Summary: When an unlikely trio are called upon to join the Avengers, they bring with them news of an upcoming war on earth. Lakshmi leads this group, born with the ability to create illusion with his mind. Unfortunately the only one who seems to be able to get close to him is the resident God Of Thunder. Is thunder the only way to shatter the ice around his heart? Set post Avengers ThorxOC

Warnings: Swearing, violence, blood and sexual references Rated M because I like to swear. A lot. And there ARE lemons and m/M relationships in this fic. If you don't like it and are still reading, I think you need to search up a phenomenon called 'denial'

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or any of the Marvel characters. Although we all wish we did. Because I would have all of the male Avengers in my basement as my sex slaves :)

Started: 6/6/12

Challenge: If you can tell me the title of the song I use for each chapter title in a review and the name of the artist, I will send you a snippet of the next chapter, the size of the snippet varying in length depending on how impressed I am with your review.


"Normal speech"

"Animals talking. Only Lakshmi and other animals can understand this"

Memories, thoughts or dreams. Occasionally emphasis on words.


Reviews:

moose2247: thank you so very much! I try my best, and inspiration always comes to me eventually, hence the late update. I'm a very inconsistent writer. Sometimes you can get sever updates a week, then you can get nothing for several months. Sorry.

spangledlemonade: thank you! But I really don't think this is quite movie material. Oh well, it would beat Twilight ;)

Miriomin: Thanking you! I like to know my OCs get the seal of approval. They do come from my mind, so they will be fucked up and a little weird, but I'm glad you like them!

Imaybesomeone: Thank you for your feedback, and well done for spotting the Inheritance comment! You shall be showered with fangirl praise. Thinking about it, if we're honest, it's quite obvious no one owns anything but the plot and their OCs on this site, as it is a fanfiction site. Oh well, I can dream of owning the Avengers and Inheritance and being extremely wealthy. Then back to reality, not quite as good. The whole idea of Anubis changing was developed later on, and will be developed even more in this chapter, and the idea his colouring matches that of Lakshmi is that he is fused with his DNA, so for all intents and purposes, Anubis is Lakshmi's son. I don believe I've touched on this briefly, if not, I meant to. Weaknesses; I showed them off in the previous chapter, explained them a little more in this chapter. I tend to take a long time to develop my stories, and I apologise for this. No need to apologise for the constructive criticism, and I'm sorry; I don't do betas. They create more work and I only do this for fun. Also I'd be a very frustrating person to work with. I normally have no idea what the chapters going to entail until I sit down and write it. Longest reply ever, moving on to the next review!

ateambirdie: Woo! Someone has awesome taste in music! Yes it is, but I listened to the Miser version, but I found the Cranberries version after I posted this one and liked it more. If anyone guesses the chapter title of this one I would actually love them for eternity. This band needs more recognition.


Chapter Nine

All Systems Go

The Sun Hasn't Died


*Avenger's HQ Medical Facility, Room 14, 05:12AM*

His body felt heavy and sluggish. His arms were two dead weights and he felt as though Thor had dumped Mjolnir on his chest recently. Only the soft thrum of the Arc Reactor and the less pronounced pumping of his heart told him he was alive. Tony could feel the burn in his throat as though someone had fed him lava.

Tony let out a low groan, so low the humans in the room couldn't hear it. Unfortunately, Lakshmi was currently in the room, so he heard the groan immediately and decided to announce this fact.

"He's conscious," he declared in his usual, I-Don't-Really-Want-To-Talk-To-You monotone.

"Fully?" a random voice asked. Must be one of the doctors, Tony thought absently. He never had learnt any of the names of the doctors. He'd learnt the names of the nurses, if only in a roundabout way.

"What am I, physic?" Lakshmi sniped. "I just heard him groan, you check. I'm not getting paid for this, you do it," he sounded pissed. And tired.

"Haha! You've not changed at all," a raspy voice said close to Tony's ear.

"You neither, Elak," Lakshmi sighed. There was the sound of a biro scratching on paper, so he must be writing some notes down or something.

"You say that as though it's a bad thing," the voice sounded old, and definitely female, although it had a rough, grating quality to it, as though the owner had some damage to the throat or something. Tony remembered the name, if only slightly.

"Not at all Elak, not at all," Lakshmi said absently. The sound of his footsteps grew closer and Tony groaned again. No, leave him alone, let him sleep.

Of course, Lakshmi didn't and he felt the Illusion Master prod him with the end of his pen. "You either stop pretending now Anthony, or I scare the shit out of you to get you to stop. Your choice."

That got him to open his eyes. The world seemed really hazy. And bright. Had the world always been this bright? He didn't like it. Where were his sunglasses, he needed them.

"Oh..." he groaned, pushing himself into a sitting position and rubbing his throat. It felt as though someone had tried to rip it out. What the hell had happened to him? The past even that had happened to him were a foggy haze. "What the hell happened?" he complained, voicing his most recent train of thought and most pressing problem. Ow; it really hurt to talk.

"A Jageia tried to tear out your throat. You nearly died to the poison. Elak here saved your life," Lakshmi said in what could only be said as a gentle version of his monotone drawl. Tony turned his head to where Lakshmi was pointing and let out a startled yelp. A brown furred animal with harsh yellow eyes glared back at him.

"Hmph. No need to be so rude," Elak complained. Once Tony had gotten over the shock of seeing this odd creature, he smiled. Or at least tried too; his face felt really stiff and several cuts on his face made the whole process extremely painful, so in the end it just turned into a twisted grimace of pain. Elak cocked her head in understanding.

Lakshmi was looking at him in an odd way. Like a scientist observing a chemical reaction about to go off. It was quite unnerving.

"...what?" he asked nervously, meeting the red eyed gaze with a certain amount of apprehension. The red eyes in question narrowed ever so slightly, then the man merely tossed some of his hair behind his back and moved off to tap at a computer screen.

Tony looked at Elak next, who seemed extremely interested in one of the doctors who was checking the monitor next to Tony's bed. That's when Tony noticed he was hooked up to several machines and a drip. He must have been in a really bad way; he specifically stated he only wanted things being stuck in him unless he was close to death. Or dead.

"How long... was I out?" he asked cautiously. Lakshmi spared him a glace over his shoulder, then returned to his work, saying casually;

"Ah... about a week. Not surprising really; DNA fusion is a complex and risky business. You're lucky you survived at all you know," he tapped a little more, and Tony allowed the information to sink in.

DNA fusion?

And he said Elak had saved his life from the poison... oh god. He wasn't some sort of werewolf was he?

He let out a small squeak of terror, and he could have sworn he heard Lakshmi chuckle.

Sadistic bastard.

"DNA fusion...I don't have a tail or fur or some shit, do I?" he tried to make the query sound like it was a throwaway question of no real importance to him, but his couldn't keep the tremor from his voice.

"...no," he left the word hanging, and Tony could tell he was leaving something out,

"But?" he asked, twisting his sheet between his fingers.

"But, it has altered your mind. Elak has a brain very sensitive to magnetic and electrical waves. You've heard that people only use about 20% of their brains right? Well this is true of most species, including Elak's. Her brain has developed so that the unused part of her brain has been altered so it can manipulate and control these waves. Much like I can create illusion with that part of my brain. This means she can also control electronic equipment, as her brain can understand and converse with computer software via electrical and magnetic impulses. I do believe humans use the phrase; 'technopath'" Lakshmi explained. He had gone into what Tony had dubbed 'Science Mode'.

"That's nice, but what does that have to do with me?" Tony asked impatiently. Where was he going with this?

"She used her blood to combat the poison that the Jageia had on its fangs. Sort of like how you sometimes have to combat one poison with another to cancel them both out. The blood destroyed the compound in the poison that caused the DNA of the victim to break down. Unfortunately, the by product of this is that it causes to the DNA of the blood that had been entered into your system to fuse with your own."

"...still not following," Tony said blankly. His brain was still half asleep.

"I thought you were supposed to be a genius?" Lakshmi griped. "Elak fused her DNA with yours to save your life. The results of how it affects you are completely random. With Anubis it altered him physically on the outside, leaving his brain, for the majority, unaffected. Aside from being a little more intelligent than the average wolf and having a basic understanding of human emotion, he still has the basic thought pattern of a wolf. He just has a little more control over his instincts than an ordinary wolf."

"With you it seems to have been the opposite. It had altered your brain, and left your body; bone structure, skin colour, hair colour, limbs etc, untouched for the most part. You may find the odd difference; slightly more agile and flexible, stronger, taller, and a slight change in your eating and drinking habits, but physically you don't really appear to have changed. Your brain, on the other hand, has. The unused part of your brain has been changed, and is still under the process of changing. You will be able to control machinery like Elak once the process is complete, and stronger animalistic impulses, and occasionally the thought patterns of a Varg. Unfortunately you are most likely to have splitting headaches for the next week or so."

Tony felt like his heart had stopped beating. He placed his palm over the Arc Reactor and felt the steady thrum of the machinery. And something else. It was faint, but it felt almost as though the piece of machinery that had saved his life had a consciousness. It was distinctly weird.

"Interesting piece of tech you have there," Elak's raspy voice pulled him out of his reverie, and he instinctually moved his arms up to cover the glowing blue patch in a protective embrace. "No need to be self conscious or afraid my friend. I won't touch it." Tony frowned.

"It feels as though... it's alive or something," Tony said awkwardly, moving his arms away, but leaving one arm raised so his could trace the raised lip of the Arc Reactor with his index finger.

"It will. You can feel all of the electrical waves inside it. Your brain will now consider them alive. It's not really alive per say, but you will find most computers and anything with more complex software will be genuinely alive," the old varg raised a paw and placed the furry appendage over the Reactor. Tony shifted uncomfortably. This was bringing back unfortunate memories of Stane. Sensing his discomfort, the nurse moved a paw away and stood up.

"Get some rest," Lakshmi called from his station at the computers on the opposite side of the room. "We'll let you go in a few days when we deem you fit. In the mean time, get as much rest as you can to speed the process along a bit," Lakshmi gathered several folders and stacks of paper in his arms. Tony looked at him properly for the first time since he'd woken up then.

He looked exhausted. When was the last time the man had slept? Several days at least, by the looks of it. He'd kept a decent level of personal hygiene, but there was no doubt he looked a little rough around the edges. He was simply dressed in a pair of brown cords and a white shirt, with a long white doctor's coat hanging limply off his thin shoulders. The man looked in worse shape than he did. Tony noticed the grimace he pulled when he bent down to pick up a stray sheet of paper, and saw the slightly blood-stained bandage on his stomach when he stood up.

He defiantly had a new respect for the Kaame.

"Oh, and by the way," Lakshmi said, pausing in the door way with Elak at his heels. Tony could have sworn he'd seen a smile tugging at the man's lips, "Bruce has been very worried about you I do believe he may have a little man crush. Just some food for thought." And with that the man left, narrowly avoiding the vase that came sailing towards his head. Elak snickered at him, and mimicked a thumbs up the best she could with paws, and limped out after the Kaame, leaving Tony alone in the room.

He needed to get down into the lab to check out all the changes in him. There were tests that the medical staff here would never dream of to check for complications.

Casting his eyes around the room, his magpie like mind focused on the rather thick notebook and discarded biro sitting on his bedside table. Lakshmi must have left it there when he went to wake him up.

Knowing the Illusion Master would most likely shank him for touching his stuff, he picked that notebook up anyway and began to rifle through it.

They were all medical test results. All for the tests Tony had planned to do once he got into that lab. Damn, that Kaame was good. Some of the tests done were ones even Tony himself hadn't thought of doing. Damn, he was really good. Flipping through the pages, he saw a message left for him on the second to last page.

NICE TRY TONY. YOU'RE NOT LEAVING THE MEDI BAY UNTIL I SAY SO, AND NOW YOU HAVE NO PRESSING REASON TO. ONE STEP AHEAD OF YOU.

Tony growled to himself and flipped the last page over. He roared with unrepressed laugher at the message the Kaame had left him on the last page, tears forming in the corners of his eyes at the hastily scribbled;

AND TOUCH MY THINGS AGAIN ANTHONY, AND I WILL HAVE TO SLOWLY DISEMBOWEL YOU AND FEED YOUR INNARDS TO SA'AR. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED MY FRIEND.


*Elsewhere in the tower, 05:34AM*

Lakshmi traipsed back into his room, eyes itching and burning with tiredness, and his arms laden with work. He had somehow landed himself the job of head medical expert. Not his best idea ever, but there were many injuries from the fight, and most of the injured were aliens, so none of the resident doctors had a clue on how to treat them.

So he had decided to volunteer.

He had never foreseen the sheer quantity of paperwork that had come with the job, and he would never be doing it again once all this was over. He was going to find a nice home on some uninhabited forest planet and retire. Maybe take Thor with him.

He kicked open the door to his room and shouldered his way inside, unceremoniously dumping the huge stack of paper work near the door, and moving to collapse on his bed. Thor was sprawled out on the bed, somehow managing to take up the entire king-sized bed with his vast frame. Lakshmi couldn't have cared less though. He merely stripped himself down to his boxers and curled up at Thor's side.

The god of Thunder gave a low grunt and rolled over of his side and wrapped his arms around Lakshmi's thin body. Said Kaame merely snuggled into the welcome body heat and twined his legs with Thor's. He had never thought he would be much a cuddler, but here he was.

"Busy day?" a low sleep hazed voice asked from somewhere just above Lakshmi's head. Lakshmi just have an affirmative grunt as a response and closed his eyes, pressing his face into Thor's magnificently sculpted chest. Thor chuckled and squeezed the body a little tighter to his own. "How is the Man of Iron?" Thor asked. Lakshmi gave a disgruntled groan at being kept awake, but answered anyway.

"Conscious. Bit confused, but fine. Now sleep," he mumbled. Thor was happy to agree. His partner had been having two or three hours sleep a day since the battle, and most of those hours were from where the pain medication he had been taking knocked him out. The injury he had attained at the battle had been severe, and had caused him to lose consciousness for quite some time. He had been working none stop since he'd woken. That had been five days ago. Thor ran his fingers over the bandages completely covering his chest and shoulders. It had been a terrible injury but the Kaame had been soldiering on, and he was glad he had finally decided to sleep.

He buried his face in the sweet smelling hair of his mate, and closed his eyes, finally being able to sleep with his lover in his arms once more.

He wandered around in his mind that night, trawling through his memories for anything that may be of some help to him.

The Jageia's methods on this planet were... unusual to say the least. They normally didn't bother with secrecy, preferring to go straight in for the kill.

Maybe they needed this planet for something? Ransom perhaps, to allow access to one of the other planets in this realm. Asgard perhaps?

No... but then, why would they set a trap specifically to target him? It didn't make any sense! He didn't have any particular skill sets that would require Morpheus himself to send an assassin after him. His illusion skill was powerful, yes, but the Avengers could most likely take him down if they wanted to.

He was extremely susceptible to long range attacks, as his illusions couldn't work very well at a distance. Hawkeye could probably take him down on his own.

And he had already proven that his emotions severely clouded his judgement and planning skills, as he had walked straight into Zostar's trap. So it most certainly wasn't his leadership skills.

So, not a skill set. He could cross that off the list of possibilities.

The desire to completely wipe out the Kaame. Perhaps... but it didn't seem much like Morpheus to break his toys to go after one man, when if the planet was destroyed, he would die anyway.

So that was off the list to. He was getting closer the answer surely.

Perhaps it was knowledge? Yes... Morpheus may be insane, and a killer, but he knew that the most powerful weapon in the universe was knowledge. The blundering of the animals to evolve to be stronger, faster, bigger, was all for naught once one species gained enough knowledge to sharpen a stick or rock.

Perhaps it was that then. But what could he know that could cause damage to Morpheus's plans?

Knowledge of his way of destroying planets? If he knew how it was done he could stop them, and they would be trapped here. Without the energy wave of the collapsing planet, their ship couldn't function.

But he didn't know how they did it. Did he?

He sifted back though his memories; trying to find the last one he had of being on his planet.

It was a very vivid memory. This was good, he would be able to analyse it carefully. He had never looked back on this one before. It had been carefully locked away in his mind as it was too painful to recollect.

He pushed his emotion aside. He had to do this.

He allowed the memory to envelop him.

Viewing your own memories is always a curious experience. It felt like a dream. So real and solid, yet at the same time, he was constantly vaguely aware of the fact none of it was real.

He was stood in a village, running people all around him. Wings flapping hysterically, blood splattered feathers floating through the air like snow.

The blood of his kind was splattered on the ground like raindrops, being spread about by running feet, dragging limbs. Being soaked into the clothes adorning the body of a corpse.

Lakshmi noticed. He noticed it all, not like the rest of his kind, running around like sheep that've had a wolf break into their pen. He stood in the middle of the chaos, taking everything in around him.

He was dressed in a simple white t-shirt and linen trousers. Even in the murder and the screams he felt the warm wetness of the blood creeping up his trouser leg from where the bottom of it was being dragged through a bloody puddle. He saw the red on blood like the strongest contrast of his life, the red taking over the white being imprinted into his mind's eye.

He watched himself move to one side to let a screaming mother dragging a small child behind her. The child was on his first set of antlers, the single points standing up tall to show off his single, and only, decade of life. So young for him to die.

He pushed the sentimentality down and began to view the memory in a much more detailed manner.

What was wrong with this scene?

He could feel the earth trembling. In his panic and fear, he had mistaken the trembles for his own juddering knees and the rumble of collapsing houses. He could see now that that wasn't the case. The rumbles were too strong and too deep seated for that. They were shaking the planet to its core.

There were also cracks in the earth. Blood was seeping out of them as the drains began to overflow. But heat was pouring out too. That was most certainly odd. Normal earthquake cracks didn't go deep enough through the mantle to give out this much heat. Not in this non volcanic area, anyway.

But the thing he noticed most of all, as insignificant in may have seemed at the time, was the rather unusual smell in the air.

It was a sharp, tangy, citrus smell, one that made the nostrils contract to attempt to stop the smell getting in. Not an unpleasant smell, but it felt somewhat like snorting pepper. It was often used in the factories on the northern continent when they couldn't get the furnaces to get going, or the fire was beginning to die. It was also used in powerful explosives, as this was a very volatile and flammable herb, set off by the slightest jolt.

But it wasn't used, or even native to this continent, for he lived in the south. So what could it be doing here?

Perhaps-

There was a rustle of bed sheets and a jolt of the mattress, and Lakshmi's train of thought was derailed rather suddenly. Damn.

He heard the sound of Thor working the kinks out of his back with some very audible cracks and near growled in frustration. Damn him! He opened his eyes with a sleepy moan and saw morning light streaming mockingly though his bedroom window. Fucking sun.

The door slid shut and he was left alone in the bedroom with swirling thoughts.

No point trying to go back to sleep now, it just wasn't happening. Make a mental checklist of the things he needed to remember.

The earth was shaking.

It hadn't been just a coincidental earthquake.

Heat had been pouring out of the cracks.

And that smell. The smell of explosives.

Being someone of a rather high intellect, he immediately but two and two together, then dismissed the idea. They would need practically the planets weight in the herbal explosive to crack apart the mantel like that, and it would exactly be a very conspicuous operation.

So they were using it for something else. What though?

Urgh, it was too early in the morning for his brain to function properly. Later. He'd think about this at a later date.


*Avenger's HQ. Dining Room. 09:00AM*

Anubis was lying in his usual corner of the room, gnawing on his usual cut of meat at the usual time he usually ate in a morning.

The only unusual thing in his morning was the fan he appeared to have acquired in the last week.

Alex.

The damn animal wouldn't quit following him. Her psychotic friend never shut up and Alex's blunt and often offensive comments about everything never stopped either.

"I hear Tony's awake," Alex commented blandly. She was in her canine form, her blue nose buried in the bowl of fruit and cereal at her paws, blue tongue periodically flicking out of her mouth to scoop up her breakfast like a spoon. Both of them had half healed wounds still raw and red, and they both winced often as they moved.

Her deep blue eyes flickered over to him, and she wrinkled her nose slightly in distaste of Anubis's choice of meal.

As it happens, the odd creature was a strict vegetarian, much to her friends distaste. Personally Anubis thought she only ate like that just to irritate her friend. Her own breakfast was a fruit salad and a mixture of different grains and nuts, which Anubis had dubbed 'Rabbit Food'. Alex had merely laughed in his face and told him to fuck off.

"Shame. I like him better when he's sleeping; he actually stops speaking for once," Anubis said, enjoying the peals of giggles it brought from Alex. No, he didn't, he chastised himself; he was annoyed by the woman's presence. But for all she irritated him, he actually did like her company. She was a little quirky, and once he realised all her offensive comments were in good humour, she was quite funny too. Her blunt, open and honest view on the world was refreshing.

"Ah well, I can always get Sammie to sew his mouth shut." she pointed to her friend, who was currently fawning over a rather amused Loki. Although she often terrified the God of Mischief with her rather insane mind, the two had struck up a rather odd friendship, mostly over planning on killing their enemies, although it was clear to more or less everyone but Loki in the tower that Sammie was infatuated with him.

Anubis chuckled. The tower had recently become a buzz of activity. New arrivals were coming in every day from all over the place. Most so far were residents of Earth, but there had been a few wandering nomads, and a few Off Worlders, as Lakshmi called them; ones that lived permanently on another planet.

"Pft, Sammie makes more noise than Stark," Anubis snorted.

"Well I'll sew her mouth shut then. Or give her a big piece of cake to shut her up."

"I think she'd rather shut up by using a certain part of our resident God of Mischief's anatomy." Alex roared with laughter, gaining the attention of a few of the other people in the room. Sa'ar looked down from his perch, rolled his eyes, and returned to his preening. Lakshmi glanced over, and laughter danced in his eyes even if his face remained impassive, even if his mate roared with an unrestrained laughter.

"Oh god… you crack me up," Alex breathed once she had managed to stop howling with laughter, then swiftly dissolved into another round of laughter when Sammie shot her a confused look. Everyone had stopped now to look over at the white furred, blue feathered canine rolling around in fits of hysterical laughter. She stopped laughing when Lakshmi came over to prod her with his foot.

"Alex… I said you can stay in the tower if you behave. Don't make me kick you out," he sighed, although his eyes glittered with amusement. Alex snickered and silenced slowly.

"Sorry Lakshmi," she panted, standing up and wiping her eyes. "Good bye then," she nodded to Anubis, and trotted off, Sammie standing up to jog at her heels. Anubis looked at her go filled with amusement and confusion.

"Why is she here?" Anubis asked curiously. Lakshmi shrugged.

"They owe me a favour," he said casually. "And I owe them a few weeks of lodging." He scratched his head casually, then yawned off some more of his morning haze. He'd only had a few hours of sleep, but for him it was more than enough to function. Much to Thor's annoyance.

"Why?" Anubis asked curiously. Did the mysteries of this man ever stop?

"He saved my life," Alex had appeared again, standing at Lakshmi's heel, looking rather sheepish.

"What happened?" Anubis asked. Alex immediately looked both embarrassed and angry at the same time.

"None of your business!" she exclaimed angrily, running out of the room again, tail feathers held high in the air behind him. Lakshmi smirked at her swift departure, and Anubis could see the laughter in his eyes, and an ever so slight twitch of his lips. He really was becoming much more expressive as of late. Thor was really a good influence on the stoic man. He chuckled, and then wandered off to piss Hawkeye off for a bit. A favourite pastime

"Lakshmi!" Thor called. Lakshmi turned around and plopped himself in the seat opposite Thor and pulling his huge full English breakfast towards him and proceeded to wolf his food down like it was going out of fashion. "You certainly are hungry today," he laughed, enjoying his boyfriend actually eating for once.

"Working all day again," he mumbled through a mouthful of eggs. Thor sighed and picked at his own breakfast, disheartened now. Lakshmi looked up at him, fork still in his mouth, bits of egg dangling from his mouth. He chewed slowly, clearly thinking, then swallowed and sighed. "There's not much I can do about it. You can come and help if you want," he suggested, feeling a sinking in his gut when a grin spread across Thor's face. What had he let himself in for?

"Alright then," he agreed, his eyes crinkling as he smiled.


*Medical Ward, Avenger's HQ, 12:23PM*

"THOR! FOR FUCK'S SAKE, DON'T GIVE HER THAT!" Lakshmi bellowed, running over to swat the pills Thor was about to give to an equine creature with huge curling antlers and gold and silver fur who looked really surprised at Lakshmi's outburst.

Thor looked insulted but a little sheepish at trying to give someone the wrong medication. Again.

"Sorry." he said in a small voice, lowering his head in embarrassment and scurrying away from the patient, who watching him go with liquid black eyes glittering with amusement.

"Your mate is amusing," the equine nickered in a thick French accent. She gave a quiet nickering laugh and flicked an ear. Lakshmi snorted and scooped the pills of the floor from where Thor had dropped them.

"You wouldn't be saying that if he'd fed you pills that could have killed you," he grumbled. She gave another nickering laugh and shook her head.

"But he didn't," she dipped her head and took the correct pills Lakshmi proffered to her. She bobbed her head in thanks.

"Go have something to eat, then come back this evening before dinner for the next lot," he sighed, patting the mare's neck and leaving to go scold Thor. He was sat on one of the plastic waiting room chairs, tapping his feet nervously, looking up at Lakshmi nervously and he strode up to him, putting his hands on his hips and scowling. All the other patients waiting mysteriously vanished to the chairs as far away from Thor as possible, leaving at least five empty chairs either side of him.

"If you do anything like that again," he left a pause for effect and narrowed his eyes, "You will be celibate for the next month." he smirked and strutted off, leaving Thor being laughed at by most of the people in the room. "NEXT!" he called out behind him.

He was surprised when a purple Dragonkit jumped onto the examination table.

"Kolyei?" The winged feline smiled and fluttered his wings happily. There was a heavy smattering of silver around his muzzle and shoulders now, but there was still that defiant glitter in those amethyst eyes. You would have never though this gentle looking old feline was once the behemoth that had been wreaking havoc on Gallifrey.

"It's been a while," he purred in a voice cracked and wheezy with age. Lakshmi stroked the top of his head.

"Hm, how come you're here on Earth?" Lakshmi asked, spreading one of his wings so he could check the wing for damage, plucking a few damaged feathers and straightening a few bent ones.

"Retirement. But I figured one last fight to settle a few debts I owe. I want to have something to be remembered by apart from murder when I die. I want to wash the sins of my past clean and die in peace. It won't be long now anyhow." Koylei was never one to mince words, much like Lakshmi himself, and he never tried to sugar coat what he was trying to say. He just came out and said it. Lakshmi nodded and picked the old Dragonkit up, hugging him close.

"It will be nice to fight one last fight with you." there was no point saying that he wasn't close to death, because he was most certainly getting on his years and his body just couldn't go on much longer. "So how's your health holding up? What you here for?" He put the animal down and straightened his coat, fishing in his pockets so he could jot everything down, inwardly smiling as he talked to his old friends once more.

So many would be coming to fight this last fight, and he would be with them all every step of the way.


*Tony's Room, Medical Ward, Avengers HQ, One Week Later, 9:00AM*

Tony was sat on his bed, legs dangling off the side, looking with a sort of mindless interest at the warm shafts of sunlight entering into his room through his open blinds. It had been two weeks since the raid, and he'd been conscious for a week now.

His health was improving greatly, as his stint in hospital had meant alcohol was a no go area, and he was getting food and sleep at regular times.

He hadn't changed much as Lakshmi had said he most probably wouldn't, except he was partial to meat more now, and he like it rare. He was sure he would probably eat it raw if everyone around him wasn't completely disgusted by the sight of a full grown man eating a raw steak. Heck, he'd eat it off the cow if he got hold of it.

It was the mental changes he was finding it hard to cope with. He had often caught himself labelling people 'beta' or 'omega', and he had almost kicked himself when he had subconsciously labelled Lakshmi 'alpha'. Worst of all, when Bruce had entered the room, his inner Varg, which was what he had taken to calling the raging animal instinct, had gone wild and called Bruce 'mate'. It had been one of the most awkward conversations he had ever had in his life.

He heard the soft 'tap tap' of Lakshmi's shoes coming down the hall, and turned his head to watch the door slide open, revealing the Illusion Master coming in, with his head bent over the tablet in his hands, tapping away at it, his long hair forming a curtain on either side of his face, framing around his eyes, which were darting around continuously, meaning he was writing something as he tapped.

"So?" Tony asked rather loudly and pointedly, gaining Lakshmi's attention. The man looked up at him through dark lashes, his head still bowed over the tablet.

"So what?" he asked vacantly, eyes flickering down to whatever it was he was doing. Probably still trying to get records of all the new comers arriving in floods to the tower. It was a job that was constantly keeping him busy.

"So, am I allowed to get out today? You said I could," he huffed. Lakshmi nodded and tucked the tablet away in an inside pocket of his coat and strode over.

He bent down and peered closely into his eyes, checking for something Tony couldn't fathom.

Then he heard something move not far off behind him, and he snapped his head around to see what was there. There wasn't anything there though, and he whipped back to Lakshmi who looked rather smug.

"Your senses are most certainly heightened. Not even a dog would have heard that." he gave him a careful look up and down.

"Am I free to go?" Lakshmi considered.

"Sure. You have to come in morning, noon and night though for the necessary medication and I will make you sit in here and eat a whole meal. No coffee and absolutely no alcohol." Tony looked like Lakshmi had just killed a puppy in front of him.

"What!?" he cried, jumping up and trying to square the other man up. "What the hell?!" Lakshmi raised an eyebrow, and proceeded to usher Tony out of the ward.

"And if you don't comply by my rules I will drag you here at each of the times and force it all down your throat myself." Tony blinked, and as Lakshmi pushed him out of the room, he promptly crashed into Bruce's arms.

The physicist looked a little flustered as a squirming pile of Tony fell into his arms as he went to visit, and Lakshmi tried not to snigger as he went bright red and cleared his throat, trying to stand a rather dazed Tony up.

"Are you alright?" Bruce asked as Tony straightened his top and blushed crimson.

"You did that on purpose!" Tony fumed, whipping round to glare at the Kaame. Lakshmi snorted and raised an eyebrow, a lopsided smirk quirking at his lips.

"Perhaps," he ventured. Tony glared, and then the man had the audacity to actually wink at him, before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Damn illusions. He was most likely still here waiting to see what transpired from his meddling. Pervert.

"You know, for a stoic man," Tony huffed, striding off, "he doesn't half like to show off."


Phew, finished! Sorry for the REALLY long gap between updates, but I was away, then I had a lodger for a week, I've been working, school's started, homework, yada yada yada. Boring right? But I got it done eventually! Not sure about this one, I feel as though it doesn't really flow right, but it will have to do. A thank you goes out to all my viewers and reviewers. I made this one a bit longer to say sorry. R&R peoples!