Henry took the 'long route' to bring Simmons back to the lab, letting the younger woman control their conversation. "Henry..."

"Yes?"

"Over the years...how many people..."

Henry smiled, instantly recognizing the intent behind the unspoken question. "Fewer than you'd think," he replied. "My 'secret' is probably the most public that it has ever been."

Simmons eyes went wide. "But there have been people who knew...before..."

Henry nodded. "My last wife knew. My son, he knows as well..."

"You have a son?" asked Simmons, instantly curious. "Is he...does he..."

"Abraham is adopted," Henry explained. "My wife found him in a concentration camp at the end of the second world war."

Simmons quickly filled in the blanks. "So he's not..."

"No," said Henry. "He's now in his early eighties. Although he would probably try to convince you that he doesn't look a day over seventy."

Henry's mischievous grin left Simmons smiling in return. She nodded in acknowledgement when Henry held the door open to allow her to re-enter the warehouse. "Thank you," she told him. As Simmons studied Henry's features, the difference between the immortal's biological and chronological ages hit her full force. Henry's earlier words returned to the front of her mind. "Live moment by moment, eh? That's all you needed to keep you sane? Even with..."

"It doesn't matter how long a life you have, Agent Simmons," Henry replied. "What matters is making the most of every moment you've been given."

Simmons' gaze looked past Henry to where Fitz was working on something with Banner and Stark. "Make the most of every moment..." she muttered under her breath.

#

Thor squinted as his eyes slowly re-adjusted to the bright fluorescent lighting in the medical lab. He gently squeezed the hand that he felt in his own, testing to see if his beloved had, indeed, returned to Earth. "Jane?" Thor asked gently.

Sky blue eyes answered back with a gentle smile. "Hi," said Jane.

"Welcome back," Thor greeted Jane.

"Back?"

Thor's attention shifted to the door to the lab. "Sif?"

Sif crossed the width of the lab, studying the situation as she went. "Your Jane Foster...she is one of the carriers?"

"Aye," replied Thor.

The female warrior turned her attention toward Jane..and gasped at the startling and very familiar blue color of her eyes. "The Tesseract," Sif exclaimed.

Jane nodded in greeting to her new visitor. "It's good to see you again, Lady Sif."

Sif was unable to move past her own astonishment. "The all father used the power of the Tesseract to see all things. To *know* all things. Can she...?"

Jane tried to ignore how Sif directed the question toward Thor and not toward her. "I know where Loki is holding Thor's father...if *that's* what you're asking."

Thor watched the exchange in a state of genuine surprise. "Jane...that is not what I asked of you..."

"I know," Jane added with a loving smile. "But you didn't have to ask for me to know." She then turned to stare down Sif, declaring her knowledge with cool confidence. "Your king is being held on a moon a thousand light years north of Vanaheim." Thor's gasp of surprise caused Jane to turn to her beloved with a curious expression. "You are familiar with this moon?"

Thor hung his head. "Master Sìfāng helped me to exile Loki to that moon after he tried to take over the Earth."

"*Again*?" Jane asked warily.

Thor could only shrug. "My mother asked me to bring Loki back to Asgard. From there, you know what transpired."

"Far too well," agreed Jane. A dark cloud passed over her mood briefly before Jane could smile again. "So, you gonna need a ride to the moon, or just to Xandar?"

#

Raina watched the ballroom burn around her. On one level...it was cathartic. She knew that her visions were of a weapon. She knew that truth like she knew her own name. Like she knew her own power. And yet...Raina kicked the man who was curled up at a fetal position at her feet. "Get up, Whitehall," she demanded.

Whitehall forced himself to a standing position, then turned in a slow circle, gawking at the condition of the room around them. "How...how are we still alive?" he gasped.

"You truly are as ignorant as you are arrogant," Raina muttered under her breath. She ignored Whitehall's question to focus on the only thing that mattered to her. The only thing that would *ever* matter to her. "You're telling me that with all of the resources that HYDRA has at its disposal, no one has any idea how to assemble this weapon?"

"No!" Whitehall exclaimed, survival instincts blinding him to rational thought. "Mistress, shouldn't we be getting out of here..." Raina waived her hand at Whitehall impatiently, causing the man's trousers to burst into flames. He screamed and flung his arms around in a panic...right up to the point where he realized that the flames weren't burning his clothes or his skin. "Mistress...?"

Raina raised her hand to silence the man in front of her. "What about the power source?"

Whitehall shook his head. "Mistress, there is no source of energy on this earth..."

The flames exploded around them, doubling in size in a heartbeat. Whitehall screamed as the flames on his own clothes started to burn his skin. "Do *not* give me that!" Raina exclaimed. "Your backwards little planet can't get past its own moon, so there's no way that the stone ever got off this planet! That means it has to be around here somewhere, so Where. Is. It?!"

Whitehall whimpered in pain. "Mistress, I..."

All of the flames disappeared when Raina recognized the new being to enter the room. Bakshi knelt at Raina's feet, his chin resting on his knee so he had no reason to look Raina in the eye. "Mistress..."

"I hope you have brought me glad tidings, Mister Bakshi," Raina told him. Black tendrils of smoke started to snake their way around Raina's wrists and forearms. She tilted her head in the direction of the man now curled up in a fetal position beside her. "You see where bad news just might get you today..."

Bakshi sighed, forcing down the nervous lump that had formed in his throat. "Forgive me, Mistress, but there has been no progress made on the location..."

The smoke tendrils reversed direction, wrapping themselves around Bakshi's neck. "Wrong answer," declared Raina.

Bakshi fell to his knees as the smoke tightened its grip around his neck. "But...I...I have...other news..." he gasped out.

"This had better be good, Daniel," Raina warned.

"Mistress..." replied Bakshi, fighting a losing battle for every breath, "there...is another...stone..."

#