Game of War (Cashby)

Chapter 1

Hello! If you're reading this, thank you. It means a lot to me. I published the first six chapters of this fic 4 years ago before putting it down, but I've recently decided to come back and finish it. I've already gone through and edited the original six chapters to be higher quality and make a few changes and I will be posting those soon. 

I wanted to start this off by saying that I actually really hate Austin Carlile. I always thought he was kind of annoying and with the many accusations of sexual assault surrounding him, I really didn't want to write a story with him as the main character. But I really enjoyed this idea and wanted to keep it similar to the original since people seemed to enjoy it. Many of the characters in this story are based off of real people, but they are still characters. The Austin in my story in no way reflects the choices of real life Austin.

Also, not all of this is going to be historically accurate lmao but I tried my best.

---

I looked around the gigantic room feeling excited. It was always exciting to see all the familiar faces after four months of patrol. I tried not to smile as I made eye contact with Mike from across the room. He winked at me before turning his attention back to the front of the room. I felt Tino nudge me with his elbow softly, and I knew he wanted me to pay attention.

I slowly swept my eyes around the room. We stood in a large room with marble walls and tiled floors, an extravagant seat was laid out for each of the twelve Olympians. Next to each Olympian stood their Legion- a group of four of their offspring that had shown the most talent with their powers. We were there simply as a tool for our parent, but since we weren't actually used that much Jupiter thought it would be a good idea to have us go out and protect the Roman cities. Really I think he just wanted a way to keep a firmer hand on them.

My eyes finally landed on Jupiter sitting on his throne at the far end of the room, droning on about some problem only an Olympian would care about. I tried to focus on what he was saying, but I was just too tired to comprehend anything coming out of his mouth. We had been the last Legion to return last night, and although we had all passed out as soon as we reached the bunks, it wasn't enough sleep to hold us over this early in the morning. I ended up just staring at him and pretending to listen.

Finally, a slave brought up a list and he began reading off what places each Legion would be assigned to next. We would all get a few days' rest to catch up and heal before going off again to the next town.

"Neptune, Edessa. Mars, Nisibis." I flinched as I heard Jupiter call out my Legion. Neptune to Edessa. I wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or not since we had never been there before, but at least Mars would be somewhat nearby. I knew they'd be down to take a night off to meet up, and Edessa was only a days walk from Nisibis.

"That is all. Dismissed." Jupiters words rung out, freeing everyone from the spell that is loyalty. I turned quickly to watch as Neptune got up, giving us only a quick glance before approaching Jupiter. Something must have pissed him off, but when didn't it? Those two were always fighting.

"Fuck," Tino said. "It seemed like that took longer than normal, right?"

"It's just because we barely got any sleep last night, man," Phil said, then stretched and joined the crowd at the door.

"I swear I didn't hear a word he said. I'm taking a nap as soon as possible," I said to Tino, the rest of us following Phil and slipping out the door. The next stop would be the dining hall, since no one had eaten breakfast yet.

Outside the main building was a small courtyard, where people were milling about talking to the friends they hadn't seen in a month. After years as a Legion, it seemed normal for us to walk in formation as we tried to maneuver our way through crowds of people. I walked in front, with Tino and Phil behind me, and Shayley in the back.

"Neptune!" I heard someone shout from behind me. I stopped and turned around to find a short, tan boy with long brown hair waving at me.

"Vic! How've you been?" I said, walking over to him quickly. I gave him a hug and he greeted the others. He was the leader of the Vulcan Legion, and I saw the rest of his group Mike, Tony, and Jaime off in the distance.

"I've been alright, yeah, had a bit of trouble in that last town. Kinda hostile, you know. They didn't want us there."

"What, really? I've never seen that before," Shay said.

"Yeah, it was so weird. Hey I gotta go, I'll talk to you later," he said before practically jogging after a boy with shoulder length black hair wearing a lilac uniform. Bacchus then, you'd recognize that one anywhere.

Each Legion had a different colored uniform based on who their leader was and what powers they had. Mine was navy blue and dark green with a small trident and crown embroidered on my shoulder. The leader of each Legion had a crown above their emblem, and I just happened to be my group's leader.

I looked over at my friends and shrugged, before walking on towards the dining hall. Despite being literally on Mount Olympus, the dining hall was like any other. Everything was the same tan color, with long wooden tables set evenly spaced down the center of it. The food itself was served outside from the small kitchen, where we had a few cooks and slaves to serve us. Todays breakfast was simply bread and honey, with a choice of fruit. I went for some grapes and took my meal over to where we usually sat to wait for the rest of the group.

"Hey, man! What's goin' on?" I turned and jumped up quickly at the voice that had sauntered up next to me.

"Alex! Dude, I've missed everyone. Feels like forever each time," I said, giving him a quick side hug before sitting back down again. He laughed and sat down next to me.

"It definitely does, sometimes I wish we didn't always have to leave."

"Don't let the parents hear you say that one," I said, snickering.

"Hey, how've you been buddy?" Tino said, finally walking up, having gotten his food, and sitting down on the other side of me.

"Fine, fine," Alex said with a huge grin. Phil and Shay walked up holding their plates of food and sat down opposite of us.

"Hey, Mars. We'll be close to each other next round, thinking maybe we should meet up?" Shay said, slapping Alex's hand across the table. I nodded my head in agreement.

"Course, man! Always down for a little fun out there. We can sort that out when all the others get here," he said, gesturing behind him. He got up and joined them in the line. Soon enough him, Jack, Rian, and Zack sat down with us, and we talked casually until breakfast was over.

"Alright, scumbags!" Someone shouted from the hall's exit, and we all turned in our seats to look. I found myself smiling when I saw our head general, Jeremy, standing there. Jeremy was there to train us and keep us in line, but other than that he was really just a friend to us all. Though, I'll admit he could be pretty harsh if he needed to. He had been our trainer from day one. He was the one who put together the groups for each Legion and made skilled fighters out of us all. I held him in high respects, but treated him like any other friends I had.

"Jeremy!" I heard a few people shout excitedly.

"Yes, hello you lot. It's good to have you back, but don't get used to it. You know how it works, and I assume you know where you're going. If not, you're fucked. Anyways, I wanted to let you know that you have three days off. Tomorrow we'll have an afternoon training session, and the next day games in the evening," he said, then turned around and walked out the door. I turned to Tino and grabbed his arm.

"We haven't had games in so long!" I said. Needless to say, I was excited. The games were a bunch of small competitions that we all participated in against each other, but we only did them once a year. Usually we would compete in things like target shooting, races, and mock battles.

Mock battles were everyone's favorite. We would battle against each other in our Legions, one on one, until one group was left. Of course we were careful not to really hurt one another, but there were always healers. It was exciting to say the least, and we hadn't done it in months, so everyone would be restless.

"Hell yeah! I can't wait to kick some ass," Jack shouted. I laughed, though I knew it was probably true. Mars was a tough Legion to beat. Though what else would you expect from the God of war's children.