I apologize for the delay in getting up a new chapter, my birthday was a couple weeks ago and we had company for the entire week. Since then, I've been on the road, going cross-country to see the sights and wifi was scarce. It's also mega-tough to write in a moving car on a bumpy road. Anyway, I hope I didn't worry any of you with the lack of posts. I'm seeing this thing through to the end, I can promise you that. In fact, I've been toying with the idea of a slew of mini-stories, come the holiday season.

Once again, I'm very grateful for all the kind reviews, feedback, and support. I love hearing your reactions as you read through this, it brings me so much excitement and joy to know people are enjoying this. (:


By the time sheep-counting seemed like a legitimate sleep aid, it had become obvious to Cora that there would be no pre-apocalyptic naps for her. Then again, she wasn't entirely surprised; it was true that she'd managed at least a partial night's sleep before her trip into the deep freeze capsule, but resting before the potential destruction of the entire universe was pushing it a little.

After the automated secretary told her that her blood pressure was a little high and offered to tranquilize her, Cora decided she needed to take a walk and possibly speak to Fury about SHIELD's bedside manner. She glanced briefly toward a new, crisply folded SHIELD uniform sitting on the armchair near the door, pondering it a moment before getting out of bed and wistfully pulling off the pajama set she'd slipped on earlier in an effort to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. Standard and simple as they were, the blue pajamas with the little SHIELD emblem on the breast pocket had grown on her and she was rather coveting a set for herself, if she even survived this. The faint pilfering impulse she felt was usually reserved only for hotel shampoos and dinner mints, but she resisted these, even though she was sure the government sect could afford to replace a set of "borrowed" jammies.

When the secretary again suggested "gentle sedation," Cora made her way out of the room and walked down the corridor, straightening out the right sleeve of the uniform and realizing that—despite her anxious sleeplessness—she still had an appetite. Go figure. She stepped into a hall lined with assorted rooms labeled "staff facilities" and managed to pick out which door led to a kitchen, thanks to an overabundance of labeling. The first thing she heard upon entering was someone laughing, but that soon mixed into the other conversations taking place, including one between Thor, Jane, and Bruce at a small table near the wall; Bruce and Jane were enthusiastically discussing their respective fields, chatting about personal experiences during research and experimentation. Thor more or less sat by, looking a bit blank and more than a little left out.

He glanced up as she came in, his blond brows rising incrementally. "Could you not find sleep?"

"No more than any of you, apparently," Cora commented, smiling back at Jane and Bruce when they took two seconds from their sciencing to greet her. Cora was about to ask for any updates when a sudden blaring sounded to her left. Cora's immediate thought was that the fight had begun and the Ragnarök was officially in progress, but when she turned around, she found the Warriors Three wielding their weapons of choice at none other than a smoke-puffing toaster, which had upset the smoke detector above the range. The one in a bout of hysterics she'd heard earlier was Tony, no surprise, and he was wiping new tears from his eyes by this point.

The door opened a few moments later and Phil walked in with a tall, blond woman, who gave Tony a look of faint exasperation upon arrival to the scene. "Everything all right in here?" Phil asked with a faint smile, even though everything was clearly not "all right."

"Son of Coul, your tools for feasting have declared war on our foodstuffs," Volstagg informed him so grimly, it was comical, and now Tony wasn't the only one with a case of the giggles as Cora started to lose her composure, especially when she saw the look of utter despair on Thor's face across the room. "How must we appease them?"

Phil chuckled just as Tony gave a squint of his eyes toward a pair on the doorway, finally sobered from laughing enough to notice them, which caused the woman to shake her head. "They'll work just fine once you get the hang of them," he said as he disabled the smoke alarm and went to see what damage the Asgardians had done.

The blonde had made her way over to Tony in the meantime and muttered, "You let them break the toaster." It wasn't a question, it was a knowing, light accusation.

"Hey, I'm innocent. What?!" Tony claimed angelically, pulling her close and kissing her cheek as she laughingly told him he couldn't have picked a falser comeback.

Sif had been looking through the fridge and glanced at the couple before seeing Cora, coming over to give her a quick hug, at which point Cora noticed she had a little less of her usual pep in her step. "It is good to see you, my friend. Were you successful in retrieving the Cask?"

"Yeah, it was surprisingly easy. No one told you already?" Cora asked in surprise.

"We only just arrived," she admitted and Cora figured Fandral had either arrived while she was trying to sleep or he'd gone to join his colleagues in their own Infinity Gem endeavors.

"And you already broke something," Cora teased, which brought an embarrassed smile to Sif's face. "Did you guys manage to get the Aether?"

Sif's short-lived smile faded some as she shook her head. "It was gone when we arrived. The Collector's keep was decimated.

"And the Collector?" Thor asked.

"Impaled on a wall. It looked as if a few of his 'possessions' had found themselves a bit vengeful after the fact. He was ripped apart in places though it appeared that Thanos slew him initially." Cora grimaced at that as Sif continued, "But the Ka Stone had not yet been touched. We'd no sooner convinced the Elves to part with the Stone than Thanos had begun to breach the realm borders. I can only hope that the Elves were not harmed." Despite the well-wish, they both knew that was unlikely, given who they were dealing with.

"Well, this toaster's…well, toast," Phil noted as he removed the plug from the wall.

"So punny, Son of Coul," Cora remarked.

He chuckled and started to say something when he was paged on his earpiece and excused himself, stepping off to the side to take the call. Cora's gaze moved back to Volstagg and Fandral, who were now investigating the open socket, Volstagg just about to poke one of the prong holes with the tip of his blade. "HEY." They both jumped when she raised her voice and looked at her quizzically as she walked over to them. "Nothing metal that you're directly touching goes in here, okay? You'll get electrocuted."

Their blank looks told her that "electro"-anything probably wasn't in their vocabularies. She pursed her lips and thought a moment before holding out her hand. Beside Thor, Mjolnir quaked mildly on the table and then soared to her touch, at which point she loosed a minor shock of lightning from the relic.

Volstagg and Fandral yelped and shouted in surprise as Cora lowered the weapon. "That's what it'll feel like, only prolonged and probably worse." They nodded with a slight grimace, still looking a little miffed at her demonstration.

"Me, too," Thor said as he got up. When Cora gave him a confused look, he elaborated. "Show me as well."

"Okay…," Cora murmured slowly, sending the same amount of electric charge at Thor's outstretched hand.

He winced a little, but noted with an impish grin, "Interesting."

"Why are you smiling?"

"I have never been struck by my own power before. I have a better understanding of it now."

"Well, you pack a bigger punch than just that," Cora laughed as she jokingly eased back into a stance for attack. "You should've said you wanted a full experience."

"Oh, no, I am appeased," Thor chuckled nervously, his hands raised in surrender.

"I've got to go to the labs," Phil said as he ended his call, glancing at the rest of the kitchen appliances with blatant worry. "Is everyone going to be okay in here?"

"I'll take care of it," Cora said, straightening from her crouch to look at him and handing Mjolnir back to Thor.

"Thank you, Cora. Tony, your presence was requested as well."

Tony arched one bold mahogany brow. "Fury doesn't make requests."

Phil shrugged. "I felt like you might respond better if I put it that way."

Tony gave a lengthy pause before giving a dramatic, put-out sigh and heading to the door. As he passed, the blond woman paused in front of Cora. "You must be Cora," she ventured, extending her hand with a red-lipsticked smile. "I'm Pepper Potts."

"Are you Tony's babysitter?" Cora asked with a small smirk as she shook Pepper's hand.

After an indignant retort from Tony as he stood in the doorway, Pepper smirked, too. "Close enough."

"I am so sorry," Cora giggled.

"Oh, thank you," Pepper said with mockingly dramatic distress. "Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you. Tony told me a lot about you. Good things, too."

"Aww, you like me!" Cora jeered with a grin toward Tony, who muttered something about false information.

Pepper laughed and said again, "It was good to meet you," before walking to the door to leave with Tony and Phil. Cora returned the sentiment, soon hearing Tony make a remark about "twelve percent" of something, but she wasn't sure what that might mean, so she disregarded it.

"Okay. Food," Cora murmured as she got back on track.

The Asgardians all perked up at the word and she went to see what was available to make when Phil popped back in and said, "I can't remember if I said this already, but thanks again for handling things here, Cora. And, I'll say it again, that suit really suits you."

"Did you come all the way back here because you thought of another joke?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he claimed with a blameless smile before he left once more, for real this time.

Cora shook her head with a small smile, her brow pinching when she heard a chair skid behind her. She looked over her shoulder, seeing that Volstagg and Fandral had decided to sit down. Sif was still standing beside her. "Um, excuse you." The two troublemaking Asgardian warriors looked at her with slight alarm, their gazes flickering briefly to Mjolnir to make sure it wasn't moving into use again. "Get over here and learn so you can help."

They looked at each other before grumbling a bit and getting up to join Cora and Sif. "You, too, Thor," Cora said when she looked at him chuckling at his friends' disgruntlement. "If you're going to live in Midgard, you're going to have to learn how to cook."

As Thor stood up and walked over to watch what Cora was doing with pure curiosity once she got some ingredients together and filled some pots with water to boil, Sif murmured, "You seem so sure we will have days to spare once this ordeal is done. This is an ending."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Cora murmured as she emptied a box of macaroni and cheese into one of the pots after it had come to a boil. "Besides, Goddess of War, isn't this your forte? I'm surprised you aren't a bit more jazzed up about this."

Sif pursed her lips a little. "This is unlike anything any of us have and will ever face. Only Death and her suitor will find relish in the end of the worlds."

"Too bad for them, that's not going to happen," she declared grumpily as she let Thor stir the pasta and smiling when he seemed pleased with himself at the accomplishment.

Sif looked at Cora for a long moment and then finally smiled her first genuine smile since her arrival and likely hours before that. "I always seem to underestimate you."

"We all seem to," Thor admitted. "I can only hope to share in your attitude, little sister, once this war begins."

"You and I, both," Cora admitted softly in turn, just hoping that her stubbornness translated into skill on the eventual battlefield.


Cora was slightly worse for wear by the time she managed to slip out of the kitchen, and she was walking down the hall to find someplace to be away from the face-stuffing Asgardians, who had started to get a bit more rowdy as their energy returned. She'd just barely snagged a portion of mac-n-cheese to settle her stomach and didn't want to be there when they set off some kind of alarm again.

There was a weird static noise to her right that made her jump, at least until she heard Phil's voice through an intercom in the wall. "Any more broken utilities?"

Cora's eyes narrowed and she glanced around suspiciously until her gaze landed on a camera up near the ceiling, which was paused on where she stood. "Creepy," she murmured before pressing the button to the right of the speaker. "Nothing broken, but I'm pretty sure they ate you out of house and home up there."

When Phil replied, it sounded like he'd laughed before engaging the intercom again. "Food is easy to replace. Those high-end appliances, not so much. Good job, Agent Dempsey."

She laughed and hit the button once more to say, "Over and out," before she continued down the hall, waving over her shoulder at the camera as she left.

Cora wasn't exactly sure why she thought going off to get some "alone time" was a good idea. Or even appealing. She was fairly sure that it was her natural introversion working its way out, but it also reminded her of how she'd withdrawn in the times she'd lost her parents and almost lost her grandmother. She'd done the same after Frigga was killed and when Loki had supposedly died as well. Her reaction now meant some part of her was admitting that she was fully expecting someone she'd grown close to here to die. And why wouldn't she assume that? It was a war. The biggest war any of the realms had ever seen. And yet, she couldn't accept the thought of losing someone else. She—along with everyone else here in one way or another—had already lost too much.

Her eyes soon caught on a little door plaque that read "Lounge." She figured she was far enough away from the kitchen that there wouldn't be anyone inside, so she turned the handle and opened the door, only to find that she was incorrect about its vacancy. She'd pushed open the door to find Steve and Loki sitting on a couch in front of a TV, a spread of random foods they'd likely nabbed from the kitchen earlier decorating the coffee table. She felt a bit of chagrin when they both looked at her and started to back out as she explained, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought it was empty…"

"No, come join us," Steve said before she could close the door, scooting over to make a space for her to sit. "Couldn't sleep either, I take it."

Cora smiled a little and went back in, closing the door behind her. "Not one bit," she replied, crossing the room to sit down between them and glancing at the TV. "Doctor Who?"

"Yeah, it was one of the things I was told to watch once I 'came back'," Steve admitted a little embarrassedly as he pulled a list from his pocket. "I figured I might not get another chance if, well… You know. I keep adding to it and even though I've been working through it as much as I can, but it just keeps growing."

"Well, you're a busy guy," Cora reasoned, taking the list to look at it curiously. She picked up a pen from the coffee table and added a couple things to it, which made Steve smirk. "Hey, I'm keeping it to a minimum. There are a lot of cool things to do and see, but these are just a few big ones. In my opinion, that is."

Steve took his list back after she was done and read her additions. "BBC Sherlock?"

"BBC is the channel, though I may just have to loan you the DVDs. And sadly, that one won't take you long to get through. They've been on hiatus for a while now."

"Disney World?"

"I will personally escort you there if I have to. You'd love it, I promise." She looked over at Loki and added, "You have to do all this stuff, too, you know."

"You're giving me orders now?" Loki challenged her lightly.

"You're surprised?" Cora inquired with an arch of her brow.

"Not particularly," he admitted, placing the large bowl of popcorn in her lap when her stomach growled.

"Thanks," she murmured, snacking as she watched the show with them, her attention soon diverting to them instead since she'd seen this season already and their reactions were hysterical. At times there were references that neither of them understood and they would go into a bit of a frenzy, volleying questions and possibilities back and forth with frustrated, baffled expressions until they gave up and asked her instead.

Eventually, Steve dozed off with his head resting against the back of the couch, the remote still resting in his hand. Cora smiled a little and set the popcorn down on the table again, having eaten her fill in the meantime between explanations. "How did you guys manage to figure out Netflix anyway?" she asked Loki in a whisper so she wouldn't wake him up.

"Agent Coulson was passing by and he assisted us," he murmured, intently watching the screen as Nine and Rose ran toward the TARDIS. "We at first gave up and that was when this happened." He gestured toward the food.

"Good thing you did. Volstagg and the others practically purged the rest of the kitchen."

He smiled a bit wistfully. "That is quite like them."

"They were your friends, too, weren't they," she figured quietly. When he looked at her, she explained, "I kind of wondered when we were still in Asgard. With the way Fandral spoke to you."

Loki paused and then nodded slowly. "We were. At least, I thought we were. I am uncertain how much of it was genuine and how much was my older brother's friends putting up with my presence."

Cora smiled a bit sympathetically and settled back against the couch cushions. "That's kind of how it is with everyone though. I never had siblings, but I had friends of friends who did that with me. At the very least, Fandral seemed genuine. He's nice."

Loki nodded slightly. "He's always been more than fair."

In the hallway, Thor was in search of another kitchen when a voice from a nearby room stopped him. "It's getting worse out there."

Thor paused and glanced over, seeing Director Fury standing in a dark, open office, his face lit up by a tablet screen. "How so?" the Asgardian prince asked quietly, walking in.

"The weather. Tsunamis in the East, tornadoes in the West. Sandstorms in all the major deserts. Even nature's trying to fight back out there," Fury murmured, handing Thor the tablet, on which played a segment of the world news, which showed buildings, all modes of transportation, and even the pavement being torn asunder, people falling through the cracks and flying up into the vortexes of wind as they closed in. "Animals are going crazy, instincts taking them into behavioral patterns we haven't seen in… Well, that we've never seen."

"I can be certain Asgard and the other realms are experiencing similar oddities…," Thor murmured grimly as he watched the scenes unfold and eventually had to hand the tablet back to Fury. He wasn't sure he could stomach much more of the damage and death that was uprooting the Midgardian citizens.

"It would not surprise me. Am I right in thinking it'll only get worse as this Thanos guy gets closer?"

"It is likely. However, I cannot say for certain," Thor admitted. "I know as much about what is to come as you do. This has never been attempted in all the Nine's history."

"That's what I was afraid of," Fury murmured, glancing grimly toward a one-way window at the wall opposite them. It fed into the lounge area, as the room had previously been used for interrogations. "Because of all the uncertainty and desolation potential we have on our plates already, I don't want to take anything short of a sure chance with 'allies'…"

Thor followed Fury's gaze through the window, seeing a profile view of Steve, Loki, and Cora between them on the couch, the TV lighting up the room periodically. "He would not—"

"And you can be sure of that?" Fury said flatly, arching a brow. "You would put your life on the line to trust him?" Thor's jaw clenched and his throat tightened faintly. Would he? Fury gave a slight nod at Thor's hesitation. "That's what I thought…"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Yes, I… I would." Fury looked at him with slight exasperation as Thor continued, "I always have. And he changed, there was something dormant in him when he was younger that formed and continued to build. I am sure my demeanor did not aid its retreat, in fact I am certain I am one of the causes of its manifestation… But he has changed again."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I found it necessary to rely on his help back in Asgard and in Svartalfheim, when the Aether was released and havoc reached your realm by the hand of the Dark Elves," Thor asserted firmly. "He came through for me repeatedly and—"

"And then he faked his own death, probably to take over Asgard again."

"I do not know the circumstances of his near-death, I have yet to discuss it with him."

"Because you don't want to hear the truth," Fury accused.

"Because there are more important things to address at this moment!"

"Than a possible weak link in our chain? There is nothing more important than securing our ranks, we are at war, you should know the possible consequences we would be facing should he choose to betray us or even if he should choose to turn and run!"

"I do not believe he will."

"And why not?"

Thor nodded toward the window and Fury glanced through to see that Loki had taken his gaze off the screen momentarily to glance quizzically down at Cora, who had finally passed out and unconsciously rested her head against his shoulder. The crease between his brows was there and, once again, he resembled his former self to his brother on the other side of the glass and, though it was a weathered version of that boy he remembered, it was a wonderful start. "Because he is not solely fighting for himself."

"She's not scared of him at all, is she," Fury muttered, shaking his head a little in disbelief.

"I would gather he has not given her any reasons to be," Thor said, smiling faintly when Loki finally glanced away from Cora to look at Steve and then took one more preliminary glance around the room before carefully putting his arm around her. "She can be someone he starts over with. If he chooses to."

Fury was silent a moment before giving a decisive hmph. "Well, he better damn well choose to be or he's gonna start over with my boot up his ass," he mumbled as he left the room, Thor soon to follow. They did not have long, however; an inexplicable earthquake caused the building to convulse around them. Sif and the others in the kitchen charged into the hall, hurtling toward an exit to go see what the chaos was stemming from this time. Thor and Fury soon joined them and Thor rushed Jane down to the lower level labs, which were also capable of being used as a bunker. It was where Dr. Selvig, Darcy, Pepper, and the others were all staying for the time being to protect the relics they'd managed to retrieve.

In the lounge, Loki's grip on Cora tightened faintly when the earth shook and he was so focused on where the power source of the trembling could be, he forgot to let her go. Cora and Steve jolted awake simultaneously, both of them looking a little panicked at the commotion. "What's happening?" Steve shouted over the sounds of things crashing from shelves in nearby rooms.

Loki was silent for a long moment before his eyes narrowed and his lips twisted into what was almost a snarl. "It is time," he muttered as he stood up, Steve and Cora close behind. When they got into the hall, Loki turned on Cora. "Go down with the others."

"What? No!"

"Yes, now go!" he ordered, raising his voice as he pointed toward the stairs.

"Excuse me? I give the orders, remember?!" she shouted back at him. "I know how to fight and I'll be damned if I sit around on that knowledge while you guys take on this freak!"

"Cora, you will die out there!"

"We're all going to die if we don't get our shit together and stop him!" Loki stopped and grimaced, looking like he was biting back words. "Now come on," Cora muttered a bit weakly, nodding for him to come with her as she followed Steve, who had lingered just out of earshot to wait for them. Wordlessly, Loki followed along as well and they joined the others outside, where the wind was whipping about and a fissure had formed down the lengthy New York City street, a couple cars wedged between the break as drivers and passengers struggled to free themselves and then take cover in nearby structures.

A dark, swirling vortex of clouds began to form in the sky and it was unclear whether this was somehow Thanos's doing or a pure act of nature in reaction to the changes in the atmosphere. They joined Thor and Fury and were soon joined by the others as well. Cora heard the mechanical whirrs of Tony's metal suit as it engaged and made him airborne and she also heard the grunts and roars of Bruce's transformation into the "Other Guy" nearby, but she couldn't take her eyes off the mass of hellish, unbridled dark energy in the sky.

Her heart fell as a deep laugh echoed fiendishly through the storm.