The Hidden Son (Percy Jackson / Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Crossover)

19. Glow Sticks Are Overrated, But a Flashlight Would Be Nice

FITZ GAPED AT the hologram.

He wasn't expecting it to light up the way it was. Ok, it wasn't exactly lighting up—anyone who didn't know what they were looking for would probably dismiss it—but the tiny clusters of red scattered across the globe worried him. The search results for a metal like the one Annabeth's dagger was made of had turned out to be much more numerous than he'd anticipated.

He wasn't sure if this was good or bad.

The highest concentrations were in Long Island and San Francisco—the latter not a coincidence, he figured. They had taken the kids into custody around there, after all. There was also quite a bit in the Mediterranean Sea, and scattered throughout Greece and Italy. With what the demigods had told them, the metal was divine, and it was scarce.

The scientific possibilities were incredible. But he wasn't really thinking about that. He came to the conclusion that if the weapons were gifts from the gods (actual gods, totally insane), then there were a lot more demigods than Percy and Annabeth had implied. He understood their desire to keep it a secret, especially considering what they'd all been through in the past few days, but Percy had to have known this would happen. He wasn't stupid.

He waved his hand and the hologram disappeared. All things considered, it would be much harder to pinpoint Annabeth's location now. There were too many options. He had to hope Percy had some sort of insider information they could use to narrow the search down even a little.

Fitz chewed his nails. How would Percy react to this? When the team tried to interrogate him and even mentioned the camp, the guy practically had a meltdown then and there. Fitz had never seen anything like it, and he was prone to meltdowns. Brain damage had its perks.

"Hey," said a tired voice from behind him. "Just got back. Flying sucks." Percy approached the holotable, looking like he hadn't slept in days. "How's it going?"

"I...I sh-should be asking you that," Fitz deflected, looking up at the kid. "You l-look awful."

"I feel awful, so that's a relief." Percy blinked slowly. The stress was apparent on his face.

"So," Fitz said cautiously, "The sc-scan just completed."

Percy's eyebrows went up a bit, but he didn't say anything.

Fitz took a breath and brought up the hologram again. The tiny pinpoints of red stared him down, like he was looking at something he wasn't supposed to.

Percy's jaw clenched, and he looked paler. Somehow this made Fitz feel a little better—he'd made the right call when he asked the team to give them some privacy.

"The search results are...are not as ex-expected." Fitz gestured to the map. "I was hoping that...hoping that you could help narrow it d-down."

Percy bit his lip and gave a small nod.

"So...these," Fitz said, pointing out the two biggest clusters. "They're..."

"Irrelevant." Percy's voice was low and quiet. "She's not at either of those."

Fitz nodded. "Great. I'll just...just del-delete them, then." He made a few tapping motions, and they disappeared. "Gone forever n-now. Rather unfortunate that I didn't...that I didn't back it up on our s-servers before I did that."

Percy visibly relaxed, breathing a sigh of relief. "What a shame."

The knot that had formed in Fitz's chest unraveled. He wasn't lying to SHIELD. He was just protecting a friend. "Are there any other...any other lo-locations you think you can r-r-rule out?"