Hey there, I'm getting distracted by other stories but I have nevertheless suceeding in updating Regrets! Hope you like it, always thought Octavian's attack on Gwen was really serious and Zoe is similar angry about it.

Gwen! She'd shown me around in my first week but we'd never really been friends. Still this was horrible; it wasn't fair that one of the nicest people I knew would be struck in the stomach like this. It was amazing how happy we'd felt just seconds ago after a satisfying victory and now I felt sort of… empty. The horror of the situation was slowly dawning on me as I took in people's ashen faces and their stillness. No one was moving because no one knew what to do about this.

That dark red blood slowly sprouting from the huge wound in her stomach seemed eighty times worse when she moved. Had the pain from the injury woken her up from her eternal sleep? If that was so, then I wanted to find a way to ease her pain, so I slowly approached.

The blood flow seemed to have stopped oddly and Gwen's expression seemed oddly clear considering the pain she had to be in. Not wincing or anything just confused. Perhaps she had grown numb to the pain, which would surely be a welcome relief. I could still remember the feeling of my whole body burning with poison as I'd died, and wouldn't wish it on anybody.

"What's wrong? What are you all looking at?" Gwen's voice sounded alarmingly normal. It clashed with the grave atmosphere and I couldn't guess as to how she could sound so innocent and unaware. Wasn't she hurt gravely?

Examining the fresh wound, I could immediately tell that something was wrong for it seemed to be attempting to repair itself and I thought it might have been successful if there wasn't a huge spear sticking into her. Though I was doubtful, I pulled it out.

"Don't-" Someone shouted behind me but I ignored them.

"I feel fine, what's wrong?" Gwen said in bewilderment. The injury completely closed itself as I'd thought it might. She hardly noticed.

"Gwen, what do you remember?" The smooth voice of Nico did Angelo spoke as he sidled over to us.

"Umm… there was a door, and a man and he said something about there being a need to pay, but then I saw another door open behind me and I walked out," she replied worriedly.

Nico nodded as if that explanation made sense. "What's that mean?" Some girl called out.

"DEATH HAS BEEN CAPTURED!" A voice roared and all the Romans bowed at the sight of the god Mars.

The only person who didn't bother bowing was Percy. I rolled my eyes, remembering his lack of respect to Ares when we'd been on a quest together. I should've remembered this when we'd argued. It was arrogance to assume respect from anyone as naturally rebellious as Percy Jackson.

"I think I know you? You're Ares. We had a, did we have a fight?" Percy tried to job his memories as he questioned the unimpressed god.

Mars snorted. "Ares is my Greek name. You've never crossed blades with Mars punk, if you had then you wouldn't be standing there."

Percy somehow succeeded in talking with Mars for another minute without being disintegrated. However soon he got to the main topic. Death, that is Thanatos, had been captured and Frank, who turned out to be a son of Mars, had to go on a quest to free him. He was allowed to bring along two companions and one of them was Percy.

This was what I'd been waiting for – it had to be! I couldn't let this quest pass me by, but would Frank want to pick someone he knew better? Not that he knew anyone that well but I'm not sure I'd be considered his close friend. It had been fortunate for Percy to be selected by Mars.

With that thought, I stood up. "I would like to accompany you on your quest to free death," I declared.

A hundred other voices immediately started arguing or declaring similar statements, or perhaps just gossiping. Percy looked at me in bemusement. "Why would you be crazy enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"

"Personal interest," I murmured quietly. Maybe death had been captured for months and it was the reason for the increased number monsters as well as my own resurrection. An open door… steps leading down…

"Well why don't you hold one of those senate debates you love, so you can argue about semantics and technicalities?" Mars suggested, looking ready to leave now that he had fulfilled the requirements of his visit. I wondered if antagonise everybody was one of those requirements.

"Hey Zoe?" Percy spoke up.

We were heading off to sleep, hoping to get some rest before the quest which would presumably start tomorrow if the Romans weren't inefficient at debating. It had been a long day and there was much to think about.

"Yes?"

"You know how Gwen nearly died?" He hesitated over the word die.

"What of it?" I asked, thinking back to the horrible scene.

"It's just… Octavian was standing near her and he was missing his spear," Percy said slowly, cautiously.

A cold fury washed over me. Why was it so easy for me to believe that Octavian was responsible for this? "That's terrible. Don't trust him, don't trust him at all. And don't even think about underestimating him."

"The senate is gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss the quest that was ordered by our Patron, Mars." Reyna was leading the Senate meeting with Octavian smirking just behind her. He truly was awful.

"There will be no discussion over companions as it is up to Frank Zhang to decide who he wants to come along. Who have you chosen Frank?" Reyna asked him.

Frank stood out a bit, wearing his regular clothes while almost everyone else was wearing those uncomfortable looking togas. Percy and I were also dressed normally however we sat towards the back of the grand hall whereas Frank was right in the front.

"Percy and umm…" he paused, as if unwilling to make the final decision. Or just reluctant to share it. "Zoe Nightshade," he said.

Reyna found me in the crowd and shot me a cold look but otherwise accepted what he'd said. "Very well, the camp rules state that no legionnaire below the rank of a centurion can lead a quest and due to recent events Gwen had decided to step down from her position as centurion and go to college in New Rome."

"Frank Zhang will be promoted to position as centurion since a spot has just opened up," Reyna continued ignoring complaints about how this was all wrong and things didn't work like that.

"The only thing left to decide is how much support we shall give this quest." Reyna announced.

At this, Octavian stood up and he had one of those ugly smirks on his face. He'd nearly killed a girl yesterday and she'd only been saved by a coincidence, was he going to do more of the same? I couldn't possibly let him.

"Reyna, I think this quest is clearly a desperate action that has little chance of success so it'd be best if we gave them as little help as possible so that we can keep all the supplies for the upcoming battle that Mars mentioned – it is the best allocation of resources."

Even Reyna frowned at the idea. "While it is true that we must prepare, to give them no support at all for such an important mission would be-"

"Very Roman!" Octavian cut her off and he really knew how to get the majorities support.

I stood up furiously. Why was he doing all this now? He'd been cordial to me for months and I'd thought we'd begun to build up some sort of trust. And now, when the stakes were so high he revealed himself to be working against me?

"A few months ago, you were aware of a shortage in resources and yet you are surprised when a few months later there is a battle and you have insufficient gold?" Zoe demanded, addressing the senate as a whole.

"Well I too noticed the problem however I went and did something about it. I trust you noticed half a dozen pegasi were occupying the stables?" Zoe continued, speaking in particular to Octavian who gave her a measured look.

"I found them for you and now I'll ask for a chariot and a sufficient amount of weaponry and three or four pegasi for the quest." Zoe said, daring them to deny her.

"Indeed, I recommended you take that course of action and those supplies were of some help to the camp and now we have a need them so rest assured that your efforts are appreciated," Octavian said, sneering at her.

"I think they'd be more useful to save death so that the camp has the slightest chance against the enemy when they invade. The monsters are virtually unstoppable if they won't say dead!"

Octavian didn't seem impressed. "Are you suggesting that are camp cannot handle a petty invasion? "

"Are you suggesting that you will not be strong to defeat the enemy without sparing four pegasi and a few weapons? But you will be strong enough with them?" I questioned, smiling as his expression finally became just a bit flustered.

He wasn't one to give up in a debate though. "Our best chance of success is with all our resources behind us!"

"Actually your best chance of success is if our quest succeeds so you'd better do everything you can to make it so," I responded, happy to see the crowd listening to me for once.

He was silent for a few seconds. Then the ugly smirk was back. "Well then, I think the quest would have a better chance of success if you weren't on it." And just like that, everyone was against me again.

He thought fast and it was easy to see why he was so likely to be a Praetor despite the fact that he really did have an ugly personality. I think I had been denying it until that incident with Gwen, which was too much.

"Why?" I asked, for want of anything more convincing to say.

But his smile slipped at the simple question. "You're just not a good choice," he said, his convincing edge temporarily lost.

"That's your opinion but you'll find that we're not discussing who's going, Reyna?" I turned to her, dismissing Octavian, he could try to make me regret crossing him but it hurt far more to have worked with him for so long.

She didn't seem to want to make a choice, clearly not pleased with me either. Hopefully success would grant a bit of sympathy. "I think their request is more than fair, consider it granted," she said however.

I grinned; maybe this journey would be a simple flight north now.

That's it, thanks for reading! Nice to have Zoe finally being awesome, and the quest is about to start! I'd appreciate any reviews and I'm not sure when I'll next update - it's all these other story ideas I'm having. An unfortunately exciting new dimension is a very distracting story.