Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nico went white

“What? What’s wrong?” Will glanced frantically around, looking for a monster to jump out from behind a taxi, “Do we need to shadow travel?”

Nico shook his head silently and sank down on to the bench, keeping out of the way of the crowds that were forming outside of the Empire State Building. They had traveled into the city to visit Olympus, and just their luck some famous mortal had showed up. The building was surrounded by paparazzi and news outlets, meaning if all Hades broke loose his job was going to be a thousand times harder.

“It’s just that-“

The sudden shouts of the press cut him off. They were chasing whoever had just left the building, camera flashes illuminating the entire block. “Great,” Will muttered under his breath looking for an easy way out. He did not want to get in between journalists and their story especially if the mist was hiding something and the “celebrity” turned out to be something he had to kill. He glanced back towards the stampede and finally saw what all the fuss was about.

“It’s Captain America! Wasn’t he recently un-frozen?” one person called from the crowd. Will stood on tiptoe, trying to see over the mob in front of him. He looked down at Nico who appeared to be on the verge of either passing out or hysterics which scared him more than any potential creature. “Hey you okay? You look more dead than normal.” The question, or maybe the teasing, jarred Nico back to his senses. He lept up and took Will’s hand.

“Come on we need to go,” he said trying to pull away. A familiar voice made him stop.

“Nico?” The Captain had reversed directions, now heading towards them in a last ditch attempt to hail a taxi before he was overrun. Nico spun around and looked up at the figure of a much bigger Steve Rogers.

He said the first thing that came to his mind which unfortunately was, “Wow you're huge.”
   

Steve chuckled. “I’m well aware. And uh- apparently, you’re still alive?” He glanced back at the advancing journalists. “I suggest you explain how later, let’s go.”

The taxi was on its way to Stark tower, the trio having narrowly managed to avoid the mob. Unfortunately, the taxi also smelled like old cigarette smoke and mildew. It almost made him miss shadow travel. Nico and Steve were in a deep conversation that Will couldn’t even begin to understand and had something to do with swing music and Uncle Sam.

“Will one of you fill me in to what in Hades is going on?” he asked taking care not to brush any of the trash that lay strewn about the backseats. Startled by the interruption, Steve broke off and flashed and apologetic smile.
   

“Sorry, I should have introduced myself. I’m Steve Rogers.”
   

“Ya I know that. I’m Will Solace,” he narrowed his eyes, “How do you know my boyfriend?”
   

Steve looked confused for a moment and then gaped, looking back and forth between the two of them “No. Way.” he gasped, punching Nico lightly on the arm and breaking into a huge smile.
   

Nico blushed and with a sly smile kissed Will full on the mouth. Will spluttered. “I appreciate the gesture, but I still want an explanation!”
 

 Nico rolled his eyes. “Ignore Will. He’s so demanding.”
   

“HEY!”
   

Steve burst out laughing watching the two of them bicker, but this time the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
   

“Let’s get back to the tower and we’ll explain.”

“It still won’t be any less confusing,” the cabbie warned. Will made eye contact with him in the rear view mirror and then did a double take. Was that Stan Lee?

Steve led them to one of the upper floors of the tower, having to practically drag the two away from a discussion with Tony about his latest robot weapon and its practical applications for large scale battles. He had been too afraid to ask why they were so interested. He had no idea what the hell was going on either, or what had will said? Hades? Nico had just as much explaining to do as he did, especially because he didn’t look like he had aged more than a few years. He looked happier though, more like a typical teenager than the somber child he had known years before. Though in retrospect everything was brighter now than in the 40’s.

“Do you guys want something to drink?” he asked awkwardly as they gathered around the kitchen table, “We have some sodas somewhere.” he dug through the fridge being careful not to even breathe on Nat’s food. Her booby traps were hard core and he preferred to keep all of his fingers. He had almost died too many times to get injured in such a spectacularly stupid way. He carried the drinks back towards the table. Nico and Will were slouched over but perked up when they saw him coming.

“Sweet! Caffeine delivery has arrived. I could still use some ambrosia though. Uh, I mean…” Will faltered

Steve looked at him quizzically but ignored the comment. “ So,” he said with a long breath, “Where do you want me to start?”

 “Let me tell him how I got separated first,” Nico said. “Ok so Will You know how Bianca and I were at the lotus hotel right? Through WWII until we ended up at the boarding school and Percy found us. Well before that we lived in Italy and then my mom and Bianca and I were in Washington D.C. for a few weeks after the war got worse. When she died Bianca and I were sent to live in New York for a few weeks.”
Will squeezed his hand under the table. Nico talked about the past as little as possible- understandable as far as Will was concerned. He would do the same if he had been forced to grow up fast and then lose his entire family. He looked up expected Steve to be doing the sad-adult-pity face, and was pleasantly surprised he wasn’t. He’d lost people too, he guessed.
   

“Anyway, right before we left for Las Vegas we snuck out to do some errands and I got separated from Bianca. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem but I happened to get lost on the exact street where the angry cyclops was.”
   

“What?” Steve spluttered. “I thought you were being robbed!”
   

Nico rolled his eyes “ apparently even Captain America can’t see through the mist.”
   

Will snorted and the seeing Steve’s confusion said, “I promise its only slightly crazy. Nico go on.”
   

“Anyway so I had no idea had to fight and I was planning on just trying to outrun it. And then I heard this idiot over here yelling,” he said shooting a glance at Steve. “He wasn’t that much bigger than I was and yet he was risking his stupid life to protect me from- wait what did you think it was? a robber?”
   

Steve grumbled looking slightly pale. “Well I didn’t know it was some sort of monster!”
   

“Well I’m glad you did get involved, I’d probably be dead otherwise,” he turned his attention back to Will. “So he comes over yelling and making a huge scene. He threw a rock at it and I guess the cyclops decided we weren’t worth it.” he said with a shrug
 

  Steve was frowning hard now looking at Nico “So that’s just normal? for- whatever you two do?”
   

Will barked out a laugh “ It gets a lot worse than that dude. Be glad the cyclops didn’t have any friends.”
   

“As I was saying,” Nico said clearing his throat and glaring at Will. “He drove it off and I was just sitting there crying still looking around for Bianca.”
   

“Well you were just a kid! of course you were upset.” Steve said still in disbelief and shaking his head. He looked between the two of them, extremely confused but also calculating, trying to piece the story together as he was telling it.“ Anyway after whatever the thing was ran away I tried to calm him down, but he just kept mentioning Bianca and panicking.”
   

“We were inseparable” Nico said, trying to explain and with a sad smile, “I was afraid she had run into trouble too or that it would find her. Not to mention we weren’t supposed to be outside and Hades-my dad” he explained to Steve, “would have been furious.” Will tried to imagine Hades taking out his anger on a six year old. It made him want to punch someone. Preferably Hades himself.
   

“Which was understandable except I didn’t know she was your sister!” Steve said with a grin, “I thought she was just some random girl. I finally asked what she looked like because I wanted to help you find her.” He shook his head at Nico pretending to be angry but failing miserably- he and Nico were already smiling remembering what happened next. “You made me feel like a fool! I asked ‘Do you like her?’ I was just trying to get any information out of him, make him calm down.”
   

“Oh I wish I could have seen my face-I was flabbergasted. I said ‘No its my sister! and I don’t like girls!”
 

  Steve laughed. “I think at that point we were both gaping at each other. I was still panicking and said the first thing I could think of which happened to be ‘Don’t worry. I like girls, but boys too.’”
 

  Will almost did a spit take with his soda. “Captain America is gay?!”
 

 “Well bi actually but yes.”
 

 “No way! So do you have a boyfriend?” he asked glancing eagerly up at him. “Is he an Avenger too?”
 

  Nico kicked him under the table causing Will to blush and then angrily kick back.
   

“Uh- sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” he stammered
   

“No, it’s okay” Steve said, dismissing his apology with a wave of a hand. “ To answer your question I did, but he died a long time ago.
   

“Oh. I’m sorry.” There was a pause of uncomfortable silence.  He turned and looked at Nico, wondering if he had also met him. He shifted in his seat. “Um, so what happened afterwards? You remembered Nico after all this time just because you saved him?”
 

  “No we crossed paths a few more times after that, I always made it a point to say hi.”
 

  “We weren’t really friends, he was more like a parental figure I guess?” Nico explained
 

  “Yeah, I remember coming to visit you once in the hotel. But there wasn’t that much time, you left for Las Vegas soon after and then I joined the army and became a super soldier. The rest is just like the news reported- trapped in ice, WWII and all that. Actually not really at all like the news reported, but you get the idea." 
   

“And you got a sweet new body” Nico said under his breath. This time it was Will that did the kicking.
 

 “Yeah that too,” Steve said with a smile, “though it’s really not worth all the trouble.” He got up to refill their drinks. “Does that answer at least some of your questions Will?”
   

“I guess” he said massaging his head, “I suppose that means it’s our turn to explain.”
   

“The floor is yours” Steve said with a sweep of his arm.
   

“Well you know those Greek myths?” Nico asked.
   

“Yes?” 
   

“Uh, well they’re not myths- they’re true. There’s a bunch of demigod kids I’m one of them- son of Hades, Will’s a son of Apollo.”

Nico and Will took turns back and forth, explaining the Lotus hotel and Nico’s apparent time travel, battles, camp half blood, and Kronos, and Gaea, and the Romans. Halfway through Steve got up to stretch shaking his head and bringing back snacks. By the end of it Steve sat stone-faced, occasional sipping from his now mostly flat soda. The boys too were drained, they hadn’t been forced to re-live everything that had happened the past few years in such detail.

"Do you- do you believe us?” Nico asked hesitantly.

“Yeah I do.” Steve said reassuring them, “I mean it’s weird but I guess Thor’s a god, right? And I know he exists. I just can’t believe they have children doing this.”
   

“Not really like we have a choice. I personally enjoy my continuing existence,” Will said.
   

“Exactly my point. You’re being forced to do your parents work, and they clearly don’t care about your safety,” he said angrily.
   

“That’s not entirely true” Nico said trying to explain. “We can intercede where the gods can’t, and while some are awful parents you also can’t say they don’t care.”
 

 “And look what you’ve done. You fight because you have to, you didn’t get much of a say in it either.” Will added.
   

Steve rolled his eyes and sighed. “Of course I did. I literally signed up.”
   

“No,” Nico said quietly, silencing the argument abruptly. “Don’t delude yourself Steve. You’ve been a pawn too. And paid dearly for it.” he added. Will had looked up at Nico’s change in tone and then realized that Nico was beginning to do what he called the “death scan look,” making Will wonder what information was about to be dug up.
   

Steve shifted awkwardly in his chair. “Fine. But I want to help you guys out.”
   

“That’s not a good idea…” Nico started
   

“Of course it is. You guys were all over Tony’s weapons, they could obviously be of use.”
 

 “The weapons? Maybe. You guys? No- you can’t see through the mist. It would be like the cyclops all over again.”
   

“But I thought you said the gods are linked to mortal conflicts. That means it probably affects what we fight too. We don’t have to completely understand what’s going on to punch it.”
 

  Will high-fived Steve across the table, scattering food wrappers in the process. “Dude’s got a point," he said, grinning. "That needs to be our new motto. ‘punch first think later’”
   

Nico sighed. “I suppose, but don’t let Annabeth hear you say that.” He drummed his fingers on the table thinking for a moment. “The problem is we have no idea to what extent and how combined mythical and mortal fighting would work. And not only that but we’re not the only demigods. The Romans and Egyptians have them too.”
   

Steve leaned back in his chair. “Fine no fighting. For now,” he said with a pointed look at Nico. “You mentioned Annabeth? And a bunch of others? do you think it’s possible to call a meeting to compare notes and see how to best help each other?”
   

“That’s doable. I’ll ask Chiron.”
   

“Then it’s settled. I’ve also decided that from now on Avengers tower is going to be a demigod flophouse. Do you think I can announce that too?”
   

“What?” Nico asked confused just as Natasha walked into the Kitchen. She rolled her eyes at Steve’s comments, setting the glass she had just grabbed down on the counter with a thunk.
 

  “I see you’re turning into Batman with the whole taking in kids thing.”
 

 “Yep!” Steve said brightly ignoring her jab. “You two are staying for dinner, right? I think Nat’s making perogies.”
   

“Only if you do the dishes” she said before breezing back out of the room to talk to Tony.
   

“Sweet!” Will said before Nico could stop him, “Can she teach us spy-stuff? I wanna prank the Hermes kids for once.
   

“Have fun with that. I don’t want to start an inter-house war.”
   

"It would almost be worth the retribution.” he said dreamily.

Dinner was delicious, though Natasha had staunchly refused to help the boys plan pranks, much to their dismay and Steve’s amusement. At the end of the evening they prepared to head back to camp despite Steve’s repetitive attempts to get them to stay. Will was gathering their bags (a.k.a. annoying Natasha) when Steve approached Nico. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
   

“No promises,” Nico replied with a smile. “If it makes you feel better I’ll send Annabeth and her boyfriend Percy to meet with you before any demigod-wide discussion takes place. I’d leave you their numbers but we can’t really use cell phones.” he said ignoring Steve’s confusion. “Anyway they’ve been doing this stuff longer. And Annabeth is scary smart, if anyone can help make connections throughout this mess it’s her.”
   

Steve scrawled their names down on a piece of paper near the phonebook. A phonebook?  “Bet that will be an interesting conversation,” he said looking back at Nico and capping his pen. “Thanks for the info.”
 

 “And thank you for dinner.”
   

“No worries. Just looking out for another boy from Brooklyn.”

Chapter Text

Steve shut the door behind Nico and Will as they left, and then headed back to the kitchen to help Natasha with the dishes. He started to clear the table, gathering an armful of plates and bringing them back to the sink. He looked up to find Nat apprising him, head tilted slightly to the side. It was that kind of look only an assassin could give-the kind that left Steve wondering if he had any secrets left. “What?” he asked defensively, reaching to wrap the leftovers. He really didn’t want to argue with her. “Natasha they’re just kids, and they need someone to help them. I promise I’ll keep them out your guys’ way. I’m still looking for an apartment in Brooklyn, they don’t even have to stay here.” Natasha came around to the other side of the counter and began to dry the dishes Steve washed.

“No, I understand she said quietly. I was like them once too.”

“A demigod?”

“No stupid. Alone. Afraid. Forced to fight.” She said focusing intently on the towel, her hand clenched around it, before looking back up at Steve “I told the others what was going on, they all want to help. Tony’s already in the lab trying to create demigod weapons.”

“So if I hear explosions…”

“That’s why” she said with a low chuckle before turning serious again. “The kids may need you Steve. But it’s clear they’re important to you too. We all know how much Bucky meant to you, and after what happened-” She trailed off as Steve’s face hardened and he turned away, but then continued firmly. “You need to keep busy. Get in contact with Percy and Annabeth.” She waited for Steve’s muttered agreement before saying goodnight and slipping away, leaving Steve to his thoughts.

It was the worst when he was alone. Steve tried to do what Sam had told him. Take deep breaths. Remember that it wasn’t his fault. It rarely worked, he always took stock of the memories and drew the same conclusion-that of course it was his fault. The train where he had let Bucky fall, literally slipping through his grasp and into a frozen wasteland. His failure to follow up to make sure Bucky had actually died. Because he hadn’t, he was tortured instead. And then one last time on the helicarrier, trying to switch the chips. Despite his best efforts and refusal to fight back Bucky had still gotten hurt. And then he had disappeared, likely killed yet again. And for some reason Steve had washed up on shore. He took a deep breath and went to go get his sketch pad. Drawing cleared his mind-he was forced was forced to focus on what he was creating instead of “if only” scenarios. He started to sketch ideas for rooms for the demigods. He’d have to ask Tony, but ideally they could take over an entire floor. Nat was right as much as he hated to admit it. They were a distraction, kids he could take care of and protect.

It was a quiet night. The only person Nico and Will ran into was an older man walking his dog who looked strangely like Stan Lee. As soon as they were out of sight they called for Blackjack. Traveling by pegasus wasn’t really their style, but they were both too tired to attempt shadow travel, and reluctant to get in another taxi. Percy had told the whole camp about his run in with the Gray Sisters, leaving most campers with the unique fear of dying in a fiery crash on mortal transportation due to the drivers’ lack of eyes. Thankfully Blackjack arrived quickly, looking excited to have passengers as Percy who rode him the most frequently was rarely at camp nowadays. “Hey dude,” Nico greeted him as the two of them hopped on. He patted Blackjack’s side as he whinnied, and regretted the fact that he couldn’t speak horse. He assumed that he had said something along the lines of “What’s up?” “Nice to see you.” or maybe even “You smell like Perogies.” You never really knew with Blackjack. They flew towards Camp Half-Blood, Nico with a death grip on Will and praying to the gods that Zeus didn’t shoot him out of the sky. They flew in peaceful, if slightly terrified, silence, admiring the city lights below them. “Tonight was great.” Nico said with a yawn, wrapping his arms around Will’s waist.

“Yeah, Steve and Natasha were nice. Though I don’t understand why Steve’s so eager to take us and the other campers in.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Nico asked, sounding surprised before realizing that to Will it wasn’t. He didn’t get the whole different time thing. “Well he feels bad for us, I think he views us like younger versions of himself. Not to mention he knows me from his own time. He’s lost so many others already, I imagine it’s nice to see a familiar face. There can’t be that many people from the 40’s left.”

“Oh.” Will said thinking, before coming to a sickening realization. “Wait, Nico, do you feel like that? Have you been missing the 40’s this whole time?”

“No," Nico said, quickly reassuring him and then pausing to collect his thoughts as he examined the world below. He watched the specks that were people and cars go about their daily lives among a city markedly different from the one he had walked through seventy odd years before. There were brighter lights and more traffic noise that was audible even over the wind. “I mean I miss my mom and Bianca, but I would miss them no matter what time period I was in. And I was so young. There wasn’t really a life for me to miss.”

“So you don’t regret it?”

“What, being alive now? How could I?” There’s camp and no polio and you.” he said teasing Will. I might remiss now and then, but don’t worry, I’m not dying to go back.”

“For the love of Hades was that a death pun?” Will said rolling his eyes and pulling Nico closer to him. Though in retrospect he wasn’t much better himself. He always made the groan-inducing joke that Nico looked like he was dead on his feet. “That reminds me, you were doing the death scan on Steve. What’s up?” he asked.

Nico sighed. “Well I wasn’t going to say anything till I knew for sure, but his aura of death is weird.”

Will turned back to look at him. “And what does that mean?”

“It was a solid black halo, instead of normal distinguishable grey wisps. I can tell he’s known a lot of know dead people, but it’s the dead person’s relationship to him I’m having troubles understanding. He’s just completely surrounded,” Nico said quietly. It had shocked him at first. He had heard of an aura of death but never known someone besides children of Hades that had it. “I’m going to visit the underworld and see what I can find. Maybe I can communicate with people he knew, or bring him good news that some of his friends are still alive out there."

“Nico-"

“It will be fine.” Nico said seriously. “Will, I feel like I need to do this.” Will took a long look at him. He hated when Nico visited the underworld, he was always afraid Hades would try to exert his influence, or that Nico would try and find his mom. There was no stopping him in this case, however, not when he cared this deeply.

“Fine,” he said. “But I’m coming with you. And you should talk to Hazel and see what she thinks.”

 "Hey that would actually work!” he said perking up. “Plus it’s super convenient now that they’re all coming back soon to visit Leo.” Nico smiled, remembering the line to punch and then aggressively hug Leo. Unsurprisingly disappearing for months on end resulted in a lot of pent up emotions. Blackjack began to descend and they watched as Camp Half-Blood came into view. The faint smell of smoke still hung in the air, hopefully from the recent campfire and not something deadly. “You know,” Nico said as he dismounted and gave Blackjack one last pat, “Hazel is from the 40’s too.”

“How did I completely forget about that!” Will gasped, jumping down next to Nico. “Holy Hades there’s enough accidental time travelers from the 40’s to have a support group!”

Nico laughed. “That’s actually not a bad idea. I’ll run it by Steve. At the very least he’ll be happy she exists. And she was a little older than I was, she may actually be able to remiss with him.”

Will laughed and then did a fake call and response greeting: “Hi I’m Nico- Hi Nico,” he said, the last part in a deeper monotone voice. Nico rolled his eyes as they began to walk towards the cabins.

“I don’t think Steve’s going to get the Finding Nemo reference.”

“Ooooh! we need to make him watch a bunch of movies.”

“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled. But first let’s visit my dear old dad.”

Steve was jolted awake the next morning by Natasha. “You fell asleep on the couch again?” she said with a sigh.

“I was drawing.” he said, stretching his arms over his head.

“A treacherous thing your muse is. Well hurry up and make yourself presentable. I invited some guests over.”

Steve grumbled but hastily threw on a gray workout shirt and combed his hair. Note to self, he thought, buy more non-workout clothes if we’re going to keep having visitors. He hurried out of his room and back into the common area, startled to find people already there. They were both young- the boy had was wearing a bright orange t-shirt while the girl standing next to him had a backpack slung over her shoulder, the top of it partly obscured by her curly blonde hair. She also happened to be intensely examining his sketches of last night. He awkwardly cleared his throat and they both spun around, the boy reaching into his pocket like he was about to draw a weapon. Demigods then Steve thought, always prepared for an attack. “Uh- hi,” he said, still standing in the doorway. “I’m Steve Rogers.” The two relaxed and the girl extended her hand to shake.

“I’m Annabeth, daughter of Athena, and this is my boyfriend Percy, Son of Poseidon.” she said gesturing towards Percy, who gave a little wave in response.

“Nice to meet you guys. Nico said you’d be in touch, I just didn’t know this quickly. Sorry for the mess,” he said, silently cursing Natasha for the complete lack of warning.

“Oh not a problem,” Annabeth said. “I actually want to ask Natasha how she was able to get in contact. She shouldn’t have been able to that easily, especially with communications throughout the magical world being down.”

“Annabeth do business later. Right now we should focus on the important stuff. Like are you good at Frisbee?” he asked Steve, making a throwing motion with his hand and causing Annabeth to roll her eyes.

“Well I don’t really know?” Steve said, extremely confused. “What exactly is a Frisbee?”

“You know the disks- like your shield.”

“Not now seaweed brain.” Annabeth elbowed him

“Hey you were the one that wanted to know about his art!” Annabeth blushed. “Oh- well,” she said directing her attention back up to Steve. “ I want to be an architect and I noticed your sketches of different rooms. They’re really good.”

“Oh, well thanks. I’ve done art stuff for a while.” he said grabbing his stack of sketches and bringing them over to where they were standing.

“That’s cool dude,” Percy said leaning over to get a better look. “It didn’t say anything about you being an artist in the Smithsonian.”

“You visited my exhibit?”

“Well he has.” Annabeth’s voice turned icy. “But someone had to get the rest of us banned after the giant cat and astronaut ice-cream incident.” She said with a glare at Percy.

“I was trying to save you!” he protested. Steve was extremely confused, looking back and forth between the two of them. Percy noticed, and hoping to deflect the look of death in Annabeth’s eyes onto someone besides himself he hastily turned the attention back to Steve. “Didn’t Nico and Will tell you this?”

“I think he might have summarized?”

“Oh yeah there’s a lot more to fill you in on, some just from the past few hours.” Seeing Steve’s look of panic Percy laughed. “I know, isn’t it great? We get to take you to meet Carter and Sadie today too!”

Steve went to gather the other Avengers for a brief meeting. Conveniently, Sam, Tony, Clint, and Thor were all hanging out nearby, dressed and ready to go. He glared at Nat who was smiling sweetly up at him.

“I got everything organized for you. Sorry for the short notice.” she said innocently before leading the group in to go make introductions with Steve bringing up the rear, annoyed but also grateful for her meddling. As they entered the room, Percy and Annabeth quickly broke off a conversation they were having, both looking serious and worn. This didn’t improve when they caught sight of Thor. Annabeth took a reflexive step back, reaching for Percy, who was pale himself. They moved to sit down around the table, exactly as Steve had the night before, though this time he had the feeling the news would be more serious than the filtered summary Nico had presented.

“Well…” Annabeth started. “To put it mildly we have a lot of problems.” She and Percy jumped right in, starting with the two easiest to explain: Leo Valdez had returned bringing Calypso with him, and as a result the Romans were coming to visit. And secondly, The Kanes and other Egyptian demigods needed to be informed that this partnership was happening since previous attempts at communication hadn’t gone through.

“Well that’s easy,” Tony said with a wave of dismissal. “Aren’t we going to notify them later today?”

“Yeah and we don’t mind having Roman Demigods here as well.” Steve added. Percy shook his head tiredly, searching for how best to explain.

“Those are barely our problems. They’re results of our problems.”

Annabeth nodded. “Apollo has been banished form Olympus and made mortal. He’s trying to protect the oracles- they make prophesies.” she said trying to be as concise as possible. “Apollo believes this company called Triumvirate Holdings run by roman emperors is trying to destroy them to regain control. They’ve been behind everything.” She looked around the table. The Avengers who had been so gung-ho before had suddenly become more serious.

“So is this like Hydra then? Controlling those in power in stuff?” Steve asked.

“Sure except they probably controlled Hydra too. All mortal-god issues are so interwoven it’s hard to tell.” Percy explained.

“Well that’s great,” Tony said sarcastically. “So you want us to help you shoot up some ancient ruins? Trap them in Little Caesars? What’s the deal?”

Annabeth massaged her forehead and sighed. “I-I don’t know for sure. We need information from Thor, and help from the rest of you regardless of what ends up happening.” Annabeth and Percy went on to explain the Norse gods: How she met her cousin Magnus, Loki’s escape, and the “real” Thor. “We need to know how you exist. Are you a god? Superhero?”

Thor laughed. “I understand now. You looked very shocked to see me, this is why. To answer your question, I am neither. Instead I am what you mortals call an alien. The Norse god, I assume, was named and based off me. Gods are formed by mortal beliefs of course, I simply provided them the idea.” Percy and Annabeth visibly relaxed, looking less desperate now that they had the information they were looking for. They quickly started planning back in forth, finishing each other’s sentences in a word-vomit string of ideas, growing louder as they did so.

“It may work then-”

“Apollo needs to…”

“Ask Carter and Sadie.”

“Chiron might know.”

Annabeth broke off and flashed an apologetic smile at the group. “Sorry, it’s just that that was the answer we were hoping for.”

“How does Thor have anything to do with this?” Steve asked, voicing what the others were thinking.

“Gods rely on people in believing in them, we knew that already. We’ve seen gods fade into obscurity and disappear, and people try to turn into gods. All mythology works this way, the Egyptians even have ways to permanently erase beings from existence. What we needed to know is in what ways gods were created.”

“If they can be created from another idea we destroy that idea-destroy the records.” Natasha quickly chimed in, already one step ahead of Annabeth’s explanation.

Percy smiled. “Time to bring about the second fall of Rome.”

They all piled in to Tony’s personal car to head to Brooklyn House. Annabeth and Tony struck up an immediate conversation about celestial bronze bullets, similar to Nico and Will’s discussion about weapons. Once again Steve felt slightly concerned. He looked out the window watching Brooklyn go past, reminiscing and also keeping an eye out for “For Sale” signs. Percy meanwhile started telling him how he had met the Kanes and in the process taken out a crocodile.

“That’s insane. So you can control water?”

“Yep. Oh! that reminds me, is Aquaman part of your team?” Steve gave him a blank look, then laughed, and Annabeth having also heard turned from her conversation with a small smile.

“No seaweed brain. He’s part of the Justice League, not the Avengers.”

“Oh right.” Percy said sheepishly.

“Sorry to disappoint you man.” Steve said, still laughing. That was one of the few things he hadn’t been asked yet, though these kids were also too busy to immerse themselves in pop culture.

“Oh no, not disappointed at all.” Percy reassured him having recovered some of his dignity. “How could I? you guys are awesome, helping us out. It’s been a heard few months.” It certainly looked that way to Steve. Both Percy and Annabeth had bags under their eyes, in addition to the random cuts and brises he assumed were from fights. Even the way Percy spoke made him sound worn out. “We’re just so tired of fighting. Especially knowing now about the emperors, what have we been fighting for?” He looked across at Annabeth who was now engrossed in a conversation with Natasha and smiled sadly. “Usually we know when we’re being used. It kills her that this time we didn’t.”

“I understand.” The two fell into silence, thinking of battles that had long since passed, and eventually being absorbed into another Avenger’s conversation. The car continued driving through the Bronx, and Steve felt like if he focused hard enough, he’d just be able to make out businesses and people from before.

Tension began to fill the car as they approached Brooklyn House. Annabeth and Percy were staring intently at one another in a silent conversation. Percy was restless, hand buried in his pocket, while Annabeth began rummaging through her bag. Natasha picked up on it at once, glancing at them and back up at Steve who was also looking worriedly at them, ignoring the rowdy conversation among the others next to him. “When we get to the house don’t stop.” Annabeth said calmly. “Just drop us off and come back later.”

“But-” Steve, started before being cut off.

“No.” Percy said firmly “It’s too risky.”

Steve’s protests and questions were silenced this time by Natasha who sized the pair up, then told the driver, “Do a drop and go.” That got the others attention. They turned to Percy and Annabeth, peppering them with questions till Percy held up a hand. It fell silent as the car began to slow as the house came in view.

“Whatever you see,” he said, “Ignore it-it’s the mist.”

Then time seemed to speed up. The driver stopped in front of the house. Percy flew out of the door, giving Annabeth a quick kiss before running towards the house brandishing a pen.

“Go!” Annabeth yelled at the car while putting on a baseball cap. When he looked back to where she had been standing, she was gone, the door seeming to have been slammed on its own accord. The driver gunned it forcing Steve into his seat. He frantically looked back and saw Percy and someone else fighting what looked to be a group of cheerleaders. He scooted towards the door and tried to pop the lock. There was no way he was sitting this one out.

“Steve, Don’t!” Natasha warned. He ignored her, swinging the door open and accidentally taking out a parked car in the process. He felt hands on his arm as he jumped out, rolling to his feet and running back to Brooklyn house.

Percy hoped they had a landscaper-the battle had destroyed most of the front yard. Empousas had attacked the Kanes, with Kelli once again leading her gaggle of vampire cheerleaders.

“Percy! It’s so nice to see you,” she smiled sweetly. “I was just telling Carter how delicious he would taste, but you. Oh you would taste sweet after that trick you and your girlfriend played.” She spat, her smile turning into a snarl as she charged him, her fangs clearly visible. He raised riptide and prepared to strike, when she suddenly froze, looking down at the hole in her abdomen.

“That,” Percy said. “Would be my girlfriend. Thanks Annabeth!” One down, many more to go, and judging by the scorched grass and trampled flowerbeds, Carter and Sadie had been fighting for a while before they arrived. Percy began to slash at the monsters, looking around for the Kanes. Carter was in his avatar form, divebombing the empousas from above, but Percy could see he was tiring, his form beginning to flicker. Sadie wasn’t looking much better. She was shooting spell after spell, using the word for destroy: Ha-di. He slashed his way over to her, hoping that they could kill off the rest before she exerted herself too much and passed out. At the sound of Annabeth’s yell, however, he spun in the opposite direction, trying to find the source of her voice.

“It’s Steve!” Percy cursed under his breath and look back at Sadie. She was swaying, unsteady on her feet, propped up against the side of the house and still using magic. Steve meanwhile was drawing a lot of attention, and had a half-dozen empousas were beginning to descend on him. “Carter!” he called looking up at the sky. “Watch Sadie!” The bird landed and Carter quickly morphed back into human form, immediately punching an empousa that had grabbed Percy from behind. Her grip loosened and Percy slashed backwards, causing her to dissolve. “Thanks.” he panted, watching Carter run to help Sadie before moving in the other direction to save Steve. Empousas weren’t that hard to kill, but this was the most he had seen in one place, and they were apparently very eager to get a bite of Captain America.

Percy could hear them as he approached. “Ooooh a mortal! we haven’t had one in so long!” and “What’s your name sweetie?” Percy had no clue what they looked like to Steve. For all he knew the mist could make them look like USO dancers. “Don’t let them bite you!” he told Steve, beginning to take them out one by one. Annabeth also came over and they slashed and stabbed together. Even Steve helped, having landed a punch to the head that vaporized one. Their numbers dwindled until finally Percy banished the last one back to Tartarus.

Percy and Annabeth immediately ran over to Carter and Sadie. Sadie had made a protective circle on the ground, but having used the last of her energy to do so was sitting, her head between her knees with her wand next to her. Carter was squatting down in front of her, breathing heavily.

“Sorry for the violent welcome” he said with a weak smile.

“Not a problem. I felt your warning.” Percy said, clapping Carter on the back. Turning to Annabeth he asked, “Would ambrosia help her?”

“I don’t know, but it’s worth a try.” she said going over to retrieve her back pack and get some. Percy turned around to find Steve behind him and the other Avengers beginning to approach.

He marched towards him a few steps, and gritted his teeth. “That was incredibly stupid.” Steve had the grace to look slightly abashed.

“Sorry, I just-“ “No. Do you have any idea what just happened? I can’t babysit you Steve!” Percy yelled. Annabeth came up and put a hand on his shoulder.

“We can figure everything out later,” she said trying to calm him, before turning her steely grey eyes on Steve. “He’s right though. You put Sadie and Carter at risk. And we don’t want your blood on our hands,” she admonished. “You can help once we have protocols to do so in place.” She smiled slyly up at him and lowered her voice. “But between you and me, that was a great punch.” She then turned her attention to the other Avengers who were standing awkwardly behind Steve. Natasha was coolly surveying the damage while Clint, Sam, and Thor were trying to console Tony about his car. Annabeth let out a breath, composing herself. “I believe some introductions are in order.” she said, surveying the group. “Meet Carter and Sadie.”

Chapter Text

“Scooch over seaweed brain.”

Percy obliged, taking Annabeth’s hand in his own as she plopped down next to where he sat by the edge of the lake. He abandoned practicing controlling the water, letting a miniature wave fizzle and dissolve as they sat back and relaxed. For once there were no screams from the climbing wall or Chiron’s voice bellowing encouragements, instead everyone was up by the Big House waiting for the Avengers. They should be up there too, he reckoned, trying to summon the energy to get up and failing miserably. Annabeth yawned and leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder, destroying whatever willpower he had left. And so they sat watching the water ripple as birds and bugs landed on it, the rings expanding outward towards them. It was what Percy called on of his “moments,” the scenes from daily life he catalogued- his mom making blue pancakes, laughing with Grover, and now here, with Annabeth.

She broke the silence first. “We should join the others,” she said with a sigh. It was not a meeting they were particularly looking forward to. After the attack with the Kanes they had been forced to rest and regroup. They got Chiron on board and despite the urge to immediately punch some emperors, the group had decided to wait till the Romans and Magnus could come and be briefed all at once. Now that day was here and the last thing Percy wanted to do was to take part in another quest. Percy groaned and stood up, helping Annabeth to her feet.

“I’m in awe of your motivation. I would have sat there all day.”

“I know,” She said smiling as they started to make their way back to Big House, “but someone’s got to take charge.” The closer they got to the center of camp the louder it got, and suddenly there were people everywhere, campers and demigods and magicians from all mythologies. Percy could hear at least five different languages as he and Annabeth passed through the crowd. In one corner there were cross-mythology fighting demonstrations, while in another Chiron was frantically arranging seating. The gathering was huge and pulsing with energy, shouts and laughter flying back and forth, along with a variety of spells and curse words. It was beautiful in the way that beauty contains power, with everyone coming together to meet a threat head on. These were his people, and there couldn’t have been a better group to watch his back.

Annabeth spotted Magnus and his friends and ran over to them, turning back belatedly to motion Percy to come join them. He smiled to himself and followed her, stopping to exchange pleasantries as he went. He was on the look-out for Hazel, one of the few he hadn’t managed to say hi to yet. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen Nico or Will today either.

Hazel and Nico were laughing about something Will didn’t understand. “So let me get this straight. There was a Captain America radio show?” he asked. They were walking through the underworld on their way to meet Hades, which Will firmly believed was something that should never happen- the underworld was creepy. Yet here they were, making small talk while walking through the fires of Hades. Hazel finally stopped laughing enough to answer.

“Well it wasn’t a good one,” she wheezed. That caused another round of hysterics. Will rolled his eyes. He didn’t mind hearing about past stuff, but dragging an explanation out of either of them took forever. “Sorry,” Hazel said breathlessly. “It was just so bad. My mom listened to it sometimes. It was super cheesy and just a big war effort ad, and Agent Carter, his girlfriend at the time who I aspired to be, was made out to be a total ditz and renamed Betty Carver.”

Nico giggled. “I don’t really remember this, we were in the hotel, but gods I know the exact style of program she’s talking about. We should do a re-enactment for Steve.”

Even Will joined in the laughter this time, but that quickly died down as they approached Hades’ throne. Nico walked quickly ahead of them and bowed.

“Father,” he said in a deep voice that was so not Nico it almost made Will laugh. “We’re here for death records.” Will had asked Nico and Hazel how they were going to just magically find all the dead people Steve knew. Was there a phone book for dead people? Would they just insult Steve and see who showed up to defend him? Thankfully Hazel had a lot more patience than Nico, who just glared and his questioning. She explained that there were two options: either ask Hades or Thanatos. Since she was supposed to be dead, Hades was by far the safer option.

“I know, I felt your approach.” He looked down at Nico with, while not necessarily a smile, at least a neutral expression. It was progress. “Who for?”

“Steven Grant Rogers.”

Hades closed his eyes and focused, then they opened, and widened with a start. “There’s a lot of them. I’ll write them down.”

“Well that was anti-climactic,” Will said as Hades reached for some paper. “No quest, no massive search party, no zombies?”

“Shhh!” Nico and Hazel whispered in unison, but it was too late.

“Oh Will’s right!” Hades said pulling the sheet of paper back from Nico’s grasp. “I need you to do me a favor.”

“Yes?” Nico growled, intentionally stepping back on Will’s foot.

“I need you to find and deliver a message to Daedalus. Tell him we’re going to need another interchange in the EZ death line.” The three breathed a sigh of relief. Of all the quests Hades could have given, he chose an easy one he was just too lazy to do himself. That’s good, Will thought. I won’t get murdered by my companions. Or something that wants to eat me. Nico bowed, and the group hastily excused themselves before Hades could dream up something else. As soon as they were out of sight Nico punched him in the arm.

“Hey!” Will yelped, rubbing his arm, “It could be worse. That went surprisingly well.”

“I know. Let’s just find him and get this over with as quickly as possible.”

Percy had been introduced to Magnus, Sam, and Alex in addition to an assortment of other Norse demigods and einherjar. They were really fun to talk to, Percy thought. A pity most of them are dead. The conversation broke off when, with a yell, the Hermes kid on watch duty sounded the alarm that the Avengers were approaching. The group surged forward to meet them, with Percy and Annabeth falling to the back in an attempt to not get crushed. By the time they made it up to the front, everyone was milling around the dining pavilion. The Avengers were wide eyed, sizing up the camp and its campers, all while being peppered with questions from the kids that surrounded them. The pair made their obligatory greetings and then worked their way towards Steve, who was hiding out next to Chiron off to the side.

“Hey guys,” he said clapping Percy on the back. “Chiron was just telling me about training general McArthur during WWII.”

“Oh cool, war stories. There’s a lot of should-be-dead people here for you to share them with.”

“Have you told him about Churchill yet?” Annabeth asked, shooting a glare at Percy.

Before Chiron could answer, Clint waded towards them. “When is this thing gonna start? Some kids just pranked Tony, and Thor is being followed by a group of kids asking where his goats are.”

Annabeth sighed. “That would be the Hermes cabin and Magnus. Let’s get everyone rounded up and we can begin.”

“I don’t think Nico and Will are here though.” Percy said scanning the crowd again.

“They mentioned they may be late. They’ll just have to miss it, we need to start.” Chiron said as he watched the Ares cabin attempt to pick up Thor’s hammer. “For the love of Zeus knock it off!” he called, leaving to go deal with them.

“This is interesting,” Percy said with a smile.

“Yeah, you’ve already lost our bet.”

“What!?”

“Thor’s hammer-first ten minutes. Pay up seaweed brain.”

Percy sighed and pulled out a drachma.

Steve was sitting with the other avengers at one of the two front tables, facing the gaggle of magical/mythical/dead? kids. The other table was occupied by Chiron, Percy and Annabeth, Magnus, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the visiting Romans, and Carter and Sadie. There were also two empty chairs where he assumed Nico and Will should have been sitting. Percy had told him not to worry about it, which probably meant he should be extremely worried about Nico currently residing in a monster’s stomach. Percy raised a hand to call the meeting to order, and an immediate hush fell over the crowd.

“Thanks for being here everyone. We have a lot to go over, but hopefully we’ll be done in time for a round of capture the flag.” The kids let up a cheer. Steve knew what capture the flag was, but for everyone to be so excited he figured there had to be violence involved. Which wasn’t terrifying at all. “Annabeth came up with the plan so I’m going to let her explain it to you.” Percy continued, as Annabeth gathered her notes. “And then I think we’re going to go down the line and talk about how each group fits into this.” Annabeth nodded in conformation and then began to explain the general problem to everyone. They had the advantage, however, of not questioning anything, unlike the avengers. Steve wanted to know when exactly you got to the point that taking down a ring of international-all powerful-historical-mythical leaders was all in a day’s work.

After Annabeth’s summary, Rachel stood up to explain the oracles and prophesies. “As most of you know, Apollo left a few days ago to track down the other oracles as part of his quest. Normally we would let him do his thing, but this is too big of an issue. All the mythology groups along with the Avengers have specific tasks, along with jobs to do together. She explained that the Romans would be figuring out which artifacts needed to be destroyed. All other groups would aid them- providing manpower and insight into their own mythology sect. The Egyptians would work out how to permanently erase the emperors, while the Greeks would aid Apollo’s quest for the oracles. The einherjar would provide the army if any battles occurred, and lastly the Avengers would watch mortal affairs and provide a safe house.

“So” Chiron said, as the meeting winded down, “You now have individual tasks, but you all also need to work together. I think some multi-mythical fight training is in order. And judging by earlier today you’re already working on it.” he said with a pointed look at the Ares cabin, the members of which had almost killed Jason with an Egyptian magic enhanced spear. “There obviously still needs to be some more planning, but for now let’s take questions and let the Avengers speak. I have a feeling some of you want to play capture the flag.” Another cheer went up. “Any questions?” Chiron added.

Sam immediately raised his hand. “The prophesy Rachel was talking about sounded pretty bad. Like ‘forced death and madness to swallow,’ do we know what that means?”

“Well, short answer, no. Long answer still no, but we can make some vague guesses that are still most likely incorrect.”

This was not at all reassuring, and Annabeth broke in. “All prophesies usually they sound worse than they are. Bad things still happen, but don’t try to decipher or evade them, it just makes it worse.”

“Yep, I pretty much thought I was destined to die in the Battle of Olympus. The whole ‘hero’s soul cursed blade shall reap,’ and, ‘a single choice shall end his days.’ thing. Spoiler alert: I’m still alive,” Percy added. The crowd laughed, and Sam smiled too, at least semi-satisfied with the answer.

Natasha, however was not. “Don’t we need a prophesy to go on a quest?”

Rachel glanced at Chiron, and with an imperceptible nod, turned back to face the group, which was now completely still, having picked up on the exchange. “Well,” she said, “there’s a great prophesy that most regard as an incorrect translation of The Prophesy of Seven because it’s so similar. We haven’t told anyone yet, we didn’t want you guys to worry.”

“Speaking from experience, that’s incredibly ineffective,” Percy said with a wry smile. “Spill.”

Rachel looked back at Chiron again, and then with resignation turned to face the sea of suddenly concerned faces. She took a breath, drawing herself up as she did so, closed her eyes and began to recite.

A group of seven shall answer the call,

to save or destroy- the myths must fall

an oath to keep till final breath

and foes will fight until no one’s left.

The gathering was silent, and the kids shot uneasy glances between each other. “You can see how its’ similar to the other one. I wouldn’t worry too much though.” She said trying to be reassuring. “Percy’s right. I mean, everyone thought the line ‘to storm or fire the world must fall’ meant we were all going to die.”

“Do any of the Avengers want to speak?” Chiron asked, trying to change the topic from death to anything-but-death.

“I do.” Steve said, glad that his statement was upbeat. “The six of us here, and Bruce who’s not, but wishes he could be, want to formally announce an open invitation to Avenger’s Tower.” The group applauded. “There’ll be training rooms where you can practice killing each other, plus bunks for you to camp out. The idea is that if you’re out on a mission or have to leave Camp Half- Blood you’ll have someplace safe to stay. We’re looking at setting a similar thing up in California and Boston for the rest of you, too.”

After Steve was done and the chatter lessened so that the speakers could actually be heard, Chiron got up and went over some notices, and laid out the ground rules for interactions with the Avengers- mainly don’t antagonize them too much or get them killed. Immediately after he was done speaking, there was a mad dash to pick team members for capture the flag.

“Better hurry up losers!” Percy called as he and Annabeth dashed into the forest.

With a shrug, Steve stood up and beckoned the other Avengers. “Come on, we can’t just let them win.”

It turns out Daedalus was not an easy person to find. A fact Nico shouldn’t have found surprising, the dude lived inside a maze after all, but it still made his job more difficult. They had made the mistake of looking in the obvious places- his workshop, The Judgment Pavilion and the Fields of Asphodel. Nope, instead he was sitting against the back wall of Hades’ palace.

“Why is he there?” Will asked incredulously. They were almost back where they started. Not that he completely minded, the area around the Fields of Asphodel had made Hazel and Nico nervous, it was better for them to not be anywhere near it.

Daedalus looked up as they approached. “Hello demigods. Come join me, I’m on my break.”

“umm, Hi?” Will said. “We have a message for you.”

“What does Hades want changed now?” he asked with a sigh.

“An extra interchange for the EZ death lane, but how did you know what we were here for?” Nico asked, looking unsettled.

“Bah! Next he’ll want a flying chariot express lane. Or a toll-free lane!” he shook his head. “Every day since I’ve been here Hades wants something changed or fixed, and he can never be bothered to come in person, that’s why I assumed you were messengers.”

“I’ll talk to him about it.” Hazel said firmly. Nico and Will looked at her surprised. “What? Hades is being a jerk.”

“I give you my thanks. Tell him I’ll figure it out.” With that he turned and walked the opposite direction, muttering plans and as he left.

The three of them watched him leave. “Hazel’s right.” Will said. “Daedalus has been forgotten down here.”

“Hate to be insensitive, but we can worry about that later. we need to get the names and get back before people worry,” Nico interrupted. “This was too easy. Hades knows something we don’t.”

“Alright, lets hurry back then. but I’m talking to Hades the next chance I get.”

The group made their way ack inside Hades’ Palace, where he greeted them by the entrance with a smile. “What did he say?”

“He’ll figure it out.”

“Success!” he said, and with a flourish, pulled a list from his back pocket an handed it over. “Oh captain my captain! Here’s the names. And boy are there a lot of them,” he said with an appreciative whistle.

The group glared before quickly scanning the list. With a sharp intake of breath, Nico looked back up at Hades. “This is everyone? It’s absolutely correct?”

Hades smiled again, it was becoming unsettling. Will almost preferred his scowls. “Completely. You better get going.”

They arrived at camp late, but hopefully could catch the end of whatever was happening and talk to Steve. They met a confused pizza delivery man by the camp entrance who looked suspiciously like Stan Lee. Will dug around in his pocket, and handed over whatever crumpled mortal money was in there as Nico grabbed the pizza. They may be late, but you don’t yell at people who come bearing pizza. They checked in with Chiron, who pointed them towards the campfire where the group had gathered after an especially hard fought capture the flag. “Don’t they say pizza heals all wounds? This will be perfect.” Hazel said laughing as they walked, trying not to trip on anything in the twilight.

Steve was going to be sore tomorrow. Capture the flag was intense, to put it mildly. It was evenly matched-the Greeks versus everyone one else- which meant that they all had to play dirty. The other side had narrowly won, with Clint and Sam having made a valiant final stand to guard the flag. Now they all sat around the campfire, literally and figuratively licking their wounds. Steve was just glad he still had all his limbs.

“I didn’t hurt you too bad, did I?” Percy asked with a smile. He was sitting next to Annabeth, the pair of them having single handedly taken out a chunk of his team.

“No, it was amazing. Though in my defense I didn’t have my shield.”

There was laughter, and then a girl form the Athena cabin asked, “How do you normally fight with it?”

Others around chimed in, peppering him with questions, and leading to the chant of “Story! Story!” going around the circle.

Steve groaned. There had been tales of glorious battles and the mythological equivalent of ghost stories all evening, and now apparently it was his turn. He usually despised telling war stories, the adventure it portrayed had always felt wrong to him, and he had never wanted the glory. But these kids knew the reality, and for once he didn’t worry about misleading them with hilarity. “Alright, alright,” he started. “Um let me think” He looked around and then his face brightened in memory. “Okay I got it. So it was 1944…” He proceeded to tell them what had been one of Peggy and Bucky’s favorites. The Howling Commandos had been using Steve’s shield as a giant plate, rather than dirtying their mess kits. In the middle, however, a Nazi patrol had snuck up on them, and instinctively Steve threw the shield at the nearest enemy, flinging food everywhere. “The look on his face! He was more shocked by the food than being attacked!” he said laughing, with the campers joining in. The stories continued around the circle, Percy talked about the Minotaur, apparently an old favorite, while Magnus talked about the ultimate showdown against giants that somehow involved bowling. Conversations ebbed as the night wore on and the campers broke off into individual conversation or back up to The Big house. It was peaceful. Excited shouts interspersed with the crackle of the campfire as he sat talking with the Avengers. It was the happiest he had been in a long while, and he tried to memorize everything and hold onto it.

Nico, Will, and Hazel burst into the clearing, with Will yelling “WE HAVE PIZZA!”

Those around the campfire were stunned for a moment and then a cheer went up, though it was more for the food than their glorious return. The three of them proceeded to hand out slices, making small talk and getting caught up on the meeting’s information as they did so. Will began to fidget the closer they got to the Avengers, while Nico grew quiet. They had discussed what they would tell Steve on the way back, and explained to Hazel what was going on in general. The plan, assuming all went well, as that Hazel would discreetly inform Nat of what was going on, while Nico and Will would tell Steve.

With a huge smile, Will went up to Steve and tugged on his arm. “Can you come with us for a minute?”

“Sure, what’s going on?” he asked as they walked away from the group.

“We have some information for you.” Nico said seriously, his heart thumping. He wasn’t as convinced as Will that this would go over well.

“Well what is it?” They were standing by the edge of the forest, secluded from the gaiety that still continued by the fire. Steve looked down at the two of them, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

“No…” Nico said slowly, appraising him-he had to find out at some point. He took a deep breath and delivered a message for the second time that day. “Bucky is alive.”

Chapter Text

    “What?” Steve looked at them blankly. His reaction was anti-climactic. It was a let-down for Will and a relief for Nico.

    Nico, hands clasped tightly in front of him, provided a hesitant explanation. “Well, as a child of Hades I can kind of sense death on people. I thought I’d go to the underworld to see if I could deliver any messages on your behalf.”

    “Or to see if someone you knew was still alive.” Will added. “We weren’t trying to pry into your love life. I mean, we were all shocked to see that Bucky was on that list.”

    “So am I,” Steve said faintly, sliding down to sit against the base of a tree. His eyebrows were knit in confusion, and it was clear he was trying to process what the hell was happening.

    “We figured we had to tell you,” Nico said anxiously, “but were sorry to spring it on you. We can leave you alone if you want…” he finished, trailing off awkwardly and looking at Will for support.

    Steve looked up at him “Of course. Thank you,” He said, waving them away with something that seemed like it was supposed to be a smile, but ended up looking more like a grimace.

    Natasha’s reaction had also been an incredulous “What?” She had sent Hazel to find Sam and fill him in as well. If there was any time when a motivational speaker would be useful it was now. The three of them moved in Steve’s direction, and met up with Nico and Will, who were walking back to the main part of camp.

    “There you are. How’d it go?” Hazel asked, bouncing up and down nervously.

    “It was okay,” Will reassured her, “he seemed pretty calm.”

    “Damn it,” Sam huffed, beginning to pace as Natasha voiced her agreement by swearing in Russian.

    “Why is that bad?”

    “Will, you don’t get it!” Nico snapped. “You can’t always judge how people will react or what they’re feeling.”

    “I- I’m really sorry,” he said turning towards Sam and Nat with a frown, his head bowed.

   "No need to apologize.” Sam said, patting him on the shoulder. “You were trying to help and he would have found out at some point anyway. I just wish it wasn’t like this.”

    “He’s calm because it’s the whole 40’s ‘repress your emotions’ mindset” Natasha explained. “It’s better if he’s not alone.”

    Sam nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you guys head back, we’ll see if he’s okay.”

    The pair walked into the forest leaving the three demigods behind, and Will with a dawning realization as he looked at Nico. They headed somberly back to the campfire, only speaking to greet a man who was wheeling boxes of strawberries into a truck, and who looked suspiciously like Stan Lee.

    Steve was replaying the conversation in his mind because the only alternative was thinking about what to do next. Mentally pressing play, he could hear himself say “What?” as he felt Bucky’s blood on his skin. Saw him fall from the train and the Helicarrier. Saw the steel beam land on top of him. Then there was Nico, his face worried, approaching him like a wounded animal. And then rewind. Over and over, the information never ceasing to cause a mix of disbelief and pain that drowned out any hope he might have had.

    I left him again, he realized. I failed him again.

    That thought and every other memory of Bucky that came to him got added to the cycle, building on each other until the downwards spiral of his internal monologue reached the breaking point and just stopped, leaving Steve starring out into the forest exhausted.

    That was how Natasha and Sam found him-propped up against the tree, his arms resting on his knees. They came and sat down next to him, Steve scooting over to make room.

    “How you doing Cap?” Sam asked, concerned.

    Steve glanced over at him, his face splotchy and deeply creased. “How do you think?”

    “Well you sure as hell don’t look like a star-spangled man with a plan.”

    Steve snorted. He could feel an impromptu therapy session coming on, but didn’t bother to stop it. There was no deterring Sam, not to mention he and Nat must have heard the news and immediately come to help. He couldn’t bring himself to turn them away.

    “I think you’re blaming yourself again,” Sam continued seriously, “and rightfully you feel shocked and upset.”

    “I left him again!” he said, his voice raw as he pounded a fist into his leg. How did they not get it? The memories were beginning to cycle again, with Bucky laughing, fighting, falling.

    “But Steve, think of what comes next.” Nat said urgently, moving to squat in front of him. “It doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do in the past,” She said, searching his eyes as he looked up at her.

    “You have an opportunity to save him now. He’s alive.”

Chapter Text

    “Where’s the last cheese platter?” Tony asked, frantically searching through the various compartments inside the fridge.

    The Avengers had invited the Demigods, einherjar, and magicians to a party to celebrate the opening of the New York safe house. Only the Hunters of Artemis would be missing, having declined due yet another chimaera situation in St. Louis.

    The room was in chaos with only minutes till the gaggle of kids arrived. Thor was tangled in streamers, Sam was rushing to set out food, and poor Steve was trying to figure out how to set up the iPod speakers.

    Mercifully Nat came over to help. “Give it here gramps,” she huffed as she took the cord out of his hands, freeing Steve to go assist the others.

    Tony was still looking for the cheese. No one told him that Clint had eaten it all the previous day.

    The great cheese hunt came to an end as the doorbell rang and groups of kids began to file in. The Avengers greeted them and proceeded to show them their new quarters.

    In lieu of separate cabins, each mythology got its own giant room with the Greeks and Romans’ further divided with separate bunk sections based on parentage. There was also a training room nearby that was stocked with a variety of weapons and supplies.

    After the tour finished everyone broke off to eat and talk, mingling amongst themselves. It was quite the shindig, and Steve took it all in, enjoying all the hustle and bustle. Much like his art, it helped distract him and kept his mind off of- no, he wasn’t even going to think his name right now.

    Sam and Nat’s pep talk in the woods a few weeks previously had also helped. That evening after the Avengers had come back from camp they had sat down and tried to plot a course of action. After Spit-balling ideas, along with some literal spitballs and intentionally phallic looking diagrams, the meeting concluded and Steve fell into bed with at least some idea of how this could all be worked out.

    The next morning he had been awoken by a serious looking Natasha who dropped a manila file onto his bed. “I called in some favors from Kiev. Here’s his information.”

    Steve rubbed the sleep from his eyes and picked it up. “The Winter Solider?”

    “It’s what he’s called.” she said, placing a hand on the side of her stomach. “This is everything I have. I briefed the others, but there’s stuff in there- things they shouldn’t see.” she said, biting her lip.

    Steve thanked her profusely, knowing how much she hated interacting with past connections, and started flipping through the papers as she left the room.

     “Steve?”

    He looked up. Natasha had turned back towards him, hesitating in the doorway.

    “Please be careful.”

    The contents of the file hadn’t been pretty. It was full of pictures and reports of everything Bucky had been forced to do. And what had been done to him. He was everywhere-Hydra’s greatest asset. Assassinating presidents, businessmen, and- god help him -inventors. JFK had been startling enough, but the idea of Bucky being responsible for Howard’s death- how was that even possible? Wouldn’t he have recognized his friend?

    With a sickening feeling he realized the answer was no. Of course he hadn’t- he didn’t even remember his own name, in which case he hadn’t really been responsible, had he? He didn’t know what he was doing or that it was his friend he was killing. Didn’t know that Tony would be an orphan or that Peggy would be losing a dear coworker and friend.

    With a sigh, Steve tossed the file on the foot of the bed and laid back down. What the hell was he going to tell Tony? He stared up at the ceiling. Thirty minutes. He’d let himself throw a thirty minute pity-party and then he’d stop wasting time on tears and go back to work, using the new information to tweak their plans.

    The party he was at now was a lot less of a downer.

    In one corner the Stoll brothers were trying to get Nat to help the Hermes kids with pranks. Just as with Nico and Will she refused, but a few minutes later he heard Tony shriek as he got hit by what appeared to be a glitter bomb. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Clint and the Stolls high five while Nat tried to hide a smile behind her cup of punch.

    The next time Steve looked over Toy was in a new non-glittery outfit and talking with Leo over a stack of blueprints. They were both animated, discussing new armored suits and weapons. What was it with Tony helping kids design weapons?

    “You know, we could attach a celestial bronze lip to his shield…” He heard Leo say. Realizing he was talking about him, he quickly backed away.

    Thor was in the corner getting his hair braided by the Aphrodite cabin and talking to Samirah, while Nat had left to spar with some kids in the training room.

    Around the tables, many of the demigods simply sat around talking He could hear Annabeth and Sadie discussing tactics for joint mythology fighting as well as complaining about school in their mortal lives.

    “The SAT starts entirely too early in the morning. I’d rather fight a monster.”

    “Ugggh I know. The day I took mine I was recovering from magic overuse…”

    Magnus and Jason looked uncomfortable and for some reason were talking about wolves, though the next time he passed by Carter had joined the conversation and the topic had turned to crocodiles.

    Eventually everyone made their way up to the roof where there was a pool stocked with floaties and toys. Near the snack table there was sound equipment and a DJ Tony had hired who looked strikingly like Stan Lee.

    Thor, Jason, and Sam started flying around, dropping water balloons on the unsuspecting party goers bellow. When Percy sent a water tornado up at them they finally stopped, and moved on to playing air-tag.

    On one side of the roof Clint and the Apollo cabin were in the middle of an archery contest, though the winners were never declared since halfway through they started focusing on sabotaging each other rather than competing.

    Steve plopped down on one of the many lounge chairs. He hadn’t been there for very long before Hazel and Nico approached him.

    “It’s time for a time travelers anonymous meeting!” Nico said as they dragged chairs over and sat down by Steve.

    “What?”

    “It’s a support group. I suppose we could also call it should-be-dead anonymous. Will came up with the idea.”

    “Of course he did. What will these meetings entail?”

    “Reminiscing, I guess.” Hazel said. Then with a sly smile and in a high-pitched damsel-in-distress voice said “Oh Captain, save me!”

    She put a hand to her brow and pretended to faint as Nico, in a deep announcer voice, said “Will Betty Carver ever see her true love again? Tune in next time for another installment of The Captain America Adventure Program!”

    “Arrrrggggh No!” Steve groaned, hiding his face in his hands as he rolled away from them. “Why must you torture me?”

    Nico and Hazel broke out in peals of hysterical laughter, completely deaf to his protests.

    “I…told….you,” Nico said, gasping for breath as the laughter died down. “I told you he’d hate it.”

    “Oh Peggy made sure of that,” Steve said, after he recovered. “She’s in a nursing home now. She- she has Alzheimer’s, but she still remembers that program and made me listen to how stupid it was.”

    He eyed Hazel speculatively. “You know, I’m sure she’d like to meet a fan. Are you interested in coming with me the next time I visit her?”

    Hazel’s mouth dropped open. “Meet- Meet her? Meet Agent Carter?”

    “I’m taking that as a yes.”

    From there conversation spun off in all directions as they talked about 1940’s food, movies, clothes, and sports. They were in the middle of a heated debate about Ginger Rogers’ acting career when Magnus walked over, drawn in by all the commotion, and sat down next to the group.

    “Whoa there,” Hazel said, with mock annoyance. “Is he allowed in the club?”

    Nico sized him up. “I mean, he is dead.”

    “Good point. welcome to should-be-dead anonymous.” she said, as Magnus and Nico high-fived.

    Steve, who at this point was used to being confused, simply shook his head and asked, “So how did you die?”

    “I fell off a bridge,” Magnus deadpanned.

    “It was cooler than that,” Hazel said, ignoring Magnus and Nico’s snickers.

    “A lot cooler,” Nico added. “Actually, Magnus freaked me out at first. I sensed death on him, but since it was a different mythology’s type of death it messed me up.”

    “Yeah, it was creepy.”

    “Okay got it. You’re dead,” Steve said, trying not to think too hard about there being different types of death. “Although wouldn’t a support group for should-be-dead people include most everyone here?”

    Hazel nodded seriously. “He’s right. Our bylaws should specify that you must be literally dead.”

    “We have bylaws?” Nico asked.

    “We do now.”

    “Okay, but we’ll have to be specific,” Magnus said. “Like, do we allow ghosts?”

    "Ooooooh what about vampires?”

    “What if you’ve been mostly dead all day?” Steve asked. It was a joke, but it also held true. He hadn’t technically been dead, just frozen. And Nico had done his weird death trance thing. These kids had him beat in the death department which was disturbing when he actually thought about it.

    The others looked at him in shock.

    “What? I’ve been watching a lot of movies. Trying to catch up, ya know?”

    “We should have a support group movie night!” Hazel suggested, an idea quickly seconded by Magnus.

    “Did I just hear the words ‘support group?’” Sam asked with a smile as he walked up and stood behind Steve’s chair.

    Steve craned his neck up to look at him. “I swear you have selective hearing, but yes.”

    “We’re having a time travelers slash should-be-dead support group.” Hazel explained. “Oh! If on occasion we take this seriously, would you like to lead it?” she asked.

    “Of course. I was actually talking to Tony and Percy and Annabeth about this earlier. I think it would be a good idea to have counseling and motivational speaking sessions regularly here or at camp.” he said with a shrug. “Lord knows you guys need it.”

    The newly founded support group talked a while longer, but the kids eventually ran off to get hotdogs and non-existent cheese and who knows what else.

    Steve wasn’t alone long. Percy came up and sat down next to him, shifting nervously as he did so, and offering Steve a cookie from the pile he had on his plate.

    “Thanks,” he said, taking a bite of the cookie that for some reason was bright blue. “What’s up?”

    “I need to talk to you about something serious for a minute.”

    Steve eyed him as he scooted up into a sitting position and then nodded at him to go ahead.

    Percy glanced over his shoulder and then in a low voice said, “It’s about Bucky.”

    Steve’s face hardened as he jerked away. “How do you know about that?”

    Percy held up his hands in a half-surrender. “Natasha filled me and Annabeth and Nico and Will in,” he said. “Just the basics though,” he added hurriedly at seeing Steve’s angry expression.”

    Steve sighed. Natasha was just trying to help. “Relax. I won’t shoot the messenger.”

    Percy laughed. “That’s good. I think death by Captain America would be a bad way to go, and I’ve been almost killed by everything.”

    Steve had to resist the urge to make the same reference he had earlier and instead asked, “What’s the news?”

    “Don’t worry, it’s good. We- that is the demigods- are going to help find him.”

    There was a moment of shock before Steve’s face lit up, with a massive smile expanding across it. “That’s- That’s amazing! I-thank you.” he said, nearly speechless. It was the most hope he’d had in while. If anyone could help find Bucky it was them.

    “But-how?” he asked, beginning to think through logistics.

    “You’d have to talk to Natasha and Annabeth for more detail,” Percy said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “But they think whatever Bucky is doing with Hydra is at least somewhat connected with the Emperors.”

    "Because mortal and myth in all interconnected.”

     “Exactly. Natasha and Annabeth are working a whole plan out, but essentially working together they think we can get him back. We have access to information you don’t have and more manpower. We’ll probably find him as part of the quest.”

    “This is great. I should go thank Nat and Annabeth- those two are genius.”

    “I know.” Percy said with pride, searching the crowd for Annabeth, who as it happened was talking with Tony. She was gesturing as she talked, seemingly describing the surrounding buildings.

    “She’s into architecture, you know? Tony’s giving her the chance to design the other safe houses and updates to this one after seeing how good of a job she did at camp.”

    “That’s great.” He watched Percy, who was still looking over at Annabeth with such joy that it made Steve happy himself.

    “Hey Percy?” he said, waiting to continue till he turned back towards him. “Don’t take it for granted.”

    Percy nodded, understanding what he was hinting at. “That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you- Just that I’m sorry." He looked back at Annabeth, though this time with a pained expression. “We’ve been separated a lot,” he said quietly, ruffling a hand through his hair as he thought, lingering on a streak of grey. “Annabeth was held captive by Atlas my third year at camp. I didn’t know if I would be able to save her.”

    He looked up at Steve with a twisted smile. “I returned the favor a few years later,” he said, a bitterness creeping into his voice. “I had my memory wiped and just disappeared. She was left to deal with the fallout and find me.”

    “I could go on. My friend Grover- my mom,” he said shaking his head. “I can’t know exactly how you’re feeling-what happened to Bucky is especially crappy. But all the demigods here do know what it’s like to fear your friends won’t come home.”

    “I know.  I’m sorry too,” Steve said softly.

    Percy was silent for a moment and then abruptly asked, “Do you know your fatal flaw?”

    “No?”

    “It’s a potentially deadly weakness that affects demigods especially. Mine’s loyalty. I would ‘sacrifice the world to save a friend.’” He looked at Steve with a knowing smile. “I suspect yours is the same.”

    Steve sat there mulling it over, surprised by how much sense it made.

    “As Annabeth told me, they don’t call them fatal for nothing. Be careful.”

    “Did Nat put you up to this?”

    Percy chuckled. “No, but great minds think alike I guess. All I’m saying is try not to destroy the world. Let your friends here help find him.”

    Steve nodded, but before he could reply the conversation was interrupted by a water balloon that exploded between the two of them.

    A cheer went up from behind him, and he whipped around to see Nat, Sadie, and Annabeth taunting him. He shook his fist but that only incited them further.

    “Get off my lawn!” Nat mocked in a croaky old-man voice.

    That was it. Whatever was going to come would come. With Bucky, the emperors, the demigods. Everything could still go wrong, and yet as Steve looked at the scene around him he could not help but smile. Right now, he had a chance to enjoy himself and party with his friends.

 He picked up a water gun and aimed it at Nat.