•as the world caves in•

•the sky•

"Thalia," Luke said. "Call the Ophiotarus. You can still join."

"Luke..." her voice was full of pain, as if she would shatter. "What happened to you?"

"Thalia, join us." Luke said, summoning a bronze brazier. "We will raise Mount Othrys right here. We are not weak, join us Thalia."

For a terrible moment, I thought she would join. "You aren't Luke. I don't know you anymore."

Thalia looked back at us, a simple nod.

I pulled off my ring, giving a small huff and shake of my shoulders.

"Now!" Percy said.

Together, we charged.

I went for Luke, slashing at him with all my emotions I had to him. The hurt, the anger, the pain.

He grinned at me. "You were always my duel partner. Remember?"

"I remember a different person being my duel partner, not you."

"Who, Annabeth? You guys were not even at all, but us, we had a real connection, Coriane."

I shook my head. "Annabeth and I had more fun. Percy and I are more matched than we ever were."

It was like he snapped. He did something I'd never seen before. He came closed and practically snapped my arm, then kicked my legs out from under, letting my head fall on the ground. I was in so much pain I'd never felt before. Thalia came to the recuse, distracting Luke while I grabbed ambrosia from my pocket, letting it give me a swift moment of relief, but I was still in so much pain.

Fighting a Titan was impossible as just heroes. We needed a god or goddess.

I stumbled over to Artemis. "Let me take the sky, we need you!"

Artemis shook her head. "This will crush you, Annabeth barley held it!"

I wasn't taking that for an answer, I slashed her chains to let her loose, taking it on my shoulders.

I'd tried to explain this so many times, each time different. I couldn't ever fully explain it.

I cried out in pain as the whole weight of the world was crushed on my palms and shoulders, my upper back and neck. I was once on my feet, standing strong, but I slowly lowered to a knee. My bones were cracking, my muscles melting. My mouth was stuck open from when I cried out, I couldn't even close it. The arm Luke had attacked was slumped, the sky uneven no matter what I tried.

My vision was fuzzy as I gasped for air, crying every once in a while. I was so unaware of my surroundings until I felt hands on my face, fingertips frantically moving on my skin.

"Cor!" His voice shouted. Percy. "Cor, come on, answer!"

I tried to, tried to tell him to fight, to leave me here, but I couldn't. All that came out were weird mumbles.

"Gods Coriane." He whispered. "Let me take it."

I frantically shook my head. He needed to fight.

I felt the weight being dropped from my shoulders and knew what Percy was doing. I glanced just in time to see him using his free hand to shove me out from under the sky, him shouting in pain.

"Percy!" I shouted, gasping for breath as I held his face, watching a streak of hair turn grey is just a moment. I was still on the ground, basically laying down and could still reach from how much the sky pushed him down. "Percy, you idiot!"

He shook is head. "Cor, go. Let me do this."

I shook my head. "No! Give it back, you have so much more to do!"

I looked back to see Artemis flinging Atlas towards us and I held onto Percy, knowing what would happen, praying Percy knew.

My arms were wrapped around his torso when he let go of the sky and allowed us to be launched by Atlas himself. I felt his own arms clinging around me.

When the world stopped spinning I came to see Luke reaching for Thalia, who kicked him off the mountain. My body ached, I couldn't even get up, from holding the sky and when Luke broke about every bone in my body, I could barley feel my arm and leg, even with the ambrosia.

Percy slowly got up, slowly picking me up, supporting my bad side and guiding me to Thalia and Annabeth. Percy looked down at me. "You okay?"

I shook my head, I couldn't lie about this. "I can hardly feel my arm or leg, my head is pounding and I think I broke something. I think I'm about to be sick to top it all off."

Percy rubbed his hand that was on my hip up and down. "If you need to throw up, just do it, I just want you to feel better."

I laughed. "Okay, Percy. You're going to regret saying that."

He smiled. "You have a big streak of grey hair, you know."

I smiled up to him. "So do you. Now we're matching."

When we finally made our way to our group of friends and Artemis, but I was horrified by the scene.

Zoë was on the ground, looking deathly sick and bleeding from her side. It was a horrible gash. "The stars, I cannot see them."

"Get her nectar and ambrosia, now!" I shouted fumbling through my pockets for my last square of ambrosia while Percy kept me steady.

Thalia looked at me. "Coriane, your arm..."

I didn't even try to look at it, I would probably throw up if I did. "Remind me later."

However, Kronos's army was closing in so we couldn't even discuss it anymore.

This whole thing gets crazy, and with everything happening and my whole body hurting, it was fuzzy, so I'll explain it as best as I remember.

Dr. Chase swooped in on a plane, distracting the army for enough time to allow Artemis to call her silver chariot and usher us in.

The chariot was big enough for all of us, with long seats so I could lay down and try to distract myself from my arm while trying to help with Zoë as best as I could.

This night could've gone better, but it just got worse.