Chapter 9
Annabeth
Convincing Tony to let her leave the tower and go to camp to go see her friends off for their quest was going to be difficult, to say the least. Considering that she didn't feel comfortable telling him what the camp was for or where it was yet due to his extreme stalkerish tendencies, he would take quite some convincing to allow her to leave. In the weeks since they had discovered she was his daughter, she had only been allowed to leave the tower once to get some of her things from the apartment and for school. At school though, she was accompanied by Peter for most of the time because he was a one man protection squad with his enhancements.
She certainly had the skills to sneak out and leave whenever she wanted without Tony’s permission, but she would feel awful if she did that. He’d been looking for her and probably had thought she was dead for over a decade. Yes, he was extremely overprotective of her safety, especially given what she had been through already, but from his perspective it was justified. The last time he had her, she was kidnapped and he knew absolutely nothing about what had happened to her for fourteen years.
To be fair, she had nearly died innumerable times during those years.
So while his hovering grated on her nerves, she didn't want to just up and leave and freak him out.
A compromise was needed here, and she knew how to get it.
First though, she needed to talk to Peter and obtain his permission to use him to get what she wanted. According to FRIDAY, he was practicing in the gym, so she headed on down. She’d been having training sessions with him every day since he had gotten out of the hospital, and he was improving rapidly. When he noticed her walking over he paused and took out his headphones. Tony had custom made them for him to be completely noise canceling; they could be used for anything from panic attacks and sensory overloads to just plain music.
“You're improving quickly,” she started.
Peter brightened at the unexpected praise. “Thanks, I think it helps that I have a lot of experience so I kind of already know what to do, I’m just really sloppy and undefined."
“Definitely. You had the general idea of what you were supposed to be doing before we started because of all the experience you have. All I’ve really been doing is showing you how to implement everything correctly so you have less of a chance of hurting yourself and others.” He nodded along to what she was saying in agreement.
“What brings you down here anyways? You don’t usually train by yourself.”
“Actually I was looking for you. I have a favor to ask.” He cocked his head in question, as if to say go on. “Some of me and Percy’s friends are leaving for a quest tomorrow evening, and we would like to go see them off. We can’t exactly waltz into Camp Half Blood with a Stark security team though, so I was wondering if you would come with us? That way Tony would allow me to leave his sight because he knows you are Spiderman and can handle most threats. I can handle most threats too, but it's not like he knows that, so I think this would be a pretty good compromise if you are ok with it.”
He scrunched up his face incredulously. “In what universe do you think I wouldn't want to go to your camp? That’s like the coolest thing ever! Of course I’ll go with you!”
She laughed, the sound echoing around the cavernous room. “Ok, I’ll go talk to Percy and then we can try and convince Tony.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed.
“Thank you,” she called over her shoulder as she turned away to head back up the stairs to the penthouse. Peter just waved her off, putting his headphones back in so he could return to his workout.
Her plan was to go back to her room and devise a plan for how to ask Tony about this little outing but once she actually entered her room she was quickly distracted. It had been about three weeks since she had moved in here, and Athena still hadn’t even tried to reach out to explain why she had lied about who her father was.
There were so many questions that were left unanswered, and it was starting to anger her. Why did Athena lie? Who kidnapped her? How did she end up with Dr. Chase?
The questions would have to wait however, because Percy began knocking on her door. Opening the door to let him in before moving to sit on the floor, she contemplated how to approach this with him. Once he sat down across from her though, she knew she just had to say it.
“Percy…I think you should go on the quest with Leo and Jason,” she said hesitantly.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he motioned for her to go on.
“I know we want to distance ourselves from quests and nearly dying so many times we can’t keep track, but look at us Percy. We can’t go more than a couple hours without each other. We’re extremely codependent. It’s unhealthy for us to be this reliant on always being near each other. I mean, it’s not like I want us to be separated, but I feel like this will be better for us because we can Iris message everyday and neither of us will be in mortal danger. If this was an extremely dangerous quest, I wouldn't have suggested that you go, or I would have at least come with you. I have to stay here though, I need answers for this whole situation, so this feels like the perfect opportunity.” She paused, wanting to hear what he had to say before she went on.
“I definitely understand what you mean, and I agree that we have become an unhealthy level of codependent. I love you, but I can’t have you out of my sight for more than a few hours before I feel physically sick from anxiety. It’s not healthy, and I think we’ve both known that for a while. I just–I don’t know if I can go on this quest and leave my mom here. After what she’s gone through, I just don’t know if I can do that to her.”
“Actually Percy, this was her idea. I mentioned that you had been invited on the quest with them because it was low risk as well as three always being a better number of people for a quest than two, and she said she thought you should go. She sees us together all the time, it's not like she doesn't understand how clingy we are to each other.”
His jaw clenched. She could see that he was contemplating it, but he didn't want to leave them behind.
“Percy, we’ll be alright. It’s a low risk quest and you’ll get to spend time with Jason and Leo. You know I will always look out for your family, and I’m currently living in one of the most secure buildings in the world,” she continued.
He met her eyes again, and she could see that he was on board with the plan.
“We would Iris message every night though, right?”
“I wouldn't have it any other way.”
Tony
When Annabeth, Percy, and Peter all came out to the living room area together, it was written all over their faces that they were going to ask for something. It was also very clear he wouldn't like whatever they were asking for.
He didn't know what he thought they were going to want, but an unsupervised field trip certainly wasn't it. He pushed down his rising panic and tried to hear them out.
“Please let us go, we’ll have Peter with us. We had lives before this, and we need to go see our friends off.” Annabeth pleaded with him. On first instinct he wanted to say no, but they did have a point. Both Annabeth and Percy seemed to be extensively trained in combat for some unknown reason, and Peter has better enhancements than the super soldiers. He sighed.
“Fine. But if anything even remotely suspicious happens, you call me immediately. Immediately, do you hear me?”
They could protect themselves. She would be ok.
She would be safe with them.
The three kids nodded enthusiastically and dispersed after a flurry of thank you’s and Annabeth informing Peter that they were leaving in an hour. He went down to the lab so he could tinker and get his mind off of things. Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest method for dealing with everything, but distraction was a better alternative than alcohol, so he counted it as a step in the right direction.
Annabeth
The car ride to camp was filled with chatter as Percy informed Peter of all the little nuances of camp life. She didn't feel like talking though, preferring to look out the window and zone out of the conversation so she could think properly. By the time they arrived, she had a plan for what she was going to do while Percy was away to distract herself from missing him.
She was going to get answers.
After stopping briefly at the border to invite Peter in, they finally entered camp. Crossing over the border into camp always felt like coming home. Most of her memories had been made in this camp as she had lived there for a long time. Some were bad, most recently the battle with Gaia, but most were good memories.
The underwater kiss with Percy.
Capture the flag.
Learning how to use a sword for the first time.
Peter oohed and ahhed at everything they passed on the walk to Chiron's cabin. Leo and Jason were already there waiting, and ran over to greet them when they got close. Jason looked less put together than normal, likely on purpose given that they were about to head to a camp for juvenile delinquents. Leo looked the same as ever, with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes that matched Percy’s.
Spotting Blackjack, Percy quickly ducked out of Jason's incoming hug and jogged over to the pegasus, pulling out a donut to feed him. Jason rolled his eyes and they all walked up to the cabin together.
“Jason, Leo, this is Peter.”
“Oh hey man!” Leo exclaimed. “You're the one who likes engineering, right? I have to show you where we work around here, you’ll love it!”
“Not today, Leo, we have a quest to go on.” Jason butted in, all seriousness again.
Leo turned so that they could all see his dramatic eye roll. “All business with him, all the time. You're going to need to loosen up or you’ll stick out like a sore thumb where we’re going.” It was Jason's turn to roll his eyes now, and the four of them burst out laughing right as Percy caught back up with them and Chiron came out.
“Ah, boys I see you're all packed and ready. Well time is of the essence, you should get going. The pegasi are ready to take you to Camp Green Lake and preparations have been made so that you are in their paper records when you arrive. If you have any minor hiccups with this you should have no problem using the mist to cover it up.”
Percy turned to face her, taking her hands in his. It was still a little strange sometimes that he was taller than her now, but it also felt right. He leaned down so their foreheads touched, eyes flickering shut.
“I’ll miss you every second,” he whispered.
“I’ll miss you too, Seaweed brain. You better Iris-message me every day. Make sure you don’t get hurt too often.”
“No promises,” he responded before closing the distance between them with a kiss.
She felt a tear slip down her cheek as he pulled back, and frantically wiped it away. Everyone else was done with their goodbyes. Leo and Jason were mounting their pegasi.
Percy mounted Blackjack, and the three of them were off. She watched them go until they were no longer a speck on the horizon, and the single tear turned into many.
“Goodbye, Percy. You better come back soon,” she whispered into the sunset.