Things seemed bleak.

Phil Coulson was dead. Thor had fallen in the glass cell. And then he heard the news that Eira fell off the helicarrier along with the Hulk.

He felt like his heart plummeted into his stomach. He was saving the plane when he could have been saving her. He felt sick.

It brought him so much dread to try to get ahold of her through the earpiece because...what if she didn't respond? What if she was gone...forever? He couldn't breath right as he spoke, hoping to hear her voice.

                Then she spoke.

            "You think you could get rid of me that easy?" he could hear her voice and he just knew that she had a small smile.

             "How did you possibly survive that?"

           "Hulk. He caught me," she answered. "I'm with Bruce now and I guess we'll head into New York. Just tell me when you find Loki."

             "Will do, angel."

              _____

               Eira was walking with Bruce towards the city. He was now wearing new clothes and he had a slightly anxious look on his face, "I'm not sure this is such a good idea. The Hulk is...chaos."

               Eira told him that when Loki was located, they would need the Hulk again. And when Tony did get back to her about Loki being at the Stark Tower, it was obvious that was going to be true.

             "He's more like a child," Eira clarified before she gave him a soft look. "And I promise that when this is all over, you'll come back."

               "I don't really trust promises, Eira."

             "You can trust mine," she smiled before they saw a blue beam shoot up into the sky in the distance and then aliens started coming down from the portal into space.

              "Woah," Eira said as her breath hitched as Bruce commented at the same time. "Well, that's not something I ever thought I'd see."

                She gave him a look then before she said gently, "We're going to need the big guy."

            Bruce sighed a bit. Then he closed his eyes and when he opened them again, they were glowing green. His body started to ripple and grow bigger until the Hulk stood in front of her.

             He stared down at her with a soft look as she smiled, "Hulk...we have a problem, big guy."

             She pointed at the portal into space in the distance, "You think you can handle an army?"

            He roared at the challenge before she smiled wider, "Then let's go handle an army, shall we?"

        Hulk quickly picked her up and set her down to sit on his massive shoulder. He held a hand over her legs to keep her steady before he took a massive leap into the air with a ferocious roar.

_____

They were flying through the air practically from one of the leaps that the Hulk took. She had her arms wrapped partially around his neck to hold on.

But she saw her friends below being attacked by the aliens and she raised one of her hands slightly, making small lightning strikes form in the air above the heads of the aliens before the lightning hit them; they all fell down at once.

Thor was confused as he did not control that lightning before the Hulk landed before all of them. Eira was sitting on his shoulder before she smiled, "It seems like you guys could use some help."

Thor felt his lips part in awe as the Hulk put her down gently. Steve smiled, "And I see you brought a lot of it."

"Yeah," Bucky muttered as he stared up at the Hulk.

Eira looked up at the Hulk with a small smile before she stepped next to Nat. That was when she heard Tony over the earpiece.

"You're late, Snowflake."

"Well, you taught me that late entrances are the best entrances," she teased a bit.

"Well, get ready, 'cause I'm bringing the party to you," Tony said and they all saw him fly around a corner of a building with a giant, worm-like Chitauri called a Leviathan following behind him in the air.

They all looked on in shock as Nat commented, "I don't see how that's a party."

Eira looked at big, green rage monster, "Hulk. You know what to do."

"Kill army, protect Goddess," he said slowly before roaring at the Leviathan.

"You really have him wrapped around your finger, don't you?" Nat said.

"Shut up," Eira blushed a bit as the Hulk walked slowly towards the approaching creature before he gave it one punch that made it start to flip over before Tony sent a missile into an exposed portion that had it explode.

Bucky covered Nat from the exploding debris with his metal arm. Thor grabbed Eira and pulled her against him to cover her with his tall form.

Once the exploding debris was gone, Tony landed next to them and they all stood in a circle. That was when more aliens came down through the portal.

"Call it, Captain," Tony said.

"All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

"Can you give me a lift?" Barton asked Tony.

"Right," Tony grabbed before he flew upwards. "Better clench up, Legolas."

"Thor and Eira, you got to try and bottleneck that portal," Steve looked at the two of them. "Slow them down. You both got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor grabbed her again and she held onto him as he pointed his hammer at the sky before they flew upwards. They flew towards the portal.

"The rest of us will stay here on the ground," Steve looked at Nat and Bucky. "We keep the fighting here. And Hulk..."

"Smash," Steve said before the Hulk roared and leaped, smashing aliens crawling up buildings and even smashing some of the buildings themselves.

_____

Thor landed them on the ledge of a tall building just under the portal. He looked down at her softly, "You control the lightning?"

"I once made the biggest lightning bolt in history," she said a bit proudly.

"We'll have to do much bigger than that," Thor said.

"Well, what's see what we can do," Eira said before she smiled. She raised her hand as Thor raised his hammer and lightning sparked in the sky. It grew together, bigger and bolder, before they threw the lightning towards the portal. It turned some aliens to ash and started to fry a Leviathan before no alien wanted to cross the portal.

_____

         After they bottlenecked the portal for awhile, she was now back on the ground, taking out aliens. That was when she heard Tony through the earpiece.

           "Are you ready to try something big, Snowflake?"

          She jutted her hand out and a row of aliens turned to ash. Then she took a breath as she answered, "Why not?"

            "That's the spirit," he said proudly. "Because that something big is coming right at you...."

             She turned to see a Leviathan being led down the street towards her. Her eyes widened before she took a deep breath and raised her hands.

           Many vines every shade of green crawled out of the ground that were so big and enormous. On the tips were thick sharp thorns. It looked like New York was about to be invaded twice but by nature this time.

            The vines rose up so high (half the height of the skyscraper next to it) and loomed over the worm-like creature. Then she brought her hands down and the vines shot towards the creature in a quick motion like a snake. The thick thorns pierced the creature along its entire body, shooting through its body completely.

         The creature was brought down with the vines and they shot down with such force that they pierced the gravel as well. Now the massive creature laid dead with vines covering it on the street.

          "Good job, Snowflake," Tony said as he flew past her overhead.

           She could only nod her head tiredly and she felt a liquid drop from her nose. She reached her hand up to wipe it and came away with blood. She blinked down at it in confusion but then she realized that she'd never tested her powers that much. But as she did so, she stretched herself to her limits; apparently, dangerous limits.

          As she was weak, a Chitauri snuck up behind her. They shot at her with their gun and she was flung back. When she went to get up, she didn't realize that she lost her earpiece.

           But once she got up, the aliens surrounded her in the their aircrafts. Then she heard a roar before the Hulk landed in front of her, hunching over to shield her as the Chitauri fired their weapons.

           ______

             A nuke had been sent to New York. Tony went to apprehend it as Nat figured out how to close the portal.

         "Can anybody read me?" Nat said through the comms. "I can close the portal."

           "No, don't," Tony stated. "I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it..."

        "Stark, you know that's a one-way trip," Steve said.

           "So be it," Tony replied. "Hey, does anyone have eyes on Eira? She isn't responding."

             Steve, Bucky, and Thor could both see her down the street. She was fighting aliens once again.

              "I think she lost comms," Steve responded.

        "Figures," Tony said a bit sadly. "But it's probably for the best."

            He really wanted to tell her he loved her one last time. But he could imagine hearing her voice pleading with him not to do it and he wouldn't be able to. He could never say no to her.

         And he realized that maybe there was a possibility he'd never get to give in to all her demands ever again and make her smile. God, that smile. That was what he thought of as he flew towards the portal to another point in space.

         Eira had fought off the last few aliens very tiredly. She had made it over to her three fellow Avengers. Steve, Bucky, and Thor.

            She smiled so hopefully at them, "I think we're winning, guys."

             She immediately noticed that they all had sorrowful looks on their faces. It was Bucky who spoke first, "Eira..."

             "What?" she started to frown.

              That was when Tony flew overhead. She looked up to see him carrying some missile and he was headed directly towards the portal.

             "What is he doing?" she questioned. "What's happening?"

             "There was a nuke headed towards the city," Steve was the one the explain very softly. "And we can close the portal..."

           She blinked as she realized what he was trying to say. Tony was flying into portal and then they were closing it. She felt like her heart stopped.

          "Then don't close it," tears started to build up in her eyes. "I mean, he could come back. He could make it..."

            Bucky immediately pulled her into his arms and gave her a hug, "I'm sure he will, butterfly."

         She could only look up while she laid her head on his chest and she saw Tony fly into the portal. They waited for a few moments and she heard Steve tell Nat to close it and she had to shut her eyes. She couldn't see that portal close; she couldn't see the moment space and time separated them forever.

           A few moments passed and the portal closed completely. Except Tony came hurtling down from the clouds in the sky.

          "Eira," Bucky said gently and she carefully opened her eyes to see it. She breathed in relief as she let go of him.

              But Tony kept hurtling down through the air and Thor spoke, "He's not slowing down."

         Thor got ready to fly up to catch him but Hulk jumped through the air out of nowhere and caught Tony. The Hulk landed near them and set Tony down.

           She ran to him and skidded onto her knees next to Tony. Thor crouched down on his other side and ripped off the face mask.

            "Tony!" she called as she shook him. "Tony!"

           But there was no response and he didn't seem to be breathing. Tears started to gather in her eyes again and she could feel everyone staring into her sadly.

          Then Hulk roared and Tony gasped awake. She immediately hugged the life out of Tony as he laid on the ground which made him grunt a bit, "Woah, hey..."

         He put one of his arms around her slightly. She had her head on the chest of his suit as she said emotionally, "Don't you ever do that to me again, Tony Stark."

          Then she started to cry. She had gone through the possibility of him dying too many times today and it was all catching up to her.

          "Snowflake, I'm okay," he said in concern. "You don't have to cry."

            "You went through a wormhole and I didn't know if you were coming back," she sobbed. "Of course I have to cry...."

            "Okay, angel," he chuckled a bit and the rest of them gained little, amused smiles. "Okay."

            _____

         The Battle of New York was over. They captured Loki and got the Tesseract later that day; both were being sent back to Asgard with Thor. She now had to say goodbye to her new friend.

           "Is Asgard really covered in gold?" she asked excitedly.

         "Most of it is. Yes," Thor explained. "I will have to take you there one day. Perhaps, my father could name you the Goddess of Thunder. You are certainly worthy of it."

            She smiled before she hugged him, "I will miss you, Thor."

              "And, I, you, Lady Eira," Thor hugged her tightly before she let go of him.

She turned to Loki and she gave him a small, hopeful smile, "I hope you'll be good again one day."

Then she quickly hurried back over to Tony. She didn't like to leave his side at all after the battle. She was scared...that he'd leave.

She watched as Thor used the Tesseract and then he was gone along with Loki. She went with Tony and Bruce back to the Stark Tower (but not before giving Bucky a hug goodbye).

They now had to remodel and fix the Stark Tower. They were going to rename it the Avengers Tower which she thought was nice.

But it was a couple days later when Tony had actually waken earlier than she did. He had been doing it for a couple of nights and she hadn't quite figured out he was having nightmares.

Her subconscious seemed to have instinct for when he woke up earlier and tried to leave the bed. She woke up in a fit and immediately clutched his arm, "No. Don't leave."

He sighed at those worried eyes and laid down next to her again before he spoke softly, "Snowflake, you don't have to keep holding on to me all the time."

"Yes, because if I let go you might be fly into a wormhole and leave me forever," she said bitterly.

"Snow..." he said carefully.

"And I'm not marrying you," she admitted.

He blinked in confusion, "So you're saying no because I saved the world?"

"No," she immediately denied as she got up to sit on her folded legs. "I'd never be mad at you for that. I just..don't want to miss you. But I'm not saying no because of that."

"Then why?"

"I love you," she confessed nervously. "I couldn't live in a world without you in it...."

"You love me that much," Tony smiled before he frowned a bit. "But you can't marry me?"

"I'm just not ready, Tony," she admitted as she laid back down and snuggled back up against him with her head against his chest. "I have doubts that...you just need to let me work on by myself."

Tony was silent for a moment before he questioned, "It's not some doubt about me divorcing you in twenty years, is it?"

"No," she giggled a bit before she lifted her head up to look down at him as she practically laid on top of him. "It's not that."

She ran her fingers through his hair softly as he looked up at her intensely, "Really? Because..."

She cut him off as she kissed him. It was a short, sweet kiss that left them both breathless. She smiled, "I love you and I know you love me. It's not about that."

"Really?" Tony said as his eyes grew dark before he flipped them so he hovered over her. "Because I'd love to show you..."

He started to place soft, slow kisses along her neck, "That I'd never, ever leave you..."

"Don't ever leave me," she agreed as her hands slid under his tank top and up his back. His lips grew farther down but not before they hovered over her skin like a tattoo kiss.

"I promise."

And some of her doubts started to be forgotten as the sun started to rise that morning. But one always remained. It came back to one thing. Stark. She'd have his name when she killed the parents that had passed down that name. She didn't deserve it.

AN: and that is a wrap on the avengers