A/N. Hiya guys! New chapter for y'all. Hope you enjoy :D

Chapter XXXV

Melinda May had no qualms about hurting the Avengers. A few bruises here and there would heal. If only she could get a hit on any of them. When she'd jumped into the fray, she'd tried to get Iron Man's attention. To no avail. She ended up flitting from opponent to opponent, trying to get one of them to fight her already. She could handle it.

She'd tried getting between Romanoff and Charkova, but it was like she wasn't even there. They were too busy using deadly gymnastics on each other. So May had somehow ended up tag-teaming Barton to fight off Rogers.

It was a shame she was going to mess up that pretty face.

Before she had the chance, she heard a familiar ripping noise that boomed from above. It wasn't that long ago that Sif had come down to take out Lorelai, so this noise was fresh in May's mind. She didn't even have to look up to know where the bifrost would hit.

"Everybody move!" She ordered, kicking people, villains and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents alike, out of the way. Barton tackled Rogers and May shoved Ward and they cleared the space just before the rainbow pounded continuously into the roof, emitting a shower of sparks.

May ended up on top of Ward. "Well this is a nice surprise," he quipped.

She rolled her eyes and heaved herself off of him. She turned to face the newcomer, already having her suspicions on who would be there. When the bifrost was sucked back into the sky as if someone had hit rewind, four figures stood on the newly branded floor.

Stark probably wouldn't be happy about that.

Sif, May recognized. The others, not so much, though S.H.I.E.L.D. files identified them as Thor's allies. If Sif trusted them, May was inclined to be slightly less suspicious. Slightly.

When the smoke cleared, Sif spoke first, her voice carrying farther than she probably intended. "We have come to take Loki to Asgard," she announced, looking around at all of the faces currently staring at them.

At least the fighting stopped. Rogers' face would remain intact. For now.

"He is our responsibility and he has no place here," Sif continued. Her scan of the Tower seemed fruitless. "Where is he?"

Come to think of it, May didn't know. Forget that, where was Phil? God damn it, she was supposed to be watching him! Where had he disappeared to? Fury had given her strict orders-

"He's not here!" Colonel Rhodes responded, seeing as no one else wanted to. "I saw him fighting with Tania earlier. They were flying all over the place."

"You let her fight him alone?!" Barton exclaimed, accusation dripping from his tone. At least Rogers didn't attack while he was distracted. Rookie move, Hawkeye.

Rhodey raised both hands in a 'don't blame me' gesture. "Pepper killed my thrusters. I'm stuck on the ground, otherwise I would have followed them."

"Well, where are they?"

"Heck if I know."

Clint threw up his hands in frustration. "We have to find them!" He reached for his comm. "Bank-? UGH!" Now Barton was tackled by Rogers.

Then all hell broke loose.

Again.

May sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Tania flipped and spun and hurtled toward the ground. Wind stole the air from her lungs and the scream from her lips, whipping her ponytail into her face. She kicked her right leg frantically. "Friday!"

The thrusters flared to life and Tania tried to right herself, but she wasn't wearing the gauntlets. They were what kept Tony balanced. She managed to get her feet beneath her and she slowed to an elevator crawl, then they deactivated and she was dropping again.

Within seconds, they blasted again and she shot up with one large burst of energy. Then she was falling, then she was flying up, then she was falling, then she was sideways, then she was curled up into a ball, then she was crashing through windows and clattering to the floor. She rolled among the shards of glass and sobbed.

She could feel the pricks of window stuck in her arms and back, protruding from her skin like spikes on a porcupine. She coughed and shifted and ugh God everything hurt. A groan blew past her lips and she struggled to breathe.

But she was alive. That was good. Even if she felt like she had one foot in the grave right now. Alive was better than the alternative.

Footsteps echoed and oh no. Justine stepped over Tania's body and leaned down, a smirk gracing her teenage lips. "You may hesitate when it comes to killing, Tania Banks, but trust me when I say I do not."

Tania's eyes flitted to the right. She was in the lounge, apparently. This was the same floor that Hulk had beaten Loki in last year. Tony would need to do some remodeling. Again. Pepper certainly wasn't going to be happy.

Neither was Coulson, who was sitting on the floor by the bar, behind Justine, frowning at them. If Tania had to guess, she'd say that Justine hadn't seen him when she came in. Coulson had the element of surprise. He also had an arrow sticking out of him and the pallor of Casper the ghost. There was a trail of blood leading from his spot to the door to the helipad. That was a lot of blood…

Coulson grunted and tossed Tania a gun. It wasn't a normal gun. It was a Night-Night Gun, meaning that it didn't kill. Justine turned her head at the grunt and Tania caught the gun with one hand (she was shocked she had that much coordination, but she wasn't complaining) and shot Justine in the chest. Twice. Just for good measure.

Like the eleven times you shot-

SHUT UP.

Justine convulsed (twice) and collapsed on top of Tania, her staff clattering to the ground. Tania grunted under her weight, dropping the gun.

She did it. She took out Loki.

Holy shit.

Well, Coulson helped, of course.

Tania shifted and sat up, wheezing and panting. She moved Justine so that she lay in Tania's lap. With her eyes closed, she really was just a girl. Tania felt guilty for fighting her and causing all of those bruises and injuries, but her heart swelled as she realized that she'd made the right call.

She wasn't a murderer. She was an Avenger. Maybe someday she'd be in a do or die situation and she'd be forced to kill again, but that day wasn't today. Today, she was the woman who'd defeated Loki.

Unfortunately, Hammer Industries robots were destroying the city for like the fourth time and her friends were still brainwashed. And Coulson appeared to be bleeding out.

Her comm crackled to life. "Bank-? UGH!" That was Clint. He was still fighting. She still had no way of stopping the mind control.

She cradled Justine softly, moving her to the side. "I got you," she whispered, feeling suddenly maternal. Justine looked so young, so innocent. She even looked like her father. It wasn't a bad look on her.

Evil was, but that wasn't important.

Tania turned to Coulson. "Phil-"

The ceiling burst apart and a body crashed through to dig a crater into the floor. Tania covered her head and eyes as dust exploded and debris narrowly missed her. She wasn't going anywhere fast with this throbbing ankle of hers.

She coughed and spluttered and when the dust finally settled, she saw Thor lying in the pile of ceiling on the floor. He was covered head to toe in white-ish dust and he sneezed.

It was almost cute.

Another figure dropped from above and landed gracefully on their feet in front of Thor. It was an Asgardian, if Tania had to guess. He stood tall and stout with a bushy red beard and battle armour. He had piercing green eyes and carried an axe, which he spun lazily. "I am not afraid to hurt you, Thor!" He boomed in a deep, masculine voice.

"Neither am I," Thor returned, raising his hand for his hammer.

The unfamiliar Asgardian noticed the humans in the room. He blinked in surprise. "Oh. Hello. Don't mind us." He seemed… jolly. When he wasn't fighting off thunder gods in other realms.

Tania knew she had no place in their fight, but she had to do something. "Thor, I have your brother!" She shouted to distract him.

Sure enough, Thor turned to face her. The other Asgardian roared and swung his axe. It bounced off the back of Thor's chest plate, knocking the Avenger off his feet. The newcomer looked up at Tania. "You have Loki?"

She nodded. She had no idea who this guy was, but his eyes weren't blue so she was inclined to trust him – more than Thor, in any case. "Were you sent here to get him?" That would make the most sense, seeing as he was Asgardian.

He nodded. "Aye. Hang on." His axe clashed with Mjolnir. Once. Twice. Five times. Tania wasn't feeling super patient today.

Finally, the jolly man tossed Thor up through the hole whence he came. He strode toward her and Tania gestured to Justine, sleeping peacefully like a teenager should. "That's her- uh, him. He's taken over her body somehow. Some kind of magic, I guess. He said his body was 'elsewhere'." She would get up out of politeness, but her ankle really hurt and now wasn't exactly the time to be polite.

The Asgardian nodded. "That definitely sounds like Loki. That little trickster." He bent down and lifted one of Justine's eyelids. A very sparkly blue peered back at him. Yup. Definitely Loki. He hefted Justine over his shoulder.

Tania scrambled to her feet- er, foot. "What are you doing?!"

"Taking him to Asgard," he said over his shoulder.

"That's it? You're just going to leave? What about my friends? The Avengers! Loki still has them under some sort of mind control."

"Trust me, we know. I will take Loki to Asgard. Odin will know what to do."

"And if he doesn't?"

"… well someone has to know. And I will not rest until they are found!" He pounded a fist against his breast plate. "This I swear to you, my lady." He bowed before her, still holding Justine in a fireman's carry. "I am Volstagg, of Asgard, and I will return. HEIMDALL!"

A beam of light slammed into the place Volstagg stood and with a whoosh, he was gone. Tania blinked, brushing the dust and loose strands of hair from her eyes. She hobbled over to Phil, whose breath appeared to be very shallow. "Talk about deus ex machina," he coughed.

Tania choked out a weak laugh. "I guess. Is your comm not working?" She hobbled closer, reaching for her own as she dragged her foot behind her.

Phil shook his head. "No, it's working fine." He looked down at his blood stained shirt and the arrow sticking out of his stomach. "Why? Is it bad?"

Well, compared to getting impaled by an alien scepter and dying within minutes, this was probably a cake walk. Tania knelt beside him, letting out little mewls every time something hurt. So all the time. She settled with her back against the island and raised a hand to her comm. "Simmons, we need you here. Coulson and I are on the lounge floor and he's hurt pretty bad. He's lost a lot of blood and he's really pale and there's an arrow through his stomach."

She heard a multitude of voices and a multitude of curses. Then Clint's voice became discernible. "What about you? Are you okay? Where's Loki?"

"I'm fine. An Asgardian named Volstagg took Justine to Asgard. Simmons, are you coming?"

"On the way now," she chirped. "Just have to get past what looks like an Avengers/S.H.I.E.L.D./Asgardian/Masters of Evil war. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Why is there an arrow through Coulson's stomach?" May asked, sounding entirely unamused. And slightly accusing.

"Don't look at me! It was Trick-shot!" Clint said. "He was just being his self-sacrificing idiot self. Phil, I mean."

"Screw you, Barton," Coulson croaked.

"Crap, Phil. You sound like hell. You should have said something."

"Everyone was a bit busy."

"I wasn't!" Simmons piped up. "I have been sitting on the BUS anxiously waiting for the fighting to be over! If anything, this would have cured my boredom."

The staircase door was thrown open and Simmons ran in, followed by Ward, Betty, and… Bruce?! "I'll explain later," Betty said, cutting off Tania's many questions. "He's free from the mind control but the others aren't."

Bruce and Simmons knelt by Coulson and Tania respectfully backed away to give them space. Ward was obviously just the muscle meant to protect the doctors on the way here. She nodded at him. "Go. Help May and the others." He nodded and took off for the stairs again.

Tania settled against one of the bar stools and closed her eyes, just listening to the doctors do their thing.

"He's lost too much blood," said Simmons.

"He needs a transfusion right now," Bruce concluded.

"He's O negative. I'm A-B positive."

"I can't give him my blood for obvious reasons. Betty?"

"Negative. Literally A negative."

"I'm O negative too," Tania told them, opening her eyes again. She only knew because it had been on her chart at the hospital when the cruise had been attacked and she thought it was a good piece of information to have. "Take my blood. Do it."

Simmons nodded. "They're compatible. There's no time for the regular tests and we can't move him."

"You and Betty get the arrow out and bandage him up. I'll get Tania's blood," Bruce volunteered.

"Right."

Bruce grabbed some supplies from the medical kit he and Simmons had brought and slapped on some gloves. Tania decided she didn't want to pay attention. She wasn't afraid of needles, per se. She just didn't like them. She stared at Bruce's face instead, scrutinizing him. His eyes were definitely not blue. "So what happened?" She asked as she rolled up her sleeve. "How did you come back?" If he came back, Steve and the others could come back. Hope fluttered in her chest.

"Betty kicked me off the building, remember?"

"And you Hulked out, yes. I remember."

"Betty calmed me down after and now I'm fine."

"Thought that was my job," she teased.

"She sang me one of your songs. I think."

"Did she?" The adrenaline was wearing off.

Beside them, Phil cursed loudly.

Tania winced and tried to ignore him. "So do you think we can get the others free?" The hope was undeniable in her voice.

"I think it's possible. We were just getting ready to go out there and shove everybody off the building to see what happens."

Tania snorted. "Tony can fly. Ouch!" There was a prick in her arm. It started to feel like her skin was tightening and pulling and stinging.

"So can Thor."

"So what's your plan for them?"

"We were thinking about getting the others back first and worrying about them later. Steve could probably think of something."

Her smile faltered. "Yeah. How would you catch them?"

"Spidey."

"Ah."

"Got it." Bruce pulled the needle out. "Okay, you're all good. Not bleeding excessively anywhere?"

"Nope." Not that she knew of.

"Good. Sit tight. When Coulson's ready to be moved, we'll relocate to the BUS."

She nodded. "Alright. She closed her eyes again. She could still hear the fight going on upstairs. There were repulsors (Tony's and/or Rhodey's), shield bashings (Steve), arrows twanging (Clint), guns firing (various S.H.I.E.L.D. agents), hammers flying (Thor), swords clashing (?), electricity crackling (Natasha), and Night-Night Guns tranquilizing (Ward and May).

"Tania, you're losing blood too." That was Bruce.

"Well you did just take some."

"I took quite a bit. I think I took too much."

"Can you put some back?" She asked jokingly.

"Not anymore. But Coulson has some to spare. He's the only here compatible with you. We can move him soon, so I'm going to take a bit of his blood and give it to you. You look paler than he does right now."

"I do?" That was news to her. That was also probably really bad. Was the world spinning? Of course it was spinning. It's always spinning. Night and Day and seasons and time passing and all that. "Now it's a fusion."

"That was really lame."

"Bite me. I'm trying to lighten the mood."

"Well, you suck at it."

"Like you're any better, Mr. 'I put a bullet in my mouth'."

"You weren't even there for that!"

"I've heard horror stories. Tony can't keep his mouth shut."

"Hmm, true."

As Bruce did his doctor stuff and Tania tried to ignore the new pain in her arm ("there's so much glass in here!"), she heard Betty asking Coulson various questions like his name and his profession. She also spat out things like blood pressure and heart rate. Coulson, of course, answered cryptically and comically.

Tania had a question for him. "Why did you give me the gun instead of just shooting Loki yourself?"

There was a second where no one said anything. Simmons and Betty worked on Coulson and Bruce began plucking glass out of Tania's skin. "I've shot him before," Phil finally answered. "Figured it was someone else's turn."

"That was a huge risk."

"In all honesty, I can't feel my fingers. Couldn't pull the trigger."

"Oh. Wait, you've shot him before?"

He chuckled. "Yeah. Good times. Right before I died."

"Right. Real good times."

"Banks?"

"Yeah?"

"… good job, today. You're a damn good fighter."

Tania almost laughed in disbelief. "It was luck."

"Modest, too."

"Shut up."

"Romanoff's been training you, right?"

"Clint too. And Steve."

"See? You're a good fighter."

"You didn't see me do any actual fighting."

"I know Loki didn't kill you. I know you've been fighting him since the beginning of the fight, almost. He said that you didn't kill him, which means that you had the chance and you didn't take it. You beat him, didn't you? Had him on the ropes?"

She said nothing. Bruce began wrapping up her arms.

"I know we don't know each other very well, but I'm damn proud of you."

Tania felt her throat clog. She turned to look at him. His head was in Betty's lap and he was staring at her with piercing, normal blue eyes. She pried her mouth open. "Thank you. That… actually means a lot."

Phil smiled at her. "You're welcome."

Justin Hammer ran up twenty-five fucking flights of stairs. Let it never be said that he didn't do anything for his country. Hammer HQ was a tower too and yes, his "secret" "villainy" operations were on the top floor. Sue him. His own stupid robots had damaged the building and of course the elevator was the only broken thing in the damn place.

So yeah, maybe "ran" was a bit of an exaggeration. "Walked like his life depended on it" was probably a better description. Let's face it, he never would have made it past level ten if he'd ran. As it was, he was finding it hard getting past level six while walking. This is why he have fucking elevators! He grumbled to himself as he climbed, hating his legs for betraying him as they burned.

I feel like the stupid scarecrow when the stupid wicked witch set him on fire.

Finally, he made it. That agent that had been following him was nowhere to be seen, but that was fine with him. He didn't need her useless chatter to distract him from disabling these robots.

The fact that Loki was apparently using his tech to take over the world made his blood boil. World domination was so nineteen forties Hydra Nazi. He would do with his tech what he liked, thank you very much.

Maybe he'd be made a hero after this. The press would love him! He'd have to call Christine Everheart and make an appointment when this all blew over. You know, if he didn't get thrown back in jail. Maybe this would redeem him and his sentence would be removed with the snap of his fingers! Maybe this could be the start of a brand new relationship with his daughter! But first he had to save her.

Step one: disable robots who would get in his way.

He took a moment to lie on the floor, panting and sweating and burning. Ugh. Never. Again. I'm gonna build a new HQ and it's gonna be a really long bungalow, I swear. A few minutes later, he pushed himself to his knees and then crawled over to a desk in the middle of the lab. He hauled himself up into chair (after a few failed attempts because the damn thing had wheels and God really hated him today) and booted up the computer in front of him.

He tapped his nails impatiently on the desk as he waited for the device to turn on. When it did, he immediately began typing. His fingers flew across the keyboard, his eyes flicking across the screen almost as fast a computer would, if it had eyes. He struggled to see through these spider-webs he used to call glasses, but somehow he managed.

Access denied.

What?! Fucking-! Someone hacked into his account and changed the password! Fucking hackers! He immediately began trying to hack into his own fucking account and heard heavy breathing coming from the stairs.

The person took their time getting up and when they sounded close enough to be in the room, he turned. There was the agent from before, breathing hard, but standing, both hands braced on her knees. "Have you almost got it?" She asked, walking over toward him and catching her breath already. Damn her and her stupid S.H.I.E.L.D. training that probably makes her super fit.

"No!" He exclaimed in frustration, pounding his fist on the table. "Someone's changed my password and set up various firewalls to prevent anyone from getting in. Some stupid hacker got in here somehow! Ugh!"

"Can you hack back in?"

"I'm trying! It's gonna take me a few minutes." As much as he loathed to admit it, Stark was the better hacker of the two of them. But that was it. Justin was better at everything else.

"Well, hurry up. The longer you take, the more people possibly die."

"I don't care about them," he stated plainly. "I care about my daughter. She's my incentive, not anyone else. They don't matter. But my daughter, she's… she my legacy. She's my… my…" Everything.

When the agent next spoke, her voice was softer, more sympathetic. "Just get the robots under control again. Then we'll head back to the Tower and try and talk your daughter down."

He nodded. One step at a time. "You wouldn't happen to know who hacked into my program, would you?" He asked, eyes not leaving the screen as his fingers typed furiously.

"Um, no. My briefing was very short. It might be Ezekiel Stane, millionaire inventor. He seems like the type."

Justin hummed. "Know anything about him?"

"Just that he's dramatic and likes to be ostentatious."

"Sounds like he and Loki make a good pair."

She snorted. "Probably."

Okay, now Justin had mental images of some rich old dude hitting on his daughter while possessed by Loki and that was just wrong. Stane had better not have hit on his daughter or he'll wish he'd been possessed by an evil alien/god/thing.

Within a few minutes, he cracked the password and breached the firewalls and-

"Voila!" He pressed the Enter key and spun in his chair victoriously. Mission accomplished!"

"Really?" She leaned over his chair to peek at the screen.

"No, I lied. April Fool's," he deadpanned.

She glared at him. "Well, now that the robots are done for, you don't need a bodyguard anymore. See ya." She turned on her heel to walk away.

"Wait! You're heading back to the Tower, aren't you? What about my daughter?"

"You can get the Tower on your own. You can see it from here, can't you?" She teased, looking out the window. "Found it! Good luck!" She saluted him and began the descent down the stairs.

"Wait!" He called after her. "Wait for me!"

Tania suddenly found herself distracted by the BUS occupying the entirety of the glass wall she'd crashed through. Its engine roared in her ears and she squinted at it. The ramp lowered and revealed Ward, Fitz, Skye (holding Rocky), and Jane holding up an unconscious Pepper. Jane hopped out of the plane (mind the gap) and into the lounge without a second thought.

Simmons and Bruce hauled Coulson by the shoulders and legs over to the plane, where they somehow managed to get him on there. Tania didn't have that great a vantage point from her spot on the floor. Maybe it was time to get up.

With a sigh, Tania grabbed the bar stool and yanked herself up, putting all her weight on her right foot and gripping the chair for support. "Watch Rocky for me, okay?" She shouted to Skye. "I don't think he should be in all this chaos."

Skye nodded. "We'll return him to you as soon as we can."

Tania nodded and sighed. Jane walked over to her, still supporting a very limp Pepper. "Is she okay?" Tania asked.

"Just knocked out. Rhodey shot her with some dendrotoxins. She'll be fine. We thought it best if we kept her with the others under Loki's control. It seemed like the right thing to do." She looked Tania up and down. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"Okay enough," Tania replied honestly. "Are they taking him to a hospital?"

She nodded. "Yeah. His team's going with him. May's back in the pilot seat. I elected to stay here."

"You sure you wanna stay? It's just a lot of fighting upstairs."

She nodded again. "I'm sure. You?"

"Yeah. I'm not leaving until the Avengers are better."

"Same."

Bruce and Betty returned, looking worn out. The BUS doors closed and the entire plane disappeared, presumably flying cloaked. The five people who remained looked at each other.

"I don't know about you guys, but I need to see what's going on up there," Betty said. "I may not be of much use in a fight, but Fitzsimmons gave me this Night-Night Gun and I'm actually a pretty good shot, so maybe I can help? And… I need to know what's happening. I can't just sit here and… not know. You know?"

The others nodded. "I do know," Tania agreed. She picked up her discarded Night-Night Gun from earlier as well as her batons. Then she removed the thrusters and the headpiece that connected her to Friday. Her thrusters had already been removed from when Bruce had wrapped her ankle. She was barefoot now, but that was better than booted and twisted. One arm around Bruce's shoulders, she limped up the stairs with the others.

"So how'd you get that battle wound?" Betty asked, gripping her gun tightly.

Tania blushed. "Um, I flipped Justine onto the ground but landed wrong and twisted my ankle."

"So you pulled a less graceful Natasha?" Bruce reiterated.

Tania laughed. "I guess." She tilted her head at Bruce, who wasn't watching where he was going as they climbed the stairs. "Why are you staring at me?"

"Well, it's just… I haven't heard you laugh in a long time."

Oh. Well. "I guess I kind of… came to a realization. An epiphany. Let's just say I'm gonna try and laugh more often."

Bruce beamed at her. "I'm glad to hear that."

They approached the doors to the roof and paused. Jane counted to three with her fingers and Betty kicked the door open, gun pointed in front of her. Outside, it was still chaos.

It appeared that once the BUS left, the other quinjets had decided to flee as well. There wasn't a single faceless S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in sight. The helicarrier floated on above, though, ever watchful.

The first fight that drew Tania's eye was between Natasha and Charkova. They were dancing and fighting and doing gymnastics and aerobics all at the same time. They both looked pretty beat up, but they also both very determined. That fight didn't look like it was going to end any time soon. They seemed to be pretty evenly matched.

Not too far from Nat (as usual), Clint was dodging Steve's many swings on one side of him while a tall, dark, and broody Asgardian (she assumed) attacked Steve from behind. Clint was more out of breath than she'd ever seen him. Steve was sweating, but undaunted. His shield was hooked on the back of his uniform, unused. The Asgardian looked mildly frustrated.

Rhodey and Tony were facing off near the edge, blasting each other and shooting each other and shouting at each other like an old married couple. Of all the people Tony sounded like an old married couple with, Pepper being the first and Steve being the second, Rhodey came in a close third. Both of their suits were smoking. A female Asgardian was trying to attack Tony, but he kept dancing out of her reach by flying.

Peter was facing off against Thor, evading lightning and hammers and punches and kicks like a pro. He was holding a video camera that didn't appear to be on. He and a fair haired Asgardian with an interesting mustache were exchanging witty banter as they teamed up on Thor.

No one looked like they were going to win their fight. No one looked like they wanted to win their fight. This was going nowhere.

Betty scanned the area, looking for someone to taze. She decided on Charkova and raised her gun. Suddenly, the mind controlled Avengers froze. The others stopped immediately, not wanting to hurt their friends.

Well, Charkova didn't stop, but she was currently beneath Natasha's legs, so she couldn't exactly attack from there. Natasha blinked multiple times, then looked around. She took in all of her surroundings, but focused on Charkova. Her eyes narrowed. "You." And then she promptly kicked Charkova's ass and knocked her out.

Betty lowered her gun, slightly disappointed she couldn't be of more use.

Tony's face plate went up. "What the hell just happened?"

Pepper remained limp and unconscious.

Thor dropped his hammer in horror, registering that he'd just been fighting with his friends. "What trickery is this?"

"Your brother's, I'm afraid," said the fair haired one, sheathing his sword. He gripped Thor's shoulder. "Tis good to have you back, my friend."

Steve held a hand to his head, brows knitting together in confusion as he looked around. "What…?" He didn't get much further than that before he was tackled by Tania. For a girl with a twisted ankle, she could run pretty fast when she wanted to. He landed on his back and grunted, hands flying to her waist instinctively. "Tania?" She began peppering his face with kisses and hey, he wasn't complaining. But still. He was very confused. "What-?" He tried again.

"Yes," she breathed pulling back to stare into his cerulean blue eyes.

She held both sides of his face in her hands and what on Earth was she wearing? And why was she covered in blood and cuts and bruises? "Yes, what?"

"Yes, I'll marry you." And then she surged forward and kissed him and he decided right there that whatever the hell was going on, he didn't care. He could figure that stuff out later. Right now, he was going to kiss his fiancée like there was no tomorrow.

A/N. SQUEEEEEEEEEE! XD Was it worth the year and a half long wait?