CHAPTER 11: AND NOW, IT ENDS.

PREVIOUSLY:

One by one, the heads on the Lernean Hydra's neck fell as the son of Poseidon repeated the same action sadistically as the creature began to whimper helplessly up until the moment the last (and obviously immortal) head was blown off in yet another spectacular but gory display.

Why was it that the last head to go was always the immortal head?

Deciding not to ponder on that, the son of Poseidon looked at the Hydra which unsurprisingly (to him at least) dissolved into wisps of darkness that melted into the ground, he stared at the point where the Hydra once was before looking down at the immortal head of the Hydra which had somehow rolled to his feet, and the message he saw in its eyes made him pause briefly.

Albeit unspoken, it was the same plea that Hyperion had given him…

'Help Me'

Before the half blood could think about it any longer, the head was bathed in a purple light before its form was warped into something else…

… dual scimitars.

Dual scimitars with venomous green blades, silver guards with scale designs and black hilts with purple highlights.

Without another word, the son of Poseidon picked up his spoil of war (and immediately discarded the remains of 'Patrick') and vapour travelled back into the Van where he was met with awed stares… not that he was interested though, he was more interested with getting to know his new signature weapons better…

NOW:

Steve, Natasha and Sam sat in an uncomfortable silence. They had already arrived at what seemed to be a makeshift hideout and the news that awaited them was quite… shocking to say the least.

Percy on the other hand, was standing at the opposite end of the room still admiring the edges of his blade.

"Soo…" Sam began awkwardly in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had already fallen on them, "… I guess it's a good thing that Fury's not dead… right?"

This 'news' being that the believed to be deceased director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury, was as a matter of fact very much alive, albeit hospitalized.

Steve nodded absentmindedly, "I guess Percy was wrong this time huh?" the super soldier asked Natasha.

Sam cocked his head sideways, "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, a question which made Steve chuckle a bit before gesturing towards Natasha while nodding his head, "I think that Nat would be the best person to answer your question" he stated making Sam turn towards said Russian in no small amount of curiosity.

It was the red heads turn to frown, she glared at Steve whom shrugged half heartedly, before turning back to Sam and answering him in a tone that was low and yet clear, "Percy comes with a lot of quirks, some of them are hilarious – to me at least – and the rest are… disturbing to say the least…"

"… well?"

"… one of his numerous 'quirks' is – as crazy as it sounds – premonitions, Percy will never admit it, and one wouldn't notice if they tried considering the amount of swagger he puts into making his… insanity look cool, but his mind is broken, and I don't think it can be fixed…"

At this point Natasha's voice cracked slightly and her eyes watered making Sam blink in surprise, 'Wait a second, she cries?'

Steve on the other hand furrowed his brows slightly, "But since the both of you got together he's been getting better right?" he asked carefully not wanting to upset the Russian spy, after all he knew first hand exactly how badly she could lash out against someone whenever she lost control of her emotional state.

The red head sniffed a little and rubbed the tears out of her eyes and turned to face him. "You can't 'fix' broken glass, Steve, and in the same manner I can't fix him. Hell! I don't think anyone can fix him, but it doesn't mean that I don't love him the way he is, he might be broken, but he's still who he is" she replied, making the super soldier nod a little.

"… that was quite cheesy" Sam deadpanned.

Steve rolled his eyes and Natasha shot the man a dirty look while Sam shrugged while taking a step back at the same time.

"You still haven't answered the question though" Sam chimed in after a few tense moments making Natasha sigh a little.

"Percy had a vision where he saw Fury die" she stated bluntly making Sam raise a brow before looking away from her blank eyes, "Huh, I guess he was wrong"

"No, I wasn't"

The trio jumped in shock as Percy's voice rang out beside Sam… well Steve and Natasha jumped, while Sam just fell on his ass.

Ignoring the man, Percy continued, "I actually saw Fury die, just not in an incident like this. Why the hell did you think I was so bloody calm when you told me that Fury was dead?" Percy addressed the super soldier with a raised brow.

Said soldier scratched his head with a confused expression on his face, "But… you threatened me when I brought it up" he defended weakly making the half blood hold back a snort at the captain's choice of words, "Firstly, your reply has nothing to do with what I asked you. Secondly, yes I did threaten you and I meant everything I said and also because it was fun to watch you squirm and finally, you still haven't answered my damn question" Percy replied with a straight face.

"…"

"… just as I thought, can you please not make hasty decisions, Cap? I've lost count of how many people I killed with minimal effort while under contract just because they made hasty decision, it'd be too bad if someone else used that tactic against you, don't you think?"

Steve nodded.

Turning to Natasha, Percy suddenly frowned as he saw the tell tale signs of tears in her eyes, she had obviously tried to rub it away, but as an assassin one could never be competent in his trade if he could not notice even the most minute of details.

"Are you okay Ginger snap?" he asked affectionately.

Natasha nodded slightly, "Yeah… just thought of some real emotional stuff" she joked making Percy smirk slightly.

She was deflecting, but he knew that she would tell him eventually, she always did.

Suddenly Natasha scowled at him, "Ginger snap? Really?".

"Yup, that's what I'm calling you from now on"

"You can not be serious!"

"Oh I'm serious alright, as serious as a heart attack and Batman put together!"

"Ugh!"

Sam stood up from his embarrassing position on the floor and walked over to stand side by side with Steve to join him and watch the spectacle that was playing out before them.

"… now I see why my niece ships these two so hard"

"… yeah"

LINEBREAK

"It's good to see you up and kicking Rogers" Nick Fury grunted at the first avenger who smiled a little at the fact that the director of SHIELD was still putting up the front of a tough guy despite his condition.

Percy, Natasha, Steve and Sam stood around the director as he gave them the equivalent of a debriefing whilst laying on his bed.

Whereas the captain was quite overjoyed at the fact that Fury was alive, Percy on the other hand held some… mixed feelings, so to speak, towards the wounded man.

"… for a guys who is supposed to one of the best tacticians on this part of the continent, you make some real dumb mistakes sometimes" he commented dryly making the director scowl at him.

"Oh I'm sorry, it's totally my fault for not being an all seeing God that can see disasters long before they happen" he bit back sarcastically, albeit with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Percy raised his eyebrow, "No Fury, your problem isn't the fact that you aren't an all seeing God. No, your problem is the fact that your obsession with being in control of every situation led you to hire 'assets' that were detrimental to SHIELD as a whole. Your 'Dumbledore complex' was your own hubris Fury, and HYDRA capitalized on it…" the half blood paused for a bit and snorted as he recalled something, "… to be fair though, even though you are a dumbass it isn't entirely your fault. The remainder of the blame falls on your predecessors, I mean, whose fucking idea was it to let the former operatives of a well known terror organization into a security agency. Didn't they know that the average eastern European is very loyal?"

His response was in silence.

"… and no my last comment isn't racist, I'm merely stating an observation" Percy supplied with a slight yet noticeable tick in his eyebrow.

Natasha sniffed at him mockingly, "… we never said anything. Guilty conscience?" she taunted.

Everyone (including a sulking Fury) chuckled at that.

"… okay, I might be a bit of a racist, but at least it's not as bad as your president's" he grumbled out.

"Could you give the guy a break, I mean you're just throwing about accusations that have no justification whatsoever" Steve stated with an eye roll.

Natasha and Percy glanced at each other and both of them snorted derisively at the same time, "Steve, you shouldn't be this naïve, the government has been lying to the masses for a very long time." Natasha commented dryly whereas Fury muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'you have no idea…'.

Before any other arguments of a political nature could break out, the director of SHIELD spoke up, "We need a plan to either take back the Hellicarriers from HYDRA or destroy it" he stated in his usual 'all business mode' tone.

Sam nodded, "Yeah, we do, but the question is how to go about it" he gave his own two cents.

"No, you don't…" Percy cut in making everyone turn to him incredulously.

Before any cries of outrage could be put forward, the half blood continued, "I'm not saying that we are going to keep idle while HYDRA makes the world goes to shit…"

"… so what the fuck are you trying to say?!" Fury snapped at him in annoyance whereas the half blood responded to the interruption by flipping the director.

"I was getting to that you prick" Percy deadpanned before continuing, "… as I was saying, with the under equipped operatives we have on our side, assaulting the Hellicarriers would be one of the most stupid decisions we could take…" turning to the director Percy threw a question his way, "… SHIELD's got some secret land and underground bases lying all over the planet right?".

Nick Fury nodded in affirmation.

"Good. I need you to rally all your operatives and send them out in micro units to reclaim as many of these bases as possible. Chances are, with their own D – day coming up, these bases will have weak defences as HYDRA will put most of their focus on protecting the Hellicarriers. When I use the term 'reclaim' I mean reclamation of every bit of info in every damn CPU in these bases down to the last bit, after which the bases will be blown to kingdom come. In essence, what they'll be doing will be a form of damage mitigation"

The director gave no protest.

Turning to Sam, Percy threw a question his way as well, "You know a couple of air force deserters right?" he asked with utmost seriousness.

Sam nodded in response to the question, "Yeah I do, why?"

Percy continued, "I need you to get in contact with as many of them as possible, I'll need you guys to rain hell on the 'Carriers from the skies…"

"We don't have any jets" Sam pointed out.

"I noticed" Percy deadpanned before continuing, "I have some compact experimental aerial combat hardware that's well suited for handling vehicles like the hellicarrier…" he took a deep breath, "… essentially, you guys will serve two functions: firstly as diversion to get their attention away from the main attacking force and secondly, to mop up the remains of whatever the infantry left behind"

Alarm rose up in the director's mind regarding the first part of Percy's statement, but the psychotic Avenger continued before he could comment on it.

"Steve, Natasha and I… are going to go see an old friend of mine, he's the one who'll provide us with the extra muscle we need" on that note, the half blood shot the two mentioned Avengers an expectant look to which they nodded in response and began to make their way towards him.

With her in tow, Percy spun on his heel and made his way out of the dark, dank, and stuffy infirmary.

The director of SHIELD and Sam Wilson remained in a tense silence for a while before the pilot spoke up, "I've travelled with Percy for the past few days, and I don't think I've ever seen him like that " he said in a small voice, obviously shaken by the change in personality he just witnessed in someone whom he considered nothing more than a low life, smart mouth and contract killer up till a few moments ago.

The one eyed Eagle chuckled dryly at the statement, "I don't think I'll ever get used to that man's personality shifts" he stated amidst chuckles.

Sam remained silent.

Laying back down, Nick Fury spoke once more, "Don't be so shocked by what I'm about to say…"

Sam raised a brow.

"… but I feel inadequate whenever that guy's around…" that comment made his companions eyes go wide but the man continued, "… and I guess that's because most of the time I feel like Percy would be a better Director of SHIELD than I could ever be."

Sam would never say it out loud, but he agreed wholeheartedly with the man.

WITH PERCY NATASHA AND STEVE:

"I really shouldn't be the tactician here" Percy grumbled.

"You shouldn't really complain, you looked so cool back there" Natasha teased as she gave him a peck on the cheek whilst holding his right palm.

Steve whom was holding his left hand (and looked very uncomfortable at the blatant display of affection), brought up a question, "This friend of yours, anything we should know about him?" he asked curiously to which Percy replied.

"Oh yeah, he's a racist prick with an unnatural hate for Islam and a lot of resources at his disposal… he's also my best friend"

His companions frowned at him.

"Where exactly are we going?" Natasha asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

Percy gave her a dopey smile.

"Oh you know, a certain country on a shithole continent"

AN: I guess it's about damn time huh? Oh well. Better late than never, I'm just using this chapter as a means to test the waters if people are still interested in this. If not? Well my focus returns to my new story, if they are? Then that one goes on hold while I focus on this.

Just a heads up though, the next chapter might 'trigger' some individuals, but sorry, I cannot compromise character dynamics and quirks just for comfort. We might live in the 21st century but these things still happen…

So then:

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ALTAIR25 OUT!