The Curse of Oenone (Daughter of Olympus II) - [Leo Valdez xF!Oc]

Oh, the Horrors... They Love Me So

Ara slips holding onto the rope Annabeth tied in place. 

"Wow, this looks like a freaking nightmare," she dusts off her hands. "Where's the giant, then?"

"Do you hear that?" Piper looks around. "It's coming from inside the statue... The heartbeat of the chained god."

Annabeth seizes her sword—drakon bone and pretty good at killing things, she got it in Tartarus. "I—I don't like this, girls. We need to leave."

"The shrine is ramping up our emotions," Piper warns them. "It's like being around my mom, except this place radiates fear, not love. That's why you started feeling overwhelmed on the hill. Down here, it's a thousand times stronger."

"Oh, crap," Ara's heartbeat picks up. "Phobos and Deimos."

"Panic and Fear," Annabeth looks at Ara. "Your brothers?"

"Not them again!" She whines, using the hair tie Leo gave her to gather the hair away from her face. "Last time they wouldn't stop bullying me about my height! They're the worst half-brothers ever! Worse than Eros!"

"Do not worry about them, child of Olympus," a giant comes out of nowhere, startling her. "You have bigger problems than them."

Ara had been thirteen years old when she faced her twin brothers, and the only good thing she'd managed to do was to keep them distracted so Clarisse and Percy could strike. She was terrified then, and she's felt that way for a long time. It is telling how the immortals she hates most are so closely tied to her nature. 

Her most horrible memories flash through, and one of them closes up her throat from pure shock. A deeply buried memory: Her father's face.

Annabeth crumbles, overwhelmed by Tartarus's memories. It clears Ara's head a bit, Annabeth is a person who holds onto her wits, if she loses them, she loses the whole battle. Ara blinks and stands before her while Piper kneels and tries her best to calm the girl down.

"I'm here," Piper fills her voice with reassurance. "We will get out of this."

"A daughter of Olympus born from Aphrodite! Now I've seen everything. How would you defeat me, girls? With makeup and fashion tips?"

Ara rolls her eyes. "And who are you?"

The giant snarls. "I'm Mimas!"

"Mami, okay—it's just that y'all are so identically ugly it's hard to tell you apart," she seizes her flintlock. "Do you want to give a speech before I stuff you with bullets, or..."

The giant tries to flatten her with his hammer, but Ara dodges it and takes Piper and Annabeth with her. She pushes them forward. 

"Pipe, what do we do?"

"Why are you asking me?" She asks as they evade more hammer attacks. "You're the general!"

"You're the one figuring this place out!"

"We can't reason pure fear!" 

"Run?"

"Run!" 

They rush into the nearest tunnel.

"Fools! That is the wrong way!"

"Guys, we need a plan!" Annabeth screams.

"No plans!" Ara and Piper shout together.

Ara can't think, she's too scared to gather her wits, but she trusts her sister, Piper always keeps a cool head just like Ara, but right now Ara is sleep-deprived and sort of affected by the memory of a core childhood trauma.