"Lay a finger on her and I'll kill you myself."

Reyna's inner self won and she was not able to hold herself back when Diocletian threatened to eradicate her. The rawness that she felt was oddly empowering, suddenly there was something concrete that she would fight for. Not just the claims of saving the world.

"Oh," Diocletian's eyes sparkled. "Of course, you have already reached out to the sky girl. You do know who she is, don't you? That priestess of the Oracle of Delphi is quite something. Too bad we were not able to get her first."

It was a blow to Reyna's face. She just gave another leverage to Diocletian.

"Tell me who she is, praetor."

"No."

"Very well." The emperor mused. "We stick to the original plan."

"What are you going to do to me? Take me to your underground bunker and hold me captive until I die?"

"That is what Gaius suggested." He moved across the room near the mirror where a few paraphernalia were. Reyna tried to reach out to Annabeth in worry, maybe she was still in there but she just hoped that the Greek already ran away. "But I said I could reason with you without coercing you."

"I see why you are doing this and I understand it but this isn't justifiable anymore."

"I had killed thousands of Jews and Christians back in my time for the gods to remain in power over Rome and you are aware of that but you admired me still. Now, tell me that again."

Diocletian turned and with a large syringe in hand.

"What is that?" Reyna backed up against the wall. She could not fight, she could try. "What is that?"

"Do not fight me, young praetor." Diocletian approached her. "I am not like many emperors who never saw blood, who never actually killed in battle, who never trained in the legion."

"What is that, Sir?" Despite everything, her respect for this man was still there. She was not afraid of dying but rather of something much worse than that. She could gladly die as a Roman praetor but not as someone else's puppet.

"This will allow Allie to assess you."

Assess her? "The AI, Becca's AI."

"Yes, she will discern your mind to see what it is that you are seeing wrongly." Diocletian sounded so persuasive; she almost stopped struggling to get away. "But this will only work with your consent. You have to decide to let her in."

The needle bore into her soul, calling her. Reyna had to hold her ground and stand still. She was firm on this. She turned away from Diocletian who let out an exasperated sigh.

"I have someone else that might talk some sense to you."

The door opened and Reyna's heart fell into another chasm, another betrayal right before her eyes. She was just accepting him back to her life, as her best friend, the one who once knew her best, the one who never let her down, someone she trusted.

"Jason." Her voice broke. "Why?"

He proudly stood beside Diocletian who patted him on the back. "I believe you two know each other?"

"Reyna, please." He pleaded. "If you don't, you'll die."

"I already have when you left."

"I left because I thought I could." He said. "Because I thought they have you."

The words cut deep. Reyna was not able to stop everything from showing. Every painful nights alone in her bunk, alone in the camp, alone waiting for Jason to return. He never returned because he assumed that she was just fine.

"Please?"

"No."

"Very well." Diocletian took out a silver revolver from the inside pocket of his suit. "I wished it did not have to come to this, Jason."

"You think I am afraid to die?" Reyna was shaking in both fear and resentment.

"No, my dear." The emperor was eerily calm. "Not you."

Reyna's eyes widened at the realization when Jason knelt in front of Diocletian, ready to offer his life for the cause of the Triumvirate. The emperor pointed the muzzle directly at Jason's skull and her once co-praetor did not even flinch at the contact.

"Let yourself be enlightened." Diocletian's finger inched to pulling the trigger. "Or he dies."

"You wouldn't kill another Roman."

"But he is not. Not anymore. I only needed his service specifically to get you, which reminds me, he is a traitor." Jason blinked hard at that. "He turned away from Rome. I could gladly kill him if you do not change your mind."

Reyna let her fingers touch Jason's. He was not shaking not even a little bit but he slowly gripped her hand tight almost as if saying everything he wanted to say to her.

"Do not let your friends, the boy you love die for your lack of insight."

"No." Reyna's lip quivered. "I'm sorry, Jason. I never loved you, not that way."

That was when Jason breathed openly. That was when Reyna was also free. And that was when Diocletian cocked his head nonchalantly as he pulled the trigger.

His glasses fell down on her feet. The bullet even pierced through his head and grazed Reyna by the arm.

Jason was still looking at her with those same but dead eyes that she thought she loved before crashing down to the floor. His blood splattered all over her shirt and Reyna was temporarily left broken. A Roman does not mourn until the battle is won. But her heart is mourning. Jason once told her to lighten up. She hated how annoying he was and could have given anything for him to leave her alone until he went missing. She never said how much he meant to him, she was praetor now because of Jason and no one ever knew that.

"Who's next?" Diocletian stared at the dead body in front of him. "I told you to not let your friends be killed because of your tenacity."

She thought she could win over Diocletian but not when Annabeth is involved. Reyna was still frozen on her feet when Diocletian left the room until he came back dragging her by the hair.

Annabeth was kicking and lashing out but Diocletian already had his strong hands on her. Her eye was black-and-blue and her lips were bloody. Reyna made the mistake of yelling at Diocletian and attacking him when he pointed his gun at Annabeth's head.

Another mistake was when she stopped with her hands up in the air.

"Oh," Diocletian smiled and Reyna knew she was exposed. "you finally realize that I am not bluffing?"

"Let her go."

"You already had the boy you cared about killed, how would this one differ?" Reyna almost exploded when Diocletian squeezed Annabeth's jaw, making Annabeth whimper in pain. "She is Greek have you lost yo–oh holy Jupiter, it is her, the sky girl."

Reyna and Annabeth eyes met. Annabeth was in pain but she acts as if she could still hold her own.

Diocletian guffawed in his epiphany. "In every era, it was always the Greek and the Romans. The French Revolution, the American Civil War, even in the World War II and the Cold War. You see, we were told that Romans are those who would survive on Earth and of course, ha! The people who will survive in space are Greeks. How could Nero never figured this out already?"

There are a lot of things Diocletian and the Triumvirate knows but not what Reyna and Annabeth were afraid to be uncovered.

"I'll do what you want." Reyna gave up. "Just let her go."

The emperor looked so smug for his discovery and it was showing that he was debating over whether or not to let the sky girl who would someday pose a threat to him go. He pressed his prominent jaws together and for a second Reyna was tempted to beg.

But she could not. She could not let Diocletian know the last piece of his puzzle.

He could never know of Lexa's strong feelings for Clarke.

"I'll let that AI asses me, okay?" Reyna tried not to give it away. "Just let her and my friend go. Swear to the empire you wouldn't lay another finger on her. Or my friend."

At the mention of the empire, which something all the emperors hold dear. He let Annabeth go, tossing her to Reyna. Annabeth sank into her arms and was shivering in the most silent way possible.

"I swear to the greatest empire the world has ever seen. I swear to Rome that this girl and that other one would have nothing to fear from me."

"Okay."

"But I cannot speak for the other Triumvirate."

Annabeth clung to her, afraid to let go. "Reyna, don't."

"I have to. You and Percy should go."

"No. I won't leave you."

Reyna let herself to look into Annabeth's eyes. "Don't make this any harder for me. Go."

"But Reyna–"

She took Annabeth's head close to hers to whisper to her ear but the daughter of Athena did not care that they have audience and pulled her in for a desperate and messy kiss. Reyna tasted blood on her mouth. The hunger for each other completely showed, the both of them communicating with their lips, the both of them too afraid that if they let go, it would be their last.

"Go save the world and come for me later."

Watching Annabeth walk away was the hardest thing she has ever done. Reyna did not want to look at anything else but at Annabeth until she was gone.

They could have just hope that Diocletian does not suspect anything more from Clarke and Lexa though he obviously was taken aback about having the explanation that he needs as to why Reyna could not let Annabeth die. The emperor's expression was caught in between a smirk and a scowl. He might have commented something a while ago but with Annabeth, everything else becomes background as always.

"Calm down." Diocletian tried to assuage as he was placing the needle on her neck. "The next time you see her it will be as a different person."

The needle stung a bit.

Diocletian emptied the syringe straight to her jugular vein.

Reyna was dazed. Her legs wobbled that she had to hold the walls for support. Jason was still there, lifeless on the pool of his own blood.

All she saw was red in blur, Jason on the floor and then Diocletian.

And then another person standing stiffly in red.

"Hello Reyna." The woman said in monotone. "I am now evaluating your mental views. Evaluating complete."

Reyna could only blink as she tried to remain conscious.

"You seek to destroy me. You know about my protocol. You wish to stop me from cleansing the Earth." The woman in red was the AI. "I cannot be fully destroyed. My creator designed me to be part of every mainframe that I reach."

"She will have you destroyed." Reyna was not sure of it anymore. "She will."

"The problem is that you neglect yourself." Allie pressed her buttons but somehow Reyna let her. "In oppose to the nature of human being. You run away from everything. Your past, your pain and your feelings because you assume that this would spare you from any more pain."

Allie cocked her head in her neutral expression that says she was amused of Reyna's complexities.

"Think about yourself. You can choose to survive and live. It is up to you and not her." The AI knew about Annabeth. "You deserve to live, Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano. You deserve to live."

"I..." Reyna opened her mouth and her eyes. "I do deserve to live."