PERSEUS MEANS DESTROYER

American Beauty / American Psycho

You take the full, full truth, then you pour some out

And you can kill me, kill me or let God sort 'em out

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"Bruce?" Natasha's voice was soft. Soft enough to be damning, if she ever decided that the two of them weren't on the same side anymore. She sat hunched over Tony's laptop, propper open on the coffee table in the main room of their private level of Stark Tower. "I have video footage of you visiting the Blofis residence. I just watched it live. And if you did what I think you just did? If and when that kid turns out to be dangerous, it might not be enough to damn you, because S.H.I.E.L.D. is above the law, but you'll lose your job. And if it ever gets past us? You could probably be accused of treason, if this turns out badly enough."

Bruce frowned at her as she studied his face coolly. "And if he fades back into obscurity? And it gets out that you and Tony were poking around in a minor's government files, and then staking out his house and family without permission from anyone? Where would that put you?"

She scoffed, turning back to the computer. "I'm going to save a copy of this video. And then I'm going to wipe the file off the surveillance cams Tony put up. He's going to know someone tampered with them. And he's going to know it was me, because he'll check the cams in the Tower. But he won't know why I tampered with the tapes, and he won't know what I took. But as soon as I give him this clip, you're going to have to figure out what to do, and fast. So don't be stupid, Brucie."

He was nearly out the door to the corridors when she added her final piece.

"I'm not on Tony's side, either. This is wrong. But Perseus could very well be a threat. I'd like to keep him under watch, for a bit, at the very least."

"... I won't help you, if that's what you want. But I won't get in your way if you go about it with a little humanity."

He must have blanked. Because he wasn't quite sure what had happened between eating breakfast with Annabeth and trying to find Chiron and ending up in his mom's car, headed back to New York. It was something his ADHD brain did a lot—blocks of time went missing, sometimes. Usually not enough to be a big deal, and it wasn't this time around, but that didn't stop it from being annoying.

"Sorry," Sally said. "I didn't mean to leave you there an extra night. Oh, and one of those people from your new 'job'," and he didn't miss the way she said it, not disdainful, but cautious, like she wasn't sure how he was going to react, and with a certain emphasis that let him know that she wasn't overly impressed with said 'job', "stopped by the apartment this morning. Dr Banner."

Her eyes met his in the mirror, flicking up from the road for a few seconds with a concerned frown. "He said that those people you're supposedly working with are looking to find out more about our family." Her hands tightened around the steering wheel. "Percy, sweetheart. I thought we were done with... this. I thought you were done. You're seventeen, you should be going to school and playing basketball and spending time with your friends. Not... not still doing jobs for those gods of yours."

Percy shrugged. He wondered if she knew that this was all they thought he was good for. That he'd practically begged them for something to do because he couldn't stand just sitting around waiting to heal or for something to happen. He wondered if she realised that they might kill him when he stopped being useful. That this 'job' was an easy out for them—he's preoccupied, the norse gods get a free keeper for their Big Bad Guy, that if he fails then it doesn't matter much anyway because Loki would probably kill him and that's just one less problem for them to worry about.