Yay, another update! I'll be trying to post more regularly. Also, Endgame messed me up. Granted I was going to completely diverge from canon after a specific moment in Civil War but still. I have another one planned that follows everything. Goodness, it's going to suck to watch it all once I hit Civil War. But anyways, nevermind that.

Now onto the chapter!

As Majalia made her way through the halls, she barely paid attention to where she went. She knew that she was supposed to go straight to Bruce's lab, but she really didn't want to have him question her. Things were already so weird, and confusing. She didn't want any awkwardness between them, especially since she knew her eyes were red. It was bad enough someone had witnessed it.

The walk back to the lab was slow moving, with Maj getting lost more than once. Along the way, she bumped into a few agents, but they weren't very helpful. It took a while, but she eventually made her way to the lab. There, she found Bruce at his computer. The man glanced at her as she entered, and she managed to give him a small smile as she planted herself in the seat she'd occupied the day before. It was best to keep out of Bruce's way. In that time she decided to look into the man with the familiar suit.

Hours passed before they were interrupted. There was a gaggle of SHIELD agents who surrounded a pale man with slick back black hair and both lab occupants watched as he was escorted somewhere. The man's green eyes caught Majalia's as she leaned forward in interest. A shiver ran down her spine as their eyes met and she instantly inched closer to the man beside her. For not knowing him very long, Maj felt safest with him.

Not long after the man had passed by, Bruce was collected from the lab. Maj was able to tow along as he claimed she was his assistant, something she was very happy the agent believed. It also helped that Bruce had called her such when they were in the bridge. She was just happy to check on Natasha and make sure she was okay.

When they were left in the bridge, it seemed as if she and Bruce were the last to arrive. As Maj moved to the table, she froze, seeing a very familiar face in the American flag suit. She couldn't believe her eyes. Steve was the guy. He was one of the SHIELD people. Her head spun as she tried to make sense of it, especially since she now knew about the suit. He couldn't be the original. There was no way as the man had died in '45. Maybe the agency had asked him to take the mantle for whatever reason. It was the only conclusion she could come to as there was no way the original could have survived.

After a quick glance at the red-head, Majalia looked at the tall blonde man who stood near Bruce. He was cute, in a rugged and ultra buff way- not what she would go for but attractive nonetheless. It wasn't long after her observation that the screen on the table showed the pale man and the man she'd seen when she'd first entered the bridge. Maj paid close attention to what was being said, frowning as the man spoke. She couldn't understand what he meant about the monster playing a man, or about the girl who had yet to be unlocked. It wasn't much longer that the conversation ended and the screen turned off.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

"Loki's going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

Maj glanced up at the standing blonde, eyes wide as she heard the name. Loki? Thor? Like the mythological Norse gods? She didn't dare ask about it as she was pretty sure she wasn't even supposed to be hearing the information. Instead, she opted to remain silent and wait until later to question Natasha or Bruce about it.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army, from outer space?" Steve's voice was one of disbelief. Maj couldn't blame him. This all sounded ridiculous and if she hadn't known about the X-Men and mutants, she would have thought it was all insane. Hell, there were supposed to be TWO gods on this ship thing.

"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Selvig for."

"Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He's a friend."

"Loki has them under some kind of spell - along with one of ours." Maj's head immediately snapped to the woman. Natasha steadily met her gaze, her head tilting just the slightest. In that moment, the younger woman received her answer. Majalia did her best to control her breathing as she knew she was about to start hyperventilating. Clint was possessed by the greasy looking man- Loki- and there seemed to be no way of getting him back. Loki didn't seem to keen to give away his secrets.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is like a bag full of cats- you can smell the crazy on him." Although she tried, Majalia couldn't help the snort that escaped her. Thor and Natasha shot her a look that quickly silenced her and had her averting her eyes to the desk.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted."

"I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need iridium for?"

It was at that moment, Tony freaking Stark entered the room with Phil. For the most part, Maj wasn't impressed by the over the top man, but she did admire the path he had taken after he stopped creating weapons. There was that and he was a genius. Maj had met him a few times as a child, with her parents bringing her to a few functions. She wasn't sure he remembered her, but all the times they had met, he had been nothing but kind to her and a friend to her father. "It's a stabilizing agent."

With that, he returned to his conversation with Phil. As they separated, the man returned his attention to the group. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did with SHIELD." He headed over the Thor and patted his arm. "No hard feelings point break. You got a mean swing." Maj giggled a bit as Thor glared at him, although it was missed as Tony moved to the control panel. "Also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants." He then turned his attention to some of the agents, who stared at him dead-eyed as he spoke. When he received no response, he outed one of them who was playing a game.

Maj couldn't hide her amusement. As odd as it was, he was kind of the same as he was all those years ago, just less inebriated. Her mother had never been a fan of his drinking, but he never did anything to show he was untrustworthy. In fact, when he wanted to get away, they often let him pull Maj away and he'd tell her jokes. That obviously all stopped when her parents died. He'd been at the funeral, but all he gave Maj was a small nod before he left. It was the last she heard from him. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to- kickstart the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers- am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular power source?" That was a good question from Steve, Maj had to admit.

"He has to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Maj raised a brow. She was horribly confused, but it made sense as she knew nothing about astrophysics. A part of her hoped that Bruce would explain a little to her when he had a bit of downtime… meaning when she forced him to step away from his work for a few minutes.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect."

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

"Finally, someone who speaks English!"

"Is that what happened?"

Maj nodded before she leaned over to whisper to him. "It's their kind of English. Us lesser folk couldn't even touch it."

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you- lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

That piqued Maj's interest completely. An enormous green rage monster? Bruce? No way in hell. The man was the epitome of calm. She was so caught in her thoughts she missed the glance Bruce sent her and the entrance of the man in the trenchcoat. In fact she missed just about the entirety of the conversation that had transpired. Maj was only pulled from her thoughts when Bruce placed a hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to follow after him. She gave a quick glance to everyone else, before she stood and quickly went after Bruce.

As they entered the lab, Bruce and Tony got straight to work. Maj watched them in awe. She always did enjoy learning, and to watch to geniuses in their environment was fascinating. Maj wanted to ask about the whole science thing… and the green rage monster thing… but she kept quiet. She wasn't even supposed to be there to begin with. Instead, she sat in her little corner and played on her phone, texting Wade and Alec. The latter was happy to tell her what he'd been doing, and they had made plans for another movie marathon. She wasn't sure what they would watch, but she threw out the idea of watching The Mummy. It was only two films (we don't talk about the third) and she kind of wanted to be able to head into work at some point. She knew Alec wouldn't like it, but she really did miss the guys at Sr Margaret's.

As she typed away, Maj noticed a shadow hovering over her. Upon looking up, she came face to face with Tony Stark. "Don't I know you?" Maj raised a brow and shrugged. She really didn't know what to say to that. 'Yeah, you used to hang out with me at those snooty events when I was a kid'. That would have been mortifying. "I do don't I? Where do I know you from? We haven't slept together, right? You look a little too young to have been in my bed."

"No, Mr Stark. That hasn't happened."

"But I do know you right?"

"You knew my parents better." The look he gave told her to continue. "Uh, Emile and Jackson Butler."

Tony look dumbstruck to say the least. It was like he couldn't believe that she was in front of him, or on the ship. She found that she couldn't blame him for it. Hell, if Nat hadn't brought her here, Maj would have been a distant memory. The billionaire rubbed the back of his neck. "Really? What are you doing here? You didn't become a spy, did you? Jackson would probably leave the grave."

"Uh, no. I'm not. I'm Bruce's assistant."

"Now say that again and I might actually believe you." Maj blanched and tried not to glance over at Bruce. She repeated her statement but Tony just chuckled. Cheeks puffed out, Maj folded her arms over her chest in indignation. "Sorry kid. Your eyes glazed over when we were talking science."

"So what? I could just be grabbing him coffee and food. Goodness knows he forgets to eat and sleep." Bruce coughed and ducked his head. "Sorry, Bruce. You know what, I'm just going to go get that coffee." With that, Maj rushed out of the room, bumping into Steve as she did so.

So, what did you think? Let me know :)

REVIEWS:

Jaylew333: Thanks so much. Hope you liked this chapter.

CurlyOne: So glad you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts on this one.