Golden Eyes

“Vanessa, how could you be letting him do this?” Steve said turning on me but I couldn’t meet his gaze. I was too busy watching the missile approach. Stark had caught up with it and with the missile still speeding on, he grabbed onto it from behind, gripping it tightly. With a mighty effort, he wrenched the rocket off its course, steering it from behind. He accelerated quickly, flying straight up into sky, towards the portal. Steve turned away from when I didn’t answer him. “Stark, you know that's a one-way trip?”

“Not if he does it exactly like I told him.” I muttered shielding my eyes from the glaring sun on the buildings. I had explained to him quickly that he needed to get the nuke through the portal and give it a good push so it would keep drifting away. He was then to immediately drop back down towards Earth and Natasha would shut the portal down. That was the plan at least.

We all watched as Stark climbed higher and higher over the city, gaining speed, when he suddenly flung himself through the portal. Right then and there all communications died. I held my breath in fear. Come on, come on, come on! I started biting my lip nervously and I grabbed Steve’s hand to hold onto as I continued to watch my friend disappear from sight. A good minute passed and there was nothing. Steve squeezed my hand for support but I was silently cursing at Stark to hurry up and come back.

Suddenly there was a blast. We didn’t hear the blast but we saw it through the portal hole. I shifted on my feet trying to hold back tears. He was supposed to be back here already. Why didn’t he stick to the plan? The missile had burst into a supernova, creating a spectacular heavenly display, one that I hoped to never see again. Suddenly, all the Chitauri soldiers and the giant evil worm of Wrath, kneeled over, shaking and convulsing. Then they all stopped.

They all fell over.

I looked back to the opening and felt my heart drop into my stomach. I hung my head down and it took everything in me not to fall to the floor in shame and guilt. I had sent my friend to his death. What was I going to tell Pepper? I spoke barely above a whisper as I closed my eyes to block it all out. “He’s not coming back.”

Thor see the supernova coming towards us and Thor nodded to Steve. “Okay Nat. Close it.”

Steve squeezed my hand once more as he gave the order. Without hesitating, Natasha pulled the scepter out, the Tesseract turning completely off and the energy beam evaporated. The portal quickly closed.

“Oh my God I killed him.” My hand flew to my mouth as I held back a sob threatening to escape. Steve pulled me into a hug and started shh’ing me and telling me that it wasn’t my fault that I didn’t know and everything else we all want to hear but we know isn’t true.

“Son of a gun!” Steve shouted and I heard the joy in his voice. I pulled my head away from him to look t him like he was crazy. “Just look!”

He pointed behind me and I turned around to see a small red figure falling towards the floor rapidly. Thank you gravity!

My smile then faltered as I realized something was wrong. He just kept falling. And falling. And falling.

“He's not slowing down.” Thor proclaimed realizing at the same moment as I that Stark would hit the ground in mere moments.

Thor started swinging his Mjölnir around and just before he could fly up, Hulk jumped up from out of nowhere, looking like a giant green booger against the azure blue sky. He snagged Stark out of the air and they both came crashing down against a building. Hulk slid down the side of the building and I suddenly realized how much damage had been caused to the city. I was secretly glad I didn’t have to pay for it.

When they reached the ground, Hulk threw Stark off of him like a rag doll. I sometimes wondered if Banner was still secretly controlling the Hulk at times because there have been a few occasions where it was like the Hulk cared for someone or realized he needed to save someone, like now for instance. Thor and Cap ran over to him with Thor ripping off Stark’s helmet. I stayed back not wanting to have my fears confirmed. From here he even looked dead and I squeezed my eyes shut. Nobody moved as they all looked down at him. I couldn’t help but jump as Hulk roared at him in a fury.

Then there was a collective round of sighs of relief. I quickly looked over and saw that Hulk’s roar had startled him away and I felt the tears start rolling down my face. This time they were happy tears. He was alive!

“What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me? Unless it was Vanessa, then I’ll be okay.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Yep, same old Tony Stark. I had a quick flash back to when I met him for the first time. Natasha and I were assigned to his case to see if SHIELD could use him for future missions. He flirted with Nat and I like there was no tomorrow, which was probably why I didn’t really like him as a person but rather just respected his wit and intelligence. He had sat me down to interview me for the assistant position and about halfway through he thought he had me all figured out. That made me laugh before I could even think of a response. When I did I could smile because what I was about to say was beyond true.

'I could tell you anything, and you'd still never know the real me.'



“We won.” Steve said with a smile as he helped his friend and fellow Avenger up to his feet.

“Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it.” Stark said rubbing at his head and rambling on. The rest of the group kept looking him over to make sure he was okay as I started to slip away.

I paused long enough to put my SHIELD badge on the ground, along with my gun and other weapons. Thor was looking towards Stark Tower and everyone followed his gaze. Loki was still up there apparently and business needed to be dealt with.

I kept staring at my friends as they regrouped and started heading for the tower talking animatedly. We had won and there was a cause for celebration. They wouldn’t notice was gone for maybe another few minutes so I had to be quick.

I smashed a window where a mannequin wearing a leather jackets, black tank, and camo pants stood. I peeled off my suit feeling a twang in my heart as I realized this would be the last time I would wear it.

Once redressed, I snatched a pair of aviator glasses from a stand and walked out of the store like it was no big deal. The store had better things to worry about than a few missing articles of clothing and a pair of glasses.

I hoped onto a motorcycle that had toppled over during the fight and revved it up, listening to the sweet purr it made. I looked behind me to see that everyone was gone as I slipped on the glasses and pulled my long hair back into a ponytail. I stood there, straddling the bike, for another second before kicking starting it and speeding away no longer looking back.

I said I would leave SHIELD after this and I was keeping my word. I just wished that I had a certain man with me as I did this. I was over 80 years old and I had my whole life in from of me. Literally. I had actually noticed a grey hair the other day and I got all excited because whatever Banner made for me after my heart attack, it had started up my aging process. How long I had to live, I had no idea. Maybe I would die in a week, or maybe I was back to being a girl in her 20s slowly aging like she should. Who knew? Needless to say all the stress from this job had given me a grey hair and I was beyond ecstatic.

Steve’s angry words came flying back into my thoughts, dousing my joy. He may have said those words in the heat of a fight but weren’t fight words like a drunk man’s thoughts? You hold them back for so long that when you finally get angry enough you spit them out like kids did with cough medicine.

‘Oh yeah? Like who? Who needs me? My family is dead. My best friend
died because of me and the woman I loved doesn't even remember me
because it's been 70 years. So tell me Vanessa, who needs me?’

I mentally flinched as I remembered it. Was it really only a few hours ago? It almost felt like a lifetime ago! I know he’s been nothing but sweet since then but I knew he would never leave. Not when people needed him. While he’s been frozen and sleeping for the past 70 plus years, I’ve been working to make the world a better place to live in. I helped Carter finish up with the war, we started SHIELD together to keep our life’s work alive, she went on to get married and have kids, and I kept staying the same age, training myself to be the best fighter and Agent I could be. It was time I had a little me time. Maybe one day I would look back on all this with a smile and say those were the best years of my life, but for right now I just needed to keep looking forward.

And I started doing just that as I continued on riding the motorcycle further and further away from New York City.