A/N: Yay, third chapter! Not much I can say really other than that some of the characters mentioned in Son of Neptune will start making appearances. Gwen in this chapter, Bobby and Octavian in this chapter. So, enjoy!

Song: 'Don't You Worry Child' – Swedish House Mafia.

Jason woke up to the sound of Smithy crashing out of his bed. Smithy slept on the bunk above him and moved around a lot in his sleep. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and cheered up everyone when they woke to find Smithy lying face down on the floor, cursing in Latin beneath his breath.

'Nice,' Fiona snorted, sitting up in bed. Even when she'd been sleeping for more than ten hours and had frizzy hair and bruises from the previous night's death ball match, she was still beautiful.

'Great wake-up call, Smithy,' Ethan groaned into his pillow in the next bunk over. Yvonne, the fifteen year old legacy of Bellona, laughed and swung her legs over the side of her bunk. Her twin brother, Jackson, sat up with a crocodile grin. He kicked at Smithy and the centurion rolled over onto his back.

'Someone set the alarm clock tomorrow instead,' Smithy groaned, rubbing his red forehead. Jason laughed and threw the covers off of his legs. He was ready to tackle the day. After all, it was his seventh birthday.

Almost four years had passed since he'd arrived at Camp Jupiter, and Jason had established himself as a valid member of the legion. He brought victory to the Fifth time and time again. He honed his sword fighting skills and became one of the best. His powers over lightning and air were a force to be reckoned with. No one tried to bully him, not since his first War Games, where he shown what a child of Jupiter could do.

But, he was uncomfortable with his fame.

Even though he was just a child, many people looked to Jason for help, maybe even for leadership. Smithy and Alexis, before she left for college in New Rome, sometimes even left tactics for the war games and death ball and paintball to Jason, expecting him to lead them into a victory that even Victoria would envy. He tried his best, but he'd made it clear to the centurions that he wasn't a leader. He was a soldier, a typical grunt. He followed orders. He did as he was told, like the good little Roman legionnaire that he was.

'Mornin' kiddo,' Fiona grinned, ruffling Jason's hair as she did every morning. 'Happy Birthday!'

'Kalends of July,' Harrison, legacy of Trivia, murmured. 'Juno's sacred day. Bad omens.'

'Shut it, Harrison,' Gwendolyn, daughter of Apollo, yawned, rubbing a hand through her brown, curly hair. She'd been at camp for about a year, and was two years older than Jason. Being similar in age to him, they'd become quite close friends.

'It's true though,' Harrison murmured, twisting his sheets around in his hand. 'A child of Jupiter born on his wife's scared day? Nothing good in store for you, Jason.'

'You could be the next augur,' Smithy said with a roll of his eyes. 'Don' listen to 'im, Jay. Have a good birthday.'

'Thanks,' Jason mumbled. His jubilant mood from a minute earlier was ruined by Harrison's words. He'd never before known that July the 1st, the Kalends of July, was the sacred day to his stepmother, Juno Moneta. His birthdays were already bad since he could no longer celebrate them with his sister or his mother. His sister's face was forever seared onto his brain, but his mother was lost to him years ago. Jason wondered if they searched for him. He wondered if they remembered him, if they wondered if he was alive or dead. He wished he could see his sister again. He missed her more than anything else. His mom… not so much. The very few memories he had of her weren't good ones. A few broken bottles, his mom passed out in the bath tub, a strange man in her bedroom…

Jason shook his head, ridding his mind of the horrible memories. It was his birthday. No lack of mother or sister were going to ruin the day. And no creepy omens were going to ruin it either.

Jason dressed and followed the ten members of his cohort he shared a dorm with outside into the dusty courtyard. The sun glared down on the camp. Jason could feel the bare skin of his arms and legs burning. He was thankful that he'd chosen to wear his shorts rather than his jeans.

The mess hall was already bustling and loud. The centurions nodded to Smithy and Fiona as they entered. After Alexis left, Fiona was bumped up to the rank of centurion. Because of Jason's help in the war games, the Fifth cohort was now revered. They could sit wherever they wanted. They were called out to do the best activities. They were elected to be senators.

Cato and Abelia sat at the top table. Abelia smiled at Jason and Cato acknowledged him with a grudging nod. Fiona and Smithy left to sit at the top table. Jason sat with Ron, Ethan, Harrison, Jackson, Yvonne and Gwen at their usual table at the back of the hall, beside the kitchens. Even after the Fifth began to build up its reputation and its members were invited to sit in better places, Jason and his friends still chose to sit at their table right at the back of the hall.

The wind spirits, the aurae, span around the hall, food flying in circles around their hurricane bodies. The moment Jason sat down, a golden plate piled high with chocolate coated pancakes. A goblet full of orange juice clanked down on the table next to him.

'So,' Yvonne said, shovelling a spoonful of cornflakes into her mouth, 'Plans for today?'

'Train, learn Latin, train, kick the First's arse, train, paintball,' Ron said in his deep voice, spreading jam on his toast. Jason had the same schedule in plan, and he took from the reactions of the others that they did as well. He looked past Ron and frowned when he saw Fiona heading towards the table, her golden plate filled high with syrup covered waffles. She slid onto Yvonne's couch, dabbing at a bit of syrup that managed to get on her chin.

'No paintball tonight,' Fiona sighed. Everyone at the table started to protest angrily, but Fiona held her hand up for silence. 'Cato is leaving tonight. There's gonna be a ceremony.'

Jason glared down at the table. He hated Cato. The praetor was a bully who was responsible for more than half of Jason's broken bones and serious injuries over the past three years. If he was leaving, even if it was just for New Rome, only a mile away, it was the best news of Jason's life at Camp Jupiter. Maybe they'd get a praetor who wasn't an asshat.

'Screw Cato,' Ethan muttered, thumping his half eaten apple down on the table. 'I was looking forward to manning the acid cannons tonight!'

'You can do it next time,' Gwen soothed, rubbing Ethan's shoulder. 'I'm happy Cato is going.'

'We can finally have an election for a new praetor,' Jackson murmured. He picked at his toast moodily. 'Wonder who'll get it…'

'Ten bucks says Smithy,' Harrison said.

'Everyone is rooting for Smithy,' Fiona said, spreading the syrup on her waffles with the back of her fork. 'Terry, Heidi, Hilda and Greg all want him for praetor. Says he's done some good the last few years.'

'If Heidi and Greg are backing him, he's gonna get it,' Ron said. 'They're in the Second cohort. If they're backing someone from the Fifth, he's bound to get it and make a difference in the camp!'

'Who's gonna make a difference?' Smithy suddenly asked, appearing out of nowhere behind Harrison. The legionnaires all jumped, and Jason banged his knee onto the side of the table, rattling all the goblets. Orange juice dripped down onto the white table cloth.

'No one,' Fiona said too quickly, going red in the face. Jason shot her an amused grin. He might have only been small, but he knew Fiona liked Smithy, more than she let on. She was constantly blushing and giggling and grinning when he was near, even when she wasn't caught talking about him possibly getting the job of praetor.

'Alrigh', Miss Suspicious,' Smithy said. He glared at the rest of the people at the table, before shrugging and sitting down next to Harrison.

Jason's day was pretty good. Though, with nothing particularly good to look forward that night, he just focused on getting the day done and out of the way. He lost to Ethan three times in a row during sparring matches in the morning, but managed to beat Yvonne, Jackson and Harrison with the help of Smithy several times. Ron started a food fight at lunch that ended with him scrubbing every dish in the kitchen on his own. The group didn't see him again until midnight, when he fell into the dorm and collapsed on his bed.

The afternoon was wasted away riding the elephant Hannibal, which the camp had just bought from a closing down zoo. Jason shouted out in exhilaration as he rode on Hannibal's back, the elephant charging down the road towards Temple Hill with the force of a wildebeest stampede. The cobblestones cracked beneath the elephant's feet and Hannibal accidentally destroyed three or four stalls along the side of the road by swinging his trunk from side to side.

The evening muster had a mixed atmosphere. Many were sad to see Cato leave, while other, like Jason and the rest of Fifth cohort, were overjoyed. Abelia looked as if she was trying to look upset at the loss of her colleague, but many knew she felt nothing but elation at losing her over violent friend. Fiona had told Jason about dozens of previous praetors who had become couples, but Abelia and Cato's relationship was different. They tolerated each other. Nothing more.

Jason stood between Ethan and Harrison at the muster, gripping his pilum tight. His gladius hung from his belt, along with the knife he'd had since the beginning of his life at Camp Jupiter. When he'd turned six, he'd managed to lift both a pilum and a gladius properly for the first time. He'd felt a swell of pride building up in his chest, knowing that he could finally be seen as a full member of the legion.

Smithy held a scroll in his hand. He stood at the front of the cohort, calling names off of the list on the scroll. Fiona stood beside him, examining her nails and adjusting the straps of her armour, making sure it was perfect. Jackson stood right at the front of the cohort, holding a long pole that was supposed to be topped with a solid gold eagle, like the other cohorts. Only, it wasn't.

Jason knew the story. Harrison had told him about how a boy named Michael Varus, a praetor from the Fifth, had decided an ancient prophecy (one which possibly predicted the end of the world) was about him, and took a trip to Alaska in 1987 to prove it. What they'd found there, no one knew. Most of the Fifth was wiped out in a slaughter, and only one survivor remained in New Rome. The rest had left for the real world.

Jason hated the story. It was the reason why he had to build up the reputation of the Fifth, why it all rested on his tiny shoulders. But, he wished to learn the prophecy mentioned, and what the monster in Alaska was called. Of course, he'd never learn about the monster, for Alaska was the land beyond the gods, and no demigod could go there. The prophecy he would learn in time, but, in Abelia's words, only when the time came.

'Jason Grace!' Smithy called.

'Here!' Jason shouted, raising his pilum so that Smithy could make him out amongst the lines of legionnaires.

'Wait till your voice breaks,' Ethan said. Jason looked up and saw him grinning under his helmet, his eyes slightly gleeful. 'Oh man, it'll be the most embarrassing day of your life here. Wanting to call out in some deep Christopher Lee voice and it comes out as a girly squeak. Enjoy it, sparky.'

Sparky? Jason thought, raising an eyebrow at his friend. A weird and random nickname, but one that would most likely grown on Jason, since it would stick, now that Ethan had said it.

'Romans!' Cato bellowed, landing his black pegasus on the dusty ground just as Smithy ticked off the last name on the list. Abelia landed beside him on her white pegasus, her braid flowing behind her. She stared down at the reins of her pegasus, her knuckles white as she gripped them tighter than she would a knife. Jason frowned. For a second, just a second, he thought her saw a tear on her cheek, but she hid her face from the legion, and when she looked up again, she was smiling, though rather forced.

'Colours!' Cato said, and Jackson stepped forwards, along with all the other pole bearers in the legion. Five in total, but only four eagles. Everyone in the Fifth looked down ashamed, while Jason just glowered. Why should they be ashamed for something that was not their fault?

'Romans, we have an announcement,' Abelia said. For a moment, her voiced broke. Jason's frown lines deepened. 'As you all know, Cato, after serving ten years in the legion, is leaving for college in New Rome. I have decided that after ten years also, I shall retire as well and leave for the outside world as a veteran warrior.'

The legion stays silent. If both Cato and Abelia leave, then there will be no praetors. No one to lead the legion. The place would fall into complete and utter chaos.

'We put the election of the two new praetors to a vote amongst the senators and the centurions,' Cato called. Jason started. Ethan was a senator. Smithy and Fiona were centurions. How had they managed to keep something like that under wraps?

'A majority vote decided that Fiona Earhart and Smithy Pierre are your new praetors!' Abelia shouted. The First and Second began to scream their objection to the notion, but the Fifth drowned them out with their screams of jubilation. Smithy and Fiona looked at each other, stunned. They are both lifted onto the shoulders of members of the Third, Fourth and Fifth cohort, all of them happy that the Fifth had regained its reputation to the point of having both praetors from the disgraced contingent. They could make up for Michael Varus's mistakes. They could make the Fifth the best in the legion.

'Ave!' Abelia and Cato shouted as one. The First and Second did not shout after them, but the Third, Fourth and Fifth screamed loud enough for all five of the cohorts, and the majority of New Rome. Without waiting to be dismissed, the Fifth carried Smithy and Fiona to the mess hall and made them sit in the seats of honour; the praetor's chairs of the officer's table.

The Fifth sat wherever it wanted to. Jason changed seats so many times he got dizzy. The aurae, the wind spirits that served food, moved too fast to see what they were hitting. Jason got hit in the face with two pizzas, one burger and a slushie. His blonde hair was stained blue, but he was grinning like crazy.

He was pushed around the crowds until he found himself at the back of the hall, near the exit. He glanced back for a second, just a second, and saw Cato and Abelia, walking ten feet apart, heading for the camp's exit. He didn't know what compelled him to do it, but he ran for them.

'Abelia!' he shouted, tripping over his armour. He undid his belt and threw it aside. The gladius fell out of its sheath when it fell. He kept running, shouting the praetors name over and over. Finally, both she and Cato turned.

'Jason,' she smiled, leaning on her golden pilum. Cato nodded to Jason and even managed a small smile. Quite a feat for the son of Bellona.

'Why are you going?' he gasped out, doubling over.

'Because I miss the world,' she sighed, scuffing the dirt with her sandal. 'I miss Montana. I miss the lakes, the forests, the wide open spaces… Camp is so…'

'Closed,' Cato said, 'For a child of Ceres, at least. Good luck, Abelia.'

'Thank you, Cato,' she said, smiling at him. She turned back to Jason, and rested her hand on top of his head. 'Be good, and become the best there is.'

She turned and ran, ran straight into the wide open fields. She went straight for the Little Tiber and dived into the waves. The last glimpse Jason ever caught of the daughter of Ceres was her disappearing through the tunnel atop the hill.

'Walk with me,' Cato ordered, starting off down the darkened road to New Rome. Jason looked back for a moment, back at the light flooding through the windows of the mess hall, before he jogged after Cato and fell into step beside him.

'Gonna miss camp,' Cato sighed, walking backwards a few steps so that he could watch the camp shrink away. 'Love this place.'

'What you studying in college?' Jason asked, feeling a little awkward. He'd never spoken more than two words to Cato in one go. He had a scar hidden in his hair from where Cato whacked over the head during training a year earlier. He had memories of Cato sending him resentful looks. Not good memories.

Cato shrugged. 'Haven't decided. Just gonna wing it.'

That was Cato's way. Chose something completely random and hope it all goes your way. On the battlefield, that way went to Cato's liking. In reality, maybe it could work as well.

'And what are you gonna do?' Cato asked, looking down at Jason. 'Gonna keep your head down and be a good little legionnaire?'

Jason said nothing.

'Son of Jupiter,' Cato sighed. 'You've got a future at camp, kid. You have the potential to be the best this legion has ever seen. I've got my denarii on you being praetor when you get older, and I'm others would agree.' He clapped Jason on the shoulder. 'Good luck, kid.'

Cato carried on towards New Rome, which was still over half a kilometre away. Jason stood and watched until Cato disappeared into the town, before heading towards Temple Hill, for his father's temple.

Jupiter Optimus and Maximus wasn't empty, though.

A woman stood before the statue of Jason's father. She wore an old style Greek dress made of blue cloth with a goatskin cloak over one shoulder. Golden armbands were wrapped around her biceps and wrists. Her hair fell down her back like a waterfall, all brown and curls. In her left hand, she held a golden staff topped with a lotus flower. In her right, she turned something golden, like a coin, over and over in her hand.

'Who are you?' Jason asked, his voice echoing around the temple. The woman turned. Jason caught his breath. Her face was beautiful, like a statue. Her eyes seemed to be made of gold, and flickered like flames.

Jason recognised her face. He'd seen her perfect likeness of the statue of his stepmother in the temple next door.

'Juno Moneta,' he mumbled in a daze. The woman smiled.

'Yes, child,' the woman said with an amused smile. 'Juno the Warner.'

'W-Why are you here?' Jason asked, trembling. The fact that his stepmother was at camp was not a good thing. For one, Juno only appeared in time of great need and distress for the Romans. For another, she hated the children of Jupiter, and loved nothing more than to tear them apart.

'To deliver a present,' Juno said, stepping towards Jason. 'Hold out your hand.'

Jason hesitated for a moment, before holding out his right hand. His arm trembled slightly. Juno held out her own right hand and dropped the little golden coin into his hand. On one side of the coin, a picture of Julius Caesar was stamped into the gold. An axe was stamped on the other side.

'A denarii,' he said.

'Ivlivs,' Juno said, pointing to the Latin word printed beneath the picture of the axe. She pronounced the word like Yulius. 'Flip it, son of Jupiter.'

The goddess took a step back. Jason stared at the coin, lying in his palm, for a few moments, before he flipped it up in the air. When it landed back in his hand, it was no longer a coin. It was a seven foot long lance made entirely of Imperial Gold, the only metal that could defeat monsters. The tip was sharpened and deadly. The weapon felt balanced, yet slightly heavy, in Jason's hand.

'How-?' he asked.

'This weapon will help you with your destiny,' Juno said. 'It will protect you. To return it to its original form, flip it again.'

Jason did, and the coin landed in his hand again.

'When it lands on Julius Caesar's picture, it becomes a sword, a golden gladius,' Juno said, 'But, when it lands on the axe, it becomes the lance. Use it well, Jason Grace. Become the legionnaire we all need you to be.'

'What you need me to be?'

'Jason, I am your patron. My husband, you father, offered me to you as penance for his adulterous acts with your mother, the actress. I expect you to do well. I will be watching you closely. Make me proud, son of Jupiter.'

She shone with the light of a supernova. Jason shielded his eyes until the light faded. When he opened his eyes again, Juno was gone, leaving no evidence of her visit save for the weapon in Jason's hand.

He stared down at the warm, uneven metal. A gift from Juno. No doubt wielding such a weapon would make him nothing short of unstoppable. But, he smarted over how Juno had said his father, Jupiter, had offered Jason to Juno to make up for his own mistakes. He might have only been seven years old, but he did not like the way he was being treated by his father. A gift, an object. He neither of those. He was a soldier, not the property of his stepmother.

He shoved the coin in his pocket. He was going to show Juno that he did not belong to her.

Hopefully.