Epilogue

Nick Fury was not having a good day. In fact, it was really quite an awful day. His agents had lost Bruce Banner's trail again, another report had come in informing him that there was still no trace of the Tesseract, and the only people who might be able to find it were Banner and Tony Stark.

Sometimes he really hated his job.

Fury sat back with his cup of coffee, trying to think of a way to get Stark's help without letting him in on too much confidential information. He had denied the man admittance to the Avengers Initiative for good reason, which is why he would have preferred bringing in Banner. Both were brilliant, but Banner could be controlled to some extent; Stark would be a liability.

Maria Hill knocked on the glass door, rousing him from his contemplation. Her brow was creased as she said hesitantly, "Sir, you have… visitors."

Visitors? "We're 30,000 feet above sea level," he deadpanned. This was no time for jokes.

"I know, sir, but…" she trailed off. "Well, I think you'll just have to meet them for yourself."

Curiosity piqued, he motioned for her to bring them in. As she stood aside, a trio of peculiarly dressed but familiar faces crossed into the room confidently, as if it were perfectly natural to visit a high-ranking member of a secret organization on a transport that was supposedly undetectable. He would have to have a talk with his engineers.

Before he could say anything, the mass of orange fur in Dr. Foster's arms wriggled free and dashed onto his desk. Those familiar green eyes stared at him imperiously. "Goose?" Well, at least that was one mystery solved. No one had seen hide nor hair of the Flerken since Foster and the blond man had disappeared.

The woman chuckled. "We didn't mean to take her, but she seems to take guarding the Tesseract very seriously."

He eyed her questioningly. Knowledge of the Tesseract was limited to very select groups – unflinching acceptance of the Flerken even more so. He would have to tread carefully. "I take it that means she ate the thing again; otherwise, she'd still be hounding you." He gave the feline a thankful stroke as he observed the men on either side of the woman. They were easily recognizable as Foster's companions from the surveillance captured from her mysterious reappearance in New York a few months ago, but their identities had never been determined. "So, tell me, Dr. Foster, who are your friends?"

The blond one put himself forward, looking far more imposing now with the gray armor and red cape than he had in Nevada. And peeking out beneath that cape was the edge of what he could tell was a remarkably familiar hammer that had vanished from New Mexico while England was on high alert from the mysterious openings in the sky. "I am Prince Thor of Asgard, temporary King of the Nine Realms, and this is my brother Prince Loki." The dark-haired one nodded his head politely; Fury immediately distrusted his too-innocent expression. "We have come to return the Tesseract to you in good faith. Our father entrusted it to your people centuries ago, and as of yet, you have done nothing to indicate your betrayal of his trust."

Fury had met many strange people during his career, but these ones might have just taken the cake. He prodded, "And your father is…?"

"King Odin, of course."

"Of course," Fury repeated solemnly. Even with the peculiar outfits and the fact that it should have been impossible for them to get on the helicarrier, his mind did not want to wrap around the blond's words. Everything the man said lined up with the legends associated with the Tesseract, but accepting alien life was one thing; accepting the existence of mythological gods was another.

He nodded to himself, deciding to believe the words for now and worry about the implications later. "So, if you two are who you say you are, then why are you with Dr. Foster here?"

A twitch of a devious grin crossed the woman's face as she swished up her wrist. "Because I can do this."

The coffee mug he had been drinking from was suddenly gone, replaced by a small cloud of bubbles. What in the everlasting f…? He watched incredulously as they drifted up, Goose swatting at the ones that drifted too close to her.

"Again with the bubbles? I thought you'd finally gotten past that." Loki was looking at Foster with affectionate exasperation, eliciting her shrug in response.

"Bubbles make me happy." With another flick, the bubbles disappeared, and the mug was back on his desk like nothing had happened. "And it's more polite than turning something into a snake."

Fury picked up the mug, examining it for any flaws. Unless he was mistaken, the girl had actual, legitimate magic. It would explain the damage she had caused to the Nevada facility. And it could prove to be incredibly useful, perhaps even more useful than Danvers. "Are you looking to return to your former life, Dr. Foster? I'm afraid that SHIELD has appropriated your assets, what few there were. But if you wish to stay, Earth could use someone like you. Someone with the power to protect the planet."

The woman blushed, stammering awkwardly, "N-no, no, nothing like that; I'm not much of a fighter anyway."

Thor added decisively, "But we will return if you have need of us. Your world is drawing attention to itself more and more; it won't be long before someone comes to investigate."

"And not every visitor is as friendly as we are," Loki interjected, a hint of wickedness in his expression. For some reason, Fury suspected Earth was incredibly lucky to not have this man as its enemy.

"Swear you will take care of the Tesseract, and we will be on our way," Thor concluded, crossing his arms in a way that was clearly meant to intimidate.

"I will take care of it," Fury asserted emphatically, meeting the man's weighty blue gaze as evenly as he could. And he would take care of it, just probably not in the way that these aliens meant. If Thor's chilling words were to be believed, then Phase II would need to be implemented even more quickly. He just needed to get Goose to cough the golden egg back up first.

The alien sensed none of his duplicity. "Good. We shall leave you then." The trio turned to go.

"Wait!" he called out before he could stop himself. He knew nothing about these higher beings; he had to learn at least something from this encounter. "I'd like to see how you intend to get off of my plane."

Twenty minutes later, he was laughing to himself, laughing harder than he had in a long time. Sure, Stark and Danvers could fly, but neither of them relied on a spinning magic hammer or had an indignant brother transforming into a snake to wrap himself around their wrists and biting them when they took too long to get moving. No, only real aliens could be so bizarre.

He hoped they would come back someday.

A/N: That's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed the journey, and if you care to share, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Are you content with the mostly-happy ending, or am I mean for leaving plotlines open? Was there an element that kept you coming back to this story?

Anyway, it's been a blast, and I hope to do this again sometime :D