It was time, how they knew was because of the cold tingle on the back of their necks, it was unnatural and that was how they knew.
Loki knew too, he could feel his magic, he approached each of them, he placed a hand on each shoulder and nodded at them in luck before he wandered off somewhere.
And then both she and Branden where at the sight of Doom's latest attack, it didn't take Branden long to figure out it was a distraction, she and he went off on their own while the Avengers took care of the countless number of doombots trying to invade the city, they made it just in time.
Tali shot down the two doombots that were setting everything up, but she missed the third, it hit the button and the device, some "transdimensional teleportal summoner" powered up.
"Well, shit," Branden muttered just as Tali shot the other bot and he ran over to the console, "This is…whoa, what the hell..where the hell did Doom get the idea for this?" he muttered as he started hacking into the system, trying to figure out how to shut it down. He was a genius yes, but even he needed time to work things out.
Meanwhile Tali watched as the portal sparked to life, slowly an ominous sickly purple color started to spin inside, an electric blue pulsing around the edges, it burst suddenly and formed a black hole in the middle of the room, it wasn't large enough to allow entrance to anyone, but Tali raised her gun at it, and good thing too, her eyes widened when she saw a familiar glow light up right back at her, she fired and then was knocked out of the way at the sudden return fire.
"Uncle Loki!" Tali squeaked, blink up into a green shoulder, he looked down at her with a frown.
"Do you usually wait to get shot at?" he asked easily, even though he was disheveled and sounded out of breath. But she couldn't respond as there was another shot at them and Loki gasped in pain at the impact. Tali aimed over his shoulder at where she remembered the glow to be and fired three times, two out of three hit the mark. Not bad, considering she was shooing blind.
"Don't stop shooting," Loki demanded and Tali kept shooting, she could hear pings as is bounced off of some type of metal, she kept it up until she heard a click.
"Shit!" she hissed, out of ammo, "BRANDEN!" she screeched.
"I need more time!" he shouted back, Tali snarled in frustration, the hole was steadily getting bigger. Loki moved off of her and he started throwing knives even though technically he wasn't allowed to have any weapons yet, he wasn't even supposed to be out of the Tower.
Tali looked around for something anything to use as a weapon, just then Tony flew through the nearest window, he collapsed and didn't get up as if he'd been thrown, she rushed over to him, she knocked up the visor to make sure he was okay, according to JARVIS he was just knocked out.
She yanked one of his gauntlets off and made a mental note to apologize in the future as she slipped it on her own hand, she aimed it at the hole and told JARVIS to put in all of the power, even the back up. The AI protested but she used that tone Tony used to get what he wanted, she waited until the gauntlet was hot with so much energy pulsating in it.
"Loki! Branden get the hell out of here!" she yelled, Branden glanced at her and paled he turned and ran behind some crates, Loki did much the same.
And then she fired.
The whole thing exploded, Tali made a face at the sudden heat coming straight at her, but the hole flickered out of existence, wouldn't it be great if she died now? But then there was an armor clad arm wrapped around her and she was dragged behind more crates until the explosion ended.
"Jesus kid, are you sure you're not related to me?" Tony muttered from over her, his armor was scorched, but he was fine.
"What can I say? I learned from the best," she said and Tony rolled his eyes.
"You spend too much time with me," he said and shook his head but he got up, bringing her with him.
"Everybody alive?" he called and Branden came out looking a little angry.
"You're insane, woman, absolutely insane!" he shouted, throwing his arms up.
"It worked didn't it?" she replied throwing her own arms up, "You're so picky!"
He growled and ran his fingers through his hairs, taking several deep breaths, but he kicked what had to be a very heavy crate over several feet first. Tony looked at him a bit wide eyed.
"Gamma radiation apparently affects sperm," she said in explanation and Tony spluttered, Tali ignored him. "Now…"
"Now…why are you still here?" Loki said walking forward from the shadows, Tony's head whipped to look over at him.
"You are supposed to be back in the Tower," he said and Loki smiled at him innocently.
"And if I was, our young Tali here would not have saved the future," he said.
"I helped too you know," Branden grumbled, Tali went over and hugged him tightly.
"You're my Sam, as I am your Frodo," she said and Branden's mouth twitched.
"Was the portal the ring?" he asked and she grinned.
"And Uncle Tony was Pippin," she said and Branden laughed at that, his shoulders relaxing.
"Hey, I take offense to that, I am definitely an Aragorn type," Tony said, and the teens snorted at him.
"Does that make Uncle Loki Arewyn?" Tali asked, Tony looked at Loki and cocked his head slightly.
"Yeah…I guess it does, he is a prince and everything," Tony hummed and Loki shook his head.
"Mortals…" he muttered under his breath. The three mortals burst out laughing, Loki's lips twitched despite himself.
"So…if that was it…" Tali started, and then she squeaked, "Oh."
"Oh," Branden agreed, "Well that was fast," he muttered.
Both of their bodies started to shimmer as golden light engulfed them, Loki's magic was taking affect now that they had finished.
"No! I haven't gotten to say goodbye yet!" Tali cried, looking distraught, "I need to see him one more time!"
"Tali…" Tony started, he reached out but her body was starting to sparkle, as was Branden's.
She bit her bottom lip and then sighed, "I just..no…" she took a deep breath, "Just be happy yeah? We'll see you in the future," she said, slowly they were fading.
"Yeah, don't mess anything up, we don't want to fix it again," Branden said, they were almost gold dust now.
"Don't worry, we'll make sure everything works out for the best," Tony smiled, Loki stepped next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I will make sure he stays out of trouble," he said and Tony looked offended, Tali and Branden laughed and then they were gone, the echoes of their laugh the only thing left until that too faded.
They were gone, the future was safe.