Part Two

Hazel pulled the reins and made them stop on top of a hill for a moment.

The plain below them was covered in many lights between the darkness. They were too high up to see anything more than vague outlines of the buildings, but there was something curious about the air. It felt like she was looking down at New Rome or the Camp Half-Blood – only places that were free of the monsters. In the mortal world, where there were monsters, there was a near-constant feel of sense of danger, of fear. She didn't have powers over the dead like her brother, but she could sense the aura of death. The absence of that almost overpowering aura of monsters in the city beyond was the first thing she noted.

Somewhere far away, nine chimes echoed in the air. It was nine o'clock at night. Took less than three hours to get halfway across the country; Hazel smiled and patted the side of her horse.

Now, where was she going to find him here?

The letter didn't mention an address, with reason. Even though it had been quite secure in Peter's hands, they still couldn't risk such sensitive and important information falling into the hands of their enemies or monsters. With Peter's own quest being dangerous enough by itself, Leo probably had felt it prudent not to mention the address. The monsters had a weird nose for sensing that kind of information. Letting one know of a location was practically inviting them in.

Still, it wasn't convenient for her when she wasn't acquainted with the area.

"Hey," she patted the horse. "Can you sense him anywhere? Or barbeque? Tacos? Anything?"

He neighed indignantly; but even Arion seemed slightly baffled.

She reached out into the demigod senses, trying harder. Though the city was devoid of the monsters, it seemed to throb with some other kind of powerful aura.

A warm, terrible aura of power.

She didn't feel threatened, but she could imagine that one could have, if that person had come with malignant intentions. It was deeper than the monsters', a feel of pure energy barely reigned in. There were things that even the monsters were scared of, and she could feel that this was one of them.

Names had power. Some names, some people had such strong, dominant auras. They didn't have to be essentially immortal. Hazel had met such people in her life, both mortal and immortal, and she had felt this power before. Heck, she knew this aura. Suddenly she went ten years back in memories, and she was standing in the middle of a small room with six demigods. The room had also been pulsating with the same dangerous power, and she was part of it.

She smiled to herself and urged her steed to resume the ride.

Still she had no idea to find him. The aura was spread throughout the town, that it wasn't much of a guide. The roads were mostly deserted, probably because of the Christmas season or because it was still dangerously close to the Winter Solstice.

If someone thought that a lone woman riding a horse in the night through a strange town was weird or suspicious, there was none to question it.

They trotted up and down the roads, but there were no helpful signs or – gods forbid – burn marks showing the way to his house. She was almost going to give up and ask someone when she suddenly noticed a dog messing in a garbage can, standing on its hind legs.

There wasn't anything unusual about a dog messing in a garbage can at night, except that this dog was glowing.

Glowing?

Hazel didn't need to look twice to see that it was bronze.

An automaton!

The thought sent an excited shiver down her spine. An automation! YES!

It was all she could do not to run to the dog and hug it. It had been so long, SO long…

But she couldn't ask the dog for directions, could she?

There was no other human outdoors that she could ask. If there would be one person, or being that would definitely know where the Dragon was, this automaton was definitely one such person.

"Ahem," she cleared her throat, looking at the automaton, trying not to feel too stupid. It looked up. Hazel could swear that it was thinking "About time you got here."

"Umm…you know where the Dragon lives?"

The dog barked something that sounded suspiciously like a snort. Translation: Duh!

"Can you lead me there?"

It swallowed a large bone (she decided not to wonder about how it was going to digest it) and turned and run up the road. Hazel urged Arion to follow him.

The automaton lead them through the town in a path that passed through many alleyways, and finally it opened to a road lit with streetlights. There was no one in sight, except for one man sleeping on the pavement...

The dog stopped, looked at the man, and yelped, darting towards him like an arrow. It took another five seconds for her to realize what she was seeing.

The man almost looked like he was sleeping, but he was curled in an unnatural way.

Five more seconds to recognize the person.

"LEO!"

Hazel didn't know whether she jumped off the horse or fell, or if she ran or flew, all she knew was that she had fallen to her knees next to him in the next second. He seemed barely conscious. But when she touched his arm, he opened his eyes weakly and grinned in recognition.

"Hey, Haze."

The automaton barked nervously. It kept eyeing the long gash that ran down the left arm and trying to lick it, but trying to resist at the same time, displaying intelligence beyond a normal dog. The cloth was red and wet with fresh, warm blood. The cut was not very deep, but long, too long.

Yet as disturbed as she was from the wound, she couldn't stop staring at his face, trying to remember if it was exactly the same as she last remembered. The same mischievous twinkle and the crooked grin, the same unkempt curls, the same sun burnt cheeks that showed little of the ten years that had passed.

Tears started falling involuntarily, and she pulled him up and squeezed him in a hug, crying into his shirt. Relief at seeing him flooded through her, making her forget the time and place and everything else that matter to the rest of the world, but not to herself.

She was so glad to see him again. Her crazy, weird Leo Valdez. Her best friend, until he went and locked up himself in a place no one could reach. It hadn't stopped her. It was such a relief to see him alive again. Ten years, whole ten years forced to believe that he was gone forever. Ten years of unhealed pain.

She clung to him crying her eyes out, and he patted her awkwardly with the good hand. "Hey there, Kitty. It's alright. Can I have some air?"

"Sorry…" she released him and scooted back, wiping her face in her sleeve and trying to stifle the sobs. "…I guess I forgot myself…but it's so good to see you again Leo! Do you have any idea of how much I missed you? Where were you for the past ten years? TEN years?! Oh, I'm going to kill that brother of mine, he knew that you were alive and lied to me! Di Angelo you are a dead man I swear!" she cried out to the night air. The automaton yelped and back away.

"Hey, hey now…" Leo tried to laugh and get up, but accidentally put his weight on the wounded hand. The painful wince on his face brought her back from her own ravings.

"But you're hurt! How did you-"

"It's nothing, it's nothing! Don't worry," he said through gritted teeth, barely managing to hide the wince. She wasn't fooled.

"Right. When are you going to stop downplaying the injuries, Valdez?" she shook her head, and pulled off the riding gloves. "Haven't changed one bit. You're half covered in blood, and I shouldn't worry. I can't imagine how you've been getting on the past few years alive. Not worry, indeed!"

"But I'm fine!" he insisted, waving the good hand. "It really is just a scratch."

"What happened?"

"Nothing much. Went to check something in the perimeter, news came that a manticore was getting in the city limits." He winced as she tore the sleeve open with a dagger from her belt. "Hey, I like this jacket!"

She waved her hand. "I'll mend it for you. Go on."

"Fine. Well, you know the usual. The manticore got barbequed. I got hit with a dart thingy. I don't know, it might have been poisoned."

She winced, and tried to get back to the measured voice of the nurse. It wasn't the first time she had a heavily wounded Valdez in her hands, who cared very little about his own safety. Mopping up the worst of the bleeding with the already useless jacket, she asked, "did you try to pull it out?"

He grinned sheepishly, hiding his pain. Leo's voice was strained, but he hadn't still lost the old joking self. She was used to him hiding the pain with a joke, as usual, and as she checked the wound, she found that she even missed those painful laughs. She had missed everything about him. The face, the voice, the grins…

If Hazel had missed her friend so much, how much would have she missed him? Unlike to Hazel, Leo Valdez wasn't just a childhood friend to her.

But the questions could wait.

"Can we get inside so that you can…uhh…get this cleaned?"

He nodded, fished out a key from one of the many jacket pockets and gave it to her. The roller shutters door opened up with a light rattle into a dark workshop.

Despite his cheery voice earlier, Leo was still pale. When she offered her hand to prop up himself, he seemed to be reluctant at first for some reason, then sighed and let himself get pulled up. The lights flicked on when they entered, to reveal a busy workshop with a half-dismantled car and about a hundred boxes of mechanical tools Hazel had no idea about.

"You have a busy place, Leo," she commented, gingerly picking their way through the many tools on the ground, trying not to step on anything. The backdoor opened into another room which was already lit with lights, showing a very homey-looking apartment.

It was about the same size as the garage, and the décor told that it was a living room, though it felt warmer and friendlier than the standard version. It had that very lived-in feel, complete with everything strewn around.

"You live here?"

"Nothing like your grand marble homes, sorry," he said, dropping to a couch. "But yeah, I live here."

"Are you kidding? This place is great!" she smiled. "No one has to worry about breaking or messing something, and once you know what a chore it is to clean the carved marbles until they shine… No, I like this better. Where's the first-aid box, Mr. Flamingo?"

"Back in the garage. But please, don't trouble yourself." He sighed and slapped his forehead when she left to get it. Hazel went outside and relieved Arion of her bag and saddle, and let him loose with a pat. He would romp around to his heart's content, but always came back at her call, no matter how far he was. She closed the roller shutters again as she was coming back, letting the automaton inside. It curled up under the car.

"You heard of the alias?"

"Yes," she said, coming back with the first aid box and large bowl of water from the tiny kitchen in the corner. "Peter told me that Rachel gave it to you?"

"She did. The crazy Oracle," he shook his head. "How is Peter? Were they okay?"

"Scratched, wounded, burnt, shocked, but fine," she said, cutting away the bloodied shirt and sponging away the blood. "Pretty average for a demigod. Leon got claimed Demeter by the way, but this kid in our camp wouldn't stop going on about 'something more'. Also…Claire, isn't it? She twisted her ankle, but was fine by the time I left her. But Peter…"

"He's the brother of the Whale, don't forget that," Leo said. "Also the son of Paul Blofis. The boy's got a good nerve."

She grinned and nodded, and poured a few drops of nectar on the wound. It smoked for a while and then closed on its own, leaving nothing more than a long red scratch down where the skin mended. Hazel bandaged it for good measure and fed him some ambrosia from her bag. The color started to come back to his face slowly.

"They arrived in camp this evening with no monsters – while is a miracle - and delivered the letter and the flag. The praetors accepted the offer, by the way. Camp Jupiter will aid the Esperanza if it comes to that. And the Amazons too, from what Peter told me. But the senate meeting was long. Really long. There are still some people who don't believe us."

"Like, oh I don't know, augurs murdering teddy bears since they were invented?" he asked shrewdly. "What did it say this time?"

She shrugged. "I didn't bother to pay attention to him. You wouldn't believe what some people say of the Esperanza, Leo. Some make it sound like… like we're terrorists or something. I mean, even after a decade, they're still not getting tired of spreading lies?"

"Tell me about it."

"You sound like you already know."

"Of course I do. I'm THE GREAT DRAGON! I see everything! I know everything!"

"I can bandage your mouth too, if you want."

"No thanks," he pretended to shudder and became serious again. "I have a feeling that this time's going to be even worse."

She looked at him, trying not to let the panic show. "What do you mean?"

What could possibly go worse than a hopeless battle against the majority of the gods that ended taking so many valuable lives and losing almost everything and everyone they cared about?

He didn't answer, except frowning at the ceiling.

"Leo…?"

He forced a smile. "Eh, just ignore it. I'm just grumbling as usual. Sorry about this, by the way," indicating the arm. "You had to start working right away, Nurse Hazel. I'm being a very bad host. Now…why don't you take a wash and rest? You're a sight! Did you battle a monster on the way too or do you always look bloody bleedin' like that?"

"Very funny, Valdez."

Leo grinned again at her frown, and she laughed with him after ten seconds of trying to glare at him and utterly failing. "I'll get you a change of clothes. There are always supplies for wayward demigods who turn up here. There's a room and a dormitory upstairs, and you can sleep easy here. We'd better leave early tomorrow. Get some rest, Haze. I'll get your room ready. We can talk tomorrow."

Hazel looked down, twisting her fingers. She didn't want to go away yet, there were so many questions that she needed answers for. It was true that they both had better rest, but…

"Where are you going to sleep?" she inquired, looking around. There were few doors leading off the living room, and none of them looked like bedrooms. There were no staircases, either.

"Right here," he said, indicating the sofa.

Leo stood up and went to the corner. He wrapped his fingers around thin air and pulled down a ladder. "Come in, Wildcat."

He led the way to a neat little bedroom in the second floor, complete with bed, dressing table, and cupboard with both men's and women's clothing. Another door in the hall way opened to a bathroom, and he set the hot water going while she inspected around the room.

"Home sweet home," Leo said, returning. "Or room."

"Thanks."

"Give a shout if you need anything. I'll be downstairs. You want dinner?"

"No, I'm good."

"Try to get a good sleep."

"You too, Leo," she smiled.

An emotion she couldn't recognize passed through his face, and in the next moment he shrugged and laughed. "Sure, sure, whatever. See you soon, Hazel. G'night."

"Good night, Mr. Flamingo."

A/N: Yeah, I know, it's a slow story. But it can't be hurried any more than it is, good people. It's a delicate matter of reuniting long-lost people. But I hope you would like the little moments they share. It can't always be clash-smash-and-burn, can it? They need time to slow down and breathe...specially before a storm.

The next part will be one heck of talking. Here, have popcorn. We're going to go eavesdrop on people.

As always, a million thanks to notyourleo, for tolerating me and my procrastination. This chapter has been sitting on my files forever. Because reasons. BUT look! Chapter fifteen of TJL has dun-dun-DUNNN revelations (AND the added bonus of very smart badass action) and now I can go on with the next part. :3

Reviews? Pretty please? ;3;