"I have to go and end this now," Christie decided as she tied her hair into her quick classic mid ponytail and made her way to the door. The girls blinked at each other before scurrying after her.

"Woah, with no plan? Oh Christie stop - you're not thinking this through at all!" Renesme interrupted her sharply, her bright red locks flying behind her as she attempted to prevent her friend from strapping in her dagger.

"Girls, I've listened to you from day one, now I'm just asking that you listen to me and let me do my job. I'm an assassin - this is literally what I do!" Christie snapped back as those cold grey eyes of hers fired up in a way they hadn't seen before.

"Oh please! You have not listened to us at all!" Jennie suddenly shouted, slamming her hand onto the wall next to her. Christie stared at her for a second before letting out a dry chuckle.

Because if she didn't, she'd do something dangerous.

"I cannot believe you think I'm being defiant on purpose? Do you think I like the fact that the only man I've ever loved has turned on himself, on me, on everyone?" she blinked, her eyes now accidentally glistening with angry tears.

"No one's saying that Christie - but Renesme's right. You can't just waltz over there and stab him! We need a plan-" Delilah began as diplomatically as possible…before Jennie interrupted her again.

"Do you think we like seeing you like this? Do you think we can hear another night of you screaming for him to hang onto the Bifrost in your sleep?" she shot back viciously.

"Oh my apologies - cos you all need your rest, right? How very inconsiderate of me," Christie spat, now totally outraged that they could even try and turn this on her out of thin air.

What was happening to them?

"You know what, Christie-"

"OH WOULD YOU ALL JUST STOP!" Renesme finally snapped, causing Jennie and Delilah to raise their eyebrows at her unexpected outburst and spin around to face her instead. "Seriously Christie, I have been supporting you from day one but now you're pushing us away at the one time that we need to put our heads together!"

Christie's face crumpled. She didn't understand why everyone was turning on her so drastically, seemingly because she wanted to get this 'spirit relieving' nonsense over and done with. She suddenly began to tremble, finding it harder to steady her hands as she continued loading her pistol, praying they would drop it.

But they didn't.

"Can you not see that we hate seeing you like this?" Jennie jumped in, seeing an opening again. "We're all just trying to help you get this thing out of that bastard yet it's clearly not good enough for you. I am so sick and tired of you complaining whilst making irrational decisions that could easily get you killed! Is this not a form of utter selfishness?"

At this point, Jennie, Renesme and Delilah had accidentally physically gotten close together, and it literally looked like it was Christie against the three of them. Now she was at her limit.

"I'm complaining?" Christie whispered coldly, suddenly seeing nothing but red. She was a lot cooler than her sister when it came to losing her temper, but when she did - it was still a little dangerous. "I had to deal with shady sh*t from you lot for months for falling in love just because he wasn't muscular, blonde haired and blue eyed and I didn't complain once. I was the one that had to calm Loki down for GOD knows how long once he realised he wouldn't be king, whilst you guys skipped around Thor singing his praises every morning, noon and night and I shut up and did it like a good little serving girl. I've watched him slowly kill himself, then saw him actually kill himself and now I have to kill him again but I'M COMPLAINING?" At this point, Christie was sobbing her eyes out again and the tears were running viciously into her mouth, but it didn't faze her. Everything tasted salty and slimy but she just couldn't bring herself to care - she was too far gone. "I cannot believe you would even suggest that to me after everything we've been through. Aren't you lot meant to be my friends? F*ck you all, seriously. Every single one of you." Then she ran blindly out of the door and slammed it behind her, leaving the other girls stood there biting their lips in the silence she left behind. Renesme began to cry. She hated arguments.

And then came the explosion. It shook the floor.

The girls didn't have to think twice as they dashed out the door, straight into the midst of the commotion, knowing that Christie was somewhere out there. But they weren't to know that she went down the opposite corridor so the explosion didn't have much of an impact on her - but Stark, who was running down the same corridor from the other direction, skidded to a halt in front of her. "What's up?" Christie sniffed, scrubbing her eyes dry with the soft sleeve of her leather jacket as she watched Tony hurriedly programme his suit via bluetooth.

"What's up? Whitey, did you not hear that big ass explosion?" he panted.

"I wasn't…um…wait, where from?" Christie rushed out, only now noticing the dusty pieces of rubble resting peacefully on his shoulders.

"Like, right near your bunker?! Look, just stay out of danger, got it?" Tony instructed her firmly before running off. Christie swore to herself and skidded back down the hallway as fast as she could. Yes, she was practically at war with the girls, but she had to at least make sure they were safe, right?

"JEN? REN? DELILAH?" she screeched desperately whilst she continued to scour the hallways, dashing past scattered panicked S.H.I.E.L.D workers here and there. The Helicarrier alarms was whirring like crazy, a siren like blare drowning all her senses.

Then came his voice.

"Annerledes, I think I'm about to do something and I can't stop it, come quickly! Please!"

So Christie let out another groan of frustration and speedily made her way into the main holding room instead. She happened to arrive in time to not only see Thor in the glass cell, but also to see Loki violently impale her beloved Coulson with his staff, just below his chest and all the way through his back.

"NO!" Christie and Thor both yelled, Thor slamming his fist against the glass in agony which immediately then sent the cage plummeting straight into the sky. Everything happened so fast that Christie didn't even time to prepare herself anymore - she tugged the safety and aimed her pistol directly at Loki's head, who gave a simple smirk as he stared at her in response. But her hands were shaking and her eyes were watering, completely fogging her vision…and she just couldn't get it right.

She couldn't pull the trigger.

But she didn't have to - because Coulson then blasted him to the ground with a huge weapon he had suddenly acquired in his hands.

"So that's what it does," he croaked as Christie let out a devastated sob and made her way over to him as quickly as she could. She fell to her bony knees and gathered his weak upper body in her arms once she reached him.

"C-C-Coulson," she sobbed, her hot tears dripping onto his stained bloodied suit. "Coulson, stay with me, please! Help is c-c-coming! Coulson? Coulson…? Co…ul…"

And then she passed out.

…

Christie woke up confused.

She felt both hollow and empty - both physically and emotionally. It took quite some time for her to register where she was. A few glances around told her that was in a hospital ward, wired up to a steadily beeping monitor. Her eyesight was still fuzzy as she hadn't yet adjusted to the light properly, but she didn't even care. The last thing she could remember was holding a dying Coulson in her arms, and she was unsure of what happened after that - but she continued to pray for the best outcome.

"Oh now you're awake!" came a lightly amused female voice from the corner of the room. Christie carried on blinking until her vision became a little more focussed, before flicking her eyes towards the source of it.

And standing there in her signature black spandex one piece was her older sister, Ashley.

Still as beautiful as ever, too. Fun.

"What, the f*ck?" Christie croaked weakly. Now she was sure she was hallucinating.

"Yikes, Chris. Please, hold the excitement," Ashley drawled in that cheeky British accent, pushing her long thick dark red curls back from falling over her face. "I told you to stick to your day job, mate. What the hell are you doing here?"

"What, in a hospital?" Christie muttered as she darted her grey eyes up to her sister's deep olive green ones.

"No, working for S.H.I.E.L.D? That is straight up the dumbest idea you could've EVER had," Ashley stressed. She perched herself at the edge of the bed as Christie let out a scoff.

"Why? Do only mutants get a fair shot at doing something a bit irregular and exciting?" Christie asked cockily, causing her sister to roll her eyes tiredly.

"Haa haa haa," she responded sarcastically, dragging out every word.

"Where am I? And why are you here?" Christie suddenly frowned.

"You're still in the helicarrier, idiot. Dad sent me here to help out. He heard about the commotion and immediately started to freak his little bald head out," Ashley shrugged, running her hands through those vibrant loose curls again.

"But why? It's not like he cares," Christie rolled her eyes. She gently propped herself to sit up by her elbows, gradually feeling her strength regain.

"Well he better bloody care, otherwise I came all the way down here for no reason," Ashley scoffed. She wasn't in the mood to get into this argument with her sister again - it used to be a daily thing whilst they were growing up. "He even did that freeze perception thingy for you."

"Huh? Why go through all that trouble?"

"He knew that if Fury saw me he'd want me to join your little squad and apparently I'm not allowed to do that - since I have those exams to prepare for," Ashley explained, absentmindedly tracing the patterns on the hospital bedsheets with the tip of her finger. "He also saw that your lot were in serious trouble and that no jet that we had would get me here in time. So we used some mutant magic! Fun times!"

"First of all, we weren't 'in trouble' and it's not a 'little squad'," Christie corrected her hotly. She found herself very defensive over The Avengers when it came to outsiders, family or not. "I'm sorry that we're not as neat as your 'X Men' but give us-"

"What?" Ashley laughed properly then - that tinkering laugh that Christie irritatingly found herself missing sometimes. "Neat? The X Men get themselves into more issues than we can actually fix. We are - and say it with me here - dys-func-tion-al!" Christie shot her a small smirk and placed a hand on her burning forehead, still a little woozy.

"Hm. How are you and that laser eye guy doing?" she decided to ask, drawing her knees to her chest. Only then did Ashley's cheeky smile practically melt off her face as she threw her head back dramatically.

"Scott? He's still grieving Jean, of course," she groaned. "I don't really care anymore. I've done all I can…and I think the age gap would be a little weird. Actually, for once, I think staying single is in my best interest."

"Yeah, sounds like you've really given it your all, Ash," Christie hummed, desperately holding back another smirk.

"Um yeah, I have! I even asked him if I could take his bike to come help, but the dude was too busy crying into his visors to answer me."

"I mean she did kinda just die. So what exactly did you 'help' us with then?" Christie asked sceptically, raising a perfectly arched brow.

"Ah, a few minor things that I can't really get into detail about," Ashley winced. "Dad would absolutely kill me - sorry hun!"

"I haven't seen you face to face in, like, over three years," Christie reminded her with a sulky grumble. "What else are you good for if you don't tell me the juicy sh*t?"

"Say you miss me first!" Ashley teased her.

"Not a chance in hell."

"Wow. Fine. Let's just say that it's best not to get too caught up over your suited and booted guy, okay? But don't tell your team that, Fury said they needed a bit of an incentive to push them forward and from the sounds of it, he's absolutely right. A hot mess, you guys are." For a few seconds, Christie racked her brains to try and figure out who that suited stabbed guy was - it didn't take long for her eyes to light up in realisation.

"Oh my god. You SAVED COULSON?!" she hissed loudly, shamelessly overjoyed. "Oh Ash! I could kiss you!"

"Relax! It was a nasty job and I only stopped the bleeding and left a note for Fury so that he could take it from there, so as far as your guys know, he's dead and dead he shall stay, got it?" Ashley blinked - but she was smiling. She had never seen her sister so thankful.

"I thought that you weren't gonna do the whole blood thing ever again?" Christie frowned up at her. "I thought you found it…too intrusive?"

"Well yeah, and I still feel that way. But Dad knew how close you were with the guy, so I couldn't say no. I held the bleed to buy Fury more time and I hated doing it…but it was for you so, whatever. I'll get over it." Christie swallowed those tears threatening to fall again. She had spent so much of her late teens and early adult life resenting Ashley due to jealousy, but she was starting to realise that she genuinely didn't deserve that. Ashley had only ever wanted to protect her. Breaking her one rule on blood control just for Christie's sake proved that much.

"So what about…um…w-what about Loki, the guy that tried to kill him? Have you…seen him anywhere?"

"Slimy guy in green? Kinda creepy looking? Yeah he disappeared in a little jet thing with some agents before I could do anything," Ashley yawned, stretching her limbs out. "Is he the evil one that you fell in love with? Dad was telling me about him too."

"How the hell did he even know?"

"Suited and booted dude has been relaying everything back to him in the mansion," Ashley filled her in with a small smirk.

"Of course. That's Coulson to a T," Christie mumbled bitterly, dropping her gaze to her lap before lifting it again. "Well, thank you, Ash. Your help doesn't go unnoticed."

"Aw. You're welcome my little sister angel. Well, I've gotta get going before Logan comes looking for me. By the way, you've got three distressed as hell girls frozen out there. As soon as I leave they'll come in, so try not to look so…healthy…okay? Look dead as hell, in fact. Love ya, Miss Xavier!" Ashley winked sweetly, before conjuring up wind from thin air around her and sparking a flame, which engulfed her and then sent her out of the room.

True to her word, as soon as she left, Christie heard a rush of muffled sounds from outside her room. She lay back down and closed her eyes, trying to look drowsy rather than look like she had just been mid conversation. And a few seconds later, Jennie, Renesme and Delilah timidly crept in.

"Oh look at her!" Delilah was the first to sniff sorrowfully, creeping over to the bed and bending down at Christie's head.

"Poor doll. She looks so unwell...do you think she knows about Coulson passing on yet?" Jennie whispered miserably, stroking Christie's straight white locks.

"She probably does," Renesme muttered from where she stood at the foot of the bed. "He passed on in her arms, didn't he? Oh I wish I were there in time. I could've done something."

"I don't even know how he passed, I turned up when they were moving the body away," Jennie chewed her bottom lip. Christie took that as her cue. She slowly opened her eyes and focussed her hazy vision on her friends who were towering over her, all three of them looking beyond petrified and apologetic.

"Christie sweetheart, listen, we are SO sorry for what happened earlier, like, we adore you and…" Renesme began hesitantly, unsure of how to go about this properly.

"It's impossible to actually explain how sorry we are in fact, we're all felt so HORRIBLE after and we…oh Christie hand on heart, we didn't mean it. We were being spiteful, but we really do care about you so much. It was just fear. We're all scared," Jennie groaned glumly, ducking her head and grabbing Christie's slender hand in her own.

"Please forgive us," Delilah begged alongside them, her eyes shimmering with tears as well.

"It's fine, I forgive you - and for what it's worth, I'm sorry too. You guys have been amazingly patient with me, and I don't think I've thanked you enough for all you've done both on Asgard and beyond," Christie told them earnestly, taking a few moments to look them all in the eyes with nothing but sincerity. The girls picked up on it and they all breathed out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

"So…I suppose you know about Son of Coul then?" Jennie tried tenderly, resting an sympathetic hand on Christie's bruised shoulder.

"Yeah, I do. And I have a few points for the twat that killed him," Christie spat suddenly, sitting up completely straight and yanking the IV drip out of her hand without so much as a wince before swinging her long legs out of the bed. The girls collectively leapt back, not expecting to see her so active just yet.

"Oh god," Delilah panted with a shaky hand placed on her chest. "We thought you were injured!"

"I was. But I'm gonna kill Loki when I get my hands on him," Christie told them angrily, staring at her reflection in the small oval mirror above the sink opposite her bed. "Or…whatever the hell is in him. Even if it's consumed him completely and there's no turning back…I no longer care who the villain is. From now on - everything I do is in Coulson's name. I'll avenge him."

...

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