"Friends! Assemble!" Thor boomed as he landed on the still partially demolished Stark Tower, the late morning rays glinting off his armour..
The rubble from the Chitauri invasion had been taken away and Steve thought the place looked better this way. Less pretentious. He especially liked the Loki-shaped hole in the middle of the room. Stark had insisted on showing him what he had planned to do with the tower next and Steve found himself rather surprised by his project because he didn't understand why Stark wanted to take it upon himself to house all the Avengers. It seemed rather hazardous and his tower might not survive it. Again. Steve didn't understand the man at all: he was in turn selfish and generous, obnoxious and likeable, understanding and oblivious… a contradiction upon himself at every turn, which he proved once more upon greeting Thor.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's: 'Avengers Assemble!'" Tony mocked in what Steve was certain was supposed to be his own voice.
"But the Avengers are my friends," Thor argued.
"I think this is beside the point? Is there an emergency, Thor?" Steve asked, biting back a long suffering sigh.
"Indeed there is, Captain of the Shield and Stars! I have just learned of Loki's punishment!"
"Surely that's a good thing?" Stark replied. "Did he get a good spanking from Papa Odin? Did you take a picture? Please tell me you did."
Thor shifted his enormous boots and shifted his gaze downwards like a grounded puppy.
"Don't tell me you broke the phone again. I made it especially extra-resistant for your gigantic paws!"
"I sat on it," Thor confessed. "The phone of Stark could not resist my muscular buttocks."
Steve had had it. These two had the attention span of a goldfish when they were together and he wanted to cut off Thor before he had the idea of showing them just how hard his… fundament was.
"Thor! Emergency?" he snapped.
"Yes. I just learned Father punished Loki the same way he did me. I do not know what he was thinking, but now I fear my brother will seek revenge upon us. I came to warn you as soon as possible."
"You mean… he's here? On Earth? Why the hell would your old man do that? Loki tried to turn our planet into Chitauriland for fuck's sake! And you're telling me the nutjob responsible is already back? When we haven't even finished cleaning up the mess he left behind?" Tony squawked while Steve finally made the call to Assemble.
As far as emergencies went, this one ranked pretty high up. Bruce would be there in a few minutes since he was already a permanent resident in the tower, but it might take a while for Natasha and Clint to join them. And then... who was their handler now? Steve had no idea who he was supposed to call so he reluctantly notified Fury as well. He should know. Stark was still getting the details out of Thor: apparently, his own banishment to 'Midgard' had given such outstanding results that their father had decided to punish Loki in exactly the same way. Optimistic, to say the least. Stupid, in reality.
"Wait… didn't your father strip you of… well, everything, when he sent you here?"
"That is correct, man of Iron."
Steve and Stark waited for the other shoe to drop. Realization was slowly dawning on Thor's face.
"Oh... that is not good, my friends."
"I would say it is. It means he has no magic, right?"
"I did tell you Loki was adopted, did I not?"
"You might have mentioned it when we were tallying his victims, yeah."
Thor looked troubled, but not because of Stark's barb.
"I think… Loki may not look like he usually does. He hails from Jotunheim."
"Meaning?" Stark prompted, trying to hurry along the process.
"Jotunheim is populated by Frost Giants," Thor said as if it was obvious and Steve pictured Loki as a giant snowman which wasn't frightening at all.
"Hear that, Capsicle? You and Loki are distant cousins."
Steve rolled his eyes and prompted Thor to describe what his brother might look like. If what he said was true, it shouldn't be difficult to locate him. How many tall red-eyed blue men could there be walking around? Bruce joined them soon after, then Clint and Natasha, along with Agent Hill who he'd met a few times and who would be taking over Coulson's position until they found someone suitable for the task. She said suitable like she meant suicidal, not that he blamed her. They were rather a handful to manage and he couldn't imagine anyone but Coulson and his placid smile being successful at the job.
"You know Loki best, Thor. What do you think he would do first? Where would he go? Anyone here he might contact?" Agent Hill asked briskly.
"Alas, I do not know him as well as I thought I once did, Lady Hill, but he must feel quite crippled without his magic, naked even. Just as I did when I arrived on Midgard. My first step was to find Mjolnir, so I think Loki will strive to regain his magic first, but how? That I do not know. Magic is not my area."
"The Grim," Steve said, "I mean… Hermione. She does magic."
The others were giving him the stink-eye. They still resented him for not accepting her amongst them, but he still thought he'd made the right call.
"Sure. Now you want her to help," Stark muttered. "What makes you think she will? If I were her, I'd tell you where you can-"
"Thank God not everyone is as childish as you, Stark, or-"
Agent Hill stood and told them in no uncertain terms to shut it.
"I thought you two had resolved… whatever the matter is between you. Now is not the time for squabbles," she sighed, sat heavily in her chair and Steve thought she looked worried, which was near impossible because she hadn't looked fazed at all when the helicarrier was under attack. "I'll look for Hermione. You too, Stark, if you don't mind. You're usually good at finding her."
"Champion of hide and seek since 1992," Stark said and then simply ordered Jarvis to do all the work for him. "I'll go suit up now. I'd rather be ready if the blue popsicle is after us. No one likes the blue ones. What are they even supposed to taste like? The sky? Nothing's good is blue, even blueberries aren't blue, they're..."
Steve was pretty sure Stark was going to talk himself all the way down to his workshop and into his armor. he wondered if he had created Jarvis just so people couldn't say he was talking to himself. What was the saying? There's a fine line between genius and insanity, but it looked like Stark had jumped over that line entirely and entered a category of his very own.
Shaking his head, Steve returned to the bay window overlooking New-York while everyone went about their business. For now, there wasn't much he could do. Cameras, computers, phones and such did all the looking and they just had to wait for the signal, then go out and arrest Loki. Again. Why the Asgardians thought they could use their planet as a dumping ground for their misbehaving children was a mystery to him, but so was most things nowadays. He was doing his best to catch up, but there always seemed to be something new popping up. Like the Grim and her magical society that was still in hiding, and Death personified making deals with mortals, and time-travel… it had all been a bit too much for him. So, yes, maybe if she had arrived at another time, one where he wasn't already overwhelmed by the modern world and an alien invasion, maybe he would have been more… understanding. But he still thought she wasn't someone they should trust blindly, and until she proved she could be, he wouldn't change his mind on the matter. Trust was earned and that took time. He wasn't going to lie just to make the others happy. They'd asked for his opinion and he'd given it.
However, the videos Fury had provided them troubled him. The director had only said he was concerned and wanted their opinion, but Steve couldn't help but feel like the man was trying to manipulate him.
It worked, to a point. Unlike Stark and Clint who had laughed themselves silly at the many, many accidents the Grim got herself into. Steve was worried. It wasn't natural. Especially not all those bananas. And it was so much like the old cartoons, like Tom and Jerry, except this was a real person… it made the attempts on her life grotesque, as far as he was concerned, not funny. He might not like her, but that didn't mean he wished her harm.
"You look worried, Captain," Agent Hill said, interrupting his maudlin thoughts.
Steve startled, having not realized she was still there. He had thought she'd left with Natasha and Clint.
"So do you," he replied, recalling the anxious look she'd had about her during their meeting. "But I suppose it's natural, knowing Loki is about again. At least the helicarrier is not up in the air this time."
"It's not Loki I'm worried about," she said, glancing around.
Steve raised an eyebrow, wondering how he had ever thought the woman to be emotionless in the past.
"It's Hermione," she confessed in a low voice, and his other eyebrow joined the first because what were the odds they'd been worrying about the same person at the same time? He didn't believe in coincidences. The world was trying to tell him something, and when that happened, he usually listened. If he hadn't, he wouldn't be Captain America today. He'd be… nobody. Skinny, sick Steve Rogers. Unable to help others, barely able to help himself. Probably long dead by now, too.
"She hasn't come home last night and I'm worried. She usually works all night to rebuild what she can, but she always comes back home around sunrise to sleep. Always. She's like my old nan that way, a real creature of habit. It's just not like her… I know it hasn't been too long. I'm probably worrying over nothing..."
Agent Hill shook her head, then looked out at the city while Steve felt a knot start to tighten in his stomach. He had a lot of questions but wasn't sure where to start.
"She lives with you?"
He didn't know why he'd asked that. It's what he least wanted to know but it also felt like the safest question.
"Yes. She's basically an outcast from her own society, you know. Director Fury didn't think she could live alone on base. It can get pretty lonely despite all the people stationed there, and the rooms are a bit sparse. Hermione is… depressed, I guess, and I have a guest room so it seemed like a suitable arrangement. Apart from the teleporting, she's actually a great roommate: she magicks the dishes to clean themselves and does all the laundry in five minutes flat."
Steve had a hard time imagining the Grim Reaper doing the laundry. It made him laugh on the inside and itch for his sketchbook. It also explained why the agent was more… human, than usual.
"You're friends," he stated.
"It's hard not to like her. When you give her a chance, that is."
"She told you about that," he said, recalling the last time he'd seen her at the impromptu party Stark had thrown for her.
He'd come to meet the Grim who had helped them during the Battle of New-York and had been stunned when he saw her real face, the human one, because she looked just like a woman he'd captured during the war. A mysterious woman walking alone in the snow in the middle of nowhere with barely enough clothes to keep herself warm. She had never said a word and he'd felt sorry for her, so he'd given her his coat. It was the gentleman thing to do and she'd...hugged him. It had been weird and he'd been glad for the dark so she couldn't see him blush. But soon after, she'd disappeared from the camp's jail, under the noses of all the soldiers and sentinels… He had never known who she was or how she'd done that, but he and the Howling Commando had heard rumours of her passage all over Europe. They'd tried catching up to her sometimes, when they were headed in the same direction: them, to sabotage Hydra and fight the Red Skull, her, to do the bidding of Death, apparently. But he hadn't known that then. At the time, the rumour of the mysterious woman in white, pulled by a sleigh of wolves, had turned into a story people told their children for bed. Unknown to her, she'd become the Snow Maiden. She probably didn't know, even now.
He'd like to tell her, one day. He could probably find the sketches he'd drawn of her, and maybe Jacques, or at least his descendants, still had her jewelry. The Frenchman had been quite infatuated with her and had brought back the jewelry she had exchanged for food in farms they had also stopped at. She might like them back. After all, she'd returned his coat. Steve was startled to realize he had so much to tell her, a connection he didn't have with anyone else...
"I didn't mean to dismiss her," he said. "I just thought we should take our time to get to know her beforehand, before making her a part of the team, but she disappeared before we could get to that so, erm… maybe you could tell her when you see her?"
"Tell her yourself, Cap," came Stark's voice from all around them. Steve had forgotten he had eyes and ears everywhere in his tower. One of the reasons he wasn't as enthusiastic as the others to move in. "I followed her trail all last night from satellite images. She's quite the busy little bee, patching up all the little holes in the city. I don't think we quite realized the amount of work she was doing. Last place I can pinpoint her location is a residential building in Hell's kitchen. I'll race you there."
They saw Ironman zoom past the window and disappear between buildings. He was probably already there.
"I honestly don't know what he expects me to do sometimes…" Steve mumbled, glaring in the direction where they'd last seen a glint of Ironman. "I don't know what anyone expects me to do at times."
"Sounds like you need someone to talk to. Maybe you should accept Stark's offer to live here. It can't be all that bad and you'll always have one of the others around if you need to chat. Think about it? Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll head home and see if Hermione is back. I might ground her if she is, she's way past her curfew."
Again Steve found the image of the Grim Reaper being scolded by the agent amusing, but he had to remind himself there was an actual person beneath that appearance. And one he actually knew more than most having met her in the first part of his life.
Agent Hill had only been gone a minute when she returned, slowly walking backwards and aiming her gun… Steve whirled around, cursing his lack of a shield. He should have suited up. But it wasn't the blue man he'd been expecting to see. This one was red. Very red, from head to toe, with little horns like a devil. Steve had no idea who he was supposed to be, or how he'd gotten in. Stark was always raving about his top-notch security.
"I don't mean you any harm, I'm here about the Grim."
"What about her?" Hill snapped, not lowering her gun one inch.
The man cocked his head to one side, looking in her direction, then nodded.
"She told me she wasn't one of you, but I know you're worried about her and you're right to. Someone took her early this morning and I need help to get her back."
Agent Hill was a scary dame when she wanted something and right now, she wanted her friend back, so the man in red, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, she'd called him, was being grilled. Past her surprise he wasn't an urban legend as she'd believed, she holstered her gun and questioned him mercilessly about who he really was (denied), how he'd met Hermione and where (repairing a rooftop on his territory), what had happened next (a muffled scream in an alleyway after they'd parted ways).
Steve guessed he should have know better than be surprised by this devil after everything he'd seen, and despite his costume, he actually seemed like a pretty normal guy with his trim body, mild manners and sardonic smile. He'd probably get along great with Stark, they were even colour coordinated.
"I followed her trail from the alley she was abducted from to the Central Park Zoo, but I can't find anything after that. I could find her if she was still in Hell's kitchen but I can't find her on my own if she's been taken elsewhere."
"Why do you care?" Steve asked curiously because it seemed like he'd just met her.
"Do you know she's the first and only one of you people to have done anything to help my neighbourhood since the attack? And I couldn't even protect her while she was there… She tried calling for me... but I was too late."
The knot in Steve's stomach pulled a little tighter. He wondered if he'd really misjudged the Grim so badly. Everybody seemed to think so. It didn't sit well with him, and the only way to make things right was to find her and get to know her himself.
"You don't think…" Hill began and paled.
The devil stilled while Steve looked at her quizzically, wondering how things could be any worse right now between Loki's reappearance and the Grim's disappearance…
"Oh, hell, no," Steve muttered as he too connected the dots. They'd wanted her help to deal with Loki, but it seemed Loki had had the exact same idea.
"Someone care to fill me in?" the devil asked and Hill obliged while Steve informed the others of this new, more than likely development.
There was still one tiny, minuscule chance they were wrong, but Steve had a hunch it wasn't so. Loki had the Grim, and he might be partly responsible. If he had just accepted her as one of their own, if she hadn't been walking about on her own, if she'd had someone to turn to…
"Where are you going, Captain?" Hill called when he was already at the elevator door.
"Suiting up!"
He couldn't stay and wait. Do nothing while she was in the hands of that lunatic.
"Are we sure Loki can't do magic?"
"The number of sightings we have of him-"
"Yeah, but how reliable are those? The last one I looked into was a dumbass in a Smurf costume."
"Better than those furries I interrupted in the middle of-"
"Please. No. I don't want to hear that ever again."
Steve sighed as he listened to the chatter over the com. Two hours later and they were still no closer to finding Loki or the Grim. If he did have her, that would have been about eight hours he'd abducted her. He had no means to brainwash people into making them his puppets anymore, so how was he going to convince her to help him? She wouldn't help him? Would she?
The gnawing suspicion about the Grim and his guilt at feeling he might be wrong about her warred constantly within him.
"Thor?" Steve finally had to ask. "How do you think Loki will get the Grim to do his bidding?"
"I did not meet the Lady of Death myself, but I have been assured she is a mortal like my Lady Jane in truth, so she may be susceptible to my brother's silver tongue?"
"What kind of a sexual innuendo is that?" Stark asked.
Steve ignored the rest of the frankly bizarre conversation that followed between his team-mates. He knew morals had loosened considerably since the forties but he hadn't quite caught up to that yet and it would be awhile before he could speak so openly of such matters, if ever. Besides, he didn't want to give Stark more ammunition than he already had to tease him mercilessly. He wondered instead if the Grim would be so easily swayed to Loki's side. She had, after all, made a deal with Death before, so what was to stop her from making one with the God of Mischief? It might even be a step down for her, but what could Loki possibly offer her that could tempt her?
Of course, Thor could be entirely mistaken about his brother. It wouldn't be the first time. Maybe Loki would simply resort to threats and torture, like a normal villain, and the she wouldn't really have a choice. Steve sighed. Once more, he hoped he was wrong. It always seemed to end that way where the Grim was concerned.
