Mortals Meet Percabeth + one shots and headcannons

Quick lil update

I thought it wouldn't be nice to have you guys go without content, so here is a small piece from the original novel I'm writing. It's an extract from the finale, which yes, I wrote a few weeks back even though I'm not even halfway through the first draft. Enjoy!

Ash double-primed the charge and stepped back. He covered his ears and signaled with his fingers.

'Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...'

The door blew off its hinges. 'Smoke out!' James said, and the three of them took the turn into the room.

The control room of the Lance Corps was all too familiar. After all, he'd spent his childhood there. But he cared little for it now. The place he had once loved was gone, and now the whole world was at risk. As they entered the room, Ash squeezed off a few rounds, and some of the guards dropped. They might've been his friends when he worked here, but that was in another life, a worse life.

The smoke was briefly illuminated by the flash of muzzles as shots rang throughout the room. He could see the outlines of James and Elizabeth as they cleared the room.

Ash saw a guy sneaking up behind Elizabeth. He trained his laser on them and put a shot through his head.

'Thanks. Now, duck.'

A knife flew at his face and he bent down just in time for it to hit the guy approaching him from his back.

'Thanks.'

'You should be watching your six, Ash.'

'Yeah. Yeah.'

When the smoke cleared, only a few people were left standing at the back of the room, and the sight chilled Ash to his core.

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Ash's father, an imposing man in his fifties stood in the very corner of the room, a remote console in his hand, his hand poised over the button.

To his right was Atlas, his arm around Chris' neck, gun poised at his head. A small figure peeked out from behind Chris' legs and in the harsh illumination of the room's lighting, Ash could make out Delilah's slim face.

Tears stung his eyes. 'Why, dad? Why?'

The general laughed. 'Why? Why, you ask? You know why, Ash. This world took my wife and my daughter from me. And now, I intend to destroy it. With a push of this button, the United States and Russia will be at war with each other, and in doing so, the world will be laid to waste. Then I will start anew, and remake the world from ashes. I have many powerful allies, you know.'

'You've lost your mind, General.' Elizabeth said.

'And you don't understand anything, Corrigan. To do good, you gotta do some bad. When you take the gloves off, you get blood on your hands.'

Ash snarled. 'The blood of warmongers, of terrorists? Yes. Not the blood of innocent men, women, and children.'

'You talk as if you haven't got the blood of innocents on your hands, Ash.' Atlas said. 'I know what you did to the techie.'

He counted on his fingers and laughed delightedly. 'Oh yes, you broke his fingers. Then what? You branded him. He gave you some information. Then you carved his forehead. He gave you all the information. Finally, you killed him'

James said, 'In the grand scheme of things, in this case, one life is nothing compared to the billions who would die. As you said, to do good, you gotta do some bad.'

'Here's where you're mistaken, James. You're not going to be saving anyone. See, the nukes are already prepped. Did you really think you could win? In this situation, you cannot win.'

Ash could feel his father's words spreading through him like a slow, painful poison. Had they been thinking that? Could they have been so foolish to even think that? A single glance at his friends' faces gave him his answer.

'And the second you even try to make a move, your beloved step-father and your sister will be dead.'

That shook Ash out of his daze. 

'You're sick, Dad.' Ash spat out the last word. 'Go to hell.'

'Oh, I will. And I'll be waiting for you at the entrance.'