Sep 14 2013

"Percy?" Grover bleated, his heart in his throat. 

"It can't be." Jason said. "We burned them."

"It looks exactly like him." Annabeth whispered, her voice trembling as much as her hands.

"People don't just come back from the dead, though." Juniper said softly.

"I did." Hazel and Leo said.

"But your cases were special. The Doors of Death aren't open." Annabeth said. "He- they- they didn't have a cure like you did either, Leo."

"It's impossible." Mark said.

"He was always doing the impossible, though." Frank said.

"He was." Reyna said.

"It's not, not this time. It's been years! This is real. He died. Thalia and Nico died. They're gone." Annabeth said. 

"It has to be a doppelganger." Piper said.

"It's not." Grover said. "That's Percy."

"It can't be! He's in Elyium, they all are!" Annabeth snapped.

"How about we check? We can go to the underworld, and visit them." Hazel said.

"That won't work, and you know it." Jason said. "If they didn't trust us to visit all those years ago, why would they trust us now?"

"It's been years, exactly! We've had time to accept their deaths. We aren't going to try to bring them back." Hazel said. 

"They'll understand this time. It's been long enough, our wounds have closed." Piper said. "We aren't going to do something stupid."

"Come on, this is us we're talking about." Leo said. "Of course we'll do something stupid."

"Grover?" Juniper startled.

"The empathy link. I always thought it was weird that I didn't die." Grover said. "And I swear, that is Percy's face."

"That man can't be him. Percy is gone, okay? Piper's right, it was just someone who looked like him." Annabeth said, desperately. "Can we please stop talking about this?"

"Just a minute ago you said that guy looks exactly like Percy!" Frank said, confused. 

"But it's not, it's not him." Annabeth said adamantly. "I knew him better than anyone, I know what he looked like."

"That's not fair of you to say, Annabeth. I knew him longer." Grover said.

"And he was my boyfriend!" Annabeth said.

Grover snapped. "[Go chew on a sock, Annabeth!] I knew him longer! I had an empathy link with him for years! Through Tartarus!"

Surprise flashed across Annabeth's face.

"Oh, you didn't put that together in the three years since?" Grover's brow's rose. "And who did he come to when you two were having relationship issues? He came to me! I was the one he talked to most before he died. Don't you dare say something stupid like that again. You're smarter than that."

Shame set on her shoulders, and tears pooled at her lids. She looked away. 

"I can find Mrs. O'Leary, and we can sneak into the Underworld if we have to." Hazel said in the silence.

"We have to decide if we're going to be direct or if we're going to sneak." Reyna said. "We can't change our mind in the middle."

"Who's gonna keep track of the pros to each?" Leo asked.

Calypso spoke up. "Chris. Clarisse. You two've been awful quiet."

They all turned to look at the two she'd spoken to. Sweat was forming on his brow, and his eyes flicked around the room nervously. Clarisse sat still as stone.

"Uhhh, I just don't have much to say?" Chris said, glancing at his wife.

"Clarisse." Frank said.

Clarisse stood. Her expression was stony, cold. Her body was tensed. After a moment, her lip started to curl into a snarl, and she tried to force it away. Then she stopped holding back. "Oh, fuck. It. All." She growled, low in her throat. 

"Clarisse. What do you know?" Reyna demanded.

 "You won't find them in anywhere in the Underworld." Clarisse said, rage as bright as the sun in her eyes. "They're alive, all three."

"How do you know?" Jason jumped forward.

"Back in May. In New York. I saw him. He told me a little." Clarisse said. 

"You saw him?" 

"You didn't tell us?"

"That was months ago!"

More exclamations, Clarisse couldn't separate them from each other.

"Shut up!" She yelled, and they were startled into doing so. "He told me to keep this a secret. It would cause war if people knew."

"What...?"

"I'm done keeping quiet. I want war." Clarisse said, the rage in her voice, though quiet, sent shivers down their spines.

"I don't understand, I'm missing something." Leo said, eyes wide and searching his friend's faces, but they were just as lost as he was.

"Our parents faked their deaths and banished them." Clarisse said.

Some were silent at the revelation as it slowly sunk in. The pieces fit together. Some laughed hysterically. Some sobbed. Some cursed. And a few just sat.

Riley and Mark were lost in the horror of the moment, stuck in disbelief. The Underwood children were tugging at Juniper's skirt, whispering questions as they tried to understand why the adults were yelling.

Juniper kissed Grover's forhead, before leading the kids outside, urging Mark and Riley out with them. She could tell the two were out of their depth. 

 It was a while before the demigods and satyr were all able to breathe steadily.

"Why?" Jason asked. "Why were they banished?"

"There's something weird about Percy. He said he was like a black hole, sucking up power. The gods were scared of him, so they banished him. Thalia and Nico didn't agree, so they were banished too."

Frank scowled. "Why would they banish him? Why not give him a curse? Like I have?"

Calypso pursed her lips. "It wouldn't work."

"How do you know?" Annabeth asked.

"An old story. The Dominator. A creature that swallowed any magic and power. The more it ate, the more it could eat. It was told as a... What do you call it- Boogeyman story." Calypso said. 

"You had a Boogeyman? That wasn't like, Kronos?" Leo asked.

"Kronos was defeated. No-one has killed a Dominator and lived to tell the tale." Calypso said.

"So, Percy is a boogeyman?" Hazel asked. "And the gods were so afraid that they sent him away?"

"It's only natural to be afraid of a predator that feeds off your kind."

"Wait, are you saying Percy can eat gods?" Grover asked.

"If I'm right." Calypso said.

"It makes sense." Annabeth said. "If they couldn't kill him, they had to get rid of him somehow."

"What are we going to do?" Piper asked.

"I already said what I want." Clarisse replied.

Reyna straightened her back, and looked to Frank. He nodded. "War." She said. "Those against."

No one raised a hand.

"Those in favor." She said.

Hands raised, individually, no words shared. The last two were the Praetors.

Frank raised his hand, his jaw set and his gaze steady. Reyna's hand rose with finality.

"War it shall be." Reyna said.

~~~

Jul 19 2014

The alarms blared. Sonya and the twins stood up abruptly, abandoning their discussion. Sonya's phone had barely started to buzz before she answered the call. 

"What's going on, Sir?" Sonya asked.

"The Avengers are here! Keep the two safe. Do not let the Avengers find them." Strucker said.

"Yes sir." Sonya said, and Strucker hung up.

"What is it?" Pietro asked.

"We need to go. The Avengers are here." Sonya said. "C'mon, follow me."

The twins shared a look, but followed Sonya. She led them down a flight of stairs, through a secret door, and down another flight. She carefully listened at a door, hearing sounds of gunfire off in the distance. She sighed, and cracked it open, making sure there was no immediate danger. 

She guided them through the rocky terrain, keeping them in a path that provided as much cover as possible. She abruptly stopped when she felt an unnatural breeze. She spun, and the twins were gone.

"Goddamn it, Pietro." She hissed.

~~~

They found her again. Upon seeing her glare, they looked sheepish.

"Don't run from me, ever again." Sonya said.

"We can fight! We've been training!" Pietro said. 

"We can handle ourselves, Sonya." Wanda said.

"I never said you couldn't." Sonya said.

"But you just-"

"Can you stop thinking the worst of me for two minutes?" Sonya said, exasperated. "I'm sick of people leaving me behind."

The twin's faces softened into o's. 

"Now, this time actually follow me. We need to get somewhere safe." Sonya said.

"Okay."

"Fuck!" Sonya exclaimed, looking back towards the base. 

"What?" Wanda asked. 

"Will. He's still there." Sonya said.

"Will? You mean Dr. Solace?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah." Sonya swallowed.

"He'll be fine, Sonya." Pietro said.

"Yeah? How d'you know?" Sonya asked.

"He's a doctor. He's too precious to be harmed." Pietro said. 

"Right." Sonya said, her shoulders slumping in relief. "Right. We've got to get moving."

~~~

They kept a low profile in a motel room. While Wanda was in the bathroom, Pietro took a seat beside Sonya on one of the beds.

"Can I ask you something?" Pietro asked, quietly.

"...Sure." Sonya said, setting aside the gun she was checking over.

"Who is Doctor Solace to you?" Pietro asked.

Sonya stilled. "That is a complicated answer, Pietro."

"Try to answer it, please." Pietro said.

Sonya's knee bounced and she chewed on her lip. "A friend. I am a friend to him, but I don't know if he thinks he's a friend to me."

"So you don't have feelings for him?" Pietro asked, and then internally cursed. He hadn't meant to ask that.

"I have a lot of feelings when it comes to him." Sonya said. "Not romantic though. Why, are you jealous?"

"What if I said yes?" Pietro asked, softly.

Sonya was stunned for a moment. "Pietro... I'm not a good person. I... I've done bad shit. Real bad shit. I don't know if I've saved or taken more lives."

"Does anyone?" Pietro asked. "The smallest choices we make can affect something in unpredictable ways."

"That's different. Putting bullets in heads is different." Sonya said, her eyes slightly watery. "I'm a monster. If you have feelings for me, you should get rid of them."

"You aren't a monster in my eyes, warrior princess."

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Call me that. I'm not a princess." Sonya said, her voice cracking. "Not anymore."

"Not anymore?" 

"Shit." Sonya said, wiping a tear away with the palm of her hand. "Just forget I said that."

"Tell me." Pietro said, taking her hand in his. "It's okay."

Sonya looked at their hands. "I was born to a king. My brothers and I were disowned. Banished. Our lives, everything. It was gone in a day. Sonya isn't my name."

"What is?" Pietro asked. 

"I don't know." Sonya said. "Magic binds me. I can't say the name I was born with. My head explodes with pain if someone calls me by it."

"I'm sorry." Pietro said.

"Not as sorry as I am." Sonya said.

"What should I call you?" 

"I... I don't know." Sonya said. "Sonya was the identity that was made up to hide from Shield-"

"You are hiding from Shield?" Pietro asked incredulously.

"Yeah." Sonya gave a slight grin. "I'm wanted. I used to be an agent."

"You. A Shield agent?" Pietro stared with wide eyes.

"I was. And my brothers." Sonya said. "And no, I won't tell you what my name was then."

"How did Hydra not find out that you were Shield? How did Shield not find you all this time?"

Sonya gestured to her face. "Magic. This isn't my real face. My natural voice is a little deeper too. I'm not italian to boot."

"You- wow. Wait, you've been faking that accent this entire time?" Pietro asked in awe.

"I'm good at acting. It's... Hereditary." Sonya said.

"Are you acting now?"

"No. You've got my feelings too confused." Sonya admitted.

Pietro smiled. "Well. What would you like me to call you, then?"

"I have no idea."

"May I suggest something?"

"Go ahead." Sonya sighed.

"Princess."

"Pietro, I just said-"

"Please- It's not about who you were. It's about how I see you." Pietro said. "Beautiful, dignified, and graceful. Smart, witty, and powerful."

"Oh." Sonya said softly.

"What do you think?" Pietro asked.

"It's okay." Sonya said meekly.

"Princess?"

"Mmhmm?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"Don't you think that's a little fast?"

"Fast is my specialty." Pietro grinned. "I have lightning in my veins."

Sonya grinned back. "So do I."

Pietro frowned. "What?"

"I thought you were going to kiss me?" Sonya asked.

Pietro's expression softened, and his hand that was holding hers deposited it on his shoulder, and pulled her onto his lap. She buried her fingers in his hair as their lips met, and he held her close.

"Eeek!" Wanda squealed, and they startled apart. Wanda's hands covered her mouth as she whispered an 'oops'. "Sorry..." She said, deeply apologetic.

A/N

Chris be like "aw shit here we go again"