Chapter 17 – Something To Avenge

A/n: I'm glad that y'all enjoyed the last chapter because it was the longest yet :D Here's hoping you like this one just as much.

XxxBellaBellaxxX: I guess you'll just have to wait and see ;) I know still having trouble deciding whether he's really dead or not

paisley15: You obviously type yes a lot on it :D You're welcome; it just seemed like the best solution when the opinion was so clearly split. And I'm extremely flattered that you think so highly of me. It's usually like 2-3am when I update here :D The parallel will begin at the same time as the sequel probably alternating between days on which one I update. I know I found the whole shutting down thing completely idiotic so I had to point it out.

favfan: That's an idea; I'll consider it :)

Maeleana: Yeah, I've seen a lot that leave Pepper as is but I just wanted to do something different. Glad you're enjoying

Booklover2526: Don't worry you won't have to put up with him when they break up because he'll stop watching the movies. Yay for Clint he's my third favourite Avenger after Tony & Bruce

Kit Kat: I've considered your suggestion and I think I'll do a oneshot series on the side with Thor/Toni as well but I don't know how often it will be updated. Would that be okay for you?

Dragones: I'm excited to be writing the sequel but we still have four movies after this one to get through before that can happen :D

LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Glad it was what you wanted :D Yeah in the movie I was a bit like NOOO! Stop messing with my feels mean screenwriters. I prefer to be the one that's scary; all the boys I know are scared of me

skywright: I've tried to make this such that they all have understandable flaws so I'm glad you think that Piper's is understandable.

kittymitten: Glad you enjoyed it

The cell containing Thor twisted and turned as it fell with the god being tossed around inside it. It drew closer and closer to the ground as Thor desperately tried to get some leverage so he could bust out. Eventually he got his feet up against one of the glass walls and he pushed himself off it and smashed through the opposite wall just before the cell hit the ground and was smashed to smithereens.

"Would you have died had it hit the ground with you in it?" Toni asked curiously.

"Only if something had gotten into my heart or my brain; the impact wouldn't have done it alone. But with the debris that was going to be around there was still a risk which was why I chose to blast my way out," Thor answered.

Thor crash landed into a field nearby with Mjolnir flying from his hand and landing away from him. Back on the helicarrier Loki looked down at the gap in the floor with satisfaction clearly thinking that the fall had rid him of his brother at least until he was done taking over.

As he began to walk away Coulson spoke, "you're going to lose."

"Defiant to the last," Natasha said with a hint of affection entering her tone. Phil had been her very first handler and she did miss him although it might not always seem like it.

Loki turned back obviously not having expected Coulson to still be capable of speech. "Am I?" he said incredulously.

"It's in your nature," Coulson told him defiantly.

"Hmm," Loki considered, "Your heroes are scattered. Your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction," Coulson jibed.

"Damn," Toni muttered, "maybe he did spend enough time around me to pick up some good jibes. I thought he just used them around me."

"I don't think I'm…" Loki started clearly growing angry but he was cut off by the gun which remained on Coulson's lap being fired. A yellow beam of energy slammed into him and knocked him backwards through the wall surrounded by smoke.

"So, that's what it does," Coulson said.

Normally this would have elicited at least a chuckle from several people in the room but it was too sombre a moment for that as Coulson was dead and that was nothing to laugh about.

Fury dismissed any other information on one of his screens and brought up an altimeter which showed the figures descending at a rapid rate. "All hands to crash stations immediately," came the call over the PA.

Outside the gold blur which was Toni spun around inside Engine 3 and Steve was shown still hanging onto the cable to stop himself plummeting. On the main deck anything left up there was skidding around and sending up sparks. Within Engine 3 Toni was still putting all her strength into kick-starting it. Toni shouted in pain as she kept pushing it obviously willing to work through it.

Piper's eyes darkened even more although the others before that moment wouldn't have thought such a thing possible. The sight of Toni in pain seemed to have driven him to the very edge and they knew that if anything else happened he was going to blow. Steve and Toni knew what was coming up and Steve had a feeling the anger would be directed at him.

Finally the engine got up to speed and the helicarrier began to move forwards rather than downwards. "Cap, hit the lever," Toni instructed.

"I need a minute here," Steve said now able to clamber up the cable without it being more dangerous than just hanging on.

"Lever," Toni insisted, "now!"

"It would have been better if you had told Toni what was happening Steve then she might have left you alone to do it and you wouldn't have been distracted from the task at hand," Clint pointed out and Steve blushed slightly as he realised that Clint was right. That was what the comm link was for after all.

Steve managed to pull himself back up onto solid ground and crawled forward slowly but the gunman were still there and firing on him. As this happened Toni was able to let go of the rotors as they began to turn themselves but in the absence of the lever being pulled she was flattened up against the one behind and was eventually pulled under and began to be beaten up quite severely by the rotors.

"It might be funny if it wasn't actually quite serious," Natasha said confusing several people but Toni got what she was saying. The footage looked quite amusing but something like that would have killed her easily if the armour had taken any substantial damage.

Piper had finally had enough, "what the hell? You never told me about this bit Toni. And what were you all thinking letting her do that?"

"They were thinking I was the only one who could fly," Toni said blankly wondering what had gotten into Piper lately. He had been acting strangely possessive ever since she had told him about the idea of the Avengers Initiative.

But moments later Steve pulled the lever down and it slowed the rotors meaning Toni could fall through one of the holes and steady the suit as the flight repulsors faltered for a second. The minute she was stable she zoomed towards Steve and took down the guy who had been shooting at him. The moment she rolled off of him the eyes of the suit went dark.

"Thank you for that," Steve said gratefully, "I don't think I ever officially said it after the shock of Coulson."

Back on the outer deck a quinjet took off with Loki shown to be aboard as the rear hatch closed over. Obviously some of the soldiers that had been brought had survived or he had simply taken over some more to fly the thing.

"We weren't missing anyone else that we weren't missing already as far as I know," Natasha informed the others making them sigh in relief. Being taken over by Loki was by all accounts a horrible experience.

Fury hurried to the detention area where he found Coulson on the floor clearly at least slightly upset by this.

"Sorry, boss," Coulson apologised, "the god rabbited."

"Just stay awake," Fury told him apparently more concerned for Coulson's condition at that moment than Loki who was already long gone, "eyes on me."

"At least Director Fury proved that he cares a little," Thor said trying to think of anything to say to break the tension. It didn't work but it was good of him to attempt it at least.

"No, I'm clocking out here," Coulson told him.

"Not an option," Fury informed him sternly.

Toni at this point had to hold back tears. She was sure that Natasha and Clint were suppressing them too but they arguably had more practice concealing their emotions than she did. Although maybe not considering all the time she spent concealing her true emotions at press conferences and around people she didn't particularly like. She'd gotten involved in business at the age of eight due to her father after all.

"It's okay, boss," Coulson reassured haltingly, "This was never gonna work if they didn't have something… to…" He became incapable of speech before he could finish and his eyes flickered shut. Fury stood slowly as the medical team came in.

Agent Hill was being treated for her head wound when the message came through from Fury, "Agent Coulson is down," and she pushed him away abruptly.

"A medical team is on its way to your location," was heard as two SHIELD agents carried Clint away from Natasha.

"They're here," Fury responded as Steve and Toni were seen on the exterior of the helicarrier Toni having removed her mask, "they called it."

Here JARVIS paused the movie for about a minute for everyone to regain their fragile composure (well except for Piper) and breathe easier then he restarted the footage.

Back in the control room only Steve and a de-suited Toni were sitting at the table with Toni resolutely avoiding everyone's gaze.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury began throwing Coulson's Captain America trading cards onto the table which were now covered in blood, "I guess he never did get you to sign them."

"I still don't get why he was directing his comments at me," Steve said puzzled, "he was much closer to Toni as I barely knew him. I mean I liked him and all but all I knew was that he was a fan."

"Yeah, well," Toni said haltingly, "Fury's not the smartest person emotionally I guess. He tends to think that if you don't show your emotions you don't have any. So, he dismisses me as being unfeeling."

Steve picked up one of the blood stained cards as Fury continued, "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you," throughout this Toni resolutely refused to look up as if looking at anyone would break her mask, "I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."

"Yes, he did," Toni said softly, "but not like that."

"Yes," Fury said beginning to walk around the table, "we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though because I was playing something even riskier," he paused as if considering whether to continue or not, "there was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative."

Toni looked up at the mention without turning to face the other two whilst Steve gave her a quick, calculating look.

"I just…" Steve said attempting to explain.

"Don't even bother Steve," Toni said quietly, "It's not worth it."

Fury was now directly behind Toni as he spoke, "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," he directed his next comment straight to Toni, "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

The minute the word heroes passed Fury's lips Toni practically launched herself from her chair and left the room.

"I didn't understand why it affected you so much back then but I get it now," Steve informed Toni.

"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion," Fury said looking in the direction that Toni had disappeared in.

Back on the ground Thor walked through the grass to find Mjolnir where it had collided with the field and reached out his hand but it did not instantly fly into his hand.

"My faith wavered," Thor said sadly. It had been like his first encounter with Mjolnir after being exiled all over again.

"You fell out of the sky," a man said in a voiceover.

The scene changed to show Bruce having changed back from being the Hulk lying in a gigantic pile of rubble. He sat up slowly clearly in pain and turned to see a security guard who had been the one talking to him. He groaned and rubbed his eyes as if he had a splitting migraine.

"It usually hurts to change back if I didn't intend to let him out," Bruce informed them, "plus I have to deal with the missing memories although I've recently discovered thanks to Toni's theories that they were just buried because I was repressing him."

His first panicked question was, "did I hurt anybody?"

"There's nobody around here to get hurt," the security guard informed him casually, "you did scare the hell out of some pigeons though."

"Relieving," Clint said matter-of-factly. Unfortunately when he had woken up he knew he had hurt some people. And it had mostly been people that he'd known.

"Lucky," Bruce said simply but the security guard wasn't having any of that, "Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell."

"I like him," Toni said with a smile, "he's not freaking out but he's not taking any of your modesty. I will tell you for as long as I have to. The Other Guy has his own motivations and intentionally hurting innocents isn't one of them."

Bruce gave her a smile in appreciation but this did not help the situation with Piper at all. Toni was suddenly uncomfortable that the pair was sitting on the same seat but there wasn't much she could do about it as everywhere was full.

"You saw?" Bruce questioned.

"The whole thing," the security guard confirmed, "Right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck-ass nude."

Clint found this comment funnier than he probably should have done but neither girl had the heart to hit him because he hadn't been laughing like that much. At least now there was no more Loki controlling him on film which could demoralise him further.

"Here," he continued throwing some clothes for Bruce into the crater, "I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular-size feller."

"Thank you," Bruce said quickly getting dressed.

"Are you an alien?" the security guard asked curiously.

"That's ironic considering what's about to happen," Steve muttered.

"What?" Bruce asked.

"From outer space, an alien," he reiterated.

"No," Bruce informed him quietly obviously waiting for the cries of monster that he predicted would come but he simply replied softly, "well, then, son, you've got a condition."

Back on the helicarrier Clint struggled with the restraints that attached him to the chair as he shook his head as if attempting to clear it. He screwed up his eyes in pain causing Natasha to tell him, "Clint. You're going to be alright."

"You know that?" Clint said bitingly, "Is that what you know?" As Natasha rose he leaned back clearly uncomfortable sighing, "I've got no window. I have to flush him out."

"Didn't know he was completely gone yet," Clint told them.

"You got to level out. It's going to take time," Natasha informed him.

"You don't understand," Clint attempted to explain, "have you ever someone take your brain and play?"

Toni stiffened at the mention because that was what her father used to do to her in a way and it was a bit of a touchy subject. Bruce, Clint & Natasha had all obviously noticed her stiffen but decided to tactfully not mention it in front of the others. Piper already knew a little of what Howard had done to Toni.

"Pull you out and stuff something else in?" he continued, "Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

"Yes," came the chorus from all of the other Avengers who each gave the others a small smile before returning to watching the movie. It was nice to know that they at least had that in common. Most of them had even more on top of that. This wasn't going the way Amora had planned at all.

"You know that I do," Natasha said simply.

Clint breathed deeply for a few seconds before querying, "Why am I back? How did you get him out?"

"Cognitive recalibration," she said formally, "I hit you really hard on the head."

"Thanks," Clint said as she sat down next to him.

"And that's the only time anyone well ever thank you for beating them up Natasha so remember that," Clint joked which earned him a whack to the back of the head but also a smile.

"Natasha…" he said as she freed him from the restraints, "How many agents did I…?" But Natasha wasn't going to let him dwell on it, "Don't. Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic, and nothing we were ever trained for."

"She makes a good point there," Steve said, "you can't dwell on things that were beyond your control."

"Loki, did he get away?" Clint asked bitterly.

"Yeah," Natasha confirmed, "I don't suppose you know where."

Clint shook his head regretfully, "I didn't need to know. I didn't ask," with that he swung his legs off the bed as Natasha walked towards the door, "he's going to make his play soon, though. Today."

"That is useful information Friend Barton," Thor complimented but Clint just shrugged it off. The information wasn't worth the price since it included Coulson's death.

"We got to stop him," Natasha said sharply.

"Yeah? Who's 'we'?" Clint asked.

"I don't know," Natasha replied, "whoever's left."

"Well," Clint said after thinking for a moment, "if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I would sleep better, I suppose."

"If he hadn't caught the arrow that would have happened," Clint said almost sulkily, "but it did its job anyway so I can't complain too much."

"Now you sound like you," Natasha said relieved.

"But you don't," Clint said calling Natasha out on her unusual behaviour, "You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

"He didn't. I just…" Natasha said haltingly.

"Natasha," Clint said breathily almost in a whisper.

"I've been compromised," she admitted grudgingly, "I got red in my ledger. I would like to wipe it out."

"I don't fight for that nowadays. Everyone has red in their ledger I guess and if I haven't made up for it by now then I never will," Natasha said when Steve shot her a worried look.

Toni knew what that felt like. She didn't believe that she could ever erase all the bad that she had done. She didn't even think that it worked like that but she hoped she could balance it out by doing as much good as she could now she had seen the light. That was what Piper hadn't quite understood about her desire to remain Iron Man after her escape from Afghanistan.

Toni stood overlooking the place where the cell had once been as Steve walked into the room. "Was he married?" he asked clearly guessing that Toni was closer to Coulson than she let on.

"I knew she were at least more than distant acquaintances. I didn't know how close," Steve admitted.

"No. There was a cellist in Portland named Audrey but SHIELD hadn't given him permission to propose," Toni told him.

"And I should have caught on there," Steve realised, "but I was more distracted by the fact that a government agency was forbidding someone to get married to someone they were in love with."

The others who had been about to protest about his insensitivity and obliviousness accepted this explanation for SHIELD had made a huge impact on Steve's faith in authority and they all knew it.

"I'm sorry," Steve said, "he seemed like a good man."

"He was but he was also an idiot," Toni said quickly wiping away a tear that Steve hadn't noticed before turning to face him.

"Why? For believing?" Steve asked stiffly.

"That's what you were apologising for earlier," Clint realised.

"Yeah," Steve confirmed, "I thought she was just criticising his actions instead of wishing he hadn't been noble for other reasons."

"For taking on Loki alone," Toni corrected.

"He was doing his job," Steve said confused.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited, he should have…" Toni reiterated trying not to show she was upset.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Toni," Steve said kindly.

"Yeah, that's what I was trying to tell myself," Toni said weakly, "wasn't really working."

"Right, I've heard that before," she said nonchalantly as she walked past Steve.

"Is this the first time you lost a soldier?" Steve asked.

"We are not soldiers," Toni snapped making an abrupt about face.

Steve still didn't know why that subject was so touchy for her but he wasn't sure he wanted to bring it up and he knew none of the others would be keen to either. He was pretty sure Piper already knew at least part of the story though.

"I'm not marching to Fury's fife," Toni said trying to regain composure.

"Neither am I," Steve said, "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list…"

But Toni was only half listening as she had caught sight of Phil's bloodstain on the wall nearby.

Clint and Natasha both flinched. Why hadn't they cleaned that up already? It just made things harder for those who knew Coulson to cope with his death!

"He made it personal," Toni cut in quickly.

"That's not the point," Steve tried but Toni was in her own world now analysing things, "That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. But why?"

"I should have known it was you who figured out where Loki would be attacking," Natasha sighed wondering why she had thought it had been Steve but she guessed she had thought that the two of them still weren't speaking in any way amicably.

"To tear us apart," Steve pointed out confused as to why this was an issue.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great," Toni said coming to a realisation, "but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us; he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience." Toni hurried past Steve again as Steve realised she was right, "right, I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, that was just previews. This is opening night," Toni confirmed, "And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…"

"So if I hadn't insisted on the name thing we wouldn't have had the attack here," Piper said incredulously.

"Well he might have chosen here anyway but who knows with Loki," Toni said shrugging it off. No use dwelling on might-have-beens.

Steve gave Toni a significant look as she realised what she had said and cursed, "Son of a bitch," before running from the room.

"You would curse at a time like that I guess," Bruce said acknowledging that it was Toni's way of dealing with her anger semi-constructively which he was an expert on by now.

A/n: Broke 4K again! Yay for action chapters :D