Chapter Eight:

Stark's POV:

Peter and I had just entered 42. Romanoff had told me she wasn't sure he was still completely on our side. So, as a show of faith, I brought him to the prison to give him a look at how those who refused to follow the law were being treated. I watched him take in the details, hoping to see that each superhuman's cell was specifically to their needs.

I wasn't sure what to make of his reactions, but I agreed with Romanoff. His loyalties seemed questionable to say the least. It was a shame too, because he would be harder to deal with if he were to leave our side of things and join the resistance. Technically, he wouldn't be in violation of any laws. Spider Man had registered his identity with the government. I wasn't sure what we would have to do.

One of the worst things possible on this tour happened just before I was going to bring Peter back to Manhattan… Sophie was being brought, by way of stretcher, from an interrogation back to her cell. I hated having to do it, but being put in charge of everything, I had to make the tough calls. We needed the resistance to end. But Sophie, we had new power restraints on her, she was shackled to the stretcher, and her injuries were obvious.

"That's Captain America's fiancée, isn't it, Tony? Clint Barton's daughter? What are you guys doing to her here? She looks like she went five rounds with Colossus!"

"Actually, she's the Capsicle's wife, Peter."

"Even worse, Tony! What are you doing to her? Barton and Rogers were your friends! How can you so easily do this to her, someone so important to them?"

"You don't understand, Peter. She's one of the most dangerous superhumans out there, and she's grown stronger since the last time we had her in custody. Before she became an Avenger, she was an assassin, going around the world killing scientists, trained by the Winter Soldier himself. So think about it, her primary abilities are some kind of mix of the Super Soldier serum in Captain America and whatever they did in those experiments to make the Winter Soldier enhanced, plus she has control over fire, can open portals with said fire, shorted out electronics whenever she opened portals near anything with an electrical current, and just added control of electricity to her arsenal. If we don't use the power dampeners on her, she will get out of the shackles and out of this prison. Add on top of it she's a bit of a genius, able to build technology that can rival mine, and that makes her even more dangerous to the outside world, Peter."

"Are you telling me that even if the resistance ends, you're not going to let her go?"

"That's up in the air, Peter. But I can tell you her interrogations will stop."

Sophie started to stir at that moment and she looked me in the eye.

"Do you want to tell me where your husband and best friend are Rogers?"

"Go fuck yourself with a sandpaper glove, Stark," she said, her voice coarse. "I'll make you pay for this."

Her head collapsed from exhaustion, which was caused by a mix of the power dampeners and the interrogations. Part of me was too pissed off to care. All she had to do was tell us what we wanted and the interrogations would end, but she refused, no matter what we did.

"She really hates you, Tony," Peter said, getting my attention again.

"Well, she's not the only one who does right now. Her and Bucky Barnes were responsible for the incident in the Sudan, Peter, the one that led to the Superhuman Registration Act. He started tearing the village square apart and then she set off the bombs by using her portal, blowing it to pieces. Initially, we just wanted her to give him up. Now that she's been out and with the resistance, we want Captain America too."

Peter went silent again, leaving me to wonder if he would stay loyal to the cause.

Romanoff's POV:

The fight got out of control. We were taking on the resistance and during the fight, Stark called in Ragnarok, the Thor-clone he had lying in wait during his failed "peace" talks with Rogers. Rogers and his group of rogues were fighting hard, our former friends now our enemies, and it wasn't easy for any of us to gain ground over the other. We knew each other too well from all the time we'd spent working together.

Suddenly, Ragnarok started acting… off. And that is when things went from out of control to disasterous. Bill Foster, aka Goliath, was in a state of growing to his superhuman height. While he was in transition, Ragnarok shot a blast of electricity at Goliath's chest… That went right through him. As his body, which was still in Goliath mode, fell to the ground everyone stopped fighting. We were all in shock. The clone wasn't supposed to do that.

When Ragnarok turned to the rest of the resistance, Sue Storm, of the Fantastic Four, surrounded them, creating an invisible barrier. That barrier protected the resistance from meeting the same fate as Goliath. Reid Richards looked at his wife in disbelief that she protected essentially our enemies. To him, things were very black and white. Stark called for a retreat, possibly because before the registration act caused this war of superhumans, Bill Foster was friends with a lot of us… on both sides of this fight. So we left as Captain America and his team tried to figure out what to do with Bill. His death was going to cause a lot of problems.

Stark's POV:

The media found out that not only had a hero who had been underground with Captain America been killed, but he had been killed by a creation of mine and Reed's. They were eating us alive, wanting to know if this was the standard protocol, to kill former heroes who didn't want to register. They wanted to know what other dangerous weapons the two of us were working on. It was a nightmare.

Johnny Storm was in the hospital after being attacked at a nightclub. Sue was spending almost all her time with her brother. Reed didn't seem to process what was going on, but I was watching. Sue was starting to put distance between herself and the pro-registration team. When Johnny got hurt, it was excuse to basically cut herself off entirely, with the handy excuse of being there for her brother.

Then there was the whole other issue with Peter. The readings in the suit I built for him showed that there was a shift in his emotional state, his pulse and blood pressure readings were higher since the visit to 42. I wasn't sure how long we would have before he would try to take his family and run.

As if on cue, an alarm went off notifying me of unusual activity in the living quarters I had set Peter, Mary Jane, and his Aunt May up in. Using my wrist sensor, I called my suit back to me and flew around the building to the outside of the living quarter. I listened in on what was going on inside.

"Hurry up. Just grab what we can so we can leave. I have to get you guys somewhere safe," Peter told them.

"Peter, what's going on?" Mary Jane asked her husband.

"I'll explain soon, I promise. We just need to hurry," Peter said.

I blasted the building, entering through the hole I'd made.

"I'm disappointed in you, Peter. After everything I've done for you, this is how you repay me? By betraying me?"

"Mary Jane, take care of Aunt May. Meet me where you found the real me the first time. I'll find you. Just stay safe," Peter told his wife, making her run with his aunt.

Peter attacked me. We had a brutal fight and I tried to use the overrides I put into the Iron Spider suit in case I ever needed to detain him, but he had figured out there were there and disabled him. In fact, not only did he override what I put into his suit, but he hacked my suit and added an override. While my suit needed to reboot, Peter, who was beaten half to death, got away into the sewers. When I got back inside, I called on two members of the Thunderbolts that I knew had issues with Peter, and sent them after him.

Bucky's POV:

I was off hiding in my room, watching tv when a news report about Stark came on. My blood was boiling, but something made me keep watching.

"It seems that Goliath isn't the only superhero that Iron Man is attacking these days. The footage we just showed appears to be a fight between Iron Man and Spider Man, who is a registered superhero! There is no reason for Spider Man to be made a target. He has spoken in favor of the registration and has been Iron Man's mascot almost as long as the registration has been the law…"

I turned off the tv and ran to find Steve. I found him outside the house, training some of the Young Avengers and Runaways.

"Steve, I need to go out for a while. Call Barton, tell him to get Anya here as soon as possible."

"Where are you going, Bucky?"

"I think Spider Man just switched sides and if we don't get to him soon, we may not get to him at all. He can explain when we get back," I said, opening the portal, focusing on Spider Man.

I found him in the sewers of Manhattan, being chased by the Jester and Jack O'Lantern. The kid was already in bad shape and these idiots were trying to kill him. He really needed help.

"Hey! Morons! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" I called to them.

They turned to look at me.

"They'll be more pleased if we turn in the Winter Soldier," Jack O'Lantern said.

"So let's get him," Jester replied to him.

I was hoping that would be their answer. I was so high on the capture list, I figured no matter who was sent after Peter, they'd be dumb enough to come for me. They engaged me, and I unsheathed my knives from the holsters on the back of my belt. The sewer was too close quarters with all the movement of combat to risk a shot, if they moved at the wrong time, the bullet could ricochet and hit Peter.

They weren't very smart or agile when it came to close-quarter combat. In fact, it didn't take me long to take them down and then take them out so they couldn't tell anyone that I came for Peter. When I was done, I went to Peter.

"You're Bucky Barnes, Captain America's best friend," he said weakly.

"Yeah, I am."

I pulled out the healing serum I had on me, but I knew it wouldn't be enough in this case. Between Stark and the two idiots I just put down, Peter was in really bad shape. I spread it over some of his worst wounds and then picked him up.

"Try not to throw up on me, Kid. This can be disorienting sometimes," I told him as I opened the portal to our house.

Anya was waiting for me and Peter. I brought him down to the lab, where she had set up to take care of him. I told her where I had used the serum and left her to her work. Steve was waiting outside for me.

"He's not going to be talking right now, so what's this about, Buck? We agreed we can't have anything to do with him while he's working with Tony."

"That's the thing, Steve. I think he was trying to get away from Tony and that's why he's like this."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw a news report about Iron Man attacking Spider Man, the reporter said there was no reason considering Spider Man is registered, so he's following the law, and he's been a huge supporter of the registration act. When I got to where Peter was he was already in bad shape but Jester and Jack O'Lantern were attacking him. So I got their attention away from him, took them out, put some healing serum on his worst wounds, and brought him back here. The kid's in bad shape Steve. I think something or a combination of things scared him into seeing the reality behind Tony Stark."

Steve's POV:

Peter wasn't fully coherent until the following evening, Groundhog Day. Bucky and I took shifts looking after him so Anya could go home to Clint. When he woke up, he was more than willing to explain what happened to change his mind.

"Cap, I'm so sorry for everything. I should have known this would get blown out of control. But Tony, he promised to help me and my family if I helped him with this. But all the help in the world couldn't excuse the things I've witnessed while I was with him," Peter started.

"Tell me, Peter."

"First of all, suddenly they became so obsessed with finding all of you at any cost that they started recruiting supervillains to help track rogues. Then there was what happened when Tony brought me on a tour of 42."

"Wait, you've been inside 42?"

"Once. Tony said it was a peace offering because I had been asking him about where we were sending all the offenders, considering they were having their constitutional rights denied by being sent to prison without trials. But this place is worse than any prison I've ever seen."

"What do you mean?"

"Some of the prisoners are kept in some kind of alternate reality to keep them docile. Others are kept completely immobile. Essentially their cells are customized to fit their abilities."

"Did you see Sophie there?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

Peter hesitated for a minute.

"I did, and Tony didn't seem happy that I did," he finally said. "She was shackled to a gurney, with power dampeners on and… she looked bad, Cap. Not only did she look sick and exhausted, but she was hurt. I told Tony she looked like she went five rounds with Colossus. He told me she was coming from her interrogation and it was a shame because if she just told them what they wanted, they'd at least stop the interrogations."

"But it doesn't sound like they'd let her go," I concluded.

"I don't think so. He thinks she's the most dangerous superhuman out there, Cap. I'm sorry," Peter said. "That trip made my already wavering loyalty even worse, but then to see what happened to Bill Foster, it was the last straw. He was a brilliant and kind man. He didn't deserve to go out like that. I knew I needed to get out before I couldn't. Tony must've been eavesdropping on me, because he attacked me, nearly killed me, then sent Jack O'Lantern and Jester to finish the job. Bucky saved my life."

Peter stopped, lost in thought for a minute.

"Mary Jane and Aunt May! I need to go to them!"

"You're still in no shape to be travelling, much less risking being seen in Manhattan again right now," I told him. "Tell me where to find them and one of us will go get them. You just tell us something that they will know you would have told us so they trust us and come with us."

He nodded and started giving me the intel. I called Barton and asked him to handle it. Not long after I finished talking to Peter, I was alerted to someone entering the property. Bucky and I went outside to see what was happening and found none other than Sue and Johnny of the Fantastic Four pulling into our drive.

"How did you find us?" Bucky asked suspiciously, knowing he and Sophie got the property completely off the grid.

"I told them where to come," Hank said coming outside. "They're here to join our cause."

"Turn off your electronics and hand them over. Give me the keys to your car," Bucky said.

"Are you kidding me?" asked Johnny.

"No, actually. Considering you came in without one of us bringing you in, we're serious. We'll give them back, but we need to search your electronics and your car to make sure there's no way you can be tracked here. In the meantime, Dr. Pym is free to show you around. Make yourselves at home," I said.

Johnny was still looking at us incredulously, but Sue handed everything over for both of them before leading Johnny into the house behind Dr. Pym.

"She saved our lives the night that Bill died, Buck. He was attacked outside a nightclub. You could be a little nicer to them," Steve said to me.

"You can't tell me it's not suspicious that they showed up here on their own."

"I agree with you, which is why I backed you up. But maybe be a little less hostile to them. For Sue to be here, especially, it means she didn't just leave her husband, but she left her children behind. It can't be easy for her to do that. It couldn't have been easy for Johnny to leave his niece and nephew either. They really must've had a change of heart about the way Tony and Reid are doing things to be here," Steve said before going inside, leaving me to check for anything that could be used to track them.

Sophie's POV:

I had been brought to the interrogation room. Since there was no sense of time in the negative zone, I didn't know whether or not this was a routine thing. Until I found Stark himself in there, with Reid Richards behind him. I couldn't move around to see much, but I could see Reid was by a control panel of some sort, and there was the usual table of "tools" which included knives, scalpels, and anything else they could think of to torture me with.

"Are you ready to talk, Rogers?" Stark asked me.

I ignored him. He started attaching wires to me. I had no idea what he was up to.

"Are you going to give up the rogues or not?"

Still I said nothing. Suddenly, not only were there scalpels being driven into my upper arms, but there were strong electrical currents running through me. My body convulsed under the shock of the currents and I could smell the blood pouring out of my arms sizzling.

"Tony, are you sure you know what we're doing here? She's having convulsions. These are high powered electrical currents," Reid said.

"Increase the voltage. I want her to scream," Stark replied. "We've had her for over a month. She won't tell us about the rogues. Bill Foster is dead. Sue and Johnny left you and the kids. Even Parker has joined the rogues. We need to end this now. The public is already starting to turn. We have to get the rogues in custody before we can't salvage this, Reed."

Bill Foster was dead? Spider Man, the Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch had all joined the resistance? I thought as Reid increased the voltage being pumped into me. As much as Tony wanted me to, I wouldn't scream. Instead, as hard as it was, I forced myself to focus on the electrical current they were stupidly running into me. It took a lot of energy, but I was able to redirect them to my power dampeners, completely disabling them. Before they noticed the power dampeners were disabled, I called on fire to melt the shackles. Once that was done, I let them know they'd messed up.

I sent an electrical surge back at the control panel, blowing it up and knocking Reid Richards out in the process. Before Stark could do anything, I had the scalpels in my hands and I threw them at him, leaving him bleeding from the chest, intentionally missing his heart. Between shrapnel from the control panel and the scalpels, he was in bad shape. Then I went to him, sticking my hand into his breast pocket, where I knew he kept my wedding and engagement rings and took them back. I took a knife from the table and shoved it through his left hand.

"I'll be back for you Stark," I said as I opened the fire portal, but with how weak I was, I couldn't go further than Queens.

I wound up on a quiet part of Roosevelt Island. I knew I was in trouble if I didn't get out of there soon, but I couldn't stand up on my own yet, my energy was drained from my escape and I was still hurt and feeling a little sick for the first time in my life. Not knowing what else to do I called out to someone who might help me.

"Thor! I know Heimdall and you can hear me! Please! I'm in trouble and I'm alone! I need help before Stark takes me away again!"

In the distance I could hear alarms coming from Riker's Island, signaling a prison break. I didn't have long before Cape-Killers, cops in helicopters, and who knew who else was looking for me. Suddenly, a bright light shone down on me and I collapsed in it.

Bucky's POV:

When Barton came back with Peter's family, he told us something went down on Riker's Island, that it seemed as though there was a prison break. Victor hacked into the system for 42 and as far as their records said, all inmates were accounted for. Still something seemed off. All of us knew something was wrong.

"One of you take me back to the city," Sue said the following day. "I can find out if there is anything going on that Reid and Tony are trying to hide."

"How? You can't just walk into Stark Towers," I replied.

"If you can drop me a few blocks away from there, I can get in. They don't call me the Invisible Woman for nothing, Barnes," she replied. "I can slip past security. As long as I stay out of certain ranges of Tony's Iron Man suits, nothing will be able to detect me."

"I can't wait there for you. I'm high profile."

"So leave me with one of the transporter devices. I'll get out of the building, clear it by a few blocks, and use it to get back here to let you know what's going on."

"It sounds like a good plan, Bucky," Steve said. "Sue is probably the only one who could walk right into Stark's office and find out what he's hiding from everyone. In the meantime, Victor is going to break into the newsfeeds so Peter can give a speech renouncing his support of the Superhuman Registration Act."

"When do you want to go?" I asked Sue.

"Give me ten minutes and I'll meet you out front. I just want to check on Johnny before I go," she replied, leaving the room.

"If you trust her, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. I don't know her as well," I told Steve.

"She's a good woman, Buck. One of the best. She wants to see the greater good done… the right way," Steve told me.

I went outside to wait for Sue.

Steve's POV:

After Sue and Bucky left, it didn't take long for Victor to break into the national newsfeeds like he did after the failed peace talks. Once he was ready, he sat Peter in front of the camera. I stayed behind the camera to support him in case he faltered.

"My name is Peter Parker and you all already know that I am Spider Man. The last time I was on the news it was to announce that I was in support of the Superhuman Registration Act and reveal the identity under my mask. Tonight, I am here to say that while I am registered under the act, I am no longer in support of the way it is being enforced or what it stands for.

"Since I've been at Tony Stark's side my family and me have been threatened and forced into hiding. I have seen heroes who were long-time friends being forced to fight each other because they don't agree with the registration. I have even seen Goliath, a kind, brilliant man, killed by a creation of Tony Stark and Reid Richards called Ragnarok, a clone of the Avenger Thor, who is back on Asgard. I have been brought to 42, the prison in the negative zone where anyone who does not register for the Superhuman Registration Act is sent, whether they are heroes who have saved this country before, or they are supervillains who have tried to destroy it.

"First, they are all being sent there without their constitutional right to a trial. Second, they are being kept in states where they can't do much, either by being kept fully immobile or by using a virtual reality to make them believe they are in a different environment. Finally, the worst of all, they are holding Captain America's wife, Sophie Rogers, there with no intent on releasing her… ever. In her captivity, Mrs. Rogers undergoes daily interrogations where she is beaten and tortured while they try to get her to give up the location of Captain America and the Winter Soldier. I saw the results of this with my own eyes. They keep her shackled to a gurney, with power dampeners down, leaving her weak and defenseless against their onslaught of daily attacks. She is only eighteen years old and she is also Hawkeye's daughter.

"When I realized all of these things and the fact that Stark was recruiting known supervillains to track heroes who wouldn't sign up for the registration, I decided to leave with my family. Tony Stark tried to kill me. When he couldn't, he sent two of these supervillains to finish me, knowing how badly injured I already was. With the help of one of the rogues, I was brought to a safehouse where I was given medical treatment. This is what happened to me because I couldn't support someone who was denying people their constitutional rights, killing good people, and torturing teenagers to get his way, all while aligning himself with supervillains. I am registered, so I am not in violation of the law, so the only reason I see that Tony Stark would have had to try to kill me was that I saw too much that people shouldn't know.

"Just know that my stance is this: I'm against the registration having seen what's happening because of it, but whether you register or not, you're not safe. Be careful."

Victor killed the feed.

Sophie's POV:

I woke up in a room and I knew I wasn't back in 42 or any other place I knew. Suddenly, a woman came and checked on me. When she was done, she left. A few moments later, Thor and a man with one eye came into the room bickering.

"How many times do I have to tell you that we do NOT interfere in the affairs of mortals, Thor? Whether they live or die, is of no consequence to us," the man with one eye said.

I struggled to sit up and when Thor tried to help me, I shook my head no. I wasn't sure I could handle my power just yet, not with the extra voltage they ran through me.

"Sorry, Thor," I said, my throat very hoarse. "I got a high dose of electricity before I called out for you and Heimdall. I'm not sure how much control I have. I don't want to risk it. I'm sorry, but thank you for your help. I really needed it."

"Father, this is Sophie Rogers, daughter of the Eye of Hawk, wife of Captain America, fellow Avengers when I go to Midgard," Thor started the introductions. "Sophie, this is my father, Odin, the All-Father."

I thought back to the many things that I had researched when I was trying to stay inconspicuous. Odin was the All-Father, King of the Nine Realms, a great warrior, and married to Frigga.

"The King of the Nine Realms, it is an honor, sir," I said, my throat still hoarse, but trying to be respectful.

"What have you told her, Thor?" Odin asked.

"I told her of the Nine Realms when I was training her…"

"You trained a Midgardian!"

"Not in battle, Father, though she does have a warrior's heart as strong as any in our army. She was the one who breached Asgard a few months back that I told you about. When I brought her home to my old friends, they told me the fact that she electrocuted Lady Sif was not normal for her, and asked me to help her learn to control her new abilities with electricity. That is all I trained her in. Controlling her abilities with electricity," Thor explained.

"Do you mean to tell me this Midgardian has powers?" Odin asked.

Before Thor could answer, I spoke up.

"All-Father, with all due respect, yes, I do. My mother was experimented on when she was pregnant with me. I was born with the ability to open portals using fire, control over fire, and the ability to short-circuit any electronics near me when I opened the portals. By the time I was ten and I got my hands on my first bow and quiver of arrows, I found I also had excellent marksmanship, which only got better as I got older."

"I find it hard to believe. Most Midgardians are so… mundane," Odin said.

"Perhaps, before I return her to Midgard, she can give you a demonstration. She is also excellent at hand to hand combat, Father," Thor said. "But can she please just rest a little longer? I've seen her when she is healthy and she does heal quickly, but she is not quite there yet, Father."

"Fine, I will allow it, but if she does not prove to be able to do the things both of you are claiming she can do, she will spend the rest of her life in the prisons here in Asgard," Odin said storming out.

"I guess it's a good thing neither of us lied," I said, leaning on Thor when he sat down next to me.

"Sophie, I have never seen you so injured. What happened to you?"

I explained everything.

"They attacked you when you went to save your brother and sister?" Thor asked, angrily.

"Yeah. Used an enhanced named Deadpool to take me out. Brought me to the prison in the negative zone. I already told you the rest."

"That is beyond low! I am glad you were able to use Stark's arrogance to escape that prison and call for us. We will help take care of you! But there is something we must tell you, and I am afraid it is more bad news," he said, trying to be gentle with his next words.

"What else could have gone wrong, Thor?"

"The reason you were not healing nearly as quickly as you should have, even when you did not have the contraptions that blocked your powers, it was because you were with child Sophie."

"I was pregnant? As in I'm not anymore?"

"I am sorry, but the child was lost not long after we brought you here. Soon after your healing sped up," Thor said to me.

I looked at him in shock. I miscarried a child I didn't even know I had been carrying, a child that Steve and I definitely weren't planning for. We'd only slept together twice after my father quit the team, I knew it was possible to get pregnant that quickly, but I wasn't expecting it. I didn't know how to feel about this; and I definitely didn't know how to tell Steve this.

"Thank you for telling me, Thor."

"Are you alright, Sophie?"

"I'm not sure, but I will be. I have to be."

"Get some rest. I should be able to return you to Midgard in a day or two and Father will hold us to that display we promised."

I gave him a weak smile as I stretched out on the bed. The woman who checked me when I woke came back. Thor squeezed my hand and left me as I tried to rest.

Bucky's POV:

I was outside in the front yard, trying to think about what Sue had told us a few days before. Stark and Reid were trying to cover-up that Sophie broke out of 42. They had no idea where she was, but they wanted us to believe she was still there to try to lure us there in an attempt to rescue her. The good news was that Stark wasn't able to torture her at the moment. The bad news was that nobody knew where she was. Suddenly, bright lights shone down on me in the yard and I wasn't at the safehouse anymore.

I was in a round golden room. A man with a sword stood in the center of it, pulling it out of some kind of machine.

"You are the Soldier of Winter, I am Heimdall, Watcher of Asgard, Guardian of the Bifrost," the man said. "Follow me, Odin, the All-Father, has ordered me to bring you here to help prove the truth behind Thor Odinson and Sophie Rogers' words, that she is a Midgardian with powers not natural to Midgardians and that she is a skilled warrior. Both you and Rogers' will take on Thor Odinson in a skirmish for the entertainment of the All-Father."

I just started following him even though I wasn't completely sure of what he was saying. I just knew that he said Sophie was here. When we reached what I could only describe as an arena, Sophie was there, arming herself. I was allowed to go to her.

"Sophie, how long have you been here?"

"Since I broke out of 42."

"What's going on?"

"Odin isn't sure he believes I have powers. So Thor offered a demonstration, which I didn't care. But then Odin said if I couldn't back up what me and Thor told him I'd spend the rest of my life in the prisons of Asgard. Thor convinced him to allow me a partner, and I chose you."

"So we have to fight Thor?"

"Basically, but my powers are allowed, as are Thor's. If it looks like he's gonna go for lightning, let me absorb the hit. I'll be fine."

"Soph, that's more electricity than you've ever…"

"Not anymore," she said not looking at me.

"What are you…"

"Not now. Odin is about to speak."

"A few days ago, my son Thor and this Midgardian told me that she has powers that most Midgardians do not possess. Thor also claims she has the heart of a warrior as fierce as any warrior on Asgard. We are here today to see if these claims are true. If they are, she will have freedom here in Asgard as well as Midgard. If they are lies, she will spend the rest of her life in the prisons here, her partner banished back to Midgard," Odin said to the crowd. "So, let this battle begin!"

"I'll start, arm yourself and meet me on the battlefield," she said to me as she went out to meet Thor.

Thor nodded at her. His first move was to lift Mjolnir to the sky and shoot lightning at her. It knocked her a step back, but she absorbed the electrical current, harnessed it, and her hands started sparking. The crowd gasped that she, a Midgardian, didn't die from the attack. She opened a portal and appeared behind Thor, putting one of her sparking hands on either side of his neck, making him convulse slightly from the direct exposure to his skin, before stepping back into her portal and meeting me on the other side of the battle field. From there, she shot a volley of arrows at Thor, pinning down his cape.

While he got himself free, Sophie and I drew daggers and made our way towards him, ready to engage in close combat. Thor was ready. We went back and forth each of us getting good hits in, but none of us backing down, until finally Odin called an end to the fight.

"I want my elite guard in front of me," Odin called.

I noticed there was only one woman in the elite guard.

"Do any of you have doubts of this Midgardian's capabilities as a warrior or the ability to wield powers not native to Midgard?"

None of them stepped forward or said anything.

"Nor do I," Odin said. "Sophie Rogers, Daughter of the Eye of Hawk, come before me!"

She looked at Thor as we holstered the daggers we had. He nodded at her and she walked towards Odin, in front of the elite guard.

"You have proven yourself worthy of the Realm Eternal, Asgard. Should you ever need to return, it will be with my blessing and encouragement. If you ever choose to train with Thor and members of the guard of his choosing, you are also welcome to do that. Now, I understand you must return to Midgard now, but know that Asgard will welcome you back when you need it."

"Thank you, All-Father. It is an honor to have earned that right," she said to him, bowing to him the way his guard had.

When he let all of us go, Thor took us back to the room I first entered and asked Heimdall, the guy who just pulled me out of my yard, to send us back to Midgard.

Sophie's POV:

When we stepped out of the rainbow from the bifrost, Bucky and Thor were in full-on celebration mode. They were loud, and why shouldn't they be? Bucky didn't know what I was dealing with, only that I needed his help because Thor's father said if I didn't impress him enough I'd spend the rest of my life in prison in a realm that neither him, Steve, or my dad could break me out of.

Dad and Steve came out along with the other Secret Avengers who were at the house. Dad pulled me into a hug immediately.

"Sophie, I'm so sorry. That was my older brother Barney that took Cooper and Lila. He was working with the pro-registration forces to try to get to me. When I didn't show up they decided to take you instead. I'm sorry I never told you about him, I haven't had anything to do with him for so long that it didn't even cross my mind until Cooper and Lila told me about who had them," he kept apologizing.

I pulled out of his hug a bit. I knew he was sorry. I could see it in his eyes.

"It's okay, Dad. I'm not mad," I said to him. "But would you mind if me and Steve skipped these revels? Bucky and I just fought Thor to a standstill on Asgard for his father's approval for me to be able to leave."

"Wait, what?" Dad asked.

"Thor can tell you," I told him, knowing Thor wouldn't mention anything other than tonight since I'd already asked him not to say anything about it to anyone outside of Asgard.

"Okay, I guess it's okay, but your mom will want to see you tomorrow, Sophie," Dad said.

"I know. I just need some time with my husband right now. We haven't had much time for that since we got married and I just need some quiet time with him," I said.

I could tell I wasn't saying something but he just waved us off. Steve led me into the house and into what was now our room, his original room. After giving me some time to shower, he let me just lead him where I wanted to be. I didn't want to be on the bed, so I sat in one of the chairs that we had by the window. He sat across from me.

"You know what I went through this time, don't you?" I asked him.

"I have an idea, but no specifics. Peter told me after Bucky rescued him from Stark."

"Why did he have to rescue Peter?"

"He tried to leave, Stark tried to kill him. It made the news," Steve said. "But we can get into that later. I can tell you want to tell me something. What is it, Sophie?"

"It was different this time, Steve. Then the first time they had me in prison. Worse. I still wouldn't tell them anything. Stark stole my engagement ring and wedding band, which I got back after I stabbed him before I broke out. But last time my enhanced healing slowed down, this time it essentially stopped."

"Why?"

"I didn't find out until I was on Asgard, which I called out to Thor and Heimdall because I literally did not have the energy to protect myself or to open a portal to get me farther than Roosevelt Island. But when I woke up, after Odin spoke to me, Thor sat with me and explained why my body wasn't acting normally, Steve… I was pregnant by the time they put me in 42. Instead of my enhanced healing me, it was trying to protect the baby. Even still, I was in such bad shape, I even felt sick for the first time in my life… I lost the baby not long after I got to Asgard. That's when I finally started to get better myself," I said not able to look him in the eye.

Steve didn't say anything at first. For the first time since Thor told me I had been pregnant and miscarried I cried. Steve got up and held me in his arms.

"It's okay, Sophie. It's going to be okay. We're going to be okay. You don't have to go through this alone. I'm here for you, just tell me what you need," he said to me in the most soothing voice he could. "I still love you. This doesn't change anything."

He pulled me into a standing position and kissed away my tears before kissing me gently on the lips. Finally, he picked me up, carried me to our bed, where he held me as I cried myself to sleep. As I did, I couldn't be sure, but I thought I heard him cry a bit for our lost unborn child.