The World We Live In

"We've got air craft, in coming!" a voice called.

Loki's head snapped up. He glared at the screen displaying the Avengers heading towards the harbor. "Surface now," he barked. He ran to his and Matilda's quarters. "My queen, it is time," he told her.

She looked up at him, pupils narrowed, a thin band of silver around them. "I'm ready my king," she said. He dragged her to the sub and waited for the sub to surface and for one of his minions to open the hatch.

Once it was open he went to grab Matilda, but she pulled a piece of concrete from Liberty Island and rode it up to the torch. Once up there, she sat down crossing her legs Indian style.

"I've got Incubus in my sights," Tony said, "She's with Thor's Diva brother."

"Where?" Clint asked. He, Sam, Fury, Cap, and Banner were in the Quinjet. Thor and Sif, were heading towards the harbor by hammer.

Matilda looked up and saw the red and gold armored man. With a slight twitch of her fingers, Stark was slammed up against a building.

"Son of a bitch!" he swore.

"Stark, what's wrong?" Fury asked.

"I can't move and my systems are shutting down. She's got me against a building."

"Hold up, we're coming over. Thor, Sif try and take her out.

Thor and Sif were at the edge of the harbor. He threw Mjolnir, but Matilda deflected it back. Sif threw her weapon, but the same thing happened. The two nearly were hit by their own weapons, but avoided them. Matilda closed her eyes and focused. She opened her eyes and they were complete whited out. A slightly opaque, but nearly clear bubble formed around her, and it quickly began to expand. The large it got the slower it got.

"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me," Fury said, "What the hell is she doing?"

"Sir, this isn't something, we've never seen before," Clint said.

"Fire, see what it does," he said.

"Sir-"

"I said fire."

"Do it. If she gets hit, well that's what I'm here for," Sam said.

"Sir, you have to get us out there," Cap said.

"We'll get you in closer first. Clint opened fire towards Loki and Matilda. The ammunition hit the bubble and repelled back.

"It's a force field," Bruce said.

"Whatever it is that they're doing, they're trying their damnedest to keep us out."

"Well then what the hell do you suppose we do?"

We have to figure out how to get in, something that we can get in there.

"Guys, we've got bigger problems," Stark said. After Matilda had started with her force field, she let Tony go. Luckily his systems rebooted and he was flying again, before he fell to the concrete. "Scan the water."

Fury ran the scan. "There's a whole fleet of subs under the water," Bruce said.

"We've got to start taking out the subs," Cap said.

"Agreed."

"How does the hulk handle water?" Fury asked.

"I guess we're going to find out," he said.

"They're not far down. Actually, they're all coming up."

The subs began to surface. They completely covered the entry to the harbor.

Bruce jumped from the Quinjet , unleashing the hulk on the way down.

It seemed that although they couldn't get to Matilda, they were making a little bit of progress. Thor, Sif and Banner were taking out quite a few of the subs.



"Go to the statue now!" Natasha yelled at the pilot of the sub she was on.

"I- I- I no understand. My English bad," the guy babbled in his thick Russian accent.

"Тогда, я думаю, что это хорошо, что я русский. Поверхность проклятый корабль сейчас!"

The guy complied. They were on the edge of the pack, not far from Liberty Island. She made her way without issue to the exit. Once standing outside on the top of the sub, she stripped herself of any unnecessary gear and dove into the water swimming towards the island. She looked up and saw a flash of green and gold.

"Loki," she growled.



With Matilda's gift in full force, it was time for phase two. Loki looked at one of the men he had made a higher up. "Get them air born," he said.

"Yes, my king."

"Once you're in the safety of the queen's force field, get those beasts airborne," the man said into a radio.

Those subs already in the safety of Matilda's gifts began to shift and change. Like S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier, the subs sprouted four engines and took flight from the water."

Loki smiled.



"Whatever we're going to do, we need to do it now," Fury said.

"Sam can't you just knock her out?" Cap asked.

"I can't feel her," Sam admitted.

"Then how were you going-"

"Not important," she cut Clint off.

Matters were made worse, when the field met the Hulk and Tony, pushing them back towards the harbor. They were losing ground and couldn't let that army get to the city. Tony changed tactics from destroying the sub to getting Banner the hell out of there.

Sam looked at Cap, and an idea came to her.

"Natasha fixed you by knocking you out. We have to knock her out."

"We can't-"

"She couldn't move vibranium. What if she still can't?"

"Barton get as close as you can. Cap get your throwing arm ready," Fury said.

They got as close as they could to Matilda. Loki looked at them with a mocking smile.

"If it isn't the Avengers. How mighty arm you now, now that you have lost one of your own."

"Fury, fly," Clint said. He went to the back of the jet. He grabbed a bow and notched one of his special arrows. They were adamantium. He got one with a bomb attached and fired it at Loki. He caught it of course and looked smugly at Clint. It blew up, throwing Loki to the ground. "Falls for it every time," he said.

Cap step up next and threw his shield. Loki regained enough of his composure to blast it with his scepter. It missed Matilda, but landed near her.

"YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR ME AND MY QUEEN!" Loki yelled.

"Yes. We. Are!" Natasha had navigated the statue and made her way to the arm, creating new passageways, when necessary. She got there just in time to see the shield clatter. She quickly picked it up and cocked it back, before slamming it into Matilda's head as hard as she possibly could.

The fem Loki fell to the ground, the force field disappearing and blood seeping from the wound on her head.

Loki raised his scepter, but was intercepted by a furious Thor with Mjolnir. Clint began to shoot at the heli subs in the air. With an assist from Tony, Sif and the Hulk began to go after the subs still in the water. Tony mainly focused on the ones in the air though, taking them out with ease with the help of Jarvis.

After Fury lowered the jet to the torch, Sam instantly jumped onto it and ran to her mother, putting her hand on the bleeding spot on the woman's head.

A few seconds later, Matilda opened her eyes, looking confused. "What the fuck is going on?" she asked.

Sam hugged the hell out of her mother.

"Family time later. Now we have a fight."

Matilda observed the scene around her and was instantly filled with rage. She stood up and raised her arms. Nothing moved. Everything was at a standstill. She removed every man from every sub and dropped them into the water. She would get to them later. She then took the subs and lined them all up. She sent them sailing into one another. They continuously blew up in a huge blaze of fire, smoke and bent metal. That is until she dropped them. She would retrieve the wreckage later. She had no intent of leaving it in the harbor, but now she had other things to focus on. She took a piece of concrete down to where Loki was. She released Thor, and let him smash Mjolnir into Loki's face.

"Thor, I got it," she said, before he could attack any more.

Matilda reverted to her natural form and looked at Loki. "I am not your queen. I am not your tool. I am not your bait, and I AM NOT YOUR FUCKING PUPPET!" she yelled.

She merely flicked her fingers and sent him fling into the concrete of the group repeatedly, harder and harder each time. Once she had finished letting her aggression out, she spoke to him again.

"You believe that you are better than us. That you are more fit to rule this planet than us, but that's not true. You see us as mindless creature, but we are more advanced than you. You're not. See what we may lack in power, we make up for in heart. You don't have a heart. That makes you no better than the machines you had built to defend you. Here's what you're going to do." Matilda's pupils expanded . "You're going to never use your magic again unless given permission by myself, Thor, or Odin, and you are going to serve out your sentence back in your realm."

Loki found himself unable to speak or do magic. Matilda let everyone resume what they were doing. Tony's missile, which would've hit a sub hit the Hulk, causing him to turn on Tony. "Sorry, big guy," he said as the Hulk roared at him. He ended up punching Sif, sending her unceremoniously into the water.

"Thor, get Sif and take him," Matilda said.

"Yes Lady Matilda. I'm glad you are back."

"Me too Thor. Me too."

"Alright let's clean up, bitches," Tony said.

"I resent that," Sam said.

"Let' just get this over with," Matilda muttered.



"Clint's been waiting on you," Natasha said approaching Matilda, who was in the training room on one of Clint's perches.

"I know," Matilda said.

"You should go see him. He's a mess looking for you right now."

"Are you the same woman who tried to kick my ass or was that Loki?" Tilly asked.

"At first it was me. He got me in Iran."

"Thank you," Matilda said, "For fucking me up with Cap's shield."

"You need to stop," Natasha said.

"What?"

"I don't have to be a mind reader to know you're beating yourself up over what happened."

"I was so stupid. I should've f-"

"You sound like Clint."

"Damn it," Matilda muttered. "I can't. How the hell am I supposed to go and look at him, knowing that-"

"You helped him. Now let him help you."

"You don't even like me."

"I don't like anybody," she responded.

"Don't lie. You love me," Tony said heading towards the two.

"Dream on Stark," Nat replied rolling her eyes.

"Anyways," he ignored her, "Matilda, Spidey's right. Let him help. He should be here in probably-"

"One minute and forty-seven seconds," JARVIS answered.

"Thanks J," he responded, "So be ready cause you're going to kiss, make-up, heal whatever, then we're going for shawarma," he said.

"You're a dick," Tilly said.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever Incy. Nat?" he put an arm out for her. She grabbed it and flipped him leaving him gasping for breath on the ground. "Damn," he said.

Matilda laughed.

"Get up Stark," Nat pulled Tony up and started dragging him towards the staircase to the main floor. On their way out, they saw Clint.

"Go get her," Tony said regaining his breath.

Matilda had already come down from her spot in the rafters.

She went and stood in the middle of the room and waited. He hustled over to her and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and holding her as if she might disappear.

She gripped on to him just as tightly, burying her face in his neck.

"I'm so sorry," they both said.

They both pulled back to look at each other. The same look of stubbornness and anger graced their features.

"You have nothing to be sorry for!" Matilda yelled.

"No, you don't," Clint responded, "I should've been able to keep you safe. I should've known that wasn't Nat."

"How were you supposed to know? Fucking I have a sixth sense and couldn't figure it out."

"It was our job to-"

"No it wasn't. We are all equal. I-"

"Kids, play nice, or I'm gonna have to send Pepper in," Tony's voice rang through the loud speaker.

Matilda threw her middle finger up, knowing that he would see.

That caused Clint to crack a smile.

Matilda couldn't help, but smile back. "We're really stupid," she said.

"Not as dumb as Tony."

"True," she laughed.

Clint got serious again. She held her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. "I mean it though. Do not blame yourself. I know what it feels like to have Loki take over you, but it's not your fault. You told me that. Remember?"

"God I'm too damn wise some times," she said, "You can't blame yourself either. No one could've known what Loki was planning."

"Fine," he said before leaning down to kiss her.

Afterwards, the two just stood there holding each other. "I love you," Clint said after a while.

That caused every thought of leaving that had been lurking in the very back of her head to go away. Initially she thought that it might just increase the fear with in her.

"I love you too," she said.

"Shawarma people!" Tony barked popping his head into the room. The two followed with Matilda staring daggers in the genius' back.

In the elevator she addressed him. "Dance bitch."