This scene happens during chapter twenty when Nico and Percy track down Annabeth (who is in Will's body) near the sewers in Paris.  Some of this is going to look familiar, especially at first.  I wish the fun grouchy Italian Nico moments could have stayed, but unfortunately, they made for a poor transition between this chapter and the next.  Nevertheless, I thought this was worth sharing.  In fact, it's probably the only cut portion from Cave Canem that I care to share.  Enjoy!

The thumping around the corner tells Percy that Nico is near and that he brought that hellhound puppy with him.

"Over here!" Percy yells.

Raphael the hellhound skids to a stop against the pavement, and Nico hops off his back. His combat boots hit the pavement with a thud. "Will!" he shouts. "Will, are you okay?"

Will shakes off Nico's embrace.

"Talk to me," Nico says.

Will turns around and looks at Percy. A certain darkness clouds his eyes that Percy's never noticed in him before.

"Will," Nico says. "You have to help us help you."

"It's not your fault she's gone, man," Percy says. "We're going to get her back; you just have to tell us what you saw."

"No, it's not my fault," Will says, standing up. He grips a wad of red fabric in his balled fist. His eyes narrow at the ground and then at Percy. Something about Will's aura seems particularly strong right now, and it's scary. It's so scary.

He addresses Nico first. "You shouldn't have come here. You know Will can't fight well."

Percy's super confused right now. Sure, it's a little weird when people refer to themselves in the third person. They usually think they're quirky or funny, and even though he finds it annoying, it sort of seems like something Will would do.

This situation, however, is neither quirky nor funny. Will is angry. Scratch that. Will is fucking pissed.

"We were doing perfectly fine until you showed up!" he continues to yell.

It's all starting to kind of come together for Percy. Will's randomly referred to himself in the third person and corrected himself a couple of times today. Will wasn't exactly unwilling to hear Percy out in the bathroom this morning, and while he appreciates that, it doesn't exactly make sense. He's supposed to be mad at Percy because he can see right through him. He can tell that Percy has some feelings for Annabeth, and he's afraid that Percy's going to hurt her.

Annabeth, on the other hand, has made it very clear that she is not afraid of Percy hurting her in that way. She has no reason to fear because she's been in close proximity to him for the past few days.

Will has every reason to distrust Percy, even after a bathroom conversation.

And then Percy remembers his conversation with Annabeth, how she seemed too weird and closed off before...

Before she got in the elevator! She got in the elevator, and Annabeth Chase does not do elevators!

"I can't believe I let you distract me!" Will shouts. "I am such an idiot! You're such an idiot!" He shakes his fist at Percy, and he flinches.

Will's punch would probably be kind of wimpy, but Percy has a feeling he isn't being threatened by Will's punch.

He catches Will's wrist in his fist before he can throw the punch.

"Annabeth?" he asks, not quite believing his own words.

Annabeth snatches her arm back. "Listen, if you don't care, that's whatever. I'm going to get my best friend back."

Nico raises an eyebrow. He looks like he's trying to hide a grimace, which makes sense. He probably would have tried to kiss Will-slash-Annabeth if this had gone on for any longer.

"Annabeth, calm down-"

"Don't tell me what to do," she snaps.

Yeah, that was definitely the wrong thing for Percy to say at this moment. "Okay, we want to help you find Will."

"I would really like to find my boyfriend," Nico adds.

"Yeah, see?" says Percy. "But we need to go back to the hotel and gather the rest of our supplies and get some leads first."

Annabeth picks up the drakon bone sword and wipes the remaining monster ooze onto the pantleg of Will's jeans. Yeah, that's definitely Annabeth in there.

"So if you're Annabeth in Will's body," Nico starts, "is Will Will in your body?"

Instead of answering, Annabeth reaches into Nico's backpack and retrieves a gallon Ziploc bag filled with saltwater and Zebediah. "This works as a lead. I'm going to get Will. Don't wait up," she says. "I mean, you said it yourself, Percy. You could turn around and get someone from Camp Half-Blood to just take care of Pothos for us."

"We can still go after Pothos," Percy objects.

"I don't give a shit about Pothos!" she shouts. "I just want Will back." Her voice cracks as she shakes the bag around a little. She walks out of the alleyway, and before she disappears around the corner, she yells, "I should not have slept with you!"

Percy turns to Nico. "So what do we want to do about that?"

"You're asking me?" Nico asks. "Uh, okay, maybe... I'm not saying Will's a liar, but if he's losing his mind and it's still him in there, he will absolutely turn around."

"And if it's Annabeth?" Percy asks.

Raphael whimpers.

Nico sighs. "I don't know. You're the one who apparently slept with her last night. How the hell did that happen?"

"I'd rather not focus on that part of the story."

"That bad?"

"Nico."

"Fine, fine." Nico throws his hands up in the air and then whips around to look at his dog when it whimpers for the millionth time.

Raphael has his giant nose stuck in the sewer hole.

"Cazzo," Nico swears. "Help me out." He reaches for the dog's collar and tugs, causing the poor hellhound to cry out in pain.

"I mean, she'll come back, right?" Percy asks. "We got sort of close. Yeah. We're like, friends now."

Nico pauses his shushing to ask, "You sure about that?"

No, Percy is not sure about that. He finally felt something for someone and now she's mad at him—for real this time. Shoot, what if that wasn't Will in the hallway? What if Annabeth did want to talk about what happened between them and Percy ruined everything by letting Will get kidnapped? Either way, everything is ruined and-

"It's not your fault," Nico says.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," says Percy.

"You had no way of knowing," he replies. "I mean, he looked like Annabeth. I would have let Annabeth wander into the city alone."

Percy raises an eyebrow. "You're surprisingly calm for someone whose boyfriend just went missing."

"A few things to keep in mind," Nico says, his voice strained from tugging on Raphael's fur. "Uno: this isn't the sort of thing that Pothos and the Erotes would play. There has to be some other godly meddling, and I think the gods like us enough to maybe give us some indirect help in this quest."

"Who do you think it is?" Percy asks.

"Non so," Nico snaps. "E due: because I think—no, because I know—that this is a different god's work, Will and Annabeth will eventually switch back. If we're lucky, it'll be their consciousnesses that switch rather than their physical bodies. Assuming Will's mind comes back to his body here, we can get the information from him and go take down Pothos while Annabeth busts herself out of whatever situation Pothos has set up in the Vatican."

That... That actually makes a lot of sense. Body swapping doesn't sound like a power Pothos might have, but it's definitely a sign of godly interference.

"What if that doesn't work out? What if it's just their bodies that switch back?" Percy asks. He hates to be the downer, but it's important to look at this situation from all angles. Will's life is at stake, and Annabeth's might be too if they don't hurry up.

Nico smirks, holding up the red scarf Annabeth dropped. "Well, my boyfriend is a fucking genius. He wouldn't drop his favorite red scarf by accident, even if he was being kidnapped."

"And Annabeth wouldn't wear that, so they definitely did swap bodies," Percy adds, hoping he's being at least a little helpful. He is not carrying his weight in solving this mystery. "So does that mean we need to go in the sewers?"

"Annabeth reeked," Nico says. "Was she in there?"

"Shoot, she was," says Percy. "She wouldn't have missed anything."

"So let's get Raphael's face out of here and get to the Vatican," Nico says. "Pothos's henchmen may have had to go through the sewers to get there, but we can just shadow travel."

"Can Raphael handle that right now?" Percy looks at the poor hellhound, wiggling his head back and forth in the tight sewer hole.

"He will if you can help me get him out of here!"

Who is Percy to turn down an order from the son of Hades? He grabs onto Raphael's leather collar and tugs.