read94- hmmm you might get your answer to that in this chapter! and you're not too far off with your theory about their mom
"Okay. I spy with my little eye...something golden."
Leo groaned, realizing where their running game of I Spy was going...again. In the week following Christmas, they had been skybourne, flying over deserts and deserts and more deserts. That meant one thing.
"You can't do Festus again, Bing," Leo complained, shaking his head.
"Oh, come on, it's classic!"
"I'm gonna be sick," Max moaned, and Leo was sure he wasn't talking about the flying.
"I'm sorry, do you want me to go back to using the sky? I mean, come on!"
"How about this," Leo started. "I spy with my little eye a Christmas obsessed satyr who's about to get thrown off."
"Play road games, they said. It'll be fun, they said-"
"Guys?" Max interjected. "Is that...actual civilization?"
A town was appearing underneath them. As Leo descended Festus slightly, he felt a knot of nerves form in his stomach. He would recognize the sight anywhere: glories, white marbled buildings, cobblestone pathways, a feeling of history and power in the air-
"Looks like we've reached Greece, boys," Leo announced.
"Greece?" Bing piped up excitedly. "Oh, we have got to land for this!"
"I agree with Bing," Max said. "And it's 2-1, so you're outnumbered."
"Everytime," Leo muttered, signaling for Festus to land.
"So….um, what do mortal people see when it comes to Festus?" Bing asked nervously.
"Depends," Leo said with a shrug. "Sometimes a big dog, sometimes a fire hydrant."
He felt a pang of sadness as they got off Festus. He saw the widened, amazed looks on Bing and Max's faces, and he had seen it before, the first time he was here...on their quest. When he had a big stinking warship and seven other people to back him up.
"Where should we go first? Perhaps to a gift shop to get some souvenirs?" Bing asked.
"The Acropolis?" Max suggested.
"No," Leo shut down quickly, gulping. "Anything but the Acropolis."
Like he needed to revisit that place.
Bing gave him a confused look. Leo noticed Max narrow his eyes at him, but it was quickly gone as Max shrugged.
"Fine," he said. "To a gift shop, it is."
They found a gift shop, one of those cheesy ones that seemed out of place in such a historical and ancient place.
Leo was inspecting the postcards- maybe mortal mail would work if they were persistent enough- when Bing appeared. He looked like...well, like Greece had thrown up on him. He was decked in a hideously loud shirt the same colors of Greece's flag. On top of his head, instead of a Santa hat, was a hat that had wings coming out the sides of it, like Hermes' shoes. Leo wanted to chuck the hat out of the window.
Leo was blinded briefly, hearing the sound CLICK as Bing broke out into a fit of giggles. Once he regained his vision, he could see a disposable camera slung around Bing's neck.
"Hey Leo! Isn't this stuff great?"
"Sure is," he winced, rubbing his temple.
"Where's Max?"
Leo thrusted his chin in the direction Max was in. A few yards away, there he was, completely entranced by a Greece guidebook.
"I've never met a demigod- er, I mean a boy- quite like him," Bing said, his eyes carefully trained on Max.
"He's...definitely a bit of a robot," Leo admitted. "I don't think I've seen him emote once."
"Good kid, though, right? You can't help but feel bad for him...poor boy grew up alone." Something in Bing's tone made Leo think that he knew a thing or two about being alone.
"Hey, Bing-"
"Hey, score, free samples of Bakalava!"
Bing left him, but not before snapping another photo.
"Woohoo!" he whooped as he walked away. "Best friends in Greece!"
After the three of them had some lunch, Max suggested a place to visit- the Heraklion Archeaological Museum, a location he had spotted in the guidebook he had been reading. Max, oddly, had been silent after the giftshop, this being the first comment he made.
"Yeah, I'm down to see a bunch of old things," Leo said with a chuckle. "Wouldn't be the first time!"
The museum, it turned out, was mostly devoted to Minoan art. The three of them wandered, avoiding school groups or security guards who looked a little too eager. After all, several of them had already glared at them when Bing had wandered a little too close to the 'DO NOT TOUCH' signs.
"Hey, Max!" Bing whispered slightly, as the museum had that distinct museum hush in the air, low murmurs and whispers. "Pose by that clay thing, I'll take your picture!"
"I'm good," Max said moodily, stalking off to another display.
Bing tilted his head in confusion. "What's his problem?"
"Maxipedia is experiencing what we call a machine malfunction," Leo said with a shake of his head. "Let him cool down, he's probably just tired."
"Pose by the clay thing?" Bing asked hopefully, holding the camera up.
Leo obliged- it was hard to say no to Bing. He was this constant ray of positivity, something Leo normally made fun of. But...it helped, morale wise.
"Alrighty, folks!" A tour guide appeared by their side, a group of tourists eagerly hanging on to his every word. "That's a wrap at the museum! If you're continuing on with the tour, please visit the boat outside, our next stop is the Temple of Poseidon!"
Bing and Leo exchanged looks, and he knew they were both thinking the same thing.
Max raised his eyebrows at the Temple of Poseidon.
"This is...it?"
Another way Leo could tell Max hadn't been like him, jumping from ruins to ruins on a quest. Once you had seen one ruin...you had pretty much seen them all. This temple was no exception- it was in shambles, only a few columns still standing.
"But...don't you feel that?" Bing asked.
"Feel..what?" Max asked.
"I don't know...some supernatural connection? Parental pull?" Bing suggested, holding his arms up.
"It's a couple of columns, Bing," Max said, sounding annoyed but also...disappointed?
"But the sunset is pretty nice," Leo offered up, as the three of them looked up to see the oranges and pinks streaking the sky.
"Yeah," Max mumbled, glancing down at his shoe. He kicked a rock, sending it skittering down the ruin stairs.
Max walked away from them, finding an empty perch to sit on. He drew his legs up to his chest, and took a labored breath.
"He's not okay," Bing said with a frown. "I feel it."
"Right," Leo said, remembering. "Satyrs are metal detectors, but for emotions."
Bing blinked. "I've never heard of it like that."
"What? Doesn't it make sense? It's like you start pinging once you pick up on someone's emotions-"
"Do you want to talk to him or should I?"
"What? You want to talk to him?"
"We have to!" Bing said, looking aghast.
Leo winced, rubbing at an oil stain on his hand. "See, anytime I've tried to talk to Max, it hasn't gone super well. He's guarded-"
"He's lonely!" Bing hissed.
"I'm good with my hands Bing, not lonely, long lost sons of Poseidon!" Leo responded urgently. "Why don't you talk to him?"
Bing balked, suddenly looking nervous. "See, I'm a protector. I'm good for the dangerous stuff-"
"Yeah, 'cause you did so well with that stuff last time," Leo said, rolling his eyes. "Whatever- I'll talk to him."
Leo cautiously approached Max. He knew that Max said he was never going to use his powers, but Leo still was afraid that one day he would see them in action.
"Hey, Mini-Reiger," he said, plopping down next to Max. "You doing alright?"
Max laughed cruelly. "What, you're not just going to smack me with a hammer and call it a day?"
"What?"
"I heard you talking to Bing...I know you think I'm some robot. I feel things, okay, Leo?" Max stared stonily ahead at the sky. "I feel a lot...and I don't know what to do with it- no one ever taught me. It's not really something you can pick up in a book. If anything...it was better for me to keep my feelings under wraps. Any slip up meant my powers coming out, and that was never a good thing."
"I hear you, Max. It...it wasn't fair of me to say that."
"Just...picture being me for a second, okay? You grow up knowing that you have this terrible power, one that means you have to stay away from the world. Okay fine, whatever, you have books, right? Except the books will never compare to the real thing. But you tell yourself it's okay…because at the end of the day your dad loves you so much he's willing to protect you at all costs. That you're okay as long as you have each other."
Max took a shaky, deep breath, closing his eyes.
"And then one day you find out you have a sister."
Leo felt himself jerk back in shock. "Wait, what? So-"
"I didn't know Rosie existed until a year ago."
"What? But...but you said-"
"Dad didn't tell me anything about Rosie until he moved me into the Oasis, right as Gaea was starting to come back. He completely wiped my memory of her when he first took me, Leo."
Leo shook his head. "Good one, Maxipedia," he said with a nervous laugh. "You almost got me there. I mean come on, you said you remembered her reading stories to you!"
"I made that up. I have no memory of her or my Mom-"
Leo flashed back to Max and his notebook, his millions of questions. "So all those things you were asking me- you really had no clue, huh?"
Max shook his head. "Nope. Dad caught me a bit up to speed on Rosie and Percy, on Mom and Buzz when you found me but…" he sighed. "Dad used to say he handpicked me. That he loved me so much he broke the gods' rules and raised me as his own, his only kid. But….then you find out you had this whole other life, this life Dad just wipes you clean of."
"Max…"
"And your dad decided to risk everything for her. You're shut away from the world, feeling like some sort of monster because of her." Max angrily brushed his cheek- was he crying? "And I have a mom- I never thought I had one, and now I know that I have one who thinks I'm dead. They never even had a choice to look for me. You just...you feel like a secret your dad is ashamed of."
Weirdly, Leo understood. On the quest, he was repeatedly told that he was "special"- that he had a role only he could do. Then when that role was revealed, it was like….seriously? That's his role? It wasn't the same, sure. But he understood Max's thinking- all his life he was made to seem like his Dad chose him willingly. And now, it looked like his Dad had only done it to save the sister he didn't even know he had. That his Dad was too much of a coward to stick up to Zeus.
And he wanted to tell Max that what he was feeling was normal- it was jealousy, and it was normal. It was the same thing Rosie had felt towards Percy at first, and vice versa. It was misdirected anger, anger Leo hoped he would get over, once he got to meet his siblings.
"The whole reuniting siblings story is great and all, but it's...not my goal. I just wanted to see if I could do this...without my dad. If I could be in the world and just be...Max. That's why I came with you, Leo."
"I know it looks bad, Max, but I promise Rosie's life wasn't much better. She never got over you. Maybe it looks like your dad favored her, but-"
"What happened at the Acropolis?" Max asked quietly.
"What?"
"During the battle you had with the Giants. My dad said he saw Percy and Rosie there, and...something happened with Rosie. He told me he did something he shouldn't have, something that didn't help our case."
Leo paused, trying to remember if anything odd had stood out when they were there. "I...I don't know. I didn't really get a chance to talk to Rosie after that. Too busy dying."
Zeus had chucked them back to camp, and then Leo's plan had been set in motion. He never got that final conversation with her.
Max snorted softly.
"Listen, Max, you want to know something? The only reason I called you a robot is because I'm a bit of a robot myself."
"I was shunned from the world, what's your excuse?"
Leo laughed, realizing the son of Poseidon was slowly becoming someone he liked.
He saw Will sprinting across camp, skipping steps up to the Hades cabin.
He began feverishly pounding on the door, loud, harsh, continuous thumps.
After a few seconds, a growling Nico opened the door.
"And good morning to you too," he scowled.
"Rosie's gone," Will panted, sweaty and out of breath.
Nico's eyes grew wide, an expression of fear clear on his face as he sprinted out of the cabin in his pajamas with Will behind him.
Leo gasped awake, jolting upright. A sleeping Max and Bing were besides him.
"Leo?" Max whispered sleepily, his eyes opened a crack. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he muttered. "Go back to sleep."
His worst fear had come true, the one thing he hoped he was helping prevent by going to find Max.
Rosie was in danger.
