Annabeth soon found that the "test" was going to just be a race. Granted, it wasn't a traditional race, but that's not what Annabeth gathered from the straight tracks and barricades that led along a straight path into the city from Temple Hill.

She saw a good fifteen people stretching, including both Nathan and Hazel. Frank was on the sidelines. "Good; I couldn't punch a face that cuddly," Annabeth thought, even before she heard the rules.

Within minutes of their arrival, Reyna had quieted those that were gathered. "Brothers and sisters. We have an unusual event for you tonight, before our feast. This newcomer believes she has the right to choose which cohort she belongs to. And she very well may have that right, but she has to earn it!" she called loudly. "The rules are simple. A race from here to the other side of the Field of Mars. Whoever wins the race, they get the newcomer. If she wins, then she decides," she announced to roars of challenge coming from each cohort in turn. "Though this is no ordinary jog. All war games rules are in effect; use whatever tactic you so desire to win; weapons are allowed, armor is allowed, and all runners are required to wear at least a helmet. There will be no grievous injuries, dismemberment or brain trauma. No exceptions. I will observe, and the rest of you will be my witnesses," her gaze darted to Annabeth, who was staring at her expectantly. "And no, I refuse to aid her in this trial. No surprises, and no exceptions to the rules. Any questions?"

At first, no one did, and the excitement stirred. "I've got one," Tempus called from beside the Greek. Eyes turned to him. "Can I join in?"

"…Why?" Annabeth wondered.

"Give me a reason and I may consider it."

"Because you're got your retainer in Octavian. I think I want one too."

"Hey, I'm not an object," Annabeth glared.

"Never said you were," Tempus said. "But I could use a good sprint anyway."

She found herself smirking, though she knew she should have been angrier. The rest of the Legion didn't seem to know what to make of this. It seemed like they were having difficulty judging whether or not it would be unfair. "More evidence to the fact that he's new; they have no idea what to make of him either," she thought, silently wondering about the intricacies of how the Mist messed with their heads.

Reyna gave the man a hard stare for a moment, before nodding. "I'll allow it. But I'm putting a handicap on you; no weapons, no armor, even a helmet."

"Fine by me; I don't use weapons anyway."

Annabeth considered that for a moment. "…I'll take no weapons too," she announced, tossing her dagger to Reyna. "And I'll go with just a helmet."

There was a wave of shock that went through the crowd. How arrogant did this newcomer have to be to assume that that was all she needed, and especially when going up against multiple trained centurions and a praetor?

"…Aye, but that's your choice, lass," Reyna said., as if already writing her off. "You running lot, to the start line!" she commanded, and everyone obeyed.

"You seem pretty confident, newcomer," Tempus mentioned.

"Right back at you, newcomer," she returned, saying the last part under her breath so as not to ruin to ruse. "It…is a secret that you're new, right?"

"Yes, it is. But even if you tell people, they probably won't believe you with the Mist veil and all."

Soon, everyone was in their places, and doing any final stretches. Then, they all got ready to dash. As they did so, Annabeth made a quick mental note of who she was up against; at least one centurion from each cohort, along with several others from the First, Second, and Fifth. Reyna didn't mention a member limit, so Annabeth could only assume the Third and Fourth didn't want her too badly.

Then there was Tempus, who Annabeth realized she could've interrogated him when they were alone at the principia, but the thought hadn't even crossed her mind. Apart from that, she knew she had to weary; the degree of his confidence was astounding, especially given that he was new to Camp Jupiter, meaning he probably only knew a bit more about the others' capabilities than Annabeth did. "Who is he…?" she thought. "I know I've met him before…somewhere…."

"On your marks!" Reyna's call shook her out of her thoughts. Annabeth's mind returned to the matter at hand. She figured that at least of few people would try and grab her, keep her down. Nathan, at least, knew she was a threat, so it was likely that he would order his Legionnaires to do something dirty like that. Then again, she didn't plan on playing fair either. "Get set!" Annabeth's gaze once again returned to Tempus, whose eyes were focused ahead of him. His breathing was deep, in and out through the mouth; he was going to sprint. With how long his legs were, she expected him to push ahead pretty far. She wondered if it wouldn't be a bad idea to try and hitch a ride, so to speak, by grabbing his arm and forcing him to drag her along with him. She ultimately decided against it; if he were half a good as he boasted, he would be expecting something like that. The Greek faced forward. "Go!"

She let out a quick breath as her adrenaline flared. "Run. Run as fast as you can!" she broke into a run, but wasn't expecting a massive dust cloud to choke her immediately.

She ran through as fast she could, and once she was through, she saw Tempus racing ahead of her, leading her by at least ten yards within Annabeth's first couple of strides.

She didn't have time to linger on him, though, as her suspicions came true. She had to leap and dive over several Legionnaires attempting to hold her and the other centurions down. Within the initial chaos, Annabeth felt her arms be nicked in several areas, but she hardly felt it as she pounded down the path, hearing the chaos behind her.

Several sets of feet kept pace with her, namely Hazel, who was surprisingly swift for her size, Nathan, of course, and Michael, from the Third. The three veered closer to her. "Of course they'd try and stop me," she thought, rolling her eyes. She peered ahead, seeing that Tempus had slowed down about thirty yards past them. He was jogging backwards, watching her, as if saying "I'm bored; give me a show." She glared when she figured out what he was doing; toying with her. Then Nathan brushed up against her, trying to trip her up. "Focus on the goal," she reminded herself. She tried to move away from him, but Michael boxed her in from the other side, with Hazel bringing up the rear. "Formation; did they practice? Or is that just their tendency?" she found herself wondering. Either way, it was bad news for her.

She could stop and quickly take out Hazel, but then she'd have to push herself even harder to catch up to the other two, and then have to deal with them. She glanced behind her, seeing that the way was clear; no dust. She looked down, seeing, and feeling, gravel behind her. Annabeth had to duck under a sword stab from Michael, which was sent toward Nathan, who'd blocked it with a shield he'd brought. Hazel was slowly catching up, and would soon be in range to use her cavalry sword.

To try an idea, Annabeth dove forward and to the right. Their reaction was predictable; they retained their formation around her. It was getting tighter, and would soon be close enough to destroy her, but its pace was dictated entirely by Annabeth, and she could use that. Truth be told, the others weren't far behind her, including those of the First and Second, so if she could…

Annabeth slowed down slightly, and they did with her. Within enough time…Hazel was already in range with her sword. Annabeth had to briefly slow down even more, allowing the other two to push ahead slightly, to ward off Hazel's blow with a careful palm onto its flat. Thankfully, the action was just enough to allow the others to catch up. Annabeth sprinted ahead, while Hazel was left to deal with the Legionnaires.

By this point, they'd entered the city. The path made a ninety-degree turn to the left in its center, and from there was a straight path through the Field of Mars. She pounded across the dry, cold dirt of the road; they charged straight down it, rather than on the paved walkways on the sides.

If she kept up this pace, she'd reach them just as they all had to turn. She formulated a rudimentary plan with no backup, because she didn't have the time to think of one. Thankfully, her plan worked out perfectly.

She made a final push, her center of gravity low. She scooped up dirt and gravel and dust, and pounded between the two as they reached the corner. They both tried to trip her up, but she avoided their attempts, and threw her piles of dust into their faces. This was so unexpected that they stopped in their tracks and coughed up a lung, allowing Annabeth to take a huge lead. Well, aside from Tempus, who was clapping ahead of her. He slowed down further, allowing her to catch up.

"Nice trick," he commented.

"Go away," she ordered, her heart pounding in her chest. "You cheated."

"How so? Just because I'm the son of Mercury, god of the most awesome runners."

"Yeah, I'd count that as cheating anyway. You knew you'd win, so where's the fun?"

"The fun is in seeing you deal with stuff like that," he said before sprinting far ahead again. Annabeth quickly whirled around, having to slide under an attack by Hazel, who had caught up. She was the last person who was keeping pace. Nathan was with the majority of the others, and Michael was still at the turning point.

"Sorry, I was aiming for him," she claimed. The two girls kept pace with each other. Tempus remained ahead, though not nearly as far as last time. "You wanna team up on him?" Hazel wondered, remembering that Annabeth already said she'd join the Fifth if she was successful in the test; at this point, it was a race to stop Tempus. Annabeth considered it for a moment. Then she took off her helmet.

Without warning, she slashed it across the ground in front of her, sending up, in the dirt, a huge storm of dust. Hazel stopped momentarily, taking in what that meant. "Alright, fine; have it your way!" she called in the cloud. She saw someone approach. "Sorry about this!"

Hazel stabbed where Annabeth's leg should've been, but instead, she hit cloth, having impaled her shirt only. Hazel heard footsteps behind her, and as soon as she turned, Annabeth let loose a punch with all of her might, her helmet in her other hand. The punch followed through, shooting Hazel into the ground as Annabeth kept running. "No, I don't want your help; I want to win this alone," she thought resolutely. For a brief moment, though, she didn't see how she would accomplish this task.

Tempus was ahead of her, looking to be about to do a final sprint, as the goal was in sight. Annabeth glared him, steadying her heartrate.

The praetor turned back briefly, so sure of his victory. The last thing he expected was to see a rogue Roman infantry helmet careening towards his face. Time stopped for him, literally. "…Do I avoid it? Do I go ahead and win?" he asked himself. He chuckled. "Nah…she deserves a win for this," he decided, reactivating time just as the helmet collided with his cheek, sending him spiraling to the ground. He pretended to act unconscious from the blow; best not to reveal how durable he was.

Annabeth put her hand on her hip triumphantly. "Yeah! Stee-rike!" she exclaimed happily, before hearing the charging parade of runners behind her. She jumped slightly, before running across the finish line alone. Reyna landed alongside her as they waited for the others to catch up. By the time they did, Annabeth was shaking from the cold. "C-can I-I have a s-shirt?" he asked as she pulled her beanie down more to cover her ears and shroud a bit of her eyes. Tempus removed his jacket and handed it to her, which she accepted gratefully. "Thank you."

"Careful; it's not like the gods make it easy and warm for us here," Tempus reminded. "You should probably dress warmer."

"Brothers and sisters, the newcomer has come out victorious!" she called, though her gusto sounded forced. Annabeth guessed that she didn't approve of her tactics, like she didn't during the war games. "Annabeth," she addressed the older girl. "You've earned this right; where would you like to belong?"

She looked around to the different Centurions who were staring at her expectantly. Part of her wanted to refuse the decision and let them fight; that way it wouldn't be her that was disappointing them. She noted that Hazel was absent, but didn't think much of it at the time. She found out later than she was sent to the infirmary for a broken nose and mild concussion, which Annabeth felt bad about.

Then she looked to Tempus, who didn't seem to care either way. "Strange, he said he wanted me as a retainer before. Now he doesn't seem to care either way…"

She pointed at him. "You. I pick you," she announced. "But the roles will be reversed. You're my retainer."

Looks of shock, awe, and anger lay upon her after she said that. "Who does she think she is?"

"Is that even allowed?"

"He's a praetor, not a dog."

"She's technically probatio, right?"

Reyna looked the angriest. "That wasn't one of the options, newcomer," she growled, her anger warding off those around her. "Choose something else."

Annabeth stood her ground. "I won't. You said I earned the right to choose, right? Roman law dictates that you must respect my choice, especially when you didn't specifically state that I had to choose one of your options."

Reyna's face turned red like a tomato, but she nodded. More shocked murmurs ran through the crowd. "…I'll allow this…but for talking back to your praetor, you're assigned to clean-up for the next two months."

"What? What about food?"

"Fill up in the morning," she said coldly. "As for the rest of you; you know where we eat. Off with you!"

Tempus put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder and mouthed 'good luck', before going with the rest of the Legion to preside over dinner. Reyna and Annabeth stayed behind, the former slipping off of her mount and sending her flying off. They stood there for a moment, Annabeth avoiding Reyna's death glare. "So, uh…where are the shovels?" she asked nervously. She wasn't afraid of Reyna, but…this kind of hostility wasn't an easy thing to shake from when dealing with anyone.

"Do you have a death wish, you daft wench?" she questioned. "You can't keep going around making such rash proclamations."

"Who says?"

"I do!" Reyna snapped, storming up to her and getting into the older girl's face. "And stop talking back to me! This is the part where you shut your pretty trap!" The Greek set her jaw. She could feel Reyna's breath on her lips. It smelled of sakura. "I'm trying my damnedest to keep you alive, but if you push any further, than it would be a grievous disservice to Rome itself not to have you executed!"

She stepped back and took a deep breath, trying in vain to calm herself. She did several things to help this, all to no avail. She rubbed her temples, looked to the calm sky, rubbed the bags under her eyes, generally refused to look at Annabeth for the rest of the night.

Once she figured she was alright to continue, Reyna started walking. "Follow," she ordered. Annabeth trailed behind her. They went to a small storehouse, where Reyna picked up two shovels. She handed it to Annabeth as she walked past, not looking at her, leading her to a part of the city that she hadn't been to before, the destroyed part that Annabeth had spotted on her first day.

She saw a mechanism that was used to haul gathered rubble into canisters to be disposed of, though they weren't being operated at the time. Reyna started digging. "…How long do I have to do this?" Annabeth wondered.

"Until I say."

Seeing that she didn't want to talk, Annabeth kept her mouth shut and started digging. Within two hours, as the sun had long since set and the moon shone on them, they hadn't made much progress. This was a hundred men's worth of work, at least. With two people, Annabeth hadn't expected to make much of a dent in the pile.

"I'm sorry," she said finally, getting tried to being so silent the whole time. "…If it's really that bad, I'll take it back."

"…The Senate will discuss it later…" Reyna said quietly, still not facing the older girl. An awkward silence followed, before Reyna sighed and stopped working for a moment. "…Why do you insist upon going against every one of our rules?" she asked.

"Mm, impulsiveness," she claimed. "Or maybe your rules are just stupid. Maybe don't try so hard to keep me under your foot."

"I'm trying to keep you where I can see you," Reyna argued.

"And why do you need to do that?" The younger girl didn't respond, just started digging again. "Oh okay, just shut me out again. Fine, I'll find out some other way," she said, frustrated. She was about to continue working when Reyna spoke.

"…Are you so blind?" she asked. Her voice was shaky, as if threatening to break. "…I don't keep you out of Rome's affairs, only my own. You've no right to demand this answer."

"…You're tired," Annabeth said. "You need sleep, even Tempus said so."

"Don't!" she snapped. "Don't…say that name…not now…I don't care what you say, or what you do, lass. I only ask one thing of you; draw breath and continue doing so. You wonder why I find trouble in your independence. My answer is that I know where that path leads…all too well, I know where it leads…"

"Listen…I'm sorry about your friend, but…I'm not her," Annabeth assured.

Reyna looked at her briefly, before turning away again. "You're right…you're not…because she at least knew she was heading down a self-destructive path."

And with that, no more words were spoken between them. At some point Reyna had deemed that they had done enough took Annabeth's shovel before leaving her. With nowhere else to go, Annabeth returned to the principia, where she found Octavian and Tempus asleep. She went to her room as well, and heard Reyna shuffle in soon after.

Reyna wanted to sleep, but her eyes wouldn't stay shut. She'd wanted to sleep for so many nights, but she usually only succeeded as the sun was beginning to rise. That notebook had destroyed her schedule, as she loomed over it constantly, waiting for Tempus' next entry. She didn't want it tonight, and so, she received it.

Reyna, in an act that had become ritual over the past few days and would continue to do so in the coming ones, flipped to the next open page and waited for a few seconds. She expected nothing to appear, as had happened every night since she received her first message. This night, however, Tempus spoke to her. Her next entry said as such:

"My dearest friend,

I realize I left it ambiguous as to my own fate in my last entry. This is because I don't know it, as most don't. But whatever may happen, I know that I will no longer be praetor, and I will have left Camp Jupiter in one way or another. I hope that it was on somewhat amiable terms. With any luck, after you finish reading, you will be able to contact me for clarification, should you need it.

With that out of the way, I want to move on to what concerns you; yourself. When you first arrived at camp, I resented you. I'm willing to admit that. I would go further and say that those feelings are still there inside me, as of the time of this writing. Your sister, for what brief time she stayed here before leaving, told me of your journey to camp, all the way back to that cursed island. She told me of how you managed to slay the greatest pirate the mortal world had ever known at a mere thirteen years of age, with no proper training.

It wouldn't be fair for me to pass judgement on the difficulty and stress of your encounter, as I'm sure most of camp had has a similar experience with their first monster. Yours just happened to be with one of the mortal world's best, instead of one of the immortal world's worst. I want to come back to my thoughts on what it says about you, but for now, I simply acknowledge it.

I'll say it again; I didn't like you one bit when you first arrived. You were loud, reckless, and worst of all, arrogant. That arrogance got you into quite a bit of trouble in your first year or so. Even as soon as you made Centurion, your cohort was saying you would become a praetor soon. I suspect they thought this, not for any of your leadership ability, though you possess quite a bit of it, but rather because you do so poorly as a follower. Your only mode of operations was as the boss, which is fine if it was tempered properly, which I hope I was able to do; gods know I've given you enough to fight against to temper your skills as a leader.

And with that, I will disclose a secret, a secret between Mother and I. You may choose to skip over this, as I know how much you respect her and wish to retain her integrity. I would understand if you did so. These next two paragraphs which detail that secret will conclude this entry, if you wish to stop now.

Mother came to me personally when you were brought to us. I'm sure you recall when you were appraised by dear Octavian, instead of just the gods answering his call, Mother howled once for you. She blessed you, and I didn't understand. Thankfully, I wouldn't have to wonder for very long, as Mother contacted me, as praetor.

She said that I was to help you along; that you were to be my responsibility alone. She said to temper you into Rome's greatest weapon. I assume she foresaw you aiding Camp Jupiter a great deal, for her to tell that to me. If she saw that, then did she also see that my fellow praetor wouldn't return from our quest, and thus she left it to me? And if that was the case, was I still her first choice? It's unlikely, given how far I've strayed from her ideals.

But with that, I will leave you again.

Your Tammy"

Reyna read the entire thing several times, feeling much less satisfied than with the first. The several instances of irony didn't sit right with the daughter of Bellona. The bit about Mother didn't bother her and she was no stranger to rumors of a praetor in the making. She basked in the glory of praise and compliments; to have that from Mother was even better.

No, what bothered her was the implication, that Tempus had had to give her special treatment. It brought into question whether she had thought the changes to Camp Jupiter were for the best, or if they were political fodder for Reyna to fight against. She prayed to the gods that it was the former; that Tempus had truly believed in those alterations, instead of senselessly fighting for them.

Reyna slipped into bed then, no closer to sleep than when she entered her room.

Author's Note:

So fun fact: you can have the entirety of The Lord of the Flies read to you, in audiobook form, within a single 7.5 hour work shift. Which I did today...yeah.

Another fun fact: this is in contention as my favorite chapter within this adaptation, tied with chapter 28. It just has, imo, a good action sequence mixed with a huge amount of character. I'm happier with this version of the chapter than the one I originally wrote, where the scene where the two girls are digging went on a lot longer and they bickered like catty bitches for like three pages. This is one is short, sweet, and to the point; kind of a mantra in how I write.

Anyhoo, enough about my thoughts; why don't you share yours in a review?