The Fallen Hero (Percy Jackson x Avengers Crossover)

27: Estelle and Ant-Man JR.

Percy dug his fingers farther into his hair and clenched his fists, pulling until tears came to his eyes. He gritted his teeth, eyes flitting from room to room with the shadows in the windows. He imagined he could hear his mother's hushed and comforting voice, but knew it was all a dream; he was too far away for that.

Still, he liked to let himself imagine her whispering to him, her voice filled with love, fingers gently brushing his hair behind his ear as she kissed him on the forehead.

It's okay, Percy. We all make mistakes. But it will all be okay in the end.

It was all he could do to avoid sprinting up into the apartment right then and there, falling into Sally's arms and crying. Apologizing until his voice was gone, and knowing that no matter what he did she would still love him, still forgive him.

An icy hand clenched around Percy's heart. Too many people knew he was alive already, too many who hadn't sworn to keep his secret. The more who knew, the more likely it was that word would reach Athena about his escape.

Or worse yet; Annabeth.

Although, now that he thought about it, Athena might know already.

But it didn't seem likely; after the lengths she went through to "kill" him all while allowing him to live with the agony of his mistakes, there was no way she was going to just let him back out into the world like that. Sure, it hadn't been easy, but Percy knew that she could have made it a whole lot harder.

Or, you know, she could have just...killed him.

Although that might have started a war between Poseidon and Athena, which would be hard to hide from Annabeth, who would eventually find out the truth and...

And what?

She would have no reason to defend him, not after what he did to her father.

It was all much too complicated for Percy. Without Annabeth at his side to help him with the strategies he felt lost. It was like he'd lost his right hand and was being forced to re-learn everything and adjust to life as a lefty...with a crippled left hand at that. 

He stood in the street just staring at the warm light coming from his mother's apartment for so long that his neck was cramped. But he couldn't look away. The sunset was clouded over by heavy thunderheads, and by the time Scott came back down it was drizzling. 

Scott sighed and rubbed his stomach, then looked at Percy in surprise.  "You're still here,"

Percy blinked, then nodded. He was too tired to bother actually saying anything. Being so close to love, yet unable to enter in...it was emotionally draining to say the least. 

He yawned.

"I thought you were gonna go across the street to that little doughnut shop," Scott reminded him.

"Oh..." He had said that, hadn't he. But in the end it had been too hard to move. He hadn't wanted to leave. 

"O-o-k-a-a-y..." Scott drawled, looking at the teenager from the corner of his eye. "Well, if you're not gonna get a doughnut, we should see about getting you back into the complex." 

He hailed a cab, nudged Percy into the backseat, and leaned forward to give the address to the taxi driver. The man, a pudgy New Yorker with a scraggly chin covered in stubble turned back to them, looking confused. 

"Uh...ya know dat's like, da 'venger's thinga-ma-do-dad place, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yep," Scott nodded a little too confidentially then grinned and leaned forwards, "That's so cool, right?!"