Chloe wobbled on the shaky metal floor as she tried to reach Natasha. Her leg was still caught under the pipe but Natasha didn't seem so preoccupied with that. Her eyes were trained on Banner.

His eyes were a dark green.

"Winters, get to Banner," Natasha instructed the blonde.

Chloe glanced over to the man and saw he was desperately fighting to keep control of himself. "Hell no! I have to get that pipe off you just in case we have to run for our lives!"

Banner's entire body was already changing.

"Doctor? Bruce, you gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants. We're gonna be okay. Listen to me!" Natasha spotted a few maintenance men coming to their aid but she weaved them away until they were out of sight. "We're gonna be okay. Right? I swear on my life I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never ever -"

"Your life?" Banner's voice was no longer his own but a hard gruff one instead.

Chloe recognized it from the videos they'd seen. "Oh God." She hurried towards Natasha and grasped the pipe.

Banner was transforming.

Chloe slapped her hands over the pipe and lifted it off with all her might. The lights flickered off just as the Hulk arrived. He roared once he was in full control.

"Run, run, run!" Chloe had helped Natasha up to her feet and pushed her ahead. She turned to Banner - no, the Hulk. "Sorry about this." She fired a jet of blue energy towards him, knocking him back to where he had originally landed.

"Chloe!" Natasha called from where she was.

"I know!" Chloe broke into a fervent run to catch up.

The Hulk brought down whatever he came across with as he chased the women down. Every now and then Chloe would stop to fire at him but never to combat with him.

"Chloe!" Natasha called after hearing a big thud behind her.

"I'm good!" promised the woman, but when she found Natasha again she had a gash on the side of her head. "I just fell!"

"Mhm!" Natasha shook her head. They couldn't afford to engage like they were used to and they were losing badly.

~ 0 ~

On the other side of the ship, Steve had finally caught up with Tony. He was back in his Iron Man suit in the air, trying to examine the damage the engines sustained.

"I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris," Tony mumbled to himself, arms stretching forwards to push a pipe further inside.

A blast of energy struck him on the back, pushing his body into the piece and thus into its proper place.

With a groan, Tony peeled himself off from the rotor until he was able to turn around. Seren waited for him in the air with one arm stretched forwards, balled fist ready to attack again. "I think I found Twinkle Star," Tony said with a clearing of his throat.

Steve had looked up to see the woman as well. His heart caught in his throat at the sight of her. Even from where he stood he saw her unusually cold face. "Stark, don't hurt her."

"Uuh, is she going to hurt me?" Tony demanded, presuming that the answer wouldn't be the one he hoped for. "Maybe we can work something out," he called out to Seren. "You already pushed in one rotor so thank you—"

Seren's face scrunched with anger. Her fist glowed a colorful flame then fired again. Tony dropped lower to avoid the hit but quickly surveyed the impact it had on the rotor. She was a strong one, alright. "If we stay here, she'll destroy the engines!"

"Bring her down!" Steve exclaimed. It was better for Seren to be on the ground rather than in the air, even it meant he'd inevitably have to cross paths with her.

"Yup!" Tony was quick to dive further down, prompting Seren to follow after him. "Head to the engine control panel on your left and tell me which relays are in overload position!"

"What!? But she's right behind you—"

"I can multitask!" barked Tony. "In a minute, you'll have to as well!"

Without other options, Steve followed and rushed for the panel. He jumped and swung himself to the floor above. He ripped the control panel open and saw far too many wires.

"What's it look like in there?" called Tony. He turned around to project his own blasts against Seren. She conjured up a momentary shield then returned the favor with more star bolts.

Steve assessed as much as he could of what he saw but the truth was he still needed a lot more lessons on the electricity part of this new world. Everything flashed red and orange. "It...seems to run on some form of electricity."

Tiny paused for a second to process that answer. This was really his partner for the moment. "Well...you're not wrong."

Seren delivered a punch across his chest, shooting him down to the half-standing floor. She then looked up to where Steve was. She zoomed high to catch up with him.

~ 0 ~

The room below had grown far too dark for Chloe's and Natasha's liking. They had snuck under an engine to avoid getting thrown for the moment, but they both knew that they wouldn't be able to hide forever. Natasha had primed her gun when they decided to move out from the pipes. Chloe's fists were balled, ready to attack at the first sign of trouble. They slipped out in silence and walked cautiously. They only made it a few steps when the Hulk jumped at them, roaring at the top of his lungs. Both women screamed with him.

Natasha fired at a pipe above the Hulk's head, causing a steak of gas to spit out. She then led Chloe down a narrow passage in another run.

The Hulk was soon on their tail again, catching up with them as they were about to leave the passage. He backhanded Natasha who'd come out first then did the same with Chloe.

"C'mon Banner," Chloe begged in-between pants for air. She sat upright. "Stop all this!"

The Hulk started making way for them. Natasha was having a hard time getting up but she knew she had to when she saw the green body coming towards her. She hated that her muscles were screaming a deep 'no way' at her, keeping her to the ground.

The Hulk raised his fist to strike her but before he could lower it, he was tackled through the wall into the next room.

"Natasha!" Chloe yelled and hobbled her way towards her friend until her body could respond the way it needed to.

"What was...what was…?" Natasha was breathing heavily, clearly affected by the near death experience. She had been trained to fight and kill but nothing had prepared her for the Hulk, and it showed.

Chloe helped her stand up and looked at the big gaping hole in the wall. "Thor's taking care of him now. I hope." He did have far more strength than all of them combined; Thor could be the perfect match for the Hulk. "C'mon!" She pulled Natasha down the opposite way, having to basically lead her all the way. This fight was going to leave a bit of a scar, both literally and mentally.

'We've got a perimeter breach. Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Call out to every junction.'

Chloe came to an abrupt stop. She glanced at Natasha, both nodding in agreement. Clint Barton would definitely be leading such a faction. If they wanted to stop him, their best chance was to fight him and subdue him.

They switched gears and headed for the bridge.

~ 0 ~

Steve had done what he hoped was the right way to "fix the relays". Tony was very quick with those instructions and he himself was panicking more with each second that passed by. "The relays are intact, what's our next—"

"Cap, she's up!" he heard Tony's urgent shout. Steve quickly looked over his shoulder just as a flaming bolt of star matter was thrown his way. He jumped to the side, landing in a tumble. "Don't let her hit the control panel!" Tony snapped.

"I'll try my best!" Steve said with a groan as he started picking himself up. Seren finally landed on the ground and walked a few steps towards him. Her eyes were so cold, it just didn't fit. "C'mon Seren, we don't have to do this."

"She's not exactly in a listening mood!" Tony flew upwards for the engines.

"Not true," Seren spoke for the first time, startling the pair. She blinked calmly with her new blue eyes. "I listen when I have to."

"Then listen to me right now!" Steve exclaimed. "Loki — he's messing with your head!"

"The Tesseract showed me something I needed," she walked a couple more steps towards him. He took back the same amount.

"I doubt whatever it showed you is something you needed."

A deep scowl crossed Seren's face. "How would you know?" she demanded in the iciest of tones then lunged on Steve with readied fists. "You don't even know me!"

"Multitask!" Steve heard Tony's voice very briefly in the midst of the fight that ensued. He didn't want to fight Seren under any circumstances. He ducked and moved to avoid her fists but he was aware that if one of them started to glow, he wouldn't be able to keep using the strategy.

"I know I haven't been a very good friend to you but I want to fix that!" Steve ducked when Seren swung an arm his way but he wasn't so lucky with the next arm. Her fist collided with his cheek and sent him back a few steps. His eyes were wide with shock. She'd actually moved him. No one had yet to do that to him and yet Seren did it without breaking a sweat. Honestly, he never thought he would meet someone who could match him — possibly outmatch him.

Seren scoffed. "Oh please, the man out of his Time. What do you know about me and this world?" When she lunged again with glowing fists, Steve caught her by the wrists.

"That's what Loki said to me which means you're not the one talking!" Steve held onto her wrists as tightly as he could and even that was a struggle.

"I'm the one talking!" Seren snapped. One touch was all she needed to hurt him. It forced Steve to do the same against her. It was genuinely stunning to see they were locked in a push-and-pull mode. When this was all over and Seren was back to normal — because she would be completely fine after this — he would commend her for telling the truth about their similar physiology.

Right now, though, he had to think about winning...even if it meant hurting her. If he knew Seren, and he liked to think that he did, then she would want him to stop her from hurting people. With that mentality, he switched gears. He stopped pushing against her, making her nearly fall forwards. He grabbed her arm midfall and, regretfully, slammed her against the wall face-first. He quickly grabbed her wrists and pinned them on her back.

"Seren, c'mon, snap out of it!"

She growled and shook her body to get out of his hold. "You're stupid if you think words will make all this better. If you were smart enough, you'd join us."

That wasn't Seren. It couldn't be. "Seren, what did the Tesseract show you?"

A sour laugh left Seren's lips — something so unlike her.

Up above, Tony had done good on his repairments. The next step, however, was a bit more complicated. "Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push."

Steve held onto Seren's wrists tightly, as much as he could actually. She was proving her strength and if things weren't so dire, he'd be a little alarmed. "If that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded…"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Remember what I said about multi-tasking? Stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that should—"

Now it was Steve's turn to roll his eyes. "Speak English!" He shouted.

Tony groaned loudly enough to make his point. "See that red lever?" Steve looked over to see the bright red lever in front of him. "It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word."

"Easier said than done!"

Seren suddenly stopped struggling. Steve barely looked down at her wrists when she shoved her entire body against his. The two landed near the edge of the floor, one over the other. Seren quickly rolled off him and tried making a fly up. Steve reacted fast and grabbed her leg, pulling her down. She landed flat on her back next to him and took a moment as she groaned.

Steve was already looking at her when she turned her head his way. "You should have told me about the Tesseract, Seren..."

Seren scoffed. "And do what? Help me? Please. Didn't you end up at the bottom of the ocean for that thing? Maybe if you'd hidden it better, we wouldn't be here right now."

"Maybe..." Steve considered the idea with a sigh, "And then you wouldn't be like this. Weaponized by an alien."

"Newsflash, Captain, I am an alien. Everyone's always been so afraid of that detail!" Seren kicked herself up on her feet. "And now I've turned into the thing they most feared." She raised her hands, fingers spread apart as energy danced between them. "You met Seren — mousy little Seren," she feigned a pout for a second before an unsual hardness took over her face, "Seren, who walks with her head down; Seren, who watches her every word. Now you're dealing with Stardust. She—" she smirked, "—is all alien." Her hands balled into fists and the energy around them radiated. "No restrictions, no restraints — freedom." She charged for Steve, drawing back one arm to fire a series of star bolts.

Steve ducked to avoid the first round but after that it became a series of narrow escapes.

~ 0 ~

Chloe's and Natasha's plans to reach the bridge were cut short upon meeting another faction of Clint's group. If they wanted to reach the bridge at all, they needed to get rid of the group. So, they fought but in doing so, they were separated. It was only when they heard the intercom say the Hulk was down on Earth that they were able to gather some sense around them.

Whether or not that was good news was left undecided as the next time the intercom talked, it was to announce that another of their engines was down.

"One more and we're dead!" Natasha exclaimed. "What the hell are those idiots doing outside?"

"Seren's out there!" Chloe reminded.

"It's Barton, he took out our systems," Fury's voice rang through their earpieces. "He's headed for the detention lab. Does anybody copy?"

Natasha stiffened. She met Chloe's look, silently announcing that this was her mission. Chloe wouldn't protest. "This is Agent Romanoff. I copy," she answered.

"You sure?" Chloe asked. She had never known Natasha to be compromised in any mission but she was aware of the deep connection she had to Clint. This could be the first time and she didn't want Natasha to be alone when it happened.

Natasha nodded firmly. "Yeah. Get to the bridge!"

~ 0 ~

"Stark, we're losing altitude!" Tony heard Fury's angry declaration whilst he was pushing a rotor back into place.

"Yeah, I got that! Handling it!" He was really doing his best here. He had flown in-between the rotors and was pushing as much as he could. They slowly picked up speed but it didn't seem to be enough in the beginning. He had to push harder.

So he did...and it started to work. The helicarrier ultimately pulled itself back and now all that was left was for Steve to pull that lever so he could slip from the rotors.

But that didn't happen.

Steve was trying to avoid Seren again. She'd left behind her powers for the moment to strike him the old fashioned way. Where she tried punching — and she had already — he would just dodge.

"Pathetic!" Seren spat after Steve's latest dodge. "This is what history rambled on about? A man who won't even fight?"

"I don't want to fight you, Seren!? Don't you get it!?" Steve exclaimed. "You're my friend! You're the one who showed me how to live in this new world!"

"An assignment," Seren said coldly, coming to a momentary ceasefire to get the point across. "Agent Soul was assigned to help Captain America re-adjust. Don't you get it? You were just a job."

"Maybe," Steve nodded, feigning like that wasn't actually puncturing his heart a bit—or maybe slightly more than he wanted to think. "But you didn't have to be my friend. That wasn't Agent Soul. That was Seren and I really grew to like her. And I'm sorry for being such a crappy friend in return. I was so centered in my misery, my pain, that I didn't take the opportunity to get to know you."

Seren's expression had gone stoic. For a second, Steve wondered if he'd been able to momentarily to cut through the Tesseract's mind control.

"ROGERS!" Tony shouted when one of the rotors caught him and spun him around at top speed.

Steve winced at the loud scream in his ear. At the same time, Seren rushed forward to ram her fist on his face. He barely caught her by the wrist then shoved her back. She stumbled back a few steps then came right back. "Seren, please!" He said desperately as he grabbed her in a chokehold. He held her tightly, a part him of unsure if he was trying to hug her instead. He didn't care that this was the closest equal battle he'd fought in, he cared that he was fighting his own friend — the only friend he had in this world and he couldn't even reach her, pull her out from the darkness that she'd unknowingly pulled him out of.

"Beg all you want," Seren laughed, twisting every which way to break free. "As we speak, Clint's taking out the others inside the Helicarrier. In five more minutes, I'll strike you and Stark down."

"Seren!"

"She's not going to listen!" Tony yelled again. "Clock her out! Aren't you packed with strength or something?"

"Did you forget - so is she!?" Steve tightened his grip more. This wouldn't last very long.

Tony would give Steve the point after he stopped the rotors. "C'MON! I'm going to die in here!"

Steve caught another of Seren's fists and used his grip on her to throw her in the opposite direction. He would apologize later. He dashed for the lever. He heard Seren's bolts coming before they reached him. He ducked and kept running, nearly tripping on his own feet. Finally, his hand grabbed onto the lever and yanked it down.

The rotor would then spit Tony's body out through one of its vents. He used the last of his suit's strength to fly directly for Seren, ramming her down to the ground. She glared at him, her fist glowing again when Tony slammed her head against the ground. She wasn't going to stay awake after that.

"Night, night, Twinkle Star," Tony fell to the side with a heavy breath.

Steve hurried back to the two and knelt down beside Seren's body. He pressed two fingers on her neck to feel her pulse and while it was there, he thought it could be a little bit stronger than what it was. He cradled Seren's head, hoping she would wake up and not be brainwashed? If it was even possible...

"Yeah, I'm fine too, thanks," Tony said from his spot, groaning. "Word of advice, if you have a little crush on the woman, let someone else fight her."

Steve wanted to punch Tony so badly...

~ 0 ~

The remaining group regathered in the briefing room. The air was terse from their fight and the ending result. Thor and the Hulk were gone. Seren and Clint were out-cold, their mind status unknown yet. Agent Coulson was dead. Loki had killed him without a second thought and now he was gone with the Tesseract.

Fury tossed Phil's set of cards over the table where Steve and Tony were sitting. "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them."

Steve noticed the bright red spots on a couple of the cards. Blood. He was swallowed hard. They should have been more focused. Now everything was all wrong.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you…" Fury started going on for the others in the room, "Lost my one good eye. Think I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea - Soul and Stark know this - called the Avengers Initiative."

Steve met Fury's gaze. He'd heard the name briefly from Seren at one point.

"It started a long time ago with Agent Soul. She was the first we recruited and as time went by, there was talks to expand it and include more people. A team. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes. Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

Chloe walked into the room then, immediately claiming the attention. Steve quickly turned in his chair, anxious to hear about Seren. Chloe was looking directly at Fury, her expression rather hard. "The Initiative is Seren's life's work — it shouldn't even belong to S.H.I.E.L.D. at this point. It's hers."

"If that's what she was working on, then maybe it's a good thing she's out cold," Tony said as he pushed himself up from his seat.

"Hey," Steve glared at the man beside him, "Whatever you think you know, you don't. What happened to Seren should never happen to anyone."

"It's more of what you don't know," Tony countered, meeting Fury's gaze, "See this isn't the first time I hear about this stupid Initiative. Some of just don't make the cut, right?"

Steve followed Tony's gaze towards Fury, as did Chloe, but of course Fury never responded. Tony hadn't expected anything less and left the room altogether.

"What was he talking about?" Steve demanded from Fury.

"Agent Soul never spoke about it?" Fury sounded like he didn't believe it regardless of whatever Steve was going to respond with.

"Seren was professional," Steve frowned. "She didn't speak about her missions much, especially not some Initiative. So, what is it?"

"It's not your prerogative, I'm afraid," Fury said, making a round on the table, "It's dead, anyways."

"No, it's not," snapped Chloe, her brow furrowing angrily on behalf of her beloved friend. "And I bet if Seren had known your intentions with Stark, she would have had a thing or two to say about it. You should have never sent in Natasha in her place anyways."

Steve had no idea what Chloe was talking about but since it did sound like Seren had been displaced by Natasha, he didn't like it one bit. He stood up from his chair, fixating another glare towards Fury. "What did you do?"

"Nothing," Fury said incredulously, "Agent Winters do not forget where you stand in all this. You know well you should be halfway around the world by now."

"Fat chance," Chloe spat, "I'm not leaving until Seren is better and this is all over." She then walked up beside Steve and grabbed his arm. "We're going to go see Seren now and if she decides to take over, we're going to let her. This is her domain anyways."

Fury let them leave without saying anything.

~ 0 ~

Chloe led the way in the hallway, her pace hasty. Her mind was spiraling with everything that was going on and having an active Hive Mind in her head wasn't helping the situation. They were buzzing from her emotions and their emotions put together.

"Chloe!" Steve called, having no trouble keeping up with her. "You gotta tell me what all that was about."

"I'd rather Seren do it, honestly. I'm not good with talking about this stuff. Seren's always been better at it."

"Well, Seren's not here right now and you're about the only person I trust in this place so please—" Steve grabbed Chloe's arm and turned her around, "—have some pity and just tell me what's going on. Why's Stark more pissed about this than he should be? And what's Seren got to do with it and this-this Initiative Fury was talking about?"

Chloe sighed and gently pushed Steve's hand off her arm. "Steve, it's seriously a long story. And it's all about Seren. She needs to be the one to tell you. I'm telling you — yes, Fury came up with the idea but Seren is the one who brought it to life. It's hers. It's like her baby."

Steve still found a quick alternative. "What about Stark? What's his problem? Seren's not even here and he's acting like—"

"Stark is just pissed because of Natasha," Chloe shrugged, "And Fury. He's bitter and if I had a report written about me, I probably would have been to."

"Report? What report?"

Chloe licked her lips. "It's really—"

"Chloe."

"A while back, Fury sent Natasha undercover to pose as Tony's assistant — or his girlfriend's assistant — so that she could observe Tony."

"Observe him for what?"

"To see if he would be a good candidate for the Initiative," Chloe said, rolling her eyes, "Seren's new partner."

"And let me guess," Steve crossed his arms, "Seren doesn't know about it?"

"I'm sure Fury never told her about it," Chloe said.

"Natasha?"

"I never know what that woman. But the point is, in the report that Natasha wrote, she basically said Tony wouldn't be a good fit."

"And now he's taking it out on Seren," Steve nodded to himself. He understood Tony's thought process but hated it nonetheless. "Fine, I'll set him straight."

"No!" Chloe exclaimed, latching onto his arm before he left her. "We need to check on Seren first. If I know her, she's going to be blaming herself for what happened. You really don't get how important this stuff is to her. She's going to need us. C'mon..." She gently pulled Steve with her, only letting him go when she was sure that he would follow her.

A/N:

Phew, there we go! So in terms of fighting, who is stronger? Seren or Steve? ;)

Gotta say, I like writing dark!Seren. It's such a contrast to her personality. Hope she never goes evil again ;). Our girl will be back next chapter and, like Chloe said, Seren is the leader of the Avengers Initiative so she might be taking over...if people aren't too mad with her :).

P.S. As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"

For the reviews:

Wonderwomanbatmanfan: It was a little bit of both as you saw. I thought about it and figured this was the way to go! Hope you liked it!

April2016: Thank you!