In short, the family plan worked.
In long it wasn't as easy as it had looked on paper.
Of all things it was the shield that was the trickiest part of the idea. Loki had made many of them in the past, but never one so absolutely precise. It had taken two weeks of frustrating practice to be able to get it to lay a few microns above the desired surface and a further four days to work out how to extend it.
Thor had thought the whole idea of his brother being unable to instantly get the hang of a spell was hilarious up until Loki worked out how to cast the shield over Mjolnir, making it immobile to the thunderer himself.
However, the entirety of Asgard was a different ball game to laying a shield over the oversized hammer. It took a lot more finesse and a lot more time for one thing.
Tony spent a very long and boring day sat on a piece of rubble watching his husband laying the defence over the realm like a planet-sized shimmery duvet. His complaints about how long it took were duly ignored, although Loki did threaten to leave him outside of the protection zone in a bid to shut him up.
But whilst laying the shield had taken a full day annihilating the atmosphere was the work of minutes. The two sat side-by-side to watch, given that it was quite a spectacle.
The ensuing hurricane as Loki unleashed the new atmosphere was strong enough to knock down most of the remaining buildings. Not that that made much difference to the general ruin of the place, so they didn't worry too much about it.
There was an added devastation to what had happened with Asgard that wasn't really noticed until it was an inhabitable area again. The plants, the birds, the animals, everything that had given it such vibrancy and life were gone.
It meant that back on Earth little Arthur was suddenly one of only a few pet Münchrats left across the realms and therefore critically endangered. Vanaheim had a few imported herds of bilgesnipes, and other livestock but most of the truly wild animals were unique to Asgard and therefore lost completely.
There was quite a bit of flora that couldn't grow anywhere else either and that had been lost. Whole species and subspecies were gone forever and there was no hope of replacing them. Even had Asgard thought to have a seed bank it would have also been destroyed.
The seed bank, or lack thereof, stuck in Tony's mind and once back on Earth he began drawing up some plans to create one. Given that there was a very low chance Thanos would return to Asgard it made sense to use the place as more than just a haven for the newly displaced people of the nine realms. He sounded the idea to the others, and Clint – with his endless Jurassic Park infatuation – was quick to suggest a gene bank to go along with it.
Once they were talking genetics Bruce got involved and it all rather took off from there.
It was a good reason to get Fury back into play too. Still being 'dead' – for a given value of dead, of course – the ex-director had been keeping a low profile for a few years and therefore unable to do much beyond advise behind the scenes. However, this was where he could shine again.
An alias, a little bit of a disguise and he was at the Svalbard Global Seed Bank. Whilst actually taking some of the deposits would be impossible, and frankly unethical, he could gain access to the lists of precious seeds to get an idea of how to organise and gather their own Stark-driven one.
Bruce started utilising his contacts across his old school networks to help with the animal side of things and Pepper grudgingly agreed to pitch a new bio-genetic branch of Stark Industries to the shareholders. It was quite a difficult feat to prepare for an apocalypse whilst not looking like you are to the rest of the world.
And Earth was just the beginning. If Stark could get the systems together to work for storing Midgard's genetic data and samples they could then branch out and incorporate the other worlds before it was too late.
Loki had already been flitting around various surviving realms gathering samples of any Asgardian animals that still remained. His own personal mission to try to rebuild his home.
As planned he had also been able to transfer in a new atmosphere to the newly cleansed Asgard, but had to populate the area with flora from Earth in lieu of anything originally from the realm. It would mean a change to the ecosystems – Earth plants, Earth bacteria, Earth fungi – but it was better than nothing. The discussion on wildlife would eventually need to be had but for now he left thing as they were and joined the efforts focussing on mending the Bifrost, leaving Asgard silent and still.
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As promised Tony did allow Evie to start using some of the more intensive weaponry in expectation of an attack on Earth, as well as upping her training regime. Being allowed to use explosives was always going to interest a teenager, and people were finally not pulling punches.
Loki would heal broken bones if someone hit her too hard, but split lips and black eyes were left as a lesson to duck the next time. She was also getting surprisingly adept at make-up for the same reason.
But she was getting better. Stronger. Faster.
Some obvious inherited traits were showing through as well, now that she was beginning to develop her own style. A bad habit for talking too much in hand-to-hand combat, a preference for tricks and sneakiness over brute force, a growing confidence in being completely unpredictable. And something that had Thor calling the other Avengers down in secret to watch Evie and Tony sparring.
"What is so amusing, brother?" Loki's tone had annoyed written all over it. "They have fought like this many times."
"Seconded; most of us taught her this stuff." Steve had his arms folded as he looked over the viewing gantry to watch the two. "What's the big deal?"
"You'll see." The broad grin on Thor's face made it clear that he thought it was worth waiting for. "Any minute now…"
Evie was using a staff – something Loki had been working with her on – and was losing the fight to her father rather soundly. A brief lull allowed her to back up against the stack of gym benches and she quickly scrambled up them. Tony gave her an opening, not that she was able to tell that yet, and she leapt at him from the vantage point.
What would have been a nice hit was ruined as she was distracted by a roar of laughter from up on the viewing gallery. Tony backed up, also grinning broadly at his confused teen.
"What?" Evie looked up at the rest of her extended family. "What?!"
"Oh Birdy." Stark was beginning to join the laughter.
"What?!"
"You appear to have inherited your mother's battle cry." Thor called down. The response seemed to take Loki as much by surprise as it did his daughter.
"I do not do that!"
Even Sam and Rhodey were smirking at the situation, having fought with Loki enough to have been witness to this particular phenomenon.
"Dude, you really do." Bruce said cheerfully. "Except we tend to refer to it as your Banshee Scream. You do it every time you get particularly annoyed in a fight or when you jump on someone."
"Since when-"
"Jarvis has many many security clips."
"I hate you all!" Evie called up.
"Just don't let it take on a life of it's own and you'll be fine."
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Muspelheim fell eventually. It was inevitable, but had been holding so strong that the news was all the more appalling for its shock. It was like a tsunami spreading out from an earthquake's epicentre, every part of it painful and terrible with no source of comfort or place to hide.
Asgard had done its best in the realm's final moments. With the home of the Gods habitable – albeit still a ruin – Heimdall had been able to snatch up a few hundred refugees in the last few moments. A mere few hundred of Eldjötnar and three of the great dragons that had been so plentiful were the only reminders of a populous and proud nation.
There had been an Infinity Stone there. They only knew this in the moments that Thanos destroyed the realm – the destruction taking on an entirely new form from what had been seen previously. He had the time stone in his possession.
It had taken over a year and a half for the place to finally fall; a year and a half for the remaining realms to watch and learn. Observing what patterns they could, trying to find all they could to defend against the threat that would eventually be on their doorstep.
There was a lull for a few months beyond that. Thanos was either regrouping or learning how to use the stones now in his possession. Neither were a comforting thought.
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"Möðhhyyyyyyyyy!"
Loki rolled his eyes as Tony snorted with laughter. "Do you think I should hide?"
"That would be mean."
"It is getting to the point that I don't care if I'm -" He was cut off as their youngest daughter came running into the room in floods of tears. "What's happened this time, Hope?" The three year old clung to his legs wailing and her brother appeared in the doorway looking equal parts confused and worried.
"I didn't!" He protested, before his sister was able to get a word out.
"Didn't what?"
"Brandir p-p-pushed me!" You would have thought that the world had ended. Loki gently but firmly disentangled her from his leg.
"Hope, are you hurt?"
"He pushed-"
"Are you hurt?"
Her face turned to an angry pout, complete with quivering bottom lip, as she shook her head.
"Okay. Good. Brandir? What happened?"
The little boy shrugged. "I dunno."
Tony sat back with a large grin as his husband carefully interrogated the toddlers until determining that Hope had tripped over one of the toys Brandir had been playing with and had instantly decided that this was a declaration of war. At least she had decided to tell on him rather than fight back. Loki made certain she wasn't hurt, explained again what an accident was and that it wasn't her brother's fault, then sent the two off. Jarvis quietly corroborated the events after they left.
"Was Evie this bad?"
"She didn't have siblings to fight with."
"But did she complain about absolutely everything like this?"
It was an easy question and Tony had to admit that, no, Evie had been quite a laid-back toddler. Rather like Brandir. Hope was still an absolute nightmare.
She slept better than as a baby, but still cried as the drop of a hat. Saw something she didn't like? Cry. Decided her brother had a toy she wanted? Cry. The weather was wrong? Cry. Her dress wasn't an exact shade of yellow? Cry.
Toddlers cry; they're well known for it, but Hope managed to take it to new levels. Tony had caught an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras one evening and suddenly felt he recognised the little divas on the TV. It wasn't even like she was spoilt. Well, she was, but it hadn't had the same effect on Evie or Brandir.
"I don't know where she gets it from!" Loki sat heavily on the sofa, sinking his head into his hands. "I have never had a child who was…"
"This much of a wuss?"
"You said that and not me. I mean, Sleipnir was clingy; he didn't sleep in his own room until he was the equivalent of about ten, but he didn't whinge about every little thing like this."
There was a loud snort of laughter from the corner of the room and both looked over to see Thor sat by the window, supposedly reading.
"What?!" Loki snapped.
"You forget I am older than you. I can tell you exactly who your daughter takes after and believe me; she is a carbon copy!"
The God of Mischief scowled. "That is an unfair comparison and you know it. I was another species trapped inside a strange body; of course I was a grumpy child."
"Bother, you would cry if the birds flew in the wrong direction. That has nothing to do with latent Jötunn comorbidities."
Loki could have carried the argument on further, but instead his brother's words brought a pensive frown to his face. "It may have, though. I do not recall enough of my early years to know how I felt, but if I was indeed like Hope maybe I did feel wrong in some way and couldn't express it properly."
"You're saying she's not just a needy kid then? There might be something wrong?" Stark looked alarmed at the thought of his daughter not being as healthy as he'd believed.
"Not wrong as such. Do you recall how she overheated so much as a baby? It may be something similar." Loki bit his lip in thought. "I wish I knew more about Jötunn child development. Or anything at all for that matter. She's obviously not happy, but can't articulate it."
"I'd suggest bringing in a child psychologist, but y'know, alien hybrid and all that."
"I can make a trip to Jötunnheim some point soon. There are people there who could maybe shed some light on this."
It said a lot of how things had changed in their lives that a casual trip to Jötunnheim didn't raise any eyebrows, and even Thor merely nodded in agreement.
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The seed bank was Tony's new favourite project. He'd found it surprisingly easy to use his prior knowledge of weaponry for the idea. After all, he needed ways to store fragile items in very certain conditions and in great numbers – all in all pretty similar to something like the Jericho missile system. Okay, granted, the seeds were less likely to blow up if something didn't work but the initial concepts were sound.
Since things were going quicker with the flora than the fauna that was where his efforts were going, but he was keeping in mind some sort of storage solution for the incoming DNA as well. Or embryos. Would embryos be easier? It was certainly the Jurassic Park approach, but he couldn't believe it was the best way to go. Still, he'd leave that until it started being a more pressing problem.
"How is it going?"
He jumped. He always jumped when Loki suddenly materialised behind him like that.
"It was going quite well. You do love the creepy-sneaky thing, don't you?"
"It is literally part of my job description." Loki leant over his shoulder to read what had been written so far.
"Flash freezing?"
"It's an idea." Tony waved his hand and the entire project minimised. "One of many." His husband straightened up again now that there was nothing to see. "Why are you down here? Have I missed dinner again?"
"No, you have time."
Tony was about to ask what brought him down there, but then the trickster's hands grasped his shoulders; a warm weight that kneaded into the hunched muscles. He hadn't appreciated how long he'd been sat there until the soreness started to be teased out of him. "Where are the kids at?"
"Evie's gone to see a film with Steve; Jarvis is attempting to teach the twins their letters."
"So you're saying we're child-free for a few hours?" He could see enough of Loki's reflection in the blank screens to watch a smile spread easily over the trickster's face.
"I might well be inferring that."
"So we get to watch what we want on the TV without being forced to turn over to My Little Pony halfway through?!" Tony spun his chair, which forced Loki's hands from his shoulders, but meant that they were now face to face.
"Well I suppose that is an option, although I had something else in mind." It was already pretty clear what the prince was thinking of when he lifted a knee to rest on his husband's chair, slipping it between Tony's knees. The engineer raised an eyebrow.
"And what makes you think I'd be interested in such bawdy affairs?! I have work to do!"
"It can wait." Loki leant forwards to whisper the three words into the man's ear, hands finding Tony's shoulders again. His hair was loose, an added caress to match the promise. "I can think of better ways to occupy your time."
"Oh no, certainly not." Tony pushed him back firmly, although his exaggerated tone and actions made his real take on the situation clear. "I will not be party to such sinful exploits when I have something so important to be doing."
Loki's eyes had lit up with malicious glee as he realised that his husband was going to continue the play and make him work for it. He wasn't quite clear with the character Tony was going with – it seemed to be a messy combination of virgin priest and busy scientist – but was happy to go along with whatever he was given. Having had his knee dislodged he went all in and straddled his husband's legs – a slightly ungainly movement which meant having to vanish the arm rests of the chair.
"I think sinful exploits are exactly what you should be party to right now."
Tony went to push him away again and he snatched up the man's wrists in one hand – a rare display of his not-inconsiderable physical strength. Stark's surprised yelp wasn't entirely faked.
"Maybe we should compromise." He forced Tony's arms up, leaning in close so that the words were breathed across the man's lips. "You keep working and I…" He tiptoed the fingers of his other hand down Stark's chest. "…amuse myself with you at the same time?"
Tony's pupil's had dilated –Loki's words were having the desired effect – but he attempted to rally. "You think I could ever agree to that?! You…You…"
"You've used 'sinful' a few times now."
"You licentious creature!"
Loki drew back slightly. "Ooh, nice." Then he laughed.
"Hey, you can't break character now!"
Tony's absolute indignation made the trickster laugh harder, letting go of the man's wrists and dropping his head down onto his husband's shoulder.
"Sorry. Licentious was too much. I haven't heard anyone say that out loud since the nineteenth century."
"You were the one trying to dictate my vocabulary choices!"
"You were floundering! And what character were you even going for?"
"Over-worked scientist?"
"Came across as a choir-boy with a science fair the next day."
"Ah. Not so sexy then."
"Not particularly."
Tony laughed as well. "Fair enough. Well, if we're not attempting the weirdass roleplay can you please get off me? My legs are going to sleep."
"I could take offence at that." Loki rose to his feet with a smirk and re-instigated the armrests that he'd vanished. "Am I to take it that my advances are being rejected then?"
"I think I could still be persuaded. Just, perhaps more conventionally?"
The trickster laughed again. "Conventionally? Tony Stark wishes to be conventional?"
"You know what I mean!" Stark spun his chair back to face the desk and pulled the screens back up. "Sometimes being normal is so outlandish for us it's kinda special." He flicked through a few of the seed catalogue titles again. "I mean, look at this! I'm currently preparing for an apocalyptic event. None of this is normal!"
"You're Ironman; the day you said those words was the day you lost any and all right to this normalcy you suddenly appear to crave." So saying, Loki slid in front of the man, completely blocking access to the screens as he sat on the desk. "Take your mind out of the botany for a while, hmm?" He waved a hand, minimising the displays without looking.
"Botany is the new sexy."
"It really isn't. You're one step away from segueing into genetic manipulation and then it will be Little Shop of Horrors all over the labs and Dr Banner will be most displeased."
"I wasn't going to-"
"Please don't lie to the God of lies. It just makes you look stupid. And you are far from stupid."
Tony grinned and rolled his chair forwards, the edge of the desk pressing into his stomach. This meant that Loki's legs were now framing him – something he was hardly going to complain about. "I don't know that much about genetic manipulation to be fair. The best I could probably do is make a pot plant glow in the dark. I imagine you could do a lot worse." He accentuated the 'you' with both hands running up his husbands thighs to find Loki's hips.
"Mmhm, I might have played around with some magical hybrids before now."
"Do tell."
The tricksters smirk had demonic written all over it as he leant forwards to whisper in Stark's ear. "Let's just say the Japanese weren't entirely original with their tentacle hentai."
It was possible to see Tony's brain actually shut down at that comment as all of the available mental images caused an overload.
"You seem shocked."
"Just…processing. I…wow. Seriously? Are you pulling my leg here?"
"Would I do that?"
"See, now I don't know if you actually did it or not, but the mental images will stay forever!" Stark squeezed his eyes shut and his expression settled into a grin. "But I won't complain given my imagination is pretty awesome."
"I am sitting right here and you're visualising me instead." Loki leant forwards to drape his arms around his husbands neck, lips brushing up against the man's cheek. "Maybe stick to reality? And do something with those hands that have succeeded in reaching my groin and then inexplicably stopped."
Tony grinned and did as he was told.
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Rhodey and Bucky had become an unlikely duo. Having both overcome catastrophic injuries, despite the very different circumstances, there was a shared understanding. They were also both in the unique positions of having their best friends branch out and find other friends. Bucky was still used to Steve hanging off of him as a social crutch, and Rhodes had looked on keeping Tony out of trouble as a second career. With Steve a happily entrenched member of the Avengers and Tony sober, a father and married, they both rather felt out of a self-assigned job.
In most ways this manifested with the two of them watching terrible sitcoms together with beer and pizza, but occasionally when the tower got a little too domestic they went and caught a show in town. It was something Rhodes would never have really considered doing – he hadn't thought he was one for theatre – but it was the norm for Bucky who had grown up in a time when cinema was still a novelty. They were some of the least recognisable of the Avengers so there was little chance they'd be recognised during Hamilton. Or Frozen. Rhodey had insisted on seeing Frozen.
"I can't believe you made me sit through that."
"I heard you singing along."
They were ambling along the sidewalk – as much as two soldiers amble anyway – trying to find a place for a late lunch.
"I was singing under duress."
"Like hell Elsa!" Rhodes elbowed him in the side. "You knew every damn word!"
Bucky blocked the second dig with his bionic arm, hitting his companion sharply on the funny bone and causing a yelp. It had taken some time for him to grow used to the improvements Tony had made to the limb, but only in a good way. For a start from the elbow down the mechanics were covered in a silicon sheathe that matched his own skin tone and made it look like natural flesh. The response times were as good as Stark had promised too. An unexpected addition was a system Tony had had chance to perfect with Jarvis so was able to try integrating into a human prosthetic: sensations and feeling.
It wasn't perfect, and had taken the Winter Soldier a long time to get used to, but he was able to feel certain sensations in the limb again. The impulses that were sent back to his muscles weren't identical to a natural response so he had had to learn what each one meant, but with practice it had slowly grown easier. It was still in the beginning stages; moderate to extreme temperatures and pressure mostly. He could now tell how hard he was gripping or pressing against something.
Tony hadn't coded for pain. That hadn't seemed fair and so in that respect the arm was as strong and functional as the Hydra creation had been and still allowed for feats of super human strength. And yes, Bucky had scaled the tower just to test it out.
There had been other things – Stark was a genius with too many ideas after all – but Bucky had vetoed all of them. He wanted a functional arm; it didn't need to have wifi capabilities.
"I'm hungry, wanna grab some food?" Rhodes consistently thought with his stomach, and his companion was getting used to it.
"We ate before the show."
"Yeah, and? That was a whole four hours ago! Look, there's a stand; I'm gonna grab something."
As the man made a bee-line for the food truck Bucky pulled his phone out and turned it back on again with the expectation of a slew of group messages. When nothing important was going on there tended to be an onslaught of bad jokes and memes between them all.
However, as the phone came back to life the notifications didn't appear. The screen went red, a large warning message covering the whole thing.
"James!"
James seemed to be noticing something was up as well, but not through his own technology. Rather the food vendor was completely ignoring the queue of people in favour of checking her mobile. A quick sweep of the immediate area showed the effect slowly beginning to spread as news alerts made people stop and look and others wondered in turn what was happening.
Rather than get his own phone out Rhodes jogged back over to Bucky who in turn was looking at the small screen in shock.
"Dude, what's happening?"
The soldier just shoved the phone at him. There were two messages on the large screen; one from a news broadcaster and the other from Fury.
Unidentified attackers kill hundreds in Uttar Pradesh.
And underneath:
They're here. It's begun.
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