Clint Barton rushed down the halls of the Helicarrier with Natasha, hitting the button on his wrist to lock a flashbang arrow in place and drawing it as they approached a room with several mercenaries. He couldn't believe he had been brainwashed so easily. What would Laura have thou-?

Shit.

He needed to call her as soon as possible. Even if Fury had kept her in the dark, him not calling probably worried her sick.

Drawing back the bowstring, Clint clenched his eyes shut, Nat plugging her ears as he fired the arrow into the ceiling, a loud roar sending a ringing through his ears. Nocking another arrow with speed that would leave an Olympic medalist in shock, Clint fired the broad headed arrow through the kevlar.

It was one reason why he used a bow. Kevlar could stop small arms, but it wasn't good against bladed things. Knives, swords, arrows could all punch right through it.

Ruby had once put it during his training that modern equipment was made to deal with modern problems. Add something old, and sometimes it didn't hold up.

Of course, that had been her justification for why she used a anti-mat scythe as her weapon of choice, so he was pretty sure she was just making some vaguely philosophical bullshit up.

Clint nocked another arrow, firing it into the throat of a charging merc. Nat drove her shoulder into the other, knocking them to the ground before she shot him in the throat. Rushing forward, Clint nocked a third arrow as they stepped outside, the Helicarrier getting closer to the ocean by the second.

Which meant any agents still on the side of the helicarrier were going to be submerged. Clint shot one of the remaining mercenaries he had hired, speaking into his ear piece, "Director, get everyone inside!"

"What do you mean-?"

"Me, Nat and Ruby can take out the others," Clint said, pointing the wristbow at one, punching through their throat, doing math, "but we're gonna hit the water in… five minutes. They'll drown."

"And what about you, Agent Barton?" Fury said, "I have three members of the Avengers Initiative out there, losing you is not-"

"We'll be fine, Nick," Clint's response was cut off by Ruby, who was cradling her right hand to her body, smoke rising off it while she held a pistol in her left hand, "Seven against us? That's easy."

"I don't like confidence like that," Fury said, "it always backfires."

"It won't, sir," Natasha said, drawing both of her guns.

"Fine," Fury said, "Hurry up and finish them. The rest of you, fall back!"

Clint dropped his hand, drawing another arrow, "Hey."

"Nice to see you," Ruby said, pushing herself up to shoot at one, "How's the baby?"

"Lila isn't a baby anymore," Clint said.

"I thought Laura was expecting a boy?" Ruby asked.

"Cooper?" Clint said, firing the arrow, "He's definitely not a baby anymore. Heard you had a kid. How'd that happen?"

"You know," Ruby waved her smoking hand, firing with the other and dropping her target, "got-"

"Can you two talk about this when we're not fighting a group of mercenaries?" Natasha said, firing at two more.

"Not like there are many more," Clint said, shooting another.

"All the more reason not to do it right now," Nat said.

"Eh," Ruby shrugged, before shooting the last two, "I can multitask, but whatever."

- X Yang X-

Yang walked outside the house, offering a beer to Johnny. The scruffy biker looked up, before taking it and scooching over enough for Yang to sit next to him. Pulling out his keys, he used the bottle opener on his, before doing the same to hers, "Thanks. Z might not let me get drunk right now, but…"

"Z?" Yang asked.

"The guy riding shotgun in here," Johnny said, tapping a finger to the side of his head.

"That how you got the flaming head trick Weiss mentioned?"

Johnny looked into the house, before bending his head down. His head shook wildly, before the skin and hair on it burned away, flames floating off his skull, "a trick, huh?"

Yang met the glowing pricks of fire in his eye sockets, her own eyes turning red as she activated her Semblance. The supercharge of adrenaline causing a smile to split across her face, "Yeah. You ever think of using it to make Bailey's Comets?"

"You really are Ruby's sister," Johnny laughed, the flames going out and his skin and hair regrowing, "Most people are at least a little freaked out the first time they see it!"

"Nah," Yang said, grinning back at him, "I was in space the last few years. Once you've met Kree, Skrull and Sakaarans, you don't scare easily."

"Yeah, well…" Johnny stopped, eyes becoming unfocused, "Oh, damnit."

"What?" Yang said as Johnny stood up and downed the bottle before he threw open the back door, "What?"

"Eric, Jubilee!" Johnny snapped, "Weapons check! Get ready, they're coming, fast!"

"They're coming?" Yang asked, "Whose coming?"

"The aliens," Johnny said, teeth clenched while he planted his hand on the wall, arm shaking, "We're gonna go, Z, you don't need to do it like this!"

"We're all going," Blake said, stepping down the stairs with Gambol Shroud on her back, her ears exposed as she took Johnny by the arm, helping him up, "I called a babysitter for Elsa and Shogo."

"Why?" Johnny asked, flames burning in his mouth.

"Because something tells me that Ruby's not coming back to retirement," Blake said, not flinching at the flames burning on Johnny, "and I'm going to keep her safe."

"Team RWBY, fighting together again?" Yang said with a wide grin, "Great!"

"I agree," Weiss said, stepping down the stairs, "it has been too lo-"

"This is sweet and all," Eric said, throwing the shotgun to Johnny, "but we have a weapons check to do."

- X Blake X-

Blake followed Johnny into Ruby's workshop, entering it for the first time in a year, and preparing to do her first weapons check in even longer. This was it, this was how their retirement ended.

But if the Spirit and SHIELD was right, weren't there enough people in danger for it to be worth it? The world was changing, becoming more like Remnant every day. Men in flying armor, super soldiers, stealth operatives who used bows and arrows…

Blake breathed in, shifting Gambol Shroud into a pistol and pulling back the slide, flicking the slide catch as she did. Grabbing a glock magazine, the Faunus slid it into place, before finishing racking the slide, the catch releasing and the first round chambering, "How long?"

"Four seconds," Yang said, checking a hologram on her arm.

"I'm rusty," Blake said, more to herself than to the gathered crew.

"Four seconds is rusty?" Jubilee asked, walking around the room and examining the guns, "and do you think Ruby would mind if I brought one along? I'm not a gun freak like her, Johnny or Eric… but if things go wrong…"

"It is for me," Blake said, "and go ahead. Take one of the revolvers, they're better for beginners. The K-Frame, Python or R8."

"What part of 'not a gun freak' flew over your head there, Blakey?" Jubilee asked.

"Here," Johnny said, grabbing the Python and holding it out to Jubilee, who grabbed it from him with a dirty look. What had happened between them?

"Thanks," Jubilee said, begrudgingly.

"Be careful with it," Johnny cautioned, "Don't do the reload you'd see in movies or video games, because that will just damage it, and those are getting rarer."

"Right," Jubilee nodded.

How long had it been since Ruby had given Clint the same lesson? Since Blake went through those same lessons with Adam?

"You alright?" Yang asked her, planting her flesh and blood hand on Blake's shoulder and tightening it.

"Just thinking," Blake said, becoming aware of the vice grip she had on Gambol Shroud, the gun pressed against the table, "What do we do if this blows up? We've always laid a bit low."

"More out of necessity than anything," Weiss said, spinning Myrtenaster around her hand as she paced, the one member of the team not needing any preparation, "With me and Yang back in full combat, we can afford to step out of the shadows."

But the shadows were where Blake was most comfortable, where she preferred to be. She didn't want to-

"You know," Yang said, "You don't have to come. We'll be fine without you."

"But I want to make sure you're all fine," Blake said, "I don't want to sit around home while I know you're fighting."

"Then we'll think of something," Yang said, hugging her, "we always do."

"Thanks," Blake said, smiling at Yang.

"Now," Yang said, letting go of Blake, "I need to do some stretches before I go save my sister's butt. Wanna do that too?"

"Save Ruby, or stretch?"

"Whatever gets your mind off things," Yang said.

"That… doesn't make much sense," Blake said, shaking her head.

"I agree," Weiss said, "but that's why we love you."

Yang stuck her tongue out at them, before turning, "Yo, Jubles! Want to get some stretches in before we go?"

"Did you just call me Jubles?" Jubilee asked, turning towards them, "That's worse than my birth name!"

"Which is?"

"Jubilation Lee," Eric said, loading his gun… and his secondaries… and some spares.

"...Wow, that name is pretty bad," Yang said.

"Why do you think I have people call me Jubilee?" she asked, "and sure, I'll come along."

- X Ruby X-

Ruby sat in the quarters, head bowed as her mind hung in freefall. Finally, her cracked voice came out, "So, Loki escaped-"

"-Yep," Tony said, pacing around the room in damaged suit of armor.

"-Bruce and Thor are missing-" Ruby continued, hands shaking.

"Yeah," Clint said.

"-We're in a crippled helicarrier-"

"Why are you doing this?" Steve said, "We know what's going on."

"Trying to wrap my head around it," Ruby said.

"Well, get around it," Ruby's head jerked up, meeting Fury's eye as he and Maria stepped into the room, arms behind his back while Maria held a briefcase, "because your job isn't over."

"Isn't over?" Ruby snapped, standing up and running her hand through her hair, "isn't over? How isn't it over, Nick? We don't have Loki, we don't have Bruce, we don't have the Tesseract, and we don't have a way to get to him! We-"

"Have a tracker on the quinjet he used to escape," Fury said, "So we might not have Loki, but we know where he is heading, New York. We still have Banner's equipment, calibrated to find the Tesseract, so we know Loki has it with him, and we still have a working quinjet. We can still turn this around…"

"And why should we?" Tony said, stopping his pacing, "give me one reason-"

"Because it's what Phil Coulson wanted," Fury said, cutting them off. Ruby's gut plummeted, mind entering freefall. No, no, no…

"Wanted?" Ruby said, voice weak, "You mean wants, right?"

"No," Nick said, "I meant wanted. Loki killed him during the escape. Ran him through the heart."

"Fuck," Tony said, softly, while Ruby buried her face in her hands, a black arrow in cream skin flashing through her mind. The heart again, why was it always the fucking heart?

"Ruby," Clint said, carefully touching her shoulder, "don't-"

"Let," Ruby said, voice shaking, "go."

"Ruby-"

"Let go, Clint."

"Agent Barton," Fury said, "step back."

For a second, it seemed like Clint would refuse, before he briefly tightened his grip on Ruby's shoulder and stepped back. Ruby's eyes flashed orange as she gave an inarticulate scream, slamming her hand on the table as energy from the Bloodstone flashed down her arm, the table smashing under the force of the blow. Steve immediately dove between the fragments and Natasha, letting them hit into him without a flinch.

"I'm sorry," Fury said, sitting next to Ruby, "I really am. Agent Coulson… Phil.. he was a good man, a good friend… my good eye. If I had known Loki was going to get out that easily, I wouldn't have sent him there."

"I should have gone with him," Ruby said, blinking back tears, "He was the only one who believed me…"

"That's not true," Nick said, voice soft for the first time in years, "I believed you, but after the infiltration, I didn't have men to spare. I wouldn't have trusted you to do it yourself otherwise, Agent Rose."

"Believed her about what?" Tony asked.

"Potential infiltrators," Nick said, voice brisk again, "which she has done a noble job of keeping out of SHIELD. Anyways, before you head out to New York, I have something for you. Phil has be- was working on a new combat uniform for you. We don't have it finished because we weren't sure you would join the Avengers Initiative… but we did get one part done. The part he thought you would like more than anything else."

Nick nodded to Maria, who stepped forward and put the briefcase on the table. Ruby reached out, flicking it open… and squeezing her eyes shut to hide the tears.

It was a cloak. A crimson red cloak…

Oh, Phil…

"He knew you loved them," Nick said, pressing the cloak into Ruby's hands, "and figured that when your teammates were wearing red and gold armor or red, white, and blue, there was no reason you couldn't have it. I agree."

Ruby unfold it, ignoring the pair of guns that fell to the ground, and stared at the silver embroidery in the shape of her emblem connected by vines along the bottom. Pulling it on, Ruby carefully latched it in place with the pin shaped that was also like her emblem. Phil had really gone the extra mile with this.

Picking up the guns, Ruby frowned at the pair of ER-3s, "I didn't-"

"Phil wanted you to have them," Nick said, "Keep them as last resort weapons, if nothing else."

"Fine," Ruby holstered them, before grabbing Crescent Rose and standing up, "Let's go, guys."

"Yeah," Steve nodded, grabbing his shield.

"I'll meet you there," Tony said, "I need to stop by the tower to upgrade."

- X Eric X-

"Hey," Eric said, walking towards Blake with his hands in his pockets. She was reloading and unloading her gun-sword... thing (he should ask Ruby to make him something like that) repeatedly. She stopped, looking up at him.

"Hi," she said, before returning to the loading her gun, "Mind timing me?"

"Yes," Eric said, catching the mag, "I do. I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" Blake asked.

"You're life after this," Eric said.

"Because I'm worried about being able to live a normal life?" Blake said.

"I guess it's technically about that," Eric said with a shrug.

"Well then," Blake said, putting the sword down, "Get to it. Are you gonna tell me I'm stressing about noth-"

"I was going to tell you that you were saner than most hunters I know," Eric said, taking the wind out of Blake's sails as quickly as possible, "including your wife."

"...What?"

"Our life style isn't sustainable, Blake," Eric said, sitting next to her, "that's just a fact. You know why me, Ruby and Johnny are such good hunters? It's because we can shrug off a lot the abuse thrown at us. But most hunters… they act like us, but can't take the punishment. They end up dead or worse, crippled, and that's when things get really bad."

"Crippled is worse than dead?" Blake said, "it sounds like you don't ha-"

"It is when you have few to no marketable skills. You can't go into the military, or the police, or any other job where a warrior might be wanted-"

"I'd be worried about a warrior in the police."

"And some hunters only fight one type of monster," Eric said, "like me with vampires. What happens if we win the fight, get rid of all the walkers?"

"Not all vampires-"

"You suddenly have a lot of hunters with nothing to hunt," Eric said, cutting her off, "and some of them will move onto hunting other monsters, but others will have nothing."

"And what about you?" Blake asked.

"I'll join a jazz band," Eric said, "done it before."

"You like jazz?" Blake asked.

"I grew up in the 1920s, age of jazz and swing," Eric said, cracking a smile, "I tried to get into more modern styles, but it never really worked. Can't stand rap, for example."

"So, what, I just need to fight until there's nothing lift?" Blake said, frowning, "that doesn't sound enjoyable."

"You just need to fight until you decide you don't want to fight more," Eric said, "either for a vacation, or permanently. Then you go do whatever you want."

"But Ruby…"

"Isn't normal," Eric said, "I take vacations. Johnny takes vacations. Ruby is weird because she doesn't like taking vacations, probably because of whatever baggage she has. But if we work as a team, she might be more willing because she knows someone is dealing with it. Ok?"

"Ok," Blake nodded.

"Now," Eric opened his hand, offering her the magazine, "I'll time you a couple of gos."

- X Steve X-

Steve watched Ruby as they roared through the sky in the quinjet, the noise of her whetstone going at her scythe blade muted by the roar of the jets. T-minus five minutes till battle.

There was a strange level of calm in this part, always had been. Back with the Howling Commandos, this would be when Dum Dum jokingly complained about not being drunk enough.

Tony's voice can across their earpieces, "Hey, guys, I have bad news."

"Let me guess," Natasha said, "Loki's at Stark Tower?"

"Yeah," Tony said, "him, a couple of mercenaries and an older guy."

"Don't do anything too risky, Tony," Steve said.

"I've got to, Cap," Tony said, "the Mark 6 isn't gonna survive another fight."

"'That death does wait, There's no debate'," Ruby said, seemingly more to herself than anyone. A quote that startled Steve because he actually recognized it from one of the books of poetry he had been given after waking up.

"You read poetry?" Steve asked her.

"My wife's a writer," Ruby said, "She read To Hell and Back a couple of times."

"To Hell and Back?"

"Audie Murphy's autobiography."

"Is this really the time?" Natasha snapped.

"Of course it is," Barton said.

"What?" Natasha said, "what do you-"

"She's distracting you so Stark can land," Barton said.

Steve's eyes widened under his cowl, hand snapping up, "Tony!? Tony!?"

Nothing, other than Ruby's phone going off. She pulled it out, hitting a button on it while ignoring the look Steve gave her, "Sorry."

"What were you thinking?" Steve asked.

"I made a tactical decision," Ruby said, "if Tony says his armor won't survive another fight, I believe him."

"So you're letting him get killed?" Steve demanded.

"He needs a chance to get the suit," Ruby said, "or he'll die during the fight, Steve. He's not a trained soldier, he needs a fully function- sorry," Ruby hit the button to hang up again, before looking back at Steve, "Trust-"

"Uh," Tony's voice suddenly came across their earpieces, "guys? You need to get here, quick."

"Why?" Steve asked, "What's going on?"

"Suited up," Tony said, "but Loki and his goons activated a machine, there's a portal above Manhattan and there are aliens coming out of it!"

"We're-" Ruby cut herself off with an exasperated sigh, bringing her phone up to her ear, "What, Johnny!? I'm a little bus-"

"Dealing with an alien invasion?" The voice said, being unintentionally picked up by the earpiece, "Yeah, we know. Give us a location, we're coming in."

"What do you-?" Ruby started, before cutting herself off, "Stark Tower."

"Roger that," the voice said, "See you there."

"Yeah," Ruby said, before hanging up, "bring us low near Stark Tower, Natasha."

"Are you actually planning to jump out again?" Natasha asked

"Yep," Ruby said, opening a panel to grab some earpieces, "I'll coordinate things between my team and you guys. Tony, do you see a flaming skeleton?"

What?

"You know, that should confuse me a lot more than it does," Tony said, "but... yeah, I see him. Hard not to…"

"How many people are with him?"

"Five others," Tony said.

Ruby paused, before grabbing six earpieces and hitting the button to open the back of the ship, nodding with a grin, "See you on the other side?"

"I guess," Steve said, watching Ruby tip backwards out of the ship as a gout of fire smashed into an alien chariot.

- X Ruby X-

Ruby landed with a thud, rolling up onto her feet as she looked around the gathered team Johnny had gathered, and her brain froze. Johnny, Eric and Jubilee, she had expected, but Weiss? Blake? Yang!?

Ruby staggered as Blake crashed into her, hugging her as tightly as possible, "What-?"

"Do you know how worried I was when I saw you fighting Loki?" Blake asked, planting her head on Ruby's shoulder.

"Oh…" Ruby said, squirming in Blake's arms, "Er… you saw that?"

"We all saw it," Weiss said, putting her hand on Blake's shoulder, "Elsa's cute, by the way."

"You met her?" Ruby asked, a smile blooming on her face.

"Yes," Weiss said, "it's also why I got Yang."

"That can be talked about later," Johnny said, firing at another Chitauri chariot, "What are we doing?"

Ruby nodded, biting her cheek, "Ok… Jubilee, some reports said Drac was in the area-"

"Were you even trying to keep to the retirement?" Blake asked in exasperation.

"-can you find him?" Ruby said, wincing. She was so, so gonna be stuck on the couch.

"Yeah," Jubilee nodded.

"Go talk to him," Ruby said, tossing her an earpiece.

"You want us to work with the vampires?" Eric said.

"They'll work with us," Ruby insisted, "they don't like other people messing with their prey."

"That wasn't the question," Eric said.

"Eric, you and Yang take out any ground troops you can find," Ruby said, tossing them their earpieces.

"Sounds good," Yang said, before planting a hand on Ruby's shoulder, "it's good to see ya, sis."

"Just wish it was under better circumstances," Ruby said.

"We got a long time," Yang said, before backtracking to the edge of the building they were on and tipping back, Eric jumping after her..

"Johnny," Ruby said, tossing Howl to him, "Drive around, fry anything causing too much damage, carve anything else up."

"So follow Z's directions," Johnny said, climbing on his bike and gunning it, driving straight down the building.

"Weiss," Ruby said, "do you have anything that can cause a lot of destruction?"

Weiss gave a small smile, a black glyph appearing in her hand and a pure black liquid floating out of it, moving in the air, "this look familiar?"

"Zero Matter?" Ruby said, "is that safe?"

"I have control over it," Weiss said, "and a few more tricks."

"Use them to take out some of the bigger ones," Ruby said, handing Weiss her earpiece.

"Will do," Weiss slid on a two fingered ring, and opening a portal, before stopping, "And Ruby? It is good to see you again."

"What do I do?" Blake said, sounding resigned.

"I'm planning to snipe for a bit," Ruby said, "I need you to act as my spotter."

- X AN X-

For those who don't watch the shows, Zero Mater AKA Darkforce, is essentially what happens when you have a liquid black hole. It's the counterpart to the Lightforce Weiss was using last chapter.

Thoughts and opinions? Good? Bad? Meh