Hey! Sorry for the very, very, very, VERY late update.

Enjoy! Also, Merry Christmas!

Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or Percy Jackson.

Steve POV:

It was Saturday evening and the team was hanging out in the living room but this time, it wasn't just the 6 of us. Sam Wilson a.k.a. The Falcon was sitting upside down on the couch looking at Star Wars: the last jedi. We were watching it mostly for Bucky and I. This brings me to the second new member: Bucky Barns a.k.a. The Winter Solider. Actually, ex-Winter Solider. He was on the floor throwing popcorn at Sam's face. Then we've got Wanda – Scarlet Witch – who was sitting on a couch next to Vision. Last but not least: Peter Parker or, as most people know him, Spider-man. I still think he's too young to be in the super-hero business but he's stubborn. He was on the couch next to me, eating nachos.

"STOP THROWING POPCORN AT ME!" yelled Sam. Bucky smirked like he was waiting for him to snap.

"And what if I don't?" Bucky challenged.

"Then I'm going to punch you through the window." Threatened Sam.

"I don't think you can."

"Oh, yeah? Let's try and see."

"Bring it on."

Natasha pushed Sam back when he tried to get up and smacked Bucky upside the head.

"Stop fighting like you're 3 years old." She said.

"Yeah, guys. Fighting is never the answer." Said a voice. I turned around and when I saw who spoke I remained stunned. I could feel my mouth hanging open and I knew that my fellow teammates were in the same state. There, near the elevator, bruised and battered and looking like they went through hell were standing with big smiles on their faces Percy and Annabeth.

"Of course not. It's the question. The answer is yes." Said Annabeth.

"Yup. Although I'm kinda tired of fighting. A bit of peace wouldn't hurt." Percy added and he sounded a bit bitter. Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder. "We will have peace, Perce. Especially now. We deserve it."

"You…you're…. you're back!" yelled Tony, snapping out of his shock, a big grin forming on his face.

"Yes, we are." They said at the same time.

We all ran at them and hugged them. By all of us, I mean Natasha, Bruce, Tony, Clint and I. The rest didn't really know them but they came closer too.

"What happened to you?" asked Sam.

Percy dismissed the question with a wave of his hand. "Nothing new or something we can't handle." He said it casually enough but there was something in his eyes, a brokenness, that said the opposite. I looked at Annabeth and noticed that her eyes held the same emotion. Whatever happened to them in the last 8 months broke them.

Bruce looked skeptical. "I'm not buying it."

Clint nodded in agreement with Bruce. "Me neither."

"Your eyes look haunted. Broken, even." Said Nat.

"No shit, Sherlock." Replied Percy. At least his sarcasm was intact.

"Percy, be nice." Annabeth said. "Look guys, we came here as fast as we could. Immediately after we healed enough, we came. The other injuries will take some time…" she explained.

Percy looked behind us. "Who're they?"

"Oh, yeah." I said, remembering that we had presentations to make. "They're our friends and part of the team now. Why don't we go sit and make introductions?"

"Sounds good, Rogers. Maybe you'll tell us what you were up to the last 8 months." Said Tony, the last part towards the young couple. We went to the couches.

"Why are you limping, Annabeth?" asked Bruce and I looked towards Annabeth to see that she was, in fact, limping.

She shrugged. "Broke my ankle." She sat down and Percy kissed her on the cheek.

"Do you want me to help?" asked the doctor.

She smiled. "No thank you, Bruce. There's really nothing you can do. It healed the wrong way and it just needs time to get better." Bruce frowned.

Tony clapped his hands. "Introductions!" He pointed to Sam. "This is Birdbrain 2. That-" pointed to Peter "is Spider number 2. Then we have Metal arm over there." He said waving in Bucky's direction. "Mind-reading girl and her boyfriend." Wanda and Vision.

"Shut up, Stark." I said.

"I'm Sam Wilson, also known as the Falcon." Said Sam.

"Peter Parker. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-man."

"Bucky Barnes"

"Wanda Maximoff" said Wanda and smiled.

"I'm called Vision."

Percy smiled. "Nice to meet you all. I'm Percy Jackson, son-" Annabeth nudged him in the ribs and gave him a warning look.

"Name's Annabeth Chase."

Percy nudged her back. "That hurt, Wise Girl. I'm not invincible anymore, you know."

She smirked at him. "I know." Percy pretended to be offended and we laughed.

"Invincible?" asked Peter.

"He was just joking." Said Annabeth.

"So what really happened to you two?" asked Wanda after a moment. "You look like you went through hell and back." The effect was immediate: their eyes became glassy and their breathing quickened. Their faces were showing pure terror. Bucky and I shared a look. Fighting in the WW2, we had front row seats at PTSD episodes. Bucky went to Percy and touched his shoulder. He screamed as if he was in pain. My heart was breaking at hearing his voice crack from pain that wasn't really there now but was before.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Percy suddenly yelled. "I'll take the curses, just LET HER GO!"

Bucky was trying to calm him down with Bruce, Wanda and Clint helping him.

Nat, Tony, Sam and I went to Annabeth.

"Percy?" she asked. "Percy?!" she said a little louder. "PERCY!" Tears started rolling down her face. "Why did you leave me? Percy, you… you promised me you will never leave me" Her voice sounded broken at the end.

"Annabeth? Annabeth, wherever you think you are, you're not there. Whatever you see, it's not real." I tried to make her hear me but it didn't work. Natasha put a hand on her arm and she turned so fast she almost hit Natasha if it weren't for her very good reflexes.

"Percy?" she asked again, a little more hopeful this time.

"It's Natasha but Percy's right here, next to you. Open your eyes, Annabeth. Try to focus on reality." Nat said softly but, yet again, it did nothing to help. Tony pushed us out of the way.

"Annabeth, kiddo, I need you to focus on my voice. Try to focus on my voice." Tony said and kept repeating it.

"I think it's starting to work." Said Sam.

I nodded. "Me too."

Then, I heard someone scream. I turned to see who it was and I saw Wanda on the floor, pure terror on her face.

"What happened? Are you okay?" I asked her and Clint helped her up.

"I had the idea to try and see what Percy was seeing. Worst idea I've ever had." She shook her head as if to take the image out of her head. "There were some… things. They were hideous. Also, there was pain. So much pain."

"I'm sorry for them." I heard Peter say. He was staying near Vision on Tony's orders.

"I know, Peter. We're sorry too." I told him. "The good news is that Tony is getting through to Annabeth. Slowly, but he's getting through."

After a few more minutes, Annabeth's eyes lost the glassy look but she was still crying. "What happ-" her eyes landed on Percy. She got up in one swift move and sat down in front of her boyfriend, pushing Bucky out of the way.

She took his hands in hers and started talking to him in a soft voice. "Perce, I'm here. We made it out. We're alive, Seaweed Brain. Both of us. We made it out and we're never going back. We're staying together." She continued to whisper in his ear until he calmed down. He hugged her tightly.

"You're alive" he choked out.

"I am and so are you." Replied Annabeth. "What did you see?" she asked.

Percy hugged her tighter. "The arai." It was a two-words reply but it seemed that it was bad cause Annabeth's eyes filled with tears.

"What did you see, Wise Girl?" he asked.

"I.. I was blind again. You left me." She said, voice cracking.

"I'll never leave you. We're gonna get through this together." Percy said.

"As long as we're together" said Annabeth.

"As long as we're together"

I felt like I was intruding on a private moment but I couldn't look away.

Annabeth POV:

"So what really happened to you two?" asked Wanda after a moment. "You look like you went through hell and back."

The moment she said that word, I could feel the memories resurface and hit me full force. Suddenly, I was back in Tartarus. I killed an arai and everything turned blank. I couldn't see.

"Percy?" I waited for an answer but when I didn't get one, I started to become worried. "Percy?!" I said louder. Maybe he just didn't hear me. Nothing. "PERCY!" I yelled but he didn't answer. Realization dawned on me. He left me. I started crying. He promised he would never leave me. He said he will be there for me, that he will always come back! I cried and cried, occasionally yelling his name to see if he would answer. I knew he wouldn't but I didn't want to let go of the little hope I had left that he will honor his promise.

'Focus on my voice, Annabeth. Can you hear me?' There was a voice. Where was it coming from?

'Listen to me. It's not real.' It's not real? What does the voice mean?

'You're not wherever you think you are. You're not there.' What? I was in Tartarus. Percy and I fell here. Where else could I have been?

Abruptly, I remembered that I was in the Avengers' living room. So I wasn't in Tartarus… I focused harder on the voice and then, I was able to see again. Tony Stark was sitting in front of me. He was the voice I heard earlier.

"What happ-" I started to ask but I stopped when I saw Percy. He was having a flashback. I got up and sat down in front of him. I took his hands in mine and started rubbing soothing circles on the back of his hands. I spoke to him in a soft voice, the one we used to calm each other down when a nightmare or something like this occurred: "Perce, I'm here. We made it out. We're alive, Seaweed Brain. Both of us. We made it out and we're never going back. We're staying together."

I continued whispering in his ear soothing words and after a while he calmed down. He hugged me tight and said "You're alive"

"I am and so are you" I said. Then I looked at him concerned. "What did you see?"

He hugged me tighter and I knew the flashback was one of the bad ones. "The arai." My eyes filled with tears at the memory of Percy laying on the ground almost dead. I fought the memory because I did not want to go into another flashback. He looked at me with the same worried expression. "What did you see, Wise Girl?" he asked.

"I.. I was blind again." I said and my voice cracked. "You left me." It hurt so much only to say those three words, even if they weren't real. It was my biggest fear, after him dying: that he was going to leave me like everyone else.

"I'll never leave you. We're gonna get through this together." Percy assured me.

"As long as we're together" I said. The fact that we were together was what got us through Tartarus.

"As long as we're together" He replied.

Our little moment was interrupted by Natasha. She put a hand on my arm. Her look told me that we had to answer a lot of questions and we couldn't get out of it. I exchanged a look with Percy and had a mini-conversation that went like this:

'They want answers' I "said".

'What are we gonna tell them, Wise Girl? Running isn't an option, is it?' He smirked mischievously.

'Shut up. No, it isn't. We'll have to improvise.'

'Got it.' I was thinking of any possible answers we could give when it struck me. He sighed. 'You got an idea, don't you?' I smiled.

I turned to see all the people in the room looking at us. I quickly analyzed everyone. Steve and Bucky seemed to be a big problem since I know Steve was a soldier and I'm sure Bucky was one too, so they should know about PTSD. Natasha and Clint were assassins and by working with them I know that they have had their fare share of traumatic events. Tony got me out of the flashback, so he has to know about stuff like this. I think he even experienced flashbacks and panic attacks. Sam, Wanda and Peter, they fought with the Avengers. They can't be too far behind on this kind of knowledge. Vision seems to be like a robot, one difference being that he can feel human emotions.

I sighed. There's no way out of this other than lying. Although it's more like twisting the truth. I gave Percy a nod. He put his signature trouble-maker smirk on his face and clasped his hands together.

"I bet you're all wondering what the Hades happened." He said.

"No shit, Sherlock." Said Tony and I saw him roll his eyes.

I took lead. "And we will explain. This year, after getting Percy and going on that dangerous mission I told you about-" Percy gave me a look. "Yes, I told them about that, Seaweed Brain. You can stop giving me that look. – anyway, after that we went to Greece, sightseeing. In the tour there was also visiting some.. caves. Percy and I got lost and remained there for a few days. It was pretty traumatic. I mean, being stuck in a cave with no light or not knowing if someone will ever find you." I shuddered. Percy put an arm around me for comfort.

Tony grimaced. "I know what you mean." Oh, yeah. I remember something about him being kept captive in a cave before he escaped and became Iron Man. If only he knew that where we went was much, much worse than a simple cave.

"What triggered the flashback?" asked Steve. This was a tricky question. It would be pretty hard to explain why the word h-hell triggered this memory. Luckily, Percy had an idea.

"The H word." Cue blank and confused looks. "Um… h..hell." I squeezed his hand in an attempt to remind him that I'm here and we're out of there.

Bucky was staring at us. I felt uncomfortable under his gaze. He seemed to be looking straight into my soul and uncovering all my secrets. I knew he wasn't buying any of what we were saying.

Percy continued: "You see, we started saying that hell would look exactly like that. At first, we joked about it but then it became pretty real and I guess that's why it is a trigger-word. So if you could refrain from saying that word around us, it would be great."

"Sure. Don't worry 'bout it." Said Sam. I don't think they believed us entirely but I thanked the gods that they let it slide.

"Do you like to play Mario Kart?" asked Peter after a few seconds of silence.

"If we like to? Please, you're talking to the queen of Mario Kart." I said, grinning.

"Take your pride down a notch, Wise Girl." Percy said and I playfully punched his arm.

"How about a competition then? The winner gets to pick from where we're ordering food!" asked Clint. The rest of the team took a controller each and sat down on the couch or on the floor.

"Challenge accepted" said Peter and we all laughed and started playing.