Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or the Heroes of Olympus series
A/N: Thank you to all of you that read the first chapter and an even bigger thanks to those that reviewed/followed/favorited. It means a lot to me, and huzzah finals is finally over, and I plan to write a shit ton more. A quick response to some questions though.
Yes, I do plan on having Percy not regaining his memories back. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see how it goes, as I want to tamper with that premise in this story.
Italics: "Fight me" - Thoughts
And without further ado chapter 2.
Forest Near Caldecott Tunnel
June 1st, 2010
Around 8:00 pm
"A Gladius she says." Percy mused to himself as he walked through the forest hearing the faint sounds of cars on the freeway.
He took out the sword inspecting it as he walked. It was well-balanced and since it was given to him by Lupa he knew it was something he could use to fight back against monsters even if he didn't know what type of metal it was. Percy leaned against a tree spinning his gladius in his hand as he thought about what Minerva said to him. He knew the prophecy was what would decide the fate of the world as he remembered Minerva emphasizing its importance,
"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."
"Seven half-bloods." he muttered as he remembered Minerva's words. The half-bloods the prophecy referred to never specified whether they were Greek or Roman, which is something that worried Percy.
"Well, well, well, look who we found here girls." a voice hissed which broke Percy out of his thoughts.
It was the same 3 empousa that he encountered from earlier, which confused Percy greatly.
"What the hell? I thought I lost you three back at the Wolf House?" Percy yelled in surprise as he brought his gladius in front of him, preparing to fight.
"A good girl never tells all her secrets." the one Percy dubbed as the leader taunted, as she along with the other two empousa pulled out their knives.
"Damn, I'm so close to Camp, I'll just kill them quickly." Percy thought.
He rushed forward towards the empousa but halted as they still had those wicked grins on their faces which confused him even further.
Percy felt the hairs on the back of his neck tense up as he turned his head watching more empousa come out of the trees around him each with similar grins on their faces and of course all of them were wielding knives. Percy quickly became surrounded with 8 empousa, four in the front and four in the rear.
"Shit, I got baited, these monsters aren't as dumb as I thought."
The leader empousa stepped forward slightly as Percy lowered his guard an inch expecting her to speak, before he heard the leaves rustle as three empousa behind him quickly rushed his flank. He quickly decapitated the one closest to him, who exploded into golden dust, and ran forward slicing the legs of another empousa who rushed him, incapacitating her and he quickly sprinted forward to escape.
The empousa he sliced screamed in pain and the other empousa began throwing knives at him, aiming for his legs trying to incapacitate him. However, while they did cut the jeans he was wearing it bounced off his skin like a basketball on the ground. After creating an opening, he quickly rushed through the forest and managed to get to the edge of the freeway, where since it was dark the only things visible were the headlights of cars as they zoomed by and the reflection of the moon as it cast its gaze over the Earth. Percy squinted his eyes and saw it, between the two tunnels where the cars were entering and leaving was a small triangular area where the freeway above it casted a shadow over the the service tunnel to where the entrance to Camp Jupiter was located. He glanced behind him and saw the empousa gaining ground on him as they were approaching Percy through the last of the trees and towards the edge of the freeway.
Gripping his gladius with both hands Percy entered a defensive stance as the last 7 empousa edged closer with one lagging behind, being the one he sliced earlier. Five of the empousa stayed back as two rushed him quickly ditching their knives and drawing short swords to engage Percy in close quarters combat. They slashed at Percy at the same time forcing him to backstep but using his quickness he sidestepped to the right and with a powerful upwards slash sliced the wrist off the empousa on his right causing her to shriek in pain as her sword flew into the air. He made to finish off the injured empousa, but was quickly met with the empousa on his left who parried his finishing strike.
Taking advantage of being on the offensive he feinted right and caught the blade that was in the air by the hilt throwing it at the surprised empousa in front of him which caused her to wilt onto the ground and dissolve into dust. The empousa without her hand, retreated but was quickly killed due to friendly fire from the other empousa who began hurling knives at Percy who quickly backtracked into the highway. Using his quick reflexes, he managed to cross without any of the cars hitting him and as he reached the triangle where the entrance of the camp was, he turned around and after hearing a few "twangs" from a bow saw the remaining empousa collapse into dust from a barrage of arrows.
"Seems you were in quite a predicament back there, it's a good thing we arrived to clean up the mess you made." one of the guard's stated. Percy glanced at the guard and instantly knew she was female judging from her smaller frame and the curly hair sticking out of her helmet. She was dark-skinned and smiled as she held out her hand for him to shake.
"Names Hazel, Hazel Levesque daughter of Pluto."
Percy shook her hand and watched as the other guard approached him wielding a bow, and compared to Hazel he towered over her as he removed his helmet. His large stocky frame and short black hair, contrasted with his baby looking face as he sheathed his bow onto his back.
"Thanks for cleaning them up back there, I was afraid they were going to cross the highway to chase me and injure mortals while doing it." Percy said gratefully.
"No problem, I'm just amazed that I didn't miss one! I'm Frank by the way, Frank Zhang, son of Mars."
Percy sheathed his gladius and decided to introduce himself as well.
"Perseus Jackson, son of Neptune, but Percy is fine." Percy replied.
"A son of Neptune? It's pretty rare to come across one of those, especially since Neptune himself is not well liked at Camp Jupiter." Frank stated in surprise.
"Really why not?"
"It's because of the Roman's connection to the sea, the sea has only done harm to us, and not to mention Jupiter is literally named after our camp." Hazel said matter-of-factly.
"Well anyways, this is the entrance to Camp Jupiter it is kind of why we were standing guard here in the first place. When we first saw you, we thought you were one of our legionnaires because you had that gladius, but we have no current children of Neptune in the camp so we realized you must be a stray demigod. How did you find out about Camp Jupiter anyways?" Frank asked as they walked down the tunnel.
"Lupa sent me the location of it after I visited her at the wolf house, she made me prove myself first though in combat against her, I thought I was going to get mauled by wolves until she revealed herself though." Percy quipped.
Hazel laughed at that, while Frank swallowed his saliva a bit thinking about being mauled by wolves. Frank opened the door to the maintenance tunnel and after letting Hazel and Percy in closed it and took the rear.
"The wolf house is in a pretty remote location though, did you stumble upon it by chance?" Hazel questioned.
"No, I was actually sent to it by Lady Minerva, after she gave me a vision to go there. She said it is part of the great prophecy." Percy answered.
This caused Hazel and Frank to stop walking and to stare at Percy for a few seconds widening their eyes.
"What...what do you mean by great prophecy?" Frank asked. Hazel nodded her head at Frank's words as if he took the words right out of her mouth.
Percy recalled the Prophecy of the Seven to them and watched as their eyes widened in realization.
"The Prophecy of the Seven… so I guess it will be more than just words on the floor of Jupiter's temple." Hazel recalled.
Frank nodded in agreement and explained how the Temple of Jupiter is one of the most sacred places in Camp Jupiter, as it has multiple inscriptions including the Prophecy of the Seven, and is where Octavian reads his auguries from the Gods, even including a massive statue of Lord Jupiter himself in it.
"Wow neat." Percy joked as Frank cracked a grin at his blunt statement.
"You know…" Hazel started as she took the lead walking down the corridor toward Camp Jupiter.
"It's pretty rare to have Lady Minerva mentioned within Rome, let alone guide a demigod to eventually be in this camp."
"Yeah, Lady Minerva does not have a strong affinity for Rome, since she turned from being a war goddess in Greece to the goddess of Arts and Crafts here in Rome. Sad how she got demoted like that. Also, Owls are a bad omen here." Frank recalled.
"Rome also took her statue from the Parthenon back when the roman empire conquered Greece. We have a legionnaire though that hates Lady Minerva more than Minerva herself hates Rome. She's as rare a demigod as you, because she's a daughter of Minerva, probably the first in history." Hazel revealed.
"A daughter of Minerva? But I thought Minerva herself was a virgin goddess? And her hating Minerva more than Minerva hates Rome… is that even possible?" Percy asked confused.
"I know, right? Clearly it isn't public information on how she was born, and she hardly talks to anybody at camp, but she's close with our Praetor, Reyna, who you will probably meet in a little while." Frank affirmed.
The trio of demigods eventually reached the end of the tunnel and while it was dark the moon's glow gave enough light to survey the camp well. It seemed as if someone carved the center of the valley for this camp to be built. The camp glowed, as it's white marble buildings were accentuated in New Rome, while statues, plazas, and other buildings were within view and the famed coliseum giving off its shadow as it loomed next to an arena. The barracks were what was located next to the trio of demigods looking near like a fortress with watchtowers and fenced off areas, looking as if it was a medieval castle guarding the outside complemented with torches.
A river was located nearest toward them down the hill, with a bridge connected over it leading to the gates of the encampment. Hazel took the lead in front of the two boys and smiled at Percy.
"Welcome to Camp Jupiter, it's pretty late right now, so we'll just lend you a bed in our cohort's barracks and have Reyna decide what to do with you in the morning. Cohorts are usually decided by recommendation letters, because a lot of the demigods here are either descendants from other demigods or Gods, or are sometimes just legacies like our augur Octavian." Hazel informed Percy, but he noticed the way she said Octavian, it was like how Frank said it earlier. He didn't seem to be well liked by the both of them.
Suddenly a bright flash appeared in front of Hazel, which caused her to draw her spatha out halfway from its sheathe, before she let down her guard widening her eyes at the goddess who appeared in front of her.
"Lady Juno it is an honor." Hazel said respectfully as she bowed, with Frank stepping to Hazel's left and mimicking her movements.
Juno appeared regal to the trio of demigods, glowing faintly in the moonlight and looking every bit the wife of Jupiter, wearing royal roman garbs with purple woven into the color scheme and a tiara on her head with her symbol of power engraved on the front, a gladius.
"At ease legionnaires, I am here to speak to the son of Neptune, go on ahead to Rome, he will follow shortly." Juno ordered.
Frank glanced at Hazel as she nodded her head.
"Of course, Lady Juno." Hazel responded as she saluted along with Frank and ran down toward the barracks after giving Percy a final look.
"And as for you…" Juno started as she turned her brown eyes onto Percy.
Percy exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding as he could feel the power emanate from the goddess standing in front of him.
"It seems as if Minerva had her own plans even when we were working together. How foolish of me to not notice this. I payed far more attention to Jason than I did to you, Perseus." Juno said haughtily.
Not knowing what to say, Percy stayed silent as he eyed the goddess who paced in front of him with her arms crossed.
Her expression turned from one of arrogance to annoyance in a flash as she commented to herself again.
"Tch, it seems the only person that has control of your memories is Minerva, I can no longer tamper with it even if I wished it."
This caused Percy's eyes to widen as he was having problems remembering his past, and from Juno's comments in turns out Minerva had something to do with it.
"But why…" Percy began.
"Silence."
That one word cut across, as if an arrow whizzed by Percy's mouth which caused him to drop his sentence entirely as Juno turned her attention to him.
"I will allow Minerva's plan to be set in motion, I trust she knows what she's doing, especially since this is such a delicate matter."
Juno motioned to the river down the hill.
"The Little Tiber, it is said that Lupa saved Romulus and Remus from it, which in turn gave birth to the greatest empire ever created in history, Rome itself. You must bathe in it, the curse you bear will be washed away and that is when you may truly begin your path to becoming one of us, to becoming a true Roman."
"The curse I bear?" Percy questioned, it seemed the closer he got toward his goals, the more questions that just seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"The curse of Achilles, your greatest strength and at the same time, your greatest weakness. It is the reason Lupa was unable to chop off your fingers, and the empousa that were chasing you didn't peg your legs off. You can't enter Rome without losing this curse."
Percy nodded his head in understanding and walked with Juno in silence toward the edge of the river bank.
"I suppose I could vouch for you upon entering camp, the Romans will definitely accept my word far more easily than Minerva's. I may not be fond of you like I am toward Jason, but I do not wish you ill intent Perseus."
Percy nodded at her gratefully.
"Thank you, Lady Juno."
"Remember all roads lead to Rome, should you ever get lost young demigod." Juno spoke as she shimmered away.
Percy dove headfirst into the Little Tiber, swimming toward the bottom and coming out on the riverbank on the opposing side. It was weird. The water energized Percy as he expected but his skin was slightly red and his clothes steamed as if they were being pressed.
Percy withdrawed his gladius from its sheathe and cut his thumb watching as even in the dark he could see the small bit of blood appear. Confirming he lost his "Curse of Achilles" as Juno dubbed it. He dipped his hand back in the water as his cut disappeared and made his way toward the entrance of the barracks.
Percy saw Frank and Hazel waiting for him outside the entrance but behind them was a girl who looked slightly different than Hazel and Frank. Unlike them she wore medals over her armor signifying her achievements and had a purple cloak over her armor. She was taller than Hazel, but not as tall as Frank looking around 5'8. But most of all she had dark piercing eyes and long black hair that was in a single braid. She stared at him as if he'd done something wrong, before walking between Hazel and Frank, standing a mere foot in front of Percy.
"Perseus Jackson?" she spat out.
Percy however was not in a good mood now. He was tired, it was late at night, and he had to deal with empousa, fighting a Wolf Goddess, and swimming through a damn river all in the same day. His next few words weren't something he was proud of.
"Yeah, what of it is there a problem with my damn name?" Percy asked.
He immediately regretted his words as Hazel and Frank cringed a bit, as she stepped forward grabbing the front of his shirt with her right hand.
"You should watch your damn mouth to who you're speaking to, I am the praetor of the twelfth legion of Rome and you would do well to show me some respect." she said angrily as she shoved Percy backwards and turned around walking back into camp, her cloak flaring slightly.
She twisted her head to Hazel telling her to let Percy stay in their cohort's barracks for tonight as she walked away. Frank shook his head as Percy gathered his bearings.
"Should be careful with your words when talking to her, that's Reyna. She's the praetor of this camp, ever since Jason disappeared." Frank stated.
"There's that Jason again. Is it the same Jason that Juno mentioned? The one she said she was so fond of? I'll have to ask Frank or Hazel about Jason at another time" Percy wondered as his thoughts were broken by Hazel's voice.
"She's technically co-praetor to Octavian, but most of us consider her the real leader. Unlike Octavian she is the one that could probably best anybody in this camp in a fight. Well almost anybody." Hazel corrected as she led Frank and Percy toward the fifth legion's barracks. He didn't get to see much of Camp Jupiter from the inside since the barracks were so close to the entrance from the Little Tiber, and it was also still dark the only thing illuminating camp were the torches around the buildings.
Hazel yawned loudly as they arrived outside the barracks and waved goodbye to the two of them as she headed toward the girl's barracks of the fifth cohort. Percy noticed Frank looking at her a bit longer, and headed inside. Frank pointed at the bunk next to his.
"Here Percy, take this bed for tonight, who knows this may be your last night in this cohort depending on what Reyna says tomorrow."
Percy smiled thankfully.
"Thank you, Frank, it means a lot."
"Yeah, no problem. It's not every day we see a son of Neptune come leaping out of the highway ya know?" Frank said laughing.
Percy cracked a grin as well and caught a bar Frank threw at him.
"Eat up, it's not much, but the dining hall is closed right now, and it'll keep you satisfied till morning."
Percy smiled in appreciation and took a bite as he laid down in his bunk. It was a bit stale, but it didn't taste as bad as he thought it would. He sighed as he thought about the events of the past day. Juno's words especially were brought to the forefront of his mind. What did she mean by Minerva's plan? And was the gap in his memories caused by Minerva herself?
"Why would she do all this, and still send me to Rome?" Percy thought.
And that daughter of Minerva…
"Frank?"
"Yeah Percy?"
"That daughter of Minerva… is she the one who Hazel was referring to that could beat Reyna in a fight?" Percy asked curiously.
"Well, I've never seen them fight each other all out, but from what Hazel's told me she's as skilled as Reyna and hardly ever gets beaten in our war games."
"I see." Percy started, before he was cut off by Frank.
"Should really sleep, don't want Reyna yelling at you while you're tired Percy" Frank stated. As if it were a fact he was going to get verbally abused tomorrow.
"So many things going on at once… Hopefully most of my questions will be answered tomorrow." Percy thought as he closed his eyes entering Hypnos realm.
A/N: First to answer the obvious questions about the chapter. Yes, the daughter of Minerva is in fact my personal OC. Normally I don't really like OC's unless they are fully fleshed out in stories. So I'll make sure to do that in mine. She sounds hella strong right now, but she's not gonna be fking hella op like some OC's. She will have her strengths and she will have her flaws. I just felt like having one OC as part of the main group kind've because it'd be fun to have no boundaries when writing her. Like i don't have to keep her in character because she's my original character ya know?
Second, the pairing is still undecided, I really do want a main pairing like Percy x ?, not gonna be a harem for sure lol. Not sure who it's gonna be, I may do a poll? But ultimately that will wait until at least a few chapters down the line.
Third, Yeah I get it, it does seem like Juno revealed quite a lot to Percy, especially considering his Curse of Achilles, and how it's gone. I purposely left out how the curse is Greek so Percy couldn't enter the camp because of that reason. Percy is in fact still Greek that will never change, it is just here he will adopt every strength there is of being a Roman. The stuff he remembers will come back in short bursts. But the stuff where he defeated Kronos, Camp Half-Blood, etc… is just a huge blank in his mind.
Lastly, the style in which Percy fights will resemble Greek fighting for now, which is primarily based on his old sword Riptide, which involved slashing and free will, creative fighting. The roman style in which Lupa referred to how he fights strangely in the previous chapter, is more like phalanx controlled fighting utilizing your weapon to its fullest extent. Like a spear's range, or a spatha's stabbing. This will be part of some juicy character development and fighting scenes in the future.
R & R, even a simple good job keeps my spirits up.
Until next time.