I am sincerely sorry for the long wait, but if you want a better explanation, I put up an announcement on my page that goes a little bit more in depth as to where I was.
I do have a rough plan of where I would like this to lead, but I was stumped on how to continue this. But suddenly an idea had popped into my head and I pumped out most of this within a few hours.
Thank you for all well wishes and encouragement, hopefully I can get back to interacting and replying to you all.
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When Percy found out that Steve had lied about the truth about him keeping secrets, she had called the whole team to the briefing room. She gave Rogers a thorough dressing down, stripping him of his title of leader. At his protest, she berated him further, tasking him with actually completing basic training and learning how to actually earn his title of Captain instead of relying on an honorary title given to give him more stage presence.
"Don't pull this with me Rogers, I know that your title is just a fancy moniker used to sell more war bonds. Maybe if you had any actual training on how to take charge and command a group, this wouldn't have happened. From now on, I will be in command-"
"But I've always led the team-" Steve cut her off, only to be cut off in return.
"I've led a group of teenagers into a godsdamned fucking war. I've watched as dozens of them were killed by monsters that could have only come from your greatest nightmares. I've watched twelve year olds take up a sword and shield to train to kill the monsters that would murder them for just existing. I've watched as children hoped that maybe this time, this time the monster that they've just killed won't come back when they are still alive. I've had monsters hunt me down as vengeance when all I've done is kill them so I could survive. I was predestined, fucking bred to satisfy the universe's need for a warrior to win all wars that I was thrown at. I was created to fight, to lead others to their deaths in a war we didn't want in the first place. From the moment I was born, I was hunted. I have traveled through Tartarus, a place so horrible that you wish that you went to Hell instead. I have let so many people down, I have watched as people with so much hope and a life ahead of them were killed. And even after I was thrown out by my family, I went to SHIELD and I worked my ass off to become better, learn how to lead and plan and get all of my people out of any situation. I learned so I didn't lose any more people. Some of us aren't warriors, some of us are just people who have these abilities or technologies that realize that we have to step up for those who can't.
"Anyways, I will be taking command, Rhodes and Stark are my seconds. Rhodes is a Colonel who earned his rank and Stark can see all of the factors and calculate the best way out without needing any casualties to be had, especially with JARVIS double checking him. He also took his father's multimillion dollar company and turned it into a multibillion dollar company that is one of the highest Fortune five hundred companies, all the while caring for his millions of workers he employs, sometimes paying out of his own pocket to keep things running. They know how to lead. Romanoff and Barton work best alone or together, but they know how to be a team and how to follow orders. Banner and Hulk are civilians but they listen to orders. Spiderman, the Maximoffs, and Lang are new superheroes that were only civilians until they stepped up to fight. Wilson and Odinson would be good candidates, but Thor is still working on being headstrong, and Wilson is beat out by Rhodes. Strange doesn't have any leadership experience either and the Guardians are their own independent group.
"Now, end of discussion Rogers. Also, read up on the report that I wrote on Stark while I was employed there under SHIELD- they have been using that one instead of the one Romanoff wrote since after the attack on New York. While we go and talk with the next people we need to ask for help in this coming war, read my report on the whole Ultron situation and how none of it was Tony's fault. Dismissed."
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The team watched as Bruce and Thor set off in a Quinjet, heading off towards the stars before calling for Heimdall and the Rainbow Bridge. Thor had received a message from the Warriors Three and Sif that they needed him. They told about Surtur's movements and Bruce volunteered to go in order to study Asguardian astrophysics and radiation.
Little did they know both men would return to them very differently.
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They took a Quinjet; the Guardians had stayed at the Compound to be briefed on the politics of this world and how they would have to operate on Earth. Tony set the coordinates to Wakanda and the team settled in for the long flight. Tony and Peter gathered around a video conference screen, talking with Shuri and the other Wakandan scientists. Tony seemed to glow, in awe of all that not only the Wakandans have created but Shuri had.
Shuri loved that she had another person to talk to that she understood and Tony was happy to see all of her brilliance. While they both were into tech, especially nanotech, Shuri excelled in vibranium-based projects such as the kimoyo beads and the kinetic energy usage of her suits while Tony excelled in is arc reactor tech (which he realized was based on an infinity stone) and actual sentient AI tech. Both were protective of their various fields, but both made tentative promises to show each other how it was done. "You're not bad for a broken white man who only had a cave to use. You're joining my club."
"As long as you sign my science children adoption papers."
That was when Peter joined in, commenting about how it made sense, the two were just recycling. That brought Shuri and Peter into a huge discussion of memes, science, and jokes. Tony muttered about why he thought it was a good idea to adopt all these fucking children.
Steve was in the corner, quietly reading the thick packet of reports, using a heavy duty highlighter and a pen to make notes. Natasha and Clint were curled around one another and the twins were throwing a paper ball back and forth, trying to use their powers to their advantage. Bucky was staring straight ahead blankly as Percy was sleeping as well, head resting on his flesh shoulder. She was twitching, caught in a dream.
---
Everything was blurry, and all Percy could see here swirls of grey. All she could feel was the sense that she was dissolving, being burned and dragged away into nothingness. And then suddenly everything sharpened to a point on the small of her back. She was being tugged, pulled back together by that force.
The dream then seemed to glitch, and color flooded her vision, bright spots of glowing color taking over her. Everything burned but she felt as her skin was strong, refusing to break under the onslaught.
And then everything exploded.
---
Hours into the trip, Percy jolted awake with a yell, bolting forward and landing on one knee.
Everything stopped, Nat and Clint separating, Steve nearly threw his papers everywhere, and all conversations with Wakanda stopped as everyone whipped around to look at the demigod.
Percy's eyes were clenched shut, her fingers rubbing at her temples. There was a litany of curses being mumbled as she shook her head. Clint slid off of his seat and rubbed her back, until Percy could bring herself to look up and respond.
"I had a prophetic dream. After quite a while having them, I could parse out what I have to do. I have to go bathe in the Styx again. Fuck. I almost dissolved last time."
"Bathe in the Styx?" Steve asked, so very lost and confused.
"It's of course, in Greek Mythology. It is a river in the Underworld. Achilles, as a child, was dipped into its waters and it made him invincible. But his mother had been holding onto his ankle, making it the only place on him that was vulnerable. That is how he was killed, by getting shot in the heel with an arrow. Thus the term Achilles heel. I already bathed in it to fight Kronos when I was sixteen, and my weak spot was the small of my back. I was going to dissolve until I thought of Annabeth, who I thought was my soulmate. But when I crossed the Little Tiber carrying Juno, the Roman version of Hera, the curse was washed away as it was Greek and I was passing into Roman territory.
"It heightens my senses, fighting skills, and other physical attributes. But it makes it easier for me to tire and I have to be careful to not exert myself. Any damage to my weak spot can kill me, and I can still die by means of dehydration, burning, asphyxiation, diseases, electrocution, a God's true form or their wrath, starvation, poison, and overexhaustion. That last one will be the easiest to succumb to, especially with my restricted eating. I'll have to intake more than you super soldiers in order to just get by. Also, power naps unless I can get enough energy intake.
"And, it turns out, if my soulmate gets injured there, I can also die. Luckily I won't kill my other half if I do, but I have to be extra careful anyways."
Everyone was silent, merely blinking as they took in everything. Peter and Shuri then turned towards each other and started rapid fire babbling, Tony adding in here and there where he knew about SHIELD's enriched foods along with his own forway into the subject in order to help by throwing his own genius and love of chemistry at it.
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When exiting the plane, they were greeted by the royal family and their guards. The Wakandans as one, crossed their arms, right over left, performing their salute. The Avengers did so back, but didn't do anything extra, acknowledging the sign of respect and returning it, but not taking it and making it their own. Shuri, once the formalities, gestured over Peter, and showed him her kimoyo beads. Peter seemed overjoyed to do so, especially after Tony gave him a little nudge and a nod of his head in permission.
Rhodes stepped forward to speak with the royals as Percy was still drained from her vision. Her tanned skin was gaunt and her freckles stood out staunchly. Suddenly a large black panther who had been padding around the perimeter of where they landed loped over to her. It nudged her until they connected eyes. Percy went slack, her hand in the fur of the panther's neck seemed to be the only thing grounding.
Once more everything was silent, allowing everyone to hear as an old, regal voice whispered its way through the air. Looking closely, it seemed like the voice came from the big cat. It's eyes were a bright glowing purple, light clouds of smoke flowing out of it's open mouth before they quickly dissipated from the air. "Come hero. Your Fate is calling you daughter of the sea. I shall lead you to your curse once more."
Percy, eyes still glassy and hand in midnight fur started to walk away towards the tree line. "I'll follow her and watch her back." Bucky said quietly, voice gruff as he fell back into his mind, sharing the reins with the Winter Soldier. Before Steve could protest, Rhodes nodded his assent before going back to his conversation.
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Percy only seemed to come back to herself when the panther roared, a whole in the ground crumbling into existence. The dark seemed to seep into her, and she started shaking. She didn't want to do this.
A hand slid into hers, soulmarks touching. Looking up, Percy met with Bucky's soft eyes, face softened with an encouraging smile. "Do I have you both James and Winter?"
"Of course, Doll. There is no other place we would rather be than by your side."
And with that they stepped into the whole, down into the realm of the dead.
---
They were on the bank of the Styx, the supersoldier enveloping the demigod in a hug that seemed to hold her shattered pieces together. "I'll be right here Doll, waiting to give you a hand."
There was a moment of silence before Percy drew back slightly. "You motherfu-"
Bucky burst out laughing, the demigod soon joining in with laughs and groans of her own at the horrible joke. She gave her replica Riptide to Bucky for safekeeping under the strict instruction that he not let go of it or put it in his pocket. She also gave him her watch, not wanting the possibility of her brother's work dissolving away if she did. Taking a deep breath and steeling herself, Percy quickly went on tiptoes to kiss her soulmate on the cheek before wading into the water.
The water was freezing cold yet skin boiling hot. She felt the current try to dissolve her, carry her atoms away one by one. But Percy held fast. She had just met her soulmate. She had just found her family that Hera had promised her. She refused to leave them, especially not so soon after getting them. She refused to leave her mom without letting her see her again. She refused to make Mrs. O'Leary find another owner again so soon. She refused to leave her brother before she could listen to him info dup, talk about his friends in the forge, and his love for peanut butter. She couldn't leave before she got to walk her mother down the aisle to Paul as they were still only engaged, waiting on their daughter to come back to them. She refused to leave without seeing her camp friends again, so see Chiron and even Dionysus.
But most of all, she refused to leave James Buchanan Barnes. Her soulmate, the man she already loved. She refused to leave James and Winter, both sides of him already so traumatized, both sides having already lost enough. She wouldn't add herself to that list.
And so Perseus Jackson picked a tether point and pulled herself out of the waters, skin steaming.
Percy opened up their Bond, letting James feel where she had tethered herself to the living world. He shakily reached out, flesh hand grazing the spot on her upper arm. Easily protected by armor and gear, not obvious for it being rather out in the open.
And James started crying when he realized that he didn't have to worry about killing his soulmate through the weak point. For Percy chose where the star on his arm once rested, a place where he didn't have a flesh arm anymore.
Yet another symbol of his Bond to his soulmate, a symbol of her devotion to not only him, but Winter as well. It was acceptance and love for who he was originally, for what he was made into, and who he was now. And he was the only one to know.
Hand in hand, they made their way back up to the surface, unhindered by any of the dead.