BRONWEN FELT ALIVE.
But she did not in the next moment.
It was only until after the event happened, she realised what took place. First, her two feet were planted safely on the ground, a grin across her face as she looked over to her father.
Second, she was flung across the room, pain radiating up her body and through her bones, her smile fell.
Third, she fell into a passage that was opened up due to the explosion. Her head was pounding, her jumper torn.
It wasn't even her jumper.
It was Peter's.
She cursed herself for allowing it to be ruined, and groaned as she pushed herself up - sitting. Bronwen ran a hand through her hair, hands finding the small touch-sensitive button on her earring to turn them on.
All she heard was static.
Cursing once more, Bronwen turned the earrings off.
And finally, Bronwen took in her surroundings.
A long hallway, walls covered in pipes, the lighting a gloomy red. She realised where she was; a service hallway.
Underneath the compound.
Probably buried under a ton or so of concrete.
She sighed, pulling herself to her feet. Miraculously, nothing had been broken. She was unharmed beside the many bruises that would form over the next few days.
Through the dim light, Bronwen saw a lump in the form of a body. Hesitantly, she headed down the hall, a hand tugging down the sides of her jumper that had rode up. She then found the elastic kept around her wrist and swept her hair up and out of her face.
"Hello?"

The figure sprung up, and she blinked in the harsh light of their flashlight.
"Bronwen?" The figure asked.

She grinned, allowing the light to illuminate her face as they got their bearings. The light lowered to the floor.
"Is there any chance you know the layout of the sewage system?" Bronwen gestured to the tunnel they were in.

"Nope." Clint replied, popping the 'p'.

"Great. This is just great." Edging around Clint, she headed down the hall, stepping around puddles as they came. In the gleam of Clint's light, gold and red had been reflected, "Oh fuck me."

Clint snorted, "Stark allows you to speak like that?"

"I only learn from the best."

Reaching down, Bronwen gingerly picked up the red and gold gauntlet. She held it into Clint's torchlight, and he swore.
Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned the gauntlet around, the underside having shown first.
The stones were still on it.
Bronwen used all of her power to stop herself from dropping it.
A scuttle in the darkness caused Bronwen to freeze.
Clint held up the flashlight and illuminated the darkness.
And the pair discovered an uncountable amount of the aliens that attacked New York eleven years ago.
The Chitauri.
Both Clint and Bronwen swore.
They turned tailed, legging it down the hallway, back the way they came. Bronwen did not care for what she splashed through as she pounded across the metal. She was not aware of her father, Thor and Steve battling the 2014 incarnation of Thanos above her head as she rushed down the hall.
"This way!" Clint took the gauntlet from her hands and pushed her up the ladder.

Bronwen clung onto the rungs, using small bursts of her power to suppress the oncoming wave of aliens snapping at their heels. She pulled herself up on the final rung, rolling to the side, allowing Clint passage as he slammed the manhole closed. He laid flat on his back, exhausted.
"Oh, hey..." Clint loosened his grip on the gauntlet, looking over to the pair of footsteps walking into the room, "I know you..."

Bronwen watched with curiosity as Nebula picked up the gauntlet from the floor. She was... different. The air around her felt more hostile than the Nebula Bronwen remembered.
And Nebula hadn't even acknowledged their presence.
Nebula lifted her arm to her mouth, and spoke, "Father, I have the stones."

Bronwen and Clint spoke in unison, "What?!"

Bronwen sprung to her feet, but before she could advance another Nebula and a green-skinned woman rounded the corner, weapons brandished. Bronwen sighed, rubbing her forehead, "Oh, this is going to give me a headache."

"Stop." The green-skinned woman ordered. Bronwen was unsure whether she was talking to her or the... other Nebula.

"You're betraying us?" The Nebula holding the gauntlet said.

"You don't have to do this." The Nebula next to the green-skinned lady replied.

Bronwen caught on instantly.
Nebula next to green-skinned lady equaled normal Nebula.
Nebula holding the gauntlet was the past version.
Past-Nebula stuttered, "I... I am this."

"No, you're not." Green-skinned lady replied.

"You've seen what we become." Normal-Nebula added.

"Nebula, listen to her."

"You can change."

Past-Nebula's eyes flitted between the two, thinking, "He won't let me." And with a split-second decision Past-Nebula held up a gun to the green-skinned lady.

"No!" Green-skinned lady shouted.

Before anyone could react, even Bronwen, Normal-Nebula shot her past self, and Past-Nebula's body crumpled to the floor, a hole in her head.

Bronwen's brows rose, "Okay, wow, that just happened."

Clint snorted, "That's an understatement."

Bronwen pulled Clint up, and the pair rushed after Nebula and the other lady.

∆ ∆ ∆

Bronwen held a head over her eyes as she shielded them from the harsh light of the outside world. They adjusted quickly, and she then surveyed the carnage in front of her.
The whole Avengers Compound was decimated.
Dark clouds of smoke billowed from multiple points on the ground, the majority of it congregated on the other side of the field. A massive ship hung in the sky, darker than the smoke, menacingly hanging over their field.
Bronwen swallowed.
She hesitantly held up a hand and tapped on her earrings.
Thanos stood only a hundred metres away, resting on his knees as Steve, Tony and Thor collectively pummeled against the Titan. Tony was flung across the field, Steve had rolled away. Thor... he was somewhere she couldn't see. Everyone became still.
And...
And a static began to fill her ears.
And words began to form, fuzzy at first but...
Three words were clear.
"On your left."

Her heart began to fill with hope.
They would make it.
She watched on as a portal began to open on Steve's left, the yellow sparks enlarging as three figures stepped through. She recognised all three from their first battle five years ago.
Shuri, T'Challa and Okoye. Steve glanced behind him.
A man with wings — his name Bronwen could not remember — flew in, landing beside the Wakandians, his metal wings tucking in.
Bronwen's heart lifted impossibly more as more and more of those portals opened, filling the space, larger ones to allow the bigger army to file in. Bronwen watched as the wizard she remembered chasing five years ago float in, along with many people she had never seen. A lady on a Pegasus soared, people in Viking-looking armour underneath her. More wizards appeared, all dressed uniformly, many holding their hands in a pose that seemed to make the portals appear. Bronwen saw her mother appear, as well as Bucky, a tree-looking person, Wanda and—
One Spider-Man.
Tears in her eyes, Bronwen teleported without another word to her companions. She caught the boy off guard as she wrapped her arms around him, forcing herself not to cry.
It had been five long years.
"Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, you're alive."

"Annie! Wait— what?"

Bronwen shushed Peter as she pressed her lips on his. Their kiss was quick, almost feverish, and Peter pulled them apart, looking into her eyes, "You were... alone... for... how long?"

"Five years..." She whispered, "But not anymore. Not anymore."

Bronwen held Peters hand as they turned toward the battle ahead, Thanos's ship loomed over them, and thousands of creatures spilled from its banks. They watched in horror as the snarling monsters were unleashed, snapping at Thanos's heels as he held them at bay.
Peter squeezed her hand.
"AVENGERS!" Steve had shouted over the roar of the crowd, he held his hand out and a hammer came flying to him, he lifted his broken shield an inch higher, "Assemble."

Both sides surged, rushing at each other at a pace Bronwen could match. She used her power to rip the creatures in half as they came near her or Peter, keeping them as safe as she could.
Peter swung toward Tony, and Bronwen teleported after him. Peter was rushing his words, "Hey! Holy cow. You will not believe what's going on. Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? I must've passed out, 'cause I woke up, and you were gone. But Doctor Strange was there, right? He was like 'it's been five years. Come on, they need us!' And then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time and—" Tony wrapped his arms around Peter, silencing the kid for a short moment. "This is nice..."

While Tony was distracted with Peter coming toward him, Bronwen shouted, "DAD! ON YOUR LEFT!"

Tony acted immediately, shooting at the creature that tried to advance on him. Peter stilled and stared at Bronwen as she came to a stop beside Tony in the midst of the battle.
Peter looked between the pair, "Dad?"

"Uh, yeah." Bronwen shrugged. "I was adopted by Tony."

"Adopted?!"

Tony blasted a creature from behind Peter, "Five years does a lot for you."

Bronwen raised a hand and sliced another creature heading toward Peter. Peter groaned, "You're never going to let me do anything, are you?"

Bronwen laughed, teleporting to his side, "Nope."

Clint rang over the comms, "Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?"

"Get the stones as far away as possible!" Steve's voice replied.

"No! We need to get them back where they came from." Bruce contradicted.

Bronwen frowned, "But Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel, there's no way to get them back."

Scott's voice rang through, and Bronwen turned as she saw a giant version of him in his suit walked through the field, "Hold on! That wasn't our only time machine."

Steve seemed to catch on, "Anyone see an ugly, brown van up there?"

Bronwen continued to pace through the battle, teleporting around, destroying the monsters as she advanced. Peter was either beside or above her, webbing them together for Bronwen to squish them with a rock or a piece of debris.
"Yes!" A new female voice replied, and from the sounds of the wind Bronwen located the voice above her, flying on the Pegasus, "But you're not gonna like where it's parked."

"Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?" Tony asked.

"Maybe ten minutes." Scott said, shrinking down.

"Make that eight." Yet another female voice said.

Bronwen wondered how everyone collectively decided to tune in to the same frequency.
"Get it started. We'll get the stones to you." Steve said.

Bronwen teleported around the field, looking for a glint of red or gold metal, or even the stones themselves. She found herself back at Peters side, and at the same time she saw the gauntlet being carried by T'Challa. He was scooped up by a mountain of rock.
"Pete." Bronwen caught Peter's attention, "Hold on." She wrapped an arm around his waist, teleporting just above T'Challa.

"I got it!" Peter shouted in Bronwen's ear over the roar of the battle, holding the gauntlet with one hand and gripping onto Bronwen with the other.

She teleported themselves out of the way into a nearby 'clearing'.
Well, if Bronwen had to be specific, it was only a small space that Bronwen had found in a split second.
Peter tightened his grip on the gauntlet, "Karen, activate instant kill."

OKAY OKAY OKAY SO I LIED THERE IS MORE THEN TWO CHAPTERS LEFT.
(I said there was in the previous chapter...)
It's because I did not realise how much there would be to write. I thought I could write the battle shorter but so much happened between the end of the last chapter and this one. But OH MY GOD MY BABIES ARE BACK!!!
And to add to this celebration I have art for you (that I did myself):

(For the sake of keeping my identity a secret I wrote Jupiter in the box instead of my actual name so don't @ me)
AND BESIDE THAT
I am so freaking excited to write the next how many chapters, I don't care how sad they are I have waited ages to write these and I've always wanted to put my own little spin on them
*laughs manically*
Anyway I gotta go as I want to write a bit of chapter 21 before I have to go!
- J