Broken (PJO/Avengers) (Complete)

Chapter 12

Bruce felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. Thinking about a kid, no older than twenty, laying out on a marble floor, bleeding to death after stabbing himself with a knife...

He noticed tears even pricking the cold-hearted Loki's eyes.

"You didn't tell me that much detail," the god protested.

Percy spasmed slightly, flinching. "Sorry... I'm dealing with PTSD. Gods, this is hard."

Gods. Because there was more than one god.

"You can stop if you want, Percy," Loki suggested. "I know enough to take over."

Bruce was horrified. "There's more?"

"There's been another war?" Thor boomed. "Why have I not heard of this yet?"

Loki opened his mouth to reply, but Percy beat him to it. "Because today is August 21, and the war was finished 17 days ago, August 4."

Shocked quiet penetrated the room.

"How did we not hear of this?" Clint asked.

"You did," Percy whispered quietly. "The freak storm on Long Island. That was the battle."

"The battle?"

Percy closed his eyes. "The battle against Gaea. It all started when my Aunt Hera kidnapped me. She wiped my memories and put me in a coma. Now..."

"That's awful!" Bruce interjected. "Who would do that to a kid?"

"A goddess trying to save the world. Now, as I was saying, while I was gone, Ja...Jason, Pip-pper and L--llleo entered camp and freed Hera from her cage. Unfortunately, the king of the giants, Porphyrion, was able to rise. The giants are the children of Gaea and..." Percy hesitated and plugged his ears.

"Tartarus," Loki finished. "It's the word JARVIS was going to say earlier."

Bruce paled. The biggest trigger word he'd found for Percy so far was hell. Tartarus was the Greek version of hell. For that to be one of Percy's trigger words...

"Anyway," Percy continued, "At this point in time I woke up in California. Why California? Well, that's where the other base is for demigods. But not just Greek demigods. No, of course Camp Jupiter is a base for Roman demigods, long time enemies of the Greeks, and the only way for us to defeat Gaea and the giants was to be allies." He huffed. "Fun!"

Percy winced. "Not. So anyways, I went on a quest to free death."

"Why would you free death?" Tony asked.

"Thanatos," Percy whispered softly. "Because monsters wouldn't die, and CJ was going to be attacked in less than a week. Anyways, I, H-hazel, and F-ran-nk freed Thanatos, retrieved the Legion's standard, and saved the day."

A ghost of a smile coated Percy's face. "I was promoted to Praetor of the Legion in the absence of Jason."

Percy continued on, explaining Leo blowing up the forum, something Tony was naturally very proud of, and Annabeth's quest through Rome.

"Yeah, so we blew up the parking lot to rescue Anna.. her."

He couldn't say her name.

"When we got there, Arachne collapsed part of the floor. There was a huge pit where it used to be. Arachne fell in, and we thought we were good. Until..." Percy was clenching his fists, and Bruce, with horror, suspected he was barely resisting his PTSD. "Until An.. she was dragged towards the pit by a web attached to her ankle. I grabbed her hand, and I was hanging on for our lives." Percy's voice cracked. "But we couldn't cut the web. My hand was slipping. So I let go. We fell..." Percy took a huge breath. Loki rested his hand on Percy's shoulder in an almost supportive way. "We fell into Tartarus."