Percy's POV

I sprinted towards the noise once more. More and more monsters were passing through the barriers than ever. They're coordinated now. We used to have the advantage of dumb monsters who attacked solo or in trios at best. And now our best strategist has left us and went to them, even if she did it unknowingly. I frowned as I saw the dark sky, a flock of strange birds that glinted in the sun. I stumbled as a striking headache flashed through my head for a split second. That's it. The Stymphalian birds from when I was thirteen.

I activated my wrist watch, the celestial bronze spiraling into a gleaming shield, and banged Riptide against it. "Noise!" I yelled, "As much noise as possible! Apollo Cabin! Shoot them down!" Their dagger-like feathers flew towards the Earth, and I knew I couldn't stop them all. As bird after bird fell with a loud clang, I held my shield above my head, trying to deflect as many of the spears as I possibly could. I rolled away from a bird's final attempt to take my life. The birds were gone, but the threat was still there. It was too early for the war, to early for any serious fighting. Tartarus was still raising his troops from, well, Tartarus, and securing his claim on the rest of the world before turning to us. We would be his final obstacle before he toppled the gods and wreaked havoc, achieving world domination. Us, a little camp in New York filled with souls unlucky enough to be the spawn of the gods. Us, a group of teenagers with medieval weapons and powers were to stop a global foundation, the primordial of the pit, and hordes of monsters and mortals. But we do what has to be done, and hope that the Fates are on our side in this final struggle for freedom.

But how were we supposed to win? Our greatest assets are in the infirmary healing. Everyday a camper drops, not into the underworld, but with an injury. Everyday we get stronger and weaker at the same time and Tartarus only gets stronger. He gets stronger with every passing second, with every dollar, every monster, every piece of technology. He knows our weaknesses and how to stop us. He knows that the odds are in his favor but then, so too were the odds in Gaea's and Kronos's. He is wiser than the both of them.

I popped a piece of ambrosia into my mouth. We were fighting for a cause we believed in. Where there was a will, there was a way. A very obscure, challenging, and perilous way, but a way.

And I would find it, even if Annabeth wasn't here to help me this time.

I had to.

Annabeth's POV

In case anyone is wondering where I am, I am currently in the head of Annabeth Chase, a prisoner of my own mind and body. I am well aware of my surroundings and what I have done, even if I'm not sure why or how. I know of everything that's happened in the last couple of months, including the attacks on Camp Half Blood in the last few days. And I'm sorry.

It's not like I planned to betray my family and my home, or to nearly kill the one person I loved the most in the world, but as I've said before, there is something controlling me, and I was going to find out what. All I really need to do is discreetly get whatever thing is in my head out, and Tartarus will continue to trust me. I mean, the hardest part of this whole thing won't even be to get, I'll just call it an eidolon for now, the eidolon out of my head. The hardest part will be to keep playing the part of Brayden's girlfriend after I do free myself.

Brayden Tuckerman, one of the most vile creatures to ever walk the face of this Earth. His breath reeks, he's always ranting about killing Percy, and let's not forget he's a heartless demigod son of Zeus with a huge ego and on the side of Tartarus. The eidolon must have a thing for monsters.

I wandered around the corridor, away from Brayden, from Tartarus, from the eidolon. But not away from my guilt. So much pain because of me. I keep on telling myself it's the eidolon, but it's because of my body that it can do it. If I didn't interfere, perhaps the Eidolon will relinquish its hold on my. It can probably hear my plotting against it right now, but if it's an idea that will work, I will use it, no matter how crude.

I ran the prophecy through my mind, recalling the without the demigod that once was your friend, the reign of the gods will surely end, section all too clearly. I knew it was referring to me. I mean, it couldn't have been clearer if it had explicitly said my name. By now, I had found out all of Tartarus's plans and even found out that Brayden was a legacy of Aphrodite, misusing his gift of charmspeak to get Percy out of the camp. Tartarus did need the time before June to gather his forces, but he was working on a larger project at the moment. He knew he controlled the playing field. The demigods weren't nearly stupid enough to bring the battle to us.

There was a huge crash and sirens screamed through the hallways. I furrowed my eyebrows. Perhaps I underestimated my friends' stupidity. Perhaps they were reckless enough to charge the home of Tartarus. The eidolon took the reigns back and made me walk down the halls. I saw Piper, Hazel and a group of Romans in the hallway, destroying everything in their paths. Monsters and soldiers struck down as Piper slashed through them with Katoptris and Hazel slammed a chunk of precious metal into their skulls. That was surprisingly violent for Hazel, whose arm was whipping around knocking guns and weapons from the hands of Hatch's soldiers. Several of their number had wounds from stray bullets and the keen edge of a blade, but nothing entirely fatal or even concerning. When Piper saw me, my drakon bone sword drawn, her eyes misted over. If I could pound on the interior of my head and demand to be let out, I would. Her voice resonated through the halls, "Whatever is inside Annabeth Chase, show yourself!" I felt myself grin evilly, a look that was very rarely on my face. Maybe a couple times when I was getting back at the Stolls, or when I planned I pulled a prank on Percy, but other than that, this look of pure evil was foreign to my face. A voice that sounded centuries older than my own laughed.

"How pathetic," I heard myself say, "The daughter of Aphrodite storming the stronghold of Hell to rescue her friend. And with what army? Some pesky Romans? Surely you could have done better than that!" Piper glared at my face, "I could have, but I didn't. The security has a lot to be desired if I could blow a hole through the wall with nothing but a medieval catapult loaded with a Leo-made bomb." My body scowled, "It's a good thing you brought bombs. At least that way you can go out with a bang." Piper started to get angry, not because that jibe was particularly witty or hurtful, but because it was coming from my mouth. Her hands curled into fists, shaking with rage, "Now you listen here, spirit! I don't care who you are, but you are going to get out of Annabeth Chase!" In that moment, I was sucked back into control of my body as if in a vacuum and I gasped, stumbling to my knees. "Piper," I gasped, my voice unsteady, "You need to leave me here. It's still inside of me. I'm sorry for everything. Please go." She held me by the forearms, trying to keep me upright, Her eyebrows creased in concentration, "No," she said resolutely, "We came here for a daughter of Athena, and we're going to get one, whether she's possessed or not." I wrenched myself away from her, "You don't understand. It can still control me. It's something stronger than a simple possessing spirit. It will let me merge back into the camp and strike when no one sees it coming. The results will be crippling and none of you will make it past June." I was crying at this point. I wanted so badly for them to wrap me in chains and bring me back to Camp Half Blood, even for a while, even if everyone hated me. But I was strong enough, smart enough, to get out. It was not a risk I was willing to take, especially not for my own personal gain.

I choked back my tears and managed a sentence, "In the words of Reyna, praetor of Rome, when we meet again, we will be enemies on the battlefield." As I turned away, I whispered, just loud enough for her to hear, "Whether I want it to be that way or not." As the spirit regained control of my body, I had just enough time to let out a strangled scream, "Get out!" before I was strewn from authority. In the reflection of the steel wall, I saw that my eyes were no longer the same color as mine. The gold and silver hues that were now in my eyes clashing until they were a solid color that brought Imperial Gold to mind. There was something about that metallic gold replacing the stormy gray that unsettled me. It reminded me of Kronos, but that couldn't be possible. He didn't have permission and I hadn't taken a dip in the River Styx so my body wouldn't be able to handle the raw energy of the Titan Lord. Of course, those were just technicalities. If I had been blessed with partial immortality by a god, he could, but no one would have done that. For me to become partially immortal and not take some kind of oath, I would need to have a strong bond with said god. The only one would be Athena. And she would not grant me immortality without my knowledge and let a titan into my body. Especially not to make me kill one of the strongest demigods of the generation. Well, she might have done it in her schizophrenic rage, but Percy's not Roman and she's not schizophrenic anymore. And this is great. Now I'm starting to think that I'm schizophrenic. But making up possibilities and proving them wrong calms me down.

Piper's kaleidoscopic eyes scanned me one last time, sorrow and defeat all too evident on her face. She hurriedly turned away and stared hard at the ground, as though the excruciatingly bright tile floors had suddenly become interesting. "Until we meet again," she said softly, and in a heartbreaking tone as she took Hazel by the arm, "Until we are enemies on the battlefield." She gulped, the tears she tried so desperately to hide threatening to roll down her face in waves. As my body started toward my drakon bone sword, scattered in the frenzy of the eidolon losing control, she turned back, eyes tearful yet blazing with defiance. "We will have Annabeth back," she screamed, "The real Annabeth. I swear it on the River Styx." My eyes would have widened if I'd actually had control of my body. Speaking of my body, it laughed scornfully, full of contempt, "Well then, Piper McLean. As you leave, know. There are things worse than death. Things that you will receive upon your imminent downfall after unsuccessfully retrieving the oh so important Annabeth Chase." Hazel, thank the gods for Hazel, pulled Piper away from me and back through the hole in the wall as troops started to storm in behind me. My now golden eyes narrowed, "You incompetent soldiers! I managed to have a whole conversation with them before you even got here! Now kill them, kill them all! Start with the superstar's daughter who's in over her head." At this point, when there was something critical happening, I would be stuck inside my head for a while, watching my own movements.

I could not stop a bullet from catching a Roman in the back and I could not prevent the hordes of monsters that followed them out of the breach in our defenses. I was powerless. I couldn't do anything from my position but pray to the gods and hope my friends were alright. And the gods wouldn't answer me, who was no one but a traitor as far as they knew. I had been too close to the center of the storm for far too long. Everyone in the demigod world who knew Percy Jackson, also knew my name, my weaknesses, my home. That made me vulnerable to situations like this one, where they really needed the inside information. Everything I knew, they now knew as well, and my head was full of information, especially concerning their most formidable enemies. Perhaps I could pull a Luke. If there was nothing threatening the operation of the many interwoven threads that Hatch was pulling like a puppeteer, they would not stop me, and I could eliminate whatever threat I was before I did something I really regretted. But no, that wouldn't do. I am afraid of death, even for a good cause. And without me, the gods would collapse and Tartarus would be a dominating tyrant for the rest of eternity. I would not plunge the Earth into infinite darkness, I would not be yet another pawn. If I could find my way out of the erratic twists and turns of the labyrinth and the dismal abyss of the underworld they call Tartarus, surely I could find my way out of my own head. If not, I was no better than my Seaweed Brain of a boyfriend, who is said to be unable to find his way from a paper bag. Of course, he wasn't my boyfriend anymore, after all, it had not been his fault that some evil millennia old spirit had corrupted me.

I wanted to build something permanent, something that would stand grandly upon the Earth for thousands of years to come. I might as well relinquish my desperate hold on my dreams now, because I would not live to create a fabric of reality in which I could become a world-renowned architect or die falling down the stairs instead of at the hands of my enemies. But I will not do that, because I was Annabeth Chase, and I would not let a simple spirit be the death of me, my friends, and the world.

I strode past doors upon doors and through the vast hallways until I heard voices. No one important, only Brayden. I hid outside the door, waiting for control to be wrested from me again, but it never left. I could wiggle my fingers and blink my eyes of my own free will. So I turned my complete attention on listening.

"Look, Kylee," he was saying, "What Dr. Hatch is doing may not seem like the greatest idea right now, but I assure you, it will speed up the process of purging demigods from existence." I could feel the indecisiveness rolling off of the Eagle in waves. "He has a titan in the body of someone important, waiting to be given complete domination. How is that okay?" I closed my eyes. It could very well be me. But I still had every reason to believe that Kronos could not possibly be inhabiting my body. It was illogical, and more than that, impossible. Brayden resumed speaking, arrogance driving his voice, "Look. Dr. Hatch wants what he wants, and this will be one of the greatest ideas he has ever had. It will crush the demigods' spirits, especially that Jackson boy. Pure entertainment. I will watch from the skies as his world, already in ruins, collapses and turns to dust. Of course, that will only drive him further over the edge, and the entirety of those useless camps will be easily demolished with their morale severely depleted." I wondered if Brayden had stuffed a dictionary and a philosophical masterpiece into his brain overnight. His persuasiveness had depth to it, and it seemed to me that Kylee was buying every word. When her voice came again, it was slurred, and I was sure that Brayden had used his charmspeak once again, "Alright, Brayden. A powerful boy like you so close to Dr. Hatch ought to know everything about this." Brayden's laugh, as repulsive as the sound of styrofoam being rubbed together, rang through the air, "Powerful boy? Please, Kylee, you flatter me. Though I prefer the term omnipotent god, all powerful ruler of the mortal realm." I gagged. His fatal flaw, just like mine, was Hubris. His was as terrible, or even worse than mine. Sometimes I believe that I could run the world better than the gods, that my way was the best way. His led to arrogance and almost a need to prove himself. He thought he was better than the gods, that he could defeat anyone in a fight. I knew there was a certain sense of insecurity under his shell of a cocky, conceited snob that everyone saw. If I could just kept picking at a nerve, I could break him, get him to spill his secrets. And I knew exactly which nerve to pick at.

I strut into the room as if I had been dying to see him laid my head on his shoulder. Yuck. He kissed me on the temple, the disgusting pig, and grinned, "Hey, babe, how've you been holding up since that worthless Aphrodite chick blew a hole in the wall?" I yawned, "Not too bad, actually. I'm just disappointed in those worthless mortals Dr. Hatch puts so much faith in." Kylee smiled, an actual genuine smile, and left, saying, "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." I leaned against the wall and beamed at him, "So, Brayden, I just heard you say that Hatch planted a titan somewhere, I want to know where." He shook his head, "Sorry, Annie, classified C10 info. He'll tell you in time." I felt the blood rush to my face as he called me Annie and denied me information, but I quickly calmed myself. I turned away, "A pity. Percy Jackson always kept secrets, too. And here I thought you were better than him." A vein started to bulge in his forehead, "Perseus, better than me? Absurd." I laughed mirthlessly, "Absurd, I know. But he did best you in that duel, and you won't even prove to me that you're a loyal boyfriend." Brayden was spluttering, unable to form words. I continued to stare at the opposite wall so he wouldn't see the mischievous gleam in my eye, accompanied by the all too apparent satisfaction I was gaining from this. He tried his best to gain control of his verbal abilities and only managed to burst in a furious rage, "Look, that Sea Scum is not better than me! And I won't keep secrets from you! I just can't tell you this one." I twirled a lock of hair around my finger, faking boredom and innocence, "And that's one secret right there, which will only lead the way to future mysteries." Brayden was going to spill, and apparently the thing inside me knew it because as he turned away to shout at the wall, I surged forward involuntarily with my arms outstretched to clamp my hands over his mouth.

"Fine!" He screamed, "Kronos is in your body!"