Reyna wasn't quite sure what happened. One moment there was a bang the next there was blood and lots of it. Thalia scrambled to her feet and grasped Reyna's arm her hand slick with blood.

"Come on!" She yelled dragging Reyna down the street at a sprint. Reyna stared back at the incident in horror before shaking her head and following Thalia. She wasn't sure where they were going but it didn't matter, they needed to get away and fast.

"Are you hurt?" Reyna panted as they ducked into a side street and Thalia slumped against the wall out of breath. Reyna noticed her free hand was now clamped over the wound that was gushing blood from her wrist. "Oh God."

"I need to get home." Thalia grunted as a puddle of blood collected on the ground.

"No you need to get to the hospital." Reyna said kneeling in front of her worriedly.

"My mom can't afford that shit." Thalia growled biting her lip to distract herself from the pain. "Take me to Apollo's. There's medical supplies there, he studied medicine."

"You're insane!" Reyna looked at her friend wide eyed before dragging her to her feet and guiding her down the street. It was a painstakingly long walk and Reyna knew by the way Thalia was staggering she'd lost too much blood already.

Reyna knocked on the door urgently and thankfully Artemis was quick to open it. The other girl was about to ask what was wrong when she spotted all of the blood. "Inside now. Bathroom. Go."

Reyna was half carrying Thalia now and held the girl's wrist over the sink when they made it to the bathroom. Thalia was having a hard time staying awake.

"What the hell happened?" Artemis demanded sprinting down the hall with her brother's first aid kit. "Where's Apollo?"

"He's still at the party. Octavian and Orion tried to pull some crazy ass stuff." Reyna didn't know how to stitch anything but she'd seen it done once on a documentary. Thalia was too out of it to feel the pain anyways and with shaking hands Reyna tried to suture the wound.

"Why would they corner you guys? They want nothing to do with any of us." Artemis frowned trying to clean up all of the blood.

"Look it's a long story alright? We found some stuff out and they know. They're behind all of this." Reyna breathed tying off the end of the thread.

"Thalia, I told you not to go looking into anything!" Artemis growled looking like she wanted to slap the delirious Grace who could only slur a half hearted apology.

"We went to the scene of Selina's death. We found this watch and some eye print and a data drive. I'm guessing it got blown up." Reyna explained. "Thing is Leo checked the hard drive. There's all sorts of stuff on it. Messages, photos, all of it about the stuff going on."

"You should have gotten rid of that when you had the chance." Artemis shook her head smacking Thalia on the cheek to keep her awake.

"I figured we could use it." Reyna grunted bandaging over the poor stitch job.

"What? Turn it into the cops?" Thalia's breathing slowed down a bit but she seemed more stable now that the bleeding wasn't as bad.

"I don't know. Do something with it!" Reyna retorted.

"You don't get it." Artemis smacked Reyna's hands away from the medical kit drawing her attention, grabbing her by the front of her shirt. "They will kill you. The police are in their pocket. You are asking for a death wish."

"Don't you want to know what happened to them?" Reyna asked studying the other girl's silver eyes.

"No I don't. Whatever it was, it was horrible, I don't need that on my conscience."

"Look at the hard drive." Reyna had brought it along against better judgment. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like it needed to be on her at all times-in the right hands. She placed it in Artemis' hands.

With that Reyna carried Thalia out to the couch and propped her up on a few pillows. "Stay awake Grace."

"I'm hungry." Thalia mumbled. Reyna couldn't help but laugh ever so slightly.

"Right. Well I'll get you something." She smiled double checking the medical job she'd done.

"Bacon? Yeah...that would be pretty nice." Thalia smiled lopsidedly.

"You are a dork." Reyna laughed shaking her head. "Fine, maybe if you behave."

Thalia lazily saluted. "Aye aye captain."

The front door opened and Apollo entered with wild hair and a party scent to him. You know the kind where alcohol, body odor, and gross snacks all mixed together. "Dudes there was some crazy fight that happened."

"We know." Artemis replied curtly not looking too pleased about his state of being. "Get inside and wash off you're disgusting."

"Nah man, I'm a chick magnet." He smiled his teeth impossibly white. Still, Apollo headed down the hall not too steady on his feet.

"You all are going to drive me insane." Artemis sighed shaking her head. "If you need anything I'll be in my room...I guess."

Reyna watched her go, a tiredness never seeming to leave the girl. In truth, Reyna felt a bit guilty for springing so much on her at once. Reyna stayed next to Thalia for a good hour making sure her vitals were steady before she allowed Thalia to fall asleep.

Apollo sang loudly in the shower but surprisingly well. Collecting her thoughts Reyna headed up stairs readying an apology in her mind for the auburn haired girl. Perhaps she should have knocked but Reyna didn't think much about it.

She opened the door to the relatively barren room to see Artemis sitting on the floor with her legs crossed the dusty box that had been tucked aside in the corner of the closet now open in front of her.

Reyna guessed she should have walked away but she was curious. Artemis pulled something out that was immediately recognizable as a letter man's jacket. It was grey with black patches for different sorts of achievements. On the back was a carefully stitched name, Nightshade.

Artemis studied the item carefully running her fingers over the lettering before slipping it on and snuggling into the fabric. She glanced back inside the box and rummaged around before a very slight smile caused the corners of her lips to twitch. She withdrew a baseball with a signature scrawled on it and a date.

Reyna couldn't help but feel a bit sad for the other girl. She made a move to leave when Artemis spotted her. "You can come in."

Reyna froze like a kid being caught stealing from a cookie jar. "A-are you sure?"

"I guess I want company for once. It keeps me from wanting to do stupid stuff." Reyna didn't quite know what those words implied but she got the feeling that digging through the box of items didn't always bring happy emotions.

"The baseball. What game was it?" Reyna asked stepping inside and shutting the door.

"San Francisco Giants versus The Cardinals. It wasn't important to either of us but it was our first real date. The only reason we got this though was because one of the Cardinal players gave it back." Artemis explained turning the ball over in her hands.

"Gave it back?" Reyna questioned.

"Well, you aren't supposed to throw a ball back on the field if you catch one. See, there was a player on the Giants, I forget his name, but he is a notoriously sexist person. He gave the ball to Zoë and she just looked him dead in the eye and chucked it back at his head." Reyna couldn't help but laugh. In fact, she could picture Thalia doing something similar.

"That's actually amazing." Reyna smiled. She watched in amusement as Artemis set the ball back in the box and instead pulled out a picture frame.

"This was her favorite and only photo of all of us." Artemis passed the frame over to Reyna. It really was a pretty picture. It consisted of four somewhat familiar people. Thalia was sitting on a stool smiling dorkishly while holding a guitar. Meanwhile Bianca was a blur dancing wildly in her socks. Zoë had from the looks of it stolen Thalia's hat and sunglasses and was now wearing them pretending to be a rapper. Artemis held a glass of water in hand and judging by her expression she was trying not to spit it everywhere from laughing. "Apollo snagged it during a sleep over."

"I can only imagine the look on his face." Reyna smiled handing the photo back. "What's that?"

"That was Zoë's favorite book." Artemis said gingerly picking up the worn piece of literature. "She always had a fascination with Shakespeare but she despised Romeo and Juliet. Couldn't read more than a paragraph."

"I always hated Romeo and Juliet. It makes no sense to me." Reyna shook her head. "Why pine over some asshole of a boy like that?"

"That was her thinking." Artemis laughed. "My brother has tried numerous times to get rid of all this."

"What? Why?" Reyna asked in surprise.

"He thinks I'm stupid for holding on to the past but..." Artemis shook her head.

"You don't have to explain." Reyna spoke softly.

"I have to remember things. If I forget I won't forgive myself. Besides it's the only comfort I really have anymore. I can pretend that maybe tomorrow she'll come walking back in the front door. I don't know what I'd do if he ever got rid of this stuff. Probably die." Reyna noticed how Artemis' expression shifted to one of sadness and lack of emotion. She briefly recalled the pill bottles that remained full on the girl's desk.

It wasn't her call to make but Reyna knew from Thalia that Apollo only grew more and more pissed off with Artemis' lack of caring for herself. Only Reyna realized that Artemis wanted to be sad. It was her way of making sure she was still capable of feeling, still capable of grieving over her loss, the day she went numb clearly frightened Artemis.

She would rather feel too much than nothing at all. Pain was better than nothing, and in a way Reyna understood. She had been very much the same when it came to the loss of her father.

"Maybe she will. Tell you what, you don't have to look at the hard drive." Reyna held out her hand and Artemis all too willingly gave the data back. Reyna realized maybe she didn't need to look at it. If she did there was no telling what kind of impact that could have on Artemis' psyche. "I'll get rid of it when I can."

"I'm sorry for being so...rude, things are just difficult. Apollo gets so angry at me but then he goes and parties all the time. It's like, I know he's as defeated as I am but it's not the same. He doesn't want to feel anything. I don't understand." Artemis shook her head.

Reyna sighed. They were twins and yet polar opposites, Apollo wanted to feel nothing at all, Artemis wanted to feel everything, she was secluded while he insisted on socializing, she held on to the past, he rushed to forget it. They would come to a confrontation eventually and Reyna wasn't sure either would come out in tact if such a thing were to happen.

"It's okay. Things are hard on all of us. I just, since I came back, things have felt better, having Thalia around makes me feel like a kid again." Reyna explained with a melancholy hint to her voice. "I still feel guilty for vanishing like I did."

"Hey, if one of us can have a vanishing girl cut the magician's act and reappear I'm glad it's her." Artemis gave Reyna a tired smiled and Reyna got the impression the conversation was drawing to a close. "She's lucky to have you."

"Thanks. Sometimes I think it's the other way around." Reyna stood and bid Artemis farewell. She managed to collect a sleeping Thalia and after calling Hylla and providing a shitty explanation Reyna dropped Thalia off at her home and made it in one piece back to her own.

"You okay hermana?" Hylla asked glancing at Reyna as she pulled into her driveway. "You're quite."

"I'm alright." Reyna gave her a soft smile. Seems like I'm the only one who's ever alright.