As you stood over the dark portal below, you fought your body's response of fear and hyperventilation. It looked ominous and terrifying, but you were given a reasonable amount of reassurance that it might work to take you back to a time before you were born; a time when your parents didn't even know that they would become your parents one day. It was a time that you were racing to get to so you could save them from the assassin that had been relentlessly chasing you.

"This has to work," you mumbled to yourself, "there's no other way."

"(Y/N), you must hurry. I don't know how much longer that I can hold this stable and if you don't leave now you may not be able to return."

You continued to stare down into the void, the wind of the vortex blowing your hair furiously, "Loki, tell my parents that I love them. If this doesn't work and I don't come back, I want them to know."

"You're certain that there's no other way?"

"He's going to go back and stop them, so that I'm never born. This is it."

"(Y/N), stop!"

Your body jolted at the sound of your father, running towards you as fast as he could, but you couldn't let him reach you; you couldn't let him stop you from doing this. It was as much to save him as it was to save yourself, and if you didn't go now you may never get the chance again. You finally turned away from the portal and looked at him with a small smile, jumping into the blackness just as his fingertips grazed your arm.

~~~

You hit the firm ground with a jarring thud and felt the concrete beneath you scraping at your skin. The disorientation lasted for only a moment, and you quickly stood to find anything that could show you the current date. Loki had successfully kept you in New York City, but when? You brushed the dirt from your clothes and straightened, walking out onto the sidewalk from the alleyway that had deposited you here.

"Date, I need the date..." you whispered to yourself, scanning the buildings around you to get your sense of where in the city you were. You stuck your head into the door of a small shop and looked around, finding an older man behind the checkout counter. "Excuse me, sir. Could you tell me the date?"

"November 14th."

"Um...and the year?"

He paused for a moment, looking at you as if you had lost your mind, and perhaps you had. This plan of yours was a long shot and it might not even work, leaving you stuck in the past forever.

"2015."

"Thank you!" You turned quickly and ran to the corner to check the street signs, smiling when you realized how much you now owed your Asgardian friend. "50th and Park," you sighed, "Loki, you're good." You turned and saw the tower only a few blocks away, allowing yourself only a moment of relief before the panic set in. You had only 12 hours before the portal would reappear, and no idea how you would even get inside the tower to protect Steve and Natasha from the threat that was coming.

Just as you began to run towards it, you saw him; your target rounding the corner at the edge of the building. You pulled your weapons and broke into a sprint to catch up, more thankful than ever for the speed that you had inherited from your father.

"Excuse me, coming through, excuse me!"

Darting around the mass of people filling the sidewalk, you finally had him in your sights, just as he was about to enter. "Stop! If you want me, then come at me, but leave them alone!" People around you screamed and ran away, causing a commotion in the streets, but you held your stance firmly. "This is between you and me!"

"Why would I settle for only you, now that I am on the verge of taking all three?" As the man watched you, he reached out for the door, teasing you with the idea that he would run in before you could catch him. "Your family has caused me nothing but pain and misery, and now I think it's time to repay you once and for all."

~~~

"So when is the group supposed to be back?"

"Sam just called in and said they're about an hour out," Steve replied, reviewing the information that Sam had sent him about the mission they had just completed. "It looks like a success from what I can tell."

"Anyone get hurt?" Tony asked, taking the tablet from Steve's hands. "Last time this particular group went out it was pretty messy if you ask-"

"Sir, there's a disturbance at the entrance that requires your immediate attention," FRIDAY announced. Tony gave Steve a curious look and hurried to the window to see you with your guns drawn at the man trying to enter his building. "What the hell...?" he asked, grabbing the Captain's arm and running to the stairs. Steve grabbed his shield from the table and followed close behind.

By the time the two men arrived only moments later, you were fully engaged in hand-to-hand combat and struggling to take control; your weapons had been knocked away and out of your grasp, leaving you to rely on the skills your mother had taught you. Crowds had begun to gather and the sounds of sirens were beginning to build in the distance. Steve pushed through the door first and paused only for a second at the sight of an Avengers symbol on the shoulder of your uniform and a familiar red interwoven through the waves in your hair.

"Oh, yes. It makes this so much easier if you come to me," the man said, pushing you back and turning to Steve. He raised his hands and a burst of blinding light shot from them, throwing your father into the side of the tower and shattering the glass around him. The shield flew from Steve's hands and only a few feet from your grasp. You could see Tony, still just inside the door, turning to summon his suit to his hands as you crawled towards the shield, hoping to not be noticed.

"Where is the other one?" he asked, holding Steve to the ground. "Where is she?"

"Who?" Steve groaned, trying to pull himself up, "who are you here for?"

"Romanoff," he snarled and pointed to you, sending a blast that hit you square in the chest and farther from the shield. "You see, I could easily just take this one, but then I thought, why stop there when I can rid the world of all three?" He took another step towards Steve and his eyes darkened, "and I will start with you as my example so that she can watch." Steve gasped and grimaced as another wave struck him.

"Dad!" You screamed and made a lunge for the shield; you stood to throw it as you had seen him do a million times, firmly striking the man down and breaking his hold. Your body began to shake, filling with rage at what he had tried to do to your father, and your protective instinct took over.

"This ends right now," you growled, grabbing the man by the hair and flipping him onto his stomach, pressing your knee firmly into his spine as you pulled his head back. "You lose." You took a deep breath and grabbed the sides of his head, giving a fast twist and hearing a satisfying snap before dropping him to the ground, limp and lifeless.

"Oh, god," you whispered, looking at your own hands then back at his body, realizing the violent thing you had just done. You stumbled back and expected to fall, but gasped when you pushed against Steve and he grabbed you by the arms.

"I think we need to talk," he said, directing you into the building.

~~~

It was a strange feeling to be sitting in the tower, because it wasn't really your home, not yet. Steve wasn't treating you like a threat or like a prisoner, bringing you to the kitchen and offering ways to make you comfortable there. Other than the fact that you called him 'dad' and wore an Avengers symbol, he had no real reason to trust that you weren't a threat to him.

"Okay, we can do this one of two ways," Steve began, taking a seat across from you, "you can just tell me, or I can interrogate you in a much less friendly way. It's up to you." He leaned forward to rest his arms on the table, closing the gap between you to study your features and to look for anything familiar in you.

"I don't really have a lot of time."

"I don't really care."

"Oh, but you do," you scoffed under your breath. "You will."

Steve leaned back in the chair again, and you could see that you were only making him angry. His face took on the look of the countless times you had been punished for disobeying him or for putting yourself in danger, much like you were doing now. You anticipated that this would be the look you would be arriving back home to.

"I'm running out of time, da...Steve."

"Twice. Twice now you've called me that, and it was natural for you to say it. I want an answer." Steve turned at the sound of Natasha entering the room, and quickly looked back at you for your reaction to seeing her, apparently getting the information that he wanted. "Thank you for that."

"For what?"

"Your reaction," he sighed. "You looked relieved to see her. I knew the color in your hair was familiar." Steve looked at her and back to you, seeming a little pale now and with disbelief in his face. "How old are you? When were you born?"

"I can't tell you, I'm sorry. It could change the future, and I can't allow that or risk that I might not ever exist. That's why I'm here in the first place, to protect...us."

Nat reached down and took your glass and handed it out the door to Helen for examination of the DNA you had left behind as you drank from it. "Hurry," she whispered and shut the door, now moving to sit next to you. "What's your name?"

"(Y/N)." You watched her body relax and her eyes soften when she heard it, remembering that she had told you once that yours was a name that she had picked out for a future daughter when she was only a child herself. You knew that she believed you before the results of some DNA test would have the chance to confirm it.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, and took your hand. You pulled it away and as if it hurt for her to touch you, not allowing her to connect. You were supposed to finish your mission and leave; interacting with them was too risky.

"I'm fine, really. But I need to go, I'm running out of time before I miss my ride back." A small chuckle escaped you as you looked at each of them, "you guys really hate it when I'm late, and I didn't even tell you that I was going out." If the secret was in the open, you might as well try to relieve some of the tension in the room.

"Oh, so that's how it is?" Steve asked, his face still serious, "we have our work cut out for us, do we?" He looked at Nat with an expression that you couldn't read, but you knew that they were having a full conversation within it. When he finally looked back at you, he seemed sad.

"Are we good parents?" he whispered.

"You're the best."

~~~

The portal appeared right on time, just as Loki had predicted. This time, rather than running from your father as he tried to stop you, you were standing next to him as he watched you prepare to leave. Natasha put her hand on your shoulder and pulled you in for a small hug; you were still a stranger to her in this time, but she couldn't help but worry about you.

"I'll be seeing you," she said quietly, "maybe try harder to behave. I'm not ready for gray hair." She pulled back and turned you towards Steve, who followed with his own small embrace.

"Thanks for saving me," he chuckled, "I don't think I ever said that. How rude, right?"

"Well," you paused, stepping back and towards the void, "it's not really the first time." Unable to risk stalling any longer, you gave them a smile and stepped in. The two stood there for a few minutes after it closed, unsure of how to deal with this new information about their futures and what to even say to each other. Steve finally sighed and turned to Nat, holding his hand out for her to take.

"Okay then, maybe we should start with a first date?"