Yes I'm alive, no I'm not dead—life is just a bitch.

I got a lot of PMs recently that reminded me to post—I HAVE been writing pretty consistently on this thing, which may come as a surprise since none of you lovely people have seen any of it. This is actually one of my favorite projects to write personally, so I do it a lot… the fact others can enjoy it along with me is an added bonus, that is sometimes difficult to get around to actually doing.

At this point I've got this almost finished (the major scenes, in any case) and half the squeal done (someone commented asking how much of this is left—I laughed aloud. Sorry dude, we're not even at the tasty dramatic plot parts yet), I just couldn't figure out how to make what I wrote previously connect to what's coming…

So, prepare for filler chapters galore!

I think I got sidetracked by Nico… god damn I love this fictional boy so he's gonna be in this a lot. Fair warning.

Enjoy!

-Weezila-

000

"We're so eager to get there. Where are we going so quickly? What waits for us when we make it? Will we look back on now and regret not sticking around to enjoy this?" –M. Lou

000

There was something to be said for New Rome's food scene, Frank thought vaguely to himself as he took another bite of the mystery roll he'd bought from one of the street vendors. It tasted like it had sweet curry inside of it—not entirely sure what it actually was but damn was it good and the cart had smelled delicious on his way by, so whatever.

He's missed lunch because of being summoned to the Senate for what felt like the hundredth time that week, and they liked to talk far too much. The meeting was supposed to end at 10:30, and here he was milling back to Camp Jupiter far past lunch. Not that he liked visiting the senate and watching them talk at him like it would change his mind, but he was pretty content about playing his part in helping Percy out and he got to eat New Rome food pretty often these days. Plus, the walk back to Camp was pleasant enough— and pretty quick if he were to fly there instead should he be in a hurry.

He felt the back of his neck prickle and sensed someone coming up behind him. His battle instincts had never really turned off since going to Greece and getting a major growth spurt, but it wasn't as unpleasant as he thought it might be—instead he felt rather chill and at ease even when he knew he would've been scared shitless not even a full year ago. Perhaps he was just desensitized or something.

Whatever the reason, he ignored the presence that was obviously intending to approach/sneak up on him, and took a large chomp out of his curry-whatever-roll and kept walking.

His stalker obviously thought they were being clever by keeping out of sight until he cleared the main gates of the city, and just as he was approaching the barrier line the presence got much closer and settled beside him, matching his pace.

Out of his peripheral, Frank was amused and a little curious to recognize the shaggy blonde hair.

"Shouldn't you stay inside the city?" He wondered aloud before taking another bite and silencing himself.

The boy beside him rolled his eyes, but glanced back at the gates anyway. "It's not gonna kill me, and besides—I'm with you!" he chirped happily, and now it was Frank's turn to roll his eyes.

"You still have to walk back, you know."

"Well I'll have you know I'm getting much better with my sword, so shove off." He grumbled.

Frank lifted a brow at that. Weapons weren't allowed inside city limits, and he wasn't supposed to be leaving, which meant to train he'd been breaking at least one of those two rules. And since they had a god of barriers watching the city line, it was pretty clear what option was left.

Giving a silent sigh, he stopped walking still in sight of the city gates and shoved the rest of the roll in his mouth, pondering his next words while the boy stopped to wait and see what his reaction would be. Once he swallowed, Frank finally looked at the kid fully with the most disapproving look he could muster.

"Look, Sebastian-"

"How'd it go?" The kid blurted out before Frank could finish, and Frank wasn't even surprised. He gave another silent sigh.

"It's none of your business, you know that right?"

"Of course it is!" He shot back hotly, without missing a beat. "Mortals are banging down our doors and this city is the one that's going to be in trouble if they get in!"

Frank fought off a twitch in his forehead with a little effort.

"First off, the mortals aren't going to get it unless a god lets them, and if they do that we've got bigger problems than a bunch of mortals. Secondly, if mortals did get in they'd be the curious sort that could be turned back with a sharp reprimand and a sword or two pointed at them. Thirdly, if mortals got in and wanted to cause trouble, then it would the Legions job to do something about it, not yours or any other civilian from New Rome." He explained shortly, to the point. "And lastly— that's not even what my meeting was about."

Sebastian looked partially cowed by the little speech but still looked off to the side with a defiantly angry twist to his pursed lips. "Well excuse me for caring." He sniffed.

Frank deflated and shook his head, letting a small amount of amusement settle on his lips. "You know most demigods don't want war, right? Not even children of war."

"Yeah, yeah, Mom said the same thing." He dismissed with a wave of his hand. Frank recalled a vague memory of him mentioning his mother was also a child of Mars—one of the lucky ones that made it to adulthood and settled in New Rome. So war was in his blood somewhere, but the sneaking around and sticking his nose into demigod business wasn't going to do him any favors—he should be going to school like any normal thirteen year old because hecould do that. He wasn't a demigod, and a part of Frank was a little put out the kid didn't seem to appreciate the fact his life was peaceful and safe—something he knew the vast majority of his own cohort secretly longed for deep down. He couldn't speak to the rest of the cohorts, but he doubted the desire for war was all that common amongst teens who typically have no choice in it but to fight or die when it comes down to it.

"Sebastian, you have to leave well enough alone. Spreading this around the city when the Legion isn't ready to announce anything won't help anyone's nerves—much less my own," He went with instead, rather than giving a voice to his tiny moment of pettiness.

"So we don't get a say in anything?" He insisted, wide hazel eyes staring back up to him all of a sudden with an angry, slightly hurt intensity that Frank was unfortunate enough to have been at the receiving end of many times.

But he didn't have the answers the kid wanted to hear.

Sebastian had a point… New Rome didn't have the same choices that Camp Jupiter did. It was a peaceful city, yes, but it was ruled by a senate of retired demigods. The city was for retired demigods, but over the two hundred plus years the city had stood, there was a huge chunk of the population that was so far descended from their demigod/godly ancestors that they were essentially mortal. Demigods, for better or worse, were war-oriented—or at least Roman demigods were. Not always by choice, but they lived in the Legion that had a very strict militaristic structure from the Praetor position downward. The senate was elected… but elected by those in Camp Jupiter.

The hidden city and the camp were for demigods… or at least that had been their purpose when the gods created it. Frank was sure the Greeks would've had something similar if enough of them lived to be old enough to have children and then bothered to stay local to Camp Half Blood, but it hadn't worked out like that. Greeks were independent warriors and typically went their own way when their questing years were over—or even just during the school year since it was a summer camp in fact— so even if they did live long enough to have children, their descendants are now scattered about the world and most had probably long since forgotten about their divine ancestry.

The Roman side of things had all whole new set of issues—less severe issues than dying too young, but issues of a more political nature. The only reason the adult and elderly population of New Rome never spoke out about how things were run was because they knew full well that the demigods in charge had it rougher than they could imagine, and their peaceful lifestyle that was safe from thing your typical mortal civilian had to deal with. For example money—New Rome was only taxed when there was a war that Camp Jupiter needed help funding, and the whole city worked mostly off barter-and-trade, and even had a guild system. If they wanted something built, they contacted the children of Vulcan at camp and they took a trip up when they had time—in return they were fed for no charge by local vendors. That was just one example, but it went on and on and on. Life here just worked differently than anywhere else in the world, and for the most part it was peaceful and things got worked out to the benefit of everyone.

At least, Frank sincerely hoped so. The elder population of New Rome never really spoke out because they knew not to bite the hand that fed them, but he wondered if they had concerns they were just keeping to themselves out of respect. And the younger population—Sebastian's rebellious age up to the young twenty-somethings attending New Rome University—always had something to say that revolved mostly around why they weren't allowed to train with the Legion.

In response to that, every couple years the current Praetors would be called in to give a deposition in the senate as to why descendants of demigods couldn't be in the legion and possibly work out a new solution—the it was almost always poorly attended by any New Rome citizens, much less the younger ones that did the complaining. At best it was a group of half a dozen students who put in the official complaint and did their best to argue their case, although a lot of what they had to say was not taken very seriously.

Frank knew it was a matter of perspective, not unfairness or disrespect though. He'd never been to one, but Jason had—right after he'd been made Praetor too, so he and Reyna had been the ones called to speak on Camp Jupiter's behalf. Jason was a pretty easy going guy, but event recounting what happened Frank had noticed him get visibly agitated.

Apparently the students' points were mainly about 'opportunities' and 'political favor' in the city. They figured having service time was a requirement for being in the Senate, or getting the respect needed to be voted by demigods into the main positions of power. Jason had argued that the legion was more about training people to survive their questing years than getting political favor—it just happened to work out that way since this was a city built off demigods in the first place. It was a little insulting they'd take the main reason they were training and fighting so hard (ahem, their lives) so lightly.

At the same time, the lack of mortal representation was a problem. It was always a problem—it'd been a problem since the day Frank got here.

It just wasn't their only problem, and it most certainly wasn't the highest priority on any given day. Especially with the reveal and the mortals and the monsters and the missing mortals and freakin' Octavian…

No. They did their best, but finding a permanent solution would be a discussion that would take years to fully work though, and it would have to happen while dealing with the normal demigod crap on top of it.

Frank knew this, and he knew Sebastian knew it too. But Sebastian was also a normal kid who didn't have a war or monster on his tail to mellow him out or force him into being more mature than his age. He really was a thirteen-year-old—not the thirteen-year-olds that were proud soldiers under Frank's command in the first cohort, but a normal thirteen-year-old that should be riding his bike or skateboard down New Rome's marble steps and annoying the hell out of the Vulcan kids. Not pestering him about signing his life away for the gods when he had a choice to escape that—a choice that no one else in the cohorts had. Frank would never tell anyone else what they could and could not think, but Sebastian had a choice and even if he could join the legion, he would be surrounded by people who would all know that he'd had a choice… and most of them would think he'd chosen wrong.

There were many, many reasons he would not consign his young friend to the fate he seemed so eager to get, but that… that was the one reason that made his heart clench tighter in his chest.

Frank let out a low breath, trying to steady his uneasy thoughts.

"You know there's no easy answer to this, Seb. Why argue with me when I have no more answers than Jason or Reyna do? You don't have the answers either, remember."

"But I can do this. I can fight!" he insisted, eyes burning brightly in hope.

Puppy look or not, Frank wasn't that moved.

"I'm sure you could, if you've really been training that hard. And look, if mortals do attack, it's not like we'd turn anyone away from helping us fight back. When that time comes, pick up your sword and come help—but until then, can you just be a kid please?"

The kid made a face, clearly stating what he thought about that. Perhaps he was no so convinced about the prospect of war after all, since he obviously didn't think he'd get his chance any time soon.

After a moment though, he seemed to accept that was as far into arguing as he was going to get for today.

"So if the meeting wasn't about that, what was it for? It was closed to the public."

And of course he'd checked, Frank mentally rolled his eyes again. Typically meetings were open to the public, but since it wasn't actually a matter of state they'd closed the doors for discussion. Again, open senate sessions were one of those things they did out of respect for New Rome citizens, but it shifted back towards something less democratic simply because they could hold private sessions if they chose to. They didn't, but they could—and all three current Praetors had been extremely in favor of a closed session this time around for obvious reasons.

"If you must know, it's about Percy's position as Praetor again. So it's technically camp politics that the senate has gotten involved with for some reason… we closed the court because it won't impact New Rome and we'd prefer our dirty laundry not be on display for poor innocent civilians interested in local politics."

Sebastian seemed to take this with a mild expression. He didn't really know many demigods beyond Frank, Hazel, and for some reason Nico, so he didn't care too much about why a Greek demigod he'd never seen or met was a third Praetor. New Rome gossiped about it like a gaggle of old women (especially since there was an old woman rumor mill in some instances) since it was some of the biggest news in the Roman world in a long while, but Sebastian's short attention span was not into it. Mainly because the issue itself was purely political, and all anyone ever did with it was talk and sign petitions—not really action-packed like Frank knew this kid was more interested in (yet another reason he would never allow him to take up a sword with his cohort at least—if he wasn't willing to take the full job of being a demigod then he didn't get to pick and choose which bits he wanted).

"Why were you called in if it's about the Greek Praetor though?"

It was a good question, but Frank's forehead twitched again. "Percy is a bit busy actually being a Praetor right now. Jason and Reyna put him to work," He explained, not mentioning that Percy was still attending a normal high school in New York and balancing a reduced Praetor workload and could therefore not just drop everything to go to these pointless meetings in the middle of the day unless the senate decided to schedule a public hearing well in advance. Frank, Hazel, and Piper were acting as Percy's stand-ins while he couldn't be here since they'd all gotten a murderous IM call from Annabeth after all, about overworking her boyfriend. Apparently he'd almost drowned them when he fell asleep at the pool and got woken up with a jolt.

Frank mentally grimaced—Percy, Annabeth, and Nico's nightmares were bad enough that they still heard about them clear across the country. It was a part of unavoidable life back East, since Greek demigods had to just hope Percy didn't trigger an earthquake with his restless dreaming, or that Nico didn't accidentally summon ghosts to them in the middle of the night thanks to his nightmares. There were enough people in the cohorts in close communication with surprising friends in the Greek side of things that the more dramatic stories were always pretty well known.

Frank had actually heard about the pool incident before Annabeth's IM, but he hadn't realized how distressed it had made the daughter of Athena. Apparently Percy got a solid three hours anyway, so stressing him out when there was no fighting involved (which was less stressful for a war-hardened demigod, in fact) was wringing him dry in a way that had her honestly worried. Frank liked the both of them a lot and didn't wish that on either of his dear friends, so he was more than happy to step in when Percy needed him to, and give him the cliff-notes later.

As a centurion, technically he shouldn't have been able to do this at all, but… being one of The Seven seemed to make him and the others an exception in literally everyone's eyes. He wasn't even sure if this was another one of those politically unfair things, or the Giant War had caused everyone, not just the gods, to go a little crazy.

Especially Leo. Annabeth hadn't asked him to be a stand-in, and it wasn't too hard to figure out why… Leo was technically separate from both New Rome and the camp, and his forge was even technically in no-man's land out the outskirts of both. In fact, if mortals attacked they'd hit there first, although the thing was built like a bunker so chances are they'd never get in if Leo locked it down. The mechanic was also absolutely not interested in anything but building stuff and occasionally popping up to gift them a new invention or weapon and then go his own way—he was quick with his tongue and smart enough to level with Annabeth about inventions and mathematics and shit, but his vibe was clearly against getting involved in the political nature of any faction (even if he liked those who may or may not be in a faction or not—he most likely wouldn't take an official side, probably ever).

Also, Frank was thinking that the 'going crazy' thing was a little more literal in Leo's case. Hazel had tried to visit him yesterday and he accidentally caught her in a trap he'd been working on—and then forgot about and left lying around his forge. It'd also taken him two hours to get her out since he hadn't actually finished the trap yet to the point where it would have a release mechanism, and by the time she was free she had to make it back to camp for dinner. She said it was oddly fun and not how she expected her weekly allotted time set aside to hang out with her favorite mechanic, but she expected nothing less unexpected from Leo.

Frank didn't set aside time to go see the inventor he hardly got along with in the first place like Hazel or Piper did, nor did he trail up the long path to the forge every other day like Jason did. The forge made him nervous in general and incidents like that did not make that feeling any better.

Sebastian didn't seem to notice his slightly subdued answer though—his face clearly showing he wasn't as interested in this as their previous topic.

Frank wondered if he would be if he knew what The Seven were really planning with all of this heavy politicking.

Well, it'd been Piper's idea actually, but they were all beyond excited to see if they could do it. With the exception of Leo of course, since he wasn't truly involved either way… he was supportive of course, but not interested like the rest of them clearly were.

What Leo was most excited about was the look on Octavian's face if it worked. Even not having too much interaction with the annoying Augur, Leo was one of the most vocal about his hate of the guy. Probably because, being removed from both camps and the city, he could get away with badmouthing the conniving fortune-caster more easily since Octavian would have a hard time using any sort of blackmail against the mechanic.

What would Octavian hold against him, after all? That he blew up his forge or did something in the Giant War? Everyone knew Leo was exactly what he presented himself as and was probably going to blow the forge up one day, and his actions in the war were why he was so recognized now—even if he never did anything with that acknowledgement like the others were (to everyone's benefit in making changes of course, but the rest of The Seven were using their titles to further their positions in the world and make their lives and the lives of the friends and family better—even the gods'—while Leo remained in his forge and away from all these changes)… (not that anyone held it against him since sometimes they wished they could disappear from it all and settle down too, and it was Leo's choice to do whatever he wanted with his life in this time of peace—he'd just chosen differently from them is all).

Leo was outside all Roman and Greek politics, which he was sure had its benefits at times, but it didn't actually help them since Leo was pretty firm about staying out of it—so they couldn't even call on someone from the outside to help them if they needed an ace up their sleeve.

For Jason at least, Frank knew the crazy mechanic was his escape—how the Praetor distanced himself from work and the rest of the world, since Leo was so off to space in the first place and didn't talk politics or work in an almost defiant resolution not to get involved where he didn't want to be involved. Frank also knew Piper and Hazel told him everything—for a loudmouth he was getting a decent reputation around camp as being an excellent secret keeper if you needed an ear to vent to, and his no-nonsense, practical attitude on top of his overly friendly, funny-guy act meant most people thought he was entertaining to both talk and listen to. Plus, he had Jason and Annabeth's ears whenever he wanted them (his 'bro' and his 'science sis' as he called them), which mean Reyna and Percy would hear whatever he had to say too—and that kind of influence meant Leo got a lot of people in his forge looking for help and advice or just someone to talk to… if they could survive the overall death trap that was his forge and not get burned in the process.

But, he was getting off track. Although… thinking of Leo gave him an idea.

"What sword are you using to train then, if you can't have weapons in the city limits?"

Sebastian perked up at that, abruptly interested once more. "I, uh… I'm actually using a pole I found." He admitted a little abashedly, and there were a dozen things about improper training techniques Frank immediately found on the tip of his tongue, but he held it in (and on that note, he hadn't been leaving the city to practice with an actual sword like he'd initially thought, so that was good). He didn't want Sebastian to ever have to fight, just preoccupy himself until he was old enough to realize Frank saying 'no' to him was an act of kindness, not selfishness.

"Well, if you really want to train yourself, I can't stop you so far as that goes, but I don't think a pole would be too helpful." He pointed out, the kid watching him suspiciously as if waiting for the caveat. "If you're serious though, I'll ask Leo to make you something that's not a weapon, but heavy enough to actually train yourself to use one. Shouldn't take him too long, and then will you give me at least a couple weeks without making me feel guilty over something I have no control over?"

The short blond looked ecstatic—pausing at that last comment to shoot him an unimpressed look. Which, was a little uncalled for because Frank was only half joking to be honest.

"That's be soooooo cool! Please!?"

Frank rolled his eyes. "Sure. I'm sure Leo would be all up for it—giving fake weapons to underage civilians…" Again, he was only half joking, and he really wished he weren't. Cue internal grimace. "But you've got to swear to me you won't use it on another person—even just to train—and you'll stay within the city limits until your parents give you permission to leave. Especially these days with stray monsters and missing mortals still about."

"Yeah, sure, I promise!" He agreed immediately; so quickly in fact that Frank was positive he hadn't heard the 'stray monsters, missing mortals' bit. "Oh my gods you're the best! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Ignoring that and knowing full well he was being weak and giving into a kid who would probably find a way to make him regret this decision later on down the road, he deflected.

"How are your parents doing, by the way?"

Sebastian was instantly less thrilled. "Fine, I guess. Still where they were last time you asked."

"How's your sister?"

"Fine," He moaned dramatically. Frank got a small amount of amusement in torturing him this way, but he put up with being tortured and therefore figured turnabout was fair play.

"How old is she now?"

"Nine. She really likes school too, the weirdo."

"Well, I sort of miss school, so she's not that weird."

"Well maybe you're weird too then!"

"Have it your way," The son of Mars sniffed, thoughts flickering only briefly back to the old school he'd attended before his life literally flipped upside down. He knew 'missing' school was a bit of a stretch because he clearly remembered dragging his feet to go each morning, but perhaps it was just the normality he missed. Also, being forced to learn while still training full hours in a day was a lot tougher than just having to sit still in classroom—even for an ADHD dyslexic. "How are you doing at school then?"

"Fine!"

"Ah, so not fine at all."

"Shut up! It's just English—it sucks you know. Who needs to spell all that well anyway, when we've got autocorrect and stuff, right?"

"You know you still have to attend lessons in the cohorts… only we've got Athena kids writing our lesson plans these days so they're a lot less fun than normal school,"

"Ugh, suck the fun out of it why don't you?" He complained dramatically, and it got a hearty chuckle from Frank.

"Shut up," He poked the kid's shoulder—he thought gently but Sebastian jumped and clutched his shoulder with a playfully betrayed expression on.

"Mean!"

"Go home and leave me alone," the Centurion suggested wisely, and Sebastian oh-so-maturely stuck his tongue out at him.

"Whatever!" He tossed his head to the side dramatically. After a brief pause though, he turned and gave the older ten a more serious expression with that fire flickering less intensely in his eyes—but by no means full quenched. "I'll get you to say yes one day, you know that right?"

Ah. There is was.

The problem being that Frank was a child of war—quite literally and in more ways than he ever dared admit it. He would never, never allow a civilian who could remain safe an innocent for the rest of their life, just stumble into the truth that was waiting for them. The truth that Frank knew, the one he was intimately aware of thanks to who his father was.

War was not going to touch this boy—or any other innocent of New Rome. Never.

It was just… he also had an instinct for war. The way the tides of it came and went, how a battle would swing in favor of one side over another, and even how it slowly drew to a close as the victor emerged from the rubble and smoke. But worst of all… he could almost feel it when the peaceful days started to give way to something a lot colder in the morning air. He could sense something coming just beyond the horizon, and he had a horrible fear that he knew exactly what it was.

He also had a sinking suspicion that Sebastian may not be wrong in saying that just now.

And that… was… just…

"…I said go home, Sebastian." He repeated himself in a blank way, because anything else that came to his lips would be exactly the thing he'd been avoiding thinking about for several weeks now. He shook it off though, matching Seb's firey gaze with one of stone to try and get him to back down. "Another day, ok? I can't promise anything. Just pay attention in school and keep your eyes open—that's always a good start."

And it was the truth.

"Fine." The kid nodded, seeming to accept that for once and letting his attitude drop for half a second. "Bye Frank," he suddenly grinned and poked his side—probably as hard as he could, but Frank's new figure didn't budge.

It did earn him a smirk though, and a shove at his shoulder that sent the boy stumbling, just barely managing to get to his feet and run back towards the city line with a teasing laugh of no regrets or apologies trailing after him.

"Brat!" Frank called after him half-heartedly and was met without another round of laughs as his answer.

The smirk slowly vanished from his face as the boy's words echoed around his head. The truth about what was out there waiting for them was unknown, but something way deep down told Frank that whatever it was, if he wanted to keep kids like Seb laughing and playing around like he was just now…something needed to happen.

Change? Knowledge? A plan? Could he even plan for something he couldn't explain—just a feeling, a fear?

… whatever it was, he thought he might just know where to start looking for his answer, and he could easily go get Seb's sword and kill two birds with one stone… so to speak, since he was really against killing birds.

By the time Sebastian made it back to the city gates he was panting from his brief sprint, and reached out to place a hand on the marble pillar of the gate to catch his breath. He tossed one last look over his shoulder to bid his centurion friend a last wave—but there was nothing but the empty stone walkway leading from the city over the vast rolling hills to Camp Jupiter, its tents and banners waving gold and purple in the afternoon light but still barely visible from the far-off distance.

He didn't notice the split-second shadow flickering over his head of a hawk gliding by.