Hello, Fanfiction, and welcome to something completely different. today is my birthday and I am on the way to see my grandparents in heavy traffic, so I decided to get this scene out of my head and written down. I got this idea from the blog We Formally Apologize on tumblr, where artist Grace and writer Macy post a bunch of plot and/or scene ideas oriented around the Percy Jackson characters. This specific scene is inspired by Plot bucket #286, aka Percy with a crossbow. The important thing to know before you read is that this is part of a story I have not written yet and is a ways into the plot. The only context I will give is that Frank, Hazel, Jason, Leo, and Piper have ended up in another dimension where an apocalypse happened, and before this scene, bandits tried to take advantage of the girls and got their asses handed to them, Leo discovered a newspaper from 2015 that makes no mention of certain movies and events that it should, and now zombies are chasing them.

Let's see where this goes, shall we? Please r&r.

I do not own PJO or HoO.

Leo

Leo was glad he had napalm in his tool belt.

"Keep running!" He yelled, pulling a canister of some homemade boom juice from his tool belt and stopped running. Sure, the peeps in his cabin had Greek Fire, but Leo had learned just how unstable that stuff was the hard way. At least napalm wouldn't smoke and spew green flame if you dropped it.

Also, he could do suicidal stuff like this.

As the zombies (yes, they weren't the walking dead, but still) closed in on him, Leo burst open the container of napalm and ignited it, quickly setting everything in the corridor on fire, himself included.

Being immune to fire, Leo was only fazed by the smell of burning flesh and the screams of the dying infected. After he was sure the corridor was all aflame, Leo ran towards where his friends were going through the vine-covered door at the end of the hall. "Hurry!" Jason shouted, leveling that rifle they had found and looking for any approaching infected. Luckily, it looked as if the fire-user had killed or scared most of the zombies into staying cautious. As Leo finally ran through the door, Frank and Jason slammed the door shut and barricaded it. Everyone slumped down and sighed after they were sure they were in the clear.

"We need to keep moving," Hazel said, her golden eyes scared but determined.

"Hazel's right," Jason agreed. "We are exposed to both those things and the survivors out in the open like this, and I don't know who is more dangerous." She pointed at an alley. "Let's cut through the alleys, maybe we can find some store to hole up in, then we'll try the Empire state building tomorrow."

Leo grinned. Hey, they had a plan, and it involved not dying. It was a good start. "Lead the way, superman."

Making their way with Jason and his rifle in front, the demigods weaved thru the rotting buildings. Leo was looking at a car with a tree embedded in the engine block, wondering how long ago everything had gone to hell, when Jason hissed to everyone "cover!"

Leo ducked behind the car-tree, seeing the man who had wandered into the alley they were in. He appeared to be alone,but he was heavily armed, a sawed-off shotgun in his hand, a pistol on his hip, and a crossbow across his back. He was wearing all black, his face concealed by the long shadows. No sooner had the demigods ducked down that the shotgun was aimed squarely at where jason was hidden. When he spoke and stepped into the light, the man's tone said "you are an enemy and expendable until you prove otherwise." "Son," he began, "throw the rifle out on the ground. No one goes for a weapon, then we can talk about leaving this alley alive."

As the man said this, the demigods caught a glimpse of his face and all of them gasped and slowly stood up in shock, an expression returned by their waylayer.

"Percy?" Hazel asked timidly, breaking the stunned spell that had taken hold of the evening.

It was indeed Percy standing at the mouth of the alley. He was much much older than the Percy Leo had last seen not twelve hours ago. He still had messy black hair and sea-green eyes, but he had a more chiseled jaw and a stubble-covered face. He looked middle-aged, with lines just appearing on his face and an extremely world-weary way of carrying himself. A scar ran across his face from his right ear to his nose.

"It can't be," Percy muttered,taking a small step back and lowering his gun. "None of you should be here!"

Leo and his friends hesitated. Piper was the first to speak up. "Percy, we don't know how we got here, or what even happened to New York. Could you help us?"

"NO!" He yelled, his eyes on the verge of tears, looking unsure of whether to shoot them, run, or break down right where he stood. "You all died. Whether it was Gaea, Octavian and his coup, or the fucking cbi, you all died, because I wasn't fast enough. There was nothing I could have done, I was fucking hopeless."

Suddenly, Percy was on the ground crying. Leo was shocked. Percy, the strongest demigod he knew, looked broken. Leo was about to walk forward and speak, when whom else other than Annabeth stormed into the alley.

She also looked older, but the daughter of Athena was wearing two wicked long knifes and looked ready to use it on the first person who coughed. Her grey eyes sweeped the younger demigods, and then settled on a neutral expression as she quietly comforted Percy in Greek.

After a few moments, she asked one simple question. "What year is it?"

Jason quickly answered. "2016. What was Percy saying about Gaea, we defeated her three years ago?"

Annabeth sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Right. I am not entirely sure, but I think you might be from an alternate universe."

Leo's brow furrowed. "That was easy," he muttered, "what convinced you?"

Annabeth pointedat Jason. "He was telling the truth," Annabeth stated, "and in this world, the giant war lasted two long years until in 2015 the Gods and Gaea set the entire world ablaze. The entire Greek world was all but wiped out. That was twenty years ago."