Demigods Assemble (PJO/MCU)

Chapter 50

Peter

Even though Peter had already learned that Percy would be okay, he still felt more at ease when he entered the medbay with everyone else and found Percy sitting up and smiling at his mother and girlfriend. The past day had been a little touch-and-go for the son of Poseidon, and Peter knew he wasn't the only one who had temporarily feared the worst.

The medbay was soon filled with bodies. Besides Percy, Annabeth, and Sally, there was Mr. Stark, Rhodey, Steve, Clint, Natasha, Carol, Fury, Coulson, Chiron, Grover, Thalia, Will, Nico, Leo, Piper, Frank, and Hazel. Peter was hanging upside down from the ceiling to provide a little more space. Even so, the room was packed and Peter hoped their little meeting wouldn't take long.

"It is so good to see you awake, child." Chiron smiled warmly at Percy. He was in wheelchair form since there was no way they could fit a full-grown centaur in the room, too.

"You gave everyone quite a scare," Steve said, the corner of his upper lip twitching.

"You know me," Percy said, grinning cheekily. "Always keeping people on their toes."

"How are you feeling?" Will asked, checking a few of the monitors next to Percy's bed.

"Well, it'll be a while before I can play Capture the Flag again, that's for sure," Percy said, and a few people chuckled. When the room quieted, he asked, "So what happened? I don't remember much after killing Echidna."

"Without their leaders," Fury said, folding his arms, "their army fell apart. They had no reinforcements so your demigod friends made quick work of them. As for HYDRA, we've properly dealt with all the prisoners and have some new leads on getting rid of them once and for all."

"And . . ." Percy swallowed. "Did we lose anyone?"

The mood in the room darkened. Coulson, Chiron, Frank, and Thalia in particular seemed to bear the brunt of the sadness. Annabeth finally answered, "We lost some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and some campers and Hunters." She rattled off names Peter only vaguely recognized from their quick introductions, but Percy's face sunk with each one. Clearly, he recognized them all.

"Their lives were not lost in vain," Coulson said. "We won. Somehow, Phorcys' death changed something and we were able to win once he was taken care of."

"No." Percy shook his head. "It wasn't Phorcys' death."

"How do you know?" Frank furrowed his brow.

Percy glanced at Annabeth who nodded. Percy took a deep breath and recited the words that had been haunting Peter for days. The words that had instantly become clear when he saw Percy suspended in the air.

"Two powerful forces must meet and unite / To thwart the enemy and restore the light / Good can prevail before the world is overrun / But only with the fall of Poseidon's son."

When Percy finished, the room was completely silent. Peter already knew, so he understood the looks of comprehension on all the demigods' faces. The Avengers, on the other hand, were befuddled.

"I visited the Oracle when I took Tony, Steve, and Peter to Camp Half-Blood before," Percy explained. "She gave me that prophecy. The first two lines are obvious, especially now that we know 'the light' meant the city's power. But the last line . . ."

"We thought it was Chrysaor," Annabeth said. "We defeated him during the battle so we thought it meant his death would lead to our victory. But now . . ."

"It was my fall," Percy said. "Literally. You say it was Phorcys' death that changed the outcome of the battle, but I fell off the building right afterward. That's what the prophecy meant."

Sally squeezed Percy's hand, her face pale. Chiron pursed his lips. "I urge you not to presume to know exactly what the prophecy meant." But by the look on his face, Peter could tell the centaur believed them.

No one really seemed to know what to say after that. Peter still didn't know if he should mention the fact that he'd already known the prophecy, but he figured keeping that little piece of information to himself wouldn't hurt anyone.

Peter looked around at the tense room, trying to find some way to diffuse it. Percy beat him to it, saying a little too loudly, "So, what's next?"

"You need to heal," Sally ordered.

"Hey, you'll get no complaints from me about that." Percy chuckled. "What happened to Manhattan? We didn't destroy it too badly, did we?"

Carol grinned. "A few buildings need some repairs, but for the most part we kept the fighting contained."

"We told the UN it was aliens again and they believed it. The fact that the power was off and no one was in the streets taking videos helped," Rhodey said.

Behind his best friend, Mr. Stark smirked. Peter suspected he had something to do with the lack of media coverage.

"As far as the world knows, it was just the Avengers," Hazel added. "We're still a secret. Still safe."

"That's good." Percy started to nod and then winced and leaned his head back on his pillows. "So what do we do now? With all of us?"

Everyone looked around the room at their strange assortment of heroes. There were ten powerful demigods, two mythical creatures, a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist, five skilled mortal soldiers, one supersoldier, one human-Kree hybrid, and one genetically enhanced teenager. They made quite the sight, and—as the previous day's battle proved—an even better team.

Peter didn't really want to see them go. He'd really enjoyed his time with the Hunters of Artemis (the ones that tolerated him), and he was getting to know Percy's friends pretty well. He liked them all, especially Leo and Frank. And he had no qualms calling Percy and Annabeth good friends at this point, he didn't want to stop hanging out with them. Besides, it would be nice to do normal teenager-y things with them now that the war was over.

"Well, Daredevil and Jessica Jones vanished once the battle was over," Fury reported. "Mr. Di Angelo's ghost chauffeur left with the Roman demigods and your many-eyed friend Argus picked up the Greeks."

"The Hunters are waiting for my command," Thalia said.

"My team and I need to continue rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D.," Coulson said.

"So that's it? We're just going our separate ways?" Percy frowned.

"For now," Annabeth said, but there was a shine to her eyes. "Although I have a feeling we'll see each other again soon."