Hi everyone!

I'm back! I have survived the past couple of months of exams and now have some actual free time in which to write! (Any motivation you can swing my way helps of course ;)

Right, well I'll get straight down to it: warnings in this chapter for violence and some gore and of course swearing ;)

Hope you enjoy it!

Yan felt the explosion before it reached them, the wave of heat and the juddering shockwaves, heard the boom and the screech of hot air being forced through narrow pipes, saw all the machinery flicker and glitch as the wiring blew out all along the left side of the helicarrier. She cried out for everyone to get down but it was too late. A great ball of fire erupted from the middle of the room as the rising pressure escaped through the vents and tore up the floor. Everyone was thrown in different directions and she saw Natasha and Banner being hurled through the glass opposite to her. She was thankfully the only one to end up outside, so she didn't have to rescue anyone.

This was a good thing seeing as in the first few minutes after the blast she was unable to focus, plummeting in free fall in a dizzying spin as the Saran began to wrap itself around her as she instinctively summoned its full force. The sky suddenly stopped rushing past her and she hung there for a moment, suspended in bright light a few miles below the glittering hull of the helicarrier. One corner of it was enveloped in billowing black smoke pierced by fierce flames and she found herself caught in a hail of debris.

Snapping back to her senses she shot upwards, dodging between chunks of twisted metal and sometimes making contact with her feet, leaping from piece to piece as she neared her goal. She flew round it and caught sight of a fleet of fighter jets bombarding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s floating headquarters with gunfire, blowing up their own quinjets and causing multitudes of mini explosions. She could only hope that her comrades had the situation under control inside because right now it seemed to her that destroying or at least grounding the jets was a priority.

Making for the nearest one she morphed her guns to swords and swiped at the wing, severing it with one clean sweep and sending it into a spiralling plummet. It was close enough to the tarmac runway, having been diving low to strafe the surface and prevent other planes taking off, that it crash-landed without much more damage.

"Does anyone copy? There's a lot of enemy fighters out here," Yan radioed the bridge through her comms.

"I copy, agent," it was Hill. "Got an identity on the birds?"

"Unclear, some of these are S.H.I.E.L.D. jets though," She replied, diving beneath another plane to gouge a long furrow on the underside. It too was brought down. "I'd be willing to bet these are Loki's men, it's likely some of ours are on board. What are my orders?"

"Agent, this is Fury," the gravelly voice cut in. Yeah, cause I totally wouldn't have guessed. "Bring them down any way you have to, if we lose another engine we won't be in the air much longer,"

"I got it, looks like one's already slipped through my net, must have landed before the explosion. Brace yourself for an attack on foot. Also, some back up would be nice, they're coming in thick and fast,"

"Stark is working on engine 3 and the God of Thunder is god knows where, you're on your own,"

"Great," she muttered, landing on the nose of a smaller jet to smash through the glass with a fist and tear out the sole occupant to chuck him overboard. A well-aimed kick sent the wreckage spinning into another and both went down in a ball of fire, the pilots opening parachutes and just managing to steer clear of the inferno. She couldn't tell which were S.H.I.E.L.D men and there was no way she was going to kill her own by mistake, especially if they were Clint, so she remained careful, abandoning her usual indiscriminate violence for more passive ways.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a flash of red and gold that could only be Iron man and she dove in his direction to take down the jet that was headed to prevent him fixing the engine. She killed the power with the gift of the tenth guardian and sent it into free fall.

"Stark!" Yan yelled over the wind, landing on the edge of the engine and switching back to guns so she could continue to fire at the remaining jets. "Need anything?"

"Gotta clear the debris before I can kick-start the rotors," he replied and she noted with some approval that his words were stripped bare of the usual mockery. "The fire's a problem, but I got it under control if you keep the rabble of my back,"

"On it," she nodded, "And I can clear the fire too,"

She ran towards the blaze and thrust her arms into the flames up to her shoulders, drawing it to her and away from the engine until it began to die back, at which point she twisted it into a sphere and hurled it at the nearest jet. It twisted just in time to avoid being burnt to a crisp but crashed into one of its compatriots and brought both of them down. Stark whooped, giving her the thumbs up as she flew off again to continue her defence.

But the pilots were learning and just as she was going for one another caught her in a pincer movement, ramming her backwards and then strafing her with bullets. Her armour had deflected most of the attack but the ammunition the jet was using was akin to that of anti-aircraft guns and they tore through her.

I feel like fucking swiss cheese.

Her wounds were healed swiftly but the encounter was enough of a distraction for another to slip past her net and bomb another engine, damaging it beyond repair. The helicarrier began to tilt alarmingly as it lost half its power and was losing height rapidly. Almost immediately after, the rotors of a third engine ground to a halt, seemingly without any external force.

"It's Barton, he took out our systems, engine one is down," Fury barked over the comms, "He's headed to the detention centre. Does anybody copy?"

"This is Agent Romanov," came the immediate reply, "I copy,"

"This is Agent Nightmare, I can bring engine one back online but it's going to take time if the system is still corrupted," Yan announced

"That is time we do not have, agent," Fury responded.

"I'm on it,"

He was right; if she immersed herself in the computers now she'd get the engine working again just in time to see the whole thing crash into the ocean. A much more audacious plan was needed here. Sucking the energy from one last plane to try and bolster her stores, she dove beneath the helicarrier. Finding a suitable position right in the middle of the vast expanse that was its hull she started what could possibly turn out to be the end of S.H.I.E.L.D. Concentrating with every ounce of her being she began to expand the control of the gift of the third guardian, drawing as much power as she dared from the embattled engines and pushing up.

For what felt like hours her muscles screamed and her joints popped under the immense strain of thousands of tonnes driving her down, pressure building in her head to an unbearable crescendo. She held fast, refusing to give up on her task, but the ship continued its merciless descent. Drawing on every last reserve she could find, she smashed through the plating of the hull to grab fistfuls of wiring and sent her consciousness along the pathways that lead to the hub of the system. If she could at least get engine one working, there was some hope that she could keep everyone in the air.

As Yan had expected, she was soon entangled in the brutal virus that was tearing through programmes and control structures, shutting down auxiliary networks and diverting power from the bridge. It was evolving; vindictively repelling any attempt to gain access and unravelling code, even going so far as to destroy hardware to prevent S.H.I.E.L.D. technicians from fighting back. When she caught its attention it tried to overwhelm her with a barrage of attacks, but with the whole force of a helicarrier on her side it was no one-sided battle. Under the blaze of her fury it was routed from the system, excised section by section until it been completely subjugated to her will and obliterated.

Finally, she took control of the navigating framework and forced the rotors to turn again, rebooting the engine. Removed as she was from her physical self, a disembodied conscious embedded in electronics, the reduction of pressure on her body was translated into a joyful rush of energy and reams of code.

But the relief was short-lived. Suddenly she was snapped back to her body to agonising spikes of pain riddling her chest. She quickly overcame her confusion, instincts kicking in as she caught sight of a jet circling back to make another run at her, guns blazing as it started firing, gouging furrows in the hull that were speeding towards her. She had no way of escaping the ambush, pinned in place by her duty to slowing the helicarrier and saving her comrades.

Acting as fast as she could she drew a gun and fired a single shot at its fuel tank, which exploded halting the attack mere inches from her side. She released the breath she had been holding with a juddering cough and blood streamed down her chin, having surged up her throat. Her wounds were stubbornly refusing to close whilst all her power was diverted to flying, and it was a tremendous effort to desperately drag air into her lungs.

"We are still losing height, update, now," Fury's stern commands helped her to focus.

"Engine one is back online," Yan replied. "And I'm trying to slow the fall best I can,"

"Nice work, agent,"

"I can't hold it for long, Stark you better get Engine 3 fixed sharpish,"

"I'm working on it," he said defensively. "You sound like shit,"

"Thanks, that really helps," she snapped sarcastically. Surprisingly, there was no quick comeback forthcoming and the line was filled with crackling static. And then she saw a bright flash as Iron man was spat out from the rapidly accelerating rotors.

"There you go," he announced, sounding a little beleaguered. "You can thank me later,"

Yan fell away from the hull and made for the nearest vent to get back inside, her power reserves shrinking with every metre she flew. Staggering in she lay on the floor panting, waiting for the Saran to piece her back together. It was an agonisingly slow process, but eventually she was able to pull herself up to lean against a wall and inject a much needed shot of glucose. She absorbed as much energy as she could from the control panel just above her head and got to her feet. There was no time to waste moping about feeling sorry for herself.

She was feeling decidedly weak and unsteady but she hurried along the corridor, not entirely sure where she was going but hoping she would find her way back to the centre of the fighting. Rounding a corner she almost fell over the prone body of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent slumped at an uncomfortable angle against the wall. She had no time to check if she was ok for she had surprised a squadron of Loki's men leaving a weapons store room with what looked suspiciously like the produce of Phase 2.

She got to work, morphing into a wolf and crushing them in the narrow confines of the corridor and head-butting another hard enough to knock him back by several metres, cracking his helmet so that it split into two halves, revealing his face. It was Manning, thankfully relatively unharmed and now unconscious. Shifting back to human form she relocked the door to the store room and unveiled the other agents in the hope of finding people she recognised. She was rewarded with the discovery of Wilson, who would probably come away from the experience with little more than a few broken ribs.

"Nightmare, I need back up in the cell room," Coulson's request came over the comms.

"On my way," She replied, flying down the corridors towards him.

She was just approaching the door when a shockwave of energy pass through her, similar to the energy signature of the Tesseract. The slight distortion to it suggested that it was the feedback from one of the Phase 2 weapons she had been arguing so fiercely about mere minutes ago.

But when Yan finally entered the room it was to find Coulson slumped against a wall, fingers still limply grasping a gun, crimson blood stain rapidly spreading across his chest.

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