So, for anyone who missed it or can't be bothered to read it or was really confused by last chapter; here's what happened in a shorter paragraph. Thor's mates and family realised that Loki needed to be taken out and Thor needed help; Fury and Clint began going around the country trying to find recruits for their really big (it's not really big I lied) army to take down Loki, Charles and Erik had schnapps and played a little chess whilst they talked about the future of humanity, Clint's little bro decided to help Bruce escape. Bruce went loco over spilt cocoa and somewhere under his mess is Tori, who will no doubt be facing some kind of terrible situation. Oh, yeah and Steve is struggling to live; which sucks. So, things are not looking too good for Earth's Mightiest Heroes and I doubt that they are going to get any better. But I really don't know because I haven't written that bit yet. ONWARDS, NOBLE STEAD! P.S. from now it'll be me talking about them because there are a lot of p.o.v's.

"Steven, Steven Rogers… do not be alarmed, I am Professor Charles Xavier." Steve's head snapped up sharply as Bucky and Peggy frowned at the new figure that had just entered the bar, the others from the group had all lowered their drinks and begun to stare at the exchange.

Charles Xavier was a young, mousey looking boy with a head full of brown locks and big blue eyes that didn't seem to end. His skinny and slightly short body stood out against the midst of burly and tall men with tanned skin and heavy lidded eyes but he just seemed to smile through it. His hands stuck in the pockets of strange trousers and a blue cardigan hanging over a dark shirt buttoned all the way to the top.

"Um, hello, sir; are you all right you look a little lost?" He said, putting the beer in his hand down, even though he had no idea why he was drinking a beer since it had no effect on him, and made his way across to the young man beaming at him.

"Oh, no, I'm not lost but I would like to talk to you. Shall we sit over there?" He asked, nodding to the vacated table by the corner which everyone seemed to be avoiding.

Not wanting to be rude, Steve nodded and followed him across the bar till he could sit at the corner of the bench and watch the man across from him. His smile had dimmed now but there was still a kindness to his eyes that calmed Steve's suspicion. They sat there in silence for a few moments before Charles cast a look around and asked with a frown.

"Where are we?"

Steve smiled and laughed. "You sure that you're not lost? We're in Harry's bar in New York city." He watched as Charles nodded and then looked at all the faces laughing at the guys or watching them carefully. "So, who, exactly, are you-?"

"What's going on? You're all celebrating and they were cheering you on like frat boys at any university party; what's going on?" He asked as Peggy turned back to Bucky.

"Oh, we just defeated some Nazi's about a week back; took down Red Skull and saved the day." He smiled, absentmindedly, picking at the sticker of a discarded beer bottle. "That kind of thing."

"And, I am just guessing, that it was by your leadership; if that banner is anything to go by." Steve laughed as he turned his head to look at the blue and red banner with his name printed on it followed by the words, "National Hero."

"Yeah, I led the team, over there." He said pointing at them as they began to drink again, Bucky waved and smiled but it wavered as he looked at the Professor. "But, if I'm honest, I couldn't have done it without them."

Charles nodded and turned to face him with a hard look in his eyes; he exhaled and braced himself as he began to talk. "And your new team cannot defeat Loki without you; so, I need you to wake up."

Steve jumped and stared at the young man, worry running through him as well as confusion. He stared at the young professor and saw the change in him and suddenly he was afraid; the warmth of him was gone, replaced by urgency and a directness that made Steve frightened. Charles had moved from a casual and carefree guy that had just wandered in lost and bemused to a man that knew that all the answers and no patience for questions.

"Steve, I need you to listen to me; everything that you see around you is a dream, it's not real." He said, watching him as he cast a look over his shoulder to stare at Bucky and Peggy, who hadn't turned to face him. "All that you can see, everything around us is just your heads way of protecting you because you can't cope but you have to be brave, Steve. You have to push through all of this and wake up."

"Stop it." Steve whispered, his hands beginning to shake as the world around them dimmed and fizzed, the people began to be quiet, the music lowered and the lights flickered on and off again as Steve jumped; his heart beating against his chest and his head buzzing with fear.

"This has happened; this day in the 1940's happened but with one big difference, you weren't there." Charles said calmly, watching Steve freeze and stare at him. "You froze yourself to save humanity, you saved everyone Steve; you did it and then you woke up in 2012. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. asked to be a part of the Avengers-."

"Stop it," Steve hissed, grabbing Charles by the front and glaring into his face. "Stop lying to me, you sick bastard. This is all real." He cast his hand around and gestured wildly at his friends. "Me, Bucky, Peggy, this bar-."

"What bar, Steve?" Charles asked. "Take a look."

Steve breathed in and out for a few seconds before moving his head around letting go of his front with a gasp, breathing heavily as he looked around at the lack of anything.

They were surrounded by… nothing. No people, no music, no tables, no beer, no colour. There was nothing; it was like they were in a void. A void that had sucked them in and taken them… it was just a blanket of space. Wide open space with a metallic taste to the air and a ringing in the ears. They were alone.

"What…? What did you…? This… I." Steve fell to his knees, his head spinning as his stomach flipped itself in and out; knotting and untying as he tried to stabilise, tried to control himself and his weak emotions. "No! That was real I felt all of that!"

"You felt it because you wanted to but, Captain, didn't you ever once wonder why certain things didn't happen or you didn't see them or your heart didn't feel right with the emotions that you were feeling." Charles said, kneeling in front of him and keeping his eyes on him, he had this ability to make it feel like Steve had to look at him without touching him or holding onto him. "When Bucky was there with you. When Peggy and you were together. When you survived."

"You don't question the things that your mind tells you; you're wrong, Professor. I am not… That was real, that was my life in the 1940's not 2012! I lived then; I lived then until I die in the future! I have not seen 2012 nor will I ever-!"

"Recognise these people?" Charles asked as five people appeared in a line, all of them staring ahead their eyes blank and unfocused, their shoulders straight and militaristic whilst they stood tall in a variety of clothes.

Two men stood next to each other, one aged beyond his years and one younger than he was, they were the same height and stature but whilst one had a kind and gentle expression, the other was arrogant and proud.

Two uniformed people were next, one with a bow and arrows on his back and the other with a holster filled with a strange gun, her body was slim and supple but tightened in by the uniform that she was wearing. The man stood with muscles bare and chest out but the same symbol as one her uniform on his.

The next was an incredibly tall and strong man, long hair and tough face. He was dressed in a kind of armour with a hammer stuck in his hand, cape flying down from his broad shoulders to the leather encased boots.

Altogether they varied from the strange to the normal; the tough men in chainmail to a gentle man in a purple shirt. His heart leapt as he saw them, his throat constricting but his head flailing with the information.

"I don't… I'm sorry. They don't…"

"It's all right, Steve." A new voice said over his shoulder, casting a look around he saw a young man stood in front of him wearing a beautiful white dress that moulded into the background around her before it shifted from the nothing to a pale skyline with grass beneath his knees. Her long dark hair pooled around her shoulder as she looked at him with a soft smile.

Steve looked around and saw Charles sat a few feet away from him and watching them. "It's all right, unlike the others, she is real. Half real. Let me explain." He sighed, moving up and over to Steve as he began to talk again.

"I have a very special ability; I am a telepath, which means that I can reach out to minds and make contact. Because your mind is so open and fractured it's easy to get to you and because Tori is asleep on the Helicarrier it's easy to reach her. I've connected you two with hopes that it would jog your memory."

"Did it work?" She asked, fear seeping into her eyes as he began to stand and move over to her, his hand brushing against her hair and then down to her cheek, cupping it in his hand.

"You're okay… You're okay." He whispered. "You're still alive?" She nodded and pulled him to her, leaning her head onto his chest and breathing him in whilst she could; they both knew that it was useless, whatever warmth and touch they got from this was unreal but it didn't matter to them. They needed this.

"… He told me that you were dead." She whispered, turning her head up to his and looking at every line on his face till she remembered them all. "He told that they killed you."

"Do you think that I would leave you like that?" He asked her, bringing his head to hers and brushing his lips on the top of her hair. "I've missed you. So much." He said as all the memories came flooding back, all the pain and anguish and horror. But it was surpassed by the happiness and joy of this moment.

"I never thought that I'd see you again."

Steve held her to him and crushed her chest up to his, her head falling into the crook of his neck and resting there with her lips on the side of his throat, whilst her arms wrapped around him and held onto his shirt, crinkling the soft material and keeping him near her.

Then there was a crack and a yelp of pain from behind them; Steve turned back to stare at the young man and watched as he morphed into an old man with no hair and then back again. His face scrunched into concentration and agony; his hands going to his temple and pushing down.

"We don't have long. AH!" He yelled. "They're trying to wake Tory up; I can't keep this connection for long, you have to move."

Steve suddenly felt the girl around him shudder and begin to quake, her eyes on the ground as she breathed in and out, unable to calm herself, unable to think, unable to cope. Steve grabbed at her and sifted her face up till she looked at him wither blue eyes; filled with fear. Filled with a terrifying and contagious fear that almost killed his heart.

"I'm coming for you. I promise, I am coming for you and I will find you and bring you home. You're going to be safe."

"Steve…" she whimpered, falling to the ground and sobbing. "Steve… I'm scared, he's gonna kill me. He's gonna kill me." She repeated that like a mantra over and over, rocking herself and rocking herself against him as she fought to breathe.

"No," Steve said, commandingly holding her head in his hands and making her look at him as she tried to stop the tears from flowing from her eyes like strong rivers. He put his hands on hers and held them in his own, they practically absorbed them they were so small.

"No, I am not going to let him do that. I will never let him do that. I am going to stop him, I swear this to you. I will stop him, I will save you."

"How?" she whispered, her voice was like a brittle rock, strong but fraying and snapping, ready to break. It cut at Steve's heart like it was a knife made of diamonds, in both dream and reality.

"I don't know yet," She let her head fall down and refused to look at him, disappointment in the air like a bad smell. "But I am going to save you, the second I wake up."

"We don't have any more time." Charles' voice said, over the sound of a stomach churning snap and crackle. Steve stared as the sky around them began to change and deform, flicking from one colour and weather to the next. "I'm sorry."

Tory fell onto Steve and put her head next to his, her cheek brushing his and her hair tickling his chin. She whispered in his ear and then she was gone, vanishing as if she had never existed in the first place. Like a ghost or a… vision.

He breathed in and held it there in his chest, keeping his body straight and stiff as he pushed away the tears threatening to fall. He heard Charles move closer till he stood at his shoulder, not touching him just staying close so that Steve knew that there was someone here for him; he wasn't alone anymore. He wasn't alone like he was in the ice or after Bucky or… when he woke up. All of his life he had no one to look after him or rely on; not since his parents died after that he was old enough to take care of himself, he didn't need anyone except for Bucky and then they had to separate… He's been alone for so long, used to only doing things as a solitary mission with no real backup; that it's all foreign to him what it's like to be in a team with people who are just as lonely as you are.

But when he saw all their faces he realised that he was perhaps the better off out of all of them, despite the fact that his family and friends were all dead; Tony had had a childhood void of love and parenting guidance; Bruce was forced to be an outcast to make sure that he didn't harm more people, including himself; Clint had lost his only family member after a vicious argument that left them on separate parts of the planet; Natasha was a spy to every inch of her body because she could trust no one, she could love no one. And, debatably the lowliest of them all, was Thor who had only come to realise how naïve and stupid he had been; his greatest friend and ally had also transformed into his greatest enemy who, with every waking thought, wanted nothing more than to kill him. Thor had, also, come to a dimmed revelation that his father was less the man that he ever thought him to be. Thousands of years' worth of memories and love and respect was gone.

Tony really should have named them 'Director Fury's Lonely Hearts Response Team.'

So, Steve both hated and loved Charles for waking him so rudely from the dream. His hate spurred from his head's rational reaction to want to run away from this horrible reality that was breaking him but he loved him because he forced him to realise that he had never once run from anything in his life and he wasn't about to start now; especially when people needed him. When she needed him.

Steve stood slowly, rising to his feet and nodding to the young man who smiled warmly and vanished just as quickly as he had entered the dream and Steve was alone, again. But this time he knew how to get back to them.

The team had moved from the small hut in Texas two weeks ago; transporting the unconscious Steve Rogers was the most difficult part of that but Jane and Pepper had managed to snag a large van and shoved the sleeping body into the back on a mattress and a series of pillow and blankets. Tony had taken Thor in a car behind them, the Norse God watching the scenery sail past them with the hammer stuck firmly between his knees. Natasha and Maria Hill had brought up the rear on Steve's motorcycle because if he had woken up without the bike he would have murdered everyone.

They made the trip to New York with only Natasha and Maria being pulled over by a Legion and that was to make some remarks about lesbian stereotypes and how they were playing right into them; Natasha just laughed as she kicked his groin and flipped her hair over her shoulder as she got back on the bike.

Charles Xavier had welcomed them with a great big smile on his face, pulling open the door and wheeling himself back away for them so that they could walk in and shake his hand, telling him how grateful they were and then chasing Steve's trolley down the garden as he rolled away from them; which, as Tony summed up in a mutter to Pepper, summed up their lives so far.

Charles had been only too happy to explain to them why they had been left so alone by Loki's army and mercenaries and the explanation was simple; they had no idea that they were there. Hank McCoy, the third most brilliant scientist that Tony had ever come across, had managed to find some barbed wire and old sign posts and erect them around the mansion, making it look as though the building had been abandoned for years whilst Charles filled their naïve and culpable heads with the images of a derelict and pathetic home that was once grand. ("I expected something more… sciency. " Tony had said, disappointedly.)

They had all been given rooms away from the students, the ones that stayed at the mansion, and were told that they were safe here and if they needed anything else all they had to do was ask; with food being downstairs in the pantry or kitchen and bathrooms dotted all around the place.

After they unpacked, they all sat in Tony and Pepper's room, taking spaces up on the floor or on armchairs that looked as though they belonged in the 40's rather than in Charles' mansion. Jane sat on the window frame looking at the world outside and wondering whether she'd ever get back to her old life or if she would be able to care on after this? Would she be taken to Asgard or left here alone while Thor dealt with Loki alone? Was Erik all right or had he been taken up in the fires of Manhattan? She was so busy wondering about her own life that she very nearly missed the sight of Torunn and Sif walking along the field outside Charles's mansion with the other's flanking them.

"Oh, my God…" She whispered, her hand roaming out to slap at Thor. "Sweetie, I think the Calvary is coming."

The demi-god sighed and pushed himself up to look out of the window, jumping as he saw the sight of the Asgardians and for a moment he froze; unable to move the muscles in his body anymore.

He didn't his comrades and future subjects to see him so weak and… lost. To them he was the most powerful and strong leader they had had; he was the promised son, the hope of the next generation of Gods but this feeble failure was nothing like what they knew or thought. He was an echo of his former self, barely able to fight against his own manic brother; how could they ever come to trust or respect him as a King if they saw him now?

Jane wrapped a hand around his wrist and nodded, smiling softly and spurring him on; he looked up and then turned and ran down the steps, he sped along till he reached the garden and then slowed. His young daughter pushed the windswept hair out of her face and stared him before speeding along and attaching herself to his neck, her legs swinging up as he caught her and span her around. "You've been so strong." She whispered into his ear, holding onto him as the others reached them.

"My friends, my family," He looked down at Torunn. "Why are you all here? You could be anywhere in the Nine Realms… how are you here?"

"The All Father managed to conjure up enough magic to send us through." Hogun responded gruffly, glancing around and narrowing his eyes, as if the world around him was so foreign it was evil. He sighed as he turned to look back, watching as Thor stared at his young daughter, tears in his eyes as he faced away from the all.

"You should not have come; it is too dangerous for you all. You have to leave." Thor whispered; earning a loud series of scoffs from the warriors around him.

"Have we ever left you, Thor?" Fandrall asked, raising a near prefect blond brow as his tone peaked near mocking.

"No-."

"And we never will. Brothers in arms." Sif said, moving forward and putting her hand on Thor's shoulder before glancing at her daughter. "And sisters."

Thor smiled as Torunn glanced behind him and moved over to greet the others, smiling at each one of them in turn, nodding and shaking hands. She moved over with Tony and Natasha towards the end, their heads bowed as they began planning. Thor looked at all of them and smiled; the pieces were coming together, soon they would be able to strike back at Loki.

I don't like the ending but I lost my muse halfway through and it refused to come back to me. I hope that you don't mind and I'm sorry about the wait as well. In fact, I am just sorry. I am, I am, I am. I am sorry.