Song For This Chapter: Born To Die - Lana Del Rey

Ch. 26: Weight Of The World  

   Just keep moving, Olive - just keep moving. 

    Those were the only thoughts that accumulated in my brain as we trekked up the ruins of the mountain, but it was hard work. My stomach felt as if I had swallowed a fist-full of razors and the sensation kept growing, tearing my insides apart. 

    What had initially started as a dull, throbbing pain was now so sharp that my breathing came fast and ragged, but I managed to keep it under control, hiding the pain from Percy and Thalia as we hiked. 

    My breathing hitched and I cursed, clutching my stomach as I caught Percy's attention, "You're hurt," he assumed, halting in his walk and approaching me, reaching out as if to try and heal me in some way.

    "No I'm not," I hissed out, an obvious lie.

    Percy rose a brow, "Is it the fruit? Do you know what is supposed happen when you eat it?" His eyes turned soft as they met my own, empty ones. 

    No, I chanted in my head, "Of course, Waterboy," I chuckled, keeping the group moving as we reached the summit, "I'm not dumb." 

    Thalia spared me a small side glance that showed her distrust in my statement, only she was able to understand how much I was willing to risk for the people we loved. She and I were alike in that way. It was annoying. 

    Percy's sea eyes darted between the exchange happening from Thalia and I, and, he furrowed his brow, a new sense of unsettled anxiety taking root in all of us as we reached the summit.

    The sky was a swirling vortex of gray hues and sickening overcast that threatened to swallow us whole. I knew what awaited us here, the General. A few yards away, I looked upon a sight that made my heart swell and drop down into my blazing stomach - joining the rippling pain. Artemis. 

    She was ragged and in a weathered, silvery dress that seemed to shine brighter the more she struggled under the weight. She was struggling under the sky, carrying the crushing weight of the sky in her arms, sweat pouring down every inch of her body. Her legs were locked in celestial chains, tethering her down to the ground beneath her feet.

    "Mother!" I cried out, feeling my lips tremble as I watched her struggle, it was the first time I had ever felt so emotionally attached to Artemis. Sure, we never had the closest relationship, but deep inside me I would always love her. 

    Artemis glared up at us, growling, "Stop! This is a trap - you must leave! Now!" Her voice was tight, strained even. Zoë began to cry, taking a step forward despite my Mother's protests - tugging on the chains to attempt to take the weight of the world. 

    "How.... Touching," A thick, booming voice snickered behind us as we turned to glare up at the towering General. At his side, Luke was holding the point of his sword against Annabeth's throat. Annabeth had her hands cuffed behind her back.

    Annabeth's grey eyes flickered towards me, taking me in with a shocked look and blinking eyes, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "O-Olive?!" She blurted out, sending a sharp glare towards Percy, "What are you guys doing here, ru-"

    "Shut up," Luke sighed and grabbed a rag and quickly gagged Annabeth causing her to murmur some incoherent curses towards him. I noted how sick he seemed, weak and frail. 

    "Luke," I tried to keep my voice steady as my vision began to shift around - my peripheral vision wavering slightly, "Let Anna go."

    Luke ignored me, sending Thalia a tight smile, "It's good to see you again, Thalia." She merely spat in his direction, not even allowing him the time of day.

    The General seemed to grow tired of the slow, awkward conversation as he took a tremendous step forward, "I am Atlas, the general of the Titans and terror of the gods," he hissed, "I will kill you presently, but I need to deal with this," he lifted a thick finger towards Zoë, "Wretched girl beforehand."

    "You're not going to lay a finger on Zoë, or any one else," Percy snapped, stepping in front of us and slowly reaching for his pocket while the General merely laughed at him in distaste. 

    Zoë shot Percy a small frown, pulling herself up to her usual, regal height, "This is my fight, Percy. Atlas is my father."

    I wish it had come at a surprise, but, it didn't. They looked too similar in their regal features, with the same dark, obsideon eyes and tanned skin, they were undoubtedly father and daughter. They even had the same proud glow to their aura. But, instead of the respect that it caused me to give Zoë, it made me harbor hatred towards the Titan.

    "Let Artemis go," I demanded, stepping up beside Zoë, almost protectively. The prophecy lingering in the back of my mind, 'One shall die by a parent's hand'.

    Atlas tossed his head back with a whiny of a laugh, trudging towards my Mother, "Perhaps you'd like to receive the sky from her? Be my guest," he sized me up, eyes swimming in delight as he watched the way I clutched my arm against my churning stomach, "Puny woman."

    Artemis shook her hair, the auburn locks swaying limply as she locked onto my stone gaze, "No! Don't offer, Oliviae! I forbid you," she hissed, knees quaking under the pressure. It pained me to watch the small child form beginning to crumble.

    I didn't understand why she refused to morph into an older, stronger woman. Zoë made a move to take up the burden, but Artemis glared daggers at her Lieutenant as well, "You either, Zoë."

    "You don't control me, Mother -" I grunted out, my own body cutting off what I was saying. There was a sinking feeling in my lower intestine as the pain began to spread outward from my stomach - as if a knife was slowly gutting me; I clamped my mouth shut as to not scream out. 

    Atlas smirked and reached out towards Artemis's face, as if to stroke her cheek, but she bit at him, almost taking off his fingers. If I wasn't in extreme pain, I would have smirked in admiration. 

    I staggered towards the place where the Earth met the sky, refusing to look Artemis in the eyes as she was silently yelling at me in my head, telling me to go back - no to help her. 

    'Stop this, foolish child! Just look at your friend, Annabeth, she will die younger do to the years that the weight has shaved from her. You cannot hold the burden on your own,' I simply ignored her as I got closer, we needed Artemis to fight with us if we wished to succeed, 'Stop! Olive, don't!' she yelled in my mind, but I didn't listen too closely, edging closer and closer. 

    I stopped for a moment to look upon Annabeth, like Artemis had suggested. Her blonde hair was now streaked with different shades of greys and whites, bringing out the steel color of her eyes. "It works on her, Mother," I jested, lifting a quivering smile onto my lips as my brow began to sweat - the pain searing up my torso, "It brings out her eyes."

    "Don't be foolish," Artemis sent me a sharp glare, but unable to physically stop me.

    I was momentarily distracted by the conversation behind me. Luke was spewing soothing words towards Thalia, trying to convince her to join him. "Please," Luke murmured to her, eyes soft and pleading, "Don't make me... Don't make him destroy you."

    Percy scowled, his eyes flickering towards mine and I realized what he was trying to say: fight, and fight hard. All four of us, Percy, Zoë, Annabeth, and I, all exchanged a slow glance of understanding - sharing a nod. 

    We charged for it, Zoë firing some arrows towards the side of Atlas's head while Thalia attacked Luke, the two dueling fiercely, but something told me they both were holding back. I watched as Percy drew his sword and charged for Atlas himself, a stupid move that made me cringe. 

    "Mother," I rushed towards Artemis as she tried to hedge away from me, but she couldn't due to the weight. "Please, we need your help if we have any chance," I whispered, lowering my eyes, clamping them tight as the pain reach a new hight. I almost could believe that I was bleeding internally. Maybe I was. 

    Either way, I was not going to be too much help fighting. 

    Taking Frai from my belt, I stared directly into my mother's eyes, for once seeing approval, she was silently allowing me to take the burden. Not by force, but with pride. "Alright, Oliviae."

    A slow grin spread on my face, one that shoved down my pain for a moment, "Thank you, Mother," I began, but a body flying backwards in the corner of my eye threw me off as Percy's weapon failed him against the mighty Titan. I was running out of time. 

    Sinking to my knees, I quickly hacked against the celestial bronze, finding a weak link in the chain and prying it apart, causing the raging storm in my body to escalate. Stumbling onto my feet and wiping my brow from the pool of sweat collecting, I took a step next to my Mother, raising my hands next to hers.

    Artemis furrowed her brow, sparing me a sad glance, murmuring in my head, 'I sense a great pain inside you, Olive. What have you done?'

    "Die, little hero," Atlas hissed, raising his javelin to pierce Percy through the heart. I panicked slightly at the spectacle, not responding to my mother's question.

    Zoë yelled out a battle-cry, sending a flurry of arrows in the armpit of her father, distracting him and causing Atlas to turn on his own daughter. I had a sickening feeling that I knew how this was going to end.

    "Help Zoë," I cried, shoving Artemis out from under the sky, taking the full weight too suddenly, the full weight cracking the sore joints in my back, grunting I heard Artemis call out to me as she summoned her bow and arrows.

    "I love you, Olive - you have the heart of a true huntress," She shot three arrows at once, maneuvering around the boulder that Percy was collecting his pen from. 

    "I," I fought against the pain in my arms and the pain in my torso to speak, "I, l-ove y--ou too."

    I'd thought the cutting sensation in my torso was horrid, but I was wrong. Every muscle in my body turned to liquid fire, my blood was lava. Scorching and unforgiving.

    My pain morphed into one, and, I could no longer tell if this was the effects of the golden fruit or the consequences of grunting the weight of the sky. It was torture, either way. My bones felt like iron, heavy and moldable against the flames that were my flesh and blood. I wanted to scream, but I also couldn't find the strength to stay awake, it was like a comatose fury of pain and crushing death. All this pain, and five minutes had barely passed.

    Little did I know, I hadn't fully experienced the fruit's effects yet. 

    Percy cropped up next to me, taking in the metallic sweat dripping down my face in waves, "The sky," he grunted, trying to slide under the weight next to me, but I wasn't having it, "Give it to me," he pleaded, not wanting to watch me like this.

    "I've got it," I choked out, forcing a half grimace, half smirk onto my lips. I couldn't see it, but I knew by the way Percy flinched that it was a painful thing to look at. 

   "I've got it - Olive, no," Percy maneuvered around my arms, lifting the weight up with me, easing some of the weight off my shoulders, allowing me some relief to my pain, but not much. 

   Struggling under the weight, I somehow managed to prop the heavy mass over my head and give Percy a forced smirk, attempting to carry the burden on my own. "D-on't w-o-rry Percy, I c-an hold it - I'm," A sharp pain filled my chest and I heaved a gasp for air, grasping for words, "I'm a g-g-oddess - I can carry it." I bit out - sweat pouring down my face profusely.

    The pain was slowly beginning to subside in my stomach, as if the fruit was finally passing my system by. However, as the pain went, so did my strength. I couldn't comprehend what was happening to my body.

   In truth, my body felt as if I was draining - like my life force was being sucked out and I was crumbling under the immense pressure. It dawned on me. I was losing my immortality. The gods were right after all, I had to chose between life and death. Giving Artemis a withering smile, I realized I loved her enough to sacrifice everything for my family. I cast a look towards Percy and Annabeth, even Thalia and Zoë as they were battling. Each of them was as a family member to me.

   It was worth it. Noble even.

   "Oli-ve!" Percy yelled beside me, trying to get me to surrender the sky, black spots began clouding my vision and I could feel my knees crumbling from under me, joints popping in protest to the abuse. Blinking back hot tears that streamed from the crushing weight above me, I let out a low groan. 

   "L-e-t go." He yelled to me over the sounds of my struggle, in his voice I could hear the weight was affecting him as it did me. 

   Despite the growing black spots clouding my eyes, and the sudden onslaught of light headedness, I roughly shook my head. "No - no you... ca-n't h-o-ld it alone," I groaned, the weight increased even more, causing more sweat to come from me.

   Weak, I felt my bones beginning to bend under the pressure, it no longer had a steady footing with the weight, and as a consequence, I felt ribs breaking. Two to be specific. Their splintering fragments lodging into my lungs and muscles, and I felt every piercing stab. Un able to clamp my mouth shut, I let out a strangled cry of immense pain, the sound causing Percy to falter beside me and more weight to be added to my burden, causing my ribs to press against my lungs even more so. 

   Stumbling to my knees, my mind went black, head pulsing unnaturally. The sudden vertigo making me heave up my empty stomach, getting violently ill. The pain seemed almost as unbearable as the weight I was no longer severely struggling to hold up, Percy had taken it all from me in a swift moment. I tried not to focus on the fact that I had just expelled a stomachful of golden blood onto the dirt below my feet. 

   Percy watched me in horror. He reached out his hands and supported the weight higher, as to keep me from attempting to hold it any longer, yanking me away from the weight as I felt my body slowly succumb to a black out. "No, Percy," I spat out, feeling extremely ill.

  I should have never eaten that fruit. I should have waited. I should have remained a goddess. I chanted to myself, in my pain. But, deep down I knew that was just the pulsing anguish speaking. Those were things I should have done. I should have done a lot of things in my life, but, I never seemed to do the correct things.

   This was the right thing. I was sure of it.

    "Olive," Percy grunted out, now carrying the full weight while I struggled to breathe on the ground, coughing up another mouthful of blood, cringing as I looked at the hue, "Y-ou're blee-ding red."

   A piercing scream caught both of our attentions as Zoë raced in front of her father's javelin, "No!" Atlas bellowed in rage, swinging out a thickly muscled arm and swept Zoë aside with his back hand, I didn't need my superhuman hearing to hear the sound her head made as she ricochetted off the black rocks.

   On my hands an knees, I shuffled towards her body, but it was a slow process, each breath sending a sensation of a million sharp needles piecing into my lungs. I wanted to shout her name, run to her aid, but I couldn't speak. Then Atlas turned on my mother with a look of triumph in his face. Artemis seemed to be wounded. She didn't get up.

   "The first blood in a new war," Atlas gloated. And he stabbed downward.

   As fast as thought, Artemis grabbed his javelin shaft. It hit the earth right next to her and she pulled backward, using the javelin like a lever, kicking the Titan Lord and sending him flying over her, Percy seemed to understand the opportunity and loosened his grip on the sky, letting Atlas slam into him and take the sky for himself. 

   His rightful place.

   I attempted to take a deep breath, but the strain in my chest only made my vertigo worse, and as my vertigo got worse, the churning in my stomach did. Getting on my knees, I turned my head to the side as I heaved up more blood, scarlet this time.

   "Olive!" Percy grunted, stumbling away from the weight of the sky, he was weak. My tired eyes scoured his face, he looked aged already, grey hair streaking the side of his head. "Nectar and ambrosia, Thalia - where are the bags?!" There was no response from her.

   Artemis came to my side, but I didn't have the energy to stand. Instead, I crumpled onto my back, letting out a wail as my broken ribs smacked against the hard ground, but I was too tired to adjust myself.  My world was a slurry of black and worried faces. 

   Turning my head, I reached out towards Zoë, getting my mother's attention, "Zoë?" my voice came out hoarse and rough do to the way the acid had burned my throat. 

   "No!" I heard a tearful shout from Annabeth, causing me to pull my hazy head towards the scene of Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth on the cliff, fighting. But, it seemed Annabeth's protest was too late. Without thinking, Thalia kicked Luke away. He lost his balance, terror on his face, and then he fell.

   Annabeth let out a mournful cry, tears slipping down her cheeks, "Noo, Luke!"

   Percy's face fell as he watched the scene, I didn't know how to feel. A part of me was mourning the old Luke, the one I thought I knew. And, part of me was relieved. It was horrible and vile, but it was true nonetheless. "We need to get out of here," Percy reminded everyone of the army just below the cliff, turning to Artemis.

   My mother looked up from her hovering over Zoë's body, tears streaking down her face. "The wound is poisoned," she said, showing us the cut in Zoë's side, it was bite marks from her dragon, Ladon.

   "The stars," Zoë muttered, "I cannot see them."

   "Nectar and ambrosia," Percy's voice hitched as he watched me attempt to sit up, sucking in a thick breath - unable to. "Come on!" He demanded, but something told me that those couldn't help either Zoë or me.

   I was almost sucked into the vortex that was my head when a loud, buzzing sound filled my ears, belonging to a Sopwith Camel airplane. "Get away from my daughter!" Annabeth's father's voice rang out from the sky, shooting bullets into the monsters from high up.

   "That's.... my dad!" Annabeth grinned, running towards us with Thalia as the brave man began peppering monsters with lead. 

   "A brave man," I heard my mother agree with Annabeth, eyes slipping shut as I finally began to feel my body relaxing against the pain, my brain swallowing up into the black abyss that was sweet, sweet release. "Come, we must get them away from here."

   I struggled to fight the sleep as a horn rang in the air, but it was as if my eyes were glued shut, I couldn't open my eyes, and I was starting to panic. A strong hand yanked me up off the ground, causing me to release a slew of slurred curses as my broken ribs lodged awkwardly inside me, a fresh round of bile rising in my throat.

   Yanking my eyes open, I pulled away from Percy and pulled my hair back, coughing up another mouthful of metallic liquid. It was less then before, but it was still a bad sign. "Hang in there," Percy took me into his arms, helping support my weight carefully, "It'll be alright."

   Artemis spared me a sharp eye, not voicing it out loud, but in my head, 'Hang on, Olive - what ever you do, do not let sleep over take you'.

   Just then, the moon light 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 and Percy helped me get on board. Then, Percy helped Artemis with Zoe. They laid Zoë and I next to each other in the back, struggling for breath. Zoë spared me a tearful smile, taking my hand into hers, eyes beginning to slip shut.

   "Thou are worthy," Zoë sighed, but I hadn't the slightest idea of what she meant by that. Percy and Artemis began to talk lowly while Annabeth and Thalia remained quiet, gazing out the window. Eyes trailing out the window, I caught the most interesting sight that I'd never forget.

   The moon was just on the surface of the sea. As if it was gracing it with a kiss. I smiled softly at the sight, thinking myself sappy. The soft talk was horrible for my tired brain, and soon I found myself slipping back into a brilliant, black sleep. Eye lids dropping heavily.

   It felt like floating. Blissful.

   It seemed like a while of me just floating in the darkness until Percy's voice tried to reach me, worried, "Olive?"

   I didn't reply. It was nice here. It didn't hurt here. "Olive!" I couldn't feel Percy violently shaking my shoulders. I couldn't see my Mother's frightened eyes.

   Little did he know, I wasn't really there any more.

      I was at peace.

   And, apparently, my peace of mind was my body floating in warm, crystal clear waves, the smell of salt water clinging against my skin and a brilliant, bright ball of sun shining against my closed eye lids. 

   Everything felt so real, and, perhaps it was. 

   "Olive," A soft, melodic voice called to me, yanking me out of my relaxing float. Jumping onto my feet in the beach sand and water, I realized that I was, truly, no longer in any pain. I felt better than fine. I felt perfect. Glancing up towards the voice, I felt my heart flutter as they continued to talk, "I knew you'd show up, eventually." 

~~~~

A/N: Dun dun duuuuunnn! who do you think it was?

[yes, the end is near]