The Battle of New York

Athena shook her head from the shock of seeing the Chitauri army starting to pour through the rift and turned to Iron Man, "Go!" she shouted at him, waving him off towards it. Iron Man gave only a brief nod before he turned and sped off towards the army, blasting at them with his hands, trying to help fight them while Athena turned to Loki, trying to ignore the sounds of screaming coming from outside and the explosions ringing behind her. She knew, from her observations of the 'Avengers' as Iron Man had called them, that there were only three people who would be able to match Loki and stop him, her, Thor, and the Hulk. And right now...she was the only one there.

"Stop this Loki," she warned him, her body tensing defensively as Loki's grip on the scepter tightened, his Asgardian armor starting to form around him, preparing him for the battle, "There is still time..."

"Oh no," Loki chuckled darkly, "Time is already up. This has too long been coming, I would not see it end so soon."

"Then you leave me no choice," she shook her head and ran at him, using the suddenness of the lunge to grab the scepter in both hands, trying to unbalance Loki to get it away from him. Whatever it was, whatever use it was to Loki, it was something and it gave him power and it was a weapon that had to be removed from the wrong hands before he could use it to attack the others or the mortals any more than he already had.

But Loki kept a firm hold of the scepter and she struggled to pry it out of his hands, trying to use her body weight to push and twist him this way and that to loosen his hold but he wouldn't relent. Loki grit his teeth and twisted sharply to the side before straining the scepter up as far as it could go, elbowing Athena in the face and bringing the scepter swinging down across it, sending her flying across the small platform outside the penthouse, onto her back. He grinned, swinging the scepter in his hand, taking only a single step towards her, fully intent to use the power of the scepter to finish her off like he'd been unable to before...

When Thor landed before her, in between them, cracking the stone beneath his feet from the impact, "Loki," Thor's eyes narrowed as he heard Athena pushing herself up behind him, "Turn off the Tesseract or I'll destroy it!"

"You can't," Loki taunted, "There is no stopping it. There is only the war!"

"So be it," Thor replied grimly, unintentionally mimicking what Athena had said only moments ago before Loki leapt at him, the scepter raised, forcing Thor to bring Mjolnir up to defend himself.

Thor glanced behind him, seeing Athena struggling more than she should have been to rise and knew that she had been hurt by Loki more than she had let on. He knew that the others wouldn't see the weariness in her eyes, the tensing of her body as a sure sign of the strain that just being there was putting on her, but he could tell, he could always tell when she was hurting and hiding it. For all her wisdom she was truly terrible at knowing when to stop. She would fight till all the bones in her body were broken, till she'd lost so much blood that she passed out. She wouldn't quit, she wouldn't let others dictate if she should fight and she would hide how badly she was hurt so that no one would prevent her from fighting. Even if it meant she might endanger others, she seemed to have a determination to prove herself to him and the other warriors that he didn't quite understand. He knew that, in her family, it was really only her one brother that were warriors, he had always assumed that it was her trying to prove herself a good warrior because she hadn't had the training that they had for as long as they had. But...he was starting to think there was something else there.

He shook his head, knowing Athena would berate him for not focusing on this battle, and turned back to Loki, using as much force as he could to push the man farther away, putting distance between him and Athena, he could already see a bruise forming on her face from the force of Loki's swing at her. He ducked, shoving Loki's scepter to the side as a blast nearly shot out of it at his head, but it only took out one of the letters on the STARK that was attached to the building, sending it falling to the ground.

Athena glanced at Thor for one moment, making sure he was handling Loki. She knew he was, that he could, but she also knew from experience how hard it was to fight against your sibling, even if they were actively trying to kill you, it was always hard to be the 'not-murderous' one and to not want to kill them but not want them to kill you and not want to hurt them but not want them to hurt you. It could truly get in your head and make it difficult to focus and land the blows you knew you needed to make in order to survive. She swallowed hard, seeing Thor doing as well as could be, before she rushed to the side of the building and looked down. She knew that the streets were littered with people, with mortals who had been walking around and staring at the sky and were screaming and running now. She just wanted to make sure that the letter falling hadn't harmed anyone.

What she saw was almost worse.

The mortals were running for their lives, their screams bloodcurdling, with Chitauri attacking them with blasts from their weapons, sending cars and other debris from buildings flying at them. There were men in blue and black uniforms that she vaguely recalled Jane calling 'cops' when they were on Earth last time, and knew they were like the guards of Asgard, meant to protect and defend. She could see Iron Man in the distance, trying to lead a group of Chitauri on flying metal crafts away from the crowd, using the buildings and turns to get some to crash. She looked over, hearing a noise of firing to see the jet that the others had come in blasting at the army on the ground and sky, careful to avoid the humans who were, luckily, starting to run for cover.

She spun around when she heard glass shatter behind her to see that Thor had smashed Loki's head through the glass catwalk of the tower, the two men still locked in battle. She saw Loki glance over and, for a moment, thought he was looking at her…until she realized that his gaze was too high. It was locked on the jet behind her. She turned and ran for him, seeing him grin darkly, and move to shove Thor aside, throwing him to the floor. He turned, lifting the scepter to blast the jet when Athena grabbed it as well, struggling and just barely managing to lift the scepter up, a blast striking one of the rotor blades instead of the body of the jet. She turned and sent a hard punch right at Loki's face, wanting to get him back for the strike against her own face, when Thor shoved himself up and tackled Loki to the ground as the man stumbled back.

"Athena!" Thor shouted back at her.

She nodded, rushing to the edge of the tower and looking down as the jet had started to sink to the ground, the crew inside struggling to control the craft. She let out a breath as the craft crashed into the street, seeing the back doorway opening and allowing the crew out, all of them still alive.

"Athena!" Thor yelled again, blocking a punch from Loki.

"They're fine," she turned back to him…only for her gaze to be pulled to the rift in the sky, where a fairly large creature, heavily armored, was slipping out of the portal, weapons fixed to it, clearly the warship of the fleet, even more warriors spilling out of it, all of them attacking the men and women on the ground. She saw Iron Man fly at it, firing at it as it roared, and turned back to Thor, "But they need help! The Chitauri are going to slaughter them!"

Thor grit his teeth at that, and grabbed Loki's arms, bracing him, dragging him to the edge of the tower to force him to look down at the people below, at the slaughter that the army was enacting, "Look at this!" he growled at his brother, "Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"

Athena bit her lip, madness. She closed her eyes, it was hardly madness, it was hardly what either of them thought it was. It went deeper than that, it went beyond that. And they were both fools to think it was anything less than what it was.

"It's too late," Loki grinned at Thor, actually enjoying the sight of the battle below, the sounds of the screaming and explosions, "It's too late to stop it."

"No," Thor shook his head, trying to plead with Loki in a way that Athena knew wouldn't work, because Thor was looking at Loki like he was still the brother that he had grown up with, instead of the enemy that he was, "We can, together."

Loki paused at that and Athena could see the hope in Thor's eyes that Loki would reconsider. But she knew it was a hope that would only break his heart later. And she knew it was a hope that Loki would continue to exploit, because Thor…he couldn't see what she did, what she'd been forced to realize and recognize when they'd finally confronted Loki on the base. She knew that Loki wouldn't give up or give in, he wasn't Thor. Thor was trying to use what he knew of his brother to get through to him, Loki was using what he knew of his brother to get to him. Loki was a mischief maker, he was a trickster, and he was a manipulator. HE would use every little thing he could to hurt Thor more, to come out victorious in this. He didn't care about Thor any longer, she knew that now, he didn't care about anything but himself.

So when Loki slipped a knife into his hand and stabbed Thor, she wasn't surprised by the action, though she saw in Thor's eyes that HE was. She was expecting yet another betrayal from Loki, so no, she wasn't surprised…but she was very angry that Thor had been harmed.

Loki pushed Thor away as the man sank to his knees in pain from his wound, the knife slipping out of Thor's gut, red with his blood, "Sentiment," Loki sneered at him, at Thor's weakness.

Though he had only a moment to savor the sight of his former-brother on his knees before he was shoved back suddenly, right into the wall of the tower by Athena who gripped him by the neck of his armor, half-lifting him up in the way only an immortal could do, glaring at him with her teeth bared, "If sentiment is a weakness, expect no more from us," she nearly spat, "You think I don't know the truth Loki?! I KNOW. I know what you have become, what you always were. And that is nothing more than a twisted monster!"

"I am a king!" Loki sneered at her.

"You are evil," she shook her head, "I hoped Loki, I truly had hoped that the Chitauri had turned you into this, that whatever torture you endured at their hands had warped your mind, but I see now...it never touched you, did it? You did it to me," her grip on the front of his leather armor tightened, "You tried to use it on me, we are both cut of the same cloth, and we are both too clever to believe their lies and too strong to succumb to it. You forget I've tortured the prisoners in Asgard in my training. I know that pain you inflicted on me is not the pain of a corruption, that is a pain of someone desiring to extract information. How much did you give them?!" she demanded, "How much did they torment you before they realized you would gladly have talked before that? That you would betray all those who believed in you and cared for you without a moment's thought!?"

She knew it now and it broke her heart. The pain that Loki had used on her, how else would he know that the scepter wouldn't affect them unless HE had endured the same pains? And she knew the difference between the types of pain used in different tortures. One pain was meant to be as physically crippling and draining as the one Loki had used on her was. That sort was meant to go in long bouts, with breaks in between for questions to be posed. It was meant to be a punishment for not answering when asked. It was NOT the sort of torture that was used to corrupt someone or to try to twist their mind and loyalties and soul. THAT torture was meant to be painful, yes, but not so overwhelming that the person in question couldn't hear what was being whispered in their ear. The torture Loki had used...it was of one wanting to torment to death or acquire information. It was not enough to lead to THIS.

"This was your plan from the start, wasn't it?" she demanded, slamming him against the wall harder, "THIS was what you wanted! Death and destruction?! To rule from a throne of bones and ash?!"

"I am meant to rule!" Loki spat at her, "Odin always said we were both meant to be kings!"

"King of what?!" she glared, "There will be nothing left if you have your way. King of the Wasteland!" she sneered, before tightening her grip and throwing him away from her, Loki rolling across the tower…and right off it.

Thor and Athena ran over to the edge, only to see him drop onto a Chitauri craft as it flew past, taking Loki with it. They glanced at each other a moment, before Thor held out his hand to her. She took it, thinking he would use Mjolnir to get them down to the ground where they could see the smallest figures of Natasha, Captain America, and Barton on the ground…

But Thor pulled her to him, hugging her tightly. Even though there was a battle raging around him, he just…he needed this one moment. Everything was a mess, there was so much going on both around them and in his head and heart (especially due to Loki), that he just needed one brief second to reassure himself she was alive. He had hoped that she would live, had known in his soul she was still alive but just…seeing her, seeing Loki taking her down and about to attack her and seeing her protecting him like he had her…he just needed this single embrace. When the battle was over, he would be sure to show her how much he needed her with him, how worried he had been, how happy he was that she was alive…he would do so much more than this. He pulled away, looking at her, unable to stop himself from touching the bruise on her cheek, already starting to fade.

She reached up and gently grabbed his wrist, "We need to help them," she told him, but he could see in her eyes that she had needed that embrace, this touch, as much as he did.

"Then you shall need this," he pulled her sword from the back of his belt and held it up to her.

Athena blinked at it a moment, before taking the hilt of it and using it and her fist to punch his arm, "You couldn't have given it to me while I was fighting Loki!?" she huffed, mock-angry.

He just grinned, they both knew that he loved seeing her use brute force and strength instead of relying on weapons. He reached out quickly and wrapped an arm around her waist, jumping off the tower with her, using Mjolnir to get them to the ground.

Athena dropped into a roll as Thor and she landed, swinging out her sword to cut down the legs of one of the Chitauri warriors that had started to swarm around Natasha and Barton, the two of them and the Captain trying to fend them off with arrows and guns and shields, but now they had swords and…

She ducked down as Thor summoned lightning to Mjolnir and sent it racing through the Chitauri, striking them down. She could see Natasha breathe a sigh of relief and rub at her back, clearly she'd been injured in the skirmish while they had been dealing with Loki above, a small reprieve would do her well. It would do them all well to be able to take a moment, assess the situation, and come up with a plan of attack instead of standing in one place and hoping that they could get the Chitauri's numbers down.

"What's the story upstairs?" the Captain turned to Thor and Athena.

"Loki escaped us," Athena stated, "Iron Man attempted to blast the Tesseract's controls but it merely reflected the attack back to him."

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor agreed.

"We don't have the means to concentrate an attack on it," she added, "We could focus all our power but if we do that then the city is left undefended and vulnerable."

"They're right," they heard Tony's voice sound over the ear pieces that the Captain, Natasha, and Barton were wearing, "We gotta deal with these guys first."

"How do we do this?" Natasha turned to the Captain.

"As a team," he stated, straightening.

Athena blinked, "That's all well and good but I do believe she was asking for an actual battle plan," she stated, not quite sure what part of them being 'The Avengers' and already a team he was missing. She truly thought it was obvious that they were going to be doing this as a team, but even teams needed leaders and roles to see to. She nearly rubbed her head at that, fearing that she and Thor would have to give the man lessons when this was over on how to effectively operate a team.

He may have the skills and knowledge of battle to lead humans against human, but the Chitauri and Loki were nothing of the sort, they would take a different tactic to beat.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor stated, clearly stating that he should be the one to confront the man and that he was likely the only one who could match him in strength and skill.

"As to I," Athena stated, stepping up, "I should go."

"Athena," Thor shook his head at her, "He is MY brother."

"And that is exactly why," Athena told him meaningfully, knowing he would understand, the bond between family, no matter how strained and tense and broken it was…was difficult to ignore on the defensive side. Those attacking were clearly doing so with their notions of family cast off, in whatever means they needed to be able to do that, but the ones being attacked had no such advantage, they would only see that they were fighting their sibling instead of the enemy.

SHE held no such ties to Loki, she would not be influenced by any familial relation to him.

"Get in line," Barton muttered, tending to his arrows.

"Save it," the Captain cut in, "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need," he determined, glancing at Thor and Athena as they nodded, agreeing that Loki would want to take them out. As he'd made how he fought them personal, he had made the battle personal as well, they had all become personal enemies that he wanted to see wiped out first and foremost, "Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top, he's gonna need us to…" he trailed off when the sound of some sort of engine reached them.

They turned, looking over to see Banner riding up to them on a small motorbike. He quickly got off as he approached them and walked over, looking around the damage that the Chitauri had already caused, "So…this all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," Natasha shrugged.

"As have I," Athena nodded.

Banner winced at that, thinking they were talking about how he'd torn apart the craft they'd been on when he turned into the Hulk, "Sorry."

Athena blinked, "I was being serious," she stated, "My family's caused more damage in a tiff."

"Any chance THEY could come to earth?" Barton asked, if they could cause that much damage, maybe they could help.

"The realms have been sealed off," Thor shook his head, "Travel between them is difficult."

"Anything you can do?" Natasha looked at Banner.

"Stark," the Captain called, tapping his ear piece, "We got him."

"Banner?" was Iron Man's reply.

"Just like you said."

"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."

The small group turned at the sound of an explosion to see Iron Man flying around a corner of a building…leading one of the large, Leviathan sized creature towards them.

Natasha's mouth dropped open at that, "I don't see how that's a party."

Athena and Thor glanced at each other, a small grin on their faces, THEY could, they rather loved taking out creatures that were larger than them in battle, it was exhilarating.

The Captain turned to Banner as he slowly walked past them, towards the creature, "Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Cap," Banner smiled back at them, strained though it was, "I'm always angry."

Athena's smile fell at that, she could tell it was more than anger, it was pain. It took so much out of him to be angry enough where the Hulk wouldn't just burst out at every slight against him, but restrained enough where the Hulk wasn't all that was left of him. It was a struggle, a balance, and a painful one at that. To live in a constant state of limbo like that…she couldn't imagine it. All she could do was stand there and watch as Banner began to grimace in pain as he expanded and transformed into the green man, his clothes tearing yet his shorts remaining intact, before he turned and lunged at the creature as Iron Man brought it low to the ground, punching it and smashing it into the ground.

"Hold on!" Iron Man shouted above them, lifting his hand to blast a missile at the creature, making it explode. Barton ducked while Thor and Athena stood and took it, not as affected as the mortals, while the Captain shielded Natasha from it. He moved to hover above them, making sure they were all ok and not harmed by the blast as they gathered in a circle to face the Chitauri threat from all sides, preparing their weapons as even more Leviathans and Chitauri made their way through the portal.

"Guys?" Natasha called.

"Call it, Captain," Iron Man shouted.

Captain America nodded and turned to his team, "Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we're gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Barton nodded and turned to Iron Man, "Wanna give me a lift?"

"Right," Iron Man swooped down, "Better clench up, Legolas," he instructed before grabbing Barton and flying up with him, dropping him on top of a building and taking off to do containment as ordered.

"Thor!" the Captain turned to him, "You gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow 'em down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up," Thor glanced at Athena, both of them hearing the unspoken order, that she was to remain on the ground and she understood, she only had her sword while he had Mjolnir. He gave her a nod before swinging the hammer around and taking off with it as the Captain turned to Natasha and Athena, "The three of us, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk!" he turned to the green man, "Smash!"

The Hulk grinned and leapt off, taking out all the Chitauri warriors in his path, Thor summoning lightning from a rather large pointed building and sending it at the rift in the sky. And that was the last thing Athena was able to focus on before the battle truly took over and she turned to the Chitauri warriors around her, attaching them.

She fought as hard as she could, she and Natasha and the Captain battling it out with their shield and guns and sword, taking out warrior after warrior. Natasha was thrown into a car, Athena throwing her sword at one of the Chitauri as it tried to attack her while she was winded, rushing towards it and grabbing the sword out of its back to continue to fight the Chitauri before her, giving Natasha enough time to get up and use her own techniques on the other warriors that were surrounding them. She spun around, hearing a blast, to see Natasha with one of the Chitauri weapons, using it against them when the Captain made his way over to them, fighting along the way.

"Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal," Natasha told him.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it!" the Captain countered.

"We need at least ONE person working on it," Athena determined, "We can spare one."

"Who? You?"

"No," Athena grit her teeth, punching out a Chitauri with her own shield that was usually affixed to her back, "If I go near it, Loki will attack me…it has to be someone he doesn't view as a threat."

"Send me," Natasha offered, "I can handle myself and Loki thinks I'm just a mewling quim," she nearly spat that last word out.

"Would you believe, in Asgard, they call him silver tongued?" Athena tried to lighten Natasha's mood at being insulted in such a foul way.

"You wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride," the Captain said.

Natasha glanced around, spotting a Chitauri craft approaching and smirked, "I got a ride. I could use a boost though."

"You sure about this?" the Captain asked, seeing her plan when her gaze flickered to his shield.

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun!" she nodded, running at him, the man using the shield to half throw her into the sky where she latched onto the underside of the craft and flew off.

"If SHIELD can part with her," Athena called to him, slashing at one of the Chitauri, "I would very much like to bring her to Asgard one day. Sif would LOVE to spar with her," perhaps there could finally be a third Valkyrie.

That was the last comment she could make as she and the Captain found themselves back to back, fending off the Chitauri as they went. She still believed the man saw himself as too much the leader, the one who had to be in charge, and the one who was morally better than all the others there, that he was some sort of man untouched by corruption, but she could admit that he did care about his team a little more than she originally thought, he made sure that all their talents were put to work in the right way and that they were ok with certain plans and would be alright in the end. She could trust him, in this battle at least, to have her back.

She glanced over for only a moment when she saw lightning a short distance away and knew Thor was nearby, likely helping the Hulk who had rushed off in that direction. She looked up two minutes later when she spotted a flash of red and saw Thor upon it, the man dropping down next to her and the Captain to help them fight the Chitauri that had surrounded them, the three of them fighting as hard as they could. The Captain was struck in the ribs a second later, Thor hurling a car at a handful of them and using Mjolnir as she slashed and stabbed and slammed her sword around to every warrior in sight.

She fought her way over to the Captain, reaching out a hand to help him up, "Are you well enough to continue?" she asked, knowing a blow to the ribs could be more harmful than it appeared.

"Yeah," he winced though, "I'm only 95," he grinned, "Not old enough to get tired that easy," but then he frowned, touching his earpiece and Athena frowned, not sure what was being said, it must have gotten damaged during the battle, but at least Steve appeared able to hear, "Do it!" he ordered suddenly, starting to shake his head as he must have heard someone argue, "Stark, these things are still coming!"

"What is it?" Athena frowned.

But the Captain's face grew stony, "Stark, you know that's a one way trip."

Athena didn't have to ask another question, ask what they were discussing, for just as she opened her mouth to do so…Iron man flew past them with a large missile in his arms, leading it up and up and up…

Flying it right into the portal just as it began to close…

A/N: I want to apologize that there was no chapter the last two days :( My dad is just...urg. He decided to wake up my siblings and I at 5am on Sunday because the middle of summer is apparently the best time to gather and stack wood for the winter :( We use a wood-burning stove in the winter to save on heating and our wood shed was empty so he wanted to fill it. It took us almost 10 hours of piling and stacking to fill it and afterwards I just was so exhausted and couldn't move :( And yesterday my whole body just hurt and I pretty much laid in bed trying not to move too much because of the pain -sigh- I managed to move a little more this morning and I just really wanted to at least get a chapter up :) I'm going to be trying to get back to my normal posting times though, since all I can really do is sit up right now, I'm going to try and use today to get ahead on editing :)

I hope you liked this chapter :) I'm so sad the story's over tomorrow! But we'll get the third story for the Dark World tomorrow too! :)

Some notes on reviews...

Yup, I'll be writing The Dark World and then adding more to the series whenever a new movie featuring Thor comes out :)

I haven't thought of doing a Tony/OC story, mostly because I haven't seen Iron Man in completion yet and, from what I've seen, I sort of think I like Pepper :)