A Friend Says Goodbye

Chapter one

Disclaimer: The following story is purely fictional and the plot is not to be associated with actual historical records. All characters seen in the story are from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. 

This cannot be. She refused to believe it. There must exist some way to turn the tables, some way to circumvent this predicament, some way to prevent the inevitable-

Artemis, goddess of the hunt, caught herself in her musings, her mind chuckling tauntingly at her. The irony in her thoughts were painfully clear.

How can one prevent the inevitable? Would it still be called "inevitable" if it can be, in fact, prevented?

This was a moment in her life that she called a "time stop" moment. She's had these quite a few times already, and it was only a feeling that can be described to mortals as... trying to hold a plank position for five minutes. There's no need to discuss the pain and the mental struggle involved in that exercise; humanity knows that all. Rather, in those moments of agony, as the mortal looks down at their stopwatch, they soon see that time has played a cruel joke on them, almost as if the seconds were going backwards. Things start to slow down, and every millisecond can now be counted with the mind. Artemis, being an immortal, had experienced this in combat, in grief of losing a fellow hunter, and in the cramped position she is in right now, one knee on the apex of the mountain, the other foot planted adjacent, both her arms pointed upwards, and her neck crushed by the intensifying weight of the entire sky. This "time stop" allowed her to survey everything below her: her lieutenant Zoe Nightshade engaged in melee combat with her own father, Thalia Grace trying to help with her spear and shield, and this Percy Jackson boy recovering from a heavy blow by the titan. He had been flung across the battlefield, all the way to the base of the mountain where Artemis was holding the sky. Amidst the burning sensation in her muscles and her mental screams of agony, she could see the boy struggling to make up his mind. Atlas was inching towards him with unmatched intimidation. In the far distance Artemis could see Zoe trying to fire volleys of arrows, trying to distract the titan. With a bellow of rage, Atlas now turned on Zoe, momentarily distracted. Worry began to gnaw in her heart, but being in the position she was in right now, forced under the sky, chained at the feet, she was utterly useless. Artemis started to hear her mind laughing again, taunting her lack of power. She looked back at Percy to see him crawling towards her.

"The sky," he said. "Give it to me."

Artemis blinked the metallic sweat out of her eyes, astonished at the absurdity of this proposition. Never had she ever witnessed a mortal with such raw bravery in the face of selflessness. Every other guy wouldn't take a heartbeat to charge into battle, taking the absolute honour of fighting the big bad guy. Even if they failed, they would still have the excuse of effort, but this boy was different. Honour was not what drove him, which completely baffled Artemis because there wasn't anything else worth fighting for... right? All her life, she has fought for the honour of her hunt and for her own self-worth, so she could prove that she is immortally powerful after all. Looking back at this situation, however, by taking the sky, he had everything to risk, and nothing to gain.

Time seemed to stop as she was heavily pondering this. Artemis could see the silhouette of Atlas fighting his own daughter. Another demigod by the name of Luke, if Artemis remembered correctly, took upon Atlas's side and fought Thalia, sword bashing against shield and spear. Prior to the battle, Artemis had had a conversation with her about her history. Apparently, Thalia, Annabeth, and Luke used to live together and protect each other until they reached Camp Half-Blood. What puzzled Artemis was how their close bond, like that of a family, suddenly severed in the face of the Greek world, as if everything collapsed upon meeting Kronos. If such a powerful relationship could shatter so quickly, were they really a family after all?