The Avengers were waiting for him in Stark Towers, the portal shut down and all Chitauri dead. They were all seething with anger, and Barton had his bow ready to fire in a second's notice.

"Where's Atea? What did you do to her?" Natasha Romanoff demanded, "I swear to god Loki if you hurt her. . ."

He fumed at her words, "Why would I hurt her? She helped me, and I helped her. She is resting away from danger."

"Where?"

"In that park."

"Central Park? Why?"

"Are you ever going to stop asking questions?" This was going to be tedious.

"Fine."

"We're not done yet. You are in some serious trouble Loki." Tony told him, even he looked angry.

Loki smiled weakly at him, "Well, if it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."

Tony smirked, but Thor pushed his way to the front.

"Brother, we return to Asgard. Now."

"Do you not want to know where Atea is?"

"Of course we want to know. Show us."

Oh my god, ohmygod, ohmygod. Where am I? Atea looked around frantically. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in Stark Towers. After helping Loki. . . Oh. He must have brought me here. Why?

It looked like she was in Central Park, but she couldn't be sure. Her shoulder felt fine now, maybe Loki had something to do with it. . .

Seven figures were approaching her, and at first she couldn't distinguish them, but a moment later she realized it was her team and Loki.

She ran up to them, happiness surging through her veins. The Chitauri were gone, Loki wasn't being an idiot, and no one had gotten hurt, except for herself apparently.

She threw herself in Loki's arms. There were no words to say, not enough thank yous in the world to thank him for what he'd stopped. A few seconds later, his arms encased her. He's a really good hugger, she couldn't help thinking. She wanted this to last forever, but the others were probably exchanging extremely uncomfortable glances. She pulled away from him, smiling up at him as he looked down at her with a smirk that didn't quite reach his eyes. She looked to Thor, Steve, Tony, Nat, Clint, and Bruce. She hugged them all as well, starting with Natasha, her closest teammate. The silence was not uncomfortable, the silence was right. Words would be a burden right now. In Central Park, you couldn't see the damage done, you couldn't see how buildings had been smashed and roads destroyed. There was only green. The sun shone brightly, as if welcoming the end of this battle.

"Now what?" Atea asked. Times were good, and as much as she wanted to disagree, this moment couldn't last forever.

Thor spoke up, looking at Loki, who scowled, "I must return my brother to Asgard. It was good of him to help us in the end, but he still must be punished for his actions."

Atea knew this was going to happen, Loki may have called it off, but not before people were hurt and damage was done. Someone needed to admit to his actions, and who better than himself?

Atea nodded, "I understand."

"Things are going to be different around here for a while. I don't want to think how the public is going to react." Tony added. He was right too of course. Things were going to be different from now on, very different.

"We also need to see what Fury wants us to do." Nat spoke up.

"Oh yeah, I guess I work for SHIELD now."

"Not if you don't want to," Nat explained, "besides, I'm pretty sure you'd be a bit young for a formal job."

"I can't go back to living a normal life after all of this. My parents remember me, thankfully, but I can't just go back to school and continue as if this never happened."

"We know."

Thor had the Tesseract in his hands, something Atea hadn't noticed earlier.

"What are you going to do with that?" She asked him.

"Bring it to Asgard, where it belongs."

They all met on the edge of Central Park the next day. Loki had been held in the helicarrier again for a night, and Atea went back to her house. There she caught up with her parents and told them everything she could. It was too much for them to handle, having a daughter with superpowers. They didn't believe in the Avengers either. Of course, the attack was all over the news across the globe. People seemed to be more upset at the cost of repairing New York than the fact that the entire race could have been wiped out.

Atea had left early that morning to say goodbye to Thor and Loki. Loki had a muzzler of some sort on, covering his mouth. Atea didn't like it.

"Does this really need to be on?" She asked Thor.

"It would be best." He left it at that, and so did she.

Atea hugged Loki again, but it wasn't the same as yesterday, there was a stiffness to him, a formality she didn't like, but she could understand. He didn't want to go back to Asgard, and she knew perfectly well why not.

"This won't be the last time I see you. I can guarantee that." She told him.

He looked at her, his eyes gleaming mischievously.

She hugged Thor as well, "Thank you," she said, "for everything. And I'll be seeing you again as well."

He laughed, "I will miss you, Atea."

She stepped back to join Natasha and the others. Steve stood beside her, and squeezed her hand in comfort.

Loki held on to the Tesseract with Thor, and they both were encased by a glowing blue, before being transported back to Asgard.

They all stared at the spot where the gods had been standing not two seconds ago.

Now what?

"We part ways here for now." Bruce said, and Atea realized she'd said that out loud.

"Wait what?"

"Bruce and I will be at Stark Tower, you should visit us, Atea." Tony told her.

"Clint and I will be taking a few days off from SHIELD for now. Fury's letting us take a break." Nat put in.

Good, Atea thought, they need some time off, and some time together. . .

"I'll be. . . Well, I'm not quite sure, but I still haven't gotten used to the seventy years difference. Maybe I'll go sightsee." Steve revealed.

"You know what, Steve? You should come to my house! Oh my gosh that would be so cool! You could meet my parents and stuff and we'd just have so much fun!" Atea gushed.

Everyone laughed, and it was beautiful.

"I may take you up on that," he replied.

They all went their separate ways for the time being. Atea's parents had graciously given her the day off school, but tomorrow it was back to that same simple life. Something Atea was almost looking forward to.