Tony and Jax were still working on the engine.

Agent 2 and Steve were still in cover, firing at each other.

Bree was still standing by the red lever, taking cover from the shots.

"Guys, we're losing altitude," Nick told them.

"Yeah, we noticed," Jax told him. "We're both going in."

Jax and Tony flew inside the airplane wing to push the blades along themselves to get the plane to steady.

Agent 2 shot at the balcony Bree was standing on, making a large, broken piece of it fall.

Bree started to slip off the balcony, starting to fall out of the plane. She used the hook of her staff to latch onto a steady part of the balcony to stay on.

Ⓐ

Thor ran into the detention level, seeing Loki in his cage.

The cage door was opening.

Thor ran closer. "No!"

Thor tried to tackle Loki. He went right through the illusion of him, landing inside the cage.

The cage door closed, locking Thor inside.

The real version of Loki was standing on the other side of the glass. "Are you ever not going to fall for that?"

Ⓐ

Clint and Tatiana were walking along a balcony in a deserted hallway.

Natasha and Ana walked in behind them.

Clint turned to shoot Natasha. Natasha caught his bow, aiming the arrow past them to the wall to make him shoot the wall instead of them, twisting the bow in his grip to try to take it away. Clint twisted it back, kicking Natasha back to make her let go.

Tatiana spun to kick Ana in the stomach. Ana slid underneath the railing, holding onto it, spinning around it to kick Tatiana in the face, making her back away, standing, walking closer. Tatiana jumped over the railing to the other side of the balcony. Ana jumped over the railing to land in front of her.

Clint tried to hit Natasha with his bow. Natasha ducked, kicking him in the stomach. Clint punched her in the side, hitting her with the bow in the shoulder, trying to hit her in the face. Natasha raised her arms in front of her face to block the move, grabbing hold of the string. Clint used the bow to push Natasha against the railing. Natasha backhand punched him in the face to make him let go, taking the box from him.

Tatiana and Ana faced each other. Ana drew a knife. Tatiana took out her crossbow, snapping it into place, aiming it at Ana.

Ⓐ

Thor was still in the cage, hitting the glass with his hammer repeatedly, making it crack, but otherwise unsuccessful to get free.

A controlled agent stood nearby.

Loki laughed, walking toward the control table. "The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?"

Loki went to open the floor underneath the cage to let Thor and the cage fall out of the plan.

The agent that was nearby fell to the floor, unconscious or dead.

Phil was standing behind him with a large weapon, aiming it at Loki. "Move away, please." Loki backed away from the control table. "You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you want to find out?"

The Loki in front of Phil was revealed to be an illusion when the real Loki appeared behind Phil, stabbing him in the back with his scepter.

Thor hit against the glass wall of the cage. "No!"

The illusion of Loki disappeared.

Loki took the scepter out of Phil's back, letting him fall to the floor.

Phil landed in a sitting position, leaning back against the wall.

Thor was breathing heavily in anger and denial.

Loki walked past Phil toward the control table, hitting the button to open the floor underneath the cage. He looked at Thor, pausing for dramatic flair, hitting the button to drop the cage through the floor, making it and Thor all out of the plane.

Ⓐ

On the balconies, Tatiana tried to shoot Ana with the crossbow. Ana ducked to the side to make the arrow fly past her, punching Tatiana in the face. Tatiana tried to punch her. Ana raised an arm to block the move. Tatiana spun to kick Ana in the face, making her fall into the railing, raising the crossbow to shoot her. Ana kicked the crossbow out of her hands, making it fall to the floor.

Natasha took Clint's arm, twisting it back, making him groan in pain. Clint tried to punch her. Natasha ducked, standing. Clint tried to punch her. Natasha caught his arm. Clint put both her arms in an armlock, pushing her against the railing, gripping her hair, pulling her head back, trying to stab her in the throat with a knife. Natasha bit him in the arm to make him stop and let go, kicking him back.

Ana flipped back over the railing, twisting Tatiana's arm, grabbing her, turning around, pushing her head against the railing, making her fall to her knees, making her fall unconscious.

Natasha flipped back out of Clint's restraint, punching him twice in the face, kicking him in the leg, making him fall to his knees, punching him hard in the face, making him fall unconscious.

Ana and Natasha looked at each other, breathing heavily.

  Ⓐ 

The cage was falling through the air, spinning uncontrollably, throwing and tossing Thor around inside of it.

Thor hit his hammer against the glass wall once, trying to again, but was thrown back against the other side of the cage as it continued to spin through the air.

The cage was very close to landing on the ground nearby the ocean.

Thor spun his hammer, flying toward the glass wall, hitting the hammer through it with so much strength he finally broke through the glass, flying out of the cage.

The cage fell onto the beach, creating an explosion of sand and ocean water.

Thor landing in the sand nearby, making it fly everywhere.

His hammer slid away from him.

  Ⓐ   

  Loki was still in the detention level of the S.H.I.E.L.D plane. He walked away from the control table, turning away from Phil, turning to leave.

"You're going to lose," Phil told him. 

Loki turned to face Phil. "Am I?"

Phil was still weakly leaning against the wall, sitting on the floor, with the large weapon in his lap. "It's in your nature."

"Your heroes are scattered," Loki told him. "Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction," Phil answered.

Loki shook his head. "I don't think I'm--"

Phil pulled the trigger on the weapon in his lap.

There was a gold blast that shot from the weapon, turning into a fireball, hitting Loki in the chest, throwing him back through a wall, breaking it, making him fall to the floor.

Phil was impressed but too weak to enjoy this, slowly bleeding out from the wound in his back. "So, that's what it does."

  Ⓐ   

In the command center, Nick was standing at his computer, watching the altitude of the plane dropping the more the plane slid down in the sky. "All hands to crash stations immediately."

  Ⓐ   

Tony and Jax were still in the airplane blades, pushing them along to try to get them up to speed so that they plane could steady and fly itself.

"Bree, hit the lever," Tony told her.

Bree was still hanging off the balcony, only staying in the air and not falling to the ground below because she was latched onto the railing by the hook of her staff. "I need a minute here."

"Lever... now," Jax told them. Bree pulled herself up to the balcony. Steve and Agent 2 were still firing at each other. The airplane blades started to spin without the help of Tony and Jax pushing them along. They started to push Tony and Jax around. "Help!"

Bree pulled the lever.

Tony and Jax were let out of the blades, flying unsteadily for a moment, getting back into it.

Steve threw his shield toward Agent 2, making him fall, running closer, tackling him to the ground, turning around, pushing him off the plane, making him fall toward the ground below.

Bree was breathing heavily, giving Steve a look. "You couldn't have done that earlier?"

Steve looked at her sheepishly. "Sorry."

Bree sighed, shaking her head, looking down.

  Ⓐ   

Loki got into the other plane that had attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D plane. 

They started to fly away.

Loki watched the back door of the plane close, smirking.

  Ⓐ   

Nick got to the detention level of the plane, kneeling in front of Phil.

"Sorry, boss," Phil told him. Nick took the weapon from him, placing it aside. "The god rabbited."

"Just stay awake," Nick told him. "Eyes on me."

Phil could barely hang on. "No. I'm clocking out here."

Nick shook his head. "Not an option."

"It's okay, boss," Phil told him. "This was never gonna work if they didn't have something to..."

Phil could not finish his sentence. Agent Phil Coulson slowly bled out to the point of his death.

Nick lowered his head, looking away. He stood, backing away.

Two medics walked closer toward Phil. 

Ⓐ 

In the control room, a medic was patching up Maria's wounds.

She could hear Nick through her ear piece. "Agent Coulson is down. A medical team is on its way to your location."

  Ⓐ   

On the balconies, agents were taking the unconscious Clint and Tatiana away.

Natasha and Ana were standing nearby, gazing off numbly, listening to what Nick had to say to them through their ear pieces. "They're here."

  Ⓐ   

Tony, Jax, Steve and Bree were still standing by engine three.

Bree was sitting on the balcony above.

Jax was standing next to her. His helmet was off.

Steve and Tony were standing below them. Steve's mask was off. Tony's helmet was off.

They were all listening to what Nick had to say to them through their ear pieces, gazing off numbly. "They called it."

  Ⓐ   

Steve, Bree, Jax and Tony were sitting at the table in the office of the plane. They were not wearing their suits.

Nick and Maria standing nearby.

Nick was holding Phil's trading cards. "They were in Phil's jacket." He looked at Steve and Bree. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." He tossed the trading cards over the table. "We're dead in the air up here." Steve picked up a trading card of Star Mistress. Bree picked up a trading card of Captain America. "Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor...  I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, the Starks know this, called the Avengers Initiative." Nick looked at Steve and Bree. "The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes." Jax stood, walking away, leaving. Tony sighed. "Well... It's an old-fashioned notion."

  Ⓐ   

On the beach where Thor had landed, he walked toward his hammer. He held his hand toward it, but stopped, closing his hand into a fist, opening it. He looked up, breathing heavily, numbly.

  Ⓐ   

Bruce had landed in a building, lying naked in debris.

A man stood above. "You fell out of the sky."

Bruce sat up, breathing heavily, looking around, not knowing what had happened or how he got there. He looked at the man. "Did I hurt anybody?"

"There's nobody around here to get hurt," the man told him. "You did scare the hell out of some pigeons, though."

Bruce sighed, putting a hand to his head. "Lucky."

"Or just good aim," the man told him. "You were awake when you fell."

"You saw?" Bruce asked.

"The whole thing," the man answered. "Right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck-ass nude." He tossed some clothes to Bruce. "Here. Didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular-size fella."

Bruce pulled the pants on. "Thank you."

"Are you an alien?" the man asked.

Bruce stood. "What?"

"From outer space, an alien?" the man asked.

"No," Bruce answered.

"Well, then, son, you've got a condition," the man told him.

Bruce nodded, sighing.

  Ⓐ   

It was back on the plane in the detention level, in a different room.

Clint and Tatiana were restrained to beds in a room, starting to wake up.

Natasha and Ana were sitting nearby.

"Hey," Ana told them. "You're going to be all right."

"You know that?" Tatiana asked. "Is that what you know?"

"We've got no window," Clint told them. "We have to flush him out."

"You got to level out," Natasha told them. "It's going to take time."

Tatiana shook her head, fighting the control, feeling incredibly violated and conflicted, looking a little scared. "You don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and stuff something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

Natasha brushed back a piece of Tatiana's hair. "You know that I do."

Clint was breathing heavily, trying to be strong and brave for them. "Why are we back? How did you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration," Ana answered. "We hit you really hard on the heads."

"Thanks," Clint told them. Ana stood, undoing the restraints on Tatiana. Natasha sat next to Clint, undoing the restraints on him. "Natasha... how many agents did I--"

"Don't," Natasha told him. "Don't do that to yourself, Clint." She looked at her daughter. "And I don't even want you to even think about doing that to yourself, Tatiana. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing we were ever trained for."

"Loki, did he get away?" Tatiana asked.

"Yeah," Ana answered. "I don't suppose you know where."

Tatiana shook her head. "We didn't need to know. We didn't ask."

Natasha stood, pacing.

Ana stood, running  a hand through her hair.

Tatiana and Clint sat up in their beds.

"He's going to make his play soon, though," Clint told them. "Today."

"We got to stop him," Ana told them.

"Yeah?" Tatiana asked. "Who's 'we'?"

"I don't know," Natasha told them. "Whoever's left."

"Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I would sleep better, I suppose," Clint told them.

Natasha smiled a small smile, sitting beside Clint. "Now you sound like you."

"But you don't," Clint told her. He looked from Natasha to Ana. "Neither of you do. You're spies, not soldiers. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"Besides taking the two of you from us and turning you against the team?" Ana asked. "Nearly got all of us killed."

"I just..." Natasha trailed off. "I got red in my ledger. I would like to wipe it out."

  Ⓐ   

Ana walked out into the room where the cage had been, standing at the edge of the floor, above where it would have opened.

Jax walked in, looking toward where Natasha, Clint and Tatiana were still in the other room. "Are they okay?"

"As okay as they can be," Ana answered. "They're pretty shaken."

"So, Natasha, Tatiana and Anastasia Romanoff, and Clint Barton," Jax told her. "He seems simpler than you Spiders."

"Nothing's simple about our family," Ana told him. "After Mom had me and Tati, Hydra found us again. They nearly killed my dad to take Mom, Tati and me. They got into her head, made her do things that she didn't want to do, wiped her memory of things. Tatiana and I were going to be raised that way, without freedom, without knowing who we were or what we were. Just drones to do whatever they wanted."

Jax nodded in understanding. "That's why Tatiana's so terrified of this. She's feeling what she would have felt if you guys had stayed with Hydra."

"Yeah," Ana answered. "But Dad found us again. With the help of S.H.I.E.L.D. And they saved us. But that was years after Tati and I had time to grow up. Being taken over by Loki brought back the memories of the time that Hydra had control over her."

"That's why you have your mom's last name instead of your dad's," Jax realized. "Because you were with Hydra and your mom for the first few years of your life before your dad finally found you and saved you."

Ana looked down, nodding. "Yeah."

Jax walked closer, standing next to her. "I'm sorry."

Ana shook her head. "It was a long time ago. But this is also the reason why my mom never recovered. She and my dad couldn't move on. They still care about each other. But they're not together. My dad moved on. Found a wife. Had two more kids. Our half-siblings."

"And does that make you happy?" Jax asked.

"Anything is happier than this," Ana told him.

Jax took a moment to let this process and pass by. "Just so you know, I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Fine," Ana told him. "But it's my job. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done. Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list--"

"He made it personal," Jax told her.

"That's not the point," Ana told him. 

"That is the point," Jax told her. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Ana answered. 

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right?" Jax asked. "That's what he wants. He wants to beat us. He wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

Ana nodded in agreement. "Right. Like his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, that was just previews," Jax told her. "This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered..." Ana and Jax both realized where Loki was going to do this at the same time. Jax pointed at Ana. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Ana nodded, thinking for a second longer. "Son of a bitch."

Ana and Jax walked along the walkway.

 Ⓐ

Eric was on the Stark Tower, setting up the machinery and the Tesseract stone.