I'VE PUT ON A FEW MILLION EXTRA POUNDS

Cammie's Pov.

I-I really hate to admit it, but holding up the sky, even with Artemis' help, was really taking its toll on me. My muscles were engulfed in fire, and I could feel my limbs shaking with exhaustion. My vision was starting to blur, my breaths coming out in short shallow pants. My throat went raw with all the screaming I had been doing, but all that yelling had left me tired, and my skin glistened with sweat.

I swung in and out of focus, not really hearing what was going on. Something about a father? Atlas being a father. Whose father? He was my father? No, no that's why she had said. Who had said? I lifted my head up and took a quick inventory. Percy, Thalia, Luke, Annabeth…Hunter chick? She looked upset. She must be his daughter. She sort of looked like him. He had that cold look in his eyes I had seen when I talked to her over the Idris message. She didn't look like that anymore. She just looked upset…really upset…who was upset again?

"Let Artemis go," she demanded.

Atlas walked closer to me and Artemis. "Perhaps you'd like to take the sky for her then? Maybe you can help this poor creature as well."

Poor creature…? Oh, me—I was the poor creature.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but Artemis said, "No! Do not offer, Zoe! I forbid you!"

Atlas smirked. He knelt next to Artemis and tried to touch her face, but the goddess bit at him, almost taking off his fingers.

"Hoo-hoo," Atlas chuckled. "You see, daughter? Lady Artemis likes her new job. I think I will have all the Olympians take turns carrying my burden, once Lord Kronos rules again, and this is the center of our palace. It will teach those weaklings some humility."

I looked at Annabeth. She looked different. Tired, her hair streaking with gray. Gray was a good look in her eyes, not her hair. It must have been from holding up the sky. She looked the picture of near death. At least I had help holding up the sky. I wondered if that was how I was going to look after this. She was staring at Percy, and it looked like she was trying to tell him something. She motioned her head toward Luke. Percy just stared back at her in confusion.

Thalia was saying something to Percy. Percy said something back. I had a hard time hearing, so I couldn't make it out. It sounded like something along the lines of 'letting the sky go'.

Atlas suddenly laughed. "How little you understand, young one. This is the point where the sky and the earth first met, where Ouranos and Gaia first brought forth their mighty children, the Titans. The sky still yearns to embrace the earth. Someone must hold it at bay, or it would crush down upon this place, instantly flattening the mountain and everything within a hundred leagues. Once you have taken the burden, there is no escape." Atlas look towards me. "It's a heavy burden. It can kill you."

Percy cursed, lurching towards him, but Thalia held him back.

Atlas approached them, studying the two. "So these are the best heroes of the age, eh? Not much of a challenge."

"Fight us," Percy growled. "And let's see."

"Have the gods taught you nothing? An immortal does not fight a mere mortal directly. It is beneath our dignity. I will have Luke crush you instead."

"Another coward," I panted softly.

Atlas heard, and turned his glowering eyes towards me. They burned with hate. With difficulty, he turned his attention to Thalia.

"As for you, daughter of Zeus, it seems Luke was wrong about you."

"I wasn't wrong," Luke managed. He looked terribly weak, and he spoke every word as if it were painful. If I didn't hate his guts so much, I almost would've felt sorry for him. "Thalia, you can still join us. Call the Ophiotaurus. It will come to you. Look!"

He waved his hand, and next to them, a pool of water appeared: a pond ringed in black marble. Percy looked absolutely horrified.

"Thalia, call the Ophiotaurus," Luke persisted. "And you will be more powerful than the gods."

"Luke…" Her voice was full of pain. "What happened to you?"

"Don't you remember all those times we talked? All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world!"

Thalia shook her head. "Free Annabeth. Let her go."

"If you join me," Luke promised, "it can be like old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don't agree…"

His voice faltered. "It's my last chance. He will use the other way if you don't agree. Please."

I didn't know what he meant, but the fear in his voice sounded real enough. I had watched enough documentaries at Gallagher on hostage situations to know that Luke's life was on the line. Thalia was his ransom payer.

Maybe he was just a really great actor.

"Do not, Thalia," Zoe warned. "We must fight them."

Luke waved his hand again, and a fire appeared. A bronze brazier, just like the one at camp. A sacrificial flame. This was bad, this was really, really bad.

"Thalia," Percy said. "No."

Behind Luke, the golden sarcophagus began to glow. As it did, I saw images in the mist all around us: black marble walls rising, the ruins becoming whole, a terrible and beautiful palace rising around us, made of fear and shadow.

"We will raise Mount Othrys right here," Luke promised, in a voice so strained it was hardly his. "Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak."

He pointed toward the ocean, and I could barely see from my crouched possition. Marching up the side of the mountain, from the beach where the Princess Andromeda was docked, was a great army. Dracaenae and Laestrygonians, monsters and half-bloods, hell hounds, harpies, and other things I couldn't even name. The whole ship must've been emptied, because there were hundreds, maybe more than we'd seen on the board last summer. And they were marching toward the mountain. In a few minutes, they'd be here.

"This is only a taste of what is to come," Luke said. "Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help."

For a terrible moment, Thalia hesitated. She gazed at Luke, her eyes full of pain, as if the only thing she wanted in the world was to believe him.

That look made me panic. I wanted to believe she would do the right thing, but that look in her eyes…

"Thalia," I said as loud as I could. She turned to me. "I know his sob story is really good…I mean, dang, it's beautiful. And it resonates in your heart and all that jazz, but there is no excuse, none, for what he's doing."

Luke glared at me. "Shut up. Just shut up!"

But I had caught Thalia's attention. And for as long as I had it, I was going to make it count.

"He's angry at his dad, just like all of us are, so he's taking his anger out on the world. He doesn't care about anything else but himself. Sure, he makes it sound like he's all for righting the wrongs done to you, but look at what he's done to Annabeth. Look at what he's asking you to do. He's asking you to bring down the world for him. Be realistic. That's not the Luke you know."

Luke started protesting, but Thalia and I's eyes were connected, and I could tell she wasn't listening to him. She closed her eyes, blinking away tears, before turning back to Luke, and leveling her spear. "She's right. You aren't Luke. I don't know you. Not anymore."

"Yes," Luke said brokenly. "Yes you do, Thalia. Please. Don't make me…Don't make him destroy you."

Across the room, I heard my brother say, "Now."

And then they charged.

Thalia went straight for Luke. The power of her shield was so great that his dragon-women bodyguards fled in a panic, dropping the golden coffin and leaving him alone. But despite his sickly appearance, Luke was still quick with his sword. He snarled like a wild animal and counterattacked. When his sword, Backbiter, met Thalia's, a ball of lightning erupted between them, frying the air with yellow tendrils of power.

And then Percy—my sweet, darling brother, who I adore above all else, and held in the highest esteem—pulled the world's stupidest stunt. He attacked the Titan Lord Atlas.

He laughed as Percy approached. A huge javelin appeared in his hands. His silk melted into full Greek battle armor. "Go on, then!"

"Percy," Zoe said. "Beware."

Chiron had long ago warned us: Immortals are constrained by ancient rules. But a hero can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as he has the nerve. Once Percy attacked, however, Atlas was free to attack back directly, with all his might.

I wanted to scream as Atlas knocked him aside with the shaft of his javelin. He flew across the room, and hit the mist wall, that had materialized. The palace was rising. It was becoming real.

"Fool!" Atlas screamed gleefully, swatting aside one of the hunter girl's arrows. "Did you think, simply because you could challenge that petty war god, that you could stand up to me?"

Percy's back went ridged at the mention of Ares. He charged again.

Exhaustion took over me again, suddenly, and my head dropped with a groan.

"Let go," Artemis told me. "I can hold it."

"No," I whimpered. "I know you're a goddess, but you're the one who needs to get out of here in one piece."

"You are as stubborn as your father."

"At the moment, I can't tell if that's a compliment or not."

I lifted my head, just in time to see Percy's sword go to the ground. My eyes furrowed in confusion. He couldn't be tired already.

Then I remembered the war god's warning, spoken on the beach in Los Angeles, so long ago: When you need it most, your sword will fail you.

I was going to kill that guy for good next time I saw him.

"Go help my brother," I told the goddess next to me. "Take my sword from around my neck, give it to him and join the fight."

"You are foolish to think in your state you could hold it up on your own," Artemis said.

Suddenly, Percy was flying across the room, hitting the ground next to us.

"Percy!" I cried, yearning to reach down at him. "Percy, get up!"

Atlas was taking his time coming back. Percy's sword had skittered away over the edge of the cliff. It would take too long for it to reappear. He'd be dead. Thalia and Luke were fighting like demons, lightning crackling around them. Annabeth was on the ground, desperately struggling to free her hands.

"Die little hero," Atlas said.

"No!" I screamed, about to drop the sky in a desperate attempt to save him.

Atlas raised his javelin.

"No!" Zoe yelled, and a volley of silver arrows sprouted from the armpit chink in Atlas's armor.

"ARGH!" He bellowed and turned toward his daughter.

Percy reached in his pocket for Riptide, but it hadn't appeared back yet. "Percy, take my sword," I pleaded. "Please, just take it.

He shook his head. "Even with a sword, I can't fight him. The prophecy even said so. The Titan's curse must one withstand. I don't stand a chance."

"You don't' stand a chance if you don't fight," I growled. "Don't give up!"

"I can't." Percy looked to Artemis. "But you can."

"No boy," Artemis said. Her forehead was beaded with metallic swear. "If I give her the sky, she will be crushed!"

"She won't hold it alone," he promised. "I'm going to hold it with her."

Percy took my necklace from around my neck, and it extended into its celestial bronze form, slashing through the goddess's chains. Then he stepped next to her and braced himself on one knee, holding up his hands, and touched the sky. For a moment, all three of us bore the weight together. It was still the heaviest thing I'd ever taken.

Then Artemis slipped out from under the burden, and it was just me and Percy.

Things got worse again, and I could see the look of pain roll across Percy's face. He started to buckle under the weight, as did I, having the strength my brother over that of an immortal goddess. Percy started to pant.

"Perc," I gasped. "Percy, come on, hold on in there. You have to be strong."

"S-stronger than you," he wheezed. "Any day."

I chuckled breathily at that. "At least your humor wasn't crushed."

My vision blurred again. I only caught glimpses of the battle. There was Atlas in full battle armor, jabbing with his javelin, laughing insanely as he fought. And Artemis, a blur of silver. She had two wicked hunting knives, each as long as her arm, and she slashed wildly at the Titan, dodging and leaping with unbelievable grace. She seemed to change form as she maneuvered. She was a tiger, a gazelle, a bear, a falcon. She was stunning as she shifted and attacked. I could see the goddess in her. Zoe shot arrows at her father, aiming for the chinks in his armor. He roared in pain each time one found its mark, but they affected him like bee stings. He just got madder and kept fighting.

"I don't know if I'm seeing that quite right," Percy mumbled, squinting at the fight.

I looked up at him now. "I'm still not quite sure that you're really here," I confessed. "It all just seems too…good to be true." I wanted to cry, because Percy was alive. He wasn't one to die, and as horrible as it sounded, I was glad it was someone else.

"Shh, shh," he soothed, and I realized I was crying.

"I'm just really happy to see you," I sobbed.

He extended his head towards me, touching our foreheads together. "Same."

"I didn't know if you had made it or not."

"I would never die. Not until I found you."

Having him here was like a weight being lifted off my shoulder (obviously, only metaphorically).

"I've been annoying everyone," he said, taking my mind off of the sky above me. "I haven't stopped talking about you since you fell. I kept telling everyone I knew you weren't dead until their ears bled."

"You really didn't think I was dead?"

"Not even for a second."

I could tell the sky was really taking a toll on him. His forehead was soaked with sweat, and his breath was shallowing, but he still smiled for me. Gods I missed him. I pressed my forehead back, and there was some kind of sizzle as our connection came back full force. I could see inside his head again, his love for me reaching out to me.

Percy? I thought.

His smile widened. Cam!

We both started laughing in glee.

Thalia and Luke went spear on sword, lighting still flashing around them. Thalia pressed Luke back with the aura of her shield. Even he was not immune to it. He retreated, wincing and growling in frustration.

"Yield!" Thalia yelled. "You never could beat me, Luke."

He bared his teeth. "We'll see, my old friend."

Atlas advanced, pressing Artemis. She was fast, but his strength was unstoppable. His javelin slammed into the earth where Artemis had been a split second before, and a fissure opened in the rocks. He leaped over it and kept pursuing her. She was leading him back towards us.

She's going to trick him into taking back the sky! I thought.

How? Percy asked. He won't willingly take it.

I have a plan, Artemis said in our heads. Get ready.

"You fight well for a girl," Atlas laughed. "But you are no match for me."

He feinted with the tip of his javelin and Artemis dodged. I saw the trick coming. Atlas's javelin swept around and knocked Artemis's legs off the ground. She fell, and Atlas brought up his javelin tip for the kill.

"No!" Zoe screamed. She leaped between her father and Artemis and shot an arrow straight into the Titan's forehead, where it lodged like a unicorn's horn. Atlas bellowed in rage. He swept aside his daughter with the back of his hand, sending her flying into the black rocks.

I could feel Percy's panic. Neither one of us could see where Zoe had landed. Atlas turned on Artemis with a look of triumph. Artemis seemed to be wounded. She didn't get up.

"The first blood in a new war," Atlas gloated. And he stabbed downward.

As fast as thought, Artemis grabbed his javelin shaft. It hit the earth right next to her and she pulled backwards, using the javelin like a lever, kicking the Titan Lord and sending him flying over her. I saw him coming down on top of me and I realized what would happen. Ready, I asked Percy. He nodded. Both of us loosened our grip on the sky, and as Atlas slammed into us, didn't try to hold on. Percy wrapped his arms around me and we started to roll away.

The weight of the sky dropped onto Atlas's back, almost smashing him flat until he managed to get to his knees, struggling to get out from under the crushing weight of the sky. But it was too late.

"Noooo!" He bellowed so hard it took the mountain. "Not again!"

Atlas was trapped under his old burden.

Percy and I lay on our back, panting, dazed from pain. He reached out and took my hand with a groan. "That really sucked."

Thalia backed Luke to the edge of a cliff, but still they fought on, next to the golden coffin. Thalia had tears in her eyes. Luke had a bloody slash across his chest and his pale face glistened with sweat.

He lunged at Thalia and she slammed him with her shield. Luke's sword spun out of his hands and clattered to the rocks. Thalia put her spear point to his throat.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Well?" Luke asked. He tried to hide it, but I could hear fear in his voice.

Thalia trembled with fury.

Behind her, Annabeth came scrambling, finally free from her bonds. Her face was bruised and streaked with dirt. "Don't kill him!"

"He's a traitor," Thalia said. "A traitor!"

In my daze, I realized that Artemis was no longer with us. She had run off toward the black rocks where her hunter had fallen.

"We'll bring him back," Annabeth pleaded. "To Olympus. He…he'll be useful."

"Is that what you want, Thalia?" Luke sneered. "To go back to Olympus in triumph? To please your dad?"

Thalia hesitated, and Luke made a desperate grab for her spear.

"No!" Annabeth shouted. But it was too late. Without thinking, Thalia kicked Luke away. He lost his balance, terror on his face, and then he fell.

"Luke!" Annabeth screamed.

We rushed to the cliff's edge. Below us, the army from the Princess Andromeda had stopped in amazement. They were starting at Luke's broken form on the rocks. Despite how much I hated him, I couldn't stand to see it. I wanted to believe he was still alive, but a voice that suspiciously sounded just like Liz's told me there was just no way. The fall was fifty feet at least, and he wasn't moving.

One of the giants looked up and growled, "Kill them!"

Thalia was stiff with grief, tears streaming down her cheeks. Percy jumped up, pulling her back as a wave of javelins sailed over our heads. We ran for the rocks, ignoring the curses and threats of Atlas as we passed.

"Artemis!" I yelled.

The goddess looked up, her face almost as grief-stricken as Thalia's. Zoe lay in the goddess's arms. She was breathing. Her eyes were open. But still…

"The wound is poisoned," Artemis said.

"Atlas poisoned her?" I asked.

"No," Percy said. "Not Atlas…Ladon."

Artemis showed us the wound in Zoe's side. It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

"The stars," Zoe murmured. "I cannot see them."

"Nectar and ambrosia," Percy said. "Come on! Does anyone have any?"

No one moved. Grief hung in the air. The army of Kronos was just below the rise. Even Artemis was too shocked to stir. We might've met our doom right there, but then I heard a strange buzzing noise.

Just as the army of monsters came over the hill, a Sopwith Camel swooped down out of the sky.

"Get away from my daughter!" some man driving the plane called down, and his machine guns burst to life, peppering the ground with bullet holes and startling the whole group of monsters into scattering.

"Who the heck is he!?" I yelled over the plane engine.

"Dad?" yelled Annabeth in disbelief.

"Run!" he called back, his voice growing fainter as the biplane swooped by.

This shocked Artemis out of her grief. She stared up at the antique plane, which was now banking around for another strafe.

"A brave man," Artemis said with grudging approval. "Come. We must get Zoe away from here."

She raised her hunting horn to her lips, and its clear sound echoed down the valleys of Marin. Zoe's eyes were fluttering.

"Hang in there!" Percy told her. "It'll be all right!"

The Sopwith Camel swooped down again. A few giants threw javelins, and one flew straight between the wings of the plane, but the machine guns blazed. I realized with amazement that somehow Dr. Chase must've gotten hold of celestial bronze to fashion his bullets. The first row of snake women wailed as the machine gun's volley blew them into sulfurous yellow powder.

"That's…my dad!" Annabeth said in amazement.

"Your dad is awesome," I told her.

We didn't have much time to admire his flying. The giants and snake women were already recovering from their surprise. Dr. Chase would be in trouble soon.

Just then, the moonlight brightened, and a silver chariot appeared from the sky, drawn by the most beautiful deer I had ever seen. It landed next to us.

"Get in," Artemis said.

I helped Annabeth get Thalia on board as Percy helped Artemis with Zoe. She was wrapped in a blanket as soon as she was set down, and Artemis pulled the reins and the chariot sped away from the mountain, straight into the air.

"Like Santa Claus's sleigh," Percy murmured.

"Only cooler," I said.

Artemis took time to look back at us. "And where did you think that legend came from?"

Seeing us safely away, Dr. Chase turned his biplane and followed us like an honor guard. It must have been one of the strangest sights ever, even for the Bay Area: a silver flying chariot pulled by deer, escorted by a Sopwith Camel.

Behind us, the army of Kronos roared in anger as they gathered on the summit of Mount Tamalpais, but the loudest sound was the voice of Atlas, bellowed curses against the gods as he struggled under the weight of the sky.

Another chapter out, and within my two-week goal! I know a lot of you wanted it out in a week, but I just started a new job and I've had to adjust. So the next chapter should be out in two weeks. I'm really amazed at the response from the last chapter, it was amazing guys! I've never felt so much love X) Seriously, guys, it motivates me, and reminds me people actually do read this story, so thanks a ton!

Lots of love, my nerdletts.