I know I said the last chapter was the last chapter, and it is! This is just the epilogue that leads into Robin's first story, The Fire's Illusion. XD Hopefully this little chapter explains a little bit about how and why she decided to tag along with the Avengers in the first place. Enjoy!

A few months went by and I was still trying to teach my brother Steve the basics of the Modern World's technology, but I always grew increasingly frustrated when he still didn't even understand computers. When I'd get too frustrated to teach him technology, he and I would get caught up with each other while out getting ice cream. I'd take the opportunity to prank his confused ass a few times, which always got a laugh out of me and good photos for future blackmail on my phone if I needed it. Steve obviously didn't expect me to become so mischievous, but he eventually got used to it, although he was slightly annoyed with my more chaotic nature. So far, life was simple, I had my brother back, and I wasn't as bored as I used to be.

But I could tell that Steve was restless and still trying to cope with it all. I couldn't blame him; I would've been the same way if I had been in a coma for seventy years. My brother couldn't sleep, I discovered that when I heard him leave the apartment. I followed him out of curiosity and noticed him go into the nearest gym. I snuck inside after him, trying to be quiet to see what he was doing there. I hid by the boxing arena, sitting in the shadows and waiting patiently. Steve grabbed a punching bag and began punching out all of his restless frustration, beating it until it was knocked flying off of the chain and broken. He merely grabbed another bag, hooked it up, and began punching again. Then I saw another familiar, stern face walk in. We weren't alone, I guess.

"Trouble sleeping?" Director Nick Fury of SHIELD asked, holding a tan file in his hand.

"I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill," Steve replied, still punching away at the new bag.

"Then you should be out celebrating," Fury said, "seeing the world."

"I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost," Steve responded, stopping his beat down on the bag and putting a few things away.

"We've made some mistakes along the way," Fury admitted, "Some very recently."

"You here with a mission sir?" Steve asked, looking up at him.

"I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

I raised an eyebrow, Uh, no, that's my job, I thought, assuming that Steve was implying that I wasn't doing a good enough job and crossing my arms indignantly.

"Trying to save it," Fury corrected, handing the tan file in his hands over to Steve. This piqued my interest and I scooted closer silently, still trying to keep myself hidden.

Steve opened the file and peered into it. I couldn't see what he was looking at. "Hydra's secret weapon," Steve said quietly. I paled slightly at the mention of an all too familiar name. Hydra? Was Hydra stirring up trouble in this country now? Dammit, I thought they were gone for good for a while there!

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs," Fury said as Steve read the file.

"Who took it from you?" Steve asked, handing the file back to Fury.

"He's called Loki," Fury responded, "He's not from around here."

I couldn't help but breathe out a small sigh of relief. There was no one that I knew in Hydra named Loki, so maybe Hydra wasn't involved at all. However, the Tesseract was trouble, I knew that much, so obviously I felt the need to barge in on this mission, whether Steve liked it or not.

"There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in," Fury continued, "The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

Steve scoffed slightly, "At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong."

I couldn't help but step out of hiding and stand behind Steve, suddenly speaking up, "I'm game! Let's do this!"

Steve jumped slightly at my sudden appearance and narrowed his eyes, "Robin? God, I thought you were sleeping!"

"Sleep's for the weak, apparently," I responded. I looked to Fury, "World saving mission, right? Count me in!"

"You're not going," Steve replied flatly.

I looked at Steve in dismay, "Wait, what? Why not?"

"It's dangerous!"

"Dangerous my ass! I can handle it!" I argued.

"I don't want you to get hurt," Steve said, his jaw set stubbornly.

I rolled my eyes, "I can handle it, Steve. You're not doing this without me. Last time you went on a mission without me, you never came back. You think I'm gonna let that happen this time? No, I'm not."

"This isn't up for discussion," he argued.

"He's right," Fury responded, "With your record, you'd bring more trouble than needed on this mission, and we need people who can work as a team. As far as I'm concerned, you lack the experience and training to be on this mission."

"I actually am trained," I said angrily, thinking back to all of the back breaking training sessions I had endured with my Headmaster. The fact that everyone assumed I didn't know a single thing about fighting irked me to the very core and made me want to bitch-slap some random stranger to get my anger out.

"You're not going, Robin," Steve said harshly.

I stared at him with narrowed eyes, meeting his stern gaze. And then after a few moments, I sighed, "Fine . . . I won't go. But you better tell me how it is, okay?"

"I will," Steve promised, "Come on, let's go home." He slung a punching bag over his shoulder and started to leave, I followed behind him.

"There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment," Fury said as Steve and I walked away, "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

"You should've left it in the ocean," Steve responded flatly before we exited the building.

As soon as we got home, Steve set all of his stuff down and began looking into the debriefing package on the kitchen table. I sat at the chair opposite from him as he studied it, formulating my own plan. Obviously I wasn't just going to sit out on a world saving mission, that wasn't my style. I knew Steve would insist upon me staying at home, but I wanted to try seeing if I could go the normal way first before I could think about any other options.

But now, trying to get in on the mission to fight against some unknown evil schmuck named Loki in order to save the world was going to be harder than I desired. Thankfully, my devious mind allowed me to figure out a way in. I smirked slightly, mischievously. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I was going to stow away in the back, somewhere where no one would find me, and then, I would wait until it would be too late for them to drag me back to our apartment to sit out on the mission, then I could reveal myself and prove just how strong and helpful I could be. I'd probably need some gear, but I could bring my knives and swipe some armor from the facility if I had time. It was perfect, foolproof, even. Whether Steve liked it or not, I was going, and that was that.