Disclaimer: I don't own the Riordanverse or Marvel

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TWELVE

Apollo is *Gasp* a Decent Parent

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Apollo answered.

Alyssa was brought back to the clearing where Apollo had appeared to her earlier. The lush trees swayed gently in the breeze, the birds sang a beautiful melody that Alyssa had never heard before and would probably never hear again, the lake shimmered a gorgeous blue, and the grass was so soft and thick she wanted to take her shoes off.

She steadied herself for a second, taking it all in. Even though she had been here before it was still disorienting to be somewhere so beautiful.

Apollo appeared in front of her.

He was wearing mauve disco-style bell-bottom pants, white platform shoes, and a slinky gold shirt that opened at the neck, showing off more skin than Alyssa wanted to see. His hair was blonde and swept to the side.

"Hello," Apollo said.

"Hi," Alyssa said. "I need to talk to you."

Apollo put his hand up in a stop gesture. "I need to talk to you too."

Alyssa was interested to see what he would say. But she hoped he would let her speak soon. She had a lot to tell him, and needed his guidance.

"I've come to see that leaving you with S.H.I.E.L.D. may not have been the best option. I think I could have handled that differently, and I doubt that was a great experience for you."

Alyssa couldn't believe it. He was apologizing?

"But," Apollo grinned, "I can make it up to you."

He waved his hand, and something appeared in his hand. He held it out to Alyssa.

She looked at it. It was a bracelet. It was made out of what looked like real gold. It was a charm bracelet, with a delicate golden chain and clasp. It had two charms, a bow and arrow, and a lyre.

Alyssa wasn't sure what to think, but she did know that this was incredible. Her feelings were complicated. She felt a giddy happiness, even though a small part of her was annoyed that it had taken him a while to apologize and thought that a bracelet was a small trinket after what she had gone through.

As far as godly parents went, Apollo was pretty good. He had claimed her after only a few days at camp, if he visited camp for some reason he always said hi to his kids, he occasionally said happy birthday to her (and once he even said it on the right day!), and he had visited his kids shortly after the Battle of Manhattan and said he was proud of them. Compared to many gods, he was a great parent. But she had never imagined him as the type to apologize to his kids. Knowing that he cared about her made her feel really happy, and she wanted to hug him.

She carefully picked up the bracelet. "Wow. It's beautiful, thank you!" She undid the clasp, and put it on.

"It is beautiful, but it's more than just a bracelet. Hold the bow and arrow charm between your thumb and pointer finger, and imagine yourself holding a real bow and arrow."

Alyssa did as he instructed, gripping the bow and arrow charm between her left thumb and pointer finger and imagining a bow and arrow in her hands.

And suddenly, there was one. She was holding a beautiful recurve bow, made of yew wood and celestial bronze. Recurve bows were her favorite, and she was best at them. She could tell this one was very powerful and would be good for combat. She had a leather quiver across her back, stocked with celestial bronze arrows. She even had an arm guard and a finger guard, which would make it easier for her to shoot quickly without worrying about hurting herself.

Alyssa was stunned. But she managed to say, "Wow. This is amazing. Thank you so much."

Apollo smiled. He was obviously quite proud of himself. "Least I could do. I have a feeling you'll need it. The quiver never runs out of arrows, and to turn it back into a bracelet all you have to do is imagine yourself wearing the bracelet. The lyre works the same way."

Alyssa imagined wearing the bracelet again, and suddenly she the bow was gone and she was wearing the bracelet.

"Wow," she said again.

"So, what did you have to talk to me about?" Apollo asked.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. will probably want to get more demigods, so I want to warn camp."

"Yeah, sure," Apollo said. He snapped his fingers. "Your backpack and sword will be in your room when you wake up. You have drachmas in your backpack, right?"

"Yeah," Alyssa said.

"Then that's settled. Anything else?"

"Uh, do the gods know that S.H.I.E.L.D. knows about them?"

"No, no one's noticed yet," Apollo looked a little embarrassed. "If I tell them they'll blame me, so I think I'll just wait and see how this goes. But if you need help, just ask."

"Okay. Thank you. Really."

Apollo smiled kindly. "Make me proud, Alyssa."

Alyssa woke up in the bed she had fallen asleep in. Well, her bed, for as long as she was staying here.

She was kind of surprised that she hadn't had any nightmares or messages from Gaea while she slept. Maybe Apollo had done something to let her have a peaceful sleep, or she had been asleep for such a short time that her conversation with Apollo had taken up the entire time.

Either way, she was grateful. She had enough to worry about at the moment without bad dreams.

Alyssa held up her right hand. Sure enough, the gold bracelet was on her wrist.

She held the lyre charm between her thumb and pointer finger, and imagined herself holding a lyre.

And suddenly she was. It was made of wood, and covered in elegant carvings of things sacred to Apollo. The sun, rays of light, bows, arrows, instruments, hyacinths, laurel branches, and ravens. The carvings were gorgeous, and woven together like a tapestry. The lyre seemed very delicate, yet it was durable and strong.

Alyssa strummed a simple chord. It sounded wonderful, and Alyssa could feel that it had a bit of power in it, even though she hadn't imbued power into it.

The bracelet was the most incredible thing she'd ever had, and probably ever would have. And it came from Apollo, of all people.

Alyssa was practically shaking with happiness. But she couldn't help but be suspicious of why Apollo would give her such a thing. He probably thought she would need it, which wasn't good.

She strummed another chord, just to experience the beauty of the music, then turned the lyre back into the bracelet.

She remembered that she had called Apollo for a reason. She needed a drachma to Iris-message Chiron.

She saw her backpack and sword over on the floor at the foot of the bed. She went over and searched the backpack until she found a gold drachma.

She walked over to the little bathroom and opened it. Sure enough, there was a shower in the corner. She turned it on and waited for it to warm up a bit.

Then, mentally preparing herself, she concentrated on creating a rainbow by manipulating the light in the room.

It took a minute or so, but eventually, she made one. She chucked the drachma into it before the rainbow could disappear.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering," Alyssa said. "Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood."

The water rippled, forming the image of Chiron. He was sitting on the porch of the Big House, reading. He was in wheelchair form, so he resembled a scruffy teacher. But he looked older than he had when Alyssa had left, and his eyes seemed tired and stressed.

"Alyssa, my dear!" He exclaimed when he noticed her. "How are you?"

"Alright," Alyssa said. "It's a long story. But S.H.I.E.L.D. caught me, Tony Stark got me out, and now I'm at the Avengers Facility in New York."

Chiron seemed confused and disturbed. He opened his mouth, but Alyssa started talking before he could.

"Look, S.H.I.E.L.D. is probably going to try to get more demigods. Make sure everyone is at camp."

Chiron looked even more disturbed. "We don't have anyone out right now, but I'll make sure no one leaves."

Alyssa sighed, relieved. "Great, thanks. How is everything going?"

"Well, sort of. The Argo II is almost finished, and Leo had prepared a message to send to Camp Jupiter."

"Awesome. I hope I can get back before the war with Gaea starts, but I can't make any promises. I have no idea how I'm going to get out of this or what's going to happen. But Apollo's said he'll come if I call, so I'll probably be alright."

"Wonderful. I wish you luck, dear. Just ask and we can send a pegasus to come get you. Actually, why don't we do that right now."

Alyssa wanted to go home, but she had a feeling whatever was happening wasn't over yet, and she should stay with the Avengers for now.

"I don't know if I can. Something's telling me that's a bad idea."

"Huh," Chiron said. He looked lost in thought for a few seconds. "It could be fate. At this point, having to deal with mortals as well as Roman demigods, a monster army, and Gaea herself seems likely."

"Yeah," Alyssa said. When things went wrong for demigods, things often really went wrong. "Tell Rose I'm sorry, and that I love her."

Chiron looked a bit sad. "I'll do that. She misses you a lot and is very worried. Come home safe."

"I'll try," Alyssa said, which was the best she could offer.

Chiron swiped his finger through the Iris-message, breaking the connection.

Alyssa suddenly felt very alone.

She went into the main room and crouched down by her backpack. Yes! There were clean clothes!

She changed quickly, brushed her hair, and brushed her teeth. She almost attached her sword to her belt like normal, but remembered that she was with the Avengers and carrying a sword around could come off as threatening. And she now had the bracelet, after all.

So she walked out into the hallway, trying to remember how to get to the living room and then wondering where everyone was and if it would be weird to just walk around by herself and then realizing that she would probably get lost and then imagining how embarrassing it would be to be found wandering around, lost.

She had only been in the hallway for about two seconds and was already panicking.

Just then a mechanical voice came from the ceiling. "Hello, Alyssa. I am JARVIS. Mr. Stark has asked me to give you instructions to the living room."

Alyssa's hand shot to where her sword hilt normally was, and she had to stop herself from moving into a fighting stance.

She relaxed when she realized that JARVIS was some sort of robot and wasn't even in the room.

She wondered if talking to JARVIS counted as using technology, and if a monster had been alerted to her presence. But there wasn't much she could do about it. She absentmindedly fingered the bracelet, hoping she wouldn't need to use it soon.

"Um... Okay. Take me there."

"Turn left."

JARVIS lead her back to the living room.

When she got there, Tony and Pepper were there, sitting on the couches. Pepper on an iPad and Tony on a high-tech laptop, and both seemed engrossed in what they were doing.

They also seemed a little tense, and Alyssa wondered how long she'd been gone.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 7:30 AM.

Wait, what?

That must mean it was morning, and a full night had passed. No wonder she felt suspiciously well-rested and very hungry. That must have been the first time in years that she'd had uninterrupted sleep. Maybe Apollo had done something to keep the nightmares and dreams away. Could he even do that?

Tony and Pepper looked at her.

"Hey. You were gone a while. We figured you'd fallen asleep or something," Tony said.

Alyssa smiled. "I did, actually. I asked him in my dreams."

Tony looked interested. "That's something you can do?"

"Sure," Alyssa said. "He seems to like appearing in my sleep a lot, so I thought it would be the best place to ask him. I had no idea I had slept for so long."

"It's fine," Pepper said.

"Did it work?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. I contacted camp, and Chiron said they didn't have anyone out right now but he would make sure no one left. Which means S.H.I.E.L.D. getting more demigods is unlikely."

"Great. You want some breakfast?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah, thanks," Alyssa said.

She really did.

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Hey!

I know Apollo giving her such a great weapon is a little odd, but the bow and lyre aren't her best weapons, and also there could be some stuff coming up in which she really needs good weapons *hint hint except not really because I don't know where this is going and should probably have some enemies except for Gaea and random monsters but I have no idea what I'm doing and am still looking into a decent threat*.

I hope you guys are doing well, staying safe, and have a great Halloween!