North Star

by Lucky Strike's alter ego

Emma Rogers has settled into a peaceful life after the events of Hydra. Her and Peter's relationship is stronger than ever, she has her father back in her life, and she still keeps in contact with Steve. She's finally found some peace among the horrors of her past. That is, until she bumps into Thor and Loki one afternoon. Nothing will ever be the same again. *SEQUEL to STNS*

13. Chapter Eleven: Part II

Author's Note: Just in time for Christmas, guys! I think I finally might be over my writer's block. I attribute it to writing so much without Emma in any of it. But it's finally over and Emma will be back in the next chapter. I also saw Spider-Man: No Way Home last weekend and that gave me a ton of inspiration. By the way, I'll be discussing a bit of it in another author's note at the end of this chapter but I'll leave a spoiler warning just to be safe.

I was thinking of doing something fun with you guys and having a gift give away through my Tumblr account. Maybe making a few boxes with some Marvel merch, funko pops, makeup, and skincare stuff(I have so much really nice makeup and skincare products that have never been used through my boxycharm subscription). Maybe I'll ask some really tough trivia questions about STNS and whoever answers it correctly first will get whichever box. I came up with the idea a short while ago and I'm still working everything out but I might have it figured out more next chapter. Just let me know what you guys think about it.

Anyways, I really hope everyone enjoys the chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. It really grew after the new movie last weekend so thanks so much.

So one of the guest reviewers posed a question as to how long Emma has been gone from Earth. For everyone on Earth it will probably only be a couple days but time on Sakaar works differently so at this point she's probably been gone for close to a month. I just based it off of how it was for Thor and Loki in the Bifrost in Ragnarok which was only minutes for Thor but when Loki got kicked out it was weeks for him.

Thanks again!

---

Peter walked nervously to Emma's house with a bag of her favorite chocolate covered gummy lips in hand. It was her favorite period snack. Peter thought it would help and he also really wanted to apologize to her about that fight they had. Not only that but he wanted to give her a heads up on what Tony planned on doing. Hopefully, Emma wouldn't kill him by the end of the conversation.

It was partially what the gummy snacks were for.

A peace offering.

Peter rang the doorbell and was met with the sight of Darcy. When the brunette realized it was him, she smiled at him. He hadn't been at the house in a while, and she honestly missed him quite a bit despite seeing him at the compound all the time.

"Hey, Peter," Darcy greeted, leaning against the doorway. Peter smiled back.

"Hi, Darcy," He told her. Peter was a bit afraid Darcy would hate him for what was going on between himself and Emma, so he felt more nervous than usual. It took him a moment before he found the right words to say. "Um…I was just wondering if Emma was feeling up for visitors. MJ told me about her, and I thought I'd bring her favorite snacks by. I know they always make her feel better."

"That's nice of you, Peter, but I'm not sure what you're talking about," Darcy said in confusion. Was he referring to the breakup? Emma was doing okay despite everything as far as she was aware. She definitely wasn't one display her emotions like that, but she wasn't exactly happy either. "Emma's not here. She's been at MJ's the past couple nights."

"But MJ told me she was at home sick because of her…well, because of her period," Peter told her, and Darcy just stared at him. "That's why she's been absent from school the past couple days."

"Excuse me?" Darcy questioned in shock and Peter was starting to feel his own confusion wash over him.

"She's been absent today and yesterday," Peter told her before starting to realize that something wasn't right here. "So, is she not on her period then?"

"I wasn't aware of this. Has she been skipping school? Why hasn't the school been calling me?" Darcy said, knowing that she'd more than likely been fooled by a couple of teenagers. God, she was a naïve idiot. Peter shook his head.

"I don't think she's been skipping. Our teacher said you called in sick for her," Peter explained, and Darcy scoffed.

"I did no such thing," Darcy denied before recollecting something else Peter mentioned. "Wait…did you say that MJ told you this? That she was at home because of her period?"

"Yeah, I asked her today and she told me that. That's why I thought I'd come over," Peter informed her, and Darcy shook her head in disbelief.

"Emma apparently broke her phone the other day and has been texting me through MJ's phone," Darcy told him which caused Peter to furrow his eyebrows in confusion. "She keeps extending the sleepover too. It was just supposed to be Monday night but then it turned into Tuesday night. Emma texted me through MJ's phone that it'll be tonight too."

"MJ never said anything about Emma being at her house," Peter told her, and Darcy was becoming a little worried. It wasn't like Emma to play hooky from school, and it definitely wasn't like her to not come home either. This was weird.

"Well, she's definitely not here either. I haven't seen her since before she left for school on Monday," Darcy told him, and Peter was starting to not get a good feeling about this. Something about this didn't feel right to him.

"MJ has to know what's going on," Peter told her, and Darcy nodded in agreement. "Why would she lie about this stuff? It doesn't make any sense."

"Probably covering for Emma, I imagine," Darcy said, and Peter supposed that made sense. Although it was weird since Peter used to be the one to cover for Emma. He never thought he'd be one of the ones Emma needed help stalling. "But why? What the hell is that girl hiding?"

"I might have an idea," Peter admitted, and Darcy gave him a questioning look. "Um…she's gotten into some trouble at the compound."

"Trouble? What kind of trouble? Bucky never said anything to me," Darcy said in confusion and Peter shook his head.

"Mr. Barnes doesn't know. Only Mr. Stark and I know about it," Peter informed before realizing he might've said too much. Mr. Stark made it clear to him not to say anything to anyone. "Look, I can't talk about it. Mr. Stark made me promise but Emma's in a lot of trouble. This might have something to do with it."

"What's so bad that you can't tell me?" Darcy questioned but Peter really couldn't say.

"Let's just find Emma first and get some answers about what's going on," Peter told her, and Darcy realized he was right. They needed figure out what was going on with Emma first and then she could ask questions later.

"Right…Emma first," Darcy told him, knowing that Emma was going to be in a shit ton of trouble. "Let me grab my purse and we'll go over to MJ's. I don't think I know where it is."

"I do. I'll take you there," Peter promised her, and Darcy went back inside to grab her purse real quick. He waited outside and couldn't stop the flood of thoughts circling his mind as he started feeling like he knew his girlfriend less and less.

Well, his ex-girlfriend.

This was weird.

First, it was all the stuff with that reporter and the Avengers but now she'd apparently gone MIA with MJ covering for her. She was up to something, but Peter had no idea what. For the first time, Peter wasn't in the loop, and he didn't like it one bit.

Peter didn't know whether to be angry at Emma or just plain worried.

One thing Peter did know is that he wanted answers from her, and he was going to get them.

She better have a good explanation too because this was getting tiresome.

---

"Hey, Marcus, sorry I'm all little late but-" MJ stopped in her footsteps when she noticed that her brother had company. She had just left the weird creepy place that Strange called the Sanctum Sanctorum. They both seemed to conclude that Emma was on Asgard now with Thor and Loki. The only issue was that Strange didn't seem to have a way to bring her back. He seemed to think the only way for Emma to return to Earth was if Thor brought her back.

It didn't really help their situation since MJ had no clue why Thor would take Emma to Asgard. It didn't make any sense. Unless, of course, it wasn't Thor, after all. Maybe it was Loki. MJ saw the way the two of them interacted. Maybe Loki offered to take Emma to Asgard for some kind of fun adventure and Emma said yes to get away from all her problems on Earth. Either that or Loki straight up kidnapped her.

It still didn't explain Thor's destroyed hammer.

Her mind was nearly exploding with theories as she tried to find the one that made the most sense. It was probably why she flinched when she saw a suspicious looking Peter and Darcy in her living room sitting on a couch opposite her very angry looking brother.

This was the last thing she needed right now.

Especially since she had no idea how to get Emma back home through the Bifrost. Something MJ could only learn about through mythology and there was no telling which parts of Norse mythology were and weren't true. Basically, this meant Emma either left for a fun vacation on Asgard or she was kidnapped which also meant MJ was left holding the bag. A bag that was currently full of all the shit MJ was in now that Darcy and Peter were at her house.

"It's funny that you mentioned you were going to Emma's because according to Darcy, Emma's not at her house," Marcus said sarcastically, crossing his arms as he glared at her. "According to Darcy, Emma's apparently been here for the past two days which is funny because I don't remember seeing her here…at all."

"MJ, where's Emma at?" Darcy asked demandingly and MJ froze. Mostly because she didn't have an excuse or lie this time. Not after learning where Emma really was all this time. There was no more stalling for her best friend if her best friend wasn't even on the same planet right now. "Tell me the truth. Was it Emma that I was actually texting through your phone or was it you?"

"Um…it's actually kind of complicated," MJ said, and Peter narrowed his eyes at his friend. He could tell she was hiding something. It was obvious.

"What's complicated about it? It was either you or it wasn't," Darcy said, sounding angry for the first time since MJ met her. Marcus scoffed.

"MJ, just tell Darcy the truth. Where's Emma?" He instructed her but MJ knew that she couldn't tell. Not when she knew what Emma had been hiding all along. Stephen Strange was going to open up a whole other flood of questions and land Emma in even more trouble.

"I don't know," MJ said weakly, her ability to lie growing worse and worse with every lie she told. MJ couldn't keep track of all the lies she told in the past couple days.

"You don't know?" Darcy asked in disbelief, standing up from the couch. She was in disbelief over how MJ was continuing to lie to their faces even after being called out on it. There was nowhere left to run to. Nowhere but the truth but she was still refusing to tell them the truth.

What was it?

How much trouble could Emma possibly be in that MJ had to protect her like this?

To go to such great lengths?

"You don't know even though apparently Emma's been staying here for the past couple days which is weird because there's no sign of her here. Your brother told me he hasn't seen her," Darcy said as she walked across the room to stare the teenager down. "She's not at our house either. I know she's not at the compound and she's not with Peter. Apparently, she's been calling in sick for the past two days but I'm guessing that was also you pretending to be me. So, where the hell is she?"

"I said I don't know," MJ said again as she tried to do what Emma would do.

Deny, Deny, Deny.

Only Emma was way calmer and more collected about it.

"Look, I'm about two seconds away from calling Tony right now and you can start lying to his face instead," Darcy threatened her while Marcus just watched. He was slightly confused by the mention of a Tony but he figured it must've been a relative. "If Emma's in danger or if she's been taken then we've already lost two days time. Do you know how bad this is if she's been taken? There's a lot of people after her out there. I know she's your best friend but don't forget who she really is."

"MJ, just tell us where she is," Peter asked tiredly. He didn't know why MJ was keeping all the lying up. Especially if Emma was in danger. Didn't she realize how bad this was?

"I don't know where she is," MJ denied, and Marcus looked at his sister in disbelief.

"Michelle Renee Jones-Watson," Marcus said incredulously. "Why won't you just tell them where she's at? Did you not hear Darcy? Emma could be hurt."

"I'm sorry. I can't help you because I don't know where she's at," MJ said as she continued to deny that she knew where Emma was. Peter sighed in frustration before crossing the room over to her.

"Why won't you just give it up, MJ? We already know she's been having you cover for her for some reason," Peter pleaded with her, but MJ maintained her composure as she tried to remember why this was literally the most important thing she's ever done. "Did she run away? Is that what happened? Did she go back to her grandfather?"

"I said it before, and I'll say it again…I don't know where she went. She just asked me to cover for her for a few days, but she didn't tell me where she went," MJ said as she tried to make them believe her. Her lie was close to the truth, but it wasn't close enough to the truth that everyone seemed to believe it. "There's a lot she doesn't tell me. I don't know why you two expect me to have all the answers like I'm some sort of Emma expert."

Darcy shook her head in disappointment. She knew MJ was never going to give her up. She was going to continue to lie for Emma. It seemed like wherever Emma went, she clearly didn't want anyone to know. It was all so frustrating to Darcy and especially when she didn't have a clue as to what happened to her.

"Okay, I'm not going to stand here, and have you keep lying to me," Darcy told the girl as she pulled out her phone. "I'm calling Tony and I'm calling him now. You can lie all you want to him instead."

"That's fine but I still won't know where Emma is," MJ said, calling her out on her bluff. Darcy scoffed and called Tony while MJ suddenly felt nervous. Okay…so maybe she really was going to call Tony Stark and the Avengers in on this.

"One last chance MJ. It's ringing," Darcy warned her, and MJ swallowed hard before she gave the brunette a defiant look.

"I told you I don't know where she is. I don't know what else you want me to say," MJ said, and Darcy just rolled her eyes. Peter glared at her. He was mad at his friend for lying to them about Emma when Emma could be in serious trouble.

"Someone who was Emma's friend would tell us where she was no matter how much trouble they thought she'd be in," Peter told MJ heatedly as MJ struggled to maintain her composure. "She could be in danger right now and you're hiding something from us. What kind of a friend does that?"

"Well, what kind of man tells someone they love that no one else would be able to ever put up with them?" MJ threw back at him and Peter flinched as her words hit him like a punch. "You're so controlling and nosy. I'm surprised you don't track Emma's menstrual cycles."

MJ then noticed how his face flushed red and she scoffed in disgust.

"Of course, you keep track of her periods, you little controlling psychopath," MJ told him, disgusted by the way he always seemed to keep Emma on a tight leash. Emma never seemed to mind it, but MJ hadn't been a fan of that aspect of their relationship. It was almost like they had zero independence from each other. "You know what? Maybe I do know where Emma is."

"What?" Peter questioned in surprise and MJ nodded.

"Yeah, now that I recall I think she was staying over at some guy's place and wanted me to cover for her for a couple days," MJ said nonchalantly, knowing it would piss Peter off. Peter froze at her words. "Some really hot college guy with some serious pubic inches going on down there. Emma seemed really into him."

"You're lying," Peter told her, but she could see the worried look in his eyes. MJ shrugged.

"Am I?" MJ told him and Peter shook his head in disbelief.

"I don't like you," Peter told her and MJ rolled her eyes.

"Ooh…what a sick burn," MJ said sarcastically before crossing her arms and maintaining her stance on the whole matter. Emma said to deny everything and that's what she was going to do. They couldn't question her forever. They'd eventually give up. MJ just had to not break.

What would Emma do?

Definitely not break.

"Yes, Tony, it's me," Darcy said into her phone when he finally picked up. MJ looked up sharply as her gaze met Darcy's across the room. The brunette glared at her, but MJ just held her gaze defiantly. "Yeah, we have a big problem. Emma's missing."

There was a brief pause before Darcy spoke again.

"No, I mean, she's gone, and no one knows where she is," Darcy told him. "Apparently she's been missing for a couple days. Her friend Michelle Jones was covering for her by pretending like they were having a sleepover at her place for a few days."

"Of course I asked her where she was. She won't give it up," Darcy told him in a frustrated tone. "She says she doesn't know. I don't believe her."

The room was silent aside from Darcy's phone conversation with Tony. Marcus stared at his sister in disappointment while Peter glared angrily at her. MJ feigned a look of nonchalance.

She had to remember to keep her cool.

Just act like Emma would.

Deny everything and act like you don't give a fuck.

"You want her to come up there so you can ask her yourself? This isn't really my field of expertise," Darcy told him before breathing a sigh of relief at what he said next. "Great. You'll send someone soon then?"

MJ felt her heart skip a beat because she knew she was in deep shit now. They were going to take her to the compound for questioning. She tried not to show any reaction to the news.

"Okay, I'll see you soon. Thanks, Tony," Darcy said softly before pausing for a moment. "I know. I'm worried too but we'll find her. It'll be okay."

Darcy finally hung up the phone only to met with deafening silence across the room. No one spoke at first. Marcus just seemed confused while Peter seemed angry. MJ was still defiant despite her wavering confidence. Darcy fixed the teenager with a serious look.

"I called Tony and he's sending someone to come and take us to the compound so you can be questioned further," Darcy told her, and MJ felt the urge to gulp but fought it as she stood up straight, facing the brunette and pretending like she wasn't scared. "I hope you know how serious this is."

"She's just a runaway teenager. What's the big deal?" MJ retorted, shrugging. "I mean, she probably went to some music festival. You know how she loves those weird indie musicians."

"You're fully aware why this is a big deal," Darcy told her, trying to make MJ understand how bad this was. She then spoke in a hushed tone so Marcus wouldn't overhear. "Emma might not be an Avenger but she's part of the Avengers and she's missing. I get that you think you're protecting her but you're not. You're only endangering her by lying like this."

"I don't know what you're talking about," MJ told her before shaking her head. "I know my rights and I know you can't take me to the compound for questioning because I'm seventeen."

"I know…which is why Marcus is coming. He counts as a guardian," Darcy told her and the smug look fell off her face. She didn't think Darcy was serious about any of this until that moment. "Emma's missing and if that means that your brother has to sign a couple NDAs to find her then Tony's completely fine with that."

"This is all for nothing," MJ told her once again, refusing to back down. "I don't know where she is."

"Keep it up, MJ," Darcy told the girl. She was beyond frustrated with MJ's lack of cooperation at this point. "It's a long drive to the compound."

Darcy turned back around and walked over to Marcus to explain what was going to happen. Meanwhile Peter kept an eye on her. MJ was silently cursing Emma for making this seem like it wasn't a big deal when it was actually the hugest deal.

Remind MJ to not befriend anymore former assassins.

It was a world of trouble.

---

MJ picked at the chipped nail polish on her fingernails as she waited in one of the conference rooms of the Avengers' compound. It was a room she had never seen the inside of. She'd only ever been in the recreational area, the foyer, and Emma's bedroom. MJ was never permitted anywhere else…until now.

It was a long drive from the apartment in the city all the way to the compound upstate. The car ride was mostly spent in silence as Happy drove all four of them to the compound. Mostly from MJ's refusal to disclose any information to Darcy and Peter coupled with Marcus still processing the large shitload of info Darcy dropped on him in order to bring him up to date with what was currently going on.

Marcus Jones was going through all kinds of shocked to learn that his little sister's only and best friend was the Viper Assassin. The same girl who spent countless nights at the house and ate their food. A trained killer sleeping under the same roof as him.

It was alarming to say the least.

"You're going to tell them everything, right?" Marcus asked nervously. "You're going to tell them where Emma is."

"I don't know where Emma is," MJ said, continuing to deny that she knew anything. Marcus shook his head in disbelief.

"I can't believe you," He told her, wondering how he was in this situation right now. "Only you would be besties with a fucking assassin."

"A former assassin, actually," MJ retorted and Marcus scoffed.

"This isn't the time for your sass, okay?!" Marcus told her, swallowing hard as he tried not to panic. "She's like the most important person in the country. She's related to fucking Captain America and Iron Man. Her being missing is like a threat to national security and you're not cooperating. That's straight up treason."

"Very eloquently spoken, Marcus," MJ told him sarcastically but if she was being honest, she was really nervous herself. She honestly didn't think she'd ever end up at the compound for questioning about Emma's disappearance. MJ thought they'd assume she ran away or something. She was wrong. They were super suspicious which wasn't good.

"You're in so much trouble when we get home," Marcus told her, and MJ rolled her eyes at her dork of an older brother.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure being grounded is the least of my worries right now," MJ told him, and Marcus let out a frustrated groan. However, he didn't have time to say anything else as the door to the conference room swung open followed by a lineup of some of the most famous people in the world.

Tony Stark.

Colonel James Rhodes.

Maria Hill.

Bucky Barnes.

Peter followed the rest of the group into the room. This had become more of Avenger-related business, so Darcy was waiting outside the room. Bucky was only allowed in because he knew Emma best and might have a clue as to where she could've gone.

When Bucky discovered Emma was missing, he couldn't remember ever feeling more helpless and lost. Mostly because he was imprisoned at the compound and couldn't leave to go track her down. That and Emma always told him everything. It was weird she just disappeared without a trace.

She would've told him in some shape or form if she was going to leave to go back to Steve.

This was why Bucky was almost convinced there was something more sinister at play here.

"I can't say I was planning on forming an investigation this lovely Wednesday evening so please someone try to explain to me what's going on," Tony said tiredly as everyone sat around the conference table. MJ and Marcus seemed to be right in the middle of it. Marcus was obviously overwhelmed by all the famous faces as he tried to form coherent thoughts in his head. "Darcy said that Emma's missing. I want to know where she is."

"Well, that's the thing, Mr. Stark," Peter said without tearing his eyes off MJ. "She's been missing since Monday afternoon apparently which I know because it's the last time I saw her. MJ's been covering for her by calling in sick for her at school and lying to Darcy about Emma being at her house but there's no sign of Emma there. There's no sign of her anywhere, actually."

"So, spill the beans, Jones," Tony told Emma's friend. He'd only met the girl on a couple occasions, but he knew she was the sole female friend Emma had. That had to mean something, right? Someone Emma probably confided in yet someone no one at the compound knew very well. "Where's Emma? I'm assuming because you're covering for her that she hasn't been kidnapped. What? Did she run back to Cap? Is she plotting revenge? What is it this time? I'm truly dying to know."

Bucky glared at the billionaire's sarcastic attitude about Emma's disappearance. He wasn't taking it seriously.

Peter sighed because he knew Tony was still angry at Emma for the Perry Layton thing. Peter didn't think this was all very simple. It was weird. He had to admit. That Emma would just vanish without a trace. Peter honestly didn't think she ran away. She would never leave with her father still on house arrest at the compound.

"Emma's right," MJ said confidently as she crossed her arms and met Tony's gaze. "You really are a tyrannical and egotistical asshole."

The room grew silent at that.

Tony stared back at her, trying to figure her out. He never really put much time or care into getting to know Emma and Peter's friends at Midtown. Maybe he should've because he couldn't seem to get a read on this girl. She seemed almost as hard to read as Emma was.

Almost.

Almost because Emma was a trained liar.

This girl wasn't.

"MJ's not going to tell us anything. She denies she knows where Emma is," Peter informed Tony and everyone else. "Even though we know she's lying."

"I'm not lying. I really don't know where she is," MJ told them, sticking to her guns. "Look, is this an interrogation or not? I thought it was going to be more one-on-one but now the whole squad's here so…"

"Why would this be an interrogation?" Maria Hill questioned coolly, and MJ forced herself not to gulp. She had always found Maria Hill to be both scary and impressive all at once. Tony nodded in agreement, faking a smile.

"You're not in any trouble, MJ," Tony told her, and MJ glared at him.

"Only my friends call me MJ," MJ told him, and Tony nodded, trying to suppress his annoyance. He couldn't wait until Emma and Peter were adults. This teenage attitude was getting really old really fast.

"Well, Michelle," Tony started to say as he did his best to get some answers out of MJ. He honestly wasn't all too surprised by Emma's disappearance. She'd been acting very odd lately. Maybe she got spooked by the Perry Layton thing and ran away. Either way, Tony had to find her before Ross realized she was missing and threw her into the same category as Steve and the others. "You're not in any trouble. We just want to know where Emma is. Whatever you're helping her with, I promise that you won't see any repercussions from it. Okay? We just want Emma home and safe. That's our main priority."

"I already told Darcy and Peter that I don't know where she is. She didn't tell me anything," MJ said, a continuation of her original lie. Rhodey nodded as Bucky continued to remain silent. He decided to quietly observe MJ as she spoke, watching for reactions.

"Okay, so walk us through everything you know. Talk about the last time you saw or spoke to her," Rhodey told her calmly and MJ sighed as everyone watched the girl intently.

"It was Monday after her history class with Mr. Harrington. I always wait up for her after her class ends. Especially now that she and Peter broke up," MJ told him, and Peter shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the breakup. Rhodey nodded.

"What did she seem like to you?" He asked her and MJ shrugged.

"She seemed tired. She was a little late leaving the class because she said she fell asleep," MJ informed him, and Tony frowned at that. He didn't know Emma to take lots of naps or anything like that. She slept like a normal person. Emma went to bed at a regular time usually and woke up early. At least, at the compound. She was always at the gym training with Barnes early in the morning. "We talked a little bit."

"What did you talk about?" Rhodey asked her. MJ didn't like the incessant questioning. She knew they were trying to catch her in a lie. That's what they did on all the detective shows.

"Stuff…I don't know," MJ said, struggling to keep her cool. She was trying to stick as close to the truth as possible, but it wasn't that easy. "There's the field trip to the MoMa on Friday. I asked her if she was going, and she said probably not. Because Peter would be there, and she said it would be weird. I said that she shouldn't worry about it just because her shitty ex-boyfriend would be there."

MJ said the last line pointedly and Peter glared at her.

"What next?" Rhodey questioned and MJ swallowed hard.

"Then we said goodbye and went our separate ways. I haven't seen her since. That was around two in the afternoon," MJ said calmly, and Peter scoffed, crossing his arms

"That's not true," He snapped. MJ glared at the annoying boy. "I saw the two of you leaving the campus together after school. You went somewhere."

"Stalker much, Parker?" MJ shot back at him. What a little snitch. MJ really didn't know what Emma saw in that idiot. "Maybe Peter did it. Ever think of that? Anyone who sees Dateline knows it's almost always the boyfriend. Maybe Peter was pissed because Emma dumped his ass, and he has her all webbed up in his bedroom as we speak so she'll never leave him again. Maybe he's been fooling us all with the whole innocent heroic act. Maybe Peter's a psychopath."

"Stop deflecting!" Peter yelled at the infuriating girl. "Just tell us where she is!"

"Calm down, Pete," Tony told him, and Peter swallowed hard before attempting to cool down. It wasn't easy. He was only worried about Emma.

"Since we all know that the last place you saw Emma is at school is also bullshit, can you be honest now?" Tony asked her as MJ struggled to keep her cool under the immense pressure she was under. "Because as soon as I found out from Darcy that she's been missing, I've been gaining access to CCTV footage in the city in order to track her last footsteps leading up to her disappearance. So, I know the two of you left school together. I know you two got frozen yogurt and I know you both went to a bookstore. I also know that you two had a pretty long conversation with someone else."

MJ froze because Emma made it clear she wasn't to tell anyone she saw Thor and Loki. If Tony Stark already knew about them being there, then she was screwed. Because it was inevitably going to link back to Strange which was the very thing that Emma was afraid of in the first place.

"But unfortunately, the security camera wasn't working on that street corner, so I don't know who you two were talking to. It conveniently only captured the two of you" Tony told her, and MJ tried not to show her nervousness. "That's what I would like for you to tell us. Who were you two talking to?"

"Some guy," MJ said nonchalantly, and Tony gave her a look of disbelief.

"Some guy? Really?" Tony questioned and MJ nodded. "Because you two were talking to this random guy for a really long time. One might say you bumped into an old friend on the street."

"I never met him before," MJ said which was the truth. It was her first-time meeting both Thor and Loki. Tony took a deep breath before moving this along.

"Friday, please show the CCTV footage that I'm telling Miss Jones about," Tony instructed.

"Of course, Sir," The AI said before the CCTV footage from that afternoon popped up on the large screen on the wall. MJ swallowed hard as she recognized herself and Emma from that afternoon. She watched as an excited Emma nearly rushed over to greet Thor. MJ still remembered how excited she looked to meet Loki. MJ shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Maybe you didn't know this person, but I would say Emma definitely did," Tony told MJ as he continued trying pull answers from her, but it was almost like pulling teeth. She seemed to spend too much time with Emma. "It can't be Steve. He's smarter than that. He wouldn't set foot in the city and especially not in broad daylight in front of that many people. I don't know who else it would be, but I think you know who it was, and I think this mysterious person had a hand in her disappearance."

"You know…now that I think about, I think it was Tom Felton," MJ said sarcastically, crossing her arms once more and giving Tony a defiant look. Peter buried his face in his hands. Bucky continued to watch her silently. Rhodey and Maria Hill just rolled their eyes. It was clear MJ was a tough one to crack. "Emma's a huge Harry Potter fan and she just lost it when she saw Draco Malfoy. What can I say?"

"How long are we going to being playing this game, Michelle?" Tony asked her and he saw what both Darcy and Peter were getting at. This girl was overwhelmingly difficult to deal with. "We both know you know where Emma is or you, at least, have some sort of idea."

"You know, I'm surprised you guys didn't microchip her like a dog," MJ told them with a glare. "Shouldn't you keep track of your super people?"

MJ paused when she noticed how Tony fell silent. It seemed to answer her question enough. She scoffed.

"Unless, of course, you track her through her phone," MJ said, making her own conclusion about that.

"We can't track her phone anymore. It's like she fell off the face of the planet," Tony admitted to the teenager which he didn't know was pretty accurate. MJ knew exactly why that was. It was because Emma's phone was broken. Seemingly fried by the rain or whatever weather it had suffered through while lying in the mud in Norway for that long. The Bifrost probably also had a hand in its damage. The phone remained inside the tattered backpack she was currently keeping stashed inside her own backpack.

"I don't know what else to tell you," MJ told him, shrugging as she tried to keep to her original story. It seemed impossible. She kept getting caught in lie after lie. "It's true. Emma and I hung out after school for a little bit but that's all. I swear. She left to go do something and told me to cover for her until she got back. That's all I know. I don't know where she went, and she hasn't contacted me since. I'm worried just like you guys."

"We all know you're lying. You've been lying to us for this whole entire conversation so just cut the crap," Tony told her in an annoyed tone. "I'm currently combing through CCTV footage all over the city. It might take a while, but I'll find more, and I'll see whoever it was that Emma, and you were talking to. Just save us some time and tell us now."

"MJ, just tell them," Marcus told her after remaining silent for most of the conversation.

"They're the Avengers. You can tell them."

That's precisely why MJ couldn't tell them.

"We know you wouldn't hurt Emma and you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her either," Rhodey added, giving the young girl a sympathetic look. "We understand that you're only lying because you think you're protecting her but the gig's up. We're not concerned with what Emma's up to right now. We just want her home and safe."

"I don't know," MJ repeated, refusing to break. She knew what this was. Emma was inevitably going get in trouble and it would be her fault. Maybe not her fault since Emma did it to herself but she didn't want to be a snitch. Emma asked for her help and MJ didn't want to fail her. Especially when it came to Stephen Strange. The Avengers would flip their shit if they found out about him.

"MJ," Bucky Barnes said quietly, and everyone turned their heads to look at him. They'd almost forgotten he was there. He'd been so silent for the entire conversation. "I know you don't trust us. If you're friends with Emma, then you probably have plenty of reason not to. I hate to tell you this, but Emma's always been paranoid. I know it's the pot calling the kettle black coming from me, but you can trust Stark. He'd never do anything to hurt Emma. No matter what she says."

Tony looked at the man in question. He'd never received such praise from him before. They'd always had a difficult relationship because of his parents. Tony had agreed to let him stay there but that didn't mean he interacted with him on a regular basis.

"I don't know anything," MJ said after swallowing hard. She was always a bit intimidated by Emma's father. Not just because of the Winter Soldier stuff. He was just really quiet and rarely spoke. MJ didn't know him that well. Bucky sighed.

"You're a good friend. Emma asked you to do this for her and you haven't backed down once. I admire that," Bucky said sincerely as he tried to talk her down. "You're loyal to her and that's good but she never should've asked you to lie for her. It wasn't right and I'll be having a long conversation with her when she gets back."

"I'm not lying," MJ told him, but Bucky knew she was. He was trained to catch liars in the act and there almost wasn't a single thing that MJ said tonight that wasn't a huge lie. She wasn't very good. She just did what a loyal friend would do.

"I think we both know you are," Bucky told her, but he didn't sound angry. He quickly moved forward with the conversation. "I don't care about any of the Avengers stuff. If Emma is up to something and she thought she'd get in trouble because of the Avengers, I don't care. My number one priority has been and always will be her safety. If she's in trouble, we can get her out of the country if we have to. In order to do that, though, I need to know where she is and if she needs help."

"I…" MJ trailed off, suddenly torn between staying loyal to Emma or telling Bucky the truth. Everyone leaned forward in their seats as this was the first time all night that MJ seemed to falter in her story.

"Politics be damned," Bucky told her. "I don't give a shit about the Sokovia Accords. Please…she's everything to me. I'm a father asking you to help me find my daughter. That's all this is."

Tears started flooding MJ's eyes because she realized for the first time that there was no way to help Emma. It really didn't make a difference if she told them because it's not like they could help her. MJ felt bad for Emma's father who so desperately wanted to help her and see to his daughter's safety. There was nothing he could do.

It was already too late.

"It's okay," Bucky said softly, his gaze meeting MJ's from across the table. "You don't have to protect her anymore. I can protect her now. It's my job to protect her but just tell me where she is."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Barnes," MJ said, trying to hold back tears and keep her voice steady. For the first time in two days, she was finally able to let go and not hold everything inside. "But you can't help Emma now. Not where she is. It's too late."

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked in confusion, immediately alarmed by MJ's words. Everyone was.

"We saw Thor," MJ said abruptly, not knowing how else to explain the craziness of the past two days. It sounded too surreal to put into words. Tony's eyes widened in shock. "That's who you saw us talking to on the CCTV footage. We were just walking around the city and Emma spotted him standing there."

"Remember those rumors a couple days ago about Thor's return?" Rhodey reminded them all and Maria shook her head.

"I thought it was a look alike," She said dismissively.

"I guess not," Rhodey told her, and MJ continued with her account of what happened the day Emma disappeared.

"He was there with Loki," MJ finally told them which alarmed everyone in the room. Tony shook his head furiously.

"That's not possible," Tony told her, scoffing. "Loki's dead. Thor told us he died years ago."

"According to Thor he faked his own death and was disguising himself as Odin all this time while ruling over Asgard," MJ explained to them which didn't give anyone a good feeling. Not with the idea of the god of mischief on the loose. "He sent Odin here in exile and that's why Thor and Loki were here. They were looking for Odin."

"Why didn't Thor come to us?" Rhodey questioned and MJ shook her head.

"Emma told him not to. She explained the Sokovia Accords to him and told him you guys couldn't help," MJ informed them, and Tony rolled his eyes. Of course, Emma did that. She wasn't exactly a huge fan of the accords, after all. "You should've seen it."

"Seen what?" Bucky asked her and MJ sighed heavily before looking across the room at them.

"Her and Loki," She told them which gave Tony an uneasy feeling. If there were ever two people in the universe that he didn't want to meet, it was those two. "It was like they were old friends…like they knew each other forever. It was weird."

"Did he do something to her?" Peter asked fearfully, not liking the idea of Loki being anywhere near Emma. He was evil and dangerous. Emma always joked about finding him interesting, but this wasn't a joke. This was real-life and Loki was insane. Who knows what he could do to Emma?

"I don't know," MJ said honestly, and they looked at her in disbelief, so she continued telling her story. "Everything was fine one moment and then the next, Loki fell through this giant portal in the ground before disappearing."

"He escaped?" Tony questioned and MJ shook her head.

"No, someone took him," MJ told them much to their shock. They didn't know someone who could just take Loki. He wasn't exactly easy to capture. "There was a note in his place with an address on it. Thor was confused but Emma knew who took him. I could tell. She recognized the address immediately and I've never seen her that worried in all the time I've known her."

"Worried?" Maria asked her and MJ sighed before nodding.

"She wouldn't tell me who took Loki. Just that she'd done something bad, and she was afraid the Avengers would find out what she did if she didn't take Thor to go find Loki," MJ explained to them which only furthered everyone's confusion. "She said she couldn't tell me what it was because I'd get into trouble too. Emma said something about undermining the Avengers for a while now and this could land her in Raft. Thor seemed concerned but she yelled at him, and he shut up."

"What did she do?" Bucky questioned and MJ shrugged.

"I'm not lying this time. She really said she couldn't tell me," MJ told him honestly. "She just asked me to cover for her until she got back. Emma said it would only be a few hours, but a few hours turned into days and now I'm here sitting here with you guys."

"That's it?" Tony questioned in disbelief. "That's all you know."

MJ gave him a hesitant look before speaking again.

"She wouldn't tell me anything because whatever she did was bad, but I couldn't take it anymore," MJ said, moving forward with the end of her story. "If she was worried about you guys finding out about what she did then I had to find her before you realized she was missing. I only had the address to go off of. Thor said it aloud."

"The address?" Peter asked and MJ nodded.

"177A Bleecker Street," MJ answered and most of everyone in the room froze. The name was immediately recognizable to them. Rhodey furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Bleecker Street? Isn't that the address of-" He began to say but MJ cut him off.

"Stephen Strange, yes," MJ confirmed, and Bucky suddenly remembered Emma telling him about the weird doctor she was spying on. The fact that she thought he might not be so phony and there might be something to the UN's suspicions about him. He swallowed hard because he was beginning to realize that this was all a lot bigger than he thought. "Emma mentioned she was spying on him once."

"But she said he was just some weirdo," Peter said aloud, trying to understand what all this meant. Tony already got the gist of it.

"He's not, is he?" Tony stated quietly, looking up to meet MJ's eyes. "It was a lie…what she told us about him. He's not some cult leader who lives in his mother's basement."

"I met him," MJ told them, and Marcus gave her an alarmed look.

"You went to a strange man's house by yourself. MJ, what did we tell you-" He started to say but MJ cut him off in annoyance.

"I did what I had to, okay? I was out of options and time was running out. I had to find Emma," She argued before turning back to the others. "I met him, and he explained to me what he did. He practices the mystic arts, and it's real. He and a bunch of others protect the Earth from mystical threats from other dimensions."

"This is slowly turning into a Twilight Zone episode," Rhodey murmured to himself. No one seemed to expect the secret behind Emma's disappearance to involve Asgardians and magic. It was like a bad plotline to a sci-fi movie.

"I asked him about Emma, and he confirmed that she and Thor were there," MJ told them as they all listened to her with extreme focus, hanging on to her every word. "That all Thor wanted was to find Odin and take Loki with him before leaving. Emma was overseeing it but Strange thought it was only to keep the Avengers away from him."

"So what happened to her? Was she there all this time? Why isn't she back yet?" Maria questioned and MJ sighed heavily.

This was where the hard part came in.

"I asked him the same thing and he had no clue. Odin was in Norway so Strange brought Thor, Loki, and Emma to him there using his weird portal magic," MJ explained to them like none of this was crazy. "He said the last he saw of her, she was there with the others. He promised to come back for her in an hour, but she wasn't there. He assumed she found some other way back until I came asking questions about her. He brought me to Norway to show me where he took her."

"You went to Norway?" Peter questioned incredulously and MJ nodded.

"Through his weird portal thing," She confirmed which made Tony uncomfortable. The world was already weird enough but now it was getting weirder. Usually, he would be beyond pissed at Emma lying to him about yet another thing. Hiding Strange was way worse than what she did with that reporter, but he was more concerned with her apparent disappearance right now. He'd save the anger for when he got her back. "There was no one there but we found clues."

"Clues?" Bucky questioned as he tried to process everything MJ was telling him. It was a bit much to be honest. Emma entangling herself in alien stuff mixed with magic. MJ swallowed hard before grabbing her backpack off the floor and reaching inside of it to pull out Emma's tattered one.

Peter's eyes widened in fear when he saw the state of Emma's backpack. It looked partially charred.

"I found her backpack like this," MJ told them, and she pulled out the phone from within before sliding it across the table. "Here's her phone. I think it's fried. Probably why you couldn't track her through it. I guess all those ads were bullshit. Stark phones aren't totally indestructible."

Tony glanced at her phone as he tried to piece together what MJ was telling them. Was she suggesting there was something sinister at play here? If so, then this was a lot more serious than Emma just running away.

"Then there's this," MJ said before lifting the backpack up and emptying the rest of it's contents on to the table. A bunch of random debris clunked on to the table and caused the bewilderment of the other people in the room. It just looked like a pile of rocks. "It's Thor's hammer…or what's left of it."

"Is this supposed to be a joke?" Maria questioned and Tony was shocked. MJ shook her head.

"I thought the same thing but look at the symbols. Besides…Strange seemed to think it was the hammer too," MJ elaborated and Rhodey turned over a piece of the strange debris only to notice the familiar looking symbol. There was even the recognizable handle lost in the debris. "He said it could only be destroyed by someone old and powerful in magic."

"Loki?" Tony questioned once Rhodey showed him the piece with the symbol across it. MJ shook her head.

"He didn't think so. He said Loki was gifted in tricks and illusions, but this kind of magic was different. He didn't think Loki could pull it off," MJ explained, and Tony supposed some wizard would have a better understanding of magic than he would. Peter shook his head in disbelief.

"This is all very interesting, but I don't get what it has to do with Emma and where she went," Peter said, wanting MJ to just cut to the chase. He wanted to know where she was. MJ sighed before pulling out her phone and bringing up the picture that she knew would tell them just where Emma was and just how impossible it was to get her back.

"I also found this in Norway," MJ told them, and Tony took hold of the phone, glancing curiously at the picture. A frown formed on his face as he recognized the symbol that was burned into the grass.

It was from the Bifrost.

The weird thing that transported Thor between Asgard and Earth.

"So, Thor took Loki and left? Good riddance," Tony remarked as he passed the phone to Bucky who glanced at the symbol in bewilderment. He didn't have any experience with Thor like the others had. All the Asgard and space stuff was completely foreign to him.

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" MJ asked in frustration, glaring at the idiots around the table. Peter just stared at her, trying to figure out what she was getting at. "There's no trace of Emma. We know she didn't run away. I know her. She wouldn't leave her dad here at the compound for anything. There's only one place she went."

"You're not actually suggesting that Thor took her to Asgard, are you?" Maria questioned, looking partially amused at the idea. MJ nodded.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," MJ told them. "Thor's hammer was destroyed mysteriously by who knows what and Emma's been missing for two days with no trace of her anywhere. I don't care about the lengths your technology can go. You're not going to find her as long as she's not here on Earth."

"Why would Thor take her to Asgard?" Rhodey asked her and Bucky shook his head as Peter grew quiet at the thought of Emma not being on Earth. The thought of her on a foreign planet unreachable by anyone here on Earth was frightening. Peter didn't even know what to do with that information.

"Unless it wasn't Thor who took Emma to this Asgard place," Bucky suggested, the look on his face growing grim at the very thought. "MJ just said that Loki had this bizarre interest in Emma. Maybe he somehow got the upper hand and took her. I know Thor's a good person and a friend of Steve. If Steve trusts him then that's good enough for me. I just can't see someone like that putting Emma in danger by kidnapping her and taking her to a foreign planet."

"Wait…are you being serious right now, MJ?" Peter said with a panic stricken look on his face. His heart pounded in his chest and his breathing suddenly felt labored. He was slowly processing what MJ said and it was causing him to feel sick. Sick at the thought of Emma being in trouble, possibly kidnapped by Loki, and there was nothing Peter could do about it. "You really think she went to Asgard or whatever?"

"I wish I was wrong, but I don't think I am," MJ told Peter sadly. She knew she had been very mean to him earlier by suggesting that Emma was with some other guy, but she was just desperate and scared. Now there was no more hiding what happened to Emma. Not after Emma's father gave her a talking to.

Peter grew silent as he considered what this meant. It meant that Emma was in a lot of trouble and she was with Loki of all people. One of the most evil people known to man. Loki who was responsible for the deaths of thousands and Emma was with him. What if he hurt her? According to other Avengers, Loki was crazy. Like, legitimately crazy. Not an adorable crazy like Emma was.

He was the kind of crazy that was unpredictable.

Emma always joked about becoming friends with Loki and everyone found her obvious celebrity crush on him amusing but that was when everyone thought Loki was dead. It was cute when everyone thought that he and Emma would never meet. Now it was terrifying because no matter how cunning and manipulative Emma could be, Loki was bound to be even a hundred times more cunning and manipulative due to being a million years old. Well, Peter wasn't sure how old he was exactly, but he was definitely ancient.

Peter knew Emma was in danger if she was with Loki.

What if he found out who she was?

That Steve Rogers was her grandfather.

Peter knew Loki would use that in his favor. He'd hurt Emma in order to get back at Steve and Mr. Stark. Peter prayed that Loki would never find out who Emma was or about her super soldier serum. Mr. Stark mentioned once about how obsessed Loki was with the Tesseract so he could only imagine what he'd do if he found out Emma's super soldier serum was made from Tesseract energy.

Peter swallowed hard as he struggled to keep his cool.

But how could he?

Not with Emma in danger.

"Where's this Strange guy?" Tony asked aloud, looking very grim as he took in the information MJ just told everyone. It seemed like Emma really was missing and Stephen Strange was the last person to see her. "I think we need to have a chat with him."

Bucky remained quiet as he also tried to process this new and shocking revelation of Emma possibly no longer being on Earth. There was never a single thing in the world that Bucky thought could stop him from saving her, but this just might be the first. He came from a world of weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and dealing with very human threats. Bucky was out of his element when it came to space and Asgard.

It made him disappointed in himself because he was basically useless to Emma now.

"I believe you know the address," MJ mumbled as she looked down at her hands while her brother just seemed to be in shock. It was a lot to process in one night.

Assassins, Avengers, and space.

The world was getting a lot scarier.

"That girl is going to be in a world of trouble when I find her ass," Tony muttered as he stood up from his seat. He looked around the table at everyone seated in the room. "Not a word of this leaves this room. Ross or the UN isn't to know about any of this. I know that's breaking a bunch of Sokovia Accords but I could give a shit less about that right now. Is that understood?"

"Yes," Everyone collectively mumbled as they also seemed to be in shock over the truth behind Emma's disappearance.

"Um…Mr. Stark, sir?" Marcus piped up and Tony gave him a sharp look, feeling stressed out over the current situation at hand. "Is MJ in any trouble or…"

"No, she's not," Tony confirmed. It was true. He really didn't give a shit about MJ right now or any of her lies because he knew it was all Emma's doing. Emma was the one who put her up to it. "If I were you, MJ, I might be more concerned for your bestie right now than yourself. When that girl returns to Earth, she's in deep shit."

And with that, Tony stormed out of the room.

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

No one seemed to have any words about the current situation involving Emma. What could possibly be said, anyways? They finally found out where she was, and no one liked the answer.

The only question remained was if this could be fixed.

That was yet to be determined.

---

"Heimdall!" Tony yelled at the night sky in Norway. He was freezing his ass off and he felt ridiculous, but he didn't know what else to do. Tony turned to Rhodey. "That's his name, right?"

"That's what Wikipedia says," Rhodey said as he looked at his phone. Stephen Strange raised an eyebrow as he watched the two Avengers desperately try to get the Asgardian gatekeeper's attention.

Not long after Tony discovered the truth behind Emma's disappearance, he decided that he and Rhodey would confront this wizard guy themselves. They didn't really care about the Sokovia Accords violation for the moment. Not when Emma was apparently not even on the same planet as them anymore and also happened to be with Loki.

Stephen brought them to the same place he brought MJ just hours before.

"Heimdall, I don't know what's going on up there or if Thor's high on some sort of Asgardian reefer for taking Emma to Asgard, but you need to give her back. Beam her back down or whatever it is you do with the magic rainbow light," Tony called out to the sky. "I look really stupid right now, so you better give me some kind of sign that you're hearing this."

"Why isn't he answering?" Rhodey wondered aloud. "I thought Thor said he sees everything."

"I know," Tony said quietly as he just stared up at the night sky, which was littered with stars, silently wondering where in those stars Emma was. "I don't know what's going on. None of this makes sense, Rhodey. Why would Thor take her up with him? It doesn't seem like something he'd do."

"Unless he didn't take her up there with him," Rhodey suggested, and Tony tore his gaze from the sky to look at him. "Michelle said that Loki was there. Loki's still alive. We have to consider the fact that maybe Thor didn't take Emma with him to Asgard. Maybe Loki kidnapped her. He could've found out that she's related to Steve or about her powers. It would make her valuable to him."

"Don't say that shit to me, Rhodey," Tony said, not liking the sound of any of that. It filled him with panic to imagine Emma at the mercy of Loki of all people. One of the most insane evil assholes in the universe. She might be Emma, but she wasn't a match for someone like that. "I can't think about that right now."

"It's a possibility. Thor wouldn't take Emma to Asgard with him," Rhodey tried to reason with Tony as he seemed to be in denial. "There's no reason for him to ever do that. He especially wouldn't just take her without telling one of us. That just leaves Loki."

"Shut the fuck up!" Tony snapped and Rhodey immediately fell silent. The billionaire took a deep breath as he forced himself to calm down, running a hand over his face. "Look, I'm sorry. I just have to get her back. Heimdall or Thor has to give her back to me right now because if they don't then she's stuck up there, and I can't do anything about it."

"Tony, I understand-" Rhodey started to say but Tony cut him off.

"No, you don't," Tony told him and Rhodey didn't think he'd ever seen Tony look so scared. Maybe just on a handful of occasions but this definitely took the number one spot. "I can build anything, Rhodey. I have all the money in the world. I can figure almost anything out but if she's up there in trouble…none of any of that will help her. I can't help her. I'm useless."

"It's true," Stephen said and Rhodey glared at him. He was clearly as tactless as Tony was. "The only way she can come back is if Thor or someone else brings her back. I already told you two to begin with that all you can do is wait."

"Wizard guy, you're not helping," Rhodey told him pointedly before turning his attention to Tony again. "I get it, Tony. There's nothing we can do but we're just going to have to trust Thor to come through and bring her back. He cares about her too and he'll do whatever he has to make sure she's safe. We just have to trust him."

"I can't do that," Tony said quietly. "Not until I see her with my own eyes, and I see that she's okay."

"Like you said, we don't have any other choice. There's nothing we can do," Rhodey told him sadly. "Heimdall won't respond so we're just going to have to wait for Thor to bring her back."

"I failed her, Rhodey," Tony told him, clearly devastated by the news about Emma. "Big time. I was supposed to protect her, and I fucked up bad."

"It wasn't just you. It was all of us," Rhodey said, trying to make him feel better but he knew his reassurance did little to make Tony feel better. Specifically, because Rhodey knew Tony felt as though he owed Emma's dad a lot. He took his guardianship over Emma very seriously. "Let's go home."

Tony didn't say anything as Rhodey turned back to look at Stephen. In fact, the same crestfallen expression seemed almost permanently etched on to his face. Stephen opened a portal back to the Avengers' compound to save them both some travel time.

Through out it all, Tony never said a word.

He was silent.

There were no words for the situation he was faced with.

Tony couldn't save Emma. Neither could anyone else.

He glanced up at the stars, knowing she was somewhere out there but also knowing that she was just out of reach. She was seen but could no longer be reached. The distance too large. They were separated by who knows how many galaxies.

The realization of this dawned on him and completely horrified him.

---

"Were you able to get through to that Asgard guy?" Peter asked Tony and Rhodey, the second they came back to the compound. Rhodey managed to thank Stephen Strange for bringing them back to the compound. He probably should've grilled him more about the whole mystic arts and interdimensional threat thing but there was already enough on their plates with Emma's disappearance. No one seemed bothered enough to care.

Especially Tony.

Tony looked at the hopeful look in Peter's eyes and felt sadness wash over him. Because he so badly wanted to come back with good news. He wanted to be able to fix this problem. Tony wanted nothing more than to be able to bring Emma back and fix this whole mess but not even he could achieve that. His hands were tied.

"No," Tony told him quietly and Peter just stared at him, confused by the defeated expression on his mentor's face. Everyone was taking up space in the compound's recreational area as they discussed what was going on with Emma. MJ and her brother returned to the city. None of them ever thought what MJ had been hiding was this bad.

"What?" Peter questioned and Bucky looked up at the man who seemed to have taken a more hunched stance than he'd ever seen before. He had his answer right then.

This problem couldn't be fixed.

"I tried calling to him like Thor used to," Tony told the kid and it broke his heart to do this. To not be able to bring Emma back like he should've. "It didn't work. There was nothing. Something's not right. There's something going on up there."

Peter tried to process this. This was something he'd been trying to do during the time Tony and Rhodey had visited the wizard guy Emma had been hiding from them. He tried and tried again to wrap his mind around that Emma had not only vanished into thin air, but she was on another planet.

Asgard.

What was even the distance between Earth and Asgard?

Did anyone know?

"But we're going to try and get her back, right?" Peter asked, hoping that Tony had a plan to get her back. "We're going to rescue her."

Tony's eyes met Peter's hopeful ones and he knew he was going to crush him with this news.

"Peter, we can't rescue her. She's on Asgard and for whatever reason, Heimdall isn't answering back," Tony informed him, and Peter shook his head in confusion. "There's nothing to be done. Not until Thor brings her back."

Everyone looked away sadly, accepting Tony's news. No one liked it but they knew there was nothing to be done. Especially if she was on Asgard. Bucky abruptly got up from the couch he was sitting on next to Darcy and stormed of the room without so much as a word. Darcy watched him leave but didn't make a move to go after him. She knew he needed to be alone right now.

However, Peter didn't seem to accept this.

"I don't understand," Peter said, clearly in denial. "You're not going to try and figure out a way to rescue her? We're just going to sit here and do nothing."

"Peter, there's nothing to be done. She's gone," Tony argued, looking exhausted and stressed out. "She's up in space somewhere. Somewhere no one in this room has ever gone before."

"We can still save her," Peter tried to tell him, and he tried to look around the room see who else was with him on this. He couldn't believe everyone would've given up on rescuing Emma. "We're the Avengers, right? We can do anything. We'll call back Mr. Rogers and the rest of everyone else just like we did before with the Rumlow thing. We can get her back."

"How, Peter?" Tony finally asked him in frustration. He wanted Peter to see reason. "How do you think we'll get Emma back?"

"I don't know…" He said, after swallowing hard. Tears flooded his eyes as he realized that Emma was in danger. More danger than she'd ever been before, and Peter was scared because he couldn't help her. The feeling was foreign and terrifying to him. "We could build some sort of spaceship or something to go up there."

"Peter, my suits can't even make it out of the mesosphere. I don't even know if the Quinjet could withstand it. Don't you think if I could've built a spaceship capable of even making it to the moon, I would've done it by now? Much less fucking Asgard of all places," Tony said in defeat. He hated admitting that he was out of his depth and that there were things that not even he could figure out yet. "The technology it would take to make a spaceship capable of traveling all the way to Asgard is beyond me. It's too advanced. Even if I could figure it out, it would take years to build something like that and who knows how long it would take to actually travel to Asgard."

"Maybe we can get Shuri to help. Wakandan technology is super advanced and-" Peter tried to say as he grasped at straws.

"Not that advanced, Peter," Tony told him seriously. "No one on this planet is that advanced. Not me, Shuri, or Banner."

"What about the wizard guy?" Peter asked, desperately grasping at straws. "He can do magic, right? Maybe he can find a way to bring Emma back."

"Apparently magic doesn't work like that," Rhodey told the kid as he gave him a pitiful look. It was heartbreaking to watch Peter so desperately try to find a way to save Emma. "The only way Strange can make a portal at that great of a distance is if he knows what's on the other side of the portal or if he had someone actually from Asgard with him. He's never been to Asgard or even seen it. Very few humans have. Maybe just one and Jane Foster's no wizard."

"There has to be a way," Peter said quietly as he tried to think of a way they could help Emma. Something that could bring her back home. "There just has to be. We have to find something that can bring Emma home. This can't be it."

"I'm sorry, Pete," Tony said sadly, knowing how this was going to crush Peter. It already broke Tony's heart, knowing that Emma was somewhere out there alone with no one to save her. "All we can do is wait for Thor to bring Emma home."

"No, this…this can't be happening," Peter said, tears escaping his eyes as he shook his head furiously. He stood up from his seat. "All you've been doing is giving up on Emma lately. Well, not me. I refuse to give up on her. I'm going to find a way to bring her back. Even if it kills me. I'm not just going to wait for some guy I don't even know to bring her home. I don't care what I have to do to bring her back. I'll do it."

"Peter-" Tony started to say but Peter glared at him.

"What would you if it was Pepper?" Peter asked the older man and Tony fell silent. Pepper Potts gave the teenager a sad look. "It doesn't matter if we broke up or if she doesn't love me anymore. I still love her, and I always will. Even if she won't have me anymore. You can't just ask me not to at least try to bring her home."

Peter paused briefly in his speech as he attempted to catch his breath and will his tears away.

"I have to believe that she'd do the same for me if it were me up there and I know she'd do the same if it were you. She wouldn't stop trying just because it seemed impossible," Peter lectured Tony as Tony and everyone else watched the very upset teenager silently. "There's a lot of stuff that seems impossible. Everything you've built, my powers, Emma's powers, and everything everyone on this team has been through. We shouldn't just stop at space. Not if one of our own is in trouble."

Peter broke his gaze with Tony and glanced at everyone else in the room who all still seemed to be in a state of shock over the news about Emma. He clenched his jaw because he was pissed. Not just about Emma being in space but that everyone seemed to be so quick to decide that Emma's rescue was too impossible to even try to attempt.

"Well, maybe everyone else has given up on Emma but I haven't and I never will," Peter announced to the room. "I'm going to find a way to bring her back. Whatever it takes."

With that, Peter stormed out of the room. Out the same way Bucky had gone when he stormed out of the room just minutes before. Tony made a move to follow him, but Pepper stopped him by placing her hand on his shoulder.

"He needs to be alone right now. They both do," Pepper told him, referring to Bucky as well.

"This is too much for them right now."

"I know," Tony said quietly as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. The night had started out carefree but had quickly turned into a long one. He should've known things had been too peaceful for far too long. Something bad was bound to happen.

It always did.

"What are we going to do?" Maria asked nervously which was very unlike her, but this entire situation was bad. The worst, actually. Not only was Emma Rogers missing but she was in a place where none of the Avengers could save her from. She was on her own.

"We're going to have to get Steve and the others, right?" Rhodey said, not looking too pleased at the idea. That wasn't a phone call he or anyone else wanted to make.

"That's going to go over well," Darcy said sarcastically through all the fear she felt. She always knew MJ was hiding something, but she never imagined it was this bad. This was definitely worst-case scenario. Darcy couldn't think of anything worse than this. "Hey, Steve, sorry that you're still on the run from the accords but you know that precious granddaughter of yours who you love so much and trusted us to keep an eye on? Yeah, well, apparently, she was kidnapped by Thor's intergalactic asshole brother Loki and taken to Asgard days ago without us having the slightest idea about it and now we have no way to get her back. Our bad. It's so nice hearing from you though."

"Darcy, come on," Pepper chastised, knowing that Tony was already hurting enough from this situation without Darcy adding to his pain. Darcy gave her an apologetic look. She couldn't help it. Humor was how she coped with tough situations.

"We're not going to tell him," Tony decided, looking around the room for any objections. "Look, there's really no point in bringing Cap in on this. We know where she is and who she could potentially be with. We also know there's no way to bring her home. There's no point in telling Steve. He'll only rush back here and get himself and everyone else arrested."

"We have to tell him, Tony," Rhodey said, not exactly agreeing with Tony keeping this from Steve. It didn't seem right to him. "This is Emma we're talking about. She's his family. He has to know that she's in trouble even if there's nothing, he or anyone else can do about it."

"I'm with Rhodey," Maria said in agreement. "We have to tell Cap. He'd want to know if something bad happened to Emma and this is as bad as it gets. It doesn't matter if he can't do anything to help her. He deserves to know."

"We're not telling him and that's my final decision," Tony said firmly, giving them a harsh look as he started to raise his voice. He was letting them know that they weren't going to tell Steve about Emma and that was final. There was no negotiating about this. "This whole thing is already a nightmare. No one tells him. If anyone tells him then you can just fucking join him and live out of bed bug and rat ridden hotel rooms."

Everyone fell silent at his outburst.

Tony's chest heaved as his eyes burned holes into a stain he'd never noticed on the carpet before. It was red and looked old. How long had that stain been there? Months or years? Why did he only notice it now? Was he that distracted that he didn't notice a huge fucking red stain on the carpet of a room he entered at least fifteen times a day?

Seriously, it looked like someone spilled a whole 12-pack case of red soda on the floor.

Who spilled it?

It could've been Peter, but it also seemed like something Darcy would've done too if he were being perfectly honest. Peter was a technically a child so everyone would've thought it was him, but Darcy acted like a child most times, so it really didn't matter he supposed.

As Tony kept staring at the stain, he started to wonder about all the other things he didn't notice happening at the compound.

Literally anything going on with Emma. Between her violating the Sokovia Accords probably a hundred times and her drama with Peter, Tony was left in the dark in all of it. Not to mention there was now a world of magic and dimensions that Tony hadn't even known about yesterday. Of course, there was also the Accords Committee who were on his ass nearly everyday about every little thing. Then the Avengers were still broken up with half the team on the other side of the world.

Tony recalled the disappointed look on Peter's face when he told the young boy that he had no plans for a rescue mission for Emma.

The kid looked at him like was such a failure.

Such a fucking failure.

Maybe Peter was right.

Tony was a failure.

Who else could've fucked things up so catastrophically? Not Steve. If Steve were here none of this would've happened. Emma would probably be safely asleep in her bedroom right now, Peter would be soundly asleep in his own bedroom as well, and probably everyone in the entire compound would be sleeping soundly because nothing would be this fucked up.

Tony felt an unsettling feeling in his stomach. Something he hadn't felt for quite some time. It all started to dawn on him at once. How everything was messed up beyond belief and Tony had no idea how to fix any of it. It felt like the world was slowly imploding and Tony realized he had lost complete control over everything.

Emma's absence was only the icing on the cake.

The billionaire started to feel something coming up his throat as what only could've been described as a major panic attack swept over him. The room seemed to be spinning and Tony suddenly felt sick.

Tony quickly grabbed Happy's man bag out of his hands. Something Happy was insistent on calling a satchel and an accessory Tony teased him about for a good few weeks. Happy gave him a confused look until the Avenger took the bag and vomited violently into it. Pepper immediately rubbed his back as Tony hunched over and puked into the bag.

"Not my satchel," Happy said in annoyance. The rest of the room watched in shock as Tony Stark heaved his guts into Happy's satchel. They'd never seen anything like it. Tony was usually so put together. With his sarcastic remarks and nonchalant behavior. It was rare to see him so out of sorts. Especially in front of everyone.

"Tony, are you okay?" Rhodey asked in concern. Tony just kept his face shoved inside the bag as he felt more coming up.

"Give me a fucking minute!" Tony snapped, his stress finally pushing him over the edge. "Can everyone just let me have a fucking moment to myself? Is that asking the impossible? Can I not just puke my guts into Happy's man bag?"

"It's a satchel," Happy couldn't help but correct and Tony growled in frustration.

"It's a fucking purse and you know it!" Tony told him, tired of hearing him call it a satchel. It irritated Tony beyond belief. An irrational irritation since Tony could never explain why it annoyed him, but he supposed it annoyed him the same way it annoyed others of people who pronounced "Barcelona" a certain way.

Pepper quickly shook her head at Happy, indicating it wouldn't be wise to argue with Tony right now. Not in this state. A state that Pepper couldn't say she'd ever seen him in. She'd seen him angry, distraught, completely broken down, and so many other things but Pepper had never seen him driven this sick by stress before.

"I've gone gray," Tony announced as he finally pulled away from Happy's satchel. "I've gone gray big time."

"What?" Maria questioned in exasperation. Everyone else seemed genuinely confused by Tony's words. It seemed out of the blue and there was no way to make sense of it. At least, not right away. Tony just nodded; his eyes flooded with tears from the large amount of vomiting he just did.

"I mean, I've always found a couple gray hairs every once in a while, since I was thirty-five," Tony confessed, and they were quick to realize that he was actually talking about his hair right now. "But it's pretty bad now. It's gone almost completely gray these past few months. I've been dying it a lot. I had to. I look like my dad now. It's a mess."

"Well, I always liked a silver fox," Darcy tried to say optimistically although she was feeling her own fears come to light in regard to the Emma situation and now the fact that her super soldier boyfriend was probably having a break down right now too. "Silver foxes are really hot. You know…George Clooney, Sam Elliot, and Matt LeBlanc. Those are some really sexy guys. I bet it would make you look more dignified."

"I look like a fucking grandpa now," Tony hissed, and it seemed like Darcy's compliments for once did nothing to help Tony's ego. "I'm forty-eight and I look like a grandpa. I've aged more these past couple years than I ever had in the other forty-some years I've been alive. It's those kids. Those damn kids."

"Tony…" Pepper trailed off, giving him a sympathetic look.

"We might as well pop out a couple kids now, Pep," Tony said sarcastically as he shook his head, but he wasn't angry at Emma, and he also wasn't angry at Peter. He was angry at himself for being such a fucking failure. "I mean, how much worse can my hair situation get at this point? How much more stress can another kid cause? My hair falling out? Well, bring it on. Those kids are killing me. I can feel it now. They're killing me and I can't handle this anymore. I fucked up big time. I fucked everything up."

"Come on, Tony," Rhodey told his best friend, trying to calm him down. It was clear that Tony was having a panic attack…big time. He was starting to hyperventilate. "You didn't. This is going to be okay. Thor will pull through and bring Emma home then we'll laugh about this later. Well, maybe after locking Emma in a prison for the rest of her life so she can't ever leave because God…that girl really knows how to get into trouble, doesn't she? It's scary how much trouble she gets herself into."

"But what if he doesn't pull through?" Tony asked, looking around the room. It was clear Tony didn't know what to do. He was at a loss as to how to handle the situation and no one else seemed to know much either. "What if Emma never comes back and we never know what happened to her? What if something happens to her up there or what if Loki hurts her? We can't do anything. She's stuck up there on her own and I can't do a damn thing about it. It's killing me not being able to do anything."

"Emma's almost an adult now, Tony," Pepper said as she gave him a soft look. "I know what she means to you, and I know that she's the youngest. She'll always be that girl you guys rescued from Hydra. I still remember that girl…but you have to remember she's growing up."

"What?" Tony said, not understanding what Pepper was getting at. Pepper nodded.

"Emma's a woman now. A very capable woman with incredible powers and even more incredible intelligence," Pepper said wisely as she glanced from Tony and then back to the others across the room. "She was on her own long before any of us were ever in the picture. Emma knows how to take care of herself, and she knows how to survive. We just have to find it in ourselves to trust that she'll take care of herself out in space and come back home. That she'll find a way to do that."

"I know you guys will always want to baby her. No matter if she's seventeen or someday when she's thirty-seven. She's the baby of the Avengers. She's Steve's girl but you also have to remember that at some point we just have to let go and trust that she can make it on her own." Pepper said, finishing up her speech. "No matter the circumstance. Emma's a smart and strong girl. I think we can all agree that she may be the strongest of all the Avengers. With all the things she's been through she has to be. She's definitely the most resilient of all of you guys so I know she'll come back to us. I know that she'll be okay because she's Emma."

The room was silent after Pepper's inspiring words. Even Tony didn't seem to have much say as he stared at his fiancé in astonishment. He knew she was right. Emma might've only been seventeen, but she'd been through so much in her short life. So much pain and death. She was strong-willed, resilient, strong, and intelligent beyond belief. Tony had to believe that she would be okay. That she could do things on her own.

It was just difficult letting go.

Especially when he didn't know what the outcome would be.

"Pepper's right," Rhodey finally said after considering her words. "Emma's almost an adult now. She's been on her own before and now she's on her own again. Whether we like it or not, there's nothing we can do to help her. We're just to have to believe that she'll fight her way through whatever this is and come back to us."

"If I've learned anything from living with Emma the past couple years is that she's capable of anything," Darcy mused quietly. "If anyone can go to an alien planet, fight Loki, and catch a ride home then it's going to be her. She'll do it."

"I agree," Maria said softly and Happy nodded in agreement. Emma was a terrifying person for a teenaged girl. Way more terrifying than the average teenaged girl. He and everyone else knew that she was capable of anything. Especially if she put her mind to it.

"I guess I just have to let her do it on her own," Tony finally said after calming a bit down from his panic attack. "I don't like it but you're right. She's something else. Something rare. I've never met anyone who's fought so hard at life as her. She won't stop at this."

"We just have to wait," Maria added, and no one seemed to like the sound of that, but it was the only thing left to do. There was nothing else to be done but wait.

"I don't like waiting," Tony retorted, and everyone collectively snorted at that.

"That's the understatement of the year," Rhodey joked, and Tony rolled his eyes at him. He didn't have it in him to come up with some smart-ass retort which wasn't like him but the fact that Tony was no longer hyperventilating or throwing up was progress. Real progress.

"Oh my god. Here it is!" Darcy said excitedly, changing the topic as she finally found the picture Emma sent her from the other day. The same picture Tony demanded to see since it was the last picture of Emma before her disappearance. Darcy didn't know why it was so important to him. It was just Emma with that weird guy. Darcy only assumed it was someone famous or something since Emma never took selfies. "I guess I lost the text from Emma in midst of all those spam messages all these scam artists keeping sending me. Is there a way you can fix that, Tony? Because-"

"Just show me the damn picture," Tony demanded, and Darcy quickly ran over to him to show him the picture on her phone.

Darcy quickly presented him with the picture and Tony grew pale at the sight.

It was none other than a smiling Emma. Smiling more than Tony had ever seen her smile before except when in the company of Peter or Barnes. It wasn't so much that a smiling Emma was causing him to feel another panic attack coming on. No, it was the fact that a smiling Emma was standing next to a grinning Loki. You would've thought they were spending the day at Disneyland with how happy they looked.

It was perhaps the most terrifying picture Tony had ever seen in his entire life.

"That girl's going to kill me one of these days," Tony mumbled before he started heaving his guts into Happy's satchel again.

It looked like the vomiting wasn't over.

He'd probably need another satchel soon enough.

---

Peter sobbed into his hands as he remained sitting down in the grass just outside the compound. It's where Peter had remained over the past hour while he continued to process the news about Emma. The news that Emma had been taken up into space and there was no known possible way to execute a rescue mission.

The whole situation seemed pretty hopeless.

Especially since Mr. Stark made it clear that he wasn't going to try and rescue her.

Peter just didn't know what to do.

"Why do you cry so much?" Bucky Barnes asked from within the darkness. Peter jumped in his spot and glanced over at Emma's father. He didn't know how long the man had been standing there. He hadn't even heard his footsteps. It unnerved him as it always did during the course of his and Emma's relationship. It was probably where Emma learned to be so quiet too. Her footsteps were also oddly silent. "I can count on both hands all the times I've seen you cry."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Barnes, but can you please leave me alone right now," Peter said as he wiped the tears from his face. "I don't feel like having you criticize me right now. I'm not in the mood."

It was quiet again for a moment and Peter thought Bucky might've left.

However, he was proved wrong as the former assassin took a seat next to him.

Peter looked at him in astonishment.

It was the closest Emma's father had ever willingly been to him.

"Emma always said she liked that about you," Bucky told him, his voice soft. Peter raised an eyebrow in bewilderment.

"That I cry a lot?" Peter questioned and Bucky chuckled before shaking his head.

"No, that you're so open with your emotions. That you left it all out there," Bucky said, answering his question. Peter glanced down at his hands, feeling very guilty all of a sudden. "I used to ask her why she was so infatuated with you, and she told me, among many other reasons, that she loved that you weren't afraid to be vulnerable. It's something she envied; I think. You can only get punished so many times for doing the same thing before you become terrified to show any sort of emotion at all."

"That's terrible," Peter said honestly, and Bucky nodded sadly.

"I know it is," Bucky said in response, a look of regret on his face. "You have no idea how much I wish she could forget everything in Hydra. That she could live without the fear of putting it all out there. How much I wish she could've let herself be happy with you instead of punishing herself."

"Happy with me?" Peter asked in confusion, not understanding Bucky's words. "But you hate me. You hated that she and I were together."

"You scared me," Bucky admitted which confused Peter even further. "She was all I ever had for so long. My entire world. When I got out of Hydra the only thing that kept me going was knowing that I would see her again. Then when I was finally reunited with her, she had you. It made me angry and bitter. Not at you but at Hydra. For stealing so many of my years with her. She's nearly an adult now and she won't need me anymore. It was selfish, I know, but I've never claimed to be a good person, after all."

"If you think Emma would've abandoned you for me then you're a really big idiot," Peter told him after hearing Bucky's ridiculous words. Bucky stared at him, and Peter blushed, realizing that maybe he went a step too far with his insulting words. "I just mean that Emma loves you more than anyone. More than me. You're all she ever talked about. I feel like I know you better than anyone from all the stories she used to tell me about you. She missed you so much during your time apart. Any conversation about the future we ever had somehow included you in it. She'll always need you."

Bucky just watched him quietly for a moment as he took in Peter's words before changing the subject. He didn't like leaving his emotions out in the open. Just like Emma as it would seem.

"I'm sorry about the breakup," Bucky told him, and Peter was still astonished that Bucky never beat him up. He still remembered the threat Bucky made against him all that time ago if he were to ever hurt Emma. Peter kept waiting for the fight, but it never came. "I tried to talk her out of it."

"Really?" Peter said in surprise and Bucky nodded.

"She told me about the doubts she was having, and I thought it would be best if she talked to you," Bucky informed him, and Peter nodded. "It's just…I don't think she ended things because she's scared of the future. I know her. I think she's still adjusting to life outside Hydra. I know she's been with the Avengers for a while now but she's still in that mind set. She never had a moment to herself to just adjust. I had that in Wakanda. It was fleeting but it was something."

"I didn't handle it well," Peter said sadly, feeling guilt over the fight he had with Emma. It was the last time he spoke to her, and it caused an ache in his heart to know that they parted on such bad terms. "I said terrible things to her. Really awful things that I didn't mean. Things that I know would hurt her. I wish I could take it all back. That I could tell her that I love her, and I miss her and I just her to come home. I'll do whatever she wants if she just comes home. If she wants to give up Spider-Man and Viper and just be two normal people for the rest of our lives, I'd be more than happy with doing that. I'd love it."

"Emma won't give up Viper," Bucky told Peter and Peter turned to look at him. It shocked him. The confidence in his voice. He seemed so sure that Emma wouldn't give up Viper even though Emma had seemed pretty sure about it to Peter. "Like I said, I know her, but I also know Steve. Those two are so much alike. In ways neither of them can see. She's going through some things right now, but she'll come through. In a very Steve way someday. I'm sure of it."

"I'll just have to take your word for it, I guess," Peter said quietly, and Bucky shook his head.

"She'll be okay," Bucky assured the young teenager. Peter gave him an uncertain look. "You'll be able to tell her all the things you want to tell her when she comes back."

"How can you be so sure?" Peter questioned. "Mr. Stark doesn't have a rescue plan in place, and I have no idea where to even start with a rescue plan of my own. So far it's just modifying a Quinjet but I don't know how long that will take or if it's even possible."

"You and Stark won't need a rescue plan because Emma will rescue herself," Bucky informed him which shocked Peter. "If you knew her the way I knew her, you'd know that she'd come back. The things I've seen her do…"

"I'm scared," Peter confessed to him, wishing he could have as much faith in Emma as Bucky seemed to. Not that Peter thought Emma couldn't take care of herself but the concept of her in space on her own was terrifying to Peter. "I'm scared that she's hurt somewhere up there, and I can't do anything about it."

"I'm scared too," Bucky admitted which surprised Peter even more. He didn't even know Bucky Barnes was capable of fear. "For the same reason but I have to have faith in not just her but in myself. That everything I ever taught her is somewhere still inside her and she'll use that to survive. So she can come back to us. I have to believe that because if I don't then what kind of father does that make me?"

"I guess you're right, Mr. Barnes," Peter finally said as he thought long and hard about Bucky's words. "I just want her back. I love her. So much. It kills me not knowing if she's okay."

"Me too," Bucky said softly, and the pair grew silent for a moment as they both gazed up at the night sky. It was teeming with bright stars. Some that shone brighter than others.

"You think she's somewhere out there right now looking up at the sky wondering if we're out there too?" Peter wondered aloud and Bucky smirked. He shook his head.

"Not Emma. She's probably kicking the ass of whatever poor alien is in her way," Bucky declared proudly and even Peter had to smile at that. "She could give a shit less about stars."

"You're probably right," Peter admitted, and Bucky nodded.

"Probably."

The pair continued to gaze up at the night sky regardless and wondered where Emma was at that exact moment in time. What she was doing. What she was thinking. And if missed them as much as they missed her.

Although, one thing was for sure.

This was the first time Bucky Barnes and Peter Parker had ever gotten along.

It was just a shame that Emma couldn't be there to see it.

---

Author's Note: SPOILER ALERT! SPOILERS FOR SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME AHEAD! If you haven't seen it then skip this message.

So all I wanted to say to say that before this story concept, Some Things Never Sleep was actually a TASM Peter Parker/OC fic. The main character was basically Emma except that she had a different name and her background was a tiny bit different. I just lost inspiration but felt more inspiration after watching Spider-Man: Homecoming the first time and decided to rework the concept into a MCU Peter Parker/OC fic instead which is how Emma Rogers was born. After seeing the new movie, I kind of want to explore the original concept again. Still rewrite it and make it different but it seems like a really cool concept for a future spin-off story.

Let me know if anyone is interested in a TASM Peter Parker/Different Emma spin-off fic. I've already written a tiny bit of it but I don't want to get ahead of myself or anything. It's just a few thousand words long so far. I also feel like it's basically canon now from No Way Home that TASM Peter is bisexual and I wouldn't change that for this story at all. I just love how we all decided that even if it still hasn't technically been confirmed. That's probably one of my favorite parts from seeing the movie.

Also, if anyone wants to talk about the movie please PM me. I'm dying to discuss it with people who actually care about it.