A/N: Alright guys- this is the final chapter! :( :( :( I can't believe I've actually uploaded a whole story and finished something. I plan on adding an epilogue to this and potentially a sequel if I can motivate myself to do it. For the epilogue I thought I'd let you guys chose what you wanted more (since I haven't really decided myself)- would you prefer it to be Steve and Nika centered or Tony and Nika centered? Leave a comment and tell me which one you choose! Well, I guess this is goodbye for now. Thank you for the support and followers! Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or anyone except Nika Stark.

Two hours later, I found myself surrounded by the full force of the Avengers while Tony and I worked on creating more bombs. It seemed all the smashing and attacking had gotten them nowhere, so now the only option left was my bomb.

The spaceship above New York City had fallen into the ocean, leaving behind hundreds of angry aliens still trying to take the city. With the army on call and the Avengers, they didn't stand a chance, but they still managed to be pests. The Earthen forces could repel the aliens on the ground, so now the cities only awaited my bombs before our forces would take them down.

Each bomb normally would've taken five hours to build, but I had sixteen bombs to build and only about an hour, making me work at a far more inexhaustible speed. I couldn't pretend alcohol didn't help with this, but I didn't totally depend on it. I felt more freed from it than I had been in years.

"What next?" Pietro asked, startling me out of my thoughts. He'd been zipping around, doing odd jobs for me and Tony extra quickly while the others fought outside. Without him, I wasn't sure we actually could have finished in time.

"Put this here and that there." I said, pointing to a metal bar and a space on our assembly line of bombs.

"Isn't that one of the few pieces left?" Tony asked, glancing up from the chemical solution he was making.

"Yep. We're almost done." I sighed, running a hand through my messy hair. My focus remained mostly on just finishing the project, but I could feel a little twinge of excitement and joy for what I was doing. "Is this what saving the world feels like?" If it was, I rather liked the feeling and wanted to keep it. I didn't feel like such a horrible person.

"Don't know. I'm pretty much a veteran of it now, so I don't feel anything." He remarked with a roll of his eyes.

"Sorry for being a newb then." I told him with a snort.

With a clap of joy, I watched as Pietro added the final pieces and Tony poured in the solution. It was finally finished; I was going to be the cause of lives saved.

"You really are new at this." Tony told me.

"Why?"

"Never get too excited. Nothing ever goes to plan."

"What do you do when it doesn't?"

Just after he spoke, a loud explosion sounded outside. The already fragile walls of the labs crumpled at the edges, revealing the dirty outdoors and the Avengers fighting the vast alien army. I hadn't realized, but apparently they'd noticed we'd condensed to this building and sent their full force at us in a last ditch effort. That really put a kink in my 'carry the bombs through the streets to the airport plan'.

Tony smirked at me, putting down the visor on the Iron Man suit. "You improvise."

He flew off into the fray, joining the others. I watched him go, the wheels in my mind whirling. How was I going to get this stuff there despite the crowd?

Aliens managed to teem into the actual lab, so I grabbed a gun from off one of the tables. My hand shook as I held it, but after a bit of hesitation, I fired the gun at the alien. Instead of the crippling guilt I expected to feel, I barely put thought into it. Maybe the old saying that killing gets easier really was true, much as I hated to think that.

I kept firing the gun, shooting at any hostile I found. They nearly overwhelmed me, surrounding me on every side, but I fought them off best I could, throwing punches and kicks when I was close enough. The only problem was when the gun slowly ran out of ammunition.

All too soon, I tried to fire and nothing happened. I dropped the gun, tossing it aside. I wasn't really one for fighting hand-to-hand, but it was all I had right now against the alien's scythe. I was just thankful their guns had run out of energy too.

I bared my fist, ready to fight despite the odds, but a large hammer suddenly split through the crowd, killing lots of aliens in its path. Thor fought his way towards me, ending up beside me with his hammer swinging. "Need help Lady Stark?" He asked between blows.

"Actually my name…nevermind. Thanks for the help." I tried not to sound too grateful, but I really was. Now I had time to breathe and think again. While he fought in front of me, I grabbed a leg from a broken lab table and starting swinging it at the few aliens who got close to me.

"I've got it!" I said, a plan suddenly forming in my head.

"What have you received?" Thor questioned, glancing back at me.

"An idea of-" I paused to knock an alien out of the way, "-how to move the bombs."

"What is this plan?"

"The Quinjets can land practically anywhere. I'll just fly them here rather than take the bombs there."

"That seems a very valiant idea."

"Uh sure?" I looked over the broken walls, trying to figure out how exactly I would get to the Quinjets, which were half a city away. Considering the vast amount of army still left, it didn't seem an easy task.

Hoisting a crow bar in my arms, I started forwards, killing everything in my path. It was a miracle, really, that I didn't get hurt just going out of the building, but I managed to survive almost unscathed.

There was no way I could get though the crowds on my own, so I soldiered my way to Steve, who wasn't too far away.

"Steve," I said breathlessly, swinging my weapon against an alien who tried to hit me with his scythe. "I need to get out of this mess and to the Quinjets."

He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly closed it and threw his shield at me. I neatly jumped to the side, but it flew over me anyways, hitting an alien who'd nearly sliced through my head without me noticing.

"You need to go back inside! It's not safe for you out here!" He told me, catching the shield in one hand and taking a protective stance in front of me.

"I don't need to be safe." I huffed. "I need to get to the Quinjets or people will die!"

He stared at me, initiating a silent battle with our eyes. It didn't take long before he smirked and I knew I'd won; he wasn't against a woman being strong every once and a while.

Without a word, he fought his way forward, trying to help me. I followed behind him, keeping near and swinging my crowbar. In all honestly, I wasn't cut out for this physically or mentally, but I needed to do it anyway.

Soon, Steve and I were separated and I resisted the urge to scream when an alien reached out and swiped at my face. I pushed him back, but not without a small scratch forming on my forehead. Steve turned around just too late, his eyes lighting up in anger when he saw me get hurt.

But before he could come help me, he was bombarded on all sides. I was by myself, which was honestly hopeless.

Just before I considered what it'd be like to die, arrows pierced the skulls of all the aliens around me and Clint leaned nimbly beside me from his perch on a nearby building. "Need some help?" He asked.

I huffed in relief. "Yeah somehow a crowbar seems an inadequate weapon for this."

He tossed me a gun from one of the aliens, something I should've thought of a while ago. "You should try a bow next time."

"Hopefully there won't be a next time."

"Less chatting, more keeping your asses from getting whooped." Natasha swooped in, shooting down two of the alien that had nearly reached us.

"I can do both!" Clint pointed out, proving his point by firing an explosive arrow towards a group of enemies while he spoke. It exploded, killing them and destroying everything nearby.

"Well I can't! I have to go." I shot my way forwards, going for speed rather than accuracy. I wasn't going to survive much longer in the thick of things.

With the two of them behind me, I was on my own shooting and running. Thankfully, the further I got, the more soldiers there were, so I became slowly safer. Bullets rained by my side from the police, making me flinch away. They would have hit me, but a blue blur pushed me out of the way and landed heavily on my body.

"What are you doing?" Pietro said, jumping up from on top of me. He pointed accusingly at the police. "Does she look like an alien you idiots?"

They looked at other guiltily before turning the other way and shooting again.

"Are you alright?" Pietro asked, offering me a hand up.

"You weigh as much as a fucking boulder." I took the hand, testing my limbs to make sure they still worked.

He laughed. "A very attractive boulder though." He glanced around, flashing away and tossing a metal rod through an alien. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm trying to get to the Quinjets. It is taking a little longer than I anticipated."

"You should've just said so. I can get you there fast."

"Uh, no. I'd rather keep my lunch thank you. I-" Pietro cut off my wishes, sweeping me off my feet and running off. I closed my eyes, trying not to think about the speed at which I was going and what would happen to me if he happened to drop me.

After barely thirty seconds, Pietro finally let me go, catching my arms before I fell over. "That was fun, yes?" He asked.

I glared at him. "If by fun you mean horrifying then yes." I stumbled on my feet once before finally getting my bearings. Pietro's speed hadn't failed before and it didn't now; I was already at the Avengers Airfield with the Quinjets.

I walked towards them, going through my flight training in my head. Well, more like my online flight training, which wasn't quite the same thing, but I knew I could figure it out.

"You go back to the battle and I'll meet you there. Flying."

"How are you going to pilot both Quinjets?" Pietro asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Uh…" I hadn't thought of that. "Maybe I'll just remote control one from the other." That'd be completely complicated and probably pretty stupid, but it was the best plan I could think of.

A clunk sounded on the pavement behind me and I swiveled around, gun at the ready. Slowly, I lowered it, recognizing Rhodes wearing his War Machine suit.

He removed the face mask. "Need another pilot?" He asked.

"How did you know that?"

He tapped his ear. "I hear everything Pietro and you say over comms."

"Hmm. Let's get going then."

He nodded tersely, running off to the Quinjet on the right while I went left.

"Good luck!" Pietro called before speeding back off to the battle.

I boarded the plane, sitting down in the control seat. There were lots of knobs and buttons, but once I'd gotten bored and read the training manual for the plane, so I more or less knew what they all did. I hoped.

Turning on the comms so I could talk to the others and Rhodes, I shakily took the plane into the air. It took a second to adjust to the strange controls, but I quickly adapted and had the Quinjet smoothly flying in the air. Rhodes pulled out beside me, asking me over the line what I wanted him to do.

"We have to get back to the lab. I'm going to put the bombs on the planes and fire them off in the other cities." I said, slowing down when we got closer to the lab.

When it was in sight, I lowered the plane as low as I could without hitting something. I'd wanted to be on the ground, but there just wasn't room. Communicating with the others to try and break free of the battle and help put the bombs in the cargo, I opened the door to the cargo hold and locked the controls to stay at the same height.

Mostly with the help of guys with mechanical and physical strength, we managed to lift at the bombs onto both planes. The others fended off the rest of the aliens, whose numbers were slowly dwindling.

With a twist on the controls, I lifted the plane back in the air and flew towards the next city, coordinating with Rhodes so he'd go to different one.

While I set off bombs in the cities, the other Avengers finished off the aliens in NYC then followed my tracks to take care of the surviving aliens after I bombed the mother ships down. Everything worked more or less smoothly, which was surprising considering all the problems my plans usually had.

Even though we were fixing everything, the damage had been done. Thousands of lives had been lost and the major cities were all damaged well beyond anything they'd seen before. The landscape of America and the world would be forever changed.

And so was I. In the course of twenty four hours, I'd miscarried, destroyed a bomb, created a bomb, fought a war, and saved as many lives as I could. I should've been elated and proud, but really I just wanted a nap.

I put the airplane in cruise control, leaning back in the chair and closing my eyes.

"Nika?" Steve asked over the comms. "Are you ok?"

I smiled sleepily. "A little rest and I will be. This isn't over though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm Nika Stark, and there's nothing I can't overcome. I just saved the world, and I plan to do it again."