EMERALD

My heart didn't stop pounding until I laid eyes on my friends surrounding Loki. I let out a long sigh that I hadn't known I was holding in. At least they were able to correct my mistakes. The path was correcting itself.

As Tony and Steve began escorting Loki back to where Natasha was waiting with the Quinjet, I grabbed Pandora's arm, sensing the look of panic on her face. Tony hadn't even glanced in my direction, and to be fair, that was better than the alternative. I couldn't look at him, knowing that he had taken the fall for me.

"Hey," I said in a hushed tone as Pandora spun to meet my eyes. "What happened?"

Pandora raised an eyebrow, guiding us off to the side. "I should ask the same thing to you," she responded before lowering her voice even more. "Did you find Clint?"

I shook my head. "I know how to fix things," I said before my gaze shifted over to Loki's. "Well, at least to a point."

"You diverted Maria away?" questioned Pandora, not truly believing me.

I didn't blame her.

"We didn't even see any of Loki's puppets," I reassured her.

"Good."

Still, I could sense how on edge Pandora was. She was acting calm, but I knew her well enough to tell what was happening beneath the surface. We were wired like that.

"Are you alright?" I finally asked.

Her eyes snapped back to mine, just hearing my words. "I mean, getting thrown ten feet onto a street isn't the greatest time," she said, reverting back to her sarcastic self. I was not about to ignore her trauma.

"Dora," I said sternly. "You have to be careful. I know this is your job now, but-"

She didn't let me finish. "I know what I'm getting myself into," she snapped. "I just wish everyone would stop treating me like a child."

"Because you are!"

To be fair, I was always her protective older sister that she never had. That wasn't going to stop just because we were in another universe. It certainly wasn't going to stop now that she signed on to be a SHIELD agent.

"I didn't ask for your opinion," was all Pandora said before she stalked after Steve towards the Quinjet.

I heaved a large sigh, following Maria back to the Quinjet that we had arrived in. However, much to my displeasure, we had two more companions.

"Oh, hell no," I said, stopping dead in my tracks when I laid eyes on the two people I definitely didn't want to see right now.

Tony was pacing around the body of the Quinjet while Loki sat in silence, staring at me with his signature smirk on his face. This was most definitely not what I wanted or needed today.

"It's your fault that we're in this situation to begin with," Tony pointed out, shrugging his shoulders.

I shot him a glare. "Can you not be snarky for two seconds?" I snapped.

"It's in my personality profile."

"I wrote your personality profile."

If Tony wanted to continue the argument, Maria didn't give him the chance. She walked onto the Helicarrier, sending a pointed glance in Loki's direction as she headed towards the front of the plane.

"Don't make me regret this," was all she said as she settled into the pilot's seat, bringing the Quinjet back to life.

I knew she was slightly frustrated with me from the way I had diverted her away from where Clint's plan was going down. However, that was the least of my concerns. I was just hoping that we were going to make it through this plane ride without killing one another. That was going to be a miracle.

"Director?" I heard Maria call back to the Helicarrier via intercom.

"He saying anything?" Fury's electronic voice responded almost immediately.

"Not a word."

"You find anything else?"

There was a slight pause, causing my heart rate to increase. If Maria had caught onto my plan, I was screwed. "If there was anything else, they cleared out by the time Emerald and I got there," she finally said, and I let out a breath of relief.

"Just get him back here," Fury said. "We're low on time."

If only they knew just how true that was.

"Buckle up!" Maria called over her shoulder towards us.

I lowered my gaze to the ground, trying my hardest to ignore the two sets of eyes burning holes into my skull. After we had already taken off and the staring didn't cease, I knew I couldn't ignore it any longer.

"If you two could not stare at me, that would be fantastic," I commented, not caring at how tense my voice sounded. I paused as both Tony and Loki didn't say a word from where they were sitting across from me. "I'm with Maria on this one. I'm definitely regretting this."

I glanced up, sending an equally narrowing gaze towards Tony. He merely held his hands up in the air.

"Hey now, I was just wondering if you'd like to interrogate the witness since you already spent quality time with Rock of Ages here."

"Can you shut up, please?" I retorted. "Maybe for like a minute? I actually want to see if it's possible."

Tony gave up on working me and instead turned over to Loki. I squinted towards the pilot seat where Maria was flying the plane, praying that she wasn't hearing any of this conversation. Tony gave one last smirk in my direction before he squatted Loki's shoulder.

Wincing, I knew he was about to make a grave mistake.

"Say, why did you give up so easily?" he asked, a teasing tone to his voice. He waited a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders. "Nothing, huh? Maybe he has a crush on you, Em."

I rolled my eyes, leaning my head back against the plane and pretending that I was anywhere but here right now. "Frost Giants don't have emotions," I said coolly.

Tony finally lapsed into silence after unsuccessfully riling up both Loki and me. I sat there, letting my eyes close for a moment.

I had a feeling that Tony wasn't even mad at me anymore. From what Pandora was insinuating earlier, he almost had a jealous tone to him. I couldn't think about that. All I was trying to do was make a name for myself and not screw anything else up. So far, so good.

I shouldn't have even considered those thoughts.

A lightning bolt struck just slightly to the side of our plane, jostling us around as the thunder rolled through the sky. I knew what was coming, of course, and so did Loki, judging by the way that he leaned forward apprehensively.

Tony noticed his change in demeanor almost instantly. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Scared of a little lightning?"

Loki tilted his head to one side, wordlessly warning us of what was coming next. "I'm not overly fond of what follows," he said slowly, not looking any of us in the eyes.

A thud hit the roof of the Quinjet, alerting all of us to the new issue at hand. I unbuckled at the same rapid speed that Tony did, jumping to my feet. While I knew the "hostile" on the roof was one of us, I recalled that my favorite God of Thunder wasn't very friendly at first.

"We've got bigger problems," Maria shouted from the pilot's seat.

In another second, Tony reassembled his suit around him, hitting the button to open the backdoor of the Quinjet. I, on the other hand, was almost blown backwards by the gust of wind jostling around the plane.

"What the hell are you doing!" I screeched, covering my face from the winds.

My question was never answered.

Thor landed in the body of the plane a moment later, ripping Loki out of his confinements. Tony made a single move to apprehend the blond god before Thor swung his hammer, knocking Tony to the side. Another second passed, and Thor had Loki in his clutches, flying out of the plane and back into the clouds.

"And now there's that guy," Tony said with a groan as he got back to his feet.

Maria quickly glanced over her shoulder at us in the midst of trying to steady the plane in the storm. "Another Asgardian?" she questioned loudly.

"He looks like the friendly one," I tried to offer.

"Doesn't matter," Tony retorted. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

I still had to shout over the roar of the winds from the open backdoor of the Quinjet. "Call Nat's Quinjet!" I directed my cry towards Maria. "We need backup on this one."

"No time," Tony said. "There's only one plan here, and that's to attack."

He didn't even look in my direction before he flew out of the plane to find where Thor had taken Loki. I outwardly groaned, running my fingers through my hair. I certainly wasn't going to just stand by.

I glanced around the plane, searching for something that would be able to help me in this scenario. After finding a single use parachute, I knew this was going to be my only option.

I had never enjoyed planes, let alone jumping out of them. There was definitely a first for everything, even after months of terrorist fighting.

"I'd sit this one out," Maria warned me.

I shook my head. "Are you for real?" I asked, raising my eyebrow in disbelief.

"These guys come from legends. They're practically gods."

She wasn't wrong there.

I yanked the parachute backpack on, securing it around my waist tightly as I tried not to think about my sudden adrenaline spike. Conquering fears was a good thing, or so I attempted to convince myself.

A smile crossed my face as I realized what line would normally come next in the film. Only this time, Steve wasn't around to say it.

"There's only one God," I recited from memory, standing at the edge of the plane and staring into the clouds.

"And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."