When Kassandra was little she had often thought of her own death. Not in any morbid sense, but with the curiosity of a child, a girl that had seen things come and go, and naturally, she wondered when it would be her time, how she would go. When Kassandra was little, she didn't need to wonder what death looked like. She could sense when people were sick, could tell when they were on the path of recovery from death. She never needed to wonder when she saw the occasional demigod tearing through the streets away from salivating monsters.

She had never wondered, but she had never sought it out either. Kassandra had never had the desire to die, but that didn't stop her from climbing the mountain and facing the titan that slaughtered her in her dream -- the titan that her father had practically warned would kill her.

The General sneers. "You have no right to interfere, little hero. This is a family matter."

Percy frowns. "A family matter?"

"Yes," Zoe says bleakly. "Atlas is my father."

"Who cares who he is," Kassandra huffs, gathering herself. "Let Artemis go."

Atlas chuckles and walks closer to the chained goddess. "Perhaps you would like to take the sky for her? Be my guess."

Zoe takes a step forward, ready to offer herself. Artemis shouts, "No! Do not offer, Zoe! I forbid you!"

Atlas smirks and kneels down beside the chained goddess, reaching to touch her face. She jerks away, biting at his hand viciously.

"Hoo-hoo," Atlas chuckled. "You see? Lady Artemis likes her new job. I think I will have all the Olympians take turns carrying my burden, once Lord Kronos rules again, and this is the center of our palace. It will teach those weaklings some humility."

"Humility? It looks like you could use a few more centuries holding up the sky to teach you humility," Kassandra snaps, shifting her weight onto her front foot, she turned to the downed goddess. "Please, Aunty, let me-"

"No, Kassandra. I will not allow it. Do not ask again."

"I don't understand," Percy says. "Why doesn't she just let it go?"

Atlas laughs. "How little you understand, young one. This is the point where the sky and the earth first met, where Ouranos and Gaia first brought forth their mighty children, the Titans. The sky still yearns to embrace the earth. Someone must hold it at bay, or else it would crush down upon this place, instantly flattening the mountain and everything within a hundred leagues. Once you have taken the burden, there is no escape." Atlas smiled. "Unless someone else takes it from you."

Kassandra's stomach turned, flipping uncomfortably as she shifts and breathed thickly. She glances at Luke. Is this the best he could dig up? Like, sure, he was a titan, but he didn't really appear to be all that... great.

He moves closer to them, studying Percy and Thalia. "These are the best heroes of the ages, eh? They aren't very impressive."

"Fight us then," Percy says. "Fight us and see."

He laughed harshly. "Have the gods taught you nothing? We immortals are above such petty things as fighting heroes. We do not fight mortals directly. It is beneath our station. I'll have Luke deal with you."

"You think that Luke could deal with four of us?" she blurts in disbelief, trying very hard no to feel overly offended.

"So you're just a coward," Percy says.

The titan's eyes flash with murder, glowing with hatred. She grabs Percy's wrist.

"As for you, Luke was wrong about you, daughter of Zeus."

Luke looks up at that, eyes a little brighter than before. "I wasn't wrong," he stressed, voice weak and frail. "Thalia you can still call the Ophiotaurus. You can join us. All you have to do is call it."

He waved his hand, and next to us a pool of water appeared: a pond ringed in black marble, big enough for the Ophiotaurus. She watched Thalia cautiously, eyes wide as the girl froze again, looking just as dazed as they had when she had first learnt of the power of the beast. 

"Thalia, just call the beast," Luke persists. "It will come to you."

"Luke... what happened to you?" Thalia asks, voice full of pain and sorrow.

"Don't you remember all those times we talked? All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world!"

(When Kassandra was twelve and had just been claimed by Apollo, she had run straight to her place at the Hermes cabin and began to pack in a fervour. She had shoved everything hastily into her bag, claiming the blanket that had followed her from the moment that she stepped into camp as her own once more.

None had wanted to talk to her and those that did didn't receive an answer from her as she bit the inside of her cheeks to keep herself from either murdering anyone that got within arms reach, shooting herself, or bursting into tears.

Luke had been the one to come and see her as she sat outside the camp boundary at the base of the hill. He had sat with her until her parents showed to pick her up.

He sat with her and let her curse the gods all over again as they had done time and time before. Kassandra could remember saying those exact words.

They have no right to rule the world, she had said, had screamed so loud at she was sure that the gods themselves had heard her.

And Luke had just agreed with her.)

(Oh, how stupid she felt now having fueled his hatred, his anger. She should have just kept her fat mouth and stupid feeling to herself and maybe they wouldn't have to be here today.)

Thalia shook her head. "Free Annabeth. Let her go."

"If you join me," Luke promises, "it can be like old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don't agree..."

His voice falters. "It's my last chance. He will use the other way if you don't agree. Please."

Jaw clenching, she looked away, unable to face the boy as he was. In his crazy, he waved his hand and a bronze brazier appeared, a sacrificial fire like the one at camp. For the Ophiotauras.

If Thalia was to sacrifice the monster, if she was to do it for Luke and the Kronos, then she couldn't ever forgive her. She knew just as well as them that the gods weren't worth it, that they didn't deserve the respect that they received, but she couldn't just let her cause so much war and chaos.

(Half-bloods would die in drones, children that shouldn't have to fight in a war. Kassandra didn't care if people that she didn't know died, but she wouldn't stand around and just let the people she knew at camp fall. She wouldn't let her friends die.)

(Not like this. Not when she knew that she could do something.)

(It wouldn't be like Ariel, not again.)

Thalia wavered, flickering in her indecision. He made it sound like if he didn't join him, then his life you be in danger. She didn't quite believe him. Couldn't believe him.

"Kassie. Kassie, please," he says. "You know I'm right, don't you? You and Thalia both have to help me."

"Luke," she says, her voice strained, tight. "Don't call me that."

Behind him, the golden sarcophagus began to glow. Images in the mist started to swirl around them -- black ruins coming to life, forming into their prior glory in flashes. It burned with power behind her eyes, ringing in her ears with its strength.

So much could change, so much could be different. The titans... never pretended to care for their children, they never tried to hide their evil. Their superiority.

"We will raise Mount Othrys right here," Luke promises, in a voice so strained it was hardly his. She could hear the underlayer, the voice of something that wasn't him. "Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak."

( A vision flashes in her mind, a young man with golden eyes that glowed through endless, continuous, infinite darkness, calling her name in an angry plea, screaming at her louder and louder.

Her Luke but everything that she hated, everything that they both despised -- possessed by something that wasn't him, something that wasn't right.

Possessed by Kronos.)

Luke pointed behind him to where Percy had seen the Princess Andromeda docked on their way up. She didn't dare turn to see the scope of what his army was now.

"This is only a taste of what is to come," Luke says, as if he was boasting. "Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help."

Anger burns through her, seeing like a stirring sun storm, ripping against her skin. She could feel the blaze building within her, spitting out its beams as raised her bow and took aim. Her body shook but her aim remained steady. "You won't have the chance. I'll kill you right here and now," she grinds out.

He shakes his head sadly. "You're still such a child, Kassandra."

"You think I won't?" she demands.

"Oh, no, I know that you're perfectly capable of murder," he says casually. She doesn't even flinch. "You just won't be able to make the shot. Who else will guide you in the dark?"

Exhaling heavily, she relaxes her shoulders and tilts her head. She sets her gaze on the hollow of his throat.

(Oriana had once instructed her to stand with her arm stretched out and a sword in hand. She had held it steady, had watched her struggle to hold the pose for hours. Luke had told her that she was going too far, that this would only hurt her in the end.

And Oriana had given Luke those eyes of hers that made him pause and quirk his lips into the smallest of smiles as if he was afraid to show her anything more. He used to drink her in like she was the world whenever she walked into sight, used to listen to every single one of her suggestions and strategies as if she knew the answer to everything.

Luke had watched her stand with her arms weighed down, had watched her struggle to keep the blade level until she switched to a bow and arrow and could keep her aim no matter how exhausted her arms grew.

He knew that she could keep her arrow trained on him for hours and not even flinch.)

(He knew that she could look him in the eyes and shoot and not even flinch.)

(But she might if she kept having to watch him interact with Thalia. For Annabeth, it might have always been Thalia and Luke, but for Kassandra, it was always Oriana and Luke.)

"You aren't Luke," Thalia says, voice shaking. "I don't know who you are anymore."

"Of course you do. You know exactly who I am," he pleads. "Please. Please, don't make me... Don't make him destroy you."

"Well, looks like we're all going to die here together," she mutters, laughing shakily to herself.

"What?" Percy breathes.

"Nothing," she says, shaking her head. Her gaze flickers to Annabeth, catching as the girl nods her head.

She swallows, turning to Percy as he turns to meet her eyes. He nods.

"Now," Percy says.

The arrow flew, and while her aim held true, Luke had never been an idiot. He ducked. It embedded in the back of the head of one of the dracanae that were fleeing the sight of Thalia's shield.

Thalia charged Luke, spear and shield and ready. He countered with his sword, blocking and attacking.

And Percy went for Atlas, Riptide brandished before him. She nearly had a heart attack then and there at the sight, her stomach dropping as the brown suit shifted into full Greek battle armour in a flash of light.

A huge javelin appeared in his hands and her grip went slack. Her bow fell to the floor with a soft clatter. 

"Kassandra?" Zoe asks, gaze shooting from her, to Percy, to her bow on the floor. "What is it?"

Her mouth works soundlessly as she lays a hand on her flute. "Nothing, don't worry about it," she says, taking a decisive step forward. "There's... Percy! be careful!"

Atlas swatted him to the side. He flew back, slamming into the materializing wall. Kassandra swooped down and grabbed her bow. She armed herself, firing off a couple of shots at Luke as she tries to find a place to hit Atlas away from Percy. To give him more of an opening.

"Fool!" Atlas screams gleefully, swatting aside one of Zoe's arrows. "Did you think, simply because you could challenge that petty war god, that you could stand up to me?"

Percy charged again as she shot off rapid arrows, mentally willing them to return to her faster and faster.

The javelin came at him like a scythe, moving almost slow to her eyes. It caught him in the chest. He didn't even raise his sword to defend himself.

He went flying, shooting back like a limp doll and her body seizes, jerking into action.

"Run, boy," Artemis says. "You must run."

He didn't move as Atlas advanced, raising the javelin up. It was right there, right there from her dream.

"Run!" Artemis screams, her voice ringing in her head. "Do not try it, Kassandra, run!"

She had more than enough time to place herself between them. Her bow laid forgotten by Zoe, as she took her flute in hand. This is how it went in her dream.

(Dying for Percy was a little off from how exactly she had always pictured it. It wasn't to spite Apollo, it wasn't in defiance of the gods, but for them instead. To protect the son of Poseidon. To give Percy the chance to move.)

"Brave little thing, are you?" Atlas rumbles. "Only a child, but brave. Luke told me all about you. The girl that hates the gods."

"Luke doesn't know anything about me," she repeats her own words. "Not anymore."

"Pity. I would have enjoyed seeing the look of betrayal on your father's face, daughter of Apollo," he says casually, raising the javelin to bring down on her. "You'll die here instead, girl."

Kassandra raises her flute, two-handed and strong, but the javelin continues clean through breaking it into two.

I don't want to die, she thinks, watching as the top carried closer and closer to her face. Apollo. Dad, please. Help me. I don't want to die.

The javelin continues its downward trajectory, but Kassandra moves without a thought, bending backwards and spinning outward to the left with fancy footwork that has her dancing back and out as her face burns and shoulder screams.

Her left eye falls shut, squeezing tight at the blood that began to trickle down her face. She pants, flute falling from her hands as she raised them to press tightly against her shoulder.

Warmth spread through her, a golden glow like sunshine encompassing. The scent of warm sand and hyacinth surrounded her, filling her senses.

"Don't call me girl," she bites out, letting go of her shoulder to grab at her daggers. "I am Kassandra LeClaire, you walking plague!"

A volley of arrows launched at him, striking into the chinks of his armour as he lifted his arm once more, and Kassandra pounced, the feeling of thousands of suns and the strength of hundreds racing through her.

Zoe was screaming at him, drawing his attention as all the opening she needed. She threw one dagger, guiding it to sink in the space that Zoe's arrows had landed.

Then there was a blur of silver and Kassandra was falling short, pulling back from her attack. The tip of the javelin hit harmlessly against the golden aura that shone around her. She blinked in amazement.

This was her father. This was one of the hymns that she and her siblings were always trying to perfect, one of the hymns that would never be strong enough for whatever they would face. This was the Blessing of Apollo, his war song of healing over and over, his ability to strengthen another in battle. She had earned his blessing. He had answered her prayers and kept her face, strengthened her blows and helped her keep from further injury.

Apollo had answered her.

The blur that was Artemis continued as she fought the titan, the streaks of arrows quick and sharp around her.

Kassandra ducked forward, using her advanced speed to duck in and out of his shots, landing harmless blows to take the pressure off Artemis as the goddess lead them back toward the sky.

There was a pulse as they moved, silver and gold, and she knew it was more her father that it was herself, like the moves appeared to her before they even came. Kassandra was only thankful that she healed the moment that the attack fell, that she wouldn't die so long as she was blessed and careful.

He feinted with the tip of his javelin and Artemis dodged. Atlas's javelin swept around and knocked Artemis's legs off the ground. She fell, and Atlas brought up his javelin tip for the kill.

She leapt forward, hands wrapping around the shaft and pulled as strong as she could. It shifts for a moment, jerking toward her as she lets out a tiny scream.

Kassandra gets thrown back, tossed backwards into a standing column and slides to the ground with a thump as she lands on her side.

Huffing, she pushes herself up, meeting alive grey eyes that were ringed with dark circles and streaks of dirt.

The gold around her flickered, fading to yellow. This is what she was used to, the yellow that she and her siblings had been able to produce.

"Annabeth," she breathes, grabbing at the binds that held her and pulling her free. She moved quickly, hastily wiping at the blood on the left side of her face. Electricity flared at the littlest touch, but she didn't make any motion to fix it. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

The blonde gripped her hands as soon as hers were free, tugging her close. "You came."

"Of course, I came. I wasn't ever not going to come. As soon as I had figured it out, I started making plans to come," she says, helping her to her feet and thrusting a dagger into her hand. It wasn't the same as her regular knife, but Annabeth was going with just about any weapon. "Come on. You're not hurt, right?"

The girl shakes her head. "I'm fine. We have to help Percy."

Kassandra whips around, squinting her one open eye as she looked for the boy. He was trapped under the weight of the sky, held beneath the titan's burden. She let out a shaky breath, pushing to her feet.

"I'll help him hold the weight," she announces. "I've done it before with Artemis in a dream. It won't be that bad of a difference, I think."

No. Go to Zoe, Artemis speaks in her mind, sending her searching once more. The hunter laid crumbled on the floor against a wall between some rocks. Her breath caught.

Alright, that's fine, she could just go around and be all over the place at once instead of committing to a single thing.

"Stay here," she stresses to Annabeth and darts off, weaving between the separate battles to slide on her knees up to the downed huntress.

She moves carefully with glowing hands, carefully pulling the girl up and placing her head on her lap.

Hands hovering, she flutters them over the girl looking for the source that was drawing the life from her. The sinking feeling in her gut told her that she already knew.

It was only confirmed when she laid her hands by her side, lingering for a moment that drags on forever. She presses them there, feeling the sickness and disease that hides within.

Biting her lips and squeezing her eyes shut, she tries to let the yellow glow stretch on as she puts more attention and focus than she ever has before into a healing hymn.

A hand lands on her shoulder but she doesn't open her eyes.

"Please, let me," Artemis says.

She stiffens, not stopping in her prayer just yet. She tries harder leaving herself almost breathless and unsteady.

"Kassandra, please."

Shoulders curling forward, she nods and slides out of the way to let the goddess take her place. She pulled her hands away from Zoe's side and moved to dig into her bag that was still magically on her back. She searched for the nectar, twisting it open with shaky hands.

The yellow flicker and fades. Exhaustion falls over her, bearing down a weight on her body that has her sagging and whimpering in pain. She could feel her pulse in her face, feel her shoulder scream and throb with every little movement.

Breathing heavy, she moves Zoe's shirt aside and pours some of the nectar over the wound -- placing a hand back over her side as she begins to sing in whispers, pouring herself into the words, begging that everything she knew about healing would be helpful.

But she wasn't very good and she wasn't very strong. She felt like she was sinking, vision going dark and blurry.

"Artemis!" Percy calls, the first to reach them.

Her hands shake, body slumping as she nearly pitches forward onto the downed girl. He wraps an arm around her shoulders, grabbing her to pull back into his chest.

She hissed at the shift to her shoulder.

"The wound is poisoned," Artemis tells them. Kassandra whines, reaching to place a hand back to Zoe.

"I can handle poison. Lee taught me," she says, reaching out.

"Atlas poisoned her?" Percy asks.

Her eyes fall shut, lips pressed tight as she tried very hard not to cry. It seemed to be a theme, getting hurt and crying at the end of quests, curling into someone to support her as she exerted all her energy.

Because Kassandra had given all of her energy to try and save Zoe and even that would never be enough. She wasn't good at healing, had never practiced enough for it to be anything to mention. She had never prayed to her father enough for it to work as it should, have never believed in him.

And it was that belief that was biting her in the ass now. If she had tried sooner, if she had made Zoe let her see the wound earlier, she might not have needed to die.

A daughter struck down at the hand of the father. A hero, a hunter, for the freedom of her lady.

"No," the goddess says. "Not Atlas."

She moved, showing the wound delivered by Landon on her side. It was a terrible scrape, a cut that had been sapping her strength from the moment it was delivered.

"The stars," Zoe murmurs. "I cannot see them."

"Ambrosia and nectar," Percy says quickly, moving around her to get to the hunter's side. She grunts at the harsh shift, getting her teeth in a way that only makes her face hurt. "Come on! We have to give her something!"

"I already tried," Kassandra whispers, placing a bloodied hand onto her shoulder.

No one moved. The army of Kronos was just below the rise. We might've met our doom right there, but then she heard a strange buzzing noise that was gradually growing louder as it came closer.

Just as the army of monsters came over the hill, a Sopwith Camel swooped down out of the sky.

"Get away from my daughter!" Dr. Chase calls down, and his machine guns burst to life, peppering the ground with bullet holes and startling the whole group of monsters into scattering.

(Was it wrong that she hoped that they hit the demigods in the group?)

"Dad?" yells Annabeth in disbelief.

"Run!" he shouts back, his voice growing fainter as the biplane swooped by. She followed it as it went, tracking it almost absently.

Artemis shook from her grief-filled daze, shoulders rising and falling heavily. Kassandra doubted that she would ever face a god filled with such sadness and mourning ever again in her life. She was sure to burn the image in her mind, to keep that sight as a pocket memory of the side that she had wilfully chosen, the side that she had laid down her life for and was willing to die.

(Because it was easy to decide that you were ready to face death, to step forward and let every piece of yourself go, but it was another thing to see it face to face and know that if only you let go, if you moved on, you had a chance to be free.

Kassandra was ready to put down her life as proof of her hatred, as proof that she would rather die than be connected to him a moment longer.

Turns out she wasn't ready in the end. She doubted she ever would be when the time came.)

"A brave man," Artemis says with grudging approval. "Come, We must get Zoe away from here."

She lifts a hunting horn to her lips, the clear sound echoing through the valley in a clear crystal call that has a sigh leaving her lips at the beautiful sound. Zoe's eyes flutter.

"Hang in there! It'll be alright," Percy tells her. "Kass. Kass, there has to be something that you can do."

She breathes in deeply, dragging together the last of her energy, the remnants of her strength. "I'll try. I'll try," she says, grabbing the open jar of nectar. She takes a small sip, the taste of chocolate milk bursting on the tip of her tongue. She takes the jar and dips a couple of sips down Zoe's throat before dumping the rest onto the wound. "Just stick with me a little longer, Zoe."

Leaning down, she began to whisper her prayers, breathing life into the older girl desperately.

Gunfire rang louder, drawing closer with the sound of the screaming monsters.

"That's... that's my dad!" Annabeth calls, almost excited at the prospect.

Just as she was sure that she wouldn't be able to stand if she sang the hymn a moment longer, a silver chariot big enough to fit them all pulled up next to them drawn by the Ceryneian Hind.

"Get in," Artemis says.

Percy moved to help the goddess lift Zoe, as Kassandra stumbled over the chariot herself, slumping against the side and holding herself up with her one good arm. Annabeth and Thalia came in after her, the latter of the pair holding out her bow as an offering.

"You didn't see," Thalia says softly, helping to get the weapon across her shoulders. "But Luke..."

She cuts off, choking on the words. Kassandra's smart enough to get the full picture. "I- You did what you had to, Thalia. It's not your fault."

"She's right," Annabeth says, coming up to their side once she gets a blanket around the hunter. "I don't think he's dead, anyway. He can't be."

Kassandra didn't bother forming a reply, not wanting to upset either of them further. They were in mourning.

(She had mourned last summer when she had seen him ready to rip apart any that stood in his way, ready to destroy everything and everyone that had ever cared for him. She had mourned the moment that she had learnt of his betrayal, had cried over the loss of who Luke was when he was more than just some man hellbent on revenge and chaos and a new order to the world.)

(She had mourned in every way that he had taught her, had mourned with bloody fists and silent tears hidden in the dark, out of view from the sun and the knowing eyes of friends that could not and would not understand her inability to trust them to see her so vulnerable.)

Artemis pulled the reins and they sped forward, nearly throwing her off balance. She would have toppled had it not been for Annabeth and Thalia ready to hold her steady.

"Like Santa Claus' sleigh," Percy murmurs.

Artemis looks back at him in amusement as she continues to expertly fly the chariot. "Indeed, young half-blood. Where do you think that legend came from?"

They flew with a Sopwith Camel escort. Behind them were the screams of the Titan army as they were left behind, unable to actually have a chance to bring them down.

Above all that, Kassandra could hear Atlas as he bellowed curses to the sky that he held, screaming after them in his rage.

All she could think was: good riddance.

☼ ☼ ☼

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wow this is a kinda bad chapter. that was a very bad fight scene. Kass just kinda felt very awkward ya know?

unedited

written: 2021-02-26

posted: 2021-04-25