"Help! Somebody please help us!"

I couldn't just ignore them and fly away. The sceptre would have to wait.

I flew down to the street below and located the source of the noise. A mother and her young daughter were being cornered in the street by a group of Chitauri. They were seconds away from being fired upon. The young girl, being held in her mothers arms, was screaming as she buried her face into her mothers chest.

I wasted no time in attacking the Chitauri. After the first few blasts the aliens quickly switched their focus from the mother to myself, giving her a chance to slip by and run for safety. It took longer that I would have liked but after a few minutes they were all in pieces on the ground.

I took a moment before launching into the sky again to take a breath and look around. It took a minute before I could register all of the destruction I was seeing and remember this was taking place in New York City. It looked like scenes straight from a war zone, the kind of stuff you'd see in movies or on the news. Cars were overturned and on fire, the sides of buildings were destroyed and the rubble was littering the streets, people were running and screaming through the streets as they tried to find some cover from the attacks. It would take years for New York to recover from this. And with each passing moment it was only getting worse and worse.

I decided instead of going looking for Loki again, I'd look for the sceptre. "Jarvis, can you please scan the area for any energy signatures similar to the Tesseract?" The blue ball of energy in the sceptre had to be almost identical to the Tesseract's energy which should make it easy enough to track.

"There is a similar energy signal being emitted from the penthouse of the Stark Tower."

The penthouse; back to where it started. But I wasn't going to make the same mistakes this time. I'd get in, find the sceptre and get out straight away. I took off for the penthouse. It angered me that Loki was back there, hiding away, waiting for the battle to be over. He's a coward.

I flew straight into the penthouse through a shattered glass window to a sight that was unexpected, terrifying and somewhat hilarious. The Hulk was standing in the middle of the room, holding Loki by his legs and tossing him around like he was a ragdoll. The force of his blows would have broken every bone in a human's body, not to mention they'd be dead in a second. With one last cry of strength, the Hulk threw him onto the ground, hard enough for it to make a Loki sized dent in the floor. The God let out a moan of pain but made no move to get up off the ground.

That's when the Hulk spun around to see me standing in the room. My heart was pounding madly and fear was running through my veins. This was the first time I'd seen him with my own eyes. He was green, massive and frightening. I could see features of Bruce Banner in his face but I had to remind myself it wasn't him. This was someone…something entirely different.

I slowly reached up to flip my faceplate open to show him who it was. I had no idea if the Hulk retained any of Bruce's knowledge; if he would recognise and know who I was. I thought I saw something flicker in his eyes but it vanished seconds later and I had no idea if I'd just imagined things.

We were standing across the room from each other, staring at the other. I was waiting for him to attack when his attention was suddenly caught by a passing alien hovercraft outside the window. With a deafening roar, he ran and leapt out of the window without hesitation.

I let out the breath I had been holding and waited for my heartbeat to slow. Across the room the bright blue light of the sceptre caught my eye. As I walked over and picked it up, Loki had no move to stop me. He was still lying prone on the ground.

I glanced down at the sceptre in my hand, suddenly having a flash of a memory hitting me. Loki standing above me, pointing the sceptre at my chest, the feeling of ice as its power spread through me, taking control. I looked over at Loki and realised I could do it for real this time; I could plunge the sceptre into his chest and kill him. He was just lying there. It would be easy.

But I'd made my decision. I wouldn't let Loki turn me into a killer. Besides, death was too nice for him. He deserved to live, to suffer.

With the sceptre in hand I flew out and up to the roof. I was surprised to see Selvig wasn't alone. Natasha had somehow managed to get up onto the roof and was defending them both from any Chitauri that tried to attack them.

"You found it," Selvig said, stunned. He rushed over to the computer and began clicking away.

"Here," I said as I passed the sceptre to Natasha. "Shut the damn thing down."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm going to go help take out whatever Chitauri are still left."

I left the roof and immediately flew down to the streets below. Aside from a few Chitauri, they were surprisingly empty. The streets still looked like a war zone but there were no longer screaming people fleeing attacks. By now most people had found somewhere safe to hide.

"We're closing the portal," Natasha's voice announced.

"Wait!" Dad suddenly called out. "I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

"What?!" I cried out. "Dad don't be stupid."

"I have to do this Morgan. Or this missile will destroy all of Manhattan."

"Dad if you go up there, you wont come back."

"She's right Stark. That's a one way trip," Steve added.

"Once it's gone you close the portal immediately Romanoff," dad said.

"NO! You can't do this!" I shot up into the air and scanned the skies for dad. I quickly spotted him heading for the city, with a large missile perched on his back. "Why does it have to be you? Why is it always you?"

"We'll all be dead if I don't do this. I'm so proud of you Morgs. You're the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Don't talk like that! You're not doing this." Theoretically I knew it was the right thing to do; the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, but when it was my dad's life on the line it was harder to accept. "I've lost you once, I'm not going to lose you again."

He was flying over the city now, directing the missile up towards the portal. I flew after him, pushing my suit to the limit to reach him in time. This wasn't how things were going to end.

I watched him glance over his shoulder to see me chasing after him. He knew what I was trying to do; to take his place. Dad had sacrificed so much already and I didn't want him to make the ultimate sacrifice. But he had other plans.

"Jarvis, suspend Morgan's suit for one minute."

"What?" I asked confused. What was he talking about? I got my answer a second later as my suit stopped flying forward. It left me hovering in the air, unable to move in any direction. "What are you doing? Jarvis, stop this."

"I cannot Miss Stark."

When building this suit for me dad had obviously put in an override so he could have some control over my suit, for occasions just like this. A small timer appeared in the corner of my screen, ticking down from a minute.

"I'm sorry Morgan. I love you so much." I was forced to watch my dad heading for the portal, being absolutely unable to do anything. I was paralysed again, just like with Obadiah. I couldn't save my dad, again.

"Please dad," I begged, tears streaming down my face. "Please!"

"I love you" I held my breath as he shot straight up into the air towards the portal. One second he was there, the next he'd disappeared as he went through. "I love…..you….lo-" the connection buzzed before cutting off completely.

"I love you! I love you!" I screamed, hoping he could still hear me.

I hovered in the air, still suspended in the suit with no control of it, watching the portal intensely. Any second he would come back through, I know it. This was dad, if anyone could do it, it would be him. He wouldn't leave me here. The seconds ticked by. Nothing was coming through the portal.

I don't know what was happening on the other side of the portal but something must have happened because suddenly every Chitauri collapsed. It was like the switch controlling them had been flicked to the off position. They were just falling where they stood. Even the large flying creature in the sky abruptly flopped onto his back ontop of a Manhattan skyscraper.

They were all dead. The war was over. But right now, I didn't care. All I cared about was my father flying back through that portal.

Steve suddenly spoke. "Close it."

"NO! NO!" I shrieked.

"I'm sorry Morgan," Natasha said. The blue energy shooting up towards the portal suddenly dissipated as she plunged the sceptre into the machine controlling the Tesseract's energy. The large swirling portal in the sky rapidly began decreasing in size. With every second that passed it was shrinking, soon to be closed forever. The idea of my dad's body forever floating in space, alone, was unbearable.

"Come on dad…" I mumbled, my eyes fixed on the closing portal. "Please." It was almost closed and I'd all but given up hope for a miracle. Then, just seconds before the portal disappeared into nothing, something slipped through. My screen immediately zoomed in on the falling object.

It was dad. "YES!" I shrieked. He did it.

"Son of a gun," I heard Steve mumble.

My relief was short lived as I watched my father's body tumbling through the air as he continued to freefall. He wasn't stopping, which either meant he was unconscious or….

I needed to catch him but my suit was still suspended. The timer in the corner showed 15 seconds left. By the time it was down to zero my father would be a pancake on the street below. "I swear to God Jarvis if you don't unsuspend this suit I'll-"

A green blur jumped through the air and caught him. The Hulk had a tight grasp on him as they went crashing to the ground.

"Come on, come on," I mumbled as I watched the timer count down, every second going excruciating slow. As soon as this was over, the first thing I was going to get dad to do was to get rid of this override control. As soon as the timer ticked over to zero I shot down to the street below.

Thor, The Hulk and Captain America were all standing around Iron Man. He was lying on his back in his armour but his faceplate had been ripped off. His eyes were closed and his face relaxed.

"Dad." I fell onto my knees beside him and pulled my helmet off, tossing it to the ground. "Dad!"

I gripped his shoulders and shook him, praying the movement would somehow jerk him awake. "Come on, you can't do this!" As I watched, waiting for his eyes to open, I wondered how many more times was I going to go through the torture of wondering if my dad was dead or alive. I spent months wondering that after he was captured in Afghanistan. I thought he was finally done for when I saw Obadiah pulling the arc reactor from his chest and leaving him to die. When Ivan Vanko went after him, first in Monaco and then at the Expo, I thought I'd never see him alive again.

He'd been so close to death so many times. Was this finally it? Had he not escaped the clutches of the reaper this time?

I refused to believe it. My dad was fucking Iron Man. He was a hero and a fighter. And I knew he wouldn't leave me, not without a fight.

"Dad. Please. Wake up."

I could feel the eyes on Steve, Thor and the Hulk on me. I could sense the pity in their gazes.

"Morgan…" Steve bent down to place a hand on my shoulder. The moment he touched me the tears began streaming down my face.

He doesn't care that he's dead. It was a selfish and untrue thought but in that moment I needed someone to be angry at. And I couldn't be angry at dad, not after he'd just saved millions of lives.
Someone at S.H.I.E.L.D had made the decision to fire that nuke. I understand the fear watching the battle playing out on TV must have caused, but how could they have been okay with the fact that they would have murdered millions of people? How could I work for an organisation that would do that? They should have had more faith in us. We stopped Loki and his army but now my father was dead because of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I almost jumped out of my skin when the relatively silent street was disrupted by a thunderous roar from The Hulk. I could feel the sound reverberate through my own body and, even as the Hulk, you could hear the pain that Banner must have been feeling. It was somehow comforting, in a weird and terrible way, to know that I wasn't the only one hurting.

Without warning, Dad's eyes flew open and he gasped for air. I cried out, from shock and happiness, and bent down to hug him. "Dad!"

"What happened?" he asked as he looked around at everyone staring at him.

"We won. You saved everyone," I replied. I still had tears in my eyes but now they were from joy. "And if you ever do anything like that again I'm going to kill you myself."

He let out a chuckle as he struggled to sit up in the suit. "I'm serious Dad. You freaking scared me to death. You can't keep doing this to me."

"I'm sorry Morgan but I had to."

"Why do you always have to be the one to sacrifice themselves?"

"Well I sure wasn't going to let you do it."

"You can't-"

"Can we finish this another time?" Steve suddenly said. "There's still something left we have to do."

In my relief at dad being alive, I'd forgotten that Loki was still yet to be captured. I wondered just what the hell we were going to do with him when we got him. Maybe there was a jail cell on Asgard that could hold someone with his powers?

"Last time I saw him, he was getting his ass beat by the Hulk up in the penthouse," I said. The Hulk puffed out his chest and smirked.

"Then lets go get him," Steve replied.

Thor grabbed onto Steve before swinging his hammer around that suddenly lifted him off the ground and shooting up towards Stark Tower. The Hulk let out another roar and started scaling the sides of buildings. Dad got to his feet to follow them.

"Are you coming up?"

"I'll be there in a second. I just want to call Daniel first. I'm sure he saw everything and is worried."

"Okay." Dad took off to join them in the tower. I did want to call Daniel and tell him I was alright, but I also didn't want to see Loki again; even if it was seeing him get captured. I'd had enough of that alien and if I ever saw him again it would be too soon.

Just as I was about to call Daniel I remembered he'd called and left a message during the battle. That also reminded me that he'd left a message earlier in the day that I'd forgotten to check before leaving the helicarrier.

"Jarvis, please play my messages from Daniel."

The earlier message played first. "Hey fiancé. I love that I get to call you that now. Just calling to check in and see how you're going. Also letting you know it turns out I can go to the conference in New York. I'm just about to get onto the plane now. Talk to you soon. Love you."

No. No no no no no no. I prayed that the next message he left was him saying his trip had been cancelled again and he was still in LA.

"Morgan!" My worst fears were confirmed as the second message played and I could immediately hear the sounds of a battle raging on in the background. "I'm in New York. I don't know what the hell these things are but please be safe. I can see you now above the tower." The sound of an explosion muffled his voice for a moment. "I'm trying to get people off the streets. I know you'll save us all. I love you so much." The line went dead.

This could not be happening. How could I have not known that my own fiancé was down in the streets below me while I'd been fighting the Chitauri? I thought he'd been hundreds of miles away back in California when he'd really been hundreds of meters away. He'd be okay though. He had to be.

"Call Daniel."

Jarvis immediately began dialling his number. With every passing ring my heart grew heavier. I tried to not panic. There were a million reasons why he wouldn't be answering his phone. Maybe he lost it in the streets while rescuing people? Maybe it's run out of battery? I wouldn't jump to the worse conclusion.

"Can you please track his cell phone?"

Within seconds Jarvis had pulled up a map of the New York streets and pinpointed the location of his phone. It was only 2 blocks away. I took off like a shot.

He'll be fine. He'll be fine. He'll be fine.

This is not how our story would end. I'll find him, he'll be okay, we can go back to California and start planning our wedding. Once we're married we'll start thinking about having kids, 2 or maybe 3. Grandpa Tony will teach them how to fix cars just like he taught me. Daniel and I will grow old together. It can't go any other way.

I landed in the middle of the street that Jarvis had tracked his phone to. Like almost all of the streets in Manhattan, it bore the signs of a war having taken place. Cars in the middle of the street, which had been abandoned by their drivers, were crushed beneath the rubble of damaged buildings. Broken glass and concrete littered the street. The bodies of a few Chitari were lying prone on the ground. A car at the end of the block was on fire. I could see some curious faces peeking out through the windows of the buildings on the street. People could no longer hear the sounds of a battle raging on and they were slowly going to begin emerging from their hiding spots.

Right now on the street, there were no signs of life.

"Call his phone again."

One moment later the sound of a phone ringing echoed through the street. I ran towards the sound. Halfway down the street, there it was; his phone, with a picture of my face on the screen, was lying on the ground. I picked it up and cancelled the call.

He must have just dropped it in his hurry to get to safety. He must be hiding in one of the nearby buildings. I glanced up and down the street at the numerous buildings, wondering which one he could be in. My blood felt like ice in my veins when I looked back down the street again and realised one of the bodies wasn't the Chitari.

It felt horrible to wish that someone else had died but as I slowly walked towards the body, most of it hidden from view behind a large block of concrete, I realised that's what I was doing. Wishing that the body was someone else.

My nightmare came to life when I walked around the block of concrete and saw a familiar face. Daniel.

"NO!"

I dropped to my knees beside him. He was lying on his back, his eyes gazing up at the sky. He was covered in ash and dirt from the battle. There was a cut on his forehead which had oozed some blood and numerous small cuts and bruises over his arms.

This isn't happening. This isn't happening.

It felt like a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare. It felt like I was watching somebody else's life unfold. This wouldn't happen to me, it couldn't. We had plans.

"Jarvis, scan for signs of life." I didn't need the British AI to tell me what I already knew. But I wouldn't believe it until I heard the words.

"There are no signs of life Miss Stark. He has passed."

He has passed.

"NO!"

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