It was as if I was back in the pits of Tartarus. Waves of fear crashed over me. My legs felt like jelly. I felt like I was breathing the sulfuric air again. My worst memories came to mind - seeing Percy slowly dying from gorgon's blood; Piper, Jason, Percy, and I drowning in the nymphaeum; seeing Tartarus; fighting Akhlys with Percy; seeing Castor die all over again.

I was so caught up in reliving those horrific memories, that I didn't see the giant raise his sledgehammer. Piper reacted first. She leaped to the side and tackled me. The hammer cracked the floor, peppering Piper's back with stone shrapnel.

"Oh, that wasn't fair!" The giant chuckled as he hefted his sledgehammer again.

"Ivy, get up!" Piper helped me to my feet.

My feet felt heavy and weak as I was pulled toward the end of the room. I felt dazed as if my mind wasn't registering what was happening around me. More memories shuffled through my mind. My mom leaving me at Camp Half-Blood. Seeing my mom after years to see that she moved on with a new family and that I was erased from her past. Percy controlling the poision.

"I'm here." Piper promised. "We will get out of this."

"A child of Aphrodite leading a child of Dionysus!" The giant laughed. "Now I've seen everything. How would you defeat me, girl? With makeup and fashion tips?"

"Ivy, trust me." Piper said as the giant lumbered slowly toward us.

"O-okay. What's the plan?" I spoke with a shaky breath, forcing myself to focus on the fight instead of my fear.

"No plan."

"I-what?" I blinked at her.

"No plans. Just follow me!"

The giant swung his hammer, but we easily dodged it. Piper leaped forward and slashed her sword across the back of the giant's knee. As the giant bellowed in outrage Piper pulled me into the nearest tunnel. Immediately we were engulfed in total darkness. My mind focused back to walking through the pit of Tartarus.

"Fools!" The giant roared somewhere behind us. "That is the wrong way!"

"Keep moving." Piper gripped my hand tightly. "It's fine. Come on."

I wouldn't see anything. Even the glow of my sword and Piper's blade was snuffed out. From the echo of our footfalls, the space around us must have been a vast cavern. Fear surged in me again and I would've stopped in my tracks if it weren't for Piper pulling me after her. It felt like I was in Nyx's Mansion again. The strong urge to close my eyes overwhelmed me.

"Piper, it's like the House of Night." I spoke, my hands shaking. "Maybe we should close our eyes."

"No!" Piper said. "Keep them open. We can't try to hide."

"Lost forever." The giant's voice came from somewhere in front of us. "Swallowed by darkness."

More fear rushed over me. It was so strong, I froze. It forced Piper to stop.

"We need to go back. We're lost. We're falling into his trap. We should've come up with a plan or-or something. Gods, I can't think!" I grasped at my hair as my chest heaved.

"Ivy, listen to me." Piper placed her hands on my shoulders. My breath felt more shallow as a cold sensation ran over my body. "We can't defeat with reason. You can't think your way out of your emotions."

"Despair, Ivy Pittaluga!" The giant laughed. "I am Mimas, born to slay Hephaestus. I am the breaker of plans, the destroyer of well-oiled machines. Nothing goes right in my presence. Maps are misread. Devices break. Data is lost. The finest minds turn to mush!"

"That's great. That's awesome!" I exasperated.

"Are you afraid?" Mimas taunted.

"Of you? No." I tried to scoff but it came out as if I was choking on something-my fear.

"Of course we're afraid." Piper corrected. "Terrified!"

The air moved. Piper pushed me to the side. CRASH! Suddenly, we were back in the circular room, the dim light almost blinding now. The giant stood close by, trying to yank his hammer out of the floor where he'd embedded it. Piper lunged and drove her blade into the giant's thigh.

"AROOO!" Mimas let go of the hammer and arched his back.

Piper and I scrambled behind the chained statue of Ares, which still pulsed with a metallic heartbeat: thump, thump, thump. Mimas turned toward us. The wound on his leg already closing.

"You cannot defeat me." He growled. "In the last war, it took two gods to bring me down. I was born to kill Hephaestus, and would have done so if Ares hadn't ganged up on me as well!  You should have stayed paralyzed in your fear. Your death would've been quicker."

"This temple." Piper moved in front of the statue to face the giant. "The Spartans didn't chain Ares because they wanted his spirit to stay in their city."

"You think not?" The giant's eyes glittered with amusement. He wrapped his hands around the sledgehammer and pulled it from the floor.

"This is the temple of my brothers, Deimos and Phobos." Piper's voice shook. "The Spartans came here to prepare for battle, to face their fears. Ares was chained to remind them that war had consequences. His power-the spirits of battle, the makhai- should never be unleashed unless you understand how terrible they are, unless you've felt fear."

"A child of the love goddess lectures about war. What do you know about makhai?" Mimas laughed.

"We'll see." Piper ran straight at the giant, unbalancing his stance.

At the sight of her jagged blade coming at him, his eyes widened and he stumbled backward. The giant cracked his head against the wall. A jagged fissure snaked upward in the stones. Dust rained from the ceiling.

"Piper, this place is unstable." I warned, eyeing the fissure. "If we don't leave-"

"Don't think about escape!" Piper ran toward the rope I had secured from above.

She leaped as high as she could and cut the rope. My stomach dropped. That was our only way out of here.

"Piper, have you lost your mind?" I stared at her with wide eyes.

"That hurt!" Mimas rubbed his head. "You realize you cannot kill me without the help of a god, and Ares is not here! The next time I face that blustering idiot, I will smash him to bits. I wouldn't have had to fight him in the first place if that fool Damasen had done his job-"

Anger took over the fear. Any ounce of fear was gone. I couldn't finally think straight. I gripped my sword tightly.

"Do not insult Damasen!" I yelled.

I ran at Mimas, who barely managed to parry my sword with the handle of his hammer. He tried to grab me and Piper lunged, slashing her blade across the side of the giant's face.

"GAHHH!" Mimas staggered. A severed pile of dreadlocks fell to the ground along with his ear lying in a pool of golden ichor. "My ear!"

I went to take a stab at him, my body humming with anger. Piper quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me after her. Together we plunged into the second doorway.

"I will bring down this chamber!" The giant thundered. "The Earth Mother shall deliver me, but you shall be crushed!"

The floor shook. The sound of breaking stone echoed all around us. Fear started to seep into my bones. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. My hands started to tremble again. I had to focus on not letting my fears crawl back into my mind.

"Piper, how are you dealing with this?" I asked her. "The fear, anger-"

"Don't try to control it. That's what the temple is about." Piper explained. I nodded, making sense of what she was saying. "You have to accept the fear, adapt to it, ride it like the rapids on a river."

"That makes sense." I muttered, my heart still racing. "But how do you know that?"

"I don't know it. I just feel it."

Somewhere nearby, a wall crumbled with a sound like an artillery blast. Fear spiked through my blood. I took a shaky inhale as I tried to control my breathing. Piper cupped my face and placed our foreheads together.

"Fear can't be reasoned with. Neither can hate. They're like love. They're almost identical emotions. That's why Ares and Aphrodite like each other. Their twin sons- Fear and Panic- were spawned from both war and love." Piper told me.

"I'm trying to stop letting it control me."

"Stop thinking about." Piper told me. "Just feel."

"But I hate not being able to control my emotions."

"I know. You can't control all of your emotions. They're not meant to be controlled. Like with Percy and your future - you can't control it. You have to accept that. Let is scare you. Let yourself feel your emotions more freely. Don't hold them back. Trust that it'll be okay anyway."

"I-I don't know how." I shook my head. "I was raised to not let my emotions take over and to bottle them up."

"Then for right now, concentrate on revenge for Damasen. Revenge for Bob."

I closed my eyes. An image of an ocean came to mind. I stood in the water as it reached my knees. The waves were rapid and raging all around me. A wave was rushing toward me. I let the emotions come toward me and accepted it. The water hit me and I felt everything at once. I focused on revenge and anger. The strong feelings I was fighting weren't raging against me. Now, it was as if I were riding the emotions.

"Okay, I'm good now." I opened my eyes.

"Great, because I need your help. We're going to run out together."

"Okay, then?"

"I have no idea."

"Great." I sarcastically said. "Let's do this."

"Come on." Piper chuckled out.

We ran in no particular direction and found ourselves back into the shrine room, right behind Mimas. We each slashed one of his legs be brought him to his knees. The giant howled. More chunks of stone tumbled from the ceiling.

"Weak mortals!" Mimas struggled to stand. "No plan of yours can defeat me!"

"That's good. Because I don't have a plan." Piper said as she ran for the statue. "Ivy, keep our friend busy!"

"Oh, he'll be occupied." I grinned, twirling my sword.

I rushed toward him, sidestepping an attack. I stabbed him in his thigh and slashed outward. Golden ichor seeped from the gash I gave him.

"GAHHHHH!"

I weaved in between his legs. My sword slashing at his legs. Golden blood splattered on my skin. From the corner of my eyes I saw Piper set her cornucopia at the feet of the statue of Ares. I rolled away from the sledgehammer coming at me. Piper swung her blade and took off the bronze statue head.

"No!" Mimas yelled.

Flames roared up from the statue's severed head. They swirled around Piper, filling the room with a firestorm of emotion: hatred, bloodlust, and fear, but also love- because no one can face battle without caring for something, comrades, family, home. Piper held out her arms and the fiery spirits made her the center of their whirlwind. Then the flames vanished along with the cornucopia and the chained statue of Ares crumbled to dust.

"Foolish girl!" Mimas charged at Piper. I quickly rushed after him. "The makhai have abandoned you!"

"Or maybe they abandoned you." Piper said.

Mimas had forgotten about me and I used that to my advantage. He raised his sledgehammer. I jabbed his back thigh. My sword went hilt deep, hitting his bone. He wailed in pain as I yanked my sword out of his wound. Mimas staggered forward toward Piper. She stepped in calmly and stabbed his gut.

Mimas crashed face first in the nearest doorway. He turned over just as the stone face of Panic cracked off the wall. It toppled down and smashed onto his face. The giant's cry was cut short. His body went still. Then he disintegrated into a twenty-foot pile of ash.

"What just happened?" I stared at Piper.

"I'm not sure."

"Piper, you were amazing!" I clapped her shoulder with a grin. "Those fiery spirits you unleashed-"

"The makhai."

"How does that help us find the cure we're looking for?"

"I don't know. They said I could summon them when the time comes. Maybe Artemis and Apollo can explain-"

A section of the wall calved like a glacier. I stumbled backward to avoid it, almost tripped over the large ear.

"We need to go. What's your plan now, MVP?"

"I'm working on it."

"And this lovely ear," I toed the nasty large flesh, "is your spoil of war."

"Gross."

"It would make a lovely shield too." I grinned at her.

"Shut up, Pittaluga." Piper stared down the second doorway, where Fear's face was still mounted on the wall. "Thank you, brothers, for helping to kill the giant. I need one more favor- an escape. And believe me, I am properly terrified. I offer you this, uh, lovely ear as a sacrifice."

Another section of the wall peeled away. A starburst of cracks appeared in the ceiling. Piper grasped my hand.

"We're going through that doorway." Piper told me. "If this works, we might find ourselves back on the surface."

"Well, it looks like that's the only option we have." I scanned the room around us. "Let's go."

The room collapsed around us as we plunged into the dark.

Couldn't sleep last night idk why. But here's the chapter for today!