Well, over a month has passed since my last update. I'm sorry for that. And honestly it's all my fault. I was busy and didn't find time to write, that's all I can say.

This chapter also did take some time to write and I hope you all will like it. Leez, my co-writer, was more than a huge help, without them this chapter never would have been the way it is now. Leez spent a lot of time and effort on this chapter and as I already said it wouldn't be half as good. He helped to clear things up and make them more understandable by adding parts here and there as well as editing.

I hope you all will enjoy reading the chapter and as always I want to thank those of you who took the time to review. I again apologise for the long wait.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan do.

Aurelia's POV

The Questers stood silently glancing at each other as they drew their weapons upon reaching the entrance to the once great city of the Titans now laying in ruins before them, the light of a dying sun shone through the broken walls of the city which once stood as a monument to the Titans' power now broken and abandoned, painting the world around them a deep orange-red reminiscent of spilt blood.

The group entered the seemingly deserted Mount Othrys silently onto the main street which crossed through the entirety of the city. It didn't take long following the street for the Questers to find themselves at the furthest edge of the city where the largest building in the city stood below the mountain's peak. Before them stood what once must have been the throne room. A building with huge walls but an open roof. The bronze gate leading inside stood wide open granting the Quseters a view inside.

"How can this be? After the Titans' defeat in the first war their thrones were destroyed." - Zoë wondered out loud in surprise.

But still in front of the group the seats of the Titan Council repaired themselves slowly but steady, rocks moving as if on their own slowly across the ground and even defying gravity to roll onto the broken thrones in front of their eyes then almost melting to build the broken thrones back higher.

"It dosen't matter right now. We have to find Artemis. Later their will be enough time to worry about that...hopefully." - Aurelia answered, the last part only in her thoughts.

"Aurelia is right. We have no time to waste. The day is nearly over!" - Thalia agreed with the newest Hunter.

"But where is she being held?" - Percy asked looking at Zoë for answeres.

Zoë returned sure in her knowledge - "We have to pass the Throne room. There is a path leading up to the very tip of the mountain were Atlas was sentenced to forever hold the sky as his punishment."

The path was a small trail directly connected with the council building holding the Titans thrones. It didn't take them long to find it or to reach the peak of the Mountain of Despair where the Titans where had been born into the world by Gaia and Uranus conceived so many millennia ago.

The scene they found at the top was a disheartening one but the group stood ready, determined not to give in. Not while they could still fight and definitely not before they even started.

Before them on the top of the mountain's peak plateau a ten foot tall man with muscles revealed putting any body builder, even Ares, to shame in comparison stood oozing arrogance and self assurance. He wore a white tunic and over it a Greek style bronze armour including harness, bracers, platelegs and an imposing helmet which made his face impossible to see. In his hands he held a javelin and a shield made of shining bronze with the setting sun behind him bathing the plateau in dark reddish light. This was, with out a doubt, Atlas, the Titan of Endurance, who was sentenced to forever hold the sky away from the Earth and known as the General for his actions in the first titan war. A mighty aura washed over the group origin from him, an aura which could rival any of the Olympians in strength, one which to Aurelia felt actively malicious and insidious even more so than she had felt from Ares'... Then again it's not like he was trying to intimidate her or wanted to kill or even harm her when they had met.

Beside him stood a young man who looked around eighteen with sandy blond hair and a large scar marring the left side of his face passing over his left eye. In his hand he held a vicous looking sword made of celestial bronze and steel. From the description she'd been given Aurelia knew that this must be the traitor Luke, son of Hermes, betrayer of Olympus and consequently his own family. Clear evidence for that, if one was needed, was the blond girl, Annabeth, standing in front of him, her hands shackled with bronze chains.

Behind the two stood a squad of what must have been elite monsters judging from their wicked looking full body armour consisting of mainly large Cyclops and Dracanaes.

Aurelia had only a passing glance to take all of this in. Her eyes immediately captured by the painful sight of her Lady holding up the sky. Even in a situation like this Artemis radiated confidence and strength though Aurelia at least could see she was tiring. And seeing Artemis bear the weight of the sky by sheer determination and power of will, fighting through the pain she obviously was in racking her body just served to confirm again to Aurelia that she chose the right person to follow and she knew now more than ever that she wouldn't stop until Artemis was free.

It was then that Artemis looked up and their eyes met like they had on that winter morning which felt so long ago but was in reality not even a week since. It were the same silver pools looking at her, filled with suppressed power she remembered and cherished but this time they were also filled with fear, not for herself Aurelia could see that, but for the two hunters standing there facing a Titan and his henchmen.

...

Artemis POV

Hearing the sound of footsteps stopping Artemis lifted her gaze to look at the latest arrivals.
She didn't know why the Titan had gathered this small elite group of monsters and the demigod traitor Castellan but if she were to take a guess she would say that the quest which without the trace of a doubt had been send out to find her had arrived and Atlas had prepared accordingly as was in his nature as a general. She wished there was a way to warn the Questers but she couldn't think of one.

The sight before her however was different from what she had suspected. It made her temporarily forget about the crushing weight on her shoulders. There not far away stood not only the son of Poseidon and the demigod daughter of Zeus but also Zoë and her newest Hunter Aurelia. All in all it was a group matched to face most threats considering the talent and power as well as the experience the group brought forward together but Artemis knew that a Titan was still out of their league by far.

But what caught her eyes, again she would have to admit, were these orange cat like orbs shining with reflected light that were locked upon her. They were just so drawing. She could see the wild determination of an animal fighting for it's pack roaring within, a fire fuelled by past loss and a willingness to fight to the death to protect her new bonds.

All this will to fight for her, something she could see in all of the group even in the campers, if to a lesser degree for her and more for their own reasons. And all she could feel was despair, the fear she would see them butchered in front of her very eyes.

"You have to flee! He can't attack you unless challenged directly!" - Artemis called out to the Questers.

Before she could say anything else she was interrupted by the booming laughter of Atlas – "You think they will flee? No, they came to fight and that is what they will do. I can see it as can you surely, they all have something here they wish to gain. For the daughter of Zeus it's revenge on young Luke here, the sea spawn's wish is to rescue his little girlfriend here, and my dear daughter as well as the other girl scout seek to save the damsel in distress, you dear Artemis."

She knew that he was right having seen the same. The worst for her was knowing that she could only watch them fight and fall and not intervene trapped as she was beneath the weight of the entire sky above them, how could they hope to defeat the titan without her help?

"Lady Artemis we will free you that I promise!" - Artemis heard from Aurelia and Zoë, voices full of conviction and determined strength, as the group readied itself for the battle to come.

"Thalia, it's not too late for you to join us." - Luke said imploringly to the sky god's demigod child, attempting to convince her to join Kronos ranks and end the Olympians' reign.

"I don't know you anymore Luke. You are not the same person you were when we traveled together, you are not the one who was like a brother to me ... and so much more." - Artemis' half sister answered in return, the last part whispered in a broken voice full of pain.

But Luke wasn't done yet. - "You are right I am not that person anymore, I have come to acknowledge the truth about the gods, how they use us, how they see us as little more than pawns in their endless games. How could I be not changed by that. But now there is an end in sight! An end provided by Kronos. Join us! Join Me!"

"My answer remains the same: No, Luke! But I will take you back to camp, beaten bloody if I have to, there they will be able to help you with what ever Kronos has done to you!"

"Kronos has done nothing to me besides opening my eyes, I ..." - Before he could continue he was interrupted by Atlas himself.

"You heard her. She has chosen her side and it is not with you. This way is more fun anyhow!" - The General's words were spoken with the excitement of a battle approaching, insane mirth slowly starting to enter his voice as he spoke on. - "If you prove to be worthy adversaries, even if I doubt you will, I will make your deaths quick."

With these words it was clear to all involved that the time to speak had passed and the time to fight had come, there was no pause between the two.

Artemis could only hope that at the end of the day her Hunters would still live.

...

Aurelia's POV

In the corner of her eye Aurelia could see as Thalia charged shield raised and spear at the ready to jump into the fight against Luke and the monster warriors, sharp blasts of lightning and thunder could be heard as she went. Aurelia followed Percy who quickly sped forwards to engage the Titan in battle while Zoë stood a fair distant behind to support them with her arrows.

As Aurelia arrived at the Titan's side to attack she saw Percy being knocked away several feet after blocking just one of Atlas' swift blows.

"Don't try to block, he's too strong for that!" - Zoë's strong voice carried over to the two melee fighters. So dodging it is, -Aurelia thought to herself.

Seeing a chance she quickly and fiercely swung her staff down on the enemy's unprotected shoulder, hoping to make the first injury on her opponent, to do some damage and make it easier to capitalize on this side. The speed of Atlas's shield however was stunning in its quickness and agility and his vast experience made even such a quick block effective enough to complete negate Aurelia's strike allowing him to send his javelin swiftly racing towards her neck forcing Aurelia to use all her inherited and trained agility and instincts to dodge the lethal counterattack.

Backing away Aurelia took the chance to have a quick look over the battlefield. Thalia and Luke were engaged into a fiery and flashy fight with no clear winner as of now, Thalia using her powers as she could but Luke was simply better at melee than her with his constant years of training and Thalia mainly using her short experiences from the Quest and her younger years alongside her demigod instincts to fight with her spear, her Powers were something Luke couldn't deal with however, and her electricity wreathed spear was dangerous to block or be hit by in case it shocked him enough to give Thalia an opening or if bad enough take him out of the fight, they were practically surrounded by golden dust on all sides making Aurelia guess that Luke had attempted to let the monsters take care of Thalia before joining battle when they lost, the golden dust literally coated the ground around them. Atlas was the high priority here holding back the three Questers with ease while laughing manicly.

Seeing Thalia busy fighting with Castellan Aurelia with new vigour let out a feral sounding roar and jumped straight into the fight trying to catch the Titan off guard.

She could see from the short fight before that her staff would not be an appropriate weapon, as it was now at least, against such a mighty foe so she concentrated her magic to swiftly change one of it's ends into a deadly and sharp tip.

The new weapon soon got a chance to prove it's use as Percy dodged a vicous blow of Atlas exposing the Titan's left side. With a quick leap she was behind the enemy's guard and rammed her newly created spear towards his right thigh with all her impressive strength. The magical wood pierced straight through the fabric of the titan's tunic and deep into the muscled leg, causing a deep wound that quickly began gushing ichor.

Atlas's roar of pain and rage was deafening. He promised with a furious voice - "You will pay for that!"

Immediately after shouting his rage it was obvious the Titan had stopped playing with them. His attacks coming quicker and harder despite the wound which should have handicapped him at least slightly. His favourite target quickly became obvious as Aurelia was the only one who managed to actually wound him.

Never had she been in such a fight. Even three against one they didn't stand a single chance they were quickly being pushed hard and furiously barely keeping up with Atlas's strikes and cleaves. Never before had she been more thankful towards Pan for his relentless training as it had without a doubt saved her life today more than once in this fight .

"You are quick and strong I will give you that monster spawn. You could have a place among us . We could use someone like you, someone strong." - Still as he spoke to her, his attacks never ceased.

Snarling furiously Aurelia answered him with her teeth gritting in effort at dodging and parrying Atlas's swings. - "I would never betray my family to work for the likes of you! I'd sooner die." With that said she threw herself into a counterattack on his up until now spotless assault as she spotted an opening which she fully intended to grasp with both hands. Too late she saw it for the trap it was, Atlas's grin never wavering as she sprung towards him.

"As you wish. DIE!"

Aurelia's world exploded in red hot pain. All over her body waves of pain washed, emanating from her chest were she was hit by the titan's javelin. The celestial bronze weapon pierced right through her Hunter's uniform, the tip of the short spear coming out of her back.

"Too bad you wouldn't listen, you had the most potential here." - With that he tossed the Huntress' body several feet aside to continue his battle with the others.

Never before had she felt such pain, not even in her wretched childhood. Looking down her dying body she could see the hole in her chest oozing with blood. Slowly she felt her life fade away as darkness flowed in from the edge of her vison. The last thing she saw through the pain and the darkness set in was a pair of were beautiful and terrified silver eyes.

Be safe My Lady... Artemis...

...

Artemis' POV

It never was easy to witness the death of one of her Hunters for Artemis but this time it felt like the spear had pierced her heart as well. Looking into the face of her dying handmaiden she frantically searched for a sign of life in those beautiful orange eyes. Yet all she could see was the life fading inside them.

As the last prayer reached her from Aurelia, determination settled and swelled in on her. I will avenge you that I swear upon the river Styx. - The oath was spoken silently but still the characteristic thunder of the cursed river could be heard even over Thalia's battle efforts.

The chance to fullfill this vow soon presented itself in form of the sea god's son. Having seen his ally fall to the Titan so quickly he came to the conclusion that only another immortal could hope to win this fight.

Percy gave Artemis the opportunity to have her revenge by accepting the burden of the sky from her, forcing his body to hold strong as he grabbed the sky to take her place freeing Artemis to battle the Titan general.

A thought sufficed to have her armed, two identical hunting knifes made of Olympian silver materialized in her ready hands. Fast as a lightning she was upon the unsuspecting Titan. Like hellfire her attacks fell down on him ferociously catching him completely offguard.

Atlas managed to escape her assault through eons of experience but still the wounds he suffered in these first few moments of fending off her assault were many and together with the deep wound caused by Aurelia earlier into the fight he could tell he was facing a loss and would need to flee before it was too late, a loss his pride and honour, questionable as it may be, wouldn't allow him to accept, Artemis knew.

Despite his many injuries Atlas showed why he was one of the most feared figures during the First Titan War by even with his injuries still giving Artemis a battle many Olympians would have lost. And Artemis' own exhaustion did not work for her if she wanted to end this fight soon. And she knew she had to end it quickly with Poseidon's son still struggling to hold the sky in her stead.

Pushing Atlas towards the young demigod's position was easier than she would have hoped. At this point the titan was lost in his battle rage making him easy to control but all the more deadly when caught in one of his attacks.

"NOW!" - Artemis shouted to signal the demigod to let loose of the sky while kicking the Titan as hard as she could using an extremely small opening she had forced open in his defence by throwing one of her hunting knives at his face to send the Titan flying backwards.

Quickly realising what Artemis had planned, in his flight Atlas roared – "NO! I WILL NOT GO DOWN LIKE THIS!" - With a mighty twist of his right arm he threw his javelin with his massive strength towards his own daughter standing near her fallen sister in arms to take at least some revenge before he was once again imprisoned between the sky and the earth at his captors' mercy.

"ZOË!" - Artemis warning came to late as the defeated Titan took another victim.

Looking up from her sister in all but blood Zoë was about to speak when the javelin pierced right through the Titan's daughter's heart before sending her flying swiftly backwards to the ground.

Running up to the two hunters, Artemis kneeled down besides her lieutenant confirming her fears that her longest and most loyal follower who had been like a sister to her for so very long was indeed dead. She could feel Thanatos' presence on Zoë telling her that there was nothing that she could do to save her.

Weeping openly at her loss she barely overheard the rattled breaths coming from the tall golden blond next to her. Swiftly turning and moving to her other fallen maiden Artemis could see the chest of her newest hunter heave slowly and small breaths of air were coming from her mouth. Quickly noticing that the breaths were becoming smaller and with more time in between them Artemis acted instantly.

Cursing herself inwardly for not learning more about healing than she had she placed her hands over the gruesome wound, she could see evidence of a small amount of healing but there was a hole right through Aurelia's right chest. Starting a slow chant in ancient Greek she channeled the rest of her tiring powers into healing energy. As her hands started to glow in a bright silver light, the light slipped softly and eagerly into the hurt hunters body. Soon the wound was closed leaving only a roughly star shaped scar on the girls right chest which now showed the heaving of normal breathing.

"Lady Artemis, I didn't know you were so proficient in healing." - The blonde daughter of Athena asked standing next to her with the other campers. She hadn't heard them coming or anything really since starting the healing chant her concentration was completely focused on Aurelia and the healing.

"I can't say I am. This shouldn't have been possible, a wound like this should have killed anyone else and to see her still alive to even start the healing and then fully recovering so fast is more than astounding." - Artemis answered softly knowing that even her twin Apollo, the god of healing... and many other things..., would have had some problems with this, it was a mystery to her.

"And what is with the scar? It looks like a star to me." - The spent Percy still exhausted from holding the sky asked before he quickly paled realizing he just admitted to the Goddess of Maidens to have looked at one of her handmaidens' chests.

Ignoring the boy for now Artemis suggested – "Maybe it has to do with her nature. She isn't like a normal demigod after all."

"But it doesn't matter right now. We have to go to the Olymp before the meeting begins and you must come with me as witnesses and for Appolo to have a look at Aurelia."

With a small flaring of her powers her chariot, in its original form as a chariot from when she last used it, appeared in front of them. A snapping of her fingers caused the Chariot to almost instantly change into a carriage which could much more easily hold them all and they could all enter instead of being exposed to the outside. Artemis also took the dead body of her best friend with them so Zoë would not have to be exposed. She promised herself that as soon as this all was done with she would take care of Zoë's funeral with all the other hunters present.

Artemis last words before taking off were - "Please have a seat. It won't take too long."

...

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Please leave a review or send me a PM to tell me what you think about the chapter.

You could for example tell me what you thought of the fight between the Questers and Atlas.