Sorry, for the delay and thank you for your patience!

"Frigga, it is getting late. Come to bed my beloved." Odin said stepping onto the balcony overviewing the entire city that the descending evening sun cast into reddish golden.

"I can't" she answered with taut voice still facing away from him. "Not when both my sons are still away in danger."

Sighing heavily Odin stepped closer and put both of his hands on his dear wife's shoulders. "Thor will bring him back. You needn't worry about that." He whispered gently into her ear feeling his love leaning into him.

"I do not doubt that, dear. But in what state? Loki is not himself!" Frigga ground out shrugging off her husband's hands. She turned around. "Someone is controlling him. I know it. I can feel it in my bones."

"Nobody is controlling him. He alone is responsible for his actions." Odin riposted defensively. "He has too much of his birth parents in him."

"That is not true! He is NOT his father and even less his mother. He has a sensitive disposition, yes, but a strong Asgardian heart. We should have told him the truth from the beginning." She gasped holding back tears. "All that secrecy was bound to break loose in the most unfortune moment."

"The truth would only have hurt the kingdom even more." Odin defended himself stepping back. "The truth could jeopardise everything. All the peace that I worked so hard to keep."

"The kingdom?" Freya huffed. "What about Loki? Finding out the truth this way has hurt him more than you can imagine. And now you want to bring him back to Asgard to punish him for mistakes that you've made in the past."

"Frigga, enough of this!" Odin ordered. "The past is the past. We can't change it and Loki …"

"Loki does have a legitimate claim to the Throne." His queen interrupted him sternly. "Yet you favoured Thor even though he was not ready yet. You chose to let your fear of what Loki could become rule your decisions since the day you realized that he preferred to wear her colours."

"I've made my decision. Thor has proven himself worthy enough to protect the nine realms. He may be brash at times, but Loki's spree proves that he is incapable of ruling the nine realms."

"That's where you are wrong Allfather." She interrupted him sternly. "Loki used to be more astute at diplomacy than Thor. He worked so hard to please you and never managed to do this because your only good eye was on your second-born."

"I agree that Loki would have made a good adviser, but he is not suited for a king." Odin agreed and gulped gazing into the blazing eyes of his wife who put her hands onto her hips. It seemed that he would have to sleep alone tonight.

"Then give me one good reason why?" she challenged. "And don't you dare say because of his heritage."

Odin sighed. "The people don't trust him. He fights with his tricks, mind games, word plays and with his magic. They do not consider this honourable. There is a reason why they called him silver-tongued. And after what he did on Earth, they will trust him even less."

"That's it?" Frigga hissed. "Since when do you care about what people chatter about. Yes, Loki is good at talking himself out of trouble. And his trickery did save Thor and the Warrior Three often enough when they acted too brash. And what he does on Earth is not his doing. He is being controlled. You forget I was raised by witches. I know that this is not him." She stepped closer and put her hand over his heart.

Odin gently took it. "No, I did not forget that you were raised by witches my love. But you do look at the situation with the worries of a deeply caring mother. Huginn and Muninn are observing the situation and will report back to me. So, if Thor is successful in bringing Loki back to Asgard, then I will seek their counsel. Does that put you at ease?"

Her blazing glare told him otherwise.

Her hands were sweating, and she had checked her rifle, her magazines and the ammunition a couple of times already. Checked the knives hidden in her boots and at her side and the two guns. Her back and her wrist were pulsating angrily, but she fought to ignore it. She could heal after the battle, her first battle and it just had to one with the highest stakes: The future of her planet. No pressure, right?

She knew that everyone in the jet (including her) hoped that would be able to stop Loki and his minions to open a portal, but in the last few minutes her inner mind had started to conjure up flashes of a large portal over Stark tower, with strange creatures descending from it wreaking havoc on the city. The Chitauri. My imagination is running wild. They were going in blind as they had no idea about any possible weaknesses of those aliens. How did they look? Where were their weak spots? Did they have weak spots? Could they be wearing space armour that was resistant to their weapons? What if she shot at what she believed to be the heart or brain of them, only to find that their vital organs were at different places? If they were an army, then they had to communicate. How would they be able to communicate? On frequencies that they could detect hopefully. She grit her teeth. No, even if they managed to detect their frequency then it was very doubtful that they could translate it. Their best option would be to jam it, but they didn't have the necessary equipment for that with them.

Bella mentally jumped. There was something that she needed to do. The city was entirely unprepared like it had been on 9/11. But this time the devastation could be ten times worse. She clicked off her seat belt earning herself a stern look from Rogers, but he thankfully kept his mouth shut this time. She quickly strode over to one of the terminals and logged herself in, entering a stolen code which gave her access to the alert system of the Emergency Management Agency. She hesitated. Took a deep breath. Would alerting NY to an imminent attack still give them enough time to prepare. Or would she cause even more chaos? She contemplated. No, she decided. She at least needed people to leave the skyscrapers and find refuge in the basements or underground. If they stayed in them the potential death toll would be higher. Better safe than sorry.

She tipped: EMERGENCY ALERT: BALLISTIC THREAT INBOUND TO NYC. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER UNDERGROUND. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Two warnings flared up from the system telling her that she couldn't send this without otherization of at least two other individuals. She rerouted their clearance and sent it anyway. Diplomacy could deal with this later. That's what diplomats were there for. Right now, people were in instant danger and needed to be moved underground for their safety. On the other hand, this could tip Loki off about their arrival, but she couldn't let people die in the skirmish just to keep holding the element of surprise in their hand.

"Wotcha doing?" Barton asked her glancing back to her shortly.

"Issuing a missile alert on NYC, urging them to seek immediate shelter underground." She answered him seemingly calmly, but she couldn't keep her nervousness out of her voice.

"That's a good idea." Rogers praised her his previous stern gaze evaporating.

"Well, you are also losing us the advantage of the element of surprise." Natasha scolded her.

"Loki expects us to show up anyway. This alert might save a few lives at least." Barton acknowledged. "Whose authorization did do you use?"

"Coul… My father's." Bella answered her solemnly openly acknowledging that fact. His had been the fourth-highest clearance of S.H.I.E.L.D she had discovered a few weeks ago. "They haven't been able to update the system yet." She logged herself out of the system again and turned around.

"We need to talk about the possibility that Loki manages to open the portal. We don't know who or what is waiting on the other side. How many they are. I mean Loki said that he had an army. How much firepower they have? And…"

"Stop." Barton interrupted her grimly. "Calm down, Bella. Breathe. We solve one problem after the other."

"But shouldn't we be prepared?" she clenched her hands and took a deep breath as advised. "I mean for all eventualities?" No, it wasn't working. She had to stay calm or she would be useless. Taking on Loki one on one was one thing. Taking his army was something completely different. Too much was at stake. They couldn't fail.

"This is an alien attack, Swan," Rogers spoke up. "You can't be prepared for that. Our priority is to stop the portal from opening for now. If we don't manage that then we figure the rest out on the go. Now please strap back in."

Bella huffed but followed his orders. He was right. It was dangerous standing like that when they'd run into trouble.

The young ginger woman was delightfully twitching in his arms as he slowly relished in draining her blood. His pray had already lost the strength to scream and the twitching was her last attempt to fight back and her heart was working overtime now to make up for the sinking pressure in the blood vessels. She gasped for air like a carp out of the water. He took his time with this one. After all, he was standing in front of the cell that hosted the Cullen family, which he had starved for weeks now and he hoped that they would soon reach their breaking point and turn to their natural diet again. Carlisle sat in the corner with his mate Esme and held each other tightly, but their dark eyes portrayed their burning hunger. The empath was rocking himself and murmuring nonsense, while his mate Alice was lying motionlessly next to him. She tried to ignore her hunger but was unsuccessful. He knew that she did have small visions, that she didn't feel to share with the Volturi but eventually she would join them. If only to stop her mates suffering. The brute Emmet, whose mate had fled before the Volturi could capture her again was gulping hard when he observed the feeding. Yes, this one would join his guard soon. He was sure of it. That only left Edward, who sat motionless next to his adoptive parents. His right hand was trembling, indicating his hunger. He had tried to trick the Volturi in order to get out, to find Bella himself, when he had heard of what happened to the team that was supposed to catch her. But luckily, they had seen right through his trickery. And Aro knew that he was hungry.

The hands of his meal sunk, and her body slacked. He smacked his lips and let her out of his grasp dropping her right in front of the strong metal bars. He knew it. They were edging closer.

"Brother, stop playing with the prisoners." Marcus admonished him. "Vestalius has found her."

Aro couldn't contain his smile. This time it had to work. She had to finally become part of their clan. The prophecy could be fulfilled. Everything would go back to normal.

"The battle will give us an opportune moment to extract her." Marcus drawled earning a confused look not only from Aro but also from all the Cullens.

"What battle?" he enquired with growing curiosity. Human battles were of no interest to the Volturi, so his brother calling it a battle, that would mean that it was significant enough for them.

"Vestalius called it the battle of New York." Marcus drawled. "Humans versus an alien."

"Stai scherzando? (=You must be joking)" Aro exclaimed. It was very uncharacteristic of his brother to joke. Aliens?

"No. I'm not, yet I might begin to question Vestalius abilities." His brother drawled, his gaze wandering over the Cullen's who all followed their conversation with interest. "An extraction team on the continent has been dispatched to catch your prey and put an end to this entire situation."

"Gav-no (=Гавно = shit)" Natasha cursed loudly.

"Ok, too late. Figuring out the rest on the go it is." Barton ground out. "The portal is already open."

"What?!" Rogers jumped up from his seat and this time it was Bella sending him a glare. So much for safety. He apparently didn't care when his own security was on the line.

"Stark we are on your three-headed northeast." Natasha informed Iron Man via her com who swiftly responded: "What did you stop for drive-through?! Swing up the park. I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Her breath accelerated. This was it. No way out of this. The jet tilted and swayed pressing her into her seat as Barton was navigating through the narrow space in between the skyscrapers. Rogers had grabbed the netting handholds when the jet had taken another sudden turn. It levelled out. A second later she could feel the vibrations from the machine gun rattling off bullets towards the alien vessels. Some of the bullets found their targets in a series of percussive blasts. The jet rose upwards and she was pressed back into her seat, her back protesting for a second until it levelled out again.

"Nat."

"See 'em" she acknowledged while Barton directed the jet so that it put it in a perfect line to shoot at Loki, who, if she could see it correctly through the front window had managed to down his brother. She breathed out. Thor had survived. That was good news at least. The rattling of the machine gun told her that although they were shooting at Loki, it didn't seem to affect him or Thor much. A heartbeat later a dull explosion combined with the warning lights flashing on the control board the jet rocked and dropped taking her heart with it. Fuck! I'm about to die! This had been a mistake! Why had she thought that she could do something to stop the mad Asgardian or his alien army! She slid sideways the seat belt straps jolting against her shoulders as Barton tried to land the bird without hitting too many buildings. How he managed to level it out again was a mystery to her, but she swore that if she made it out alive then she would put definitely flying lessons onto her ever-growing list of things she needed to learn. She gripped her seat tightly as a dropping sensation in her stomach accompanied the actual drop of the jet as it was losing height. She jolted forward when the jet hit the ground hard. Screeching and scraping of metal on the hard asphalt made her greet her teeth until the forward movement stopped altogether. Taking a glance at the elder people around her she quickly mimicked their behaviour, opening her seat belt and followed them out of the smoking jet. Her feet slightly unsteady.

Pull yourself together! She admonished herself. She had to stay calm. They had survived this landing. So, they had to survive this battle.

Smashed and crumbled vehicles were parked at odd angles. Debris lying on the ground making it hard to navigate out of danger for the people fleeing to safety. The smell of burned rubber, smoke and oil were invading her senses. Sirens could be heard from all around her together with the terrified screams of the people around her. It seemed that she had sent the warning too late. She took a deep breath. It was time to block out all the horror that was going on around her. She had to stay calm and collected or she would be useless. Emotion wouldn't serve her here. Emotions could come after … whatever would come after this. She took another deep breath and calmness was extending over her mind blocking her growing fear.

"We gotta get back up there!" Rogers ordered taking the lead but was interrupted by a loud deep roar coming from the sky, resounding along with the buildings. She had to pinch herself. Two gigantic brownish-grey creatures with serpentine bodies and massive teeth were slowly descending from the portal with other alien vessels accompanying them.

Yay, we're doomed. But I'm not going out without a fight.

The forests were almost silent in the daily cold and damp rain of Forks. Jacob was restlessly running his rounds with his pack today, but they hadn't crossed paths with traces of vampires for weeks. But he refused to think that they were simply gone. According to their Alpha Chief, his father, they had planned something even worse with her and it had made him angry. Now the runs were almost meditative, one paw after the other but his friends still complained heavily when his thoughts returned to his best female friend. He hoped that wherever she was, that she was safe.

Suddenly, he felt another mind joining them and fought back his annoyance. Seth. He had explicitly told him to stay at home to work on his homework. But strangely his emotions were all over the place. Surprise, wonder, fear and excitement.

"Guys you're not going to believe this! New York is under attack!" he told them in excitement. "By Aliens! "

"Yeah, right!" Jacob shook his head in irritation. "I ordered you to study not watch some big ass blockbuster."

"No, it's true." Seth defended himself and Jacob could feel that the young boy was telling the truth. "It's all over the news. Come and see for yourself."

15 Minutes later they were back home sitting spellbound before the TV. That wasn't possible! Aliens in New York? Normally, only Fox News was sprouting such hoaxes on a daily basis. But curiously all channels were reporting the same in unison. There truly seemed to be an Alien attack from outer space that came through portal or wormhole.

"Streets of New York City have become a battle zone. The army is here trying to contain the violence but seems to be outmatched. Unidentified sources claim to have seen an additional strike team defending the city. We have no information on the team, but we do know that Tony Stark's Iron Man is in the field."

"That's crazy." Leah murmured. "Aliens."

"Yeah. You know what's really crazy." Quil asked. "Why is it, New York?"

Working on the battle, which I hope to post around February. Comments are always welcome.