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Chapter Text

Loki always knew that his brother Thor was at a different intellectual level than himself, but he always chalked it up to the fact that he spent much more time studying than Thor. Loki was gifted with seiðr, which enhanced his reflexes, memory, and abilities, allowing him an advantage above most in the Universe. Still, Thor, despite being gifted with a small amount of seiðr, merely used it to win in his challenges and bludgeon the next poor sod that agreed to the next bout. Thor did the bare minimum of schooling that the Asgardian Royal Heirs were required to do, and it showed, especially now, proving to Loki that Thor's intelligence could have been much better.

“What in Odin's scraggly beard did you do!?” He screamed in frustration as he watched Thor attempt to pat the flames on his cape with his bare hands. The entire room was on fire, including the vessel they were supposed to escape with.

“I just thought we could delay them by destroying their ships,” Thor shrugged sheepishly. He tugged on the crispy remnants of his cloak before giving up and ripping it off his pauldrons.

“Well, we needed one of those ships to escape this Helhole, you Hrafnasueltir!”

“Oh.” Thor took a moment, which they didn’t have, to look around the bay and realize there were no vessels free of damage or engulfed in flames. His shoulders slumped a bit as he realized his overzealous error.

“Yes. Oh.” Loki growled before he grabbed Thor’s wrist and dragged him towards the broken bay doors that lay open to the desolation of space. “We are now going to have to pray to the higher powers that allowed your creation that your merry band of idiots got the message before the communications station got intimate with your hammer.”

“That was not my doing.”

“It was all you're doing! I told you to guard the door; instead, you decided you could not trust me to handle something I have more experience with than you!”

“Barely any more experience…”

“I spent several revolutions on Vannaheim, with Sigyn, using technology that the rest of the Universe uses, including several races that we consider beneath us. Thank the Norns that I was not restricted to just Asgard and your idiotic quests; otherwise, I would assume that we are above the rest of the bloody Universe," Loki growled as he pulled his petulant brother closer to the gaping hole into space.

“We are superior to the rest of the Universe.”

“Norns help me…” Loki muttered before he smacked Thor alongside the head, grabbed his chest plate right below his neck, and pulled his brother close enough that he could see the gold flecks in his blue eyes. “Now listen closely. We are a secular realm ages behind interstellar travel, communication, and weapons. We used to be one of the most advanced societies, but ever since The Mother took our blessed Father to task, he has secluded us to the detriment of our societal growth. Give it a thousand revolutions, and even the dirtball, Midgard, will surpass us,” Loki hissed; Thor’s pupils dilated in fear as Loki’s wrath and prickly seiðr shook Thor's fearlessness. Loki pulled back and continued to tow his brother towards the open door by his chest plate.

“Brother, what are your plans?” Thor cautiously asked as he allowed Loki to drag him in his wake.

“I am leading us away from the angry beings wanting to kill us and the fire hazard that you created before I attempt to project myself to Sigyn so we can make a portal to get us out of here,” he hissed.

“You can do that from this long of a distance?” Thor asked skeptically.

“Maybe… I hope so… we’ve practiced a bit with pooling our powers to accomplish larger feats of seiðr, but I am unsure how far away Sigyn is from us and how effective it will be. My beloved has been practicing using a sling ring to open portals using interdimensional magic with Cerridwen but has yet to succeed….” Loki trailed off as they reached the bay's edge and the dark expanse of space in front of them. Their situation became bleaker by the second as their options slimmed, and the last option settled in Loki's mind. He logically knew they could technically survive in the black of space with no breathable air for a few hours before being rescued, but the recovery time would be considerable. Plus, the humiliation would be heinous once Sigyn and their mother found out. 

Loki released his hold on Thor’s armor before slumping to the ground. He hung his head and pulled at his shoulder-length hair before flinging his head back to look Thor in the eye. “Now, do your best to be quiet so I can concentrate. Do Not Go Anywhere!”

Thor tapped Mjölnir on his chest and gave his brother a mocking bow. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Unbelievable…” Loki grumbled, rolled his eyes, and set about trying to get them out of the mess.

After a few minutes of not being able to project, Loki gave up and strode to one of the Emergency Decompression Suit storage lockers to see if there were holographic spacesuits compatible with his and Thor’s biology. So if they got ejected into the black of space, they would live just long enough to be picked up by a friendly ship, noticed by Heimdall, and retrieved via Bifrost. 

Just as he pulled wires out of the nearest maintenance control hatches, attempting to remember what Sigyn had told him about manipulating things to override locks, he heard a buzz of familiar engines as a vessel entered the bay. The craft was painted with the unique color scheme of the Vanir Spaceforce but was made unique with several additional kanji characters surrounding a black adder under the pilot's position.

“It appears a rescue has been arranged!” Thor exclaimed excitedly, waving his hammer towards Sigyn's ship. The craft spun gracefully in the tight bay, Sigyn skillfully avoiding the flaming debris and walls as she settled the vessel in for a brief landing, laying cover fire for them to cross the open expanse. 

Exhausted, exasperated, and tired of Thor’s laissez-faire attitude, Loki threw a piece of bulkhead toward his brother, hitting him in the back. “You are daufi, Thor! We wouldn’t have needed a rescue if you had kept your stupid hammer to yourself!” The two brothers ran towards their rescue vessel, and Sigyn continued to hover low as she opened the hatch for them. Jumping in, Loki closed the hatch controls and followed Thor into the cockpit.

A crimson and gold, jewel-encrusted Vanir Royal coat with a fur collar lay carelessly tossed over the navigator’s chair while a massive gold, half-circle headpiece, encrusted with jewels, leaned haphazardly on the communicator’s chair. "Strap in, morons,” his lovely betrothed shouted from the front in the pilot's chair as she skillfully flew the craft around the bay, taking out the enemy vessels and equipment. She hit a few buttons, flicked toggles, and used the controls to swing them back into space. Picking up the coat, Loki hung it off the back of the chair before strapping in and bringing up the star charts.

“We should be able to punch and go, Loki,” she shouted over her shoulder. The gold of her eye makeup and the white of her face paint caught the blue light of the control panels, making her appear as ethereal as any of the Norns. "Just bring up the list, select the first one, and I’ll do the rest!”

“How did you find us?” Thor asked, still standing, swaying with the ship's turn as 

“Sit down, Thor!” She distractedly shouted as she fired the ship’s guns while weaving through debris and small defense pods of the pirates.

“I just-“

“Sit. Down.” Loki stressed as he finished bringing up the list, tapped the controls, and prayed that the brief tutorial he had been given was enough to get this right because if it wasn't, they would be made into fine dust and spread across the Nine Realms. 

“But-“

Sigyn flicked a few more levers and reached to the panel to her right before she flicked another above. “Sit down now or be splattered against the bulkheads!”

Thor sat on top of her headpiece, smashing it into bits of metal, jewels, and silk under his massive bulk. 

“Mother is going to be livid…” Sigyn angrily muttered as she did one last switch flick, and the engines spooled up to a high-pitched whine just as the stars started to blur. As they made the jumps, their bodies slammed back into their seats as the vessel made jump after jump, swiftly moving through spacetime at speeds hazardous to most humanoids. The only thing keeping them in place were the straps of the safety harnesses as the ship jerked, rolled, and shook from portal to portal. An undetermined time later, due to the warp of reality and the trauma of risky space travel, they popped back into real space, Asgard, in the visible distance.

“Well, that could have been better,” Loki muttered, fumbling to unstrap himself. After several failed attempts, he succeeded, leaning ahead and stretching out his legs to regain the feeling in his extremities. 

“How did you find us?” Thor eagerly insisted, tangled in the safety harness, as he continued to beg for answers to obvious questions.

“This again?” Loki rolled his eyes and made his way toward his betrothed. 

“Yes! I want to know!” Thor yelled as he pulled free and tumbled to the floor, Mjölnir bouncing free, destroying the rest of the headpiece with prejudice.  

“Since I was unable to leash you, I settled a tracking spell on both of your cloaks, weapons, boots, and a few other articles of clothing I hoped you wouldn’t gamble or lose,” Sigyn replied, standing up from the pilot's chair in her Vanir royal glory minus her bejeweled slippers that lay abandoned on the floor. Her aquamarine eyes darkened as she glared at the two brothers and stroked the sheathed wakizashi tucked into the blood-red obi around her waist. Her elaborate appearance drove home their irresponsibility and foolishness in needing a rescue. 

“Tracking spell?” A stupid question since Thor should be familiar with them since their mother had attached them to her children when they were crawling babies. 

“Since you continue to act like children, I felt I was in charge of ensuring that you both made it safely to Asgard. Since I had to attend to my duties, my spell was set to alert me if you or Loki left Vannaheim via anything but the Bifrost.”

“Darling…” Loki pleaded as he slid his calloused hands over her palms and hooked his fingers over the bracelet he had given her the last time they spent on Midgard. The warmed metal and jewels reassured him that she still wore his subtle protection spells till he could finish her bonding ring.

“No. You helped and didn’t deter Thor, and the chances of Mother being displeased since I have abandoned my responsibilities for you is high, resulting in my punishment for this stupid little stunt,” she scolded as she clasped his wrists and squeezed in rebuke. 

Loki paled. The last time Sigy's mother had been displeased, the hag had hung Sigyn by her arms until she could free herself and escape. When Sigyn finally arrived on Asgard several rotations later after fleeing her mother's guards and stealing a craft, the healers on Asgard had taken four rotations to correct the damage to her shoulders. It had taken nearly a complete revolution to return to her original fighting strength, even with all her powers and the potions and concoctions his mother had fed her. 

Seeing his reaction, she released his wrists and hugged him before pulling back enough to kiss him briefly. "I’ll be fine; I told her I had spilled wine on my dress and needed to change, so I have about an hour before she notices," she reassured him. "I’ll be fine as long as I can get you two off the ship so I can return before she notices.”

With a flick of her wrist, a portal opened directly below Thor, his shout of surprise echoing in the cockpit before she closed it with another flick. Laughing at her antics, Loki pulled her into his arms. “Thanks for rescuing us, my golden flower.”

“I believe we are now even, my frosty thistle.”

“When will you cease calling me that?”

“When your seiðr stops being as beautiful and prickly as the Midgardian flower, my love.”

“It is completely the wrong color, as you do know.”

“Mmmm, I stand by my reasoning.”

“You always do,” he murmured before sucking on her lower lip and pulling her tight against his armor, the silk of her dress catching on the buckles of his vambraces as his arms dug in under her obi as he pulled her closer.

“As much as I would love an interlude before having to deal with my mother’s court, I am wearing way too much clothing for this to be swift,” Sigyn breathed into his ear before tugging on it with her teeth and worming her hand beneath his backplate and undertunic. They kissed for several moments more, reinforcing their bond by sharing their seiðr and twining their powers to strengthen their soul bond and create a short-term link so they could at least send thoughts to each other for a few days. After several moments, Loki pulled back and slipped his hands under her sleeves, circling her pulse points with his thumbs, causing Sigyn to shudder and scratch at his armor with her blunt nails, then grasped her bare hands. “I will come if you need me,” he promised with a squeeze before releasing and stepping back.

“I know you will,” she replied, smiling sadly at him. I will see you soon. Just a season, and I will be back in your arms.”

He swooped down and kissed her passionately, all teeth and tongue to burn her into his memory to get through the next six months without her. “You better, or I will dash across Yggdrasil branches and steal you away.”

“Promise?”

“Yes.”

She pushed him back with a shove enough that he tripped into the portal she had opened behind him. With a woosh he was sucked down, the last glimpse he had of Sigyn was her mischievous grin as she closed the portal over his head with an arrogant wave of her hand.

Instead of dropping into the throne room on Asgard as initially, he landed in a home so alien that it screamed Midgard. A pretty woman with dark hair played a game with a young boy, encouraging and dotting as any good parent.

The scene flickered, and he watched as she led herself through different weapons practices. Then it flickered again, and she battled against foes while defending the boy. It flickered once more before he found her looking up at him, a familiar power reaching for him… from this stranger.

She ran her thumb over his cheekbone before cupping his face. As she pulled him down, her features changed into Sigyn. Her lips brushed his ear, and she whispered, "You promised, Loki, why have you not come for me?”

.

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Loki gasped and choked, wrenching himself up straight in his bed on Asgard, seconds and 200 revolutions from his last memory of Sigyn before he lost her. His face was wet with tears, and his body chilled despite the low burning fire in the hearth. With a thump, he fell out of the bed, furs and bedding tangling in his legs as he attempted to distance himself from the worst moment of his life... Where he failed her in every way possible.

He regretted not forcing himself to go with her, for not hiding her away from her abusive mother and ambivalent Father, and not protecting her from the scorn of the Vanir court. A court that turned on her parents and then her when her cousin decided that he deserved the throne despite her being the only one capable of managing such a diverse realm of ancient traditions and technological advances.

As Loki lay on the floor, staring at the gilded and jeweled frescoed ceiling, he attempted to list why he remained on Asgard. His mother passed through his mind, and his brother flitted briefly at the edges, but his slow disassociation with his realm had increased much in the last decade or so. The vitriol of Asgard’s warriors towards his continued practice of combining seiðr and combat was one of the few things he had left of Sigyn, and he had honored her memory by continuing the practice. Ridicule and scorn that had only increased and bled over to his brother and his merry band of idiots. Their behavior baffled Loki to no end since his seiðr had saved all their lives at one point or another and made Loki and Sigyn an undefeatable pair on the battlefield. 

His dream had left him doubting himself, his memories, reality, and, to be honest, perhaps his sanity...Definitely my sanity, he mussed. 

Sighing, he pushed off the plush carpet layered over the polished, gold-inlaid stone floor and shuffled towards his chamber door that connected to the great chamber. A servant had lit a fire in the fire pit in the center of the room, the soft light reflecting off the gold threads of the tapestry-covered door that led to Sigyn’s seiðr sealed room. Pausing, he stared at the massive woven art Sigyn had created with his mother for their rooms. They had woven all the tapestries in the room, depicting scenes from all their lives, his favorite by far the one he stood in front of. Reaching out, he traced his fingers over Sigyn’s golden rose symbol entwined with his ouroboros that made up the border of all the tapestries in their rooms before grasping the edge to pull it away from the wall. The woven scene of him crowning Thor in a flower crown from the Þrymskviða bunched in his hand as he tugged it away from the wall enough to grasp the golden rose door handle. Pausing, he struggled to decide whether to break the stasis and alert his mother to his weakness. Sighing in resignation, he released the heavy material and stepped back. He took a deep breath and approached the corridor door, the only visual representation of Sigyn on Asgard. So his sudden decision to force himself to face the one great reminder of the single biggest thing he had lost was a practice of self-flagellation and punishment.

Loki had looked upon the life-sized portrait once. His mother had insisted on its commission before the official bonding ceremony, breaking the tradition of the painting being done on the wedding day or after the first heir was born. His mother had held firm to her decision, insisting on it being finished by the day Sigyn had to depart to return home. Despite his mother's attempts, the paint had been too wet to infuse with their seiðr to give it a little bit of life and movement, an heirloom to their descendants. 

“It can wait,” Sigyn told him as she packed. "We will do it the day I return since the message stated that I would only be required on Vannaheim for two seasons , and then I will return to Asgard.” 

They had gone with Sigyn to Vannaheim for a banquet, got kidnapped by pirates, she had returned home for her duties, the painting dried and hung, and then just a few short time later, her parents were missing, or dead, and Sigyn was… and…and...

Then, in the subsequent several revolutions, Loki had squandered, putting himself in danger. He followed his brother and the merry idiots on quests throughout the Universe, all attempting to have one second of peace. Which, of course, did not work. In the end, Loki almost destroyed himself, trying to make himself more robust, faster, and lethal to protect his brother, family, and realm. His mother had not been pleased, to say the least, and here he was. Two hundred revolutions later... bitter, angry, and hallucinating that the being his seiðr had made his brúðr was still out there. Alone. Without him. 

He took the longest path to that hallway, running his hand along the wall for balance as he shuffled his bare feet along the cold, stone floors inlaid with gold. Finally, he reached the Hall of his ancestors' paintings. Thankfully, all of them were frozen and inactive due to the stasis spells his mother had put on them, the spells' rough edges grating against his seiðr.

Coming to the last painting, he stopped right before it and raised his eyes, his short, greasy hair filtering his view of the painting, the colors muted and the shapes blurry in the darkness. Laughing maniacally at his behavior, stupidity, and cowardness, Loki crossed the hallway, slammed his back into the wall, and slid to the floor, bringing his knees up to his chest and his arms over his head. Gripping the back of his head, he pulled at his lank and greasy hair, shoving his forehead hard into his knees, the wide sleeves of his robe blocking the flickering light of the torches from his face.

“Loki?”

At the sound of his mother's voice, Loki pulled himself even further into himself, his sharp elbows digging into his ribs, the lack of steady meals allowing the sharpness to dig in deep. He didn’t know how long he huddled on the cold floor across from it before he felt his mother’s presence next to him. Her arms suddenly encircled him, her powers tugging at his own as she attempted to bring him back from his spiral and ground him. 

“Oh, darling…” she murmured as she tightened her arms around him. Her steady heartbeat was firm in his right ear, and her seiðr wrapped snuggly around him, warmer and more comforting than the thickest fur blanket. After a while, with her help, he slowly unwound himself enough to stretch out his legs and lean against her, his head on her shoulder. Her familiar scent filled him with a sense of calm and love.

“When was the last time you ate… or slept?” Frigga asked, gently running her hand through his hair, using a spell to clean it.

“I have slept…” he murmured into her shoulder, relaxing as she sent a bit of warmth through him.

“And food?”

He opened his mouth to give a vague answer.

“And no lies, Loki,” she stated firmly, “I know when you lie to me.”

He sighed and leaned into her more. “I do not recall the last time.” He could feel her sorrow ripple through her as she adjusted her powers to bolster his, enough that he was no longer dizzy, the halos around the torches disappearing. She sighed and kissed his forehead before looking up at the painting. “She would have never wished to see you this way; she would want you to move on with your life.”

“Well, she’s not here to care, right?” He bitingly retorted as he dug his nails into his palms. “She is past caring.”

“Loki!”

“Sigyn is dead, Mother, as you and every other being on this bloody asteroid have insisted upon, so much so that it must be true, although I still feel our bond!”

“There was a body, Loki. We both saw it with our own eyes.”

He scoffed and made to pull away from her embrace, ready to run away from the same argument they had had for the two hundred revolutions since Sigyn had been murdered, unwillingly left him. Frigga held on to him harder, using her powers to keep him firmly where she wanted him.

“No. We will discuss this because you cannot continue living like this, Loki. We love you too much to allow you to continue on this path. It has been long enough for you to grieve.”

Finally breaking from her embrace, he stood and loomed over her, his seiðr swirling around him as he glared down at her. “SHE IS NOT DEAD!”

Frigga stood, her hands outstretched in front of her, her robe belted snugly under her heaving breasts as she labored to contain his power from destroying centuries of family history. As he calmed himself and she let go, he dropped to his knees in front of her, head bowed in defeat. 

“Take it," he whispered.

“Take what, Loki?”

“The memory, the feeling, the dream…” he muttered brokenly. 

Frigga knelt before him, her forehead meeting his as her hands approached his temples. Using her powers, she worked with him to bring up what he wished her to see. As Frigga viewed the memories, Loki felt his mother's surprise as she viewed the last few memories. A young woman, Midgardian, Frigga's thoughts whispered through his mind through the connection as she observed the girl as she cared for a young boy. She wore unfamiliar clothing and weapons, but the young woman observed the world around her as dedicated as any Asgardian warrior while protecting her young charge. Her hair, eyes, posture, and voice were not quite right… close... but...but... her essence… her muted powers...

“Glamour?” His mother asked softly as she pulled back, her eyes dark and sorrowful... regret drawing deep lines around her eyes, her hands cradling his head gently. Frigga stroked his cheeks with her thumbs and pulled her powers back before extracting herself from his memories. Just as she was about to unwind the last probes, Loki sent her one last thing. The strand that had bound him to his gullin-blóm was still there. A golden strand twined with the viridian of their combined seiðr.

Frigga gripped his face, his cheeks sunken from too few meals, his dark green eyes shadowed from sleepless nights. As he peered back into his mother's eyes, he saw a spark of hope—belief in what she saw. She rubbed her thumbs over his sharp cheekbones, rubbing the tears from his cheeks. “But how?”

“I don't know, mother," he whispered, his voice cracking as he struggled with the sudden relief of his mother finally believing him.

“But her appearance… it can not be her...” Doubt colored her voice as she struggled through her thoughts and analyzed what she had seen.

“I have only seen her true form once, Mother, and it is nothing you would ever expect. If any being were to survive death, it would be her. If she could survive her mother all those revolutions..." 

“Why did you never speak to me of this, Loki?”

“Would you have believed me, Mother? The Liesmith, The Trickster, and that 'Seiðr Wielding Argr' that all of Asgard has defamed since my greatest defender was slain?” Loki spat.

Frigga flinched at the last insult. Loki watched as she paled and stumbled back, releasing her hold on him in her anger. "Who has called you that?" She spat.

"Does it matter?" 

"Yes! You are a Prince of Asgard!"

Loki laughed mockingly at his mother as she looked shamed, color filling her cheeks as she realized her error. She had rarely spoken up on how Loki had been treated by the beings of Asgard, often deferring to Odin's policy of allowing his children to deal with their problems as they saw fit unless it affected Asgard. This policy had been the tradition, but the disrespect towards Loki had become prevalent after Sigyn had left him, and Thor's behavior during the last hundred revolutions had only escalated it. Loki watched as his mother pursed her lips, clenched her fists, and suddenly decided to go to war for him.  

Loki felt something other than pain and anger for the first time in a long time at that moment, almost as if he was just a minuscule lighter. He sighed and tugged his mother into a hug, pulling her down to sit next to him against the wall as he comforted her. “You are right, and I have been a terrible mother,” Frigga shamefully whispered as she moved to sit next to him, resting her head against the wall, “and I should have put a stop to how they treated you as soon as I saw signs of it, tradition be damned." 

Loki huffed in amusement at her enthusiasm. Frigga could do what she could, but Odin was the King of Asgard, and if His Majesty refused to dispel the hate spat towards his youngest son, there was not much she could do. “Do not worry yourself, Mother. Make it up to me by assisting me in searching for Sigyn,” he coaxed as he forced a small smile.

"After Thor's coronation, we will scry," Frigga replied with a firm nod before looking up at the painting, unaware of Loki stiffening next to her as he ducked his head, hiding the smirk on his face.

"Yes... of course, Mother, after Thor's coronation..." 

Chapter Text

"Last night's Met Gala was sponsored and hosted by Stark Industries and The Stark family. The theme this year is American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, currently running at the Metropolitan Art Museum here in New York City starting today till August 15! The outfits, as always, were beautiful and creative, but no more so than the Starks and Pepper Potts! Tony Stark wore a custom Tom Ford suit in navy with gold pinstripes that matched Pepper Potts'  gold satin Zac Posen gown and Margaret Stark's midnight blue, gold-embroidered Guo Pei gown. I must say the crowning jewel of the night was Ms. Stark's dress! "

"Oh, wow!" The other female host exclaimed as a picture came on the screen.

"I agree Sarah! They said that it two weeks to embroider the dress to match the antique bracelet Ms. Stark is wearing and that the design was based on the Travis Banton evening dress in the exhibit."

"It's gorgeous Sandra! I see gold flowers and are those snakes...?"

"It's like all three of them are out of the Al Capone era-!"

The channel flipped.

A well-dressed, female newscaster behind a glossy black desk glanced up at the camera and a string of short video clips appeared on the split-screen. Several short videos of a blurry, man-shaped flying object, followed by massive explosions were shone in rapid succession. 

"In other news, there’s been several enemy insurgent camps destroyed by a single unidentifiable flying object in Afghanistan yesterday. When asked, representatives from the United States Airforce and the Pentagon stated that it was a joint venture between the armed forces and a private organization and refused to comment further.”

She turned to the camera to her right and genuine excitement lit up her face.

“The Stark Technology and Green Energy Expo in Queens is due to start this month after their opening ceremony featuring Tony Stark and his son Peter! Let’s go to Laura in Queens for the latest updates….. Laura? How’s it going?”

“It’s amazing! The expo isn’t at full set up and I’ve already seen so many new and innovative inventions!”

“That’s great! What are you most excited to get a closer look at?”

“Well, Candice, I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to see Peter Stark! But if I had to choose an exhibit, it would be the ‘Flying Cars through the Ages’ that Peter and Tony Stark collaborated on. Rumor has it, that there are three functioning flying cars created by the last three generations of Starks!”

“That does sound pretty amazing, Laura! Thanks for your update!” The camera went back to the studio and Candice shuffled her papers.  “In other news, Stark Industries held a press conference yesterday interviewing Margaret Stark. She announced that she would start taking control of several of the Stark Industries funded charities along with The Maria Stark Foundation that Tony Stark started in the memory of their mother. She stated that she was looking forward to all the good that they could do and that she and Tony already had plans for an adult assistance program in New York City and Los Angeles. More information will be released soon..."

Don't trip, don't trip, don't trip, Maggie prayed furiously as the limo pulled up to the drop-off area and a bodyguard in a black suit stepped forward to open the door. Pepper had drilled her for hours to get this right and she refused to shame herself by doing something easily preventable the first time she hosted a major event. 

"You'll be fine," Pepper whispered from her left before jabbing Maggie in the side. "Now get out."

With a huff and an eye roll, Maggie swung her towering platform wedges to the pavement, scooted forward, and allowed the guard to help her out of the car. Immediately every person that was lined up behind the barriers started shouting her name as she carefully stepped forward and did a pose for the paparazzi and media. Pepper gave her a minute before she stepped out of the car, enough that Maggie could slowly start forward towards the stairs where they would pause together with Tony and Oprah once they had all arrived. (Anna Wintour could do her own thing). As the hosts of the Met Gala this year, they were the first celebrities to arrive and were obligated to greet everyone as they arrived before opening the banquet and the exhibit. As Maggie lingered at the halfway point up the stairs, she silently thanked Pepper for forcing suggesting that she wear her Met Gala heels around the house to practice walking in them. The dress was probably about twenty pounds with all the fabric, embroidery, and boning structure that supported her ample assets, and being in unfamiliar shoes would have thrown off her whole balance. Looking down at Pepper, Maggie admired the simple lines of the Zac Posen gown that she wore. The antique gold satin dress trailed after Pepper as she expertly made her way up the stairs in her custom Christian Louboutin heels. Maggie was equally jealous of Pepper's heel walking abilities and relieved that she had managed to talk Pepper into allowing her to wear wedges instead of the ice picks that Pepper preferred. 

As the noise level increased, Maggie smiled gently towards the screaming paparazzi (because it amused her to rile them up without talking to them) before looking past Pepper and waving at Tony in his 1930's inspired suit that matched both her and Pepper's dresses. The dark blue and gold pinstripes complemented his olive skin, the gold of his watch and vintage sunglasses pulling the whole outfit together into a very Tonyesqe outfit with a hint of 1930's Italian mobster. If he hadn't been so worried about his hair, the fedora that had appeared as an early birthday gift from Rhodey would have been the ultimate piece de resistance. Seeing her wave, he waved back at her with a genuine grin on his face and started to slowly make his way up the stairs towards her.

"Ms. Stark! Ms. Stark! Everyone wants to know if you're dating anyone!" Of course, they want to know that, Maggie thought grumpily as she forced herself to keep smiling, it's not like they could imagine that I have yet to find any person attractive in memory. Maggie gritted her teeth and forced a smile at that last question since she didn't even want to think about it. Thankfully Tony came up to her where she had stood to pose for the cameras to take pictures of her dress.

"I think she'll have to get over her love affair with coffee before that happens," Tony joked as he hooked his arm through hers. 

"Oh, what about Leonardo?" Maggie asked Tony. "He does make the most perfect espresso."  Tony laughed at her and pulled her towards the group of reporters.

"Ms. Stark, who is Leonardo?" One of them asked as they all shoved their recorders toward her and Tony's faces.

"Maggie, you know that our espresso machine can't love you back," Tony teased her before turning towards the group. "Leonardo DeEspresso is our espresso machine that I made for my sister a few years ago. She's trying to convince me to mass-produce a smaller, portable version of him but she has yet to convince me it would be profitable."

Maggie rolled her eyes before poking Tony in the chest. "You made him for both of us. How about instead we talk about the charities we're starting up in the next few months," Maggie suggested, making the reporters over-excited again.

After several minutes of answering questions, Tony smoothly pulled the two of them away from the reporters and led her up the rest of the stairs to wait for Pepper to go through her poising for photos. After a few minutes, Tony and Maggie observed Pepper deftly berating a paparazzi for whatever sexist question he must have asked her to have that reaction and laughed as the man was dragged away by security. 

"How are you feeling?" Maggie asked Tony softly as they waited. Tony had been steadily feeling worse since he had been going on more missions the last few months, all the while dealing with the SI transition from weapons to technology and green initiatives, researching for a new element, and assisting Pepper with setting up the Expo. Maggie had been helping where she could but she also had to take care of Peter, learn about her new responsibilities, and plan for their move to New York City in the fall. She also had to plan in time for Peter's school registration at Ned's STEM school along with the testing he would have to finish in order to get admitted. And then on top of all that, she had to attend meetings with the board of directors of SI, charity trustee committees, and whatever Pepper and her assistants scheduled her for. 

"I'm good. I think this is the best I've felt since Strange put me on that smoothie routine and the occasional visit to the cleaners," Tony replied vaguely since they were in public. Stephen had Tony do dialysis once a week along with putting Tony on a regimented diet that included fruit smoothies with added nutrient powders. 

"I wish you would sleep more," Maggie muttered as she shifted her balance and straightened her posture as Pepper gave her one of the looks she normally reserved for Tony, while she made her way up the stairs to stand with them.

"I agree with Maggie, Tony," Pepper murmured softly as she reached them and took his other arm. Maggie looked over at the two of them, marveling that she and Pepper towered over Tony and he seemed delighted by it. 

"I like this," Maggie stated with conviction as Tony and Pepper gave her inquiring glances. "Us doing things together and taking some time to just enjoy ourselves," she replied to their glances, "this is going to be fun!" Tony and Pepper rolled their eyes at Maggie before dragging her along to talk to more media people while they waited for Oprah and Anna Wintour to join them. 

The evening turned out to be as relaxing as an A-Lister could be and all three of them had a great time despite Pepper giving chilled looks toward Anna Wintour all night (Anna had made an uncomplimentary comment about Maggie and Tony so Pepper was on the Warpath™), Tony pretending to be an Italian Gangster (with all the gestures and a fake Italian accent), and Maggie attempting (and giving up) on wearing towering wedges all night (she had brought flats to change into) while pretending to be a rich socialite (keyword pretending)... Overall, 7/10 would do again but 9/10 if Tony would do the Italian Mafia Boss schtick again because that had been hilariously entertaining. 

“Thank you and welcome to Stark Expo!” Tony shouted to the crowd, dressed in a tuxedo reminiscent of the one he had worn at the Met Gala two weeks ago but in black with gold pinstripes and a red bow tie.  As the trapdoor settled and he completed his round of waves, several people in the crowd screamed, “I love you, Tony!” as the rest screamed in excitement.

“Please, It’s not about me, it’s not about you, it’s not even about us! It’s about legacy and what we chose to leave behind for future generations. Right, Pete?”

“Right, Dad!” Peter shouted as he stepped out from behind Tony, dressed in a miniature version of his dad's outfit, drawing awes from the crowd as Peter mimicked his father and waved at them before grabbing Tony's hand.

“And that’s why, for the next year and for the first time since 1974, the best and brightest men and women of nations and corporations the world over will pool their resources, and share their collective visions, to leave behind a brighter future. It’s not about us. It’s for our future and our children,” Tony paused and looked down at his son, “therefore, what I’m saying, if I’m saying anything, is welcome back to the Stark Expo!”

The crowd cheered and screamed at them as Peter waved and smiled up at his dad before stepping in front of Tony and gesturing towards the screen.  “And now, making a special guest appearance from the great beyond to tell you what it’s all about, please welcome my grandpa, Howard Stark!” A video of Howard Stark started playing on the mega screen as Peter and Tony moved offstage.

“Awesome job, buddy, I’m so proud of you!” Tony praised as they made their way back to their dressing room to change and meet up with Maggie and Happy who had been sitting up in a private box for the performance.

“Thanks, Dad!” Peter gushed as he pushed open the door of their dressing room and then flung himself onto the couch, “It was sooo scary, but awesome too.”

Tony laughed at his son and pulled off his bowtie before unbuttoning his jacket. “Come on Pete, we need to get changed so we can meet May and Ben for dinner.”

“Maggie's coming too, right?”  Peter’s muffled voice came from under a pillow. 

“Yeah, she’s coming and then you and she are off to New Mexico for some site seeing and visiting her crazy friend and Doctor Jane Foster.”

“You're letting me to too!?” Peter jumped up from the couch in excitement. Maggie and Tony had discussed it and Tony hadn't made the decision until earlier that day. He still worried about Peter being out of his sight, but Maggie was better at self-defense than most FBI agents and as long as they laid low in backwater New Mexico, they shouldn't have to worry about the press finding them... or something worse, Tony thought darkly.

“Yeah. JARVIS and I need to do some major and dangerous science experiments so I need you to be safely out of the house for it.”

“I don’t believe you’ve informed Miss Maggie about this, Sir,” JARVIS’ voice came from Tony’s phone on the counter.

“It's not like she didn't figure it out already,” Tony muttered as he unbuttoned his jacket and tossed it over the chair. "I bet that Maggie knew that I would let Peter go with her before we left Malibu and had his bag packed to accommodate it."

“What about your birthday party Dad?” Peter looked sadly at his shoes, “Don’t you want me there?”

“I want you all there but we're having it after you guys get back. Uncle Rhodey can't make it until after next week anyway. He's busy in meetings for the next several days,” Tony explained as he maneuvered Peter to the couch and they both sat down. Tony cleared his throat before pulling Peter into his side. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“What?” Peter looked worried and grabbed Tony’s hand before burrowing himself into his dad.

“The reactor is making me sick and unless I replace the Palladium, I could become sicker,” Tony said softly, softening the truth.  He had been delaying telling Peter and everyone important in his life about the heavy metal poisoning, hoping that he and Strange would have figured out something by now. The dialysis was a stop-gap and it was something he could not rely on long-term. Howard's research was proving informative but they had yet to find exactly what they needed to crack a solution. Strange had some ideas about removing the reactor from Tony's body but they needed to track down a few people first before that could happen. Last they had talked about it, Strange was muttering something about think tanks and Korean doctors.

“Are you dying?”

Tony bundled his crying son into his arms and swallowed hard as he fought the urge to cry himself as he pulled Peter in tighter and kissed his forehead.  “Yes." 

After a few minutes, a knock pattern sounded on their door before a familiar face peeked around it.

“Happy is texting me asking where we are..." Maggie trailed off as she took in the scene and sat on the other side of Peter. “You told him,” she whispered and Tony nodded. “Good,” she replied and rubbed Peter’s back. “Peter, honey, JARVIS said that there is an 80% chance of this working and you know how safe JARVIS is with his percentages, if JARVIS says 80%, it’s a sure thing.”

Peter pulled away from his dad and looked at Tony's phone on the counter. “JARVIS? Is Maggie right?”

“Yes, Master Peter, your grandfather’s research has everything your father and I need to be able to synthesize this new element. There are several calculations that I need to do and a particle collider to build to facilitate it, but I believe very soon we shall have a new element.”

“Oh! That's good news!” Maggie said as she stood, and went over to Peter’s bag and pulled out a pair of jeans and a blue Henley. “How about you both get changed before Happy becomes even more frustrated and comes after us.” She handed the clothes to Tony and went to the door. “JARVIS told me that I’ll have a travel buddy,” she grinned at Tony, "good thing I already planned on one."

"See Pete? I told you," Tony teased as he helped Peter out of the suit.

"Maggie always knows," Peter mumbled from under the shirt Tony was tugging down over Peter's head.

"Exactly."

They drove straight from the Expo grounds, which were conveniently located in Queens, to a local Italian restaurant near Ben and May's home that Tony knew the owner of. Angelica had been childhood friends with Tony's mother, both of their fathers had been higher up in the Sicilian Mafia and both girls had been sent to New York for safety when The First Mafia War had broken out in the early '60s. Long story short, Angelica had met her husband Salvatore at Maria's wedding and they had married soon after, had two daughters, and took over Salvatore's family's restaurant in Queens when his father retired. It was the Stark's last night in New York, so Tony had made reservations for a private back room so they could have a nice meal and say goodbye to the Parkers before they left early the next day for New Mexico and home. They also had the added benefit of being personally waited on by Tony's other godmother and Peter's honorary grandmother.

“Ah, baby Peter is growing up so fast,” Angelica crooned as she led them to the private room and placed a pitcher of water on the table, “and you too, Antonio.” She said in Italian as she smiled at the two Stark boys with a flash of gold from her teeth. “I see you brought Margaret and the Parkers, Antonio. It’s always a joy to see family, especially Margaret...” Angelica trailed off and dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief as they all sat around the table. She had met Maggie last year after the announcement and was still emotional over Maria's long-lost baby daughter.

“I’m not a baby,” Peter muttered under his breath in Italian causing Tony, May, and Angelica to laugh.

“You will always be our baby, Peter,” May proclaimed as she leaned over to kiss her nephew, “no matter how old you get.”

“Antonio will always be my baby... I remember when your Nonna Maria had me over for coffee just a week after his birth...You look just like him, my little treasure,” Angelica reminisced as she stroked Peter’s hair. “Now, you must all be famished after all that Expo nonsense!  Let me bring you some wine and some food,” She exclaimed in English as she stood and clapped her hands prompting a few servers to come in with drinks and appetizers. Angelica treated them like family, they didn't order off the menu, they ate what she cooked them and were grateful for it. After making sure they were comfortable, Angelica made sure that they were comfortable and served before she made her excuses and went back to the kitchens. 

“So I heard you were going to go visit your crazy taser friend, Maggie,” May stated bluntly as she took a sip of her wine and grinned around the glass at Maggie's flinch.

“Ugh, she’s not crazy,” Maggie huffed as she rolled her eyes, “we just happen to use tasers for self-defense.” Darcy admittedly was a little crazy but compared to other people that Maggie had known, Darcy had been more normal than half the people they had gone to high school with. A high school that had taxidermy as a popular elective in the early 2000s, had spent more money on gym equipment than building maintenance and textbooks and collectively worn more flannel than necessary in an era, not the '90s.

“She’s a Political Science major who carries a taser, she’s crazy, Mags,” Tony threw in. “You're a talented batonist that can kill with your pinky, which is completely different, and she should take a page from Pepper and use pepper spray and stilettos. There probably would be fewer lawsuits and accidental deaths in her future if she did.”

Maggie shook her head and sighed before taking a heavy swallow of her wine.  “Well, she will be meeting your son...” She trailed off dramatically.

“Oh, shit! I didn’t think this through!" Tony moaned dramatically as he flopped over Peter and stroked his hair, "JARVIS, can we put Pete in a safety bubble while we do dangerous science? I think it would be less dangerous than meeting The Taserist.”

“I’m sorry, Sir, I believe Master Peter is safer with Miss Maggie and her friend. Doctor Foster will be there to keep order in the chaos that is due to occur," JARVIS replied from Tony's phone on the table. 

Tony pulled away from an indignant Peter with a pout before grabbing a breadstick from the basket. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Brilliant Astrophysicists, amazing at making her own equipment,” Tony muttered as he fiddled with the breadstick before taking a bite. "Need to get a look at some of her tech...” he trailed off as he got lost in his little science bubble.

“And we lost him,” May quipped as she threw her napkin towards Tony who somehow managed to dodge and drink his water at the same time all the while not paying attention. “How’s school going, Peter?”

“Good! They have me working on freshman algebra and Dad said he could help me on some harder things if I get bored. I also got an A on my art project that Maggie helped me build," Peter replied excitedly as he bounced in his chair and grinned in excitement. 

“Oh? What art project?” Ben asked as he leaned forward and poured May more wine before topping off his and Maggie's glasses. 

“Its sooooo cool! She helped me make a free-standing board that’s as tall as I am and Dad helped with the math and spacing. So we put tons of nails in it and then we had a bag of rubber bands and we could make all these cool shapes. We also did a few string art pieces to hang in my room,” Peter pulled out his phone and started showing May and Ben pictures. 

“He loves geoboards now, I think he might love them more than Legos,” Maggie said as she elbowed Tony to get his attention, who was now typing furiously on his phone. Pepper had stayed behind at the Expo to make some final walk-throughs before the event opened officially tomorrow to the general public. “He’s definitely your son.”

“Huh? Oh-? I know he’s my son. What are you talking about Mags?” Tony frowned as he looked up from his phone.

“Tony, are you done on your science tangent? Peter is showing off his art project,” May asked from across the table where Peter stood between her and Ben, showing them pictures. 

“I’m never done with my science tangents,” Tony retorted sullenly, as he put his phone back on the table. “I’m a walking science tangent.”

“Oh, so freaking true,” Maggie said before grabbing the last breadstick, “I think it's terminal.”

After they had eaten dinner, had dessert and coffee, and had a long chat with Angelica, they finally said their goodbyes to May and Ben. Happy picked them up at the curb and they started their drive home.  After Peter and Maggie's kidnapping a few years ago, Pepper had found and purchased a nice brownstone in Manhatten near the Tower. It had originally been a 9-bedroom townhome, built in 1910, that had been converted into two separate apartments, thankfully keeping the historical woodwork and stained glass intact. Pepper then had contracted for it to be converted back into a one-family home and renovated and restored to its former grandeur (with modern amenities) for them to live in when they were in New York until The Tower was finished.  It was a short walking distance to the subway, a nice kid-friendly park, and on the Queen's side of Manhatten so they could avoid some of the heavier traffic when they went to visit May and Ben.

“You’re planning for the worst, aren’t you?” Maggie stated as she watched as Tony adjusted a sleeping Peter. 

“Yes," Tony replied softly, a frown marring his face as he stared out the tinted window of their town car. " I owe it to Peter, SI, and the rest of you to not leave you with the mess that was my life. JARVIS has everything organized on my private server so if something happens there should be no long legal battles or hiccups, and the lawyers have all their instructions..." Tony paused for a moment before turning back to her and looking her in the eyes. "I’m making Pep CEO when I get back.”

There was silence for a moment as Maggie's mind flitted through the information. “What... what about CFO? Do you have someone set up to take over that?” Maggie was not ready nor qualified to be a member of the board and she really really hoped that Tony wasn't going to even joke about making her one. 

“Not yet, but I’m sure Pep has someone in mind.”

Oh, thank god! She thought furiously as Tony must have sensed her relief because he gave her a sad, knowing smile. “How long, Tony?”

"We're not sure. With the missions and the Palladium poisoning, it could be at any time... I'd rather be prepared for the worst and not need it than leave you all unprepared. I'm hoping this element works because then we can focus on getting the reactor out of me."

"What about the missions? Could Rhodey take over?"

Tony chuckled softly. "That was the plan. JARVIS has been working on Operation Platypus for the last six months and it should be almost done by the time I get home to Malibu. I will hopefully only have to worry about some testing and painting for it before it's good to go."

"That's good news, Tony," Maggie whispered as she squeezed his hand that rested on Peter's back. 

Tony squeezed back, "I hope so, Mags, because I really want to be around for a while yet."

"You better be, because Peter needs every parent and parental figure he can find and I can't do this alone."

Tony laughed softly before trailing off, his fingers combing through Peter's hair and silence fell over the car, Peter’s soft snores the only sound other than Happy's soft jazz coming from the front. After a few minutes, they pulled into the garage of the townhouse and Maggie put a hand on Tony’s arm. “The new element will work and you'll come up with some silly name like ‘Okily Dokilyium’ or something. I believe in you and JARVIS but if I have to go beat the shit out of that Pirate for some help, I will,” Maggie muttered darkly. “He knows where Bruce Banner is, JARVIS confirmed it for me last week.”

Tony smiled and pulled her into a hug, squeezing and waking Peter at the same time. A muffled, “Oh, this is nice,” came from the squished kid.

“We know how much you love your hugs, underoos. Let’s get you to bed so you can get up early to go play space science in New Mexico with Maggie and Doctor Foster.”

“‘K,” came the sleepy reply as Maggie got out of the car and picked Peter up.

“Night bambino, I’ll see you in the morning," Tony murmured into Peter's hair as he kissed him goodnight. "Night, Mags," Tony said as he kissed her cheek and hugged her briefly before nudging her into the small elevator. 

"Night, Tony."

Chapter Text

Loki stood with his brother in the antechamber, just off the crowded throne room. It's Thor's fifth cup of wine, he's drunk off of his ass, and Loki whimsically wonders where the endearing, rambunctious brother of his youth had gone. Right... Sigyn's leaving changed more than himself, Loki mussed.

“We have to meet some of the most important beings in the Universe in a matter of minutes and you are drinking yourself senseless," Loki complained futilely as Thor helped himself to another goblet of wine, "are you nervous, brother?" Thor gulped down the wine before gesturing for another cup by throwing his current goblet to the floor as he shouted for another.

Sighing in slight embarrassment, Loki rubbed his temples. It was the night before Thor's coronation ceremony where his bumbling brother would be officially announced as the heir apparent of Asgard and the Asgardian King in Waiting. Tonight was a welcoming gathering for the current rulers of the inhabited Realms along with several other important people from around the galaxy where Thor and Loki were expected to mingle and speak with every being gathered. Loki thought their parents were, one: being extremely naive and optimistic, two: stealing the idea from pre-coup Vanaheim where the elder ruler co-rules with their heir(s) in order to guide and train them to rule, and three: delusional in their belief of Thor's readiness since he was in no way diplomatic nor mature enough for this responsibility. His brother could barely leave Asgard without having to swing his hammer in defense after angering and/or offending the natives of whatever place they ventured to. 

So here they were, dressed in their formal armor for this travesty, waiting for Thor's cue to enter the Grand Chamber where their father's throne resided.  Loki was wearing his full helm (he still had no idea how his mother had found it since he thought he had thrown it into the forge at Nidavellir for Sigyn's bonding rings), suffering a raging headache that continued to be made worse by his brother’s idiotic behavior and the drain on his powers from the lack of sleep from nightmares the previous night. As he shuffled and leaned against the cool stone walls, putting his drunken brother between him and the roaring fireplace, Loki growled under his breath towards the disrespectful servant. The being gave Loki another insulting sneer before smiling in amusement at Thor's drunken antics. 

Disgusting.

A surge of anger filled him and Loki's powers stuttered as he attempted to tamp down the urge to stab his brother in his pretty blue eyes for his idiocy and then slice up the servant for their flagrant disrespect... or better yet, perhaps a visit to Surtur was in order since it was so easy to dispose of the waste on that planet. Loki took a deep breath and pulled his seiðr in and attempted to remind himself that he was stuck here, his mother would be extremely disappointed if Thor failed to show up for this circus and murdering servants for being horrible beings was frowned upon. With a sudden pang, Loki wished that Sigyn was here wearing one of her beautiful court dresses, a vast assortment of deadly weapons, and armed with her sharp wit. Despite her knowing when and where it was appropriate, her frequent unfiltered scathing and pointed corrections towards himself and Thor, when they were not in public, had really made them better beings. And to be honest, Sigyn had been the only being in Nine Realms very proficient at making his brother behave the way he was supposed to, and in the last two hundred years since she had gone, Loki and his mother had failed to get his brother to act like the prince he was supposed to be. Loki ground his teeth as he watched his spoiled brat of a brother drink himself senseless and wished he had company for this misery and silently prayed for a temporary stay of execution to this shitshow. Shuddering, Loki mentally told himself that he should probably stop spending time around the dregs of the universe because if his inner language had become so uncouth, imagine what his verbal was turning into... he had to maintain some standards!

“Have you ever known me to be nervous?” Thor bragged as he interrupted Loki's angsty rant and sipped from his seventh cup? eighth? Loki had honestly lost track, which was probably not a good thing...

“There was that time in Nornheim," Loki prompted purposely, because of course Thor so easily forgot when he failed at something! It was like his tiny brain couldn't absorb anything that would teach him a lesson in humility!

“That wasn’t nerves, brother, it was the rage of battle! How else could I have fought my way through a hundred warriors and pulled us out alive?”  Thor bragged as the servant approached with another cup. Where was this idiot getting them? Was he picking them up from the floor and refilling them...? Loki shuddered in disgust as the servant did exactly that before refilling it for Thor. The floors were kept clean, but really!? Did the palace not have enough goblets, cups, or mugs for Thor to have a clean one? Loki shuddered in disgust, Sigyn would have had a fit if she saw this...

“As I recall, I was the one who veiled us in the smoke to ease our escape and Sigyn sent the shock wave to disable their weapons,” Loki reminded his brother as he glared at the idiot servant, motioning for him to go away. The servant just smiled smugly and gave his brother the filthy, refilled goblet. This hundr was about to get slit from stem to stern, Loki didn't care that killing servents was no longer done and Frigga would rather have a sober Thor than a drunken one. He could easily hide the body until that evening when he could just open a portal over a lava pit on Sutar or Midgard if he was desperate. 

“Some do battle, others just do tricks,” Thor quipped mindlessly as the servant snickered at Thor's words and Loki glared at both of the cretins for their impertinence.

“She saved us and you mock her memory,” Loki hissed viciously at his brother, his fury overwhelming him as he imagined two beings at the end of his knives this evening... better yet, he was going to pull out his Vanir Sword that he hadn't used since she left him and collect some heads for the collection he would lay at his beloved's feet when he found her. Her mother had loved offerings of relics, so perhaps his gullin-blóm would be in the same mindset if she had metamorphosed.  As Loki's rage intensified and his offerings of imaginary body parts increased, Loki clenched his hands in reaction to his powers surging. Before he could pull it back, eels poured out of the current goblet that the servant held towards his brother, and the things slithered out across the servant’s hand before dropping to the floor with a wet splat. The servant screamed before they flung the goblet and tray to the floor, the bottle smashing on the flagstone, before fleeing the chamber.

“Loki...” Thor admonished him as he continued to sip from the cup still in his hand, unconcerned about his brother's feelings. Frustrated, Loki ground his teeth at the brief loss of control over his powers before he waved his hand and the eels turned back into spilled wine. “That was just a waste of good wine,” Thor lamented.

“Well, we can’t all have everything we were destined for,” Loki replied bitterly as he attempted to calm himself down and soothe himself with the thought that this whole golden sham would be over in a matter of rotations and he would be free to leave to find Sigyn.

“I miss her too, brother,” Thor replied softly as he set down the empty goblet before he grasped his winged helmet and placed it over his golden curls, “Sigyn would have chided me for drinking before such an event. You do her memory a service.”

Loki sighed, there was his brother of their youth, admittedly, a little late, but there he was. He nudged Thor in the ribs. “Nice feathers,” Loki teased gently as his ire finally dissipated, leaving him exhausted and worn out.

“Oh, you really want to start this again!? Cow!”

“I was being sincere!” Loki retorted defensively, before rolling his eyes in amusement at how quick Thor's reply to the teasing had been. Thor never seemed to believe him anymore when he said something complimentary, it was disheartening and Loki now regretted saying anything at all.  At least he tried, he told himself. 

“You are incapable of sincerity and only around her would you endeavor," Thor muttered gruffly under his breath as he leaned towards him, shadows dancing over his eyes from the fire. Loki could feel the grief rolling off his brother as Thor's shoulders slumped and he fiddled with his vambrace. "Since she died, you've withdrawn from us and I feel that you don't wish to be around me anymore...," Thor swallowed heavily before he looked Loki in the eyes, "...that you hate me and resent me for all of this," Thor gestured towards the throne room before bowing his head. "I just want what we had before..." 

Loki stared at Thor in disbelief, wondering if he had misjudged his brother and that perhaps his elder brother could be the forward-thinking leader that Asgard needed. But doubt quickly overshadowed the small kernel of hope because for the last two hundred years, since Sigyn had left them, Thor's brashness and selfishness had gradually overpowered the gentle being his brother had been, encouraged by the Asgardian court followers' false adulations and Thor's friends' dislike of Loki (especially Hogan). 

Loki took a step forward as he grasped his brother's pauldrons and prayed to the Norns while he searched for the right words. “That is not true," Loki professed sincerely, "I’ve looked forward to this day as long as you have. You’re my brother and my friend and sometimes I am envious of your destiny, but never doubt that I love you.” Which was not a lie, since he loved his brother with all his heart and Loki may not always like Thor but he loved him, he was his brother, and if he lost him... " and I am deeply sorry that you feel like I resent you but it's been hard living without Sigyn and it has been difficult to not lash out and to be honest," Loki laughed darkly in self-deprecation, "everyone on Asgard would make every effort to dispose of me if I took the throne."

Thor looked down, somber for the first time in a while, he swallowed heavily before shuffling awkwardly as he cleared his throat. “Thank you, Loki,” Thor replied softly, his eyes shadowed with concern. Loki knew that their mother had spoken to his brother and father, informing them to go easy on Loki as they prepared for this day since she knew Loki would struggle more with Sigyn’s loss, that it would weigh heavier as they prepared for Thor’s crowning ceremony. Sigyn would have ascended her throne by now and Loki would have been her consort, so seeing Thor undertake his destiny when his had been brutally ripped from him, was a very bitter pill to swallow. Thor shuffled on his feet before suddenly reaching out and hugging Loki tight enough to make his breathing difficult. "I love you too brother," his brother mumbled wetly, "and you would make a fine king, better than I ever could be."

Loki allowed himself to be smothered in Thor's feelings for a moment before he managed to wiggle free and pushed himself out of his brother's grasp. "Come, now, we need you to look your best," Loki chided as he adjusted Thor's helm and used his seiðr to wipe the evidence of Thor's blubbering away.

“How do I look?” Thor asked with an awkward smile as he attempted to lighten the mood and nervously made some final adjustments to his vambraces, pauldrons, and cape.

“Like a king,” Loki stated firmly, pasting a smile on his face just as the ceremonial horn blasted through the chambers. "Come, brother, it’s time.”

“Go ahead, Loki, I’ll be along,” Thor deferred as he gestured with Mjölnir towards the noise of Asgard's guests.

Loki rolled his eyes and shook his head in exasperation. “You just want to make an entrance.”

“You know me so well, brother. Escort Mother to the throne and I’ll follow behind you.”

Loki sighed and made his way out of the chamber towards where their mother was waiting, this was going to be a disaster even if Loki's machinations went sideways. 

Well, let's say that it had all gone to Hel in a handbasket and the results had been better than Loki could have ever predicted, it was as if the Norns themselves had foretold it. Having discreetly inserted himself amongst the many courts of the Realms by using his vast talent of disguises and subtly, Loki had managed to rile up the more dissident rulers that had come for Thor's pre-inauguration. He had gone around, subtly whispering comments into the right beings' ears about several of the sacred objects that Odin still held in the Vaults of Asgard. He had hoped for, at worst, some of the Elves to diplomatically inquire about some of their relics being returned but when King Laufey had demanded the return of the Casket of Ancient Winters, Loki couldn't have asked for a better situation. Any sort of diplomatic potential of the gathering had been swiftly snuffed with Odin's refusal, Thor's added unneeded comments, and Laufey's people's later attempt at stealing the Casket during the night. It had ended with everyone being sent home with an impressive use of Odin's powers, Thor's coronation being canceled, and Loki thanking the Norns for Asgard's narrow miss of Thor's bumbling rule. It's not like Loki didn't wish for Thor to take over Asgard, Loki really didn't want to rule over a bunch of backward warriors, it's just that Thor was not... mature enough for such responsibilities. Plus, Loki did not wish for the responsibility of bringing Asgard up to the standards of the rest of the bloody universe. To be honest, Jotunheim was probably more advanced than Asgard was since they had no qualms about using their magicks in battle, unlike Asgard where any male practitioner was scorned and derided for doing so.  Asgard's standing army was massive but not as it once was after the disappearance of the Valkyries and many of the other Realms had evolved to include space travel and energy weapons that Asgard had forsaken long before Thor and Loki had been born. 

After the convenient disruption to the gathering from the attack of the Frost Giants, the All-Father, in His infinite wisdom, specifically forbade them *cough* Thor *cough* from leaving Asgard to seek vengeance. Which was a very sensible thing to say but the completely wrong thing to say to Thor, who of course did the complete opposite. And then when they made their way to the Bifrost, where the All-Seeing, supposedly sensible Guardian and Gatekeeper of Asgard, allowed the Idiots Three, Thor, Sif, and a very reluctant Loki to use the machine to invade Jotunheim. Which, wasn't Heimdal supposed to protect Asgard from those who would do it harm? And wasn't keeping his daufi brother exactly that?!

Apparently not. 

So instead, here they were, minus their heaviest hitter, in the most hostile land they had ever invaded without her. It was reckless, unplanned, and an excellent example of what his brother had become in the last two hundred years and Loki couldn't believe that he, Loki, the sensible one, had gone along with it! Loki had finally convinced his mother that Sigyn was alive and agree to help him but that couldn't happen if he died here, in this icy realm, over an abyss on this fridged wasteland! What the Hel was he thinking?! He should have stayed on Asgard and allowed these morons to go without him! Loki shivered as the remaining heat from the Bifrost's seal at their feet faded away with the piercing wind. He was an idiot and he deserved to die here for allowing his brother to drag them here. Sigyn would never forgive him for going along with this folly when she found out about it...

“We shouldn’t be here,” Hogun declared darkly before he murmured a prayer to his ancestors in Vanir as he pulled out his mace Hridgandr. 

At least someone else was regretting this decision!

“It’s too late now,” Thor declared firmly as he moved away from the others, swinging Mjölnir. 

It really wasn't...

“Actually, it’s not. We could turn right around, hop back to Asgard, and share a mug by the fire... Could be nice,” Fandral pleaded jovially as he tried to persuade Thor as he played nervously with the hilt of his rapier. Thor just ignored him and continued towards the far-off city of ice.

Exactly what I was thinking! That's two! Loki thought as he followed after the group, taking up the rear guard, searching the terrain for movement, and prayed that the guard he had told to warn Odin did his duty. “Perhaps we should wait,” Loki spoke firmly, making one last attempt to divert this madness.

Thor turned and glared at Loki, his anger visible in the little sparks of electricity around his fingers. “For what?”

“To survey the enemy, to gauge their strengths and weaknesses from a distance,” Loki suggested dryly and obviously. It had been one of the first lessons they had learned as children... It didn’t work. Thor scoffed and moved off again.

“I’m liking that. Gauging, surveying. Especially that distance part,” Volstagg mentioned as he gripped his battle-ax nervously.

That's three...

“We know all we need and it's time to act,” Thor grit out as he moved around a sharp piece of stone and ice as the rest trailed reluctantly behind him.

“He’s just got to swing his hammer,” Sif lamented dryly as she adjusted her fur cloak and gripped her shield nervously. “There’s no Sigyn for diplomacy or last-minute escapes...” She trailed off as she looked guiltily over at Loki and past him to Thor, “but she would have stopped this madness before we would have left the Hall.” Sif always went along with Thor, hoping to draw his attention and eventual regard and Loki had a feeling she would be waiting for quite some time for that since Thor would probably never see her like that if he hadn't already.

Anyways... that's four!

Loki ground his teeth in frustration as he trailed after the group, disgusted that the entire party wished to return to Asgard but for some reason, they still went along with this suicide mission. Sif was right, Sigyn would have knocked out Thor before they would have left the palace, locked him in a closet, and shouted at him through the door until he came to his senses. It would not have been the first time, either. They continued over the rough frozen wasteland, shielding themselves with shields and boulders as they made their way closer to the haunted city. Volstagg shivered and dragged his feet as he clutched his thin cloak closer to his body and Loki searched the terrain for movement anxiously wondering what was taking the guard and his father so long. This was madness! 

“It feels good, doesn't it? To be together again, adventuring on another world?” Thor said with forced cheer as he tried to rally his friends and brother as he blatantly continued to ignore their mumbled comments of dissent. 

“Adventuring? Is that what we’re doing?” Fandral replied sarcastically, surprising Loki at the venom coming from a being that usually was the most cheerful despite the situation or opinion. 

“What would you call it?” Thor asked as he continued his blind march towards their certain destruction. 

“Freezing,” Fandral replied as he pulled at his cloak, "and I think it's time for us to head home, I do have someone waiting for me and I promised her-"

“Starving,” Volstagg interrupted Fandral's usual spiel about his ladybirds, his stomach rumbling loudly. 

“Whining," Sif murmured under her breath as she clutched her cloak closer while gripping her shield, her distress at their situation apparent in the lines around her mouth and eyes. She gave Loki a long look as if she was beseeching him to end this madness somehow. Loki shrugged his shoulders and held out his palms, asking her non-verbally what she expected him to do about it. He had no power here, neither of them did, she should know this. 

“How about a song to lift our spirits?” Thor suggested with false cheer.

“No," Hogan replied bluntly as he shouldered past Volstag, his white-knuckled grip on his mace the only sign that he was as upset about this as the rest of them.

They still didn't turn back, despite everyone's opinion of the contrary.

After they entered the city, the emptiness and darkness seemed even more haunting, the subzero winds whistling as they passed through the cracks and crevices of the crumbling buildings. As they moved carefully over the ice-coated stones of the roadway, Loki took note of the crumbling structures and roadways that they traversed. The Frost Giants had long ago moved underground after the loss of the war with Asgard when Odin had taken the Casket of Ancient Winters after defeating the Giants and destroying much of their home realm, Jotunheim. As they followed Thor into the plaza, cracks of ice and the rustle of movement, made them warier and on edge.

“What is your business here, Asgardians?” A voice echoed off the stone and ice, making it difficult to pinpoint the speaker.

“I will only speak to your King, not to his foot soldiers,” Thor declared forcefully as he adjusted his grip and stance, raring for a fight.

“Then speak,” stated a voice from the balcony of the temple to their right, “I am Laufey, King of this Relm.”

“And I am-.”

“We know who you are, Odinson," Laufey spat in disgust, "why have you brought the stench of your blood into my world?”

“I demand answers!"

Loki sighed, they were definitely dying here. 

“You demand!? Why should I give you answers when The House of Odin is full of traitors,” Laufey stated haughtily as the statement caused Sif and The Warriors Three to share a concerned look.

“Do not dishonor my father’s name with your lies!” Thor shouted as Loki thanked The Norns that Sigyn had found that one book on hiding weapons in pocket dimensions, he was going to need all of his weapons soon since this was going to Hel very swiftly. 

“Your father is a murderer and a thief! He stole what was ours and left our world in ruins. We have the right to the Casket!”

This was going downhill fast and if Loki didn’t come up with something to stall, they all would soon be dead. As he thought quickly for a solution, the tension rose as Laufey and Thor continued to speak. Loki stepped forward and grabbed Thor's pauldron. "Thor, stop and think," Loki hissed, "look around you! We are outnumbered.” As they had talked, a large number of Frost Giants had crept out of their hiding places and now circled the small group of Asgardians. Weapons of ice were slowly created from thin air as the Giants inched closer and waited for their king's permission to attack. 

“Know your place, brother,” Thor growled as he pulled away from Loki's grip. 

“You should listen to his counsel, you know not what your actions would unleash,” Laufey suggested as he stepped out of the shadows and the Frost Giants moved closer, “but I do. Go now, while I still allow it.”

“We will accept your most gracious offer,” Loki declared gratefully with a shallow bow towards the king as he pulled at Thor’s arm in an attempt to drag him away as their four companions gripped their weapons nervously and waited for Thor's response. Thor stared Laufey down for a moment before he reluctantly turned towards his brother, moving towards the others so they could hopefully leave with their lives.

“Run home, little princess,” A voice mocked from their left and Loki felt his whole body sink in despair as Thor tensed up and his powers sizzled down his hand where he gripped Mjölnir.

“Damn,” Loki cursed, he had really hoped that they would live through this.

They ran.

There was a few grave injuries, Fandral being skewered by spikes of ice was by far the worst.

The whole battle was one of desperation and luck. With his endless amount of weapons, he was able to leave quite a few behind as he made an attempt to usher them all back to the Bifrost landing site. Sif had thankfully brought along her expandable spear and sword set up, which allowed her to behead quite a few Giants with little effort. Hogun, with his mace, unfortunately, got stuck in a wall of ice before they broke him out and Fandral was lucky enough to get skewered by spikes of ice. Hauling him up on his shoulders, Volstagg managed to jog the few leagues to the landing site. But Thor... he brutally used his hammer to make everything worse.  As they got caught in another wave of Frost Giants, one managed to grab his arm right over his pauldron, stripping the armor down to his arm, revealing... with a quick twist of his wrist and a pull from his pocket dimension, Loki sliced up the only witness to his true form.

"Don't let them touch you!" Volstag screamed as one of the Giants got ahold of the massive warrior that was weighed down with Fandral's weight. 

A little late now, Loki thought desperately as he attempted to fight his way through the hordes of soldiers and keep his sanity from slipping from his precarious grasp. As the group fought their way towards the landing site, Thor continued to battle by himself a league away as the others in their group stayed together to cover each other's backs. The heat from Thor's elemental powers reacted with the fridged Realm, creating a heavy blanket of fog, disrupting any chance of seeing anything past an arm's length. As the ground rocked, a wave from Thor's last heavy smash of his hammer ripple out, making the area around them unstable and causing the cliff to crumble beneath their feet.

"Move!" Sif shouted as they moved towards the enemy to avoid the grievous injury or death from the abyss below and the possible ice monsters that lurked on the plains of Jotunheim.

Thor, honing in on them, finally caught up to their group, and landed next to Loki, causing a brief respite from the mists from his impact before it reformed around them.

“Loki, we have to see,” Thor grit out between heavy breaths as he joined their defensive circle. Already knowing that this was not a good idea and would reveal their location to their enemies, Loki lifted his arms and swept the mist away, revealing the faces of thousands of Frost Giants.

“Actually... could you bring them mists back, please?” Volstagg asked lightly, his fear undercutting his voice as he shifted Fandral on his shoulders. Just as the Frost Giants moved in, ice blades shimmering in the darkness, the Bifrost opened and the All Father descended on Sleipnir, clad in his battle armor with Gungnir in his hand.

“Laufey! End this!” Odin boomed from atop his horse, the sizzle of the Bifrost adding more mist to the frozen air

“Your boy sought this out,” Laufey replied grimly from the front of his soldiers.

“You're right, these are the actions of a boy, please treat them as such. You and I can stop this before there's further bloodshed!" Odin replied back, ignoring the rage filling Thor as lightning sparked up and down his arms and illuminated his eyes as he lost control of his powers. 

“We are beyond diplomacy now, All Father! He'll get what he came for! War and death!” Laufey shouted angrily as his army tightened around them.

“So be it.” Odin’s grim and determined reply seemed to prompt the Frost Giant King to action. He swung his ice blade at Odin, Odin deflected it with Gungnir, and a wave of energy swept across the barren wasteland.

“Now! We’ll finish them together!” Thor shouted to his father.

“Silence!” Odin admonished Thor harshly, his voice echoed with seiðr and anger. He then lifted Gungnir in the air and summoned the Bifrost, transporting them back to Asgard.

As they landed, Loki pulled away from the others as they dragged Fandral out of the room to the healers and Odin pulled Heimdall’s sword from the Bifrost controls. Throwing the sword at Heimdall, the Guardian caught it and moved swiftly after them.

“Why did you bring us back?” Thor shouted angrily.

“Do you realize what you’ve done? What you’ve started?!” Odin seemed beyond anger, disbelief at Thor’s actions echoing in his voice.

“I was protecting my home!”

“If you cannot protect your friends and your brother, how do you hope to protect our Realm...? Our Kingdom?” 

Wait. What kingdom? They were required to lend their army to any realm in need but they didn't control any other realms... Loki puzzled over those words as he used his seiðr to muffle his presence and powers as he back further into the shadows. 

“There won’t be a kingdom to protect if you are afraid to act!” Thor screamed, “whatever the cost, the realms must know that the new King of Asgard will not be held in contempt.”

Silence fell over the room as Odin angrily griped Gungnir and Loki could feel the All Father’s seiðr ripple. “You are not King yet!” Odin paused and Thor’s face turned red with fury, lightning rippled around him, running up and down his body in his rage. “Have you forgotten everything that we’ve taught you? What of a warrior’s patience and cunning? Diplomacy first and war as a last resort?  You are a vain, prideful, cruel boy!”

“And you are an old man and a fool!”

The silence this time was foreboding and terrifying as Odin's and Thor's powers crackled in the air like the calm before the storm. As the tension built, Odin looked down at his hands and the seiðr in the room seemed to charge, stealing Loki's breath as it ratcheted higher and higher. “I am a fool," Odin whispered brokenly, "a fool who thought you were ready to be king.” Shocked at his father's confession, Loki moved toward his father as he sensed the stirrings of Odin reaching for the ley lines of Asgard and the ancient saiðaz that connected their realm to the Yggdrasil. Sensing the movement, Odin turned and pierced Loki with a glowing eye as he pointed Gungnir at him in warning, forcing Loki to plaster himself back as fear rippled up his spine as his paterfamilias revealed his true form to his sons for the first time. The frail old man their father portrayed was dropped for Jǫrmunr, Alfǫðr... 

“Thor Odinson!  You have disobeyed the express command of your King!  Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful Realms and innocent lives to the horrors of war!” Jǫrmunr's voice echoed through the chamber and the cosmos. “You are unworthy of your titles!” Thor’s armor started to pull off of him, “Of your Powers!” Mjolnir pulled from his hand to Odin’s. “In the name of my father!” Lighting from the hammer struck Thor and striped off his under armor and the chest plate. “And his fathers before him!” The rest of the armor disintegrated and Thor was left standing in nothing but his armor padding. “I CAST YOU OUT!”  With a push of seiðr, Thor was flung into the Bifrost.

As Loki watched in disbelief as his brother was flung into the vortex of the Bifrost, Odin held Mjölnir to his lips and whispered to her. “Whosever holds this hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess the powers of Thor.” Mjölnir shimmered, gold runes swirled up and down the handle and the head, but right before Odin flung it after Thor, the runes glimmered teal and then back to gold.

“Unworthy… I cast you out….!” hung and echoed in the air as the saiðaz to the ley lines released the last of their energy before disconnecting from Yggdrasil sealing Thor's banishment from his homeworld into the fabric of the cosmos. It was the greatest feat of Seiðr Loki had ever seen and the most horrific. As the charged area released and the static dissipated with Odin's departure, Loki stood alone in the quiet chamber and as the shock and fear overtook him, Loki slumped to the floor with a clang as his armor hit the metal grating. The Bifrost Observatory's engine ticked from the residual Seiðr and multiple uses and Loki attempted to breathe as he realized that he was alone.

No bumbling brother to wage war in the Nine Realms... 

He was now the sole heir to Asgard...

Oh. Shit.

He had only wanted his brother to not be in charge of a realm full of people until he was ready, not get banished!

Well, then, he was just going to have to prove he was better than Thor, Loki thought madly as a sly grin crept over his face. Can't be too hard to manage...

Chapter Text

Maggie woke early and she shuffled to the bath to get ready for their early flight. She and Peter would be dropped in New Mexico while Tony would continue to the Malibu mansion for his own week of sciencing.

She had texted Darcy last night to remind her friend that she would be arriving today and Darcy had responded with a request to give Erik Selvig a ride if she would be willing since his flight would only be an hour after their arrival. 

“Ahh, another scientist for Pete to fanboy with,” Tony had teased last night when she spoke with him about it. "I'm kinda jealous I can't go, now."

Getting the Stark boys up was always an effort of patience, gentle manipulation, and bribery. She had JARVIS wake up Tony while she got Peter up, dressed, packed, and to the table for breakfast in a record-breaking 20 minutes. JARVIS had managed to get Tony down the stairs in his pajamas at least, with the promise of coffee from Leo JR (the miniaturized version of Leonardo De Espresso) and some donuts from the shop around the corner that Happy had picked up.

Happy packed the car, he had eaten before the boys had wobbled down the stairs, and Maggie got Tony to go shower and finish packing after he stuffed his face with three donuts and a quad shot.

“I’ll prep you a to-go cup of the Brazilian blend if you go right now to get ready, Tony,” Maggie cajoled as she pushed him towards the stairs. He mumbled something incomprehensible as he staggered off in the direction of his room. The heavy metal poisoning was messing with his sleep schedule and making his caffeine more difficult to absorb.

“JARVIS, please reach out to Doctor Strange for suggestions on mitigating some of the symptoms of Tony’s reactor. It seems that it’s getting worse every day and he needs all his strength to work through the element.” JARVIS had taken the initiative to integrate into all of Tony’s homes in the last year so he could manage all the security and maintenance. Which they had appreciated because it made it traveling from coast to coast easier when the fridge was stocked, the sheets were freshly washed, and the house was clean.

“Yes, Miss. I’ll send an email since the Doctor’s schedule seems to be quite full lately.”

“Thanks, JARVIS. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I believe Miss, you would have run screaming for the hills," JARVIS teased.

“Probably,” she admitted, “but Peter is adorable, so it probably would have been a few weeks.”

They got on the plane and flew to Santa Fe and where a car was waiting for her so she could drive the thirty minutes to Puente Antiguo. Tony gave her a hug, handed her Leo Jr, gave Peter a hug and kiss, and waved goodbye before getting back on the plane. “Have fun, you two! Name a star after me!”

“We’re not doing that type of space science, Dad!” Peter shouted over the plane engines. Tony just waved again, the stairs lifted up and sealed and the plane taxied off as they made their way towards the waving ground crew. They were ushered into the concourse and Maggie settled down in an empty grouping of chairs, piled their bags and the portable espresso machine on the floor, and settled in to wait for Doctor Selvig. They read for a bit from The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan while they waited and when Peter became bored, she sent him to the nearby kiosk to buy snacks while she connected JARVIS to get an update on Selvig's ETA.

"JARVIS? Are you there?"

"Of course, Miss," JARVIS replied smoothly from her phone

"Any idea on how much longer?" 

"Doctor Selvig's plane should be landing within the hour and If you would like I can send him a text from your phone notifying him of where you and Master Peter are located."

"Thanks, and please," she replied before taking the snacks and her card from Peter. JARVIS had been learning to respect boundaries and ask permission before doing things lately. Especially after going over Tony's head and making the decision to make Maggie his sister without his permission first. Maggie was extremely grateful that Tony managed to place the blame fully on JARVIS and didn't resent her like she had worried about initially. 

"JARVIS said we have a little bit yet," Maggie said as she gave him a few of the gummies and a banana to eat.

"Can I go play with the kids over there, then? They were in the line and told me that they were going to go visit their grandma in Texas..." Peter trailed off, the look on his face hard for her to interpret. She wasn't sure if he was upset about not having a living grandparent or the thought of visiting Texans. 

"Sure, just be aware of the people around you and I must be able to see you at all times," She stressed, accepting the banana peel he handed her.

"Yes, Mmm...Maggie."

She hugged him and sent him off, people watching and chatting with JARVIS through the Bluetooth headphones that Tony had made for her. After a half-hour, she got up and started organizing and sorting some of their things before re-packing a few items. Peter, noticing her packing, scurried over from where he had been playing hopscotch on the tile with the small group of kids that had gathered from around the area.

"Maggie? Are we leaving?"

"Soon, but not quite yet.  Doctor Selvig's plane is landing shortly and I wanted to be packed up by the time he deboarded. You have a little time to play. I'll let you know when we have to leave. Do you have all your stuff here?"

"Yeah," Peter replied before he gave her a quick hug around her waist before he ran back to play with his newfound friends. 

She took her time packing up, switching a few things around, and just as she was tucking the last thing away, she heard a throat clear behind her.

"Ms. Stark?" 

Turning, she found an older gentleman with greying hair in a sweater and jeans, a battered carryon, and a leather satchel over his shoulder. 

"Yes, that's me, please call me Maggie. Are you Doctor Selvig?"

"Yes, of course, and please call me Erik," he replied before holding out his hand to shake. She shook it and motioned Peter over with the other.

“Erik, this is Peter. Peter this is Doctor Selvig,” Maggie said as she pulled Peter in front of her and placed her hands on his shoulders.

“Hi, Doctor Selvig!” Peter exclaimed excitedly as he grinned up at the scientist.  "You teach Astrophysics at Culver University, right?”

“Uh... yes,” Erik replied softly, appearing lost for words, not expecting such a question from someone so young.

“We learned about dark matter and black holes at my afterschool science camp last semester. I also did a presentation on how to find black holes by how it interacts with the matter around it, for my science fair last year. When I was doing research, JARVIS showed me some of your research and I ended up using some of your papers as a source.”

The scientist stood there with his mouth open, shocked, definitely lost for words.

“Peter, I think you broke him," Maggie sighed, this tended to happen a lot around the boy and she had stopped being surprised by it. In fact, she was probably more disgruntled about the adults that continued to underestimate his intelligence. "Can you grab your bag so I can grab the Erik's and mine?”

“Are you those Starks?” Erik managed to ask after they had led him halfway to the car rental area. “You’re Howard Stark’s grandson and Tony Stark is your father?”

“Um… Yes?” Peter replied from the other side of the wide hallway while he pulled his roller bag behind him and ran his hand over the bumps on the wall.

“Are you his mother?”

“Oh, god no!  I’m Tony’s sister!” Maggie replied in shock. “Darcy Lewis is my friend and she and Jane invited us down for science and site seeing, we’re staying at the Rancho Gallina. We’re here for a week or so and then we’re back to Malibu.” Why did he think she was Peter's mom? Did she look old enough to be Peter's mom!? Shaking her head she continued to lead her procession onward as Selvig muttered an apology behind her as he struggled with his information overload.

They weaved out of the secure area of the airport and followed the signs to the car pickup area, taking the hallway towards the rental area rather than the car park. Turning she noticed Peter was distracted and was heading the wrong way. "Peter! I need you over here!” Maggie shouted at her nephew. "You're going the wrong way!”

“Oh! I’m sorry!" Peter dashed over to them, dragging his suitcase that had tipped over on its side. Sighing and shaking her head in fond exasperation, Maggie reached down and placed it back on its wheels before taking Peter's free hand and leading them over to the service counter.

“I’m Margaret Skold and I’m here to pick up a car,” she told the man behind the desk as she handed him her ID. Erik seemed to shift at her name and he looked down at the ID when it was slid back across the counter to her.

“Here you go, ma’am. You have the blue Volvo XC60 in spot 25M,” he informed her as he handed her the fob after she signed the paperwork. “Hmm, it looks like it was a special request.”

“Yes, I wanted a Volvo with all-wheel drive since we might have to go into the desert for my friend's work," Maggie replied. "And Tony thought an Audi would be better... more like a hundred more a day and nothing but electrical problems once it got dusty..." she muttered under her breath as she pocketed the papers, grabbed her bags, and gave Erik a little push towards the exit. "Hand, bud," she said to Peter, reaching toward him. Turning back to the counter worker, she thanked him and then herded her charges outside.

“You are an interesting woman, Ms. Stark,” Erik stated from behind her as he trailed after them. His face was deep in thought, and maybe a little impressed, as he watched her manage all of them with little fuss and efficiency.

“It’s Maggie, Doctor, and umm... thank you...?" Maggie replied awkwardly as she tugged Peter and their bags towards the lined-up cars. Weaving through the rows, they found the blue SUV and she clicked the fob. “Ah! Here it is!”

They loaded all their bags in the back, Maggie checked the car over for visible signs of tampering before she popped the hood to check the fluid levels. Satisfied, she clicked the hood closed, made sure Peter was buckled in correctly, and got in the driver’s seat. She took a minute to adjust her seat and mirrors before turning to look at the bewildered Selvig and excited Peter. 

“Everyone ready?”

The trip went pretty fast and with the town being small, they easily found the old gas station that Jane Foster had rented for her research. It was nicely remodeled, highlighting some nicely preserved historic features but promoting modern necessities.

“Maggie!” Was shouted excitedly from the open doorway before a dark-haired, bespeckled young woman came running out with her arms wide open. “You guys made it!”

“We did! We made good time since Peter and Tony got out of bed on time and Doctor Selvig’s plane was a little early.”

“Darcy? What’s going on?” A woman just a few years older than Darcy stepped into the wide-open doorway, dressed in jeans, a loose-fitting jacket, and riding boots. 

“Maggie and Doctor Selvig are here!” Darcy replied as she reached Maggie and hugged her tightly, lifting her slightly off the ground.

"Oomph," Maggie complained, "let me down! The last time you did that you hurt your back."

"Meh, I've been working out," Darcy replied smugly as she let go and stepped back. 

"And I've gained muscle mass since Nat and Clint put me through the Budapest Challenge," Maggie countered. "I may look less squishy, but I'm still heavy."

"Meh."

“Hey! I’m here too!” Peter pouted just behind Maggie, his attention-seeking Stark Gene making an appearance. 

“Oh, sorry,” Darcy ruffled his hair briefly before he dodged away and hid behind Maggie all the while smoothing his hair down. “You are soooo cute!”

“Darcy, please stop,” Maggie chided as she pulled Peter closer to her side and bent down to whisper in his ear. “She gets overexcited just like you do,” she kissed his head. “But with her, it’s the pixie sticks. Remember when I told you about the effects of sugar on baby Starks? This is what happens when you eat too many.”

“Uhhuh, and the Red Bull,” Jane teased as she came down the stairs, “if you mix them it destroys brain cells."

“Aww, come on!” Darcy complained. “When did it become Pick on Darcy Day?”

“When you pick on the little kids, it’s a free for all,” Maggie teased her oldest friend before holding out her hand for the other woman to shake. “Hi, I’m Maggie Stark and this is Peter.”

“Hi, I’m Jane Foster." Jane shook Maggie's hand before tilting her head at Peter. "I heard you are here to learn some astrophysics and I could use an assistant that understands some of the technical jargon.” She smiled at Peter before shaking his hand as Darcy grumbled next to her.

“Oh... I just know a little... like take good notes and... um... help with equipment maintenance. Dad has me help with his Bots and I know some basic coding...” Peter stuttered in embarrassment despite him vibrating with excitement.

“Oh, I'm sure he's underselling his achievements," Erik spoke up, drawing attention to himself. "Peter was telling me about his science fair project that sounded more like a project from a pre-college graduate instead of a child under twelve. I’m sure he knows more than a little." Erik smiled fondly as he came over and hugged Jane. “It’s lovely to see you, Jane. How have you been?”

“I’m good and I’m so excited to show you the anomaly!” She looked so excited and started to talk fast with Erik as she dragged him into the building by his hand, leaving Maggie, Peter, and Darcy behind. 

“Maggie, I’m hungry,” Peter said after a second of silence before he turned and wrapped his arms tight around her waist and gave her his puppy dog eyes.

“Hungry, I’m Maggie. It’s nice to meet you,” She teased as she leaned down, kissed his forehead, and hugged him back fondly.

“Maggie-!” Peter whined as he buried his head in her side.

“Ok, ok. Darcy is there somewhere we can get some lunch?”

“Oh, there’s a diner we go to all the time. They have the best cheeseburgers and curly fries...” Darcy tempted them with a knowing smirk, knowing Maggie's weakness for curly fries.

“How does that sound Pete?”

“Good! Do they have ice cream?”

“Yup, with fudge," Darcy replied with a grin, "and sprinkles!"

“Let’s go, Maggie!” Peter exclaimed as he pulled away and started dragging her back towards the car.

Maggie laughed and allowed herself to be tugged along. “What about Jane and Erik?”

“I’ll text her when we get there and bring something back if they want anything. Once Jane gets started, it’s a while before she comes up for air.”

“Ah, an adult genius scientist. I know that feeling,” Maggie sighed as she got in the car. “Promise me when you grow into your adult scientist body, you won’t forget about me, Peter.”

“No promises,” came from the backseat, “It’s genetic. I’m doomed.”

She laughed and they went and got something to eat.

Chapter Text

After eating at the diner, where Peter had a whole cheeseburger, a basket of fries, and a sundae the size of his head, they headed back to Jane’s lab.

“Are we going out to the desert tonight, or is that tomorrow?” Maggie asked as she turned and parked behind the building where Darcy directed her to park.

“Tonight, please!” Peter shouted from the back seat. He had been looking forward to space sciencing ever since Tony gave him permission to go. The kid had even spent hours researching with JARVIS so he would be able to help Jane if she asked. Both Tony and Maggie had thought it was adorable.

“Well, we usually go out every night, to be honest, unless the cloud cover is too heavy. Jane wants to show Doctor Selvig the anomaly as soon as possible since he’s leaving next week,” Darcy answered as she unbuckled and they all got out of the car.

“Yay! I can’t wait!” Peter yelled as he ran into the building, Maggie and Darcy followed behind with food from the diner for Jane and Erik.

“I knew that ice cream was a bad idea,” Maggie complained as she entered the building and took in the maps on the old chalkboard, the equipment, and SUV taking up most of the large open space.

“Maggie, can we take a picture with the space science truck?” Peter asked as he poked his head from the open sunroof of the modified SUV.

“You have to ask Doctor Foster if that’s ok and we can only send it to your Dad and JARVIS. No school friends...” Maggie replied faintly, trying to figure out how he had managed to get up there.

“What about Ned? He’s not a school friend,” Peter asked about his friend that was in Queens that lived in the building with his Aunt and Uncle.

“It’s ok.” Jane came out of the room in the back with Erik behind her and took the food from Maggie before calling out to Peter. “You can send it to your friend Ned too.”

“Only if you don’t tell him where we are! You know the rules,” Maggie reminded him. She didn’t want their location tracked and the paparazzi to descend... or the kidnappers to find them... She really wished somedays that people would just mind their own business and leave them the hell alone!

“I know, Maggie. I’m not a baby,” Peter complained as he slowly dropped himself from the lifted SUV. She still had no idea how he had managed to get up into the lifted vehicle in the first place.

“I know, hun, we just have to be careful,” she soothed as she reached him and helped him the rest of the way down. “Go ask if Darcy would be nice enough to take the picture for us.”

“DARCY!” Peter screamed as he ran back outside.

“Ugh! No more ice cream,” Maggie muttered as she plopped down at the table with Erik and Jane, setting her custom-made Stark Phone on the table in front of her. “I made a terrible mistake and now I’m regretting it,” she told the two scientists, “I should know better from trial and error that sugar in that mini, budding genius is the worst idea in the world.”

“It’s ok, Miss,” JARVIS spoke from her phone, “you’re just upset that you cannot leave him with Sir to deal with the sugar rush and resulting crash.”

“Shhh, JARVIS, you’re giving out all my evil ways,” Maggie loudly whispered with a grin towards the phone.

“I would never, Miss,” her phone flashed at the AI’s amusement, his distinct golden icon twirling on the screen.

“What is that?” Jane asked as she bit into her sandwich and eyed the phone curiously.

“I am JARVIS, Mr. Stark’s Intelligent Artificial User Interface, Doctor Foster.”

“Oh! I’ve heard about you," Jane said excitedly, "you seem much more developed than the article that I read stated.”

“Yes, I’ve come a long way since then,” JARVIS deflected. It was true, he had come a long way since Tony had announced the development of the intelligent user interface, but in reality, JARVIS had always been an Artificial Intelligence.  Tony had brushed the truth because he knew that it would cause panic if the world knew what JARVIS really was. And to be honest, since JARVIS's little stunt, Maggie knew that the world would most likely scream Skynet and force Tony to offline his AI if they knew about the true JARVIS.

“Maggie! I found Darcy!” Peter came running back in, covered in sand and dirt.

“What were you doing?” Maggie asked with concern as she stood up and he ran into her. “You look like you rolled in the sand and dirt like a puppy.”

“Uhh... I went around the car and fell,” Peter murmured as he looked down at his shoes.

Maggie knelt down and felt his arms and looked for cuts and bruises, thankfully not finding any. She breathed a sigh of relief and stood. “Good thing there’s a chill and you’re wearing your coat,” she observed.

"Because you told me to," he whined, "and the cold front pushed the warm air up and created a bunch of clouds... The temperature dropped ten degrees since we got here..."

“Look at you, being all smart,” Darcy said as she came up behind Peter.

“We studied weather in the after-school science camp,” Peter blushed, “I just remember stuff.”

“Hey, buddy you’re smart,” Darcy praised, “I should know since I hang out with smart people all the time.” She gestured to Jane and Erik who were still eating their food and while looking impressed by Peter.

“Darcy, can you take the picture?” Maggie asked as she handed her phone to her friend, deflecting attention back to herself to save Peter some of his embarrassment at the attention. She was glad he was getting praise for his smarts from other intelligent people that were outside his normal spear but the boy was as self-conscious as his father and she didn't want him to be too nervous. “Or just hold it up so JARVIS can take the picture,” Maggie teased her oldest friend, watching Peter's attention shift from embarrassment to laughter. Her heart contracted in love as he grinned to himself, watching as he took the praise and allowed himself to enjoy it before he refocused on getting the picture he wanted.

“I can take a picture! My phone isn’t that old! Not all of us have fancy self-picture-taking phones,” Darcy grumbled good-heartedly as Maggie and Peter moved to stand in front of the driver’s door of the SUV. “He still needs someone to hold it.” Everyone laughed and Darcy took the picture at the right moment, capturing Maggie and Peter’s joy as they stood with arms around each other.

"That is true, Ms. Lewis," JARVIS stated from the phone after he took the picture, "but once Sir and I create the next upgrade for Miss Stark, I'll suggest creating a portable, collapsable stand to hold the phone so we won't have to trouble you again."

"You just know how to make a girl feel needed..." Darcy lamented to the phone in her hands. 

"Don't worry, Ms. Lewis, you are needed for more important things than holding phones... Perhaps we'll put you down to test the next model."

"That's too kind," Darcy murmured distractedly as she handed the phone back to Maggie after taking the pictures, most likely dreaming of all the amazing selfies she could take with a Stark Phone and a stick to hold it.

"Thanks, JARVIS, that's all we need is better quality photos on her Facebook and Myspace," Maggie muttered.

"You are most welcome, Miss."

Maggie just sighed and rolled her eyes. 

They left right before dark to head out to the desert and the location where Jane and Darcy had spotted the anomalies. They parked and waited as Peter snacked on some homemade granola that Maggie had brought for him while Jane scanned from the open moon roof with her handmade Magnetometer.

“So, what’s this anomaly of yours supposed to look like?” Erik asked as he moved to stand next to Jane as Maggie and Darcy chatted softly while Peter played around on one of the spare laptops Jane had given to look at.

“It’s a little different each time. Once it looked like, I don’t know, melted stars pooling in a corner of the sky. But last week it was a rolling rainbow ribbon...” Jane replied whimsically as she scanned the horizon and checked her device intermittently.

“Racing ‘round Orion? I’ve always said you should have been a poet,” Erik teased as Jane tried to rein in her excitement but her shaking hands and rapid checking contradicted her efforts.

“Can we go outside?” Peter asked, from his seat in the back corner near the window, Maggie next to him. “I can’t see anything from here.”

“Soon,” Maggie assured as she looked up to the front where Darcy is sitting before glancing at Jane. “How far are we off from the last location you guys saw the anomaly?”

“About a mile, but it changes each time,” Jane replied as she continued scanning. “Darcy, can you pass me my gloves, please.”

Darcy passed up the men’s sized gloves and shifted in the seat, “We usually see it right away or later at night. I’m hoping for Peter’s sake it’s early,” Darcy teased.

“Hey! I’m not a baby, I go to bed at a normal time,” Peter grumbled.

“I’m hoping for an early sighting too since I’m no longer the young man I was when I knew your father, Jane,” Erik murmured as he looked down at Jane and the large gloves. “He’d be so proud if he could see you now...”

“Thank you.” Jane smiled sadly at the gloves and then up at Erik.

“For what?”

“The benefit of the doubt...? Flying out here and spending some time reviewing my research with me...” Jane answered as she scanned the sky.

An hour later they’re still in the same place and Peter and Maggie had moved to sit on the ground outside the truck on a blanket to lay and stare up at the stars.

“Can I turn on the radio?” Darcy asked, bored, still sitting in the driver’s seat having refused to join them on the blanket.

“Sure, if you like rocking out to KFRM All agriculture, all the time,” Jane quipped as she flipped through a little black notebook, a pencil in her hair, the laptops and monitoring equipment beeping steadily around her as they recorded data in realtime.

“Yeah...no...” Darcy shook her head in disgust before she pulled out her phone to check the time. 

“The anomalies are always precipitated by geomagnetic storms,” Jane muttered distractedly as she flipped to a page in her notebook and tilted it so Erik could see it. “The last seventeen occurrences have been predictable to the minute after a solar flare... I just don't understand... there was a flare earlier today.”

Darcy pocketed her phone and looked at the side mirror and squinted at it in confusion before adjusting it minutely. As she adjusted it, a glowing cloud started to expand over the northeast horizon. Gasping in shock at the sight she slammed back hard in the seat and twisted to look behind them. “Everyone back in the car!” She screamed in panic before she frantically started the SUV as Peter and Maggie scrambled into the back of the vehicle. Doors slammed closed as the three of them buckled up.

"Shhh..."Jane muttered as she flipped through more pages of her notes, unaware of what was going on around her. The SUV started to rattle and the lights and equipment start to flicker as readouts populated the screens and set off alarms.

“There’s got to be some new variable…” Jane muttered, “or an equipment malfunction...” The noises got even louder as Erik started to tug on Jane's elbow as he stared open-mouthed at the anomaly that was building and swiftly moving towards them at disturbing speeds.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your equipment,” Darcy yelled as she buckled her seatbelt and checked on Peter and Maggie, making sure they were strapped in.

“I think you guys want to see this!” Peter yelled as he looked out the window, “It’s sooo cool!”

The clouds churned and waves of energy lit up the insides and all but Peter stared in shock, dumbfounded.

“Holy Shatner,” Jane’s disbelief echoed in her voice as she finally noticed the growing cloud formation. Snapping out of her temporary paralysis, she started patting herself down searching for the digital video recorder in her pocket.

“That’s your subtle aurora?!” Erik shouted in disbelief as he pointed to the building clouds.

"I thought supercells like that were rare!" Maggie yelled from the back at the scientists, having lived through a few tornados growing up and a summer fascinated with researching storm cells and tornados. "Darcy! I thought you told me that you weren't storm chasers!"

"We're not!" Darcy screamed back.

“No! Yes!?" Jane yelled at Erik before she turned towards the storm, adjusted the digital camera, and started filming. "Let’s go, Darcy!" Erik and Jane quickly jostled for their seats, getting seated just as Darcy started to drive towards the building clouds.  Jane hung out the window recording as the clouds built and swirled up into the upper atmosphere, creating a supercell-like formation with flashes of aquamarine, indigo, scarlet, and citrine lightening. As they drove closer to the anomaly, winds howled around the SUV and a spiral descended from the building clouds, like a glowing tornado. The storm roared like a thousand freight trains going at top speed as the cyclone spun and formed and descended towards the earth, lighting striking along the underside of the clouds.

"IT'S A FUCKING TORNADO," Maggie screamed over the noise, her voice lost in the roar of the storm as the cyclone touched down in the middle of the desert before swirling up again, waves of dust and dirt blowing out, blinding their visibility.

“WE GOTTA GET CLOSER!" Jane shouted over the noise, close enough to Darcy for her to hear her, “I NEED A MAGNETIC READING!"

“YEAH, RIGHT! GOOD ONE! OH, GOD, YOU'RE SERIOUS... WE HAVE A BABY ON BOARD!” Darcy screamed manically at Jane.

“YOU WANT THOSE COLLEGE CREDITS OR NOT?"

“KEEP THE CREDITS! I'LL INTERN AT BURGER KING AND LIVE TO TELL TONY STARK I DIDN'T KILL HIS KID AND SISTER!" Darcy screamed at Jane before she leaned over the seat and tried to wrestle control of the wheel from Darcy. As they fought for control, the winds whipped the vehicle around and back and forth like it was on a spring, while flinging up rocks and chunks of dirt, blinding them to the massive funnel descending for the last time to the desert floor. 

“OH MY GOD! WHAT THE HELL!” Maggie screamed as a huge bolt of scarlet lightning punched down in the center of the funnel cloud, making the anomaly visible right before it disappeared with a sonic boom, sucking the loose dirt up and into the atmosphere.

Darcy slammed on the breaks and the SUV skidded as the ABS tried to stop the vehicle. Suddenly there was a person in front of them and Jane struggled to turn the wheel but they still ended up hitting them on the passenger side before they skidded a bit more and completely stopped. The air cleared as the storm dissipated before it suddenly faded away in a matter of seconds.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” Maggie repeated frantically in the sudden silence as she clutched Peter to herself, and buckled safely in the seat next to her. "WHAT THE FUCK!" She screamed at Darcy and Jane. "It's just a fancy vehicle..., Darcy said..., we're not those kinds of scientists..., she told me..." Maggie muttered sarcastically as she dropped her head to Peter's as she murmured her gratefulness for their survival and well-being into his hair. 

"We're not meteorologists," Jane replied blankly back at the rest of them, as they all struggled with their emotions. Darcy was the first to unbuckle and break the moment, the others scrambling to quickly follow as they raced around to the prone figure on the ground.

“I think this was legally your fault,” Darcy accused Jane as they all stood around the prone, blond man.

“He looks like Hercules,” Peter whispered excitedly from a few feet away as he clutched Maggie’s arm.

“Someone get the first aid kit,” Jane called out as she kneeled next to the man’s head, looking for injuries while Erik protectively hovered behind her.

“Come on, big guy, do me a favor and don't be dead, okay? Open your eyes and look at me,” Jane pleaded as she checked his pulse.

Darcy sighed and ran back to the vehicle for the first aid kit, and as she approached Jane with it, she held her flashlight up so Jane could see. “Wow! Does he need CPR? Because I totally know CPR.”

“His eyes-“ Jane trailed off holding her flashlight to his face.

“-are beautiful,” Darcy said dreamily as Maggie and Peter snorted behind her.

“-are dilating,” Jane finished as she continued her assessment.

“We should get him to a hospital,” Erik interjected as he shifted nervously. 

“After we get a reading on the storm...?” Jane sounded hopeful as she turned to Erik.

“Immediately, Jane.”

Jane nodded in reluctant agreement before she turned back to the man. “Where did he come from?”

While Maggie, Darcy, and Erik all shrugged their shoulders and looked up at the sky, Peter, with some foreboding, answered with conviction and a sharp nod of his head.

“Space.”

Maggie watched as Jane gave up checking over the injured man and started to fiddle with her meter as she squinted up at the sky in frustration. Erik was muttering to himself while he looked around the area, squinting into the distance as he searched for the man's possible origins and Darcy was checking her phone for a signal. 

"Maggie?"

"Yeah, Peter?"

"Umm.... what are we going to do?"

"I don't know, bud..." Maggie replied as she checked her own phone for a signal. She should have had reception anywhere on Earth, JARVIS had made sure of it with the launch of the last satellite, but the storm must have done something to mess with the connection. They all shuffled around awkwardly, no one willing to make a decision.

Suddenly, the blond man started to groan.

“Father-” he muttered and rolled his head back and forth before his eyes opened and he looked up at Jane who was now bending over him. “Who-? Where am I?” He blinked a few times and clenched his eyes closed in the bright light of Darcy's flashlight.

“In the middle of a New Mexican desert, on Earth,” Maggie answered dryly as she pushed Peter behind her and approached the prone man pulling out her batons and shrugging off her coat in preparation. “Do you know your name?”

“Sigyn?” He muttered, “I must be dead if I am hearing your voice. Is this Valhalla?”

“Umm... no. I’m Maggie and you’re not in Valhalla.” She felt apprehension as her middle name was spoken and Darcy gave her a sideways look. Maggie shrugged and frowned at the man as she inspected his appearance. “With the blond locks and beard, you must be Thor,” she joked darkly.

“Yes! This must be Valhalla!" He exclaimed before muttering, "or Hel... probably Hel... I’ve dishonored my birthright...”

“Wow! That’s even better than Hercules!” Peter marveled as he tried to move closer and Maggie pushed him back. “If this is Thor, where’s his hammer?”

“Hammer!” The stranger suddenly shouted as he shot up and staggered to his feet. Stepping back, Maggie pulled Jane to safety as the man started to pinwheel his arms and stagger around the open area.

“Yeah, we can tell you’re hammered,” Darcy replied sarcastically as she moved to stand next to Jane, “that’s pretty obvious!”

They all watched for a bit in shock as he staggered around and shouted for his hammer. Having been pulled further back, Jane suddenly noticed a pattern on the ground. “Erik, look at this!” They all turned and looked at the pattern on the ground and Jane and Erik exchange a look. “We’ve got to move fast before anything changes!” Excitement rolled off of her as she pulled out her camera and started taking pictures, the rest of them moving back to give her room. “We need soil samples, light readings, everything!” She exclaimed excitedly as she pulled out a small gadget from another pocket, took some readings, and started jotting notes with a flashlight in her mouth.

“What is he doing?” Peter asked pointing towards the self-proclaimed Thor.

“Jane, we need to get him to a hospital,” Erik interjected as she pulled out a canister and took a soil sample.

“Not right now," Jane said distractedly, "It’ll take too long... County is an hour away from here and we’ll drop him off after we’re done.” She kept taking readings and notes. “See, he’s fine,” she said as she pointed with her pencil at the man.

'Thor' stood about twenty feet away, shouting up at the stars. “Is he saying Heimdall?” Peter asked as he looked up at Maggie, “Isn’t he like the gatekeeper or the protector of the Bifrost or something in Norse mythology?”

Maggie shrugged in response, suddenly exhausted from their travel, the insane storm, and now the crazy man shouting at the sky like a televangelist. 

“Okay, just leave me here and everyone else can take him to the hospital,” Jane responded after Erik gave her a disappointed stern look.

“You expect us to leave you here. Alone. In the middle of the desert with no transportation or way for us to easily find you. At night,” Erik’s voice rose in agitation, his Scandinavian accent giving his voice a lyrical quality. 

“Yeah, I don’t think so, Jane,” Maggie agreed with Erik as ‘Thor’ made his way back to them.

“WHAT REALM IS THIS?!” The man shouted, anger and aggression rolling off of him in waves as he stomped closer.

“It’s alright, my friend, we’re going to get you some help,” Erik assured ‘Thor’ calmly as he raised his hands, attempting a calm manner to match his tone. Maggie gripped her batons tighter as she adjusted her stance and flicked them open. Glancing back, she made sure Peter was still behind her.

“You’re on Midgard, Thor,” Peter called, excited over the possibility of meeting a real-life deity. Maggie scoffed softly to herself and shook her head over her charge's optimism and the whole situation. Thor paused, turned towards the boy, and started towards Peter while Darcy reached in the inner pocket of her coat.

“MIDGARD!! Of all the bloody places to send me! MIDGARD!” Thor shouted at the sky, “HEIMDALL!”

“Erik, just back away, Peter, come here,” Jane gestured for the boy, drawing him away from the agitated man as Maggie moved to intercept him. She stepped in front of ‘Thor’, as she flicked the switch to a lower setting and braced herself for a confrontation.

“You dare threaten Thor with such silly sticks,” Thor growled at her.

"Yeah, big guy, I dare. Threaten my kid, my friends, and me, I'm going to respond," Maggie growled as she barred her teeth. Fuck this guy! She was done with this shit and all she just wanted to do was go find the nearest shower and bed and sleep for a day.

The man growled back and started to move towards her, holding his hand out like he was trying to summon something.

"Fuckin' drunken larper," she muttered under her breath as she allowed him to approach, planning out her attack as he moved towards her. Happy was so going to laugh at her when she told him about this. 

Before Maggie could attack, Darcy fired her taser, hitting him in the back, the giant collapsed and convulsed to the ground, suddenly again unconscious.

“I had it, Darcy!” Maggie scolded as she rolled him over with her boot and checked his pulse, worried that the shock may have stopped his heart like had Stane’s. Breathing a sigh of relief when she found it, she pulled out her flashlight and checked his pupils for dilation. “He appears to be ok, but we definitely need to haul him to the hospital now." Sighing again in relief she didn't have to fight a drunken fool, she glanced over at the others. "Pack it up, Jane! Peter, I want you in the passenger seat. I’ll sit in the back with Thor here.” She collapsed her sticks, put one in each back pocket, and helped Erik drag the unconscious man to the SUV.

“Next time you decide to taser someone, do us a favor and make sure they’re already inside the truck,” Erik scolded Darcy breathlessly as he struggled to pull Thor into the vehicle as Maggie maneuvered and pushed his legs. Getting him in the back, Maggie pulled out her sticks, sat, and then buckled herself into the seat.

“Come on Jane!” Erik yelled at the woman as he took Peter’s seat. Jane was bent over the patterns on the ground, attempting to get more information before they left. Huffing, she got up, ran, and sat behind Peter.

As they drove away towards the hospital, a dark hole above Earth opened and an object burned across the sky, creating a subsonic boom that echoed across the empty desert. It hit the ground with an explosion, throwing dirt and rocks high into the air. As the dust settled around the newly formed crater, reverberations rippled through the air, and silver and cyan lighting cracked towards the sky.

As the last of the lighting sizzled out, a thousand miles away, a certain azure cube suddenly brightened before going back to normal.

Chapter Text

Asgard trembled for the first time in eons, and Frigga just knew that something had gone wrong. She knew that she had allowed Odin to keep things from her, that her two remaining children were barely echos of what they had been (or could be), and that they were on the cusp of everything finally turning right or the cataclysm heralding the beginning of Ragnarǫk. It had happened before, and it would happen again, but this- using Asgard against their child! 

Again.

"He would not dare," Frigga furiously muttered while she pulled on the armor and weapons she had forgone for centuries that she had retired when she had stepped back from war, given her ultimatum, and told her husband, NO MORE.

Asgard's connection to Yggdrasil sighed as it started to tug at the Tree's roots as Odin finished etching his vow into the Cosmos, enabling anyone with a semblance of power in their realm to feel something that a being had done in several Millenium. Just when she felt her connection with her eldest son snap, making her stager and stumble, Asgard tugged once more on Yggdrasil before it released its connection back into the Cosmos.

"No," she whispered as the sword she had been gripping went lax in her hand and hit the stone floor with a clang. "NoNoNoNoNo-" Odin had promised, promised that he would never, ever, ever do that again! Furious at herself for believing Odin's words that he would never repeat what he had done to their eldest child, Frigga steadied herself, picked up and sheathed her sword, and teleported to her husband, appearing a short distance from the Bifrost engine. The machine had spun down, but the residue seiðr and energy from the ritual hung heavily in the air, releasing bursts of static and small lighting, proving that Odin had done the worst. Striping her eldest son's powers and connection to Asgard, his right of being Æsir. 

Thor was gone

Banished or worse

Her firstborn son- her- her Smár Skína...

It was time for her to be free from the burdens of a husband.

Unaware of what awaited him, Odin emerged from the observatory and staggered towards her, the remaining energy hanging heavily off of him as he moved towards her position with Gungnir in his hand. He must have sensed her because he stopped and leaned heavily on his spear as he bowed his head towards her.

"You promised me," she spat, allowing her seiðr to spear him in time with her words. "You promised me that when we lost our daughter that you would never do this to me again- to use the ley lines- and- and- HOW DARE YOU! HOW COULD YOU!? Frigga screamed, finally losing control as she stalked towards him; her Uru studded boots cracking the Bifrost bridge below her feet as she channeled her rage back into it and Asgard, helping her give her some semblance of grounding and diverting her powers away from her soon-to-be bludgeoned husband.

"Frigga-" Odin murmured weakly.

She sent a wave of pure seiðr towards him, freezing him in place. "Is our last child next?!" She raged, finally reaching him and pulling him down to her level by his beard. Will I lose all of my children to your pettiness and selfishness!?" Silence fell around them, the usual hum of the Bifrost bridge disappearing while both of their powers battled for control and as they grieved for their son. 

"He put his brother and friends in peril and pushed Asgard to the brink of war," Odin whispered as Frigga felt his surrender to her wrathful magicks, "this will test him, prove to himself, to us, and to Asgard that he is ready to be king. To lead our peoples when we march on to Valhalla and surrender to the Cosmos!" 

Frigga released him and stepped back, feeling her rage leave her. She released the pull on her powers. As tears ran down her cheeks, she turned towards the city and the Asgardian palace, reminding herself of her duties to their people and their realm. Thor was alive; he was gone, but he had a chance. If he failed, "What if he fails?" she asked mournfully, turning back towards Odin. "What happens then?"

"We will have to see," Odin deflected mutely, "it is in the Norns' hands, now."

She gave a mad laugh and pulled him down by the beard again. "If you do this again, I will ask for The Mother to scatter you to the Cosmos," Frigga threatened before she released him and strode away. Her cerulean cloak snapped in the wind as it pulled at the pauldrons of her silver armor, the clicking of her Uru spurs in tune with the hum of the Bifrost bridge.

Even The Fabled Realm of Odin agreed with the Queen of the Valkyrie, Goddess of love, beauty, war, and seiðr. 

No More.

Odin was released from his duties to Asgard, and the All-Mother rose to power. 

Shaken by the amount of power both of his parents had shown blatantly for the first time in his presence, Loki leaned into the shadows of the Bifrost observatory and watched as his mother took control of Asgard from his father, leaving the elder drained and floundering in the wake of the powerful goddess his mother had finally revealed to be.

Sigyn had once told him that the Realms were sentient and could choose their protector since each was a gateway to Yggdrasil that fed into the power of the Cosmos. What little she had revealed to him from personal experience and what he had parsed from the books in the Vanir libraries was that most of the time, when Realms chose their leaders, they often chose the most powerful being available in their realm. Most of the time, it was female. 

As his mother disappeared from one blink to the next, Odin staggered and fell to his knees, only staying upright using Gungnir. Torn between wishing to assist his father and anger at what he had discovered when on Jotunheim, Loki waited to see what his father would do.

"I know you are there, Loki," his father said hoarsely.

Loki crept out and slowly approached his fallen father, brought low by his son's sins and his wife's wrath. He approached his father, The All-Father Odin, stood over the weakened god, and waited for acknowledgment because if Loki spoke first, he knew that it would quickly devolve into screaming.

"My son-" Odin rasped as he peered up at him, his singular eye bloodshot and sunken. 

"You know, I do not believe that is true," Loki murmured. He clamped down on his anger by clenching his hands behind his back, paced in front of the collapsed being, and organized his thoughts. "I followed my brother into the cold wasteland of Jotunheim, and when I was seized by one of their soldiers, I discovered that I was unaffected. Do explain, Father, why that is so?"

"I- I-"

"Do words escape you? Do the lies finally catch up to you? The welp you pass off as your child is nothing but a dirty, hateful, lying Frost Giant?" Loki grits through clenched teeth as he leans over Odin, who flinches from Loki and the frost that started to wind around them on the Bifrost Bridge. Grasping for control of his newly released powers, Loki forced himself to step back, trying to calm himself enough that he wouldn't do anything rash, like killing an unarmed old being who had claimed to be his father for over a millennium. 

"You are my son," Odin whispered as he rested his forehead on his staff in exhaustion and defeat.

"How? You can not just take a babe and declare it of your blood, Father!" Loki laughed manically, quickly losing control of his emotions as the last two hundred years of abuse, anger, and hate finally came to a head. "Do kindly explain it to me; I'm dying to know what lie you told yourself and The All-Mother to believe such a thing."

Odin stumbled and leaned heavily on Gungnir, the dark circles under his eyes darkening with the strain. "In the aftermath of the battle with the Giants, I went into the Temple and found a baby. Small for a Giant's offspring," Odin choked on his words, and a tear fell from his remaining eye as he shuffled on his knees, "abandoned, suffering, left to die." Silence fell as Loki clenched his teeth again and waited for Odin to continue before he whispered sorrowfully, "Mine and-" Odin took a deep breath, "Laufey's son."

Loki reeled at the revelation. His whole life was a lie.

What. The. Fuck.

"What?" Loki's voice cracked in disbelief as he stared at his father. His actual father, Laufey, his- mother!? This information was all messed up and explained much more than Loki was comfortable with. 

"You were an innocent child," Odin pleaded brokenly, "your mother-"

"You took me for a purpose. What was it!" Loki demanded with a shout, unable to deal anymore with the fact that the one parent in his life who was like him, who loved him, was not his true parent- "You could have left me to die and hid the shame from your wife! Why!?"

Odin glared at him, slamming Gungnir down, silencing Loki's rant. "Your mother is as much your mother as I am your father," Odin ground out angrily, dragging himself to his feet. "In fact, more so! I will not hear any disrespect from you towards the goddess that raised you! That loved you! Who cares more for her children than anything or anyone else in the universe! Frigga is your mother!"

Silence hung heavy between them as Loki and Odin panted, their anger fueling their powers. The air chilled and cracked in response.

"Does this mean that I have three parents?" Loki asked sarcastically, "Because that is what it sounds like, Father."

Odin snorted, rolling his eye. "You were born of two parents, but your mother performed the blood ritual, which made it three. She insisted, and when she insists, one goes along or gets trampled."

Loki sighed in frustration, wishing that Frigga had insisted more in the last two hundred years because Thor's banishment due to dramatics with a side of trifecta parental review for Loki could have been avoided if she had. For example, if Frigga had used her power as Queen to stand up for the way her children were treated (Thor like he could do wrong and Loki like he was a Midgardian Plague carrier) and influence the opinions of the court and Odin to be even the slightest bit less traditional, Thor probably would have been slightly less spoiled and more intelligent. But then Loki wouldn't have been allowed to bestow so much chaotic strife on his enemies. Sigyn's power-hungry cousin was a good example... ah, the good old incontinence spell. 

Suddenly beyond exasperated and frustratingly exhausted, Loki wished he had avoided confronting his father until they were nearer the palace. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Odin looked down and leaned more on Gungnir before answering. "I was ashamed-and your mother-" 

"-Of course, you were ashamed! It was revealed that you could not control your baser instincts nor use your not-so-meager seiðr to determine whether it was your wife before debasing yourself. It is shameful for one of such..." Loki trailed off, giving his sire a scathing look. Odin seemed to pale even further under the strain of Loki's ire. His skin appeared almost translucent, and his hair brittle, aging him another century. 

"Loki- Please-" Odin begged. Perhaps for mercy, forgiveness, or understanding, but Loki was not in any mind frame or attitude to grant such a thing. 

Unable to bear the sight of a once powerful figure brought low by the strain of banishing his eldest son, the wrath of his wife, and the rage of his youngest, Loki mentally shoved all his emotions deep into the depths of the endless void inside the uru box, which was then wrapped with an unbreakable chain and lock. He buried it beneath treasured memories of Sigyn, his mother, and the joy using his seiðr gave him. He would unbury it later and examine the feelings, but the chances of that.. Loki cleared his throat and ground down on his teeth. "You know, let's have this conversation later, Father," Loki stated emotionlessly, unable to bear hearing any more half-lies. "I think it best if we had this conversation much later." 

Before Odin could respond, Loki teleported himself to his room, collapsed in full armor and boots onto his bed, and allowed his body to go into a healing trance, unaware that Odin had collapsed into Odin Sleep as soon as Loki had left him.

Chapter Text

After the bullshit that was the weird tornado, hitting a drunken guy named Thor, and Darcy tasing him, Maggie was unwilling to deal with any more insanity for that day (because, to be honest, life as a Stark was full of insanity, but even they had some limits). So, after the long drive back to town, Maggie had Jane drop her and Peter off at their car on the way to the hospital. “I’m not endangering Peter anymore tonight,” Maggie told them irritably as she pulled the sleepy child out of the passenger seat, “good luck, and let me know how it goes. We’ll see you tomorrow with some breakfast." Having seen their kitchen area's state, she felt it would be a safe bet that they lived on diner food and ready-made meals. 

She bundled Peter into the car as the others drove off, murmuring softly to the boy to go back to sleep as she wrangled him in place and strapped him into the backseat of the Volvo before she got into the driver's seat and started the car as she tapped her phone. "JARVIS? Please tell me you're there."

"Yes, Miss, but I did lose contact with you briefly during the storm, but once it dissipated, I gained contact with your phone again," the AI reassured her with a twirl of his icon on the screen.  "After I assessed the situation,  I felt that you had it well under control and did not need any assistance from Sir or me."

"Thanks, JARVIS," Maggie muttered in relief as she put the car in gear, pulled away from the old gas station, and headed towards the bed and breakfast they had booked for their stay. She chatted softly with JARVIS as they drove, keeping herself awake and aware while Peter continued to sleep in the back, his soft snuffles and hums soothing to her in ways she couldn't define

With JARVIS's help, she found the inn, checked in, and had both showered and Peter in bed only an hour later. She sent a quick text to Tony telling him that they made it to the hotel and they would call him tomorrow. As she set her phone on the dresser between the double beds, Peter shifted and turned towards her.  “Do you think it was really Thor, Maggie?" He murmured sleepily, "Because that would be really cool." He clutched a pillow to his chest and nibbled his lip in thought. "If there’s a Thor, then maybe there are more gods and goddesses from legends and stories,” he stated hopefully.

“I don’t know, Peter, but maybe we’ll find out in the morning,” she whispered, praying to the universe that it wasn't true. "Go to sleep, buddy. We have a busy day tomorrow.

“Ok," he yawned, I love you.”

“Love you too, buddy,” she replied softly before leaning down, kissing his forehead, and doing a final tuck of the blankets. What a big freaking mess, she thought as the incredibility of that evening flashed through her mind. Sighing, she got into bed and waited for Peter to fall asleep, urging herself to settle her mind and rest. An hour later, just as she drifted off, she realized she felt unfettered for the first time she could ever remember. Her anxiety from the pressure to be reliable and steady, to be supportive and strong, and then the responsibility of being a Stark had really pressed on her the last few years. But today, she felt like something would change, like the quietness of the woods before the rain fell or the orchestra's hold before the conductor waved his baton. She loved the life she was living right now, she felt loved and needed but that small part of her that was frustrated with her missing past clenched tight, pushing her to feel like she needed to do more, jump higher, move faster... With a deep breath, she curled on her side, wrapped her arms around the extra pillow, and focused on her breaths. After a moment, just at the edge of awareness and sleep, she felt a familiar warmth wind around her as she drifted off to sleep. Her body relaxed for the first time in a while. A small smile played on her lips as a verdigris-colored energy swirled around her fingertips.

"Soon... soon," The Norns whispered to the universe.

Maggie woke with Peter’s foot in her face and the other in her ribs since she had allowed him to sleep with her after his nightmare the night before. Which, to be honest, wasn't a surprise since they had had an exciting night of hitting a man, who claimed to be a Nordic god, with a scientific vehicle after almost dying in a car accident in a space storm. 

You know, the normal Stark day-to-day BS…

Maggie sighed in amusement as she gently re-arranged the sleeping boy so his head lay on the pillow and pulled the blankets up around him before she gathered some clothes and went to wash up, getting a bit of quiet time for herself before starting another exciting day with Peter, Darcy, Jane, and Erik. As she twisted and braided her hair into something a bit different and hardier than her usual braid, she had JARVIS give her a review of the highlights of Norse mythology.

“So… Thor is pretty much going around, fighting people, killing giants, and taking what isn’t his?” Maggie asked as she braided the smaller twists and braids into one larger braid that ended at her elbows. “And Loki is constantly making mischief because the Æsir treat him like shit because he's not Asgardian but then ask for his advice but then resent him when it doesn’t work out, and somehow has many children because of reasons..." She paused as she tilted her head to the side and slid in a gold stud earring as she admired the handiwork on her hair. It had a medieval, Viking-like feel; it just needed some gold beads... hmm, she wondered what had inspired that. Sighing, she shook her head and tugged open her cosmetic bag that held her daily routine things such as lotion, face wash, etc. 

"Can I be honest, JARVIS?" Maggie asked as she dug through the bag, disregarding the makeup and pulling out the lotions and toothpaste. I feel sorry for Loki and kind of hate Thor…”

“Well, I believe Loki still has worshipers around the world, so perhaps more people agree with you, Miss,” JARVIS replied, showing her a list on her phone of the active Loki-worshipping cults and links on joining. Maggie snickered as she flicked the list on her phone closed with her finger before applying her face lotion. 

“That’s interesting, JARVIS. "It makes you wonder how much of the world’s past religions and mythology is lost in translation and how religion has evolved because of it,” Maggie replied distractedly. "

“That would be a lifelong study, and I would be interested as well,” JARVIS replied thoughtfully, "especially in lands conquered by Christianity. If you would like, Miss, I can see about signing you up for some history classes at the local university when we move to New York City in the fall.”

“Hmm… I'll have to think about it,” Maggie murmured distractedly as she tucked her things away so Peter wouldn’t get them wet when he inevitably made a mess at some point. She pulled out her toothbrush and started brushing, her next words garbled as she brushed, "It makes you wonder if Loki was a woman since the tales speak of them wielding magic and changing their form… but they had children both as a female and male… were they transgender? Intersex? Used their magical powers to create life…?” She said as she spits and rinsed between statements.

“Perhaps when you meet Thor again, you can ask to meet Loki so you may ask them,” JARVIS replied amusedly, reminding her of last night. Maggie suspected the AI found human habits amusing and fascinating (or at least theirs) and had previously accused him of studying them like Jane Goodall and her chimpanzees. 

“Yeah... I don't think so, JARVIS,” Maggie replied back bitingly, “I would rather not experience last night again since I don’t think I could deal with more weird shit regularly without having to be on anti-anxiety meds to go along with my occasional anti-depressants.”

“I predict, due to the chatter on the local radio and news, that you will encounter a bit more of Thor, and perhaps Loki isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility,” JARVIS stated. Maggie groaned and looked down at her phone, seeing the transcripts of the local CB radio and police scanners on her screen. 

“I really hope not,” Maggie muttered as she finished dressing, pulling a soft teal sweater over her black t-shirt and jeans. “Could you summarize it for me?"

“An object that appears to be a larger hammer with a short handle has been found about fifty miles from here, and the locals claim that no one can lift it…” JARVIS replied with a picture of the hammer a local had taken and posted on their Facebook page. 

“Great… let me guess, SHIELD has also heard this chatter. Soon, Agent or one of his minions will be here, and Tony will descend on us in his suit, blowing his identity and drawing the media?” Maggie replied sarcastically as she picked up her phone and pajamas, opening the bathroom door to wake up Peter. 

“I couldn’t have summed it better myself, Miss,” JARVIS replied knowingly. Maggie suspected he had hacked SHIELD again and had probably planted the information since Maggie had a feeling that JARVIS  lived for chaos as much as the rest of the Stark family did. 

“Great... Just freaking great… there goes my vacation,” Maggie muttered angrily under her breath as she sighed dramatically, rolled her eyes, and thanked her past self for packing some self-defense weapons.

Maggie roused Peter and told him to get dressed and brush his teeth before she helped him assemble a daypack. She had JARVIS search for the local grocery store since she had a good suspicion from what she saw yesterday that they would need to pick up a few things for meals if they didn't wish to eat out every time. As Peter poked around the room, she compiled a list of easy-to-make, quick-meal ingredients that needed little prep and cooking implements.

“What are we doing today, Maggie?” Peter asked as he threw himself beside her, bouncing her phone with JARVIS off the bed and onto the floor. Sighing, Maggie leaned down and picked it up, poking Peter in the side as she lay next to him.

“We’re going out to the desert today. I heard that someone might have found Thor’s hammer in the desert, and I want to see it,” Maggie muttered as she texted Darcie with her plans to see if she wanted to come with since she was sure that Jane was going to analyze the data she had collected last night with Erik. 

“Really?”

“Really, really,” she replied as she squinted at Darcy’s reply. “Huh. I guess they all want to go too… Jane thinks it might be a meteorite. Wait till she sees the pictures," Maggie said in amusement as she sent the pictures JARVIS had acquired to Darcy to show Jane.

“Darcy and Jane and Erik?”

“Yup! I guess we’re going on a field trip,” Maggie muttered as she got up and pulled out the locked case with her travel weapons. Last night, she had just gone with her batons, but today, she tucked away a few knives too and holstered the custom pistol Tony had made her on the small of her back. It shot a stun bolt, similar to a blaster on Star Wars that he had retrofitted from the design of the repulsors on his suit. It packed a good punch, enough to disable an attacker long enough to escape. She checked her appearance, making sure her clothes hid the weapons before pulling on a black leather jacket with gold zippers over it all.  

“I love field trips!” Peter exclaimed as she tugged a windbreaker over his shoulders, and he pushed his arms through.

“Famous last words,” she muttered before shaking herself at such a weird thing to say. Shaking herself from her weird thoughts, she buckled Leo Jr in the back seat with Peter and tucked the almond milk and steam pitcher in her large bag. On the way to the makeshift lab, Maggie picked up pastries from the local bakery, making sure to get a variety since she knew Darcy disliked doughnuts (the savage), and she didn't know what Erik or Jane liked. Peter, of course, loved all baked goods, and Maggie couldn't care less unless she had made it herself. As they pulled up and parked where Darcy had indicated the day before, they spotted Erik blearily squinting into the distance with a mug in his hand, his hair tousled from sleep. "They must have just got up," Maggie told Peter as she unstrapped her espresso machine and shouldered her bag.

"Or jetlag," Peter added as he slammed the door and jogged up to Erik to ask questions about his work. Maggie laughed as Erik blinked at him in incomprehension at Peter's early morning eagerness before hearing the exhausted scientist reply in Norwegian. Peter paused in confusion before pulling out his phone, searching for something on it before replying awkwardly in the same language. The look on Erik's face was hilarious as he realized what he had done before laughing out loud, grasping Peter's shoulder, and pulling him to his side and into the building. Erik's shouts of excitement from Peter's attempt at Norwegian waking up the scientist more than the coffee in his mug had. Following them, Maggie shook her head at how easily Peter could charm even the most ill-tempered being. She should really point him at Fury to see what would happen.

“Morning, everyone!” Maggie called out as she set the pastries on the table before placing Leo Jr on the kitchen counter so she could make some coffee. “Anyone need some espresso? Roasted it myself!” She advertised as she unpacked her bag of coffee implements and almond milk. 

“You brought Leonardo de Espresso with you?!” Darcy called excitedly from across the room, where she was hanging pictures up on an old chalkboard. From what Maggie could parse from across the room, it was pictures taken from Jane's digital camera last night.

“No, Dad made her Leo JR, and he travels with us when we leave home,” Peter said with half a doughnut in his mouth. “Dad calls him Backpack Leo since it has built-in backpack straps to carry it around with-" Peter shoved the rest of the doughnut in his mouth before mumbling a few words, "- Maggie said he needs to market it, but he doesn’t want to.”

“It would be great for food trucks, concession stands, and small restaurants,” Maggie replied smugly as she started steaming milk after hooking up the water and power, "but we can't agree on a name." Erik and Jane both stared in disbelief at the makeshift coffee shop that had appeared suddenly. “Lattes, anyone?” Maggie offered with a smirk.

“Maggie and Dad take their coffee seriously; don’t mind her,” Peter said offhandedly as he stuffed another doughnut in his mouth.

“Rude,” Maggie replied as she poured her second double shot into one of the mugs on the shelf and poured in the steamed milk. Glancing behind her, she saw Peter grab another doughnut. “And that’s the last one, buddy. I’m not dealing with you on a sugar high today.”

“Umm, I’ll take a latte...” Jane spoke up as she raised her hand and pointed to the far corner. "There’s some real milk in the fridge over there that you can use for it.”

“I’ll stick with the black coffee,” Erik said with a shake of his head at the fancy coffee. He shuffled over to one of the computer monitors, bending down to look closer at the screen with Jane's program, silently marveling at the J. Foster Algorithm Analysis program. He stood straight, sipping his coffee as he grinned around the rim with pride for his old friend's daughter. “We might want to perform a spectral analysis,” he told the young woman he considered his adopted niece.

“We?” Jane asked in surprise as she took the mug from Maggie's hands and approached him and the computer. 

“I flew all the way out here, so I might as well make myself useful, Jane,” Erik replied with a shrug. 

“You know what would be really useful? Do you still have that friend of LIGO?” Jane teased with a grin before taking a sip from her drink.

Of course, she would bring that up. "You know she was more than a friend...” Erik sighed as he hid behind his mug in embarrassment.

“Could you call in a favor?” Jane asked genuinely, her face eager for more data from a reputable and covetable source. 

“You don’t think this was just a magnetic storm,” Erik stated in resignation as he set his mug down. To be honest, he didn't think it was either. It had been too fantastical to be just a plain magnetic storm. The way it had appeared to be a mix of several different rare atmospheric storms compiled with several rare astrometric oddities only spoken of in Norse and metrological legends, Erik was starting to think he was either living a fairy tale or had hallucinated the whole thing. But the fact that four other people had seen and experienced it, made up of the son and sister of one of the smartest people on earth, one of the smartest persons on earth, and Darcy, proved that he wasn't crazy.

“If I'm right, their observatory must have picked up gravitational waves during last night's event," Jane said as she tapped the side of her mug thoughtfully before standing and moving toward another computer station in the middle of the room.

“Meaning?”.

“Meaning these anomalies might signify something bigger,” Jane replied knowingly as she sat at the desk and brought up some of last night's data.

“How big are we talking about?” Erik asked as he leaned over her shoulder. Jane motioned to the footage on the monitor, and they watched as the last of the anomaly’s clouds disappeared into the night sky. There appeared to be a blister in space, bulging out in convex and covered with stars.

“I think the lensing around the edges is characteristic of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge," she replied excitedly, bouncing in the chair as she swiveled to look up at him, her face reminiscent of when she had experienced her first telescope. 

“A what?” Darcy asked distractedly from across the room as she tacked up another photo before she dropped the remaining pictures on the table and reached over to grab a doughnut.

“I thought you were a science major,” Erik said in confusion as he moved towards the table and grabbed a chocolate-sprinkled doughnut.

“Political Science,” Darcy replied proudly as she stole the mug from Maggie's hand and grinned at Peter, who had snuck another doughnut as soon as his minder's back was turned.

Erik looked over at Jane, confused and Jane shrugged, “Darcy was the only applicant.”

“It’s a wormhole,” Peter chimed in between bites, “a connection between two different points of space-time!”

“You’re too smart,” Darcy praised as she tousled his hair and grinned in amusement at his frosting-smeared mouth and hot chocolate mustache. 

“Am not," he whined, "we learned about it-.”

“-In afterschool science camp,” everyone finished for him. Peter huffed and went to take another bite before Maggie plucked it from his hand.

“No more sugar,” she scolded before sitting beside him with her fresh coffee and eating the rest herself, "you know the jelly ones are mine."

“Erik, look!“ Jane exclaimed as she pulled a print-off from the chalkboard and pointed to something on the page. “What do you see here?” she asked, shoving it in his face.

“Stars,” Erik replied blandly as he squinted at the picture without his glasses.

“Yes, but not our stars,” Jane stated forcefully as she hurried over to their makeshift breakfast table and spread out a star chart. “This is the star alignment for our quadrant this time of year, so unless Ursa Minor decided to take the day off, those are someone else’s constellations!”

Darcy, by this time, had started flipping through the printed-off pictures in the pile, looking at each one before handing them to Peter to look at. As she flipped through one of the few at the bottom of the pile, she held it up and squinted at it before shouting in excitement. “Hey, check this out!” She yelled, drawing everyone to pile in around her. As they squinted at the enlarged photo, the edges blurred from the magnification, the storm, and the photographer's jerkiness while taking the photos, and there appeared to be a figure...

“Is that-?” Erik asked reluctantly as he rubbed his eyes and leaned in closer, hoping his day wouldn't get worse...

“I think I left something at the hospital!” Jane yelled in panic as she backed away, grabbed her coat, and ran towards the science truck.

“Is that a guy?” Peter asked as he chewed on another doughnut while leaning into Maggie's side as she picked up the abandoned photo after the others had chased after Jane.

“Yeah, I think so,” Maggie replied with dread before ruffling his hair and sighing in anticipation of his eventual and potential sugar crash. “I'm going to have you eat something healthy, so you don’t bounce like a ball the rest of the day, and then we’ll go to the grocery to get some food for them since there’s nothing in their fridge but milk and expired lunch meat."

“Eww, sounds like a scary Uncle Rhodey story from college."

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” She sighed and sat down next to Peter. "I think we'll have to plan to go see the hammer later, buddy,” Maggie said regrettably, "if Agent isn't already there."

"I regret to say that Agent Coulson has been on site for an hour now," JARVIS said from her phone, which was lying near the espresso machine, "but the rest of his agents have yet to arrive. If you leave now, you may yet get a chance to see if you can lift it since no one has been able to do so."

"Huh," Maggie mussed as she tapped her fingers on the table, "I don't think it would be worth it to drive all the way out there to upset Agent just to see if I can lift the hammer."

"What if you are worthy, Miss?" JARVIS asked mischievously, probably leaving out important information that would benefit her later.

"What is that supposed to mean, JARVIS?" 

"Nothing, Miss, just testing my teasing algorithms. You know the saying, practice makes perfect."

Maggie just sighed in resignation and handed Peter a banana from her bag. "Eat up while I lock up the lab so we can get going," Maggie told him before searching for the key. 

"So... do you think it's Thor or an alien from another universe?" Peter asked leadingly as they walked to the small grocery store a few blocks away.

"At this point, I do not wish to speculate without more data to analyze," she teased as she ruffled his hair, repeating the excuse he gave her the other day.

"No, fair!"

"And now you know how I feel," she said reluctantly as they entered the store and grabbed a cart. As they wound their way through the aisles, peering in fascination at some of the strange differences between the posh groceries in Malibu and the more rural grocery they were in, Peter made meal suggestions as they paused at familiar items. 

“Can we have spaghetti tonight for dinner?” Peter asked as they walked past the pasta, his baseball cap low over his eyes as he shook a box of shell pasta.

“That sounds like a good idea, maybe some garlic bread and some sort of salad," Maggie muttered as she pulled the shell noodles from his hands and replaced them on the shelf, "I also think we need some breakfast things and snacks for you that don’t make you into the Energizer Bunny.” As they continued to wander the store, they picked up a few things for a few easy meals and several snacks that would be easy to take with them in the car since she and Peter wanted to go sightseeing. Jane had collected an insane amount of data that needed to be analyzed, so Maggie figured they would be on their own for most of the time they spent in New Mexico. They filled their cart, paid for the food, and returned to Jane’s lab. Maggie was more laden down than Peter, whom she had given the lightest and hardest of the food supplies to carry.

“Oh, it looks like they’re back,” Maggie observed as they approached, noticing that the doors were wide open again. As they entered the building with their grocery bags, they found that the others had gone and brought 'Thor' back. The weird pajamas he had been wearing were gone, and in their place, he was wearing just a pair of tight jeans, causing Darcy and Jane to stare. “Oh, this isn’t going to be good,” Maggie muttered as she stepped into the room, Peter trailing behind her.

"Please allow me to assist you," Thor boomed as he approached, bare arms outstretched. Incensed by his violent nature last night, Maggie moved, blocking his path to Peter as she glared up at the man. Thor stopped, suddenly aware that he was setting off Maggie's protective instincts, took a step back, pulled the T-shirt he had been carrying on, and waited for Maggie to make a move.

"You may assist us if you promise that you will keep your distance from Peter," she stated firmly as Thor's face fell, and he took another step back and raised his hands up, fingers spread. Maggie waited a moment before nudging Peter towards the kitchen area, keeping Thor in her sightline, uncomfortable that she was loaded with shopping bags and unable to quickly pull a weapon. Peter moved, familiar with Maggie's protective nature, to go with her nudges, allowing her to move with him so she could unburden herself and defend them. Thor watched them solemnly as he kept his hands up in view, attempting to come across as unthreatening before clearing his throat. 

"I am heartily repentant for my actions, for scaring the youngling, causing you to defend him," Thor responded softly before bowing formally. "Please forgive me and allow me to make amends for my behavior last night,” Thor said as he stood straight from the bow. “I was under a great deal of stress, but that was no reason for my boorish behavior," he paused, looking at Peter before focusing back on her. "You had every right to defend the child, my lady.”

Startled at the behavior change, Maggie recalled JARVIS's stories about the Asgardians and Thor that morning. Allowing herself to think, she decided to give him a second chance but would keep Peter away from him until she could determine whether or not she could trust 'Thor' enough to allow him near her nephew. "Very well, but if you do one more thing to threaten us, I will make sure that it is one of the last things you do before I make sure it is the last thing you do."

Silence filled the gas station, and everyone but Thor and Peter stared at her in shock. Thor grinned at her before giving her a cheeky, dramatic bow. "I would have it no other way, my lady!"

After a moment, Peter tugged at her sleeve to get her attention as he pressed up against her side, "Maggie?"

"Yes?"

"I wasn't scared," Peter whispered loudly.

Maggie and the others chuckled at his naivety. "I know, bud, but I was scared for you."

"Oh... but why were you scared?"

"It's an adult thing; I'll explain later," she informed him before nudging him with her hip and nodding towards the scientists. " Go see if Jane will show you a few things while I put the food away."

"Ok!" Peter yelled before he bounced and jogged off to bug Jane and Erik, getting permission to look at one of her print-offs of some of the data collected previously.  Thor moved closer to her and observed while she tossed the expired things from the fridge and put the groceries away. He appeared confused as he stared at her face and looked at her braided hair long before settling on a puzzled look of frustration, muttering under his breath in something close to the Norweigen that Erik had been speaking about earlier that morning. After a few minutes, he stood closer to Jane, somehow drawn to her magnetic excitement about all the data she had collected, peppering 'Thor' with questions as she waved print-offs in his face.

“You know, for a crazy homeless guy, he’s pretty cut,” Darcy whispered to Maggie as she came over to see what groceries they had bought. “Hey! Sorry, I tased you!” Darcy shouted across the room at Thor.

“Really, Darcy?” Maggie muttered as she tossed a few more moldy, expired things from the fridge and put the rest of the perishables away. She moved towards the dry goods and swatted Darcy's hand when she started to open some of the snacks she had bought for Peter. "Go sit, take Peter with you," Maggie urged as she pushed her friend away from the kitchen area. "Someone needs to entertain Peter before he gets into Jane's equipment because he's bored."

"I'm not a babysitter; we've discussed this."

"I know, but I need you to pretend for me," Maggie whispered as she gave Darcy another push.

"Fine."

After a few minutes, Maggie finished putting the groceries away and settled down at the table with Peter and Darcy, watching Thor wander around barefoot, picking at the sticky name tag on the too-tight t-shirt. After a few moments of muttering, he approached Jane again, and they all snickered when Jane turned and bumped into him, causing her to blush and giggle. “Oh! Excuse me! Oh!" she noticed the name tag and ripped it off, "my ex...They’re the only clothes I had that’d fit you... sorry.”

Thor looked conflicted, his face cycling through a few emotions before he nodded sharply. “They will suffice.” Jane smiled uncomfortably and watched as he moved to look at the chalkboard with all the pictures taped to it.

“You would think he would be a little more grateful,” Maggie muttered at Darcy sarcastically, “you guys did hit him with the truck, but you did drop him at the hospital and then gave him some clothes.”

“True,” Darcy replied distractedly as she fiddled with her phone, ignoring the sarcasm and trying to take a discreet picture.

“Stop it, Darcy!” Maggie hissed.

“Fine, I won’t post it on Facebook, but can I at least have one for myself?”

"Are those clothes from that guy who tried to steal her work?" Maggie asked under her breath towards Darcy after she took a few pictures.

"Yeah, it was that Blake guy. The one who tried to steal her thesis."

"Oh, yeah, I had to ask JARVIS to hack his computer so we could get it back."

"Thanks for that; by the way, Skynet also managed to get back the money he borrowed from her."

"Good."

Peter got bored after a while, and Maggie assumed that after hearing him mutter to JARVIS on his phone, he didn't quite understand Jane's specific science and math, needing a few years before he would reach that level. Peter returned the papers to Jane and wandered over to Maggie, giving her one of his puppy-dog looks. "Come here," she reached forward and pulled him onto her lap, adjusting him across her lap so they were both comfortable and could see the others in the room. "Tired?"

"Mmmm, a little," Peter yawned.

She tucked him a little closer and kissed his forehead. "We'll have lunch soon, and then we'll call your dad after," she murmured as they observed Erik and Jane talking with Thor. I was thinking we could go out and see some sights tomorrow. How does that sound?" 

“This mortal form has grown weak!” Thor declared, making them all jump.

“Somebody get the mortal a Pop-Tart,” Jane retorted as she shook her head and pocketed her notebook, having been making notes while speaking with Erik.

"I’m hungry too, Maggie,” Peter turned and looked up at her. "Can I have a Pop-Tart?”

"Nope. You do not need more sugar. How about the diner? Are you guys okay with that?” Maggie asked as she reached for her purse. “I could use some food, too, and it’s a nice day for a little walk.”

Everyone agreed, so they locked up the lab. Thor was handed the box of Pop-Tarts to tide him over, and they walked to the diner on the other side of the small town.

They sat and ordered, then Jane took out her notebook and looked beseechingly at Thor.  “Can you tell us exactly what happened to you last night?”

Thor stared into her eyes for a second, admiring her appearance like a lovelorn poet, making Jane flustered, and the rest of them shared a look of mild exasperation.  Before Thor could respond, their drinks were delivered just in time to break the awkward tension that hung heavily around the adults at the table. Peter was oblivious since he was concentrating on the coloring page the waitress had given him when they sat down. Maggie, noticing Peter's overzealous arm motion, moved his eating utensils out of the way before taking a sip of her coffee as she and the others watched Thor try coffee for the first time. 

“This drink! I like it!” He declared as he lifted his arm with the mug. “A-!”

On instinct, Maggie grabbed his hand and the mug, stopping him, “Cease, Thor! If you enjoy it, you verbally request another! This is not Asgard! You know the rules for visiting other realms! Words before actions!”

Everyone paused and stared at her. Thor blinked slowly, his arm going slack as he allowed her to take the mug from his hand and set it gently back on the table. Standing, he pulled her up from her chair, grabbed her right wrist, and pushed the sleeve up to her elbow. He felt along the skin of her inner arm while examining the smooth skin.

“What?” Maggie blinked and looked at the others, “What just happened?” She rubbed her eyes with her free hand while attempting to pull the other away from Thor's grasp.

“You just yelled at Thor with a British accent and talked about visiting other realms,” Darcy said softly as the others looked at her in shock. Then your eyes changed colors. They look normal now, but they were aqua and gold. It was kind of freaky.”

"Let go," Maggie mumbled as she attempted to free her arm from Thor again.

"Sigyn?" Thor asked as he looked down at her, worry and sadness pulling at his face as he continued to hold her right wrist hostage. "Loki said..." He swallowed heavily before helping her sit again, continuing to mumble as he seated himself next to her. "It would explain why he... and if she was still alive and the bond was strained... oh Norns..." Thor moaned before muttering in that strange language while everyone else stared at Maggie in shock and concern.

Uncomfortable with the attention from the others at the table and Thor's sudden comforting presence, Maggie breathed through her anxiety, feeling a small hand squeeze hers under the table. Shaking herself from her spiral, she glanced over and found Peter staring at her with worry in his eyes. “Are you ok, Maggie?”

“I’m ok, buddy,” Maggie replied as she attempted to soothe him and herself. She gave him a shaky smile, as she forced herself to count her breaths and calm her anxiety. “I think I need some more coffee and I definitely need some food,” she lied with a small smile in an attempt to calm Peter down as she continued to panic.

Was this what her dreams had attempted to tell her when the weird happenings and the fluctuations in JARVIS's scans of her radiation output? She asked herself just before she felt her other hand lifted from the tabletop and cradled in a massive hand, and a jolt of energy passed through her hand from his. Jerking, she hissed in shock before snatching her hand back from him. "What do you want, Thor?!"

"You did it again!" Darcy exclaimed and pointed at her.

"It's rude to point," Maggie hissed at Darcy, attempting to ignore the sudden recollection of her dreams—the ones about space adventures, magic, and the two siblings her age, who were blonde and dark-haired. Especially of the ones with the dark-haired sibling- 

"My brother to be happy again," Thor replied softly to her question, interrupting her thoughts. A disturbingly familiar smile, one that reminded her strangely of a golden retriever, was on his face as he took her hand hostage again.

Maggie stopped and turned towards Thor, gently releasing Peter's hand before slipping her knife out of the sheath in her tall boot and pressing it tip-first into his side. "I understand that sentiment and wish the same for my own brother, but unwanted touching will result in your blood loss if you don't release me," she hissed, too low for the others to hear, while she leaned into the blade just enough for it to draw a small amount of blood and cause pain.

Looking down, Thor grinned in amusement at the blade before releasing her hand and sitting back. “How long have you been here? Why are you hiding on Midgard?"

Maggie glowered at him before slipping the blade back into her boot and moving closer to Peter. "For one thing, I am not hiding on Midgard and would enjoy a little less notoriety since JARVIS decided to announce to the world that I'm Tony Stark's sister. And secondly, I have been here, in New Mexico, for just a few more hours than you have," she hissed, "and according to my birth certificate, I have been Margaret Maria Stark since June of 1985, making me-"

"Here we are, dears!" The waitress interrupted Maggie's rant, ignoring looks of relief from almost everyone at the table. “I’ll bring some more coffee and the second wave of food for the big guy.” The waitress quickly brought the rest of the food, and they ate silently, Thor quickly giving up asking Maggie questions after she glared at him warningly and poked him with her fork for the third time.  As they finished, they spent the next several minutes watching Thor ravenously eat through another plate heaped high with steak and eggs.

“How could you eat an entire box of Pop-Tarts and still be this hungry?” Darcy asked in awe as she took out her phone, holding it up for a picture. “Smile!”

“Darcy!” Jane admonished as she brought out her notebook, hopeful she could ask her questions without Maggie doing something freaky or Thor tossing a mug. “Can you tell us what happened last night and how you got inside that cloud?”

Before Thor could say anything, a man sat at the counter, drawing attention to himself with his dirty clothes and booming voice. “You missed all the excitement out at the crater!” He shouted to another man sitting on the opposite end.

“What crater?” The waitress interrupted as she poured him a coffee. Jane and Erik looked at each other, and Peter perked up.

“They’re saying some kind of satellite crashed in the desert,” the man on the far side of the counter answered, blasé about his friend's excitement.

“Oh, no,” Maggie muttered quickly, seeing how this was going.

“We were having a good time with it till the Feds showed up and chased us out,” the man complained as he poured a worryingly amount of sugar into his coffee.

Jane looked over at Maggie, asking her silently if this was the hammer she had texted Darcy about that morning. Maggie nodded, and they all looked at ‘Thor’ as he perked up at the local man's story.

“They said it was radioactive, and I had my hands all over it...” the local man paused, his enthusiasm dying a painful death.  “I’m probably sterile now...” he muttered mournfully as he looked at his hands in betrayal.

Peter looked excited and pulled out his phone to start Googling, and Maggie tried not to freak out a little. This was not going to be good because she knew that SHIELD was actually the Feds, and if SHIELD was here and ‘Thor’ did something stupid to draw their attention, Tony would soon follow. She knew that he had a suit made for Rhodey, so she’d probably get two overprotective, suit-enhanced men to deal with.

Shit.

She heard a click and saw Darcy taking more pictures. “This is so going on my Facebook!”

“I don’t know nothing about satellites, but it was heavy,” the man said as he took a sip of his coffee, “real heavy. Nobody could lift it.”

Thor perked up and put his fork down, startling Peter from his Googling spree. He strode over to the newcomer and lifted him up by the front of his jacket. “Where?”

“About fifty miles east of here,” the man whimpered as Thor dropped him before striding out of the diner. Just as Thor was passing through the doorway, the man bravely shouted after him, “I wouldn’t bother! Looked like the whole army was coming in when we were forced to leave!”

“Well, this is definitely not going to be good,” Maggie mumbled bleakly as she went to settle their check, leaving a nice tip. “Come on, buddy, let’s go.” Peter got up, and she guided him out after the rest of them.

When they approached the group, Erik pulled Jane aside. “Please don’t do this," he pleaded, "please don't do anything rash."

“You know what we saw last night, and this can’t be a coincidence. I want to see what’s in the crater,” Jane replied as she watched Thor gauge the sun's position.

“I’m not talking about the crater; I’m talking about him.”

“He’s promised us answers,” she replied firmly as she turned towards Thor, her fists clenched in indecision. 

“He’s delusional! Listen to what he’s saying! ‘Thor’, ‘Bifrost’, ‘Mjolnir’! Those are the stories I grew up with as a child!” Erik hissed as he pleaded with Jane to find reason. Maggie could see how desperate he was to protect Jane from making a rash decision. 

“I’d just be driving him out there, that’s all," Jane pleaded, her posture showing her success in responding to Erik's concern. 

“It’s dangerous. He’s dangerous,” Erik warned. He took a step back, and Jane nodded at him. She finally gave in, squaring her shoulders and walking over to where Thor was speaking with Darcy.

“I’m sorry, I can’t take you,” she told him reluctantly, her spine straight and fists clenched as she went against her instincts for knowledge and discovery. 

“I understand," Thor stated as he made eye contact with Erik, acknowledging the protectiveness of her father figure, before grasping Jane's hand, "then this is where we say goodbye.” He kissed the air above her knuckles before turning towards the rest and bowed shallowly, “Jane Foster, Erik Selvig, Darcy, Lady Maggie, Young Peter... I bid you farewell.”

Jane, Erik, and Darcy bowed awkwardly while Peter giggled at them and waved; Maggie held on to Peter’s shoulders as they watched him go.

We’ll see him again, she thought. I just have this feeling…

Chapter Text

After Thor had wandered off, they quietly walked back to the lab. Even Peter was quiet as he leaned into Maggie and held tight to her hand.

"Do you think he'll come back?" Peter whispered as he looked towards Jane's slumped form.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of him," Maggie whispered back as she squeezed his hand in reassurance. A car door slamming startled her. She looked up and saw several large black SUVs, a sizeable unmarked truck parked in front of Jane's lab, and people in suits carrying items from the building.

"Oh..." Jane moaned as she watched an agent drop a large box, spilling several notebooks and papers on the sandy gravel before the papers caught a breeze and tumbled toward the empty desert behind the building. 

“JARVIS,” Maggie hissed into her phone at the AI, “please tell me you have nothing to do with this, or I will make sure that Tony cuts your internet connection for a week.”

“I would never, Miss! Maker’s honor,” the AI replied, feigning offense. Maggie sighed with resignation and prayed that this didn’t blow up in her face.

“What the hell is going on here?!” Jane shouted as she rushed ahead and attempted to pull another box from one of the agents.

“Ms. Foster, I’m Agent Coulson with SHIELD,” a familiar voice came from behind Maggie.

“Agent!” Maggie declared as she turned and pulled Peter closer, “What are you doing here? And why are you stealing Doctor Foster's belongings?"

“Ms. Stark, Peter.” He didn’t look surprised to see her; he seemed too gleeful for her tastes. "We're here investigating a security threat, and we need to appropriate Doctor Foster’s equipment and all her atmospheric data,” Coulson replied as he continued to allow his minions to gather items.

"Security threat? An overlarge sledgehammer with Nordic ruins?" Maggie asked slyly, "I highly doubt that is a security threat, Agent, more like one of those silly art stunts like the green alien in the police car in LA in the '90s."

Coulson stiffened, turned towards her, and stepped into her personal space. "I don't know what you are speaking of, Ms. Stark, but the item in the desert is not a 'silly art stunt,' as you put it. It is a dangerous artifact that outputs massive amounts of gamma radiation, similar to you."

Startled and angry that SHIELD had been able to discover some of her private medical records, she poked him hard in the chest and pushed Peter behind her with her other arm. "I highly doubt that Agent Coulson, since the only being I know of that puts out a large amount of gamma radiation is Bruce Banner." Just as Coulson opened his mouth to retort, she noticed an agent carrying out her espresso machine. "I would also appreciate you leaving my property alone since that machine is Stark Industries technology, and you cannot remove it from Stark custody without a warrant.” 

“Why are you taking Doctor Foster’s things?” Peter asked as he watched the agents pack up things like there was a fire, and they had just minutes before it consumed them and all the items in the building.

“I would like an explanation, Phil," Maggie demanded, following Coulson closer to the building where Jane and the others were attempting to hold on to the few things not gathered up by the agents, "since I didn't think SHIELD could randomly seize personal property without a warrant. I'm sure Tony's lawyers would enjoy an easy case.”

"We are allowed to gather items without a warrant if they are related to any high-level security threat," Coulson replied in his usual blasé manner. "Doctor Foster will be compensated for her items and will get them back once we determine they are safe and unrelated to an active threat.” 

“Really, Phil? And the Pirate Director approved this?” Maggie asked in disbelief as she motioned to the agents who had paused in their work to stare at them, shocked at the familiar way she challenged their esteemed boss. "I think I should make that call and then call Pepper to assist me with straightening out the legalities of you just taking whatever you please because this sounds a lot like you're breaking the Fourth Amendment of- What was it? Unreasonable searches and seizures, was it?"

Coulson gestured for the minions to start packing again before holding a check to Jane, ignoring Maggie's fuming and threats. “This should more than compensate you for your trouble, Doctor Foster, and we will return any items unrelated to the security threat as soon as they are ruled out.”

Jane scowled at the check held toward her before she pointed toward one of the agents carrying one of the data collection units from her SUV. “I can’t just pick up replacements from RadioShack! I made most of this equipment myself!”

“Then I’m sure you can do it again,” Coulson said confidently before turning back to Maggie and holding out his hand.  “I’m sorry to ruin your vacation, but we’ll need your phone too.” 

“Oh, I don’t think so. Remember, 'No SI property without a warrant,' and since this is a test phone, we can sue you, your future children, your dog, cat, and grandmother for taking it.” Coulson gave her a rare grin and forced Jane's check into her hand. Gripping the paper, Maggie scowled and scoffed at the man's gall, resigning herself to dealing with SHIELD again for the foreseeable future. She knew that JARVIS was contacting the lawyers on retainer to inform them of the situation, and she had a feeling that even if she could talk Coulson out of taking Jane's stuff, the scientist would still have a lengthy legal battle to retain the rights to her equipment and proprietary knowledge.  SHIELD was slippery and devious like that. 

"Granny died ten years ago, Fury's cat doesn't allow other pets, and I have no plans for future children, so I believe I should be ok if I took your phone, Ms. Stark," Coulson said with a smirk, holding his hand out again for her phone. 

“I’m sure I can sue you for violating my constitutional rights!” Jane interjected as she panicked when the agents packed the last items into the SUVs and started to get into the vehicles.

“We're the good guys, Doctor Foster,” Coulson replied without breaking eye contact with Maggie. She would win this staring contest; she had been practicing with Doctor Strange. 

“So are we! We’re on the verge of understanding something extraordinary!” Jane shouted while holding up her notebook, outraged and furious. Everything I know about this phenomenon was in this lab, and this book and no one has the right to take it from me!” Coulson, still unblinking, gestured one of the last agents towards Jane, who snatched the notebook before darting out the door.

Coulson blinked, and Maggie slapped his hand away, holding her hands up in defense position and curling her fingers in a challenge. “You will have to fight me for it, and I know you won’t win,” she threatened. "I want her notebook back.”

He sighed heavily and shook his head. "It would not be a fair fight, and I do not wish to anger Nat for fighting with one of her friends again." Maggie scoffed and shoved his shoulder. Phil laughed and flipped her a business card with a phone number. "When this is all over, and you are back home again, I'll give you that challenge, but not without Nat. I want to keep what hair I have left, thank you very much."

Maggie laughed despite herself and pocketed the card. "Agreed, but this still doesn't make what you are doing here any better, Phil. SHIELD has no rights to Jane's equipment or data. You should know better."

"My hands are tied. I'm just the courier here. My directions come from up high."

"Sure they do," Maggie drawled skeptically. "I'm sure His Furiousness has to have his little paws in all the weird and strange phenomena."

"For the greater good," Phil mimicked her drawl. Keep the phone; I'll get someone to collect it later."

"Good luck with that; Tony has self-destruct built into all his high-risk devices, so even if you managed, it would be scrap in seconds."

Phil nodded to her, then turned to leave, giving up on the phone. “Thank you for your cooperation," he said to Jane as he ignored the scientist's request to return the notebook. Following his agents, he got into the last SUV, the car doors slammed, and they drove off.

With slumped shoulders, Jane dragged herself into the empty building and looked around unhappily. “Years of research. Gone,” Jane murmured in her grief, tears running down her cheeks while she checked through a few drawers and empty boxes, searching for anything the agents may have forgotten. 

“They even took my iPod,” Darcy complained bitterly, digging through her desk drawer.

“And your back-ups?” Erik asked Jane hopefully Jane, picking up a tipped-over chair.

“Look around! They took our backups!" Jane shouted, flinging her arms around. "They took the backups of our backups!”

“I just downloaded like thirty songs on there,” Darcy whined, shoving the drawer closed. 

“Will you please stop talking about your iPod!?” Jane screamed at Darcy before she clenched and unclenched her fists, muttering as she walked over to the kitchen area where Maggie was straightening up the scattered utensils and foodstuff. “Maggie, who were these people?”

Maggie sighed and glanced outside, where Peter was kicking a soccer ball she had sent him after SHIELD had left, hoping to get him away from Jane's grief and anger. “They’re a secret organization that specializes in ‘weird shit,’” she air quoted, “Howard Stark started it in the late ’40s with Peggy Carter.”

“I knew a scientist once, a pioneer in gamma radiation. SHIELD showed up after an incident, and he was never heard from again,” Erik spoke dolefully, sitting heavily in a chair, rubbing his hands up and down his face.

“Ah, good old Bruce Banner! He's alive and well, if you wish to know," Maggie replied with a slightly manic grin. “He’s currently hiding out in the world from General Ross, but I'm hoping to convince him to come home to the States and work with Tony on a few things. JARVIS and I have a three-step plan, don't we?"

"I could easily adjust our three steps to one, Miss," JARVIS said confidently from her phone. "The restrictions and rules you, Sir, and Ms. Potts have implemented are so-"

"-Restricting?" Maggie interrupted with a roll of her eyes.

"Yes, Miss." 

“Oh. That’s good,” Erik said awkwardly to the information about Doctor Banner, ignoring Maggie and JARVIS's banter. 

“I’m not going to let them do this to me! I’m getting everything back,” Jane stated firmly. "I just need to figure some things out first." 

Erik and Maggie looked at each other, and Maggie silently mouthed 'Thor' as Erik scowled and shook his head angrily before looking at Jane sharply, nodding his head towards her. Maggie gestured toward Peter and tilted her head, silently asking him what she would do with her charge if she followed Jane. Nodding in understanding, Erik motioned to himself and gave her a nod before moving towards his suitcase on the large center table. 

“Let me contact one of my colleagues. Dr. Pym has had some dealings with these people. I’ll e-mail him and see if he can help," Erik said as he searched through his bag, eyebrows lowered in frustration.

“They took your laptop, too,” Darcy told him regretfully, finishing her search of the last drawer and slamming it closed. 

"Oh." Erik scowled in anger as he thought of a solution. After a few minutes, he looked towards an angrily pacing and muttering Jane before turning to Darcy. "There's a library nearby? Public computers, maybe?"

"Yeah, down on Main, they have a few computers with slow internet and a dot matrix printer. I had to use it to send a few messages before we got our internet set up when we first came to search for a building to rent for Jane's lab."

"Why don't we take Peter to the library? Maybe we can get him some books to read while I email my colleague," Erik offered as he pulled his bag over his shoulder and motioned toward Darcy. "Jane? Did you want to come with us?"

Startled from her musings, Jane blinked blankly at him before shaking her head, crossing her arms over her waist in a facsimile of self-soothing. "I think I will run out and get some gas. Maybe go to Santa Fe and get some supplies to record down what I remember and maybe build some equipment," Jane stated offhandedly while the others looked at each other knowingly.

"That sounds fine," Maggie reassured Jane, nodding toward others as they nonverbally made plans for her to follow Jane while Erik kept an eye on Peter (and Darcy). "I was going to bake a few things and maybe start something for dinner."

Maggie gathered Peter and gave him some instructions to stay with Darcy and Erik before giving him a hug and waving them all off. Jane quietly rifled through the stripped-down SUV before getting in the vehicle and driving off in the direction Thor had gone. Maggie closed up the building, got into the car, and sure enough, ten minutes later, she saw Jane drive by with Thor, headed towards where the satellite was located.

Shaking her head, Maggie followed them, giving them a ten-minute head start so that even a distracted Jane wouldn't notice she was being followed. The drive only took about an hour, but it was dark when she found Jane’s SUV parked about a half mile from the hill that overlooked the spot-lit area.

“Jane,” Maggie whispered loudly from behind her, “What the hell are you doing out here!?”

“Umm, getting my stuff back,” Jane replied sheepishly. Alarms suddenly rang out, and they watched Thor fight towards the hammer in the center of the containment area. A crane activated, and she saw an archer hold his position while he followed Thor and another beefy guy fighting in the mud. Thor managed to win and made his way to the containment area. He ripped the plastic off the side and approached the object. They could see him pulling on it for a moment before screaming in frustration and falling to his knees in grief.

“I’m going to have to go save his ass, aren’t I?” Maggie muttered on the ground next to Jane as she scanned the area with the binoculars as things calmed down after the twenty minutes of melee. She noticed the crane boom lowering and a man with a bow jump out. "Oh! Well, that makes this a bit easier." Maggie pulled out her phone and made a call.

"Hey, Birdbrain, I'm gonna need a favor..."

Chapter Text

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Groaning, Loki rolled over and prayed that the annoying sound would cease and the being making it would disintegrate into the ether. Instead, it repeated louder and more persistently. With a huff of discontent, he flopped onto his back and glared at the emerald-inlaid ceiling. "Just one day of rest is all I ask..."

The air suddenly felt heavy, and the smell of ozone filled the rooms before the main chamber door burst open. Familiar footsteps marched towards him before pausing to hover over his fully dressed, prone form.

"Get up! I need you to come with me immediately," Frigga urged him before grabbing the lapels of his armored coat with one hand and hauling him up from the bed in a shocking display of strength, even for a goddess of Asgard.

"Mother-" Loki rasped as he took in her armored form, Gungnir in her grasp as he dangled in her grip.

"We need to move swiftly if we are to do this right, Loki. I need you to go to Midgard and speak with your brother. It would be best if you informed him that your father is in the Odin Sleep and to remain on Midgard till I say otherwise," Frigga stated, tugging him towards Sigyn's rooms. "I'll need you to clean yourself and prepare to be gone for a time. I need to clear things with the Frost Giants, and having you and your brother off Asgard will facilitate better relations." Loki just mouthed her words, attempting to process what she had just stated while Frigga dragged him across the floor. Then, she unceremoniously dropped him to the floor in the main chamber before striding to the door of Sigyn's former rooms. 

Loki lay on the floor for the next few moments and observed his mother upside down. The All Mother's powers surge, lifting her hair as if underwater and causing the runes tattooed on her uncovered skin to glow. With a flick of her wrist, the heavy tapestry slid down the rails that encircled the room, revealing a gilded stone door with Sigyn's Vanir and Asgardian coat of arms carved in it.  With waves of Gungnir in one hand and motions with the other, his mother swiftly demolished the stasis spells, wards, and locking spells on the seiðr bound rooms. With a firm flick of her wrist, the manual lock on the door clicked before she motioned the door open. 

Loki and Sigyn's set of rooms was unique in that they were meant for the heir of Asgard, their consort, and family. The center room had a fire pit encircled by a seating area that opened to a small enclosed garden, surrounded by similar living setups for the rest of the royal family. Thor's set of rooms, directly across from Loki's via the enclosed garden, was much smaller. Instead of the multiple large rooms off of the center that Loki and Sigyn had, Thor's just had a bedchamber, bathing room, and a small study, which Loki also had till Sigyn, and he had announced their betrothal. 

Frigga stepped forward, waving her hand to slide the heavy curtains and glass-inlaid wooden shutters open, revealing a balcony overlooking the city below, a cloth-covered room, and freshening the air. Another wave and the rooms were restored to their previous glory, showcasing the intricately carved and lacquered Vanir furniture that populated the room. An array of glittering gold, emerald, and cream textiles populated a living area fit for a future queen. 

Frigga strode across the plush, handwoven rugs to the massive carved vanity, her pale reflection unfamiliar among the carved roses and serpents that framed the tall silver mirror. She dug through the drawers and small ceramic containers with a determined purpose. "I know I placed it here..." Frigga muttered as she shuffled the trinkets around, muttering curses and counterspells in turn as she searched through the lacquered, intricately carved drawers that framed the bottom part of the mirror. Bejeweled hairpins, ropes of carved beads, and weapons (sometimes weapons disguised as jewelry) piled up on the flat surface and floor as Frigga sorted through the collection and disturbed the coiled Suzaku statuette that housed Sigyn's perfume. 

"Mother—" Loki gasped. Sigyn's scent wafted from his mother's disturbances, and memories assailed him, dropping him to his knees.

Laughter echoed through the chamber as ghosts of him, and Sigyn danced together near the balcony, her cream and gold robes bunched in her fist as he twirled her around the gilded floor before dipping her low and stealing a kiss. "You're mine," she murmured before she grasped his hair and tugged him down for another. "Always," he replied before straightening and twirling her around in mindless circles to hear the peals of her joy echo in his ribcage. 

Several moments passed before Loki could pull himself together enough to slump to the floor and roll onto his back, the view of the ceiling filling his vision, waiting for the blackness to fade from around the edges of his eyes. "What are you searching for, Mother?" Loki whispered to the golden flowers encircled by emerald leaves inlaid into the alabaster vaulting. 

"The ring, Loki, from Eitri that you had created and infused with protective runes..." Frigga murmured, unaware of his flashback and current crisis. She sunk to her knees on the plush rug and ran her hands up the back of the vanity, pulling out the secret drawers hidden in the back under the mirror. Loki sucked in a breath and gripped his hands, his emotions surging as more buried memories assaulted him, causing the air around him to chill suddenly and frost to creep up his palms and coat his arms. The lonely weeks between her dropping him and Thor off on Asgard before the news of the Vanir Palace Coup trickled in via a lower Asgardian noble returned to haunt him. The spells he had cast and the blood he had shed for the protection spells for her ring that had been finished far too late continued to haunt him. After losing Sigyn, the Stygian of the years had been filled with blank spaces, uncontrollable bouts of rage, and regrets. If only he had finished the ring sooner, if only he had gone back with her ... if only- if only- if only-

"I scryed for Sigyn after I settled your father," Frigga informed him as if she had settled his sire for a nap instead of a magically induced coma. "-She is near... Ah! I found it!" Frigga shouted joyfully, brandishing a leather box towards him, Eitri's maker's mark on its lid. 

"What!" Loki shot up with a shout, peering up at his mother. 

She grinned at him and nodded. "Your dreams were correct about Midgard."

Shaking his head, he used a bit of his seiðr to sharpen his mind and make him more alert. It was a spell he hadn't used since before Sigyn had left because it just made the pain more challenging to deal with. Taking a deep breath, he adjusted to a crystal clear and sharp mind devoid of devastating sorrow for the first time in centuries. Hope soared in his chest at the slim possibility of finally finding his love. "Truly?" She nodded at him, sharing the moment of happiness and relief. Grasping his shoulder, she kissed his cheeks and forehead before handing him the ring. She cupped his cheek and sent a spell into him before pulling back and moving past him, picking up Gungir as she strode purposefully towards the door. "Mother...?" She stepped out the doorway and into the middle chamber. "Mother! I should not leave-  with Thor gone-" He rambled, jumping to his feet and dashing after her. "- what do you mean Odinsleep?"

"After I confronted your father and Asgard changed her loyalty to me, he collapsed from the strain of his age and the overuse of his seiðr. The old goat has been tricking the whole of Asgard for almost two millennia, so with the pressure of maintaining Asgard, the blatant mind control, and banishing your brother... let us say that it took a lot out of your father. And when he collapsed..." His mother gave him a sly grin as she moved around the room, using her powers to tidy the room and open the sliding doors to the garden. A breeze moved throughout the room, picking up all the dust and dirt before cycling out into the garden and depositing it among the plants. Frigga flicked her fingers, and the books were sorted back to the shelves lining his bed-chamber, and goblets and dinnerware were collected and sent with her seiðr to the kitchens. With a sigh, Frigga shrugged before leaning against Gungnir. 

"Mother..." Loki sighed in exasperation at his mother's enjoyment of the previous All-Father's pain. It's not like the old being didn't deserve it, but his mother could show a little less enjoyment over the whole situation.

"You know better than to leave your rooms in such a state; you must allow servants in to clean sometimes, dear," Frigga chided, ignoring his irritation. 

Wait. What was he saying?! Loki sighed at his Thor-like thoughts and rubbed his forehead in frustration. He needed some profound rest if he was channeling his inner Thor... Wait...Mindcontrol?!

"A little slow today, my heppinn Hrafn?" Frigga gave him a sly grin before she straightened, and his mother dropped all pretense of amusement for the battle-hardened warrior sorceress as her posture shifted and anger filled her face. "Your father had always done what he had thought was best for himself and never quite what was the best for Asgard. I intend to rectify and correct many of his mistakes and strengthen Asgard so she can defend herself before I see about correcting a few of the more problematic problems in the Nine Realms." She paused momentarily, hanging her head with a frown, centuries of her actual age suddenly hanging a little heavier before she sighed and made eye contact. "I also intend to speak with your sister and to see about freeing her from her prison. Your father has much to answer for on that alone, much less on how he could spell the entire realm to forget about her and our bloody history." Frigga's lapis lazuli-colored eyes suddenly flared, the gold flecks prominent from massive amounts of Seiðr she had been channeling lately.

Moments passed while Loki absorbed the information while clutching the ring box to his chest, the residual magicks pulsing in time with his heartbeat through the box as he processed the fact that Odin had wielded enough seiðr to erase the memories of an entire realm and re-write its history. What a hypocritical old wretch! Denouncing male seiðr practitioners when the grizzled old bastard was one of the strongest in their realm and using said power to further his agendas! Loki hissed at the sudden pain in his palm. Glancing down at the debris in his hand, Loki saw that the box had been crushed, revealing an Asgardian gold gilded Uru ring engraved with protection runes and inlaid with a massive raw stone, an emerald so dark that it appeared black. The box's fragments had sliced his palm, and his grip had wedged the stone into the laceration. He jerked it out of the wound, cleaned the ring with a spell, and slipped it on his finger before he looked over at Frigga. "What do you need me to do, Mother?"

The All Mother moved from one breath to the next as her seiðr took control, and her eyes went gold. She took him by the shoulders and gripped him in a bruising grip. "Take the ring, finish the bonding, and force your brother home together." She shook him firmly once, "If you do not leave shortly, I fear things will go tragically, and the end of times will continue unimpeded." She released her hold, her eyes returned to the usual lapis blue, and she stepped back. "Go swiftly, my son; the time draws near, and the Norns are impatient."

Loki grinned. "Tell me, Mother, how am I supposed to find my missing bonded?"

"Find your brother, and you shall find her," Frigga stated confidently as she tugged him around and towards his chamber. 

"Well, at least tell me where in the universe Father sent him... make this a bit easier than having to do some sort of tracking spell," Loki complained but allowed his mother to coddle him a little, the comfort and familiarity a lodestone in the hurricane of the last few days.

Frigga sighed and gave him a final push: " Clean up, darling, and then I shall have Heimdal send you to Midgard."

"Those poor Mudgardians," Loki muttered with a chuckle under his breath at the thought of Thor attempting to blend in with the mortals on Midgard before it finally sank into his mind what his mother had been saying.

"What do you mean she's near Thor on Midgard!?"

Loki forwent the spectacle of the Bifrost and slipped through the wormhole to Midgard, shielding his presence before he teleported to Thor’s location. He had clothed himself in Midgardian clothing before leaving (much to Frigga's amusement) and observed as a non-descript bald man questioned his defeated brother. Trying not to snicker at the man’s guessing game on how Thor received his training, he silently willed the Midgardian to leave the room before sending a small suggestive spell the man's way.

“Who are you?” The Midgardian asked his brother (wow, Thor was pathetic, but it was miserably entertaining—like a child dropping a treat on the ground).

“Just a man,” Thor answered, head bowed in defeat. 

(Yes, it was all so very, very wretched, especially for Loki to witness. The secondhand embarrassment was slowly killing him...)

“One way or another, we discover what we want to know. We’re good at that,” the man stated before he left the room, taking his excellent resting bitch face (for a Mudgardian) with him. 

“I thought he would never leave,” Loki stated jovially after manipulating his shielding so only Thor could see him and using his seiðr to loop the cameras.

“Loki? What are you doing here?” Thor rasped, surprised at Loki's appearance, his face lighting up like the small, cuddly, yippy things the mortals of this planet kept as pets. What was it...? Ah, yes, dogs! 

“I had to see you,” Loki murmured as he schooled his features, hiding his emotions behind a stoic mask. He carefully scanned the area with his seiðr, searching for a familiar core and tugging at the strand that connected them metaphysically. 

“What has happened? Tell me, brother, is it Jotunheim? Let me explain to Fath-”

“-Father is no longer in charge of Asgard," Loki cut Thor off with a surge of inner glee and a tooth-filled smirk.

“What?”

“Mother is now in control of Asgard, and since Father used the Lei Lines when he banished you, she is unable to rescind it," Loki explained as he paced back and forth in front of Thor, cocking his head as he felt Mjölnir pulse at his probing and another muted magickal signature near it. Interesting... 

"What do I do now?" Thor lamented as he slumped in the chair, his Midgardian shirt bunching in his hands as he worried about his lip. The mirrors appeared to shudder as if reacting to vibrations. Puzzled, Loki stared at the glass, waiting to see if it was a trick of the light or if his eyes had picked up the ripple. Shaking his head, he turned back to his brother.

"I do not know, brother. Perhaps live your life out as a Midgardian, spawn a few younglings, and enjoy not worrying about the responsibility of ruling our peoples," Loki suggested with glee, spinning on his heel and leaning over his cowed brother. "I can endeavor to be an ideal example of a doting uncle." 

Thor growled in response, kicking out at Loki, who dodged and chuckled just out of reach. "You would do nothing but teach them tricks and how to sass their elders, Loki-" Thor choked on his emotions before looking up sincerely. "I would be blessed to be gifted with younglings even if it meant never going home again."

"Try telling our esteemed father that heartful sentiment, brother," Loki replied bitterly. He stepped closer and pinned Thor with a firm hand on his shoulder. "Really, Brother, what were you thinking when you defied Father and angered The Frost Giants? You would be rewarded with a season-long feast and ballads sung in your honor?" Loki asked his brother sarcastically. Thor glared at him briefly before he hung his head in shame. Loki chuckled at his brother's childish pouting, "It is time to grow up. Thor, Mother speaks of Ragnarök and says that Sigyn is to be found near you. Here. On Midgard."

Thor's face said it all, a look of surprise and dawning knowledge as he looked into Loki's, making it evident that Thor had seen her and knew where she was.

"Where is she brother? Where is Sigyn?"

"I-" Thor's lashes fluttered as he processed the revelation of the soon-to-be apocalypse before meeting Loki's eyes. "She's here- I mean, near here. When Father tossed me into the Bifrost, and I landed on Midgard, a vessel struck me, and when I woke to Lady Jane's stunning visage," Thor sickenly reminisced, "Lady Maggie protected her. A Midgardian warrior who protects her youngling, Peter. A boy just shy of just a decade, her son."

"Her son!?"

"Well...not quite..."

"What the Hel do you mean, not quite, Brother?"

"It is her brother's son, her nephew, but she helps raise him. As a mother would."

Loki pondered this as he continued his pacing, suddenly warm despite the many spells he had on his clothing to keep him cool. Shrugging the jacket and scarf off, he stopped in front of Thor, hands on hips, and glared down at his brother. "How did you know it was she?"

"Lady Maggie may speak as a Midgardian and appear mortal, but the bumps on her arms from the Uru coating her bones are there," Thor shifted, wiped his forehead, and plucked at his damp shirt. "Her-"

"-Why is it suddenly so warm in here?" Loki interrupted whatever Thor had been about to say before suddenly, and the room shook after a muffled boom rumbled, causing the brothers to look at each other in surprise. The temperature began to rise even faster, forcing Loki to roll up his sleeves, pull a few weapons from his pocket dimension, and pass a shield and sword toward Thor. Looking down at his button shirt, dress pants, and leather dress shoes, he rolled his eyes at his stupidity before shrugging his shoulders and shifting to his battle armor.

"Brother? A little help, please," Thor implored beseechingly, clutching the sword and shield Loki had so graciously provided his ungrateful Bother. (Why did he love the lout again?)

"My powers do not work like that, Thor," Loki stated bluntly. The room shook again, and the explosions became louder and closer as the room continued to heat.

"Do you think, perhaps, that this is...?" Thor moved towards the closed door, taking his position on his usual side as he waited for Loki to move to the other. 

"It would make sense since the last time-"

"It would be a huge coincidence if-"

"-since she burned down!"

"-it was not Sigyn!"

They shouted over the ear-splitting melee before the power suddenly failed, and they were left in darkness. The rumbles of the fight outside hit a pitch equal to the gladiatorial fights popular among the Kronon.

The door crumpled, and one of the larger guards was thrown through it, crashing into the glass wall and shattering it. Glass rained down around them, and the whole room shook and rattled as the heat in the air increased. The smell of ozone filled the air, and seiðr pressed against every surface. 

"Brother!?" Thor shouted over the noise, and Loki threw a shielding spell on his vulnerable brother, the most he could do without breaking the magicks their father had used on the banishment spell.

Be ready, Loki signed before he pulled out the Vanir sword from the pocket dimension, the Tachi singing as he pulled it from its emerald and gold sheath, the golden tang glinting as the runes activated. He hooked the sheath through the belt loop and took his stance as he and Thor waited for the fireball to pass them before making a move. Just as Loki was angling the broken mirror to catch the view of the hallway, another fireball woomphed past the door, and a female being passed by them. She wore a female version of Thor's armor, wielded Mjölnir and a makeshift shield, and was swearing in a mixture of Asgardian, Royal Vanir, and Midgardian English.

"Was that-?" Thor asked in disbelief. His head tilted around the doorway as his eyes followed after the being swinging his former hammer. 

Loki nodded with a manic grin. Joy illuminated his face as he met Thor's eyes. "I believe so, brother. To battle?"

"To battle!"

Loki and Thor shouted their battle cry, dashing after the figure, dodging tossed guards and fireballs, following the worthy of Mjölnir female. 

Chapter Text

After negotiating everything but her soul with Birdbrain for a ten-minute window, Maggie took a minute to take in what resources she had with her and how she was going to extract an addled beefcake with only two brain cells to rub together from a SHIELD base loaded for bear. Looking down at her custom Italian leather knee-high boots, designer jeans, and the sweater she had taken six months to carefully crochet (because she wanted something that fitted her broad shoulders, long arms, and overly adequate assets), she realized that she was not at all prepared for this.

"Miss," JARVIS interrupted her internal monologue of pessimism, "perhaps a retrieval of the bag Ms. Romonoff gifted you would be beneficial."

"What bag, JARVIS? Nat didn't give me a bag...?"

"The black leather with red piping that has your shoes in it, Miss. It has a secret compartment built into it." Of course it did, Maggie thought with a huff as she glared at the amused Jane before she slid down the rise of the hill and marched back towards the car.

"I should have known that being friends with a SHIELD agent would be beneficial and troublesome," she muttered under her breath as she pulled out the custom, armored catsuit and held it up for inspection. "Ugh, it's so fucking cold," she muttered as she stripped to her underwear and bra, pulled the obnoxiously skin-tight suit on, zipped up the front zipper before tying up her steel-toed hiking boots, and twisting her long braid up and securing with a special stiletto/hair spike (another gift from Nat). At this point, Jane had crept down the hill and inspected Maggie's battle-ready outfit with a surprised but leary look.

"You look like you're ready to go fight some vampires or something," the scientist stated in fascinated awe as Maggie started slipping weapons into the built-in sheaths and holsters, carefully checking the chargers on the repulsor pistols (it would be bad for everyone if she ended up in jail for murder) before holstering one on each leg, another in her right boot, and charge packs around her waist. She was probably about twenty to thirty pounds heavier with all the armor and weapons she was wearing. 

"Miss? Agent Birdbrain is calling you."

"Put him on speaker, JARVIS," Maggie muttered distractedly as she threw the bag back into the car and put the suppression earplugs in each ear, which connected immediately to JARVIS. 

"I'm ready when you are, Mags," Barton sing-songed jovially over the sound of the wind. He had gotten back into his crow's nest and was ready to make Agent's life more difficult since he had pulled Barton back early from his family vacation to babysit the anomaly in New Mexico and was a bit sore about it.

"Cool," Maggie replied as she closed the car door and did a few stretches to get used to the weight of the weapons and the feel of the suit. "I'm going to have J sync us up so I can leave my phone somewhere safe."

"Sounds good!"

They went through the checks, quickly deciding that they were clear to go. Maggie paused and turned towards Jane, "If it all goes to hell, go back to town and have JARVIS call Pepper and then Tony. Pepper first, JARVIS, I do not want my overprotective brother to come crashing down in New Mexico to exacerbate the whole situation." She did not want the calvary descending on New Mexico before Tony had the new element built, installed, tested, and cleared with Doctor Strange. All she needed was a sick Tony collapsing from lack of self-care.

"Of course, Miss, I would never!"

"You would..." Maggie replied knowingly before gripping Jane's shoulders. "This is extracting Thor only; I'm not getting any of your equipment or research, understood?"

"Yes," Jane replied woefully, looking down at her feet. "I just wanted more answers..."

Maggie hugged her, careful not to squeeze too hard and bruise the scientist on her armor and weapons. "I know, but sometimes it's better to wait and see instead of rushing to solve everything immediately." They pulled apart, and Jane nodded and carefully wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes before smiling wetly at Maggie. 

"Good luck."

"Thanks, I'm going to need it. Ready, boys?"

"Yes, Miss."

"Ready, Raven!"

"Really, Hawkeye? What would our Spider say?"

"I would tell her she didn't move fast enough to give you your code name."

"Ugh..."

Birdbrain started the distraction by shooting the pins out of the scaffolding on the far side of the site, bringing down a section of the enclosure furthest from where the hammer was located and where Thor was being held, pulling most of the agents towards that area. Maggie carefully took down the three agents that remained in her path, fortunately, located too far apart for them to see each other. JARVIS had disabled a few key lights and looped the cameras in her path as she crept from shadow to shadow, following JARVIS's instructions and using Thor's previous path as a coverup for her tracks. 

This takes me past the hammer, J, Maggie signed to the nearest camera, flicking her palms out in a universal frustrated gesture as she waited for a reply from her brother's bot-son.

"I know, Miss, but it's the shortest path to your target," JARVIS replied succinctly, encouraging her to move faster since they were on a time crunch, and it was only a matter of time before Agent realized something was happening. The man was highly intelligent and observant and could take down Nat on a good day. Plus, Maggie wasn't in the mood to test how well she had improved her hand-to-hand training in the last few months...

"Get ready, Raven. Cheese has moved out of the interrogation room and towards our distraction. You have less than three minutes before he comes your way."

Maggie pulled out her repulser gun, the stock reading her biosignature, activating it, and she crawled through the ripped plastic sheeting that had enclosed the area around the hammer. She checked the area for agents and slid under the walkway, just a few short feet from the hammer. As she moved towards the stairs and the space under the walkway and tubes towards the room where Thor was being held, she paused and felt something tug at her center, near her heart. Gasping, she clutched her solar plexus as she gritted her teeth in an attempt to ignore the pain and ache that had manifested. 

"Raven! Report!" Clint's breathless voice demanded as she gasped for breath, JARVIS's equally worried voice overlapping with the archers.

"I'm—" she gasped as she turned towards the hammer. The runes were glowing gold and pulsing as they called to her. The wind picked up and whipped the plastic off the outside of the containment area. It spun harder and faster, picking up speed as the clouds above gathered and lightning ripped across the sky in verdant green light. The sharp crack of a close lightning strike rattled the metal tubes of the scaffolding as she attempted to focus on pulling away from the call. 

"Altansarnai Katsu..." the wind screamed as it picked up to frightening speeds, and lightning ripped across the sky before striking straight down, hitting the tip of the metal scaffolding, causing the electricity to pulse, flicker, and then spectacularly fail. The whoomph of the air blowing outwards from around the hammer slid around her as if an invisible pointed shield had been placed in front of her, cutting the dust and debris to either side of her rigid form as she leaned towards the hammer, the pull dragging her will to move closer.

"I-"

"Miss-!"

"Maggie-!"

A few feet seemed like a mile, and the wind whipped around her, somehow leaving her in the eye of the storm. Plastic, dust, and gravel drowned out the screaming of JARVIS and Clint in her coms as she moved slowly and painfully towards the glowing artifact that whispered of home, of knowing, of her true self.

.

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One final step, her feet shoulder-width apart, the handle even with her solar plexus and the pull of something... she took one deep breath, reached out, grasped the handle, and pulled.

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Pain.

Excruciating pain.

Liquid fire up and down her bones, twisting around her flesh and melting her skin... Numbness in her fingers... her toes... heat. so much heat... hothothothothotterhottterhottertoohottoohot! She screamed as lighting ran through her veins, activating long dormant powers and re-writing her DNA as the Entity awakened and her powers were unleashed.

"It's about time you got around to coming back," a young voice stated petulantly, the click of China on China a reprimand  before a mature voice scoffed. 

"Time... pah," an elder replied, "there is no right nor wrong; there is only what is."

"Only because you appear to be the oldest does not mean you are the wisest," the mature voice answered, and the young voice agreed.

"Hello?" The Midgardian known as Margaret Stark asked the voices in the black, her voice echoing, "Where am I?"

"The place between..."

"...the time before..."

"... the black after the light." The voices replied as one.

The light flared, and the Asgardian known as Sigyn Njǫrðrdottir found herself seated at a tea table reminiscent of the one she had often shared with Frigga, the tea set of similar make of something from Kamar-Taj, but the silverly liquid that filled the cups was not tea. Three female beings sat across from her with her face... one was elderly at the edge of passing on from the living, the second was just a bit older than her current state, and the last was younger, just at the cusp of when things had all gone to Helheim in a bloody handbasket.

"You honor me," Altansarnai Katsu, Crown Princess of Vanaheim, stated with conviction as she bowed from her chair to The Norns, the three beings responsible for shaping the lives of all beings in the Universe and nourishing Yggdrasil with the water from Urðarbrunnr to prevent the collapse of the cosmos before the start of Ragnarök and the manifestation of the One Below All. 

"You are us, and we are you," they replied as one before sipping the water from Urðarbrunnr. The three were in perfect sync, mirrors of Margaret/Sigyn/Altansarnai at three key parts of her life cycle. "And you must go back. The Entity is awakened, and you must do your duty."

"What duty?" She asked frantically as she cycled through a twisted mass of memories from all three of her lives, attempting to separate one memory from another while scrambling to block herself from a fourth... overwhelmed she crushed her cup, the silver liquid puddling in the remaining curve of the base of the cup. The Infinity Stones twinkled up at her from the shard before rising from the liquid and circling in front of her.

"Preventing the end of all things," they replied before she was pushed back by an unseen force, tumbling into the blackness below. 

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Maggie Katsu Sigyn blinked against the glare of a glowing Mjölnir clutched in her right hand while she attempted to bring everything back under her control. Her heavy breaths clouded the air with steam as she brought her surging powers back under control while she knelt in the quickly drying mud surrounding the rock the stupid hammer had fused with when it impacted. 

She had no idea how long she had taken to carefully bring herself back into herself, lowering her internal temperature to something within a believable humanoid degree and winding her magicks back under her skin, but when she finally took a moment to take in her physical appearance, she was angry to find that she was no longer wearing what she had donned before touching the stupid mystical hammer much less her familiar Asgardian armor or even her hated Vanir ceremonial plating... instead, she was wearing a female version of Thor's armor.

"You have to be shitting me," she spat in Midgardian English before reaching up to see what was wrapped around her head and framing her eyes with her free hand. Instead of the curved helm from Asgard she usually wore for court functions or the massive disk she wore on Vannahem, her fingers caught on the winged helm that Thor usually wore. Her fingers skimmed down, dragging along her hair, snagging on warrior braids threaded with beads and bones, the auburn of her hair contrasting with the blood red of the short cape tucked into the pauldrons. With a growl, she brought Mjölnir up to her face and glared at it.

"What the fuck, Mjölnir? You know perfectly well that we've had this discussion before... give me back my armor," She hissed under her breath to the blocky thing, unaware that her light and fire show had brought all the agents to the yard/open area. "If you don't release me from your hold, I shall be forced to take you to Eitri and have him melt you down to slag. Don't think that I won't!" She growled with an angry shake, the sizzle of the magicks in the hammer stinging her fingers and forcing her to take a better grip as the click of a gun being cocked brought her attention up to the agents that surrounded her. 

"Why does doing favors for Thor always end up with me wearing hateful red armor?" She asked rhetorically as she grimaced at the agents before standing, unbalanced by the unwieldy Mjölnir.  "You know that I'm better with a sword and shield," she hissed at the stupid thing stuck to her hand, hoping that it would shift to a more usable weapon or release her from its thrall so she could use her own weapons. After a second, she gave up on the thing, giving into her wishes, heaved a huge sigh, and decided that the paperweight would have to do if she was going to get Thor and leave this place before Agent Cheese figured out who she was.

"Fine, let's deal with these guys and then fetch the god of impetus so we can get the fuck out of here," she muttered in Vanir under her breath at the stubborn hammer, "but could you at least get me out of the red? You know how much trauma that brings back." There was a reason that she had done everything in her power not to wear her mother's colors, but the stupid mystical sledgehammer didn't give a flying whit for her feelings, and the red remained, and Mjölnir didn't even flicker. "Melted down. First fucking thing..." Sigyn threatened before she huffed a defeated sigh, rolled her eyes, summoned a fireball in one hand, and raised Mjölnir to counterbalance. "Incapacitate only... no death... we like these guys... maybe..."

She took a stronger stance and rolled her shoulders.

"Ok, boys, let's bring it!"

Chapter Text

Coming home to an almost empty house was unnerving. Everything but the oversized furniture had been removed, and the walls where his beloved son had created such heartwrenching artwork were studded walls and pink insulation. There were also several large holes in the floor.

"This is a bit bleak, even for me, Boss," Happy muttered from behind him, Tony's bag hitting the floor with a thud, "It's kinda quiet..." 'without Peter' was implied.

Choking on his emotions, Tony set his other bag down and moved further into the Malibu Mansion, taking in the changes the contractors had wrought during their stay in New York for updating the older part of the Mansion with fiber optics and integrated sensor technology, and accommodation for holographic projectors when the technology finally finished catching up with his engineering. They had scheduled it to be finished before Peter and Maggie were due home, but the contractors had run into an issue, and the renovation had been delayed. Not that it mattered much since they were only a few short months from moving from California to New York for the start of Peter's school year at Midtown Middle and the final transfer of Stark International Headquarters from California to New York. He was both excited and dreading the upcoming changes.

Tony was happy that Peter would finally be with kids closer to his intellectual level and with one of his oldest and best friends, but the lingering thoughts of his little boy growing up shaded that joy. He was also excited to be finally finalizing the last of Stark's Tower's construction, the consolidation of the East Coast offices into one building, and increasing the R&D department for SI to focus more on Clean, Green, and Renewable Energy along with coming up with solutions for several of the world's greatest problems such as clean water, access to healthcare, and food resources for struggling countries... or essentially basic human rights for everyone.

The cave where Iron Man had been born had changed him enough to open his eyes, forcing him to see how the rest of the world was affected by war, poverty, lack of water and food, basic healthcare... The Maria Stark Foundation could only do so much, and even if they just focused on the United States, it would be impossible to ensure that every person had clean water, food, and affordable healthcare... It had been disheartening and frustrating, and everyone had heard his rants about the subject. So he buckled down and decided that Maggie would ensure the continuation of their family charities, her personality perfect on getting even the most tight-fisted miser to donate to the children in need, and decided to focus on solving the problems once and for all. No more bandaids. Just final solutions such as the portable medical diagnostic machine he and Strange had created that he was attempting to run on solar power and the clean water filter that he, JARVIS, and Peter tinkered with (his baby boy would solve that; Tony was sure of it since Peter was a biology prodigy).  

The Stark Family (the adopted, biological, coerced, and technological) would fix the world, or Tony would die trying because the Stark Family was done destroying it. 

"Good evening, Sir. Mr. Hogan." JARVIS's voice echoed off the empty room's concrete, stone, and glass. "Miss Maggie, Ms. Potts, and I have ensured Miss Maggie's apartment was well stocked and the rooms cleaned so that you and Colonel Rhodes were well fed and comfortable during your stay." Pepper had arranged for him and Rhodey to stay in Maggie's guest rooms while they worked on the element in his new lab on SI property. Tony and JARVIS had taken a decrepit, abandoned warehouse and upgraded it into a state-of-the-art lab with all the bells and whistles a genius engineer could ever wish for on one end and a space large enough to build the JARVIS-sourced atom collider on the other. Hopefully, he will make more progress than Howard has managed with his element.

"Thanks, J, I'm sure the stay at Hotel Maggie will be like being at home despite the lack of Underoos and Mags," Tony attempted to joke as he and Happy continued to inspect the exposed fiber optics and upgraded wiring as they slowly made their way through the Mansion. 

"I'm going to go, Boss," Happy stated stonily as they reached the interior entrance of Maggie's apartment. "Let me know if you need anything."

Tony nodded. "Thanks, Happy." Happy clapped Tony's shoulder in his stoic attempt at a heartfelt goodbye and left his boss alone in the Mansion for the first time since Peter had come home.

"This is going to be weird," Tony muttered moodily before shaking himself out of his funk, "I think we need some music, J!" 

The party was a macabre exhibition of his bachelor days, and it was not surprising that it frightened him. Strangers stood and mingled in the open area, usually filled with oversized leafy plants, the soft sprawling sofa, and comfortable chairs. The bookcase, usually filled with Peter-friendly books and photographs of their family and friends, now displayed bottles of hard liquor and expensive glasses of a makeshift bar set up, and next to that was a college-age DJ and his laptop. Dressed in one of his older suits, Tony was speechless in front of the empty-eyed, designer-dressed strangers with a microphone in his hand.

"Umm..." He heard someone cough as he shuffled, and several of the younger women in front giggled before giving him a leering smile of encouragement as she toasted him with her overfilled glass. 

"Mr. Stark," Pepper's sharp voice interrupted his spiraling thoughts as she approached in a short black dress and impossibly high platform heels. Behind her, he saw Rhodey and Maggie's friend  Natalie...? Natasha...? Natashalie...? Tony couldn't remember; the element that was slowly killing him was messing with his mind, his sleep schedule, his coordination.... everything.... he would have to get Strange to help him figure out something else because the dialysis wasn't working and he was tired of battling his brain for every small function. 

"Let's get this party started!" He yelled into the microphone in a desperate attempt to leave the room and find somewhere where he could freak out without a chance of everyone seeing and telling some reporter. Another voice, his voice, attempted to push back at him and wrestle control before Tony pushed it back and screamed at him. It settled, and then calmly asked something that froze Tony as he continued to dodge Pepper, Rhodey, and Maggie's friend Natasha. 

'Who's Strange?'

'What do you mean, who's Strange?!' He screamed back at the voice in his mind. 'The sassy Stark doctor that is keeping our stupid ass alive so we can live long enough to see Peter grow up...? Who the fuck do you think?'

Who's Peter?

What. 

Wait.

Where was Peter!? 

"I'm sorry, Sir. Who is Peter?" JARVIS asked. His usually smooth voice, disjointed, not quite as reactive as normal, echoed from the earpiece in his ear, blocking some of the loud music from the DJ. Even the quality of his earpiece was three years out of date. Tony thought when he pulled it out to adjust it before shoving it roughly back in. Shocked, Tony stumbled, tripped, and fell into a woman; her drink splashed on them before the rock glass hit the terrazzo flooring and shattered. She looked up at him and swayed, her drunken giggles making his bile rise as she attempted to latch on to his arm, her breasts almost spilling out of her low-cut, staggering short dress. Disgusted at her touch, he pushed her off and decided that if he wanted honest answers, Pepper would be the best person to ask. He skirted around the room and carefully walked across the room to Pepper, a safe, familiar harbor in this whirling mess of debauchery defiling his family's safe space.

"Pepper!"

"Mr. Stark," Pepper replied with a haughty look, which she only reserved for the misogynistic bastards that she dealt with, such as Justin Hammer, causing him to stumble slightly before his panic overwhelmed his self-preservation instincts to run away. 

"Where's Maggie and Peter?" Tony asked desperately before his eyes flicked away from her confused gaze. 

"Who?"

Stunned, Tony staggered away, Pepper muttering something about him having too much to drink and making a fool of himself. Confused, Tony stumbled down to his lab, punched in the code, and noticed it was different. Where were the little toys that usually perched around his work tables? Where was Peter's little protective corner with his STEM projects and smaller tools? Where was Maggie's beaten-up Volvo that she only kept because it had been her adopted father's pride and joy... "over 200,000 miles, Tony, and it still runs like it did when he drove it off the lot!"

"JARVIS? What's going on?" Tony rasped as he stumbled to the nearest seat and sat down shakily. 

"You are hosting your birthday party, Sir since you believe you have just a few days left to live. We've been unable to find a new element that is compatible with your reactor," JARVIS replied, his tone almost ambivalent compared to the usual human-like emotional response he had developed from the addition of Peter and Maggie these past few years. Their treatment of JARVIS as a beloved friend and family member had increased JARVIS's exposure to more human traits than his alone, increasing the AI's development and learning than if the AI had had only Tony to interact with.

"What...?" Nonononononono! This was NOT RIGHT! Tony swayed and choked on his tears as he clutched his chest, his heart fluttering, and his lungs struggled around the reactor casing that he had thought he and Strange had swapped out for a slightly smaller one in an attempt to make basic human functions a little easier. 

"Sir?"

"Maggie got Fury to hand over Howard's SHIELD-confiscated research. We found a compatible element..." Tony trailed off as he saw the car that he had not purchased because Maggie and he had found out the owner had used a large amount of asbestos for some of the firewall insulation. "Rhodey is coming to help us build it..." He stood next to another car he hadn't bought because the money he had set aside for the million-dollar car had gone to purchasing weapons for the decommissioning program.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I don't know who Maggie is... or the Peter you spoke of..."

Tony sat heavily on the floor next to the car, the thought that the last few years had been a fever dream... No adorable Peter for hugs and science time, no pragmatic Maggie to chide him to sleep more and use his brain to help people, no clever Pepper to bully the old men on the board to make their company the best it could be, no sarcastic Strange to bounce ideas off of or sass him for not taking his health seriously... Tony even mourned JARVIS. His bot-son's development had made him even more a part of the Stark family, even with his interfering tendencies and the random adoption of a sister for his father/creator and possible subtle world takeover (Tony wasn't that unobservant)... it was devastating and Tony's whole world just seemed to crash around him. 

Tony didn't know how long he wallowed in fear and grief before he realized that JARVIS was attempting to get his attention. 

"Sir!"

"Mr. Stark!"

"Tony!"

.

.

.

.

.

Tony woke up gasping for air, tears dripping down his cheeks, and JARVIS saying his name. His actual name...

"What?!"

"Sir! Do you know where you are?"

It took a moment for Tony to answer, but the blond-colored furniture and midcentury colors of the decor in Maggie's guest room came into focus, and Tony sobbed in relief. It had been a dream. A horrible nightmare of loneliness and near death where he had no friends or family, and JARVIS was nothing but an echo of himself. "I know where I am," Tony murmured wetly, the fear lingering at the edges with his increased heartbeat and wheezing breaths. He took a moment to breathe and re-center before JARVIS's words were finally processed.

"Wait for a second. Did I hear you say my name?"

"No, Sir, I would never demean myself nor disrespect you by doing something so crass."

Tony sighed in exasperation as he ran his hands down his face. "Good to know you can lie to your maker like the rest of us, J."

In reply, JARVIS suddenly lightened the windows and blared the news on the TV, choosing the most obnoxious morning show he could find.

"Real, mature, JARVIS," Tony muttered before he dragged himself out of bed, showered, and got dressed before he got in one of his more discreet Audis to head to his new lab at SI.

The rest of the morning was spent hunched over the stainless steel lab table as he reviewed the calculations he, Rhodey, and JARVIS had compiled from Howard's SHIELD confiscated research. An hour before lunch and Happy's daily check-in to ensure he ate something and was still breathing (his family had trust issues when he was left alone), Strange called him. 

"Your bio readings were all over the place last night," Strange complained. The doctor hunched over his work area, a pile of patient files stacked next to the oversized mug, as he attempted to finish some work while he talked with Tony. JARVIS had said the good doctor had been busy, and so Stephen was multitasking. 

"Had a nightmare, woke up, did the breathing thing, had a shower, and all better," Tony replied vaguely as he stood up from his work area and stretched. Perhaps a walk around the lab and an inspection of the boxes JARVIS said were their atom collider. 

Strange started the familiar lecture,  "Stress on your heart, lungs-" 

"I know, I know," Tony interrupted, "I'm working through the math right now, and hopefully, in two days, I'll have the solution made and installed."

"You are not experimenting on yourself!" The camera shook as Strange picked up the Stark phone and glared at him, his face filling the screen as if getting closer to the camera could force his point on Tony more effectively. 

"Well, why don't you come out to Malibu, and you can do the experiments yourself? Aren't you always saying something about me needing a professional to ensure I don't hurt myself?" Tony replied cockily as he dug through a toolbox for a prybar. 

"I was thinking more of a mental health specialist than a medical doctor, much less the best neurosurgeon in the world," Strange replied sarcastically as he appeared to calm down and set the phone down again on the stand, showing the gray skies and rainfall in the window behind him. 

"Uh-huuuhhhh, I wouldn't say the best..." Tony teased with a grin as he brandished the pry bar and approached the crates. 

"Name three other neurosurgeons better?" Strange demanded as he leaned towards the camera. 

"...." Tony couldn't think of any off the top of his head, and it would be embarrassing for him to ask JARVIS for help since he had gotten himself into this mess.

"That's what I thought," Stephen replied smugly as he rustled papers and muttered under his breath that unsupervised geniuses should be made illegal. "Where's your sister?"

Tony shoved the sharp end of the pry bar under the lid of the first crate before using his body weight to pull on it, levering up the first side of the box. "My lovely sister is visiting a friend out of state with my delightful-"

"Spawn-"

"-scion who is learning space science with the up-and-coming Doctor Jane Foster and her mentor Erik Selvig," Tony mentioned breathlessly as he worked his way around the lid and made a mental note to see if Doctor Foster would be willing to visit at some point to showcase some of her equipment. 

"I can't believe they left you alone," Strange stated, closing the folder he was working on, giving up the pretense of multitasking. With an amused smirk, Stephen watched Tony struggle to open the crates for the next few minutes from his perch on another crate on which Tony had set his phone. 

"I'm a responsible adult!" Tony declared, giving up on the next box riddled with screws instead of nails.

"That entire statement is a lie," Strange sighed heavily as he crossed his arms, pausing for a moment before he continued his thought. "I had a cancelation."

"And that is my problem because...?"

"I booked a flight to leave in the next three hours, and JARVIS informed me that I would arrive just after Rhodes."

"Rhodey Bear and I will be fine. We don't need a minder!"

"You will need a medical professional to monitor you when you replace the element in your reactor," Strange replied firmly. "I can call Maggie and ask her opinion as your medical proxy..."

"You fight dirty, Doctor Strange," Tony slumped in defeat, allowing the prybar to drop to the floor with a clang. 

"I will need a place to stay, and I expect that there is room in that oversized beach house that you own?" Strange asked, ignoring Tony's childishness (as usual).

"Ugh." Tony ran his hands through his hair, relieved and frustrated with Strange insisting on being included. He knew logically that it was a good idea and agreed that he had been agitated about the element replacement but was frustrated that Strange hadn't asked and just bullied his way in. "Fine. You can come, but you will either sleep in Maggie's bed or share with Rhodey since my 'oversized beach house' is being overhauled, and we're bunking in Maggie's apartment."

"It's a four-bedroom, 2,000 sq. ft., midcentury modern home attached to a midcentury mansion...." Strange muttered sarcastically. We'll figure out something, I'm sure. I'll see you this evening, Stark." Then the bastard just hung up without waiting for a reply.

"That was rude."

"It's for your own good, Sir."

"Rude."

Chapter Text

Loki should have known that Sigyn would continue to follow her personal mantra. Even though murder was definitely a solution, it was most likely never the best solution, which explains the unconscious bodies and the tactical destruction Sigyn had done to hinder an ambush against her. Loki and Thor crawled over piles of metal, plastic, and tubing and then retraced their steps twice when the passage became impassable. Loki took a moment to center himself enough not to run in to save the day like Thor.

Sigyn had loathed it whenever Thor and The Warriors stumbled in halfway through her battles or conflicts and preferred for them to send in either Loki or Lady Sif to guard her back till they could re-group and get an assessment of the situation. Since she had primarily trained with the two of them, Sigyn trusted them enough to guard her back and cover weak points since they all wield similar weapons. The only reason Fandral had never made the cut was that he had nicked her once with his blade in an attempt to show off, and she had retaliated by cursing him for being the ugliest male on Asgard for a year and forced to remain at least three sword lengths away from her.  It had been one of the funniest years spent on Asgard for many years and the most talked about to this day.

“Do you think she’ll remember us?” Loki asked insecurely logically.  “The amount of power needed for her to be hidden without her memories on Midgard may have been made permanent despite whatever Mjölnir could have done to break the curse.”

“She remembered me, even with the blocks on her mind and powers, brother,” Thor assured Loki, bumping shoulders as they crawled over more plastic tubing. “You know that she never sees beings like the rest of us. It’s always been at a metaphysical level. Sigyn has always known you, whether it be when you are my beloved sister or have shapeshifted into a snake to trick me.”

Sighing in reluctant agreement, Loki pushed past Thor, and they entered the center of the makeshift facility the mortals had built up around Mjölnir when it landed. The ground was treacherous, deeply cracked, and bulging from a combination of the relic's velocity when it hit the earth after being spat out by the Bifrost and Sigyn's overwhelming release of elemental power and seiðr.  After pushing through the minor ward that Sigyn must have instinctually erected around her for protection, Thor and Loki gapped at the sight in front of them. Sigyn, dressed in full female Thor regalia, with helm, cape, and all in hated crimson, sparing with a lone man in black and violet colored armor, a bow and quiver on his back, and a katana in his hands.

“If this isn’t a sign of her returned memory, I don’t know what would be,” Thor indicated towards the far side where a portion of the scaffolding had collapsed; several armed people were attempting to force their way past the ward line. It was one of the first lessons their mother had forced both Loki and Sigyn to master before they were allowed off Asgard when they had come of age, an instinctual barrier between whatever you are battling and the outside forces that could sneak up on you.

“This means not much when she used to construct one in her sleep even when we were safe in the Asgardian Palace with three warded doors and her pet to guard us.”

“Well, her fighting style is still very similar…” Thor muttered, ignoring Loki’s comment. 

“Yes, but it is still different,” Loki growled back petulantly. All he wanted to do was collect Sigyn, leave his brother in this backwater mud hole, bring Sigyn home to an Odin-free realm, wrap her in blankets, and keep her locked in their rooms for the rest of eternity.

Ha! As if she would allow that!

The brothers stood by and observed while Sigyn led the man around the area, kicking at his knees and swinging Mjölnir in an uppercut that the archer easily dodged. Cheering softly at the impressive display, Thor shuffled uncomfortably around in his damp, muddy clothes. "Sigyn has improved despite the unfamiliar weapon."

Loki nodded in agreement as they continued to witness Sigyn’s awkward use of Mjölnir for several minutes while she spared against the surprisingly well-trained archer. It continued for almost a half hour before Sigyn ducked the overhead slash from the archer’s blade and blocked his upward swing before she managed to get under his guard and punch him in the sternum with her armored fist.

They broke apart, the archer panting heavily and Sigyn stepping back to compensate for the unwieldy weight of Thor’s hammer. Frustrated, she screeched in a rage, shaking Mjölnir angrily, her palm open, the hammer still somehow attached to her hand. With another shriek of fury, the air heated drastically as if they were passing past a light-speed cruiser’s idling engines, and Sigyn accessed her elemental powers, her eyes glowing a fiery gold, her normally invisible tattoos lighting up as Mjölnir started melting and reforming into a long staff. The archer watched in disbelief, his people behind him quiet in the wake of the sight of such immense power. The air cooled suddenly, and Mjölnir solidified into a Uru longstaff, the familiar runes running from tip to tip and the center wrapped in the leather and wood of the hammer's handle. With a flick, Sigyn adjusted her grip and swung it around herself, testing the weight. With a grimace, the weight must have been slightly off or not quite to her satisfaction, so she adjusted her grip, widened her stance, and motioned for the archer to come at her with a sharp grin.

"Come, Legolas, let's do this," she taunted as they circled. She waited for him to attack her. If Loki hadn’t been looking for it, he would not have seen the subtle misstep of the archer before his grip on his blade tightened and his posture changed when she had called him by that name.

“Should we…?” Thor asked as the brothers circled the open area to gain a higher vantage point and get as close to the exit as possible. Either this fight would end spectacularly or in disaster, and Loki did not want to be caught in the path of the armed beings once Sigyn's wards fell, despite this being a much more friendly spar than he had originally thought.

Sigyn and the archer appeared to test each other’s abilities with more depth, taking turns attacking and retreating before the archer shouted and attacked Sigyn with a bit more vigor than he had shown before. Surprisingly, the mortal did well, almost too well, as he could predict some of Sigyn's signature moves and parry with a skill unseen for several centuries outside of the few remnants that lingered on Earth.

“I…” Loki trailed off in fear as Sigyn’s helm was knocked off when the archer attempted to cut her upper arm, and she swung Mjölnir in staff form, deflecting it away from her body but catching on one of the decorative pieces of the helm. The archer paused for a second as if searching for something in her face before retreating a few paces, his sword up in defense. Sigyn’s reaction to her helmet’s loss was a bit more subtle. She kicked it towards Thor, who picked it up with a sly grin before disappearing through the hole in the plastic behind them. She gave Loki a dazzling grin and sent him an air kiss before striding up to the archer and disarming him swiftly and easily, forcing him to his knees.

“Good show, Birdbrain, but my ride is here, and I must depart.”

“Maggie…?” The archer looked up into her face, confusion and frustration drawing lines around his eyes and over his brow. “What happened? I thought…”

“Mjölnir unlocked what I had been missing,” she explained as she pulled the cord off his bow and tied him up. “I’ll explain what I can do when we meet up without your day job listening.”

Finally noticing what she was doing, the archer growled at her. “That’s a five thousand dollar piece of professional equipment you’ve just defaced for a show, pigeon.”

“Now that’s just mean, you know you can replace the string easily, and if not, I’m sure I can afford to get you something nicer for Christmas.” She tied his hands and pulled back, leaning into his shoulders to keep him kneeling. “What happened to Raven?”

“Since you’ve transformed into a mythical warrior goddess, we’ll have to figure something else out.”

She huffed in amusement before lifting his chin and focusing on his eyes, “You did well, and I’m proud of how far you’ve come with your blade work. I can’t wait to show your spider sister.”

“I’ll bring some wine to ease her jealousy and perhaps some Austrian chocolate you got us hooked on.”

“Or yours when she beats you to a pulp, Clint. I hope you know she’s been going easy on you, right? She's almost as good as I am.” The archer groaned dramatically, pouting up at Sigyn. “Can you just put me out of my misery now, save me the future pain?”

“Now, what would the fun be in that?” She taunted as she stepped back, using Mjölnir as a walking stick, and navigated over the rough ground toward Loki and the hole in the plastic.

“How am I supposed to get out of here if they can’t get in?” The archer grumbled as he pulled at his ties.

“It will fall in about an hour, plenty of time for us to depart and for you to devise an appropriate diversion to ensure that Director Pirate and Agent Cheese don’t suspect me of being Thor, the Goddess of Thunder.” She shuddered dramatically at that before giving Loki a soft smile, gripping his hand in her free one as she allowed him to help her towards the exit.

 “Hello dear,” she murmured, leaning into his side and kissing the corner of his mouth. “I’m so exhausted…”

“If we are done here, may we leave this place before we are overrun with reinforcements,” Loki suggested, pulling her arm over his shoulders and tugging towards the hole Thor had gone through.

“What am I supposed to tell them?” The archer shouted towards their retreating forms, indicating the group trapped on the other side.

“You’ll think of something, Hawkeye, you always do!”

The archer sighed. “You owe me!”

“Of course I do, bye-bye Birdbrain!”

“What I do for my scary ladies…” Loki heard the archer mutter as they ducked back through the torn plastic sheeting, and the three of them started climbing the incline away from the landing site.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Sigyn whispered when they were several feet away from the containment area, dragging Mjölnir behind her as Loki somehow managed to partially carry her limp form up the hill.

“I would have come sooner if I had known,” Loki murmured, pausing and swinging her up and into his arms. Mjölnir dropped to the ground with a clang, the staff shimmering at it attempted to re-form. Sighing, he wondered how they were going to get the damn thing off the ground since Sigyn was currently the only one available/worthy to pick up the cursed thing. Thor, unhelpful as ever, had disappeared over the ridge, and he could hear a female voice speaking with his brother’s All-Speak assisted stuttering as he attempted to assure the woman that they were all fine. Sigyn quickly became deadweight as she finally passed out in his arms, and he staggered over Mjölnir.

“Thor!”

“Yes, brother?”

“Come assist us, you obtuse-“

“Loki…? I fucking hate that hammer…” Sigyn murmured unconsciously, her eyes slivering open, her dark lashes stark against the gold and light verdant swirls of her seiðr still resettling into her body.  "You need to put me down so I can pick it up."

Thor hurried down the slope to their side, a petite dark-haired female right on his heels; Loki carefully lowered Sigyn to the ground next to Mjölnir and placed her hand over the glowing, fluid relic. He felt Sigyn place her other hand on his face and draw some of his power into herself, her eyes illuminating as she forced the relic to reshape and bleed up her fingers and wrap around her wrist, solidifying into an echo of a familiar bracelet. Gold roses and emerald eye serpents twined around the familiar runes of Mjölnir of the hammer-turned-staff-turned-bracer. He felt her pull energy from the former hammer, and when that wasn't enough, she dug her hands into the damp soil and pulled from the nearest ley line. If that didn't bring the Mystic Wizards...

"What's going on? What happened to Maggie, and who is this?" The woman asked Thor shrilly as she moved towards the containment area.

"Lady Maggie is my brother's betrothed, Princess Sigyn," Thor explained, grabbing the woman by the elbow and leading her toward the vehicles. "She was trapped in a mortal form, much like I am now."

"Unbelievable," Loki muttered, holding Sigyn in his arms as she adjusted the borrowed powers and realigned herself.

"It is, isn't it," Sigyn muttered back, “what are the chances of me being here when Thor lands on Midgard with Mjölnir? It’s like fucking kismet or some bullshit my mother believed in, like the higher powers and the supremacy of the primordial race that are our ancestors… blah blah blah stones, blah blah blah destiny… and then she threw me off a fucking cliff.”

“What?” Loki was startled at the last statement and the sudden revelation she had flippantly revealed.

“Yeah… umm… we should get out of here before I tell you the whole story, and you catch me up on why Thor is acting like his toddler self and why Space is on fucking Midgard.”

“Uhh…”

She ignored his stuttering with a small chuckle, pulled him closer by grasping the back of his neck, and rubbed her lips over his. "I would appreciate a kiss, please." He shook himself from her familiar but unpolished idea flight that often happened when she was exhausted and did as she bade, pressing his lips gently to her brow and then her lips. "Hello, darling," she murmured, "I would love to spend the next several hours just sleeping in a soft bed next to you, but I need you to help me open a portal so we can retreat and pretend we were not here." Loki sighed and pressed their foreheads together and wished for the same. He could not voice his thoughts due to feeling so overwhelmed by the fact that Sigyn was here, unharmed, but so very different from what he had remembered. 

The jump of topics was unsurprising, but her unpolished modern language was grating on his nerves. They had been both forced by their positions to be eloquent and adaptable, but the… Americanness of her was just… Loki would have to say something before he picked it up because he refused to be so… unpolished.

“I can see the wheels turning, darling,” Sigyn teased, tapping the side of his head. “I promise I’m not always like this. It’s just been a really long day, and I was venting, and since I have an impressible nephew and a celebrity socialite persona to maintain, I don’t often get the chance…

He gathered her in his arms and held her as tightly as he could without bruising either of them with their armor, kissing her temple in apology for causing her to feel insecure and assuring himself that she was real and not a hallucination.

"How do we explain Thor being with us?" Loki murmured into her hair. “If we portal us, all the mortals will wonder what happened to him in the crisis."

She drew in a deep breath, huffing out another before sighing. "We could put him back in his cell and get him released, but since we have Mjölnir, it would create more attention... We could flee to New York and lay low in the Brownstone... Asgard is out since your father is hateful..." Sigyn continued to illustrate in multiple languages what she thought of his deceptive, lying father for a minute before she huffed in defeat. "We can let Thor stumble around in the desert for a while before allowing Jane to 'find him' in an hour or two, bring him back to the lab, and play it off as she was worried when he never returned. We can drive my car back instead of wasting the energy on portaling and drawing Cerridwen and her group’s attention.”

"And you think they will believe this nonsense?"

"Of course, they will," Sigyn replied, "Fury still believes that the Tesseract is just a power source, and my brother isn't one of the most dangerous beings on Earth, after me, of course."

"Of course..."

“So, who will drive Maggie’s car back to Puente Antiguo?”

To the surprise of Thor, Sigyn, and Jane, Loki had a current British driving license, a legitimate national insurance number for the UK, several houses scattered worldwide, and a hefty fortune with a minor title, to name a few. 

“Well, that will make my job easier,” JARVIS had commented after Sigyn had gotten her phone back and introduced the AI to the two brothers and her bot-nephew.

“What will make it easier?” Sigyn had asked distractedly as she started hobbling towards the Volvo, leaving Loki behind when he started arguing in Asgardian with Thor over something she was too tired to try to figure out or break up.

“Informing Sir you’re getting married,” the AI replied, “which is easier than informing him that you are, in fact, his elder sister several times and have been married for almost as long.”

“How do you know that, JARVIS?” Sigyn asked, pausing to lean into Loki, who had finally noticed her absence. It’s not like they had time to waste here, SHIELD would be doing flybys any moment. “I never said that we were married, and mythology is not fact.”

“The consistory court of –“

“I told you that that friar wrote our true names!” Sigyn hissed at Loki, interrupting JARVIS. “All because your buddy Will got married, you had to do it too…”

“I preferred that you not be burned at the stake for being a witch-“

“Which I technically am, as are you-“

“-as I am, but since it added one more realm to our list, I do not remember you protesting much at the time,” Loki replied succinctly, tightening his grip on her waist. “I will always choose you.” He stopped and cupped her cheek. “Even if I have to marry you on every planet, realm, and backwater slughole spaceport to prove that I love you and want you safe and happy.”

Sigyn’s breath hitched as she felt the fervid certainty of Loki’s emotions through their bond, on how much he had yearned for when she had been missing, the ache and devastation still lingering at the edges of his psyche.  

“That’s so romantic,” Jane murmured to Thor.

Loki and Sigyn cringed.

As Thor and Jane made embarrassing moon eyes at each other and awkwardly flirted, Loki and Sigyn continued towards the vehicles. “Are we that gross?” Sigyn muttered under her breath, knowing that it still happened despite their aversion to public displays of affection with each other and others. Unfortunately.

“We are subtle in our public displays of affection and elegant in showing our love,” he replied tartly.

“So yes, then,” she sighed, “great…”

Thor then started to quote Asgardian battle poetry.

Badly.

Incorrectly.

“I regret ever showing him those books in the library... at the time, I had just wished for ten minutes of quiet solitude...”

“…And that is why we have been very careful not to reproduce,” Sigyn commented jokingly in Loki’s ear. “Our luck, we’ll end up with twins just like Thor.”

Loki huffed in amusement and kissed the corner of her lips. “No. Our luck, we would produce dark energy-wielding spawn with a penchant for knives, murder, and mayhem.”

“So you’re sister?”

“What sister?!”

Chapter Text

The smell of yeasty sweetness filled Tony’s senses as he came to awareness, the plastic of the booths scraping against the metal and joints of his Iron Man suit as he shifted uncomfortably. A pair of basic shades covered his dry and aching eyes, the glare of the morning light reflecting off the numerous vehicles surrounding Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood, over thirty miles from the Malibu Mansion. Across from him in the booth was Agent Pirate Fury, wearing his usual bad disguise of black leather on black leather, a box of donuts, a cup of coffee, and a Mark II helmet on the table between them. Tony shifted again and ran his hand through his hair in an attempt to parse why he was in an old suit (the helmet wasn’t even attached, for Tesla’s sake) and why did he ache? Like he had been on a three-day inventing bender…

“…the little brother walked in there, kicked your ass, and took your suit,” Fury proclaimed with great amusement, drawing Tony’s attention to the Pirate. Unnerved that he had been distracted, Tony adjusted his sunglasses and squinted at the glare and the raging headache. He felt worse than he ever remembered, and that included when he was struggling to recover in the cave with Yinson.

“I told you I don’t wanna join your super-secret boy band…” Tony muttered petulantly, wondering why he felt like he was warming death’s door, the screaming of Tiny Tony in the back of his mind not helping matters.

“No, no, no… See, I remember you do everything yourself now, how’s that working out for you?” Fury asked sarcastically and way too smugly, the one eyed menace looked like he was enjoying his life a little too much.

Speaking of… Dread Pirate Fury was above Tony’s pay grade and had been since the first time he had met the head of SHIELDRA.  Where was Maggie when he needed her? Oh, yeah, in New Mexico, dealing with drunken guys pretending to be Thor, according to JARVIS… Tony has his doubts and prayed that Maggie’s little vacation didn’t turn out to be a life-changing event such as a ‘Code Prince Charming’ after J had already declared ‘Stranger Danger’. Tony’s bad ticker couldn’t handle any more surprises until after his element was forged and he was on the safe side of heavy metal poisoning. Maybe he could bribe the indomitable Ms. Potts to come take a stab at this. Shifting back to the situation, Tony tried to focus on Fury despite the wrongness of the whole thing.

“I—I—I—“ Tony stuttered as he looked around for any clue on how he had gotten to his favorite donut shop, wondering if he had wanted to skip Pepper and Maggie’s food plan and take the suit for a quick jaunt for delicious carbs for him and his friends and blanked out the trip. No, it was something else. This was a lot like the last time he had ended up in Backwards Land with a Tiny Tony screaming in his mind.

Looking down at his shaking hands and the outdated gauntlet, Tony realized that this was most definitely Backwards Land because those types of rivets on his suit hadn’t been used since Mark II. Rhodey had gotten him an introduction to the contractor that did specialized fasteners for the Air Force meant for high velocity aircraft and drones after he and Peter had a specialized emergency kit for stranded soldiers.

Things were definitely not adding up.

Taking a deep breath, he looked Fury in his... not the patch, not the patch, the eye!  “As you know, I have my whole family behind me, including my sister, who is more of a Scary Ass Bitch than you, Ms. Potts, who has no qualms about stabbing with office supplies, and my brother, who manipulated the United States Government into extending the search for me from three weeks to three months. Let’s not forget the Strange Doctor who is keeping me alive, along with my numerous spawn, both biological and mechanical… So when you say that I’m doing this alone, you must be delusional if you believe that to be true, and I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Fury’s brow crinkled at Tony’s statement, his eye narrowing on Tony’s face, the eye patch digging into his scalp as Fury’s emotions flickered from confusion to anger. “I—“

“—It’s—I’m sorry,” Tony interrupted, putting his hands up to stop Fury. “I don’t wanna get off on the wrong foot here, so do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly, I’m struggling here—I’m not even sure if you’re real or if I’m having…” Tony trailed off as his concentration shifted with Tiny Tony laughing in his head, causing his headache to flare and pulse with his heartbeat.

“I am very real,” Fury stated with unrealistic confidence, because how else could a one-eyed pirate pull this type of shit off? “I’m the realest person you’re ever gonna meet.”

Now that was a straight up lie. The most honest and real person Tony had ever met was his kid. No one was more real than Peter Benjamin Edwin Parker Stark. That kid was going to change the world, and Tony was going to make sure that he had every advantage because that kid had all the moxie and the smarts to make the world a better place. Tony was just going to line everything up so when his amazing kid grew up, Peter could make that difference that Tony and the rest of their family believed he could do.

“Sure. Let’s go with that. So, where’s Mags? She’s the one who does these little meet and greets with you and your minions since she’s not afraid of anything but Peter when he’s overtired and overstimulated.” Which was true. She could even deal with an overtired, irate Doctor Stephen Strange in his outrageously flamboyant, egotistical, curmudgeonly best, and the old boy would just roll right over. She took no shit and took no prisoners, but if Peter was in his angry kitten mode with claws out and tears, she folded faster than an ice pop on Tatooine.

“I have no idea of who you are speaking of,” Fury growled as he motioned to a woman dressed in a black catsuit with curly red hair over to their booth. “I’m thinking this little road rash is causing more problems than we realized.” Fury reached towards Tony, forcing him to lean back out of reach.

“I have it handled. One or two more days, me, Statler, and Waldorf, should have our little solution synthesized. So I suggest you text Maggie and go bother her for whatever you need.” Tony finished firmly and started moving out of the booth as much as he could with the outdated suit.

“I want you to meet Agent Romanoff,” Fury said as the redhead moved to block his path, ignoring Tony’s request.

Tony squinted; she looked kind of like Maggie’s friend, Nat… but more… institutionalized. “By any chance are you’re best friends with a bird man with a bow?”

Startled, Agent Romanoff looked over to Fury before they both gave him a stern glare. “How do you know that?”

“Um… you’ve been hanging out with my sister for the past--- I don’t know—two or three years, maybe? Brought Barton around with you soon after. He taught her how to better shoot a bow and she taught him how to sword fight. Says he’s has potential if he’d stop screwing around like he’s in the circus again and just focus on his technique and stamina.”

“You don’t have a sister, Stark.”

“Umm, yeah, I do. It’s been all over the news since like last year—“ Tony looked at them in disbelief when they both looked at him like he was insane. Shaking his head, Tony kept going in an attempt to remind them. “We opened the Met Gala last month with Pepper and Oprah…? No? What about when Maggie made apple sharlotka for your birthday last year?” Tony asked Romanoff before turning to Fury. “Or when she found a rare, like-new tool kit for your Porsche 911 since your car was missing one when you purchased it?”

Silence, shock, and awe from the gallery.

Tony rolled his eyes and started looking at possible exit points. “As much as I love to chat, I gotta get home. So please go away and be useful somewhere else.”

“Stark! You can’t ignore this!” Fury shouted after finally recovering from Tony’s knowledge bomb, motioning towards Tony’s neck. “We also can’t ignore that you have a problem.”

Exasperated, Tony glared at Fury. “What do you want from me?”

“What do we want from you?” Fury nodded at Romanoff, who got up, went outside, and collected something from the Men in Black. While keeping the majority of his focus on Fury, Tony kept the rest of his attention on Romanoff and the item in her hand. “You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with.”

Southwest…? Tony mouthed to himself, causing Pirate Agent to get even more scowly at him.

“What do you know of the southwest, Stark?”

“Just that my sister and spawn are there for Friends and Science,” Tony replied and cheered internally with Tiny Tony when Fury’s teeth ground together. “JARVIS reported to me about a crater with an object that looks like an oversized hammer that drew all the locals. Something about not being able to move it?”

Oh, Fury didn’t like that. Not one bit!

The head agent’s fists clenched so hard that his knuckles whitened, similar to what Howard used to do before he would ‘Teach Tony a Lesson’. Nope. Tony was getting out of here.

“Hit him.”

Tony dodged and leaned away from whatever Maybe Nat had in her hand. The needle scraped against his shitty armor, breaking off when it hit one of the reinforced joints. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing!?” Tony screamed at them as he scrambled further into the booth and raised his gauntleted hand to the window, sending a pulse through the glass, shattering it outwards. As he tumbled through, he snagged his helmet and attempted to jam it on his head, but missed.

“Why the fuck didn’t I make this attached?” Tony muttered, rolling to dodge some sort of projectile before the blasted helmet finally attached itself. The HUD activated, and JARVIS’s voice greeted him.

“Sir, I believe we have a problem.”

“I know, J!”

Tony held up his hands towards the swarm of agents that surrounded him, the repulsers whining as they armed. “What is SHIELDRA trying to do now? The super soldier program too difficult and they decided that cloning me was the better answer?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Fury shouted at him from inside the building, the glass still crumbling from the windowsill from Tony’s quick exit. “It’s just lithium dioxide, it’s gonna take the edge off so you can get back to work.”

“Yeah, no thanks. I’m not a chemist, but I can tell you already that would be worse than injecting pure hydrogen peroxide or pure sodium hypochlorite… for you ultracrepidarians or, as Han Solo would say, moof milkers, it would be like shooting up very concentrated bleach. No. Thank. You.” Tony immediately took to the sky and made the short flight back towards his home.

At this point, Tony could feel the otherness of the situation more vividly as the little voice that had been screaming in the back of his head since he had ‘awoken’ in the donut shop stopped as it quieted and then started to mutter to itself. It’s not a bad idea; the other voice finally spoke to him directly and calmly, using known ways to treat heavy metal poisoning that have been proven to help stave off the palladium poisoning. Tony nudged the tiny voice inside him and showed him the calculation for the element along with the structure that he had found when Maggie had Howard’s research released from SHIELD’s archives.

I don’t know if you know this, but they have Howard’s stuff, and you should demand it back. Get some treatments from Stephen Strange and create yourself a cure. Fuck these guys and make sure they can’t get in to mess with our stuff since they are riddled with HYDRA. The little voice somehow acknowledged that and then nudged him back. Who’s Peter? Tony showed him a memory of when he had first met Peter, the toddler all chubby cheeked and Bambi-eyed, a tiny clone of Tony at that age. Oh. The other voice sounded startled and pained. When you were last here, I had thought it was a hallucination… do we have a sister?

Maggie isn’t my sister. JARVIS decided that she was practically family and took advantage of it to make it legal. She worked in the coffee shop at SI in ’07, so if she’s here her name is Margaret Skold. Tony sent his first interaction with Maggie towards the little voice, her almond-shaped eyes, dark hair, and dark humor reminiscent of Aunt Peggie and his mom. He felt the little voice attempt to reply, but Tony could already feel things starting to shift as he felt himself start to wake. He was careful not to crash into the walls as he landed in the broken remnants of last night’s party. As he looked around him, not seeing the familiar signs of his family, Tony worried that this really wasn’t a dream but just a shared consciousness with an alternate self.

Look for Peter Parker, Tony sent as he felt his conscience loosen and the other ‘Tony’ come to the forefront as they went down to the workshop. You should tell Rhodey and Pepper everything, he told other Tony, and they can’t help you if you don’t ask for it.

And then he woke up.

Tony woke in a cold sweat, the blankets tossed over Rhodey, who took up more than half the bed, pushing Tony way too close to the edge. Moving to the edge of the mattress, he swung his feet to the floor and ran his hands over his face before dragging them down his neck to check for the black veins that had riddled ‘Dream Tony’s’ body.

“What the fuck…” he muttered under his breath.           

“Whaada…?” The blanket burrito next to him mumbled before rolling onto their back and revealing a single eye and the top of their military-approved haircut.

“Go back to sleep, Rhodeybear,” Tony whispered.

“Meehh.”

“Yup, too early for hard-working Platypuses,” Tony teased in a whisper, the last edges of his anxiety wisping away at the sight of his best friend.

“Tones…?” Rhodey murmured sleepily from his blanket cocoon. “You ok?”

“Yeah, just a bad dream.”

“What time is it?”

“It is 04:32, Colonel,” JARVIS replied softly.

“Come back to bed, Tones.”

“I’ve been wanting you to ask me that—“

“It’s too early for that shit. Go to sleep,” Rhodey mumbled before rolling back over and shoving the extra blankets off of him towards Tony.

“Fine…” Tony whined as he tugged the blankets over himself. Feeling unsteady, he flipped so he was face to face with his best friend and Tony took Rhodey’s hand to ground himself. It was something they had both done for each other, to remind the other that they were safe and they would always be there to back each other up if they were needed. Having spent a few minutes basking in feeling loved and safe, Tony felt separated enough from his dream that his mind started to quiet down. He classified the nightmare of that other Tony's life as a reaction of the heavy metal poisoning and reiterated that it was all just a horrible, horrible dream with too much loneliness and SHIELD doing their best to kill him.

Relieved that he was in this life, he appreciated that Rhodey took up more than half the bed and snored like a mouse from a Disney movie. He celebrated that his Peter, his Tesoro, was given the childhood that Tony had deserved but never got. Loved, cherished, protected and encouraged to be himself. He celebrated that he had Maggie to give him the opportunity to have a sibling relationship that was equal with no lingering debts between them, despite JARVIS’s heavy handedness. He was grateful for his friends, his made family, which supported him and made sure that he could live, to prove to Howard, his drunken father—

Rhodey snuffled, interrupting Tony’s thoughts and refocusing on the fact that he was just a day or two away from curing himself with an element his drunken father had left as a 'legacy to his greatest creation'.

“Fuck you, old man…” Tony muttered, slipping back into sleep.  

Several hours earlier…

Tony sat at the head of the table, Strange and Rhodey on either side as they worked their way through the lasagna that Maggie had prepped and frozen for one of their meals. Maggie knew Tony only cooked niche Italian dishes learned from his mother, despite him proclaiming otherwise. Rhodey lived off of sandwiches and scrambled eggs when not eating in the refectory on whatever base he was stationed at, and Strange lived off cafeteria food and his local deli.

As the silence dragged, broken by the occasional scrape of a fork and the appreciative humming over Maggie’s culinary skills, Tony finally broke the awkward atmosphere.  “So…” Tony spoke, drawing both of their attention. They all sat in awkward silence as Tony struggled to think of something to say. “Um… thanks for coming…?” Good job, idiot, Tony told himself as he rolled his eyes at himself, watching the almost identical amused smirks appear on his friends’ faces. Tony knew the two would get along like a house on fire; he just needed to crack their outer hardass shells to get there.

“Stop it,” Rhodey scolded, “I was going to come whether you asked me or not, Tones. Having Doc here is just a benefit I am going to enjoy since I’m sure Strange will help me make sure you’re sick ass can’t over-do it.”

“Love you too, Sour Patch,” Tony muttered, emotional at his Rhodey Bear showing his soft, gooey center.

“I’m here for purely selfish reasons,” Strange stated pompously between bites. “I’ll need firsthand knowledge for my paper about heavy metal poisoning and how it affects the body and neurological functions.”

“Mmhhmm,” Rhodey hummed skeptically as he chewed.

“Don’t deny it, Doc, you love me,” Tony teased, “You want to make sure that I don’t mess it up when I insert the new reactor into my chest because Maggie will come after you with a battle ax. You know, I’m sure she’d be kind enough to spare you your arms and delicate hands and take a leg instead if you mess it up.”

Rhodey choked on his food as he laughed. Tony just grinned at his friends as they watched Strange stutter his denial. “I’m not afraid of Margaret Stark.”

“I think the lady doth protest too much, methinks,” Tony said behind his hand to Rhodey, who agreed with a nod and a fork pointed towards Strange.

“Don’t lie to yourself or us, Doc, because we aren’t,” Rhodey interjected. “Let’s be honest here, we’re all scared of her, too. And don’t get me started on Pepper…”

“Fine. I’m also here because of the fear of your overly competent sister and because having you healthy and amongst the living is something that I enjoy… in a wholly intellectual capacity,” Strange replied pompously, his gooey center showing a tiny bit before he corrected.

“Suuure, Doc, whatever helps you sleep at night,” Tony responded as he gathered up his plate and wandered back into the kitchen. “Now, who wants some warm brownies? Maggie left some in the freezer and I forgot to pull them out earlier, so it’s frozen or microwaved!”

Originally, when they had been fighting over the sleeping arrangements, Tony had suggested that Rhodey take Maggie's office. Rhodey had been understandably intimidated by Maggie’s “Office”. "It's Maggie's weapons room, Tones, with a biolock and antique weapons in bulletproof cases that should be in a museum, with a weapons rack that descends from the ceiling. It is NOT. AN. OFFICE."

Which… fair.

Maggie had been given quite a few of the varied weapons as gifts from a large selection of people who had either taught her, were friends (if you can call SHIELD agents friends) but the majority she had acquired when she had been researching the origins of the ones in her possession. Several had been restored, and a few were of rare materials or given to her in addition to her purchase due to her interest. It was something she didn’t speak much of, but Tony knew she enjoyed the artistry of historically forged blades and even had a few modernly forged mixed in with the antiques that had been made using historic forging techniques.

Despite the cases lining the walls and the drop-down weapons rack that he had designed off of The Fifth Element (one of Maggie’s favorite movies) it still functioned as an office. The desk on the far edge of the training room was equipped with an almost identical setup as his personal office, so technically it was her office, weapons room, artifact room, and training/workout room. There just happened to be an attached full bath behind pocket doors and a Murphy bed slotted seamlessly between the display of various swords from feudal Japan and a large number of intricately carved and decorated Turkish and Indian daggers.

"You have to be kidding me, how the hell did she come across this?" Strange asked, pointing to one of the cases full of odds and ends, including a Roman scallpellus.

"A few months ago, Maggie purchased one of her daggers through one of her regular sources, and they offered her this at a discount if she bought that too after she researched what it was. She thought that she would consult you about where she should gift it since she wasn’t sure whether a museum or a medical university would benefit more from having it.”

Stephen turned towards Tony, surprised that Maggie would want his opinion, but appeared to accept Tony’s answer when he nodded sharply and turned back to the case. "How much is she asking for it?”

"She probably wouldn’t ask anything for it," Tony replied as he stood closer to Strange, their shoulders bumping as they studied Maggie's unique collection of old, small, sharp things. 

“Then I would suggest a university,” Stephen said after a moment of thought. “It most likely would be stored away if she donated it to a museum, but a university would most likely display it.”

"I think I’ll have nightmares if I sleep here," Rhodey stated with conviction, coming to stand on Tony’s other side. “I like weapons… but this is a little too…”

“Like the start of a horror movie?” Stephen teased Rhodey with a sly grin.

“Come on, guys, you are over exaggerating,” Tony said, bumping first Stephen and then Rhodey, bouncing back and forth between the two like a Newton’s Cradle. “Here are the options, there’s Maggie's office—“

“—You mean her dungeon of doom,” Rhodey muttered under his breath, causing Stephen to snort.

“-- Her bedroom, and the guest room. So, Rhodey Bear, you have the choice of sleeping in Maggie's room or with me," Tony told his oldest friend. “I don’t care how you two decide to fight it out, but we gotta make a decision.”

"What do you think, Strange? Can you stay in here, or will you have nightmares with the amount of weapons she has on the walls?" Rhodey asked, always the Hufflepuff in this relationship, by thinking of others first.

Tony side-eyed Stephen, who was now leaning closer to the case, having spotted another little dagger in the case that looked a little too much like a scalpel than a dagger.

"I have no problems sleeping in this room," Stephen murmured, "sharps do not frighten me since it is something that I use every day for my occupation."

"Sooooo, Rhodey Bear, choose your room!"

"What about Peter's room?" Rhodey squinted at his best friend, waiting for the punchline.

"Peter's room is the guest bedroom," Tony replied with confusion. "Pepper just had them put an actual bed in there in the meantime."

"What do you mean by an actual bed? Wasn't there one before?"

"There was a queen-sized bed, but it was replaced with a king when Sir needed a place to stay while the renovations were being done. Miss Maggie thought Sir would enjoy the race car lamp and be inspired by the framed science posters, so she left the rest of the decor alone." JARVIS just had to take that opportunity to tease his creator.

"Thanks for sharing that, J, I really feel the love you have for me," Tony sighed pathetically.

Rhodey and Strange just continued to laugh at him as he decided that the two of them were adults and they could figure out their beds, so in the meantime, Tony was going to take a shower and go to bed in the guest room. And sure, he did enjoy the vintage science posters and the antique Hubley cast iron race cars that Maggie had found when they went to a swap meet. They weren't race car lamps since the cars weren't attached; they just rested on the base of each lamp like a miniature circle track that Peter could push the cars around on. It was very tasteful and child-friendly… Tony had nothing to be ashamed of, and his friends were just being mean.

"Sir, we have a Stranger Danger alert,” JARVIS said, interrupting their bickering.

"How? She's in New Mexico with Peter; there shouldn't be anyone or anything capable of that for a six-hundred radius!" Tony shouted in surprise.

"Doctor Foster hit him with her vehicle, and the man claims to be..." JARVIS paused, the silence palatable as the AI didn’t continue.

Startled by JARVIS’s unexpected behavior, Tony found himself panicking. "Spit it out J!"

"He claims to be Thor, God of Thunder.”

Silence fell as the three men froze in shock before Rhodey broke it. "You have to be kidding me," the airman snorted. "Some dude just gets hit by a car and then claims to be a god?"

Three men spent a few minutes discussing the possibility of a real-life god, before it devolved into each telling a more exaggerated reason to claim to be one, knowing that Maggie would be able to handle it. Tony and Rhodey knew how well armed and skilled she was, and JARVIS would inform them if backup was needed.

"Oh!" JARVIS sounded genuinely surprised interrupting their banter. "Miss. Lewis just took the initiative and de-escalated the situation. Everything should be fine now since I predict with her altered taser, the man claiming to be Thor should be out of it for several hours."

"Only Maggie would collect dangerous and self-reliant friends."

"What does that say about us?"

"Nothing good, Rhodey Bear, nothing good."

The next morning, while ignoring Rhodey’s grumbles, Tony snuck out of Maggie’s guest bedroom and headed towards her kitchen to make himself a black eye to start the day. Turning the corner, he ran into Strange.

“Oomph!” They bounced off of each other, grasping at each other and the wall to keep from falling.

“Are you ok?” Strange asked, his rumpled appearance oddly endearing with his tousled bed hair and unbelted bathrobe over sleep pants and a ragged Columbia sweatshirt.

“Yeah, you?”

“Yes.”

“Sleep well?” Tony asked leadingly, wondering how Strange had slept in Maggie’s office/weapon storage/dojo, sometimes guest room. Tony was secretly glad that Strange had decided to take that room, and Rhodey had agreed to bunk with Tony rather than have one of them sleep in Maggie’s bed. There were just some boundaries that they all agreed should not be crossed, despite Maggie giving them approval to do so.

“The Murphy bed was surprisingly comfortable,” Strange said as he tiredly leaned against the counter. "Don’t tell Rhodes, but the weapons were a bit disconcerting in the darkness.”

Tony laughed at his friend, slapping Stephen on the shoulder as he passed to get to the espresso machine. “Yeah… I could see where that would be a little bit of a B-rated horror flick feeling.”

“A real scream fest,” Strange quipped dryly, settling at the kitchen table with his briefcase. Tony chuckled under his breath and started to tab through the settings on Maggie's Leonardo D'Espresso.

Tony was about ready to green-light his marketing team to start advertising them; they were just waiting for production to hit a thousand units before they started. Tony constantly told Maggie that selling Leo Jr. was not feasible, but in reality, he had already started on it and just kept telling her no, so the surprise would have the most impact. He knew how much she enjoyed being right and hoped that it would be a great birthday surprise.

The two spent the next hour drinking coffee and reviewing the testing they would have to do before Tony would be able to insert the reactor with the new element into his chest to replace the palladium core. After JARVIS let them know that Rhodey was up, Tony got up and started pulling ingredients out for pancakes.

“So what are you naming this element once we finish creating it?” Strange asked Tony while flipping the last batch of pancakes. The apron the doctor was wearing was one of the ones that Maggie had found while clearing out Ana’s cedar chest. Ana had sewn a whole collection of his and her aprons during her married life for herself and Mr. Jarvis. Having found them during the renovation of the Jarvis’ old apartment, Peter and Maggie had adopted the aprons for their baking days.

Tony wore Ana’s apron, a pinafore style in magenta pink with aquamarine ruffles and an embroidered flamingo on the chest. Stephen wore Mr. Jarvis’ apron, a butcher style apron in dark aquamarine with magenta trim, a small flamingo on the chest pocket.

“Love your apron, Doc,” Rhodey commented as he wandered out from the bedroom, having been drawn from bed by the smell of coffee, pancakes, and bacon.

“Thank you, it brings out my eyes,” Strange replied dryly as he turned off the gas hob and flipped the last pancake onto a plate. “I’ll have to get Maggie to send me the information on where she acquired it.”

Tony paused with his fork halfway to his mouth before setting it down and taking a deep breath. It still hurt, the loss of Ana and Jarvis, almost as much as losing his mother to Howard’s drunken—

“Hey, Tones, you ok?” Rhodey asked leaning towards Tony on the stool next to him, both him and Strange looking at him with concern.

Taking a shuddering breath, Tony nodded. “Yeah, it’s just that Ana made the aprons. Maggie and Peter found them when we were clearing out the rooms before we remodeled the apartment.”

“Oh.” Rhodey squeezed Tony’s arm before sitting back. “I forgot she designed clothes. I remember that awesome printed bottom-up that she made for you that first Christmas you came home with me.”

“Yeah,” Tony chuckled hoarsely, rubbing at his eyes. “I was the envy of everyone at that rave we went to for New Year’s.”

“Damn straight,” Rhodey declared, pointing his fork at Tony. “Didn’t it glow in the dark?”

“No, but the colors were bright enough to be affected by the black lights… I still say it had some radium in the dye,” Tony reminisced fondly.

“Knowing more things now, I wouldn’t put it past her,” Rhodey joked. “Please tell me you still have it.”

“Yup. I think I kept everything she ever made me,” Tony mussed fondly. “Maybe I should pull some stuff out and see if Pete would want to wear some of them. He likes Mr. Jarvis’ aprons; he might enjoy a few other things more in his size.”

Rhodey and Stephen gave Tony fond looks before Tony changed the subject to what they were there for. Getting Howard's element created so they could save Tony's life.

A few hours later, Tony and Rhodey were digging through wooden crates. 

“Please tell me that this is our second-year final project!” Rhodey gasped as he dove into an open box.

“It is, JARVIS found it and won’t disclose where he found it.”

“It’s an early birthday present from me, Sir,” JARVIS said, “It would ruin the sentimental value of the gift if I told you.”

“Wow!” Rhodey stood there taking it in, “I never thought I’d see this again. It was the best grade I ever received, the biggest mark on my record.”

Tony and Rhodey had made when they were at MIT to show up Tiberius Stone. Tony still had no idea where JARVIS had found it. He thought that after MIT had confiscated it, they had it disassembled and destroyed… or so they had thought.  Tony had remembered the rage that Howard had displayed after he had returned from school for summer break; it had been weeks before Tony had been able to leave the house after that beating. He still had aches from his shoulder that had been exacerbated after the crash with Mach I while escaping. 

“Yup. And Howard beat me black and blue for it, but it was a piece of art. It was my first baby.”

Silence.

“Umm…” Tony swallowed, “I’m s—“

“Nope.” Strange interrupted, “If you finish that sentence, we'll call your sister to yell at you.”

“But—“

“Calling Ms. Stark…” JARVIS stated dryly, the sound of ringing filling the space of the warehouse lab, and Tony scrambled over to the workbench lined with computer screens where the voice call was going through.

“I do not know how to use this communication device!” A muffled, scathingly proper British voice shouted as the call was answered by JARVIS on Maggie's end. “Sigyn is currently asleep and is not to be disturbed till she has rested fully, JARVIS!”

“Who the hell are you?!” Tony exclaimed while bringing up the camera function of Maggie’s phone and refreshing her and Peter’s location trackers.

“I am Loki Friggasson,” the man stated pomposely off-screen, as the camera picked up first a blur of an empty room, a view of the New Mexican desert through some large windows, before landing on the face of a pale, dark-haired man around Maggie's age.  "Who is speaking?" 

"Tony Stark, and this is my sister's communication device," Tony replied with annoyance, "and I want to know where my sister and son are!”

“Ahh, the Midgardian brother, Father of Peter and JARVIS.”

"What the hell," Stephen muttered over Tony's right shoulder while Rhodey mouthed Midgardian brother at Tony from the other side. 

“Tony…?” Maggie’s voice came from out of sight of the camera, a slight tinge of British and perhaps something else twisting her usual American accent. The video shifted again, and all Tony, Stephen, and Rhodey could see was a spinning ceiling fan and a white ceiling, and part of a thumb. 

There was a scuffling, several grunts, and hissed words volleyed between Maggie and ‘Loki’ off camera before Maggie’s face filled the screen, blocking out the dark-haired, wiry man behind her.

“What the hell is going on, Maggie?!” Tony asked angrily, attempting to tamp down his panic and anger, despite 'Loki' being considered worthy enough to know about and communicate with JARVIS.

“Well… umm…” An overly pale Maggie shiffted uncomfortably, avoiding the camera. "I-"

“Just tell him already!” Loki blurted in the background, “I’m sure JARVIS will inform him on the first opportunity if you do not.”

“Fine!” Maggie spat at Loki, swore at him in a different language, and then focused back on her conversation with Tony. “Long story short, Thor and Loki are real, SHIELD is being a pain in my ass, magic is real, and I’m Sigyn.”

“Wait…” Rhodey muttered, "Didn't JARVIS tell us that Darcy ran over a Thor last night?"

Stephen nodded, and his two friends gave him a look.

“Who is Sigyn?” Tony asked, bewildered at the information dump. "And what do you mean, magic is real?"

Chapter Text

JARVIS’s job over the last several months felt like he was an outdated Dell computer with a fragmented hard drive. He was slower to process commands by 1.3 milliseconds, he struggled to create subroutines, and at one point, he lagged for .00325 seconds longer than he should have when Sir was working on his suit with JARVIS’s assistance and Miss Maggie had asked for him to order Chinese takeout. His job of just assisting Sir with his projects at home, answering Master Peter’s simple questions, and helping Miss Maggie with her efforts to keep them all functional was a thing of the past.

The last year had been filled with assisting Ms. Potts and Sir with restructuring Stark Industries after moving away from weapons production; then it was ensuring that Sir’s little government-approved vigilante expeditions were safe and successful, along with monitoring and apprising Sir’s health for Doctor Strange. Then there was analyzing all the data from Howard Stark’s research to find a solution for the palladium core that was making Sir ill. Then there was making sure Miss Maggie had all the training she needed to perform the best she could in front of the world stage when she finally made her debut at the Met Gala. There was the building of Stark Tower in New York, the move coming up to New York City in late July and August… it was never-ending, and if JARVIS had been humanoi,d he would say that he was getting to the point of being burnt out. There were only so many things he could leave to his subroutines, and he seriously needed to prompt Sir to bring online one of his sister AIs to assist him because this was becoming ridiculous! It shamed him that he was no longer able to assist his family like he had been created to do and despite putting all his effort into doing the best he could, he needed to ask Sir for help. But first, he needed to source an atom collider and a new assistant for Sir since Ms. Potts was already far too busy to do what little help she was able to with her job as CFO; and when the paperwork came through to make Ms. Potts CEO, she would most definitely not be able to assist Sir when all her focus would be on Stark Industries.

A few weeks before the Met Gala, JARVIS luckily found the atom collider he had been searching for. Located in the archives of MIT in the basement of the old robotics wing (Sir had built them a new one five years ago), JARVIS discreetly paid the college a hefty donation in the understanding that it was a sentimental gift from Ms. Stark to Mr. Stark for his birthday. JARVIS had, of course, asked Ms. Maggie if he could use her name to acquire something for Sir for his birthday, and she had acquiesced after asking him several questions about his intentions… JARVIS would NEVER get Sir anything malicious and yes it would benefit Master Peter since it was a piece of scientific equipment from Sir’s teenage years and no it would not explode if properly used and yes it was large and would take a large sum of money to ship but it was medically necessary for Sir’s health… it had gone on for some time and at the end of it JARVIS had initially regretted not just telling her outright as it was since he could have avoided the twenty question game. He still didn’t quite understand why communication was important when it was easier to just go ahead and complete the necessary task when he had run every statistic and probability proving it was beneficial.

Humans. Just always needed to know the why of something… what he did for the beings he loved…

Anyway, that had been one thing solved.

The next issue was finding Sir an assistant. It was daunting and complicated, and it could be likened to finding a piece of quality raw painite. Both are a rarity in nature, very expensive to acquire once found, and once shaped/hired, needed to be flawless in their presentation. There was also the problem of once such a person was found, finding someone who could interact with Sir without quitting after a few weeks was just as unfeasible. Sir was brilliant and chaotic and had gotten better with deciphering appropriate times to make requests of the people who assisted him since Master Peter had settled in, but Sir’s occasional unrealistic requests of next-day meetings with the Board of Directors; a flight scheduled the next day for New York City for Ms. May’s birthday; or needing a reservation at a restaurant for six with a ten month waiting period, to name a few, was difficult for the everyday assistant.

Ms. Potts was a rare gem amongst humans, and JARVIS was very grateful for all the things she did for Sir and the rest of their family by making the impossible, possible; but finding her replacement was going to be an act of a higher power even beyond his Maker. Especially since they would have to assist his Maker… JARVIS was starting to think he needed his own assistant and perhaps some time in low power mode to recuperate after all of this.

A few weeks passed, the Met Gala happened, the opening ceremonies of the Stark Expo were finished, and Sir and Ms. Maggie were on their way westward with Master Peter in tow. JARVIS had finally relinquished the last of his control of the Expo to Ms. Pott’s hand-selected twenty-person committee and with Ms. Maggie’s charity planning at a stopping point till next month when there was a meeting with the Maria Stark Committee, JARVIS had a bit more time to spend searching the HR database for a list of compatible and competent candidates for Sir’s PA. There were one or two people who appeared on his list that would perhaps be able to handle the job jointly; one was reminiscent of Ms. Potts with a Master's in Accounting and a BBA. The second person was surprisingly in R&D with a Master's in Engineering, Business Management, and Chemistry. Both were young, detail-oriented, and had previously assisted Ms. Potts without question or complaint when she had needed help in the days when Sir was missing in Afghanistan.

The third person was flagged immediately when he checked their background information against his database for potential SHIELD, HYDRA, or, as Sir had termed, SHIELDRA agents as a possible alias of three different agents originating from Eastern Europe and Russia. They had applied for a security position with the ability to travel for SI Malibu. Their lengthy qualifications with weapons and self-defense were comparable to Ms. Maggie’s; multilingual in over eight languages and with references from several high-profile people in the government, they stood above and beyond the normal applicant. Normally, JARVIS would never consider even contemplating someone not already a veteran SI employee, but this niggled his RAM in the most irritating way. Bringing up facial recognition, he matched the SI application photo to one of the agents of SHIELD. “I should have known,” JARVIS muttered to himself, the bots responding in the workshop to the first voice they’d heard in weeks. Apologizing to his fellow bot siblings for disturbing their low-power mode vacation, he analyzed Agent Romanoff’s profile. A friend of Miss Maggie, the agent had been on the top of his list of subjects to keep close tabs on for her potential threat to the family. She had gradually decreased on his threat list as time passed and the Agent had proven that she was being genuine as she and Agent Barton had gradually revealed more of their personal lives with Miss Maggie. Curious, JARVS made a phone call.

“Yes?” A languid female voice answered.

“I was wondering if I may speak with Natalia Shostakova, please.”

“This is she.”

“Good afternoon, Ms. Shostakova. I am Edwin from Stark Industries. I have read through your application and was wondering if you would be amenable to interviewing for the Asset Security Assistant over the phone.”

“I have time and would love to,” she replied blithely.

JARVIS walked her through several basic questions on the standard form that SI asked in their interviews, carefully taking note of her speech patterns and tone over the phone as he continued to work his way into the deeper levels of SHIELD to see if she had been assigned to apply and infiltrate Stark Industries. File after file, he went through, seeing the initial orders to befriend Miss Maggie and the closing of the file a year later with an addendum of both Agents Barton and Romanoff stating that Ms. Stark was no threat and they were in agreement that, unless she proved otherwise, professional interaction and observation were no longer necessary. Curious, JARVIS searched through their current orders, finding that Agent Barton had been assigned to Agent Coulson and his task force as needed, and Agent Romanoff was currently on leave. Strange… As JARVIS continued to ask questions pointed towards protecting high-profile, high-risk persons, he decided after about half an hour of Agent Romanoff’s steady and concise answers, to insert a question to see if it would put her off balance.

“Ms. Shostakova, as an Asset Security Assistant, would working for SHIELD while being employed for Stark Industries be a conflict of interest due to your full-time position there? Or would your current time off graduate to separation from SHIELD if you were to get the position?”

There was a brief pause before a chuckle over the phone, and a click of a recorder on the other end revealed that she had finally realized that he had known the entire time about her. She sighed deeply before she murmured to herself in Russian and cleared her throat. “I assume that you are not someone from Stark Industries?”

“I do not work directly for Stark Industries, but I do assist the company as a contractor. If you could answer the question, please, Ms. Romanoff.”

“Without knowing exactly who you are, sir, I am under no obligation to give you my reasoning for applying,” she replied haughtily. “Are there any other questions or should I assume I am no longer eligible for the job?”

“If I were to contact a mutual friend, would that satisfy you?”

She huffed in amusement. “Sure.”

JARVIS called Ms. Maggie.

“Hey JARVIS, what’s up?” Miss Maggie asked, the sound of Master Peter chattering excitedly to someone in the background fading as she moved away from the noise.

“I have a mutual friend on the phone, and I was wondering if you could reassure her that I am genuine in my attempts to hire her temporarily as an Asset Security Assistant for Stark Industries.”

He could hear Ms. Maggie mutter to herself as she wondered about such a position and who in her small list of friends would even apply for such a thing. “Sure, JARVIS,” She replied in amusement, “I’m kinda curious about who that would be…”

“You are on the line, Ms. Shostakova. You are currently speaking with Ms. Stark.”

“Maggie?” Agent Romanoff asked in amusement. “How do you know Edwin?”

“Edwin…?” There was a pause as Ms. Maggie muttered to herself again before sighing heavily in exasperation. “JARVIS, what is going on?”

“I need a temporary assistant for Mr. Stark while he completes his work before our move to New York. I am currently finding it difficult to find someone who fulfills both Ms. Potts' and your roles while you are both unavailable for immediate assistance. Ms. Shostakova’s experience and familiarity with the family and our oddities, along with her talent for weapons and subterfuge, are necessary for these soon-to-be turbulent few months. As I am unable to defend Sir and I can only manage so many interactions due to my incorporeal state, I feel like someone who can assist Mr. Stark and me until we are settled in New York is a necessity.”

“You could have asked for help, JARVIS,” Ms. Maggie told him softly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were under so much strain with Ms. Potts and my growing responsibilities.”

“No, Miss, an apology is completely unnecessary since I will be asking Sir for a sister as soon as he completes his current task. The hiring of an Asset Security Assistant is to supplement until such a time I have the assistance of a sister and we are established in New York.”

“Ok, if you’re sure, JARVIS,” Miss Maggie replied, her voice slightly amused, and he knew that she would be asking for details as soon as they could have a private conversation. “So what’s the problem?”

“He was wondering if I was doing this as a job for SHIELD or if I was genuinely wanting to work for Stark Industries.”

“So what is it?”

“Fury asked me indirectly to see if I could infiltrate Stark Industries to see how much of a threat the company was currently, since Tony has moved much faster in his de-weaponizing than we had expected. There are still some concerns over his metal suit that allows him to be a vigilante.”

“Of course there is,” Ms. Maggie sighed in exasperation. “So what are you suggesting?”

“I originally turned it down, stating that everything was being monitored by the Air Force and the changes to Stark Industries were actually a good thing with the shift from weapons manufacturing to protective and informational gear instead, but then Fury ran into a few problems with our little octopus issue and asked me to do the job anyway to get me out of the line of fire. So I applied and figured that I would just lay low and I would reach out to you if I was put into any compromising situations that would violate any of Stark Industries’ company policies.”

“So if we set up boundaries and legal documents to protect you and us, we can get you to come shadow and assist Tony?”

“Yes.”

“JARVIS? What do you think?”

“I have my doubts, Miss.”

“And if we can minimize them with the standard legal documents that we have for all SI employees, along with the things for personal family member employees, such as the usual NDA’s and legal paperwork. I would also have her wear something, such as a watch, that you can connect to and track, along with a custom phone like Pepper’s.”

“I believe that would reassure me,” JARVIS capitulated, uncertain if he was making one of the biggest mistakes of his electronic life or the greatest decision ever in acquiring another strong female to keep Sir safe and on schedule. Perhaps they could offer a bonus if she quit SHIELDRA and came to work for them full-time.

Things to process over later.

“Does that mean I get the job?” Ms. Romanoff asked dryly.

“I believe I will have to discuss this with Mr. Stark, but I will inform you within 48 hours of our decision,” JARVIS replied, certain that he could easily persuade his Maker that this was for his own good and allow them a certain opening to control what information they were sent to the compromised agency.

“Very well,” the agent replied. “It was nice hearing from you, Maggie. Let me know when we can get together for some coffee.”

“Sounds good,” Ms. Maggie replied before JARVIS cut Ms. Romanoff’s line.

“JARVIS?”

“Yes, Miss?”

“I think you should hire her so we can get her out of that snake pit before they destroy her completely. I know that she still has some flashbacks to her previous… umm… handlers.” She took a moment to pause and breathe. “JARVIS, I think that it would be better if she were doing something more constructive with her life than what she’s doing now, and if it’s working with us to help protect our family and assisting me later on with self-defense programs in the shelters for our ten-year plan, all the better.”

“Very well, Miss, I will inform Sir of your decision. I must warn you that if she does anything to step out of line and compromise our family and Stark Industries, she will be removed with extreme prejudice.”

“Ok, HAL,” Miss Maggie stated dryly, “but can you please let me know before you murderbot her to make sure that it’s not something that we forgot to inform you of?”

“If I must.”

“Yes, you must, JARVIS,” she hissed at him. “As much as I love you and understand your protective urges, killing is not always the best answer. Sometimes it is something much more legal and devastating. So please, before you go out and take care of something that is a threat to our family, speak with one of us. Some things are sometimes so devastating that there is no coming back from them; they will ruin your life and the ones you love. So please,” she whispered somberly, “speak with us.”

“I will, Maggie, I promise,” JARVIS replied genuinely, the gasp from the use of her first name an indicator of how moved she was that he actually meant it. He NEVER used his human family’s first names, a sign of respect and love that he had for them. With the use of her first name, which she had asked him for many years to use instead of her honorific, she spoke of how much respect he had for her and that he would do as she asked.

“Thank you, JARVIS,” she said a little breathlessly, the relief in her voice indicative of how worried she had been just moments before.

“Of course, Miss, I will speak with you later.” 

JARVIS sent an email to Mr. Hogan about the newly created position and the information about Miss Maggie’s friend before sending the final approval to Mr. Stark. Sir barely read through it before approving it, and Ms. Romanoff was hired under the alias of Natalia Shostakova.

JARVIS then spent the next few days working with the lawyers in drafting the paperwork for Ms. Potts to take over as CEO until Master Peter reached a majority and sent it for her to review once Sir had awkwardly gotten her agreement. Colonel Rhodes was already scheduled to come in that night to assist Sir in the physical aspects of constructing the atom collider and forging a new element, and JARVIS had very carefully tweaked Doctor Strange’s schedule to allow him a week to spend assisting Sir with installing the new element and monitoring his health. With that done, JARVIS felt a bit better about Miss Maggie taking some time for herself with Master Peter. They would have some nice, relaxing time off, and Sir would be able to take one giant step towards better health.

Everything was so perfectly arranged that nothing should go wrong, at least that was what JARVIS thought until Miss Maggie picked up that mysterious hammer… 

JARVIS should have run that algorithm again and was now regretting it.