ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Chapter 3: "We Lost"
Percy
It had been one day and two hours since Carol Danvers had shot off to space (not that Percy was keeping track) and Percy was starting to get impatient.
Wasn't she supposed to be, like, super powerful? As in, fly at the speed of light powerful? So then why couldn't she get their friends home? It wasn't like there was a Chick Fil A to stop at.
He was lying in his bed in his room, absently folding and unfolding a piece of paper. Definitely not a letter or anything. Of course it wasn't from Camp Half-Blood. Why would anyone think that?
It was a letter from Camp Half-Blood.
Chiron had been trying to Iris-Message him for two weeks now, but every time a rainbow screen appeared in front of him, Percy cut it out with his hand. The attempts had been getting increasingly frequent, and Clarisse had sent a letter.
Prissy,
GET YOUR FREAKING BUTT OVER HERE RIGHT NOW! We have a right to know what's going on and you're the only person who knows ANYTHING! Just because you're part of the 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' now or whatever, doesn't mean that you can just blow us off like you're so much better than us.
You know, I would've thought that Annabeth would've have been more responsible but—
Percy hadn't read any more than that. He didn't need any more reminders that Annabeth wasn't… that she wasn't there anymore.
He found that he did best by ignoring everything and pretending nothing had happened. It wasn't the best, but hey, it was better than crying himself to sleep every night (not that he'd been doing that, either).
Any time that anyone brought up that subject he made an excuse to leave the room. That was what had happened earlier that day, and why Percy was still in his room. He wouldn't be able to stand Hazel's concerned eyes following him.
Sometimes he would catch himself thinking about her and find that his entire bedspread was wet, which was weird, because he definitely didn't remember starting to cry (not that he would ever do such a thing).
Percy missed her.
He missed her grey eyes, that seemed to analyze everything and everyone, but could be kind when needed.
He missed her scary-smart personality, which could solve every problem. He missed her funny side too, a rare part that she showed to only the people that she trusted.
He even missed her beating the crap out of him with words when he was late for their date.
But he mostly just missed her. Her warmness, her way of always being there when he needed her. What was he supposed to do now? Find a new girlfriend? Not an option. He wouldn't do something like that. Especially if there was even a small chance of bringing her back.
It wasn't an actual death. It was a Thanos-oriented death. She was dust, not a spirit. That had to count for something.
Percy remembered the old story of Orpheus trying to bring Eurydice back from the dead, resulting in both of them dying. He pushed the memory away, even though that story always gave him warm and fuzzy feelings. (Obviously, that was sarcasm.)
Finally Percy couldn't stand sitting there, alone except for his depressing thoughts. He stood up and was about to open his bedroom door when he froze and glanced over at his water cup. It was rattling, like there was an earthquake.
He walked out the door and pulled out steel Riptide, keeping Celestial Bronze Riptide in his pocket.
The rest of the Avengers were running out the door too. They gathered out at the lawn and saw a big spaceship being carried by a grinning Carol Danvers.
It landed and the entry hatch opened, revealing Tony Stark and some purple girl supporting him. Tony stumbled down the landing ramp and Steve and Percy ran over to him, Hazel hovering back, unsure what to expect.
Tony gripped Steve's arm as Steve held him up. "I couldn't stop him." He gasped.
"Neither could I."
Tony froze, like he'd just had a painful memory. "I lost the kid." He mumbled, staring at the ground. Steve sighed, looking at him with sympathy. "Tony, we lost." He said it simply. We lost.
"Is, um…." Tony struggled to ask something when Pepper came running towards him, tears in her eyes.
"Tony!" They embraced. Percy stepped back to give them some space. "It's okay." Tony closed his eyes. "It's okay."
Hazel looked terrified until Jason and Frank walked out, Jason supporting Frank, who seemed to be sporting a broken leg.
Hazel let out a sort of mix between a sob and a scream and ran towards him, Jason letting go of Frank's arm to let Hazel and Frank be together.
Jason walked carefully down the ramp, but tripped as he walked off and was caught by Percy.
"Thanks." He murmured. "It's nothing."
The two looked at each other. "Jason, I—"
Percy's voice cracked.
"I know." Jason said quietly. They seemed to communicate silently what had happened and who the each had lost. Percy saw that Jason had Katoptris on his belt loop.
Percy clapped him on the back and walked back into the Compound.
"It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth." Natasha started briefing the people who had been in Space as Tony received blood for his wounds.
"World governments are in pieces. The parts that are working are trying to take a census. It looks like Thanos did… exactly what he said he was gonna do. He wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures."
Jason looked over at the video screens that were showing all the missing. Leo's face flashed on the screen and he looked like he'd been punched in the stomach. No one had gotten up the guts to tell him yet.
"Where is he now?" Tony asked.
"We don't know." Steve replied.
"He just opened a portal and walked through." Rhody said.
Percy glanced over to see if Thor was doing anything other than looking depressed at the moment. Tony seemed to notice that as well.
"What's wrong with him?" He wondered.
"He thinks he failed." Rocket Raccoon answered from the ground. Tony jumped. "Which of course he did, but there's a lot of that going on right now, ain't there?"
"Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-a-Bear." Tony said.
"Maybe I am." Rocket replied mysteriously.
"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans and satellites, we got nothing." Natasha told him.
"And you didn't get anything from your Greek God radar stuff?" Tony asked Percy. He stiffened and shook his head. "I haven't been in contact with anyone since Thanos."
Tony seemed to sense this was a sore subject and didn't inquire further.
"Tony, you fought him." Steve said. Tony looked like that was a sore subject for him too. He looked at Steve, anger in his face.
"Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There wasn't a fight."
"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve persisted. Tony snorted.
"I saw this coming a few years back. Had a vision. Didn't want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming." Percy winced as he remembered the vision that Wanda had shown him years ago. It still stung. With a pang, he remembered Annabeth dying in it. Well, that part came true.
No, she wasn't dead. Stop thinking like that! Percy gave himself a mental slap in the face and that did the trick.
Cap looked at Tony with barely controlled impatience. "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus—"
"And I needed you." Tony cut him off, looking glaring at him. "As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy. Sorry. You know what I need." Steve looked like he'd been actually slapped.
Percy had never been told exactly what had happened in Siberia those years ago between Tony, Steve, and Bucky. All he knew that it was something big. It had to be, for Tony to be looking at Steve with this much loathing.
Tony stood up, brushing things off the table, hands shaking. His coffee cup landed with a clang. "I need a shave." He muttered. Then he looked back up at Steve.
"And I believe I remember telling you, Cap," He strode towards him. Rhodey and Jason started towards Tony, trying to get him to stop.
"Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!" Rhodey said. "Tony, just slow down and think." Jason tried to calm him down. Tony just stepped to the side.
"I remember telling you that what we needed was a suit of armor around the world!" His voice started rising. "Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not, that's what we needed!"
"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve said calmly.
"I said, 'We'll lose' you said, 'We'll do that together too.' Well guess what Cap? We lost. You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers, not the Prevengers, right?
Rhodey stepped in front of him. "Okay, you made your point. Just sit down, all right?"
Tony pushed Rhodey away. "Nope. Here's my point."
"Sit down!"
Tony turned to Carol. "She's great, by the way. We need you. You're new blood."
"Tony!"
"Bunch of tired old mills," Tony continued relentlessly. "I got nothing for you, Cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no plans, and no options. Zero, zip, nada. And no trust, you liar."
Steve just looked at Tony. Finally he ripped his Arc Reactor out of his chest and handed it to Steve. This time Percy rushed over. "Here, take this. You find him, and you put that on. You hide."
Tony fell to the ground and everyone gathered around him. Tony tried to push them away. "I'm fine. I'm—"
He collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"Bruce gave him a sedative. He's gonna be out all day." Rhodey said in an undertone to the rest. Tony was lying on a hospital bed with Pepper by his side.
"You guys take care of him," Carol said, standing up. "And I'll bring a Bezurian Elixir when I get back."
"Where are you going?" Rhodey asked.
"To kill Thanos." Carol replied, as if it should be obvious. Percy sighed. In some ways, Carol reminded him a little bit of Thalia. Headstrong, powerful, and maybe a little bit too sure of her abilities.
Carol started to walk off and Natasha stepped in front of her. "You know, we usually work as a team around here and between you and I, we're also a little fragile. We realize this is more your territory, but this is our fight too."
"Do you even know where he is?" Frank asked disbelievingly, sitting on the couch with Hazel. He hadn't talked much that day and everyone started in surprise.
"I know people who might." Carol looked anxious to leave.
"Don't bother." The girl who looked like a cyborg—Nebula, Percy reminded himself—spoke up from her brooding spot in the corner.
She looked up. "I can tell you where Thanos is." Everyone went quiet to listen.
"Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. While he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled I wanted to please him. I'd ask, 'Where would we go when his plan was complete?' His answer was always the same."
She stood up. "To the Garden." She said in such in ominous voice it was almost comical.
"The Garden." Jason raised his eyebrows.
"That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodey muttered.
"So where is he then?" Steve asked in his let's-get-moving Captain voice. Rocket stood up from his chair.
"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became Ground Zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic measures. No one's ever seen anything like it… until two days ago." A hologram popped up that showed a planet with a visible shock wave moving across it.
"On this planet. Thanos is there." Nebula stated.
"Then why didn't we hear about this two days ago?" Hazel wondered.
"Carol updated our technology." Bruce said. "Between her and Rocket, we had a huge breakthrough."
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't call myself a genius, but I am." Rocket said from the floor, a grin on his face. Jason rolled his eyes.
"He used the stones again." Natasha realized.
"Hey, we'd be going in shorthanded, you know that, right?" Bruce asked.
"Oh, do I ever." Percy murmured.
"Yeah, we know that. He killed all our friends." Jason pointed out.
"Look, he's still got the stones, so…" Rhodey said.
"So let's get them, and use them to bring everyone back." Carol said, again like she was stating the obvious. Percy felt a ripple of annoyance and being spoken to like he was three years old. Thalia had the tendency to do that too. He'd have to set them up to meet sometime.
"Just like that?" Rhodey asked.
"Yeah. Just like that." Steve said, and looked at Percy. He nodded.
"Even if there's a small chance we can undo this… I mean, we owe this to everyone who's not in this room, to try." Natasha said, glancing up at the screens that were flashing with the photos of the missing. They were like dead bodies; it was hard not to look at them.
"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asked, trying to bring the conversation back to an understandable level.
"Because before you didn't have me." Carol announced. Everyone got quiet, looking at her with different expressions of annoyance.
"Hey, new girl." Rhodey began, sounding like he was just about done with her. "Everyone in here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind me asking, where the heck have you been all this time?"
"There are a lot of planets in the universe," Carol said, turning to him and saying everything slowly. "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."
Thor, who was eating a snack this entire time, suddenly got up and walked over to Carol. He held out his hand and Stormbreaker flew into it, missing Carol by inches.
She didn't even flinch. Instead she actually started grinning at the God of Thunder. "I like this one." Thor announced to the room at large.
Steve was still staring at the hologram where the Mad Titan was located.
"Let's go get this son of a—"
PERCY JACKSON: ENDGAME
A/N Chapter three is complete. You're welcome. Please please please continue to review! They're amazing! Just say something, ANYTHING! Thanks to those who did:
The Sorrowful Deity
Br0kenTh0rn (That's a good idea, I will probably use it!)
Game-Watch
HISHB (Sorry, only one chapter at a time! Sorry)
DreamCatcher06 (Thanks for your review! Please continue!)
dzeebest (That's right we are)
DaughterofAthena223 (Yes, ma'am!)
DarkShadowDragon (Thanks!)
theworstisgoingtohappen (Thanks again!)
TheRealShenron (I don't think I would have the strength to kill any of them)
Guest (that's what I was planning on! I've got big plans for that battle :)
HISB (You'll just have to stay and find out! Hehe)
Jemma Cross (I honestly have no idea, but I don't think so. Please continue reviewing!)
Guest (Good suggestion, but would there be any Infinity Stones in that timeline? Don't really know how that would work. Thanks though!)
