A/N I am sorry for not updating for a while, I had my German GCSE oral exam today and my French one on Thursday. This Monday I will go on study leave, I am not sure how uploading will work when I am on study leave so I will try and tell you soon.

Chapter 28

Perseus' POV

Atlas, Thalia, Phoebe and I were sitting in the back of the pickup truck in silence as we passed California border.

Atlas had his eyes closed. I believed him to be sleeping but I was not sure. Phoebe was sharpening her knife with a whetstone, and Thalia was spinning one round her finger. I looked into the front and Luke was still doggedly driving doing his best to look unsuspicious to any other cars. Zoe was glancing in the mirror to check on us every now and then, but for the most part was trying to get some sleep.

Line break

I shot awake. I heard a chuckle from beside me and I saw Atlas looking at me. He pointed ahead. I followed where he was pointing. A huge mountain was about a mile in front of us. (Well it was quite big but considering I spend about ten years around Mt Kilimanjaro it was actually quite small) "Mt Tam?" I asked Atlas. He nodded grimly.

I looked at the others and they had all fallen asleep as well. I looked in the front and Zoe and Luke must have switched as Luke was asleep in the passenger seat and Zoe was driving. Probably because she knew where it was we were going.

I shook Phoebe and Thalia awake. They both got up with surprisingly minimal fuss. I pointed to the mountain, "That there is Mt Tam, otherwise known as Mt Othrys. We will need to get past the garden of the Hesperidites and then into the throne room," I thought for a second, "Actually they are Atlas' daughters so they should not be that hard to get past." The two girls nodded as did Luke who was facing back at me from the front.

We stopped about a hundred metres from the foot of the mountain.

We got out and walked on up the mountain.

After a good hour of walking the mist both magical and mortal started to get thicker.

After another minute we stepped out of the mist and a beautiful garden was revealed. I stopped and glancing around, I saw everyone else did as well. I sighed and took a step into the garden. As soon as I did so four figures shimmered into existence. As they did so I saw Zoe tense involuntarily. The girls were wearing identical Greek chitons, and they had very similar features to Zoe, with the same caramel coloured skin and the same black hair.

They started to speak but one of them noticed Atlas with us. "Father?" she said hesitantly. He nodded and the girl rushed forward to be embraced by him. The other three looked on in shock, after a minute of acting shell shocked, they relaxed.

"Who are you?" the oldest one asked,

"I am Perseus, this is Thalia daughter of Zeus, Phoebe daughter of Ares and Luke son of Hermes, as well as your own sister Zoe." The girl nodded not even reacting to Zoe's name.

"What is your aim here?" she asked.

"We and your father are going to go up to the Othrys throne room, rescue Artemis and beat the crap out of any titans." I replied.

"Why would our father help you?" She asked.

I smirked at that, "It was Hades and I that got him out of his burden, he happens to be one of my friends." Her and her sisters' eyes opened in shock and Atlas nodded to them in confirmation.

She looked at her sisters and they came to a silent agreement, "As long as you do not try to get any of the apples, we will not stop you or, convince Ladon to stop you."

"Thank you," I said, the three demigods nodded at her and Zoe just glared. Atlas released himself from his daughter's embrace and followed us up the mountain.

We took a long route round Ladon. He raised a couple of heads to look at us. They followed our progress but he made no move to attack us.

We got to the end of the garden. We walked on until we came upon some ruins. I shook my head, "It is much larger than before," Atlas nodded in agreement.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked,

"At the end of the titan war Mt Othrys was obliterated, then when I was last here it had grown a little but I attributed that to Atlas being free, however now it is even larger and it looks to be still growing," I said pointing to a obsidian brick coming into existence.

Luke nodded in understanding.

We strode into the room and Artemis was in the centre of the room struggling under the weight of the sky. Zoe and Phoebe rushed forward. At her side was Annabeth. Luke and Thalia rushed towards her. Atlas and I however stayed back to look for any of the titans.

Sure enough Perses, Pallas and Krios walked into the room. They each pulled out a spear and a shield. Atlas did the same and as they all summoned armour. I drew my two swords. Artemis noticed them and told the demigods, they all turned to the three titans. As they were about to charge them about a hundred monsters came in behind them.

"Atlas my friend, you can save yourself and join us," Krios said already knowing us. Atlas just shook his head. The four demigods ran forward and they were intercepted by the monsters. The three titans stalked towards us, and I knew we were in trouble. I knew that Atlas and I could take on any two of them with relative comfort. Unfortunately not only were there three of them, two of them were tying third of any of the titans in combat and there were three of them. I gave a quick glance at Annabeth and Artemis and they were both staring at the two of us. I met eyes with Artemis for a second and I gave her a reassuring smile. However we both knew that we were all in a bit of trouble. The three of them charged us and Krios jabbed his spear at me, I blocked it with one sword and countered with my other one. He blocked it with his shield and I was forced to go to ground to avoid a strike from Perses, Pallas and Atlas was in a heated exchange of blows. I knew Atlas' plan, I had two weapons and the invulnerable skin so I would be able to hold off the two titans and keep them off his back. Unfortunately that meant that I was constantly being forced back.

I rolled under a spear strike and was struck in the back with a shield as soon as I rose up. I flew into the wall and immediately knew that it was Krios who had hit me. Stupid force magnifying invulnerable shield, I thought as I pulled myself out of the wall. I shadow travelled in front of Perses to stop him from striking at Atlas while I was busy. I then retained my job of trying to keep the two titans at bay.

Thalia's POV

We charged at the titans knowing that the monsters would intercept us. We just had to hope that Perseus and Atlas were enough to stop the three titans or at least hold them off. We tore through the monsters quickly enough and looked to join our two companions. As soon as we moved to do so a fireball came out of nowhere and hit Luke in the chest, he flew past me and into a wall. I whipped around as did the two huntresses, standing there holding a torch was Hecate. She smirked at us and Phoebe ran forward to engage her while Zoe started to shoot arrows at her. I took a quick glance around the room and knew what I needed to do.

I ran over to Artemis and cut her chains with my knife. "No Thalia," she said, "It will crush you."

I shook my head, "I will take it until you can force one of the titans under it." After that I crouched under it and pushed up.

Perseus' POV

When I saw Luke fly past I knew that we were in even more trouble. When, out of the corner of my eye I saw Thalia push Artemis out from under the sky. I knew that we might just get out of here alive. As Perses was about to stab me in the stomach for the third time tonight a flash of silver deflected it out of the way. Perses' and Krios' eyes widened in shock, I smirked. Atlas and I might fight well together but Artemis and I have been fighting together for about 15 hundred years. She shot forward leaving herself open to attack from Krios. He took the bait and jabbed forward. I deflected it at the same time as I sliced down. It was timed perfectly with when Artemis kicked his shield and flipped over Perses. I sliced off Krios' unguarded arm and he collapsed to the ground. Perses whirled around and I put my sword to the back of his neck. He stiffened and sighed, he knew where he was going. I grabbed Krios' shield and I swung it at his back. He shot towards Thalia knocking her out of the way. He grunted in pain as the burden moved to him.

I turned to see Krios and a defeated Pallas flash out. I grunted in annoyance. I looked at Hecate and once she noticed her allies were defeated she also flashed out.

A/N I hope that you enjoyed a slightly longer chapter this time. I will probably update again in the next few days so look out for that.

Thanks for reading and this is HCS signing off.