When Natasha got back to the Tower, James was already in bed. But he wasn't sleeping peacefully. "No! Stop, no!"

Natasha quickly ran into his room, shaking his shoulder as he tossed and turned in his sleep. "James! James, wake up!" The little boy woke up with a start, his breath rapid and his eyes wide. Instinctively, James leapt into Natasha's arms and tightly linked his arms around her neck. Natasha hugged him tight, gently rocking him back and forth. "It's okay. It's okay, baby. It was just a dream. You're safe."

"Robots. Robots everywhere," he gasped "The wanted to, they wanted to take over the world."

Natasha glanced at him curiously "I think I know what this is about."

James paled. "You do?"

Natasha nodded as she stroked the side of his face, kissing his cheek as she tucked him in bed. "Get some sleep. I need to have a talk with your uncle," as soon as she left the room, Natasha's face morphed into her ever famous Russian Death Glare "Stark!"

Oh no. James quickly hopped out of his bed, trying to reach the lab before it was too late. How did she know? Had he said something in his sleep? The ten year-old boy had just passed through the living room when he heard a loud bang.

"Ow! Uncle! Mercy! Come on, what did I do?" When he finally made it to the lab, Natasha had Tony's head planted against the lab bench, the billionaire's arm pulled painfully behind his back "Seriously, I've been in the lab all day. How am I in trouble?"

"I'll tell you how. By a reckless, stupid irresponsible son of a-,"

"Mom! What are you doing?"

"Go back to bed, baby," Natasha said in a motherly tone "Mama needs to teach Uncle Tony a lesson about letting you watch scary movies."

"What are you talking about?" Tony demanded.

"You let James watch Terminator," Natasha accused "and now, my kid is having nightmares about an army of T-1000s coming after him."

"What? I wouldn't let the kid watch Terminator. Robocop, maybe," Tony screamed as Natasha pulled him arm further back "I was joking. I was joking, I swear."

"Fitz, would you take James to back to bed please?"

"Um, right," Nervously, the young SHIELD engineering led James back to his room, the ten year-old bashing his head against the pillow as went back to bed. If only Natasha knew what he was really afraid of. I killed him that he couldn't tell her, or any of them the truth about the monster Bruce and Tony had growing in the lab. If he did, his entire family would never be the same. Sam, Rhodey and Scott would never become Avengers. JARVIS would remain a bodiless voice. And the twins would remain in the clutches of HYDRA. So he kept his mouth. About the monster growing right under the Avengers' feet.

"How's your arm?"

Tony groaned as he rotated his shoulder, Natasha finally letting him go after what felt like forever. "Feels like it's been through a vice. Anyway, let's get back to work." Tony reactivated the holotable, eyes and mind weary from the long nights in the lab. They were close. He could feel it. "How are the enhanced scans coming?" After creating a 3-D model of the orb, Bruce noticed two containers, whose contents couldn't be identified by the regular scans. Tony and Fitz had spent the last two days working on a way to strengthen the x-ray machine.

"pulling up the data now," Fitz frowned as the test results came on the screen "That's weird. There's nothing in them. "

"Or we just can't see them," Tony rationalized "try another spectral scan. Start with Giger and then switch to Infrared." Fitz nodded as he recalibrated the machine, starting another scan as it was ready. When the results came in Tony was amazed. "Get the others."

"First you give my kid nightmares and then you wake him up in the middle of the night?" Natasha scowled "you're asking for it Stark."

"A: I didn't let the kid watch Terminator," Tony repeated "and B: Take a look at this." Tony pulled up the latest scans of the orb, highlighting two glowing canisters. One blue and one green.

"What are those?" Steve asked.

"They're the time machine's battery," Tony revealed.

"Gamma and Chrono radiation power," Brue explained "the Gamma cell might be drained but according to the readings, James' trip barely put a dent in the other one."

"So you can send him home?" Natasha asked.

Tony scoffed. "With the amount of juice in this little bunny, we could probably send Cap to the forties and back if we wanted to."

"I can whip another gamma cell," Bruce assured them "there's just one problem. See these?" Bruce pointed to the three rings covered in strange markings on the outer shell of the orb. "These are the destination settings. And without a way to translate the markings, we have no way to send James back to 2027."

"Ask Thor." James felt the whole room train their eyes on him as he yawned. "Uncle Thor could read it. The blue alien who left it seemed like he knew him. Said something about payback for his dad."

"Only one problem. We don't know where Thor is," Bruce reminded "He left to clean up the damage from Convergence. And we have no way to contact him."

"You need to learn to be more positive buddy," Tony commented. " We'll start working on the gamma cell. I'll get Jane and Selvig on the line in the morning. See if they can help."

"In the meantime," Steve scooped up the half-sleeping James and walked out "time for you to get some sleep."

"Forget sleep. If Uncle Thor's coming, I gotta hide my Pop Tarts."

"What's wrong?"

Bobbi lay silently in bed with Clint, the archer's concerned voice breaking the silence. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"You're twirling your hair," Clint observed "You only do that when you can't twirl your batons. Which means something's bothering you."

"Sometimes I forget how well you know me," Bobbi sighed as she pulled herself closer to him "I checked in with May. The Director wants us back at SHIELD."

Clint's heart sank. "When?"

"Tomorrow."

Clint sighed. "Whoever this new director is, I officially hate him."

Bobbi smiled as Clint pressed his lips to her neck. "Phil Coulson."

Clint frowned. "What?"

"The new Director. It's Coulson."

Clint stared at Bobbi blankly as he sat straight up "Coulson as in my old handler Coulon? Pulled me and my brother out of the gutter, drove a 1960s Corvette, stabbed in the heart by Loki, Coulson?"

Bobbi nodded. "Fury used some sort of… alien medicine to bring him back. Made him the Director after DC.

Clint felt like his head was about to explode. "Bobbi, why are you telling me this?"

Bobbi smiled. "All cards on the table, remember?" The Mockingbird reached over to the bedside table and picked up a small tablet. "Secrets are what tore us apart the last time. I don't want that to happen again. Mack and I are working on something. I want you to be a part of it."

Clint took the tablet from her hands as an altered form of a familiar sigil appeared on the screen, his eyes widening as he fingered through the files. "Bobbi what is all this?"

"It's SHIELD, babe. The real SHIELD."

"Doctor Banner?"

The gamma scientist looked from his work and smiled. "Yes, Simmons? Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you could help me with something," Simmons squirmed nervously "you see, I have this friend. A fellow SHIELD agent who was exposed to something…usual. She became in enhanced. Her powers are similar to yours."

"She turns into a giant green rage monster when she loses her temper?"

Simmons laughed nervously "No. But her powers can be very… destructive. She's still learning to control them, and when tries to hold it in, she ends up hurting herself." Simmons picked her tablet "I've been working on something to help her control her powers. I was wondering if you could give me some insight."

Bruce gave a curious eye to the gauntlet designs on Simmons' tablet. "I'll take a look at it. Does this friend of yours have a name?"

"Skye."

"Well then, let's see what we can do for Skye."

"Thank you for everything."

Bobbi smiled as she shook the super soldier's hand. "It was no trouble at all, Steve. Right now, SHIELD needs all the friends it can get."

"Well, you certainly have friends here."

"Miss Simmons? I made this for you," James handed her a sketch portrait of herself.

"Oh, it's beautiful! Thank you," Simmons smiled as she carefully folded the drawing and put it in her pocket. Then she got an idea. "I have a present for you too." Simmons bent down and James' level and gently pressed her lips against his cheek, leaving James with jaw slack and his eyes wide.

Tony laughed. "Didn't think you had it in you kid."

James said nothing.

Fitz chuckled. "I think you broke him Jemma."

"James," Steve struggled to keep a straight face "you okay, pal?"

"Uh-uh," James managed in an awe-struck voice. "Thank you Miss Simmons."

"You're very welcome," Simmons giggled.

Bobbi laughed and then turned attention to Clint, the archer looking back at her with loving eyes "Promise me you'll think about what we talked about?"

Clint rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'll think about it. Not making any promises though."

Bobbi chuckled. "I've got something for you," Bobbi reached into her back pocket and an old photo of her and Clint "remember our mission in Venice?"

Clint chuckled. "How could I forget? I got something for you too. Took a little digging but," Clint reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden chain necklace with a single charm: A mockingbird.

Bobbi's eyes sparkled. "You kept that?"

" 'Course I kept it," Clint smiled as he clasped the neck around her neck. "It reminded me of you." As she turned around, Clint wrapped his arms around Bobbi and pulled her close. "I love you," he whispered.

Bobbi smiled. "You better."

"Boo! Just a hug? Come on Robin Hood" Tony jeered "you going let James get more action than you?"

"Stark, if you don't shut up, I am going to turn that smug face into a pin-," Clint's threat was cut short when Bobbi smashed her lips against his "never mind."

Bobbi smiled. "I'll call you when we get back to base. See if we can find the time to meet up at that safe house of yours." And she walked off, following Fitz and Simmons as Hill led them to the elevator. Clint smiled, knowing that she was just walking out the door, and not out of his life.

"So know what?" James looked nervously at the adults "how am I supposed to get back to the future?"

"Way ahead of you kid," Tony replied "I just off the phone with Jane and Selvig. They're on their way to the airport now."

"You might want to tell them not to cash their frequent flyer miles just yet," Bruce directed Tony's attention to a bright pillar of light appearing on the Tower balcony.

The prince of Asgard walked into view, his face solemn as the Bifrost faded away. "Where is the Chronosphere?"

"These are dark times." Thor stared at the small orb on the lab bench, his face set in a hard grimace.

"You've seen this before?" Steve asked.

"Not for many years. And I hoped I would never see it again. These weapons are forbidden across all the Nine Realms" Thor explained "The Midgardian equivalent would be a nuclear bomb."

"Well that's comforting," Clint commented "considering a blue alien packing a bunch of space nukes is coming in about a decade."

"With an army he can't bring with him," Steve reminded "James also said he knew you."

"Interesting. Son of Steven," Thor glanced at James as he tried to lift his uncle's hammer. Apparently the Black Widow of 2027 had agreed to let him go to Asgard if he could ever lift it. "what was the name of the being who wielded the Chronosphere?"

James grunted. "The guy said his name was Kane or something."

Thor's face shifted from grim to a state of absolute dread. "Kang? Kang the Conqueror?"

"Yeah. That sounds about right." James groaned "Move you stupid hammer!"

"By the All-Father," Thor ran his hands over his face as he started pacing around "He survived."

"Okay, I'm going to go ahead and ask what everybody's thinking," Tony announced "Who is Kang the Conqueror?"

"An ancient Kree warlord, whose madness for power nearly destroyed the universe itself. One thousand years ago, the great minds of Asgard gained the knowledge to alter the flow of time. We shared this knowledge with the Nine Realms," Thor went on "giving them the power to prevent the loss life to natural disasters. But Kang had other plans. He used it for war. To alter the course of a battle that had once gone cost him victory. But the greatest tragedy was the fall of the Skrulls."

Tony frowned. "What are Skrulls?"

"Space Goblins," James explained.

Thor smiled "That is not the correct term, although they do pose a strong resemblance to goblins. And they are the Kree's most hated enemies. Kang sent a warship back in time to destroy the ancient ancestors of the Skrulls. The result was a black hole. The first of many."

Bruce's eyes widened. "My God."

"After the destruction of the Skrull homeworld, Asgard had no choice but to intervene," Thor continued "Thus began the War of Time. Countless lives were lost. Civilizations wiped from existence. Entire systems destroyed. My father and I led the final assault. But it was Loki who won the day."

"Loki?" Clint repeated.

Thor nodded. "He sabotaged Kang's temporal engines, condemning Kang and his followers the same fate of their victims: the abyss of a black hole. We assumed that such a fate would mean death. But if what the son of Steven claims is true, to fall victim to a black hole is not execution, but imprisonment," Thor realized "in a realm outside of space and time. One that Kang will soon escape."

"Escape a black hole?"Bruce was stunned "How is that possible?"

"I do not know. But I intend to find out," Thor assured "But first, we must send the child back to his own era. Then destroy this device before it invokes the wrath of all the Nine Realms. Then, I shall direct my attention to the Conqueror. But make no mistake, my friends. Kang is coming."

Suddenly a bright flash of light erupted from the Tower, revealing a tall, blue skinned man in green robes and a purple helmet, his dark eyes cold and menacing "Wrong. He's here."