Disclaimer: Dont own any Marvel IP.

HYDRA Base, Sokovia

Bruce sighed as he sat in his seat on the Quinjet. Hulk was still calming down inside him, he felt like the threat was still around. That was probably true, but they had gotten the scepter, arrested Strucker, and taken down this base. It was bigger than the other ones, so it was big win.

He had changed after carrying Clint to the Quinjet. Only minutes ago he put Clint unconscious and resting with a cooling patch on his wound. Doctor Cho will take care of it.

Imagine what this would have done to him before, years ago, and he would not have changed back or been a wreck afterwards. It makes him very thankful to make friends with Dara. She understands Hulk and can make him reasonable. Hulk isn't bad at all. He is a good guy, with anger issues and love for the fight. So, an opposite of his likes and dislikes. Right now he listened to some soft rock music, the only midway song style Hulk would tolerate after a fight.

Someone tapped his shoulder. He looked over fast. "Here is your power bar, Bruce." Natasha held it out for him. Smiling at her, he took it and started munching. Changing always starves him.

"Might I have one?" Thor asked.

"No." Bruce growled out with Hulk's voice. Natasha chuckled and tossed Thor a poptart.

"Take the wheel Jarvis." said Tony as he got up to walk towards his cloister of teammates.

"Yes, Sir. Approach vector is locked." Jarvis replied.

"It feels good, yeah? I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our multiple raiding parties, but…" Tony trailed off, remembering all those bases they took out, the arrests that were taken by secret SHIELD into filtered to the authorities. There were no losses on their side.

"No, but this...this brings it to a close." said a satisfied Thor.

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for. I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?" Steve stated some things that worried him about the enhanced they met at the raid today.

"Banner and I'll give it the once before it goes back to Asgard. Is that cool with you?" asked a hopeful Tony. He didn't want to overstep the allowance. Thor nodded to him. Tony was already thinking about what he wished to implement after studying the scepter. Ultron. The ultimate protection for their planet. "I mean, just a few days until the farewell party. You're staying, right?"

"Yes, yes, of course. A victory should be honored with revels." Thor said with subpar glee. Tony and Steve didn't mention that they have a feeling this mood relates to Jane. They have been having issues recently.

"Yeah. Who doesn't love revels. Captain?" Tony said to overcome the awkwardness. Steve nodded.

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitauri and HYDRA, so. Yes, revels." said a Steve that was thinking about rest and Dara.

"You're only job then will be planning the wedding." teased Tony.

"I don't think I will have much to do." said a bashful Steve. Tony laughed with Thor. They both know he will have no input.

"Given your dressing sense, I know Dara will plan this out the right way." said Nat from where she was cleaning her guns.

They looked at her, smiling warily as she gave an innocent smile.

"Don't worry, I know Pepper wont let the theme become ridiculous." Tony reassured Steve with a pat on the shoulder. Bruce grinned, if Nat wanted it, there is not stopping her.

Biting her lip, Dara paced the area beside the gurney, while Helen Cho watched in amusement as she prepped Bruce's lab for Clint.

"Its probably nothing bad." Helen reasoned as these trips for her were far and little in between raids.

"Jarvis?" Without stopping her paces, she asked.

"It was a blast wound from the Chutari weaponry, skin burnt away 3rd degree, open wound, slowed infection. Similar to what Dara had when the tower was last attacked by the Chutari." Jarvis provided. Helen raised her brows and started preparing some others equipment for burns and closing wounds. Her nano-regeneration Cradle for the burnt skin.

Someone was at the door, making Dara pause.

"Hey, Dara, they are here." said Maria Hill. The anxious woman followed her out, the doctor just behind them at a calm state.

The first thing that Clint heard when he woke up while being transported was someone swearing. "Such a lovely voice to take me to heaven."

"Shut the fuck up, Barton." Dara gritted out. "You're getting tired in your old age."

"We were born the same year!" he complained.

"Helen I think he has a concussion, he's confusing me for Nat."

"Alright, children no more fighting." Hill scolded them as she continued to Steve and Tony to give updates of what she found out.

Nat smiled with Helen as they were walking along the gurney taking Clint to the lab. Dara kept her hand on the gurney.

"Oh guess what came in the mail while you were gone?" she asked Clint to distract him. Or maybe to distract her he was replying with his brows raised.

"The custom crafted bow made of the strongest and flexible wood!" she said excitedly. Clint had twinkling eyes of a child. He wanted to play.

"Why would you tell him. He cant play with it now, not with his wound." Nat asked with narrowed eyes.

"He can touch it though." reasoned Dara with a duh look on her face.

"Yeah, I can touch it." Clint repeat with the same look.

By then they had reached the lab and Helen started her part with the two ladies outside the area.

"Are you ok?" Dara asked Nat as she searched her over. Nat chuckled softly and held Dara's shoulders.

"Yes, I am. You do this every time one of us gets her. If none of us are, you don't even bother coming to see us."

"No right away, but I do later." excused Dara with a shrug as she wrapped an arm around Nat. "How did he get distracted?"

Nat told her everything. By which time Tony had come over and he got the same treatment, only Dara was much more invasive. He had a bit of bruise.

"Hey, stop, it will go away in a day." he exclaimed in French while batting away her hands.

"I know you hide it when its small pains. You don't want to be a whim." Dara replied in kind. However Clint and Nat knew what they were arguing about and started snickering a little.

"You are the most annoying sister. Back off shorty." Tony said pushing her back towards Clint.

"We are the same height, dickhead." She said following him out the area to where Bruce was setting up his moved items.

"How's he doing?" he asked without looking up.

"Ah, unfortunately, he's still Barton." said Tony. It made Dara frown a bit.

"That's terrible." Bruce added to the joke.

"Hey. Not funny." she checked on Bruce now, who raised his hands with a smile. "Bruce, Hulk, everything went ok?"

"Yes, Dara."

"Hulk win raid, Thor come second." he sounded out, leading Tony to snort in amusement. That guy likes to compete with the amount of hits they make in raids. He always wins.

"That's great, big guy. Keep it to just the bad guys ya?" she asked with a stern look.

"Hulk good."

"That wasn't the question." she said with a light frown. She didn't want Hulk to think that if he accidentally hurts someone that he is bad.

Bruce decided to explain it to Hulk in his head. She means no accident hits. We know you don't hurt good people. You're not bad.

Ok, Puny Bruce. This made Bruce shake his head, why is he always puny. Its going to give him a complex.

"Everything's fine." Bruce told her, she smiled back at him, turned and narrowed her eyes at the scepter. She kept some distance as she walked around it.

"Look alive, Jarvis. Its playtime. We've only got a couple days with this joystick so let's make the most of it. Update me on the structural and compositional analysis." instructed Tony as he set up some of the devices in his area, connecting the Scepter so Jarvis can analyze it.

Dara on the other hand was leaned in a little closer to read the inscriptions. They left her to it.

"The scepter is alien. There are elements I can't quantify." said Jarvis.

"So there's elements you can."

"It's a wand." Dara interrupted suddenly. They looked to her. She gestured with her hands. "These are spells that direct the power source into bending to the commands of the user. Some power comes from the wielder, because apparently some personal power must be sacrificed in order to use this. If we thinking about it, Loki seemed rather placid and sweat when he had it in his hands."

"Yes, I remember that, I had wondered why he was so calm and collected while captive in the cage, but when we picked him up and met him at the tower, he was almost manic." contemplated Bruce.

"So the sacrifice can be energy from the body-" Tony was surmising.

"and also the mind. The stories Thor shared of his brother were not as aligned with Scepter Loki. I think I want to have Thor look at this with me. Can I bring him over?" she asked Tony, who nodded while recollecting about his past interactions with Loki.

She leaned out the door and shouted for Thor, he came in fast, looking to see if something had happened with the scepter.

Dara touched his arm, squeezing it and said "No, no nothing happened to the scepter." he calmed some, then walked over with Hill entering as well.

"What is the query then?" He asked while staring warily at the scepter. He felt Dara drag him closer and pointed at the inscriptions.

"Those are spells." she stated and he told her what she had already inferred with Bruce and Tony added what they inferred about the cost of using the scepter. Hill raised her brows and added this in the notes for telling Fury later.

"Thor, it is possible that some of Loki's actions while holding and using the scepter may have been made by his unstable mind." He looked at her and she shrugged. "I'm not saying it excuses his actions, just the degree of it being explained."

"I did worry me much when he stabbed Son of Coul like that, when usually he would just knock people out or wound them so they couldn't continue fighting. Not kill unless it was battle." he said warily, staring at the scepter with some degree of hate. Dara patted his shoulder and looked to the others. Tony decided to continue in a different area of the scepter.

"Jarvis what is powering the stone." he asked.

"The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside. Something powerful." Jarvis supplied. They all looked at the glowing stone.

Dara moved towards it but Bruce held her back shaking his head. "Could you magnify an image of the jewel for Dara?" Bruce asked Jarvis.

"Yes, Doctor Banner. However there are no inscriptions on the jewel or the headpiece." he told them as he showed a hologram of it.

Dara pulled it closer to her and widened it. When she didn't find it, she moved down to the headpiece connecting to the jewel. "Jarvis is right, the jewel has no inscriptions which makes me think this is a seriously old powerful jewel that has no design or writing that predates it to any civilization."

"How can you be sure?" asked Hill.

Dara expanded the spear head. "Because this inscription connects the umm…. Consciousness… no. mind…. No consciousness of the jewel to the holder. This headpiece was added later to the wand."

"Yes, the jewel is like a computer. I believe I'm ciphering code." said Jarvis. This intrigued others more.

Thor came closer to recognize the language. "This may predate the time of the celestials. I have very rarely seen such inscription on items except in my father's vault or the lair of the Great Dragon."

"Dragon?" asked several people.

"Story for another time." he dismissed their curiosity. "I would suggest you be cautious while ciphering the stone Jarvis, Stark and Banner." Then he was walking out with a frown on his brow.

Dara ran after him, she had some more questions. Hill decided to stay a while asked some questions then leaving.

"Thor, do you maybe know what that item is. I never did get to see the Tesseract closely, so I wouldn't know if it has similar bindings for a power source." she asked him delicately.

"I know not with surety, Lady Dara, but I indeed to find out now. I might be gone a couple days to research." he warned her, walking towards the landing of the penthouse once the lift doors opened.

"Alright, Thor. I will keep an eye till then."

"You have eased some of my worry I had about my brother's mental instability. Thank you, Lady Dara." he told her squeezing her shoulders gently.

"Your welcome, Lord of Thunder. Anything for a dear friend." she smiled up at him. Then checked him over. "You're alright, right, no wounds. Did Doctor Cho check on you?" she asked hurriedly.

Thor chuckled and stepped away spinning his hammer. "I'm glad to have you as a friend, Dara."

"That wasn't the answer I wanted to hear!" she shouted at him. Rolling her eyes she went to go look at Clint's wound. Then she will go down to see her fiancé He must have cleaned up by then. He wont search her out if he had blood on him. Till then she will watch the awesome tissue making machine.

Steve and Dara had their reunion before she disappeared to the lab with Tony and Bruce. She had excitedly brought him up on what she learnt so far and wasn't to keep going.

He'll come by later to let her know, until then he has Strucker and the twins to research about with Hill. Nat was helping Clint with his daily routine, mostly forcing him to say on the couch while Dara put on Disney movies to irritate him.

Eventually Dara took a break. She spent it with Steve locked away in their apartment. They had already celebrated finding the scepter. She had missed him for a few days. The day after they came back to their friends with a big breakfast.

Clint complained about having Nat's breakfast yesterday, and it being too healthy for his liking. Nat has some unique tastes, she likes strange flavors that are healthy. No sweet tooth. He got some syrup in his hair for saying that, which Dara tried to clean out with wet towels. It was still sticky, so she had fun giving him a Mohawk. He didn't mind, which ruined her fun.

He reminded her that she needs to bring his bow to him, she had left it in her apartment. That requested followed with three hours of talking about bows while he caressed his bow. Bruce had come for a snack and backed away when they gave him a look over Clint's couch that indicated he better scram before Clint started from the top with Bruce. Tony didn't come up

Labs, Avengers Tower

Dara went down to them. They explained the intelligence in the stone and how it functioned like Jarvis, but more advanced.

"I don't know about more advanced. Jarvis has been around for maybe… 20 years?" she asked Tony who nodded. "And this stone has been around for billions of years. Jarvis would go further with just a hundred more."

"Aw, Dara you're going to make Jarvis blush." Tony teased. Bruce grinned from where he was working on studying the stone.

"I do not think my functions allow blushing, Sir." Jarvis said with some sarcasm. Dara giggled at the joke while Tony shook his head.

"Just be careful Jarvis, I want you protected. This power source had the ability to make Loki more unstable. Have some fail safes." she warned him. Tony thought that was a good point, he should have said that to Jarvis.

"Right away, Dara." He wondered why Sir didn't tell him the same earlier. Bruce was too busy to notice.

"Well, keep learning, I'll leave you to it." Dara said before leaving. Bruce looked to Tony and gestured to Dara's retreating form. Tony look to her before shaking his head no.

Bruce frowned at Tony. He usually always included Dara in these measures for protecting the world from alien attacks. Why is he not including her he wondered.

"Oh Pepper, you look gorgeous." Dara said as she looked at the screen.

"I wish I could be there with all of you." Pepper sighed, she was in Sydney right now for an event as CEO of Stark Industries.

"Me too." said Darcy from the camera in her apartment. "I'm stuck here with a moody scientist."

"I thought Thor had stopped by with you guys." said a curious Dara.

"Nope." Darcy popped a cherry into her mouth and threw away the stick. "Erik said Thor came to see him in his class, they had a drink or many, and then Thor left."

"I think this scepter thing is worse than we are making it to be, he's onto something that is worrying him. Can you tell Jane to give him a break. Just for a little while, we had a Loki situation earlier this week." Dara request Darcy, while Pepper contemplated this news.

"I can try, but Jane has been coming closer to breaking it off with Thor than before." Darcy pouted with a shrug.

"Thor's going to make the others needier." said Pepper. Its true.

"I don't know what Steve is like needier." Dara wondered.

"You don't want to know a needy Tony." Pepper huffed as she picked up her purse. "I need to go now, enjoy the party Dara. I want to see what Nat and Maria wear." she requested.

"Yes, boss lady." both of them replied with a laughing following. Pepper smirked turning off the screen.

"You notice how she was resembling Stark for a moment." Darcy mentioned.

"Couples that live together, act like each other." Dara said sagely. "I've been clearer lately and Steve is more lax in his style to allow me some decision making power, while he is indoors." she snuck in at the end.

Darcy laughed cutting the call.

"Alright, I think I'm done." Dara said as she checked herself in her full length mirror. The off shoulders rosy red dress ended at her knees, fitting her form not too tightly, but just in the right areas that she looked lovely. The back of the shoulder strap extended in a drape like way down her back. Her brown hair flowed down her back, parted on the side.

Opening the door of the cupboard she stepped into the bedroom. It was empty, but she didn't need to clean up after her things this time, as they were not in so much of a disarray that Steve would complain. Steve must be outside with Sam. The shoes were boots that Pepper gifted her. Taking a picture, she sent it to her friends before leaving the room.

Steve shot up with Sam following him, both smiled at her. Well Steve was had a sultry stare going, unfortunately they don't have time for it, but she will take one kiss. He came over to her, taking her hand, which she turned under. Sam chuckled at the corny couple.

"You are breathtaking, Milady." he kissed her hand with a slight bow. She beamed at him, loving this side of him.

"And you look so casually formal, its hawt." she purred slightly. She leaned up and took a gentle teasing kiss, not ruining her lipstick.

"I wish I was already upstairs now." Sam said looking away. Steve blushed a bit but Dara was smirking in delight. Same came over to give her a hug. He hadn't gotten to see her earlier because she was getting ready and on call with the ladies gang. Hugging him tightly because she hadn't seen him in a month. "You look gorgeous."

"Thank you, Sam. Its really good to see you. I don't get to miss the others much since their just floors away."

"Makes me special, huh." said Sam, getting a chuckle from Steve. Dara nodded to him with a grin, taking his arm. Steve was left without her. Rolling his eyes he followed the laughing friends into the lift.

Upstairs they found the party having started already and filled with people.

"What happened Cap, Dara leave you for the Wings?" Tony teased.

"No, Tony."

"Yes" said both Sam and Dara before laughing at Steve's look.

"You're so fun to tease, mon amor." Dara told him before giving a wink and walking past Tony, patting his chest. "Spiffy as always, brother."

"I think you meant handsome as well." Tony told her.

"Sorry, Pepper is not happy that you planned a party when you were supposed to be at that boring gala." She turned to give him a pitying look. Steve and Sam were amused that Tony got himself into the dog house, again.

"Then you know my problem, gala's are boring." Tony tried to use as an excuse.

"Something meaningful will get you back into her good graces, mechanic man." she suggested what would save him.

"Thanks for the saving grace, draped dame." Tony quipped back, knowing it would make her smile that he noticed. And indeed it did, she left with a smile.

"How do you do that, but screw up when its Pepper." Sam wondered aloud.

"Because Pepper is much more complex."

"She knows you too well."

"Yes, she does. Drinks men, at the bar, and Asgardian ale if Thor will get here already." Tony directed them.

Dara found Maria and took her picture. She knows why already. They were approached by other people until they came across Rhodey.

The party went this way until Nat arrived and Dara joined her at the bar, letting her give the surprise cocktails. It might be Nat's plan to get Dara tipsy. Steve made it to his fiancé, wrapping her to the bar. She tilted her head back, and turned to wrap her arms around him. He can tell its been two drinks in, and warned Nat to leave him tonight with a drunk Dara, cut off at three. Dara hummed as she stroked his chest. Bruce chuckled and turned back to Nat so those two can whisper to each other nauseatingly.

At her favorite song playing, Dara hopped off the bar stool and went over to where Steve was playing pool with Sam. She ruined his shot as she pulled his arm to drag him away. Sam whooped, high fiving Clint, they just won. Those two were the only ones dancing at the designated dance floor. He doesn't feel self-conscious when he has such a beautiful woman in his arms.

"And I can't help, falling in love with you." she sang softly to him as he held her close. "Steve could you help it?"

"Not from the moment that I got to know you." he whispered to her.

"Perfect answer. Only fools fall in love at first sight. What if the person was a psycho." she said with some judgement for those couples. When Steve didn't reply, she watched as he blushed a bit. With a laugh she realized and said "Peggy. Oh this is too good. Love at first right hook at a jerk. I would be attracted as well."

He chuckled, couldn't believe how lucky he was to have met two amazing women and them to love him. "I have great taste in women."

"I will not disagree."

"And I am very lucky I have you."

"Me as well, mi amor." they shared a sweet kiss as the song had ended. "I also love Elvis."

"I can live with that." said Steve. Cant compete with the King. Her phone started ringing. Pouting a bit, she went off to the side. It was work related. Shit.

Going over to Steve, she smiled at Sam and Clint as they collected their winnings, before saying "Sorry for the lost bet."

"Worth it."

"Aw, I'm going to hurl from this sweetness." Clint teased with a grin. He misses his wife.

Giving him a look, she turned to Steve. "I'm going to quick deal with this call, then I will be back. Go kick their asses in another game, my knight."

"As you wish, milady." Steve smirked at the two. "Double or nothing?"

"You're on grandpa." Clint joked.

YAY! Par-tay time.

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