Percy expected to be in the underworld, not back in Manhattan.

Nor did he expect to see Luke (Kronos, he reminds himself, Luke is gone) towering over him. He has dust in his hair and a sneer on his scarred face. Wordlessly, Kronos yanks Percy up by his forearm and leads him through the demolished city. Neither can physically speak.

The first thing Percy notices is that Grover and the nature spirits seemed to have disappeared. The second thing he notices is the quiet - it hurts his now-ghostly ears. As they walk further, and the silence is broken by wails, Percy decides that his eyes hurt much more.

Dozens of dead hunters and demigods litter the ground around the forever-frozen mortals. Well, the mortals excluding Paul, who is (oh gods) screeching and sobbing and hyperventilating. Percy is, too, when he sees what he is standing over. Who he is standing over.

Sally Jackson lies bloody and cold on the gravel. Her eyes are horrendously half-open; the parts of her pupils that are visible are dialated. The sticky redness that splatters her clothes is sickening. Percy practically dry heaves then and there. He still can't make any actual sounds.

Kronos forcibly tugs on Percy's forearm once more, making him stumble and fall right onto a body. A girl's body. A girl who has princess-blond hair that is framed with dust and skin that is becoming paler and blank grey eyes and oh gods please no please -

Percy scrambles off the person with a silent scream. He stops breathing for the second time that day. Manhattan starts to fade.

Annabeth, Percy thinks, I'm so sorry.

And then everything around him disappears.

Waking up to footsteps of all things wasn't exactly what Nico would call calming. More unsettling than anything.

Oh, and then, it had to be the Career pack that was trudging by. Along with... the boy from District 12? With no time to wonder why the District 12 boy (Patrick? Peter?) of all people was with the Careers, Nico pressed himself further against the tree trunk. He held his breath as the aforementioned tributes, who outnumbered Nico in both age and amount, and were armed with deadly weapons, just passed him by.

They were about fifteen feet away, Nico marveled, and they only spared me a few confused glances.

Nico stayed practically conformed to the tree until he had to breathe again, then didn't make a move to get out of his position for another agonizing minute after the Careers and Peeta moved out of view. Just because he was most likely going to die, he wasn't going to go down without a fight. Or this early in the game.

When he finally did move, he started by stretching out his legs and shoulders. As he stood, he took a few sips of water, blinking at the bright, artificial sky. Then up at the girl in the tree branches.

He stumbled backwards in surprise.

Nestled in the far-up leaves was Rue, who looked even smaller so high up. She looked content as she slept; Nico wished he was able to do that. Her small hands clung to the air in front of her. She appeared to be weaponless.

Nico flitted his gaze back towards the sun, suddenly debating. He thought about the way the Career pack didn't see him, and the fact that Rue probably didn't see him, either, since she still decided to climb the tree he was laying under. And how much easier it was to do things at night, in the dark.

That confirmed his decision. He settled down again in the cover of a few shrubs that concealed him, yet allowed him to escape.

The move was undeniably risky.

(I'm not going down without a fight.)

He mentally reset his internal clock.

(Or this early in the game.)

Nico slept once more, this time in the broad daylight.

- ... .. ... .. ... .- .-.. .. -. . -... .-. . .- -.-

Peeta didn't think traveling around with the Careers was all too bad, just not all too good, either.

All of them were a little (or very) sick-minded and plenty gory. Their thoughts seemed to always revolve around killing; kill this animal for food, kill this tribute because he's weak, kill this girl for revenge, kill the fire before someone sees the smoke. Killkillkill. And Peeta had already been scared about being murdered in his sleep. That fear had been recently spiked.

However, they could definitely hold their own, and then some. The Career pack dragged along this certain atmosphere, as well, driving away anyone who dared to get in their way. Not that it was likely anyone was crazy enough to get into their line of fire in the first place.

Being allies, or as close as allies you can get with Careers, was something like an internal compromise. Except that if you were asked to join and didn't accept, your chance of dying within the next 24 hours increased tenfold.

"Guys," one of the girls hissed, her body tensing. "I think there is someone nearby."

So much for no one being crazy enough.

"Are you sure?" a dark-haired boy whispered back. Before getting an answer, he turned his muscled body around to leer at the group's surroundings. "Hey, bread boy, do you think someone's watching us?" the boy asked, teasingly. "I don't see anybody."

Peeta decidedly scanned the area. A few bushes, some flowers, a shaded tree with a wide bottom. "It's unlikely," he answers, "Might've been a deer or something."

"Whatever," the other boy grunted, "Let's just get a move on."

Looking back once more, Peeta followed the rest of his "allies."

He was still wary, but he wasn't sure if it was because of the extra presence from before or his present company.

Maybe it was both.

- ... .. ... .. ... .- .-.. .. -. . -... .-. . .- -.-

Nico di Angelo woke up to a wall of fire.

Actually, he woke up to the herd of hurried animals moving around and over him.

The wall of fire came next.

Author's Note: (did you guys notice a reference to one of my other fics? And sorry this is only a little over a thousand words; the chapter was slightly thrown together.)

Hi, guys. Let's start with the chapter sorta run-down: TLO (most likely last one from actual PJO books), Nico, Peeta, Nico

Okay, so, as you probably noticed, I haven't updated in a while. The time between updates will probably remain pretty long due to:
a) There are times where I have zero inspiration or drive to write a chapter. This chapter definitely wasn't one of the more exciting/emotional ones (at least in my opinion), and when I write, I like to feel the emotions I'm writing, whether it be adrenaline, sadness, suspense, etc. Basically, I enjoy writing some chapters more than others.
b) Summer work (for school - one of the most annoying things ever)
c) Once September rolls around, I'm gonna have a bigger workload than I'm used to (somewhat age reveal - I'm going into high school).

With that said, I'm glad you guys have enjoyed reading this story so far. I'm determined to finish it, and after I do, I will most likely re-read it and edit it, and maybe get started on another multi-chapter story (there are lots of oneshot and au ideas piling up around here).

Keep reading, keep writing, and keep being you awesome self!