A/N Okay quick writing code: italics is during and after the stimulation, the bold is Alexis during her coma, and the normal is present. This chapter isn't in Alexis's POV because that wouldn't have worked. Enjoy, and please take note of the A/N at the end.

Thor arrested Pierce and hauled him out the room. Natalia was talking quickly to Stark, conferring over Alexis's information.

"There are two red wires? Not likely. The markings are probably too small to distinguish. "Natalia said, dragging things across the screen. To everyone in the room she looked calm and collected, but Clint noticed she was tense. Small movements clued him in, like the fact her hair was in her eyes but she hadn't tried to move it. She was tenser than after Alexi had died. Clint went over to her and rested his hand on her shoulder and even though she didn't visibly respond, she leant back slightly into it.

"You were right. She's connected it." Stark informed them. Natalia breathed a sigh of relief. Her part was done. She turned round and lent on Clint, who wrapped his strong arms round her and held her close.

Then Loki started shouting.

"The software isn't connecting! It won't be done it time."

Natalia spun round and instantly began typing, talking down the com.

"Have you tried rerouting the server?"

"I've tried everything, we're not going to finish it."

The whole room fell into a sombre silence. It had to work, otherwise Pierce would win. They'd found evidence to suggest Pierce had been conditioning a man called Sitwell to take over if he was captured, so they couldn't fail.

"Stark any ideas? " she tried to stay calm but couldn't; she was falling apart. She had so much more to lose than the others: Alexi's vengeance, her mother. She didn't want to let them down.

"Nothing. I'm sorry."

"You're meant to be a genius!" She screamed. Tears began falling down her face and her typing slowed down until she stopped completely.

"Nat come on. We can't do anything else here. Let's go down to the stimulation rooms and check on everyone's bodies." Clint murmured in her ear. She nodded and he led her away. The room was empty except for the video connection to the lab room, which was silent.

My body hurt. It ached and stung. I couldn't move anything. I was dying. I'd failed.

Death was bright. A bright sparkling white. I could hear a regular beeping, like that of a heart rate monitor. There were voices, my family's voices.

"Baby wake up. Please wake up." My dad's voice pleaded. How come he was here?

"Alexis fight! You've made it this far."

Why was Cath here? She would never risk Dad finding out, and anyway, why did she do that to him?

"We won princess, we won." Gambit whispered. Whatever I was lying on dipped and his familiar scent filled my nose. I tried to move towards him, to be close to him but couldn't; tangles of wires held me down, sending pain through my body whenever I moved.

"Stay still princess. You need to get better. Just open those beautiful eyes for me." He pleaded. I tried but couldn't. In some ways I didn't want to. I could feel them in the room, waiting for me to do something. I just lay there. I felt cold, numb to their wishes. Eventually they left, albeit reluctantly. I embraced the darkness that lurked round the edge of my mind. It was warm, peaceful; everything that I thought was safe. I finally had everything that the game wasn't, and it was mine, and mine only.

The monitor flat lined.

Clint and Natalia looked over the bodies. There were so many. Tony's team and Bucky were beginning to wake up; they'd escaped the blast and were able to escape the stimulation. Clint went over to check them and took them up to Bruce in the Med bay. As he passed her, Natalia smiled grimly at Bucky; he didn't return it. She went round each body, checking for a pulse. There were none. She finally reached Gambit and Alexis. They were the biggest lost. She crouched down and checked both at the same time. There was an extremely faint pulse for each.

"Bruce get down here, they're alive!" She said into the com. Gambit's pulse was a little stronger than Alexis's, but then again he had a larger body. Bruce came straight down with the Med team, and took them upstairs. Gambit had minimal injuries and had just been knocked out, but Alexis had borne the brunt of the explosion.

"She has 3rd degree burns on 50% of her body, 3 fractured ribs, a pierced lung, and possible brain damage. There's a strong chance she won't make it through the night." Bruce admitted to the team after hooking Alexis up to multiple machines and taking multiple test samples.

"But you'll try, won't you?" Thor said.

"Of course but the chances are extremely low."

Gambit woke up after an hour and instantly panicked, looking for Alexis. He was allowed in, along with her family. They stayed with her until Bruce kicked them out, telling them they needed to rest. Then she flat lined. Gambit spun around to go back in but one of the medical team stopped him, they said he couldn't go in. He banged his fists against the glass, screaming her name. Bruce set up the defibrillator and shouted out, "Clear!" He placed them on her chest and her body jumped off the bed as the shock went through her body. He did it 2, 3 times. She was still flat lining. He said something to one of the doctors, who took his place. He came out the room, head hung low.

"I'm sorry but she's gone. There's nothing else to do. She's dead." Bruce said softly. "I'm sorry." He turned and left, apparently to tell the team. Alexis's dad slid down the wall and sat on the floor, knees to his chest and head in his hands. Cath simply walked off without saying anything but had tears dripping down her cheeks. Gambit stood, frozen, muttering under his breath.

"No she can't be. She can't. She would fight. No. No. No." He sobbed. He rested his forehead against the viewing glass, his breathe misting it as the morgue team wheeled her body out the back door. She was gone.

2 months later

The public knew. Natalia took the press conference, and also represented Shield Inc. in an interrogation by the security committee.

"Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" A committee member asked.

"I do." Natalia answered, face blank. Gambit and Clint were in the stands, watching. She sat down on one side of the circular table; the 6 members of the committee sat on the other.

"Miss Romonova, would you like to explain how this corruption was allowed to happen within Shield Inc., and why the Government wasn't informed of the occurring?" The main spokesperson asked.

"How did the Government allow this to happen is a question you should be asking; the whole military section was corrupted, and the technology sector was being affected as well?"

"All the people involved in the supposed take down of these 'games' had been previously involved in them. How do we know you're not selling us lies?"

"Miss Romonova, you should know that there are some on this committee who feel, given your service record during the games that you belong in a penitentiary, not mouthing off the Government." Another of the committee said.

"You're not gonna put me in a prison. You're not gonna put any of us in a prison. You know why?"

"Do enlighten us." The General said sarcastically.

"You need us. Yes, the world is a vulnerable place, and yes, we helped make it that way. But we're also the ones best qualified to defend it. So if you want to arrest me, arrest me. You'll know where to find me."

She shoved her chair back and strode out, the press hot on her heels. Clint followed her instantly, but Gambit waited for the crowd to go before following. He thought he saw a flash of Alexis's black hair but told himself he was imaging it. It happened a lot; once he even thought she was standing right in front of him, but a car went past and she was gone. One night he met up with Bucky, and they talked about Skye and Alexis over a few drinks. Both of those had become introverts, cutting off everyone who hadn't been in the games. They both lived in the Capitol and were helping to rebuild Shield. Bucky shared a room with Steve, and they were becoming closer and closer. Gambit shared with Clint, and quite often spoke to Natalia. That's why he was here today; to support one of the closest links to Alexis he had. Her dad had returned to the Fringes, saying he wanted to be back where he felt he belonged. They hadn't seen Cath since the day at the hospital, but Natalia's mother had contacted them to say she'd returned, and was ok.

He was brought out of his daze by a tap on the back. It was a small girl, with brown hair pulled back into bunches and a fringe which fell into her eyes. She had bright blue eyes and was carrying a small package.

"A parcel for you, sir." She said quietly. Gambit crouched down and took it off her.

"Thank you. Who asked you to give it to me?" He asked, putting the package in his pocket. "What did they look like?"

"Tallish, black hair, black eyes. She was scary." The small girl admitted.

"Thanks again. You can go now." The little girls nodded, bunches bobbing, and ran off. Gambit stood and rested his hand on his pocket. It couldn't be, could it? Whose sick idea of a joke was it?

That evening

He walked up to the alley, looking around warily. It didn't look too out of place, this was the slightly run down part of Society which backed onto the bottom of a stone cliff. He went to the end and waited, as he'd been told. He's opened the package when he got home, and inside it was Alexis's necklace. He'd opened it. There was a note inside.

Come to Forthor Alley at sun down tonight. Make sure you're not followed. Bring the necklace with you.

He looked around, trying to spot any signs of life. Out of the shadows stepped the little girl.

"Come on, we have a game to play!" She said, giggling. She grabbed Gambit's hand and pulled him into the shadows with her. She went through a small door, which Gambit had to duck through, and led him through a rabbit warren of tunnels. Eventually they reached a large cavernous room which was bustling with activity. There were rows upon of rows of computers, all with people tap, tapping away at them. They were all turned towards the outside of the room, and all the activity was projected onto a large screen. A woman with her hair pulled back into a tight was controlling everyone, pointing out things.

"Amazing isn't it." An amused voice from behind him said. He turned round and saw Alexis leaning against a railing, arms crossed with a smirk across her face. She was wearing a skin tight blue jump suit, which she had unzipped to just under her bust revealing the black vest she had on underneath. Her knives were hanging off a belt at her waist along with a Glock 26 in a thigh holster. Her bow was slung off her back along with her quiver. She smirked as Gambit's jaw literally dropped; she took a step forward and closed it for him.

"You're, you're alive! How? I saw the machine flat line." He stuttered. She shrugged.

"Good publicity, having a martyr for the cause. It was also decided that my skills were too good to be publicly known. Officially I don't exist." Her eyes kept flickering towards the code on the board.

"User 4, Line 26, characters 46-78 need to be deleted. It should be a countdown." She called out. The user in question spun looked at her in confusion over their shoulder. She stared at them. "You're writing the code for a bomb, not a shopping list." The agent blushed and quickly deleted the code. She looked back at Gambit, who was still staring at her in awe.

"But you died. I saw you die. I was there. The stimulation went wrong; they didn't get us out in time." Gambit repeated. The fact that she was still alive hadn't fully sunk in.

"I didn't die. Tetradotoxin B. Slows the pulse to 1 beat a minute. Bruce had been working on it for a while for those with anger issues, but in this case it was used to fake my death."

Another agent, this time in a lab coat, came over to ask her something. Gambit looked out at the screen, pretending to be occupied while they talked quickly about something called Insight Anthrax. Once they'd gone, she continued.

"As for the stimulation shut down, it did work, only it was last second. Tony had left his game of Galaga open in another tab which was slowing the computer virus they were using to slow down. He realized just in time, which shut down the Games. The flash of white was the virus coming into effect, not it blowing up."

Gambit couldn't accept her answer though. "Why go through all that though? Why make your family think your dead, make me think your dead, to do this?" He waved his hand at the board. "Why aren't you out there trying to help?" He was beginning to raise his voice, which was drawing attention to them. The woman running it all shot Alexis a dirty look, so she dragged Gambit into an alcove on the side.

"I am trying to help! My skills are more of use in here than out there. You have no idea how big the corruption was." She hissed at him.

"Then what the hell are you doing Princess?" He grabbed onto her arm, and she yanked it back. It was becoming a habit between the two of them.

"Gambit, I asked you down here so you knew I was alive, but if you're going to be awkward I'm going to have to ask you to leave." He looked at her in amazement.

"You wouldn't do that."

"I would." She poked her head out and looked around. No one was there. She reached up and kissed him. It wasn't a particularly spectacular kiss, but they put all their longing and feelings into it. Halfway through a siren wend off, and a device on Alexis's wrist began to beep.

"Stercum." Alexis cursed. "I've got to go. I'll let you know when you can see me again." She began to run off, shouting orders at agents.

"Get that bird out of the air! Maria we've got two unauthorized flights and a bug in our system." Alexis was just about to run down the stairs to the main area, when Gambit called out.

"Alexis!" She stopped and turned slightly, eyes gazing intensely at him. "I love you." Her mouth popped open slightly into a small 'O'. She looked round at Maria, who was pointing at stuff and talking into a com. She ran back at leaned into his ear and whispered, "I love you too." She pecked him lightly on the lips then ran to the steps and jumped over the rails and landed lightly on the floor. She instantly started examining the nearest computer, pointing out things to the agent. Gambit watched her, admiring her determination. A small tug on his clothes alerted him to the small girl again, who he followed out. As he was leaving, he thought he saw Tony and Loki in one of the labs, suspiciously close to each other. So everyone except him was in one it.

He was left in the alley and made his way back to Shield Inc. He packed up his stuff and left. He returned to his family in Society. He got a normal job and moved on. He couldn't spend his life waiting for Alexis to call him whenever she was free. He loved her but he had to let her go. Her life revolved around Shield and saving the world; how could he help her with that? He found a new girl and got a good job in IT, and began to let the past become that

That was until he got a phone call 2 years later.

"Gambit. We need you to come in."

A/N so it's over! What did you think of the chapter? So here's the thing: I left it hanging so if you guys want, when AOU comes out I could write a sequel with that story-line? It's up to you guys. Thank you so much for reading and sticking it out.

Ciao Peeps