STARK TOWER. MAY 2012.

As she waits for her sparkly pink nails to dry, Nyota Lahiri watches the half-melted bowl of cotton candy ice cream swirl into a purple galaxy. An episode of Star Trek: The Original Series plays in the background, Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew keeping her company.

Incoming call from Mr. Stark, Jarvis' robotic voice informs. Shall I let him through?

"Sure thing, J. Thanks."

Nyota vaguely sees Tony Stark's holographic face appear in front of her, her attention still hyper-focused on painting her left hand.

"Uh, hey kid! Real quick, here's the thing -"

"Can you pick up dinner on your way home?" Nyota interrupts, silently cursing when she smudges some of the nail polish. "I've been wanting to try this shawarma place."

"Yeah, we'll get shawarma, but first -"

"Also, I finished the PopTarts, so if you could get some of those, that'd be great, too."

"Kid, I need you to listen right now!"

"Do you want to watch a movie tonight? Technically it's your turn to choose the movie, but maybe we can negotiate that."

"Ny! Listen to me!"

Nyota finally looks up. She then realizes that Tony's face is painted with worry, his eyebrows furrowed and face slightly flushed, and immediately stops what she's doing.

"You need to go down to the lab right away and stay there until I call you again."

"What?" She listens to him nonetheless - it's not often that Tony Stark is frightened - gathering her things and letting the hologram follow her as she moves through the building. "Tony, what's going on?"

Tony sighs. His eyes move frantically across the heads up display of his suit. "How do I explain this...." Tony pauses. "A demi-god is using Stark Tower as a beacon for an intergalactic army. We - the Avengers - are coming to protect the city, but I need you to get to safety right now."

"Sorry, what?" Nyota reaches the lab and sits in an empty space on one of the cluttered workbenches.

Tony doesn't bother repeating himself. "Jarvis?"

Yes, Mr.Stark?

"Secure the lab."

Yes, sir.

"I gotta go, kid. Stay safe."

"Tony, wait! I can help!"

"You're a kid."

"A kid who can shoot cosmic energy from her hands! I can help!"

"No way," Tony snaps. His expression when his eyes meet Nyota's. He seems scared, an emotion Nyota rarely sees Tony have, if ever. "Stay in the lab."

"But-"

"End of discussion!" And with that, Tony hangs up the phone.

Nyota paces back and forth, the ice cream from before long forgotten and fully melted into a purple soup.

That couldn't be the end of discussion. If she has learned anything from her mother, it's that the energy inside her was meant for good, not for evil, and certainly not for nothing. And, Nyota decides, if it was meant for anything, it was to protect her city from aliens.

"Jarvis. Pull up the specs for Jimmy Neutron's New Suit."

The A.I. responds and Nyota thanks him before looking at the various blueprints she and Tony had been working on. It was a few years ago that Tony made the bracelet she always wore, the one that helps control her powers. Nyota had begged and begged, but eventually Tony agreed to help build a full suit: one with its own A.I. and powered by Nyota's own powers rather than an arc reactor.

Pressing a button on her bracelet, Nyota moves seamlessly around the lab. Her suit - a much slimmer profile than the Iron Man suit but just as sturdy - appears from behind automated steel doors, its bright purple hue sparkling in the light.

Miss Lahiri, I must remind you that this is only the first model. Not to mention, Mr. Stark ordered you to stay here.

She pulls her hair up into a ponytail before stripping down to just her sports bra and shorts. "Yeah, well, this suit isn't doing any good just waiting here." Nyota reaches for the suit. "And neither am I."

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

AVENGERS TOWER. OCTOBER 2015.

The view from the Tower was always amazing, but it was low on the list of things Nyota would miss.

From the roof, she watches the city below, full of life and people going about their day: someone walking their dog, a couple sharing lattes, a group of friends running to catch the next showing at the local theater. It offers Nyota a welcomed distraction, after spending all day packing - or, trying to pack. She'd been procrastinating for the better part of the day: going for a run, baking some cookies, painting her nails (right hand, only, because she didn't have the patience to do the left). Eventually, she decided to suit up, fly around for a bit and clear her head.

Supernova mark III was lighter, more form fitting and with a slimmer profile than the models that came before, but just as durable. The retro-reflective panels used to add more weight, but she and Tony had been able to work around that. He and the rest of the team wanted Nyota's identity to be an absolute secret to everyone else, so the ability to turn invisible was welcomed. Nyota didn't use the ability often, though, preferring to let the metallic magenta shine and use her mask to hide her identity. Over the years, Supernova became known as the mysterious cosmic Avenger, the one who shot star light from her palms and who glittered like the constellations in the sky.

Incoming call from Captain Rogers, the A.I. in Nyota's suit notifies her.

"Send to voicemail," Nyota replies. She isn't quite ready for this moment to end. If she stayed up here right now, she wouldn't have to face tomorrow's reality.

Are you sure? This is the third time he's called -

"I'm sure, Spock."

Alright.

Spock follows Nyota's order, and the sound of Steve Rogers' voice wondering where she is and if she's okay and what she wants for dinner replaces the playlist she had been listening to before.

Not even a minute later, another call cuts off Lorde contemplating adolescence.

Incoming call from Agent Jiang.

If he'd gotten Oliver to reach out, Steve must be pretty desperate. The ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent never quite grew fond of Nyota, even though he'd work closely with her parents. To be fair, that was well before Nyota's time, before her father was exposed as a HYDRA agent, and before her mother was killed.

"Decline."

Then, a few seconds later:

Incoming call from Agent Romanoff.

This is what happens when she turns off the tracker on her suit. "Answer," Nyota concedes.

And just like that, Natasha Romanoff's face replaces the sun setting over Manhattan. It looks like she's in the living room, with Steve in the kitchen behind her pretending not to be eavesdropping.

"Nat, tell Steve I'll be there soon."

"Yeah, yeah, that's not why I called. Which Bond was in Moonraker?"

"Uh, Roger Moore," Nyota responds. "Why?"

"I needed Clint to know that he should never question my knowledge of classic spy movies."

"Point made." Natasha shifts the camera to show Clint Barton rolling his eyes.

"You could have just looked it up?"

"She said this would be more satisfying!" Rhodey calls from somewhere Nyota couldn't see.

Nyota smiles. "Was it?"

"Yes. I've taught you well," Natasha grins. "Come home soon, okay?"

Nyota nods. With that, Nat ends the call and New York fades back into view.

Home. Normally, hearing so many people together at the Tower would warm her heart. She would have been right there with the team, too. Instead, though, Nyota only feels nostalgic for moments that haven't even passed.

Everyone was waiting for her downstairs.

Nyota jumps off the ledge of the Tower, propelling herself down a few floors. Nyota catches herself on her window ledge before slipping inside her room. She throws her mask on the floor somewhere and flops down on her bed, surrounded by glitter gel pens, bottles of nail polish, and glow-in-the-dark-stars Nyota still has to pack.

"I hope you don't make a habit of sending me to voicemail," Steve says. Nyota glances at him briefly. Steve doesn't enter her room, but instead leans on the doorframe, his arms crossed.

Nyota shrugs. It wasn't like things weren't changing. "I just needed some alone time. A break from all this," Nyota explains, gesturing to the clutter spread across her room.

Steve nods, his expression is soft and understanding. When his eyes catch Nyota's left hand - unpainted, unlike the right - he moves to sit next to her. He reaches across to grab the bottle of nail polish Nyota was using earlier before gently taking her left hand. Most people knew him as Captain America: The First Avenger. Nyota knew him as Steve Rogers: Expert Nail Painter.

"How are you feeling?"

"Good. Excited." Nyota responds. She convinces herself that it's true, but, by the way his eyebrows knit together, Steve isn't easily fooled.

A few moments of silence pass between them.

Suddenly, Tony pokes his head into the room. "Are we having a heart to heart? And you didn't invite me?" He walks in and sits on the edge of the bed, grabbing one of the stars. "Don't take these down! You know how much effort it took to glue them up?"

Tony had a point; it feels like just yesterday the two of them had randomly arranged the stars on her ceiling, making up constellations as they went. Thor had intervened at some point because he was a god from space and was obviously more of an expert in cosmic matters - his words. It took lots of Thor's stories about outer space and some convincing, but eventually Steve painted a cosmic-themed mural around the stars, Rainbow Bridge and all.

Her left hand freshly painted, Nyota takes her hand away from Steve and wiggles her fingers. "Thought I'd add some sparkle to my new room."

"This is still your room," Steve points out. "Nothing has to change."

At this, Nyota can't help but scoff. Of course something has to change. Everything is changing. "Bullshit."

"Language, Ny," Steve replies, though the warning is half-hearted at best.

"She has a point, Cap," Tony adds. He glances towards Steve, an eyebrow raised. "That is kind of bullshit."

"Tony! What happened to a united front in this?"

Tony shrugs. "The kid makes a compelling argument."

"She said one word!"

"A very fitting word," Nyota interjects. She shifts, hugging her knees to her chest like a small child. "I see the bright side in all this. I really do. I'm excited to start school and join the soccer team and meet new people. I'm going to kick ass in chem and physics thanks to you and Bruce," Nyota points out with a smile. "But...."

There would be no Supernova without The Avengers; Nyota isn't sure there would be much Nyota without Supernova, either.

"I'm still an Avenger, right?" Nyota hates how small her voice sounded, how scared and uncertain.

Steve and Tony share a look - one that comes with years of friendship and trust and mutual understanding from so many sleepless nights.

"Ny, we put an end to HYDRA. We stopped Ultron. We couldn't have done it without you."

"None of us want you off the team." Tony continues, as though he and Steve are one mind. Nyota never quite understood how they could be at odds with each other one second, and the next be on the same wavelength. "With that said, some sense of a normal life, outside the whole superhero thing, would be good. You are just a kid."

"Teenager," Nyota corrects. "A teenager who shoots cosmic energy from her hands." She could practically hear Tony roll her eyes since he's probably heard that one a million times. "I've never had a normal life. Why start now?"

Nothing more had to be said - the three of them all knew why this had to happen now.

"Waffles," Nyota decides after a few moments of silence. "Let's have waffles for dinner."

"I thought you weren't a kid," Tony teases.

"I don't think breakfast for dinner has an age limit."

Steve raises his eyebrow and smiles. "The kid makes a compelling argument."

Tony chuckles.

"Waffles it is."