"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve spoke as the monitors showcasing a heavily guarded Loki standing inside his cell. It was almost impossible to penetrate but with those like him nothing was that as it seemed. The screen was swept away by a furious Miriam who had simply huffed in response to the Asgardian's taunts. Steve had taken notice of this but kept his attention on the bigger picture and went on. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor had been standing behind Miriam, watching the scenes and hearing his brothers with an almost identical look of irritation. He moved his fingers together as he thought over what information he'd managed to obtain before returning to earth. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tessaract."

"Why does that not surprise me." Miriam mumbled under her breath, turning in her chair to look at the long haired blonde. "I should have killed him when I had the chance."

Thor didn't entirely disagree with her.

"An army?" Steve repeated, like he couldn't believe what the Asgardian had said to him. "From outer space?"

Dr. Banner seemed to be already three steps ahead as he went on to say, "so he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor turned to question.

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner clarified

"He's a friend." Thor responded with concern.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Miriam explained to the Asgardian.

"Along with one of ours." Natasha added on.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." Steve went back to the topic of Loki.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner stated, shaking his head in a dismissive way. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother." The blonde Asgardian came to his brothers defense.

"He killed 80 people in two days." Natasha recounted.

"Beat my record." Miriam muttered.

"He's adopted." Thor then retorted.

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium... What do they need the iridium for?" Banner questioned Maria, looking around then to see if anyone had an answer.

Tony walked into the headquarters then, walking side by side with Coulson. Miriam had wondered where the iron man had gotten too since they'd arrived but it seemed now she had an answer, he had been setting his suit up somewhere. He walked in, taking all the attention of the room. "It's a stabilising agent." He spoke softly, shortly after, looking directly at Phil as he walked past the man "I'm just saying, pick a weekend. I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive."

Miriam's eyebrows shot up at the sound of Phil dating, that was certainly more of a shock then anything else in the last day.

"It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." Tony went on, to asking up to Thor and patting his arm with a friendly gesture. "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." He suddenly walked to the podium where Fury overlooked and pointed in one workers direction. "That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Placing one hand over the other eye he turned in several directions and looked cluelessly at the agents. "How does Fury even see these?"

Agent Hill didn't bother with the careless employee and instead shrugged her shoulders at Tony. "He turns."

"Sounds exhausting." He remarked before turning towards Bruce and going on, "the rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

Maria raised a brow, "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers." He recanted, walking towards the table and looking down at Miriam for a second longer. There eyes connected and the brunette female wondered what had caused him to stop in her direction. His eyes looked over her shoulder and suddenly she realized what it was. "How's the shoulder?"

"Fine." She hummed, uncomfortable with all the eyes on the both of them, she could sense Steve's blue eyes clueless as ever to the interaction.

Tony nodded in approval and then turned back towards the group like nothing had occurred. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve questioned after a moment of everyone's eyes flickering away from the two.

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce responded.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect." Tony added.

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony almost seemed relieved as he walked over.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve looked towards Miriam for an answer.

She shook her head, "you're not alone there Steve."

Tony greeted the scientist. "It's good to meet you, Dr Banner. Your work on antielectron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green raged monster. "

"Thanks."

Fury entered the room, immediately sensing how eager Tony was to get Bruce into battle. Fortunately, the head of SHIELD was not keen on allowing the Hulk to come out so he decided to interrupt the conversation. "Dr Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him."

Captain America nodded in agreement, "I would start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury remarked.

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said with confusion.

"I do. I understood that reference." A cheerful Steve Rogers cut in.

"Asgard doesn't have monkeys?" Miriam commented, swiveling in her chair, her tone slightly disappointed that such an enchanting world was missing out on her favorite animal. Thor shook his head after a moment and Miriam seemed to pout in disappointment. "Looks like I'm never vacationing there."

Tony rolled his eyes at how nonchalant the brunette female was being with the situation, looking back towards Banner he motioned towards the exit. "Shall we play, Doctor?"

The two walked out, Miriam's eyes following them as they disappeared into the darkening hallway she noticed everyone else seeming to retreat into their own corners. Steve nodded her way, following after the two brainiacs as Thor got into a conversation with Coulson over animals on the planet and Maria seemed to state something for Fury before he walked off into another direction of the hellicarrier. Miriam realized this was exactly the opportunity she needed to speak with him and jogged after.

"Fury!" She said a little louder as her hand clamped around his leather clad shoulder. He turned, slowing his long steps as the brunette followed his pace.

"Morales," he acknowledged her.

"So, Tony's here."

"I saw and heard him."

"Can I go home now?" Miriam would be lying if her tone wasn't a little upbeat, her feet were itching to get a ride or even fly back towards the Amazons, her team hadn't gone this long since action in awhile. They were very much like children to her and she missed being in their presence, as much as she would deny it to their faces. Besides all of the business they had to attend too though, there was some very important reason she needed to leave soon. .

"Miriam you have no home." He said with a slight chuckle.

"You know what I mean," she dryly responded.

Fury stopped walking, turning in her direction and sighing deeply, "I'm afraid that can't happen."

"You said—"

"I know what I said but I'm telling you things have changed." He cut in. "Look, you're needed here with Loki and your abilities could come in handy if any of this goes according to his plans."

The brunettes heart sank, throat tightening as she let his words sink in and suddenly she could also hear Loki's from earlier. Fury may have been good at hiding the truth but he was only human, and humans were only capable of faking to an extent. She stepped back, holding her temper in place. "You're lying, I wasn't ever meant to get off this thing was I?"

"No," Fury gave in. "Miriam, what you're capable of could decimate an entire nation and I cannot afford to let that happen, no matter how far you go away. Loki may not have found you beforehand but he was going to eventually and I could not bet anyone's life on your decisions."

He had not forgiven her for everything in the past, no matter how much she had changed and done to help make the world safer he would still always see her as the reputation she once upheld—Santa Muerte. This was why he had kept her name off every typed letter and written document, why Loki could not find her anywhere, and definitely why an agent was always by her side; all of this time it had been to keep tabs on her. She swallowed thickly, pushing back the cloud of pure rage and pain that attempted to swallow her with memories. Instead of answering she turned away, walking from what could very well prove him right.

|•|•|•|•|

"Morales." Natasha spoke into the intercom for the 7th time as she was yet again met with static. Her teeth grit in annoyance, sighing heavily as she tried to communicate once more. "Miriam, can you please just open the doors."

"No." Was the simple answer that came from the brunettes lips as she forced herself to speak. She was currently attempting her best not to break the punching bag in front of her but it was getting harder to do as she could imagine Fury's face on the bag. Her mind had continued to rage on the longer his last words sat inside her head, she couldn't believe it, he really didn't have faith in her at all. After all this time... after all these years of her doing everything under the sun to make certain they knew she was a good guy and for nothing, the person she trusted most didn't believe her.

It was hard not to admit that a part of her was aching with pain and her emotional walls were slowly tumbling down but no one could know, not even her best friend.

"Fury wants you and I to work on Loki." Natasha decided to speak through the microphone, knowing it was futile. Whenever Miriam got like this there was usually no way of getting her out.

"You do it then." Miriam huffed, not stopping her assault as her knees started to make contact with the rough surface.

Natasha, clearly frustrated with her progress gave up. There was no getting through a trained killer when they had their heart set on something. She turned away, walking in the other direction and realizing that now she was going to take a little longer to complete the task. The red head was so consumed in her own head she just missed Tony Stark waiting at the other end of the hall.

Miriam took the silence that followed as a win, continuing her assault on the black bag and slowly feeling her power releasing. She was just about to burst through the bag when the doors behind her opened. The brunette whirled around, not surprised to find the only man able to break the codes to get inside the secure room.

"Would you look at that? I was just playing around with the numbers out here and it opened." He hummed, stepping into the room with a small smile. He could see the anger rolling off her shoulders, the twitch in her lips as they were forced into a thin line instead of angered frown. She lifted a brow at him, not believing for a second that was what had occurred. Tony's eyes deflected, instead looking at the dented punching bag because the reality was he had been worried over Miriam. She hadn't appeared at all since the meeting around the table and when he'd asked Natasha she had told him in a very brute manner to leave her alone for the time being which translated in Tony's head to find out what the problem was. It took awhile, and a lot of patience on his part but eventually Natasha had led him straight towards the brunette. "So, I was thinking since you're now one of us... well knowingly, you should get a superhero name."

Miriam's expression turned into one of disbelief, forgetting for a moment how clever Tony was and how this was probably his way of trying to get her to open up. When she finally discovered this she exhaled, deciding that for the time she would go along with it. "I've already got one, Santa Muerte is the popular vote."

"Read your file, I know that." He hummed, walking around the room as the doors shut behind them, locking tightly once more. "I was thinking something more upbeat, like Black Fog or Haze."

"Do I look like a Mortal Kombat character." She snorted, tilting her head.

"I get it, idiotic," he mumbled back, feigning hurt. A finger was placed over his chin as he lowly hummed, "I do like Santa Muerte though. Seems fitting, can I see it?"

"What?"

"Can I see the smoke?" He said perkily.

"Would you like to die?" She deadpanned, crossing her arms as if to remind herself to keep the black smoke in control.

"Oh come on, It's not like you can't control it anymore!" He remarked.

Miriam stilled, narrowing her eyes at this information he had given out. "How do you know about that?"

"I may or may not have accessed some information that was buried deep underground, and be access I mean I had Jarvis shovel through ever SHIELD file imaginable. It was a tiring task on him, you should be proud and also thank him." He answered quickly, giving up on trying to hide anything.

"So you know everything about me?" She questioned, finding herself not at all angry.

"Well as much as I would like to say yes, no, there's still somethings that were left out, as annoying as that sounds."

"And you're here because you want to know them all?"

"Well yes, my ego demands it." He sassed.

Miriam couldn't help but actually crack a smirk at that, finding it hilarious and both refreshing to find someone so directly honest with her. Tony exhaled at this, finding it a little stunning how worried he'd been for her. From the first glance at her sweaty appearance inside the room he could tell something was off, she was no longer her quick witted self but someone brewing with anger and although he knew the emotions very well it didn't mean he wanted someone else feeling this, especially Miriam; he told himself it was because she could kill them all like Hulk but deep down he knew it was because she intrigued him much like Pepper. He swallowed thinking, remembering the redhead he hadn't updated in quite sometime, he missed her at times, mainly because Miriam intrigued him too much and he needed a reminder that Pepper was his better. This damaged women was different to Pepper, something he couldn't afford to even begin to describe but also had no time to experiment with, still he could never turn down an offer so tempting.

Miriam hadn't answered in a long time, and he quickly realized it was because she was staring directly at him, a wicked twinkle in her eyes. His mouth went dry at that look, a sense of danger he suddenly craved radiating off her.

Miriam's tennis shoes were light as they circled him, eyeing his jeans and Black Sabbath shirt for a moment before standing directly in front of him again. "Okay, hit me. If you can hit me one time I'll give you the answers. Or if you think you can't do it, let me teach you how to fight and I'll answer any questions you have."

Tony's ego actually was hurt after that, "I know how to fight."

She snorted, "your suit knows how to fight and your hands do a pretty good job pushing the blast button on the bolts of your hands but you most certainly don't know how to fight."

"Yes, yes I do."

Miriam kicked his stomach, grabbing his head when his instincts had crouched to protect his abdomen, she flipped him up over her head so he landed on his back. Tony groaned out, feeling his bones and skin slap loudly against the hard floors. Miriam stepped around so she could meet his face and she crouched downwards, "no you can't, let me teach you how and I promise nothing is off limits."

She outstretched her hand, and as Tony's head came back from the immense pounding he was able to put together all of her words. The offer was even more so tempting, he could feel himself tipping over towards it and as much as his damaged pride hurt (both physically and mentally) he had never been more attracted to an offer. For once he shut up, deciding instead to allow her to rule how this game would be played.

He placed his hand in hers, both standing with one another's help and retracting their hands within a short second. Miriam pushed the punching back out of the way as Tony took a few steps back.

"Alright first, you're gonna need to shut your brain off." She lifted her pointer finger in the air.

"I'm sorry, do you remember who I am?" He deadpanned.

"Just here me out for a second," she shushed him. "Okay, so you probably like to strategize everything you do, every punch and explosion is a scenario you played out in your head over and over until you decided it was right. As Tony Stark you're probably the king of overthinking and while your suit helps make up for this one day you might not have a suit Tony. One day, you could just be getting a drink and then you'll be knocked over the head with a bar stool and you'll unfortunately be too busy getting your cranium pounded in too stab the guy with the fork a few feet from you when you could have used your elbows. That is where I come in, I'm gonna teach you how to react first and think last."

"This sounds horrible and like it will actually get me killed."

"Brain off Stark, now try it out. Get reckless."

|•|•|•|•|

Thirty minutes later Tony was nowhere near hitting Miriam but he was covered in sweat and learning to shut his brain off which he did enjoy given that all it could say lately was not to get close to her.

He fell to the floor, heaving and mouth dry as he begged for a water bottle that she threw his way. Miriam smirked proudly at how easily she'd been able to dominate the Iron Man, mentally she made a note to actually get him to learn a few more moves but all in all she was proud of herself.

"Go ahead," she hummed, taking a sip of her own water as she sat and crossed her legs.

"You promise you want throats punch me?" He questioned.

"I promise I won't throat punch you again." She repeated.

Tony eyed her once more before nodding his head, "it says you lead a team in Colombia right now, what do you do?"

He was clearly going for the easier things, although it still pained her heart she knew this was lighter the other subjects.

"I lead a team of six—well five excluding me—four now, but it's a team of elite operatives. Best this country could offer, higher then black ops these individuals hold skills I was able to see from an early age, high school freshmen. I observe kids all across the country, take into account what they can offer now and what they will be able to do with my training in the future. They're given the choice, their alliance in exchange for safety and continued support for their families. They all agree, and after the initial years of training I observe them all, if I see them fit mentally and physically they come on the team with me. We handle special operations, vibranium smuggling, bad guys you all don't hear about, and the occasional normal bad guy who thinks just because he's got a lot of money he can do anything. We take care of it all."

"Four?" Tony questioned, noticing how her eyes had gone a shade darker and drifted off when she's accidentally said five.

Miriam nodded her head, ducking it for a moment as she gathered herself and then responded, "four, we lost Adrian two weeks ago. It was an operation gone wrong, he got caught and well it ended badly. We got the guy, he's on his way here actually and I should be on my way to a funeral instead of being stuck in this place fighting a war I did not ask for."

Tony didn't entirely know what to do then, Miriam wasn't crying so he didn't have to console her with a hug until she stopped but her head had sunk downwards so she looked down at the floor. From what she'd described this Adrian had been her surrogate child, a person she had cared a great deal for and now was being kept from.

"And here I thought you wanted a vacation but a funeral, don't you know how to live it up," he blurted out, cursing himself for saying the wrong thing. Again, he blamed his awkward reaction on the foreign concept on consoling. Tony was use too blocking out any grief and all around sad behavior with sass, he had no idea how to handle an actual mourning person. Normally, this was something he would stray away from but since he'd been curious enough to ask it was his obligation to bring Miriam back from it all. Any action to get closer was off the table however, he didn't trust himself much around this women and he still loved Pepper. Tony thought for a second longer before extending his hand and placing over top hers, her thin palm was covered by his entirely as he squeezed it to gain her attention. It was nothing more then a friendly gesture, his own version of comforting a person. She looked at him, her grief written across her eyes. "This will be over soon Miriam, you'll be able to say a proper goodbye to Adrian without any trouble even if I have to offer my suit up for you to go but I doubt that'll be necessary seeing as how you can fly. Speaking of which, the smoke and reputation you were born with them? And were you born or did the Devil teach you all those things as well as painful attacks before he raised you up."

It was a small gesture, one of which she didn't expect at all and barely caught but still Miriam felt better after the brief sentence. She could tell it had taken him time to even come up with something but even so it was warm. Their hands pulled apart slowly, retreating back as she leaned against the wall and followed along with the conversation. "Yes, I was born with it all although the devil father is still up for debate. I actually don't have parents, never have. I grew up in an orphanage in Cali, Columbia. There was no documents of my parents ever so I legally I'm as orphan as they get. The black smoke, it didn't actually come into the picture until I was around 13, by then I was already on the streets begging for money."

"So it just appeared? No injections," he questioned.

Miriam shook her head, "none, it was a natural gift I guess."

"How does SHIELD trust you? After everything you did, how did they let you do everything you wanted?" Tony bluntly stated, not allowing a second to go waste.

Miriam's eyes zeroed in on him, slightly impressed by his lack of cowardice. Tony Stark did not beat around the bush and for that she respected him, he did have a right to know after all. Her lips pursed, "they don't. I was suppose to leave once I was done with you, and yet here I am. I killed a lot of people before they found me, I can't say I really blame them but I did my part to make up for it."

"So what made you agree? You probably could have taken them all out, you were underground for a long time and then came out only to fall into the governments hands." In his head Tony kept repeating the video of her taking on the entire crowd, reading all the passages Fury had on her and the small notes he had attached. There was personal things, some that many people probably would have killed to keep hidden but he could just tell there was more. "What made you trust them?"

Miriam didn't speak for a moment, letting his words simmer into her mind. These were things she had very much thought of herself. "I don't, I trust in what I can change. Do you trust me?"

"It seems like you're the only person not lying about who you are and what you know so yes, besides it's always refreshing to give me crap about my ego." He responded, lightning up the conversation towards the end before quickly adding on, "do you trust me?"

She knew exactly what he was asking, and although it was something she had buried in her past she did need to speak on it, after all this was the deal. What he wanted to know hadn't been on any file or form he would find, because it had never been recorded. It was a simple exchange between her and Fury, one that now remained a permanent mark to her system. "I was pregnant once, it was a long time ago and I was scared of anyone finding out. The groups I worked for, the people I killed for, they would have wanted to take the baby away from me and raise it brutally, make it even darker then I once was so I came out into the open. SHIELD had been looking for me for awhile so it didn't take them long. I made them a deal, my life in exchange for our safety. The baby died on our back to US shores, I didn't even get to find out the gender before they were shipping me off to a different boat. After everything I decided to stay with SHIELD, and I've been here ever since."

Once again tony was left silent, particularly finding himself at a loss for words. He didn't know what to say, how to fix any of it or if he was able too. If there was anything he could begin to understand was losing a family member but even then it was completely different levels of pain and so he just stayed silent once more, patting her hand and realizing that this would do. "You need a vacation, a real vacation."

|•|•|•|•|

Wow I fucking finally updated!! To be honest I was annoyed with the beginning conversation so I put it off for some time but here you go! Hope you enjoyed! I've already planned out the majority of this so hopefully updates come quicker!