The rest of the drive went quietly. They only stopped once to stretch their legs, visit washrooms and for Masky and Hoody to switch so Hoody was behind the wheel now. Once they had all piled back in Masky passed out the sandwiches Hoody had packed. Toby insisted Masky put on a CD called American Beauty/American Psycho by Fall out Boy, Nico liked it more than he expected. Masky fell asleep halfway through the album so once it was over they didn't put on any new music. Instead Toby slipped on a pair of headphones and started playing with one of Nico's hands to distract himself.
Nico looked out the window listening to the soft beats emanating from Toby's headphones and felt him trace the spaces between Nico's fingers. Nico's lips twitched up in a smile it felt good, if a little strange, almost tickly but he let Toby keep going. Toby flipped Nico's and palm up and started tracing the lines and creases there. By the end of this car ride Toby would know Nico's hands better than he did. Eventually the feel of Toby's fingers trailing over Nico's palm lulled him back into a doze.
There was fire everywhere. He couldn't see through the glare of it. He tried desperately to fine a patch of shadow he could use to get away from the heat and smoke that choked him. The shadows fled from the fire like living things so he couldn't catch them. He searched until blinded by the smoke, and then he just stumbled blindly away from where the heat was worst. Then suddenly it was gone. Nico looked up and around him, he was in a garden, almost familiar to him but not quite. More familiar was a chubby boy near the river that ran through the garden.
"Clovis." Nico called. The boy started up from his position leaning over the water looking around franticly before he spotted Nico.
"Oh hey Nico." Clovis said smiling followed by a yawn. Nico raised an eyebrow. Really? The kid was even tired in his dreams? Weird. "How did you get into my dream?"
"I don't know I was in my own dream running away from a fire and then suddenly I was here." Nico said shrugging and crossing his arms before curiosity got the better of him. "Well since I'm here now you might as well tell me what's going in at camp. Have they found Percy yet?" He ignored the small flutter of hope in his chest when he said Percy's name and focused on Clovis, who was frowning with a small crease between his eyebrows.
"No they haven't." Clovis said slowly. "Hera sent Annabeth a dream saying to go to the grand canyon and look for a guy with one shoe and that he would be the answer to her problem. She thought it would be Percy but it wasn't, just some blond son of Zeus called Jason with some serious memory loss. The Lethe, Nico, just like you, the gods are doing some serious messing with things."
Nico growled and rubbed his hands over his face. So what was going on was bigger than a potential hole in death, and the gods were getting involved. That never ended well for anyone, and if death was involved there was no way Nico would be allowed to pass through this unscathed. He raised his face from his hands and was about to tell Clovis about the little he knew, but just then he was jerked out of his dream.
Toby had been shaking Nico lightly, he stopped quickly when Nico jerked awake.
"Wow you are one heavy sleeper." Toby commented smiling at Nico. "It's time to rearrange again. Me and Hoody need to go from here separately because Jay doesn't like us, so you should sit in the front with Masky. Shade will be sitting in the back still but wake him up." Nico nodded groggily. Toby gave Nico a quick peck on the lips before putting his goggles and mouth guard back on, leaving the car where Hoody was already waiting. They took off into the woods and Nico moved up into the front seat next to Masky. Before Masky started the car he flipped open his phone and hit a speed dial.
"Yep Jay, it's Tim. I'm about an hour away from the meet up spot… ya I know it's short notice, don't worry I'll wait for you. Oh by the way I had to bring someone along with me… Don't worry Jay he's just my little cousin and his friend they'll be fine… Jay are you ever going to trust me? I had to bring them along it'll be fine… okay… yep, see you soon." Masky hung-up the phone and flipped it closed stuffing it back in his pocket.
"So I'm guessing I'll be pretending to be your cousin to Jay?" Nico stretching out his legs.
"Yep." Masky said nodding. "It's easiest that way, by the way he think's I'm Tim so you'll have to try and call me that okay? "
"Okay." Nico said giving Masky a questioning look. He didn't want to ask Masky any questions that made him uncomfortable but, why would Jay know him as Tim? Masky caught Nico's look and sighed.
"Tim is the name of my other personality. Well I guess maybe I'm technically the 'other personality' since I only came into being when Tim was about seven. But when I became the one in control most of the time I started thinking about him as the other one. Anyway Tim and Jay used to be really close friends so of course he didn't trust me. I guess it didn't help that I attacked him a few times even though I was just trying to protect him from Alex, he didn't realize it. Anyway he'd be pissed if he found out that I'm basically the only one left."
Nico nodded. he didn't know what to say besides the idea of multiple personalities was interesting to him and he wanted to think about it. Typical to him he was thinking about what happened when someone with multiple personalities died. If the condition was just a chemical condition in the brain, would only one of them go to the underworld? If so would it be the one born in the body or the one who spent the most time controlling it? How would Tim be judged if it had been Masky had been the one to commit crimes? Nico didn't feel two souls inside of Masky so he and Tim didn't have separate spirits. If they both existed after death how could they be judged differently if they were one being. Nico was jarred out of his thoughts by fingers snapping in front of his face.
"Yes whatever you're thinking about must be a real brain teaser. We're here now." Masky got out of the car and after blinking a few times, Nico did too. It was early in the morning, they had driven through the night. Nico stretched his legs, he was so stiff it was ridiculous. Masky was leaning against the front of the car smoking a cigarette.
"What were you thinking about?" Masky asked blowing the smoke out as he spoke. Nico watched the smoke dissipate into the air, smoke was an oddly beautiful thing.
"I was trying to figure out what will happen when you die." Nico said, too out of it to filter, Masky looked at him sharply raising an eyebrow quizzically. Nico was quick to elaborate. "I don't know how multiple personalities works. But I do know that you only have one soul inside you so unless it really is just a chemical condition in the brain you and Tim share one. If that's the case and you have done some things my father finds punishable. Which I was assuming, but Tim hasn't, also assuming, I have no idea how that would be worked around." Nico didn't mention that if it was a chemical condition in the brain, he was pretty sure Masky would only exist as long as the brain functioned. The idea of nonexistence scared most people.
"Huh. You think about strange things. But it's not like I'm the first person ever to have multiple personalities. There must be president for things like this. Maybe you should ask 'you father' next time you see him." Nico didn't understand the way Masky's lip curled when he said 'your father', but he didn't question it. Instead he clambered up onto the roof of the car where he could watch the last of the sunrise a lot more easily. Because he was up higher he also saw the other car pulling in before Masky did.
"I think Jay is here." Masky looked up, then followed Nico's look to the new car.
"Yep." Masky said tossing down his cigarette and extinguishing it with his heel. Nico slid off the roof of the car and woke Shade up and made him follow with him following two steps behind Masky as he went to meet Jay.
"Tim I am so glad you could get here so quickly!" Jay said, he was holding a camera and seemed to have another one strapped to his chest. Nico couldn't help giving him a funny look, why would he need two cameras? Jay handed the one in is hand to Masky. "And this is your cousin?" Jay said looking at Nico, so Nico got a good look at his face. Jay was pale, he looked like he hadn't slept well once in his life, Nico winced.
"Yep, Jay, this is Nico, Nico, this is Jay. And this is Nico's friend Shade, that's his nickname , to he doesn't have to telll people what his real name is." Masky said pointing the Camera at each of them as he did the introductions, also earning a small Growl from Shade, but nobody noticed.
"It's nice to meet you." Nico said smiling and holding out his hand. Jay hesitated momentarily before taking Nico's hand. His hand was cool, his grip light, and he let go again quickly.
"It's nice to meet you too, I have to say it's a huge relief to have some back up. I haven't even felt safe enough to sleep since I first saw Alex again." Jay said giving a small surprisingly childish sheepish smile. Masky put a hand on Jay's shoulder.
"Well now that we're here why don't we go back to whatever hotel you've been staying in? Me and Nico can go over whatever footage you've taken so far with a fresh eye and you can have a nap." Jay gave Masky a grateful smile.
"That sounds good. Do you just want to follow me in your car?"
"Sure, come on Nico, Shade" Masky said gesturing to Nico to follow him back to the car. Nico couldn't help a quiet groan, they had been in the car for so long he was getting really sick of being confined like that. Masky laughed, "Don't worry this will be a much shorter drive." Nico nodded and got back in the car, Shade was Also unhappy to be back in the car since he always got tired in cars. Masky put the camera Jay had given him on the dashboard before turning the car on, and following Jay out of the parking lot.
"So what's with the cameras?" Nico asked curiously.
"Last time stuff like this started happening both me and Jay started forgetting things, Jay lost months. At least if we film things we can watch what happened even if we don't remember it." Masky ran the hand that wasn't on the wheel back through his hair.
"Oh." Nico said, he hoped he wouldn't lose any of his memories; after all he didn't have that many more to lose. "Is there anything else I should know about?"
"I guess I probably should give you a summary of what happened last time huh?" Nico nodded and Masky launched into a summery of what had happened last time. "Of course I don't know all of it, Jay was trying to find Alex long before I got involved but now you're basically up to date."
"Thanks." Nico said calmly, for once he was glad he was a demigod, maybe if he had been human he would have been scared, but as a demigod he had faced worse. He would be able to deal with this, it was nothing he hadn't dealt with before.
"You're taking this very calmly." Masky said giving Nico a sidelong glance.
"I wanted to be involved, there's no point in freaking out now." Nico said shrugging. He didn't want to mention anything about being a demigod in front of the camera as he was almost sure that Jay would watch the footage, and he seemed to be just an ordinary mortal. Nico was starting to realize how hard it might be to filter in front of the camera. He wanted to ask what Toby and Hoody would be doing but he wasn't supposed to mention them where Jay could hear. Masky just stayed quiet mostly, Nico followed his lead, if you didn't say anything you couldn't say anything wrong.
They pulled into a hotel parking lot after Jay, it was almost completely empty. Only three other cars besides theirs, obviously this place wasn't very popular but that was okay. That was just less people to wonder about what they were doing. Jay walked over to them.
"I got one room with two beds, I hope you don't mind, I didn't know your cousin and his friend were coming and I didn't want to sleep in separate rooms. That's how I lost Jessica last time."
"That's fine Jay we'll figure it out." Masky reassured following Jay towards the building. Tim must have been softer spoken than Masky, Nico thought as he followed them, because Masky was toning things down a few notches. Nico looked back and around one more time before following them it. Smiling as he caught a flash of what looked like Hoody's yellow sweatshirt disappearing back around a corner. Good at least they were close. Nico wished there had been a little more communication as to plans before they got here. He would just trust that Masky and Hoody knew what they were doing.
Nico followed Jay and Masky into the building, up a set of stairs to the second floor, Jay's hotel room was a normal two bedroom. Masky sat down on the edge of the bed that wasn't slept in, Nico leaned against the wall near the door with his arms crossed. He didn't know Jay and he still wasn't entirely comfortable with Masky, being alone with the two of them felt awkward. The only one that made Nico feel normal was Shade Jay glanced at Nico before going to the rooms safe and opening it, taking out a tray of videotapes he passed them to Masky.
"I'm sorry there are so many I've been filming everything since the first time I saw Alex." Nico could tell by the way that Masky's next breath sort of hissed that he was annoyed but he kept it under control very well.
"It's okay Jay, you just get some sleep. We'll keep the volume down while we watch them so it won't bother you to much." Jay nodded and flopped down on the ruffled bed without even taking his socks off. He hugged the pillow and almost seemed to be asleep already. Silently Nico padded over to sit on the other bed next to Masky, without speaking he took the first of the tapes and put it into the player.
They had watched four of the tapes before anything happened. Nico had zoned out a while ago but Masky was still watching attentively. Nico was watching Jay sleep realizing how fitting it was the Hypnos and Thanatos were half brothers when Masky lunged forward and paused the tape, shocking Nico so much he nearly fell off the bed. There was a man on the screen, he looked like he was in the process of ducking behind a wall but Masky had paused it before he could. Masky was staring at him intently.
"Is that Alex?" Nico asked his voice low so as not to wake Jay. And alerting Shade who leaned forward and looked at the screen
"Yes." Masky said even more softly, Nico had to lean in to hear him, definitely too quiet for the cameras to pick up. "I need you to go tell Hoody that Jay was right. It looks like we need to start again." Masky gave a huffing sigh. Nico nodded, got up and walked across the room. Jay didn't even stir, either he was a heavy sleeper or Nico was as good at sneaking as everyone said.
He picked up his shoes and left, putting them on in the hall once the door was closed. He made note of the room number so he would be able to find it again before heading to the stairs and back outside. He headed around the corner he had seen the flash of yellow from. He could feel Hoody's eyes on him, so he kept walking for a little till he was out of sight of the hotel, then stopped leaning against the wall. A couple minutes later Hoody appeared out of an alley nearby and came over, Toby following a little ways behind him.
"Masky thinks Jay, was right, Alex is back." Toby cursed and Hoody surprised Nico by kicking the wall angrily before taking off at a jog. "Where is he going?" Nico asked Toby after a moment when he realized Toby wasn't following.
"To get his camera." Toby said still sounding a bit angry. "Since Jay doesn't trust Hoody the only way for him to share any clues we find is through videos." Toby rubbed his hands over his face and twitched violently for a moment, Nico waited for it to pass then took Toby's hand. "I wasn't here the first time they did this but I've seen the videos that Jay idiot uploaded to the internet and the responses Hoody and Masky made with clues.
It took them a long time to figure things out last time, I don't think it'll take as long this time though. God I was just hoping Jay was wrong so we could go back home." Nico gave Toby's hand a small squeeze.
"I was hoping the same thing." Nico sighed. "Have you at least found a nice place to stay?"
"Bloody painter and Clockwork have agreed to let me and Hoodie stay with them." Toby said with a shrug. "They're nice enough but they're about as talkative as Hoody so it's boring." Toby huffed. "I swear I have no idea what they do together. Apparently when they first got together no one thought they would last a week but it's two years later and they've moved in together. I don't get it at all." Nico chuckled softly.
"Maybe they like the quiet." Nico suggested.
"Maybe." Toby said with a shrug "They both really like to draw maybe that's what they do together." Toby looked over Nico's shoulder. "Oh Hoody's coming back I think it's time to go." Hoody came jogging up and Toby gave Nico a quick kiss. "Come out into the forest when you can kay? I'll be watching and I'll come meet you."
"Okay." Nico said with a smile and then watched Hoody jog of toward the wood, Toby ran after him, quickly overtaking and passing him. Nico smiled after them and then walked back towards the hotel with his hands shoved deep into the pocket of his black jeans. He wanted to take his time going back, but he didn't want Masky to worry so he hurried a little.
When he got back Masky didn't say anything but looked up at him intently. Nico nodded slightly to let him know that he had found and told Hoody. Jay was still asleep, so Nico leaned against the wall and took off his shoes so that he could cross the room quietly and sit down next to Masky again.
"Anything new?' Nico asked softly. Masky shrugged.
"Not really, a couple more glimpses of someone who might be Alex. Someone helping him or someone completely random going for a jog." Masky sighed again. "There isn't much here but Jay hasn't done any active looking for Alex yet. Now that we're here we can go looking and since we already know Alex's patterns it should be easier to find him then last time." Masky looked a little uncertain, he didn't have to add a 'I hope'. Masky rubbed his hands over his face again, something on the Tv caught Nico's eyes.
"Wait how do you pause this thing?" Nico asked Masky gesturing to the tv. Masky looked at him curiously then paused it. "I thought I saw something can we back it up a little?" Masky rewound it till Nico said to stop. Masky played it again and Nico now that he knew where the pause button was, moved forward to put his finger on it, pausing the video as soon as the thing he had seen appeared again. "Doesn't that look like Slenderman?" Nico asked to softly for the camera to hear.
"Oh no The Operator." Masky said groaning. "I was hoping Alex would be on his own this time." Masky sat quietly for another minute before saying. "I need a cigarette you keep watching these things, set aside this tape when you're done watching it and mention it to Jay if he wakes up." Nico nodded guessing Masky was going to take this as an opportunity to go talk to Hoody as well. Nico waited until Masky was out of the room before studying this Operator a little more closely.
He seemed to be a little shorter than Slenderman, but not by much, and he had no tentacles like Slenderman did. Other then that they looked quite a lot alike. Though Nico supposed that wasn't hard because there weren't many ways to be mostly featureless. Still he wondered if they were related before pressing play. again, this time paying closer attention for more signs of the man he knew as Alex and the Operator. Nico heard Shade moving besides him and heard him whisper so the camera couldn't hear them. "What are we going to do Nico?"
Nico looked to Shade and sighed and continued to whisper. "I don't know Shade, but Zeus know how this will turn out."