I feel like a should name this story 'Plot Twist' because that's all that seems to happen now is a plot twist none of you were expecting :) Just wait until the second half of this book.  You're all going to hate me.  Again.  Enjoy!

Chapter Quote:
"All warfare is based on deception."
~Unknown
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Chapter 16: Be Our Guest

It'd been a week of interrogating Thera but she held firm, keeping her mouth shut.  She had guard detail on her twenty-four-seven in case someone tried to rescue her.  After a week of nothing else happening, everyone doubted anything would happen, but they were still wary.

Luke was sitting with Thera again, attempting to get information out of her, if only what she was supposed to relay to her leader.  Chiron had left because he had to go watch over the campers at the campfire, leaving Luke alone with Thera.  She stared at him for a few moments before saying, "Are you okay?"

"Just wanting to get some answers out of you, but I have a feeling that won't be happening," he replied with a humorless smile.

She was hesitating, Luke could tell.  She wanted to tell him something but didn't know if she could.  Biting her lip, she said, "I... I was just supposed to keep any eye on you.  Tell my leader how you, Silena, and Derek were doing and what you were doing.  Only you three.  My leader only cares about how and what you three are doing.  Nothing more."

"Why?  What's so important about me, Silena, and Derek?  And who is your leader?"

"I have multiple leaders."

"Is one of them Hannah?"

"No.  My leaders watch over you because you, Silena, and Derek were their sister's best friends," Thera said. "They want to know so they can keep an eye on you, so they can protect you."

"Bradley and Brady.  The Winchester twins... they're your leaders."

Thera nodded. "They know you know they're on the other side so they don't care if you know I'm working for them."

"Are they your only leaders?"

"No, but they're the main ones."

"Do you know who the mystery commander is for Hannah?"

"Yes, but I'm sworn to secrecy on that.  I know what happens if you break a secrecy oath.  The gods don't take kindly to that."

"But you're serving Hannah.  Why do you believe in what the gods will do to you?"

"Because I don't technically serve Hannah.  I follow her secret commander who does serve Hannah.  It's complicated, and you'll find out everything if we all survive this upcoming war."

"I will?"

"Yeah.  My leaders aren't going to keep you in the dark forever.  Just until they find it the right time."

"What if there will never be a right time?"

"There's always a right time.  Sometimes we don't always take advantage of it but it is better late than never, right?  Why do you look sad?  Is it something I said?" Thera queried.

"Uh, no... it just reminded me of something.  You're right about there's always being a right time, but sometimes you're too late to do anything," Luke explained, reminiscing back to his conversation with Bryn when he told her not to come back until she was going to tell him the truth.  Now she never would.  He'd messed up and it was too late to do anything.  It was too late to tell her he loved her.  That was one thing he'd never forget, one thing he'd never forgive himself for. "You remember there was a girl named Bryn that used to live here?  She was a daughter of Zeus?  She was here before you came but I'm sure you've heard of her." Thera nodded. "Well, she and I went through a lot together.  We became really close with each other.  I... I wanted to be more than just friends but because of our parentage, it couldn't really happen.  I always wanted to tell her that I loved her, but I never got the chance.  She died before I could, died trying to get me away from Hannah...  Silena told me Bryn knew that I loved her, and that she loved me, but I don't know."

"I wasn't here to know her, but I think that if she died trying to rescue you, and listening to Silena tell me about that quest, it seems to me that she did love you."

"You're very wise for a ten year old, did you know that?  Listen, I have to go tell Chiron what you told me.  At least some of it.  Maybe keep the latter part of our conversation between us.  I'll be back later, okay?"

"Okay," Thera said, leaning against her bed.  Luke left her cell and went upstairs.  The two guards stationed outside nodded in greeting to him.

"Anything?" Silena queried, walking up to him.

"Yeah, actually.  Found out why she was here, who some of her leaders are too," he replied.

"How on earth did you do that?"

"No idea but I'm going with it.  I'm heading to see Chiron to tell him what I learned." Silena joined him.  The siblings reached the campfire in a short amount of time, right when one of the Ares' kids finished his breakdance.  Luke wasn't sure when breakdancing became a part of campfire tradition but he certainly wasn't going to try and stop it.  It was pretty awesome.

"Any news?" Chiron queried, trotting up to the two demigods.  Derek popped up next to Silena.  Just as Luke was about to tell his mentor all that he'd found out, shadows flew above the group.  Seven to be exact.  Everyone looked up.

"Luke, Silena, Derek, how nice it is to see you," a boy called out.

"Brady or Bradley, which one of you is it?" Silena called back, placing her hands on her hips.

"Both actually," The other twin said as the two dropped from their Pegasus and gracefully onto the ground. "Although I'm Bradley."

"And I'm Brady," the one on the left said.

"What do you want?" Silena ordered, walking towards them.

"Just coming to give some friendly advice.  Particularly about the Romans," Bradley remarked.

"I think they're having trouble wrapping their mind around the fact that there's a new force in this war that could potentially have a really terrific chance of winning," Brady added.

"Antony in particular was not very happy about it.  I wanted to punch him more than usual.  Besides, I would've loved to wipe that 'I'm-Superior-to-Every-One-of-You-Here' smirk.  That would've given me so much satisfaction."

"You do get satisfaction out of it, for the record," Luke said.  The twins stared at him with an expression that could almost be described as amusement and approval.  Silena slapped him on the arm.

"Might I ask you something?" Brady queried.

"You just did," Luke responded.

"Why did you punch him?"

Luke shifted uneasily on his feet. "Saying things that weren't true, about Bryn in particular.  I lost my temper."

"What was his expression?"

"Enough of this.  Boys, get back on track.  We have a schedule to keep!" One of the riders shouted from above.

"Right!  Luke, we will discuss that another time.  If we live to talk to one another which brings me to why we actually came here.  We gave the Romans the same courtesy as mentioned before but we thought that maybe if we talked to you, they'd feel better about going through with it.  I mean we all know you're going to tell them we came," Bradley said.

"Are you telling us to form an alliance with the Romans?  Because we're trying, but you only made it worse because now it looks suspicious that the enemy wants us to join together," Derek pointed out.

"Oh it does doesn't it?  But we're not your enemy.  Not completely anyways.  I mean, we've saved your life on multiple occasions."

"Only because we were Bryn's best friends.  Thera told me why you sent her here and-" Luke stopped before swearing colorfully in Greek. "This was a distraction.  You're not here to warn us, you're here to take her back!"

Derek started to move towards the Big House where Thera was being kept but a lightning bolt struck the ground in front of him, blowing him backwards.

"Why does that keep happening to me?" he groaned, staggering back up.

"Campers, form a circle and keep them there!" Nicole barked.  Weapons were drawn immediately.  The twins went back to back, drawing their swords.

"Someone needs to take care of their air support!" Beau observed.

"Leave that to me and Silena and the Apollo cabin.  Derek, take the Nike and Hermes kids to go make sure Thera is still there," Luke ordered.  Derek nodded and led the way to the Big House with his followers behind him.  While the Apollo kids fired arrows at the circling riders, Luke gave his best taxi-whistle.  Blackjack and another Pegasus, Roulette, landed next to them in less than a minute.  He and Silena hopped on their steeds and shot into the air.  Luke saw some of the Apollo kids race to the stable to get rides as well.  He hoped they'd hurry.  He had a feeling these fighters were anything but ordinary.

"Do they really think that a circle is going to contain us?" Bradley queried.

"We're sons of Zeus!" Brady laughed. "Just to name one."

The two boys shot into the sky, hovering above everything.  Their cockiness was ticking Luke off.  He turned Blackjack to the twins, heading straight for them so he could knock them off their high horse... or high wind.  Whatever you want to call it.  Luke was almost there when one of the riders flew up in front of him, blocking the path.  Blackjack reared, causing the Jackson boy to lose his hold on the reins.  The person who'd blocked his path grabbed his hand to prevent him from falling but in turn they lost their balance and the two started plummeting to the ground.  Blackjack dove underneath Luke, catching him but knocking the wind out of him.  He looked around for the rider who'd tried to save him so he could at least do them the same courtesy of trying to save them from falling.  When Luke didn't see them, he feared they'd become an unfortunate demigod pancake.  That was until he saw the person surfing on one of the twins' backs.

"Drop me off near the woods," the rider ordered.  It was definitely a girl unless the rider was a guy with a really high-pitched voice.  Luke doubted his latter assumption.

"Who are you?!" Luke demanded.

"We are trying to help you!  But we are not letting Thera rot in a cell.  She has so much potential and you are letting that go to waste!" the girl explained.  Luke was about to respond when he heard the other twin singing at the top of his lungs: "Be our guest!  Be our guest!  Our command is your request!  It's been years since we've had anybody here! And we're obsessed-"

"Bradley shut up!  We're not their guest you idiot!" another mystery girl snapped.  Her voice sounded familiar...

"Come on, I need something other than you to be my sanity's saving grace," he joked.

"Did you have to use a pun with my last name?" the girl groaned.

"Vanessa?  Vanessa Grace?" Luke stated.

"Hi Luke!  Nice to see you're still alive!" Vanessa said.

"What are you doing?!"

"Trying to get Thera.  I mean I'd keep it a secret but considering you already figured it out, I see no point in continuing in deceiving you.  I mean we really did try to convince you to get with the Romans, we just weren't going to tell you our ulterior motive."

"This is madness!  What are you doing serving Hannah?  You're insane!"

"I'm not insane!  I actually do know what I'm doing although I question if you do.  Now no time for chitchat, it's time for us to leave."

"But you don't have The- Hallie.  She can shadow-travel."

"You do have some Athena in you I see.  This is where we take our leave.  Nice seeing you again Luke.  Stay out of trouble.  If that's possible for you.  I don't think it is although in your defense trouble usually finds you.  In any event, I'll be seeing you again.  Of that I'm sure.  Until next time." Vanessa saluted him and swerved her Pegasus towards the ocean.  The others followed her.  At that moment, Luke remembered Brady had dropped the girl who'd been back-surfing on him in the woods.  He'd seen her go in there.  He veered Blackjack to the woods, keeping an eye out for her.  Luke found her going towards Zeus's Fist.  He had Blackjack fly above her.  Luke jumped onto her from behind.  They went skidding in the dirt.  It was a bad move on his part considering not only was she hurt and groaning from pain, but so we he.  He probably should've thought that out more.  He pushed himself up only to find the girl with an arrow drawn and pointed at his face.  He held his hands up in surrender.

"Who are you?" Luke questioned. "Why are you doing this to us?"

"We are not here to hurt you.  Any of you.  We want you to be alive.  Bradley and Brady promised they would watch out for you in honor of Bryn due to you three being her best friends."

"She's dead.  Why would they continue to keep their promise?"

"They did not know her long.  Maybe it is their way of keeping her close."

When she still didn't lower her bow, he asked, "Are you going to kill me?"

"No, but I am going to escape you." She shot the arrow between Luke's feet.  Black smoke rose up, blocking his view.  Luke heard her leaving the scene but was unable to go after her.

"Adler, get him out of there!" he heard her shout.  Who was Adler?  Claws (or were they talons?) grabbed onto Luke's back.  He let out a yell as he was yanked up into the air.  Looking up, Luke had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't dreaming.  An eagle the size of a horse was carrying him back to his comrades.  Some were regrouping, others were staring at awe at Luke being carried by a giant eagle.  When it set Luke down, Derek said, "Not you again."

At first Luke thought his friend was speaking about him until he realized Derek was glaring at the Adler the Eagle.

"Thank you, Adler.  I appreciate it," Luke said. "Have a... nice flight home wherever that is."

Adler nudged Luke affectionately on the cheek, screeched at Derek, and flew off.  Derek flipped the bird off, muttering something about needing to eat eggs in front of Adler.  Luke wasn't quite sure what his friend was mumbling about.  He kind of didn't want to know.

"Everyone okay?" Luke inquired.

"Physically?  Yes.  But I think all of our egos are bruised.  Those people... I've never seen anyone fight like them.  They've been trained to be the best.  And the best they are.  Luke, if all of Hannah's soldiers are trained like them, we stand no chance," Derek noted solemnly.

"Thing is, they didn't hurt any of us," Silena pointed out. "They were on the defensive the whole time.  Sure they knocked our weapons out of our hands or knocked us to the ground but the ones I was fighting had plenty of opportunities to kill me and they didn't."

"So we have a mystery group of nine fighters that could kick an entire army's behind and we just lost our one source of information because one of them is a freaking daughter of Hades!" Nicole ranted.

"I don't think they're going to hurt us.  At least not right at this moment.  For now I say we ignore them and focus on dealing with Hannah.  She's our primary concern.  But considering that everyone here knows these fighters aren't like the normal ones we go against, and that Hannah's army could possibly have the same training, we need to train harder than we already are.  We need to learn new techniques.  I think that's why they want us to ally ourselves with the Romans.  I didn't see much of their fighting style but I figured out enough that all of them knew both Greek and Roman styles of fighting.  It lets them adapt to any battle they need to.  That's what we need to do."

"How though?  The Romans don't exactly like us," Beau said. "Or at least not half of them."

"No, but Cora does.  When we tell her what happened here, maybe she'll agree to let us send some ambassadors from here to there and vice versa.  It won't hurt to try.  And if Antony tries to protest, I'll just punch him again.  Let's get everyone cleaned up because we have a lot of work ahead of us."
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There's the new chapter!  Things are heating up and it's only going to get bigger and better (and more painful- I'm sorry, it's true).  Review :)