Hi! Long time no see, guys!

Someone suggested Percy Jackson, and I didn't have any other ideas. This started as a really sad, angsty chapter...and then Percy came in messed it up. Him and Piper. Together. Shame on them.

Hope I wrote him alright, he's a fun character, but a little hard to capture. Also sorry if Piper if slightly occ in this. Percy brings out the childish side of her. I think they could be really great or really awful friends.

Percy Jackson book - set sometime in the first series

Character(s) - Percy

Charmed season - Set post-season 7 (Chris mention)

Character(s) - Piper

Charmed Meets Percy Jackson

He's just a boy, Piper thought faintly as she stared at him. That wasn't an entirely accurate statement, though, considering the old, weary and burdened eyes - eyes that contained a beautiful ocean of green - the clearly used (Greek) breastplate, and the dirtied sword he handled with deadly delicacy.

His black hair hung in lanky, oily locks that had to obscure his vision - but he didn't show it. Not with his fighting.

There were lines around his eyes, creases on his forehead and around his mouth that had no business appearing on someone so young. The orange t-shirt peeking out underneath the armor and the ripped jeans were almost the last indicators of his true age.

The boy couldn't have been more than sixteen. Maybe fifteen, even.

But this was someone who had seen countless battles, lost dear friends, and was barely still standing. The witch had observed his skills with a blade in quite awe, and there was no doubt that this was a trained warrior, a scarred veteran, and all she could think was...

No.

This shouldn't have happened.

Had the world degraded so far that they were now relying on their own children to fight for them? Were they destroying all innocence now? This boy shouldn't have had to cup the fate of the world in his hands and hope, pray that somehow, it would be okay.

Finally, as she stepped from the shadows to confront him, his eyes tracked to hers. It was silly, though - he had sensed her from the start.

"Percy?" She asked, her voice uncertain but her heart sure. "Jackson?"

"Who're you?" The warrior, whose moves had been a graceful art and his swordplay a beautiful blur, spoke bluntly. Piper blinked.

Raising his sword higher, he stepped back into a fighter's stance.

"Okay, seriously. Who are you?" Piper had just opened her mouth to reply when he cut her off. "You know what, it doesn't matter. 'Cause I've had a long day, and if you want to kill me, you might as well get on with it."

Although anger (er, irritation) was not part of her plan, the Halliwell found herself crossing her arms over her chest and scowling at the 'boy'.

"Who said I wanted to kill you? Maybe I happen to be one of the 'good guys'! You don't know!"

While the demi-god squinted curiously at her and pointedly lowered his weapon, he did not sheath it. In fact, he did not seem to be wearing a sheath, and she had to wonder if this 'war' had became so bad he had to carry an open blade at all times.

"Lady," He began, and Piper already found herself rolling her eyes at his disrespectful tone. Kids these days. "People don't usually come up to me in dark allies and ask my name. It's kind of solely a 'bad guy' thing."

"No, it's not, because I'm here, I'm good - and I'm here to help."

He blinked. She blinked back, trying not to worsen her scowl. Noting the dingyness of the ally, the black ground that may at somepoint have been concrete, and the walls that dripped, she quickly ran out of things to note. So she shifted her gaze back onto him and found her temper rising at his befuddled expression.

"Really!" She insisted. "I'm here to help you in your war, or whatever."
Perhaps waving a hand dismissively as she said the word 'war' was a bit much, but in Piper's defense, she'd just done a lot of dimension hopping, helped a ton of people, and assisted in a lot of wars. They simply weren't as personal, or meaningful to her as they were to the natives. That and she was tired.

But of course the boy took it the wrong way. His grip tightened on the sword, and his muscles tensed again, ready to spring into action. It was clear that he took her disregard of the battle as a sign that she was a deity, if his next words were any indication.

"So are you supposed to be a god, or...?"

"BZZZ!" She said, making the smug sound that buzzers made when you got a question wrong on a gameshow. "Wrong. Although, for a short time I was this goddess of...actually, that's not important."

It was only making things worse, in fact. His suspicious gaze had gone even more suspicious-er.

"Let's start over?" She offered with a nervous smile. She gestured towards herself, saying, "I'm Piper. Halliwell, that is, but I guess you don't have the Charmed Ones in this universe."
"'Charmed Ones'?" He echoed, edging backwards. Probably thought she was crazy by now. "Is that like, the name of your band?"

"No!"

Piper took a deep breath. It was pretty hard to recall the image of the exhausted, teen war-hero when the boy in front of her was trying his hardest to annoy her.

"We're wit..." She cleared her throat abruptly, knowing from experience with other worlds that the 'w' word could have...adverse effects. Namely, the desire to tie her to stakes and do crazy things like light her on fire.

"We're a powerful force of good. Destined to fight evil, prophesied, yada yada yada – the point is we are not from here."

"...You're not from New York?"

"California, actually. I mean, no! NO! I'm from a different earth!"
"'From a different earth'? No, wait. I am really confused."

Percy rubbed his forehead with his non-sword hand, a gesture the woman craved to echo, as she had been on the receiving end of this conversation a few too many times before.

"So you're an alien now?"

For all that was good, and Elderly, she was going to vanquish him. Right then; right there. Demi-gods could be sent to Tartarus. The world could burn.

This was just too frickin' difficult and her patience was simply too short. Piper attempted to recall how to relax, starting with breathing and thinking of sweet, motherly things – only she was prone to losing her temper at her kids, too. Finally, she abandoned all attempts such as those and ran a hand through her hair.

"...I'm from an alternate dimension, Percy."

To others, such news would've brought a good deal of shock, surprise, or at least curiousity. In this boy, it brought none of the three – to her surprise, he took it easily, in stride.

"Okay."

"Um...yeah. S-so...We're on the same page now, right?" She questioned cautiously. Though he had replied positive, there was a perplexed quirk to his eyebrow that refused to vanish and promised to have her banging her head against the alley wall within 30 minutes.

Still, the teen gave her a nod.

"Yeah."

"Yeah?"

"Sure."

"Good."

Piper pushed back a lock of hair from her face and smiled at the boy. Percy was a pretty cute teenager (and she was speaking as the future mother of one) when he was agreeable, she realized. And then he spoke again and shattered the illusion.

"Right...you're an alien from an alternate dimension?"

She stared at him. Long and hard and filled with something close to real and true annoyance.

"Believe it or not, um, Piper, that's not the weirdest thing I've faced today. Although...it it the newest."

The woman only shook her head.

"Seriously. I...I don't know if I wanna help you fight Kronos anymore. I-I think I'm done."

And she made to turn and stride back into the darkness of the alley street when his hand shot out and captured her arm.

"Wait."

Perhaps her heartbeat had increased somewhat when he made contact with her, and not in a good way, but she prided herself in managing not to blow up the demi-god hero, and attempted something of a calm smile. Her sister's would've been proud – facing such a provoking environment so well.

If his sigh meant anything, Percy most likely was as frustrated as her. Only thing was, this guy didn't care about what she thought and didn't seem to have much in the ways of 'shutting up'.

"You say you want to help?" His tone was hard. The sword in his hand had never been more apparent.

Piper nodded.

"Okay. Fine."

"'Fine'?" She queried, confused.

"Fine."

"A-alrighty then."

Truthfully, when she had begun this conversation, she had not expected to emerge from it victorious. Hey, while she was stubborn beyond all measure, she was also a very practical person. She had predicted something of an alliance a few meetings after this one.

Letting her go, he gave her a blank side-glance.

"If you really want to help us in the war, I'm going to need to take you to Annabe – I mean, someone who can determine if you're trustworthy. Then we'll see where we need you. That work for you?"
His voice made it abundantly clear that he was otherwise preoccupied and if this proposition did not work for her, she would not receive another one.

She gave him a nod and a confident grin – she only needed the one chance.

A/N: Might write more later. Merry late Christmas, guys!

(still sobbing after watching the Doctor Who Christmas special, anyone else? I miss Matt Smith sooo much! Aww, I just made myself cry again...)