DISCLAIMER: I do not own the film MARVEL'S The Avengers, nor any of its events or characters – I am just borrowing them for play.

Enlightening Nuances

-~S~-

Chapter Twenty-One: Inevitable

"We have limited information on the team," the reporter continued, Agent Hill aboard the bridge of the Helicarrier observing the same coverage, the myriad of agents in the control room seated and standing frozen as they were forced to helplessly view the events, "but we do know that billionaire Tony Stark's Iron Man…" Director Fury gazed intently at the philanthropist's journey.

Smoke trailed the canister and Iron Man's thrusters' path, the call to Pepper continuing to try and connect in the corner of the HUD as Tony focused on directing the nuke between the high-rises and towards his tower in the distance. Steve and Thor looked upwards as he passed over them, increasing the arch upwards with a grunt as additional thrusters were revealed below the pectorals of the armour. The Hulk lifted his upper body out of the pile of rubble he had been buried in to follow the suit's passage overhead as well, the missile barely forced over the remaining 'S' and 'A' of 'STARK' and the top five floors of the structure, Tony scraping up the side as he flew to clear it.

Natasha and Erik whipped their heads up as he clipped the edge of the building to continue on, his flight following the beam emitted by the Cube as Chitauri ships streaked downwards. He neared the gathered clouds and excess energy created by the portal before finally passing over the threshold with the missile.

The SHIELD agents aboard the bridge clapped and cheered in celebration, Hill allowing her eyes to close for a moment as she sighed in relief. Fury nodded slightly and permitted a smirk, but lowered his head and gaze in bereavement at the sacrifice of the genius.

All of the occupants of the room were filled with equal parts eagerness and dread, the oppourtunity to view the magnitude of the expanse of space on the other side of the portal tampered by the cost of Tony's feat.

On the other side of the portal, bright daylight shone in a perfect circle behind Iron Man as deep, dark space surrounded him, faint pinpricks of the gas of stars the only light permeating. The light of the arc reactor died out as Tony was left gasping within his helmet at the sudden lack of oxygen. Jarvis powered off to the 'Call Failed' notice typed above Pepper's smiling picture, the man's stare wide as the glow of the eyes, repulsors, and thrusters of the suit faded. He fell limply away from the missile that continued to propel itself forward, and he watched as it sailed straight into the large Chitauri spaceship that was sending out infantry and leviathans.

The nuclear canister impacted off center to gradually consume the entirety of the vessel in a violent explosion of bold orange and dazzling yellow, the aliens in the streets of New York abruptly crumpling as the components sustaining them in Earth's atmosphere powered down. Steve and Thor noted those collapsing around them with a considering glance skyward, as stories above a long creature jerked before diving into the side of a building, its body flipped over onto its shelled back as it died.

Tony's eyes were lit by the flames of the explosion blossoming outward as he stared at the sight, before forced to close his eyes at the stifling lack of breath. The suit was pushed back by the shockwave as, on the road below, Steve watched the portal, Natasha staring upwards as well and beckoning, "Come on, Stark."

The echoes of the muffled explosion sounded through the gateway, Thor averting his stare to the ground before casting his eyes onto the Captain beside him. Steve gazed up at the nearing blast, finally ordering, "Close it."

Steve winced as he absorbed the reality of his decision. If he hadn't made it through he would have been left for dead out there. He would've died for the cause, and that was something I was willing to accept. He was selfishly glad that Tony had left the room.

Natasha turned to the device before her and forced the scepter further with a grunt, the tip and gem sparking as they touched the top surface of the Tesseract and impressed upon her the command. The ray disconnected from the machinery on the roof and streaked heavenward before joining with the remaining energy of the portal, the entrance into space beginning to shrink. It collapsed inwards to Steve bowing his head, wisps of dark blue and azure crashing together and rolling in like the tide to close as Iron Man was thrust towards it.

The suit fell through as stars and space were reunited on the far side, molten light and flecks of stars rushing in to surround before Tony emerged from the pale blue of the sky.

Natasha released trembling breaths as Steve uttered in relief, "Son of a gun."

He plunged without resistance through the still air, drawing closer and closer to the roofs of structures below before Thor realized, "He's not slowing down." He started to spin Mjolnir by the strap of her handle as the two stared upwards, before the Hulk hurled himself across the space between the buildings and caught Tony with an arm around his torso.

Bruce recoiled slightly in shock, glad, but baffled, at the Other Guy's proactive actions. He recognized the danger, and moved to protect him? Tony's dismissal of me as a threat on the Helicarrier and bluntly showing his interest in my work and the Other Guy must have worked him closer to me in those few hours than I realized… he thought in astonishment.

He slid down the side of the opposite high-rise with his other hand slowing them by the drag through the concrete and glass of its makeup, before he launched them to the street. He spun so to land on his back on a taxi and then through the rubble coating the surface of the road, clasping Tony to his chest.

He grunted as he lifted his head to note the suit he was holding, and then flipped Tony off of him to the ground beside. Thor and Steve jogged around vehicles to the landing, the god handing his hammer into his left hand as he crouched at his side and rolled him over, the Hulk tense with his fists down across Tony's prone form. "Is he breathing?" Steve asked in panic, the Thunderer hurriedly ripping the faceplate from the helmet and throwing it away.

The god stood helplessly as the Captain bent over to hold his ear over Tony's mouth, leaning back at the lack of inhalation as the Hulk raised a fist in yearning of a solution that he could achieve. Steve's gloved hand lowered slightly down the chestplate in consideration of their options, suddenly realizing the absence of light emitting from the arc reactor in his chest cavity.

Loki tilted his head slightly in thought as the three SHIELD agents furrowed their brows in confusion, unaware of the exact happenings during this instance.

Tony's expression was serene as he lay quietly in his suit, the blonds remaining motionless at his side at the facts presented. The Hulk stood panting in aggravation, eyes shifting from side to side in thought as he glanced at the other two before observing their surrender and turning back to Tony to unexpectedly roar down at the martyr's prone form.

Tony gasped into consciousness-

Bruce dazedly blinked at the outcome as a collective sigh of relief pervaded the air, exhaled from Steve and Thor at the reiteration of Tony's awakening. This is a little too much direct saving being thrown at me at once, he thought as he worked to conform his thoughts on the Other Guy to all of the new information being shown.

-the Hulk bellowing his triumph to the skies as Steve's eyes widened and he leaned closer in disbelief. The arc glowed blue.

"Do you even possess the knowledge to provide aid to him if that device is damaged?" Loki asked.

"SHIELD has access to most of the designs, but making sense of the miniaturized, high-energy, subcritical nuclear event is something else," Phil responded, adding, "Not taking into account the improvements Mr. Stark is constantly making to the arc in his chest."

Bruce hummed in thought, the genius' having begun to confide in him on the Helicarrier regarding the advanced technology indicating the voluntary seeking of another who would be able to understand and lend help when required.

The genius asked, "What the hell?" Thor gazing down with furrowed brows before he smirked in relief. "What just happened?" he reiterated before fully taking in the three surrounding him and imploring, "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Natasha smirked at the momentary alarm at resuscitation through CPR from the then-strangers.

The Captain breathed heavily as he lifted his stare to the middle-distance and the smoking wreck of cars and buildings, and the limp corpses of grey-skinned beings and leviathans. He nodded his head a few times before asserting the situation with a decisive version of the motion, stating, "We won."

Tony sighed before acknowledging, "Alright, yay," praising weakly, "Hurray! Good job guys. Uh, let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just… take a day," he suggested as he shifted gingerly. "You ever tried shawarma?" he asked to Steve's indulgent smile and charmed shake of his head. "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here – I don't know what it is but I want to try it."

"We're not finished yet," Thor interjected, Steve turning to glance up at him as Tony's expression shifted into one of concession, though he insisted hopefully,

"And then shawarma after."

-~S~-

"Damn, I can't see anything," Tony muttered to himself as he expanded the frozen depiction of Loki's form on the holographic representation of the security footage of the tower, peering intently at the covered ankle where Jarvis' scans could outline the shape of a thick presumably-metal cuff.

He resumed the play of the footage he had already seen, the god grabbed by the leg and slammed into the tile of the floor by the Hulk before left lying in the space. Another analysis revealed that the contours of the material of the boot had changed and that there was a split in the restraint beneath, along with a fraction of a second's sharp emission of radiation when the fracture had occurred. He sped through the following minutes until Loki was removed from the tower, the remains of the cuff staying within his boot.

When Tony decided to switch over to the available SHIELD footage and track him, he found that after Loki had been bound and gagged he had leaned against one of the sides of the enclosure and appeared to have slid to sit on the floor in exhaustion. His left hand came to rest on his left ankle and then, inexplicably, all evidence of the restraint disappeared. The engineer recoiled and rewound the images, watching the event through infrared, then ultraviolet, then the two through slowed speeds as well as differing angles before he threw his hands in the air and strode over to the adjacent wall.

His core doesn't even flicker at vanishing or transporting or whatever-ing the material of that cuff, he thought in frustration, and I've nothing left of it to tinker with. He pressed a corner of one of the tiles of the wall and the panel slid out, a hydraulics system revealing in suspension a selection of whiskeys and short glasses. After he poured himself a couple of fingers from one of the containers and raised the liquid to his lips for a generous sip, he asked Jarvis, "What's my posse up to?"

"They are still viewing the disc, sir – Dr. Banner's alter ego having just leapt through the air to catch your falling form," the AI replied.

Good – have a look at that, Brucie, he thought with a smirk as he took another sip of his drink. "What happened there before I came to, anyways?" he questioned, stepping over to the plush armchair in the corner.

"I was not functional so was not privy to the events, sir," Jarvis reported remorsefully before he added, "But according to the images recorded you were not breathing and the glow of the arc reactor had failed. Dr. Banner's other half then shouted and you awakened, the arc operational again."

"That… is hilarious," Tony pronounced at the scene conjured in his mind as he halted, beginning to muse on the mechanics of the occurrence as he spun on his heel to exit the lab.

So, what- the magnitude of his sound waves shocked me in place of a defibrillator, and the laser was able to pick up its effect on the Vibranium and everything was fine? No, the decreasing reaction of the isotope was caused by my draining of the arc's power during the battle and the radiation of the nuke, so then how-

His contemplation was stalled as he arrived at the door to the conference room of the 90th floor, hesitating for only a second before he entered quietly.

Loki's breathing was laboured as he dragged himself up the few steps covered in glittering glass, groaning in pain as he braced his torso above the surface with his elbows. He lifted his head with a sigh at the attempted transition to seated before pausing, his eyes shifting from side to side as he panted while twisting to view the area behind him.

Tony stood on the far left with his chin lifted, armour dented and scratched with his helmet absent while the arc reactor shone brightly in the center of his chest, the Hulk primed for battle with eyes dark behind him, the Captain deprived of cowl staring down at the God of Chaos with shield held in his right hand at the center. Clint knelt close as he raised his bow crosswise and pulled back a knocked arrow, Thor behind him with blood-spattered Mjolnir in hand, Natasha on the far right with scepter grasped firmly.

Loki gaped at the sight with cuts on his forehead, brow, bridge of his nose, and chin and armour covered in dust before lowering his head. "If it's all the same to you," he began as he delicately turned so to use his arms on the row of stairs behind to brace himself as he sighed, proposing beseechingly, "I'll have that drink now."

"Was a one-time offer, then," Tony remarked to the attention of the occupants of the room, indicating the alcohol he held with a raise of the glass in hand before he moved to his seat. "Now, however… Does control over your magic change when you're drunk?"

Permitting the diversion while all but Thor eyed the liquor in discernment, Loki answered, "My control isn't affected significantly, but when intoxicated I'm more likely to use my magic frivolously, or to lash out with it.

"You should abandon the thought-process though – I doubt you possess the percentage and amount of alcohol needed to overcome the tolerance I've developed to the more potent brews of Asgard."

"You underestimate me," he retorted with a smirk.

The windows of the many skyscrapers of New York City glinted in the dim light shining through the blanket of smoke that had risen to shade the buildings under the pretense of an overcast sky. The citizens were overwhelmed by the events they found themselves in the aftermath of, overturned vehicles littering the streets scattered with burning craters; the heavy fog of charred remains wafted continuously upward to the sound of wailing sirens. Officers radioed medics as they questioned innocents about their injuries, firefighters dashing around ruins to reach flaming buildings and search for survivors.

The strip of Manhattan where the grand expanse of Central Park lay remained undisturbed, the clear waters still and the brush and trees a healthy green, though the atmosphere of the city surrounding it was greatly changed. "Despite the devastation of what has been confirmed as an extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as The Avengers has been to many a cause not only for comfort, but for celebration," an announcer reported live on MSNBC's Breaking News, the banner fixed along the bottom broadcasting 'BREAKING NEWS Aftermath: The World Responds to Alien Attack'.

On the available space of the SHIELD control panel two other channels were streamed, the higher displaying first a Chitauri gun and the rubble emergency services were sifting through before it captured the volunteers working to clear the streets of ruin. In addition it depicted the many candles offered in memory of those lost in the invasion, the images below showing a wall of letters that a family was adding to that praised the aid of the Avengers as well as mourned those whose souls had departed, the picture transitioning to that of those grieving, holding candles, and then the colourful fireworks sent up in celebration around the Eiffel Tower in Paris at the successful evasion of extraterrestrial tyranny.

"It's just really great knowing they're out there," a man stated on the top-left report on the adjacent control screen, wearing a pale blue sweater emblazoned with the Captain's shield.

Steve flushed in surprise at the sight of the motif.

"-that someone's watching over us," his friend added, the notice beneath them advertising, 'New Yorkers Celebrate Victory'. A woman forced her way between them to declare to the camera, 'I love you Thor!' before mouthing the statement again breathlessly in reiteration.

The god chuckled as he grinned at the announcement.

The transmission moved to cover a woman sweeping the area outside her storefront and then able to display an 'Open' sign before that of CSPAN2 Live, an address regarding 'Invasion: A Global Catastrophe' given by a representative of The White House in Washington.

On Channel 6 the caption was 'Avengers Assemble to Save New York City', a young boy illustrating, "And then these guys were like-" as he embellished the tale with the sound of a laser, "-and then the air goes-" and that of an explosion as he gestured widely, continuing "-and this green guy walks up and goes-" He roared in imitation-

Bruce blinked furiously in confusion at the idolization of the child.

-before the image switched to the street artists creating works of art portraying Iron Man in bold reds, Hawkeye's façade darkened by a purple cowl and sunglasses protecting against the glare of daylight, and Captain America throwing his shield, or the Captain proudly standing tall with the American flag in hand.

"Look at those!" Tony crowed in appreciation of the fanart. "We should get some for the tower – make a mural."

"Don't you already have an Iron Man poster?" Phil commented with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, but now I have a selection to pick and choose from," he explained.

Below, a man was captured at a hairdresser's, posters of Tony hung behind him and the beard on his jaw being shaved in mimicry of the man's-

"I'm so awesome."

-before a crowd gathered in front of a painted banner saluting the Avengers.

A parade marched through the streets in honour of the soldiers who lost their lives, banners of Iron Man carried alongside in show of their lives not being given in vain, for a solution had been found in the time provided and he was able to complete their goal. "I don't know," a male began from the side of his wife, 'Victims of NY Affected Respond', "I don't exactly feel safer with those things out there."

"It just seems that there's a lot they're not telling us," she commented in unease.

"Superheroes in New York? Give me a break," an elderly man remarked sceptically, having turned from his chess match with another, 'The Avengers: Hoax?' suggested by NY1.

"Media," Tony snorted in derision.

HULK = HERO was proclaimed on a large green sign held by a male-

Bruce stifled an obvious reaction to the proclamation, Tony smirking and rolling his chair closer to nudge his shoulder in support of the claim.

-as a blonde woman wore a hooded sweatshirt with the Captain's shield on it-

Steve shook his head in discomfort.

-a group of supporters walking through the streets declaring their praise through cheering and megaphones. 'Thank you Avengers' was shown graffitied in black on a bare wall.

"I'd better not be getting charged for all that vandalism," Tony said in jest.

"These so called 'heroes' have to be held responsible for the destruction to the city. This was their fight – where are they now?" 'New York Senator Questions Avengers', NY Crisis UPDATE, Channel 5.

Clint raised an eyebrow. "Like it's our responsibility to ward off all aliens that attack?"

"Ungrateful," Tony agreed.

A boy had been made an Iron Man helmet that he wore with a smile, a girl running over deserted train tracks with a rectangular hammer thrust into the air determinedly. A boy held a shield in hand as he sat atop his father's shoulders-

"Look at the wonderful influence we have on the children!" Thor proclaimed with a grin as Loki rolled his eyes.

-while in the corner below a rendition of Tony with a suit soaring away on either side was painted in India.

"Tough questions are being asked about the Avengers themselves, their sudden appearance and their equally sudden disappearance…"

"What- that this is all somehow their fault?" Breaking News: New York Crisis, Disaster Averted. Live on CNN: Avengers – Friend or Foe? "Captain America saved my life," Beth asserted-

Tony nudged a wheel of Steve's chair with his foot as he waggled his eyebrows to the Captain's frown.

-breathing heavily, incredulous and in relief, adding, "Wherever he is, and wherever any of them are, I would just… I would want to say thank you."

"And scene!"

"It's still playing," Phil announced.

"But nothing else happened."

A woman worked on sweeping the dust and debris from the floor as a sign along the back wall boasted, 'Shawarma Palace, Voted Best Shawarma in New York City', a man behind the counter frying the pieces of meat that had been sliced from the spit that stood rotating beside him. The Avengers were crammed around a long table in the front half of the store: Thor leant over his plate taking a bite of his wrap before wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand; Tony slumped back in his seat chewing; Bruce on one end hunched over his basket and placing the last bite of the assembly into his mouth; Clint seated with his left leg raised to rest across the back corner of Natasha's chair as he picked from the container in his lap; she sat with her hands braced above her knees as she chewed; Steve at the other end with his cheek propped up on a fist, eyes fluttering closed every couple of seconds.

Glances were cast onto one another as they sat drooped in their seats, exhausted as they gingerly shifted to slowly consume their meals in each other's company.HeH

"This thing's really covering everything – was delicious though. We should order in shawarma every week."

"That would open us up to unnecessary risk of poisoning," Natasha countered.

"Seriously," Tony stated dryly with a quirked eyebrow. "You can test your food all you like."

"You don't?" Clint questioned.

"That seems reckless," Loki contributed.

"Alright, that whole corner," he said emphatically, gesturing to the three opposite him, "is paranoid."

"Perhaps I should enroll you in one of the new-recruits' precautionary habits sessions," Phil mused.

"What? No- No organized lectures where I'll be surrounded by creepy agents, no way."

"Are we in serious danger of being targeted for our actions?" Steve asked.

"It appeared as though we were being celebrated," Thor added in confusion.

"We don't know," Phil answered. "It will take a while for the shock to fade and for individuals to form arguments and group together if there is any opposition."

SHIELD Interrogation: Agent Maria Hill
48 hours after Tesseract event

"You want to know what went wrong?" she asked, gaze distant. "How this… horror, this… catastrophe could have been averted?" She was seated in a plush chair on one side of a wide conference table, the World Security Council's shadowed members displayed across from her.

"A lot of people are dead, Agent Hill," one of the males stated. "Somebody has to answer for that."

Frowns and brows furrowed in displeasure distorted expressions at the inquisition.

"A lot of people have to answer for that," she remarked.

"Nick Fury?" a female questioned.

Hill scoffed and shook her head. "That man-"

"You filed several reports criticizing Director Fury's actions since you joined SHIELD-"

"-because he's reckless," she justified.

"I thought you said she came around?" Bruce asked of Phil, who merely indicated the screen.

"We're at war, and he thinks about superheroes."

"The Avengers?"

"God," she huffed, "who would bring those people together and not expect what happened…"

"You have to understand there are aspects of this incident that are difficult for most people to accept," a councilman reassured as she shifted her position.

"-those creatures…" the female added.

"Fury said to me once, 'In the time of gods and monsters what is the worth of a man?'"

Steve winced at the truth of the statement, the battle spoken of bringing to light more than any he had fought in just how mediocre his efforts were in the grand scheme of things. He could lead the team and fight as hard as he could, for as long as he was able to, but compared to Thor or Tony's suit and technology, Loki's magic or Bruce's transformation, what use was he?

Her gaze stared into the middle-distance, remembering the battle. "I don't know what he means," she admitted with a shake of her head. "And then men are dying all around. Good men – friends.

"Even some heroes."

"So it's safe to say mistakes were made in the handling of the incident?" the female council member intoned.

"Mistakes?" she repeated incredulously, shaking her head again. "God, that's all there was – a series of astonishing mistakes. And the worst of all…" she trailed off, eyes wandering from her surroundings and to her memories of the invasion again.

"Agent Hill?" the female prompted her to continue. "Agent Hill? Agent Hill – you were saying?"

"Sorry, yes?" she said, shifting in her chair once her attention returned to the questioning.

"You said, 'The worst mistake…'?"

"Well," she chuckled, "I think we all know who made that. You thought they were a threat, I thought they were a joke. Nick Fury only ever saw them as the Avengers. No matter what he said… If he hadn't seen that, well, Midtown Manhattan would be a smoking crater, for one thing."

"That's right!"

"That issue is not in question at this time."

"What? Puh-lease."

She chose to abandon the issue for the moment, explaining, "It was absolutely a bad idea. The wrong people, the wrong time – and it worked. They came together and they saved us.

"It's infuriating. We're trained to believe in a system – not to gamble, not to hope. Nick Fury saw something running under the system – a current, a connection of truth… about what we can do. What they would become." She declared clearly, "The Avengers were the mistake that saved the world. That's my official statement."

"I would have had her as my deputy after this, not before," Clint remarked.

"Director Fury sees the potential in people," Phil responded. "Anyway, there's no benefit to surrounding yourself with only those who agree with you."

"I see," one of the men murmured in disappointment.

"Oh and, um, as for the matter that's not in question-" she added as she stood, fisting her hands on her hips, "-where you morons tried to nuke New York?"

Tony snorted a chuckle.

"Well, that's on the record. As in, we recorded it."

"Yes! Blackmail," he crowed.

"We do that, we're SHIELD. So if you're thinking about coming after Nick Fury – ever – think really, really hard."

She severed the connection to the Council and exited the secure room, arriving at the control panels of the bridge as Fury approached her.

"How'd that go?"

"Sold you down the river, sir," she responded. "Should have your job within the month."

"Good work," he said drying, suggesting, "You should maybe ask for a chair."

"I will keep that in mind," she replied with a small smile.

Tony chortled as Bruce mused, "I did not imagine them interacting that way."

"The two operate more as co-directors now, rather than him holding superiority to over her," Phil clarified.

"I don't think you understand what you've started," the councilwoman decreed, "letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous."

"They surely are, and the whole world knows it," Fury stated. "Every world knows it."

"Was that the point of all this? A statement?"

"A promise," he confirmed.

Loki accepted the rationale, but the Director couldn't have anticipated the intricate politics at play behind everything surrounding Midgard's relationship to the other Realms. The Chitauri were a non-entity compared to the Nine, and the Avengers' victory over the creatures doesn't necessarily demand the respect or peaceful terms with the others. And that would be discounting the Trickster's own allegiance and Asgard's status of him.

Tony unrolled a computerized, interactive blueprint of his properties and browsed through the floor plans to the Tower, Pepper holding a palm over the two-dimensional ground space and raising the dozens of floors of its construction. The billionaire stepped to her from the bar as he took of sip of a drink he had prepared, setting it off to the side as he idly spun the hologram, pressing a finger thoughtfully to his mouth before he rested the hand on his hip. She swept the top half of it off to his additional removal of some of the bracing architecture of the side before dismissing the entirety of the original design, the two left to share a kiss amidst the plastic tarps, spotlights, paint cans, and ladders of the rebuild.

Only the 'A' was left emblazoned the outside of the tower.

"Okay, so now we're officially up to date," Tony nodded.

"There are a few seconds left of footage, sir," Jarvis contradicted.

"Man..."

"Do you have someplace to be?" Steve asked with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I have things to do," Tony retorted. "There's magic to play with!"

A pale moon unmarred by depressions of impact spun near to a star, its blinding pinprick of gaslight illuminating the debris of asteroids within proximity. Within the gloom of mist and shadow, one formed a rocky basin that held a seat with glowing base, a trail of floating platforms winding up to reach it.

The occupants of the room tensed at revisiting the Other, the imminent revelation of some crucial information evidently on the verge of explanation.

"Humans," the Other drawled in distaste. "They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand." He knelt behind the intricate throne, declaring, "They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled."

The figure in the chair placed hands on the armrests and stood, the Other flinching and bowing his head lower. Though he concluded, "To challenge them… is to court death."

The metal covering the shoulders and helmet gleamed in the faint light as the being turned, deep plum skin misshapen as his eyes shined blue over a wide, slow smile.

"Thanos," Thor declared at the sight, his teammates nodding in absorption of the reality of him being the grand orchestrator of the invasion.

"Wait…" Loki murmured, eyes narrowed in the middle distance before him. "…why would he smile?"

"Because he's insane," Tony quipped.

"He thinks we're a challenge," Steve inserted. "When he comes at us with whatever he's arranging right now, we'll be ready. He's underestimating us."

"No," Loki thought aloud again. Brows furrowed at his contest while Clint surveyed his contemplative expression in trepidation.

"She's interfering," she muttered, voice smooth as velvet sharp as her tongue wrapped the words in disapproval and a frown twisted her lips.

"Who?" Loki asked, feeling the change in the Laws of the Universe as her dissatisfaction permeated the Realms. She didn't speak to him often.

"Life's other half," she answered. She streaked from his core to surround him, distancing his perception from his chambers in Asgard and drawing him through the blinding branches of the World Tree to the void where she dwelled. Wires of copper, purples, greens, and all manner of hues pulsed through the fog black as ebony, long formulae of symbols twisting and rewriting as she explored the extent of herself, governing the physics of the Nine and those beyond. "We cannot interfere, but through the agents we have chosen," she explained. "But she is manipulating purposefully… to gain power."

"What do you want from me?" he questioned.

Her eyes flashed onto him, and she said, "Nothing – you can do nothing now." Then she chuckled. "But you will be involved – I'll see to it."

He had known for some time that Death was moving behind the scenes, but how did this grant her power? He laid his palms flat on the table and stated, "He means to court Death – that's why he grinned at the Other's turn of phrase."

"There were rumours of the Mad Titan being enamoured with her," Thor mused.

"She must have approached him."

"But she cannot be courted," he argued, "it's impossible. She's one of the forces that holds everything in balance – she's not a being to interact with on any level of equality. She is like Fate, Chaos, Ice, or Fire – everywhere. And Death can't be pleased but by the souls that pass over. What does he hope-"

"Exactly," Loki gasped as he stood. His eyes flicked to the blond, "That's it – her power grows as the Realms are unbalanced. The more that are massacred the more weight she has over Life. Thanos meant to gift all the souls of Midgard onto her to gain her favour."

A long pause followed his words at the thought of the billions of humans meant to be sacrificed, before Tony managed a 'That's sick.'

Steve struggled to speak for several seconds before he pondered, "But… If he was really going to do that, then why not attack with the Chitauri himself."

"He wanted the Tesseract as well – but there's no reason for him to not have simply come here to fetch it…" Loki said, beginning to pace.

"If we're going with all of this," Clint started, "then he would be planning on killing everything to 'please' death. Is there a more powerful weapon he was looking for while he sent you to get the Cube?" he asked as he stood and faced him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"There is not-" Thor alleged as he stood as well before Loki interrupted him.

"There are, but none so easily accessible – most are in the Weapons' Vault-" He comically froze, abruptly immobilized before he reeled forward and grasped Thor's upper arms. "The Weapons' Vault. The Tesseract and Mind Gem are here, and he would have them both – but the greatest force would be given to him if he gathered all the Gems. But those are still separate – unless he has-"

"The Infinity Gauntlet," they chorused.

"But father has it well protected, Loki," Thor protested.

"You and I are here, his eyes are on us and the progression we're making in this Realm," he contradicted.

"Then you must go to him and warn him!" the blond insisted. Loki staggered back a step before Thor followed, now grasping a hold of him. "You can appear by his side quicker than my transport with the Cube! Brother, you must – we do not know if Thanos is in Asgard right now!"

"I-" he started before halting, eyes caught by the stare affixed on him before he darted his gaze around the room. He closed his eyes and moved back, and Thor released him.

He nodded and disappeared.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: There is a lot of conflict still to tackle here, so if you're only interested in the reactions to the movies then I suggest you hang tight until I publish the next installment of the series, which will cover Captain America, as it will be a while.

Drop a review and let me know what you think!