Nothing From the Gods

Happiness is a Fickle Thing

Percy's POV

I walked towards the forest with my hand in my pocket gripping Riptide.

Everyone but Bruce left yesterday morning for the tower. Loki told me I needed to head towards Zeus's fists and that was where they are going to take me back to the tower. He didn't enlighten me how that would be though.

I arrive a few minutes later to find Bruce waiting at the base of Zeus's fists.

"Good to see you, Percy." He greets me.

"The same to you." I glance around at the trees.

"You're probably wondering how we are going to get out of here." Bruce observes.

I scratch the back of my head, "I don't think Steve would come up with what I was thinking."

"I'm going to guess what you are thinking." He smiles, "Even if he wanted me to turn into other guy and cause a distraction, I wouldn't. Too many people could get hurt."

I nod, "So what's the plan then?"

"Loki should be here any second."

Loki appears suddenly lounging across one of the larger rocks. He smirks, "Good morning boys. Ready to go?"

Bruce rolls his eyes, "Lets hope so."

"I was thinking, Bruce." I start out saying.

"That's a dangerous pass time for you." Loki retorts.

"Ha ha." I glare at him, "Won't this cause the other guy to come out?"

"I thought about this, but Loki tested it in a safe environment and it worked fine."

"Okay, as long as it's safe."

"Now since that is settled, shall we depart?" Loki asks.

We nod and Loki explains he needs to take me first then Bruce. Not because he can only teleport one person at a time but because it might be more uncomfortable.

Loki tells me to grip his forearm and not to let go. The green of the forests blurs together in beautiful harmony with the grey colors of the rocks. Then the colors changed to a light yellow and blue to form the sky and yellow sun over New York City. Loki transported us to the roof of the tower.

Steve and Natasha are there. Steve embraces me in a hug.

"It's good to see you again." He hasn't seen me since I entered the basement. When I was with Thaila, he was in the arena with his cabin, Steve explains.

After he let's me go, Natasha hugs me too.

"I just want to say sorry for being a jerk to you when you first came." She says softly.

I'm thrown off guard by this. I understood why she did it, even though it was mean. But never in a million years did I expect her to apologize.

"It's okay." I say back.

"Did Natasha just apologize?" Clint walks out onto the room to join us.

"She did?" Bruce questions. "Of course I miss this."

"I will not hesitate to hurt either of you. And Bruce I know where to punch you that will not cause you to Hulk out on me." Natasha threatens both of them.

"Hey guys, it's great to see you're all back but I need Bruce in the lab to help with the formula Hank gave us."

I lean over to Steve and ask, "He's the blue hairy guy right?"

He nods, "He gave us a serum that makes him normal again. There's a lot of science stuff to it but I think it's an 'Anti-Mutant' serum."

"Tony and Bruce are trying to make it permanent so we can use it on Morr." Natasha provides the information

"We would then get rid of it right?" I ask. That serum should not be made because then people would use it on the innocent.

"That was the terms of our deal with Hank." Clint speaks up. "Are you ready to go play Mario Kart, Percy? I will beat you this time."

I smile for the first time in a while. "Yeah sure, let's do it."

A few hours later, we are still playing videogames. Clint is teaching me how to play Overwatch but it's hard because it's a one-player game. Tony offered buying another TV and game console so we can play together.

Loki has been sitting on the couch with his eyes closed. I'd think he's asleep but he's staying perfectly upright.

Clint tells me not to worry about him, but I can tell something is up. I don't say anything else though.

On my third round of the game, I'm finally getting the hang of it. Just as my team takes over the area we are suppose to attack, an  immense pain sparks in my head. I drop the controller and grip my head.

It felt like it was splitting open. Clint tried calling my name but I can't respond.

Then as soon as it happens it's over.

Loki opens his eyes for the first time in hours and smiles, "I did it." Is all he says.

"What did you do to me?" I demand, standing up to my feet and stalk over to him.

"Relax, Percy. I just put in place a mental wall between you and Morr. He will not he able to give you any visions." He stands to meet my height.

I drop my attacking pose "Why did it hurt then?"

"He had more ties in your mind than I had thought. It was those ties being cut off. He can not draw power from you anymore."

"Loki that's great! I didn't think my plan would work." Clint says excitedly.

"Wait." I turn to Clint. "You didn't want to play video games with me, you just wanted to keep me in one spot for Loki?"

Clint smiles sheepishly. "I did want to play games with you. Even though I get my butt handed to me every time."

Loki laughs, "Yes you do, mortal."

"Hey! Don't you mortal me. I thought we were past this stage."

I shake my head and walk to the kitchen trying to ignore their bickering. Clint brings up Loki mind controlling him and Loki then tries to defend himself. It's the usual.

What's not usual is Nico being in the kitchen. He's just causally leaning against the fridge watching Loki and Clint fight. He glances over to me and he doesn't look like a day has past. His hair is still long enough to be in his blood shot eyes and his is still wearing his coat even though it has holes in it.

"Hello Percy." His voice is full of venom. "You have no right to be happy. Not with so much blood on your hands."

"I didn't kill you guys on purpose." My good mood has dropped and I avoid looking at him.

He moves forward to me in a blur and grabs my face. He growls almost like an animal, "You will look at me. You will never be able to escape me. You killed us. Never forget."

A weird feeling enters my body and it feels like all emotion is being drained out of me. Nico disappears with a devious smirk.

It takes a moment, but I stand and walk back into the living room and sit on the couch.

"Clint stop fighting for a second you idiot. Look. What is wrong with Percy?"

~^~

Sorry this is late. I have been working on a huge Statistics project.

I'm talking massive project. It's about 160 pages and I've written over 35 pages the past two days.

I'm sorry I didn't update last week or the week before because I was in Orlando at Disney World and Universal.

This might have more errors than usual because I'm brain dead.

Have a good week!