INTERLUDE: SENATE MEETING

REYNA

Much as Reyna hated to admit it, there were times when the Roman way paled in comparison to the Greek way.

Listening to the senate debate for hours on the merits of the quest Frank had motioned was one of them.

To be fair, she'd always taken pride in the Roman system. Their structured system of discussion and voting on whether a quest was reasonable was a good way to ensure that quests were only undertaken for the good of the legion and that heroes were well-supported. It had been her proudest moment when she'd been nominated to the senate—the same time she'd been crowned praetor, incidentally—and she'd served faithfully until last summer, when she'd retired to attend college.

Reyna wished right now that she hadn't given up the position. She would much rather be at the podium leading the discussion than sitting in the advisor seats listening to it proceed.

Frank had explained the situation very, well, frankly. Straightforward and earnest—that was Frank. Usually it worked. The legionnaires respected his tact and sincerity. In the years Reyna had worked with him, she'd appreciated his ability to approach all petitions fairly.

But this situation wasn't usual. This wasn't the run-of-the-mill petition for a quest, to be weighed logically on its relative merits and drawbacks for the legion. This quest wasn't even technically about the legion. If the senate was going to be convinced, Frank needed to put a more persuasive spin on it.

Hazel might have been better at that, but she was too new, little more than a month into her praetorship and senate seat. She might have been nominated fairly for both positions, but that hadn't silenced all the grumbles—mostly from her disgruntled competitors—that she technically hadn't satisfied the minimal five years of service typically required for nomination. Neither, for that matter, had Frank.

The politics were a mess.

Reyna should know; she'd faced the same resistance herself when she'd been elected praetor in the wake of the Battle of Mount Othrys with barely a year of service under her belt. Never mind that she'd galvanised the entire legion for the assault and led the charge so that Jason could tackle Krios. No matter how well-deserved the position was, no matter how admirably you served, there were always going to be naysayers who balked whenever rules were bent. And that wasn't going to help their case now.

Nor did it help that the current male centurion of Reyna's old cohort, who had been nominated in Reyna's place as the representative for the fourth, was an idiot. Augustus was currently bringing up counterarguments to Frank's earnest proposition, point by point. From the look on Hazel's face, the son of Janus was this close to being clonked in the head with a summoned gold nugget.

Reyna wouldn't blame her. She'd like to get in a few solid hits herself. Or maybe set Aurum and Argentum on the harpy-brained fool until he shut up.

As the senate continued to argue back and forth, Reyna put her head in her hands and tried not to scream in frustration. Eventually, given the lack of progress, they would reach the point where they'd make an official motion for advice—which she'd give unequivocally in favour of Frank and Hazel, of course—but waiting for them to get around to it chafed like an ill-fitting shoe. Her patience was sorely blistered.

It didn't help that Reyna longed to circumvent the whole system, just this once, and commandeer every resource the legion had to offer. A quest had seldom held this much personal significance for her. It was impossible to think logically when she knew that Percy, Annabeth, and Nico—three of her best friends in the world—were headed to Tartarus. Most likely they had already arrived there. And with them were Will—whom Reyna barely knew, but had impressed her with his courage in stepping up to the task—and Thalia.

If she were to be perfectly honest, her heightened anxiety for Thalia went beyond her concern for her other friends. That was something else that was completely illogical. Of the five of them, Thalia was (as she'd pointed out herself) the best suited for the mission. She was a daughter of Jupiter—Zeus—and an immortal to boot. Although she was perfectly capable of dying in combat, she also had the unerring skill of a Hunter.

Which hadn't saved the Hunters who had fallen to Orion in the Battle of San Juan.

Nor had it kept Reyna from holding Thalia at knifepoint on their very first meeting.

Reyna wasn't sure exactly when she'd become so attached to the leader of the Hunters. They'd crossed paths occasionally after the Giant War, infrequently at first, and then increasingly often as the Hunters had more and more to do with the Amazons and Camp Jupiter. At first, Thalia had reminded Reyna of her sister Hylla—both were strong-willed, gutsy, and had a take-no-prisoners attitude that Reyna respected. The two would have been close in age, too, had Thalia not stopped ageing a day before her sixteenth birthday. Maybe that was why unlike Hylla, Thalia didn't seem to view Reyna as a little sister.

Or maybe it was because Thalia judged people as they were and not as others saw them. She never seemed to care either what anyone thought of her, and she wasn't afraid to do whatever she had to, whatever she believed to be right.

If Reyna had been the one bound for Tartarus, she had a feeling Thalia wouldn't stand for a lengthy debate on whether she should be allowed to go on the rescue mission.

Instead, it was the other way round, with Thalia putting her trust in Reyna to come after them.

'Be careful,' Reyna had said to Thalia before they parted.

Thalia had replied, 'No fear. I'm counting on you to get us out, Praetor.'

'I'm not a praetor any more,' Reyna had reminded her.

Thalia had raised her eyebrows. 'Once a praetor, always a praetor, wouldn't you say?'

'This is ridiculous!' Augustus exploded, drawing Reyna's attention back to the debate. 'We're talking about sending both our praetors on a wild Gryphon chase after a bunch of Greek demigods, who by the sound of it chose to go jump into a deadly pit. The existence of which, by the way, is still in question.'

In the second row behind him, several lares nodded approvingly.

'Dereliction of duty!' one chorused, glaring at Hazel.

'Waste of resource!' interjected another with a flick of the pompous-looking feather on his translucent helmet.

'We told you,' Hazel said through gritted teeth, 'they went to Tartarus to save Percy's life. And it is a real place.'

'Oh? And you know this how? Been there, have you?'

'My brother has. You know—the ambassador of Pluto? Are you calling him a liar?'

'I wouldn't dare, daughter of Pluto,' said Augustus icily.

'And that's another thing,' mused Larry from the second cohort. 'Do we really still need an ambassador given that our new praetor is herself a daughter of Pluto?'

'That's not what we're here to discuss,' said his counterpart Ophelia. 'We're debating the quest Praetor Zhang has brought to the table. And I've presented my evidence—the auguries read Death in their journey.' She shook a gutted stuffed panda in their faces.

'Because we have to find Death to complete the quest.' Reyna didn't know how Frank managed to sound so patient. Then again, she had herself presided over plenty of senate meetings with insufferable centurions and managed to keep her cool. It was part of the job.

'The point,' said Michael Kahale of the first, 'isn't about whether Tartarus is a place, or what the steps of the quest will be. It's whether we should be activating Roman resources—our people or our supplies—to undertake it.'

'Exactly!' Augustus lifted his hands in triumph. 'I don't get why we're even debating this for so long.' He glared at Frank. 'You're not asking for a quest to further the interests of the legion, or even to serve the gods. You're asking to hare off on a personal mission.'

Reyna finally had enough. To Pluto with procedure. She was past caring that she was supposed to wait for the senate to request her advice. The way things were going, that would take at least another hour. Who knew how much time they had to get to Thalia—and Nico and the others, of course—with the Doors of Death?

She sprang to her feet and slammed her fist on the table, grabbing the senate's attention at once. 'Senators,' she began.

'Advisor.' Leila, the other centurion of the fourth cohort, spoke respectfully. 'You—'

'We have yet to solicit your advice.' Augustus locked eyes with Reyna. From the gleam in them, he was clearly enjoying the power of his seat. Great Bellona, here was another Octavian in the making. Frank and Hazel were definitely going to have to keep an eye on him in the future.

'And I'm not giving advice,' Reyna said coldly. 'I've been listening to you go round in circles for hours. I'm telling you now—'

'My dear ex-Praetor,' Augustus said smoothly, 'you of all people should appreciate the sanctity of the senate's decision processes. After all, it is this procedure that safeguards the interest of the legion from the foolhardy actions of single members. Without it…why, we may as well be Greeks.'

'In case you've forgotten, Centurion, our two camps are currently allied. Snide remarks about the Greeks will win you no favours. More to the point, there is one thing Romans and Greeks have in common—we do not abandon our own.'

Augustus's eyes narrowed. 'Our own, you say? I beg your pardon, Advisor, but I sense that your—ah—loyalties may be more aligned with those of our praetors than—'

'You'd better not be insinuating what I think you are.'

'No, no merely pointing out that you have past history with the Greek demigods in question. And the Amazon girl—'

'She's a Hunter of Artemis, you imbecile,' Reyna snapped. 'And all of you—' She let her gaze trail slowly over each member of the senate in turn. It was a technique she'd used to great effect during her praetorship. Few legionnaires had the guts to hold her steely glare. 'Have you completely missed the point that we're talking about saving the life of an ex-praetor of New Rome?' Her voice was rising and she made no effort to reign her temper back in. 'It doesn't matter what personal friendships we have with the Greeks.'

She pointed at Michael. 'You ask what benefit the legion stands to gain—does the life of a previous praetor who delivered New Rome from deadly attack mean nothing to the legion?'

She turned to Leila. 'You all elected Percy Jackson praetor three years ago. Once a praetor of Rome, always a praetor of Rome. Like it or not, he is important to the legion.'

She fixed her glare on Larry. 'So is the ambassador of Pluto. Nico di Angelo commands the full spectrum of powers of the Underworld and has used it in service of us all. Or have you forgotten his role in delivering the Athena Parthenos across the Mare Nostrum to bring peace to our camps?'

Finally, she returned to Augustus. 'And Thalia Grace, daughter of Jupiter, is the leader of the Hunters of Artemis. If Diana herself sent her lieutenant on a quest to save Percy Jackson, I wouldn't presume to dismiss the quest so quickly.' She might be over-reaching somewhat on this last bit—she had no idea whether Thalia actually had permission to undertake the quest. But then, neither did the senate.

'That may be so,' said Augustus, and Reyna was pleased to hear a shaky note in his voice. 'But why is it the legion's responsibility? Surely the Greeks or the Hunters would be—er—better poised for a—ah—rescue mission?'

'Are you suggesting, Centurion, that the legion shirks responsibility and pawns it onto another group?'

Augustus shifted uneasily in his seat as the other members of the senate turned to glare at him. He muttered something under his breath that sounded like, 'Gods didn't put this on us,' but shook his head when Reyna raised her eyebrows, daring him to clarify.

Reyna hid her smile. She was getting through to them.

'You spoke of personal friendships, Centurion. The legion's success is built on personal connections. Favours and debts are passed down from generation to generation. Veterans of the legion remain honour-bound to serve even after they leave the legion. How many times have personal favours from veterans assisted us on our quests? Perhaps taking on a quest as a personal favour to those to whom we owe a debt of friendship is precisely the Roman way. And no one can argue that we owe these demigods an enormous debt.'

'Well!' thundered a voice. 'At least someone here is speaking sense.'

Reyna whirled around. The doors to the Senate House had been flung open. A solid, muscular man wearing a long, black beard and a bizarre, Hawaiian-print toga was framed in the doorway. He was so tall, his messy black hair brushed the top of the doorframe. Reyna had never seen him before. Judging by the bewildered looks on the rest of the senators' faces, neither had they.

'Um, sir, this is a closed session,' Leila piped up.

'I was under the impression that all of New Rome was open to its patrons,' said Hawaiian-toga. He moved uncomfortably in it, as though unused to the garment. Hank, the straight-laced centurion of the third cohort, frowned as Hawaiian-toga came walking down the main aisle, revealing the flip-flops on his bare feet. The legion ghosts, however, were completely silent—the first clue that this man was someone important. Usually, the lares were greater sticklers for regulation-standard attire than even Hank.

'Can't believe I'm agreeing with Athena, but I hate taking Roman form,' muttered Hawaiian-toga. He held out his hand and a long, three-pronged weapon materialised in his grasp: a golden trident, its points sharp and gleaming.

Frank dropped the papers in his hand. 'You're—'

'Lord Neptune,' Reyna said in wonder. The god of the sea had never appeared to a Roman in living memory.

Neptune shrank a little as he came forward, but he still towered over them all. 'Someone called for a god's blessing on the quest?'

'Er, not exactly, but we'd appreciate it,' Frank said.

Neptune scratched his scruffy black beard. 'Right, then, you're all blessed—is that how this goes? It's been millennia since I've issued a Roman quest.'

'Uh—typically if the gods are ordering a quest, they provide the accompanying prophecy,' Ophelia said. 'Unless the augury I read will do…'

'No, too bleak,' Neptune said. 'Where's a good Oracle when you need one?'

Ophelia scowled, but gave no further indication that she was chafing at the implied insult.

Neptune shrugged. 'Good thing I had Apollo write me something before I came.' He hiked up his toga—treating them all to a brief glimpse of his finely-shaped podex in the process—and pulled out a battered scroll from somewhere inside his toga. 'This is hot off the press.'

Neptune held out the prophecy scroll, but before Frank could take it, he yanked it back.

'Oh, sorry. Forgot to add—' There was a lot of yelping and covering of heads as Neptune spun his trident in one hand. It shrank to the size of a pen and he flipped it around so that the shaft end (which had in fact become a ballpoint pen not unlike the one Percy Jackson always carried) faced down. He underlined something on the scroll, thought for a moment, then added in a large scrawl at the top of the prophecy lines: By order of the Lord of the Sea.

Neptune examined the scroll one last time before tossing it back to Frank, who unrolled it and read aloud:

'Fire finds Death due east

Doors set deep, family saves

The dagger tells the time.'

Ophelia blinked. 'That's not a prophecy, that's a—'

'Haiku.' Neptune shrugged again. 'What can I say, that's Apollo's thing these days.'

'But—'

'Are you contesting the god of prophecy's prophecy?'

Ophelia shook her head quickly.

'Right then, that's my job done.' Neptune frowned at Frank, looking remarkably like Percy as he did so—if Percy's face was more weather-beaten and wrinkled, that was. 'You look familiar. Are you one of mine?'

'Um, my dad's actually Mars, but yeah, my mom's family—er—we're descended from Periclymenus.'

'Ah. Thought one of the line went Roman a century or so ago. Didn't work out so well, if I recall.'

'No, sir,' Frank murmured. 'That was my great-grandfather.'

Neptune grinned. 'Well, never mind that. Praetor, are you?' He pointed his trident at Frank. To Frank's credit, he didn't even flinch when the three prongs were aimed at his chest. 'Good. See to it you get my son and his girlfriend back in one piece. Oh, and the others, too, I suppose.'

Lightning flashed across the ceiling and the Senate House shook. 'My brothers concur,' Neptune announced. 'Now get on with it. I gotta go.'

Reyna averted her eyes as Neptune vanished in a blaze of aquamarine light, leaving ten stunned senators and a dozen silent ghosts staring gape-mouthed at the spot where he'd been.

'I believe my point about the importance of rescuing our friends is made,' Reyna said dryly. 'And that solves the issue of whether this quest is sanctioned by a god.' She looked across the row of senators. 'Any further arguments?'

The senators shook their heads in unison. Most of them still looked shell-shocked at Neptune's unprecedented appearance (Larry had even forgotten to shut his jaw), although Augustus seemed a bit miffed that Neptune, of all Di Consentes, was their patron.

'I trust there will be no problems arranging transportation?'

'A car will do nicely,' Hazel added, recovering quickly.

'You're actually entitled to more than just a simple car, Hazel,' Reyna reminded her. 'You and Frank are both praetors and you're leading the quest.' She scanned the senators. 'Who oversees transportation now?'

'Claudia,' said Frank.

'Get the best, Claudia,' Reyna ordered. 'And the fastest.'

The wiry third-cohort centurion sprung to her feet immediately. 'On it, Advisor,' she said, with a shaky salute. She all but sprinted from the room in her hurry to obey.

'Wait,' Augustus protested. 'Who will be the third companion?'

An awkward silence fell. The other senate members exchanged looks like, nope, not it! and carefully avoided meeting Frank's eyes.

'I will,' Reyna said.

'But—but—you're retired—' Augustus spluttered.

Reyna raised an eyebrow. 'I believe the rule is that within half a year of retirement, a legionnaire may still receive support for a quest as long as they retired in good standing. I trust you will find my credentials are impeccable.'

Augustus subsided with a quick bow. 'Yes, of course.'

'Besides,' Reyna said archly, 'I don't see any of you volunteering.'

'Reyna, Hazel, and I will do just fine,' Frank said. 'We'll set off right away—as soon as Claudia has our vehicle ready, that is.'

'You'll need to organise letters of reference, too, won't you? In case you need help from veterans along the way,' said Michael.

'Don't bother,' Hazel said. 'We'll definitely have help. Greek help.' She gave Augustus a dirty look as if to add, and they won't need to debate it ten ways to Hades before jumping on board.

'We'll be fine,' Frank repeated. 'Um—I guess that's all, then. Thank you senators.' He somehow managed to say it without a trace of irony in his tone. 'Dismissed.'

Once the rest of the senate had filed out into the forum, Hazel turned to Reyna.

'Wow,' she said, her eyes wide. 'Reyna, that was—'

'Not very Roman-like, I know.'

Hazel shook her head. 'You were amazing. The Greeks would be proud.'

'The Greeks are proud,' said a voice from the gallery.

Reyna, Hazel, and Frank whirled around.

'Jason! Piper!' Hazel raised her arms to embrace the grinning girl coming towards them. Jason held out his hand to fist-bump Frank.

'How did you two get in here?' Reyna asked, amazed.

'Hey, I'm the pontifex maximus, aren't I?' Jason said.

Piper rolled her eyes. 'I sweet-talked the guard ghost.'

'I'm sure they would've let me in anyway. I'm an ex-praetor, too. Once a praetor of Rome…'

'Nice of you to step in and help, in that case,' Reyna said sarcastically.

Jason held up his hands. 'You were doing a great job on your own. Anyway, Greek help here at your service.' He saluted Hazel and grinned at Reyna. 'First-class transport, did you say? It's been a while since I got the limo treatment. The last time was—what, the quest for the Imperial gold torpedoes?'

'You've been in my dad's limo in L.A.!' Piper reminded him.

'Oh, wait till you see the legion ones,' Jason told her. 'Even your dad's cars haven't got anything on these. Then again, I think some of them were actually donated by movie star veterans.'

'At any rate,' Reyna said, 'there's plenty of room for all of us. I'm glad you're here.'

And she was. Jason wasn't just one of her oldest friends; he'd been her fellow praetor, whom she'd trusted for years to have her back. Ironically, he was also Thalia's brother. Reyna might have chalked up her attraction to Thalia as the remnants of an old crush she'd had on Jason, if not for the fact that Thalia was the complete antithesis of Jason's golden-boy persona. Although a few years of living Greek—and no doubt Piper's influence as well—had worn away some of his perfect polish, Reyna still couldn't see any of Thalia's scrappy fighter nature in Jason. Where Thalia's entire person always seemed vividly alive, with her intense blue eyes that practically crackled with electricity, her brother wore the same eye colour—the only feature the Grace siblings shared—in a softer, more easy-going way.

When had she begun to think of Jason as Thalia's brother instead of the other way round?

Reyna shook her head and directed her attention back to the conversation at hand.

'Before Claudia comes back with our ride, we should probably figure out where we're headed,' Frank said. 'Hazel, do you know where to find Thanatos?'

Hazel tapped her lip with one finger. 'He's not in the Underworld,' she said after a pause. 'I don't sense him there. I don't sense the others down there either, for that matter. I guess that means…'

She didn't need to finish the sentence. If their friends were no longer in the Underworld, it could only mean one thing.

'Then we need to pin down Thanatos quickly,' Jason said. 'He shows up when someone's about to die, right? What if one of us almost dies—?'

Piper gave him an incredulous look. 'Hello, that could go wrong so many ways!'

Reyna motioned for Rank to hand her Neptune's prophecy scroll. She studied it for a minute. The sea god had underlined the word family, but she couldn't figure out why.

'Well,' she said finally, 'I haven't seen any prophecies in this form before, but I imagine the first line tells us how we'll find Thanatos.'

'Fire finds Death,' murmured Frank. He rummaged under his toga and brought out a carefully-wrapped cloth package. 'Maybe—if this stick burns almost to its end—if I control it carefully, I could almost die, like Jason suggested.'

Piper raised her eyebrows. 'You can control your own death?'

'No he can't!' Hazel cut in. She put her hands on her hips and glared at Frank. 'You're not burning up your lifeline, Frank. And I think Death wouldn't show up until someone's actually dead.'

Frank held up his hands—and the mysterious package—in surrender. 'Well, how do you suggest we track him down? It's not like he's being held hostage this time. He's probably moving around collecting souls as we speak.'

'Fire finds Death due east,' Reyna read out. 'That's our first clue—we head east.'

'News flash, we're on the West Coast,' Piper reminded them. 'Everything is due east.'

'Camp Half-Blood is on the East Coast,' Jason mused. 'Maybe we have to go there?'

'But why would we have to? And that'll take ages—it took us more than a week the first time we ferried the exchange heroes across with—' Piper broke off suddenly. 'Oh my gods. Fire finds Death.'

'What?' said Jason.

Hazel's jaw dropped. 'That's it! Fire—Piper, you're a genius!'

Reyna crossed her arms. 'Can someone please explain what's going on?'

'Who do we know who can control fire and track down stuff that's hard to find?' said Piper triumphantly.

The boys looked at each other. 'LEO,' they said in unison.

'The kid who tried to blow up New Rome?' Reyna said dubiously. Leo Valdez was the only member of the old Giant War quest team whom she'd barely interacted with. Her one prominent memory of him was of Octavian accusing him of firing on the forum—followed by an all-out brawl between the Romans and Greeks.

'The hero who blew up Gaia,' Piper corrected.

Right, that had been him, too. Reyna winced. 'Of course, sorry.'

'He already got around death once, he found Ogygia twice, and he made his way back here.' Hazel ticked off each feat on her fingers. 'And he's east of here.'

Piper nodded. 'If anyone can track Death, it'll be Mr Hot Stuff himself.' She blanched. 'Don't tell him I said that.'

It seemed like the best solution they could find. Reyna just hoped Valdez wasn't too far from here. 'Okay, I guess that's the plan.'

'Let's go find Claudia and the limo, then,' Jason said. 'Looks like we're headed for Indiana.'

OoOoOoOoOoO

A/N: Little break from the main group! This chapter is brought to you by Reyna, who insisted I give her more screen time. That girl is a force of nature!

Thanks keelsxoxo and strawberrygirl2000 for your comments last chapter! Yeah, the main group is off on an adventure, and I promise we're getting back to them next chapter ... which will actually be coming along tomorrow. :)

strawberrygirl2000-tea and hot chocolate is totally my thing (I don't drink coffee at all) so does that make me like Hazel? ;) I'm so excited to read all your reactions to every bit. And I promise you will find out later in the fic what Annabeth thought about that scene. And be warned because I'm really not done torturing our poor demigods ...

Offline vacation time sounds great! I hope you and your mom enjoyed yourselves lots!