A/N: I'd just like to say hey! This story has been developing for many months now and I'm finally glad that I have gotten far enough in my writing that I can start publishing. I really enjoy this story and I hope you guys enjoy it too. I started this story pre-Son of Neptune and even was getting some of the character pre-Lost Hero so that's why some of the characters are a bit wishywashy(Neve's a bit...weird the first couple chapters). This story takes place AU to the Son of Neptune. It actually starts off what happened at the Titans' fortress during TLO. If I was Rick Riordan this is how the books would have gone.

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO nor Heroes of Olympus

I

Neve

She wouldn't give anything up. She loved being a demigod. She loved it when she has almost lost a battle, but at the last moment makes it through. She loves it when the gods scoff at her attitude. She loves to disrespect them, (especially after what happened with the war) and then have them grovel at her feet because she does something amazing. She loved it when she almost dies. That, she lives for.
And why she doesn't care about the gods you will find out at the end of these books.
That's why she doesn't mind being a demigod.
She isn't like most people who stray away from death. She goes straight for it. Some people call it reckless and masochistic. She calls it courage (with a twinge of masochistic tendencies).
The girl's name is Nevaeh Thalassa Tooley, but if you call her by her full name you're sure to get a good stomp on the foot. She world much rather be refered to as Neve. That is "Nev-ee" not just "Nev". That extra "e" sound it vital. Well, at least Neve thinks so.

Neve was not a person for talking and planning. She thought they should just plan a tiny bit and then do something. You can't just spend the whole day planning when there's a freaking titan army ready to take over the world, but of course Lupa didn't think that was "wise". Stupid wolf has no idea what she's talking about. Things are different from back then when she helped Remus and Romulus.

You can't just plan and plan because if you let your mind dwindle on one thing for too long them the idea begins to seem flawed. That's why Neve doesn't think. Or at least how she justifies her actions and lack of thought process.

Neve let out a groan when Peter Fray, son of Minerva, offered another brilliant plan to take over the titan fortress. Honestly, how many plans could that kid offer? It was the day before they were to leave and go out to try and take out the titan fortress, and they still didn't have a solid plan. It was stupid, absolutely ludicrous. They should have had a plan a long time ago, but of course that didn't happen.

She was sitting with the rest of the Praetorian Guard, all of the Praetors from all twelve legions. Neve was Praetor of the Second Legion. The Second Legion was meant for all the children of the sea and water gods. See all the legions have a specialization like that. The First Legion is weather and air. Third is dominated by war and destructive gods' children. Fourth (Neve's least favorite) is for any demigods' parents that are smart and good at planning (the children of Minerva dominate that place. The stupid head strong lunatics). Fifth is for the builders or people who like to construct weapons (there are more than just Vulcans in there). Sixth is for the demigods that unlucky enough to have douchey parents that don't claim them. Seventh is just for the Mercury kids cause there are just so many of them (kind of disturbing how much Mercury gets around). Eighth is for the archers. Ninth is for the Earth (or Flower Legion as Neve calls it because most of them are just Ceres save a few Saturn and Bacchus). Tenth is all the magicians, sorcerers, and healers. Eleventh is the lovely Venus Legion, or Love Legion (you can't forget the children of Cupid). Finally, the twelfth is for the all the personas that just didn't fit anywhere else (but don't underestimate them, especially the twins of Victoria).

Originally, the legions were sorted by strength, but it wasn't the most efficient way to organize the demigods. See the people in the Twelfth Legion would just get slaughtered in wars, so it was better to spread the wealth. Also, it helped that the demigods were surrounded by other demigods of similar powers so they could get better at it. For example, a son of Jupiter would normally have no one to help him train, but if there was also a daughter of Tempestas then he could. Same with a son of Neptune and daughter of Salacia. They could work together to further their powers.

It also adds another element of competition. The legions can compete against each other to get a higher spot. They were allowed to challenge once a year on New Years Day. Pretty much every legion challenged. The challenge was that the two Praetors would fight and then a full on mini war between the two. The best wars were in between the first four because they were the most competitive and had the biggest weights resting on their shoulders (not to mention their egos).

"Peter," Neve finally spoke up after his seventh elaborate plan to take over the fortress. "The Titans are going to be expecting some extravagant plan from one of you brain babes. We gotta do something not expected. Something sneaky. Something not thought of you guys."

Peter looked like Neve had just slapped him across the face. "Oh, and who's going to come up with a plan then? You?"

Neve shrugged. It didn't bother if she could come up with the plan, but Peter would rather be strung from his ankles and dipped in honey in a box contains a bazillion spiders than actually go with Neve's plan. "Sure. I don't care. As long as we come up with a plan soon. If you haven't forgotten we have to go to war tomorrow."
Peter laughed, "Oh I didn't forget, but I am honest to gods surprised you didn't. I'm surprised you would even offer to make a plan. I thought all you could think about was how pretty you look and how cute clownfish are."
Neve rolled her eyes. "Clownfish are pretty damn cute, but besides that I can think up a pretty good plan. But everyone is too busy listening to you blab on and on about all of your ridiculous plans. I say we do something simpler," Neve suggested.
Peter laughed again. "Come on, Little Mermaid, we can't just go stab 'em and think that will be good enough. We actually have to strategise! Surprised?"

He was so pushing her over the limit. Neve sat up her chair, "I'm just a bit surprised that I'm the only one who's tired of hearing your voice and your plans! They are just so freaking predictable. They know we are going to over think it, so let's under think it!"

"You're really great at under thinking it. Aren't you, my little seapony?"

"You're so freaking dense. Why don't you grow up a bit, Peter Pan?"
"Guys, guys. Calm down. We are all on the same team here, so why don't we try to find a nice equilibrium in between the two of your ideas," Jason suggested. Oh Jason, always vying for peace among the horribly violent demigods. He sent Neve a little desperate look like he was saying Oh look, I'm freaking adorable! So work together.
That was Jason Grace for you.
He was the son of Jupiter, consul to the gods, defeater of the Ketos Troias, one of the hottest guys (if not the hottest) at camp, and a man of many labels. But he absolutely hated it when anyone (especially Neve) quarrelled. They were supposed to be "united". They have to show they are "united". They could be united, if they tried. It would also help if you kept Neve away from Peter, and vice versa.
"My gods, you're freaking siding with her!" Peter shouted.
Neve laughed, "Another sign that Minerva mistakenly claimed you: If Jason had sided with me he would have said, 'Okay guys, Neve's plan is absolutely and utterly amazing, so we are going to side with that. Peter, I order you to go drown yourself.'" She did an amazing impression of Jason, they all had to admit except for the fact that it somehow ended up being slightly british.
Peter shook his head as if he had actually made a point. "He did side with you because he didn't question your plan."
"He didn't question your plan either."
"Well, I'm a son of Minerva, nobody questions my plans." Neve wanted to face palm. She raised her hand with just the smuggest look on her face. Peter flushed a bright red, so he looked like a strawberry short cake with his blonde hair and red face. "Besides the sea spawn, I mean!"
Neve gave him one of her smiles. It was so devious and was absolutely pure evil, but it also was so freaking adorable it could make puppies melt (It actually did once, but that's another story). "Aw, did Petey Wetey gave me another nickname? That's so cute!" She leaned over the third legion commander, William Morris, to put her hand on Peter's leg. "I wuv you, too Peter Piper!"
Peter jumped out of his chair (flinging the chair into the wall and tripping himself with the chair, so he landed on the ground on his rump). "Don't. You. Ever. Touch. Me. Again."
Even though Peter was not at all ugly (in fact he looked pretty good, but Neve would NEVER actually admit it) he just was awkward and completely avoided girls like they had some disease. That's how Neve tortured him daily. Since he wasn't that bad on the eye, many girls wouldn't mind having a date with him, so Neve decided to help him in his love life by sending any desperate girls his way. She always told them that he was lonely and wanted some lovin' and that said girl had caught his eye. Bam. They were after him like a rabid goat after someone's clothes. Every time he spazed out. It was golden for Neve. Did she feel bad about doing it? Psh, no, morals are for suckers.
There was also one time that he sent a daughter of Venus and Cupid after him. Oh gods! That must have been the best. The two girls, Hali (Venus) and Lorelei (Cupid), fought over him constantly insisting that he loved them the most. After about a week of that, they started attacking Peter and blaming him for leading them on. Best plan ever.
Neve was too busy laughing on William's lap to actually come up with a witty response. Instead she sat up with a smug look after thanking William for being her pillow. "Don't worry. Once was enough," she gave him another smile. He got up off the ground and fixed his chair and sat back down in the chair. "Okay, I'm not a great pitchmen like Billy Mays, so don't expect this to be perfect." Peter snickered something that sound strangely like she can't do anything good. "Instead of doing a freaking ridiculous plan of Peter's I suggest we do something simple."

"Like what?" Bobby McLaughlin, son of Mercury, piped up. "March straight up to them and attack," he turned and snicker with Nikolai who was next to him.

"That's actually exactly what I was thinking." Before anyone could burst out laughing or call her dastardly names, she continued. "Well, I know that plan won't float any one's boat. Uh, no pun intended. Anyways, we could do a diversion to draw most of the attention away from us marching up to the mountain. Bonnie, if you, Nina, McKenna, and FiFi could create maybe an invisibility cloak around the army or something that would be great." she finished.

Everyone glanced around. It wasn't half bad for a child of the sea. They usually don't specialize in the brain department. Neve wasn't an exception to that. Ask her what five times seven is and you're lucky if she doesn't guess a letter (that may be a bit of an exaggeration).
"Any objections to-" before Jason could even finish, Peter rose his hand, "-besides Peter-to the plan?"
"Who's gonna be causing the diversion?" William asked.
Neve bit her lip for a moment and her nose twitched a bit. She hadn't thought that far. She never thinks that far. "Probably the First and Second since we will both be able to appear almost instantly since the flying and swimming," Jason answered for her. She sent him a thank you look.
William nodded like it was a good plan. "As long as I get to lead the army and cut off a couple heads, I'm in,"
It was pretty much unanimous (Peter was still being a whiny baby) decision. Everyone was pretty satisfied with Neve's idea. That was a first. The Praetorian Guard was not really good at making decisions (well actually just this generation's), so this was a big improvement.
"Can we go now?" Nikolai asked. He looked like he had a long night last night and needed a good long nap. Thankfully, since a war was abrupt there was no official training only solo training.
Jason looked around at everyone and stood up. "Tonight, I will announce the plans to the rest of the legion. After that everyone is to clear up any question's with your legions. Someone get Lisa to go down to the little kids to help explain what is going on. Matt, maybe you and Em could go too. You like children, don't you?"
Neve and Matt let out a snort in unison. Matt hates (okay, too strong of a word, maybe abhorrent) children. He didn't really like dealing with their constant whining. As Matt's unofficial twin, Neve was in agreement with him. No children for her.
Jason rolled his eyes. "The meeting is adjourned," everyone got up and saluted him. "Vale." the spoke in unison. Most of them left, but Neve stayed in the room.
She locked eyes with Jason and smiled, "Thanks for supporting me."
He nodded, "No problem. I'd do it anytime." There was a stillness in between them. It was as if everything had stopped. The world wasn't about to end. For Neve, it was just Jason and his brilliant sky blue eyes. "Um, can you come walk with me?"
Who was Neve to refuse the son of Jupiter what he wants?