A/N: I really know nothing about bombs or science like that, so I'm sorry if my explanation of them diffusing it doesn't seem plausible to you lol. Enjoy! and please leave a review and tell me what you think :) Disclaimer: Same as always

For the next three hours, Tony and I furiously tried to figure out the bomb and how to shut it off. Around us, the team came and went, trading shifts. I was pretty sure every Avenger minus Black Widow and Hulk had showed up at some point, but there was nothing they could do to help.

At four hours, another light went off. "Well," I commented blandly. "Now we know a dot goes off every four hours."

"Which means that we still have twelve hours to figure it out." Tony said. "And we have to figure it out by then."

"I'm not so sure- ow!" I cursed as the control panel zapped me again. For the past two hours, I'd been trying to get inside and see the power source, but it just wasn't working. "This thing certainly isn't making this easy."

"What'd you expect? You're becoming as optimistic as Cap."

I grumbled a response and kept working, nursing my burnt hand. I glanced over at Tony, noticing he'd stopped to just stare at the control center. I could tell the wheels in his were turning. "What?" I asked, hoping he had something good.

"That energy… it's purple, probably the same type of power as the Erthymen, right?"

I squinted at him, trying to figure out where he was going. "Um…yes?"

"And that power was the same inside you, right?"

"Yeah."

"And to try and remove the power from you, you and Banner reversed its affect, right?"

"Right… OH!" It suddenly clicked in my head. "So maybe we can try to do the same thing here! And if it reverses, then it'll open up for us!"
"Bingo!" He pulled out his phone, moving a hologram into the space in front of us. On it, I could see Banner and I's faces along with all our lab work during our experiments."

I stared at it, wide eyed. "How do you have all this?" I asked incredulously.

He shrugged. "Bruce records all his research, and it's not that difficult to hack his computer and get the work."

"How do you even know where his computer is?"

"I put a tracker on the phone I gave you, so I just looked up where you'd been all that time you were away."

"What?!" I ripped my phone out of my pocket, impulsively throwing it away from me. "You've been tracking this?!"

"Yup. There's trackers on all my tech."

"You sick bastard!" I snapped, glaring at him. Under my breath, I added, "Why didn't I think to check for that?" It wasn't that unreasonable to expect he'd do that, so I don't know why I didn't see it coming. I hated to think Tony had outsmarted me.

"I guess I outsmarted you then." Tony said, voicing my thoughts.

I crossed my arms over my chest defensively. "As if," I scoffed. "I knew all along. I just didn't want to tell you and hurt your feelings." It was a total lie, but I felt it was pretty convincing.

I could tell Tony didn't believe it for a second. "If you knew, you would've removed it from your phone..."

"Moving on." I said, quickly changing the subject. I shifted through the holographic information, refreshing myself on all the research.

Together, Tony and I formulated a way to translate the cure from a genetic thing to a mechanical thing. It took a brief trip to his lab, but soon we had a vial of glowing gold liquid to pour into the stubborn control panel. Morning was breaking by the time we returned to the site with the cure.

"Bottoms up." Tony said, pouring the vial into a crack on the control panel. It didn't open for a second, and I worried it'd failed. Then, it suddenly popped open, like corn kernels in a microwave. I whooped, pumping my fist in the air.

"We did it!" I said, high fiving Tony. My exuberance faded slightly when I saw the complicated innerworkings of the machine. Surrounded by a bunch of wires, a purple ball in the center pulsed with unnatural light and I looked away, rubbing my eyes.

Tony tried to remove the core, but it zapped him and he hastily pulled his arms back. "Shit." He cursed, covering his hurt arm.

I sighed. "It's still resisting. I guess I put a failsafe."

"Good job." Tony muttered.

Rays of sun penetrated our electric lit space, reminding me I hadn't slept all night. Exhaustion hit my full force, which was probably because of the pregnancy. I quickly put that thought from my mind, not ready to deal with it.

"Hey, do you have any alcohol?" I asked Tony. "I need a pick me up."

"This is me. Of course I do."

"Great. Let's take a break." I leaned against a column while Tony pulled out two bottles of whiskey from under a lab table he'd erected.

He handed me one of them, and I took it eagerly, drinking deep. I felt a little buzz, and I smiled, taking another drink.

Across from me, Tony did the same, though with a more serious expression on his face. The blue dots behind Tony's head caught my eye, and my heart flipped when one of them suddenly went off. Now there were only two left.

"Oh my God." I said, running towards it.

Tony turned towards it too, eyebrows furrowing.

"So much for twelve hours." I closed my eyes, deep in thought. I shouldn't have been so confident in the time we had; knowing myself, I'd have timed each dot differently so no one could really know how much time they had. It was a smart plan for the one who set the bomb, but not for the one trying to disable it. I wished I could go back in time a couple days and slap myself for this.

Tony frowned at the machine, strangely not making a snappy comment. I was glad; for once, we just needed to be serious. "Then we have to figure this out quickly."

"And then fix all four of them."

He rubbed his face with his hand, then walked over to our holographic model. "Maybe if we…"

"Bad news!" Pietro said, seeming to appear next to us with his speed. I jumped, startled by his appearance.

Once I recovered, I frowned. "What? What's worse than a bomb blowing up the whole city?"

"The police coming towards this location in full force."

"I don't think that's worse than the whole city blowing up." Tony said, not looking up from where he was tinkering on the bomb. "Nika, could you hand me that screwdriver?"

I tossed him the tool, but kept my focus on Pietro. "What are we going to do about the policemen?"
"We'll handle it. But Steve doesn't want us to harm them, so you guys need to be quick so we can get out of here."

"Oh darn, I guess we have to stop sitting around on our asses now." Tony commented with a snort.

I chuckled, but told Pietro seriously, "Tell Steve we're going as fast as we can. I made this pretty complicated, so it's taking a while to crack. How much longer keep you keep the cops off before you have to start hurting them?"

"Maybe thirty minutes."

"Gotcha." I tried to ignore the knot of worry that created in my stomach. I didn't think we could figure it out that quickly.

"See you later." Pietro sped off, rejoining Steve and the others outside.

"Just what we needed." I muttered to myself. "More time constraints."

"We work better under stress, kid."

I picked back up my tools and joined Tony in looking at the core. "Don't call me kid." I told him belatedly.

"What would you prefer? I don't have any other nicknames for you. How about Stark Jr.? Purple-eyed girl? St. Nikalos?"

"Oh shut up." I told him, but I couldn't help but laugh a little.

Over the next twenty minutes, we worked like crazy, going back and forth from the actual machine to our holograms of information. I kept panic at bay by focusing on the work, but it wasn't working very well. Taking a breather, I went to one of the desks and drank straight from the vodka bottle.

"I've got an idea!" Tony said suddenly, plugging something rapidly into the database.

"What?" I asked, putting the bottle down.

"That virus diffused the outerworkings of the control center, so what if we used it for the center too?"

"It wouldn't work. I already tested that."

"I know. But what if we…" He trailed off, moving things across the screen. I watched, following

as he switched part the formula about. It made sense, but there was a major problem with it.

"If we do that, there's a fifty percent chance it could still blow up this sector of the city along with ourselves."

"Yes. But there's also a fifty percent chance…" He switched the formula around a bit more. "Make that sixty percent chance that it could work and diffuse the bomb."

"We can't take that risk. That's thousands of lives in danger."

"It'll work." Tony said dismissively. "I haven't failed on something like this yet."

"Yet. And only because if you had then you'd be dead."

"Which I'm not." His tone changed from joking to serious. "We're running out of time, and this is the only solution I can think of."

I hated that he was right. "Ugh…okay, fine. Do it. But I'm not going to watch."

"First, do you, ah, have any suggestions?"

I rose an eyebrow, surprised he'd ask. I felt honored that he trusted me enough to drop the front that he was perfect and ask for help. "Nope, just-" I shifted something around again, raising the percentage of success on the screen to 70 percent.

"Good job squirt."

"Ugh, kid was better than that."

He mixed the serum from the formula on the screen and swirled it around a little, trying to get it perfect. Outside, I could hear a couple gunshots and shouting. "Shit." I muttered. "We need to hurry."

"Going as fast as I can."

When Tony walked towards the core with the vial, all the potential horrible situations that could result flashed through my brain. I covered my eyes, turning away. "I can't watch this." I told him.

"Suit yourself."

For the next thirty seconds, there was silence. Then, I heard a steaming noise, and I felt my life flash before my eyes. I waited for the impact that would end my life. I didn't believe in a heaven or a hell, so now I wondered what would happen to me. Would I just fade into nothing? I guess I'm about to find out, I thought to myself.

Over a minute passed and the explosion never happened. Hope fluttered in my chest, and I slowly uncovered my eyes and turned around.

From beside the machine, Tony held the vial in the air and grinned cockily. "It worked. Just like I knew it would."

"Thank God!" I exclaimed, relief flooding over me. I could see within the machine the core that no longer had any light. It was dead, just like the Erthymen and just like the threat it posed. "I'll go tell the others."

I turned to run, but something caught my eye. The little dots that counted down the time were lit by the power in the building, so they were still on. And there was only one. "Tony, when did the clock get to one?" I asked, horrified.

He frowned. "I don't know. I didn't notice."

"If there's only one left, the other bombs could go off any second." I ran towards the desk, throwing together the elements of the formula as quickly as I could. Tony helped me, and five precious minutes later, we had three vials of the old stuff to open it and three of the new stuff to shut it down.

Tony called his suit to him, only saying, "I'm going to the east first" before flying off with two vials.

I grabbed two myself and sprinted towards the front of the building. Bullets whizzed by my head, and I ducked just in time. I could hear Steve shouting at the police to stand down, but it was pretty much to no avail. I peeked through a shattered window, seeing the situation for the first time. There were twenty cops, all with guns firing. My friends were ducking behind a little half wall in the front of the building, trying to fire at the cops to wound and not kill.

I needed Pietro so he could speed me to one of the locations, but of course he was furthest away. Without stopping to think about it, I bolted into the fray, running towards Pietro during a pause in firing. The others were so focused on holding off the cops that I doubted they even saw me.

"Pietro!" I hissed, ducking down beside him.

"What are you doing?" He asked, pulling me lower when a bullet nearly hit me. "Are you crazy?"

"Maybe." I told him breathlessly. "I need you to take me to 118 Rock Street, which is pretty much across the city. It's an old office building with a giant mural of a dying rose spray painted on the side. " I was surprised by the detail with which I could remember the building, but the more memories came back, the clearer everything became. "There's another bomb there I have to take care of."

"Is this one disabled?"

"Yes. Come on! We have to go fast because the other bombs could go off any second."

"Fast is my specialty." Pietro said. Before I could make a necessary 'that's that she said' joke, he'd swept my feet from under me and run away.

I closed my eyes tightly, feeling the wind whoosh around me at high speeds. After barely a few minutes passed, we came to a stop and Pietro put me down. I swayed, feeling a little dizzy from the speed.

"Sorry it took long. I couldn't find the building at first."

"You call that long?" I joked, finally regaining my senses. "You just ran across the entire city in less than ten minutes."

"Like I said, not my best speed."

"Show off." I muttered. "Oh, and could you text Steve that Tony and I are gone. Hopefully the cops will stop firing then."

I didn't wait for him to answer before running into the building. Thankfully, the place was abandoned so long there weren't any locks unbroken, and I easily made my way into the basement. Inside, a machine the same as the one before waited for me. The single blue dot glared at me, reminding me I needed to work fast. I poured the first vial onto the outer casing to open it and then the other shakily onto the inner core. It occurred to me just as the first drops landed that there was still a thirty percent chance it would explode when I did this, but it was too late to turn back.

Despite my fears, the core flashed a couple times and then went dark. "Phew." I breathed out, wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead.

Yet I knew that even if Tony did his job successfully, I still had one core to worry about. I ran back outside, where Pietro was waiting.

"Hey personal taxi. Take me to 849 Jerkson Lane on the opposite side of town. It's right by the water, so it shouldn't be hard to find. Hurry! I still don't know when the next one will go off."

"I am not a taxi." Pietro muttered, rolling his eyes. Nonetheless, he swept my feet out from under me and off we went. This time, I was a little more prepared, but the wind still stung at our speed.

It took Pietro longer this time, probably since the building was less distinguishable, but after ten minutes, he stopped and set me down.

"Thanks. You should go back and help Steve." I said over my shoulder, already running towards the door.

"I want to help you."

"Do you know how to diffuse a bomb?"

"No."

"Then you can't help."

He paused to retort, but thought better of it and finally ran off to help my fiancé. I didn't know what was going down back at the original location with the police, and I didn't really have time to care about it myself.

This time, I wasn't quite so lucky. The bomb's hiding place functioned as a warehouse, so there was a security system in place.

Cursing inwardly, I hacked into the keypad beside the door, trying to get it to open. I lost three precious minutes before the red light turned green and I heard the door unlock. I reached for the door, but a metal hand in red and gold reached it before me. I jumped back, startled.

"After you." Tony said, holding open the door for me with fake gallantry. I'd been so focused on hacking the system that I hadn't noticed him land. Seeing him in the suit felt strange, like I was looking at some robot and not my father. I didn't like it.

"When did you get here?" I asked, entering through the door and walking, more like sprinting, alongside him.

"I diffused the eastern bomb and then came straight here. How did you get here so fast?"

"Pietro brought me. I diffused the bomb on Rock Street, so now this is the only one left."

After four flights of stairs, we reached the basement where the bomb was kept. Without hesitation, I poured the first vial onto it and then the second. Relief washed over me. It was finally all over; four bombs were gone and no one had died. This had worked surprisingly well, despite the danger of it. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath so I could calm down from the adrenaline that'd been in my veins.

"Nika. Step back." Tony's voice was more stern than I'd ever heard it, so my eyes snapped open. Unlike the other two cores, this one hadn't turned off. Instead, it was flashing faster and faster. I shakily stepped back.

"I-is it gonna explode?" I asked, my voice shaky.

"Yes. I guess this is the thirty percent."

"Is it gonna blow up a fourth of the city?"

"No time to find out."

The core was flashing faster and faster, the lights seconds away from merging into one. Without a word, Tony suddenly blasted a hole in the ceiling for several floors, grabbed my waist, and flew out into the air. Despite the cold metal arm holding me to him, I felt like I was falling, so I wrapped my arms around the suit's torso for dear life.

There was a earsplitting 'bang' and a cloud of smoke and fire rushed up at us. Tony flew higher, trying to avoid the heat, but I still felt like my skin was searing off. Tony maneuvered left just in time to avoid a piece of debris from hitting me, but it knocked my grip lose. I started to slide out of the grip of the suit, but Tony reached out his other arm and grabbed me, pulling me back.

"If you almost fucking drop me again I will kill you." I muttered, though it was more of the terror talking than me.

The flames finally subsided below us, and I dared to peek down and see the damage. Since we weren't dead, I assumed it hadn't taken a fourth of the city, but I feared the damage would still be signification. In my mind, I imagined the whole block blown to the sky and bodies strewn everywhere.

Reality was very different than that picture. Instead of the whole block, only the office building and a chuck of the neighboring building was destroyed. No bodies were on the ground, though I wasn't naïve enough to think no one died. "Why isn't there more damage?"

"The core must have imploded rather than exploded. That would cause a much smaller explosion."

"We're hella lucky that happened then."

"It's not luck. It's science."

"Sure." I looked back down again, and my stomach dropped. I hadn't really realized how high we were until then. I wasn't afraid of heights, but, damn, we were high. "Please. Put me down." I told Tony.

"No 'thank you for saving my life'? Geez, you're ungrateful."

"I got it from you. Seriously, though, put me down."

"Ah but this is such a great father daughter bonding moment."

"I'd rather bond on the ground."

"Fine, be that way." He complained, slowly descending to the ground. When we reached the pavement, I quickly let go, resisting the urge to kiss the ground.

Around us, dust and debris were settling upon the remains of an office building. The former ten stories had become maybe a half not including the hole in the ground that had been the basement. I stepped through the rubble with Tony on my heels, searching for survivors or something intact that could be of use. I'd never blown up a building before, and I certainly wasn't proud of doing it now.

Dust clogged my lungs, and I started coughing, covering my face with my shirt to breathe better. Tony went off in the opposite direction while I descended on what was left of the staircase. The basement was dark and hazy from dust, so I pulled out my phone from my pocket and turned on the flashlight. I remembered with irritation how Tony had been tracking me, and I wrote a reminder to remove the tracking on it.

I didn't expect to find anything in the rubble besides more rubble, but I kept searching anyway. Above me, I could hear the muffled voices of the Avengers and cops, who'd probably just arrived on the scene. I probably needed to talk to them, since I was a wanted but innocent criminal who'd broken out of prison, but I put it off.

I went down the staircase once more, reaching the floor where the bomb had been. By far, this floor had been the most annihilated. Every wall had been blown out, so there was simply a cracked stone floor and concrete shards everywhere. The hole in the ceiling gave an obstructed view of sky, something I doubted the basement had seen much before.

Where the bomb had been, there was nothing, literally nothing. I circled the spot a couple times, puzzled by the total absence. It was the center of the explosion, I reprimanded myself, it would be hit the worst.

I decided that my work was done and swept the room one more time with flashlight before leaving. On the first basement floor, I heard something shift. I hadn't meant to stop again, but that was too strange to resist. My curiosity overrode my fear, and I stepped into the destroyed space, shining my light around again.

This time, I saw something in the corner move and groan. A person! I thought, running towards him without a second thought.

"Hey dude," I said, shifting rubble from a middle aged man's body and kneeling beside him. "Are you alright? Talk to me!"

He groaned in response, his eyes slowly fluttering open.

I froze, memories flashing through my head. I recognized this man; he was one of the men in hoods who made me set up the bomb. My body scrambled back of its own accord, not wanting to be near such an evil man.

He obviously recognized me, and his gaze turned icy. "You!" He snarled weakly. "You're the one who sabotaged this mission after your little friends murdered my master."

"That's because he was a monster." I snapped, hoping he didn't hear the fear in my voice. This man was hella creepy, and I didn't like being near him. Something about him seemed absent, as if he was some sort of ghost or ghoul.

"He was trying to help us dispel you horrible Westerners and Avengers from the planet." He fell into a fit of coughing and couldn't reply for several seconds. "And he'll still succeed, don't you worry. He may be gone, but we aren't. You call yourselves the Avengers, but now we are out to avenge as well." I stepped away from him, feeling my heart speed up in my chest. Even though he wasn't really in a position to threaten, I knew he told the truth. I had no doubt the Avengers couldn't take on whatever force he'd amassed, but I wished it could all be over. With Thor's warning, we just didn't have time to keep fighting this war. We should be preparing for an invasion from space, but instead we had to waste time fighting a petty war.

"Though I die, I take you with me." He man choked out. I didn't process what that meant until he reached out from the rubble and grabbed at my throat. I screamed, but the noise was cut off as I began to choke. I tried to pry his hands from my neck, but his grip was surprisingly strong. The world became fuzzy around me and I lost the strength to struggle.

I'd nearly passed out when the man suddenly groaned and started convulsing, loosening his grip. I sank to the ground, gasping for breath. After a painful minute or two, the man stopped moving. I didn't need to look at him to know he was dead. My neck felt bruised and breathing hurt, but I managed to stand back up and slowly back away. I sprinted up the stairs and out into the sunlight.

"There you are." Steve said, his face etched with concern. He enveloped me in a quick hug before gently holding onto my shoulders. "Are you alright?" He asked, his eyes searching my face.

"I'm fine." I said, wincing at how weak my voice sounded.

He frowned. "What happened?"

"It's just the smoke and dirt in my lungs." I lied, not wanting to go into detail about the creepy man.

I could tell he didn't believe me, but I gave him a look that said 'I'll tell you later' and he didn't say anything.

We spent the next hour and a half talking to the police and among ourselves to get all the details. Apparently after Tony and I left the cops and my friends made peace. They managed to convince them to drop charges on me and chase after the people who actually did this. In the wide world around us, no one knew anything about the bombs besides that the one here had gone off. Tony and Steve were in the corner arguing over what to tell the public about it, but I wasn't paying attention. My mind was elsewhere, an elsewhere than involved information a dark haired witch had told me. Now that I had time to think about it, I wished I didn't. Not that I wanted to have to diffuse more bombs I'd created, I just wanted a new discussion. Anything to keep me from having to think about the baby, no, fetus growing in my stomach.

"What's wrong with you?" Clint's voice asked. I jumped, not having noticed when he leaned against a lamp post nearby. I'd thought he was still talking to police about stuff.

"Nothing." I lied smoothly. Clint and I were friends, but he certainly wouldn't be the first person to find out. That would be Steve, and I didn't look forward to that conversation.

"You certainly aren't acting like it. You look at if you're being forced to watch someone kick a puppy."

"I did just plant several bombs in the city which could've exploded and killed thousands." That wasn't the reason I was upset, but it certainly didn't help to improve my mood.

"They didn't go off, so no one died. That's all that matters."

I smirked halfheartedly. "Are you trying to be comforting? I wouldn't have pegged you as the sappy sort."

"Just the realistic kind. We think what we must to keep going."

"That's certainly not sappy." I looked away towards the building, seeing the picture of the man who'd died clearly in my mind. "You're wrong though."

"About what?"

"Someone did die."

He frowned. "Who are you talking about?"

I turned back to him, looking him straight in the eye. "I found a dying man in the rubble. He was one of the men who were with me when the Erthymen made me build those bombs. He said that they plan to get revenge. Apparently this isn't over."

He laughed drily. "When is it ever?" He didn't seem surprised that I'd found someone, and I was glad. I just needed to get it out, not to be interrogated.

Wanda called Clint over to talk about someone and I was left to my own thoughts. Despite it not having been my main problem, a bit of weight was lifted from my shoulders by Clint's response. Somehow his being able to laugh in the face of ominous doom made me able to laugh. There were a lot of problems on the horizon, an interplanetary war, an alien war, a baby, but maybe it wasn't so bad. I had the Avengers as my friends, and since that was true, I'd never be alone.