Author's Note: Okay, so a long-awaited moment in this chapter, but also a reminder that nothing is over til it's over.
Sorry about the wait, I've been crazy busy this week!
Enjoy, and thanks to everyone that reviewed the last chapter!
Born To Die
Better Clench Up
"Reach deep inside yourself, my dearest."
I groaned in frustration, balling my fourteen year-old fists into tight knots. "I am attempting to do so, Mother! It is too difficult. I have no power." I paused, looking up at the elf that raised me with big pleading eyes. "May I join Loki and Thor now?"
My mother shook her head. "No, you must do this," she commanded. "Do you not want to be able to use this power when you are older?"
I groaned again, collapsing back onto my bed. Why didn't she understand? I would never want to use the all power. There is nothing and no one I could possibly care about enough in the future to help; I wanted to keep all my powers forever! Were they not already forcing me to marry against my will?
But I consented, as I usually did. "Very well, Mother. Explain it to me again?"
My Mother smiled gently, yet she was obviously still irked with me under what my sisters and I called her 'kind mask'. "An elf comes into a plethora of power when they reach the age of twenty and one. However, when the elf is eventually, in their early lifetime, forced to use the all power, their power drains to leave their one major power. According to the soothsayer, yours will be fire." I nodded to show my understanding. "You must be careful, Adramela. It is possible to use too much power, and you can lose a part of yourself."
I sighed impatiently, but gave my mother a tight smile. "I understand, Mother. May I leave?"
She rolled her eyes, but agreed. I tore out of there faster than a loosed arrow. My friends were waiting for me, and I did not have to see my husband-to-be for another week.
I hated lessons then, but oh, how I would long for them in the future.
AAA
Ana didn't enjoy not being in control. Not at all.
All she knew was that one moment, she was squeezing a shocked Steve's hand in comfort as the giant worm-like creature swerved toward them, shrugging her coat from her shoulders to reveal the suit beneath. And the next, her feet were no longer touching the pavement as unfamiliar hands swung her into unfamiliar arms, one wrapped tightly around her knees and the other supporting her upper back.
In a split second, her hands were an orange hue. She drove them toward her captor, only to stop short when her fist landed with a clang on a mixture of red and gold.
There was an earsplitting pause, in which Ana forced her gaze upward in order to meet the mechanical one of Ironman.
She couldn't look away, even as the sounds of the Hulk battering the huge alien below them rang out. Everything else in the world seemed so far away. The brunette's fist slowly uncurled, until her palm rested comfortably over the place where Tony Stark's heart was. His arms gradually loosened, and Ana shifted to sit more easily. Their eyes never left one another, except once, when Tony's flickered down to her wound for a few seconds, then back up to her wild green eyes.
The second Tony lifted his face mask off, the moment she could see his achingly familiar face, the built-up silence shattered.
As she gasped words that barely made sense to herself, let alone someone else, Tony's eyes slipped from her eyes to go slightly lower.
"And God, Tony, I'm alive. And you are, and we're together. And I'm so sorry; I did so many things wrong, I don't deserve a single thing you deign to-"
But Tony was done. He was just so fucking done.
So he shut the frantic brunette up in the first –and in hindsight, best- way he could think of.
After the shock of Tony's actions passed, Ana immediately returned the hard, desperate, beautiful kiss, wrapping her arms tightly around the broad shoulders of Ironman, opening her eyes to shyly meet the chocolate brown irises of Tony Stark. Which was sort of ironic, considering how his tongue was in her mouth.
A wave of pleasure overtook her, and she could no longer keep her eyes open. They fluttered closed, and Tony pulled her even closer.
"May I love you?" He asked softly between kisses.
The laugh Ana released was unlike any sound Tony had ever heard. Her eyes reopened, and they glittered in happiness. "I thought you'd never ask," she replied hoarsely, reaching forward and kissing him again.
Clint's voice in their ears almost caused Tony to drop Ana. "Yo, Romeo and Juliet? Alien invasion, guys, ring a bell?"
"I suppose," Tony growled, annoyed. He lowered them slowly to the ground. "By the way, darling, love the uniform. My design was better, though."
"But this one's inflammable," she shot back cheekily, using his chest to propel herself out of his arms to land between Natasha and Clint as they all stood back to back.
"You complete me, baby doll!" Tony yelled back cheerfully, before the face plate went back down. Ana just groaned. Tony was already irritating with nicknames; how bad would he be with pet names? Natasha bumped against her, expressing her own elation with an un-Tasha-like move. Ana just grinned at her, before focusing. If she wanted to make out with Tony again –which was a no-brainer- these aliens would have to go.
Steve watched the couple silently. He was upset with all this, of course. After all, he knew he loved Ana, he just accepted he didn't belong with her. She was a bit too far on the wild side for him, and it was so obvious that Tony and Ana were absolutely perfect for each other. In his eyes, Ana would only ever be a best friend. And he thought he could probably live with that.
As Ironman landed staunchly next to him, Steve felt a tremor of importance and power shudder through him. The Avengers were a unit now, and as the Hulk let out a loud gravelly roar; as Ana's whole body became a fiery torch; as Natasha cocked her gun and Clint notched an arrow; as Thor lifted his hammer; and as Tony lifted a glowing blue hand, Steve closed his eyes and realized this was where he belonged. The strong and glorious leader among gods, assassins, billionaires, archers, geniuses, and most importantly, heroes.
Stark turned to face him, and for once, Steve felt respect emanate from the man. "Call it, Captain."
The blonde man looked around; all of the Avengers' eyes were on him, waiting for command. He took a deep breath. It was a lot of responsibility, but he had done this before. He knew how to do this. "All right, listen up! Until we can close that portal up there, what we need is containment." He turned to the archer. "Barton: I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark: you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."
"Need a lift?" Tony asked Clint, walking determinedly toward the agent. He squeezed Ana's arm lightly as he passed, giving her a warm look – well, Steve supposed it would've been a warm look if the mask hadn't been in the way. Ana seemed to understand. "Careful with that wound," he warned quickly.
"Yeah," Clint replied to Tony's prior question.
The Ironman grasped Clint's arm tightly. "Better clench up, Legolas." They took off, leaving Thor, Ana, Natasha, Steve, and Bruce on the ground.
Steve continued: "Thor: you've got to try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightning - light the bastards up!" Thor nodded staunchly, swinging his hammer a few times in order to get up into the air.
"Woods: You have to hijack one of these alien flying contraptions. Get up there and nail as many as you can."
Ana tilted her head in acknowledgment, placing her hands almost playfully on her hips. "Can you give me a boost?"
Steve nodded, holding up his shield. The brunette got a running start, did two back handsprings, feet landing on Steve's shield as he thrust it up into the air. She easily swung onto a passing ship, and the three left on the ground saw a flash of orange and yellow before it disappeared around the corner. Steve was rather confident in her abilities, though; he wasn't worried.
"Captain?"
He spun back to Natasha, face adorably red. Maybe he had been watching for too long… "You and me: we stay on the ground, keep the fighting here." Natasha had already pulled out her guns, slowly helping a bus full of children keep cover as she expertly shot the Chitauri as they appeared.
Steve looked up at the green giant next him, at a loss for words. "And Hulk," he began, reaching mentally for a decent job. "Smash," he figured simply. The Hulk grunted in consent, jumping and virtually flying toward a nearby building, smashing aliens happily.
Steve joined Natasha, lifting a child from the window and ushering him toward the building.
He thought to himself, this just might work.
AAA
Nick Fury sunk into his chair, staring at the screen in front of him in disbelief.
The blonde woman leaned toward him. "Director Fury, the council has made a decision."
Fury snorted; he had an unnaturally strong urge to pull out his gun and shoot the four screens in front of him. He didn't think it was an unfounded urge either. "I recognize that the council has made a decision, but given that it is a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."
The council seemed to decide that Fury's authority no longer existed, and immediately sent out the command for a missile. And despite their best efforts, that missile was headed for the island of Manhattan, and there was nothing else SHIELD could do to stop it.
Except to add to the Avengers' already growing burden.
AAA
Ana thought the battle was going pretty well.
Natasha was at the portal, ready to turn off the device as soon as they gave her the signal. The Hulk had tossed Loki around a few times, and the God of Mischief was obviously not going anywhere for a while.
Steve, Thor, and she were working together to kill as many aliens as possible, but their Captain was getting a bit fatigued. Thor was fine, as well as she – immortal stamina was something.
Stark was flying around, backing up the Hulk and Clint, who was shooting explosive arrows in every direction. He looked a bit crazy, but yet he still never missed a mark.
Yes, the battle was going pretty well, until Fury alerted them to an incoming missile that was going to blow up Manhattan.
"Should I close it?" Natasha shouted over the comm.
"Not yet, Romanoff," Tony replied hurriedly. "There's a missile headed straight for us, and guess what? I know exactly where to put it."
Ana felt a violent shiver travel up her spine. "W-What? Tony?" She stuttered, stopping cold and forcing Thor to cover for her.
Jarvis cut in. "Sir, you know this is a one-way trip."
Tony gave a sad smile, though he knew no one could see it. "It's been a pleasure working with you Jarvis," he whispered, clutching the missile tighter.
"No! Stark, don't you dare," Ana trailed off, a hard tone to her voice though Tony could hear the tremor. "Don't… Please," she begged.
Tony swallowed, attempting to reply. His throat was so dry and cracked he didn't dare speak. "Auf Wiedersehen, darling," he managed, before disappearing through the portal.
Ana looked up in disbelief, in absolute shock, not noticing as the aliens fell around her. The missile had done its job. "A Sound of Music reference?" She whispered in sheer astonishment. "The asshole dies on me with a damn musical reference?" She shouted angrily, though only Steve and Thor could hear her. She would not let the tears fall. Not yet.
Come on, Stark," Natasha whispered, scepter poised to enter the Tesseract.
After a minute, Steve had to make a decision. "Close it," he commanded miserably, sighing deeply. Natasha thrust the scepter inside, but Ana wasn't giving up so easily.
"Steve?" Ana whispered, eyes directed to where Tony had recently disappeared. "I'm going to need you to catch me."
The Captain's sad face melted into a confused one. "What?"
However, she was no longer paying attention to him. Thor looked on knowingly. "Never thought I'd use this…"
She stood staunchly beside her fellow avengers, gazing up at the sky. "Come on, Adramela," she whispered to herself. "Mother spent years teaching you this… Reach deep inside yourself..."
Ana did so, closing her eyes gently. She gasped as magic, which seemingly knew what to do without her commanding it, seemed to wrap down her arms and legs, lifting her slightly off the ground. She opened her eyes; they glowed a magnificent white.
Though Thor had seen this happen before, the Hulk and Steve watched in awe as palpable magic shot into the air, directed toward the portal. "What's happening?" the super soldier questioned.
"She is relinquishing her all power," Thor explained. "A magical being can do one act of great power in their lengthy lifetime. Adramela has chosen to distort space and time in order to retrieve her Iron Man."
Steve watched in wonder as the magic curled firmly around Ana, but she wasn't really Ana at the moment. For one last time, she was Princess Adramela, the only elf left in a world already teeming with remarkable people. But yet, the brunette was in a category all by herself.
All the bright, golden light seemed to center around her midriff, before it exploded in a myriad of colors, bathing the nearby streets in light. A few brave, curious heads popped up in windows, staring on in fascination. Steve waited patiently for Tony to appear.
Sure enough, seconds later, the form of Ironman appeared at the top of the portal; it immediately closed as his body left the area. He floated down, landing gently on the pavement. Ana collapsed in exhaustion, but Steve caught her, swinging her fluidly into his strong arms. After only a moment of silence, she coughed, green eyes fluttering open.
"Did it work?" She croaked immediately. Steve nodded, letting her slide out of arms. She fell to her knees beside the motionless billionaire. Her hands moved to tear off his helmet, but she couldn't seem to find the strength. The Hulk gladly did so for her; the green giant obviously had a special affinity for the genius.
They stared at Tony's peaceful face, waiting for a movement or twitch. The Hulk got impatient very quickly.
At the powerful roar, Tony jerked awake. "Ahh- What?" Tense expressions broke into relieved smiles. "What happened?"
"We won," Steve replied, still not really believing the words that left his mouth.
Tony laid back, a small smile playing on his lips. "Yay, alright you guys! Let's just… not come in tomorrow, okay? Let's just take a da-mmmmmm."
After a few seconds, Ana leaned back, smiling gently. Tony smirked at her. "Is that what going to happen when I talk too much? Because then I need to start running my mouth more."
Ana ran her fingers through his chocolate-brown hair almost wistfully, but her expression was playful. "You wish," she teased.
"I do," Tony agreed. "Rodgers, Point-Break, Big Guy?"
"We're all fine," Steve replied to his unspoken question. "I'm just… really hungry, actually," he realized.
"Have you guys ever tried Shawarma?" Tony asked suddenly. "I don't know what it is… but now I really want to try it."
Steve looked up at Stark Tower, which was now actually 'A' Tower. Steve wasn't really sure how that happened, but he wondered if it was coincidence, or if someone was trying to tell them something. "It's not over yet."
Captain America had only meant that they still had to deal with Loki, but he truly had no idea how accurate his simple statement was.
AAA
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