Family Ties (Percy Jackson and the Avengers)

Chapter 9

Riptide is in Percy's hand before anyone else has had time to process the giant's presence. His gaze is deadly as he eyes the bane of his father's existence. Polybotes has brought his mom and step dad great pain for the last year. Percy plans to repay the giant ten fold.

He steps forward. Before him is a large cliff, separating him from his adversary. With hardly a second thought he launches himself into the open air. He hears shouts of protest and panic from behind him, but ignores it. After all this is what he came he to do. Kick some arse.

Plus it's not like it plans to hit the ground and go splat or anything. That would just be pointless. He calls the water to him all at once and quickly has it spinning in a vortex around. And as a swirling hurricane he hits Polybotes head on. They plunge into the waves below and disappear from sight.

Up in what remains of the cave the Avengers and demigods stand, watching in horrid fashion as the water begins to crash violently against the rocks, the only indication that a battle rages below it's surfaces.

"Idiot," Nico hisses, breaking the silence. Leo nods beside him, staring wade eyed at the beach.

Annabeth comes to stand at the very edge of the ledge. "He'll be fine. He always comes close to dying but never actually does."

This seems to cheer everyone but Alicia up. She stands behind the group close to where Sally and Paul are laying. Her eyes looks sad as she watches them sleep. Perhaps it's because of Percy's unease towards this fight or maybe it's just the fact that she's seen proof that the seemingly invulnerable always find their limit eventually, but she doesn't like this fight. Not at all.

It seems like forever that the battle rages, but finally the waters calm. The group waits and waits and waits.

When Tony can't take it anymore he flips down the visor of his suit and flies down. The rest of the group follows taking the fastest routs they can to the shore. There's an urgency to their actions, as if they can already know what they are going to find. However Nico and Alicia remain in the cave with the unconscious couple. Nico has gone paler than anyone every thought, paler than when he emerged from the jar in Rome, and Alicia seems looks sad and resigned.

"He's gone, isn't he?" She whispers into the silence.

At first Nico says nothing, then without looking he says steadily, "Yes. He's gone."

"Just like that," she mumbles, with a chuckle. Her voice is choked and dead. "He was just standing here by my side and the next thing I know he's gone without so much as a goodbye."

He laughs a little, but it's a lifeless laugh, one without reason. "It's just like him. He never was one for sappy conversations and I don't think he would have listened if we told him to stay."

"No, he wouldn't have," she says. "I know though."

"Hmm?" Nico says, finally turning. "What do you mean?"

She looks up at him. Her eyes are dead, but dry. "When I met him I knew I couldn't have him long. He was just too good to last you know."

He smiles. "Yeah I guess so, but more than that the idiot is just too damn impulsive and selfless. It makes for a bad combination."

"You think?" Alicia laughs dryly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." 

- O - O - O - O - O -

You would think the hardest part would be the realization that he's gone, but it's not. It's not even telling two camps that their hero isn't coming back or telling his parents that their son won't be waking up again.