A City of Brick - Percy Jackson (1/5)
TITLE: A City of Brick
AUTHOR: tvconnoisseur
CATEGORY: Drama, Angst
CHARACTER/PAIRING: Reyna, Reyna/Jason
SPOILERS: The Sea of Monsters, The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune
RATING: PG-13
CONTENT WARNINGS: language, implied sexual content
SUMMARY: Reyna's journey from spa attendant to Roman praetor.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson. Or any of the Olympians.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Reyna is a HBIC and I LOVE her. The fact that she was barely in The Son of Neptune is a travesty. So, of course, she deserves her own fan fic of decently epic length. Hopefully I can do justice to her total BAMF-ness.
Part One: Circe
i.
Reyna is eight when her father is turned into a guinea pig. Fourteen-year-old Hylla screams and cries but then C.C. places a finger on her lips and Hylla's tears become soundless.
"Now, now. No time for tears over men."
She escorts them to their new life as their father shrieks, "Reeet! Reeet! Reeet!"
C.C. puts a demand on beauty, so it's no surprise that she takes a shine to Hylla. Hylla has always been the pretty, desirable sister and C.C. instantly takes her under her wing. Hylla, in turn, treats C.C. as the mother they never knew. Hylla becomes C.C.'s right-hand woman while Reyna skitters along with pockets full of blotting sheets.
Reyna has never felt pretty before-she's just Hylla's awkward little sister, all gangly legs and sharp eyes-and she wonders if she'll ever be anything but unfortunate looking. No matter how much make-up she puts on, she never looks as beautiful as Hylla and Hylla has no qualms reminding her of it.
It's not fair, Reyna thinks. They are both daughters of Bellona, but Hylla is the glory of battle while Reyna is the agony of defeat. What has being a daughter of Bellona ever done for either of them? She looks at the ring she wears around her thumb, the only reminder of a mother she's never met and never loved, and frowns. If only she were a daughter of Venus! Perhaps then she would be of value.
She tries to learn magic, but even there she has no natural gift. She is too hard, too tactical, and, perhaps, too Roman. Magic requires a thirst for knowledge and an earnest soul destined for greatness and Reyna has neither. She manages to master a few beauty parlor tricks, but the best she can do is curl her hair with Greek words that burn her tongue.
Sometimes she visits her father. Always at night, always with small slices of carrot clutched in her palm. She shoos away the other guinea pigs and sticks her hand in. Her father eats ravenously and she pets his silky black fur. She sings Styx to him and tells him about her day and when she's feeling particularly heavy, she empties her soul to him. They were never close when they were both human-he was always too busy trying to get the best story in Vietnam or the Middle East or anywhere but home-but now he nuzzles her fingers when she cries and it makes her miss her old life more than she could ever admit to Hylla.
She has flashes of memories-they feel so long ago, but she knows it's only been weeks and then months and then years-of road trips to Disney World, of Hylla and Daddy fighting over mini skirts, of Mikey Varus kissing her in the playground before smushing her face in the sand.
She misses that kind of stuff- the normal stuff. C.C.'s Spa and Resort may be Elysium on Earth, but there's no normal stuff. No adventure, no family, no boys. She wants to get the hell out of Dodge and just be normal, but she can't imagine ever leaving Hylla or Daddy behind. So instead she sorts foundation by shade one day and nail polish by color the next and adventures in shelves upon shelves of prose and dreams that one day it will all change.
When he managed to be at home, her father used to tell her bedtime stories and when he ran out of books and myths, he would tell her about her future. She was going to grow up to be a strong young woman and find a nice boy and fall in love and have a family and a daughter of her own. "I want it all now," she complained impatiently.
"You are a daughter of war, Reyna," her father explained. "The hard work of battle is what makes the victory that much sweeter."
She dreams of love, but wonders if her heart has become too rigid in C.C.'s hands. That, more than anything else, makes her cry.
ii.
"Hylla, are you happy?"
Hylla stops plucking her eyebrows and almost scrunches her nose before she remembers her fight against wrinkles. "Of course I am. Is this about Pardus? I'm sure he's just playing in the fountains."
"No, it's not about Pardus." Reyna bristles that her sister thinks that their leopard missing for an afternoon would be the sum total of her happiness. "I'm being serious, Hylla. Don't you ever miss our old life? Don't you ever miss Grandma and Grandpa?" Don't you ever miss Daddy? is what she wants to say, but the question is moot.
Hylla rolls her eyes and continues to pluck her eyebrows. "Grandma and Grandpa moved to California when you were seven, Reyna. We barely visited them and you barely knew them. Dad was never home and when he was, we were lucky to have tomato soup from a can. And, contrary to popular belief, being the creepy kid kicked out of school for fighting non-existent monsters was not exactly the time of my life, especially when Chris McKellan got the entire seventh grade to call me Weirdo Warden. So no, I don't miss any of it." She sighs. "Anyway, you wouldn't want them to see you like that, would you?"
"Like what?" Reyna asks sharply.
"You could at least dress like you're trying. That's all I'll say," Hylla says, snapping her clutch closed. "C.C. and I are meeting with an investor right now to help us build the new wing. You can clean this all up, can't you?"
Hylla doesn't wait for a response. She just shoots Reyna a dazzling smile and slams the door shut on her way out.
iii.
When Reyna is twelve, a boy and a girl are swept ashore in a tattered rowboat. Both are her age. The girl is pretty with blonde curls and grey eyes and the boy is cute in a ragtag way with dark hair and electric green eyes. She thinks that he will make a very handsome guinea pig.
She watches as Hylla greets them with her perfectly poised airs and leads them to Circe.
While Circe has her way with the boy, Hylla brings the girl to Reyna and snaps in her sister's face. "Time for work, little sister. Deluxe Makeover. Hop to it!"
The girl looks nervous, but content. She's obviously under Circe's influence. Reyna leads her to the sink where she washes her hair with potions and creams. Instantly, the girl's hair becomes blonder, shinier. The girl shifts uncomfortably in her seat, obviously unused to such pampering. "My name is Annabeth," she offers, as a way to distract from her discomfort.
"Reyna." She sits Annabeth up in her chair and waves a hand over her hair. It dries instantly into loose curls. Reyna starts to brush Annabeth's hair and then expertly braids it with gold leaf and thread.
"You're so good at that," Annabeth murmurs jealously. "I'm terrible at all of this girly stuff." She wrinkles her nose at 'girly'.
Reyna begins to apply foundation perfectly matched to Annabeth's skin. "The first step to unlocking your true self is admitting that you're not happy the way you are," Reyna rolls out the practiced line. As she brandishes the brush in front of Annabeth's face, she sees a glimmer of sadness in the blonde girl's eyes. Her brush pauses in its compact. "Honestly, I think you're beautiful. No makeup required."
Annabeth blushes, making her cheeks even redder. "I'm not even close to as pretty as any of the girls here."
"But-" Reyna starts and struggles to catch her tongue. She shouldn't even be thinking this, let alone saying it aloud, but she can't help herself: "No one here has anyone who looks at her like that boy looks at you."
"That's ridiculous," Annabeth scoffs, but her cheeks are now practically on fire. "Percy's just…Percy."
Reyna nods, but she doesn't believe her. She's read enough about love to know it when she sees it.
"Do you like to read?" she asks. Hylla doesn't, but perhaps this girl does.
Annabeth's eyes widen. "I love to read. Do you have books here? You know, something other than back issues of Vogue?"
Reyna looks at the issue of Vogue resting on the desk in front of her. Twiggy looks up with large, painted eyes. "What do you like to read?"
"Oh, everything. Mostly history and architecture. I want to be an architect."
Reyna's been on the island so long that the idea of having a career-let alone wanting one-is foreign to her. What did she want to be so long ago? A ballerina, she thinks pityingly. How trite.
She still needs to put on a coat of nail polish and fake eyelashes, but Reyna decides against it. When was the last time she had a friend? "Let's go. I've got so much to show you," she says, taking Annabeth's hand.
They spend the next hour running and laughing through the stacks, throwing books at each other almost as often as they read them. Reyna doesn't let herself think about how happy she is, worried that if she does, the moment will end. After all, this girl doesn't seem like the type who would take very kindly to her boyfriend being turned into a guinea pig.
Hylla comes in and snaps at Reyna for taking Annabeth outside of the main spa. "C.C. wants to see you," she says, gesturing to Annabeth.
As Annabeth and Hylla head out, Reyna's heart thumps in her stomach. It feels like it's the beginning of the end.
iv.
Annabeth takes Circe by a knife to the throat and before Hylla or Reyna or anyone else can cast a spell to disarm her, Annabeth's thrown multivitamins into the cage and up grows her male companion as well as Blackbeard and his crew. "Run her through!" Blackbeard orders and suddenly Reyna's breath is burning against her throat as she runs for her life.
Hylla pulls Reyna in the direction of the docks. "We need to get out of here, Reyna. It's not safe anymore."
Reyna is about to follow her when she realizes what exactly they're leaving behind. "We need to save Daddy," Reyna insists. "I'm not leaving without him."
Hylla grabs her arm and yanks hard. "I don't have time for this, Reyna. We've got to go now or we won't get off the island."
Reyna curses loudly in Greek and her wrist grows hot, scalding Hylla's hand. Hylla hisses and retracts her grip and in that moment of hesitation, Reyna runs back into the spa.
She weaves between tables of towels and massage chairs and manages to scoop up a handful of multivitamins before she heads to the downstairs cages. Hylla is fast on her heels, magicking away any pirate who gets in their way.
They get to the cages and Reyna pinpoints their father right away. She opens the cage, grabs him, and closes the door before any of the other guinea pigs can get out.
"Come on, Reyna, hurry," Hylla demands nervously. "We need to leave."
Reyna offers a multivitamin in her palm and her father eats it hungrily. Suddenly he is growing-morphing-larger and larger until a man in a tattered suit and tangled hair appears. He refuses to turn his face to the light.
"Daddy?" she whispers to the man huddled before her.
"Reyna?" He raises his head and it's him, just as she remembers him, only thinner, sadder. Her heart beats faster.
Reyna runs forward and embraces him, pulling him to a stand. "Come on, Daddy. Let's go."
He fumbles on his legs, the four years of disuse taking their toll, but Reyna offers him her shoulder and Hylla, after a sharp glare from Reyna, offers him hers and they begin their sprint through the spa.
They make it as far as the west fountains when a voice makes Reyna's blood run cold. "What have we here?"
Reyna turns despite herself and comes face-to-face with Blackbeard. His dark hair sticks out in all directions and his mouth is half-full of blackened teeth. He spins a sword in his hand and looks at her with hunger.
His smile turns wicked. "Get 'em, lads."
Suddenly the soldiers charge. Reyna is too surprised to do more than scream and Hylla tries an enchantment without luck. All Reyna can see is a sword coming closer and closer and she can't seem to move-
Her father collapses in front of her and for an instant, she thinks that he's lost his footing again, but then she sees the sword sticking out from his chest. His eyes are wide and unblinking.
Reyna clutches at him, as if she can will him awake. "Daddy? Daddy!" His body Is still warm, but his breath is empty. She doesn't get any last words, any promises, any love. Her heart hardens.
"You did this!" she shrieks at Blackbeard, who has fallen still. "You killed my father!"
"Listen, lass-"
"You. Killed. My. Father." Something ignites in her that has never been lit before. It's something more than anger, more than sadness, more than fear, more than revenge. It's her heart beating in perfect rhythm and her mind clearing. It's knowing that as she pulls the sword from her father's dead body that she can wield it better than anyone else. It's relishing in the fact that she can pin down Blackbeard, son of Ares, and hold a sword to his heart and know that his life is in her perfectly moisturized hands.
She lifts the sword up, ready to take his life like he took her father's. His eyes are sickly and yellow and she wants to kill him, but before she can pierce his heart with iron, she feels hands on her shoulders and she's yanked back with such force that the sword clatters to the ground.
As the pirates circle them, Hylla pulls Reyna closer into her embrace. "I won't let you become a killer, Reyna," Hylla whispers, close to tears. "I tried so hard to save you from all of this. I'm so sorry."
The pirates lock them up in chains before they throw their father's body into the sea.
v.
They are prisoners, but most of all, they are alone. Reyna hopes that some of the other attendants survived, but she doubts it. Blackbeard's constant self-satisfied smirk confirms her suspicions.
Reyna cooks and cleans with shackles on her ankles and Hylla wears red lipstick and redder rouge with heels on her feet. They are kept separately, only seeing each other at meal times when Reyna serves food and Hylla has Blackbeard's hand on her thigh. For the first time in her life, Reyna wishes for Circe and her proud mouth and magical hands.
"This is Percy Jackson's fault," Hylla hisses during one of their few moments alone with each other. "I swear I will take vengeance on him. Him and that Annabeth girl. What is she doing aligning herself with men?"
Reyna certainly bears no kindness toward Percy Jackson, but she can't hate him as her sister does. She remembers Annabeth's smile and her father's blank eyes and thinks that she, too, has loved a man enough to do anything for him.
It takes them months, but they arrange a way of escape on bits of napkin. Hylla will distract while Reyna gathers up weapons to fight their way to the docks.
Reyna has spent weeks carving a way out of her chains and finally tonight she will break free. She crushes a poppy into her guard's drink and mixes it with Greek enchantments before she gives it to him at dinner. He falls asleep before he can even lock her cage door.
With speed, Reyna breaks her shackles and runs through the darkened corridors. Her heart hums with the same clarity she found so many months ago-she has a purpose and she will succeed. For the first time in her life, she prays to her mother for help. When she finds the armory unlocked, she finds her prayers answered.
She loads a sword on her back, another on her waist, and a dagger in her hand. It's short but it's sharp and she instantly feels like it's an extension of her body.
She quickly looks both ways down the corridor before running toward the main chamber. She can already hear men screaming and animals roaring-Hylla must have succeeded. Reyna holds the dagger tighter as she draws closer.
When she reaches the main building, she sees lions and eagles and hyenas and elephants rampaging on the marble floors. She stands cautiously in the doorway, waiting for Hylla.
She waits and she waits and time ticks by with agonizing seconds and Hylla is still nowhere to be found. Perhaps she already made it to the docks? Reyna peeks out, trying to pick the best moment to move forward into the fray.
In that instant, Pardus leaps forward, arching his back for a rider. His fur is spotty with uneven growth and his eyes are dull, but he is still her Pardus. She leaps onto him and he takes her away.
Pirates are fighting zoo animals left and right with limited success, but they still have enough wits to notice a girl on a leopard charging toward the docks. Arrows and knifes and gold teeth fly at her head, but she keeps her body flush against Pardus' back and, with a few choice stabs, they manage to escape unscathed.
Pardus' claws stop skittering across marble and instead dig into the wood of the dock. Reyna pulls nervously at the little fur remaining on his neck. "Where's Hylla?" she murmurs.
"If it isn't the little queen herself." This can't be happening. Reyna can feel her father's blood in her throat and she can't breathe.
Blackbeard snarls. "Answer me when I talk, girl." He takes a step closer and Pardus charges him.
A shot rings out and Pardus falls, legs splayed. Reyna clenches her dagger so hard that her nails begin to draw blood from her palm. Not again.
Blackbeard laughs and blows away the smoke coming from his gun. "Maybe if you're nice, I'll tell you what I did with your sister."
"You aren't worth my words," she spits out. "Where is Hylla?"
He shrugs with malicious eye. "She's been taken care of."
Reyna draws her dagger and holds it in front of her. It suddenly occurs to her that despite all the pointy weapons she grabbed, she forgot to pick up a shield. Some daughter of a war goddess she is.
"A knife against a gun. You haven't thought this one through, have you, lass?" He takes another step closer to her and Reyna's outstretched arm starts to tremble.
"How about you put down your weapons and I forget this whole thing happened? I won't even force you back into your cage." He gives her a nasty grin. "After all, your sister's gotten old, lass. Perhaps it's time for a newer model."
He is perfectly still for a moment and then, with alacrity, he lunges toward her.
A sword comes through his chest and Reyna has to bite her fist so she doesn't scream. When he falls over, Hylla stands behind him with a stained dress and bloody sword.
"Let's go, Reyna."
They don't look back.
To be continued in Part Two: Lupa:
"She runs with wolves and gets used to the burning feeling in her lungs and the dirt under her fingernails instead of polish on top of them."