A flash of iridescent light from the bifrost revealed the arrival of Thor and Ylva. A half a second later a beam of white light disappeared in the near distance beyond the trees catching both of them off guard.
Thor and Ylva exchanged curious looks. He raised his eyebrow, and she accepted the challenge. Not waiting for him to count or say go she took off with Thor close behind her weaving through the trees with practiced ease. Hermione had never been an athlete or even particularly active always preferring to exercise her mind instead. But since her transformation, she had embraced the awesome athleticism her wolf animagus offered her.
Along with the agility which allowed her to gracefully leap over the man lying face down on the ground instead of tripping over him. Landing on the ground she swiftly turned herself back around. Her heart nearly stopped. Just a few feet from her was a prone possibly dead body. This was something she remembered watching on the telly with her parents over school breaks. Every now and then an unfortunate jogger would stumble onto a dead body, and then they were both featured on the local evening news. Now it was actually happening to her.
She sniffed the air around them tentatively. The smell was not pleasant, but it wasn't the rotting smell of decay that was forever stamped into her brain when her and Harry investigated Bathilda Bagshot's house in Godric's Hollow before they belatedly realized she had died.
She took a closer look and confirmed that it was definitely male. If he was dead, he hadn't been for long. Taking a chance, she gently nudged the collar of his shirt with her snout.
Tony's eyes snapped opened getting an up close view of Hermione's snout and teeth and immediately let out an unmanly scream before scrambling onto his feet. Hermione backed away slowly.
His eyes bugged out of his gaunt, unshaved face. He parted his legs in defensive stance ready to attack like a wounded animal. "No! Just no! I did not fight a bunch of aliens and hitchhike across the universe just to get eaten by a common," he looked up and down at her, "coyote!"
Hermione was offended. She was a wolf not a coyote! They were clearly different. Though coyotes were probably more common in this area than wolves. And like she would eat him. He was dirty and sickly. He looked like he got caught in an accident at the tin manufacturing plant. Parts of his body were covered in metal. He had a chest piece glowed bright blue like the light of a patronus.
Tony's right hand twitched at his side as he charged up the repulsor. Before he could fire a warning shot to scare her away, Thor appeared.
"Stark!" Thor exclaimed having just arrived. "Where have you been?! I've been looking all over the universe for you!"
He forgot about the wild animal in front of him. "Oh thank god," Tony threw himself at Thor embracing him. Thor laughed heartily patting him on the back. Tony was not a hugger in fact he normally despised anyone touching him unless it was a prelude to sex. He blamed his emotionally distant and affection withholding parents, but he was so relieved to see a friend. He didn't know if he would get back to earth or what he would find if he did. "It's so good to see you Pointbre- wait," he pulled back to look up at Thor, "what happened to your hair?"
"I got it cut when I was waylaid on Sakaar."
"Huh. I didn't think you could be any more handsome but somehow you are," he patted Thor's thick bicep as if he was congratulating him on such a feat.
"Oh, thanks." Thor smiled graciously running his hand through his cropped hair.
Tony frowned, "but what am I supposed to call you now?"
"Thor," he deadpanned, "call me Thor."
Tony considered it for a moment. "No," he dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. "I'll come up with something else."
Thor scowled.
A loud whirring noise coming from the thicket of trees announced another presence.
All heads turned to the source of the sound, which got progressively louder. Bruce broke through a copse of trees carrying a loud, flashing device which he promptly threw aside when he saw Tony so that his arms were free to embrace his friend.
"Tony? Is that really you?"
"It's me big guy," he opened his arms, "back from outer space."
"Tony," Bruce shook his head smiling, " oh my god you're back. I can't. I can't believe this..."
"Come here you."
They hugged each other as if their world was ending. Tony was ecstatic that Bruce survived the aftermath of Thanos, but dreaded to find out who didn't.
"You're alive." Tony tightened his hug trying to prolong it because in the next few moments he was sure Bruce was going to tell him the bad news. That Pepper didn't survive or Rhodey turned to dust, and he wasn't ready to hear that.
"I never stopped looking for you!" Bruce nearly shouted over the noise of the device. It was the same device Bruce had designed to trace Tony's arc reactor signature. Apparently it was a short range detection device.
"I never doubted you!" Tony shouted back.
Thor finally crushed the buzzing device with his foot silencing it.
"Let's get you inside," Bruce said as he slung Tony's arm around his shoulder supporting him.
Hermione and Thor followed the two back to the compound. They needed to speak with Bruce, but it felt wrong to interrupt their little reunion, so they hung back a little.
Upon entering the building, Bruce fired off a bunch of directives for the AI. "Page Dr. Helen Cho and have her meet us in the infirmary. Alert Dr. Jane Foster-Kincaid, call off the search. We've found Tony. Also call Pepper Potts and Colonel James Rhodes. Tell them to come to the Avengers Compound immediately. Tell them it's Tony, and we've found him alive."
Tony's knees nearly gave out. The knot in his stomach lifted, and he exhaled a laugh. They were alive!
"Whoa, Tony," Bruce steadied him, "are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just feeling a little weak and malnourished. Space food was horrible and pretty much non-existent." He couldn't help but grin. In just a few hours he will see his best friend and the love of his life, his future wife. Everything he had endured to come back had been worth it. "I am starving. Tacos, I think I want tacos."
Bruce saw the gauntness of his face. Tony did look like he lost some weight which made the lines on his face more pronounced. He was gone for eight months, but he looked like he aged a decade. "Of course, we'll order some right now."
"No, none of that fast food chain crap. Let's take the quinjet and get some authentic tacos. The kind where you don't know which part of the animal you're eating, but you don't care cause it's so good." Tony didn't know what it was but every time he found himself rescued and alive when he shouldn't have been, he liked to celebrate with cheap, greasy meat wrapped in delicious carbs, "you know from a truck parked in a dimly lit parking lot in downtown LA."
"Um, sure, but let's get you some medical attention first." Bruce guided them into the infirmary. "Also, Pepper and Rhodey will be here. I'm sure they want to see you just as much as you want to see them."
"Of course, but tacos afterwards," Tony reiterated. His priorities were sometimes misplaced. "Let's all go. We can bring Dolph Lundgren and his pet coyote too." That's what he decided to call Thor for now. He glanced behind him and saw that the animal he encountered had followed them inside. "Drago, you've never had tacos before, have you? OW!"
Hermione lightly bit the back of his ankle. This man was so irritating. She could have drawn blood, but she didn't.
Tony clamped down his lips suppressing a scream, "dear god that hurt," he groaned through his teeth.
Thor laughed, "don't call her a pet or a coyote. She has a name. It's Hermione." He patted her head affectionately like he fully endorsed her hostile behavior.
"She needs to be leashed if you're going to bring her inside," Tony said angrily. He bent over rubbing his ankle. "I can't believe you let her attack me like that. I'm already hurt! And when did I start opening my home to wild animals, anyways?"
Hermione growled baring her teeth and took a single threatening step toward him. She was just playing with him. He seemed rather full of himself and reminded her of Cormac McLaggen. He could stand to be taken down a peg.
"Whoa, nice doggy…I mean Herm-mony." Tony backed away holding his hands up in a placating manner. "Leave it to Thor name her something that's impossible to pronounce," he complained.
"That's her given name," Thor said, "it's pronounced Her-my-nee. She is-"
"Wait, how did you find out that her name is actually Hermione? Did everything go alright at the Sanctum?" Bruce asked as he helped Tony onto a patient bed. He saw Hermione curl up in the corner to take a nap out of the corner of his eye. He guessed accurately that they were not able to figure out how to change her back.
"Yes, but we decided we needed a different approach, which is why we came back," Thor explained.
"Hi Dr. Banner." Her sudden appearance caught Tony and Bruce off guard. Tony threw an empty bed pan which went straight through her and landed with a loud clang.
Hermione unamused shot Tony an irritated look.
"Sorry," Tony muttered.
She turned back to Bruce."It's me, Hermione Granger." She smiled and waved tentatively, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"Oh," Bruce said still in shock as he watched her float around passing through objects. "Hi Hermione. Yeah, it's been a while since we've had a presence like yours around here. You're human, but not... solid. Did something go wrong while you were at the Sanctum?" He asked worried.
"No, Wong was very helpful. He helped me achieve my astral projection so I can speak to you, but he was unable to change me back unfortunately," she smiled wryly, "wait, what do you mean by a presence like mine?"
"A Brit that floats and walks through things," Tony turned to Bruce, "did you and Cho 3-D print another AI while I was gone?"
"No, do you not remember what happened last time?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." At that moment a dark haired woman dressed in medical scrubs entered the room. "Hello Stark. Good to see that you're alive," she said curtly. She grabbed a pair of latex gloves from a dispenser on the wall before approaching Tony.
"Hermione, this is Dr. Helen Cho. She's the attending doctor here," Bruce introduced the pretty doctor, "Helen, this is Hermione. You've seen her chart. It was under the name 'Ylva.'"
"Hello," she greeted not even batting an eye at the state she was in, "I trust that Bruce took care of you while I was gone. I was away due to a family emergency when you arrived." Helen was aware of Hermione having reviewed her medical file. Because she was the only licensed doctor at the compound, only she was authorized to sign off on medical charts. She trusted Bruce's competence and allowed him to practice whenever he wished as long as he always turned in his charts for her to review. "Although per protocol, I will need to eventually examine you. It's a liability issue," she explained.
"Perhaps, once I finish with Stark here." Helen removed a small flashlight from her pocket and switched it on. Shining it in Tony's eyes, she said, "state your full name, please."
"Gaius Julius Caesar," he answered in an affected voice. "Just kidding, Anthony Edward Stark."
She scowled and rolled her eyes.
"Should we leave?" Bruce interrupted. The three of them were just standing (in Hermione's case floating) there watching Helen administer a medical exam.
"No, stay. I might actually break my hippocratic oath and kill him if you leave me alone with him," Helen said tightly. She had a low tolerance for Tony's bullshit. She turned back to Tony. "Do you know what day it is?"
"No, why would I? I just got back to Earth. I've been floating in outer space for God knows how long. You should be telling me what day it is."
"December 21, 2018," she answered tersely. "Do you know where you are?"
"Earth. I just said that."
Dr. Cho huffed in annoyance and rushed through the rest of the intake protocol questions. She clicked off the flashlight and set it aside to retrieve a pair of medical scissors to cut open the jersey material.
"Hey! Careful!" Tony griped, "this is millions of dollars worth of nanotech." He swotted her hands away. Gripping the edges of his shirt, "I'll just take it off."
"Oh my god, who did this?" Her eyes widened at the shoddy stitching and the puckered skin.
"The nice alien doctor didn't give me his name. If it was a he. I don't know if he was even a real doctor honestly. He had claws for hands and only one eye. So his depth perception may not have been so great."
"That certainly explains it," she muttered, "I'm going to have to redo these. Stay here, I'm going to turn on the regeneration cradle." She left the room.
"So you were really in outer space?" Hermione asked incredulously unaware that everyone in the room except for her had been on an intergalactic space adventure.
"Yep," but he did not elaborate, "so what's your story?" Tony asked turning everyone's attention on her, "are you a ghost or something?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously at her. "You look like you were in one of those harem cults that committed mass suicide."
"Hermione has been cursed. She cannot change back from her wolf form," Thor answered.
Tony glanced over to the sleeping wolf in the corner, "that's you?"
"Yes, I'm a witch and an animagus, I can change into a wolf at will and in theory change back, but I'm stuck at the moment," she explained feeling strange telling this to a muggle. If Thor and Wong were right she need not worry about the Statute of Secrecy, but she felt that this particular muggle judged her confession with heavy skepticism. "I was hoping that you could help me Dr. Banner. Thor told me about the 'other guy' and how you were able to control your transformation."
"I think that's a bit different, Hermione. But if you can't change back, why not just get a new body?" Bruce was met with puzzled looks from Hermione and Thor. "You were able to separate yourself from your body, what if we print you a new body -"
"Using the regeneration cradle," they said at the same time. Tony and Bruce looked at each other as if their brains synced in that moment.
"What if we were to recreate the same conditions that created Vision?" Bruce suggested, his voice pitched with excitement not characteristic of the normally reserved scientist.
"I don't think she can pull off vibranium like Vision though," Tony quipped.
Hermione's brain twitched.
"I mean no offense, you are a lovely girl, but I would assume you wouldn't like your skin and the rest of your organs to be made of the strongest metal on earth. Unless you've always wanted to be an indestructible android," Tony added, "in that case we're your guys."
"Um..none taken. I don't really fancy the idea of being turned into a robot actually," she said nervously.
"No, we wouldn't use vibranium because we have these." Bruce retrieved the same glass vial with the nanotech beads. "This is what I used to heal you, Hermione."
"What is that?" Hermione asked. She hovered in front of him her fingers grazing but not touching the vial in Bruce's hand.
"Oh, is that the new bio-organic nanotech you've been working on? It's finished?" Helen asked coming back into the room.
"Yes, and it worked. It sealed her gunshot wound and repaired the damaged tissue instantly. The inspiration behind it was your regeneration cradle actually."
"Hmm...I'm impressed Dr. Banner. You basically created a portable version of the cradle. This could revolutionize emergency medicine in the field." She took the vial and examined the blue microbeads." Just remember to credit me in your foreword should you publish," she smirked.
"Oh, you would be coauthor," Bruce said with a wave of his hand, "I was thinking that maybe I could reprogram them to print a body for Hermione. Perhaps you could help me."
Helen looked at Hermione and then at Bruce. Handing the vial back to him she said,"there's a difference between printing vibranium, an inorganic matter, versus actual living human cells that form tissue that organize into organs that make up the complex systems to create a functional, living human being. There's a reason why babies are incubated in utero for nine months. There's a reason why it takes a course of two decades to form a fully grown adult. Plus the regeneration cradle prints tissue from existing tissue. It can't build a living body from zero."
"You almost built an indestructible murder bot with it," Tony pointed out.
"Let me remind you that I was under the influence of the mind stone and you two," she pointed an accusing finger at both Bruce and Tony, "were the ones that created Ultron who put me under the aforementioned mind control. Besides, like I said I did it with vibranium."
"What if we stole a cadaver instead? Then we wouldn't have to start with a petri dish. We can peel off the top layer and just bake it in the regeneration cradle until it looks like her," Tony said turning to Bruce completely disregarding what Helen just said. The science bros carried on with their conversation finishing each other's sentences while Helen, Hermione, and Thor watched.
Helen looked up silently counted to ten, but lost her patience. "Oh my god! Now we're crossing the line between ethics and science. You will not steal a dead body nor will you use my regeneration cradle. Now will you please shut up so that I can finish the exam?" She glanced at Hermione from the side of her eye, "get out while you can," she warned dryly.
"As brilliant as that sounds, magic and technology do not mix. They're often incompatible," Hermione interjected. Hogwarts came to mind, and so did the Weasley's Ford Anglia that went rogue and still prowled the Forbidden Forest.
"Even if you were able to successfully create a new body for me how exactly would you transfer my consciousness? That part would still be magic, right? More importantly would I still be a witch in a different body? No one has ever really studied the biological differences between magicals and non-magicals. Supposedly there are no witches or wizards like me here. Magic is important to me, and I don't want to lose that part of myself."
"Kid's got a point. Vision was basically Jarvis and Ultron both AI software fused with the mind stone. That's much easier to download into a synthetic body than whatever she is," Tony conceded.
Hermione nodded,"there's no bridge between science and magic." That was an unfortunate side effect of the Statute of Secrecy. It enforced the separation of muggle and magical society. Muggle subjects like biology, physics, chemistry, calculus were not taught at schools like Hogwarts. She stopped at very basic maths and grammar after leaving primary school.
"No," Thor shook his head in disagreement. "On Asgard they were one in the same. Someone once told me that magic is simply science we don't understand yet." That someone being Jane quoting Arthur C. Clarke. "This could work," he said to Hermione. He seemed much more optimistic about the plan than she was.
"I don't know Thor..." Hermione didn't want to get her hopes up again after what happened at the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Thor's eyes brightened. "I need to speak with Loki," he said suddenly."If anyone can bridge that gap it would be him." He grabbed Bruce by the shoulders, "Banner, I need the Hulk to beat me within an inch of my life."
"Umm...yeah, no. Even if I could, which I can't right now. The Other Guy and I are not on speaking terms. I wouldn't do it. You're my friend. I'm not going purposely hurt you."
"But as your friend I'm asking you to fight me," Thor countered.
"No! How is that going to help you speak to Loki?" Bruce looked at Thor like he was out of his mind.
"When I fought you and Hela, I was able to speak with my father. I was able to access another plane of existence because I was on the brink of death. "
"I'm not going to hurt you, Thor!" Bruce protested in what was the most ridiculous argument ever. He shook Thor's hands off him and backed away.
"Whatever you do, do it outside away from the compound," Helen said flatly. She didn't even bother looking up as she was still tending to the botched sutures on Tony's side.
"You don't have to kill me," Thor reassured him, "you only need to do just enough damage so that it looks like I might die. Just a couple of Hulk smashes," Thor said imitating the Hulk. "Well maybe more than that. I am a god. Since I can't bring Loki back to life, this is the only way for me to contact him."
"No, it's not," said Hermione suddenly. Find the resurrection stone, it followed you to where you are. The snitch!
"I need to find the snitch!" Hermione exclaimed her face bright from the epiphany.
"The what?"
"Huh?"
"She says that like we should already know what she's talking about."
"What's a snitch?"
"When I escaped from the Forbidden Forest on the day that I met you, I had followed this golden ball. It's charmed to fly and evade its captors. That's a snitch. It's used in a wizarding game called quidditch and is worth one hundred fifty points if caught and ends the game, but that's not really relevant," Hermione rambled suddenly self conscious when she realized everyone was staring at her. "Anyways, inside of it contained something very special. It was left to my best friend Harry by our late Headmaster."
"Was it roughly the size of a golf ball?" Bruce asked.
"Yes!" Hermione nodded excitedly, "you found it?"
"There was also a small black stone inside it," said Thor.
"That's the resurrection stone! You can summon the dead using that."
"I still have it. It's in my lab." Bruce got up gesturing them to follow. He wasn't sure about the summoning the dead thing.
Hermione merged with Ylva again and followed Thor and Bruce to the laboratory.
"Oh no, you are not resurrecting your warmongering homicidal brother!" Tony shouted after them. He hastily pulled on his shirt and hopped off the bed despite Helen's protests.
Helen sighed and threw up her hands giving up. "Fine, go," she shooed him with her hand after he had already left.
The doors to the laboratory slid open automatically. Bruce pushed through followed by Thor and Hermione.
"We found it on the same day of your arrival, Barton speared it with his arrow," Thor explained.
"I still have both. I ran some tests that were inconclusive. It's just a rock as far as I know," Bruce said as he reached into the drawer. "I meant to give this back to you, but I had forgotten about it because well, it's unremarkable."
Bruce dropped the stone into Thor's hand. Kneeling, he presented the it to Hermione.
Hermione couldn't believe it. Harry was right. She examined the stone and identified the clearly etched symbol of the deathly hallows.
"What do I do with it?" Thor asked.
Hermione assumed her astral form leaving Ylva once again unconscious on the floor. "Concentrate on Loki. Think about how much you want to see him. Then try turning the stone in your hand three times and see what happens." This was all conjecture on Hermione's part. She didn't have an incantation, but magic was about intent after all. She hoped Thor's intent was strong enough to summon Loki.
Thor did as he was told and the three of them held their breath collectively. Nothing happened.
"It should have worked! The story said that Death instructed the middle brother to turn it in his hand thrice," Hermione recited the tale from memory.
"I'm sorry, did you just say you read about this magic stone's resurrecting powers from a fictional story?" Tony asked snidely. He was the last to arrive. He really wasn't in any condition to be outside the infirmary.
"Well, it's from a very old, very widely known tale in the magical world. The resurrection stone is one of the three deathly hallows. They're these very powerful objects created by Death himself." Hermione left out the part about it also being a children's bedtime story. "Maybe this is not the real stone," she sighed.
Before the disappointment could set in, the stone levitated itself off out Thor's palm. Everyone remained still. Something in the air shifted and the room suddenly felt more crowded. Thor was the first to turn around.
"Brother," Loki greeted Thor with a wide smile baring his teeth. "What a surprise."
I just wanted to thank everyone that has been reviewing the story so far. Some of you tune in every week just to leave a lovely comment. It just brightens my day because I love hearing from you guys! kellogglikethecereal, I almost went with "because that's what heroes do" from Thor: Ragnarok as the last line of the previous chapter:p
Side note: I learned that coyotes are very abundant in the state of New York. Wolves have not lived in Northeast U.S. in over a century!
