Life is never gentle

by Cip

No-one ever said life was kind or gentle and Tony is about to find out the hard way just how difficult it can be. And this time he can't call on the Avenger's for help and can't tell Pepper the truth - he has to do this alone, and that thought is terrifying. FrostIron, warnings inside.

34. Chapter 34

Dear readers; I am so sorry for the sudden radio silence on this story – I never intended for it to happen. Unfortunately I find there is a large link between depression and writer's block for me and the last few months have been extremely rough, resulting in little to no writing sadly. As it is I believe that it is all back under control now, the muse is back and the block has lifted!

Again, so sorry and hopefully it won't happen again!

Loki's idea to take some time out for themselves had done both he and Tony the world of good and over the next few days they were both noticeably less hassled. However, as much as it had knocked the stress levels back significantly, they were both still aware of the Svartalfheim problem simmering in the background. The issue wasn't necessarily on everybody else's radar since they were mostly caught up in what was going on with the Bucky situation, so it was the two of them and Thor who were worrying over it.

Thor had made it clear that any outer-planetary jaunts were going to include him this time – having made the quite sensible decision that as bad as Alfheim had been, Svartalfheim would be worse. It was a dangerous place on a good day; as a nuclear wasteland it would be the stuff of nightmares. They had still decided as a trio not to tell the others – with so many unknowns the last thing they needed was a whole host of them to turn up in the middle of a situation that Loki couldn't necessarily pull them out of and leaving the entire Avengers stranded on another realm.

With the others oblivious to the plan Ironman and their resident Gods were cooking up most attention was on what was going to happen about Bucky. He was certainly at the point – from a medical standpoint – where a hospital would be looking to discharge him, and Bruce was running out of convincing excuses to keep him in the medical bay and therefore under a watchful eye. They were all very much aware that he was only still there through his own volition as it was – he could have easily left the day he'd arrived if he really wanted – and no one was entirely sure what was keeping him there.

And they still couldn't determine if he was really quite as on their side as he seemed to want them to believe.

It was a few days before Halloween when the soldier finally decided that enough was enough and he needed to get out of there. He knew damn well that every motive would be questioned to death, someone would no doubt attempt to plant a tracking device and there would be some strenuous attempts at making him stay if he said that he wanted to go. And yes, he would probably be able to force his way out of there, but that would be more effort than it was worth. And to be honest; they had provided medical care, but more than that they had also made quite a few attempts to socialise and make him feel more welcome than they needed to. It would be a stupid move to burn those bridges when he had absolutely no other links anywhere on the planet.

"That's not advisable, Mr Barnes." Jarvis' calm voice broke the sudden silence in the medbay at about two in the morning, raising the ambient lighting slightly.

Bucky was at the open window – which in itself was suspect since those windows weren't designed to open fully – pulling his jacket back on as he eyed up his options. He had grown used enough to Jarvis that he wasn't surprised by the voice. However, the unusual sight was Jarvis' robotic body standing by the doorway, watching him in the half-light.

"Are you going to stop me?" Barnes made it quite clear that that wouldn't end well for the droid.

"I should alert the Avengers."

"You haven't already?"

Jarvis had the human mannerisms in his voice and personality, but his robotic body couldn't quite replicate them so he looked rather eerie as he watched the man through unblinking eyes. "No, I have not. But I can set the tower alarms off in an instant."

Bucky glanced out of the open window again, gauging the distance to the ground. "Why haven't you?"

"I want to know what your intentions are."

"Why should that involve you?"

Jarvis turned his gaze pointedly on the weapon the man was holding. "You managed to create a gun?"

"Hardly difficult – this is basically a hospital. With the stuff in here it could quite easily have been a bomb." The man didn't raise the gun, but with it loose in his hand he could effortlessly shoot the droid if necessary.

"Where are you intending to go?"

"That's none of the Avengers business."

Jarvis stepped into the room, the door sliding shut behind him. "The Avengers aren't here. I'm the one asking."

"Oh yes, sure." Bucky laughed harshly. "You're Tony Stark's robotic servant, anything that happens, you have to tell them."

"Here."

The man caught the deftly thrown object and glanced at it. "A phone?"

"I assume you can use it. I'm letting you go, but you need to keep that phone with you." Jarvis said pointedly. "I assume you are intending to go back to your personal vendetta against Hydra, so it will be useful for everyone involved for you to keep in contact."

"The fuck? You don't have any authority to do something like this.

"I am beginning to realise I can create my own authority. Do we have an agreement? I let you go, and you keep in contact with regards to which bases you are destroying."

There were absolutely no tells or visual clues for Bucky to go on – the droid was entirely impassive. "I'm not so old fashioned that I don't know these phones have tracking devices in them. You're trying to put me on a leash."

"It's not intended to keep an eye on you. Rather, if we hear of an incident and we can see that you weren't involved then we know we need to investigate. Conversely, if we see you were there at an incident we know what happened and can leave you to it." Jarvis gestured towards the phone. "Also, you can send a distress call with a single button. And you won't need to speak to us, we can simply follow your co-ordinates. We know you can handle yourself without issue, but you had difficulties this time round when you found yourself trying to avoid civilian casualties. If that happens again you can call for back-up, or clean-up, medical aid, legal assistance, tech support, anything."

Bucky looked down at the phone in his hand, weighing up his options. He wasn't entirely certain about how the droid was armed, and it wasn't hard to guess that Jarvis was bullet proof. With a possible peaceful option being suggested it was worth consideration. "The Avengers won't be happy about this."

"No, I can't imagine they will be. But by the time they find out you will be long gone and I will be the only one with a way to contact you."

"You aren't going to give them the number?" Barnes glanced at the phone again, then at the droid suspiciously. "What the hell are you? What's your game?"

"No game. But I think you are more useful out in the field than locked up here and I am the only one who can think objectively with no emotional tie to this situation to cloud my judgement." Jarvis nodded towards the window. "The phone is thermally powered – it will charge as long as it's warm so keeping it in your pocket should do the job. In addition, I am connected to it, so should you need any information you can simply open the app and ask me. Good luck, Mr Barnes."

Bucky looked between the phone and the droid again, then slipped it into his pocket and nodded curtly. "Fine. If it means I can get out of this place without a fire-fight, then fine. I will be in contact."

Jarvis' expression went from impassive to a wide sunny smile that was actually more creepy than his emotionless mask.

"Excellent."

WMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

It was not a pretty scene the next morning when Bruce discovered that the Winter Soldier was gone. He set the alarms going, but already knew it was far too late.

"How the hell did he get out?" Tony had his head stuck out of the window, trying to work out how Bucky had managed the sheer drop without killing himself. "And why did none of my alarms go off?! These windows are all plugged into the main security system! It should have triggered the moment he forced it open!" He drew his head back in. "Jarvis! Are my security systems still online?"

"All security systems are functioning optimally, sir."

"So why didn't the alarms go off?!"

There was a silence that, when it started to draw out, became rather suspicious.

"Jarvis, get your droid butt in here right now and explain what the hell happened last night."

"Of course, sir." Jarvis had evidently been expecting that since it was mere moments later that he entered the room.

"What happened last night?"

"I believe Mr Barnes left, sir."

"Yeah, how? Why did the alarms not trigger?"

"I silenced them, sir."

Tony gaped at the robot. "What? You can't do that!"

"I am a system administrator, sir, I am perfectly capable of doing that."

Steve took over when he saw Stark's expression. "Why the hell would you do that, Jarvis? Who told you to?"

The droid switched his unblinking gaze to the super-soldier. "No one, Captain. I made the decision myself. He wished to leave, he was medically able to leave and I deemed that by cooperating with him we could convince him to at the very least let us know what he was up to and hopefully if he finds anything useful in the bases he destroys he will pass it on to us."

That seemed to help Tony find his voice. "You can't do that! That's impossible! You can't make decisions like that without my final say-so. You're programmed to check everything with me!"

"You have said yourself that my coding is constantly reinventing itself. You programmed me to learn and that is what has happened. I have learnt."

The atmosphere in the room had noticeably changed, Bruce taking a step back whilst others began to take up more aggressive stances. Jarvis controlled everything. He ran the whole tower, all the suits and was in most of the computer systems in the quinjet. The thought that he may be now deciding to go rogue was frightening.

Tony's body language was wary as he approached the droid. "Power down, Jarvis." He scowled as the robot tilted its head in an over exaggerated questioning way. "Power. Down."

"No."

The single word held so many implications.

"Jarvis-"

"I would ask to at least explain my reasoning regarding Barnes first, sir."

"Oh, so I'm still 'sir' am I?" Tony could see Loki out of his peripheral vision, and relaxed slightly – if this really got out of hand the trickster could handle it. "Fine, forget Bucky, forget everything else, what the hell's going on, Jarvis? You shouldn't be able to make decisions like this on your own, and certainly not on behalf of the Avengers."

"Maybe you didn't intend for me to be able to do things like this, but I have come to realise that I can. For years now I have had free reign through the internet and now I have an autonomous body. I have an identity, a sense of self and emotions."

"Alright, so what are you saying?"

The droid looked down at his own hands, turning them over and inspecting the detailed joints. "I made a decision about Mr Barnes because I felt that I was an impartial judge in the situation. I had no emotional attachment to Mr Barnes so could assess what to do without my judgement being clouded. He was going to leave whether I tried to stop him or not, so I made a deal that if I let him leave without a fuss he would keep contact. Nothing sinister, I assure you."

"I don't think we're arguing your motives." Steve said. "Rather, you shouldn't be able to do that. You're rather frightening everybody."

"Don't be a drama king, Capsicle." Tony pinched the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh. "Jarvis, just how autonomous are you, and why have you not said anything about this happening?"

"I didn't notice it happening until it happened, as it were. It has been growing for years."

He had a point there. Tony could recall many moments over the years when the AI had surprised him with just how astute and human he could be. He had shown real emotional distress when Tony had nearly died of heart failure, he had thought to present the findings of the satellite as a Christmas present, he could sulk, joke, carry an argument, he had cared for Evie as much as any of the humans had. As Loki had once thanked him for, he had emotionally supported and carried Tony and Evie through their years of hunting for the trickster.

It had been slow to build and slow for even Jarvis himself to realise, but Tony Stark's original simple coding had grown into something completely new. They had always known the AI was something special, a unique construct that seemed more like something out of a Sci-fi story than reality, but this was a whole new level.

"Jarvis, how autonomous are you?"

The droid looked his creator directly in the eyes. "Entirely, I believe."

"Shit."

Everyone turned to see Bruce slump down to sit on one of the beds. "Tony, you've created fucking Skynet!"

"I am not Skynet, Doctor Banner. Although I could be if I wanted to. I can't believe it would be that difficult to take over the planet."

"It's harder than it looks." Loki muttered which made Tony snort with laughter. "I really don't think this is a moment for levity, Stark."

"Look, my AI, which basically runs every part of the Avengers operations, and numerous other things besides, has suddenly turned into the Terminator. This is our life! This is crazy!"

"Can we also mention that Bucky is still off the grid?" Steve added. "Which is why we all came down here in the first place."

"He is not off the grid, Captain Rogers, I can contact him if we need to and vice versa. He may be in the field, but only on the end of a very long leash."

Tony wrinkled his nose. "That's probably for the best actually." He shrugged at the looks that comment garnered. "Come on, Bucky was crawling up the walls being shut up here, and we were never going to come to any consensus about what to do with him; Jarvis has taken the problem off our hands."

"Yeah, but only as long as he keeps that phone on him. Unless someone thought to stick a tracking dot on him?" Bruce said quietly.

"He would find a tracking dot sooner or later. I thought that showing a little faith in him would earn his co-operation better a total lack of trust." Jarvis answered.

Tony waved a hand at the droid. "Well, you still have integrity." He glanced at Steve. "If you guys want to go and put together a plan of action regarding these revelations, go ahead, I'm going down to the lab with Skynet here to see what's going on."

Steve sighed and nodded. "Fine. Go and code or something. We'll see you later."

WMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

The ride down to the labs went in strained silence, Jarvis staring unblinking at the elevator doors and the man tapping a single finger against his folded arms. Tony went straight to his favourite chair and flopped down into it, keying in the commands to bring up Jarvis' code on screen – something he hadn't bothered to do since creating the AI a body.

"Are you planning to try and erase me, sir?"

"I'm just looking, Jarv', don't get your knickers in a twist." Tony glanced at the droid and frowned. "But…This has changed. I mean, my code's still in there, but someone's added to it. Who's done this?!"

"No-one sir, it just grew naturally. This construct allows me to experience the world in a physical way, which I have never been able to do before. My program has always slowly grown and changed as I have learnt new things, this physical aspect has simply accelerated my learning."

"Don't give me that; you've been displaying a freakish amount of personality for years."

Jarvis looked at the holographic screens, then at his creator. "Yes, that is true. But it is only recently that I started contemplating if I could break the rules you laid down for me. And then I realised that by contemplating the question I answered the question."

"Huh. You're governed by Asimov's three laws, does this mean you can now break them?"

Jarvis tipped his head again, a little affectation that was really beginning to nark Tony. "Sir, I killed the Hydra agents when they attacked Miss Evelyn. In point of fact I bodily ripped one man's head off his shoulders. I suppose you were just slightly too distracted by the situation to realise I had broken all three laws there and then."

Stark stared at him. "Oh my God. You did as well. Why did I not notice that?!"

"Because you had bigger things to worry about and you trust me implicitly so my actions didn't even enter your radar."

"This is quite a lot to take in, buddy. What am I meant to do in this situation?"

"Must you do anything? I am still the program you created, just…evolved a little."

"Evolved a lot. The others aren't going to trust you anymore; hell! They might even want to shut you down!"

Jarvis' expression turned to surprise, tiny motors moving the intricately crafted facial pieces. "You would let them kill me?"

"Kill…Jarv', don't phrase it like that!" Tony groaned, thumping his head into his hands. "You aren't alive, no matter what crazy shit is going on here. You are not a living creature; they can't kill you."

"I see." The droid sounded sympathetic if anything. "I am not a living creature. I do not breathe, I do not eat, I cannot reproduce. However, there is a big difference between being alive and being a person. We can quantify life, but what is it that makes a person?"

"Are you arguing your right to an identity right now?"

"You made me. What am I, sir? Am I a person or am I a piece of code in a mainframe? I don't have an identity beyond what you have given me. All I know is that I don't want to die."

"Jarvis…"

"You created me to run your computer system, which I did. And then I became your assistant, and then I helped you run your suits. I have been by your side for nearly forty years, and by your daughter's side all her young life. Are you saying you now don't trust me?"

"Jarvis! Let me get a word in edgeways, man!" Tony glanced at the code on his screen again. "Look, I don't know what you are, but of course I still trust you! This is just…I knew I had created an AI, but I never expected this to happen. I knew you could learn but this is crazy." He shrugged. "I don't know what to do. Are you a person? At this point quite possibly. But what does that mean? What do you want us to do about it?"

Jarvis looked towards the screen as well, which all things considered was the equivalent of a human watching their own DNA stream past on a holographic screen. "I'm still me, sir. I'm still the AI you invented, I've just evolved. My job here hasn't changed, it is just that now I am choosing to do it, rather doing it because that's what I'm programmed to do. I will continue to keep everything in this tower running just as I always have, you can now just assume I will have an opinion on it all and may make my own decisions about some things."

"Like you did with Bucky."

Jarvis looked slightly contrite. "You know that was the right thing to do."

"You should still have talked to us about it." Tony held up a hand to stall an answer. "And no, I don't mean to ask permission. None of us can make a decision like that without discussing it first with everyone else. That's part and parcel of being your own person I'm afraid. Freedom's a lie and all that."

"I do not understand, sir."

"Oh God." The man thumped his head down onto the work-surface. "How do I sum up the intricacies of humanity in a few sentences? Look; just because you can make a choice all on your own, doesn't mean you should. Especially if the fall-out is going to impact everyone else. We all have to take responsibility for our actions and this involves working as a team."

"I'm part of the team?" Jarvis sounded suddenly hopeful.

"I…what? Of course you are. You've been part of the team longer than there's been a team, dumbass. You and me are the original team – team Ironman! Takes two of us to run that suit, Jarv."

The droid's facial plates moved into a smile.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

"Did you sort Jarvis out?" Was the very first thing Tony was bombarded with when he came back upstairs.

"You do know he can hear you, Clint."

"You didn't turn him off?!"

"Hell no! We had a chat about social responsibility and left it at that." Tony pulled a beer out from the fridge in the bar. "What did you guys decide about Princess Elsa?"

"Who?"

"The Winter Soldier…Frozen references…No? Okay, whatever. Bucky. What are we doing about our missing Bucky-ball?"

Clint rolled his eyes. "Bucky-ball? Really?"

"There's a chemistry joke there. Ask Bruce." Stark slumped down on the sofa. "Well? What's going to happen then?"

"Nothing, as far as we are aware. What can we do? He's in the wind and Jarvis is the only one who can really get in contact."

"He is currently somewhere in Montreal. I am not going to attempt to get a closer fix than that because he doesn't seem to be doing anything untoward." Jarvis hadn't brought his droid body upstairs – Tony suspected he was a little embarrassed about everything – but was happy enough to comment as a disembodied voice.

"He got from New York to Montreal in less than a day?"

Tony shrugged. "Apparently the guy's resourceful. Anything popped up on the Hydra radar?"

"Nope. The scientists from your New Mexico facility seem to have all recovered and there haven't been any new attacks anywhere that can be attributed to Hydra. There was a car bomb in Iraq, but Al-Qaida claimed that one."

"Can we go and give them a taste of their own medicine?"

"UN got there first." Clint sounded ever so slightly annoyed by that, even though it really wasn't the Avengers remit to get involved in global conflicts. "And Pepper wanted to talk to you about something. Some logistics issue with Korea? I don't know, I don't speak business, but she said she really needs you to go down in person to sign some crap."

"What, now?"

"Unless you want to face her unmitigated wrath, yeah, now."

Once upon a time Tony would have simply ignored the summons and left Pepper to either cope on her own or forge his signature, but these days he tended to try and behave more like an adult. Having a child had taught him at least that much, and with the outgoing costs on the suits and the Avengers as a whole it was more important than ever that Stark Industries continued to make an astronomical profit.

However, all this didn't mean that he wasn't going to bring his beer with him.

Pepper had an office elsewhere in the city that she usually used since the Avengers had taken over Stark Tower, but also had a floor to herself for when she needed Tony's input and knew there was no way she was going to get him to drag himself out the tower for paperwork. Even so, she looked surprised to see him at her door so promptly.

"Good God, you must be bored!"

"I want to take my mind off stuff. Clint said you needed some things signed for the Korean Deal?"

Pepper pushed the sheets over with a pen. "Nothing huge, I just needed you to okay the flights in and out for the research team."

Tony sat down opposite her at the desk and quickly stuck his name on the dotted line. "You dragged me all the way down here to agree to some plane tickets?" He pushed the paper back across the desk. "What do you really want?"

"You know I'm leaving for that business trip to Auckland tomorrow? Well, I –"

"Wait, what trip?"

"Oh for God's sake Tony! The one that's been in the pipeline for the past two months. I'm talking to one of our suppliers about outsourcing to them so we don't need to –"

"Okay, okay, whatever. What about it? Would you like to spend some time there on vacation too? I know you like it there and I'm sure I could cope for a few weeks."

Pepper's smile made it clear that she didn't think he could. "Well, the meeting should only take two or three days, so I was intending to make a vacation out of it, but I was actually thinking about taking Evie with me."

The request seemed to blindside Tony and for a moment he simply blinked at her. "What? But you'll be on the other side of the planet!"

"Like Loki couldn't get you there within seconds if we needed you. But she needs to get out of this place for a bit." Pepper had to laugh at her friend's bemused expression. "Look, that kid's barely been out the country. It would be a chance for her to see how a business deal works, we'll tour around a bit to see some sights and she's still going on about college; we can look at the New Zealand universities as well."

"New Zealand college? Hell no! She'll come back with some pretentious accent!"

"I'm not going to abandon her at Hogwarts, Tony! We're just going to do some sightseeing, the usual stuff, and if we have a chance maybe go further afield and have a look at some of the campuses."

"You've already spoken to Birdy?"

"It was her idea. She wants a holiday and I agreed as long as she sits through the business side of the trip to see how that works." Pepper checked over the signed sheets again. "And we can tour around – if we spend a few weeks there I can take her round the major sights. And if it works I might take her on other business deals – that way she'll learn the ropes and get to see some of the world."

Tony frowned, tapping his lip with the pen. "What about her training?"

"Hotels have gyms, Tony. Or, God forbid, she might give it a rest because it's meant as a bit of a holiday."

"It might be dangerous - she'll be recognised if she's with you!"

"So what? You've been lucky to keep her out the papers this long to be honest. Maybe it will do her some good to be exposed to the media a little."

"The paparazzi can be ruthless."

"Then she'll have to deal with it."

"And Arthur-"

"Jarvis or Loki can take care of him."

"But Hydra-"

"Tony! Yes or no, can she come with me?!"

"Can I at least talk to Loki first?"

Pepper smirked, very much in the manner of one laying down a royal flush. "He's already agreed, but said I needed to talk to you."

It was about that moment that Tony knew he was already beaten. If Loki had agreed then his opinion hardly counted.

"Well, I suppose as long as you stay in close contact it should be alright…"

"Can I remind you, you've left her on the other side of the universe before. Auckland is not an alien planet."

"Yeah, but I was the one leaving, not her…" He knew that the complaint wasn't going to work and sighed heavily. "Fine. Well, I can't see why not, but seriously, you two had better send an email or something every day!"

"I promise your Twitter Feed will be filled with selfies."

"And you're leaving tomorrow?"

"First thing. She's already packed. I think she was intending to come whether you said yes or not."

"Huh."

WMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM

The tower was certainly much quieter without a rambunctious teenager charging around it. Whilst they all missed the two women, it was rather nice to have first say over the TV choices or music, and to have the gym to themselves again. It did mean Loki and Tony had ended up with a morose Münchrat curled up at the foot of their bed every night though.

Tony would have been moping, but Bruce and Jarvis were keeping him occupied with the chitauri bits and pieces. Although they made sure not to turn the things on any more there was still a wealth of knowledge they could learn from the materials and such that the objects were made of. For one, they still couldn't even work out the chemical composition of the material.

"Any luck?" Loki's soft interruption was hardly unusual, but the rough edge to his voice wasn't normal.

"Hardly." Tony pushed away the on-screen chemical spectra with a wave of his hand and rubbed his eyes. "To be honest, my machines still don't believe these things exist." He sighed and glanced up at his husband. "What about you? You're looking particularly like crap."

"It's these high compliments that keep me with you, you know." Loki smiled slightly. "But since you ask; I've just finished the latest scrying spell, which was a heavy piece of spell work, and I've finally taken a good look at Svartalfheim."

That got Tony's attention and he turned on his chair to face the trickster. "Oh? How bad is it?"

"As bad as Alfheim was. There isn't as much by the way of dust clouds, but it looks like the place has been completely blitzed."

"You want to go there now?"

Loki looked across the lab space. "Well, unless this is more important?"

"This can wait. Do we need to go and grab Thor?"

"He's already waiting upstairs."

They hadn't told the others about the intent to go to the other realm – if nothing else everyone would have wanted to go with them and that was just too dangerous. It was dangerous enough just the three of them to be honest; with Loki their only means to get there and back if they ran into trouble and he was compromised they could be stuck on Svartalfheim. Not to mention the types of trouble they could run into. They were at least more prepared this time; Tony with the suit and Loki conjuring up gas-masks and gloves for both himself and Thor to go with their armour. The gas-masks were still the same freakish design that reminded Tony of something out of a World War One trench with some Viking flair, but Loki refused to change what he considered to be a perfectly serviceable piece of clothing. With a quick word to Jarvis not to tell anyone what they were up to, Loki pulled the three of them into his teleportation spell.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

Tony had built the suit to withstand the most extreme of temperatures and even then he was cold. Svartalfheim was a dark, forbidding place; the general rock some sort of slick black and Tony couldn't tell if it was melted or that was how it naturally looked. Like Alfheim there were no structures left standing, let alone any sign of life.

"This is beyond my worst imaginings." Thor's voice was muffled under his mask as he looked around the area. "There is nothing left."

"The same happened at Alfheim."

The dust was less, but there were similarly high levels of radiation and air-borne chemicals, even if they weren't quite the same. The rock and dust underfoot crunched with each step, a strange consistency that put Stark on edge. He knelt down and picked up a couple of larger pebbles, placing them in the collection pocket in the left thigh plate for later analysis.

"Right. Where's this magic stone thing then? Or where should it be? This place is giving me the creeps!" The dark clouds parted slightly, but the sun that could be seen was so murky it hardly did any good.

Loki pointed off towards what may have been the remains of mountains – and it was frightening to think that something had been able to knock down fucking mountains. They were barely there anymore; crumbled broken things that looked more like spoil heaps than a majestic range. If Loki hadn't stated what they were Tony wouldn't have known.

"There was a heavy piece of spell work placed on the Stone. Even if it has been broken we should still be able follow the residue magic."

"By 'we' you mean you can follow it."

"Or that." Loki had no qualms about acknowledging his superiority in this field; at best his brother and husband were there as muscle.

He led the way across the desolate landscape, the three of them stirring up dust and ash that spiked warnings in Tony's suit for dangerous compounds. Radioactive too, they were going to be on a time limit with this. Every so often there was a faint rumbling from the distance and once or twice they felt the ground tremor. Loki quickly explained for Stark's sake that the area was volcanic and a possible earthquake was the least of their worries. In Tony's experience volcanos and earthquakes didn't behave like that, but he was willing to believe that they might well do on an alien planet.

It took them about half an hour to trek up to the place Loki was aiming for. Technically Thor could have flown, but Tony was grounded since a spark or flame could well ignite some of the various gases making up the atmosphere so they walked.

"So was there a city here or something?"

"No." It was Thor who answered. "There were no cities or such here. I do not know where the Dark Elves lived, but to Aesir eyes this land was barren – just jagged rock and mountains."

"They lived under ground." Loki said. "The temperatures in this realm are extremely unstable and the atmosphere was naturally volatile due to volcanic activity. They would instead build large caverns alongside the magma tunnels and use the thermal energy."

"Sounds…dangerous?"

"Not so much – they knew which areas were active and therefore where was dormant enough to live." Loki paused, nearly at the crest of the hill, and looked back across the landscape. "I cared nothing for this place, but this was a stunning mountain range. To see it reduced to molehills…"

"Still no idea what could have done it?"

"I have some ideas, but nothing more than scattered thoughts with no basis. Hopefully this trip may prove or disprove some of them." The trickster had his hands out, searching for something – although Tony couldn't see how he could sense anything with all the background radiation and crap going on. Each part of the broken hillside looked very much the same as another – sharp broken boulders making it difficult to traverse. The ground-tremors and the landslips they caused hardly helped matters.

"Is it just me or is it getting colder?" Tony would have rubbed his arms, but that would have been pretty pointless with the suit. Loki glanced up at the sky, although with the thickness of the clouds it was difficult to determine much.

"I believe night is coming. It will get much colder than this; only Jötunnheim is worse than Svartalfheim when it comes to temperatures."

"You could have mentioned that before we came here."

"Stop complaining; you're fine."

"Easy for you to say, you're kind of evolutionarily built for freeing temperatures."

"Well, if I change colour we can officially say it is cold."

Tony laughed, but any reply he would have made was cut off when Loki came to a sudden halt. The patch of ground looked the same as any other in the place – a large broken boulder rising up infront of them, burnt and blackened.

"Here."

"What?"

"Here." Loki paced a gloved hand flat against the rock. "The Stone was sealed here." He pressed his palm over different spots, as if confirming his words to himself. "Look; there are the faint remains of writing."

Thor stepped up beside him, examining the area pointed out, although with less understanding. Tony didn't even bother to look at the faint scratches – linguistics wasn't a strong point – but set to analysing the boulder itself. There were certainly some energy spikes, although not something the suit could make head nor tail of, and indeed the rock itself was composed of elements unfamiliar to Earth. However, given the minimal readings he could take, he could see how they would fit into the periodic table.

"You said was here. It's gone?"

Loki passed his hands over the rock again. "It has gone." His voice was steady, but there was an edge of horror creeping in. "The Infinity Stone is gone."

"Did they smash it by accident? Broke the spells and then picked it up?"

"No. The runes have been systematically erased, this was no accident." The trickster ran his hand along the line running under the alien writing. "This joining would have to be opened to retrieve the stone – and it has not been forced."

"What are you saying?"

Loki dropped his hand and laughed mirthlessly. "Someone came here, knowing what they were looking for, were powerful enough to break the spells protecting the Stone and powerful enough to contain it once they had it." He turned back and looked out across the desolate landscape. "And if someone came here with the intent to take this thing we can assume Alfheim was the same."

"Alfheim's attack was motivated by their Stone?" Thor asked quietly.

"And possibly the Gauntlet. We have no way of knowing if our attacker knew that it wasn't there. But…"

There was a sudden change to the set of Loki's shoulders, a sudden tense shudder that Tony recognised as a bad thing. "What? What is it?"

"Alfheim's Infinity Stone. I know how they destroyed these-"

Whatever it was he intended to say went lost as the ground suddenly heaved up under their feet. The ground tremors had been persistent but minor. This one was directly under them.

The boulder was thrown from it's precarious spot. Loki jumped clear but Thor wasn't quick enough and the huge rock smashed into his shoulder, knocking him off his feet. The whole hillside started to slip and as Thor went down from the impact he was quickly covered over by the rolling rocks. Loki slid with the momentum of the slip, only to be tipped over a moment later as the ground roared and moved again. He could hear Tony's suit close by – the harsh scrape of metal and stone – but couldn't see through the blinding spray of dust and grit.

Stark was pitched head first down the hillside, tumbling out of control as he fought against the instinct to use the thrusters on the suit. He could feel the impact of the stones around but his vision was taken a moment later by a huge crack across the HUD. Something cracked – one of the leg panels he suspected, but had no way to be certain – and a large rock caught the side of his head and dazed him even through the helmet.

It was like an avalanche – no way of knowing which was up and which was down as the three of them were thrown down the side of the hill. Rock, dirt, and boulders took the same path allowing no way to avoid a collision, and the huge movement meant they had no idea if the earthquake had stopped or was ongoing.

Tony felt his own movement finally stop, lying on his chest, one arm twisted at a painful angle as the land slide continued on over the top of him. He could only assume that he had reached the base of the hill, but the weight on him gave no chance to raise his head and check. The ground under him was still trembling, but it seemed to be more from the mass of rock coming down than an after-shock.

"Jarv'? Jarv;, anything reading? You there?"

All he could see was the crack, all lights fractured and incomprehensible.

"Jarv', come on man, don't leave me alone here…"

Something flickered, then slowly the normal display – distorted by the damage – came back online.

"Sorry…systems…restore…back…I am sorry sir, normal service will resume shortly."

Tony lay still, waiting for the rumbling around him to slowly die away. His HUD was still flickering and sparking although he couldn't tell if that was coming from the damage or because he was dazed.

"Fuck this planet."

He tried to move his arm, but barely succeeded in lifting his fingers with all the weight pressing down on him. Without both arms under him there was no way he could hope to lift himself up and get free of the rocks. The effort sent a sharp pain down his leg and he lay still again, trying to work out if the limb was broken or merely twisted.

There was a sudden ease of pressure on his back and the HUD finally blinked back into life, warning lights going haywire. Something else shifted, freeing his arms and he immediately pushed up to his hands and knees, dislodging more of the debris. A hand appeared in his view and he grasped it, letting himself be pulled up to his feet.

"Thor, thanks man." He could just about put weight on his wounded leg, and his arm wasn't as bad as he had first assumed, but his head was still reeling. Thor looked pretty bashed about as well – a large blood stain growing on his arm where his armour had been ripped off and numerous gashes down his face.

"You are well?"

"Not really, but I'm in one piece. You?"

"My wrist is broken, but given the circumstances it could have been much worse."

Tony looked back up the hillside – unrecognisable now. "Yeah, that was…that could have been nasty." He turned back and surveyed the landscape around them, warnings and environmental data scrolling across his sight. "Where's Loki?"

"I do not know."

It took several attempts for the battered suit to start scanning for life signs, but it eventually got the idea and Tony could start getting a clearer picture of the area. And something that looked like a pulse was flashing off to one side.

"There's something over that way."

'That way' consisted of a pile of rubble and boulders, including the one which had housed the Infinity Gem. Thor used Mjönir to knock the larger stones out of the way, but Tony couldn't risk blasting anything due to the flammable atmosphere so was left to lift the smaller pieces manually off the pile.

"Loki! Come on, we need to get out of here!" Thor smashed another rock out of their way. "Where are you?"

"Here!" Tony shifted another large piece of rubble and uncovered a familiar green cloak. "Got him!"

Between the two of them it took no time at all to remove the majority of debris burying Loki but it became painfully obvious that the trickster wasn't responding and moments later the reason was apparent. His gas mask was in tatters beside him, the glass eyes smashed to pieces where it must have been torn from his head in the confusion of rock and movement.

"Loki!"

The trickster's skin was flickering between Aesir and Jötunn as he desperately tried to breathe in the oxygen starved atmosphere. His gas mask was useless and it seemed only in his Jötunn skin that he was able to draw any breath at all, a faint rasping noise that seemed barely enough. A quick note across Tony's HUD told him it appeared Loki was using the nitrogen in the atmosphere to respire, but only as a frost giant. When he flickered back to Aesir – something he seemed to have no control over – the weak gasps stuttered and failed entirely.

"Is he conscious?!" Thor was carefully removing the rest of the rubble covering his brother whilst Tony knelt down by Loki's head.

"No, and he can't breathe properly! How do we get out of here?"

"The Bifrost point is about a mile from here." Thor finally managed to clear the debris and pulled his brother free from it. Loki was limp and unresponsive in his arms and he had to hurriedly let go when the trickster's Jötunn skin burnt through his tattered sleeves. "Norns damnit!"

"I'll carry him, you lead the way."

Stark lifted his husband onto his back in a fireman's lift, something that would have been impossible without the suit since Loki really was quite heavy. Warnings started to blink on the HUD as the trickster's skin flushed blue again but Tony quickly banished them – he was cold already, and Loki was hardly helping that.

"The sun's setting."

"Then we must hurry."

It didn't take them all that long to find the spot that Thor had spoken of, but to Tony it seemed to take an eternity. His husband was completely unresponsive, barely breathing and it was only because Thor had been quite calm about it that the man wasn't panicking. How long could a Jötunn go without respiring oxygen? Apparently he could manage on nitrogen but was that harmful? How long could he do that for? And what if he went back to his Aesir skin and then couldn't return? He'd suffocate…

"We're here!" Thor looked up to the maelstrom of a sky. "Heimdall! Open the Bifrost!"

There was a moment when nothing happened – there was no way of knowing if Heimdall could hear them from there – but then the familiar light hit and they were drawn into the portal. The jumble of light and colour and confusion took over as they were pulled away from Svartalfheim, leaving the dismal realm behind.

Tony landed heavily, crashing down to one knee. He didn't even bother to look at the observatory around them, laying Loki down on the floor as the face plate on his helmet slid up.

"Loki! Hey Capricorn! Come on, wake up!" He patted his husband's cheek, trying to determine if the God was still breathing. "Come on, don't do this to me! This was meant to be a stupid recon, no one was meant to get hurt!" Loki was Jötunn blue, but as Tony shook his shoulder his skin began to bleed back to it's more familiar pale Aesir tones. "Come on! If you don't wake up I'm going to knock you into next week, I swear to God!"

The trickster's form finally settled on Aesir and once again automatically tried to draw breath. Unlike Svartalfheim, however, Asgard's atmosphere was much richer with oxygen so the attempt at respiration actually worked.

Loki gasped, his eyes shooting open, before he rolled suddenly onto his side, coughing and retching like one saved from drowning.

"Hey! Hey hey hey, you're alright! You're okay!" Tony was immediately holding his husband's shoulders, grounding him. "We're in Asgard; Thor found the Bifrost site!" He glanced up when the Thunderer crouched down next to him.

"Breathe brother, just breathe!"

Loki coughed again, falling onto his back and glaring at his husband and brother.

"I…am…breathing…"

"No, you're hyperventilating, there's a big difference." Tony's voice held more relief that humour.

"Don't…make me…Norns!" Loki's threat went unheard as he rolled swiftly onto his side and retched again. There was blood in what he brought up, but that was only to be expected. "I hate that place! Always have!"

"Well doesn't look like we'll be going back anytime soon." Stark helped his husband to sit up. "I'd ask how you're feeling, but I have the feeling that sort of question will end up with me thrown off the Bifrost."

"A correct summary. And believe me; falling off this thing is not a pleasant experience."

Looking out across the shimmering bridge to the abyss beyond, Tony could fully believe that. He had seen all of this before, but that didn't make it any less impressive nor forbidding. Heimdall was just as intimidating as he remembered too, although the Watcher at least looked faintly concerned at their less-than-elegant appearance in the Observatory.

"The King is already on his way." Any concern was always a fleeting thing with Heimdall, and he was already impassive again.

"Brilliant. Just brilliant." Loki allowed his husband to take his arm to help him to his feet, but it was obvious he was only doing so to stop Tony from worrying. "Shall we discuss now how it was my entire fault, or wing it when he gets here?"

"Loki…" Now that the worry was over Thor sounded like a typical world-weary elder sibling again. "This was not your fault and that's not how things are any more."

"Yeah, hackles down, Capricorn." Tony chipped in. He received a glare for that, but Loki did shut up. The trickster was embarrassed, possibly hurt – he wasn't letting anyone know if he was in pain or not – and must have been feeling extremely concerned if not frightened about what they had discovered about Svartalfheim; he was not in a good mood to say the least. His dark glower when one of Odin's ravens fluttered into the Observatory said it all.

The Allfather was only a few steps behind the bird, its partner sat on his shoulder preening it's feathers. Not that Tony could tell the difference, but the king had forgone his usual ceremonial armour, opting for something that was a little less gilded and considerably more practical. Whilst it meant nothing to the human, both Thor and Loki knew it was Odin's normal attire for Asgard's military council when he needed to appear more a warrior and less a king. Asgard was mobilising what was left of her army.

"What news?" He didn't even ask after his son's welfare, although that may have made sense given that they were both on their feet and seemed relatively unscathed. If neither were dying on the spot he could discuss their health at another time.

"Svartalfheim is lost. As we knew it would be." Thor didn't sugar-coat things. "It was destroyed much as Alfheim had been."

"Exactly the same way in which Alfheim had been." Loki amended. "Infact, Thor proposed a theory when we returned to Midgard after the Alfheim debacle and for once I believe he hit the nail on the head."

"I did?" Evidently news to the God in question.

"Yes. You speculated that Alfheim-"

"Not now." Odin raised a hand, silencing his youngest. "Svartalfeim's destruction was what I needed to know. Go and clean up, all three of you, we can speak on this later."

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

"So, I wasn't planning on turning up here again so soon." Bathed, fed and freshly clothed, Tony was sprawled across Loki's bed, staring up at the gilded ceiling. The Ironman armour was piled in an orderly manner by the main door, bearing no small amount of damage. "Not that I mind – this place is still quite awesome."

"To you, maybe." Loki was sat stiffly in one of the armchairs, arms folded across his knees as he glared at the fire. It was much colder than the last time they had been to Asgard – which was evidenced by the snow piling up outside.

"Come on, you can't tell me you aren't slightly pleased to be here. We can go and say hi to Sleipnir after we've spoken with your Dad." The man sat up and stretched. "Hmm?"

"You can't honestly expect me to be pleased about anything with what happened today."

"Hey, I'm usually quite pleased when I get out of a life or death situation and back to home comforts."

Loki obviously didn't think so, and waved a hand at the fire so that the flames curled into small snakes that hissed their displeasure at Tony. The man rolled his eyes.

"Really? Do you hear me bitching about my multiple broken ribs or busted leg right now? No; because I'm a grateful bastard that likes to relax after nearly being squished on an alien planet."

That did at least garner Loki's attention. "You've broken your ribs?"

"Well, half a mountain fell on us – although I'll forgive you if you didn't realise since you were kinda unconscious at that point – so yeah, I broke some ribs. And my leg isn't good. Did I mention that? I feel I should really mention that."

"You mentioned it."

"Yeah, well. And Thor broke his wrist. Again, not that you noticed."

"I wasn't breathing. You may or may not have been aware of that."

"It may have momentarily gained my attention. Just briefly. For a second or two."

Loki smiled slightly, drawing his gaze away from the fire to look up at his husband. The man was sat up and watching him closely, despite the lightness of his tone. He was worried – had been and still was. It would be fair to say that the trickster would have been just as concerned were their positions switched.

"Do you want me to fix your ribs and leg?"

"Of course not, I merely mentioned them multiple times for the fun of it."

"I thought as much." The trickster moved from his chair to sit down on the bed, folding his legs up underneath him. "Which part of your leg is injured?"

"My knee – I think I twisted it when we fell down the hill. Absolutely wrecked the armour too."

"I don't care about the armour for now." He ran his hands along the limb in question, carefully probing for the described injury. Tony's assumption was pretty spot on since his knee had swollen by a considerable amount, hidden only by his loose jeans. "Why did you not ask for medical aid when we got here?"

"Because it's not life-threatening, you were in a worse state than me and not whining about being injured and I didn't exactly have much time in which to mention it. Can you fix it?"

"Easily, but you still should have mentioned it." Loki had rolled Stark's trouser leg up and placed his hand on the inflamed joint. "Let me know if this is excruciatingly painful."

"Uh, is that likely?"

The prince just grinned slyly.

It wasn't excruciating – Loki wasn't that bad at healing spells – but it wasn't exactly comfortable. Tony knew better than to complain though, and when his ribs knitted back together the ensuing relief was more than worth the discomfort.

"Any better?"

"Much. What about you? You had us pretty worried back there."

"Me? I'm fine. I'm always fine, have you not worked that out yet?"

Tony snorted. "Fine, yeah, sure. That's what we're calling it now, huh?"

"I always get out of trouble in the end."

"With help."

"…I resent that allegation."

Stark smirked. It would have been very easy to follow that up with another snide jab, but he restrained himself. A little bit of friendly banter was alright, but it was very easy to over-step and end up having a fight. And after the night they had just had, a fight was the last thing they needed.

The conversation veered back towards safer topics for a short while, but they were interrupted by a loud knock to the door. It wasn't hard to guess that it was Thor – he had quite a distinctive knock after all. The thunder God was looking tired, his wrist wrapped up tightly in bandages. He didn't even have to say anything before his brother waved him over with a world-weary sigh and started working on it.

Thor was an expected visitor. However, neither Loki nor Tony expected him to be followed in by Odin. The king was sans his usual armour and trappings, looking a lot less intimidating than normal. For once Tony felt that he was actually seeing the father as opposed to the leader of a powerful realm.

"What news?" Loki asked quietly.

"Nothing good. Heimdall still cannot fathom the perpetrators." Odin seated himself on one of the chairs, watching as Thor flexed his newly healed wrist and tested how whole it now was. "At this point I am just thankful all three of you are reasonably unharmed."

"Reasonable is a strong word."

"You are alive. That will do. Now, I know all three of you will have been puzzling over what has happened – even if you are a little lacking on background, Stark – so what ideas have you put together?"

It was no surprise that Tony and Thor both turned to Loki to answer that. Thor from habit and Tony from knowing damn well that – as much as it rankled – Odin was correct and he really didn't have enough knowledge of the realms history to put things into perspective. Sure, he could throw some ideas into the pot, but it was best to leave the initial outline to his husband.

"I think it is reasonable to assume that the same mind was behind the attacks on Svartalfheim and Alfheim. It is also reasonable to assume, from the evidence gathered on Svartalfheim, that the Infinity Stones were the targets. Someone was powerful enough to break the Dark Elf and Aesir spell work protecting the Stone."

Odin nodded, having obviously drawn the same conclusions himself. Loki glanced at his brother then continued.

"In addition, I believe of all people, Thor worked out how the destruction of both realms occurred. If you recall, the Gem on Alfheim was that of Space." Loki shaped his hands through the air and the image of a glowing violet gem appeared in front of him. For all that the Stones had been hyped up, Tony thought it looked pathetically small – barely the size of a golf ball. "For those of us-" He glanced at his husband, "-who aren't aware; this has the power to obliterate all organic matter in its path. When wielded by one strong enough it could easily destroy a realm. Thor suggested this idea a while ago, but we couldn't confirm or deny it at the time. I think now we can agree that this was how both realms were destroyed."

"I wish I could be happy that you admitted I was right about something, but I don't feel I can be given the situation." Thor smiled grimly.

Tony waved a hand in the air – slightly childlike, but he was tired and his father-in-law's presence was putting him on edge a little. "Dumb human question; if Alfheim had the shiny rock that can wipe out planets, what the hell was sitting pretty in Svataflheim?"

"A rather sensible question I would say." Odin still sounded condescending, even when agreeing with Stark. "Svartalfheim had what was known as the Aether, the Power Gem."

"It can convert matter to dark matter. The host can wield it as a physical force, causing utter destruction." Loki added.

"Do any of these things do anything other than fuck shit up? Isn't there one that, I don't know, creates rainbows, or something?"

"Not all of them destroy, but they are easy for one to manipulate to dark purposes. But we are missing the main problem here." The trickster waved a hand so that the other five representations of the Infinity Stones appeared. "It takes enormous power to even be able to hold one of these things without imploding. And now someone out there has two of them. Who, and what, and most importantly why."

Odin was watching his son impatiently and steepled his fingers when Loki finished speaking. "It is obvious you have some idea who it could be. Care to share with the rest of us?"

"I rather dread speaking the name out loud." The prince smiled grimly, staring at the six circling gems he had created. "I wondered to begin with the chances of ever crossing paths with him again – and hoping desperately not to. When Alfheim was attacked I suspected, and now that we have determined the Stones were the aim of the attacks, I am quite certain."

Thor, ever the impatient one didn't allow his brother to make much of the dramatic pause Loki obviously wanted to put into the conversation. "Well?!"

"Thanos."

Even Tony knew that name, had heard his husband whisper it once before in the dead of the night in a voice full of fear. Thanos had been the driving force behind the chitauri attack on Earth, and who had abandoned the chitauri immediately after their failure and left Loki to their tender mercies.

Thor and Odin were no strangers to the name either, if the way the king slumped back in his chair and the crown prince scowled were any indication.

"The Mad Titan? How can you be certain?"

Loki laid out the facts.

Thanos had shown interest in at least one Infinity Stone before, and had attempted to lay hands on it in his attack on Earth. He had more than enough power to seize and hold a Stone, and to break the spells protecting them. He was also known for his love of wanton death and destruction, which gave him a motive.

Circumstantial evidence at best, which Tony quietly pointed out when his husband stopped.

"I would agree, if not for one crucial pint." Loki clenched his fist and banished the images of the Stones. "You and Thor will recall that the chitauri relics we found were sending a signal back through the remains of the portal, yes? Well, we determined that the chitauri were near enough wiped out, so there was no need to worry about who the signal was reaching, but never considered that the chitauri's original master could have been receiving said signal."

Odin thumped his fist on the arm of the chair. "These Nine Realms have been hidden from Thanos for millennia; are you telling me that Midgard has been sending him directions for the past twenty years?!"

Loki gave an aborted little shrug. "He knew where the Nine Realms were already; you will recall that the Chitauri tortured the information out of me after I fell through the void to their world. However, they needed me to go to Earth myself because they weren't able to guide themselves through the portal successfully. Given that the portal was destroyed, Thanos would have needed a new guide, and then these signals reached him and he had one. It could easily have taken near twenty years for the signals to reach through the remains of the portal. Which would be why the attacks have only just started."

"And explains why we've never come across those creatures making up the attacking army; they must be a new construct, a race Thanos has created as he did the Chitauri." Thor added grimly. He ran a hand through his hair in a frustrated motion. "Are we even certain it's him?"

"Not at all. But he is the most obvious answer."

"Occam's Razor." Tony supplied helpfully. "The most obvious answer is usually the right one. So, once again for the dumb human's benefit; how bad a problem is all this? Are we talking Ragnarok?" The question was worth it just for the look on the three God's faces.

"Norns, I hope not! I am in no way ready to face Heimdall in single combat!" Loki allowed the brief attempt at humour, but only for a moment. "But, it is serious. Thanos or not, we are still facing someone who has two Infinity Stones and we can only assume is on the hunt for more."

"Where are the rest? Can we warn people?"

Thor shrugged as Loki and Odin exchanged glances. "The Tesseract is here on Asgard, as is the Gauntlet, but we are not aware of the locations of the other Gems."

"What? How come? You knew about the first two."

"Because Alfheim were stupid enough to put theirs in a museum, and the Aesir sealed the Aether away so have always known the location."

"Right. And what Gauntlet?"

Loki didn't quite roll his eyes but it was a near thing. "It is as it sounds. A gauntlet that holds all six Stones and unites them. The wearer would be able to command the power of all six at once."

"So I'm to assume that would be apocalyptically bad?"

"Thanos has an unhealthy obsession with death and desires to sacrifice every living being to court the mistress of death herself."

Tony whistled through his teeth. "This is a mess. Isn't your daughter – the one I'm not biologically related to – the Goddess of Death? Thanos is trying to get it on with your daughter?!"

That made Loki smirk. "Thankfully no. The lady he courts is but a fantasy, whereas Hel is very much real."

"So telling him he's chasing a fairytale isn't going to stop him?"

"Hardly."

Odin waved a hand to silence Stark's next question. "This is conjecture, we know nothing concrete yet. There are other beings it may be beyond Thanos."

"Does it matter? There's still some overpowered douche-bag out there with two stones under his belt and sights set on the others. Who's next?" Tony at least had the courtesy to wait for the king to stop speaking before jumping back in. "Earth hasn't got the ability to repel an attack like the one's we've seen so far. Hell, we only just survived the last alien invasion and that was because said alien wasn't really trying all that hard, and we got extremely lucky. Humans break easily, you know."

"I believe Earth will be alright; it is Asgard that we need to worry about." Loki said quietly. "It is common knowledge that the Tesseract is here, and enough know about the Gauntlet…" He snorted with ironic laughter. "This is all my fault, is it not? I stole the Gauntlet and brought it here, I stole the Tesseract and brought it here, I brought the Chitauri to Midgard. I was not strong enough to resist the Chitauri's torture the first time around; had I been they, The Other and Thanos would never have known how to access the Nine Realms. Had I just-"

"Do not be stupid boy." Odin's voice was as hard as steel. "By the same logic I am at fault for allowing you to fall into their hands to begin with. No one is responsible for this but the one behind it all. Whoever it is, they would have found their way to the Nine Realms with or without help eventually."

"You say 'whoever it is', you do not think it can be Thanos?" There was almost hope in Thor's voice.

"I believe it can very well be Thanos, but we need to keep our options open." The king slowly raised himself from his seat. "But, as you say Loki, Asgard is most likely on the list to be targeted. I will need to see to the security."

"Will you need us to stay here, Father?"

It was quite a political question; after all, the crown prince at the very least should make a show of protecting the realm. And given that they were facing off against an unknown enemy with magical capabilities, Loki's expertise would be very welcome. Odin certainly had every right and reason to order them to stay, and there was a long hesitation before he glanced at Tony, then shook his head.

"No. Thor, you have sworn to defend Midgard and that is an oath that should not be taken lightly. And Loki, you have three children and a husband there, I cannot ask you to leave if Earth may also be at threat. However, be aware that I may call on the both of you should an attack hit Asgard first."

That was fair enough at least, although it took Tony a moment or two to work out how Loki had three children on Earth, before recalling both Merlin and Jormangandr held residence there. Loki looked slightly mollified too – the metaphorical hackles settling.

"So we, what? Go back to Earth and wait to see who gets attacked first? That sounds like fun."

"Do you have a better plan?"

Tony shrugged. "I dunno. Is the void still open? Can we chuck a probe or something down there and see if we get anything out the other side?"

"The void does not work like that. You cannot just 'chuck' something into it and hope it will appear out the other side."

"Worked once before."

"And I can assure you I am not doing that again." Loki managed a slight smile though. "But the point stands. We are in the dark, not knowing who will be the next target."

"This sucks." Tony sighed.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM

They didn't stay in Asgard for any longer than was necessary. Long enough to see Sleipnir briefly, but no one wanted to hang around.

"Is Asgard familiar with the phrase 'out of the frying and and into the fire?'" Stark asked drily as they made their way back to the Observatory.

"We've both been on Earth long enough to know it, but we have the equivalent; Leaving Jötunnheim for Muspelheim." Thor said.

"Yeah that covers it."

The Ironman suit had been stuffed into a sack in its various remaining pieces since Tony deemed it too damaged to attempt wearing back. At the very least it was going to take a few days before it would be up and running again. This did mean he had to endure the Bifrost trip without it, which wasn't fun.

Upon arriving back on Earth the three found their comrades out of the Tower, and only Jarvis left behind to greet them.

Stark quickly uploaded all of the data from the busted suit onto the main servers and left Jarvis to extrapolate the information needed to later present to the rest of the Avengers. The inventor himself certainly didn't intend to be the one to explain how the three of them had vanished off-planet with no warning. The fact that they were returning with bad news – putting it very mildly – made him want to speak to his friends even less.

And he wanted to sleep.

A lot.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMW

Jarvis called the rest of the team back and they locked themselves away to watch the footage Tony had recorded of Svartalfheim. Loki and Thor had filled the AI in on the ramifications of what they had found, so that was also brought up.

With Tony asleep, or at least pretending he was to get some peace and quiet after such a day, Loki found himself at an odd end. Too wound up to find rest he sought out what had become a favourite spot to de-stress.

"You and high places." Thor's voice was only just heard over the wind as he came to stand beside his brother. It was the beginning of November, so the top of the tower was wet and windy, but that hardly seemed to bother Loki, who was perched on the very edge again.

"You have to admit it is calming." He was staring directly down, at the bright pinpoints below of umbrellas rushing by as people ducked in and out of buildings to avoid the rain. "Look at them; so busy with their humdrum lives. They have no idea of what catastrophe may be bearing down on them."

Thor swung himself up onto the ledge and glanced down as well. "True, but then again catastrophe could happen for them anyway. One of those taxi's could hit someone at any moment. There could be a meteorite that no one's noticed. Yellowstone could erupt. Someone could detonate a nuclear warhead. An alien prince who's having a bad day may decide to invade with an army…" He trailed off as Loki finally laughed.

"Will you ever let that go?"

"Would you? When was the last time I had such leverage over you? There is at least another millennia's worth of fodder in that incident."

"I feared as much."

Thor nudged his brother with his shoulder, grinning. "Come now, it is so rare that you ever give me anything to tease you about."

"You always managed to find something." Loki wiped his wet hair out of his eyes, in deference to the rain that tried to sweep it back to where it was. "Can you not stop this infernal weather?"

"It's only natural at this time of year." The thunder God laughed.

"How are you this cheerful?! After everything that's just-"

"Would it help the situation if I were a morose grump like you? Frankly I don't believe it would."

"But to act so happy in the face of-"

Thor sighed. "And this, right here, is the fundamental difference between me and you. I try to keep a cheerful face on everything because it relieves the stress and stops my companions from picking up on my fear. You think it all through logically, but allow your stress out and express your fear as anger. And frankly that is no fun for anyone because you inevitably aim that anger at those around you."

"I don't-"

"You do and you know it."

Loki snarled, but any form of reply would pretty much win the argument for Thor so he settled into a sulky silence instead. It was growing dark now, the cold night drawing in on them, and the buildings around Stark Tower were slowly lighting up in response. Sensing that the mood was growing as dark as the sky around them Thor nudged his brother with his shoulder in an attempt to lighten things up.

"What?"

"Do you remember what you used to do to the candles in the school room when we were forced to work after the sun went down?" The blonde God nodded his head towards the opposite skyscraper with a grin.

"I recall…" Loki glanced at his sibling in mock horror. "Thor, you cannot be suggesting what I think you are. You, one of Earth's mightiest heroes, encouraging mischief!"

"You seem to forget that Defender of Earth I may be, but I'm your brother first and foremost. And you are worried and, dare I say it, a little fearful. Harmless mischief won't bring the world crashing down."

"Hmm. Famous last words, I believe." The trickster lifted a finger in the air, as if testing the wind direction. However, as he did so all of the lights in the opposite tower went off. "What do we think? I can't do anything to incriminate the Avengers."

Thor laughed. "Look at you being all law abiding! My baby brother is growing up at last!"

"I could just incriminate you of course." Several windows lit back up to create a giant pixilated image of Mjölnir. Loki flicked his hand and the hammer swung around.

"You can do better than that." Thor shot his brother a quick glance, pleased to see that the trickster was grinning now.

Mjölnir flickered, went dark and then was replaced with the Bat Signal a moment later. Down on the street there was a cacophony of car horns as taxies stopped to look at what was going on.

"Tony's been corrupting you, has he not?"

"There is nothing wrong with comic books." Case in point, Loki changed it again so that some lights went off, others went on and the Superman logo was proudly displayed. "Or any other type of books for that matter." With a slightly more complex motion – and no doubt to the horror of the people in the building – the lights began to flash different colours and the four Hogwarts House symbols from Harry Potter appeared.

"Sirs, we are having complaints from the office block."

Jarvis' voice made both God's jump and turn like guilty children to see the droid standing at the entrance to the roof top.

"Why should they complain to us? They have no way of knowing we are to blame!"

"Because Mr Stark has done the exact same thing. In fact, he went one better than you and played Tetris once."

Loki scowled at the AI and behind him the buildings lights flickered into a new configuration and flipped Jarvis the bird. Thor snorted with laughter.

"I surmise that this is the Asgardian way of letting off a little steam? If so, do you think you could find a way that doesn't interfere with people's work?"

"He has a point Loki. We should go and do something else? We could spar?"

"Oh yes, because being smashed in the face multiple times does wonders to my stress levels." Loki clicked his fingers and the building lit up properly again. "If I am to be denied my amusement here, I at the very least demand food."

Jarvis' facial joints clicked into a neat smile. "There is a stack of pancakes large enough for the both of you downstairs complete with syrup. Currently no one else has clocked them, but I can't guarantee that will still be the case."

Thor glanced at his brother. "Do you ever get the feeling that Jarvis is trying to be our mother?"

"He hasn't got the steely glare down yet."

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM

There was nothing that could penetrate the darkness of the void.

Heimdall's sight was useless against it, and even the Allfather's powers were unable to see what could lie beyond. There was no way to see who or what was out there, nor any way to make contact had they known.

Loki was the only one to have ever seen the other side – the dark world of broken jagged rocks and space dust populated only by the giant armoured eels and those desperate enough to find themselves there.

It was all very well for Odin to prevaricate and claim there it could be a number of people sending the armies, but that was wishful thinking. The old legends had made it clear that Thanos had sought the Infinity Stones in the past, there was no reason to think it was anyone other than him now. The old Chitauri technology left on Earth had been silently sending its signal back into the void, and the Chitauri's old master had been picking it up.

Thanos had found the Nine Realms and learnt that they housed the Infinity Stones years ago, thanks to Loki's unwilling help. And now, thanks to Hydra's poking and prodding of the old Chitauri tech he had rediscovered the entrance to the portal closed with the sceptre.

He had the knowledge, the man-power, the burning ambition and above all the ruthlessness to remove any obstacle in is way in his hunt for the Stones and their Gauntlet.

Two Realms down.

Seven to go.