▬▬▬ CHAPTER EIGHT ▬▬▬

REGULUS WAS HAVING A SOMEWHAT good day.

The children and the Weasleys have long since gone back to their classless, impoverished homes now that summer vacation had begun and the Order's visits became less frequent. It was peace and quiet for once, save for the occasional screeching from his mother's portraits and Sirius and Kreacher's constant arguing.

He just wished Esmerelda were here, but nooo she was off doing whatever it was demigods did these days with that aggravating boyfriend of hers.

Speaking of demigods, the genius son of Hephaestus who built him his deadly prosthetic arm, had also left about a week after arriving. But he didn't leave without giving out a few gifts. He had been horrified upon learning that magic and electronics didn't mix so he spent a whole week trying to remedy it.

A new high-tech security system had been built inside and outside the house, and his father's beloved main study had turned into a security room. It had been completely renovated. One wall, which had been full of paintings of every Black Heir throughout the ages had been replaced by television screens that allowed Regulus to see everything that was going on within his property (save for the bathrooms and bedrooms of course). Orion's dark oak wood desk along with his antique chair were removed as well, replaced by a large computer desk and a cobra shaped chair that Regulus thought was weird, but grew to like.

The greatest thing about the new security room? He had access to all the traps. Of course, they could trigger on their own, but he could also control them from within the room. According to Harley, the traps included 'those cool lasers from Resident Evil 4!', a flamethrower, a trapdoor, pepper spray, and a bunch of other things he rambled excitedly about.

Regulus almost wanted someone to try and attack the house just so he could try the traps out. but for now, he'll settle with enjoying the brand new flat screen TV Harley installed in the living room.

"—nearly 50 killed so far in the sudden collapse of the Brockdale Bridge, and the numbers are continuously rising as rescue efforts go on," the newscaster on the screen reported, her face grim.

Behind her was a scene of panic. Regulus could see large yellow and green vans (ambulances, Esmerelda had called them) parked behind her. There were a lot of uniformed people running around with stretchers that contained injured bodies. He couldn't see much, but he caught some glimpses of red.

Up above he could see those flying vehicles (what were they called again? Airplanes? Jets? Helicopters?) hovering around the air also carrying people they retrieved from the sea. There was also the destroyed remnants of the Brockdale Bridge. He was pretty sure he had seen it before during his and Esmerelda's high-speed chase to Grimmauld Place. Seeing how it looked now was almost upsetting if he cared enough.

"It happened early in the morning at approximately 5:52 A.M.," the reporter went on. "According to witnesses, there were no signs of the bridge having any issues at all until it suddenly snapped in two. Engineers and architects are left baffled at how such a thing could happen. The Brockdale Bridge was only ten years old, was given frequent check-overs by experts, and none reported any concerns."

Regulus let out an soft sigh as the woman kept talking. He turned his attention back to the newspaper article (Daily Prophet as usual because what else did Wizarding Britain allow) in hand which detailed the truth of what really happened to the bridge.

DEATH EATERS ATTACK MUGGLE BRIDGE! FUDGE ARRESTED IN RESPONSE!

He inwardly rolled his eyes at the headline. 'Muggle bridge', seriously? That was the best they could do?

Today at five o'clock, Death Eaters spread out to England and attacked the Brockdale Bridge, killing an unknown amount of muggles. Upon urgent prompting, Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has spoken out about the incident and confessed to his part of what happened.

"I... I may have been threatened b-by You-Know-Who, but I hadn't known he was serious about it!" He rambled to a crowd of angry and concerned wizards.

According to him, You-Know-Who visited him the previous night and ordered him to step down as Minister, promising that if he didn't, he would send his Death Eaters out to commit the mass killing of muggles. Fudge refused and as a result, the Brockdale Bridge was destroyed and innocent muggles were killed.

Many wizards spoke out about Fudge's careless actions. It doesn't help that he was already responsible for failing to see the return of You-Know-Who (though many speculate that he had been told beforehand and purposely did nothing) and for leaving Sirius Black, an innocent man, in Azkaban despite the fact that he had no trial for the two times he had been imprisoned. People are now calling for his resignation while others are demanding he be sent to Azkaban for corruption and numerous other crimes.

Due to all this, Cornelius Fudge will be sent to trial to answer for his misdeeds. Whether he is sentenced to Azkaban or not is unknown, but with everything that has happened, Fudge's hopes of being a free man are looking dreary. What's certain is that he will no longer be considered the Minister of Magic. As for who will succeed him, signs point to Rufus Scrimgeour, the current Head of the Auror Office.

A small humming noise left his lips. Fudge was definitely going to be tossed in Azkaban, but Scrimgeour? He didn't know much about him, so he had no idea if him being the next potential Minister would be a good thing or not.

Not that it mattered. He wouldn't be his Minister. Soon, once Esmerelda returned from saving the world, they would be leaving the Britain to fend for themselves. He'd be moving to the States since his daughter was most fond of it. Plus, Camp Half-Blood would be closer too and that was one of the few safest places she had left.

Of course, Sirius wouldn't like that. He wanted to stay and fight for some outrageous reason. He may have survived the First Wizarding War but it was stupid of him to try his chances with the second one. Everyone had become dumber, less reliant, and his stupid naïve brother would make the mistake of allying himself with one of them.

He looked up from his spot on the couch to see said brother step into the room. Sirius was dressed in his pajamas, but he still took the time to do his hair and do his morning skincare routine.

"Good morning. Or should I say 'good afternoon'," he greeted him dryly. "You're late."

"I wasn't aware our daily lives consisted of a schedule," Sirius grumbled, his tone equally as dry. "Are you going to time my breakfast too or—"

He stopped, his eyes glued on the television screen.

"No," he said, horror laced in his voice. "All those people—don't tell me it was the Death Eaters!"

"It was," Regulus droned, switching the channel to some Barbie dollhouse commercial.

"Wait, no! Put it back, I want to know what happened!"

"That's simple: Fudge pissed off Voldemort and he retaliated by sending his Death Eaters to kill some muggles." He summarized. "Good news though, he's getting sacked and there's a good chance he'll be sent to Azkaban."

"About time," Sirius rolled his eyes. "What has the Order said about it?"

"Who cares what the Order says," he scoffed. "I thought I told you quit?"

"Quit?! I can't just quit!"

"Oh really?" He quirked a brow. "I was under the impression that only Death Eaters weren't allowed to send their resignation papers. Is Dumbledore truly that totalitarian?"

"Regulus," Sirius huffed. "Enough talk about me leaving the Order. I'm staying and I'm fighting. We need all the help we can get if we want to defeat Voldemort."

You can't defeat him, Regulus wanted to tell him. The megalomaniac had went and made himself a horcrux and was now somewhat immortal (not the same level of immortality as a god's, but it was bad enough). There would be no killing him. They could stab the man as many times as they wanted, shot him down with bullets or Killing Curses, but there was no killing him until the horcrux was destroyed.

Stop trying to play hero! He wanted to shout. Look at what happened to him. He tried to play hero, tried to stop the bad guy and he died and ended up with what, nearly twenty years of torture never-ending torture. He had lost more than just his life by trying to be the good guy. He lost his daughter, his brother, everything.

So yeah. Lesson learned. Don't try to play hero when you've been nothing but a villain all your life. He learned the hard way that he just wasn't cut out for it. He was better off staying neutral and that was just what he wanted.

Besides, he didn't even know where the horcrux was now. According to Kreacher, the locket had been one of the things that had been taken away by one of the obnoxious Order members. They had literally thrown away their only chances of taking Voldemort down, which he thought was hilarious and poetic. If they couldn't defeat him, then they only had themselves to blame for it.

"Sirius," it was his turn to huff now. "I'm trying to look out for you. It's in your best interest to leave this all behind. Stop getting involved."

"Regulus—"

"—Do you what's going to happen if you get involved?" He asked quietly, a sharp, knowing glint in his eyes. "Esmerelda will get involved as well. Do you really want to put her through another war when she's already preparing for a second one?"

Sirius tensed up, and he knew he had him. Despite his brother's misguided attempts of trying to raise Esmerelda, Regulus knew very well that he genuinely cared for the girl and just wanted her to try and have a normal life. His attempts were all counter productive and disastrous at best, but Regulus didn't mind exploiting it.

After some time, Sirius finally spoke up.

"I... I can't just leave Harry to deal with all of this," he whispered.

Regulus couldn't ignore the burning envy that consumed his heart. Potter, regardless of which generation they came from, was always going to get in his way. Sirius was always going to choose a Potter before any of them. He shouldn't have been so stupidly naïve to think it would be any different today. He choose James over Regulus and now he was choosing Harry over Esmerelda.

"So you choose them over us, then?" He asked coldly.

"I'm not choosing anyone," Sirius said firmly. "Regulus, you've got to understand—"

"—I understand it well enough," he cut him off. "And so be it. You can stay if you want, but I did warn you, brother. Once Esmerelda accomplishes what she needs to do, we'll be going to New York. So go on and fight your losing war."

He turned off the television and strode away to the library. He was almost tempted to turn back, to go to his brother and offer him his aide. Tell him about the horcrux Voldemort made and the locket that had been lost, but stubbornness, anger, and jealousy kept him walking forward.

He didn't know what was going on with his daughter, but he hoped she was well and that she was coming home soon. He didn't think he could take any more of this.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

"I can't take this anymore," Ethan stated, the annoyance written all over his face. "How long are we gonna keep falling?!"

"Well," Nico shouted back. "According to that one poet guy, nine days!"

"NINE DAYS?!" Esmerelda squawked, her limbs flailing as she tried to get closer to them. She resembled a flightless penguin. "Are you talking about Hesoid?! Actually, forget about him! NINE DAYS?! That means we already missed the Feast of Fortuna and the attack against Camp Jupiter!"

"Well fuck," Ethan groaned, leaning back until he was in a lounging position. He looked very calm for someone who was about to plunge straight to a splattery death.

"Time works differently here!" Nico said. "Nine days in Tartarus could be nine seconds in the mortal world so I doubt even an hour has passed since we left! Anyways, our biggest concern is how we're gonna land safely!"

Ethan turned to her. "Tell me you can use your magic now."

"Um..." She looked at her hands. "Give me a few minutes."

Unfortunately for them, a minute was what she had at most because suddenly their surroundings changed. The darkness took on a grey-red tinge. The whistling in their ears turned into more of a roar. The air became intolerably hot, permeated with a smell like rotten eggs.

The chute they'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern and the ground was finally visible. The inside of the cavern was massive, bigger than the entire island of Manhattan. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. The landscape so far was rocky black plains, punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms. Over at the left, the ground dropped away in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss.

"Uh, Essie, any time now!" Ethan shouted in alarm as they got closer and closer to the jagged dark grounds. They looked to be reaching a beach full of black sands with a river right next to it.

Esmerelda didn't reply right away. She was too busy trying to concentrate to speak, her eyes clenched shut as she tried to ignore the awful smell of sulfur being blasted into her nose.

Their bodies flickered with green, but it would appear and disappear erratically.

They were a few feet away from dying now.

It was Nico's turn to panic. "MOM—!"

A green glow burst all over their bodies and they froze up in mid-air, just several inches away from hitting the ground. Esmerelda opened her illuminating eyes and let out a heavy breath and as she panted, the glow disappeared and they fell down.

Esmerelda expected to hit soft sand, but it was a lot worse than that. Instead of sand, she felt pieces of shattered glass pierce through her skin. It pricked her face, her hands, her legs—everywhere basically. She felt like they had been dumped into the Needle Pit from that one Jigsaw movie.

She got up shakily as the boys slowly registered where they had landed.

"What the fuck?" Ethan hissed as he tried to sit up. Little black glass chips littered his face as he reached up to try and remove them. She could see more glass stabbed into his arm.

This was already turning out to be a nightmare. The air was acid and the ground was full of broken glass. What was next? The water was laced with thallium?

They got back up on their feet on their own. Esmerelda would've helped Ethan and Nico get up, but with the amount of glass stuck to her, they would've just ended up cutting each other instead.

"Over there," Nico mumbled, pointing a bleeding finger a few feet ahead. "We need to go that way."

They trudged through the glassy beach and Esmerelda used her magic to telekinetically remove every chip that had stuck itself on their skin, but what concerned her the most was the fact they were still bleeding even after a few yards of walking. She didn't heal as fast as a child of Hebe but even little cuts like these should only take a few seconds to seal up...

"We're not healing," she alerted them. "Is that supposed to be happening?"

"I think so," Nico said slowly, looking down at his healing palms. "Tartarus is... well, everything about it is complex. It's not necessarily built to kill, but more so built to torture. From the air we breathe, to the grounds we walk, the traps, everything. The monsters here can't really die, so they're being tortured instead. Us though... well, we can die."

Her eyes widened in realization. "So you're saying we're dying."

"Slowly." He said, which she figured was supposed to be helpful. "That's why the cuts on our skin aren't healing, because our system's already trying to heal everything else that's killing us—like the fact that we're breathing in poisonous air."

"Awesome," Ethan droned. "So what do we do?"

"We go to River Phlegethon," he answered.

"Oh!" Esmerelda's eyes lit up. "I heard of it! It's called the River of Fire too, right? We use that back in the Fields of Punishment so the wicked souls stay in one piece in order to endure all the torture we put them through!"

"Sounds fun," Ethan commented. "So I'm guessing it'll heal us too then?"

"Yeah. And then we can endure the torture of being in Tartarus," Nico nodded in confirmation. "So let's go."

Neither of them were really eager to go drinking literal fire, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice now. They trudged forward, their shoes making disturbing crunching noises as they stepped on the the little bits of glass.

"We need to go down that ledge over there," Nico explained as they grew closer.

She couldn't see what was down there, but the edge flickered with violent red light as if it were being illuminated by huge fires.

"And then we should—"

Ethan suddenly shot his hands up, covering their mouths before hurriedly dragging them behind a huge rock. Esmerelda winced as pieces of glass dug into her knees as she was forced into a crouching position.

Nico and Esmerelda shot the older boy questioning looks but all he did was a put a finger over his mouths to silence them.

And then she heard it.

Loud footsteps. It was too loud to belong to someone of average size. It had to have belonged to a giant. As if to make things worse, it dawned on them that it wasn't just one pair of footsteps, but two.

Esmerelda dared to peek behind the rock.

There were two monsters standing at the spot they had landed. Much to her relief, they weren't as tall as she assumed to be—they were just half the size of most giants she had faced. Maybe they were cyclopes instead?

Then one of them turned their heads and her hopes sank. Instead of having one eye, this guy had two. Even worse were the green, yellow-eyed snakes he had for legs. She had never seen a giant with legs like that, but every giant she saw had reptilian-like legs anyhow. He had long purple hair braided with what looked to be coins and a ten-foot spear strapped to his back.

The giant beside him looked entirely identical to him down to the height and snake legs. The only difference was that his hair was green instead of purple.

Wait... these guys were twins. Her breath hitched. There was only one pair of twins she knew of from the Gigantes: Ephialtes and Otis, the Banes of Dionysus/Bacchus. These were the guys who managed to defeat Ares and trap him inside a bronze jar for thirteen months until Hermes saved him.

"They landed here," the one with green hair stated, looking down at the spot where the three of them had fallen on. "So they must still be somewhere around the place. Help me look, Ephie!"

Ethan just barely managed to suppress a snort when he heard the nickname. Nico elbowed him in the stomach, giving him a pointed look.

The purple haired giant (Ephialtes) wasn't listening. He was too busy muttering to himself and pacing around.

"Ephie?"

"How many times have I told you not to call me that embarrassing nickname, Otis," he groaned. "I told you to either call me by my real name or my stage name!"

Stage name? The three demigods looked at each other in perplexity.

"No offense, but I don't think 'The Big F' is as great of a stage name as you think it is," Otis told him gently.

"Shut up," he snapped before letting out a dramatic moan. "Oh this is all ruined! This isn't how it was supposed to go! The demigods were supposed to fall right in front of us and then they were supposed to say 'who are you?' and then we would've given them the introductions we worked so hard to perfect! This is all those demigods' faults! They're completely off schedule and those other two weren't even supposed to be here!"

"Ephie, shhh!" Otis hissed. "They're probably still be nearby. They can hear you!"

"Right," Ephialtes said stiffly. "Let's find them. We're not too off schedule at least... We should still be able to recite our introductions."

None of the three demigods were looking forward to hearing their introductions.

Esmerelda glanced back at the ledge they needed to go down on. It wasn't too far, but the issue wasn't the distance, it was the fact that there was a bunch of noisy ass glass all over the ground that would create too much noise if they stepped on it.

She ducked her head back down and closed her eyes in focus.

We're not here, she thought, using the Mist to twist their minds around. We're not here. You think we're on the other side so turn around and walk away.

She heard their footsteps come closer.

We're not here, we're not here, we're not here! She pleaded.

The footsteps stopped.

"Hmm," one of them, probably Otis, hummed thoughtfully. "We already checked the whole place. They're not here. Let's try somewhere else."

"Now we're way off schedule," Ephialtes grumbled, but she could hear him walking away too.

They waited until the sound of their footsteps was entirely gone. When they were certain it was, they peeked around the rock and sighed in relief. The giants were no longer on the beach.

"We gotta hurry," Nico whispered, straightening up.

Esmerelda nodded in agreement and stood up as well. They had only been here for a few minutes (not counting the time it took them to fall), and the most active they had been was walking around, yet their breathing had already grown laborious. She could feel her lungs shrivel up with every inhale she took of the deadly air. Not only that, but blisters were already forming on their skin thanks to the air too.

They needed to get to the River of Phlegethon fast.

But then they reached the edge of the ledge and she wasn't feeling so desperate. Letting her lungs fill up with acidic air didn't sound so bad anymore...

The cliff dropped more than eighty feet. At the bottom stretched a nightmarish version of the Grand Canyon: a river of fire cutting a path through a jagged obsidian crevasse, the glowing red current casting horrible shadows across the cliff faces.

Even from the top of the canyon, the heat was intense. There was no sun in sight but Esmerelda felt like she was suffering from severe sunburns just from the heat alone. Breathing became harder, the cuts on her hand bled more, and she felt like she was either seconds away from passing out or spontaneously combusting. She didn't think even Medea's SPF 5000 sunscreen (sold at the Camp Store) could protect them from this.

"You're kidding me, right?" Ethan rasped, sounding like he was suffering from dehydration. "We're not even anywhere near it and I already feel like I'm being roasted alive."

"It's the only way," Nico said, his breathing heavy. "Mom, since you've already done enough, I'll shadow travel us down."

"Think you can shadow travel us out of here?" Ethan asked, wiping the sweat off his face. "Because this place makes me miss the bullpen back at Camp Jupiter."

"Can't. I already tried."

"Same here." Esmerelda added. "We're stuck here. So our only way to get out is through the Doors of Death but first, we need to heal ourselves through the River Phlegethon."

They hooked arms with Nico, who shadow traveled them down the cliff. They landed just a few feet from the fiery river, and Esmerelda felt like she was on fire just from being so near it.

Suddenly the three of them collapsed, feeling so sick they could barely stand. Through her blurred vision, Esmerelda could see red boils erupting on Ethan and Nico's faces, fully aware that hers probably looked the same. Her throat felt blistered and her stomach was clenched tightly.

She was certain of it now. They were dying. They had only spent less than ten minutes inside of Tartarus and it was already killing them.

(And she knew what the signs of death were. She had first hand experience in two different situations after all.)

They crawled desperately towards the roaring flames, steam emitting from their bodies as they drew nearer.

Esmerelda was the first to reach it. Rather than cupping her hands together and bringing them down to gather the fire, she dunked her whole head into the flames out of desperation. Not a smart move, but again, she was desperate.

The first thing she registered was the sudden drop in temperature. Instead of burning her, it felt freezing cold, which was a welcomed relief. Then, she parted her mouth and greedily gulped down as much of the fire as she could swallow.

The second her tongue made contact with the flames she recoiled away from the river, retching and gagging as fire slipped down her throat. It was the worst thing she had ever tasted. She hadn't even been aware that fire had a taste, but the only word she could use to describe it was 'terrible'. It felt like she was burning away on the inside and her whole body was shaking with convulsions. Beside her, she knew Ethan and Nico were in a similar state too because they were also convulsing.

And then it began to fade away. She still felt awful, but the convulsions stopped, the blisters began to disappear, and the little cuts on her skin finally began to seal up. Her breathing became normal too and soon enough, she felt as good as new.

"What... the... fuck." Was all Ethan could say as a response to that experience, and Esmerelda shared the sentiment.

She pushed herself up on her knees and went over to Nico's side. The poor boy was staring off at the air, his eyes wide as if the whole thing had traumatized him.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"Nope."

"Please tell me we don't ever have to drink from this river ever again," Ethan said. "I'd rather drink from the Hudson River and it's the most polluted one in New York."

"Sorry, but we'll have to eventually," Esmerelda grimaced. "The River Phlegethon isn't a permanent cure. It's more like ambrosia and nectar, we have to drink of it when we get injured... or when the air starts killing us again."

"Awesome."

Nico let out a sudden noise as he sat up and had to take another deep breath. "Well... that was... interesting."

"Yeah," Esmerelda murmured in agreement. "I couldn't believe how cold the fire was. It wasn't burning me at all!"

She was almost tempted to jump back in.

"That's because the temperature's so hot it overloaded your nerves." Ethan stated bluntly.

"Oh."

Well, there went that idea.

"So," Ethan leaned back against his palms. "You guys are the Underworld experts here, what's our next move?"

"We stay close to river if we ever need healing," Nico began. "And we go downstream. If the river comes from the upper levels of the Underworld, then it should flow deeper into Tartarus which is probably the more dangerous section of the whole place."

"And knowing our luck, the Doors of Death would be there too." Esmerelda sighed.

Ethan got up. "Then let's get going. Something tells me this isn't gonna be the last we see of those twin giants."

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

There were times where Esmerelda appreciated the fact that Ethan was always right.

These were not those times.

The good news was at least it hadn't been the twin giants who had stumbled upon them. The bad news? It was Kampê, the original jailer of Tartarus and the crazy bitch who chased Esmerelda, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson all over Alcatraz.

Kampê was known to be the most fearsome and ferocious monster of all of Tartarus so seeing her right now wasn't exactly a good sign. Esmerelda almost wished for the twin giants to come back, at least they seemed somewhat entertaining.

Ethan must have had some bad memories of Kampê too because he took a wary step back before brandishing his sword.

Kampê snarled at them in her ancient language.

"What is she saying?" Nico whispered. "Why isn't she attacking us?"

"She says that she's glad that she found us because she was getting tired of looking," Ethan translated. "And that she's here to capture us under Gaea's orders."

Kampê made another angry hiss.

"She also says that Gaea never mentioned anything about leaving permanent damage so she's gonna maim us too," Esmerelda added helpfully, until the translation dawned on her. "Wait, oh shit—"

Kampê's screech pierced through the air and she lunged at them, her wings spreading out and her glowing bronze scimitars slashed madly at their direction. The action was too wild that neither of them could parry, so they dove to the side to dodge instead, and Esmerelda nearly slipped right into the River Phlegethon.

Esmerelda whipped out Glimmer just in time to block Kampé's slash. The monster pressed her two blades against hers, and she could feel her feet skid back. She stole a quick glance down. She was getting dangerously close to the edge of the river.

Ethan and Nico ran at Kampê's back. The latter readied a swipe at her neck while Ethan pulled his sword back for a stab, but before either of the hits could make contact, Kampê whirled around and slashed outwards.

The two boys barely dodged it but while the monster was distracted, Esmerelda jammed the pointed end of her labrys into Kampê's back.

She released an earth-splitting scream that left Esmerelda's ears ringing.

"I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" She screamed, and Esmerelda could vaguely hear Ethan translating that for Nico.

"You're not supposed to kill me, remember?" Esmerelda reminded her, and the words that spilled through her lips were far more ancient than Ancient Greek. There wasn't much time to register that though since Kampê was spitting death threats at her while simultaneously shredding everything in her path.

"WAIT! WAAAAIIT! STOP THAT, YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME!" Esmerelda shrieked in terror, but Kampê must have decided 'fuck Gaea's orders' because now she was even more hellbent on slicing her up.

She parried her blows with her labrys as best as she could. With her free hand, she blasted Kampê back with the reductor curse, but even that wasn't strong enough to disintegrate her. At most all it did was push her back, but that was all Ethan needed.

There was a loud CRACK! in the air as Ethan lashed his whip up. The whip wrapped itself around Kampê's ankle, and with a harsh yank, the monster was dragged down to the ground, her wings flapping uselessly as she face-planted.

(How embarrassing for her.)

"Get her!" Ethan shouted at them.

With Kampê nearly flattened on the ground, Nico and Esmerelda were on her in an instant.

Neither of them knew if she could die—they were in Tartarus after all—but they didn't care. Now was the best time to find out anyways. Esmerelda hacked away at the monster's back while Nico stabbed at it over and over again.

Kampê let out a horrible wail that echoed throughout the cavern before finally exploding into a cloud of golden dust.

Esmerelda coughed, having accidentally inhaled some of Kampê's... essence, which wasn't a pleasant thought. She waved the dust away until it cleared off.

Slowly, Ethan approached them and three were left staring at the golden dust that was scattered all over the ground. It didn't make a move. It didn't rise up to reform her or anything. It just... laid there.

"So," Esmerelda swallowed thickly. "At least we know monsters can actually die here."

"Let's keep going," Ethan suggested, looking around warily. "In case there are any more around here."

He didn't have to tell them twice. They picked up the pace in order to create some distance between them and the pile of dust (our of fear Kampê would reform in that spot).

But the monsters were relentless. They went through a handful of more attacks, but thankfully the monsters weren't anything compared to Kampê. They were just the average cyclopes or dracaenae, but the one similarity they shared with Kampê was that neither of them were actually aiming for kill shots. Instead, they all wanted to capture them (but not before delivering some grievous wounds here and there).

The three demigods were still left injured after every fight, but at least they were close to the River Phlegethon to heal them. Except, the River Phlegethon worked too much like ambrosia and nectar; drinking too much of it's flames could kill them and they only realized that after, like, the fourth time they were bombarded with monsters.

"I think we need to rest up," Esmerelda said, breathing heavily after duking it out with a giant rooster monster.

"Agreed," Ethan said, lowering his sword. "How far are we?"

"Still miles ahead," Nico mumbled, looking close to passing out. "Hold on... I have an idea. Let me try something."

He stomped his foot on the ground expectedly, but nothing happened.

"Aw shit," he muttered (quietly though since his mother would've scolded him). "I can't summon any dead people."

Which meant he couldn't even summon Jules-Albert to give them a ride to the Doors of Death. Great.

Thoroughly exhausted, he splayed himself over the ground, not even caring about the sharp jagged surface digging into his back.

"It's gonna take us forever to get to the Doors of Death. It doesn't help that Gaea's forces are already after us..." Esmerelda murmured quietly, laying down on Nico's left while Ethan purposely squeezed his way in-between them (karma for all the times Nico did that). "I wonder what they're trying to capture us for..."

"Probably for bait," Ethan grunted. "For the rest of the Nine I mean. And I'm pretty sure Gaea's the reason you got sucked into Tartarus, Nico, and she must have known that we wouldn't leave you behind either. This was a trap."

"...I'm sorry," Nico whispered.

"Oh Nico, don't worry," Esmerelda crooned, sitting up and reaching out to run her hand through his inky black hair. "Neither of us are angry with you, right sweetie?" She asked pointedly.

"Yes, dear," Ethan droned, rolling his eye. Since when did he ever say he was mad at the kid? Gods, he wasn't that horrible.

"Gaea is an evil mastermind," she continued. "If you want to blame anyone, it should be her."

But Nico stayed quiet. Ethan was right. This was a trap set up by Gaea, the giants and the monster attacks confirmed that, but what if... what if it was worse than that? What if he had brought them down here for nothing?

What if he actually couldn't close the doors?

Not to mention the fact that Tartarus alone was dangerous regardless of the monsters. They could still die in here... and it would be his fault because he was the one who asked them to come.

"Let's try to keep our minds off of our potential impending doom," Esmerelda said brightly. "We can talk about stuff instead! I'll start! Umm, confession time: Ethan, I was the one who accidentally set your sleeping bag on fire when I was ten."

"I knew it," Ethan shot her a mildly annoyed glare. "I knew it was you, but nobody would believe me and Alabaster even covered the whole thing up for you."

She hid the grimace when she heard her name. Before she knew who her godly parent was, she had accidentally set Ethan's sleeping bag on fire. Thankfully, the only person who had been there to witness it was Alabaster and he took the blame for her when Ethan went on interrogating the whole Hermes cabin.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"It's fine," he shrugged it off, but the annoyance was still there. "I got my revenge by putting rats in your sleeping back."

"And Alabaster retaliated by poisoning your gatorade," Esmerelda said wistfully.

She missed the old Alabaster who had been such a kind and sweet brother even before they knew they were siblings. She wanted that Alabaster back and not the one who... you know, tried to kill her and everything...

"Since we're all confessing," Nico turned to Ethan with a blank face. "I'm gay."

"Okay." Ethan said.

He figured he would get a neutral reaction, which was why he added, "I used to be in love with Percy Jackson."

Ethan sprung up immediately. 

"WHAT?!" He was so loud, Esmerelda was certain every monster in the vicinity heard him.

"Shh!" Nico shushed him angrily. "Lower your voice, will you? Besides, it's not a big deal."

"Not a big—?" He sputtered. "Your type is a guy who can barely do fractions or percentages! You actually—?! Percy?! Seriously? What are you gonna do if you go on a date with him and he can't even tip the waiter properly?"

"Oh my gods," Nico rolled his eyes.

"Don't you 'oh my gods' me and stop rolling your eyes!" Ethan snapped. "This is just—good gods, I can't even—! Of all the guys you could drool over, it had to be him?"

"Percy's an amazing guy!" Esmerelda defended her son's type.

"You could do so much better," Ethan lamented. "What about Connor? No wait, he's practically your uncle. How about my brother, Damien? He's rich. Or—or that Will Solace guy from the Apollo cabin! He's the head counselor so he's got good leadership skills, and he's planning on becoming a doctor too so he's got a bright future ahead of him—no pun intended."

Nico's face was red. "Cut it out, I do not need you acting as my wingman. And there's nothing wrong with Percy, he... he has nice eyes!"

"So does literally every other person in this universe," Ethan retorted.

"Oh leave him alone, Ethan," Esmerelda chided as she laid back down. "Percy's good."

"Yeah, at least he never kidnapped anyone," Nico jabbed at him (and indirectly at his own father too).

Ethan harrumphed, facing forward with his arms crossed over his chest. "I can't believe this."

Esmerelda rolled her eyes fondly at the both of them as they continued on their banter.

They were stuck in Tartarus with slim chances of getting out of this alive... but moments like these were what gave her hope.

As long as the three of them stayed together, everything would be fine.

(Little did she know, their little trio wasn't going to last for very long.)

— author's note —

So I had to read the first chapter of The Half-Blood Prince to get the information about what's going on in the wizarding world AND OMFG IT PISSED ME OFF SO BAD! I KNOW I RANTED ABOUT IT IN MY GUIDEBOOK, BUT THE WAY THE MUGGLE PRIME MINISTER WAS TREATED WAS JUST SO TERRIBLE! UGGGHHHHH. That poor guy honestly... He just wanted to get info on what was happening so he could protect his muggle citizens but the Ministry didn't think it was necessary to tell him shit because he was just a muggle 🤬😡😡

Also, the thing about the bridge thing was all canon too.

So basically in book six, Voldemort threatened Fudge to step down as Minister and threatened him with the mass killing of muggles. Naturally, Fudge refused so Voldy sent his Death Eaters to destroy the bridge which killed a bunch of innocent people. Because of that, he was replaced by Scrimgeour. In here though, instead of being let go, I wanted him to go to Azkaban.

IT'S FUDGE'S FUCKING FAULT! I HATE THAT MAN SO MUCH.

Anyways... Here's Reggie's snake chair:

Now some memes...

From el:

From M. Nevermind:

LotusFruity drew Essie, Ethan, and Étienne's tattoo/mark!: