Fourteen years ago

"What should we name her?" Hazel asked. She looked down lovingly at the cute baby in her arms. She had brown eyes, caramel-colored skin, and a tuft of almost-black curly hair. She was quiet and had this curious sparkle in her eyes. She looked like she wanted to stare at everything and everyone all at once and just couldn't wait to be able to walk and talk so she could tell everyone about her observations.

Frank paused, deep in thought. "Emily. Let's name her Emily..."

"Oh, definitely."

Present

Emily's POV

"Come on, Em! The war games are about to start." Bianca shouted. "My dads only said I could stay for the war games, then I leave. We have to hurry!"

"Okay, okay, I almost have my armor ready." I tied my frizzy dark hair up and smoothed down my shirt, putting the chest and shin guards on. "Get the swords and spears. Are there enough?"

Bee saluted sarcastically. "Yes, Centurion Zhang. Also, who's riding Hannibal?" She handed me a gladius.

"Mina is. She's quite good with animals. Bee, tie up your hair. We might need you to shadow-travel us out but if you can't see and get stabbed like last month, the Fifth Cohort's going to be in trouble. And also I'll be in trouble. Uncle Will and Uncle Nico get annoyed when I get you hurt."

"Ok." She plaited her hair quickly and picked up our banner, putting it on the wall. It's quite heavy. I don't blame her. I wouldn't want to carry it.

"Romans, capture the Third first. Half of you stay here. The other half come with me. Centurion Willow will tell you what to do." Willie started, surprised. Then she started yelling commands for half of the cohort to form lines and defend the banner.

We marched out of the fort quietly.

We found some of the Second and First camped on the Little Tiber, arguing in Latin. They had not sat up their fort. The banners were tossed on the sand as if they didn't expect us to find them. Too confident in their abilities to defend it. It's not a good look for the centurions. Wait, where were the centurions?

We stabbed, shoved, and slashed to get to those banners. My arms ached maneuvering the gladius, trying not to dismember anyone.

Soon we had only a few more legionnaires to get through, but they were very close to surrendering. I could feel it. I was tired; I just wanted the siege to be over already. I inched forward whispering in the ear of the boy who was giving commands. "If you stop now, we won't do anything else but take your banner." I was so close. I could just run and take both. Run back to our fort. It wouldn't be hard. My train of thought was interrupted when I heard shouts of anger and a splash coming from the Little Tiber. I glanced over to them, and you know what I saw?

A fistfight.

A fistfight over banners that First and Second would have to surrender anyway. Bee had evidently snuck over there while I was negotiating, started a fight over the banners, and tried to shadow travel out to give it to our teammates. She had landed in the river, swam out, and somehow still mustered the energy to start smacking people around.

I stared, dumbfounded.

"Mars Almighty, what are they doing?" I whispered.

Bee managed to dodge an uppercut and swiftly slammed her elbow into a boy's gut, making him double over in pain. Her thick braid was coming apart, making her look even wilder than normal. Her orange Camp Half-Blood shirt had blood all over the shoulder. I hoped it wasn't her blood, but I wasn't too confident.

"Stop it! Y'all look like idiots. Do you want me to tell the praetors that you… UGH!" I ranted, exasperated. "WHERE are your centurions? Are you all feral?"

They all stopped fighting and stared at me. "All of you get dish duty. No questions. No arguments."

Fourth and Third groaned and walked to the baths. Our cohort took the banners and trudged to our fort, where Willie was waiting with the rest of Fifth, Third, and Fourth. They were celebrating. They had probably fought off the other cohorts when they defended our banners. Willie was smiling and tap-dancing. Our last centurion, Lavinia, had made tap-dancing super popular. When she resigned, we continued the tradition. Now my mom had told me she was touring around the world.

"Hey!" She grinned. "I was about to start our victory dance routine! How did the siege go? Also, they surrendered."

"Not good. First and Second's centurions just disappeared, probably at the mall or something, and there was a fight. Now all of them have dish duty."

"Oh, fun. What did your parents say?"

"They aren't here yet?" I asked.

"No, they came around to check on us a few minutes ago. We've been chillin' here for a few hours. They said they were going to check on the other team now. Also, they said that they liked our dance." she boasted.

I sighed. "I have to go make sure they're doing the dish duty. Dismiss them to the baths in thirty minutes."

Bianca's POV

"What were you thinking, Bianca?" Dad asked. "You know better than to start fights. And do I need to tell you not to shadow travel? Do you remember what happened in Toronto? Also, do we need to re-dress your shoulder?"

"Sorry, Dad," I said. Injury sensing. Ugh.

Dad sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair. He had been asked to come here to show the medics things or something. I don't know. Usually, he was a doctor in New Athens (where we lived), but he said that New Rome was a bit understaffed so he came to pitch in for the week. He had been trying to show four daughters of Apollo and Asclepius how to tie a splint for the past three hours, so I couldn't blame him for being annoyed (Also, Apollo was trying to convince Chiron to let demigods use cell phones. Dad had been rallying with him. Most of them were hiding one anyway, so it was only a matter of time until he said yes. Even I had one. Just a BTW.)

In my defense, the idea had seemed perfectly rational to me. Just grab the banners, shadow-travel out, and boom! We win and Em is not mad at me. I also set a good example for the Lares who are still wary of Greeks. Kittens and puppies and rainbows and sunshine or whatever.

Papá sat down next to me on the couch from where he was sitting at the counter of our rental house, on the opposite side of Dad. "I know you thought it was a good idea, but you have to consider how your decisions affect others." I leaned into his fuzzy black turtleneck. (I had a matching one that I wore to Camp Jupiter last Visitation Day. I loved that sweater.) "I'm sorry. Next time I will consider the consequences and won't start fights." I recited.

Both of my dads nodded approvingly. But of course, they weren't done yet.

"Think about Em. Do you think she felt embarrassed that her cousin, whom she assured everyone would be fine in the war games even though she is not a member of the legion and has only been in New Rome a few days went rogue, injuring people in the process?"

I hate it when they're right, I thought irately.

"I said I was sorry," I mumbled. My shoulder pulsed in protest. I had walked to the kitchen with the other cohorts in silence, where Em shouted at us. Usually, she was laid-back and super nice, but we had pushed her limits, I guess.

"You're still grounded when we're in New Athens. We go back on Friday. Also, you must apologize to Emily and all the people you ribbed and punched. Also, no Cocoa Puffs for two weeks." Papá replied, trying to keep a straight face and failing. "But I do have one question."

"Yes?" Wait, no Cocoa Puffs? Ugh!

"Did you really land in the Tiber?"

"Yes?" I squeaked.

To add insult to injury, they burst out laughing. "Was the shadow travel not working?"

"No, it wasn't. I was falling fast and couldn't focus." I could feel the blush on my face.

"Did you pass out?" they said in unison. Now there was some concern in their voices.

"No, no I didn't," I grumbled.

Papá clapped. "Good job!"

I stood up. "Yeah, I'm going to sleep. Bye."

"But we have game night in thirty minutes," Papá protested. He sounded slightly hurt.

"Buona notte," I mumbled. I trudged to the second bedroom, where I was staying for the week. I had all-black sheets with tiny silver raindrop designs on them. I had been shopping with Papá for a puffy coat last winter when I found it. I at least got the puffy coat.

I belly-flopped on the bed and grabbed my phone, ready to hole up for the rest of the night. I sweeped a few sketchbooks and colored pencils off the bed, mentally noting to pick them up later. I pulled the covers up and jammed my earbuds in.

Creeeeak! The door opened, bathing my dark room in light. I could see it under the covers.

"Hey, Bee," Dad said. "Are you asleep?"

"Dad, that's the silliest question ever asked in the history of questions. And no, I'm still asleep."

"Okay then, I'll just disinfect sleeping Bianca's injuries. Does 'asleep' Bee want to lay flat and still so I can check her wounds?" I could feel him grinning. I could just feel it.

I rolled over and laid flat. My shoulder was radiating pain at this point, so I was just trying to ignore it. Dad gingerly pushed my sleeve up to reveal bloodstained bandages on my shoulder that somehow hadn't ruined my shirt.

He got the first-aid kit that I was pretty sure just materialized outta nowhere any time he wanted it to because that satchel he carried around could not possibly fit more stuff.

"Did I tell you about the time that Nico and I went to the ice skating rink? I fell so many times, my everything ached for two weeks. I got slightly better at ice skating though after maybe two or three winters." Dad reminisced, quickly rewrapping my shoulder. It almost didn't hurt.

I tried not to jerk as he finished, tightening it a bit. "Okay, I'm done," he said, shaking out his hands. "You and I are going to wash our hands, and we have game night set up." He walked off, singing Cruel Summer. We all knew by now he was a big Swiftie.

"Muahahahahaha!" Papá said, taking Reading Railroad tax from Dad and me. "Cower before me! I have- wait, lemme count- twenty-six thousand dollars!"

"All the money is fake."

"You're ruining the fun, Bee," Papá complained.

"You're being dramatic," Dad and I said in unison. "It's a railroad."

"I am allowed to be a little competitive," Papá said, smirking. He stacked his fifteen property cards neatly. Dad and I had three. Combined. (It was sad how bad we were at Monopoly, really.)

A few hours later, Dad had gone bankrupt and was now looking at some Star Wars fandom discussion on a once sky-blue Apple laptop I had covered in unicorn stickers when I was five. I added several more stickers over the years, reflecting my interests, like my big music phase, my small music phase, my ongoing anatomy phase, my second unicorn phase, my ongoing art phase, and my ongoing human history phase. And a bunch of sun and star stickers. I wasn't quite sure what those were for though.

I yawned, drumming my fingers on the coffee table. I could tell I was going to win soon. Just one more move would do it. I moved my hand slowly to my piece, trying not to knock off the many houses and hotels on the board.

"Okay!" Dad shut the computer, kind of finalizing the impending decision. "It's one o'clock now. I need to go at ten so we're all goin' to sleep now. Finish the game tomorrow."

We all got up without argument. I went to my room, and my dads went to theirs. I closed the door and flopped into bed, not bothering to change out of my white sweatpants and paint-splattered t-shirt. I drifted off almost immediately and almost didn't have any dreams.

Tonight the vision was me, Em, and my friend Mina, a clear sighted kid in my middle school, in a dark space that looked like somewhere in the Labyrinth. Mina and I were both curled up on two backpacks/pillows and Em was taking watch, a sword at her side. She looked ready to sleep but was obligated to take watch. She had a concerning gash near her gut. Then it skipped to a different scene, where someone was taking my dads and Em's mom and dad to a dark cave-like thing. These were all very worrying, but the emotion hadn't hit yet. When I had a dream like that, it was like I was watching a movie. It felt like it wasn't me or anyone I knew in any of the dreams. Then it all went dark.

Nico POV

"N-night light," I shook Will awake. "It…" Will shot up, looking like a very hot mess.

"What?" A look of panic momentarily passed his face, replaced quickly with his usual calm demeanor.

"It was Bee. Bee in the Labyrinth."

"I don't understand."

And this is where I'll leave off. Review if you like it, I guess. Originally, I was going to have them play Mythomagic, but I guess I'll save that for next game night. Also I don't know that much about Mythomagic. Constructive criticism welcome! Bye- Glasses Girl