I jolted upright, breathing heavily as the glimpse of the glowing blue cube from my dream began to fade and someone placed their hands on my shoulders. My eyes shifted to Natasha, and I felt relief and guilt swim through me.

"What…"

"You passed out on the way to get looked at," she muttered, helping me sit up slowly on the bed as I grimaced, feeling my back throb and my head ache. "Fury said for you to relax a bit while he spoke with the others." She hesitated before continuing. "Thor and Bruce are both gone. Loki escaped in a plane, but we got Clint back. Tony and the Captain are all right too and the plane's engine has been repaired."

"But Coulson's dead," I spat bitterly, before sagging slightly, running a hand through my hair. "He did it to protect me."

"Then, don't feel guilty about it," she pressed. "If he did it for you, then don't dishonor his sacrifice."

"There shouldn't have been a sacrifice," I argued.

"But there was, and now more than ever, they need you." She sighed. "Jess, you're the only one who can keep them together, especially right now when everyone's scattered and the only two left are your boyfriend and someone he really doesn't like."

"Understatement of the century," I muttered, earning a small quirk of the lips from her.

"Do it for Coulson. He always said it was what you did best."

I sighed tiredly, but she had a point. Between what she just said and what Fury had told me, Coulson had always been rooting for me, despite how we butted heads all the time. And I felt terrible I hadn't noticed before. Now that I did though, I could work to be that person for him. I could wallow in my guilt later.

"Do we know where Loki went?"

Natasha shook her head, making sure I was stable on my feet before walking with me. "No. Not even Clint could remember. He said he never needed to know, so he wasn't told."

"And this Tesseract thing, it opens portals, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"He'll need a big open space," I replied, mind racing. "But someplace isolated enough that him being there with it won't draw too much attention, but also will?" I groaned, rubbing at my head. "God damn this headache."

Natasha frowned. "Did you get hit?"

I shook my head. "No, no. I… I think it has something to do with Loki's scepter thing. It's connected to the Tesseract somehow, isn't it? Hold on." I looked to her with a frown. "What's the Tesseract look like?"

"You don't know?"

"I didn't look at the files, remember? I just know its name, but I've been having these dreams lately, nightmares. I… I can't remember what happened in them other than the fact that there was some blue cube whispering to me."

Her eyes widened. "The Tesseract is a blue cube. Could it be communicating with you?"

"I don't fucking know, but whatever it is, it's giving me a headache and we need to get to it fast. My headaches were never this bad until more recently. Whatever Loki's doing—"

"It's happening today," she breathed, before nodding. "What do you need?"

"I need to get the others moving. I can't do anything on my own," I said, picking up my pace. "Tony's going to need tools to repair his suit, because I don't doubt that he broke it trying to fix the plane engines. We're going to need someone to fly a plane and we need to figure out where exactly Loki is."

"I can get you your computer."

I nodded. "There's a searching program already running on it. Have it search for places in wide open spaces. Anywhere someone can put down a machine with few questions, but out in the open where it can be visible by a lot of people. Loki's going to put on a show."

"On it. Where do I meet you?"

"The bridge, probably," I replied, heading for it as she turned to head another way. "I've got some men to knock some sense into."

And boy, did I. I had just gotten to the bridge to hear the tail-end of whatever guilty conversation Fury was spouting to Tony and Steve.

"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could," Fury said, undoubtedly talking about the Avengers Initiative. "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

Tony stood up and I winced, knowing how he felt about heroes. And as he stormed out, I stepped in, giving Fury a small frown.

"You don't have to guilt-trip them."

Fury raised a brow. "Don't I?"

"If it's anyone's fault Coulson is dead, it's mine. I was there. I had plenty of opportunities to do something about it, but I didn't."

"Because you couldn't," he argued.

"So, why are you placing that blame on the people who were doing something?" I snapped, blood boiling. "Tony and Steve were out there keeping this ship and everyone on it alive and in the air! They were doing the best they could given the situation! Everyone was! Putting Coulson's death on their shoulders may give them the push they need to work together and get moving, but they'll have to live with that the rest of their lives and you're more of an idiot than I thought if you think that's the right play to make, Fury."

"Then what do you suppose I do, Jess? Hm? Talk? Because I've been talking and nothing's changed, and now one of my best men are dead!"

"And more people are going to die if they're too weighed down by guilt to make rational decisions!" I shouted in return, standing directly in front of him and grabbing him by his coat collar, much to his shock. "So, do something smart for once. Shut up and listen, because I'm not going to repeat myself." I shoved him back and looked at a stunned Steve. "Coulson died because I wasn't able to do anything to stop it. It's something that happened and there's nothing anyone of us can do now to fix it. What we can do, is stop Loki before more people get hurt. To do that, I need you and Tony working together. I don't care how much he grates on your nerves. Stop acting like a child and grow up, because adults learn to deal with their problems civilly."

"Some," Fury interjected, earning a glare from me.

"Don't interrupt me. I've dealt with enough narcissistic, bigoted assholes to know that Tony isn't even close to being on their level of a pain in the ass." I stepped towards Steve, poking him in the chest. "So, you better stop looking at how he acts and start realizing who he is as a person. Because I swear to God, if I hear one more word out of your mouth about him being cold, unfeeling, or any other judgmental bullshit when you haven't taken the chance to look past his persona, then you're going to have a bigger problem on your hands than some Norse God trying to take over the world. Got it, Star-Spangled Moron?"

Steve got up with a frown. "I don't understand how you can see something so great in him. He doesn't even act like he cares."

"It's because, unlike you, I look past what he shows. His bloody narcissistic personality, the heroic Iron Man acts, those Goddamn towers and cruel words are all a front. Just like your big, showy outfit and tough soldier appearance. They're all masks hiding the fact that you're hurting. That he's hurting and angry and everything else, because he liked Coulson. Because he cares about people. He's grown in up a world where the moment you care about something, it gets taken away and people laugh in your face because of it. He was dying last year, and you know what he did? He acted like a complete utter ass to everyone around him. Me, Pepper, his best friend, everyone. Why? Because he thought it'd be better if everyone hated him so when and if he died, we wouldn't get hurt. And you have the gall to stand here and tell me he's uncaring? That he's not a hero or that he only cares about himself or is nothing without his suit? Because let me tell you something, Captain. Screw the suits, the super-strength, the big fancy flying ships, the money. If everyone in this room were stripped bare, who know what that would make us all? Human. So, get off your stupid, idealistic hero perch and realize that you're not as Goddamn special as you think and you're not above anyone, least of all him." I struggled to release the tension in my shoulders that made my back throb. "Coulson wouldn't have gone out of his way to save me on Tony's word if it meant nothing."

Steve eyed me for a moment longer before leaving the room, and Fury shot me a look.

"Was that really necessary?"

I sank into a chair with a cringe, shooting him a small glare. "You know it was."

Fury rolled his eyes. "You know, I think that if anyone's wearing a mask, it's you."

I stayed silent, not wanting to tell him how right he was.

"You made him angry with you to keep him from being angry with Stark. Are you sure you're okay with that?"

"I don't need your psychiatric evaluation, Nick," I grumbled, giving Natasha a grateful nod when she brought over my computer and a steaming cup of coffee.

"He's right though," Natasha added, making me roll my eyes.

"Look—since you two are double-teaming on me—I would love to get along with everyone, sure, but I know that won't happen. And right now, Steve is the one I have a problem with. If he can't see any good in Tony, then we won't get along. Right now, I just want him to try looking a bit deeper and get along long enough to deal with our current situation. If that means he's upset with me, then so be it."

The two exchanged a look but I was quick to drop the conversation and dive back into my search for where Loki would be headed.

Steve stepped into the containment area where Tony was grinding his teeth and staring out into space. After hearing how much Jess cared about him, to the point that she would practically fight him over how he thought of Tony, Steve felt he should give him a chance. See for himself if Tony cared.

"Was he married?"

"No. There was a, uh, cellist, I think."

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man," Steve said, catching a hint of what Jess meant before Tony snuffed it out with a scoff.

"He was an idiot."

"Why? For believing?" Steve argued.

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job."

"He was out of his league. He should have waited," Tony countered, heading over. "He should have…"

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."

"Right. I've heard that before," Tony huffed, bristling himself.

"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?"

Tony whipped around in anger. "We are not soldiers."

Steve remained calm and waited to see if Tony would press the issue after he'd accidentally prodded on a sensitive spot. Instead though, Tony looked away, calming down.

"I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I." At least we agree on that. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now, we've got to put that behind us and get this done. That much, Jess was right about."

Tony grimaced. "She heard then, I'm guessing."

Steve nodded. "And rightly scolded Fury as well. I… I don't think I've seen someone so ready to stand up to him, much less for people like us."

Tony chuckled. "That's her. A spitfire, if there ever was one."

Steve cracked a small smile as well, seeing that hint of caring Tony had towards the woman and understanding now, a bit of what Jess meant. His smile faltered though.

"She blames herself, you know."

Tony's gaze snapped to his, already understanding. "For Coulson."

Steve nodded. "He was protecting her. She's the one who went down there alone."

"Nuh-uh. No way," Tony argued. "She may jump into things sometimes, but she's not that idiotic."

Steve shook his head. "Romanoff said she went to close the doors. Lock him in. She tried to convince her otherwise, but…"

"But she's stubborn, I know," Tony muttered, running a hand through his hair. "She teamed up with my AI to make her own suit, you know. Said she would support me being Iron Man, so long as she wasn't always the one stuck at home waiting to hear on the news what had happened."

"She's got a death sentence."

Tony shook his head, eyes sad. "She just wants to be useful. It's something her father—" Tony grimaced, stopping before he could give away anything more.

"Her father?"

"You'll have to ask her. Normally I'd just say, but it's… something personal."

Steve frowned. "You mentioned him before with her. Did something happen between them?"

"Oh, trust me. A lot happened. And I'm glad the bastard's dead because I might just go after him myself with what he's done." Tony rubbed at his eyes with a sigh, muttering under his breath. "I'm still picking up the pieces." He lifted his head, straightening his shoulders. "Where is she?"

"On the bridge, but we really need to figure this out, Tony. Now's not really the time for a heart-to-heart."

"You think I don't know that?" Tony scoffed, tapping on his watch. "Why do you think I want her here?"

Steve's brows furrowed. "I… don't know, honestly."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Believe it or not, her desperate need to be useful has made her a really valuable player in all of this. She was smart before I met her and has only improved on that. Knowing her, she's already working on something to help. That, and I need a sounding board."

"A what?"

"Sounding board. It's like a screen you put behind—Oh, never mind. I need someone to bounce ideas off of."

"And I'm not able to do that?"

"No offense, but Jess and I have it down to a science. And… done."

"Done? With what?"

Tony held up his hand, counting down from three just in time for Jess to barrel into the room with a laptop.

The woman looked between the two, panting to catch her breath from running there, before scowling.

"Hold on, this isn't fighting."

Tony beamed. "Nope! I lied to get you here faster."

"Oh, you're a right little—"

"Now, now, now," Tony stopped her, lifting his hands in peaceful surrender. "I just wanted us to talk. I'm assuming you've got some ideas about Loki?"

Jess glanced at Steve, as though confirming that neither men were upset with one another, before opening her laptop and typing on it with one hand. "I've been running the world through a search engine. Large open space where lots of people can see, but inconspicuous enough to put a machine there without too much interference."

"What?" Steve questioned, heading over to stand behind her with Tony and look at what she was doing.

"I'm assuming that Loki's mind control is limited to a certain number of people and that he won't want to kill hundreds just to put up a machine, of course. But it's narrowing down areas that he couldn't possibly be at."

"Well, Loki needs a power source," Steve tried, and Jess nodded.

"Something big enough to run the machine, so nothing minuscule. Adding power plants, electric companies, and other such things."

Tony's gaze drifted to the bloodstain on the wall from where Coulson had been. "He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve frowned.

"That is the point," Tony said shortly. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Steve said, shaking his head slightly in confusion.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but—"

Jess jumped in. "He knows already how to beat us. How to win."

Tony snapped his fingers at her. "Exactly. That's what he wants. See?" He looked at Steve. "A science."

Steve rolled his eyes as Jess continued.

"But he's a show-off. He could have separated us anyway, but he purposely got himself caught. He flaunted where he was, got captured and brought here, and he didn't honestly have to. He could have done it remotely, sent one of his mind-controlled zombies to do it." She paused, giving Tony a look. "He wanted to watch. Wanted us to see him tearing us apart. He's a damn narcissist!"

"He wants an audience," Tony confirmed, making Steve nod.

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah. That was just the previews. This is, this is opening night and Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades."

Jess looked at her computer as it beeped, pinching her nose with a groan. "God, he wants a damn monument in the sky with his name one it."

"What?" Steve questioned before she turned the laptop around to show them the screen where a large building in New York stood tall with one name plastered across the front.

"And we practically built it for him."

Tony scowled. "Son of a bitch."

"Any word on Thor or Bruce?" Natasha asked me as I typed away on my computer in the plane.

"There's a sudden thunderstorm not far off that wasn't on the forecast until a moment ago."

"That's Thor," Steve hummed.

"And Bruce?" Natasha pressed.

"I'm not sure. Assuming they both fell not too far apart from one another, I'll check the surrounding area for anything strange. Building collapse, meteorite falling from the sky, things like that."

"No giant green man sightings?" Steve questioned, earning a glare as I typed.

"No, because he wouldn't still be the Hulk. He was removed from the situation that caused him to change. The Hulk just wants to keep Bruce safe, so once he landed, he would have changed back. The problem now is all the people."

"What do you mean?"

I sighed. "Honestly, you lot only think about the fight, don't you? Loki has just picked a tall building in the middle of the very populated New York City to open up a portal for an alien army to descend. Now, we're sending in a number of overpowered humans to deal with it and you don't think we're going to wreak some sort of havoc on the populous? There will be civilian casualties, but there doesn't have to be millions of them." I tapped my watch, getting a holographic image of Tony to pop up. "Did you get ahold of Rhodey?"

"Took a bit of convincing to get him to believe me, but yeah. He sent the Army on its way."

"And the message to Fury?"

"Taken care of, though if he's upset about it, I'm blaming you."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

"What are you talking about?" Steve questioned. "You sent the Army?"

"Not exactly," I explained. "I had our friend in the military get the Army to start evacuations going from Stark Tower outward under the pretense of a bomb threat. The Army will keep the police out as well, limiting their casualties when they try to fight aliens with useless firearms."

"And Fury?" Natasha asked.

"Talking to the President, if I'm lucky," I muttered. "We are evacuating the largest populated city in the US using the state's military and I'm sure the President will want to know what exactly is going on or at least how he should address the people who will start panicking when aliens come out of a portal in the sky."

"You… really do think of everything, don't you?" Steve muttered, and I huffed.

"Please. I just think of the little things. Tony is always looking at the big picture and hardly notices the small nuances. As a lawyer, all I work with is the small stuff, the fine print, the clauses no one takes a second look at. This is just me applying that in a bigger way."

"Told you she's clever," Tony chirped, as I turned off the hologram.

"Yeah, thank you," I chimed sarcastically, closing my laptop and double-tapping my watch. "Open the door now, please."

"You can't go out there," Steve countered, stepping before me and I smiled sickly sweet.

"Let me guess because I'm a civilian?"

"Yes."

"That's cute," I chirped, holding out my hand.

His brows furrowed but he reached out to take it, only for my grip to tighten as I spun and threw him over my shoulder to the floor. Had he expected the move, he might have countered, but he underestimated me, and I knew he would.

"Now then," I smiled at him on the ground. "This is me. Leaving. Underestimate me again, and you really will regret it."

My suit came out of the backpack I'd brought with me, and I stepped out of the plane before taking off towards Stark Tower. My timing couldn't have been better either. I ended up at the top of the tower just in time to catch Tony as an energy blast from the machine he shot at threw him backward.

"Why are you shooting at it?" I huffed, earning a surprised look as his internal camera flickered into view.

"Jess? What are you doing here!"

I sighed. "Do you really have to ask that question? I'm here because someone doesn't know how to play nice with technology. Did you really think shooting it would stop it? Even if it didn't have a defensive shield, it could have just exploded and dumped Gamma radiation all over the city. Shooting it is definitely not one of your smartest moves."

"You have any better ideas?"

"One," I mused, glancing down at the man who watched us.

"Plan B it is, then," he grumbled, not sounding pleased. "Are you coming?"

"In a minute. I want to see if there's anything I can do with the machine. You take Mr. Tall, Dark, and Alien."

"Be careful."

I snorted, shooting him a look. "I should be the one telling you that. I'm just looking at a machine. You're the one talking with a murderous trickster."

"Good point. I'll see you in a moment."

"Yup," I hummed, ending our chat and landing on the roof with the machine, allowing my helmet to fall away so I could see the machine myself.

When I did finally lay eyes on it though, I stumbled, catching myself as my head ached and throbbed.

"O-Oh, you're cheeky, aren't you?" I questioned, eyeing the cube that suddenly felt so familiar as I remembered my nightmares. "You've been talking to me in my sleep. Telling me things I can't ever seem to remember. Giving me headaches when I got anywhere near you or Loki's scepter. Well, you wanted to see me. So, here I am. And I really must say, I'm so not impressed."

I felt a hint of displeasure and winced as my headache doubled, nearly sending me to my knees if it weren't for my grip on the podium with the computer attached to it.

"What? You expect me to be thrilled? Overjoyed that some weird alien box thing thought I was special enough to talk to?" I snapped, silently wondering why it felt as though I was speaking to a person and not an inanimate object. "Don't be stupid. You're threatening my planet right now, my home."

I choked out a cough then, sagging as images passed through my mind of a bright, brilliant universe and I grit my teeth, lifting my head with a snarl.

"I don't care about the universe out there that we're missing. We would get there eventually! Peacefully! Setting up a war with the universe isn't a gift to humanity, it's a death sentence! We're not ready for this! We have no way of defending ourselves. We'll be wiped out!"

Finally, I was able to stand upright without much pain as realization dawned on me. Or, well, the cube showed me what its purpose was.

"Preparation? For what?"

I winced at the images, bringing a hand to my head that felt as though it were seeing too much and too little at the same time.

"A-A war? But we wouldn't have had a war if you hadn't—" I cringed at the spike of pain that went through me. "All right! All right! Christ! No need to be all pissy about it." I rubbed at my head. "But why help us then? Why me?"

It didn't really answer my first question, though it's response to the second confused me.

"What? What do you mean, I don't exist? I'm right here. I am physically standing right in front of you. Jess Norris, girlfriend of Tony Stark, the idiot known as Iron Man."

Yet, it showed me images of something else. Of Tony and Pepper standing on that roof after the Expo kissing. Of her at an announcement about their wedding. Of the two of them with a little girl in a summer house living a normal life. I took a step back, shaking my head.

"N-No. No, that can't be right."

But there was more. Pepper in an Iron Man suit. Pepper in tears holding Tony's Iron Man helmet. Pepper in the Avengers helping Tony. And nowhere in this world did it show me, or anyone like me. I didn't exist. The Tesseract was showing me my reality. I existed here, but nowhere else. That was why it picked me. I was different. I was wrong. I was never meant to exist and yet, somehow, I was born and led here to be with Tony. To help him, help the Avengers, learn about the Tesseract and learn from the Tesseract. And never before had I felt so small. I sank to the ground, stunned into silence for a moment as the Tesseract stopped playing images in my head and let me think.

"But if I'm not supposed to exist then… I'm an anomaly. Anything could go wrong because I'm here. Everything could go wrong. I—" I was cut off as the Tesseract flared. "I'm an unknown factor that could save or destroy everyone just by merely existing."

The flare faded and I stood up, giving the cube a look as it seemed to shoo me off, having told me what it wanted to. It was hard to think after all that, that I'd just spoken to a box, of all things. A sentient cube, really, but a box nonetheless. And as much as I wanted to write off what it showed me as being some delusion of my exhausted mind, I somehow felt it was undeniably true. And that scared me almost as much as the war it had given me a glimpse of. A war between the entire universe and a man who thought he was a God. A war that everybody lost and one that I could possibly change.