Liberty Is Mine |2| The Liberty Saga

Chapter Sixteen: The Aftermath

Shawarma, as it turned out, was pretty nice. Thor had been surprised to find the place still open, considering an alien invasion had just occurred right on the doorstep, but as Clint had pointed out, this was New York City. If anywhere was going to still be serving while sweeping broken glass off the floor from a literal war, it would be here.

One of the perks of Tony Stark being a billionaire who, until the events of that day, had had his name plastered on the side of one of the city's most recognisable skyscrapers, was that people recognised him. The owner of the shawarma restaurant hadn't seemed worried that they didn't have a dime between them to pay for his food. After all, everyone knew that Tony Stark paid his debts in full, and then some.

And so they sat, and ate, and drank, in the middle of a warzone, in full battle armour, fighting the urge to fall asleep at the table. Because they were the Avengers, and they'd done a hard day's Avenging, and some of them were senior citizens. They barely even broke the silence to talk, too busy stuffing their faces to replenish what they'd used up in the battle, but Tony, being the conversationalist of the group, couldn't just let a silence continue.

"Y'know, I'm sure we can rustle up a horse if you're still hungry," he joked, nudging Elke.

She rolled her eyes. "When your footsteps start registering on the Richter scale, then you can talk to me about my appetite. Not before."

"Do they really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. He didn't wait for an answer before saying, "You know, if you ever have kids, you're leaving them wide open for an excellent 'Yo Mama' joke."

"I don't even want to know what you're talking about," she admitted tiredly, meeting Steve's gaze momentarily over the table.

He grinned. "Whatever you say, Luelle."

"Luelle? Seriously?"

He shrugged. "Trying it out. Thoughts?"

She just threw a balled-up napkin at his face. "You know what I don't understand?"

"Oh, jeez." He checked his watch. "We only got about five million years until the sun blows up, remember?"

"Ha ha," she said sarcastically. "Your little voice thingy inside your suit is called JARVIS, ja? But he doesn't sound like the real Mister Jarvis. Did you just not have him around for the recording of the voice, or did you think it would be distracting to have him around in the middle of a fight saying—" She put on a refined British accent. "'Oh, do be careful, Mister Stark, those fellows appear to have some rather frightfully powerful weapons at their disposal.'"

Tony sat back in his seat, smiling. "Wow. You really got the accent down."

"Ja, well, it was Peggy's accent, too, remember. I stayed with them for a while," she said, shrugging. "Ana is the only reason I can speak any Hungarian at all."

"Hey, did you ever try her goulash?" Tony asked, eyes widening.

As the two continued chattering on animatedly, Thor leaned over to the others, confused. "Are we supposed to know these voices?"

Clint was shaking his head. "Not a clue. Not a single clue."

***

The next day, once they'd had a chance to clean the grime of battle off themselves, once Fury had debriefed them and granted them leave, the Avengers had gathered in Central Park with Loki and Erik Selvig, preparing to see the Asgardians off. Loki, handcuffed and muzzled, rolled his eyes as Thor said his goodbyes to the others, hugging Elke, Selvig, and Natasha before shaking hands with the others. Then Tony opened the Tesseract's case and Bruce placed the glowing cube into a glass tube. Thor took one end, and Loki the other, and they twisted the tube between them, opening an energy beam that shot into the sky. They stepped in, and both they and the beam disappeared.

With the final strings tied up, the rest of the Avengers said their goodbyes. Bruce climbed into the passenger seat of one of Tony's sports cars, Natasha and Clint got into a S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV, and Steve and Elke went over to their motorbikes. But before they could drive off after the SUV, a voice stopped them.

"Fischer."

"Hmm?" She turned to see Tony had joined them, holding in his arms a square-ish dark brown leather folder. "What's up?"

"I found this in Dad's old things," he said, glancing down at the folder. "Well, the negatives. I guess he kept them all those years in case you ever wanted them. I figured you might want them now." He held the folder out to her.

"Uh... okay. Thank you." Sharing a puzzled look with Steve, she took the folder and opened it to the first page...

... and met the lightning-bolt electric gaze of her husband. Her breath left her in a gasp, her cheeks filling with colour.

Tony smiled sadly. "They're all there, every one I could find. Mostly from your wedding, I think, but a few later ones, too. You know, my dad always thought you and Barnes would've gone the distance. So screw Fury. Most people take a lifetime to get over a loss like him. You take all the time you need and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"Tony..." She closed the folder, holding it tight against her chest and hugged him suddenly. "Thank you." And it seemed wholly inadequate, and at the same time, it meant the world.

He nodded to them both. "Yeah, well... drive safe." And then he went back over to the sports car and climbed in beside Bruce and with a roar of the engine, he was gone. 

And so the Avengers parted ways...

For now.

***

"Where are the Avengers?"

Fury sighed, turning to face the shadowed members of the World Security Council once more. "I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts. I'd say they've earned a leave of absence."

"And the Tesseract?" Councilwoman Hawley asked.

"The Tesseract is where it belongs," Fury told her. "Out of our reach."

Gideon Malick shook his head. "That's not your call."

"I didn't make it," Fury admitted, shrugging. "I just didn't argue with the god that did."

"So you let him take it and the war criminal Loki, who should be answering for his crimes?" Malick asked.

Fury smirked, and he couldn't pretend the satisfaction wasn't more than false bravado. "Oh, I think he will be."

Malick sighed, setting his jaw. "I don't think you understand what you've started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous."

"They surely are," Fury agreed. "And the whole world knows it. Every world knows it."

"Was that the point of all this?" Hawley asked, surprised. "A statement?"

Fury smiled. "A promise." And with that, he walked away, heading for the bridge.

"Sir, how does it work now?" Hill asked as she joined him at the observation window. "They've gone their separate ways, some pretty extremely far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens then?"

"They'll come back," Fury said simply.

She blinked. "You really sure about that?"

"I am."

"Why?"

Fury glanced across at her, then returned his gaze to the world the Avengers had just saved. "Because we'll need them to."

~~~