(Tony P.O.V)

An incredibly loud boom sent him flying out of his deckchair. He heard glass shattering and leapt to his feet.

A fleet of spaceships hovered above the compound, cannons pointed at the building. Tony made a strangled choking noise in the back of his throat. What on Earth? Then, he remembered—Avila.

He threw himself off the edge of the roof and fell six feet onto his landing pad, amongst a few glass shards. He ran inside, yelling random things at Jarvis and calling his suit at the same time. Jarvis' tone remained perfectly calm, something that infuriated him. Maybe he should program a more panicked voice into Jarvis.

One thing he learned—when your home is being attacked and your friends are in danger—NEVER EVER take the elevator. It was the most awkward thing standing there for two minutes, fiddling with his fingers and aching to burst out, and run, and find the others and see if they were okay. It would have been smarter to take the stairs. It would take longer, but god, he would roll all the way down if he had to. (A/N take a moment for this mental image to sink in. It's hilarious.) Finally the doors opened and he dashed out of the elevator only to be thrown back in by another impact. The elevator doors flew off and disappeared. The whole elevator creaked and groaned. Tony stood frozen, wondering if breathing could cause the elevator to plummet down the shaft. When everything fell silent again, he dived out—and just in time too, because the moment he did the elevator let out one last shriek and vanished, followed by a loud crash. Tony didn't even notice—he was scrambling for the living area. He barely heard the hum of repulsors before metal grips clamped around his wrists. He breathed a sigh of relief as his faceplate lowered over his eyes. He felt the last iron plates close around his chest with a satisfying clunk. Diagrams, measurements, everything, appeared in front of his eyes. A familiar whirring filled his ears.

"What took you so long, Jarvis?" He asked with a breathless laugh.

"You were running too fast, sir." Was that sarcasm he detected in the AI's voice?

Tony zipped into the living room, only to find it empty.

"Jarvis? Where are the others?"

"Miss Danvers has brought them down to the beach, sir."

"Right. Right. The beach." Tony smashed out through the nearest window and dived top-speed down to the golden strip of sand.

"Hey, you're okay!" Carol tapped on his helmet.

The faceplate lifted. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Where's—um, yeah, where's Avila?"

Carol's grin became strangely fixed. "She's...not with you? She went back to find you..."

"Heck," breathed Tony, turning back towards the building.

"...but she'll be fine! She'll be fine!" Carol added hurriedly, grabbing his arm.

"You don't know that." Tony tried unsuccessfully to shake her off. "I'm going back to ge—"

With a rumble and a crash, the Avengers Compound collapsed, its roof finally giving way. Tony let out an incomprehensible string of swearwords. Natasha shrieked. A cloud of dust shrouded them, and when it cleared, all that was left of the Compound was a mountain of rubble.

Tony stared in disbelief. He could feel the shock radiating from the other Avengers. Suddenly, a breathless laugh broke the silence.

"Right. Okay. Ha!" Carol chuckled, sitting down on the sand.

"Is she okay?" Steve asked, staring wide-eyed at the blonde-haired woman on the sand.

"I...think she's in shock...?" Nat said, pulling at a strand of rust-coloured hair.

"Really? Really. Avila, of course." Carol was still laughing, her shoulders shaking. Tony was half expecting her to stop laughing and start crying, but she didn't.

"What are you on about?" Asked Clint.

"Sit back and watch the show, folks," Carol answered unhelpfully, raising her eyes to the hill of rubble and glass.

The spaceships still had their cannons pointed at the rubble. The cannons were also painted silver, and had appeared from the bellies of the ships. They appeared to fire balls of electricity and energy. The cannons rotated smoothly with a small whirring noise, searching for life amongst the rubble, unaware of the people on the beach. Suddenly, there was a rumble. The cannons whipped around, every cannon now pointed at a certain spot. There was an awful silence. A few of the smaller ships began rotating their cannons again. And then.

With a huge, fiery explosion, the rubble erupted. Streaks of orangey-gold tore out of the rubble at different places, whipping through the air, twisting and turning, barely visible through the storm of rubble and shots from the cannon. Everyone on the beach ducked. The streaks of gold arched up into the air, above the explosion of rubble, still twisting and curling in a beautiful dance. Then, they suddenly dived outwards and disappeared. And out of the flying wave of rubble, actually slightly glowing, rose Avila, golden wings spread. She was perfectly unharmed and didn't even seem scared.

But she looked pissed.

(Avila P.O.V)

Avila had a lot of respect for any worthy enemy. But, she got considerably upset when people collapsed a building on her. She kind of disliked people who tried to kill her, you see. The cannons held their fire. Avila was delighted to imagine their shocked faces—but they tried to kill her. Revenge time.

She scanned the ships, keeping in mind that she wanted to salvage them. Something cool her magic could do—it could scan things and give her data. Hm, she thought, that black glass isn't anything special. Very replaceable.

She's start there.

Sending a perfectly calm death stare at the lead ship, she raised a hand. Palm facing up, arm slightly extended, pointing towards the front ship. It was almost as if to say "your move". The ship hesitantly raised its cannons.

And then all the glass exploded.

There were quite a few strips of glass at the front and along the sides of the ship (probably windows), and they all exploded at once. Not just the front ship—ALL OF THE GLASS. There were inhuman shrieks and Avila caught a glimpse of dark-coloured aliens, clothed in silver armor. Chitauri. Avila was surprised—she didn't think there'd be any more after the New York incident. (A/N this story takes place after Civil War and the Avengers have reunited and everything but BEFORE IW.) Maybe Loki was back too. Who knew? Avila shot in through the front window and found herself in the cockpit. Hmm. The piloting Chitauri had disappeared. Making a split-second decision, Avila turned and grabbed the steering wheel. It was surprisingly hard to turn—perhaps not every part of this ship was perfect. Well, nothing that couldn't be fixed. The ship swung heavily around, swaying clumsily. Hell, she needed some practice in steering this. The other Chitauri pilots stared in confusion. Avila raised the cannons.

Um. Now. How did she fire?

Avila was pretty well-educated on aliens. She spoke Chitaurian fluently. But there was nothing here labeled "shoot" or "fire"??? She searched the cockpit frantically. The other ships had raised their cannons and she could hear them powering up. Finally, she spotted a minuscule red button on the underside of the base of the "raise cannons" lever. A TINY RED LEVER ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE BASE OF THE LEVER. How was she supposed to find that?

Then again, she thought, as she rushed to the pilot's seat, maybe she wasn't supposed to find that.

The other ships were ready to fire, but they seemed a little hesitant without their lead ship's guidance. Avila slammed her palm up on the button.

KRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEAAAAABOOOOOMEEEEEEEEEXXXXXX

HECK WHAT WAS THAT NOISE

Avila clamped her hands over her ears. When the noise stopped, she carefully uncovered them and began to inspect the source of the noise. A second later, she noticed that the ship in front of her was missing a large chunk off the nose and was on fire. So wait, that was the noise it made when it fired? What? Are Chitauri deaf?

Suddenly, there was a Chitaurian yell and a blade whisked through the air, aiming for her shoulder. Avila dodged (and nearly went out the window, but we won't talk about that). Well, speak of the devil. Facing her opponent, Avila eyed up the Chitauri's long bladed weapon. A bit medieval...

Suddenly, a laser shot out of the end and actually knocked her out the window. Avila free-fell for a bit, thinking about the Chitauri's weapon and calculating how many she could get her hands on. Then she hit the ground. Well, she hit her feather-soft force-field. Which was on the ground. The Chitauri peered down at her, and she waved idly. With a furious shriek, the Chitauri leapt out of the ship. Avila prepared to teleport away.

CLANGGGGG—THUMP!

A shield flew out of nowhere, slammed the aliens out of the air, and rebounded straight into Steve's hands. Avila raised an eyebrow, standing up and muttering something about physics. She made her way over to him and the rest of the team.

"Okay, you can stop stealing the limelight now," Carol joked, and Avila batted at her.

"Call it, Captain." Tony's voice sounded metallic and muffled.

"Stark, I need you on that front ship, along with Sam and Rhodey." Tony took off, Sam and Rhodey on his tail.

"Carol? Can you handle the rest?" Steve looked at her.

"Um. Obviously." Carol said, tying her hair into a ponytail.

"I am going to find my brother," Thor announced. Steve opened his mouth to argue, then closed it and nodded silently. Thor ran off, yelling something in Asgardian.

Steve turned to Nat and Clint. "We're staying on the ground." Clint nodded, and Nat kicked the dying Chitauri in agreement.

"Avila." Steve didn't turn to face her. "Keep civilians out of the way."

"What?" Avila spluttered, "I am capable of doing so much more."

"I don't know that." Steve was walking away.

"You're not going anywhere," muttered Avila. Steve's shield was pulled off his back and into her hands.

"Hey. Give that back." Steve finally turned and faced her, but his eyes were fixed on the shield.

"No." She held it behind her.

"Don't be difficult."

Suddenly the shield was snatched from her. She whipped around to see Iron Man standing there, holding it. Avila gave him a betrayed look.

"Steve's right. Stay out of the way."

"I'm not a liability!"

"Stop. You're wasting time."

Avila wanted to rip that faceplate off. She wanted to see his eyes. Quietly, "Don't you trust me?"

"No."

(Tony P.O.V)

I had to do it. I had to keep her safe.

"Don't you trust me?"

Oh god. What did he say?

What would keep her safe? What would keep her out of the line of fire?

"No."

Avila took a step back, looking like she'd just been slapped. "What?"

"You heard me." His voice cracked, but he hoped she hadn't heard. "I don't trust you. I. Don't. T-r-u-s-t. You."

"Trust isn't a five-letter word," she said quietly.

Internally dying, Tony laughed. "Oh wow, that's so cheesy."

The emotion that shone in Avila's eyes vanished suddenly, and he was confronted with a cold, glistening glare. Wow, if looks could kill.

"Okay." Her voice shook a little, but she steadied it quickly. "Okay. Fine. You know what, fuck you." She laughed. "Fine. Fine! Go. Be a hero. I'll just stand in a corner and shut up. That's fine. With you. Apparently."

She turned and walked away. Steve was behind her, and she somehow managed to push that mound of heavy muscle aside so hard he fell over. Steve sat up and looked at Tony.

"What?"

"Get back in the fray, Captain." Tony turned and flew away.

TONY WHAT??? THE FUCK??? ARE YOU DOING???

SORRY Y'ALL I JUST HAD TO PLAY WITH YOUR HEARTS

ALSO SHOUT OUT TO @low-key-fangirl FOR THIS AMAZING NEW COVER!!!

OK BYE Y'ALL