It was quite a hike before Charlie's crystal finally lit up completely. That's when we knew we'd arrived. But the only problem; there was nothing there. It was a mountain. No cave, no visible entrance. We almost lost hope, until Kat noticed a small trickle of purple liquid coming from seemingly a random spot in the mountain. I recognized it as the poison from my dream.

"It's here, this is it. Somewhere," I said.

"How do we get in?" Nico asked. He'd been serious since we landed. Nico had lost one sister and he was determined not to lose another. I shrugged honestly and looked around where the poison was coming from. The Earth around it seemed perfectly normal.

"Well, there's got to be an entrance somewhere. How else would they have gotten our parents in?" Jonathan noted.

"Knucklehead is right," Kat said, sticking her thumb towards her twin. "And the monsters that took them have got to be pretty big, so the entrance must be too."

Charlie began poking his head around bushes and shrubs. "Then how can we miss something that's so big?" He accidentally caught the nearest shrub on fire.

"Charlie, it's got to be here somewhere. But if these monsters are as smart as we think they are, then the entrance is probably only accessible by them," I told him.

He groaned and glanced up at me. "Fine. Then let's make them open it. Make a distraction, and when one comes out we kill it and go inside," Charlie said harshly. If he continued to grow this frustrated, he'd end up going in too hot and sabotaging our mission. I set my hand on his shoulder to calm him and strangely, it worked.

Nico nodded in agreement. "I like that idea. Everybody, go into hiding. Wait for my go, then we attack," he ordered.

We scattered. Charlie and I ended up behind a large rock. Nico hid in a tree and scanned the area to make sure we were all out of view. He nodded to himself then yelled, "WHO YOU GONNA CALL!"

I resisted the urge to yell Ghostbusters. Charlie, on the other hand, whispered it under his breath. I nudged him but I had to hide my smile.

The mountain seemed to tear apart at an unseen seam. An entrance large enough for a giant, which is what appeared, to exit. It stood in the entryway and looked around, then bellowed, "WHO'S THERE?" It stopped and itched its stomach. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

Obviously, we didn't answer. Charlie began frantically poking my shoulder. I glared at him but he didn't stop.

"Jase!" he whisper yelled. I tried to shush him but he kept shaking his head as if he had something important to say. "Why are they keeping our parents alive?" he continued.

"What?" I finally whispered back.

"It's a trap!" Charlie warned. "They're keeping our parents alive for a reason. There's no other explanation, it's got to be a trap."

Realization struck me. "The monsters from Tartarus. Our parents were the ones to keep their mother from waking. If they wanted revenge, the best way would be to…"

"To kill us," Charlie finished. They knew were were coming. They were waiting for us.

There was no way to warn the others without alerting the giant. And it was too late anyway, Nico had sprung into action.

"Now!" he yelled. Casey was the first to spring forward, closely followed by the others. Too late now. I jumped forward, dragging Charlie with me. Jon gave Kat a leg up and she jumped into the air, using her powers to lift her higher. Jon didn't have his dad's power, so he tried to charmspeak the giant from attacking us. Charlie caught the giant's hairy toes on fire. While the giant was looking down at its burning feet, Kat dug her blade into the back of its head.

The giant stared blankly at me for a moment before it fell to the ground in the entrance. It wasn't dead, we wouldn't be able to do that without a god. But giants have a weak spot on the back of their necks that will paralyze them (basically kill them) for a few hours. We'd be able to do some damage, but we'd need to hurry. The entrance started to close but the giant's body was working like a foot stuck in an elevator door. I gave Casey a hand up and we stepped over the giant's head into the hideaway and the others were just behind us.

I saw my dad first, just like in my dream. Despite his situation, he smiled at us. He looked even more tired than the last time I'd seen him. I slipped Max from my pocket just as the giants jumped into action. There must have been ten of them at the least, maybe more. I took out my sword and let my instincts take over. I surveyed my surroundings. I saw Piper next. She was being held in the air, probably by Jason, over a small pit of spikes with a rope around her neck so he couldn't get her out. She looked somewhere between glad to see us, and wanting to chew us out for walking into this. My mom just looked like she wanted to chew us out.

We wouldn't be able to fight these giants, especially without the Seven.

"Jase! We need to get to work. I'll cover you," Casey said. I nodded and she put her back to mine and continued to fight. I took control of the water surrounding my mom and called out to Kat, who then used her own powers to hold up the rock above my dad. Max finally cut him loose, which gave him more flexibility to use his additional powers to slowly get Mom out of the water. They immediately got into the fight. We all knew we didn't have time for a heartfelt reunion quite yet. Kat and Jon got their mom and dad loose while Max and Casey went to free Hazel and Frank. Hazel was bound to a rock with another rock above her that was being held up by Frank the elephant. Max cut his mom loose and she was able to move out of the way, then Frank turned back into a human and let the rock drop. There was no crying or hugs involve, although I did see my parents exchange a quick kiss above a beheaded giantess.

Casey and I fought back to back. Together, we went after one of the larger of the giants. We weren't doing great, but we were surviving.

"Need a hand?" Our dad sliced off the giant's hand and jokingly offered it to us.

"Dad!" Casey nearly dropped her sword to hug him, as did I. The behanded giant bellowed in anger and tried to squash Casey but I put a big cut in his foot just before he could. Dad stabbed it in the throat with a menacing glare that would scare any monster to the bones.

"Stay away from my kids," he growled. The giant launched forward and dad, as if instinctively, ducked out of the way. Casey yelled out and ran up the giant's arm. The giant tried to swat her away while simultaneously attempting to step on my father and I, who were jabbing our swords at its feet. Suddenly, it fell to the ground as Casey launched her sword into the giant's weak point

There were still four giants left. Jason and Mom were fighting one. They seemed to be doing well so I kept looking. Jon had teamed up with his own mom and they worked together to charmspeak the giants into fighting each other. Frank the giant eagle clawed the giant's eyes out while Max the mouse bit their ears, which is much more distracting and painful than you may think. Hazel brought up sharp jewels from under the giant's feet. Nico fought everything in his path. He was but a blur of shadows. Nico was the only warrior I knew that fought without a sound. He was silent and deadly, exactly what we needed. Hazel fought hard but grew tired at times. Every time she grew weary, Nico was by her side with his deadly blade and an even more deadly glare.

As we fought, Casey could have been mistaken for a daughter of Ares. It had always been that way. She rarely watched her defences, possibly because she knew I was. On nearly every mission I'd ever done, I was with Casey. I was there for all of her missions, every quest. We fought in synch. Because of our experience, we had adopted a fighting technique unique to the two of us.

I glanced around as I fought, trying to find Charlie.