Disclaimer: Still don't own Marvel. Never will.
A/N: …Hey everyone. I am so, so sorry about the delay on this update. I'd really thought I'd be able to maintain a weekly schedule for longer… or really at all, if I'm honest. Life happened, however, and sp this chapter languished unfinished for months. I also have no idea when I'll be able to post on a schedule again – I'm doing grad school applications right now, and that's eating most of my time.
Chapter-wise, there is one order of business before we continue - content warnings this chapter for past child abuse, myth-inspired violence, and voluntary entering of a medically induced coma.
With that covered, on with the fic!
In Wong's personal opinion, Kamar-Taj's library had the best library organization system in the world.
Admittedly, Wong was also biased. He knew it inside and out, all the tricks that made things easy to find, and all the tricks to hide things from idiots like Kaicellius who thought having the planet get eaten would be a good idea.
(It wasn't foolproof, obviously, given the events that led to Earth getting a new Sorcerer Supreme, but the point stood.)
In other words, it didn't take him long at all to locate the necessary spells. They were actually derivative of the spells that allowed Stephen to wear the Eye of Agamotto out and about without losing power to the Sanctums' shield. All in all, Wong had the necessary information in order long before the portal itself was finished being built.
Which was honestly a relief, considering the all-nighter they were about to pull.
Upon returning to Helheim, Wong spent most of the evening testing how well the conduit Noble Isobel had provided was capable of interfacing with the magic he was familiar with. He and Urvashi sent pulses of magic down the cord at each other from across the throne room for about half an hour, before moving on to test if they'd have the same success transmitting across realms. Queen Hela joined them at this point, taking the opportunity to familiarize herself with the stabilizers they'd be using on her portals between realms.
To be honest, Wong hoped he'd get a chance to study the stabilizers himself in the future. Oddly lamp-shaped, they featured a metal base with two pairs of rotating arms arcing up to frame a green crystal. According to Loki, offsetting the outer arm so it was perpendicular to its inner counterpart before activation would push Queen Hela's sedir to the edges of the channel, and Wong wanted to see exactly how that worked.
It was alien magic - he doubted they had anything on the subject back at Kamar-Taj. It'd be remiss of him not to take and archive notes!
He was also curious by nature, but that was neither here nor there.
However, now was certainly not the time for that, and once the staircase-portal to Earth had been made and the stabilizers set up, he and Urvashi got back to work. When the energy transmission proved a continued success, they moved on to seeing if they could power anything with it. They ended up using a lightbulb for that purpose, on Stephen's suggestion.
And an excellent suggestion it turned out to be, in its relative simplicity - given how long it took them to figure out how best to interface the cord with the bulb. The fact that they were hooking up an arcane object to something that was distinctly non-magical turned out to be the least of their worries.
However, it all paid off in the end. After succeeding with the lightbulb, they were able to graduate to interfacing with the Eye of Agamotto's casing itself, and successfully had Stephen uncrumple a sheet of paper in Helheim while standing in the lab back at the Avenger's Compound.
All in all, they were ready come morning - as was the portal itself. (Wong was sincerely impressed with Dr. Foster's work ethic.)
The three sorcerers, accompanied by Queen Hela and Ms. Maximoff, returned to Earth as soon as testing on the portal was done. It took no time at all to portal to the Chamber Between Sanctums - only pausing long enough for Queen Hela to ask FRIDAY to send her brothers down the stairs to Helheim - and in a few moments, the Eye was returned to its pedestal, re-interfaced with the conductive cord. The five of them wound the cord further down the pedestal base, where Queen Hela picked up the rest of the coil.
"I'll just be taking this back to Helheim then," she said, shifting back on her feet nervously. "I shall not close the portal I take back, but only narrow its entrance instead. The stabilizers are already in the correct configuration - all you need to do is place one on each side of the entrance before starting."
There was a round of nods.
"We'll handle everything on this end, Queen Hela," Stephen reassured. "There's no need to worry."
Hela smiled back.
"Thank you, Sorcerer Supreme - and to you, Master Wong, Lady Urvashi. Wanda - with the maintained connection between realms, I should be able to get a signal on my cell phone. I shall send you a text when Lady Jane and the others are ready."
Then, the ground quite literally opened up beneath her, and she was gone - leaving only an ornamented circular hole, about five inches in diameter, for the cord to run through in her wake. Ms. Maximoff walked up with the stabilizers.
"It's the least I can do, for your letting me observe," she said, smiling as she placed and activated them, setting them softly aspin. "I've never seen Earth magic before - unless, of course, my powers truly count as magic - so it means a lot. Thank you."
"No trouble at all," Stephen said. "Besides, you're the one with Queen Hela's number - we need you to give us the signal to start."
"Just be careful not to lean against the walls of the chamber as we work," Wong interjected. Ms. Maximoff nodded.
About a minute later, Ms. Maximoff's phone chimed. It was time. Wong, Stephen, and Urvashi took their places around the Eye.
Deep breath.
The three sorcerers each reached out with their right hand, and the Eye of Agamotto glowed softly. With a flick of their fingers, they each called a tendril of yellow-green light towards themselves, drawing it close to their chests and pooling the energy at the end of the thread between their hands until they resembled tiny comets, tethered each to the Eye by a silk string.
Wong caught Stephen and Urvashi's eyes. In unison, they took another deep breath, and on the exhale, pushed their ball of energy clockwise.
Then, it was just a matter of falling into the rhythm, guiding the energy in a circle faster and faster until the room groaned, and the walls and the projection of the globe both began to spin; until the yellow-green glow began to creep down the cord to Helheim.
Somewhere on the edge of his consciousness, Wong registered Ms. Maximoff's delighted gasp.
It was exciting, at first, watching the portal come to life - the light creeping down the conduit first as a trickle and then as a flow, reaching the machine and getting its rims spinning - and Fenrir had cheered along with Lady Jane and Auntie Darcy as light began to flicker in the center of the portal, growing and growing as the rims spun faster and faster. It had been amazing, really. A team of mortals - bar Hela and Father, of course - with their lifespans short as a firefly's blink, had reached across time and space and took hold, determined and unyielding until there was a path across it.
Fenrir had spent four hundred years staring up at Asgard's moon and wishing he could run to it, only to inevitably reach the end of his tethers - Gleipnir snapping taut and sending him crashing to the ground. He knew the magnitude of what had just been accomplished. It made him feel lighter than air.
The feeling disappeared as the image of Asgard took shape in front of them.
If there was one thing in existence Fenrir hated, it was being alone. As a result, he had never been fond of goodbyes. It had been hard enough before - every time Loki had to leave the Ironwood for Asgard, every time Fenrir had to return home after visiting his stepmothers and half-siblings - even with his mother's hand on his shoulder, her words in his ear reassuring him that, in their native tongue, goodbye was just a promise to see one another again.
It was not so in Asgard's.
Fitting then, that it had been Asgard where he lost his mother and freedom alike - had nearly lost his life, had Grandmother not stepped in. She'd saved his life twice that night - first in turning Odin's mind from execution, and second in stopping the Enherjar from following through with killing him anyways after he'd bitten off Tyr's hand.
"Was it not I who oversaw the dwarves' work?" Frigga had asked, standing between Fenrir and the sharp end of a sword. "I am your queen, and when I say that so long as there is life in my body, these chains shall not break, it is not your place to question. Your orders have been fulfilled, and that is enough."
(Centuries later, when Gleipnir snapped, Fenrir had finally understood her choice of words in defending him. It had been a warning; Grandmother was gone, his life was forfeit, and he didn't stop running until Father had found him.)
Fenrir had regained his freedom - and though his mother and grandmother were beyond his reach - his family was, at long last, coming together again. Or, at least, it had been. Now, Father and Uncle would be leaving him - leaving them.
Jor wasn't even here yet to see them off. Fenrir was moving before he realized what he was doing.
"You can't go!" he shouted, grasping tight to Loki's wrist. "I won't let you!"
"Oh, Fenrir…" Loki sighed, raising a hand to cup his son's cheek, but Fenrir wasn't having any of it.
"We just got you back!" Fenrir's mind had finally caught up with his body and was now racing a mile a minute. Father couldn't leave. Uncle couldn't leave. They were banished - Odin would be furious - and the last time… "What if Odin follows through with it this time? Father, please, he said if you defied him for us again, he'd make you become an honest man."
Loki gasped, slapping a hand over his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye, Fenrir saw Hela do the same. Even Sleipnir - who had not been present then, when Odin threatened to have Loki's mouth stitched shut - stiffened. Their father was the Liesmith; there weren't many ways a threat like that could end - and none of them were pleasant.
"Then he will have to go through me." Uncle Thor's voice cut through the haze of worry, and he knelt by Fenrir's side, eyes earnest and determined. "I swear to you, nephew, I will not let it happen."
Uncle Thor was his hero. Once upon a time, before the trial, Fenrir would have believed him. Now, instead, Fenrir only cried.
"My son," Loki's voice broke painfully on the second word, and he knelt as well, only pausing to press a kiss to Fenrir's forehead. "I am so sorry. We have to, little one; we must."
"I know," Fenrir sobbed. "...I'm sorry too."
"Whatever for?" Loki stroked Fenrir's head. Fenrir only shrugged. They were silent for a moment, and Hela took the opportunity to join them, laying a hand on her brother's shoulder, Sleipnir slipping up to take one of Fenrir's hands in his.
"Just… Just say goodbye our way, okay?" Fenrir sniffed, screwing his eyes shut. "Promise me I'll see you again."
As discreetly as they could, Thor and Loki exchanged glances.
"...We promise."
Fenrir didn't have the heart to open his eyes again when they left.
If there was one thing Bruce Banner had never thought he'd be, it was a father.
He didn't have a good experience with fathers; Brian Banner had been nothing short of an abusive shithead, and Bruce's childhood memories were marked with more terror than they were joy. Even before the whole Hulk incident, the thought of even accidentally hurting his child a fraction of the way he'd been hurt left Bruce firmly in the camp of never having kids, ever.
After the Hulk incident, well, Bruce had thought it was outright impossible. He had mourned the idea, in an abstract sense - despite the aforementioned never really having expected to have children - but all in all, the thought had been put out of his mind. Needless to say, suddenly having a fully adult child who was also an android and coparenting them with three other people who he didn't - and in fact had never - had that sort of relationship with was entirely unexpected.
Despite the unexpected nature and unconventionality of it all, however, it was nice. Tony and Thor were great friends - Tony was Bruce's best friend, really - and Helen, while not exactly a friend, was definitely a friendly acquaintance and respected colleague. Not to mention Vision themself - all around stand up guy and generally the best child you could ask for even if he did have a mental link to the internet. The kid was worthy - not everyone could say that.
Bruce not having any firsthand experience with what could traditionally be called good fatherhood turned out not to matter at all. With absolutely nothing about the situation being traditional, what ended up mattering was being kind and open-minded; doing your best to offer support and anticipate needs.
Best part was, Bruce thought he might be succeeding. Vision was happy, safe despite the flinging themself into danger from day one, and in full possession of a place and people to call home. Furthermore, Bruce had rather begun to suspect that he wouldn't actually be able to hurt Vision - at least, not in the physical sense - given the phasing and the vibranium skeleton and the Infinity Stone in his head.
And so, because life and irony were nothing if not cruel, it was the Infinity Stone that would lead Bruce to having to hurt his son.
Mind you, this wasn't an abuse situation – Vision was a fully consenting adult undergoing a medical procedure to literally help save the world – and that mattered, but the situation still left a sour taste in Bruce's mouth. Further, what didn't matter was the fact that Bruce wouldn't be the one actually extracting the Stone from Vision's head, nor that he wouldn't be the one monitoring the cradle's life support systems; that those jobs fell to Shuri and Helen respectively. He had meant what he'd said to Shuri last night – if this was on any of them, this was on all of them, and what kind of father just watched as his child laid down and prepared to enter into a coma?
It hurt to think about.
(The Hulk, equally disquieted, grumbled from somewhere in Bruce's head.)
"Do not worry, Vision," Shuri said with a teasing smile, reaching into the cradle to pat the android on the shoulder. "You won't be the first broken white boy I've had to fix."
"No complications on account of my experience of boyhood being that of a demiboy specifically?" Vision teased back, relaxing a touch at Shuri's glib tone, and wow if Vision wasn't taking this whole thing better than Bruce was. "Nor the fact that I am, technically, more of a magenta color?"
"Not at all!" Shuri grinned. "Plus, we both know skin color isn't the only part of how people see race."
"I'd make that white-passing," Helen cut in, smirking slightly, as Vision laughed. "I know we aren't the closest, but I like to think there's some of me in you; that makes you Korean by default."
"I suppose it does! I really must come learn to make mandu when I— if I wake up."
The mood, so recently light and joking, plummeted as Vision grew somber.
"Come on, Vision," Rhodey looked at him sadly from the foot of the cradle, where he and Tony were triple checking the containment device for the Mind Stone. "Don't be like that; it'll be a when, not an if."
"Rhodey—"
"Uncle Rhodey. If we're going all in with acknowledging Tony as your dad, I claim uncle rights."
"UncleRhodey." A hint of a smile returned to Vision's face before falling again. "I… I have no doubt in your abilities, nor in that you will be able to revive me. Still, though… It would be, ah, soothing, to say something."
Rhodey's expression twisted, but he nodded. Bruce, shifting forward - and, after a moment's hesitation in which he watched Shuri, Helen, and Tony's reactions in case they objected based on something that he'd missed - reached into the cradle and squeezed one of Vision's hands. The stabilization field and life support had been designed to be permeable - they had to be, given the nature of the operation - and it was the least Bruce could do.
"Thank you, Bruce," Vision said softly. "I just...I just wanted to thank you all. I'm glad that you're here, and that I am here. I don't want this to be my last goodbye, but if it is, thank the rest of the team for me too. I couldn't have had a better family."
"Yeah, yeah, Vis," Tony quipped, but his easy smile didn't meet his eyes. "Love you too."
Bruce held Vision's hand until long after the Mind Stone was gone.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Just a quick note before we go:
There is a reason I mentioned that concepts of race go beyond skin color. I've often noticed that (white, mostly) people can tend to oversimplify the social construct that race is to "the color of someone's skin." This is not to diminish the role skin color (and thus colorism) certainly plays in how people race – it plays a frankly enormous role – but it's not the only part. In conjunction with skin color, a number of other features are racialized – including hair texture, eye shape, nose shape/size, and lip shape/size.
Also, as always, I am always open to critique regarding representational issues.
See you next time!