I don't own Sherlock, or the MCU... yada, yada.

I warned you last time that for the next piece (this one) you would actually need some knowledge of the fandom I'm making the crossover with. I'm sorry, but that's just how things came out. This fic wasn't even in the works when I first began the John's Vow project, but I couldn't help but think that Sherlock and Tony would either get along wonderfully or kill each other in the first five minutes... I tried but nothing fit in the other pieces and then I asked myself, what would be the perfect moment for those three (and all three, in the end) to have met... it just snowballed from there.

IMPORTANT: You need to know at least the basics of Iron Man 1 & 2 and the first Avengers movie. It helps if you have actually watched it, at least that one; because while I mention quite a few things from the Iron Man movies, I actually go into the Avengers one, an important part of it. There is a reason I actually posted this piece in the crossovers section...

The Avengers script came from the web (the IMDb page, or one like that).

Have no Beta, am not British, any typos, mistakes, etc. are my own, apologies in advance.

Pieces of a Puzzle (Part 1)

"How would you describe me John, resourceful, dynamic, enigmatic?" SH

"Late?" JW

It was late in the evening (or night, depending on the time-zone, almost everyone aboard had lost count of how many of those they'd passed already). A group had been brought together on a round table on the bridge of SHIELD's helicarrier to discuss the current situation, as well as the new prisoner: Loki of Asgard. A man more than a thousand years old, who'd been given the title of God of Mischief and Lies in ancient times... and who threatened the Earth with an alien invasion and plans for making himself King.

The individuals gathered in that moment were: Steve Rogers, Captain America, blonde, blue-eyed, extremely muscled man who looked to be in his twenties. He'd been the first superhero and a great leader during WWII, until being lost in the Arctic shortly before the end of the War. He'd been found, somehow alive (most believed the serum that turned him into a super-soldier to be responsible). He had been thawed and SHIELD had attempted to help him adapt to the new time (though they hadn't been too successful on the last thus far).

There was also Natasha Romanoff (formerly Natalia Alianovna Romanova), with green eyes and wavy red hair, Russian by birth, trained by an organization known as the Red-Room to be a spy an assassin, the Black Widow. She'd escaped eventually and gone down the route of a freelance mercenary before being found by SHIELD and convinced to join (that one was a long story).

Bruce Banner, Dr. in Biochemistry, expert in Nuclear Physics and Gamma Radiation. He'd been involved in an attempt to re-create Captain America's serum (there were actually several versions of that event), which had ended with him developing a rage-induced alter ego of a huge green creature that followed the most basic instincts and called itself Hulk (though Banner himself always referred to it just as 'the Other Guy').

Thor, son of Odin, the blonde, blue-eyed, God of Thunder and crown prince of Asgard had arrived to Earth (or as he called it, Midgard) intent on recovering both the Cube (the Tesseract) and his brother Loki. He'd been among humans once, the year before, being partly responsible for a mess that had taken place in New Mexico (Loki had been involved then too).

The final two people at the table were two civilians: William and Johnathan Scott, called simply Liam and John by most. They were both brunettes with gray eyes (though Liam's hair was a shade or two darker, and his eyes looked blue-green under a certain light); Liam was also several inches taller, while John's built was stockier, more muscled. They both wore dark trousers and button-up shirts, though Liam chose to finish his ensemble with a long dark coat, while John favored sweaters more. They were also married. While civilians, the two were good friends of Tony Stark (the millionaire, owner of Stark Industries, and Iron Man). John was a well-trained former military man, while Liam was a science-genius; both helped Stark in their own ways.

And so they all either stood or sat around a state of the art holo-table, watching the feed from the camera located in the 'temporary prison' where Loki was being place, witnessing Nick Fury's (Director of SHIELD) exchange with the criminal.

"In case it's unclear." Fury was telling Loki. "You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass..." He pressed a button which opened up a watch underneath the cell, giving a quite graphic demonstration of the consequences. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!" He closed the hatch, pointing at Loki dramatically. "Ant." Then at the button. "Boot."

More than one of the people at the bridge rolled their eyes at that.

"It's an impressive cage." The prisoner stated, completely relaxed. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury retorted.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki sounded almost eager as he kept talking, turning eyes to the camera he knew was transmitting. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." He turned back to Fury. "How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

A few turned what they probably believed were discreet looks at the standing Dr. Banner; not the Scotts though, they sat completely calm, quietly talking among themselves every-so-often.

"How desperate am I?" The Director hissed testily. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh. It burns you to come so close." Loki almost chuckled, dark and cold. "To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

"Knowledge is power." Liam snorted, turning to face his partner. "I really cannot believe he's so blind. He's supposed to be an intelligent man... or does anyone become leader of SHIELD nowadays? And if so I'll be so disappointed..."

"Liam." The sound of his name, from John's lips, was enough to settle the taller man.

That didn't change the fact that everyone was looking at them.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" Liam asked the group with a perfectly blank face.

"What do you mean, about Director Fury being blind?" Captain Rogers asked eventually.

It had looked briefly like Romanoff might say something, but in the end she didn't.

"I mean that Loki obviously knows things." Liam stated in a half-condescending tone. "Like I said, knowledge is power. And I don't mean the knowledge of how you take your coffee, your favorite movie, or anything that stupid. No, I'm talking about real knowledge, real power; the kind of things Fury doesn't like to share... Loki knows them already, is using them against your Director... he will probably end up using them against everyone else sooner or later. And since, of course, it's the kind of knowledge you don't want to share, none of you will see it coming."

"You cannot possibly know that." Romanoff blurted out.

"Why, because you didn't?" Liam said in a biting tone. "Remember what happened the last time you thought you knew everything Agent? You failed. So spectacularly you didn't even know you had failed until it was all over."

It looked like Romanoff just might try to hit him, but someone else went to diffuse the situation.

"Liam, that's enough." John said, quietly but strongly.

Everyone else watched the exchange in silence, it was obvious something had happened in the past between those two, possibly between all three of them. Still, they had work to do and it wasn't the time.

"Loki's gonna drag this out." Steve spoke up, in an attempt to steer them all back to the main topic of conversation. "So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri." Thor declared. "They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army? From outer space?" Rogers asked in disbelief.

"So he's building another portal." Banner realized. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor interrupted.

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner explained.

"He's a friend." Thor revealed quietly, obviously affected by the revelation.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Romanoff said. "along with one of ours."

Even Liam didn't say anything cutting to that. Neither of the Scotts might have known Clint Barton, but had heard from him, mainly from Phil Coulson, who was Tony Stark's contact with SHIELD. They believed he was a good man... or in any case a man that deserved better than being one of Loki's puppets.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Steve insisted. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner opposed. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak." Thor said authoritatively. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha pointed out.

"He's adopted." Thor excused.

"Idiots, absolute idiots the lot of them." Liam practically snarled. "And if anyone were to care for my opinion. The Captain is right. Apparent craziness or anything else is irrelevant, if Loki is supposed to lead this invasion, there's a reason. We should focus on him."

"Why should we even listen to you?" Romanoff challenged. "Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to be here at all?"

"Oh... I'm no one at all, no one." Liam said in a deadpan tone. "Just the busboy who brought all of Tony's toys in. And a genius, lets not forget that part. I am telling you right now that you're going about things the wrong way, and unless you stop... well, we might be lucky if we live to regret it!"

It really pissed him off, the mere thought that despite having survived everything he had thus far (and there was a lot he'd survived, and it hadn't been easy) he might die because some people couldn't see what was so obviously right before them... of course, few things that might be obvious to him were so for anyone else.

"Liam, my brother from another mother!" Tony Stark, brunette and dark eyed genius, as well as Iron Man, called brightly as he practically waltzed into the bridge like he owned it. "Are you already breaking your toys? Playtime hasn't even begun yet!"

"You know how little patience I have when it comes to dealing with idiots, Tony." Liam said.

"Brother?" Rogers interfered. "No one said anything about Howard having another son."

"They're not actually brothers." Phil Coulson, brunette and blue-gray eyed, walking in right behind Tony, stated. "Could trick anyone into believing it if they wanted, though. Particularly since both Tony and William are geniuses in anything they can get their hands on, quite capable of doing the craziest experiments..."

"And explosions." John intervened in a half-suffering. "Don't forget the explosions."

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Maria Hill, black haired, dark-eyed woman, the second in command of SHIELD, demanded as she approached the group.

"Much as I hate to say this bro, because I've no doubt you're right, neither of us here are trained profilers or psychologists, so, for the time being, we might as well focus on our strengths." Tony said, shrugging helplessly at Liam.

Much as he hated to, the younger man had to admit Tony was right.

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Banner decided to get things back on track then.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Liam muttered under his breath, though everyone heard him.

"Right." Tony agreed. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD."

"Another stupidity." Liam practically moaned to himself, only to be shushed by John.

"It also means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." Tony went on before going to stand before the standing screens Fury used most of the time, he looked at one side and the other a few times, and then: "How does Fury do this?"

"He turns." Hill deadpanned.

"Well, that sounds exhausting." Stark shrugged,

He hid in his play-acting and over-dramatized motions the moment he placed a hacking button-device on the side of one of the screens, only his two best-friends noticed.

"The rest of the raw materials can be acquired easily." Liam went on, getting more into the swing of things. "Even a man limited by something like having to follow another's will should be able to get them easily."

"True." Tony nodded. "Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked, interested.

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Dr. Banner offered.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony pointed out.

"Which would allow him to achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Liam finished in a somewhat bored tone.

The most surprising part was hearing the same thing echoed (mostly) by Dr. Banner. For some people the scene was the revelation of the way Tony Stark and William Scott operated, with the two making leaps on the knowledge train that would be impossible for anyone else; Johnathan just watching and smiling at the exchange; only interfering when he believed one or both of them were taking something too far.

Tony for his part, focused completely on Bruce.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner." He stated, offering his hand to the other man. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Liam snorted from his place and John could only roll his eyes fondly; everyone else though, stared at Tony as though he was crazy (hard to know for sure if they were right).

"Thanks." Banner stated, though he sounded unsure.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube." Nick Fury stated, finally joining them. "I was hoping you might join him."

"You should start with that stick of his." Rogers suggested. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." Fury said. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor muttered, confused.

"I do!" Steve cried out, excited. "I understood that reference."

Liam didn't understand either, but John was the only one who noticed, and chose not to say anything about it, just promising quietly to his partner to explain the reference later.

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony invited Banner.

"Let's play." Banner agreed.

"Come on Liam." Tony called even as he walked away. "Don't be a sour-puss and join the party. John, bring your hubby, come on!"

"Hubby?!" Steve blurted out, shocked.

Liam looked like he might have a sharp response to that, but John stopped him, signaling to get moving, while he answered.

"I believe we haven't been properly introduced, captain." The short man (he was even shorter than Tony) stated in a pleasant tone. "We, of course, are aware who you all are, I hope you don't mind but we took a look at the files Agent Coulson left with Tony last night. As for us. I am Johnathan Scott, the man who just left is William Scott. We've been Tony's business partners and close friends for a few years now." He made a pause before adding. "It's how we all met Miss Romanoff. She tried to go undercover as Pepper, Pepper Potts, SI's CEO, PA; but Liam knew what she was from the first day..." Which explained the animosity there. "What else? Ah, right. Liam and I are married, have been for almost as long as we've known Tony, though we've been together for much longer than that... sometimes it seems like we've been together our whole lives... So, that's that. Excuse me."

No one had a response to that, whether they'd known about the couple before or not, there simply didn't seem to be any words for it. Not from the most open-minded, or even from the man who came from a time when men being together was illegal.

John didn't say anything else, he just turned around and went to join his husband, second best friend (for Liam would always be his first) and Dr. Banner in the labs. He might not be a genius like the other three, but he knew he would be able to help somehow, he always did.

xXx

John was focused on carefully putting away every piece of medical equipment that had just been used, making sure to dispose of any syringes and such in a safe manner.

"So, what's the what Doc?" Tony asked, rolling down the sleeves of his shirt.

"The palladium poisoning seems to have left your blood almost completely." John declared, all seriousness. "Regretfully some of it will stay with you. You let this go on too long, and not all damage can be undone..."

"I know, I know..." Tony interrupted with an almost dismissive tone. "You told me from the very start John. And I told you back then there was nothing we could do about it. And you did all you could to give me time and so I wouldn't be in pain..."

"I still wish I could have done more." John admitted. "Seeing you getting progressively worse, the drugs working less and less..."

"Stop being so depressing already!" Liam snapped as he approached.

Dummy was behind him, carefully balancing a tray with several cups and, a tea kettle and saucers with milk and sugar (he was quite proud when he managed to place the tray on the table without doing more than spilling a few drops of milk).

"Tea? Really?" Tony asked, furrowing his brow. "Where's the booze? We're supposed to be celebrating guys!"

"We are celebrating." Liam stated, as he served each cup. "This is true tea, British tea, not the poor excuse for it you Americans drink. I had JARVIS order it a while ago."

"And you know you can't drink alcohol for a little while Tony, not while you are taking that medication to cleanse your blood as much as possible from the palladium." John reminded him.

Tony didn't complain. He knew he'd made enough of a mess on his birthday. After so long keeping to water and juices disguised as cocktails, that night he hadn't only drank, he'd drank a lot. It'd just been so much, the realization that regardless of how hard his two friends tried, he was still dying; and that, added to the stress of having a spy in his own home, Pepper pulling away, hurt, not really understanding what was going on, and Rhodey's betrayal...

"Will you ever forgive him?" Liam asked quietly.

Tony didn't even bother asking if he'd read his mind, he did it too often.

"I think I will have to." Tony admitted quietly. "In any case, I will need to re-appropriate that suit at some point, if only to take away everything Hammer put in and substitute it with SI stuff. As upset as I might be right now I won't let Rhodey get killed for trusting Hammer's faulty tech..." He let out a breath. "You know, it's not the fact that he took the suit that angers me."

"I know." Liam nodded. "If you didn't intend it to happen, he'd have never been able to use it."

"Exactly!" Tony cried out, finally letting out what he felt about it. "I refitted the Mark II so Rhodey would be able to use it, and he doesn't see that. He doesn't realize that none of my other suits would have ever worked for him, they don't even fit him, we're not the same size!"

He was right of course, but Rhodey had been so busy with his righteous anger, he hadn't noticed any of it. Just like he hadn't noticed when Tony had first approached him, intending to talk to him about the suit, shortly after Afghanistan, after ending the weapons' production. James Rhodes never noticed those things, all the ways he kept hurting Tony, little by little. Tony had wanted his old friend to be a part of his legacy, and the Colonel turned every chance down without even realizing it... In the end he'd still be, he had the suit, he was War Machine. But he'd never reach the heights he would have, were he truly working side by side with Tony, as was originally intended. And no one but Tony, John and Liam would know.

"What about Ms. Romanova?" John asked quietly.

He knew the woman who'd gone by the name Natalie Rushman was a sore point for Tony. The way she'd gained Pepper's trust, only to be able to use it against Tony later. The way she'd made Happy feel insecure, that a secretary might be able to defeat him. Tony might have been a tad distracted at the time, with the palladium and everything. But Liam and John had still been there, between the two of them they'd managed to catch the woman in her game before anyone got hurt. They'd chosen not to reveal anything, instead have the spy hang herself with her own rope. And the moment had come when Fury confronted Tony after his drunk binge on the disaster that became his birthday party, and Natasha Romanoff (once again as her true self) tried to get to Tony from behind and inject him with an experimental drug. Only to find herself stopped, and quite viciously too, by John.

Bottom-line, Romanoff had been so convinced of her own abilities she never considered the fact that she might have been found out. The possibility that everything Tony did in her sight might be an act (except for that party, that truly was a mess). Just like SHIELD never considered that Tony might actually be under a treatment of sorts to delay the effects of the palladium and if they'd gotten away with injecting that drug into Tony they might have end up killing him!

"I don't trust her." Tony murmured after what seemed like forever. "I don't know that I ever will. Then again, as long as my status with SHIELD remains that of a Consultant, I don't see why I'd need to see her ever again."

They all knew it wouldn't be pretty if he did. The one thing neither men had considered when making their plans about Natasha Romanoff, was how hurt Pepper would be. Hos much trust he'd put on her 'PA' and the results of having that trust betrayed... it was nothing as bad as what Tony had gone through with Obadiah, thankfully, but still bad enough. And that was the part neither of them (because Tony might be Pepper's boyfriend, but both Liam and John saw her a bit like a sister and cared deeply for her as such) would ever forgive the spy for.

"I don't know if I'll ever fully trust SHIELD after this." Tony admitted, in a vulnerable tone he only had when talking with the two of them, or Pepper.

"An intelligence Agency that is against its own people sharing in the intelligence... while sad it's not exactly a new thing." John pointed out with a slight shrug.

"Still, historically not good either." Liam added.

Everyone agreed, though that did not help them decide how they were going to deal with things.

"Changing topic." Tony called suddenly. "As you know, we're almost finished with Stark Tower... if all goes well it will be ready tomorrow and... well..."

"You would like us to disappear so you and Pepper can celebrate." John finished for him.

"Something like that, yes." Tony admitted with a sincere, growing smile, before adding. "I'm thinking of asking her to marry me."

There was no response to that, nor any need for one either, Tony knew his friends would always be happy for him and Pepper both.

xXx

It had been an absolute mess... though mess probably wasn't a strong enough word for it all. The arguments in the lab, with Dr. Banner so unsure of himself, Rogers in all his self-righteous glory wanting to lead men with no interest in being lead, Tony reacting defensively at the fact that he was in a SHIELD installation, surrounded by so many people he didn't trust, especially the 'legend' his own father had chosen above his own flesh and blood. John and Liam could only watch in silence, not knowing what to do. At some point Liam tried to warn them all about the mistakes they'd made during Loki's interrogation, regarding their conclusions about the Hulk, how they were twisting facts to suit theories rather than the other way around... no one listened to a single word he said.

And then disaster struck. In the end Loki did what SHIELD had expected, used Hulk against them. Liam wondered if that meant he'd been wrong, John thought it was possible that he'd done it because they'd suggested it first... or maybe it was simply rotten timing. In any case, none of that changed what had happened.

Liam had followed Tony and Rogers to fix the engine that had been affected by the explosion used as both a distraction and an in by the mercs attacking the helicarrier. While Rogers might be able to fight, he wouldn't be much help for Tony with the actual repairing; and while engineering wasn't really Liam's specially, he knew enough.

John for his part had pulled out his own gun and followed other SHIELD Agents, helping them to systematically take down the mercenaries, one by one. No one commented on his meddling, but after seeing his aim simply made a spot for him in the formation and went on. The short man didn't stay with them for long, eventually slipping away to go to the 'prison-area' instead (all three of them had the blueprints of the helicarrier memorized, though SHIELD had changed a few details, Tony had designed them). He arrived just in time to see Coulson bleeding out and about to lose consciousness.

"Just stay awake." Fury was saying, voice going higher as he lost his composure. "Eyes On Me!"

"No, I'm clocked out here..." Phil half-groaned.

Fury was probably going to say something, express his denial in some way; but John was moving and talking before he was fully conscious of it.

"Not an option." He announced as he dropped on his knees beside the two men.

His hands worked without need for his mind to really give any orders. The moves well-practiced, more instinct than knowledge. Soon he'd taken off Phil's jacket, placed it behind his head as a pillow of sorts, the shirt was taken off too, used to put pressure on Phil's back; while that was the entrance wound, and usually John would have chosen to focus on that first; he knew in that moment the priority was to make sure he continued breathing, keep his heart beating, which meant focusing on his front.

It was quite helpful when the paramedics arrived, if only because they could get an IV working, as well as help him with CPR and the like.

"Boss... the Avengers... can still work..." Phil stuttered in Fury's direction. "They just... they... need... a reason..."

Phil's lost consciousness about then, but John didn't lose his cool. Just kept working, giving orders to the paramedics as needed, all who followed them easily enough.

"Move away Scott." Fury ordered eventually.

"I won't sir." John retorted calmly.

"Let my men do their work." The Director insisted.

"With all due respect to them." And certainly not to Fury. "Your men are paramedics, I am a doctor. I know what I'm doing..."

"All the same, I don't know you, therefore I don't trust you..."

"I couldn't care less sir. I do not work for you, I only care about saving Phil's life."

"How do you even know it can be done?"

"The mere fact that you don't think it can, tells me you're the wrong kind of person to leave this kind of job to. For all I know you would give up in two minutes and then open a line to the Avengers and tell them something like 'Agent Coulson is down' or some other shit."

John didn't know he'd hit the nail right in the head, he just knew there was something telling in Fury's eyes, something that made him decide to make something else obvious.

"Liam, I'm in the prison area." He spoke up, cocking his head sideways just enough to call attention to the well-hidden comm in his ear. "Let the others know that Loki escaped, we apparently lost Thor at some point, though I'm unclear on the details on that one. Oh, and Agent Coulson is badly injured, though he'll live."

"You shouldn't be giving any guarantees to my people." Fury practically snarled at him. "You have no idea. And I gave no permission."

"Again, I don't work for you." John interrupted the Director's rant. "And I do know, it's not the first time I've dealt with an injury like this..." He let out a breath. "Also, as intimidating as your men might find you, Director Coulson, I'm not afraid of you. I know you don't like me, never have. If you could truly do something to get rid of me, of both me and Liam, you would have done it years ago. Since you haven't... well..." He shrugged. "In any case, complaining about what I've already done is kinda pointless, don't you think?"

Fury had nothing else to say. So, after making sure the paramedics had the situation well under control, and that they knew better than to try and fake Coulson's 'death' when he was gone, John eventually made his own way back to the bridge. Fury hadn't waited for him, obviously, he probably even hoped John would choose to stay with Phil, give him one less troublesome person to deal with... John wasn't that accommodating. He arrived to the bridge right on time to listen to what seemed like the second half of a very long speech:

"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract." It was the Director talking. "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." He let out a breath. "Phil Coulson believed in that idea, in heroes..."

"Shouldn't you be saying he believes in that idea, Director?" John called scathingly. "After all, it's not like Agent Coulson is dead."

Everyone turned to look at him (all but Fury, who just rolled his eyes and looked away). Liam was out of his seat in a second, taking hold of his partner's arms and looking down at him, at his blood-stained sweater.

"I'm fine." John assured him quietly. "It's not mine. Phil was bleeding badly..."

"Is he truly alright?" Rogers asked.

And the fact that the man was asking him, when the Director standing right then, showed how badly things were going, as well as what direction the distrust went.

"Unconscious." The doctor admitted. "In an involuntary comma, pretty much. To be perfectly honest with you, his condition is volatile, but stable. If we get him to a good hospital in the next few hours and have specialists on his case I'm convinced he'll be just fine with some time. The worst part was all the blood he lost. It's pretty much why he's in a comma right now. One of his lungs was badly pierced, but thankfully did not collapse. He also has a few bruised ribs. On the other hand his heart is alright and his spine wasn't touched, which is quite good. The brunt of the damage was elsewhere in..." he broke off for a moment. "In the vena cava."

No one, not even Fury and Hill (who'd just joined them) missed the way John's fists tightened at those words, at the same time Liam flinched visibly, a hand reaching for his own chest. None of them needed to be geniuses to suspect the Scotts had previous experience with such injuries, though there was no way of knowing how...

"What's new around here?" John asked in turn.

"Agent Barton is back." Liam informed him. "Romanoff made sure to get him out of whatever magic Loki had been using."

"How?" John was honestly curious at that.

"Cognitive Re-calibration..." Tony answered from the table with a wide grin, before clarifying. "Which means she hit him very hard in the head."

John snorted but did not comment about Romanoff's methods. It wasn't the time to get into that.

"I told them about Coulson." Liam added. "Romanoff said to thank you and that she would be by to see him as soon as she was sure Barton wouldn't have a meltdown."

"We've no time for those." John agreed with the sentiment. "Whatever Loki's planned, it's not over just yet."

"I know." The taller man agreed. "Though you have to agree there's something off about all this. There has been from the start."

"So I'm not the only one who sees it!" Tony called loudly once more.

"What are you three talking about now?" Hill demanded.

Liam and Tony turned to look at each other with their 'I'm surrounded by idiots' expression, which made John decided to answer himself.

"Loki is supposed to be a genius, right?" He asked the room in general. "Thor at least implied something to that effect at some point. So, why then would a genius make this many mistakes when supposedly trying to conquer our planet?"

"Mistakes...?" Rogers blurted out, confused.

"Supposedly?!" Hill and Fury called, almost in unison.

"I'm not the only one who sees it, right?" John asked, to the nods of his two best friends and the baffled looks of everyone else. "Come on, I'm not a genius and I saw it!"

"As I've found out, you constantly see things others fail to, or simply do not care to see." Liam stated calmly. "I agree with your deduction, but am interested on how you reached it."

"What he said." Tony contributed.

"A man who's lived as long as Loki seems to have, who's a scholar and a top-grade sorcerer wouldn't have tried to conquer Earth, he simply would have." John stated. "He should have the power to do it, yet he doesn't, why?"

"You think someone's blocking his true power." Tony guessed.

"Either that or he cannot think to reach for it." John offered. "Also, someone who's lived that long, especially in a world filled with warriors would know at least basic strategy, right? Why then would he choose to go about his whole invasion attempt in such a way that instead of picking us off one by one, we are given the chance to gather together?"

"What...?" Several voices asked again.

"It's simple mathematics Cap." Tony stated in a 'duh' tone. "Loki could have picked us off one by one, being on our own and vulnerable. Instead he pushed for a situation that had us all gathered together, 'trying' to be a team, why?"

"To prove he's still stronger than us?" Hill asked, in a tone that made her anger obvious.

"Really?" Liam challenged. "Then why is none of us dead right now?"

That left everyone speechless.

"Liam's right." John agreed. "Just think about it. Thor fell, but he has the power to survive something like that. Same with Dr. Banner's alter ego. Barton is alive and back. And even when he lead the mercs on this ship, he didn't kill a single person, and you cannot tell me its because he didn't get a chance, or because he missed... because from what I know, he never misses a target."

"The logical deduction then would be that he wasn't meant to kill any of us." Liam took over where he left off. "Which means either Loki was being foolish, or there's something else going on we're not aware of..." He made a pause, as if only then noticing something, eyes staring straight at John. "You said, 'cannot think to reach for it'... Did you imply what I think you did?"

"Thor already said someone was giving him an army, had given him that scepter, what guarantee do we have that's were the intervention of this Other ended?" John declared.

"What are you talking about now?" Rogers demanded.

"Oh, I like this!" Tony announced, obviously being the able to follow the Scotts' line of thought. "John's proposing the theory that Reindeer Games might be as much of a puppet as Legolas was until Natashalie knocked him around a bit."

"That's ridiculous!" Hill scoffed.

"Why?" Liam challenged. "Because the idea didn't occur to you?"

"Because he's evil." Hill insisted.

"Evil, like many other things in this world, is subjective and a matter of perspective." Liam stated loftily. "We say a man who kills another is evil. But what about the soldiers in wars? You might say that they're battling enemies, so it's justified? But what about when they kill civilians? Maybe because they didn't know, maybe because they had too... How much can one justify? Because some might consider Loki to be at war, and wouldn't that justify his killing? You say he's the enemy, like we say about those in Afghanistan; they would say we're the evil ones. And if the theory holds, it wasn't even his choice to come here or fight us at all." He made a pause, seeing the disbelief in the SHIELD Agents. "You want so much to see him as evil, truth is you just want someone to blame for what's happening. Will you then blame Agent Barton for the attack here just now? Or for what happened in Stuttgart? Will you blame him and Selvig for the upcoming invasion? If we're right, what makes them any different?"

"And if you're wrong?" Fury demanded.

The two geniuses and the spouse of the second all either scoffed or chuckled. Liam might claim he was 'almost always right' to be grammatically correct, yet he knew the chances of such a thing happening were extremely small... all three of them believing the same (having come to the same conclusion separately) and being in the wrong? The odds were astronomical.

"So, now what?" Rogers asked.

"Now, we stop an invasion, then we find a way to prove our theory." Tony announced.

"Then its time to suit-up." Rogers announced, getting on his feet. "I shall let Agents Romanoff and Barton know."

With that, the four men began moving.

"Sir," Maria Hill called to her superior a moment later. "They don't even know where to go..."

"They will." Fury assured her.

He had no doubt about that. He might hardly be able to stand Stark and the Scotts, but there was no doubt that at least two of them were geniuses. If anyone had a chance at deducing where the alien invasion would be starting, it was them... then it would be up to the Avengers as a whole to defeat it. He just hoped Phil was right and they could really be the heroes the world needed.

xXx

"I am Iron Man, really Tony?"

Tony, Liam and John were gathered together on the terrace of the Malibu house having a drink and discussing what had happened just the day before. John in particular was being rather insistent in his chiding of the genius and self-assigned superhero.

"Please, you know he likes to be dramatic." Liam deadpanned.

"Yes, and that reminds me of nobody else in my life." John stated sarcastically.

"Forget about that, no use crying over spilled milk, or whatever." Liam stated. "I'd rather focus on something else entirely. Like the man who infiltrated this place last night."

"He hacked JARVIS." Tony hissed, tone dark.

Most probably wouldn't understand, they would see JARVIS just as a computer. But he was more, not just because he was an AI, it went beyond that. He reasoned, learned, felt... he was as close to human as any creature that hadn't been born as such could be. Tony knew that, he'd made him that way; and both John and Liam knew and accepted that fact. As such they realized that what Nick Fury had done was akin to violation in many ways. Having hacked JARVIS, having hurt him, was something neither man would ever forgive Fury, or SHIELD, for.

Tony cared little about things like the so-called Avengers Initiative, or whatever idea Fury and his organization might have about superheroes. He cared about his people: John, Liam, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, and of course JARVIS and the bots... Which was why, the moment the man left, he began working on new code that would allow JARVIS to protect himself from such attacks in the future... he also promised himself that one day he'd get back at SHIELD for the travesty.

"How are you feeling now?" John asked Tony quietly after a while.

"Much better." Tony nodded, taking another sip of his drink. "But you should know that already, you're the one who does all my tests, Doc."

"True." The short man agreed. "It was fortunate that whatever damage the loss of the arc-reactor for those few minutes caused you, it wasn't permanent." He made a pause before adding. "Also fortunate that Pepper chose to create that gift for you rather than truly disposing of the old reactor like you told her too."

"It's why I like her." Tony stated with a grin, a phrase that would be stated time and again through the upcoming months and years, eventually evolving into 'it's why I love her'.

"Pepper Potts is certainly a clever woman, almost a genius in her own way." Liam agreed.

"That's the biggest compliment you'll ever hear from him." John told Tony conspiratorially.

The two laughed at that. Liam didn't, but smiled at his partner anyway.

They were having a good new life, he liked it, they both did in fact. Nothing like they would have ever imagined having, back before everything had changed unexpectedly, but still. Neither of them would be doing anything to endanger it.

"Tony..." John murmured, voice grave. "What are we going to do about that?"

He didn't even need to point, all three of them knew what he was speaking of. John wasn't an engineer or a chemist, but he was a doctor, the moment the other two had mentioned what made the core of the arc-reactor John had known what that meant for Tony's health.

"I don't know that anything can be done." Tony admitted quietly.

"You're not giving up." Liam stated strongly. "I'm not allowing you to give up Anthony Stark. We will try, theorize, experiment with every single element in the periodic table and any variation that we need to. But we will find a solution to this problem." He turned to his partner. "John, can you help him?"

"There are certain drugs..." John admitted, even as he contemplated the options available. "You included a medical license in the documents for our new identities. So there are some drugs, a few quite experimental, I might be able to get my hands on. They would help delay the effects of the palladium, might even work for treating the symptoms of the poisonings, but they won't work as a permanent solution... you need to find a substitute core for your arc-reactor if you are to survive past the next year or so."

Tony nodded. It was a serious matter, and he knew that. He wasn't sure how hopeful he was of actually finding a solution... but Liam and John were willing to try, and so he would as well. He could do nothing less for two of his best friends.

xXx

Liam got to the bridge, which was looking a bit worse for wear after the recent fight (which had included a grenade being detonated right there), right as Fury was giving orders about recovering communications and whatever else as needed. Iron Man (a bit beat up but still mostly functional) had just left the helicarrier, closely followed by a quinjet carrying Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Doc (what they'd agreed on calling Johnathan while in mission). Liam hadn't liked much him going, but neither of them had liked the idea of Tony going into something like what was coming with no backup he could actually trust. Even if they all still believed Dr. Banner would find his way and do what was right, there was no guarantee he would arrive in time (at least he was a genius and there was no reason to believe he wouldn't be able to reach the right conclusion regarding where the invasion would be starting, just like they had).

"I thought you would be on that jet." Fury commented when seeing him.

"Not really, John is more of a fighter than I am, always has been." Liam shrugged, not letting anyone see just how worried he was about his partner.

"All the same, I'd have expected the good doctor to want to keep an eye of Agent Coulson." Fury added, as if fishing for information.

"John is a doctor, and a very good one, but he's also a fighter, has always been." Liam had barely held from calling him a soldier, but that would have meant giving too much away.

The man knew there was a very good chance his secret, their secret, would come out before the end of the day (he was a genius, after all, he knew the odds), but he wasn't giving in until there was no other choice.

"I might be able to help with your communications issue." He announced simply.

"How?" Hill asked, honestly intrigued.

Fury was interested too, but he also knew enough to guess he probably wasn't going to like it.

"JARVIS." Liam answered, pulling a thumb-drive from his pocket. "I know a virus was used in your systems, which caused the failure of an engine as well as your loss of communications. This is a remote port for JARVIS. He will get into your systems, clean them up and give us the visuals and whatever else we might need. Even some you wouldn't usually have access to."

"In exchange of allowing you access to SHIELD's systems?" Hill asked testily. "I'm not sure I like that plan."

"I don't expect you to." Liam nodded calmly. "The question is, what matters more to you, right now? What's more important, the need to do what's right, or your pride?"

He might have said it in a perfectly even voice, but it was a challenge, and everyone who heard the words knew it. It was up to the two leaders of SHIELD to decide.

"Do it." Fury ordered after a brief hesitation.

"Sir!" Hill couldn't believe it.

"Hill, I might not like Stark and the Scotts, but I do know they're not our enemies." Fury stated calmly but authoritatively. "And right now we have enemies we need to deal with." He turned to the younger Scott. "Do it."

Liam passed over the thumb-drive to one of the techs, who plugged it into the nearest port. He wasn't too worried about recovering it afterwards, the device had been created for a single use. JARVIS would use it to gain access into SHIELD's network, and then it would be useless (they'd created it that way on purpose, to make sure not to leave anything SHIELD might try and use to hurt JARVIS again).

"JARVIS, you on?" Liam asked, a hand on his ear to focus on his special comm (he was wearing two, one that connected him only Tony, John and of course JARVIS, the other fixed on a general channel with all the Avengers).

"I am here, sir." JARVIS replied.

"All eyes and ears you can get on Manhattan, do so." Liam ordered as he commandeered one of the screens. "Anything you think Tony or John need to be aware of, let them know, anything you think one of the others need to know, tell me."

"Yes, sir." JARVIS said.

Fury and Hill had to admit it was a good plan. Soon enough every screen had a mix of images and sounds from whatever cameras and other devices in downtown New York that hadn't yet been destroyed. Some of them were redirected to Liam's screen and then he would give instructions to one of the Avengers, either warning them of a danger, civilians trapped, or suggesting alternative courses of action.

Liam might not have been fighting down there, but he was doing as much as any of the others to help in the battle.

The battle went on for a long time, though none of them were keeping count, and then:

"Sir, the council is on." Hill announced unexpectedly.

Liam caught Fury's brief gut reaction to that announcement, it wasn't good. For the most part he kept his attention on helping the team, but he was a genius and quite capable of doing several things at the same time, so he focused a part of him on that call.

Things really didn't go well.

"Director Fury, the council has made a decision." One of the councilmen stated after a quite long and trying argument.

"I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it." Fury retorted with quiet anger.

From his spot Liam couldn't help but think Fury had guts, he'd known few people willing to respond that way to those more powerful than themselves; even his brother would rather bow to the pressure of what few authorities he had than stand for himself and what he knew was right.

Director, you're closer than any of our subs, you scramble that jet..." Another of the council members began, probably believing they were being reasonable.

"That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman." Fury spat. "Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population."

But of course they didn't believe in the Avengers, they never had; they probably were the kind of purists that believed that anyone not fully human was somehow less... which was absolutely ridiculous. Or maybe it was simply the fact that they knew if the Avengers actually won, they would have power and authority, which the WSC themselves never would.

"If we don't hold them in the air, we lose everything." Another insisted.

"If I send that bird out, we already have." Fury stated, as blank as he could.

Fury was about to interrupt the conference call, when Liam was suddenly standing beside him.

"If I may interfere, lady and gentlemen." He called stoically.

"Who are you?" Practically all the members of the council demanded at the same time.

"My name is irrelevant." The tall man stated, before allowing his usual American accent to vanish,

stating in completely unaccented English: "Code: Mike-Sierra-Hotel-Zero-Six-Zero-One-Five-Four. Authorization: Sea Lion."

The reaction from everyone on the World Security Council was immediate and chaotic, however, before any questions could be made, Liam himself interrupted communications.

"What did you just do?!" Fury demanded, on the edge of losing it.

"Buy you, buy us all some time." Liam answered honestly. "At best, that code will be enough to make them rethink their choices to bomb NY..."

"And at worst?" Hill asked from a side.

"It will give us a few minutes." Liam replied, before pressing a hand to his comm. "John, Tony!"

"Yeah?" Both answered about the same time.

"We're running out of time." He stated in a completely no-nonsense tone. "The WSC just tried to send a nuke into Manhattan."

"Tried?" Tony repeated, just to make sure.

"What did you do?" John went for what he thought was the important point.

"Gave them Mycroft's highest security code." Liam answered after a deep breath.

"Oh love..." There was such sadness in John's voice, all who heard him couldn't help but feel it.

"Can you get out of there before they call back?" Tony asked, going straight to 'worst case scenario' in his mind.

"I could, maybe." Liam shrugged, not even trying to hide his conversation from the leaders of SHIELD. "But I won't. It's been years... maybe it's time I stop running."

"We." John corrected him. "You know I will always stand by you, always."

"I know John, I know." Liam assured him.

"Very well, in that case, lets finish this already so we can all go home!" Tony announced.

It wouldn't be long before Romanoff announced she could close the portal. In the last moment Tony would get the crazy idea of sending his suit through; after doing a crazy maneuver that allowed him to get out of the suit and land on the tower's rooftop while JARVIS remotely directed the empty shell through the portal and wherever the Chitauri were coming from, activating the self-destruct (and even without the arc-reactor in, the suit had enough power to make them burn!). Also, they weren't sure if it was the huge explosion or the closing of the portal, but something made all the aliens left on Earth collapse, like puppets whose strings had been abruptly cut off. The battle was over, they'd won.

In the helicarrier, Liam let out a breath as he went to sit on the nearest chair. He could hear Tony making his crazy plan, John cursing him, even as JARVIS helped his master. But his attention was soon claimed by Fury.

"What did you do?" He asked the genius straight on.

"I already told you Director." Liam answered blankly.

"You told me how we could expect them to react, but not why, what it means to you." Fury insisted, he knew he was missing something, again.

"You've always suspected that William Scott wasn't my real name." The tall British man told him quite calmly. "Well, guess what? You were right! At least in part..."

"Who are you?" Hill asked, slowly but sharply.

Liam seemed to consider the question for several seconds before shrugging. What the hell? It's not like they wouldn't all know. They would be looking up that code, which would take them to Mycroft, and from them it wouldn't be hard for the politician to deduce how exactly that code had ended in the ears of the World Security Council. He might as well make the conscious choice of saying his name, his real name, at least once, himself:

"My name is William Sherlock Scott Holmes."

I'm sure everyone reading knew who exactly Tony's friends were from the get go, but my muse insisted that the story be written this way anyway.

Not sure if you've realized this already, but the fic title actually comes from Agents of SHIELD (which has nothing to do with this piece, just so you know). In the second episode, when they are learning to be a team, there is talk about each of them not needing to do it all on their own, they can work together to come up with a solution, I think it's Skye who actually says it together, about them working together 'like pieces of a puzzle'.

Now, for the second surprise, as should be probably obvious by this point. This is the one piece in all the series that wasn't finished in a One-Shot (I tried, believe me, I did, my muse fought me tooth and nail and in the end refused to cooperate, so I ended up splitting it). Which means next week we'll see the conclusion of this. It will include a last flashback, handling how and when exactly this three meant, the kind of aftermath-of-the-Battle-of-New-York I feel we were owed in canon and, a little something else, but I'll leave that as a surprise.

So, hope you liked this and will be reading the second half next week. See ya around!