As far as on the spot plans, Hazel thought Leo's plan was half decent. It took him probably five minutes to formulate the odds and ends and unexpected happenings, it must have taken Hazel all of four seconds to ruin it all.

Leo had angrily explained his idea, which was fairly simple and hard to mess up. When Frank pointed out there was no way that Leo and Hazel could make it all the way through the Monsters undetected, Leo's eyes flashed and he requested ten dollars.

And he bought flashlights from a nearby store.

So they were about to fight a gang that had Guns, knives, and fists, with flashlights.

"It's like laser tag," Leo said flicking the light on and off to check if it worked, "Except you get points for blinding people instead."

They were standing in an alley nearby the warehouse that the Monsters were in. Frank had shone Leo the phone map and his eyes grew twice their size. He didn't elaborate why but Hazel thought that she heard something about technological geniuses.

Hazel was currently holding the phone staring at the screen warily. Frank and Piper were helping Leo build his escape plan device and every once in a while she could hear Leo scold one of them, or a sparking of wires.

Hazel bit her lip. The red dots of the Monsters were milling around inside the warehouse like a huge meeting. There were two green dots in a back room close together, labeled "hostages", very helpfully. Hazel hoped her step brother was one of those, but it was impossible to find out until they opened the back door.

Her eyes flicked to the other mass of color. She scrolled across town to the other warehouse. The red color formulated like blood. It made her queasy, one line green dot was in a back room with one other red dot. Hazel knew whatever was going on in there she didn't what to know. She looked at the one mysterious icon standing right outside the door to the warehouse, a silver star labeled, Zoë Nightshade.

Hazel hoped Thalia was okay. Hell, she hoped she, herself, would be okay. Thalia didn't stick around long enough to explain who her friend was, or how she knew about the Monsters. Her only clue was the icon name.

Please, be okay. Please, be okay...Hazel repeated the chant silently in her head. She wished desperately she could rewind the clock, back to last night. Maybe she could've had Nico stay home, or stuck around just to make sure everything was okay. She could've shoved Thalia out the door, or tripped and fallen down the steps breaking her arm and had to go to the hospital.

"Okay, We're ready." Leo said, the anger that had inhabited his features had disappeared. He couldn't see but behind him Piper was looking at him cautiously, like he might be the thing that blows up and not the metal ball in his hands. Frank gave her a small smile, but Hazel could sense his distress.

Maybe, if she could turn back the clock, she could have said goodbye.

***

Leo made the signal, a quick flash off the light off the wall. Frank and Piper crept towards the back of the warehouse, silent as mice which was surprising considering Frank's size.

Hazel glanced at Leo. They knelt next to a stack of milk carton crates out of view of any one not looking specifically for them.

She was worried for him. He'd never seemed to jumpy before. She tried to dismiss it as his ADHD, but something kept bugging her. A little voice in the back of her mind reminding her that he'd wished Piper had left him to die.

His back was rigid like he was awaiting the worst. Hazel wondered if he was still completely angry with her about the secret.

"I can feel you staring." Leo said coarsely.

Hazel looked away quickly, an uneasiness settling over her like a thick blanket.

Leo sighed muttering something that only he would know. "Look, Hazel," Leo said, his voice softer than earlier, "I didn't mean what I said back there. About the secret. I was angry."

Hazel noted that he didn't take back what he said about dying.

"It's...just..." Leo tensed his shoulders, "It gets harder, you know? I can see everyone around me find their prefect match, Piper and Jason, you and Frank- don't deny it. I know you like him. I can't help wondering when I'm going to find my match. If I'm going to find my match."

Hazel bit her lip, a nervous habit that was going to end up with her bleeding down her chin, "You'll find her, Leo."

He pressed his fingers against his pocket, a black expression on his face, though his eyes were misty. Hazel watched as he pulled out a folded blue card.

"What's that?"

"Something I'm not sure I'll need." Leo replied.

"What?"

"There's our signal." Leo said getting up, he didn't look back at her. He shoved the blue folder back into his pocket and readied his flashlight.

"Wait, what do you mean-?"

He ran out of their cover, before she could finish, leaving Hazel's only choice to follow.

(A/N: Quick question, do you guys know what the blue card is? If so you probably know how this is going to end.)

Hazel had never been so terrified in her life. Leo slammed into the warehouse door, smiling like he had the world in his hands. The door gave in and whoever had been behind it was crushed between the door and the wall with a gross sounding snap.

Inside was dark, about a hundred people wearing black and red shirts chose together. The only light were kerosene lamps that made the shadows look intensely inhuman and stacked in the corners and one in the center.

All eyes turned towards them, and Leo pulled off a malicious laugh.

"Hi." He said, then "Bye!"

Just like that he flashed the light so bright that all the Monsters suffered back screaming. Hazel darted threw them, her flashlight shining like a beam of pure destruction. Someone started shooting and more chaos erupted like a wild fire. Hiding and yelling filled her ears. A blade narrowly missed her shoulder and, human and inhuman screeches twisted all sound.

Leo was of on the other side of the room jumping and screaming just to add a little more chaos. Hazel wasn't sure, but she thought she could hear him genuinely laughing, like he was having fun.

"Crazy Lunatic." She mumbled, she leapt over a fallen person who was crying and covering their eyes. Gunshots flung about the room, people collapsed. The red eye symbol that one held the prize of powerful and organized brigands now looked like a joke.

The back door to the room were the two people were being held wad latched shut. Hazel shoved the flashlight in her mouth using two hands to open the heavy latch.

She reached for the knob, her fingers barely grazing the cool metal. Then suddenly she let out a sharp yep as her hair was ripped back, the flashlight tumbling out of her mouth.

Two bony hands gripped her hair wrenching her had backwards so it was right next to a creepy woman's face. The woman hissed and Hazel twisted and elbows her straight in the nose. The woman's scream was drowned in the gunshots as other people shoved and pushed around. Hazel snatched her flashlight back up, bounding towards the door.

A bullet embedded itself in the wall inches from her face, a woozy feeling swept over her. Then the screams intensified. Light beams bounced off everything reflective surface. Frank appeared next to her driving his elbow into the stomach of some guy with a knife.

She gulped and he nodded at her gruffly. She supposed he would've smiled had they not been so close to dying. Hazel throw open the door.

For a second, Hazel thought the messed up chaos behind her had fallen to a deafening silence. She remembered Annabeth, the girl when she'd run into the Theater. She looked terrified, but that was nothing to what she looked like now.

She looked like she went through literal Hell.

The boy, Perseus, was worse. His skin was a sickly pale, his cheek bruised an ugly blackish purple. His sweatshirt was stained incredibly bad, a blossoming red tint around his stench. His jeans were ripped and his breathing sounded terrible.

Annabeth had tears streaming down her face, her cheek sliced with dried blood. Her golden hair was tangled into some messy thing. He arms were scratched and bruised.

Frank surged past Hazel running towards them. The sound of gunshots swung Hazel into action. Annabeth must have trusted Frank because she tried to help him carry the boy.

Frank talked soothing words to her, but the screams in the other room must have been as terrifying as Hazel thought they were.

"I'm Frank," Frank said causally, his eyes darting towards Hazel, "and this is Hazel. Don't worry, we've got this."

Hazel was amazed at how well he remained. The boy coughed something that was like a laugh, "Percy..." He gasped, "see...Ann-Annabeth... told...you...we'd...be...alright-" he broke into a series of severe gasping coughs.

Frank let a look of flash in his eyes but it was gone just as far as in came. Frank carried Percy out with surpassing ease and Hazel found Annabeth's wrist.

Flashlight on, Hazel acted like a beacon of terror. Her beam blinded anything nearby, a resounding scream of curses, and hissing left in its wake.

What, were these people bats or something? Nocturnal?

Leo's laughing sounded as annoying as ever as he jumped along bouncing to fast too for anyone to catch him. Piper also was a distracting sight. Not only was she blinding the monsters, she was whirling and kicking too, like she'd studied kung fu her whole life. Hazel stomped on someone's upper body as they attempted to grab Frank's feet from under him.

Annabeth kicked someone in the face. The darkness almost hiding the smirk on the mute girls face. Monsters ran around, someone had dropped the gun and all that remained was the screaming.

Then Leo pulled out something, a small switch thing and pressed it.

"MONSTERS! THIS IS THE POLICE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

The voice of a police officer yelled through the air. The monsters froze in a shocked panic, and then flooded all around screaming even louder than before.

Leo grinned, proudly. His machine had worked. And the voice recording repeated louder.

"THIS IS THE POLICE!"

Frank kicked open the door barging outwards into the sun. Hazel pushed Annabeth after him.

"Piper!" Hazel called. The fiery girl whipped about. She darted past Hazel out the door. She turned back towards Leo, motioning frantically, for him to hurry.

"Stop Him!" Someone screamed and the Monsters grabbed towards Leo, someone grabbing his arm.

"Go Hazel!" Leo yelled over the the noise. Hazel froze.

This was his plan. She realized. He never intended to make it out. There was no way. He captured all of the attention to let Frank and Piper and her get out. By doing that, he wouldn't be able to get out. He was sacrificing himself for her.

"Like Hell, Valdez!" She yelled.

So Hazel ruined his plan. He was not dying on her. They may not have been dating anymore, but they were friends. And Friends don't let friends die.

She grabbed a kerosene lamp, that was sitting on either side of the door, and she threw it into the center.

And it broke into another lamp. Flames shot up wards like rockets, horrifying orange fireworks. Leo's eyes grew huge, his jaw dropped, the nearest monster was caught on fire screaming as smoke flooded off his skin. The monsters ran away, forgetting Leo entirely.

And it seemed Leo forgot himself too.

He didn't move.

"LEO!" Hazel screamed.

Tears streamed down his face, his eyes stared into the flames that wove jagged patterns like he was seeing something terrible.

"LEO!" She screamed again. Smoke obscured her vision slightly, "VALDEZ!"

He didn't move.

"LEO!"

Suddenly as if he'd been slapped in the face, he snapped back to himself. Coughing heavily he ran towards her, the support beams over head cracked one crashing down inches away from him, orange lit the walls. Smoke poured out any gaps it could find. Hazel grabbed Leo's hand and they pulled out the door.

The smoke flew away and they tumbled to the ground.

Seconds later, the entire building exploded with fire.

Heat brushed Hazel's hair back and Leo stared wide eyed at the ground in front of them. Passerbys were screaming and pointing at them and the building, yelling into phones, the walls of sirens echoed in the city.

"No dying." Hazel said.

"No dying." Leo agreed.

****

I tried so hard. Seriously. I tried to kill Leo. BUT I COULDN'T! I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH. *sigh* bye for now guys!

~Greenninjagal