Chapter 9
“Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes”
Unable to deal with furys speech she pushed herself away from the table and walked away her brother looking after her sadly “well” he said to her retreating back
“It’s an old fashioned notion”
She was sitting on the ledge where the hulks cell use to be staring at nothing when the captain found her
“Was he married?” he questioned she glanced up “dunno, didn’t know him to well, I think he said something about a cellist”
Silence for a moment “I'm sorry, he seemed like a good man”
She snorted openly and rose to her feet “he was an idiot” she said turning “for believing?” Steve demanded “for fighting a god alone!” Steve kept a steady gaze on her “he was doing his job”
She twisted her lips “I was only doing my job to protect my baby brother and we see where that got me! Thinks I'm a fucking lab experiment.” His brow furrowed in confusion “what do you mean?” she looked at him “long story short I’m the closest they ever came to making another you baby” she saw his face go slightly red again and enjoyed that shed embarrassed him.
“Anyway Phil was out of his league and should have waited” Steve came around to stand in front of her
“sometimes there isn’t a way out” she snorted to herself snapping her fingers as she stepped passed him “right herd that someplace before” she started to leave “this the first time you lost a soldier?”
She spun and next thing she knew her hand was caught in his shirt “we are not soldiers!”
Her voice echoed around the room and she saw her hand was shaking she took a step away from the man “I’m not marching to fury’s beat” she said lower “neither am I he has the same blood on his hands as Loki dose” she looked over at the tall blonde man “but right now we have to put that behind us and get this done”
She zoned out her brain starting to work as she looked at the blood stain “he made it personal” she said and heard Steve sigh “that's not the point” she looked back at him pieces fitting together even as she looked at him “that is the point that's Loki’s point, he hit us at home why?” she asked
“To tear us apart”
She bit at her thumb nail “that's the thing divide and concurs well and good but, he didn’t take us out, he knows he has to do that to win, that's what he wants, he's a drama queen he wants to beat us and be seen doing it” she pulled her hand away shaking a finger “he wants an audience” Steve looked at her trying to follow along “you should have seen his act in Stuttgart” he said she waved a hand “that was just a sneak peek, a preview, this is the big show, and Loki’s a fucking diva I mean” she turned from her walking to look at Steve “he wants flowers and parades he wants a fucking monument built to the skies with his name plastered-”
She stopped mid rant the final piece clicking into place “sonuvabitch” she said as Steve just looked at her in confusion
She followed her brother ahead of the others to the tower, her suit limping, she hadn't had a chance to repair it yet and it was malfunctioning boots randomly shutting down
Then she pulled a tony move and tried to fight a god which wound up with her being thrown out a window and tony being awesome and giving her a new suit he'd been working on without telling her, it was a little tight on the chest.
But then, of course, all hell broke loose for real.
She and her brother tried to stem the tide but there were so many of them, to many.
They fought she didn’t know for how long they fought, it could have been hours or minutes or days.
More than once she swooped down and helped those stuck on the ground after they arrived then she was shot down landing hard and cursed but kept fighting.
When tony brought along a huge ugly slug and the hulk who had just arrived smashed it she wasn’t looking forward to getting covered in alien guts but surprisingly she wasn’t a quick glance showed her Steve had ducked behind her shield up she encored it other than a nod of recognition because apparently killing their mother worm really pissed them off.
They stood back to back more than ready for what happened until they saw what was coming; even her brother must have been desperate because he asked Steve for guidance.
The fight went on, and never had they worked so well together her, her brother and Steve, but they were starting to get tired, they were coming to fast, they couldn’t hold them.
Her brother was surrounded, Hawkeye down for at least a few minutes out of arrows, the hulk was even being overpowered, Thor was running out of juice, and the captain took a shop to the stomach, it seemed hopeless.
Going to save her brother she held her breath and started to pray for something, she didn’t know what but something to help them.
She got her answer but it was from the worst place, a nuke was heading for the city.
“stark can you hear me?” fury called “what?” tony demanded as they fought off trying to be able to fly “you have a missile heading straight for the city” she punched an alien “how long?” she asked “3 minutes max the payload will wipe out midtown”
Her brother grunted when an alien hit his helm pushing him back down
“Jarvis all the juice to the thrusters!” she demanded “I just did” he told them and they shot off.
“I can close it can anybody copy?” came a static filled voice of Natasha “I can shut the portal down!”
“Do it!” the captain said “no wait!” tony said “stark these things are still coming” Steve replied “and we have a nuke coming in it'll blow in less than a minute!” they changed course so they were right on the missile “and we know just where to put it” she added as they both latched onto the missile
“stark you know that's a one way trip” Steve said after a short pause “aw you worried about us baby?, Jarvis save some for the turn” she said Jarvis asked if he should try to call pepper and she made a decision as they got close she swirled around “I’m sorry” she said and shoved her boot into her brothers face making him let go and disorienting him she took his place “what are you doing!” he demanded and she smiled
“It’s my choice, I know what I have to do” the portal was like a darkness sucking her in “I'm sorry I couldn’t keep my promise”
“give em hell” tony said voice wavering “you know I-” the line went dead as everything was suddenly silent, and cold, her eyes wide open she stared at what had to be the mother ship and millions more of those aliens she couldn’t move or breath and the power in her suit suddenly was no more and she started to drift.
She saw the nuke fly into the other ship, saw it detonate and silently she wondered would the blast get her first or would it be the cold or perhaps suffocation she closed her eyes and waited at peace.
On the ground all the aliens suddenly fell lifeless to the ground everyone staring at the sky “come on stark” Natasha breathed tony stared at the portal and let tears run down his face, no one could see anyway.
Then they saw the explosion “close it” Steve said looking away then herd something and looked up she had made it out “son of a gun” he said then they noticed something
She wasn’t stopping or slowing down before any of them could try to catch her, namely her brother or Thor, hulk leaped out of nowhere and caught her coming in for a crash landing on his back keeping her protected against his chest.
Immediately tony was at her side “is she breathing?” Steve asked as tony removed her helm her hair now released some of the wind caught it, the light brown strands had been darkened with blood and she wasn’t responding, her skin was ice cold.
Her brother sat there dumbly as Steve sat back on his heels the hulk seemed to be the only one to take action because he slammed on the road on either side of her and roared
Everyone seemed surprised when she gasped body going stiff “what the hell” she choked and started coughing, then tony couldn’t help it and swept in and drew her into a tight hug which she complained about “your crushing me” she groaned he reeled back “what just happened? Tell me no one kissed me”
Her eyes were drawn to Steve as he sat back “we won”
She sighed and let her head fall back “yay, can we have the day off tomorrow?” she looked at her brother “you ever had shwarma? Theirs a joint not far I have no idea what it is but I want some”
“Were not done yet” she looked at Thor and sighed and pointed at her brother “order it after!”
Once Loki was taken care of for some reason she felt extremely cold, enough that she started to shiver and she knew the adrenalin was wearing off; she had almost died so she had an excuse to suddenly start to collapse until someone caught her
It took her a moment to realize it was Steve and yet another to figure out what he was saying “are you alright?” he was all that was holding her up but she dint care she was hungry and in pain and tired and cold
“just let me sleep” she heard a chuckle “let’s get her back to the hellicarrier, she’ll be fine” she didn’t fight when Steve shifted putting one of her arms over his shoulder, she had just submitted herself to shuffling along beside him when suddenly her feet left the ground
She made a sound as he carried her but didn’t complain just laid her head against his shoulder “normally I don't let guys do this till the second date” she just barely caught a glimpse of the way his cheeks heated and turned red and had half a second to think of how cute it was before the darkness finally took her.
The thoughts of ‘they won’ and ‘captain America looked cute blushing’ following her into sleep.