38A newly married Annabeth Chase is called into SHIELD to work on a new problem: The Elementals Crisis. Along the way she meets Peter Parker and a mysterious man named Quentin Beck. In this new challenge, nothing is as it seems, and Annabeth must navigate her way through illusions to find the true culprit. One thing is for sure: Percy is not going to be happy about this. Set after Endgame.
A/N okay, okay, you've convinced me. To be fair, I originally WAS done with this series, but apparently "a lot of fans want this". BEFORE YOU READ THIS I HIGHLY RECOMMMEND YOU READ MY OTHER STORIES IN THIS SERIES: Percy Jackson: Mission Marvel, Percy Jackson: Civil War, Percy Jackson: Infinity War, and Percy Jackson: Endgame.
To be honest, I think that the title is kind of redundant because this is Annabeth's story. I felt she deserved something, and I've had four stories named after Percy. But just to follow the trend of my other stories, I decided to name it that.
Expect SLOW updates. I'm working on other stories as well and those will be my first priority. I'm also currently working on revising and editing my earlier stories.
Okayyyy I think that's everything. Ready? Let's get this party started.
Annabeth Chase
Eight Months After "The Blip"
Upper East Side, Manhattan
If Annabeth had to watch "The Little Mermaid" one more time, she was going to flip out.
As much as she loved Percy's little nine year old sister, Estelle, she was getting sick and tired of her singing Under the Sea.
Annabeth and Percy had gotten an apartment near Kips Bay so that they could be close to Sally and Paul but also Camp Half-Blood.
So far, the arrangement was working out well. Percy was at his job in the aquarium and Sally was out with Paul, so Sally had asked Annabeth to babysit Estelle. Estelle had protested loudly that she didn't need to be watched, and as much fun as Aunt Annabeth was, Estelle wanted to be by herself.
(Annabeth wasn't sure how she felt about being called Aunt Annabeth. Something about it made her feel old.)
Sally had won the argument, so here Annabeth was, currently trying to persuade Estelle to watch a different movie for once.
"Don't you want to watch, I don't know, Tangled? Rapunzel's in that one."
Estelle considered. "Well…"
"Hold on Stella, I have to get this." Annabeth's phone was vibrating in her pocket. Even with her years of using technology, Annabeth couldn't suppress a wince as she pulled it out.
There was no caller ID. It merely said, UNKNOWN CALLER. She pursed her lips in annoyance. Leo was the only one who called her with an unknown caller ID, but it was usually just a prank call. After threatening to revoke his workshop privileges, she thought that she had gotten him to stop. Apparently not.
"Leo? Holy Hera, I told you that I wasn't going to—"
"Mrs. Chase."
Annabeth stopped midsentence. She hadn't heard that voice in years. It wasn't a voice that she particularly liked in the first place, since he had kidnapped her boyfriend and gotten them all roped into this mess in the first place.
"Fury?"
"Hello, Mrs. Chase. I see you've finally gotten a phone."
Annabeth smiled in a twisted way. She remembered how shocked all the Avengers had been when they had all told them that the demigods didn't have phones.
She didn't waste time on pleasantries, deciding to get right the point. "Please tell me you don't have another mission for us. I thought that we made it clear that we retired."
"I… know that." Fury said it almost like a question. Annabeth frowned. That didn't sound like the Fury she remembered. But a second later the business-like coldness was back so she assumed she must have imagined it.
"We need you to come in. A new crisis as opened up. Possibly world-threatening."
Annabeth swatted Estelle's poking finger away from her rib cage without looking down. "Look, Nick, I get that. I really do. But we just…" She hesitated, stopping herself from confiding in her and Percy's insecurities with the leader of a government agency.
She and Percy had talked for hours about their decision to leave the Avengers. Annabeth had felt conflicted about leaving. She still did, actually. She knew that she and Percy were some of the best people for the job. It wasn't bragging. It was simply stating the truth.
And the rest of the Avengers were either dead—she shut her eyes for a moment to beat back her warring emotions—or retired. Annabeth had felt guilty and she knew Percy felt the same way. Could they be at peace with their conscience knowing that they'd stepped away from that?
In the end, they had decided they earned the rest, and those they consulted with had agreed.
"Can't you get someone else?" She said finally. Then the full meaning of his words computed. "Wait, did you just say 'you'?"
"Annabeth!" Estelle tugged at her hand.
"Just a second, Stella." Annabeth adjusted the position of her phone.
"Yes, I did just say 'you'." The former director said in a clipped voice. "You have skills that we're in need of at the moment, not your husband's. Particularly your… strategic analysis of situations." That last sentence had almost sounded like he was reading from a teleprompter.
Annabeth raised her eyebrows. She knew there was more that Fury wasn't telling her, but she doubted she would get more out of the ex-spy. She had to admit she was kind of flattered that it was just her that Fury wanted, not Percy.
After so many years of being treated as Percy's sidekick—Chrysoar had said it out point-blank—she was sort of thinking that it was about time. Not that she was mad at Percy, it wasn't his fault, but it was nice for it to be just her for once.
"Where would I be at? Could I just work from home?"
"No." Fury said instantly. "We need you here."
"And that is?"
"Venice." He said. "Italy."
"I know where Venice is." She said, irritated.
"We may need you to move around in Europe as well." He continued as if she hadn't interrupted him. Annabeth played with her hair in thought. She wasn't sure she was ready to get back into the world of 'superheroes' so soon.
Granted, it had been nearly a year since the Blip and it had been nothing but peace and quiet since then, albeit the occasional monster attack, which Percy and Annabeth had taken down like it was child's play.
And life has been peaceful since then. Annabeth would be lying if she said that she didn't like it, because she did, but really, she was almost getting… well, bored. It wasn't as if she wanted to get attacked by monsters and roped into another prophecy, but going from saving the world and being a stay-at-home wife was a pretty big step, to be honest.
She was taken firmly back to reality when Fury cleared his throat loudly. "You still with me?"
"Fury, I'm going to talk about this with Percy. I'll tell you what we've decided as soon as I can."
Fury made an annoyed noise. "Well, we need your answer by tomorrow, so you'll have to figure it out by then."
"Okay. Um, is there a phone number I can reach you on?" She glanced down at the unknown caller ID. She doubted Fury would be using the same phone twice.
"We'll find you." He said flatly, and the phone line went dead.
Annabeth looked out the window at the setting sun for a few seconds, thinking. Stella pulled her hand again.
"Annabeth!"
"What?"
"I wanna watch Tangled."
"Thank goodness for that." Annabeth said under her breath as she sat back down.
"…and so then, he just said, 'We'll find you' and hung up." Annabeth finished telling Percy about her eventful phone call. By the time she had finished talking, he'd eaten his way through an entire sixteen-piece Chick Fil A chicken nugget meal and a large fry. (They'd eaten out because lately Annabeth had been craving the restaurant).
"Do you ever stop eating?" Annabeth said, half irritated, half amused.
"Hey, eating brings me peace." Percy said, the smirk not on his mouth yet but glittering in his eyes. Annabeth punched his arm playfully and stole one of his nuggets.
"Rude. So, anyway, what are you thinking about doing?"
Annabeth hesitated, avoiding his eyes. She put one finger on her wedding ring and tried to figure out what to say, not having the heart to tell him that, really, she'd already decided. "Percy, I… I want to go."
Percy glanced at her, and Annabeth was surprised to find that he was still grinning, albeit less-than-enthusiastically.
"Are you laughing at me?" She scowled at him a little.
"No, I just already knew. I figured you'd want to."
"And… you're okay with that?"
"Wise Girl, if you wanted to do something, I doubt I would have been able to stop you in the first place."
Annabeth touched his hand. "Percy, that didn't exactly answer my question."
Now it was his turn to look away, but not fast enough that she didn't catch the pain in his eyes. "If you want to go, then that's okay." He met his eyes with hers again and tried to smile, but didn't quite make it happen.
"Well, I do, but I also want to stay with you, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth recalled a time when she'd said that nickname in frustration at him. Now it was almost a force of habit.
"It's just we always did our adventures together." He added, looking at her earnestly.
Annabeth sighed. "Not always."
Wisdom's daughter walks alone.
The line echoed in both of their heads, and still the memory of Tartarus made her wince. Percy rubbed the back of his neck.
"Percy, I don't have to decide until tomorrow. Let's talk about something else, all right?" Annabeth changed the subject for her sake as much as Percy's. She was so tired of feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders, and sometimes she had to remember that she was entitled to be human, too.
"We should watch a movie." Percy decided. Annabeth agreed wholeheartedly. She enjoyed the experience of watching a movie with Percy, especially now that they didn't have to worry about monster attacks.
Percy was embracing the world of video games with open arms, and Annabeth laughed a little at the memory of him cursing in Ancient Greek whenever something killed him in the new game he found… what was it called? It was something to do with gasp of the wild, or intake of the wild, or something.
Well, she knew that it was a Legend of Zelda game. She herself couldn't get into those things, but Percy loved it. She had, however, played a few games of a game called Super Smash Brothers. She'd utterly destroyed Percy in it (he claimed it was because she played as Zero Suit Samus, a notoriously fast character, and he played Ganondorf, a notoriously slow player), a fact that he'd vowed he get revenge on her for, but she doubted that was going to happen any time soon.
"There's this new movie out," Annabeth suggested. "It's called Ford Versus Ferrari. It sounds good."
"Oh yeah, I saw the trailer, I think. What's it about, again?"
A few more minutes passed of them talking casually, tip-toeing around the upcoming mission from Fury. They put on the movie and Annabeth liked it, though she completely hated the ending. It reminded her too much of Tony, and when she thought of Tony, she thought of Jason, and then Frank, and, well…
Percy hugged her suddenly, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. She put her arm around his back and leaned her head on his shoulder, allowing herself to relax.
Annabeth fell asleep in Percy's arms during the after-credits, and her dreams, for once, were nightmare-free.
Annabeth woke up the next morning, her hands still clasped with Percy's. She felt a little less tense about the call from Fury, but still nervous. She glanced at Percy, her grey eyes questioning, and he squeezed her hand.
That was all that was needed to be communicated. Annabeth took a deep breath and dialed a number. "Fury? I'm in."
A/N what the heck chapter one's done already. This was really fun to write, and sorry if I kept too much on Percy's video game obsession, but I LOVE the idea of Percabeth playing video games together, and I can totally see Annabeth destroying him in super smash bros. Breath of the Wild is my all-time favorite game too, so I had to slip that in, too. Sorry not sorry.
Ford V Ferrari I've actually seen, and it's really good. No spoilers on here, but the ending was depressingly awesome.
Anyways, thanks for reading! I decided to publish this because I had some extra time on my hands, with coronavirus and all. As always, there will be a reviewer wall on the end of each chapter. Please review! Any criticisms are welcome, but please be nice about it!
Sorry that I had Annabeth keep her maiden name. I tried to have her last name be Jackson, I really did, I just can't. It just seems... wrong. I'M READY FOR FLAMES.
Next chapter should be up soon, but then again, it might not. Sorry for the long author's note. Happy spring!
