"So," Nico said, his feet kicked up on the Ping-Pong table, "We have a Prophecy we mostly understand, an enemy we know is trouble, and no idea how to get to him." Nico lolled his head to the side, looking pointedly at Loki, who sat beside him. The rest of the Avengers-- sans Thor, who seemed to still be working through some very valid anger-- were gathered around the table as well, most of them as far away from Loki as they possibly could be. "Any ideas?"
Loki raised a brow sardonically in response. "I regret to inform you I have no earthly idea what Prophecy you're referring to."
Clint snorted, and whispered something into Nat's ear; judging by her tight smile, it was a barbed comment at Loki's expense. Nico sighed.
"The prophecy goes as such:
"Seven must journey to the New World
and face two who have unwillingly Turned
and as they chart their battle courses
Mischief shall join the Avenging forces
To fight violent anger and rash action
the will of the Titan must be fractioned
And when in the fight the darkness hovers
the two men out of time must face their lovers
Should they succeed Memory shall bequest
a favor upon he who passed her nephew's test
"We know, of course, the Titan referred to is Menoetius," said Nico, sitting up and removing his feet from the table, "and that he's holding Mnemosyne captive on San Salvador Island. The lovers--" and here Nico's voice wavered, before he hardened his face. He wasn't going to show that weakness to Loki, not now, and likely not ever. "The lovers are Will Solace, Son of Apollo, and Bucky Barnes. Menoetius... did something to them. They're basically brainless, flesh-and-blood weapons in that state."
Something flashed across Loki's eyes, panicked and fearful. But as soon as that emotion was there, it was gone. Still, Loki's mouth pressed into a thin line before he spoke. "Mind magic is difficult," he said carefully, "and I'll admit to some surprise a buffoon such as Menoetius is capable of wielding such power." He paused, thinking. "Given his... likely lack of skill in the subject, I would wager his control is weak. If I'm correct in this regard, it would be easily breakable, given enough time."
"But you can do it, right?" Steve asked, some hope edging its way into his voice. "If we give you time, you could break the spell?"
Loki hummed. "Probably, yes. I can't give you a more definitive answer until we're close enough I can feel the magic at work."
"Let's hope you can, then," said Natasha coldly, "and plan for the worst."
Nico cringed. "Anyway," he said, because he didn't want to think about the worst, "we also know mischief has joined our forces. But we don't know what it means by fractionating the will of the Titan--who I'd assume to be Menoetius."
"Or the 'darkness hovers' business," Bruce added.
"Perhaps it is you, young demigod," Loki said amusedly. "Can you fly?"
Nico shot Loki an unamused look. "Not unless I want to be blasted out of the sky by my... ever so kind Uncle Zeus."
Loki smirked.
"Anyway," Natasha interjected, "we know we need to get to the Bahamas. Nico can't fly, so that limits our options. Perhaps we could go by sea?"
Nico squirmed uncomfortably. "I... think we should only sail when absolutely necessary. Poseidon is more... allowing than Zeus, but I don't want to test his limits. Our voyage will be difficult enough, going through the Sea of Monsters."
"Speaking of..." Steve said. "How are we going to get through?"
Tony rolled his eyes. "We'll just sail in. No biggie."
Nico leveled a cool gaze at Tony. "Do you even remember why Thor called me in in the first place?"
Tony was silent.
"They're--" Natasha voice broke off, casting an apologetic glance at Nico, who merely waved his hand at her slip of words. "--Well, he's here because Thor couldn't get in," Natasha supplied, looking at Tony with a disappointed glare. "Clearly, it's not that simple."
"Yeah," said Clint. "What Percy and Annabeth told us about the Sea of Monsters... well. Scylla and Chary-whatever--"
"Charybdis," Nico supplied.
"--Yeah, thanks. Scylla and Charybdis won't let us through without a fight. And the Sy-- the Simple-- the, uh--"
"Symplegades," Natasha said, rolling her eyes at Clint.
"--Yeah, the Symplegades won't be easy to deal with either."
"Who?" Tony asked blankly. "What?"
"Right. You weren't there to hear that part," Nico murmured under his breath. Sighing, he explained the monsters to Tony. "The Symplegades are... well. They're a pain in the ass. They were in the story of the Argonaut-- they're rocks that clash together whenever a vessel sails through. Scylla and Charybdis are monstrous sisters. You know the idiom 'between a rock and a hard place'? Yeah, that's them. Literally. Scylla is a many-headed monster in the rocks that has a tendency to snap the crew of ships that sailed too close to her up, and Charybdis is a giant whirlpool. To survive passage, you'd have to pass pretty much perfectly between them."
"I'm assuming that's easier said than done," said Steve dryly.
Nico nodded. "They're only an arrow's range across. But Percy and Annabeth did manage it."
Natasha grimaced. "Kind of. Their boat was destroyed, and they were separated from everyone else, right?"
"Well," said Loki, "If I recall the tale of the Argonauts correctly-- yes, demigod, I know of it; there are a select few books regarding your pantheon in the deepest corners of Asgard's library-- if I recall correctly, then we might find an easier time passing through the Symplegades. After all, the magic surrounding the rocks did not account for modern boats."
Nico hummed, his face scrunching up. "But it might've adapted-- many monsters have."
"Fair," Loki nodded. "Then we should make sure. If we send a bird through, we might measure its reaction. If it seems the rocks are faster than in the tale of the Argonauts, then we sail through the strait of Scylla and Charybdis instead."
Nico paused, then nodded. "Alright. I'd prefer to avoid the strait anyway. But we should use an automaton-- they fly slightly faster than real birds do, and anyway, a living bird might fly off course. The magic of the Triangle is strong, and I don't want to leave it up to chance."
"True enough," conceded Loki, "but it has to have a life signal. Otherwise the rocks might not work. If you can procure the automaton, I can enchant it."
Nico nodded. "Well then. That's out of the way. But the Sea of Monsters isn't exactly easy sailing past that."
"We need reinforcements," Natasha said. "As many as we can get."
"I'm not sending Campers or Legionnaires into this," said Nico, when gazes fell upon him. "First of all, the more demigods we have, the more likely monsters will besiege us before we reach San Salvador. My scent alone is likely going to cause us delays. Besides, the camps are still recovering. I'm... uncomfortable bringing them into this unless absolutely necessary." He shook his head. "No, it's best that the rest work behind the scenes."
The Avengers mumbled their assent at that, then turned their eyes to Loki.
"I cannot be of help," Loki said. "The colonies of Asgard are rebelling, and--" Loki made sure Thor was nowhere to be seen. "--and I let the guards go off and quell it so they would not follow me there."
Nico cocked an eyebrow at Loki.
"What?" The Norse god said, "I don't exactly care about what territories Asgard holds. It's more conflict than it's worth."
Nico almost said he agreed, to point out colonization was among his least favorite things, objectively, but he didn't want to give Loki the satisfaction. So he simply nodded concedingly.
"I'll see what we can do for that, then," said Steve. "The Avengers trainees might be up to it."
"And I can work with the Hephaestus cabins to make some of the Iron Legion to work against monsters."
"They'll have to change a lot," Nico said, "to make sure they'll even work in the Sea."
Tony waved his hand. "That's fine. I can always build more. Plus, they'll be good to have in case of monsters."
Nico shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about mortals becoming so entrenched in demigod society. More often than not, such awareness lead to death-- or worse. But if Tony wanted to go through with modifying the Iron Legion, then, well, whatever. If the gods didn't like it, they could just send Nico or another demigod to destroy them. (Hopefully, they wouldn't just destroy Stark). He nodded in assent.
"Well," Natasha said, "If no one else has anything left to discuss, I know Cabin 9 wanted to see us spar."
"Good idea," Nico nodded. "You guys should go do that. I'm going to find Thor. Loki, feel free to... I don't know. Do what you will."
With that, Nico tipped his chair back into the shadows. And just like that, he was gone, his chair left knocked over and empty.
"Well," Steve said, "before we go to the training arena, I'm gonna give Sam a call."
~*~
oh HELL yeah, babey! Two updates in 24 hours! yee haw!
Yeah this was,,, easy to write lol. And as I said: this is where it's really starting to split from the original! yee haw!
But yeah, I wanted to build Nico and Loki's relationship with each other some more! then, next chapter, Nico has a convo with Thor (tho the chapter is short, lol). I also wanted to give an in-universe explanation as to why I'm not having too many other demigods. (I mean, uh, no other demigods. I TOTALLY am not planning on bringing any others in. H... ha...ha?)
But yeah, yeet. Hope you enjoy!
<3