Heracleidae - Two Shot

Percy was confused.

Now, that wasn't anything new.

As far as he was concerned, he'd been confused over a great deal of things since Mrs. Dodds tried to kill him because she thought he had stolen her bosses' fancy hat. He'd been given a pen-sword and then popped her like a balloon filled with golden glitter.

Everything since then? Pure confusion.

Suddenly gods were real and he was supposed to be the son of one. Then he was accused of stealing the top god's tinfoil prop and got into a heap of trouble since his dad and Zeus were having a pissing match.

Long story short, he found the explosive lightning of doom, cleared his name, and exposed the real culprit.

Oh! And he also saved his mother after she was godnapped.

Yes, godnapping was a thing. Moving on.

So, after going through a life threatening adventure. You'd expect he got some manner of rest or at least a reward for being so good at not dying?

Nope!

Sparky God went off to polish his lightning, told him not to take any airplanes and shooed him off.

Life as a demigod was confusing like that. You do the gods a solid and they decide whether you should live or die as a reward. But hey, at least he got to keep the monster head he mailed to them. Which ended up coming handy when her mother started her business as a statue maker.

He would like to believe he had gotten the hang of things better now. After sailing an ocean filled with monsters to save camp.

But he wouldn't dwell on details.

Apparently, he was wrong.

"Why are you pouring a cup of tea?" He asked the old butler, marveling at the duo of small china cups the man had liberated from a kitchen cabinet.

"How else are we supposed to drink tea, young Perseus?"

Well, okay. That made sense.

Only it didn't. Because there were six of them at the table, and eight cups on the tray.

"Hellooooooo party people!"

And then his answer, in the form of one Harry Potter of all people, climbed in through an open window. Plopping himself on the chair with them as if he'd always been part of the conversation before taking a sip of the tea.

Because of course he did.

"Oh Gods. You're back."

Percy's reaction wasn't one of dismay. Per se. But it was one of utter confusion. Because Bianca, the daughter of (one of) the gods who tried to kill him for stealing their favorite nick nacks simply used the door.

"Bugger." The Brit swore under his breath. "I would have thought I was at least ten minutes ahead of you."

"I took a bus."

"I knew I should have set out the caltrops."

"Excuse me." Mr. Chase stood up. "Who are you people? Are you with these other people? Why did you climb in through my window? What's going on here?"

Giving the old man a pitying look, the son of Poseidon simply smiled at him.

'Oh sweet summer child. How you shall soon learn.'

"I'm Harry Potter! And this is Bianca DeAngelo. Son of Heracles, Daughter of Hades. Badass and one fine piece of ass respectively!"

It was only the mortal who screamed when Zoe shot Harry in the face with an arrow. The teeneager didn't even have the decency to catch the thing when it bounced off his skin and embedded itself in the man's wall.

"Personally-" The British demigod continued unabated. "I would say it's more like they're with me. You know, me being the chosen one and all. Or at least a chosen one." He frowned for a moment. "Isn't there actually a dozen or so people with that title running around right now?" Shrugging, he returned to grinning like a loon. "Anyways, kind of sorta. And your window was the most direct path an African swallow, rather heavily laden of course, could have taken to get from there to the tea. Mind if I have a sip?"

Iolaus handed his ward a steaming cup as Mr. Chase simply stared at the strange boy like he was a particularly deranged wild animal.

'Is that really that far from the truth?'

Polishing off the steaming cup with a smack of the lips, he winked at the immortal virgins, clapped Percy on the back, and then fell into a chair.

"As to what's what. I'd say we're here to rescue the world's oldest spinster from a right massive cunt who decided he didn't like his immortal life sentence of holding up the sky. Problem is, I've had to kill a lot of people and we got split up. Bianca there, right bloody flash she is, managed to knife one or two of 'em but I still did the good work I did. Anyways, we got time for another cuppa and maybe a light tea?"

This time it was Percy that broke the somewhat stunned silence with a cough.

"We saved Bianca some leftovers. I think they're in the kitchen. But, uh, we didn't expect you for a while. Something about turning left in Albuquerque?"

Sliding out of the room, the Huntresses convened in the rather spotless, modern, and well reinforced kitchen to actually get a reasonable explanation of what had happened.

"Oh that. Well, the portkey, that's a form of magical transportation for you muggles, ended up dropping us way out of the way. So, Bianca being a wonderful little ducky, I asked her if she could shadow travel. Turns out, she hasn't figured it out. So I Iris called Mr. H, but he decided to blast me with something nasty for sticking his daughter in a bikini. 'Course, I told him she was like a sister to me."

Flashing a grin, Potter was the image of 'cheeky cunt'.

"Just like Hera was to Zeus. So he took exception, set a pack of Hellhounds on me, I whacked 'em over the nose a few times, didn't kill any though, sweet puppers just needed a touch of discipline, and asked Bianca to tell 'em where to go. We got almost here before Hades kicked me out of the portal early and, bless her soul she's a good lass, DiAngelo didn't leave me behind. After that, we let the wee little rippers go, gods above and below I hate that little shit Ripper, and started hoofing it. I stole a police horse, she caught a bus, and that was that!"

Nodding along, Percy actually understood most of what had happened.

"So how many sugary drinks did you have?"

"Before or after I started mocking the gods?"

"I'll let you tell me Harry."

The boy gave it a long second of thought, the longest period of time he had so far gone without speaking, before answering his cousin.

"Eight."

Percy just stared at him.

"Teen." Pausing for a moment, the Brit shrugged. "And then four redbulls. Yeah. Two cokes, a pitcher of about… twelve coffees, a dessert drink, something that tasted like haggis and made me see smells and taste colors, and then a pair of Irish coffees to finish it off."

Steepling his fingers, Perseus channeled every ounce of Annabeth he could.

"You are aware that you have likely committed multiple crimes, done several incredibly irresponsible things, and possibly made an enemy of Hades, yes?"

"Yeah, but it was funny!"

Sighing, he gave up.

"Fair enough cousin. Fair enough. As for your wall Mr. Chase, uh, I can't speak for the Hunt but maybe I can ask dad to send someone? Or compensate you for it. I think I've got some gold around here somewhere."

"No, no. It's fine. It's just drywall I think. Missed the bracing. Wait - where did that boy go?"

Glancing around, Percy realized that Harry had, in fact, disappeared and grunted in annoyance.

"He won't steal anything, but we should find him. He has stranger luck than me."

Splitting up, the pair began combing the house before, ultimately, Frederick called out.

"Percy. Could you come here please?"

Finding the pale, dark haired british boy, his eyes a sickly, glowing green, holding a wiggling spider in a grip with his thumb and forefinger, neither the demigod nor the mortal knew what not to do. Especially considering the horrible clicking and rasping noises coming out of his mouth.

"Don't… don't do anything sudden. He doesn't get like this often. I've never seen him… do that to an animal either."

There was a glare on the boy's face. Something dark and heavy. Like stormclouds pregnant with cutting, chilling, crushing rain. And then he squeezed his fingers together and the arachnid popped.

"Fucking whore. Athena should have just left her corpse to rot. Bloody gods and their bloody pride." Popping up, he sighed in annoyance. "Oi, Chase, Jackson. What do you know about spiders attacking Annabeth?"

Sharing a look, both men turned to each other and then to the boy. And his pride unwilling to let a child handle whatever was going on, the good Doctor Chase stepped forward.

"She mentioned they would come out at night and terrify her. No matter how much insecticide we used it never worked."

"Arachne's curse, I think?" Perseus followed up with. Harry nodded at this.

"Bloody bitch cursed your girlfriend Perse. Sent her babies to cover her in her sleep. Fuck with her head. Every. Single. Night. Tortured a toddler for being born to the wrong woman. Didn't stop till she got to camp."

Blanching, the old man held a hand over his heart.

"She told me but I didn't understand…."

Shrugging, the strange, magical child agreed.

"No one ever does. Not when it's spiders, not when it's a cupboard, not when it's bullies or elves or any other sort of nonsense. So don't feel too shit. You set aside a room in a new house for a girl that hasn't lived with you in years. Your eyes looked hurt when I told you about those pests. There's still love in there. Maybe that'll fix it, maybe it won't. Either way, I'm going to deal with your spider problem. Got a garden?"

Nodding, the man led the way. Falling to his knees, the boy in question began deftly maneuvering around a number of well manicured plants before finding a small rock and pulling it up from the ground. Sticking his fingers into the soil, a tiny garden snake coiled around his digits and sat in his palm as the two conversed.

Conversed, mind you, in rasping hisses.

Five minutes later, Harry rubbed the thing's head with his thumb and let the snake go.

"That was a curse, wasn't it Harry?"

Chase flinched, glancing at the two boys suddenly a bit worried.

"Yeah. Cursed any spiders that come onto the land. Mind holding out your thumb for me?"

Glancing at Perseus, the human waited for the boy to nod. Which the demigod did somewhat hesitantly. Harry, however, displayed none of their hesitation and pricked the man's thumb with his fingernail. And, as a drop of blood welled up and a ray of light seemed to suck it up.

"Before you asked, I requested Apollo ask the snakes here to protect his sister's child. He agreed and it's anchored to her mortal blood, so it should go wherever her family goes too. But maybe make an offering or two to Apollo now and then, he's the one supplying the power for it."

The mortal nodded and Harry wandered off, still half glaring, before plopping down on the professor's back porch. Percy simply sighed and gestured for the man to come with him.

He seemed not quite as frightened as he expected.

"Sorry about that. Harry can be a bit…."

"Intense?" The man offered.

"Yeah. He's not exactly an average demigod. He doesn't stay over at camp with us and sees a lot of weird stuff over there in England."

Even now, after knowing the guy for two years, Percy still didn't quite have a grasp on the son of Heracles. It was like trying to talk to a comic book hero. Someone who seemed to be so used to the craziness of the gods and supernatural that he took everything they did in stride. Even when his life was threatened.

"I assume that's unusual?"

The son of Poseidon supposed that was another way to describe the crazy brit.

"He just seems larger than life, you know? Like the kind of stories you hear about heroes. We do stuff like that at camp, but for us its life and death. It's just something we have to do to survive."

Harry Potter wasn't like that.

He went off hunting after the Nemean Lion on a whim.

He sassed the gods and took the lumps that came with it as if it were a game. Percy would honestly be frightened if he didn't find the guy so damn likeable. Not to mention useful in a fight.

'By the Styx, can he be annoying though.' The son of Poseidon grouched. Feeling, for once, as if he were the responsible adult.

These were strange times indeed.

The ride to the Garden was, in one word, tense.

Harry couldn't blame them, even if he was bored out of his mind.

Everyone there seemed to have something personal at stake. Percy, Grover, and Mr. Chase wanted to rescue Annabeth. Thalia wanted to meet her friend turned crush turned traitor and get some answers out of him. Zoe and Bianca wanted to rescue Artemis from whatever ill fate befell her.

He, by contrast, had less intense reasons to come aboard.

Namely, the location itself.

The Garden of the Hesperides was the site of one of his father's most famous labours. The place where the Titan Atlas had been incarcerated as punishment following his defeat during the Titanomachia.

According to myth, his father had visited the Garden in search of the Apples of Immortality. Given to Hera by Gaea as a wedding gift and the rumored source of the greek god's immortality. Though it wasn't likely they were anything other than a bunch of pretty apples painted gold. Magically potent, without a doubt, but not conceptually or intrinsically linked to the metaphysical nature of what a "god" was.

At least not anymore.

Though, admittedly, the tense silence also might have something to deal with the older hunter staring at him.

Not glaring.

Not leering.

Not even measuring him up or, gods forbid, ogling him.

Oh no. That would be too easy to deal with. Instead all she did was look at him the same way one tried to read a sign in another language. Bewildered while trying to make sense of what was right in front of them. She wasn't even trying to intimidate him this time around.

Ever since he came back with Bianca in tow, Nightshade had been quiet. And for the life of him he couldn't figure out what was it that had her so subdued.

Outside of the obvious, of course.

They were returning to her original home. The place where her journey started with the fateful meeting with his father. It was probably a heavy decision for her. Not that he expected her to backtrack. She was devoted to the moon goddess through and through and wouldn't hesitate to storm Mount Othrys for her.

He knew he wouldn't have had it been his dad being held prisoner. Though he would have been surprised if that many people had actually cared. Heracles was a minor god nowadays, forgotten and locked away, far from where he could bother or embarrass anyone.

'Feeling self conscious, Young Lord?'

Harry's lips quirked ever so slightly upwards.

'No very gentlemanly to eavesdrop, uncle.'

A mental chuckle echoed through his brain, and he could feel the teasing smile forming on his spirit companion's face. Even though he wasn't currently physical.

'And you are deflecting. What is it that has the great Harry Potter acting so glum? Teenager phase? Hormones perhaps?'

Oh gods no.

'Please don't start talking like that. I get enough of it from Dobby.'

One excitable number one fan was enough for him. As much as Harry liked to be praised. He wanted to be praised for his deeds, not for the fact he was born. That was the same as praising his parents for doing the hanky panky at the exact time they did.

Not an image he'd like to keep in mind.

'I would imagine so. They were quite vigorous.'

Harry's stomach turned, cheeks growing green.

'Not one word more out of you, uncle. I do NOT need that image.'

Iolaus was a touch odd. For the obvious reasons, but also in that sometimes he would get quiet. He would grow somber and heavy and things would slow down. The weight of eternity, bearing down on an old soul, was a heavy thing to bear indeed.

It was what made even the energetic demigod pay attention when the man got serious.

'You feel there is something wrong about this arrangement?'

And as always, the man was spot on.

'It's not that I don't want to help them. I just feel like having me around may cause… issues.' It's not like he hadn't caused some of those already. Attacking the Boar and then Ares… who was probably another kind of swine.

'I just… feel like I don't have as much going on this adventure as they have.'

Even if he wanted to visit the Garden and challenge Atlas like his father had, this was doubtlessly not the time to let his thirst for a challenge get the best of him. They were on a rescue mission, not one of his… dalliances.

No one he loved had been taken.

No one had betrayed him.

And….

'Should I even be here… with her?' He dared not meet Nightshade's stare even now.

'Ah… I see it now.' The old spirit sighed. 'You regret your words to Atlas' daughter?'

'No.' He didn't need to think about it. 'I said what I meant and meant what I said. Whether it's to herself or me, a lie is a lie. And heroes don't lie. But I guess I like her? Not like, like her.' Harry cut off his friend's obvious jab before it could begin. 'But she's cool and oldschool and strong and tough and, well, I know she hates dad. Does that matter though?'

The silence prompted him to continue, Iolaus very clearly having little care for a woman who had insulted the man he loved and served. Even if he didn't wish harm on her, so too would he not particularly be bothered if she died screaming in utter agony. He was, ultimately, an almost three thousand year old undead spirit of a Greek Hero. In the painful, violent, classical sense.

'Unlike you or dad, she's mortal. I know she's got her blessing, but Artemis doesn't seem to actually make her girl scouts that much tougher. They're just a bit faster and stronger and I think half of that is just the nature of being blessed at all. So even with their magic archery skills surviving as long as she had - and through all the long, long years - well, that shows strength. Dad is a god and you're a spirit bound to him, you can't die, only fade. All of that means is that she's a three thousand year old teenager. And somehow she's staying true to herself. Even if she can be annoying.'

It was… admirable in its own way.

And of course, that made her even more of a hero in his eyes.

Surviving up to the current age despite hunting monsters for a living. Even if aided by a goddess, Harry could say with absolute certainty that he looked up to Zoe Nightshade as an example of what he wanted to achieve.

A life of adventures and challenges.

'That sounds nice.' He sighed wistfully. Harry Potter was a freak after all. He knew what he was. "Stop the car!"

Thalia, who had been driving, slammed on the breaks.

"What's going on? Why do we need to stop!?"

Taking a deep breath, the demigod pulled out his wand.

"No one move. We're standing inside a ward." Trying to remember what he was doing, he twirled the Holly focus a few times, channeling the smallest trickle of magic he could into it. "Crap. Definitely a ward."

"Can you defuse it?" Percy knew the most about magic amongst the group there, the rest either hadn't been exposed or simply hadn't cared enough to learn it. "What do we need to do? And do you know who set it?"

'What do you think Iolaus? This feels old-old. God old. But no god would be able to set this up so near the titans unless they were a traitor and this definitely feels like sky magic.'

Iolaus was beside him at a moment's notice, floating transparently in the air like one of Hogwarts' spectres.

"This presence…! It's hard to manifest, Harry. Someone is trying to prevent outside interference. The tether which ties me to your father has strained."

Bad news.

That was bad news!

"You must hurry before the Crooked One notices. You've avoided his eyes so far. But he will soon notice you trespassed into his dominion! Quickly… before… he…"

And then the spirit disappeared.

Banished back to its source.

"Bugger all." The british demigod spat. "Iolaus is gone. The big bad is watching, don't say his name, he's probably listening too. Let me think." Glancing at each other, the rest of the demigods shuffled nervously, hands going to weapons as they tried to prepare as much as they could in the magically expanded vehicle. "Ok. Ok. I think I've got something. Percy, there's a lot of mist out there. Can you try to… I dunno, spread your dad's power through it as much as you can? I'm gonna do something we don't want them noticing. And don't worry about giving us away, they already know we're here."

The son of Poseidon, however, was on the ball.

One thing very few people understood about the Mist was that it was actually the source of many magical powers. The means through which gods interacted with and hid from mortals. Magic was merely the means through which a few mortals could interact with the Mist.

So in a way, all demigods were magicals by birth.

And thus could… bend the rules a bit. Even more so than normal when they had a teacher to show them how to do it.

Harry had been very eager to induct his cousin into the club!

All around them, the group could watch as the windows started misting over, panes of glass growing foggy as droplets of water formed and floated around them. As if gravity had given up on holding them down and rain was pouring upwards, only to arch over the car and circle lazily above them.

He felt like they were looking through the window of a submarine.

"Cool!" He gave his cousin a thumbs up. "Been practicing, haven't you?"

His fellow green eyed boy smirked.

"Tyson sent me a book on Atlantean party tricks. This one should keep us invisible for a bit."

"If only it didn't smell like fish."

Thalia's comments got a few nervous giggles from Bianca but the rest of the group were a bit too nervous to do more than shake their heads.

"All right. So. From what I can feel, we're probably cut off and none of the gods can even really get close. On top of that, the mist and the Mist are both thick. That's part of the garden's protections, right? Can you see through it?"

Zoe struggled for a moment, trying to flex the divine muscle she possessed as a demi titan. Ultimately, she sighed and shook her head.

"No. I must apologize, I have not the ability to see through it. Perhaps mine sisters, or mine sire, has changed the nature of those hoary blessings."

Nodding, Harry concurred.

"Without a doubt, he was the one Sparky feared the most. And for good reason. He was strong and more cunning than Harvester ever was. I think it was only the fact everyone else distrusted him that prevented your old man from usurping great granddad. But that's ok." Harry grinned. "Because we can cheat."

Whipping out his nice, the wizard pulled off his right glove. Burying the tip into his skin, he sent a quick prayer to the God of Thieves, and cut.

"Holy crap! What are you doing!?"

Blood dripping from his hand, he smiled at Bianca and cleaned his knife.

"Making an offering. Watch."

Closing his fist, the blood squeezed out of his hand and began to collect on the floor. And, as it did, footsteps began to appear. First, they passed under the door of the VW, Harry gesturing for the rest of the group to follow as they pushed out and wrapped his hand up.

"Step exactly where they appear. Uncle Hermes is gonna get us through."

A touch macabre, watching bloody footprints seemingly appear from nothing, but as the group moved forward they all began to feel the increasing pressure of Mount Othrys. Oily and thick, cloying and almost like something rotten was filling their insides, the sheer dread and horror that poured out over them spoke to the ancient evils that had taken residence in their fortress once again.

"That is your weak point, boy?"

Zoe's words were soft, not a whisper, that would carry further in the fog, but still quiet.

"Yeah. When Dad held me in the Styx, I wanted to hold onto his hand because, you know. So it's the center of my palm. Lady Styx was actually pretty nice, all things considered, and her husband Lord Pallas was cool too. Even if he doesn't have any skin."

"Thou art aware of what thou hast shown me?"

He shrugged.

"If you wanted to kill me, you'd figure out another way."

She almost snorted, shaking her head.

"Perhaps."

And that was all there was to it. None of their group spoke again as they advanced in a line, eyes constantly trying to peer through the ever thicker mist. Ultimately, it was Zoe that called for a halt.

"Eucalyptus. We are almost there."

"Eucalyptus?"

She nodded at Percy's question.

"Monsters like to chew on it. Dragons, like gentle Ladon, especially."

Thalia and Biannca shared a look at the word "gentle" being used to describe a hundred headed anything. Both also, wisely, didn't comment.

"Run!"

A sudden shout, seemingly from nowhere and everywhere, filled the air as a bright light rocketed off, lightning streaking off after it in a rapid fire explosive volley. The sudden shaking of the ground echoing around them as the braying, screaming, ululating calls of an army of monsters filled the air around them.

They did not wait.

Lacking the bloody footprints to follow, the group instead fell into a heavy sprint behind Zoe. This was her home and, since they were close, she would have the best chance of leading them straight. Even if magic was blocking them. Of course, they were all demigods, and capable of running very, very fast, but they also weren't all the same heights. Bianca being the one with the smallest legs, meaning she set the pace.

So, instead of outrunning even world record sprinters, they simply equaled them as the heavily armed, heavily armored group of child soldiers raced ahead.

What they found, however, was disheartening.

It had been a beautiful garden once upon a time. With the most beautiful flowers and trees worthy of the Queen of the Gods. The descriptions and stories Harry heard from his father regaled the garden as one of the greatest gifts of the gods.

And it was ruined.

Shimmering grass trampled underfoot as heavy set man eating giants lumbered through the open area. Deep trenches carved into the soil by the tails of serpents. Stepping stones of the purest marble black were upturned and cracked in places.

Even the beauty of the great tree, untarnished as it was, seemed dimmer and more contained than it might have been.

Like the setting sun just as it reached the edge of the horizon.

Even Ladon, great beast and defender had been collared and chained into the ground. Its many heads secured against the ground by heavy metal spikes which dug into the dragon's flesh, lengths of chains coiling between each limb, and huge collars of celestial bronze that held fast to the thing's necks and jaws.

Just looking at it made something uncomfortable stir deep within them.

A sense that something priceless had been taken from the world.

Their reaction, however, paled in comparison to Zoe's.

If looks could kill, Harry had no doubt that they would be currently sitting in a crater. The sheer unrestrained malice radiating from the girl enough to stir a deep primal fear within the most savage of beasts as she took in the devastation of her home. Lips pulled back into a soundless snarl as her hands trembled at the sight.

Even now, her iron will was barely keeping her passions from convincing her to do something rash.

Harry could not blame her. But neither could he let her remain as it was.

"We need to go. They will notice us soon enough." He hissed under his breath, gesturing towards the ruined citadel. "Our priority is freeing Artemis. We can't afford to fight this many monsters, not when back up for them will be on the way."

Coming from him, it must have sounded like the craziest plan ever, given his track record.

"You… you dare to return here!?"

Snapping around, four weapons snapped up, ready to lash out, while a fifth simply shook.

"Hello sisters."

Three young women, all of them beautiful, with eyes as black as volcanic rock stood there. All three were equally furious and, had Harry not been a chivalrous fellow, would have said the hate and fear in their eyes made them ugly. Instead, he merely eyed the lead Huntress for her reaction.

"I don't suppose you'll let us pass?"

"After everything you have done! After bringing this disaster upon us! After the indignities we have suffered because of father's anger!" The oldest of them shook her head. "No. No we shall not. But I am truly, utterly disgusted. Not only would you dare to show your face here again, but you bring the blood of the man who stole from us with you!? Are you truly such a whore that you deny - Urk!"

Having heard enough, Harry struck first. He threw a small ball of celestial bronze at the oldest Hesperide's throat, the immortal grabbing her neck as she choked and coughed and the enchanted projectile returned to the boy's hand. Thalia and Bianced too loosed arrows, not that the daughters of Atlas reacted over much, dipping their heads out of the way and striking out.

Leaping forward, the duo moved with sinuous grace, easily twisting and striking at the young boy. However, that was their undoing. Because the son of Heracles simply ignored their attacks, his armor and blessing more than enough to stop them, and attacked with his own fists.

His first blow struck the middle sister in the stomach, putting enough power in it to cause a crack of wind and bend her double over his fist. The youngest guardian realized a moment too late who - and what - she was fighting. Her own strike, which would have slammed into his kidneys, landed and, ignoring what amounted to a light push, the divinely strong boy grabbed her arm, yanked it out of its socket, and then snapped her elbow in half.

Screaming, the youngest fell to the ground, only for a foot to shatter her jaw, and for Harry to spin back to the middle sister and shatter her nose with a sharp jab. Seeing her sister's face spurting blood, their inhuman beauty all but lost to the bleeding and swelling and bruising known to all warriors, the oldest grabbed Harry's ankles and pulled them forward.

Losing his balance, he fell backwards, slamming into the ground hard enough to slow his response. However, no matter how skilled a grappler he might be facing, the inhuman woman was not blessed as he was. It was a simple matter to reverse the pin she was attempting, bucking his hips to toss her up, then slamming her into the ground.

Straddling her chest, he lanced out with a trio of rapid, brutal punches. The almost beatific woman's features now reduced to a bloody mess.

However, it was too late.

The alarm had gone up, the guards were coming, and the party had to move.

"Take them and go." He bodily picked up two of the unconscious girls and tossed them to Zoe, the woman visibly shaken. "Thalia, cover me." The third went straight to Bianca, who, though much weaker, was still easily able to catch the woman. "Don't let any of the monsters get them."

It didn't truly need to be said, but Percy, paling, nodded and drew Riptide. Falling in next to Thalia the trio turned to receive the first wave of their enemies, a snarling pack of half a dozen hellhounds, with a grim determination.

In truth, she wasn't the best archer, Thalia knew that. But, at the urging of Hera, she had joined the Hunt. And Artemis had personally brought her little sister up to snuff. Her first arrow buried itself inside the eye socket of the lead monster, the second pinning another's paw to the ground and causing a massive pile up, her third flew over the pack and struck a warped Satyr through its open, bleating mouth, and her fourth and fifth and sixth brought low a blue skinned cyclops.

Perseus had wasted no time, dashing forward and butchering the pack as they attempted to gather themselves, every flowing sword strike a lethal blow. And then, as a group of telkhines struck at him with bidents and halberds, he simply moved. Weapons were broken, limbs and blood and golden dust filled the air, and his bloody work was soon finished as not even a trio of harpies did more than die when they swooped at him with their talons.

Harry, laughing like a mad man, didn't bother drawing any of his weapons at all. Instead, he leapt at the nearest foe, a drachana, and took her beautiful face in both hands and squeezed. As a shower of fluids and dust erupted into the air, he buried his arm in the chest of an empousa, whooped as a massive snake shattered its fangs against him, and then disintegrated its head with a casual backhand.

What few survivors fled in terror, even as the sounds of more approaching monsters echoed in the distance, and Harry snapped the neck of a final, warped, monstrous looking humanoid none of them could identify. All three teens shared a nod and moved on, eager to find their comrades.

"Over here! We're almost ready an-"

Just like that, reality itself stuttered. The group of blood spattered teens were now standing in the middle of the garden, along with the wounded and beaten Hesperides, instead of racing towards the doorway the group had been huddling inside.

And instead of echoing in the distance, the horde of monsters, hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of them, cheered and laughed as they entered the ruined sanctuary at last.

"Fuck."

"Indeed."

Nodding his head, the half blood wizard concurred with sky god's daughter. They were boned.

"Percy, go on the defensive, make sure you protect the archers. Don't let them push us into Ladon."

Hearing its name, the massive dragon bucked against its restraints, metal squealing and pulling as it writhed in humiliation and fury.

"Wait. A plan occurs to me. It is… a mad one." Zoe's voice was uncertain, but they were desperate.

"I think I see magic in there." Colored sparks were dancing up the arms of what looked like an eight foot tall skinless woman as Harry reached for a baseball bat. "And I don't know anything that could stop curses like that. So if you have an idea…."

The only reason they had any time to plan at all was because the horde seemed more interested in fighting for the right to call dibs than anything else.

"Then if we are to die, let us court death. Free Ladon."

"Think the big guy might help us if we set him loose?" Percy nervously asked, taking a step back as he kept his eyes on a pair of snarling hellhounds, piercing green orbs daring them to approach. "Because I'm not so sure he likes us being here either."

"I cared for him in our youth more than the rest of my sisters together. He will remember me."

Zoe sounded sure. Key word being sounded. Harry glanced at her, sighing, and nodding.

"Ok then. Ladies and gentlemen, it's showtime!"

Brandishing his bat upwards, the holly club ignited with blue flames as the wizard slammed it onto the ground, his herculean strength shaking the ground and blowing back the monsters with the impact alone, a burst of fire catching the first wave of enemies unaware, instantly reducing them to charred dust.

The sweat pouring off his head and the sudden heaviness in his arms told him he didn't have many more of those left. "Bugger. Run!" Snatching up the still unconscious Hesperides off the ground, the rest of the party booked it as the horde charged. Thankfully, the monsters were slower than the demigods and when Harry reached the first massive, bronze spike, he had a good fifteen seconds to grip the thing properly, squat, and push against the ground with his leg strength.

"Fuck!"

He still ended up calf deep in the ground when, with a wet sucking noise, the metal prong went flying. Ladon screamed, tossed his head as it came free, splashing hissing blood against Harry's skin in the process, and then darted about before snapping a harpy out of the air.

"Didn't even bloody bother to bloody, buggering chew."

That was fine, the burning acid-like blood had begun eating holes into his shirt, but his skin was unharmed.

'Lady Styx, I swear on your name I will give you something nice the next time I visit.' He vowed silently, darting towards the next spike even as the crowd of monsters tried to cut him off, or at least those not busy dealing with the free head, a crash of thunder echoing in the distance.

Turns out a one headed dragon was as difficult to deal with as a one hundred headed one.

'Figures' He grunted, small rips forming on his cloth as he strained to pull out the spike. With a final grunt, he managed to wrench the thing free, another head launching upwards, this time giving him something of a glare. Thankfully, before it could decide he was snack sized himself, the skinless lady screamed and leapt at him.

Ice had formed into huge, sharp gauntlets around her hands and he almost flinched when the head snaked around and bit deep into her waist.

Her body began to melt and run where its teeth pierced flesh, her screaming lasting just long enough to let everyone know how utterly agonizing the pain was. Swallowing, Harry did his best to focus on his job and moved to the third spike.

This time he only got it half out, just as it was moving, before one of the heads curved around.

Leaping back, he watch as the jaws clamped around the tip of the only thing keeping the head down and pulled it out. Hissing and spitting, the third head then broke one of the clamps, allowing a cluster of heads to pull free, and like that Ladon was moving.

'Oh, bollocks…' Harry's breath hitched as the mighty dragon went about setting itself free, poison and acid raining down from the dozens of squirming and hissing heads, attacking anything and everything inside the Garden.

Which included him.

Jumping over one of the heads as it tried to chomp on him, the wizard swung his club just in time to bat away another one as it closed in. The thing seemed quite intent on attacking him even after he had set it free.

'It's because of my dad, isn't it?'

It just had to be!

Most likely the other sisters had turned the dragon against the hero should he have ever returned. Trained it to smell the man and attack. Just his luck that he happened to smell the same way to the venom spitting monstrosity.

The pair of hellhounds rushing him from the side didn't help matters.

Just how in Hades had they gotten this close?!

Frowning, he shut everything down. His distracting thoughts, his clamoring heart, the fear for himself or his friends and even his desire to stop Kronus. None of it mattered.

His vision narrowed, shadows flickering at the edges, the hellhounds were snapping and snarling, the stench of rotten meat thick on their breath. There were golden, ant like myrmidons scuttling behind him, their pincers dripping with stinging venom. Even a dozen of Ladon's heads were swinging to face him, snarling and screeching as the great beast writhed in pain and indignation.

Not that it stopped the hundred headed guardian from killing anything it could touch.

Luckily, it couldn't touch him.

Leaping forward, Harry totally ignored the snarling monsters. Instead, as he tucked into a shoulder roll, he used his strength to bound forward out of his leap. A swarm of harpies tried to intercept him, however his bronze stress ball made another appearance. Using it to punch through the wing of the leader, the others cried out and dove to save their sister from Ladon's many, hungry heads even as it returned to his hand once again.

At that point, he was home free. Or so he thought. As his friends turned around and opened fire at the pursuing monsters, the corpse thing, or at least it's upper half, slammed into his back.

Normally that wouldn't have been an issue. He'd take the hit and keep running. However, her ice magically, and quite suddenly, covered most of his body.

The layer was thin and her claws didn't pierce his skin. But he did stumble. And that was all the time Ladon needed to slam him forward. Having snapped the last half of its newest chewtoy off of Harry's back, the girl-thing's entrails hanging half melted out of the bottom of her torso as the dragon punted the demigod with enough force to smash stone.

Harry buckled, skidding back a couple meters.

Smiling widely.

His father had never quite fought the ancient dragon, after all. And while normally he would relish the challenge, the pack of monsters hot on his heels gave him reason not to indulge himself.

'Much.' He smiled as one of the freed heads spit a cloud of acidic poison, the sickly green mist dissolving a hellhound that had been about to pounce it.

Besides, Harry was not one to share when he was having fun. If and when he swung back to the Garden for the Apples, he would face Ladon by himself and have a great time. Not when the dragon was chained down and being attacked by a horde of monsters.

One of which had used one of the dragon's bound heads like a trampoline as it jumped towards the roaring behemoth.

SNAP!

Accidentally dislodging the spike keeping it pinned into the ground.

"Oh bugger." He cursed, eyes widening as the newly freed head snapped up to grab the offending Telkhine, serrated teeth closing in around the monster's body like a vice as it bit down and split the unfortunate monster down the middle in a shower of gold dust.

Before turning its attention to the slowly fleeing group.

Harry immediately took off.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck!"

Ladon's body was fast. Like, fast, fast. Something about its neck being all muscle probably. But the point was Harry wasn't fast enough. Even as his limbs burned with divine power and the world bled into a riot of colors and sounds, he knew he wasn't going to be fast enough. His acceleration wouldn't beat Ladon's head start, heh, over such a short distance.

"No!"

Zoe screamed and grabbed Bianca, bodily throwing the girl holding her sister forward. And, had she been even a second slower, those poison dripping fangs would have snapped up the immortal child's head.

Instead, she and the unconscious hesperide fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs and it was Zoe who was now face to face with the great beast.

"Shh, shh. It's ok Ladon. You remember me, don't you?"

The beast's growling was low, deep in its throat and full of a hungry malice. Only its faint recognition of the familiar girl's voice keeping it from striking her down like a viper as acidic mist wafted from its half opened maw.

Droplets of venom sizzling angrily as they puddled on the floor.

No one moved, even as the monsters below battled with the other freed heads. And then Ladon made a decision. Thankfully, this time, Harry moved first.

Fangs parted, flecks of acid flicking out of the monster's mouth. Zoe's knife came up, but that didn't do much, a fleck of silver being rather useless against a divine dragon. Luckily for the several thousand year old teenager, a young man bowled her over, knocking the huntress to the ground before being snatched up by the closing jaws.

"Father, no! It's just like the old gypsy said, being vored to death trying to save a dried up cunt!"

In truth, Harry was in extreme pain. Invulnerable skin or not, his ribs were still being crushed by several thousand pounds of force as huge, scything fangs closed down around him. Thankfully, as his clothes melted away, and his bones began to crack, Harry still had enough of his wits about him to grab hold of the biggest, stabbiest tooth he could think of, rip it out with a wet squelch, and drive it through the roof of Ladon's mouth.

"Just like the Basilisk!"

The three inch scar on his arm throbbed, even as he fell to the ground.

"Hey pretty lady, why are there three of you?"

Tilting forward, he smacked face first into the ground.

"Harry, Harry, wake up!"

Blinking, he groaned and tried to sit up.

And promptly turning to the side of a ledge and puking his guts out.

"Wuh-wuht happlened?"

"What happened?"

Harry tried to nod, before another wave of vertigo stopped him.

"Well… um." Bianca started speaking before wincing. "You know what, there's no pretty way to explain this. You got bitten by Ladon, he found your weak point, and you started screaming some slurred nonsense that sounded like the kind of thing Lady Artemis maybe kinda sorta would have killed you for, but Zoe firmly insisted was simply just misheard praise of the goddess we are here to rescue, before you stabbed the giant dragon with its own fang."

"M' ok?"

"Your organs are not liquified, no."

Thalia's answer made Percy chuckle, even as he was double checking the injuries on the Hesperides. Though Zoe wasn't in the small alcove the group had stopped to rest in.

"Good."

Finding his mokeskin pouch, thankfully intact, if slightly singed, Harry pulled out a brick of ambrosia, tore a corner off, and swallowed it.

"Ok campers! Daddy's back in the saddle again and ready to go! Let's go give Atlas a spanking and save our fearless leader's girl crush."

Everyone simply sighed and accepted that, yes, Harry was back and, yes, he had somehow survived the poison of a legendary dragon known for it. But honestly they pretty much expected that by now, so rolled with it.

"You hath awoken. Good." And Zoe, looking highly conflicted, returned to the alcove. "I hath ascertained that our path is clear. All of our foe's monsters died to Ladon, now lacking one of his mighty heads, leaving only the final battle for us."

At the word 'battle', Harry perked up.

That was the entire reason why he'd gone and joined the quest after all. Not just because he wanted to annoy a few hunters and catch up with his cousin. But because the idea of a life or death struggle against a Titan excited him in ways not even the ancient greek vocabulary could describe.

So you'd have to forgive him for ignoring the boring parts.

Luke's posturing and his drama filled duel of the fates against Thalia was nice and all. But he really wasn't in the mood for watching it and there was no accompanying soundtrack and complementary popcorn. And his own opinion could be summed up as "the gods were dicks, but even they thought the Titans were cunts".

The surprise return of Dr. Thorn was less interesting.

Sure, when Percy, Grover, and Bianca teamed up to take on the miraculously reborn manticore, he'd smiled and bid them good luck. A manticore was not easy to kill, after all. But it was still just a mini boss.

Leading up to the main dish.

Harry didn't even need to see the guy to figure out what his deal was.

'Revenge this, holding the sky. Threw out my back a couple millennia ago. How dare you be born.'

The last part was actually aimed at both him and Zoe. For precisely the same reason. So the irony did not escape him when only he and the ancient hunter stood side by side as they faced down Kronos' general, the Titan of Might. The only thing standing between them and a very disheveled and conflicted looking Goddess of the Hunt.

'Didn't expect to see me, did ya?' He was tempted to say.

But the time for teasing would come later.

Now? Now was the time to fight!

And that was when Zoe started monologuing back.

Something about being freed from her past, learning from mistakes, finding her true family. It was all very heartfelt and emotional. Even the part where she said she would rather fight with him than ever kowtow to Atlas again.

That was nice and all.

But…

'Shouldn't we be punching each other by now? You know what. Yeah. We should be.'

Chucking his magic stress ball past Atlas's leg, he leapt straight at the Titan's face. This, obviously, would be a retarded idea in ninety nine point nine nine percent of all situations. When the mass of enchanted bronze and his father's conceptualized rage, stored up over about three thousand years, slammed into the back of the divinity's knee, the joint exploded in a shower of bone fragments and ichor.

Thus, he was just distracted enough, screaming in agony as his limb was violently sheared from the rest of his body, for Harry's leaping attack to work.

"Demigod got your tongue!"

Smacking into the man's oversized torso, and laughing himself, the son of Heracles reached into Atlas's open mouth and grabbed the immortal's tongue. He then, sending a quick prayer to his father, pulled. The spray of more ichor was followed by a flurry of brutal punches straight into the son of Iapetus's eyes.

Seeing as how the great, ancient fucker was closer to thirty feet than not, his eyes made almost perfect targets for the demigod's fists, empowered as they were by the God of Strength, and the crazed lunatic that was Harry Potter took out ten years of daily abuse on the squishiest bits of his enemy he could find.

Blind, with the jelly of his eyes being and the shards of divine bone exploded out of the two ever growing craters in his skull, collapsed to the ground with one leg no more than a great, bloody ruin. Still, each punch continued to shatter the sound barrier, never slowing.

And then all of a sudden, they stopped.

Harry was struck with a wall of raw, undiluted divine energy - his skin flash frying as Atlas assumed his divine form. Thankfully, the power of the Styx kept him from being unmade, and he'd been blinded by the sheer quantity of ichor covering his body, but the damage was still extreme. The boy's clothes had been burned off in less than a second, running like water as molten plastic and metal tried to fuse with skin, and found no purchase. He was still black head to toe and twitching as spasms racked his flesh as nerves fired blindly from the divine energy still running through his body.

Ironically, it could be said that he only survived because of the layer of ichor he'd been painted head to toe in absorbed that split second of raw, absolute power.

Atlas's blood had… weakened the attack. Just enough, at least.

Zoe didn't miss the opportunity. With the monsters that had appeared to threaten the rest of the group gone, she snapped out an order for Bianca to aim at Atlas's feet, arrows letting out wild cracks as they split the sound barrier as the daughter of Hades called up the very powers of the underworld to empower a weapon already blessed by the Moon herself. And just as her subordinate attempted to literally pin the Titan to the cracked, blackened marble of the temple they stood in, the elder huntress aimed at every sensitive point she could.

Fingers literally bleeding as she poured the divinity she possessed into her muscles, accelerating her body beyond what a human could stand, arrow after arrow after arrow after seemingly endless arrow moved from her quiver to the string of her bow. Each shot perfectly placed even as the immortal twisted and dodged, smacking shots out of the air, deflecting those he was forced to, and still he wasn't perfect.

With shots aimed at his throat, every major vein and artery in his body, his joints, and his soft tissues, unprotected as they were by the robes he wore, he was forced to give ground under the pure weight of his daughter's barrage.

Perseus and Thalia advanced together, cornering Luke with only a moderate degree of hardship. Backbiter was a powerful sword but it was no match for Riptide and the holy weapons of the Hunt could match the dark magic woven into Luke's armor. In truth, had it not been for Kronus's blessing the son of Hermes would have fallen already.

The sheer difference in divine power was simply too great to bridge. Not when the water in the air forced itself into his nose and throat, not when bolts of massive static discharges would arc through solid paths of H2O etched into the air around them, not when his own speed and stealth was useless when he faced the fury of a woman betrayed and a friend denied.

Still, even as injuries and wounds mounted him, he gave as good as he got.

Mortal steel and celestial bronze alike flashed as the blade literally darted back and forth through time, inflicting wounds that it wouldn't attempt to cause for tens of seconds or suddenly reverting to strikes that they thought had been parried half a minute ago.

In a particularly flashy moment of truly inspired dueling, Luke simply split in half. Two perfect copies formed, one holding the mortal half of Backbiter and the other the divine half.

Luke, the one with the mortal blade, clashed with Percy. Kronos's powers spiked in this duplicate, the steel forming pits and divots in the marble around it as reality itself decayed. Perseus was unable to use his water attacks, the liquid itself turning into dust at the merest approach. Instead, he was forced to create steps of ice, climbing through the air, in an attempt to maintain his distance.

Thalia found herself hard pressed by the other twin, facing a Luke that looked almost identical to Hermes. His raw speed had accelerated by a factor of ten, and when you consider he'd already been moving faster than a mortal was capable of following that was something all together new.

Desperate, she called up her father's power, sending out a wide pulse of raw electricity. It was unfocused, random, chaotic. And that was exactly what she needed.

Bleeding from a dozen nicks and cuts, it was only when Luke's fingers began violently spasming, the impossibly fast boy's entire body not spasming so violently it looked more like a seizure, she barely managed to get a moment's respite.

Harry solved their problem, though. Scooping up a chunk of marble, he hurled it hard enough that rock shredded itself into a shotgun blast of pellets that punched through the spasming Luke's chest.

As the dopplegangers violently snapped back together, Luke apparently recovering from the electrical attack but losing his aura of decay, he was able to engage the now two significantly more exhausted demigods on an evenish footing. But this was still their problem. So it simply wasn't his place to solve it.

"Time for round two big guy!"

Atlas didn't even bother looking at Harry, simply stamping his foot into the ground and then backhanding a huge chunk of resulting debris straight at the boy.

This only got a wild whoop from him as he lashed out, his divinely empowered fist reducing the ancient marble to a fine powder.

But even such a momentary blindness was all a veteran immortal needed.

A literally titanic foot slammed into Harry's back, not breaking the skin but still driving him into the ground with enough force to send fragments of stone flying in every direction. And then, as he bounced from the impact, an uppercut to his face sent him spinning head over ankles before he face planted into the wall.

Head ringing, barely able to get his bearings, Harry only just managed to get his arms up as Atlas's foot came around again. The kick was textbook perfect, an utterly immaculate blow, and it drove the young demigod straight into and out the side of the temple.

Flying through the air, Harry was launched up and up and up.

Put simply, had it not been for the prophecy dictating that only he or Tom could kill the other, that blow would have turned his insides into so much mush - blessing or not. Instead, the Fates themselves had given Heracles an inkling that his only mortal son needed a bit more power than he was asking for. This still left a very, very sore Harry puking his guts out as he cleared the mountain, then the road around it.

Indeed, he should have been out of the fight.

"Heya kiddo. Get back in there!"

But Hermes was still waiting.

Harry's blood had been offered up freely, an offering in the truest sense, and the god hadn't been able to complete the requisite favor. Not with the Titan of Time and the Harvest watching as closely as he had been. So, clapping a bloody hand on his nephew's back, he sent the demigod rocketing back down towards the fight just as violently as the boy had been knocked out of it.

Whooping in joy, every inch of his body throbbing in pain, agony as G-forces tore at his skin and hair and white hot adrenaline flooded his veins and the joy of battle sounded in his ears, Harry was in ecstasy.

Smashing back into Atlas's prison, he held his fist out like superman and slammed into the Titan's jaw with so much force the bones in his arm exploded. His skin, still divinely strong, contained the fragments and chunks of meat as it was reduced to so much jello by the impossible forces involved with the attack - Harry laughing as he was once more coated in gore. The attack had torn off Atlas's jaw and half of his throat and torso, a spurting fountain of ichor painting the crazed boy as the young wizard came up from his tuck and roll and slammed his good hand into his divine foe's kneecap.

His other hand exploded as well, falling limp like a bag full of so much red jello, even as yet more of Atlas's body was reduced to a fountain of gore.

Still though, the ancient warrior caught the young demigod with a backhand even as he fell once more.

However, because of the awkward angle, and the sheer impossibility of the child's seeming survival, the attack was weak and uncoordinated. The Fates weren't forced to even more blatantly interfere than they already had - and Ananke was starting to get… twitchy in her sleep as it was.

Skidding across the ground, the nude, gore covered child came to a stop before and utterly, totally horrified looking Artemis.

"'Ello beautiful. Came to find you!"

Definitely slurring his words, the teenager still managed to stagger to his feet and turned back to the fight. And it was not going… well. Luke had worn down his opposition enough that the waves of monsters that had once more poured in were seriously hemming Perseus and Thalia in. Frustratingly, despite Bianca pulling out every trick in Harry's bag that she could, literally upending the mokeskin pouch at one point, she just couldn't do enough to either the monsters or Atlas. Zoe herself had one arm twisted at an ugly angle, even as she managed to run her knife from her father's wrist up to his elbow as she dodged one of his blows.

"S'not enough. Okay, lady. Out of the way. Let a man carry the big, bad, heavy thing for yah."

Might as well get some teasing in before doing something insane, after all.

For a split second, for an eternal nanosecond, Artemis considered smiting Harry Bloody Potter where he stood.

She really, really, REALLY wanted to.

Instead, she sighed and let the weight of the World fall onto his still rather scrawny shoulders, arms hung useless at his side..

"Good luck boy."

Flashing forward, roaring out a challenge to the Titan, the goddess joined her two followers in battle even as every monster that came in range of her knives was reduced to so much dust.

"Nicest thing… she's ever… said to… me." Grunting as he became a passive observer to the conflict, Harry wished for nothing more than a pair of his dad's pillars to prop eternity up again. "Bloody poofters… knocking down… everything… he made." Looking down at the ruins of his arms, he grimaced. "Done goofed… I have."

He was embarrassed to say things quickly were resolved after Artemis was freed.

As strong as he was, as durable as he was, and as frustrating as the blessings he'd received were to get through, Atlas was very much in another league. Even for a demigod, fighting a full on god, or titan in this case, was just impossible without swindling so as to have as many advantages as you could.

Advantages which the born goddess had that he and Zoe lacked.

Seeing her fight was unlike anything he'd ever watched.

Vanishing in a flash of silver, Harry barely had the time to blink before Atlas' arm left its socket, the moon goddess vanishing in a flash of silver, bow drawn taut as she rained pure silver arrows down at the wounded titan, their appearance almost mercurial as they caught the light of the sun.

They struck true… and through the General's body, leaving behind deep puncture wounds.

The sort which would have crippled if not killed any other target.

Except this was no mortal. This was a Titan.

And much like he had recovered from Harry's assault, the demigod could only watch as his body seemed to shift and warp, golden ichor sizzling through his wounds as they started closing. Even the missing arm, which had been cut off at its socket, was now a growing stump and the Titan regenerated.

Too fast for him to keep up with.

But Artemis was faster. Drawing a pair of knives from the aether, they were curved ugly things. Primal in a way only the hunters of old would know how to properly use them.

Before disappearing from his vision yet again.

Only this time, Atlas reacted. Pulling his own weapon, a wicked javelin from seemingly nowhere, swinging the massive shaft of celestial bronze in a wide circle, parrying the strike coming from his yet unhealed right arm.

It didn't matter. His strength was more than enough to push the lithe huntress off her feet. Flipping backwards while airborne, only for her feet to touch something. As if the very air had become a solid panel of glass beneath her.

And she vanished again.

From that point on things got… blurry.

And no, it wasn't just because he was being slowly crushed by the weight of the sky itself. Though it probably didn't help. Harry could scarcely follow the goddess' movements as she seemingly bounced off thin air every time her strikes were repelled by the massive Titan. By the third time he'd parried her attack, the son of Heracles had already lost track of her movements.

But he could see the effects.

One by one, large jagged lines were carved into the Titan's body.

He was stronger and tougher than anything Harry had ever fought. But he wasn't that fast. And as Artemis accelerated further and further, Atlas completely lost sight of her. Swinging her javelin wildly as he struggled to pin her down.

Before his face erupted into a shower of ichor, two lines crossed over his eyes as he screamed in agony. Artemis seemingly warping out of nowhere behind him with her bow drawn yet again, two arrows hitting the titan's knees before her own met his jaw, flipping over him with all the grace of a natural predator, pale fingers clamped around the man's head like a vice.

She pulled him backwards.

And his feet left the floor.

It was quite something to see. The smaller goddess of the hunt pulling the massive Atlas of his feet, throwing him off the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Sending him straight at… Harry.

'So that was the plan.' He grinned wildly, muscles screaming in pain as he pushed up against the crushing weight, just enough to alleviate the pressure as the General crashed into him.

Grunting as all fourteen thousand pounds of super dense divinity slammed into him, he was knocked loose like a pinball going crazy in a machine. He grunted again, slamming into the wall once more, as Gaia and Uranus rushed at one another in the moment of transfer. Thankfully, it caught on the arm of the Titan, dragging him into place beneath the sky and forcing him to stop them or be crushed.

Harry didn't pay attention when Artemis gloated, too busy choking down a flask of ambrosia to listen to her words. The only thing that mattered to him was that Luke had been visibly pulled out of the room by Kronos's power, meaning the plot was still on.

He was just glad that Bianca had wiped his eyes clean because they had started to stick closed.

'Well, that and my hands working again.' His bone snapped back into place with an audible crack as a mixture of ambrosia and healing potions accelerated his recovery to mere moments.

Something was off though.

And it was only after he blinked the last of the divine gunk out of his vision that he realized that Atlas's right hand was closed in a fist.

That was when Harry realized something very important. His stress ball had never made it back.

The Titan grinned and picked his target. Harry's lips opened, his voice starting to croak out a warning, and then the immortal's wrist flicked. The small mass of celestial bronze accelerated, punched through its target, and curved around back to its master's hand.

"Zoe!"

Falling to her knees, the huntress looked at the clean hole punched through her chest and collapsed.

Her blood was warm in his fingers. His eyes locked with hers, something passing between them in that moment. Harry heard someone scream and his vision swam.

All was darkness and the laughter of a mad Titan.