Chapter 17:
When we landed inside the camp borders by the Caldecott Tunnel we were quickly greeted by a crowd.
"Who are they?" I heard campers whisper.
"They have to be Greek campers, right?" others said loudly.
"Legion! Know your place!" a girl appeared from the crowd. When everyone saw her they all backed away. She was Puerto Rican and wore a purple shirt with an SPQR on the front. A matching purple cape flowed in the slight breeze behind her.
"What do we owe the occasion former praetor?" a boy stepped in the front and asked. He stood tall, and his black hair reminded me of Percy's. His gold armor sat on top of a purple shirt and he also had a purple cape.
"I saw these three on their way over the border and decided to check it out. It's not every day we have three people arrive at camp," the girl responded. The boy nodded and turned to us.
Before he could ask anything I spoke up, "We're here on a quest!" My voice raised over the silent campers and seemed to fill the whole valley.
"Marcus, I believe we need to talk to these three," the whole group leaned in closer to a girl that barged out of the crowd. She stood tall wearing the same thing as the boy.
"I'm sorry what is going on?" I asked. "We're here on a quest."
The girl that had emerged from the crowd turned towards me and looked me up and down smiling. Her face said something like, 'how cute she thinks this is my first rodeo?'
I felt like I was a child compared to her, but I said something that wiped the smile right off her face.
"Your city will be in ruins if we don't complete our quest!" I shouted, my voice carried over the valley more than it had before. Everyone's eyes turned toward me.
"What does that mean?" the girl in golden armor snarled. "Are you threatening us? Because you will face the wrath of the legion if you are! Peace between the camps or not I will not hold my legion back from a fight that I know they will win!"
I flicked my wrist allowing my trident to appear. The crowd gasped and stepped back leaving just the Puerto Rican girl and the girl in armor standing near me.
"I wouldn't be too sure in yourself or your... " I glanced around while holding my trident towards her chest, and with a laugh, I finish my statement, "Legion."
"You dare! Ignatius mare mitteretur! (Latin for ignorante sea spawn)" she acted like she wanted to go on but the Puerto Rican girl placed her hand on her shoulder making her stop.
"Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, daughter of Bellona, former praetor of the Twelfth Legion, assisted the seven demigods of the last Great Prophecy including your brother," Reyna stepped away from the younger girl and stuck her hand out.
I didn't accept her hand instead I turned to her and said, "Great Prophecy? Well, am I glad we're on that topic!"
…
Reyna, Marcus, and the girl that I had not yet learned the name of walked us to the Via Principalis. Nobody spoke instead we walked in complete silence. Campers watched as we walked down the main path. Whispers floated in the air around us, but I pushed them away telling myself that they were just useless rumors.
We reached a building with white columns that lined the outside. Reyna opened the door and ushered the rest of the group inside.
The room that we stood in wasn't necessarily big, but two large oak desks sat in the middle of the room. A pair of bunk beds were pushed off to the side of the room. As I examined the desks I noticed one was neat and organized while the other had papers thrown all over it.
"If only your legionnaires could see your desk," mumbled Reyna.
The girl walked over to her respective messy desk and started to clean it up. She mumbled a few things under her breath that I couldn't quite make out.
"Antonia, there is no excuse!" Reyna shouted at the girl. "But there is no time for me to argue with you we instead have a more important matter at hand." Reyna gestured toward the three of us.
Dylan stepped forward and began to explain everything that had happened to us so far this week. He stopped talking and looked at me. I noticed he didn't mention the fight he had with Hermes so I decided not to say anything. I stepped forward explaining to the group of Roman demigods that we split ways for a little over a day for professional matters and explained how I got myself to Huston. As soon as I mentioned Leo Reyna's eyes shot up towards my face.
"Valdez, he isn't… dead?" tears began to pool at the corner of her eyes, but she pushed them back.
"No, he was traveling with a girl and a giant bronze dragon. He said something about heading to Camp Half-Blood," Reyna nodded. I continued on explaining that Liam and Dylan met up with me in Huston. Finally, I finished that I hadn't mentioned any of my dreams or what Liam had said to me after I woke up.
"You said something about a Great Prophecy, what does this prophecy say?" Marcus asked.
"When Rome's in ruins, the gods shall lose two sons. The price of their greed shall spark a hero's need. They will fall, And lose it all." Liam spoke up for the first time since we entered the camp.
Antonia scoffed, "Can't you see how much of a threat these three are to our camp? We're putting our cam on the line for the sake of their quest. I will not allow this. I will not allow them to start a war in my camp! As long as I'm praetor!" she shouted.
"Antonia, please they are here for obvious reasons and they are not putting our camp on the line. The Great Prophecy says that New Rome will fall to ruins and we can't change the future. I'm not saying we should accept it, but everyone knows if you try to avoid the future you'll just make it worse for yourself," Marcus stated calmly.
Antonia looked from Marcus to Reyna to the three of us and back to Marcus.
"Fine," she said coldly, "But if one of them turns out to put my camp on the line I will personally send them to Tartarus."
Marcus nodded and said, "Where is your next stop?"
"Good question. We're looking for a god that faces a threat twice, and supposedly they will blame themself for the war." Liam told the three demigods. "But as for our next stop, that's a good question. I think the best option is for us to go ask Hades for his consul because the entrance to his realm is very close."
"That makes sense, but I think right now it's the best idea for you to rest here for a night," Reyna told us. Nobody wanted to argue with her so we all agreed.
As we exited the building Reyna pulled me aside.
"Would you mind sparring with me? I need to clear my head and I figure you also do as well," she said.
"Sure but just to warn you I haven't had a ton of practice with either of my weapons yet," I stated.
"You're telling me that you traveled across the country and didn't run into a single monster?" Reyna said with a laugh.
"Well, kind of," I told her. She looked at me confusion spread across her face. "When we travel with Liam monsters don't attack us I guess. I mean the two times Liam wasn't around was when I got attacked by the same monster."
"Stange I've never heard of anything like that before," Reyna said but swatted her hand as if she was trying to rid the thought. "I can't believe you haven't practiced with your weapons and thought it was smart to threaten a Roman praetor," she said with a laugh.
We walked through the Via Principalis in comfortable silence. Even though it was just the sleeping corridors for the campers the architecture was breathtaking. The atmosphere was so different from the atmosphere at Camp Half-Blood. Here it was more serious and strict but you could definitely feel that everyone had an amazing connection with everyone around them. Maybe it was because of the crazy amount of training they do together or maybe it was for a different unknown reason.
I followed Reyna to a small building. She opened up the door and inside I saw there was a small gym. It wasn't like any mortal gym instead there were weapons and dummies all over the place. There were a few normal things like a treadmill, some racks with weights sitting next to them, and a few benches. In the middle, there was a small ring. A few small bleachers surrounded the ring from all sides.
"Not many people use this facility because of all of the other training the campers have but for us, Romans like to have anything we need at the tips of our fingers," Reyna said while heading over to a far wall. She tapped a brick on the wall, and the wall slid to the side. Lining the new wall there were a full polished set of armor and any weapon you could imagine. Most of them were pure gold but there were a few that were bronze.
Reyna grabbed a chest piece from the wall and picked up a gold sword. She gestured to the wall but I shook my head. She shrugged and touched the same brick having the wall slide back into its normal place. Then she walked over to one of the bleaches and put on her armor. It took a few minutes but she didn't ask for any help with the straps.
"Are you sure you don't want any armor? I wouldn't want to kill you while we're just sparring," Reyna said with a laugh.
"I have my own," I assured her. She looked at me like I was crazy. "Λειτουργεί!" Reyna's face harden when my armor appeared.
"Lucky, you don't have to deal with all of these straps," she said with a growl. I laughed at her.
"You ready to lose?" I asked her.
"I wouldn't be too sure of yourself. I killed the great hunter Orion with my cloak," she gestured to the cloak that was still on her back. I swallowed hard and it was Reyna's turn to laugh.
I flicked my wrist and allowed my sword to appear. Reyna stared at the dark metal. Finally, she decided on what to do. She spun her sword in her hand and approached me. This took me off guard because I thought that she was going to fight more defensively because it was "more Roman."
She was close enough to attack and still have room to retreat from my attack, but she continued to approach me. I made the mistake and made the first move. She expected my move and sidestepped causing me to lose my balance. As I tried to regain my balance she hit me with the flat of her blade causing me to fall to the ground. I rolled avoiding her next strike. For a few minutes, we went back and forth just pairing each other's blows.
Then, I had an idea. I allowed myself to mess up. She caught my slip up and swiped at my feet. I expected this and jumped hoping she would hit me again with the flat of her blade. She did and for the second time in a matter of minutes, I fell o the ground. She made her way to me to tell me to yield, but when she got close enough I flicked my wrist twice having my trident appear. I swept it under her feet, rolled towards where she would hit the ground, and before she could figure out what had happened I had her disarmed.
"Yield," I growled placing my trident under her chin.
"You're in fact a child of the Big Three. It takes a powerful demigod to disarm a daughter of a Roman war goddess," Renya said with a laugh. Pure joy glinted in her eyes.
"Quite a show you two put on," Liam appeared in the doorway clapping. "But I need Mya for a few minutes."
"Have her I just wanted a quick spar," Reyna told him.
Liam nodded and gestured for me to follow him. I looked at Reyna and she waved her hand at me. I sighed not wanting to go with Liam but knew I had no other choice. I left the small building following Liam. It was close to sundown and the Roman city looked even more beautiful than it had before. I allowed my armor and weapon to disappear.
"Have you thought more about what I said while we were on the back of that pegasus?" Liam asked.
I hadn't. In fact, I really wanted to forget it.
"No, because it didn't make sense," I told him honestly.
"It made perfect sense you just don't want to admit it," Liam responded.
The light was quickly fading and we were wandering farther from the Via Principalis. I allowed myself to be on full alert of everything. I was prepared for anything, so when Liam set his hand on the hilt of his sword I flinched.
"Stand down Mya. I'm not going to hurt you," he said with a chuckle. His tone turned more serious, "I know who you met in the alleyway before Dylan got in his fight with Hermes."
"How do you know so many things about me?" I asked coldly. "You knew what Kelli was saying to Dylan and me in the janitor's closet, you know that I met Eros in the alleyway. What else do you know?"
"I can sense things, Mya. I don't know how to explain it. It just happens." he told me. I could sense he wasn't lying.
"Do you think it's because of your godly parent?" Liam's mouth pinked into a small thin line. His shoulders began to tense, but then he stops stopped and relaxed.
"I don't know but that could be the case," he told me. He looked up at the now almost twilight sky. The stars were bright and the sky was clear. "Take a good look at the sky, Mya. We're going into Hade's realm who knows how long it's going to be until we see the stars again." With that, he headed back to the Via Principalis.
…
Marcus showed me where I was going to be sleeping or the night. Of course, I couldn't sleep near Liam or Dylan because of "legion rules" but the small room that I was given was comfy.
"Don't hesitate to get a lar if you need anything they'll get either Antonia or me," Marcus told me.
"Thank you," he nodded and headed off to wherever he needed to be.
After an hour of turning, I headed into the realm of Morpheus.
…
I stood in the middle of Central Park. Everything was quiet and calm. There was nobody around and the whole city seemed to be in some sort of trance.
"Mya!" I turned around and saw a beaming Luke.
"Luke where have you been?" his smile was replaced by a thin white line.
"Something has been keeping me from seeing you in your dreams," he said in a soft whisper. I nodded with a small shiver. "Is everything ok?"
"Yeah, I was just thinking about the dreams I've had recently," I admitted. Luke nodded but didn't push me to share with him.
"How has your quest been?" he asked turning towards me.
"H wow it's been a while since I've seen you," I said aloud. "I killed an empousa, saw your father, found a hero that was supposed to be dead for fifteen years, lost and got my friends back, and did all of that while being stalked by the god of love. Oh and I spared with a former praetor, and beat her."
"Sounds exciting!" Luke said enthusiastically.
"Yeah it's been interesting," I admitted.
"Do you know where you're heading next?"
"The Underworld," I responded softly. His mouth formed an o. The temperature dropped about thirty degrees.
"Are you sure what you're looking for is there" Luke's voice was far away and my vision began to swim.
"Luke?" I called out to him.
"Mya? I'm here what's wrong?" he asked. His voice was even farther away than it had been.
"Luke!" I shouted but it was too late. My dream shifted I stood next to the pit where I had met Luke in our first dream encounter. Tied up and beaten on the ground I saw two bruised and bloody bodies. I slowly made my way over to them.
Voices screamed at me, "Run!" and "It's too late for them safe yourself!" I ignored the voices and pushed myself harder to reach the figures that were lying so close to me now. Finally, I turned the first onto their back to see if I knew them.
My blood went cold. I flipped the second figure onto it's back, and slowly my heart began to shatter and break apart. Bloody and pretty dang close to broken lying at my dream form's fingertips, but far from my physical form was Percy and Annabeth.
"P-P-Percy?" Annabeth croaked. Tears stung my eyes.
"Surrender to me, foolish demigod. Become my pawn. Help me win this war and I will let them go, but if you instead decide to take matters into your own hands I promise you that they will go through their worst nightmare again, and this time they will not survive!" the dark powerful voice that had haunted me in my dream returned. "You can't beat me, so come to me. Come to the Underworld and you will know what to choose, but for now, suffer knowing they are slowly and painfully dying!"
My dream faded and I was back with Luke.
"I got addicted to a losing game!" I screamed. Luke rushed over to me as I fell to my knees crying. He held me and whispered things that I couldn't hear.
Fairyn~ Thank you once again for reviewing. I'm sorry about this chapter's cliffhanger (but not really because it fit for the next part of the story).
Please review it would mean a ton and thank you for over 500 readers that is crazy and I'm glad so many people read my story. Also, I used the song Arcade by Duncan Laurence for this chapter.
~Emily