Chapter 5
Tony
Annabeth looked impressed with the lab, but Percy just looked terrified that he was going to break something. It was kinda funny, actually. This kid was radiating power and confidence just minutes before and now he was following Annabeth around, eyeing everything like it was going to explode simply because he was there. He was stage whispering to Annabeth about not having good experiences with field trips, and she reminded him that this was not a field trip, it was a guided tour. Percy scoffed and replied by telling her that was adult speak for a field trip. This kid was a riot, and Tony was glad he had allowed him to come up. Annabeth seemed so much more at ease with him, and though his record was a whole mess, he seemed like a good kid. However, he had been betrayed before, so he would keep all of Percy's movements monitored while in the tower. Annabeth moved to the holo-table and somehow knew exactly how to use it.
“How do you know how to use that? The only places that have holo-tables are Stark Industries, SHIELD, and Wakanda,” he asked her.
“My friend Leo helped me make one for my blueprints and drawings. I'm really into architecture,” Annabeth replied distantly, distracted with the schematics on the holo-table.
Tony was floored. She made one with her friend? That was extremely advanced tech, so how smart was she? And how did she get the materials? They weren't exactly cheap to make. He looked at Peter, who looked impressed, but not surprised. Midtown was for the best and brightest, but this was a whole other level. Tony felt a surge of pride that his daughter was a genius who loved architecture. This he could use to bond with her right? Common interests? He wasn't that into architecture, but he knew quite a lot about it, enough so that he would be able to hold a conversation about it.
Annabeth and Percy had already moved on after looking at what was on the holo-table for a couple minutes. They continued with the tour soon after, going quickly through the offices because he figured 17 year olds would not care about boring office space. They walked through the cafeteria and Annabeth commented that it looked like a mall food court, to which Percy responded that no, it did not, because this place was clean and not disgusting like every mall ever. Tony smiled at that and ushered them back into the elevator.
The two of them seemed really on edge in the elevator. They always grabbed each other’s hands and stayed close to each other, eyes glued to the doors. When they finally opened to reveal the Avengers gym, both of them lit up and practically ran out the door.
“Annie, this place is so high tech! Look at all the machines!” Percy exclaimed. “They don't have a lava wall though,” he tacked on, almost sounding disappointed, before shrugging and jogging over to the weapons rack where Annabeth was admiring one of Natasha’s daggers.
Maybe this kid was actually crazy, why in the world would there be a lava wall? Currently though, he was more concerned about his kid holding one of Nat’s extremely sharp daggers. Tony hurried over to make sure they didn't hurt themselves. Percy had now picked up a sword (Why did they have swords here again?) and started twirling it like a baton. It was kinda impressive, but highly dangerous. Annabeth threw the dagger straight up in the air, and Tony could only watch in horror as it came back down, but she caught the hilt like an expert, beginning to twirl it again within moments. Now that was highly impressive, how the hell had she learned it? Where the hell had she learned it? Nat had tried to teach him that trick a few times and he had only accomplished it once, with a blunted blade.
“Ok, ok, that's enough with the super sharp weapons. Those are not safe for you guys. If you want to learn to defend yourself, someone will teach you with the training weapons.”
They looked at him like he was crazy, then looked at each other like they were having a silent conversation. Percy put down the sword, but Annabeth looked hesitant to put down the dagger until Percy pulled a pen out of his pocket and handed it to her. She looked up at Percy again, a question clearly on her face.
“If I want it to stay, it will stay,” Percy answered her unasked question. She smiled and tucked the pen in her pocket, putting down the knife.
Huh?
What were these two talking about? Why was the pen good enough for her to put down the knife? The whole time they had been here, they had been cryptic and cagey about what their lives had been like. It wasn't like he expected them to immediately tell him everything, but almost all of the questions he had asked had been avoided.
What were they hiding?
Annabeth
The tour was wonderful, but a tad bit awkward. Percy clearly felt out of place and did not want to break anything so he stuck close to her the whole time, and Tony would not take his eyes off her for longer than two minutes. It was fine though, she knew this was probably really difficult for him after having not seen her for 14 years. Pepper, Rhodey, Peter, Morgan, and Happy had walked around with them, watching carefully. It was quite the entourage.
It was still blowing her mind that her family wasn't the Chases. She'd gone so long thinking that her dad had hated her, but in reality, her dad had never stopped looking for her. She hadn't decided how she felt about everything yet though.
Her favorite part had been the training room, but the labs were a close second. She hated to admit it, but those holo-tables were much better than the one her and Leo had made. It must have been the materials Tony had access to here. It must have been.
Dinner was filled with pleasant conversation. This was her father; her family. She didn't let down her guard completely, but she eased up a little. Percy’s family had become hers as well, but it would be nice to have a family of her own.
That was, until Percy checked his phone.
“We should probably get going Annabeth, we told Estelle that we would play Uno with her tonight and I don't want to keep her up too late.” Percy said, and everyone whipped their heads to him.
“No, Annabeth will be staying here. She needs to be somewhere safe and protected. I’m not letting her go anywhere just yet, I just got her back,” Tony responded vehemently.
She and Percy were taken aback by this comment. That arrangement was not going to work for them, they had to stay together. Percy opened his mouth as if he was going to go to the mat arguing with Tony to make sure they stayed together and Annabeth came back home. She appreciated the sentiment, but she had a better idea.
“How about, instead of me going home, Percy stays here tonight,” she suggested. Percy visibly relaxed after this, but Tony and the rest just stayed tense.
“Absolutely not. He can go home.”
“It's either he stays here with me, or I go with him. We stay together. If you kick him out, I walk. Capice?”
The others at the table looked shocked at this, but she was too busy staring Tony down to care. He must have seen that she wasn't going to budge on this, because he eventually relented.
“Fine, but he has to stay in a different room.”
Percy squeezed her hand one last time before letting go and taking out his phone again.
“I’m going to call my mom real quick and tell her we won't be back tonight. I don't want her to worry I was kidnapped again by our extended family.”
She nodded and told him to say hi to Sally for her. Everyone still looked extremely confused, and at this point it was comical.
“How many times has he been kidnapped by his ‘extended family’,” Rhodey asked hesitantly. It was like he couldn't decide if he wanted to know or not.
Annabeth sighed. “Too many times. Gave us a real scare when they put him in a coma for about nine months one time and gave him amnesia. That was not fun. He’s good now though.” This was fun, she could give them half answers that weren't technically false, but weren't true either. The shock and confusion on their faces was hilarious.
Pepper recovered from this first, and decided to show Annabeth to her new room. Percy jogged back over to them and Pepper said she would show him to a room as well. When they got to their rooms they bid each other goodnight after Pepper showed them around. She collapsed onto the bed, hoping that the sheer exhaustion from the day would ward off nightmares since Percy wasn't next to her tonight.
She shouldn't have been so optimistic.
----
The clock said 2:37 when she awoke, biting back a scream. She immediately ran out her door and pounded on Percy’s. He opened the door, looking haggard himself, as if he too had just woken from a nightmare. They embraced for a minute, both barely holding back tears.
“Hey, want to go train? Might help a little,” Percy suggested softly. "Especially given that we're not allowed in each other's rooms here," he finished, giving a dramatic eye roll.
She nodded into his chest and they headed down to the gym--taking the stairs this time--as it was only three floors below them. She still had Riptide in her pocket, but Percy didn't ask for it back, he just picked up two swords from the rack and handed her one. They stepped into the ring and attacked. They were ruthless with their attacks, not holding back. Here, they both knew that they were equals, as long as Percy didn't cheat by using his powers. They breaked a half hour in for water, and Percy pulled off his sweat soaked shirt, tossing it to the side. She took this as a challenge and took off hers as well, her sports bra shining with sweat. They faced each other again, both smirking. They didn't break again until they were interrupted.
Tony
Friday alerted him when Annabeth had woken at 2:30 in the morning with elevated vitals. He knew what that meant. Nightmares. By the time he got to her room though, she wasn't there. He briefly panicked before he realized he had an omnipotent AI at his disposal.
“Friday, where's my daughter?” He couldn't keep the slight panic out of his voice.
“Annabeth is currently in the gym with Perseus Jackson,” she replied.
Goddamnit, he thought. What the hell were they doing down there? He started towards the elevator to go get them, but stopped himself. He needed all the facts first, so he headed to the lab and received the security footage of the hallway and stairwell. Again, he noticed their distaste for elevators. What was up with that? When he got to the gym footage, he paused. They were sparring with the swords, and they were doing it like pros. A half hour in, and they took off their shirts, revealing nasty scars over the rest of their bodies. His heart nearly stopped. What had they gone through to get those? He shot up out of his seat and rushed down to confront them.
His pulse was pounding in his ears as he stepped out of the elevator. Both the kids immediately halted, neither of them missing a step. They were clearly well trained and completely in sync with each other.
Their scars stood were stakk white against their sweaty skin. They had so many, and Percy had some sort of brand or tattoo on his arm with a line and letters. He couldn't quite make out what it said. He wanted to demand answers about their scars, but he knew that would get him no rapport here. Instead, he took a different approach.
“Why don't we go upstairs. I’ll put on some hot cocoa, and maybe we can watch a movie, ok?”
Annabeth and Percy looked at each other, another silent conversation passing between them. Eventually she nodded, and they headed to rinse off quickly while he made the cocoa.
He probably wouldn't get any answers out of them tonight, but he could establish some trust between them. For now, that was all he needed.
Natasha
After having woken up from a nightmare about the Red Room early in the morning, she had decided to go to the gym and workout in an effort to shake off the memories. It helped to remind her that she was strong now.
That she couldn't be taken again.
What she wasn't expecting was the gym to already be occupied by two kids. She stayed hidden, watching them spar from afar.
Stark's kid, Annabeth, and her boyfriend Percy, were hiding something big. They used those weapons like they'd been training for years, and the scars all over them corroborated that. There was a darkness behind their eyes that came from seeing the worst humanity had to offer and barely crawling out alive. She knew that look, all the widows had it. These two had clearly been through hell, though that wouldn't be obvious to most people. They probably hid it decently well most of the time. What had happened to them? The background check she did said they had been kidnapped when they were 12--but that story had a lot of holes in it, so she wasn't buying it. While that was doubtlessly traumatizing for 12 year olds to be kidnapped (if the kidnapping had even occurred), it wouldn't cause this much of a dark glint in their eyes. Nor would it mean that many fresh scars. No, this was something bigger, darker.
She highly doubted Tony had picked up on that though. Annabeth and Percy were sweet kids, and they got along well with Peter. Percy clearly didn't have genius level intellect like Annabeth and Peter, but he had a strategic way of talking and an air of authority that told you he was certainly not dumb. He and Annabeth scanned the rooms they went into and instinctively watched each other's blind spots. Those were the kinds of habits that came from years of fighting for your life.
She would find out what happened to these kids.
And she would make the people responsible pay.