The Gods Must Be Crazy

by aprill99

As a daughter of Apollo and a granddaughter of Mercury who has lived through wars with Titans, Giants, and undead Romans, Cassie is well aware that "normal" must be judged on a curve. Still, the invasion of a Norse god backed by an alien army is taking it a little far. Now she's involved with the Avengers and it seems like life won't be getting less weird. The gods must be crazy.

48. Chapter 48

Disclaimer: More power to you if you still read these and care. For your sake, I'll take the time to say that I own nothing you recognize. As like, a special little treat. Just for you.

The amount of work they have to do is... well... a lot. Olympian in mass and Cassie doesn't say that lightly. Especially not as a girl who went through medical school with dyslexia.

The complex that their team occupies is at capacity occupation with the new (old?) members of old (new?) SHIELD. It's a lot of obsessive personality, PhD's, other degrees, leadership skills, and assorted superpowers in one place. Soon Cassie is adding consultations with Annabeth about possible auxiliary housing to her ever-growing call sheet. Leo also weighs in with a few thoughts and they whip up a quick brain storm with Tony and T'Challa to get a new building up in record time so the SHIELD crew can stop sleeping on their ship. The process takes time, but improves moral no end.

And they are in desperate need of moral boosters. By a week in to their new mission, many many many people are very very very tired of consulting every minute they can remember of their personal timelines. And minute by minute is about as precise as they're having to be. Vision and Tony's new AI FRIDAY end up winning Most Valued Player for having video records of every moment that ever took place in any of Tony's facilities from well before the Battle of Manhattan.

Tony is able to fill in events from before that point thanks to his eidetic memory and Banner is similarly gifted when recalling his movements both before and after his first transformation in to the Other Guy. Ever the scientists, Banner had been assiduous in taking notes. Steve lays out every moment from his introduction in to the SSR, to his dosing with the serum, and beyond all the way until freezing in the ice and waking up again shortly before the battle. Every detail of every moment is evidently etched in to his brain and Cassie wonders for what might be the millionth time why the U.S government never spent any time thinking about what the serum had done to Steve's brain instead of his body.

Cassie pushes Bucky's cognitive therapy and physical brain repair in as large bursts as she's ever dared in the hopes that it will enable Bucky to remember any information he might have picked up while in service to HYDRA. It's a risky decision, and one Cassie personally would have preferred to work around, but it's ultimately Bucky's decision to make, not hers. It pays off in Bucky managing to relate several scraping bits of information from old HYDRA files. Evidently, they had been fairly obsessed with finding other power sources to replace the Tesseract.

The Kanes are as good as their word in providing any information they can find, and the amount isn't small. However, it takes quite a lot of time to sort through. Egyptian mythology has quite a bit to say about magical stones, but it takes a while to find what of that information is about infinity stones, and what's about hieroglyphic tablets. Carter and his research team had made an initial filtration pass, but they have their own problems back in the States.

Magnus is worryingly radio-silent after their initial exchange, and it makes exactly no one feel better when Thor stops responding to communications at around the same time. Cassie and Reyna consult all of the godly calendars they have access to (which is actually quite a lot) and discover that there are no godly birthdays, solstices, or equinoxes either happening or on the immediate horizon. That information doesn't make any of them feel better.

Neither of them knows enough about Norse mythology to dig further, so that's where they end up having to stop.

Daisy Johnson, Robot Coulson, and Shuri working together manage to find a truly troubling amount of camera footage and photographic recording of every action any of them have taken in the last decade. They even manage to find a photo Cassie had long thought deleted from her first ever quest. It's from an LA newspaper that hadn't had an internet edition at the time of publication which is probably how it had been spared the cover up operation Hermes normally managed for anything the Mist didn't hide from mortal eyes.

It's of Cassie, Annabeth, Grover, and Percy, huddled on the beach where Percy had battled Aries after their first trip to the underworld. Percy is clutching something in his right hand that the camera can't see, but Cassie knows is Riptide. His left arm is stretched over Annabeth's shoulder to give her the coverage of the shock blanket the paramedics had tried to wrap them all in. None of the reporters had chosen to question why the boy who'd been wading in to the ocean twenty minutes previously was now bone dry. The back pack enchanted to carry the master bolt is resting on the sand by Percy's feet and he is glaring at the camera like he might cut it in half with the slightest touch more of provocation.

Annabeth in the picture is rooting through her own pack, the one with the water park logo still visible on the front. Cassie remembers that she had been trying to scrape together any of their remaining cash to get them back to Manhattan that evening before their questing deadline. The photo had happened very shortly before Percy had managed to tear up on camera with words about his loving step-father and free appliances. Annabeth in the photo doesn't seem to be aware of the way Percy had been shielding her.

Being fair, Cassie reflects, it's possible that Percy hadn't been aware of it either.

The photographer had gotten them all by surprise and Grover's eyes are huge and liquid brown behind a large apple half-way in his mouth. His hair is a mess in the photo and Cassie counts is a minor miracle that his horns hadn't been tall enough to show yet over his curls. Also that he'd been eating an apple and not a Diet Coke can. Gods only knew how they would have gotten around explaining something like that to the associated press if they'd been asked.

The Cassie in the photo is one that Cassie of now barely recognizes. She had been just over thirteen at the time and apart from Grover, she had been the oldest, even if she hadn't looked it. Her face is rounder and not quite free of the last of the baby fat that had clung to the bones and she had been even shorter there than she is now. Her hair is a wild mess of fly aways, curled and matted from their trip in to the land of the dead, subsequent escape, salt water, and ocean wind, pasted half across her face and covering her eyes. One of her hands is rolling an ace bandage back in to order and the other is clutching the shoulder of Percy's tee-shirt, her fingers pressed in to his skin, scanning for injuries.

They look ferocious and exhausted and half-wild and ready to cry and it was less than fifteen years ago and...

And by all the gods, do they look young.

And all four of them have been fighting ever since.

Cassie wonders, given time travel is apparently a thing, if she's ever really going to be allowed to stop.

Cassie shows the picture to Steve the evening after Shuri shows it to her and he holds the slightly blurred color print-out between his fingers, staring for a long moment without speaking.

"It's kind of our first ever group shot," she explains. "I'd known Annabeth and Grover forever of course, but we'd only met Percy about six weeks before that shot was taken. We'd just finished our first quest to the Underworld and we'd been traveling non-stop for like a week. Our last shower and meal had been in the time-warp hotel in Vegas and we'd just met the single most violent waterbed salesman in existence before making it in to the Underworld to try to figure out what was going on with Percy's mom and Zeus' master bolt. We got fished out of the ocean by the Coast Guard and each and every one of us looked like Tartarus, but at least four talent agents still trid to sign me and Annabeth after we got Percy on to the plane." Cassie shrugs. "I really don't understand the entertainment industry."

Steve swallows and nods. His free hand twitches compulsively twice and then he flattens his palm against his thigh. "Yeah," he says in the kind of voice that's controlled on purpose but not actually calm. "I've never gotten their logic either."

Cassie frowns at him, trying to calculate this reaction. "Is this another one of those things that accidentally triggers all of your 'over-protective but it comes from a place of love so it's alright with me' responses because my childhood pretty much sucked?"

Steve pauses, then jerks his chin in a very sharp nod. "Yes. That's exactly what this is. I'll get over it in a few minutes, but God Cassie..." he looks back down at the photo again and the pad of his thumb brushes over the pixels making up the image of her face. "You were so young here. You were a child. By any standard, and you were the oldest. You could have died four or five times at least in the story you just told me - which was the short version - and you were thirteen. Barely. I don't think I'm ever going to not be mad about that."

Cassie steps forwards to stand between Steve's knees and loops her arms around his neck. "I'm alright," she promises him. "I got out of it and now I'm here with you. Nothing has tried to kill me in weeks- months actually. And the last thing that tried was human!"

The sound Steve lets out is something between a snort and a laugh and his arms come up to wrap around her back. He rests his chin on the top of her head and Cassie nestles in closer, enjoying the warmth of him. "Too soon Honey," he tells her. "Too soon."

"Noted."

After months of work, undercover missions to try to keep some stability in the shakiest regions of the world, and more research than Cassie has ever done in her life, they as a team have a solid timeline and locations for the Infinity Stones. They also have radio silence from all of their friends with even a tangential relationship to the Morse mythosphere, and Cassie personally has a ticking clock in her head that's getting perilously close to Jane's due date. She would really really like that day to not line up with their time travel extravaganza if she can do anything to help it.

Unfortunately, Cassie's influence with the paranormal force in charge of time is shaky. Shaky meaning she very openly fought a war against him. And he is simultaneously her grandfather and great-grandfather. Cassie is like, two twists from having her own campfire song. Her relationship with the forces of chance (Fortuna mostly) is actually better by virtue of being nearly non-existent.

Sometimes, Cassie wonders if her life would actually be easier if she spent more time on her ritual sacrifices to key gods. She could do a whole chart and prioritize the entities across multiple mythologies. Annabeth could help strategize. Then, invariably, Cassie remembers how little she knows most gods care about how devoted you are to them, and concludes all over again that there are better ways she could be spending her time, energy, and snacks.

This makes it both a relief and slightly panic inducing when the second foreign flying craft in six months lands on the lawn and Thor comes bounding out the door. He's received a haircut and one of his eyes is covered with a patch, but Cassie's senses tell her that he is otherwise physically unharmed. He's a bit more restrained than she remembers him, but his greetings to Tony, Steve, and the rest of the present team are no less warm.

"Greetings my friends," he says. "I am sorry for being unreachable in recent times. Events on Asgard have been quite bleak as of late, and dealing with them was most absorbing. Much of the realm was destroyed. I have brought what of our people could be saved here to seek refuge in Midgard until the realm can be rebuilt."

It takes everyone a minute to digest this statement, but Reyna is blessedly up to date on Norse myth and used to responding to Earth-shaking statements. "Excuse me," she says. "But could you clarify something? When you say Asgard has been destroyed, do you mean that Ragnorok took place?"

"Indeed I do daughter of Bellona," Thor replies gravely. "We had to permit it to prevent my sister slaughtering all life. The Fenris Wolf was the only enemy we could find to match her might. Their attempts to destroy each other provided us the distraction necessary to flee."

"Ah," Reyna replies. "Thank you." She turns to Cassie and murmurs. "Magnus is going to be so pissed."

"I know," Cassie murmurs back. "That kid spent like a whole summer trying to avoid this happening, and that was only like ten years ago. Seems like a lot of work to put in when it was scheduled for a decade later anyway." Speaking of Magnus, Cassie speaks up and addresses Thor. "Is Magnus, son of Frey among those you managed to rescue?"

Thor nods and Cassie feels instant relief at the gesture. Annabeth had lost so much in her early life and fought fiercely for every scrap of family later in life. She hadn't known Magnus until her very late teens, but Cassie knows she loved her cousin dearly.

"The boy and his companions have taken up the task of monitoring the fabric of the worlds comprising the tree of life to determine when we may safely return to begin the process of rebuilding," Thor explains.

Cassie, Reyna, Meg, and even Luke all nod at the words. It may well be that Ragnorok has taken place, but they are all too well versed in the realities of godly warfare to assume that Asgard is gone forever. Chiron had instructed long ago that gods could not die, only fade, their powers tied to mortal conscious. The same held true of their places of power. Ragnorok had happened, was happening, and would continue to happen, but if it could be shifted or contained eventually, then the damage could be repaired. If that process took a few thousand years, then what of it? Gods were immortal. A millennium for them was perhaps equivalent to a mortal decade. Long enough to be banned from your home, but not actually, as the name 'Ragnorok' would suggest, the end of the world.

"Hold on," interrupts Tony. "How can you have had your version of Armageddon and assume that someday you'll be able to go back? Isn't Armageddon, you know, the end?"

"Nothing is the end for a god," says Luke, speaking for the first time that evening. "You can hurt gods if you have the skill, even trap them if you have the courage and half a brain, Hades you can rip them to pieces if you get it right when you try, but you can't kill them." he shrugs. "Gods are ideas, woven in to the fabric of culture and human consciousness. Destroying that would mean tearing apart all civilization."

"He'd know," says Cassie, interjecting a false note of chipper energy in to her voice. "He helped Chronos give it a really good try."

"Yes," Luke admits evenly. "I did. And you know what? He almost won." He lets that statement hang for a moment. Luke has never lacked an understanding of dramatic delivery. "My point," he eventually continues, "is that Chronos had three millennia to plot his rise, and the only way forward he could conceive of against his children was to destroy the entirety of Western civilization. Say what you like about Chronos, but he wasn't Atlas. He was plenty patient and if he could think of a way to do something without using brute strength, he would. In fact, his first move wasn't to wage a war at all." He directs a piercing glance at Cassie. "As I'm sure you remember."

Reluctantly Cassie nods. "That's true. His first move was to pit the Olympians against each other, to try to make them destroy themselves. He only changed strategies when Percy was able to find and return the Master Bolt."

Thor was still studying Luke, visible eye narrowed as if trying to place him. "Luke Castellan," he states. "Your story was told as a cautionary tale amongst all the pantheons. A warning to us all that we must do better by our mortal children. Which," he tips his head in consideration, "I daresay may have been your original aim. I had not realized your death was less than permanent."

"I was pretty surprised too." Luke replies, pointedly ignoring the first part of the statement.

"If Hela just triggered Ragnarok," pipes in Meg. "I guess it'd be pretty fair to say that at least one god of death is kind of busy at the moment. Maybe that'd help explain a few things." Reyna directs a look at Meg that clealry conveys the message now is not the time. Cassie bits her lip to repress a sigh and Luke doesn't even try to hide that he rolls his eyes. "Just saying..." Meg mutters.

To Thor's credit he does none of those things. Instead he gives Meg a calm and respectful nod. "A theory worthy of investigation Miss McCaffrey. In the meanwhile, might we go inside? There is much I must explain to you and I think, much for you to tell me. Also, my people have had a long and difficult journey. They can rest comfortably on the ship for the time being, but I'm sure they would like to take their first breaths on Midgard."

King T'Challa, socially perceptive man and leader that he is, takes this as his cue and clears his throat. "Wakanda has no history of turning away those in need," he says. "I have no intention of beginning one now. How many are your people and what help may we grant them?"

"Our people were relatively few even before our recent tragedy," Thor answers. "We now number just under five thousand. You need not worry about providing for us. We attained provisions on our journey and are still well stocked in food. However, any drink you can provide would be appreciated, and some of my subjects are in need of medical aid if you have healers capable of adapting to Asgardian biology. However, if you are willing, I would like to discuss our long term options with you. We have our own land, but it has been a very long time since anyone native to Asgard has needed to rebuild their lives from nothing."

T'Challa nods. "My Mother will hear today's business. I trust her and my advisors to manage. I will be required to leave if any pressing business occurs, but your dramatic entrance has raised you to the top of the priority list for the day."

"Speaking of healers and medical business," says Cassie. "Thor, is Jane still on the ship? I've been worrying about her and I'd like to do an exam to check on her and the baby. I can begin to treat the injured while I'm on board."

Thor's shoulders relax and a bright smile breaks across his face at the mention of Jane and the baby. "That is what I had hoped to hear. Our healers have done their best to see to Jane, but they are unused to human pregnancy and I know that Jane feels more comfortable with you. Lady Freya has been keeping healers hours, but five thousand potential patients is far too many for even a goddess to oversee alone."

Cassie nods and hefts her medical bag over her shoulder. She had brought it out with her just in case and is suddenly glad she keeps it completely stocked at all times. She turns to Steve, "Catch me up later?"

"Of course," he replies easily. "I'll send someone out to you with some food later."

Cassie smiles at him and dips up on to her toes to kiss his cheek.

"Speaking of food," she turns to Meg. "Feel like coming along and passing out some food? I don't know what deep space rations are like, but I'm sure they're not fresh, and they're probably lacking in fruit and vegetables."

Meg nods. "Sure. Plus, I woke up this morning to a bedroom utterly full of shredded wheat cereal. Seems like my mom might have known something was up. Even if she didn't, all of that should really go somewhere, and God provided food is probably best suited for godly consumption."That's an extremely good point, and Cassie gave up on making sense of Demeter's breakfast cereal obsession a long time ago.

Reyna had slipped away with a prism and a bag of drachma to call Annabeth, Jason, and then the Kanes in quick succession to bring everyone up to speed. The godly "phone tree" really was a well oiled machine these days. Cassie has no doubt that after those three calls had been made, each recipient would send out another three calls of their own and pretty soon everyone would be ready for a full Sit-Rep. It was really too bad Iris Messaging didn't have a conference call equivalent.

So, Cassie boards the ship alone while Meg enlists Pietro to speed run the cereal to her out on the lawn. Dr. Simmons and Enoch had also both volunteered to help with the medical aid, but they had had to collect their field gear first, having bolted out of bed to great the arriving craft without hesitating to gather supplies.

One step over the threshold, Cassie is regretting her musings on the demigodly phone tree and dearly wishing she hadn't committed the rookie mistake of not having one hand on a weapon when entering unfamiliar territory. She's having this regret because there's a very cold dagger at her throat and a god of mischief before her looking very ready to do violence. That's not to say that the situation is entirely hopeless.

There is one major factor on her side, and that is the fact that sunrise happens early during this part of the year in Wakanda. The second is that she was not so foolish as to shut the door behind her. Her survival instincts are well-honed enough not to walk in to an unknown situation without an escape route. These two factors have combined to mean Cassie currently has a full reservoir of power to draw from. The third major factor on her side is that a very quick assessment of the knife tip edging in to her collarbone seems to be made of ice.

Ice melts in the sun.

It takes perhaps half a second of thought. Cassie's palms glow red hot and she flicks her hands palm up, throwing what amounts to a ball of sunshine in to Loki's face. The Norse god of mischief gives a rather un-godly, undignified yelp, and a now sizzling dagger hilt clatters to the floor, now sans blade. Loki is now standing back from her with a measuring expression, shaking out one of his hands, an angry sunburn occupying the snow-shaded skin of hid hand and lower forearm. He no longer has a weapon.

Cassie calls up another projectile.

The god watches it form with narrow-eyed interest. "So you're the little Greek godling," he concludes, a note of something in his voice that Cassie isn't at all sure she likes.

"And you're the irritating half-frost giant," she spikes back. "Now that we've got our respective heritage worked out, why are you here greeting visitors with knives instead of, oh I don't know, lying in your torture chamber with ancient snake venom dripping all over you?"

At her words, Loki's visage shudders and jumps like an image coming through a television with bad reception. The whole and somewhat-smirking face is suddenly replaced by one twisted in agony and covered in charred, red-black burns. Then the image jumps, smooths, and settles. "Well," he says, grinning a twisting grin. "As i'm sure you know Doctor, there are many places that a god can be. While a piece of my godly essence is being tortured just as you so delightfully described, I do endeavor to make that the smallest piece possible."

"Huh," Cassie muses. "You know I wondered about that when New York happened. Anyway, the knife to the throat?"

Loki springs his hands. "One of many. We are a hunted people now. I'm sure you understand the feeling. As I understand it, growing up a little godling is not a dissimilar experience. In fact, we were attacked and nearly boarded in transit. Without my magic, whose to say how many of us would be left?"

Cassie narrows her eyes. "Very good," she says after a moment. "Playing on my sympathies by drawing on a common experience. Not so imaginative, but usually effective." She lets the light in her hand glow brighter. "Don't do it again. If you're currently using your powers to help your people fine. If we're about to share a common enemy I'll accept your help. Allies is fine. Don't try to manipulate me in to thinking you're a friend."

Loki's eyebrows shoot up, then he shrugs. "Very well. Then as my ally," he draws the word out over his teeth like the blue salt water taffy Sally Jackson hands out at Christmas, "tell me honestly, what sort of place has my ever so noble brother chosen to lead us to?"

Cassie considers it, the light in her palm dimming a little. She isn't sure, but she thinks she can hear the real question behind the snark. For all of Loki's age and godly power, right now he is a member of a refugee people, and whatever she thinks of him or his past actions, he had positioned himself between those people and what he had deemed a potential threat. The real question he's asking is will the people we have brought here, who have trusted us, be safe in this place?

Taking a chance, Cassie says. "They're friends, not foes. To Thor anyway. That said, I very much doubt any of them will be happy to see you, and Thor hasn't mentioned you're here yet. Some advice from an ally," she copies his earlier intonation, "use some of those illusions to avoid anyone seeing you until he has. In the meantime, I came here to offer medical aid. Thor told me I should seek out Lady Freya. If you would point me?"

"Gladly," Loki says with a mocking bow. "As I, as a god, have nothing better to do than stand around giving little wayward Greeks directions. Might you just dispose of the miniature star you're holding first?"

"Awwww..." Cassie mocks. "Why? is the big scary god of mischief afraid of a little wayward Greek? Fine." She closes her fist over the ball of light. "The door stays open though."

Loki rolls his eyes. "Suspicious little thing. Too bad the Trojans didn't have you on-side when your ancestors were building the horse."

"Had I been, I would hardly have been helping the Trojans," Cassie points out.

"So sentimental with your family loyalties."

"Says the man defending the door of a space ship prepared to use deadly force because his half-brother asked him to," Cassie rejoins. "Quit wasting my time. Not everyone has an eternity they can spend on pointless arguing. Where is Lady Freya?"

"Here," says a soft musical voice as the goddess in question appears before her. She looks much the same as she had the last time Cassie had seen her. Face serene and a head full of long, immaculately plaited, golden braids. "Who calls me?"

"Me," Cassie says with a little wave and a polite nod. "Thor sent me to help with any injured you have aboard. He said that five thousand people to care for was too much for even a goddess such as yourself to see to without help and asked that I check on Jane and the baby. Meg, a friend of ours will be along soon with some fresh food rations as well. If," she adds. "You find that plan agreeable? I have no wish to barge in if you have other arrangements in place."

The goddess smiles, a look of what seems like relief crossing her face. "I would welcome the help. Lord Thor was correct. Five thousand beings are many to care for. Thankfully, not all of them require medical assistance. Many of the wounds in question are easily mended, but there has been a sickness circulating amongst the children and illness is more tricky, especially when we live in such close circles. The children mean no harm, but they wish to play and we don't have the space to keep the ill separate from the healthy. They keep re-infecting each other as quickly as I can heal them."

"I see," Cassie says, her mind already spinning over the possibilities. She hadn't considered the possibility of illness before and now realizes that that had probably been stupid. Asgardians weren't like Olympians. Yes their numbers included the Norse pantheon and they were all more resilient and longer lived, but the majority of the population was simply a people, a culture, and they were currently refugees.

Refugees always meant close living conditions, and close living conditions almost always meant illness.

"Do you think it would be possible to establish some kind of treatment zone outside? We can begin to isolate the sick to lower the risk of reinfection. And my abilities work better in the sun."

"A lovely idea," Freya says immediately. "Fresh air will do us all good anyway, and the novelty will distract the children. Loki, Darling, would you pop outside and use your magic for a little good? We need a medical structure. Open sided I should think. And comfortable for the patients."

Loki rolls his eyes and stalks off, muttering under his breath in a language Cassie presumes to be ancient Norse, but can't understand. Still, she's heard a lot of irritated swearing in her lifetime, and it's not hard to guess at the invective.

Cassie turns to the goddess in the hallway. "Was that a yes?" she asks.

Freya smiles beatifically. "I will make him regret it if it was not. Now, perhaps you would like to see Lady Jane before you being to treat the children?"

"That might be the best idea," Cassie agrees. "I don't get sick, but I don't know if I'd be able to carry something that's infecting Asgardians. I don't want to chance it with a baby."

"Quite right," Freya nods. "Lord Thor asked that we leave Lady Jane to sleep when he went out to meet you. The child has begun to demand quite a lot of her energy to grow. Still, she would likely wake soon for food. I'll lead you to her chambers, then begin to move the sick outside."

Despite the crowded conditions aboard, they don't encounter many people as they travel through the ship. Cassie remarks on this to Freya, who gestures to the closed doors they pass. "Many of our people chos to retreat to family quarters, preferring to stay with kin than be separated. The day is still young, and many are still having their first meal. We thought it best to allow whatever schedules they have to be kept. Here we are..."

The goddess stops at a door that looks like all the others they've passed except that it's at the end of a hallway instead of along the side. She knocks politely and Cassie can just make out Jane's voice through the wall telling them to enter. Freya leaves Cassie to it and Cassie just remembers to tell her that Simmons and Enoch will be arriving to help soon before she does. Cassie thinks it's probably very fortunate that she remembers. She doesn't know who wins in a fight between the god of mischief and a chromicon, but she doesn't want to find out.

Cassie opens the door, says half a hello, and in the next second she is being hugged by a very excited, heavily pregnant, Doctor Jane Foster. It's a little surprising, but hands-down a better greeting than she had gotten from Loki. it takes her a second to return the hug, but no longer than that, and Cassie finds she is actually very happy to be hugged. She had worried about Jane quite a bit recently, and having the other woman actually in front of her is reassuring.

"Good to see you too Jane," she says, patting her gently on the back. "You had us worried when no one could reach any of you. Everyone is happy you're okay."

"I am so happy to see you," Jane says fiercley in to her ear. "Did Thor's first meeting go okay?"

Cassie nods, knowing Jane will be able to feel the motion. The two of them are about the same height which means their heads and shoulders are at roughly the same levels. "I think so," she says. "No violence or raised voices of any kind. I think a few people were leaning towards manly hugging when they all went inside."

Jane squeezes her once more, then takes a step back. "Good. Hey, have you ever noticed that like every guy ever does the weird one arm hug shoulder slap combo? It's like it's in their genetic code."

"I have noticed and have no idea why," Cassie confirms. "We've made friends with a geneticist and bio science expert since the last time we saw you. She's going to help look after the sick people here. Maybe you can talk her in to doing some gene sequencing next time we have a minute."

Jane's entire face lightens and Cassie finds herself smiling back at her. Jane's whole-hearted enthusiasm for science and learning had always been one of the things that Cassie liked about her, and she's practically glowing (stereotypical pregnancy glow already accounted for) at the idea of some frivolous genetic scientific investigation. "How did we make my new science friend?"

"She kind of dropped out of the sky one day in a spaceship with a bunch of other S.H.I.E.L.D agents. Apparently, there's time travel now." Cassie says this as she guides Jane back toward the cot in the room and helps her sit comfortably. "And by the way who is the woman in the corner with the alcohol and the ready to murder me expression?"

"That's Val," says Jane distractedly. "Did you just say time travel?"

Before Cassie can start to explain Jane is off on a tangent about the scientific practicalities of such a thing which, despite having heard similar quite often over the last several months, Cassie can't even pretend to understand. Or spell. Fortunately, it sound like Jane is mostly thinking out loud and doesn't actually need her for this conversation any more. This frees up her attention to focus on 'Val'.

The figure seems female if Cassie had to guess, at least they do from their face and the general shape of the molded armor they wear. Cassie would be more confident with her assessment, but Norse mythology was chock full of gods with fluid gender and species identities and Cassie has long known that with gods, what you're looking at was never precisely what was actually there. And this is certainly a god, Cassie has been around enough of them to recognize the aura of power.

"I am the goddess Valkyrie," the, now confirmed goddess, announces. "However, LJ is correct. I do prefer to be called Val. In fact, I prefer no bowing, worshipping, prayer, or supplication of any kind. Actually, do any of those things, and expect to face violent retaliation. Got that Sunshine?"

Cassie bites down hard on the urge to give a mocking salute lest she accidentally violate the 'no supplication' rule and simply nods. "Okay," she says. "Val. Got it. Loud and clear. I assume you're here as a guard for Jane?"

Val grunts a vague affirmative. "Yes," she clarifies. "Thor asked me and his brother to stay aboard ship along with Heimdall and Freya."

Cassie doesn't inquire further, hearing the meaning that had gone unspoken below the words. We have been in danger for a long time and our priority has been to save our future. The Valkyrie as a group were an elite squadron of warriors dedicated to serving Odin, not entirely unlike her aunt's hunters, though a less equal relationship. To ask a goddess who bore the title in her own right to the protection of a singular individual as a personal favor from one god to another went far beyond the mark of a worried partner.

Cassie files the information away and decides that later, after she's seen Jane through her appointment, she'll make it her business to learn just what has made a fleet of three Asgardians with genuine name recognition in the annals of Norse Mythology so frightened. Whatever it is, Cassie has the feeling that she isn't going to like it. It will not spark joy.

Jane breaks in to her train of thought by derailing her scientific monologue to wince. "Ouch," she mumbles, rubbing her stomach. "I know, I know," she says, addressing the baby. "You want your dad back. He of the rumbling voice. Don't you worry though. Mama is here with Auntie Val and Auntie Cassie is here to check on you while Daddy talks to your other aunties and uncles about time travel and the world ending so they can figure out how to fix it. And if there's as much science involved as I think there is, then Mama is going to help to. Yes she - ow!"

"Kicking?" Cassie asks, helping Jane get comfortable on the bed. "Or Braxton Hicks? You're within four weeks of your due date so neither would be unusual."

"Kicking, punching, a full self-defense routine," Jane says with a tired hand wave. "Take your pick. The kid is active as hell, especially when I'm anxious and these days that's more often than not."

Cassie hums in sympathy. "I've done some reading. Babies can feel it when your heart rate picks up and they can definitely hear changes in your voice. Him getting more active when you're feeling scared or upset is actually probably him trying to ask what's wrong."

Jane offers Cassie her hands and Cassie takes them, extending her magic to do a careful body scan. She starts with Jane, finding no problems apart from swollen ankles and slightly higher levels of stress hormone than are ideal. All in all, it's far better than she had feared given the gaps in Jane's pre-natal care.

"I'm going to put my hands on your stomach now and do a full magical scan of the baby," she tells Jane. "Then to finish up we can have a listen to the heartbeat. Sound good?"

Jane nods her permission and folds the hem of her shirt up over her belly. The skin is stretched taught and flutters occasionally with the impression of tiny hands and feet moving inside. One of those tiny hands presses back in to her as Cassie lays her palms against Jane's skin. She extends her magic at the same time, and is immediately greeted by a tiny presence reaching back. It's eager, warm, bright, and just a little bit crackling.

"Geia sou mikro," Cassie murmurs. Hello Little One. The baby shines back at her and Cassie carefully swaddles its tiny body in her magic, fastidiously checking for genetic anomalies, incomplete internal organs, or any problems with muscle or bone. Finally, she gives the baby a last, hopefully comforting brush with her magic, and then withdraws, blinking as her senses recede back in to herself.

She gives Jane a smile. "Perfectly healthy," she tells her friend. "Bones, heart, lungs, it's all on track. He'd actually be perfectly fine if delivered now, but for completely healthy lungs the rule is always the longer the better." Cassie blinks again as a few more pieces of knowledge click in to place inside her mind.

"What's that look for?" Val demands. "What knowledge have you gained from this that you haven't shared."

Cassie stares back at her. "Nothing that will impact the baby's health," she says evenly. "If Jane want's to know anything else, then it's her right to ask. Otherwise, be happy with the knowledge that he's totally and completely healthy."

Jane clears her throat. "Given that it's possible this kid is someday going to trot out godly powers I have no way of planning for which may or may not include flight, I'm all for the spoilers. What did you find out?"

"Nothing major," Cassie assures. "Just a slight case of deuteranomaly."

Jane blinks. "Color-blindness?"

Cassie nods her confirmation. "The red-green kind to be specific," she says. "You must be a recessive gene carrier. Ready to hear the heartbeat again?" Jane agrees and Cassie uses the same little twist of magic she'd first used months ago to amplify the vibrations made by the baby's tiny heart to fill the room. She keeps it up for several minutes before letting the noise die away. "If Thor's disappointed to have missed it, just let me know and I'll come by again," she promises.

She stays to chat with Jane for a little while longer. Jane tells her what she knows about the destruction of Asgard with Val interjecting at some points to add details Jane hadn't been around for. Cassie repays the information with everything she knows about their new/old/Cassie still doesn't freaking know friends from future-past S.H.I.E.L.D. Jane is quite reasonably shocked by the information that there's a version of Phil Coulson wandering around alive and Cassie is pleased to be able to give her friend a more informative summary. She's been working with Dr. Simmons, Enoch, and Coulson himself for a while now to understand the technology supporting this version of Coulson's life, and she feels like she's starting to have a handle on it.

They wrap up their chat when there's a knock on the door. Val, whose eyes had glazed over three minutes in to the conversation and now looks relieved to have something to do, gestures for Cassie and Jane to stay back and goes to answer the door. Wanda is standing on the other side, looking utterly patient. Cassie supposes there's no need to knock twice when you know telepathically that someone on the other side already intends to come answer the door.

"Hello," she greets, then cranes her neck to see past Val to address Cassie. "The Lady Freya suggested I come find you," she says. "She thought that I would have the best chance of doing so without a guide. Given-" she taps at her temple to finish the explanation.

"I thought you said I wasn't a loud thinker," Cassie teases, standing up from the chair she had perched on and giving her shoulders a roll to loosen them.

Wanda smiles. "You do not," she confirms. "But I knew you intended to check on Jane. Babies do not have complicated thoughts, but they do think loudly. They have no sense of censorship. I followed his mind to Jane, and Jane's to you."

Cassie makes introductions around the room followed swiftly by a round of goodbyes and an arrangement to visit again a week later to do the same appointment all over again. She also leaves a promise to come back any time she's needed. Cassie would ultimately prefer Jane move in to the main compound for proximity to herself and other medical resources, but Jane's preferences matter much more than hers do in this, so she'll plan to the other woman's specifications.

She follows Wanda back outside to find that Freya and Loki have been true to their word. There is a bustling outdoor treatment zone established on the grass, and Cassie can see what are unquestionably family groups milling around. She can also hear children playing some kind of rhyming game somewhere outside of her vision.

"Are you alright?" Cassie asks Wanda. "With all the minds and emotions?"

Wanda nods. "Everyone here is very afraid," she admits. "But it is a buzz against my mind, not a shout in to it. I have learned to shield it out, and I am needed here. I have been taking classes in psychology, studying. I want to specialize in helping people through traumatic events." She meets Cassie's gaze levelly. "I want to help here. Particularly the children. I know what it is to be a child and loose your home. I think Pietro will come to help play with the children later for the same reason."

Acting on impulse, Cassie reaches out to give her a hug. "Not that it means anything," she whispers. "But I am so so proud of you."

Wanda hugs her back. "You are wrong," she replies quietly. "It does mean something."

The two of them part. Wanda vanishes in the direction of the calling children and Cassie makes her way to the main treatment tent, following the sounds of Dr. Simmons and Enoch talking as they work. As she gets closer, Cassie gleans that they are working on developing a vaccine. Apparently, what's going around is actually little more than a highly infectious Asgardian version of the flu. Unpleasant, but both treatable and preventable with the right medical technology.

Cassie doesn't have any particular expertise in alien virology so she bypasses their lab work and takes herself over to a sunny treatment table where Freya is working. The goddess greets her and directs her to a cot nearby. The Asgardians have created a mobile treatment room with a modicum of privacy by surrounding a palette with curtains on a rail much like the kind in every hospital Cassie has ever visited. The only difference is that these curtains are made out of some sort of material unlike anything Cassie has ever seen before. It's somehow translucent enough to let in light to fuel Cassie's abilities, and completely opaque enough that nothing can be seen through it. Cassie wonders if the people of Asgard have somehow managed to weave some sort of trick with the Mist to make the curtains impenetrable to the eye, but utterly clear too light.

She doesn't get to wonder about it for very long before a small child enters with one of their parents. The child has a head of adorable curls, and Cassie would be prepared to call them cherubic if not for a face made cherry red from the screaming they have been, and still are, doing. "Well hello," she says. "And what can we do for you today?"

It would seem her first Asgardian patient has arrived.

For the next several hours, Cassie's life falls in to a familiar pattern. Asgardians of all ages stream in and out and Cassie uses her powers in careful doses to first relieve their symptoms, then eradicate the germs inside their bodies and on their skin. The work is demanding for the precision it takes to kill off only harmful organisms while leaving the healthy micro-biome intact. Essentially, Cassie is using her powers as very precise, very fast-acting, antibiotics.

She treats in family groups and is very careful to instruct the newly treated to stay away from the infected until treatment is done and not return to their quarters until after they can be blitzed as well. To do otherwise would risk anew round of infection. For the same reason, Cassie blasts her treatment area with a glow of her magic between each group of patients. it makes the process slower over all, but ultimately more worthwhile.

The children are frankly adorable once Cassie treats them. They're happy and innocent despite the horrors they've seen, and Cassie is reminded of the resilience of children. She's seen it before in young new arrivals to camp. Their parents and guardians are (understandably) a thousand times more wary of her, but Cassie doesn't blame them after what they've been through, especially since she is an unfamiliar demigod hailing from a completely separate pantheon and practicing unfamiliar magic on themselves and their children. She thinks they soften towards her as the appointments proceed and their children find themselves feeling better after her attentions.

Meg comes in after one of her patients and drags her away for food. Cassie isn't surprised, and she doesn't complain. Much. After all, Meg had promised Steve, and as Meg points out, disappointing Steve was something emotionally akin to disappointing a golden retriever puppy.

Cassie intends to go back to work after scarfing down a sandwich, but that plan is interrupted by Steve himself.

"Hey," she greets. Her eyes flit over his face and Cassie frowns as she takes in the grim determination written across it. "Honey, what's going on?"

Steve takes a deep breath and reaches out to her, taking both her hands in his. "The timeline is finished," he tells her, voice low and urgent. "Thor had the rest of the missing pieces." He guides her hands up and around his neck and leans down, pressing his lips to her forehead before resting the crown of his head against hers.

"We're out of time."

A/N: Dum, dum, dum, dummmmmmmmm... Dramatic and ominous musical cue. What did you guys think? I'm doing my best to weave all the characters in, but had to end up doing smaller group scenes to keep track of everyone and get their voices right. Next up, we'll be getting in to the events of Endgame and the aftermath. Which (big announcement) means there's probably only 2-3 more chapters left in this story! I can't believe it. I've been working on this for so long. Anyway, that's the plan. I think I might manage to get the next chapter up in about 3 weeks. At least, that's the goal. Don't hold me to it. I have 3 jobs still and it's a planning nightmare making time to write. Anyway, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxox