Until My Dying Day
Chapter 4: Can You Hear it Sing?
Loki's dangerously chipper attitude didn't last very long once he was surrounded by guns. As Hel drew her twin swords and Jory readied his throwing knives, Loki raised his hands in supplication to all of them.
"Come now, are the weapons really necessary? I've only come for a chat, after all."
"We'll drop ours if they drop theirs," Bucky said, though he couldn't quite keep his eyes off the dark-haired young girl standing at the trickster's side.
"All right, if you insist," he said, taking a moment to nod at Hel and Jory. They hesitated for a moment, but finally did as requested.
"And the spell, Loki. I can feel that illusion magic," Bucky snarled.
Loki stared at him a moment, his eyes hardening with anger, but he ultimately held out his arms. Hel and Jory immediately moved in to support him. As they did, the illusion fell away and the liesmith was laid bare, nearly destroyed and unable to keep his own feet. As his children lowered him to the floor, he glared at Bucky.
"Where is my son…little soldier?" he demanded, his features growing fowler by the minute.
"Loki-" Thor started, moving to approach his brother, but Steve held up a warning hand.
"Don't get close. Don't touch him. Mako?"
"Yes?"
"Would you please go and get Fen and Fi? Bring them up here. Make sure Eve keeps the others away."
"Yes, Sir," Mako said, deferring to his father's position in this crisis situation. Almost before anyone could blink, he was gone.
"Our son is safe, Loki. He's been treated like one of the family while he's been with us. We would never harm him."
"I didn't…imagine that you would. I only wanted to know that he reached here safely. Fenrir was ripped from side a week ago…and I've been mad with worry ever since. I didn't come here…to start a fight. All of that is long done. I came here because…we have a common enemy."
"Maybe it's long done for you, Loki, but for some of us, it'll never be done. Don't think you can just waltz in here and expect us to help you," Bucky growled. He kept his gun lowered, but they both knew that was practically useless. Between them, they could destroy the tower a hundred times over with nothing but their minds.
"It's not me I'm asking you to help," Loki said, the anger in his eyes draining away to be replaced by pain. "You will see."
"So what were you doing on a prison moon that you had to have babes come rescue you?" Fandral asked, voice full of contempt.
Before either teen could protest being called a babe, Loki sat up a little straighter, hissing in pain as he struggled to speak. "I didn't ask them to rescue me. I wanted them to stay away. All this time we have tried to stay hidden from Thanos. I had each of them choose a safe location that I knew nothing of…so that they might stay safe if I should ever be captured. But when I was captured, the fool-headed little things came after me, even after I told them not to," he said, glancing between Hel and Jory. "It was what Thanos had planned. He wanted them…not me."
"Why?" Thor asked.
Before Loki could say more, though, Fenrir suddenly came bursting into the workshop.
"Father!" he shouted, immediately rushing toward his family. Even though it clearly pained him, Loki embraced his son.
"Are you all right? Are you all right?" the trickster asked several times, holding him close as his injuries allowed.
"I'm fine. What about you all? Have you not seen a healer?"
"That shouldn't be necessary," Thor said, leading his daughter toward the small family, who looked frightened by the amount of blood she was seeing. Fi managed to swallow her fear, though.
"Who…who's hurt?" she asked.
"Just him," Hel answered, nodding at her father. "We just…have not bathed since out last battle."
"This is…your dad, Fen?"
Fenrir smiled at the ten-year-old, holding his hand out to her. "It is. Do you think you can help?"
Once again, Fi looked at Loki. "I'll try. I've never seen anything this bad before."
"That's all we're asking."
Nodding, Fiona came to them, kneeling beside Loki and laying her hands on his arm. Then she began to sing.
This love, it is a distant star
Guiding us home wherever we are.
This love, it is a burning sun
Shining light on the things that we've done.
I try to speak to you every day
But each word we spoke, the wind blew away.
As she sang, Loki watched her power dance along his skin in amazement. With each note, a slash wound would begin to knit itself back together. Bruises faded until they were nothing.
Could these walls come crumbling down?
I want to feel my feet on the ground
And leave behind this prison we share.
Step into the open air.
How did we let it come to this?
What we just tasted we somehow still miss.
How will it feel when this day is done
And can we keep what we've only begun?
It wasn't just the surface wounds, either. He could also feel the internal injuries healing…broken bones resituating themselves and mending, new blood flowing in his veins. He didn't know that he had ever seen such power…but he could also see that the effort was beginning to tire her.
And now these walls come crumbling down
And I can feel my feet on the ground.
Can we carry this love that we share
Into the open air?
Into the open air?
Into the open air?
This love, it is a burning sun.
Then, as the last note left her lips, Fiona shuddered in exhaustion and collapsed into Fenrir's arms. Loki reached forward, unable to help worrying for the little girl.
"Fiona!" Thor cried out, rushing forward to take his daughter from Fenrir.
"She is all right," Loki said softly. "She's only exhausted herself."
"Fi?" Thor called, gently cradling the girl's much smaller body in his large arms. "Fi, can you hear me?" He breathed a sigh of relief when her eyes fluttered open.
"Dad? I did good, yeah?" she asked, weakly reaching a hand up to tangle her fingers in his long hair: a habit left over from when she was a baby.
"Yes. Yes, you did very well, my little princess. Rest now," he said, kissing her forehead. Almost immediately, she dropped off to sleep, a tired smile on her face.
"Fen, do you think you could take Fi back down with the others?" Steve asked his son.
"Of course," he said, reaching to take the little girl back into his arms.
"Hel, Jory, go with them," Loki ordered as he climbed to his feet, amazed to find that he was in fact completely healed.
"But Father-" Hel started to argue.
"No arguments. We will speak later, but now I must talk to them."
Hel looked ready to fight, but finally she just growled and followed after her twin. Jory was close behind them. Loki actually smiled once they'd gone.
"Oh, she is your daughter, James. Stubborn as the day is long and the night is dark."
Bucky just glared at the trickster. "Yeah, we are not having that conversation. Let's start with why you wanted those kids in the first place."
Loki raised an eyebrow at this. "Interesting place to begin."
"What you needed from both me and Steve…them. Why? Somehow I doubt it's because you just wanted kids. You've got a plan for them. What is it?"
At this, Loki looked almost…guilty…or at least Bucky would think so if he didn't think him incapable of such an emotion. "That was true…a long time ago, but things are different now."
"Even if it's not true, which I don't believe, by the way, what was it?"
"The Norns spoke a prophecy a long time ago…when I was born. It is said that the children of Loki will bring about Ragnarok…the ending times. They shall be the kith of many realms and they will have power the Trickster knows not. Though they be the seeds of destruction, they also be the light of redemption."
"And…what does that mean?" Tony asked.
"It means that Hel, Fenrir, and Jormungand have a destiny upon them," Thor said. "It seems it is their fate to bring about the time of Ragnarok…the ending of all things. Though…it seems to me the last part may suggest they can either end creation or save it."
"It was only the destruction part I was interested in when I first heard the prophecy. The children of Loki…it didn't matter to me who the other side of the coin was and I had two perfectly suitable specimens on hand, so the part about them being the kith of many realms is true."
"Kith?" Sam tried to clarify.
"It means kin, family group…community," Fandral tried to explain.
"Yes, the twins are both part Midgardian, part Jotunn," Loki said.
"What about Jory?" Steve asked.
"Excuse me?"
"Who's Jory's other parent? Is he part Asgardian? Part human? All Jotunn? What?"
"Jory is the son of none of your business," Loki snapped at him.
"Ah, no, at this point I think it definitely might be our business," Maria said.
"My last child is part Asgardian, if you must know. I will give you no more than that. The point here is that…as they grew, I came to care less and less about what their destiny is. They are simply…my children…and I would wish to preserve the reality in which they are. Others have not forgotten what they are, though. It seems Thanos means to use them to paint his own ending to Ragnarok. That was why he wanted them."
"Then why did he send Fenrir away? Why did he let you go so easy?" Natasha asked.
"He didn't. He would have kept Hel and Jory had I not teleported away…nearly killed myself doing it. Why he sent Fen to you, I couldn't guess. I only know that he has goals here on Earth."
"What sort of goals?" Clint asked.
At this, Loki looked to Bucky once more. "Have you ever felt like you are not…all here? Not like you're going crazy, I mean, but…as if you were vanishing?"
For a moment, Steve and Bucky glanced at each other in shock. They had both felt it. Almost since they had been reunited, they had both experienced moments of feeling that Bucky wasn't completely real…like he was somehow slipping away…and now there had been these dreams that were not dreams…as if he were slipping back into the past.
"Yes," Bucky finally answered.
"And have you been reliving the moment I pulled you out of time?" Loki pressed, beginning to look anxious.
"Yes…only it wasn't just flashbacking. It was like I was really there again."
"You were."
"How's that possible?" Steve asked, eyes hardening, fighting not to show his worry.
"It's Thanos' doing. He is threatening."
"Threatening what?" Steve pressed.
"He is threatening to undo the time shift I effected twenty years ago. If he carries out this threat, it means I will never have brought you forward in time. This timeline would be undone."
"You mean I wouldn't…become the Winter Soldier?" Bucky asked, uncertain how he felt about that.
"No, you would still become the Winter Soldier. It is always James Barnes' fate to become the Winter Soldier. More troublesome, though, if these events are undone…then Hel and Fenrir are never born…perhaps even Jory and the rest of the children."
"Not…born?" Bucky repeated, looking to Steve in shock. To have the lives of their children erased…just like that? It was harder to imagine anything more horrible…but he could see in his mind that Steve already had imagined something just as bad. If the timeline were erased, they would lose each other. Their love would never have a chance to blossom.
No! he insisted to Steve in thought, to comfort him as much as himself. I don't believe that! We would have found each other somehow.
"Hold up," Natasha started. "If he needs them to bring about Ragnarok, why would he risk them not existing?"
"The prophecy states the children of Loki. It does not say Hel, Fenrir, and Jormungand. If that is fate's design, it does not matter whom I bear children by. No matter how the timeline plays out, I will have children. It doesn't matter to Thanos who those children are. As for myself, I would just as soon not lose my sons and daughter. I take it the lot of you feel the same," he said, looking around the circle.
"So why is it he's only threatening? Why hasn't he just…done it already?" Steve asked, feeling himself shiver at the thought of losing Bucky all over again.
"He is threatening because his goal here is the two of you," Loki stated, again looking between Bucky and Steve.
"Of course," Bucky groaned, running his fingers through his hair in exasperation. "Why?"
"Because he means to use you to enter the Underworld."
This caused a moment of silence, which was finally broken when Darcy started in with, "Okay…now I'm just confused. How and why are these two gonna open a door to the Underworld?"
"The how of it, I do not know. The why of it…Thanos means to enter the Underworld in order to claim the final Infinity Stone from the queen of the dead."
"Ah…Infinity Stone? Might wanna clarify on that one," Sam said.
"You haven't told them about the Infinity Stones? Really?" Loki asked Thor.
"It did not…seem to be a matter that concerned the Earth," the thunderer answered, looking away from them.
"Concerned? Heh, well, does it concern them now, Brother?" Loki jabbed, crossing his arms in expectation.
"Thor…please," Steve requested when the silence continued to stretch.
"In my father's weapons vault, there is an ancient artifact…something that is said to have come from before time…the Infinity Gauntlet," Thor finally began to explain. "It is said that the gauntlet was the tool used to create this reality, but in the moment of creation, its powers were scattered to the far reaches of the realms in many forms. If these six powers, these Infinity Stones, are ever brought together and placed within the gauntlet once more, the person who controls the gauntlet will have control over all of creation. It would seem that this is Thanos' ultimate goal."
"So there's one stone in the Underworld. Where are the other five?" Maria asked.
"Thanos is in control of two of them already: the Akasha and the Eterna. The Eterna gives him power over time. It is what allowed me to pull you out of time before," Loki said to Bucky. "And you are not unfamiliar with the second. The Akasha is what they call the Soul Gem. It grants power over souls. It is what powered my staff during the Chitauri War…and allowed me to awaken your latent power."
"No, that…that was the Tesseract," Bucky said slowly, remembering what Tony had told him about the arc reactor he'd created for him.
"Mm, yes, I imagine all of you would think so, being as the Tesseract is the only Infinity Stone you're familiar with."
"Hold up. The Tesseract's an Infinity Stone?" Tony asked.
"Yes. It grants power over space. It would allow Thanos to enter the Underworld. The stones may be used against one another, but they may draw on one another as well, which will be made much easier when he gains the Aether, the stone of power, which I imagine he is doing at this very moment."
"Where's that?" Clint asked.
"The Aether was left with a being called the Collector after the Svartalfheim Incident," Fandral told them. "Surely it's not that easy to take it from him."
"Oh, no?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow. "It was easy enough for him to reclaim the Akasha from Nova Corps when it was stolen from him. If he doesn't have the Aether already, he will soon enough. Before the last, that leaves only the Fylgja."
"And where is that?" Mako asked.
"On Asgard, of course."
"That isn't so," Thor said. "Father would never keep two of the stones together."
"Wrong. He would never keep three of them together. The Fylgja has been on Asgard far longer than the Tesseract has. It is kept safe…with Heimdall."
"Heimdall?"
"Oh, Odin didn't tell you about that? No, I don't suppose he would. Why do you think the gatekeeper has such immense powers of sight? It's because the Fylgja is bonded with him. It allows him to see into the minds of others. If Thanos can lay waste to Asgard, he will have gained two more stones, including the one that will allow him access to the last."
"And what stone's that?" Natasha asked.
"The most powerful of them all. The Absolute. It grants power over reality itself. Without the other stones to temper it, it could prove dangerous for any wielder to use. Its great power is why it was said to have been placed in the keeping of the queen of the dead when time began…to place it beyond the hands of the living…and Thanos means to lay siege to Death itself."
"All right…so how are our capsicle and Frosty the snowman gonna help him do that?" Tony asked.
"Higher beings cannot enter the realm of Death and hope to emerge unscathed. Thanos himself cannot enter, nor can any of the armies he commands. A human could manage it, though," Loki said, looking around at all of them once again. "A human is a low enough form of life not to be spiritually destroyed by walking alive through the gates of Death. The only trouble is that such an act would kill a human. It becomes necessary, then, to use one that is enhanced."
"A super soldier," Steve said, finally putting the pieces together.
"Just so. This is what Grigori Dreykoff was attempting to create eighteen years ago, a unit of advanced Midgardians who would be able to storm the Underworld and claim the Absolute for him. It was also for this purpose that the Winter Soldier was originally created. Currently, though, Thanos is only in possession of six enhanced human soldiers."
"The three he took from 2R," Natasha said slowly.
"And Schmidt and his two followers…Alrik and Skadi," Steve added. "But what sort of body does he have now. As I recall, he was renting space with Alrik when they left."
"Skadi and Alrik were not idle after that. They…created…another host for their master. When Skadi conceived, he inhabited the developing child."
"That's so disgusting," Steve muttered, realizing that his old enemy had essentially murdered another human soul with such an act.
"Even so, six soldiers isn't enough. He wants the two of you…and any other enhanced humans he can collect."
"Me and Belle," Mako said quietly.
"Phil and Marian," Maria murmured.
"Sinthea," Darcy said, her normally bright eyes going dark.
"What about somebody with extremis enhancements?" Tony pressed, starting to look unnerved himself.
"Yes, I imagine your wife and son would suit his purposes quite well. Many of your children would…someone who is part Asgardian, for example," Loki said, glancing at Thor and Fandral.
"So how can we stop this guy?" Sam was the one to finally ask.
"Sadly, that is not my area of expertise. I should think Earth's mightiest would be able to come up with a plan for that. Saving reality is not my concern, though. I came here to help you save my own children. Our children," the trickster said, looking to Steve and Bucky yet again. "That is how he plans to claim your service…the threat to undo the time shift. If you do not serve him, he will reverse it."
"And just how do you plan on stopping him doing that?" Steve asked.
"I can still prevent him using the power of the Eterna…by using the Tesseract."
"A, we don't have the Tesseract, and B, there's no way in hell Odin's letting you use it," Clint pointed out.
"Oh, but you do have the Tesseract…or at least you have a piece of it," Loki reminded them, looking to Bucky, more specifically to the ring of blue glowing in his chest.
Again, Bucky looked to Steve, speaking to him through their psychic link.
If we do it…we could save the kids.
Maybe…but remember what Mimir warned us about. If the Asgardians find out, they'll pull the power altogether. To save them…I'd lose you.
"They won't find out, if that's what you're afraid of," Loki said, his smirk plainly telling them he knew what they'd been discussing. "Heimdall cannot see us right now. Besides, I imagine Asgard will be concerned with greater matters when Thor tells them of the impending danger."
"Wait just a minute. How exactly did you know all this anyway?" Maria asked him.
"Why do you think I've been hiding all these years? Most of this I knew twenty years ago. I haven't been idle in hiding either. I've learned things. What I didn't know…until Thanos showed me…was how my own children were involved in it. That is what forced me to seek you out. So what do you say? Are we in agreement…or aren't we?"
For yet another long moment, there was silence among the group. Ultimately, they all looked to Steve to make the call, though, and he finally did look up at their long time enemy, blue eyes hard with his resolve.
"All right. We'll work with you for now, but if you put one toe out of line, we won't hesitate to kill you."
At this, Loki smiled. "Oh, but I have missed this."
XxX
While their parents were dealing with Loki, the pack was, of course, getting acquainted with its newest members. Hel and Jory, however, were not quite as enthusiastic as their brother had been.
"My god, what are they doing up there?" Balder demanded in a worried voice as he took his sister from Fenrir's arms, moving to lay her out on one of the couches and cover her with a blanket.
"Father says she'll be fine; she just tired herself out. He was…very badly injured," Fenrir said.
"Oh, so now we're running clinics for megalomaniacs?" Phillip jibed.
"Phillip," Balder warned, not yet looking up from his task
"Don't talk about my father that way!" Hel snapped at him.
"Hel, please, he doesn't mean it," Fenrir said, glancing pleadingly at the younger boy.
"Oh, I mean it. I'm not sure if I believe you're Loki's daughter, though. You're way too hot," Phillip said, smirking at the older girl. Hel wasn't quite certain if this little boy was worth getting insulted over.
Russ rolled her eyes at her partner's display. "Please don't flirt with the Loki spawn. She'll go right past sexual harassment and just straight up kill your ass, and I promise you, I'm just going to sit here and watch."
Hel just growled at the Stark spawn. While it was true that the daughter of Loki and James Barnes was quite beautiful, she tended to only use that to her advantage if she absolutely had to. Now was not such a time.
"All right, baby human, listen and listen well-"
"Please," Balder suddenly interrupted the lot of them, finally looking up from his little sister. "We don't need to be fighting amongst ourselves. Our parents are trying to-"
The young prince fell silent when his gaze fell on Hel. He had heard of love at first sight, but he'd never believed it. He'd always thought when he met the person he was supposed to be with, they would build a relationship on mutual trust and understanding. He'd never expected to be swept away. He was a very levelheaded young man, well aware of all the responsibilities he was burdened with. All of his expectations were washed away when he saw Hel Lokidottir for the first time. Even covered in blood, ragged from days of travel and little sleep, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
While Hel was not nearly as dumbstruck as the Thorson, she was left feeling somewhat…bewildered by the gaze. She had been ogled before, certainly, so she knew what that looked like. She knew it when men and women desired her body. There was something different in this boy's eyes, though. There was a hint of that carnal desire, yes, but there was something more she didn't recognize…something that seemed like…warmth and sincerity. Why was he looking at her like that?
"What light through yonder window breaks," Balder whispered.
"Excuse me?" Hel asked, completely unfamiliar with the words.
Finally, Balder shook his head, struggling to clear it. "Oh, sorry…so sorry. I meant to say…maybe you and your brother would like to take a shower. I can let you use mine."
"Balder, you know my dad doesn't want us leaving this room," Eve reminded him.
"I know. Don't worry about it. I promise we won't go upstairs, just down the hall."
"Well, I suppose I can take a promise from you at face value. Go ahead, but come right back when you're done."
At this, Balder started to lead the two out of the living room. It was almost a shock he didn't run into the door frame on his way out, as he kept glancing back at Hel, whose face actually seemed to be reddening beneath the layer of dried blood.
"Oh, my god. Did you see that?" Noelle demanded of all of them once the three had gone. The oldest Ross was up on her toes dancing, practically squeeing.
"I was honestly starting to think the man was just asexual," Phillip said, barely managing to hold back a chuckle.
"What? What happened?" Fenrir asked them. He knew he'd never seen his older twin quite so off balance like that, but he still couldn't quite grasp what had happened.
"Balder is totally crushing on your sister," Rosie said, just as excited as her own sister.
"Well, Hel is rather attractive. A lot of people have been interested in her."
"No, you're not getting it. Balder has never shown interest in anyone, male or female. This is huge," Russ explained.
"What do you think he'll do when he's got her naked in the shower?" Phillip asked, leering at his partner.
"I almost wanna go find out," Russ said.
"Don't you dare," Chase said, getting indignant on Balder's behalf. "Balder would never do anything impolite to a lady. He'd be the perfect gentleman."
"I would not go so far as to call my sister a lady," Fenrir said, rolling his eyes.
"Chase is probably right, though. Balder would have to relax for more than five minutes to get his play and that would be more or less a miracle," Howie added.
"Yeah, that's true. Though…you're really not worried about him making any moves on your sister?" Marian asked Fenrir.
"Oh, I am not worried about anyone making moves on Hel. If she wants the attention, she'll enjoy it quite well, and if she doesn't…she can take care of herself."
XxX
Had the figure known as the Collector been able to hear Fandral say it shouldn't be that easy to take something from him, he would have made the argument that it wasn't a matter of ease or difficulty. He didn't view his collection as something to be protected and anything that happened to go missing from it was not stolen. The collection was nebulous, it shifted from day to day, and things would come into his possession and leave as they were meant to. As such, he was not at all surprised on the day a group of three entered his shop dragging the body of his latest assistant.
"Did you really have to kill him?" he asked, not looking up from the scroll he was pouring over. "Skoll was such a hard worker." Nearly before he'd finished speaking, he felt a gun pressed to the back of his head.
"The power stone, old man. Where is it?" a voice demanded, and the Collector was intrigued to find that the voice was young, but at the same time sounded old. If nothing else, Thanos drew an interesting following to him.
"Far wall, center row, the chest two from the left," he answered casually.
"Fetch it," the voice ordered one of his associates.
"So which associate so honors me with his presence today?"
"I have had so many names, it seems. The only one that truly matters anymore is the Red Skull."
"Ah, I should have known. Is it true what they say? That you over a hundred years old?"
"Quite a bit over…and yet the body is a mere sixteen years of age. Amazing is it not."
No, not really. Not for someone of my age and experience, but I will humor you, little skull. "So old for one of your race…and yet so very young. Might I be permitted to glimpse your face, fortunate favorite of the War Lord?"
At this, he finally felt the gun lifted away, indicating to him that he could turn and look, and what he found upon swiveling around in his chair was a rather interesting sight.
There were two pale figures, a man and a woman, so far as he could tell. They were more than just pale, though. Their skin was stark white…a complete absence of color. Where human eyes would have been white, theirs were yellow. These two very imposing figures were led by a boy. He would have looked like a regular human boy were it not for the tattoo-like red lines that adorned his face and arms. His long brown hair was shaggy and unkempt and his eyes were also yellow, but where his compatriots had only black for irises, his were a bright red. The boy turned his head sideways and grinned eerily at him. The Collector just chuckled, his eyes dark.
"Heheh, a demon in a child's body. Fitting for a war against Death."
The dead child joined him in laughing as he holstered his weapon. "Who else would you send to fight an angel but a demon?"
XxX
(A/N) Hope you're ready, 'cuz we're in this for the long haul.
