TITANIA: Goddess of War

Chapter 18

The bridge was silent, the three Avengers were sitting at the conference table, director Fury was nearby and agent Hill stood in the corner. Princess Neilrosa was half lying in the chair because of her injury, her hand in Steve's as he was squeezing it, to make sure that she was okay.

Her lower abdomen hurt like hell, but thankfully it was nearly already healed. What wasn't healed was her would. She just saw one of her friends and she was unable to stop it. Still trembling all over her body, she squeezed Steve's hand back and sighed. Fury pulled out a stack of cards and tossed them on the table, scattering them.

"These were in Phil Coulson'sjacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them." Some of them were wet with blood and it made Neilrosa sick. She started to tremble even more.

"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. Think I had that coming." He moved around the table to them.

"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, called the Avengers Initiative." Stark twitched, his eyes still watery but he held himself.

"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." Tears found their way out on Neilrosa's face and streamed down her cheeks. Tony stood up, he couldn't take it anymore and left. 

The young goddess was staring into the distance, her mind blanks and her eyes numb. Steve leaned to her and shook her shoulders.

"C'mon Rosa. Let's go." He carefully helped her from the chair, one of his hands around her waist and the other was holding her left hand, and like that they left too, leaving Fury and Hill behind.

"I'm okay, Steve." She whispered and shoved herself off him. She didn't want to be a burden for him. She took a deep breath and went ahead, to the detention room. She needed to get rid of that guilty feeling, she needed to see that place again to say her final goodbye to him.

Princess really didn't want to give Cap a cold shoulder, but right at that moment, she couldn't do otherwise. At the detention room, they met with Stark, who was staring into the distance and thinking too. Not wanting to disturb his thoughts, Neilrosa went by him to sit on the stairs and she leaned her head against the wall. Steve was keeping eye on her and came closer.

"Was he married?" He asked, his question floated in the air waiting for an answer.

"No. There was a uh- cellist, I think." Tony murmured with a side glance to Steve.

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man." 

"He was an idiot." Tony's words made Neilrosa and Steve turned their heads to him.

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He wasn't alone. I was unable to protect him. Loki stabbed him right in front of my eyes, all I could do, was to cry." Tears again formed in her eyes, ready to spill anytime.

"You were doing your job as he was too." Steve looked softly at her.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-" Tony was angry, with himself, with Coulson, with everyone.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Steve said.

"Right. How did that work for him?" Neilrosa gave him a look.

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

"We are not soldiers! I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. NowLoki needs a power source if we can put together a list-" Neilrosa was just silently listening to their bickering. Tony looked at the bloodstain on the wall, she was following his gaze and they both said:

"He made it personal." They looked at each other and Tony lend her a hand to help her stand up.

"That's not the point," Steve argued and furrowed his brows.

"That is the point. That's Loki'spoint. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Tony was thinking out loud.

"To tear us apart, he wants to see us suffer," Neilrosa said, nodded approvingly.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but- he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants."

"He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."  Neilrosa came closer to the two men, leaning against the railing.

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart." Steve confirmed her words.

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is- this is opening night. Loki, he's a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" Tony walked up the stairs, waving his hands. When he got up there, he realized something, his eyes wide. Both Neirlosa and Steve raised their eyebrows.

"Son of a bitch." Stark didn't for anyone to say something, he just ran off. Princess neither Captain didn't know what he is planning so they took off running too, after him.

"What are you planning Stark?" Steve caught up to him, Neilrosa right behind him. Tony stopped and turned to them.

"We need to stop him, but we won't do anything if we gonna mourn and stay here. He is in my tower, I'm sure about that. Cap, get Barton and Romanoff. We will meet there. Princess..." Tony turned to the young goddess before him.

"I have my crystals, Tony. You just need to tell me where is your tower located." She waved the crystal in her hand and smirked.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neilrosa was casually leaning against the jet as she was waiting for the agents and Captain. Changing to the armour now wasn't an option, first, she would stand out too much and second, she didn't know what kind of armour would be the best. 

The chattering and noises in the lower hangar bay went silent as the three heroes made their way to the jet. Princess smiled and pushed herself off the side of the jet, walking towards them.

"I like the suit. It's really vintage." She grinned on Steve as they met halfway to the jet. She sent a nod to both agents and continued with them.

"Haha, make fun of me." Steve rolled his eyes as they got to the jet. They went inside and the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s engineer stood up.

"Hey, you guys haven't authorized to be in here." But his voice trembled

"Son, just don't!" Steve shutter him up immediately and the rest chuckled. The engineer quickly went out of the door and Nat and Clint went to check if the jet can fly.

"I will meet you there. Hopefully, Loki won't blow up the city before we you arrive. Just be careful, okay?" Neilrosa looked directly into Steve's eyes and smiled.

"We will don't worry. See you soon." He grinned, she waved to Nat and Clint by the controls and went out, taking the crystal in her hand.

"Stark Tower, New York, roof." And she threw it. A rainbow lined portal opened, right at the rooftop of the building. With the last glance to the jet, Neilrosa stepped through.

Doctor Selvig was already there, making preparations for the start of his device with Tesseract. Princess hid behind the panel on the roof in case of any enemy agent that could be on the roof. When her eyes inspected her surroundings, she slowly came out of her hiding and to Selvig. Tony made it just in time to join her.

"Stark." She called into the earpiece.

"We need to stop it!"

"Sir, I turned off the arc reactor. The device is already self-sustaining." Jarvis informed them both as they looked at each other.

"Shut it down, Doctor Selvig," Tony ordered him.

"It's too late! She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe." He was smiling, his blue eyes caused by sceptre were widen.

"It's dangerous. We need to shut it down!" Neilrosa screamed at him and came closer.

"Okay." Tony was obviously annoyed and decided to shoot it, made it will help. Wrong thing to do. The blast was deflected by the barrier around it, sending the energy outwards, knocking Selvig and Neilrosa out and Iron Man back. She nearly dropped from the building but grabbed the edge and stayed hanging there.

"Ehm, Stark? A little bit of help here!" She exclaimed, struggling to hold on. Tony grabbed her by her waist and flew her back to the roof.

"Time for plan B." His head pointed to Loki, smirking on the other end of the platform of the penthouse.

"Take care of the Tesseract, try to stop it, smash it, whatever. Just don't let it engage." He said before he went down to deal with Loki.

Goddess turned around and went to first observe the machine if she won't find some kind of button to switch it off. There was nothing evident that could stop it and unfortunately, she wasn't as good in technology as Stark was. Just then, a sound of broken glass could be heard and she ran to the edge to look. 

Tony was falling, without his Iron Man suit. Her eyes widened from shock as she saw him. Something went after him, but she couldn't see it really well. She was prepared to go after him and a sound of engines broke the roaring of the wind. It turned out it WAS an Iron Man suit that went after Tony.

Neilrosa didn't even have time to process what happened at the moment. At once, Tony shoot someone in the building, presumable Loki and Tesseract activated the machine, opening a portal. Their heads snapped up, seeing hoards of aliens fly through the portal. 

"Right! Army." Tonu muttered and flew to Neilrosa. She transformed into a skin-tight two-piece armour of black colour, hugging her figure. Her hair was in a high ponytail and two bat-like wings came out of her back. They looked at each other and bounced off the roof, flying towards the danger.

Tony speed towards them, shooting them in the process. Princess summoned her fire sword, slashing the Chitauri as she flew higher and higher. People were getting out of their vehicles and taxis, looking to the sky. Those lines, who Neirlosa and Tony were unable to stop, went to the city and people started to run away and scream, chaos broke out.