Chapter Text
Frank was getting worried, after their first two leads had been proven wrong, not much was going right. Looking back at Malcolm’s first story about Nyssa and Lou Ellen, it all made more sense with more details. Nyssa and Lou Ellen were planning to prank the Stolls and they freaked out when they saw Malcolm because he was dating one of the Stolls and they didn’t want him snitching on them. The context tied the two stories together and abolished both suspensions, though they had already moved on from Lou Ellen and Nyssa.
They left Camp Half-Blood early in the morning, and they ended up going to bed immediately after Nico almost passed out from shadow-traveling across the country twice in about a day. They decided they would meet up at noon to continue surveying Camp Jupiter. Frank hadn’t seen Reyna the whole time they had been in Camp Jupiter and New Rome, which kind of worried him. Unlike Nico and Leo, him and Hazel have to stay in their cabins because they didn’t have an apartment in New Rome. Frank didn’t really mind though, he had learned to like his cabin and his cabin mates.
It was about time to head out, Frank told Hazel he would meet her at her cabin at eleven thirty so they could get to the agreed-upon spot on time. Frank grabbed his bow and a quiver of arrows and head out the door of his cabin. He jogged up and knocked on the Pluto cabin’s door.
“I’m Coming,” Hazel said from the other side of the door.
“Alright,” he replied as she made her way out the door.
They smiled at each other, Hazel grabbed his hand and they began to make their way up to Pluto’s temple. No one really liked to hang out there, so they chose it as the place to meet up this time.
NO ONES POV-
The shorter frowned, “It’s almost the full moon, it feels like we have no time left and so much time left at the same time.”
“Yeah, and we still need to keep Annabeth and the rest of them off our asses,” the taller complained.
“We’ve taken precautions, hopefully, that will keep them preoccupied, and It’s trail.”
“What’s trail?”
“Keep them off our trail, not asses, that sounds weird.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“Oh my gods, I am just so tired,” the shorter groaned.
“I mean that’s understandable, I mean just look at us. We’re trying to take down the gods, alone,” the taller said exaggeratedly.
“We’re not completely alone, but this has been such a pain.”
“Yes, right Melinoë and Hypnos, I’m honestly incredibly relieved Hecate decided she wants to help us as well she’s going to be great help.”
“Yes I agree, but we’re losing time quickly, this is taking longer than I expected to,” the shorter said frowning.
“It’ll be fine, we’ll be fine,” the taller reassured them, and interlaced their hands together, “we’ve got brains and brawn we’re like, the perfect team.”
The former smiled and leaned into the other and hummed contently, “I love you.”
The latter grinned as they felt their heart speed up, “love you too gorgeous,” they said laughing.
“Gods you're annoying,” the shorter said smiling widely, “let’s go, you’re so slow, you know? we’ve got places to be!”
“But we’re early! And I’m not slow, you’re just fast!”
“I refuse to believe that, and we’re early now but we’re going to be late if we keep dragging our feet.”
“I don’t know what the fuck that means.”
“… me neither. I- just stop being slow!”
“As you wish beautiful,” the taller teased.
“Oh shut up,” the shorter said blushing as they waved the other off. They weren’t lying, the two had places to be, so they headed off, walking faster than before not wanting to be late.
FRANKS POV:
Leo and Nico seemed to actually make it there before them this time, neither of them seemed to be morning people.
“Hey!” Leo exclaimed, waving at them enthusiastically.
“Hey,” Frank replied with a smile.
“So where do you guys want to start,” Hazel piped in.
“I want to talk to Reyna,” Nico replied, “we haven’t seen her the whole time we’ve been here, maybe she’s seen something.”
“That sounds good actually,” Hazel responded, “You and Leo can go find Reyna we’ll- actually no we’ll come too, if she knows something we should be there, if she doesn’t we’ll pick up where we normally start.”
“Alright, We’d better head out then.”
Apparently Nico did not want to spend any time at his dad’s temple, because he was off the moment those words left his mouth. The rest of them were quick to follow, making their way over to one of the many big white buildings. Frank had never really cared to learn the names of every building in New Rome, there were too many to remember correctly anyways.
They trailed into the building and stopped when they saw Reyna’s metal dogs. They were sitting in attention guarding a double-doored room, it was probably important. Quick-paced footsteps were heard quickly approaching in their direction. But when the person entered the room it wasn’t Reyna, who Frank and everyone else had expected. It was Thalia, her and Frank had never properly met, but he knew who she was and that it was strange that she was here.
“Thalia?”
Her head snapped in their direction at hearing a familiar voice call her name, “Oh, Nico! Leo, Hazel, and Frank too, hello, what are you doing here?”
“Searching for our traitors, unfortunately so far we’ve been unsuccessful,” Nico replied formally.
“Yeah we were hoping Reyna might know something,” Hazel piped in, “we haven’t seen her the whole time we’ve been searching in New Rome.”
“Oh, she’ll be over here soon,” Thalia replied helpfully.
Thalia went and walked right past Reyna’s metal dogs, without them snarling or snapping at her once. Which was strange to Frank, Reyna’s dogs at least growled at anyone who passed them even if they were allowed. Why was Thalia here anyways, she’s a hunter, shouldn’t she be with Lady Artemis and the rest of the hunters?
When Thalia walked back out Nico asked the question that had been itching at Frank's brain.
"What are you doing here Thalia? Shouldn't you be with the hunters?"
"Oh, I asked for special permission from Lady Artemis to come here and help out Reyna," and just as she said that Reyna made her way into the room.
"Oh, hello you four," Reyna said politely, "What brings you here today?"
"We were wondering if you had seen anything suspicious?" Frank asked, "We thought you might know something."
Before Reyna could answer Leo piped up, "Yeah, like whatever behind that door with the scary dogs."
Reyna frowned at his comment, Frank doesn't really think she has fully forgiven Leo for the stunt he pulled the first time he was here. Even though it wasn't necessarily his fault he did, well Gaia did in his body, try to blow up the camp.
"Everything in that room is confidential," she said venomously, making Leo scratch the back of his neck nervously.
"In our situation, nothing should be confidential," Nico said curiously, and Leo nodded enthusiastically in agreement with his boyfriend.
Reyna frowned at his rebuttal but agreed nonetheless, "I suppose you're correct. Aurum, Argentum. Heel."
The automatons stood and obediently trotted over to their master, both letting out a low growl as they passed the four of them, making Frank jump slightly. Thalia smiled and walked up to Reyna and handed her the papers she had retrieved from the now unguarded room. Hazel shrugged and began to make her way toward the room, still holding Frank's hand as she gestured for her brother and Leo to come along as well. the room was unimpressive for a room holding extremely confidential artifacts, items, and papers. It looked like that room below the library in Ghostbusters, it was just rows and rows of filing cabinets. This was going to take them forever.
"Alright then," Frank sighed, "Let's split up yeah?"
"Yeah," Nico agreed, "I just counted, there are sixteen rows including the ones with artifacts. I'll start on the left and then Leo can start four rows down from me and so on."
"Alrighty then! Let's get to it," Hazel said before she made her way to the opposite side of the room, and with that, everyone else followed suit, all splitting up and making their way to a certain row.
Frank sighed looking at the rows of filing cabinets and praying to whoever the god of filing cabinets was that he wouldn't have to be here too long, and with that, he started searching. Frank thanked the filing cabinet god when he opened that first cabinet and there was not a thousand papers in there. As he skimmed through the paperwork he realized the reason there were so many cabinets was because the papers were incredibly organized. There were records of every monster that breached the camp lines, excluding when they weren't able to count, and it was sorted by monster, and by the date said monster breached the camp lines, it was honestly impressive.
"Gods... we don't even know if there's anything in here," Frank muttered incredibly discouraged, he can't help but think this is going to be a huge waste of time that they don't have.
Franks's eyes widened and he jumped as he heard a loud crash coming from the left side of the room. Reyna and Thalia stormed into the room in response to the loud and sudden sound.
"What was that!" Reyna ordered more than asked.
"Ouch. Ah... sorry," Nico said, his voice echoing through the room, "Um.. this fell-"
"My apologies, the cabinets on that side of the room haven't been replaced so some are unstable, I should've warned you," Reyna admitted, "Hold on, I'll help you put it back up. Did the papers fall out of the cabinet?"
"No, they're all still in there."
"Alright."
Frank let out a shaky breath, he was pretty sure he heard Leo squeak in surprise, so he knew he wasn't the only one who was startled by the situation.
"You okay Neeks?" Leo called out, a bit worried.
Nico laughed, "Yes Leo, I'm fine."
That reassured Frank, and Hazel he's sure, and that he got back to work on the files. The further back he went the older the records became. He was skimming through the sections with gods, demigods, and mortals when a certain name caught his eye. It was his, well not his it was his great-grandfather's name. He opened the file, the first paper had a big red stamp on it that said Acquittal, which meant that someone was not guilty of the crime they were charged with. Frank smiled, he skimmed through the other pages of his great-grandfather's files, most were just legal documents of rank change and of course, the charges and exile papers, which were also covered in big red stamps. Frank smiled as he put the file back, he knew Reyna said all his great-grandfather's charges would be cleared, but to see it on the legal documents lifted his mood.
Frank had just started going through another cabinet when he heard Hazel's voice echo throughout the room, "Hey Reyna... what's this?"
Frank furrowed his brows and stopped what he was doing immediately, he almost ran into Leo as he made his way out of the aisle he was in, Leo apparently had the same idea. He jogged over to where Hazel was, a section with only artifacts, Nico, Reyna, and Thalia close behind him. Hazel was holding a battered scroll, for how old the scroll looked the ink on it seemed to be relatively new. Reyna came up behind her and attempted to take the parchment, perhaps to get a better look at it.
"It looks like a poem," Leo said answering Hazel's question from before.
"That's strange the scrolls are supposed to be on the opposite side of the room," Reyna said incredulously.
Nico nodded, "and not to mention the Ink here looks quite fresh, it couldn't have been written more than a week ago."
"Well? What does it say, can you read it?" Thalia asked, leaning over Leo's shoulder.
Hazel nodded and skimmed her eyes over the parchment before realizing, "Oh. You meant out loud, yeah I can. It is a poem it goes,
The gods sit up high on their thrones
Looking down at the world they think they own.
Now two heroes stand alone,
After all they have done, they are not well known
And oh, how these heroes have yearned,
Of a life where they are free,
Wanting to know what that means;
But now they have learned,
They will never get what they have earned.
Now these heroes stand,
on the grave of their own dreams.
But if they so may, have history repeat,
Bearing their arms alone to accomplish this feat.
Would it be so wrong to pray for their victory,
That the gods may fall for their own trickery.
And it's signed; your helper.”
"Oh shit," Leo mumbled, "this is not good."
Frank immediately started manually breathing, they had help. What kind of help, none of them know. They had to get everyone else to New Rome, now. Poor Nico, he's going to need ambrosia. But why was this scroll here? In this room that's so heavily guarded, how is it in here? One thought entered Frank's mind, he unconsciously looked over at Reyna and Thalia, he quickly snapped his eyes to the ground. It wasn't them, it couldn't be, from what he's heard Thalia would never, and in the whole time he's known Reyna she wouldn't either.
"Um so I'm going to keep this," Hazel said, her voice faltering a bit as she carefully put the parchment into her backpack.
"I'm going to need to shadow-travel again aren't I?" Nico said disappointedly.
"Yeah," Frank said, feeling a bit guilty.
Reyna sighed, "There's no need, recently one of the Trivia kids found out they could make portals, I'll call them here. there's no need for you to overexert yourself Nico."
"Thanks Reyna."
"Of course, I'll go do that," Reyna responded, turning around. Frank's entire inner monologue was screaming 'No! don't let her leave!'
"I'll go with you," Nico said cautiously, on the same page as Frank. The scroll may have been planted but that's unlikely, so they shouldn't let her out of their sight.
Reyna nodded and they both walked out the double doors of the important room. The four of them that were still in there stood in awkward silence, no one really seemed to know what to do.
"We could wait outside?" Frank suggested.
"Yeah let's do that," Thalia agreed, spinning around and walking towards the door.
Leo followed behind her awkwardly, Hazel shrugged and took Frank's hand while smiling reassuringly at him, he grinned back appreciative of his girlfriend. When they got out of the room Aurum and Argentum retook their posts at the doors. Thalia took the only desk chair in the room so he, Hazel, and Leo sat on the floor. All they could do now was wait until Nico and Reyna came back with everyone else.