The Chitauri swarmed the sky over New York City in a massive armed wave of weaponry and determination. While five of the six members of the Avengers worked together to try to stop the invading army and protect the innocent bystanders caught in the midst of the raging war, Thor; the God of Thunder, confronted his brother Loki; the God of Mischief and Magic atop Stark Tower in a desperate bid to persuade the angry god to call of the invasion and stop the war before it obliterates the Earth.

"Look at this! Look around you!" Thor shouted bitterly as he and Loki interlocked their weapons; Thor's hammer Mjolnir against Loki's scepter. "You think this madness will end with your rule?"

Loki's eyes, normally bright with a confident and intelligent light had dulled into a shadow of doubt and regret. His shoulders sagged as the tension left his arms, the scepter lowering away from Mjolnir in the process. As he looked about the city around him, the cries and explosions of the Chitauri force in the throes of combat against the other five Avengers filled the air with a sickening ambience of loss and pain.

"It's too late..." Loki sincerely lamented as he stopped his confrontation with his brother all together. The fighting spirit seemingly as dormant as his regret and pain filled eyes. "It's too late to stop it."

"No, we can. Together." Thor lowered Mjolnir to his side as a sign of trust toward his brother. The warmth in Thor's voice was full of wisdom beyond the young god's years, yet it held as much merit as any seasoned warrior or king.

The inner conflict that Loki was struggling to end was evident in his eyes. The younger god was full of anger and resentment toward Odin, the Allfather of Asgard; the father to Thor and the adoptive father to Loki himself. In his anger he lashed out at his brother, his adoptive father and his mother without just cause, and even dared to destroy an entire realm out of a misguided self hatred.

After his fall from his brief reign as King of Asgard, after his fall from the Rainbow Bridge that housed the Bi-Frost and the gateway between all worlds Loki had been lost in a seemingly eternal dark abyss in the midst of the cosmos. The vile tyrant Thanos had encountered the wayward god and recruited him to his army and gave him the task of conquering the Earth. If Loki refused, the heartless ruler would've simply struck Loki down without a second thought or worse; Thanos would've led the assault against the Earth as well as all the other worlds himself.

Loki hadn't been given a choice when Thanos found him. But now Thor, his brother and childhood best friend, had given him a choice.

"Thor," Loki's voice was unusually soft when he spoke. "what has been done has been done. I cannot undo the damage."

"No, but you can stop this chaos before it's truly too late." Thor put his hand to Loki's shoulder and braced it tightly. "You are clever. You can and will find a way to end this."

Unconvinced Loki stared at the malicious assault taking place all around him. The bodies of the fallen Chitauri were already stacking up, the screams of panicked and trapped innocent bystanders were drowned out by the shrill battle cries and roars of the Chitauri invasion, the air smelled of smoke, fire and even blood.

The blood of humans and the blood aliens alike mixed together in a noxious aroma that danced about on the breeze blowing throughout the city.

"Please." Thor asked again, his blue eyes sincere and focused. "I know you. Deep down inside you do not wish to harm anyone, you were enraged about your circumstances just as I was." Thor empathized with Loki's plight. "While I was humbled in my exile on Earth amongst new allies you were alone with the truth over the lies you had been told your entire life. And I am sorry Father hurt you."

The apology was unexpected and one that Loki hadn't realized he had wanted.

"You simply wish to find your place; your destiny." Thor continued calmly. "Perhaps it is here among the Midgardians."

"How can you be so certain of my actions?" Loki sounded almost desperate. "I willingly accepted my role in Thanos' army without a single utter of protest. How can you trust me?"

"Because Loki," Thor moved his hand from Loki's shoulder and patted the side of Loki's face. "you are my brother."

Turning to look to his older brother Loki relaxed the palm of his right hand allowing the concealed dagger he had hidden up his sleeve fall into his grip. Glancing down at the weapon in his hand he held up between himself and Thor before tossing it aside. The weapon clanked with a metallic sound on balcony of the tower away from the two brothers.

"Sentiment." Loki sighed wearily as he came to his senses. The fear that Loki had righteously harbored toward Thanos being pushed aside in favor of atoning his mistake. "We must close the portal." Loki stated firmly as he looked up to the sky and stared at the mass wormhole connecting the Earth to the other side of space beyond the nine realms where the Chitauri reside.

"What must be done?"

"I do not know."

"Loki," Thor lifted his hammer and held it toward Loki's jaw. "do not test my trust in you."

"This is not a test." Loki's reply was honest and held a twinge of fear. "It was not I who constructed the portal. It was your ally Selvig who accomplished this feat."

"Selvig." Thor lowered his hammer again. "Where is he?"

Before Loki had the chance to respond a massive blast from a passing Chitauri rocked the balcony and caused the two brothers to stumble on their feet. The passing Chitauri locked onto Loki now aware that their leader had switched sides and was now the enemy.

"Damn." Loki stated flatly as the alien beast let out a shrill battle cry that signaled the others to join it at Stark Tower. "Can you handle this many?"

"Of course." Thor tightened his grip on Mjolnir and readied to swing as Loki held the scepter with both of his hands and stood at his brother's side. "It's just like training with Father all over again."

"You speak as though that particular childhood memory is pleasant."

"For the thousandth time Loki, I wasn't aiming for you! The target had moved and I didn't have time to redirect my lightning blast."

"Tell that to the scar on my left shoulder blade."

A mass of Chitauri gathered around the tower riding atop their metallic vehicles. With a single cry the mass unleashed a flurry of energy blasts. Using perfectly aimed and synchronized motions of their weapons to two gods managed to deflect most of the attacks away from themselves and back at the attacking foes.

From the street below Captain America: Steve Rogers and Black Widow: Agent Natasha Romanoff looked up at the tower to see the convergence at the building with no context as to why so many of the aliens had been drawn to the singular area.

"Hawkeye." Black Window pressed his hand to the communicator in her ear. "Stark Tower is under attack. What can you see?"

"It looks like their honing in on Thor." The archer's reply was calm as he spoke. Hawkeye: Agent Clint Barton and Natasha were very close friends and had spent numerous missions together in the most dangerous of situations. He trusted her entirely as a result. "And... Loki is with him!"

"Loki?" Steve replied with absolute shock. "What's he doing? Is Thor in danger?"

"Looks like Thor and Loki are working together! I don't trust him..."

Suddenly Iron Man: Tony Stark's voice cut in over the line. "And why would you? He's only the guy who brought this alien hoard to Earth to begin with."

"Stark." Natasha interjected sternly. "Can you get the tower?"

"Yup. Going to check it out as we speak."

Iron Man flew over the sky above Steve and Natasha with a blast of speed. A squadron of Chitauri surrounded Steve and Natasha on the street but the skilled duo had little difficulty in dispatching the crowding threat.

As Stark reached the balcony where the duo gods were working together to stave off the Chitauri assault the tower shuddered violently from the bombardment of movement and violence. The balcony began to crumble and collapse beneath Thor's feet causing the god to fall to his knees. A blast from a Chitauri laser made contact with Thor's right hand causing him to drop Mjolnir and to fall forward onto his hands and knees.

The balcony groaned in protest as the structural integrity gave way and the base of the balcony broke away from the supports connecting it to the tower itself. Thor and Loki both began to slide forward as the balcony itself tilted downward into a sloped angle all the while attempting to dodge Chitauri fire.

"Heads up!" Tony shouted as he unleashed a barrage of missiles from his armor to strike the aliens to end their attack and change their focus.

The Chitauri protested the attack and turned around to square off against Stark who wisely led the aliens away from the tower and toward the center of the city where Dr. Bruce Banner: The Hulk, Hawkeye, Natasha and Steve were containing the majority of the chaos.

As the balcony gave way the degree of the angled slope in which it had taken during its fall increasing by the second. Thor struggled to retain a grip on the failing surface as his right hand had been damaged by the Chitauri attack. Sliding forward, unable to stop his momentum, the god prepared to fall from the tower in a graceless plummet to the street below.

"Thor!" Loki dove forward sliding on his side with arm outstretched toward his brother. Just as Thor slipped over the edge of the balcony, his body hanging over the side with only one direction to fall, Loki's hand wrapped around Thor's hand and held tightly. "I have you!"

Thor looked up to see Loki holding onto his own hand while his other hand clung desperately to a metal beam that jutted outward the collapsing balcony.

"You have to let me go." Thor called out as he tried to pull himself up onto the balcony with his free hand.

"No!" Loki stubbornly defied. "I fell into a dark abyss and couldn't find my way back out," he admitted timidly as he pulled Thor up and over the edge of the balcony. "I refuse to let you do the same."

The two gods worked together to climb back up over the edge of the balcony, reaching the interior of the top floor of Stark Tower just moments before the balcony itself fully collapsed and crashed down to the street far below.

"Thank you brother." Thor knelt on the floor of the tower and summoned Mjolnir with his left hand. His uninjured hand. "Now, let us finish this battle. Together."

From his perch at the top of a centrally placed skyscraper Hawkeye had witnessed Loki saving Thor's life and had witnessed the two brothers reuniting as warriors in the heart of battle.

Though unwilling to trust Loki and convinced that the god wouldn't hesitate to betray anyone of the team to ensure his own safety Hawkeye kept his focus on the Chitauri forces that filled the sky with a relentless assault over the city.

As Natasha used a Chitauri weapon against the Chitauri themselves on the streets and bridges below the tower Steve rejoined her after securing a neighboring building that contained a mass of trapped civilians. The agent was tired with a few cuts and scrapes to her facade but she was far from ready to give up.

"Captain, none of this going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal." The duo looked to the massive wormhole in the sky as she spoke.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it." Steve remarked as he tried to think of a new strategy to give the team the advantage over the Chitauri forces.

"Well, maybe it isn't about guns." Natasha suggested as she looked upward at the Chitauri gathering around Stark Tower.

"If you want to get up there you're going to need a ride." Steve kept his focus skyward as well.

"I got a ride." Natasha stated firmly as he tossed aside the Chitauri weapon and walked several paces away from Steve.

Understanding her plan Steve turned his attention to the Chitauri speeding by directly overhead.

"I could use a boost though." Natasha admitted as she stopped and turned to look at Steve from where she stood now on the opposite side of the bridge from the soldier.

Steve himself took several steps back and planted his feet firmly as he held his shield outward toward the infamous agent. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah." She looked upward again to gauge her timing. "It's going to be fun."

Rushing toward Steve she jumped onto the hood of a nearby wrecked car then landed on Steve's shield. As she landed she prepared to jump again and Steve used all of his strength to push the shield and the agent atop it high up into the sky to give the agent an additional boost as she leapt up and grabbed onto the metallic vehicle being piloted by one of the hundreds of Chitauri invading forces.

Pulling herself up onto the top of the vehicle Natasha pulled an extremely sharp hunting knife from its sheath concealed on her hip and used the blade to cut through the metallic chain that kept the Chitauri pilot's gunner from falling from said vehicle. With the chain broken Natasha was able to sweep her leg under the gunner's leg and knock him off the vehicle. Leaping up with two more knives in her hands she landed on the back of the Chitauri pilot and 'coerced' the alien into steering its vehicle in the direction that she desired.

Through the streets of New York the Avengers worked to stop the Chitauri from escaping the city and wreaking havoc elsewhere. Captain America used his shield to deflect the Chitauri energy weapons and to knock their vessels from the sky. Iron Man flew around the perimeter destroying as many vehicles as possible while also wrangling the massive leviathan like beasts that fought alongside the Chitauri. The Hulk easily took down dozens of Chitauri with a single blow which helped even the odds of facing a massive army of aliens that fought against the team of six, now seven, misfits. Hawkeye watched from above protecting his allies backs while also firing advanced arrows that easily rendered Chitauri technology useless.

But it was at Stark Tower where Thor and Loki fought side by side to keep the Chitauri away from the portal above the tower and tried to limit the amount of aliens that continued to pass through the portal to the Earth.

"This is NOT working!" Loki called out to Thor as he used his scepter to blast a half dozen Chitauri out of the tower. "We need a better plan!"

"Working on it!" Thor shouted in response as he somewhat clumsily swung Mjolnir about with his dormant hand. Exhausted and in pain the God of Thunder paused and looked about the ruined floor of the tower with waning hope. Thor's right hand was covered in his own blood and trembling from pain. "We must find a way to shut down the portal. My lightning strike was no match for the power being emitted by the Tesseract. We must find an alternative."

"Agreed." Loki saw the blood dripping from Thor's fingers and reacted accordingly. Approaching his brother Loki reached out and tore a swatch of fabric from Thor's red cape and wrapped the fabric around Thor's hand to stem the bleeding and protect the injury from infection. "The portal is at the top of the tower and we're too busy keeping the Chitauri from reaching the top. Someone else will need to reach the portal on our behalf."

Natasha's commandeered vehicle sped by the tower toward the top only to fall out of the sky and crash to the streets below in a massive fireball. Natasha curled up to protect her limbs and rolled along the roof until she came to a stop beside a highly complex machine that housed the Tesseract cube which powered the wormhole.

Pressing her finger to her ear she made radio contact with the rest of her team. "I'm at the portal."

Thor had all but forgotten about the small radio in his ear. When he heard her voice he gave his brother a smug smile as he and Loki stepped out onto the small remnant of balcony that remained and spotted Natasha on the roof and standing next to the portal.

"Lady Romanoff!" Thor shouted to the agent from where he stood. "We must close the portal! Can you locate Selvig?"

Natasha looked down from the roof to where Thor was standing. As much as she wanted to call Thor stupid for allowing himself to trust Loki her instincts as an agent got the better of her. "Selvig is here." She replied coldly. "It looks like he's just regained consciousness."

"Protect him!" Thor urged as he tested the weight of Mjolnir in his bandaged right hand. "He is the only one who can close the portal!"

Natasha could only nod as she leaned back from the roof and knelt beside Dr. Eric Selvig. A trail of blood ran from the physicist's forehead as a fresh cut, courtesy of the energy blast emitted after the shield surrounding the portal's controls met Stark's repulsor ray, gave him a splitting headache.

"Doctor?" Natasha put a hand to the downed scientist's shoulder.

"Loki's scepter," Selvig muttered in slurs as his senses returned to him. "the energy... the Tesseract can't fight. You can't protect... against yourself."

"It's not your fault." Natasha comforted softly. "You didn't know what you were doing."

"Well actually," Selvig sat on the roof despondently as he spoke with the agent. "I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source."

Natasha's brows knitted with intrigue as she immediately thought of the most plausible tool that could potentially interfere with the Tesseract. "Loki's scepter."

"It might be able to close the portal."

Natasha returned to the edge of the roof as she reestablished contact with Thor. "We need Loki's scepter."

Thor relayed the message to his brother with a trusting nod. "Go. Your scepter is the key."

Loki's hands reflexively tightened around the gilded staff he had been given by 'The Other', the most trusted lieutenant under Thanos. The blue jewel that glowed intensely at the blade of the scepter had in fact been a priceless artifact and source of immeasurable power.

"Keep the vile beasts away." Loki pleaded as he put his hand on Thor's shoulder. "I will do what I can from the portal."

Thor spun his hammer wildly and allowed it to pull himself into the sky, carrying Loki with him at his side. Loki released his grip on Thor's shoulder as the two gods soared over the top of the tower and Loki dropped to the roof landing gracefully on his feet.

He looked at Natasha and then to Selvig awkwardly. "Agent Romanoff. Doctor." Holding out the scepter toward Selvig as an act of good faith he looked up at the wormhole in the sky. "Where do we begin?"

Thor reunited with the rest of the Avengers in the streets just as Director Nick Fury's voice sounded off over the radio warning the team about an unauthorized nuclear missile heading toward the city. A missile that would surely destroy the Chitauri and all of the innocent bystanders trapped within the city as well.

"Stark, you hearing me? We have a missile headed straight for the city!"

Tony had been knocked from the air and swarmed by Chitauri but he wasn't giving up the fight. "How long?"

"Three minutes, at best! Stay low and wipe out the missile!"

"J.A.R.V.I.S., put everything we have into the thrusters!" Tony demanded as he broke free from the aliens tearing at his suit and returned the to sky.

Thor and Captain America fought side by side in the streets against the ground Chitauri soldiers. Bleeding, exhausted and outnumbered the two men refused to give up and continued to fight against the seemingly endless swarm.

Hulk had been isolated on a roof top and surrounded by Chitauri gunners who bombarded the massive green beast in countless blasts of energy.

Hawkeye had fired his last arrow. With nowhere else to go the archer pulled an arrow from the eye of a downed alien corpse near his feet and switched out the arrowhead to create a grapnel line to anchor into the side of the building allowing him to swing down and through a large window to safety.

Selvig powered up his laptop as Loki held tightly onto the scepter. "There! Point it at the center!"

Loki, surprisingly, obeyed Selvig's instructions and pressed the tip of the scepter's blade into the designated place on the energy shield surrounding the machine. The scepter slowly pierced through the shield and neared the core that housed the Tesseract.

Natasha returned her attention to her allies over the radio. "We can close it! Can anybody hear me? We can shut the portal down."

Steve was the first to respond. "Do it!"

"No, wait!" Tony interjected sharply.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve wisely argued.

"I gotta' nuke coming in and it's going to blow in less than a minute." Flying beneath the missile Tony managed to redirect it and began leading it to the portal. "And I know just where to put it..."

Hearing Tony's response was bittersweet. The solution to the problem would come at a very high price.

"Stark," Steve's voice was low and carrying a twinge of sorrow. "you know that's a one-way trip?"

Natasha had been an active field agent long enough to recognize when someone was preparing to lay their life down on the line for the sake of others. Keeping herself in check she stayed focused on the portal and shutting it down even when she, Loki and Selvig watched Iron Man fly up the side of the tower with the missile in his hands.

In the blink of an eye Iron Man and the nuclear missile passed through the portal and disappeared from sight.

Loki kept his grip steady on the scepter as he waited for the signal to close the portal. In a way Loki was glad it was his hands that would close the portal: not only would he be able to finish what he had started, but if Stark failed to return from the portal in time the blood was be on his hands and not that of his friends or allies.

Appropriately symbolic.

"Come on Stark..." Natasha whispered as she stared transfixed into the portal.

A bright fiery explosion within the portal signaled the detonation of the nuke, but it gave no sign of Stark's fate.

As the leader of the team it was Steve's call. And he had decided to make it. "Close it."

Natasha turned his gaze toward Loki and nodded.

Reacting quickly Loki pressed the tip of the scepter into the core and quickly retracted it shutting down the power and closing the portal in the process.

The Chitauri suddenly collapsed into heaps on the street. Dead. Their bodies twitched with failing synaptic responses as their connection to their own world and their life line was severed. The leviathan beasts fell dead from the sky, the carcasses crashing down onto the roofs of skyscrapers and other buildings.

As one shuddering beam of energy escape from the machine into the closing portal a humanoid figure fell back through the narrowing and suddenly sealed portal.

It was Iron Man.

From the street below Steve and Thor watched as their friend fell back to Earth with a mixture of shock and relief. "Son of a gun..."

Iron Man continued to fall with no sign of flight or even the slightest bit on control.

Thor began to swing Mjolnir about in a tight circle. "He's not slowing down!"

A roar from a closing distance echoed through the city as the Hulk leapt through the air and easily caught Iron Man during his fall. The Hulk grabbed onto the side of a building allowing himself to slide down the metal and glass frame, falling onto the hood of an already wrecked vehicle and land on his back on the street only a few yards from where Steve and Thor had been standing.

Hulk pushed Iron Man from his chest and onto the pavement at his side just as Steve and Thor rushed over to where their downed colleague was laying motionless.

Thor tore the face mask from the suit revealing Tony's pale expressionless face beneath.

Steve knelt beside Tony and pressed his ear down next to Tony's face. He couldn't hear or feel any escaping breaths. Pressing his hands down against the armored chest plate Steve couldn't feel any motion and the arc reactor that powered both the suit and kept Tony's heart beating seemed dim and unresponsive.

Just as Steve and Thor bowed their heads in mournful respect the Hulk let out a bitter roar that startled Tony back into consciousness. Gasping for breath he looked around confusedly at the three men standing around him, staring at him.

"What the hell?" Tony righteously asked as he caught his breath. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me!"

Steve pauses for a moment before answering their returned friend with a tired smile. "We won."

At the roof of Stark Tower the gathered trio stood in silent awe at the feat they had all just witnessed. Selvig slammed his laptop shut and pulled the power cord away from the quieted machine with a much needed sense of accomplishment.

Natasha stared sternly at Loki. She still didn't trust the god and expected him to pay for his crime.

Loki could sense her burning gaze and chose not to press the matter at hand. Offering her the scepter Loki stood up straight and stared at the rooftop beneath his feet. "Agent Romanoff."

Natasha took the scepter from Loki's hands as he placed his arms behind his back as a form of submission.

"For what it is worth," Loki tentatively stated in a calm voice. "I am sorry."

"Yeah. I'm sure you are." Natasha replied as she kept both hands on the scepter. "But I don't care. It's not up to me how you'll answer for your crime," she explained coldly. "it's up to S.H.I.E.L.D."

Thor stayed with Loki while S.H.I.E.L.D. decided the god's fate. Despite Thor's pleas for Loki to explain his reasons, to explain to S.H.I.E.L.D. how Thanos had recruited him against his will to lead the Chitauri or lose his own life in the process, Loki didn't offer a single word of defense on his own behalf.

Just as it seemed that S.H.I.E.L.D. was prepared to sentence Loki to death both Natasha and Hawkeye intervened giving the god a fighting chance to avoid being executed.

From the actively renovated top floor of Stark Tower the Avengers gathered and waited for news on Loki's sentence. Tony, Bruce and Steve hadn't said one word regarding the god's guilt or innocence, but they were undeniably curious as to why Natasha and Clint had chosen to speak up alongside Thor.

Bruce was nervously rubbing his hands together wondering if he too would be sentenced by S.H.I.E.L.D.

A line from S.H.I.E.L.D. connected to the tower and was passed through by J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark's loyal A.I. and co-pilot as Iron Man.

"This is it." Tony announced as he answered the call. "Fury, talk to us. What's going on? And don't lie to me, I'll find it out if you are!"

Fury's face appeared on the monitor from the depths of a cell hidden aboard the helicarrier. Thor was standing behind him with a calm demeanor.

"Loki will be taken back to Asgard to be sentenced by a jury of his own peers." Fury replied flatly. "In exchange we get to keep the scepter for further study and Thor will return the Tesseract to its rightful place. Away from us."

"From us, huh?" Tony snarked somewhat bitterly. "We're the ones who're mostly harmless, remember?"

"I do." Fury confirmed just as bitterly. "But I decided it was best to not argue with a god who knows far more about the Tesseract than I ever will."

"Good call."

The line was severed and Fury turned to face Thor in person. "We'll keep our end of the bargain."

"And I shall keep mine." Thor offered his uninjured left hand for Fury to shake. "I swear it."

"I don't doubt it." Fury reciprocated the handshake and the tone of respect abundant in Thor's voice. "Now, get him off this planet before a vengeful subordinate decides to use your brother for target practice."

"Of course." Thor retracted his hand. "I will require the Tesseract and an isolated area."

"Not a problem." Fury turned back to the monitor that had connected him to Stark Tower and brought up a map display. "This is Norway. Quiet. Remote. And a big fan of Asgard. We'll take you here and you take Loki elsewhere."

...to be continued...