Very special shoutout to @The_Names_Pxel (who now knows a secret about the future of this book, that may even happen in this chapter...). Also whom I met on one of my favourite people's live streams on instagram (hmu mine's elsa._.noelle) and is generally my favourite Irish person who enjoys dolphins. RAD! Enjoy reading this with your knowledge. And to everyone else, enjoy.

As hard as I could try, I could never tell you exactly how it felt to use lightning, to make it bend to match your every whim.

It started with a pang in your gut. The pressure slowly growing until you felt it would consume you. As the lightning streaked downward, you could just barely manoeuvre it towards your target. Because I had so little energy, or maybe because that's how it was, black spots danced over my vision.

I smelled the charred scent before I heard Prometheus cry out. Though the lightning had stopped coming down from the clear sky, I could still feel the weight of the power surging through me. I turned my head to face Prometheus.

Like a snake, the lightning coiled itself around the chain Diana had thrown just in time, making it look alive. Prometheus had crumpled to the ground at the immediate strike. Along his left shoulder towards the small of his black ran a deep, smoking burn. The charred titan flesh was spotted with ichor threatening to spill. He was slowly pulling himself up.

Control it, Zeus and Pandora whispered in unison. Control the chain.

My vision was still splochy, and my mouth tasted metallic. Diana, sword in hand, ran to my side. She egged on the same message from my father and my possesser.

"Whatever you're doing to that chain, don't stop! Use it to bind Prometheus to the rock! Hurry, Y/N, before he gets up..." She was watching me palely, and I noticed she was clutching her stomach like it hurt. She held her "very unbalanced" sword up as if shielding me from the threat still pulling himself off the ground.

Despite what they were telling me, I couldn't do anything. My eyes were threatening to close. The lightning started flickering like it was about to die out.

"Y/N!" Diana pleaded. "Please, you can do this. You can do this!"

I stretched out my right arm, trying hard not to groan. I could do this. I could do this if it killed me. I felt Diana's hand on mine, her sword resting next to my leg.

She whispered small encouragements but seemed like she was about to cry. If I waited another second, the lightning would be gone, Prometheus would be on his feet, and we'd officially be done for.

The lightning pulsed stronger, and the chain started to wind its way around Prometheus, like the clasps were getting ready to close around his ankles and wrists.

I thought of Johnny, oblivious to his surroundings as he lay by our bags. I didn't see how he went down, but I knew he fought bravely. Diana, towering above me, misty eyed. She was scared, scared she'd fail this quest like she did the last - that we'd all be dead, and with us the world. 

The first clasp bound his right wrist. He screamed, the lightning burning him, and dropped back to his knees.

"No! Stop!" He cried, red eyes rapidly moving between the chain coiling around him and me, lying on the ground.

I thought of Chiron, and how worried he was the last time I saw him. I hoped he slept since, but it was more likely he hadn't. It was past noon, but I knew he was still worrying about us - he'd be waiting for an Iris Message until he gave camp the all clear. For his age, he must've been in this position a lot. It never got easier.

The second clasp burried itself around Prometheus' left wrist. His wrists were smoking, his expression had changed from pain to anger.

"Not again! No!" He attempted to take a step forward, but I willed the lightning to give him a shock and he sunk once more to his knees.

I thought about my parents, who probably had no idea of the dangerous quest I was on, simply that I had gotten to camp. They had no clue that if I made one slip up Prometheus could break free from the binds and destroy humanity.

Left ankle, a groan of pain as Prometheus managed to stagger forward. I didn't have enough strength to zap him again.

I thought of Zeus. Everything on this quest was a chance to prove to him that I was worthy enough to be claimed - to be officially called the child of Zeus.

And bull if I wasn't worthy now.

Right ankle, Prometheus cried out as he crumpled to the floor for the last time. The mountain quaked, if only for a moment.

With a final groan of effort, I used the lightning to pull Prometheus to his feet. I gave him a slight smirk.

The metallic taste in my mouth had been blood, but I offered him one last sardonic reply.

"I told you," I spat. "I foresee you losing."

I flung him against the binding rock, and the current immediately disappeared, the chain bound to the rock for all of eternity.

~

I must've blacked out for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes again I was watching Diana shuffle over to Johnny, still gripping her stomach.

Prometheus had fallen quiet, his eyes closed as he waited for the eagle to swoop down and resume his punishment.

I assessed my own wounds. I was sure now my rib was broken. I wasn't sure what was wrong with my arm, but by now most of the feeling was gone save for a tingling in my fingers where Diana had been holding on. I couldn't see my legs from the position I was in and didn't attempt to move. My knee was in terrible condition, that's all I could confirm.

I saw that Diana had been moving for the bags as opposed to Johnny. She was pulling out emergency ambrosia kits like the ones stocked in the temples on Attica. She took a swig from the bottle of nectar, and ate a small square of ambrosia. Then she hobbled back over to me still clutching her stomach.

"Y/N," She said, dropping to her knees beside me and lifting the canteen of nectar and bag of ambrosia squares. "Can you take some yourself?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but realized some blood must have dripped out when I did so. Diana shook her head and lifted the bottle above my lips.

"It's okay, you're gonna be okay. Don't move."

I felt the nectar warm me, running through my body like it was pumping through my veins. It didn't heal me right away, nor had it Diana, but I significantly felt my energy reserves return to normal and my breathing calm down.

"I'm okay for now," I croaked out, aware that the metallic taste from my mouth was dissipating. "Go make sure Johnny's okay. Please."

~

It had been maybe forty minutes since the fight. Though my left arm was still useless and my ribs made it hurt to breathe or move too extensively, I was able to stand upright on my knee. I could limp very slowly on it, and I figured it would have been easier to float a little ways above the ground, but after pouring so much energy into manipulating the lightning, I didn't attempt it.

We suspected Diana had a healing fractured rib, and Johnny most definitely had a concussion. I wasn't sure who was holding who up when he tried to help me walk, Diana mostly fine to stumble from destination to destination. He kept pulling to the side with a dizzy spell, or stopping to throw up. I felt much like throwing up myself, but we pushed ahead.

We were scouring the mountain for signs of the Pithos.

Pandora had been absent from my head since the fight, and Prometheus wouldn't talk despite all of Diana's threats and even digging her sword into his leg. I thought it would be easy to find, like behind the binding rock even though I hadn't seen it before. It wasn't there. We checked any other places it could possibly be but came up empty.

Diana turned to me, having ditched trying to get the answer from Prometheus. "Can you fly?"

"Fly?" Johnny asked, words a bit incoherent. "Of course not! I'm a sheep!"

I rubbed his shoulder soothingly. "Goat, Johnny. You're a goat." I turned back to Diana. "Fly? Aren't we supposed to find the ceramic problem causer before we do that?"

"I think I know where he put it." I motioned for her to continue. "He had to toss that Cable Car from somewhere. I don't know if there are people still there, or if they're okay, but right now that's our best bet. It's not on the peak."

I wasn't eager to fly, like I'd mentioned earlier. But if it meant getting the Pithos, I couldn't let my personal feelings get in the way.

I looked at Johnny, lolling his head around and grinning. He saw me looking and winked. "Get him some more nectar, please. He seriously needs it. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Diana wrapped her arm around Johnny's waist and started pulling him back towards the bags. "Come on, sheep man, let's get you feeling better."

"I already had some honey!" Johnny bleated.

"It's not honey, and trust me, you need more."

~

I landed next to the tall wooden shelter where the cable track ended. Peeking around the side, I saw only a small remnant of people compared to how many there must have been before the Cable Car was thrown. I watched as eight of them climbed on the emergency operating car, officials riding in each to make sure these last people got down safely.

I started limping my way past the crowd, following the path not covered in snow; the path Prometheus had definitely travelled on. A boy two years older than me gently put a hand on my shoulder. I flinched.

"Whoa, are you okay? I thought they already took the wounded down on the first emergency Cable Car." He had a thick Italian accent when he spoke, and smiled at me kindly. "I'll make sure they get you down on the next one."

I smiled at the brown hair, brown eyed boy as politely as I could. "Thank you, but I really need to go find something..."

He frowned. "Hey, can you move your left arm? It looks pretty bad."

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine. Really." I tried, moving to side step away.

"Look, you move your left arm and I'll let you go. If you can't, I'm coming with you."

I bit my lip. After all that fighting, all I wanted to do was get the Pithos and leave. I shouldn't have to deal with an annoying mortal who had no idea why my arm was as 'pretty bad' as it was. But I couldn't move my left arm for the life of me. He was also a head taller, and I couldn't run.

"Come on then," I grumbled. "Let's go."

He smiled, and walked slowly beside my limping self. He looked like he wanted to help me walk, but that would be weird for both of us. He was just happy with himself that he was helping me.

Could be worse, I thought. Could be a monster.

"I'm Marco," he added. "And you are?"

"Y/N."

"What are you looking for, anyway?" He pestered.

I spoke before I though about what I was saying, but it wasn't a Pandora-induced kind of thing. It was more of a oh-no-I-can't-tell-him-I'm-looking-for-a-greek-ceramic-magic-jar thing.

"Oh, an ornamental jar with my grandmother's ashes in it."

I bit back a curse word as Marco's mouth formed an 'O' shape.

I thought, at least, he'd drop the subject and we could search in peace. Of course, this kid didn't know how to drop a subject.

"So why is your ornamental jar up here in the first place? And how did you lose it?"

"Oh, you know. It was her dying wish to come up to the top of a dormant volcano. As for why I lost her...um, when that whole Cable Car thing happened I kind of lost track."

He nodded, like it made sense.

"Hey, I didn't exactly see what happened." I told him, wanting to know how the story had changed through the mist. "Wanna fill me in?"

"Oh, yeah, I suppose you'd have been wherever the ornamental jar is." He grinned. "The empty Cable Car was on its way down to bring more tourists up. It came off the cable track, and flew towards the ground below. The fire ripped along here, where the snow is melted. Shortly after, the Cable Cars started operating again to get everyone off the mountain to investigate; the wounded being first. They stopped the cars for another ten minutes when a random flash of lightning was spotted - which is strange because there are no clouds in the sky."

So they hadn't seen the Titan of Forethought at all. At least people had just been wounded, not killed.

We followed the scorch marks towards what looked like an indent in between the rocks. Marco stopped behind me but I kept walking, knowing that was a perfect place for the Pithos to be - and it was right at the end of the trail of melted snow.

"How did the fire get this far from the Cable Car track?" Marco asked uneasily. "It only barely missed the wood of the building, and only scorched a little bit of the ground. This doesn't make sense."

I looked in the indent, and lost my breath. It was there. The Pithos was there!

"It's here! My grandfather's ashes!" I told him, reaching down to lift it. It must've been three feet high and a foot wide, glazed with black-and-white geometrical designs. The ceramic lid was fastened with a leather harness.

"I thought it was your Nonna's," he replied, still a few feet away and skeptical. "That is grandmother, in Italian."

"Oh, right," I nodded. My lie was wearing thin but if I just got him to go back to the group I could fly this thing back to the top without him seeing.

I wrapped my right arm around it and went to pull. My whole left side errupted in pain, no doubt the broken rib. I staggered back, clutching my side, my left arm tingly and my body seized with pain. I lost balance and fell back, and Marco was there to catch me in an instant.

"Princepessa," he said softly. I shut my eyes as I tried to hold my burning side. It hurt every time I tried to get air in. He gently laid me down against cool snow, and stuffed something under my head like a pillow.

"Don't move, Y/N, I'm going to get help!" He stood and turned, following the snowless path back to the Cable Cars.

Now was my chance, but I couldn't move without wheezing and wanting to cry out. I could barely lift the Pithos in the first place, there was no way I could fly it.

I didn't have time to lay here. I had to get up and go, or they'd take me down on the Cable Car and my friends wouldn't know where I went. Worse yet, they wouldn't have a way off the mountain but to climb down to here - and who knew if the Cable Cars would still be running after the remaining group of people were gone?

It was obvious: now or never.

I'd never groaned so loud as when I pulled myself into a seated position. I turned back, and saw what Marco had used to keep my head up. Breathing shallowly so it didn't hurt too bad, I reached my right hand over and picked up his thin blue jacket.

"Oh gods," I cried. "Don't let this fabric break."

I wrapped it around the Pithos as best as I could with one hand, tying it with the combined help of my hand and mouth pulling the sleeves tightly in a knot. The hood of the coat held the bottom, and the rest of the jacket wrapped around the Pithos until it turned into the nice little sleeve bow.

I grabbed the sleeves, and biting my lip to keep from crying out, I lifted off the ground. I heard the stomping of at least three people rushing back to where I was. I flew up as fast as I could.