Augustus meets with Agrippa at the Temple to listen to his tale

A/N: Well, I am back. This chapter will feature the actual introduction of both Agrippa and Kal-El. Hope you like it and the implications therein!

Entering the Temple of Apollo Palatinus, Augustus saw his most trusted friend staring at the statue of his Patron god, a book in his hands. He didn't seem to have noticed his footsteps, as his attention seemed centered on the statue, as it was illuminated by the torches even as the smoke rose higher. If he didn't know any better, the First Citizen would think that Agrippa was praying, but he was far too tense, and his hands were gripping the book a little too tightly for that to be his best guess.

Soon, however, he perked up as he approached and turned around, a serious expression on his face.

"Marcus, my old friend," He said softly. "It is truly good to see you again,"

His trusted general smiled sadly. "Same. Also, my most deepest condolences for the **** of Marcellus. Your nephew shall be missed."

Augustus inhaled sharply even as he nodded and then opened his arms to embrace his friend.

Soon though, the Imperator took a deep breath and prepared to ask why had he summoned him to the temple at such a late hour. However, before he got the chance to ask, the Princeps' eyes widened in shock as he recognized the book his friend had been holding...or rather, his eyes had widened in shock because he ALSO didn't recognize it.

"Is that a...?" Augustus asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "Where exactly on Terra's green earth did you...?"

Agrippa sighed deeply. "On the city of Mytilene, after the Oracle of Delphi herself came to the island of Lesbos to speak with me. And yes, this is one of the Sibylline Books."

The Pontifex Maximus reeled as if struck, the realization sending his mind spinning. "But they were burned! Every child of Rome learns that story at some point! We only managed to save three of them!"

Agrippa passed a hand on his forehead, his eyes looking tired. "Why don't we sit down? All of this is going to take a while to explain."

Nodding in agreement, they quickly moved to the nearby chairs. As they got comfortable, the current Roman high priest couldn't help but remember what he had read about the tale of the Sibylline Books from the talented Roman historian Livy four years earlier (In Year 27 BC). Back then, the increasingly famous writer had gifted him the first 5 volumes of his growing, monumental work of Roman history, the Ab urbe condita libri (Books from the Founding of the City).

An old woman, probably a Cumaean Sibyl, once approached Tarquinius Superbus, the last king Rome had before the founding of the Republic (In Year 509 BC) as a guest bearing nine books. She claimed they contained divine oracles that could help guide the Romans through the hard times ahead, and she desired to sell them. Tarquin asked the price, whereupon the woman demanded an excessive and immense amount of money. The king, thinking the woman had grown foolish in her old age, merely derided her. At which she brought forth a lit brazier before him, burned three of the books, and asked the king again whether he wished to purchase the remaining six for the same price. But Tarquin only laughed more, saying that the old woman was without a doubt insane. At that very instant, she immediately burned three others and calmly asked him again to buy the last three for that same price while he still had the chance.

The old histories claim that Tarquin's face suddenly grew grave and his mind more attentive, and he began to understand that her steadfastness and audacity were not to be spurned. Wherefore, he purchased the three remaining books for no smaller a price than that which had been sought for all of them. It is also agreed by all the surviving sources available from that time period that he knew of that after that woman had departed from him, she was never seen in any public place again. It was as if the prophetess had fulfilled her last act of service to the gods and they had called her into the radiance of their presence as a reward.

The three surviving books were placed in a temple and called the Sibylline Books. The augurs of Rome tended to consult them time and again during the various crises that the city had faced throughout the centuries while their territory expanded, in order to find out how to regain favor from the gods and endure the issues that their people were facing.

The thing is, ever since he also gained the office of Pontifex Maximus, he now kept sole custody over the rare books, and he had them under lock and key in the temple vault; not even Agrippa knew where they were. But he could recognize enough of the ancient style of parchment and the written letters to know that it must have been one of the 6 lost books that Rome had never managed to acquire due to their last king's shortsightedness.

Eventually, he was shaken out of his thoughts when Marcus began.

"First of all, let me answer the biggest question first," His friend said. "Yes, this is one of the lost books we never got. Or rather, a complete copy. It appears the Cumaean Sibyl entrusted the Oracle of Delphi with copies of all 9 of the prophetic texts, knowing in advance that she was going to have to burn some of the books before Tarquin agreed to her terms. They have been keeping them in their holy site for centuries, the secret apparently only passing from one Oracle of Apollo to another. Until now at least..."

Abruptly, his thunderous chills returned to the Imperator's spine. He bit his bottom lip, and he had a feeling that this wasn't anywhere near the biggest revelation he was going to get that night, as significant as the discovery of the lost copy was.

"I have never known the Oracle of Delphi for leaving her sacred temple," Augustus remarked. "Much less being willing to travel hundreds of miles across the Aegean Sea all the way to Lesbos; especially if the goal was to meet with one of the finest military minds produced by the empire that conquered Greece. What was important enough to convince her to do this and then go even further by giving you such a valuable book?"

Agrippa opened his mouth to speak, but then the First Citizen was caught off guard by two things. The first was a sudden increase in the strength of the omens inside his back.

But the second thing...was the sound of a crying child.

Slowly, he turned his gaze towards the nearby table and only then noticed the red bundle of cloth and the baby's head inside it, even as his old friend stood up and carefully took the infant into his arms. Augustus looked on and slowly examined the infant in Agrippa's arms with his gaze.

It looked like a perfectly ordinary infant to his naked eye, probably not much more than a year old. But he simply knew in his bones that there had to be something more. Much, much more...

As if on cue, the general he had trusted above all others to deliver victory after victory while remaining loyal looked up at him, and Augustus realized that something had shaken Agrippa in his journey to Greece. He had seen things that had stunned him, to be sure. But now his friend's face was only filled with the certainty that comes with great conviction.

And it was with that serious expression that he opened his mouth.

"It was this baby that she saw in her visions that was important enough," He declared. "That, and the battle of the gods that she had foreseen."

Before the Imperator had a chance to get his mind around those statements, Agrippa sighed.

"I could be wrong, my friend. But I am as sure as I can be that this baby is a demigod. And...I am afraid I may have seen his godly parent die, right before the infant fell to the ground from the heavens themselves."

A/N: Soooo...it appears there was a lot more to Kal-El's arrival on Earth in this parallel universe's timeline. Agrippa is, of course, misunderstanding some things because he simply lacks a lot of context and details, but there will be some things he will hit the nail right on, during his explanations in the following chapter. But to be clear, Kal-El is still a Kryptonian here. It just wouldn't really occur to these 2 to think of his origins as those of an alien, so they went with the idea that he was a demigod because that's a term from their worldview that they would more easily accept when it comes to a mortal with superpowers. So, they became convinced of that possibility and ran with it.

More will be revealed in the next few chapters. Like, a lot more. And the revelations in the discussion will set the stage for the following story arcs. So, I hope you enjoy it, for it's going to be a wild chapter where the plotline is concerned.

Also, yes, the Sibylline books were an actual set of books deemed prophetic by the ancient Romans. They tended to be consulted by their augurs in times of crisis and/or uncertainty, like a war that was going badly, a famine, a drought, a plague, or even a sudden meteorite strike, to name a few examples. You can read more about them on Wikipedia if you are curious. Regardless, the story about how 6 of those 9 books burned is essentially summed up in the part where I have Augustus reminiscing about that volume from Livy's masterpiece of historiography.

It is also accurate according to some ancient sources that the first few volumes were indeed gifted to Augustus by the author, about 4 years before this chapter's setting. Livy's detailed volumes about the history of Rome were arguably the top bestsellers of the Empire during Augustus 41-year-long reign, and the Emperor himself was quite the fan of his work.

Anyway, I hope you are intrigued by the premise. Things will pick up a lot more starting next chapter. Until then, please review and let me know what you think so far, please! Comments tend to motivate me to write faster, after all.