When You're Gone

Chapter 3

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.