PERSEUS MEANS DESTROYER

I Found

And I'll use you as a warning sign,

That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind.

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Percy couldn't help the snort when he walked into the lounge and found Loki tied up on the couch.

"Wow, they really don't trust you."

"Are you really that surprised," Loki hissed out.

"Uhh... no. Hey, maybe they'll let you off with just the handcuffs now that I'm back."

Loki scoffed.

"Tony said you can use this room," Steve indicated the door. "It's probably got an ensuite, knowing Tony, but if it doesn't, I think there are communal bathrooms down the hall to your right. He's also said that he runs his business downstairs, so try to keep to this floor and the ones above it if you're planning on doing anything... media-worthy."

Percy nodded, throwing his bag in through the doorway. "What time is it?"

"Six?"

"'Kay. When's dinner?"

"Umm... I'd say about half an hour after someone orders pizza or shawarma or something."

"... cool."

"There's a gym upstairs, and if you keep going straight out from the lounge, you can find the kitchen pretty quickly. We don't keep much in there except snacks—oh, and don't touch the poptarts. Thor gets really upset..."

"He likes poptarts that much?"

"Yeah, I don't really see the appeal."

"What flavour?"

"Strawberry or chocolate, I don't know."

Percy made a face, "yeah, don't worry. I'm not a massive fan."

Percy had pepperoni pizza, a bowl of fries and a Coca Cola for dinner before crashing onto the bed in the room Tony was letting him use.

The bed was comfortable, and Percy was tired. But even as the blaring, neon red digital display of the clock on the nightstand ticked ever toward midnight, his eyes wouldn't close.

He stared at the clock, watching the numbers blur by, imprinting weird shapes on his retinas and projecting phantom numbers on the backs of his eyelids when he blinked.

Moving forward, nine to ten eleven, and finally midnight.

And still his mind wouldn't stop turning.

Somewhere around two AM, his brain finally shut off, and he slept.

Badly.

He turned his head from side to side in the mirror in the bathroom—how had he gotten there?—and his reflection didn't follow him.

Something was off—the mirror–Percy's eyes were darker than his the last time he remembered seeing himself.

The streak in his hair was white rather than grey, and Percy thought that if mirror–Percy smiled he might have a mouth full of sharks' teeth.

And he looked downright monstrous.

"What do you see?"

Percy startled, jumping back from the mirror.

Mirror–Percy sneered. "What about me scares you so much?"

Percy bit his knuckles and shook his head.