So I am not really pleased with this chapter. I am really sorry it took so long but I had a lot of stuff going on in my life and since I now work night shifts (11pm-7am) I spend most of the day sleeping so I never really have time to write. I also took so long because this was a slightly boring chapter and I found it hard to place comments.

So once again, not my best. And sorry for the long wait. I am not giving up though guys. It may take me a while, and there will be long gaps between chapters, but I will continue this and all my other stories.

VII Hazel

ON THE WAY BACK, HAZEL TRIPPED OVER A GOLD BAR.

She should have ... —the options were not great.

"Seriously?" Thalia asked, eyes wide. "Harsh."

"Well what do the Greeks do for punishment?" Jason asked, slightly miffed at the dig at Rome.

She shrugged. "Desert privileges taken away."

The room was silent.

"Seriously?!" Jason exclaimed. "That's it?"

She rolled her eyes. "Blame him." She pointed towards a snoozing Dionysus, a wine magazine laid across his face.

The gold bar ... scraped her hands.

"You okay?" ... That thing is huge."

"Wait," Nico tilted his head, confused, "would that even affect me? I am a son of Hades."

Hades pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Truthfully, I don't know. It has never been tested before." He gave Nico and Nick a stern look. "We are not going to test it either. Understood?"

They nodded.

He pulled a ... words u.s. treasury.

Leo's eyes were wide. If it weren't for the fact that the gold was cursed…

Nico shook his ... the more valuable it is—"

"The more dangerous ... If the fauns find it…"

Grover paled. He may not like his Roman counterparts much but he didn't want any of them to die.

Hazel imagined ... but just to be sure…"

She'd been practicing ... tried to concentrate.

The gold levitated... a scar of fresh dirt.

Wide eyes stared at the book.

"That was awesome!" Leo shouted, pumping his fists in excitement.

"That was terrifying." Nick whispered, hoping no one heard him.

Nico's eyes widened. "That was…terrifying."

Hazel didn't think ... surprise him for a change.

Jason, Piper and Leo stared at Nico and Nick in surprise and a little fear. They had never seen him fight. They had never seen him use any powers besides shadow travel. It was a little frightening to realize a boy that looked no older than fourteen, could do things like that.

Inside the camp... an impressive sight.

Jason smiled. Even growing up at Camp did little to dampen the impressive sight of the entire legion standing together.

The first four ... to reach her place.

Thalia grimaced at the number of campers being listed. Camp Half-Blood barely ever had just over a hundred campers at any given time. To her, it only served to prove her earlier statement that Camp Jupiter wasn't doing much other than staying at Camp and growing old and having families while Camp Half-Blood was constantly sending campers out to fight monsters and recruiting new demigods.

She knew better than to say any of that aloud though, she knew her little brother wouldn't appreciate it.

The campers were... stomping on faces.

Ares grinned savagely. There was a reason he was the patron god of Camp Jupiter.

In front of the legionnaires... dozen medals pinned on his chest.

Perce glared. Octavian had managed to get on his bad side almost immediately, a feat that had never happened before. If he keeps attacking Hazel like that then Percy was going to be forced to teach him a lesson.

Hazel was still seething ... hit him in the face with it.

Apollo grunted, agreeing with Hazel's thought of violence. This Octavian was a disgrace to his name.

She ran past Reyna... officer's cape billowed behind her.

Perce snorted, drawing attention to himself involuntarily. "Sorry, but that Pegasus absolutely hates his name. He was practically cursing everyone who dared call him that."

Jason bit his lip to keep from laughing. Reyna would not like to hear that.

"Hazel Levesque," she called, "so glad you could join us."

Hazel knew better ...the last one on the roll.

"Present!" she squeaked.

Thank the gods... wet from the baths.

Anna looked at Perce quizzically. "Why did you leave it wet?"

He shrugged. "They already didn't like me because I was a son of 'Neptune'," he made air quotes, "I didn't want them to freak out every time I used my powers, which meant staying a little wet."

He'd put on fresh ... two hundred heavily armed kids.

"That's not why I was nervous." Perce shrugged. "I just knew that they didn't like my father and that they would try and take their anger out on me. I didn't want to ostracize myself on the first day."

Annabeth whistled. "Wow, ostracize… big word Perce. I didn't know you had it in you."

He rolled his eyes and ignored the laughter.

The Lares were ... them sorted out.

Octavian shouted, "Colors!"

The standard-bearers ... rippling through the legion.

Reyna brought her ... a son of Neptune."

The kids in ... and said, "Hi."

"He seeks to... stuffed panda pillow.

"This guy is seriously pathetic." Leo rolled his eyes, sick of Octavian.

"The auguries are ... other legionnaires snickered.

Percy's eyes narrowed. Was Frank bullied? His fists clenched.

Reyna motioned the ... turned to Percy.

"Recruit," he asked, "do you have credentials? Letters of reference?"

Hazel remembered ... or conjugating Latin verbs.

"That's stupid," Annabeth snorted, causing Jason to glare at her.

"And why is that?" He spat, sick of all the digs they were making towards his camp.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at his tone. "A demigod should not be given positions in camp based on a letter from another demigod. They should prove their worth. Prove that they can handle and appreciate what that position has to offer. Getting a higher status because of a lousy letter… that's favoritism. You have no idea what that demigod is capable of so why on earth would you take a letter seriously? You should find out for yourself."

Athena nodded curtly. "Well said my daughter. The Romans were never wise when it came to matters such as these."

Jason said nothing. He only glared at his feet as he ground his teeth together in frustration that once again they had a point.

Percy shifted. ...recommendation could you want?

"I bet most of those campers had never even met one of the gods before, let alone carried them." Piper huffed, crossing her arms. She was frustrated at how Octavian seemed to be trying to give Percy a hard time.

But Octavian's family ... less important than he was.

"That's it," Apollo said suddenly, a dark look crossing his face. "I've had it with this kid. I am going to be having a few words with him and if he does possess some of my power of sight, well I'm just going to take that away. See how important he feels then."

"No letters," ... "He saved my life!"

Perce smiled. Frank was such a good guy. He's glad he could now call him his friend.

Immediately there were ... not even claimed you yet.

"Wait," Perce sat forward so quickly he almost dislodged Anna from the couch, "I didn't have my memories then so I couldn't have known but… Frank's way older than thirteen." His face tightened as he glared at the gods. "I made you all swear on the River Styx that you would claim your children when they turned thirteen so that what happened with Kronos wouldn't happen again!"

Zeus huffed. "We have made no such promise!"

Percy, too, had a scowl on his face. "Actually, that was going to be part of my wish from you before all this started happening. So, by the time of these books, you all would have sworn an oath to claim your kids when they are thirteen. Obviously, one of you broke it."

Ares shifted in his seat, unnoticed to all but Perce who knew that he was Frank's father.

As the silence stretched on, with both Percy's glaring at the gods, Artemis decided to speak up.

"Obviously Frank's parent is not going to reveal themselves right now, but when it is revealed in the book, we will have a discussion with the god responsible."

Ares gulped.

You're not eligible ... I will stand for Percy Jackson."

Nick and Nico both smiled. Their sister was truly a good person and friend to be doing this.

Frank glanced at her gratefully... like the idea amused him.

Annabeth glared and clenched her fist. If Octavian was here now, he would get a face-full of fist.

Why not? Hazel thought... Here we go again.

"My cohort has spoken,"... like she was glad to be done with him.

"She's lucky her Pegasus has such restraint," Perce smiled, eyes twinkling with mirth. "He almost threw her to the ground for speaking to me like that."

"What, why?" Jason asked, puzzled. That Pegasus loved Reyna.

"My dad created horses, so they call me Lord," Perce shrugged, rolling his eyes. "It's a little annoying though. My Pegasus, Blackjack, thankfully doesn't call me Lord, but he does call me Boss. Always asks for donuts too, the glutton."

Skippy spread his ... not for Roman legionnaires.

"I was planning on taking Hazel to Camp Half-Blood once all this is over, so she can ride one of the Pegasus there." Perce smiled.

"Centurions," Reyna said... Nico was beaming at her.

"Good job, Sis," he said. "That took guts, standing for him."

He had never called her Sis before. She wondered if that was what he had called Bianca.

Nick smiled. "I never called Bianca sis, only Bianca or B."

One of the guards ... you don't disgrace the legion."

"And…if I do something wrong?"

"Then I get killed along with you," Hazel said. "Hungry? Let's eat."

"Thankfully Percy will do nothing but impress the legion." Annabeth smiled at him, gaining a crooked smile in return.

So the one you all have to thank for for me finally finishing this chapter is angell12345. They PM'd me, asking when I would update because I had promised previously that I would. I made them a promise that I would try really hard to finish it this weekend and I actually managed to do it! Yay! But thank you angell12345 for kicking my butt in gear for this.

Now, I can't make any promises about updates because apparently I'm not good at that but I can promise you that I am not giving up. It will take time and effort but I will continue this story.

Thanks everyone for staying faithful and please review or PM. That's how I get my motivation!