Mary woke up to her ears ringing and her head splitting, she knew that she had a small concussion, but that didn't matter, someone had attacked the helicarrier.

She opened her eyes to seeing guns going off in one direction, wiping the blood from her forehead, she looks over and sees agents with sickly blue eyes and Agent Barton. She managed to get up without drawing any unwanted attention, she noticed Coulson with a heavy weapon and followed after him.

"Coulson what's going on?" She asks him as she follows closely behind.

"Loki's mind controlled people are here to get him out, we need to stop him." Coulson replies, heading down to the room Loki was being kept in.

When they reach it, they both see Thor in the cage and Loki outside of it.

"Humans think us immortal. Should we test that?" Loki asks his brother, but Mary knocks the agent guarding the god unconscious.

"Move away, please." Coulson says, he hands Mary a gun as he lifts up the huge weapon in his arms, aimed at Loki.

The god slowly backs away from the panel and Coulson walks forward slowly, "You like this?" He asks, gesturing to the weapon he's holding, "Started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even i don't know what it does."

Mary cautiously walks behind Coulson, her gun aimed at Loki.

Coulson turns on the weapon, "Wanna find out?" He asks, but then Mary screams in pain as her and Coulson are both stabbed, Coulson close to his heart, and Mary in her stomach.

Thor screams in agony as he watches two of his friends collapse onto the floor. Coulson and Mary both gasp for air as they look at Loki, the illusion in front of them disappearing.

Both of them are trying to get their breathing steady, Mary knows Coulson doesn't have much time left, and neither does she as her wound starts to bleed out, she can barely move as it is.

She watches as Loki opens the air shaft, sending Thor down it. She then looks to Coulson again, his eyes are open but they're fogged over, he's slowly losing conscious. And so is Mary.

"You're gonna lose." Coulson says with what little strength he has left. Loki turns to look at them.

"Am i?" The god asks.

"It's in your nature." Mary adds, blood dripping down her mouth.

"Your heroes are scattered. Your floating fortress falls from the sky, where is my disadvantage?" Loki asks, walking closer to them.

"You lack conviction." Coulson replies.

"I don't think i-" Loki is cut off by Mary and Coulson pull the trigger on the weapon, sending the god flying through the wall.

"Huh.. so that's what it does.." the two of them say at the same time. Mary watches as Coulson loses slight consciousness.

"Coulson.." she forces out, then sees Fury rush to them.

"Sorry boss, he got away." Coulson murmurs, Fury shakes his head. Looking at both of them.

"Stay awake. Eyes on me." He tells them both, Mary chuckles, she had trained Fury for a moment like this, to keep the patient active even a little.

"No. I'm clocked out here." Coulson murmurs. Mary starting muttering aloud to keep herself alive, keep her brain functioning.

Fury calls in the medics that Mary personally trained as he sees her, he debates telling Stark and Rogers. "Not an option." He tells his agent.

"It's okay, boss. This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to..." Coulson trails off, succumbing to his fate.

Mary's eyes let tears fall, "Nick.." She murmurs, grabbing his attention. "Let them know." She states.

Fury nods, grabbing his walkie as the medics rush in, starting to attend to their superior. Fury stands up, knowing Mary will be in good hands.

"Agent Coulson is down. Doctor Bryne has also been gravely injured." He states into the walkie.

In the engine room, Tony and Steve stand still, looking at each other, nodding in understanding with one another. The only constant in their lives was close to the brink of death when no one thought it was possible. Mary was suppose to out live everyone she knew. Not the other way around.

The same day, Steve and Tony are both in the medic ward waiting for Mary to wake up when Nick walks in.

They both wont take their eyes off of her, her breathing is stable, but the attending doctor had to place her in a medically induced coma. She might be asleep, but she could still hear everything that was being said.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket, guess he never did get you to sign them." Fury says, setting them on the table hovering over Mary's unconscious body. "Mary hoped to see the two of you work together. Not fight like children." He adds.

Neither one of them can say anything, but Steve looks up at the cards, picking one up.

"We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." Fury tells the two men solemnly.

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, Mary helped create it, called The Avengers Initiative." He pauses, looking at his boss slowly breathe in and out with the help of air tubes.

"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." He finishes.

Tony can't take it anymore, he stands up and walks out of the room. Leaving only Steve to watch over his sister.

Fury bows his head to Mary in respect, "I should've told her the whole truth." He murmurs, "I'll regret not telling her for the rest of my life." He states.

Steve looks up, "She'll forgive you." He murmurs back, "She's never been one to hold grudges." He adds, "She has too pure of a soul to do that."

Fury chuckles, nodding, "She wanted you to help Stark in finding Becca." He mutters, "It was a project of Stark's to find her, looking in every orphanage across America, and some across the boarders and waters."

Steve nods slowly, "But she put that on hold to help me adjust to the new age."

Fury nods, "Stark still plans on finding Becca for his godmother. He'll never rest until they know what happened to her. No one who knows the story will."

Steve nods, "When this is all over.. We're finding her." He swears to his unconscious sister, standing up and kissing her forehead.

The two men walk out of the medic room she's in, Steve walks into the room Coulson died and his sister nearly lost her life, finding Tony.

"She gonna be alright?" Tony asks quietly, but Steve hears him, he nods.

"She will be. She trained everyone here. I'd expect they'd know what they're doing." Steve cracks a joke, chuckling, causing Tony to smile briefly.

"Yeah.." Tony trails off, then thinks about Coulson.

"Was he married?" Steve asks.

"No. There was.. a cellist i think." Tony states.

"I'm sorry, he seemed like a good man." Steve murmurs.

"He was an idiot.. they both were." Tony snaps under his breath, drawing Steve's attention.

"Why?" Steve questions.

"For taking on Loki alone." Tony answers.

"Coulson was doing his job, and Mary's always wanted to feel useful, you should know that."

"Then he should have waited and she should've been treating peoples wounds!" Tony shouts the last part, guilt eating away at him for not being there to save them, especially his Mama Ree.

Steve sighs, knowing Tony is grieving, "Sometimes there isn't away out, Tony."

Tony starts to walk away from him, "Right. And how did that work out for them?"

"Is this the first time you've lost a solider?"

"We are not soldiers!" Tony nearly screams, turning around to face Steve, "I'm not marching for Fury's life!"

"Neither am I!" Steve shouts back, "He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list..." Steve trails off.

Tony looks at the wall stained with Coulson's and Mary's blood, "He made it personal." He grits out.

Steve looks to where Tony is, "That's not the point."

"That is the point. That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony quips.

"To tear us apart."

Tony nods, putting the pieces together in his mind, "He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard."

"Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered..." Tony trails off, his eyes widening, muttering a curse word as he exits the room with Steve in toe.