"Another promise, another scene, another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed."

~ 'Uprising' by Muse

~Loki~

Magneto turned back around to face Loki. "No matter their actions, Mr. Laufeyson? I do not see how that will benefit the cause if they are against us." Magneto placed the glowing red orb he had produced back into the safe and reached for a liquor glass.

Loki rolled his eyes before he flung a bit of ice at the glass that Erik had picked up and sent it smashing into the wall. The liquid that had been in the glass froze as the fragments fell to the ground. Loki was not going to allow himself to be brushed off.

"That is my one and only condition to our agreement," Loki said quietly. His tone was deadly.

Magneto seemed to deliberate for a moment, curling his fingers into a ball around the space the cup had been. After another pause, he went back to his seat. "Very well, Mr. Laufeyson, I will play your game."

Loki gave a smirk as he eased himself back into his own chair. Now they were getting along. If only just…

"Now. What are your complete plans?" Loki asked. "I do not expect to be left out of any information. If that does occur… well, let us say that things will end badly. Almost as badly as if you harm my family."

Magneto gave Loki a sober look before he launched into his plan. "I want to overtake this world, my good man. I have told you of my view of humans, and I am quite certain that you agree with me."

Loki rested his elbow on the arm of his chair, bringing a hand to rest elegantly under his chin. "Go on," was all he said as he examined the other hand, feigning disinterest.

Erik pulled out a large document, spreading the rolled up paper out for Loki to see. It was the preliminary sketches of some sort of machine. A closer look told Loki that it possessed great abilities to emit radiation in a concentrated form. Even to Loki, this was impressive. For a mortal, that is. But he most definitely was not going to let this man know that.

"This machine was used by myself in an attempt to take over New York several years ago. It was designed to mutate any human in its path, killing the weak and making the strong into the very things they feared." As Loki sat up in his seat to look closer, Erik rolled the document back up in one deft movement. "I will take you down to see it after we are through here, but rest assured, it is fully functional. It just requires the appropriate power source." Loki arched an eyebrow, but allowed the old man to change the subject. Loki was sure that he could conjure anything that would be needed to fuel a simple mortal machine.

"Now, in speaking about our army," Magneto said as he pressed a button on his desk. Somewhere, Loki's ears detected a small signal being given in the lower levels. "Mystique, as you know, is one of my most gifted colleagues. She infiltrated SHIELD to spy this morning." Loki's eyes flashed, and Magneto was able to determine that his thoughts were on his family.

"Who else is there?" Loki asked quickly, suppressing the stupid urges that always came when his family was threatened. The urge to kill whoever dared hurt his wife or daughter. He could not afford for those emotions to run him now. This was the best way to protect them. This was what he was going to do.

The doors opened as a huge man with long blonde hair and black eyes and a shorter man that resembled an amphibian of some sort walked into the room and lingered at the entrance. "This is Toad," Loki nodded to the shorter man that Erik had indicated. "And Sabertooth."

Loki automatically knew he would not like the mutant called Sabertooth. Despite the elongated teeth and black eyes, the mutant reminded him a bit of his insufferable brother, Thor. The mutant cocked his head at the god of mischief by way of greeting.

"These are merely my first wave of guards, Mr. Laufeyson. More will be coming as the signal for war spreads."

Loki nodded. "Now. As far as command, I believe it would be… prudent for the leaders to be spaced in different points of command. Perhaps in the areas that will be divided up once the war is over?" Loki was using this as a way to test Magneto; to ensure that he would have a share.

Magneto steepled his fingers, looking to the right of them at Loki. "Tell me, Mr. Laufeyson," the old man said as he straightened another metal pen on his desk. "What do you think of Europe?"

Loki's smirk turned into a smile of amusement at the mortal's suggestion.

~Veronica~

"Momma!" the little sound was quickly followed by my gasp of pain as the knife I had been sharpening slipped and cut my thumb. I barely noticed the pain as I whipped my head around to see little Rose standing in her crib, standing herself up by clinging to the rail. Her crystal blue eyes looked at me expectantly, blinking once, twice.

"What did you say?" I said as I set the knife down and walked over to her. She blinked one more time before smiling up at me.

"Momma!" she said in a higher tone. She reached up for me, little hands clenching and unclenching towards me. Of course I picked her up, but my mind raced with what could possibly have made this seven-month year old child suddenly act like she was three. It was as if in the little under a month we had been in SHIELD she had grown at a much faster rate.

Her baby arms and legs were more developed now and her dark hair reached down past her collar. How could I have missed her sudden growth? I knew it was probably a side-effect of Loki's frost-giant blood, but it still bothered me that I had no control or say in how she was going to be. I had never felt so helpless.

I wished Loki was here.

Stop that. He's not on your side anymore.

But what if he was? Mystique had been the one that ruined the family we had started. And she was somewhere in the bowels of SHIELD being questioned by Xavier.

Speaking of the professor, he had brought in a few of his so-called 'best students.' We were supposed to be meeting with them in the next half-hour actually.

Great. More new superhero friends. I started to wonder just how special being 'super' actually was when there were so many of us.

Rose let out a little shriek as I set her down on the round carpet in the center of the bedroom. She stuck her thumb in her mouth, gazing up at me as I went back to work with the knives. I would just have to make a point to speak with Charles about her. That was all there was to it.

ooOOoo

A half-hour later, I was seated next to Natasha and Thor, waiting on the mutants to get there. I tapped my bandaged thumb on the table in time with the clock's second hand.

One minute… two minutes… five minutes… Good God, X-men certainly weren't well known for their punctuality now were they?

Fifteen minutes later, Xavier came rolling in followed by a woman with white hair and stormy eyes and a man with a form of covering over his eyes. The two were quite young. Probably in their late twenties, early thirties.

"Come along, Logan," Xavier said out into the hallway. "We haven't got all day." But his tone was still kind.

A sturdy man of medium height came through the door slowly, obviously not wanting to be here. He kept his arms crossed, regarding the room with utter disinterest. I had a hard time keeping my face straight at his hair-do. It seemed to be formed into a position to look like cat ears.

The woman was introduced as Storm and the first man as Cyclops. The other man -Logan- was introduced as Wolverine. Tony suppressed the urge to roll his eyes yet again. He was going to get his ass kicked one day. And from the look Wolverine was giving him, that day may have been coming sooner than he thought if he didn't watch it.

"Alright then, "Fury said as he shook hands with each of the new mutants. "Welcome to the SHIELD Avenger initiative."

The two took a seat as Xavier rolled up to the table. The meeting was now in session.

ooOOoo

After a meeting that lasted for several hours, and another half hour dedicated strictly to planning. We had a firm idea of what we were going up against.

Apparently, Magneto had gone up against man-kind countless times. Some he had won – minor victories at the most-, but his last defeat at the hands of the X-men a few years ago had forced him to go into hiding. Even his old acquaintance Xavier did not know where he was.

But one thing we knew for sure: He had the egg. The group was also was able to infer that Loki was working with him. Of course, I was damn positive this was the case.

But we needed to figure out where Magneto was first, what Mystique had wanted with Rose, and what exactly he thought having Loki on his side would accomplish when it came down to battle. (other than the obvious bonus having a powerful sorcerer on your side provided.) SHIELD forces paled when compared with the images and plans Xavier had described as he gave a recap of what he had extracted from Mystique.

I had asked why Xavier did not know where Magneto was based on Mystique's thoughts, but that he had explained that something like that had been placed on safeguard in her mind, blocked to even the most formidable psychic.

Also, why was Charles unable to read my mind? The professor had seemed slightly conufesed still, but he seemed to think the mark had something to do wi th it.

But I knew one way of getting at least a hefty portion of the information we needed, and it involved a certain god of mischief.

AN: Ok, this chapter did NOT want to be written. Sorry, guys! Hopefully it was okay? I plan on working into a more action- filled plot line in the next few chapters, I just really needed to get the base work down first.