The Sparrow

Chapter 26: A New Ending

As Thor cuffed and muzzled Loki with the cuffs that Bruce and Tony had made to prevent Loki from using his magic to escape, there was a loud bang in the sky behind them. Tony turned and watched at as a big purple portal opened up in the sky.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." He muttered, which caused the rest of the Avengers to turn and see what he was seeing.

"My God, I thought this was over." Steve groaned while walking out onto the balcony, clenching his shield tighter in his hand, rolling his shoulders back to prepare for the battle ahead. Clint joined him on the balcony and pulled an arrow from his sheath, ready to fire at the first Chitauri to leave the portal.

"Brother, what is this?" Thor asked Loki, roughly grabbing him by the shoulder and dragging him out on the balcony where the rest of the Avengers had gathered to watch the portal expand. However, Loki looked just as confused and worried as the rest of them, which lead Thor to believe this had to be something separate from Loki's previous attack.

The purple swirls around the portal swelled, and with a loud bang a figure left the portal, and Clint lifted his bow to aim.

"Wait!" Tony shouted as his Iron Man mask formed around his face one more. "J.A.R.V.I.S, what am I seeing here?"

"It appears to be Ms. Barton, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S replied and Tony took off like a gun, launching himself off the edge of the balcony and blasting off to try and catch Emma's falling body before it hit the ground. He caught her in his arms, but the sound of her limp body colliding with the metal of his suit made him wince.

"J.A.R.V.I.S get me some vitals, is she okay?" Tony flew her back to the balcony while J.A.R.V.I.S ran the tests he needed to. The rest of the Avengers waited, open-mouthed and in shock on the balcony of the barely standing Stark Tower. Tony landed and gently set Emma on the beat up couch.

"She's alive sir, and I'm not finding any signs of the illness from before. She seems to be in perfect health." J.A.R.V.I.S was the first to break the silence. They all stood there in relief of Emma surviving. Clint dropped to his knees next to the couch and let out a sob.

"I thought I lost you." He mumbled, grabbing hold of Emma's limp hand while Natasha rubbed his back to comfort him. Emma still didn't move.

"Should we... Well... What do we do now?" Steve asked, his eyes trained on the seemingly lifeless girl on the couch in front of him.

"J.A.R.V.I.S said she's okay, but we don't know if she took any of the blast, we also don't know what happened up there after the first portal closed." Tony said, and they all looked outside to see the portal that released Emma was now gone. "We also don't know who opened the second portal and sent her back. But for now we should probably get her back to the helicarrier to recover, and hopefully, she wakes up soon." Natasha stepped away from the group, but they all still heard what she said into the earpiece.

"Fury, the fight is over, we're going to need a lift back to the helicarrier and a wide range clean up crew for the city. Prepare a holding cell for Loki, the cuffs and muzzle seem to be working." This caused a few wary glances towards Loki, who was staring at Emma with an unrecognizable look in his eyes. They all heard the "Copy." from Fury and Clint took Emma into his arms, carrying her to the roof with the others for transport.

Once on the roof, Tony rested a metal hand on the top of Emma's head before stepping away. "I'll meet you guys up there, I'll start putting a room together for Emma." And with that he took off. The Hulk stood behind them, quiet throughout this whole exchange before he took a deep breath, and shrunk back into Bruce Banner. Bruce rubbed his head and stood up slowly, clutching his stretched out pants to his body.