A New Beginning
Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

Kyra's POV

"Adrienne, don't go into the woods at all unless it's capture the flag night or you have James or someone else with you. Otherwise, the woods are off-limits." I tell her.

I still couldn't believe she was on her way to her first year of Camp. She wasn't even twelve yet. It felt like she was still my little girl.

"Yea, mom. You've told me five times now." she says, rolling her dark brown eyes.

"I mean it. Terrible things have happened to me in those woods. I don't want the same things happening to you." I say, placing my hands on my hips.

"What kinds of things?" she asks, curious.

"I'll tell you when you're older. You're still too young to know." I say.

"I bet James knows!" she pouts. I should have known that was coming.

"He doesn't know unless your dad told him." I say.

She huffs and turns away from me, marching into the living room where James and Nico were; her shoulder length, slightly wavy, black hair bouncing as she walked.

I follow and find Nico going through a check list with James. I smile at him and his lists. Over the past few years, he's become so organized, especially right before we had Michael. I guess he wanted to be completely organized by the time he came along.

"Bow and arrows?" Nico asks.

"Yes, dad." James sighs, obviously sick and tired of going through check lists.

James sees me and gives me a pleading look with his leaf green eyes. I smirk and nod, walking over to Nico.

"Nico, I think they have everything." I say, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"But there's just a few more—" he starts.

"They have everything. And if not, it's not that difficult to just bring it to them." I say.

Nico sighs and folds up his list.

"Alright then, ready?" he asks.

"Dad, we've been ready." James says, exasperated.

Nico gets a slightly hurt look in his eyes but then he bristles with annoyance, covering up the hurt.

James and Nico don't get along so well, same as Adrienne and I don't get along very well. Now, James and I are fine together and Adrienne and Nico are fine together. Strange, I know.

"James." I say, a warning tone in my voice.

He sighs and picks up his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. He walks over to Michael, who was playing with his toys, and grabs one of his hands and walks to the front door.

I suppose his mood towards Nico was just because he was fifteen and at that slightly rebellious stage; he didn't want to be told what to do, he wanted to be independent and do it all himself. He'd learn sooner or later that everyone needs help every now and again.

Adrienne picks up her backpack as well and follows her brothers.

"I just don't see what I do wrong." Nico sighs, watching them as they walk out the door and to the car.

I take his hand and say, "Nothing. It's just a stage. Same as Addie and me. We'll get though it alive, I promise."

"Parenting seems a lot harder than killing monsters, now that I think about it." he grumbles.

I laugh and say, "Come on. We'll want to get them there around the same time the others' kids get there."

As I drive my manual cheery red Jeep down the old country road, the top down and my golden aMuse (my high school graduation gift from Apollo) plugged in and playing softly, I can't help but feel nostalgic.

Mine and Nico's last year here had been the summer before we got married that fall, almost 17 years ago. We had really only been back since James had started coming 4 years ago.

"Mom, will you please tell me why I can't go into the woods by myself?" Adrienne pleads from the backseat.

I sigh and roll my eyes. She just wasn't going to let this go. Stubborn, like Nico and myself. Sometimes I wished she hadn't gotten that attribute.

"No. You're not old enough to know." I say.

"What was so horrible that happened in those woods?" she asks.

"Addie, that's enough." Nico says.

"But dad—" she starts.

"Adrienne Bianca di Angelo, I said that that was enough. I don't want to hear another thing about what happened to your mother in those woods." he says.

I glance over at him to see he looked a bit sickened, yet furious at the same time. Only Nico could pull off that look. He knew full and well what had happened to me in those woods; what Daemon Richards had done to me so many years ago.

I shake my head a bit, trying to rid my mind of those horrible memories. I never wanted to relive that, and I sure as hell didn't want Adrienne to have to listen to it, or worse, experience it.

"James, do you know what happened?" she asks.

He sighs angrily and says, "Gods, Adrienne. I don't know and I don't care! Just leave it alone."

She crosses her arms and sits back in her seat, pouting.

I glance into my rear-view mirror and see that James was looking out his side of the car, an absolutely livid look on his face; Adrienne was looking out her side, an expression of hurt and a bit of anger on her face; and in between the two was Mike in his car seat, playing with his toy car and zooming it across his legs and the seat.

I smile a little and shake my head. Even when everyone else was fighting, his six year old mind was completely oblivious.

We finally near the end of the road and I see Half-Blood Hill, the pine tree healthier than ever. I could faintly see the Golden Fleece glimmering in it's lower branches, and Peleus curled around the tree, guarding it.

I pull over to the side of the road and turn off the car. James and Adrienne jump out as soon as it comes to a stop, grabbing their backpacks and weapons.

Nico and I get out of the car as well and I get Mike out of his car seat. We watch them as they climb the hill. He drapes his arm over my shoulders and says, "There they go."

"There they go." I echo, smiling a little.

I look over at him and he kisses my forehead.

"I just hope she'll be alright." I say.

"She will. I know she will." he says.

A/N:

AHH! IT'S HERE, IT'S FINALLY HERE! In case you guys were wondering, the chapters in this story will alternate between Kyra and James. I'm just so excited to see what everyone thinks!

Also, if you're new to my stories and you just happened to come across this one while you were browsing the PJO stories, this is part one of the epilogue trilogy for my series The Shadows of Revolution, so I highly suggest reading those before you go any further in this story, otherwise you'll be incredibly confused while reading this.

If you're one of my old readers, welcome back, and I hope you like the story! It feels awesome writing for Kyra again.

Man, I'm so excited! I'm going trick-or-treating with some friends from class on Halloween, it's gonna be so rad! I'm going as a fox!

M/A:

Alright, here's the deal. I'm gonna change Music Appreciation up a bit. Instead of going through the whole thing of explaining why I love a certain song and giving you guys a piece of the song, I'm just gonna give you a song and who it's by. It'll be more of a "song of the moment" thing.

So today's is, My Paper Heart by The All-American Rejects.

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25