A little rushed but whatever. 

“I hate this!!!” Wendy cried as they ran across sloshing snow that came up to their ankles. Harsh winds whipped at their exposed skin. “How are we supposed to free Death when we’re being chased by monsters that won’t die!?”

“We can’t keep running,” Krystal warned under her breath to Taeyeon, her breathing heavy from physical exertion. They’d been on the run for nearly ten minutes now. Taeyeon’s legs were starting to feel like jelly.

“I know,” Taeyeon hissed back, her chest burning from lack of oxygen. She really needed to work out more. Her heart felt like it was two beats away from giving out. “But we don’t have time to stop and beat them.”

“We don’t,” Krystal stressed. “But that’s why there’s three of us, right?”

“What?” Taeyeon nearly tripped, her feet getting stuck in the deep Alaskan snow, as Krystal suddenly stopped and whirled around to face their pursuers.

“Go,” Krystal shouted to them, not even bothering to turn around. Her focus was completely on the incoming empousa. “Go free Death. I’ll hold them off.”

Taeyeon felt herself choking back emotion. “Are you crazy? They can’t die!”

“Then neither can I,” Krystal argued back. The grip on her Stygian Iron  sword was firm.

“You can’t hold them off forever,” Taeyeon insisted. The thought of leaving the younger Jung behind put a bitter taste to . If anything happened to Krystal, especially after Jessica’s disappearance, Taeyeon wasn’t sure she could handle it.

“Then don’t take so long in freeing Thanatos,” Krystal growled back. Her feet stayed planted in the snow stubbornly. “Go!”

“Taeyeon, we have to go.” Wendy grabbed her arm. Taeyeon turned around and met conflicted but also determined brown eyes. Taeyeon sighed and nodded in understanding. With one last look, she and Wendy ran ahead leaving Krystal behind.

“Don’t die,” she whispered to the raven haired girl as she left.

She heard Krystal scoff behind her. “My father is the Lord of the Dead. I’m not afraid of death.”

The sound of metal clashing with claws hit Taeyeon’s ears and she sent a silent prayer to the gods.

They had to find Thanatos.

Things weren’t going so well for Jessica. Seohyun was captured by a Giant named Enceladus and was currently missing and their main enemy was apparently Gaea -  freaking Mother Earth of all people.

“Can you stop feeling so tense? You’re putting me on edge here,” Tiffany snapped in the seat next to her. They were currently in a cab on their way to Mount Diablo, which was where they think Seohyun was being held.

Jessica fought the urge to roll her eyes. ‘The worst thing about Seohyun being gone is the fact that now I’m alone with this she-demon,’ Jessica scoffed mentally as she fiddled with the bracelets on her wrists. The familiar action brought her the smallest of comfort.

The two demigods had not been able to work things out between the two of them. Having Seohyun there to stop them was one of the only things holding them back from killing each other.

Jessica closed her eyes. Ever since they ended up in San Francisco, her nerves felt like she’d been chugging red bull. There was something here, that was causing her body to hum with familiarity and restlessness at the same time.

“There!” Tiffany suddenly shouted. Jessica looked to where she was pointing. A dark storm was brewing around the top of a mountain peak. Jessica gulped. Somewhere within that storm was her captured friend and an incredibly hard to defeat Giant.

“You can stop here, Mister. Thanks!” Tiffany said as she immediately opened the car door and jumped out, not even bothering to wait for the taxi to come to a full stop.

Jessica fumbled through her pockets for the last of her American dollars and hastily shoved it towards the poor driver. “Keep the change!” she screamed over her shoulder as she bustled after Tiffany’s running figure.

“We need a plan,” Jessica huffed out between her labored breaths as they neared the top of the mountain. Running was never her strong suit.

“Yeah, you distract the giant while I free Seohyun,” Tiffany stated simply as she bounded on ahead without even waiting for a confirmation from Jessica.

Jessica exhaled loudly in annoyance as Tiffany left her behind. “Why am I always bait?” she complained to no one. Accepting her fate, she tapped her wrists together, summoning her twin swords. “Here goes nothing.”

She stepped out into the open, knowing that Tiffany was circling around behind the rocks to get to Seohyun.

“Hey flame brain!” she called. “Miss me?” She grinned wickedly at the huge giant in front of her. The giant turned around and glanced down at her tiny figure. His lightning scarred body rippled as he moved.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Seohyun tied and gagged against a rock. Seohyun met her gaze and Jessica allowed herself to feel a bit of relief. At least Seohyun was alive and awake.

Turning her focus back to the giant creature in front of her, Jessica branded her swords. “Come get me,” she taunted. No sooner had the words left , Enceladus opened his mouth and out came a burst of fire. Jessica dodged, rolling to her left.

“You are no match for me, mortal,” Enceladus taunted back.

Jessica quickly ran through her options as she got up from her ground. She was not physically capable of killing the giant. Only when a demigod and a god worked together could a giant be killed. Unfortunately for her, there was no god here.

‘That doesn’t mean I can’t fatally injure it. Here goes nothing.’

Jessica stabbed her swords into the ground. Instantly, sharp pieces of metals came piercing through the ground and into Enceladus, stabbing him in the legs and trapping him.

Jessica panted as she observed her work. Golden ichor leaked out of Enceladus and the giant howled in pain. She smirked and charged, her swords raised over head.

“You think this will stop me? You foolish mortal,” Enceladus bellowed. He smashed his fists into the ground, crushing everything underneath him. Jessica’s metal cage collapsed.

Jessica halted in her steps and quickly jumped out of the way to avoid incoming fists. She’d forgotten that Enceladus could also manipulate earth as well as fire. Jessica cursed mentally. She scanned the outskirts of the clearing, hoping that Tiffany had already freed Seohyun.

Before she could confirm anything, Enceladus punched her in the stomach. Hard.

Jessica grunted in pain as she felt like she was hit by a huge car. She flew nearly twenty feet in the air and landed harshly on the ground, her body banging mercilessly against hard stone, until she stopped skidding. Groaning she sat up.

Ahead of her Enceladus laughed. “Weak. You are a weak demigod.” Jessica could feel the earth trembling under her as Enceladus walked slowly towards her. She clutched her stomach in pain as she rapidly ran through her options once more. Her ribs were most definitely broken. She was in no shape to hold of Enceladus any longer.

Raising her head the slightest inch, Jessica caught Tiffany in the process of freeing Seohyun. Both Tiffany and Seohyun were looking over at her with worried eyes.

‘I just need a little more time.’

Taking a deep breath, she slowly concentrated on the pain in her stomach. Her fingers moved expertly to diagnose the pain. Very, very slowly, she started healing her ribs in place. The left two first. Then, the right three. Once she felt everything snap into place, Jessica stayed crouched on the ground pretending to be in pain.

Granted it wasn’t that hard. While her ribs were no longer broken, her skin was still ripped open in several places.

“Gaea will rise and you can do nothing to stop it,” Enceladus stated proudly, raising his fist for the final blow.

Enceladus brought his fist down and earth exploded everywhere.  

“Jessi!!!-mfdmafsmk,” Tiffany screamed in panic as she witnessed Enceladus crushing her teammate into the ground and into oblivion. Seohyun quickly covered with her hand.

“Be quiet, you’ll give us away,” Seohyun whispered harshly to the redhead.

“But Jessica-” Tiffany panicked, rushing forward to help. She was tugged back harshly by Seohyun.

“Look,” Seohyun instructed, pulling Tiffany back to their hiding spot behind the giant rock.

Tiffany watched as Enceladus investigated the mini crater he created. There was no sign of her teammate anywhere. Tiffany felt her heart drop. There wasn’t even a corpse. Enceladus had hit Jessica so hard she exploded into nothingness. Tiffany fell to her knees.

“I failed her,” she whispered, her chest falling up and down faster and faster. First Taeyeon, and now Jessica too. She hated to admit it, but she was just starting to get fond of the blonde. Sure, she was still annoying at times, but she couldn’t help but admire Jessica too. The girl was strong, both mentally and physically. Jessica was reliable and Tiffany liked that.

Tiffany gripped her head in desperation and loss. Was she cursed? To always lose the ones she loved? Enceladus was an incredibly strong opponent. There was no way Seohyun and Tiffany could defeat him without Jessica. They were screwed.

Taeyeon was gone. Jessica was decimated. And Seohyun and her would be next. Everything was ruined. The world would end in fire. Gaea would rise. And -

A hard grip on her shoulder shook Tiffany out of her mini break down.

“Would you stop panicking and look?” Seohyun hissed, forcefully lifting Tiffany’s chin up.

Tiffany felt her breath leave her as caught sight of blonde hair blowing through the wind. Jessica was alive.

She was standing atop the giant’s face. Both of her swords were deep in the giant’s eyes.

“OWWWWWWW! GET OFF ME!” Enceladus cried, gripping at his face. He managed to grab Jessica and threw her on the ground.

Before the blonde could hit the floor however, she shadow traveled until she was on the back of Enceladus’ neck. She raised her swords and once more stabbed them into the giant.

Enceladus roared fire in fury. “You can’t kill me! You’re only a demigod!”

“I am not alone!” Jessica screamed back. She raised both her swords again. “PLUTO! COME TO ME!”

Jessica stabbed her swords back into Enceladus just as the ground beneath them opened up. Dark energy and skeleton hands rose from the pit, grabbing Enceladus and dragging him down.

“NOOO! You cannot kill me!” Enceladus flailed about wildly, but the skeleton hands held onto him tightly. Jessica too stayed planted on his neck. Power shone from her eyes and erupted from her body.

From behind the rock, both Tiffany and Seohyun gasped from the sudden increase in pressure from the power Jessica was emitting.

“Your time has come, Enceladus,” Jessica spoke, her voice loud and booming. “I’m sending you straight to Tartarus! PLUTO!”

The earth shook as the dark energy dragged Enceladus down under, the giant flailing and roaring the entire time. Jessica jumped off of him right before the earth closed back up, swallowing Enceladus whole. All that was left was a giant crater.

Danger gone, Jessica fell to her knees, sheathing her swords.

“Γαμώτο!” Tiffany cursed in Ancient Greek as she came running out from behind the rock.

Seohyun nodded despite her use of a profanity and ran to follow to her. “She’s insane.”

“Of course there’s a giant guarding Thanatos,” Taeyeon cursed as she peeked down the mountain. In the clearing, Thanatos, the guardian of the doors of death, stood chained to a wooden post. Not too far from Thanatos stood an Alaskan giant.

“You go free Thanatos, I’ll take care of the giant,” Taeyeon told Wendy as she brandished her spear.

“How are you going to -” Wendy stared wide eyed at Taeyeon.

“Leave that to me. Hurry to Thanatos. Krystal is still fighting the three empousa,” she told the younger girl.

Wendy nodded and Taeyeon sent her a reassuring smirk. “I’ll be counting on you.” Then, she turned and jumped off the cliff.

“What!?” Wendy watched jaw slacked as Taeyeon free falled one hundred feet down an icy glacier before suddenly changing directions and flying straight at the giant with her spear in hand.

“Oh my gods, Kim Taeyeon,” Wendy muttered, sending a prayer to the gods to make sure Taeyeon was safe before hurrying down the mountain the safe (and sane) way. She heard the pained howl of the giant from a hundred feet below and quickened her pace.

She had to free Thanos and fast.

Taeyeon stared at the ugly giant in front of her. She was eye to eye with him thanks to her flying abilities.

“You can’t defeat me demigod. I am undefeatable here,” the giant told her confidently. “I am Alcyoneus, bane of Pluto, the new master of death!”

Taeyeon smirked back. “Oh yeah. Well, you’ve obviously never met a demigod like me