Hey

So I know this chapter might not be to the likes of some of you, cuz yeah, spoiler, but the way I'm trying to depict Percy is as a grownup with a lot of life experience. He's a grownup. And grownups forgive people. They do so more so they don't have to waste the energy it takes to still be mad at them, and avoid complicated situations. Say, take this story as an example, if he doesn't forgive them, how on earth can he be civil with them? I tried to show a way of not being civil two chapters before this one, but then I realized, that he can forgive them, but that does not by any means, mean they're friends or best buddies. It just means that he decided to be a big and grown man, and put aside their differences, and work together without being petty or mad every turn of the way.

So yes, Percy forgives them. It happened four-five years ago...? He's a better man because of it. Sure it hurt, but he healed. He was mad at them at first, but if they show proper regret, he will forgive, that does not mean he suddenly forgets about it because that will be there every step of the way. But he puts it aside, and he works with them as efficiently as he can manage. For example, take Reyna, he forgave her, but they aren't friends. That would be something that would need to regrow from the beginning, the thing is he isn't willing to put in the time, cuz he doesn't care about that anymore. But he forgives her, he's got no grudge against her.

He's an adult, he can come to those types of conclusions. To those types of choices. So, please... I always get reviews about how he should never forgive them and all-I think he should, and if you don't like that approach, I'm really sorry, perhaps this isn't for you. He will-does- forgive them, all of them, but in his mind, it's still set that as soon as it's all over he's out of their lives for good. So he's detached.

Also, on another note, this is finally getting into Infinity War! I remember when I started this, back in 2017, infinity war was a long way from even coming out, but I was already telling myself that it would pan into that, and then follow through with whatever came after or well Avengers: 4 as it was named then. Then Infinity War came out and I was so lost because I suddenly needed to fill in a twelve months gap before I could even write the part of this fic that takes part in infinity war, and so there was all that stuff that I put in for the past months. But now, finally, it is here, and this chapter is not my greatest, not gonna lie, but the next ones...I actually really like them.

I currently have more than a couple of the next chapters, and the ones after this, still in infinity war I wrote just days before I watched Endgame, and then the ones after, right after, so I was on a high on both times, and when I'm on a high like that, it usually tends to be better quality. Not actually high, but...I don't know how to explain it. But yes.

Please enjoy this chapter:

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X-X-Erat Incipiens-X-X

(It Was Starting)

Nothing, meaning absolutely nothing, could have ever prepared him for when Steve, after one and a half years, walked back in their lives.

Which happened after another alien invasion.

One and a half years passed in between though, and a lot happened in those eighteen months of time. People grew, friendships were mended, armies were assembled. Everyone got ready. And as time passed, without the imminent attack coming on them all, they all got more agitated. Nervous. It was easily felt in the air around them. Around all of them. And the more time passed the more it was felt.

The meeting had been the first of many for them. They had decided not to meet with the demigods, as Tony had pointed out, it didn't matter how they strategized, in the end, a fight was a fight and they were going to fight each one of them, how they fought. Talking about it was just a false pretense that they were more organized when in truth they weren't. So they did talk, but with the whole of the Senate, the whole of the Greeks or, the whole of Avengers. Two on two, who then carried on what they had talked about to their companions. Partners, other important people. Those in leadership positions.

Leo had come to the compound, and Percy had actually been there. He was aware that the son of Hephaestus had asked Annabeth to set up a time and date so that he could formally apologize for the way he had treated him. He had said no. But now, once the fire demigod actually came, he had wanted to know and see, how things would pan out. Leo had, initially, played it very cool. Talking to Tony, keeping their conversation on weapons, and weapons alone. Geeked out at the labs Tony had at his disposal and started touching and tinkering with everything he saw. Apparently, every time he came he always did that. It then evolved to more serious talk, and then eventually once they were done Leo had turned to him and apologized.

Percy had accepted it. Like he had accepted Reyna's apology. He forgave him, but…gods no, they were not friends. Whatever they'd been through, on the Argo II, two decades before, was just that…a memory. They'd never been friends. Never been the closest, or paired missions except perhaps one. So there was never really a foundation. Never a real friendship but the one that was forced upon them since they were eight people on a ship alone for months. But, after he accepted the apology, he could talk to him, and it was no biggie, but again, they weren't friends.

Leo, as it turned out, was the first of many of a long line of people, demigods, legacies, nymphs, and dryads who slowly made their way up to him, and offered apologies. Some had been his friends, like Clarisse, and Jason, and Frank and Hazel, and he took their apologies with a heavier heart, knowing he was never going to be able to fully forget about it. He could forgive them though, and that was something he gave them. But again, even though they'd been friends, they weren't anymore. He didn't want anything to do with any of them. He kept on telling them, as he kept on telling himself, as soon as this was over, he was never stepping foot into either camp again.

By the end of the first winter though, almost everyone in the camps had either come up to him singularly, or in a group, and apologized. They understood, finally, that he had nothing to do with it. He hadn't been crazy, he hadn't been out of his mind. Just…framed. He hadn't killed his brother, his brother had killed himself because Tartarus had set him up to do it. It wasn't right by any means, but at least, they finally knew, and believed, he wasn't the monster he had been set up to be seen as. It relieved his spirits, as much as he still hated them, disliked, and could do well without ever having to see any of them again, it lifted him up. Like a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders, and like he was finally free.

He had never felt like that before. Completely, and utterly free to do whatever he so decided to do. No one would be there to tell him not to. There were no gods now, holding him on a leash, fates, deciding his every step. No, now this was just him, and his thoughts, and his choices, and no one else telling him what he could, or what he couldn't do. Even before, when he had been with the Avengers he had felt like he was in prison. As the Avengers were just a cushion on which he had fallen on when he had fallen from Olympus, but now, it felt more like they'd been there to sustain him for this. Because now, that he wasn't haunted and hunted by his past anymore, now that he had put everything to rest, it was like they'd given him a key to escape from his cage, and he was finally free.

Nothing felt as good as that.

Like he could smile, and the feeling was right. Like it wasn't forced. Even though he knew, gods above, he knew it was all borrowed time. Had been, since the very first breath he took when he came out of his mother's womb. All of it, borrowed. And he was willing to keep borrowing, until the end of the world was going to fall upon them all. He could smile now, look at Charlie, and finally be okay with the fact he'd missed the first four years of his life. Look at Annabeth, and forget —for her he could forget— the pain and the heartache he'd gone through those first couple of years. The pain and heartache he'd gone through when he'd seen her again. So now he could love her, unconditionally, and be proud of it.

Time fixed things. Time fixed his past. All of it. Or at least, all that could be saved and fixed.

Fixed the relationship he had with his father. Poseidon actually acted and was a father. Not someone in his head he thought about, but someone who was physically there. He was there to let him vent after angry days. To be talked to, when he could talk to no one and in fact, he was the only other person, to whom he told about the dream he had. About the scarecrows, a broken man calling out the Steve, like it was his last word and he had chosen to say that. About the message, that the war that they all felt was close, that it would not kill any of those he loved, if only he compromised himself. Switched sides. Helped him. His father had been understanding, but there had been little, he could say back to that. Except to stay true to who you are.

Time had also fixed a four-year gap he had with his son. He learned to love his son like he was a part of him. Like it was a part he didn't know had been missing for all of these years. He brought him to the compound, and as he grew, and the powers within him started unlocking, he trained him. Even though he was young, and only six by the end of it, he believed that the sooner he learned to control it all, the sooner he could be okay with having the powers he had. He'd only started learning when he was eleven, and it had pushed him back by a lot. If he'd started sooner, a lot could have been avoided.

He also, for the first time in six years, got the courage to go visit his mother's grave. Had never done it before. He had not been able to go to the funeral, and after, even though his sister, was always asking him when she went, he never went with her. Going there would mean really coming to terms that she was gone, and she was gone because of him. Both his mother and his stepfather had been killed, because of him. He didn't know, whether it had been Zeus, or whether it was Tartarus, but it was because of him. That much he was sure, and going there was facing that fact. Coming to terms with it.

It helped him.

Although afterward, he did need to let loose his emotions in a fight against his father, where had they not been on the beach, they could have done some real damage.

Time, not only fixed his own problems, it seemed to fix everything.

Tony was healing, even though it wasn't complete, and he still did not like Steve Rogers, he knew, that would it really come down to it, he would allow it. He'd put whatever their problems were, to the side, and get his head in the game. He was already doing that, because, he was putting sixty percent of his time into rewriting the accords. Make them better, so that no one would look at them and think it's better they not sign. Writing them so that they were good. Which was what they are supposed to be. They give accountability, but they do not shift the blame. You choose to go there, but then, whatever happens, you take responsibility for it, no one else does. They were good. It was taking more effort though, to push them through to the UN, especially, Secretary Ross.

He also grew closer to Tony, than he had in the first four years of his enlistment in the team known as the Avengers. Got to see Tony get closer to Pepper, and…it started feeling like a family, almost. He'd invite Annabeth and Charlie over at the compound, and they'd have dinners, and they'd laugh and spend real quality time together. A calm before the storm and they lived every moment like it was their last.

He talked to Steve a total of three times throughout eighteen months.

Steve said it was due to security reasons, and many other times, it just wasn't a good time. He asked about them, how they were doing, and they told him what they could. He also started noticing that Wanda was missing, and that Vision also was. When he asked about that, they relented that they were seeing each other, off the radar and that they'd like to keep it that way. He gave his word he wasn't going to rat them out. Steve told him that it was good, it wasn't home, it wasn't Brooklyn, it wasn't Europe, but being this new persona, Nomad, was good for him. It cleared a lot of things in his head.

He also ended up asking about James Barnes. Steve told him as much as he trusted him with. He was in Wakanda. Apparently, after knowing exactly who had killed his father, T'Challa had seen Barnes as a victim, saying that both he, and his father were victims, and if he could help at least one of them find peace, then he would do so. So he was extending the vast and highly developed technology Wakanda had to offer to help heal the assassin. Steve also told him that he hadn't seen him since, not in real person anyway. The Princess, her name was Shuri, she was also the one who was overlooking the medical care, had told him to stay away, let him make choices for himself, not for Steve, so he had stayed away. They talked now and then through a Skype call, and that was about it. But, from what he could see, he was doing well. Then also something about goats, but he lost him there.

He found himself asking a specific question, whether the words 'They'll come for him' had ever been spoken, and Steve had nodded, saying he'd said that to T'Challa once. When they first got to Wakanda. Percy had nodded that one time, and then quickly closed off the call afterward because he'd felt sick. So much that he had found himself vomiting, and then tears in his eyes.

He'd dreamed about that. Hearing that voice. Steve's voice and the same dream had led him to see about half the people he knew on a cross, and Tony bleeding from a gut wound. If he'd seen that coming, then what about everything else? About the 'Steve?' and 'It was the only way'. He'd gotten scared, and then get in contact with his father, and talked about it to him. But it had all led to nothing.

Yet he remained scared. Annabeth had been on that cross. His son. His sister. Too many had been on those scarecrows, and if it meant anything at all, he felt like he was going to lose them, and lose them soon.

-.-.-

5th May 2018

-.-.-

He was in the compound, in his room, entertaining his son. Annabeth was on the bed. The television was on. His senses were on high alert, and he figured hers were too, which is why she was searching for news. Anything. He hadn't heard anything about anyone. Tony was out, with Pepper, which was good, but he was not feeling like today was good. It was a hard feeling to explain, but Annabeth was feeling it too, as was Charlie. They were making different shapes with the water, controlling it and then making them fight against each other. Charlie was having fun, but the feeling of something going wrong was just too much, and enough to make him enjoy it all the less.

He kept on looking at Annabeth, kept on glancing at the television, to see if something was happening. But nothing. He honed his hearing to the television, kept himself there, listening to the reporter as he continued the water fight with his son.

Charlie had created a water sword, long enough it was easily the length of his arm, and so Percy had made up a dagger, and a shield. All of it was water. Charlie chased him around the room with the sword, and Percy ran from him, screaming softly, and then allowed for Charlie to tackle him to the ground. His dagger and shield dissolved in the air and then his son was holding the water sword to his neck.

"Yield," Charlie was demanding as he sat on his chest. The boy was light enough Percy could have easily pulled him off him.

He made an expression though. "I yield," he said trying to sound exhausted. "Have mercy on me—"

And he was squeezing Charlie's sides and then tickling him and his son was laughing as he was rolling off and the water sword disappeared. He turned them around so Charlie was on his back and laughing as he tickled him. The boy flailed his arms and kicked and tried to get him off, but he continued with his tickling assault. His laugh was worth it. When Charlie laughed or smile, it all seemed worth it.

His curly blonde hair was tousled as he kept on messing with him, and it was good. It felt good. Then he got on his knees, so when he helped Charlie up he was around the same height. A water dagger materialized in his hand. "Oh fierce opponent," he said, his voice deeper than before. "I demand a rematch."

He aided his son in creating the sword and keeping it a liquid-solid state for him to hold and wield properly. His son was getting good at this stuff, but not that good. He was still only six years old, and he wasn't going to push him. That would be very bad parenting on his part, and Annabeth would never allow it, he would bet. She would stop immediately if he started crossing an imaginary line which was definitely there.

Charlie attacked him again, and he made a show of docking, and parrying aside, and he actually thought his son had tactic. That one day he would be able to fend himself off just fine. Perhaps be as good as he was. For the umpteenth time, he allowed him to disarm him, and then he was tackled to the floor from the child, and again, the water sword was on his neck.

"Again, I—" he was saying but the television cut him off.

What he was hearing cut him off.

"We have just come up with the news, that in New York City, what looks to be like an alien spaceship has descended from out of nowhere," the reporter was saying and Percy was pulling Charlie off of him in moments. Turning around to look at the television to indeed see, two aliens on the streets of New York. "Avenger member, Tony Stark, former CEO of Stark Industries, and now known worldwide as Iron Man, was one of the first responders to the attack. Siding with fellow Avenger, Bruce Banner, alias the Hulk. Two other members were seen battling alongside our globally known Avengers against what looked to be two aliens, from outer space."

He walked over to his night-drawer and picked up his phone. He started dialing Tony. The reporter was saying something about Spider-Man joining in on the fight, and then he hit Tony's voicemail. He shut the phone down and set it back on the table as he looked back to the screen.

"Tony Stark was seen flying into space, after the spaceship," the lady on the screen now said. There was a picture of Tony next to her talking. "And since, no sign of the genius billionaire has been sighted. Satellite imagery, as far as they can see, actually visualized our mortal hero, entering the vessel." He fell down on the bed, feeling weak and out of this world. "As of right now, Tony Stark has been placed under missing person."

He lost track of the rest of what they were saying. He lost track of all of it. He pushed himself up to his feet and then he was out of his room, grabbing his phone and stuffing it into his pocket. Out in the corridor and Annabeth was calling him, trying to catch up with him, but she was urging Charlie to come as well. Good, he absently thought, he didn't want Charlie to be left alone. Not for a minute.

Tony was missing, and that was giving him a bigger worry than what connected to that.

It was starting.

Yet, Tony was missing, and —now his phone was ringing, and he thought that maybe it was Tony, maybe he wasn't missing, maybe it was okay. But it was Pepper who was calling him. Pepper who was calling him. Oh god, she— He let the call come through and put the phone to his ears. "Pepper?"

"Percy!" she exclaimed immediately. "Oh my god! Tony, he's on the ship. Please, you got to help him. Percy—"

"Pepper," he interrupted her, trying to keep his voice calm. She stopped talking and he took a deep breath, steadying himself. He had to be strong for her, to root her to now, and to anchor her so she wouldn't lose her mind. He had to. For both her and himself. "Listen I just heard about this, but I promise you, I won't rest until we find him again, okay? He's gonna come home. I promise. In the meantime though, I think we have just as big problems to worry about. Just, you don't worry, and we'll manage alright. We've managed before, we can manage now. Everything's gonna be alright."

"You don't believe that," Pepper's stronger voice was coming through, and suddenly an image of Tony, on his knees, half covered in blood popped in his head. An image of him, holding himself, consoling himself, an open wound in his stomach. He shook his head.

"I do," he told her. Why was Tony on the ground while everyone else was up as scarecrows? It was the first time he was asking himself this, but now that he thought about it…if the dream had even meant anything at all, then Tony was different than all the rest. "He's gonna be okay," he told her. Instead of everything, now he said he, specific to Tony. "I got to believe that right? After all, I don't know what I'm gonna do if I stopped believing that."

There was a long pause, and he continued walking, jogging, running to whoever he could find first. He was heading towards one of the meeting rooms, hopefully, someone was there. He was aware that Rhodes was in the compound, and he had said something about a meeting with Ross. Hopefully, he could find him. Hopefully, he could talk to him, and together they could come up with something. All of it was just…hopefully because there was no other way to think of it.

'I do hope you're ready, Perseus,' the voice said, and he stopped dead in his tracks. The phone fell from his hand and hit the ground, luckily it was a Stark phone, and so it didn't so much as dent —those things were manufactured to survive a battle. He looked around himself as all the hair on his body raised. His muscles tightened. 'I am not alone, your problems will start with Thanos, but they will end with me'.

He stumbled backward, tripped over his own feet and then fell on his butt with a crash. He allowed his whole body to fall too, the momentum to stretch his body out and he was back flat on the floor. Cold enough it rooted him to where he was and not to the thought that he had just spoken to him through whatever bond he'd formed all those years before. He was terrified, so terrified that he was shaking and then the realization of his words really settled in his bones and he was as still as stone.

It was starting.

He'd known, of course, since he saw the alien spaceship on the screen, he had know it was starting, but it had been a second thought. First and foremost had been Tony, and the fact he was missing, on an alien spaceship going to who knows where. Now though, now his past had actually caught up with him and as ready as he had thought he'd been, he wasn't ready. Not at all. He was not ready, he wanted to hide actually, hide and hopefully never be found.

"—Percy!" the voice brought him back, although muffled, and he looked around himself, trying to find his way back from whatever it had been that he'd just gone through, disassociation or whatever. No one was in the corridor he was in. "Percy!" He recognized Pepper's voice, his eyes locked on the phone and he hurried towards it.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Percy what the hell happened?" she yelled through the phone. "There was a loud bang, and then, I don't know you were whimpering, and I got so scared. Please tell me you're okay? Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," he told her quickly, his voice was hoarse. "Don't worry about me," he added. "Alright. I think I know what this is. I'm gonna find Rhodes now, alright, and then from there, we'll work on getting Tony back. I promise."

"Oh my god, Percy, be careful," she said, and then they mutually hung up on each other.

Percy was filled with renewed strength and so he was pushing himself up from the floor and starting his jog again. He called out to Friday, asking her where Rhodes was, and was almost to the lounge room, when a door from the left was opened and he crashed head-on with the man that stepped through, him too, in a hurry, it seemed.

They both fell to the ground. "Bloody Hades," he cursed in Greek and then looked up. He was shaken when his eyes fell on Bruce Banner. Banner's own eyes were wide open when they met his and his expression quickly turned from one of shock to one of absolute happiness.

Bruce hugged him. "Percy!" he exclaimed as he crushed him. "Oh god." He then pulled away and Percy held him at arm's length. Bruce's expression fell again. "Thor is gone, Tony is gone the spider-man kid, as well. Oh god, I think, I'm gonna have a heart attack!"

"Hey," Percy called out as he caught Banner from stumbling to the ground. "Calm down alright. A lot is happening, that neither of us really can grasp. How about we all round up, and then we can talk, and come with a plan of action, hey? Okay?"

Banner nodded. "Percy, this is the end of the world," he mumbled to him as Percy held his arm and they started making their way to where Percy was going.

It occurred to him, as they walked —he wished they could be running, get there quicker— that Bruce had been gone for the good part of three years now. A year in between Sokovia and the Civil War, and then two from there. Three years where a lot had happened. He'd come out as a demigod. An explosion had almost killed him. Demigods. Gods. A prophecy. How was he going to explain all of this to Bruce if they had so little time to do so? It would be impossible. And he seemed to know his share as well, perhaps something else. Storytime would need to be cut short though, he had a feeling this was going to be a very long day.

Where had Banner been for the past three years? What had he been doing? And Thor couldn't be gone?

Bruce was walking fine on his own for the last stretch, and when they walked through, Percy was not expecting what he was met with.

There was Rhodes, that yes, he was talking to Steve and Natasha. Sam, Vision, and Wanda. His heart was beating hard and fast. Too much was happening all at once, it was impossible—his mind could not keep up— he needed to sit down or else it wouldn't be Bruce to have a heart attack, he'd have a heart attack and that was no exaggeration. He was so close.

First Tony.

Then Tartarus.

Bruce.

Now Steve.

Everything was coming together and it was all because it was starting.

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So here it is. I wanted to call this the beginning of the end, but I think a further on chapter, one where the end of Endgame is clearly in sight should be called that. Or maybe when they start working on time travel. Also, apologies for the big time skip, but I think that trying to fill that time in with random events would have been worse, so instead a big time skip with some words to make up for it, and yeah that's that.

Next time, Infinity War grows, and you get to see just how grownup Percy has become. He's a big man now.

Hope you enjoyed, if you did, please leave a review, follow, favorite, either one. It's all very appreciated and it's the support that makes this go on.

Hunter