11

Stop there and let me correct it,

I wanna live a life from a new perspective,

You come along because I love your face,

And I'll admire your expensive taste and,

Who cares divine intervention,

I wanna be praised from a new perspective,

But leaving now would be a good idea,

So catch me up on getting out of here...

~New Perspective; by Panic! at the Disco

The beam of light that was keeping the portal open started flickering before it went out. The portal started closing. There was a heaviness weighing down on us—we were hoping Stark would've made it out; we needed him to make it out.

Right as the portal was about to close for good, something fell out. A body.

I instantly moved out of Thor's arms and shot energy out in the direction of the body. It was Tony. And he was barely slowing down, despite the energy I was forcing out.

"It's Stark," I told them. I tried forcing out more energy, but with the way he was falling—the speed he was going at—I could only slow him down so much, especially with how badly I wore myself out during the fight. "He's not slowing down."

I saw Thor swinging Mjölnir, like he was going to fly up there and get Tony himself, but before he could do anything the Hulk jumped out and grabbed Tony, gripping him tightly before he slid down the side of a building. Pushing himself off, the Hulk crashed onto the ground just a couple feet from us before shoving Tony away and stumbling to his feet. We all ran over, Thor pushing Tony onto his back and ripping off the mask of the Iron Man suit.

Tony's eyes were closed. He wasn't moving and it certainly looked like he wasn't breathing.

I tried entering his mind, just to see if he was dead or not. I felt a flicker of his consciousness, which reassured me.

"He's still alive," I said. "I can still feel something. He's just. . . .not waking up."

We all just stood there for a moment, trying to figure something out. I tried seeing if I could tap further into Stark's mind to jolt him awake, but the Hulk let out a sharp roar, causing Tony to jump into consciousness and force me out of his head.

"What the Hell?" he rasped. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

We let out shaky laughs.

"We won," Steve said, out of breath.

"Alright," Tony sighed, sounding relieved. "Hey, alright! Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. 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."

"We're not finished yet," Thor said solemnly.

We all looked at him.

As it turned out, Loki was still at Stark Tower. We weren't really sure what to expect from him, and we knew we'd have to take every precaution necessary in case he chose to attack. So, while finding Clint on our way over, we trekked through debris, climbed up to where Loki was—where we'd also found Natasha, who had been with a newly-restored Selvig at the top of Stark Tower—and found the man behind the whole invasion battered and bloodied on the ground, struggling to get up. The inside of the room was destroyed, the ground cracked, looking like it was about to collapse in on itself, with broken glass littering the ground.

For a moment, Loki stopped what he was doing and turned, looking at all of us with an expression of brief confusion before the realization hit.

Whatever weapons we had we aimed at him.

"If it's all the same to you," he sighed, "I'll have that drink now."

It took a while, but S.H.I.E.L.D was at Stark Tower ready to take Loki in. And, thankfully, he knew when to admit defeat. He was handcuffed, muzzled even, and brought into the back of a Quinjet where he'd be locked up in a specified location—under constant surveillance, most likely—until New York had started to regain some normalcy, and a decision on what to do with the Scepter and Tesseract came into place.

As for us, Fury made sure to send medical personnel in separate Quinjets. He wanted us back on the Helicarrier for a briefing, so he wanted us patched up as quickly, and as thoroughly, as possible.

As for what we'd do after the briefing, we had to decide that on our own.

Once we got into the Quinjets Fury provided for us, we were immediately given the best medical treatment that could be given until we reached the Helicarrier.

Thor, Clint, and I flew together in a Quinjet all the while getting assessed for our injuries. As far as I could tell, the areas where I'd been blasted by the Chitauri needed cleaning and stitching. The blood had since dried onto my clothes and hurt like a bitch to peel my shirt off.

"That looks bad," Clint said, grimacing a little as he regarded my injuries. His wounds were a few superficial cuts; he got a brief evaluation on his head, saying that he needed a special hit on the head to get out of Loki's control.

I tried for a smile. "It doesn't hurt too much," I said, giving a humorless chuckle. I saw a look in Thor's eyes as he watched me getting patched up—he looked terrified. "It'll be fine, Thor," I tried assuring him. "It's not like I could avoid getting injured."

"That doesn't mean I'll stop worrying," he murmured.

"You got stabbed, OK?" I arched a brow at him. A nurse was bandaging a stab wound he got on his side; he didn't seem too bothered by it. "I'm worried about you, too. I'm worried about everyone."

Once Thor had finished his assessment, he got up and sat next to me, gripping one of my hands in his. I didn't have to be a telepath to see the worry still obviously etched on his face. No amount of reassurance from me would stop him from worrying. Sighing, I laced my fingers through his, still aware of my side being stitched up.

The flight to the Helicarrier seemed to take longer than any of us wanted.

It was well into the night when we finally reached our destination. Fury took us one by one into a specially authorized room where we'd get briefed on not only what to do with ourselves during the aftermath of the invasion—Fury strongly suggested we all stay in New York for the time being, he didn't want us running off just yet—and he wanted us to tell him what went down. A good majority of the city had been destroyed by the Chitauri and Leviathans, as for how many people died, we didn't know.

We tried keeping the aliens within the perimeter Steve established, we'd told Fury, we did our best to make sure there were no strays. We also expected that a lot of people would view us with a lot of hostility, seeing as an entire city was not only nearly destroyed, but almost blown up.

After we finished with Fury, he told us by early morning, he'd have us flown to Stark Tower, where we'd be expected to stay until a decision was made with the Tesseract. Thor had made it clear he'd be taking the Tesseract and Loki back to Asgard with him, and Fury didn't argue with him on it, but he said there were still a few things that needed to be worked out.

"Try to stay out of the public eye for a little bit," he instructed. "Get better, figure out what you're going to do once this is all over. You'll know when we need you again."

S.H.I.E.L.D agents showed us to the barracks we'd be staying until morning, and once morning rolled around, Fury piled us into two Quinjets and flew us back to Stark Tower, reminding us to lie low and gather our strength.

Stark Tower hadn't been shown any mercy from the invasion, either. The outside was just as destroyed as the inside. Stark was disappointed that it had been his building used as a battleground and as a means of opening an alien portal, but he kept up a façade of not giving a shit and showed us to our rooms for the time being. Fury hadn't told us how long it'd take for a decision to be made over everything that happened, so we figured we might as well get used to living with each other for a little bit.

I sat in a sort of living room with a big screen on. It was on the news. Footage of the invasion, sent in by survivors who thought it'd be cool to videotape the ordeal, were played over and over while news anchors blabbered on about the mysterious group of people—minus Captain America, whom everyone knew and idolized, and Tony Stark's Iron Man—who managed to stop New York's destruction. Yet, while some people who were interviewed were thankful their lives had been saved, a lot of people voiced how they thought our little rag-tag group was dangerous and should be under supervision.

"They're a menace," a young man exclaimed. "They did just as much damage here as the aliens did!"

Footage went to a clip of the Hulk jumping from building to building, Thor bringing down lightning, Iron Man shooting his blasters at the Chitauri below, and then I saw a clip of me, debris violently shooting out at the Chitauri that had been around me, the ground cracked. Then a clip of when I destroyed the overpass to stop the Chitauri I had been fighting.

I turned off the television.

"Zelda." I turned and saw Thor standing at the entrance of the room I was in, wearing Earth clothes. His face was solemn.

"Were you standing there the whole time?" I sighed.

He nodded.

I nodded.

I hadn't seen much of the others for a good majority of the day—I could only assume they were off dealing with what was happening on their own. Stark Tower was big; it gave us all enough room to have some alone time.

Thor walked over and sat beside me on the couch. I rested my head on his shoulder.

"Are we dangerous?" I murmured.

Thor didn't say anything for a moment. "While a great many will think we're heroes, there will be some who don't see that," he sighed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "In a way, we did add onto some of the destruction."

I nodded. "Let's not talk about this," I sighed. I felt Thor kiss the top of my head. "I'd like to get to know you again." I lifted my head up and gave Thor an exhausted smile. "It's the first time we've had quality time together in a year."

Thor gave a small smile and nodded.

I adjusted myself so I was as comfortable as I could get without hurting my side. Thor's arm stayed around my shoulders, keeping me close to him. I let Thor talk first—he told me stories about Asgard. If I were to be completely honest with myself, I'd say that I wanted to see Asgard one day, but I knew that'd never happen. Thor spoke proudly of the beauty of his world—the buildings, the people, the culture. I looked up at him and saw a look of happiness written on his face as he spoke, but a glint of homesickness in his eyes. Then he spoke of his parents, Odin and Frigga. He spoke of how Frigga was always kind and warmhearted, then he spoke of how Odin could be cruel and ruthless at times. Especially toward Loki.

"Is that why you wanted to get through to Loki?" I asked. "You were afraid of what your father would do?"

"I see now of how Loki was treated by our father," Thor sighed. "Loki was unwanted in my father's eyes, insignificant. But Loki is my brother, and I was hoping I could. . . ." Thor broke off and sighed.

"I'm sorry."

Thor shook his head. "He'll be brought back to Asgard and receive justice for his actions. I pray our father is merciful."

"I think he'll be fine," I murmured.

Neither of us said anything for a minute.

"You fought bravely out there," Thor murmured, bringing me a little closer. I winced slightly. "You would make a brave warrior on Asgard."

I gave a slight chuckle. "I don't really like fighting," I said. I looked up at Thor. "That's more of your thing."

Thor chuckled.

"I really missed you," I said softly, "when you were gone."

"I know." Thor kissed the top of my head. "I had Heimdall tell me how you were every day." Gently tilting my face up, I saw the seriousness in Thor's eyes.

"Who's Heimdall?"

"He is the guardian of the Bifröst," Thor said. "He can see all."

"And you had him check on me?"

Thor nodded. "Every day."

I felt a feeling flutter inside me.

"If you don't believe me, look into my mind," he murmured.

"You know I don't like doing that." I smiled. "Besides, I believe you."

He sighed and nodded.

"Ya know," I said after a moment's silence, "if my brother were still around, he'd be so proud."

Thor's brows furrowed. "I remember you mentioning him."

"He was my big brother," I sighed. "Six years older than me. Damien was the first one I told when I found out I was a Mutant. He was the only one in my family who supported me."

"He sounds like an honorable man."

"He was." I felt my heart clench. "If you remember me mentioning him, then maybe you remember me saying he's dead." Thor nodded. "As much as I hate to say it, part of me blames Stark for it."

"Stark?" Thor's voice was laced in confusion.

"Stark used to be a weapons manufacturer," I said. "He sold all these different weapons to the Military—it was a big, successful company. But some of Stark's weapons were being sold—or stolen, I don't know—to some really hostile people in these other countries. It was Stark's weapons that killed my brother. There wasn't even a body to bring home." I felt tears well up in my eyes. "It's an empty coffin six feet under the ground. That's my brother's grave."

Thor held me close against him, being careful of my side. I buried my face in his chest.

In that moment, I felt another presence, for a brief moment, near the entrance of the room Thor and I were in. If I had known any better, I would've guessed it was Tony.

Author's Note:

Hope you guys enjoyed this update, sorry for the long wait! I've got finals coming up and I am procrastinating so much it isn't even funny. It's actually very painful and I need to stop. I just wanted to finish this chapter first before I resumed my college responsibilities.

I own nothing in the 'Marvel' universe. All I own are my characters and the stresses of adulthood.

If you've got ideas on how the Avengers should deal with the aftermath of the New York invasion, let me know; if you've got ideas or suggestions on Thor/Zelda moments, let me know; if you've got ideas or suggestions on anything, let me know. I was thinking, since this will probably be a series of stories with the second Thor and second Avengers going to be added in, should I add in the third Captain America with Zelda written in? I know Thor won't be in it, but with Tony wanting everyone under some kind of government control, and pretty much all the Avengers minus Thor and Bruce will be in it, I was just wondering...

I think it'd be interesting to write, but I'm also writing two different Captain America stories, so I don't entirely know. If you think I should add in 'Civil War' to the Zelda stories, let me know. This is only my second installment of Zelda, so...

I'm blabbering, I'm sorry. If you get what I'm asking, just leave a review, OK? Thank you.

Leave a kind and helpful review, please.

Thank you.

Susan Strong