Sorry for the late update. I had midterms…and stuff…and studying…and…ok ok, who am I kidding? I am a freaking professional crastinator. In fact, I wrote this when I was supposed to be studying for a history midterm (do not tell my mom). I'm so B.A., can't you tell? Okay then, onto the story…

And by the way, I do not own Percy Jackson and/or the Olympians. Leonidas Aurelio, on the other hand, is all mine.

Annabeth POV

Annabeth stalked out of the Big House with Leon and Percy close behind her. Deciding to start the tour at the volleyball courts and continue counterclockwise through the camp, she led the boys in the appropriate direction. However, her mind wasn't really focused on the tour. She knew that she should do her best to make Leon feel at home, but that was what she was focused on. Leon. She wasn't sure what to make of him. There was something in his eyes and the way he didn't seem too surprised or impressed by what was around him that made Annabeth think that he wasn't a complete newbie at this. And then there was the issue of his age. There was no way that he survived that long on his own. "Maybe he was stuck at the Lotus Hotel like the Di Angelos," she thought. "Or maybe he's a spy." She decided to push her suspicions off to the side for now because each theory raised more questions than it answered. Who would have put him into the Lotus Casino? Who would have taken him out? Why? And if he was a spy…then who did he work for? What was his objective? Realizing that Chiron and Dionysus probably would have considered the possibilities, she focused more on the task at hand.

"Here are the volleyball courts, as you can see," Percy said to break the silence. A bunch of Apollo kids were playing – boys and girls alike. Each play lasted approximately thirty hits and was ended by a spike that was often so fast that it literally caught on fire. "It's mostly for Apollo's kids – show offs."

"Definitely the best game of volleyball I've seen," was Leon's reaction, as if he was just saying it to humor Percy. He obviously was not too impressed by the game. Either that, or his mind was on something else, although the sudden exposure to the fact that Greek mythology was real certainly counted as "something else" in this scenario.

Annabeth was still subconsciously trying to analyze Leon. She didn't want to ask too much about his personal life (it was something that tour guides were discouraged from doing), but something about him definitely bugged her. "Leon…you're taking this awfully calmly. Most demigods go through several phases before they come to terms with reality – denial, unconsciousness, fever, headaches, you know, the works. Doesn't any of this strike you as odd?" she asked as an Apollo camper got nailed in the chest from a particularly nasty spike. The resulting scream and laughter was ignored by Annabeth, although Percy cracked a grin.

"Well…I guess so. After being attacked by two Furies, a sea serpent, and a flying pig, it makes more sense," Leon replied absent-mindedly, his eyes not meeting Annabeth's.

Annabeth's mouth dropped. Percy decided to be more vocal with his reaction.

"Damn! What in Hades did you do? I mean, I thought I had it rough when I was attacked by one Fury and the Minotaur, but…!"

"I don't know," Leon said. Annabeth, however, suspected otherwise. The simple fact that there were two Furies after the man was enough evidence for her to figure out that he had done something to piss off the Lord of the Dead. When the Fury Alecto had been sent after Percy, it was because of something that had the potential to cause a civil war between the Olympians. If this guy had provoked two of them, she shuddered at what the consequences were going to be. And she had no doubt that the flying pig that he spoke of was none other than the Clazmonian Sow, a monster that even Percy couldn't destroy by himself. "How in the world did he survive?" The more Leon talked, the more questions Annabeth had.

"So what happened to them? The monsters and the Furies, I mean," Percy asked.

"I evaded them by arriving at camp."

"Just like that?" Annabeth thought. "There is more to this story. He's hiding something," she decided. There was something about the minimalistic and simple way that Leon answered questions that hinted that maybe there was more to his words than it seemed.

"So are we going to continue to admire this wonderful game of volleyball, or…?" Leon asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Uh, right this way. I'll show you the arts and crafts area and the Lake," Annabeth said hurriedly. "Focus Annabeth. Focus."

"A lake?" Leon asked, his eyes brightening. He finally seemed to have found something interesting at camp.

"Well it's not your average lake…" Percy said. His eyes met Annabeth's and they both smiled as they recalled all the good times they had spent there. It was dangerous hanging around there, but hey, when your boyfriend was the son of Poseidon, you could afford to be dangerous.

They passed the arts and crafts area quite swiftly; none of them really had any interest in the arts. As always, Leon's eyes were oddly calculating, a look Annabeth knew well: all her siblings had it. "Maybe he's a child of Athena." His gold eyes did not seem to linger on any person in particular, but the same could not be said about the other campers regarding him, especially the girls. Every time they passed a group of Aphrodite campers, squeals and giggles could be heard, which annoyed Annabeth to no end, but did cause her to re-examine Leon. She took in his lean, muscular, and tan form, his jet black hair, and his intimidating gold eyes and conceded that maybe he was a bit handsome. She glanced over at Percy, who also seemed to be stealing glances at Leon. She managed to catch his gaze and gave him an inquisitive look, as if she was asking "What is with this guy?" Percy just shrugged – typical Seaweed Brain. She looked back at Leon to find him with his lips in a small smile, looking out in the distance. She realized they had reached the lake.

"Oh-uhm, yeah, well this is the lake," she started. "I am not doing well with this focus thing."

Leon turned to her. "Your powers of perception are frightening," he said. Because of his straight face, it took Annabeth a moment to realize he was being sarcastic. However, it still wasn't funny. The sheer realization that he actually had a sense of humor was just absurd to her. Percy was having a similar reaction.

"…Uh, thanks," was her immensely intelligent reply.

"Sheesh! And they told me you were a daughter of Athena. That snapped Annabeth back to reality.

"Well excuse me if I don't laugh with the overage, suspicious demigod that doesn't even talk at all. Admit it – you're weird!" she snapped. Annabeth did not deal well with not knowing something. It was almost like OCD, but when someone other than Percy insulted her intelligence, that was it. Her accusation was supported by an indignant "Yeah!" from Percy, who felt the need to support his girlfriend.

Leon tilted his head in a child, please fashion, and it absolutely infuriated Annabeth.

"I'm weird? Seriously? I was just introduced to a world in which gods and monsters, and titans, and deadly doughnut shops. I believe I am entitled to weird."

"Hmph, he's got a point, Annabeth," Percy offered. "And besides, I think I'm starting to like the sarcasm. Give him a chance, will you? How would you feel if you just randomly showed up to a place full of people you didn't know and they asked you about, oh, I don't know…Luke?"

Annabeth glared at him. Truth was, she would probably stab the person in the lungs if they asked her that, but she wasn't about to admit that to Percy – as if he didn't already know. "I hate you sometimes, you know that?" she said.

"Like when I'm right? Come on, Wise Girl, you love me," Percy laughed.

"Sorry to interrupt the moment, but there is an angry manly woman headed our way," stated Leon.

"Manly woman? Oh, don't tell me…" Annabeth turned, and sure enough, she spotted Clarisse LaRue headed their way with her permanent scowl plastered on her face. She was wearing her red armor and carried a helmet and a spear in her right hand, and a shield with a wild boar insignia on her left.

"Oh, that's just Clarisse. She's harmless, really," Percy said with a chuckle.

"Uh huh. Daughter of Ares. Harmless," Leon replied, his eyes fixed on Clarisse.

Wait, what? Daughter of Ares? "Leon, how did you know that she's a daughter of Ares?" Annabeth asked.

"Well I imagine that's what the insignia's for. Unless if she's just into boars, you know?"

Really, one would think that he would have drained himself of sarcasm, with the massive amounts dripping off of him and all.

"How's it going, Clarisse?" Percy called.

"Shut up, Prissy," was Clarisse's answer.

"Charming," commented Leon.

"What was that, noob?! I don't take attitude from anyone, let alone some up-" Clarisse abruptly stopped.

"I suppose she's noticed the unnerving eyes," thought Annabeth.

This was when Percy stepped in. "Moving past your attitude reception, Clarisse, why are you here? We're trying to give this guy the tour."

"I'm here to do his combat testing," she said, gesturing towards Leon with her shield. Combat testing was something that new campers that were older than thirteen had to go through so that the camp could evaluate what degree of training they should start at. Usually, however, it was carried out by a Hermes or a Demeter camper. Clarisse on the other hand, was one of the camp's best warriors. If Chiron had sent her to do this job, then he must have thought that Leon had some serious potential.

"This could be interesting," Annabeth thought. "Maybe we'll gain some insight into him. However – "

"Okay, Clarisse, but that's after this. We've only shown him the volleyball courts and the lake," Percy protested.

The daughter of Ares shrugged. "Not my fault you guys are snails. Probably lost too much time flirting with each other anyway. And besides, I'm not about to wait for you losers to finish and lose my precious time."

Annabeth could see Percy fighting off the blush that was creeping into his face as he replied with a smirk, "…Yeah, precious time with her cutie Chris."

It was Clarisse's turn to blush. "Jackson, I will MURDER you!"

"This is very entertaining, really. Please continue," laughed Leon. "And Percy, the amount of death threats you get from females is impressive. They must love you, especially this one," he said, looking at Clarisse.

Clarisse looked like she could have spontaneously combusted on the spot. "WHA - , did he just - , OH, YOU FREAKING – " she didn't even finish before she flung herself at him, fists bared.

"Ru'roh," Annabeth thought. However, her fears for Leon dissipated when Clarisse flew past him and nearly fell into the lake. Leon had acted swiftly, and sidestepped to avoid her.

"Bring it, boar woman," challenged Leon.

"Oh, I'll bring it all!" screamed Clarisse with her teeth bared. She drew her sword. Annabeth glanced at Leon, slowly realizing what was going on.

"Uh guys, the fighting arena is over there," Percy pointed.

"Shut it, Prissy. We're doing this right here, right now. No loser talks to me like that!"

"Clarisse, come on! He doesn't even have a weapon!" Percy protested. His statement was negated, however, when there was a blinding light in Leon's right arm, and suddenly a sword was there. Not just any sword, but a magnificent leaf shaped blade similar to Riptide that shimmered like diamond, gold, and bronze all in one. It's beauty made Riptide look like a wooden toothpick. Everyone was rendered mute for a couple of seconds as their eyes feasted on the sword. The daughter of Ares was the first to recover, though. Attractive sword or not, Clarisse was still pissed off as hell. She charged, and Leon raised his sword to meet her's.

Later, Annabeth would compare Leon's fighting to Percy's fighting on steroids. The man was an absolute hurricane. The one attack he allowed Clarisse was the one that started the fight. Afterwards, however, the fight was the manifestation of complete and utter dominance as Leon counterattacked. He spun, he stabbed, he slashed, and he continued to move; never letting his feet stay in the same position for more than half a second. He continuously changed his angle of attack, and though Clarisse was armored and had a shield, she was also incredibly slow compared to Leon. The duel was brought to a close when Leon disarmed Clarisse and split her shield. She had tried to stab at Leon, but he had sidestepped, grabbed her wrist, and twisted it in a way so that Clarisse had no choice but to drop her sword. He then executed a two-handed strike at Clarisse's shield with such force that the hardened wood shattered. Twenty seconds had elapsed since the first strike had been attempted, and Clarisse was completely winded, drenched in sweat, and had a bewildered look in her eyes. Leon's gold ones were more unnerving than ever. He stood light on his feet, and a slight smile played on his lips. His breathing was perfectly normal, and he hadn't even broken a sweat. His sword was nowhere to be seen.

Another minute passed before she, Percy, and the small crowd they had attracted decided to close their mouths after their jaws had dropped during the fight.

Leon walked up to Clarisse, who was lying on the ground a few feet away. "Look, I don't usually insult people for the fun of it. Definitely not my style. To be honest, you were pretty good out there. If only you weren't in Ares-battle-rage mode you could have lasted a bit longer. No hard feelings? Come on," Leon said as he offered Clarisse his hand.

It was only after Clarisse had grudgingly accepted his help that Annabeth realized the genius that Leon wielded. "That wasn't just a coincidental spat," she realized. "Leon started planning for this as soon as he heard what Clarisse was here for. Everything that happened since then went exactly according to Leon's will. He figured out what 'combat testing' was, and that's when it all began. He realized that he had to beat Clarisse, so he took advantage of our verbal sparring to infuriate Clarisse. She fell for it, and all he had to do was completely reel her in by the 'bring it, boar woman.' He exploited her weakness of provocation to anger her, and therefore effectively prevented her from fighting cleverly at all. After that, it was pure combative genius. WHO IS THIS GUY AND HOW DID HE LEARN TO FIGHT AND THINK LIKE THAT?!"

"I don't think any further combat testing is required," Leon smiled. Percy, from the look on his face, was still trying to figure out what in Hades was going on.

"How -, what did you just…" He stuttered. Annabeth looked at Leon, and then back at Percy, wondering who would win if it came to a battle between the two of them. The silence was suddenly broken by the dinner bell. She grabbed Percy's hand and started walking off to the dining pavilion. "Come on, Leon," she called. "You'll be eating with the Hermes cabin for now."

"We didn't even get to show him the cabins and stuff, but damn, that fighting…" Percy trailed off.

"I know," Annabeth said. A thought occurred to her at that moment. "The Hunters v. Campers Capture the Flag game is soon. And although we don't know who his godly parent is, Leon still qualifies as a camper!" A broad smile spread across her face.

"Uh, Annabeth, why are you smiling? I just told you that you smell," Percy asked. "Note to self: kill Percy Jackson later," Annabeth thought, deciding to temporarily ignore Percy's stupid comment.

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking about Capture the Flag later," she said. Percy's face broke into a crazy grin as he realized what I was thinking.

"Well I was right about one thing," Annabeth thought while she entered the dining area. "That combat testing sure was interesting."