Chapter 2

"And finally, Percy, this is Hall Neptune."

I was pointing to the huge iron gate in front of us; it was intricately decorated with horses, fish, a trident, and anything else relating to me and Percy's father. I took off one of my metal gloves; there was a hidden compartment in it with my pass card, which I quickly placed in the slot in the center of the gate, opening it slowly after a lens scanned me.

Percy and I hurried inside before the gate shut itself. It revealed a long hallway with water pouring down its walls with pictures of demigods behind it; somehow the running water didn't wet the floor. The floor was made of rocks packed tightly together and smoothed by the sea with shells lining the waterfalls' edges. It was a simple way to decorate the place and those pictures of Neptune's children made it feel as homey as the Roman Army could ever be.

At some points the waterfall opened to reveal blue doors with carvings of waves on them and the second to last one said: EVOCATI _'S ROOM. The evocati is the hall's second-in-command and the position was automatically Percy's since I am the only other known child of Neptune on the planet. Never thought this room would ever be in use again. Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune were supposedly stopped having kids over sixty years ago, though only Pluto had kept his side of the bargain. Jason and I were supposed to be just one-time mistakes. How did Neptune get away with having two kids?

I opened the door and I have to admit I was pleased. The room had been pretty much made of dust but the Venus kids had made it livable again. It was one of the few nice things I could easily say to them, but when they weren't reapplying makeup they definitely knew how to clean up a really big mess. Percy looked over the room expectantly, trying to figure out how long it would take him to really mess it up. "So this is California right?"

I nodded, "But before you get too comfortable, there's one last thing I want you to see." He looked about ready to groan; I had shown him the library, colosseum, observatory, training rooms, and even passed by Lupa's quarters on the way back. But I still need to prepare him for tomorrow, Lupa's tests are never easy and he'll probably enjoy training there instead of in the colosseum with the rest of the army.

So I pulled him out of the room and touched a small white rock hidden behind the waterfalls with my index finger. Like always, the water broke to reveal a damp and narrow stairway. We hurried down carefully and once we got there I immediately was calmer and the scene in front of us did the same for Percy.

"This is Neptune's Lagoon, an underground beach that only Hall Neptune and Hall Vulcan know exists. It is one of two ways into The Den and is hidden and protected by the Vulcans' contraptions and some of Trivia's magic. Sorry that we don't have time to relax but we really need to get you ready for Lupa." The place was a huge, beautiful beach hidden under the Santa Cruz Mountains that opened into the Pacific Ocean.

I took out my spare gladius and handed it to him. He then backed away and somehow knew how to prepare himself for me, though he kept moving the sword in his hand to balance it out or something. I unsheathed one of my twin swords. They're meant to only be used together but that would probably just confuse Percy even more since this should be his first time.My swords are opposites; one is made of imperial gold, the other divine brass tinted to look silver. They were the only gift I have from my father, though I'm considered lucky to have contact with my godly parent at all. With no time to waste I charged at him even though him was unarmored and at first seemed to be incompetent.

Instead of blocking me with the gladius like he was supposed to, he dropped his sword, reached into his pocket, and took out a pen. Automatically he uncapped it, turning it into a sword. Then, as if he'd done it a billion times before, he swung his weird sword straight at me. Luckily I blocked his attacked; the force of it had jarred my arm. Eyes locked on his sword, I immediately sheathed mine and motioned him to stop attacking.

The fact that he had a sword that could change into a pen wasn't what had bothered me; Jason's sword could change into a coin. No, it was the type of metal the sword was made of. I'd only seen it once before hugging out of Lupa's mouth, but I was positive that it was Celestial Bronze.

"What's with the weird sword, Percy?" I clenched my fists behind my back, trying to remain calm.

The Roman Army uses only two types of metal: Imperial Gold and Divine Brass. Imperial Gold is a symbol of authority, reserved for the use of Lieutenants and Commanders only. Divine Brass is just a much more common substitute mined from Mount Olympus. Celestial Bronze, according to Lupa, was only made during Greece's golden age in a similar fashion to Divine Brass.

"Oh, this is Anaklusmos, or Riptide in English," Percy said without even realizing his words.

"I thought you lost your memory."

"I did, I just … know this somehow."

Anaklusmos, I'm sure I heard about a sword with that name from Captain Hazel once, it is from Greek Mythology, so Percy really is Greek.If any other soldier had started showing off his Celestial Bronze sword I would have dragged the kid to Lupa without a word of warning to the proud sword's owner. But … 'you will meet your brother, a boy of sixteen years by the name of Percy Jackson. He will not be like any of the other demigods you know, but under no circumstances should you tell anyone anything about his past or his secrets.' I knew that Neptune had been the one telling me about Percy in that vision so I couldn't send Percy to his death: both for my father and for Percy as my new half-brother. Though, this decision would cause me a lot of trouble if anyone found out about Percy. If that happened I would probably be considered just as much of a traitor as him.

I held my hand out and Percy reluctantly handed his sword to me. "Percy, I have to tell you there's no way you can fight with this sword." He protested of course, but I held out my hand. "And it's not because you're too strong with it or something. It's because it's a Greek sword, and I'm almost positive it's a very famous one at that. We Romans have come to despise the Greeks both for calling us barbarians, but also because we consider them weak for barely putting up a fight before they were conquered long ago. If anyone finds out, you'll be pronounced a traitor and … promptly executed."

Percy's mouth hung open, I guess he hadn't realized just how violent Romans could get if we felt provoked. "We'll have to go get you a new sword from the Vulcans, its fine though; we already need to get you some armor anyway. But you'll have to keep that pen hidden except here: either in your pocket or in your room."

Poseidon's son placed the pen's cap onto the tip of the sword, changing it back to a pen. He then grumpily stuffed it into his pocket.

We stopped by his room on the way to Hall Vulcan so he could change into clean clothes. It was the same plain purple t-shirt that most demigods wore under their armor; Hall Venus had kindly remembered to bring him something. I stood outside his door, wondering just how I was going to deal with the mess Neptune had decided to leave for me.

At Hall Vulcan's forges it took no more than half an hour for Percy to be fitted in armor (and with all the gizmos the Vulcans liked to install into each piece, that's quite a feat.) During that time they also managed to make his custom sword, no questions asked; which was lucky since I had no clue how explain it to them without giving Percy away. So, far sooner than expected, we were at the library. It was two vast floors and bursting with all sorts of documents.

The library is maintained mostly by the children of Minerva, unless I somehow manage to convince another hall to help out for a day. The bottom floor has books only in Latin, while the upper floor has books in English, but there were also articles and literature in Ancient Greek stuffed into a corner because Minerva's children love to store information so much.

I picked up a huge volume of Greek Mythology, searched for 'anaklusmos,' and passed the book over to Percy in hopes of refreshing his memory. Though all it did was help him remember just how bad his ADHD was. I didn't even bother to attempt it since I had the same issues, so I tried teaching Percy basic Latin. But, soon enough we were both too irritable with it to continue. I somehow managed to convince him to let me teach him over time and he could teach me Ancient Greek in exchange. Something about it helping him remember his past, I think. Though I doubted Greek would help him very much, I was much more interested in make sure I was well-prepared for Percy's Greek friends in case they ever decided to pay the Roman Army a visit.

Yes I know that there is no such thing as Divine Brass but it just didn't make sense to me for every Roman Demigod to fight with Imperial Gold swords and have their armor made of it too. Especially considering it is only made in Jupiter's Temple in Rome. So I chose brass, which really was a common substitute for gold back in the time of the Roman Empire.

Jupiter - Zeus

Somnus - Hypnos

Mercury - Hermes

Venus - Aphrodite

Vulcan - Hephaestus

Minerva - Athena

Ceres - Demeter

Mars - Ares

Neptune – Poseidon

Trivia – Hecate

I'll try to update this as often as possible and thank you for all the reviews so far!