Summary: Admittedly, there wasn't much that rattled Kagome Barton to her core. She's endured transcending time and fighting demons over some stupid magic marble. Her days time-hopping are over, but days of leisure are far from reach when she's recruited to the Avenger's Initiative following the appearance of Loki.

Pairing: Undecided

Disclaimer: I do not own either series. Each belongs to their rightful owners.

Chapter Four

"Well, there will be plenty of time for all of that later," Kagome said, folding her arms over her chest as she leaned her weight back on one foot. "Back to the iridium. Is that all he needs it for?" she asked.

Tony continued to walk forward, passing by Thor as he did so. He leaned into him, patting his shoulder as he passed by him. "No hard feelings, Point Break," Tony said. "You've got a real mean swing." After he passed Thor, he looked back at Kagome. "It also means that this new portal he makes can open as wide and stay open for however long Loki wants, or needs."

Kagome nodded, "no wonder he's after it." If he could open a portal and keep it open for an undisclosed amount of time, then who knows what he'd accomplish. "Assuming he wants to keep this portal open for his army to come through it, then it's not lookin' very good."

"Right," Tony nodded and turned to look around at the rest present. As he did, he paused and motioned to one figure in particular. "That man is currently playing Galaga!" he exclaimed, and a few people turned to the figure in question. "Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did," he said as he turned away. A second later, he lifted a hand and covered one of his eyes before looking around again. He paused and lowered his hand. "How on earth does Fury do this?"

Agent Hill folded her arms over her chest as she looked at Tony. "He turns," she said. Tony crinkled his nose and looked away.

"That sounds exhausting," Tony replied as he looked around at the monitors. Kagome watched him curiously as he did so, her sharp eyesight catching on as he reached below the desk he stood by and fixed something to the underside of it. She ignored it for the time being, not willing to cause the topic to stray. "Anyway," Tony continued as he stepped away from the desk, bringing both hands up in front of him. "Agent Barton will have no issues getting his hands on the rest of the raw materials needed," he said. "The only major component he still needs to get is a power source. Something with high energy density, something to kickstart the cube."

At the mention of a power source, Kagome felt a chill of unease race over her. Her thoughts returned to the Shikon Jewel, and that ill feeling doubled immediately. Even if its presence was hidden by her own energy… she still didn't like it.

"Since when were you an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked, folding her arms back over her chest as she eyed Tony.

"Since last night," Tony responded. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers…" he trailed off and looked around at the rest. "Come on, am I the only one here who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need a specific type of power source?" Steve asked, brushing off Tony's question.

"He needs to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin in order to just break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce said, pulling focus to him. Tony turned and nodded.

"Unless," Tony said, "Selvig is able to figure out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

Bruce shrugged. "Well, if he could do that, then he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

Tony clapped his hands together. "Finally, someone who speaks English," he said, and Steve arched a brow.

"That's what just happened?" he asked, and Kagome looked at him with a confused shrug of her own.

Tony ignored them as he walked over to Bruce, and they shook hands.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner," Tony said as he lowered his hand back down by his side. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled." He paused for a moment before continuing, "I'm especially a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"... come again?" Kagome said, confused by the statement alone. Well… that made the strange aura around Bruce make a tad bit more sense to her, especially when she thought back to Loki's prior words and the effect they had on Bruce's aura.

Bruce looked down at his feet at Tony's remark. "Oh, thanks."

At that moment, Director Fury finally came to join them, seeming to have left Loki alone in his holding cell. "Dr. Banner is only here in order to help us track the cube down, and I was hoping you might join him."

"Let's start with that stick he has," Steve said, referring to Loki's confiscated scepter. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

HYDRA?

Kagome was puzzled by the new name, but she neglected to voice her curiosities. After all, it was a fair chance that she could guess the type of organization it was.

"I don't know about that, but that scepter is powered by the cube," Fury responded.

"Loki used the scepter to take control of Dr. Selvig and… Agent Barton, right?" Kagome asked, and Fury looked at her. He nodded a second later. "Then it must have some sort of mind control properties or capabilities," she said. Kagome glanced down and folded her arms across her chest stiffly at the idea alone.

She'd been put under someone's control before, and it was far from a wonderful memory.

"If Loki was able to use it and turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys, then who knows what else it's capable of," Fury said, and Kagome nodded in agreement.

It bore such a strange aura, as well. There was no telling what it was truly capable of.

"Monkeys?" Thor's brows furrowed in blatant confusion at the term. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve exclaimed proudly. Kagome turned from Fury, letting her attention stray back to Steve. "I actually understood that one."

She ignored the exasperated eye-roll from Tony, and she gently patted his shoulder as she passed him. "Let's go," she said. "You up for a background story while you work?"

Tony glanced at her as she walked by him, following not even a second later. "Oh, naturally."

"Anyone else who's curious, follow me~!" she called over her shoulder as she trotted along.

"Barton we need to talk about your friend you brought," Fury called out to her, and Kagome paused for only a second. She turned, giving him the chance to say what he needed to say. "He wasn't approved to show up."

She arched a brow. "Oh, and are you gonna make him leave?" she challenged. "Well, if you do, be a dear and let me know how that one goes," she added on then with a snort of laughter.

Fury watched as she turned and continued on her way.

"Don't worry," Natasha said as she stood up. "Kagome said he'd leave when he's done here."

"And that'll be when?"

Natasha hummed before finally shrugging her shoulders. "Now that sounds like a question for you to ask her." She walked by him, her voice going a bit quieter. "Or him, if you feel up for agitating a demon any."

Fury shook his head. "... hell no."

"Sounds like a smart call, Director," she called over her shoulder as she left.

Kagome followed the pair into the lab with the intention of spilling a few of her secrets. It came as no surprise to her that she ended up joining the three men of her team, and no one else. She could tell by aura alone that they were the most curious and probably confused by her presence there. Or, more so Steve and Bruce were. Tony was more eager, if anything.

"Okay, to save time I'll just give a summary. This story can get pretty long if we aren't careful," Kagome said as she came to a halt beside a desk. Steve paused by the door to the lab, while Tony and Bruce went over to where the scepter was. "Boys, please hold all questions until the end, and then I'll answer them," she added on with a faint laugh.

"Duly noted," Tony responded.

Kagome eyed him for a second before shaking her head. "Alright, so might as well start from the beginning," she said. Those words were quiet, making it obvious she'd been speaking to herself at that moment. "It was a little over a year ago, when I was fifteen," she began.

She told them the heavily watered-down version of her story. Starting from the beginning of when she was pulled down the well, and to when the jewel was ripped from her body.

"This jewel, to be specific," she said as she slinked a finger underneath its chain. "It might look like nothing, but that's far from the case." She let the jewel drop back down against her chest as she leaned her weight back on the countertop she leaned against.

She went onto say how she'd accidentally shattered it, and talked vaguely about the journey to put it all back together. She tried to be careful with her words, not wanting to overshare information that might not go over well with people previously unaware of the possibility.

"The Shikon no Tama is a… dangerous relic of the past, to easily sum it up. To quote Fury's opinion of it, this magic marble is one bad fight away from causing an unnatural disaster." She glanced down at her feet. "He's right," she said then, "the Shikon no Tama can grant any wish, but no matter what, awful consequences will always follow. Even if it's a wish full of good intentions, the jewel will find a way to twist it."

When she fell silent, Tony picked his head up and looked at her. "Are you done?" he asked, and when she nodded, he mimicked her. "Good, because I've got a few questions."

Kagome arched a brow and smirked as she looked at him. "Yeah?"

"Mmhmm," Tony nodded again and lifted his hand up, where she was able to see a smudge of black ink. "I even wrote them down so I didn't interrupt you."

Kagome tilted her head and hummed. "Really? Appreciate it."

Tony tapped his pen on the surface of the desk in front of him before setting it down. "Alright, question one," he said, and Kagome nodded to urge him on. "You said that jewel got ripped from your body, right?"

"Yeah," Kagome said. "I even have the scar and everything from Mistress Centipede still." She paused and looked down. "I'd show you it, but I'm not dressed the right way to do that," she said after a second. "The mark's on my hip." She didn't need to see it to know where exactly it was. She let her fingers trace over the spot absentmindedly, mapping out the starburst-shaped mark with ease.

"How did it get there?" It was Bruce who asked this, and Kagome looked at him.

"Simple explanation?" she hummed softly. "I was born with it there." She had briefly mentioned Kikyo, but she hadn't gone into detail. "As Kikyo died, she gave the order for the jewel burned with her body to make sure it'd never fall into evil hands again. Her soul carried it, and it was reincarnated into me." She paused and looked down. "It was dormant there until I turned fifteen."

"Sounds like you're not so fond of it," Steve said from where he stood, and Kagome turned to face him. She offered him a strained smile.

"Can't really say I am, after all," she responded. "But I'm the guardian of it. Some tasks you just can't run from," she said, her voice going softer a second later. "No matter how much you want to," Kagome sighed and shook her head.

"Guardian?" Steve caught that word and tilted his head to the side. Kagome nodded softly in response.

"Yeah…" she said, her tone heavy. "The Shikon no Tama draws people to it, both good and bad. My aura is strong enough to suppress its own. Usually. My aura distracts from it. It's a deterrent to demons who catch wind of it."

"Like a beacon," Tony said, and she nodded.

"It casts a warning to stay away," she said. "The stronger it is, the more cautious they are to approach." Kagome sighed a second later and glanced down at her feet. "The jewel is like having a massive target on you at all times, but as long as I'm strong enough, I can keep both it and myself safe. Although…" she paused and shook her head. "It doesn't always like that."

She didn't know why it was starting to rebel, but it was. It was already trying to broadcast its aura over her own. At least for now she was still stronger than it. She was able to keep it smothered down still.

"If it doesn't like it, then what's to stop it from fighting it? From fighting you?" Tony asked, and Kagome looked at him. She paused for a few seconds, feeling as eyes went to her in waiting for her answer. After a few seconds, she shrugged.

"Who knows?" she finally said. "I'll have to face that when that day comes, I suppose."

She knew that the jewel still desired her to take Midoriko's place in the eternal battle. A part of her feared that it was once again aiming to fulfill its own desires. For that reason, she knew she couldn't give up the fight against it.

"I've still got one more question," Tony said, and Kagome picked her head up, startled from her inner musings at his abrupt statement.

"Oh! Sure, go ahead, Tony," she said, urging him to speak.

"The arrow thing," he said, and Kagome nodded.

"Right, right," she said softly to herself. "To tell you the truth, that's only one of many many things I can do."

"Oh, really?" Tony arched a brow, intrigued. Kagome nodded.

"Yup," she said. "It's due to my abilities," she clarified. "They're formed out of my energy. I can form other weapons, barriers, purify things, and a bit more," Kagome summarized her abilities for him, considering he hadn't been told the same way Steve and Bruce had been.

"Wow, impressive," Tony said with a low hum. "Didn't expect Agent Barton to have a magical girl for an apprentice."

"I'll show you a magical girl," Kagome growled in a warning before rolling her eyes at the comment and turned on her heel. "Anyway! I've kept Sesshoumaru waiting on me long enough," she said as she went to leave. "If you need me, you can send someone after me."

She had also shared a few of Sesshoumaru's own secrets- more so about him being a demon. However after all this talk of aliens and gods, demons didn't seem so farfetched anymore apparently.

Oh well. It made her task of explaining a whole lot easier, so she wasn't about to complain any.

Kagome came to a halt in front of the silver-haired demon who stood waiting for her to show. With him was Kirara, who laid peacefully on his shoulder as she catnapped.

"Sorry to make you wait so long," she said as she rejoined him, offering a sheepish smile as she did. "I had a bit to do."

"No worries," came his calm response. "I didn't miss anything important, I see."

"You heard, didn't you?"

"Oh, every word," Sesshoumaru said as he pointed gold eyes at her. "I see quiet isn't their forte."

Kagome stifled a giggle and rolled her eyes. "Can't blame them for trying to keep a bit of secrecy up, but you don't make it easy," she said. "Especially when you pop up out of nowhere."

"Yes, well, I won't make them worry for so long," he said then, and Kagome tilted her head to the side. "I'll take my leave now, now that I can tell you're well off here."

Kagome arched a brow. "I'm starting to wonder… did mom ask you to come check on me?"

His following silence was all the answer she needed, and she sighed, a soft smile appearing on her face. She reached out in order to take Kirara from his shoulder, cradling her to her chest.

"Well, let them know that I'll keep Kirara with me," she said, speaking about her mother and her demon companions. "That way… maybe they'll be more at ease about me being here."

She didn't like them worrying about her. She wasn't even offended by their concerns like she would normally be. If anything, she felt more guilty than anything for making them worry.

"... and good luck putting up with Inuyasha," she added on with a quiet breath. At once, Sesshoumaru's expression soured.

"... Right. Wonderful."

She bit back a giggle as she waved to him. A second later, she turned on her heel and left. "Bye Sesshou~!"

Kagome went on her own after saying her farewell to Sesshoumaru, using her senses to track down the first familiar aura she felt.

"Steve!" Kagome rushed up to his side upon spotting him. He came to a halt at hearing her, waiting for her to catch up.

"Hey, I thought you were off with your friend."

Kagome nodded in response to that statement. "I was," she said before shrugging her shoulders. "He had to leave, though," she said, much to his surprise.

"This thing's still in the air," Steve said, not that it phased her any. She started walking, and this time he followed her.

"Yeah and?" Kagome said. "Remember? I said he's a demon. Consider us lucky he didn't decide to crash in for a visit while we were in the air." She didn't even want to think about how people would react to his true form- even if she'd given a warning.

"You're used to him, huh?"

Kagome stifled a laugh at the dry remark, and she nodded. "Of course," she said. "He might be cold, aloof, and remarkably intimidating without even trying, but Sesshoumaru is a trusted ally. He's more than that, he's a friend- even if he denies it."

They paused outside the lab doors, Tony and Bruce still working on their task inside. Just as they were about to walk in, they watched as Tony jabbed Bruce in the side. The latter flinched and stepped away, while Tony peered closely at his face, watching him with keen eyes.

"Really? Nothing?" he asked.

"Hey!" Steve walked in, Kagome following him in not long after. "Are you insane?"

Tony only briefly looked at him before turning back to Bruce. "Jury's still out," he said as he looked at Bruce. "You've really got a lid on it, huh? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, annoyance at the other man showing through easily. Tony pointed the object he held in Steve's direction.

"Funny things are."

Kagome could feel tensions rise, and it made her feel even more uneasy than she already did.

"Well, threatening the safety of everyone on this entire ship isn't funny," Steve said. A second later he turned to Bruce. "No offense."

"It's fine," Bruce assured, turning his focus back to what he'd been doing before. "I wouldn't have agreed to come if I couldn't handle pointy things," he said.

Tony patted his arm. "You're tiptoeing around, big guy," he said as he reached to pick up something from the desktop. He reached in it and pulled out a few blueberries and popped them into his mouth. "You need to strut."

"You need to focus on the problem, Stark," Steve said, and Tony looked back at him.

"You think I'm not?" Tony rounded the table and came to stand on the same side as Steve. "Think about it. Why did Fury call us in, why now? Why not before?" He looked at Kagome next. "Why didn't any of us know anything about her, and vice versa? What isn't he telling us?" Tony shoved a few more blueberries into his mouth and shrugged. "Can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve questioned.

Tony held his hands out and nodded, as if to say 'duh'. "He's a spy." He lowered his hands and stepped over towards Steve. "Captain, he's the spy. His secrets even have their own secrets." He nodded towards Bruce. "It's not just me, either. It's bugging him, too," he said, talking about Bruce.

Kagome couldn't ignore the slight flare in his aura, even as he shook his head and kept his focus down. "I… uh, I just wanna finish my work here and-"

"Doctor?" Steve cut him off in the middle of his deflection, and Bruce sighed. It was quiet for a few seconds before he removed his glasses from his face, folding them and setting them down on the surface in front of him.

"A warm light for all mankind," he began, repeating the same words Loki said to Fury earlier. "That jab Loki made at Fury about the cube."

"I heard it," Steve said, urging him to continue.

"What about it?" Kagome asked, resting a hand on her hip as she spared him a curious look.

Bruce nodded towards Tony. "Well, I think that was meant for you," he said. Tony turned, offering Bruce his pouch of blueberries, and he reached for a few. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the Stark Tower, it was still all over the news."

"Stark Tower?" Steve repeated. That big, ugly-" As if on cue, Tony turned towards Steve, a mild glare on his face. Steve paused before continuing, "-building in New York?"

Bruce ignored them both and nodded. "It's powered by Stark Reactors, which is a self-sustaining energy source. That building can run itself on its own for at least a year, right?"

Tony nodded, "and that's just the prototype. I'm kinda the only name in clean energy as of now. That's what he's getting at."

"So, you're confused as to why they didn't bring Tony in to help on the Tesseract project?" Kagome asked, and Bruce motioned to her, confirming her inquiry.

"Right," Bruce nodded. "I mean, what are they even doing in the energy business in the first place? That's not their primary focus."

Tony shrugged and walked back around the desk he was at, pulling something out from his back pocket as he did so. "Good point," he said, holding up the rectangular device. "I should look into that once my decryption program gets finished with breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files."

That took Steve by surprise. "Did you just say-"

Tony didn't wait for him to finish his sentence before he nodded. "Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge," he said as he came over to where Steve and Kagome stood "In a few hours, we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has hidden away." He offered them the blueberries, "want some?"

Kagome took the pouch and tipped a few into her palm.

"It's no wonder why they didn't want you around," Steve said.

Tony shook his head and looked back at Steve. "An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I think Loki is trying to wind us up," Steve said. "He's a man who intends to start a war, and if we lose focus due to things like this, he's going to succeed in doing just that. We have our orders, and we should follow them."

Kagome looked between them, silently eating the blueberries in her hand. Her eyes shifted back and forth as they spoke.

Tony shrugged his words off. "Yeah, well, following isn't exactly my style."

Steve smirked at that comment. "And you're all about style, aren't you?

Tony turned back to him, irritation reflected in his eyes. "Really, of all the people in this room, who is A; wearing a spangly suit and B; not of any use?"

"Wow, okay, I've seen enough." Kagome rolled her eyes and walked between the two, purposefully shoving each of them back with an elbow to the stomach. "How in the world did this turn into digs on each other? If you can't play nice, I'm gonna have to separate you two, boys," she said, her words dry and humorless. More importantly, there was a threat lining her tone, one that was very easy to pick up on, even if they didn't know what the threat was. Either way, it didn't sound good.

She paused beside Bruce, finishing off the rest of the blueberries in her palm before looking at them both.

Bruce picked his glasses up and put them back on, looking at Steve as he did so. "Come on, Steve," he said. "Doesn't this seem a little strange to you, too?"

Steve looked from Tony and at the pair on the other side of the table before turning on his heel. "Just… focus on finding the cube," he said before walking off and leaving the three in the lab.

As he left, Tony turned his focus back to the others in the lab with him. "Seriously? That's the guy my dad would never shut up about?" He turned and went to check on one of the tests running. "Can't help but wonder if they should've kept him on ice…"

"You can say that all you like, but he's got a point," Kagome said, folding her arms over her chest. "About Loki, I mean."

Bruce nodded in agreement. "He does have a jump on us."

"What Loki's got is an ACME dynamite kit," Tony said, turning to face the two. "It's only a matter of time before it blows up right in his face, and I'm gonna be there to enjoy it when it does."

"Now, that does sound like a satisfying show," Kagome said, leaning her weight on the desk behind her. Bruce eyed them both before looking back at his own task at hand.

"I'll be sure to read all about it."

"Yup," Tony nodded, "or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us."

Bruce shook his head and looked away from his work. "I don't get a suit of armor," he said, and Kagome looked at him upon feeling the shift in his aura. "I'm exposed, just like a nerve. Always. It's a nightmare."

"You know," Tony looked away from his own task and at Bruce. "I've got a cluster of shrapnel, always trying to crawl its way into my heart. Every second of the day." He tapped on the mini-arc reactor within his chest, and Kagome let her focus drift to it. "This thing right here stops that from happening. This little circle of light. It's a part of me now. It's not just armor, it's a terrible privilege."

"You can control that," Bruce said, brushing off the words.

"Only because I learned how to," Tony responded.

"It's different," Bruce said, turning his focus back to the computer screen in front of him, trying to read what's on it. Tony didn't give him the chance before he reached out and swiped the data to the side with a finger.

"I've read all about your accident," Tony said, looking Bruce in the eye as he did so. "That much gamma exposure? It should have killed you, but it didn't."

"You're trying to tell me that the Hulk- the other guy, actually saved my life?" He nodded and linked his hands together in front of him. "That's nice- it's a nice sentiment. But saved it for what?"

Tony looked down before looking back up with a shrug. "Guess we'll find out."

"You might not like that," Bruce warned.

"Yeah? You just might," Tony responded. A second later, he glanced over his shoulder, spotting a mildly confused Kagome watching them both. "Oh, right, you don't know much about any of this, do you?"

Kagome shrugged and shook her head. "No," she replied honestly as she pushed herself off the desk. "But I also don't care. I can tell the type of men you both are by your auras," she admitted. "There's no reason, because good or bad, I don't care about conditions or issues. I care about the person as they are, good and bad combined." Kagome paused before offering them both a smile. "And I happen to quite like the both of you from what I can tell about you."

"You don't have a judgemental bone in your body, do you?" Bruce asked with a quiet laugh. Kagome rolled her eyes in response.

"Oh, sure I do," she replied. "But I save that for enemies and the like. Not for people I consider my allies and friends."

C.R: Kagome casually eating blueberries as Steve and Tony start to fight? Honestly a mood.

I think I'll try to stick to 3k-4k words per chapter (with some occasionally longer chapters thrown in.) I might bump it up to 4.5k-5k sooner or later. I did say this one was gonna be a bit longer, too.

So for now, I'm going to let the topic of the pairing drop. You guys can still make suggestions and all that, and I'll try to keep it brief when I talk about it. I'll do my best to keep all options and opinions in mind as I write. (It's still a long while before I even think about getting to a potential pairing, after all.)

I'll say that there will be a few people who will affect the potential pairing regardless of how it ends up. Those people being the ones who are protective the most of Kagome. (Like Inuyasha, for example. Even if he's not in the running, he'll still be her fiercely overprotective best friend.) There are a few people on this list. And honestly, having her and Tony have more of a familial-like relationship speaks to me a lot more, opposed to a romantic one.

I can also see Kagome having a huge influence on the rest, and her being what pulls them together as a sort of found family. They'd also be very protective of her due to her being the youngest one. (even though that might infuriate her because she knows she strong enough to protect herself.) Oh boy, we haven't even got to the point of Clint realizing his daughter was pulled in, (and if you think Daddy Hawk won't play into and keep Kagome's lie to the others alive, then woo boy you're wrong.) Speaking of, it should be within the next chapter that Loki's control over Clint is broken. I'm personally really excited for that point!

Anyway, that's it for now. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Hopefully I caught all the errors before posting, but if not sorry. (My spellcheck is acting weird.)

Please remember to Review&Favorite&Follow, thank you!