Tony skidded to a stop in the main foyer of the tower where the others had congregated.
"Loki's gone to check that it's them." He gasped the words out.
"Fury sounded sure."
"Yeah, well can't hurt to make doubly sure."
They had no information beyond the two lines of the text message. Hundreds dead and Fury's assumption about who had done it. No clue how people had died, no clue how many attackers, nothing.
Social media was a mess of rumour and conspiracy with no hard facts. The meagre footage coming out of the area showed little more than smoke and screaming that didn't confirm a damn thing. The news channels had even less detail and even more speculation about what was going on. Everything from a gas explosion to a terror attack was being flouted. A few had suggested an alien attack – remembering the Chitauri from all those years ago – but it wasn't being taken seriously yet.
The questions were running through the air amongst the Avengers with no one daring to voice them.
Is it them?
Is this it?
What do we do now?
"We need to call someone." Sam had been repeating the statement since they'd received the news. "UN, NATO, someone; tell them what we know. We need to tell them."
"Tell them what? We don't know anything yet."
"We know that there's an army of angry aliens ready and waiting to destroy the planet! Even if this isn't them it might well be the next time!"
"Feel free to try and prove that, because unless we have proof we'll be laughed out of the place." Tony had had enough dealings with the UN and NATO to know what he was talking about. He was a ball of nervous energy, pacing the foyer. This meant weaving around the other Avengers who had congregated there.
"Sir, Loki is incoming." Jarvis barely finished the sentence before the trickster was appearing in front of them, his landing causing a blast of dirt in all directions. Tony ignored the mess, focussed instead on the question they all wanted an answer to.
"Well?!"
Loki was covered in what looked like building dust. In some places blood had mixed to create a congealed gummy paste that caked the fine leather work. He banished it all with a wave of his hand, leaving a handful of fine scratches down his face and arms that would never have produced the quantities of blood he'd been wearing a moment ago.
Someone else had been bleeding, a lot.
"It was them."
"You're certain?" It was Steve who questioned, ever the military mind to double down on facts. He received an icy glare for his troubles.
"Of course I'm certain! Do you think I just spent the past two hours there sight-seeing, Captain?!" The trickster looked around at the assembled group. "Death toll is currently at two hundred and thirty nine. I stayed to pull survivors out of the rubble and did what I could in the field hospital to keep the number from climbing." He gesticulated angrily towards an empty part of the foyer and with a crack a huge carcass tumbled out of nothingness onto the marble. "And I brought that back with me so we could have a look at one of the damn things up close without it trying to kill us!"
It was the first time most of the group had seen one of the creatures in person, and the first time any of them had seen one without it being in the process of trying to kill them.
The beast was far taller than a human; possibly taller than the Hulk, although that was hard to tell with it crumpled on the floor. The mottled grey hide was as covered in dust as Loki had been and despite the many cracks in its skin it hadn't appeared to bleed.
Sam was the first to step over to it, kicking the head back so that the face was on display. The mouth was an over-sized maw, and although the many teeth weren't sharp, they were blatantly designed to grind and gnaw and destroy. A large cluster of tiny eyes glared into nothingness from the centre of what would be its forehead, multifaceted and sparkling balefully.
"Did you kill this?"
"Yes. It was wounded so I killed and concealed it before the authorities could get a handle on what was happening. I thought it wouldn't do for people to panic."
"Any more than they already were panicking you mean." Steve was now examining the beast as well , lifting one of the six huge legs and flexing the joints to see the manoeuvrability. "Do these things use weapons? There's an opposable thumb here." It was the front limb, and of the three digits one did mimic the joint in a human.
Loki flicked his fingers again and a piece of machinery flashed into existence next to the carcass. "It fires what looked like plasma, and cut through solid steel like it was paper. We saw the same on the other realms but this is the first time we've managed to get hold of one."
"Why? If they're so hard to kill, no offence, but how did you manage to? And how are we only now seeing one of their weapons?" Steve's little 'no offence' comment was slightly too flippant to be taken seriously
"Because there were only five of them, they were retreating when I got there and this one was injured by what looked like friendly fire from a comrade."
"Five. So this was what? Reconnaissance?"
"Seems to be that way."
"And we definitely don't have an Infinity Stone for them to find?"
Tony had to admire Loki's direct eye-contact and honest tone. "Earth doesn't have an Infinity Stone." God of Lies indeed.
With everyone else looking at the dead monster the weapons manufacturer went over to have a look at the gun that Loki had retrieved. It was heavy and ungainly – not suited to human biology or size – but Stark could see how that could be adapted. He'd looked into plasma technology before but hadn't been successful. However, there were some pieces on this that made him think about reopening those old projects. The trigger mechanism was unusual though, again suited to a strange biology but he could see how it worked…
The resulting beam of plasma cut through the two suits that decorated the foyer and left a smoking gash across the marble.
"Huh. Well, I was meaning to remodel."
"How about we do that without the imminent risk of death to everyone else?"
"Yeah, yeah." Tony was already focussed on the gun again. "You guys let me know if anything else happens. I'm gonna be in my lab…"
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It wasn't as easy as it looked to reproduce the plasma weapons down to something humans could use. The technology required some very rare and unique materials that Stark didn't have to hand and that delayed things straight off the bat. It was also going to be very difficult to shrink down some of the components given what they were made of.
Tony always did love a challenge.
As a team they had agreed not to speak to the media or general public just yet so as not to incite panic. It also allowed them time to work out their own game plan on the assumption that the creatures would be back.
That was another thing discussed; it was beginning to sound very pretentious saying 'the creatures' every time they wanted to talk about them and a better name was needed. It had been easier with the Chitauri – they had been vocal and had told people what their species was called. These things didn't communicate in any known way, and weren't a known species but rather something Thanos had created.
Therefore it was fair game to name them themselves.
This had led to some lively discussion as to how to refer to these new opponents. Quite a few suggestions were vetoed under Steve's rules regarding language – particularly if the twins were likely to hear these conversations – and others just sounded ridiculous.
Eventually they settled on one of Rhodey's ideas, which also outed him as a closet Warhammer 40K fan, and called the creatures Orks.
It still wasn't to everyone's liking, but was far better than what they'd been working with.
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When Loki finally returned to Jötunnheim the Asgardian's were already in the process of leaving the icy realm for home. Odin confirmed that they had been having similar isolated attacks and there was a definite sense of desperation in the air. The Jötnar were evacuating the young and old along with the Aesir.
"We cannot predict where they will strike, and so far have had little effect in fighting them off."
"It's the same on Earth. The humans will begin to panic soon." Loki had Hope balanced on his hip, happily cocooned in a bubble of warmth to protect her from the atmosphere and she banged on his chest with a small fist.
"Want to get down!"
"Not now, Wriggle, it's not safe."
"I'll be safe."
"In a minute."
She hadn't taken to Odin yet, but given her general demeanour with most people Loki wasn't surprised. They were lucky at times she tolerated her own parents. However, her interest in the snowy realm around them was more than apparent.
"How many times have those creatures made an appearance here? Earth received a single reconnaissance mission a few days ago." Loki said grimly. "A couple of hundred dead, but it wasn't the proper start to a battle that we've seen on other realms."
"We've had some unusual activity a few thousand miles from here. There was little living out there, so we don't conclusively know it was them, but it's a reasonable guess."
"So they're searching now. They've run out of known Stones and there are still two left."
"And we don't know where either of them are either." Odin ran a tired hand down his face. "This is a nightmarish situation."
"Would it help if we did know the locations?"
The king's gaze went steely, focussing hard on his son. Likewise Loki was suddenly preoccupied with Hope.
"And do you know where any might be, Loki?"
Millennia of practice allowed the Trickster God to raise his gaze again and look Odin in the eye. "No, father. But the humans are discussing trying to find them. I doubt how useful it would be to have one anyway. Surely it would just make the holder the next target."
Odin didn't look entirely convinced by the explanation, but nodded. "There are none beyond the Titan himself who could wield a stone so all we could do with one is hide it, and that invites attack."
"And we can't destroy them?"
The king looked unimpressed. "You are more knowledgeable on this matter than I, you know they're indestructible."
Loki nodded. He had been pretty certain that he was correct on that matter, but it never hurt to double check.
"I need to find Skadi again; I need to speak with her about this little one." He bounced Hope a little and she gave him a small smile in return. He quickly gave his father the rundown of their concerns and suspicions.
"Thor is right – you were unhappy when you were young. We guessed it was to do with your heritage, but there was no obvious cause. You weren't obviously overheated, in pain or unwell. You were just unhappy all the time."
"That sounds like Hope." Loki sighed. "And now we have to split our attention to these attacks when she should be the focus."
"And her brother doesn't display the same problems?"
"He's fine. And Evie was when she was this age." The trickster tilted his chin back towards the group of Aesir. "She's gone to speak to Sleipnir if you want to say hello."
Odin's single eye crinkled into a smile at the mention of his granddaughter. "I will do that."
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If Skadi seemed pleased to see Loki again it was nothing compared to her joy at meeting Hope. She had evidently not seen such a small child in a long time.
"…And she's just so miserable. Constantly. We try to keep her cool, but it doesn't seem to do much." Loki had his daughter on his lap but she was displaying a lot of interest in the icy room. "I don't know if she's in pain, uncomfortable, if we're doing something wrong? I just don't know."
"Do you remember much of your early childhood?"
The trickster had to admit that he didn't. Not for any terrible reasons, but simply that his brain preferred to retain knowledge over what toys he liked as a toddler.
"I remember mine." Skadi smiled fondly as Hope began fussing about wanting to get down. "As I told you; I grew up on Asgard. They did their best, but I was always uncomfortably warm no matter what anyone did. It was never painful, never impaired me in anyway, I just felt rather miserable about it. And when I was very little there was no way to articulate that."
"Thor and Father have told me I was a miserable child when very young." Loki pressed a kiss onto his squirming daughter's hair. "We thought we were doing enough to keep her cool; do you think she's inherited more Jötunn characteristics than human then?"
"A different mix than your other children, maybe. You've been steadfastly refusing to let her explore here; maybe you should see what happens."
"I can't keep a shielding spell over her if I put her down. She's only little –"
"Your older daughter is immune to Jötunnheim's cold, is she not?"
"She is also seventeen and able to make these decisions for herself."
Skadi laughed. "You want answers. What are you afraid of?"
"Possibly what that answer is." Loki moved his attention back to his wriggling daughter. "What do you want to go and look at, Hope?"
The child stopped fighting him and pointed at the spare icy chair. "I can sit on my own!"
It would have been simpler to set her down on it, but Loki couldn't bring himself to remove the temperature protection charm just like that. Instead, he allowed the child to climb down off his lap. The spell broke as she left contact with him and stepped over to the chair.
He'd known. He'd known from the moment Thor had planted the thought of why she was so unhappy in New York's climate, but seeing it happen hurt more than he'd thought.
As Hope stepped onto the ice her little arms and face began to flush blue. She made it all the way to the chair that had captured her attention before she noticed; stopping and staring down at her hands. Then she giggled.
Hope didn't laugh. Usually they were lucky to get a smile out of her.
And here she was: skin bright blue in the frigid air and giggling as she examined her hands.
"Möðhy! Looks!" When she didn't immediately get a response the girl ran back over, beaming as her parents had never seen before. "Looks! I'm Elsa!"
The link to Disney, of all things, was what made Loki actually respond. He reached out to hold his daughter's tiny blue hands, letting the colour wash across his own skin too. She looked so absolutely delighted, comfortable; and happy in her own skin in a way he could never be.
"Look at you, darling." The words were a whisper.
The blue which suited Loki so well looked slightly out of place on the toddler. Jötnar had black hair or none at all – there were no subtleties of shade. Hope's mouse-brown hair contrasted oddly, but not unpleasantly. Her eyes didn't change either. Over the three years her eyes had darkened to match Tony's dark brown and now stood out from her blue face possibly more than red would have done.
"We match!" She announced happily, patting Loki's blue cheek. It had been Tony's insistence that he occasionally wore his true skin around the twins, so that they weren't frightened of it, and now he had never been more grateful. "Match, match, match."
"Yes, we match."
"I'm gonna go 'splore!" And just like that she was running off, eager to finally look around the room now that she was free to wander. No thought given to the fact that she had just completely changed skin colour, no thought given to the tiny raised lines all over her exposed arms. She didn't care.
"You match." Skadi's tone was amused but kind.
"Apparently so." Loki brushed a hand across his eyes quickly. "I suppose I should not have been surprised."
"Is it that terrible?"
"I was raised to believe Jötunn were terrible beasts. It has taken me long enough to come to terms with myself." The mixed emotions passed across his face and he pressed a hand to his mouth as Hope ran past again, chattering to herself. "I've never seen her so happy…"
And she was happy. Not crying, or whinging, or clinging, but actively engaging with the environment in a way she never did at home. At home they were lucky if she played for more than a few minutes before getting upset and needing a hug. Loki's mind was already racing through the possibilities: she still didn't sleep through the night, was difficult to settle, an extremely picky eater…
"She's been such a difficult and unhappy child. If we'd just worked it out earlier-"
"She has not been in pain, and she is healthy. You saw there was a problem and you have come to me for help. You've done the right thing for her, Loki."
The trickster nodded slightly, still staring at the small girl haring around the room. "If only I'd thought to bring her here earlier…"
"You weren't to know. And as long as she is kept cool back at home she should continue to be happy. This has done her no harm and is easily remedied."
That was true at least, although it didn't go very far in making Loki feel better. "What would you say-"
He broke off with a frown as there was a sudden dull roar and the ceiling shook ice down on them. "What was that?"
"I do not know." Skadi looked equally confused. "We are not known for quakes here-" She was cut off as the room shook again and this time there was the noticeable sound of an explosion. "An attack?"
"Thanos' army!" Loki didn't need to call to Hope; with the sound of detonations echoing around the room she was already running back to him.
"Where are your older children?" Skadi had risen to her feet, her clawed hand gripping the table for support as she looked up at the ceiling again. More ice was shaken loose over them.
"Outside somewhere. I don't know where." The trickster had pulled his daughter up into his arms and she was clinging with her arms around his neck. "I need to find them! Will you be-?"
"I can look after myself, young Loki. Go, find them."
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The explosions were echoing through the halls – ice really reverberated. Given that the building was still standing it was highly likely it was a reconnaissance like the ones on Earth, but that hardly mattered given the damage being done.
Loki flashed between the rooms, only staying long enough to ascertain Evie and Sleipnir weren't there before moving on to the next. Everywhere was chaos; lumps of ice falling from the ceiling and smashing into crystal shards across the floors, bellowing Jötunn's panicking and shoving past each other as they tried to run.
"Outside, Loki! North west courtyard!" Odin must have been looking out for him to be able to yell the message across the room. The king was leading the remaining Asgardian's, although Loki only caught a brief glance as he followed the directions. He didn't know the palace well enough – if at all – to know if said courtyard was defended or not.
Hope was silent in his arms, red eyes huge in her face as she stared at the chaos. She didn't make any complaint to the spinning and swirling darkness as they appeared and disappeared through the halls until Loki found his way to the outside.
He had held out hope that the creatures had focussed their attack on another part of the complex, but it wasn't the case.
They were greeted by absolute pandemonium. There were four of the Orks in the courtyard, dead Jötnar and Aesir scattered underfoot and more trying to fight their way out of the enclosed space that had become a killing ground.
"Evie! Sleipnir!"
"Möðhy!" Sleipnir was by one of the few doorways, trying desperately to kick the mound of bodies out of the way to re-establish a point of evacuation. He had to duck as a beam of plasma shot over his head and melted part of the wall behind him. Seeing a weak spot he immediately spun and kicked all four back legs into the partially melted ice, bringing a portion of it down.
Those nearest made a break for the suddenly-opened passage, anyone too far were caught in the beams of plasma that immediately aimed at the escapees. Sleipnir had smartly backed away so he wasn't in the direct line of fire, and as he did so Loki caught sight of Evie shielded behind the horses' large body.
With Hope balanced on one hip and arcs of plasma beaming across the ruined courtyard Loki had no way of reaching his son and daughter. He saw Sleipnir turn and say something to Evie, and her nod in response.
"Don't!"
The horse had made sure he was between the girl and the Orks, shielding her as best he could. With Hope in his arms Loki was fairly limited in what he was able to do in response; he hadn't been targeted in the few moments he had been in the courtyard but drawing any attention to his presence would put his baby daughter at risk as well as the older two.
"Stay there!" It took all of a second to teleport from where he was across the gap to his two children.
Sometimes a second is all it takes.
Loki landed, a hand already outreached to grab Sleipnir's mane as he kept Hope balanced on his hip. Evie dived the couple of steps to reach him and as she did so a burst of plasma arced across the space.
It came in at an angle, high to low, burning a deep line across Sleipnir's back. He bucked with a shrill scream, four back legs throwing up a cloud of bloodied ice. The noise and frantic movement took Loki's attention for a split second so it was then Hope's wail of alarm that warned him before Evie suddenly fell into him. In the brief moment as he reached out to steady his daughter Loki glanced at her and then saw why she had stumbled.
The plasma that had hit Sleipnir across the back on its way down had hit Evie smack in the abdomen, leaving a gaping hole going straight through.
Aware that his son was also injured, but also that it was a more superficial wound Loki threw Hope up onto the horse's back and caught Evie in the same movement. With his hand on Sleipnir's side and his daughter in his arms he pulled them all into the teleportation spell.
Since entering the courtyard not even a full minute had passed.
Loki didn't acknowledge the snow becoming tiles under his feet, nor the freezing wind turning to sun.
"Jarvis!"
He left Sleipnir and Hope on the balcony, teleporting straight down to the medical bay. Evie was completely limp in his arms, a dead weight as he laid her down on the nearest bed. She was barely breathing, tiny gasps that weren't nearly enough. There was no blood – the plasma had cauterised everything, so it was the shock and damage to her internal organs that were threatening her life.
"I've got her arm; you're better at this, you do the main wound."
Loki glanced up in surprise to see Merlin standing on the other side of the bed, already pulling the scraps of fabric back from where Evie's arm was barely still attached.
"How did you-?"
"Jarvis."
The trickster just accepted the answer, not having the brain space to think about anything else. Main blood vessels, main nerve branches, spinal cord. Her diaphragm was intact, but only just, and below it the major organs were either jellified or gone entirely.
He had never healed this much on one person, in one go.
"What's the timeline, sir?" Jarvis sounded as calm as always as the question came out of one of the wall speakers.
"It's been…I don't know. Minutes. Two, maybe three."
"All attention to the spinal cord and blood vessels then, sir."
Loki had assumed that, but it was reassuring to know that he'd been right. He had long stopped protesting that he wasn't an expert in medical spellwork – enough practice meant that he was now proficient.
Jarvis had appeared in body and was sorting out IV lines. Merlin was presumably saving Evie's arm – and from the brief glance Loki had managed it was going to take a lot to save it.
"Evie!" Tony's horrified cry was expected given Jarvis must have notified him immediately. Bruce was directly behind the inventor as they entered the med bay at a run and grabbed Stark's arm to prevent him from getting in the sorcerers way. "Is she okay? Evie!"
Jarvis moved a little, meaning that Tony had a clear look at his daughter's injuries and he fell silent.
"Stay there, do not interfere." Bruce managed to keep his voice steady as he pushed Stark back and joined the sorcerers and droid at the bed. He took over from Jarvis in setting up the medical equipment which allowed the droid to move to Merlin's side and begin directing the younger magic-user.
Merlin was clearly not medically minded.
"Master Merlin, you have just attached the radial nerve to the medial nerve. That's not going to work."
The gentle recrimination would have usually made Loki smirk but he had no attention to spare. The blast wound had gone straight through Evie's abdomen, leaving a fist sized hole through her stomach and out of her back. The trickster could fix it all, but it was the pure amount at once that was the concern. The lack of blood ordinarily would have made things easier but plasma burns and everything in its path had been cauterised into a congealed mess.
"Spinal cord?" Bruce asked quietly.
"I'm aware. I need to build it back from the nerve branches that remain." Loki glanced at his son. "Merlin, I need help here."
The sorcerer looked up, tight lines of tension drawn across his face. "Her arm isn't finished."
"You've saved it?"
"I think so-"
"Leave the rest to Jarvis."
Under Loki's direction, with input from Banner, mother and son carefully rebuilt anything that had been in the path of the plasma blast.
"I thought you can't regrow stuff." Tony's voice was tight and choked. He had sidled closer and was now stood at the foot of the bed, protectively holding Evie's ankle. It was the closest he could get without being in the way.
"Not aged injuries. It's different with fresh." The trickster wasn't technically hands-on. He was twisting his hands through complicated patterns a few inches above Evie's abdomen; golden threads spinning from his long fingers and laying out in intricate shapes.
"Will she…?"
"She's going to be fine."
Merlin's craft was less refined, rough and haphazard but doing what was needed. The threads of healing that he spun were the same gold but frayed and splintered. He was keeping himself to the edges, piecing together organs and muscle but leaving major blood vessels and nerves to his mother.
It took nearly an hour.
It was only when Evie was stable did the warlock and trickster step away from her. There were still silvery scars running across her stomach where the wound had been and Jarvis had insisted in setting her arm in a cast. However, Bruce had completed a quick ultrasound of her internal organs and deemed everything to be back where it should be and in one piece. The blood supply to her lower body seemed to be functioning normally, although they would only know if her nerve function remained when she woke up.
Despite – for a full surgery – it had taken very little time, Merlin slumped into the single chair in the room the moment he was indicated to step away from his sister, exhaustion drawing harsh lines down his face. Loki didn't seem as drained, older and better practiced as he was. Instead he was running his hands through the air over Evie's whole body; checking and double checking everything he could.
"Pulse rate and breathing are completely normal, I don't think there's anything else you can do right now, Loki." Bruce said quietly.
"I need to do something."
"You can do 'something'." Tony hadn't moved from his place by his daughter's foot and there was ice in his tone. "You can start by explaining what the hell happened!"
"I would have thought that was obvious! Jötunnheim was raided and-"
"You said she'd be safe with you! You promised she'd be safe!"
"I had no idea they would attack! How could I have known?"
For a comparatively short man Stark had the enviable ability to fill a whole room with his personality. And now he was filling the small medical bay with fury. "How could you have known?! They literally just did a recon here! Did it not occur to you they could do the same elsewhere? Why did you let her go off on her own?!"
"She was with Sleipnir-"
"Who is a horse! He shouldn't have had to be responsible for her!"
Bruce cleared his throat, trying to bring the tension back down. "Maybe this isn't the time or place –"
"This is exactly the time and place! Evie could have died-!"
"Do you think I don't know that?!"
Tony stumbled a couple of steps back with a cry and there was a warning snarl from Bruce. Flames were spilling across the floor from Loki's feet, wrapping up his legs and twisting through his hair like serpents. The fabric privacy curtains pushed back against the wall next to him caught light.
"Loki…"
"Möðhr!"
The prince's attention moved to his son; Merlin now back on his feet and both hands out ready for a defensive spell if necessary. Behind him Bruce was flat against the wall, breathing deeply as he fought for control.
"Möðhr, you're angry and that's fine, but this isn't the place."
Loki's gaze moved back to his husband, catching the fear on Tony's face. Fear for Evie and what might have happened, and in the moment fear of him as well.
"I'm going to see to Sleipnir." He banished the flames with a flick of his hand – leaving scorch marks on the curtains – and shouldered roughly past Stark to leave the room.
"My gods this family is insane!" Merlin slumped back into his chair with a groan.
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"Evie?" Thor was out on the balcony, Hope balanced on his hip as he waited with Sleipnir.
"She'll be okay. Sleipnir, how bad is it?"
The horse was still on his feet, which was a very good sign, but he was shaking.
"Technically superficial, realistically hurts like you wouldn't believe." He attempted humour, but it fell flat. "At least it's not bleeding?"
"Not much of a silver lining." The burn took up a large portion of Sleipnir's back, deep and vicious. Loki hovered his hands over it, letting the healing start work. "I'm sorry I couldn't help immediately."
"Understandable." Sleipnir turned his head, looking back over his shoulder at his mother. "Is Evie going to be alright? There was an instant when I thought…"
"I thought so too." For a brief moment Loki pressed his forehead against the horse's warm side. "But she's okay. Merlin's here and we saved her." He started when he felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced back over his shoulder to see Thor still there.
"You did a good job, brother."
The trickster smiled grimly. "At least I can no longer complain about not being very good at healing spells. With all this practice I am becoming most adept."
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." It was clear he wasn't, but Thor wisely left the subject alone.
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It was nearly an hour before Evie started to come round. Tony had stayed sat with her. He didn't know where Loki was and at that point his husband wasn't his priority. Jarvis had informed him that Hope and Sleipnir were okay, but beyond that he didn't know what else was going on.
"Dad…?" Evie's quiet voice made him look up from the floor.
"Birdy!" He pulled the chair closer to her bed. "Hey kiddo, you scared the life outta me!"
The girl frowned up at the ceiling, confusion moving across her face. "We were attacked…?"
"Yeah, on Jötunnheim. You were badly knocked about but your mum and brother have fixed you up."
The prompt seemed to help and Evie moved her non-injured hand to her stomach. "I remember a little I think. We were out in the courtyard…" She looked around, her gaze taking in the IV line and the cast on her arm. "How bad was it?"
Tony smiled slightly. "Abdomen, through and through. Pretty damn bad."
"What? That's…that's a new record for me." Having determined that she wasn't in pain, the girl carefully pulled herself upright. "Möðhy fixed all that?"
"And Merlin."
"Where are they?"
Stark sat back a little. "Merlin has gone home; he'll be back later. I'm…not sure where your mum is. Probably with Sleipnir."
"Probably?" It wasn't the phrasing but rather her father's body language that made Evie narrow her eyes. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened." It was far too quick a reply and Tony knew his daughter could see through it before it even left his mouth.
"Yeah, like hell. You two argued. What the hell was there to argue about?"
He gave her a very brief run through of what had happened. Despite trying to hold back the full argument, Evie knew her parents more than well enough to read between the lines and extrapolate what had actually gone down.
"Dad. You're a dick."
"Evelyn!"
"No, you don't know what went down; you don't know how it happened, so you can't blame Möðhy for any of it!"
"I didn't blame-"
"Of course you did! I know that look! You were scared and you took it out on him!" Evie couldn't cross her arms with the cast and IV lines in, but her expression said she wanted to.
"Evie, you-"
"No, you need to go and sort this out with him!"
"But-"
"Now."
Once the girl wouldn't have been able to get away with talking to him like that. But, on the cusp of adulthood, she was far more given to asserting herself and if she was telling her father to get out she meant it. Tony wasn't in the mood to try and argue with her either. Knowing that she was okay, and would be okay he didn't really need to be sat at her bedside and it was clear she didn't want him to.
That didn't mean he was going to talk to Loki though.
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The plasma gun wasn't co-operating, but then Stark was hardly able to concentrate properly.
Despite his daughter kicking him out his mind just kept returning to that image of Evie in the hospital bed, her brother and mother desperately trying to save her.
And Loki's expression. Loki, who knew what it was like to lose a child, who had sacrificed himself before to save Evie. That expression he'd had; someone who was willing to do anything. He'd been terrified.
"Oh fuck it." Tony threw the box of screws he was holding and they scattered everywhere.
He had been frightened for his daughter, but Evie had been right; he'd taken his own fear out on his husband and that wasn't right regardless of the situation. Loki hadn't deserved it. Hell, Stark hadn't even given him chance to explain what had happened, just jumped straight down his throat.
Leaving the mess all over the floor he trailed over to the stairwell. Was his husband likely to even listen if he asked to talk?
Frankly he wouldn't be willing to were the shoe on the other foot.
He was so lost in his own thoughts that he nearly ran flat out into Loki coming down the stairs.
"Oh."
"I was just-"
"I thought we could-"
The two men spoke at once and then both stopped. Loki had one hand out on the wall, his fingers tapping across the glossy marble as he looked through the glass walls into the workshop.
"The twins are in bed. We'll need to sort out new sleeping arrangements tomorrow for them."
"Ah. You learnt something then?" Tony was quiet, but did actually look at his husband to ask.
"I did. We should talk." Loki moved to brush past him and carry on down to the lab. However, he paused when his husband reached out and caught his arm, glancing back at the man.
"Loki…"
"Come on."
They ended up sat on the floor by the suit testing platform, under the judgemental glare of the original ten IronMan suits that were on display there.
"I'm sorry." Tony got there first, but from the look on Loki's face he had been about to say the same thing. "I was an ass. I'm sorry."
"You were scared."
The man threw the comment away with a bitter laugh. "Yeah, but so were you." He reached out for one of the many loose screws that littered the floor and began to spin it aimlessly on the concrete. "Birdy woke up an hour or so ago. Then she kicked me out the room."
"Jarvis told me." Loki sounded wary of where the conversation was going to go, although an apology from his husband was definitely a strong start.
"She guessed what had happened and wasn't very happy with me."
"Not the only one."
Tony glanced up at him, then focussed his attention back down at the screw he was playing with. "Yeah. Yeah I know. I'm sorry. Is Hope okay?"
"She's fine. Surprisingly calm given what she just saw happen. Sleipnir was badly burnt but I sorted him out and Merlin has taken him back to the UK for now." The following silence stretched out for a few moments, but it felt considerably longer. "Should we talk-"
"What did they say-"
Loki huffed with reluctant laughter and Tony grinned down at the floor as they spoke over each other again.
"You go, I think you were going to answer my question anyway." Stark flicked the screw across the floor so that it rebounded off his husband's knee.
There were, in essence, two things they needed to discuss; the attack, and what Skadi had said about Hope. Loki went through the basics of what had happened when the Orks hit the city. Given Tony had seen the after effects of that, it didn't take long to tell.
They spent longer on the discussion with Skadi, given that that was the reason for the trip to begin with. The trickster had already determined that they would need to split the twins between two rooms so that Hope's could be kept significantly colder.
"But she's not in pain?"
"No, just uncomfortable. And it's been badly affecting her sleep – as we know – so she's sleep-deprived and grouchy all the time."
"Does this mean we may not be woken up fifty billion times every night?"
"With any luck."
"And other than that…?"
Loki's shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. "I don't know about magic yet – there's something there but I don't know how it will manifest."
Tony's gaze tracked over his husband, taking in the slumped shoulders and quiet tone. He frowned slightly.
"And?"
That drew a confused glance. "And what?"
"Hope's not in pain, she's not going to have any problems with this, so what's wrong?"
Loki's posture slumped further. "I wonder…I wonder if this was what was wrong with Váli." The words were so quiet Stark nearly missed them. "If I had done better, if I had been better, maybe he would have been okay. Maybe I wouldn't have lost them both."
He never talked about his older pair of twins.
"Hey." Tony shuffled forward so that he was close enough to reach out and lay a hand on te prince's knee. "Hey, there was no way you could have known. You had no idea you were Jötunn; you couldn't have known he may have been affected. And both you and Skadi dealt with the temperature problems as kids without going psycho."
Loki glanced up and quirked a sad smile. "The Battle of New York Memorial says otherwise."
"You were under mind control; that one doesn't count." Tony waited until his husband made hesitant eye contact and smiled encouragingly. "We have a better idea of what's going on than you did with Váli. We know what to look for, and we know now what might be causing it if it does happen."
"I cannot…" The sentence trailed away and Loki had to take a deep breath to continue. "I didn't think I was going to be able to save Evie. I cannot lose another child." The raw emotion was painful to hear. "There is nothing that can ever compare to the agony of losing a child."
"Evie's fine. She kicked my ass only a few hours ago and I deserved it because I was a dickhead." Tony closed the space between them and grasped Loki by both shoulders. "She's okay. Sleipnir's okay, and now Hope will be okay. We know how to help her, we know what to look out for; we've got this. And I'm working on the assumption that Brandir isn't going to spontaneously combust any time soon."
That made the trickster smile slightly again. "Poor Brandir; we need to make sure he doesn't feel overlooked with all of this fuss about Hope."
"Frankly I think he'll be pleased to not be blamed for every little thing his sister deems wrong with the world."
Loki leant forwards to drop his forehead onto Tony's shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't keep Evie closer. I know I couldn't have predicted what would happen, but I still allowed her to wander off on an alien realm. Given all that is happening I should have kept her nearby."
"It wasn't your fault. None of this was your fault."
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Giving Hope her own bedroom seemed to work a miracle overnight. With some clever spellwork Loki could keep the room hovering at freezing which appeared to be the girl's preferred temperature and she had slept through the night for the first time since she'd been born. Brandir had been upset at his sister abandoning him – as he saw it – but was less grumpy the next morning when he'd also had an undisturbed night.
All in all the house-hold had one less thing to worry about with both toddlers now happy.
This just meant their attention was focussed on more international matters.
"-and reports just in are putting the casualties at over sixty. There is no indication so far who is responsible for the attack."
"One of ours?" Clint glanced up as Rhodes entered the living room and muted the TV as the reporter moved on to a different topic.
"Sounds like. Some remote place in Australia, the casualties aren't as bad as the last one, but they're bad enough."
"Damn."
There had been no warning that another attack was incoming. Both Loki and Merlin were meant to be monitoring for such a thing but they'd been unable to predict any so far. Loki had already postulated that the methods through which Thanos was moving his troops was beyond the scope of his magic.
This was the third in just under a year. They had it on good authority from Thor that the remaining Realms had likewise been having problems. As a group they still hadn't informed the authorities about what they knew, but it was getting closer to the point when they'd need to.
These initial reconnaissance missions seemed random – not exactly targeting the obvious places where an Infinity Stone would be kept if Earth did have one.
It was only a matter of time before things escalated and places were targeted.
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The loss of the Louvre in Paris devastated the world.
The museum had procedures in place for human attacks, but the suddenness and scale of the extra-terrestrial violence was unprecedented. The failsafe's had saved a scarce handful of treasures; a few Da Vinci's, some Dürer's and a single Goya. Everything else was gone.
On top of the loss of some of the world's most important pieces of art, was the devastating human impact. The Louvre had an average daily foot-fall of 15,000 people and the death toll had been catastrophic. The glass pyramid had come down and the smoking shell was being used as the main image in the media as the most heated spot of the battle.
There wasn't an official death-toll yet, and there wouldn't be until they cleared the rubble, but it was already in the thousands. There was enough mobile phone footage going around that the media were clear this was an alien attack and they had linked it to the previous ones.
Some of the Avengers went out to help with the clear up. Captain America, Ironman, War Machine, Thor, Falcon – those who were good at dealing with the press as well as physically useful in a search-and-rescue clean-up operation. Bucky's skills would have been beneficial, but he was still wanted and the last thing they needed was to alert Interpol to his presence.
Loki went along with a minor disguise to limit any recognition. There was enough work to do and a large enough area to cover that he was able to use his powers without it really being noticed by anyone. It helped that the media were being kept well away from the site.
"We need to tell them." Tony and Steve had stopped for a water break out of the way of the general public and Tony had flipped the faceplate up for a moment.
They were both covered in building dust and it had turned Steve's hair grey. Worry lines that were usually unnoticed on his face had been highlighted by it.
"Yeah. I know. It's going to have to come from either you or me; but I'm not looking forward to telling the world's media that we knew about this threat for ages and didn't tell anyone."
"Well…it's not like anyone could have done anything had we said something earlier. It won't harm to fudge the details on how long we've known for."
Steve shot him a disapproving look. "You want to lie about this to the entire world?"
"Obviously." Tony waved his water bottle around at the mess surrounding them. "Look at this place. They need us right now. The world needs to know that we are here even if we can't predict these events. If we tell them we knew ages ago that this was a possibility we'll be hated at the one time we need everyone to be united."
Captain America looked around the small space they stood in. It had once housed the Inverse Pyramid but now was a mess of shattered glass and twisted metal supports. It had been cleared of bodies, but a child's push-chair still lay on its side in the corner and backpacks and items of clothing were strewn around where they'd been dropped in the mad panic.
"Yeah, I see your point. I'm not so great at sticking to a fabricated story though."
Stark clapped him on the shoulder with a tired smile. "We'll do the press release together. I'll spin the timeline a little and you talk about the potential consequences and what we can do to help. We've got this."
There was a sudden ragged cheering heard overhead, filtering down through the broken pyramid and both men looked up.
"Heads up, that sounded positive."
"Pulled someone out alive maybe?" Tony asked hopefully. It was highly unlikely; they were on day four and chances of survival had dropped dramatically. It was a difficult spot to climb out of, so Stark gave Steve a lift up to the surface.
It unfortunately wasn't a person, but given the situation and what else had been lost it was still enough to lift people's spirits.
Thor was manhandling a large canvas into the plaza area – cordoned off but visible from the streets. The wealth of art that had been lost was nearly as painful to the world as the human loss and whilst finding survivors was priority the rescue crews had also been keeping an eye out for anything salvageable. The world's media and local Parisian's had been having muted celebrations for each recognisable thing retrieved, but now it was a noticeable cheer running through the watching crowds.
Thor hefted the canvas, just large enough to be a pain to carry and carried it over to the spot where salvaged art was being stacked. He left it propped against a piece of rubble, clearly visible to the watchers and the dull cheer became a roar.
Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People.
The oppressed standing up against the tyrants.
"And there you have the front page of every newspaper in the world. I'll call the press conference for a few hours' time; we want our message to be sent out alongside that image."
That drew an admiring glance from the Captain. "I forget how media-savvy you are sometimes, Tony."
"When you get on their bad side as often as I used to you've got to learn to play the press."
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It went well.
Tony had been right that they needed to bounce off the back of Thor rescuing one of the most emotive pieces of French art. The image was being used across the world media as a symbol of the French people rising out of the atrocity and the Avenger's were in international favour.
They had been careful with how much information they'd given. Tony had spun it that they'd gathered their knowledge of the creatures from Thor which had also meant explaining the situation further out in the nine Realms.
He'd also used the nickname of Orks. Social media was divided over the term, but it had been quickly snapped up by the world's press so was probably going to stick.
Between the two of them Stark and Rogers were careful not to promise more than the Avengers could fairly provide in terms of protection to the masses. They made it clear that they were equally unable to predict the events so if the attack was geographically far away they would have a slower response, and absolutely refused to provide pay-for protection to the world's rich and famous who were clamouring for personal defence.
It was also made clear that this problem wasn't unique to Earth so there could realistically be quite large gaps between attacks, or a quick string of them. It had been difficult to explain the presence of the other Realms, and then the loss of quite a few of them to the general public. The scientific community may have been aware, but most people weren't.
In the end it was agreed Tony would hold a separate press conference with Bruce to cover the whole Realm Situation and what was going on there.
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The clean-up of the aftermath went on for months. The Avengers started out providing a lot of help but as other things took priority they ended up leaving most of it to the rescue services.
Things had changed, the world had changed. It had been one thing, all those years ago, when Loki had first brought the Chitauri to Earth and attacked New York, but this was global. People had been happy to accept the existence of aliens as long as they were a problem to someone else. Hostile aliens, named after a fictional race that attacked without warning and were seemingly indestructible…that wasn't what people wanted to be seeing in the news every day.
Humans being humans, there were immediately conspiracy theories calling the aliens fakes and stating political coups. It had caused Loki to question why they were trying to save humanity in the first place.
However, humanity wasn't his only concern.
For whatever reason the attacks on Jötunnhiem had stepped up. Whilst Earth had only had a few minor ones with low body counts since Paris, things had ramped up exponentially on the ice realm. The Aesir had finally left, taking the elderly and injured Jötnar with them back to Asgard, but the main bulk of the Jötunn population remained.
They were fighting back, but unlike the fire giants they weren't as effective against the Orks. Evidently Thanos had decided to concentrate on their realm as opposed to Earth – maybe assuming that since Earth had once held the Tesseract it was less likely to have another Stone.
It was the first time the group fully expected to hear the news that a realm had fallen. Every time Loki or Thor entered a room looking even slightly pensive they'd face a barrage of questions about if they'd been in contact with someone.
When the event finally happened, when Jötunnheim finally met with its end, it was Thor who brought the news into the middle of a film night. His silence was what made Natasha mute the screen and people didn't even bother to ask. The look on his face said what had happened.
Loki let his real skin out for the rest of the evening.
There was no evidence that there had been a Stone discovered there.
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"Double attack, group of roughly twenty have converged on Universal Studios, Orlando. Second attack of three, Industrial Estate, Pittsburgh, Ohio."
Jarvis relayed the information in his usual concise format. The majority of the group were in the tower and had grouped in the sitting room in response to the alarm sounding. They were missing Natasha and Sam – out in town somewhere – and Pepper was off surveying a new property for SI so wasn't able to coordinate like she usually did but the rest of the main assembly were there.
"Which one or both?" Loki directed the question at Steve, although it was usually a democratic decision.
"Twenty is the largest number they've sent yet and the theme parks will be crawling with people." Clint was clearly favouring one over the other. "The Industrial Estate will have to handle itself."
The Captain looked around the rest of the group. "Everyone agree on Orlando?" With the unanimous nods he tilted his head at Loki. "Florida it is."
They had long started allowing Loki to just teleport them places.
"Jarvis, you're on Twin Watch until we get back."
"Yes sir, but-"
"You'll be fine."
There was something to be said for monsters in a theme park, however, this was anything but amusing. Rather, it was like Paris all over again. Thousands of people just wanting to enjoy a good day out and thrown into an absolute nightmare.
They had developed a good system by this point. For this event Clint and Scott coordinated the evacuations and provided cover whilst the others went more on the offensive. Tony's plasma weapons – a year into development now – still weren't as effective as those that the Orks used, but provided decent fire power. They were finally able to fight back with at least a small measure of resistance.
The question remained of why attack a theme park of all places, but given some of the titles of the attractions it perhaps wasn't too much of a stretch of the imagination to see why someone who didn't understand Earth would think a powerful object could be hidden there. As it was, the sight of the Hulk leaping from the top of a roller-coaster locked into a wrestling grapple with an Ork was something Tony felt unlikely to forget any time soon.
For all of its ferocity, the attack was short lived.
The creatures had a purpose, and when it was clear that there was no object of power buried somewhere deep within Universal Studios they began to make a retreat. Their method of teleportation still wasn't clear – Loki suspected some form of technology over magic – but after a few hours the number began decreasing, and not through fatalities.
"This section's clear! I'm working on clearing the casualties!"
"Clear here too, I've got a number of trapped persons I'm working on getting out."
Rhodey and Bucky's announcements were very welcome and soon joined by further sections of the park being cleared of Orks. It narrowed down to what had turned into a grudge match between the Hulk and his initial opponent and ended quite succinctly with tHe Hulk drop kicking the creature into the remains of the rollercoaster's machinery. Which exploded.
Tony landed a few feet away, flicking the face plate up.
"Guys, the Hulk has just terminated our last opponent with extreme prejudice. How are we looking? Do we need to jet to Ohio, or search and rescue here?" He was joined on the ground by the other airborne Avengers, Loki appearing at his side.
"There's got to be easily a few thousand people still unaccounted for here."
"Jarvis, how many at the Industrial Estate?"
"A few hundred sir, but-"
"Thanks Jarvis." Tony could see from the set of everyone's face what the answer was going to be already. "Right, search and rescue here then."
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The joy of success at actually sending the creatures packing for once was soon significantly diminished by the sheer amount of bodies they were left pulling out of the rubble of the theme park. Regardless of how many they'd saved, people still died and search and rescue was a miserable job.
They arrived back at the tower sad, angry and hungry; a combination that was always guaranteed to cause arguments. There hadn't been any injuries amongst the group, but that didn't mean the emotional toll wasn't still there.
Natasha and Sam had made it back, sheepish at having been out during the call. They were instantly forgiven for having thought to order out dinner for everyone to return to, though.
"Is Scott not eating with us?" Evie was setting the table and was trying to suss out how many plates to use.
"Nah, he wanted to go home." Clint grabbed a handle of prawn crackers. "It's his weekend with his kid apparently."
The girl was still counting out plates. "Okay, so where's Aunty Pep?" She looked back over her shoulder. "Dad, where's Aunty Pepper? Is she home for dinner?"
Tony was still towelling his hair off, fresh out of the shower, and looked annoyed at being yelled at across the room. "I don't know, she should be coming back here. Jarvis, where's Pepper at?"
"I don't know sir, she insisted on turning the GPS in her phone off years ago so she wasn't at your beck and call."
"Huh." The man threw the towel down on one of the chairs and pulled his own phone out to start calling. "What was in her diary for today? Something about a new manufacturing plant for Stark Industries?"
"She simply has 'plant inspection' listed in her schedule."
"Of course she did. And she's not answering her phone." Tony was more annoyed than anything. If Pepper was only a few minutes away they'd wait – Cap was the epitome of manners after all. "Which plants could she have been at?"
"There are two potentials listed in Massachusetts. And one in Ohio. Pittsburgh."
The sudden silence that washed out across the room was only broken by Evie dropping the spoons she'd been setting out.
"Pittsburgh. Wasn't that where…?"
"That's where the other attack was." Tony stabbed at his phone screen, redialling Pepper's number over and over. "Come on, Pep, pick up the damn phone. Jarvis, keep trying for me."
The dialling tone filled the room, the Avenger's a frozen tableau around the table as the enormity of what might have happened began to sink in.
Dread is a difficult feeling to place. It is less an emotion than a physical response; starting at the top of the head and trickling down the neck and across the shoulders like pin pricks of ice. Sometimes it goes all the way down to the feet, other times it stops at the chest as a thick clenching ball that sits there and chokes the breath away. The hairs on the arms stand up, the stomach tightens. It is possible to feel the heart trying to beat itself free of the ribcage.
The call connected and there was an audible exhalation through the room – multiple people letting out the breath they didn't know they had been holding until that moment.
"Pepper?" Tony asked hopefully.
There was a harsh, shaky inhale on the other end of the line.
"…No. Sorry sir…"
"Happy?" He hadn't expected his chauffer to answer and it threw him slightly. "What…Where's Pepper? Where are you?"
"We…We're in Ohio…new plant thing…"
Stark had gone pale. "Are you hurt? Where's Pepper?"
There was a long pause, broken by Happy's gasping breath. It sounded strained. "We were…trapped. Build…building came down. Can…can hear rescue…services."
"And Pepper? Where's Pepper?" It wasn't that Tony wasn't concerned for Happy – on the contrary he was extremely alarmed by the state the man sounded in. But Happy was conscious and talking whereas Pepper…"Happy, where is she?"
"Didn't…Tony, she didn't…didn't make it." The words sounded like they physically hurt Happy to say. "Roof…roof came down. She…it hit her…she's…"
Stark didn't hear the rest of what Happy had to say.
She couldn't be. Not Pepper. Not like this, not his Pepper.
No.
Not Pepper.