A place to belong(once more) - Percy Jackson/Batfam Fanfic

Prologue

The smell of blood from both demigods and monsters was sharp and heavy, stinging Percy's nose as the clanging of metal and screams roared around him. The sight around him was both gruesome as it was entrancing, like a painting one would find in a museum. Like the ones in which you could stare at for hours and still keep finding more details in. Like the ones that people pretend to sympathize with but could never truly understand. However, Percy was sure that this moment would forever be ingrained in his memories. It would be a masterpiece that only he would be able to recall, that he would be able to remember.

Death had remained unbiased throughout the battlefield, taking the demigods, most who were no older than 17 years old, and insidious monsters that were slayed mercilessly. And what a cruel truth it was, that all the monsters would simply reform and come back to kill again and again while all the demigods, children, who couldn't even live normal lives to this point, would never return, would never smile, would never breathe again. At least not in this life. Percy didn't know what was better, to die here right now and hopefully be able to reincarnate into a better life or to survive and continue to live the torturous life of a demigod.

Through the loud ringing of adrenaline Percy could hear the faint call of his name.

"Percy. Percy! PERCY!"

Nico's face seemed to have come out of nowhere as he shook Percy out of his shocked state. Percy didn't have the slightest clue when Nico got here. It felt  like centuries had passed since they last saw each other on the Argo with Nico on his way to deliver the statue to camp. Truly with everything that's happened since then, Percy can't even tell how many days have passed since then. Maybe it was another of Gaea's tricks. Percy wouldn't be surprised.

"Hey pull yourself together!!", Nico exclaimed. He seemed desperate, but Percy just couldn't get himself to focus, which at any other point in time would have been fine, but here in the middle of the war zone was not the time. Still it was better, easier, in Percy's opinion, to focus on these smaller things. Such as how Nico, despite being in the middle of a blood bath was still relatively clean. His slim face was sweaty and pale, paler than usual which was concerning, but signified that he must have been shadow traveling. His pitch black hair was somewhat greasy and if looked at long enough, grime could be somewhat found against the midnight stands. Still Nico was clean in comparison to what Percy must look like. Clean of both the shimmering gold dust that came from monsters and the brilliant ruby red of demigods. No Nico was not covered in these things meaning he must have recently arrived. 

"Please, Percy! Get up!" Nico's voice broke and his hands shook, but what unnerved Percy the most were his eyes. Nico's eyes which were as of late usually always dull and cold, especially when pointed toward himself, were full of emotion. Of grief, of rage, of despair, and most prominently, of fear. It was a sight Percy hadn't seen, not since he was 13 and Nico was 10. Not since the day his broken promise damaged a bright-eyed, naive child and turned him into a cold, stoic teenager who used his status to scare others from getting too close to him in order to protect himself from the pain that Percy failed to protect him from. Yet now, sitting here, covered in monster dust and human blood, looking at Nico's eyes, Percy could see that small child looking at him again, asking, no screaming for help. Screaming to be protected. But how could Nico trust Percy to protect him? Percy couldn't protect Bianca back then and he couldn't protect his friends now. What good was it being a child of prophecy, a child of fate, a child of one of the Big Three when he couldn't protect anyone. Just how had things come to this? Why was he once again the one that had to be the deciding factor in this war? It's selfish, Percy knows, but he had hoped that this Great Prophecy would give him a minor role and leave the bigger things to one of the others of The Seven. But maybe that thinking is what caused all this because now he was the only one of the Seven left.