Return of the Disgraced Archangel

IT WAS A MISIMPUT!!

     Jason took Piper on a tour around New Rome. Frank and Hazel went back to their barracks to pack their things for the long trip. Reyna and her officers went to alert the senate to the meeting that would be taking place in an hour.

     That left Percy and Zoë alone. Percy turned to her. "So what's with this?" He asked, tapping on her silver mask. "Very 'Phantom of the Opera'."

     "The campers at Camp half-blood kept staring at me. So I hid what they were staring at."

     Percy reached up and took the mask off, revealing her corpse-like face. He smiled at her and placed the mask on the table. "No one to hide from right now."

     She smiled. She stood up and sat in his lap. She leaned her back into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.

     "This is nice." He commented. "We don't get this often, don't we?"

     "We've gotten it more often in the last few days." She said.

     "True. And we'll get it till we rescue Rory."

     "I think we should just leave now. Forget the senate."

     "I would love to, but rules are rules."

     "Since when have you cared about rules?"

     "Since we started enforcing rules on–" he was cut off by the sound of a shrill sound followed by an explosion. Light flashed behind them. They turned to see a mushroom cloud like a mini nuke had been set off.

     Percy let out a breath of frustration. "Goddamnit." He muttered. He turned to Zoë. "Well, the peace was nice while it lasted."

     Romans were rushing around, gathering weapons and armor. A crowd noticed that Percy and Zoë were just sitting there and surrounded them. They pointed swords at them. Percy rolled his eyes at them.

     "What's going on?!" Reyna yelled.

     "I'll tell you what's going on!" A voice came from the direction of the Argo II. Octavian. "Leo has his weapons trained on the city. The Greeks have fired on New Rome! I saw it with my own eyes."

     Catapults fired at the Argo II. The Argo returned fire, destroying the catapults. Percy sighed. He turned to Zoë. "Go deal with Leo. I'll get everyone to the ship, then we'll leave, senate be damned."

     She nodded and got off of his lap. A roman swung a sword at her. It hit her skin like it was a rock. No cut on her. She looked unimpressed before flying off towards the Argo. Percy looked at the Romans.

     "Look, you can't hurt me, but I can hurt you. So let's make it easy. You let me go, I won't rescue the Seven, then when I find out what happened, I'll relay it to you."

     "Like we'll let a traitor go!" Octavian said.

     Percy stood up. The Romans weren't sure, but he seemed taller than he was before.. "Let's get one thing straight, augur. I didn't betray Rome, because I'm not loyal to Rome. My loyalty lies to me, and my family. It doesn't lie with you. It doesn't lie with Greece. I'm here to save my daughter, and that's it. But if you want me to, I'll burn down the Twelfth Legion, and wipe your names off the history books. Don't tempt me."

     The sound of fighting drew his attention away from the blond kid who was shitting his pants. He waved a hand at the wall of Romans. They all fell to their knees. Their weapons felt really heavy, keeping their sword arms pinned to the ground. Reyna took a moment to kneel, mostly because he didn't force his will on her. Just the effect of the others made her kneel.