Finding Home

Chapter 5

The explosion was huge, big enough that the lab had blown out and everyone was thrown in different areas of the lab. There's a ringing in her ears and she shakes it off. Shehears Steve call to Tony.

"Put on the suit!"

"Yep!" he stands up but doesn't immediately go for his suit, instead he's frantically looking around. Peyton frowns and hones in on his thoughts.

Where is Peyton? I need to find Peyton.

I'm fine, get your suit and go! She sent a thought back to him and he flinched before nodding and disappearing. She groans and stands up, dusting off debris. She spotted Natasha and Bruce, who was looking sort of green, and rushed over.

"I have to go, I can't help with this," she said. Natasha nodded.

"Okay... Be careful," she replied. Peyton nodded and spared Bruce one last worried glance before rushing away. She knew with her powers she could probably stop Bruce from Hulking out, which would help a lot, but she couldn't she needed to let these events play out. She could help somewhat during the battle but for now, she needed to tread lightly, not that she had been doing that great a job of staying out of things she needed to stay out of.

As she rushed around the hallways trying to figure out the best course of action, new memories replaced some of her old ones.

Peyton slipped soundlessly into Peter's room where none other than Tony Stark sat speaking to Peter.

"Of course, kid, she can stay in the hotel and eat room service and watch soap operas to her little hearts content." he said. Knowing he was talking about her she rolled her eyes.

"I don't watch soap operas," she said. He looked up at her and his eyes widened, familiarity flashed over his features.

"Oh you'll... you'll have all the channels you need..." after a second, his eyes finally tore away from her.

~~~

Peyton and Peter ran into Stark Tower, Tony looked at them in regret and confusion, he was surprised they were coming back to the tower so quickly after finding out he was their father. Then they began to ramble to him about the situation and a look of understanding crossed over his features.

"So you can read minds now?" he asked.

"What? No I don't... I don't know I just know I'm going to have some kind of power."

"Oh yeah, yeah that's what I meant, mind reading, just a guess,"

~~~

"Your guess was pretty good though, how did you know I would be able to read minds?" she asked later. He shrugged.

"Lucky guess, you are a genius after all,"

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Whatever."

~~~

Peyton gasped and shook herself off. Luckily so far Tony knowing about her and her powers before she even met him officially hadn't drastically changed anything. Fingers crossed it stayed like that.

Peyton found herself in the same room as Loki, she froze as he snarled at her. Where were the other agents.

"And who are you? I wouldn't have guessed that a child would be here." he said taking a step towards her. She couldn't fight him. She wasn't supposed to interact with Loki this early. God, can she get anything right?

"Loki, listen, believe it or not, I'm here to save you. I'm prepared to move away right now and be done. No fighting." she said. He barked out a laugh.

"Save me? You, a mortal child?" he asked.

"Not here, not now, and not directly." she said.

"I think you're just frightened." Loki was inches away from her now.

"You're right, I am, but not of you. Of Thanos." she said. He stopped, he wasn't expecting that.

"How do you-" just then Coulson ran in.

"Get away from her." he said and Peyton knowing what had to happen, bit her lower lip and moved behind him. She had to let this happen. It would be okay.

"Like this?" Coulson asked, holding up a large gun, "We started working on the prototype after you sent The Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?" he asked. Peyton drew in a breath as the real Loki stabbed him from behind.

"No!" she heard Thor cry but she couldn't move. She knew it was going to happen, she knew he was going to live, but it still hurt. Loki then dropped Thor out of the helicarrier with the lever and approached her as she kneeled by Coulson.

"Don't." she said.

If you want any hope of surviving what's coming- and you know what's coming- then leave me.

The two shared a look and in that moment Coulson picked up the weapon and shot him. He blew through the wall.

"What just happened?" Coulson asked weakly. She looked down at him in tears and grabbed his hand.

"It doesn't matter... Coulson, I'm so sorry." she said sadly.

"I thought you knew me in the future." he said. She nodded.

"I do, it's okay. It's gonna be hell, but it's gonna be okay," she was being vague and she could tell that frustrated him but he didn't comment. She sat there with him, holding his hand until Fury ran in and kneeled next to them.

"Sorry, boss. They got rabbeted."

"Just stay awake. Eyes on me!" he said

"No. I'm clocked out here." Coulson said.

"Not an option." Fury replied

"It's okay, boss. This was never going to work... if they didn't have something... to..." Coulson never got the chance to finish as his eyes slipped shut.

~~~

Loki and co got away. Coulson died. They all sat in the briefing room. The atmosphere was heavy in the room, everyone sat in a daze. Fury tossed Coulson's Captain America trading cards on the table, despite the fact that they had been in Coulson's locker, they were stained with blood.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket, guess he never did get you to sign them," Fury said. Peyton rolled her eyes but didn't call him out.

"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. Maybe I had that coming. 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. 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." Fury said. Tony got up and walked out. Another wave of memories crashed into Peyton.

"Agent?" Tony asked in disbelief as they walked into the office to see a kind looking man. He looked over a warm, happy, smile spread over his face. He held out his hand.

"It's so nice to finally meet you, Peyton." he said. She squinted her eyebrows.

"Uh, you too Agent..?"

"Coulson."