𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩

༻ ❁ ༺

MEANWHILE, TONY FLEW underneath the explosion, extending out his left hand and shooting a continuous tri-beamed laser from the panelling fitted to his forearm.

"Sir, we will lose power before we penetrate that shell," JARVIS informed pragmatically, the lasers powered down and the suit streaking ahead.

The creature bent lower as it flew to crash through the roof of a lower building as it trailed Iron Man, "JARVIS you ever hear the tale of Jonah?" he proposed hesitantly as he distanced himself.

"I wouldn't consider him a role model," the AI replied in disinclination.

"Dad, what are you up to?" Charlotte asked with a suspicious tone, and Tony couldn't help to smirk a little inside his helmet.

"Something that I would rather you didn't tell your mother about." he replied as he sailed towards the creature, its maw opening wide as it groaned while the suit flew into it.

Charlotte heard her father yell as he passed through the alien's innards, missiles flying outwards and wreaking havoc on the beast's structure with explosions that ripped through its skin and twisted its shelled, metal exterior. Tony was thrown outwards as the tail end was severed from the rest of the body, the suit tumbling through the air to crash through a bus stop before halting with the impact to an abandoned taxi, rolling to lie on his stomach on the concrete.

"Dad, are you okay?" Charlotte asked worriedly.

He startled as a beam fired at his chest before lifting his arms in an attempt to defend himself as two more shots were fired to hurl him back into some standing glass advertisement boards before he could respond. A Chitauri squadron approached him.

"Dad?!" He heard Charlotte again, sounding more frantic.

"I'm f-fine, I'm okay honey," he told her weakly, fighting back any alien in his way. Charlotte tried to look for him from the rooftop, but her dad was out of sight.

"Stark, do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city," Nick Fury suddenly warned him through his own Bluetooth.

"How long?" Tony asked in fright as he tried to lift himself onto all fours, one of the aliens surrounding him knocking his head into the ground with the butt of its staff.

"Three minutes, max. The payload will wipe out Midtown," Nick explained as Tony's HUD flickered.

He shot repulsor blasts haphazardly at the numbers around him, managing to raise himself onto one knee as he commanded, "JARVIS put everything we got into the thrusters."

Iron Man's twin thrusters on the soles of his boots and on his back pushed him away from the street, resulting in the loss of the Chitauri hanging from his leg. He swerved around the corner of a building with a trail of sparks trailing after him.

Charlotte stood on the Tower's roof, watching the heavens with a shiver running up her spine. Erik righted a teetering control pedestal behind her, lifting the monitor of the linked laptop that sat on it to show them some of the device's features. He leaned around the machine to indicate a direction to Natasha with an index finger, "Right at the crown," he stated.

Charlotte turned around, watching Natasha as she held the scepter firmly, the blade at the tip breaching the translucent sphere that formed in defense. Natasha gasped and Charlotte took a small step back in surprise as the redhead held the weapon firmly, the gem embedded in its head glowed brightly as wisps of dark smoke breezed from the point of entry, "I can close it! Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Charlotte heard Steve answer.

"No, wait!" Tony suddenly protested.

"Stark, these things are still coming," the Captain argued as he gazed up, incredulous. Charlotte couldn't help but agreed, she was looking at the skies with a confused expression.

"I got a nuke coming in," Tony answered, his voice tight, "It's gonna blow in less than a minute," he sailed beneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to abruptly raise his hands and use the repulsors to halt his momentum over the water in a spray of the substance, the missile soaring overhead to his flying up and curving over the crossing to trail it.

"Nuke?!" Charlotte uttered out, completely shocked, "Where did it come from?!" she exclaimed, "What are you gonna do with it?!"

"D-Don't worry honey, I know just where to put it," he declared, his voice sounded completely miserable, Charlotte felt like she heard a sob mid-talk.

"D-Dad?" she whispered, fearfully.

"Stark," Steve began solemnly, knowing that Charlotte was hearing him, "You know that's a one-way trip."

"Save the rest for the return," Tony weakly instructed JARVIS, trying to block his daughter's cries from his ears.

"Sir," JARVIS responded tentatively, "Shall I try Mrs. Stark?"

"Dad! Why aren't you answering me?!" his daughter's cries were making Tony's brown eyes wetter by the second, he felt a lump in his throat and it was getting hard to breathe.

"Might as well," he stared at the display pictures of the two women as the AI brought his cell phone capabilities up on the HUD inside his helmet. The status of the connection switched to 'Calling'.

༻ ❁ ༺

A white jet with Stark Industries emblazoned on the side soared through the scattered white clouds, ten miles away.

Pepper was sitting inside with two coworkers, and all their attention was riveted on a television screen, a female reporter announcing what was currently happening in the streets of New York City as videos of the invasion were shown.

Pepper's cell was lying on the wooden lip along the side of the interior under the windows, an incoming call displaying the picture of Tony as the phone vibrated.

༻ ❁ ༺

Tony concentrated on directing the nuke between the high-rises and towards his tower in the distance as smoke trailed the canister from Iron Man's thrusters path. His heart felt heavy as he watched the call to Pepper continued to try and connect in the corner of the HUD.

Charlotte sobbed out as she spotted him approaching with the nuke, Natasha instantly pulled the little girl to herself, shielding her.

"Sir, I advise you to talk with your daughter," JARVIS stated, sounding mildly sad.

"Charlie, I need you to listen to me." Tony's voice was calm and collected despite his own fear and trepidation. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm so sorry." No matter how hard he tried to hide his tears, the wavering in his voice gave it away.

Natasha, Erik, and Charlotte whipped their heads up as Tony clipped the edge of the building to continue on, his flight following the beam emitted by the Cube as Chitauri ships streaked downwards, "You shouldn't have to see this."

"Why does it sound like you're saying goodbye?" Charlotte interrupted him, struggling against Natasha as she followed Iron Man with her teary, widened eyes. "Dad, what are you doing?"

The whole Avengers heard them with sad expressions, Thor almost wanted to go up there himself and stop Tony, but that would mean an explosion that would destroy thousands of lives. He hated this. No child should grow up with a father. This was all Loki's fault; Thor scowled angrily at the skies.

"You and your mother, you are both the best thing that could have ever happened to me," Tony whispered lovingly, nearing the gathered clouds and excess energy created by the portal before passing over the threshold with the missile.

"I love you, too - please, don't do this! Just come back! Her screaming was interrupted as if someone had grabbed hold of her throat and started choking her.

"DAD!" Charlotte screamed with horror, then she began sobbing; she cried as she felt a large lump in her throat, "W-Where is he?!" she turned to Natasha, "Where has he gone?!"

The agent could only look down at her with pitiful eyes, "Oh, Charlie" she sighed, reaching to pat her head.

She didn't want pity. Growling out of frustration, Charlotte pushed Natasha's comforting hand away to stare up at the sky, waiting.

"Come on, Stark," Steve beckoned, hopefully.

Thor averted his gaze to the ground before fixing his gaze on the Captain beside him as the sounds of the muted explosion reverberated through the portal. Steve gazed up at the nearing blast and sighed, "I'm sorry, Charlotte," he took a deep breath, realizing that what he was about to order was going to make a little girl fatherless, "Close it," he ordered Natasha.

"No! You can't!" Charlotte cried at once, still staring at the hole in the sky, "Wait! Please!" she begged.

Natasha frowned regretfully and turned to the device; she paused before pushing the sceptre further, the tip and gem pulsing as it reached the Tesseract's upper surface.

The beam broke free from the roof's mechanism and raced heavenward before reuniting with the portal's residual energy, shrinking the portal's entry into space. Wisps of dark blue and azure clashing together and rolling in like the tide to shut it crushed inwards to Steve bending his head, full of regret.

"Please... please..." Charlotte whispered to herself, watching the hole attentively and rubbing the tears away from her vision.

Then, Tony Stark emerged from the pale blue sky, just as the portal closed.

Natasha released trembling breaths as Steve uttered in relief, "Son of a gun."

"DAD!" Charlotte cheered, her sad tears turned into joyful ones as a bright grin showed on her lips.

However, her smile quickly dropped when she realized her dad was plunging without resistance through the still air, drawing closer and closer to the roofs of the structures below.

"He's not slowing down!" Thor stated as he started to spin Mjolnir by the strap of the handle as he and Steve stared upwards. The young girl gasped as her eyes followed her dad's limp body falling quickly downwards.

But then the Hulk hurled himself across the space between the buildings and caught Tony with an arm around his torso. Before launching them to the street, he slid down the side of the opposing high-rise with his other hand, slowing them down by the drag through the concrete and glass. He spun so to land on his back on a taxi and then through the rubble coating the surface of the road, clasping Tony to his chest.

The Hulk grunted as he lifted his head to note the suit he was holding, and then flipped Tony off of him to the ground beside. Thor handed his hammer to Steve as he squatted at his side and rolled him over, the Hulk tight with his fists down over Tony's prone form.

"Is he breathing?" Steve asked in panic, wanting nothing more than for Tony to wake up and bring relief to his daughter.

Charlotte kneeled down on the edge of the roof and used her Stark Glasses, zooming in on the group.

Thor hurriedly ripped the face plate from the helmet and threw it away. "Stark!"

As the Hulk lifted a fist in desire for a solution that he could attain, Steve went down to place his ear over Tony's lips, then leaned back at the absence of breath. Steve's gloved hand dropped slightly down the chest plate, considering their options, when he suddenly realised the arc reactor in his chest cavity was not generating any light.

"Is he okay?" Charlotte asked meekly, making every man down there tense up.

Tony's face was calm as he lay peacefully in his suit, the blondes at his side immobile, afraid to answer Charlotte's inquiry, given the facts. The Hulk stood panting in aggravation, eyes shifting from side to side in thought as he glanced at the other two before observing their surrender. He turned back to Tony and unexpectedly roared down at the martyr's prone form.

Tony gasped into consciousness, the Hulk bellowing his triumph to the skies as Steve's eyes widened, leaning closer in disbelief.

"He's alive!" Steve announced, mostly to Charlotte.

And Natasha had to catch the ten-year-old before she fell down after her knee strength gave up on her - she was crying, because she was emotionally tired and relieved to beyond.

"What the hell?!" the genius gasped out.

Thor gazed down with furrowed brows before he smirked in relief, "He lives."

"What just happened?" Tony reiterated before fully taking in the three surrounding him, "Please tell me nobody kissed me," he implored. "The missus will be pissed."

"Swear." Charlotte laughed, he was definitely alive.

The Captain chuckled as he lifted his gaze to the middle distance and the smoldering wreckage of vehicles and houses, as well as the limp bodies of grey-skinned beings and leviathans. He nodded his head a few times before asserting the situation with a decisive nod, "We won," he stated.

Tony sighed before acknowledging, "Alright, yay," he cheered weakly, "Hurray! Good job guys. Uh, let's just not come in tomorrow. I need to take a day off and hug my daughter forever," he suggested as he shifted gingerly.

"You ever tried shawarma?" he asked to Steve's indulgent smile and charmed shake of his head, "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here - I don't know what it is, Charlie, you wanna try it too, honey?"

It was the first time her dad was talking with her since he said goodbye, and Charlotte couldn't help but choke out, "Sure, dad. Shawarma sounds good."

Hearing her voice brought color back to his face.

"We're not finished yet," Thor interjected.

Steve turned to glance up at him and Tony's expression shifted into one of concession.

"And then shawarma after," he insisted hopefully.

༻ ❁ ༺

Loki groaned in pain as he pulled himself up the few stairs covered in glass, bracing his body above the surface with his elbows.

At the attempted transition to sitting, he sighed and paused, his gaze going from a pair of child's shoes to upwards, where he caught eyes with Charlotte Stark, who was staring down at him with a scowl on her face.

"Behind you, Mr. Loki," she stated, mocking the 'mister' word.

His eyes widened as he panted while twisting to view the area behind him.

Tony stood on the far left, chin up, armour damaged and scratched, helmet missing, the arc reactor shining brilliantly in the centre of his chest, the Hulk ready for combat with dark eyes behind him.

Without his cowl, Captain America gazed down at the God of Mischief, his shield held in his right hand in the centre. Clint knelt close to her as he lifted his crossbow and drew back a knocked arrow.

Thor behind him with blood-spattered Mjolnir in hand, and Natasha on the far right with the scepter grasped firmly.

Loki gaped at the sight with cuts on his forehead, brow, bridge of his nose, chin and armor covered in dust before lowering his head, "If it's all the same to you," he began as he delicately turned so to use his arms on the row of stairs behind to brace himself as he sighed, "I'll have that drink now," he proposed beseechingly.

No one said a thing, they were all glaring at Loki while Tony rolled his eyes.

"I told you they were gonna kick your butt," Charlotte said as she descended the steps to stand next to her dad, she had a cocky expression on her face that matched Tony's.

The genius smiled proudly and placed an arm around her shoulder, pulling her firmly into his side. He needed to keep her close; he had no intention of letting her go.

༻ ❁ ༺

The following day

Charlotte could still feel her heart pounding hard in her chest from all of the adrenaline she had experienced the day before.

She hardly slept at all, and when she did, it was with Tony's arms around her. They slept in the same bed, clutching to one other as her father whispered comforting words. The other Avengers slept in the tower as well, randomly in the different suites that existed - with Loki being held in a cell that was practically being watched non-stop by JARVIS.

Charlotte could not forget yesterday's trip to the shawarma place her dad talked about. She had no notion if she liked the dish or not because of the awkward silence and slow eating. Perhaps her dad just wanted to take a breath after almost dying.

Charlotte had begun to struggle to stay awake as the adults of the group finished their meal. Thor had since finished eating and opted to allow the young girl to lean against his side. She soon fell asleep, her small frame instinctively tucked into him. As they made their way back to the tower, the God of Thunder did not need to think twice before carefully hoisting the child's sleeping form into his arms; her head lolled against his chest as her legs hung limp over his forearms.

Her mom was not able to get inside the city until after midnight, where it was safe to get inside and get out. Pepper rushed directly to the Tower but was unable to reunite with her daughter as she had already fallen asleep. Pepper officially met the Avengers; much to Tony's annoyance, she could not help but blush when Thor kissed her knuckles.

Once alone, she checked over her husband and asked Tony if he was okay, knowing that he almost died sacrificing himself - he said he was fine but his body language said otherwise.

Not quite an hour later, once Pepper too had fallen asleep, Charlotte showed up at her dad's room. She didn't know her mom was in the tower and she had woken up from a nightmare so going to her dad's suite was an instant direction she took.

The following morning saw a wholesome reunion between the mother and child. When it was time to send Thor, Loki, and the Tesseract back to Asgard, Charlotte stayed in the tower with her mom.

As they said their farewells, Thor could not help but sweep the child into an embrace; Charlotte threw her head back and giggled wildly as she was tightly wrapped up in a strong pair of arms.

She then bid an almost awkward but cute farewell to Steve, who after being somewhat startled by the girl suddenly rushing to him and wrapping her arms around his midsection, ruffled her hair fondly. Something told him that this was not the last time he would be seeing the young Stark.

When Charlotte said her goodbyes to Natasha, the redhead patted her on the head and told her that she would have to show off her karate skills one day - to which Charlotte promised to work more in the future if she was going to spar with a trained agent.

Saying goodbye to Clint had been quick, but comfortable. He just smiled down at her and she smiled back. That was it - with a nod of acknowledgment, the two then fist-bumped and he left.

Bruce was already gone, but her dad had told her not to worry about it before leaving as well, giving her forehead a peck.

Charlotte looked at the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows of her bedroom, she could not believe that yesterday the view was chaotic instead of peaceful. The news channels have been going insane with content that lasted all day and night, the public was torn between being thankful for the Avengers, and those who believed that they caused as much destruction as the Chitauri and that they should be punished for it.

Her dad was already donating money and helping rebuild the city - Charlotte wondered what more could possibly be done?

Pepper told her daughter that in the world there will always be people that don't agree with what is normalized. People had different perspectives and morals.

Rhodey arrived to the tower a short while after the Avengers had departed. He hugged his goddaughter firmly and apologised for not being able to protect her. She knew that he did not need to apologise for anything, and gladly sat with him a while as she told him, in great detail, everything that had transpired the previous day.

When her dad returned with Bruce, Charlotte was happy that he was staying with them for a while. Over dinner, she had told Bruce about how the Hulk rescued her from Loki - a small smile graced the doctor's face as he listened to the girl talk about The Other Guy with such admiration.

After dinner, Bruce and Rhodey retreated to another area of the tower, the pair engrossed in their own conversation. Charlotte, Pepper, and Tony were up and in front of the computer her dad had previously watched the footage about the Avengers Initiative.

Pepper placed a hand over the two-dimensional ground space, rising the hundreds of levels of the Tower's development while Tony unrolled a digital, interactive layout of his properties and browsed through the floor plans. The billionaire stepped to her from the bar as he took a sip of a drink he had prepared, while Charlotte sipped from her juice box while she looked at the Tower.

He pushed it to the side as he casually rotated the hologram, deliberately placing a finger to his mouth before resting his palm on his hip. Pepper swept the top half of it off to his additional removal of some of the bracing architecture of the side before dismissing the entirety of the original design.

"Avengers Tower?" Charlotte mumbled in awe, "I like it!"

In the midst of the plastic tarps, spotlights, paint cans, and ladders of the rebuild, Pepper and Tony both smiled at the ten-year-old before looking at one other and sharing a kiss. It was a happy moment, so Charlotte averted her gaze away from the night sky to allow them some privacy.

As she looked up at the starry sky, she couldn't help but to drop her smile to stare intently at it - space no longer seemed fascinating to her, but fearsome.

She had the feeling that something much more terrifying than the Chitauri or Loki was lurking and watching them from above.