Haunted || Leo Valdez

85 - Frank Informs Us About Greek Myth Thingies

^^^^ LOOK AT THIS FANART MY FRIEND MADE AFTER READING HAUNTED OMG I LOVE IT

She literally said "Oh they remind me of this ship dynamic I saw on Pinterest," looked it up on her Art board, and drew this. She drew Rebecca pretty much exactly as I pictured her! You guys need to tell me what you think so I can tell my friend, she's really excited to see what everyone thinks, too.

Also, if you guys want to make fanart and have it featured on here feel free to tell me! I believe this is the first fanart I've ever gotten. I haven't really made my own because my art skills aren't that great and I'm more focused on writing the fic anyway, but I would definitely appreciate it from any of y'all :)

When their friends finally joined them, Piper nearly knocked Leo and Rebecca out of their chairs with a hug. "Leo! Rebecca! Gods, where have you been?"

"Valdez and di Angelo!" Coach Hedge grinned. Then he seemed to remember he had a reputation to protect and he forced a scowl. "You ever disappear like that again, you little punks, I'll knock you into next month!"

Frank patted Leo on the back so hard it made him wince. Even Nico shook his hand. Hazel gave Rebecca a huge hug, which Nico joined only a few moments later. Everyone pulled up chairs and sat in a mostly neat circle around the table.

"We thought you two were dead!" Hazel exclaimed.

"Hey, guys," Leo said, grinning. Despite what had just happened, he couldn't help feeling excited to see his friends again. "Nah, nah, we're good."

Nico frowned and looked around. "Where are Anne and Henry?"

"Oh." Leo looked around at the group, then at Rebecca, who seemed to shrink in her seat a bit. "Yeah... You guys might want to sit down for this. Well, stay sitting, anyway."

The rest of their friends exchanged concerned groups, and Leo looked at Rebecca, silently asking her if she wanted to be the one to give them the explanation.

Rebecca nodded and told them the bad news. "They're gone. Anne and Henry are dead."

Jason and Frank's mouths fell open. Piper's eyes widened. Hazel gasped. Hedge slammed his baseball bat into the ground. Nico nodded, a grim expression on his face. Leo realized that he probably already knew.

"How?" Piper asked softly.

"They both died in London—"

"London?" Jason repeated. "That's where you guys went?"

"That was where the prophecy was completed," Rebecca said. "We met up with the Queens. We looked for the rest of Anne and Henry's prophecy."

"We found it," Leo told them, feeling like it was necessary to say so. "But we didn't know we had it. Henry got possessed by King Henry VIII's creepy ghost. Then he kidnapped Rebecca. When we went to rescue Rebecca, Henry killed Anne, and Rebecca killed Henry. But she didn't know that he'd been possessed," he added, not wanting any of them to think worse of Rebecca. Not that they would, but Rebecca clearly felt horrible about it, and Leo was going to do everything he could to make sure she was okay.

"So now the Queens are headed to Camp Half-Blood to try and stop the Romans from invading," Rebecca finished.

"That's horrible, what happened to Anne and Henry," Hazel said quietly.

"Yeah. Oh, right, and Hades showed up and told us that there would be more deaths," Leo said. "So we've got that goin' for us." He glanced at Rebecca, who was staring at her hands, which were swirling with gold.

She was still thinking of the "Golden Lady" part of Anne and Henry's prophecy. It was kind of unfair that such an iconic epithet was always being used to describe Rebecca as a horrible person. In the prophecy for their first quest, she was the Gilded Traitor, and she'd embraced the creepy evil spirit within her to fight the giant king. Then she was the Golden Lady, and she'd used the spirit once again to kill one of her friends. Wherever the Golden Lady was mentioned in a prophecy, there was Rebecca and the Malignant Spirit bringing death and destruction with them. It wasn't fair to anyone, especially not Rebecca, who was a Good Person who just wanted to prove that she could be trusted.