The Glory That Is Rome (a Percy Jackson AU)

Negotiations

    Frank clenched his jaw.

    "Luke sends a slave and expects me to negotiate the release of two important prisoners?" Frank asked.

    "Yes, and he wants his slave, Percy, back too if you have him," Luke's messenger, Travis, said.

    "Yes, we have him," Frank said.

    "How is he?" Travis asked. "How are you treating him?"

     "He's being treated well," Frank said stiffly.

     "Have you tortured him for information?" Travis asked.

    "Do you think we're Carthaginians?" Frank asked. "We're not cruel."

    "You kidnapped a woman and her child," Travis pointed out.

     "The empress and the heir to the throne of Rome," Frank said. 

    "My point still stands," Travis said. "Only cowards attack women and children."

    "Did Luke send you here to negotiate the release of Annabeth and her child or just to annoy me?" Frank asked. "He's the coward. Leave. We're not releasing them unless Luke gives up the throne."

    "That will never happen," Travis said. "You will find yourself dying in the Coloseum."

    "Get out!" Frank shouted. "Out! And tell Luke what I told you: he must choose between power and his family."

    "You'd kill a woman and a child?" Travis challenged.

    Frank didn't answer the question, but rather glared at Travis. The messenger obviously took the worst from Frank's expression and scampered off.

    Frank turned and went to the meeting tent. There, Hazel was sitting beside Hebe and helping her polish her armor. Sammy and Bianca were crawling on the floor of their tents. They were growing well and liked explore every edge and corner of the war. Frank wished he could pick them up and prevent them from ever getting hurt. In the battles he had fought, he had learned about the fragility of human life and he feared that his children would end like some of his comrades. 

     "Frank, are you okay?" Hazel asked. "You look . . ."

    She trailed off, but Frank knew what she meant: he had started to look different. He had fought men; he had killed men and that had changed him. Sometimes, Frank screamed in the night as he imagined the shades of those he had killed trying to hurt his family. He was putting on a tough face to get through the pain. He preferred anger to misery; it made more sense and could be easily exploited for war.

    "Luke sent a messenger," Frank said.

    "What did he have to say?" Hebe asked. "I'm guessing it wasn't good from your frown."

    "He demanded we release Annabeth and her child," Frank said. "He didn't come to negotiate; he came to threaten us."

   He paused and looked up, "Do you think we are cruel to hold them hostage?"

    "No," Hebe said. "We are treating them well."

    "Piper and Will have been checking up on Lucius everyday," Hazel said.

    "Besides," Hera said. "Sometimes lovers have to be separated to know they love each other."

    "Lucius looks more like Percy than Luke," Nico said as he sauntered into the tent. 

      "Luke seems to think its his child," Frank said. "He's going to fight for them."

       "Well, we'll fight them too," Hebe said. "We won't easily be beaten."