Chapter Text
What If?
Worth It
What If one of the world's smartest minds wasn’t raised on Earth? What if upon learning of her mother's passing, Kendra’s father came down from the heavens and brought her back to Asgard. Where she was raised within the royal walls alongside her closest companions, her cousins Thor and Loki.
“Tell me the story again dear Uncle”
A quiet voice asked Odin as he put her to bed in her chambers. Odin smiled at the young girl, just 10 years old. A child of earth, a promise kept to his brother.
“Well my child, a long time ago, your father, my brother. One of the fiercest warriors ever to grace these lands took a visit to Midgard, your home, on Earth. That is where-”
“He met my mom!” She said with glee, holding her blanket close. Odin smiled and pressed her nose.
“Yes, he met your mother, and they fell in love. Their love was fierce and their love was true, but the best of their love-”
“It was me.” She whispered.
“Yes my child, you were the best of their love. And when the gods took your mother away, your father knew that coming home here to your family would be best.”
“And then papa was gone.” She said sadly.
“Your father fought till his last breath, but before he went to battle, he gave me the best gift. The honor of keeping you here, safe, with your cousins and Frigga. It is my most important role in all the realms.”
“Uncle,” She sighed. Odin leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“Sleep now little bird, soon you'll wake with the sun and a new dawn will arise.”
Kendra watched as her uncle left, blowing out the candles by her side. She sighed in content and snuggled into her bed. She looked out her window and saw the moon and the stars above her home. Blessed for the family she had.
As Kendra grew older, her powers grew with her. Her cousins were well into adulthood as she went into her teens.
She learned everything she could about the nine realms, even spent extra time and energy on learning the ways of earth.
As an adult, she witnessed the betrayal of her cousin Loki to their family and to the nine realms.
Watched her cousin Thor mourn the loss of his brother and companionship.
Watching her uncle and aunt mourn the loss of their son.
She took her loss and her sadness and grew bold. Became strong as the best warriors Asgard had to offer, aiding her people in battles like her father, uncle, cousins, and friends.
Asgard was her home, and she would defend it till her last breath.
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What if your family betrayed you and your loyalties begin to be questioned.
Kendra and the rest of the team watch as the monitor goes black. Thor stood away from the rest just listening. Bruce broke the silence. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?" the doctor quipped.
Steve sat up straight in his seat, "Loki's gonna drag this out. So Thor, what's his play?"
Thor turned to face the group. Looking over to Kendra, "Kendra and I discovered he has an army called the Chitari. They are not of Asgard or any known world. He means to lead them against your people." His demeanor changed suddenly, "They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the tesseract."
Steve frowned, "An army? From outer space."
Kendra walked around the table, "The Earth hasn't been alone for a long time. Rogers was it? This is just getting started."
“I’m sorry, I’m confused about who you are,” Steve asked the room, clearly annoyed with the uninvited guest.
“She is Lady Kendra, my cousin, a warrior of Asgard in her own right, and you will not speak to her in that tone,” Thor warned.
Kendra smiled, walked up to Thor, and reached out to take his hand. "Peace dear cousin, it’s fine. He means no harm. These are trying moments.”
Thor smiled and looked down at her, "I am sorry cousin, Loki has me unnerved."
Kendra smiled brightly, “Then we are clearly in the right place.”
Dr. Banner cleared his throat, "So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."
Thor looked up, "Selvig?" Kendra, wrapped her arm around him protectively, him holding her close.
Banner nodded, "He's an astrophysicist."
Thor squeezed and looked back to Kendra, "He's a friend. From before," She nodded and smiled.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell." Natasha sighed, "Along with one of ours."
Steve spoke up suddenly, "I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here."
Banner laughed, "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki, that guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him"
Thor pulled away from Kendra's hold, "Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard and he's my brother."
Natasha raised a brow, "He's killed 80 people in two days."
Thor was quiet for a minute before speaking, "He's adopted." Kendra rolled her eyes and smacked his stomach before walking back to the table.
"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for," Bruce wondered.
"It's a stabilizing agent," Tony commented on walking in with Agent Coulson. Kendra's head snapped towards the elevator watching the duo approach. Tony finished his conversation and gave Kendra a pointed look before walking over to Thor, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. However this ‘Lady Kendra’, nice to be back home is it? Or did living up in space wipe your memories."
Kendra narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her, “I don’t think you have any grounds for this conversation.”
“Oh really? So is kidnapping just legal on Asgard?” He asked Thor. Tony brought out his phone and threw an image on the monitor on the table. It showed a news report from 2 decades ago, an image of a young girl in the headlines.
Tony shoved his hands in his pocket, “Ran a facial recognition on these two after they showed up and low and beyond a match. Kendra Andrews, age 8. Mother died from an automobile accident, her daughter disappeared a week later, never to be seen again.”
Kendra felt all eyes focused on her, “I wasn’t kidnapped. My father came after he learned of my mother's passing. He brought me back to his home,” She looked over at her cousin, “To Asgard. Where I belonged.”
“Not sure what rights an alien has but I digress. Seems a bit convenient though. Your cousin goes crazy and decides, hey let's take over earth. Maybe he isn’t just here for himself. Maybe you decided after living some royal existence your home planet seemed like a good-”
Kendra stepped forward, her arm extending, an ice blade forming, the tip going straight to Tony's throat.
“I would watch your tone and words, Mr. Stark before I test out how much Iron you really are.” She warned. The group was standing now, ready to defend themselves.
“Enough!” Barked Thor, he turned to the group, “My cousin and I are not who we need to worry about. Loki is the one planning all this. My cousin is of earth, yes, but she neither seeks nor needs a throne.”
Kendra glowed and the ice sword exploded into a mist. She backed away from Tony, going to stand with her cousin.
“I may be part of this world, but it is not my home. My place is with my people. With Asgard.”
Tony nodded and turned around at the walkway with monitors, "How does Fury do this," He asked changing attention, reaching over to slide his hands down the screen.
"He turns," Agent Hill responds, unamused. He smiled and turned back as he placed a tracking implant into the software unnoticed.
"Well, that sounds exhausting," Stark remarked as he asked the group whether or not Loki was able to find a reliable and usable source for energy. Banner explained why he believed Selvig would be using the cube. Stark smiled, "Finally someone who speaks English."
He shook hands with the doctor. Complimenting him on his brains and ability to lose control.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube," Directory Fury commented, walking into the room. "I was hoping you would join him."
"Maybe you should start with that spear," Steve announced, "I don't know much about it but it sure operates like a hydra weapon. Kendra, are you familiar with this kind of device?"
Kendra nodded, “While the energy it creates is not familiar, I have definitely come across many weapons like this in battle.” She looked at Thor, “Cousin?”
“Go, I am wasting this knowledge.”
Tony nodded, "Shall we play?" He asked Kendra and Bruce. They both nodded and walked out with him.
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What if fate was so strong, even a whole different life had no impact
Steve, with all his strength pushing him, slides the heavy iron door and stealthy walks in. He finds a large warehouse, filled with metal crates stacked throughout the compound.
Steve looks up, seeing another level. He leaps up high and holds onto the catwalk railing. Steve continues to move forward.
"You know," A voice startled him from behind, "I assumed with a name like Captain America, you would be for following orders. You sure do a good job breaking them."
Steve sighed and turned, watching Lady Kendra walking towards him, "Weren't you supposed to be interrogating your cousin?"
She shrugged and hopped up on one of the crates, "Our reunion was ill-fated, his plans nor his feelings of rage have subsided. Let him know what would happen if he hurt my family. It was hard, I needed a break.”
“So you thought an amory of weapons was the right place?” Steve questioned.
Kendra smiled, “Call it the human in me. I was curious. Aside from a blade, I have never held a weapon.” She ignited her hands into flames, “My body is more than I need.”
Steve stared at the flames, “So you control the elements?”
Kendra nodded, “I control the energy of the elements.”
“Mind putting those hands out, there's a lot of ammunition in here that can explode.”
Kendra laughed and her hands went out, “Sure thing… Cap.” She popped out. “Now, what’s the saying, did someone put a bee in your bonnet?”
Steve smirked and looked around, “For someone who lived in a whole different world for most of her life, you sure are knowledgeable.”
She shrugged, “My uncle made sure I had the best education, which meant I learned everything about the nine realms. Also, my childhood was not forgotten just because I left.”
Steve was quiet for a moment, “Did you ever miss it?”
Kendra contemplated his questions, “I missed things.” She answered honestly, “I never knew papa before he got me. It was just me and my mother. I miss the nights on our porch as she told me stories about the stars, I never knew one day I would live away in them.”
“Would you ever come back? Did you not have any other family?”
“And give up being one of the fiercest warriors of Asgard?” She joked.
“Sounds lonely.”
“Says the man from the ice,” He gave her a look, she shrugged, “Just because we don’t exist around you, doesn’t mean I never wondered. Though who knows, if I found something worth returning to, maybe it would be nice to return home. I mean, in one of my books was the food of the world, and I must say, whatever this Italian cuisine is, I am ready for it. ”
Steve's brow raised, "Genius, fighter, half-god, and galactic food critic. Is there anything you can't do?"
Kendra shrugged, "I am terrible with names, now." She hopped down from the crate, "Let's go see what this Fury person is hiding."
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What if your family changed
Kendra watches as Iron Man arrives at Stark Tower where Selvig then activates the device holding the Tesseract. He aims his hands toward the device and fires. The energy from his boosters hits with a deafening crack. Selvig falls backward. The device is still going. Iron Man stares in disbelief that the device is unarmed.
Stark lands and goes through the gauntlet which takes the suit off of him. Loki looks up at him, smiling. They proceed to walk into the penthouse. Kendra stands her ground as Loki walks in, holding the scepter.
"Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." he mocks.
Tony stops at the top of the stairs, "Uh...actually, I'm planning to threaten you. That and Thor really wants her back." Tony pointed to Kendra.
Loki laughed, "My cousin seems just fine to me." he looked at the woman beside him.
"You have nothing to worry about Mr. Stark, everything is as it should be." She answered, Tony, cocked his head to the side observing her.
"You should have left your armor on if you were here to fight us." Loki quipped.
Tony casually walks down the steps, towards the bar. "Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny anyway. Would you like a drink?"
"Stalling me won't change anything." Loki challenged.
"No, no, no! Threatening." Tony corrected him, "No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one. Kendra? Do you drink? If not, the time to start would be now."
Kendra shook her head, watching Loki before leaving his side and walking over to the bar, "Mr. Stark," She stopped in front of him. "Join us, fight with me."
Tony looked at the woman in front of him, "You told me that you weren’t one of the bad guys, remember, this guy," he motioned to Loki, "Loki right now is the baddest of them all."
She reached forward as his hand went to his bottle, she grabbed his wrist and squeezed, "Please. Mr. Stark,” She pleaded, “Tony. Fight with me," his eyes met hers, he watched as the blue haze disappeared, revealing her true self, Kendra smiled, "Fly with me, Tony. Make the jump."
Tony let out a breath as she released his grip and backed away, nodding, the blue haze returning to her eyes and she looked at Loki. He walked over to the window to see the city below them, "The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What do I have to fear?"
Tony, keeping his composure, opened up his bottle of brandy, "The Avengers."
Loki looks at him, confused.
Tony rolled his eyes, "It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. `EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES' type of thing."
Loki chuckled, walking towards him, "Yes, I've met them."
Tony smiled, "Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one." He took a deep breath, "But, let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the demi-God," Tony watched the nerve hit as he mentioned Thor, "a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend,"
From underneath the bar table, Tony puts on two bracelets, a honing device for one of his many suit, "and not to mention a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."
Loki nodded, smiling. "That was the plan. As you can see," He waved his scepter over to Kendra, "I have my own champion here, my cousin is stronger than all of them."
Tony's face went stone cold as he took a sip of his drink, "Kendra wasn't ever yours to take. Also, not a great plan. When the rest of them come, and they will; they'll come for you." He walked around the bar and headed towards Loki.
"I have an army." The desperate prince snapped.
"We have a Hulk." Tony snapped back.
"I thought the beast had wandered off," Loki spoke, mocking him.
"You're missing the point." Tony made his way down the stairs. "There's no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top." He looked back to Kendra who stood behind Loki, at the ready.
Tony continued on, "Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned sure we'll avenge it." He took another swig of his drink.
Loki slowly walks up to him menacingly, raising the scepter. "How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?"
Loki presses the center of Tony's chest with his scepter with a tap. Nothing. Confused, Loki tires again. Still nothing. Loki looks up to Tony, "It should work."
Tony shrugs, "Well, performance issues. You know?"
In anger, Loki grabs Tony by the throat and flings him towards the window. Kendra can only look on.
"Jarvis, anytime now!" Tony chokes out trying to get up. Loki walks over and grabs Tony by the throat again.
"You will all fall before me." He sneers.
"Deploy!" Tony screams and Loki throws him out the window. From behind Loki and Kendra watch, an elevator opens and a Red Pod Shoots out to follow Tony down as he free falls into the city.
Loki looks up, angry as Iron Man flies back up to the broken window. "And there's one other person you pissed off! His name was Phil."
Loki raises the scepter. Iron Man fires at Loki, sending him on his ass. Suddenly the device shot a plasma beam into the atmosphere, opening the portal. Iron Man looked back to Kendra who was looking at Loki.
"We got work, kid," Tony quipped and tossed a comm to Kendra, "Take out this garbage, I'll see you soon."
She smirked as Tony flew away towards the portal. She presses the comms into her ear. Loki pushed himself off the ground and stared at Kendra who began to glow.
"You are a foolish cousin. You belong to me," He screamed, spitting out blood.
Kendra walked forward and tilted her head to the side. She closed her eyes and opened them, a bright energy began to pulse, Loki felt the air begin ripping out his lungs. He sputtered and grabbed at his throat. Kendra stood before him, "I am the daughter of a god. And I belong to no one."
She walked closer to his crumbling form on the ground. "Remember what I said if you hurt the ones I love." he continued to choke and she laughed, "No one can stop me." She brought her hand up and raised him to stand.
Before she could finish him off, he managed to raise his scepter and with the final ounce of his strength, Loki shot her and she went flying out the tower.
Suddenly aware she was falling, Kendra focused, and before she hit the ground, she took in her thoughts and pulled the energy of the air, and launched pulses through her hands. She managed to stop herself from falling and slowly landed on the ground.
There was work to be done.
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What if what you were looking for was right there.
Thor rides on top of a chariot, knocking away several riders with his hammer. A Leviathan crashed through a building, knocking into him. He falls down to where Cap and Kendra are fighting. They all begin to battle.
Thor and Captain America fight side by side, each throwing their respective weapons. Kendra uses her abilities to assist and block off any oncoming patrols. Thor catches MJÖLNIR, but as Cap turns an energy blast shoots past Kendra, striking Cap down hard. Kendra finds the culprit and easily takes care of them. She runs over to Thor who is helping Cap up. Collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. Thor sees a broken car, swings the hammer, and flips the car over and over on its side, crushing a few Chitauri.
Cap raises his shield back up and looks to his teammates.
"Are you both ready for another bout?" said Thor.
"What? You gettin' sleepy?" Captain joked. He walked over to Kendra and helped her stand up straight. “Come on ‘Lady Kendra’ can’t eat Italian if you're dead.”
"Cousin, you well?" asked Thor.
Kendra nodded as she cracked her knuckles and neck. Her body glowing again, “I take offense if you would think otherwise." she responded.
Widow came over the comms, "I can close it! Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!"
Everyone turned and looked to the top of Stark Tower.
"Do it!" Cap yelled back.
"No, wait!" Iron Man came through to stop them.
Cap was bewildered, "Stark, these things are still coming!"
"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."
Kendra looked up to the sky and her body pulsed in anger ready to fly, "A nuke?” She asked concerned, “Why are we nuking New York City? Stark, just hold on, I am coming to you! Let me take it away!" Before she could get off the ground, the Captain was there holding her body to the ground.
"Don't." Iron Man snapped, "Not for me kid. Not for me"
Kendra's body lost its glow and could only watch as his suit got smaller flying into the distance. She slumped against Steve in defeat.
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...
What if, sometimes whatever was worth saving, was eventually found.
Kendra sat back in her chair in her new SHIELD office. She grabbed what Natasha had called a stress ball and looked out her window, watching the re-construction of New York City under way. Loki had made a huge mess. Directory Fury had approached her and Thor about the ramifications of Loki’s actions. How the possibility of one of them staying behind for some time to smooth things over, develop a relationship. It took some convincing but Kendra got Thor to agree. Tony even offered her a room at his tower.
Like it or not, this place was once her home. So Fury gave her a job. Said her knowledge of the elemental world would help them greatly in the long run. Which is how she found herself at SHIELD HQ in New York City.
There was a knock and Kendra turned in her chair to see none other than Steve Rogers leaning against her doorway. She smiled at the sight and waved for him to come in.
"Well, this is a surprise."
Steve sat across from her in one of her empty chairs, "Had a meeting with Fury, figured I could stop by and see how you were settling in.”
She leaned back in her chair and smiled, "It’s strange. I adapt quickly though. I am not sure the security council is completely on board with Fury’s plan of having me stay behind.”
Steve smirked, “Can you blame them?”
Kendra shrugged, "It’s fair. My family reunions don't exactly end well," She looked out the window to the city.
Steve chuckled, "That they do not."
Kendra leaned forward and raised the stress ball with her power, levitating it barely above her desk. "So, come all this way to hang out in my office or you have another thing on your mind."
"I was wondering what you were doing next Friday."
Kendra "What's up? If Tony mentioned my washer and dryer, I told him you didn't need-"
"Actually, I was hoping you would go out with me."
The ball dropped onto the desk and Kendra looked at Steve, who smiled and kept going. "There's a great Italian place in Brooklyn I would love to show you, it’s no giant feast or anything that you are probably used to."
Kendra pulled herself forward in her chair and laced her fingers together, "Is Captain America asking me out?"
"Steve Rogers is asking you out, I am hoping the Captain can take the night off."
Kendra matched his smile and unlaced her fingertips, she began closing some of the files on her desk, "I think I can be persuaded. I have never had Italian, but from what I have read, it sounds amazing.”
"Great," Steve pushed up from the chair and walked to the door, he leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, "8 o clock, I’ll send you the location, I'll be the handsome one sitting outside."
Kendra rolled her eyes, "Goodbye Mr. Rogers. I will see you next week."
Steve winked, "Looking forward to it." Then he was gone.
Kendra leaned back in her chair again, she grabbed a pen and bit down on the cap, and smiled.
What if this time, he showed.