Parker had to force herself not to cry. She thought after everything, after all her preparation and mental talks she would be able to function next to the Hulk in person. She was wrong, in fact she knew that without Loki tightening his hold her she wouldn't be standing.

She caught his eye and tried to not to watch his failing nostrils in her peripheral vision. Catherine Parker tried to find Bruce Banner, she knew he was there but through the green skin and bulging muscles, the lanky scientist that didn't have time to be clean shaven but couldn't stand the thought  of a beard, was hard to find. In fact the moment she saw the Jekyll to her Hyde standing in front of her the furthest she had felt from Bruce in a long time.

Parker saw Spider-Man next to him and she forced herself to breath deeper and deeper, and she felt Loki's arm move with her chest along with the staff scraping her skin. Then she felt his forearm tense and she resorted to shallow breath from her nose. 

The world wasn't slowing down for Parker as Loki stared at the pair and they watched her. Chaos still rampaged outside behind the figure but Parker felt like she had been left behind.

"Take one more step and she dies," Parker didn't want to die. She didn't. It seemed in the space of twenty minutes that had become a real possibility; the Hulk could survive anything and Peter probably could too but Catherine Parker worried about herself. The women could deal with any amount of emotional trauma but physical danger was terrifying, "I mean it. And don't you try anything Spider."

Neither of them moved, Parker finally tried to free herself. She squirmed in his grasp and kicked with her legs to no positive avail as Loki seemed indestructible. Peter flinched, Parker wished she could see his eyes through the mask and Bruce's behind the Hulk but it just happened that she was struggling to see anything at all from hers.

Her vision was becoming blurred around the edges as if her brain isn't processing her surroundings. It scared her especially as she saw the convulsions of the Hulks face. It was confusion, two sides of the same person who aren't afraid to kill the other one for dominance.

Loki laughed but didn't stop staring at the Hulk; it was Bruce's love verus his mind control. And soon an inner torment was going to spill into the real world. Peter realised he was in just as much danger as his sister but he wouldn't grant her captor the satisfaction of his surrender.

"Bruce..." Parker whispered, she hoped it would help. But it didn't, it made her throat close up even more. She wasn't saying it through a phone, her lifeline had finally answered but he felt closer when they were thousands of miles away.

Bruce looked at her, the little part of the scientist fighting through. He wished he had never seen it, never seen the drop of blood running down the sceptre and the wrinkles forming on Parker's forehead. He had always tried to keep her young, keep her happy and now neither of them were.

"Hulk." Bruce's neck snapped again and he clenched his knuckles, with Loki's words,  "That's his name." Parker shivered and tried to free herself again but it was useless.

Before she had been the tough one; she had outrun an archer, she had put together the puzzle pieces but now she was fragile. But that was okay. Because she was human. Not a hero, super or not. She was a mere mortal , "Or shall I call him the Beast? You're the Beauty anyway,"

Parker knew she wasn't a princess even though her prince was standing right in front of her.

That goes for you too Webs, you move, she dies." It was either his naivety or love for Parker but Peter didn't even allow his fingers to move but they were ready. Ready for whatever he would have to do because there was no way he was letting his sister come close to dying. Not again.

"What do you want?" The women had finally found her voice and she tried to distract Loki. She couldn't distract herself however, she was staring at the Hulk and realising that Bruce was there, Because nobody frowned quite like him and the creature in front of her was doing just that.

"I want this world. And none of the Avengers are going to stand in my way," Loki growled as he began edging to the window.

Parkers feet dragged on the ground and the sound of glass scratching  seemed to annoy the Hulk. She tried to hook her foot onto the pane where the window had smashed, her efforts had a larger effect now, she twisted her ankle as Loki tore her away and entered the balcony. Parker cursed but then she felt more drops of blood run down her neck so she took to mentally screaming the panic that was rising in her.

Peter swallowed, enough was enough. He was a risk taker by nature and the Hulk mirrored him. There shoulders rolled in sockets, there fingers stretched and necks cracked. Loki paused.

"You don't want to do this." A cool breeze whipped some of Parker's hair into her mouth but she dared not move it. The Hulk growled and Loki suddenly seemed to be the one that was growing nervous. The two superheros continued there warmup and all Loki could do in return was continue further and further towards the edge.

"Shit. You have got to be fucking kidding me." Parker mumbled  as her eyes accidentally flicked down to the huge drop below her. Then she realised she said it out loud, "Fuck me."

"Scared of heights are we?" Loki chuckled, he appreciated a sense of humour in this victim, "This just keeps on getting better and better."

Loki was wrong. It had matters a whole lot worse. Bruce Banner heard the words he had grown used to hearing on a regular basis, he heard the women he would go to the end of the world to make happy. And it made him angry. For once, Bruce and the Hulk were on the same page.

Parker wasn't able to see the tables turn in front of her how the two people in the same body became one - how Bruce accepted the Hulk. Instead she felt it. 

The Hulk smashed his fist on the floor, a rupture smashed tiles and ran all the way to Loki's feet as they shook under the impact. At the same time Peter web caught a hold of the sceptre and tore it from the God's clasp, it grazed Parker's neck even more. A long but shallow cut formed.

However it was quickly covered by Loki's hand as he lifted the women and began to strangle her with his right arm. Parker clawed at the god's hand, both of them coated in sticky blood.

"I told you," Loki was exasperated, he spoke slow, enunciating every sound as his grip tightened accordingly, "Not to try anything!" The advancing pair stopped in their tracks.

Parker was blind but she knew what was going on. Her legs kicked out but couldn't find any ground. She was totally in the hands of Loki, is he let go she would fall from the top of Stark Tower and die at the bottom. She stopped clawing at his hands and instead her hands found their way onto his arm. She was petrified.

"Don't try anything." Loki repeated as he tore Parker's grip from him,  and teased by beginning to uncurl his fingers, one by one. Loki was done taking chances he just didn't understand that chances were exactly what people took for those they loved.

The Hulk wasn't going to try something. He was going to do something. He roared and the sound rattled through Parker body. She prayed that Loki wouldn't let go but that exactly what he did as the huge green mass of muscle tackled Loki. The momentum from his body plunged both all three parties over the edge and finally the scream that Parker had been keeping was able to be released.

Her brain couldn't focus on anything as she cascaded through the air, all she could see was the blurring of windows and she could only feel the whipping of her clothes against her body. It ignited every shred of emotion in her body and turned them to fear as adrenaline forced her to swing her limbs in every way possible, praying for something to stop this nightmare. She was on her way to her grave. 

Suddenly without warning her body slammed against something solid and all her precious oxygen was knocked out of lungs. And before she had the chance to breathe again she slammed into it again.

For the second time in her life and that day; Parker was dangling by a web.

Peter tried to stop his body from shaking as they went the only way they could go, up, but it was too real. His sister was almost dead, he almost came too late, a couple more seconds and he truly wouldn't have any family left.

Parker had screwed her eyes shut and tears collected at the edges. Her fingernails dug through Peter's suit but he didn't say anything. She dug her own face into the crook of his neck and Peter tried to make sense of her mutterings but it didn't really matter what she was saying as long as he heard her voice.

When they reached the ledge Parker's knees almost gave way. Peter supported her as he took of his mask. It didn't seem right to have it on. The war raged on in front of them but they were untouched, alone in mourning.

The women looked for the mess of green in her eyesight, it was coming back but no Hulk with it. He was gone. She couldn't take it.

With all the courage she could muster, she pushed away from Peter and tried to look beyond the ledge. She had promised herself she would never stop searching. But her brother was done taking risks, he pulled her back by the waist as the panic set in. She desperately clawed her way to the edge as Peter held her back by the waist.

"Cathy, please-"

"No!" She cried, "I have to see Peter," He pulled her face away, and looked at her, she looked the same as she did that day in the hospital, she was in shock, "I have to! Peter!"

The force she was too scared to use on Loki came put on her brother, but this time it was in desperation. Her nose ran as she hit her brother again and again on the chest until it became softer and softer, her rage became sadness. She rested her forehead against his chest. All this time she spent searching and when he was right in front of her she hadn't even thought of the Hulk as Bruce.

"He's gone Cathy," Peter shushed her just like how she used to do. He genuinely believed he was doing the right thing, "There's nothing we can do." He pulled her up so they were standing opposite each other. He wiped a tear from her eye.

"He has been gone for a while now," Parker whispered, "All I ever wanted was for him to come back Peter," She wiped her nose, "That's all."

Both of them had forgotten who they were dealing with. The Hulk was indestructible and Dr Bruce Banner was determined and together, well together they could do anything.

The sound started out in the distance, it echoed Parker's heartbeat. They looked into the distance and Peter pointed to a lone flying figure heading towards the crack in the sky, Iron Man.

Parker thought she already had too many to mourn.

But the sound continued, it grew stronger as the pair cautiously looked at each other before looking back at the edge and backing away. Peter thought about putting his mask back on but right now Parker wanted Peter not Spider-Man. They both turned around to navigate past the mess of broken glass. Peter dropped his mask just as Loki's body was flung ten metres away from them and the Hulk burst through the only pane of glass that remained.

They felt exactly like they had done when they entered the apartment the first time. This time their feet could move and in shock they staggered back onto the balcony.

The scene in front of them finally registered and Parker couldn't have been happier to see violence as the man she though had left her behind forever slammed Loki's body against the floor again and again and again.

"Puny god." The Hulk spat as he finished his job.

Parker let out a laugh and then another one. Her brother looked down at her, just as he thought he was understand his sister, her grin or her tears would surprise him.

She wasn't scared anymore. She had been thrown out of a building for Christ sake. Bruce was alive, Peter was alive and despite all the odds, she was as well.

The Hulk did the one thing she would never have expected. He smiled as well. And in that moment Parker accepted what she had known for a long time; a part of whatever was stood in front of her was Bruce.

"Parker ... safe." The Hulk growled in his low voice. She didn't know if he had asked a question or said a statement but Parker nodded.

"I'm okay Bruce," She replied and for the first time that day she picked herself up, she straightened herself and watched the creature walk with heavy steps to the balcony. Peter followed him.

The pair looked down at the city together, fires and carnage littered their view as they thought about what to do next.

Parker slowly moved to join them but then an explosion in the tower block next to them made her stop. She watched from her safe distance at the mechanical beast that swam in the sky.

She realised then that New York City wasn't home to her. Right now this Tower was home because it contained the two people she loved most in the world.

Then as suddenly as the invasion began it ended. The creatures in the sky stopped swimming and fell to Earth, the foot soldiers collapsed and the hum of technology ceased and silence ran amongst the skyscrapers.

It was over. Parker looked up at the portal not knowing what to expect but the last thing she thought of was Iron Man and now she was watching his body cascade through air like she had done only moments earlier.

Parker Miller stopped Peter in his tracks to pick up his mask and she caught the Hulk's eye,

"Hulk, catch."

-

a/n