The Apex.

"TONY!" bellowed Natasha.

Tony Stark did not respond. There were no wise cracks or jokes of any kind. With a new tank present and ready to rip them a new one, Thor flew outside to deal with it hoping to save as many of his friends as he could.

"Come in Tony." called Steve desperately, still fighting the agents that surrounded him.

Again they got nothing from the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Steve tried his hardest to get to his friend when Friday spoke up.

"I am being hacked from somewhere in the room."

Lara managed to find a free moment and started to look around looking for both Tony and any sign of the hacker. Above her see saw a slender blonde woman crouched over, holding a small tablet. Lara figured that she was the source of the hack and imediately began to unload at her. The women ducked in an attempt to dodge the bullet, glancing down at Lara. With a small bow, and a familiar smile, the woman sprinted off leaving Lara with no time to give chase. She instead turned her attention back to finding Tony.

Ducking and dodging blows as she sprinted through the crowd Lara saw the messy black hair of Gellis. He wasn't heading towards Tony but away, towards the artefacts.

With fury in her heart Lara started to shoot at Gellis quickly running out of ammo. He was doing something to the now fully melted decoy but his body was in the way to see what. As soon as he moved she saw that something else had taken it's place, the real Controller.

Lara charged at him using her full weight, planning to use the now empty pistol as a melee weapon. Gellis managed to dodge, knocking the gun out of the battered archeologists hand. She stayed on her feet, turning to spear him, pinning him to the floor. With anger flowing through her she began to punch him aiming for his head. She managed to land a few hits before Gellis wormed his arms up in defence blocking most of her shots.

Using his own body strength Gellis kicked Lara off of him and quickly got to his feet. They duelled both throwing punches for the other, equal in strength and speed. Both of them successfully landed a few hits on the other. Lara was bleeding from her lip and eyebrow while Gellis' eye had already started swelling and his nose was bleeding. As they fought Gellis seized an opportunity to grab a metal bar in an attempt to sway things his way. He imediately began to swing it at Lara hoping to make contact with her head.

The purple laser was still active. With the real Controller in place the two artefacts began to glow a bright, vibrant orange colour. It was so bright it was blinding anyone close to it. They began to move out of their holds slowly but surely moving closer to each other.

Time was running out. Gellis used the blinding light to his advantage. He swung the metal bar with all of his strength at Lara catching her in the ribs with a horrid crunch. She felt one or two of her ribs crack and instantly start impeding her breathing.

As she was winded Gellis tipped her up sending to the floor knocking even more wind out of her. Fortunately she managed to kick him the stomach but he landed a hefty blow with the pipe to her head. She rolled away before he could do more damage.

With Lara getting to her feet dazed Gellis stole the chance to head to the artefacts. The two pieces had now become one and were emitting a soft soothing hum, like a lullaby. Gellis locked his hand around the amber stone. His body began to shake and convulse, his eyes rolling around in their sockets, his skin growing pale yet looking like a cracked rock.

Lara looked on in shook as he convulsed even more. She looked around for anything that could help her, not wanting to touch him. At the other end of the platform was a pistol. Lara prayed that it had at least one bullet in it. She sprinted and rolled for the gun, turning when she had it. She aimed directly for his head and fired. Gellis' head rolled back, his eyes looking at the tip of his nose before rolling into the back of his head. His hand slid off of the orange stone and he fell to the floor lifelessly.

Amidst the fight Steve noticed that Lara wasn't fighting amongst them. He nervously looked around to find her examining a computer getting frustrated. Seeing that agents were advancing on her Steve rushed to her aid. As he fought he felt his strength being sapped from him. He punches became weaker and he was barely standing.

People all around the room began to randomly collapse to the floor, their heart no longer beating, even when they had not been hit by any thing. Even the Hulk's strength was starting to waver.

Lara glanced up to see Steve staring at her, desperate to get to her. She breathed in deep, feeling a sharp pain in her ribs as she did, before staggering to the stone. Steve's faced dropped as it clicked what Lara was planning. She was holding onto her left hand side as she stood staring at the stone. Taking another deep breath, Lara grasped the glowing stone pulling with all of the strength that she still had left.

The stone began to glow brighter, whip like orange lights flowing off of it. The more she pulled the brighter it got like it was growing more desperate. Slowly it moved but that only allowed the laser to continue it's path, straight onto Lara's hand. She began to groan as the violet laser was burning into her hand.

More and more people fell as their life was drained from them. Only a few agents remained standing, either trying to escape or still trying to fight out of some dumb loyalty to Hydra. Tony was up and about again aiming his pulsars but missing as his armour did nothing top protect him from the lullaby.

"Lara!" shouted Steve desperately, staggering his way to her and using his shield to hold him up.

The pain was starting to get too much for her but she new she needed to stop this, whatever this was. Her blood chilling screams that filled the air were only made worse by the echo. She was determined. She brought them into this fight and she would save them. Her scream changed from one of pain to one of persistence. With a sudden serge of adrenaline Lara pulled and pulled, feeling that she was almost there. With a pop the stone was released from it's hold sending Lara tumbling to the floor with it still locked in her hand.

As soon as it was out, energy returned to those who were still standing. Those who fell remained on the ground. With the new serge of energy Steve rushed to Lara's side, the others keeping him covered, and scooped her into his arms as he knelt beside her. With one hand he gently stroked her face whispering her name. Lara glanced at him before passing out, the stone still in her hand which was red raw.

"Lara's down." he informed, his voice shaky.

"I'll get her out of here." responded Tony, using his central ark to clear a path to them.

He imediately abandoned his fight to join Steve. Lara was as white was a sheet apart from her left hand and arm. Her hand was burnt and red. Her arm, however, was different. She had orange vein like marks weaving their way up her arm, stopping just above her elbow.

Steve passed Lara to Tony who, as soon as he was sure he had a firm grip on her, took flight heading out to safety. Steve gulped and headed back into the fray beside Natasha and Coulson using his worry and angry as a weapon.

"The cavalries on it's way." told Coulson firing on agent who was determined to go out fighting.

Steve wasn't really listening. Natasha glanced at Steve as she roundhoused an guy in the head. They continued fighting until the cavalry, that being May, the Bus as well as the newly formed S.H.I.E.L.D lead by Maria Hill, arrived to lend a hand.

With the extra manpower the remaining Hydra agents were either arrested or killed due to their uncooperative natures. Coulson lead the remaining Avengers to the bus promising to take them directly to Lara. He got no arguments from anyone. Over the few weeks that they had known Lara they had quickly built some kind of bond with her whether that was a respectful one, like Thor, Bruce and Clint had or a more playful sibling type bond like Natasha and Tony had. It was plain to see that Steve's bond was so much more.