The Reluctant Hero

Apollo's also the God of Truth.

"I-" His voice was scratchy and hoarse, painful just to hear let alone use. He made eye contact with his friends, "I'm not getting out of this one am I?"

"No. You're not." Met with grim faces, Percy sighed.

"Fine." He mentally prepared himself, reminders and triggers that took him by surprise were always the worst If he was prepared he could sometimes avoid flashbacks. He hoped. "So you all know how the war ended because of that dream machine thing," The Avengers looked slightly guilty at the reminder, "and Thor told you about most of my past. So it's just the beginning of the Giant War and after it that you want to know?" Nods, Percy was seriously considering just flashing out, he really didn't want to talk about this. But after finding him like this, covered in blood and vomit, and after all they'd done for him, he knew his new friends deserved to know the truth.

He swallowed, his throat had suddenly gone dry.

"Well let's see...the highlights? The Seven and I went on various little quests on our way to Greece which were all vital, painful and life or death. You know; the usual. And we fought every monster who's name we couldn't pronounce and more on the way. Then A-Anna-Ann-" He swallowed hard, tears starting to roll down his scarred cheeks, he didn't even bother keeping hold of the mist he used to hide his scars when he was emotional. He couldn't. "She went after this thing called The Mark Of Athena," Thor gasped, "Mhmm," Percy nodded in his direction, "That one. Anyway, she" Another hard swallow, "she went on this quest alone and succeeded-Thor if you gasp again I'll stab you-" The Norse demigod wisely remained silent, "And we all met up with...her.....again right after she'd finished it. She trapped the monster who'd been waiting for her in it's own silk. Don't ask. Anyway, we were standing there happy, the monster had fallen into Hell," There was no way he could even think the word Tartarus, "literally, and we'd won another impossible battle. It was good. But..."

The Hero had to stop for a moment. He angrily wiped his eyes while more of his scars started to show as his control slipped. It hadn't done so in months. "Long story short? She was pulled into Hell and I went with her."

The Avengers were silent. Percy was glad, he didn't think he'd have been able to keep it together if they'd tried to say anything to him.

"That's where I was tortured for the first time." He said it calmly, no emotion staining his voice whatsoever. He swallowed again, a scar across his throat rippling into existence. "Basically, we were trapped there for a while before escaping and fighting our way through Hell and getting back to Earth. After a couple more battles with the rest of the soldiers, we got to the one.......the one you saw, then after that it was time for the 'Awards Ceremony'." The air quotes were so clear in his voice he barely needed to use his hands. "We all got three wishes. Anything we wanted. I turned down immortality, again, it was the last think I wanted. Then I asked for a portal to connect the camps, for Hestia and Hades to be given their thrones on the council and for me to be cut off from the Gods until I was ready."
"And that was that, it was all sorted and we were all satisfied, you know, apart from the soul-shattering grief." He chocked up, "but then the Fates showed up." The tears were now streaming down his face, his skin a collage of scar tissue and burns, a couple of scars even going over his eyes, making the eighteen year old look dead. He swallowed thickly, "Long story short: there's now an extra Olympian and I'm never going to see my family again."

He chocked properly then and gave into the tears. Sobbing against his calloused, scarred hands.

The only sound in the grief filled room was his heart-wrenching sobs and the sound of his tears hitting the wooden floor boards.

"We're sorry." They knew it would make no difference, but it had to be said. Natasha was the only one with the nerve to speak after that story.

The team looked sickened, the horrendous scars appearing on the teenager only adding to it.

"Don't worry, you had no hand in it and you have the right to know." His mouth was set in a grim line, his tears having subsided.

"There was nothing you could have done." He sounded so tired, so bone tired.

He shifted on his bed and took the damp towel Bruce offered to clean the blood off his skin, but he didn't hide his scars.

He sighed again, running his hand over his face.

"So yeah, now I'm an Olympian. But I locked my powers, I wanted to be cut off from the Gods. So my powers are locked away, nothing except what I had as a demigod."
"So you're an all-powerful God?" That was Stark.

Percy laughed darkly.

"Yeah, primarily of Heroes and Natural Disasters, but they lumped me with tonnes of other titles too. Anyway, you wanted to know why I was....like that." They all shivered, the Avengers still stayed silent, not wanting to break the fragile calm he'd managed to maintain to keep the flashbacks away. "I...because I lead the wars there are a lot of immortal beings who don't particularly like me and one of them is Morpheus, God of Dreams. He...because he's a minor God who the Olympians-the other Olympians-ignored, he sided with Geae and now he hates me for killing her. So he's...he's been controlling my dreams and has made it...made it so that any monster, God, Titan or Primordial who's angry at me can come and....vent their anger whenever I fall asleep."

He fell silent.

Letting it sink in with the mortal heroes.

"You're being tortured in your sleep!" The teenage hero flinched at the archer's lack of tack. Natasha slapped the archer's arm. "Sorry."
"I-It's fine...but yeah."

"Fuck." Stark always had the best reactions to bad news.