Chapter Text
Heimdal looked at the man who had been AWOL from Asgard for nearly two years now. He intoned, “Prince Thor. It has been some time since you were last home.”
Thor nodded. “I have been plagued by a dream lately. Every night I dream of Asgard falling to ruins.”
Knowing that the young prince had inadvertently already started the process, Heimdal asked, “That’s why you have the crown of Surtur?”
“Aye,” Thor confirmed. “My research shows that Surtur’s crown is the cause of the foretold Ragnarok.”
Heimdal dropped his stoic mask. He said with a sigh, “You foolish child. Your inability to accept help will be our downfall.” He started walking down the rainbow bridge. He looked back when he didn’t hear Thor following, and he saw the young prince winding up his hammer. He held up his hand and said, “No. We will be walking to the palace, my prince. By the time we get there the King will be finished with his daily training with his mates and General Tyr. His training time is sacred.”
“Mates?” Thor asked. “What do you mean mates? Mayhap you are mistaken, Heimdal.”
Heimdal didn’t answer and just kept walking. He led the prince to the training grounds, where the three men could usually be found in the afternoons.
Thor knew from experience that getting the guardian to capitulate to his demands was pointless, so he just followed the golden eyed man with his hammer close at hand.
The two men entered the training arena, and Thor was surprised to see several Iron Man suits flying around with General Tyr calling out instructions and corrections from his position on the ground.
Heimdal directed Thor to a seat on one of the spectator seats as he could tell from experience that the training simulation they were doing would be a long one. He could see Idunn and Eir observing the training from the other side of the arena, but he didn’t think the prince had noticed either of them. The guardian couldn’t wait around as he still had warriors out scouting for news on Thanos, so he said, “Wait here. They will eventually notice you and end the simulation. Do not interrupt under any circumstances.”
Thor was amazed at the battle he could see in front of him. He could see there were three suits, each their own colour scheme who the plain coloured suits were fighting. He knew General Tyr had noticed him, but had chosen not to end the simulation.
Eventually after two hours the simulation was finished. The three distinct suits landed, and the adversaries seemed to flow into the other three suits.
Thor stood and started to approach General Tyr, who seemed to be offering suggestions for improvements. Until the war general noticed what Thor had strapped to his back. He sighed, “You foolish child.”
The three men turned and one of them asked, “Tell me that’s not the Crown of Surtur.”
Thor admitted, “I can not.”
Tony let his suit fall away and he snarled, “Fucking Wanda. I knew she had gotten to you, point break.”
The other two let their suits fall away. Bucky scowled and he said, “The witch? Thor, you were attacked by the witch and rather than seek treatment you accepted her illusions as reality?”
Thor slumped. “Aye. It would appear so. I saw nightly visions of Asgard falling to ruins, and there were words from the Norns. I don’t remember the exact words, but the crown was mentioned.”
Loki in his Odin guise said, “It’s what she does. Her powers are enhanced by the Mind Stone, so she has an ability of using your own fears against you, fears designed to give you personalised nightmares. Nightmares that push you into making idiotic decisions.”
Tony agreed, “Like testing the sceptre at the tower rather than one of my many offline testing facilities.”
Bucky gestured at the crown still hanging on Thor’s back, and he asked, “Just how bad is this?”
General Tyr said, “The tale of Ragnarok spells the end of Asgard, with the final sleep of Odin. The first death knell is when the crown of Surtur is on the same realm as the Eternal Flame.”
Thor started to wind up Mjolnir and he demanded, “Where is father?”
Odin stared at his son and said, “I’m right here, son.”
Thor screamed in rage and he let Mjolnir loose toward’s the man masquerading as his brother. However his jaw dropped in shock as Tony was able to pull his hammer from it’s trajectory before it could hit the Allfather.
Tony let the Hammer dangle from his hand as he said, “I don’t think so, Point Break.”
Loki, knowing the jig was up, dropped his disguise and he admitted, “Odin has been exiled. He refuses to accept that Thanos is a true threat to all the realms. As far as he was concerned, Midgard could deal with it.”
Tony added, “Which Midgard actually couldn’t. At least not without the Avengers.”
Thor asked, “What happened to the Avengers?”
Loki said, “They imploded. You weren’t the only one to abandon them, brother. When it comes to the fight against Thanos, all that remains is the being that holds the Mind Stone, the Vision. The rest have dismissed the threat as manipulations and scaremongering.”
Bucky admitted, “It’s why we have remained here to train. General Tyr offered to train us to fight Thanos and the Black Order.”
Thor scoffed. “Mortals could not win a battle against the Black Order.”
“They couldn’t,” Tony agreed with a nod. “But who said we are still mortal. Mortals are barred from Asgard, remember?”
Thor turned to Idunn and demanded, “This is your doing?”
Idunn gave her prince a deadpan look as she asked, “Who am I to refuse the will of the Norns. They advise, I listen. The few times I have listened to others over the will of the Norns have been catastrophic.”
Loki reassured, “You know I don’t blame you, keeper.”
Idunn said, “Your adopted father forbid me from informing you of your true heritage. Leading to you falling from the rainbow bridge. I will regret that to the end of time, my king.”
Thor demanded, “Tell me, where is my father?”
Tony said, “He’s on earth.”
The prince asked, “You did this, Man of Iron?”
Tony shook his head. “Nope. That was all Reindeer Games, on the recommendation of the elders. Your father refused to believe in the threat of the Mad Titan. Bucky and I were brought here after the captain tried to kill us both. Your sister brought us here, we think at the request of the Norns, to help shift the balance of the coming battle.”
Idunn said quietly, “Time’s up.”
With a sigh of the inevitable, Loki said, “If you give us a few hours to pack, we’ll take you to Odin.”
Tony passed Mjolnir back to Thor, before he said, “I’ll be in the forge. I need to pack the last shipment of uru and plianyx that arrived last night. Can one of you get the rest of my stuff from our room?”
Bucky said, “I’ll pack up our suite, don’t worry I’ll make sure we don’t leave anything behind.”
Loki started to walk toward the palace. He said, “I’ll pack the armoury and the library.”
Idunn said, “Safe travels.”
Thor chased his brother on the route to the palace and he asked, “What’s going on, brother?”
As he walked, Loki explained, “We have a plan to defeat the Mad Titan. A very risky plan. We would have involved you, if you hadn’t been missing for the last few years. Sif and the warriors three have even been trying to find you, but you weren’t in any of the places they thought to look, and somehow you were evading even Heimdall.”
Thor asked quietly, “Is father ok?”
Loki nodded. “He should be fine. I confined him to a retirement home on Midgard so I could get Asgard ready for the coming battle. I will take you to him once we are done packing.”
True to their word the packing took a few hours, and they all met with Heimdall, ready for the trip to Midgard. The guardian said, “I do not have a location for Odin, however I can drop you near his last known location.”
Loki agreed, “That’s fine Heimdall.”
Heimdall suggested, “Tony, Bucky, you might wish to employ glamors for this visit. The realm does consider the pair of you to be dead after all.”
Tony sighed. “Fine. Loki, hit me up baby.”
Bucky agreed. “Me too please.” He turned to Tony and asked, “Are going to get in touch with Friday’s main servers while you’re on Midgard?”
“I’m not sure.” Tony hedged. “I doubt anyone would have altered her code while we’ve been gone, but, anything is possible. I do want to check on Rhodey while I’m there though.”
Heimdall interrupted, “That would not be advisable. At least not in person.” The guardian looked uncharacteristically uncertain as he said, “He did not take your apparent passing well. He is the only one who believes the captain had something to do with your disappearance.”
Tony asked quietly, “What about Pepper?”
Heimdall shook his head. “She tried, but she was overruled.” What he didn’t say is that she was forced to declare him dead by SHIELD, as they expected her to inherit Stark Industries when he died. Only to discover that Tony had updated his will after they broke up so that everything went to Rhodey, and it was up to him if she kept her job as CEO. He added, “The only way it would be safe to visit, is if you used the shadows and magic to get others away from them first. They are under constant surveillance.”
“Fine.” Tony said resignedly. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
They all gathered around Heimdall who activated the Bifrost. Before they stepped into the portal for the trip to earth. Heimdall had aimed them for a deserted alleyway not far from the retirement home where Loki had exiled Odin.
Loki checked his mates to make sure their glamors were in place, the last thing any of them needed was to be spotted by a random member of the public. He turned to Thor and asked, “Brother, do you wish to wear a glamor beyond your midgardian attire?”
Thor just gave him a scathing look before he exited the alley.
Tony murmured, “Does he know where he’s going?”
Loki shook his head. “No. Let’s go before he finds trouble.”
The three men left the alley and Loki lead them to the Shady Acres Care Home. Which was currently in the process of being demolished.
Bucky murmured, “Well fuck. This isn’t going to end well.”
Loki turned to his brother and said, “I swear, I left him right here. He should have been fine.”
Thor snarked, “Right here on the sidewalk, or right there, in the building that’s being demolished. Great planning.”
Loki rolled his eyes and countered, “I am a weapon of the Norns, not one of their Seers, brother. You know this.”
A couple of girls approached Thor and asked for selfies. Tony used the distraction and he said quietly, “They would have farmed out the residents to other care homes. It wouldn’t take long to find him as long as he was actually registered.”
Loki shook his head. “No. That’s too risky. If you go online, it’s possible FRIDAY will realise you’re alive. I had him registered under a false name using magic. It’s possible the magic broke when he had to be moved.”
Bucky said, “We have to do something. Thor looks like he’s going to blow a gasket.”
Thor saw sparks at his brothers feet and he demanded, “Brother, what are you doing?”
The three men looked down and Loki protested, “This isn’t me.” He looked at his mates as the sparks seem to open into a portal. “Come find me.”
Loki was sucked into a portal and all that was left was a business card. Thor went to poke it with Mjolnir, which was currently disguised as an umbrella, but Tony was quick to swoop in and pick up the card.
Bucky sounded panicked as he said, “I can’t sense him. He’s completely disappeared.”
The engineer flipped it over, but all that was on the card was an address, 177a Bleeker St. He said, “Then hopefully this gives us some answers. The address isn’t far from the tower. Do you know it, Shadow?”
Bucky knew that the shift into his callsign was a sign of just how pissed off Tony was that someone stole his mate out from under his nose. He could already see the glow of his powers start to show in his eyes. He said, “I do. I can get us there. Thor are you coming with us?”
Thor asked, “How are we getting there?”
Bucky said, “I have the ability to transport us through the shadows. It’s probably best if we go back to the alley so we don’t trigger SHIELDRA, or anyone else who might be watching.”
They ran at a sprint for the alley. When they arrived Bucky asked, “Suit up?”
Tony shrugged. “Maybe the tactical suits rather than the full armour. It sends a message without giving us away.”
Bucky nodded before he activated his nanos to equip his tactical body armour. It was very similar to the suit he wore as the Winter Soldier, but was black with light grey accents. Tony’s tactical suit was black with arc reactor blue accents, and Loki’s suit was black with dark green accents.
Thor saw them suit up in the alley and he asked, “What are you doing?”
Tony snarled, “Someone at that address took our mate. Do you honestly think we are going to just let that stand?”
Bucky asked, “Nix, Thor, are you ready?”
They both nodded, so Bucky grabbed their arms and shadowed them across town to Bleeker St. As they approached the interesting looking building, Tony said, “Thor, you need to knock on the door.”
The engineer wasn’t sure how the kidnapper got past the wards the three men all had on them, but he wasn’t letting go of Thor either. By holding onto him, the thunder god was included in his magic protection wards.
Thor realised the two men weren’t going to let go, so he used the handle of his umbrella, mjolnir, to knock on the door.
A few seconds later, Tony muttered, “Shadow, can you feel that?”
Bucky noticed Thor was shaking his head, but he could feel foreign magic washing over the group. “Yeah, Nix. What do you think it is?”
Tony shrugged, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, obviously can’t get past our wards.”
Eventually the door opened and a man the same age as Tony popped his head out. The engineer frowned, he knew that face, but he couldn’t place it. The man asked, “How can I help you?”
Tony snarled, “You can start by returning what you stole from us. I am low on patience.”
When the man started to protest, Tony pushed the door open as Bucky let loose his shadows to restrain the man.
Bucky had the man suspended above the floor by the shadows and when other men came down looking ready to fight, Tony activated his flames and surrounded the three men in a ring of fire. He was careful to ensure that Thor remained on the outside of the fire ring. The fire wouldn’t damage the building, because he didn’t want it to, but it would damage anyone trying to break through.
They stalked up to the older man and Tony put menace into his voice when he demanded, “Who the hell are you, and what have you done with our mate?”
The man asked, “Mate?”
Bucky growled, “Who. Are. You?”
“Dr. Stephen Strange.” The man, Stephen, said. “I am the Supreme Sorcerer. Loki is safe, he’s in a portal and will stay until I release him. Something I am unable to do while I am bound.”
Tony recalled where he had met the man. He’d been at a lot of the same society parties as Tony, back when he was still in frat boy party mode. He commented, “You’re supposed to be a neurosurgeon, not a sorcerer. Last I heard you were being touted as one of the best.”
Stephen narrowed his eyes. He didn’t recognise the man speaking, but he rarely paid attention to people when he was working in the hospital. He offered, “If you let me down, I can release Loki and we can talk.”
Bucky gestured at the sorcerers on the outside of the circle of fire trying to break in. He asked, “And your minions? What’s going to stop them attacking us?”
Stephen said, “They will follow my lead, just as the thunder god seems to be following yours.” He looked around at the other sorcerers until he found the sorcerer he trusted to follow his orders without question. “Wong, get everyone else out of here.”
Wong looked like he wanted to protest, but he eventually followed orders and got the other sorcerers out of the New York Sanctum. He however stood outside the circle of flames with his arms crossed looking pissed off.
As he gestured at Wong, Tony asked, “Is he going to be a problem?”
Stephen shook his head. “No. He’s fine.” He wiggled his arms. “If you’ll please let me down, I can release Loki and we can all talk.”
At a nod from Tony, Bucky released the shadows restraining the sorcerer and he dropped down to the floor.
Stephen held up his hands and said, “I’m just going to release the portal so Loki can join us. Please don’t freak out.”
Tony murmured, “Can you grab him as soon as he’s free. You and I both know he’s going to come out swinging.”
Bucky nodded and got his shadows ready to grab the mage as soon as he was free of the portal. However, when the portal opened, nothing happened.
“Shit,” Tony said quietly. He turned to the sorcerer and asked, “How long will the portal remain open?”
Stephen shrugged. “As long as I hold it open it will stay open.”
Tony nodded. “Right. Shadow, watch them. I’m going in to find our mage.”
With a thought he equiped his armour and let loose the repulsors as he flew into the portal opening. He found Loki hovering just to the left of the portal opening. He flew over and asked, “Loki?”
Loki nodded. “I’m here. I’m just a bit disorientated. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to stop falling.”
Tony asked, “Flashbacks?”
The older god nodded. “Yeah. It felt the same as when I fell through the void. Just brighter.”
Tony said, “Come on. Bucky is down there threatening them with his shadows. I don’t think they’ll stick you in another portal. Oh, while I think about it, maybe drop our glamors?”
Loki grinned. “Done. I take it you know my kidnappers?”
Tony nodded. “One of them. Last time I saw him though, he was a surgeon, not a sorcerer or whatever he’s calling himself.”
Loki asked, “Sorcerer Supreme?” When he saw Tony’s nod he said, “Well, that changes things. They are to magic what your Avengers were to physical threats. Let’s go before he gets antsy.”
They descended together, landing side by side on the floor with their repulsers both aimed at the doctor. Tony said, “Now, care to explain why you placed our mate into a flashback inducing portal?”
Stephen was confused. The face of the guy talking did not match the armoured suit he was wearing. He decided to take the bull by the horns and he asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
Tony let the suit flow back into his pocket dimension, leaving him in just the tactical suit. He admitted, “Rumours of my death were probably true at one point. However I was rescued in the nick of time.”
Bucky said, “We both were. Dead but rescued in the nick of time I mean.”
From outside the circle of fire Wong yelled, “OMG, you’re Bucky Barnes. Stephen, that’s Bucky Barnes, he’s one of the Howling Commandos.”
Stephen said dryly as he gestured around the group, “So we have a thunder god, a chaos god, a dead billionaire, and a dead soldier. Interesting. Why have you brought the criminal Loki back to earth?”
Tony countered, “How did you even know he was here?”
Stephen explained, “We keep a watch list of individuals and beings from other realms that may be a threat to this world. Loki is one of these beings.”
Bucky snarked, “Well that’s shit. Let me ask you this; what colour were Loki’s eyes when he was here during the Battle of New York?”
Wong had studied the battle in depth, so he called out, “They were blue.”
Thor looked at him askance and he refuted, “Nay, they are green. My brother is renowned across the realms for his green eyes.”
Tony explained, “He was a tool, a weapon. He was under the control of the Mad Titan who had sent a scouting party to earth to find the Tesseract and the other infinity stone rumoured to be on earth.”
Loki looked at the sorcerer and he said, “It’s not a rumour, your doctor friend happens to be wearing it. The Eye of Agamotto contains the Time Stone. Correct?”
Stephen nodded. “I’m not sure how you know that, but it does. It has done for many centuries. I do have to wonder though, if you three are the reason it has started to malfunction.”
Wong demanded, “Malfunction how? Stephen, why is this the first time I am hearing of this.”
Stephen rolled his eyes and he said, “It’s no longer showing the future, only the past.”
Wong asked, “So according to the Time Stone. Time ends soon?”
Loki shook his head. “No. Time will be… rewritten, for lack of a better word. Something that we have been planning since not long after Tony and Bucky were rescued by my sister, Hela.”
Stephen asked, “That sounds extreme.”
Tony said, “Extreme circumstances call for extreme solutions. The way things currently stand, Thanos will come to earth to collect the infinity stones, and he will be unstoppable. Once he has all the stones, he will literally snap his fingers, and half of all life in the universe will be gifted to Hela, the Goddess of Death as a courting gift.”
Hela made her presence known from beside her brother Loki, and she said, “A courting gift I am not at all interested in.”
Loki pulled her into a side hug, knowing that was about all the affection she would tolerate. “Sister.”
Bucky asked, “I thought you were banished to Niflheim?”
She shook her head with a chuckle. “Not at all, Daddy dearest only banished me to stay away from Asgard. It was easier to stay restrained to Niflheim, lest he figure out the truth. It’s why I was able to rescue you both from the arctic. It’s all in the loopholes, darling.”
From outside the circle of fire that was still standing, Thor asked, “Who is she?”
Hela asked, “He still doesn’t know?”
Loki said, “He turned up a few hours ago. There wasn’t time, sister.”
Tony asked, “Is there somewhere more comfortable we were can talk. It’s clear we need to discuss more than the infinity stone hanging around your neck.”
Stephen offered, “We have a room upstairs we can use.”
Wong said, “I’ll take Thor upstairs while you deal with all of,” he waved his hand dramatically at the flames. “That.”
Stephen shrugged as Wong walked up the stairs. “He’s annoyed that you’re blocking our magic. Or should I say, he’s annoyed that you can still use magic in the sanctum. It’s supposed to be protected.”
Tony called back the flames, and he said, “Lead the way.”
Stephen led them up to a large comfortable living room on one of the upper levels of the sanctum. He said, “We don’t normally bring outsiders up here, but I think this discussion may take some time.”
Loki shrugged. “Perhaps; there is not a lot to discuss. The Mad Titan is courting our sister Hela, the Goddess of Death. He believes a suitable courting gift is half of all life in the universe. For this he needs the six infinity stones. He already has the power stone.”
Hela said, “He hired a Kree warrior, Ronin, to acquire it. But the Guardians of the Galaxy prevented it from falling into the titan’s hands. It was not enough. Thanos himself attacked Xandar, and decimated the planet.”
Loki said, “He is currently searching for the Reality Stone which is housed within the Aether. Once he has that he will coming here to take the Mind and Time stones.”
Stephen asked, “What about the Tesseract. It hasn’t been seen since you both took it to Asgard.”
Loki said, “It is safe.”
Wong said, “That is five stones. You haven’t mentioned the Soul Stone.”
Hela said, “The Soul Stone has not been seen or heard of since the infinity stones were created. The only thing we know about it, is that it requires great sacrifice to retrieve it.”
Stephen asked, “So what’s your plan. It’s clear that you have one.”
Tony nodded. “We do. You’ve heard of the The Norns?”
Wong asked, “They are the norse version of The Fates?”
Loki wiggled his hand in a so-so motion. “Close. They see the past, present, and future. They are the ones that guide the Seers. They have Seen that this timeline will not survive, that the losses will be catastrophic across the entire universe. Midgard and Asgard will be decimated.”
Bucky said, “Loki tried to prepare Asgard. It’s why Odin was exiled to earth. But it wasn’t enough.”
Hela interrupted, “He didn’t have enough time, and he was on the verge of giving up.”
With a sigh, Stephen said, “So time travel?”
Tony nodded. “We’ve been training for a few years on Vanaheim.”
Stephen narrowed his eyes at Tony. “You’ve only been gone for just over a year.”
Thor said, “Time passes differently on the different realms. I believe for every month on Asgard, three months passes on Midgard. Also Vanaheim has very talented magic users and I believe they have time dilation chambers. I’ve never used them myself, but I understand General Tyr has often used them to fast track warrior training.”
Tony said, “Bucky and I needed help to learn how to use our new abilities. The Vanir are the best at training newbie magic users.”
Wong asked, “So you’re a fire elemental? What about Barnes?”
Bucky wrapped himself in the shadows as Tony explained, “He’s a shadow elemental. The Norns essentially made us gods, I am the God of Fire and War. Bucky is the God of Night and Day, hence his power over shadows. And Loki was given dominion over Winter, to go with Mischief and Chaos, which gave him ice elemental abilities, beyond the abilities of the average Jotun.”
Stephen said, “So even The Norns are worried?”
Hela said, “Exceptionally so. It is rare that they would involve me in their plans, however I was directed to Midgard to rescue Tony and Bucky. The Norns said they would be important in the battle against the titan, that they would help my brother shift the tide of the war.”
Thor stood and he demanded, “Why do you keep calling him brother?”
Hela said imperiously, “I am Odin’s first born. I was banished to Niflheim when I was much too bloodthirsty for the old man. Mjölnir used to be mine, she was a fine weapon.”
Loki said bitterly, “It’s what Odin does to his disappointments, he locks them away. Out of sight, out of mind.”
Thor shrugged, “I can’t disagree with you there. He did banish me to Midgard when I attacked the Jotun. He locked you away after the attack on Midgard, even though it wasn’t you that attacked.”
Hela snorted. “You say that like you’re expecting our father to accept when he’s wrong.”
Wong asked, “So why was Loki about to give up?”
With a sigh, Loki admitted, “The warriors of Asgard would have been powerless against the Black Order. They see magic as weak and inferior and they refuse to learn how to use it in battle.”
Thor agreed, “Aye, he’s not wrong. My brother was ridiculed by the warriors for using magic in battle. Which was shortsighted. He often won using magic and the warriors would call it cheating. You said our father refused to believe the mad titan was a threat, why?”
Loki shrugged. “I don’t know. As far as he was concerned, no one would dare attack Asgard. End of story.”
Thor nodded. “Ahh yes, the superiority of Asgard.” He rolled his eyes. “As much as I want to say I would have helped, it would be a lie. I.. I have learnt many of the lies of our father on my travels. Although I am surprised I did not hear about our sister.”
Hela said simply, “Magic. He used the magic in Gungnir to force the realms to forget my existence.”
Thor grimaced. “That sounds like something our father would do.”
Wong asked, “So what exactly are you planning?”
Stephen said, “Whatever it is, it starts just after Stark is kidnapped the first time.”
Tony snorted. “Yeah, no. That was when I was three, Afghanistan was the 20th kidnap attempt, I think. It’s hard to track when it happens so often. Either way, it was the first that lasted more than a week.” At their disbelieving looks he said, “I was the child of a millionaire industrialist. People thought kidnapping me would force my dad to do what they wanted. He told them all to kill me, that he could always have another child. Most of them let me go with a look of pity in their eyes.”
Bucky nodded. “Your father was an asshole. I’m guessing it was Peggy that got you free when you weren’t let go?”
Tony grinned. “Her and Fury. She made sure I learned self defense which actually helped me rescue myself a few times.”
Stephen asked, “Why then? Why not do it before you have the reactor implanted?”
“A few reasons,” Tony admitted. “First of all, the ritual we are using requires us all to go back to the exact time period give or take an hour or so. It will wait until we are alone before we replace our younger selves. Bucky was kept in cryo by Hydra, and the few times he was out, he had no date reference to go by beyond knowing what year it was. However, Hydra pulled him out while I was kidnapped, to kill off my board members. They wanted to put their own doubles in place. And secondly, I have a new arc reactor in my chest. If I don’t have it implanted, it will be harder to explain. Dr. Yinsen will be able to backup the story about the arc reactor, as he did the original surgery.”
Wong asked, “What the hell went so wrong that you ended up with the reactor back in your chest? I remember reading about your surgery to have it removed.”
Tony looked away as he said, “Someone tried to put a vibranium shield through my chest. It shattered the artificial sternum that had been implanted. The frostbite I suffered afterwards when I was trapped in a dead suit didn’t help.”
Wong sighed, “So it was the Captain then. He is not… well.”
Stephen corrected, “He is not himself. He is riddled with the witches magic. We tried to help him, all of them, but her magic is bolstered by the Mind Stone, and the Vision is her constant companion. The only ones we have been able to free are Rhodes and Potts. They are free of her magic, but under constant surveillance.”
Bucky said, “That matches what we’ve heard from the Seers on Asgard. They said the Steve we all met here and now is the the Stevie I knew from the 40s.”
Wong said, “I was able to examine him while he was speaking to the Senate Arms Committee about the Avengers. His mind is ravaged. The easiest way to explain it is like the original Steve Rogers is locked away, and there is an imposter driving the body. One that gets it’s orders from Hydra.”
Tony said, “Well that explains his attempt to kill us both. If it wasn’t for Hela’s rescue, Bucky and I would have died in Siberia. Cap and Zemo are the only two who knew we were there. King Kitty thought it was just me and he arrested Zemo.”
Wong gave Stephen a searching look before he asked, “Is the ritual fixed, only the three of you are going back?”
Loki smirked, “Yes. And no. It is fixed to just the three of us. But you are sorcerers are you not?”
Wong asked cryptically, “You have something to keep them safe?”
Loki blinked slowly and nodded. “They would be safe in our pocket dimensions.” He fixed the sorcerer with a stern look. “You would have to let things play out without interference, you were too close to her. Can you do it?”
Wong nodded decisively. “Of course. Stephen will need me to run interference so she doesn’t interfere. You know how she feels about meddling with Time.”
Tony was entirely frustrated and he demanded, “Can someone not speaking cryptic sorcerer please explain what the hell you are talking about? If I wanted to watch a cryptic magic user, I’d watch Teen Wolf.”
Wong gave him a disgusted look and demanded, “Did you just compare me to Deaton? How dare you.”
Loki held up his hands to stop the fight devolving even further. He said, “We are talking about the Ancient One. She has very strict views on magic and it’s use. If she finds out we have traveled in time she will try and stop us from changing things. Preventing ripples.”
Tony frowned. “So the ritual is just the three of us, so what are we taking back with us that changes things?”
Loki conjured an orb in his hand, it just looked like a simple glass orb, but it seemed like there was something swirling inside, it was hard to focus on it. He explained, “Sorcerers can store a… backup of their knowledge and memories in these orbs. They are usually for cases of accidental amnesia or rogue magic users stripping memories.”
Stephen said, “They also usually require a conscious effort for the sorcerer to absorb the contents of the orb. I was not a sorcerer when Tony was kidnapped. I was a senior attending at Metro General in New York.”
Wong said, “Loki will be able to trigger the release of the orb, he just needs you to hold it when he triggers it.”
Hela commented, “I think the Ancient One may surprise you. Did you not think it st… odd that you were chosen to replace her, yet you had barely finished your training? Something to think about also, she is not the one who despises things that change the natural order, is she?”
Wong and Stephen both said, “Baron Mordo.”
Hela nodded. “He will be a problem and the reason why Wong will need to run interference. He hides his true feelings from the Ancient One.”
Wong said, “You’ll need to claim the Eye as early as possible. Your pocket dimensions can protect it better than the sanctums can. Loki’s wards are far superior.”
Loki preened. “Of course they are, they are designed to protect the Tesseract, another of the Infinity Stones.” He turned to his brother, “Do you wish to see Odin before we leave?”
Thor shook his head. “I… No. No I don’t think that is necessary. Just promise me you will include me when you can.”
Loki nodded. “We will. We also plan to bring in your Lady Jane, Darcy and Erik to help with the planning, once you have all met.”
Thor smiled. “Thank you, brother.” He turned to Hela, “It was lovely to meet you Lady Death. I’m sorry for what our father has done to you. I hope we all meet earlier next time.”
Hela pulled her little brother into a hug. “I am sure our brother will make sure of it. They will need all the help he can get for the coming battle.”
Bucky offered, “Do you want me to take you somewhere? I am sure we can find Jane? Or maybe a pub?”
Thor grinned. “Some time with my the Lady Jane would be perfect. Will we know when you do the ritual?”
Stephen shook his head. “As far as we are concerned, time will just stop.”
Thor nodded. “A ride to my fair Lady Jane and her companions would be appreciated.”
Bucky stood to assist Thor, but Hela held her hand out. “I’ve got this, Bucky. As Lady Death I can find Jane easily, and it ensures you are not seen before the ritual.”
Thor smiled, “Thank you, sister mine. If you could please stay and help me explain what is happening to Jane. I fear any explanation I give will be lost in translation.”
Hela smiled, “Of course. Let’s go.” She grabbed his arm and with a wave of her hand they were gone.
Once they were gone, Stephen said, “We’ll get those orbs made up for you. I’ll also need to give you my sling ring. It would not be advisable to try and get one without going through the basic training provided at Kamar-Taj.”
Tony said, “The hard part is going to be prying you lose from that hospital of yours. If I recall, getting you to take breaks even for the fundraisers you attended was damn near impossible.”
Stephen sighed. “You’re not wrong. I think your only option will be a bit of light kidnapping.”
Tony snorted. “What, pull you into a supply closet and force the orb into your hand?”
The sorcerer shrugged as he ignored Wong’s cackling. “Yes. I was… rather focused before my accident.”
Bucky laughed. “Thats one way of putting it. Tony was telling me earlier that you could outdo his days long lab binges. And that you mastered the cat nap in the on-call room.”
“Even at the fundraisers,” Tony commented. “It was clear you weren’t entirely present and you were going over case notes in your head. And it was so obvious, I could see it when I was buried in whatever glass was in my hand at the time.”
Stephen said, “We all have our own self destructive coping mechanisms. As I was saying, find me during one of the cat naps and activate the orb. I can then portal us to Kamar-Taj to give Wong his orb.”
Wong shook his head. “No. I was based at the New York sanctum in 2010 until 2013. I ran the sanctum library and guarded the Eye of Agamotto.”
Stephen said dryly, “We could just lure you in with promises of Beyonce tickets.”
Wong glared at his fellow sorcerer. He said lowly, “If you do that when you don’t have the tickets, I might never forgive you.”
Tony shrugged. “I can always invite her to a private meet and greet.” When the two sorcerers gave him a disbelieving look he said, “What? It’s not that hard. We do run in similar circles. Either way we’ll get you both to your orbs so you remember this future.”
The sorcerers went off to prepare themselves for the download, so to speak. It was an arduous project and it would take a few hours, but it would be worth it to protect the future.
With the sorcerers out of the room, Tony asked, “So when do we bring them in? We already have plans for our return.”
Bucky pulled up the holoscreen with the timeline they had planned from his pocket dimension. He pointed a few spots before settling on one in particular. He said, “I think we need to do it as soon as we return to New York. Before we hit Camp Lehigh would be the best time. It would give them time to settle in to the updated memories and for the doctor to make plans. He’s going to have the biggest changes, since he won’t have the damage from his accident to deal with.”
Tony said, “It would be good to have someone with actual experience treating patients in our medical wing. Helen was great, but she was a researcher, she had no experience beyond the basics in treating actual people. She is a brilliant researcher though.”
Loki said, “It would also be good to have more magical help when dealing with the witch. From what Bucky has said, it sounds like the Mind Stone just enhanced abilities she already had. I do wonder if he’s the eighth member of Alpha that Idunn told me about.”
Tony grinned. “You know he is. The Norns are hellbent on this mission succeeding. Having two strong magic users in the team would be a huge advantage. Especially with your magics being very different. At least I know Stephen would adjust to the suit easily. He’s one of the few people I know who drives faster than me, it’s partly what caused his accident.”
Bucky asked, “Where will we do the ritual? It’s clearly time.”
Loki said, “Norway. There is an old ritual circle there from when Asgardian magic users would visit Midgard. I used to use it on my visits to Midgard, and I can still feel the magic. I think we should go as soon as we have the sorcerer’s orbs. Hela will find us if she wishes to observe the ritual.”
Tony inspected the timeline, and with the changes based on the conversation with the two sorcerers, he suggested, “Maybe instead of sending Rhodey and Ho to Malibu, why don’t we have them meet us in New York instead. Since that’s where we plan to make our base of operations.”
Bucky made adjustments to their timeline on the holo screen, before he commented, “So we arrive. I escape my captors and meet with Loki in Central Park. We get to Malibu and enlist JARVIS’ help to get to Afghanistan so we can rescue Tony and blow up the Ten Rings base.” He scrolled across their timeline. “From there we send Ho back to New York using magic to get him across the borders without all the questions. And we go to Siberia to end the Winter Soldier program. That should take no more than a week.”
Tony said, “I’m tempted to hack into the local version of FRIDAY to pull everything she’s gathered since I went missing.”
Loki asked, “Can you do it without her becoming aware? Your FRIDAY will be vastly different than the AI you left behind.”
Tony nodded. “I left a well hidden backdoor in the code that I can use with my FRIDAY’s help.”
Bucky said, “If you’re sure you can do it without being caught, do it. We can use that week in Siberia to analyse the data while we watch the base.”
The engineer pulled the laptop out of his pocket storage, and he started tapping into the wireless feeds flowing around the sanctum. Loki and Bucky watched as their lover’s eyes turned the familiar blue as he was using his technopath abilities. They didn’t get to see it often on Asgard, due to the lack of technology beyond what Tony had created.
After a couple of minutes, Tony said, “The backdoor is still there, and I can’t sense any traps around it. It looks like Rhodey has been using hist time to hack into everything and steal whatever data he can find. FRIDAY has data from the DoD, SHIELD, Hydra, even the UN. He’s been busy.”
Bucky asked, “Is he ok?”
Tony shook his head. “No. He’s left a note in the files. He’s under constant surveillance, he and Pepper both are. Not just visual but keystroke recorders, and…” he started to glow with the rage he was trying to contain. “He suspects hes also under mental surveillance. That Wana takes frequent trips through his mind looking for information.”
Stephen comes out and said, “We were able to get to Colonel Rhodes not long after you went missing, and we could see the tendrils of the witch’s magic on him, so we put blocks in his mind to protect him. She will only ever gain surface thoughts, basic inconsequential information from him.”
Tony sighed in relief. “Thank you. You’re both done with the orbs?”
Stephen nodded. “We are.” He approached the timeline and after gaining permission from Bucky he scrolled through it. He eventually suggested, “Pull me in as soon as you get to New York. When Tony was kidnapped I was between contracts and being courted by Metro for the head of neurosurgery. It’s a good time for me to disappear into the private sector.”
Wong asked, “Are you sure?”
Stephen nodded. “I won’t be able to resist using magic to help some of the more at risk patients. It’s better if I join whatever these three have planned to prevent whatever Thanos has planned.”
Tony said, “We’ll need someone who can treat those of us who are enhanced. Most doctors freak out when they see a broken bone knitting together as they watch.”
Stephen laughed. “They would. It would make them pretty redundant.”
Tony scowled. “Until you need someone who can break the bone so it can be aligned properly before it completely heals. We’ve all had to do that a few times now.”
Loki grimaced. “Lady Eier has no sympathies when it comes to training wounds.” He said, “Tony is going to take care of Wong’s orb, and I’ll take care of Stephen’s. I can sort Stephen out before I go to Central Park to meet Bucky. That should give you just over a week to figure out the memory dump, and start the process to leave the hospital.”
Stephen smiled. “That sounds perfect. From memory the reabsorption of the orbs is relatively fast, only around five minutes, compared the hour and a half it takes to create them. So you should be able to dump and run as it were. I can give you my contact details so you can let me know when you’re back in New York.”
Tony asked, “You want to wait until we’re back before you bring Wong in?”
With a smirk Stephen said, “You have to arrange the meet and greet to get him to the mansion.”
As he was pulling down the last of the files, he made a note on his to-do list so he wouldn’t forget. Once he was done he closed up the back door into FRIDAY and disconnected from the wireless feeds around the sanctum.
As the glow faded from the engineer’s eyes Stephen commented, “So that was an interesting shade of blue.”
Tony nodded. “My eyes were rebuilt from Uru, so they tend to glow when I am using my abilities. So far we’ve seen the arc reactor blue when I am using my technopathy, and orange when I am tapping into my fire elemental skills. Buckaroo’s eyes go black when he’s using his shadows, and Loki’s eyes glow green when he’s using his magic, and they are red when he taps into his ice ability, we think it’s due to his Jotun heritage.”
Wong said, “The orange is like watching a fire in your eyes. It’s pretty cool. I don’t understand why your eyes were rebuilt though.”
Bucky said, “Earlier Tony mentioned being rescued from Siberia? We were rescued after being stuck in the ice for nearly two days. Tony lost his eyes and one arm to frostbite, and they were rebuilt when he was reborn from the ashes after eating a golden apple.”
Tony held up his arm so they could see it change to the dull grey metallic colour with the arc reactor blue lines running through like a circuit board. He explained, “Cap squeezed my hand to stop the repulsor, and it exposed my hand and some of my forearm to the extreme cold. Before he left he drove his shield into the arc reactor on the suit to disable it, after crushing all of the emergency release latches. So I was trapped in the suit, mostly exposed to snow and the cold.”
Bucky said, “My healing factor protected me for the most part. Steve however took our transport, so I was trapped with Tony on the remote base.”
Wong said, “Near as we can tell, he hasn’t actually been himself since he was rescued from the ice. We were able to get close enough for a quick scan that we read through later. He seems to have access to the memories from before he went into the ice, but, it would be like watching a movie, they wouldn’t feel like his.”
Tony took the orb from Wong, and he crafted a box to hold it safely until it could be returned to him. He made sure the box was saved to the master bot. As soon as he pulled it into his pocket storage, Loki used his nano’s to create the same box for Stephen’s orb.
Stephen asked, “When do you plan to do the ritual?”
Loki said, “Now that we have your orbs, there is nothing stopping us. We just need to go to the ritual circle I can sense in Norway.”
“I know the location,” Stephen confirmed. “I can create a portal to take you straight there. You should be aware, Odin is there, waiting for you all.”
Loki sighed, “Can you send him to Thor with a portal before we get there? I need to be relaxed before the ritual if it is to succeed.”
Stephen opened the portal, and he said, “Hela already took care of it. He’s gone.” He stood back and gestured at the portal. “Good luck gentlemen. I’ll see you soon.”