The Titans Curse: Apollo's Daughter

When You Need Them

Percy's POV

Skyler lay at my side but only for a moment before stumbling to her feet and hobbling away towards the cliff. I wondered how she could even walk because I held the sky for a mear moment and I felt like my body was jello.

I looked in the direction she was hobbling to see Thalia had backed Luke to the edge of the cliff, but still, they fought on, next to the golden coffin. Thalia had tears in her eyes. Luke had a bloody slash across his chest and his pale face glistened with sweat.

He lunged at Thalia and she slammed him with her shield. Luke's sword spun out of his hands and clattered to the rocks. Thalia put her spear point to his throat.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Well?" Luke asked. He tried to hide it, but I could hear the fear in his voice.

Thalia trembled with fury.

Next to Skyler, Annabeth came scrambling, finally free from her bonds. Her face was bruised and streaked with dirt. "Don't kill him!" Skyler gasped out, her voice dry.

"Thalia please," Annabeth begged.

"He's a traitor," Thalia said. "You're a traitor!" She glanced at Skyler who held her hand out towards the daughter of Zeus trying to barter with her.

In my daze, I realized that Artemis was no longer with us. She had run off toward the black rocks where Zoe had fallen.

"We'll bring Luke back," Annabeth pleaded. "To Olympus. He... he'll be useful."

"Is that what you want, Thalia?" Luke sneered. "To go back to Olympus in triumph? To please your dad?"

Thalia hesitated, and Luke made a desperate grab for her spear.

"No!" Annabeth and Skyler shouted. But it was too late. Without thinking, Thalia kicked Luke away. He lost his balance, terror painted on his face, and then he fell.

"Luke!" Skyler yelled and for a moment I thought she may jump after him.

I hobbled my way to the cliff's edge. Below us, the army from the Princess Andromeda had stopped in amazement. They were staring at Luke's broken form on the rocks. Despite how much I hated him, I couldn't stand to see it. I wanted to believe he was still alive, but that was impossible. The fall was fifty feet at least, and he wasn't moving.

One of the giants looked up and growled, "Kill them!"

Thalia was stiff with grief, tears streaming down her cheeks. I pulled her back as a wave of javelins sailed over our heads. We ran for the rocks, ignoring the curses and threats of Atlas as we passed.

"Artemis!" I yelled.

The goddess looked up, her face almost as grief-stricken as Thalia's. Zoe lay in the goddess's arms. She was breathing. Her eyes were open. But still...

"The wound is poisoned," Artemis said.

"Atlas poisoned her?" Annabeth asked.

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

She showed us the wound in Zoe's side. I'd almost forgotten her scrape with Ladon the dragon. The bite was much worse than Zoe had let on. I could barely look at the wound. She had charged into battle against her father with a horrible cut already sapping her strength.

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

"Nectar and ambrosia," I said. "Come on! Skye, you can heal her. You have to."

No one moved. Grief hung in the air. The army of Kronos was just below the rise. Even Artemis was too shocked to stir. We might've met our doom right there, but then I heard a strange buzzing noise and what sounded like a police sirene...

Just as the army of monsters came over the hill, a vintage plane swooped down out of the sky and a sleek black cop car plowed through the Garden of the Hesperides like the mist hadn't been protecting it along with the dragon Ladon.

"Get away from my daughter!" A man called down from the plane, the machine guns burst to life, peppering the ground with bullet holes and startling the whole group of monsters into scattering.

"Dad?" yelled Annabeth in disbelief.

"Mom?" Skyler mumbled, looking at the woman who got out of the car and came rushing to us. She was wearing her police uniform but what looked like a greek breastplate instead of a bulletproof vest.

"Run!" Dr. Chase called back, his voice growing fainter as the biplane swooped by. This shook Artemis out of her grief. She stared up at the antique plane, which was now banking around for another strafe.

"A brave man," Artemis said with grudging approval.

"Hurry. She's gonna need medical attention." Skyler's mom said, kneeling down next to the goddess and the hunter.

"Allison." The goddess said.

"Artemis." It was clear the two had met before but now wasn't the time for reminiscing and Artemis knew that. She raised her hunting horn to her lips, and its clear sound echoed down the valleys of Marin. Zoe's eyes were fluttering.

"Hang in there!" I told her. "It'll be all right!"

The plane swooped down again. A few giants threw javelins, and one flew straight between the wings of the plane, but the machine guns blazed. I realized with amazement that somehow Dr. Chase must've gotten hold of celestial bronze to fashion his bullets. The first row of snake women wailed as the machine gun's volley blew them into sulfurous yellow powder.

"That's... my dad!" Annabeth said in amazement.

We didn't have time to admire his flying. The giants and snake women were already recovering from their surprise. Dr. Chase would be in trouble soon.

Just then, the moonlight brightened, and a silver chariot appeared from the sky, drawn by the most beautiful deer I had ever seen. It landed right next to us.

"Get in," Artemis said.

Annabeth helped me get Thalia on board. While Skyler still in a daze and weak herself helped her mother and Artemis with Zoe. They wrapped Zoe in a blanket as Artemis pulled the reins and the chariot sped away from the mountain, straight into the air.

"Like Santa Claus's sleigh," I murmured, still dazed with pain.

Artemis took time to look back at me. "Indeed, young half-blood. And where do you think that legend came from?"

Seeing us safely away, Dr. Chase turned his biplane and followed us like an honor guard. It must have been one of the strangest sights ever, even for the Bay Area: a silver flying chariot pulled by deer, escorted by a Sopwith Camel.

Behind us, the army of Kronos roared in anger as they gathered on the summit of Mount Tamalpais, but the loudest sound was the voice of Atlas, bellowing curses against the gods as he struggled under the weight of the sky.