"Wow, I've missed this view."

I stared out at the skyline of the city as I pulled my hood up and shivered. Turns out sitting on a roof for thirty minutes in New York in early March is a little cold.

"Focus, Cara," Scott's voice snipped in my ear, "we don't have much time."

"I know," I replied quickly. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Okay, when we cut the power, you'll have exactly five minutes to get into the building. At that time I'll turn it back on, and it'll look like there was just a quick power flicker," he started explaining. "Then I'll cut the phone lines, block cameras, jumble radio waves, basically destroy everything but the lights for twenty minutes. That gives you twenty minutes where nobody will be able to call for backup unless they use the good old fashioned screaming method. Got it?"

I swallowed and stared up at Stark Tower. It was so close and yet so far.

"Yes sir."

He sighed. "Great. Now just get in and out of there like I know you can and get your ass back here before the others realize where you are."

"How's Wanda holding up?" I asked uneasily.

Scott chuckled softly. "Well she hasn't had to lie yet, but let's just say she's got a pretty good story mapped out."

I smiled to myself. Wanda and Scott had instantly agreed to help me the day before, and soon after I'd assigned them roles. Scott, with his engineering background, was to help me from the house, using a total of seven computers, to get into the building. Wanda's job was to keep everyone off my back. I didn't tell her what to say if they asked where I was; I was confident she'd be able to think of something.

"Five minute warning," Scott interrupted my thoughts. "According to the cameras, he's in his office. Black Widow is a few floors down, as is floaty guy that Wanda has a thing for. Spider Justin Bieber is nowhere in sight. Rhodes is outside the office, his suit is way upstairs. I'll let you know if things change."

"Sounds good," I said, beginning to ready myself.

I pulled my backpack around my body and opened it, quickly removing the things I needed.

First up was a black stand that looked like a cross between a tripod and a stand for a sniper. I set it down on the ledge of the building, then placed a small rectangular box on top of it. As I zipped my bag back up and put it on, I leaned down and pressed a button on the box. A small scope popped up. I leaned down and looked into it, then adjusted the stand until it was pointed at the exact window of Stark Tower that I wanted.

"Is the eagle ready to fly?"

"Scott, I told you I wasn't going to respond to that."

"And yet you are!"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm ready."

"Alright, lights out in three...two...one."

Every light in Stark Tower was suddenly extinguished and I sprung into action. I pressed the other button on the box and a wire shot out of the end, right to the window I'd aimed at. It attached to the ledge above the window and I hit the wire softly with my hand to make sure that it was secure before slipping Fortis out of my sleeve and into my hand.

I leaned down over the edge of the building and stretched it out over the wire, putting a hand on each end.

"Alright, here goes nothing," I muttered, followed by a deep breath.

I jumped, plunging off the edge and into the city that was beginning to be illuminated by the rising sun. As I neared Stark Tower, holding on for dear life, I pressed the button on Fortis that I had installed before leaving the house. When I pushed it, Fortis attached itself to the wire. Suddenly, I was hanging ninety stories above the busy streets of Manhattan.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and gathered my thoughts before pressing another button that I had added. This one triggered a harness to fall from the box anchoring the wire to the building. It hung from a rope a few feet in front of me and I groaned loudly.

"What? What's wrong?" Scott asked in an extremely panicked tone. "Holy shit, Cara, DID YOU FALL?!"

"No," I grunted. "I stopped farther from the harness than I meant to. I'm gonna have to get creative."

"Oh god, don't fall, please, please DO NOT FALL!"

"No, really, Scott?!" I snapped. "I thought that would be a fan-fucking-tastic idea! I thought that would make a fun morning!"

"Whatever, just be careful," Scott muttered. "You've got just under three minutes."

I swore under my breath and started thinking of how the hell I was going to do this. Suddenly, an idea struck me. It was ballsy, it was bold, it was stupid. But, it was my only shot.

"Fuck it."

With a deep breath, I tightened my grip on Fortis and began swinging myself back and forth. I was close enough within a few seconds, my feet almost grazing the harness. As I swung forward, I let go of Fortis and launched myself at the harness, grabbing onto the rope that it hung from. Scared shitless, I scrambled into the harness, buckling it around my legs and waist quickly.

"Okay, I'm in the harness," I told Scott, my heart pounding.

"Oh thank god."

I reached into the side pocket of my backpack and took out a foldable glass cutter. After unfolding it into its large, circling shape, I pressed it up against the window and grabbed the lever attached to it. As I pulled it down, I heard the glass being sliced. When I heard the pop of the suction cup, I pulled it outward. My way of entry was open.

I reached behind me and disconnected Fortis from the wire before grabbing onto the window and clambering through the hole. Once inside, I took the glass out of the cutter and tossed it onto the ground, then folded the cutter up and shoved it into my bag. I unclipped myself from the harness and left it hanging outside the building.

"I'm in," I whispered, looking around the empty conference room I stood in. "I know exactly where I am."

"You've got this, Cara," Scott encouraged me. "Go tell that bastard what you think."

I smirked and walked over to the door, silently opening it and looking down the hall. It was completely empty, much to my relief, and I quickly walked down the pitch black corridor. Tony's office was just up and around the corner; I could be there in fifteen seconds.

"Will someone please do something about the fucking power!"

I ducked into a maintenance closet at the sound of Natasha's voice, instantly shutting the door behind me. A group of people passed by, their footsteps thundering through the halls. I crouched down and watched them through the slits at the bottom of the door. My heart stopped as the group stopped walking right outside the door.

"We're supposed to have the brightest minds in the world in this building," she snapped. "How come nobody can fix a goddamn power outage?!"

"Mister Stark said he's on it," a higher, male voice spoke up. "Or, uh, he has a guy on it."

So Scott was wrong about Nat and Peter being on different floors. Great.

"Whatever. He just needs to get it fixed," she muttered. "I'd rather not be out of power at four o'clock in the morning when we're supposed to be meeting with Secretary Reid in three hours to get him a game plan and we don't have one!"

They finally moved, walking down the hall. Eventually, I couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, and stopped holding my breath. 

"Power comes back in five seconds," Scott spoke up suddenly. "Cameras and shit go down in seven."

I yanked my backpack off and grabbed anything I couldn't afford to lose. My ICER was shoved into the back of my pants, Fortis stayed tucked into my sleeve, and the emergency burner cell went in my jacket pocket. I took a deep breath as everything I was about to do set in, then opened the door and started down the hall, leaving the backpack behind. Moments later I could see his office door, the frosted glass with his name emblazoned on it mocking me.

It was then that I realized that I was angry. Really, really angry. And I have a bad habit of saying lots of things I regret when I'm very angry. But that didn't stop me. I didn't stop and think 'hmm, maybe going after your brother who wants you arrested just so you can scream at him ISN'T a good idea.' But I didn't turn around.

What I did do was think of Bucky.

I thought of yesterday, and how I lied more to him in that one day than I had in our entire relationship. When he asked why I was working so hard on adding new things to Fortis, I told him it had shorted out when Scott broke me out of the Avengers facility. When he asked me why I kept whispering things to Wanda, I told him that she hadn't understood a word someone used and I had to explain it to her.

I thought of how we'd spent the majority of the night together like we used to, completely absorbed in each other like a couple of teenagers. I thought about how he'd jokingly asked me if we were ever going to get past foreplay again. I thought about how fantastic it felt to be with him, to be loved by him, to know that he loved me.

I thought about how I'd wriggled out from under him at two AM after not being able to sleep because my guilt ridden conscious refused to shut up. I thought of that pang of regret I felt looking over at him as I dressed in silence.

But I didn't even want to think of how angry he would be when I got back to the house. I promised Bucky I wouldn't do anything stupid. I couldn't even think of how many times I'd broken that promise since I snuck out of the house a few hours ago.

Suddenly, I realized I was standing right outside Tony's office with my hand on the doorknob. I exhaled slowly and prepared to enter, but stopped at the sound of footsteps behind me.

"Hey, can I help you?! You're not supposed to be up here!"

I turned slightly, and Rhodes stopped in his tracks upon seeing my face.

"Holy shit," he breathed, his hand slowly reaching his ear. He pressed down on his earpiece and struggled to get the words out. "I need backup, now. We've got an intruder.... Hello? Parker? Natasha? Anybody? Shit." He looked back up at me. "Cara, you know you shouldn't be here. You know I have to arrest you."

I nodded slowly, one hand discretely wrapping around my ICER. "I'm sorry, Rhodes," I said quietly. "I'm not being arrested."

With that I pulled out the ICER and pointed it at him. He looked terrified as I aimed at his face, but at the last second pointed it downwards and shot him in the foot. Rhodes immediately fell down as if he had fainted, and was out cold.

Before anyone else could run up behind me and waste my time, I tucked my ICER back into my waistband, turned around and pushed the office door open, slamming it shut behind me.

Tony sat at his desk, a glass of scotch in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Around him, more than fifteen different news channels were projected in the air, all of them muted. When the door slammed, he barely flinched, just took a long drag on his cigarette and glanced up at me.

He looked like total shit.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to stop by," he said after a few moments of silence. "Kudos to you, though, you're here earlier than I expected."

"What the hell is the matter with you?" I hissed, my hands clenching into fists.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to."

I folded my arms over my chest, seething with anger. "Peter is a child, Tony. He's seventeen fucking years old!"

"He isn't doing anything he doesn't want to," he rebuked. "He wants to be here. He wants to help, and to be on the right side of the law. Unlike some people..."

"You're his idol! What do you expect him to do when his idol approaches him and asks him to join his team of superhero do-gooders?!" I cried, rushing even closer to his desk. I was now right in front of it with only a foot or two between my brother and I.

"I've given him a chance to save himself, to make something of himself!"

"No, you ruined his life!" I yelled, slamming my hand onto the desk. "You manipulated him into exposing his identity to the entire world and now he'll never have a shot at a normal life!"

"He doesn't need a normal life he has this life now!"

"You don't get it, do you? He's never going to be able to go to college, he's never going to be able to do anything but this! You, Steve, and I agreed that we wanted Peter to live like a normal teenager that's why we didn't bring him in two years ago-"

"It doesn't matter what I agree to with you and Steve," he snapped, taking another drag and blowing the smoke towards me. "You forced my hand, Cara!"

"By doing what?"

Tony made an obnoxious laughing noise and put his hand on one of the projected screens. He expanded it and hit it so that the screen spun around and faced me. As I had anticipated, it was news coverage of the attack on the United Nations. The footage of fake Bucky planting the bomb in the truck came up, and Tony quickly paused it.

"Yeah, the whole blocking our communications was smart, but I can still get the news. Your sweet little boyfriend, I mean assuming your still sleeping with him, committed an act of terrorism. He killed people; he killed a king," Tony said sharply. "And now I have to deal with the shitstorm this has created. So yeah, I called in reinforcements."

"That's not Bucky."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Cara, you're right! He's on video and everything but he definitely didn't do it! Let's all get together, hold hands, and sing kumbaya because all of our problems are now solved!" He spat sarcastically, driving his cigarette into the ashtray angrily."

"It wasn't him," I repeated quietly. "I know it wasn't him."

"You're blinded by infatuation, Cara, you have been since day one." His voice rose angrily for the first time since our conversation had started.

"He doesn't kill people!" I screamed.

"Except our parents, right?!" He was all out yelling now. "His only exception was his girlfriend's parents?!"

"Bucky didn't kill Mom and Dad, Hydra did," I said through gritted teeth.

"Shut up!" Tony shouted. "Goddammit, shut up! He murdered them!"

He paused and took a sip of his drink, his hand shaking slightly. I stared at him as he swallowed and looked back up at me.

"What he did to me was unforgivable."

"He didn't do anything to you! Noth everything is about you, Tony! Ever since you were young you've always had this ludicrous persecution complex attitude and it's absurd! You created this!"

"What you did is unforgivable!" He bellowed, ignoring my comments.

"You're drunk," I muttered.

"Yeah, well you're a bitch who couldn't keep it in her pants for a murderer."

"Jesus Christ, where is Pepper," I huffed,  "and why hasn't she talked any sense into you?!"

His face hardened suddenly. He finished his scotch with a final gulp and put the empty glass down on his desk angrily.

"She's not living here anymore. She's spending some time with her parents."

I stared at him in disbelief. "She broke up with you."

"She didn't think this was a good environment for her to live in while she's in her current state."

"She broke up with you!" I repeated, my voice raising. "Oh my god, even when your pregnant girlfriend breaks up with you you don't realize how crazy you're acting!"

"You don't know what you're talking about," he growled.

Tony picked up his glass and made his way towards his fully stocked bar cart. He started to pick up the bottle of scotch and I scoffed loudly.

"Okay, I think that's enough," I said, walking over and starting to take the bottle away from him.

"Cara, give that back!"

"No!"

He grabbed onto the bottle as I yanked it backwards, and before I could move my head out of the way, it slammed into my nose.

"Fuck!" I screamed, dropping the bottle and doubling over slightly.

Tony lifted the bottle to his mouth and took a swig, watching me emotionlessly. I slowly stood back up, knowing my nose that had been broken by Reid days ago had just been made a hell of a lot worse. I ignored the blood beginning to trickle down it and started to slide Fortis out of my sleeve.

"Get out," he muttered.

"It didn't need to happen like this."

"Get. Out."

"It's not too late."

"I said get the fuck out, Cara."

"You can call off the act, you can send Reid home, you can announce that you know whoever planted that bomb framed Bucky, and we can work together to find whoever did it. Tony it's-"

He cut me off by smacking me across the face. I stumbled backwards, completely shocked over the fact that my brother had just hit me.

"Natasha!" He roared suddenly, his voice louder than I'd ever heard it. "Rhodes! We've got a code red! Lock down the building!"

I started to back away, snapped back to reality,, Fortis now completely in hand. "Yeah, Rhodes won't be answering that."

"What did you do?!"

"He's fine," I called as I turned and bolted out the door. "He'll wake up in about an hour."

As I entered the hallway, a loud buzzer began to sound. The overhead lights turned off, and red lights from the floor flooded the hall.

"Well that's a little dramatic," I said under my breath. "Scott, I could really use your help right now."

"Run!" He responded. "Natasha is coming and she's got some friends."

"Shoot."

I could hear footsteps and yelling getting closer by the second, and my heart started pounding even faster. I started running down the hallway back towards the service staircase, not really having a clear plan in mind.

"Help me out here, Scott!"

"Okay, okay, I'm trying to get a look at the cameras and floorplans but they know I'm here and have someone working to lock me out," he said quickly. "Our original plan isn't going to work, I've dispatched a second. Get to the roof."

"Roof," I repeated, "got it."

I started running even faster upon hearing the footsteps growing closer, eventually reaching the entry staircase. My hand was on the knob instantly as I began to turn it, but the door refused to budge. I slammed my hand against the glass of the window in pure frustration and turned around.

I knew exactly where I was; I'd lived in this tower my entire life, after all. I started thinking of ways I could get from this floor to the roof, and the only way I could think of was the locked staircase.

"Alright, I need a plan C, roof isn't gonna happen."

Scott groaned. "I told you we needed a more thought out escape plan. Plan A was throwing a drink in Tony's face and walking out of the building onto the street like nothing had happened! I could've told you that wouldn't work!"

"Just shut up and tell me where to go."

"Freeze!"

A group of agents suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway, all running towards me. Without a moments hesitation, I turned and began sprinting away from them. After a few moments, I realized I was running towards a dead end.

"Scott! I'm in big trouble!"

"Hold on, I've got the cameras back."

"Cara, stop!"

I looked back briefly and saw Natasha had joined the pack. She looked pissed.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit."

I'd reached the dead end. I stopped running as I came face to face with the window that ended the hallway, really not wanting to turn around and face Natasha and the goons behind her.

"I see you!" Scott cried suddenly and I winced. "Give me a few seconds, I'm coming up with a plan."

"I don't have a few seconds!" I breathed.

"Give yourself a few seconds!"

"Turn around and put your hands in the air."

I exhaled loudly and turned around slowly, keeping my hands exactly where they were— at my sides.

Natasha had her gun pointed at me, and for the first time I was afraid that she might actually shoot me. I smiled slightly at her, which only made her angrier.

"Nat, we've really gotta stop meeting like this."

"Maybe you should stop running," she responded quickly.

"Well that's no fun."

Natasha sighed and lowered her gun slightly. "You want to do this the hard way again, don't you?"

I shrugged. "I guess so."

She paused and tucked her gun into the holster on her leg. "So be it."

The moment the words left her mouth, the five agents behind her came at me. I deflected the first several punches easily, focused solely on defending myself. But after a few minutes, I started to lose my momentum. The men landed several punches in my face and gut, and I struggled to stay standing.

"Cara, I have an idea, but you're not gonna like it."

I twisted the arm of one of the guys grabbing me and pushed him away with a loud grunt before responding to Scott. "Well I don't exactly have any options so feel free to share!"

"In approximately two minutes I need you to jump out the window."

"What?"

I smashed my knee into an agent's crotch before grabbing him by the collar and tossing him into another. They both fell to the ground, totally knocked out, leaving me with two more.

"You've gotta trust me," Scott begged. "You'll be okay!"

"I really hate you," I muttered.

A foot flew at me suddenly, striking me right in the jaw. Before said foot could retract, I grabbed him and twisted as hard as I could. The agent screamed in agony as I felt his ankle snap. The last agent advanced towards me hesitantly, and with one simple punch to the nose, I'd knocked him out.

I turned back to offer Natasha one of my oh-so-witty remarks, but she was gone.

"Oh no," I whispered. "Oh fu-"

Then, Natasha did to me what I'd seen her do to countless other poor motherfuckers over the years. She popped out of nowhere and tackled me, pinning my leg at an angle that was nowhere close to natural. I cried out in pain as she pushed all of her weight down on my leg. I knew what she was trying to do, of course; she wanted to dislocate my hip. It's an easier fix than a broken bone if a professional such as Nat does it. All you have to do is pop it back in. It's the perfect way to render someone unable to fight. But, naturally, it hurts like a bitch.

Luckily for me, not only had I been watching Natasha attack other people for years, I myself had been a victim of several attacks.

Well, sparring, but still, I knew how to counter some of her best moves.

With another scream of pain, I allowed my leg to give with her weight just enough to make her think she'd gotten me. As she eased off slightly at my compliance, I kicked my leg forward all of a sudden, completely knocking her off balance. She stumbled backwards and I struggled to stand, my hip feeling like someone was stabbing it over and over.

"Cara, whenever you're ready, jump out the window." Scott was back. "Just make it fast."

I turned and started running for the window, Fortis extended in my hand. As I drew my arm back to smash the glass, I heard a gun click, and quickly dropped to the ground. I shrieked at the new, searing pain in my left arm and turned over slowly.

"Where are you going, Cara?"

Tony stood next to Natasha, her gun in his hand. I gritted my teeth and stood up, Fortis still extended in my right hand.

"You told me to get the fuck out."

"I didn't mean kill yourself."

I glanced out the window and at the street below it. Why the hell Scott wanted me to jump out there was beyond me, but I wasn't in any position to be picky about escape plans.

"Well that would be better than going back to that basement dungeon and being Reid's punching bag."

Tony flinched slightly at my words, but quickly returned to seriousness. "Come on, don't be stupid."

"You know someone else already told me that today," I sighed. "I promised I wouldn't be, but I've broken that promise. Why not break it a little more?"

I lifted my hand backwards and hit Fortis against the window, immediately shattering the entire thing. Before I could talk myself into doing otherwise, I leaned backwards and let myself drop out the window. Suddenly, I was falling through the air, ninety  stories up. I struggled to breathe as the wind rushed into my face, and I struggled even more to try and ask Scott why the hell he'd made me jump out a window.

Just as I lost all hope, closed my eyes, and felt like I was about to black out, I hit a hard surface. I opened my eyes and looked around in confusion. I hadn't fallen that far; not nearly as far as it had seemed. Then I looked down. I screamed.

I laid on top of nothing.