SHADOW'S REBELLION

CHAPTER 14: MAIA SAYS 'I TOLD YOU SO'

AENEAS

Saturday, August 6th, 2033.

The rain was pounding on the roof of the Big House, heavy and relentless. As soon as my half-sister Libby had sent me the Iris message about Penelope's kidnapping, I had jumped on Aurelius and rushed to find Vince. I asked him to then go find Claudia, Maia, and Lee to bring them to a Big House for a meeting. I wanted to discuss this turn of events with them and only them. Since Eleni had already been with Vince when I found him, she came right with me—but not before we both went to change into dry clothes, otherwise we'd get sick and would be no help to Penelope then. That didn't take the chill out of the air, though. By the time we got to the Big House, with raincoats keeping us dry, I felt as cold as ice.

Instead of giving us the rec room for the meeting, Chiron ushered us to the mostly unused living room, where there was a fireplace. He said he would get some refreshments together for the meeting, before disappearing into the kitchen and leaving us alone. Eleni immediately gravitated to the blazing fire that filled the room with warmth, after hanging up her soaked raincoat. I watched her sit down in front of the fire before shrugging out of my own coat and hanging it up on the rack.

I suddenly felt… awkward. Being alone with a girl because of training was fine. I could handle it. Being alone with a girl in a cozy setting like this… was difficult.

Eleni shivered even in front of the fire, pulling down the sleeves of her sweater and wrapping her arms around herself. I thought of our last conversation. Gods… How was I supposed to talk to her now? I hoped it didn't take too long for Vince to get the others.

She shivered again, and I realized it was probably her soaked hair that was making her cold. Looking around, I spotted a blanket thrown over an arm chair. I grabbed it and walked over to carefully drape it over her shoulders before sitting down next to her.

She glanced up in surprise, her cheeks tinting pink. "O-Oh. Thank you."

I gave a shrug. "You looked cold."

Biting her bottom lip, she nodded, before reaching back to lift up her damp hair so it wasn't underneath the blanket.

A deep roll of thunder boomed, close enough to cause everything to shake. Eleni flinched, wrapping the blanket around herself. "G-Gods… will they ever stop fighting?"

"Who knows," I muttered. "Zeus's son kidnapped Poseidon's daughter. That's got to have majorly pissed Poseidon off."

Just saying that made me sigh heavily. When Libby told me what happened, I could barely believe it. Paris actually had the nerve to kidnap someone? And not just anyone—a Hunter of Artemis? Yeah, Zeus and Poseidon were fighting each other, but infuriating Artemis was something I would not highly recommend. I was also confused about why he would kidnap Penelope when Aurelia had been adamant that Eleni was Helen.

It didn't really matter in the end. Paris truly had gone off the deep end.

Eleni sighed, pulling up her knees. "I'm so sorry about Penelope… Lee told me you were close."

"Yeah…" I sighed again. "Penelope went on quests with Paris and me. We were… sort of like you, Lee, and Ray. But then she went off and joined the Hunters two years ago. Paris… could never accept that."

She stayed silent for a moment, looking down at her feet. "…He should have kidnapped me. I should've been the one. I have Katoptris. Aurelia called me Helen. It's all my fault… I'm so sorry."

I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment. "No one knew this was what he was going to do, Eleni. This isn't your fault. None of it is." I turned to look at her. "Paris is doing this of his own free will, whether the Fates started it or not. We can only blame him."

More thunder boomed, shaking the house violently. Eleni flinched, yelping this time. Gods, she must be afraid of thunderstorms or something. I couldn't really blame her for that. I couldn't really say she was safe from being struck by lightning, either.

"I just… feel like everyone would be so much better off if I never came to camp…" She wrapped her arms around her knees. "Then maybe… none of this would've happened."

I sighed heavily, closing my eyes again for a moment. "I understand why you feel that way… but I'm glad you did. Because if you hadn't, I'd never have gotten to meet you."

Her eyes widened, her cheeks turning an even darker shade of red. "Oh, u-um… I'm glad we're friends, too."

…I fought the urge to sigh for the millionth time.

Then I heard the door open behind us, and we both glanced back to see Lee entering with a gust of rain blowing in with him. He slammed the door shut, before letting out an exasperated sigh and dropping the hood to his raincoat. For some reason, Eleni stiffened instead of getting all happy to see him.

"Gods, it's crazy out there," he grumbled. "I don't think the gods have ever been this pissed at each other."

"I don't think they have either," I sighed. "Come on over, Lee. It's warmer over here."

He nodded, and proceeded to take off his dripping wet raincoat. I faced forward again, and noticed that Eleni was chewing nervously on her bottom lip. She looked away as Lee came over and sat down on the couch closest to us. Okay… This was weird. So much for them being attached at the hip, huh? Neither of them said a word to each other, leaving me feeling awkward for being caught in the middle of whatever happened between them. I decided to get up and sit in the armchair to avoid being stuck smack dab in the middle of their tension.

It didn't get to last very long, thank the gods, because the door burst open again, and in came a very pissed Maia de la Fuente, which sadly was not much better.

"THAT ASSHOLE KIDNAPPED PENELOPE?!"

Maia appeared furious, with a dangerous glint in her sea green eyes. And there wasn't a single drop of water on her—that lucky little shit. She stormed up to me, scowling something fierce.

"Yes-" I began to answer, only to be cut off.

"UGH! I'm gonna KILL him!" Maia raged, hands clenching into fists so tight her skin began to whiten. "I told you I saw Paris talking to a creepy shadow thing, but nooooo nobody fucking believes me!"

Lee narrowed his eyes. "What the hell does that have to do with Penelope being kidnapped?"

She scowled harder. "What, do you seriously think Paris came up with this 'let's rebuild Troy' bullshit on his own? And did everybody forget that the shadows killing campers thing?! Come on, it's obviously all connected."

"…She has a point," Eleni said quietly, sinking deeper into the blanket. "With everything that's happened… nobody noticed, but no one else has died… It can't be just a coincidence…"

Looking back, she was right. Ever since Paris's betrayal and the loss of Ray, not a single camper had been found dead. I hadn't even thought of it all being connected… but it had to be, with the prophecy. We'd been so distracted with everything, we hadn't thought about it. At least, I knew that was the case for me. I was so busy trying to make sure what was left of Camp Jupiter didn't fall apart. Being a praetor was hard enough under normal circumstances, but I had been appointed during a difficult time.

I sighed heavily, running a hand through my hair. "Well, at least we won't be losing any campers that way."

"For now…" Eleni looked over at me. "We don't know how long this will last. Paris wasn't the one doing the killing. It was… Erebos."

As soon as she said that name, the lights dimmed. A chill rushed through the room. So that was who they were assuming was behind all of this… Erebos, the primordial being of darkness. I supposed that made sense. It fit with what little we knew about who Paris was working with.

"Maia, why don't you sit down?" I said, glancing over at where she was still standing. "Vince and Claudia may still be a little while."

She scowled, before walking over to plop down on the opposite end of the couch from Lee, closer to the fireplace. I was trying to appear not too affected by this situation, but now seeing Penelope's half-sister… made it even more difficult to keep my cool.

Somewhere out there, Paris had my friend, like the original Paris had Helen. Who knew what he was doing to her. If this was going to be anything like the first Trojan War… I didn't even want to think about it. The Greeks hadn't been innocent in that, no matter what they said. They stole Troy's women, made them… sex slaves. Achilles himself had one such slave—Briseis—but the stories claimed that he eventually loved her like a wife. I just hoped our Achilles didn't have any plans to pull that shit. I would kick his ass.

But finally, right as Chiron, who seemed to have been taking his sweet time with refreshments, came out, the door opened and Vince and Claudia rushed inside. Vince slammed the door shut before anyone could really get blasted by the cold, wet air.

"Holy shit, it's INSANE out there!" Vince exclaimed, not having noticed the centaur in the wheelchair.

"Mr. Soldati, please mind your language," Chiron said dryly as he wheeled himself further into the room, a variety of snacks sitting on the blanket he covered his lap with.

"Er… right." Vince winced. "Sorry, Chiron."

I stood up, relieved that my two friends had finally arrived. Vince and Claudia removed their coats, but didn't look much better off from how badly the pouring rain soaked them. Vince must have noticed that Eleni had a blanket, because he grabbed another one and turned to Claudia with a cheeky grin.

"Wanna share?" he asked. "It'll get us warmed up faster."

Claudia rolled her eyes. "If you insist."

"Oh, I do."

I let out an exasperated sigh. "Are you two lovebirds done over there? We need to start the meeting."

Claudia's eyes widened slightly, a bit taken aback by my sourness. "My apologies, Aeneas. Let us begin immediately."

A couple minutes later, everyone had finally gathered in the living room. We decided to all just sit on the floor, forming a circle in front of the fireplace, with the snacks spread out in the middle. There were chocolate chip cookies, crackers, Cheez Whiz, and Diet Coke, which Chiron had asked Vince to get from the fridge in the kitchen for him. But nobody seemed to really be hungry.

"So, uh…" Vince hesitated, like he didn't want to state the obvious. "Paris kidnapped Penelope?"

I nodded grimly. "Libby sent me an Iris message as soon as it happened. She and Penelope got separated from the other Hunters. She got badly hurt, but should be okay. But Paris took Penelope."

Lee frowned. "In the myths, Penelope was Odysseus's wife… Isn't that a little off? I thought all he cared about was mimicking the Trojan War as much as possible."

"I thought so, too," I sighed. "But Paris… He was in love with Penelope, when we were kids, before she joined the Hunters. It makes more sense for him to go after her, rather than Eleni, who despite being our 'Helen', he barely knows."

"But dude," Vince said with a frown, "the original Paris didn't even know Helen."

"How the hell am I supposed to know what's going on in his head?" I demanded with frustration. "Maybe he just chose Penelope because she can't escape as easily. Eleni has shadow travel. She wouldn't be easy to hold captive."

"That's a good point," Eleni sighed. "I'm so sorry… It really should've been me."

"Yeah, it should have," Maia spat, glowering at her. "Everything would've been fine if you hadn't come here!"

I don't think I would ever be able to forget the heartbroken look on Eleni's face—the way her eyes widened and her bottom lip quivered. It was painful to see.

"Maia! That was uncalled for," Chiron reprimanded.

She scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. "Just speaking the truth… You can't tell me I'm the only one who feels that way!"

Silence fell in the room. No one said a word. No one agreed with or denied her words. And it was obvious that that only made Eleni feel worse. She tucked in her chin, trying to hide in her blanket. I wished there was something I could do to make her feel better, but… I wasn't even sitting next to her.

"Maia, that's enough," Chiron rebuked. "If you cannot remain civil, you will have to leave."

She glowered darkly, but didn't budge an inch. "Fine…"

Claudia cleared her throat. "Returning to the topic at hand… If Paris has indeed kidnapped Penelope, we will have to get her back. Artemis must have taken great offense, not just Poseidon. And we will need both of them on our side if this turns into an all-out war."

Lee sighed. "This really is turning out to be another Trojan War… The gods picked sides then, too."

"…There's nothing we can do about it," I stated reluctantly.

"Since when are you complaining?" Eleni asked, giving him an icy glare. "Last time I checked, you were ready to embrace being Achilles and everything it means."

He scowled. "I'm not complaining. I'm just stating the facts."

Jeez… They were at each other's throats. What the hell happened? Did I even want to know?

"Maybe we should ask the Oracle," Vince suggested quickly, much to my relief. "To see if this is meant to be a quest or not."

"That's a great idea," I agreed. "What do you think, Chiron?"

The centaur nodded. "I shall call Rachel down. We don't have a moment to waste."

While we waited for Rachel to arrive, I slipped into the rec room to get away from everyone and clear my head. I pulled up a chair and sat at the ping pong table that they usually used for council meetings. Sighing, I propped my elbows up on the table and ran my hands through my hair, messing it up even further. Normally that would bother me, but at this point, I didn't care. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. As long as one of my best friends was in danger…

I didn't need to look up at the sound of a chair scraping against the floor to see who it was. There was only one person who dared talk to me when I was like this these days.

"How you doing, man?" Vince asked.

I sighed heavily. "I don't know."

It was true. I had no idea.

I had been in a leadership position for so long, I had grown used to not showing what bothered me. I had to have it together, or those who relied on me wouldn't know what to do. A leader had to be strong, because everyone looked to them for guidance. I had to remain calm and rational, while everyone else could have reactions like Maia. It was my responsibility. I had to be strong for those of us who couldn't.

But that never left room for taking care of myself. That's why I needed Vince. Yeah, I had helped him get through shit when he came out as trans, but… in the end, he was the one who helped me more. His family had eventually accepted him for who he was after a few years. But my issues with my father still persisted. His reaction to me "betraying" Rome by siding with the Greeks had been weighing upon me heavily. I had not been there to see it, but I could guess how he would feel about it.

"Penelope's tough," Vince said, obviously trying to be reassuring. "I'm sure she'll hang in there."

"I know she can hang in there…" I muttered, looking up. "I'm more concerned about what Paris will do to her. He's lost his mind."

He grimaced. "There is that…"

It was a long story—one I didn't like to think about.

Vince and I joined Camp Jupiter when we were ten years old, after staying at the Wolf House, which was tradition. That was when we first met Paris. He was introduced as Hector's little brother, who had been twelve at the time. This was back when Vince was still Vanessa—his birth name. We all got along pretty well, but Vince didn't care for Paris much. So I ended up becoming friends with him more so than Vince.

But then, two years later, Penelope arrived. She was the first child of Poseidon they had gotten at Camp Half-Blood since Percy Jackson. And Paris was smitten with her from the moment he saw her. It was during the annual get together when she arrived, so I saw. She was the only camper who had the guts to not put up with Paris's shit, and I think that was part of the reason why he liked her. The three of us quickly became friends. Vince became friends with Penelope, too, so he understood my pain.

Paris, Penelope, and I went on a few quests together. The first was to slay a hydra that was terrorizing a town, given to Paris by Zeus. The second was to retrieve Psyche's vase, given to me by my mother. The third was slay a sea monster, given to Penelope by Poseidon. Those were the most memorable ones. These quests were how we became close friends. But even that was meant to come to an end.

Two years ago, when we were fifteen, Penelope… confided in me. She told me that Paris had begun to make advances towards her, and nothing she said would make him stop. She didn't see him as anything more than a friend, but he wasn't listening. She asked me to talk to him about it, which I did, but it only seemed to make him angry at me. He accused me of wanting her for myself, which was far from the truth. Penelope was like a sister to me, nothing more. It was then that she decided to join the Hunters of Artemis. She had more reasons for that than just to get away from Paris, but I had sworn on the River Styx never to say a word about it.

"I have no idea what's wrong with him," I mumbled. "He hasn't been the same since Penelope rejected him and joined the Hunters."

Vince shrugged. "Some guys just can't take no for an answer. They think they're entitled."

"I know. And it's disgusting." I shook my head. "I still can't believe he thought Penelope and I were a thing."

"Well…" Vince tilted his head to the side. "You are the son of a love goddess."

I glowered at him. "Venus is more to Rome than that."

"Yeah, but Paris is Greek," Vince said. "Which makes this whole Troy thing make even less sense."

"Paris always did say he should have been born a Roman," I sighed. "Because Hector is Roman. Because most of his friends were Roman."

He frowned. "I don't know if I should feel sorry for the guy or not."

"Me either."

Vince was quiet for a moment, before smirking playfully and leaning back in his seat. "Though, I don't see why he was so worried about you and Penelope. If you were best friends, he should've figured out what your type is."

I scowled at him. "Shut up."

"I mean, Penelope's cute," he continued, ignoring my glare, "but she doesn't instill the strong desire to protect her, does she? Unlike a certain someone. Though that certain someone could probably easily kill us if she really wanted to…"

I glowered harder. "Shut up, Vince."

He gave a shrug. "Just stating the truth, dude. I never thought I'd see the day where Aeneas Belrose actually likes a girl, but here we are."

I sighed heavily. "This is another thing you're not going to let go, huh?"

He grinned. "Nope. Come on, enough of the doom and gloom. We've gotta keep morale high."

"And this somehow means we talk about cute girls…" I summarized slowly.

"We need both our praetors happy and healthy," Vince stated matter-of-factly. "Having a girlfriend really helps in that department."

"You would know," I grumbled, thinking about how he and Claudia were indeed dating.

"Yeah… but seriously, man, you need to get moving," Vince said, suddenly sober. "Just ask her to hang out or something."

"I tried that already," I told him. "And the answer was no."

His eyes widened with surprise. "Whoa, really?"

"Yes, really." I sighed. "There's no point, Vince. There's only one thing I'm good at, and that's fighting."

My father would prefer that anyway. That's all he cared about—that I rose in the ranks of Camp Jupiter, just like he did when he was a kid. Being the son of a famous legacy was just as difficult as being named after the founder of the Roman Empire.

"Aeneas… don't say that." Vince frowned. "You're good at a lot of other things."

"Like what?" I scoffed.

"Like…" He leaned forward. "You're so good at looking out for everyone, making sure they're taking care of themselves. Like how you took Katoptris from Eleni. You take care of everyone, Aeneas, to the point where you forget about yourself. You've been a better dad to me than my own dad."

"…I guess." I leaned back in my chair. "Like it does me any good now."

Vince sighed. "C'mon, man. Cheer up. It could be so much worse right now."

I supposed he was right… It was just hard to see it that way. It was hard to see anything in a positive light right now.

"Let's not talk about this anymore," I said. "I don't really want to think about it."

"All right, all right," Vince sighed. "So, uh…"

We continued to talk about minuscule things, until Eleni finally came back to tell us that Rachel was here. Much to my surprise, she had brought with her steaming cups of hot chocolate, for each of us. I accepted mine with gratitude, and thanked her, before sitting down with Vince. The atmosphere was still heavy, with the rain still pounding on the roof and thunder booming in the distance. I think all of us were content to just sit here, sipping our hot chocolate, before addressing the problem at hand.

But then, out of nowhere, something seemed to overcome Rachel. Her mouth opened, and eerie green mist poured out, filling the entire room. We all froze. This… was the Oracle, wasn't it? I already understood why we Romans respected the Oracle of Delphi, despite it being Greek.

"I am the spirit of Delphi," Rachel said, though it didn't quite… sound like her. "Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python."

Chills ran down my spine as she looked at each and every one of us, gazing at us like we were far, far away, until finally her eyes landed on Maia. "Approach, Seeker, and ask."

Maia's sea green eyes widened in shock, which probably matched the look on everyone's faces. Of all the demigods to choose… it was her? I knew she was Penelope's half-sister, but… she had never been on a quest before! Not to mention, she didn't even try to get along with people.

Maia hesitated. "How… How can I save my sister?"

Rachel opened her mouth again, and more green mist poured out. This time, it formed images, showing a girl who was unmistakably Penelope, sitting on what looked like a fancy canopy bed, her face pressed into her hands, shoulders shaking, like she was wracking with sobs. She looked utterly miserable, but at least Paris was nowhere to be seen. But then Rachel spoke:

"Five shall journey west,

To confront the ones who know them best.

A prize has been won,

But the victor is none.

Follow the trail of a forgotten past,

To see the truth at last."

As soon as she finished speaking, the green mist flowed back into Rachel's mouth, and she seemed to snap out of whatever trance she had been in. We all just sort of stared at her, unsure of what to say. Did this… happen often? Thank the gods Aurelia didn't get her prophecies like this.

Maia's hands had clenched into fists. "We've got the prophecy now. I have to go!"

"It was given to you, so naturally, you are the leader, Maia," Chiron said reassuringly, though he didn't sound too thrilled about it.

"I have to go," I said, drawing everyone's attention to me. "Penelope is my friend. And Paris was my friend once, too. You'll want me along, Maia."

"Aeneas is a wise choice," Chiron agreed.

She nodded. "Okay, you're in." She looked around the room, before her gaze landed on Vince. "The prophecy mentioned a past life…"

All the color drained from Vince's face. "You… You don't want to follow the path of my past life. I don't think I'm the one it's talking about."

I couldn't help but grimace. He was right. He was so right.

"Then who could it be?" Claudia asked, frowning in confusion.

"Um…" Eleni hesitated. "Maybe it's… me?"

We all turned to look at her. This was news. I hadn't ever considered that she could have been reincarnated. I wondered who she possibly could be, to have her path retraced… I guess there was a lot more to her that I didn't know after all.

Maia scowled. "Fine, whatever. You can come too."

"You need two others, then," Lee said, frowning thoughtfully. "I'd like to-"

But he was cut off as Riley came bursting through the front door, making almost all of us jump in surprise.

"Chiron! Everybody! You have to hurry!" he exclaimed. "The Hunters of Artemis are here!"

Hey, everyone! Early update here, but I just wanted to say, please don't pester me about updates. Writing takes time, and this is not my only project. Getting reviews begging me to update ASAP does nothing but make me NOT want to update. Please understand that I have a life outside of writing, and this is not the only thing I'm working on. I'm really glad you love this story, but I'm only human and cannot write as quickly as you want me to. Thank you for understanding.