dark side of the moon ⋄ marvel

♦ chapter five ♦

Natasha was pushed up by Steve's shield as she caught onto a passing ship. Steve and Signy were left to deal with the approaching creatures. Moments later, Tony dropped down and took out a few stragglers on his way.

Signy was tackled to the ground by three aliens at once, but propelled herself upwards with a burst of water, icing the creatures to the ground. "I'm running out of water, here," she said to the comms.

"Flying by, Sig. Prepare for pick-up," Tony replied.

Signy lifted her hand and blasted upwards when she saw Tony come overhead. He grabbed her hand and flew her all the way to the Harlem river. He dropped her down between two bridges and let her do her thing.

Signy let herself be encapsulated by the water for a moment, enjoying the revitalizing feeling of her powers being restored. Knowing there was a job to do, she brought herself back down to Earth and took a huge tsunami of water with her, swimming through the streets in a tornado of water.

As she pushed through the streets, she iced up every alien she saw which totaled to be a staggering amount. When she returned, she fought alongside Thor and Steve, taking out the enemies they missed.

"Ready for another bout?" Thor asked as he helped Steve back up to a standing position.

"What, are you getting sleepy?" Steve groaned.

"I'll heal you while we have a moment." Signy wrapped a stream of water around Steve's midsection where he seemed to be most concerned with the pain.

"I didn't even know... you could do that," Steve muttered, his words becoming less strained as his pain subsided.

"Well, it's a party trick only for special occasions such as this."

Back up at Stark Tower, Natasha was poised with Loki's scepter, Selvig helping her force it through the barrier around the portal. "I can close it," came her voice through the comms. "Can anyone hear me? I can shut it down."

"Do it!" Steve said immediately.

"No, wait," Tony said, dealing with problems of his own.

"Stark, these things are still coming."

"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute." As he took the nuke on the back of his suit, he added, "And I know just where to put it."

"Tony..." Signy said sadly. "That's- How will you get back?"

"He won't. That's a one-way trip," Steve murmured.

They looked up, waiting with baited breath, as Tony approached Stark Tower. He turned upward just in time to fly it up and through the portal.

So, there they stood. Waiting for his reappearance. The aliens surrounding them broke down as their mothership exploded, but Signy didn't even flinch to look in their direction. Her eyes were glued to the hole in the sky.

When it seemed like he wouldn't reappear, Steve shared a look with Thor. The Asgardian nodded. Steve looked at Signy's still-hopeful figure. She still hadn't looked away from the portal. But that didn't keep him from the realization that Tony likely wouldn't be coming back. And so he said, "Close it."

"What? No! Don't close it!" Signy screamed, moving forward only to be held back by her older brother.

Natasha took the Captain's orders and thrust the scepter into the crown of the machine. The portal drew closer and closer together. Signy still stared up and watched... as Tony seemed to appear through the clouds.

"Son of a gun," Steve said fondly.

Signy's sudden smile dropped. "He's not slowing down."

She prepared to jump up with a wave of water, but Hulk beat her to it. He came soaring through the sky, slowing Tony's descent as he gasped onto a spare building. They landed on the Park Avenue bridge, where the fight began.

Steve threw off his mask, though Tony was still unconscious beneath it. Steve listened for any sign of breathing, but they sat back in painful waiting as they held out hope that Tony would awake.

Hulk roared, spurring Tony from unconsciousness in a frantic breath. "What the hell? What just happened?" he panted. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Steve nodded, sitting back on the cement. "We won."

"And I believe you made the sacrifice play," Signy pointed out, looking between Steve and Tony.

"Alright, yay!" Stark said with fake, mustered enthusiasm. "Good job guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day... You ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I wanna try it." Leave it to Tony to make everyone laugh after he'd just scared them half to death. "Siggy, I know you got no clue what shawarma is! We're gonna figure it out together."

"We're not finished yet," Signy reminded, looking up towards Stark Tower where her adoptive brother resided.

"And then shawarma after?"

---♦♢♦---

Despite the devastation of what has been confirmed as an extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as the Avengers has been to many, not only a cause for comfort, but for celebration.

The streets were flooded with newfound Avengers fans. Murals, banners, and merchandise all to honor the little group Signy had found her home in. People were getting shaves to mimic Tony's beard. Children had found new heroes to look up to. Others weren't so sure. Others wished to blame the Avengers for the happenings on the streets of New York.

But those who were there that day, those who watched the team risk their lives to save everyone they could... They knew the truth.

The Avengers reconvened for the last time for the next few years. The Tesseract was safely contained by Selvig and Banner, then handed off to the children of Odin.

Signy went around to each of her new friends to say goodbye, getting a hug from Steve, a joke from Tony, a resigned smile from Natasha, an unnecessary apology from Bruce, and a playful salute from Clint. With that, she linked her arm with Thor's as Loki took the other end of the Tesseract's containment. They twisted the handles at the end and were transported back to the golden castle of Asgard.

Thor, Loki, and Signy went home. But it wouldn't be quiet for long.

♦ author's note ♦

this is the end of avengers (2012) !! both avengers and dark world are pretty short acts, but they're so essential to building up sig's character that it didn't feel right to not give them the spotlight they deserve. like this and dark world are (to me) her origin story of sorts before she really comes into her own in avengers: age of ultron.

speaking of, i've been writing so much for this story recently holy shit. and i actually really like what i've got written! yay <333