Everyone looked out of their element, Nat and Clint were trained to fight global threats. Terrorists and Russian bad guys, not saying that all Russians were bad guys but yeah... Steve looked grim, he was someone born almost a hundred years ago, not cut out for fighting against aliens from outer space.

Even I felt uncomfortable, I mean, that thing looked huge.

As it flew over us Chitauri soldiers leaped off the Caterpillar, sliding down the edges of buildings and firing their weapons at people, who scattered like ducks.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked incredulously over the coms. I slid down behind the overturned car that I was hiding behind, my vision danced and nausea made me want to throw up. Sweat beaded my forehead and through the nausea and dizziness a migraine stabbed at my temple; the warning signs of too much power usage.

"I'm seeing, still working on believing. Where's Bannerboy? Has he shown up yet?" Tony replied.

"Banner?"

"Just keep me posted,"

Castor was out, unconscious would be the only way to describe it. She couldn't communicate, the exhaustion of a mortal body constricting her abilities. I pressed the back of my head to the bent metal behind me and flattened my hands to the warm tarmac, summoning the energy to move. I pressed my tongue to stem the flow of blood on the inside of my cheek.

Steve looked distressed, watching the civilians run in fear and panic. He joined us in taking cover behind some turned over taxis. Natasha reloaded while Clint fired. They spared a few seconds of offence to listen on in.

"We've got civilians trapped-" Clint was cut off by a Loki and a following of Chitauri Chariot soldiers flying overhead.

"Loki..." Steve glared and the reindeer, analysing his target wistfully then drawing back to the fight. "Those people need assistance down there,"

A small gathering of Chitauri soldiers dropped from the Chariots and began firing at us. Natasha pulled out her pistols and shot back. Her hair whipping over her face, steely fear strong. Her wrist trembled from the recoil of her guns.

"We got this. It's good. Go!"

"You think you can hold them off?" Steve directed the question at Clint.

"Captain," A mechanical shifting in Clint's quiver meant that he was using a bonus round arrow, "it would be my genuine pleasure,"

Clint bounced to the balls of his feet and fired an arrow into a Chitauri's face which also took out the surrounding soldiers as well. The arrow spared a few seconds for Steve to jump over the bridge.

"Aw yess! Bonus arrow for the win!" I gasped, trying for an excited child. Clint gave me the really? look as I gave him a bloody smile, I slumped back down.

A few explosives and arrows later, Clint crouched next to my quivering form.

"Bec, you need to get up, go with the civilians, we won't judge, or fight," his voice was calm for being in the middle of the war zone.

"Clint-" I huffed, every breath, every word paining me to speak, "I can't do anything while Castor's down."

"Your choice really, but we're running out of time," He stood back and began firing at the Chitauri.

A few meters away a dropped weapon of a Chitauri soldier laid unattended. I slid towards it, aware that I was out in the open and seized it in my fingers, ducking back into cover again. The weapon was long and it glowed the same shade as the blue plasma blasts in the Chitauri guns.

I tucked it under my arm, treating it like some type of long rifle and aimed it roughly in the general direction of the Chitauri. I searched up and down what normally would be the barrel, feeling for an activation switch or trigger.

"Leviathan, that's what Thor said they're called," A bronze streak sent missiles towards the caterpillar/Leviathan. Tony.

We joined Natasha and Clint fighting the soldiers. Steve quickly joined the party. Thor electrocuted the remaining Soldiers with lightning, landing heavily and using an upturned car as support.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve asked, supporting his shield on his arm.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor replied, his teeth were gritted and his face grim.

Thor.

Mother.

Rage filled my chest and tears sprung to my eyes. I made a small strangled noise like and animal caught in a trap. My fingers tingled, missing the flow of Tesseract energy. If Castor was active she would've taken control by now. A tear welled in my eye and dripped off my chin before I could wipe it away. I scrunched my face to prevent any more. I couldn't cry in front of the person who'd murdered my mother.

Now isn't the time. Castor managed, if she had an energy bar it'd be at about five percent. Later, later you'll extract your revenge.

I was stunned, frozen, Castor was never peaceful or loving or kind. When I was angry, she'd be taking opportunity of it and wreaking havoc upon the world. When I was weak she'd be doing the same thing.

"Thor's right, we've got to deal with these guys," Stark replied.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

"As a team," Steve looked determined, strong. How a leader should. Out of all of us he'd the most experience being a leader, remaining strong. Sure, Natasha and Clint probably lead their own little squads of agents. But Steve knew, how to act, how to lead. Disregard the tension between Tony and Steve about fight for leadership. Steve was right for it.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor said. I snorted, looking away and folding my arms, intent on being angry with him as possible but I could help agreeing. I mean, that's why some of us were here right?

"Yeah? Get in line," Clint grumbled, checking over his arrows.

"Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need, without him these things could run wild. We've got Stark up top, he's gonna need us to-"

In-between the chaos, screams of civilians and explosions, we shouldn't have been able to hear something as mundane as a motor. However, Steve stopped and turned to see was the out of place noise originated from.

Bruce.

He looked ragged, and dirty. The tattered jumpsuit hung off of him. His hair was dusted with dirt and eyes weary.

"So, this all seems horrible," he started awkwardly, interrupting the silence of the battlefield. Everyone was tense, unsure of what to say in fear it might trigger the Hulk again.

"I've seen worse," Natasha replied carefully.

"Sorry,"

"No, we could use a little worse,"

"Stark, we've got him," Steve talked over his com.

"Banner?"

"Just like you said,"

"Then tell him to suit up, I'm bringing the party to you,"

The Iron Man suit flew around a building, the Leviathan following closely behind, taking out a large chunk of the building. Glass glistened like thousands of falling shards. The noise was deafening and I clamped my hands to my ears.

Steve readied himself, Thor growled and spun his hammer in his hand.

"I-I don't see how that's a party," Natasha said carefully.

The Levianthan flew lower, bowling over cars and splintering trees. The remainder of civilians flocked to cover and I wished I could go with them. Bruce began slowly walking towards its floating form; small, tentative steps like he wasn't sure of his actions.

"Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry,"

Bruce looked back, a small twinkle in his eye, it reminded me of when he'd be about to begin his fangirling over scientific particles and stuff that just made my brain go ~*?!}~,+£{! Woke Neo.

"That's my secret Capt, I'm always angry,"

Right there he transformed into the Hulk, the green beast clenched his fist, and sent it flying into the Levianthan's face, who'd ducked down to eat us.

The armour shattered from its body and Tony zipped in and shot a missile at a weak spot of exposed flesh. Steve shielded Natasha, Thor raised his left hand as defence, Clint took cover under a car and I joined him as alien gloop rained down around us and flattened a bus shelter.

A chilling battle cry rose through the streets. The attack on the Levianthan was the first large part of damage done to stop the attacks. The Chitauri roared from their positions on the skyscrapers.

We formed a ring of protection, Hulk roared back in response, I clenched my fist and fixated my glare on the centre of a collection of Chitauri hanging off a building. Clint notched another arrow, Thor swung his hammer in his hand, Natasha reloaded her guns, Steve tightened his grip on his Shield and Tony took a battle stance

Send the rest, Loki's voice was clear in my mind. How I was having a mental link with him I wasn't sure. It was unsettling, was it a two way thing? Like Voldemort's and Harry Potter's?

"There's more incoming," I muttered, "we have the rest of the army coming in," Natasha gave me a wary glance and her eyes flickered back up to the portal. Two more Levianthans entered through the portal, as a wave Chitauri soldiers that looked like, well, a wave of Chitauri soldiers.

"Guys," Natasha warned, her guns clenched firmly in her hands.

"Call it Captain," Tony's mechanical voice came through his suit.

"Alright, listen up, until we can close that portal up there, we'll use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Stark, you've got the perimeter, anything that gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back, or you turn it to ash,"

"Can you give me a lift?" Clint asked Tony.

"Right. Better clench up Legolas," he replied.

Legolas.

Lord of the Rings, genius. Castor murmured, her energy at about twenty-five percent. Tony grabbed Clint by his quiver and took him to the rooftops.

"Thor, you've got to try and bottleneck that portal, slow 'em down, you've got the lightning, light the bastards up," Thor nodded and took off, using the momentum of his swinging hammer to launch him into the skies.

"You two and me, we stay on the ground, keep the fighting here," Steve mentioned towards Natasha and me, "And Hulk?"

He grunted in response.

"Smash," Hulk gave a grin then leaped up the buildings.

I dropped to my knees, the facade of being strong and heroic crumbling. It was too much to bear. My legs crumbled beneath me and I dropped to the ground. My vision blurred and bells rang in my ears. I doubled over the thoughts of everyone in New York City overpowering me.

I gritted my teeth as they began to build up in frantic volume their own view of the war. Flashes, explosions, huddling over bodies.

In the chaos, I felt a familiar tug and flow of power.

I'm back. She grinned. And I missed the seconds in which I could've controlled her but was sent flying to the back of the Mindspace.

She tilted her head upwards to see Thor at the top of the Empire State Building, summoning lightning. Then, fried the soldiers and managed to send a Levianthan back through the portal.

"Stark, you've got a lot of strays sniffing your tail," Clint warned.

"Just trying to... Keep them off the streets,"

"Well they can't bank with a dam. Find a tight corner,"

"I will Roger that,"

After a few moments of explosions and grunting, Stark said, "nice call, what else you got?"

"Well Thor's taking a squadron down on sixth,"

"And he didn't invite me," Tony sounded highly disappointed.

Castor lifted off the ground, dust spinning around her. Without warning she lifted off and began ducking and weaving through the streets, occasionally blasting the odd Chitauri. She rounded a bend onto what I assumed 'sixth' was.

Castor, I warned slowly, don't do this.

You want it to happen, she sneered, you're just too weak.

Castor, you're not like this.

Incorrect, this is who I was supposed to be.

She followed Thor slyly, as he and Hulk fought together. The Levianthan shuddered then fell into what seemed to be a library or train station of some sort. After a few tense seconds, Hulk crawled out and leapt on a few office buildings. Castor moved forwards confidently, crushing the earpiece in the palm of her hand and dropping it into the rubble of the street.

She stood on the Levianthan shell as she surveyed the damage, looking for him. Just as she was about to resort to other tactics, Thor picked himself up from the rubble coughing, a slight grin on his face. He looked surprised when he saw Castor.

"Becky? Is there something wrong?"

"Becky would've been the one to kill you, you know, when you found out... But, she was too weak, too nice." Thor's eyes flickered with confusion, a question pursed on his lips. Supposedly he found an answer because his face dropped.

"Rebecca-." He said warningly.

"Save it." Castor snapped. Thor quietened. "You've caused us a lot of pain. Mostly Becky, but me too, because of you, I can't just senselessly kill, now I've gotta target someone specific. And guess what? It's you!" Castor sent a charge of energy flying at Thor and he writhed in pain as he flew through the air, slamming into a wall. The remaining civilians scattered like rats or screeched in terror, I heard the sound of a video recording beginning.

Castor stop! Now isn't the time or place.

"Now is never the time or place," Castor mocked sweetly as she walked towards Thor. "But you're too scared to own up and fight!" Castor lashed out and sent a wave of electricity flying at him. He went flying back.

"I won't fight you. Becky, Castor, there are people dying! We need to attend to their help!"

Right on queue a trio of Chitauri crawled in, weapons raised. One saw Castor and squeaked to his friends. Castor gritted her teeth, standing tall. The one in the lead raised a new weapon, smaller and misshapen.

"Tranquilliser," Castor cursed to herself but moved too late as she was shot. Her vision blurred and she stumbled. Thor was doing something or other in the background.

We need to get out of here! I cried, away from the Chitauri who were being controlled by Loki who wanted me. Castor shuddered and teleported away. For a few terrifying seconds we tumbled through the wormhole of wherever we were off to. I would've screamed if I could process it.

I fell to the ground, gravel biting at my hands. My vision taking a second to blur into focus. There was a second where I could only hear the explosions below and the whir of the machine but then I was hit with an unpleasantly familiar earsplitting squeal of the Tesseract.

"Argh!" I cried and clutched at my head, waiting for the throb to lessen. It took me a few moment to realise we were at the top of Stark Tower.

Some way away, Doctor Selvig began to move again, his eyes bloodshot. He looked horrible, his hair was knotted and his shirt crumpled. He looked around in fear and realisation.

The throb of the Tesseract lessened, maybe being near it was enough to resist it's pull. I opened my mouth to ask if Selvig was okay however, an explosion caught my attention. Loki collided with Stark Tower once again and went sprawling across the ground. A blur of green, Hulk, quickly followed him.

Should we help? I asked Castor as I shook off the effects of the tranquilliser. Her sudden betrayal still fresh in my mind.

Bruce will smash him up just fine. She replied, miffed that she was back where she belonged but sounding somewhat gleeful through the pain she was in.

"The sceptre," Selvig croaked.

"Doctor?" I asked distantly, blinking my vision back into focus.

"Loki's sceptre, the energy, the Tesseract, you can't fight, you can't protect against yourself," He stumbled over his words, his eyes heavy, pleading for forgiveness.

"It's not your fault, you didn't know what you were doing,"

Well don't you know about that. Castor sneered.

"Well I should think that I did, I built in a safety to cut the power source," He looked to me expectantly, waiting for me to connect the dots.

"Loki's sceptre," I pieced it together.

"It may be able to close the portal," he turned his head, "and I'm looking right at it,"

The sceptre flew into my hand, I swivelled towards the CMS machine. Testing the sceptre against the protective barrier, Selvig set up his computers, out of the corner of my eye I saw Natasha dismount a Chariot Chitauri and run up to me.

With some resistance at first, the sceptre managed to pass through the barrier.

"We can close it, can anybody hear me? We can shut the portal down," Natasha copied over the coms. I shot her a grateful look. She passed me an earpiece, hooking the sceptre under one arm, I pushed the earpiece in.

"Do it!"

"No! Wait."

"Stark these things are still coming,"

"No, I've gotta nuke coming in and it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it,"

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip,"

"Save the rest for the return,"

Tony flew by, clutching a white missile on his back, aiming for the portal. I hitched my breath, he was about to go in there. Into the portal where it was a different world on the other side. Would the suit be able to withstand it?

And then he disappeared.

We both waited for a few moments, whatever grasp of hope I had left was beginning to fade. He should be back by now, zipping through Chitauri like one of Clint's arrows and being chased by giant caterpillars.

"Come on Stark," I gritted my teeth, my eyes flickering between the portal and the machine. The need to close it beginning to build, I would have to close the portal soon, even if it meant Tony was on the other side.

"Close it," Steve's desperate whisper came over the earpiece. I turned to the portal, cursing Tony's ability not being able to get back one time. Chitauri soldiers still flew by in destructive harmony. I pressed the sceptre past the barrier and lightly stabbed the machine. Sparks spat and I jumped back, lifting the sceptre off the Tesseract.

The beam stopped, the portal began to close.

"Goodbye Tony," I whispered to myself and Natasha looked towards me, emotions conflicted on her normally, stony face. I wasn't sure how she ultimately felt. From what Clint had told me, she was actually Tony's recruiter into the Avengers program, so I assumed that she felt some amount of responsibility to his death.

I looked down blinking away tears. He'd been friendly and I'd shut him down. A bit too friendly, granted, but I hadn't made an actual effort. I couldn't shut away people as much, they'd still get hurt.

My arms felt numb, I looked to the Tesseract, with a start I realised that the sceptre was now resting upon it. Blue arcs of energy began running up the sceptre towards me. The shimmered and travelled up my arms, making them numb.

"Natasha!" I cried. Nat's eyes widened when she realised the problem. She looked to Dr Selvig, dragging him to cover. "Help." The cry was more of a whine and barely audible over the snap and fizzle of the CMS machine.

The energy travelled up my arms and too my shoulders, charging every fibre of my being with power to the point of becoming painful. I shuddered, the feeling being similar to whole body pins and needles. I clenched, bracing for the peak of the pain.

This is bad, Castor said as the energy travelled up my neck and everything exploded into blue.

A/N: The lovely banner up top was provided by @FireyFoxes

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