"I can close the portal, does anybody copy?" The muffled voice of Romanoff came through her transmitter.

"Yes, close it!" Steve yelled.

"No, wait. There's a nuke coming in blowing in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it." Tony said.

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

"Save the rest for the turn, J."

Leila's hands scraped on the concrete as she pushed herself up onto weak legs. She looked up at the portal above Stark tower, enemies still pouring out.

She gasped as the far away form of Iron Man guiding a large bomb flew straight up into the portal.

Leila waited for him to return, flying out heroically after saving the world.

But he didn't.

A minute passed...

A group of chitauri began approaching Leila. She grabbed a discarded alien weapon and tried to aim it as they drew closer and closer.

Another passed....

The chitauri powered down, simply collapsing onto the ground. Leila ran as quickly as she could towards the tower.

Another...

Leila neared Stark tower, coming up to Steve and Thor.

"Are you alright?" Thor asked. Leila gripped her still-bleeding side and nodded weakly.

"Close it," said Steve over the transmitter. A flash of blue light came from the top of Stark tower. The portal began to shrink, but just as it was almost closed, Tony's body plummeted out.

"Son of a gun." Steve grinned.

Tony fell as Steve, Leila, and Thor watched, nearing the ground.

"He's not slowing down," said Thor, and began spinning his hammer to fly up and catch Tony. Before he could, the Hulk jumped and caught him, grabbing a nearby building to slow them down. They landed on the ground, and the three others rushed over.

"Is he breathing?" Leila asked as Thor took off the faceplate and threw it to the side. Steve lowered his ear to Tony's mouth and listened, but quickly drew back.

A solemn silence settled upon the group, mourning their fallen teammate. The Hulk roared, causing Leila to jump, and Tony woke up and began gasping for air.

"What the hell? What just happened?" He looked around. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

"We won." Steve said.

"All right, yay! Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day." Despite him not being able to move anything else, Tony couldn't seem to stop moving his mouth. "Hey, you ever had shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."

"We're not finished yet," spoke Thor, looking up at Stark Tower.

"And then shawarma after."

-

Loki pulled himself up from a human-sized hole in the ground, panting. He turned around to face the avengers, who had their weapons readied.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."

-

"Come back to Asgard with me." Thor's deep voice jolted Leila out of her daze. Shawarma hung from her hand as she chewed mindlessly. The rest of the avengers sat around the table, their own shawarma held in their hands.

"Hm? What did you say?" She blinked, leaning closer to the blonde man.

Thor chuckled. "Whenever I take Loki back to Asgard, come with me. Remember in the land of New Mexico, when I told you I would bring you?"

Leila nodded. It had been almost a year, but she would never forget that experience. "I—I don't know..."

She wanted to learn more about her power, about her Asgardian blood, but she had a good life here on earth. She'd only just gotten the hang of her S.H.I.E.L.D. job. Leila loved being close to her parents, as she hadn't since before going to university in virginia.

"I want to, I just..." she trailed off.

"No matter what you would like to do, I will support you."

There were just so many unknowns in Asgard. It wasn't like... whatever she had inside her was killing her.

"You know what? Yeah. Yeah, I'll go with you."

Thor grinned from ear to ear. "Wonderful!"

-

"How are you feeling?" Leila's dad asked.

"A lot better, thankfully." She adjusted the bandages wrapped around her middle. She took a sip of her coffee and rubbed her eyes. "There's something I have to tell you."

"What, are you moving to New Mexico again?" Chuckled her papa, sitting next to her.

"Actually, I'm going to... another planet."

"Another what?"

She sighed. "You remember that whole... thing in New Mexico?"

"All the weird stuff that happened to you? Yeah." Her dad ducked below the counter and popped back up a second later.

"Well, that wasn't the only thing." Leila sighed, "Turns out I have powers. I can't really control it, though." She reached to draw her pendant from within her shirt. "Thor knew what this said. 'May you find peace in eternity.' And he said I was one of them... an asgardian."

"Hm," Leila's papa studied the engraved tree.

"Thor offered to take me to Asgard. He said there are people who can help me learn about my powers. About... my people." She sighed. "What do you think?"

Her dad and papa exchanged a look. Her papa spoke first. "I don't really know about all this... avenger, superhero, alien stuff. But I do know you. And I trust you." He took Leila's hand. "I think your dad does too."

Her dad nodded. "I do. You're a smart girl, Leila." He sniffled. "So smart... if only five-year old you could see you now..."

"Come on, dad. Don't get all sappy on me." Leila giggled, fighting back tears of her own.

"We love you. Just promise to come back and visit whenever you can." Her papa wrapped her in a hug. Her dad ran out from behind the counter to join them.

"I promise."

-

The park was peaceful, idyllic, as the Avengers gathered for what would hopefully be the last time.

Erik and Doctor Banner carefully placed the tesseract inside a containment device.

"Bye, Erik. Thank you for everything." Leila said, hugging him tightly. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Me too. Be safe, Doctor Dayne." Erik patted her on the back. He shook hands with Thor.

After saying goodbyes to everyone, the two asgardians walked to the center of the bridge.

Thor held one handle of the containment device and Loki held the other. Leila held onto Thor's arm tightly as the two men twisted the handles.

A bright blue light enveloped the three, expanding from within the tesseract. Leila felt a cool, calm feeling rush over her as the bright light nearly blinded her.

She had the feeling of moving extraordinarily fast, and her stomach jumping into her throat.

Then in a moment it had stopped.

-

Thanks for reading!