Chapter Four: Resolve


"Where is Loki?"

The room was still, a pregnant silence filling it, the echo of the desperate, angry question still ringing in the ears of the occupants. Shepard's head was facing downward, his arms crossed tight across his broad chest, his eyes tilted toward Hackett with a raised eyebrow.

"Is this the same Loki who nearly destroyed New York in 2012?" he asked Hackett. "I didn't see anything in the histories about him being a SHIELD agent."

"It was off the record," Natasha responded before Hackett could speak, turning to the Commander. "Thor returned to Asgard and discovered he was posing as his father and ruling. Odin awoke from the Odinsleep, though—Loki didn't have the heart to harm his father—so he was found out. But when Odin found out that Loki had actually been ruling well, he didn't have it in him to imprison him again. So he sent him to us. Hoping he'd reform or something, I guess."

"It sounds like he did," Miranda observed, eyeing Shepard, who's shoulders twitched upward in a shrug.

"Sort of. He was still a real dick to everyone else," Natasha murmured, a sad smirk playing on her lips. "And his methods for getting things done—well, let's just say there was a reason he and I were teamed up a lot."

"Yeah, Agent Hot Lips really excelled in the moral ambiguity department," Tony murmured, staring earnestly into Pepper's pod, before turning and smirking at Natasha. "Mostly."

"Shut up, Stark."

"So, you got close," the N7 Commander inferred, unfurling his arms and placing his hands on his toned, tapered waist.

"Yes." Natasha pulled down the hem of the black v-neck she wore, before brushing her slender finger through her short, curly red strands, mussing them a little as she tried not to imagine what could have befallen Loki—or them. What had caused this contingency to be activated? Why hadn't Loki released her? What if the worst had happened? She grit her teeth, her fingers curling into a fist in her hair, yanking, as if trying to pull the tears that welled in her eyes back in.

There was a gentle shuffle of feet, and then a firm hand squeezed her shoulder. She craned her head on her neck to look over at the Commander.

"Believe me, Ms. Romanoff, I know exactly what you're going through right now," he murmured, his eyes earnest. "My girlfriend is out there somewhere—I don't know if she's dead or alive. It's hard, isn't it? Having to be strong when you're terrified."

Hackett's eyes closed in defeat and he shook his head.

"I think the Admiral's finally come to the realization that he's not going to get what he wants until we find the Normandy." Miranda nodded toward the Alliance officer, gesturing toward his subdued expression as she leaned back against the wall behind her, her eyes alight with sarcastic amusement at Hackett being outnumbered by the resolve of those around him.

"Asgard, first," Hackett said, which caused Thor, Natasha and Shepard to step toward him, surround him. His eyes darted to each one of them before a heavy sigh fell out of his mouth. "Fine. The three of you may go. The rest—I need you prepping for the mission ahead."

"Hold it," Tony snapped. "We've got a couple more terms. You need Shepard to do this Omega 4 thing, but he needs us to find his team, so..."

He pointed to Jane and Pepper. "Wake them up. And SHIELD, too."

Steve nodded, emphatically. "Yeah, we, like Shepard, have a very specific, well-oiled team and they're all part of it. Wake them up. You want us to prep for this mission, and to do it right? We need them. Wake them up."

Hackett dragged his wrist across his forehead, and shook his head. "You don't understand how tentative this entire project was. Waking them up unnecessarily—there's no guarantee I can put them back into cryosleep if-"

"This is necessary," Bruce said, kind but firm. "Pepper will be able to tell us the last known locations of Tony's Iron Man suits, which he'll need, and Jane might be able to help you better understand the signals you're getting from the Omega 4 Relay—I've worked with her, she's a good astrophysicist. If anyone can figure out strange readings in star systems, it's her."

"And Fury needs to give us answers," Natasha snapped. "We deserve that."

"Alright, alright," Hackett barked, glaring at each of them, before his eyes fell on Shepard. "Commander, you're on thin ice. Don't forget I'm still your superior-" Shepard opened his mouth to argue, but Hackett continued, "-I know, I know—you saved me. You saved all of us. The Reapers are no longer a threat because of you and that's the only reason I'm allowing any measure of insubordination from you. You've been through hell—and it is time the Alliance gave something back. Go to Asgard. Find your people. But when you get back here with the Normandy, I expect you to follow orders, soldier, is that clear?"

Shepard jerked his hand against his forehead in a solid salute. "Sir, yes, sir."

"Good. Get suited up."


"Mm, feels a little loose," Shepard said as he adjusted the plating on his armor, the N7 on the chestplate gleaming under the harsh fluorescent lights of the facility.

"Well, you did look a little scrawnier when you left the hospital—not enough push-ups, I guess," Miranda replied with a smirk as she examined her heavy pistol for damage, clicking a thermal clip into it before checking her own biotic implant status on her omni-tool.

"Ha. Ha." Shepard mumbled as he snapped his Widow sniper into it's place on his backplate. He looked at Thor, who stood at the other end of the room, murmuring quietly to Natasha. He slid his eyes back to his semi-automatic weapon, checking the ammo, and barrel, before placing it on his back, murmuring, "Why did you talk Hackett into letting you come, Miranda?"

"Because you just left the hospital, and even though you're trying to hide it, you still wince a little when you move from your burns."

"You really think I need a babysitter?"

"No, Shepard," Miranda said, her tone gentle. "...I think you need a friend. Or at least someone to watch your back when Tali and Garrus aren't here to do it."

Shepard snorted, sharply, a bitter smirk on his lips. "Heh. Yeah." His face fell back into sad thoughtfulness, however, before he looked at her again, loading and positioning his own heavy pistol in his arsenal as he did. "Thanks, Miranda."

Miranda offered him an expression of friendly affection, and a nod.

"Are you both prepared to go?" came Thor's booming timbre rang as the tall, muscled god approached them. "I am unsure how well this is going to work if it has really been near two centuries since I have called Heimdall to aid me home."

Shepard prepared the last of his guns, and nodded, checking his omni-tool for power upgrades and special ammo. He nodded. "Alright, lets go."

Thor nodded. "Very well. Natasha," he said, turning to look at his sister-in-law. "are you ready?"

Natasha finished calibrating her Widow's Bite wristbands, and then examined the new Alliance-issued pistols she was given, raising an eyebrow as she aimed at Shepard and fired. She watched the man jerk away from the bullet, and she smirked.

"Fast reflexes, Commander—nice guns, too. Definitely more power and less overheat than the pistols we used two centuries ago."

"In the future, to keep our professional relationship in tact, don't shoot at me without warning, hm?" Shepard asked, as he stepped past her and out of the room.

Natasha's smirk widened as she followed him. "Yes, sir, Commander," she answered, a cynical bite in her voice.

"So, how will this Heimdall get us to Asgard? Do we have to meet him somewhere?" Shepard asked, ignoring the acerbic comment from the Black Widow, his eyes focused on Thor's scruff profile. "Is he picking us up in some sort of ship?"

"Not exactly," Thor said as they stepped out of the facility.

Hackett was standing next to a shuttle, and held out a set of keys. Miranda snatched them just as Shepard reached for them.

Shepard's head whipped around to look at her, forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What the hell, Miranda?"

"Like hell am I letting you drive. Tali's told me the stories about the Mako—and Garrus still wakes up in a cold sweat, screaming," Miranda replied. "He can handle being shot at by groups of mercenaries, but your driving gives him nightmares. That should tell you something."

Blue eyes rolled heavenward, and the N7 soldier shook his head. "Fine. Get the hell in."

Miranda smirked. "Aw, did I hurt your pride?" She threw the keys up, listening to them jangle before catching them as she slid into car.

Thor followed her, his blonde brow sliding up slowly as Shepard. "Is your operation of this vehicle really so abhorrent? I was under the impression you were good at everything."

The deadpan expression that Shepard offered the Norse deity could've frozen Muspelheim. "...I don't want to talk about it."

Miranda lips turned upward a little at Shepard from the rearview mirror when they were all inside, and seated in the plush leather chairs. "Buckle up, Commander. I'd hate to give you nightmares."

"Just drive, Miranda."

The ex-Cerberus agent chuckled, and started the car.

"Thor, why are we in the middle of nowhere?" Shepard asked after a forty-five minute drive through windy mountains into an empty clearing full of tall, green grass, and surrounded by trees.

"You will see, Commander," Thor said. "But I must ask you come and stand next to me." He gestured to Natasha, who stood only inches from him.

Shepard scratched his cheek, and rubbed his chin, an eyebrow jutting upward in uncertainty, before he gave a hesitant nod, and looked at Miranda, jerking his head toward the Aesir.

With a shuffle of armored boots in dirt, they moved close to Thor's person and stood.

Thor's blue eyes slid skyward. "Heimdall! If you can hear me, open the Bifrost!"

He hoped, after two hundred years, that Heimdall was still gatekeeper.

There as a long pause—silent, tense—before Shepard gasped and Miranda's eyes widened as a sea of prismatic light rained down upon them in a cylinder of strange magic, and both of the humans felt their stomachs jerk as they were pulled away from Earth, and thrust onto the golden floors of the Asgardian observatory.

Standing next to a gleaming sword and an intricate lock system stood a tall, broad, dark-complected man with eyes a shining amber, glowing like the sunshine star of the Sol system.

Miranda's lips spread in a wide grin as her eyebrows hiked high on her forehead. "Well, well, hello, and nice to meet you."

Shepard glanced her, his eyes alight with amusement. "First Jacob, now this guy? Have you got a thing for-"

"Don't go there, Commander—your girlfriend is a quarian," Miranda replied with a smirk.

Shepard put his hands up in defeat, chuckling. "No judgment. Just an observation."

"Heimdall, it is good to see you well, my friend," Thor said, ignoring the strange banter between his two new companions, as he approached the watchful gatekeeper of his home.

"I know why you come, but the king is insistent that you speak with him, immediately. He has forbidden me from offering my help until you do so," Heimdall said, his voice low and level—as always.

Thor frowned. He imagined that two centuries of silence from him and his compatriots had likely made his father wary. He didn't approve of the orders given Heimdall, but he understood the caution. Offering Heimdall a firm nod, he waved his companions on, gesturing for them to follow him down the long stretch of prismic road before them.

As they stepped out onto the road, Shepard began to examine his surroundings. The palace was the first thing he noticed—as anyone might—with its high reaching spires, and glimmering cold color. It shone off of the seas of surrounding water, as did the trees and mountain ranges. What struck him though was how the endless lakes fell off into cascading waterfalls that seemed to go on forever, and yet go no where at all.

"Where do the waterfalls go?" he asked, unable to contain his own curiosity.

Thor simply smirked and shook his head as he led them quickly down the road toward the towering golden towers of the palace.

Upon entering, however, Shepard paused the three of them when he heard a familiar groan, which caused his stomach to lurch and his blood to curdle.

Coming around the corner into the main hall, six Husks dragged their crackled, black-and-blue flesh toward them, and Shepard whipped out his heavy pistol, cocking it.

"Shit," Miranda hissed as she began to glow with biotic power. "Shepard, what the hell are they doing here?! What's going on?!"

Her sudden outburst drew the attention of the technologically mutilated carcasses and they began to rush them. Shepard dove behind a tall, gleaming pillar, and began to fire at them, watching them burst apart. "Fire at them!" he cried to Natasha and Thor, and watched as Thor blasted them apart with snaps of lightning.

"Shepard! Abominations!" Miranda shouted from her placed behind a pillar opposite him.

"What the hell is going on, Thor?!" Shepard cried, using his Widow to take the new enemies out, as they moved slower than the Husks. He slammed the butt of his gun into one of the Husks when the creature reached him behind his cover and began to tear at his armor.

Thor shook his head and sent an enormous surge of energy through the rest of the enemies before growling, "Move forward! Take the next left and head through the large doors! That is the throne room! Natasha, go with them! I will hold anymore enemies off just behind you!"

"Alright, on my mark!" Shepard shouted, and then: "GO!"

He rushed, diving through any other enemies that rushed them, thrusting his body weight into his strikes when he shoved the end of his gun into the heads of more Husks, blasting any Abominations and Marauders away that came after them. He looked above him when bolts of white lightning bounced off of the gold fixtures and burned away any other enemies as they rounded the corner and Shepard shoved his shoulder into the intricately carved doors at the end of the hall, skidding to a stop within the throne room.

Shepard kept his gun pointed in front of him, and Miranda began to scan the room with her omni-tool.

"That isn't necessary," came Natasha's voice suddenly as she pushed Miranda's holographically wrapped arm down, approaching the throne.

Shepard and Miranda followed her, and then paused when they saw what she saw.

There was a man on the throne, shadowed by the darkness of the room, surrounded by Reaper minions being held at bay by magic of some sort. His eyes gleamed in the darkness, the only clear marker in the shadow of the large space. He stood, stepping into the light a little, revealing his pale, angular face, and long, long black hair, braided loosely. Fixed on his face was a device of some sort—metallic and buzzing, wrapping just around his right eyesocket and embedded in his skin, causing one of his eyes to be blue and mechanical-looking, and the skin around that eye to be runed and blue—Jotun.

The other was a bright green.

The leathers that he wore, that Natasha recognized were usually tones of blacks, golds and greens, were the same shock-neon blue and black as the Husks, except the man appeared to move and think on his own as he sat up at their arrival, his indoctrinated eye glaring, the green one furrowed almost sadly.

He had Odin's staff in his hand. The other glowed with bluish-green magic—the magic that was clearly holding off the Reaper scouts. He began to pace in front of the throne, chuckling, the sound bitter, angry, sad, malevolent. "I knew you would come."

Miranda and Shepard kept their guns raised, unmoving. Thor stood to the back, shocked.

But Natasha moved forward, a silver knotted ring gleaming on her left ring finger that glowed a dull green as she moved closer to the man.

A similar ring on his left hand glowed in response.

His laughing became louder, more sinister, more desperate. His green eye became glassy with unshed tears. His blue eye angered further—the spell on the Husks loosening a bit, causing them to moan and grasp at the air, still unable to move forward.

Natasha paused in front of the man, and reached out. The man's laughing was out of control now, as tears raced down the left side of his face.

"What's going on?" Miranda whispered, twisting her head back and forth to look between Shepard and Thor as the Asgardian stepped closer to them.

Shepard was beginning to put the pieces together.

Thor shook his head, his brow wrinkled sadly, before he closed his eyes, his hands fisting. "It is...he is..."

Natasha swallowed, and breathed:

"Loki."


"Let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God." 1 Peter 3:4

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