Chapter 4

Reyna

"Enough!" she shouted as she completed her spell. Suddenly, the cacophony which had been raging for nearly an hour ceased and the courtyard sank into an eerie silence. She took a moment to take in the carnage in front of her then shook her head, stunned. Her gaze shifted to the teenager suspended ten feet above the cobblestones. His dark, shaggy hair clung to his forehead with sweat and his unsettling green eyes were flashing with power like a stormy sea, but the fierceness was receding now that the fight was over.

She noticed he had a few minor cuts and bruises, but that was all. She'd observed the fight and knew he should have more serious injuries than what he showed. Soft, Bobby had called him. She almost laughed. The entire second and third legions and a good deal of the first, including Bobby, lay scattered and unconscious around the courtyard.

Her magic was not the healing kind, but she could tell no one was dead or seriously injured. Despite what this Percy may or may not remember about himself, it was obvious he had plenty of fighting experience and knew the difference between a fight to the death and a sparring match. Or his body knew at any rate.

Reyna glanced back up to where she was holding Percy and noticed he was looking at his injuries with an expression of utter shock. She wasn't sure why, but she assumed he was surprised he wasn't dead. So was she. He may have been sparring, but the legions were out for blood. Ironically, the fact that he had beaten everyone yet still left them all alive would lower his standing, make him seem weak and squeamish. Reyna didn't care about that, she was suitably impressed.

Percy looked up from his examination of himself and made eye contact with her. As he did so, she almost dropped him as her concentration briefly broke. A force like a tidal wave surged through her body in that one look. She could tell he wasn't putting any power behind his gaze, his eyes and that serious expression just did that to girls. This guy's a serious lady killer, Reyna thought, He's not as good looking as Jason, but those eyes, day-umn! This thought of course led her to thoughts of Jason. Was he thinking of her too wherever he was? She scowled at herself. Sparing thoughts for deserters was not an option. She put the coward out of her mind.

"Percy Jackson, you have passed your final trial," Reyna held his gaze with some difficulty. "Welcome to the Legion Army of Roman Demigods." She certainly didn't expect what happened next. He looked at her with a bemused expression for a moment then doubled over in mid-air and started giggling like a 12 year-old girl.

"LARD? Seriously?" he managed between chuckles. Reyna felt a strong urge to magically neuter this guy but managed to restrain herself. Instead she lowered him slowly to the ground and walked purposefully toward him. She felt the eyes of everyone who was still conscious follow her steady march. She reached him and invaded his personal space until their faces were about two inches apart. She was a tall girl and usually she hated it, but she was glad now since she didn't have to look up to stare Percy down.

"Listen, Pleb," she menaced, or at least she hoped. It was still hard to look him in the eye. "Poking fun at the Legions is not a healthy practice." Apparently, she was sufficiently intimidating because he stopped laughing immediately. She noticed the mirth didn't fully leave his fascinating eyes, setting them dancing in the midday light…Stop it, Reyna! she admonished herself. Angry face time. She stepped away and raised her voice so the rest of the crowd could hear. "Now that you have passed all your tests, you will be formally inducted into the Legions and our seer will attempt to determine you. The ceremony will be held during the Saturnalia feasts this evening. Until then, you're with me.

"Legionnaires, thank you for your service today, you may resume your training," she addressed the crowd. "Gwen, take Bobby to the infirmary and have his arm tended to. James, see to Kristen's head. And Sara, will you take Vicky?" Reyna continued to look around for the more seriously injured, but most of the soldiers were only suffering hurt pride. She turned back to Percy as her orders were being carried out with a lot of grumbling and dirty looks at the new kid.

"What's a pleb?" he asked before she could say anything. She felt a little embarrassed. It wasn't a very nice thing to call someone and she wasn't sure how she could explain it without making herself look like an asshole. She did what anyone else would do in that situation, she completely ignored the question.

"Follow me. I'm sure you have many questions. I do as well." She marched off toward the training grounds without a backwards glance. She led him across the central courtyard of the Senate building towards the southern practice fields first. The columns surrounding the court were festooned with garlands and ribbons provided by the Ceres contingent. There were candles everywhere as well, but being just around lunchtime, none of them were lit.

It was December 18th and Saturnalia had begun last night. It would run through the solstice and was really the only time of year the army was allowed to let their hair down. Reyna supposed that's why they were still celebrating this festival, even though it seemed hypocritical after the past few years of war with Saturn and his brethren. The gods had finally defeated him on Olympus 4 months ago, and it was pretty ironic for the children of the gods to celebrate the "Golden Age" of his rule they'd tried so hard to prevent from recurring.

She wasn't sure how the gods would react. It was probably a stroke of luck for them that Olympus was closed. Luckily for the Romans, if the gods made a stink about the celebrations, they had a fallback explanation. It was also a holiday in honor of Lupa, the one who raised Remus and Romulus, sons of Mars and founders of Rome. Seeing as she was their patron, it was only fitting they honor her.

They were almost to the portal out of the Senate onto the path the southern practice fields before Percy spoke up. "You're the driver from the van, one of the three that kidnapped me", he accused. "Who are you and how did you do that to me at the end of the fight?"

"I am Reyna Monroe, daughter of Trivia and current Praetor of the First Legion." She explained. He gave her a confused look that seemed to fit his face so well she figured that, even before he lost his memory, this was his most natural expression.

"So you must be really good at Jeopardy," he replied with a slight smirk and a twinkle in his eyes. She realized that her first impression of him had been correct; he was a goob…a cute one, though.

"Listen, Chuckles, whether or not I'm good at Jeopardy—I'm awesome, by the way—has nothing to do with my mother," she explained. "Trivia is the Roman goddess of the triple-crossroads and thus of sorcery. So naturally I have some ability in the magical arts. Levitating you was a rather simplistic spell, but it got the job done."

"Triple-crossroads?" Percy inquired.

"The intersection of life, death, and immortality. The crossroads from which arises all mystical energy," Reyna replied. It was odd that she had to explain this. "How is it that you can use powers like you do, but not know about the triple-crossroads? You're obviously a demigod, you couldn't be here if you weren't. And you've definitely been trained…"

"Yeah, you mentioned this demigod thing earlier," Percy interrupted with a skeptical look on his face. "Is this, like, a LARPer compound or something? 'Cause I'm not really into the whole creative anachronism thing."

"Remember what I said about unhealthy habits?" Reyna replied, her jaw clenched and her hands balled into fists. He might have amazing eyes, but this guy's mouth was becoming a deal breaker. "No one here is role playing, well, except during our tactical simulations. I assure you when I say we are all demigods, I mean it in the true sense of the word. Everyone here is half-human, half-god, except for Sam, she's human. Anyway, my turn. Who are you, how did you learn to fight like that, and where?"

"I don't know, on all three accounts. First thing I can remember was waking up in that cave this morning. The wolf had to tell me my name, maybe she knows more about me and where I'm from. Can we ask her?" Percy pleaded. He was obviously desperate to regain his memories. Reyna wondered if she would be as quick to want her life back if it was taken away from her so cleanly. So many horrible things had happened, lost friends, pain, sacrifice. Would it be such a bad thing to lose that? She shook her head, she didn't think she'd ever get that lucky anyway.

"Normally, that would be difficult. Lupa isn't a regular fixture here at the base. She prefers to live with her pack up in the valley. But you're in luck, this being Saturnalia, we will be holding feasts in her honor. She'll show up to at least one of them out of a sense of duty if not pride," Reyna remarked.

"So what is this Saturnalia, you keep mentioning? From all the decorations, I'd say it's a pretty big event around here," Percy asked. "I think you also mentioned it lasts for several days. Is it like Hanukah?"

"Saturnalia is a festival honoring Saturn, the Titan of time and agriculture. There are also rites which honor Lupa for her role in the founding of Rome," Reyna answered. She noticed a dark look flit across his face at the words 'Titan of time,' but it was gone so fast she thought she may have imagined it. "It's actually closer to the mortals' Christmas celebrations than anything else. Though it's a several day event, many of the secular traditions are the same: the evergreen boughs and trees, the holly, the exchange of presents and so on. It's also a time of role reversals and relaxations of normal protocols." She looked around at all the soldiers dressed in mortal street clothes, running around, laughing and for once, just being normal teenagers. She smiled, I guess this celebration isn't so bad. "You're lucky you arrived when you did. Normally we follow a very strict regimen, but this week you get to see us unguarded."

They had reached the southern fields by then, and Reyna pointed out the archery range and the dueling grounds. "Are you as good at archery as you are with that sword of yours?" she asked him. If he was, the Apollo regiment was in for a rude awakening.

"Um, I don't think so," he grimaced. "I don't know why, but I get the feeling I'm more likely to hit myself than anything else." Reyna smiled at that, so he was half-human after all. As she was leading him west toward the stables, a short strawberry-blonde girl walked out of the side door. When she looked up and saw the two of them headed in her direction, her expression turned panicky and she turned and hurried back inside.

"Come on, Percy, twenty questions is on hold for a bit, I have some business to attend to, and you'll get to see the stables," Reyna said, a note of anger creeping into her voice. They picked up their pace and quickly arrived at the stable doors. Reyna couldn't see the girl, but knew she hadn't left the building. That was the nice thing about having magical powers, you could use them for all sorts of things.

"Hazel! I know you're still here," Reyna called. "We need to talk. Now!" They stood there for a minute waiting until a rather sheepish looking Hazel emerged from an empty stall. She was a short, slightly plump girl with reddish-blonde hair and warm yellow eyes ringed with green. "Percy, this is Hazel Guinness, daughter of Pompona. Hazel, this is Percy Jackson, a new recruit, currently undetermined. Percy, why don't you go meet some of the pegasi while Hazel and I have a little chat."

"Pegasi? You're joking," Percy scoffed.

"Percy, just go," Reyna exasperated. She turned to Hazel as Percy walked off towards the occupied stalls. "Where were you this morning, Hazel?" she accused.

"I-I was h-held up," Hazel stammered. She took a breath and a continued more steadily, "I needed to check on Andromeda, she's about to foal, Rey. Do you know how long it's been since we've had a pegasus give birth? You know how important this is!"

"Holy shit! Its got fucking wings!" Percy had obviously discovered his first pegasus. Reyna buried her face in her palm and shook her head.

"What's wrong, Rey?" Hazel chuckled. "The new guy a bit of a handful? He's pretty cute though. That's gotta make up for some of it. Hey, now that Jason's gone, maybe he-"

"Can it, Hazel. You know the rules, deserters are not to be spoken of," Reyna retorted. "And quit trying to change the subject. You are Praetor of the Third Legion, you had a duty to lead your troops into battle. If you keep this up, you'll-"

"Battle?" Hazel scoffed. "It was an initiation trial, not a battle. Besides, the guy looks pretty soft. I bet he didn't even get past Jane-"

"He took down your entire Legion, and Dakota's and half of mine before I called the fight," Reyna interrupted. "The guy is far from soft and fights in a style I've never seen before. But that is beside the point. Your soldiers were counting on you today, and you let them down. Last week's challenge will not be the last unless you step up and do your job."

"I'm sorry, Rey," Hazel acquiesced with a sigh. "I'm just so excited and worried about Andromeda. We're so harsh with the way we use our pegasi, they're getting killed so much faster than we can raise them. I do my best to provide for them, but over the last few years they've just, I don't know, lost interest in mating." Reyna was pretty sure that was impossible. She was only sixteen and still pretty new to the whole game, but she wasn't sure how anyone could just 'lose interest.' "And now, Andromeda's finally going foal and I'm the only one who seems to care," Hazel continued.

"Have you talked to Bobby?" Reyna admonished. "You know how he is about animals. I'm sure he'd be willing to help you figure out what's wrong." Hazel blushed, looked at the floor and shook her head. Reyna, hell everyone knew Hazel had had a huge crush on Bobby for years, but she was too intimidated by Gwen to do anything about it. It was stupid, since Gwen and Bobby had broken up more than a year ago. They were still close friends, though.

Hazel didn't have enough self-confidence to see past that and make her move, and Bobby, like most boys, was woefully ignorant of everything having to do with the human heart. Reyna sighed, "Look Hazel, he's not going to bite…unless you want him to." Hazel gasped in shock. "I'm kidding, but seriously, ask him to help you. If nothing else it's a good way to spend time with him without Gwen around. You know how much she hates nature."

"Well, that's a good point, I guess," Hazel perked up a bit. "I'll talk to him at dinner tonight…Rey will you help me? You're my best friend and I just…well you know." She looked at Reyna with big puppy dog eyes that no one could say no to.

"Alright, alright," Reyna laughed. "I'll be your wingman, but no chickening out! And please, remember what I said about your duties? It's important."

"Yeah, I know, Rey. It won't happen again," Hazel apologized. Just then they heard a shout from the other end of the stables.

"Reyna! Hazel! Come quick!" Percy bellowed. "One of the pegasi is in trouble!"