𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐏𝐒𝐄 ➳ 𝙥𝙟𝙤 // 𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨

xiii

Nico di Angelo stepped out of the darkness and into a busy street market that took place in downtown New York. For a few minutes, he traveled up and down the rows of vendors, but finally, he stopped.

"Fates' Fruit," he chuckled humorlessly. "Nice and subtle, huh?"

The three old ladies behind the fruit stand sneered at him, the one in the middle busy knitting with many colorful strings.

"Clotho, I presume? Fate of Birth?" Nico warily fingered his sword out of the Fates' view.

"Why have you come here, Hades spawn?" Clotho hissed.

"I wish to know why you allowed this...Thanos... to eradicate half of all life," Nico tilted his chin up defiantly, though inside he was shaking. These were the Fates, and even the gods themselves feared them. The Fates delivered all Prophecies, and decided when heroes died. 

"We did not allow him to do this," the one with the shears - Atropos - scowled.

Nico blinked back angry tears. "Then why did it happen? Were the demigods not of use? Were the gods not of use?"

"The Stones are an ancient force even the Titans do not know of. The Primordials thought them as objects of legend, a fantasy. Their powers are not our concern," Lachesis replied. 

"Well then, can you undo what the Stones did?" Nico asked impatiently. 

"We can," Clotho said passively.

Nico's head began to throb, and his feet began to numb. "Will you?"

"No," Atropos shook her head.  "We sense there is a greater path to reclaiming what you lost. To interfere would be most unadvisable."

Nico's breathing hitched. With a simple snap, the Fates could bring back all that the world had lost, all that he had lost, yet they were willing to risk more lives to do something they could have done years ago?

Atropos stared Nico dead in the eyes. "This is a problem for the mortal world to fix, as it was the mortal world that created it. Do what you must to ensure that they succeed, but do not tell them about us, or we will smite you where we stand. That, son of Hades, we swear on the River Styx." 

With anger in his eyes, Nico disappeared into the shadows and returned to Avengers compound.

— — — — — Name the time skip! — — — — — 

When Nico returned to Avengers compound and found a drunk, beer-bellied God of Thunder passed out in the corner, he wanted to let out a frustrated scream. Upon arrival, he hadn't known the man was a god, of course, so after asking Scott who he was - Scott didn't know either - Nico resorted to trying to sense his aura. The aura Nico had found was Norse, but a different sort of Norse compared to Magnus and Alex Fierro. The aura was heavily covered by traces of alcohol, and Nico sensed the man had not used magic in years. 

What really gave it away, however, was when Nico stepped even closer to him, and Thor's face had flickered between chiseled and unhealthy,  red haired and blonde, and the aura Nico sensed changed from strong and familiar to what he had sensed before. This was both the Thor he knew and the Thor the rest of the team knew. All Nico had to do now was figure  out why.

Nico did not get time to figure out why. Natasha, Clint, Steve, and Scott had walked into the main living room with four other people (or rather, creatures). This included the guy Nico knew as Tony Stark, and one other regular looking human being, a tall, cheerful looking, African American man wearing a metal suit. The other two, however, made Nico do a double take. First, in walked a bald blue humanoid who looked incredibly mean. Nico gasped. Then, when Nico really had a reaction, is when he saw the short little raccoon that was walking on two feet, wearing a tool belt, chatting casually with the brown-haired guy.  

"Aahhh!" Nico shrieked, jumping a few inches in the air. 

Thor sprung from his chair, eyes bloodshot and wild. "Who do I have to fight?" he boomed.

"You aren't fighting anyone, Thor," Steve sighed. Nico inched closer to the wall as the raccoon neared. 

"I'm Rhodey. This is Rocket," the guy in the metal suit pointed to the raccoon. Rocket waved dully. Nico waved back hesitantly. 

Natasha then gestured to the blue humanoid. "This is Nebula. And I see you've met Thor already..."

Thor turned to Nico and his eyes lit up in recognition. "Nico di Angelo! Son of..."

Nico gave him a warning look.

"...your father. Pleasure to meet you." Thor winked at Nico obviously and Clint face-palmed.

"What is everyone doing here?" Nico muttered. 

Clint gave him a hopeful smile. 

"I figured it out." Tony held up a silver watch-looking device. Nico looked up from the ground.  "We can bring everyone back."