I wasn't planning on charging towards certain death today.

But somehow I still found myself doing it.

All three of us attacked the lion, but Daniel soon left us behind, taking on the Birds which were coming too close for comfort.

He slipped as he ran towards them, and immediately birds started pecking at him. I tried to see if he was okay, but I noticed movement from the corner of my eye. It was one of the lion's paws heading straight towards me. I jumped back, and put my sword up to block the strike. The sword didn't stand a chance. The claws of the lion sliced through it like a hot knife slices through butter. I was lucky because only the very tip of a claw actually touched me. It still caused a deep wound, which started bleeding immediately. I gritted my teeth and looked into its eyes. They weren't normal. I swear I could see tiny flames dancing in them. The lion started walking slowly towards me, pressing me against the train. I was dead. I had no weapon, not like it could help me.

"Hey Kitty, Over here!" Nico shouted, chucking his sword at its golden-furred body. It was a crazy idea, but it worked! The lion turned towards Nico and growled.

This didn't mean all our problems were solved because now Nico was in the same position I was in only a moment ago.

The Lion lunged at Nico, and he rolled out the way in the last second. He was now behind the Lion, and right next to his sword. He grabbed his sword off of the floor just as the lion turned around. It struck at him once more, and Nico stepped back. The Claws just missed from gutting him, but it tore his Camp Half-Blood T-shirt to shreds and left bleeding claw marks on his chest. Nico then stepped close to the lion, which had left its right side undefended after swiping at Nico.

I realized, too late, what Nico was trying to do.

Nico grabbed his sword with both hands and struck at the undefended spot as hard as he could. The Sword shattered on Impact, spraying Nico and the Ground with Celestial Bronze Shrapnel.

Nico fell onto the ground, clenching his teeth. He had been hit in multiple places. Tiny spots of Dark Red dotted his trousers and shirt where Shrapnel entered.

"Nico, it's the Nemean Lion! It has Impenetrable Skin! You can't use weapons to hurt it!" I shouted.

"Thanks." He said sarcastically, crawling away from the beast.

The Lion stepped forward, ready to finish him off.

"I'm not done just yet, Kitty." He muttered angrily and kicked it in the nose. The Lion stumbled back and looked at Nico with a new sense of anger. The Lion was probably not used to feeling pain, and he was not happy that that had changed.

"Nico, keep doing that!"

"I'll try!" He got to his feet and started playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Lion, kicking it a few times when he saw an opening.

Because I couldn't do a lot, I looked over towards Daniel in case he needed some help.

The black substance I had briefly seen during the Capture the Flag game, Chaos, was oozing out of his body. Both from wounds given to him by the bronze-beaked birds, and from his powers going to work. Around his feet, the ground was littered with dozens Stymphalian Bird Corpses. Some weere cut in half, others had black arrows in them. Some were just blackened like they themselves were made of chaos. As I watched, Chaos Tendrils started hunting down the birds. The tendrils were very quick compared to last time when I saw Daniel do this in the Forest.

The Birds Realized that they were on the losing side in this fight, and tried to flee. Few could. Those that did were hunted down by Pandora, who had managed to escape from her cage, and they were ripped up by her Sharp Claws. Monster Dust fell onto my head like snow.

Once no more of them were pestering Daniel, he looked towards me first, then at Nico. His eyes widened, and he dropped to the ground. All of the chaos around him dissipated.

I looked over there too, and I saw that Nico was close to death. He was on the floor and he was having a staring contest with the living killing machine. I was angered by myself, not going to help him sooner.

"Nico, Catch!" Daniel shouted as he ran towards him. He threw a knife, which Nico caught and immediately struck at the face of the beast. It roared in pain, and a black scar now dirtied its beautiful fur. I got up and also started sprinting towards Nico.

Daniel lifted his fingers to his lips and gave out a Shrill and sharp whistle, which hurt my ears, even from twenty meters away. The beast was so fueled by anger, that it didn't even show it's pain, instead it rested its furious gaze onto Daniel, and pounced at him, flying many meters through the air.

Instead of stopping, Daniel went from running to sliding on the floor. He met the lion's claws with his own swords, cutting the claws off. The Lion was beyond furious at this point. He swiped at Daniel, which caught him by surprise, and he was knocked to the floor, dropping both his swords, too far away for him to reach. The Lion then stepped onto them just for good measure. I couldn't just let Daniel die.

While I didn't have a weapon, I still had a part of one. It was the hilt of my sword, and a part of the blade was still attached to it. Because the lion had cut it up diagonally, it was still pretty deadly.

"Daniel, take this," I yelled, throwing it into Daniel's hand.

The lion roared at me and that's when Daniel took the opportunity. He flipped my broken blade over and stabbed it into the jaw of the creature.

The beast's eyes opened wide with surprise. The fire in them died down. It then keeled over sideways and burst into flames. Just like Toby in the forest.

In its place was a lion fur cape, with a hood which was designed like the head of the Lion. It had a black scar on it, where the eye would have been.

All of us breathed raggedly, and we just stayed where we lay. In my case, I was on the ground because I had tripped over a stone after I chucked the sword remnant. It wasn't too comfortable, because I fell onto my bleeding arm.

"We should go-" Daniel said, taking a big gulp of air, "Before more monsters come."

"You're right," I said, standing up. It seemed that I had sprained my ankle because it hurt like hell. Stupid stone. "Let's get our stuff, and then we'll figure out how to finish our journey. Bring the Lion Skin cape, it can come in handy later."

"No, I need to fulfill a promise I made." He said, before getting up, and walking over to it. He muttered something that I didn't hear, and the Lion skin cape erupted in black flames. In a few seconds, it was nowhere to be seen. It was a cool spectacle, but I was sad that the Invincibility Cape was gone.

I walked back to the upturned wagon, kicking a part of my sword, which was now in four pieces. I sighed.

"We should call some help for the mortals," Nico said, grabbing his bag.

"No need, look there they come." Daniel pointed to the sky. Multiple helicopters were closing in on the upturned train.

"That's bad. We need to hurry." I said, "We can't get mixed up in anything. They'll blame it on us, or just take us in for questioning, we can do without either of those things."

"Yeah," Daniel said.

"But how are we going to get there?"

"I have an idea." He whispered to something to Pandora.

The Phoenix, now once again a canary, nodded, which I found amusing. It then fluttered outside and turned from a lovely shade of yellow to black as the night sky. She quickly grew in size, until she was as big as the entire upturned wagon.

"Do we have everything?" Daniel asked, while both me and Nico looked at Pandora with a new sense of respect. She was powerful beyond anything I had imagined. Her skin became a nice dark green color. She had become a dragon.

"Yes," I said in a high pitched voice, I quickly cleared my throat and repeated it in a deeper voice. I didn't want Daniel to see how awed I was. And how scared.

Daniel got on at the front, sitting in between the scales. They were perfectly good seats.

"Come on, we need to go."

Nico jumped up and sat near the back. He put his bags behind him.

"Sophia. We're waiting for you." Daniel told me.

"Okay," I said, starting to shake.

"What is it?"

"It's just... Hights."

"Oh. You can sit behind me if that makes you feel comfortable."

"Thanks, that might help," I said, calming down a bit.

I threw my stuff onto Pandora, and I sat just behind Daniel.

"See, it's not that bad."

"We're not even in the air," I muttered.

"Well that's true, but-"

"STOP! IN THE NAME OF THE LAW! STOP!" Said a gruff voice. It was an FBI Agent, he had just arrived from one of the helicopters.

"Wait!" I said.

"GET OUT OF THAT HELICOPTER! HANDS IN THE AIR!" He pointed a gun at us.

"Shit," Daniel muttered, "Pandora, GO!"

I didn't even have time to react, but if I would have been able to, I would have thrown-up all over Daniel. Pandora shot into the air, faster than anyone could have thought. I put my arms around Daniel, holding on for dear life. He was yelling a massive WOO-HOO.

I had no idea what was so fun about this. This day was really getting to me.

After about five minutes of speeding, Pandora slowed down, and it didn't feel like I was in a fighter jet anymore, instead, it felt more like I was in a car. A car thousands of feet up in the air.

"You can let go of me now, Sophia," Daniel told me.

"Oh." I realized what I was doing, and let go of him, "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He said, rubbing his chest, "I think my ribs are broken." He muttered.

"Shut up!" I laughed, pushing him.

"NICO YOU OKAY?" Daniel Shouted back.

"YES!" Came the reply.

"DO YOU NEED HELP PATCHING YOURSELF UP?"

"I CAN DO IT BY MYSELF!"

"OKAY!"

He then looked at me, turning around in his seat.

"Do you need help?"

"No," I said, covering the massive bloodstain on my T-shirt sleeve.

"Stop being so stubborn. You're clearly in pain." He grabbed my forearm and lifted up my sleeve. "Ouch, that looks bad."

"Not helping," I told him.

"Don't worry, this will." He took out some antiseptic from his bag and sprayed the wound.

"ARGH." I yelled, "That didn't help, you dick!"

He laughed, "It'll help later on, now shush and let me finish my job."

He then took out some cotton and wiped off all the dried blood. Finally, he tied a bandage around it, tying it tightly.

"Finally, you can get a treat, for being such a good patient." He told me, and he took out a square of ambrosia and placed it in my mouth.

"Wow, thanks," I said sarcastically. The ambrosia did help though. I no longer felt any pain in my arm and my ankle.

"Do you have any other ailments?" He asked sarcastically.

"Yes, actually. My ankle hurts. I think it's sprained." I told him, pouting.

"I can't really do anything about that. Just rest it." He said.

"Thanks, are you a Son of Asclepius by any chance?" I laughed.

"I don't know, I might be." He said, also laughing.

We just smiled at each other, looking into each other's eyes. I blushed and looked down at Pandora's back. I saw that Daniel also looked down, a bit sad.

The good thing about Pandora being such a massive creature is that her back was so big that I couldn't look down unless I really wanted too. That wouldn't happen in a while.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Do What?" Daniel asked back, surprised by the sudden question.

"The fighting, and the Chaos stuff."

"As I said at the statue, I talked with my father. He taught me a lot. Harnessing the power of Chaos is easy for someone who has it instead of blood."

"You personally killed a swarm of Stymphalian birds, then did most of the work with the Nemean Lion." I said, "That's not a thing to just shrug off, You did two of Heracles's tasks in one go."

"I don't want to take all the credit. Without you two and Pandora I couldn't have done it."

Pandora snorted out some fire in agreement.

"Yeah, still, it was an impressive sight to see. You fighting those birds."

"I guess it must've been. I wasn't concentrating on that, I had more important stuff to worry about."

"Yeah, you probably did." I smiled. There was silence for a few seconds.

"Oh, I nearly forgot." He said, handing me something. I took it. It was the remaining part of my sword, which Daniel used to kill the Lion.

"Thanks, I'll get good use out of this," I said.

"It's a weapon at least. It's better than nothing." He said.

"You're right about that."

I yawned.

"You should continue sleeping. Seeing as how you weren't able to do that for long on the train." Daniel said, smiling at me.

Pandora's green body turned black for a second, and in the next, there was enough space for me to lie down comfortably.

"Wow. Thanks, Pandora."

She looked back at me, and I swear she winked.

"I think a nap won't harm me." I turned around, so I now faced Nico, who was already asleep, and I slowly leaned back into Daniel's arms.

"Sleep well." He told me.

"Make sure to catch me if I roll off of Pandora's back."

"That'll be the first thing I do." He smiled.

I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.

Daniel

Soon enough, Sophia fell asleep. Her head turned to the side, and her blonde hair fell onto her face. Each time she blew out, her hair fluttered up, before settling back down.

"You didn't have to give me credit," Pandora said.

"Why? Without you, I wouldn't have been able to defeat the Stymphalian Birds."

"But I had to help you. You are my master."

"Stop saying that. I hate it. It reminds me of slavery."

"Then what should I be?"

"A friend? A Pet?"

"Up to you."

I wasn't as tired as the others, so I decided I'd look around our bags, and check so far how much we've used. I gently placed Sophia onto the back of Pandora. After looking through my stuff, I moved on to Sophia's, and then I crawled back to Nico and checked his bag too. I tried to keep clear of their personal stuff, like clothes. Especially when I was looking through Sophia's Stuff.

"Do you know how much time we've got until we reach Camp Jupiter?"

"Around five hours."

"Cool. I might have a short nap if that's okay."

"Of course. Make yourself comfortable."

"Do you know where to go?"

"Yes, it's got a distinct smell."

I crawled back to the front and lifted Sophia up so she was once again leaning against me. I grabbed a blanket and laid it onto her. I then closed my eyes, and fell asleep, with a beautiful girl in my arms. Not the worst way to fall asleep.

A Few Hours Later

"Master..." At first, it was closer to the sound of the wind then an actual voice, but it got increasingly louder.

"Master!" It was Pandora. Who else could it be? I don't get a lot of voices in my head.

"What is it Pandora?"

"We're nearing Camp Jupiter. I thought it'd be good to wake you."

"Yeah, Good call."

"Where should I land?"

"I don't know a lot about Camp Jupiter, so I guess the entrance is a good place to start."

"As you wish."

Pandora turned slightly to the west. I looked down and Sophia was still sleeping on me. Drool was running out of her mouth, and it was all over my shirt. It didn't really matter, the shirt was as good as trash. Hundreds of tiny holes were poked into it where the birds had pecked me. My body heals very quickly, without the need of ambrosia and nectar. Sadly, my clothes don't have the same trait.

"Wake up Sophia," I whispered into her ear. No Reaction.

"Wake up."

"Five more minutes." She muttered.

"Nope, get up please."

Nothing.

I shook her, and she opened her eyes.

"Are we there?" She said groggily.

"Nearly."

"Great." She looked at the blanket and raised an eyebrow. She then blushed and said nothing.

Instead, she sat up and stretched.

I too was happy that some weight had come off of my chest. I'm not complaining, I mean, it's not every day that a pretty girl uses you as a pillow, but it's not too comfortable either.

Sophia looked at my T-Shirt and saw the drool.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry." She said.

"Nah, it's okay. Let's wake Nico."

I crouch-walked over to Nico, and I shook him awake too.

"What's happening?" He asked.

"We're going to arrive any minute, get up." I smiled at him.

"Fine." He moaned.

We landed in front of a place called the Caldecott Tunnel.

"Nobody's guarding the entrance? That's weird." Sophia said.

After taking all our stuff off of Pandora, she turned into a Phoenix.

"Master, I've just gotten an order from Ragnos."

"What does my Father wish to say?"

"I can't tell you. They are specifically for me. I must go."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. He says that you'll find out when the time comes."

"In that case, see you later."

She winked at me, then flew off.

"Where is she going?" Nico asked.

"I have no clue, but it's important."

"Cool, we just lost a shape-shifting dragon. No biggie."

"Let's go. Sophia, lead the way."

"I don't like the feeling of this."

"Of what?"

"Normally there are two guards outside that entrance." She pointed at a doorway above the Caldecott tunnel.

"Strange."

"Yeah."

We walked up the stairs and opened the metal door. The tunnel was lit by red lights. It was really moody.

"We have to walk down this tunnel and at the end is a road that leads to New Rome."

That's when a smell that can only be described as pure rot wafted over us from the tunnel.

"Uh shit, that smells bad. Someone must've left his sandwich here for a few weeks. Or maybe it's a dead rat or something." Sophia told us, unhappy about walking through a tunnel which is filled with such a pungent odor.

She walked forward around five steps, before tripping over.

"What the fuck?" She exclaimed, "There's something on the floor. I can't see it."

"Wait, I've got a torch in my bag," Nico said. He opened his bag and pulled out a trusty flashlight. He clicked it on, and a powerful beam of light cut through the gloom.

Nico pointed the torch at the ground.

"That's not good," I said.

Sophia instantly jumped up and Shuddered.

It was a dead body. Maybe a few months old. Sophia had been lying on another one.

The wall was covered in dried blood.

"What the fuck happened here?!" Sophia exclaimed, horrified.

The body was dressed in Roman armor, and a clear stab wound could be seen in his chest.

I unsheathed one of my swords. Sophia grabbed her broken sword, and Nico held one of the daggers that I had found in my Robe Pocket.

We walked down the tunnel, tripping over more and more bodies. There were maybe twenty in this tunnel. It was a gruesome sight. Some were mangled beyond recognition. One's head was nothing more than a bloody pulp. I nearly vomited at the sight.

I saw Nico and Sophia's face in the torchlight, and both of theirs were chalk white.

Who could've done this?

We reached the end of the tunnel, but it wasn't any better. The dark of night outside was chased away by an orange glow, which flooded into the corridor. We ran outside and saw the carnage. New Rome was in ruins, some places it was still burning. The very Embodiment of Enyo.

The worst part was the dead. There were dozens of bodies, some in Roman armor, others in what I could only describe as barbarian clothing. This was a place of battle.

"We have to hurry. There might be trouble!" I said, starting to run.

"Daniel," Sophia said sadly.

"What? Do you not understand what we have to do?"

"No, you don't understand. We can't help. This probably happened at the same time as we lost contact with the camp. That was months ago."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

"But maybe there can be people in the city."

"Yeah maybe."

We walked down the road, finding more and more bodies. It looked like a horror film, only it was in real life.

I passed a stone statue, which was broken in half.

"This isn't right. Where is Terminus? He should have defended the city!" She was looking around.

In the city, everything was in ruins. We could be ambushed from anywhere. That's why we decided walking down the streets of the once-great New Rome would only be even remotely safe if we went back to back. I told Nico to turn off the flashlight because it could give us away. After around twenty minutes of walking, we heard the clatter of armor. It was following us.

"You guys hear that?" I asked.

"Yes," Sophia whispered back.

A small rustle gave away the people about to ambush us. We braced ourselves.

Suddenly, Roman soldiers jumped out of the shadows and from behind ruins. As more emerged into the Moonlight, I noticed some of them only had a random assortment of gear, not professional armor. Some of them were even transparent like ghosts.

Without thinking, I charged at them. In a few seconds, two of them were disarmed and a third was on his knees with one of my swords underneath his chin. He was showing both his hands to show he had surrendered.

"HALT! STOP THAT THIS INSTANCE!" One person shouted from the crowd of soldiers, who were all pointing their weapons at me now. Some were shaking in their boots. These weren't soldiers, these were rebels or freedom fighters. A young man, maybe in his twenties, emerged from the ranks of the soldiers. He wore a helmet that looked like a paintbrush." In the Name of the Democratic Republic of New Rome, Stop what you are doing!" He Shouted once more.

The man looked at me pointedly. I stared him straight in the eyes. I was not going to do what this man said. I had no clue who he was.

Sophia coughed, "Daniel, please let go of the poor soldier."

"Fine."

As soon as I removed my sword from the neck of the soldier, the man jumped up, grabbed a weapon off of the floor, and twirled around to face me. He then slowly backed away, not letting his guard down, not for one second.

Six more soldiers came closer to me, all pointing their spears at me. I sheathed my swords and then raised my hands as a sign of mock surrender.

"Happy Now?" I asked the Roman Officer. He ignored me.

"What happened here? What was that carnage?" Sophia asked, looking back towards the road we used to get here.

"Civil war happened, miss," he answered sadly.

"That's horrible," Sophia said.

Something sharp jabbed my backside, and I yelped. Everyone looked at me.

"If you do that one more time, I will hurt you," I growled at the soldier that was standing there. He paled and stepped back a step.

"Can you stop bickering with the soldiers, Please. They're with us." Sophia sighed.

"How do you know, they could be our enemies, the ones that killed the Romans at the entrance."

"He isn't." She then turned towards the paintbrush headed dude "I know your name, Centurion Drake Viscount. I heard a lot about you from the Praetor and the ambassador. You have a good mind for strategy, you're a good fighter and loyal to the Praetor."

"Is that so? In that case..." I reached a hand over to Viscount. The soldiers around me recoiled from my hand as if it was a live grenade. The Centurion Grasped it.

"Sorry for being aggressive, that sight in the tunnel and right outside it messed us all up."

"As it did us. That was the first battle of the Civil War. Ex-Campers and savages stormed that entrance. We couldn't hold it. It's still too risky to go there and collect their bodies."

"Where are your Praetors? Praetor Harrison and Gloria?"

"Praetor. We only have one Praetor. Praetor Harrison died during that very first battle. Since then, Gloria has been leading us all against our enemies."

Sophia shed some tears silently, while Viscount nodded sadly. He wiped his eyes and looked at us, straightening out, regaining some of his formal posture.

"I must ask though, what business do three kids from Camp Half-Blood have here, in this war-zone of all places?"

"We came here because of a quest issued to us. We knew that something had happened, and our Camper friends, the Children of Hecate, couldn't look into this basin. We were hoping for something less... Bad."

"We all were. How did you get a quest, when prophecies can't be issued?"

"Ella, a harpy who had read the sibylline books before they were burnt. She disappeared for a long time, but recently we found out she is alive and well on Olympus. It was her that issued a prophecy."

"I see, and what does this quest involve?"

"We have to help the Roman Camp. Then together, we must march to the aid of Lord Hades, or Lord Pluto. For what reason, we don't know."

"That's the truth?" He asked, shocked, "Our messengers never made it to your Camp then."

"How do you know it's the truth?" Nico asked.

He showed us his arm, but I couldn't see it since there was no light.

"Cool Tattoo, Blends in very well with the darkness," I muttered.

Viscount rolled his eyes.

"My mother is Veritas, Goddess of Truth."

"So you're a living lie detector?"

"I've been called that before, yes."

"Cool." I smiled.

"Centurion, could we stop with the meet and greet please." Sophia interrupted, "We need to see the Praetor."

"Of course, follow me."

He turned around and walked off. We followed him. The Ragtag band of soldiers guarded us.

It didn't take long and we arrived at a wall, which was around five meters high. I couldn't see what was inside those walls, but by the way, things were going, I'd probably get to see it soon enough. The walls were made of wood, and strapped together with rope. On top of the wall, armor and equipment clattered as a guard patrol walked over the planks. There were soldiers all over the wall, maybe a hundred or two. I really couldn't make up my mind. We stood at the gate, and a guard looked down at us from the wall.

After retracting his head, he let down a bucket. While that was coming down, Viscount got a pen and paper out of his pockets and wrote something onto the piece of paper. He then placed it into the bucket, shook the rope, and it slowly ascended back up. A few moments later the Gates creaked open. We entered, and the door closed behind us.

It was a massive camp, with hundreds of tents in neat, tidy rows. In the middle of this massive encampment, four bigger tents were erected. Viscount led us that way. We were stopped at the entrance by two guards, who asked what we wanted.

"We found these people during our scout mission. They bring important news." Viscount told them.

"Fine, you can go in." The guard told him.

We walked in and not two steps later, another guard stopped us. She blocked my view of the Praetor.

"Weapons off, please." She said, pointing at a tray. We placed everything into the tray, and once the Bodyguard had searched us just to be sure we were free of weapons, she let us pass.

The Praetor was sitting in a purple chair in the middle of the room. She wore no armor, but her dozens of bodyguards made up for it. She had two dogs, one gold and one silver as decorations either side of her. As we got closer the heads snapped in our direction and growled at us.

"Good Statue Dogs," I muttered, backing away slightly.

"Aurum. Argentum. Shush." The Praetor said. The Dogs stayed quiet, but their eyes followed me.

"Hello, Praetor Gloria," Sophia said as she stepped forward.

"Welcome back Sophia, we haven't seen each other in a long time, feels like it's been forever. To be honest this war feels like it's been going on forever." the Praetor said, smiling grimly.

"You have living statues." Nico pointed out.

"Oh, you're interested in Aurum and Argentum, hmm? Their last master was also a Praetor. Her name Was Reyna Ramirez-Arellano. Her mother, Bellona, who is also my mother, gave them to her. I got these dogs as soon as I became Praetor. You can say it's a hand-me-down."

Nico nodded quickly.

"What happened to the city, Praetor? Why didn't Terminus defend it?" Sophia asked.

"We don't quite know what happened to him either. He lost all his powers a few hours before the Civil War had erupted. But please, call me Gloria, I don't care about formalities right now." Praetor Gloria told us. "It's quite late, and everyone is tired. I'm guessing you are too. We have many free spaces." She looked down at her lap sadly, absentmindedly stroking Aurum's head.

"If you have time, maybe tomorrow then we could talk-"

"I don't really have time, I'm afraid. Currently, all my power is concentrated on keeping this Camp in one piece, whilst trying to get a message to our allies."

"But..." Viscount and Sophia said at once.

"No, I'm sorry. If you have any questions with the camp, Viscount is your man. Goodnight, my Greek Friends." And with that, she stood up and walked off.

"Let's go," Viscount told us. He looked very angry.

We took our weapons from the tray, and as we were gearing back up, a soldier with a plate of food walked by us. It was probably for the Praetor. It looked extremely delicious, and a lot of supplies had probably gone into making it. They either had a lot of supplies to spare, or this Gloria wasn't the best leader the Romans could have.

"Peter, show these guys a tent to sleep in. I have to get word to the Centurions about the War Council."

"Yes, Sir!" He saluted, before turning to us. "My name is Peter. Son of Mars. Follow me."

Once we got there, Peter the Guard left and I took off my backpack, as well as my other bags and placed it at the foot of the bed. I started unpacking my bag and whilst doing so, I found one sandwich at the bottom of it and started munching happily. Sophia shook her head at me and tutted.

"Wasn't the food on the train enough?" she asked.

"Nope," I said, but because I had my mouth full it sounded more like a grunt.

"Whatever." She sighed and sat down on her bed.

I hardly finished my sandwich when two more armed guards arrived at our tent.

"Okay listen up lads," One of them told us, then added. "and lady."

"Centurion Viscount wishes to see you at the war council. You don't have to change clothes, just follow us." The other one Continued.

They left, and we quickly jogged after them.

After walking through the camp a second time, we arrived at the specified tent, which was only a few meters away from the Praetor's tent. This one had a massive table in it and many people sat around it. The person at the very end of the table noticed us enter and turned around to greet us.

"Welcome, dear guests." Viscount said, "We have much to talk about. Let's get started right away."

We quickly sat down in chairs that were free, and Centurion Viscount started talking immediately.

"Let me start by telling our Newcomers what happened with New Rome." He started, "As you can see, we currently have a single Praetor here with us, but no Augur. If you remember what happened when Gaia awoke, around a hundred years ago, maybe a bit longer, I don't keep all the exact dates in my head. The Augur, Octavian, took power away from our Praetor. He later went Insane and died in the last battle. The cause of his death is unknown. Our dear Augur decided that it would be better if a Pontifex would rule New Rome and not two Praetors. Most probably getting his ideas from that story. Some people agreed with him, others disagreed. We already had two sides forming before the Civil war. Everything that you see around you started when the Senate got bombed. Many senators died in that explosion. Many more of our Roman Brothers have died in the fighting." Everyone stayed silent for about a minute.

"Anyway, this happened in the past, and it can't be changed. Praetor Gloria is wracked with Grief, and her skills of leadership have diminished. She is only Praetor because that instills everyone with hope. Now I know that Sophia has some basic knowledge of the Legionaries serving in the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. However, I haven't really told you who I am. I am the Son of Veritas, and back in the peaceful days, I was the Centurion of the First Cohort. Now I am the second most powerful person in this camp. The Right hand of the Praetor." He cleared his throat and continued, "Now the reason you are here is that I saw how you fought my men outside." He looked at me, "First of all, I have never seen swords like those, neither the shape nor the metal it is made of. It is most probably not Greek, and definitely not Roman. You took down some of the best soldiers in the entire camp, wielding your blades like if they were a part of you. Who the hell are you?"

I took a deep breath.

"I am Daniel James Greenfield, Son of Ragnos, Lord of Chaos, Creation and the Universe."

Utter silence.

Viscount looked at me with confusion, "Sorry, but I haven't heard of that god before..." He trailed off, and he narrowed his eyes. After a few seconds of weird silence, he gasped, before kneeling down immediately, the other people also following his lead.

"I'm-I'm sorry Sir, I didn't know." He muttered, "We Romans don't worship Ragnos. He is Greek."

"Firstly, please don't call me Sir, it makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm just a normal person like you." I told him. "And stand up. Yeah, Yeah all of you."

Slowly, they stood up.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"You didn't know who Ragnos was one second, and in the next..." I mimed someone falling to the ground.

"It's one of my abilities. I can not only see who tells the truth, but I can also look into why something is true or false, or what makes it true or false."

"That's quite cool," I muttered.

"Anyway, I called you Greeks here, because we do need your help."

"Go On," Sophia said.

"You see, one of our best Centurions was captured in a battle recently. We believe that he is imprisoned in the Fortress of the Augur. We want to save him, but we have never been able to infiltrate their Base of Operations. We have been planning an attack for a long time but we just don't have enough training. Many of our men are Citizens of New Rome, who haven't trained with a sword properly for many years, even decades. We would be honored if you could train our men, then lead them into battle against the enemy. I think that the Ambassador of Pluto is a prisoner there also, you might want to save her too."

"We need to save Rebecca," Sophia muttered. "Yeah, we're in." I nodded, and Nico did too.

As those words left her mouth, everyone started cheering,

"Now, is there anything else to discuss?" I asked.

"Not that I know of. The War Council has ended, we'll meet in the morning to discuss everything. Goodbye, and goodnight."

"Thank you." I walked out and Sophia and Nico followed me.

"Does everyone realize what we have signed up to?"

"Yeah. We have to train the Romans."

"You want to do that?"

"Sure."

"What about me?" Nico asked.

"You and Sophia will also be doing the exercises. Don't worry, it won't be that bad."

They groaned.

We reached our tent and finished unpacking.

At one point, Sophia punched the Support Beam of the Camp.

"Fuck!" Sophia cursed, "I left my baseball cap at Camp Half-Blood. I swear I had packed it."

A cap could hardly be that important for this quest.

"Don't worry, If we find a Souvenir Shop on the way home, I'll buy you a new one," I told her.

"You don't get it!" She groaned, "I got that from none other than Annabeth Chase, The girl who fought in the Titan war."

"You got that from her personally?" I asked.

"No! It was handed down from Athena Cabin Head Councillor to Head Councillor."

"Oh." I said, "Well what can it do?"

"It turns you invisible."

"It's awesome, Especially in Capture the Flag games." Nico piped up.

"Yeah, it is," Sophia muttered.

"Guys, we should get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow, I can feel it."

"Yeah, Fine," Sophia said, her anger already gone.

"Goodnight!"

"Ahhh, this is so much better than the back of Pandora." Nico moaned.

"Goodnight, I guess," Sophia muttered.

I rolled onto my side, and slowly fell asleep. Nico was right. It was better than sleeping on the back of a Dragon.