Author;s Note: I know I'm supposed to have posted the next part of The Science of Worth by now, however my life has been a little hectic as of late. I was the one who was given the unfortunate news that my youngest mamu (in Urdu, mamu refers to the uncle that is the brother of the mother) passed away suddenly on the 4th of July. This in turn gave me the difficulty task of relaying the news to the rest of my family.
My parents and elder brother flew out Monday night, while my younger siblings and I drove halfway across the country to attend his janazah (funeral prayer) and burial. I flew back home with my father and older brother on Thursday midday and had to make sure everything was in order at home and at the office. I was managing the fort so my mother could spend time with her family and would drive back with my siblings.
If things were not tough enough, my father came up positive for most recent COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) and he, not realizing, spread it to me. How? He hugged me when we got back home Thursday, and I had gotten sick from medication side effects and vomited (THE ONE TIME I WAS WITHOUT A MASK!). My symptoms came up on Saturday (which was Eid for my religion) and though all my rapids were negative (7 total between Thursday – Sunday) my PCR was positive. I was false in thinking I was having a simple sore throat or sinus infection. Sadly, this led to my older brother (who has Lupus) to catch the virus, and we have been monitoring him daily.
Thank you, for all our patience and understanding. Here it is, the final part!
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and steadily almost a fourth of the year had gone by. In that time, Loki proved himself to be an invaluable addition to the team with his mastery of magic with a variety of manipulations, from illusions to decoys; conjuring, and telekinesis on top of his natural superhuman abilities. In addition to his on field accomplishments as a combatant, he demonstrated his excellence as a tactician and great intellect.
Seeing him grow and thrive in the compound was a joy Eva would never trade away. She celebrated his successes and provided comfort in his stumbles, eagerly awaiting his return from his missions to hear the exhilarating details he confided in her. It was lonely when he left, but she knew he would return here and she would be here waving a pennant for him to greet him.
Sitting up from the table she was currently hunched over, she took a deep breath and thought back over the last two years. If someone told me I was going to live with Loki and have Thor visit almost every couple days, I'd say they were insane. If they told me I'd be living here at the Avengers Compound, I'd call the cops or get a restraining order. I know they say you never know where life takes you, but hot-diggity-dog that's putting this all lightly! She glanced around the spacious, and currently devoid of others, workshop with state-of-the-art equipment ready for use. This was every tech and science buffs' dream, and here she was fiddling on an experiment she took up. With a majority of the Avengers busy, she figured now was as good a time as any to start her tinkering project.
That's enough reminiscing for now, I need this thing set before everyone gets back! She turned her attention back to the work bench in front of her and put her safety gear back in place before starting again. She knew she was no genius like Stark or Banner, but she managed to learn just enough to get what she wanted to be done with their help, them none the wiser.
"That,that making yourself look like someone else shit, I don't like it." Tony scowled as they climbed out of the carrier and headed back into the base.
"I'm sorry to say that your like or dislike of my magic is hardly worth mentioning. Without it, we would've never gotten into the base undetected." Loki casually remarked, a cocky smirk tugging at his lips as Tony glared at him as they stood in front of the elevator doors.
"It's a skill better with us than against us," Steve physically came between the two as he pushed the call button and verbally interjected to help ease the growing tension. Tony merely scoffed and rolled his eyes as he begrudgingly gave in.
"Look, we all have our things we're good at. It's why we're all here. Let's just head in and rest before the meeting. There's a comfy bed calling my name and I, for one, am not going to give it up after being cramped up in one of those bucket seats and in some hole in the corner for the past couple months." Clint chimed in , walking onto the elevator first, eager to be back at the compound where comfortable accommodations were readily available.
"We've all earned a good rest, I'm sure S.H.E.I.L.D. will be pleased to hear about our success and findings in detail later." Thor agreed with their comrade and walked on after him. Loki silently stepped on as well.
"We'll grab the next one. See you in a couple of hours." Steve nodded his head to them just before the doors closed and waited before calling the elevator back up. Tony turned to complain, but was met with the scolding looking of Captain America.
"Yes, mother." He rolled his eyes again.
"Really cute, Tony." Steve sighed and shook his head as the rest of them took the next car down.
Loki left Clint and Thor with a simple nod and sharply turned left. He lengthened the stride of his steps as he powered through the hallway. Was it always this long or had there been some magical renovation that extended just the hallways he chose to take? Finally he made it to the door of his room but he walked right past it. Was he tired? Yes. Did he want to rest? Yes. However, there was one thing he needed to do first. It was of the utmost importance. The first, and last time; he delayed, he was in serious trouble and it took a good few weeks to fix between his missions and training. Yanking open the door to the stairwell, he leapt over the railing to quicken his pace, grabbing onto the railing of the floor he needed, he effortlessly pulled himself up and over.
Finally, he stood before the large double doors after a walk that felt like an eternity. The doors slid open with a gentle woosh, the cool air inside greeting him as he stepped through and quickly made his way inside the large room. Tall shelves neatly towered over him, completely filled with books ranging from history to theoretical. If I'm not mistaken, which I highly doubt I am, it should be right here. He turned into one of the aisles and went down the row, making a right, followed by a left before coming to a small nook where there were two tables with chairs and a sofa. To his surprise, no one was there. "Odd, she's normally here." The corners of his lips dropped into a soft frown which grew little by little as he inspected the nearby aisles. Where could she be?
As he pondered the possibilities in the library, just a few floors above him the person he was searching for stood alone in a conference room with a bit of a problem at her feet. The paper she needed was currently stuck under something and it was not just anything.
Of course my luck wouldn't just let me have it stuck under a cabinet or the paper is just nothing. Noooo, my luck has to have freaking mjolnir on a sheet I really need! She let out a loud groan of frustration and glared at the overturned table. "Stupid piece of junk, why couldn't you just take the stupid weight!?" She gave it a swift kick of vengeance but the sturdy table was not as feeble of a foe as the hammer made it out to be. " Flibbity-gibbets," she yelped in pain, hopping around on one leg as she held her throbbing foot.
"Uh, what now?"
"Holy snickerdoodle ," Eva jumped at the sound of someone talking behind her, stumbling to keep herself balanced on one leg as she landed, teetering left and right as she hopped around until gravity won. Just my luck, she groaned again at the stinging of her knees. Turning over to sit properly on the ground, she looked up to see Natasha and Clint standing at the doorway.
"Wow, that was, you certainly have a skill there." The Russian spy was clearly trying to be nice but Eva knew it was abundantly clear that she was not the most graceful of fallers.
"I wouldn't quit your day job any time soon." Clint tried to make light of the situation, but it was obvious the two were trying way too hard as Eva took the offered hand to get back up on her feet.
"Yeah, well, a certain someone already did that for me. I hope that's more of a one and done situation as well."
"That's right, Loki actually looked like you and helped you resign so you could work here." Natasha recalled, snickering a little as she recalled how angry Eva was from that little stunt. "Well, so long as you don't change fields, you'll be good."
"The real me has no plans for that, I can't promise what my imposter might feel like doing." She rolled her eyes at this special problem that only she seemed to have.
"So, what are you doing here aside from your little dance number?" Clint raised a brow in question, noting the toppled table and mjolnir. "And why do you have Thor's hammer?"
"I don't have Thor's hammer." She corrected him. "Thor's hammer has my paper." She pointed to the folded sheet currently stuck under it. "I was talking to Thor not too long ago and realized I forgot something in the room. He said you guys were going to have your post mission meeting here so I was cleaning up my stuff since I was using the space. I dropped something and was leaning on the table to try and reach for it without getting off my chair because I'm lazy and well…I guess me plus it was more than to make it fall. As you can see, I was grabbing my stuff but I can't get the one sheet I really need because it's currently being held hostage at this time. I tried to move it, like tip it over on its side, but I'm clearly not as strong as I thought."
"I don't think that's a strength thing." Natasha lightly patted her on the back.
"Why not? I'm not trying to pick it up. How is knocking it over part of the worthy limitations? C'mon, I doubt Odin sat there making sure he thought of every scenario and stipulation." Eva scoffed. "I'm clearly just not strong enough." She hung her head in defeat and dropped her shoulders. "So what are you two doing here? Isn't your meeting later?"
"They decided to move it up, get it done now so we can spend the rest of the day relaxing." Eva let out a small "ah" of understanding before looking back at the hammer.
Great, now I'm actually causing trouble! I was hoping Thor would've just come by but why would I need him to knock over a hammer? I know my arms aren't the size of a barge, but c'mon! I do lift weights! She glared at her inanimate nemsis when an idea popped in her head. Maybe I'm not strong enough but I'm not the only one here. She instantly perked up and looked over at the two Avengers that stood beside her with big pleading hopeful eyes.
"Oh no. Not happening. No Eva, no!" Natasha firmly refused with each bat of Eva's lashes, her eyes seeming to grow with every passing moment.
"Eva, c'mon, this is ridiculous. We're better off getting Thor." Clint tried to reason, but was soon met with puppy dog eyes that chipped away at his hardened exterior and called out to his fatherly nature.
"Alright, alright, fine! We'll try!" The infamous Black Widow finally caved, having grown a bit of a soft spot for the civilian that entered their world. "I'm only trying once, if it doesn't go we're just going to get Thor."
"Fine by me!" Eva happily agreed when the sound of the door opening caught their attention.
"What's going on here?" Tony eyed the trio as Steve surveyed the room, confused by the oddly orderly disarray. "Are you causing trouble?" His eyes instantly locked on to Eva who put her hands up in surrender.
"No sir, just trying to get my paper that's being held captive against its will." She pointed down to the floor and stepped aside for the two to see what was going on. "Natasha and Clint happened to walk by and are actually going to try and help me out."
"Help you out with that? Good luck, there's not enough bears in the woods to lift goldilocks' hammer." He scoffed.
"I'm with Stark on this one, Eva. He's the only one who can pick it up." Steve lightly shook his head with his hands resting on his belt.
"That's where I think you're wrong though! I'm not asking anyone to lift the hammer. If someone can just tip it over I can grab my paper and leave and you all can have your meeting. As shocking as it may seem to you, Captain, I'm not that strong. However, the Avengers are clearly stronger than the average bear! So, I suggested they try and just knock it over. Do we really think you need to be worthy to knock it over when it clearly topped the table when all I did was lean on it a smidge? And besides, what's the harm? It's like an experiment. We can test the boundaries of this worthy stuff and see who is the strongest! Friendly competition and I'm sure the great Iron Man with his suit can handle that much or you can see what else you need to do to perfect your suit!"
"You're really not going to let this go, are you?" Steve chuckled at the pitch she was selling and how obvious it was that she wanted to have them all help her. "You could just ask us to help you."
"With all due respect, do I need to ask? I mean it's quite clear I need help. You can ask Clint and Natasha, I was frazzled enough to kick the table and hurt my foot." She pointed to the two who nodded. "You're the Avengers. Your job is to find damsels in distress and help them. I'm a damsel and I'm in distress, but all of you are saying "no". There's no "can do" spirit or even try!" She pouted as she threw her hands up in frustration at the lack of assistance.
The floor looked at one another and then to the hammer in question. The silent debate went on between them as Eva stood there lightly tapping her foot and biting her lower lip, hoping she managed to successfully earn their agreement. It was only a couple minutes until they came to their verdict but it felt like eons to Eva.
"Alright, Eva, we'll give it a shot." Steve was the one to break up the silence. Eva cheered in excitement, jumping with joy at her saviors' decision. "So, who wants to go first?"
"I'll go, may as well start off easy since we want to see what level of strength is needed right? I'm no super soldier." Clint raised his hand and turned to the hammer. He eyed the weapon for a moment, seeing if there was some sort of loophole he could exploit. Seeing none, he shrugged and grabbed the handle and tugged lightly at first. He tried again, this time with more force. And again now with all his force. Each time gave the same result, no movement whatsoever. Natasha went up next and repeated the same process as her friend, gauging how much strength she needed to use before ultimately failing with all of her strength. Steve was the third to try and decided to follow the other two. The first two tries showed no difference than the other two, but on the third it did move a little. Eva's eyes widened in shock as she stepped a little closer as Steve gave a fourth tug, sadly her paper was still stuck.
That was close! She gave him a small smile of thanks when Tony came forward.
"Fine, time for the big guns to come out. Don't cry when I prove to you just who the greatest Avenger is." Tony winked, rolling up his sleeve and opening up his briefcase to pull out a glove. "This is a fun way to try out my new toy." He pulled it on and instantly it became metallic and looked exactly like the hand of his Iron Man suit. Walking up to mjolnir, he grabbed on and gave his best tug right from the get go. Unhappy with his results, he tried again and once more like the rest of them.
"Ugh, I can't believe the Avengers weren't able to help me!" She slumped in defeat.
"Weren't able to help you with what?" The group turned to see Loki, Thor, and Bruce standing in the doorway. "You do realize the only person who is able to wield the hammer is Thor." Loki reminded them.
"We know that," Tony scowled. "It's not about wielding it, we wanted to test the boundaries a bit. See if someone can just knock it over and if so, with what strength."
"Knock it over?" Thor's eyebrows knit together in confusion as he looked to Bruce and Loki who were equally perplexed by this.
"I asked them to help me out. My paper is stuck under the hammer and I said we don't need to pick it up. If you just knock it over, I can grab it. No is trying to take it or use it, so I hypothesized that it could be done. Unless Odin sat there drafting a fine print to his little pixie dust spell he put on here."
"Interesting question," Bruce's eyes lit up a bit at her explanation. "No one is trying to pick it up, so in theory it should work and if it does, we would learn how much force is needed to do it. So you're saying none of you could do it?" He looked at the group.
"I was able to make it move a little, but it didn't amount to much." Steve raised his hand at this which shocked both Asgardian princes.
"Hey, Houdini, why don't you give it a shot? We know your brother can do it, why not you?" Tony challenged Loki, wanting to knock the trickster prince down a peg.
"Thank you for the offer, but I'll have to decline. I already know that I won't be able to do any better than you four.
"Aw, c'mon Loki! Give it a shot! If you can do it you can at least have the title of being worthy enough to knock it over!" Eva quickly jumped in, urging him to try.
"I really don't think there's any need when my brother is right here. We can just have him pick it up and is where you've been all this time? I was looking all over for you." He frowned, shifting gears in hopes to free himself from the unwanted spotlight.
"I didn't choose to be here! I'm stuck, I need my paper! Can you please try, for me? I promise I won't ask you for anything else for like a week! Oh, and if you succeed, I'll finally forgive you for tricking me into coming here!" She clapped her hands together and bowed her head as she pleaded with him to at least give it a shot.
"You will?"
"I promise," she raised her pinkie to him with a large grin. "But you have to give it an honest try!" He stared at her extended digit before sighing and hooking one of his pinkies with hers, a small smile tugging at his lips at the childish way she would promise him things.
But didn't she say pinkie promises were one of the most important ones? You should never break one unless your life depended on it? He chuckled to himself. "I guess I'll give it a go." He stepped around her to stand before the relic that was cursed to be only held by someone worthy. I already know I'm not worthy. He thought back to the stormy night when he tried to lift it from the dirt years ago.
"Brother?" He felt the heavy hand of his elder brother and quickly came back to the present. With a slight shake of his head he assured Thor nothing was wrong and knelt down. He firmly grasped the handle and pulled at it with full force, expecting resistance but instead was knocked backwards as the weight of the hammer pulled him in the direction he was pulling it.
Silence filled the room as everyone stood there eyes wide and jaws dropped. Loki had not tipped the hammer. He was currently holding it, in his hand, as if it were as light as a feather. The color drained from his face as he dropped the hammer and it swiftly fell to the ground with a loud thud.
"What the hell just happened?! What games are you playing?! How could you pick it up?!" Tony instantly launched a series of questions as Thor stood there stone still. The other Avengers quickly broke into a frenzy of emotions trying to understand what was going on as comments and questions were thrown around with no answer to be found.
"I, I, I, don't know! I didn't, I shouldn't! There's no way! It has to be a fluke! I'm sure of it, I've never been able to lift the hammer before!" Loki insisted and to prove his point he reached for it again. "See?" He tugged and it did not give at first but when he stood up, the hammer came with him. He practically threw it and it landed at Thor's feet. He silently reached down and picked up, or so planned to but mjolnir did not budge. The room was in an uproar once more at this sudden turn of events.
"Enough," Thor and Loki both shouted and silenced the group. Reaching out his hand once more, he attempted to summon his trusty hammer to him but it did not budge. The Avengers stood there in awkward silence as Thor tried to call his hammer, but it never moved.
"Thor," Steve spoke up first and stepped forward with Loki. They were going to console their fellow Avenger when he caught the sound of something. "Everyone hit the deck!" He shouted, knocking Loki back just in time to see mjolnir come crashing through the ceiling and into Thor's hand. "Is everyone ok?" He turned to each of his teammates to see when Bruce spoke up.
"Wait, there are two hammers?" Bruce looked to Thor's hand and then to the floor but noticed the second hammer had disappeared. "What happened to the second hammer?"
"Where's Eva?!" Natasha noticed the one person who was missing as Clint picked up the paper that started all of this.
"The science of worth is revenge? What?" He read aloud, Natasha taking the paper from him to see.
"The science of worth is revenge…thanks Tony?" Everyone looked to Tony who looked as confused they were when his eyes slowly widened and the truth dawned on him.
"That little, she tricked me! She was asking about magnets!"
Magnets, why would she ask about-wait! She's been reading books about magnetism and that's why she's been spending time with Stark! Loki was quick to piece this together as he recalled the weird titles of the books he found with her.
"She made that replica! Damn, that was a spot on replica and she executed the needed strength flawlessly, but still!" Tony reluctantly praised her.
"Why would she make a replica of mjolnir?" Thor frowned at this.
"For revenge," Loki finally spoke up. "She was getting revenge on me. Remember what she said? She'd forgive me if I was successful? She knew I would be successful. I can't say I know how, but she made it so only I would be able to lift it…as well as herself."
"All this time? " Clint raised a brow at this. " Damn, remind me not to get on her bad side."
"It certainly is not a spot for someone who cannot handle her." And here I thought I was the master at playing the long game. There is really no one quite like you, my darling Eva. Only you could keep me, the God of Mischief, on edge like this. All I've wanted is to monopolize you, fill your head and heart with thoughts of me, but it's you who has me filled with thoughts of you. He chuckled as the all too familiar troubled smile curled at the corners of his lips. He ran from the carrier in search of her, hoping to see her first instead of resting only to be led here and left in the aftermath of her prank. "If you'll excuse me," he turned and headed towards the door.
"Where are you going, we have a meeting."
"To search for the one who is worthy." He vaguely answered and left the room, a smile on his lips. There was only one person who was worthy of him after all.