I quickly clamped her arm at the elbow, trying to stop the flow of blood. If my guess was correct, then someone had poisoned her. I tapped my left wrist, sending an electromagnetic signal to Nico and Barry. In the next few minutes they were by my side. I could here them talking, but I wasn't paying attention. Nico ran off, probably to get Chiron. I wiped the drop of blood on her arm off gingerly, and placed it on my left wrist. It spread, and I quickly cut myself with a splinter right above. My blood rolled down to mix with hers, and it churned into a singular drop. Slowly a tiny bit of green...stuff, was extracted, and it fell to the floor. Mine and Annabeth's blood was similar, but mine rejected most kinds of toxins. The green liquid hissed on the floor, sizzling through to Chaos knows where. So definitely a kind of poison. I sensed Chiron kneeling next to me. I took Annaneth's hand. There was no pulse. I closed my eyes, thinking. I had to stop the poison from spreading. And everything after that became a blur. I waved away Chiron, telling him and Nico to go outside. The second they were out of the door, I pulled Annabeth's shirt off. Her arm had slowly gained a green tint. It was going to her shoulder. I whipped out a sword, and without hesitation, or maybe I did hesitate, I don't know, I sliced her arm off with a single blow. I quickly put a soulular barrier around the cabin, so her soul couldn't escape. Although, it might have already. I was hoping it hadn't yet. Her shoulder looked clean, and I leaned back sighing. But only for a second. I had to stop the blood flow. I quickly whipped off my shirt, and wrapped it around. I looked back to the door. It was closed. Good. I kissed Annabeth, and retrieved her shirt. I slid it over her bare chest and stomach, simply grateful the poison hadn't gotten past her shoulder. I beckoned for Chiron and Nico to come back, along with Barry. A few of Apollo's children followed. I let out a shaky breath, finally allowing myself to be bothered by this event. I was pushed aside by the Apollo children as they started to bandage her arm. I felt horrible I had to do that but I had realized quickly enough how harmful the poison was. Someone had poisoned Annabeth. My Annabeth. And I was going to find them, and give them torture the likes of which they had never seen. I leaned against the wall, and tears cascaded down my cheeks, onto the floor. My rage and grief combined, forming a flurry of emotions inside of me. Annabeth had always been there for me. I loved her so much. And I realized, all of this sounded so typical, but it really was the truth. Her presence always being there, it comforted me in battle. She gave me the confidence I needed. Back when I was only 14 years old, she was always the one with the plan, the brave one. I was almost nothing without her. Or, at least, Percy was nothing without her. If she died now, even I wouldn't be able to bring her back. Her soul would drift away, into eternity. It wouldn't go to the underworld, it was to pure for that. Instead, it would be taken to a place that was for only the purest of souls. A place I would never see. Because, I was flawed. And she was so very perfect. I had never let her truly kill a being in all our centuries. Allow peace to a monster or creature by loosening its soul from its body, sending the monster to tartarus, that was one thing. But I, I sent them to The Hole. Never to return. Not once, had I let her do that. And so she had remained spotless, while I carried the burden of a thousand gallons of blood spilled upon me. Because she deserved it. Why? I had no explicit proof. But she was a good person. She was simply one of so many. And I realize, how unfair this is. But, it took something that only she had, to keep me in line all those years, to not let me go insane, from all the violence. But that wasn't the point. The point was that I wouldn't be able to recapture her soul. Because, that place? It was the heart of the source. I was the soul, my place was next to the heart, I wasn't allowed in. So, I hoped the soulular barrier had captured her soul. I got up, and held my hand up. The Apollo campers finished up, and retreated. Everyone was in silence, shocked by what had just happened. I held out my hand, chanting an ancient mantra. Nico seemed to recognize it, I saw his eyes widen from the corner of my eye. After a minute of silent murmuring, the air in front of me started to shimmer. Smoke formed, and the air suddenly became gloomy. A soul personified. Annabeth's soul. I pointed at her body, and the soul bowed it's head. It swept into the body, and with a jolt, Annabeth came alive. Her eyes were in a frenzy, and the first thing she did was punch me in the face. I took a step back, putting my arms up. She looked confused for about another second, but slowly memories started to come back to her. Then her face got frightened. It was too much. 200 years of experience and memories all flooding her newly remade mind. It could kill her. I rushed to her side, as she hopelessly spasmed for a second. I laid her on the floor, closing her eyes. Before she passed out, I touched her forehead with a spell of healing. I didn't know whether she would remember later what I said now. I never did find out whether she remembered, this was the only time I ever told her. I had already foreseen her new destiny from the second she was revived. But this time, no tears came to my eyes. Only an unbearable grief. One that clenched my heart, that brought a chill to my spine, that almost killed me when I saw it. Looking back, I don't know why I couldn't do anything else. Maybe I had realized my place int he world. Or maybe I didn't want to do anything, for her, so she could be unburdened. I don't know. I regret it, though. I regret that I'm the only one that remembered. So, I leaned down, and whispered in her ear.
"I'm sorry Annabeth. I couldn't catch hold of your complete soul. Your time is limited with us. And then, you will become a part of The Source. So, I'm so very sorry"
I got up, my eyes burning. I turned around, facing the campers.
"They will pay. Order, and Apokalypse, and everyone else. They will all pay."
I growled at them, before picking Annabeth up, and heading to the infirmary.

I spent the rest of my day training like never before. I beat Death in a hand to hand combat match, and after that, I went to my room in Chaos' palace. After a few minutes of going through my weapon inventory, I walked to Chaos' throne room, where he sat.
"Something troubles you Percy. Forgive me, I have been preoccupied lately. You may speak to me, though"
I raised my sword, pointing it towards him. He nodded, and stood. And all I remember after that is that we dueled. And I beat him for my first time. I went on a few missions for him after that. They were all finished within 2 hours. I did anything and everything I could, that day, to get my mind off of Annabeth. But it was no use, it never worked.

The next week I spent holed up in my cabin. I was working on a project for Annabeth. An arm. Leo helped me, and for the next week we spent our time cursing, cutting through wires, and going on special mission to get the materials we needed. Well, most of the time, I left, and he stayed. I went to the far edges of the universe, and to the sub-atomic realm. I connected wires, leo hammered metal, I imbued power into the weapon. He cooled metal, I tested it out. But it kept malfunctioning, and sparking. One time, it completely blew up. One day, on our break, we finally made a breakthrough. It was lunchtime, and we both picked up our sandwich and sat at our little bench, across from each other.

"This is impossible."

"I know" I sighed

"But...maybe we're just trying the wrong approach."

"Yeah, we could be."

"Maybe we should try a different kind of exterior shielding. The atomic hyper-contriver must be interfering with the permanent metal. If this is the most intact metal in the universe, then there's no way a device made to rearrange atoms would work on it."

I looked at him.

"That makes sense. But there has to be more to it. Our first prototype used reinforced steel, and it still exploded."

He nodded.

"Yeah...well...there are other theoretical ways we can do this. I had an idea a year ago, that we might be able to apply to this situation"

"yeah? Well, shoot."

"You sure you wanna know? Don't call me crazy."

"Yeah, dude, seriously. Shoot."

"Okay, well, we don't have to use a metallic exterior. We could make it almost organically metallic. Imagine if we could connect the wires to the limbic and nervous system, just make them an extension."

"Yeah, obviously. We're kind of going to do that already right? But that's not all the human body is. It's also muscle, and bones, and proteins. Thus the metallic exterior. "

"I know. Now, we would have to route these wires through some kind of shielding. Right now, we're just designing a huge mess of wires and metals. Why not make it more simple, with some kind of 'bones'? Simple move those, to move the whole arm. These should comprise of a strong, yet easy to use metal, so that-"

"I can take care of that."

"- they don't change at all! But not just that. The exterior. Why even use a hyper-contriver? If we could make the exterior so that it could be summoned, to be an extension of the mind, then we don't need one!"

"Leo...what you're suggesting, is...it's pointless! Why do you even need bones and such then?"

"Because, what I'm suggesting is an extension of the mind, controlled by the brain. No concentration required to summon it, and release it. Simply summon it, and it will appear. Will it to change shape, and it will. It will be controlled effortlessly, by the limbic system. Why summon this exterior of energy out of thin air? Why not instead just mentally turn on a switch that will summon energy, and can rearrange itself to make a different shape!"

"Leo...that, that might actually work"

He grinned, satisfied.

"Then let's get to it!"

The rest of the week was impossible. First, we had to craft the wires from the most resistant metal in the universe. It was next to impossible to cut through it. Next, we had to route them through a shielding. We used Chaotic metal, since it was more susceptible to mental manipulation. We used chaotic metal screws, and joints. Wires stuck out of the end that was meant to be attached. That end was wider, and looked like one of those suction things. It was wide enough to cover her stump. The wires would automatically pierce through her skin, and connect to her veins and such, so she would be in control. We had one part left. The actual muscle and arm. We finally got little devices orbiting around one end, like satellites around a tower. When turned on, they would form a white and gold contour of an arm. They could be mentally rearranged in order to change the shape of the arm into a weapon, or well, anything. Once the contour had been set, the energy would solidify into entropy metal, since this metal was unstable enough on an atomic level that it could basically go straight from a solid to a plasma state of matter. Also, Annabeth was already acquainted with entropy metal. It was finally finished. Mine and Leo's greatest masterpiece ever.

The next day, I polished our invention, and wrapped it in a box ready to take to Annabeth. She had finally woken and I was overjoyed. When she first saw me, her expression morphed into one of sadness, and she looked away. The next second, she became extremely happy to seem to see me. We hugged, kissed. And finally, everything went back to normal. Her arm had been healed, it was only a stump now.
"Hey, you feeling alright now?"
"Yeah, I'm fine"

"I got you a gift."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah."

I took it out, giving it to her, she unwrapped, and I helped, since she only had a single arm. When she saw it, her eyes lit up. I helped her attach it to her arm, and she winced.

"Oh, yeah, it might sting a little by the way."

She grinned, and flexed her arm, curling her bony, shiny fingers.

"Now you tell me."

I chuckled

"Try it out. You have to mentally summon yourself an arm. Will the little devices to turn on, and they will, creating an exoskeleton of an arm."

She concentrated for a second, and her arm flashed bright, dimming, until it was just metal, with intricate designs carved into it. Her smile was wider than ever and she kissed me.

"You can manipulate it to be anything you want. The devices will rearrange in order to make a different shape. Oh, and sorry about cutting it off in the first place.

"It's fine Seaweed brain. You saved my life. Did you make this alone?"

"Leo helped. Alot."

She nodded wisely.

"Obviously. I was wondering since when you knew that humans had bones."

"Hey!"

"I love you Percy. Thank you for everything so far. Remember me, alright?"

I didn't question what she said, because maybe she had heard me and remembered me before. All I could say was-

"I love you too, Annabeth. And I'm going to make sure that no one forgets you, until there isn't a living soul."

And that I would make sure.