Percy

"Annabeth?" He managed to choke out. He couldn't believe it. Here she was. Right in front of him. Her hair was more of a mess than ever and her armor was tattered and torn. The jeans she was wearing were sliced as if she went through a thorn bush. Her face was covered in tiny scrapes with a large cut above her eyebrow that at one point was flowing blood freely down her face but was now dry. Even though she seemed dead on her feet, she still managed to look outraged.

"Percy, what the hell are you doing?! Why didn't you move?!" She spat at him. Despite that she was yelling at him, the sound of her voice washed over him and made him feel at home. After a few moments of silence, Annabeth groaned and stood up, pulling Percy up with her. The Athena cabin, assumingly seeing Annabeth, had made its way to them and was fighting off enemies so they could recover. Their loyalty to their cabin leader and oldest sister was still as strong as ever.

"Come on, Percy. We have to get back to the defensive line." With that, she drew her knife and cut a path back towards the Romans.

By the time they arrived back to the defensive line, everyone had more or less seen Annabeth in the chaos of the battle. Jason and the others waited for them just behind the main defense. Piper tackled her best friend before anyone could even get a word out.

"Oh gods. Annabeth. Thank the gods you're not dead." She sobbed.

"Dead? Why would I be dead?" Annabeth asked confused. Piper let go and stepped back just as Annabeth's sisters and brothers were reaching them. They all smiled and nodded at Annabeth, letting her know they were happy to see her.

"We'll talk about that later." Reina said. While she sounded cold, Percy could see her face was a little less stressed then before. "We've still got quite the army to defeat and there's still the matter of the giant."

"Giant?"

"He disappeared just as the army approached us this morning." Jason said. Almost as if it were planned, a giant billowing yell ripped through the sky.

"DEMI-GODS." Everyone stopped and spun to look for the cause of this voice. It wasn't hard to find. A giant stood behind his army that stood at the ready. The giant was huge. His skin was pale but shadows moved beneath it. The porcelain rough skin flaked off in places is if falling off a poorly painted wall. His eyes glowed red and his featured seemed so sharp they could pierce anything they touched. Smoke billowed from his mouth as if clouds of smog were made strictly from him. His limbs were slightly too long and the purple behind his eyes made him look sickly and disturbing. Fire fell from his head like a waterfall. One fist was clenched, knuckles whiter than a ghost, while the other was wrapped around a large rectangular blade. It looked more like a huge cleaver rather than a sword.

"You will die, here. Now." It continued.

"What's the plan?" Leo asked. Everyone looked at Annabeth, including Reina who had seemed to accept her own position as defensive leader. Annabeth thought for a few moments before looking at the Roman leader.

"You okay with organizing the defense?" Annabeth asked in a flat tone.

"Of course. That's what I do." Reina responded in the same matter of speaking.

"Then I'll take the giant." Annabeth said turning her attention back to the giant.

"Not without me." Percy said sternly. He wasn't letting her leave him again.

"No, Percy. You need to help with the defense. For all we know, the giant could just be using himself as a distraction. Stay here!" With that, she ran at the enemy.
Like hell, Percy thought to himself before quickly started after her. He didn't bother telling the others where he was going or why, they knew.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO STAY WITH THEM." Annabeth said angrily when she noticed him following.

"There's no way I'm leaving you!" She groaned in response but didn't slow her running and didn't try to talk him out of it again.

As she ran, she began to glow. Percy was one second away from tackling her when the light started to weave around her head, forming the kind of helmet often seen on statues of Athena. Her knife began to shimmer into the shape of a spear. Light wove strands into her chest armor, turning it from metal to cloth (which seemed like a setback to Percy). Around her left shoulder, however, light started to weave a complex arrangement of interlocking plates around the top and ending just a few inches above the elbow. Each one of her steps started to sound like distant canon fire.

The blessing of Athena...Percy realized. Annabeth was terrifying. She was no longer just a very smart woman that fought well, she was now truly a War Goddess's daughter.

Whatever the giant did, Annabeth saw it five moves before. She moved with amazing swiftness and ease. It wasn't her planning, agility or power that caught Percy's attention the most; it was the look on her face. She was so extremely focused that her grey eyes seemed to be lit by a fire behind them. Not only was she so extremely focused, she also looked so sure of the outcome of the fight as if this was just a kids game. Her eyes told the enemy that she was sure of their defeat and if anyone fighting her looked into her eyes, they would drop their weapons and retreat as quickly as their bodies could take them.

As Annabeth fought, Percy tried to keep the other enemies off of her. She needed to focus and he wouldn't let that focus be broken. The enemy seemed distracted and intimidated by such a small girl wielding such enormous power so close to them, even if she wasn't aiming at them. Fighting them was easy. Most of them had seemed to lose their resolve and fought with more doubt than confidence. It was an easy fight for Percy. Jason and Leo had moved in and were taking a bulk of his fighting away now, knowing Percy probably wanted to help his girlfriend. Not that she seemed to need it much.

Annabeth swung her spear from one shoulder to the other and in its wake was a trail of smoke arose as if from a canon. The spear didn't hit but caused the giant to take a step back. She jabbed at the him, making a sound like gunfire. The giant dodged and rolled to the side, launching to his feet in a powerful leap and sliced his towards sword towards Annabeth. She waited until the last second before pulling a small piece of fabric from her waist and throwing it at the giant's feet. As it flew, the piece of fabric expanded and became a woven net, catching him and bringing him to the ground. The sword was just about to catch her until she twisted enough so that it only caught the plates on her left shoulder. In a grand leap, Annabeth gathered the spear with two hands and jabbed down into the giants chest. He roared and exploded into small pieces, which disintegrated in the air.

Annabeth was kneeling, spear in the ground when she looked up towards Percy and the army behind him. She suddenly looked so much like her mother that it frightened him and made him look away. That's when he noticed the overwhelming majority of Greek and Roman demi-gods verses enemies. The Roman's had formed a mobile wall with their shields and spears, destroying all that stay in their path. The Greeks were firing arrows and covering whatever small hole in their defense that the Roman's had missed.

The enemy was running away. They did it. They defended Camp Jupiter, defeated the giant, and they were still alive! Percy turned back to look at Annabeth, smile on his face. The demi-gods were already cheering in victory. Annabeth smiled and she looked very much like herself again. Her blessing started to unweave back into streams of light and they flowed into the wind, disappearing in the bright sky.

"I told you I had it." She said with a huff. Suddenly Annabeth's smile faded, her knees buckled and she fell towards the ground.

"Annabeth!" Percy cried as he ran to her, catching her clumsily in his arms before she hit the dirt.

"Just... tired. And maybe broken ribs. Augh... Definitely... broken... ribs..." and she fainted in his arms.

Annabeth

Annabeth woke up feeling every muscle in her body hating her. Even moving her fingers felt like the days at camp when Clarisse was in charge of the day's weight training. Her throat felt dry and her eyes felt heavy.

"Awake?" Said someone beside her. She knew who it was before her brain even fully comprehended it and she smiled.

"It would seem so." Her answer was met with a grunt. She turned her head, not without considerable effort and groaning, to look at Percy. His expression was unreadable. He looked... annoyed? Relieved? Angry? Happy? She couldn't tell and she wasn't used to it.

"What's wrong?" She asked. He didn't answer not did his expression change. If Annabeth was in better condition, she'd probably be annoyed at his lack of response but she hardly had the energy to stay awake as it was.

"Take some ambrosia." He said monotonously, lifting a small piece of the godly food. He crumbled some of it up and dropped it into her mouth. She managed to chew a small amount and swallowed. She was already starting to feel better. At least now she might be able to lift her hand.

"Thanks." She tried to slide her hand into his. Instead, he took it lightly in his, playing with her fingers rather than holding them. "What's wrong, Percy? I'll get better soon. I mean, the ambrosia is already taking effect. When I woke up, I could hardly open my eyes. I guess that battle really took it out of me didn't it?" She chuckled. Percy's look darkened. Annabeth couldn't remember if she had ever seen Percy angry with her, or at all for that matter.

"It wasn't the battle that took it out of you, was it?" It was less of a question and more of a statement. He can't know, could he?

"Percy, what are you talking about?" His face grew stiff as if trying not to be angry.

"Never mind. Go back to sleep." He got up and walked towards the door.

"Percy?" She called after him, tears starting to come to her eyes. He didn't stop. Percy opened the door just as Piper was reaching it and let her in. She took a quick look at him before looking at Annabeth. Piper came over to Annabeth's bed and grabbed the glass of water that was left for her on the nightstand.

"He'll get over it." She said, smiling and handing the glass to Annabeth.

"Get over what?" Annabeth responded, taking a sip from the glass. Piper shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Obviously, Piper knew something. Before responding, the girl in the seat sighed and looked up at her bedridden friend with almost a look of reproach before dropping her eyes to the floor.

"We know what happened, Annabeth, when... you know, when you left the ship and only left a note." The blood drained from Annabeth's face and her stomach lurched.

"How?"

"Leo has this new thing that can fly through the air to find people. It couldn't tell us where you were." Piper sighed at looked up at her friend. Cuts till mared her face but someone seemed to have cleaned the blood off; probably Percy's doing. Dark circles hadn't gone away though they were faded a little more than the day before.

"Percy told us about what Hypnos showed him." Suddenly, the child of Athena looked more tired than she had before she collapsed and yet simultaneously embarrassed. She caught herself quickly, however, and raised her chin as if prepared to defend herself. "Annabeth, I really thought Percy was going to lose his mind. First, he gets the vision from Hypnos then you actuallyleave him and seemingly get yourself killed. Percy was completely destroyed... He didn't eat, speak, focus... he showed up to things when we called him but he wasn't really there." Annabeth couldn't look in her friends eyes anymore. Guilt was threatening to swallow her whole.

"I didn't know..." Annabeth said quietly.

"Why didn't you tell one of us?"

"I thought you'd try and stop me... If I told Percy, he would've come with me. I couldn't... I couldn't risk losing him. Not again. That time Hera took him was enough. If I told you then Jason would've come looking for you. Leo needed to command the ship, he's the only one that can drive it other than me. I didn't have a choice..."

"You had a lot of choices, daughter of the goddess of wisdom." Piper sighed and shook her head. "You need to trust us more."

"I do trust you!" Annabeth said, defensively.

"Yeah and that's why you told me about you and Percy sleeping together." Piper snapped. Annabeth actually looked like she was beaten.

"That's private." She finally mumbled out. Piper raised an eyebrow in response. Annabeth was beaten and she knew it.

"You know, he might be mad but I bet he's right outside." Piper said with a smile pulling at her lips. She knew Percy wouldn't leave Annabeth for a second. He was angry, but not angry enough to ignore her if she needed anything. Annabeth nodded and stared intently into her sheets as if figuring out things in her head. Piper touched her friends shoulder and walked over to the door. Annabeth heard the door open and a few seconds later, close again.

Annabeth looked up to see the boy she loved standing in front of the door, looking at her with his unreadable facial expression on. He looked tired and frail as if he hadn't slept or eaten in a while. Suddenly the realization of what she did to him dawned on her. He really had shut down.