Bruce stopped the bike, before getting off looking around it a put-out manner. "So, this all seems horrible" the scientists stated glancing toward the carnage around them

"I've seen worse" black widow commented, eyeing the tanned man.

"sorry"

"no. we could use a little worse" the redhead sent him a small smile telling him it was okay.

"Stark? We got him" Steve comment, slight disbelief on his tone – he couldn't believe that tony had been correct in his assumption that banner would come.

"Banner?"

"Just like you said"

High in the sky tony changed direction heading toward the group with the flying alien whale on his tail, never noticing the pale blue eyes following his movements. "Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you"

Cecilia head turned away from the commotion away from the chitarui leviathan that was heading towards them she focused on the shadows, the darkness hidden from sight. It was perplexing, the sensation against her skin...

"i I don't see how that's a party" Natasha muttered from beside her as the leviathan barrels down the street like a runaway train.

The doctors' glances at the creature to them before taking a step forward. "Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry" Steve called out to the retreating man.

Banner glanced towards the mismatched group. "that's my secret, captain. I'm always angry"

Though Cecilia couldn't see the changes – the skin tinting green as clothes ripped away – she could feel the shadows shifting as his body grew in side, the beast known as hulk roared.

From her perspective it appeared that hulk simply bopped the incoming crashing alien on the...

Causing the creature flip over tail over head at the motion. Taking action tony in his iron suit fired rockets into the creatures now exposed soft spots. Less that a moment later the creature is blown apart. Bits of meat and metal of its hides and amour it blown in all directions - catching fire in the explosions.

The other moved in a flash taking cover. Clint hiding behind an overturned car. Steve using his shield to protect himself and Natasha from the chaos. While Thor stepped before the lady, using his body and hammer as a shield from bits of debris.

She gripped Thor's arm tightly, momentarily deafen by the closest of explosion. Luckily her veil was long and thick preventing the light from affecting her too much. Thought the aftershock didn't take well to her body.

Around them the Chitauri army whaled in horror or war cries she didn't know as their tank and transport was taken down by a punch and a rocket. Hulk roared back in respond as the rest closed ranks. Cecilia having been placed in the middle of the group. They were a dramatic sight.

"Send the rest"

"More are coming" she spoke to the group, her head tilted at the words from Loki entered her ears. Maybe she could have a little more fun with the lives of these creatures.

Not a moment later the vanguard was joined by the main army.

Natasha was the first to spot their arrival, "guys we got two more big ones and lots of little one"

"Call its captain" tony called, the solider would be best for tactics in battles like this.

"All right, listen up." Steve started plans rolling over in his head. "Until we can close that portal our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out; you turn it around or you turn it to ash."

"Can you give me a lift?"

"Right, better clench up, Legolas"

Her lips pulled up at the nickname, stark really had a way with giving nicknames. Though way hers was named after a British TV show depicting the lives of the aristocratic family in a post-Edwardian era she'd never know - she munched preferred the Gregorian or even prehistory era.

And she was more of a red rose lady.

The pair blasted up into the sky as the captain continued his briefing. Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down." the Norse god nodded, "you got the lightening. light the bastards up" swinging his hammer, he let the motion take him into the sky, electricity crackling around them.

"You and me," Steve pointed to himself and Natasha, "we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. And hulk"

The green beast growled turning its attention to the solider. "smash"

Cecilia guessed the beast grinned before jumping away of the group of three – she could already here the breaking and destruction as it when on a rampage.

"And Cecilia yo-"

"You Don't need to tell me anything captain. I know what to do," she turned away she was going to look into that strange ripple, - follow the strange feeling of something out of place.

"But I really think that you need to take cov-" she didn't hear to the rest of the man's words as she let the shadows overtake her walking form.

Nastha glanced towards the captain, "I know you mean well, but we still don't know her full skill set and you somehow fought head-to-head with Loki without throwing a signal punch. She got more tricks and secret's up her sleeve then we could even imagine I think"

The captain signed, "I know, I just..."

"We get it captain – think on it later we have company" the red head patted the captain's arm before turning her attention to the approaching chitauri. They had work to do.

She stepped out of the shadows of a greenhouse on top of ordinally looking building.

"I'm looking for doctor strange" a familiar voice reaches her ears. Interesting...

"Your about five years too early, steven strange is performing surgery about twenty blocks away I'm afraid. What do you want from him?" an old friend comment. Cecilia turned her head towards the ancient one, sensing eyes on her shadowed form.

"That, actually" banner... Or was It hulk commented pointing towards the ancient one. Said women glanced down towards the eye of Agamotto – the current location of the time stone.

Cecilia cocked her head in thought. Why did he want that? She could tell that this banner wasn't her banner, at least not at the moment.

"Ah! I'm afraid not"

"Sorry, but I wasn't asking" banner in his green hulk form tried to intimidate but it was safe to say hulk would have been better.

"You don't want to do this" the ancient one soft completely unaffected by the underlining threat.

"you're right, I don't." Banner made to grab the eye and stone as he spoke, "but I need that stone and I don't have time to beat it-"

Ceclia reframed from snorted as ancient one pushes bruce's astral form –bruce's soul out of hulks modified body. She took feel the horror coming off the souls in waves now that the man was closer to her realm.

"let's start over, shall we? And Cecilia dear stop lurking in the shadows"

The lady stepped forward her shadows moving the collapsed body of hulk against the wall while the ancient gave the beast a straw hat. "Hello old friend" Cecilia greeted before turning towards the astral form of banner. "Banner it's a surprise! That body is not one I recognise"

"I'm sorry do I know you?" Banner soft voice had confusion lining his voice.

"How interesting~" Ceclia purred looking forward before taking a step away, "you truly do not know me? Strange considering I was speaking to dear hulk about 10 minutes ago"

"What? I don't have time." banner spluttered before returning his attention to the ancient. "Please! Please can I have the stone"

"I'm sorry, I can't help you. Bruce if I gave up the time stone to help your reality, I'm dooming my own" the ancient turned sharpy towards the begging man.

"With all due respect, I'm not sure the science really supports that"

Ceclia wanted to sigh at the comment as she took a seat watching the duo. Science more often than not cannot support nor truly measure the art of magic.

Her old friend flicks her wrist, making a string of ray across the rooftop, a projection to simulate the flow of time. As she goes to explain, "The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time. Remove one stone and that flow splits." she confides the infinity stones, before flicking the time stone away. A strand of black flows away from the current stream, indicating a point of divergence, a point of change before continuing. "Now, this may benefit your reality, but my new one…not so much. In this new branched Reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world will be overrun. Millions will suffer. So, tell me, Doctor, can your science prevent all that?"

Banner looked thoughtful looking at the floating time stone, thinking over the con and pros before a thought entered his mind. "No, but we can erase it. Because once we are done with the stones, we can return each one to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically" the astral spirit takes the floating stone and places it back in its rightful spot. "In that reality it never left"

The black strange of the alternative reality without the time stone remerges back with the main flow of time. Cecilia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, one thing after all these years she still detested those who mess with time – those of Time Variance Authority always have a go at her when one of her kin 'messing up' (according to them) the time line. Idiots. Yet they can't do anything about it, not without the wrath of her kin and their allies being brought down Apon them.

The ancient one glances at banner not convinced in the slightest. "But you are leaving out the most important part. In order to return the stones, you have to survive"

"We will. I will. I promise"

The women shook her head, "I can't risk this reality on a promise. It is the duty of the sorcerer supreme to protect the time stone"

"Then! Why the hell did strange give it away?!" banner growled, acting more like his anger counterpart.

"What did you say?" she could hear the surprise and shook lining the women's voice, obviously this was something the man strange wouldn't have done.

"Strange, he gave it away. He gave it to Thanos" banner explained running a hand though his ghostly hair.

"Thanos?" Cecilia muttered, the name... she considered the name from somewhere. It was similar to the Greeks pantheon Thanatos, a titan and personation of death. It could be the same being... but she didn't know enough to come to a conclusion.

But she had a name it was a start.

"Willingly?"

"Yes!"

The ancient one, glanced at banner in a mixture of confusion and curiously, "why?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he made a mistake"

"Or I did" the women mumbled, flicking her wrist sending the strange soul back into its body – before the hounds caught a wift of it. Once banner had control of the hulk like hulk he jumped to his feet, watching in happy surprise as she opened the eye of agamotto revealing the time stone. The stone glowing a bright emerald as its power washed over cecilia. "Strange is meant to be the best of us"

"so, he must have done it for a reason." banner concluded.

"I fear you might be right" the ancient one said before handing the stone over to the man in the wrong time.

Bruce gave his thanks before leaving, "you don't have to worry too much old friend" Cecilia states standing, head turned in the ancient one's direction.

"If that fail, they have doomed this reality."

"You forget old friend, he does not know me" Cecilia turned away, "his reality, he had never meet me and my kin. Wyrd bið ful aræd. Fate, the timeline, is fickly, its ever changing and goes where never it shall no matter how hard some of us in the universe tried to control it. It can start with a snowflake and end in an avalanche."

She felt a ripple in her shadows and fate continued to write all the paths that could or will be.

As Cecilia descended into the shadows of her skirt, behind her the ancient one who had been staringsolemnlydown at the empty eye, gasped in surprised.

To be continued...

Ahhhh my brains getting tried...