Chapter 3

Romans POV

Desiree

As Centurion of the Third Cohort, I've got a lot of responsibilities. Even before I was elected Centurion, I was assigned to watch over the younger ones. Even though they're trained warriors, they are still children, after all. I don't care if it isn't very 'Roman" of me to do so. That's how I met Alyce.

She came to join the camp two years after I did. As a daughter of Neptune, she's really powerful. She rose through the ranks quickly, much to her brother's envy.

We got close after I heard her arguing with Alex. A few more chats later, we were the best of friends. Alex constantly argues with her over the years, especially now that she's praetor. I keep my distance from Alex as I could not want to get involved in their sibling rivalry. But, I do talk to Alex sometimes, when Alyce isn't around. He's capable of civil conversation, and is more intelligent than he lets on. I didn't think he was capable of actually harming his sister. That is, until last night's war games...

I saw Alex lead Alyce away last night. I thought it was strange for them to be going off alone so I followed them. Unfortunately, one of the kids from the Fifth Cohort saw me. I walloped him easily enough with my ball-and-chain flail, but I was too late, by the time I found them in a clearing. All I saw was Alex. He stared at me with panicked eyes.

"They took Alyce! Some weird snake, human, hybrid... thing!" he cried.

"They're called Empousai, you imbecile and wait… why didn't you stop them then?" I answered back, eyeing his polished armor and sheathed sword, "Its no use trying to fool me, Lex."

He dropped the act and gave me a taunting smirk "You always were the smart one, Des."

"Where is she, Alex? Let her go." I tightened my grip on my flail.

"How would I know? She was taken by Empousai." he grinned at me, "I'm just an innocent witness."

"This isn't a game, Alex. I know you're smart, but you can be devious as well. That's a very dangerous combination. Whatever you've got planned, stop it before you'll live to regret it." I warned him.

He fixed me a calculated stare as he casually strolled towards me. "Oh, you're wrong little missy, VERY wrong at that. This IS a game, dear Desiree, the stakes are high, and the die has been rolled and most of all," he stopped and whispered in my ear, "I'm playing to win."

Lucas

The Siege was won by the 5th cohort...again. It was sort of predictable, considering the fact that there was an extremely war-crazy son of Neptune in that cohort. The strange part was that my friend, Alyce, was nowhere to be seen. I looked for Desiree, another of my friends, to ask what happened to Alyce, but I couldn't find her. Where are those, guys? The horn blew for the end of the games. We formed ranks for the final announcements and the awarding of the mural crown to the first to breech the walls. After Denis awarded the mural crown to Alex, he made an announcement for an emergency senate meeting for the centurions and senior veterans. The cause of the emergency meeting really wasn't that clear, but Desiree seemed really agitated about it. As soon as we were dismissed, I went to Desiree.

"Hey" I said, "are you Ok?"

"Yeah", she said like I pulled her out from her thought bubble or something, "Just a bit worried, I guess."

"Why are you worried?"

She looked at me steadily, "Tell me, Lucas, have you seen Alyce anywhere?"

"No, but I'm sure she's fine."

"I followed her and Alex into the woods during the siege. I saw Alex abduct her, with half a dozen Empousai." she said. "They took her away, and when I confronted Alex, he denied everything and pretended that it never happened."

"Wait, …Alyce abducted? …by Empousai?...", I mumbled, struggling to keep up," Des, as a friend, I'm going to say this again. Are you OK?"

"Don't start with me, Lucas!" she replied fiercely, as she wheeled around to face me.

"At least tell me where you are going." I asked.

"I'm going to find evidence; I need something to prove what had really happened."

"Fine, just make sure you don't get caught. I'd hate to see you what they'd do to you if even half of what you said was true."

"Don't worry, I always have a plan." then she stormed off into the forest by the Field of Mars.

The next morning

I woke up as usual at around five thirty in the morning. I passed by Des' bunk and saw that she had a safe return from her little excursion. I left the barracks of the third cohort and headed towards the temples. I do this every day. I wake up three hours before we actually need to wake up, go to my father's temple and occasionally talk to my cousin who is both an insomniac and always busy. But this time, I didn't see Alyce or Denis making the morning rounds. Instead I saw Alex watching as they demolish last night's fort and are starting to build a new one.

"Hey, Alex ", I called as he turned and looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Lucas, what are you doing here?"

"I'm always up this early." I said plainly, "What are you doing here? I thought Alyce or Denis are usually the ones who are supposed to make the morning rounds."

"Yeah but since Alyce has taken a…. leave from Camp Jupiter," he said, "I decided to help Denis and take over Alyce's half of the morning's rounds."

"What kind of leave?"

"Nothing that you can do about unless you could breathe underwater.", he answered. "Why don't you go back to the barracks? I can handle the stuff here."

Okay... that was weird. I need to talk to Desiree and see what she found out.

I went back to the Third Cohort's barracks and found everyone awake. I went over to Desiree, who was wearing her toga for the Senate Meeting. She was gripping her Flail in one hand while holding something that looks like a small Imperial Gold chain on the other hand. She was staring blankly into space, deep in thought.

"Hey", I tapped her shoulder, making her jump "Are you okay?"

"Yeah" she replied. I raised my eyebrow; then, she sighed, "Remember when I told you I was going to look for evidence to prove that he really did kidnap her?"

"Yeah…so…" I started "Don't tell me you got caught."

"No. Of course I didn't get caught. I found something." She held up the gold chain. It looked like a small charm bracelet but with only one charm. The charm looked sort of like a fork. A trident. "I found this in the woods where I saw Alex, during the Siege last night. Want to guess who it belongs to?" she asked as she gently swung her flail dangerously.

Eyeing her flail, I held my hands up in surrender. "Alright, I believe you. But I just saw Alex at the Fields of Mars just now. He said that Alyce was with Neptune, just like the last time"

Desiree snorted, "Yeah right, and I just imagined the daughter of Neptune being clamped in chains and carried away by demons."

"Hey, I said I believed you, didn't I?" I replied, "So, how do we prove that Alex did it?"

"I don't know." she cried miserably. Just then, the horn blew for morning roll call.

She groaned. "Come on, let's get this over with."

The Senate house is like a court room of the camp. There are rows of seats for the older veterans and some of the Lars. The first row is reserved for the Centurions and occasionally, some of the retired senators all form in a semicircle facing a podium and a pair of high backed chairs. Everyone took their seats, and Denis stood up on the podium.

"Alright, people. Since this is an emergency meeting, we won't stand for any formalities." The Lars all started complaining about how it's not tradition and how they liked formalities.

"Quiet!" He yelled, "We are all here because of the disappearance of Alyce, the Daughter of Neptune." That got everyone's attention and murmurs started filling the room. Whos, wheres and whys echoed across the house.

"Why do we need to talk about this?", Alex asked, seemingly uninterested, "She's with our dear daddy, just like last time."

"I don't think so." Matthias stood up with the Sibiline book in hand. "I've been studying the auguries for the past few days. They all don't sound too good, but there was one in particular that caught my eye. It mentioned something about a danger, a task of some sort that could end the world of the gods."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cut to the chase. What does this have to do with my sister?"

"Perhaps her disappearance is the start of this very danger. I mean, didn't this happen before?"

The older veterans shifted suspiciously, like they knew something. But before anyone could say anything, a mist gathered behind Denis. An image of a golden man with piercing silver eyes appeared. The older veterans were all struck dumb. Many seemed to be in a state of either shock or anger and I saw what seemed like Was it fear? glinting in their eyes.

"Romans," he said tauntingly.

"Alcyoneus!" One of the older veterans growled. A woman I recognized to be as Reyna. She was standing in front with the other senators. The man in the mist smiled.

"Good to see you again, my dear. My, you have grown. Look at you. By the way, where's your little friend, the Son of the sea god?" Everyone instantly looked at Alex, who seemed to be undaunted by the man in the mist.

"We killed you years ago" she replied fiercely, "and he's not here. Why would you look for him anyways? He beated you once, He could do it again."

He laughed loudly."You, Roman kids aren't too bright, are you? You forget that I am an immortal. I cannot be killed. I have returned from Tartarus to take my revenge on that sniveling upstart, but pity, I only got this little girl." He moved out of view and we saw a black haired girl, secured in chains and unconscious. "Know her?"

"Alyce!" Desiree yelled, " What did you do to her!"

"Nothing except fasten her to these chains and beat her senseless. But other than that, she's fine, but she's not going to be for long."

"What do you want, Alcyoneus?" Reyna demanded angrily.

"A simple exchange." he smiled menacingly, "The Legion's crown for the daughter of Neptune. You have until the summer solstice. Bring me the eagle at the highest point of the earth, away from the gods' sphere of power. Bring me the crown or this daughter of Neptune shall die. Your choice, Romans. Bye and don't forget to have fun!" The mist dispersed and chaos broke loose. Yells thundered across the room, the loudest of which was Desiree.

"How could you!" Desiree yelled at Alex.

"Why the heck do you keep blaming me?"

"You were the last to see her!" she cried "I saw you!"

"Treason!" one of the Lars yelled accusingly as two veterans grabbed hold of him. Then a flash of light appeared, momentarily blinding everyone. When the light died down, we saw a tall woman in a roman toga with piercing grey eyes. On her shoulder was a magnificent looking owl. Stunned, I realized that it was Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. Desiree's mom.

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PS. This is half edited before one of us got band *looking at someone while he just shrugs* please review~Alyce