A.N – Part 2 of the Battle of New York. So sorry for the late update guys. Please leave a review if you enjoyed it! I'd love to hear some feedback.

Disclaimer – I do not own anything you recognise. The Avengers and the characters therein, belong to Marvel.

Chapter Eleven

'Guys?' Natasha said. Nadia turned towards her and followed the Agent's gaze. More of those huge leviathans were coming through the portal, along with more Chitauri soldiers. What they had just faced was child's play compared to what was coming towards them now. Nadia took a deep breath which rattled in her body and betrayed her fear.

'Call it, Captain.' Tony said through the helmet of his suit. Steve stepped forward, in his element. He was Captain America. He was used to being in the heat of battle. If anyone knew what to do, how to keep their cool, it was him. Even Tony, who deferred to no one, who always seemed so confident, was turning to him in this moment.

'Alright, listen up.' Steve said, his voice calm and clear. 'Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or your turn it to ash.'

Clint looked at Tony. 'Wanna give me a lift?'

Tony nodded his head once and walked over to the archer. 'Right. Better clench up, Legolas.' He grabbed the back of Clint's suit and flew upwards and out of sight.

'Thor, you've gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down.' Steve said and Thor nodded, face determined. 'You've got the lightning, light the bastards up.'

Thor flew away as Steve turned to Nadia and Natasha. 'Us three, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk?'

The Hulk swung his massive head around to look at Steve. The Captain pointed towards the sky. 'Smash.' He ordered. The Hulk smiled and with a roar, launched himself up into the air, landing on the side of a building and beginning to smash the enemy to bits. Nadia looked up and saw that Thor was sending bolts of lightning towards the entrance of the portal, frying the aliens before they even had a chance to attack.

'You okay?' Nadia asked Steve, who nodded and smiled briefly before grabbing her arm.

'Get down!' he yelled, yanking her to the ground as a blast of energy shot right over their heads, a shot that could have killed Nadia.

'Thanks.' She said. Before Steve could say another word, more Chitauri soldiers were upon them and Nadia was thrown back into action. She alternated shifting into the shapes of animals and using her powers over the elements to fight. She sent miniature tornados towards the aliens to sweep them up and break their bones. She slashed their throats with her claws. She wasn't backing down.

A fire hydrant broke nearby as an alien blast hit it, and Nadia used the escaping water as a weapon, sweeping her arm out in a grand motion, encasing the aliens and then freezing them in a huge block of ice with a simple flick of her wrist. She used her knives to stab and slice at the aliens that got too close, even throwing one of her smaller knives at a Chitauri solider, grimacing when it landed where she'd aimed – his forehead.

The more tired she became, the more hits the Chitauri got in. She had scrapes on her hands and upper arms where the flesh was exposed. Her cheek was bleeding and her hair flew about, having totally escaped from her ponytail. She knew that the longer the battle went on, the less luck they were going to have.

Natasha and Steve were both getting tired too, Nadia could see that. Natasha was panting heavily and Steve was having a harder time of keeping track of where the enemies were. She had to admire the way he fought though. He used that shield like an extension of his arm, and Nadia was very thankful that they were on the same side. She wouldn't want to be fighting either of them.

She began to move away from them and fought further down the bridge, sinking some Chitauri into the concrete by changing the consistency of the road to clay, and then back again. She whipped water around and sliced the heads of the aliens. She stabbed them in the backs and carved them open, spilling their guts. She was getting used to this whole violence thing.

When she'd cleared her area, Nadia jogged back over to Natasha who was leaning against the hood of a taxi, a Chitauri spear in her hands. Steve stood next to her, his shield covered in black blood and grime.

'Cap, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal.' Natasha said, looking up at Stark Tower. The portal was still open and expelling more aliens out by the second.

'Our biggest guns couldn't touch it.' Nadia pointed out, panting with her hands on her hips.

'Well, maybe it's not about guns.' Natasha murmured thoughtfully.

'You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride.' Steve said, squinting up at the sky.

'I got a ride.' Natasha said, looking above them. Nadia heard the hovercrafts the aliens used to get around before she saw them. Natasha threw the spear to the side as she walked away from them. 'I could use a boost though.'

Steve readied his shield and looked apprehensive. Nadia stood at the ready too, prepared to catch Natasha if she missed and fell. 'Are you sure about this?' he asked.

Natasha nodded. 'Yeah, it's gonna be fun.'

Natasha sprinted at Steve, launched herself off the hood of the car and onto the top of the shield. Steve pushed her upwards and she soared, catching hold of a passing hovercraft. Natasha sped away.

A blast sped at them and Nadia ducked. There were more Chitauri on the bridge and she turned to Steve, turning her knife over in her hands.

'Here we go again.' She muttered before throwing her knife at the closest alien, then plucking it out from his chest as she ran past, not caring as she threw herself into the fight. Steve's fighting style was pretty similar to her own, and they worked well together. She bounced fireballs off his shield and he threw it at the Chitauri, distracting them while she stabbed them in the chests. Tony flew overhead and landed near them, joining the fight. He used his suit to send a ray of golden energy at Steve's shield, who used it like a weedwhacker to cut down the remaining aliens on the bridge. Tony took off soon after and Nadia skidded to a stop at Steve's side, her lip bleeding from being hit in the face with a spear.

'You good?' he asked. Nadia noticed that he didn't have a scratch on him yet, whereas she looked like a hedgehog had attacked her.

'Yeah. Let's go.' She said. Steve nodded and took off jogging, scanning for any hostiles. They jogged side by side, telling straggling civilians to go down to the basements of the nearest buildings or go down into the subways. Nadia couldn't get the smell of smoke out of her nose and what she knew to be burning flesh.

'Look out!'

Steve's warning came a second too late and a Chitauri backhanded her, sending her flying into the side of a building. Her head hit the wall and she slid to the ground, pain erupting in every nerve in her body. Through blurred eyes, she searched for Steve, wondering if he was okay. He was fighting the Chitauri, but it had him pinned to the ground, it's spear hovering inches above Steve's face, which was clenched in the effort it took to hold the creature at bay. Nadia felt a lump of fear in her chest and gathering what strength she had left, she picked herself up and stumbled over to the single alien, coming up behind it silently and as quickly as she could. Steve struck out then, breaking the creature's leg and she stabbed it in the neck. It went sprawling to the ground dead. Nadia helped Steve to his feet.

'Are you hurt?'

Nadia shook her head, her vision blurring slightly. She took a second to gather her scrambled brains together before answering. 'Doesn't matter. We have bigger things to worry about.'

Steve swallowed and nodded, not looking happy.

'Captain,' Clint's voice came through on their comms system, 'The bank on 42nd past Madison. They caught a lot of civilians there.'

'On it.' Steve replied. He looked down at Nadia, who rubbed her sore neck. 'You coming?'

'Right behind you, Cap.' She smiled at him and Steve grinned back before they headed off towards the bank. A police car was parked just outside it and officers in Kevlar vests shot at the approaching Chitauri as they tried to get the innocent captives out.

'You go in, I'll stay here to keep anymore coming after you. Go.' Nadia said, waving Steve inside the building. She turned and faced the oncoming Chitauri and took a breath. Raising her hands, the ground in front of them began to rumble, then rose up. A thick, tall stone wall erupting right out of the ground and protecting the entrance to the bank. One police officer, stared at her in shock and she sighed, too tired to be self-conscious.

An explosion shook the building and Nadia whirled around, worried. 'Steve!' she screamed and then grunted as an energy blast struck her in the side, just as another flash shot towards her, this time hitting her in the leg, which was not protected like her chest had been and left a large but shallow wound. She pressed a hand to it, dropping the rifle and falling to her knees in pain. Blinking tears from her eyes at the burning sensation coming from her thigh she looked around. Policemen and firemen were evacuating the people from the bank and she searched for Steve. He was climbing off a flattened car, his helmet missing, showing his sweat soaked blonde hair. His face was bruised and his bicep had a large cut that was soaking the sleeve of his suit in blood.

'Steve!' she called, her voice strained and weak. He turned towards the sound and she saw his eyes widen and his face pale. He ran over to her, helping to bring her to her feet and then helped sit her on the back of a car. His hands remained on her upper arms, standing very close to her.

'What happened?' he asked.

'Got shot.' She replied meekly hissing as he prodded her leg with his finger gently. 'You okay?'

'Yeah, I'm fine.' He said, grabbing what looked like a silk scarf from the car she was sitting on and tying it around Nadia's leg to stanch the flow of blood seeping from her wound. 'Don't worry about me.'

'Easier said than done.' Nadia quipped in reply before she could stop herself. She averted her gaze, looking around the streets in a moment of ceasefire. This area had been cleared of aliens for now but the city looked destroyed. There were fires raging, rubble, ash and dust everywhere, and to Nadia's horror, human bodies lay in the streets. A few stragglers hurried down into the subway, taking every opportunity to stare at the two Avengers.

A red and silver blur fell from the sky and crashed not far from the two. They looked at each other and then hurried over to look, Nadia walking a little slower than Steve, trying not to wince in pain every time she moved. It was Thor who had landed in a small crater in the middle of the street and even though he fell two hundred feet, he looked okay. Unfortunately, he brought more Chitauri with him. Nadia groaned and grabbed the knife from her boot, her only one left.

She did her best, her movements no longer fluid or graceful, but rather sloppy and vicious. The wound in her leg kept bleeding steadily and it hurt to walk. She was tired, injured and had faced death many times over in one day. Her anger and her will to live were the only things keeping her alive, coming in bursts of infrequent energy.

Steve dropped to the ground when a blast from an alien gun hit him in the stomach, and Nadia's heart stopped, her eyes widening in horror. Thor used his hammer to throw the Chitauri away from the group while Nadia knelt next to Steve, the pin in her leg forgotten. She picked up his shield and stood over him, protecting him while Thor fended off the oncoming Chitauri, using his hammer to throw a car towards them. After clearing the area, he held his hand out to Steve, who took it. Steve was panting, holding his front and squinting in pain.

'You ready for another bout?' Thor asked, concerned. Nadia joined the two men and handed Steve his shield back. She knew what it was like to get hit by one of those alien blasts – they hurt like a bitch.

'Why? You gettin' sleepy?' Steve asked. Nadia smiled, knowing his attempt at humor was an effort to lighten the mood. Thor held his hand out and his hammer came flying back into it. All of them were panting and injured and Nadia looked up at the portal, cursing the day Loki was born.

'I can close it! Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!' Natasha said through the earpiece and Nadia breathed a sigh of relief.

'Do it!' Steve ordered.

'No, wait!' Tony shouted.

'Stark, these things are still coming!' Steve said.

'I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute.' Tony explained and Nadia slumped where she stood, wondering how much worse it could get. 'And I know just where to put it.'

Nadia ran a hand through her matted hair nervously as she realized what that meant.

'Stark…' Steve said slowly, 'You know that's a one-way trip.'

But Tony didn't answer them and Nadia looked up towards the sky. She could see the streak that was Tony and the missile, and she held her breath. She grabbed Steve's hand in her own but didn't look at him. If Tony missed, didn't get the missile away from the city…the thought was too horrible to bear. She'd seen the footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had studied the effects of radiation to see if it had a link to her powers. The aftermath of a nuclear bomb was devastating.

The three of them watched as Tony guided the missile up the side of Stark Tower and towards the portal and then…they were gone.

Nadia let out the breath she had been holding, but kept her eyes on the sky, waiting to see Tony come back through the portal. She squeezed Steve's hand tighter and his fingers curled around her own. Nadia saw an explosion through the eye of the portal and knew that the missile had destroyed all the Chitauri armies on that end. She jumped when all around them the Chitauri began to drop to the ground and a leviathan fell on top of a building, belly up and lifeless. It seemed that they were all dependent on the mothership, and now that that was destroyed…

Tony still hadn't come back through. Steve looked at Thor and then, sighing, said, 'Close it.'

After a second, the beam of blue light that powered the opening to the portal was shut off and the portal began to close. Nadia kept her eyes trained on the sky and just as the portal shut, a figure fell. Tony.

'Son of a gun.' Steve muttered, grinning. They watched as Tony continued to fall and Nadia knew something was wrong.

'He's not slowing down.' Thor said, swinging his hammer to take off, but before he could, a green blur flew across the sky and caught Tony in mid-air. The Hulk landed on the side of a building before crashing to the city floor, Tony cradled in his arms.

Nadia let go of Steve's hand and raced over to them, hobbling on her injured leg with Steve and Thor in tow. The Hulk pushed Tony off him and Iron Man landed face down on the ground. Thor rushed over and pushed Tony onto his back, ripping off the Iron Man face mask. Nadia leaned down, placing her hands on Tony's chest and leaned her head in to hear if he was breathing. She sat up slowly, feeling tears prick at her eyes. The arc reactor in the suit wasn't glowing anymore.

The Hulk roared and Tony's eyes flew open. He gasped loudly and Nadia fell backwards onto her ass, blinking in shock. The arc reactor began to glow blue again.

'What the hell?' Tony asked, looking around at them all. 'What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.'

Steve smiled and nodded, as if he didn't believe what he was about to say. 'We won.'

'Alright, yay! Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just…take a day.' Tony turned to the Hulk, 'Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it.'

Nadia laughed at Tony's antics and before she could stop herself, kissed his cheek. He smiled weakly at her.

'We're not finished yet.' Thor reminded them and Tony nodded.

'And then shawarma after.'


They stood around in a half-circle, watching Loki drag himself painfully over to the steps. The god must have sensed eyes on him because he paused and then looked around. Clint drew his bow back, arrow aimed directly into the god's eye socket. The god sighed, bracing himself against the steps.

'If it's all the same to you,' he said, looking up at them all sheepishly, 'I'll have that drink now.'

The hulk growled and the Avengers took Loki into custody. The Battle for New York was over.