Forever (Always)

Chapter 2

"Mr. Stark, Tony, he's not saying anything." Annabeth murmured as she closed the door behind her.

"His Angasiiar was killed." Tony said softly, leading Annabeth away from Perseus' room and towards the common room on the same floor. "He just needs time. He'll heal."

The daughter of Athena turned towards him, her eyes narrowed. "There's something you're not telling me. What is it?"

The billionaire sighed, sitting down on a couch and motioning for the girl to do the same at the one across from him. "When an Angasiiar dies, they don't go peacefully. To kill a Pair... Keep in mind, when an Angasiiar finds its match, it's known across the universe. Even humans can sense it to a certain degree, or so I've been told. You'd have to be truly insane to kill a Pair. They're soulmates. That's really how I can explain it. Nothing else makes sense. They're two halves of a whole."

"I know that. Percy told me that before." Annabeth stated, wringing her hands together. "But why is it effecting him like this? Why is he-" She swallowed thickly. "Why is he sick?"

"How would you react if someone ripped out your heart? That's basically what happened. People are going to know that half of a Pair was killed."

She nodded, taking in what was said. "Will Percy really recover? Realistically, can he?"

Tony tilted his head, thinking it over. It had been a while since he was told the stories and he wasn't sure if any of them were true. "His soul is trying to follow Loki's, and his heart isn't fighting anymore. There are rumors about a tree that can grant any wish, even allowing Angasiiars to be reunited."

"So, we're relying on a fairy tale to save him?"

The Avenger grimaced. "I don't like it anymore than you do, but what else can we do? We can't do this alone, though. Where would we even start?"

"Can we use Thor to send a message to the other realms? Maybe they know what we can do." Annabeth looked down at her hands. "They have to know something. Anything."

"We can try." Tony promised, but there was a grimace on his face. "Let's go see if anyone's heard from him."

—

"Asgard was destroyed." Dr. Strange said when Tony and Annabeth came to him as their last resort. "Ragnarök happened. Some Asgardians were killed, but most left the realm alive." He sighed heavily. "Something attacked their ships, though."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "What attacked them?"

He nodded towards Tony. "Stark knows, don't you?"

The daughter of Athena looked over at the inventor and took in the way his jaw was clenched and his eyes were filled with fear and hatred. "Mr. Stark? Who attacked them?"

"Thanos." Tony sighed. "During the Battle of New York, he- I-" He took off his blue tinted glasses and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "He attacked New York through Loki, used him to open a worm hole in the sky. When I flew the nuke through it... I saw things that could destroy our world. No one believed me when I told them, so JARVIS..." He wavered on his AI's name and Annabeth remembered hearing from one of the other Avengers that JARVIS was used to create Vision during the time she and the rest of the Seven were on their quests. "JARVIS and I did some research, asked some questions. Found a name."