54 | tomorrow's another day

Hope

Fear. Havoc. Vengeance. Pain.

Those were what coursed through the streets of Manhattan, New York. Like electricity surging through utility poles, rain puddles sliding down the creaks of the sidewalk, brackish water flowing down the Hudson River...magic enveloping the entirety of the city into one giant invisible dome acting as boundary spell.

Tony has a trail of aliens chasing his tail. Clint is on the rooftop of a building blowing stuff up with his explosive arrows. Thor is hanging on the top of the building with his hammer up in the sky to conjure up the most massive lightning I've ever seen. Natasha is up there insane enough to catch a ride on one of the flying scooters toward the tower. Hulk is taking on the huge beasts with nothing but his bare hands, and I have been running around the streets dismembering as many alien as I could, as fast as I could.

I've never seen such chaos in my entire life. From what I know, this is only the beginning. And if this is only the beginning, then how much more destructive will the endgame be?

After ripping the head off of the last alien at one particular street, my attention whipped towards one of the roaming gigantic beasts that continued to destroy both living and inanimate things. Thor and Hulk are too busy fighting the other one that this one was harming freely. I can't exactly have that. Especially when I have the craziest idea.

"Tony, I'm gonna need your help." I called for him through our comms.

"Anything for you, honey." Tony immediately replied.

It didn't take long for him to find me. He managed to get into a tight corner and caused all of the aliens that were trailing behind him to hit a wall and explode. Once he had flown down in front of me, he lifts up his mask and looks directly at me.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"I need you to get me a piece of that fish beast right there. Anything that belongs to it, a shell, fin, whatever." I told him as I pointed to the beast that wandered freely and unchallenged.

"Thor said it's a Leviathan, stop calling it a fish beast." Tony said. "And these are the Chitauri, not gray aliens from Scary Movie 3."

"It's close enough!" I debated.

He sighed deeply and shook his head before speaking again. "Fine, I'll do it. What are you gonna do?"

I swallowed hard before shrugging my shoulders innocently, or as innocent as I can make it look. But I can already see the suspicion in Tony's eyes. "Something a bit on the crazier side."

Then I glanced toward the fish beast. He followed my gaze and his wrinkled forehead smoothed out at the realization. I'm pretty sure he almost threw himself toward me to drag me out of there, not that it would work anyway.

"No. Nuh-uh. You're not taking on that thing. You're tiny. You're a tiny, stubborn, tribrid baby." Tony strongly refused, obviously. It was expected. But it's not what he's thinking anyways.

"I'm not taking it on. I'm...going to convince it to shift to our side." I said. I was as awkward as I sounded.

I watched as Tony arched his eyebrows at me in absurdity before he placed his hands on his hips. I would've laughed out loud because of how he looked right now being sassy with his Iron Man suit on, but I don't think now is the right time to be bursting out laughing. I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy.

"Y-You're gonna convince it to switch sides?"

"Yeah."

"Mhm. Yeah, okay. Is that before or after golfing?"

I immediately rolled my eyes at him. I should have known that this conversation would take longer than I expected because of his sarcastic remarks.

"I'm going to try and get inside its mind to control it." I elaborated.

"Can you even do that?" Tony argued, clearly as frustrated as I am. If only he would just let me do it instead of constantly arguing with me, then we would have already known if it worked right about now.

"That's why I'm going to try, aren't I?" I retorted.

"Can we have a little less lovers' quarreling and a little more saving the world?" I heard Natasha say through our comms. I forgot they were even listening.

"Hope, do whatever you have to do. Stark, go on assist after she controls the thing." Captain finally said.

I arched an eyebrow at Tony like I'm bragging how I won the argument.

"Fine." Tony only said before he went flying again.

I kept myself busy on the ground by taking on a couple of aliens that were marching my way. My head whipped to the side when I heard what sounded like a metal plate clang as it dropped to the ground. It was a small part of the Leviathan's armor shell.

"Thanks." I said.

"Put up a barrier around you. I'll deal with the rest." Tony told me.

I merely nodded in response before I sat on the ground and quickly muttered a barrier spell around me. Once the barrier was secured, I held on to the piece of the armor shell in my hands. My gaze looked up from the shell and to Tony who was doing his best to keep the Chitauri from even touching the barrier between us before I looked back down on the shell.

I'm praying to whatever gods are listening that this works.

"Animum ad mentem." I started chanting. I've heard things about Dahlia using a Kenning spell to have proxies do her bidding. I made one myself thinking that it would be very useful in the future. Turns out the future is now.

"Animum ad mentem." I repeated, my concentration building stronger as I tried to force every magic in my body into this one spell that equates to one huge Leviathan.

"Animum ad mentem." I chanted once more and a gasp left my own lips when I could suddenly see through a different angle. I wasn't anywhere near where I was sitting before. Being afloat in the air was a dead giveaway.

"It's working." I said through my own mouth to inform others who could hear me in the comms. "Holy shit, it's working."

"Chew those motherfuckers up." I heard Clint say through the comms and I couldn't help but laugh at his words before proceeding to control the beast's mind and do as he said.

With the use of the Leviathan, my body count has tripled in just a few minutes given that all I really have to do is bite a bunch of Chitauri. I can even bite multiple at once. It's a pretty convenient tool, and I'm enjoying it because I can do the biting without actually doing the biting.

Then suddenly, one fucking good news echoed in my ear.

"I can close it." Nat said. My ears perked up at her words. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Steve and I shouted through the comms at the same time. But one disagreed.

"No, wait." Tony said. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion before I released both myself and the Leviathan from the Kenning spell to fully get back to my own body. I can deal with that beast later after we shut down the portal.

"Stark, these things are still coming." Steve stated, and he was not lying. From the ground, I can see as clear as day the Chitauri pouring out of the portal like ants from an anthill. They just won't stop coming.

"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute." Tony said. "And I know exactly where to put it."

My heart suddenly felt like it dropped from my chest to my stomach.

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip." Cap said.

There it was again, my racing heartbeat. My caged heart just pounding in my chest like a wild wolf eager to escape.

"Tony, you get back here, right now!" I yelled at him through the comms.

"Didn't you hear me clearly when I said it's about to blow up?"

"I heard you. And I'm telling you to come back here and I'll deal with it!"

"There's not enough time."

"Anthony!" I shouted at him one more time before he appeared in my line of sight, his silhouette flying through the air with a missile on his back.

I feel like I'm going to pass out.

I sped my way through the streets, searching for Cap and the others to join them. Once they were within reach, I halted my tracks and crashed into Steve's arms. I felt weak with worry and anxiety. Steve pulled away from me and held me up with his hands on my arms.

"Hope, you need to get it together." He told me, whispered to me.

"We need to stop him. You said it yourself, that's a one-way trip!" I exclaimed.

"He's not going to stop!"

"He has to! What am I gonna tell Royal if something happens to him?! I can't tell him that his father and his godfather are both gone!" I shouted. It was not even an emotional shout. It was more of an angry one. No one has experienced loss as much as I am and I'm not about to just sit here and experience that all over again.

Steve opened his mouth to say something when all of our heads whipped toward the tower when it made an echoing sound, realizing that the chest part of Tony's suit made slight contact with the tower when he was turning the missile upward.

Now, it was really clear which direction he was headed.

Up.

When he disappeared through the portal, my body froze in its position. I didn't care if my neck was beginning to hurt while my head was craned upwards and staring at the portal. I didn't care as long as he came back. He has to come back...

What am I gonna go when he doesn't come back?

"Come on, Stark." I heard Nat muttered through the comms.

And I was thinking the same.

A couple more seconds went by after the explosion lit up the otherwise dull and dark outer space and Chitauri army went limp, but Tony was nowhere to be seen.

"Close it." Steve ordered.

I don't know what came over me. But the next thing I knew, my fist had collided with Steve's jaw and tears were running down my face.

"I'm sorry, Hope." He muttered. Steve looked at me. And I could see how sincere he was, how apologetic. And I knew it wasn't his fault. I also knew that he's just doing what needs to be done, which is what I was supposed to be doing, prioritizing the well-being of the civilians.

But how can I when the love of my life just dove right into the pit of space?

I'm assuming that Nat had already begun to close the portal as the hole punched through the sky was beginning to shrink, at the same time the chances of seeing Tony again was decreasing.

Come back to me. I repeated over and over again in my head. I can't deal with this again. I've lost him before. I can't bear to lose him again.

The portal had finally closed and when a silhouette of a man came falling down, slipping through the small crack of the portal before it completely closed, my heart felt like it was shocked by the defibrillator, like I was electrocuted to life again.

That's Tony. He came back. He made it.

"Son of a gun." Steve said.

A grateful and relieved smile stretched over my lips as I watched him fall, but it seemed like he was not doing anything to fly or even stick a landing. And I can feel everyone thinking the same.

"He's not slowing down." Thor said before he began spinning his hammer in his hand. The god of thunder was about to catch him, and I was counting on him until Hulk took it upon himself to grab Tony before they crashed onto the ground with the stubborn, stubborn man on top of him.

Even though my knees were a bit wobbly at the moment, I still managed to run towards them as fast as I could. When I reached them, Hulk had already placed Tony on the ground and Steve and I turned him around so he was on his back. Thor removed the mask on the suit's face by force before throwing it away.

There I saw Tony's unconscious face.

He was still alive. I know it. I could hear it. But barely. I could hear his pulse wearing so thin.

I immediately brought my wrist to my mouth and snipped a bit of my flesh off for blood to come out before placing it over Tony's lips, forcing him to drink.

"Come on, wake up." I whispered more to myself than to him.

When I removed my wrist, his lips were stained crimson with my own blood but he still wasn't moving. He still wasn't waking up. No. He can't get my hopes up like this then crash it back down. He's going to wake. I know it.

Then Hulk roared as loud as he could and Tony jerked awake with a gaspy scream.

I closed my eyes to finally calm myself before completely dropping myself to the ground, catching my breath as I felt like I haven't been breathing for the entire time that I was worrying about him.

"What the hell?" Tony's first words after waking up. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me. If it's Andrea, it's fine. But if—" He cut himself off when he tasted something from his lips. He licked my blood from his lips and he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "Is this blood? Did I drink someone's blood? Was I a zombie for a second there?"

A short, tired laugh escaped from my lips before I laid down on the ground, my eyes looking up at the finally clear sky before I smiled and closed my eyes.

"We won." Steve said, a hint of disbelief to be heard from his voice.

We won, music to my ears.

Tony sighed in relief. "All right, yay! Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day." he started rambling while still laid down on the ground as if he just didn't come out of the butthole of outer space. "Have you ever tried shawarma?"

Steve could not hold back the amused grin that stretched on his face at Tony's rambling.

"There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it." Tony added.

"We're not finished yet." Thor stated.

A deep sigh escaped my lips before I opened my eyes again and pulled myself to sit upright.

"And then shawarma after."

—

"What the hell happened to him?" I muttered to Steve.

Loki was on the floor inside the Stark Tower, the place was completely trashed and the floors had big craters in them as if something fell on it with such a strong force. Every movement Loki was making, I could feel my own bone aching. He looked awful. It's like every move he made was worsening his condition, which wouldn't really be such a bad thing.

When he finally faced us, Clint aimed his bow and arrow at him.

"If it's all the same to you..." Loki uttered as he continued to shift in his seat. "I'll have that drink now."

—

"Hey, Thor?" I called out to him when we were exiting the shawarma place after we had finished eating in complete silence, which wasn't awkward at all. We appreciate the silence. We felt like we were about to go deaf with the amount of destruction that happened in one day.

"Yes?" his deep voice answered. I'm still not used to that, sometimes I'm even assuming that it's fake even though I know it's not.

"I know you're not going to let me use the Tesseract. But can you do me another favor instead?" I asked.

The god of thunder narrowed his eyes at me in suspicion, studying my facial expressions and my body language and behavior before he finally shared with me his answer.

"What is it?" he asked.

—

"Do you really have to hold his hand?"

"I can touch his biceps."

"The hand is good. I'm good with the hand." Tony immediately answered before he moved away and let me concentrate. We were all back at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters and not just the Avengers but also my family. Because right now, we're about to wake Aunt Freya up.

My dad, Uncle Elijah, Uncle Kol, Uncle Finn, and Pepper are standing next to each other while Aunt Rebekah stood next to Tony while holding Royal. Fury, Hill, Nat, Clint, Steve, and Dr. Banner were on one side giving our family some space while Thor stood next to me with his left palm facing the ceiling.

I took his hand and took a deep breath. If I'm not allowed to channel the alien energy of the Tesseract for the spell, then I can just channel the alien himself.

I closed my eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply to situate my mind for better concentration before I opened my mouth.

I whispered the incantation under my breath, meaning every word, it even sounded like a prayer. I kept going as I placed my free hand on top of the casket my Aunt Freya is in. My heart remained calm. It had to. Or else my anxiety will mess with my concentration. I had to trick myself that I was feeling confident. I had to make myself believe it. And for a moment there, I actually did.

Then I heard the click of the coffin.

My eyes jerked open. I could feel everyone's anticipation and not just my own. I took a step back, not wanting to overwhelm Aunt Freya once she comes out.

Thor mimicked my actions and backed away. I could see him in peripheral vision looking at me, like he was expecting me to tell him what to do next, but I was too stunned to speak, especially when the coffin opened up by itself.

And there she was.

Her dirty blonde hair was long and tucked in a single braid. Her body was clad in a centuries-old blue dress that complimented her skin tone. She looked beautiful, despite being stuck in a coffin for a long time. Tears were beginning to form in my eyes, blurring my sight and I had to blink them away because I wanted to see her. I didn't want to miss even a second.

"Aunt Freya?" I called out.

She turned toward me, her eyes still held confusion in them. I know she hasn't met me yet so she won't know me, but I just know that whatever connection we had back in my original timeline, we'd still have in this one.

"Aunt?" She questioned. But she wasn't offended or confused. In fact, I was confused when a smile suddenly tugged on her lips when I called her aunt.

"Klaus's daughter, dear sister." Uncle Finn spoke, knowing that Aunt Freya would recognize him very well even if they were kids when they last saw each other. "Do you recognize us?"

"She does." Uncle Kol answered for her as he took a step forward with his eyes narrowed at her. "Because I recognize you. You went to see us decades ago."

"It's about time you rejoin the family, don't you think, big sister?" My dad said, a smirk curled on his lips as he looked at her.

Uncle Elijah approached the casket and he offered his hand toward Aunt Freya to help her step out of it, which she gratefully accepted. Once she had finally both feet on the ground, Uncle Elijah spoke.

"Welcome back." He had the widest smile stretched on his face.

"Unfortunately, from this moment on, you're stuck with us." Aunt Rebekah added.

Aunt Freya looked toward her and her eyebrow shot upward at both the sight of her little sister and my baby boy in his arms.

This is what I've always wanted, my family seeing each other again, reuniting with them, realizing how much we mean to each other.

I can't wait to see my mom in the future.

My eyes roamed around the room, taking in the features of my family and my friends. All the people that I love in one room. I might have a clue or two on what the future has in store for me and the people that I care about, but I know that however hard or tough it might be, it'll be worth it.

Because I will have them in my heart, always and forever.

—

Next up, the epilogue. I've already started writing it and I'm tearing up myself ksksksks. If y'all don't shed a single tear or two, then it's either something's wrong with the way I wrote it or something's wrong with you.

Anyway, thank you so much for 200K reads! I love you guys and I can't wait for you guys to read the ending!