Sorry the last one was so short. This one's quite a bit better. I personally think the room for fluff in this story is great, like idk I remember having fun writing this chapter. I also had a whole different doc full of their quests btw, but since I haven't finished the bridge between that and this stuff Idk where to post it, it's like a prequel to this story. Do I just... make another story and post what I have there? I know it's dumb to write a prequel while you're still writing a main story but it was more like I needed to get down and outline the background for this AU like what quests happened, how Percy and Artemis got together, why they're emperors, etc. Anyway, thanks for liking this story so much, at least on FFNet.

Chapter 3: Treat You Better

Percy and Jason briefly locked eyes from across the mess hall as a clear understanding of contempt traversed. Percy sat with his mouth covered by the side of his resting hand at the second table from the door, corresponding to the second cohort whom he'd decided to dine with that evening as he liked to rotate between them all. He wasn't part of a cohort anymore since that would be unfair, but he used to be a member of number five, the same one Hazel and Frank belonged to. Reyna was a second cohort veteran, but she didn't sit with them tonight.

Instead she sat across and one to the left of Jason, next to Annabeth and across from Piper. Clarisse was on Annabeth's other side, as even though she was a camp leader the daughter of Ares was not exactly the best diplomat. Jason sat not touching his food much like Percy, settling for their respective Coke glasses and the conversations around them to keep them occupied.

Jason had no idea why this wannabe Emperor hated them so much. Yeah, Annabeth's comment was a bit tone deaf, but surely he wasn't that petty. The Greeks had been seated at a makeshift extra table crammed into the corner, ruining the symmetry of the mess hall's layout. Last time Jason checked, when you invited guests to your house you didn't make them eat at the coffee table while you sat at the dining table.

Since Percy had quit staring him down and had returned to charismatically conversing with his table, Jason decided to raise the topic at his own. "What's up with him?" He asked blatantly, nodding in Percy's direction.

The conversation between Reyna, Annabeth and Piper stopped, and the Roman Caesar turned in her seat to see who he was nodding to. Seeing her colleague, she sighed. "Again, he doesn't mean anything by it. It's just been a rough few weeks for him." She apologized.

Piper cocked her head to the left. "Why, what happened?" She asked. The past few weeks for them had consisted of chilling at camp and a small quest to pick up two demigods and bring them to Camp. Otherwise in terms of the usual Earth-shattering affairs that tended to occur in Summer, all had been quiet since the quest to rescue her Dad a few months previous.

Reyna shook her room. "A bit. He, Hazel and our other bodyguard Frank just got back from a quest about a week ago. Went all the way to Alaska, freed Letus, defeated the Giant Alcyoneus, don't ask me how to spell it." She explained.

Annabeth looked at Jason and Piper. "Letus is Thanatos, I believe." She clarified, since the others were obviously confused. Jason had thought Reyna said Leto.

Reyna continued. "Clearly, venturing to the Land Beyond the Gods is a rough journey. He did chokehold the Amazon queen into becoming a client of New Rome, though, who turned out to be my long lost sister, but that's a different, more personal story. I convinced her to let them go but for whatever reason Percy felt the need to duel her with only a shield in return for her paying regular tribute to Rome." She added.

Okay, unnecessary details Reyna. No need to hype this guy up anymore, he clearly has enough of that. Jason thought bitterly.

Reyna grew more solemn. "He won't admit it, but I know he's like this because he's worried. He's been... different since his girlfriend went missing." The Caesar looked down at the table.

Piper choked slightly on her lemonade. "His girlfriend's missing?" She asked, perhaps letting too much of her maternal inheritance through at the news of a couple broken by circumstance. Why do you care? Jason growled silently, gripping his glass though conscious not to break it.

Reyna looked almost like she had said too much, like this was something the Greeks weren't supposed to know. Nevertheless, she gave them the rundown. "Yeah, a daughter of Apollo. They've been together since we rescued her from a monster back when we were 14. Shortly after the Gods disappeared she took off, never heard from her, never got an explanation. It was... out of character, to say the least. Those two were inseparable, even when they were separate. Percy's been out of his mind with grief and worry ever since."

Annabeth held up her hand like she was offering breath mints. "Well have you sent anyone out to search for her?" She suggested, which Jason and Piper thought was a sound idea.

Reyna hesitated, like it was a chess move she hadn't anticipated. "He has. He's understandably obsessed with it. He's over on Temple Hill damn near every night praying to his father, to Apollo, to Minerva, anyone he can. Unfortunately we, uh, can't really spare an expedition for one legionnaire." She brushed the idea off.

Piper rested her chin on her hand, looking at Reyna. "Ah, well I hope you find her safe again. That's so sad. I can't imagine having Jason just up and vanish." She sympathized to Percy from across the room.

The Caesar smiled gratefully. "Yeah, I think we all hope that." She said, not really filling in the blanks only she recognized were there.

Annabeth fiddled with her hands on the table in front of her as she mulled over questions she had about all this. "So... how exactly did you become rulers? Wasn't Romulus Augustulus the last Emperor of Rome back in the 5th century? How exactly has this place run for 1500 years? Have there been Emperors that long?" She asked, raking through the history she knew in her mind.

Reyna drank some more of her chosen beverage. "Well actually," She looked back at the tables of Romans. "We don't like to admit it, but Rome kept going after it's Fall. Realistically it was with us, what with the whole flame of the west business, but open any history book and guess where Rome stayed intact after 476?" She offered the question, seeing an opportunity for inter-camo bonding.

Annabeth perked up like a light bulb had gone off in her head. "Of course! The Eastern Roman Empire!" She almost snapped her fingers.

Jason and Piper looked at each other. "You mean... Rome kept going even when the city wasn't in it?" He asked, confused. That didn't make much sense.

Reyna nodded and went to continue, but Annabeth jumped ahead to explain it to her friends. "I've heard about it before but I never looked into it much. By 476 Rome wasn't even its own empire's capital, a hundred and fifty years earlier the emperor Constantine founded Constantinople in between Greece and Anatolia and made it his capital. No one bothered to change it back and even when the empire split in half a century later the West's capital wasn't Rome, it was Ravenna." She told them.

Reyna nodded, impressed at the girl's brains. Percy's earlier retort was unnecessary and untrue. "Yep. We learned a lot about it in class over in New Rome. Rome was too strategically weak, the East was far richer and stronger, and of course the first Christian Emperor wanted to be in a more Christian part of the Empire. When Rome fell in 476 the east continued on as normal, known to us as Byzantium or Christian Rome, but they thought themselves Romans. They lasted as an entity, and I guess Rome therefore did, up until the fall of the city in 1453. The last Emperor Constantine XI died charging into battle against the Turks." She relented.

Jason sat back and folded his arms. "Well how about that. Greek Rome lasted longer than actual Rome." He boasted, happy to finally have an up over these Latins.

Reyna shrugged with an amused smile. "Well, aside from justinian reconquering Italy and North Africa, you people weren't very good at it. You lost everything except the Balkans and Anatolia to the Muslims in the 7th century, you were sacked by the Crusaders in the 13th century and then you lost all your territory to your own immigrant subjects. Not exactly the same tier as cool Rome." She said, holding her hands up to show where she gauged Byzantium in comparison to Rome.

Jason shrugged. "At least we went out in style." He argued, which Reyna gave him. Everyone needs some victories in conversation.

Piper leaned forward on the table, her arms folded. "But anyway, back to the question. How did you become Emperors? Did you kill the last guy or something? Is it an inheritance thing? Did you slay a dragon?" She asked, as though she hadn't slain dragons before.

Reyna shook her head. "Close, but actually there weren't any emperors before Percy, and I'm not one. I'm a Caesar, kinda like a junior partner and heir. It wasn't a dragon though, it was a titan. Well, one-and-a-half Titans. I helped with the first one. Well, there was a third one early on but that was more like a titan's wannabe son." She rambled, making Jason nearly choke on his drink.

"Two titans?" He asked, subconsciously heeding her advice to ignore the minor one. He'd only killed one. He'd defeated three, yeah, but he'd only actually killed Hyperion. The others he just shoved into a river and watched his avatar kill himself.

Piper caught this and grinned. "Aww, is big tough Jason jealous he only killed one?" She asked, holding onto his arm like he was cute.

Jason looked unhappy. "The number's basically two, at least." He grumbled.

Reyna chuckled. "Yeah. At the Battle of Mount Othrys last year, the two of us killed Coeus, and then while I commanded the cohorts he dueled and slew Crius. After that the Legion proclaimed him Imperator, and back at New Rome the senate, the people, everyone showered him with the rest of his titles. I got to be Caesar and co-consul." She recapped.

Annabeth frowned. "They just... made you Emperor after that?" She asked, considering Jason had done just about as much during the war and hadn't gotten any such titles from Camp Half-Blood. He was offered immortality, but turned it down for Piper.

Reyna nodded. "Well, there was other stuff. We had a schism during the Titan Wars. A lot of legionnaires defected to the Titans, about two cohorts worth. After our last one died I was elected praetor and Percy led the cavalry charge which defeated a zombified Hannibal and then decided to spare all the defectors. I think a lot of them felt they owed him their lives. There definitely were a few who wanted them dead. Then there was the time we rescued the goddess Diana from Atlas. She was imprisoned with holding the weight of the sky as her burden. Percy... took it off her so she could defeat Atlas. It's the reason he's got that silver streak. That combined with the two of us sacrificing to her after recovering the Vault of Theodosius..." Reyna debated how much to tell them. Obviously she couldn't say they were dating, but how much could she say without being smited? "She kissed him on the cheek." She whispered, leaning in close to the table so only the three could hear her.

"Artemis?" Piper whispered back, shocked. The Artemis she'd met had invited her to join a clan of huntresses who'd much rather cut their own throats than have a boy lay his hands on their shoulder. She could scarcely believe the goddess leading that would kiss a boy on the cheek.

Reyna nodded with a smirk. "Don't tell anyone."