"Annie, I don't know if I can be fixed."

Those few words echoed in her mind over and over, tearing through her body as she tried to formulate a response. "What's wrong?" She'd only managed to choke out, heart pounding in her chest. Would he tell her? Would he open up?

Percy paused, then shook his head. "I can't."

"Can't what?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he said, his voice sounding rough. "Please let me be."

"Percy, I can't help if you don't-"

"Leave me alone! Go!" He pulled himself away from her, his expression contorted into a mixture of pain, worry and anger. "Leave!" Annabeth froze in shock, staring at him for several moments before she cautiously moved forward, which she quickly realized was a bad mistake. Never corner a frightened animal, ever- It was common sense. 

It hit her too late- Percy's foot planted itself against her chest and shoved.

She was staring at the ceiling, her vision distorted and spinning slightly. She'd fallen off the bed and hit the back of her head against the floor, from what she could gather, weakly using her shaking arms to push herself into a sitting position. Percy had hurt her.

Percy had kicked her. She always assumed, no matter what, Percy would never hurt her. Not ever. But here she was, head throbbing as she focused her vision on a horrified looking Percy.

"Percy-.."

"No," he whispered, shaking his head. "No no no. No. Leave me alone, leave her alone, I don't-" he paused, as if listening to a voice, his eyes hardening and softening, going from furious to petrified over the span of several seconds, clearly fighting with himself.

"Fight it, Percy," Annabeth whispered, her voice hoarse as she coughed. "You know you're not like this."

He clutched his head, pulling at his hair, gasping for air as he shook his head, making soft whimpering noises before he froze, gently pulling his hands away looking over them with a blank expression. Annabeth's heart stopped as he slowly looked up at her, a vile smirk crossing his features.

"Why hello, Annabeth. So... lovely to meet you again."

Tears welled up in her eyes as she crawled forward, letting out a soft sob. "Give me Percy back, please."

He scoffed, seeming annoyed as he sneered down at her in what appeared to be disgust. "You'll never get it, will you? I am Percy."

She reached out a hand, resting it on his knee, vision still swimming. "No. The Percy I love is in there. I want him back. Please." She let out a weak sob, lower lip trembling. "I want him back."

"Didn't you do your research? Didn't you already know what this was? You were spying on him, after all."

Annabeth swallowed. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh please. You injected a son of Poseidon with a water-based substance and expect him to not realize? He refused to believe that you would do such a thing- He's always been fucking stupid, completely spurning all evidence that you're a nosy fucking bitch." He moved to stand suddenly, making Annabeth skitter back warily. He smirked- Not in the goofy Percy way after making a sly joke, no, this was a 'that's right, back down. You know I'm better than you' kind of way.

The door opened, distracting... Percy? Was this Percy? For long enough for Annabeth to scramble to the other side of the cabin, pressing her back against the wall, panic settling in. What if... he tried to attack her, or someone else? He had a weapon on him, none of them did. They were all in the armory, far out of reach- not that any of them could take Percy in hand-to-hand combat anyways. They'd all have to fight together for it to work.

"Annabeth?" Nico questioned, brows furrowed, "what's going on? Are you okay?"

"Nico," Annabeth breathed, not letting her eyes leave Percy's, who was watching in what seemed like idle boredom, arms crossed over his chest. "He's... It's not Percy." Nico's already fair skin went several shades whiter, all the blood draining from his face.

Percy sighed, sounding irritated. "I am Percy, how dense can you be? I thought you guys did research." He took a step towards Annabeth, sea green eyes gone murky, like a swamp filled with fungi and mold.

"Percy, this... This isn't you," Annabeth whispered, shaking her head, standing her ground as Percy slowly stalked closer. Blood rushed in her ears, her heartbeat sounding both right between her ears and a thousand miles away, at the end of a dark tunnel she'd never reach the end of. "Please, Percy, bring yourself back. Just come back. We can help you if you can get over this, please," she begged. He was standing right in front of her now, looking down at her with a look of disgust.

"It's too late, Annabeth. He tried to put me away in the back of the closet- But that's the thing. No matter how far you bury the body, it doesn't go away." He leaned down so he was face to face with her, tilting his head slightly, his face less than three inches away from her own. "And now I've crawled back to the surface, and there's nothing he can do about it."

He smirked, fanning his eyes over her features before grabbing her roughly by the chin, making her cry out in pain. Percy had never hurt her before, never- Not even on accident. He was always so careful, so gentle with her. "P-Percy, please-"

Percy pretended to pout, furrowing his brows. "What's wrong, Annie? You're not scared of your boyfriend, are you?" He clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "Such a shame. You know, he wanted to propose to you on his birthday- You guys' anniversary. Isn't that so sweet?"

"Don't touch me," she snapped, infuriated at the mocking this alter ego of Percy was doing, but he only smirked.

"That's not what you were saying the other day. Tell me, Annabeth..." He paused, blinking, his head twitching to the side, face shriveling up into a sneer. "Shut up," he growled, glaring at nothing in particular before suddenly slamming his hand against Annabeth's throat, making her gasp, fingers reaching up to claw at the obstruction to her breath. "I said shut up! Shut the fuck up or I'll hurt her!"

Panic flooded her body. This... Thing, was strangling her in Percy's body. Pressure built up in her ears, unable to think about anything beyond what was happening at the very moment. She dug her fingernails into his hand, desperately trying to claw her way to get him to stop. Due to their close proximity, she wasn't able to kick him where it hurt, leaving her only to kick weakly at his shins.

Percy, let him have control. He's going to kill me if you don't.

Her vision started to fade around the edges, blood rushing past her ears. Somewhere in the back of her head, she wondered where Nico had gone. Her body, struggling to function without oxygen, was growing weak. She tried to look around, to find anything that could help her, but there was nothing. No objects, and he was too strong for her to overpower him with brute force.

"Percy," she gasped, her voice raspy and barely there. She meant to tell him to let this alt free, to let him take control until they had a way to get him back, but all she could manage were high-pitched squeaking noises. She felt humiliated, being taken down this easily.

Just as the blackness on the edges of her vision were starting to finally cloak her vision, there was a loud grunt and Percy stumbled back.

She dropped to her knees, gasping for air. Her knees and wrists stung from landing roughly on the wooden floors, her vision pulsating and spinning. She felt a hand at her arm and flinched away, but the hand was smaller, more delicate. "Hey, hey, it's okay, it's Piper, are you okay?"

Annabeth gasped, her body so desperate for oxygen that she couldn't focus on anything except that, swaying slightly. "Woah, hey, it's okay. Jason, watch out!"

"Shit- Sorry Pipes," a deep voice grunted, the sound of something splintering getting Annabeth to look up but Piper turned her head back towards her kaleidoscope eyes.

"No, don't look," Piper coaxed, another set of hands at Annabeth's right side making her jump, but with her vision back she could see that it was Hazel.

"C'mon honey, we need to get out," Hazel spoke gently, the two girls helping Annabeth to her feet and leading her out of the cabin, despite the sounds of fighting behind them.

"P-Percy- He's still-"

"We're just going to restrain him, don't worry," Hazel soothed, "we know he's still in there. It's okay. Just focus on breathing. Nico, Jason, and Frank are working on it. Leo's trying to see if the Apollo kids have a sedative. Hazel, go get Chiron. Hurry!"

"He knew," Annabeth choked out, coughing as she stumbled into Piper for support. "He knew about the serum. That's what tipped him over the edge. We-" cough, "we caused this. He was holding him back on his own."

"We were just trying to help," Piper promised, though her eyes held uncertainty. "You're Percy's weakness, so we need to get you hidden until Percy can get back in control of himself, otherwise this... Alt Percy will use you to get complete control."

"Is... Is there anything I can do?" Annabeth asked as Piper led her towards the arena. "Stay safe, and don't make any noise. No matter what happens, don't try to help us. You staying hidden is the difference between saving Percy or not at this point."

Annabeth took a deep breath, nodding, stumbling slightly. "O-Okay."

Piper led her all the way back behind the arena, into the woods and around an edge where they was an abandoned, rusted-over car, covered by moss and dirt, but the right side had a door that barely opened.

"Crawl in there and lay in the back seat. Don't move until someone comes to get you, okay?"

Annabeth coughed weakly but nodded. "Okay. Okay." Piper shut the door behind her, peering in through the window, looking pained.

"Pipes?"

"Yeah Annie?"

Annabeth hesitated, letting her head drop back against the door buried in dirt. "Be careful. Please don't hurt him."

Piper nodded, tossing her a dagger and brandishing her own as she looked around. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she just nodded again, climbing up onto the car and running back towards camp.

Annabeth shivered, curling up on herself and staring at the rust on the opposite side of the door, trying to figure out how to get Percy back to himself.