Like Fire and Ice

I sat at the bridge table with Tony and Steve. Maria stood off, leaning against the railing, and Fury stood at the head of the table. My wing was fixed and retracted back into my back. A few tears slipped down my cheeks while they were fixing my wing. Agent Coulson was dead. Phil. I shook my head and rested my elbows on the table, placing my head in my hands.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," he said pushing his fingers over the cards in his hands. "I guess he never did get you to sign them." He tossed them onto the table towards Steve. Steve leaned forward and picked on up, examining it. "We're dead in the air, up here," Fury sighed. "No communications. Location of the cube. Banner. Thor. I've got nothing for you," Fury braced himself on the table. "Lost my one good eye." He shrugged, "Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." Fury began to slowly make his way around the table. "I never put all my chips on that number though because I was playing something even riskier." He paused. "There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if the could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could." Fury stopped behind me. "Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In hero's." Tony abruptly stood up and left the room. Fury sighed, "Well, it's an old fashioned notion."

I looked at Steve and up at Fury before getting up and following Tony out of the bridge. "Tony," I whispered jogging to catch up with him. "Tony, wait."

"What," he snapped turning around, glaring.

"Tony..." I shook my head, unsure of what to say. "I'm sorry."

He just shook his head and walked away. I bit my lip and looked down at the floor. I closed my eyes for a few moments before and following him to where they had kept Loki. He walked up the steps of one of the platforms and leaned against the railing, staring down the hole where Thor was sent down to Earth. I walked up to the platform he was on and leaned against the railing on the other end. I closed and reached out mental to find Bruce. I felt a few tears come to my eyes when I couldn't find him.

"Fay?" I looked up at Tony. His hands fell on my shoulders and my eyes flicked down to the floor as more tears came to my eyes. Everyone was gone. We gained Clint back but we lost Bruce, Thor, and Phil. I hiccuped and leaned forward, hugging Tony around the waist.

"Everyone's gone," I said pulling back away. "How are we going to win, Tony?" I whispered. "It's done," I hissed, my hands clamping down on the railing. "It's over, we lost! Dammit!" I pulled my hands away from the railing and saw the metal had melted into the shape of my hands.

"It's not over yet." I looked over at Tony who was shaking his head. "Thor can find us, so can Bruce. We'll get the Tesseract and Loki and we'll save the world."

I snort and leaned against the railing, "Sure." I muttered.

I heard the door open and I looked over and saw Steve walk in. He walked up onto the Platform down the steps from ours and leaned against the railing. "Was he married?"

"No," Tony shook his head, "There was a-uh-cellist. I think."

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man," Steve sighed.

Tony snorts, nodding, "He was an idiot." I glared at him as he walked past me and down the steps by Steve.

"Why? For believing?" Steve shot back.

"For taking Loki alone." I walked behind Tony, shaking my head at his statement.

"He was doing his job," Steve defended.

"He was out of his league," Tony hissed. "He should have waited. He should've-"

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Steve said walking towards us.

"Right," Tony mumbled. "I've heard that before," he pushed passed Steve, while I stopped next to Steve.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?" Steve asked.

Tony spun around, glaring at Steve. "We are not soldiers. I am not marching in Fury's fife."

"Neither am I," Steve shot back. "He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now we've got to put that aside and get this done." Tony looked away. "Now, Loki need's a power source. If we can put together a list-"

Tony looked back up, "He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve growled.

"Tony-" I began.

"That is the point," Tony cut me off. "That's Loki's point. He hit us right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Steve shrugged.

"He divides and conquers. Great. But he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us. He wants to be seen doing it. He wan'ts an audience," Tony concluded walking back around Steve and up and up the steps before turning back to us.

"Right," Steve agreed. "I caught his act in Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just the preview, this will be opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He want's flowers, he want's parades, he wan'ts a monument built in the skies with his name plastered-" Tony stopped short and I raised an eyebrow. "Son of a bitch!" Tony said walking past Steve and I. We looked at each other before fallowing after Tony.

"Tony, what are you thinking?" I asked catching his arm and catching up to his fast walk.

"He's going to Stark Tower," he said shaking his head in disbelief. My Tower! That son of a bitch is going to get a piece of my mind."

"Okay," I said letting go of his arm and falling back next to Steve. "Rule number one. Don't mess with Tony's tower."

"Cap, go get the assassins, make sure they're ready for war," Tony instructed Steve. Steve nodded and went to find Tasha and Clint. "Can you fly yet?" He asked looking at me.

"I think so," I nodded. "You need to do some suit work before we go," I said pushing him towards where our suits were. "Go! I have to find something important first anyway. I'll meet you up top in ten minutes." I ran off to find one of the Agents I knew Phil worked with. "Hey, um. Phil once mentioned an outfit for me?" The agent nodded and showed me over to another door. He opened it, nodding to me as he left. "Thank you," I whispered walking inside. I flicked on the lights and clenched my jaw. I quickly changed and straightened out my new suit and taking a deep breath before heading up to the top of the ship. I ruffled my wings out of my back and smiled when Tony came flying up and landing next to me.

"Whoa, where did that come from?" Tony asked, his helmet removing itself to reveal him raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged, "Phil made this for me. I thought it'd be nice to wear it at least once."

Tony smiled. "Guys, we're ready to go," Steve said through the earpiece.

"We'll meet you there," Tony said, his helmet closing up. "Keep up, Birdie."

"Start flyin' Iron Boy," I said taking off and flying with Tony towards Stark tower, leaving the plane the others were in behind.

******

"JARVIS, turn of the Arc Reactor to the tower," Tony ordered as we flew into Manhattan.

"Please," I added for him rolling my eyes.

"Sir, I've turned off the Arc Reactor but the device is already self sustaining," JARVIS said solemnly as we arrived to the roof of Stark Tower.

On the roof was the Tesseract an Dr. Selvig. I hovered next to Tony, surveying the glowing machine. "Shut it down, Dr. Selvig," Tony shouted.

"It's too late," Selvig said shaking his head. "She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe." I raised an eyebrow looking over at Tony.

"Okay," he said lifting his hand up and blasting the machine. The blast rebounded and sent us flipping backwards. Tony and I regained our balance and I shot a glare at him.

"The barrier is pure energy," JARVIS informed Tony. "It's unbreachable. "

"Yeah, I got that," Tony sighed.

I looked past Tony, "Isn't that Loki down there?" I asked. Tony turned and nodded.

"Sir, the Mark 7 is not ready for deployment," JARVIS said to Tony who had said something I missed.

"Then skip the spinning rims, we're on the clock!" Tony snapped landing on the platform. It began to rotate and removed his Iron Man suit as Tony walked into the tower. I followed behind him, my wings retracting into my skin. Loki smirked and walked inside through the door on the other end of the room.

"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity," Loki smirked.

"Actually, I'm planning to threaten you," Tony smiled.

Loki let out a dark chuckle, "You should have left your armour on for that."

"Yeah," Tony sighed. "It's seen a bit of mileage and you've got the, uh, glow stick of destiny." Tony gestured to the scepter. Loki lifted it up, admiringly. "Would either of you like a drink?"

"I would, thank you, Tony," I smiled looking at him before turning back to Loki and glaring.

"Stalling me won't change anything," Loki hissed.

"No, no, no. Threatening," Tony corrected walking around the bar. "No drink? You sure? I'm having one with her," he said grabbing the liquor from the shelf and two glasses. He poured mine and handed it to me.

"The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that," Loki smiled evilly. "What have I to fear?"

"The Avengers," Tony shrugged and then glanced up at confused looking Loki. "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Hero's' type thing," he said pouring his drink.

"Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here: Your brother, the demi-god;" Loki scoffed and turned away I looked over and watched Tony put on two little silver bracelets while he wasn't looking, "a super soldier, a living legend, who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a woman who's hotter than the sun;" he gestured to me and I rolled my eyes, "a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss of every single one of them."

"That was the plan," Loki spat.

Tony takes a drink, "Not a great plan." He walked around the bar and closer to Loki. "When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army," Loki threatened.

"We have a Hulk," Tony shot back, I gave a small chuckle, still leaning against the bar, drink in hand.

"Oh. I thought the beast had wandered off..."

"yeah, you're missing the point!" Tony snapped and I raised an eyebrow. "There is no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe its too much for us," he looked at me and then back at Loki, "but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it!" Tony took a drink and I finished mine of, setting the glass on the counter. I stepped away from the counter and let my wings slip out.

Loki stepped closer to Tony, "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?" I smirked as Loki tapped Tony's chest with his scepter and nothing happened. He frowned and did it again. "This usually works..."

"Well, performance issues, you know." Tony rambled. "Not uncommon. One out of five-" Loki grabbed Tony's throat and lifted him off the ground, throwing him to the floor. I flicked my fingers and my palms burst with flames. "JARVIS, any time now," Tony said getting up.

Loki picked Tony up again, "You all will fall before me!"

"Deploy. Deploy!" Tony shouted.

"Drop him!" I shouted, lifting my hands up. Loki looked at me before throwing Tony out the window. I went to follow Tony out the window when the Mark 7 flew past Loki and out the window. I smirked and threw a flame at Loki. He hissed when it hit his shoulder and sizzled out. "Do not touch him again," I hissed. Tony flew back up.

"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil," Tony said to Loki. Loki lifted up his scepter but Tony blasted him backwards. I heard a loud blast and I went out side by Tony. I looked up and saw a hole forming in the sky. "Right. Army," Tony said as Chitauri started to come through. "Fay," he said looking at me. I looked over at him. "Be careful."

I rolled my eyes, "I have to worry about you're sorry ass the whole time. Don't get into trouble or I will kick it."

Tony chuckled before flying up and shooting down as many Chitauri as possible. I suddenly became nervous but that left when a blast of blue light when flying past my head. I blasted down the one that was shooting at me and then pushed up and began to fight off as many as I could.

"Thor's here," I commented to Tony.

"Thank's, Birdie," he grunted into the earpiece.

"Stark, we're on your three, headed North East," Tasha's voice came through the earpiece.

"What? Did you stop for drive through? Swing up park, I'm gonna lay them out for you."

I flew around Stark Tower taking out whatever I could. I paused when I saw the SHIED plane shoot at Loki and Loki shot back, causing the plane to go down. "Need any help landing, Clint," I asked with a smirk on my face.

"I got it, Fay, but thanks," he growled at me. "You've got three behind you."

I spun, throwing three fire balls and causing the Chitauri to scream and explode.

I landed down on the street as Steve, Clint, and Tasha came running up. Steve looked up and his eyes widened. I followed his gaze and my wings slacked.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked.

"Seeing. Still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

I raised an eyebrow, sending a fire ball at some more Chitauri coming at us. "Banner?" asked Steve.

"Just keep me posted," Tony dismissed.

I saluted Steve, "I think you three have got the ground covered for now. I'ma help Stark."

I pushed off the ground and flew up taking out all that I could with fire balls before stopping and letting two long streams of fire come from my hands. The Chitauri let out screeching noises as they flew at me. I began to spin around in circles, causing a ring of fire to form around me, lashing out towards the Chitauri and cutting them in half.

"What's the story upstairs?" Steve's voice came over the earpiece as I stopped, letting out gasping breaths.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," Thor responded.

"Thor's right. We've gotta deal with these guys," Tony said over the earpiece. I floated down to the others, giving my wings a rest.

"How do we do this?" Tasha asked looking at all of us.

"As a team," Steve responded.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor grunted.

"Yeah?" Clint said from the back. "Well, get in line." I walked over to Clint as Steve spoke.

"Save it. Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark and Fay up top." I peered around Steve and smiled. "They're gonna need us to-" Steve stopped as the sound out of the motor bike got louder.

"Bruce!" I gasped running over to him and hugging him as he got off the bike. "Don't ever do that again! You scared the living day-lights out of me, disappearing like that!"

"Okay," he chuckled slightly. "So." He looked up at the others. "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," Tasha nodded.

"Sorry," Bruce frowned.

Tasha shook her head, "No. We could use a little worse."

"Stark, we've got him," Steve spoke to Tony.

"Banner?"

"Just like you said."

"Tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the part to you."

I look up to see Tony flying around a building with the squadron behind him.

"I-I don't see how that's a party," Tasha shook her head.

Bruce smiles at me, tapping my chin, before turning and walking towards the squadron. "Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry," Steve put in.

Bruce looked over his shoulder, a small smirk on his face, "Well, that's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." He turned back to the squadron, the Hulk ripping through his cloths and slamming his fists into the front end of the squadron. He pushed it into the ground, causing it to flip.

"Cover!" I shouted running up next to Clint next to the car and covered us as Tony shot a mini missal into the squadron, causing it to catch fire. "Hey, Clint," I smiled, "Long time no see."

"It's good to see you again too, Fay," he said as we stood back up. He notched an arrow, falling into attention as the Chituari began to scream in rage. I lifted up my flaming palms and Hulk roared back at the Chituari.

"Guys," Tasha said catching out attention. We looked up to see more squadrons coming out of the portal.

"Call it, Captain," Tony spoke up.

"All right, listen up!" Steve turned to all of us. "Until we can close that portal up there, what we need is containment. Barton: I want you on the roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark and Fay: you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or turn it to ash."

"You wanna give me a lift?" Clint asked Tony.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas," Tony said taking a hold of Clint's shirt before the both of us taking off. Tony dropped him off on the roof and turned to me. "How do you wanna do this?"

"Honestly?" I asked throwing a fire ball, "I don't." I gave a short laugh. "I'll take South and East, you take North and West?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Tony!" I called before he could fly further away. He paused. "Don't do anything stupid. Please." He laughed and then was gone out of sight.

"You should've just said I love you," Clint muttered to me.

"Fuck you, Clint. Watch my back," I said flying of, pulling out my swards and engulfing them in flames. I heard Steve tell Thor to bottleneck the portal while he and Tasha stayed grounded. I couldn't help but chuckle when he told the Hulk to just smash.

It was when I got knocked in the side of the head when I lost contact with everyone else. My heart thumped as I fought off the Chitauri that were bombarding me. What if they needed me? I wouldn't know. I cut the head off the last one and flew down to where Thor and Steve were.

"Steve, what's happening?" I shouted slashing at a Chitauri.

"Fury say's there's a missal headed this way," Steve shouted. "Tasha's on the roof, trying to close the portal and Clint's disappeared."

"Probably ran out of arrows," I huffed. I spun and gasped when a sharp pain filled my stomach. I was face to face with a Chitauri and as I looked down I saw I had been run through with its spear. "Ugh!" I grunted running my flaming sword into its heart. It fell to the ground and I pulled the spear out of my stomach. I coughed and blood came out of my mouth.

"Do it!" Steve shouted suddenly and I looked over at him and Thor. "Stark, these things are still coming!" He paused again. "Stark, you know that's a one way trip."

I looked up and saw Tony flying towards us.. "Tony," I whispered through the blood on my mouth. I fell to my knees, watching him.

"She lost her earpiece, hold on," Steve said pulling the earpiece out of his ear. "Fay-" he stopped seeing me on my knees. "Fay," he gasped kneeling down next to me.

"Let me talk to him," I whispered holding out my hand. Steve gave me the earpiece and I shoved it into my ear. "Tony?" I asked, coughing.

"Fay," he breathed. I looked up and watched him. "Talk to me, please."

"I'm dying, Tony," I said, tears in my eyes. "I'm dying and I was just starting to like you. I'm so sorry, Tony. So sorry. But you'll make it. I know you will." Tears began to slip down my cheeks as he flew past us and up the side of Stark tower. "I love you." He disappeared into the portal and I passed out.

"I love you too."