We Meet a Sea Monster

Just a disclaimer here- I have no idea what Titanic Grotto looks like even though it's a real place. I tried to find pictures to help with accuracy and none exist so what it looks like is all imagination. Enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
~FDR
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Chapter 15: We Meet a Sea Monster

Silena

The demigods had extended their stay in Moscow for one more night so the girls could recuperate. Bryn had gotten it the worst since Silena and Derek found out from Dolos that he had given her a stronger dose of the spell because she'd been more immune to it due to her Aphrodite heritage. It was also why Silena and Hallie hadn't felt as hungover as their friend had when they'd woken up.

However, after a good night's rest, the seven demigods got ready to leave. Derek held the helm and said, "Instead of driving, what do you think about me using the helm to get us there?"

"Don't you need to have a vision of where you're going though? You've never seen the caves," Bradley stated.

"I googled them last night. I know what they look like. It's just all a matter if you guys trust me to get you all there."

"I trust you," Silena declared.

"I'm in," Bryn agreed. The rest of the group voiced that they were okay with it too. Grabbing onto each other's hands, Derek transported them to the entrance to the ice caves where a small gaggle of tourists were waiting outside. They stared at the group, as if wondering how they got there without them noticing.

"So he said Titanic Grotto right?" Brady said.

"Yeah. There's an underground lake in there. It's massive," Derek replied. "Since Hallie and I are better with directions underground, would you guys mind if we took the lead?"

"Go for it," Bryn told them. "I'll take up the rear."

The seven set off with the kids of Hades in the front. Silena marveled at the sight of the cave when they entered. The Kungur Ice Caves certainly lived up to their name with ice stalactites everywhere she looked. She took out her phone so she could take pictures of it all because she would probably never get to see this place again.

"Silena, if you don't keep moving, you're going to fall into one of these holes and your boyfriend won't be able to rescue you if he can't see you," Luke remarked.

"Sorry, it's just really impressive," she responded.

He laughed. "I know. Just watch where you're going okay?"

Silena made sure afterwards to note where she stepped. It took them about fifteen minutes before they arrived at Titanic Grotto. It most certainly lived up to its name as well. They found themselves on a bridge spanning across a massive underground lake that was so deep the water appeared black. Stalactites hung threateningly above them while stalagmites rose stories above them, some even with their bottom half submerged in water.

"Anyone see a trident or lightning bolt?" Brady queried, spinning around in circles.

"Please tell me it's not in the lake," Bradley groaned.

"I think that's the only place it could be in here unless Dolos was lying," Bryn said.

"It's the Trident," Luke stated. "I can feel it."

"Me too," Silena agreed. "I think it's obvious that Luke and I need to go down there but that water has to be below freezing and while we won't get wet, we'll certainly get cold. Derek and Hallie need to come with us, for one to use their fire to keep us warm, and second, to use their fire to light up the way down to the Trident."

"The plan makes sense," Derek agreed.

"You don't think we should have a kid of Hades up here in case anything goes wrong?" Bryn asked.

"What could- never mind. Everything could go wrong. But you guys can fly right? So if anything happened, you could fly away from the danger and Hallie and I could shadow-travel Luke and Silena out of there."

"You'll be fine Cat Woman," Luke assured. "I know we've some bad experiences underground but we have two kids of Hades now."

Bryn smiled. "Right."

"So now the question is: how do we get into the water without any of the tourists seeing us?" Hallie pointed out.

"Could you make a stalactite fall?" Luke suggested.

"That would certainly work," she mused. "Derek, you want to do the honors?"

"Sure. Let's go for a big one. Make a statement," he said with a grin. He stared intently up at one of the largest stalactites on the other side of the bridge. The other demigods had no idea it was working until they heard a large crack. It certainly got everyone else's attention because all the tourists turned around to see where the sound had come from. The crack was followed by the stalactite crashing down into the lake, creating a massive splash that got a few people closest to it wet.

"Now," Silena hissed, grabbing onto her brother's and Derek's hands. She saw Luke grab onto Hallie's before they jumped in. The last thing she saw before she plunged into the icy waters were the Winchester's peering worriedly over the bridge.

She and Luke created an air bubble around them to help prevent them from feeling the cold but it didn't do much. However, once Derek and Hallie created some fire, the warmth was enough to at least take the chill out of the air.

"Down we go," Luke said.

"Down we go," Hallie repeated resignedly. The demigods swam downwards into the lake. It had been dark near the surface but now that they couldn't see the surface, it was pitch black. Even by light of fire, the demigods could barely see a foot in front of them.

"Does anyone feel like we're being watched?" Derek inquired, glancing around suspiciously.

"Come on, it's already creepy enough down here. Now you have to talk about that?" Hallie replied in disdain.

"Well let's hope we're the only ones down here," Luke remarked.

"Do you guys see that?" Silena interrupted, pointing at a faint glow below them.

"If that's the Trident, then it's seriously under-protected," Hallie said. "That makes me worry about what's protecting it."

"Only one way to find out." The demigods swam towards the glow. The closer they got, it didn't get any brighter, and when they reached it, they realized why.

"It's encased in ice," Derek groaned.

"Dude, you have fire powers. You can melt it," Luke pointed out.

"This is still suspiciously easy," Hallie muttered.

"You're going to jinx it if you keep saying that."

"Since when has anything been this easy to get though? Name one instance."

"I- you know, that time when we- never mind. I can't come up with anything. Just heat up the ice so we can get the Trident and get out of here..."

Hallie beamed in victory as she placed her hand next to Derek's on the block of ice. Slowly, very, very slowly, the ice began to melt. Luke kept turning around to keep watch of their surroundings while Silena concentrated on making sure that their air bubble remained.

"Got it!" Derek exclaimed happily after what seemed like an eternity. Glancing at her phone, it read that it'd only been ten minutes. Silena reached down and pulled the Trident out.

"This is extremely well-balanced," she observed.

"Well you'd probably lose power on the swing if it wasn't," Derek told her.

"Did you just try and quote-"

"Yes I did."

"I'm not sure if I'm impressed or not..."

"We should get back to the surface," Hallie stated. "It's getting harder to maintain a fire with the cold."

"She's right. We should get back to the Winchesters. I know Bryn is not liking being underground," Derek remarked.

"Can you blame her? It's not like we've had the best of luck whenever we're underground," Silena said, grabbing onto her boyfriend's hand. Just as they were about to shadow-travel out of there, Luke's head snapped upwards.

"Bryn," he murmured.

"Luke!" Derek shouted, but it was too late. Luke had already yanked his hand out of Derek's and Hallie transported them back to the bridge.

The group was greeted by utter chaos when they arrived, tourists cowering on ledges of the cavern since part of the bridge had broken, but their attention was only on the Winchester twins who were frantically flying around in circles, calling out their sister's name.

"What happened?!" Hallie shouted at them.

"There was a monster down there and it took her! She'll die of hypothermia if we don't get her out soon!" Bradley responded in terror.

"Start getting the tourists out of here," Silena ordered.

"What about you?!" Derek demanded.

"My brother is down there all alone. I have to go help him. I love you," she said, giving him a kiss. Then she dived into the water.
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Bryn

She stared into the blackness of the water, anxiously waiting for her friends to reappear. Bradley and Brady kept watch on everything else.

"Hey, they're going to be okay," Brady said.

"I know," she answered.

"Your thoughts betray you, young Winchester," Bradley joked.

"Well, it's more like her emotions," Brady laughed.

She smiled, knowing they were trying to cheer her up. "Sorry... didn't mean for you to sense my emotions."

"We know. We're messing with you. But in all seriousness, they're going to be fine," Brady assured.

"You have four kids in their element: water and darkness. They'll be fine," Bradley added.

"You're right. I need to- wait, I see something!" Bryn said, pointing at a mass in the water.

"Hey, maybe that's them!" the twins stated simultaneously. At that moment, something shot straight through the bridge, causing the Winchesters to throw themselves on the ground to protect themselves from flying debris. Whatever that something was, it was very long, very strong, and very much not their friends.

"What the- is that the Kraken?" Brady asked.

Bryn looked up at what had caused the trouble and felt her eyes widen in horror. "What in Zeus's name is a Cetea doing here?"

"It must be protecting the Trident," Bradley said.

"But then why is it attacking us if the others have it?"

"I don't know, but we need to stop it from killing the tourists, come on!" Brady urged. They all got up, yanking tourists over towards the exit of the cavern. Everything was in disarray as the monster continued to attack. More than once Bryn had to duck for cover to avoid a tentacle from hitting her. She leapt over to the other side of the bridge where she began convincing people to jump over to the other side so they could escape. Little did they know that she was helping them jump by letting the air suspend them a little longer.

Once that task was completed, they had the task of helping the people that had scrambled onto ledges to avoid the Cetea. Of course, what they were seeing was probably not what Bryn saw.

"Brady! Bradley! We need to get those people off the ledges!" Bryn commanded.

"On it!" They shouted back. Bryn shot up into the air to join them but was stopped when something wet and slimy wrapped itself around her ankle. Immediately she sent an electric shock towards the tentacle which released her immediately. Shaken up, Bryn hovered just for two seconds to catch her breath, but that two seconds was all the monster needed to take another go at her, this time wrapping its tentacle all the way up her leg. No matter the amount of electricity she sent towards it, the monster continued to pull her down.

Panic surged through her as she struggled desperately against the Cetea, because if it won in dragging her down into the icy depths, not only would she be facing her fear of dying underground again, but she would be facing her fear of drowning. Luke and Silena were gods knew how deep of water and she couldn't communicate mentally with them to request help from this raging monster. Bryn couldn't even shout for her brothers due to the terror that was nearly paralyzing her. Even that slight paralysis hindered her ability to fight back as well as she could've. If she'd been fighting this thing before her fall into Tartarus, it would be dead already. But this wasn't before Tartarus, this was after, and her slight paralysis gave the Cetea the edge it needed to finally give one good tug and drag her downwards towards the churning black waters. Bryn heard her brothers yell her name, but her focus was on taking a deep breath before she plunged into the freezing water. The moment she was submerged, Bryn felt the iciness creep under her skin. If drowning didn't kill her, hypothermia would.

Bryn struggled desperately against the Cetea's viselike grip on her but the more she struggled the more she needed air. Not only that, the more she panicked, the more she felt she needed air. She stopped resisting the monster, suddenly accepting her fate. Maybe it was the cold getting to her, or maybe it was the darkness that was enveloping her as her lungs began running out of air, but whatever it was, it didn't matter. After surviving Hannah, after surviving Tartarus, after literally dying and coming back to life, the invincible Bryn Winchester was going to die because she couldn't fight back against a monster that wanted to drown her. Bryn Winchester was going to die because for the first time in her life, she let her fears overwhelm her. She let emotion rule over logic.

Her lungs felt like they were about to explode, and Bryn closed her eyes for the inevitable.
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I was going to write more but figured I'd leave you on a cliff-hanger. Reviews would be fantastic! :)

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