Hello lovlies! I'm back! Are you ready for more chaos and snark? Attempts at snark? I'm excited to say that I am trying a lot harder to make sure that this story is all pulled together and cohesive and just better in general. Thank you to everyone who stuck with Universal Headaches 'til the end! Hopefully this next story will be just as enjoyable for you! :)

I feel like I have to say, as I've informed some reviewers, that this story is going to go a bit off the canon path. After all, Sutton did mess up the natural flow of things up a bit. And I am going to be following a few different people's perspectives to try and give the story a bit of scope. I hope it won't put people off too much, but I'm as excited as I am terrified about it. (We get to see more Loki this way...?) Anyway, I won't bore whoever bothers to read these author's notes. ENJOY. PLEASE.

[Eternal disclaimer that lasts the rest of this story about how I own nothing and am poor and all I have is Sutton and a silly plot.]

/

Loki marched down towards the end of the room in rattling chains, his face in an ill concealed smirk. There should have been no reason for it. He had shackled wrists, feet, and one inexplicably around his hips. Not to mention he had lost every goal set when he'd gone to earth, and to the earth from which Sutton Regan, the unmotivated mortal of power, came. But still, there was a smirk that he swallowed down as they entered further and further into the room. Thor followed along after his brother and the guards, his own face set in a worried frown.

Odin sat on his throne before them all; regal in gold, his one good eye casting judgement on the company. Frigga stood to the side. She held herself as the queen she was, though relief colored her face at the same time as it was marred by motherly worry and despair.

Loki stilled himself before Odin's throne without any fanfare, the smirk totally gone now. After the final rattling of the chains as they settled, the room was silent. Odin seemed to be waiting for a remark from his adopted son, but when Loki remained mum, he finally spoke up.

"So this is how my son must be returned to me? In chains and as a wielder of destruction. Have you nothing to say for yourself?"

Loki let the question linger in the air a moment before he took in a breath and lifted his head.

"Only that, had I not been so forgotten, cast into the void, and left defenseless, perhaps this moment could have been avoided."

The room started in surprise at his statement, Thor looked a combination of confused and furious at the claim. Odin snapped in reply.

"What do you mean by this?"

"Oh," Loki's tone was almost patronizing. "But I wouldn't want to make excuse for my behavior, would I? Since the mighty Allfather already knows me to be guilty."

"Loki," pleaded Frigga, her hands were clasped tightly together. "Please don't make this any worse."

Loki tilted his head back to look at her and flashed a face of grim amusement.

"Define worse."

Furious, Odin rapped his staff on the stone floor.

"Enough! Leave us."

Frigga cast an unappreciative glance up at her husband, but left after only a moments hesitation. Loki shot his own glare at the king of Asgard. After Frigga had completely left the room Odin continued on.

"You cause death and destruction wherever you go by your own hand and will. You are alive now only because of your mother's love, and you will never see her again."

The last statement seemed to reverberate around the spacious room, causing even Loki to blink in shock and dismay. His lips parted without sound ever leaving them and he looked on the man who had been his father in betrayal even unexpected for him. Thor winced, casting his eyes down, and looked away.

"Father," he spoke up as he moved around to stand by his brother. "Loki has indeed wronged Midgard and our people, but I fear a worse threat looms before us."

Odin's attention was drawn to his eldest son and he stood up from his throne.

"What mean you," he asked. "Speak now."

Thor sighed.

"On Midgard we were drawn through the Tesseract's power into another realm. We found ourselves on another Midgard, one that considered our people and the champions who I battled alongside to be mere legends. There we met a mortal woman with great power. She told me before our return home that another villain was in our future. One I am weary to believe."

"A Seer, then," said Odin. "Amongst mortals? That alone is hard to believe; but come. Who is this villain you so fear?"

Thor paused instead of answering straight away.

"Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves."

Everyone in the room froze. The guards surrounding Loki even fidgeted and looked up to Odin as if for reassurance that this could not be true. They all knew the stories of the Dark Elves who had tried to cast the universe back into darkness. The tales spoke of their mighty weapon, the Aether, that Malekith himself wielded.

Odin's grip on Gungnir tightened and he struck the floor with it again.

"Impossible," he said. "The Dark Elves were all destroyed by my father, Borr. This mortal was obviously a fraud."

"Father," Thor argued. "She had extensive knowledge of our world. Her earth could peer into our lives as if through a looking glass."

Loki tilted his head and grit his teeth as if frustrated.

"Listen well, for I shall never say this again, but you should listen to Thor's warning. The mortal woman has immense power-"

"Enough!"

In his anger, Odin's eye blazed fiercely.

"I will not exhaust Asgard of her people and resources for a false threat! The nine realms already descend into chaos. Thor, you will do your duty to restore order to Yggdrasil, and Loki will account for his crimes!"

Loki's eyes flickered, his lips twitched, and he did not try to protest. Thor's hands were balled into fists and his bearded jaw clenched at the dismissal and reprimand.

"Regardless of whatever lies you try to spin, Loki, your actions were your own. Consider it mercy that the dungeons are your new home."

[][][][][][][][][][]

Victoria Sung stood before the destruction that had once been her home. It didn't matter that it had been small, or old, or a rental. It was the first place that had allowed her to live out her independence. It was where she'd made one of her first friends who wasn't only interested in her for her parent's money. And now it was little more than a hole in the ground and her friend was gone.

How had Sutton even survived this?

There was a shuffling behind her and Vicki spun around, her short black hair bobbing as she finally looked at the woman she'd been avoiding making eye contact with the entire drive here.

"Thank you for coming," the woman said. "I've been wanting to come here, but...I've had no real excuse. The officials over this...this case haven't been exactly cooperative."

Vicki's large almond eyes moistened as she nodded, her freckled face was pale.

"Mrs. Stringer, I know this must be harder for you than it is for me. If you don't want to come in-"

"No. I need to see it. Maybe there's something they missed. A clue. I just can't..."

But the woman's voice was being overpowered by emotion and Vicki felt herself wilting.

"I understand, Mrs. Stringer; it's ok."

"Please, call me Lindsay, dear."

Vicki smiled without humor.

"Mrs. Lindsay, then."

Turning back to the front door, Vicki took out her house key from her pristine Louis Vuitton bag and unlocked the latch. Her purse slipped off her shoulder and landed on the floor at the sight that greeted her. She could hear Sutton's mother choking back a sob behind her.

It was...destroyed.

Vicki could hardly accept what was clearly before her. People had told her, of course, but to see it. She pressed her hand over her small lips and took another step inside.

The walls of their living room and kitchen were black, one was even almost completely knocked over. The furniture was strewn about and tipped over. On top of that it was clear that a party had come through and done a thorough search of every nook and cranny. Sutton's mother whimpered from the door's threshold.

"Oh, Sutton."

Vicki had to find an unbroken chair and sit down. It was almost worse than when she had been bombarded by the press after she'd stepped off the plane coming back onto American soil. Suddenly she was known as "the terrorist's roommate" and everyone wanted to hear about the behavior and habits of Sutton Regan. Vicki still wasn't sure if she believed any of it. As if hearing her thoughts, Mrs. Lindsay spoke.

"She didn't do it; you have to believe that. She must have been threatened, or a hostage... Sutton could never..." But the woman couldn't finish and burst into sobs. "And they can't even find her? It's been two months and no one knows where my baby is! She couldn't have just disappeared!"

Vicki left her seat and rushed to embrace the broken woman. She stroked the mother's straight, sleek hair in a vain attempt to comfort her.

"Shh, I know Sutton didn't do it. Mrs. S- Lindsay, Sutton couldn't decide what to have for dinner half the time, or even fix the wifi by herself. I doubt she could be a terrorist ringleader."

Mrs. Lindsay lifted her head up and gave Vicki a watery smile that quickly died. It was almost disconcerting to Vicki how alike the woman and her daughter looked. Vicki thought it must be a terrible reminder of her loss every time the woman looked in a mirror. Both had thin faces with a defined jaw and bright eyes. Mrs. Lindsay had more curves than her daughter, though, and Sutton must have gotten her hair from her father. Her mother's, while a similar shade, was thinner and tameable.

"I'm sure Sutton is ok," Vicki finally said. "You know how she wa-is." With a sigh, Vicki berated herself. "I should never have gone on that trip. I should have brought her along, I just knew her boss was a jerk and I-"

"Victoria," Mrs. Lindsay interrupted. "It's not your fault, dear. You might have just gotten involved too and then..." But she couldn't finish again.

Vicki wanted to ask how the rest of the family was doing just to break the silence, but felt like it wasn't her place. Sutton had often mentioned her little brother, but Vicki had never met any of them and didn't want to upset the woman any more than she already was.

"I just wish I knew that she was alright," Mrs. Lindsay finally whispered. "I wish I knew if she were safe, or hurt, or frightened." She looked up at her daughter's once roommate with round eyes. "She's probably so, so scared-"

[][][][][][][][][][]

"-of what the future might hold, especially almost a year after New York. We have to worry about a totally different kind of illegal alien now."

Sutton hands fluttered around her frantically as she stood below a stage in a pressed pencil skirt and fitted blazer. The sea of faces before her were for the most part not even looking at her, but a few people in the front couple rows were watching her with rapt attention. The young adults in typical black gowns let out a round of laughter as the man at the podium smirked. Sutton worked to maintain her professional appearance.

"This is the part where I'm supposed to say that you can do whatever you put your mind to, but come on. Not all of us can be handsome, multi-billion dollar, superheroes."

Sutton came very, very close to rolling her eyes, but caught herself before she slipped. That didn't stop some people in the audience from doing it while others chuckled.

"But seriously, for a second, you're graduating now and you have to get out there. If I've learned anything it's if something comes to you easily, it'll probably be back to bite you later. Our world is changing fast and we all have to keep up. And, odds are, if you were able to afford to come to this school you won't have a problem with that."

Sutton paused her signing for allotted laughter and waited to see how the speech would be wrapped up.

"Ok, like I said at the beginning, this speech isn't going to be long. To sum up, this world isn't going to do you any favors. You have to make your own mistakes and own successes. The future needs you to be your best. That being said, Stark Industries is accepting resumes in the back. But I warn you, interviews will include an obstacle course."

And then Tony threw up a peace sign and strutted off the stage. Sutton rolled her eyes in exasperation and let out a growl of irritation in the back of her throat. Her next few signs were small motions, just mockingly talking to herself.

"And thank you to my wonderful interpreter, Sutton Regan."

A loud shot of laughter startled her and she focused on the crowd to notice one of the Deaf graduates giving her some teasing applause.

Sutton flushed slightly but laughed and tried to make sure there weren't cameras pointed at her still. As far as she could tell they were currently remaining on Tony as he left the building. He apparently had someplace important to be, but Sutton wasn't so sure about that. Noting that she wasn't in the spotlight, she rolled her eyes again and held her palms facing herself as she brushed her fingers back and forth over each other making the sign for 'whatever'.

After the ceremony, Sutton was heading back to her rental car and flexing her tired fingers. A shadow passed over her as she reached for the door handle.

"So, I think you owe me an apology."

Sutton sighed as she turned away from her escape-pod on wheels.

"And why would I owe you an apology, Tony? I haven't even seen you in two months. If anything, you owe me one. I had to help interpret for that entire ceremony because you wouldn't let the school's interpreters sign for your speech. This is on top of all the office meetings I already interpret for regularly."

Tony shrugged nonchalantly.

"Just keeping you employed. And you owe me because you stole my spotlight."

Her right eyebrow rose up behind her bangs.

"Excuse me?"

Tony pulled out his phone and slid his thumb over the screen until he found what he was looking for.

"You just blew up the internet. Congrats on that low profile you said you wanted."

Sutton pinched the bridge of her nose as she examined Tony's phone. Apparently her eye roll hadn't gone unnoticed. It was a photograph of Tony on stage in the middle of his peace sign as she rolled her eyes down below. Someone had captioned the image:

'The sign I want to give you only uses one finger.'

Sutton groaned.

"No, no, no, no, no, no."

"Oh yeah," said Tony. "And there's more where that came from. The ceremony was only an hour ago and this is practically viral. Probably all thanks to my popularity, but again, you've taken attention away from my super inspiring speech. That's rude."

"You know, Tony," Sutton deflected, "you don't have to wait until I'm an internet meme to say hi. If it means that much to you, you can text. I mean, you did give me a Stark phone, after all."

"Which is amazing, right?"

"Yeah," she begrudgingly admitted. "And I'm half certain it's bugged too."

Tony grinned and suddenly she had the feeling that her joke wasn't actually a joke at all.

"Big brother has to watch out for you."

"Real funny, Tony."

"By the way, who's Axel? And why is Maggie trying to set you up with him?"

Sutton balked.

"Tony! I should have flippin' known! I'm going to tell Pepper-"

Tony held his hands up in surrender.

"I'm kidding, kidding! Just got the office gossip. Sheesh." He waved her to follow him as he made his way to his own parked car. It was red and very shiny. "Come on, I'll let you fly home with me."

Sutton frowned.
"I thought you couldn't stay for the entire graduation because you had an important business meeting or something?"

"Oh, yeah I made that up."

Figured.

She was going to decline the offer just to be stubborn, but someone was already taking her rental keys and Tony taunted her about flying coach filled with small children. It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to think that Tony would pay to have the plane filled with infants just to mess with her. She decided that the private jet was more pleasant. Besides, Tony's planes usually had snacks. Free snacks.

Sutton was already munching on chocolate covered pretzels as the plane reached cruising altitude. Getting on the private jet had been the right choice. The seats were just as comfortable as she remembered from her first trip to New York.

"So," she started. "How have you been? I saw that whole Aldrich thing on the news. His court date is coming up soon, isn't it?"

Tony's demeanor dimmed as he nodded.

"Yeah, and my lawyers are going to make sure he doesn't weasel his way out of even one charge."

"Did he really breath fire at Rhodey? The news kept gushing about how he'd altered his DNA and attacked War Mach- I mean, Iron Patriot."

Tony snapped his fingers together.

"See! War Machine is a much cooler name, isn't it?"

Sutton't head lolled to the side.

"Yes. N-"

"And, yeah, he did. Luckily Rhodey realized he was in one of my suits and put him down really quick. I'm the one that developed the flame eliminator serum so he wouldn't be able to fry his prison warden."

Sutton sighed and nodded.

"I still can't believe the Mandarin was an actor. I mean, really? You cast Sir Ben Kingsley to play one of Iron Man's arch nemesis's and he's the joke of a plot twist?"

It was Tony's turn to lift a brow at her.

"You do realize that Aldrich was the Mandarin instead, right? And it's a lot cleaner this way. You've got to let go of the whole "movie" thing, kid. This is real stuff now."

Sutton huffed and shifted in her seat.

"Yeah, I know. But how are you really, because you did mess up everything and probably missed out on some important character devel-"

"I'm fine, kid," Tony butt in. "I traded the Aldrich fiasco for some disaster in your world. I shouldn't have to go through suffering ordeals more than once, right?"

"I guess."

But he still looked a bit tired to her, like he hadn't been sleeping through the night.

The plane dipped suddenly and Sutton felt her stomach flip. She let out a small breathy laugh as the plane settled back down, but her stomach flipped again on its own. A tingling shot through her appendages and she saw double for a brief moment.

"You ok, Small Fry? You look a bit pale."
Sutton nodded.

"I'm fine. Just too much sugar on an empty stomach, I think. Excuse me for a second."

Unbuckling, she entered the plane's bathroom and set it to 'occupied'. Sitting on the closed toilet lid, Sutton rested her head on the sink counter as nausea rolled through her once more.

Not this again.

It'd been about a month or so since her last bout of symptoms like this. She'd been brushing it off as stress and a diet change, but now it was back. The tingling in her arms and legs reached an almost painful degree and Sutton bit down on her lower lip.

Just let it pass.

She sat that way for five minutes as her head spun and gut churned. This probably wasn't normal. She should probably go to the doctor about this now. The idea was almost enough to make her as upset as her physical symptoms. Not that her insurance wouldn't cover it; Stark Industries actually had a really good benefits package. She just knew that she was being monitored from all sides, S.H.I.E.L.D included. And if this turned out to be anything more than the flu, she'd be getting more than just "get well" balloons at her door.

The feelings finally passed and Sutton composed herself enough to rejoin Tony in the body of the plane.

"So, how's Pepper, anyway," she asked immediately upon her exit in order to distract from the amount of time she'd spent in there. "Is she holding up ok while still having to put up with you?"

"You know, as your boss you'd think you'd tread a little more lightly around me. You know, 'Mr. Stark', 'yes sir'. I can jack up the price on your rent at any time."

"I don't even live in Star Tower, Tony."

"Yeah, but I own your complex."

Sutton groaned and rubbed at her eyes quickly.

"Is there anything you don't own? Sheesh, I think we have to worry more about world domination plans from you."

Tony snorted into the cup he was holding up to his lips. She hoped that he knew she wouldn't tolerate him getting drunk and dancing with the stewardesses while she was on the plane. Chase would have thought it was funny though. He always did have somewhat of a slanted moral code, if his excessive drinking had been any clue. Not that she condoned his activities at all. She had still been working on him. Giving her head a shake, Sutton refocused on whatever Tony was saying.

"-too much responsibility. Besides, rebellious uprisings are such a party stopper."

"Right."

One of the nice things about Tony, not that she were saying there were many, was that she never felt the need to entertain him constantly. The flight was not awkward and she didn't feel like she had to chat the entire trip. Besides, he did a pretty good job of shutting down conversation and working on some blueprints that looked suspiciously like the make up for a tank of an Iron Man suit. He didn't share and she decided that it were best if she didn't know.

When they arrived back in New York, Sutton ensured that Tony had arranged to have her luggage sent back to her apartment before they went their separate ways. He had a date with Pepper and she had a date with Netflix. Even if he'd invited her along she really couldn't cancel it again.

Sutton's apartment was a few blocks away from Stark Tower which made her commute fairly easy most of the time. She did travel a bit, as she just had for the graduation ceremony, depending on what needed an interpreter. And Pepper had been nice enough to have JARVIS put in the credits she'd already earned into her new made-up identity, so school hadn't been as long when she was earning her degree.

Sutton pulled her shiny silver key from her black leather tote and unlocked her front door. Inside the room smelt fresh, and she knew the air conditioning had been on recently. It was not a large apartment. She wasn't suddenly rich because she knew the Tony Stark. And she didn't really expect him to cut her any favors or throw piles of money in her direction just because she was who she was. But the position she had now paid better than the job she'd had before, and she was able to afford living on her own. Again, the apartment wasn't big. This was New York, after all. It was clean and on the nice side of town and that was really all she cared about. A small brown leather couch took up most of her living room and across from it was her cherished television. Her bedroom was in the back, which equated to about two feet from the living room, and she headed there first to change into sweats before making her way to the kitchen. She put together two slices of bread with cheese in the middle and turned her toaster on its side to pop it in. The toaster was an obnoxious red and shining gold. It toasted her bread so that it looked like Iron Man's mask was burnt onto it. She wasn't going to harp Tony about her broken appliances ever again.

With her lazy grilled cheese and a glass of water, Sutton finally plopped in front of the TV and flipped to watch some british shows on Netflix. Tomorrow was Thursday, but luckily she only had two appointments that she had to attend, and Friday there was only one meeting scheduled that needed her in the morning. All she really had to do was avoid Maggie and Avery until then and then she'd have a stress free weekend. Because like Tony had heard from "gossip", those two had been pressuring her to go on a date with Axel for a few weeks now. Sutton just wasn't in the mood for it.

Not that Axel wasn't good-looking or incredibly nice, because he was. Sutton just didn't feel like now was the best time for her to jump into a relationship. Really, it had only been about a year since her move to another universe. She thought she needed a little bit more recovery time than that.

Yeah, that was it.

Her stomach lurched again and she sucked in a breath as she stilled on the couch. More tremors passed through her and she closed her eyes trying to block out the pain. The television show on continued to play, ignoring her physical state.

"I travel. Through time and space."
"He saves planets, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures. And runs a lot. Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved."

Ok, she thought, it's decided. She would make an appointment first thing tomorrow for a doctor's visit and make sure she didn't have cancer or something else equally as terrible. For now, though, she tried to just ignore the symptoms and refocus on her show. One more day wouldn't kill her.

/

Aaaaand... that's chapter one! Is this a short chapter? I feel like it's longer when I'm writing, but then I can scroll through it in, like, two seconds. Do you guys like the chapters about this length? Or shorter, longer? Let me know! And let me know about your first impressions! Do you like it? Does it feel weird? Did you notice how I kind of tied in the different perspectives for a better flow? *wiggles eyebrows* Whatever you have to say, leave a review!