As the cleanup process after Malekith's attack on London continued, Tony had escorted Thor and Jane Foster to meet the Queen. It was through her that he had managed to get the immediate co-operation of local authorities in return for a meeting with the people involved in the event. A squad of soldiers greeted them at the gates of Buckingham Palace, which resulted in a minor altercation with Thor about leaving his hammer at the gate. Thor, usually complaint to the demands, had refused to do so after hearing the commanding tone, as he too was a prince and would not go to meet another royalty unarmed while armed soldiers were all around him. It had taken a confirmation from the Queen herself before the Asgardian was allowed to carry his hammer. Tony was expecting things to go more sideways, but things had improved from there. Thor had greeted the Queen in a more controlled manner than he had ever seen him speak, and soon after, the Royal couple were patiently hearing the tale of the Dark Elves. The Queen had offered her condolence for Thor's mother and brother's Death and then thanked all of them for stopping Malekith. Tony had made sure that the Royal Family knew about the presence of other Avengers in the city before leaving. Thor had once again demanded the Reality Stone and what they were doing with it, but Tony had managed to get him to agree to wait till they left for States. After picking up a bored Natasha and a tired Bruce Banner, they were met by the rest of the group at the airport before flying home.
As soon as they had crossed into international waters, Tony went to meet Thor along with Bruce, Natasha, and Clint. After hours-long debate and discussion, they had agreed that Thor would be informed that they knew the future, but not about FRIDAY and her time travel. JARVIS had come up with a neat solution by using the video of an older Tony Stark sneaking into the Stark Tower in FRIDAY's old world. They would let Thor have the impression that Tony Stark's A.I. had left a data package with JARVIS, and they were using it to plan their actions. There was a chance that Thor might not believe them, and in that case, FRIDAY would state the complete truth.
Thor was waiting for them when they arrived in his cabin, a severe expression on his face. Tony took the lead as he would be the one giving the main points.
"I know you have a lot of questions, Thor, and I will answer all of them, but before that, would you mind answering some of mine?"
Thor, who had been having a rough time for the past few days, observed the people sitting in front of him. He had fought along with them not a long time ago, but their actions with Aether were very suspicious.
"No, Man of Iron. The Aether has to be taken back to Asgard..." He was stopped when Banner broke in.
"Loki is alive, Thor. Your brother is not dead."
The words were enough to shock the God of Thunder for long enough to get Tony to take over again.
"Loki did not die on Svartalfheim, Thor. He is currently on Asgard posing as your father."
The Asgardian gritted his teeth as he spoke.
"Explain."
"After the battle on New York, when I came back from handing over the Tesseract, JARVIS, my A.I., informed me about some extraordinary sightings, one of which was this."
He gestured towards the screen, where a video of Tony Stark walking in the penthouse was seen. Thor was confused for a moment before noticing the older age and different armor worn by the man.
"That was not all. We also had a few others."
They watched as the screen showed two Captain Americas fighting, a very different Hulk moving away from the fighting at the Stark Tower, and a man appearing out of nowhere.
"Time Travel was the clear answer, and it was confirmed by something else. There was a file package left in JARVIS's systems by another A.I. named FRIDAY. This package contained information about things that should have happened in the next few years."
The momentary pause was enough to make Thor look at the man.
"Thor, according to that package, Asgard would be destroyed in four years from now, and it would be done by your and Loki's hand."
Thor, who had been trying to restrain himself, nearly lost control at that. If it had not been for Mjolnir leaping into his hands at that moment, things would have been gone very wrong.
"Tis a wrong place to tell me things like this, Stark."
Stark, who seemed to have to come to the same conclusion, nodded with fear.
"Should I wait..."
"No, go on. I will listen to everything calmly."
Barton was the one to respond, having already stood up from his seat.
"Yeah, no, Odinson. My family is on this Plane. I am not taking any risk with them."
"I assure you, Birdman. As long as Mjolnir is in my hands, I shall remain in control. You have my word on that."
Clint stared at all of them and finally took a seat after a nod from Natasha. Tony spoke up soon after.
"I would not be sure of that. We believe that Loki was not attacking Earth on his own, Thor. He was either coerced or was under some type of control when he arrived via Tesseract."
The God of Thunder's mind came to a stop as he tried to process Stark's words.
"It was a titan named Thanos..."
Fear overtook Thor's mind as he heard that name, but Stark stopped there.
"We will discuss it later. First, you need to do something about Asgard, Loki, and your sister."
The number of emotions he was feeling at Stark kept was taking was enough to make him stop thinking.
"My sister?"
"Yes. All we know is that you have a sister named Hela, your father's firstborn. She has been imprisoned in Hel by Odin for millennia and was the executioner of Asgard before that, conquering worlds along with your father. She came to reclaim Asgard once again and wanted to create a new Asgardian empire. You and Loki clashed against her, a fight in which you lost an eye and Mjolnir. It ended when both of you released a being named Surtur on Asgard before fleeing it with the number of Asgardians that had survived. I don't know whether she survived it or not, but there is no mention of Hela after that in the package."
Stark shook his head to a side for a moment like he was listening to someone before looking at Thor.
"There is one thing that I think you should see now."
Another video started playing on the screen as Thor observed his future self acting in a way he had never imagined. The older Thor had grown a large stomach and messed up beard and hair. On-screen, Thor was using a large ax to open a bottle and was talking to Hulk, who was listening with interest. The sadness in the voice was evident even to him.
"Loki had told me about all the preparations he had done for Thanos, but Hela's arrival ruined everything. My sister, I would have gladly stepped aside for her if she had not been hell-bent on conquering all the nine realms. Even Loki agreed with me, and he always wanted to become the King. Father should have told us about her, and maybe I could have saved Asgard..."
The video stopped at that point as Thor's head fell down to the table in his hands. The rest of them waited patiently as the God of Thunder processed through everything. No one was in the illusion that they would be able to force Thor to act according to them, so all of them were praying that the Asgardians agreed with them. The following words from him were not what they wanted it to be, but they had expected it as one of the scenarios.
"I need to talk to my brother before discussing any further. I shall leave as soon as we get down."
"You can do it right now, Thor, if you want. The Plane has a rear cargo door. All we have to do is just decrease our height."
As Tony called into the pilots, Thor noticed the hesitant expression of Natasha. It got his attention, as Natasha Romanoff never acted like it.
"Ask what you want to, Lady Natasha. I shall answer to the best of my ability."
She shared a glance with Clint before looking at Thor.
"Is this Thanos really something we should fear?"
Thor took a moment to think before answering.
"Thanos is the last of the species once known as Titans, my lady. They were named for the planet they used to live on, Titan. He was exiled from his world when he suggested killing half of the population to solve the issue of lack of resources. When his planet finally succumbed to overpopulation, he was the last one left alive. He started attacking other planets and systems after then, always killing half of the population before leaving. The last time he tried to attack the nine realms, my grandfather fought him off, but it was not easy. Since then, we have heard the news about him wiping out powerful galaxies and systems for no reason with a large army that he has accumulated out of the outer and uncharted regions. On a personal level, Titans were incredibly powerful beings, capable of wielding different types of power, although there is no record of the power that Thanos might wield."
Natasha interrupted him, her words coming in a whisper.
"Can we defeat him?"
Thor shook his head, remembering the powerful being Thanos had taken down.
"Alone, Midgard does not have the technology to do so. The Avengers are strong, but they would struggle even to make the Titan bleed."
"Would Earth be fighting alone then?", Tony enquired entering the conversation again. Thor looked at his fellow warriors before giving them a genuine smile, the first one in a few days.
"No. Asgard will stand with you, and so should other realms. Thanos cannot be allowed to gain a foothold in the tree of Yggdrasil, especially not Midgard, which stands at the center."
The relief is not the room was palpable as Thor strode out.
"I will return soon, maybe even along with Loki..."
Tony waved him off.
"There won't be any problem. Go."
Thor nodded once again before leaving the room along with Tony.
As the Stark plane crossed over the North Atlantic ocean, In a monastery in the country of Nepal, an ancient order was worried about its most important object. The eye of Agamotto had been acting weirdly for some time, and the Sorcerer Supreme was refusing to comment on it, as even she had no idea what exactly was happening with what was hidden inside it. The Time stone had started flexing a day ago and was still doing so. No one alive knew that it was because the essence inside the stone was angry. While it had been able to stave off the changes Mind, Reality and Power had been making till now, along with Space and Soul, the latest disturbance created was impossible to do so. Mind had managed to influence things in such a way that the Army of Thanos had been increased exponentially compared to the one the dimension travelers had come from. It had been Soul that had caught on it, and now it was wondering how to counteract it. It was the discussion between Asgardian and the Humans that provided the answer. The humans would not need a large number to fight against the increased Army; they would need a single person to equalize the power.
With that decision made, Soul started harvesting power from a dying entity to weaken its bindings on a prison; space channeled energy to open a portal, and time imparted memories of another world in one that had the power to crush even gods.
Heimdall, who had been keeping watch over the cosmos, felt his vision go blind as an explosion occurred somewhere close and yet very far. The entirety of Asgard shook as the rainbow bridge reversed its flow. The ever-present flow of power from Asgard to Bifrost was now going in reverse, and Heimdall had no idea why it was so. Then another explosion happened, followed by three more in quick succession. As the last one happened, Heimdall sensed something getting free, and this time, he had a good idea what it was.
On Earth, an older man's health in a care home deteriorated rapidly, making his caretakers and a god take notice. It was enough to make the said god not pay attention to what else was happening, even in his own home. As deep beneath the palace, blood started flowing back in a large wolf's body; Hela, the goddess of Death and the firstborn daughter of Odin, took her first breath of freedom in millennia.
While things were changing in the wides cosmos, back on Earth, a particular super soldier's life was going to get a shock of his life as he returned from a run to his room in a military base. With SHIELD gone underground and his pay not enough to rent an apartment, he had been forced to stay on the base. As Steve Rogers prepared to go for a shower, his phone pinged. He gave a cursory look at the message before shutting it down but stopped at the last moment. Rather than a business message as he had expected, it was a message from Tony Stark. He had no idea why Howard's son was asking him to take his phone and headphone in someplace alone, but he did so after a moment of consideration. His views about Tony had changed a little after New York and learning more about him from the military.
After turning on his shower, he took a seat in the tiny washroom and sent a message back as asked. A few seconds later, his phone's screen went black for a moment before Stark's face appeared on it. A smile appeared on the man's face as it became clear where Steve was.
"Nice choice, Captain." He raised an eyebrow at the amused tone before answering.
"It was the best I could do, Mr. Stark. What..."
The man waved him off; his eyes fixed on something on his side.
"Call me, Tony, Capsicle."
Stark paused for a moment before speaking again.
"There is no easy way to say this, Captain, so I am going to be blunt. There is someone with me who wants to meet you, but no one can know about it, at least not for some time."
He tried to think who would want to meet him and was with Stark, but no answer came up. Tony, instead of saying something, moved the camera around, and his world stopped.
Five minutes later, Steve Rogers left the base in a near hurry, taking everything he owned along with his shield. Since he was prone to do so already, nobody thought about it much for a few days, not until it was too late. By the time the higher-ups in armed forces would notice that Steve Rogers had as good as deserted, things would be so that they could do nothing but watch as their greatest propaganda asset was lost to them. What was even more amusing was that, including Tony Stark, nobody would realize that it was all FRIDAY's plan. She had successfully pulled Steve Rogers away from SHIELD using the Army and then ruined all their plans by forcing him to abandon them. She didn't know that the last part of her plan would be fulfilled without any input from her, for sitting in his office for the last time, Aldrich Killian wanted his revenge, and he had just learned how to take it.
Hey guys, I am increasing Penny and Laura's age to 12 years, as at 13 is when Peter Parker got his powers.
Do comment what you think about this.