Hi again! Much better update time on this one. Though to be fair, it's a lot less eventful than the last.
Thanks everybody for reading! Enjoy!
VIII
HAZEL
Hazel almost convinced herself she was dreaming. The idea of an entire city vanishing behind a wall of black smoke seemed so outrageous that it just couldn't be real. Maybe it was just some sort of optical illusion, like a bunch of mirrors had appeared between the pillars so it only looked like New Rome had disappeared. Wasn't that how magicians pulled vanishing acts? It was the only thing that made sense.
"What…?" Reyna muttered absently from somewhere behind Hazel, who turned to see a look of complete and utter disbelief on the praetor's face. Never before had Reyna looked so lost and amazed, which was just another detail attempting to convince Hazel that this had to be a dream. Behind Reyna, Leo was sitting on the ground, staring just as blankly at the pillar formation.
Reyna took a few slow steps forward, before breaking into a run. She dashed past Hazel and between two pillars, skidding to a halt on the dirt field where New Rome's main road should have been. She spun in a circle, looking for a city that wasn't there. Everything inside the pillars – every building, road, monument, landmark, and even every statue of Terminus – was just gone. All that remained were the fourteen obsidian columns, standing out stark and prominent in the now empty field. "This is impossible…" Reyna said, her voice low and airy.
"What's going on?" someone called suddenly, and Hazel turned around with surprise to see Annabeth, Percy, and Grover approaching them from the direction of the Field of Mars. Hazel hadn't realized anyone else had been outside the city, but she didn't bother asking where they'd been. She still couldn't make her mouth form words.
It wasn't long before the three of them saw what had happened – or rather, didn't see. "Isn't, uh…" Percy said uncertainly, pointing toward the pillars with a stunned expression, "there supposed to be a city there?"
"W-Where's New Rome?" Annabeth asked, her voice higher than usual. "What happened?"
"It… just… disappeared," Leo explained unhelpfully, climbing to his feet and walking slowly forward. Hazel wanted to follow him and inspect the field that used to house New Rome for herself, but her legs wouldn't move. Her body was still numb with shock.
"But… cities don't just disappear," Grover argued weakly, sounding almost as though he was trying to convince himself. The reed pipes in his hand dropped to the ground with a dull thunk, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Apparently they do," Leo replied in disbelief as he tentatively reached out a hand and touched one of the pillars. He pulled his arm back quickly as though afraid the volcanic glass would grow teeth and bite his fingers, but when that didn't happen he only frowned at it, looking mystified.
"So it was a trap…" Hazel muttered, finally finding her voice.
Reyna spun around so fast a small cloud of dirt rose at her feet. She stalked toward Leo and grabbed him by the collar with both hands, shoving his back against the pillar he'd been examining. Hazel flinched in surprise, the look of desperation on Reyna's face scaring her.
"We have to find them," Reyna growled, her voice shaking. "I need your ship. We're going after them."
"Look—just calm down, okay?" Leo argued, eyeing Reyna nervously as her fists tightened in the collar of his shirt. Out of the corner of her eye, Hazel saw Percy take a step forward and Annabeth grab his arm. "We should try to—"
"Calm down?" Reyna repeated somewhat shrilly. "Calm down? My entire camp just vanished into thin air! An entire city – gone! I don't know who did this or why, but I'm going to find out. No one attacks my camp and gets away with it. I have to save the city – and you're going help me!"
"We don't even know where to start!" Leo shouted back, almost matching Reyna's volume and startling Hazel. "What do you expect me to do, just fly around aimlessly until we happen to spot a Roman city? And how long do you think that's gonna take? They might be in danger! Heck, they could already be dead, for all we know!"
Reyna's eyes widened in fury and in a flash she'd drawn her dagger and pressed it against Leo's throat. He froze instantly, anger vanishing from his eyes.
"Reyna!" Annabeth hissed in disapproval, eyes wide as she once again grabbed hold of Percy to keep him from intervening. Grover was watching with an uncertain expression, his fingers twitching absently by his side as though trying to play the pipes that still lay on the ground at his feet.
"They're not dead," Reyna said through gritted teeth, glaring at Leo and ignoring Annabeth. "We will find them. And we will save them. Don't ever underestimate Romans."
All six of them were quiet for a long time, and Hazel silently pleaded that a fight wouldn't break out. If there was any hope of finding New Rome and everyone in it, they would all have to work together. That much was obvious.
"I'm sorry," Leo said carefully after a minute, eyes darting nervously between Reyna and the blade under his chin. "I want to help you. I'm worried about the city, too. But if we're gonna find them, we can't just go off blindly, right? We need a plan."
Reyna blinked and frowned, as though coming out of a daydream. She let out a short sigh and dropped her arms, stepping back from Leo and glaring at the ground. Hazel released her breath in relief, knowing that if there was one thing Reyna understood, it was plans. Romans never entered battle without one.
Hazel forced the tension in her body to relax a bit, trying to rationalize their situation. Yes, they needed a plan. But what plan? The entire city had just disappeared, taking all the citizens and the entire rest of the Twelfth Legion with it – including Jason, Piper, Dakota, Octavian, Frank—
Oh, gods… Frank… Hazel thought, a sudden and intense cold feeling washing over her. Frank had been in the city, she was sure of it. Reyna had sent him off to the Coliseum to check in on the people of New Rome and make sure they were safe, but none of them knew what had been about to happen – that inside the city was in fact the least safe place to be. And now he was gone, and Hazel felt a strange, empty sort of feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wanted more than anything to believe Reyna – that they were all still alive and just moved somewhere else. She tried to focus on her connection to the Underworld, to sense whether or not a city's worth of brand-new souls had recently applied for entry, but she wasn't anywhere near as practiced at it as her half-brother, Nico. She wished he was there with them. He could tell her if her friends were still alive. Then Hazel's heart sank even further when she remembered that she didn't even know if he was alive.
Hazel swallowed hard and looked at Annabeth. "So… How come you guys weren't in the city?" she asked, desperate for a subject change to her thoughts.
"Reyna sent Percy and me to the Argo," Annabeth explained, her voice sounding distracted. "We ran into Grover on the way. When we felt that earthquake, though, we knew something was wrong, so we came running. Then we found you three."
"I'm a little more concerned with what we didn't find," Percy pointed out, glaring at the empty field of pillars. "Was everyone else inside the city?"
Hazel nodded numbly. "Unless anybody's still asleep back at camp, but I'm pretty sure the whole Legion had joined the fight."
"So it's up to us to find out what happened," Grover concluded, not sounding too excited about it.
"And we will find out what happened," Reyna added, crossing her arms and walking away from the pillars, toward where she'd dropped her javelin earlier. She picked it up and rested it on her shoulder, sheathing her dagger at her belt.
"Maybe we should sleep on it," Annabeth suggested. "It's almost one-thirty in the morning, and we're all a bit tired and freaked out. We'll be able to think a bit better after some rest."
Reyna narrowed her eyes, and for a second Hazel was afraid she would start arguing with Annabeth, but she gave a short nod instead. "Fine. You can all bunk in the barracks if you want – take your pick, they're all empty." The bitterness in her voice was unmistakable, and stabbed at Hazel's heart. It was so strange to think that they were the only six people in the entire camp. Strange, and definitely wrong.
As Reyna stalked off toward the Praetorian Gate, Hazel sighed heavily, exchanging glances with the others around her. Annabeth offered her a weak half-smile in a failed attempt at reassurance. "She'll feel better in the morning," she said, though she didn't sound too sure.
"Maybe we should sleep on the ship," Percy said uncertainly to Annabeth, shooting a glance toward the camp where Reyna had gone. "We don't want to, uh… put anyone out." Annabeth nodded, and Hazel felt like she understood. Even though there wasn't technically anyone to 'put out', they didn't feel right borrowing the beds of other demigods who could very well be in mortal peril – not when it was their responsibility to find and save them. "Leo, you coming?" Percy added.
Leo was still leaning against the nearest pillar, staring at the ground with a serious, troubled expression. At the sound of his name, however, he looked up and grinned, the look on his face changing instantly to his usual carefree mask. Hazel shivered uneasily. She always hated how quickly he could change his expression – it made her wonder which of his emotions were real, and how he'd gotten so good at hiding them.
"Of course," Leo replied lightly. "Think I'm gonna stay in some stiff Roman bunk when I've got all the comforts of my own ship waiting? Yeah, right." He stepped away from the pillar and walked up the hill toward the rest of them. "Plus, the further I can get from the Ice Queen, the better. Don't want her strangling me in my sleep, after all." Annabeth chuckled and Percy and Grover each cracked a smile, all of them probably grateful for even the smallest attempt to lighten the dark mood. Leo grinned at Hazel as he passed her and she wanted to smile back, but the cold feeling in her stomach wouldn't let her.
"Goodnight, Hazel," Annabeth said with a small smile. "We'll meet you and Reyna at the camp in the morning, okay? Then we can try to figure out a plan."
Hazel nodded wordlessly, and as the four of them headed toward the Field of Mars and the Argo II, she turned back toward the entrance to the camp, dreading the sight of the empty Fifth Cohort barracks that awaited her.
Short and sweet :) Drop me a review, and hopefully I'll be back nice and quick!
Later days!
-oMM
