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Chapter Text

Loki fell…

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Down.

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Through the dark vacuum of space.

His frigid Jotun blood froze in his veins, his pale skin and virescent eyes withered. Despite the physical pain, he could still feel the gaping hole located where his heart should be. Solitary, abandoned, and forsaken in the soundless desolation of Lost Space, far from Yggdrasill, he felt the tug and heat of a tractor beam. It pulled at his brittle body, stretching his limbs and cracking his fine bones. Landing heavily on metal grating that tore at his brittle skin and caught on the buckles of his armor, he felt a boot in his back and another on his shoulder. Not processing the language being spoken around him and unable to see, he was dragged an unmeasurable distance before he finally lost his battle with consciousness.   

He woke later to the feeling of his body being pulled apart and broken. His fingers crushed, his legs stretched and his arms tied and lifted as he dangled above the floor for hours/days/years/ eternity… before they left him lay fragmented, like a discarded doll, on the metal grating before it commenced again.

Time had no meaning. It stretched for eternity. He lost the memory of what it felt to be whole.

To be safe. Not in a million pieces. 

It made no difference. His family had no want of him, nor did Asgard.

And she was lost.

Again.

Forever.

He hoped for the end of his suffering, to pass on. But it went past eternity. His voice was lost and broken as the rest of his body.

Suddenly a blue glow pierced the darkness and stabbed him in the chest. It missed everything important, even the cavity where his heart lay, but it still managed to draw everything to that point. It radiated excruciating pain to every nerve ending in his body. As he broke his teeth to the force of his jaw and the blood trickled down his lips from his bitten tongue, he felt everything go blank.

Void. Empty.

He felt like he was drawn out, placed in a repository, and then tucked in the back of his mind. He felt the last vestige of his freewill disappear, but he was allowed a little pinprick hole to peer through and view the world. It was as if he was there just to watch. Panic swelled and consumed the entirety of his little box and he reached for his seiðr.

Nothing!

Wait…

A curl. A tiny curl of green twisted through the little pin-prick hole. He breathed in.

Out.

 In.

He pulled himself in, a breath at a time, slowly fitting back into the center of the tiny vessel that held his entire being. He manipulated the tiny curl, he used it to widen the hole to fist size. Peering through he saw himself holding a scepter.

No.

The Mind Stone. He could feel the energy. The Puuuulllll.

Forcing the hole bigger took more and more energy. Moments he could control his surroundings, maybe push just a little and manipulate his body. He could hear voices…

“Space has awakened. It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power...” Loki heard the ridiculous looking minion speak to his Master, “Our ally,” he gestured to Loki, “knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead,” the Master, Thanos, chuckled, “and our force, our Chitauri, will follow.”

“You mean the Asgardian is under our control and will do our bidding,” Thanos spoke to his servant, “being familiar with the world will make it easy for him to conquer the primitive world and bring us back the Stone.”

“What of the Infinity Mother?” Spoke a female, who was shrouded in the darkness behind Thanos’ throne.

“She hasn’t been seen for millennia,” Thanos spoke, “It is believed she was destroyed in the last battle for the Stones.”

Loki felt his heart crack in agony and the rift in his mind expanded as if the mention of his wife was all that was required for him to gain a little more control of himself.

“The world will be his to control, the Universe yours, and the humans, what can they do but burn?” the servant spoke in confidence.

Loki pushed against his mental prison. He needed to be able to manipulate circumstances if the world of his beloved wife’s loved ones were to survive.

The Realm that Thor protected.

Just as he was handed the scepter and forced through a wormhole, he felt the Mind Stone reach out.

The Mother needs you. We can’t break the will of the Titan, but she can.

Hope ran through him as he stepped through the wormhole.

He felt himself burn.

Ah, Real Power.

Hello Space.

A crazed, sly leer on his face, he stepped through. Maybe….

“Greetings, Wife.”

“Hello, Husband.”

Chapter Text

Tony woke to his phone ringing and JARVIS gradually lightening the lights, “J, what is going on?” Tony mumbled sleepily.

“Miss Maggie is gone again,” JARVIS replied, “and Director Fury is calling you.”

“Ugh, I have not had enough sleep to deal with the Pirate,” Tony flopped to his back, “Put him through J.”

“Stark! Why is your sister here in my secure facility? AGAIN!  I thought we agreed that she would be kept away after the last time,” Fury’s anger rang out through the phone, “I don’t have time to call you every time your sister decides to do a walkabout. I have a frozen relic to deal with at the moment and this should not be a priority!”

“Well, at least your cat isn’t here again,” Tony muttered, “Can you send her back, or is she sleepwalking again?”

“She’s sleepwalking again! Barton was able to wake her up before she touched the Artifact, but this cannot continue.”

“Fine. JARVIS send a suit to go get her,” Tony told the AI for appearances, sake. He knew that as soon as Maggie disappeared, a suit was dispatched for retrieval. Maggie wore a tracker disguised as a very elegant chain necklace with a small laurel wreath charm. She was the goddess of victory, according to JARVIS’s research, so it seemed appropriate.

“This better be the last time, Stark!” He heard Fury shuffle something around his desk and something got knocked over, proceeded by cursing.  “Have you seen the cat? She’s gone again.”

Goose, Fury’s ‘cat’, had somehow taken a liking to Maggie and Peter and was often found wandering around their Malibu mansion. The first time Maggie had sleep-teleported to the facility where the Tesseract was kept, the creature had crawled up on her shoulder and teleported home with her. It had stuck around for a few days before disappearing. So Goose managed to visit a few times a month and she now had a litter box and food dishes in the kitchen.  It amused Tony how the ‘cat’ could teleport to where it wanted to go and was often found cuddled up with Peter at night or near Maggie as she worked in the kitchen. Goose wasn’t the fondest of Tony and he was fine with that, he just wished that it would stay away from Peter.  

“No, I haven’t seen Goose in about a week. JARVIS?”

“The creature known as Goose is not currently in the building.”

“There’s your answer, Fury. Maybe it went to visit someone else. Do you need anything else?”

Fury hung up without answering.

“That was rude,” Tony said as he waved his hand in the air for the lights to dim and he made himself relax, “JARVIS, please let me know when Maggie is back.”

“We’re en route from the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility, ETA thirty minutes.”

“Thanks, J.”

It had been almost a year since New Mexico, his palladium poisoning and Maggie giving him her ring to hold on to. After Maggie had lost her memories, she had started to appear at the facility in the Mohave Desert. About once a week she was found in the room with the Tesseract or in the hallways leading to it. He theorized after he put the tracker and the watch with JARVIS on her, that the Tesseract was teleporting her. The energy readings were insane and he was still trying to parse through all of them, Tony was impressed (alarmed) by the amount of energy that was exchanged between the two. Doctor Selvig had been invited to study the Tesseract (Tony had a theory that they were working on something much more sinister) and Agent Barton had been deployed to protect it (a familiar face to wake up Maggie and send her home). Her sleepwalking/teleportation was becoming a problem and he needed to figure something out. JARVIS told him that they had started to do experiments on the Tesseract and SHIELD was attempting to use the Blue Cube as a power source, which was worrying. After JARVIS had debriefed him on all the information on Maggie’s former life, he discretely started making plans for world protection and defense.

Tony fell back to sleep and JARVIS didn’t wake him up till morning. He assumed that Maggie had asked JARVIS to allow him to sleep as long as she agreed to talk with him in the morning. When he got up to JARVIS lightening the windows and reading off the daily weather report and top news stories, he made a decision.

Peter had a few months before he started his new school in New York, Peter had been accepted to Midtown School of Science and Technology Middle School along with his friend Ned. Last year Peter had struggled to connect with his classmates in Malibu, so it was decided that they would move to the completed Tower and Peter would go to school with his best friend. He still couldn’t comprehend how fast his kid was growing up! They hadn’t done a vacation in a while and since Pepper had taken over SI, his workload was halved. He would be taking over R&D in New York when they moved in August, so he thought that they should take the time while they could.

“JARVIS, what do you think about a vacation to France? We still have that pied-a-terre in Paris?”

“Yes, Sir. I am also integrated fully into it. And it has been three years since you and Peter took a family vacation.”

“Good! Have someone out to clean it and deliver food, I want to leave tomorrow.”

He went downstairs and found a sleepy Peter sitting at the island, eating pancakes while Maggie stared out the large window at the ocean, sipping coffee.

“Morning, everyone,” Tony said as he poured his coffee, “we’re heading out tomorrow for Paris, so I need you guys to pack some clothes for a few weeks.”

“Yay! Vacation!” Peter perked up, “Maggie? Can we go visit all the art museums?”

Maggie didn’t turn or respond.

“Maggie?” Tony approached her and moved in front of her, breaking her line of sight, “Are you ok?”

She blinked at him and her shoulders sagged, “No, I don‘t think I’m ok.”

Tony set their coffees down and led her into the living room and to the couch, Peter followed after them. “I know you’re not alright and I want to give you back the item that would make things alright, but you told me not to. So we’re going to go visit Paris so you can hopefully have a little distraction and culture. Fury is getting furious at the amount of time you are visiting his top-secret facility and you could use the distraction.”

“That sounds lovely,” Maggie said with a little excitement, “the art museums would be lovely and I can’t wait to eat all the fresh pastries and drink cups of espresso in the sunshine.”

“That’s the spirit!” Tony took out his phone and texted Pepper, “I’m having Pepper take you shopping today for something new. Maybe she’ll come with us for a little bit, she could use the break too.”

Maggie smiled genuinely for the first time in months, “That sounds like fun!”

It turned out to not be fun.

Peter loved the art museums and Tony was able to get them exclusive tours of the restoration labs, the catacombs, and the art storage areas of several different museums. It was fascinating the amount of dirt on some of the paintings.

The fresh pastries that were delivered every day to their apartment were mouthwatering and plentiful. The little cups of espresso from the local Cafés were little sips of heaven (they were cheating on Leonardo, he and JR were left at home) and Tony took several notes to improve their own espresso machine(s).

They went to the F1 race in Valencia, Spain after spending a few weeks in Paris and the surrounding areas. Tony’s SI car was racing and since they were in the area, he thought it would be nice to go and see a race. Maggie enjoyed fast cars and since he and Peter built the flying car, Peter was fascinated by the engineering involved to create a powerful and efficient engine and an aerodynamic vehicle.

They arrived a day early, so they could visit the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences). It was an awesome combination of buildings devoted to different sciences and arts and it featured the "Chromosome Forest" that showed sequencing of human DNA and several other science-focused exhibits.  Peter was so enthralled with all the exhibits that he had to be dragged from the building at close.

The next day they had a light breakfast and Happy drove them to the track and they were escorted to the owners' room in the Paddock Club, above the team garages across from the start line. They were passing several tables when they heard someone shout out to Tony.

“Anthony! Is that you?”

Tony rolled his eyes, “My least favorite person on Earth.”

“Hey, pal.”

“Justin Hammer,” Tony moved to stand in front of them and blocked Justin from Peter. Happy then moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Tony, looking intimidating.

“How you doing? You’re not the only rich guy here with a fancy car. You know Christine Everhart from Vanity Fair? You guys know each other?”

Tony looked around Hammer and they watched as a blond woman approached them, “Yes, roughly.”

“She did an article on Dad after he got back from Afghanistan,” Peter said, “She was a war correspondent before Vanity Fair hired her.” Peter tugged on Tony’s jacket, “She should interview Pepper.”

“How do you know all of that, little guy,” Hammer condescended.

“Maggie and I keep up with current affairs and then she tests me each week on what we learned,” Peter replied smugly, “I also know that you create inferior products to Stark Industries. A good example is the laptop that you put out last year. It ended up recalled because the computer's BIOS wasn’t set up to control the speed of the cooling fan and the updates you sent out failed. The YouTube videos of the computers catching fire were hilarious.”

Everyone but the Stark family stared at Peter in surprise. Pepper came up, having been distracted by an acquaintance on the way in, “Hey. What’s going on?”

“Ms. Potts, my editor will kill me if I don’t grab a quote for our Powerful Women Issue,” Christine broke the tension.

“Oh?” Pepper looked at Tony, her eyebrows lifted in question.

“She’s doing a big spread on me for Vanity Fair, I thought I’d invite her to see the race and do the interview at the same time,” Justin tried to draw the attention back to himself.

“Can I?” Christine continued to ignore Justin, “I’m also hoping to set up a formal interview so we can do a feature on you,” Christine looked hopefully at Pepper.

“Sure.” Pepper’s eyes danced in amusement as she caught the anger in Justin’s face and the smug look on Tony’s and Happy’s. Maggie smiled at her and Peter gave Pepper a push towards the reporter and the two women walked away towards the bar.

“Come on, Peter. Let’s go find some good seats next to the windows so we can watch them prep the cars for the start of the race,” Maggie pulled him away so they could go sit in a secluded area in the far corner.

“Don’t leave me,” Tony panicked as Happy moved with them, accessing that Tony could handle himself.

“It’s ok, Tony,” Maggie reassured, “We’ll save you a good spot next to the window.”

Tony missed the start of the race. Justin had him pose with him for a picture and then dragged him over to the bar where Pepper and Christine were.

“I think Dad needs rescuing,” Peter said as he ate some of the tapas the waitress had brought around.

“He’s fine, he has Pepper,” Happy said as he sipped his sparkling mineral water, “if it was really bad, she’d have given me the signal.”

The race went well and the SI car stayed steadily in third place. By this time they were sitting all together as a group and Pepper was working on SI business on her laptop while the rest of them enjoyed watching the race.  About halfway through, the race was interrupted by one of the safety marshals striding onto the track. His jumpsuit started to burn away and glowing whips appeared. He stood in the middle of the track and started to cut down cars as they came around the corner with his whips.

“Where’s the suitcase armor, J?” Tony asked as he tapped his watch.

“I’ve deployed it from the SI jet and it’s en route. Three minutes.”

“We need to do something about that, J.” Tony said as he headed out of the room, “First family vacation in three years….”

Tony easily dealt with the situation. It turned out the man had somehow had the arc reactor technology and used it to power his whips.

“His name is Ivan Vanko, son of Anton Vanko,” Tony said as he brought up the specs in the car on the way to the SI jet. They were heading home early.

“Isn’t that the guy that helped Grandpa make the arc reactor?” Peter asked as he flipped through the holographic files from between Pepper and Tony in the back seat.

“Yeah. He also tried to sell his designs on the black market before Howard had him deported back to Russia,” Tony replied while trying to get Peter to stop messing with the holograms. “He’s in jail now, so hopefully we won’t have to deal with him again.”

“I hope you didn’t jinx it like you did this trip, Tony,” Maggie said from the front seat of the Rolls Royce, “Am I the only other person worried that this is going to bite us?” She asked Happy as he drove.

Happy just shook his head and kept driving. Maggie was worried that this wasn’t the last they’d see of that man.

On the flight home after the race disaster, Maggie had time to think about the last several months. After an hour she came to a conclusion, “I’m missing something, Tony. Darcy hasn’t called or texted me in several months and every time I ask about New Mexico and my few days of missing memories, everyone changes the subject. I know something happened and you were outed as Iron Man, but I need to know.”

Sitting down in the chair across from her, he took her hands in his, “You told me that you needed to forget and asked me to secure them until you were ready.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that the item that gave you memories of your childhood and those missing days in New Mexico is secured by JARVIS until you need them. You told me to take it and lock it up and then send you away. I refused to allow you to leave us but I agreed to hold your memories for you until you were ready.”

She hung her head and he heard a sniffle, a tear dropped on their hands, “Space said that I was being cowardly and I’m starting to see it.”

“Space?”

“The blue cube that Howard pulled out of the ocean,” she clarified, “she speaks, I mean yells, at me.”

“What does she say?”

“She said that I was avoiding my problems and that I needed to prepare. She said that Mind was coming soon and that He was coming with him. I have no idea what she’s talking about.”

Tony paused, it wasn’t the fact that Space was sentient, it was the fact that Loki was alive and coming to Earth that freaked him out a little, “Did she say what Mind could do?”

“No, but I have the impression that if you control Mind you can control minds,” she said sarcastically.

“Mags….”

“Tony…”

“I’m thinking that you’re going to have to take your memories back,” Tony squeezed her hands before letting go, “Earth’s safety may depend on it.”

“I can’t be that important, Tony,” she rolled her eyes, “I’m just an abandoned orphan that luckily got added to your family because you two love me for some reason.” She was channeling the Stark self-depreciation again.

“Nope. You are not going down that hole.”

She sighed, “I love you Tony, but give me a little more time. OK?”

“I love you too and I’ll give you a little more time, but not much more.”

“OK.”

“We headed back to New York?” Peter asked, coming out from the bedroom where he had taken a nap.

“Yeah, we’re finalizing the move into the tower and we have tickets to go see your flying car with May and Ben in a few weeks,” Maggie said as he cuddled up with her in her chair, “I’m excited to see it featured with your grandpa’s car.”

“Me too, I’ve only seen the pictures Dad had taken for the advertisements,” Peter played with her necklace, “I wish you weren’t so sad, Maggie.”

“Me too bud, me too,” Tony said ruffling his son’s hair.

Maggie smiled sadly at the two, grateful for her family.

**********

It was the second to last day of the Stark Expo when Hammer Drones attacked everyone during their presentation. Maggie was there with Peter, May, and Ben to see the exhibit on the concept cars that had been added after Tony found the flying car that Howard had built in the ’40s. The exhibit featured concept cars through the ages along with the two flying Stark cars. Unlike Howard’s, Peter’s and Tony’s actually flew. They had integrated repulser technology-adjusted from Tony’s Iron Man suits. It promoted clean, renewable energy and promoted Stark Industries as a strong leader in the clean energy business.

Peter was talking excitedly about the “AeroMobil” (Rhodey had nicknamed it that and it stuck) when explosions rang out from the open doorway. Maggie’s phone rang and JARVIS’s gold stellation popped up on her watch, “What’s going on JARVIS?”

“It appears that Justin Hammer is having some technical difficulties with his robotic suits,” JARVIS explained from the watch, “it appears that he is not in control of them.”

She answered the phone when she realized it was Tony, “JARVIS said that Hammer is behind this, what is going on?”

“Hammer has lost control of his suits and I think I know what happened to the missing Ivan Vanko.”

“He was trying to one-up you and it backfired?” She asked sarcastically as she started herding everyone to the nearest exit, she had to get Peter out of here.

“Pretty much… do you have Nat’s number? If she’s still in the area, I could use her expertise to go and shut down Vanko. JARVIS just traced him to Hammer Industries and I’m a little busy to do it myself.”

“I’ll have JARVIS see what she can do. I’m going to get the Parkers and Peter out of here and then I’ll go get Pepper. She should have skipped the presentation and came with us instead like we asked her to.”

“She had to make sure he didn’t do anything, and we’re seeing how that turned out. Apparently, Rhodey is caught up in this mess too,” Maggie could hear heavy fire and Tony swearing as they ran across the plaza towards the exit. Just as they passed the large globe that was in the center, she tripped and lost Peter’s hand, “PETER!” She screamed over the diving drones and the screaming civilians, “PETER!”

She had lost him.

In the ten minutes she searched frantically, she found him. Facing a Hammer Drone with his Iron Mask down and his little repulser gloves up, as if he was going to blast it, “PETER!” She screamed in fear as she dodged more people, she reached for her batons and cranked the power-up.

Ten feet from the boy, Tony landed behind him, blasted the drone. “Good job, kid!”

“TONY! PETER!” She screamed out as she dashed across the last few feet and gathered the boy up, “Don’t you ever do that again!” She was crying and shaking and she could hear and feel Peter doing the same. She raised the mask and Tony moved to kneel next to her.

“What the fuck! Peter!” He raised his faceplate and hugged them, “Maggie, I have to take care of this. Get him out of here, I’ll get Pepper!”

He stood and blasted off, leaving her and the crying Peter,” Let’s get out of here!” She yelled over the noise as she dragged him towards the exit, “JARVIS, please let the Parkers know that I have Peter and I’ll meet them at the car.”

She found them in the private parking area that was reserved for the Stark Family, and she pushed Peter into the backseat and got in behind him, “Drive, Ben. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Later that night, they all lay around exhausted, in the living room of Tony’s Tower apartment, Vanko dead, and Justin Hammer in FBI custody.

“Why can’t we have a few peaceful months of doing nothing but watching The Hollow Crown, making cookies, and creating beautiful art projects with Peter?” Maggie asked, “If I could, I’d go zap Justin for all the bullshit he put us through.”

Rhodey laughed from his position on the couch and Tony groaned from wrapping his sprained finger, “He’s going to jail for a while, JARVIS is making sure of it. You have a little time before Pete goes back to school where you can admire the pretty British actors and make art with Underoos.”

She should have known that Tony would jinx it. Again.

Just a few weeks later she was cursing him for saying that.

Chapter Text

A few months after she had last been teleported to the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility, she found herself back again. She looked around expecting either the quiet room where she sometimes found herself where the Tesseract’s suitcase was stored or the room where Clint led her to wake her up. Instead, she found herself barefoot in her pajamas in a room with Erik Selvig, a group of shocked scientists, Clint perched precariously near the ceiling, and Coulson glaring at her in frustration.

“Hey, Agent, what’s going on?”

“We just encountered an energy surge from the Tesseract,” Erik replied as he peered at his computer screen, clicking the keyboard as he inputted data. The Tesseract was housed in some sort of focusing ring with several heavy cables hooked to it and the scientists appeared to be making adjustments and muttering amongst themselves as they stared at her.

“She pulled me here,” Maggie said as she approached Space, “are you sure that isn’t it?”

“No, it’s different this time,” Erik replied, distracted, “The Compact Muon Solenoid is sending me so much information right now….” He trailed off and approached the cube, “the radiation from the Tesseract usually peaks around 1,000 K when you’re teleported here. You put out about 620 K, which is double the normal reading of a human... The Tesseract is currently reading at 2,000 K and is rising…” Erik continued behind the device and took notes on the Stark Tablet that Tony had given him.

Maggie approached the Tesseract and reached her hand out towards it, willing it to speak to her.

He’s coming. Mind is reaching and I’m bringing them through soon. Space warned her.

“We need to evacuate,” Maggie tried not to panic as she turned back to the group, “and we need to take Space out of here.” She tapped her watch and the analog face disappeared and a gold stellation appeared, “JARVIS, I need you to warn Tony, I’m going to need my memories back.” She went back to the Tesseract and went to lift it, but it wouldn’t budge. She felt Space reach for her and in a blink of an eye, they were in the middle of a dark desert, miles, and miles from anything.

“Miss Maggie?”

“Yes JARVIS?”

“Sir responded and is en route. I predict one hour for him and two and a half hours for Colonel Rhodes.”

“Thank you JARVIS,” Maggie said as she sighed in exhaustion, and lay on the ground in her pajamas, trying to absorb some of the residual heat from the sand as she waited. “How angry is Agent at my little stunt?”

“It appears that he is too busy evacuating the facility to be too upset. Agent Barton was sent to retrieve you and is currently twenty minutes from your location. He was given tracking abilities by Sir after the third time you visited the Tesseract.”

“Hmmm,” Maggie hummed as she dug her cold feet into the sand, “I hope Birdbrain has some clothes I can borrow.”

Fifteen minutes passed and the Tesseract continued to build in energy, her glow brightened the area so much that it appeared almost daylight. Wondering if she should worry about the radiation, Maggie backed away and settled about a quarter-mile from the cube.

“I hope that you had some sort of plan when you disappeared with one of the most valuable items in SHIELD’s possession,” Clint’s voice spoke up from behind her. Turning she noticed he held a jacket and some military-looking boots in his hands, his bow slung over his shoulder and his quiver across his back.

“I always have a plan,” Maggie quipped, “It’s just not always related to what I’m doing.” She took the clothes from the archer, put them on, and sat back down next to him.

“Your little stunt is going to make Fury furious enough to put an ankle bracelet on you,” Clint said as he pulled a protein bar from his pocket, “or lock you up with the Tesseract once he finds us.”

“I doubt it,” Maggie said as she plucked it from his hand before he could take a bite, “If Tony can’t keep me from disappearing and reappearing cross country, I doubt that Fury could.”

They sat in silence for another thirty minutes before a beam of light shot into the sky and a wormhole appeared. A dark figure appeared kneeling in the sand, encased in a ball of blue fire. It lifted its head and rose, a curved scepter with a glowing gem in its tip, and with a sweep of its scepter-free hand, it waved the fire away. Smoke and steam continued to rise from the figure’s clothing as they took in the surroundings.

“You don’t see that every day,” Clint said as he stood and drew his bow, nocking an arrow.

Maggie sighed, she was in her pajamas, no weapons, completely defenseless, “Got a knife or something I could borrow?”

“Sir is one minute out, Miss Maggie and he has a set of your batons with him.”

“Thanks, JARVIS, does he by chance have some guns too?” Maggie took off the jacket and dug her feet into the sand, to give herself a stable stance, “because I’d rather not get too close.”

Tony landed next to her in a crouch, his suit whirling as he straightened, “Hey Mags, Birdbrain,” he greeted the two after his faceplate opened, “I come bearing gifts.” Tony held out her batons and a pair of gloves.

She pulled on the gloves and then took the batons, “Thanks. I wasn’t prepared when I went to bed tonight for a visit to the desert,” She said sarcastically, “By any chance did you bring me something with some firepower?”

“Uh, no,” Tony looked a little sheepish.

They watched as the figure made its way slowly towards them.

“Do we know what or who that is?” Clint asked from their quarter-mile vantage point.

“I think I know who it is,” Tony said as he turned to Maggie, “I don’t have your ring so you’re going into this blind. JARVIS is en route with it, but it’s going to be too late.”

“What do I need to know,” she asked him, flicking open her batons.

“He’s your husband if I’m guessing right. Asgardian or Jotun, depending on how you look at it, and he’s Loki the God of Mischief if JARVIS’ research is correct.”

“What?!” she turned her back to the incoming figure and poked Tony in his suit protected chest, “I’m not married!”

“You are… um… it was a year in May. You are also the Goddess of Victory and your true name is Sigyn of Vanaheim.”

“Well, that’s a surprise,” Barton said as he followed the figure as it made its way to them, “good to know I’m the only unenhanced person here tonight,” he said sarcastically.

“Maggie is mortal, her powers are blocked at the moment,” Tony said, “She’s only been teleporting because the Tesseract gets lonely and pulled her from her bed when she’s her weakest.”

“Well, boys…” she sighed, “got any ideas?” The figure pointed the scepter at them and started sending energy blasts in their direction and all hell broke loose.

“Live until JARVIS gets here with your ring!” Shouted Tony as he took to the sky and started sending repulsor blasts at the figure and Clint let loose an arrow after arrow.

Maggie hunkered down and made herself as small a target as possible and watched as Tony and Clint distracted the figure, the darkness making it hard to see what they looked like.

“I’m one minute out and The Colonel is right behind me,” JARVIS’s voice came from her watch. Seconds later, a bot landed next to her in the sand, grasped her right hand and a ring was slid onto her middle finger.

Tony felt the shock wave of Maggie regaining her powers from a half a mile away in the air. It blew him back another quarter mile before JARVIS could compensate and bring him back to the area, “Holy shit, JARVIS!” Tony said in shock as he read some of the readouts on his HUD, “are our power levels at 130%?”

“Yes Sir, Miss Maggie put out a wave of energy similar to the Tesseract. It appears she has encased herself in some sort of protective force field and I am unable to get any readings.”

“Well, let’s keep her wayward husband busy while she does her hair,” he said sarcastically.

“Sir, it appears between the Tesseract and Miss Maggie, the portal energy is collapsing in on itself. You have maybe 5 minutes before it goes critical and self-destructs.”

“Shit, Ok.”

Loki or Tony was assuming it was Loki, continued to send power blasts with his Stick of Destiny, and Tony and Barton continued to rain fire on him. It wasn’t working. Just as he was hit by one of the blasts, Maggie exploded out of her bubble and landed in front of the stick-wielding maniac.

“Greetings Wife.”

“Hello, Husband.”

Loki replied by blasting her with his scepter and Tony flew after her. He wasn’t going to stick around for this shit, Maggie was his priority.

“Sir, it appears that Agent Barton has been affected by the scepter held by the Alien Loki,” JARVIS informed him, “Loki gathered the Tesseract and they used it to teleport away. You have thirty seconds before the wormhole is critical.”

“Ok, J. Let’s get Maggie and get out of here.” He landed next to her, scooped her up, and blasted away at top speed. JARVIS displayed a visual of the wormhole collapsing in his HUD, it appeared eerily similar to a nuclear bomb mushroom cloud. “I never expected to see something like that in my entire life, J, and I was dealing in weapons.” Sand and dirt chased them across the desert and Tony went as high and fast as he could without affecting Maggie’s oxygen levels. Lights from the eyes of another suit soon caught up to him and Tony landed soon after, a safe distance from the explosion. A few seconds later, the clank of a heavier set of armor landed behind him.

“Why do I always miss the fun stuff?” Rhodey asked as he flipped up his faceplate, “What did Maggie do now?”

The pilotless suit took Maggie from his arms and Tony turned towards his best friend, “Her husband came calling,” he sighed, “and apparently he’s messed up. He blasted her with the Spear of Destiny and then took Barton hostage. It looks like she’s down for the count, despite her getting her powers back.”

Maggie groaned from JARVIS’s arms and her hand came up to her forehead, she was still in her pajamas, now shredded and filthy. “What happened…?” she sounded groggy, “I’m going to stab him and then cut all his hair off. He’ll be Balder forever...” She trailed off before she passed out again.

“J, can we get her in the suit so we can fly home? I have a feeling that Fury is going to want to assemble his Super-Secret Boy Band.”

They maneuvered her into the suit and the three of them flew to the Tower in New York. Tony had a feeling he had some research to do.

*********

Maggie woke on the couch of the Tower living room and she could feel everything. She could feel her connection to her powers, the Infinity Mother, all the Stones, and the pain of her injuries from her husband. The husband that she was going to beat with his Glow Stick, electrocute with her batons, and then make him wear red for a year! He hated red.

“I see that you’re awake, Ma’am, Sir has been notified,” JARVIS spoke from the ceiling. It appeared that her watch was missing.

“How long was I out, J?” She asked as she turned towards the back of the couch and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. All she wanted was five Aleve, a long hot shower, and her heated mattress.

“Four hours, Ma’am.”

“Can I go shower before we talk with Tony?”

“No. I want answers on why your husband is batshit crazy and attacked you!” Tony shouted above her behind the couch.

“He’s being controlled by the Mind stone,” she whispered.

“So what can we do?”

“I have to break the connection, but I’m going to need help.”

“Sir, Doctor Jane Foster is calling.”

“Answer it J.”

“Mr. Stark?” Jane’s voice came from the ceiling, “I have some information for you and Ummm… Maggie?”

“Please, it’s Tony, and we’re both here. She’s back with us, by the way.”

“Oh, good!” Jane sounded excited, “I have some good news! The readouts we registered twenty minutes ago indicate that the Bifrost opened and deposited someone here.”

“Where is here?” Tony asked for them both.

“Upstate New York, South of Albany.”

“Thor is here,” Maggie whispered as she pulled the blanket overhead, “he’s here to stop Loki. I’m going to have to make sure that he isn’t dragged back to Asgard in chains,” she muttered.

“Thanks, Doctor Foster,” Tony said, “We’ll keep you updated.” JARVIS ended the call. 

“Mags, aren’t you happy that he’s not dead?” Tony came around and sat at her feet.

“Yes, but I’m going to have to fix this and then deal with absorbing the stones. Mother said it was painful at best and excruciating agony at worst. She likened it to childbirth, childbirth was a scratch of a penknife and the stones were like severing a limb.”

Tony sat there in silence, trying to process that the most powerful being of the Universe lay on his couch, in emotional distress, hiding under a blanket that she had crocheted for his Christmas present last year.

"Well, maybe Fury had a point with his Boy Band," Tony said as he squeezed her foot, "We could use some help."

"At least I won’t be the only girl," Maggie mumbled from her blanket burrito, "it would have been such a sausage fest… especially after adding the Captain."

“Sir, I’ve located Thor. Should I send a car?”

“Sure, J. Approach with a bot first and then contact us, Maggie will get him into the car.”

“Sir?”

“Yeah, J?”

“Director Fury is calling.”

“Send him through, J. He won’t stop calling until I talk to him.”

“Stark!”

“Fury! What do you want? Mags and I are in the middle of something.”

“Where is the Tesseract?!”

“Maggie’s husband took it, she’s recovering from being blasted from his Spear of Destiny, and then we’re going to go find it. I recommend you get your Boy Band together, we’re going to need some help.”

All they could hear was Fury’s swearing and Coulson trying to talk to him in the background.

“I’m going to be busy later, I have an arc reactor to connect to my building today before my permit runs out. So just send Agent over or something when you got everyone together.”

“Stark!”

“Bye!”

“The Pirate is going to make you do something stupid for that one,” Maggie muttered from under the blanket, “When is Peter home from Ned’s? I need a Peter hug.”

“Peter is due home around four, he’s monitoring the readouts with Pepper while I do the heavy lifting. He’s bringing Ned back with him for Family Dinner.”

She hummed from beneath the blankets in acknowledgment.

About ten minutes later, JARVIS called from Thor’s location, “Ma’am I have Thor here.”

Maggie sat up and adjusted her blanket, “Hey Thor.”

“Sigyn?”

“Hey, remember when we were children and Loki turned into a snake and you picked him up to admire him?”

“Ughh…”

“And he turned back and stabbed you?”

“Sigyn, this is not the time,” Thor muttered, embarrassed.

“I needed a story that you would believe that I was who JARVIS said I was…” she trailed off.

“He’s here, you saw him,” Thor stated.

“Yes. I need you, Thor.”

“I will get in this… car…. And I will see you soon.”

“Ok.”

“Ma’am, he should arrive in two hours and 34 minutes with traffic.”

“Thank you JARVIS,” she got up from the couch, “I’m going to go shower and sleep in my bed for a little bit.”

Tony got up and hugged her, “It’ll work out Mags.”

“I hope so, Tony,” she shuffled off to her floor with her massage shower, heated bed, and the extra-large bottle of pain killers.

Thor arrived two hours later at Stark Tower and was lead to her floor by JARVIS. Not caring what she looked like, she pulled her floor-length, wide-sleeved silk robe around her nightgown and wrapped the wide sash twice around her waist. She tied her hair to the top of her head and went to meet him in her living room.

“You’re Majesty,” He bowed.

“Please don’t,” she said as she sat on her plush couch, the excess fabric pooling around her, “we both know that I’ll never be Queen.”

He set his hammer down next to the coffee table and sat next to her, “We both know that is not true.”

She hummed and lay her head back on the back of the couch, “I’m glad you’re here, but not for the reason that you came.”

“You saw him.”

“Yes, and he blasted me with the Mind Stone, took control of a friend, and used Space to teleport away.”

“You think he’s being controlled.”

“Yes.”

They sat there in silence for several minutes before Thor broke the silence, “I’m sorry, Sigyn.”

“For what, Thor? He orchestrated his own fall and Mind has control of him now.”

“For not seeing how broken he was… how our people treated him so poorly,” he raked his hand through his hair in frustration, “even our friends and our Father treated him like he was…” He couldn’t finish.

Sliding over, she rested her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around her in comfort, “I know. Some of his memories slipped through when I sent him the memory to teleport. We’ll have to do something about it before you two go home.”

“You will come home too, Sigyn, I refuse to hear your protest on the matter,” he squeezed her, “We need to repair the Bifrost, and Mother and Loki cannot do it alone.”

“Fine, but I’m not staying. I can’t bear all the glitter and pomp and I know your mother will insist on a real wedding, which will not happen. I refuse to be outed as alive as of yet. How is Cousin Arne?”

“A stupid fool who angered his Merchant Houses sold off most of his Asgardian gold and has ransacked your home for profit. He holds parties and celebrations for his amusement and cares not for the people who rely on him.”

“What happened to his wife?”

“Dead. She mysteriously died soon after your disappearance.”

“Great. So now I have to collect all the Stones, save the universe from the Mad Titan and then fix my home.”

Thor squeezed her again, “It’ll be fine. You have me and soon we will recover my brother and I will have Mother assist us in putting your realm to rights.”

“But I was looking forward to hiding on a small planet with nothing but your brother,” she lamented as she scooted to sit facing him against the armrest and crossed her arms, “Fine. It’s not like I have four thousand more years to do all of this.”

“The drama!” Thor laughed, “You or Loki, I’m not sure who’s more dramatic.”

“It’s me… well, actually it’s probably Tony.”

They sat there for a few minutes in silence, enjoying each other’s company, “I miss him,” she whispered, “This would be perfect if he was here sitting with us.”

“Yes. But we will find him and we’ll fix everything. Together.”

“Yes.”

A moment later Maggie heard the sound of the elevator moving. A few minutes later, Peter exited the elevator with his friend Ned and immediately sat next to her on the couch and wrapped his arms around her.

“Dad said you have your memories back,” he said as he squeezed her, “do you remember everything?”

“Yes,” she said as she kissed his forehead, “Do you remember Thor?” She asked the boy as she tapped his nose.

“Thor!” He finally noticed the Asgardian. He jumped up and stood in front of the blond warrior, “Can you show we lightning tricks this time?”

Thor laughed and ruffled Peter’s hair, “No, I don’t think your aunt would appreciate me destroying her sitting room, who’s your friend?” Thor nodded to a star-struck Ned.

“Oh… That’s Ned, my best friend. Ned this is Thor.”

Ned continued to stand in front of the elevator gapping at Thor, so Peter went over and dragged him to the facing couch across from Maggie and Thor. Pushing his friend down to sit, he went into the kitchen and dug through Maggie’s kitchen cabinets, “Maggie, where are the cookies we made?”

“Red container in the cabinet above the microwave,” she said as she got up, “unless you ate them all.” She pulled out some mugs and made some coffee and hot cocoa for the boys and Thor. Peter found the cookies and brought the whole container into the living room and set them on the coffee table. Peter grabbed two for himself and handed Ned two before nudging it towards Thor. Thor took one and smelled it before placing the whole thing in his mouth. He chewed and then hummed in approval, “These are good!”

Peter smiled, cookie crumbs falling out of his mouth, “Maggie and I came up with the combination! It’s a peanut butter cookie with peanut butter cups and chopped up peanuts and white chocolate chips.”

“Peter loves peanut butter,” Maggie said as she handed Thor a cup of coffee and set the hot cocoa on the table for the boys. Sitting down again, she took a cookie and dipped it in her coffee before taking a bite.

Thor watched her and then imitated her, the boys watched in fascination. He smiled in satisfaction at the taste and continued to dip and eat his cookie, “I didn’t think this drink could get better.”

“Wait until I upgrade you to espresso and Americanos,” Maggie said.

The boys chatted as they and Thor finished off the cookies. They talked about their new school that they were starting soon and what studies they were going to be sharing, Maggie and Thor just listened and asked an occasional question. Thor was fascinated by their studies and asked several questions about gym class and why they didn’t learn swordplay. “You learn archery, you exercise and build your endurance, but you have yet to master any sort of battle tactics or weapons?”

“They don’t need to defend the realms and the defense of this country and several others is a volunteer organization for people of age,” Maggie explained. “I guess they study past battles in a classroom setting and there are opportunities to learn certain things like self-defense and fencing, but nothing like what we learned as children.”

“Ma’am, Sir was wondering if you, the boys, and your guest are joining him and Pepper for dinner. He also was wondering if the boys were coming up to help him connect the arc reactor.”

Maggie looked at the antique clock that stood in the corner facing them, it read five PM and it was past the time for them to be up in the penthouse, “Boys, take Thor up with you. I’m going to change and then I’ll be up.”

The boys gathered the dishes, deposited them into the dishwasher, and then stood at the elevator waiting for Thor, “Are you coming, Mr. Thor?” Peter asked.

“Lead the way, Young Peter,” Thor said as he reached for his hammer, bent down, and flipped Maggie over his shoulder before he followed the boys into the elevator.

“I know if you hid in your chambers we would not see you for a fortnight, Sister,” Thor said as he shifted her weight on his shoulder as Maggie pouted and pulled at his cape.

“I wouldn’t dare pout in my bedroom,” she said, “I have a husband to deal with,” she turned and then pulled on his hair. “Did you dye your hair? It’s not even a good job,” she criticized before using her seiðr to remove the coloring or whatever it was.

The boys laughed and she sighed before she shifted Thor’s clothes to jeans, a T-shirt, and some leather boots, “It would be best to fit in,” she said before the elevator dinged and they all got off in the penthouse, “But really, Thor, it’s horrible. I know your admirers loved it when it was naturally blond, but this is far superior to whatever that was.”

“I do not color my hair,” Thor muttered to her as he put her down, “but thank you for the clothing.”

“You are most welcome,” she smiled at him before she shifted her robe and pajamas to jeans and a loose button top.

They followed the boys into the dining area where Pepper was sorting bags of Chinese food, “Hey guys,” She greeted, “Peter would you take Ned and get some plates and silverware?”

“Hey, Pepper,” Maggie said as she pulled napkins from the sideboard and glasses from the bar along the wall, “This is Thor, my brother-in-law.”

“Oh!” Pepper gave Thor her best smile and held out her hand, “It’s very nice to meet you!”

Maggie couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or genuine. She knew that Pepper had been pissed when they all had been involved in the mess in New Mexico last year, but she had lightened significantly when Maggie had used her own money to pay for the damages and rebuilding.

“Lady Pepper, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Thor took her hand and bowed over it.

“Hey, you have a girlfriend!” Tony yelled out from the elevator, Rhodey behind him, carrying what appeared to be sushi.

Pepper rolled her eyes and continued placing containers out on the table. Maggie went and pulled the soy sauce from the refrigerator and gathered some ramekins to hold it.  They all gathered around the table and took their seats. Tony at the head, Pepper on his right, Peter on his left, Ned next to him, then a space for Happy, Rhodey at the foot, Maggie next to Pepper and Thor next to her.

“Is Happy coming?” Maggie asked as she scooped sesame chicken onto her plate, “I figured he’d be here for family dinner tonight, he hasn’t missed in months.”

“He’s running late, he had some security thing,” Tony said as he stabbed a sushi roll, soaked it in soy sauce, and popped it in his mouth.

Pepper cringed at the amount of soy sauce, “He’s making a badge for Thor,” she said as she mopped the puddle around the ramekin with her napkin, “You know how he takes his badges seriously.”

Maggie hummed around her chicken and saw Peter stare at Thor trying to figure out the chopsticks. Maggie laughed and handed him the fork, “Here. I don’t know how you didn’t get a fork.” The boys continued to watch the way Thor ate his food and Maggie smiled and then used her seiðr to manifest Asgardian cutlery. Handing a set to Thor she took the other and then showed the boys how they ate in Asgard.

“Family dinners would be much more lavish than this,” she explained, “we would dress down from the public events or even the Court Banquets, but we would still wear some finery. She transformed her clothing into what she had worn at the last family dinner she had attended the week before her mother disappeared. An off the shoulder teal silk gown with three-quarter length puff sleeves, the gold gorget that matched Loki’s, the crescent moon headpiece that signified her status as a master sorceress, gold chandelier earrings, and decorated gold cuffs on both forearms to signify her status as Crown Princess.

“Wow!” Both boys shouted.

Maggie smiled and then transformed Thor’s clothing into what she had remembered him wearing at the meal, she then adjusted the table and chairs to appear as a smaller version of the table in the family dining room. Peering at each of the others she imagined what they would wear if they were Asgardian and then transformed their outfits. Everyone exclaimed in shock and Pepper fingered the fine jewelry that was layered over her wrists and neck, “This is a bit extravagant,” she said in awe. The boys compared their outfits in glee, their food was forgotten. Thor just rolled his eyes and continued to eat, this wasn’t the first time Sigyn or Loki showed off their seiðr during dinner and he wasn’t going to let it bother him. Tony and Rhodey were taking their cues from Thor and continued to eat, both rolling their eyes at each other’s outfits. Maggie had dressed Tony like Odin in robes and Rhodey in something similar to Thor but in blue.

When Happy came upon the medieval-like dinner experience, he rolled his eyes, handed Thor his badge and sat down and started eating, “I’m not going to even ask,” he said.

Maggie laughed and waved her hand and the glamor disappeared, “I couldn’t help it, the boys were curious and it’s much more fun to show than tell.”

The meal went smoothly, everyone asked her and Thor questions about Asgard and the different customs. Maggie let Thor take the lead, but threw in an occasional anecdote. When it ended, the boys helped her clean up while Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper started setting up the equipment for the arc reactor.

“Alright, we’re all set!” Tony stepped away from the computer with the reactor readouts, “I just need my suit. JARVIS?”

“The suit is waiting for you out on the widow walk, Sir.”

“It’s not a widow walk,” Tony muttered, “It was supposed to be for the bots that assisted me with the suits, but since you took the initiative to develop the step in and out option, I didn’t need it anymore. So it’s now my jumping off point of Stark Tower.”

“Come on, Dad!” Peter started pushing his Dad from behind towards the door, “We want to get this show on the road!”

“Why don’t you get in the suit and go do it, then,” Tony said as he dragged his feet, “Or get your Uncle Rhodey to do it.”

“Yeah. No way, Tones, this is you and Pepper’s baby.  I have nothing to do with this.”

“Fine, I guess if I want it done right…” Tony turned and scooped up Peter and dumped him on the couch, “Stay here kiddo, keep an eye on the readings and help Pepper like a good child, I know you can be.”

Maggie shook her head and started handing out cookies to everyone for dessert. When Tony came up to her for a cookie she shook her head and backed away, “When you get back. I’ll save some for you.”

He grumbled and dragged his feet out the door and the suit wrapped around him and he ran and jumped off the balcony to nowhere.

“That was dramatic,” Pepper said as she sat down in front of the computer, “Come here Peter and help me.”

Tony disconnected the Tower from the transmission lines and they activated the arc reactor, “How does it look?” Pepper asked Tony as he flew back from the Hudson River where he had installed the bypass for the Tower.

“Like Christmas, but with more….me.”

“Hey!” Peter shouted out in protest, “You mean us!“

“No, when your name is on the lease, then we can say ‘us’,” came the snarky reply, “till then it’s me.”

“We have to go wider on the public awareness campaign,” Pepper was shifting into business mode, “we need to do a press conference soon and start on the zoning for the next building.”

“Pepper, you’re killing me. Remember? Enjoy the moment.” Tony complained as he landed and JARVIS let him out of the suit.

“Oh, come on Tony!” Maggie chided Tony as she handed him his cookies, “Let her be excited about the future. This is going to revolutionize the energy sector with clean, renewable energy, and make their futures better.” She nodded towards the boys who were gathered around the laptop and Pepper, “I’m glad you let Ned come over, this is a world-changing moment that he’ll be able to tell future generations about.” She hugged him, “I’m so proud of you.”

Tony grumbled in embarrassment and it was made worse when Rhodey came over and hugged him too, “I’m proud of you too Tones! Look at you, all grown up!”

Maggie laughed at the two of them and stepped back and went over by Thor who was admiring the skyscrapers around them, “Midgardians seem so puny, so insignificant…Then you experience the little moments of theirs that create such change for their future and you can’t help feel that you are insignificant…” He sighed as he trailed off, “Their lives are so short, but they carry so much joy and potential,” he nodded at the boys. Maggie stood next to him and leaned into his side, he put his arm around her and she put her head on his shoulder.

“Peter and Ned are something spectacular. They are going to change this world. Together,” she said softly, “Like how we were going to change the Universe together…. I hope we’re not too late.” She said sadly, “I don’t know if I can allow him to be dragged back to Asgard in chains.”

“I won’t let it,” he promised.

“Phil!” Pepper’s voice came from the other side of the room, “Come on in, we’re celebrating.” She held a glass of champagne and it looked like the other adults did too, except Tony who was eating his cookies.

“Which is why he can’t stay,” Tony deflected and stuffed a cookie in his mouth.

“I have some bad news and I need you to look this over,” Coulson went to hand Tony a datapad.

“I don’t like being handed things.”

“That’s alright because I love to be handed things. So let’s trade.” She handed Phil her glass and took the datapad from Coulson. She took the last of Tony’s cookie and handed him the pad.

“Hey!” Tony protested, “I earned that cookie! Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday,” Tony said as he flipped open the pad and swiveled the screen, “Maggie did an excellent job of negotiating our consultation contract.”

“I am an excellent negotiator,” Maggie said as she came up to Tony.

“This isn’t a consultation.” Phil turned towards Maggie and saw Thor behind her, “Mr. Odinson, I’m glad you’re here too. We need you to come in too.”

“Too?” Maggie asked.

“Loki managed to take Doctor Selvig along with Agent Barton, the situation has become even more critical,” Coulson responded.

“What is all of this?” Pepper asked Tony as he flipped through the images on the datapad.

“This is, uh…” Tony had JARVIS expand the data into holographic forms around the room. Profiles of several identifiable people scrolled through the room with videos of battles and documentation of their origins and powers, “us.”

“Shit!” Maggie exclaimed as she pulled her profile to her and flipped through the different documentation they had on her. “I thought JARVIS hid all of this…”

“Apparently Fury has a Super-secret Server that we don’t know about,” Tony said as he brought up Captain America, “So that’s the frozen relic Fury was talking about. J? How did we miss this?”

“I’m not sure Sir,” JARVIS replied, “but I will find out.”

“I think I need to head to DC tonight,” Pepper looked over the information, “and I think we need to send Ned home. Happy? Would you mind taking Ned home?” Happy nodded and then pointed to the boy. Ned’s shoulders drooped, he wordlessly hugged Peter and then followed Happy to the elevator.

“What about Peter?” Maggie asked, “If I’m called in, he can’t be here alone.”

“We could send him with Pepper…” Tony trailed off and Pepper shook her head, “then I don’t know.”

“May and Ben are in Italy right now…” Maggie rubbed her forehead and sat on the couch.

“Stay here and I’ll go with Stark to retrieve Loki,” Thor interjected, “if we have to, you can send him to Mother in Asgard.”

“He’d never want to come home if I did that,” Maggie muttered, “Or Happy could stay with him... But!” she held her finger up, “JARVIS will let me know if it gets really bad and you guys need me. I trust neither of you to determine if it’s critical enough for me to come in.”

They both nodded and Maggie sat down on the couch and watched as Pepper negotiated a ride to the airport from Coulson. Rhodey, Thor, and Tony started discussing the Tesseract and Loki and strategies.  

She rested her head on the back of the couch and reached for Space, who had been so easy to reach before but seemed shrouded, now. She felt Mind, too, but he was ill-tempered, distrustful, and evasive. She couldn’t get a read on either of their locations. Frustrated, she stood and gathered up the too curious Peter who was sneakily flipping through the information and led him away.

“Hey! I want to hear what they’re going to do,” Peter protested.

“I know.  You are occasionally so much like Loki and Thor that sometimes that I swear you are my child. And then you give me that silly grin your father has and you do some silly genius thing and I know that you are Tony’s clone.” She kissed his head, “You have time before you get involved in saving the world and I’m sure Ned will be right there with you. Just like your Dad and Rhodey. Enjoy this while you have it, I wish I could have.” She blinked back the tears, “I had to grow up way too soon and I want you to have a few more years yet.” She hugged him. “Now go clean up and go to sleep. I’m going after them and I need you to be on your best behavior for Happy.”

“Does Dad know?”

“No, I’m going to teleport. I just have to locate them…. Well, JARVIS?”

“Yes, Ma’am?”

“Can you search for Loki, Erik, and Barton and let me know?”

“I’m already searching. I started soon after we returned from the Mojave Desert.”

“Thanks, JARVIS. Now, Peter, I need you to go to sleep or I will send you to Frigga. She’ll probably never give you back because you’re so adorable and then your father would hate me forever. Which for me is, well…. Forever.”

Peter seemed intrigued by getting babysat by a goddess, but quickly laughed at her joke. He hugged her and then went into his room, “Good night, Maggie. Love you.”

“Night Petey-Pie. Love you too.”

He closed his door and she leaned into the wall across from the door and rested her head against the wall. She needed a plan and she wasn’t sure if she could figure one out. She needed to find the Stones, which would lead her right to her husband and her two friends. She also had to make sure that Loki didn’t kill anyone, sighing she stood straight and went back to debrief with the boys. It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

Loki sat against the wall and cradled the scepter in his arms as he watched Selvig work with the Tesseract. He contemplated the illusion that he had seen. Despite Mind telling him that She was alive, he had doubted it. The Infinity Mother was an indestructible entity, but Sigyn wasn’t. She was as mortal as him and if she lived he would still be able to feel her through her ring. So when he had blasted the illusion of his wife and she had disappeared he accepted the inevitable.

Mind had lied.

It was using him to fulfill the will of its Master, Thanos.  He was a fool to hope the illusion had been real.

Lately, he had more control of his body, but the Mind stone still pulled at his will. He could manipulate things to a degree but his objective was still hammered so much into his mind he couldn’t deter from it too much. He just had to work on subtly breaking down the Mad Titian’s plan, he needed more assistance. Why didn’t Earth have some defenders? What planet had no plans for defense? What a worthless little, provincial dirt ball!

The Mind stone puuuulllled him and he found himself in the throne room of the Mad Titan, nothing but that silly minion in front of him.

“The Chitauri grow restless,” the creature spat at him.

Loki projected himself in full battle armor with his helm, pretending to be still deep under Mind’s control.

“It takes time to arrange the most glorious of entrances. The Tesseract must be properly prepared for the wormhole to be stable enough to not strand your army halfway across the vastness of space.”

“You are stalling!” The minion went to attack him and Loki pushed the scepter into the creature’s chest.

“Until I open the doors until your force is mine to command, you are but words. Allow me time to do this properly or disaster will befall you and your army of beasts,” Loki declared.

The creature paused and stepped back, it tilted its head as if he was assessing the control he still had over the Prince. “You will have your time, but if you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can’t find you. Do you think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain.” The creature placed its disgusting hand on his head and pushed him back to Earth.

Disgusted, Loki shook himself and growled in frustration. Sending the Scepter to his pocket dimension, he strode from the room and made his way out of the building, he need some air before he stabbed something.

**********

Thor and Tony left with Coulson, Rhodey went back to base and Maggie stayed behind with Peter. She went down to her floor and went into her training room and started to work through her daily routine of yoga, katas, and strength building. After two hours, she lay on her yoga mat and cried. She was just over a thousand years old and all she wanted to do was hide in her bed and sleep for a hundred years. She understood now why she had been depressed all these months and why the therapist, that Tony insisted she see, wasn’t helping. Without her memories, she couldn’t deal with her problems to get better, so she remained depressed. Now that they were back, she didn’t have time to process through them.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes, JARVIS,” Maggie said as she sat up and wiped her face.

“May I call Sir or someone else for you to talk to?”

“No, I’m ok. Thank you JARVIS for your concern,” She stood and went to shower. She needed to figure out what to do. She had a husband to track down and two Infinity Stones to absorb. Then she was getting therapy. All the therapy! And she would drag Thor and Loki with her too. Those two had more problems than she did.

*******

Loki wore an invisibility glamor as he strode through the town that Barton had recommended they hide in. He had underground contacts that SHIELD didn’t know about and he had needed some assistance if this was going to work out. He passed several shops and he was about to turn a corner near a small café when he heard the name Stark.

Pausing he looked through the open windows and saw the television was on some sort of information channel, “Today Justin Hammer was sentenced to twenty years for his actions at the Stark Expo disaster, for illegally freeing Ivan Vanko from Spanish custody, and for aiding and abetting a terrorist. The Starks were unavailable for comment.”

Pictures flashed on the screen and he recognized the boy Peter that stood with a dark-haired man with facial hair, a red-headed woman, and a young dark haired woman. The dark-haired woman looked familiar and he felt Mind reach out and jolt him, distracting him from his thoughts.

Hissing in pain, he raked his hands through his hair. He needed to get full control because he hated how much Mind could manipulate him. He wanted to find out more about this woman and the Starks, but he felt the pull back to the facility. He dragged his feet and tried to use his seiðr to allow himself more control, but Mind pushed back and forced him to turn back. Sighing, he started back, he was tired of fighting. He did have a distraction to facilitate. Selvig needed something for the wormhole and Barton had a plan.

*******

Maggie had slept for several hours before she felt a tug. Sitting straight up in bed she searched the room and found it empty. The tug came again and she felt Space reach out, Soon you will be needed. Maggie sighed and flopped back onto the bed.

“JARVIS, where is Happy?”

“Mr. Hogan is currently asleep in his room on the guest floor.”

“Can you wake him?”

********

The Quinjet landed on a massive aircraft carrier several hours after they had loaded up and left Stark Tower. Thor followed him and Coulson off the jet and they approached a tall blond man and a redheaded woman. “This is Agent Natasha Romanoff and Captain Steve Rogers,” Coulson introduced them, “This is Thor Odinson and Tony Stark.”

“Hi,” Natasha shook Thor’s hand and nodded at him, “where’s Maggie? I thought she would want front row seats to this fiasco.”

“She’s home with Peter, I told her we’d call her in if it was bad,” Tony stated as he set his red and gold case down and he tapped his wrist, “JARVIS?”

“Ma’am is till at the Tower, Sir.”

“Good.”

Coulson walked off, several agents followed behind him carrying cases that Tony had loaded up before they had left. He needed equipment to track the Tesseract and from the readings, he had gotten from Maggie’s midnight jaunts, he predicted that he might be able to track it pretty easily. Thor looked around curiously at all the melee as people started strapping down the jets and packing away tools and closing hatches.

“Doctor Banner?” The Captain called out.

“Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you’d be coming…. Well, I guess I see everyone is here, except…” he searched for Maggie and Rhodey.

“The Lady Maggie is currently occupied with something more important than tracking my brother down,” Thor interrupted.

“Rhodey will meet up with us later,” Tony supplied as he elbowed Thor.

“Oh.”

“Word is you can find the cube,” The Captain stated as he shook the Doctor’s hand.

“Is that the only word on me?” Banner looked around, anxiously.

“The only word I care about,” The Captain said as he stepped back so the others could shake Banner’s hand.

“It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner.  You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster,” Tony teased, looking for a reaction.

“Uhhh… Thanks?” Banner looked down.

“Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a minute,” Natasha interrupted, “It's going to get a little hard to breathe.”

The aircraft carrier started to hum, vibrate and then shake as the water was thrown into the air. He felt it start to lift and people moved faster to finish their tasks. Their group started moving towards the edge and peered over the side.

“Is this a submarine?” The Captain asked Natasha.

“Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?” Banner asked in disbelief as they took in the gentle rise of the Helicarrier and the massive turbines spat out water and raised them further into the sky, “Oh, no! This is much worse!” Banner exclaimed as they backed up and followed Natasha through the open hatchway.

They followed her up to the bridge where several agents were running around coordinating the Helicarrier’s accent.  

******

“Ma’am, I’ve located Loki of Asgard, he is currently in Stuttgart, Germany near the Stuttgart Museum of Fine Arts,” JARVIS spoke suddenly after she had asked him to wake Happy. “A black-tie gala is being hosted at the Museum for the benefactors of the museum by Doctor Heinrich Schäfer of Schäfer Security Service. He currently owns one of the largest amounts of iridium in Europe….” JARVIS trailed off, “Doctor Selvig will need it for a stabilizing agent for the portal.”

“How far from the museum is he, J?”

“Three blocks, he’s taking his time.”

“Ok,” she turned to her closet and dove for the special occasion section. Grabbing a black silk dress that Pepper had made for her for a SI event that got canceled, she swapped it out for what she was wearing. Manifesting her full regalia of jewelry, minus the headpiece, she manifested the cape that she was supposed to have worn for her wedding. It was fabric woven of Asgardian gold with a gold chain and an emerald and jade clasp. It was weighty, but not heavy. Pairing everything with strappy wedges she could fight in, she stashed her batons and several blades. “Ok, JARVIS. Tell Happy that he’s in charge,” she reached for Space, who finally responded. I need to go to Mind, right now! She told the stone. She felt the pull and intertwined her seiðr with Space and pulled herself right next to her husband.

“Hello, Husband,” He looked indignant.

Huh.

“Greetings, Wife. Or should I say, Phantom Wife since Mind is playing the most despicable of tricks again?”

Ignoring his disbelief, she flipped the cape back over her shoulders and then grabbed the staff disguised as the Mind Stone. She pulled it away and flicked it into her pocket dimension, the echo of Mind’s anger rippled through both of them.

“I believe we have a gala to attend,” she shifted the glamor of his Midgardian outfit to a slim fit tuxedo with a waistcoat, bowtie, and pocket square. She also got rid of the wool scarf and replaced it with silk in his signature green and made sure to match his cufflinks and buttons to her gold and jade clasp. Facing him she tweaked his outfit and he just stood there and stared at her in incredulity. She looked up in his oddly tinted electric blue eyes and they shifted back to his usual green and then back to the blue. Reaching up she placed her fingertips at his temples, she tried to push out Mind’s control but it was so intertwined with his psyche that she couldn’t pull it out without hurting him. Sighing she brushed his hair back and hooked her arm through this, “Come, dear.”

They walked the next block and approached the entrance to the museum and he pulled her to a stop, “Side entrance, we must go through the side entrance.” So she went with him and they walked along the side of the building till they stopped at an emergency exit. He used his seiðr to open the door and he held it open as she stepped through. Taking his arm again they went up the stairs and made their way towards the sound of violins and people. In the balcony overlooking the gala, they observed the Doctor give a speech. She turned towards him and gripped his hand, “What’s the plan?”

“Barton is infiltrating Schäfer Security so we can retrieve the Iridium but we need the Doctor’s retinal scan to access the vault where it’s kept.”

“Really? When you can just teleport into the vault and back out again with the element?” She couldn’t believe how much control Mind had that Loki couldn’t problem solve.

Loki blinked at her and said nothing. She sighed and then led him towards the stairs and the gala, “I want a dance or two before our brothers show up,” she tapped her earpiece, “JARVIS, please make Tony aware of where Barton is.” The comm beeped in response as she made her way towards the stairs and her bewildered husband offered her his arm.

Security confronted them as they made their way down the stairs and she smiled a regal smile that proclaimed that trifling with her would result in dire consequences. The music paused and everyone turned towards them and watched as they descended. She just pushed her shoulders back even further and kept going. As they reached the bottom, Doctor Schäfer approached them with a confused and tense smile on his face, “I don’t believe we’ve met,” He bowed to her, “I am Doctor Heinrich Schäfer and you…”

“Good evening Doctor, I apologize for our lateness. I am Princess Sigyn of Vanaheim and this is Prince Loki of Asgard, my husband. We are both interested in the Viking art and artifacts you sponsored and we were wondering if a private tour is available after the dancing.” She smiled brightly at him and then glanced longingly over at the musicians.

The silence was deafening.

“I must apologize, Your Highness, but unfortunately this is a private event. I would be more than happy to arrange a tour at a later date,” the Doctor looked over her shoulder to his security.

Maggie unhooked her arm from Loki’s, unclipped her cape, and flicked it into her pocket dimension to the gasps of the crowd. She sashed over to the center exhibit, a bildgesnipe alter in gold and marble, “The problem is…,” she sighed dramatically, “I really wanted a dance with my husband, “ She looked sadly at the Doctor, “We’ve been married a year and I have yet to get my first dance,” she sighed dramatically again, playing the silly princess. She continued slowly around the alter forcing the people to move out of her way. She reached out and dragged her finger along the alter, observing as everyone cringed. She flashed a dark grin and then spun, flipped, and landed on top of the gold slab.

“You’re not a princess!” Shouted a woman from the crowd, “You’re Stark’s Nanny that somehow convinced him to make you his sister!”

Maggie sighed and then she tapped her earpiece, “JARVIS, I need an ETA….” She stressed to the AI.

“One minute.”

“You are correct, I am Tony Stark’s sister,” She spun on her heel to face the woman and manifested her full battle armor with full regalia and sword, replacing her gala outfit, “I’m also the Goddess of Victory,” she said harshly as she watched as everyone ran out of the building screaming. She laughed as they all ran, including the Doctor.

“Your Highness, I believe you are as dramatic as Sir,” JARVIS’s voice came from the comm still in her ear, “Sir has landed,” and she could hear AC/DC coming from the open doors.

“About time!” She jumped and landed in a crouch in front of her husband.

As she straightened, he reached out and poked her shoulder and she swayed backward with the little push, “You are not an illusion of the Mind Stone.” The blue flickered and the receded and he jumped forward and grabbed her in a crushing hug.

That’s how Tony, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers minus Banner found them just seconds later, “Maggie, why aren’t you home with Mini-Me?” Tony asked as his faceplate flipped up, “Hey, let go of my sister!”

Thor reached out and put his hand on Tony’s shoulder and shook his head.

“Did you get Birdbrain?” Maggie asked the group, “I had JARVIS send you the information…”

“No, he was gone by the time we got to him. Somehow he got the door open without the Doctor’s retinal scan,” Nat said as she went to pull Maggie away while Thor grabbed Loki, “I love this, can I get a set?” Nat motioned to Maggie’s armor.

“Well half of it is one of a kind created by a very skillful King of the Dwarves but the under-armor is from Tony. I can see if he’d help us create something for you.”

“Brother, are you alright,” Thor asked Loki and then gave his brother a crushing hug, “I thought we had lost you.”

“Let go, you imbecile!” Loki shouted as he struggled to get free.

He stabbed Thor in the side, Thor dropped him and Loki turned towards the group. Maggie swept in front of them and flicked out her batons, “Now dear, you can come with us or I’ll make you,” She sweetly threatened.

The blue overpowered his eyes and his smirk was menacing and leering, “Make me, Wife.”

She grinned and flicked up the voltage on her Buzz Batons.  

******

When she had appeared to him in the street, he had thought that it was just another illusion of Mind. He could feel the rage and indignation of the Stone even as she had appeared to flick him into her pocket dimension, severing the proximity of their influence, dampening the effects of their control. Loki still didn’t believe the vision in front of him, despite the proof of her touch and the loss of the scepter. He had hoped….then fought for a bit more control, and tried to enjoy the moments he had. 

The fury at his brother for pulling him from her arms gave Mind complete dominance and he felt himself lose all the control he had gained.

The battle armor she wore was all smooth lines and flowed with her defensive moves, it looked slightly different from the armor she had worn when she had battled alongside him last. The batons she wielded with skill and determination, instead of her usual sword, emitted a similar energy to the Tesseract, but slightly different. As the ends came down on his ungloved hands, he found out why. Several volts traveled up his arm and made the hole to the outside world a little bigger and the view a little clearer in his repository prison. Joy ricocheted through him and Loki pushed back at the walls that stifled him.

She must have noticed because her stance changed and her gloved thumbs flicked the ends of her batons and he could feel the energy spike. Ah! Was the next thought as he forced as much as he could to slow his body, to allow her to get in another jab.

A few more high voltage jabs to his neck, face, hands, and wrists allowed enough of his will through to be able to control more and more of his mind and body, “Come on Wife! Your silly sticks can’t stop me, but perhaps we can have some fun before I haul you before Thanos! If you’re good, I’ll make sure your chain is just long enough to offer the wisps of freedom,” he taunted.

Rage passed over her face briefly before it smoothed and she rolled her eyes, realizing that he was taunting her. She said nothing, just adjusted her grip, and flicked the ends again, spiking up the voltage. Her eyes narrowed and analyzed him from head to toe. In his exhaustion, he had dropped the glamor hiding his ripped leathers, sunken cheeks and eyes, and sickly pallor. His torture, agony, and defeat there for all to see.

“If you give it maximum effort, you might get lucky, Husband.” She taunted softly back at him, “I’ll bring the chain,” the smile she gave him was full of promises.

They fought and circled for a few minutes before the dual jab of her batons on either side of his neck overloaded his system and everything went black.

********

The rest of the Avengers stared at her in shock as she holstered her batons and checked Loki’s pulse. Sighing in relief she checked his pupils, making sure they were green and dilating. Check! Good!

“What the fuck was that!” Tony yelled.

“Foreplay,” Natasha muttered into her hand as she disguised it as a sneeze/cough.

“What the fuck, Natasha!” Tony yelled at her.

“Fonduing?” Cap said as he turned, flipped his shield over his back, and left to manage the police that had arrived a few minutes ago.

Rhodey walked over to Tony, put his hand on his shoulder, and looked into his eyes, “Foreplay is when…”

Tony covered his mouth, “I know what that is! But... But...” He motioned to Maggie and Loki, “That’s my little sister!”

Thor sighed and shook his head, “When two beings love each other…”

“No! Stop!” Tony was flailing his arms now.

“Sir, please calm down. Your heart rate is too high, I’m going to have to contact Doctor Strange.”

“Oh good! A Doctor is a good choice to explain everything to Tony,” Nat continued to tease.

“Come on, guys,” Maggie sat on the floor next to the unconscious Loki, “I need adulting here so we look like a functional team and don’t get murdered by the media. I know it’s hard, but I believe we can do it if we concentrate really, really hard.”

“I think that is asking too much, Ma’am,” JARVIS’ voice came from Tony’s suit, “I know Sir struggles daily and I don’t have enough information to determine the rest of the team. With you, Mr. Odinson and Loki’s age equivalent to early twenties, I’m surprised you act with such poise.”

“Thank you…? I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment,” Maggie trailed off and Tony and Nat stared at her, “What?”

“Wait! How old are you guys? Tony asked, curious.

“Umm… I’m not sure. Thor?”

“I was born a bit before Father drove the Frost Giants from Earth… Loki and I were babes together… You were born about two cycles later… not sure how that calculates in Earth rotations…,” Thor muttered to himself, trying to figure out the math.

“I believe you are about a thousand years old,” JARVIS chimed in, “There is archaeological evidence of a settlement in northern Norway that was wiped out around 970 CE. Several intact mummies were found in the permafrost with evidence of crushing and several more in the artic circle frozen in un-naturally clear ice.”

“Huh,” Maggie looked over at Thor, “So you are barely the elder brother? Why didn’t I realize that before…”

“And you are the older sister to Stark,” Thor quipped back at her.

“Hey!” Tony looked a little surprised, “Not fair! I’m the older brother since I look it!”

“If you are all done here, can we leave? I have a furious boss to debrief,” Nat chimed in as she gestured to the door.

Thor threw Loki over his shoulder and Maggie followed everyone out into the night, “Can I get a ride?” She asked with a smile, “I’d love to pay my respects to the Furious Fury.”

“Only if you call him that,” Nat said as she approached the Quinjet, “and I can record it.”

“Deal!”

Chapter Text

Loki was laid on the floor of the Quinjet while Tony connected JARVIS to the jet’s computer system and everyone else took seats against the walls. Grabbing Thor’s hand, she kneeled, took Loki’s hand, and channeled enough energy from both of them to Loki to revive him. Still holding Loki’s hand she sat next to him and moved his head into her lap.

“Fury’s calling for you to be brought in with Loki,” Natasha called from the front, “He said since you took the Tesseract and it’s still lost, he’s holding you responsible till it’s brought in.”

“Of course he is,” Maggie muttered under her breath and leaned against the bulkhead, “It’s not like it’s technically Tony’s Tesseract or anything.”

“I can get Pep and the lawyers on it,” Tony called out from across from her as he strapped his empty suit in with the rest of them, “Can say I gifted it to you and you were retrieving your property.”

“OK, but I’m not sure that’ll work on the pirate,” She said as she closed her eyes and concentrated on repairing Loki’s psyche and boosting his energy reserves. The damage from the Mad Titan and Mind was extensive and frightening. After an hour, she was pulling at the last bit of darkness that hid in the corner of his mind, she felt him block her. Opening her eyes, she looked down at him and saw his eyes flash red and his skin tint blue before it shifted back, “I’m sorry,” she apologized as she pulled back. He took her hand from his forehead, kissed her palm, and held it on his chest.

“We all have dark spots that must remain hidden. Even you cannot fix that one,” He paused for a moment before closing his eyes again, “Thank you.”

She ran her free hand through his hair and closed her eyes and just felt the people around her. Sensing confusion and jealousy from the person furthest from her, she looked up and saw Captain America flip open a pocket watch and stroke the inside, “Captain, is everything ok?”

“Yes, why?” The spangled man quickly closed the watch and stashed it.

“Is there anything I can clarify?”

“What are you?”

She sat there and stared at the man who had been frozen in the ice for seventy years and then woke to his whole world changed and everything lost.

“I’m you, but instead of seventy years, it’s been two hundred.” She wished it had been seventy years.

“Give or take some immense cosmic powers,” Tony muttered, “and Howard Stark’s obsessive searching.”

She sighed, “Tony…”

“Maggie, we have more important things to worry about. We need to find Birdbrain, Selvig, Loki’s scepter, and the Tesseract.” Tony deflected as he pulled out a Stark Pad from somewhere and started tapping at it.

“We can check one of those off,” Maggie said as she pulled the scepter from her pocket dimension, showed it to the group, and then tossed it back.

“Hey! Bring that back!” Shouted the Captain as he moved towards her and was stopped by Thor’s arm.

“Step back, Captain,” Thor threatened, “You will be respectful of my Sister.”

“Yes,” Loki agreed as he opened his eyes and looked up at Steve, “As the Queen of Vanaheim, you will address her as Her Majesty.”

“Boys, please.” They were getting defensive and protective, this wasn’t going to end well. The last time they had teamed up to defend her, a moon had been destroyed.

“No. As his better, you should be addressed as such,” Loki grit out as he struggled to get out of Maggie’s hold and sit up.

“What about you two, then?” She glared at the brothers, losing the fight with her husband.  

“We don’t compare,” Loki replied firmly, finally managing to sit up. He looked over at Thor and Thor nodded in agreement. “You are the most powerful being in the Universe and once you come into your full powers you could destroy everything with nothing but a thought. He will respect you for what and who you are.” Loki pulled a knife, flicked the end with his thumb, and looked at Steve, “Or we will leave immediately and leave this provincial planet to the Mad Titan and his genocide.” He threw the knife at the Super Soldier and it disappeared into Loki’s pocket dimension a few inches from his face.

Maggie rubbed her temples and sighed, “I am currently not the Queen of Vanaheim if you haven’t’ noticed,” she said sarcastically to her stubborn husband as she flicked his ear, “and till I acquire all the bloody Stones I’m still only as strong as the two of you. Also, I don’t want to draw attention to myself. It’s not like we’re doing Look at Me.”

Thor and Loki gave each other a look that didn’t bode well for her and her chances of not doing Look at Me. Damn it! She had better things to do than talk these two down from ganging up on her.

By this time Natasha had come up next to her and the rest of the Avengers were staring at Maggie, Loki, and Thor with their mouths open, watching the spectacle. She realized that this was probably a conversation when they didn’t have an audience, she looked up at Steve, “I give you permission to call me Princess Sigyn,” trying to defuse the situation with everyone. She then glared at her husband and brother-in-law, “because that is my current title due to the fact that my cousin is the King of Vanaheim due to everyone thinking I’m dead.”

Tony laughed at them, breaking the tension, “I wouldn’t argue with her guys, she is the Goddess of Victory for a reason. She never loses an argument.”

“There’s no such thing as Gods and Goddesses,” Steve interjected, still upset about not getting the scepter and having a knife thrown at him.

“Really?” Tony sounded incredulous, “The proof is right in front of you!” He set the tablet down and raked his hands through his hair. He was not going to get any more work done.

“I blame Thor for the whole divinity thing. Loki and I left him alone with the Warriors and he ended up showing off for the Midgardians and suddenly we’re gods.” She looked at Loki, “He made up stories about us and then told them to the bards,” she paused, “Apparently you have several children,” She glared at Thor who looked sheepish, “which I’ll allow Thor to explain,“ turning back to Loki she continued, “and I’m the goddess of fidelity and a simpering idiot just to summarize. I have no idea where that came from, Thor, since I’ve always exceeded at all of my studies and royal duties, unlike someone.” Thor looked even more sheepish.

“Really, Brother?” Loki looked over at Thor, his eyebrow raised, “and they call me the God of Lies.”

“Well, there may have been mead involved and a very pretty woman…” Thor trailed off and then turned to Maggie sheepishly, “Sigyn, you are an actual Goddess, please forgive my slight.”

Maggie shook her head. Thor still needed some time to grow up before he took the throne of Asgard, good thing he had her and Loki.

“Really?” Natasha looked curious, “you’re truly a goddess?”

“No. I guess I could, I mean we could be considered enhanced beings. Ancient humans just worshiped us as gods,” she paused to think, “To compare us three in powers and strength, I’m comparable to Loki. He’s stronger physically and I’m stronger magically. Thor is stronger than both of us physically but less magically. He channels elemental magic and directs it through Mjölnir.” She turned to Thor, “You do realize that you could be as powerful as your father if you would just let us teach you,” she chided him, “you will also need to learn to learn to not rely so heavily on Mjölnir as a focus for your lightning.”

Thor looked at her with surprise, “I don’t get them from Mjölnir?”

“No,” Loki replied, “She was given to you as a tool to help you develop your powers, you can do that and more without her.”

“It’s all you, buddy,” Maggie smiled at him, “she’s just a magical hammer that is picky about who handles her. She boosts the seiðr of the wielder and in rare cases can transfer seiðr from one being to another. Hence my powers being released when I picked her up last year.”

Thor sat there a little stunned at the revelation.

“Why didn’t your parents tell him?” Maggie asked Loki and he shrugged. Shaking her head she felt the jet adjust and start to bank. She tapped her earpiece, “JARVIS? What’s going on?”

“I’m landing the Quinjet, Your Highness,” Came his reply over the jet’s internal speakers, “I ask that all of you remain seated and secured in your seat, please.”

Maggie got up and swayed, she must have used too much of her energy bolstering Loki’s.

“Maggie!” Tony reached out to steady her as did Thor, “Are you ok?”

“Just a little light-headed…” she said before she passed out.

Waking up an indeterminable time later, she felt herself being carried by a familiar person. “What happened Thor?” Maggie said as she brought her hand up to her forehead. Catching sight of her wrists, she noticed she was dressed in clothes that she hadn’t seen in two hundred years. “What the…! Thor! What am I wearing?”

“We’re doing Look at Me. Both our brothers decided it was the best plan to implement in order to flee this Helicarrier with Loki. We didn’t want to take the chance of separating you from the rest of us. Loki will be fine on his own, but with your lessened strength, we didn’t want to take that chance.” Thor answered in Vanir, his voice rumbling under her ear.

Sighing, she felt the top of her head, trying to figure out what the weight was. Reaching up she felt the Diadem of State that had been in the vault in Vanaheim, held in place with several intricate braids. It was real and not an illusion, the real Diadem held a distinct essence that could almost be defined as alive. Seeing Loki being escorted in front of her with Tony and The Captain on either side of him she called out to him. “How?”

The group paused, realizing she was awake and Loki smirked back at her, “I was holding it for you.” He reached up and adjusted it, “I made a little tweak, though.” He smiled at her with a hint of mischief and handed her a small hand mirror. Looking at her reflection the gold diadem with the raised patterns, almost like flower petals, were usually accented with red stones were now jade and emerald. Thor set her down on her feet and she felt the Vanir Court dress shift and settle around her.

“Is this going to be better or worse than the time when I was captured by Marauders and that Easik wanted me as his wife?” She spoke in Vanir to prevent anyone from the three of them from understanding them.

“Hopefully better,” Loki replied in the same language, “I won’t have to pretend to be your handmaiden this time and we don’t have the Warriors to foul up our escape.”

“So the usual? I really hate doing Look at Me. Why can’t we do Get Help?” She suggested, knowing Loki loathed Get Help.

“Everyone knows I’m your husband and Thor’s my brother, so we will need to adjust,” He ignored her suggestion.

“Hmmm, act like I own the planet and fake anger and dissatisfaction…” She trailed off and looked to the others, “I need to keep Fury so occupied in order for us to easily leave and take care of the threat. There’s very little time to find Selvig before the portal is opened and Thano’s Army descends, ”she lamented.

“What was the plan, by the way? You were obviously a diversion in Germany, otherwise, you would have teleported in and out to get the iridium.” She crossed her arms.

“I was to be captured, brought to the Helicarrier to rally a group of defenders,” he nodded his head at the group, “and for Barton to be captured. I was trying to work against Mind’s control but it varied from time to time on the amount of control I had over my actions,” He eyed everyone since the others were getting restless while they had this conversation. Thor stood guard and followed the conversation, not interrupting, “I don’t remember where Selvig said he was setting up the portal and I’m not sure he even told me. From what I do remember, the Doctor informed me that he knew where the power source was and that he would see me after Barton’s group retrieved me. Something about ‘A Warm Light For All Mankind’.”

“Hmm, I wonder what that means….,” she trailed off then refocused, “So, distract till Barton gets here to create some chaos? You wanted to activate the Hulk, didn’t you?” She eyed him as his eyes shifted in the way she knew that she had guessed correctly, “That would have been a disaster,” she chided as she poked his chest.

Tony stepped closer to her and cleared his throat, “We need to move Mags if this is going to work and we’re not shot.”

“Where are they putting Loki?” She asked him in English.

“The Hulk Bubble of Free-Fall, as Sir calls it,” JARVIS’ voice came from the comm still miraculously in her ear, “Or the chamber they have for Banner when he starts to transform into the Hulk. If he exerts enough force on the chamber, it drops him out of the Helicarrier before he can destroy anything.”

Thor offered her his arm and they continued on their way. Loki was split off from them and led one way when the rest of them were led another. As they approached the bridge, she shifted herself back to her armor, leaving the crown. If Barton was coming with an attack squad, she was going to need more protection than silk and tulle. Thor led her to the head of the table and she sat. He bowed and stood behind her just as Tony stepped out of his armor and JARVIS took control and stood sentry behind her next to Thor.

Maggie continued to sit in silence as she watched the crew go about their duties. Natasha sat next to her and set two guns on the table in front of them. Maggie smiled at her and pulled out several knives and placed them all in front of her. Nat grinned at her and sheathed them on her person after Maggie took the guns and tucked them away.

“So what’s the play?” The Captain asked as he set his shield on the table and stood in front of the rest of them.

“What do you mean, Captain,” Maggie spoke out.

“What was Loki’s plan? Why go through all of this trouble?”

“He was captured after being lost last year,” Thor interjected, “He was instructed to lead an army called the Chitauri against your people, they’re not of Asgard or any world known. He was told that he would win earth, in return, for the Tesseract.”

“An army? From outer space?” The spangled man looked a bit overwhelmed.

“So another portal is needed and that’s what Erik Selvig is for,” Banner spoke up, “So what did they need the iridium for?” He played with a pen, tapping it on himself and the table.

“It’s a stabilizing again,” Tony spoke up as he wandered around the bridge area and approached the control center, “Uh, raise the mid-mast, trim the topsails,” he pretended to be a pirate, then pointed at a SHIELD operative, “That man is playing Galaga! Through we wouldn’t notice, but we did!” He turned to Maria Hill, covering his left eye, “How does Fury do this?”

“He turns.” She was very good at not showing any emotion to Tony’s theatrics, Maggie was slightly jealous.

Tony swiveled and Maggie noticed he tapped the side of the monitor strangely and she rolled her eyes. JARVIS had been trying to hack into the Helicarrier servers for months now, and it appeared that Tony just gave him an in, “It must be exhausting,” he stepped back from the monitors and headed towards the table, “The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can easily get his hands on. He just needs a power source, of a high energy density, something to kick-start the cube.”

Maggie's mind twinged at that and she puzzled at what that could be.  She sat there silently and listened to them bicker while searching her mind for a large power source that would be available since most power plants weren’t set up for something like that. It nagged at the edges of her mind, just out of reach.

Fury strolled in, a strange look on his face, “I see you brought me both prisoners, I’m just wondering why one of them is free to roam on my bridge,” he then glared at her and Nat, “Care to explain Romanoff?”

“The only cell we have for enhanced individuals is currently being occupied by Loki and that would just be asking for a disaster if they shared it. Unless you have a better idea, I think we should just leave her here and watch her.” Nat deadpanned, trying to play it off as a logical solution.

“And can you explain the weapons exchange you two just did?” Fury put his hands on the table and leaned in, trying to intimidate the spy.

“She owed me some knives and she needed some guns,” Natasha smiled at her boss, pretending to not be aware of the displeasure being directed at her.

“I’m holding you responsible for her, Romanoff,” Fury glowered, stood, and then turned to the others.

“I want to know more about that stick Ms. Stark has hidden. It may be magical, but it works a lot like a HYDRA weapon,” Steve said as he rubbed the edges of his shield and looked pointedly at Maggie.

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube and I want to know how that stick turned two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys,” Fury stated as he paced the bridge.

“Monkeys?” Thor looked down at her while The Captain exclaimed that he understood that reference.

“A small tree-dwelling animal that appears similar to humans but hairier, but Furious Fury refers to an entertainment video created over seventy earth years ago. The villain is a magic wielder who controls the flying animals to do her bidding and capture the heroes,” Maggie explained to Thor while watching Tony roll his eyes. She looked over to the Captain and pulled the scepter out and allowed it to hover in front of her, “He powers himself, Similar to the Tesseract, but he is his own entity. And I am Princess Sigyn or Your Highness, and I would like the courtesy of being addressed correctly, please,” Implementing Look at Me. The diversion tactic was essentially her acting like pretentious royalty while keeping everyone focused on her till the main plan could come to fruition. She hated it, mainly because she hated being the focus of attention.

“Ms. Stark, hand that over,” Fury went to reach for the Scepter and she sent it back to her dimension. If he was going to be an ass, she was going to pull out the stops.

“Nicholas, I will not,” She channeled her inner queen, stood, and turned to Tony, “Tony shouldn’t you and Doctor Banner be tracking the Tesseract?”

Tony rolled his eyes at her behavior and gestured to Banner, “Shall we play, Doctor?”

Banner nodded, his eyes taking in the tension of the room and the people in it, “Yeah, I think it would be safer in the lab than here.”

The two left and Maggie was left with JARVIS controlling the suit acting as her guard, “I have been patient but I feel like I am wasting time here.” She stood, turned her back to the room, faced JARVIS and Thor, and winked at them, “Let us collect my husband and leave. I feel like we may have to handle this whole situation without SHIELD assistance.” She turned and nodded to the Captain and Fury and looked over to the silent observers, “Care to join me, Colonel and Ms. Romanoff?” She needed to distract everyone till Barton made his appearance and she could wrangle everyone into working together. Fury and Steve were getting on her nerves and but she needed to keep this charade going for a little longer.

“Your Highness, do you think that is wise?” Rhodey asked her, his eyes twinkled. He appeared to have been informed by JARVIS about Thor, Loki, and Tony’s plan. Why did it always seem like she had to improvise? “I see both of your brothers are cooperating and I was wondering if we should see what assistance the Director and Captain can offer before cutting ties.”

“I agree with Colonel Rhodes,” Nat spoke, “I know that having a mobile base of operations is a benefit we can’t afford to dismiss lightly.” She smiled at Maggie and pulled out a knife to clean her nails, the Vanir Steel briefly reflecting light into Steve’s face.

Maggie nodded and sat down, “Convince me Director on why I should hand over my property.”

Fury looked at The Captain and nodded towards the door and Steve got up and followed after Banner and Tony, “Very well, as long as you promise to listen and not interrupt, Princess.”

She nodded and waved her hand for him to continue, her court smile firmly in place. This should be interesting, she thought, this will take a while.

**********

Peter woke to Maggie gone and Happy angry, “What do you mean she left, JARVIS?”

“I’m sorry Mr. Hogan, but she was needed to diffuse a situation and create a distraction until Sir and the rest of the Avengers could assist.”

“Then why didn’t she wake me and ask me if I could watch Peter?” Happy was flailing towards the ceiling in frustration. Peter just tried to eat his Captain Crunch as quietly as possible and pretend to be invisible.

“She felt that you needed as much rest as possible to keep up with Master Peter. He has lunch with the Directors of the Maria and Peter Stark Art Gallery at noon at the Tower Cafe and an art class scheduled this afternoon at four PM. They are finalizing the choices for the gallery today so they can be delivered in three weeks to be hung before the Tower’s grand opening.”

Happy just continued to mutter and pace and talk to JARVIS when Peter noticed movement out on the patio. Getting up he saw some of the plants sway gently in the wind, which got past the windscreens, but nothing else. Shaking his head he went back to his breakfast.

Peter met with the Directors, Anne and Pamela, since part of their contract was discussing and selecting art pieces with Peter four times a year. They were two sisters, who were both highly educated, with several decades of experience curating for a major museum in London. Out of all the several candidates that Pepper had interviewed, all but them had refused to work with him. The ladies were older, probably close to the age his grandmother would be if she had lived, and they treated him like a long lost grandson.

When he sat down with them, he had been five minutes late due to Happy still arguing with JARVIS for some reason, they had quickly told him he was so handsome in his little suit. Forcing himself to not roll his eyes (his suit was just a smaller version of his Dad’s and he was not little!) he thanked them for their compliment (Maggie and Pepper would be so proud) and asked them if they had ordered yet. Getting a no from both of them, he caught the eye of the waiter and gestured him over as his Dad had taught him. “You’re going to have to learn how to host lunches and other boring things for SI, so this is good practice. It’s a controlled environment with loyal SI staff,” Tony had explained a few weeks ago when the Directors had been hired, “When you grow up it will be necessary to know how to ask for service or when to ask for some privacy discreetly. Most good restaurants will curate to their clients and will help you maintain that control as a host but with these meetings, it’ll get your feet wet.” Maggie or his Dad was supposed to be here but since they were both gone he was on his own. Thankfully they had both practiced with him over the last few weeks and he thought he had a good handle on it.  

Lunch went well (other than that one hiccup where he dropped his fork, napkin, and then spilled his water) and the sisters were happy with his selection of art. He was focusing on Grandma Maria’s Lily painting and a selection of other works with similar nature themes. Maggie had managed to remove parts of the wall in the Malibu mansion and they were framed and waiting in storage to be hung next week. After leaving them with the portfolio and assurances that he and his Dad would respond to their emails if they had questions, he left and headed to the elevators.

He approached the private elevator for their apartments, which was around the corner behind a large wall of greenery, he noticed a familiar person, “Doctor Selvig? Is that you?”

“Ah, Peter! How are you?” The Doctor was rumpled, appeared exhausted and his eyes were a strange blue.

“I’m well, Doctor,” Peter took a step back and discreetly tapped his watch three times, the signal to alert JARVIS that he was uncomfortable and needed rescue. Something felt off here.

“I was wondering if I could get a tour of the new Tower,” Erik’s hands shook and his eyes seemed to roam around the lobby wildly.

“Maybe when Maggie gets back,” Peter tried to step back further but instead ran into someone. Looking up, a strange man grinned down at him.

“I was thinking now,” Erik but not Erik said.

***********

Maggie got the alert from JARVIS through her earpiece, “Master Peter has activated Stranger Danger.”  She stood suddenly and started towards Tony, frantic with worry, followed by Thor, Rhodey, and Tony’s armor. Suddenly stopping she realized she was blindly going down the halls with no clue where she was going, “Shit! JARVIS I need to get to Tony,” She looked at the suit of armor.

“Follow me, Your Highness,” the suit strode forward and the three of them quickly followed.

“What’s the urgency?” Rhodey asked as he followed behind Thor.

“Peter sent out an alert,” She spoke over her shoulder as they rounded the corner and came upon a lab where Bruce, Tony, and Steve were arguing. “What the hell is going on here!?” She yelled.

“SHIELD is making weapons with the Tesseract,” Tony explained and motioned to his monitor while Steve pushed a weapon on the table forward.

Fury and Natasha came up behind them and entered the lab, “What are you doing, Stark?” Fury asked, “You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”

“We are, the models locked and we’re sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we’ll have the location within half a mile,” Bruce replied and turned towards Natasha, “Did you know about this?”

“You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?” She replied, not answering his question.

“I was pretty far removed in Calcutta and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction,” Bruce was a little green.

 “Because of them,” Fury pointed to Maggie and Thor.

“Last year when they destroyed a small town in New Mexico we learned that we are not alone and are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned. Then when Ms. Stark decided to visit the Tesseract whenever she damn well pleased,” he shrugged his shoulders.

Tony stepped forward in anger and Thor straightened up, “You’re work with the Tesseract is what drew the Mad Titan’s attention, that Earth is ready for a higher form of war,” Thor put his hand on Maggie’s shoulder, “When Princess Sigyn was drawn to the Tesseract, it had nothing to do with last year’s incident. It would have happened whether or not that event had happened. She is their defender.”

“Higher form?” Steve questioned.

“You forced our hand, we had to come up with something,” Fury was looking a little too intensely at her.

“Nuclear deterrent, because that always calms everything down,” Tony said sarcastically.

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?” Fury responded.

“ENOUGH!” Maggie yelled, using her seiðr to amplify her voice. “Enough,” She said again when they all looked to her, “I just received an alert from JARVIS that Peter initiated Stranger Danger and I need you to all stop acting like idiots and help me!”

Tony freaked out and dashed to his computer, bringing up the Tower’s security footage. JARVIS/the suit walked over to Tony, “Sir, Doctor Selvig approached Peter in the atrium after his lunch with the Directors and then forced Peter to take him up in the private elevator to the Party Deck.”

“Ok, J,” Tony manipulated the cameras so he could get a view of what Doctor Selvig was doing.

“It’s the Tower’s arc reactor, Tony,” it finally clicked with Maggie, “Erik needs the arc reactor to kick start the portal.”

“Who’s Peter?” Steve asked Bruce and Bruce just shrugged.

“He’s my son, Capsicle,” Tony said harshly, “And where in the hell is Happy!” He frantically flipped through the security cameras, “JARVIS, I need you to find him.”

“It appears Mr. Hogan is unconscious in a janitorial closet near the Tower restaurant.”

“Ok,” Tony turned towards Maggie and Rhodey, “Mags, can you teleport to Peter? Rhodey, you staying? Since I’m a consultant, I’m leaving.”

“You can’t leave!” Fury interrupted.

“I can and will, my son comes first,” Tony turned towards the suit and JARVIS wrapped the suit around him, “I’d like to see you stop me.”

Just as Maggie moved to teleport them, something exploded and she fell through the floor with Natasha and Bruce. She heard Tony and Thor screaming her name and she looked over to see Natasha’s leg stuck under a pipe and Bruce turning green while gripping the grated floor.

“I’m ok,” Natasha whispered, “We’re ok, right?” she looked over at Bruce.

Maggie crawled over to Bruce and gripped his shoulder with a firm hold, “Bruce I need you to focus on me,” She concentrated on slowly calming him down, sending soothing pulses to his aura with her seiðr and speaking softly to him. His green color slowly receded, “I need you to breathe with me, please,” she walked him through familiar breathing exercises as the explosions from parts of the ship continued to echo. It was so similar to when Tony had panic attacks that she was worried that Bruce might have a relapse in reactions to the explosions. She saw Natasha wave two SHIELD agents away and Bruce finally appeared to be a normal shade of human.

“Are you with me, Doctor?” Maggie asked as she manifested a blanket and placed it over his shoulders.

“Yes. Thank you,” he nodded his head and pulled the blanket tight around himself.

Maggie went over and freed Nat’s leg and helped her sit up, “I think Birdbrain is finally here.”

“What? How do you know that?” Natasha whispered at her.

“Why do you think I’ve been stalling, it was part of Barton’s plan initiated before I freed Loki from his mind control. Loki was supposed to be captured and then Barton was going to come to get him. I just need to zap Birdbrain and we’ll get him back.”

They felt the whole Helicarrier start to tilt and the abrupt list had both Nat and Maggie looking at each other in panic and then at Bruce. Bruce looked back at them and pulled the blanket over his head, so all they could see what his eyes and nose.

Maggie heard a noise from Nat’s comm and she tapped it, “This is Agent Romanoff, I copy.”

“What?” Maggie asked as she shifted to get more comfortable.

“Barton took out some of their systems and Engine 1 and Engine 3 are now down,” She replied, “It’s me or you, Mags.”

“Fucking hell, I have a kid to save and… fine. I’m sending you and Banner to the Tower and you both are going to make sure Peter is safe. Give me your comm.”She and Nat switched comms and she pulled out her batons, “JARVIS will direct you to the panic room where I want you to hole up with Peter till we get there. I’m hoping we can get this figured out so we can stop Selvig from activating the portal.” She reached out to the Doctor and she sent both of them to her bedroom.

Sighing in frustration and anger, she pushed it down and focused on the task at hand. She had a bird to zap and a planet to save.

Chapter Text

When Maggie disappeared (literally) with the Tesseract Agent Coulson never thought she would use it maliciously. She was a shrewd negotiator and a skilled baker (she made him the most decadent carrot cake for his birthday last year) but she was not corruptible or dishonorable. So when Director Fury accused her of intentionally stealing the Tesseract and that she was a wanted fugitive, Phil had been concerned that something else was going on. Then he found out she was married (to the God of Mischief of all people? Beings?) and that the husband had initiated the Tesseract going haywire in the first place, Phil became troubled. Then when Loki and Maggie were brought back to the Helicarrier, Agent Coulson was anxious about the whole situation till Maggie was thankfully put under Agent Romanoff’s care on the bridge. So when Loki was placed in the Hulk’s containment cell, he made sure that he was the person on duty to monitor the prisoner.

Fury interrogated (if you could call asking questions and getting no answers that) Loki for twenty minutes before giving up, threatening the god, and leaving to go threaten his other prisoner. Or at least that was what Coulson assumed his longtime friend was going to do. As Phil sat in front of the monitor in the side office next to Banner’s Hulk Containment Cell, he watched in fascination as Loki entertained himself.

First, he somehow pulled a large light up, a baseball-sized bouncy ball from somewhere. He sat down in the middle of the cell and started to bounce it off the glass walls. As the hour went on, Loki tried for more and more angled bounces before catching it and starting all over again. It had to be at least an hour and a half before he got bored and the ball disappeared and out came a pillow and a large, fluffy crocheted blanket. He got up and lay down on the padded bench on the side of the room, curled up, and appeared to go to sleep.

It was a few hours later when explosions started happening and Coulson quickly went to the weapons locker, grabbed one of the supped up guns from Phase 2, and approached the door of the containment pod. Leading with the weapon, he noticed that the pod was empty and there was no sign of the prisoner.

“Oh, Fury is not going to be happy about this.”

*********

Peter had been wondering where Happy was by the time he was dragged to the freight elevator and pushed in next to several large crates and some armed men. He knew that JARVIS had sent his signal to his Dad, The Aunts, Uncle Rhodey, and anyone else who could rescue him by now. He was also betting that JARVIS had a bunch of the Iron Legion in-bound from some warehouse too, for good measure. He went along with their demands and he placed his palm on the scanner and brought them to the floor they requested, which strangely was the Party Floor (Dad named it) with its huge balcony, entertainment area, bar, and full restaurant/catering kitchen and several random seating areas. Peter was pushed onto one of the couches and Erik went out onto the balcony and looked around, “We’re going to have to go to the roof,” he motioned everyone back into the room and Peter was forced back into the elevator before they went to the highest level it would go. Everyone got off and then crates were dragged and pushed across the slate floor of the family kitchen before they were pushed into the small roof service elevator. Peter was sat on one of the kitchen chairs, guarded by the smallest guy, and watched in amusement as they struggled to fit things in the small, single-person elevator.

Peter knew that JARVIS could shut everything down, but the AI would never risk his safety so he continued to stay quiet and allow the men to haul up boxes. His ear chirped and JARVIS quietly spoke, “I have incoming ten minutes. Miss Maggie has also sent help. Agent Romanoff and Doctor Banner are currently on her floor and will be shortly making their way to you.” Sighing in relief, Peter tapped his watch in confirmation and waited for help.

*********

Nat was hurt, her leg wasn’t fractured, but it was definitely bruised. She was grateful that Maggie had the foresight to put her in her bedroom so Nat could access her training room and some extra weapons. Noticing that Banner was staring around in shock, she approached him and checked his pulse, pupils, and his breathing. He was in mild shock, so she dragged him into the living room, sat him down, and wrapped several throw blankets around him. “I’m going to go rescue the kid, I need you to get yourself together because I need you to not go green, please. Peter is only 11 and he needs us.” That seemed to focus the Doctor enough to nod his head and start to walk himself through some breathing exercises.

She easily found Maggie’s training room and stood in the middle. A few decorative weapons were hanging on the wall, but no sign of anything usable. She tapped Maggie’s comm, “JARVIS? I need some firepower here.”

“Of course, Ms. Romanoff,” she heard a click and an apparatus from the floor rose and a whole arsenal appeared, “Ma’am also has a selection located in several other rooms of her floor and throughout the Tower if you are looking for something specific.”

Shocked for half a second, Nat blinked and made herself approach the impressive selection of guns, batons, protective gear, and several things she wasn’t sure she could identify. Grabbing a double hip holster, she holstered some guns, stashed some ammo, tucked in a set of Maggie’s Buzz Batons and several other goodies. She pulled on a set of Maggie’s special gloves and made sure her bites were still useable. Satisfied she realized that her hair was going to be a problem. Nat went back to Maggie’s room, twisted her hair up, and clipped it securely with a laurel wreath hairclip.

Finding Banner in a better condition than before, she stood in front of him, “I need you to work with JARVIS, Tony’s AI, to find and ready the panic room for the kid.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but it appears that Doctor Selvig is constructing the machine and will soon be able to activate it. I attempted to turn off the arc reactor, but since it takes an hour to safely shut it down, I will be unable to shut it down before he connects his device.”

“Then can we disrupt the connection to the device?” Banner asked as he adjusted his blankets and searched for his glasses.

“I’m sorry Doctor, but Peter is more important than disrupting Doctor Selvig’s work. As soon as he is safe in the basement panic room, I will assist you in any way I am capable of.”

“Ok, then boys,” Nat said as she checked one of the guns and re-holstered it, “I need Doctor Banner to go see if he can shut down the arc reactor while I go get Peter. As soon as I have the kid, I need you two to shut down the portal machine.”

“There is only one elevator available to the arc reactor and you will have to go to the 9^th floor and then take Service Elevator B. I will direct you if you take a comm from Ma’am’s arsenal in the training room.”

“Who the hell is this woman?” Banner muttered as he got up and followed Nat to the training room where she put a bulletproof vest on the scientist and handed him a comm. She also handed him a little tool kit, “What’s this?”

“A tool kit just in case you need to access panels or something,” she said as she pushed Banner towards the elevator and it opened for them, “Go take care of the science and I’ll get the kid and meet you in the panic room.”

“But….”

“I’ll assist you, Doctor Banner, I just need you to listen to me and I’ll walk you through what you need to know,” The AI said as the doors closed and Banner stuttered.

Nat looked around and noticed a discreet door behind a familiar childish painted screen, “Ok, JARVIS, where do I go?” She said as she slipped behind the screen and into the stairwell.

********

Thor wandered the huge ship looking for his brother. He knew that his brother had split off and sent an illusion to his prison and then went off invisible to make some sort of mischief. Or he had been around the whole time (Thor knew how protective Loki was of Sigyn) and was following behind him ready to surprise him any moment. Turning a corner, he ran into Loki. Grasping his brother by his shoulders, he steadied him and looked him over. Between Sigyn boosting Loki’s energy and seiðr and then a change of armor, his brother appeared much better than he did when Sigyn beat him in the dual.

“Let go of me, you oaf,” Loki spat at him quietly with much venom, “Where is my wife!?”

“She fell to the floors below and is fine, brother. I was on my way to retrieve her when you ran into me.”

“Meaning that she’s getting into trouble…” Loki mussed as he ran his hands through his hair, “Let’s find her and get off this sinking ship.”

They wandered around for a few minutes before Loki slapped his forehead, “I’m stupid. I’m as stupid as you,” Loki cursed and then wove some sort of spell. A trail of teal lead away from them and they followed it till they stopped at the elevator. Getting in, Thor pressed the button for the floor below them but it wouldn’t light up. Pressing it again, it still didn’t light, “Ugh! Press it gently you oaf!" Loki yelled at him.

“I am brother!” Thor stressed.

“Gentlemen, may I assist you?” A disembodied voice came from the speaker above them.

“JARVIS?” Of course, Maggie’s butler was here on this ship. She never seemed to leave home without him.

“Yes, Thor. I will bring you to Ma’am’s floor,” the voice replied as the elevator moved downward.

“See brother, it was not me that was the problem. It was your wife’s invisible servant,” Thor nudged Loki with his shoulder.

“Well, at least there is someone other than Sigyn I can trust on this ship to help me out,” Loki muttered.

“I feel so loved right now, brother,” Thor deadpanned, his brother was being dramatic. Again. The Mother help him.

*******

Maggie found Barton the next floor up and she tapped the railing that he was leaning against with her baton, sending several volts through the metal. He jumped at the contact, swiveled, and sent an arrow at her. Flicking her hand, she sent it shooting up to the ceiling where it embedded deep into the metal paneling. He shot arrow after arrow, and she either flicked it with her batons or her seiðr, till she reached him. He pulled a knife and went to attack her but she slipped past his guard and zapped him with her batons, knocking him out. Tapping the Comm, “Barton is taken care of.”

“Where’s Romanoff?” Fury’s voice came over the comm.

“She’s securing Tiny Tony,” Maggie flipped Barton over and checked his pulse and his eyes. Everything appeared back to normal. Realizing that she should probably check on Loki and find the others, she fireman carried Barton and made her way towards the elevator.

Tapping her watch, “JARVIS, I need an update.”

“Sir is restarting the Helicarrier’s turbines with the help of the Frozen Relic, Young Sir appears to be secured and in the care of Agent Romanoff and Doctor Banner is working with me on the arc reactor. Thor and Loki are making their way to you.”

“JARVIS I need the nearest Medic or secure room for Barton,” She asked but before she could get an answer, the elevator opened and Thor and Loki stared at her in shock.

“What are you doing?” Loki approached her and she swung sideways to prevent him from pulling Barton off her and she set her friend gently on the floor.

“I was going to get Birdbrain some medical attention, but I think we don’t have the time for it,” She said right before Jarvis patched Tony through her comm and she spent a few seconds trying to calm him down. Finally managing to get him to come to her, she leaned against the wall. Today was going to be a really long day.

*********

Captain Steve Rodgers was trying to help the son of his friend Howard re-start the turbines and fend off armed attackers and he was struggling. He had been struggling mentally earlier to process that Gods and Goddess of mythology were real after weeks of trying to process that he was now 70 years in the future. With the added benefit of THIS, he wasn’t doing too hot. He felt guilty for losing his temper with Tony and Bruce and was a bit ashamed of his behavior with the Asgardians. After finally flipping the lever (he hoped Tony was ok) and then was blasted back by the genius (that was going to bruise) he listened as his friend’s son panicked.

“What do you mean you’re still here, Maggie!” Tony’s faceplate flipped up and he had a few bruises and cuts on his face, “Peter needs help!” There was a pause and Tony’s face went from furious to shocked, “What do you mean that you sent Romanoff and Banner!?” Another pause. “Well, we need to go now, then for fucks sake! I have the Capsicle here and I’ll meet you so you can teleport us.” Tony frowned, “Ok.”

Tony turned to him and grabbed him by the front of his uniform, “My kid was held hostage while a friend, who is still under mind control, is constructing a machine on the roof of our home to open a wormhole into space to bring an alien army to our planet. I need your help, will you help me?” The desperate look in the man’s eyes and the rambling as he pleaded for help was a cold shock to his system.

“Of course, I just need you to tell me where to go,” Steve tried to soothe the desperate father. Tony got up and made his way into the ship. They twisted and turned and Steve had no idea where they were going as they made their way deeper into the ship. They went up several stairs, dipped below support beams, and crossed catwalks over huge pipes and pistons. It was a maze of machinery and Steve felt overwhelmed and lost. Turning one more corner, they found the Asgardians and Agent Romonoff’s partner, Clint Barton, sitting on the floor.

“You back with us, Birdbrain?” Tony asked as he looked down at the archer, “Pete needs our help and I need you to not be under fucking mind control.”

“Yeah, Maggie zapped me with those Buzz Batons of hers,” the man said as he rubbed his eyes, “What happened to Pete?”

“Long story short, he got kidnapped by Selvig and was being held hostage till Nat rescued him. Selvig is putting together a wormhole generator with the Tesseract on my roof and we need to stop him before he starts it up. Banner is working with JARVIS to stop him.”

“I sent Nat and Bruce to my rooms, so I think that might be a good starting point for us too. Thor has been there so between the three of us we can manage to teleport all of us,” The Princess said as she looked around at the group.

“I do not think that is wise, Sigyn,” Loki looked concerned, “You swooned a few hours ago and I have just enough energy to teleport myself, much less these fools.”

“I agree with my brother,” Thor said as he crossed his arms, “You and Loki will go ahead and the rest of us will follow.”

“What about Tony? He could help shut down the reactor,” The Princess argued.

“Banner will do fine with JARVIS to help and I don’t want to risk your health. Plus you are going to need all the energy to fight if we can’t stop the portal from being opened,” Tony scolded, “Barton will take us, or Thor and I will fly ahead if we have to.”

“Ok,” she moved towards Loki and leaned into him as he put her arm around her.

“JARVIS, tell Platypus that we’re blowing this popsicle stand so he better be ready to go.”

“I relayed your message, Sir,” there was a brief pause, “Colonel Rhodes said that he will race you to the Tower and he’ll beat you there. Loser buys dinner after.”

“Tell him, he’s on!” Tony replied to his computer. Steve still couldn’t believe that this man had created such an interactive artificial being.  Bucky would have loved all this technology.

He helped Barton off the floor and swung the archer’s arm over his shoulders and they started towards the elevator and the nearest hanger, Thor, and Tony trailing after them.

**********

Loki reached out and pulled Maggie to his side and just before Tony could turn and follow the others, he felt a pressure on his shoulder and a pull from his center. Before he could blink twice he was in Maggie’s living room on her floor of the Tower. “What the fuck!” Tony yelled as he started to tip over, suit and all. Maggie reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him back up straight.

“Apparently Loki decided that you had to come along,” She said as she steadied him.

“Welcome home,” JARVIS intoned, “Master Peter is safe and is being brought to you by Agent Romanoff.”

Tony stepped out of the ruined suit just as the elevator dinged and the door slid open and his son ran out, full tilt right into him, “Umphh, watch it kiddo. I just got blended by the biggest blender and I’m a little sore.”

“Sorry Dad,” Peter mumbled into his chest before turning and doing the same to Maggie. Nat joined them and introduced herself to Loki. Loki nodded his head in greeting and then turned his attention back to Maggie and Peter, an undecipherable look on his face.

“Sir, I’m sorry but Doctor Banner was unable to stop Doctor Selvig from starting up the wormhole generator. We were able to shut down the arc reactor, but by then the Tesseract had drawn enough power. I predict that the wormhole will open in the next ten to twenty minutes.”

Maggie paled and then looked down at Peter and then up at Loki. She closed her eyes for a second and then hugged Peter a little tighter. “Peter, I need you to take Nat to the training room, please. She needs a few things and I think you should show her that new move I taught you last week.”

Peter smiled up at her and then took Nat’s hand and pulled her away. Tony watched as Maggie approached Loki and then had a short argument with him in another language. She was all gestures and facial expressions, but her husband appeared more stoic and crossed his arms as she appeared to outline her argument. After less than a minute he nodded and rubbed his forehead, “Only if his father agrees to this,” Loki finally responded as he went after Nat and Peter.

Maggie approached him and took his hand, “Tony, I want to send Peter to Asgard for his safety. New York will be soon overrun with the Mad Titan’s army and Peter will not safe on Earth anymore. Thanos conquers planets and then wipes out half the population. If we lose….,” she shook her head, “He will be safe with Frigga and I will guarantee that he will be safe as long as he lives if he can’t come back to Earth.”

“How?” Tony asked as he tried to not panic at her words. He could lose Peter, he could lose his home, he could be dead in a few hours….he spiraled.

“Tony!” Maggie grabbed his shoulders and squeezed hard enough to bruise, grounding him, “I need you to focus! Peter will be safe if Loki and I adopt him and I take him to Frigga in Asgard. As our son, and worthy of Mjölnir, he will always have a home, be safe, and loved for he would be an heir to two thrones if Earth falls. Do you agree?”

Tony stared at her shocked and disbelieving, “What do you mean heir to two thrones?”

“If Thor or I die on Earth defending it, Peter would be the next in line. He would be the rightful King of Vanaheim and he would inherit Asgard when Odin dies.”

“I need an answer now, Tony,” Maggie shook him briefly, “His life may depend on this and I need your agreement.”

Tony could do nothing but nod at her. Peter would have a chance. He would be safe. God, if they lost Earth…. “Yes, Maggie,” he managed to get out, “Sigyn of Vanaheim and Asgard I give you permission to adopt Peter.”

She smiled in relief and hugged him before dashing after Loki, Peter, and Nat. A second later Peter came out and hugged him, “I love you Dad,” before dashing back into Maggie’s training room.

Sinking to the ground he raked his hands through his hair and tried to focus, “Sir! Sir!” JARVIS’s voice came through his panic attack, “Your new suit is two minutes out, Colonel Rhodes and the rest of the Avengers are four minutes out. Peter is safely away from Earth.” The last comment from his AI pulled him out of his panic. Peter was safe and that was all that mattered. He had come to grips with dying when he was suffering from the heavy metal poisoning from the palladium, so Peter would be fine. He had to save the Earth so his son could come home again. Standing he went to Maggie’s living room window and watched as his suit approached the Tower, he had his home to defend.

************

Sigyn asked him to adopt the child, a Midgardian child, and Loki didn’t know how to tell her no. So he acquiesced to her plea since it wouldn’t matter if they all perished defending Earth, he wouldn’t be alive to see Odin acknowledge a Midgardian child as his heir. Actually, he wanted to live to see that… but Peter was young and she loved him as if he was her own and he couldn’t blame her for not wanting to see him perish in the upcoming battle. Frigga would love to have a grandchild to dote upon and he knew that Odin would have no choice but to acknowledge the boy. They performed the ritual and she then used her wedding ring to open the Bifrost, taking the child with her. (Of course, Eitri gave her those powers that originally had only been afforded to Kings and Guardians of Asgard)  He hoped Sigyn knew what she was doing because if Peter could worm a tiny bit into Loki’s heart, it was only a matter of time before the rest of Asgard adopted him. If any Midgardian was chosen to receive a Golden Apple of Idunn, it would be that one.

A second later, in a flash of bright light, Sigyn reappeared in front of him, and before he could say anything she grabbed him and took him with her. Traversing the Bifrost was always disorientating, but with Sigyn and her wedding ring, it felt almost like a teleport. Hmm, I wonder if she’s subconsciously channeling Space at the same time,” he thought as he looked around the gleaming throne room filled with couriers, The All-Father and his mother. He bowed to his mother, a bow of a consort to another, and then a slightly shallower one to The All-Father, Loki was still furious at the man’s lies.

“Prince Loki of Asgard. Princess Sigyn of Asgard and Vanaheim,” They were announced by the herald and Sigyn looked up at him and rolled her eyes and mouth Queen. Even if she didn’t sit on the throne, technically she was the rightful Queen and should have been announced as such. Sigyn stepped in front of him and placed her hands on Peter’s shoulders, pulling him closer to her.

“May I present Prince Peter Lokison of Midgard, Heir to Vanaheim, Worthy of Mjölnir,” She announced to the room, using her seiðr to amplify her voice. She paused briefly while the hall echoed in shock and disbelief, “I come to ask for sanctuary for our son while my husband and I defend Midgard alongside Prince Thor Odinson of Asgard.”

Odin sat on his throne, Gungnir in his hand, stone-faced and unmoving.  Frigga descended from her place by the throne and approached the three of them. Looking down at Peter, she smiled and then looked up at Sigyn and Loki, “I will guard my grandson and protect him until his parents come to take him home,” Her voice echoed the now silent chamber, “Be safe my children.” She hugged Sigyn and then Loki, whispering in his ear, “Come home so we may have a proper wedding,” she stepped back and raised her voice, “Be victorious. Come home to us and bring your brother and wife with you.”

He nodded and took up his wife’s hand after she hugged the boy and whispered something into his ear. The boy looked confused and frightened but he stood straight and proud. Peter would be fine even if Midgard fell to the Mad Titan, he would grow to be brave and strong, despite his fear, since Loki knew that his mother would never allow anything to happen to him.

“We are coming too,” Hogun’s voice rang out in the silent chamber, Sif and the other Warriors behind him in full battle armor, “We will go to defend Midgard alongside my Queen and our Shield Brother Prince Thor.”

“Good to know you have your priorities straight,” Loki whispered under his breath, “It’s not like I’m here,” He turned to Sigyn, “Or am I invisible and I don’t know it?”

“Hogun, we accept your offer of help in defending Midgard,” Sigyn spoke loudly as she squeezed Loki’s hand, “I would also like to inform you of my marriage to Prince Loki of Asgard, my consort.”

Hogun bowed, “I congratulate you on your marriage My Queen,” Hogun paused for a beat, “Prince Loki.”

She approached them, “Thank you.”

Loki hated court protocol. He didn’t know how Sigyn could manage it so well without her throwing a knife or two at someone. If they took the throne of Vanaheim over from her despicable cousin, he was going to leave Hogun here on Asgard to rot.

Sigyn gathered them all around her, re-took his hand so she could channel some of his seiðr to boost her own, and had everyone place a hand on her shoulder. With a deep breath, she opened the Bifrost and transported them to Midgard and into the middle of a battle zone.

Chapter Text

They all stood in Sigyn’s sitting room and through the windows they watched as the Chitauri flew through New York, destroying the city as they went.

“Welcome back, Your Majesty,” JARVIS spoke from the ceiling, “Sir has informed me that it is about time that you managed to return to help.”

Sigyn rolled her eyes and dashed into her weapons room and returned with several comms and showed The Warriors and Sif how to wear them. Tapping on her own, “This is Maggie, also known as Sigyn, reporting in with Loki, Sif, Hogun, Volstagg, and Fandral.”

“My friends!” Thor’s voice came over their comms.

“Sigyn, we need you downstairs ASAP,” Sigyn’s brother’s voice came over the comms. She gave Loki a mischievous smile before she lifted her arms and they suddenly found themselves outside in front of the rest of the Avengers.

“Holy shit!” The Archer yelled as he took in the group, “Where did Mags get the Larpers?”

“Shut it, Birdbrain,” the redheaded woman said, “they’re back up and we don’t need to piss them off.”

Sigyn quickly did introductions and the Captain started directing them, “Until we can close the portal, we’re going to have to contain them on this island. Barton, I want you up high, eyes on everything, calling out patterns and strays. Stark and Rhodes, I need you on the perimeter, anything gets more than three blocks out from the portal, you turn it back or turn it to ash. Thor, I need you to bottleneck the portal. Slow them down or light them up with your lightning. Natasha, Asgardians, and me, we’re on the ground fighting the ground troops. Hulk? Smash.

“Wanna give me a lift?” The Archer asked Stark.

“Right! Better clench up, Legolas,” And off they went, everyone to their assigned posts.

“Princess and Loki, I need you to disable the portal.”

Sigyn looked over at him and nodded before she took his hand and they teleported to the top of Stark Tower. Sigyn approached Selvig, who stood next to the computer, making adjustments as the Chitauri flew down and around the tower and out towards the city. His wife came up behind the scientist, used her seiðr to knock him out, and then teleported him to safety.

“I don’t know what to do, Loki!” She yelled over the noise as she inspected the machine and assessed the invading forces.

Loki pulled a longbow from his pocket dimension and started picking off Chitauri that were climbing the nearby buildings, “Talk to Space and Mind and see if they’ll help you close it!” He yelled back as he shot a chariot driver and the chain of the ride-along Chitauri soldier.

“Incoming Iron Legion,” JARVIS’s voice came over the comms, “ETA 1 minute.”

A wave of Stark’s suits flew into the city, led by Stark’s friend, and started taking down several of the Chitauri chariots and soldiers, “More Metal Warriors!” Volstagg shouted, “You are worthy comrades!” The other warriors loudly agreeing with him over the comms.

“Chatter!” The Captain’s voice chided, “I need backup on 5^th!”

A flash and Loki watched Natasha fly by on one of the Chariots, “Will you be fine for a moment, Sigyn?!” He shouted as he tossed the bow back in the pocket dimension and started to time his jump to the next chariot.

“Yes! I’m fine! I got this!?” She shouted as she glanced at him, “You wouldn’t!” She yelled as he ran and caught the next flyby.

“Mags, I need you to close that portal!” Stark yelled over the comms as he blasted by, a little close to his chariot, closely followed by his friend Rhodes and his Iron Legion.

“I need more time, Space is being contrary and Mind refuses to obey me! I do not want to go, full Mother, until I have to! I don’t know what the blowback would be!” When Sigyn’s Mother had absorbed the Stones, it was said that she had destroyed a small moon doing it, “Perhaps my husband could direct the army he had been tasked with leading!” She said sarcastically.

There was silence over the comms, “Yeah, Reindeer Games, that’s a good idea,” came Stark’s agreement.

“I have no bloody idea how to do it, Stark!” Loki shouted as he pulled his battle sword from his pocket dimension and sliced the head off one of the Chitauri. His knives were just not doing the job. He hated using his extremely sharp Vanir blade, but needs must and all, “I was brainwashed and I have no idea how I was supposed to lead this lizard army!”

Just as he managed to turn the flying chariot back towards the Tower and his wife, a burst of light came from her last location. She was wielding the Scepter with the Mind Stone and blasting Chitarui Leviathan before they could pass completely through the portal. He watched as the Iron Legion started to direct the falling corpses away from the city and the people.

From his height, he observed the Hulk started to make his way back towards the portal. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop and then scaled the rest of the way to the top of the Tower. As he reached the upper roof, he jumped onto the Leviathan that managed to get past Sigyn’s energy beams.

“We have incoming, guys,” Stark’s voice came over the comms, “There’s a nuke coming in and we need somewhere to put it.”

“I think I can close the portal, Tony,” Sigyn’s voice came out, calm and focused.

As he directed the chariot back around again and passed by the Tower, he leaped and rolled, landing next to his Scepter wielding wife, “Need some help?” He offered as he sunk his sword into the side of one of the Chitauri soldiers that had landed on the Tower to protect the portal machine.

“Sure! I’ll let you help,” She quipped as she spun and wielded her sword, cutting the heads off of two of the soldiers in one pass.

“Three minutes,” JARVIS’s voice rang out, “Iron Legion Bot 6.0 incoming to intercept.”

Sigyn sliced the head off another soldier as he finished off the last and they paused to watch the suit of armor direct the missile into the wormhole. Sigyn flicked the Scepter into her hand and strode to the portal machine and the Tesseract, as the bot flew into the portal she forced the scepter through the energy field.  The portal closed and she grasped the Tesseract, pulling it out of its housing and tossed it to him, “Catch dear husband!” She smiled at him and he felt a surge of energy flash through him as he caught it. It felt similar to the power from the Casket of Ancient Winters but more powerful and… sentient?

Greetings, Mother’s Chosen. We returned you to her for she needs you if she will survive the coming of the Mad Titan. Shocked, he flicked the Tesseract into his pocket dimension and focused on making sure Sigyn didn’t encounter energy backlash and that the portal closed. It disappeared with a flash of light and they saw the Iron Legion robot, that had flown the nuke through the wormhole, fall back to earth. Just as they thought it would hit one of the tall buildings, another robot flew and caught it.

“That was insane!” Sigyn yelled as she jogged up to him and threw herself into his arms, “let’s take a vacation for three hundred years since you owe me a honeymoon!”

“What is a honeymoon?” He asked as she dug her nose into his neck between his helm and his leathers.

“A trip that newlyweds take after they are married. It’s called a honeymoon,” she wiggled closer, their armor making their embrace uncomfortable. He didn’t care and pulled her closer and tighter. They were alive and Earth was saved.

Oh god, he was a father now to a Midgardian child!

“Loki, what’s wrong?” She pulled back and looked up at him.

“We now have a child.”

“Yes.”

“That is a Midgardian with an actual father.”

“Yes.”

“Mother will want to keep him.”

“Yes.”

“Thor will spoil him and give him silly weapons and the Warriors will teach him too many bad habits.”

“Yes.”

“Sif will find him the most dangerous pet.”

“Of course she will.”

“I’m not ready.”

“I know, but let’s call it practice,” She smiled at him as she plucked his helm from his head and placed it on her own, “this thing is horrible, we’re re-designing it. I bet Tony can-.”

“Sigyn!”

“Yes, love?”

He let go of his fear and anxiety and pulled her back into his arms. As long as he had her as his wife, he would be fine, they could do anything together, “Just don’t let me damage the child.”

“You won’t,” she said confidently, “Peter just wants to be loved and taught new things and I already know you can do that. It’s the pranks on Thor that I worry about,” she teased. She pulled back and cupped his face, “You will be a better father than your own as I am already a better mother than mine.”

He pulled her back into his arms and whispered in her ear, “What will you do when you lose him?”

“I won’t,” She stated firmly, “I won’t.”

It was a promise and a prayer.

*******

Tony had watched from his HUD as JARVIS flew the nuke into the wormhole. The ship on the other side had been massive and the army that they had seen on this side was nothing compared to what was on the other side. After a few minutes of assessing the city for any leftover threats, he landed next to Maggie on the roof of the Tower and took in the view of the damaged city.

“The Iron Legion really helped mitigate the damages,” Maggie said as she stood next to him, holding Loki’s hand.

“Yeah,” Tony watched as they started to clear the streets and assist any people that had been injured, “I’m glad we had them, I wouldn’t have wanted to fly into that wormhole with a nuke on my back. Watching the live feed of it was more than enough for me to experience.”

“The Mad Titan has a massive army, we only saw a small portion,” Loki stated bluntly.

“I know! I saw it live in my suit’s display! How long do we have before he’s back!?” Tony’s panic slipped through.

“I am not sure,” was Loki’s quiet reply, “We will have to visit a few planets to get a good gauge on his movements. I knew two years ago that he was searching for the Stones only because of talk amongst travelers, but we will have to travel a bit to get a good gauge on his movements. Xandar is usually a good place to start but there are a few other places we may check first.”

“Nope! I’m taking time off after this. You owe me a honeymoon before we go trekking through the Universe with Thor’s drinking buddies and Sif,” Maggie declared, “I also want to just enjoy some time with my family. Why don’t we go and get Peter and then we’ll get something to eat?”

“Shawarma?  Have we ever had shawarma before? I’d like to try it…” Tony rambled as he watched the Iron Legion push debris to the side of the streets to make a path for emergency vehicles.

Inside he was still freaking out from seeing the massive army as he tried to keep himself from screaming out in panic. JARVIS will have to help him ramp up their ‘Save the Blue Marble’ plan.

“It’s like gyros, I think,” Maggie said, “I would love some. How damaged is Manhattan looking? We may have to trek to Queens or something.”

“JARVIS find me a shawarma place.”

“Searching for shawarma,” JARVIS’s voice came from his suit.

“We’ll be back,” Maggie said as she and Loki disappeared in a flash of blinding light.

“Alright, JARVIS, let’s go find the team,” Tony said as he leaped off the Tower and flew towards the rest of the Avengers.

**********

After New Mexico, JARVIS had ramped up his Iron Legion production. With Sir’s approval and assistance, he acquired another factory in Utah and he and Sir had designed specialty Bots to accommodate several different situations. ‘Igor’ was designed for heavy lifting and to carry heavy loads. ‘Red Snapper’ specialized in heavy-duty jobs in dangerous places such as disaster rescue and was much more mobile than ‘Igor’. Sir also designed ‘Shotgun’ after Ma’am had to be flown to New York and Doctor Strange last year. The suit was created to lock to a tightly streamlined shape with large air intakes to allow for speeds of excess of Mach 5. Despite its overall vulnerability, it featured several defense measures including razor-thin retractable forearm plates that could be used as bladed weapons and full RT defenses. “Plus I want Rhodey to be able to claim the record for fastest manned flight,” Sir had said after they had designed the Bot. They designed ‘Sneaky’ when they realized that they would need a few suits to be undetectable to radar and government tracking, “If Mags needs to disappear, it'll help. Who knows when Fury will start channeling his inner McCarthy. Plus I’d love to sneak up on my Platypus…  JARVIS? Why didn’t we think of this when I was doing those missions in Afghanistan?”

So JARVIS went ahead and created many of the basic Bots and then a smaller amount of the specialty Bots. After New Mexico, when they had been outed to the world, Ms. Potts had coordinated with Stark Industries’ PR and Legal departments to offer free assistance from the basic Bots for dangerous building projects, search and rescue and several other disaster reliefs. It was funneled through the Maria Stark Foundation and completely on the up and up.

When Ma’am had tangled with the Tesseract and did her random nightly visits to the Mohave Desert, JARVIS had the opportunity to test ‘Shotgun’ and ‘Sneaky’ and it allowed him to make adjustments to the rest of the Legion. Unfortunately ‘Shotgun’ had been in maintenance mode when Ms. Maggie had needed her memories back, but he had been able to send a modified ‘Red Snapper’ to assist Sir and Ma’am and the Colonel when Loki of Asgard had returned to Earth.

When Loki had returned, JARVIS ramped up production again and prepared for the worst. There had been talk of the Mad Titan and despite not having exterritorial resources for information, JARVIS made sure that he started production on ‘Gemini’, an armor that would be useable for sub-orbital space travel. It had thrusters capable of reaching great speeds at high altitudes and equipped with a high power concussion cannon.  “What about ‘Starboost’, Pete?” Sir had asked Master Peter when he had been designing the suit in the lab while Master Peter did his homework.

“That sounds like an awesome cartoon, Dad,” the boy had said as he flipped through a book on the American Space Program, “What about ‘Gemini’ after the space program?”

So the armor was named after the early NASA spaceflight program.

When Master Peter had been kidnapped, again, in his own home no less, JARVIS sent suits. When the portal machine had been activated and the wormhole opening had been imminent, JARVIS sent all the suits. He was so glad Sir had bought him another server farm in Silicon Valley and gave him plenty of room in the base of the new Tower. Even with two sub-basements, two server farms, and a few separate private servers around the world, it was just enough processing power needed to manage a few hundred suits, Sir’s suit and Colonel Rhodes suit and manage the comms and assist Ma’am. If JARVIS could breathe, he’d be almost out of breath and gasping for air. He’ll have to ask Sir for some assistance when this was all over, maybe another AI to help manage his workload.

The Legion managed to rescue civilians, battle the invading beings and divert rubble, and several of the Leviathans away from the populace. By his calculations, if he had not been available with the Legion, the death and injury toll would have been six times higher. The property damage, alone, was probably halved. JARVIS realized he was demanding assistance after this, Sir’s family seemed to find way too much trouble and he felt he could not do this alone anymore. Mr. Jarvis had had Ms. Anna and Ms. Carter to assist him in his extra endeavors. It was more than fair to ask for another’s help.

When the nuclear weapon had been deployed, JARVIS sent a ‘Gemini’ to intercept and fly the weapon into the wormhole. Sir’s vitals had spiked while watching the Bot’s live footage, making JARVIS glad that he and Sir had the foresight to create several different Bots for different scenarios. Imagining Sir flying into the wormhole made his processes skip for a microsecond in concern.

Hmm…. Interesting. Feelings, JARVIS thought.

*********

“Stark!” A voice yelled behind him, turning he saw Thor and the other people Maggie had brought back from Asgard.

“Hey, Point Break.”

“Your metal army is most impressive, without their assistance, more would have been lost,” The lady warrior said as she leaned against her giant double-bladed sword. What the hell is with extraterrestrial ladies and their swords? Tony thought.

“I wish I could take all the credit, but JARVIS took the initiative to make them,” Tony said as he stepped out of his armor.

“It was your idea, Sir. I just implemented it,” JARVIS’s voice came from the now-empty suit.

“Princess Sigyn’s servant is a great ally,” Thor said, “He has assisted us before in battle.”

“Ah, so that was the metal warriors that helped last time we were on Midgard,” The huge warrior guy said, “They look different.”

“New paint job,” Tony said as he looked for a way to escape. JARVIS was his, for god’s sake! “Have you guys seen the rest of our group?”

Just as he said that the Hulk landed next to him just as Barton and Nat came towards them with the Capiscle behind them, “Hey big guy, if you get smaller we can go get some food,” Tony told the Hulk as he backed away so he could make eye contact.

The group of Asgardians surrounded the Hulk and started asking him questions, so Tony just backed away and made his way towards the rest of the Avengers. Rhodey landed with a heavy clank next to him.

“Hey Rhodey Bear, glad you’re doing alright.”

“Yeah, with JARVIS and the rest of the legion it made it easy to keep everything contained to Manhattan. I can’t believe they deployed the nuke towards a civilian populace, the nuclear fallout would have wiped out the Eastern Seaboard!” Rhodey was pissed and continued to rant. Tony was a little shell-shocked and was trying to come down from battling lizard aliens, the fact his son was in another realm at the moment, his sister was a very powerful being and married to another…. It went on and on.

“Tones? Are you ok?” Rhodey interrupted his rant to grab Tony’s shoulders and ground him.

“Yeah, we could have died today James,” Tony said as he focused on his best friend, “Mags said that the Mad Titan conquers planets and then wipes out half the population. If we would have lost…”

“What do you mean by ‘wipes out half the population’, Tony?”

“I don’t know, but it sounds like a Hitler sort of situation. She took Peter to Asgard before the battle. She said that if we lost Earth she wanted him safe. My kid is now some sort of prince or something now,” Tony said as he continued to disassociate.

“Dad!” Peter’s voice rang out across the street.

Tony turned and ran towards his son and scooped him up and hugged him tightly. “Did you have fun, bud?” Tony asked as he set him down and checked him over for injuries.

“Yeah! Grandmother was awesome but Odin is kinda a scary Pirate King,” Maggie, Loki, and Thor started laughing while the warrior people stood behind them confused, “What?” Peter looked confused at their reaction.

“I can’t wait to tell him that,” Maggie said as she leaned into Loki, her arm over his shoulders and his arm around her waist, “Wait! Do you think I’d have to explain to Odin what a pirate is?” She asked the brothers.

“No, he’ll know the term,” Loki replied, a smug smile on his face, “but I want the honor of calling him that first.”

“Not if I beat you both to it,” Thor said as he approached Peter, “Here nephew, hold my Hammer.” He handed Peter Mjölnir and turned to see the reactions of the Asgardians.

“He is worthy!” The big Asgardian shouted as he ran forward and lifted Peter onto his shoulders and the rest gathered around him patting his legs and back.

Tony stood back in shock and watched as his son was lauded as some sort of Asgardian celebrity. Tony turned to Maggie, “What did you do?”

“Umm, nothing,” She wouldn’t make eye contact with him.

“She is now legally his Mother in all the Nine Realms and Peter is now heir to Vanaheim and third in line to the throne of Asgard,” Loki said from behind him, “It also means that we are now both his Father.”

“What?!”

********

Everyone managed to gather into the lobby of the Tower and the Hulk was poking at the flower displays while Peter, who somehow convinced him to let him sit on his shoulders, talked to him about the different flowers and his art gallery.

“We’re doing an art gallery in a few weeks with all these paintings featuring flowers and animals. Dad, Pepper, and Maggie let me chose all the art and I have a piece that’s going to be hanging next to my Nonna’s lily picture!” The Hulk just nodded carefully to Peter’s rambling and handed him a flower at a time as they moved from display to display, the SI Staff keeping a safe distance. Hogun and Sif followed closely after them while Volstagg complained to Fandral about the lack of a post-battle banquet.

“The boy can’t help but make friends everywhere he goes,” Loki said in her ear.

She smiled up at him, “It’s his gift.”

Tony was talking with Fury, who had flown from the Helicarrier, and they were arguing about something. The Captain joined their discussion and Rhodey, out of his suit, came to stand next to her.

“He’s going on the warpath,” Rhodey said as he observed his best friend argue with Fury, “He’s pissed.”

“Why?” Maggie asked as she leaned into Loki and let him take some of her weight, she was exhausted. They both were.

“I think Fury wants the Tesseract back and he wants the Scepter too,” Rhodey said as he waved to Peter on the Hulk’s shoulders. “Hey, Tones! Your kid is riding the Hulk! Is that safe?”

Tony stopped mid-argument, turned, and dashed over to them, “Why did you let him do that!?”

“We didn’t let him do anything, the Hulk agreed to Peter’s plea for a ride,” Maggie said, “He’s safe up there, probably safer than down here,” she said as she nodded towards Fury. “Fury is Furious... Speak of the devil! Hello Furious Fury, I see that you brought Agent and Ms. Hill with you.”

“Ms. Stark.” He got a little too close for the Asgardians comfort, “We have come to collect the Tesseract and the Scepter and arrest Loki.”

As a group, Thor, Sif, The Warriors Three, and The Hulk moved to stand behind her and Loki, “I don’t think so, Nick.”

A commotion near the doors made everyone turn and stare as an older gentleman and his entourage approached them. “Nick,” he nodded to Fury and then turned to their group, “Young lady, I’m here to collect the two items that are illegally in your possession and to collect the prisoner.”

“Young lady?” She turned to the Asgardians, “Am I a young lady?”

Sif laughed, “You have never been a young lady! What kind of nonsense does this Midgardian speak?”

“Creator of exquisite delicacies and a deft hand with a sword,” Volstagg boomed out.

“A fierce warrior, a princess, a beautiful Vanir, an excellent negotiator and soon to be a queen but never a young lady,” Fandral said as he played with the hilt of his sword.

“Sister?” Thor said in his battle-ready tone as he moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Loki directly behind her. Fandrall, Hogun, and Volstagg bookended the brothers, creating an intimidating wall of muscle, while Sif stood next to her.

“What is this nonsense?” Pierce turned to Fury, “Tell Ms. Stark she has to hand over the Tesseract and the Scepter.”

She tapped her comm, “JARVIS?”

“Your Majesty, how may I assist you?” JARVIS’s smooth voice came out on the PA system in the lobby.

“Will you run a tentacle check for me, please? I thought we caught all the squids but I think we may have missed a few.”

Fury looked at her in shock and wisely kept his mouth shut while Barton, Nat, and Hill moved to flank Alexander Pierce’s entourage.

“Sigyn,” Loki leaned into her and switched to Vanir, “What did this rottu do?”

“He’s a traitor to his country and is here to take my Stones and to arrest you,” she replied in Vanir.

“You are correct, Ma’am, we did miss a few,” JARVIS interrupted.

“Nick?” she looked at the man straight in his eye, “I thought you managed to catch them all.”

“We had a few that we left to see if they would swim and catch us a few more,” Fury deflected, “I have another frozen relic to find.”

“JARVIS?”

“James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, born March 10^th, 1917, past known associate of Stephen Grant Rodgers known as Captain America, lost in 1943, presumed dead. Evidence indicates he may be the person known as the ‘Winter Soldier’.”

“What do you mean?” Steve asked as he came to stand next to Nat who had frozen at the mention of ‘Winter Soldier’.

Maggie turned to look up at the Hulk and Peter who was still balanced on his shoulders, “Hulk?”

“Yes?” He smiled down at her, as he held a flower out to her and she took it from over Thor’s shoulder.

“Would you be so kind as to take Peter up to his room, please?” He nodded and she smiled up at him.

“Peter, I’m sure The Hulk would love to see your Lego Batmobile.” Batmobile was code for him to leave because he was in danger and not to argue with her about it, “Please take your dad and Rhodey with you, I think your dad needs to call Pepper.” Tony and Rhodey gave her almost identical glowers and moved to follow Peter, knowing she was sending them as protection and not getting rid of them.

“Ok, Maggie. Let’s go Hulk! I think the freight elevator will hold your weight and that will take us to the floor with the kitchen. I think I have some peanut butter cookies left for you to try.”

The group left and Maggie stared Alexander Pierce in the eyes, took a step forward, and leaned in, “Hail Hydra.” Chaos erupted and faster than a human could move, she had Pierce frozen with a knife in his stomach and a baton on his pulse point, “Move and I will gullet you and fry you at the same time,” she threatened, “Nat, I need a zip tie please.”

Natasha came over and pulled Pierce’s arms behind his back and zip tied him and Maggie stood back and took in the scene. All of Pierce’s entourage were restrained or knocked out by the Asgardians or Shield. Zip ties were distributed and they were all dragged over to the wall.

She approached Fury and stood next to him as he observed the restrained group from the other side of the lobby, “You endangered all of New York and the Eastern Seaboard because you allowed Alexander Pierce to remain free. I’m disappointed in you, Nick.”

“I did.” He seemed to contemplate his actions.

“You could have asked for help, we would have helped you,” She said as she put her arms behind her back and stood straighter, “The Tesseract, Scepter, and my husband will remain in my custody. I do not trust you, Nick. Your secrets have secrets and you play a very dangerous game. I will also take custody of The Captain until he has enough time to acclimate to this time period and given the opportunity to make an informed decision.”

“You can’t do that, Ms. Stark.”

“I can and I will, Nick. The Mad Titan is coming and today was just a taste of his potential destruction.  We got lucky, we may not be so lucky the next time,” She turned on her heel and walked away.

Chapter Text

Sigyn teleported to Asgard in the dead of night and stood alone at the edge of the Bifrost Bridge and studied the destruction that her husband and his brother had wrought. Sighing, she cradled Space in her palms and reached for The Mother. "Mother may I..." She sang under her breath as she felt the entity take full possession of her body and she rose off the bridge and hovered several feet above the dark lifeless bridge. The cube shattered apart and the millions of crystals circled the azure stone and hovered in front of her.

“Sister Space.”

Mother.

The area lit up for light-years and the Asgardians were woken by the brightest light they had ever seen and the familiar hum of the Bifrost Bridge, restored.

The Guardian found a note pinned to his chest.

Be aware of the Dark Elves, the Convergence, and the Aether is nigh.

I am watching the Watcher and betrayal will not be tolerated again.

The Mother

Sigyn

Maggie will return.