my cabin for dinner for the first time in ages. I felt rejuvenated, like the spark that died inside of me had been relit.

I could tell that the campers were overjoyed to see me outside and eating. They too had the crushed look in their eyes, but now each camper was looking brighter, more hopeful.

As dinner ended, Leo ran in and started dragging me off to Bunker Nine faster than you could say, 'Hands off, Repair Boy!' I saw Michael, Malcolm, Calypso, Nyssa, and Harley already there, a wide sheet of celestial bronze spread across the wall and a mortal pistol loaded and set on the drawer. "Check it out, Aquaman! We finally got it right!" I raised both eyebrows at the Latino elf, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet, barely containing his excitement. "Got what right?" Leo, despite the perilous gravity of the situation arriving only two months, decided to amp up the drama in his presentation.

He grabbed a microphone out of his toolbelt and said, "Leo McSchizzle enterprises brings you Mr. McSchizzle's latest stroke of genius. The Vey Wall!" I snatched the microphone out of his hands and tossed it over my shoulder. "You named your invention after Michael? What does it do?" Michael grinned, "He manifested my powers into a wall. It will repel metal, so Hatch's army's weapons can't get close. They can shoot all they want, and even attack the wall itself, and nothing will get within ten feet of it." I felt the smile creeping up on my face, "Finally, we've done something better than training! Have you tested it out yet?" Leo grinned, "Of course! Let's take this baby outside and show you." He pulled a remote from his tool belt and pressed a button, the metal contracting into a small box. Once outside, it expanded to its normal size and Leo handed me the pistol, "Shoot away, Waterboy." I grinned. "Shoot at you? Sure." Not minding the annoying Leo Valdez for another second, I took a shot at the wall, ducking as it was shot straight back at me. "Woah!" I screamed, "I thought Michael only diverted bullets!" Nyssa adjusted her bandanna and smiled, "Michael does. This wall will straight up shoot back at you. We took his powers and intensified it with the celestial bronze and some demigod powers, so it's stronger than ever. Now try Riptide." I uncapped my sword and tried to hack away at the wall. Each time it was as if I had missed, but I knew I didn't. Riptide barely brushed against it as I tried to push through the forcefield but proceeded to fly out of my hand when I loosened my grip.

I could not help but grin. We may have a chance. The enemy could not use their weapons past the wall, but we could. The most they would have is the claws of monsters. Mortals would be useless, only an encumbrance for Hatch. This was good news for us on many levels. We would not have to kill the mortals if Hatch realized they were no use. An idea sparked in my mind. "How many of those do you have?" I asked as I felt Riptide reappear in my pocket. Leo looked at the sky, "Only this one. By mid-May we'll have enough to completely shield the camp save the beach area." I rubbed my hands together, "Okay. Because I was thinking. Right now it's a defense mechanism. What if we make it a weapon?" Leo's brown eyes became interested, "I can roll with that. What do you want to do with it?" I touched the wall with a finger, brushing over it gently, "I was thinking. When the mortals start shooting, they'll all go down because the bullets go right back, right? So if they're smart, they'll stop and advance toward the wall with no weapons. Right there, we have a pitfall. It'll create a ditch and we'll have the mortals trapped and out of the way." Malcolm started to catch on and I knew Leo was making calculations for my ideas in his head. Malcolm grinned, "And what if we box in the enemy? We know there will be more mortals and monsters coming, so what if we have a weaker side. They'll hack away at it and eventually break through. Past that, it'll be a stronger wall. A dead end. They'll have nowhere to go, and we can take them out like that. Drop stuff on them. It will only work once, but it may be good enough to even out the odds." Harley, almost as ADHD as Leo, started jumping up and down, "I'll do that! I'll go tell them right now!" He darted off to Reyna, who was supervising her legion as they built up a wall just inside the barrier from Thalia's Pine. Leo grinned maniacally, "We'll have the Athena cabin working on the size and the Hephaestus cabin building it. This is gonna be sweet!" Our group broke apart to do their individual jobs until it was just me, Leo, and Calypso.

Leo lowered his voice, "Percy, I've been working on another project. I haven't told anyone but Calypso, but now I'm going to tell you." It was strange for Leo to be this serious. He wasn't smiling, and his hair wasn't on fire, so it must be important. I nodded for him to go on, and he did, "So I've been binge-watching Danny Phantom-" He was cut off by my laughter. It was was weird for Leo to say anything even vaguely serious at all. It was even stranger to hear him talk about something so juvenile with a straight face. Leo's poker face shattered and he couldn't help but smile as well, "Yeah, that came out weird." I smirked, "Ya think?" Leo rolled his eyes, "Anyway, I've been watching Danny Phantom and I have an idea for how to get Annabeth away from whatever Eidolon type thing is inside of her. In the show, there are these two ghost-hunting mortals with a half-ghost of a son." I snickered. "That's like if my mom hated demigods and yet here I am." Calypso rolled her eyes and swatted my arm, "Just be quiet, Percy." Leo grinned and continued, "Anyway, in the show, they make all of these cool inventions. And one of them gave me an idea. They have a kind of net thing that separates the human and ghost part of the main character in one of the episodes. So I was thinking that if those stupid mortals could do something like that in a cartoon, why couldn't I do that in real life for a spirit?" My eyes widened in realization. "So if this works," I said slowly, "We have Annabeth back without damaging the human part of her and might live to see July?" Leo nodded enthusiastically, "It's a long shot, but it's definitely worth it."

I clapped him on the shoulder, "Then what are we waiting for? We've got a half-blood to save!"

Wow. Two chapters in one day. I feel accomplished. 😆