Leo stared at Ace with wide eyes. He hadn't banked on anyone noticing the weapons. As far as he knew, the mist should've covered that up. All he could think of to reply was;

"Umm... What weapons?"

Ace raised an eyebrow, and scowled at him.

"Don't play dumb with me Valdez. What the hell kind of mess have you gotten yourself into? It better not be gangs. I swear to god, if you're involved in a gang, you will die. As in I will personally kill you. Violently. With a-"

Leo cut her off there. He really didn't want to know what her idea of a violent homicide was.

"I'm not in a gang. And no, you wouldn't, because Artemisia would kill me before you got a chance to find something to kill me with."

"Damn right I would."

Leo had to take a minute to absorb the fact that Artemisia was standing next to Ace now.

"What this I hear about you being in a gang, Monkey?"

"I'm not in gang!" Leo said again. Honestly, why was that their first assumption? "And don't call me that!"

"Than what's with the knife strapped to blondey's arm? And I will call you that, because it's too much work to say 'Grease Monkey' every time I address you."

"I'll explain the weapons later! And what's wrong with calling me by my name!"

Of course, Leo knew exactly what was wrong with that, and it was, simply, that Artemisia didn't like to call people by their actual names. Not even her sisters. However, she venometly refused to allow anyone call her anything other than her proper name.

She glared at him for a moment, than flicked her gaze to piper, who had, by then, resorted to using Jason as a crutch. She looked as if she would fall over any minute.

Artemisia turned to her sister.

"Go get Chrissy. And set up a cot by the med stuff."

Ace immediately did as her sister told her, and exited the small faux room, which had one wall of cement, and three built with cardboard boxes.

"We're talking later." She addressed at Leo.

Artemisia was the oldest of the triplets, and had always been very take charge. Both of her sisters had always seemed happy to let her.

"Hey, girl." She spoke walking up to Piper, using a much quieter tone of voice. "What's your name?"

Piper blinked at her for a moment, the answered her.

"'M Piper." The entire group gave her worries looks. She was getting worse. It had definitely been a good call to stay the night in the city. And seeing as they were out of both nectar and ambrosia, the Rap almost definitely had medical supplies that they didn't have on the boat.

Artemisia met her eyes, worry in their depths. She might not have been the warmest of people, but years of looking out for her sisters and herself had created a very nurturing person out of her when someone was injured.

"Okay, Piper, we're gonna see what we can do for you. Until then, you and your friends are gonna follow me. Can you stay on your feet for a few minutes?" Then she moved her glare to Leo. "Go get her a water bottle!"

Leo just blinked for a moment.

Then Artemisia's order kicked in, and he met Jason's gaze, and said;

"It's fine. Stick with Artemisia or one of her sisters. I'll meet you guys at the med area." Then he headed out of the entrance area, and towards where he hoped that they still kept the water bottles.

While he walked, he was stopped by a few kids that had been at Rap the last time he was there.

"Valdez! Is that you?"

"Leo! Finally get away from the state?"

"Little Lion Man!"

That one bugged him. It was the nickname given to him by one of those thuggy kids. One of the ones that was likely to join a gang, and possibly beat the stuffing out of Leo if he protested the use of the name.

The water was kept in the same place.

It was in the trading both run by a guy who had been there for ages. Leo was positive that he was eighteen by then, but he had never left.

"Joey! My man! Ya mind sliding me a bottle of water? Arty wants it." Of course as much as Artemisia protested the shortening of her name, everyone called her Arty when she wasn't around. It was just easier.

"Leo!" Joey exclaimed. "When'd you get back?"

Leo grinned.

"'Bout five minutes ago."

"And Arty's already got you waiting on her hand and foot?" He shook his head. "Harsh."

"Water," Leo prompted, not wanting to get in to detail of what was going on. It was bad enough that he had to explain the weapons to Arty and Ace, and probably Chrissy to, because if the mist didn't affect either of them than it was unlikely that it would affect her either.

Joe slid a bottle of water over to him, and Leo grabbed it and left quickly.

As he trekked through the main building, Leo couldn't help feel as if everything was a bit surreal. Which, he thought was kind of funny. Six months ago he had found out that his father was a Greek god, he had never actually known his best friend, and that an ancient goddess of the earth was going to try and destroy the world, but he was freaking out because he was revisiting somewhere that he had once stayed? Pathetic, Valdez.

He reached the medical area only a few moments after leaving Joe at his station. There he found Piper sitting on a cot, with one of the triplets waving a flashlight in front of her eyes, Jason standing directly behind her, frowning.

Percy was sitting cross-legged on the floor, while Annabeth stood straight in a soldier-at-attention kind of way. Hazel was staring at Piper with concern in her eyes, and Frank was giving Hazel moony eyes. Nothing new there.

Another one of the triplets, Artemisia judging by the way she was holding herself stood at the entrance of the med area.

The med area was able to have an entrance, because it was sectioned of from the rest of the building by curtains, in an attempt to give patients some semblance of privacy.

Leo walked up to the triplet with the flashlight, Chrissy, he guessed, because Chrissy was in charge of the medical stuff.

He tapped her on the shoulder, and handed her the water bottle.

"Thanks" she muttered, turning back to Piper.

After a few moments she addressed her gaze to Jason.

"She hit her head?"

To Leo it seemed like Jason was shocked to be addressed. It was if he had been pulled out of his own little world.

"Yeah."

Chrissy nodded to herself, in that way the always made everyone feel nervous.

"How long ago?"

That sent them all for a spin. How long ago? They hadn't been doing a very good job keeping track of time since they had left Camp Jupiter. They'd been sailing non-stop, and sleeping whenever they could. The only times they'd been judging were sun-up, and down.

Annabeth was the one who eventually replied.

"What's today?" She asked.

Artemisia raised her eyebrows while Ace snorted from the corner she was sitting in.

Chrissy replied without any of those dramatics, which Leo was grateful for. They didn't need to be reminded how messed up their situation was by a group of teenage runaways that lived in an underground cement building.

"Tuesday"

Huh. It'd only been three days. Felt like longer.

Well Pipes had hit her head right after the first sun rise so two days. Huh.

"Two days" Leo echoed out loud.

Chrissy pursed her lips, but didn't say anything fro a few moments, then-

"She has a mild concussion at least. There isn't much I can do for that. Keep her hydrated, not running or anything that could make her short of breath, nothing to jostle her head too much."

Leo watched his friends exchange glances, and knew that they were thinking the exact same thing that he was.

No way was that going to happen. Especially when they got back on the boat.

But none of them said a word.

"Now," Chrissy spoke again, turning to face him, "I believe you have some explaining to do, Leo"