Chapter Text
"I didn't know this still happened." Hazel said flatly, and Frank didn't think he had heard her sound so quietly furious since they had saved Nico from the giants.
"I thought that it was history. That it was in my time!" Her voice was starting to raise but she was still just sitting there, motionless, head bowed over the newspaper. Two tears plopped gently on the paper and Frank had a moment of panic at having to comfort her but when she raised her head, he saw her eyes positively glittering with rage.
"It's been seventy years, Frank! The climate has changed, the roads have changed, the laws have changed but goddamned racism still hasn't changed!"
There was a sharp knock on the door and Leo popped his head into the cabin. "Hey, Hazel? Just wanted to let you know that the hills are overflowing with money. Not that I'm being ungrateful and all, but there's that small business of it being cursed and-" He broke off in a squeak when the daughter of Pluto turned on him with a furious glare. He threw his hands up in the air, "Not that there's anything wrong with that! I love curses! Yay curses! You do-"
"Have you seen this!?" Hazel snapped shoving the crushed newspaper at the Latino who took one look at the headline and softened his expression into one of sorrowful understanding. "Yeah I saw that."
"It's disgusting! It's horrible! What kind of monster would do that! Honestly Gaia was better than this... this... UGH!" There were tears falling down in her cheeks as Frank put an arm around her and allowed her to collapse into the hug. "It's horrible." She repeated into his shoulder and the boy just patted her back understandingly.
"Get Nico." He mouthed behind her back and Leo gave a subdued thumbs up as he let himself out. He was barely gone a minute when a silhouette peeled itself out of the shadows, sword out and tensed in preparation.
"There's no threat." Frank said quietly as Hazel pushed herself out of the embrace to meet the newcomer. "Hazel was upset and I thought you would understand best."
Nico frowned. "What happened?"
"An asshole, is what happened." Hazel snapped, tears making her sound hoarse. "A racist, prejudiced asshole decided it would be just great to use the badge he had been given as a license to murder an innocent man."
Nico glanced at the discarded newspaper in bewilderment, before picking it up and scanning through the headlines. Frank watched as his already sallow complexion turned grey, his expression became more pinched and his eyes flashed with fury. When he finally set the paper on the ground, he didn't say a word before enveloped Hazel in a tight hug.
"We'll talk to Father. He'll make sure there is something horrible waiting for him when he makes it to the Fields of Punishment."
"He deserves it." Hazel replied fiercely. "So do the other men, who just watched and helped him."
"They do. You'll see. They will be Judged and they will be forced to pay for their crimes." Nico said darkly, mind already racing through ideas.
"I hate it so much! I thought it would have changed. Why has nothing changed? There was a list of similar crimes in that article. Why are there similar crimes? One of these should be enough to stop it. Why does there need to be more than one name on that list?"
"It's because none of them were publicised." A new voice said and the half-siblings turned to see Reyna at the door. "It's not that things are getting worse today, it's just that people are realising it's bad and showing the proof."
"What do you mean?" Hazel asked.
"There are protests going on. Right now. On the streets, in every state of America and several countries abroad, there are thousands of people marching and fighting for the change. People are willing to be arrested, preparing for it even, if it makes a difference. Online protests, media blackouts, you name it, they're using it as a medium to vent. There are slogans being chanted, donations being made, thousands of petitions being signed by people all over the world. More importantly, there is change being implemented, stories being told and justice being demanded. Those names you saw? Their stories are being spread because for whatever reason, they had been lost for all this time." She paused, dark eyes stormy and gaze fierce and assessing as she took in Hazel's defensive stance and determined expression.
"We're going to join them. You coming?"
Hazel stared for a minute, just imagining what something like that would look like before gathering her hair into a messy bun and scrubbing her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "Do you even have to ask?"
They were waiting outside, the rest of the seven, posters and masks in hand. Latino, Chinese-Canadian, Cherokee Indian, Hispanic, Italian, White and Black.
Hazel felt a lump in her throat as she saw them all. There might not have been a change in the times she hadn't seen but she sure as hell wouldn't see the same stagnation when she could do something about it.
"Let's go."