Pandemonium

Tony looked on in surprise as his plane lifted into the air and shot off in the opposite direction.

What the hell!? He thought.

Either he had misunderstood Apollo's plan or something had gone wrong. He only hoped that the supposed gods hadn't tricked them into a trap or something.

He turned to look at his team, who were all looking in the direction of the plane which was flying away from their location, at a super high speed, backwards.

Are planes even capable of flying in reverse!?

He had to go home and do some research on that, he noted.

After a few more seconds of staring at the plane, the Avengers decided to walk to the nearest intersection where the gods had promised to meet them.

They waited for about a minute before the team's patience started to wane. They were attracting looks and Tony did not like to be unsure of anything. Never in front of the public. He was supposed to be a genius after all. This incident better not damage his public image, he thought, or he'll be asking Apollo to compensate heavily.

Tony didn't need anymore money though. What could he ask from the guy who claims to be a god? Maybe he'll ask him to make Tony a better archer than Clint! Now THAT was an idea.

Tony's thoughts were interrupted when a teenager suddenly materialised before the team. Materialised, as in, dropped onto the ground from thin air. Was that how children thought babies were made?

The girl had weirdly coloured hair with multiple colours thrown in. Her clothes were all bright colours too, and it made Tony's eyes hurt.

"Uncle." She said, looking straight at Thor.

The girl's crazy, Tony thought. Definitely crazy.

"Ms. Fierro." Thor replied with a nod , and Tony's jaw dropped to the floor.

He was relieved to see though, that all of the others looked confused too.

Thankfully, nobody had to ask and Thor decided to explain.

"Avengers, meet Ms. Alex Fierro, daughter of Loki. Ms. Fierro, meet the Avengers."

Thor said all of this with a smile on, but Tony's confusion only grew.

This teenager was Loki's daughter? How!?

The kid seemed to understand the team's confusion. She nodded at them and gestured to herself.

"Loki's my mom. He's an ass though." She said.

Like that explained anything!?

Even Clint was working his mouth like a gaping fish.

But before anybody could ask anything, a terrifying growl erupted from behind the team.

The Avengers swirled to the direction of the sound, weapons in hand, ready to attack. Only to be met with a wall of pitch black fur.

A gigantic dog stood before them, with glowing red eyes and unnaturally sharp canines.

It was only after taking in the sheer magnificence of the beast before him, that Tony spotted the human seated on top of it.

The woman dropped down from the dog and turned to look at them, smiling.

Looking to be in her thirties, the woman was dark skinned, with curly hair and a well maintained physique. Her eyes were golden and complimented the colour of her armor. A purple cape hung from her shoulders, there was domino mask around her eyes and a long sword was sheathed at her hip.

Overall, it looked like a scene from a movie about Roman history. Is that a tattoo on her forearm?

He watched as she walked forward to greet Thor.

She looked familiar for some reason.

"Thor." She said, "I am Praetor Levesque, of the Twelfth Legion. Apollo said you might need backup."

"It's an honour to meet you Praetor." Thor replied, "Let me introduce you to the team."

But before he could do that, the dog started growling again.

The woman looked apologetic and pointed at the dog, "This is Mrs. O'Leary. She's Percy's. And when he's not available, it's Nico who looks after her. She's really close to them." The giant dog then nudged the woman and seemed to point somewhere with her snout.

The woman nodded at that.

"I think she senses them, we'll leave once the others are here."

"The others!?"

-

"Which of you is doing this?" Zeus asked, looking as furious as ever.

"Wait, you're not doing this?" Demeter asked in return. They were all calmly standing inside the metal contraption, the surroundings speeding past them. Unlike mortals, gods didn't need to hold on for dear life.

"Don't act like this isn't all part of your grand plan, sister."

"You are impossible."

"Oh, shut up. Ares told me everything."

Zeus's statement was met with stunned silence.

"Aha. So he was right."

A mass groan ensued.

Apollo was getting more and more furious by every passing second. He tuned out all conversations and tried to think. They were so close to Percy and the others. If only he could think calmly again, he might be able to find a way out of this.

"You get away with everything just because you're the 'goddess of love'. Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

What even is the topic anymore?

"Like you are one to preach. You claim to live your wife. I haven't seen the two of you together in over a century."

Apollo decided to put a stop to it. "Can all of you just focus for once. We need to find a way out of this thing."

"The only reason you're saying that is because you happen to be the luckiest in marriage."

"Yeah. You could sleep with all the people in the world and your husband wouldn't even care."

"That's not what I meant."

"What else is so good about his marriage? The fact that they can't stand each other?"

For once, Apollo was grateful for the abrupt change in the plane's direction.

It was now in free fall and hurtling very very fast towards the ocean.

The gods barely had seconds to realise what was happening when they landed in a splash, water forcing it's way into the structure of the plane. But it wasn't just water that entered the plane, because within a couple of blinks Apollo could now see his father-in-law standing before him. In full battle regalia.

Apollo's heart did summersaults as the sight reminded him of Percy, only increasing his tension at the entire situation. He could still feel the despair Percy was feeling through their connection. He couldn't feel any physical pain, but he was in extreme anguish, and Apollo wanted to get to him as fast as possible.

He looked around in barely concealed fury as the rest of the gods stood glaring at each other as the plane sank further and further, water forcing itself in through the cracks. He couldn't imagine what they were doing to Percy and the others. He just hoped he'll be able to make it in time.

Apollo tested the integrity of the spells that had been cast on the plane. They seemed to have lifted upon entering Poseidon's domain. He didn't care to listen to the screaming match going on between his father and uncle, knowing that it would only enrage him further and derail his thoughts.

He carefully conveyed his thoughts through the mind link he had with the other gods and upon getting a satisfactory response, felt himself reappear where he had promised to meet the Avengers.

-

Tony looked on in nothing short of amazement as the 'others' made their appearance on winged horses. They were all in about their thirties and dressed in ancient Greek or Roman armor with masks on.

A muscular woman and a lean man in Greek armor introduced themselves as Clarisse and Chris. They claimed to be a couple but the woman was grumpy and scary and the guy seemed like a innocent civilian cosplayer.

Then there were two men who looked like twins but claimed they weren't. They kept talking together like they had rehearsed dialogues and called each other Travis and Connor. Then a woman with a bow and arrows, who said to call her Kayla, and another woman with plants in her hair and around her wrists who said she was Katie.

Tony had only just thought that maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be when an eagle suddenly perched on the Levesque woman's shoulder and promptly turned into a giant muscular man. The man wore armor identical to Levesque and proceeded to kiss her.

What even was happening!?

Besides, the guy looked suspiciously like General Zhang of the National Military.

What the fuck!?

If that guy was really General Zhang, Tony knew that he was married to the owner of a jewellery line. What was her name again?

He couldn't remember, but he was sure she'd been to at least one of the parties he had thrown.

Tony turned to look at the others for their reactions and they looked to be in varied stages of 'what-the-hell'. He was slightly relieved.

The Avengers had kept a safe distance from the people in armor. They seemed worried and restless and kept talking about their missing friends and relatives. Percy's name kept cropping up, so did the names of the other kidnapped people.

Tony had never felt so out of his depth before. He and the Avengers were supposed to be heroes who had saved the world, celebrities looked up on by all the people in the world, but here they were, being ignored. It seemed the armored individuals either didn't notice them or didn't care about their presence as they went about crafting strategies and worrying about how they would rescue their loved ones.

At one point Tony was sure he heard that a black winged horse had followed them because he was worried about Percy.

It was all making his head hurt and Tony decided to ignore it all and asked Friday to try and scan the city to find any trace of Percy and the kidnapped ones.

That was until the air around them suddenly turned super bright making them all turn away to shield their eyes.

Once the brightness subsided, the gods and goddesses from the plane were standing there.

Tony almost laughed with relief at seeing a familiar face again, but Apollo seemed distracted and a lot more angry and frustrated and very very inapproachable.

Within seconds the sky had become overcast, and a thunderstorm was upon them.

Percy's brother, Triton, waved a hand in the air and an invisible umbrella formed over the entire group, protecting them from the merciless rain.

"They're fighting." Apollo stated, voice laced with hatred.

"Who?" Clint asked.

All the weird people turned to look at him, staring as if they had spotted a particular dumb cow in a field full of horses.

"My father, and Percy's."

"So Zeu-"

"Do not speak their names." Apollo warned. "Names have power."

Whatever, Tony thought.

An uneasy silence settled over the group, making the thunder and lightening seem even more ominous.

"Who's the dead girl?" The goddess with all the flowers asked.

Tony looked around. He didn't see any dead bodies.

The girl who had claimed to be Loki's daughter walked up to the gods, and introduced herself.

"Alex Fierro, son of Loki." Huh? "My current pronouns are he/him. I'm an einharjar."

"A what?" Somebody asked.

"I'm dead."

Huh? Did dead have a different meaning for them or something?

"Why are you here?" The grain goddess asked.

"Magnus Chase, my boyfriend, got kidnapped. And now I'm hearing Percy got kidnapped too. So I'm here to save their asses." She(he?) stuck his hip out and crossed his arms in front of him, the picture of confidence.

"Wait a minute." The muscular woman in armor said. "You claim to be a dau- child of Loki. Say you know Percy, claim to have a boyfriend with the surname Chase and say that you are dead. How can we trust you? Percy's never mentioned you."

"Clarisse." Apollo began. "Calm down. I trust him. Alex knew Percy and Annabeth, and his intentions are pure. They didn't tell anyone because it was forbidden knowledge. All will be explained in time. For now, we need to find our loved ones. Let's not waste any more time."

Some of the people in armor still seemed a little distrustful of the teenager, but seemed to take Apollo's reassurance for now.

Apollo waved a hand and bright golden armor surrounded him, along with a beautiful golden bow and quiver full of golden arrows. Taking the cue, Tony suited up, the entire odd combination of people readying themselves for battle.

Levesque and her giant dog walked up to the front.

"Mrs. O'Leary, lead the way."

-

Percy didn't know anything anymore.

He didn't know what was real, what was not.

His brain ran rampant over him, reminding him of the past, the good and the bad, making him doubt the present and speculating about the future.

He still couldn't feel anything. He just knew that he must be bleeding all over by now.

He had tried hard to feel anything at all. He scratched at himself. He was sure he had scratched himself raw. Or maybe not. He didn't know. He couldn't even feel his skin after all. He might've scratched at thin air for Erebus knows how long.

But that he could handle somehow.

What he couldn't handle were the scenarios his brain came up with. The what ifs of the past and the future.

What if he had left Medusa's head where it lay in her garden. Would Gabe never have left? Would Paul never have come into their life? Would Estelle never have been born?

What if he had decided to not go on the quest to the Sea of Monsters. Would Grover still be alive? Would Thalia be alive? Would Clarisse? Would they have lost the war right then?

What if he had staying back at camp to look after Nico. Would Bianca still have died? Would Annabeth have survived? Would Zoë have died?

What if he and Annabeth had never stumbled across the entrance to the Labyrinth? Would Rachel ever become the Oracle? Would Luke have attacked the camp and killed them in their sleep?

What if he had never taken on the curse of Achilles? Would Luke have defeated him? Would the Titans have taken over the world? Would he have died?

The same continued for the events leading up to the giant war.

The next decade and a half flashed by. So many regrets. So many what ifs.

Annabeth.

Godhood.

MIT.

Marriage.

Apollo.

The Avengers.

What if Annabeth had never died? What if he had never become a god? What he had never gotten married? What if he had never met the Avengers? What if he had never fallen for Apollo?

His brain had paused there. Because it was true. He had fallen for Apollo. Hard and Fast.

After Annabeth died, he had craved the casual intimacy she had brought in his life. Apollo had slowly and surely managed to crawl into the space she had left and Percy hadn't even realised it.

Then one day Percy had been overcome with the urge to kiss Apollo. He didn't do it. He wondered what would have happened if he had.

Would they have had a happy marriage?

Percy had two reasons to refrain from taking his relationship with Apollo to the next level. He didn't want Apollo to be a rebound. It wouldn't have been fair to the other god. He hadn't wanted to hurt Apollo. But eventually, he did.

He had given Apollo the ultimate rejection, and that had been the end of their friendship.

Or so he thought.

Until now. If only Percy could escape and go back to his husband. Tell him that Percy had never stopped loving him.

But he wasn't even sure it was true anymore. How much of what he remembered was real? How much of it, fabricated by his brain? How much of it, the result of his persistent pessimism? He did not know.

Was he even a god? Or was that something he had convinced himself of?

Had he died back then, in the car with Annabeth? He might have.

Everything else might have been his overactive imagination trying to console him, convince him that he was still alive.

Percy screamed again.

That was all he could do.

He tried screaming and screaming. Trying in vain to maybe hear his voice again.

He tried scratching at himself. Trying to maybe feel something again.

But with every scream. With every scratch. His hope waned.

He felt so lost. So lonely.

He did not know what to do.

-

Wade was still on the ground.

Well, his head was on the ground and it was spouting a tiny body. For once, Wade was grateful that his headless body wasn't the one regenerating.

The room he was in was very obviously laced with magic of some kind. He had always known Percy and his friends were weird. But he hadn't known what kind of weird until now.

He still wasn't sure, but that's not the point.

The point was that, whatever magic was in the room was not letting him speak and was very annoying like that. But it was also somehow increasing his regeneration. He had a tiny body in half an hour already.

He had started formulating a plan upon this realisation.

At this rate of regeneration, within a couple of minutes, if nobody entered the room, he might be able to crawl and hide under the dining table. Then, within a few more minutes, he could start working his fingers properly and untie Nico's legs. Then he could climb onto Nico's lap and untie his hands too. He had always wanted to sit on Nico's lap. He's hot. But Wade didn't think the blonde guy would appreciate it. He definitely liked Nico. He could-

He needed to get his thoughts back on track. Where was he?

Yup, once he untied Nico, Nico could then release the others, and they could run out of this wretched place into the beautiful horizon and live happily ever after.

Sounded like a solid plan to him.

Ofcourse it was just then that the door opened.