"Call it Cap." Tony said in that metallic voice of his, as we all watched more Chitauri soldiers spew from the portal above us.

"Alright listen up, before we can close the portal, we have to think containment." Steve looked over at Clint. "Barton I want you on the roofs eyes on everything. Calling out patterns and strays."

Clint gave him a stiff nod.

"Stark I want you to make a perimeter, anything gets more than 3 blocks out you turn it back or you turn it to ash." Steve continued.

"Wanna give me a lift?" Clint said looking over at Stark.

"Right, better clench up Legolas." Stark grabbed Clint under the shoulders and took off, throwing dust around in his wake.

"Thor you gotta go try and bottleneck that portal. You have to slow down anything that comes through there. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up." Steve said seriously.

Thor took off flying towards the tallest building in the city.

Steve turned to me. "You, Nat, and I are going to be here on the ground, making sure that the civilians aren't harmed, and keeping the Chitauri occupied." Steve paused.

Not Bruce was still waiting for his command, and I wondered if he could understand us.

"And Hulk." Steve said smiling. "Smash!"

A huge smile ripped across not Bruce's face, as he leaped off the ground.

Well at least he's happy.

Hulk ripped through the side of the building, tearing Chitauri off and throwing them everywhere. The rest jumped to the ground, ready to face me.

That was their mistake.

Echo lunged forward, ripping into the Chitauri that dared get close to me. I raised Obsidian high in my hand.

"For Midgard!" I shouted and charged into the fight.

The first Chitauri swung at my head with his black blade, but I ducked under him, slashing Obsidian through his leg, and finally caving in his skull with the bloody axe in my hand.

Natasha was laying down fire, trying to keep the Chitauri from getting too close to close to us, while Steve and I made our way through the Chitauri at the front.

"Mommy!" I heard a voice scream.

I looked through the Chitauri in front of me and saw a little brown haired girl, holding a pink teddy bear. A group of Chitauri soldiers were moving towards her making the little girl back away, as she cried.

I leaped over the hoard of Chitauri in my way and landed in the middle of the circle of Chitauri surrounding the little girl.

"Hi." I said smiling.

One of the Chitauri opened their mouth to roar.

"Shut your eyes." I told the girl. She closed her eyes tightly and I slashed my way through the Chitauri surrounding us.

"Echo!" I called out, not seeing him in the fight.

He materialized in front of us, taking a protective stance.

I crouched down next to the little girl.

"You can open your eyes now." I said quietly, strapping Obsidian to my side.

She opened her brown eyes, and looked at me, eyes wide, almost like a lost puppy.

"Are the monsters gone?" She whispered.

"For now, but I can't say that they won't come back." I murmured.

Tears, ran down the little girl's face.

"What's you name?" I asked her.

"Alice." She sobbed.

"I'm Cade." I said giving her a smile. I raised my thumb and wiped away one of her tears.

She was covered in Ash.

"Where are your parents Alice?"

An explosion shook the building behind us, and Alice screamed, running into my arms.

"Shhh. It's okay, everything is going to be okay." I soothed.

"I don't know where my mommy is." The little girl sobbed into my shoulder.

"We will find your mommy, it will be okay." I rubbed her back trying to comfort her.

She squeezed my side a little bit too hard, right where Loki had stabbed me and I clenched my teeth in pain.

Keep it together Cade.

A speeder touched down right in front of me. Alice didn't notice because she was too busy curling into my shoulder. I stood up to my full height, holding her in one arm.

"Shut your eyes, sweetie." I whispered to her.

I raised my hand in front of me and threw the car next to us telekinetically into the speeder. The speeder exploded sending bits of shrapnel right at us. I stopped them an inch away from us mid-air and let them drop harmlessly to the ground.

"Hold on." I said calmly, rising into the air, and flying back to where Natasha and Steve were fighting.

I ducked behind a car, with Alice in my arms. Echo made his way back to us and covered our backs. I opened the door of the car and placed her on the seat.

"Alice, everything is going to be okay. I'm going to leave Echo with you. He will protect you I promise." I said calmly.

"No don't leave." She sobbed harder.

Echo jumped into the car and laid his head in her lap.

"Puppy." She whispered and patted his head.

I smiled. Only a child would see a huge ass wolf covered in blood and think puppy.

"He will protect you, just as he has protected me. I will come back for you." I promised.

She nodded and continued to pet Echo.

I closed the door and moved other cars around to make sure no one could get in without effort.

That poor child, seeing the terror of war so early in her life.

She reminded me of my little sisters, so young, still had so much life left to live. I tried not to think about their deaths, but they plagued me more than my grandmother did.

I wasn't paying attention when the speeder came up behind me, and someone grabbed me from behind lifting me into the air.

I struggled against the grip of the thing holding me.

I felt their breath against my ear.

"Let go of me you creep." I yelled.

"Well, is that any way to treat your fiance?" A voice purred into my ear.

"Loki let me go now." I said angrily.

"I had a long time to think it over, and I don't want to let you go Cade. You are too much like me, to have anyone else in your life." He was pressing himself into me.

"I'm nothing like you Loki." I growled out.

Loki sighed into my hair. "Yes you are. We wouldn't have been together as long as we were if you weren't like me."

"No." I said elbowing him in the stomach making him let go of me. I stumbled away onto the platform of the speeder.

My hair was wiping through my face, my feet unsteady beneath me, on the speeder that raced through the city.

"Cade just admit it. You can't live without me." He said smirking.

"I thought I couldn't, for a long time I thought that." I paused considering my next words. "But then I realized that I don't need a man to define who I am. I don't need a man to protect me, because I am a warrior, the next generation of Valkyrie. And I'm not going to let some scummy guy that I used to roll around with change that about me!" I yelled, swinging my fist and punching him in the face.

He soared off the speeder and onto Stark's tower below us.

I jumped over the divider in the speeder and ripped the Chitauri in front of me in two, and as the speeder fell towards the ground I considered my life.

A life that I thought was filled with so much pain and loss, but when I thought of Thor a warmth spread through me that I had never understood. I thought that my life was falling apart, but he kept it together. I used to think that I was in love with Loki, but maybe that was a lie, a lie that I told myself to get through.

The speeder plummeted through the air towards the roof of a building and I leaped off out into open air.

Thunderclouds rumbled overhead as Thor shot lightning into the portal above stopping the flow for a few moments, but not for long.

I watched Natasha flash by on a speeder trying to steer it.

"Nat you okay?" I asked into my headset, beginning to fly towards her.

"Yeah. I got this." I heard her grunt.

I circled back to where Steve was fighting on the ground. The Chitauri were almost all the way around him.

My feet slammed into the concrete sending up a shock wave that made the Chitauri step back.

"Steve duck!" I commanded as I concentrated on a car behind the Chitauri making it roll over them, smashing them into the pavement.

"Thanks." Steve said, taking a step forward.

"Don't thank me yet." I yelled as more Chitauri landing on the other side of the bridge.

"Cap there's a bank on 42nd, they've cornered a lot of civilians in there." I heard Clint say into the head piece.

"Alright." Cap said.

He and I charged forward fighting our way to 42nd Street.

"Can I get a lift?" He asked me as we reached the building.

"Of course." I telekinetically threw him through the open window on the second floor, then flew after him.

Something was flashing, on the ground, a small box that was surrounded by Chitauri soliders.

Is that a bomb?

I kicked one of them in the chest, pushing him over a desk that was throw into the center of the room. I could hear scared people's screams below us, and I wondered if Alice's mother was below.

An alien raised his gun out in front of him, but I lengthened Obsidian into a spear and threw it, catching the attacker directly between the eyes.

The bomb began to tick faster, and flash brighter.

This isn't good.

Steve jumped back, throwing me out of the building as a Chitauri picked up the bomb and threw it at us. It hit the metal of Steve's shield, but the impact propelled us both backward and into a car on the street.

I tried to cushion our landing the best I could, but we still hit pretty hard.

More pain pricked at my side, and I reached a gloved hand and it came back red.

Shit. Maybe that wound is deeper than I thought.

I called Obsidian back to me, and it sailed out of the window happily, forming into a sword again, landing in my outstretched hand.

I groaned as I stood up from the car.

"You okay Steve?" I asked looking over at him.

"Mhmm. Just a normal day." He grunted rolling up slowly from the car.

"I'd hope not." I mumbled looking around us at the destruction.

Thor landed next to me and spotted the blood seeping out of my side.

"Cade." He reached out and put pressure on it.

"Thor I am fine. Just need to take a rest real quick." I said weakly sitting down on the car.

Thor didn't move his hand. "Cade I told you to be careful."

"I was being careful." I murmured. "I can already feel it closing up, it will be okay." I whispered.

"I'll kill Loki for this." Thor growled.

"Not if I get to him first." I replied smiling.

The blood flow slowed down.

"See I'm fine, it's not that bad." I stood to my feet shakily. "You ready for another bout?" I asked Steve.

He laughed. "What you getting sleepy?" He joked.

"Not at all." I rose to my full height, lifting Obsidian above me.

"I can close it. I can close the portal." I heard Natasha say. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Steve shouted.

"No wait!" Tony said loudly.

"These things are still coming." I replied, as a few more speeders raced overhead.

"Well I've got a nuke coming in, and it's going to blow in less than a minute." Tony said calmly.

"That doesn't sound good." I whispered to Thor.

"And I know just where to put it." Tony continued, thinking out loud.

"Wait, Stark you know that's a one way trip." Steve said solemnly.

"What?" I said gripping Obsidian tighter.

"Yes. I know that."

"Tony don't do it. Let me do it." I began to rise off the ground, but Thor caught my arm in his hand.

"Not gonna happen." He said gruffly.

"Thor come on. You know I can survive out there. I can just take a portal back here if I get stuck." I reasoned with him pulling at his arm. "I don't want another good man to die, because of something Loki did."

"Cade I'm not going to let you commit suicide. I'm not going to lose you that way. I'm not going to let Loki take you away from me." He said angrily.

I stopped struggling against him, his words hitting home, and lowered myself back to the ground.

Tony flashed overhead pushing the nuke in front of him.

"He's a brave man." I whispered.

"Yes. He is." Thor breathed.

We all watched as he flew into the portal, disappearing from our sight.

The Chitauri began to power down around us, all of them falling to the ground as though dead.

But Tony still didn't appear at the portal.

"Close it." Steve ordered.

I bowed my head against my chest, and Thor pulled me into his arms.

The portal above us began to close rapidly, but then as I looked up I saw Tony falling through the sky.

"He made it!" I shouted happily.

"Son of a gun." Steve said awestruck.

"Wait, he's not slowing down." Thor said pushing me aside as he began to prepare to leap into the air.

Before he could take off, Hulk caught Tony in his arms and pulled him to the ground, cushioning his fall.

They landed in front of us, and Thor ripped off the front of Tony's mask.

"Tony, don't be dead!" I said kneeling next to him.

Steve put his ear to Tony's face trying to hear his breath. He looked at me and shook his head.

No, not Tony too.

I sat back on my heels, and rubbed my face with one hand. I was covered in ash, blood, and who knows what, but I didn't care.

Suddenly Hulk let loose a roar, that made me jump out of my skin.

Tony shot upright and yelled loudly.

I laughed at him and stood up.

"What the hell!" Tony shouted. "What just happened?"

"You died." I said raising an eyebrow.

"Please tell me that Cade kissed me." Tony joked.

I laughed loudly. "No it was actually Thor that did." I replied, laughing at the face Tony made. "I can't believe we won."

Tony laughed. "Yayy! Good job everybody!" He tried to get up, but stopped mid way. "Hey has anybody ever had Shwarma? I saw a Shwarma place over there."

"Not now, we have unfinished business." Thor said stoically.

"Okay, then Shwarma after." Tony replied completely standing up.

I shook my head, laughing at Tony's candor.

"Come on." I said, grabbing Steve and flying over to Stark's building.

Thor picked up Clint on the way, and we all met on the balcony.

Loki was lying in the inside of the building, crawling out of a huge concrete hole. He smiled when he saw us and casually leaned backward like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"If it's the same to you. I'll have that drink now." He said smiling.

I landed next to the car gently, with Thor behind me.

He pushed the car out of the way so I could get to where Echo was with Alice.

They were still curled up together in the backseat, with Echo laying protectively over her. He gave me a wolfy grin and started to make his way out of the car.

"Cade!" Alice yelled jumping out of the backseat and into my arms.

"I told you I would come back." I said into her shoulder. "Now let's go find your mommy."

I found a Midgardian in uniform and asked him where the civilians were being kept.

He was hesitant to tell me, but after a menacing growl from Echo he told me.

Thor followed behind me silently, down the broken streets, but as we were walking I heard a woman shouting from behind us.

"Alice, baby!" The woman yelled, running towards us.

Alice let go of me and ran shakily towards the brunette woman that was running full speed at us.

"Mommy!" Alice yelled happily, jumping into the woman's arms.

I smiled watching their reunion. Echo nudged my leg, and I reached down to pat him on the head.

The woman looked up at me. "Thank you, you saved my baby."

"She was very brave ma'am." I replied smiling.

Thor nugged his shoulder into mine, and we turned to leave, walking back down the empty streets to get Shwarma.

Whatever the hell that was.