Chapter 12
Percy
Percy looked around nervously, which seemed out of place because the ocean always soothed him. No one could blame him, though. He had just been told that he had become a part of his father.
"Percy, I understand that this is hard to process but we don't have time. I already told you what happened... But there is more." Poseidon looked at him in concern while frowning. Percy would have groaned if he wasn't in a state of shock. "If we had kept this as a secret, maybe, just maybe, we would have been able to make everything seem normal, as if you were an ordinary demigod. The fact is that after everything you have accomplished, the Olympians have been keeping a close eye on you. Of course, they don't think you're a direct threat to them, after all you have done for us and your fatal flaw, but they still believe that if your powers went out of control for some reason, it'd be hard to stop you. Your aura grew greatly, and they feel it. They fear that they don't understand what's going on. Think about it: all of a sudden, you have the restrained aura of an Olympian; of course they'd be scared.
"You're in some way an Olympian now, you have access to all of my powers and my strength just as I have access to your powers and strength, which I will only use in the unlikely situation of me getting completely drained. I just wanted to clarify this for you.
"Now, my point is that we can no longer keep it a secret," Poseidon said.
"But... why?" Percy managed to say through the shock.
"You just revealed it. Percy, when you made that comment that attracted his attention, he never stopped watching. He saw what you did and the only possible way that you'd be capable of doing it is the unification. Now he'll do everything within his reach to restrain us. Together... Percy, together we're more powerful than the gods’ king."
.ψψψ.
Percy was going up the stairs exhaustedly, both mentally and physically. Mentally because of his father's... news, and physically because, just as it happened with demigods learning about their parentage, he now attracted more monsters than before (and he thought that wasn't possible).
So he fought a herd of hellhounds, a group of empusai that for some reason paired with some dracaenae, a couple medium-sized cyclops, a group of laestrygonians, a pair of mean telekhines, and basically more monsters than he cared to remember. The fact was that he was tired. Tired and covered in golden dust.
Someone groaned.
"Oh no! I didn't think you'd be one of those glitter-obsessed teenagers! You'll make a mess in my super luxurious living room!" Tony said.
'I didn't even have to tell the lie for him to believe it,' Percy thought gratefully. He despised lying.
In response to the billionaire he shrugged.
"And you weren't supposed to go out. I don't know how you managed to get out alive, but don't do it again if you don't want to get arrested by Fury. You may be part of the Avengers now, but you're still a presumed terrorist. Also, Fury isn't specifically known for being generous and understanding. Be careful,” he said.
"Whatever," Percy responded absentmindedly while heading to his room. He just wanted to sleep.
His prayers were unheard as the blonde Avenger god came walking quickly down the hallways towards them and then dropped to the floor on his knees.
"Lord," Thor said in Greek.
"It's just me, Percy." The god looked up, flabbergasted.
"What- I mean, how? Did they... Did they make you one of them? You feel like one. What happened? Where were you?"
"Long story short: unification. He just told me. And a lot, a lot of... Uh... 'visits'." Thor looked at him in concern.
"Please tell me the king doesn't know it."
"He does."
"Oh, we're screwed."
"I'm sorry, what?" Tony asked. He had just been standing there awkwardly, watching the conversation like it was a tennis match.
"Nothing you can understand yet," Percy replied. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He was tired, he wanted to sleep, but no, his mind kept going to the problems the unification caused. Now he was not only escaping monsters but also Zeus. Oh joy.
"Then explain! It's getting tiring to see you two talking in codes and expecting us to just sit down and wait!" Tony said, losing his patience completely. "You've been acting weirdly and saying things that of course will leave us wondering what the fuck are you talking about. You can't expect us to leave all matters aside and all of a sudden trust this complete stranger that just happens to have a criminal record. And then there is the fact that you seem to have known each other for your whole lives. And I thought that wasn't normal but now you, a god, come running from your room to bow to him without even knowing who he was. It's frustrating and it's getting on my nerves," Tony ranted and ended up pulling his own hair. "I hate this situation. I hate not knowing." Percy looked at him in sympathy.
"Tony, you'll have to trust my word on this. I'm not a terrorist and I will tell you all at a given time, just not yet. If I did, it would lead us in the wrong direction. For this to work and for me to tell you what you want to know, we need trust, which you're now showing we lack. So please, wait 'till I can tell you or else there'll probably be a war. I'm honestly done with wars and we have another coming already so please," Percy said and Tony took a small step back in shock. It was the more he had talked since arriving except, maybe, for the time in which he incriminated himself at dinner. And well... maybe not all teenage boys spoke that way about war but he was a demigod, how would he know that?
"Please don't speak of war so lightly. The last war, the Battle of New York with that goddamn god, was fucked up." Tony scowled. Percy almost stumbled back in surprise. Almost. He regained his composure as fast as he had lost it. Only a professional reading people would pick it up.
"You were in the battle? How is it that I didn't know you then? What cabin are you from and how did you manage to survive so long?"
"What the-"
"Percy! He means our Battle of New York, against my brother Loki, Norse god of mischief," Thor clarified, giving Percy a look.
"Oh. Well, whatever. I'm going to bed, I'm drained." With that, Percy headed towards his torture session. His eyelids already felt heavy, but it wasn't his tiredness what made it that way, it was that unnatural tiredness that Tartarus forced upon him. If he didn't reach his room quickly, he would sleep (and be tortured) in the hallway. Styx.
He reached his room just in time, though he was nowhere near his bed when he fell unconscious. Gods dam Tony for making the place so monstrously huge.
"Hello, godling. Are you ready to play? I have a special game in mind. Do you want me to explain the rules?" Tartarus mocked him. He loved talking to him as if he was a little kid because it meant he was just a dumb, little and powerless being next to a primordial. Percy only looked at him straight in the eye and tensed his jaw. He wouldn't even fight against the chains that restrained him, it was useless and dangerous since they were made out of Stygian Iron and the lightest of injuries would reap his soul. "Yes? You want me to explain?" Tartarus put a hand over his ear to pretend he was listening something from Percy's direction. "Fine. Well, I'm sure you know how easily the injuries stop hurting having your abilities with water... You'll revive the most physically painful moments of your life and open again every wound you had in that moment. You'll feel them when your soul is back in your body but there will be no visible marks of it. You'll suffer it until it wears off, and I'm going to enjoy it." He smiled so sweetly that, if he hadn't known better, Percy would have believed he was nice.
That night he revived at least 10 moments, including the time he held the sky (and that miserable god called Tartarus slowed down time, ouch), the explosion of Mount Saint Helens (and that hurt as Hades when you were conscious), the time he bathed on the River Styx (and oh shit, he had forgotten how much it hurt) the time when he almost died from the curses in Tartarus (dam Arai) (wait, can the spirits of curses curse themselves?), etc. This time, contrary to the first physical torture session, he couldn't contain his screams.
A good summary of that night: hell. That's it.
Steve
Steve was in his room when he heard a piercing scream.
He ran as fast as he could to the source of the noise and he found that, of course, Percy had produced it. Steve frowned when he saw the boy, who wasn't even in his bed, shaking, sweating and screaming even louder. Basically, he looked like he was dying.
He told Jarvis to call Bruce immediately and he appeared a few minutes later.
"Does this kid have PTSD?" Steve asked.
"Presumably, yes. We'll analyze this later, right now we have to wake him up."
They couldn't. Nothing, nothing, was able to wake him up. They both guessed that Thor would know what to do, but he had just left to Asgard to inform of some 'news of great importance', whatever that was.
"Let's call Tony so he helps us get him to the infirmary," Bruce told him in a few seconds that Percy shut up. Steve repeated the process of asking Jarvis to alert Tony. Not actually alert because he was pretty sure everyone in the floor heard the screams, but more like call him.
Not a second later, Stark entered from the door hole, because it was now only a hole, with a sarcastic expression.
"Of course you'd tell Jarvis to call me instead of making three steps towards the door hole to ask me yourself," Tony said, emphasizing the word 'hole' like an incrimination.
Even in that difficult situation, Bruce let out a short laugh. A little strand of red hair was seen from under Stark's beanie. He became serious again when they heard another noise, but this time it was a cry for help.
"Annabeth! Bob! Please!" It wasn't even as loud. He was losing strength and hope. They had to hurry.
Without even saying a word to each other, Tony took Percy's right leg, Bruce took the left one and Steve grabbed him from his shoulders. They sprinted to the infirmary.
Percy
All he saw was black, just black. If he could, he would have sighed in relief: he had been released for the night. Now all he had to do was wake up.
He started paying attention to his surroundings and felt three persons holding him and descending his body into something below him. He took advantage of the moment he touched the surface of that thing and woke up. He sat up quickly, wincing at the pain Tartarus told him about, and analyzed the situation. He immediately relaxed when he saw the three Avengers. He hadn't been kidnapped (again).
Before speaking, he reached within himself for his father's power so he could heal, because all his body hurt like Tartarus, literally. He was thankful when he found something, took a bit and immediately felt himself be relieved of his pain. At least that assured him that the primordial of the Pit didn't know of the unification.
"First: water, please. Second: we need to start training. Like, right now."