AN: So, it's been a while since I updated this one. But here is the next chapter. I don't know when I'll get time to update again but I'll try to update again soon.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and for more information on this story you should all go to my website, which is linked on my profile as always.
Oh, and to those interested this begins about a month before Sea of Monsters.
Edited 5/17/14.
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Lost In The Echo.
Chapter 2: Guilty By Association.
Dropping in on Camp Jupiter, literally, had been a bit dramatic, even for her.
But it wasn't something she hadn't done before, but it had been a while since her last visit.
Not since the earthquake the camp had blamed on a descendant of Neptune – or had he been a son? She could never remember clearly.
Well, at least not in a way that others had seen her. She'd taken her children to the tunnels when they were old enough – usually around seven or ten, depending. Sometimes, if they were demigods she took them after birth.
It all just depended on their godly parents, or if she was confident she could evade monsters and raise them for a few years.
Thankfully, for those she had chosen to raise until a certain age, nothing had ever gone wrong. A few close calls, which usually ended with her taking them directly to Camp after, but nothing tragic.
As she landed close to the Cohorts, basically the center of camp. She saw a few legionnaires come forward with hard faces and weapons.
Some others, older ones and the passing Lares saw her and gasped, before going to one knee.
She mentally rolled her eyes, she hated when people bowed to her, it reminded her of when she'd used past alias', two of which were queens. Back then it had been fun and sort of expected, but Percy had changed with the times and now being bowed to just annoyed her. Not enough that she cared to mention it, but enough that she had to stop from rolling her eyes for all to see.
Some of the weapon wielding legionnaires saw their older comrades and Lares bowing and were confused. Chuckling, she shook her head as the crowd around her cleared for the current Praetors who grinned.
"Mother!" one, the female cried with a large grin.
The female Praetor wore golden armor and her toga – she suspected there had been a senate meeting recently if she was wearing the standard toga of the senate – and an assortment of medals.
On her forearm her SPQR tattoo was visible. Unique to her was the symbol associated with Percy's place as Nerio to the Romans – a Crane in flight clutching onto a trident. There were six bars, symbolizing her time at the camp.
The young girl had tanned skin, and some features that could only come from the girls father, as she had a Native American and Spanish look about her. Her eyes were dark, darker than Percy's sea green, but they were still green. A much darker sea green as they were. She was about eighteen.
The boy next to her was obviously her partner, a boy with short blond hair and blue eyes, from his SPQR tattoo she knew he was either a legacy, or a son of Mercury. It made sense, the boy looked quite a bit like Mercury.
"Katerina," Percy greeted, taking a step closer.
The legionnaires who'd been ready to attack her seemed frozen stiff.
Once she began moving to greet her oldest daughter – currently, besides Phoebe who was a Hunter of Artemis – they dropped their weapons to their sides, and fell to their knees in respect like the others.
"It's Kat," Katerina instantly corrected, and Percy chuckled and pulled her daughter into a quick hug before releasing her.
She looked at her, not having seen her since she was five years old, the age she'd brought Katerina to Lupa, who would later send Katerina to Camp Jupiter.
"Lady Nerio," the Male Praetor said, bowing respectively and she heard some whispers break out before older campers quieted them.
"I go by Persis, or Percy this era, Praetor," she said, nodding at him.
"Lady Persis, then," he corrected himself, and she mentally sighed. "I am Caleb, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion. Son of Mercury."
She smiled.
"Then you must know Alexandri –" she didn't get to finish her words as there were some shouts and three more legionaries raced towards them.
Two were the same age, and look a lot alike, twins. Both had tanned skin, dark hair and dark eyes. On their arm was a SPQR tattoo which claimed them as children of Mars.
The other was a girl about two years younger, with long blonde hair and sea blue eyes. On her arm was the same tattoo but with the symbol for Mercury.
All three had six bars, much like Katerina.
"Mom!" they cried and hugged her briefly.
"Mom?" a brave Legionary spoke up, stepping forward. "But if your the warrior goddess, Nerio, than how can they be your children?"
Percy stared at them all in a dry manner, almost making them feel as if she were deciding if they were worthy of an answer, or if they deserved death.
"I am the warrior goddess, warriors meaning mostly demigods. I am unable to have children that are godly, even those I have with other gods are born demigods, just as I once was."
it was a believable lie, though more of a half-truth. She couldn't have godly children, seeing as she wasn't truly a goddess, but simply immortal. But they were not aware of that, so it was a cover she'd developed for those that were brave, or stupid enough, to ask.
"Octavian, do you want to be blasted to pieces?" a girl in the crowed hissed, and pulled the boy who'd spoken up back.
Percy noticed the girl must be a friend, or maybe a sister. They weren't older than thirteen or fourteen.
"Marek, Marea," Percy greeted when she turned her attention back to her middle children, the twins.
It was rare that gods sired twins with a mortal, but not unheard of.
"Alexandria," Percy said lastly, looking at the last girl, the blonde and fairest of her children.
A child of Mercury.
She hadn't seen any of them since they were two, and one respectively, having taken them to Lupa the same day as Katerina.
"Mother, if I may ask, why are you here?" Marea asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I was in the area," she responded. "I do visit when I'm in the vicinity. I've also been hearing rumors about some things."
Rumors, more like what she'd heard them from the horses mouth. The horse being Oceanus, the only Titan she knew personally and was on good terms with. By good terms she meant they didn't try to kill each other, but were civil, and sometimes more.
"Legionaries, there isn't anything to see here. Go back to your duties," Katerina called, as she glared fiercely at the campers loitering around.
Her stare was just as impressive and final as Percy's had been when she'd been staring at Octavian when he'd questioned her.
The legionaries looked at each other and finally scattered. Looking to where Blackjack grazed around she looked back to Marek and Marea.
"Will you two go and put Blackjack with the other Pegasi – or Unicorns. Whatever it is you have here now," she said, wondering how long it had been since a Pegasi had been at the camp.
She knew there was a time when there were a few, but over the centuries Pegasi became mostly a Greek thing. Marek and Marea seemed hesitant but nodded, and Percy watched with a small smile as they began to gently guide Blackjack away.
"Are you staying a while, mom?" Alexandria asked, looking up at her hopefully.
Percy sighed, running a hand over her long braid.
"For a little while, Ali," she said, and Ali smiled and bowed respectively before running off to join her two siblings.
Those three were only about two years apart in age. The twins being sixteen and Alexandria fourteen. Over the next hour she came to stand on Temple Hill with the two Praetors, talking about the rumors she'd heard. About the Titans trying to make a come back, especially Saturn (Kronos).
"We've heard the same, but we've noticed little from Mount. Tam," Caleb said, and Katerina frowned, nodding.
"True, do you think there is something to these rumors, mother?" Katerina asked.
Percy sighed, and went to speak but then she stiffened as her senses went into overdrive, a feeling she only got when a god or immortal was around.
"There is, I'm afraid," a familiar voice said from behind her, and she turned with Katerina and Caleb to see three gods before them.
With sharp gasps, the two Praetors fell to one knee, head lowered in respect of the Big Three gods – Pluto, Neptune, and Jupiter.
Percy frowned deeply, and looked at each, relieved to see they were indeed in their roman forms.
She didn't have much love for any Greek god, though she had some respect for Artemis who'd tried to defend her, but in the end had no choice but to help in her curse.
That didn't mean she trusted the goddess of the hunt. But she respected her enough that she didn't throw a fit when her daughters, Phoebe and Philonoe, both joined the hunt thousands of years ago, when she'd been going by Leda, Queen of Sparta.
Only Phoebe still lived today.
Speaking of her time as Queen Leda, it was during that time she developed a great distaste for her Uncle Zeus. She could have kicked herself later, how could she not have realized the eagle she saw and decided to save was Zeus in disguise?
Though she supposed it had led to her beloved daughters and sons – Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux. Though Clytemnestra was her husband of the time, Tyndareus' daughter.
But those were Ancient times, such things as that were not uncommon. Things changed with the relocating of Olympus though and the passing of years. Even she, who had a great dislike for the gods, noticed.
"Father, uncles," Percy responded, a bit darkly. "What are you doing here?"
Neptune sighed, and took a step towards his daughter. She had changed none since he'd last seen her, since the last time Poseidon had seen her. Her hair was shorter, but still in her preferred braid, and she looked just the same.
What concerned him was the loneliness and bitterness reflected in sea green eyes. Darker than they'd been before she'd been cursed by the Greeks, back when she'd been happy.
Despite his Greek counterpart having nothing to do with her curse, she had still refused to talk to him for many, many centuries. It wasn't until the times of the Romans rise to power she relented, but even then, before he as Neptune had come into being, Poseidon had seen that she'd been badly wounded by her curse.
The Greeks, her family, had betrayed her. That was how she'd seen it and over the years her fatal flaw had morphed and twisted so badly it was easy to see that her loyalty was damaged.
She didn't have any loyalties but to herself, and to her children, putting a whole new twist to the flaw, personal loyalty. Even minor gods and goddess that had nothing to do with it were guilty, simply by association.
Neptune was certain the only saving grace for the Romans was that they were so different in some ways to the Greeks, and she'd been so lonely for so long she'd felt she needed a place to belong again.
The truth was, the Romans hadn't chosen Anastasia (Ananerio 'Nerio' as she'd been called then).
She had chosen them.
"We must talk, Anastasia," Neptune said, ignoring the confusion on the son of Mercury, and his granddaughter's faces.
They had obviously never heard Percy's true birth name before.
She glared harshly.
"It's Persis or Percy father, Nerio if you must," she said. "No one calls me Anastasia any longer."
'Not since Perseus,' she thought bitterly to herself.
Neptune sighed.
"Alright than, Percy," Neptune relented. "Will you talk to us?"
Percy looked at them with an expression which showed little more than contemplation, before she nodded.
"Of course father," she replied, before turning to the two Praetors. "Katerina, Caleb. Please, go back to your duties. I must talk to the gods."
The two Praetors nodded, stood and quickly left the Temple of Ananerio.
Leaving only the Roman Big Three, and the Cursed Daughter of Poseidon behind.