PJO/TMI crossover... Percabeth, Malec, a few OCs. Credits to Cassy and Uncle Rick (Cassandra Clare and Rick Riordan) for two perfct stories... They own it except my OCs and plot(ish) Sorry it's short...

Caden ducked as the tentacle-like arm swung over her head. She jabbed the sharpened stick into where the armpit would be, but the point only jabbed into the jelly-like substance of the…thing's… body, meeting little resistance. She pulled the stick out with a wrench, and corrosive black liquid spilled from the wound, further burning her arms, legs and chest. The stick was surprisingly resilient in the onslaught, and had yet to decay even as her skin had. The creature, seemingly uninjured, let out a menacing howl; the flabby jowls around its slash of a mouth fluttered- she could see the rows of needle-like teeth within.

She let out a manic laugh and curse as she danced away from the swinging, spike covered tail. A lattice work of blue veins glowed beneath the murky grey membrane of skin.

The burns the black blood had made on her chest were cold and throbbing, and she could see shadows creeping into the edges of her vision. She didn't have long left. She could feel it in the way exhaustion pulled on her lids, see it in the leisurely movements of the advancing terror, hear it in her labored breathing, the slow pounding of her heart, louder now than she had ever noticed, trying frantically to beat out its final message.

Stumbling now, she picked up the stick from where it had dropped to the ground. "If I'm going down," she whispered, her scratchy voice catching as she drew breath, "I'm taking you with me." Viscously, she stabbed the stick through the creature's midriff, again and again, spattering herself with its acidic blood.It doesn't matter, she thought, as the blood coated her arms, spattered her face. The shadows crept farther into her vision. It's over. She watched in a daze as the thing folded in on itself, in half, and in half again, before it disappeared.

Her legs gave out and she crumpled to the ground. Her eyes slid shut, her face still pointed to the space the creature had disappeared from. She thought she heard hooves, but no, that had to be the pounding of her blood, it was moving so quickly now she was sure she would drown, drown from the inside.

Her body was giving out, and she knew her mind would soon follow, slip into the welcoming darkness around her. The pine needle strewn ground was damp beneath her. She wanted only to put out the fire on her chest, in her chest. She had never known pain like this… something stirred in her mind, some distant memory of how to heal, but she was too far gone to grab it.

Delirious, she felt the flames lick their way over her, climbing into her hair, snaking down her back to her feet. She didn't want to open her mouth to scream- the flames would only climb inside. She would be nothing but ashes, ashes in the rain…

And the darkness claimed her for its own.

"What got her?" a worried, decidedly male voice asked. "Is she dead?"

A girl's voice replied. "Shut up seaweed brain. She's breathing." Her words were light, but her tone was far from it.

Caden listened as though under water. The words took an extraordinarily long time to reach her, trickling down into the depths of her consciousness. She couldn't open her eyes, couldn't move. But she could hear, and the other girl's voice was full of concern… for her?

"She's got bad burns, some third degree… mostly second, I think. She'll be badly scarred. Dammit, I'm not good at this stuff. I need one of Apollo's kids." She raised her voice to a shout. "Nico! I need Will. Now."

"He's in the big house," a younger boy's voice replied. "Bring her in."

"There's something wrong," the girl replied. "We can't get her over the border." Her voice cracked as she yelled one finale word, "Please."

"I just don't understand," the boy who had been called seaweed brain said. "How could she have seen the monster and not get across the border?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" the girl replied. "She's just a mortal with the Sight. Which is why I need Will. I can feed a half-blood ambrosia, but give me a mortal with a paper cut, and I'm out of my depth."

"Says the girl who splinted her own broken ankle with a rotted board and some bubble wrap, just so she could finish her quest."

"It was a pretty damn important quest," the girl replied. "And just in case you needed reminding, it saved everyone here's asses. And that includes yours."

The boy sighed heavily. "I only wish it was everyone."

There was a long silence, broken only by the frantic clop of hooves. "Chiron," the girl said. "Did you bring anything? I've rinsed her burns as best I can but I don't have anything cold. They're still steaming a little. And there's all this black goo, all over her clothes. I've never seen it before, but it must have been what burned her… gods, I wish I still had Daedalus' laptop."

Caden forced her eyes open, but what she saw was so strange, she almost wished he hadn't. A pretty blonde girl was leaning over her, examining her shoulder, which was red and black, and covered in blisters. Beside her knelt one of the most beautiful people she had ever seen- a tall, tanned boy with floppy dark hair and sea green eyes. She saw them widen as her own dark brown ones opened. Her gaze flicked on, to a man riding a horse- no, he was the horse, his t-shirt clad upper body merging smoothly with the body of a horse. Standing just to his right, shaking, was a short, tanned teenager, with horns poking out of his curly blonde hair. But the most extraordinary thing about him was that his legs were covered with shaggy fur, and where his feet should have been, cloven hooves instead struck the earth.

Caden squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shake the bizarre hallucination. Why wasn't she dead?

"No it's okay," the girl's voice said. "We won't hurt you. Help is coming. Those are some pretty nasty burns. How did you get them?"

In response, Caden squeezed her eyes more tightly shut and shook her head.

"Do you want to tell me your name?" the girl asked. "My name is Annabeth. The guy beside me is Percy. The centaur is Chiron, and the satyr is Ashton."

"Caden."

"Pardon me?"

"My name," she said mores strongly, her eyes still squeezed shut. She was surprised her voice even worked. "Caden."

"Well, hello. You're safe now. You can open your eyes. Our best medic is on his way."

Tentatively, she sneaked a peak between her lids. They strange people were still where she had left them. "Annabeth," she whispered to the blonde girl. "Percy," to the boy. She looked between the horse man and the goat boy, then shot a questioning glance at Annabeth.

The horse man caught it. "I'm Chiron," he said, "a centaur."

Caden turned her gaze to the goat boy. "Ashton," she said. "satyr." Ashton nodded, looking as though he wanted to swallow his tongue. Caden almost smiled. She tried to sit up, hating the helplessness of lying down, but the sharp race of pain across her torso forced her back as surely as if she had been pushed.

"Stay down," Annabeth said, "you'll be okay."

But Caden knew she wouldn't. She felt as though metal bands were tightening around her chest. The world started to go fuzzy, as though snow was falling across her vision. Her eyes slipped shut as she fought to keep the newly reawakened fire at bay. A distressed boy's voice was saying something, but his words were an empty mumble, unintelligible through the numbing pain the constricting shadows caused. She felt someone force her mouth open, and something cool, with an herbal, buttery taste, slid down her throat. The shadows of fire retreated, taking her energy with them, and she sunk into the dreamless void of unconsciousness.

Please R&R, it would mean the world, even if it's just a smiley face... I love criticism too; so please be brutal! I'm open to input on story direction, but I have an endgame... Hope you liked it!