The fiery Texas heat fell away from their shoulders, but never their bones as a small family of three ventured towards the middle-of-nowhere Wyoming. It was different than everything that they were used to; quieter also.

And that was without mentioning that they lived there.

If Alina would look back on it, it would reminded her greatly of the Twilight Saga for she was Bella and they... they were the Cullens.

There were twelve of them with eyes that were the brightest shades of blues like sky above and only two had brown eyes that gleamed so brightly it was like looking at pools of lava. Their homes lingered at the edge of the town, looming as large as the mountains behind them. Their land was spread so far and wide, concealed from peeking glances by a plethora of quaking aspen trees. The picture of wealth and the world around them was their back yard.

Alina was young—too young to remember them so clearly and yet, she did.

There were twelve of them with skin that had been kissed so tenderly by the sun, giving them tannest skin of all the caucasions living in that sunless town. The elderly Matriarch and her besotted husband with hair that was the same color as the clouds within the sky or the snow at the peak of the mountains. Their triplet daughters with their bright smiles and soothing voices and hair as blonde as the rays of the suns. Two of them had husbands that dotted on them just as much as they dotted on the children, carrying them and those of the small town around on their shoulders and always happy to lend a hand to any in need.

And the children...

As one of the few children in the town, Alina had been easily welcomed into their circle especially as she was an outsider. Alina was strange to the four of them just as strange as they were to her, superstitious that they had been, but—they were her friends even when they spoke in a language that she had yet to reach though they happily taught her.

The eldest of them was eight-years-old with dirty blond hair with an outlook on the future that resonated with Alina even now years later. He worried obsessively over anyone younger than him, but especially over his younger sister with her heterochromia eyes and hair since she tended to get caught up in the past, recounting stories that she had seen or heard as if she had lived it. She was the youngest child of that strange family.

And then there was the second youngest with her hair as dark as the night sky; she usually kept in a braid or let it hang wildly down her back and away from the intensity of her dazzling blue eyes. Alina had overheard the townspeople telling her mamá that she had been adopted. Someone had called the girl's birth mother a malparido. The girl hated the woman with passion that could burn the sun, but the love for the family that took her in shone in every step that she took which was just as bright as the love for her biological Father and his Family that tended to visit. The townspeople had told Alina's mamá that the girl had found a new family and they did not want to tear her from it.

Alina had noted how much that seemed to amuse the children especially the girl's older brother who was the last of them. The second eldest with a protectiveness for his family that everyone was deemed a threat before an ally. He cared nothing about the future nor the present and instead, he focused on the present because it was where happiness resided.

Alina had been only five years old when she fell in love with him. Insane right because what did she know of love at that age? But when the browns of her eyes met the blues of his own; she had fallen and she had fallen hard. Even now, ten years later, she could talk about him forever though the feelings had simmered into something more platonic. They had been children then—kids with hearts too big for their bodies, wit futures filled with uncertainty and aspirations to make the gods shed tears but... but she had loved him. He had set a standard that none could measure up to. Alina had never needed a reason to be happy as long as she had been with him—with them.

There were twelve of them and they were all exactly alike. And even when the baby came, bumping them up to thirteen... they were all so breathtaking. Their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful.

Inhumanly.

Yes, it made sense for they had a secret that they shared with her—and only her and her parents. Something that their Family helped them from their own.

A few short months into their stay in that small town; almost a year to be exact. Alina had been playing in the woods surrounding their homes. She had followed after the quartet, venturing deep in the woods, chasing after each other, climbing and jumping around the trees and rocky ground and skating across the water of the lakes within as if they had been born within the arms of nature. Oh! How Alina wished she could go back to those days of ignorance.

Their laughter danced within the wind, shrieks of excitement echoing in distance.

And Alina...

Oh, how she wished to go back for she had ran too far from the trusted paths, safe in the knowledge that she knew that they could find her no matter what she did.

And they could and they did, but—

But Alina had not been safe at all.

The beast had emerged from the shadow of the trees, eyes as red as the blood that dripped from its teeth. It stood taller than she thrice over.

Her scream pierced the air, loud and echoing and circling around her like the leaves in a storm.

The beast seemed to smile, teeth flashing before her eyes as its fangs clamped around her arm. In between one blink and the next, the beast was thrown away from her. Between the blurry tears of pain, she thought she saw one of them; her rich-haired angel, so small beside the animal, lift the animal above her head with her bare hands and brutally jab her knee into its ribs. The other two joined her, glints of silver metal appearing in their baby hands as they brutally attacked the beast, drawing howls and cries from the beast as the ground was painted red at their feet.

They danced around its slowly dying body, delighting in the pain that they caused it.

And he—her love, her friend—he pulled her gaze to meet his own, worry and fear sprinkled in his eyes as her small, meager body began to contort in his arms. He picked her up, with surprising strength and the smell of laurel filled her nose as he rushed her back to his home—behind them, the other three were dragging the animal, covered in its blood but she could pay no attention to that as a fire raged within her and the world seemed both louder and quieter around her.

The adults rushed to their sides, concern etched into their faces, but she couldn't... wouldn't let go of him even as her eyes were drawn to the sky before them... as the browns of her eyes turned as red as the moon above.

Alina would never forget that day even when nearly a year later, she was dragged back to Texas for the funeral of her beloved tía and watched the grieve, blind to the betrayal of her other tía towards her primo hermano; with nothing but a picture of the quintet to remember them by.

The Verus Family.

The next few days passed slowly as the began to rebuild the city though some took it as a chance to do a complete change of their homes and storefronts.

Rue spent aster's time with Octavian as he began to train Rue as the next pontifex maximus of the College of The College of Pontiffs. Big aspirations for Rue and even bigger shoes to fill, but Octavian believed that ast could do it. He made ast brush up on all forms of divination, and it was how the two of them knew that Percy's words about the Prophecy of Seven was very much true.

Rue had pulled the Magician and the High Priestess out of every stack of tarot cards he made ast use. And while on the surface, these two seem to be very different cards, however, they were both full of mystery and magic. The Magician tends to make external changes while the High Priestess works on the inside. When these two combine forces, the result is a life-changing experience.

The duo meant that a serious life upheaval is on the horizon and like Percy hoped, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The end result of the changes that were ahead will be a life that is far better than the present.

Octavian hadn't said much when he saw it, but only hummed in interest.

And when he wasn't hounding Rue to up aster's training, he could be found by the lake, brushing through Lina's fur. And when the girl was not pale from pain with curls so wild that she looked more like a cavewoman than a human, Rue had been startled to see that she looked a lot like Sammy Valdez and that Leo boy.

(Not that she did much with her appearance other than tame her hair as best as she could and put on some better clothing. She resembled one of those willowy elves in fairy tales; like the dryads around the camp.)

And Rue could overhear the way people spoke about him as the elections drew closer.

"I don't like Dodie," some whisper.

"Well, he's gonna lose. That's just just defeatist."

"What do you think about Percy? He raised him as praetor, but now I don't know."

"In love with the greeks," one spat.

"Yeah, he's so elitist!"

Well, that was a lie. Rue knew that Percy was still trying to find a way to get out of praetorship, but he also didn't want to step down in case a horrible choice, like Dodie, stepped up.

"I like that Octavian Verus!" came from some retired members that watched him with a look in their eyes that made Rue uncomfortable.

"I can't believe we're here with him!" A boy blushed, rushing off to his friends after Octavian smiled at him. "He seems approachable…" Rue could hear as they walked by. "Like you could grab a beer with him!"

Considering that Octavian had only just turned eighteen the year before and now legally able to drink in public places, Rue wasn't surprised by that.

"Still, when all is said and all is done Octavian has beliefs, Dodie has none."

Even Octavian winced at that.

"What do you think," he asked one day when they were back in the Temple of Jupiter. "Do you think I have a chance?"

Rue hummed, nodding aster's head decisively. "You're a trustworthy political ally or political opponent. As much as people hate to admit it, you make no secret about where you stand and you fight for your opinions and stand firm in your beliefs. And yeah, you have manipulated a lot people's opinions of you, but the end goal had always remained the same."

He nodded his head to show that he heard Rue, but said nothing else on the topic as he absently sewed one of the bears that he had cut open.

"I have a question," Rue stated and those golden blue eyes focused on ast. "Why didn't you try for the position of rex sacrorum instead of praetor?"

Octavian snorted. "Please. For one, I am not married and two, I would have been barred from a political and military career. I'd never get anything done that way."

Rue laughed lightly.

"Now, bring that crystal and that bowl of water over here. I'm going to show you how to scry. Maybe we can find your brother this way."

The days continued on and Rue taught Hazel how to fight a bit though admittedly, ast was not surprised when the girl joined the fifth cohort. Rue had the sneaking suspicion that it had more to do with Frank than the honor that the cohort was facing.

Rue walked around, in aster's mourning veil on the day marking the death of the divine Julian. Rue didn't mention to Octavian of the newest spirit that began to appear around him though ast suspected that he knew already.

Some time within the days, Rue found asterself with Hazel and the children of Vulcan and his legacies as they walked around the entirety of New Roma, lifting imperial gold and other precious metals from the fertile earth. The forges were running overtime producing new weapons to go alongside the ones that they brought back from Alaska.

And there had been one day when Naenia appeared at camp to take Hazel away to a safe place. Their sister had came at just the right time for a giantess appeared on the horizon.

"I am Kethelenda," the giantess had proclaimed. "The Bane of Vesta. I am the new keeper of the sacred flame."

Rue imagined that if they had any Vestal Virgins then the only flame that the giantess would be keeping was one sticking out of her eyes. As such, the entirety of New Rome drew back in offense.

Naenia tilted her head, "You know Father was the one to defeat her in the great war. He took a cornucopia and instead of food and drinks, pure greek fire burned her as they were strengthed by the love that he and his siblings and all others had for Lady Vesta."

"Fresh out of flames," Rue mused. "But the love of my own siblings should be enough, hm?"

The goddess smiled beautifully and the three children of Pluto sent the giantess right back to Tartarus.

"I will find Nico," Rue assured Hazel, giving aster's sister a hug before allowing her to be led away. Naenia pressed a kiss to Rue's forehead and as a sign of promise, she wrapped the flowers of their namesakes around both their wrists.

And then the day came to vote.

They were in the midst of the usual pomp and service when a messenger rushed into the Senate House, gasping as if he'd run all the way from camp. "Praetors! I'm sorry to interrupt, but our scouts report—"

"Ship!" Tyson said happily, pointing at the hole in the ceiling that still had not been fixed. Thankfully, there had been no rain. "Yay!

Sure enough, a Greek warship appeared out of the clouds, about a half a mile away, descending toward the Senate House. As it got closer, Rue could see bronze shields glinting along the sides, billowing sails, and a familiar-looking figurehead shaped like a metal dragon. On the tallest mast, a big white flag of truce snapped in the wind.

The Argo II. It was the most incredible ship Rue had ever seen and ast hated the fact that ast was going to have to climb aboard.

"Praetors!" the messenger cried. "What are your orders?"

Octavian shot to his feet. "You need to ask?" His face was red with rage. He was strangling his teddy bear. "The omens are horrible! This is a trick, a deception. Beware Greeks bearing gifts!"

Dodie jabbed a finger at Percy and everyone watched real time as Octavian grimaced and just about change tune. If Dodie was agreeing with him, then clearly something was wrong. "His friends are attacking in a warship. He has led them here. We must attack!"

"No," Percy said firmly. "You all raised me as praetor for a reason. I will fight to defend this camp with my life. But these aren't enemies. I say we stand ready, but do not attack. Let them land. Let them speak. If it is a trick, then I will fight with you, as I did last night. But it is not a trick."

All eyes turned toward Reyna. She studied the approaching warship. Her expression hardened. If she vetoed Percy's orders...well, chaos and confusion would be the least of their worries. Most likely, the Romans would follow her lead. She'd been their leader much longer than Percy.

But she had been just getting ready to be voted out.

"Hold your fire," Reyna said. "But have the legion stand ready. Percy Jackson is your duly chosen praetor. We will trust his word—unless we are given clear reason not to. Senators, let us adjourn to the forum and meet our...new friends."

The senators stampeded out of the auditorium—whether from excitement or panic, Percy wasn't sure. Tyson ran after them, yelling, "Yay! Yay!" with Ella fluttering around his head.

Octavian gave Percy a disgusted look, then threw down his teddy bear and followed the crowd.

Reyna stood at Percy's shoulder.

"I support you, Percy," she said. "I trust your judgment. But for all our sakes, I hope we can keep the peace between our campers and your Greek friends."

"We will," he promised. "You'll see."

She glanced up at the warship. Her expression turned a little wistful.

"You say Jason is aboard...I hope that's true. I've missed him." She marched outside, leaving Percy alone with Rue and Frank. Rue wished she would get over the crush on Jason. Even Rue could see that Octavian was his true love.

"They're coming down right in the forum," Frank said nervously. "Terminus is going to have a heart attack."

"Percy," Rue said, "you swore on your life. Romans take that seriously. If anything goes wrong, even by accident, Octavian is going to kill you. You know that, right?"

Percy smiled as he threw one arm around Rue and one arm around Frank.

"Come on," he said. "Let me introduce you to my other family."

WORD COUNT: 2966

WORDS TO KNOW:

1) malparido - It's an insult, on the order of "son of a bitch". That's not the literal translation, but you get the idea. Definitely not for polite company. Don't use it.

1A) A short reminder that my spanish is very, very rusty so this is probably wrong.

Things to Know:

1) Kethelenda - I forgot where I found this name at simply because this has been planned for almost a year now and I forgot to notate it when I was searching, but I have her as a giantess that was the bane of Hestia who was slain by Hades.

1A) It's also because we get all these giants that are suppose to be the bane of the gods, but we dont actually get the names of them.

1B) And also in the Gigantomachy, the gods fought more than just one simple giant so it made more sense for there to be either banes of the gods.

Comments from the Author:

1) A short chapter, but that's okay. It'll pick back up in length in the upcoming chapters.

2) This chapter is also inspired by The Election of 1800 by the Hamilton Cast. I'm talking the exact lyrics or tweaked to fit the story of course.

3) The pontifex maximus was usually considered was the chief high priest in Ancient Rome before Octavian Augustus (the first emperor) politicized it and thus it became associated with the Emperor.

3A) Rick didn't focus too much on Roman politics within the series and you know he had already shown contempt to the idea of worshipping the gods whether they be Greek or Roman so I'm going to assume that he didn't do too much research upon the History of the Empire.

3B) I, however, want this to be as close as accurate as possible and will do my research no matter how deep.

4) Rick has already stated that Octavian was traditional, and I wanted to fully develop that when I began writing him in Surface Pressure and I intend to capitalize on that characterization of him for the background that I have crafted him.

4A) With that said, Octavian would know about the positions.

5) Octavian is considered a villain within the PJO-verse when in reality, aspirations for genocide aside, he is what a Roman hero would actually look like. If he existed in Ancient Rome, no doubt that Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Statius would have written epics in his name.