I need to be working an essay but I can't focus so have a chapter instead :)

Chapter Quote:
"The oldest sibling always knows things that the younger ones don't."
~Mike Mills
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Chapter 8: Where Did She Go?

Brady

Brady was cranky whenever he was tired.

Brady was cranky whenever he was hungry.

Brady was cranky whenever he was thirsty.

Any combination of the three caused the son of Zeus to be angry.

When the son of Zeus was experiencing all of the above at the same time, he was infuriated.

There was going to be hell to pay when Brady broke out of the chains imprisoning him in the crystal caves below Death Valley. Of course, he had to find a way to get his revenge on the Eidolon without hurting Derek; unfortunately no ideas were coming to him of how to do that. For now, he would focus on getting out. He'd figure out how to hurt Damianos later.

In the flickering fire light, Brady could distinguish no discernible objects that could be used as a weapon or as something that could break these chains. Unless he wanted to try and saw the chains using the edges of the crystals, but he'd probably die from old age before that happened.

"You need the bathroom?" Damianos inquired, materializing in front of Brady with the Trident in hand. It was ticking Brady off that the Eidolon was smart enough to not leave that weapon unattended because it could very much possess the ability to free him from the chains.

"Yes, very much so. But like most times, I don't expect you to do anything about it," the son of Zeus retorted. The Eidolon had been taking Brady above ground to use the bathroom every once in a while, never taking the chains off. They didn't hinder his powers, but no spell could break the chains either. If a child of Hermes had been around here, they could've easily broken out of these confines by now. For now, Brady would just have to continue scheming.

"Let's get you top side so you can do your business," Damianos said. He unchained Brady from the rock and transported them via shadow-travel to the ghost town they were under; of course, where exactly that was, he had no idea or else he would've told Bryn. It was deserted here, mostly because no one wanted to come visit Death Valley in the middle of summer when temperatures could hit over 120. Brady could now understand how the Wicked Witch of the West felt when she was melting. He felt like that whenever he stepped foot into the sun here.

"Okay, go be done with your business. I don't trust you not to do something stupid if we're up here for too long."

Brady rolled his eyes although he understood where the Eidolon was coming from, but where the Eidolon saw stupidity, Brady saw genius.

He went inside the decrepit shack to do his business. Somehow, the water well was still functioning and he was able to semi-wash his hands. It disturbed him not to use any soap because he was a germaphobe just like Bradley, Bryn, and their mother. Funnily enough, Michael was too despite not being afraid to get down and dirty, but that was the Hephaestus in him.

Brady, where are you? Bryn's voice suddenly popped into his head.

Uh, your guess is as good as mine. Some ghost town in the middle of Death Valley. He responded.

I'm on my way to get you and I'm close, I can feel it, but I can't zero in on your location.

Brady mulled this over for a second before telling her, Be on the lookout for lighting. If you see a random lightning strike, that's where I am.

Before the Eidolon could figure out what was taking him so long, there were three lightning strikes in quick succession. Brady hoped his sister saw that because within the blink of an eye, Damianos was standing in front of him, fury flaming in his eyes.

"Big mistake, boy," the Eidolon growled. Damianos hit Brady square in the jaw so hard that the demigod went flying backwards. The world was spinning but he saw the monster coming for him. Brady didn't know exactly what direction he was coming from so he just rolled away in some random direction. The Eidolon went stumbling past him. Brady's vision began to clear now, and he was pissed. His powers might not do much underground, but he had the sky above him. He was surrounded by his element again. As long as Damianos couldn't catch him and Shadow-travel them back underground, Brady could continue to have a fighting chance. All he had to do was play cat and mouse until Bryn got back.

He prayed she got there soon.
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Bryn

The daughter of Zeus saw three lightning strikes off in the distance, immediately knowing it was her brother who had caused them. She commanded Alec to head in that direction, at one point becoming so excited by the prospect of rescuing her brother that she lifted the SUV up in the air before freaking herself out which caused the car to drop which sent Alec into a mild panic because he hadn't even realized the car had lifted. After that, Bryn made sure she kept her emotions in check because she couldn't afford to freak out the person getting them to their destination. In order to do so, she focused on where the lightning strikes had been and where they were continuing to strike. She wondered how Brady was managing to do this since he was a prisoner but she didn't want to question it. This was a lucky opportunity that she was going to be taking full advantage of.

Unfortunately, when they turned down the road that led to their destination, they found they couldn't go all the way to it via car due to the treachery of the landscape and the narrowness of the path. Reluctantly, Alec parked the car. The three demigods armed themselves, grabbed their things, then began the long hike.

"How long is this going to take?" Isabelle queried, glancing up at the scorching sun that was setting on the horizon. Despite it being late evening, the temperatures were still in the high eighties, and Bryn was already sweating.

"About seven miles I think," Alec said. When the girls raised their eyebrows in surprise at him, he added, "I went through a phase where I wanted to explore ghost towns. This was one on my list."

"You learn something new every day," his sister mused. "Although I never thought I'd be learning something new about my brother this late in the game."

"I could maybe fly us. If I flew low enough, the air wouldn't be too heavy and I wouldn't overexert myself. Would you like to try?"

"If it's seven miles, it'll take us a few hours, and I doubt Brady can keep up whatever he's doing for a few hours. He'll be lucky if he can keep it up for a few more minutes. I say we try to fly. If not, we'll figure something else out."

"All right, what's the easiest way for you to get your start to fly?" Isabelle queried.

"Well usually a running start and jumping off a cliff helps because I can use the momentum to help lift us."

"There's a small cliff right there." Isabelle pointed to an area about twenty feet away.

"Anything helps. Hold onto my hands and let's get running." Bryn held out her hands which Alec and Isabelle took without hesitation. It warmed her heart knowing that these two who had been complete strangers only a short while ago trusted her the way they did now. Knowing that, she didn't want to ruin that trust.

On the count of three, the demigods ran as fast as they could, taking a leap of faith off the cliff face. It took surprisingly little effort, even in the heat, to get flying. Her earlier suggestion had had a few guesses in it, so she was just surprised as Isabelle and Alec that this was working without too much effort. Bryn's heart soared that she was still able to do this so well. She hadn't done so in a while because she'd been at camp and there'd been no reason to fly. But she had forgotten the sense of freedom she felt when she was suspended in the sky with nothing but air around her.

Suddenly feeling a surge of power from her excitement to be doing this again, Bryn took off with Isabelle and Alec in tow.
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Alec

Being dragged through the air by Bryn was incredibly weird because Alec wasn't used to having nothing underneath his feet. But she was a hero of the War of Tartarus, so he wasn't surprised she had this incredible power. And since her brothers had all the same powers she did, he expected to approach an epic battle between Brady and Damianos.

He did not expect to find Brady, in handcuffs, running a mercurial path around the ghost town of Panamint sending lightning strikes between him and Damianos who was chasing after him whilst swearing angrily in Latin, Greek, and a few languages Alec was pretty sure were extinct. In some situations, the scene would've been comical. In fact, Alec would've laughed had it been something other than a quest. However, knowing this was anything but, Alec prepped himself for battle.

"Hey!" Bryn called out, landing the three demigods gently on the ground. "Leave my brother alone!"

She sent a lightning bolt, much bigger than the ones her brother had been sending, in between the two. It sent both flying away from each other, but Brady landed much closer to the demigods.

"Get him to safety!" Bryn commanded. "Damianos is mine!"

She leapt down in front of the Eidolon, elongating her sword. How she was going to get Damianos injected with the ichor was questionable, but Alec figured Bryn had a plan. She always did.

"Hello, we're here to save you," Isabelle greeted, helping Brady to his feet. She escorted him away from the battle which consisted of a nasty sword fight between Bryn and Damianos. Well, Bryn had her sword. Damianos was using a Trident that looked suspiciously like Poseidon's. He remembered Bryn telling him that the Eidolons had stolen the gods' weapons to get the demigods to retrieve them, but surely she would've told them that the Eidolons still had them? Unless she didn't think they still had them?

Alec wanted to watch the fight because he wanted to learn how they moved like that. It was as if they were able to predict what the other was about to do, so fluid in their motions that it almost appeared as if they were dancing a dangerous tango. They were like two sides of the same coin, so similar but so different. If this was how Derek and Bryn fought opposing each other, Alec actually feared what they were like on the same side. A daughter of Zeus and son of Hades was no combination to be messed with. Even as a child of Ares, he would've stood no chance against either of them, regardless of what weapon he had.

"Alec!" Isabelle hissed, snapping him out of the trance he didn't even know he'd been in. "I can't get these chains off of him."

The elder Greenwood sibling moved to the other side of Bradley, studying the chains that were bounding his hands together. They were inscribed with Latin, and Alec was pretty sure that the only thing that could break these chains would either be an actual god or the key meant to open it.

"I don't know how to open this," he admitted. "The only thing I can think of is to find the actual key to open it."

"He never had a key to open it," Brady stated in a thick English accent, interestingly much stronger than Bryn's. But then he remembered Bryn had lived in the states for most of her life, so it made sense that her accent was milder, although it was definitely still there. It was still unmistakable where she was from.

"What did he use?" Isabelle queried.

"His blood. He would prick his finger and a small drop would open them. You wouldn't have to have any Eidolon blood on you, would you?"

"Just the blood of a goddess," Alec remarked.

"Why do you have the blood of a goddess?" Brady stared at him cautiously.

"It's how we're going to the Eidolons out of your brother and friends."

"How on earth did you figure out that would work?"

"We didn't. Your sister did."

The Winchester boy's gaze drifted to his sister who was still currently engaged in a fierce battle with Damianos. Almost as if he was thinking aloud, he groaned quietly, "What did you do?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alec queried.

"You can ask her when she's done with this battle. For now, why don't you two go help my sister? She's in more need than I am. You can't do much for me right now."

"Isabelle, get him away from here. We can't let Damianos capture him again. I'll go help-" Alec stopped midsentence as he stared at the place where Bryn and the Eidolon had just been. They were no longer there. They were, in fact, no longer visible at all. Alec stood up immediately, turning around in circles in hopes of catching a glimpse of where his friend had gone. But she and Damianos were completely gone. He couldn't even hear the sound of their swords clanging against each other.

Standing up beside Alec with Isabelle following in suit, Brady demanded, "Where did she go?"

Alec sighed in dismay. "I don't know. She and Damianos are both gone."
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So I've winged this last part but it'll