Chapter 3: First Hours in the Legion (updated)

Reyna POV

That blonde girl broke Jackso...Redgrave's heart and cast him out as some kind of freak? I actually feel sorry for him. Clearly, the girl needs to learn some manners. I hope Scipio will love to stomp her face in.

Piper POV

Nero in the Fifth? If only he was in the First Cohort, with me...Wait! Must...stop...thinking! He's already made his decision anyway. I'm guessing he doesn't want to be in the same cohort as Octavian. I have to manage them all by myself sometimes whenever that augur is off babbling about his readings and stuff.

Third Person POV

"Gwen! Wait!" Nero called, running towards the centurion.

"Hey, Nero." the daughter of Ceres greeted. "Follow me. I'll show you to the Fifth Cohort barracks."

The son of Vesta followed Gwen to the barracks.

"Can I ask who is Reyna's godly parent because I actually forgot to ask her that." Nero said.

"It's Bellona, Roman goddess of war." Gwen said as-o-matter-of-factly.

It's placing was the worst out of all the other barracks. The Fifth's barracks was right near the stables compared to the others. Nero wrinkled his nose when they were at the door.

"It smells a little inside." he remarked.

"Yeah, I know." Gwen replied.

It seemed average when they got inside.

"Alright, Nero. Welcome to the Fifth Cohort." the daughter of Ceres said, smiling. "You have to look the part so here."

Gwen gave the son of Vesta a purple Camp Jupiter shirt with SPQR and a golden laurel.

"Cool. Thanks, Gwen. Being here in New Rome means a lot to me." Nero thanked.

"Hey, Nero!" someone called. Both the man in question and Gwen turned to the noise. It was an Afro-American girl with frizzy hair. A spatha, or cavalry sword was sheathed on her belt.

"Who're you?" Nero asked.

"This is Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto." Gwen explained.

"Cool. What's the hold up?"

"There's a package for you. It's from your mother and patrons." Hazel said.

Shocked, Nero ran outside the barracks to see a medium sized package. There was a purple note attached to it. Curious, the son of Vesta took the note, opened it, and read it. They were in Latin.

Ad Neronis,

Salve, mi fili. Nuno enim jungens legiones. Hic praesens elit.

Et matrem tuam, Vesta,

P.S. Minervae et Marti et dicere salve gratulatione

(closest translation because I used an app)

To Nero,

Hello, my son. Congratulations for joining the legion. Here's a present for your success.

Your mother, Vesta

P.S. Mars and Minerva say hello and congratulations

The white haired demigod chuckled and silently thanked his mother. He took the package to his new bunk. He opened it with Yamato, carefully. Strangely, he was all alone in the building he was in. When he opened the package, he beamed with pride.

A few minutes later...

"Hey, have you seen Nero anywhere?" Piper asked Leo and Frank, who were discussing "love".

"Nope. Sorry, Beauty Queen." the son of Vulcan replied.

"Dude, quit calling her that." the son of Mars scolded his friend.

"Looking for me?" the voice of a certain son of Vesta asked. The three centurions turned to see Nero, but he looked a little different.

He wore his usual set of clothes: short tailed coat, sleeveless hoodie, shirt, pants, and cowboy boots, except, they were different.

The coat was now purple with a golden accent. Its orange flame patterns were still there, and a yellow hearth symbol was sewn on the back, two crossed spears on the left sleeve, and an owl on the right sleeve. His hoodie was now golden and a purple SPQR was sewn in front. Inside, Nero wore the Camp Jupiter T-shirt. He also wore desert camo pants, and golden cowboy boots with purple flame designs on it. There's also a pair of gray headphones on his neck. Red Queen and Yamato were in their usual sheaths, Blue Rose and Coyote-A in the coat, and Devil Bringer stuck out.

Piper started blushing a little. Leo's and Frank's jaws dropped quickly.

"Morning." the son of Vesta greeted, waving his (demonic) hand.

"It's like one in the afternoon already." Frank said.

"Whatever."

"Anyway, Piper here wants to see y-"

Leo was cut off when the daughter of Venus elbowed him in the gut.

"Well, what's up, Piper?" Nero asked the girl in question.

"Uh...nothing. I'll just say congratulations and I'll be on my way." Piper replied before quickly walking away. The remaining three looked confused, but Frank and Leo were slightly less so.

"What's with Piper anyway?" Nero asked.

"She's got lots of problems, Nero." Frank replied.

"Yeah, man." Leo agreed. "There's having to manage the First Cohort whenever Octavian's babbling on and on, and there's the two egotistic centurions of the Second Cohort constantly flirting with her-"

"Wait, what?" the son of Vesta cut him off.

"Larry and Jake are the biggest jerks everyone has ever seen." Frank explained. "Piper would constantly turn them down but they'll always try to flirt with her no matter how may times she says 'no'."

Nero decided to walk away as well. He decided to go to the only person he can trust for now.

"Y...Y...You have a crush on Piper?" Jason snickered. The son of Vesta rolled his eyes.

"Not funny, Jason. She's been getting flirt spam, if that term exists." Nero said.

"Okay, okay. I get you. Look, Nero. I used to have this slight crush on Piper, even if I already met Reyna. Since she's a daughter of Venus and in the First Cohort, she's up for grabs by everyone."

"I see. But this is serious. Where's Piper right now, anyway?"

"I saw her head to the bake shop. Brownies there are good."

"Actually, I'll wait. I'd rather not be like some kind of stalker."

"Nero!" someone called. It was Reyna. She was holding what looked like a note.

"Who's it from?" the son if Vesta asked.

"You're not gonna like who it is." she said glumly. When Nero read the note, it said:

Redgrave,

Stay away from Piper. She's mine. Besides, who would love you anyway? You're just some newbie with a freaky right arm.

-The greatest demigod of all time, Larry.

The son of Vesta burned the note in a rage, scaring Jason and Reyna. Also to their shock, his eyes started glowing red, and the flames that burned the note were not regular orange, but chaotic and furious red. Devil Bringer also glower red.

"His ego needs to be flattened!" Nero screamed.

"Woah, Pyro! Calm down!" the son of Jupiter ordered but was still in shock.

"How am I supposed to calm down when that... stultus culus (stupid asshole) freaking mocked me!"

"Why not beat him at his own game?" Reyna suggested. Both men turned to her with confused looks on their faces.

"And what exactly is his own game?" Nero asked.

"Gladiator fights. Even if you can't use your main weapons, you can still beat him, right?" Reyna suggested. Immediately, the enraged demigod returned to normal.

"She's right, Nero. I don't really like them anyway." Jason pleaded.

"Well, how did they become centurions?" the son of Vesta asked.

"Never knew how. Probably bribery like Octavian." Reyna answered.

"I'll just be on my way and keep to myself for now." Nero said, putting on his headphones and leaving for a walk. The headphones came with all kinds of music, without the use of an iPod.

Piper POV (again)

As usual, the two stupid Second Cohort centurions were trying to flirt with me. I can't believe I didn't mention my little problem to Nero. I was just gonna get some stuff from the bake shop only to run into these idiots.

"Why don't you go out with a real man, like me?" Larry said, smugly. I decided to go ignore him but his equally stupid brother blocked my path.

"What's wrong? Gonna run to that freak son of Vesta?" he sneered.

"Nero's not a freak!" I retaliated.

The two idiots just laughed and began to eye me intently.

"If he's so great, then why did he just join a bunch of weaklings?" Larry sneered.

"WHEN THE PLUTO WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP?!"

I ran off, without going to the bake shop. Ugh. I hate it when this happens. I ran, and ran, and ran, until I bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry!" I apologized quickly. And just my luck, I ran right into Nero Redgrave himself.

"Woah, watch i...Oh. Hey, Piper." he greeted, taking off his headphones.

"H...Hey, Nero." I replied shyly.

"You look like you're having problems."

My face started to become red again. What's with me? And Nero?

"Yeah. It's...it's-"

He cut me off, to my chagrin.

"Let me guess: those two Second cohort centurions."

"How?" I asked.

"Frank and Leo told me you were having issues regarding them." Nero replied.

"Okay, I'll admit it. I was hoping I could go challenge them and break their egos but their constant babbling sickens me."

"I'd do it for you. But, for now, I'll wait for them to let their egos take control and challenge me."

With that, the son of Vesta just put his headphones back on and walked away, waving his hand at me while doing so. Even with the arm, he's kinda hot.

Nero POV

If any of those two idiotic sons of Mars heard my conversation with Piper, I'll be ready. If they didn't, whatever. Anyway, I was listening to the K-Pop song called "Fantastic Baby". And, conveniently, someone patted my shoulder and I turned around to see Mr. Jerk 1, and Mr. Jerk 2. Smirking, I turned off my headphones and put them back on my neck. Just as I expected.

"Heyo." I casually said.

"I warned you to stay away from my girl!" Larry screamed.

"Or else suffer what consequences?"

"He's gonna kick your sorry ass in a gladiator fight!" Jake yelled.

"Gladiator fight? Sure. When?"

"Three in the coliseum. I'll put you in your place, freak." Larry sneered before walking away with his brother with smug looks on their faces.

Back to Third Person POV

In the coliseum...

"I knew this was going to happen." Jason muttered, clutching his toga with one hand and his golden coin with the other.

"Hey, I can't wait to see Nero humiliate those two idiots." Reyna said, trying to cheer up the son of Jupiter a bit.

All the Romans gathered again to see the battle. Larry was holding a gladius and shield, and Nero, to their surprise, a net and trident. Also, still no armor, except he wasn't wearing his coat and hoodie, so his Camp Jupiter shirt was out.

"Ready to lose, newbie?" Larry sneered.

"Can we start now?" the son of Vesta yawned.

"Begin!" Jason announced.

Like every other idiot, the centurion charged first, screeching a battle cry that would have made a bat deaf at close range. When he swung his gladius, Nero blocks it with the space between two of the prongs before kicking Larry's shield off of his hands. The son of Vesta traps his opponent with the net before landing a roundhouse kick to the face. The centurion fell on his butt in pain, only to see a trident pointed at him.

"Do you submit?" Nero hissed.

Larry nodded vigorously, stood up and pressed his finger on the son of Vesta's chest.

"You may have won this round, Redgrave, but we'll crush you in the War Games."

With that final statement, he just walked away, leaving Nero, still emotionless. He didn't seem fazed about the challenge.

"Wait! We almost forgot!" Reyna announced. Everyone turned to see Octavian with a hot iron. The two praetors followed him.

"What's that for?" Nero asked.

"Well, we decided to give you your marks straight away since you have five years worth of service to Olympus." Jason remarked.

"And because we probably can't mark your...special arm, we'll twist our traditions a little bit and put it on your left forearm."

Confused, the son of Vesta raised his left forearm. Octavian planted the iron on his forearm. Nero didn't feel anything since he was adopted by Vesta.

"Nero Redgrave, for your five years of service to Olympus!" Jason announced.

The son of Vesta now had marks on his left forearm. It was a hearth with two crossed spears in the background, and an owl with its wings out on top, SPQR, and five lines.

"Hope it hurt." the augur muttered, smirking a little.

"Now, what are these 'War Games'?" Nero asked.

"It's a typical game we play other than gladiator battles and deathball." Reyna explained. "For today's round of War Games, First and Second cohorts will defend, Third, Fourth, and Fifth will attack."

"Okay then, I'll be on my way."

Nero put on his hoodie, coat, and headphones, and walked out of the arena.