Rise of House Neptune

A Declaration Of War

Chapter 25

Jason had not seen Percy in two days. Since Gwen's death. He was extremely worried about his cousin as the funeral for their Senior Centurion approached. He knew Percy would regret not being there for her burial rights, and he wished there was some way to contact him. The only assurance he had gotten was from Bianca and she assured him that he was not dead yet. That was slightly assuring because Jason might just kill him when he returned.

The Praetors had called for a meeting of the Senior Officers where Dakota was sworn in as the new Centurion for the fifth cohort, and Bobby the son of Vulcan was selected as his optio. They had two deserters in the fifth cohort, a son of Trivia, and a son of Somnia. Their cohort had the least number of deserters with the most coming from cohort two. They almost had ten. Reyna managed to kill one who had attempted to attack her before the first boom. It was one of her half brothers, a son of Bellona. It was through this that they had learned that they had lost these people to the Titans. The boy Reyna had killed tried to convince her to come with him, but when she refused he attempted to force her. It obviously didn't workout that way.

All the children of Hercules had left, most likely being led by Gwen's killer Kyle Logan. There were only three of them, but two were in the second cohort. All the sons and daughters of Trivia were gone except Dylan in the guard. There were five of those. It seemed very few Olympian children had deserted, but they found a calling card in the ruins of the Jupiter Optimus Maximus. A flag was hung around Jupiter's neck from a brazer that made it look like they were hanging the King of the Gods. The flag held a golden scythe with red eyes etched into a banner. It was the new symbol for the Titan army.

In the two days it was also confirmed that every scout that had been sent out was either dead or captured. It had been weeks since the initial detachment had been sent out, and none had returned. The rising enemy in their backyard must have been very close for all these things to have gone so wrong in such a short time.

Bianca was sitting in the Centurion office with Jason both putting a hand on their heads trying to work out a growing headache. The two had argued for days about going after Percy, but Jason refused, "I can't just leave the fifth B. Dakota has only been sworn in for less than a day now, and everyone is scared of another desertion or all out seige. Besides Percy could be literally anywhere including Atlantis which we can't even get to. Unless Percy wants to be found he won't be."

Bianca crossed her arms, "I say we go back and negotiate with the wind spirits. I doubt Percy went to Atlantis to blow off steam. I can almost guarantee he is out there laying waste to our enemies. I want to be out there with him, dammit not sitting here with the rest of the legion being scared out of my mind wondering where we are going to get hit from next."

Jason sighed, "I know Bianca and I want to fight too, but we can't go in half cocked. We lost one person, and yeah we loved her, but if we go in without a good plan dozens could die."

"So we just sit here and do nothing?" Bianca said, standing angrily.

"I DIDN'T SAY THAT!" Jason roared, also standing to his feet.

"Centurion Grace, Optio Di Angelo. Percy is back." A voice came from the door. It was Bobby and he looked terrified to come in on their argument. The children of the Eldest Olympians were NEVER seen fighting, and Bobby was probably the first to ever see it.

With that being said Jason and Bianca shot to their feet and followed the running son of Vulcan. A crowd was gathered at the doors to the principia. Both guards from the first cohort looked absolutely terrified of whatever they had seen. Jason approached the doors, and one of the boys said, "Centurion Grace I wouldn't go in there sir."