The group traveled down the road quietly. Steve was still fuming at the previous encounter with Tony. He wasn't sure what made him more angry, the fact that Tony was meddling in Amanda's life like she was a child, or the fact that he was more worried about her love life than the fact that she could have very well ridden to her death.

Steve shook those thoughts from his head quickly. Amanda was a strong woman who could take care of herself. She had lived in that place for ten years. Or was it five years? Besides, she had Clint with her. If she couldn't take care of herself, Clint would.

Every turn they took, every hill they topped, Steve hoped that he'd see the fork in the road Amanda was talking about. He hoped that she would be there waiting for them. Steve stopped his horse and got off to stretch his legs. He handed his horse off to someone who had been walking for some time.

"Tony does not like you being with his sister," Natasha said falling into step next to Steve. Steve couldn't resist sending a glare Tony's way.

"He's going to have to get over it." Natasha grinned glancing at Steve. They came to a turn in the road and they heard laughter. Steve and Natasha glanced at each other. Next they heard faint voices then more laughter. They came around the bend in the path and Steve let out a sigh of relief. Clint and Amanda were standing at the fork facing each other. They were standing with their feet shoulder-width apart crouching to where they were in a squatting position.

Amanda arms crossed over her chest as she shook her head at Clint. Clint was grunting as he was trying to keep himself up. Amanda pushed his chest making him fall on his butt. He glared at her then tried to kick her foot out from under her, but she jumped high enough to where his leg swept right under her and landing back into the squatting position.

Amanda threw her head back in laughter when Clint groaned loudly as he laid flat on his back pulling at his hair as if trying to pull it out. Steve was more than impressed at how well Amanda was keeping her position. She was able to keep it longer than Clint.

Steve noticed her new clothes. Her outfit had a Chinese-like style to it. She wore a long, robe-like, black top. It had beautiful red stitching around the border which was golden. They made loose patterns of ivy making its way around the clothes. The top went all the way down to her ankles and had to slits on the outside of her legs going all the way up to her waist. She wore dark red pants that looked to be made of the same cloth as her shirt. They were really baggy then came back in at the ankle. Her shoes were more like slippers and matched her top. She looked like she was straight out of a Kung Fu movie.

He wondered how she got her hands on such an outfit. From what he seen so far of the attire of the land it was stereotypical medieval garb. Women wore dresses, even Amanda was wearing a dress as she worked the forge, and men wore pants, shirt, and some type of vest over it.

She pulled a bottle from her clothes, popped the lid, and took a swig. She handed it Clint so he could do the same.

"Amanda!" Tony barked. Amanda and Clint looked lazily to them. Amanda fell backwards sittingon her butt with a smile. Her eyes weren't on her brother, however, they were on Steve who smiled back at her. Tony took notice of this and frowned. "What are you doing?" he asked finally catching her attention.

"You guys are late!" Amanda slurred out throwing her hands up in the air. Tony got off his horse, with a little trouble, and made his way to his sister. She watched him with a lazy grin. Tony held his hand down to her allowing her to tak eit. He pulled her up with a grin on his face.

When Amanda had turned fifteen, her typical teenaged rebellious nature began to show. She was a little late for the "change", but Tony knew it was bound to happen. It was hard to tell how many times Amanda came staggering in thinking she was hiding it well, but she wasn't. Tony was always sure to mess with her head when she was drunk just to freak her out. He got an abnormal kick out of the situation every time it happened. And it still wasn't going to change even if she was well over twenty-one.

"Excuse me, miss, would you mind if you would stand on your right foot and touch your nose with your left index finger?" Amanda laughed and stood on her right foot and put her middle finger to her nose to flip him off.

"And I can do this!" Amanda claimed taking a couple steps back. She put her hands above her head and dove forward landing on her hands. She stepped around on her hands until she gained her "footing". "Come on, Clint, it's easy!" Clint grumbled now on his feet glaring at Amanda through clearly drunken eyes.

"Quit showing off, Stark!" he hissed pushing her over. She fell in a heap as she laughed. Tony pulled her back up to her feet.

"What about the village?" Bruce asked stepping to her. Amanda and Clint gave each other a look as if Bruce asking that question qued an inside joke between the two. Tony narrowed his eyes.

"What did you do?"

"Blonoria had claimed the village and we took it back." It amazed Steve how nonchalantly she put it. Clint went to take another draw from the bottle, but Amanda snatched it away glaring at him then she took her own swig. She held the bottle out in front of her swishing the contents of the bottle around. "This was our gift for doing so."

"So, you liberate a village and the only thing you get is a bottle of liquor?" Steve asked amused.

Clint and Amanda tensed at the same time as their eyes grew wide. They looked at each other looking slightly panicked. They ran over to their horses and got on to which Amanda, in her drunken state, fell off on the other side. She made a mixture of sounds when she hit the ground. Steve took a couple hurried stes forward worried she had hurt herself, but stopped when she and Clint laughed. Clint leaned over looking down at her.

"I'm not helping you this time." Amanda sat up. She attempted to get on her horse one more time. Once she was sure that she wasn't going to fall off, she opened the bottle of Shoosh and took a drink.

"Will you quit being an alcoholic and tell us what happened?" Tony hissed crossing his arms. Amanda handed the bottle off to Clint who took a swig. Amanda pointed a finger at Tony and went to say something, but instead of words, she hiccuped. She paused for a moment, waiting to see if she was going to do it again.

"You need to lighten up, Tony. In an hour or so, we'll be in the village that is currently cooking us a feast." The entire group, Avengers and survivors alike, exchanged looks.

"Then what are we waiting around for? Let's go!" Tony grabbed the reins of Amanda's horse leading it along. Clint's horse stayed next to hers so they could still share their victory gift.

"How many soldiers were there?" Steve asked stepping next to Amanda's horse. He wanted to be close to her and he knew Tony would interfere. He had to have a reason to be around her. Tony was sure to glare at Steve as Steve walked next to her. Amanda leaned her head back closing her eyes in thought. Her head was swimming too much to think of that.

"Clint said there was like forty or fifty. I think he lied though."

"I didn't lie. That's all I saw." He took another swig.

"Maybe your eyesight isn't as good as you think." Clint shot a glare at her and mummbled something about the Stark name.

"Then what happened?" Steve pressed catching Amanda's attention.

"Then I got drunk and Clint and I saved the village." Tony shot a look back at her.

"You used your drunken boxing? Are you crazy? That stuff is supposed to be for fun!" Amanda gave her brother a flat look.

"I'm a Stark. It kinda comes with the bloodline."

"You could've been killed!" Tony snapped. Clint gave Tony a look that said he had a lot of mixed feelings towards the way Tony was talking to Amanda.

"If she wasn't there, we would have been overrun. She was pretty awesome."

"Did she tell you how she learned her Drunken Boxing?" he snapped. "She learned from watching the movies. She never took any type of lesson in her life!"

"Maybe I would have if you ever let me out of the mansion! But no! You had to keep me hidden like some type of shitty fairy tale princess!" Tony stopped her horse turning on her.

"I did it to keep you safe," he hissed. Amanda scoffed rolling her eyes.

"Safe from what? The boogyman?" Tony acted as if he wanted to say something, but he decided against it.

"Not here and not when you're in this state. You don't know what you're saying."

"I know perfectly well what I'm saying. You're an ass hole." Tony sighed shaking his head. He turned away from her and started leading her horse along once more. Clint handed her the bottle of Shoosh and she took a drink. Her glare stayed on her brother as he walked her along.

"So, how long have you been practicing Drunken Boxing?" Steve asked drawing her attention away from her brother. She grinned at him and went to say something, but Tony interupted.

"She doesn't practice. She watched the movies and started mimicking the movies she watched."

"Sounds like practicing to me," Clint mumbled. Tony shot him a look and Clint shrugged. "Just saying."

"No one asked you."

"Look, Tony, maybe if you let me have life I wouldn't have to pretend I had another. You were always gone so I had no other choice than to live vicariously through the movies that I found. I barely even seen the sun."

"Oh please, quit acting like you were treated like such a prisoner. I gave you plenty of freedom."

"Yes, if by freedom you mean as long as I stayed indoors. No one even knew I existed."

"You didn't need that kind of harassment from the media. I had to deal with it all my life and trust me, that's something you didn't want. You have no privacy because everyone is watching you."

"That wasn't for you to decide." Amanda's mind twisted and her vision became blurry. She put her hand on her head and shook it to clear away the cobwebs, but that only made it worse.

"Amands?" she heard Steve ask, but he sounded a million miles away. She knew it was the Shoosh. She felt the bottle slip through her fingers, but she wasn't sure where it had gone off to. That didn't matter since her whole world had went black.

Tony had rushed to her side upon seeing her state. He caught her as she slid off the horse and moved her around to where she could lay in his arms comfortably. He stared down at her much the way a disappointed parent would do as their child threw a fit. He shook his head slowly, then continued on walking.

Tony hoped that one day Amanda would understand why he was so protective of her. The day they lost their parents was the day Tony realized that the only thing he had left that was truly, truly important to him was that squalling baby in her crib. Before they had passed, Tony had nothing to really do with her. So what, mom and dad had another baby. So what he had a little sister. What would he want to do with her considering he was too busy getting into women's panties.

He remembered sitting in the rocking chair that Maria used to rock both Tony and Amanda to sleep in. He stared at the crib across the room as the little baby Amanda screamed and kicked for attention or food or whatever it was that babies screamed for. He had a bottle of whiskey balanced on his knee. He had just heard about their deaths a few hours before and had downed quite a few bottles of alcohol as a way of coping with the situation. He wasn't even sure what made him suddenly think about his little sister. She didn't even know what was going on. She wouldn't need any kind of comfort.

He stood and dropped the bottle of whiskey on the floor and walked to the edge of the crib. Her little face was red from screaming. She didn't have any teeth yet. Her head shook back and forth as her little hands were balled up into fists next to her face. She wore a little oneze that said something catchy for a baby. He reached his hand into the crib and ran a finger down her cheek. She stopped crying instantly and looked up at her brother with big eyes. A grin flashed across her face for a split second then it disappeared.

He picked her up and cradled her in his arms. She cooed and reached up towards his face. He put his finger in her hand to let her grab onto it. It was in that moment that he had decided that he would raise her. That she would never be hurt. That she would never be scared. She would never feel sorrow. It what Maria would have wanted.

He had carried Amanda all the way to the village. The village was alive. There were huge wooden tables spread throughout the town center with a huge fire cooking away at a giant boar that had to have been at least six feet long. Platters with an assortment of foods covered the tables from fruits to breads and cheeses. Barrels of beer were set up in random areas to give people free entering the village, they were greeted by women and children carrying plates of food and cups of drinks to the refugees. A woman led Tony to the inn where he could put Amanda down to sleep off her alcoholic bender.

He laid her gently down on her bed and covered her up.

"I'm sorry, Tony." Her voice was barely a whisper, but he heard it. He kissed her forhead gently and ran his fingers through her hair.

"Get some sleep. Then come down and get you a bite to eat." Amanda nodded the rolled on her side. Tony watched her for a moment before he left the room to join the others outside for the feast.