Running through the hallways, Gwen listened for the roars of the Hulk. “This way,” Thor said, moving in another direction. She nodded, trusting his instincts on the matter. They got into the room that Thor thought they were in, in time to see the Hulk swat Natasha away as if she weighed nothing. Thor smashed into the Hulk’s side, sending them both threw a wall and Gwen quickly rushed to Natasha’s side.

“Tasha?” She asked quietly. Natasha just stared wide eyed at the wall, shaking minutely. Gwen wasn’t even sure that the redhead knew that she was there. Gwen slowly lowered herself next to the Russian, careful not to make any sudden movements or touch her. The blond had no idea how Natasha would react. Gwen could hear the Hulk roaring and a lot of loud noises, and was trying to decipher the frantic shouting coming from the earpiece in her right ear.

“Barton’s on the move. Does anyone copy?” Gwen watched as Natasha suddenly broke free of her almost catatonic state, and glanced over at Gwen before replying.

“This is agent Romanoff. I copy.”

Gwen and Natasha took off in different directions. She ended up meeting back up with Thor who looked a little beaten up. “What happened with Bruce?” She asked, slightly winded.

“Someone opened fire, and he leapt out,” Thor explained, gripping Mjolnir tightly. “We must go find my brother.” Gwen nodded, and the two made their way to where Loki was being held. When they burst through the room, they both saw Loki about to step out of the glass cage. “No!” Thor shouted, running at Loki. The dark haired Asgardian crouched and then Thor soared right through him. The door closed.

“Will you ever not fall for that?” Gwen turned her head to see Loki standing there and a man stepping away from the controls. The man made his way over to Gwen with his gun raised. She raised her arms in the universal “unarmed” sign and sighed. She looked over at Thor who slammed Mjolnir into the glass, making the cage shake. “These fools think us immortal. Shall we test that theory?” The man with the gun started circling her and she heard him hit the ground when he got behind her. She turned and saw Coulson standing there, holding a large gun.

“Moe away, please,” he said calmly, moving towards Loki. Gwen got out of his way and he went past her, shooting her a look as if asking if she was hurt. She shook her head minutely. He looked away from her and back to Loki. “You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the destroyer. Even I don’t know what it does,” he added with a slight shrug, not taking his eyes off Loki. As Coulson was walking forward, out of the corner of her eye, Gwen saw something appear behind him.

She didn’t even think, she just moved. Next thing she knew, Loki’s scepter pierced her left shoulder and the real Loki was standing in front of her. He looked surprised, clearly not expecting her to see him. She heard Thor shout, “No” loudly and then she was tossed into a wall.

As she slid down the wall, she saw that her efforts were in vain because the scepter must have gotten Coulson, too. Gwen watched as Loki went over to the controls and let Thor drop. As she was struggling to get to her feet, she heard Coulson speak up. “You’re going to lose.”

“Am I?” Loki asked, walking towards Coulson.

“It’s in your nature.”

“Hmm, your heroes are scattered. You’re floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?”

“You lack conviction.” Loki opened his mouth to say something but the gun in Coulson’s arms went off. “So that’s what it does.” Gwen finally got to her feet and made her way over to him. She took off her jacket, hissing when it jarred her wound, and pressed it against his chest.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I was trying to make sure it wouldn’t it you.”

“Don’t worry about it, Gwen,” he wheezed out, blood starting to trickle out of the corner of his mouth. A couple seconds later, Fury ran into the room, lightly pushing her out of the way.

“Sorry, boss,” Coulson apologized. “The God rabbited.”

“Just stay awake. Eyes on me,” Fury ordered.

“I’m clocking out here,” Coulson told him.

“Not an option,” Fury ordered sternly.

“It’s okay, boss. This was never gonna work if they didn’t have something…to…” Coulson’s head tilted to the side and Gwen rushed out of the room when the medics arrived. She could feel tears burning her eyes and she quickly brushed them away. She found where Tony and Rogers were standing.

“Agent Coulson is down, she heard through the earpiece. “Medics called it.” Gwen lowered her head silently and felt Tony pull her into his mechanical arms. She looked up, locking eyes with his beautiful brown ones. There were sparks of sadness, anger, and a deep regret in his eyes. After about a minute, he pulled away.

“We should probably meet up with the director,” Rogers suggested. Tony and Gwen both nodded.

“I’ll meet you guys there,” Tony said, moving away from the group. Gwen figured that he probably needed to take his armor off since it was damaged. She let out a deep sigh.

“Let’s go.”

---

“These were in Phil Coulson’s jacket,” Fury stated, throwing some blood soaked cards onto the control room table. Gwen, Tony, and Rogers were all sitting around it, Gwen having her shoulder tended to by the medics. Her white shirt and jacket were ruined, and she’d have to throw them away. “I guess he never did get you to sign them,” Fury added, purposefully aiming the barb at Rogers. Rogers picked one of the cards up as Fury continued. “There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to; to fight the battles that we never could.” He looked straight at Tony for the next part. “Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes.” The second the words left Fury’s mouth, Tony launched himself from the chair and stalked out of the room. “Well, it’s an old-fashioned notion.”

Gwen and Rogers looked at each other, both getting up to follow Tony. She waved off the medic who was attempting to tell her to stay down, but she ignored him. They found Tony in another room down the hall and Rogers walked in first. “Was he married?” He asked Tony’s back.

“No, there was a cellist, I think,” Tony answered, turning towards them.

“I’m sorry, he seemed like a good guy,” Rogers apologized.

“He was an idiot,” Tony countered.

“Why? For believing?” Rogers asked stiffly.

“For taking on Loki alone,” Tony corrected.

“He was doing his job.”

“He was out of his league,” Tony argued. “You both were,” he added, looking at Gwen for that one making her flinch slightly. “He should’ve waited, he should’ve…” he trailed off, clearly upset but trying to hide it.

“Sometimes there isn’t a way out, Tony,” Rogers said.

“Right, I’ve heard that before,” Tony stated, walking past Rogers to where Gwen was.

“Is this first time you’ve lost a soldier?” Rogers asked.

“We are not soldiers,” Tony practically shouted, turning towards him. “I’m not marching to Fury’s fife.”

“Neither are we,” Rogers countered, motioning to him and Gwen. “He’s got the same blood on his hands that Loki does but right now we got to put that behind us and get this done. Now, Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-” Tony cut him off.

“He made it personal.”

“That’s not the point,” Rogers argued.

“That is the point. That’s Loki’s point. He hit us all right where we live. But why?” Tony asked, analyzing everything.

“To tear us apart,” Gwen said quietly.

“Yeah, divide and conquer is 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 wants an audience.”

“Right, I caught is act in Stuttgart,” Rogers said, agreeing with Tony. Gwen nodded along.

“Yeah, that was just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he’s a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-” Tony cut himself off suddenly. “Son of a bitch,” was all he said before running from the room.

“He totally just figured it out,” Gwen smiled, taking off after him.

“I’ll go get Romanoff. Do you have something else to wear?” He asked, looking at her heels. She raised a blond eyebrow at him. “Okay, go get dressed and meet back wear Stark’s suit is,” he ordered. Gwen nodded, running to the room she had her stuff in. She quickly got changed, tucking her two guns into a holsters strapped to her thighs and a knives into her boots. She put on her fingerless gloves as she walked out of the room and to where Rogers told her to meet them in. When she got there, she saw Rogers, Natasha, and Clint standing around, all ready to go and Tony finishing up his armor.

“Gwen,” Clint shouted, wrapping his arms around her. She hugged him back as well as she could with her hurt shoulder. “I am so sorry you got hurt.”

“I’m sure Natasha has already told you this, but it wasn’t your fault, Clint,” Gwen said softly. “Don’t blame yourself.” He sighed into her hair and pulled away, going back to Natasha.

“Ready?” Rogers asked everyone. They all nodded. Tony got into his suit and the rest made their way to the hanger. The remaining four approached a Quinjet.

“Hey, you guys aren’t authorized to be in here,” the agent on board said to the group.

“Son, just don’t,” was all Rogers said before the agent ran off. Clint and Natasha made their way to the front, starting up the jet. Tony took off, the rest following.

When they reached Stark Tower, Gwen stared at the already opened portal with the Chitauri army already pouring out. “Stark, we’re on your three, headed northeast,” Natasha said into the comm.

“What? Did you stop for drive-threw?” Tony quipped. “Swing up Park, I’m going to lay them out for you.”

“Oh look, Loki,” Clint said, pointing the jet’s nose at the fighting pair of Norse Gods. He lowered a gun attached the jet and fired at Loki. Loki tossed Thor to the ground, firing off a beam from the scepter at the Quinjet. It was a direct hit, sending them spinning to the ground. “I’d suggest bracing yourselves,” Clint advised, attempting to keep control of the aircraft. Gwen grabbed a hold of the wall with one hand and her seat with the other. When they landed all of them scrambled out of the jet. “We need to get back up there.” A loud noise attracted their attention, and Gwen looked up at the portal to see a leviathan following the army.

“Holy shit,” Gwen muttered, watching as it tore apart buildings by literally flying through them.

“Stark, are you seeing this?” Steve asked through the comm.

“Seeing, still working on believing,” Tony answered back. “Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?”

“Banner?” Steve questioned.

“Just keep me posted.”

---

Westchester County, New York

Alex Summers was sitting the living room of Xavier’s mansion, reading a magazine. He was supposed to be watching the kids but instead he plopped the three of them down in front of the TV and told them to be quiet. As he flipped the page, he slightly heard someone on the TV talk about something happening in Manhattan. “Alex, look!” Jean shouted. “Gwen is on TV!” Alex quickly looked up to see the Quinjet from earlier crashed into the ground and Gwen and some other people climbing out of it.

What really got his attention was the alien army coming out of a hole in the sky. “Oh my fucking God,” he yelled. “Hey!” He shouted loudly, jumping to his feet and running from the room into the hallway by the stairs. “Everyone needs to get down here! Now!” Sean was the first to show up.

“Dude? What’s with all the yelling?” He asked, skipping down the steps. Erik and Charles showed up at the same time as Raven, Hank, and Wade.

“Alex? What’s wrong?” Charles questioned, hurrying down the stairs, Erik right behind him. Alex just shot him a desperate look and then ran back into the living room.

“Look,” he cried, pointing to the TV.

“Gwen?” Sean whispered, watching as the blond on TV was shooting at aliens that were shooting back, while the others were helping evacuate a bus full of children.

“What the hell did SHIELD drag my daughter in to?” Charles asked in a deadpan voice. The rest could only watch in silence.

---

http://www.polyvore.com/gwen/set?id=72305878&lid=2528081- Gwen's outfit.

Notes

Sorry about the wait. Also, I wanted to mention that I've decided to write a prequel to this story. It's going to be a one-shot, so keep an eye out for it. It'll be called Frozen Heart.

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