Thanks to everyone who read, fav'd, alerted and most of all to Toad-sage66, .2016 and guest "Scarlett" (Here it is! Thanks for your review!) for reviewing!
Last chapter did not inspire a lot of reviews, so hopefully this one will be more to your liking ;) Enjoy!

Epiphany

In hasty whispers, Captain Rogers filled me in on our pilot. It did not take long to explain, though the soldier attempted to use as many words as possible. He clearly could not quite wrap his head around what had happened - or was perhaps still happening to other people.
Truth be told, the thought of it made me slightly sick. How could Loki, who had always valued his own free spirit, take away another person's free will? I was glad I did not have the scepter anymore; I did not ever wanted to be tempted to use it like that as well.

Either way, the story was quite enough for me to scramble through the jet and inquire whether I could disturb our pilot. He still looked rather grumpy, but his voice did not sound like it.

"Agent Barton, I wanted to apologize," I told him when he nodded for me to speak. "On Loki's behalf, that is, for what he did to you - I honestly can't imagine, you must feel so violated-"

"Yeah," he said. "Something like that."

"I am sorry," I reiterated. "I don't know why he would... But, I want you to know that neither Thor nor I would support such action, none of my people would and if I could do anything, anything at all to make this right again, I would-"

At that, his lips twitched and it almost looked like he would smile. He did not, not really, but just the small lift at the edges made him seem a lot friendlier.
"Tell me you can fight," he said.

"Huh," I said. "I can probably set things on fire."

"Good enough," he shrugged. I smiled and nodded. I was almost back at my seat when he called after me. "Also, I'm Clint."

Clint was a good pilot, albeit a bit reckless. Indeed, his style of flight made me a bit sick to my stomach, but I was dreading the arrival even more than continuous flight.
When we arrived, Loki would have called his army. I could only hope to talk him off the edge, but given the last conversations we had, it was unlikely I would succeed.

Should I survive whatever chaos he had planned, I would spend the rest of my life apologizing for his actions, just as I had done to Clint - and that was the best case scenario. There was the vague possibility that Loki would win and who knew what would happen then.
What was his plan for me, anyway? Did he care enough for me to allow me to live or would he treat me as a traitor - just like our father. How ironic.

New York appeared on the horizon. Even I, only on Midgard for such a short time, recognized the skyline. It was an impressive sight, even though it made my heart clenched.

"You okay?" the captain asked when he noticed me glued to the window.

"We'll see, I suppose," I said.

"I have connection to Stark," Natasha announced. "He's talking to Loki."

"How's it going?" Steve asked.

"Uh," she said. "Pretty badly. As you'd expect."

We soared into the city at such a low height that I was sure this was not usually allowed and also very dangerous. Given what I saw when I looked out of the window, though, a low flying plane was probably the least of New York's problem.

It was hard to say whether the attackers were robots or living beings, but they did look a bit like giant lizards. Colourwise, it was hard to distinguish them from the grey, chariot-like vehicles they were carried by. They zoomed through the air; every now and again, one of them opened its snout to utter a terrifying shriek that could even be heard inside our jet. It was no wonder the Midgardians called them aliens.

"You ever seen anything like those?" Clint asked before he had to hurtle the jet sharply to the side. Two of the aliens raced by us and one of them looked straight at me as he passed the window, sharp red eyes glowing menacingly.

I swallowed hard. "I'm happy to say no."

Meanwhile, Natasha was conferring with Stark yet again. His instructions came out muffled and a little bit sarcastic over the speakers, but Natasha kept waving for Clint to follow them.
That was when Stark Tower appeared right in front of us. Tony swooped around it, the suit already dented slightly.
When he ducked, my gaze was drawn by another sight on one of the tower's terraces: My brothers - both of them, and both as angry as they could be. They were swinging at each other again, most of what I could make out was just a blur of weapons.

"Can you drop me there?" I called to Clint.

"Well...," he said before Natasha interrupted. "Sure! Will you jump?"

She did not give me a chance to answer before the ramp behind us was already opened. Steve yelped as a loud rush of wind enveloped us. I almost fell before we even reached the tower because as I got up, Clint swung around sharply once more and Natasha started firing at the aliens.

Would I jump? I remembered the day - it seemed so long ago - that Loki and I had gone to Jotunheim. I had not dared to jump then - he had had to push me.
The wind was ringing in my ears, as well as the shrieks of the aliens and the zooming of their transport. If I missed the platform and fell, I would be dead, Asgardian or not. The terrace came into sight right beneath me, and Thor was just throwing Loki backwards across it.

I jumped.

It hurt my knees and especially my already wounded leg to land on the metallic platform, but it was nothing compared to how Loki and Thor looked. These two knew no restraint, especially when it came to each other.
Right after I landed, Loki fired at Thor with the scepter and my brother slid across the terrace, the hammer on the floor causing an unpleasant scraping noise.

Thor groaned and I offered a hand to pull him up. His eyes widened slightly when he took me in. "You're here! I worried he'd hurt you."

"He wouldn't," I said. "Not like that."

It was that very moment that Loki fired his scepter at the jet. Clint should have gotten out of here long ago - why was he lingering? - but as it was, the jet now steadily hurtled towards the ground, parts of it already aflame.
Thor let out an enraged yell, charged at Loki and tackled him to the ground while I hurried to the edge of the terrace.

The jet had come down more than a block away and from that distance, I could not make out anything specific. My heart clenched as I wondered if Clint was a good enough pilot to save them considering that kind of drop.

Meanwhile, Thor and Loki were rolling across the floor like a pair of common boys on the streets battling over sweets. With a groan of effort, Loki pushed Thor backwards to sit up, but Thor grabbed him at once.

"Look at this," he ordered. "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"

Loki struggled, but against Thor's brute force, he had no chance. "It's too late," he said. "Too late to stop it."

"We can," I said. For the first time since I had arrived, Loki's eyes found me. He looked mildly confused at my presence. "With your help, we can end this."

"Yes," Thor urged. "Together."

For the shortest of moments, it seemed as if Loki would change his mind. His eyes widened with something akin to hope and Thor immediately loosened his hold.
Which was a mistake, for Loki abused this mercilessly. He lunged forward, something silver shone in his hand and Thor keeled over, falling backwards.

Loki's lip curled and he shook the bloodied knife. "Sentiment," he hissed.

"What did you do?" I started forward, but Loki threw out his arm and stopped my progress before I could reach Thor.

"What are you doing here?" Loki asked.

"What do you think?" I shot back, gesturing around us.
People were screaming in the streets; gunshots rang through the air, every few seconds a window or so exploded and splinters rained down on the masses. The city was already burning.

His jaw clenched tightly. "I didn't think they'd let you go."

My brows furrowed. "You let them them take me - you left me on purpose..."

He blinked at me. "So you wouldn't get hurt," he said, waving his hand at our surroundings just as I had. "What did you think?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came out. It was terribly tempting to believe him - but I was not that stupid. He could be making this up on the spot, he could be just saying things that he thought I would like to hear. I did not know if I had ever meant something to him, but right now, I did not mean enough to be exempt from his scheming and his lies.

"I want you to end this," I said. "Look around-"

"I can't," he said with simple finality. "What's done cannot be undone."

Behind us, Thor had scramble to his feet with a guttural roar. He looked dangerous, almost feral as he approached. It was enough for me to want to make a run for it - if they had to fight, I did not want to be caught in the middle.
Loki seemed to have the same thought, but I still wished he did not act on it. When Thor started his advance, Loki reached out and pushed me out of the way - and had me topple right over the edge of the terrace.

We all cried out. My stomach dropped before me and at least as deep as my fall would be while my heart jumped into my throat. My body crashed hard against the side of the building as I scrambled for a hold on the edge. My finger scraped along the wall, the skin torn open in the process.
Another scream was torn from me when I slid further down, the fall seemingly unstoppable.

Two hands wrapped securely around my wrist and my other arm. They had both moved impossibly fast and yet Loki and Thor had only caught me in the last second. Both of them.
My bad leg protested harshly when they pulled me upwards and it scraped against the edge. I could barely breath due to my heart beating violently against my rib cage.

I sat for just a moment and then scrambled as fast as I could away from the edge. One near-death experience was more than enough.

Loki's brows had furrowed as he watched me. "I'm-" he started, but did not get any further.

"Stay away from her!" Thor bellowed at the mere sway in my direction.

Loki swallowed hard. He glanced behind him at the edge, then back to me - took one step, two; and fell just as I had.
Gone was my fear of the abyss. Panting, I got to my feet and rushed forward. All colour had drained from Thor's face, but when I could see from the edge, I found that I need not have worried.
Loki had been caught easily by one of the alien's flying chariots. He saluted me when he spotted me on the edge.

"I need to get down to the others," Thor announced when some of his colour had returned. "It's perhaps best you stay up here-"

"And wait for one of those monsters to shoot me? Certainly not." My brother shifted uncomfortably at my declaration. "I want to fight."

"You don't know how-"

I raised an eyebrow at that. Of course I was not a warrior, but I would be able to at least do some harm and take care of myself. I figured that was all we really need at the moment.
Begrudgingly, Thor had to follow my demand. Mjolnir carried us effortlessly down into the streets of New York. Beneath us, our friends had assembled in a quick moment of relative peace.

"The cube is unreachable," Thor announced.

Stark's voice came muffled out of some speaker and Clint tossed me a little piece of electronic and gestured for me to put it in my ear. Sure enough, Tony's voice was now more pronounced, as if he was speaking directly to me.

"We gotta deal with these guys," he just said.

Natasha pursed her lips. "How do we do this?"

"Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us," the Captain said. "That's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us-"

He got interrupted by the rustling, hollering sound of a small motorcycle making its way past rubble and fallen aliens up the street. Doctor Banner was driving it, smiling slightly at our confused expressions. He appeared a bit rustled, but overall at ease with the situation not like he would turn into a green rage monster any time soon.

"Stark," Steve said. "We got him."

"Banner?" Stark cried out.

"Just like you said."

Tony let out a relieved laugh. "Tell him to suit up," he ordered. "I'm bringing the party to you."

I had never been to a party on Midgard, but I was pretty sure that they did not look anything like that. When Iron Man swerved around a building on the next corner, he was followed by what looked like a malicious flying whale. It was ridiculously large and had the same half-organic, half-metallic structure that the aliens had. With their armoury, they looked like the scaled skeleton of a big serpent.

"Now might be a really good time for you to get angry," the Captain said in direction of Doctor Banner, who smiled grimly in response.

"That's my secret," he said. "I'm always angry."

True to his word, his body started to change. It stretched and swelled and became decidedly more green. Soon he had reached an enormous height, but this time, his anger did not turn against us. Instead his bulging eyebrows pulled down as his eyes narrowed at the aliens. Perhaps the Hulk was not quite as mindless as we had thought.

He stretched out an enormous green fist and hit the upcoming flying whale square in the nose. The thing had seemed unstoppable before, crashing through the street like a fright train, but now it screeched to a halt and with all its former momentum turned in the air and landed with a loud metallic clank on its back.
Enraged screams of the aliens filled the air, but the serpent did not move again.

There was no time to celebrate this small victory. Natasha pointed upwards to the portal edged into the sky and we found another battalion of aliens emerging. Everyone was quite speechless, but the captain was first to come back to his senses. He started dishing out order, sending us off in different directions.

The streets had seemingly flooded with attackers. The first one got his skull crushed as I sent him flying into a lamp post. The next one got his neck snapped with a flick of my wrist. It was so easy that it almost made me sick. The next one dropped out of the air on his chariot and landed on three others. None of them moved again.

There was no shortage of attackers though. One I narrowly escaped by teleporting across the street. Unfortunately, that led me right into the arms of another.
It hissed dangerously and I did the first thing I could think of: I tried to burn it as I had the Frost Giants. It caught fire sure enough, but did not seem the least bit bothered by it. The entire arm blazing with flames, it advanced on me again, undeterred by the wall of fire I raised in front of me.

I scrambled backwards - I wondered how they killed when they did not use their weapons? Would it bite or claw at me? My skin prickled at the thought.

It had almost reached me when it froze. Quite literally. It started at the burning hand and crept across his chest and down his legs, it encompassed his head - within seconds, the blazing monster in front of me had turned into a block of ice.
One of their chariots sped by above me.

Reviews would make me very, very happy!