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There was a stiff knock at the door. Reyna, daughter of Bellona, Praetor of New Rome, was having a nice evening. Not a relaxing evening exactly, since being Praetor meant relaxing was something Reyna could only dream about, but this evening had at least been peaceful. Seeing Annabeth at the door dragging a stranger behind her, she knew it wouldn’t last. "Reyna, I think we should talk. Now. It's important."
Annabeth had a steely look in her gray eyes, while the gray-blue eyes of the boy whose arm she was gripping tightly just seemed to be screaming "help."
All in a day's work for the praetor of New Rome. "Come on in," Reyna said.
Annabeth strode in, not releasing the grip on her companion until the door was closed behind them. "What's this about?" Reyna asked.
"Tim, tell her what you told me," Annabeth ordered, crossing her arms.
The boy, Tim, shifted uncomfortably. "Umm. So you know the eagle staff? The legion standard?" he asked.
"Yes. I'm very familiar with one of my people's greatest symbols,” Reyna said.
Tim swallowed and nodded. "Right, of course. You see... I have one of those." He winced at the admission.
Reyna froze. "You have... an eagle."
"Yes."
"A roman legion eagle.”
"Yes."
Reyna stared at him, unsure how to respond.
"Specifically, it's the eagle of the ninth legion," Tim specified unhelpfully.
"You're serious." Reyna looked to Annabeth, incredulous. "He's serious."
Annabeth threw up her hands. "I know. I bring him to New Rome because he's curious about Roman tactics and it turns out he just HAS a great symbol of a Roman legion with possibly incredible power in his possession. How ridiculous is that?"
Tim smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. I'd say it's a complete coincidence, but I don't think any of us are that lucky."
Reyna took a deep breath to steady herself. There was always trouble when the Greek demigods came to town, though usually it involved arguing and increasingly bizarre dares that inevitably resulted in bodily injury. She was not expecting a child of Minerva (Athena, whatever) to come up and say he had a priceless and presumed lost relic. "How did you come by this relic? Are you sure it's genuine?"
"My human parents were archeologists, and they found it on one of their expeditions. I don't know much about it myself, but my dad believed it was real. Also this woman named Agrippina was willing to kill him and a bunch of other people trying to get ahold of it."
"Agrippina?" Annabeth asked.
Tim waved it off. "Long story. Didn't realize it was demigod related at the time. Anyways... do you want it?"
"You're just offering it up?"
Tim shrugged. "Sure? Take it as a gift of good faith from Camp Half-blood. Or the children of Athena. Whichever you think would be more appreciated. It's just sitting in a closet in my old house."
Last year, they were missing their eagle, and it took a massive quest, the start of a great prophecy, and two children of the Big Three to get it back. Now another one was within their grasp. Sure, the eagle of the ninth wasn't as treasured by the Twelfth Legion as the eagle of the twelfth, and it likely wasn't as powerful, but still. This had to be too good to be true.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll have to check it out first... You said it's at your old house? Where's that?"
"Gotham City." Reyna winced. Gotham was not a good place, even for mortals.
Reyna took a deep breath. "Okay. For now we're going to keep this in as small a circle as possible for now until we know for certain it's the real deal and have it back here at Camp Jupiter. We don't want anyone claiming that the Greeks tried to trick us if it turns out to be fake, or someone claiming that the Greeks are hoarding our sacred symbols from us or something. You're going to go back to Gotham, and take Hazel with you. She can verify the eagle's authenticity."
Annabeth nodded along. "We may as well send Frank with you too," Annabeth said. "We'll have to tell him too, since he's praetor and all, and Hazel would probably tell him anyway. By sending both of them, we can imply that escorting an inexperienced Greek demigod back home to take care of something is an excuse for them to get more time together."
"Oh that's good. And Frank and Hazel will probably be fine with it."
Tim frowned. "Is this really necessary? It almost sounds like you're turning this into a quest."
Reyna cringed. "We're not using the q word. Those would take senate meetings and votes and it would become an overcomplicated issue so fast."
"And don't think you're retrieving it on your own. Despite your skills you haven't faced actual combat yet, and we don't want to risk losing you or the eagle," Annabeth insisted. Tim looked like he wanted to protest, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
"Annabeth, can you contact Frank and Hazel and fill them in while I requisition a vehicle and some supplies for the trip?"
"Will do. Tim, wait here. We'll get this taken care of in no time," Annabeth said before disappearing out the door.
Reyna sifted through a filing cabinet and pulled out the necessary paperwork for use of a SUV. The Greek demigod was somehow even more awkward than before. They sat in silence for a few minutes while Reyna filled out the form.
"If you'd like, I could just-" Tim started.
"No," Reyna interrupted.
"I can-"
"No."
Reyna didn't know what he was about to say and frankly she didn't care. This was already a headache and a half.
Tim was planning to tell Reyna that he could get a private plane to take them straight to Gotham and that a road trip was entirely unnecessary, but clearly this was not the time to inform her that his adoptive father was Bruce Wayne. Heck, Titans Tower was nearby, if he wasn't keeping the fact that he was Robin a secret he could use the T-Jet, or the spare Batmobile.
Tim sighed. So much for staying low profile while investigating the demigod camps.