Author's Note: Hey, guys! Thanks for all the positive responses I got for last chapter. Just to clarify: Nico isn't paired with anyone in is story, because Lonely Nico works out in this story. Besides, I'm not really a fan of any Nico pairings, (except maybe one, and it's not Nico/Thalia or Nico/Rachel, or even Nico/Reyna) because come on, the guy's twelve. It's totally okay that he hasn't found his soulmate yet.

Chapter Twelve: The Traveling Oddball

Wednesday, May 17th

11:00 PM

New York City

Just around the corner of a busy, brightly lit avenue, there existed a weathered-looking and darkened bar/restaurant that looked as if it had been there since the Dutch bought the island of Manhattan for $24 worth of crap. The carved wooden sign above the door read 'The Wanderer's Refuge'.

Inside, there was a creaky but spacious and well polished bar made out of very dark wood, lit by flickering yellow lanterns that hung from the ceiling. At the opposite end of the room, on the left, there was a huge stone fireplace that burned brightly. Tables and chairs were clustered around, and were half-filled with a varied assortment of maybe forty people.

At first glance, these people seemed to be one of the most random groups that one could imagine. They were of all ages, the youngest being around eleven, and the oldest being about a hundred and eleven. Tall, short, dark, fair-skinned, ugly, pretty, muscular, skinny, curvy, criminal, clean-cut, eccentric, geeky, emo/goth- pretty much any combination imaginable, all sitting together and talking. But if one took the time to look closely, there was something remarkably similar in all of these faces. It was a look in their faces, where you could tell that these people had all, in their own way, seen the worst and survived to tell the tale.

At the far end of the bar, there were two dark- haired men, one old, one young. They looked like father and son, and sat there talking in hushed tones over their drinks.

The son, whose thin body was wrapped in an old black leather coat, looked to be in his early twenties. His shaggy black hair contrasted sharply with his pale skin. "So, what brings you here, Father?" he asked quietly.

The father looked around the bar. He looked to be around forty, with the same pale skin and black hair as his son, though his was better-kept and with the tiniest bit of gray. "I was wondering if you could help me with something, Nico."

Nico, who was apparently quite used to his father asking for favors, crossed his arms and assumed a look of suspicion. "With what, Father?" Clearly, he'd had a lot of experience with this, and knew better than to accept blindly.

"It's nothing dangerous, son. It's just very important, and I can't go myself."

"And let me guess: it's top secret and I can't let anyone know."

"Of course. Will you do it?"

"Tell me what it is first."

"You have to agree to do it first." Nico paused, considering this. His dad often sent him to do weird things that were unrelated to his usual assassin mission. While it was true that his father's little 'assignments' were rarely dangerous (for him) some of them were extremely odd. Once, he'd been asked to stand on the edge of a pit and pour a six-pack of Diet Coke into it. And that wasn't even the weirdest one. Some were downright suspicious, like the time when he had been asked to rob a bank, but then drop the money on the corner so that the police would find it. Nico suspected that these seemingly random tasks were all part of a higher scheme, something far more complex and dangerous than he imagined.

So why did he do them, then? Nico had a complicated relationship with his father. Both of them were outsiders, and loners. And it had only worsened when Bianca died. But that didn't mean that Nico didn't want to at least try to have at least some form of a relationship with his dad. Not in a whiny-little-kid-who-just-wants-attention way, but more of a we're-kind-of-stuck-with-each-other-so-let's-try-t o-get-along type of way. Besides, he usually got paid well for this, and he really wanted to find out what his dad was up to.

"All right, I'll do it," he finally agreed. "So what do you want me to do?"

His father passed him an envelope. "Your instructions are in here. Wait till you get home to open it, though. It's going to seem strange, but I'll explain later if you find what I suspected."

Nico was surprised; his father usually never bothered to explain. It must be serious. "Okay, Dad," he responded, putting the envelope in his jacket.

"Thanks, son," sighed his dad, clapping him on the shoulder. He picked up his jacket and exited the bar.

The bartender, who had been watching the two out of the corner of her eye, came over and refilled his glass. "So that's your dad, huh?" she remarked casually.

Nico, who was a regular at the bar and used to the bartender being able to pick up on things, nodded. "Yeah."

"You seem a lot like him." His expression turned darker.

"And that's my problem."

..~0~..

As promised, Nico didn't open the envelope until he got to his apartment. He toyed with the idea of not opening it at all and setting it on fire or something, but in the end, curiosity got the better of him, as he knew it would. He broke the black seal on the envelope (yes, his dad still insisted on using seals, claiming that licking envelopes was undignified) and unfolded the instructions.

1. Go to the southwestern corner of where 3rd Avenue and 23 street intersect. There is an entrance to the basement of an apartment building. Enter it.

2. Once you enter, there will be a hallway. Walk straight down it to the left. There will be several doors, but open only the one at the end of the tunnel. Knock three times and say 'the stars have shone green in a yellow sky'.

3. Do only what you are told. If anyone says anything to you, you may nod or shake your head, but if neither of those will suffice, say that all you know is that Mars is bright tonight.

4. Observe the third chair on the right of the long table. Observe whether or not anyone is there.

5. Once you have seen whether or not the chair is occupied, wait exactly seven minutes and thirty-two seconds. Then, you may leave, however abrupt it may seem.

That was it. Nico was used to his dad being vague, but this sounded suspicious. It sound like there was some kind of secret meeting going on. He wondered if it was possibly some kind of drug ring, but that wasn't his dad's style.

Then again, considering the situation Atlantis was in now, could it be that his dad was somehow, possibly, involved with their rivals? His father had told him more than once that he didn't get along so well with the other heads. Nico didn't know exactly how bad this little rift was, but it may, possibly, have been bad enough that his dad would betray the others. Then where did that leave Nico? He felt compelled to stand by his dad, but what about the others? He'd always felt that some of them didn't really accept him, but there were a few-Hazel, Frank, Rachel, Travis and Connor, Silena and Beckendorf, maybe even Reyna- that he knew considered him a friend. And what about Percy, who had most likely been kidnapped by the others? Nico had been angry with him in the past, but that was past. Most of it was Nico's fault, but Percy had forgiven him and helped him out in situations where few people would have done so. If there was a possibility that this task would betray his friends, then could he really do it?

But then again, maybe it had nothing to do with that. What if Nico's father was actually on their side, and this would help them win the war?

Considering this, Nico made his decision: he would go to the place and complete the task, and then decide whether to tell his father about it.

..~0~..

The basement was even crappier than Nico expected it to be. It was pretty far underground; he'd had to go down four or five flights of stairs. It was also very dark, except for a few flickering lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, and smelled of mildew. The right branch of the tunnel sloped upward, and was made of cement, but the left side, the one he was supposed to go down, sloped downward and looked like it had been carved out of the earth.

He started down the tunnel, listening carefully for the sounds of anyone else. He encountered a few people, strangers dressed all in black who paused to glance at him, then continued on their way. He passed a few doors, some painted white, some wooden, a few made of steel that looked like something you would find on a ship. Most were silent, but from three or four he could hear people talking, and once, he heard someone screaming from behind a golden door. Once, he even encountered a little blonde girl in a white nightgown, skipping up the tunnel and singing in a foreign language. She looked at him and laughed, then ran away.

Finally, he reached the end of the tunnel. There was a door made out of black wood, with a polished silver handle and a silver knocker set in the middle. Nico, as his instructions had told him, knocked three times, and said "The stars have shone green in a yellow sky."

The door creaked open, and Nico stepped over the threshold and entered. The room was long and low, lit by torches that had been placed in brackets on the stone walls, and there was a long table in the center of the room.

The table was about half-filled with a group of adults who looked like businesspeople. Before Nico could wonder why the hell a group of businesspeople would choose to meet underground, one man said to him, "Ah, you must be the new butler!"

Nico, as his instructions had told him, nodded and tried not to look too confused. He glanced at the third chair on the right, and saw that it was unoccupied. Okay, seven minutes and thirty-two seconds, he thought, glancing at his watch. Let me see what I can figure out in seven minutes and thirty two seconds.

During those seven minutes and thirty-two seconds, Nico was forced to go around and make sure that everyone's wineglasses stayed full, as the people at the table had an intense conversation in some language that Nico didn't even recognize. When the time was up, Nico left without a word. No one really said anything to him.

As he left the tunnel and walked back up the stairs, he wondered what the point of this was. He got the feeling that the reason behind his father's instructions was something so bizarre that he wouldn't possibly be able to comprehend it without being told more.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he was surprised to find his father waiting for him. "Nico! So was the chair occupied?" he demanded.

Nico had the sudden urge to lie, but he had a feeling that wouldn't accomplish anything. His dad didn't seem to have ulterior motives about this. It was probably just another one of his strange side projects. It annoyed him. Was his father insane, or did he not trust him? "No, there was no one in that chair. What did you expect?"

His father sighed. "I was hoping that you would see someone. But I expected otherwise. That's... Well, that's not a good thing."

"What do you mean, that wasn't a good thing?" replied Nico sharply. "Father, is there a reason you constantly ask me to do these things? Or do you just enjoy wasting my time?"

His father's demeanor changed from solemn to angry in an instant. "Is there a reason you question me? Or do you not trust me?"

"I'd like to trust you, but you don't exactly make it easy." H

is dad relented slightly. "All right. I suppose I owe you an explanation. Get in the car, it's a long story and we probably shouldn't discuss it in plain view."

Nico and his father sat in the car for about twenty minutes. When Nico finally got out, he went straight back to his apartment. For a while, he didn't do anything, just paced arou

nd, thinking hard. Finally, he went to the phone and dialed a number.

"Hello?" asked the person on the other end. "Hazel," said Nico, "Call the others. I found out something they're going to want to hear."

"What happened, Nico?" she asked worriedly.

"There's a third agency. And they may have something to do with what's going on."

End of chapter

Author's Note: Okay, let me know what you thought of this!