Thalia's POV

"No!" I watched in horror as his blade sunk deep into Artemis's throne taking a large chunk out of it. Páthos readied for another swing and before he could I threw my shield slamming it into him and causing him to stumble forward.

He tumbled over the throne with an angry roar as I retrieved my shield. He clambered to his feet and in a swift motion lunged wrapping a hand around my neck. Grunting I kicked and thrashed unable to breath. He smiled cruelly and tightened his grip. Gritting my teeth I gripped his wrist and shocked him as hard as I could.

He roared in pain and dropped me to the ground. Scrambling to my feet I barely managed to dodge his next attack. I was getting slower and weaker and all I could hear were the panicked calls from outside as Olympus was torn apart.

He rolled his shoulders. "How does it feel to be the only one here?"

"I could ask you the same question." I panted and hurled a lightning bolt at him. The strike was slow and he deflected it with ease.

"Pathetic. Your friends are going to die and so are you." He sneered. "Olympus is going to be mine."

"And what will you rule over?" I asked stumbling away from his lazy and taunting swing.

"The world." He growled. "And people like you will not get in the way."

He spun and slammed his blade into Athena's throne but it stuck longer than expected. I took the opportunity to thrust with my spear and stab him in the calf. He growled in pain and reached back behind himself.  In one swift motion he pulled out the spear and broke it in half. I was weaponless. He rose to his full height and forgot his sword.

"You know it's been fun playing with you." Páthos chuckled. "Your defiance was amusing. But now it's simply annoying!"

"You know I hear that a lot, you'll have to try harder in order to break me." I said summoning another bolt of lightening trying to flounder for something anything to just hold him off.

"Go ahead. Throw it." He sneered raising his hand as his palm glowed a violent red. I cried out in pain as my chest exploded in a fire I couldn't quite explain. "You are running off of the simple fact that you believe you can save everyone. But you can't."

"You're...wrong." I gasped falling to my knees and clutching my chest.

"Am I?" Páthos sneered and knelt in front of me. He rested a hand on my face tilting my head up to stare into those fiery and cruel eyes. The feeling only intensified and I felt as though my heart were going to burst. All I could do was nod. "You should have listened to your friend. Stayed put."

"No." I croaked shaking.

"You're a burden you realize that? Your friends can't let you be for a minute because you'll run off throwing yourself to the wolves in the hopes of dying a hero." Páthos said letting go of my face. He studied me and in a moment of pathetic passion I spat in his face. 

His calm demeanor contorted into rage and in a powerful stroke he backhanded me. I yelled in pain as I rolled backwards slamming back against something hard. My head cracked against it and I groaned as everything swam out of focus. I attempted to stand yet again when I felt something tear into my skin, a blade slashing across my chest. Crying out in pain I gripped the wound as blood poured over my fingers.

"How will it feel to die at the base of your father's throne?" Páthos growled. "Spilling your blood over the king's treasured seat of power.  It will be tainted by his greatest disappointment. You."

"Funny. Cause if things go right. It's you who'll be sitting there." I said breathing heavily unable to move except for applying pressure to the wound that was leading to my continued state of bleeding out.

My shoulder had been mauled into a bloody and torn mess, my eye was closed shut with dried blood from an unknown injury, my back was flayed open like a fish, my leg wasn't working properly anymore, and my chest had now been torn open. I was a walking horror. To be honest,  I was hardly alive let alone walking.

"Maybe. But to me your blood is a trophy." Páthos sneered. I hardly heard him as my hearing dulled for a moment. "Ah ah ah. No you're not going to die yet. Not until I've finished destroying you from the inside out."

"You want to know something Páthos?" I asked managing to focus on him. "I pity you."

And I did. Because after all this time I could finally see in him everything that we shared in common. In those fiery and angry eyes held the faintest remains of an injured man.

"Don't pity me!" He snarled grabbing me by the hair and forcing my head back so that he couldn't feel my sympathetic gaze.

"No I will!" I yelled not caring if he could see me or not because despite my best efforts his anger caused his aura to pulse. It was as any other gods would be. It affected me whether I wanted it to or not and I was seized by a fit of passion of my own. "Because somebody has to. Somebody has to pity people like us."

"You fowl little peasant." Páthos spat and the next thing I knew his fist smacked into my jaw. I crawled across the floor attempting to get away from him leaving only a trail of blood behind me.

"I know what it's like to feel unloved." I said talking while my limbs slowly worked. "For your parent to not care. For my father to yell and curse at you because you're nothing to him."

"You have no comprehension of who I am!" Páthos said kicking me like a dog. I yelled in pain feeling something inside me break. Collapsing on my back I stared up at the ceiling with tears pricking my eyes. It was webbed and lined with cracks beginning at the center and webbing outwards.

"I know your fatal flaw is power. Like mine. Because you were screwed over. Because it wasn't fair that only one of you should live on Olympus. I know you wanted to be in control." I said though my words sounded very much like a whimper. "I know you just wanted to help your siblings because you figured it would be you and not them. Because you were stronger. And I know you say this is for you mother. To get back at me because I'm one of her enemies but it isn't is it?"

Páthos retrieved his sword and angrily slashed into Hermes's throne. I sucked in a sharp breath feeling my heart sink. No. No not Hermes he was one of the good ones like Artemis. He cared. He always cared.

"You're mad at her, at everyone, and I know what that's like to want to get back at them but you can't!" I said growing sick and a moment later I puked but it wasn't vomit it was blood. My eyes widened and I felt fear grip me but I kept my voice steady. "You can't because it's not right."

"The world needs change! I am the change! And I'm going to rid it of people like you." He snarled. "I will kill you slowly and surely until you are nothing but a pile of bones. You will be everything I wish I could do to your father!"

"Go ahead." I said laughing bitterly. "Kill me."

"No I'm going to do something far worse." He dropped his blade which landed with a clatter. I watched as two objects I recognized materialized in his hands.

"No." I whispered shaking. "How did you get those?!"

"Does it matter?" Páthos asked. In his hands he held the stones Sila had given me. But they weren't as I had seen them before they were bright and fiery with colors of orange and red dancing around alive with what could be seen as thought and feeling not grey and cold and lifeless as before. "I'm going to crush yours first."

"Please no!" I begged a new desperation in my tone.

"Too late." He said and his fist closed around it creating a loud pop like the shattering of a lightbulb. What I had felt in my chest before now seemed minor compared to this.

"NO!" But I knew it was too late. It felt as though my chest had imploded  and the space had been replaced by acid pumping through my veins  burning me from the inside out. I writhed on the ground as if thousands of small piranhas were feasting on my insides. There was no air to breath, nothing to see but darkness, I was alone again and all there was to feel was the rawest and purest form of heartbreak.

"And now her." Páthos said and despite my state of being I felt an anger mingle with my pain.

"No. No you won't touch her." I said fiercely.

Páthos laughed and looked down at me. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Don't underestimate me." I gasped rolling over onto my stomach and getting slowly to my feet. "You said so yourself. I'll die to protect the people I love."

His smile faltered for a moment and as the pain faded I felt somehow stronger than I had before. My palms ignited with an angry energy replacing the usual  mix of blue and yellow with pure raw power. I wasn't exactly sure what happened but a spear made entirely out of electricity appeared in my hand.

His face set into one of rage and anger yet again . His hand started to clamp down over the other shining stone. Before he could I stabbed the electric rod into his leg and caught the object before it could fall and shatter.

"Thalia." I turned sharply to see Reyna battered and bruised standing at the entrance. "Look out."

I wasn't fast enough to keep from being tackled from behind.  I lost my grip on the stone as it skittered across the floor behind a throne. Rolling I slipped away from Páthos's grasp.

He stood and with an angry yell reclaimed his sword. "I will burn Olympus to the ground. And you will join it!"

With a thrust he planted his blade back into Artemis's throne again and again and again until it was hardly anything at all. Reyna watched in horror rooted to the spot before snapping back to reality.

"I can't beat him Reyna." I said my exhaustion coming back. "I can't do it."

"No one said you had to." She said smiling lightly. "Not on your own."

"But I-"

"Together. That's how we do this remember what Hermes said? If we don't do this together we won't be able to do anything at all." Reyna glanced nervously at Páthos. "The outside world has gone to hell, Thalia. We have to stop it here because back home we're losing. "

"Okay. " I said taking a shaky breath. "We do it together. As long as he doesn't take out my Father's throne we have hope. Zeus is the king if he goes down everything else does too."

"Okay. No throne. Everything sucks." Reyna nodded. "Got it."

With that she drew her sword and charged at Páthos. He wheeled on his heel and turned to face her his stroke slow. Reyna managed to roll under it and drag her blade across his wrist. Golden blood pouring out of the wound.
"Gods give me strength." I breathed and limp ran into battle after her aware of my blood soaked clothes and open wounds.

Páthos anticipated Reyna's next attack kicking her to the ground but before he could plant his blade in her chest I hurled my shield at his arm redirecting the attack so it crashed into a pillar causing the support structure to crumble. The ceiling cracked even more causing the entire throne room to rumble.

He rolled his eyes and swept his blade across the ground knocking my legs out from under me. Rolling to my feet I had to duck behind a throne only to have the top half of it shaved off. As Páthos grew in rage he resorted to shifting.

In one moment he was a human the next a dragon stood in his place. Reyna cursed and ran for cover as fire plunged the room into an unbearable heat. Sweat prickled on my skin and I could feel the throne heating up against my back cussing my wound to burn and the blood to boil. Gritting my teeth in pain I waited until the fire ran out and crept from behind my hiding place.

I attacked from one side while Reyna attacked from the other but his wings expanded knocking Reyna backwards into the wall causing it to shudder and crack. With a grunt she landed hard on the ground.

I was lucky enough to be just out of reach. I guess being slower paid off for once. I thrust my new weapon upwards and kept running to the best of my ability shredding the soft under flesh of the wing.

He roared in such anger it made my ears ache. His tail was shaped much like a club barbed at the end with spikes. It swung in a downwards arch and slammed into my Father's throne.

I only knew it was bad because the electric spear in my hand faltered. My power was trembling along with the throne. I would be out of luck soon. Another hit like that and I wasn't sure I'd be able to do anything.

Reyna had managed to get to her feet but she was nursing her side and I imagined she'd broken a good number of ribs. Her eyes met mine and even from all the way across the room I could read her expression.

She was telling me that there was only one way out of this. I knew what it was and I'd accepted it a long time ago.

Páthos raised his tail to land another strike and I managed to pick up enough speed and slam into him from the side. I wasn't as fast as I normally would have been but he stumbled sideways into a row of pillars that buckled under his heavy weight.

He shifted back to human form showing the first few signs of weakness. "The both of you are persistent I'll give you that."

"You're not going to win." Reyna retorted. she walked with grace and confidence but I could see her exhaustion behind the facade as she wiped blood from the corner of her mouth.

"How cute." Páthos sneered and a new weapon had materialized in his hand. A cross bow. "You know my brother is the real archer. But I have experience of my own with bows. See I like the heavy duty kinds. The ones that kill!"

He fired a shot that was so quick, with such power, I didn't stand a chance of moving in time. The bolt penetrated my shoulder and jutted out the other side but it was worse than if it had gone all the way through.

"Thalia!" Reyna made a move towards me but he'd already reloaded the weapon and she was forced to change course. She dove behind Poseidon's throne causing the bolt to slam into the throne with a loud thump.

Once she was safe from the next arrow I fell to my knees. I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't. I just wanted to lay down and die. I was tired. So tired. My head swam and everything became a garbled mess. I couldn't see, couldn't move, I felt sick like my insides were twisting into knots.

I wasn't sure what was really happening but I felt to familiar hands grab me and drag me hurriedly out of the way. A sting on my cheek caused my vision to sharpen. It was Reyna of course.

"Stay awake. You have to stay awake." She said and glanced out backwards from behind the throne we'd  chosen to cover us. "I have a plan but I need you."

I nodded trying to gather myself but it was difficult. I'd already given up in my head, but what was worse was it felt like every ounce of my body had given up on me as well.

"Thalia I need you." Reyna said again but it was different. Almost desperate and I could see tears pricking her eyes. "We can win this."

"How?" I croaked. A loud bang sounded over head and I flinched violently. Reyna instinctively pulled me closer shielding me from harm if there was any.

"The ceiling." She said quietly and hurriedly. I could hear the steps of Páthos getting closer. "It's breaking and there's a specific apex of pressure on the center. Everything stems from that point. All of the pillars and walls have weakened it. If we place a good hit there everything will collapse."

"How are we going to hit it? My power is gone Reyna! I have nothing to fight with." I said.

"Trust me okay?" She rested a hand on my cheek and glanced about nervously. "You can do that can't you?"

"Of course." I nodded.

"Good. Now scatter and keep him busy." She said. I did as instructed and in just the nick of time as Páthos stood on the throne aiming downwards. The bolt landed right where we had been a moment before.

Limping and practically dragging my useless leg I made it to the next throne and ducked behind it. I had no idea how I was going to distract him.

That's when I realized. I wasn't just a demigod a girl who had powers. I was a human to. What had I done before I realized the extent of my power? Back on the streets back with Luke. I'd fought. But I'd fought dirty. It was time I reverted back to that. The do or die state of mind.

Darting out from behind where I had hidden I was nearly skewered in the stomach by a bolt. I studied him counting how long it took to replace each bolt. One,two, three,four,five, bang!

I flattened my self to the ground crying out as my shoulder with the bolt in it flared in pain. Panting I got back up again and made a run for it. Páthos was in the middle of reloading. It was the perfect opportunity. Praying I still had some remnants of my power I jumped using the smallest gust of air possible to boost me.

If there was one thing I was good at it was a choke hold, so that's exactly what I did. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held fast squeezing as tightly as I could. I glanced looking for Reyna who had finally popped out from her hiding spot. She held a bow in hand, I had no idea where she'd gotten it but she had one arrow, one shot.

Páthos growled reaching back and trying to pull me off. He stumbled backwards into a pillar trying to shake me off. But I wasn't going to loosen my hold. I couldn't. If I did I knew I would have nothing left to give and Reyna would be alone against him. And that even she wouldn't be able to hold him off.

"Reyna you gotta shoot!" I yelled taking another hit as Páthos slammed back into the pillar.

"It's not right!" She yelled back.

"Just shoot!" I argued my grip slipping.

"I only have one shot to make this work!" She yelled back and I could see the panic in her posture. She was scared, terrified. Not that she would miss but what would happen afterwards. My heart sank and a grief I couldn't explain threatened me.

"Reyna it's okay." I said shifting slightly to avoid Páthos's reaching hand. My arms were burning and I had no idea how long it would take to choke him out. He was a god, I'd never choked out a god before.

Her arms shook as she aimed at the ceiling. And I saw her wipe a tear away quickly. "What if I miss?"

"You won't miss." I assured her using my legs now as leverage.

"How do you know?" She asked still trying to find the best stance to shoot.

"Because I taught you." Páthos managed to grab my ankle and in an instant I was back on the ground again he stumbled gasping for air but it wouldn't be long before he reached Reyna. "Reyna. Shoot!"

Time seemed to slow down as if the universe itself was holding its breath. Everything moved at a fraction of normal speed. If one were to watch, to see what happened in this fraction of time and space they would note many things.

The slip of Reyna's fingers off the bow string and the snap of the arrow being released. One would notice the trajectory was dead center, a bullseye, to where the arrow needed to hit. They would see me scramble to my feet and make a move towards Reyna as if I could get there in time. One would see Páthos wide eyes with fear as the ceiling buckled. The cracking and crumbling of a building that had lasted centuries, the rubble of thrones and the rubble of the building about to become one.

The large chunks of polished marble crashing to the ground kicking up dust and debris. They would see the small tear slip from Reyna's cheek and race the rubble to the ground. The stone tucked behind the throne ignite with colors so passionate and beautiful it would be impossible to look at. Or the flash of gold light. But all of this was lost to the universe as it all happened so fast no one could see let alone comprehend what had happened.

But the saddest part of it all were the three quiet and whispered words that came from the mouth of the Praetor. A broken hearted girl who never thought in her entire life she would ever say anything so pure and true and tender. To a girl who was mid lunge, across the room, unsure of whether they would be heard or not, but she said them anyways.

"I love you."