Chapter 177

Steve grit his teeth and looked hesitant to accept my offer. "Am I worthy of such a thing, though? I feel like everything I did ended up in failure. I sacrificed my life hoping that I was ending the war. That didn't happen. It went on for almost another year afterwards! Then I thought I had destroyed Hydra, but they're still around and ended up almost taking over the organization that Peggy dedicated her life to creating! My best friend ended up becoming the most feared Assassin of all time and even killed one of our presidents…" He slumped to the ground and took a seat on the floor.

I sat down next to him and patted him on the shoulder. Things have not exactly been going his way. "Life might be rough right now that's true but I think you're only focusing on the bad. You also might be spending too much time here at SHIELD where all they do is focus on the bad all day. That's their job after all."

Steve let out a sigh. "I've heard that all too, and I've tried getting out there but the City is just so much different than it was when I grew up."

"Well there's more places in America than New York City, you know. Back during the war, you used to tour the country all the time promoting War Bonds. Maybe you should get back out there and see the rest of the country again." I suggested. New York was definitely one of the craziest cities in existence and it definitely would freak someone out who grew up in the 1930's. There are still plenty of places in Rural America that I think Steve would enjoy.

He looked like he had come to a decision. "You know, I think I might do that for a few weeks. Just get out and tour the country. Clear my head a little bit. And once Hydra comes out of the woodwork I'll be ready to smack him down again!" He declared with a renewed passion.

I smiled at him and stood back up. I held out my hand for him And he took it. As I pulled him up I said, "After you've had your break and you're ready to fight again you can know that My Light will be with you to grant you strength when you need it." I gave him my blessing, and some of my Light Energy slipped inside of him. Over time it would enhance his body and allow him to grow stronger. He'd stand a better chance against the future opponents that I knew were coming. 

…

I had been hanging around SHIELD's HQ, on and off, to make sure the magic disrupting collars I had created kept functioning. So far they had been. Ares had tried to escape 16 times, but he had failed every time. Artemis hadn't made any escape attempts, but she hadn't exactly been a model prisoner either. She refused to answer any questions and mostly just sat in her cell in silence. As for Luke, I wasn't sure what was going on with him. Fury had some kind of plan for all of the Greek Demigods at camp Half-Blood. I was heading to a meeting for us to discuss that very thing.

I entered the command room and saw that Natasha, Fury and Agent Coulson were all inside. I ignored the two men in the room as I made my way straight towards Natasha. 

She smiled at my approach. "Hello Layla, you're looking quite–"

Natasha was cut off when I immediately kissed her. She was startled at first, before she wrapped her arms around my back and started reciprocating the kiss. We were momentarily lost in our own little world. 

Someone in the room loudly cleared their throat and Natasha and I separated. Fury was glaring at the two of us with his one eye. I'd offered to heal it, and so had Asia but he'd refused both times.

Coulson looked embarrassed, by our personal display of affection, but he didn't actually say anything. 

"Sorry, I've hardly gotten to spend any time with Natasha in so long." I said.

Despite the two men's reactions, my sexy spy girlfriend went back to her usual calm self and acted like nothing happened. I reached down and placed her hand in my own.

"Now that you're here, Layla, we can get started." Fury said with a sigh. He pulled out a remote and pointed it to a nearby large TV screen. It turned on and I saw an overhead view of a few log cabins on the screen. "Camp Half-Blood," Fury started. "Home of the Greek Demigod child soldiers."

Natasha clenched my hand tightly. She was a child soldier herself…

Fury continued. "According to Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, the Demigods are only safe at this camp. When they go into the outside world, they are hunted by immortal monsters constantly. The more powerful the Demigod, the more the monsters hunt them. Hardly any Demigod ever lives into their 30s because of this." He explained. Fury then clicked the remote a few times and a sideshow went by of mutilated corpses of children and young adults. I grimaced at the sight.

Coulson spoke up. "For years, bodies like these have been popping up on the East Coast sporadically. The government kept quiet about it to not cause a massive panic. We had been under the impression that a brutal and uncatchable group of serial killers had been plaguing our nation for decades." He said with a sad look. " We now know that was not the case."

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