Percabeth at Stark Tower

22. Missing

Annabeth's POV

Where did Percy go? I swear, if he got kidnapped AGAIN, I am actually going to murder somone, and make sure they can't come back. We were promised a peaceful year, was that really too much to ask? Are the Gods really that forgetful?

'Wait, calm down. Last time I freaked out he just went to the bathroom.' But when I knock on the door, there's no answer. "I'm coming in," I warn, and wait a second before slamming the door open, to reveal an empty room.

"Percy?!" I call, but the apartment is silent. I'm the only one here. "Why us?" I ask, but the Gods don't answer.

All right. Percy is a good fighter, even if he doesn't think first, so maybe he left a clue somehow. I don't know how they took him without me noticing, but there has to be something that can help me find him. They must have taken him from either the bathroom, or our bedroom. I slept through the whole thing, so it was probably in the bathroom. Unless he went into the living room for some reason.

But if they took him from the bathroom he has a good supply of water. Unless they managed to turn the pipes off, but there's running water and Percy turned on pipes with his powers years ago, so he definitely had access. Unless they have some way to block a demigod's powers, in which case we're in trouble. Although, when I find him, it would be interesting to take some if it exists and see how much of my intelligence I would have had if I was not a demigod. After all, it's not something that can easily be studied, but then we would have the problem of people being able to block our powers, so we'd need to figure out how to counter it.

But before anything else, I need to find my Percy. I had scanned the bathroom while I was thinking, and nothing looked really out of place. Percy had failed to put his toothbrush away properly, but that wasn't exactly unusual. It also wasn't suspiciously clean, so they hadn't had to scrub away bloodstains or anything, which was a good sign. Of course, there was also no monster dust, which meant that either they weren't monsters, or Percy hadn't killed any.

Wait, that could be the answer to everything. If Percy was attacked, he would've struck out with Riptide first. When it passed straight through them, he would've realized they were mortal, and may have refrained from using his water powers because of that. If he was stuck only using his hands, that could explain how they took him. But who was it?

The most logical answer was of course the Avengers, they had kidnapped Nico before.

However, Percy is an adult, while Nico was an injured, homeless, child. Their reasons for holding Nico don't apply to Percy, so there's no motive. Unless it was because they know we're part God, but in that case, why would they only take him? Plus, they know about our world and his powers, so he would have used them to protect himself, and I definitely would have woken up.

Actually, the probability of me not waking up if they don't have magic is almost nonexistent. We all have to be light sleepers, so even if they were being sneaky I would've woken up at the sounds of a fight. So there could not have been a fight, which means they either tranquilized him, or threatened someone.

This is all my fault.

Whoever it was must have threatened to hurt me if Percy didn't go with them, or if he told me. Maybe even threatened to kill anyone who interrupted them. He, being the self sacrificing idiot that he is, went with them quietly. How on earth am I going to find him this time? And how long will he be gone for?

I go back into our bedroom, but nothing's missing, except his phone. That's unexpected, I didn't expect them to leave him a way to contact someone. My phone is here as well, so I call him. But it goes straight to voicemail. Either someone else has it, or he's not allowed to respond to me. However, he might be able to type something, so I text as well.