Percy was a mythical figure to Frank before. Now he's a legend. This guy can break up fights between the Fifth Cohort and the First Cohort, do a scan around the Camp, kill monsters, get back for another fight and still be in a good mood. Frank couldn't even look at the large stack of paperwork.

"Hey, man," Frank said as he handed him a cup of coffee, he didn't take any because he was lactose-intolerant, "are you really a demigod?"

Percy accepted the coffee and adjusted his purple toga. "As much as I know," he kidded, "yes, I am. Why the question?"

Frank bit into his pancake. His voice came out a little muffled. "Dude, you work more than Reyna. She can't even go through a month without sleep. Since when have you slept since you got to Camp Jupiter? A month? A week? Half a year?"

Percy inhaled his chocolate muffin. The guy can really eat like a dozen satyrs. "Lost count. How's your time with Hazel, centurion? How's it going? Nico and I are going to be the flower boys, right?"

Frank choked on his pancakes. Despite the muscular and sharp expression and complexion he has, he looked quite flustered when his face is tomato red.

Someone knocked Percy's head. "You just had too tease him about that too."

Percy snickered. "So I heard, Levesque."

Hazel scowled. "Shut it, Jackson. Reyna just asked for you to inspect the perimeter. Now finish your coffee and stop hogging Frank."

* * *

Getting past house spirits that would suddenly appear when you're running and dissolving into mist as you crash into is easy. Getting past Hannibal the elephant with Dakota high on Kool-Aid isn't.

"Reyna!" Percy almost tripped over his toga. "Sorry, but getting Dakota to cool down isn't easy."

Reyna shrugged. "It's okay. You do the South, I'll do the North. Try to keep up."

Percy grinned. "I could say the same to you, Praetor. But couldn't someone else do this?"

"It's tradition: the strongest has to defend their homeland. And, in that case, it's us."

* * *

When Percy became praetor, Reyna felt like her life had been filled. Maybe it's just her, but Percy made her go all jittery.

Did she really still have a crush on him? If Annabeth broke up with him . . .

She shook her head as a demigod ducked a flying gladius. She can't love a demigod. It's part of her curse from Venus. Love is a bitch. So is karma.

She scouted the area and saw no immediate attacks, excluding the several wild cyclopes and centaurs that was lurking outside the camp. She pulverized them all in a go.

"Argh! Scary lady!" bellowed a Cyclops. "Retreat! Retreat, my brethren!"

Retreat is an overused word. Reyna killed them all in three minutes. Tops.

Once she was done, she paced back to the entrance of the camp. She was expecting to see Percy already done, but besides an elephant that was ridden by a Kool-Aid addict, the son of Poseidon was nowhere to be seen.

"Dakota!" Gwen's voice yelled in a distance. "Get back here before I make Percy and Reyna ban Kool-Aid!"

"Never, Roman demigod scum!"

Reyna wanted so badly to impale herself. This guy is on a rampage, they'd probably need an exorcist or Bacchus to stop this guy.

Despite the urges, she bolted towards the South side, ignoring the yelling between the centurion and the ex-centurion.

She looked around, her sword drawn in her hand.

For whatever reason, the air reeked of smoke and rusted iron. Her senses kicked on as she picked up her pace further into the legion.

The air was tainted with smoke. No demigods were nearby.

"Percy?" she shouted, gripping her sword tighter in her hand. "Percy!"

The smoke became thicker. She tried to fan the smoke away with her hand, but it was as hopeless as pushing away water in the ocean.

There was no answer. She covered her mouth and nose with her free hand but she could still smell the smoke through the gaps of her fingers. She made a mental note to always bring portable smoke masks.

Eventually, she arrived at the source of the smoke. She couldn't see well in the smoke, but her leg almost tripped over something on the ground. Instantly, she recognized what is was. Who it was.

"Percy!" She made the mistake by removing her hand. She got in a good portion of smoke in her lungs and it stung her eyes more than normal smoke. Her lungs felt like it there was sand being scattered in it.

Despite the circumstances, she hauled the body away from the smoke. Some eagles caught sight of it and tried to fan the smoke away with their wings, and it seemed to be working. Once Percy was out of the danger zone, she checked on him and almost yelled.

"Gods of Olympus . . ." Her voice came out like a panicked squeak. Percy was covered in daggers, knives and sharp Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold chunks. Two was embedded deeply in both his ankle and knee. Blood now stained the ground.

A dagger even made its way onto his lungs. Reyna had met people in the verge of death before, and she managed to stay calm even when the person passed. But Percy was a different case. She wanted to protect him, take his pain away.

But her mother's powers won't work that way. Even if she shared his pain now, the wounds would still kill him.

"Get the medics!" she barked at the armoured eagles. "Now! Hurry!"

She laid Percy still. His vibrant sea green eyes were shut, and his mouth was opened mid-scream.

What had caused this? That amount of demigod-deadly-metal etched in him could kill fifteen demigods. But Percy was no ordinary demigod.

Could her mom help? Could any God care enough to help? What did Hera say to Jason before when he got stabbed in the gut?

The wound touches your body and soul.

The wound was so serious, even the Queen of the heavens couldn't cure it. If that was true, Percy is in serious-ass trouble.

"Percy Jackson," she said, as tears stung her eyes, she cradled Percy's head onto her lap, "if you die . . . Gods, I swear I will personally storm down to Pluto's realm and kill you."

Demigods shouted from a distance, kids screamed, a crowd grew around her and Percy, but all the noise was drowned out by the buzzing in her ears.

"Reyna, we need Percy down into the infirmary." Gwen grabbed Reyna's shoulder, but her tone was panicked. Her tone clearly said: I'm sorry.

Despite the urge to kill herself with Percy - that thought was so alien she blamed Octavian for it - she slowly set Percy's head down as several Apollo kids tended to Percy's wounds.

"What happened? What's -" Hazel made her way in front of the crowd. Then she saw the situation. "Oh . . . oh no. Oh my Gods. No, no, no. No no no no!"

Hazel started trembling vigorously. She clutched Frank's hand. He looked almost as rattled as his girlfriend, but he was trying to be strong for her.

Reyna's heart stung.

You will never find love in another demigod.

Instead of focusing on Venus's cruel words, she turned her attention back to the place where it happened. The smoke cleared thanks to the eagles, and the result surprised her.

"A . . . a ballista." Hazel's voice was like a whisper. "Designed from Camp Half Blood. Primed to fire if . . . if detected Celestial Bronze."

"Celestial Bronze?" Reyna became more alert. "Then it's useless here. How . . . how did it get here? It was primed, alright. But we don't use Celestial Bronze . . . except for . . ."

She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "Graecus."

Frank and Hazel shifted uneasily. "Praetor Reyna?" Frank ventured. "This - this could be an accident. When they first arrived -"

"It's no accident," Hazel murmured, her eyes dark. "It's done by someone deliberately. Whoever was causing it, it was designed to attack Greek Demigods. And whoever designed it knew the only Greek to wander these paths are either Juno or -"

"The Seven," Reyna finished. An irrational anger was building in her chest, and for the first time ever, she wanted Camp Half-Blood to burn. Burn down in a fire caused by her. "That technician, only two people had the brains to do it - Valdez -"

"He was with Piper all the time!" Frank protested.

"-or Chase."

The three fell silent.

Reyna wanted to strangle that Athena spawn and feed her to Argentum and Aurum. Even better - Lupa.

They were snapped back to reality as a shadow erupted behind Reyna. Lucky or unlucky for her, she was already shocked to her limits. Scared was an overrated word. She was at her fear limits.

"Di Angelo," she acknowledged.

Nico grunted. "I felt Percy dying. I came as fast as I could straight from New York. Is that not enough for you? These types of wounds can only be healed by when a God is claiming you. Other than that, nothing else."

Reyna wanted to plant her fist on his bony face.

"He's been claimed," she said, "at Camp Half-Blood. There is no way -"

"I know, but someone told me that a the major gods must be balanced. Hades/Pluto has me and Hazel. Zeus/Jupiter has Thalia and Jason. Poseidon, yeah, he has one kid. So pray to Neptune that he claims Percy as roman or he'll die and I'll have fun seeing him in the Underworld."