Rosalie didn't bother cleaning up. Blood stained her hands and parts of her suit. Slowly, the aches were beginning to go away. The rage, however, that, she feared was there to stay. And knowing her, that probably wasn't a good thing. The chaos fed on the anger. Like a starving wolf that hadn't fed in weeks.

She walked into the briefing room, scraping flecks of blood from under her fingernails. Stark and Rogers were seated at the conference table. Fury stood at the head, arms folded over his chest. As she slid the door shut, Rogers looked back at her.

His eyes flitted from her hands to her face. "Agent Wheaton." He greeted softly.

She sat in the chair on his right and got comfortable. Stark sat across from her. "You all look like hell." She commented.

"You're one to talk." Tony muttered. "Get beat up on the school playground?"

She narrowed her eyes. God, he was really working her nerves. "Stark, as much as I dislike you on the regular basis, I am really not in the mood right now. Zip it before I make you." She snapped at him.

Another wise crack and his jaw would be broken.

"Here." Fury walked down to their end of the table. He threw down a bloodied set of trading cards. Images of a vintage Captain America pictured the cards. Her heart constricted in her chest. Phil's card. "Found these in Coulson's jacket." Fury told them. "Looks like he never got 'em signed like he wanted."

Rogers picked the set up and flipped through them.

"What's the plan?" Rose asked him. "What are we going to do?"

He raised his eyebrows in question. The eyepatch lifted a little in the movement. "We're floating right now, that's all I got for you. Everything's dead on the ship. No comms system. We can't track down the cube, or even Banner and Thor." She sighed as he took a breath. She leaned her head against the back of the seat. "I'll lay it all out. .E.L.D. planned to use the Tesseract to build weapons. That was my Plan B, Wheaton knows it. I had an idea, a dream if you want. Stark, you know what I mean when I say the Avengers Initiative." Stark's eyes lifted from the table. "It was my plan to build a team. Individuals who, alone, were great. But together they could be something remarkable. Protect our world and fight the battles too big for us. And I'll tell you all, Phil Coulson still believed in that dream when. he did. He believed in heroes."

"Fury," she rolled her neck and looked back at him, eyes steel but tired, "that's great and all." Rose unfolded her arms and sat forward. She pressed her hands against her knees. "But I need to know what the hell our plan is."

"What plan would that be?" He inquired.

Heat flamed over her skin. "How we're going to locate Dr. Banner and Thor. How we're going to find Loki and get the Tesseract back before he calls down an unholy army of Chitauri soldiers to overrun this world. Avenging Phil's death. That damn plan!"

"Agent Wheaton, in all honesty," he paused, "I have nothing for you. No plan, no call to action. Nothing."

She licked over her bottom lip and bit back the rude comment that lay on the tip of her tongue. No plan. Nothing at all. "Nothing." She repeated duly.

He shook his head. "It's over, Wheaton."

Over? No, no, no. It wasn't over. It couldn't be over. They didn't lose. She didn't lose. That was unacceptable. Especially when Phil's life had been given. She wouldn't let it be lost in vain. Not his, not Dr. Wheaton's. They didn't get to just die and it have been for nothing.

She slammed her fist against the table. Both Rogers and Stark flinched at the sudden outburst of anger. A long crack split down the table, but the surface remained upright. "That's not good enough for me." She snarled. "Nothing isn't going to work for me." Fury turned his back to her. Her top lip curled up as her stomach boiled. "Don't you dare walk away from me!" But he was already leaving the room.

Her back snapped up as the door fell back to a close. She watched him walk away and disappear down the hall. A short breath left her nose and she pressed her palms flat on the table, putting down all her weight there.

"On that note…" Stark mumbled.

Rose didn't bother to watch him leave.

"Agent-."

Slowly, she lifted her head just barely so that she and Rogers were making eye contact. She huffed a breath. "I'll make sure you get home as soon as possible, Captain Rogers. Brooklyn, right?" Vague enough. He probably didn't need to know she knew his exact address.

He motioned for her to sit down. Confused, she sat back down in her seat. He leaned forward and laid his forearms on top of the table. "Let's talk."

Oh, she didn't like that tone of voice. That was what she recognized as a lecture voice. "Look, Cap- can I call you Cap?" He blinked back at her. Cap it was. "I get you're upset about the weapons and the secrets, but we do what we have to in order to protect this world and-." He was just staring at her. Uneasiness crawled over her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I didn't mean…when I said…I thought maybe we could talk about Coul-Phil."

Phil.

"Why would we-you-I-?" She blinked several times, looking away from him. She took a deep breath before looking after him. "Why would we talk about Phil? He's dead."

Not just dead. Murdered. By her brother. Oh, how small the world was.

Rogers scratched at the corner of his eye. His eyes, a brilliant shade of blue, looked back at her. "When I went in the ice, I got the chance to say good-bye. I was on the radio with her and we both knew I had to go down." His voice broke as he spoke the words. "Anyway, the point is that I know what you're going through. You lost Phil and I lost Peggy."

Peggy. As in Peggy Carter, one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D. An icon to women everywhere. Peggy's niece was a new member of the agency, and a promising one at that. Fresh from the Academy and ready to kick ass.

"I-Cap, what're we talking about here? Weren't you and Agent Carter kind of a thing…?" Rose asked. She was growing more and more uncomfortable the longer the conversation went on.

He nodded. "Guess you could say that. I mean, we only kissed once, but I was sure sweet on her."

Of all the people he had lost when he went down…or hell, even Sergeant Barnes who had been lost on a mission gone wrong. Come to think of it, that would have been the better analogy for him to go with. Friends lost on missions gone bad. So why the hell was he rambling about Peggy Carter?

"As much as I appreciate this heart-to-heart we're having, I'm not connecting the dots. How is you losing your girlfriend or whatever you want to call her similar to me losing Phil?" Losing seemed like such a flimsy word to use. It didn't quite encompass the gravity of the ordeal. The blood and the feel of his heart stilling under her hands.

"Weren't you two…?" He frowned. She stared back at him, waiting for his words. "You and Agent Coulson…? Did you two…fondue?"

Now what the hell did that mean? It had a certain connotation from the way he said it that made her never want to hear the word again.

Rogers sighed. "I was under the impression that you and Agent Coulson were together."

Oh, dear Allfather.

She smiled back at him. Instantly, the misconception reminded her of all the not-so-subtle hints Dr. Wheaton had thrown her way. Phil's nice. Coulson's a real good guy. Smart one, that Agent Coulson. Doesn't look too shabby in a suit. Good-humored.

"We were friends. He was one of the first friends I made when I woke up here." She told him. "Phil was my friend and Loki killed him. He took Phil and he took Dr. Wheaton and-." She broke off, clenching her jaw. Her hands curled into fists. "Nothing isn't good enough for me. I have never liked losing, but I hate losing to my brothers."

Rogers reached out and carefully rested his hand over top her fist. She didn't pull back at the initial gesture. He curled his hand around hers. "Then let's do something about it."

Her eyes widened. "You're serious?"

"'Course I am. I'm not one to give up a fight and I know you aren't either." She definitely wasn't. She had started many more fights than she had ever finished. "And I think I know someone else around here with the same mindset…"

She knew exactly who he meant.

Tony Stark was where she had thought he would be. Blood wiped clean from her hands and hair pulled up into a taut ponytail, she was refreshed and ready. Ready for a fight. And for a win. Captain Rogers walked next to her.

Stark stood alone in the detention section. His eyes were trained to the floor, face pulled in pensive thought.

"Stark." She called his attention. As he looked up, she caught the roll of his eyes. "Don't worry, I come in peace." She held up her hands. "You will never hear me say this again, so you better listen hard." She warned, stepping to stand close to him. "I'm sorry. I snapped at you a lot earlier and it was rude."

The right corner of his mouth lifted. "I took my apology when you handed Fury's ass to him. Nice job, by the way. The whole 'avenging Phil' card."

"It wasn't a card." She told him.

He said he knew that. "So, you were in here?" He asked, beginning to walk. His eyes traveled to the stain of blood on the wall. "Two of you and he still got away."

She grimaced. "Loki's magic and his cunning aren't really playing a fair fight with my small dosage of chaos power. And I'll admit, I wasn't in my right mind. He doesn't have to use force in a fight. His words are just as powerful."

Rogers stepped in. "We've got a plan. Sort of. More than what Fury's got."

Stark looked back at him. "A plan, huh? What's that? You gonna sing the Star-Spangled Banner to him?"

Rose rolled her eyes. Rogers bit back a remark. It really was hard for the two men to play nice with each other. "Loki has to have a power source to call this army. We need to make a list of-."

Stark cut him off. "It's personal now." Rogers reminded him that it wasn't the point. "Yes. Yes, it is. Think about it. He attacked the ship. He personally attacked all of us. But why would he do that?"

"He can't take us all together. He had to separate us." Rogers answered.

Stark nodded.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest. "When we were children," they both looked over at her, "we would spar together. There were times we would go two-on-one. When Thor and I would fight him, Loki would get flustered. He couldn't take both of us and he barely managed last year. He knew coming into this that fighting against an entire team wouldn't be in his favor."

"Exactly." Stark supported. "But he has to win, doesn't he? To him, beating us means everything. Even more, he wants an audience to watch it happen." Rogers recalled the incident in Stuttgart. Loki forcing a crowd of people to kneel for him. "This has to be bigger than that." Stark continued. "That was a commercial, this has to be a full-length movie. I mean, the dude is a diva if I've ever seen one. He needs the audience, the bouquets and the la-dee-da. He wants a statue, a monument to him, raised up, his name on-." He stopped himself. His eyes widened. "Son of a bitch."

Rose let her arms fall. "Stark?"

"I know where he'll be."

Deep down, the chaos bubbled up.

It wasn't her bird, but it would do the job. Clint had suggested hers, as it flew a little faster, but she had been adamant. Her quinjet would be nowhere near a battle.

"Glad you're back." Rose clapped his shoulder as she turned to leave the cockpit.

"Wheaton." She turned her head to look back and she hummed, signaling she had heard him. "I'm sorry. About the Doctor and Phil."

She didn't say anything before leaving him to pilot them towards Stark Tower. Rogers and Nat were in the small bay area.

"Your jet is faster." Nat commented.

"It's also my baby and I'm not letting her anywhere near an army of Chitauri."

Rogers stifled a laugh. They both shot him a look. "Sorry. But does everyone get their own quinjet?" He asked with a grin.

"No." Nat told him. "Only Fury's favorite gets special treats." She smirked.

Rose held her tongue. There was no denying the inevitable truth. She got away with a lot. Mouthing off. Disobeying direct (very direct) orders. Going off-plan. She had no doubt broken various dozens of rules in her three years. And she hadn't even done the Academy stint.

"See, she can't argue. She knows I'm right."

Rose threw her hands up. "Not my fault!"

"Nothing ever is." Nat mused. "Except a few crop circles in two different states."

Steve watched with fascinating amusement at their light-hearted banter.

"Okay, I'll take credit for those. And maybe a few fires back on Asgard from my younger days. But that's it!"

"You can start fires too?" Steve interjected. "Is that…How does your power work exactly?"

Nat smiled at him and her eyes slid over to Rose.

Rosalie shrugged. "That's a great question. When I have an answer, I'll get back to you." Nat excused herself to go check their ETA. Rose leaned against the metal wall. "I get this gut feeling when something bad or really big is about to happen. Chaos recognizes chaos and it's like an alarm system inside my body. Which is super helpful in this line of work. It builds up and I'm not always really good at controlling it." She held out her arms and showed him the braces around them. "They're made from iridium. It acts as a stabilizing agent for antiprotons, which in turn, stabilize the amount of my power I can use."

He frowned as he examined the braces. "Why would you want to limit it? Doesn't that seem counteractive?"

"Not for me. If I use too much, it weakens me. I was passing out a lot before Dr. Wheaton made the braces. Not to mention the whole possible death thing."

"The what?"

The raw concern that super-ceded the shock made her smile. Steve Rogers was not only cute, but a really nice guy. With pretty blue eyes and the cutest smile she'd ever seen.

"The chaos that's inside of me, it's almost like a life force of its own. Kind of like a soul without a body. We're sharing, we co-exist, things are nice. But it can get really ugly really quick." He asked what she meant. "When I was younger, my father, Odin, told me about the chaos magic. It's an old force, one that picks a host to reside in. It's not Asgardian in nature, no one really knows where it came from. And there's no record of an Asgardian holding it before. Mostly, it chose the Vanir." He stared blankly back at her. Right, he has no clue what I'm going on about, she told herself. "The Vanir are another race of people, similar to my brothers and me. They're highly skilled in sorcery and magic, which is why the chaos force kept to them. They could use it without dying. Before the Vanir, the chaos was in Midgard."

"Earth?"

"Yes." She smiled again. He was a quick learner. She liked that. "Midgardians weren't equipped to handle magic such as that. The chaos tore them apart. Burned them from the inside out. And Odin thinks, if I'm not careful, the same thing could happen to me."

"It would kill you?"

She nodded solemnly. She could easily imagine what it would feel like. A fire lit inside her body. Chaos burning through her as it ate away at every particle of her being until there was nothing left but dust. Dust so similar to what she left in her wake. "If I let it control me, it could easily kill me. So, yeah, the braces are a good thing."

"Better not lose them then, huh?"

No, she better not. But she certainly wouldn't mind taking them off and laying a bit of stone-cold vengeance to her brother. Not killing him, but close enough that he would wish he was dead.

"Captain?" He hummed in response he fiddled with his shield. "Thank you, for earlier. The talking, it was nice." She said quietly.

He placed his shield on his back. "You can call me Steve, Agent."

Steve. Using his name- his real, given name- seemed rather intimate. Too close for her own comfort, maybe. But she wasn't going to continue to call him Captain either. And she wasn't particularly fond of being referred to as Agent all the time.

"Well," she pushed off the wall and walked over towards him, "only if you'll stop calling me Agent. My friends call me Rose."

His cheeks reddened, turning a soft pink color. "Maybe, uh, when this is all over, we could talk again? If you want, of course."

Surely, he wasn't...Was he? In all her thousand or so years, she had never been asked on a date. Or even anything that resembled a date. She definitely didn't count the several dozen attempts Fandral had made towards her. She hardly doubted those were ever serious.

And yet, here was Steve Rogers, Captain America, asking her on what very well seemed like a date. All sweet and blushing. Maybe she was over-analyzing. Maybe he only needed a friend, he hadn't exactly had a lot of stimulating conversation after coming out of the ice. Neither of them belonged in the world they were now in. He belonged to a world long gone and she to a completely different place.

She took too long to respond. By the time she had decided to take him up on the offer (because really, how bad would it be?), Clint was signaling their arrival over the intercom. Rose offered Steve a sympathetic smile.

A sick feeling overtook her. She doubled over, clutching her stomach. Nausea rolled through her body. Steve grabbed her shoulder.

"Rose, what's going on? You okay?" He helped her stand upright.

She inhaled sharply. Not good. They were in bad shape. "They're here." She whispered. "The Chitauri. They're here."

The jet was, in lack of better wording, screwed. Rose glanced back at it. It was on fire and crash-landed on the street.

"See. This is why I was against bringing Greta." Rose told Nat and Clint. "Because my nutcase of a brother blasted us from the sky!" She threw her gaze up at Stark Tower. There was a bright blue beam shooting up in the sky. A dark portal hung over the tower, allowing the army to travel through. And travel they did.

Loki was up there. Waiting. Calling down and commanding a full-forced Chitauri battalion. Her fingers flexed at her sides. She was so going to kick his ass.

"Greta?" Steve asked her.

She shrugged. "Seemed right."

Overhead, something roared. The sound shook the ground and the buildings around them. A dark mass passed over the ground. The four of them raised their heads to the sky. The sound had come from some metal Chitauri flying beast. Hundreds of Chitauri soldiers dropped down from the beast.

"Fantastic." Rose mumbled.

"Stark," Steve said through his earpiece, "are you seeing what we're seeing?"

Tony confirmed. He asked about whether or not Dr. Banner had made his appearance yet. Steve and Rose looked at one another. Tony reminded them to keep him in the loop. Rose's eyes were glued to Stark Tower.

"Wheaton?" Clint asked.

She blinked and looked back at him. "Secure the city. Take as many Chitauri out as you can." She drew her sword. Steve asked what she planned on doing. "I'm going to close that portal."

Something above caught her eye. Loki was commandeering a flying machine of Chitauri make.

"Don't do something stupid, Wheaton." Clint warned her.

She grinned. "Me?" She gasped. "Wouldn't dream of it." She motioned her sword down the street. "Go. Save some civilians and kick some ass."

Nat and Clint both took off. Steve watched them go and then looked back at her. His shield was fastened around his forearm.

"You might need backup." He said.

Sweet, she thought. "I don't." Rose promised. "See you after."

"Rose-."

"Steve-."

"The braces. Don't…be careful, will ya?"

She glanced down at the braces around her wrists. Now that…that was something she hadn't thought of. An idea to lock away in case she needed it. A Plan B.

"You too."

He hesitated before running off. She went the other way, straight towards the tower. She went mostly, to her disappointment, uninterrupted. The full force of the army was sanctioned behind her, not having made their way so far north yet. Or, so she thought.

Several of the Chitauri ran out in front of her. "Oh, good. I thought I was gonna miss out on all the fun." She said with a smile.

The four ran right at her. She ducked as one lunged over her and swung her sword through the legs of the one on her left. She jumped to her feet and turned to face the remaining three. She met them all in a fight. Blocking fired blasts from their weapons and still managing to jab into them.

She paused, standing upright and taking a breather. "Ah, come on." She twirled the end of her sword. "That all you've got?"

One ran for her and she thrusted the sword through its chest. She left it to fall to the ground and she side-kicked the one on her right. The force sent the soldier flying into an abandoned car. The other pounced and she side-stepped to avoid the blow. She grabbed the Chitauri soldier by the back of the neck, applying a little too much pressure. Its neck snapped under her hand and she flung him into the side of a building.

She was having fun.

Rose brushed her face off and sighed happily. That had certainly been a nice little kick-around. Now, back to her main goal. The portal. She had started back towards the tower when the hairs on the back of her neck stood. Something was coming up behind her.

She drew to a stop and held out her hand. "Kaos." The sword flew into her hand and she gripped it tight before spinning around and shoving it through the Chitauri behind her. "B plus for effort." She muttered, yanking her sword out.

"Wheaton?" Stark's voice rang out in her ear. "Hiding out on us?"

She stood on the outer area of Stark Tower. The Tesseract was only feet away from her. "Hiding? No. Never."

Several more of the flying beasts flew down from the portal, joined by thousands of soldiers.

"I think now would be a good time for you to join us." He said. "You like fighting."

She snorted. "Little busy up here trying to close the portal."

In her ear, Steve was lashing out orders to the others. He wanted Clint above ground. Tony was working perimeter. He sent Thor to the air. He and Nat would stay on the ground and Banner would…well, he'd do what he did best in his big green state. Smash. "Rose?"

"Give it to me, Cap." She sheathed her sword.

"Keep those braces on."

His concern was touching. Touching and wary. Because she knew the braces had to come off. She looked down at the ground. With eagle-eye vision, she could see him fending of the Chitauri left and right.

Thunder cracked. Lightning struck through the air and flew straight at the portal. Hundreds of soldiers were blown back into space. One of the beasts peeled in half.

"Nice work, brother." She mused. Another beast flew down from the portal. She took out her sword and squinted an eye. "Hey, Stark, how's this for hiding out?" She launched the sword into the air. It flew like a bullet and tore through the beast's head. The beast fell to the ground, taking out soldiers who had the severe misfortune of being under it. She held her hand out and the sword came back.

"Show-off." Stark muttered in her ear.

She smirked. She sheathed the sword once again and headed straight for the cube. Dr. Selvig was lying near it. His eyes were stuck to it.

"Dr. Selvig." She called. "I'd appreciate if you went inside." He didn't move. "Thought so." She mumbled.

And then, he did. He looked up at her as she stood over him. "Agent Wheaton?" He blinked several times.

"One and only." She flourished her hands. "Still hopelessly devoted to Loki or are you back to your senses?"

He sat up. "Senses. What are you doing up here?" She said she was going to close the portal. "You can't. It's too late. You can't stop it."

She looked out at the city scape. Thousands of Chitauri soldiers and their beasts terrorizing people she had sworn to protect. Down below, her team was fighting. She moved her attention to the portal where the army still came through.

"Wheaton, sending a present your way." Clint told her.

"Ooh, I love presents."

Sure enough, one crashed down behind her. She threw her attention back. At the sight of him, she grinned. She glanced back at the Tesseract. Make a choice, she told herself. Loki or the cube. Beat him bloody or close the portal.

"Portal it is." She decided. She could very well use her brother as a punching bag after. If she survived it.

"Need some help?" Nat was standing next to her.

Rose looked at her. "Yeah, I think so."

Selvig told them he was sure he built in a safety net. Something to cut the power source. Nat asked if it was the scepter and he said yes. He leaned over the edge of the scape. Rose craned her neck to see what he was looking at.

Loki's scepter.

"Get that scepter. It's Plan B." She ordered Nat. The other woman asked what Plan A was, because she sure as hell didn't know. "Me." Rose sighed.

She unlatched the braces and let them fall to the ground. The metal clanged against the cold concrete and she rolled her wrists.

"The hell do you think you're doing?" Nat hissed. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Rose cut her eyes. "Just get the scepter, will you?"

Nat rolled her eyes but didn't say anything else. The nearer Rose drew to the cube, the more her body burned. The tips of her fingers itched for contact. She knelt down on her knees and focused all her attention on the cube.

Come on, come on.

"Hey, beautiful." She murmured. She could feel the energy tickling against the tips of her fingers. "Let's play nice, okay?" Chaos bubbled up inside her. It overflowed through her lungs and shuddered out over her shoulders. Her hands went through the force field. "Ah, see? We're friends, aren't we?"

"Wheaton?"

She squinted her eyes shut, blocking out his voice.

"Agent Wheaton, do you copy?"

She tightened her shoulders and reached further. The energy of the force field around the cube tingled over her, hundreds of thousands of little tentacles sprinkled over her arms. She felt it even under her suit.

Her fingers curled around the edge of the Tesseract. Her eyes flew open. They were blown, blue tinged in gleaming gold. Power surged through her. Glorious, magnificent power. Pure, unadulterated chaos flowed over her.

"Wheaton, are you supposed to be glowing?"

"Thor, does your sister glow?"

"Can you shut the portal?"

"Yes." She finally answered. "I can-."

Something blasted her backwards. The cube slipped from her grasp as she flew through the air. Glass shattered around her back and she landed hard on something. She gasped up for breath, her chest burning.

She glanced over to her side. Loki was lying a few feet away, motionless. She groaned, resting her head on the floor.

"Rose? Wanna say something?" Steve called through the comms system.

She groaned in response. "Touching cube is a no-no." She pulled herself to her feet. Everything hurt. Stupid cube.

Nat relayed that she had the scepter and was well on her way to closing the portal. Tony reported that a nuke missile was coming into the city. That portal needed to stay open so he could put it through there. Rose made her way out to where Nat was standing. She had the scepter pushed through the force field, touching the Tesseract.

"That's a one-way trip." Steve told Tony.

Tony flew straight up the tower, a missile in his grasp. Rose clenched her hands into fists as he flew up into the dark expanse of the portal.

"Stark?" Rose whispered after a few seconds had gone by. "Tony?"

Below them, the Chitauri army collapsed. Soldiers in the air crashed down. The beasts fell in a slow but steady manner.

"Tony, you absolute ass, answer me." Rose pressed on her ear in the hope it would cause a reply.

"Close the portal down, Agent." Steve's voice commanded.

Nat glanced at Rose. Rose shook her head, don't you dare. Nat pulled the scepter out. The energy beam leading up to the portal disappeared and the portal began to close.

"Tony!" Rose shouted. "Get your ass back here!"

Something fell from the portal just as it drew to a close. A flash of red and gold in the sky. She exhaled. Tony.

He wasn't slowing down. If anything, he was speeding up the further he fell. The Hulk jumped through the air and caught Tony in his hand. He landed on the ground and sat Tony's body on the ground at his feet.

All the way above them, Rose and Nat heard the furious noise that escaped from the Hulk. And then…

"What happened?" Tony's voice was a more than welcome noise in her ear.

"Oh, thank God." Rose breathed, letting her shoulders slump.

Steve told Tony that they won the battle. The portal was closed, and the army defeated. Tony suggested they take a vacation day for tomorrow and perhaps go check out a shawarma joint a few blocks down. Always the optimist, Tony was.

Rose clapped Nat on the back. "Good work." She turned her head. Loki was still lying on the ground. Nat motioned for her to go. The team would be up soon anyway. Rose made her way inside.

She leaned over him and picked him up by the collar. His eyes fluttered open. She smiled at him.

"Nola." He groaned.

"Loki." She returned. "You and I have to have a little talk." He said he didn't like her version of talking. It included too many punches and not enough words. She tossed him into the wall.

He crumpled on the impact. She strode over to him and yanked him to his feet before shoving him against the wall. "You felt it, didn't you?" He grinned. "You felt the power. I know you did."

She pushed him harder against the wall. "That's enough from you."

He chuckled. "I know you, sister. You won't soon forget how glorious power like that is. You'll crave it. You're just like me."

She drew back and her arm reeled. Her fist connected with his jaw. She shook out her hand before hitting him again. And again. "I am nothing like you!"

"What happened to leniency, little sister? Mercy?"

She snarled before hitting him again. "You aren't the only liar among us, Loki. You think I'd grant you leniency after what you've done?" She grabbed him by the throat and lifted him in the air. "You killed my friends. You're responsible for the death of hundreds." She squeezed her fingers. "I could do it. Just one little thought and you'd be dust in my hands." She loosened her grip and flung him towards the steps leading to the in-home bar. "But that, brother of mine, that would be mercy."

Nat and Clint flanked her as she stood with her arms crossed. Her two brothers stood in front of them. Loki was bound and his mouth muzzled over. Dr. Banner placed the Tesseract inside a tube in Thor's hands.

"Nola?" Thor looked at her expectantly. The question, though unsaid, was clear. Will you come?

She stepped forward. Rose didn't give Loki a half a glance. "No." She said softly to Thor. "Now more than ever, they need me. And now, more than ever, Asgard needs you."

He nodded and pulled her in for a hug. "We will meet again, soon." He assured her.

She pulled back with a smile on her face. She gestured to the Tesseract. "Lock it up. Keep it safe." She glanced over at their brother. "I want him contained with no possibility of escaping." She said. Thor understood. "When you come back, I hope it's under better circumstances."

"Don't we all?" Tony quipped.

She rolled her eyes and stepped back. She waved, telling Thor it was their time to depart. He thrusted the other end of the tube into Loki's hand. The contact produced a beam that shot up into the sky. Rose nodded once and Thor pulled Loki into it. When the beam disappeared, they were gone.

Rose heaved a sigh. A vacation day didn't sound half bad to her. She watched Tony and Dr. Banner get into Tony's car and drive off. Steve hauled himself onto his motorcycle. She half-waved at him before he drove off.

"Barton," Nat drew their attention, "our girl's got a crush on a super-soldier."

Rosalie narrowed her eyes at the two of them. "Shut up. Let's go." The three of them climbed into the black SUV. Rose got in the driver's seat and started the car.

"So, what? He didn't offer you a ride?" Barton teased.

She settled into the seat and began driving away. Steve had, in fact, offered her a ride. One she had wanted to accept. She explained her plan to him and suggested that after all was said and done, they have that talk he'd asked about. And Steve, well, he was a really understanding guy who had accepted her raincheck.

"Or did you say no?" Barton continued. "You should've said yes. You need to socialize more."

She shot him a glare through the rearview mirror. "I have plans tonight. We're getting together later on this week."

Plans, he and Nat both asked at the same time. She never had plans. What plans did she have?

She shifted uncomfortably. She didn't necessarily want to delve into her plan with them. Especially since she hadn't pitched it to Fury yet. But it was a plan he couldn't refuse. And if he did, well, she'd do it anyway.

"You're sure?" Fury asked for the seventeenth time. "You can do it?"

She nodded once, flexing her wrists. They stood at the edge of the wreckage that had once been the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility. Fury held the iridium braces in his hands. "They don't deserve to just lay down there any longer. They deserve proper burials."

Contrary to her original thought, Fury had not argued with her plan. Rather, he had been all for it. They had flown out to the facility immediately after she had pitched it. And now, they stood.

She could feel the destruction from the site, deep in her bones it lay there. Below them, underneath everything, there were dozens of bodies. Agents and scientists, people who deserved to be brought above ground and properly laid to rest. She could help them, and she would.

She knelt down and rested her palms flat on the cool ground. She closed her eyes and focused. Build, build, build.

Underneath her hands, the ground rumbling. Energy bubbled up in her. Her entire body was tingling with it. Creation was the second ending of her chaos. She could destroy, but she could also create. Take something broken and make it new again. And that was exactly what she was doing.

Resurrecting the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility. Reconstructing the crumbled ruins of the mess her brother had made. Just enough so that the recovery teams could go in and bring out the dead.

She let her eyes open as the ground shook. Metal screeched against metal and stone roared out. She pressed down harder on the ground. From destruction came creation. From rubble came a haphazard rebuilt facility.

"Send the teams in." She told Fury. "I can't…" Her voice broke. Her eyes were growing heavy, body tired. In all honesty, she hadn't rested at all. She had gone straight to Fury after seeing Thor and Loki off. And from there, they had come to the facility.

Fury signaled for the teams to head in. Four teams of a dozen dashed into the newly remade building. "Wheaton?" He asked.

She looked up at him. "I'm okay." She nodded heavily. "I'm…" Her eyes fell shut and she lazily blinked them back open. "It'll hold for…for a while…" And she fell back.