Once Upon an Avenger

Chapter 37: This ends today

The tension in the compound could have been cut with a knife as everyone waited anxiously for answers. Hope was pacing back and forth, playing with both her magic and bracelet as a way to keep her nerves down. Was this it? Was today going to be the day that she finally set Storybrooke free? Could it be that after three and a half long months of dead end after dead end, she was going to return everyone's happy endings, exactly twenty-five years after her mother had done the same?

Minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like days, but at around half past two in the afternoon, an unmistakable Irish voice rang threw the intercom. "Sir, we have a location for the energy signature you required."

"Spit it out then!" Tony practically shouted into the air, shrugging when Natasha raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"Play nice," the redhead teased.

But before he had time to think of a sassy comeback, F.R.I.D.A.Y. responded, "The coordinates are 43°30'N, 70°21'W. It appears to be in -"

"Maine..." Hope said at the same time as the AI.

Tony was now the one raising an eyebrow. "How did you know?"

"A pirate never forgets where they've come from," she told him.

"Storybrooke?" Sam asked.

"Home..." Hope mused, the biggest smile on her lips. "This ends today."

No more false hope, no more dead ends or failed plans. This ends today, with whatever it takes.

"Everyone, suit up," Steve ordered, getting the whole team's attention. "We'll pick the others up on the way. Stark, you let them know."

"Wait, no," Hope protested, stepping in front of him.

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I appreciate everything you've done for me, I really do," she said as her smile began to falter, morphing into a slightly sadder one. "But this is my battle, not yours."

"It became our battle the day you joined our team. Win or lose, we do it as a team. We're not letting you face this alone." Steve had kept his Captain America head on during the speech, but as soon as the last words left his mouth, he found himself having to look away from Hope, not wanting to get once again lost in the ocean blue of her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Tony took a step forward. He did that sometimes, almost as if he was worried people might forget about him. "Did he just admit that you were a part of the team?"

"We're friends now, well sort of..." Hope's voice trailed off as she thought of everything Steve had said to her the day before, blush threatening to rise to her cheeks for the third time that day. "Anyway, we have more important things than that to be worrying about. You're not going to let me go alone, are you?"

"No," was the general answer she got, even if the wording did vary from Avenger to Avenger, some phrased slightly ruder than others.

"And even if I said I forbade you from coming and then used my magic to transport myself there, you'd still turn up in the Quinjet with the rest of the team?"

"Pretty much," Natasha concurred, everyone else agreeing with her.

Hope sighed and started heading towards the stairs. "Then I guess we should suit up."

*

The jet landed in a field not far from a main road which ran through the middle of seemingly nowhere, nothing but fields, forest and sea surrounding them.

As soon as the ocean air filled her lungs, and the cool air began whipping at her pale cheeks, Hope's heart warmed. There really was no place like home.