A/N: Hey guys, you still with me? Reviews make my day and inspire me to write more! Anyways, I'm not too good at action scenes, so bear with me here. This story WILL continue after the movie part is over, and there might even be a sequel in store. Well, if you WANT a sequel, that is. DO you want a sequel? Let me know in a review, my little Loki lovers :D

! #$%^

I was feeling pretty confident with everyone standing beside me, but as soon as I felt semi-good about the situation we were in, Natasha called out to us, ruining the badass-ness of the moment.

"Guys," She said, and we turned to face where she was staring. Two more of the giant Chitauri came out of the portal, looking just as fierce as ever. I sighed, and shook my head.

"Can't anything ever be easy?"

"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" Tony joked, before switching into a more serious gear.

"Call it, Captain." He spoke to Steve, knowing that he would be able to position us in several ideal places to take down all of the aliens.

"Alright, listen up," Steve said, facing the portal and mentally laying out the battlefield. "Until we can close the portal, we'll use containment. Barton," He called out, and both Clint and I walked closer to him. He looked at us, and then shook his head at me, motioning me back

"Clint, I want you up on that rooftop, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays," Steve said, and Clint nodded at the Captain. I stepped back a little, and waited for Steve to continue with his planning.

"Stark, you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out; you turn it back, or turn it to ash." Steve pointed with his fingers. Clint took my hand in his, and squeezed it in a silent goodbye. I smiled back at him, finding comfort in his familiar blue eyes.

"Give me a lift?" Clint asked, and Tony nodded his helmeted head.

"Right. Better clench up, Legolas." Tony quipped, before grabbing my brother and flying off.

I smirked, and turned back to Steve. He looked over at Thor.

"Thor, you've got to try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightning; light the bastards up."

Thor nodded, and swung his hammer around in a circle, before taking off towards the portal. That left me, Natasha, and the Hulk. Natasha and I stepped forward, and Steve nodded at the both of us.

"The three of us are going to keep fighting here," He said.

I smiled. This should be interesting. Let's see if I can keep up my fighting skills.

"And Hulk?" Steve said, finally mentioning Banner. He stared at the green giant in front of him for a few seconds, before a small grin crept over his features.

"Smash."

Just like that, the Hulk took off, jumping onto a building and picking up an alien in his massive green hand. He leapt to the building across from the one he was on, swinging around and smashing every alien he could see.

I couldn't help it.

"That is so awesome!" I squealed, and jumped up like an excited little girl. I suppose that I was an excited little girl, but hey! I was an excited little girl with a gun.

So there.

It started to dim a little bit, and I looked up to see clouds in the sky above us, and lightning shooting out from a tall skyscraper. That was Thor, then. It must have worked, because many of the aliens fell from the sky, landing down onto the streets below.

I looked up to the building a few blocks down and on my left, and faintly saw my brother shooting arrows at any Chitauri that passed by him. I smiled, and followed by his example, taking out my guns and shooting at every passing alien.

I felt a Chitauri grab me from behind and lift me into the air by my shirt, choking me. It must have thought that it had the upper hand in the situation. I smiled knowingly and threw my legs back, wrapping them around his neck. I swung down and hit the floor, but not without bringing the alien with me, snapping its neck in the process.

I got up, and turned to the next one that popped up, sliding down between its legs and getting up, bringing the butt of my gun down on its head. I could hear what must have been its skull cracking, and it fell lifelessly to the floor.

I quickly wiped the sweat off of my brow, and sent off a couple of rounds into five nearby aliens that got too close to Natasha. She sent a grateful look my way, and I watched as she took out another four by herself. I may have been good, but Natasha was the Black Widow for God's sake! How could I compare to that?

Well, who cares? All that mattered now was killing aliens, which was something I was pretty damn good at.

I let out a small battle cry, and launched myself at another Chitauri, using two of my knives to dig into its skin. It fell, and I turned to the next.

I was about to attack, but it turned out to be Steve.

I let out a sigh, and wiped the sweat and grime off of my face. Natasha was beside me, looking just as tired as I was. Her red hair had stayed in place relatively well, considering what we had all been through.

I couldn't say the same for my own hair, however, since I had light brown locks flying all over the place. I shook my head, and whatever was left of my ponytail fell out, leaving a halo of hair around my head. I smoothed it down as much as possible, but knew that it was the least of my problems right now.

Natasha and I leaned up against a taxi, breathing hard and trying to recover. My head fell, and my hand searched my body for any injuries. Besides a shallow gash on my left forearm, all I had were minor scratches and some pretty major bruises. Especially from when I slammed myself into the ground trying to get away from that Chitauri. Remind why I did that again?

"Captain, none of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal..." Natasha commented, looking up at where the Chitauri were still pouring out. They seemed to have an endless supply of aliens, and I couldn't help but think that Natasha was right.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," Steve said. I popped up with an idea, and looked over at Steve and Natasha, grinning.

"Well, maybe it's not about guns," I suggested, and looked up at Stark Tower. I needed to get up there, and see if I could do something to get the portal closed.

Steve looked down at me, and I could tell what was going to come out of him mouth before he even opened it.

"No, absolutely not. You're not going up there. It's too dangerous!" He protested, and my eyes widened. Was Steve looking out for me? I didn't know he cared that much... But despite how touched I was by his gesture, I shook my head fiercely. I was going up there, no matter what he said.

"And this isn't, Steve? We need to find some way to close the portal, and this is our best shot! Please, Steve!" I begged him, reminding me of when I used to beg Clint to bring me back some chocolate chip cookies when he got home from a mission. They were always strict with their food in SHIELD, so I never got to pig out on cookies like normal kids did.

Steve shook his head.

"You're what? Twenty three, twenty four? You're too young; you'll get yourself k-"

"Captain," Natasha cut in, and I braced myself.

Natasha always had the meanest lectures ready for me whenever I complained about not being able to go on missions. She always told me how I wasn't ready, and that all I'd do is compromise the mission. Instead, however, she caught me by surprise.

"She's ready."

With those two words, my world seemed to come to a standstill. Did Natasha just tell Steve that I was ready for a suicide mission? Natasha?

Dear God.

I gaped at her, trying to understand where she was coming from. I was about to say something when she spoke up.

"I'm sorry for before, when I... chastised you," She said.

I grimaced, and thought back to the time where she called me out on getting too close to Loki, the enemy. I was in the middle of talking to Loki when she pulled me out, beyond angry with me.

I shivered as I remembered her cold glare as she threatened to kill me. Honestly, I have probably never been more scared in my life than I had been in that moment. Natasha could be pretty damn scary when she wanted to be, so the fact that she was actually apologizing for being that way meant it was pretty special to me.

I held out a hand to her, showing that I accepted. She took it, but instead of shaking it, I pulled her in for a giant hug. She was shocked, and was still for a few moments. I was about to pull away, but she returned the hug, if only so slightly.

I pulled back and smiled at her.

"Look, if I die, my last request is for you to go and kiss my brother senseless. Okay?"

I smirked at her shocked expression, but was quickly distracted by Steve, who chose right now to intervene, of all the times that he could have stepped in.

"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride," He said, and my smirk only grew. I backed away from them, and looked up at the Chitauri who kept flying overhead.

"I have a ride." I said, staring pointedly at the vehicles above us. I looked back at Steve. "I could use a boost, though."

Steve backed away from me, and held his shield steady.

"You sure about this?" He asked, and not just about the boost, but about everything.

"Don't worry so much Steve. I'm Samantha freaking Barton! What could go wrong?" I grinned, looked up at the sky, and launched myself forward.

I sprinted as quickly as I could, and jumped up onto a nearby car, and then vaulted onto Steve's shield. I bent my knees, and pushed up with all of my might. With both my powerful jump and Steve's colossal push, I shot up into the air, holding up a single arm.

When my fingers connected to the edge of the alien's aircraft, I clutched onto whatever hold I could get with all of my might. I flipped over, and held on with both of my hands. I quickly found out that this was going to be much harder than I had originally thought, and I tried to pull myself up onto the platform, using all of the muscle strength I had in order to do it.

I finally got my knees up onto the platform, and steadied myself. I grabbed a knife from my boot, and sliced the chain that was holding one of the aliens to the aircraft. I kicked its feet out from underneath it, and it flew off of the vehicle, but not before it dug something sharp deep into my side. I immediately cried out, gasping in pain as my hand found the wound. The blood was starting to pour out in a steady stream, but I knew that I had to keep going.

This wouldn't stop me.

I shook it off, and held onto the sides of the craft for dear life, slowly pulling myself closer to the alien driving the thing. I launched myself up and onto the Chitauri, digging my knives into its shoulders. It screeched, but did not fight back as I landed on top of it.

I moved my knives to the left, trying to get the Chitauri to steer.

"Okay, time to turn!" I shouted, and nearly cried out as we headed straight for a building. "Turn!" I screamed, and it finally turned left. Just in the nick of time, too.

I steadied myself once again, and looked down at my stab wound. It was still bleeding profusely, but I knew that I had to get to Stark Tower before anything happened. I panicked a little bit as another Chitauri vehicle came up next to me, ready to attack my own. I was about to freak out when Tony flew up beside me, shooting down the stray Chitauri, before flying off in another direction.

"What would you do without me, Princess?" I heard him ask over the communication line. I smiled, and let out an exhilarated yell, trying to get out some of my pent up adrenaline.

"You're my knight in shining red and gold armor, Tony. Now we just need a noble steed, and a castle to run away to, and we're all set!" I said, laughing to myself.

"Well, we've got Stark Tower, or what's left of it, actually. Don't really know about the steed part, though. I'll ask JARVIS about that later," He said, and I could practically see his smirk.

I shook my head, and steered the Chitauri vehicle towards Stark Tower. I was getting close, but gasped as a streak of blue light shot past me. I looked behind me to see something that made my blood freeze cold in my veins.

It was Loki, shooting at me.

I stared at him for a long time, before I realized that I still had to steer.

"I guess we really did choose our sides..." I whispered to myself as I dodged another ray of blue light. Getting angry, I carefully flipped him the bird. I didn't know if he knew what that meant, but I hope to God he somehow picked up on my anger.

Even though we chose our sides, and agreed to fight against each other, I never expected this. What happened to the Loki that was spouting out loving phrases not more than an hour ago? Shaking my head, I continued dodging, and subtly headed towards my brother, hoping he would be able to get Loki off of my tail. I couldn't get to Stark Tower if Loki was after me.

"Clint!" I screamed into the communicator, and Clint immediately picked up.

"Sammie, what the hell are you doing?"

Yup. Got to love my dear old brother. I smiled, but gasped as a shot of blue light got a little too close for comfort.

"A little help would be much appreciated!" I shouted, and steered towards Clint, giving him a clear shot at Loki.

"I got him." He said, and I looked back just in time to see him send off an arrow straight at Loki's face. I watched, amazed, as Loki simply reached up and caught the arrow with one hand. He looked at the arrow, then back at Clint, and smiled.

What I was not expecting, was for it to blow up.

I winced as the whole chariot exploded, sending Loki flying onto a platform on Stark Tower. I immediately felt myself wanting to check up on him, but I knew that the saving the world came first. I saw the top of the Tower coming up, and knew that I needed to get off.

I breathed in deeply, before jumping backwards off of the chariot, falling down about two meters. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact, but I didn't fully expect the pain that now radiated from my side. My stab wound was throbbing, and landing on my side didn't help that at all. I felt the blood still flowing down my uniform, but tried to shake it off.

I groaned, and held back tears. The pain was atrocious, but I couldn't let it show. I couldn't.

Saving the world came first.

I slowly got up onto my knees, the tears now falling freely as I fought the pain. Once I was up, the pain lessened a little bit, and I walked carefully towards the machine that held open the portal.

"The scepter." I heard a voice say from behind me, and I whipped around to face my next enemy, who actually turned out to be Dr. Selvig. I sighed, and relaxed my defensive stance. He was lying close to the edge of the building, and staring up at me with his light blue eyes.

"Doctor?" I asked, and headed over to him to make sure he was alright. He waved me off, and continued talking.

"Loki's scepter, the energy from it,"

At seeing my confused expression, he continued explaining.

"The Tesseract can't fight," He said. "You can't protect against yourself."

"Dr. Selvig," I gasped out. "It's not your fault. You didn't, ah, didn't know what you were doing." I winced, and held a hand to my side.

"Well, actually, I think I did," He spoke, his words sparking something in me. "I built in a safety to cut the power source."

Realization dawned on my face as I took in his words, as I made sense of what he was trying to tell me.

"Loki's scepter." I whispered, nodding my head in agreement.

"It may be able to close the portal," He looked over the side of the building, staring at something.

"And I'm looking right at it."

I knelt down and shuffled over to the side of the building. I smiled softly as I took in the sight of the familiar weapon. I sighed, and stood up, offering Dr. Selvig a hand.

"Thanks Doctor. For everything," I said, and took off for the stairs. I ran down as quickly as I could with my wound, and was about to sprint to the scepter when I saw Loki lying in a pile of rubble, in a hole in the floor.

His eyes were staring up at the ceiling, and for a second I was afraid that he might have been badly hurt, but on closer inspection I noticed that he was probably just really, really sore. The Hulk must have done it, because nothing else would be fighting against Loki with that kind of force.

I quickly grabbed the scepter, and fled upstairs again. There would be time to check up on Loki later, but right now I had to close that portal. I made my way up to the top of the Tower once again, and showed the scepter to Dr. Selvig.

"Are you sure that this is going to work?" I asked, making sure that this wasn't all for nothing. He nodded, and looked over at the machine.

"I'm almost one hundred percent positive. I made sure to install the back up when I was controlled by Loki. Some small part of me must have still known what I was doing." Selvig said.

His words struck something in me. When the S.H.I.E.L.D. base was falling out of the sky, and I fought with Clint, he had the chance to kill me, but instead shot the wall next to me. The same sort of thing must have happened to Dr. Selvig when he put in the backup plan for the Tesseract.

I nodded, and held out my hand, wiping the ruby red blood off of it first.

"Thank you." I said, and smiled as he shook my hand. He returned the smile, and we both paused to catch our breath before setting up everything. Selvig opened up his laptop, and motioned towards the barrier.

"Right at the crown!" He said.

I held the scepter tight in my hands, and pointed it at the machine. I moved it forward, and t pushed through the barrier without a problem. I held it there, and contacted everyone else through the communication network.

"I can close it! Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!" I shouted, getting excited that I might finally be able to end this. It would be over soon.

"Do it!" I heard Steve shout out from the other line, but another voice quickly cut him off.

"No, wait!" Tony spoke. I furrowed my brows, and shook my head.

"Tony, these things are still coming!" I said, not understanding why he wouldn't want to close the portal. We were so close, yet he wanted to delay it. What was his reasoning?

"Yeah, but we got a nuke coming in, and it's going to blow in less than a minute." He said.

Oh.

That would be why.

A nuke? In New York? A heavily populated city, and they were just going to blow it all up? What the hell were they thinking, anyways? I mean, we could have handled it without the need for a huge explosion!

"And I know just where to put it..." Tony muttered.

My world seemed to stop, and I nearly dropped the scepter from my shock.

"What?" I whispered, my heart skipping a few beats. "Tony, no!" I shouted, horrified that he would even think about that. I mean, there had to be some other way to get rid of the nuke, right?

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip." Steve said on the other line, making sure Tony was really ready to do this. I shook my head rapidly back and forth.

"Tony, please don't do this!" I begged him, but the other line was completely silent. I wanted to scream, to shout, but I knew that I didn't have enough energy to do that. I would barely be able to close the portal, what with my side still bleeding heavily.

I watched from afar as Tony sped towards the portal, moving the nuke up so that it was facing beyond the portal. He cut it close in not hitting the building, and I cried out as he flew up above me. My eyes watered, and I didn't know if it was because of the pain or because of Tony.

He shot up into the sky, and through the portal, and I could see him no longer.

I stood there, silent, waiting for some sign of him coming back through the other side. He was Tony freaking Stark for Christ's sake! He couldn't not come back! He would make it, I was positive!

I waited and waited, but there was no sign of him.

Suddenly, there was an explosion form beyond the portal that I could hear from here, and I watched as red and orange tried to come out of the portal. The remaining Chitauri dropped from the sky, their power gone.

I knew that I should have been happy, but all I could think about was Tony.

"Please..." I begged quietly to whatever God was up there. Just let him be okay. Still there was nothing, and the explosion was getting closer to coming out of the portal.

"Close it." Steve said, and my world itself seemed to come to an absolute end.

Every instinct in my body told me to keep it open, to wait until Tony came flying out, but I knew that I had to put my feelings behind me.

Saving the world came first.

And so I pushed the scepter as hard as I could into the Tesseract, forcing it past the barrier. I held it there for as long as I could, watching as the portal faltered, and then closed. I was about to burst into tears at any moment, but right then I caught sight of something falling from the sky. I tried to see if it was just another Chitauri, but we I saw that it was in the shape of a man, I cried out.

"Tony!" I sighed, more than relieved that he made it through.

He fell from the sky, but it wasn't him flying, he was just falling. Oh, no.

"He's not slowing down." I heard Thor say from the other line, and I panicked once again, letting go of the scepter and running the edge of the building to watch as he fell to the Earth. I was stuck in a horrified silence, and for once in my life, I could say nothing, just pray.

Right we I thought it was the end for him, the Hulk leapt into the sky and grabbed Tony's limp form, bringing him safely to the ground.

After that I couldn't see anymore, because of the buildings in the way, and so I listened to the other's words, trying to piece together what was going on.

"Come on, Tony!" Steve said.

"Stark..." Natasha whispered.

From what I was gathering, the situation did not seem good. I clutched at my side more fiercely now, trying to breathe in slowly and evenly.

"Tony!" I whispered, not believing that someone like him could really die. This was Tony, this was my Tony. He couldn't be dead.

And then, from all the way over at the Tower, I heard the Hulk let out a mighty roar.

"Ah, ah!" I heard Tony gasp over the line, and I immediately fell to my knees, tears of both joy and pain pouring out of my light blue eyes.

"What the hell?" Tony asked, and I laughed softly, wincing at the sharp pain in my side. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

"Damn it, Tony, I'd kiss you right now if I was there!" I said, smiling. Tony let out a short chortle.

"Well, let's be glad you're not here, then," He quipped, and I couldn't help but grin like an idiot. Ladies and gentleman, Tony was back!

"We won." Steve said.

"All right, hey! Alright, good job guys. Let's not come in tomorrow, let's just take a day. You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it," Tony rambled on.

"We're not finished yet." Thor cut in and reminded us all of what came next.

Loki.

"And then shawarma after."

I nearly laughed, but stopped myself, knowing that it would only cause me more pain. I made sure Dr. Selvig was okay, and then made my ways down the stairs. I took them one at a time, gently, trying not to fall down with each step. I winced and grunted unattractively, but after a long while I made my way down the three flights of stairs to where Loki was, only to find all six of the other Avengers staring him down.

Clint was right in front of Loki, his bow drawn and pointed right in Loki's face. Loki shook his head softly.

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

Clint dropped his bow to the floor, pulled his arm back, then socked Loki straight in the face, much like I had done two times before.

"That was for my sister, you bastard." Clint spat at him and stood, wiping his hand on his pants. I laughed, which soon turned into a cough, and only then did my brother notice me standing off to the side. He froze, and turned pale.

"Sammie?" He asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. The rest of the Avengers turned to face me, and I heard Tony mutter a vulgar curse under his breath.

"Samantha?" Loki asked, his voice sounding startled.

Since everyone seemed so interested in what I looked like, I looked around, trying to find something to look at my appearance. I caught sight of something in a nearby window, and raised my eyebrows.

My hair was standing up everywhere, and my clothes were soaked in blood. My whole side was covered in blood, and it ran all the way down to my ankle. My ashen skin was so white you could hold a paper up to me and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, and I looked like I was the living dead.

Oh.

My knees gave out right then, but Clint was there to catch me. My eyelids threatened to slip shut, but I tried to keep them open. Clint moved me so that my head was lying in his lap, and I nearly nodded off because it was so comfortable.

"Come on, stay with us, sunshine!" I looked to my left to see Tony there, kneeling beside me. Everything was going numb, and I could no longer feel the pain, just the numbness. I didn't know which was worst. Loki had somehow crawled over to me and was keeping his distance, but was obviously distressed.

Looking around, I realized that everyone I loved was with me, or holding me. Tony was stroking my hair, and Clint was speaking frantically to me, his face looking young and afraid. Natasha and Steve stood together behind Tony, staring in disbelief, and the Hulk stood silently alongside Thor. Loki just stared at me, his eyes playing through all the emotions he dared not let his face show.

It was a beautiful last sight, his gorgeous green eyes. I stared back at them, getting lost into the depths of those endless pools of light green.

I smiled once more, before my world was consumed by the blackness, and I could see no more.

A/N: Ladies and Gentleman, we are almost done with the movie part of the plot! And yes, I will continue after the movie with a plot of my own, but I need a little bit of help. I am completely and utterly stuck on what Loki's punishment should be. If you guys have any ideas, they would be much appreciated! Oh, and let me know if you guys would read a sequel! If I write one, that is!

-Sara