A/N: Welcome to Chapter 13 of Pain Killer. I hope you enjoy it! Don't worry there will be plenty of action filled chapters after this. I do not own PJATO, just some of the plot for this story, and any OCS. Please leave a review in the box! –Maiden of the Heavens (MOTH)
Chapter 13
Repair work was slow and tiring to say the least, Cassandra glanced over at her brother who was going over rebuilding plans with Reyna, her hounds at her side like usual. She was not sure where she belonged right now, everyone that was able was helping with the construction and she was not one to pick up a hammer and a nail, or mix concrete. Being near heavy machinery, or Hannibal while he was hauling heavy slaps of stone made her nervous, not to mention that she was a little clumsy when it came to tools.
The dome on the Senate House was still cracked; craters lingered around the plaza, so large that if you fell in one it might take a week just to crawl out, not to mention that some of the Daughter of Apollo's favorite statues and fountains in New Rome were nothing but pieces of rubble now. The People of New Rome were on edge and nervous, like a hungry lion pacing back and forth in its cage, restless. The reason for this restlessness? Greeks were coming to their home; their sworn enemy was going to set foot in their territory.
In order to calm her own fragile nerves, the Demigoddess and gone to archery range and fired arrows until the target was ragged and stuffing pooled around it, after that she had gone to practice with her sword, only to have to pick pieces of hay from the now useless dummy out of her black and gold beanie, she still found herself brushing bits off of Nico's hoodie, which she now wore every day.
Cassandra ducked inside one of the cafes, in order to escape some the noise from the construction and the chatter from the restless citizens of New Rome. She unclipped her IPod from where it hung on her sword belt and placed the buds in her ears, before listening to Escape the Fate. She had barely gotten a nibble out of her chicken pot pie, when the other costumers of the café began to pool out of the eatery and toward the lake. The Daughter of Apollo sighed, music still blaring in her ears, as she shoved a rather large chunk of her meal into her mouth before following one of the members of her cohort out toward where everyone else was going.
A Warship was floating above the lake, bronze shields hung on its sides, but the thing that made Cassandra grip at her sword's hilt was the massive golden dragon head with ruby red eyes that was at the front of the ship. While children and even their parents gawked in awe, she found herself tensing, preparing herself for a fight that was sure to come. Horns began to blare from the Via Principalis, good that meant that Reyna had not forgotten that through all this chaos that she was still their praetor. Cassandra sighed in relief as her fellow soldiers came rushing toward the city in armor, with spears at the ready. Even Hannibal had been released from his duty of helping with construction to join the ranks.
The Daughter of Apollo joined her cousins, Adeline and Adrian, while Terminus was trying his annoyingly best to get the ship to leave. Cassandra was about to pull her sun shield from where it hung on her back, so she could slip her arm through it, to be ready to defend her home, when Percy their new praetor emerged from the crowd. The Daughter of Apollo rolled her eyes, seeing the purple cape that was draped across his shoulders; he had Hazel and Frank with him. Of all the Demigods and Demigoddess of Rome, the rest of the cohorts had to pick a Son of Neptune.
Cassandra watched as the Greeks emerged from their ship from a rope ladder above, she let her sword slip back into its sheathe and her shield whacked heavily against her back. She could feel Adeline tense against her, her whip still coiled around her arm like an angry snake. A smile almost split across her nervous features as Reyna made her through the crowd of soldiers and fellow Romans. Gods be good, couldn't she tell them to leave? Cassandra watched, entirely on edge as Reyna greeted their former Praetor, Jason. Cassandra felt herself relax slightly now that she knew that he was back with them, and alive.
She watched as the Demigoddess with blond hair and sky-blue eyes surged forward toward the Son of Neptune. The air around her seemed to tense considerably as the pair kissed, some of her fellow Romans reaching for weapons that they didn't have. That was until the blonde haired Daughter of Minerva flipped Percy over her shoulder and onto the pavement, cries of shock and alarm rippled through the crowd like a tidal wave. Soldiers and citizens broke from the crowd to aid their praetor that was until Reyna quickly took hold of the situation.
Her voice broke through the tension easily enough, a shouted order, "Hold! Stand down!"
She heard Jason clear his throat nervously before he said to Reyna, "So, yeah,.. it's good to be back."
The Daughter of Apollo listened intently as their former Praetor introduced the other Greeks. The girl with the eagle feather in her hair was Piper, a Daughter of Venus no doubt by the way she had tried to Charms Speak on Terminus. The boy with the tool-belt flashed a peace sign after the Son of Jupiter had introduced him as Leo, obviously a Son of Vulcan. Then he introduced the blonde haired girl who had Judo-flipped Percy as Annabeth.
She vaguely tuned out the conversation between Annabeth and Reyna that was until the praetor clapped her hands in a formal manner and said, "It seems we have a lot to discuss. Centurions!" Cassandra moved next to her fellow Centurion of the third cohort, Hank. First things first, they had to go tell the rest of the legion what was going on before a war broke out. Less violence was normally a good thing among the Children of the Gods and Goddesses.
The Daughter of Apollo was about to leave with the Son of Mars, when Octavian elbowed his way through the crowd looking not at all pleased, not liking Reyna choice at all to allow the Greeks into Camp Jupiter. "You're letting these intruders into the camp?" Once he finally reached their praetor, he let his worries be known. "Reyna, the security risks…"
Reyna answer was stern as was look she was giving the augur. "We're not taking them to the camp, Octavian. We'll eat here, in the forum."
"Oh, much better." Cassandra brother's grumbled, "You want us to relax in the shadow of their warship." He walked away, the three teddy bears that hung on his belt swaying.
"You have my orders. Go." Reyna had gotten far too use to having Percy as backup.
The Daughter of Apollo glanced back at the warship as she helped Hank haul a couch to the forum; a shudder ran down her spine. She did not like the look of the Greeks' ship at all; it was giving her a really bad feeling in her stomach.
Once the forum looked like a fancy furniture showroom in a department store, Cassandra plopped herself down by her cousins, while the aurae floated above. She grabbed herself four slices of pizza and a cheeseburger, while grabbing a chocolate milkshake from a passing tray with her open hand. Adeline smiled at her cousin from where she was nibbling on a triple bacon cheeseburger. "So what Care Bear did Octavian sacrifice?"
"Love-a-Lot Bear. It seemed like a very good choice." Cassandra replied, and raised her glass as Reyna toasted to friendship, but rolled her eyes at the very thought of the two Camps ever getting along.
But when she heard Percy simply giving back the praetor position to Jason like it was no big deal, she was ready to throw a chocolate pie into his face, while Adrian kindly started whacking Octavian on the back after he started choking, yep this was all going fantastically.
After her brother had recited the Prophecy of Seven along with the unasked for help of Annabeth, Hazel piped up once the Doors of Death were mentioned. "My brother, Nico, went looking for those doors,"
Cassandra could feel her palms starting to sweat, she quickly gripped her milkshake glass and slurped down the remains until she gave herself brain freeze. She wanted to tell them what she knew, that Nico was in some place dark and dank, and smelled like death. Nico was dying, and she wanted to help him. She wanted him to come back to her alive. But these Greeks made her nervous, as nervous as their warship floating outside.
He was running out time, and so was she. What if Letus came for her before Nico came back?
A shudder slid down Cassandra spine, she wanted to scream, but instead she ordered another refill on her chocolate milkshake and watched the conversation unfold around her.