lost (Hawkeye)

Chapter 39

Tony:

I could see Percy running out of the room, trembling. I was sorry, I didn't want to corner her. I never expected such a reaction. They were all happy pictures, so how could they hurt her so much?"Stark, can't you ever keep your big mouth shut?" Snapped Clint at me crossly before getting up and following Percy out.Thor looked like he'd run head first into a lamppost. However, when he dropped his gaze to me, he looked very angry. "Man of iron, I'll warn you just once. Percy's past is taboo. She's never had it easy so don't make it even harder for her to deal with her past." "Hey, I knew it was an uncomfortable subject, but how am I supposed to know she's going to freak out like that when I look at some pictures of her and her friends? It's not like anyone tells me anything." Slowly, I really talked myself into a groove"The only thing I know about her past is what's in the S.H.I.E.L.D. files, that her family has a lot of enemies and that her boyfriend was killed." When I said that, Steve looked up sadly." You think I wanted to hurt her? Do you honestly think that? Man, I can see how bad she is. All I wanted to do was help her. I thought these were happy memories and I wanted to cheer her up." I was about to say something else, but then Fury came in through the door." Where's Jackson?" Steve stood up." I'll get her, sir." What a suck up..." What do you want with Percy?" Bruce asked . "We have every reason to believe that she is the traitor among us. Also, I need to ask her some questions about the explosion at Long Island. Presumably she was involved in that too." Horrified, I looked at him. I couldn't imagine Percy being responsible for the deaths of so many people."With all due respect sir, I can assure you that Percy wold never harm somebody." "Thank you Nat. What is this about?" Percy came into the room followed by Clint and the Captain." Jackson, you're under arrest!" "What?" Clint jumped up indignantly. Percy, however, put a hand on his chest and calmly turned to Fury. "What am I being charged with?" She sounded tired. "Come with me, we will discuss this in the cell." Percy stood up and followed him. We too got up and walked after them.

Time jump: in the cell

"I'm here far too often for my taste." I heard Percy mutter softly before Fury pushed her into the room in front of him. We had to wait outside in front of the mirror to prevent us from intervening. "Percy is innocent no matter what she is accused of." Clint angrily slumped down on a chair. I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms in front of my chest while Fury explained everything to Percy. "So you really think I was involved in the explosion." Percy sounded stunned. "Actually, I don't think it. I know it. Satellite images have shown what happened in the process." Percy raised an eyebrow and yawned. "You seemed to have slept pretty badly last night. Did you feel remorse and dream about your mistakes." Fury didn't avoid the two evil flashing eyes. "You have your friends on your conscience." Percy winced and looked at the table. No, this couldn't be true. "What makes you think I could ever hurt my friends?" "Like I said, we have satellite images." He pressed a button and a video appeared on the wall. At first all you could see was two girls and a boy riding around together. The two girls I knew. One was Percy, unmistakable with her black hair. The other was Piper. Piper McLean, the daughter of a work colleague of mine. The boy I recognised from the picture album but I didn't know him but he looked a hell of a lot like a little Steve.

"You wouldn't happen to have a kid, Steve?" Cap just shook his head mutely. "Have you ever even had...?" He blushed and continued to look straight. Nat gave me a smack on the back of the head. "Shut up Stark. It's going on." I looked back at the screen.Suddenly a man appeared from the cornfield. He was wearing a hat, khaki shorts and Birkenstock sandals with white socks. His fashion was really gruesome. He appeared to be talking to the three people. Fury stopped the picture and looked at Percy, who had gone pale by now." Who are all those people?" He asked her unkindly." The boy is Superman, the girl is the beauty queen, the guy is Winefreddy." She made a slight face." The other girl is me, a year ago and the two horses are Blackjack and Storm." She winked in the direction of the mirror. "Hha, I can fool myself, tell me names." Fury sounded like he was about to lose his nerve. "Do you want me to tell you names or call you names? Wit the later I can help, asshole?" Oh I liked this girl. "Gee Fury, any more and you could be mistaken for a tomato." Sure enough, Fury's face was getting redder and redder." Give me names. The real ones." "Okay, but you forgot the magic word." I grinned slightly. She was already giving me all kinds of competition. "Please." Immediately Percy started talking." The boy is Jason Grace, the girl is Piper McLean and the man is Mr. D, he is the camp director of my camp." Fury nodded in satisfaction."How does someone like you come to know the daughter of a celebrity?" "What do you mean someone like me? I know a lot of famous people. Tony, my family... Piper I met at a camp. We're in the video right now with friends on our way to Italy and Greece." "Where's the rest of them?" "They're on the boat. We've been sailing, so we haven't heard about the war either." Fury pressed on. Still they were seen talking together. Suddenly the mood changed abruptly and the man disappeared. Then Percy and Jason sat up abruptly and Percy galloped away a little. She pulled a baseball bat out from behind her back and then pointed it at Jason.Fury stopped again." What happened? Why the mood swing?" Percy's face had lost colour again." Um, the Mr. D said that the better one er.... gets a free card for McDonald's." I gave a short laugh. Percy's excuses were really bad. Fury drew his eyebrows together and pressed on. The next thing you saw was the two of them riding towards each other. In the process, they almost ran Piper over. Now Jason also had a bat in his hand. Together they hit each other with it. I have to say, she could fight. The girl tried to separate the two, but couldn't. Percy pushed the blond out of the saddle and he fell down. Now Jason also pulled Percy out of the saddle. Percy threw him to the ground and his head hit the pavement. Piper was talking to Percy. She turned to her and grinned wickedly. Her eyes gleamed gold, but surely that was just the light. Then Percy's horse crept up behind her and kicked Percy in the head with all its might. She collapsed."Clever horse you have there, where is it now? Well, it looked to me like you almost killed your friend." "Blackjack's in camp, I think, and no, I wouldn't have killed him. I was just hungry." "Hungry?" "Yeah hungry. Don't you know the commercial: you're not you when you're hungry?" I grinned even the others behind me laughed softly. "Doesn't matter, but it shows you had no inhibitions about killing your friend for food. So I'm sure you didn't mind planting a bomb to kill them all either." Percy shivered slightly. "I would have never killed them. They were everything to me." "Where are your other friends?" She did not answer. "WHERE ARE THE OTHERS?" She winced and a tear rolled down her cheek. I saw Clint get up to intervene as she answered. "They're gone. They're dead." Fury glared coldly at her. "So you're a murderer? You were travelling and you're the only one who came back alive. Doesn't that sound suspicious. It's your fault they're dead." Slowly, she nodded. What?! She would never have killed her friends. I had heard her screaming. Screams of anguish and grief. I hadn't known her long, but she was a Loyalist. Fury looked at her coldly." Why did you kill them?" "I didn't kill them. But it's my fault they're dead. We came into a conflict in Greece. If I had been quicker I could have saved them. If I had been stronger and more alert, if I had been in their place, they would still be alive." I looked at her sadly, she had such a hard burden to bear. Fury's gaze had also softened." There was never an explosion. That was just what everyone was led to believe. In truth, it was war. My family was attacked, we fought back and won, but with losses too heavy to bear." Her voice sounded devastated. 

Suddenly her mobile phone rang. She looked at Fury questioningly. "May I?" He nodded." As long as you put it on speaker." She pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered it.

"Hey Thals, how's it going?""HEY THALS, HOW'S IT GOING?! IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY? WE'RE ALL FUCKING WORRIED ABOUT YOU. WE WERE GOING TO CALL OFF THE HUNT TO LOOK FOR YOU. I SWEAR, IF I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'LL KILL YOU." Suddenly an extremely angry voice rang out from the mobile phone. Immediately Percy winced and held the phone far away from her as if it might bite."Didn't Nico let you know? I'm fine. I just need to sort something out.""Nico didn't tell me NOTHING! If I get my hands on him, I'll rip him to shreds."I raised an eyebrow, she seemed to have quite the aggression issues."Not even you would dream of getting too close to him, or you'll be in trouble with Uncle H. And then not even Ar- er Arisma can save you.""Arisma? Who the hell is that!""Oh god pine cone face, can't you even think? And you say I'm stupid..."Fury took the phone from her hand."Hello, this is Nick Fury.""Ugh Percy, who did you drag home with you?"Percy blushed."I'm the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a secret agent.""Oh, I see now. What has Percy gotten herself into now? I promise you, if you hurt her, I'll castrate you." Percy laughed so hard she fell off her chair."Oh pirate, you better believe her, she's broken a boy's arm before when he looked at her the wrong way."Told you aggression issues...."What's your connection to Jackson?""I'm her cousin.""Her cousin? Then surely you can tell us something about the past war."Percy was already turning paler again."The war? What did you tell them Percy?""Only the bare minimum, he doesn't trust me. He claims I killed them."Laughter could be heard on the other side."Gods, they really think Percy, PERCY killed them? How stupid can you be? Percy would never have hurt them on purpose. She would have died for them. Hell, she's almost died for them many times, you don't even know how many times Will has had to patch her up.She went through hell for David! Literally" Percy's cousin sounded indignant, downright about to explode."If they insult Percy again, I will barbecue you. Percy is the most loyal and faithful person I've had the privilege of knowing. She has experienced more than you. If she wanted to, all she had to do was snap her finger and you'd be dead!""Hey Miss, calm down. I just want to know about your friends.""Percy has friends all over the place actually.Well first Piper McLean, she and Piper always got along really well. They were best friends. Like sisters.Same with Hazel Levesque. They met in Rome and saved each other's lives several times.Frank Zhang, she also met him in Rome. Percy used to be jealous of him, but they too would have walked through fire for each other.Jason Grace was my brother. His father and Percy's father hated each other and yet they got along like siblings. They could talk about anything.Leo Valdez was a genius without equal. He could build anything. The two of them didn't like each other at first, but over time they became closer and closer. In the end, you could hardly separate them. Together they were a disaster, worse than the Stolls. They played tricks on others and did stupid things throughout.And then there was David Chase. He too died in battle. Never have I seen two people love each other as they loved each other. In the beginning, they couldn't stand each other. But after some ups and downs, they couldn't do without the other. They were a perfect match. They were the most popular couple at camp. They had known each other since they were 12. You could say it was just lust and desire, but it wasn't. It was love, in such a pure form, like nowhere else.They all died. Percy still blames herself for their deaths. At night she dreams of them dying. She then wakes up screaming and crying for them."Her voice grew softer and softer. There were tears in my eyes too. I felt so incredibly sorry for Percy, I only wish I could have saved her from that."Wow Thals, I never thought I'd hear something like that come out of your mouth." Percy tried to  smile, but it looked more  lika a grimace.Without any further words, Fury hung up and cleared his throat."Well Miss, it seems I was wrong, I'm sorry. As compensation, I would like to offer you a place as an Avenger. " Slowly, Percy nodded."It would be my pleasure to join the team."