Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What do you mean by ‘infiltrate the government’?” Nico exclaimed, throwing his arms up.

“Dude, it’s pretty self-explanatory,” Travis said calmly stuffing his face with more chips. Nico glared at him, causing Travis to shrink back. Good, he should be scared.

“Nico,” Annabeth said, crossing the room of the big house and then putting a calming hand on Nico’s shoulder. “We need you to do this because you have the best powers to do it with. You know how to blend in and you can get in and out without anyone really noticing.” Nico glared again, only this time Annabeth didn’t even flinch.
To be fair, he wasn’t really expecting her to flinch, it IS Annabeth after all.

“It’ll only be for a short time,” Percy added. “It will be over before you know it.”

“Why can’t Lou Ellen just go!? They have freaking magical powers!” Nico exclaimed pointing at the child of Hecate that was currently pelting a sleeping Clovis with balls of whipped cream (magically conjured of course).

“Because I’m the only one that is keeping the mist going and keeping the barrier up around this camp. If I left, this whole entire place would be destroyed in seconds, and all the mortals would know about us,” they explained without looking up from conjuring yet another ball of whipped cream. “Also, I’m on a wanted list in like 10 different states…so it probably bests that I don’t go.”

“Well technically I should be dead,” Nico grumbled under his breath and slunk down in his seat, banging his head on the table.

This annual counselor meeting was not going the way Nico had expected. Nico knew that the camp was having problems with the barrier and that the mist was acting wonky. More Half-Bloods where getting attacked daily. The infirmary was overwhelmed with patients, and that means Will was busy as well. Which sucked. A lot.

Nico hadn’t been able to get in a conversation of more than 2 minutes with Will before he had to go help yet another patient. The Hecate cabin was also desperately trying to keep the barrier up and figure out why their mother had suddenly disappeared off the face of the planet, and that was hard to do when there were only 5 people working on it. Then one of the five being new and having no idea how to control his magic. The gods were also being unhelpfully silent because Hades forbid them to be helpful for once in their lives.

“You’re sure that whatever I’m going to steal will solve this problem?”

Annabeth nodded. “100% certain, or at least Lou Ellen is.”

“Wait, why can’t a child of Hermes go?” Nico tried one more desperate plea to get off the weirdest quest he had ever heard of.

“We can’t phase through solid matter,” Connor supplied and seeing Nico’s ‘why in the name of my father would that ever matter’ face, he continued. “The object is guarded by 6 walls of vibranium. It’s impossible to blow up, cut through or disarm in any way. Sooo you just do your underworldy voodoo and shadow travel through the wall.”

Nico sighed, the reasoning made sense. He was the fittest for the job. He knew everyone was stressed about the problems. Hades, Reyna was stressed, and you know things are bad when Reyna is worried.

“Can I leave after the Romans get here?” Nico asked, thinking that it wasn’t a completely unreasonable request.
Most of the Romans in New Rome had decided to gather at Camp Half-Blood, safety in numbers and all that. Nico hadn’t seen Hazel in a good 3 months and he was starting to miss her.

Annabeth nodded again, “Reyna wants to help with the strategy to get you in and I know Hazel wants to see you again.”

Nico nodded before realization struck him, “wait a minute, you mean Reyna knew about me doing this!?”

A small smirk fluttered over Annabeth’s face, “Yeah, almost everyone knew about it. You just haven’t been paying attention.”

“Oh.” Nico paused. “She didn’t tell me.”
Percy let out a laugh that sounded more like a bark than an actual laugh.
“Nico, like everyone thought you knew this was a thing. I even knew what was going on.” Nico felt a blush spread across his cheeks, yeah, he should really pay attention more.

“Okay,” Clarisse said standing up and rubbing her hands together. “Now that we got all the boring parts out of the way, let’s get started on the fun parts.”

When no one said anything, she groaned. “C’mon guys the killing part! The so-called ‘plan B’ that actually involves a battle because we all know that the first plan never works!”

“Yeah that’s probably smart,” Katie sighed pushing her hair back away from her face. The room then erupted in very unhelpful suggestions of a plan B. Nico sighed for what seemed to be the 100th time that day and pushed his chair away from the table. No one stopped yelling, he tapped Annabeth lightly on the shoulder.

“I’m going to go find Will,” he left before she could respond. Nico let the big house door shut with a satisfying bang.

The camp was unusually quiet, usually, it was full of screaming kids, exasperated teenagers, and a very displeased Chiron. Now camp felt like a cold tomb, silent, cold, and with an unmoving body (or bodies in this case). Chiron had left for his annual party ponies get together (that he only went to after the party ponies had threatened to ransack the camp if he didn’t go...Chiron left surprisingly quickly after that), and Mr. D was holed up in his office bitching and moaning about not having wine...again.

He pulled his aviators jacket tighter around him, even though the camp was protected by a barrier, Mr. D still let the weather be the same as the outside (mostly because he wasn’t paying attention), and the November weather in New York was starting to get to Nico. Fortunately, he had a son of Apollo for a boyfriend and Will was always handing out free hugs.

He pushed open the door to the infirmary and was met with a blast of warm air and his nose was assaulted by the smell of cleaning products.

Nico sighed heavily wrinkling his nose, he had decided a while ago though, that he would put up with the smell to see Will. Will was worth it. Will was always worth it. Damn…he was getting sappy.

“Hey Nico!” a voice called cheerfully and a person came bouncing towards him. Immediately his eyes were assaulted with bright neon pink and orange hair, belonging the one and only Stella Vance. One of Will’s most cheerful half-sisters. She was a character, that’s for sure.

“Hi Stella,” Nico said peering around her. “Is,” he started to say but was interrupted with a giggle.

“Will is in our cabin. Hopefully sleeping, he just finished a 26-hour shift.” Stella said, still giggling.

“How did-“ he was cut off again.

“Whenever you come in here you're either injured of looking for Will. And I don’t see blood anywhere and no obvious broken bones, so Will it is.”

“Am I really that predictable?” Nico muttered mostly to himself.

“Yep!” Stella said cheerfully popping her gum.

“Thanks, Stella,” Nico sighed and turned to go find his boyfriend.

“No prob!”

Nico eventually found Will in his cabin past out on the floor.

“Oh you poor thing,” Nico muttered softly to himself. Will murmured softly and then rolled over so that his face was flush with the carpet and he was slightly hanging off of Nico’s shoes.

“C'mon you big lump,” Nico began picking up Will, awkwardly hanging one of his boyfriend's arm around his neck and scooping him up.

“Hmmphhhh,” Will groaned and nuzzled his face into Nico’s shoulder.

“Oh my gods, you literally are a cat,” Nico snorted, rubbing his hair affectionately.

Nico swore that Will outright purred.

Eventually, Nico had Will changed and in bed. That was not as creepy as it sounded, he swore.

“G’night,” Nico whispered, kissing Will on the forehead smile softly. “I love you.”

Nico turned to leave but was stopped when Will grasped his wrist tightly.

“Please stay,” he murmured, his eyes barely open. Nico didn’t need to be told twice, quickly he shrugged off his jacket and slid in next to Will.

Sleepily, Will turned on his side and gazed at Nico, a soft smile fleeted across his lips. He reached out and tousled Nico’s hair.

“You’re freaking adorable,” his words slightly slurred despite that Nico felt his cheeks heat up. Playfully, he pushed Will back into the bed.

“Shut up.” Will let out a laugh.

“Goodnight Neeks, I love you,” and then he turned on his side and his eyes closed, his face going peaceful and lax.

“I love you too,” Nico whispered, slipping the covers over his and Will’s shoulders, falling into a surprisingly peaceful and dreamless sleep.

“Agghhh,” Tony screamed, powder blowing up in his face, covering his precious goatee and seemingly crawling up his nose.

“You okay Mister Stark?” Peter asked, no concern whatsoever showing on his face, instead, a smirk was planted fondly across his lips.

“Yes,” Tony gritted out, teeth clenched as he wiped the powder out of his eyes. “Just a minor explosion.”

“Minor explosion?” A voice cut in, “with Tony Stark? Who would have thought?”

Peter and Tony both looked up to see Natasha Romanoff leaning casually against the door frame, she had the nerve to be smirking.

“How did you get in here?”

“Oooo, talk about spy powers. I didn’t even hear you come in!”

Peter and Tony spoke at the same time and there was a beat of awkward silence as the two stared at each other.

“Well,” Natasha spoke clapping her hands together, “Fury has requested that we do an emergency meeting. Something came up. Meet up in 5.” With that, Natasha turned on her heel and left the room.

Tony turned to Peter shrugging. “C’mon Underoos let's go see what the big scary pirate has in store for us this time. It’s probably another charity fund. I’m betting it’s another charity fund. Or Shield wants an upgrade on their coffee machine. Or both. Probably both.”

Tony continued talking as he guided Peter up 2 floors and into a meeting room where the rest of the Avengers and Bucky and Rhody (even though they essentially Avengers they officially weren’t) were already there.

“Okay, we are all here, where’s Fury?” Tony asked plopping down on one of the swivel chairs and propping his feet on the table.

A cough behind Tony caused him to jump and Fury stood there, a disapproving look flickered over his face before it went back into a neutral mask.

“What’s this all about?” Steve asked as Tony tried to recover his breathe (and whatever was left of his dignity).

“Yeah especially at this hour,” Clint grumbled, a yawn escaping him.

“Clint, it’s 3 in the afternoon!” Bruce interjected, disbelief in his voice.

“Exactly, way too early.”

Fury coughed again, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Can I start or are we just going to complain and not just get any work done?”

Everyone shuffled awkwardly and pulled out seats, everyone except for Thor who plopped eagerly down on the ground and crossed his legs.

“Out of everyone here, Thor is the most familiar with this new threat,” Fury began before he was cut off with a loud thud of Clint headbanging his head in the table.

“This is a terrible way to start the morning,” he groaned, his voice muffled from the wood.

Fury ignored Clint and kept talking. “These threats are not from Asgard or even from space. These creatures have been on earth for a long time, but with new problems occurring in their part of this world they have become an even bigger threat to our kind, “ Fury paused and glanced at the crowd, his one eye sweeping through them. He seemed to be calculating something before continuing. “It is important to remember that these creatures are not human even though they look human. They are a great threat to the rest of humanity.”

“Get to the point,” Tony cut in, one leg bouncing up and down and his fingers fiddling together.

“I was getting there,” Fury gritted out. “First of all there is one thing you all need to know, but this information doesn't need to leave this room.” He glared at everyone one more time only Natasha not flinching again his glare.
“To the best of our knowledge, Norse mythology is not the only myths that are real. Thor is living proof of that. Roman, Greek, and Egyptian gods also exist.”
Peter’s eyes went wide as Fury kept talking. “And these gods sometimes have children with humans making these children Demigods, and the one barrier separating our world from theirs is fading.”

Fury stopped, his shoulders squaring as he turned to the Avengers
“They don’t know we know, they suspect nothing. We have a slight advantage but we still need to keep our guard up.”

“Sir, what are you implying?” Steve cut in, a baffled expression over his face.

“What I’m saying Captain, is that we need to do whatever it takes to protect our people from these creatures. From the Demigods and from the monsters and the dangers that follow them. We need to keep on guard,” Fury’s eye pierced through Steve but he kept his gaze.

“Fury you said they were children!” Wanda cut in. Her voice escalating.

“Children with powers that they can’t control well and have no idea what to do with. And these children are after the infinity stones.”

With that Fury turned, his coat billowing and left the room. Leaving everyone else with a confused expression, even Natasha.

“Dude, that’s so freaking cool!” Peter exclaimed, his face bright and a huge smile plastered across his face.

Tony groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Chapter Text

Nico woke up the next morning with someone shaking him by the shoulder rather roughly (and most certainly not in a fun way). There were only two people who could actually get away with doing that to him. The first person was Percy because Nico couldn’t physically beat him up, but Nico doubted Percy would actually come into his cabin, mostly because of the skulls decorating the porch (even though Percy would never admit he was scared…it was totally the reason).

The second person who could ever shake Nico awake was Will. Because his darling boyfriend had no self-control and was totally willing (ha puns) to risk death to wake Nico up.

“C’mon Nico wake up,” yep, Will. Nico rolled over groaning and buried his face into the pillow.

Someone chuckled behind Will, which didn’t make any sense.

“Yeah good luck with that Will,” snorted- presumably the same person, that didn’t make any sense either. Nico bolted straight up (but like in a gay way) and reached for his sword. (which he, of course, left hanging on his belt like a responsible teenager)
Memories of the previous evening came back slowly but more or less clearly-
Oh right, Apollo cabin. Falling asleep with Will. Having a dreamless sleep for the first time in ages. Nico sighed dropped his sword in his lap, rubbed his eyes and had to strongly fight the urge to smash a pillow into Will's face only to then go back to sleep.

“C’mon, up Nico! Time to start the day!” Will chirped grabbing his boyfriend by the arm and hauling him upright.
“What time is it?” Nico groaned, pulling his arm out of Will’s vice-like grip.

“6:00 a.m, everyone else is already up and moving, come on,” Will answered opening up the blinds covering the small window next to his bed. The sun came streaming in, filling the room with an obnoxiously bright light. Even when Apollo wasn’t there, he still found ways to annoy Nico.

Nico groaned again and face planted into the pillow.

“Everyone else is already up because your dad is a giant asshole and flies the sun across the sky too early screaming show tunes that only you guys can hear. I should not have to suffer the same punishment.” Nico grumbled into the pillow, closing his eyes, slowly losing the fight and ignoring the bangs of the cabin door closing and Will moving around the cabin presumably opening up the other curtains.

“Nope!” Will shouted turning around, “you are notttttt going back to sleep, not on my watch. You are getting up and then going to go for breakfast and you will eat something more than just chocolate milk, which technically isn’t even food, and then you are going to meet up with the Romans and are going to be nice and civilized even though you only like 3 of them.”

“Wait, the Romans are going to be here today?” Nico asked lifting his head up, now intrigued.

“Oh. My. Gods. You have the cutest bed head!” Will squealed reaching out and fluffing up Nico’s hair, apparently oblivious to Nico's question.

“Will, focus,” Nico said swatting Will’s pestering hand away from his hair. “You said that the Romans are coming today?”

“Mmhmm,” Will nodded, “later today. Lou said something about a portal or Pegasus or potato. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Well c’mon up let’s go,” Nico practically shouted jumping out of the bed overcome with a sudden wave of energy and enthusiasm. Nico was pulling on his jacket as he was already out of the door, Will calling after him.
“And I didn’t even need to motivate you!”
Nico responded with a polite yet casual middle finger.

The Romans arrived around midday (by Pegasus and not by potatoes, much to the disappointment of Will).

It took mere seconds until Nico was tackled by an overly enthusiastic Hazel and was slapped so hard on the back by a very apologetic Frank that he felt like his whole back was on fire. His doctor too just laughed at him. How nice.

“So,” Hazel said pulling Nico into yet another bear hug. “You’re going on a quest.” She stated more like a fact in opposition to a question.
“Yeah,” Nico replied and nodded slowly.

“And you’re going to go break into the Avengers tower, like THE Avengers tower?”
“Yep,” he said casually as if he had just confirmed the fact that he indeed breathed oxygen

“And you just volunteered yourself, like voluntary!?”

“Nope, I was voluntold by a very scary Annabeth.”

“Yeah ok that makes sense,” Hazel nodded looping her arm around Nico’s and then grabbing Frank’s hand. “To the big house!”

Nico and Frank were dragged to the big house led by Hazel’s very surprising and very strong grip.

Nico would swear to the gods that he didn’t do it, but he was mouthing the word help over his shoulder while Will and Reyna stood there snickering instead of helping.

“Okay,” Reyna said clapping her hands together. Everyone looked up to her and stopped talking instantly, yeah Reyna was awesome like that.
“This so-called ‘quest’ should go by quickly so this meeting should be quick as well. So listen up. I’m only saying the plan once. Nico, this is essentially all you, so you really need to pay attention.”
Nico sighed softly, he was starting to regret agreeing to this quest even more now.

Reyna continued with a very detailed, but basic, sounding plan. Which she modeled with a gigantic map of New York City and then a smaller blueprint map of Avengers tower a Hephaestus kid had laid out.

“We will also have Argus as a backup driver in the alley three streets away if you can’t shadow travel all the way back to camp,” Reyna finished. “Any questions? None good, Nico you move out at 7:30 p.m. sharp and should arrive by 10.”

Will jumped up, ”wait wait wait, we are going to send in my lovely, yet rash,boyfriend with almost no backup to stake out one the most if not the most secure buildings in the world, where he will then break into and steal one of the most powerful and dangerous weapons of ALL TIME and then just carry it away for 3 blocks where he then will be taken back here in a strawberry delivery truck driven by a guy whose whole entire body is covered with eyes?!”

“Yeap,” Percy said smiling, “that’s what we agreed on! Won’t be the stupidest thing Nico has done before!” Reyna shot Percy a glance “what just saying…” he said in his own defense.

Nico grimaced, but had to agree- it was sad that the statement was so true.

“If it makes you feel any better, he’ll have a tracker,” Annabeth said placing a hand over Percy’s mouth.

Will sighed and slouched in his seat. “Of course this is SO much better… Alright Fine, but if, no, when something goes wrong, I’m on the extraction team no discussion.”

Reyna nodded. “Hazel and I have already called the other two spots.”

Nico snorted sarcastically and yet in appreciation, “the key members of the ‘Nico protection squad’, great.”

“Oh my gods Nico made a joke!” Percy shouted ripping Annabeth’s hand off of his mouth, “the world really is ending!”

Later that night, Hazel found Nico sitting on the dock, staring out over the water with no actual point of visual fixation. Cliché he knew, but still, it was quiet and everyone else was still at the campfire and he only had 45 minutes left before he had to leave.

“I thought water wasn’t your type,” Hazel said jokingly as she plopped down next to her half-brother.

“Ha ha ha, you’re so funny,” he said dryly. She slipped her arm around Nico and rested her head on his shoulder.

“You’ll be fine though. I can tell you're worried, but you’ll be fine.”

“It’s just if I don’t get this infinity stone, all of the mist could fall revealing that demigods exist and cause a mass genocide against all of us. But you know, no pressure or anything,” he stated sarcastically and Nico let out a dry laugh, Hazel joined in.

“If it’s any consolation, if you don’t get the stone, Lou-Ellen would kill you first,” Hazel said, laughing again.

“Good gods that’s almost worse,” he smirked

“Okay that’s true,” Hazel said covering her mouth to stop the giggles, “but still, you’ll do fine. Leo says that the security system won’t be able to detect you if you go fast.”

“Leo also thinks that New York hot dogs are made from real meat,” Nico grumbled.

Hazel ignored him. “You know where the scepter is in the lab, right?”

“Yeah, Annabeth went over the finer details at dinner. Far left corner of the lab on the 85th floor. It’s in a vibranium box, watch out for the AI,” Nico said waving his arms around, “and then watch out for Scarlet Witch or something and that when in doubt shadow travel away.”

“And don’t engage in hand to hand combat with Black Widow or Hawkeye, even though it would be the best if you could avoid hand to hand combat all together” Hazel added and Nico nodded in agreement. “I think you’ll be fine.”

“Yeah just don’t die or anything,” Nico added.

“No pressure or anything.”

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

“What if I just like bumped into it? And like I had to catch it, could I hold it then?”

“No, Peter,” Tony gritted out. “The Vibranium would protect it.”

“Oh,” there was a pause. “What if-“

“No!” Tony practically shouted. “Just no.”

Beside them, Bruce snickered. “He’s a spitting image of you.” Tony let out a desperate squawk.

“That’s not a good thing Bruce!” Peter smirked amused and then turned back to his work, a blush creeping up his neck.

“Hey FRIDAY, play lab playlist,” Tony said turning back to his own work.

“Of course, sir.” The sound of Black Sabbath then coursed through the lab
The three of them stopped talking after that and they fell into a steady pace.

“So,” Bruce said suddenly disrupting the peaceful silence, “demigods?”

“Apparently,” Tony said shrugging, “I mean Thor’s technically one. So they can’t be that bad.”

“Yeah, but Thor’s from space. These guys are living on earth. Isn’t that kind of creepy?” Bruce countered. “And now they want the infinity stones?” He said gesturing to the vibranium box in the corner. “That type of power can’t be controlled easily.”

“Apparently they’re powerful,” Tony stated, “but if they think they can get to the infinity stone, they’re dead wrong.”

“I feel like maybe we shouldn’t have it then in a lab protected by nothing but vibranium,” Peter said cutting into the conversation. “Ya know like, lock it into a safe or something’.”

Bruce let out a low hum, “yeah we should probably do that.”

“FRIDAY can protect it,” Tony said offhandedly, “she’s good at that.”

“That I am sir,” a very pleased sounding FRIDAY said.

The trio worked in silence until Tony sent Peter home around 9:00 with the insistence that aunt May would “have my head and then bury it 6 feet under if you aren’t home by 9:30.”
Bruce retired to his floor and Tony went to the kitchens to find food and/or Pepper. Preferably both, both is good.

Nico stood in the dark alley next to the tower. The young Italian boy was naturally not particularly tall and was used to feeling short, but this was just ridiculous. The tower stood a good 93 floors but it looked like it was much taller. It towered (pun intended) over the rest of New York City and standing next to it (especially in a trash-ridden alley) reminded Nico how small he really was.

Nico sighed “might as well get this over with,” he muttered to himself and took a couple of short breaths, trying to expel a couple of the dead butterflies in his stomach.
“My life sucks,” he mumbled and then drew his sword and plunged his hand into the side of the building allowing the shadows to pull him into Avengers tower.

Nico stuck to the insides of the walls with a mass of shadows surrounding him and prayed to whatever gods might be listening *cough Hestia cough* that he wouldn’t be detected electronically.

Ever so painfully slowly, Nico worked his way to the 85th floor.

“I’m just saying Twitter is a more stable platform then Instagram,” a voice drifted down and Nico cursed.

"Not true," another voice said. Craaaaapppp there are two of them, Nico thought. "Like I get it Steve we're from the 40's but even you should be able to realize that."

“I just want one quest that doesn’t end blown to shit, clearly that’s too much to ask for,” Nico muttered and commanded the shadows to wrap around his body and move him farther down the hallway.

There was one flaw in his not so carefully crafted plan, Nico had no idea where the lab was. “‘It’s in the lab on the 85th floor’ they said,” Nico cursed, “well fuck you, Lou, because there are multiple labs.”

He shadow traveled to the next room and then to the next and then to the next before he reached the end of the hallway, where a lone door sat, like a sleeping monster just awaiting Nico to go inside.

“Of freakin course,” Nico grunted, “it’s the last door in this hallway.” With that, he shadow traveled into the left corner of the lab.

The lab was, thankfully, empty of humans but filled with machines and floating screens that Nico assumed where computers.

Exhaling softly, Nico approached the black box sitting in the corner. It was sleek and long and sat there, innocently looking, but Nico could feel the power radiating off of it. It felt more powerful than anything else Nico had felt, ever. More powerful than Zeus’s lightning bolts or even his dad’s Helm of Darkness.

Hades son examined the box carefully, it was on a stand that just so obviously had pressure plates underneath it.

Nico let out a sigh, “this better not kill me,” and then he thrust his hand into the box.

His fingers hit contact with a metal handle and he grabbed it and yanked his arm out of the box, biting back a scream of anguish as his whole entire arm felt like it was on fire.

The sleeve of his jacket had been torn and parts of his flesh on his arm had been ripped open. Parts of a bone could vaguely be seen and blood was dripping onto the floor.
“What the Hades?” Nico grimaced and looked at the mangled mess that had been his arm only moments ago.

“Hey!” A voice behind him screamed.

“Oh fucking hell,” Nico cursed, louder then he had intended to

“Turn around slowly,” the voice commanded and Nico froze.

This wasn't supposed to happen, he was so careful to not be detected. He had failed and now Nico stood there with what he supposed was a stupid look on his face with an arrow pointed directly at his face. An annoyed looking Hawkeye stood behind the bow shouting something, but Nico couldn't hear it. His mind was numb, they were going to lock him up, torture him, he was never going to see Will again...with that, he numbly realized that he had dropped the object he was holding and had raised his arms above his head shaking in shock, not fear. This was not what he had anticipated happening.

With a clatter, the scepter hit the floor and the infinity stone jostled.

Nico snapped back into reality, the clatter still ringing in his ears.

Move, a voice in his head yelled, for the love of Gods freaking move.

Thrusting his good arm out he commanded a shadow to pull Hawkeye back who commenced flying backward crashing into a wall.

Moving quicker than before Nico grabbed the septet on the floor and broke out into a run, casting shadows behind him as he went. He needed to shadow travel, find Argus and go. The rational part of Nico’s brain told him that much.

Nico veered left and ran around the corner, skidding slightly. Only to run straight into THE Scarlet Witch.

There was a flash of red light.
A familiar voice
Two voices that belonged to Otis and Ephialtes.
they screamed at him.

“No,” Nico muttered and then there was a flash of red light that sent him falling backward and then everything faded to black and Nico knew no more.

Chapter Text

“He’s just a BOY Tony!” Steve shouted. “He’s younger than Peter!”

“Do not bring Peter into this, Steve,” Tony said grinding his teeth together, “because he’s also a demigod and was trying to steal the infinity stones.”

“I’m not saying that just let him go, but-”

“Oh really, that’s not what you're saying? That’s pretty much what I heard,” Tony cut Steve off.

Steve let out a sigh and raised his eyebrows, “Tony, I never said we should let him go, but maybe just not give him to SHIELD quite yet.” Steve’s voice was deadly calm and his eyes were narrowed.

“Boys,” Natasha said sliding into their conversation. “The kid is secure in the med bay and Bruce is working on his arm. While he’s doing that, Tony how about you go upgrade FRIDAY because a random kid just broke into the tower and we didn’t know about it until after he took what he wanted.”

Tony grumbled something under his breath that vaguely sounded like, “freaking super spies.” Rhodey let out a shrug a ‘what can ya do?’ the expression on his face as he followed Tony out of the room.

Natasha then fixed her gaze to Steve, “and Steve, calm down. We need more information before you start protecting a random kid. Go for a run or something but I want you out of this tower, now.”

Steve let out a huff and stormed out of the room on his heel. Bucky let out a sigh and shook his head.

“I’ll go with him and make sure he doesn’t die trying to rescue a cat,” Bucky grumbled following Steve out the door.

“Alright everybody else, listen up!” Natasha barked. “We have a demigod in this tower, and we can’t let SHIELD know.”

Clint let out a dramatic gasp, “Nat, I don’t know what to say,” he said wiping away a fake tear, “my little Natasha creating her own mutiny. I’m so proud.”

Natasha ignored Clint and kept talking, “there needs to be someone watching him at all times, I believe Thor is with him now. I’ll also be conducting a full background check on this demigod and figure out who he is. Is everybody in on not telling SHIELD?” Natasha let her eyes sweep across everybody else. No one said anything, “good.”

“Okay, Wanda you were in his mind, you come with me and Clint. We’re going to start piecing together who the hell he actually is. Everybody else,” she paused and looked at Peter, who had a such a wide smile that Natasha thought it was going to crack and fall off, “you can help Tony with the security system, and when he says no tell him that I said to shut the fuck up.”

Peter gave a serious looking nod and ran out of the room, attempting to conceal the smile on his face.

************************************************

'Nico, Nico, Nico. Why did you leave me? We could have been so happy together, but you just had to go on this quest and get yourself caught. What did I ever see in a fool like you?'

“Will! No, come back! Please!” Nico’s voice cracked as he reached out to grab Will’s arm but his hand went right through And Will just kept walking deeper into the darkness.

Nico let out a sob and sank to his knees.

'Pathetic, this is who I protected for so many years? You? I shouldn’t have had to die for you. Everybody would be so much happier if you had died and not me.'

“Bianca?” Nico cried out. “Help me please, I’m stuck!” Vines curled around his ankles, dragging him under. Dirt crawled up his pants and shirt, his skin burned and felt cold at the same time.

'Like I said pathetic,' Bianca’s voice faded, but pathetic seemed to echo all around his head. Vibrating and echoing, people screaming it, it seemed to be pushing him under, farther under the dirt.

A scream echoed throughout the air, it took Nico a second to realize that he was the one screaming.

And then there was dirt in his mouth, ears, and eyes. Nico failed, trying to wrench his legs out of the vines and his wrists out of the bony hands that were pulling him in all directions.

His stomach was in knots and tears were falling freely down his face now.

Nico couldn’t breathe, panic was crawled through his skin. His mind was searing red and panic overtook him.

His scream was muffled from the dirt in his mouth and lungs, he yanked harder on the vines and wrists.

And then he was falling. The dirt below him gave way and Nico coughed up dirt as he fell and fell. Darkness was swarming around him and Nico screamed. The walls around him were moving closer and closer. Nico braced himself as his arms and legs went through the walls and Nico landed with a thud against the floor a familiar bronze jar.

“No, no, no,” Nico whispered, his throat burned and was scratchy from a mixture of dirt and screaming. He stood up, legs shaking and trembling. He collapsed against the wall and banged his hands against it. More Tears were falling again and through the blurry veil of tears Nico could see figures walking towards the jar, they were both tall and they seemed to be surrounded by a red aura.

Nico gasped and scrambled backward until his back hit the far end of the jar. Otis and Ephialtes approached the jar, their giant hands knocking the glass their voices combining together, taunting him. Nico curled up on himself clutching his hands over his ears, a vain attempt to stop the knife from cutting through him.

'Bianca is right, things would have just been so much better if you had just died instead. You are nothing but a pathetic disappointment.'

Nico looked up merely long enough to see his father fade into nothingness.

“No please don’t go,” Nico gasped clutching at the side of the jar.

'I can’t believe it, you thought you had a chance with me?! YOU had a crush on ME? That’s pathetic and wrong and you know it too. The best part about all of this though is that you couldn’t even admit it to me until Jason made you. You couldn’t even tell Jason until Cupid made you until Cupid got the truth out. That’s pathetic; you are pathetic.'

Nico shut his eyes and clamped his hands harder over his ears. Percy was still talking, but Nico was filtering him out. His breath was catching in his throat again, red and black spots were dancing in his mind and everything was becoming fuzzy. Tentatively, Nico removed his hands from his ears and opened his eyes. He was alone in the jar, no Percy, no Otis, and Ephialtes. Nico let out the breath he was holding and sprawled against the side of the jar, panting heavily.

Then everything seared red, his arm felt like it was on fire and Nico could faintly make out blood dripping from it. Then Nico crumpled to the ground, unconscious and with no more dreams haunting him.

***********

Bruce let out a sigh and collapsed on a chair as the boy, now cuffed to the bed, stopped screaming, random tremors still went through his body, pulling at the restraints.

Bruce rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Thanks for your help, Thor. I think I would have hulked out of you hadn’t been here.”

“The honor is mine, my good friend,” Thor replied clapping his hand on Bruce’s back, causing him to pitch forward. Bruce managed a meek smile. “I just hope our young comrade vanquishes his fears and awake soon.”

“That would solve a lot of our problems,” Clint said sliding into the med bay. He passed a file to Bruce. “The only hit we found on him is an immigrant card...from the 1940’s.”

Bruce let out a low whistle as he leafed through the file. “Nico Di Angelo, father unknown and the rest of his family dead.”
“If ya know, that’s the right file,” Clint interjected leaning against a table, only to fall a moment later.

Bruce hummed and compared the picture of a grinning, toothless, young boy to the boy who even in his sleep looked tense and awaiting an attack. Bruce hummed again. “What does Natasha think about this?”

“She buys it. I mean, it won’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened here. Like I’m sitting in a room with THE actual god of the thunder and a man who turns into a giant green rage monster. I get where she’s coming from,” Clint said moving his hands around.

“If I may,” Thor interjected, “demigods surviving extreme conditions is not rare. A demigod would live longer than an average human if they weren't killed off by monsters. It may entirely be possible that he has lived since the 1940’s.”

Bruce nodded, a calculated look on his face. “That would make sense and it would support some of Fury’s theories.”

“Theories…?” Clint asked, his face clouded.

Bruce winced, then sighed, making it was obvious that he didn’t mean to say that. “Fury asked me to look into some more cases that involved potential demigods. People who were able to survive burning buildings and falling an insane height. People who seemed to live longer then they were supposed too. Fury asked me to run some tests on DNA samples SHIELD had collected.”

Clint nodded, “what did you find?”

Bruce shrugged, “their DNA looked normal, I haven’t had time to go over everything fully.”

“Well, don’t,” Clint said, his stony gaze fixed on the lying body only a few feet away. Bruce’s eyebrows raised slightly, but he said nothing. “We need this guy to trust us. We can’t look like we’ve dissected people that he possibly knows.”

Bruce nodded, “you can be in charge of stalling Fury though, I do not want to deal with him.”

Clint smirked, “no problem.”
***********

Nico woke up to the sound of people talking. They were attempting to talk quietly, but it wasn’t working. The first thing Nico noticed, was that the lights in the room where nearly blinding. The second thing was the leather that bound his arms, legs, and waist to a medical bed. And the third, and possibly most disturbing thing, he noticed was that he was definitely not in his own clothes.

Opening his eyes was a mistake, the light seemed to burn through his eyes and he couldn’t stop the groan that escaped through his mouth. The talking ceased immediately and Nico could feel the eyes in the room turn towards him.

Well, shit, Nico thought, cursing the fates and his luck. “FRIDAY, dim the lights please,” a voice cut through the room. The lights dimmed and Nico relaxed his eyes slightly, opening them again.

He was meet with an unknown worried face hovering over him. Nico recoiled slightly, not because the guy was ugly or anything, but because he practically radiated pure anger. A kind of uncontrollable anger that always seemed to simmer right underneath the skin.

“Hi there,” the person said, an awkward smile plastered over their face. “I’m Bruce Banner, are you feeling calm enough to talk?” Okay, that’s not quite what Nico expected the guy to say.

Ignoring the question, Nico turned his head to examine the other people in the room. Two men, Both blonde and somewhat tall and muscular. But one was clearly strong and muscular, giving off the appearance (and vibe) of some of the nicer Ares kids. The shorted one, Nico recognized immediately as an archer. After hanging out with Apollo kids (namely Will), Nico got pretty good at recognizing the lean muscle and the steady hands of an archer.

“Hey back to me please,” the person, Bruce Nico reminded himself, said softly.

Nico turned his head back to Bruce, keeping his face as neutral as possible. “Where-” Nico croaked, his throat suddenly dry. Nico coughed lightly and continued. “Where are they?” His voice quivered and wasn’t nearly as strong and he would have liked.

“Who are you talking about?” Bruce questioned.

“The-“ Nico started and then stopped. If Bruce really did not know, there truly was no point in explaining.

In hindsight, he realized, talking at all was probably mistaken.

“Who were you talking about?” Bruce repeated his question. This time Nico ignored him and continued glancing around the room.

The two men were still staring at him. It was kind of unnerving.

Bruce questioned Nico again, Nico didn’t answer...again.

Bruce sighed and rubbed his face.

“I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me,” Bruce said, exasperated. Nico said nothing, tugging on the leather cuffs holding down his wrist and winced when it chafed against the bandages wrapped around his arm. “Do you remember what you did to your arm?” Bruce tried.

Nico stayed silent, he didn’t remember what he had done but he did remember the searing pain after he had yanked his arm out of the vibranium box.

One of the people to the side let out a groan. “Bruce, your little interrogation isn’t going to get us anywhere. Honestly, your skills are terrible, I’m going to get Nat. He’ll be talking in seconds,” Nico turned his head to the archer (Hawkeye...maybe Nico figured) turn and start to leave. “C’mon Thor, I’m hungry and want pop tarts,” he called over his shoulder. The other man's face lit up and followed him out of the room. Giving Nico a very nice view of his ass, and if Nico was being honest with himself, it wasn’t half bad either.

“Okay look, you don’t want to talk, fine. But having Natasha question you will not go over well. Actually, having anyone but me question you won’t end well for you. So you have two options right now, spill because I know you can talk and we might be able to sort out something that doesn’t end, well, with you being dead. Or Natasha interrogates you and you end up mentally scarred for life,” at that Nico let out a dry laugh.

Bruce raised his eyebrows, “Black Widow is a scary lady.”

I’ve meet scarier, Nico thought offhandedly thinking of Annabeth and Reyna.

“So he’s not talking,” a voice cut into their non-existent conversation.

A flash of relief sprinted over Bruce’s face, “yeah he was talking a little bit and then he stopped.”

Nico turned and looked at the infamous Black Widow. The first thing that hit him was the bright red hair. Wasn’t that dangerous for a spy?

Natasha smirked, “don’t worry he’ll be talking in no time.” Natasha pulled a chair up next to the medical bed and shooed Bruce away. He left with his hands up in mock surrender. Nico felt his breath stiffen, just a little bit.

Sure he had been through a lot, could handle a lot of pain, but he had never been flat out interrogated for information.

“How’s the arm?” She asked, her fingers dangling over the bandages.

Nico shifted, trying to yank his arm away from her. She let out a laugh. “I know you aren’t going to talk. You’re committed and talking beforehand to Bruce was a mistake because you had just woken up and you were confused. So I’m not going to make you talk.” Nico looked at her, trying to find the lie in her face. He had never been interrogated before, but he had watched enough crappy crime TV shows with Will to know that this isn’t how legal interrogations work.

“I’m going to tell you one thing though. We already know about you. We know you’re a demigod, and a powerful one. I also know that you aren’t going to be able to do your weirdass shadowy thing and get out of the bonds,” Natasha tossed her bright red hair over one shoulder. Nico grimaced and tested the restraints. She was right, he couldn’t feel the familiar feel of shadows. He hadn’t really noticed at first. Nico could practically hear Lou Ellen shooting in his ear, but ignored it because he was minding busy freaking out over the fact that he was captured by the freaking Avengers.

“I am going to ask you this though, did you actually think you could get the infinity stone?” Her eyes pierced him and at that moment Nico decided that if she meets Reyna the rest of the world wouldn’t have a chance. Nico considered his choices, answering might get him unchained faster and he was kinda getting antsy but he still needed to hold out for Will. Who would want him to take care of himself, Nico reasoned internally.

“And I’m going to tell you this, by taking it away from me, a shit ton of innocent people are going to die.”

~~**~~

“Wanda, were you inside his head?” Sam questioned, putting a hand on the shaking girl’s shoulder.

Her head nodded in a shaky pattern.

“What did you see?” Sam asked, his voice steady and calm, trained through years of practice.

Wanda broke her trance from staring at the window and stared at him right in the eyes, “pain, just overwhelming pain.”

Chapter Text

“A shit ton of people,” Natasha repeated slowly, “care to elaborate on that?”

Nico sighed, “not like I really have a choice, where do I start?” he asked more to himself than anything. “Let’s see, I’m going to assume you already know about demigods,” Natasha nodded and Nico continued, “I’m a son of Hades, more specifically the only son of Hades. I was sent here to get an infinity stone because it’s the only thing that can prevent the only thing separating this world from ours and stopping your tiny little minds from blowing when you see monsters. We just call it the mist for simplicity.”

“I see,” Natasha said, nodding her head, “and an infinity stone could stop this?”

“It’s the last only thing we know of. It’s essentially our last resort,” Nico deadpanned.

“So why is the mist falling?” Natasha questioned, her face stone cold.

“Hades if I know,” Nico cursed, moving his hands as far as he could without the chain breaking his emphasis. “It has something to do with Hecate dying or leaving or something. Hecate's child though has done all the calculations and has run all the possibilities and the only thing in this reality that can uphold the mist with Hecate missing is an infinity stone.”

“Huh,” Natasha just sat there for a second, processing what Nico had just told her. “So you thought you would be able to get one of the stones that we literally just had to collect to stop the end of the universe?”

“No,” Nico said flatly, “which is why I attempted to steal one.”

Natasha let out a dry laugh, the first sign of emotion Nico saw her show. “Why didn’t you just ask?”

“Because like all demigods are a bunch of dumbass teenagers who possess no self-control and have no self-preservation skills,” Nico paused, his face scrunched up for a moment, “except for Will, Will doesn’t have those problems.”

“I see,” Natasha paused and the room filled with an uncomfortable silence.

“Well, this has been an interesting experience, but can I go now?” Nico pleaded, limply tugging against one the handcuffs.

“Nope,” Natasha said popping the p sound. “You are going to sit tight and I’m going to go talk to the others while you think over your life choices!”

“Don’t worry I regret them,” Nico called after her retreating back.
“Good!” Nico let out a groan as soon as the sliding door leading to the medical wing slid close with a shut.

“Oh one more thing,” the doors slid open again.

“And it was so nice without you,” Nico wisecracked.

“I know so blissful,” Natasha responded sarcastically, she then pulled out a remote and clicked it once.

“Ow,” Nico shouted, as something pricked his neck, sending a shudder throughout his whole body. “What was that?”

“Dampens your powers,” she responded brightly.

“Well, it fucking hurt.”

“Oh suck it up,” and with that, she was gone

Closing his eyes, he ignored the vibrant red peaking at him from the corners and instead focused on the feeling of the shadows around him, tugging at him, the familiar crawl up and down his skin. His injured arm throbbed as a painful reminder of what happened the last time he attempted to shadow travel in the Avengers Tower, but Nico pushed past it.

The shadows in the room came racing towards him, drawn to him like a giant magnet. Nico focused them onto his left arm and then his right, raising them both out of the manacles and then doing the same to the restraints around his waist and legs.

“Dampens your powers, my ass.”

He touched his feet hesitant to the floor, bracing himself for people to come barging into the room. After a minute and realizing that no one was coming, Nico took a staggering step towards the door. Then the dressing gown he was in got snagged on the bed corner. Nico groaned again and cursed whatever gods actually cared at this point. Nico tugged on the cursed piece of fabric, tugging it free with a satisfying tear.

“You know you didn’t have to rip the fabric?” A voice from the doorway mentioned.

“Does it look like I care,” Nico said with a glare, turning his back to the person and began his search for his familiar aviators' jacket and black skinny jeans (they make his butt look good and it drives Will insane so win-win).

“If you’re looking for your clothes, they’re in the cabinet on the left,” Nico wordless switched directions and thrust opened the sterile white cabinet.

“Do you mind?” Nico said turning his head so he was glaring at the stranger, motioning him to turn around.

“I’m not some perv,” he joked as he turned around, “you’re like 12.”

“I’m 84,” Nico deadpanned, sliding the dressing gown off and slipping on his t-shirt, wincing slightly as it rubbed against his arm.

“I also have a boyfriend,” he added.

“So do I, doesn’t mean Brendon Urie isn’t cute,” Nico responded, sliding on his pants.

“Wait are you actually 84?” The guy asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

“It’s a long story, but yes. You also live with two genetically modified super soldiers over the age of 90 so I’m not that shocking.”

“Kid, I am one of the genetically modified soldiers,” the guy said with a grunt.

Nico swung his jacket on and then spun around on his heel and was met with a grinning Bucky Barnes.

“Huh,” Nico muttered, “my sister had your action figure,” the last part Nico spoke louder, a look of pensiveness on his face, and in an instant, it was gone.

Nico stared at Bucky for a second, calculating the best way to rush him or escape from the room. “Do you know where my shoes are?” he asked instead, scrunching his toes slightly.

“Not here,” Bucky put simply. “How’d you get out of the chains?”

“What? Like it’s hard?” Nico feigned innocence, “why aren’t you with the others?”

“Not technically an Avenger, now answer my question,” Bucky said without missing a beat and stepping forward crossing his arms, making the metal one very visible. He leaned casually against the door frame, blocking Nico’s exit.

Nico stared him down, “that’s for me to know and you not to find out. Why haven’t you tried to stop me from leaving yet?”

“Because we’ll find you if you do.” Nico’s blood ran cold.
“Did you put a tracker in me?” He asked, his voice deadly quiet. “Is that really what this thing is?” He asked, heat rising in his stomach as he pointed to his neck. The circular desk that Natasha inserted into his neck seemed to throb.

Bucky said nothing, instead choosing to stop leaning against the wall and move closer to Nico.
Nico flexed his hand, open and closed, open and closed.

“Did you expect something otherwise?”
“Um yeah!” Nico exclaimed, “maybe I don’t know, some fucking human courtesy!”

Bucky’s dry laugh filled the room, an eerie silence filled the room after it. Nico shuddered, the lights becoming too bright and his skin to sticky.

The sweet on his back seemed to be sleeping through his shirt, making it just a little too uncomfortable. Nico flinched slightly as Bucky took another step forward, making his ears ring just a little too loud.

“Kid, are you okay?” His voice was softer, he reached his arm out in what he must have thought was a reassuring gesture.

Nico took a step backward and then he fell.

Nico was floating, again. The redness was swarming him.

“Hey, hey kid, are you alright?” Bucky rushed forward to where Nico was laying on the floor, uninjured arm shaking.

His mind felt blank, he could see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing.

“FRIDAY!” Bucky called frantically, shaking the unconscious boy.

“Already alerted the boss, sir. Him, Mr. Banner, and Mr. Rogers should be here in approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds.”

The red was fading around him. No not fading, melting. Melting into the green.

“What happened?” Bruce shouted as the med bay doors burst open.

“I don’t know he just collapsed,” Bucky responded, running a hand through his hair.

Nico could hear an unfamiliar voice speaking but couldn’t make out the words. All the red was gone now, taken over by the overwhelmingly green.
“Help me move him onto the bed,” Bruce instructed. Bucky and Steve seamlessly lifted the boy onto the open bed. Steve frowning at the distinct lack of weight on the boy.

The voice was calling for him. Telling him to listen. Nico reached out for the voice. His fingers touching nothing. Simply going through the veil of green that was clouding around him.

“FRIDAY run vitals please,” Bruce asked as he checked Nico’s pulse and heart rhythm.

“Vitals appear fine sir.”

‘Listen closely,’ the voice said. And Nico stretched out for the voice. ‘You have to trust them, I know it’s hard, but if you want to see Will again you have to trust the Avengers.’ Nico tried to speak back, but his brain seemed to not be connected to his mouth.

“He has some of the same symptoms of a heat stroke victim,” Bruce commented lightly, touching Nico’s arm and the retracted it quickly.

“Is he burning up that much?” Tony asked, perched on one of the many scattered tables.

“No, his skin is ice cold. Too cold.”

‘Just trust them,’ the green was starting to fade. ‘Now wake.’

Nico shot up with a gasp and a frantic tug away from the reaching arms.

Bruce let out a small scream and Tony shot up from his seat.
Nico looked around at the surrounding people with a confused look.

“You people are making me crazy, within the time that I’ve known you, I’ve had two people knock me unconscious to speak to me. In my opinion, that’s two too many,” Nico said hopping off of the table “Now, where are my shoes?”
~~**~~
“Ahh, he awakens!” Clint said dramatically jumping down from the back of the couch as Nico entered into the common lounge. He was closely followed by Tony, Bucky, Steve, and Bruce, all looking the same mixture of baffled and confused.

“Yep,” Nico said casually like he didn’t just try to steal one of the most valuable objects known to alien kind.
Nico plopped down on one of the various chairs, tucking his feet (which had his shoes on) underneath him.

“By the way, I don’t enjoy your methods of tracking,” Nico said turning to Natasha.

“I’ll pretend to take that into consideration,” she responded.

“I appreciate it.”

“No one likes her methods,” Clint said, sprawling over Natasha on the couch and propping his feet up onto Thor’s shoulders.

“Comfortable?” Sam asked, a smile playing on his lips.

“Very.”

There was a small beat of silence before Tony clapped his hands together, “right, so drinks all around? Or is the kid 12 and not 84 like he claimed?”

Nico scowled at him, “I’m actually 84.”

Tony stared at him, squinting his eyes, “yeah I can see that. You have the same mean old grandpa look like capsicle over there.”

“Hey,” both of them exclaimed at the same time.
“See,” Tony gestures wildly, “point proven!”

“Tony,” Natasha cut in, “drinks please, now.”

Tony muttered something under his breath and then scurried behind the bar pulling out various bottles and glasses.

“So my young comrade,” Thor began turning to Nico, “I have heard tales of some of the glorious adventures your fellow demigods have been on. Is it true that you helped vanquish the mad titan Kronos?”

“Oh,” Nico waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, “that was mostly Percy and Annabeth. The whole prophecy things tend to not work out for me.”

“Ah, I see,” Thor responded, “but you were still there for the battle?”

Nico paused, staring downwards and for the briefest of moments, his eyes seemed to flash.
“Yeah, I was there for some of it. A great introduction to NYC if you ask me. Nothing quite like fighting for your life in Central Park,” Nico responded, fake cheerfulness oozing into his voice.

Wanda, who had been oddly quiet up until this point cut in, “did this battle really go unnoticed?”

Nico smirked, “the mist is a wonderful thing. Also, a spell was out over all of New York causing everyone to fall asleep.”

Wanda nodded, still looking at him with an odd look on her face.

“Well that’s convenient,” a voice interrupted them.

“FRIDAY!” Tony yelped, “how the hell did he get in here?” A shaky finger extending, pointing at the intruder.

Nico jumped up from his perch and spun around so he was facing the door, his sword extending as he did so.

“You must be Nico, I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but it’s not,” Thaddeus Ross said, his mouth curling into a wicked smile.

Nico snorted, “is that supposed to hurt?”

Ross let out a laugh that sounded more like a death march than anything else, “not really, but this will.”
——————Camp Half-Blood—————
“Annabeth! You promised me I could go!” Will shouted banging his hand on the table in the Big House, causing the stack of poker chips to totter dangerously.

“Will, look at yourself! If you go, you’ll be rash and dangerous!” Annabeth shouted back.

Will gritted his teeth, “when Percy was missing, you didn't sit and do nothing. You went out and looked for him. I’m trying to do the same thing here. Only this time I actually know where my boyfriend is.”

Lou Ellen coughed out something that sounded suspiciously like, “burned.”

“Annabeth, I am begging you here. I need to go find him. He could be hurt in a ditch somewhere or getting tortured in the Avengers Tower, I can not just sit here and do nothing and wait!” Tears were starting to swell in his eyes and Will slammed the table again causing the poker chips to totter over the edge and fall to the floor.

Annabeth sighed and looked at the fallen chips. “You wander off at all, I’m promoting Kayla to head counselor and then you have dishwashing duty until the end of time.”

Will let out a sigh of relief, “yes, thank you Annabeth.” He then quickly turned and ran out of the big house. “I’ll be ready in five, and then we can go!”
“You know he would have just sneaked off anyways, right?” Lou Ellen asked, admiring their freshly painted purple nails.

“What are you even doing here?” Annabeth quizzed Lou.

Lou looked up from their nails, “comedic relief and to tell you that while you’re infiltrating this tower, for the second attempt might I remind you, the mist is about to fall and then things really are gonna be blown to shit,” they paused, “but mostly it was just convenient to the storyline.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Forget it,” a whimsical smirk was planted over their face. “Good luck with rescuing Nico, I do miss his death glares.” With that final statement, Lou left the room leaving a very baffled Annabeth.

“Don’t worry Nico, we’re coming for you,” Annabeth swore under her breath. “Just hold on a little while longer.”

Back in Avengers Tower, shadows were swarming, the stench of death prominent in the air and Nico’s screams filled the air as hands clasped his wrists, legs, and waist. Hoisting him into a helicopter, guns are drawn and pointing at him as he struggled to leave the holds. The collar around his neck beeped once in a warning and then let out a series of electric shocks. Nico let out a groan and his eyes rolled to the back of his head and the shadows stopped moving.

The Avengers stood stone face, as Ross approached them. “Thanks for the monster, boys.”
Natasha and Wanda let out the same disgusted grunt. “He won’t be causing any more trouble,” Ross continued and extended his hand. Everyone looked at it with disgust, no one moved to shake it.

“You can’t take him, he has rights,” Steve demanded, his body shaking. Sam put, what he had hoped a calming hand on his shoulder, but Steve shrugged it off.

“Actually I can,” Ross said pulling out a hefty packet and waved it in front of Steve’s face, “demigods are now classified as international threats.”

“FRIDAY, make a note to contact my lawyers,” Tony said through gritted teeth.

“Noted boss.”

Ross let out another one of his death laughs, “they won’t be able to help,” there was a beat of silence, the Avengers stood stone-faced as they glared down the man. “Well pleasure doing business with you,” and with that, he left with an over glorified heel turn.

“I am going to kill him,” Bucky muttered under his labored breathing.

“For once Barnes,” Tony said turning to look at him, “I agree with you.”

Chapter Text

When Nico awoke the first thing he noticed was the cold. Running through him from the tips of his fingers down to his toes. The second thing he noticed was the splitting headache and the inability to move.

“Ow,” Nico muttered attempting to sit up from the freezing cold bench he was strapped down on. He was stopped, obviously, by a ridiculous array of metal bands and cuffs keeping him restrained on to the bench.

“Really twice this week?” Nico muttered, “it’s not even Wednesday yet.”

“My deepest sympathies,” a deep voice said from the side of the room. Nico narrowed his eyes and glared in the general direction.

“Then let me out, coward.” And seriously, emerging from the shadows while he slept? What a creep.

“Oh, you’re not in the position to be making demands,” the voice responded.

“Let me out and I’ll show you my demands,” Nico muttered.

“So testy,” the voice said dryly, “fortunately for you, we’ll change that here. You are about to be a part of something bigger than yourself, young demigod.”

Nico flexed his hands at the remark, “I'm actually good, thanks for the offer though.” The bonds didn’t budge, typical. Nico’s heart rate increased just a tiny bit and he let out an involuntary shiver as the temperature in the room seemed to drop even more. Fuck, his head hurt. “Quick question though, who exactly are you? And where am I?

The voice let out a laugh and the man stepped out of the shadows in the room. “My name is General Thaddeus Ross, welcome to the Raft. You can thank your friends over in the Avengers for your special treatment. And don’t worry, we’ll get to know each other very well, very soon.”

What a drama king.

Right, the Avengers. The memories of the night before rushed back to Nico. The shadows swarming him, struggling to reach him as a haze covered him. The steeping cold filling his bones, making his teeth clench involuntarily, even just thinking about it. The worst part was someone screaming, Nico realized with a start that he was probably the one screaming. And the Avengers disapproving glares staring right through him. They stood to the side and just let him be taken, and had probably notified Ross of him the minute they found him sneaking in for that damned infinity stone. There was no reason for Nico to have let his guard down and he did anyway. Stupid. Typical.

“Wow,” Nico responded dryly, swallowing his anxiety, “did you practice that introduction in the mirror a couple of times?”

Ross smiled, a coy thing that didn’t fit his face, or personality. “Mr. Di Angelo, I think we’ll be getting along just fine. Your powers are going to change the world. That collar there,” he waved his hand at Nico’s neck, Nico realized with a start that there was indeed a collar circling his neck. “Was designed by Tony Stark himself, it dampens powers, similar to the disk that I believe Natasha put on you. However, with some modifications that I think will make you,” he paused, “much more complacent.” With that Ross nodded in the corner of the room at a camera and the door was flung open. He left the room without another word, leaving Nico alone in the dark. The door closed with a heavy thud and Nico could hear locks click into place. Wonderful, no way to escape the old fashioned way.

“Well this is just fucking dandy,” Nico shivered in the now empty cell room. Nico clenched his eyes closed, his head rubbing against the table. He let a shudder run through his body, at least it sounded like they were going to feed him. Small mercies. Even so, if he managed to get out of this place, where the Hades could he go? He couldn’t go back to camp, not with the tracker he’s sure the Avengers had on him still in his arm, and certainly not with whatever creepy monitoring system these fuckers had in place. He bit back a groan, thinking HURT right now. He glared up at the wall where the camera was, hoping he didn’t just look as pathetic as he felt.

The color beeped around his neck, startling Nico. Fuck, he thought, no escaping his way either.

Nico glanced around the cell, a pitiful thing really, but still more spacious than a glass jar. Small mercies, Will’s voice whispered in his ear, small mercies. The four stone walls surrounding him were bare, sans a freakishly looking set of manacles attached to the wall across from Nico, and of course, the four security cameras blinking in each corner of the cell. A dinky lightbulb blinked from the center of the ceiling providing the limited light in the cell. How lovely.

Nico stared up at the ceiling and let his mind run. Father, if you can hear me, I need help, he prayed, please. He let out a sigh and tried to relax his muscles.

Open your mind, young demigod.

Nico jolted upright, the chains stopping him from moving.

Father, Nico thought, I need your help.

Nico swore he could hear the voice laughing in his head.

Not quite. I’m here to guide you to help. In exchange, I will need the promise of your cooperation in the future.

I don’t even know who you are, Nico glared up at the ceiling, as if picturing the voice just sitting there, laughing at him. I’m assuming you’re the same voice as in the tower, the whole unconscious thing, not cool by the way.

The voice let out another laugh, just one of my many party tricks, and really? You haven’t figured it out yet, I’m hurt.

Nico gritted his teeth, definitely a God of some type then. Obviously.

I am Loki, of Asgard.

Nico blinked slowly, is that name supposed to mean something to me, or?

<~>

Natasha woke up the next morning with something quite unusual for her, the sinking feeling of regret in her stomach. She rolled over onto her stomach, and let out an unearthly scream into her pillow. Then she got up and headed to the gym, cursing her line of work under her breath.

Hitting a punching bag while imagining Ross’s face on it did, however, make her feel marginally better. “Feeling shitty too?” Steve asked as he walked in, Natasha spun around while kicking the punching bag off of the chains, sand pooling out of the deflated bag as it hit the floor.

“He’s a fucking KID Steve! A kid! Why does this always happen to kids?” Natasha exploded, throwing her hands into the air, “And we just let Ross take him to god knows where and we are supposed to be the people protecting people. Fury’s not returning my calls and SHIELD is being unresponsive. It feels like goddamn Hydra all over again. So yes, Steve, I am feeling shitty too.” She walked over to the next set of punching bags lined up and began hitting it. Steve dutifully followed her with a sigh.

“The kid was just doing what any one of us would have done in his situation, protecting his home. He was willing to talk to us before Ross showed up. And I mean, Thor’s a demigod so we know they’re not all bad.”

The two of them stood in silence for a moment and then Natasha let out a sigh, pausing from her demolition of yet another punching bag. “We have to find him,” Steve nodded, face pulled into a tight grimace. “The tracker I put on him has probably been fried, but there has to be some record of Ross pulling this stunt somewhere.”

“You think Tony will be up for it?” Natasha cocked an eyebrow at that.

“Tony Stark? The same Tony Stark that adopted a teenage superhero after less then a week of knowing him isn’t going to help us find a kidnapped kid? Steve, I’m more worried about you helping me.”

Steve cringed slightly, “fair enough.”

“Let’s move soldier,” Natasha said, marching out of the gym, “and rally the troops, we have a kid to find.”

In the central room, Natasha and Steve were met with an arguing Tony and Steve.

“We can’t just run in there, guns blazing, and demand to have Nico back. They’ll just throw us all in a cell and then where will we be?” Tony shouted. “I want the damn kid back, Clint, but we have to wait.”

“Tony, they do not care. They’re not going to return our calls about this, we have to get him out of there now. Who the hell knows what they’re doing to him, but whatever it is, it’s not going to be good,” Clint hissed back, placing himself right in front of Tony.

Tony rubbed his forehead and let out a sigh, Clint glowering over him. Steve moved forward to interfere, but Natasha blocked him with her arm, giving him a look.

“You’re not going to let this go are you?” Tony asked, looking up at Clint straight in the eyes.

“No, no I’m not Tony,” Tony nodded, pursing his lips, then he nodded.

“If this was Peter, I wouldn’t be hesitating. I’m many things, but a hypocrite is not one of them.” Tony gave another nod of his head, and then started walking over to the elevators, motioning them to follow. “Steve, Natasha,” he said as he passed them, “here to help?”

“Thank you, Tony,” Steve said, sticking out his hand to shake, but Tony waved it off.

“Yada yada yada, less talky, more find missing kiddy. Get the others and meet me in the lab,” Tony entered the elevator and turned around to face them. “Today people,” clapping his hands together, “and someone get me a coffee!” The elevator doors closed as Tony yelled out his final request.

Natasha turned to Steve with a self satisfying grin, “see Steve, like I said. Adopted after one week.” Natasha paradyed over to the elevator, Clint hot on her heels, “go get your boyfriend, Steve,” she called over her shoulder, “and everyone else, I guess.” Steve spluttered in surprise.

“He’s not my-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” the elevator doors closed shut for a second time, leaving Steve standing in the living room, face bright red with indignation.

“Well then,” Bucky sipped his coffee, leaning against the doorframe, “it’s going to be one of those days, I see.” Steve let out a laugh and turned to face him.

“Seems like,” Steve shook his head with a grin, “let's get the rest of them then.”

<~>

“Okay, everyone understands the plan,” Annabeth stated, peering over the top of her sunglasses to look at the tower from across the street. The demigods behind her on the sidewalk nodded in unison. Around them, the streets of New York City bustled along, blissfully unaware of the growing tension between man and Gods. The eight demigods were sitting at a small peaceful cafe, waiting restlessly for the signal from Lou Ellen.

“We get in, we get Nico, we get out, simple as pie,” Percy responded.

“And the rest of the details?” Annabeth questioned.

“I’m on the street with Frank for a quick flight evacuation and look out,” Jason responded, placing down his sandwich. “You, Piper, and Percy are going in. Leo, Will, and Hazel are entering in through the back. We head across the street when Lou gives the second signal, they’re taking out the receptionist and security to bypass the first group into the main elevator. First team is on distraction, the second team is on extracting. Once they find Nico, give the signal to Lou, and they’ll create a portal out. Frank and I will come get the rest of you guys. If anything goes wrong, Frank and I will circle the block, and then come in and get you guys. We’re going low profile and minimal powers, but we can’t risk another one of us getting caught, so fight accordingly.”

Annabeth nodded in confirmation. “It’s not the best plan, but it’s what we got right now.” Will hummed in agreement, his leg bouncing up and down. Hazel put a comforting hand on his knee and gave him a soft smile, he shot one back in thanks.

Across the street a trash can tipped over. In unison, the group of eight shot out of their seats. The metal chairs screeched on the sidewalk pausing the conversations around them.

Piper sighed, “totally not suspicious guys, we’re doing great.” The demigods split into their respective groups. Annabeth, Percy, and Piper heading through the front door of the tower, with Leo, Will, and Hazel peeling off around the back. Jason and Frank headed in opposite directions down the street, weaving in and out of the pedestrian traffic.

Annabeth led her trio straight through the front door of Avengers tower. Inside, the three receptionists were sitting perfectly straight up, typing in unison on their computers. The security guards stationed around the room were all standing perfectly straight as well, eyes glazed over and unseeing. The lobby was deserted sans the employees as the group walked in, the bell over the door chiming softly. The security guards blinked in unison at the group but said nothing.

“Lou Ellen pulled through,” Percy muttered, fiddling with Riptide in his pocket. “Gives me the creeps.” Annabeth hummed in agreement, leading them to the elevator. A security guard reached over and pushed the button for them.

“Welcome to Avengers tower, have a lovely day,” he said in a monotonous voice, “Mr. Stark is expecting you on the 79th floor.”

“The 79th floor?” Piper mouthed, looking at Annabeth, who just shrugged.

The elevator doors opened and the trio stepped in.

“Well then,” Percy said as the doors closed behind them, shifting from foot to foot. The elevator interior was metallic, a mirror across the top of the elevator box. There were no buttons to press, but the elevator began moving upwards. “This is just fantastic.” Annabeth grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

“We’re going to get him back,” Piper promised, crossing her arms and tapping her foot as the elevator inched higher and higher. “We’re going to get him back.”

<~>

Will hadn’t pictured his afternoon with him standing guard with Hazel over a dumpster as Leo sat in a pile of trash, clicking excitedly on a homemade laptop, yet here he was.

“Almost there guys I swear,” Leo said, not looking up from his typing, Leo reached over and fiddled with what looked like a walkie talkie that was sitting next to him. “I just have to-” the machine let out a mechanical ding, Leo hummed, looked at Hazel and Will, then promptly banged the device on the side of the dumpster. It let out a higher pitched ding.

Leo let out a maniacal laugh, his grin spreading to match, “I’m assuming that’s a good thing, then?” Hazel asked, her foot tapping impatiently on the alley floor.

“Oh, yes, very good thing,” Leo went back to typing and fiddling with the device. Will let out another sigh, they had been standing in this alley way for a good ten minutes, anxiety pooling in his stomach. Leo was trying to calibrate his device thingy to match the frequency of the AI of the building, or something like that. Apparently he could only do that while he was “in the zone” meaning the dumpster behind Avengers tower. He had explained while walking backward into the alley way with erratic hand motions and talking fast enough that Will couldn’t understand him. Hazel had looked just as lost as him, so that was comforting.

“Okay!” Leo looked up at them from his spot in the trash, “you mist us and I’ll take care of the rest! Will, you can just stand there and look pretty!” He placed the laptop in his toolbelt, which okay Will got the whole neverending toolbelt thing, but a whole laptop? Really? Leo then casually vaulted himself over the side of the dumpster and landed in between Will and Hazel.

“Great,” Will responded, ignoring Leo’s theatrics, and moving over to the side door, which looked remarkably out of place on such a boujee tower. “We can just walk right in?”
“Yep!” Leo confirmed, hitting his device, “once Hazel gives us the okay with the mist, we’ll be undetectable. And Mr. Snazzy over here, meaning me, can control FRIDAY. Which means Mr. Snazzy, again meaning me, can control the entire tower. We’re gonna get our boy back in no time.”

Despite the serious situation, Will found himself grinning at Leo. Leave it to the son of Hephaestus to always have a plan, even if no one else could understand it. “Yep, let's go get our boy back.” Hazel raised her hands towards Will and Leo, her face forming a look of concentration. She looked up at them after a second.

“Okay, that will hold. I give us about thirty minutes, after that, I don’t know how well I can hold it without my full attention.” Will and Leo nodded.

“That should be enough,” Will took a deep breath and steeled himself as Leo pushed a few buttons on his device.

“Alright, come to Papa,” he muttered under his breath, and the side door cracked open. “Fuck yeah, I am so good. Take that Tony Stark,” Leo whisper shouted, turning to face Will and Hazel with a huge grin on his face. “Not gonna lie, there was only like a 50% chance of that working.”

Will mentally facepalmed, taking back everything he thought about Leo’s planning ability. Hazel walked towards the door and opened it more, looking over her shoulder at the other two demigods. “I can feel the leftover of his powers, let's follow me.”

“Dude, that is so cool. Do all children of Hades give off death auras? I always thought I was just projecting the death vibe on to Nico, because ya know” Leo waved his arms around in explanation, “but it’s nice to have confirmation that he actually does leave death residue.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than death residue,” Hazel explained, motioning at them to follow her through the door, “but we’ll leave it at that for now.”

“Fair enough,” Leo said under his breath and ushered Will in through the door before him. The door to the outside closed with a resounding clank, and the group of three demigods were left facing a flight of stairs leading upwards, not unlike a parking garage. Hazel and Will let out a deep sigh in unison, he craned his neck to look at the top of the stairway, but the stairs just kept circling higher and higher.

“Well then,” Leo said, rubbing his hands together, “let’s start climbing.”