Chapter Text
“Well if it isn’t the Greek boy scout,” Quin drawled. Becca twisted in her seat by the window to see what he was referring to and saw Percy Jackson standing by the fountain in the plaza in front of Bombilo’s and talking with Mahlia Finch, a legacy of Ceres, and one of the other Greek students enrolled in New Rome University. She couldn’t help the small smile that graced her face.
“Greek boy scout? Really?” Heather asked with a huff. Becca schooled her features and turned back to the table, preparing herself for one of Quin’s rants. Sure enough, he started right away.
Becca bit down a sigh. It had been more than a year and a half since the official signing of the Greco-Roman peace treaty and some people really needed to just move on. But this was Rome so of course that wouldn’t happen. Toxic traditions and millennial-old grudges were just as Roman as any battle formation they practiced.
And Rome was all about tradition. It was strange to see the Greeks visit and marvel at the different generations they had here, from small children to elderly retirees, when the Romans were gobsmacked when they realized that all the Greeks at their camps were demigods. In normal times, probably close to 90 percent of the legion was made up of legacies. Roman demigods existed of course, but they were definitely the minority. None of the Romans had seen so many demigods in one place before. Becca can’t help but wonder if that isn’t a good thing. The problem with relying so heavily on legacies is that everything - old grudges, prejudices, family status - becomes stagnant. Nothing ever really changes in Rome, and as someone on the bottom of the Roman political food chain, it drives her crazy.
The friends she was sitting with at the cafe illustrated all that well enough. Heather was a first generation legacy of Janus and retired from the Third Cohort. Jordan was a third generation legacy of Februus and a current member of the Third. Both of them were pretty chill. But the others were all from old families and had the expected Roman stick up their asses.
You could always tell who came from old families or those who wanted to someday be an old family based on their names. Old families didn’t believe in modern names like James or Sarah, instead choosing old Roman names like Cassius, Fabius, or Aurelia. Some Roman names were still pretty common in modern times like Antonia, who was a legacy of Ceres. Her family didn’t go back to the original empire but it was pretty close. Despite her pedigree, she was generally pretty chill, probably a result of being Centurion of the Third Cohort which always found themselves in the middle of the rivalries between the First and Fifth Cohorts. Marcellus (who went by Marcel) was a seventh generation legacy of Bacchus and was with her in the Second Cohort but now attended NRU. Unlike her, Marcel was a total snob, at least when he was around other snobs. His family wasn’t considered one of the Old Families of Rome because you had to have ten generations for that, but you would never know that based on his attitude. On his own he was fine, but as soon as he got around any of the other old Romans he became the biggest ass.
But with Octavian gone, few beat out Quintus Pearson, an old family legacy of Virtus and Centurion of the Second Cohort, when it came to sticking to tradition and old prejudices against the Greeks.
Quin was her old Centurion, a position he got after the War on Gaea. They were good friends growing up but with the new title apparently came a permanent stick up his ass. While they still got along, she was still happy that she didn’t have to deal with his constant spiels now that she was attending NRU.
“You can’t deny that he is powerful,” Jordan pointed out. “He took out that Giant pretty easily.”
“That alone should at least get your respect,” Heather added. “Not to mention the other stuff.”
Quin scowled. “He’s a son of Neptune,” he practically spat. “There’s a reason we don’t allow them in the Legion.”
Becca fought the urge to roll her eyes. “One, he’s Greek so is actually a son of Poseidon. And two, we haven’t had any in the Legion because Neptune hasn’t had any children since the actual ancient times.”
“That’s not the point,” he protested before arguing about the order of gods for the millionth time because Rome placed hierarchies on everything, even when it came to gods.
At the top of the list were Olympians of course, followed by minor gods of war. Next came the gods with more abstract domains, like sleep, healing, and fortune, followed by gods associated with agriculture, and then nature. Water gods were second to last, followed only by gods of the Underworld. Despite being Olympians, Neptune and Pluto took their places with the other gods of their realm and so were pretty low on the list.
Becca found the whole thing to be stupid, especially since things like water and agriculture were objectively far more important than war. But she wouldn’t really care if it wasn’t for the fact that the hierarchy applied to demigods and legacies as well. So being a legacy of a war god like Virtus - god of military strength - automatically put you above a legacy of agriculture like Pomona and that affected everything from being chosen by a cohort to your position in that cohort. Making it even dumber, legacies tended to marry legacies so almost everyone had multiple gods in their lineage; people like Antonia probably had close to the entire pantheon. With so many gods in their background, people chose the highest ranked to claim as their heritage while the generations were counted from the earliest in time, despite who that demigod’s parent was. The one exception to upgrading your heritage was Jupiter, which only a direct child or grandchild could claim but otherwise it was open. If your family spent a long enough time in the legion, eventually an Olympian would come up and you would be set.
That’s fine, but what annoyed her was that people like Quin and Marcel acted as though the other gods in their lineage didn’t exist. They looked down on people like her, who the best she could claim was Juturna, the goddess of fountains. When she first came to camp and joined the Maniple, basically the baby legion for those too young to actually serve, the Matron who oversaw them solemnly suggested she work on marrying up once she joined the legion. She was nine at the time.
“He fought for Rome,” Heather continued to argue. “We raised him on a shield. Even you have to admit that means something.”
“Sure,” Quin scoffed. “And then he fired on Rome the next day.”
“That was the other kid,” Becca pointed out. “And they explained what happened. He couldn’t help being possessed.”
“So they say,” muttered Quin.
Antonia turned very deliberately to Quin and raised her eyebrows. “I know you are not doubting the words of Juno Sospita and Mars Ultor. Because they are the ones who confirmed what happened with the eidions and urged us to not dwell on the past.” That shut him up, at least temporarily.
A few weeks after they returned to camp from New York, an all-Legion meeting was held in the Senate Hall. Jason Grace and Percy Jackson were there, as well as the Ambassador of Pluto. For some reason the other Greeks of the Seven did not come but the purpose of the meeting was to solidify and formally approve the peace treaty with the Greeks. No longer riding the adrenaline of the battle and back on their home territory, quite a few legionnaires were now raising objections. It was a bit two-faced, but again that was kinda the Roman way.
She’s pretty sure the meeting was supposed to be Jason Grace’s chance to shine but Jackson did it better. Becca never put much stock into the old slurs of Greek trickery and cunning but watching him handle even the most taciturn legionnaires and lares with grace, she wondered if there really was truth in those old stereotypes. Despite smoothly arguing away a lot of the objections, it kept coming back to the fact that the Greek ship fired on New Rome. Both Percy and Jason explained what happened with the eidions, but of course had no proof. That’s when Lady Juno and Lord Mars showed up, backing their explanation and placing the blame on Gaea. Having two of the most important gods in Rome both show up two times in a matter of months when it had been centuries since a god visited Rome was a very big deal. It also put to rest any outstanding objections to the peace treaty, at least officially.
“I just don’t understand why the Greeks treat him as such a big deal,” Marcel said, shifting the topic slightly and sparing Quin from Antonia’s ongoing glare. “Or even the gods. Lady Juno and Lord Mars clearly backed him, and I don’t understand why. He certainly doesn’t look like much.”
“Demigods,” Quin muttered. Now it was Heather’s turn to glare at him. No matter what your heritage was, demigods beat out legacies. The resulting jealousy meant a lot of legacies resented demigods just on principle. But as Heather’s dad was a demigod of Janus and her mom a clear sighted mortal, she did not take well to any complaining about demigods or mortals.
“Why don’t you just ask around?” she asked him. “Heroes have stories and people are always eager to tell them. I’m sure any of the Greeks could tell you more about him.” Quin gave her a look of complete horror. Like the idea of talking to the Greeks would somehow taint him. Heather rolled her eyes.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Jordan added. “It would be nice knowing exactly why he was part of the prophesied Seven. I know the Venus girl had sorcery and the Vulcan boy obviously had power over fire. But why Jackson? Just because they took a boat?”
Becca frowned at him. “He’s powerful enough to survive Tartarus. I doubt it was just because they took a boat.”
“I still don’t know if I believe that whole thing about Tartarus,” Quin complained. Both Heather and Becca rolled their eyes.
“Then ask ,” Heather repeated. “Really, anything to get you to stop complaining.” Jordan snorted and Antonia smiled.
“I’ll see what I can find out from Praetor Levesque,” Antonia told them, “but those of you at NRU probably have the most chance of getting new information.”
“He’s not even an official student,” Quin grumbled. “He just uses us for housing.”
Becca shook her head. “He’s working on finishing Praetor’s Grace work on the temples,” she said. “That takes a lot of work and it is for Rome, so I don’t see the problem. Plus he was Praetor. He has the right to live here.” Quin scowled but didn’t argue.
Heather and Marcel both agreed they would see what they could find out at school and they all started to get up to leave. Antonia and Quin had an administrative meeting with the other Centurions while Jordan was due back at the Legion ahead of evening muster. Becca herself had hours of reading she needed to get through before the weekend.
She trudged back to her apartment, her mood a little sour from the conversation like usual. Becca knew she was a terrible Roman and while she constantly had to censor herself for it not to show, inside she couldn’t care less. She wished she never had to come here. She wished she and her family could have ignored the existence of Rome like they wanted to. But the Fates had other plans. Gods, she hates the Fates.
In early March the Bay Area was doing that thing where it would be freezing one day and almost summer-like temperatures the next. Today was gray and drizzly, not cold but with a slight nip in the air that made it uncomfortable. But complaining about discomfort is un-Roman.
In theory the idea of the Legion wasn’t bad. In fact, it was kinda cool to think that a small bit of the Roman Empire persisted, connecting them all back to something ancient in a way that most Americans didn’t have. As a kid she loved hearing stories about how the Legion moved around, first in Europe and then to America. It was like being in on a secret that only her family was cool enough to know about because they were legacies of Rome. She perked up every time Ancient Rome came up at school, even though back then they were too young to really study it. She didn’t understand why her parents were less than enthusiastic about it all, or why they seemed against sending her to train with the Legion like they had. Unfortunately she understood it now.
Walking with her knee brace always slowed her down so she wasn’t surprised when Marcel caught up to her easily. He lived in one of the main multi unit buildings common with NRU students while she took a small garden apartment on the far edge of town. It was away from much of the bustle of the city and she liked it that way. Marcel tended to walk her home for reasons she didn’t really understand, except maybe he appreciated the more quiet parts of the city too.
“What do you know about Jackson?” he suddenly asked her. Becca nearly stumbled in her surprise.
“Probably the same stuff as you,” she retorted.
He nodded. “He took you home that one time though.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “he and his giant demon dog dropped me off and then picked me up a few days later to bring me back to camp. It wasn’t very illuminating.” That was a bold faced lie - the whole experience had been very illuminating - but Becca stayed quiet. Even though she wasn’t enlisted in the Legion anymore, no one could know the truth about that trip.
She wished she could tell people what she learned about Percy, because the truth was she owed him. The Imperial War was hard. The War Against Saturn and the War on Gaea were bad too but nothing beat the battles here at camp. She lost her best friend Lien and had to watch her become an undead zombie. The experience still haunted her. After that, she didn't want anything to do with Rome.
A couple weeks after the battle of San Francisco Bay, she went to Praetors Zhang and Levesque to ask for a furlough. She wanted to go home. What she didn't say was that she wasn't planning on coming back. It wouldn't be the first time someone deserted. Their praetor before Jason Grace, a legacy of Felicitas, actually went AWOL about a month before the battle on Mount Othrys. It appears that after Reyna was elected at the Feast of Fortuna, he woke up one morning and decided to nope out of all of this bullshit. She couldn't blame him. Maybe he had some type of power of prophecy that let him know what was coming in the next few years, or maybe his godly ancestor clued him into the fact that luck would not be on their side. In any case, they were one Predator short when the Legion stormed the Titan stronghold and so Jason was raised on a shield.
She also knew her family would understand. Her parents didn't even want to send her to the Legion, but monster numbers were higher than usual when she was a kid. Being fifth generation legacies, they shouldn't have been on any monster's radar. But after a hellhound found her at school and a group of cyclops tried to attack their home, her parents realized something would have to be done. Becca was the oldest, old enough to go to the Legion. Her younger sister Jessica and younger brother Ryan went to separate sets of grandparents, each one about an hour away from their home in Birmingham. With all of them separated, it seemed to be enough to protect each of the kids. So when she was nine she gave up her Hello Kitty themed bedspread and pink bedazzled backpack for gold armor and polished combat boots.
Of course now sending her to the Legion for safety seemed like an oxymoron. And after three wars when she was barely 18, she was done.
But once you enlisted in the Legion, you were required to serve at least ten years; you couldn’t just leave voluntarily until those ten years were up. The problem was she had almost two years left on her contract. Well, more like a year and a half but the way things were going that could be enough time for two more wars and she just couldn't handle it anymore. They all had nightmares but refused to admit it because “that wasn't the Roman way.” So when people got night terrors and woke up screaming, any excuse was accepted except for the truth of them just being traumatized beyond belief. When everyone trudged through morning muster and drills, barely able to stay awake from sleep deprivation, the answer was more coffee rather than acknowledging they were struggling. When Emily, a legacy of Venus who at just thirteen was now the youngest member of the First Cohort, broke down in tears during lessons because she missed her best friend Portia, her centurion Julius berated her for un-Roman conduct. Becca yelled at Julius for it which earned her a demerit and scolding from Quin, but it was totally worth it.
Because maybe she is too sensitive and maybe she is weak, but Becca was so sick of it all. Reyna and Frank, and then Hazel - all good people. But the “Roman way” sucked and she wanted to scream that from the rooftops even though it wouldn’t accomplish anything. Instead she would happily take the opportunity to run away and never look back.
The problem was flights to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama from San Francisco weren't exactly cheap, plentiful, or quick. Frank was hesitant to give her a three day weekend pass when it would take most of a day to get there and another to get back. But she was desperate. So when a visiting Percy overheard and offered to instantly transport her via his hellhound, she swallowed her discomfort and agreed, figuring she would work out how to ditch him later.
She quickly learned Percy was a lot smarter than most people gave him credit for. They traveled to a park near her parents’ house, reasoning that an unannounced hellhound appearing in their backyard would not go over well. He insisted on walking her the rest of the way. And then he just casually asked what the typical punishment was for desertion.
Becca was sure her heart stopped. Percy noted how much she packed for a weekend trip and how she never asked how she would get back to camp. Knowing she was caught, she broke down into ugly, messy sobs on her parents’ front porch. When her parents noticed the noise, they found the son of Poseidon comforting her as she tried not to hyperventilate. The moment she saw her mom Becca threw herself at her, sobbing even harder. She thinks Percy might have introduced himself to her dad before picking up her bag and offering to explain inside.
It was an interesting afternoon. Becca was a mess so Percy explained everything that had happened at camp since communications went down a few months before. She interjected with a word here or there, choking out Lien’s name when he explained about the vrykolakai, which made her mom just hold her tighter. He gave them a moment to process once he finished, the only sound being Becca’s sniffles and stuttered breathing as she tried to calm down.
Her mom broke the silence first. “She is not going back there.” Becca didn’t think she had ever heard such venom in her mom’s voice before. Her dad went to answer but she steamrolled over him, switching to Latin and an argument soon followed. Her parents had both been with the Legion when the whole 1980s Alaska disaster happened and watching the survivors struggle with basic sanity had them both promising to never look back once they left. Hearing what happened recently was probably their worst nightmare. But her dad was worried about the consequences of deserting while her mom argued that Becca already left and would never get a fair trial if she returned and was suspected. Her mom’s side of the family was descended from multiple Underworld gods and had been generally shunned while at camp. As a result she had little love for Rome even under the best of circumstances.
Becca and Percy watched them argue for a few minutes before he waved his hand to get their attention. “I know I’m Greek but I do speak Latin,” he told them, in flawless Latin no less. “Can you slow down and explain some of what you just said? Maybe I can help.” Despite the mess she was, she couldn't help but laugh at the look on her parents’ faces, which caused her to hiccup loudly. That seemed to break the tension in the room and both her parents sighed in resignation.
Her parents were chatty in the way that is common in the South, where you talk a lot but say little of substance. But at this point they had little to lose. So much came out: Becca’s full divine heritage, her parents’ experiences at camp, why they sent Becca despite swearing they never would, Jessica and Ryan being sent away for their safety, the Roman rules and procedures around possible desertion.
Percy was a good listener. He asked some questions but never sounded judgmental. It was like he was a sponge, just soaking all the information up. When they finished, the first thing he did was promise he wouldn’t tell anyone associated with Rome anything they had said without their permission and he wouldn’t snitch on Becca no matter what, but warned he might have to tell some people on the Greek side some of it to get some answers. He wanted to return to New York and talk with some people. In return, he asked them to promise Becca would still be there on Sunday when he returned. They could make plans and get ready for whatever they decided to do, but she wouldn’t leave until he got back.
It was a pretty big ask. Suspicions and distrust of Greeks were practically ingrained into their beings as Romans, and constantly reinforced in their lessons. But Percy had an aura about him that made her trust him. It wasn’t a crush or anything like that, but a feeling that he really did understand what she was going through and could make it better. It was Becca who agreed she would be here on Sunday.
After her emotional breakdown, she was exhausted and completely drained but her mom insisted she drink a cup of soothing chamomile tea with honey, just like she made for Becca when she was little. She drank the tea and fell into a fitful sleep on the couch, the nightmares trying to creep in on the edges but never fully breaking through.
Saturday passed in a haze. Becca sat in her pajamas in backyard not doing much of anything, just basking in the early blooming magnolia trees and the birdsong of an Alabama spring. Her parents talked quietly, probably about what resources they could afford to spend on Becca going underground for a bit and where she could go. They always stopped talking as soon as they noticed her watching. Her parents took her out for a huge meal at the BBQ restaurant they used to go to as a family before they all split up. Despite the circumstances, it was really nice.
Her mom asked if she wanted to talk about Lien but she couldn’t. Lien was a year younger than her but came to camp just a few weeks after Becca got there. They became fast friends and were pretty much inseparable after that. Her parents were local, living in Oakland, so she wound up spending more time with them than she did her own family. Every year it became a tradition for her parents to pick them up and take them to a local Vietnamese Tet celebration and they often came to New Rome to celebrate her birthday for an afternoon. Lien was more her sister than her actual sister Jessica was, but now whenever she closed her eyes she saw Lien’s undead face. So she couldn’t talk about it. She thinks part of her was worried if she said anything about Lien out loud, it would bring her nightmares to life, again.
When Sunday came, she waited restlessly. Despite how she felt on Friday, by Sunday she didn’t have much faith Percy could help.
He proved her wrong. His feet had barely touched the ground after he jumped off the back of his giant hellhound before he told them he had a plan: medical discharge. Turns out he had spent the weekend going over Legion regulations and law (which he grumbled about being in Latin) and discovered that if a legionnaire was injured to an extent it hampered their long term ability to participate in the Legion, then they could apply for - and the Praetors would basically have to grant - a medical discharge.
It would get her out of the Legion and exempt her from the Auxiliary but the few medical discharges she knew about only came after serious injuries, as in lost limbs and permanent disabilities. She told Percy about the few cases she knew of. It seemed unlikely Becca could lie her way to a medical discharge.
Percy wasn’t dissuaded. He pointed out that as a fifth generation legacy, she was basically mortal, making injuries far more common and more easily debilitating. She probably should have been offended, but it was true. He reasoned that if it was something that interfered with her ability to fight, like a shoulder or knee injury, it would be easy enough to fake while also qualifying for the discharge.
And she did have a recurring knee injury although she didn’t know what it was. Camp Jupiter and New Rome didn’t have any real medical facilities. Basically if an injury couldn’t be cured by nectar or ambrosia (which she couldn’t even have), unicorn shavings, healing balms, or antibiotics, you were pretty much stuck with it. She twisted her knee or something a few years back and it flared up from time to time, including in the recent battles, but Pranjal just told her to wrap and ice it despite sometimes barely being able to stand. When she told Percy that, his face lit up. He took down some information - full name, date of birth, height, weight, and such - and disappeared again, leaving them to wonder what he could possibly be up to.
When he returned again, it was with x-rays and CAT scans and paperwork diagnosing her with a torn ACL in her left knee and recommendations that she stay off her knee for at least nine months, with limited exercise for another six. Basically, most of the time she had left on her contract. It all had her name and date of birth, printed on official looking letterhead from Birmingham Hospital. Becca wasn’t sure it would hold up in the mortal world, but it would definitely be good enough at camp since they largely wouldn’t know better. Percy informed her that she retwisted her knee helping her mom in the garden and that’s why they took her to the hospital. He even had a rigid plastic knee brace for her to wear, and a magical insole for her left shoe that would give a slight buzz when she put weight on it so she could remember to use her crutches. The crutches they still needed to get, but otherwise she was all set.
It was still a risk, but Percy came with her and helped explain to Frank and Hazel what happened. Frank seemed to accept it but she was pretty sure Hazel knew she was lying. The daughter of Pluto didn’t say anything, probably because while she was gone a rumor had started that they were considering issuing a stop loss order to prevent anyone from retiring from the Legion until their numbers recovered. As a result, two legionnaires fled in the middle of the night; at least Becca gave them the courtesy of lying straight to their face.
Quin wasn’t happy but signed off on her medical excuse. With all the cleanup still going on and their reduced numbers, it took a few weeks for the discharge paperwork to be cleared. Ultimately it was though, and for the first time in years Becca felt like she could breathe.
Percy stayed with Frank for a week after they returned, the lights in the Principia on long after curfew. Becca had a feeling they were discussing what to do with the Legion going forward. Another legionnaire deserted in that time, and demigod and legacy families started to pack up to leave New Rome. The general atmosphere was tense, and she overheard several girls consider following Reyna’s path and join Diana’s hunters. Too much had happened in too little time and they needed to get a handle on the situation as soon as possible.
On Friday there was another all-Legion meeting in the Senate House. Frank and Hazel announced there would be no stop loss order given and those eligible for retirement could leave the Legion and New Rome. The bigger surprise was they also announced that those legionnaires with less than two years left on their contracts could retire early, given that they agreed to attend NRU and join the Auxiliary for two years. It wasn’t exactly full retirement, but it gave the oldest of the legionnaires who had carried the burden of the wars the most a bit of a break and would hopefully stem any more desertions. And since most legacies usually didn’t attend NRU, it would also allow them to fill the Auxiliary while the Legion’s numbers improved with new recruits. It was a pretty bold plan, and while practical, also very un-Roman. Percy gave her a tired smile from across the room and she realized that he was the one who came up with it. She didn’t say anything; if people knew that a Greek was behind it, there would be an immediate backlash.
It did the trick though; morale improved almost immediately. Heather’s ten year contract was up in a few months so she stuck it out but Marcel took advantage of the early retirement. With her medical discharge, Becca was exempt from the requirement to attend NRU or enroll in the Auxiliary, but after some long conversations with both her parents and Percy, she ultimately decided to attend NRU for the time being. She made it clear though that if there was the slightest hint of new fighting, she would steal a unicorn and flee the state.
It also helped that Percy somehow managed to find and entice two Roman psychologists - a legacy of Venus and a legacy of Aesculapius - to move their practices to New Rome. Therapy wasn’t exactly looked highly upon in Roman society but plenty of current and former legionnaires took advantage of their services. Becca still saw Tabitha, the legacy of Venus, once a week. She wouldn’t say that she has fully healed from her time in the Legion, but her head was in a much better place now.
All of that was because of Percy. But she couldn’t say any of that to Marcel without giving her own secrets away.
“Why does it even matter?” she asked, annoyed. “He’s just one guy. And so what if he’s Greek? He’s helped defend the camp and helped save the world. Why are you guys so insistent that there is something evil lurking in the shadows?”
Marcel actually laughed. “Maybe not evil ,” he chuckled, “but you have to admit, he has a different vibe to him than the other Greeks.” That you refuse to talk to , she thought to herself. “I know Quin is annoyed he’s so active in Senate meetings. He isn’t even part of the Legion so why is he there?”
“He is a former Praetor–”
“Which doesn’t give him the right to be in the Senate.”
“--and Ambassador of the Greeks–”
“Which isn’t an actual title.”
“He doesn’t have a vote and the Senate meetings are open now!”
“Because he made them open. It wasn’t that way before he got here,” Marcel retorted.
“And is that so bad?” she shot back. He fell silent at that. Maybe because despite being new, having the Senate meetings open for anyone to attend and speak at was actually popular. Or maybe because they reached the central piazza and that always put a damper on their mood.
This used to be one of the main places where people hung out, with a huge fountain in the middle and benches spaced out in the open space. But the undead had a thing against running water and destroyed the fountain with extreme prejudice. Most of the buildings surrounding the piazza were heavily damaged as well. They repaired most of the damage throughout the city, including the surrounding buildings, but the piazza itself was still demolished. No one quite knew what to do with it. Finally they just cleared the rubble and pulled up the remaining cobblestones, putting a few truckloads of gravel down in the meantime. Few people hung out here anymore, the whole place just being sad.
When they cleared the piazza, they started arguing again. Becca realized that Marcel didn’t really have a huge issue with Percy Jackson, but rather just hated a lot of the changes that had come with the arrival of the Greeks. Most of those changes were hugely popular, both in the Legion and in the city, but a lot of old Roman families saw any change as being a disgrace to the legacy of Rome.
“Just cut him some slack,” she begged when they finally got to her door. “He might just surprise you.” Marcel rolled his eyes but smiled as he said goodbye. Becca watched him go and hoped she was right.